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diff --git a/20158.txt b/20158.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 5a75147..0000000 --- a/20158.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,26280 +0,0 @@ -Project Gutenberg's The Works of Lord Byron, Volume 4, by Lord Byron - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - - -Title: The Works of Lord Byron, Volume 4 - -Author: Lord Byron - -Editor: Ernest Hartley Coleridge - -Release Date: December 22, 2006 [EBook #20158] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WORKS OF LORD BYRON, VOLUME 4 *** - - - - -Produced by Jonathan Ingram, David Cortesi and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - -TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES - -This etext contains only characters from the Latin-1 set. The original -work contained a few phrases or lines of Greek text. These are -represented here as Beta-code transliterations in brackets, for example -[Greek: Oi~moi]. - -The original text used a few other characters not found in the Latin-1 -set. These have been represented using bracket notation, as follows: -[=e], [=i], [=N], [=S] represent those letters with a macron (bar) -above; [)i] represents and i with a breve (curved line). In a few places -superscript letters are shown by carets, as in May 27^th^. - -An important feature of this edition is its copious footnotes. Footnotes -indexed with letters (e.g. [c], [bf]) show variant forms of Byron's text -from manuscripts and other sources. Footnotes indexed with arabic -numbers (e.g. [17], [221]) are informational. Text in notes and -elsewhere in square brackets is the work of editor E. H. Coleridge. Text -not in brackets is by Byron himself. - -In the original, footnotes were printed at the foot of the page on which -they were referenced, and their indices started over on each page. In -this etext, footnotes have been collected at the ends of each section, -and have been consecutively numbered throughout. Within each block of -footnotes are numbers in braces: {321}. These represent the page number -on which following notes originally appeared. To find a note that was -originally printed on page 27, search for {27}. - -In the work "Francesca di Rimini" the original printed lines of the -Italian on facing pages opposite the matching lines of Byron's -translation. In this etext, the lines of the Italian original have been -collected following the translation. - -Two minor corrections were made in this etext, both in the note following -the title of MANFRED: the year 1348 was corrected to 1834, and the word -"Tschairowsky" was corrected to "Tschaikowsky." - - - - - - THE WORKS - - OF - - LORD BYRON. - - - A NEW, REVISED AND ENLARGED EDITION, - - WITH ILLUSTRATIONS. - - - Poetry. Vol. IV. - - - EDITED BY - - ERNEST HARTLEY COLERIDGE, M.A., HON. F.R.S.L. - - - - LONDON: - JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. - NEW YORK: CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS. - 1901 - - - - - PREFACE TO THE FOURTH VOLUME. - - -The poems included in this volume consist of thirteen longer or more -important works, written at various periods between June, 1816, and -October, 1821; of eight occasional pieces (_Poems of July-September_, -1816), written in 1816; and of another collection of occasional pieces -(_Poems_ 1816-1823), written at intervals between November, 1816, and -September, 1823. Of this second group of minor poems five are now -printed and published for the first time. - -The volume is not co-extensive with the work of the period. The third -and fourth cantos of _Childe Harold_ (1816-1817), the first five cantos -of _Don Juan_ (1818, 1819, 1820), _Sardanapalus_, _The Two Foscari_, -_Cain_, and _Heaven and Earth_ (1821), form parts of other volumes, but, -in spite of these notable exceptions, the fourth volume contains the -work of the poet's maturity, which is and must ever remain famous. Byron -was not content to write on one kind of subject, or to confine himself -to one branch or species of poetry. He tracked the footsteps now of this -master poet, now of another, far outstripping some of his models; soon -spent in the pursuit of others. Even in his own lifetime, and in the -heyday of his fame, his friendliest critics, who applauded him to the -echo, perceived that the "manifold motions" of his versatile and -unsleeping talent were not always sanctioned or blessed by his genius. -Hence the unevenness of his work, the different values of this or that -poem. But, even so, in width of compass, in variety of style, and in -measure of success, his achievement was unparalleled. Take such poems as -_Manfred_ or _Mazeppa_, which have left their mark on the literature of -Europe; as _Beppo_, the _avant courrier_ of _Don Juan_, or the -"inimitable" _Vision of Judgment_, which the "hungry generations" have -not trodden down or despoiled of its freshness. Not one of these poems -suggests or resembles the other, but each has its crowd of associations, -a history and almost a literature of its own. - -The whole of this volume was written on foreign soil, in Switzerland or -Italy, and, putting aside _The Dream_, _The Monody on the Death of -Sheridan_, _The Irish Avatar_, and _The Blues_, the places, the persons -and events, the _materiel_ of the volume as a whole, to say nothing of -the style and metre of the poems, are derived from the history and the -literature of Switzerland and Southern Europe. An unwilling, at times a -vindictive exile, he did more than any other poet or writer of his age -to familiarize his own countrymen with the scenery, the art and letters -of the Continent, and, conversely, to make the existence of English -literature, or, at least, the writings of one Englishman, known to -Frenchmen and Italians; to the Teuton and the Slav. If he "taught us -little" as prophet or moralist; as a guide to knowledge; as an educator -of the general reader--"your British blackguard," as he was pleased to -call him--his teaching and influence were "in widest commonalty spread." - -Questions with regard to his personality, his morals, his theological -opinions, his qualifications as an artist, his grammar, his technique, -and so forth, have, perhaps inevitably, absorbed the attention of friend -and foe, and the one point on which all might agree has been overlooked, -namely, the fact that he taught us a great deal which it is desirable -and agreeable to know--which has passed into common knowledge through -the medium of his poetry. It is true that he wrote his plays and poems -at lightning speed, and that if he was at pains to correct some obvious -blunders, he expended but little labour on picking his phrases or -polishing his lines; but it is also true that he read widely and studied -diligently, in order to prepare himself for an outpouring of verse, and -that so far from being a superficial observer or inaccurate recorder, -his authority is worth quoting in questions of fact and points of -detail. - -The appreciation of poetry is a matter of taste, and still more of -temperament. Readers cannot be coerced into admiration, or scolded into -disapproval and contempt. But if they are willing or can be persuaded to -read with some particularity and attention the writings of the -illustrious dead, not entirely as partisans, or with the view to -dethroning other "Monarchs of Parnassus," they will divine the secret of -their fame, and will understand, perhaps recover, the "first rapture" of -contemporaries. - -Byron sneered and carped at Southey as a "scribbler of all works." He -was himself a reader of all works, and without some measure of -book-learning and not a little research the force and significance of -his various numbers are weakened or obliterated. - -It is with the hope of supplying this modicum of book-learning that the -Introductions and notes in this and other volumes have been compiled. - -I desire to acknowledge, with thanks, the courteous response of Mons. J. -Capre, Commandant of the Castle of Chillon, to a letter of inquiry with -regard to the "Souterrains de Chillon." - -I have to express my gratitude to Sir Henry Irving, to Mr. Joseph -Knight, and to Mr. F. E. Taylor, for valuable information concerning the -stage representation of _Manfred_ and _Marino Faliero_. - -I am deeply indebted to Dr. Richard Garnett, C.B., and to my friend, Mr. -Thomas Hutchinson, for assistance in many important particulars during -the construction of the volume. - -I must also record my thanks to Mr. Oscar Browning, Mr. Josceline -Courtenay, and other correspondents, for information and assistance in -points of difficulty. - -I have consulted and derived valuable information from the following -works: _The Prisoner of Chillon_, etc., by the late Professor Koelbing; -_Mazeppa_, by Dr. Englaender; _Marino Faliero avanti il Dogado_ and _La -Congiura_ (published in the _Nuovo Archivio Veneto_), by Signor Vittorio -Lazzarino; and _Selections from the Poetry of Lord Byron_, by Dr. F. I. -Carpenter of Chicago, U.S.A. - -I take the opportunity of expressing my acknowledgments to Miss K. -Schlesinger, Miss De Alberti, and to Signor F. Bianco, for their able -and zealous services in the preparation of portions of the volume. - -On behalf of the publisher I beg to acknowledge the kindness of Captain -the Hon. F. L. King Noel, in sanctioning the examination and collation -of the MS. of _Beppo_, now in his possession; and of Mrs. Horace Pym of -Foxwold Chace, for permitting the portrait of Sheridan by Sir Joshua -Reynolds to be reproduced for this volume. - - ERNEST HARTLEY COLERIDGE. - _May_ 5, 1901. - - - - - CONTENTS OF VOL. IV. - - -Preface to Vol. IV. of the Poems - - The Prisoner of Chillon. - -Introduction to _The Prisoner of Chillon_ 3 -Sonnet on Chillon 7 -Advertisement 9 -_The Prisoner of Chillon_ 13 - - Poems of July-September, 1816. The Dream. - -Introduction to _The Dream_ 31 -_The Dream_. First published, _Prisoner of - Chillon, etc._, 1816 33 -Darkness. First published, _Prisoner of - Chillon, etc._, 1816 42 -Churchill's Grave. First published, _Prisoner of - Chillon, etc._, 1816 45 -Prometheus. First published, _Prisoner of - Chillon, etc_., 1816 48 -A Fragment. First published, _Letters and Journals_, - 1830, ii. 36 51 -Sonnet to Lake Leman, First published, _Prisoner of - Chillon, etc._, 1816 53 -Stanzas to Augusta. First published, - _Prisoner of Chillon, etc._, 1816 54 -Epistle to Augusta. First published, _Letters and Journals_, - 1830, ii. 38-41 57 -Lines on hearing that Lady Byron was Ill. First published, 1831 63 - - MONODY ON THE DEATH OF THE RIGHT HON. R. B. SHERIDAN. - -Introduction to _Monody, etc._ 69 -_Monody on the Death of the Right Hon. R. B. Sheridan,_ - Spoken at Drury Lane Theatre, London 71 - - Manfred: A Dramatic Poem. - -Introduction to _Manfred_ 79 -_Manfred_ 85 - - The Lament of Tasso. - -Introduction to _The Lament of Tasso_ 139 -Advertisement 141 -_The Lament of Tasso_ 143 - - Beppo: A Venetian Story. - -Introduction to _Beppo_ 155 -_Beppo_ 159 - - Ode on Venice. - -_Ode on Venice_ 193 - - Mazeppa. - -Introduction to _Mazeppa_ 201 -Advertisement 205 -_Mazeppa_ 207 - - The Prophecy of Dante. - -Introduction to _The Prophecy of Dante_ 237 -Dedication 241 -Preface 243 -_The Prophecy of Dante_. Canto the First 247 -Canto the Second 255 -Canto the Third 261 -Canto the Fourth 269 - - The Morgante Maggiore of Pulci. - -Introduction to _The Morgante Maggiore_ 279 -Advertisement 283 -_The Morgante Maggiore_. Canto the First 285 - - Francesca Of Rimini. - -Introduction to _Francesca of Rimini_ 313 -_Francesco of Rimini_ 317 - - Marino Faliero, Doge of Venice: an Historical Tragedy. - -Introduction to _Marino Faliero_ 325 -Preface 331 -_Marino Faliero_ 345 -Appendix 462 - - The Vision Of Judgment. - -Introduction to _The Vision of Judgment_ 475 -Preface 481 -_The Vision of Judgment_ 487 - - Poems 1816-1823. - -A very Mournful Ballad on the Siege and Conquest of Alhama. First - published, _Childe Harold_, Canto IV., 1818 529 -Sonetto di Vittorelli. Per Monaca 535 -Translation from Vittorelli. On a Nun. First published, - _Childe Harold_, Canto IV., 1818 535 -On the Bust of Helen by Canova. First published, - _Letters and Journals_, 1830, ii. 61 536 -[Venice. A Fragment.] _MS. M_ 537 -So we'll go no more a-roving. First published, _Letters and - Journals_, 1830, ii. 79 538 -[Lord Byron's Verses on Sam Rogers.] Question and Answer. First - published, _Fraser's Magazine_, January, 1833, - vol. vii. pp. 82-84 538 -The Duel. _MS. M_ 542 -Stanzas to the Po. First published, - _Conversations of Lord Byron_, 1824 545 -Sonnet on the Nuptials of the Marquis Antonio Cavalli with the - Countess Clelia Rasponi of Ravenna. _MS. M_ 547 -Sonnet to the Prince Regent. On the Repeal of Lord Edward - Fitzgerald's Forfeiture. First published, _Letters and - Journals_, ii. 234, 235 548 -Stanzas. First published, _New Monthly Magazine_, 1832 549 -Ode to a Lady whose Lover was killed by a Ball, which at the - same time shivered a portrait next his heart. _MS. M._ 552 -The Irish Avatar. First published, _Conversations of - Lord Byron_, 1824 555 -Stanzas written on the Road between Florence and Pisa. First - published, _Letters and Journals_, 1830, ii. 566, not 562 -Stanzas to a Hindoo Air. First published, _Works of Lord Byron_ 563 -To ---- First published, _New Monthly Magazine_, 1833 564 -To the Countess of Blessington. First published, - _Letters and Journals_, 1830 565 -Aristomanes. Canto First. _MS. D._ 566 - - The Blues: A Literary Eclogue. - -Introduction to _The Blues_ 569 -_The Blues_. Eclogue the First 573 -Eclogue the Second 580 - - - - - LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. - - -1. Lord Byron, from an Engraving after a Drawing by G. H. Harlowe - -2. The Prison of Bonivard - -3. The Right Honourable Richard Brinsley Sheridan, from a Portrait - in Oils by Sir Joshua Reynolds, P.R.A., in the Possession of - Mrs. Horace Pym of Foxwold Chace - -4. The Right Honourable John Hookham Frere, from a Mezzotint by - W. W. Barney, after a Picture by John Hoppner, R.A. - -5. Robert Southey, Poet Laureate, from a Drawing made in 1811 by - John Downman, A.R.A., in the Possession of A. H. Hallam Murray, Esq. - - - - - THE PRISONER OF CHILLON - - - - - INTRODUCTION TO _THE PRISONER OF CHILLON_. - - -The _Prisoner of Chillon_, says Moore (_Life_, p. 320), was written at -Ouchy, near Lausanne, where Byron and Shelley "were detained two days in -a small inn [Hotel de l'Ancre, now d'Angleterre] by the weather." -Byron's letter to Murray, dated June 27 (but? 28), 1816, does not -precisely tally with Shelley's journal contained in a letter to Peacock, -July 12, 1816 (_Prose Works of P. B. Shelley_, 1880, ii. 171, _sq._); -but, if Shelley's first date, June 23, is correct, it follows that the -two poets visited the Castle of Chillon on Wednesday, June 26, reached -Ouchy on Thursday, June 27, and began their homeward voyage on Saturday, -June 29 (Shelley misdates it June 30). On this reckoning the _Prisoner -of Chillon_ was begun and finished between Thursday, June 27, and -Saturday, June 29, 1816. Whenever or wherever begun, it was completed by -July 10 (see _Memoir of John Murray_, 1891, i. 364), and was ready for -transmission to England by July 25. The MS., in Claire's handwriting, -was placed in Murray's hands on October 11, and the poem, with seven -others, was published December 5, 1816. - -In a final note to the _Prisoner of Chillon_ (First Edition, 1816, p. -59), Byron confesses that when "the foregoing poem was composed he knew -too little of the history of Bonnivard to do justice to his courage and -virtues," and appends as a note to the "Sonnet on Chillon," "some -account of his life ... furnished by the kindness of a citizen of that -Republic," i.e. Geneva. The note, which is now entitled "Advertisement," -is taken bodily from the pages of a work published in 1786 by the Swiss -naturalist, Jean Senebier, who died in 1809. It was not Byron's way to -invent imaginary authorities, but rather to give his references with -some pride and particularity, and it is possible that this -unacknowledged and hitherto unverified "account" was supplied by some -literary acquaintance, who failed to explain that his information was -common property. Be that as it may, Senebier's prose is in some respects -as unhistorical as Byron's verse, and stands in need of some corrections -and additions. - -Francois Bonivard (there is no contemporary authority for "Bonnivard") -was born in 1493. In early youth (1510) he became by inheritance Prior -of St. Victor, a monastery outside the walls of Geneva, and on reaching -manhood (1514) he accepted the office and the benefice, "la dignite -ecclesiastique de Prieur et de la Seigneurie temporelle de St. Victor." -A lover of independence, a child of the later Renaissance, in a word, a -Genevese, he threw in his lot with a band of ardent reformers and -patriots, who were conspiring to shake off the yoke of Duke Charles III. -of Savoy, and convert the city into a republic. Here is his own -testimony: "Des que j'eus commence de lire l'histoire des nations, je me -sentis entraine par un gout prononce pour les Republiques dont j'epousai -toujours les interets." Hence, in a great measure, the unrelenting -enmity of the duke, who not only ousted him from his priory, but caused -him to be shut up for two years at Grolee, Gex, and Belley, and again, -after he had been liberated on a second occasion, ordered him, a safe -conduct notwithstanding, to be seized and confined in the Castle of -Chillon. Here he remained from 1530 to February 1, 1536, when he was -released by the Bernese. - -For the first two years he was lodged in a room near the governor's -quarters, and was fairly comfortable; but a day came when the duke paid -a visit to Chillon; and "then," he writes, "the captain thrust me into a -cell lower than the lake, where I lived four years. I know not whether -he did it by the duke's orders or of his own accord; but sure it is that -I had so much leisure for walking, that I wore in the rock which was the -pavement a track or little path, as it had been made with a hammer" -(_Chroniques des Ligues_ de Stumpf, addition de Bonivard). - -After he had been liberated, "par la grace de Dieu donnee a Mess^rs^ de -Berne," he returned to Geneva, and was made a member of the Council of -the State, and awarded a house and a pension of two hundred crowns a -year. A long life was before him, which he proceeded to spend in -characteristic fashion, finely and honourably as scholar, author, and -reformer, but with little self-regard or self-respect as a private -citizen. He was married no less than four times, and not one of these -alliances was altogether satisfactory or creditable. Determined "to warm -both hands before the fire of life," he was prone to ignore the -prejudices and even the decencies of his fellow-citizens, now incurring -their displeasure, and now again, as one who had greatly testified for -truth and freedom, being taken back into favour and forgiven. There was -a deal of human nature in Bonivard, with the result that, at times, -conduct fell short of pretension and principle. Estimates of his -character differ widely. From the standpoint of Catholic orthodoxy, -"C'etait un fort mauvais sujet et un plus mauvais pretre;" and even his -captivity, infamous as it was, "ne peut rendre Bonivard interessant" -(_Notices Genealogiques sur les Famillies Genevoises_, par J. A. -Galiffe, 1836, iii. 67, sq.); whilst an advocate and champion, the -author of the _Preface_ to _Les Chroniques de Geneve_ par Francois de -Bonnivard, 1831, tom. i. pt. i. p. xli., avows that "aucun homme n'a -fait preuve d'un plus beau caractere, d'un plus parfait desinteressement -que l'illustre Prieur de St. Victor." Like other great men, he may have -been guilty of "quelques egaremens du coeur, quelques concessions -passageres aux devices des sens," but "Peu importe a la posterite les -irregularites de leur vie privee" (p. xlviii.). - -But whatever may be the final verdict with regard to the morals, there -can be no question as to the intellectual powers of the "Prisoner of -Chillon." The publication of various MS. tracts, e.g. _Advis et Devis de -l'ancienne et nouvelle Police de Geneve_, 1865; _Advis et Devis des -Lengnes_, etc., 1865, which were edited by the late J. J. Chaponniere, -and, after his death, by M. Gustave Revilliod, has placed his reputation -as historian, satirist, philosopher, beyond doubt or cavil. One -quotation must suffice. He is contrasting the Protestants with the -Catholics (_Advis et Devis de la Source de Lidolatrie_, Geneva, 1856, p. -159): "Et nous disons que les prebstres rongent les mortz et est vray; -mais nous faisons bien pys, car nous rongeons les vifz. Quel profit -revient aux paveures du dommage des prebstres? Nous nous ventons touttes -les deux parties de prescher Christ cruciffie et disons vray, car nous -le laissons cruciffie et nud en l'arbre de la croix, et jouons a beaux -dez au pied dicelle croix, pour scavoir qui haura sa robe." - -For Bonivard's account of his second imprisonment, see _Les Chroniques -de Geneve_, tom. ii. part ii. pp. 571-577; see, too, _Notice sur -Francois Bonivard_, ...par Le Docteur J. J. Chaponniere, Memoires et -Documents Publies, par La Societe d'Histoire, etc., de Geneve, 1845, iv. -137-245; _Chillon Etude Historique_, par L. Vulliemin, Lausanne, 1851; -_Revue des Deux Mondes_, Seconde Periode, vol. 82, Aout, 1869, pp. -682-709; "True Story of the Prisoner of Chillon," _Nineteenth Century_, -May, 1900, No. 279, pp. 821-829, by A. van Amstel (Johannes Christiaan -Neuman). - -_The Prisoner of Chillon_ was reviewed (together with the Third Canto of -_Childe Harold_) by Sir Walter Scott (_Quarterly Review_, No. xxxi., -October, 1816), and by Jeffrey (_Edinburgh Review_, No. liv., December, -1816). - -With the exception of the _Eclectic_ (March, 1817, N.S., vol. vii. pp. -298-304), the lesser reviews were unfavourable. For instance, the -_Critical Review_ (December, 1816, Series V. vol. iv. pp. 567-581) -detected the direct but unacknowledged influence of Wordsworth on -thought and style; and the _Portfolio_ (No. vi. pp. 121-128), in an -elaborate skit, entitled "Literary Frauds," assumed, and affected to -prove, that the entire poem was a forgery, and belonged to the same -category as _The Right Honourable Lord Byron's Pilgrimage to the Holy -Land, etc._ - -For extracts from these and other reviews, see Koelbing, _Prisoner of -Chillon, and Other Poems_, Weimar, 1896, excursus i. pp. 3-55. - - - - - SONNET ON CHILLON - - Eternal Spirit of the chainless Mind![1] - Brightest in dungeons, Liberty! thou art: - For there thy habitation is the heart-- - The heart which love of thee alone can bind; - And when thy sons to fetters are consigned-- - To fetters, and the damp vault's dayless gloom, - Their country conquers with their martyrdom, - And Freedom's fame finds wings on every wind. - Chillon! thy prison is a holy place, - And thy sad floor an altar--for 'twas trod, - Until his very steps have left a trace - Worn, as if thy cold pavement were a sod, - By Bonnivard!--May none those marks efface! - For they appeal from tyranny to God.[2] - - - - - - ADVERTISEMENT - -When this poem[a] was composed, I was not sufficiently aware of the -history of Bonnivard, or I should have endeavoured to dignify the -subject by an attempt to celebrate his courage and his virtues. With -some account of his life I have been furnished, by the kindness of a -citizen of that republic, which is still proud of the memory of a man -worthy of the best age of ancient freedom:-- - -"Francois De Bonnivard, fils de Louis De Bonnivard, originaire de -Seyssel et Seigneur de Lunes, naquit en 1496. Il fit ses etudes a Turin: -en 1510 Jean Aime de Bonnivard, son oncle, lui resigna le Prieure de St. -Victor, qui aboutissoit aux murs de Geneve, et qui formait un benefice -considerable.... - -"Ce grand homme--(Bonnivard merite ce litre par la force de son ame, la -droiture de son coeur, la noblesse de ses intentions, la sagesse de ses -conseils, le courage de ses demarches, l'etendue de ses connaissances, -et la vivacite de son esprit),--ce grand homme, qui excitera -l'admiration de tous ceux qu'une vertu heroique peut encore emouvoir, -inspirera encore la plus vive reconnaissance dans les coeurs des -Genevois qui aiment Geneve. Bonnivard en fut toujours un des plus fermes -appuis: pour assurer la liberte de notre Republique, il ne craignit pas -de perdre souvent la sienne; il oublia son repos; il meprisa ses -richesses; il ne negligea rien pour affermir le bonheur d'une patrie -qu'il honora de son choix: des ce moment il la cherit comme le plus zele -de ses citoyens; il la servit avec l'intrepidite d'un heros, et il -ecrivit son Histoire avec la naivete d'un philosophe et la chaleur d'un -patriote. - -"Il dit dans le commencement de son Histoire de Geneve, que, _des qu'il -eut commence de lire l'histoire des nations, il se sentit entraine par -son gout pour les Republiques, dont il epousa toujours les interets:_ -c'est ce gout pour la liberte qui lui fit sans doute adopter Geneve pour -sa patrie.... - -"Bonnivard, encore jeune, s'annonca hautement comme le defenseur de -Geneve contre le Duc de Savoye et l'Eveque.... - -"En 1519, Bonnivard devient le martyr de sa patrie: Le Duc de Savoye -etant entre dans Geneve avec cinq cent hommes, Bonnivard craint le -ressentiment du Duc; il voulut se retirer a Fribourg pour en eviter les -suites; mais il fut trahi par deux hommes qui l'accompagnaient, et -conduit par ordre du Prince a Grolee, ou il resta prisonnier pendant -deux ans. Bonnivard etait malheureux dans ses voyages: comme ses -malheurs n'avaient point ralenti son zele pour Geneve, il etait toujours -un ennemi redoutable pour ceux qui la menacaient, et par consequent il -devait etre expose a leurs coups. Il fut rencontre en 1530 sur le Jura -par des voleurs, qui le depouillerent, et qui le mirent encore entre les -mains du Duc de Savoye: ce Prince le fit enfermer dans le Chateau de -Chillon, ou il resta sans etre interroge jusques en 1536; il fut alors -delivre par les Bernois, qui s'emparerent du Pays-de-Vaud. - -"Bonnivard, en sortant de sa captivite, eut le plaisir de trouver Geneve -libre et reformee: la Republique s'empressa de lui temoigner sa -reconnaissance, et de le dedommager des maux qu'il avoit soufferts; elle -le recut Bourgeois de la ville au mois de Juin, 1536; elle lui donna la -maison habitee autrefois par le Vicaire-General, et elle lui assigna une -pension de deux cent ecus d'or tant qu'il sejournerait a Geneve. Il fut -admis dans le Conseil des Deux-Cent en 1537. - -"Bonnivard n'a pas fini d'etre utile: apres avoir travaille a rendre -Geneve libre, il reussit a la rendre tolerante. Bonnivard engagea le -Conseil a accorder [aux ecclesiastiques et aux paysans] un tems -suffisant pour examiner les propositions qu'on leur faisait; il reussit -par sa douceur: on preche toujours le Christianisme avec succes quand on -le preche avec charite.... - -"Bonnivard fut savant: ses manuscrits, qui sont dans la bibliotheque -publique, prouvent qu'il avait bien lu les auteurs classiques Latins, et -qu'il avait approfondi la theologie et l'histoire. Ce grand homme aimait -les sciences, et il croyait qu'elles pouvaient faire la gloire de -Geneve; aussi il ne negligea rien pour les fixer dans cette ville -naissante; en 1551 il donna sa bibliotheque au public; elle fut le -commencement de notre bibliotheque publique; et ces livres sont en -partie les rares et belles editions du quinzieme siecle qu'on voit dans -notre collection. Enfin, pendant la meme annee, ce bon patriote institua -la Republique son heritiere, a condition qu'elle employerait ses biens a -entretenir le college dont on projettait la fondation. - -"Il parait que Bonnivard mourut en 1570; mais on ne peut l'assurer, -parcequ'il y a une lacune dans le Necrologe depuis le mois de Juillet, -1570, jusques en 1571."--[_Histoire Litteraire de Geneve_, par Jean -Senebier (1741-1809), 1786, i. 131-137.] - - - - - THE PRISONER OF CHILLON - - I. - - My hair is grey, but not with years, - Nor grew it white - In a single night,[3] - As men's have grown from sudden fears: - My limbs are bowed, though not with toil, - But rusted with a vile repose,[b] - For they have been a dungeon's spoil, - And mine has been the fate of those - To whom the goodly earth and air - Are banned,[4] and barred--forbidden fare; 10 - But this was for my father's faith - I suffered chains and courted death; - That father perished at the stake - For tenets he would not forsake; - And for the same his lineal race - In darkness found a dwelling place; - We were seven--who now are one,[5] - Six in youth, and one in age, - Finished as they had begun, - Proud of Persecution's rage;[c] 20 - One in fire, and two in field, - Their belief with blood have sealed, - Dying as their father died, - For the God their foes denied;-- - Three were in a dungeon cast, - Of whom this wreck is left the last. - - II. - - There are seven pillars of Gothic mould,[6] - In Chillon's dungeons deep and old, - There are seven columns, massy and grey, - Dim with a dull imprisoned ray, 30 - A sunbeam which hath lost its way, - And through the crevice and the cleft - Of the thick wall is fallen and left; - Creeping o'er the floor so damp, - Like a marsh's meteor lamp:[7] - And in each pillar there is a ring,[8] - And in each ring there is a chain; - That iron is a cankering thing, - For in these limbs its teeth remain, - With marks that will not wear away, 40 - Till I have done with this new day, - Which now is painful to these eyes, - Which have not seen the sun so rise - For years--I cannot count them o'er, - I lost their long and heavy score - When my last brother drooped and died, - And I lay living by his side. - - III. - - They chained us each to a column stone, - And we were three--yet, each alone; - We could not move a single pace, 50 - We could not see each other's face, - But with that pale and livid light - That made us strangers in our sight: - And thus together--yet apart, - Fettered in hand, but joined in heart,[d] - 'Twas still some solace in the dearth - Of the pure elements of earth, - To hearken to each other's speech, - And each turn comforter to each - With some new hope, or legend old, 60 - Or song heroically bold; - But even these at length grew cold. - Our voices took a dreary tone, - An echo of the dungeon stone, - A grating sound, not full and free, - As they of yore were wont to be: - It might be fancy--but to me - They never sounded like our own. - - IV. - - I was the eldest of the three, - And to uphold and cheer the rest 70 - I ought to do--and did my best-- - And each did well in his degree. - The youngest, whom my father loved, - Because our mother's brow was given - To him, with eyes as blue as heaven-- - For him my soul was sorely moved: - And truly might it be distressed - To see such bird in such a nest;[9] - For he was beautiful as day-- - (When day was beautiful to me 80 - As to young eagles, being free)-- - A polar day, which will not see[10] - A sunset till its summer's gone, - Its sleepless summer of long light, - The snow-clad offspring of the sun: - And thus he was as pure and bright, - And in his natural spirit gay, - With tears for nought but others' ills, - And then they flowed like mountain rills, - Unless he could assuage the woe 90 - Which he abhorred to view below. - - V. - - The other was as pure of mind, - But formed to combat with his kind; - Strong in his frame, and of a mood - Which 'gainst the world in war had stood, - And perished in the foremost rank - With joy:--but not in chains to pine: - His spirit withered with their clank, - I saw it silently decline-- - And so perchance in sooth did mine: 100 - But yet I forced it on to cheer - Those relics of a home so dear. - He was a hunter of the hills, - Had followed there the deer and wolf; - To him this dungeon was a gulf, - And fettered feet the worst of ills. - - VI. - - Lake Leman lies by Chillon's walls: - A thousand feet in depth below - Its massy waters meet and flow; - Thus much the fathom-line was sent 110 - From Chillon's snow-white battlement,[11] - Which round about the wave inthralls: - A double dungeon wall and wave - Have made--and like a living grave. - Below the surface of the lake[12] - The dark vault lies wherein we lay: - We heard it ripple night and day; - Sounding o'er our heads it knocked; - And I have felt the winter's spray - Wash through the bars when winds were high 120 - And wanton in the happy sky; - And then the very rock hath rocked, - And I have felt it shake, unshocked,[13] - Because I could have smiled to see - The death that would have set me free. - - VII. - - I said my nearer brother pined, - I said his mighty heart declined, - He loathed and put away his food; - It was not that 'twas coarse and rude, - For we were used to hunter's fare, 130 - And for the like had little care: - The milk drawn from the mountain goat - Was changed for water from the moat, - Our bread was such as captives' tears - Have moistened many a thousand years, - Since man first pent his fellow men - Like brutes within an iron den; - But what were these to us or him? - These wasted not his heart or limb; - My brother's soul was of that mould 140 - Which in a palace had grown cold, - Had his free breathing been denied - The range of the steep mountain's side;[14] - But why delay the truth?--he died.[e] - I saw, and could not hold his head, - Nor reach his dying hand--nor dead,-- - Though hard I strove, but strove in vain, - To rend and gnash my bonds in twain.[f] - He died--and they unlocked his chain, - And scooped for him a shallow grave[15] 150 - Even from the cold earth of our cave. - I begged them, as a boon, to lay - His corse in dust whereon the day - Might shine--it was a foolish thought, - But then within my brain it wrought,[16] - That even in death his freeborn breast - In such a dungeon could not rest. - I might have spared my idle prayer-- - They coldly laughed--and laid him there: - The flat and turfless earth above 160 - The being we so much did love; - His empty chain above it leant, - Such Murder's fitting monument! - - VIII. - - But he, the favourite and the flower, - Most cherished since his natal hour, - His mother's image in fair face, - The infant love of all his race, - His martyred father's dearest thought,[17] - My latest care, for whom I sought - To hoard my life, that his might be 170 - Less wretched now, and one day free; - He, too, who yet had held untired - A spirit natural or inspired-- - He, too, was struck, and day by day - Was withered on the stalk away.[18] - Oh, God! it is a fearful thing - To see the human soul take wing - In any shape, in any mood:[19] - I've seen it rushing forth in blood, - I've seen it on the breaking ocean 180 - Strive with a swoln convulsive motion, - I've seen the sick and ghastly bed - Of Sin delirious with its dread: - But these were horrors--this was woe - Unmixed with such--but sure and slow: - He faded, and so calm and meek, - So softly worn, so sweetly weak, - So tearless, yet so tender--kind, - And grieved for those he left behind; - With all the while a cheek whose bloom 190 - Was as a mockery of the tomb, - Whose tints as gently sunk away - As a departing rainbow's ray; - An eye of most transparent light, - That almost made the dungeon bright; - And not a word of murmur--not - A groan o'er his untimely lot,-- - A little talk of better days, - A little hope my own to raise, - For I was sunk in silence--lost 200 - In this last loss, of all the most; - And then the sighs he would suppress - Of fainting Nature's feebleness, - More slowly drawn, grew less and less: - I listened, but I could not hear; - I called, for I was wild with fear; - I knew 'twas hopeless, but my dread - Would not be thus admonished; - I called, and thought I heard a sound-- - I burst my chain with one strong bound, 210 - And rushed to him:--I found him not, - _I_ only stirred in this black spot, - _I_ only lived, _I_ only drew - The accursed breath of dungeon-dew; - The last, the sole, the dearest link - Between me and the eternal brink, - Which bound me to my failing race, - Was broken in this fatal place. - One on the earth, and one beneath-- - My brothers--both had ceased to breathe: 220 - I took that hand which lay so still, - Alas! my own was full as chill; - I had not strength to stir, or strive, - But felt that I was still alive-- - A frantic feeling, when we know - That what we love shall ne'er be so. - I know not why - I could not die,[20] - I had no earthly hope--but faith, - And that forbade a selfish death. 230 - - IX. - - What next befell me then and there - I know not well--I never knew-- - First came the loss of light, and air, - And then of darkness too: - I had no thought, no feeling--none-- - Among the stones I stood a stone,[21] - And was, scarce conscious what I wist, - As shrubless crags within the mist; - For all was blank, and bleak, and grey; - It was not night--it was not day; 240 - It was not even the dungeon-light, - So hateful to my heavy sight, - But vacancy absorbing space, - And fixedness--without a place; - There were no stars--no earth--no time-- - No check--no change--no good--no crime-- - But silence, and a stirless breath - Which neither was of life nor death; - A sea of stagnant idleness, - Blind, boundless, mute, and motionless! 250 - - X. - - A light broke in upon my brain,-- - It was the carol of a bird; - It ceased, and then it came again, - The sweetest song ear ever heard, - And mine was thankful till my eyes - Ran over with the glad surprise, - And they that moment could not see - I was the mate of misery; - But then by dull degrees came back - My senses to their wonted track; 260 - I saw the dungeon walls and floor - Close slowly round me as before, - I saw the glimmer of the sun - Creeping as it before had done, - But through the crevice where it came - That bird was perched, as fond and tame, - And tamer than upon the tree; - A lovely bird, with azure wings,[22] - And song that said a thousand things, - And seemed to say them all for me! 270 - I never saw its like before, - I ne'er shall see its likeness more: - It seemed like me to want a mate, - But was not half so desolate,[23] - And it was come to love me when - None lived to love me so again, - And cheering from my dungeon's brink, - Had brought me back to feel and think. - I know not if it late were free, - Or broke its cage to perch on mine, 280 - But knowing well captivity, - Sweet bird! I could not wish for thine! - Or if it were, in winged guise, - A visitant from Paradise; - For--Heaven forgive that thought! the while - Which made me both to weep and smile-- - I sometimes deemed that it might be - My brother's soul come down to me;[24] - But then at last away it flew, - And then 'twas mortal well I knew, 290 - For he would never thus have flown-- - And left me twice so doubly lone,-- - Lone--as the corse within its shroud, - Lone--as a solitary cloud,[25] - A single cloud on a sunny day, - While all the rest of heaven is clear, - A frown upon the atmosphere, - That hath no business to appear[26] - When skies are blue, and earth is gay. - - XI. - - A kind of change came in my fate, 300 - My keepers grew compassionate; - I know not what had made them so, - They were inured to sights of woe, - But so it was:--my broken chain - With links unfastened did remain, - And it was liberty to stride - Along my cell from side to side, - And up and down, and then athwart, - And tread it over every part; - And round the pillars one by one, 310 - Returning where my walk begun, - Avoiding only, as I trod, - My brothers' graves without a sod; - For if I thought with heedless tread - My step profaned their lowly bed, - My breath came gaspingly and thick, - And my crushed heart felt blind and sick. - - XII. - - I made a footing in the wall, - It was not therefrom to escape, - For I had buried one and all, 320 - Who loved me in a human shape; - And the whole earth would henceforth be - A wider prison unto me:[27] - No child--no sire--no kin had I, - No partner in my misery; - I thought of this, and I was glad, - For thought of them had made me mad; - But I was curious to ascend - To my barred windows, and to bend - Once more, upon the mountains high, 330 - The quiet of a loving eye.[28] - - XIII. - - I saw them--and they were the same, - They were not changed like me in frame; - I saw their thousand years of snow - On high--their wide long lake below,[g] - And the blue Rhone in fullest flow;[29] - I heard the torrents leap and gush - O'er channelled rock and broken bush; - I saw the white-walled distant town,[30] - And whiter sails go skimming down; 340 - And then there was a little isle,[31] - Which in my very face did smile, - The only one in view; - A small green isle, it seemed no more,[32] - Scarce broader than my dungeon floor, - But in it there were three tall trees, - And o'er it blew the mountain breeze, - And by it there were waters flowing, - And on it there were young flowers growing, - Of gentle breath and hue. 350 - The fish swam by the castle wall, - And they seemed joyous each and all;[33] - The eagle rode the rising blast, - Methought he never flew so fast - As then to me he seemed to fly; - And then new tears came in my eye, - And I felt troubled--and would fain - I had not left my recent chain; - And when I did descend again, - The darkness of my dim abode 360 - Fell on me as a heavy load; - It was as is a new-dug grave, - Closing o'er one we sought to save,-- - And yet my glance, too much opprest, - Had almost need of such a rest. - - XIV. - - It might be months, or years, or days-- - I kept no count, I took no note-- - I had no hope my eyes to raise, - And clear them of their dreary mote; - At last men came to set me free; 370 - I asked not why, and recked not where; - It was at length the same to me, - Fettered or fetterless to be, - I learned to love despair. - And thus when they appeared at last, - And all my bonds aside were cast, - These heavy walls to me had grown - A hermitage--and all my own![34] - And half I felt as they were come - To tear me from a second home: 380 - With spiders I had friendship made, - And watched them in their sullen trade, - Had seen the mice by moonlight play, - And why should I feel less than they? - We were all inmates of one place, - And I, the monarch of each race, - Had power to kill--yet, strange to tell! - In quiet we had learned to dwell;[h] - My very chains and I grew friends, - So much a long communion tends 390 - To make us what we are:--even I - Regained my freedom with a sigh. - - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[1] {7}[In the first draft, the sonnet opens thus-- - - "Beloved Goddess of the chainless mind! - Brightest in dungeons, Liberty! thou art, - Thy palace is within the Freeman's heart, - Whose soul the love of thee alone can bind; - And when thy sons to fetters are consign'd-- - To fetters, and the damp vault's dayless gloom, - Thy joy is with them still, and unconfined, - Their country conquers with their martyrdom." - - Ed. 1832.] - -[2] [Compare-- - - "I appeal from her [sc. Florence] to Thee." - - _Proph. of Dante_, Canto I. line 125.] - -[a] {8} _When the foregoing.... Some account of his life will be found -in a note appended to the Sonnet on Chillon, with which I have been -furnished, etc.--[Notes, The Prisoner of Chillon, etc._, 1816, p. 59.] - -[3] {13} Ludovico Sforza, and others.--The same is asserted of Marie -Antoinette's, the wife of Louis the Sixteenth, though not in quite so -short a period. Grief is said to have the same effect; to such, and not -to fear, this change in _hers_ was to be attributed. - -[It has been said that the Queen's hair turned grey during the return -from Varennes to Paris; but Carlyle (_French Revolution_, 1839, i. 182) -notes that as early as May 4, 1789, on the occasion of the assembly of -the States-General, "Her hair is already grey with many cares and -crosses." - -Compare "Thy father's beard is turned white with the news" (Shakespeare, -I _Henry IV_., act ii. sc. 4, line 345); and-- - - "For deadly fear can time outgo, - And blanch at once the hair." - - _Marmion_, Canto I. stanza xxviii. lines 19, 20.] - - - -[b] _But with the inward waste of grief_.--[MS.] - -[4] [The _N. Engl. Dict_., art. "Ban," gives this passage as the -earliest instance of the use of the verb "to ban" in the sense of "to -interdict, to prohibit." Exception was taken to this use of the word in -the _Crit. Rev_., 1817, Series V. vol. iv. p. 571.] - -[5] {14}[Compare the epitaph on the monument of Richard Lord Byron, in -the chancel of Hucknall-Torkard Church, "Beneath in a vault is interred -the body of Richard Lord Byron, who with the rest of his family, being -seven brothers," etc. (Elze's _Life of Lord Byron_, p. 4, note 1). - -Compare, too, Churchill's _Prophecy of Famine_, lines 391, 392-- - - "Five brothers there I lost, in manhood's pride, - Two in the field and three on gibbets died." - -The Bonivard of history had but two brothers, Amblard and another.] - -[c] _Braving rancour--chains--and rage_.--[MS.] - -[6] ["This is really so: the loop-holes that are partly stopped up are -now but long crevices or clefts, but Bonivard, from the spot where he -was chained, could, perhaps, never get an idea of the loveliness and -variety of radiating light which the sunbeam shed at different hours of -the day.... In the morning this light is of luminous and transparent -shining, which the curves of the vaults send back all along the hall. -Victor Hugo (_Le Rhin_, ... Hachette, 1876, I. iii. pp. 123-131) -describes this ... 'Le phenomene de la grotto d'azur s'accomplit dans le -souterrain de Chillon, et le lac de Geneve n'y reussit pas moins bien -que la Mediterranee.' During the afternoon the hall assumes a much -deeper and warmer colouring, and the blue transparency of the morning -disappears; but at eventide, after the sun has set behind the Jura, the -scene changes to the deep glow of fire ..."--_Guide to the Castle of -Chillon_, by A. Naef, architect, 1896, pp, 35, 36.] - -[7] {15}[Compare-- - - "One little marshy spark of flame." - - _Def. Trans_., Part I. sc. I. - -Koelbing notes six other allusions in Byron's works to the -"will-o'-the-wisp," but omits the line in the "Incantation" (_Manfred_, -act i. sc. I, line 195)-- - - "And the wisp on the morass," - -which the Italian translator would have rendered "bundle of straw" (see -Letter to Hoppner, February 28, 1818, _Letters_, 1900, iv. 204, _note 2, -et post_ p. 92, note 1).] - -[8] [This "...is not exactly so; the third column does not seem to have -ever had a ring, but the traces of these rings are very visible in the -two first columns from the entrance, although the rings have been -removed; and on the three last we find the rings still riveted on the -darkest side of the pillars where they face the rock, so that the -unfortunate prisoners chained there were even bereft of light.... The -fifth column is said to be the one to which Bonivard was chained during -four years. Byron's name is carved on the southern side of the third -column ... on the seventh tympanum, at about 1 metre 45 from the lower -edge of the shaft." Much has been written for and against the -authenticity of this inscription, which, according to M. Naef, the -author of _Guide_, was carved by Byron himself, "with an antique -ivory-mounted stiletto, which had been discovered in the duke's -room."--_Guide, etc._, pp. 39-42. The inscription was _in situ_ as early -as August 22, 1820, as Mr. Richard Edgcumbe points out (_Notes and -Queries_, Series V. xi. 487).] - -[d] {16}--_pined in heart_.--[Editions 1816-1837.] - -[9] [Compare, for similarity of sound-- - - "Thou tree of covert and of rest - For this young Bird that is distrest." - - _Song at the Feast of Brougham Castle,_ by W. Wordsworth, - _Works,_ 1889, p. 364. - -Compare, too-- - - "She came into the cave, but it was merely - To see her bird reposing in his nest." - - _Don Juan,_ Canto II. stanza clxviii. lines 3, 4.] - -[10] {17}[Compare-- - - "Those polar summers, _all_ sun, and some ice." - - _Don Juan_, Canto XII. stanza lxxii. line 8.] - -[11] {18} [Ruskin (_Modern Painters_, Part IV. chap. i. sect. 9, -"Touching the Grand Style," 1888, iii. 8, 9) criticizes these five lines -107-111, and points out that, alike in respect of accuracy and -inaccuracy of detail, they fulfil the conditions of poetry in -contradistinction to history. "Instead," he concludes, "of finding, as -we expected, the poetry distinguished from the history by the omission -of details, we find it consisting entirely in the addition of details; -and instead of it being characterized by regard only of the invariable, -we find its whole power to consist in the clear expression of what is -singular and particular!"] - -[12] The Chateau de Chillon is situated between Clarens and Villeneuve, -which last is at one extremity of the Lake of Geneva. On its left are -the entrances of the Rhone, and opposite are the heights of Meillerie -and the range of Alps above Boveret and St. Gingo. Near it, on a hill -behind, is a torrent: below it, washing its walls, the lake has been -fathomed to the depth of 800 feet, French measure: within it are a range -of dungeons, in which the early reformers, and subsequently prisoners of -state, were confined. Across one of the vaults is a beam black with age, -on which we were informed that the condemned were formerly executed. In -the cells are seven pillars, or, rather, eight, one being half merged in -the wall; in some of these are rings for the fetters and the fettered: -in the pavement the steps of Bonnivard have left their traces. He was -confined here several years. It is by this castle that Rousseau has -fixed the catastrophe of his Heloise, in the rescue of one of her -children by Julie from the water; the shock of which, and the illness -produced by the immersion, is the cause of her death. The chateau is -large, and seen along the lake for a great distance. The walls are -white. - -["Le chateau de Chillon ... est situe dans le lac sur un rocher qui -forme une presqu'isle, et autour du quel j'ai vu sonder a plus de cent -cinquante brasses qui font pres de huit cents pieds, sans trouver le -fond. On a creuse dans ce rocher des caves et des cuisines au-dessous du -niveau de l'eau, qu'on y introduit, quand on veut, par des robinets. -C'est-la que fut detenu six ans prisonnier Francois Bonnivard ... homme -d'un merite rare, d'une droiture et d'une fermete a toute epreuve, ami -de la liberte, quoique Savoyard, et tolerant quoique pretre," etc. (_La -Nouvelle Heloise_, par J. J. Rousseau, partie vi. Lettre 8, note (1); -_Oeuvres completes_, 1836, ii. 356, note 1). - -With Byron's description of Chillon, compare that of Shelley, contained -in a letter to Peacock, dated July 12, 1816 (_Prose Works of P. B. -Shelley_, 1880, ii. 171, sq.). The belief or tradition that Bonivard's -prison is "below the surface of the lake," for which Shelley as well as -Rousseau is responsible, but which Byron only records in verse, may be -traced to a statement attributed to Bonivard himself, who says -(_Memoires, etc._, 1843, iv. 268) that the commandant thrust him "en -unes croctes desquelles le fond estoit plus bas que le lac sur lequel -Chillon estoit citue." As a matter of fact, "the level [of _les -souterrains_] is now three metres higher than the level of the water, -and even if we take off the difference arising from the fact that the -level of the lake was once much higher, and that the floor of the halls -has been raised, still the halls must originally have been built about -two metres above the surface of the lake."--_Guide_, etc., pp. 28, 29.] - -[13] {19}[The "real Bonivard" might have indulged in and, perhaps, -prided himself on this feeble and irritating _paronomasy_; but nothing -can be less in keeping with the bearing and behaviour of the tragic and -sententious Bonivard of the legend.] - -[14] [Compare-- - - "...I'm a forester and breather - Of the steep mountain-tops." - - _Werner_, act iv. sc. 1.] - -[e] _But why withhold the blow?--he died_. [MS.] - -[f] {20}_To break or bite_----.--[MS.] - -[15] [Compare "With the aid of Suleiman's ataghan and my own sabre, we -scooped a shallow grave upon the spot which Darvell had indicated" (_A -fragment of a Novel by Byron, Letters,_ 1899, iii. Appendix IX. p. -452).] - -[16] [Compare-- - - "And to be wroth with one we love - Doth work like madness in the brain." - - _Christabel_, by S. T. Coleridge, part ii. lines 412, 413.] - -[17] [It is said that his parents handed him over to the care of his -uncle, Jean-Aime Bonivard, when he was still an infant, and it is denied -that his father was "literally put to death."] - -[18] {21}[Koelbing quotes parallel uses of the same expression in -_Werner_, act iv. sc. 1; Churchill's _The Times_, line 341, etc.; but -does not give the original-- - - "But earthlier happy is the rose distill'd, - Than that which, withering on the virgin-thorn," etc. - - _Midsummer Night's Dream_, act i. sc. i, lines 76, 77.] - -[19] [Compare-- - - "The first, last look of Death revealed." - - _The Giaour_, line 89, note 2. - -Byron was a connoisseur of the incidents and by-play of "sudden death," -so much so that Goethe was under the impression that he had been guilty -of a venial murder (see his review of _Manfred_ in his paper _Kunst and -Alterthum_, _Letters_, 1901, v. 506, 507). A year after these lines were -written, when he was at Rome (Letter to Murray, May 30, 1817), he saw -three robbers guillotined, and observed himself and them from a -psychological standpoint. - -"The ghastly bed of Sin" (lines 182, 183) may be a reminiscence of the -death-bed of Lord Falkland (_English Bards_, etc., lines 680-686; -_Poetical Works_, 1898, i. 351, note 2).] - -[20] {22}[Compare-- - - "And yet I could not die." - - _Ancient Mariner_, Part IV. line 262.] - -[21] {23}[Compare-- - - "I wept not; so all stone I felt within." - - Dante's _Inferno_, xxxiii. 47 (Cary's translation).] - -[22] {24}[Compare "Song by Glycine"-- - - "A sunny shaft did I behold, - From sky to earth it slanted; - And poised therein a bird so bold-- - Sweet bird, thou wert enchanted," etc. - - _Zapolya_, by S. T. Coleridge, act ii. sc. 1.] - -[23] [Compare-- - - "When Ruth was left half desolate, - Her Father took another Mate." - - _Ruth_, by W. Wordsworth, _Works_, 1889, p. 121.] - -[24] ["The souls of the blessed are supposed by some of the Mahommedans -to animate green birds in the groves of Paradise."--Note to Southey's -_Thalaba_, bk. xi. stanza 5, line 13.] - -[25] {25}[Compare-- - - "I wandered lonely as a cloud." - - _Works_ of W. Wordsworth, 1889, p. 205.] - -[26] [Compare-- - - "Yet some did think that he had little business here." - - _Ibid_., p. 183. - -Compare, too, _The Dream_, line 166, _vide post_, p. 39-- - - "What business had they there at such a time?"] - -[27] {26}[Compare-- - - "He sighed, and turned his eyes, because he knew - 'Twas but a larger jail he had in view." - - Dryden, _Palamon and Arcite_, bk. i. lines 216, 217. - -Compare, too-- - - "An exile---- - Who has the whole world for a dungeon strong." - - _Prophecy of Dante_, iv. 131, 132.] - -[28] [Compare-- - - "The harvest of a quiet eye." - - _A Poet's Epitaph_, line 51, _Works_ of W. Wordsworth, 1889, p. 116.] - -[g] - - _I saw them with their lake below,_ - _And their three thousand years of snow_.--[MS.] - -[29] [This, according to Ruskin's canon, may be a poetical inaccuracy. -The Rhone is blue below the lake at Geneva, but "les embouchures" at -Villeneuve are muddy and discoloured.] - -[30] [Villeneuve.] - -[31] Between the entrances of the Rhone and Villeneuve, not far from -Chillon, is a very small island [Ile de Paix]; the only one I could -perceive in my voyage round and over the lake, within its circumference. -It contains a few trees (I think not above three), and from its -singleness and diminutive size has a peculiar effect upon the view. - -[32] {27}[Compare-- - - "Of Silver How, and Grasmere's peaceful lake, - And one green island." - - _Works_ of W. Wordsworth, 1889, p. 220.] - -[33] [Compare the Ancient Mariner on the water-snakes-- - - "O happy living things! no tongue - Their beauty might declare," - - _Ancient Mariner_, Part IV. lines 282, 283. - -There is, too, in these lines (352-354), as in many others, an echo of -Wordsworth. In the _Song at the Feast of Brougham Castle_ it is told how -the "two undying fish" of Bowscale Tarn, and the "eagle lord of land and -sea" ministered to the shepherd-lord. It was no wonder that the critics -of 1816 animadverted on Byron's "communion" with the Lakers. "He could -not," writes a Critical Reviewer (Series V. vol. iv. pp. 567-581), -"carry many volumes on his tour, but among the few, we will venture to -predict, are found the two volumes of poems lately republished by Mr. -Wordsworth.... Such is the effect of reading and enjoying the poetry of -Mr. W., to whose system (ridiculed alike by those who could not, and who -would not understand it) Lord Byron, it is evident, has become a tardy -convert, and of whose merits in the poems on our table we have a silent -but unequivocal acknowledgment."] - -[34] {28}[Compare the well-known lines in Lovelace's "To Althea--From -Prison"-- - - "Minds innocent and quiet take - That for an hermitage."] - -[h] Here follows in the MS.-- - -_Nor stew I of my subjects one_-- - / _hath so little_ \ -_What sovereign_ < > _done?_ - \ _yet so much hath_ / - - - - - - - POEMS OF - - JULY-SEPTEMBER, 1816. - - THE DREAM. - - - - - INTRODUCTION TO _THE DREAM_ - - -_The Dream_, which was written at Diodati in July, 1816 (probably -towards the end of the month; see letters to Murray and Rogers, dated -July 22 and July 29), is a retrospect and an apology. It consists of an -opening stanza, or section, on the psychology of dreams, followed by -some episodes or dissolving views, which purport to be the successive -stages of a dream. Stanzas ii. and iii. are descriptive of Annesley Park -and Hall, and detail two incidents of Byron's boyish passion for his -neighbour and distant cousin, Mary Anne Chaworth. The first scene takes -place on the top of "Diadem Hill," the "cape" or rounded spur of the -long ridge of Howatt Hill, which lies about half a mile to the -south-east of the hall. The time is the late summer or early autumn of -1803. The "Sun of Love" has not yet declined, and the "one beloved face" -is still shining on him; but he is beginning to realize that "her sighs -are not for him," that she is out of his reach. The second scene, which -belongs to the following year, 1804, is laid in the "antique oratory" -(not, as Moore explains, another name for the hall, but "a small room -built over the porch, or principal entrance of the hall, and looking -into the courtyard"), and depicts the final parting. His doom has been -pronounced, and his first impulse is to pen some passionate reproach, -but his heart fails him at the sight of the "Lady of his Love," serene -and smiling, and he bids her farewell with smiles on his lips, but grief -unutterable in his heart. - -Stanza iv. recalls an incident of his Eastern travels--a halt at noonday -by a fountain on the route from Smyrna to Ephesus (March 14, 1810), "the -heads of camels were seen peeping above the tall reeds" (see _Travels in -Albania_, 1858, ii. 59.). - -The next episode (stanza v.) depicts an imaginary scene, suggested, -perhaps, by some rumour or more definite assurance, and often present to -his "inward eye"--the "one beloved," the mother of a happy family, but -herself a forsaken and unhappy wife. - -He passes on (stanza vi.) to his marriage in 1815, his bride "gentle" -and "fair," but _not_ the "one beloved,"--to the wedding day, when he -stood before an altar, "like one forlorn," confused by the sudden vision -of the past fulfilled with Love the "indestructible"! - -In stanza vii. he records and analyzes the "sickness of the soul," the -so-called "phrenzy" which had overtaken and changed the "Lady of his -Love;" and, finally (stanza viii.), he lays bare the desolation of his -heart, depicting himself as at enmity with mankind, but submissive to -Nature, the "Spirit of the Universe," if, haply, there may be "reserved -a blessing" even for him, the rejected and the outlaw. - -Moore says (_Life_, p. 321) that _The Dream_ cost its author "many a -tear in writing"--being, indeed, the most mournful as well as -picturesque "story of a wandering life" that ever came from the pen and -heart of man. In his _Real Lord Byron_ (i. 284) Mr. Cordy Jeaffreson -maintains that _The Dream_ "has no autobiographical value.... A dream it -was, as false as dreams usually are." The character of the poet, as well -as the poem itself, suggests another criticism. Byron suffered or -enjoyed vivid dreams, and, as poets will, shaped his dreams, consciously -and of set purpose, to the furtherance of his art, but nothing -concerning himself interested him or awoke the slumbering chord which -was not based on actual fact. If the meeting on the "cape crowned with a -peculiar diadem," and the final interview in the "antique oratory" had -never happened or happened otherwise; if he had not "quivered" during -the wedding service at Seaham; if a vision of Annesley and Mary Chaworth -had not flashed into his soul,--he would have taken no pleasure in -devising these incidents and details, and weaving them into a fictitious -narrative. He took himself too seriously to invent and dwell lovingly on -the acts and sufferings of an imaginary Byron. The Dream is -"picturesque" because the accidents of the scenes are dealt with not -historically, but artistically, are omitted or supplied according to -poetical licence; but the record is neither false, nor imaginary, nor -unusual. On the other hand, the composition and publication of the poem -must be set down, if not to malice and revenge, at least to the -preoccupancy of chagrin and remorse, which compelled him to take the -world into his confidence, cost what it might to his own self-respect, -or the peace of mind and happiness of others. - -For an elaborate description of Annesley Hall and Park, written with a -view to illustrate _The Dream_, see "A Byronian Ramble," Part II., the -_Athenaeum_, August 30, 1834. See, too, an interesting quotation from Sir -Richard Phillips' unfinished _Personal Tour through the United Kingdom_, -published in the _Mirror_, 1828, vol. xii. p. 286; _Abbotsford and -Newstead Abbey_, by Washington Irving, 1835, p. 191, _seq._; _The House -and Grave of Byron_, 1855; and an article in _Lippincott's Magazine_, -1876, vol. xviii. pp. 637, _seq._ - - - - - THE DREAM - - I. - - Our life is twofold: Sleep hath its own world, - A boundary between the things misnamed - Death and existence: Sleep hath its own world, - And a wide realm of wild reality, - And dreams in their developement have breath, - And tears, and tortures, and the touch of Joy; - They leave a weight upon our waking thoughts, - They take a weight from off our waking toils, - They do divide our being;[35] they become - A portion of ourselves as of our time, 10 - And look like heralds of Eternity; - They pass like spirits of the past,--they speak - Like Sibyls of the future; they have power-- - The tyranny of pleasure and of pain; - They make us what we were not--what they will, - And shake us with the vision that's gone by,[36] - The dread of vanished shadows--Are they so? - Is not the past all shadow?--What are they? - Creations of the mind?--The mind can make - Substance, and people planets of its own 20 - With beings brighter than have been, and give - A breath to forms which can outlive all flesh.[37] - I would recall a vision which I dreamed - Perchance in sleep--for in itself a thought, - A slumbering thought, is capable of years, - And curdles a long life into one hour.[38] - - II. - - I saw two beings in the hues of youth - Standing upon a hill, a gentle hill, - Green and of mild declivity, the last - As 'twere the cape of a long ridge of such, 30 - Save that there was no sea to lave its base, - But a most living landscape, and the wave - Of woods and cornfields, and the abodes of men - Scattered at intervals, and wreathing smoke - Arising from such rustic roofs;--the hill - Was crowned with a peculiar diadem - Of trees, in circular array, so fixed, - Not by the sport of nature, but of man: - These two, a maiden and a youth, were there - Gazing--the one on all that was beneath 40 - Fair as herself--but the Boy gazed on her; - And both were young, and one was beautiful: - And both were young--yet not alike in youth. - As the sweet moon on the horizon's verge, - The Maid was on the eve of Womanhood; - The Boy had fewer summers, but his heart - Had far outgrown his years, and to his eye - There was but one beloved face on earth, - And that was shining on him: he had looked - Upon it till it could not pass away; 50 - He had no breath, no being, but in hers; - She was his voice; he did not speak to her, - But trembled on her words; she was his sight,[i][39] - For his eye followed hers, and saw with hers, - Which coloured all his objects:--he had ceased - To live within himself; she was his life, - The ocean to the river of his thoughts,[40] - Which terminated all: upon a tone, - A touch of hers, his blood would ebb and flow,[41] - And his cheek change tempestuously--his heart 60 - Unknowing of its cause of agony. - But she in these fond feelings had no share: - Her sighs were not for him; to her he was - Even as a brother--but no more; 'twas much, - For brotherless she was, save in the name - Her infant friendship had bestowed on him; - Herself the solitary scion left - Of a time-honoured race.[42]--It was a name - Which pleased him, and yet pleased him not--and why? - Time taught him a deep answer--when she loved 70 - Another: even _now_ she loved another, - And on the summit of that hill she stood - Looking afar if yet her lover's steed[43] - Kept pace with her expectancy, and flew. - - III. - - A change came o'er the spirit of my dream. - There was an ancient mansion, and before - Its walls there was a steed caparisoned: - Within an antique Oratory stood - The Boy of whom I spake;--he was alone,[44] - And pale, and pacing to and fro: anon 80 - He sate him down, and seized a pen, and traced - Words which I could not guess of; then he leaned - His bowed head on his hands, and shook as 'twere - With a convulsion--then arose again, - And with his teeth and quivering hands did tear - What he had written, but he shed no tears. - And he did calm himself, and fix his brow - Into a kind of quiet: as he paused, - The Lady of his love re-entered there; - She was serene and smiling then, and yet 90 - She knew she was by him beloved--she knew, - For quickly comes such knowledge,[45] that his heart - Was darkened with her shadow, and she saw - That he was wretched, but she saw not all. - He rose, and with a cold and gentle grasp - He took her hand; a moment o'er his face - A tablet of unutterable thoughts - Was traced, and then it faded, as it came; - He dropped the hand he held, and with slow steps - Retired, but not as bidding her adieu, 100 - For they did part with mutual smiles; he passed - From out the massy gate of that old Hall, - And mounting on his steed he went his way; - And ne'er repassed that hoary threshold more.[46] - - IV. - - A change came o'er the spirit of my dream. - The Boy was sprung to manhood: in the wilds - Of fiery climes he made himself a home, - And his Soul drank their sunbeams: he was girt - With strange and dusky aspects; he was not - Himself like what he had been; on the sea 110 - And on the shore he was a wanderer; - There was a mass of many images - Crowded like waves upon me, but he was - A part of all; and in the last he lay - Reposing from the noontide sultriness, - Couched among fallen columns, in the shade - Of ruined walls that had survived the names - Of those who reared them; by his sleeping side - Stood camels grazing, and some goodly steeds - Were fastened near a fountain; and a man 120 - Clad in a flowing garb did watch the while, - While many of his tribe slumbered around: - And they were canopied by the blue sky, - So cloudless, clear, and purely beautiful, - That God alone was to be seen in Heaven.[47] - - V. - - A change came o'er the spirit of my dream. - The Lady of his love was wed with One - Who did not love her better:--in her home, - A thousand leagues from his,--her native home, - She dwelt, begirt with growing Infancy, 130 - Daughters and sons of Beauty,--but behold! - Upon her face there was the tint of grief, - The settled shadow of an inward strife, - And an unquiet drooping of the eye, - As if its lid were charged with unshed tears.[48] - What could her grief be?--she had all she loved, - And he who had so loved her was not there - To trouble with bad hopes, or evil wish, - Or ill-repressed affliction, her pure thoughts. - What could her grief be?--she had loved him not, 140 - Nor given him cause to deem himself beloved, - Nor could he be a part of that which preyed - Upon her mind--a spectre of the past. - - VI. - - A change came o'er the spirit of my dream. - The Wanderer was returned.--I saw him stand - Before an Altar--with a gentle bride; - Her face was fair, but was not that which made - The Starlight[49] of his Boyhood;--as he stood - Even at the altar, o'er his brow there came - The self-same aspect, and the quivering shock[50] 150 - That in the antique Oratory shook - His bosom in its solitude; and then-- - As in that hour--a moment o'er his face - The tablet of unutterable thoughts - Was traced,--and then it faded as it came, - And he stood calm and quiet, and he spoke - The fitting vows, but heard not his own words, - And all things reeled around him; he could see - Not that which was, nor that which should have been-- - But the old mansion, and the accustomed hall, 160 - And the remembered chambers, and the place, - The day, the hour, the sunshine, and the shade, - All things pertaining to that place and hour - And her who was his destiny, came back - And thrust themselves between him and the light: - What business had they there at such a time? - - VII. - - A change came o'er the spirit of my dream. - The Lady of his love;--Oh! she was changed - As by the sickness of the soul; her mind - Had wandered from its dwelling, and her eyes 170 - They had not their own lustre, but the look - Which is not of the earth; she was become - The Queen of a fantastic realm; her thoughts - Were combinations of disjointed things; - And forms, impalpable and unperceived - Of others' sight, familiar were to hers. - And this the world calls frenzy; but the wise - Have a far deeper madness--and the glance - Of melancholy is a fearful gift; - What is it but the telescope of truth? 180 - Which strips the distance of its fantasies, - And brings life near in utter nakedness, - Making the cold reality too real![j][51] - - VIII. - - A change came o'er the spirit of my dream. - The Wanderer was alone as heretofore, - The beings which surrounded him were gone, - Or were at war with him; he was a mark - For blight and desolation, compassed round - With Hatred and Contention; Pain was mixed - In all which was served up to him, until, 190 - Like to the Pontic monarch of old days,[52] - He fed on poisons, and they had no power, - But were a kind of nutriment; he lived - Through that which had been death to many men, - And made him friends of mountains:[53] with the stars - And the quick Spirit of the Universe[54] - He held his dialogues; and they did teach - To him the magic of their mysteries; - To him the book of Night was opened wide, - And voices from the deep abyss revealed[55] 200 - A marvel and a secret--Be it so. - - IX. - - My dream was past; it had no further change. - It was of a strange order, that the doom - Of these two creatures should be thus traced out - Almost like a reality--the one - To end in madness--both in misery. - -_July_, 1816. - -[First published, _The Prisoner of Chillon_, etc., 1816.] - - - - - DARKNESS.[k][56] - - I had a dream, which was not all a dream. - The bright sun was extinguished, and the stars - Did wander darkling in the eternal space, - Rayless, and pathless, and the icy Earth - Swung blind and blackening in the moonless air; - Morn came and went--and came, and brought no day, - And men forgot their passions in the dread - Of this their desolation; and all hearts - Were chilled into a selfish prayer for light: - And they did live by watchfires--and the thrones, 10 - The palaces of crowned kings--the huts, - The habitations of all things which dwell, - Were burnt for beacons; cities were consumed, - And men were gathered round their blazing homes - To look once more into each other's face; - Happy were those who dwelt within the eye - Of the volcanos, and their mountain-torch: - A fearful hope was all the World contained; - Forests were set on fire--but hour by hour - They fell and faded--and the crackling trunks 20 - Extinguished with a crash--and all was black. - The brows of men by the despairing light - Wore an unearthly aspect, as by fits - The flashes fell upon them; some lay down - And hid their eyes and wept; and some did rest - Their chins upon their clenched hands, and smiled; - And others hurried to and fro, and fed - Their funeral piles with fuel, and looked up - With mad disquietude on the dull sky, - The pall of a past World; and then again 30 - With curses cast them down upon the dust, - And gnashed their teeth and howled: the wild birds shrieked, - And, terrified, did flutter on the ground, - And flap their useless wings; the wildest brutes - Came tame and tremulous; and vipers crawled - And twined themselves among the multitude, - Hissing, but stingless--they were slain for food: - And War, which for a moment was no more, - Did glut himself again:--a meal was bought - With blood, and each sate sullenly apart 40 - Gorging himself in gloom: no Love was left; - All earth was but one thought--and that was Death, - Immediate and inglorious; and the pang - Of famine fed upon all entrails--men - Died, and their bones were tombless as their flesh; - The meagre by the meagre were devoured, - Even dogs assailed their masters, all save one, - And he was faithful to a corse, and kept - The birds and beasts and famished men at bay, - Till hunger clung them,[57] or the dropping dead 50 - Lured their lank jaws; himself sought out no food, - But with a piteous and perpetual moan, - And a quick desolate cry, licking the hand - Which answered not with a caress--he died. - The crowd was famished by degrees; but two - Of an enormous city did survive, - And they were enemies: they met beside - The dying embers of an altar-place - Where had been heaped a mass of holy things - For an unholy usage; they raked up, 60 - And shivering scraped with their cold skeleton hands - The feeble ashes, and their feeble breath - Blew for a little life, and made a flame - Which was a mockery; then they lifted up - Their eyes as it grew lighter, and beheld[58] - Each other's aspects--saw, and shrieked, and died-- - Even of their mutual hideousness they died, - Unknowing who he was upon whose brow - Famine had written Fiend. The World was void, - The populous and the powerful was a lump, 70 - Seasonless, herbless, treeless, manless, lifeless-- - A lump of death--a chaos of hard clay. - The rivers, lakes, and ocean all stood still, - And nothing stirred within their silent depths; - Ships sailorless lay rotting on the sea, - And their masts fell down piecemeal: as they dropped - They slept on the abyss without a surge-- - The waves were dead; the tides were in their grave, - The Moon, their mistress, had expired before; - The winds were withered in the stagnant air, 80 - And the clouds perished; Darkness had no need - Of aid from them--She was the Universe. - - Diodati, _July_, 1816. - - [First published, _Prisoner of Chillon_, etc., 1816.] - - - - - CHURCHILL'S GRAVE,[59] - - A FACT LITERALLY RENDERED.[60] - - I stood beside the grave of him who blazed - The Comet of a season, and I saw - The humblest of all sepulchres, and gazed - With not the less of sorrow and of awe - On that neglected turf and quiet stone, - With name no clearer than the names unknown, - Which lay unread around it; and I asked - The Gardener of that ground, why it might be - That for this plant strangers his memory tasked, - Through the thick deaths of half a century; 10 - And thus he answered--"Well, I do not know - Why frequent travellers turn to pilgrims so; - He died before my day of Sextonship, - And I had not the digging of this grave." - And is this all? I thought,--and do we rip - The veil of Immortality, and crave - I know not what of honour and of light - Through unborn ages, to endure this blight? - So soon, and so successless? As I said,[61] - The Architect of all on which we tread, 20 - For Earth is but a tombstone, did essay - To extricate remembrance from the clay, - Whose minglings might confuse a Newton's thought, - Were it not that all life must end in one, - Of which we are but dreamers;--as he caught - As 'twere the twilight of a former Sun,[62] - Thus spoke he,--"I believe the man of whom - You wot, who lies in this selected[63] tomb, - Was a most famous writer in his day, - And therefore travellers step from out their way 30 - To pay him honour,--and myself whate'er - Your honour pleases:"--then most pleased I shook[l] - From out my pocket's avaricious nook - Some certain coins of silver, which as 'twere - Perforce I gave this man, though I could spare - So much but inconveniently:--Ye smile, - I see ye, ye profane ones! all the while, - Because my homely phrase the truth would tell. - You are the fools, not I--for I did dwell - With a deep thought, and with a softened eye, 40 - On that old Sexton's natural homily, - In which there was Obscurity and Fame,-- - The Glory and the Nothing of a Name. - - Diodati, 1816. - - [First published, _Prisoner of Chillon_, etc., 1816.] - - - - - PROMETHEUS.[64] - - I. - - Titan! to whose immortal eyes - The sufferings of mortality, - Seen in their sad reality, - Were not as things that gods despise; - What was thy pity's recompense?[65] - A silent suffering, and intense; - The rock, the vulture, and the chain, - All that the proud can feel of pain, - The agony they do not show, - The suffocating sense of woe, 10 - Which speaks but in its loneliness, - And then is jealous lest the sky - Should have a listener, nor will sigh - Until its voice is echoless. - - II. - - Titan! to thee the strife was given - Between the suffering and the will, - Which torture where they cannot kill; - And the inexorable Heaven,[66] - And the deaf tyranny of Fate, - The ruling principle of Hate, 20 - Which for its pleasure doth create[67] - The things it may annihilate, - Refused thee even the boon to die:[68] - The wretched gift Eternity - Was thine--and thou hast borne it well. - All that the Thunderer wrung from thee - Was but the menace which flung back - On him the torments of thy rack; - The fate thou didst so well foresee,[69] - But would not to appease him tell; 30 - And in thy Silence was his Sentence, - And in his Soul a vain repentance, - And evil dread so ill dissembled, - That in his hand the lightnings trembled. - - III. - - Thy Godlike crime was to be kind,[70] - To render with thy precepts less - The sum of human wretchedness, - And strengthen Man with his own mind; - But baffled as thou wert from high, - Still in thy patient energy, 40 - In the endurance, and repulse - Of thine impenetrable Spirit, - Which Earth and Heaven could not convulse, - A mighty lesson we inherit: - Thou art a symbol and a sign - To Mortals of their fate and force; - Like thee, Man is in part divine,[71] - A troubled stream from a pure source; - And Man in portions can foresee - His own funereal destiny; 50 - His wretchedness, and his resistance, - And his sad unallied existence: - To which his Spirit may oppose - Itself--an equal to all woes--[m][72] - And a firm will, and a deep sense, - Which even in torture can descry - Its own concentered recompense, - Triumphant where it dares defy, - And making Death a Victory. - - Diodati, _July_, 1816. - - [First published, _Prisoner of Chillon_, etc., 1816.] - - - - - A FRAGMENT.[73] - - Could I remount the river of my years - To the first fountain of our smiles and tears, - I would not trace again the stream of hours - Between their outworn banks of withered flowers, - But bid it flow as now--until it glides - Into the number of the nameless tides. - - * * * * * - - What is this Death?--a quiet of the heart? - The whole of that of which we are a part? - For Life is but a vision--what I see - Of all which lives alone is Life to me, 10 - And being so--the absent are the dead, - Who haunt us from tranquillity, and spread - A dreary shroud around us, and invest - With sad remembrancers our hours of rest. - The absent are the dead--for they are cold, - And ne'er can be what once we did behold; - And they are changed, and cheerless,--or if yet - The unforgotten do not all forget, - Since thus divided--equal must it be - If the deep barrier be of earth, or sea; 20 - It may be both--but one day end it must - In the dark union of insensate dust. - The under-earth inhabitants--are they - But mingled millions decomposed to clay? - The ashes of a thousand ages spread - Wherever Man has trodden or shall tread? - Or do they in their silent cities dwell - Each in his incommunicative cell? - Or have they their own language? and a sense - Of breathless being?--darkened and intense 30 - As Midnight in her solitude?--Oh Earth! - Where are the past?--and wherefore had they birth? - The dead are thy inheritors--and we - But bubbles on thy surface; and the key - Of thy profundity is in the Grave, - The ebon portal of thy peopled cave, - Where I would walk in spirit, and behold[74] - Our elements resolved to things untold, - And fathom hidden wonders, and explore - The essence of great bosoms now no more. 40 - - * * * * * - - Diodati, _July_, 1816. - - [First published, _Letters and Journals_, 1830, ii. 36.] - - - - - SONNET TO LAKE LEMAN. - - Rousseau--Voltaire--our Gibbon--and De Stael-- - Leman![75] these names are worthy of thy shore, - Thy shore of names like these! wert thou no more, - Their memory thy remembrance would recall: - To them thy banks were lovely as to all, - But they have made them lovelier, for the lore - Of mighty minds doth hallow in the core - Of human hearts the ruin of a wall - Where dwelt the wise and wondrous; but by _thee_ - How much more, Lake of Beauty! do we feel, - In sweetly gliding o'er thy crystal sea,[76] - The wild glow of that not ungentle zeal, - Which of the Heirs of Immortality - Is proud, and makes the breath of Glory real! - - Diodati, _July_, 1816. - - [First published, _Prisoner of Chillon_, etc., 1816.] - - - - - STANZAS TO AUGUSTA.[n][77] - - I. - - Though the day of my Destiny's over, - And the star of my Fate hath declined,[o] - Thy soft heart refused to discover - The faults which so many could find; - Though thy Soul with my grief was acquainted, - It shrunk not to share it with me, - And the Love which my Spirit hath painted[p] - It never hath found but in _Thee_. - - II. - - Then when Nature around me is smiling,[78] - The last smile which answers to mine, - I do not believe it beguiling,[q] - Because it reminds me of thine; - And when winds are at war with the ocean, - As the breasts I believed in with me,[r] - If their billows excite an emotion, - It is that they bear me from _Thee._ - - III. - - Though the rock of my last Hope is shivered,[s] - And its fragments are sunk in the wave, - Though I feel that my soul is delivered - To Pain--it shall not be its slave. - There is many a pang to pursue me: - They may crush, but they shall not contemn; - They may torture, but shall not subdue me; - 'Tis of _Thee_ that I think--not of them.[t] - - IV. - - Though human, thou didst not deceive me, - Though woman, thou didst not forsake, - Though loved, thou forborest to grieve me, - Though slandered, thou never couldst shake;[u][79] - Though trusted, thou didst not disclaim me, - Though parted, it was not to fly, - Though watchful, 'twas not to defame me, - Nor, mute, that the world might belie.[v] - - V. - - Yet I blame not the World, nor despise it, - Nor the war of the many with one; - If my Soul was not fitted to prize it, - 'Twas folly not sooner to shun:[80] - And if dearly that error hath cost me, - And more than I once could foresee, - I have found that, whatever it lost me,[w] - It could not deprive me of _Thee_. - - - VI. - - From the wreck of the past, which hath perished,[x] - Thus much I at least may recall, - It hath taught me that what I most cherished - Deserved to be dearest of all: - In the Desert a fountain is springing,[y][81] - In the wide waste there still is a tree, - And a bird in the solitude singing, - Which speaks to my spirit of _Thee_.[82] - - _July_ 24, 1816. - - [First published, _Prisoner of Chillon_, etc., 1816.] - - - - - - EPISTLE TO AUGUSTA.[83] - - I. - - My Sister! my sweet Sister! if a name - Dearer and purer were, it should be thine. - Mountains and seas divide us, but I claim - No tears, but tenderness to answer mine: - Go where I will, to me thou art the same-- - A loved regret which I would not resign.[z] - There yet are two things in my destiny,-- - A world to roam through, and a home with thee.[84] - - II. - - The first were nothing--had I still the last, - It were the haven of my happiness; - But other claims and other ties thou hast,[aa] - And mine is not the wish to make them less. - A strange doom is thy father's son's, and past[ab] - Recalling, as it lies beyond redress; - Reversed for him our grandsire's[85] fate of yore,-- - He had no rest at sea, nor I on shore. - - III. - - If my inheritance of storms hath been - In other elements, and on the rocks - Of perils, overlooked or unforeseen, - I have sustained my share of worldly shocks, - The fault was mine; nor do I seek to screen - My errors with defensive paradox;[ac] - I have been cunning in mine overthrow, - The careful pilot of my proper woe. - - IV. - - Mine were my faults, and mine be their reward. - My whole life was a contest, since the day - That gave me being, gave me that which marred - The gift,--a fate, or will, that walked astray;[86] - And I at times have found the struggle hard, - And thought of shaking off my bonds of clay: - But now I fain would for a time survive, - If but to see what next can well arrive. - - V. - - Kingdoms and Empires in my little day - I have outlived, and yet I am not old; - And when I look on this, the petty spray - Of my own years of trouble, which have rolled - Like a wild bay of breakers, melts away: - Something--I know not what--does still uphold - A spirit of slight patience;--not in vain, - Even for its own sake, do we purchase Pain. - - VI. - - Perhaps the workings of defiance stir - Within me--or, perhaps, a cold despair - Brought on when ills habitually recur,-- - Perhaps a kinder clime, or purer air, - (For even to this may change of soul refer,[ad] - And with light armour we may learn to bear,) - Have taught me a strange quiet, which was not - The chief companion of a calmer lot.[ae] - - VII. - - I feel almost at times as I have felt - In happy childhood; trees, and flowers, and brooks, - Which do remember me of where I dwelt, - Ere my young mind was sacrificed to books,[af] - Come as of yore upon me, and can melt - My heart with recognition of their looks; - And even at moments I could think I see - Some living thing to love--but none like thee.[ag] - - VIII. - - Here are the Alpine landscapes which create - A fund for contemplation;--to admire - Is a brief feeling of a trivial date; - But something worthier do such scenes inspire: - Here to be lonely is not desolate,[87] - For much I view which I could most desire, - And, above all, a Lake I can behold - Lovelier, not dearer, than our own of old.[88] - - IX. - - Oh that thou wert but with me!--but I grow - The fool of my own wishes, and forget - The solitude which I have vaunted so - Has lost its praise in this but one regret; - There may be others which I less may show;-- - I am not of the plaintive mood, and yet - I feel an ebb in my philosophy, - And the tide rising in my altered eye.[ah] - - X. - - I did remind thee of our own dear Lake, - By the old Hall which may be mine no more. - _Leman's_ is fair; but think not I forsake - The sweet remembrance of a dearer shore: - Sad havoc Time must with my memory make, - Ere that or thou can fade these eyes before; - Though, like all things which I have loved, they are - Resigned for ever, or divided far. - - XI. - - The world is all before me; I but ask - Of Nature that with which she will comply-- - It is but in her Summer's sun to bask, - To mingle with the quiet of her sky, - To see her gentle face without a mask, - And never gaze on it with apathy. - She was my early friend, and now shall be - My sister--till I look again on thee. - - XII. - - I can reduce all feelings but this one; - And that I would not;--for at length I see - Such scenes as those wherein my life begun--[89] - The earliest--even the only paths for me--[ai] - Had I but sooner learnt the crowd to shun, - I had been better than I now can be; - The Passions which have torn me would have slept; - _I_ had not suffered, and _thou_ hadst not wept. - - XIII. - - With false Ambition what had I to do? - Little with Love, and least of all with Fame; - And yet they came unsought, and with me grew, - And made me all which they can make--a Name. - Yet this was not the end I did pursue; - Surely I once beheld a nobler aim. - But all is over--I am one the more - To baffled millions which have gone before. - - XIV. - - And for the future, this world's future may[aj] - From me demand but little of my care; - I have outlived myself by many a day;[ak] - Having survived so many things that were; - My years have been no slumber, but the prey - Of ceaseless vigils; for I had the share - Of life which might have filled a century,[90] - Before its fourth in time had passed me by. - - XV. - - And for the remnant which may be to come[al] - I am content; and for the past I feel - Not thankless,--for within the crowded sum - Of struggles, Happiness at times would steal, - And for the present, I would not benumb - My feelings farther.--Nor shall I conceal - That with all this I still can look around, - And worship Nature with a thought profound. - - XVI. - - For thee, my own sweet sister, in thy heart - I know myself secure, as thou in mine; - We were and are--I am, even as thou art--[am] - Beings who ne'er each other can resign; - It is the same, together or apart, - From Life's commencement to its slow decline - We are entwined--let Death come slow or fast,[an] - The tie which bound the first endures the last! - - [First published, _Letters and Journals,_ 1830, ii. 38-41.] - - - - - - LINES ON HEARING THAT LADY BYRON WAS ILL.[91] - - And thou wert sad--yet I was not with thee; - And thou wert sick, and yet I was not near; - Methought that Joy and Health alone could be - Where I was _not_--and pain and sorrow here! - And is it thus?--it is as I foretold, - And shall be more so; for the mind recoils - Upon itself, and the wrecked heart lies cold, - While Heaviness collects the shattered spoils. - It is not in the storm nor in the strife - We feel benumbed, and wish to be no more, - But in the after-silence on the shore, - When all is lost, except a little life. - - I am too well avenged!--but 'twas my right; - Whate'er my sins might be, _thou_ wert not sent - To be the Nemesis who should requite--[92] - Nor did Heaven choose so near an instrument. - Mercy is for the merciful!--if thou - Hast been of such, 'twill be accorded now. - Thy nights are banished from the realms of sleep:--[93] - Yes! they may flatter thee, but thou shall feel - A hollow agony which will not heal, - For thou art pillowed on a curse too deep; - Thou hast sown in my sorrow, and must reap - The bitter harvest in a woe as real! - I have had many foes, but none like thee; - For 'gainst the rest myself I could defend, - And be avenged, or turn them into friend; - But thou in safe implacability - Hadst nought to dread--in thy own weakness shielded, - And in my love, which hath but too much yielded, - And spared, for thy sake, some I should not spare; - And thus upon the world--trust in thy truth, - And the wild fame of my ungoverned youth-- - On things that were not, and on things that are-- - Even upon such a basis hast thou built - A monument, whose cement hath been guilt! - The moral Clytemnestra of thy lord,[94] - And hewed down, with an unsuspected sword, - Fame, peace, and hope--and all the better life - Which, but for this cold treason of thy heart, - Might still have risen from out the grave of strife, - And found a nobler duty than to part. - But of thy virtues didst thou make a vice, - Trafficking with them in a purpose cold, - For present anger, and for future gold-- - And buying others' grief at any price.[95] - And thus once entered into crooked ways, - The early truth, which was thy proper praise,[96] - Did not still walk beside thee--but at times, - And with a breast unknowing its own crimes, - Deceit, averments incompatible, - Equivocations, and the thoughts which dwell - In Janus-spirits--the significant eye - Which learns to lie with silence--the pretext[97] - Of prudence, with advantages annexed-- - The acquiescence in all things which tend, - No matter how, to the desired end-- - All found a place in thy philosophy. - The means were worthy, and the end is won-- - I would not do by thee as thou hast done! - -_September, 1816._ - -[First published, _New Monthly Magazine_, August, 1832, vol. xxxv. pp. -142, 143.] - - - - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[35] {33}[Compare-- - - "Come, blessed barrier between day and day." - -[36] [Compare-- - - "...the night's dismay - Saddened and stunned the coming day." - - _The Pains of Sleep_, lines 33, 34, by S. T. Coleridge, - _Poetical Works_, 1893, p. 170.] - -[37] {34}[Compare _Childe Harold_, Canto III. stanza vi. lines 1-4, -note, _Poetical Works_, 1899, ii. 219.] - -[38] [Compare-- - - "With us acts are exempt from time, and we - Can crowd eternity into an hour." - - _Cain_, act i. sc. 1] - -[i] {35} - - ----_she was his sight,_ - _For never did he turn his glance until_ - _Her own had led by gazing on an object._--[MS.] - -[39] {35}[Compare-- - - "Thou art my life, my love, my heart, - The very eyes of me." - - _To Anthea, etc._, by Robert Herrick.] - -[40] [Compare-- - - "...the river of your love, - Must in the ocean of your affection - To me, be swallowed up." - - Massinger's _Unnatural Combat_, act iii. sc. 4.] - -[41] [Compare-- - - "The hot blood ebbed and flowed again." - - _Parisina_, line 226, _Poetical Works_, 1900, iii. 515.] - -[42] ["Annesley Lordship is owned by Miss Chaworth, a minor heiress of -the Chaworth family."--Throsby's _Thoroton's History of -Nottinghamshire_, 1797, ii. 270.] - -[43] ["Moore, commenting on this (_Life_, p. 28), tells us that the -image of the lover's steed was suggested by the Nottingham race-ground -... nine miles off, and ... lying in a hollow, and totally hidden from -view.... Mary Chaworth, in fact, was looking for her lover's steed along -the road as it winds up the common from Hucknall."-"A Byronian Ramble," -_Athenaeum_, No. 357, August 30, 1834.] - -[44] {36}[Moore (_Life_, p. 28) regards "the antique oratory," as a -poetical equivalent for Annesley Hall; but _vide ante_, the Introduction -to _The Dream_, p. 31.] - -[45] [Compare-- - - "Love by the object loved is soon discerned." - - _Story of Rimini_, by Leigh Hunt, Canto III. ed. 1844, p. 22. - -The line does not occur in the first edition, published early in 1816, -or, presumably, in the MS. read by Byron in the preceding year. (See -Letter to Murray, November 4, 1815.)] - -[46] {37}[Byron once again revisited Annesley Hall in the autumn of 1808 -(see his lines, "Well, thou art happy," and "To a Lady," etc., _Poetical -Works_, 1898, i. 277, 282, note 1); but it is possible that he avoided -the "massy gate" ("arched over and surmounted by a clock and cupola") of -set purpose, and entered by another way. He would not lightly or gladly -have taken a liberty with the actual prosaic facts in a matter which so -nearly concerned his personal emotions (_vide ante_, the Introduction to -_The Dream_, p. 31).] - -[47] ["This is true _keeping_--an Eastern picture perfect in its -foreground, and distance, and sky, and no part of which is so dwelt upon -or laboured as to obscure the principal figure."--Sir Walter Scott, -_Quarterly Review_, No. xxxi. "Byron's Dream" is the subject of a -well-known picture by Sir Charles Eastlake.] - -[48] {38}[Compare-- - - "Then Cythna turned to me and from her eyes - Which swam with unshed tears," etc. - - Shelly's _Revolt of Islam_ ("Laon and Cythna"), - Canto XII. stanza xxii. lines 2, 3, _Poetical Works_, 1829, p. 48.] - -[49] [An old servant of the Chaworth family, Mary Marsden, told -Washington Irving (_Abbotsford and Newstead Abbey_, 1835, p. 204) that -Byron used to call Mary Chaworth "his bright morning star of Annesley." -Compare the well-known lines-- - - "She was a form of Life and Light, - That, seen, became a part of sight; - And rose, where'er I turned mine eye, - The Morning-star of Memory!" - - _The Giaour_, lines 1127-1130, _Poetical Works_, 1900, iii. 136, 137.] - -[50] ["This touching picture agrees closely, in many of its -circumstances, with Lord Byron's own prose account of the wedding in his -Memoranda; in which he describes himself as waking, on the morning of -his marriage, with the most melancholy reflections, on seeing his -wedding-suit spread out before him. In the same mood, he wandered about -the grounds alone, till he was summoned for the ceremony, and joined, -for the first time on that day, his bride and her family. He knelt -down--he repeated the words after the clergyman; but a mist was before -his eyes--his thoughts were elsewhere: and he was but awakened by the -congratulations of the bystanders to find that he -was--married."--_Life_, p. 272. - -Medwin, too, makes Byron say (_Conversations, etc._, 1824, p. 46) that -he "trembled like a leaf, made the wrong responses, and after the -ceremony called her (the bride) Miss Milbanke." All that can be said of -Moore's recollection of the "memoranda," or Medwin's repetition of -so-called conversations (reprinted almost _verbatim_ in _Life, Writings, -Opinions, etc._, 1825, ii. 227, _seq._, as "Recollections of the Lately -Destroyed Manuscript," etc.), is that they tend to show that Byron meant -_The Dream_ to be taken literally as a record of actual events. He would -not have forgotten by July, 1816, circumstances of great import which -had taken place in December, 1815: and he's either lying of malice -prepense or telling "an ower true tale."] - -[j] {40} - - ----_the glance_ - _Of melancholy is a fearful gift;_ - _For it becomes the telescope of truth,_ - _And shows us all things naked as they are_.--[MS.] - -[51] [Compare-- - - "Who loves, raves--'tis youth's frenzy--but the cure - Is bitterer still, as charm by charm unwinds - Which robed our idols, and we see too sure - Nor Worth nor Beauty dwells from out the mind's - Ideal shape of such." - - _Childe Harold_, Canto IV. stanza cxxiii. lines 1-5, - _Poetical Works_, 1899, ii. 420.] - -[52] Mithridates of Pontus. [Mithridates, King of Pontus (B.C. 120-63), -surnamed Eupator, succeeded to the throne when he was only eleven years -of age. He is said to have safeguarded himself against the designs of -his enemies by drugging himself with antidotes against poison, and so -effectively that, when he was an old man, he could not poison himself, -even when he was minded to do so--"ut ne volens quidem senex veneno mori -potuerit."--Justinus, _Hist._, lib. xxxvii. cap. ii. - -According to Medwin (_Conversations_, p. 148), Byron made use of the -same illustration in speaking of Polidori's death (April, 1821), which -was probably occasioned by "poison administered to himself" (see -_Letters_, 1899, iii. 285).] - -[53] {41}[Compare-- - - "Where rose the mountains, there to him were friends." - - _Childe Harold_, Canto III. stanza xiii. line 1. - - "...and to me - High mountains are a feeling." - - _Ibid._, stanza lxxii. lines 2,3, _Poetical Works_, 1899, - ii. 223, 261.] - -[54] [Compare-- - - "Ye Spirits of the unbounded Universe!" - - _Manfred_, act i. sc. 1, line 29, _vide post_, p. 86.] - -[55] [Compare _Manfred_, act ii. sc. 2, lines 79-91; and _ibid._, act -iii. sc. 1, lines 34-39; and sc. 4, lines 112-117, _vide post_, pp. 105, -121, 135.] - -[k] {42}In the original MS. _A Dream_. - -[56] [Sir Walter Scott (_Quarterly Review_, October, 1816, vol. xvi. p. -204) did not take kindly to _Darkness_. He regarded the "framing of such -phantasms" as "a dangerous employment for the exalted and teeming -imagination of such a poet as Lord Byron. The waste of boundless space -into which they lead the poet, the neglect of precision which such -themes may render habitual, make them in respect to poetry what -mysticism is to religion." Poetry of this kind, which recalled "the -wild, unbridled, and fiery imagination of Coleridge," was a novel and -untoward experiment on the part of an author whose "peculiar art" it was -"to show the reader where his purpose tends." The resemblance to -Coleridge is general rather than particular. It is improbable that Scott -had ever read _Limbo_ (first published in _Sibylline Leaves_, 1817), an -attempt to depict the "mere horror of blank nought-at-all;" but it is -possible that he had in his mind the following lines (384-390) from -_Religious Musings_, in which "the final destruction is impersonated" -(see Coleridge's note) in the "red-eyed Fiend:"-- - - "For who of woman born may paint the hour, - When seized in his mid course, the Sun shall wane, - Making the noon ghastly! Who of woman born - May image in the workings of his thought, - How the black-visaged, red-eyed Fiend outstretched - Beneath the unsteady feet of Nature groans - In feverous slumbers?" - - _Poetical Works_, 1893, p. 60. - -Another and a less easily detected source of inspiration has been traced -(see an article on Campbell's _Last Man_, in the _London Magazine and -Review_, 1825, New Series, i. 588, seq.) to a forgotten but once popular -novel entitled _The Last Man, or Omegarus and Syderia, a Romance in -Futurity_ (two vols. 1806). Koelbing (_Prisoner of Chillon_, etc., pp. -136-140) adduces numerous quotations in support of this contention. The -following may serve as samples: "As soon as the earth had lost with the -moon her guardian star, her decay became more rapid.... Some, in their -madness, destroyed the instruments of husbandry, others in deep despair -summoned death to their relief. Men began to look on each other with -eyes of enmity" (i. 105). "The sun exhibited signs of decay, its surface -turned pale, and its beams were frigid. The northern nations dreaded -perishing by intense cold ... and fled to the torrid zone to court the -sun's beneficial rays" (i. 120). "The reign of Time was over, ages of -Eternity were going to begin; but at the same moment Hell shrieked with -rage, and the sun and stars were extinguished. The gloomy night of chaos -enveloped the world, plaintive sounds issued from mountains, rocks, and -caverns,--Nature wept, and a doleful voice was heard exclaiming in the -air, 'The human race is no more!'"(ii. 197). - -It is difficult to believe that Byron had not read, and more or less -consciously turned to account, the imagery of this novel; but it is -needless to add that any charge of plagiarism falls to the ground. -Thanks to a sensitive and appreciative ear and a retentive memory, -Byron's verse is interfused with manifold strains, but, so far as -_Darkness_ is concerned, his debt to Coleridge or the author of -_Omegarus and Syderia_ is neither more nor less legitimate than the debt -to Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Joel, which a writer in the _Imperial -Magazine_ (1828, x. 699), with solemn upbraidings, lays to his charge. - -The duty of acknowledging such debts is, indeed, "a duty of imperfect -obligation." The well-known lines in Tennyson's _Locksley Hall_-- - - "Heard the heavens fill with shouting, and there rained a ghastly dew - From the nations' airy navies grappling in the central blue!" - -is surely an echo of an earlier prophecy from the pen of the author of -_Omegarus and Syderia_: "In the center the heavens were seen darkened by -legions of armed vessels, making war on each other!... The soldiers fell -in frightful numbers.... Their blood stained the soft verdure of the -trees, and their scattered bleeding limbs covered the fields and the -roofs of the labourers' cottages" (i. 68). But such "conveyings" are -honourable to the purloiner. See, too, the story of the battle between -the Vulture-cavalry and the Sky-gnats, in Lucian's _Verae Historiae_, i. -16.] - -[57] {44} - - ["If thou speak'st false, - Upon the next tree shalt thou hang alive, - Till famine cling thee." - - _Macbeth_, act V. sc. 5, lines 38-40. - -Fruit is said to be "clung" when the skin shrivels, and a corpse when -the face becomes wasted and gaunt.] - -[58] {45}[So, too, Vathek and Nouronihar, in the Hall of Eblis, waited -"in direful suspense the moment which should render them to each other -... objects of terror."--_Vathek_, by W. Beckford, 1887, p. 185.] - -[59] [Charles Churchill was born in February, 1731, and died at -Boulogne, November 4, 1764. The body was brought to Dover and buried in -the churchyard attached to the demolished church of St. Martin-le-Grand -("a small deserted cemetery in an obscure lane behind [i.e. above] the -market"). See note by Charles De la Pryme, _Notes and Queries_, 1854, -Series I. vol. x. p. 378. There is a tablet to his memory on the south -wall of St. Mary's Church, and the present headstone in the graveyard -(it was a "plain headstone" in 1816) bears the following inscription:-- - - "1764. - Here lie the remains of the celebrated - C. Churchill. - 'Life to the last enjoy'd, here Churchill lies.'" - -Churchill had been one of Byron's earlier models, and the following -lines from _The Candidate_, which suggested the epitaph (lines 145-154), -were, doubtless, familiar to him:-- - - "Let one poor sprig of Bay around my head - Bloom whilst I live, and point me out when dead; - Let it (may Heav'n indulgent grant that prayer) - Be planted on my grave, nor wither there; - And when, on travel bound, some rhyming guest - Roams through the churchyard, whilst his dinner's drest, - Let it hold up this comment to his eyes; - Life to the last enjoy'd, _here_ Churchill lies; - Whilst (O, what joy that pleasing flatt'ry gives) - Reading my Works he cries--_here_ Churchill lives." - -Byron spent Sunday, April 25, 1816, at Dover. He was to sail that night -for Ostend, and, to while away the time, "turned to Pilgrim" and thought -out, perhaps began to write, the lines which were finished three months -later at the Campagne Diodati. - -"The Grave of Churchill," writes Scott (_Quarterly Review_, October, -1816), "might have called from Lord Byron a deeper commemoration; for, -though they generally differed in character and genius, there was a -resemblance between their history and character.... both these poets -held themselves above the opinion of the world, and both were followed -by the fame and popularity which they seemed to despise. The writings of -both exhibit an inborn, though sometimes ill-regulated, generosity of -mind, and a spirit of proud independence, frequently pushed to extremes. -Both carried their hatred of hypocrisy beyond the verge of prudence, and -indulged their vein of satire to the borders of licentiousness." - -Save for the affectation of a style which did not belong to him, and -which in his heart he despised, Byron's commemoration of Churchill does -not lack depth or seriousness. It was the parallel between their lives -and temperaments which awoke reflection and sympathy, and prompted this -"natural homily." Perhaps, too, the shadow of impending exile had -suggested to his imagination that further parallel which Scott -deprecated, and deprecated in vain, "death in the flower of his age, and -in a foreign land."] - -[60] {46}[On the sheet containing the original draft of these lines Lord -Byron has written, "The following poem (as most that I have endeavoured -to write) is founded on a fact; and this detail is an attempt at a -serious imitation of the style of a great poet--its beauties and its -defects: I say the _style_; for the thoughts I claim as my own. In this, -if there be anything ridiculous, let it be attributed to me, at least as -much as to Mr. Wordsworth: of whom there can exist few greater admirers -than myself. I have blended what I would deem to be the beauties as well -as defects of his style; and it ought to be remembered, that, in such -things, whether there be praise or dispraise, there is always what is -called a compliment, however unintentional." There is, as Scott points -out, a much closer resemblance to Southey's "_English Eclogues,_ in -which moral truths are expressed, to use the poet's own language, 'in an -almost colloquial plainness of language,' and an air of quaint and -original expression assumed, to render the sentiment at once impressive -and _piquant_."] - -[61] {47}[Compare-- - - "The under-earth inhabitants--are they - But mingled millions decomposed to clay?" - - _A Fragment_, lines 23, 24, _vide post_, p. 52. - -It is difficult to "extricate" the meaning of lines 19-25, but, perhaps, -they are intended to convey a hope of immortality. "As I was speaking, -the sexton (the architect) tried to answer my question by taxing his -memory with regard to the occupants of the several tombs. He might well -be puzzled, for 'Earth is but a tombstone,' covering an amalgam of dead -bodies, and, unless in another life soul were separated from soul, as on -earth body is distinct from body, Newton himself, who disclosed 'the -turnpike-road through the unpaved stars' (_Don Juan_, Canto X. stanza -ii. line 4), would fail to assign its proper personality to any given -lump of clay."] - -[62] {48}[Compare-- - - "But here [i.e. in 'the realm of death'] all is - So shadowy and so full of twilight, that - It speaks of a day past." - - _Cain_, act ii. sc. 2. - -[63] ["Selected," that is, by "frequent travellers" (_vide supra_, line -12).] - -[l] - - ----_then most pleased, I shook_ - _My inmost pocket's most retired nook,_ - _And out fell five and sixpence_.--[MS.] - -[64] [Byron was a lover and worshipper of Prometheus as a boy. His first -English exercise at Harrow was a paraphrase of a chorus of the -_Prometheus Vinctus_ of AEschylus, line 528, _sq._ (see _Poetical Works_, -1898, i. 14). Referring to a criticism on _Manfred_ (_Edinburgh Review_, -vol xxviii. p. 431) he writes (October 12, 1817, _Letters_, 1900, iv. -174): "The _Prometheus_, if not exactly in my plan, has always been so -much in my head, that I can easily conceive its influence over all or -any thing that I have written." The conception of an immortal sufferer -at once beneficent and defiant, appealed alike to his passions and his -convictions, and awoke a peculiar enthusiasm. His poems abound with -allusions to the hero and the legend. Compare the first draft of stanza -xvi. of the _Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte_ (_Poetical Works_, 1900, iii. -312, var. ii.); _The Prophecy of Dante_, iv. 10, seq.; the _Irish -Avatar_, stanza xii. line 2, etc.] - -[65] {49}[Compare-- - - [Greek: Toiau~t' e)pey/rou tou~ philanthro/pou tro/pou] - - _P. V._, line 28. - -Compare, too-- - - [Greek: Thneto\us d' e)n oi)/.kto| prothe/menos, tou/tou tychei~n] - [Greek: Ou)k e)xio/then au)to\] - - Ibid., lines 241, 242.] - -[66] [Compare-- - - [Greek: Dio\s ga\r dysparai/tetoi phre/nes.] - - Ibid., line 34. - -Compare, too-- - - [Greek: ...gigno/skonth' o(/ti] - [Greek: To\ te~s a)na/nkes e)st' a)de/riton sthe/nos] - - Ibid., line 105.] - -[67] {50}[Compare-- - - "The maker--call him - Which name thou wilt; he makes but to destroy." - - _Cain_, act i. sc. 1. - -Compare, too-- - - "And the Omnipotent, who makes and crushes." - - _Heaven and Earth_, Part I. sc. 3.] - -[68] [Compare-- - - [Greek: O)/to| thanei~n me/n e)stin ou) peprome/non] - - _P. V._, line 754.] - -[69][Compare-- - - [Greek: ...pa/nta prou)xepi/stamai] - [Greek: Skethro~s ta/ me/llonta] - - Ibid., lines 101, 102.] - -[70] [Compare-- - - [Greek: Thnetoi~s d' a)e/gon au)to\s eu(ro/men po/nous.] - - Ibid., line 269.] - -[71] {51}[Compare-- - - "But we, who name ourselves its sovereigns, we, - Half dust, half deity." - - _Manfred_, act i. sc. 2, lines 39, 40, _vide post_, p. 95.] - -[m]----_and equal to all woes_.--[Editions 1832, etc.] - -[72] [The edition of 1832 and subsequent issues read "and equal." It is -clear that the earlier reading, "an equal," is correct. The spirit -opposed by the spirit is an equal, etc. The spirit can also oppose to -"its own funereal destiny" a firm will, etc.] - -[73] [_A Fragment_, which remained unpublished till 1830, was written at -the same time as _Churchill's Grave_ (July, 1816), and is closely allied -to it in purport and in sentiment. It is a questioning of Death! O -Death, _what_ is thy sting? There is an analogy between exile end death. -As Churchill lay in his forgotten grave at Dover, one of "many millions -decomposed to clay," so he the absent is dead to the absent, and the -absent are dead to him. And what are the dead? the aggregate of -nothingness? or are they a multitude of atoms having neither part nor -lot one with the other? There is no solution but in the grave. Death -alone can unriddle death. The poet's questioning spirit would plunge -into the abyss to bring back the answer.] - -[74] {52}[Compare-- - - "'Tis said thou holdest converse with the things - Which are forbidden to the search of man; - That with the dwellers of the dark abodes, - The many evil and unheavenly spirits - Which walk the valley of the Shade of Death, - Thou communest." - - _Manfred_, act iii. sc. 1, lines 34, seq., _vide post_, p. 121.] - -[75] {53}Geneva, Ferney, Copet, Lausanne. [For Rousseau, see _Poetical -Works_, 1899, ii. 277, note 1, 300, 301, note 18; for Voltaire and -Gibbon, _vide ibid._, pp. 306, 307, note 22; and for De Stael, see -_Letters_, 1898, ii. 223, note 1. Byron, writing to Moore, January 2, -1821, declares, on the authority of Monk Lewis, "who was too great a -bore ever to lie," that Madame de Stael alleged this sonnet, "in which -she was named with Voltaire, Rousseau, etc.," as a reason for changing -her opinion about him--"she could not help it through decency" -(_Letters_, 1901, v. 213). It is difficult to believe that Madame de -Stael was ashamed of her companions, or was sincere in disclaiming the -compliment, though, as might have been expected, the sonnet excited some -disapprobation in England. A writer in the _Gentleman's Magazine_ -(February, 1818, vol. 88, p. 122) relieved his feelings by a "Retort -Addressed to the Thames"-- - - "Restor'd to my dear native Thames' bank, - My soul disgusted spurns a Byron's lay,-- - * * * * * - Leman may idly boast her Stael, Rousseau, - Gibbon, Voltaire, whom Truth and Justice shun-- - * * * * * - Whilst meekly shines midst Fulham's bowers the sun - O'er Sherlock's and o'er Porteus' honour'd graves, - Where Thames Britannia's choicest meads exulting laves."] - -[76] [Compare-- - - "Lake Leman woos me with its crystal face." - - _Childe Harold_, Canto III. stanza lxviii. line 1, - _Poetical Works_, 1899, ii. 257.] - -[n] {54}_Stanzas To_----.--[Editions 1816-1830.] - -"Though the Day."--[MS. in Mrs. Leigh's handwriting.] - -[77] [The "Stanzas to Augusta" were written in July, at the Campagne -Diodati, near Geneva. "Be careful," he says, "in printing the stanzas -beginning, 'Though the day of my Destiny's,' etc., which I think well of -as a composition."--Letter to Murray, October 5, 1816, _Letters_, 1899, -iii. 371.] - -[o] - - _Though the days of my Glory are over,_ - _And the Sun of my fame has declined._--[Dillon MS.] - -[p] ----_had painted._--[MS.] - -[78] [Compare-- - - "Dear Nature is the kindest mother still!... - To me by day or night she ever smiled." - - _Childe Harold_, Canto II. stanza xxxvii. lines 1, 7, - _Poetical Works_, 1899, ii. 122.] - -[q] _I will not_----.--[MS. erased.] - -[r] {55}_As the breasts I reposed in with me._--[MS.] - -[s] - - _Though the rock of my young hope is shivered,_ - _And its fragments lie sunk in the wave._--[MS. erased.] - -[t] - - _There is many a pang to pursue me,_ - _And many a peril to stem;_ - _They may torture, but shall not subdue me;_ - _They may crush, but they shall not contemn._--[MS. erased.] - _And I think not of thee but of them._--[MS. erased.] - -[u] _Though tempted_----.--[MS.] - -[79] [Compare _Childe Harold,_ Canto III. stanzas liii., lv., _Poetical -Works,_ 1899, ii. 247, 248, note 1.] - -[v] - - _Though watchful, 'twas but to reclaim me,_ - _Nor, silent, to sanction a lie._--[MS.] - -[80] {56}[Compare-- - - "Had I but sooner learnt the crowd to shun, - I had been better than I now can be." - - _Epistle to Augusta_, stanza xii. lines 5, 6, _vide post_, p. 61. - -Compare, too-- - - "But soon he knew himself the most unfit - Of men to herd with Man." - - _Childe Harold_, Canto III. stanza xii. lines 1, 2, - _Poetical Works_, 1899, ii. 223.] - -[w] - - _And more than I then could foresee._ - _I have met but the fate that hath crost me._--[MS.] - -[x] _In the wreck of the past_--[MS.] - -[y] - - _In the Desert there still are sweet waters,_ - _In the wild waste a sheltering tree._--[MS.] - -[81] [Byron often made use of this illustration. Compare-- - - "My Peri! ever welcome here! - Sweet, as the desert fountain's wave." - - _The Bride of Abydos_, Canto I. lines 151, 152, - _Poetical Works_, 1900, iii. 163.] - -[82] [For Hobhouse's parody of these stanzas, see _Letters_, 1900, iv. -73,74.] - -[83] {57}[These stanzas--"than which," says the _Quarterly Review_ for -January, 1831, "there is nothing, perhaps, more mournfully and -desolately beautiful in the whole range of Lord Byron's poetry," were -also written at Diodati, and sent home to be published, if Mrs. Leigh -should consent. She decided against publication, and the "Epistle" was -not printed till 1830. Her first impulse was to withhold her consent to -the publication of the "Stanzas to Augusta," as well as the "Epistle," -and to say, "Whatever is addressed to me do not publish," but on second -thoughts she decided that "the _least objectionable_ line will be _to -let them be published_."--See her letters to Murray, November 1, 8, -1816, _Letters_, 1899, iii. 366, note 1.] - -[z] - - _Go where thou wilt thou art to me the same_-- - _A loud regret which I would not resign_.--[MS.] - -[84] [Compare-- - - "Oh! that the Desert were my dwelling-place, - With one fair Spirit for my minister!" - - _Childe Harold_, Canto IV. stanza clxxvii. lines 1, 2, - _Poetical Works_, 1899, ii. 456.] - -[aa] _But other cares_----.--[MS.] - -[ab] _A strange doom hath been ours, but that is past_.--[MS.] - -[85] ["Admiral Byron was remarkable for never making a voyage without a -tempest. He was known to the sailors by the facetious name of -'Foul-weather Jack' [or 'Hardy Byron']. - - "'But, though it were tempest-toss'd, - Still his bark could not be lost.' - -He returned safely from the wreck of the _Wager_ (in Anson's voyage), -and many years after circumnavigated the world, as commander of a -similar expedition" (Moore). Admiral the Hon. John Byron (1723-1786), -next brother to William, fifth Lord Byron, published his _Narrative_ of -his shipwreck in the _Wager_ in 1768, and his _Voyage round the World_ -in the _Dolphin_, in 1767 (_Letters_, 1898, i. 3).] - -[ac] {58} - - _I am not yet o'erwhelmed that I shall ever lean_ - _A thought upon such Hope as daily mocks_.--[MS. erased.] - -[86] [For Byron's belief in predestination, compare _Childe Harold_, -Canto I. stanza lxxxiii. line 9, _Poetical Works_, 1899, ii. 74, note -1.] - -[ad] {59}_For to all such may change of soul refer_.--[MS.] - -[ae] - - _Have hardened me to this--but I can see_ - _Things which I still can love--but none like thee_.--[MS. erased.] - -[af] - -{_Before I had to study far more useless books_.--[MS. erased,] -{_Ere my young mind was fettered down to books_. - -[ag] _Some living things_-----.--[MS.] - -[87] [Compare-- - - "Then stirs the feeling infinite, so felt - In solitude, when we are _least_ alone." - - _Childe Harold_, Canto III. stanza xc. lines 1, 2, - _Poetical Works_, 1899, ii. 272] - -[88] {60}[For a description of the lake at Newstead, see _Don Juan_, -Canto XIII. stanza lvii.] - -[ah] _And think of such things with a childish eye._--[MS.] - -[89] {61}[Compare-- - - "He who first met the Highland's swelling blue, - Will love each peak, that shows a kindred hue, - Hail in each crag a friend's familiar face, - And clasp the mountain in his mind's embrace." - - _The Island_, Canto II. stanza xii. lines 9-12. - -His "friends are mountains." He comes back to them as to a "holier -land," where he may find not happiness, but peace. - -Moore was inclined to attribute Byron's "love of mountain prospects" in -his childhood to the "after-result of his imaginative recollections of -that period," but (as Wilson, commenting on Moore, suggests) it is -easier to believe that the "high instincts" of the "poetic child" did -not wait for association to consecrate the vision (_Life_, p. 8).] - -[ai] - - _The earliest were the only paths for me._ - _The earliest were the paths and meant for me._--[MS. erased.] - -[aj] - - _Yet could I but expunge from out the book_ - _Of my existence all that was entwined._--[MS. erased.] - -[ak] - - _My life has been too long--if in a day_ - _I have survived_----.--[MS. erased.] - -[90] {62}[Byron often insists on this compression of life into a yet -briefer span than even mortality allows. Compare-- - - "He, who grown aged in this world of woe, - In deeds, not years, piercing the depths of life," etc. - - _Childe Harold_, Canto III. stanza v. lines 1, 2, - _Poetical Works_, 1899, ii. 218, note 1. - -Compare, too-- - - "My life is not dated by years-- - There are moments which act as a plough," etc. - - _Lines to the Countess of Blessington_, stanza 4.] - -[al] _And for the remnants_----.--[MS.] - -[am] _Whate'er betide_----.--[MS.] - -[an] _We have been and we shall be_----.--[MS. erased.] - -[91] {63}["These verses," says John Wright (ed. 1832, x. 207), "of which -the opening lines (1-6) are given in Moore's _Notices_, etc. (1830, ii. -36), were written immediately after the failure of the negotiation ... -[i.e. the intervention] of Madame de Stael, who had persuaded Byron 'to -write a letter to a friend in England, declaring himself still willing -to be reconciled to Lady Byron' (_Life_, p. 321), but were not intended -for the public eye." The verses were written in September, and it is -evident that since the composition of _The Dream_ in July, another -"change had come over" his spirit, and that the mild and courteous -depreciation of his wife as "a gentle bride," etc., had given place to -passionate reproach and bitter reviling. The failure of Madame de -Stael's negotiations must have been to some extent anticipated, and it -is more reasonable to suppose that it was a rumour or report of the "one -serious calumny" of Shelley's letter of September 29, 1816, which -provoked him to fury, and drove him into the open maledictions of _The -Incantation_ (published together with the _Prisoner of Chillon_, but -afterwards incorporated with _Manfred_, act i. sc. 1, _vide post_, p. -91), and the suppressed "lines," written, so he told Lady Blessington -(_Conversations, etc._, 1834, p. 79) "on reading in a newspaper" that -Lady Byron had been ill.] - -[92] [Compare-- - - " ... that unnatural retribution--just, - Had it but been from hands less near." - - _Childe Harold_, Canto IV. stanza cxxxii. lines 6, 7, - _Poetical Works_, 1899, ii. 427.] - -[93] {64}[Compare-- - - "Though thy slumber may be deep, - Yet thy Spirit shall not sleep. - - * * * * * - - Nor to slumber nor to die, - Shall be in thy destiny." - - _The Incantation_, lines 201, 202, 254, 255, _Manfred_, - act i. sc. 1, _vide post_, pp. 92, 93.] - -[94] [Compare "I suppose now I shall never be able to shake off my -sables in public imagination, more particularly since my moral ... -[Clytemnestra?] clove down my fame" (Letter to Moore, March 10, 1817, -_Letters_, 1900, iv. 72). The same expression, "my _moral_ -Clytemnestra," is applied to his wife in a letter to Lord Blessington, -dated April 6, 1823. It may be noted that it was in April, 1823, that -Byron presented a copy of the "Lines," etc., to Lady Blessington -(_Conversations, etc._, 1834, p. 79).] - -[95] {65}[Compare-- - - "By thy delight in others' pain." - - _Manfred_, act i. sc. i, line 248, _vide post_, p. 93.] - -[96] [Compare-- - - " ... but that high Soul secured the heart, - And panted for the truth it could not hear." - - _A Sketch_, lines 18, 19, _Poetical Works_, 1900, iii. 541.] - -[97] [Compare _Childe Harold_, Canto IV. stanza cxxxvi. lines 6-9, -_Poetical Works_, 1899, ii. 430.] - - - - - - MONODY ON THE DEATH - - OF - - THE RIGHT HON. R. B. SHERIDAN. - - - - - INTRODUCTION TO _MONODY ON THE DEATH OF THE RIGHT HON. R. B. SHERIDAN._ - - -When Moore was engaged on the Life of Sheridan, Byron gave him some -advice. "Never mind," he says, "the angry lies of the humbug Whigs. -Recollect that he was an Irishman and a clever fellow, and that we have -had some very pleasant days with him. Don't forget that he was at school -at Harrow, where, in my time, we used to show his name--R. B. Sheridan, -1765--as an honour to the walls. Depend upon it that there were worse -folks going, of that gang, than ever Sheridan was" (Letter to Moore, -September 19, 1818, _Letters_, 1900, iv. 261). - -It does not appear that Byron had any acquaintance with Sheridan when he -wrote the one unrejected Address which was spoken at the opening of -Drury Lane Theatre, October 10, 1812, but that he met him for the first -time at a dinner which Rogers gave to Byron and Moore, on or before June -1, 1813. Thenceforward, as long as he remained in England (see his -letter to Rogers, April 16, 1816, _Letters,_ 1899, iii 281, note 1), he -was often in his company, "sitting late, drinking late," not, of course, -on terms of equality and friendship (for Sheridan was past sixty, and -Byron more than thirty years younger), but of the closest and -pleasantest intimacy. To judge from the tone of the letter to Moore -(_vide supra_) and of numerous entries in his diaries, during Sheridan's -life and after his death, he was at pains not to pass judgment on a man -whom he greatly admired and sincerely pitied, and whom he felt that he -had no right to despise. Body and soul, Byron was of different stuff -from Sheridan, and if he "had lived to his age," he would have passed -over "the red-hot ploughshares" of life and conduct, not unscathed, but -stoutly and unconsumed. So much easier is it to live down character than -to live through temperament. - -Richard Brinsley Sheridan (born October 30, 1751) died July 7, 1816. -_The Monody_ was written at the Campagne Diodati, on July 17, at the -request of Douglas Kinnaird. "I did as well as I could," says Byron; -"but where I have not my choice I pretend to answer for nothing" (Letter -to Murray, September 29, 1816, _Letters_, 1899, iii. 366). He told Lady -Blessington, however, that his "feelings were never more excited than -while writing it, and that every word came direct from the heart" -(_Conversations, etc._, p. 241). - -The MS., in the handwriting of Claire, is headed, "Written at the -request of D. Kinnaird, Esq., Monody on R. B. Sheridan. Intended to be -spoken at Dy. L^e.^ T. Diodati, Lake of Geneva, July 18^th^, 1816. -Byron." - -The first edition was entitled _Monody on the Death of the Right -Honourable R.B. Sheridan_. Written at the request of a Friend. To be -spoken at Drury Lane Theatre, London. Printed for John Murray, Albemarle -Street, 1816. - -It was spoken by Mrs. Davison at Drury Lane Theatre, September 7, and -published September 9, 1816. - -When the _Monody_ arrived at Diodati Byron fell foul of the title-page: -"'The request of a Friend:'-- - - 'Obliged by Hunger and request of friends.' - -"I will request you to expunge that same, unless you please to add, 'by -a person of quality, or of wit and honour about town.' Merely say, -'written to be spoken at D[rury] L[ane]'" (Letter to Murray, September -30, 1816, _Letters,_ 1899, iii. 367). The first edition had been issued, -and no alteration could be made, but the title-page of a "New Edition," -1817, reads, "_Monody, etc._ Spoken at Drury Lane Theatre. By Lord -Byron."] - - - - - MONODY ON THE DEATH - - OF THE - - RIGHT HON. R. B. SHERIDAN, - - SPOKEN AT DRURY-LANE THEATRE, LONDON. - - - When the last sunshine of expiring Day - In Summer's twilight weeps itself away, - Who hath not felt the softness of the hour - Sink on the heart, as dew along the flower? - With a pure feeling which absorbs and awes - While Nature makes that melancholy pause-- - Her breathing moment on the bridge where Time - Of light and darkness forms an arch sublime-- - Who hath not shared that calm, so still and deep, - The voiceless thought which would not speak but weep, 10 - A holy concord, and a bright regret, - A glorious sympathy with suns that set?[98] - 'Tis not harsh sorrow, but a tenderer woe, - Nameless, but dear to gentle hearts below, - Felt without bitterness--but full and clear, - A sweet dejection--a transparent tear, - Unmixed with worldly grief or selfish stain-- - Shed without shame, and secret without pain. - Even as the tenderness that hour instils - When Summer's day declines along the hills, 20 - So feels the fulness of our heart and eyes - When all of Genius which can perish dies. - A mighty Spirit is eclipsed--a Power - Hath passed from day to darkness--to whose hour - Of light no likeness is bequeathed--no name, - Focus at once of all the rays of Fame! - The flash of Wit--the bright Intelligence, - The beam of Song--the blaze of Eloquence, - Set with their Sun, but still have left behind - The enduring produce of immortal Mind; 30 - Fruits of a genial morn, and glorious noon, - A deathless part of him who died too soon. - But small that portion of the wondrous whole, - These sparkling segments of that circling Soul, - Which all embraced, and lightened over all, - To cheer--to pierce--to please--or to appal. - From the charmed council to the festive board, - Of human feelings the unbounded lord; - In whose acclaim the loftiest voices vied, - The praised--the proud--who made his praise their pride. 40 - When the loud cry of trampled Hindostan - Arose to Heaven in her appeal from Man, - His was the thunder--his the avenging rod, - The wrath--the delegated voice of God! - Which shook the nations through his lips, and blazed - Till vanquished senates trembled as they praised.[99] - - And here, oh! here, where yet all young and warm, - The gay creations of his spirit charm,[100] - The matchless dialogue--the deathless wit, - Which knew not what it was to intermit; 50 - The glowing portraits, fresh from life, that bring - Home to our hearts the truth from which they spring; - These wondrous beings of his fancy, wrought - To fulness by the fiat of his thought, - Here in their first abode you still may meet, - Bright with the hues of his Promethean heat; - A Halo of the light of other days, - Which still the splendour of its orb betrays. - But should there be to whom the fatal blight - Of failing Wisdom yields a base delight, 60 - Men who exult when minds of heavenly tone - Jar in the music which was born their own, - Still let them pause--ah! little do they know - That what to them seemed Vice might be but Woe. - Hard is his fate on whom the public gaze - Is fixed for ever to detract or praise; - Repose denies her requiem to his name, - And Folly loves the martyrdom of Fame. - The secret Enemy whose sleepless eye - Stands sentinel--accuser--judge--and spy. 70 - The foe, the fool, the jealous, and the vain, - The envious who but breathe in other's pain-- - Behold the host! delighting to deprave, - Who track the steps of Glory to the grave, - Watch every fault that daring Genius owes - Half to the ardour which its birth bestows, - Distort the truth, accumulate the lie, - And pile the Pyramid of Calumny! - These are his portion--but if joined to these - Gaunt Poverty should league with deep Disease, 80 - If the high Spirit must forget to soar, - And stoop to strive with Misery at the door,[101] - To soothe Indignity--and face to face - Meet sordid Rage, and wrestle with Disgrace, - To find in Hope but the renewed caress, - The serpent-fold of further Faithlessness:-- - If such may be the Ills which men assail, - What marvel if at last the mightiest fail? - Breasts to whom all the strength of feeling given - Bear hearts electric-charged with fire from Heaven, 90 - Black with the rude collision, inly torn, - By clouds surrounded, and on whirlwinds borne, - Driven o'er the lowering atmosphere that nurst - Thoughts which have turned to thunder--scorch, and burst.[ao] - - But far from us and from our mimic scene - Such things should be--if such have ever been; - Ours be the gentler wish, the kinder task, - To give the tribute Glory need not ask, - To mourn the vanished beam, and add our mite - Of praise in payment of a long delight. 100 - Ye Orators! whom yet our councils yield, - Mourn for the veteran Hero of your field! - The worthy rival of the wondrous _Three!_[102] - Whose words were sparks of Immortality! - Ye Bards! to whom the Drama's Muse is dear, - He was your Master--emulate him _here_! - Ye men of wit and social eloquence![103] - He was your brother--bear his ashes hence! - While Powers of mind almost of boundless range,[104] - Complete in kind, as various in their change, 110 - While Eloquence--Wit--Poesy--and Mirth, - That humbler Harmonist of care on Earth, - Survive within our souls--while lives our sense - Of pride in Merit's proud pre-eminence, - Long shall we seek his likeness--long in vain, - And turn to all of him which may remain, - Sighing that Nature formed but one such man, - And broke the die--in moulding Sheridan![105] - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[98] {71}[Compare-- - - "As 'twere the twilight of a former Sun." - - _Churchill's Grave,_ line 26, _vide ante,_ p. 48.] - -[99] {72}[Sheridan's first speech on behalf of the Begum of Oude was -delivered February 7, 1787. After having spoken for five hours and forty -minutes he sat down, "not merely amidst cheering, but amidst the loud -clapping of hands, in which the Lords below the bar and the strangers in -the Gallery joined" (_Critical ... Essays,_ by T. B. Macaulay, 1843, iii. -443). So great was the excitement that Pitt moved the adjournment of the -House. The next year, during the trial of Warren Hastings, he took part -in the debates on June 3,6,10,13, 1788. "The conduct of the part of the -case relating to the Princesses of Oude was intrusted to Sheridan. The -curiosity of the public to hear him was unbounded.... It was said that -fifty guineas had been paid for a single ticket. Sheridan, when he -concluded, contrived ... to sink back, as if exhausted, into the arms of -Burke, who hugged him with the energy of generous admiration" -(_ibid.,_iii 451, 452).] - -[100] [_The Rivals, The Scheming Lieutenant_, and _The Duenna_ were -played for the first time at Covent Garden, January 17, May 2, and -November 21, 1775. _A Trip to Scarborough_ and the _School for Scandal_ -were brought out at Drury Lane, February 24 and May 8, 1777; the -_Critic_, October 29, 1779; and _Pizarro_, May 24, 1799.] - -[101] {73}[Only a few days before his death, Sheridan wrote thus to -Rogers: "I am absolutely undone and broken-hearted. They are going to -put the carpets out of window, and break into Mrs. S.'s room and _take -me_. For God's sake let me see you!" (Moore's _Life of Sheridan_, 1825, -ii. 455). - -The extent and duration of Sheridan's destitution at the time of his -last illness and death have been the subject of controversy. The -statements in Moore's _Life_ (1825) moved George IV. to send for Croker -and dictate a long and circumstantial harangue, to the effect that -Sheridan and his wife were starving, and that their immediate -necessities were relieved by the (then) Prince Regent's agent, Taylor -Vaughan (Croker's _Correspondence and Diaries_, 1884, i. 288-312). Mr. -Fraser Rae, in his _Life of Sheridan_ (1896, ii. 284), traverses the -king's apology in almost every particular, and quotes a letter from -Charles Sheridan to his half-brother Tom, dated July 16, 1816, in which -he says that his father "almost slumbered into death, and that the -reports ... in the newspapers (_vide_, e.g., _Morning Chronicle_, July, -1816) of the privations and want of comforts were unfounded." - -Moore's sentiments were also expressed in "some verses" (_Lines on the -Death of SH--R--D--N_), which were published in the newspapers, and are -reprinted in the _Life_, 1825, ii. 462, and _Poetical Works_, 1850, p. -400-- - - "How proud they can press to the funeral array - Of one whom they shunned in his sickness and sorrow! - How bailiffs may seize his last blanket to-day, - Whose pall shall be held up by nobles to-morrow. - - * * * * * - - Was _this_, then, the fate of that high-gifted man, - The pride of the palace, the bower, and the hall, - The orator--dramatist--minstrel, who ran - Through each mode of the lyre, and was master of all?"] - -[ao] {74} - - _Abandoned by the skies, whose teams have nurst_ - _Their very thunders, lighten--scorch, and burst_.--[MS.] - -[102] {75}Fox--Pitt--Burke. ["I heard Sheridan only once, and that -briefly; but I liked his voice, his manner, and his wit: he is the only -one of them I ever wished to hear at greater length."--_Detached -Thoughts_, 1821, _Letters_, 1901, v. 413.] - -[103] ["In society I have met Sheridan frequently: he was superb!... I -have seen him cut up Whitbread, quiz Madame de Stael, annihilate Colman, -and do little less by some others ... of good fame and abilities.... I -have met him in all places and parties, ... and always found him very -convivial and delightful."--_Ibid_., pp. 413, 414.] - -[104] ["The other night we were all delivering our respective and -various opinions on him, ... and mine was this:--'Whatever Sheridan has -done or chosen to do has been, _par excellence_, always the _best_ of -its kind. He has written the _best_ comedy (_School for Scandal_), the -_best_ drama (in my mind, far before that St. Giles's lampoon, the -_Beggars Opera_), the best farce (the _Critic_--it is only too good for -a farce), and the best Address ('Monologue on Garrick'), and, to crown -all, delivered the very best Oration (the famous Begum Speech) ever -conceived or heard in this country.'"--_Journal_, December 17, 1813, -_Letters_, 1898, ii. 377.] - -[105] [It has often been pointed out (_e.g. Notes and Queries_, 1855, -Series I. xi. 472) that this fine metaphor may be traced to Ariosto's -_Orlando Furioso_. The subject is Zerbino, the son of the King of -Scotland-- - - "Non e vu si bello in tante altre persone: - Natura il fece e poi ruppe la stampa." - - Canto X. stanza lxxxiv. lines 5, 6.] - - - - - - - - - MANFRED: - - A DRAMATIC POEM. - - "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, - Than are dreamt of in your philosophy." - [_Hamlet,_ Act i. Scene 5, Lines 166, 167. - - -[_Manfred_, a choral tragedy in three acts, was performed at Covent -Garden Theatre, October 29-November 14, 1834 [Denvil (afterwards known -as "Manfred" Denvil) took the part of "Manfred," and Miss Ellen Tree -(afterwards Mrs. Charles Kean) played "The Witch of the Alps"]; at Drury -Lane Theatre, October 10, 1863-64 [Phelps played "Manfred," Miss Rosa Le -Clercq "The Phantom of Astarte," and Miss Heath "The Witch of the -Alps"]; at the Prince's Theatre, Manchester, March 27-April 20, 1867 -[Charles Calvert played "Manfred"]; and again, in 1867, under the same -management, at the Royal Alexandra Theatre, Liverpool; and at the -Princess's Theatre Royal, London, August 16, 1873 [Charles Dillon played -"Manfred;" music by Sir Henry Bishop, as in 1834]. - -_Overtures, etc._ - -"Music to Byron's _Manfred_" (overture and incidental music and -choruses), by R. Schumann, 1850. - -"Incidental Music," composed, in 1897, by Sir Alexander Campbell -Mackenzie (at the request of Sir Henry Irving); heard (in part only) at -a concert in Queen's Hall, May, 1899. - -"_Manfred_ Symphony" (four tableaux after the Poem by Byron), composed -by Tschaikowsky, 1885; first heard in London, autumn, 1898.] - - - - - INTRODUCTION TO _MANFRED_ - - -Byron passed four months and three weeks in Switzerland. He arrived at -the Hotel d'Angleterre at Secheron, on Saturday, May 25, and he left the -Campagne Diodati for Italy on Sunday, October 6, 1816. Within that -period he wrote the greater part of the Third Canto of _Childe Harold_, -he began and finished the _Prisoner of Chillon_, its seven attendant -poems, and the _Monody_ on the death of Sheridan, and he began -_Manfred_. - -A note to the "Incantation" (_Manfred_, act i. sc. 1, lines 192-261), -which was begun in July and published together with the _Prisoner of -Chillon_, December 5, 1816, records the existence of "an unfinished -Witch Drama" (First Edition, p. 46); but, apart from this, the first -announcement of his new work is contained in a letter to Murray, dated -Venice, February 15, 1817 (_Letters_, 1900, iv. 52). "I forgot," he -writes, "to mention to you that a kind of Poem in dialogue (in blank -verse) or drama ... begun last summer in Switzerland, is finished; it is -in three acts; but of a very wild, metaphysical, and inexplicable kind." -The letter is imperfect, but some pages of "extracts" which were -forwarded under the same cover have been preserved. Ten days later -(February 25) he reverts to these "extracts," and on February 28 he -despatches a fair copy of the first act. On March 9 he remits the third -and final act of his "dramatic poem" (a definition adopted as a second -title), but under reserve as to publication, and with a strict -injunction to Murray "to submit it to Mr. G[ifford] and to whomsoever -you please besides." It is certain that this third act was written at -Venice (Letter to Murray, April 14), and it may be taken for granted -that the composition of the first two acts belongs to the tour in the -Bernese Alps (September 17-29), or to the last days at Diodati -(September 30 to October 5, 1816), when the _estro_ (see Letter to -Murray, January 2, 1817) was upon him, when his "Passions slept," and, -in spite of all that had come and gone and could not go, his spirit was -uplifted by the "majesty and the power and the glory" of Nature. - -Gifford's verdict on the first act was that it was "wonderfully -poetical" and "merited publication," but, as Byron had foreseen, he did -not "by any means like" the third act. It was, as its author admitted -(Letter to Murray, April 14) "damnably bad," and savoured of the "dregs -of a fever," for which the Carnival (Letter to Murray, February 28) or, -more probably, the climate and insanitary "palaces" of Venice were -responsible. Some weeks went by before there was either leisure or -inclination for the task of correction, but at Rome the _estro_ returned -in full force, and on May 5 a "new third act of _Manfred_--the greater -part rewritten," was sent by post to England. _Manfred, a Dramatic -Poem_, was published June 16, 1817. - -_Manfred_ was criticized by Jeffrey in the _Edinburgh Review_ (No. lvi., -August, 1817, vol. 28, pp. 418-431), and by John Wilson in the -_Edinburgh Monthly Magazine_ (afterwards _Blackwood's, etc._) (June, -1817, i. 289-295). Jeffrey, as Byron remarked (Letter to Murray, October -12, 1817), was "very kind," and Wilson, whose article "had all the air -of being a poet's," was eloquent in its praises. But there was a fly in -the ointment. "A suggestion" had been thrown out, "in an ingenious paper -in a late number of the _Edinburgh Magazine_ [signed H. M. (John -Wilson), July, 1817], that the general conception of this piece, and -much of what is excellent in the manner of its execution, have been -borrowed from the _Tragical History of Dr. Faustus_ of Marlow (_sic_);" -and from this contention Jeffrey dissented. A note to a second paper on -Marlowe's _Edward II_. (_Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine_, October, 1817) -offered explanations, and echoed Jeffrey's exaltation of _Manfred_ above -_Dr. Faustus_; but the mischief had been done. Byron was evidently -perplexed and distressed, not by the papers in _Blackwood_, which he -never saw, but by Jeffrey's remonstrance in his favour; and in the -letter of October 12 he is at pains to trace the "evolution" of -_Manfred_. "I never read," he writes, "and do not know that I ever saw -the _Faustus_ of Marlow;" and, again, "As to the _Faustus_ of Marlow, I -never read, never saw, nor heard of it." "I heard Mr. Lewis translate -verbally some scenes of Goethe's _Faust_ ... last summer" (see, too, -Letter to Rogers, April 4, 1817), which is all I know of the history of -that magical personage; and as to the germs of _Manfred_, they may be -found in the Journal which I sent to Mrs. Leigh ... when I went over -first the Dent, etc., ... shortly before I left Switzerland. I have the -whole scene of _Manfred_ before me." - -Again, three years later he writes (_a propos_ of Goethe's review of -_Manfred_, which first appeared in print in his paper _Kunst und -Alterthum_, June, 1820, and is republished in Goethe's _Saemmtliche -Werke_ ... Stuttgart, 1874, xiii. 640-642; see _Letters_, 1901, v. -Appendix II. "Goethe and Byron," pp. 503-521): "His _Faust_ I never -read, for I don't know German; but Matthew Monk Lewis (_sic_), in 1816, -at Coligny, translated most of it to me _viva voce_, and I was naturally -much struck with it; but it was the _Staubach_ (_sic_) and the -_Jungfrau_, and something else, much more than Faustus, that made me -write _Manfred_. The first scene, however, and that of Faustus are very -similar" (Letter to Murray, June 7, 1820, _Letters_, 1901, v. 36). -Medwin (_Conversations, etc._, pp. 210, 211), who of course had not seen -the letters to Murray of 1817 or 1820, puts much the same story into -Byron's mouth. - -Now, with regard to the originality of _Manfred_, it may be taken for -granted that Byron knew nothing about the "Faust-legend," or the -"Faust-cycle." He solemnly denies that he had ever read Marlowe's -_Faustus_, or the selections from the play in Lamb's _Specimens, etc._ -(see Medwin's _Conversations, etc._, pp. 208, 209, and a hitherto -unpublished Preface to _Werner_, vol. v.), and it is highly improbable -that he knew anything of Calderon's _El Magico Prodigioso_, which -Shelley translated in 1822, or of "the beggarly elements" of the legend -in Hroswitha's _Lapsus et Conversio Theophrasti Vice-domini_. But -Byron's _Manfred_ is "in the succession" of scholars who have reached -the limits of natural and legitimate science, and who essay the -supernatural in order to penetrate and comprehend the "hidden things of -darkness." A predecessor, if not a progenitor, he must have had, and -there can be no doubt whatever that the primary conception of the -character, though by no means the inspiration of the poem, is to be -traced to the "Monk's" oral rendering of Goethe's _Faust_, which he gave -in return for his "bread and salt" at Diodati. Neither Jeffrey nor -Wilson mentioned _Faust_, but the writer of the notice in the _Critical -Review_ (June, 1817, series v. vol. 5, pp. 622-629) avowed that "this -scene (the first) is a gross plagiary from a great poet whom Lord Byron -has imitated on former occasions without comprehending. Goethe's _Faust_ -begins in the same way;" and Goethe himself, in a letter to his friend -Knebel, October, 1817, and again in his review in _Kunst und Alterthum_, -June, 1820, emphasizes whilst he justifies and applauds the use which -Byron had made of his work. "This singular intellectual poet has taken -my _Faustus_ to himself, and extracted from it the strangest nourishment -for his hypochondriac humour. He has made use of the impelling -principles in his own way, for his own purposes, so that no one of them -remains the same; and it is particularly on this account that I cannot -enough admire his genius." Afterwards (see record of a conversation with -Herman Fuerst von Pueckler, September 14, 1826, _Letters_, v. 511) Goethe -somewhat modified his views, but even then it interested him to trace -the unconscious transformation which Byron had made of his -Mephistopheles. It is, perhaps, enough to say that the link between -_Manfred_ and _Faust_ is formal, not spiritual. The problem which Goethe -raised but did not solve, his counterfeit presentment of the eternal -issue between soul and sense, between innocence and renunciation on the -one side, and achievement and satisfaction on the other, was not the -struggle which Byron experienced in himself or desired to depict in his -mysterious hierarch of the powers of nature. "It was the _Staubach_ and -the _Jungfrau_, and something else," not the influence of _Faust_ on a -receptive listener, which called up a new theme, and struck out a fresh -well-spring of the imagination. The _motif_ of _Manfred_ is -remorse--eternal suffering for inexpiable crime. The sufferer is for -ever buoyed up with the hope that there is relief somewhere in nature, -beyond nature, above nature, and experience replies with an everlasting -No! As the sunshine enhances sorrow, so Nature, by the force of -contrast, reveals and enhances guilt. _Manfred_ is no echo of another's -questioning, no expression of a general world-weariness on the part of -the time-spirit, but a personal outcry: "De profundis clamavi!" - -No doubt, apart from this main purport and essence of his song, his -sensitive spirit responded to other and fainter influences. There are -"points of resemblance," as Jeffrey pointed out and Byron proudly -admitted, between _Manfred_ and the _Prometheus_ of AEschylus. Plainly, -here and there, "the tone and pitch of the composition," and "the victim -in the more solemn parts," are AEschylean. Again, with regard to the -supernatural, there was the stimulus of the conversation of the Shelleys -and of Lewis, brimful of magic and ghost-lore; and lastly, there was the -glamour of _Christabel_, "the wild and original" poem which had taken -Byron captive, and was often in his thoughts and on his lips. It was no -wonder that the fuel kindled and burst into a flame. - -For the text of Goethe's review of _Manfred_, and Hoppner's translation -of that review, and an account of Goethe's relation with Byron, drawn -from Professor A. Brandl's _Goethes Verhaeltniss zu Byron -(Goethe-Jahrbuch, Zwanzigster Band_, 1899), and other sources, see -_Letters_, 1901, v. Appendix II. pp. 503-521. - -For contemporary and other notices of _Manfred_, in addition to those -already mentioned, see _Eclectic Review_, July, 1817, New Series, vol. -viii. pp. 62-66; _Gentleman's Magazine_, July, 1817, vol. 87, pp. 45-47; -_Monthly Review_, July, 1817, Enlarged Series, vol. 83, pp. 300-307; -_Dublin University Magazine_, April, 1874, vol. 83, pp. 502-508, etc. - - - DRAMATIS PERSONAE. - - - Manfred. - Chamois Hunter. - Abbot of St. Maurice. - Manuel. - Herman. - - Witch of the Alps. - Arimanes. - Nemesis. - The Destinies. - Spirits, etc. - - _The Scene of the Drama is amongst the Higher Alps--partly in the - Castle of Manfred, and partly in the Mountains._ - - - - - MANFRED.[106] - - - ACT 1. - - SCENE 1.--Manfred _alone_.--_Scene, a Gothic Gallery._[107]-- - _Time, Midnight._ - - _Man_. The lamp must be replenished, but even then - It will not burn so long as I must watch: - My slumbers--if I slumber--are not sleep, - But a continuance, of enduring thought, - Which then I can resist not: in my heart - There is a vigil, and these eyes but close - To look within; and yet I live, and bear - The aspect and the form of breathing men. - But Grief should be the Instructor of the wise; - Sorrow is Knowledge: they who know the most 10 - Must mourn the deepest o'er the fatal truth, - The Tree of Knowledge is not that of Life. - Philosophy and science, and the springs[108] - Of Wonder, and the wisdom of the World, - I have essayed, and in my mind there is - A power to make these subject to itself-- - But they avail not: I have done men good, - And I have met with good even among men-- - But this availed not: I have had my foes, - And none have baffled, many fallen before me-- 20 - But this availed not:--Good--or evil--life-- - Powers, passions--all I see in other beings, - Have been to me as rain unto the sands, - Since that all-nameless hour. I have no dread, - And feel the curse to have no natural fear, - Nor fluttering throb, that beats with hopes or wishes, - Or lurking love of something on the earth. - Now to my task.-- - Mysterious Agency! - Ye Spirits of the unbounded Universe![ap] - Whom I have sought in darkness and in light-- 30 - Ye, who do compass earth about, and dwell - In subtler essence--ye, to whom the tops - Of mountains inaccessible are haunts,[aq] - And Earth's and Ocean's caves familiar things-- - I call upon ye by the written charm[109] - Which gives me power upon you--Rise! Appear! - [A pause. - They come not yet.--Now by the voice of him - Who is the first among you[110]--by this sign, - Which makes you tremble--by the claims of him - Who is undying,--Rise! Appear!----Appear! 40 - [A pause. - If it be so.--Spirits of Earth and Air, - Ye shall not so elude me! By a power, - Deeper than all yet urged, a tyrant-spell, - Which had its birthplace in a star condemned, - The burning wreck of a demolished world, - A wandering hell in the eternal Space; - By the strong curse which is upon my Soul,[111] - The thought which is within me and around me, - I do compel ye to my will.--Appear! - - [_A star is seen at the darker end of the gallery: it is - stationary; and a voice is heard singing._] - - First Spirit. - - Mortal! to thy bidding bowed, 50 - From my mansion in the cloud, - Which the breath of Twilight builds, - And the Summer's sunset gilds - With the azure and vermilion, - Which is mixed for my pavilion;[ar] - Though thy quest may be forbidden, - On a star-beam I have ridden, - To thine adjuration bowed: - Mortal--be thy wish avowed! - - _Voice of the_ Second Spirit. - - Mont Blanc is the Monarch of mountains; 60 - They crowned him long ago - On a throne of rocks, in a robe of clouds, - With a Diadem of snow. - Around his waist are forests braced, - The Avalanche in his hand; - But ere it fall, that thundering ball - Must pause for my command. - The Glacier's cold and restless mass - Moves onward day by day; - But I am he who bids it pass, 70 - Or with its ice delay.[as] - I am the Spirit of the place, - Could make the mountain bow - And quiver to his caverned base-- - And what with me would'st _Thou?_ - - _Voice of the_ Third Spirit. - - In the blue depth of the waters, - Where the wave hath no strife, - Where the Wind is a stranger, - And the Sea-snake hath life, - Where the Mermaid is decking 80 - Her green hair with shells, - Like the storm on the surface - Came the sound of thy spells; - O'er my calm Hall of Coral - The deep Echo rolled-- - To the Spirit of Ocean - Thy wishes unfold! - - FOURTH SPIRIT. - - Where the slumbering Earthquake - Lies pillowed on fire, - And the lakes of bitumen 90 - Rise boilingly higher; - Where the roots of the Andes - Strike deep in the earth, - As their summits to heaven - Shoot soaringly forth; - I have quitted my birthplace, - Thy bidding to bide-- - Thy spell hath subdued me, - Thy will be my guide! - - FIFTH SPIRIT. - - I am the Rider of the wind, 100 - The Stirrer of the storm; - The hurricane I left behind - Is yet with lightning warm; - To speed to thee, o'er shore and sea - I swept upon the blast: - The fleet I met sailed well--and yet - 'Twill sink ere night be past. - - SIXTH SPIRIT. - - My dwelling is the shadow of the Night, - Why doth thy magic torture me with light? - - SEVENTH SPIRIT. - - The Star which rules thy destiny no 110 - Was ruled, ere earth began, by me: - It was a World as fresh and fair - As e'er revolved round Sun in air; - Its course was free and regular, - Space bosomed not a lovelier star. - The Hour arrived--and it became - A wandering mass of shapeless flame, - A pathless Comet, and a curse, - The menace of the Universe; - Still rolling on with innate force, 120 - Without a sphere, without a course, - A bright deformity on high, - The monster of the upper sky! - And Thou! beneath its influence born-- - Thou worm! whom I obey and scorn-- - Forced by a Power (which is not thine, - And lent thee but to make thee mine) - For this brief moment to descend, - Where these weak Spirits round thee bend - And parley with a thing like thee-- 130 - What would'st thou, Child of Clay! with me?[112] - - _The_ SEVEN SPIRITS. - - Earth--ocean--air--night--mountains--winds--thy Star, - Are at thy beck and bidding, Child of Clay! - Before thee at thy quest their Spirits are-- - What would'st thou with us, Son of mortals--say? - - _Man_. Forgetfulness---- - - _First Spirit_. Of what--of whom--and why? - - _Man_. Of that which is within me; read it there-- - Ye know it--and I cannot utter it. - - _Spirit_. We can but give thee that which we possess: - Ask of us subjects, sovereignty, the power 140 - O'er earth--the whole, or portion--or a sign - Which shall control the elements, whereof - We are the dominators,--each and all, - These shall be thine. - - _Man_. Oblivion--self-oblivion! - Can ye not wring from out the hidden realms - Ye offer so profusely--what I ask? - - _Spirit_. It is not in our essence, in our skill; - But--thou may'st die. - - _Man_. Will Death bestow it on me? - - _Spirit_. We are immortal, and do not forget; - We are eternal; and to us the past 150 - Is, as the future, present. Art thou answered? - - _Man_. Ye mock me--but the Power which brought ye here - Hath made you mine. Slaves, scoff not at my will! - The Mind--the Spirit--the Promethean spark,[at] - The lightning of my being, is as bright, - Pervading, and far darting as your own, - And shall not yield to yours, though cooped in clay! - Answer, or I will teach you what I am.[au] - - _Spirit_. We answer--as we answered; our reply - Is even in thine own words. - - _Man_. Why say ye so? 160 - - _Spirit_. If, as thou say'st, thine essence be as ours, - We have replied in telling thee, the thing - Mortals call death hath nought to do with us. - - _Man_. I then have called ye from your realms in vain; - Ye cannot, or ye will not, aid me. - - _Spirit_. Say--[113] - What we possess we offer; it is thine: - Bethink ere thou dismiss us; ask again; - Kingdom, and sway, and strength, and length of days-- - - _Man_. Accursed! what have I to do with days? - They are too long already.--Hence--begone! 170 - - _Spirit_. Yet pause: being here, our will would do thee service; - Bethink thee, is there then no other gift - Which we can make not worthless in thine eyes? - - _Man._ No, none: yet stay--one moment, ere we part, - I would behold ye face to face. I hear - Your voices, sweet and melancholy sounds, - As Music on the waters;[114] and I see - The steady aspect of a clear large Star; - But nothing more. Approach me as ye are, - Or one--or all--in your accustomed forms. 180 - - _Spirit_. We have no forms, beyond the elements - Of which we are the mind and principle: - But choose a form--in that we will appear. - - _Man_. I have no choice; there is no form on earth - Hideous or beautiful to me. Let him, - Who is most powerful of ye, take such aspect - As unto him may seem most fitting--Come! - - _Seventh Spirit (appearing in the shape of a beautiful - female figure)_.[115] Behold! - - _Man_. Oh God! if it be thus, and _thou_[116] - Art not a madness and a mockery, - I yet might be most happy. I will clasp thee, 190 - And we again will be---- - [_The figure vanishes._ - My heart is crushed! - [MANFRED _falls senseless_. - - (_A voice is heard in the Incantation which follows._)[117] - - When the Moon is on the wave, - And the glow-worm in the grass, - And the meteor on the grave, - And the wisp on the morass;[118] - When the falling stars are shooting, - And the answered owls are hooting, - And the silent leaves are still - In the shadow of the hill, - Shall my soul be upon thine, 200 - With a power and with a sign. - - Though thy slumber may be deep, - Yet thy Spirit shall not sleep; - There are shades which will not vanish, - There are thoughts thou canst not banish; - By a Power to thee unknown, - Thou canst never be alone; - Thou art wrapt as with a shroud, - Thou art gathered in a cloud; - And for ever shalt thou dwell 210 - In the spirit of this spell. - - Though thou seest me not pass by, - Thou shalt feel me with thine eye - As a thing that, though unseen, - Must be near thee, and hath been; - And when in that secret dread - Thou hast turned around thy head, - Thou shalt marvel I am not - As thy shadow on the spot, - And the power which thou dost feel 220 - Shall be what thou must conceal. - - And a magic voice and verse - Hath baptized thee with a curse; - And a Spirit of the air - Hath begirt thee with a snare; - In the wind there is a voice - Shall forbid thee to rejoice; - And to thee shall Night deny - All the quiet of her sky; - And the day shall have a sun, 230 - Which shall make thee wish it done. - - From thy false tears I did distil - An essence which hath strength to kill; - From thy own heart I then did wring - The black blood in its blackest spring; - From thy own smile I snatched the snake, - For there it coiled as in a brake; - From thy own lip I drew the charm - Which gave all these their chiefest harm; - In proving every poison known, 240 - I found the strongest was thine own. - - By the cold breast and serpent smile, - By thy unfathomed gulfs of guile, - By that most seeming virtuous eye, - By thy shut soul's hypocrisy; - By the perfection of thine art - Which passed for human thine own heart; - By thy delight in others' pain, - And by thy brotherhood of Cain, - I call upon thee! and compel[av] 250 - Thyself to be thy proper Hell! - - And on thy head I pour the vial - Which doth devote thee to this trial; - Nor to slumber, nor to die, - Shall be in thy destiny; - Though thy death shall still seem near - To thy wish, but as a fear; - Lo! the spell now works around thee, - And the clankless chain hath bound thee; - O'er thy heart and brain together 260 - Hath the word been passed--now wither! - - SCENE II.--_The Mountain of the Jungfrau_.-- - _Time, Morning_.--MANFRED _alone upon the cliffs._ - - _Man_. The spirits I have raised abandon me, - The spells which I have studied baffle me, - The remedy I recked of tortured me - I lean no more on superhuman aid; - It hath no power upon the past, and for - The future, till the past be gulfed in darkness, - It is not of my search.--My Mother Earth![119] - And thou fresh-breaking Day, and you, ye Mountains, - Why are ye beautiful? I cannot love ye. - And thou, the bright Eye of the Universe, 10 - That openest over all, and unto all - Art a delight--thou shin'st not on my heart. - And you, ye crags, upon whose extreme edge - I stand, and on the torrent's brink beneath - Behold the tall pines dwindled as to shrubs - In dizziness of distance; when a leap, - A stir, a motion, even a breath, would bring - My breast upon its rocky bosom's bed - To rest for ever--wherefore do I pause? - I feel the impulse--yet I do not plunge; 20 - I see the peril--yet do not recede; - And my brain reels--and yet my foot is firm: - There is a power upon me which withholds, - And makes it my fatality to live,-- - If it be life to wear within myself - This barrenness of Spirit, and to be - My own Soul's sepulchre, for I have ceased - To justify my deeds unto myself-- - The last infirmity of evil. Aye, - Thou winged and cloud-cleaving minister, 30 - [_An Eagle passes._ - Whose happy flight is highest into heaven, - Well may'st thou swoop so near me--I should be - Thy prey, and gorge thine eaglets; thou art gone - Where the eye cannot follow thee; but thine - Yet pierces downward, onward, or above, - With a pervading vision.--Beautiful! - How beautiful is all this visible world![120] - How glorious in its action and itself! - But we, who name ourselves its sovereigns, we, - Half dust, half deity, alike unfit 40 - To sink or soar, with our mixed essence make - A conflict of its elements, and breathe - The breath of degradation and of pride, - Contending with low wants and lofty will, - Till our Mortality predominates, - And men are--what they name not to themselves, - And trust not to each other. Hark! the note, - [_The Shepherd's pipe in the distance is heard._ - The natural music of the mountain reed-- - For here the patriarchal days are not - A pastoral fable--pipes in the liberal air, 50 - Mixed with the sweet bells of the sauntering herd;[121] - My soul would drink those echoes. Oh, that I were - The viewless spirit of a lovely sound, - A living voice, a breathing harmony, - A bodiless enjoyment[122]--born and dying - With the blest tone which made me! - - _Enter from below a_ CHAMOIS HUNTER. - - _Chamois Hunter_. Even so - This way the Chamois leapt: her nimble feet - Have baffled me; my gains to-day will scarce - Repay my break-neck travail.--What is here? - Who seems not of my trade, and yet hath reached 60 - A height which none even of our mountaineers, - Save our best hunters, may attain: his garb - Is goodly, his mien manly, and his air - Proud as a free-born peasant's, at this distance: - I will approach him nearer. - - _Man_. (_not perceiving the other_). To be thus-- - Grey-haired with anguish, like these blasted pines, - Wrecks of a single winter, barkless, branchless,[123] - A blighted trunk upon a cursed root, - Which but supplies a feeling to Decay-- - And to be thus, eternally but thus, 70 - Having been otherwise! Now furrowed o'er - With wrinkles, ploughed by moments, not by years - And hours, all tortured into ages--hours - Which I outlive!--Ye toppling crags of ice! - Ye Avalanches, whom a breath draws down - In mountainous o'erwhelming, come and crush me! - I hear ye momently above, beneath, - Crash with a frequent conflict;[124] but ye pass, - And only fall on things that still would live; - On the young flourishing forest, or the hut 80 - And hamlet of the harmless villager. - - _C. Hun_. The mists begin to rise from up the valley; - I'll warn him to descend, or he may chance - To lose at once his way and life together. - - _Man_. The mists boil up around the glaciers; clouds - Rise curling fast beneath me, white and sulphury, - Like foam from the roused ocean of deep Hell,[aw] - Whose every wave breaks on a living shore, - Heaped with the damned like pebbles.--I am giddy.[125] - - _C. Hun_. I must approach him cautiously; if near, 90 - A sudden step will startle him, and he - Seems tottering already. - - _Man_. Mountains have fallen, - Leaving a gap in the clouds, and with the shock - Rocking their Alpine brethren; filling up - The ripe green valleys with Destruction's splinters; - Damming the rivers with a sudden dash, - Which crushed the waters into mist, and made - Their fountains find another channel--thus, - Thus, in its old age, did Mount Rosenberg--[126] - Why stood I not beneath it? - - _C. Hun_. Friend! have a care, 100 - Your next step may be fatal!--for the love - Of Him who made you, stand not on that brink! - - _Man_. (_not hearing him_). - Such would have been for me a fitting tomb; - My bones had then been quiet in their depth; - They had not then been strewn upon the rocks - For the wind's pastime--as thus--thus they shall be-- - In this one plunge.--Farewell, ye opening Heavens! - Look not upon me thus reproachfully-- - You were not meant for me--Earth! take these atoms! - - [_As_ MANFRED _is in act to spring from the cliff, the_ - CHAMOIS HUNTER _seizes and retains him with a sudden grasp._ - - _C. Hun_. Hold, madman!--though aweary of thy life, 110 - Stain not our pure vales with thy guilty blood: - Away with me----I will not quit my hold. - - _Man_. I am most sick at heart--nay, grasp me not-- - I am all feebleness--the mountains whirl - Spinning around me----I grow blind----What art thou? - - _C. Hun_. I'll answer that anon.--Away with me---- - The clouds grow thicker----there--now lean on me-- - Place your foot here--here, take this staff, and cling - A moment to that shrub--now give me your hand, - And hold fast by my girdle--softly--well-- 120 - The Chalet will be gained within an hour: - Come on, we'll quickly find a surer footing, - And something like a pathway, which the torrent - Hath washed since winter.--Come,'tis bravely done-- - You should have been a hunter.--Follow me. - - [_As they descend the rocks with difficulty, the scene closes._ - - - - - ACT II. - - - SCENE I.--_A Cottage among the Bernese Alps_.-- - MANFRED _and the_ CHAMOIS HUNTER. - - _C. Hun_. No--no--yet pause--thou must not yet go forth; - Thy mind and body are alike unfit - To trust each other, for some hours, at least; - When thou art better, I will be thy guide-- - But whither? - - _Man_. It imports not: I do know - My route full well, and need no further guidance. - - _C. Hun_. Thy garb and gait bespeak thee of high lineage-- - One of the many chiefs, whose castled crags - Look o'er the lower valleys--which of these - May call thee lord? I only know their portals; 10 - My way of life leads me but rarely down - To bask by the huge hearths of those old halls, - Carousing with the vassals; but the paths, - Which step from out our mountains to their doors, - I know from childhood--which of these is thine? - - _Man_. No matter. - - _C. Hun_. Well, Sir, pardon me the question, - And be of better cheer. Come, taste my wine; - 'Tis of an ancient vintage; many a day - 'T has thawed my veins among our glaciers, now - Let it do thus for thine--Come, pledge me fairly! 20 - - _Man_. Away, away! there's blood upon the brim! - Will it then never--never sink in the earth? - - _C. Hun_. What dost thou mean? thy senses wander from thee. - - _Man_. I say 'tis blood--my blood! the pure warm stream - Which ran in the veins of my fathers, and in ours - When we were in our youth, and had one heart, - And loved each other as we should not love,[127] - And this was shed: but still it rises up, - Colouring the clouds, that shut me out from Heaven, - Where thou art not--and I shall never be. 30 - - _C. Hun_. Man of strange words, and some half-maddening sin,[ax] - Which makes thee people vacancy, whate'er - Thy dread and sufferance be, there's comfort yet-- - The aid of holy men, and heavenly patience---- - - _Man_. Patience--and patience! Hence--that word was made - For brutes of burthen, not for birds of prey! - Preach it to mortals of a dust like thine,-- - I am not of thine order. - - _C. Hun_. Thanks to Heaven! - I would not be of thine for the free fame - Of William Tell; but whatsoe'er thine ill, 40 - It must be borne, and these wild starts are useless. - - _Man_. Do I not bear it?--Look on me--I live. - - _C. Hun._ This is convulsion, and no healthful life. - - _Man_. I tell thee, man! I have lived many years, - Many long years, but they are nothing now - To those which I must number: ages--ages-- - Space and eternity--and consciousness, - With the fierce thirst of death--and still unslaked! - - _C. Hun_. Why on thy brow the seal of middle age - Hath scarce been set; I am thine elder far. 50 - - _Man_. Think'st thou existence doth depend on time?[128] - It doth; but actions are our epochs: mine - Have made my days and nights imperishable, - Endless, and all alike, as sands on the shore, - Innumerable atoms; and one desert, - Barren and cold, on which the wild waves break, - But nothing rests, save carcasses and wrecks, - Rocks, and the salt-surf weeds of bitterness. - - _C. Hun_. Alas! he's mad--but yet I must not leave him. - - _Man_. I would I were--for then the things I see 60 - Would be but a distempered dream. - - _C. Hun_. What is it - That thou dost see, or think thou look'st upon? - - _Man_. Myself, and thee--a peasant of the Alps-- - Thy humble virtues, hospitable home, - And spirit patient, pious, proud, and free; - Thy self-respect, grafted on innocent thoughts; - Thy days of health, and nights of sleep; thy toils, - By danger dignified, yet guiltless; hopes - Of cheerful old age and a quiet grave, - With cross and garland over its green turf, 70 - And thy grandchildren's love for epitaph! - This do I see--and then I look within-- - It matters not--my Soul was scorched already! - - _C. Hun_. And would'st thou then exchange thy lot for mine? - - _Man_. No, friend! I would not wrong thee, nor exchange - My lot with living being: I can bear-- - However wretchedly, 'tis still to bear-- - In life what others could not brook to dream, - But perish in their slumber. - - _C. Hun_. And with this-- - This cautious feeling for another's pain, 80 - Canst thou be black with evil?--say not so. - Can one of gentle thoughts have wreaked revenge - Upon his enemies? - - _Man_. Oh! no, no, no! - My injuries came down on those who loved me-- - On those whom I best loved: I never quelled - An enemy, save in my just defence-- - But my embrace was fatal. - - _C. Hun_. Heaven give thee rest! - And Penitence restore thee to thyself; - My prayers shall be for thee. - - _Man_. I need them not, - But can endure thy pity. I depart-- 90 - 'Tis time--farewell!--Here's gold, and thanks for thee-- - No words--it is thy due.--Follow me not-- - I know my path--the mountain peril's past: - And once again I charge thee, follow not! - [_Exit_ MANFRED. - - - SCENE II.--_A lower Valley in the Alps.--A Cataract_. - - _Enter_ MANFRED. - - It is not noon--the Sunbow's rays[129] still arch - The torrent with the many hues of heaven, - And roll the sheeted silver's waving column - O'er the crag's headlong perpendicular, - And fling its lines of foaming light along, - And to and fro, like the pale courser's tail, - The Giant steed, to be bestrode by Death, - As told in the Apocalypse.[130] No eyes - But mine now drink this sight of loveliness; - I should be sole in this sweet solitude, 10 - And with the Spirit of the place divide - The homage of these waters.--I will call her. - - [MANFRED _takes some of the water into the palm of his - hand and flings it into the air, muttering the ajuration. - After a pause, the_ WITCH OF THE ALPS _rises beneath - the arch of the sunbow of the torrent._ - - Beautiful Spirit! with thy hair of light, - And dazzling eyes of glory, in whose form - The charms of Earth's least mortal daughters grow - To an unearthly stature, in an essence - Of purer elements; while the hues of youth,-- - Carnationed like a sleeping Infant's cheek, - Rocked by the beating of her mother's heart, - Or the rose tints, which Summer's twilight leaves 20 - Upon the lofty Glacier's virgin snow, - The blush of earth embracing with her Heaven,-- - Tinge thy celestial aspect, and make tame - The beauties of the Sunbow which bends o'er thee. - Beautiful Spirit! in thy calm clear brow, - Wherein is glassed serenity of Soul,[ay] - Which of itself shows immortality, - I read that thou wilt pardon to a Son - Of Earth, whom the abstruser powers permit - At times to commune with them--if that he 30 - Avail him of his spells--to call thee thus, - And gaze on thee a moment. - - _Witch_. Son of Earth! - I know thee, and the Powers which give thee power! - I know thee for a man of many thoughts, - And deeds of good and ill, extreme in both, - Fatal and fated in thy sufferings. - I have expected this--what would'st thou with me? - - _Man_. To look upon thy beauty--nothing further. - The face of the earth hath maddened me, and I - Take refuge in her mysteries, and pierce 40 - To the abodes of those who govern her-- - But they can nothing aid me. I have sought - From them what they could not bestow, and now - I search no further. - - _Witch_. What could be the quest - Which is not in the power of the most powerful, - The rulers of the invisible? - - _Man_. A boon;-- - But why should I repeat it? 'twere in vain. - - _Witch_. I know not that; let thy lips utter it. - - _Man_. Well, though it torture me, 'tis but the same; - My pang shall find a voice. From my youth upwards 50 - My Spirit walked not with the souls of men, - Nor looked upon the earth with human eyes; - The thirst of their ambition was not mine, - The aim of their existence was not mine; - My joys--my griefs--my passions--and my powers, - Made me a stranger; though I wore the form, - I had no sympathy with breathing flesh, - Nor midst the Creatures of Clay that girded me - Was there but One who--but of her anon. - I said with men, and with the thoughts of men, 60 - I held but slight communion; but instead, - My joy was in the wilderness,--to breathe - The difficult air of the iced mountain's top,[131] - Where the birds dare not build--nor insect's wing - Flit o'er the herbless granite; or to plunge - Into the torrent, and to roll along - On the swift whirl of the new-breaking wave - Of river-stream, or Ocean, in their flow.[132] - In these my early strength exulted; or - To follow through the night the moving moon,[133] 70 - The stars and their development; or catch - The dazzling lightnings till my eyes grew dim; - Or to look, list'ning, on the scattered leaves, - While Autumn winds were at their evening song. - These were my pastimes, and to be alone; - For if the beings, of whom I was one,-- - Hating to be so,--crossed me in my path, - I felt myself degraded back to them, - And was all clay again. And then I dived, - In my lone wanderings, to the caves of Death, 80 - Searching its cause in its effect; and drew - From withered bones, and skulls, and heaped up dust - Conclusions most forbidden.[134] Then I passed-- - The nights of years in sciences untaught, - Save in the old-time; and with time and toil, - And terrible ordeal, and such penance - As in itself hath power upon the air, - And spirits that do compass air and earth, - Space, and the peopled Infinite, I made - Mine eyes familiar with Eternity, 90 - Such as, before me, did the Magi, and - He who from out their fountain-dwellings raised - Eros and Anteros,[135] at Gadara, - As I do thee;--and with my knowledge grew - The thirst of knowledge, and the power and joy - Of this most bright intelligence, until---- - - _Witch_. Proceed. - - _Man_. Oh! I but thus prolonged my words, - Boasting these idle attributes, because - As I approach the core of my heart's grief-- - But--to my task. I have not named to thee 100 - Father or mother, mistress, friend, or being, - With whom I wore the chain of human ties; - If I had such, they seemed not such to me-- - Yet there was One---- - - _Witch_. Spare not thyself--proceed. - - _Man_. She was like me in lineaments--her eyes-- - Her hair--her features--all, to the very tone - Even of her voice, they said were like to mine; - But softened all, and tempered into beauty: - She had the same lone thoughts and wanderings, - The quest of hidden knowledge, and a mind 110 - To comprehend the Universe: nor these - Alone, but with them gentler powers than mine, - Pity, and smiles, and tears--which I had not; - And tenderness--but that I had for her; - Humility--and that I never had. - Her faults were mine--her virtues were her own-- - I loved her, and destroyed her! - - _Witch_. With thy hand? - - _Man_. Not with my hand, but heart, which broke her heart; - It gazed on mine, and withered. I have shed - Blood, but not hers--and yet her blood was shed; 120 - I saw--and could not stanch it. - - _Witch_. And for this-- - A being of the race thou dost despise-- - The order, which thine own would rise above, - Mingling with us and ours,--thou dost forego - The gifts of our great knowledge, and shrink'st back - To recreant mortality----Away! - - _Man_. Daughter of Air! I tell thee, since that hour-- - But words are breath--look on me in my sleep, - Or watch my watchings--Come and sit by me! - My solitude is solitude no more, 130 - But peopled with the Furies;--I have gnashed - My teeth in darkness till returning morn, - Then cursed myself till sunset;--I have prayed - For madness as a blessing--'tis denied me. - I have affronted Death--but in the war - Of elements the waters shrunk from me,[136] - And fatal things passed harmless; the cold hand - Of an all-pitiless Demon held me back, - Back by a single hair, which would not break. - In Fantasy, Imagination, all 140 - The affluence of my soul--which one day was - A Croesus in creation--I plunged deep, - But, like an ebbing wave, it dashed me back - Into the gulf of my unfathomed thought. - I plunged amidst Mankind--Forgetfulness[137] - I sought in all, save where 'tis to be found-- - And that I have to learn--my Sciences, - My long pursued and superhuman art, - Is mortal here: I dwell in my despair-- - And live--and live for ever.[az] - - _Witch_. It may be 150 - That I can aid thee. - - _Man_. To do this thy power - Must wake the dead, or lay me low with them. - Do so--in any shape--in any hour-- - With any torture--so it be the last. - - _Witch_. That is not in my province; but if thou - Wilt swear obedience to my will, and do - My bidding, it may help thee to thy wishes. - - _Man_. I will not swear--Obey! and whom? the Spirits - Whose presence I command, and be the slave - Of those who served me--Never! - - _Witch_. Is this all? 160 - Hast thou no gentler answer?--Yet bethink thee, - And pause ere thou rejectest. - - _Man_. I have said it. - - _Witch_. Enough! I may retire then--say! - - _Man_. Retire! - - [_The_ WITCH _disappears._ - - _Man_. (_alone_). We are the fools of Time and Terror: Days - Steal on us, and steal from us; yet we live, - Loathing our life, and dreading still to die. - In all the days of this detested yoke-- - This vital weight upon the struggling heart, - Which sinks with sorrow, or beats quick with pain, - Or joy that ends in agony or faintness-- 170 - In all the days of past and future--for - In life there is no present--we can number - How few--how less than few--wherein the soul - Forbears to pant for death, and yet draws back - As from a stream in winter, though the chill[ba] - Be but a moment's. I have one resource - Still in my science--I can call the dead, - And ask them what it is we dread to be: - The sternest answer can but be the Grave, - And that is nothing: if they answer not-- 180 - The buried Prophet answered to the Hag - Of Endor; and the Spartan Monarch drew - From the Byzantine maid's unsleeping spirit - An answer and his destiny--he slew - That which he loved, unknowing what he slew, - And died unpardoned--though he called in aid - The Phyxian Jove, and in Phigalia roused - The Arcadian Evocators to compel - The indignant shadow to depose her wrath, - Or fix her term of vengeance--she replied 190 - In words of dubious import, but fulfilled.[138] - If I had never lived, that which I love - Had still been living; had I never loved, - That which I love would still be beautiful, - Happy and giving happiness. What is she? - What is she now?--a sufferer for my sins-- - A thing I dare not think upon--or nothing. - Within few hours I shall not call in vain-- - Yet in this hour I dread the thing I dare: - Until this hour I never shrunk to gaze 200 - On spirit, good or evil--now I tremble, - And feel a strange cold thaw upon my heart. - But I can act even what I most abhor, - And champion human fears.--The night approaches. - [_Exit._ - - - SCENE III.--_The summit of the Jungfrau Mountain._ - - _Enter_ FIRST DESTINY. - - The Moon is rising broad, and round, and bright; - And here on snows, where never human foot[139] - Of common mortal trod, we nightly tread, - And leave no traces: o'er the savage sea, - The glassy ocean of the mountain ice, - We skim its rugged breakers, which put on - The aspect of a tumbling tempest's foam, - Frozen in a moment[140]--a dead Whirlpool's image: - And this most steep fantastic pinnacle, - The fretwork of some earthquake--where the clouds 10 - Pause to repose themselves in passing by-- - Is sacred to our revels, or our vigils; - Here do I wait my sisters, on our way - To the Hall of Arimanes--for to-night - Is our great festival[141]--'tis strange they come not. - - _A Voice without, singing._ - - The Captive Usurper, - Hurled down from the throne, - Lay buried in torpor, - Forgotten and lone; - I broke through his slumbers, 20 - I shivered his chain, - I leagued him with numbers-- - He's Tyrant again! - With the blood of a million he'll answer my care, - With a Nation's destruction--his flight and despair![142] - - - _Second Voice, without._ - - The Ship sailed on, the Ship sailed fast, - But I left not a sail, and I left not a mast; - There is not a plank of the hull or the deck, - And there is not a wretch to lament o'er his wreck; - Save one, whom I held, as he swam, by the hair, 30 - And he was a subject well worthy my care; - A traitor on land, and a pirate at sea--[143] - But I saved him to wreak further havoc for me! - - FIRST DESTINY, _answering._ - - The City lies sleeping; - The morn, to deplore it, - May dawn on it weeping: - Sullenly, slowly, - The black plague flew o'er it-- - Thousands lie lowly; - Tens of thousands shall perish; 40 - The living shall fly from - The sick they should cherish; - But nothing can vanquish - The touch that they die from. - Sorrow and anguish, - And evil and dread, - Envelope a nation; - The blest are the dead, - Who see not the sight - Of their own desolation; 50 - This work of a night-- - This wreck of a realm--this deed of my doing-- - For ages I've done, and shall still be renewing! - - _Enter the_ SECOND _and_ THIRD DESTINIES. - - _The Three._ - - Our hands contain the hearts of men, - Our footsteps are their graves; - We only give to take again - The Spirits of our slaves! - - _First Des_. Welcome!--Where's Nemesis? - - _Second Des_. At some great work; - But what I know not, for my hands were full. - - _Third Des_. Behold she cometh. - - _Enter_ NEMESIS. - - _First Des_. Say, where hast thou been? 60 - My Sisters and thyself are slow to-night. - - _Nem_. I was detained repairing shattered thrones-- - Marrying fools, restoring dynasties-- - Avenging men upon their enemies, - And making them repent their own revenge; - Goading the wise to madness; from the dull - Shaping out oracles to rule the world - Afresh--for they were waxing out of date, - And mortals dared to ponder for themselves, - To weigh kings in the balance--and to speak 70 - Of Freedom, the forbidden fruit.--Away! - We have outstayed the hour--mount we our clouds! - [_Exeunt._ - - - SCENE IV.--_The Hall of Arimanes._[144]--_Arimanes on his Throne, - a Globe of Fire,[145] surrounded by the Spirits._ - - _Hymn of the_ SPIRITS. - - Hail to our Master!--Prince of Earth and Air! - Who walks the clouds and waters--in his hand - The sceptre of the Elements, which tear - Themselves to chaos at his high command! - He breatheth--and a tempest shakes the sea; - He speaketh--and the clouds reply in thunder; - He gazeth--from his glance the sunbeams flee; - He moveth--Earthquakes rend the world asunder. - Beneath his footsteps the Volcanoes rise; - His shadow is the Pestilence: his path 10 - The comets herald through the crackling skies;[bb] - And Planets turn to ashes at his wrath. - To him War offers daily sacrifice; - To him Death pays his tribute; Life is his, - With all its Infinite of agonies-- - And his the Spirit of whatever is! - - _Enter the_ DESTINIES _and_ NEMESIS. - - _First Des_. Glory to Arimanes! on the earth - His power increaseth--both my sisters did - His bidding, nor did I neglect my duty! - - _Second Des_. Glory to Arimanes! we who bow 20 - The necks of men, bow down before his throne! - - _Third Des_. Glory to Arimanes! we await - His nod! - - _Nem_. Sovereign of Sovereigns! we are thine, - And all that liveth, more or less, is ours, - And most things wholly so; still to increase - Our power, increasing thine, demands our care, - And we are vigilant. Thy late commands - Have been fulfilled to the utmost. - - _Enter_ MANFRED. - - _A Spirit_. What is here? - A mortal!--Thou most rash and fatal wretch, - Bow down and worship! - - _Second Spirit_. I do know the man-- 30 - A Magian of great power, and fearful skill! - - _Third Spirit_. Bow down and worship, slave!--What, know'st thou not - Thine and our Sovereign?--Tremble, and obey! - - _All the Spirits_. Prostrate thyself, and thy condemned clay, - Child of the Earth! or dread the worst. - - _Man_. I know it; - And yet ye see I kneel not. - - _Fourth Spirit_. 'Twill be taught thee. - - _Man_. 'Tis taught already;--many a night on the earth, - On the bare ground, have I bowed down my face, - And strewed my head with ashes; I have known - The fulness of humiliation--for 40 - I sunk before my vain despair, and knelt - To my own desolation. - - _Fifth Spirit_. Dost thou dare - Refuse to Arimanes on his throne - What the whole earth accords, beholding not - The terror of his Glory?--Crouch! I say. - - _Man_. Bid _him_ bow down to that which is above him, - The overruling Infinite--the Maker - Who made him not for worship--let him kneel, - And we will kneel together. - - _The Spirits_. Crush the worm! - Tear him in pieces!-- - - _First Des_. Hence! Avaunt!--he's mine. 50 - Prince of the Powers invisible! This man - Is of no common order, as his port - And presence here denote: his sufferings - Have been of an immortal nature--like - Our own; his knowledge, and his powers and will, - As far as is compatible with clay, - Which clogs the ethereal essence, have been such - As clay hath seldom borne; his aspirations - Have been beyond the dwellers of the earth, - And they have only taught him what we know-- 60 - That knowledge is not happiness, and science[146] - But an exchange of ignorance for that - Which is another kind of ignorance. - This is not all--the passions, attributes - Of Earth and Heaven, from which no power, nor being, - Nor breath from the worm upwards is exempt, - Have pierced his heart; and in their consequence - Made him a thing--which--I who pity not, - Yet pardon those who pity. He is mine-- - And thine it may be; be it so, or not-- 70 - No other Spirit in this region hath - A soul like his--or power upon his soul. - - _Nem_. What doth he here then? - - _First Des_. Let _him_ answer that. - - _Man_. Ye know what I have known; and without power - I could not be amongst ye: but there are - Powers deeper still beyond--I come in quest - Of such, to answer unto what I seek. - - _Nem_. What would'st thou? - - _Man_. _Thou_ canst not reply to me. - Call up the dead--my question is for them. - - _Nem_. Great Arimanes, doth thy will avouch 80 - The wishes of this mortal? - - _Ari_. Yea. - - _Nem_. Whom wouldst thou - Uncharnel? - - _Man_. One without a tomb--call up - Astarte.[147] - - - NEMESIS. - - Shadow! or Spirit! - Whatever thou art, - Which still doth inherit[bc] - The whole or a part - Of the form of thy birth, - Of the mould of thy clay, - Which returned to the earth, 90 - Re-appear to the day! - Bear what thou borest, - The heart and the form, - And the aspect thou worest - Redeem from the worm. - Appear!--Appear!--Appear! - Who sent thee there requires thee here! - - [_The Phantom of_ ASTARTE _rises and stands in the midst_. - - _Man_. Can this be death? there's bloom upon her cheek; - But now I see it is no living hue, - But a strange hectic--like the unnatural red 100 - Which Autumn plants upon the perished leaf.[148] - It is the same! Oh, God! that I should dread - To look upon the same--Astarte!--No, - I cannot speak to her--but bid her speak-- - Forgive me or condemn me. - - NEMESIS. - - By the Power which hath broken - The grave which enthralled thee, - Speak to him who hath spoken. - Or those who have called thee! - - _Man_. She is silent, - And in that silence I am more than answered. 110 - - _Nem_. My power extends no further. Prince of Air! - It rests with thee alone--command her voice. - - _Ari_. Spirit--obey this sceptre! - - _Nem_. Silent still! - She is not of our order, but belongs - To the other powers. Mortal! thy quest is vain, - And we are baffled also. - - _Man_. Hear me, hear me-- - Astarte! my beloved! speak to me: - I have so much endured--so much endure-- - Look on me! the grave hath not changed thee more - Than I am changed for thee. Thou lovedst me 120 - Too much, as I loved thee: we were not made - To torture thus each other--though it were - The deadliest sin to love as we have loved. - Say that thou loath'st me not--that I do bear - This punishment for both--that thou wilt be - One of the blessed--and that I shall die; - For hitherto all hateful things conspire - To bind me in existence--in a life - Which makes me shrink from Immortality-- - A future like the past. I cannot rest. 130 - I know not what I ask, nor what I seek: - I feel but what thou art, and what I am; - And I would hear yet once before I perish - The voice which was my music--Speak to me! - For I have called on thee in the still night, - Startled the slumbering birds from the hushed boughs, - And woke the mountain wolves, and made the caves - Acquainted with thy vainly echoed name, - Which answered me--many things answered me-- - Spirits and men--but thou wert silent all. 140 - Yet speak to me! I have outwatched the stars, - And gazed o'er heaven in vain in search of thee. - Speak to me! I have wandered o'er the earth, - And never found thy likeness--Speak to me! - Look on the fiends around--they feel for me: - I fear them not, and feel for thee alone. - Speak to me! though it be in wrath;--but say-- - I reck not what--but let me hear thee once-- - This once--once more! - - _Phantom of Astarte_. Manfred! - - _Man_. Say on, say on-- - I live but in the sound--it is thy voice! 150 - - _Phan_. Manfred! To-morrow ends thine earthly ills. - Farewell! - - _Man_. Yet one word more--am I forgiven? - - _Phan_. Farewell! - - _Man_. Say, shall we meet again? - - _Phan_. Farewell! - - _Man_. One word for mercy! Say thou lovest me. - - _Phan_. Manfred! - - [_The Spirit of_ ASTARTE _disappears_. - - _Nem_. She's gone, and will not be recalled: - Her words will be fulfilled. Return to the earth. - - _A Spirit_. He is convulsed--This is to be a mortal, - And seek the things beyond mortality. - - _Another Spirit_. Yet, see, he mastereth himself, and makes - His torture tributary to his will.[149] 160 - Had he been one of us, he would have made - An awful Spirit. - - _Nem_. Hast thou further question - Of our great Sovereign, or his worshippers? - - _Man_. None. - - _Nem_. Then for a time farewell. - - _Man_. We meet then! Where? On the earth?-- - Even as thou wilt: and for the grace accorded - I now depart a debtor. Fare ye well! - [_Exit_ MANFRED. - - (_Scene closes_.) - - - - - ACT III. - - SCENE I.--_A Hall in the Castle of Manfred_.[150] - - MANFRED _and_ HERMAN. - - _Man_. What is the hour? - - _Her_. It wants but one till sunset, - And promises a lovely twilight. - - _Man_. Say, - Are all things so disposed of in the tower - As I directed? - - _Her_. All, my Lord, are ready: - Here is the key and casket.[151] - - _Man_. It is well: - Thou mayst retire. [_Exit_ HERMAN. - - _Man_. (_alone_). There is a calm upon me-- - Inexplicable stillness! which till now - Did not belong to what I knew of life. - If that I did not know Philosophy - To be of all our vanities the motliest, 10 - The merest word that ever fooled the ear - From out the schoolman's jargon, I should deem - The golden secret, the sought "Kalon," found,[152] - And seated in my soul. It will not last, - But it is well to have known it, though but once: - It hath enlarged my thoughts with a new sense, - And I within my tablets would note down - That there is such a feeling. Who is there? - - _Re-enter_ HERMAN. - - _Her_. My Lord, the Abbot of St. Maurice craves[153] - To greet your presence. - - _Enter the_ ABBOT OF ST. MAURICE. - - _Abbot_. Peace be with Count Manfred! 20 - - _Man_. Thanks, holy father! welcome to these walls; - Thy presence honours them, and blesseth those - Who dwell within them. - - _Abbot_. Would it were so, Count!-- - But I would fain confer with thee alone. - - _Man_. Herman, retire.--What would my reverend guest? - - _Abbot_. Thus, without prelude:--Age and zeal--my office-- - And good intent must plead my privilege; - Our near, though not acquainted neighbourhood, - May also be my herald. Rumours strange, - And of unholy nature, are abroad, 30 - And busy with thy name--a noble name - For centuries: may he who bears it now - Transmit it unimpaired! - - _Man_. Proceed,--I listen. - - _Abbot_. 'Tis said thou holdest converse with the things - Which are forbidden to the search of man; - That with the dwellers of the dark abodes, - The many evil and unheavenly spirits - Which walk the valley of the Shade of Death, - Thou communest. I know that with mankind, - Thy fellows in creation, thou dost rarely 40 - Exchange thy thoughts, and that thy solitude - Is as an Anchorite's--were it but holy. - - _Man_. And what are they who do avouch these things? - - _Abbot_. My pious brethren--the scared peasantry-- - Even thy own vassals--who do look on thee - With most unquiet eyes. Thy life's in peril! - - _Man_. Take it. - - _Abbot_. I come to save, and not destroy: - I would not pry into thy secret soul; - But if these things be sooth, there still is time - For penitence and pity: reconcile thee 50 - With the true church, and through the church to Heaven. - - _Man_. I hear thee. This is my reply--whate'er - I may have been, or am, doth rest between - Heaven and myself--I shall not choose a mortal - To be my mediator--Have I sinned - Against your ordinances? prove and punish![154] - - _Abbot_. My son! I did not speak of punishment,[155] - But penitence and pardon;--with thyself - The choice of such remains--and for the last, - Our institutions and our strong belief 60 - Have given me power to smooth the path from sin - To higher hope and better thoughts; the first - I leave to Heaven,--"Vengeance is mine alone!" - So saith the Lord, and with all humbleness - His servant echoes back the awful word. - - _Man_. Old man! there is no power in holy men, - Nor charm in prayer, nor purifying form - Of penitence, nor outward look, nor fast, - Nor agony--nor, greater than all these, - The innate tortures of that deep Despair, 70 - Which is Remorse without the fear of Hell, - But all in all sufficient to itself - Would make a hell of Heaven--can exorcise - From out the unbounded spirit the quick sense - Of its own sins--wrongs--sufferance--and revenge - Upon itself; there is no future pang - Can deal that justice on the self--condemned - He deals on his own soul. - - _Abbot_. All this is well; - For this will pass away, and be succeeded - By an auspicious hope, which shall look up 80 - With calm assurafice to that blessed place, - Which all who seek may win, whatever be - Their earthly errors, so they be atoned: - And the commencement of atonement is - The sense of its necessity. Say on-- - And all our church can teach thee shall be taught; - And all we can absolve thee shall be pardoned. - - _Man_. When Rome's sixth Emperor[156] was near his last, - The victim of a self-inflicted wound, - To shun the torments of a public death[bd] 90 - From senates once his slaves, a certain soldier, - With show of loyal pity, would have stanched - The gushing throat with his officious robe; - The dying Roman thrust him back, and said-- - Some empire still in his expiring glance-- - "It is too late--is this fidelity?" - - _Abbot_. And what of this? - - _Man_. I answer with the Roman-- - "It is too late!" - - _Abbot_. It never can be so, - To reconcile thyself with thy own soul, - And thy own soul with Heaven. Hast thou no hope? 100 - 'Tis strange--even those who do despair above, - Yet shape themselves some fantasy on earth, - To which frail twig they cling, like drowning men. - - _Man_. Aye--father! I have had those early visions, - And noble aspirations in my youth, - To make my own the mind of other men, - The enlightener of nations; and to rise - I knew not whither--it might be to fall; - But fall, even as the mountain-cataract, - Which having leapt from its more dazzling height, 110 - Even in the foaming strength of its abyss, - (Which casts up misty columns that become - Clouds raining from the re-ascended skies,)[157] - Lies low but mighty still.--But this is past, - My thoughts mistook themselves. - - _Abbot_. And wherefore so? - - _Man_.I could not tame my nature down; for he - Must serve who fain would sway; and soothe, and sue, - And watch all time, and pry into all place, - And be a living Lie, who would become - A mighty thing amongst the mean--and such 120 - The mass are; I disdained to mingle with - A herd, though to be leader--and of wolves, - The lion is alone, and so am I. - - _Abbot_. And why not live and act with other men? - - _Man_. Because my nature was averse from life; - And yet not cruel; for I would not make, - But find a desolation. Like the Wind, - The red-hot breath of the most lone Simoom,[158] - Which dwells but in the desert, and sweeps o'er - The barren sands which bear no shrubs to blast, 130 - And revels o'er their wild and arid waves, - And seeketh not, so that it is not sought, - But being met is deadly,--such hath been - The course of my existence; but there came - Things in my path which are no more. - - _Abbot_. Alas! - I 'gin to fear that thou art past all aid - From me and from my calling; yet so young, - I still would---- - - _Man_. Look on me! there is an order - Of mortals on the earth, who do become - Old in their youth, and die ere middle age,[159] 140 - Without the violence of warlike death; - Some perishing of pleasure--some of study-- - Some worn with toil, some of mere weariness,-- - Some of disease--and some insanity-- - And some of withered, or of broken hearts; - For this last is a malady which slays - More than are numbered in the lists of Fate, - Taking all shapes, and bearing many names. - Look upon me! for even of all these things - Have I partaken; and of all these things, 150 - One were enough; then wonder not that I - Am what I am, but that I ever was, - Or having been, that I am still on earth. - - _Abbot_. Yet, hear me still-- - - _Man_. Old man! I do respect - Thine order, and revere thine years; I deem - Thy purpose pious, but it is in vain: - Think me not churlish; I would spare thyself, - Far more than me, in shunning at this time - All further colloquy--and so--farewell. - [Exit MANFRED. - - _Abbot_. This should have been a noble creature: he 160 - Hath all the energy which would have made - A goodly frame of glorious elements, - Had they been wisely mingled; as it is, - It is an awful chaos--Light and Darkness-- - And mind and dust--and passions and pure thoughts - Mixed, and contending without end or order,-- - All dormant or destructive. He will perish-- - And yet he must not--I will try once more, - For such are worth redemption; and my duty - Is to dare all things for a righteous end. 170 - I'll follow him--but cautiously, though surely. - [Exit ABBOT. - - - SCENE II.--_Another Chamber_. - - MANFRED _and_ HERMAN. - - _Her_. My lord, you bade me wait on you at sunset: - He sinks behind the mountain. - - _Man_. Doth he so? - I will look on him. - [MANFRED _advances to the Window of the Hall_. - Glorious Orb! the idol[160] - Of early nature, and the vigorous race - Of undiseased mankind, the giant sons[161] - Of the embrace of Angels, with a sex - More beautiful than they, which did draw down - The erring Spirits who can ne'er return.-- - Most glorious Orb! that wert a worship, ere - The mystery of thy making was revealed! 10 - Thou earliest minister of the Almighty, - Which gladdened, on their mountain tops, the hearts - Of the Chaldean shepherds, till they poured[162] - Themselves in orisons! Thou material God! - And representative of the Unknown-- - Who chose thee for his shadow! Thou chief Star! - Centre of many stars! which mak'st our earth - Endurable and temperest the hues - And hearts of all who walk within thy rays! - Sire of the seasons! Monarch of the climes, 20 - And those who dwell in them! for near or far, - Our inborn spirits have a tint of thee - Even as our outward aspects;--thou dost rise, - And shine, and set in glory. Fare thee well! - I ne'er shall see thee more. As my first glance - Of love and wonder was for thee, then take - My latest look: thou wilt not beam on one - To whom the gifts of life and warmth have been - Of a more fatal nature. He is gone-- - I follow. [_Exit_ MANFRED. - - - SCENE III.--_The Mountains_--_The Castle of Manfred at some - distance_--_A Terrace before a Tower_.--_Time, Twilight_. - - HERMAN, MANUEL, _and other dependants of_ MANFRED. - - _Her_. 'Tis strange enough! night after night, for years, - He hath pursued long vigils in this tower, - Without a witness. I have been within it,-- - So have we all been oft-times; but from it, - Or its contents, it were impossible - To draw conclusions absolute, of aught - His studies tend to. To be sure, there is - One chamber where none enter: I would give - The fee of what I have to come these three years, - To pore upon its mysteries. - - _Manuel_. 'Twere dangerous; 10 - Content thyself with what thou know'st already. - - _Her_. Ah! Manuel! thou art elderly and wise, - And couldst say much; thou hast dwelt within the castle-- - How many years is't? - - _Manuel_. Ere Count Manfred's birth, - I served his father, whom he nought resembles. - - _Her_. There be more sons in like predicament! - But wherein do they differ? - - _Manuel_. I speak not - Of features or of form, but mind and habits; - Count Sigismund was proud, but gay and free,-- - A warrior and a reveller; he dwelt not 20 - With books and solitude, nor made the night - A gloomy vigil, but a festal time, - Merrier than day; he did not walk the rocks - And forests like a wolf, nor turn aside - From men and their delights. - - _Her_. Beshrew the hour, - But those were jocund times! I would that such - Would visit the old walls again; they look - As if they had forgotten them. - - _Manuel_. These walls - Must change their chieftain first. Oh! I have seen - Some strange things in them, Herman.[be] - - _Her_. Come, be friendly; 30 - Relate me some to while away our watch: - I've heard thee darkly speak of an event - Which happened hereabouts, by this same tower. - - _Manuel_. That was a night indeed! I do remember - 'Twas twilight, as it may be now, and such - Another evening:--yon red cloud, which rests - On Eigher's pinnacle,[163] so rested then,-- - So like that it might be the same; the wind - Was faint and gusty, and the mountain snows - Began to glitter with the climbing moon; 40 - Count Manfred was, as now, within his tower,-- - How occupied, we knew not, but with him - The sole companion of his wanderings - And watchings--her, whom of all earthly things - That lived, the only thing he seemed to love,-- - As he, indeed, by blood was bound to do, - The Lady Astarte, his----[164] - Hush! who comes here? - - _Enter the_ ABBOT. - - _Abbot_. Where is your master? - - _Her_. Yonder in the tower. - - _Abbot_. I must speak with him. - - _Manuel_. 'Tis impossible; - He is most private, and must not be thus 50 - Intruded on. - - _Abbot_. Upon myself I take - The forfeit of my fault, if fault there be-- - But I must see him. - - _Her_. Thou hast seen him once - his eve already. - - _Abbot_. Herman! I command thee,[bf] - Knock, and apprize the Count of my approach. - - _Her_. We dare not. - - _Abbot_. Then it seems I must be herald - Of my own purpose. - - _Manuel_. Reverend father, stop-- - I pray you pause. - - _Abbot_. Why so? - - _Manuel_. But step this way, - And I will tell you further. [_Exeunt_. - - - SCENE IV.--_Interior of the Tower_. - - MANFRED _alone_. - - The stars are forth, the moon above the tops - Of the snow-shining mountains.--Beautiful! - I linger yet with Nature, for the Night[165] - Hath been to me a more familiar face - Than that of man; and in her starry shade - Of dim and solitary loveliness, - I learned the language of another world. - I do remember me, that in my youth, - When I was wandering,--upon such a night - I stood within the Coliseum's wall,[166] 10 - 'Midst the chief relics of almighty Rome; - The trees which grew along the broken arches - Waved dark in the blue midnight, and the stars - Shone through the rents of ruin; from afar - The watch-dog bayed beyond the Tiber; and - More near from out the Caesars' palace came - The owl's long cry, and, interruptedly,[167] - Of distant sentinels the fitful song - Begun and died upon the gentle wind.[168] - Some cypresses beyond the time-worn breach 20 - Appeared to skirt the horizon, yet they stood - Within a bowshot. Where the Caesar's dwelt, - And dwell the tuneless birds of night, amidst - A grove which springs through levelled battlements, - And twines its roots with the imperial hearths, - Ivy usurps the laurel's place of growth; - But the gladiators' bloody Circus stands, - A noble wreck in ruinous perfection, - While Caesar's chambers, and the Augustan halls, - Grovel on earth in indistinct decay.-- 30 - And thou didst shine, thou rolling Moon, upon - All this, and cast a wide and tender light, - Which softened down the hoar austerity - Of rugged desolation, and filled up, - As 'twere anew, the gaps of centuries; - Leaving that beautiful which still was so, - And making that which was not--till the place - Became religion, and the heart ran o'er - With silent worship of the Great of old,-- - The dead, but sceptred, Sovereigns, who still rule 40 - Our spirits from their urns. - 'Twas such a night! - 'Tis strange that I recall it at this time; - But I have found our thoughts take wildest flight - Even at the moment when they should array - Themselves in pensive order. - - _Enter the_ ABBOT. - - _Abbot_. My good Lord! - I crave a second grace for this approach; - But yet let not my humble zeal offend - By its abruptness--all it hath of ill - Recoils on me; its good in the effect - May light upon your head--could I say _heart_-- 50 - Could I touch _that_, with words or prayers, I should - Recall a noble spirit which hath wandered, - But is not yet all lost. - - _Man_. Thou know'st me not; - My days are numbered, and my deeds recorded: - Retire, or 'twill be dangerous--Away! - - _Abbot_. Thou dost not mean to menace me? - - _Man_. Not I! - I simply tell thee peril is at hand, - And would preserve thee. - - _Abbot_. What dost thou mean? - - _Man_. Look there! - What dost thou see? - - _Abbot_. Nothing. - - _Man_. Look there, I say, - And steadfastly;--now tell me what thou seest? 60 - - _Abbot_. That which should shake me,--but I fear it not: - I see a dusk and awful figure rise, - Like an infernal god, from out the earth; - His face wrapt in a mantle, and his form - Robed as with angry clouds: he stands between - Thyself and me--but I do fear him not. - - _Man_. Thou hast no cause--he shall not harm thee--but - His sight may shock thine old limbs into palsy. - I say to thee--Retire! - - _Abbot_. And I reply-- - Never--till I have battled with this fiend:-- 70 - What doth he here? - - _Man_. Why--aye--what doth he here? - I did not send for him,--he is unbidden. - - _Abbot_. Alas! lost Mortal! what with guests like these - Hast thou to do? I tremble for thy sake: - Why doth he gaze on thee, and thou on him? - Ah! he unveils his aspect: on his brow - The thunder-scars are graven; from his eye[169] - Glares forth the immortality of Hell-- - Avaunt!-- - - _Man_. Pronounce--what is thy mission? - - _Spirit_. Come! - - _Abbot_. What art thou, unknown being? answer!--speak! 80 - - _Spirit_. The genius of this mortal.--Come!'tis time. - - _Man_. I am prepared for all things, but deny - The Power which summons me. Who sent thee here? - - _Spirit_. Thou'lt know anon--Come! come! - - _Man_. I have commanded - Things of an essence greater far than thine, - And striven with thy masters. Get thee hence! - - _Spirit_. Mortal! thine hour is come--Away! I say. - - _Man_. I knew, and know my hour is come, but not - To render up my soul to such as thee: - Away! I'll die as I have lived--alone. 90 - - _Spirit_. Then I must summon up my brethren.--Rise![bg] - [_Other Spirits rise._ - - _Abbot_. Avaunt! ye evil ones!--Avaunt! I say,-- - Ye have no power where Piety hath power, - And I do charge ye in the name-- - - _Spirit_. Old man! - We know ourselves, our mission, and thine order; - Waste not thy holy words on idle uses, - It were in vain: this man is forfeited. - Once more--I summon him--Away! Away! - - _Man_. I do defy ye,--though I feel my soul - Is ebbing from me, yet I do defy ye; 100 - Nor will I hence, while I have earthly breath - To breathe my scorn upon ye--earthly strength - To wrestle, though with spirits; what ye take - Shall be ta'en limb by limb. - - _Spirit_. Reluctant mortal! - Is this the Magian who would so pervade - The world invisible, and make himself - Almost our equal? Can it be that thou - Art thus in love with life? the very life - Which made thee wretched? - - _Man_. Thou false fiend, thou liest! - My life is in its last hour,--_that_ I know, 110 - Nor would redeem a moment of that hour; - I do not combat against Death, but thee - And thy surrounding angels; my past power - Was purchased by no compact with thy crew, - But by superior science--penance, daring, - And length of watching, strength of mind, and skill - In knowledge of our Fathers--when the earth - Saw men and spirits walking side by side, - And gave ye no supremacy: I stand - Upon my strength--I do defy--deny-- 120 - Spurn back, and scorn ye!-- - - _Spirit_. But thy many crimes - Have made thee-- - - _Man_. What are they to such as thee? - Must crimes be punished but by other crimes, - And greater criminals?--Back to thy hell! - Thou hast no power upon me, _that_ I feel; - Thou never shalt possess me, _that_ I know: - What I have done is done; I bear within - A torture which could nothing gain from thine: - The Mind which is immortal makes itself - Requital for its good or evil thoughts,-- 130 - Is its own origin of ill and end-- - And its own place and time:[170] its innate sense, - When stripped of this mortality, derives - No colour from the fleeting things without, - But is absorbed in sufferance or in joy, - Born from the knowledge of its own desert. - _Thou_ didst not tempt me, and thou couldst not tempt me; - I have not been thy dupe, nor am thy prey-- - But was my own destroyer, and will be - My own hereafter.--Back, ye baffled fiends! 140 - The hand of Death is on me--but not yours! - [_The Demons disappear._ - - _Abbot_. Alas! how pale thou art--thy lips are white-- - And thy breast heaves--and in thy gasping throat - The accents rattle: Give thy prayers to Heaven-- - Pray--albeit but in thought,--but die not thus. - - _Man_. 'Tis over--my dull eyes can fix thee not; - But all things swim around me, and the earth - Heaves as it were beneath me. Fare thee well-- - Give me thy hand. - - _Abbot_. Cold--cold--even to the heart-- - But yet one prayer--Alas! how fares it with thee? 150 - - _Man_. Old man! 'tis not so difficult to die.[171] - [MANFRED _expires._ - - _Abbot_. He's gone--his soul hath ta'en its earthless flight; - Whither? I dread to think--but he is gone.[172] - - - FOOTNOTES: - -[106] {86}[The MS. of _Manfred_, now in Mr. Murray's possession, is in -Lord Byron's handwriting. A note is prefixed: "The scene of the drama is -amongst the higher Alps, partly in the Castle of Manfred, and partly in -the mountains." The date, March 18, 1817, is in John Murray's -handwriting.] - -[107] [So, too, Faust is discovered "in a high--vaulted narrow Gothic -chamber."] - -[108] [Compare _Faust,_ act i. sc. 1-- - - "Alas! I have explored - Philosophy, and Law, and Medicine, - And over deep Divinity have pored, - Studying with ardent and laborious zeal." - - Anster's Faust, 1883, p. 88.] - -[ap] {86} - - _Eternal Agency!_ - _Ye spirits of the immortal Universe!_--[MS. M.] - -[aq] _Of inaccessible mountains are the haunts_.--[MS. M.] - -[109] [_Faust_ contemplates the sign of the macrocosm, and makes use of -the sign of the Spirit of the Earth. _Manfred's_ written charm may have -been "Abraxas," which comprehended the Greek numerals 365, and expressed -the all-pervading spirits of the Universe.] - -[110] [The Prince of the Spirits is Arimanes, _vide post,_ act ii. sc. -4, line 1, _seq._] - -[111] {87}[Compare _Childe Harold,_ Canto I. stanza lxxxiii. lines 8, -9.] - -[ar] _Which is fit for my pavilion_.--[MS. M.] - -[as] _Or makes its ice delay_.--[MS. M.] - -[112] {89}[Compare "Creatures of clay, I receive you into mine -empire."--_Vathek,_ 1887, p. 179.] - -[at] {90}_The Mind which is my Spirit--the high Soul._--[MS. erased.] - -[au] _Answer--or I will teach ye._--[MS. M.] - -[113] [So the MS., in which the word "say" clearly forms part of the -_Spirit's_ speech.] - -[114] {91}[Compare "Stanzas for Music," i. 3, _Poetical Works,_ 1900, iii -435.] - -[115] [It is evident that the female figure is not that of Astarte, but -of the subject of the "Incantation."] - -[116] [The italics are not indicated in the MS.] - -[117] N.B.--Here follows the "Incantation," which being already -transcribed and (I suppose) published I do not transcribe again at -present, because you can insert it in MS. here--as it belongs to this -place: with its conclusion the 1st Scene closes. - -[The "Incantation" was first published in "_The Prisoner of Chillon and -Other Poems_. London: Printed for John Murray, Albemarle Street, 1816." -Immediately below the title is a note: "The following Poem was a Chorus -in an unpublished Witch Drama, which was begun some years ago."] - -[118] {92}[Manfred was done into Italian by a translator "who was unable to -find in the dictionaries ... any other signification of the 'wisp' of -this line than 'a bundle of straw.'" Byron offered him two hundred -francs if he would destroy the MS., and engage to withhold his hand from -all past or future poems. He at first refused; but, finding that the -alternative was to be a horsewhipping, accepted the money, and signed -the agreement.--_Life_, p. 375, note.] - -[av] {93}_I do adjure thee to this spell._--[MS. M.] - -[119] {94}[Compare-- - - [Greek: o~) di~os ai)the\r, k.t.l.] - - AEschylus, _Prometheus Vinctus,_ lines 88-91.] - -[120] {95}[Compare Hamlet's speech to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern -(_Hamlet,_ act ii. sc. 2, lines 286, _sq._).] - -[121] [The germs of this and of several other passages in _Manfred_ may -be found, as Lord Byron stated, in the Journal of his Swiss tour, which -he transmitted to his sister. "Sept. 19, 1816.--Arrived at a lake in the -very nipple of the bosom of the Mountain; left our quadrupeds with a -Shepherd, and ascended further; came to some snow in patches, upon which -my forehead's perspiration fell like rain, making the same dints as in a -sieve; the chill of the wind and the snow turned me giddy, but I -scrambled on and upwards. Hobhouse went to the highest _pinnacle._ ... -The whole of the Mountain superb. A Shepherd on a very steep and high -cliff playing upon his _pipe_; very different from _Arcadia,_ (where I -saw the pastors with a long Musquet instead of a Crook, and pistols in -their Girdles).... The music of the Cows' bells (for their wealth, like -the Patriarchs', is cattle) in the pastures, (which reach to a height -far above any mountains in Britain), and the Shepherds' shouting to us -from crag to crag, and playing on their reeds where the steeps appeared -almost inaccessible, with the surrounding scenery, realized all that I -have ever heard or imagined of a pastoral existence:--much more so than -Greece or Asia Minor, for there we are a little too much of the sabre -and musquet order; and if there is a Crook in one hand, you are sure to -see a gun in the other:--but this was pure and unmixed--solitary, -savage, and patriarchal.... As we went, they played the 'Ranz des -Vaches' and other airs, by way of farewell. I have lately repeopled my -mind with Nature" (_Letters_, 1899, in. 354, 355).] - -[122] {96}[Compare-- - - "Like an unbodied joy, whose race is just begun." - - _To a Skylark_, by P. B. Shelley, stanza iii. line 5.] - -[123] ["Passed _whole woods of withered pines, all withered_; trunks -stripped and barkless, branches lifeless; done by a _single -winter_,--their appearance reminded me of me and my family" (_Letters_, -1899, iii. 360).] - -[124] {97}["Ascended the Wengen mountain.... Heard the Avalanches -falling every five minutes nearly--as if God was pelting the Devil down -from Heaven with snow balls" (_Letters_, 1899, in. 359).] - -[aw] _Like foam from the round ocean of old Hell_.--[MS. M.] - -[125] ["The clouds rose from the opposite valley, curling up -perpendicular precipices like the foam of the Ocean of Hell, during a -Spring-tide--it was white, and sulphury, and immeasurably deep in -appearance. The side we ascended was (of course) not of so precipitous a -nature; but on arriving at the summit, we looked down the other side -upon a boiling sea of cloud, dashing against the crags on which we stood -(these crags on one side quite perpendicular) ... In passing the masses -of snow, I made a snowball and pelted Hobhouse with it" (_ibid_, pp. -359. 360).] - -[126] [The fall of the Rossberg took place September 2, 1806. "A huge -mass of conglomerate rock, 1000 feet broad and 100 feet thick, detached -itself from the face of the mountain (Rossberg or Rufiberg, near Goldau, -south of Lake Zug), and slipped down into the valley below, overwhelming -the villages of Goldau, Busingen, and Rothen, and part of Lowertz. More -than four hundred and fifty human beings perished, and whole herds of -cattle were swept away. Five minutes sufficed to complete the work of -destruction. The inhabitants were first roused by a loud and grating -sound like thunder ... and beheld the valleys shrouded in a cloud of -dust; when it had cleared away they found the face of nature -changed."--_Handbook of Switzerland,_ Part 1. pp 58, 59.] - -[127] {99}[The critics of the day either affected to ignore or severely -censured (e.g. writers in the _Critical_, _European_, and _Gentleman's_ -Magazines) the allusions to an incestuous passion between Manfred and -Astarte. Shelley, in a letter to Mrs. Gisborne, November 16, 1819, -commenting on Calderon's _Los Cabellos de Absalon,_ discusses the -question from an ethical as well as critical point of view: "The incest -scene between Amon and Tamar is perfectly tremendous. Well may Calderon -say, in the person of the former-- - - Si sangre sin fuego hiere - Qua fara sangre con fuego.' - -Incest is, like many other incorrect things, a very poetical -circumstance. It may be the defiance of everything for the sake of -another which clothes itself in the glory of the highest heroism, or it -may be that cynical rage which, confounding the good and the bad in -existing opinions, breaks through them for the purpose of rioting in -selfishness and antipathy."--_Works of P. B. Shelley,_ 1880, iv. 142.] - -[ax] {100} ----_and some insaner sin_.--[MS. erased.] - -[128] [Compare _Childe Harold,_ Canto III. stanza v. lines 1, 2.] - -[129] {102}This iris is formed by the rays of the sun over the lower -part of the Alpine torrents; it is exactly like a rainbow come down to -pay a visit, and so close that you may walk into it: this effect lasts -till noon. ["Before ascending the mountain, went to the torrent (7 in -the morning) again; the Sun upon it forming a _rainbow_ of the lower -part of all colours, but principally purple and gold; the bow moving as -you move; I never saw anything like this; it is only in the Sunshine" -(_Letters_, 1899, iii, 359).] - -[130] ["Arrived at the foot of the Mountain (the Yung frau, i.e. the -Maiden); Glaciers; torrents; one of these torrents _nine hundred feet_ -in height of visible descent ... heard an Avalanche fall, like thunder; -saw Glacier--enormous. Storm came on, thunder, lightning, hail; all in -perfection, and beautiful.... The torrent is in shape curving over the -rock, like the _tail_ of a white horse streaming in the wind, such as it -might be conceived would be that of the '_pale_ horse' on which _Death_ -is mounted in the Apocalypse. It is neither mist nor water, but a -something between both; it's immense height ... gives it a wave, a -curve, a spreading here, a condensation there, wonderful and -indescribable" (ibid., pp. 357, 358).] - -[ay] {103}_Wherein seems glassed_----.--[MS. of extract, February 15, -1817.] - -[131] {104}[Compare _Childe Harold_, Canto III. stanza lxxii. lines 2, -3, note 2.] - -[132] [Compare _Childe Harold_, Canto IV. stanza clxxxiv. line 3, note -2.] - -[133] [Compare-- - - "The moving moon went up the sky." - - _The Ancient Mariner_, Part IV. line 263. - -Compare, too-- - - "The climbing moon." - - Act iii. sc. 3, line 40.] - -[134] {105}[Compare _Childe Harold_, Canto II. stanzas v.-xi.] - -[135] The philosopher Jamblicus. The story of the raising of Eros and -Anteros may be found in his life by Eunapius. It is well told. ["It is -reported of him," says Eunapius, "that while he and his scholars were -bathing in the hot baths of Gadara, in Syria, a dispute arising -concerning the baths, he, smiling, ordered his disciples to ask the -inhabitants by what names the two lesser springs, that were fairer than -the rest, were called. To which the inhabitants replied, that 'the one -was called Love, and the other Love's Contrary, but for what reason they -knew not.' Upon which Iamblichus, who chanced to be sitting on the -fountain's edge where the stream flowed out, put his hand on the water, -and, having uttered a few words, called up from the depths of the -fountain a fair-skinned lad, not over-tall, whose golden locks fell in -sunny curls over his breast and back, so that he looked like one fresh -from the bath; and then, going to the other spring, and doing as he had -done before, called up another Amoretto like the first, save that his -long-flowing locks now seemed black, now shot with sunny gleams. -Whereupon both the Amoretti nestled and clung round Iamblichus as if -they had been his own children ... after this his disciples asked him no -more questions."--Eunapii Sardiani _Vitae Philosophorum et Sophistarum_ -(28, 29), _Philostratorum_, etc., _Opera_, Paris, 1829, p. 459, lines -20-50.] - -[136] {107}[There may be some allusion here to "the squall off -Meillerie" on the Lake of Geneva (see Letter to Murray, June 27, 1816, -_Letters,_ 1899, iii. 333).] - -[137] [Compare the concluding sentence of the Journal in Switzerland -(_ibid.,_ p. 364).] - -[az] _And live--and live for ever_.--[Specimen sheet.] - -[ba] {108}_As from a bath_--.--[MS, erased.] - -[138] The story of Pausanias, king of Sparta, (who commanded the Greeks -at the battle of Platea, and afterwards perished for an attempt to -betray the Lacedaemonians), and Cleonice, is told in Plutarch's life of -Cimon; and in the Laconics of Pausanias the sophist in his description -of Greece. - -[The following is the passage from Plutarch: "It is related that when -Pausanias was at Byzantium, he cast his eyes upon a young virgin named -Cleonice, of a noble family there, and insisted on having her for a -mistress. The parents, intimidated by his power, were under the hard -necessity of giving up their daughter. The young woman begged that the -light might be taken out of his apartment, that she might go to his bed -in secresy and silence. When she entered he was asleep, and she -unfortunately stumbled upon the candlestick, and threw it down. The -noise waked him suddenly, and he, in his confusion, thinking it was an -enemy coming to assassinate him, unsheathed a dagger that lay by him, -and plunged it into the virgin's heart. After this he could never rest. -Her image appeared to him every night, and with a menacing tone repeated -this heroic verse-- - - 'Go to the fate which pride and lust prepare!' - -The allies, highly incensed at this infamous action, joined Cimon to -besiege him in Byzantium. But he found means to escape thence; and, as -he was still haunted by the spectre, he is said to have applied to a -temple at Heraclea, where the _manes_ of the dead were consulted. There -he invoked the spirit of Cleonice, and entreated her pardon. She -appeared, and told him 'he would soon be delivered from all his -troubles, after his return to Sparta:' in which, it seems, his death was -enigmatically foretold." "Thus," adds the translator in a note, "we find -that it was a custom in the pagan as well as in the Hebrew theology to -conjure up the spirits of the dead, and that the witch of Endor was not -the only witch in the world."--Langhorne's _Plutarch_, 1838, p. 339. - -The same story is told in the _Periegesis Graecae_, lib. iii. cap. xvii., -but Pausanias adds, "This was the deed from the guilt of which Pausanias -could never fly, though he employed all-various purifications, received -the deprecations of Jupiter Phyxius, and went to Phigalea to the -Arcadian evocators of souls."--_Descr. of Greece_ (translated by T. -Taylor), 1794, i. 304, 305.] - -[139] {109}[Compare-- - - "But I have seen the soaring Jungfrau rear - Her never-trodden snow." - - _Childe Harold_, Canto IV. stanza lxxiii. lines 6, 7. - -Byron did not know, or ignored, the fact that the Jungfrau was first -ascended in 1811, by the brothers Meyer, of Aarau.] - -[140] {110}[Compare-- - - "And who commanded (and the silence came) - Here let the billows stiffen and have rest? - * * * * * - Motionless torrents! silent cataracts." - - _Hymn before Sunrise, etc.,_ by S.T. Coleridge, lines 47, 48, 53. - -"Arrived at the Grindenwald; dined, mounted again, and rode to the -higher Glacier--twilight, but distinct--very fine Glacier, like _a -frozen hurricane_" (Letters, 1899, iii. 360).] - -[141] [The idea of the Witches' Festival may have been derived from the -Walpurgisnacht on the Brocken.] - -[142] [Compare-- - - "Freedom ne'er shall want an heir; - * * * * * - When once more her hosts assemble, - Tyrants shall believe and tremble-- - Smile they at this idle threat? - Crimson tears will follow yet." - - _Ode from the French,_ v. 8, 11-14. _Poetical Works,_ 1900, iii. 435. - -Compare, too, _Napoleon's Farewell_, stanza 3, ibid., p. 428. The -"Voice" prophesies that St. Helena will prove a second Elba, and that -Napoleon will "live to fight another day."] - -[143] {111}[Byron may have had in his mind Thomas Lord Cochrane -(1775-1860), "who had done brilliant service in his successive -commands--the _Speedy_, _Pallas_, _Imperieuse_, and the flotilla of -fire-ships at Basque Roads in 1809." In his Diary, March 10, 1814, he -speaks of him as "the stock-jobbing hoaxer" (_Letters_, 1898, ii. 396, -note 1).] - -[144] {112}[Arimanes, the Aherman of _Vathek_, the Arimanius of Greek -and Latin writers, is the Ahriman (or Angra Mainyu, "who is all death," -the spirit of evil, the counter-creator) of the _Zend-Avesta_, -"Fargard," i. 5 (translated by James Darmesteter, 1895, p. 4). Byron may -have got the form Arimanius (_vide_ Steph., _Thesaurus_) from -D'Herbelot, and changed it to Arimanes.] - -[145] [The "formidable Eblis" sat on a globe of fire--"in his hand ... -he swayed the iron sceptre that causes ... all the powers of the abyss -to tremble."--_Vathek_, by William Beckford, 1887, p. 178.] - -[bb] {112}_The comets herald through the burning skies_.--[Alternative -reading in MS.] - -[146] {114}[Compare-- - - "Sorrow is Knowledge." - - Act I. sc. 1, line 10, _vide ante_, p. 85. - -Compare, too-- - - "Well didst thou speak, Athena's wisest son! - 'All that we know is, nothing can be known.'" - - _Childe Harold_, Canto II. stanza vii. lines 1, 2, - _Poetical Works_, 1899, ii. 103.] - -[147] {115}[Astarte is the classical form (_vide_ Cicero, _De Natura -Deorum_, iii. 23, and Lucian, _De Syria Dea_, iv.) of Milton's - - "Mooned Ashtaroth, - Heaven's queen and mother both." - -Cicero says that she was married to Adonis, alluding, no doubt, to the -myth of the Phoenician Astoreth, who was at once the bride and mother of -Tammuz or Adonis.] - -[bc] {116}_Or dost Qy?_--[Marginal reading in MS.] - -[148] [Compare-- - - " ... illume - With hectic light, the Hesperus of the dead, - Of her consuming cheek the autumnal leaf-like red." - - _Childe Harold_, Canto IV. stanza cii. lines 7-9.] - -[149] {118}[Compare-- - - " ... a firm will, and a deep sense, - Which even in torture can descry - Its own concentered recompense." - - _Prometheus_, iii. 55-57, _vide ante_, p. 51.] - -[150] {119}[On September 22, 1816 (_Letters_, 1899, iii. 357, note 2), -Byron rode from Neuhaus, at the Interlaken end of Lake Thun, to the -Staubbach. On the way between Matten and Muellinen, not far from the -village of Wilderswyl, he passed the baronial Castle of Unspunnen, the -traditional castle of Manfred. It is "but a square tower, with flanking -round turrets, rising picturesquely above the surrounding brushwood." On -the same day and near the same spot he "passed a rock; inscription--two -brothers--one murdered the other; just the place for it." Here, -according to the Countess Guiccioli, was "the origin of _Manfred_." It -is somewhat singular that, on the appearance of _Manfred_, a paper was -published in the June number of the _Edinburgh Monthly Magazine_, 1817, -vol. i. pp. 270-273, entitled, "Sketch of a Tradition related by a Monk -in Switzerland." The narrator, who signs himself P. F., professes to -have heard the story in the autumn of 1816 from one of the fathers "of -Capuchin Friars, not far from Altorf." It is the story of the love of -two brothers for a lady with whom they had "passed their infancy." She -becomes the wife of the elder brother, and, later, inspires the younger -brother with a passion against which he struggles in vain. The fate of -the elder brother is shrouded in mystery. The lady wastes away, and her -paramour is found dead "in the same pass in which he had met his sister -among the mountains." The excuse for retelling the story is that there -appeared to be "a striking coincidence in some characteristic features -between Lord Byron's drama and the Swiss tradition."] - -[151] [The "revised version" makes no further mention of the "key and -casket;" but in the first draft (_vide infra_, p. 122) they were used by -Manfred in calling up Astaroth (_Selections from Byron_, New York, 1900, -p. 370).] - -[152] {120}[Byron may have had in his mind a sentence in a letter of C. -Cassius to Cicero (_Epist.,_ xv. 19), in which he says, "It is difficult -to persuade men that goodness is desirable for its own sake ([Greek: to\ -kalo\n di) au)to\ ai(reto\n]); and yet it is true, and may be proved, -that pleasure and calm are won by virtue, justice, in a word by goodness -([Greek: to~| kalo~|])."] - -[153] St. Maurice is in the Rhone valley, some sixteen miles from -Villeneuve. The abbey (now occupied by Augustinian monks) was founded in -the fourth century, and endowed by Sigismund, King of Burgundy. - -[154] {121}[Thus far the text stands as originally written. The rest of -the scene as given in the first MS. is as follows:-- - - _Abbot_. Then, hear and tremble! For the headstrong wretch - Who in the mail of innate hardihood - Would shield himself, and battle for his sins, - There is the stake on earth--and beyond earth - Eternal-- - - _Man_. Charity, most reverend father, - Becomes thy lips so much more than this menace, - That I would call thee back to it: but say, - What would'st thou with me? - - _Abbot_. It may be there are - Things that would shake thee--but I keep them back, - And give thee till to-morrow to repent. 10 - Then if thou dost not all devote thyself - To penance, and with gift of all thy lands - To the Monastery---- - - _Man_. I understand thee,--well! - - _Abbot_. Expect no mercy; I have warned thee. - - _Man_. (_opening the casket_). Stop-- - There is a gift for thee within this casket. - [MANFRED _opens the casket, strikes a light, and - burns some incense._ - Ho! Ashtaroth! - - _The_ DEMON ASHTAROTH _appears, singing as follows:--_ - - The raven sits - On the Raven-stone,[*] - And his black wing flits - O'er the milk--white bone; 20 - To and fro, as the night--winds blow, - The carcass of the assassin swings; - And there alone, on the Raven-stone, - The raven flaps his dusky wings. - - The fetters creak--and his ebon beak - Croaks to the close of the hollow sound; - And this is the tune, by the light of the Moon, - To which the Witches dance their round-- - Merrily--merrily--cheerily--cheerily-- - Merrily--merrily--speeds the ball: 30 - The dead in their shrouds, and the Demons in clouds, - Flock to the Witches' Carnival. - - _Abbot_. I fear thee not--hence--hence-- - Avaunt thee, evil One!--help, ho! without there! - - _Man_. Convey this man to the Shreckhorn--to its peak-- - To its extremest peak--watch with him there - From now till sunrise; let him gaze, and know - He ne'er again will be so near to Heaven. - But harm him not; and, when the morrow breaks, - Set him down safe in his cell--away with him! 40 - - _Ash_. Had I not better bring his brethren too, - Convent and all, to bear him company? - - _Man_. No, this will serve for the present. Take him up. - - _Ash_. Come, Friar! now an exorcism or two, - And we shall fly the lighter. - - ASHTAROTH _disappears with the_ ABBOT, _singing as follows:_-- - - A prodigal son, and a maid undone,[Sec.] - And a widow re-wedded within the year; - And a worldly monk, and a pregnant nun, - Are things which every day appear. - - MANFRED _alone._ - - _Man_. Why would this fool break in on me, and force 50 - My art to pranks fantastical?--no matter, - It was not of my seeking. My heart sickens, - And weighs a fixed foreboding on my soul. - But it is calm--calm as a sullen sea - After the hurricane; the winds are still, - But the cold waves swell high and heavily, - And there is danger in them. Such a rest - Is no repose. My life hath been a combat, - And every thought a wound, till I am scarred - In the immortal part of me.--What now?] 60 - -[*] "Raven-stone (Rabenstein), a translation of the German word for the -gibbet, which in Germany and Switzerland is permanent, and made of -stone." [Compare _Werner,_ act ii. sc. 2. Compare, too, Anster's -_Faust,_ 1883, p. 306.] - -[Sec.] - _A prodigal son--and a pregnant nun, nun,_ - _And a widow re-wedded within the year--_ - _And a calf at grass--and a priest at mass._ - _Are things which every day appear_.--[MS. erased.] - -[155] {122}[A supplementary MS. supplies the text for the remainder of -the scene.] - -[156] {124}[For the death of Nero, "Rome's sixth Emperor," _vide_ _C. -Suet. Tranq_., lib. vi. cap. xlix.] - -[bd] - - / _not loss of life, but_ \ -_To shun_ < > _public death_--[MS. M] - \ _the torments of a_ / - -[157] [A reminiscence of the clouds of spray from the Fall of the -Staubbach, which, in certain aspects, appear to be springing upwards -from the bed of the waterfall.] - -[158] {125}[Compare _The Giaour,_ lines 282-284. Compare, too, _Don -Juan,_ Canto IV. stanza lvii. line 8.] - -[159] [Here, as in so many other passages of _Manfred,_ Byron is -recording his own feelings and forebodings. The same note is struck in -the melancholy letters of the autumn of 1811. See, for example, the -letter to Dallas, October 11, "It seems as though I were to experience -in my youth the greatest misery of age," etc. (_Letters,_ 1898, ii. -52).] - -[160] {126}["Pray, was Manfred's speech to _the Sun_ still retained in -Act third? I hope so: it was one of the best in the thing, and better -than the Colosseum."--Letter to Murray, July 9, 1817, _Letters_, 1900, -iv. 147. Compare Byron's early rendering of "Ossian's Address to the Sun -'in Carthon.'"--_Poetical Works_, 1898, i. 229.] - -[161] {127} "And it came to pass, that the _Sons of God_ saw the -daughters of men, that they were fair," etc.--"There were giants in the -earth in those days; and also after that, when the _Sons of God_ came in -unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same -became mighty men which were of old, men of renown."--_Genesis_, ch. vi. -verses 2 and 4. - -[162] [For the "Chaldeans" and "mountain-tops," see _Childe Harold_, -Canto III, stanza xiv. line i, and stanza xci. lines 1-3.] - -[be] {129}_Some strange things in these far years_.--[MS. M.] - -[163] [The Grosse Eiger is a few miles to the south of the Castle of -Unspunnen.] - -[164] The remainder of the act in its original shape, ran thus-- - - _Her_. Look--look--the tower-- - The tower's on fire. Oh, heavens and earth! what sound, - What dreadful sound is that? [_A crash like thunder_. - - _Manuel_. Help, help, there!--to the rescue of the Count,-- - The Count's in danger,--what ho! there! approach! - [_The Servants, Vassals, and Peasantry approach - stupifed with terror_. - If there be any of you who have heart - And love of human kind, and will to aid - Those in distress--pause not--but follow me-- - The portal's open, follow. [MANUEL _goes in_. - - _Her_. Come--who follows? - What, none of ye?--ye recreants! shiver then 10 - Without. I will not see old Manuel risk - His few remaining years unaided. [HERMAN _goes in_. - - _Vassal_. Hark!-- - No--all is silent--not a breath--the flame - Which shot forth such a blaze is also gone: - What may this mean? Let's enter! - - _Peasant_. Faith, not I,-- - Not but, if one, or two, or more, will join, - I then will stay behind; but, for my part, - I do not see precisely to what end. - _Vassal_. Cease your vain prating--come. - - _Manuel_ (_speaking within_). 'Tis all in vain-- - He's dead. - - _Her_. (_within_). Not so--even now methought he moved; 20 - But it is dark--so bear him gently out-- - Softly--how cold he is! take care of his temples - In winding down the staircase. - - _Re-enter_ MANUEL _and_ HERMAN, _bearing_ MANFRED _in their arms_. - - _Manuel_. Hie to the castle, some of ye, and bring - What aid you can. Saddle the barb, and speed - For the leech to the city--quick! some water there! - - _Her_. His cheek is black--but there is a faint beat - Still lingering about the heart. Some water. - [_They sprinkle_ MANFRED _with water: after a pause, - he gives some signs of life_. - - _Manuel_. He seems to strive to speak--come--cheerly, Count! - He moves his lips--canst hear him! I am old, 30 - And cannot catch faint sounds. - [HERMAN _inclining his head and listening_. - - _Her_. I hear a word - Or two--but indistinctly--what is next? - What's to be done? let's bear him to the castle. - [MANFRED _motions with his hand not to remove him_. - - _Manuel_. He disapproves--and 'twere of no avail-- - He changes rapidly. - - _Her_. 'Twill soon be over. - - _Manuel_. Oh! what a death is this! that I should live - To shake my gray hairs over the last chief - Of the house of Sigismund.--And such a death! - Alone--we know not how--unshrived--untended-- - With strange accompaniments and fearful signs-- 40 - I shudder at the sight--but must not leave him. - - _Manfred_ (_speaking faintly and slowly_). - Old man! 'tis not so difficult to die. - [MANFRED, _having said this, expires_. - - _Her_. His eyes are fixed and lifeless.--He is gone.-- - - _Manuel_. Close them.--My old hand quivers.--He departs-- - Whither? I dread to think--but he is gone! - - End of Act Third, and of the poem."] - -[bf] {131}_Sirrah! I command thee_.--[MS.] - -[165] [Compare _Childe Harold_, Canto III. stanza lxxxvi. line 1; stanza -lxxxix. lines 1, 2; and stanza xc. lines 1, 2.] - -[166] ["Drove at midnight to see the Coliseum by moonlight: but what can -I say of the Coliseum? It must be _seen_; to describe it I should have -thought impossible, if I had not read _Manfred_.... His [Byron's] -description is the very thing itself; but what cannot he do on such a -subject, when his pen is like the wand of Moses, whose touch can produce -waters even from the barren rock?"--Matthews's _Diary of an Invalid_, -1820, pp. 158, 159. (Compare _Childe Harold_, Canto IV. stanzas -cxxviii.-cxxxi.)] - -[167] {132}[Compare _Childe Harold_, Canto IV. stanzas cvi.-cix.] - -[168] [For "begun," compare _Don Juan_, Canto II. stanza clxvii. line -1.] - -[169] {133}[Compare-- - - " ... but his face - Deep scars of thunder had intrenched." - - _Paradise Lost_, i. 600.] - -[bg] _Summons_----.-[MS. M.] - -[170] {135} - - ["The mind is its own place, and in itself - Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven." - - _Paradise Lost_, i. 254, 255.] - -[171] {136}[In the first edition (p. 75), this line was left out at -Gifford's suggestion (_Memoirs, etc.,_ 1891, i. 387). Byron was -indignant, and wrote to Murray, August 12, 1817 (_Letters,_ 1900, iv. -157), "You have destroyed the whole effect and moral of the poem, by -omitting the last line of Manfred's speaking."] - -[172] [For Goethes translation of the following passages in -_Manfred_, viz (i) Manfred's soliloquy, act 1. sc. 1, line 1 _seq._; (ii) -"The Incantation." act i. sc. 1, lines 192-261; (iii)Manfred's -soliloquy, act ii, sc. 2 lines 164-204; (iv.) the duologue between -Manfred and Astarte, act ii. sc. 4, lines 116-155; (v) a couplet, "For -the night hath been to me," etc., act iii. sc. 4, lines 3, 4;--see -Professor A. Brandl's _Goethe-Jahrbuch._ 1899, and Goethe's _Werke,_ -1874, iii. 201, as quoted in Appendix II., _Letters,_ 1901. v. 503-514.] - - - - - THE LAMENT OF TASSO. - - - - - INTRODUCTION TO _THE LAMENT OF TASSO_. - - -The MS. of the _Lament of Tasso_ is dated April 20, 1817. It was -despatched from Florence April 23, and reached England May 12 (see -_Memoir of John Murray_, 1891, i. 384). Proofs reached Byron June 7, and -the poem was published July 17, 1817. - -"It was," he writes (April 26), "written in consequence of my having -been lately in Ferrara." Again, writing from Rome (May 5, 1817), he asks -if the MS. has arrived, and adds, "I look upon it as a 'These be good -rhymes,' as Pope's papa said to him when he was a boy" (_Letters_, 1900, -iv. 112-115). Two months later he reverted to the theme of Tasso's -ill-treatment at the hands of Duke Alphonso, in the memorable stanzas -xxxv.-xxxix. of the Fourth Canto of _Childe Harold_ (_Poetical Works_, -1899, ii. 354-359; and for examination of the circumstances of Tasso's -imprisonment in the Hospital of Sant' Anna, _vide ibid._, pp. 355, 356, -note 1). - -Notices of the _Lament of Tasso_ appeared in the _Gentleman's Magazine_, -August, 1817, vol. 87, pp. 150, 151; in _The Scot's Magazine_, August, -1817, N.S., vol. i. pp. 48, 49; and a eulogistic but uncritical review -in _Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine_, November, 1817, vol. ii. pp. -142-144. - - - - - ADVERTISEMENT - -At Ferrara, in the Library, are preserved the original MSS. of Tasso's -Gierusalemme[173] and of Guarini's Pastor Fido, with letters of Tasso, -one from Titian to Ariosto, and the inkstand and chair, the tomb and the -house, of the latter. But, as misfortune has a greater interest for -posterity, and little or none for the cotemporary, the cell where Tasso -was confined in the hospital of St. Anna attracts a more fixed attention -than the residence or the monument of Ariosto--at least it had this -effect on me. There are two inscriptions, one on the outer gate, the -second over the cell itself, inviting, unnecessarily, the wonder and the -indignation of the spectator. Ferrara is much decayed and depopulated: -the castle still exists entire; and I saw the court where Parisina and -Hugo were beheaded, according to the annal of Gibbon.[174] - - - - - - THE LAMENT OF TASSO.[175] - - I. - - Long years!--It tries the thrilling frame to bear - And eagle-spirit of a Child of Song-- - Long years of outrage--calumny--and wrong; - Imputed madness, prisoned solitude,[176] - And the Mind's canker in its savage mood, - When the impatient thirst of light and air - Parches the heart; and the abhorred grate, - Marring the sunbeams with its hideous shade, - Works through the throbbing eyeball to the brain, - With a hot sense of heaviness and pain; 10 - And bare, at once, Captivity displayed - Stands scoffing through the never-opened gate, - Which nothing through its bars admits, save day, - And tasteless food, which I have eat alone - Till its unsocial bitterness is gone; - And I can banquet like a beast of prey, - Sullen and lonely, couching in the cave - Which is my lair, and--it may be--my grave. - All this hath somewhat worn me, and may wear, - But must be borne. I stoop not to despair; 20 - For I have battled with mine agony, - And made me wings wherewith to overfly - The narrow circus of my dungeon wall, - And freed the Holy Sepulchre from thrall; - And revelled among men and things divine, - And poured my spirit over Palestine,[177] - In honour of the sacred war for Him, - The God who was on earth and is in Heaven, - For He has strengthened me in heart and limb. - That through this sufferance I might be forgiven, 30 - I have employed my penance to record - How Salem's shrine was won, and how adored. - - II. - - But this is o'er--my pleasant task is done:--[178] - My long-sustaining Friend of many years! - If I do blot thy final page with tears,[179] - Know, that my sorrows have wrung from me none. - But Thou, my young creation! my Soul's child! - Which ever playing round me came and smiled, - And wooed me from myself with thy sweet sight, - Thou too art gone--and so is my delight: 40 - And therefore do I weep and inly bleed - With this last bruise upon a broken reed. - Thou too art ended--what is left me now? - For I have anguish yet to bear--and how? - I know not that--but in the innate force - Of my own spirit shall be found resource. - I have not sunk, for I had no remorse, - Nor cause for such: they called me mad--and why? - Oh Leonora! wilt not thou reply?[180] - I was indeed delirious in my heart 50 - To lift my love so lofty as thou art; - But still my frenzy was not of the mind: - I knew my fault, and feel my punishment - Not less because I suffer it unbent. - That thou wert beautiful, and I not blind, - Hath been the sin which shuts me from mankind; - But let them go, or torture as they will, - My heart can multiply thine image still; - Successful Love may sate itself away; - The wretched are the faithful; 't is their fate 60 - To have all feeling, save the one, decay, - And every passion into one dilate, - As rapid rivers into Ocean pour; - But ours is fathomless, and hath no shore. - - III. - - Above me, hark! the long and maniac cry - Of minds and bodies in captivity. - And hark! the lash and the increasing howl, - And the half-inarticulate blasphemy! - There be some here with worse than frenzy foul, - Some who do still goad on the o'er-laboured mind, 70 - And dim the little light that's left behind - With needless torture, as their tyrant Will - Is wound up to the lust of doing ill:[181] - With these and with their victims am I classed, - 'Mid sounds and sights like these long years have passed; - 'Mid sights and sounds like these my life may close: - So let it be--for then I shall repose. - - IV. - - I have been patient, let me be so yet; - I had forgotten half I would forget, - But it revives--Oh! would it were my lot 80 - To be forgetful as I am forgot!-- - Feel I not wroth with those who bade me dwell - In this vast Lazar-house of many woes? - Where laughter is not mirth, nor thought the mind, - Nor words a language, nor ev'n men mankind; - Where cries reply to curses, shrieks to blows, - And each is tortured in his separate hell-- - For we are crowded in our solitudes-- - Many, but each divided by the wall, - Which echoes Madness in her babbling moods; 90 - While all can hear, none heed his neighbour's call-- - None! save that One, the veriest wretch of all, - Who was not made to be the mate of these, - Nor bound between Distraction and Disease. - Feel I not wroth with those who placed me here? - Who have debased me in the minds of men, - Debarring me the usage of my own, - Blighting my life in best of its career, - Branding my thoughts as things to shun and fear? - Would I not pay them back these pangs again, 100 - And teach them inward Sorrow's stifled groan? - The struggle to be calm, and cold distress, - Which undermines our Stoical success? - No!--still too proud to be vindictive--I - Have pardoned Princes' insults, and would die. - Yes, Sister of my Sovereign! for thy sake - I weed all bitterness from out my breast, - It hath no business where _thou_ art a guest: - Thy brother hates--but I can not detest; - Thou pitiest not--but I can not forsake. 110 - - V. - - Look on a love which knows not to despair, - But all unquenched is still my better part, - Dwelling deep in my shut and silent heart, - As dwells the gathered lightning in its cloud, - Encompassed with its dark and rolling shroud, - Till struck,--forth flies the all-ethereal dart! - And thus at the collision of thy name - The vivid thought still flashes through my frame, - And for a moment all things as they were - Flit by me;--they are gone--I am the same. 120 - And yet my love without ambition grew; - I knew thy state--my station--and I knew - A Princess was no love-mate for a bard;[182] - I told it not--I breathed it not[183]--it was - Sufficient to itself, its own reward; - And if my eyes revealed it, they, alas! - Were punished by the silentness of thine, - And yet I did not venture to repine. - Thou wert to me a crystal-girded shrine, - Worshipped at holy distance, and around 130 - Hallowed and meekly kissed the saintly ground; - Not for thou wert a Princess, but that Love - Had robed thee with a glory, and arrayed - Thy lineaments in beauty that dismayed-- - Oh! not dismayed--but awed, like One above! - And in that sweet severity[184] there was - A something which all softness did surpass-- - I know not how--thy Genius mastered mine-- - My Star stood still before thee:--if it were - Presumptuous thus to love without design, 140 - That sad fatality hath cost me dear; - But thou art dearest still, and I should be - Fit for this cell, which wrongs me--but for _thee_. - The very love which locked me to my chain - Hath lightened half its weight; and for the rest, - Though heavy, lent me vigour to sustain, - And look to thee with undivided breast, - And foil the ingenuity of Pain. - - VI. - - It is no marvel--from my very birth - My soul was drunk with Love,--which did pervade 150 - And mingle with whate'er I saw on earth: - Of objects all inanimate I made - Idols, and out of wild and lonely flowers, - And rocks, whereby they grew, a Paradise, - Where I did lay me down within the shade - Of waving trees, and dreamed uncounted hours, - Though I was chid for wandering; and the Wise - Shook their white aged heads o'er me, and said - Of such materials wretched men were made, - And such a truant boy would end in woe, 160 - And that the only lesson was a blow;[185]-- - And then they smote me, and I did not weep, - But cursed them in my heart, and to my haunt - Returned and wept alone, and dreamed again - The visions which arise without a sleep. - And with my years my soul began to pant - With feelings of strange tumult and soft pain; - And the whole heart exhaled into One Want, - But undefined and wandering, till the day - I found the thing I sought--and that was thee; 170 - And then I lost my being, all to be - Absorbed in thine;--the world was past away;-- - _Thou_ didst annihilate the earth to me! - - VII. - - I loved all Solitude--but little thought - To spend I know not what of life, remote - From all communion with existence, save - The maniac and his tyrant;--had I been - Their fellow, many years ere this had seen - My mind like theirs corrupted to its grave.[bh] - But who hath seen me writhe, or heard me rave? 180 - Perchance in such a cell we suffer more - Than the wrecked sailor on his desert shore; - The world is all before him--_mine_ is _here_, - Scarce twice the space they must accord my bier. - What though _he_ perish, he may lift his eye, - And with a dying glance upbraid the sky; - I will not raise my own in such reproof, - Although 'tis clouded by my dungeon roof. - - VIII. - - Yet do I feel at times my mind decline,[186] - But with a sense of its decay: I see 190 - Unwonted lights along my prison shine, - And a strange Demon,[187] who is vexing me - With pilfering pranks and petty pains, below - The feeling of the healthful and the free; - But much to One, who long hath suffered so, - Sickness of heart, and narrowness of place, - And all that may be borne, or can debase. - I thought mine enemies had been but Man, - But Spirits may be leagued with them--all Earth - Abandons--Heaven forgets me;--in the dearth 200 - Of such defence the Powers of Evil can-- - It may be--tempt me further,--and prevail - Against the outworn creature they assail. - Why in this furnace is my spirit proved, - Like steel in tempering fire? because I loved? - Because I loved what not to love, and see, - Was more or less than mortal, and than me. - - IX. - - I once was quick in feeling--that is o'er;-- - My scars are callous, or I should have dashed - My brain against these bars, as the sun flashed 210 - In mockery through them;--- If I bear and bore - The much I have recounted, and the more - Which hath no words,--'t is that I would not die - And sanction with self-slaughter the dull lie - Which snared me here, and with the brand of shame - Stamp Madness deep into my memory, - And woo Compassion to a blighted name, - Sealing the sentence which my foes proclaim. - No--it shall be immortal!--and I make - A future temple of my present cell, 220 - Which nations yet shall visit for my sake.[bi] - While thou, Ferrara! when no longer dwell - The ducal chiefs within thee, shall fall down, - And crumbling piecemeal view thy hearthless halls, - A Poet's wreath shall be thine only crown,-- - A Poet's dungeon thy most far renown, - While strangers wonder o'er thy unpeopled walls! - And thou, Leonora!--thou--who wert ashamed - That such as I could love--who blushed to hear - To less than monarchs that thou couldst be dear, 230 - Go! tell thy brother, that my heart, untamed - By grief--years--weariness--and it may be - A taint of that he would impute to me-- - From long infection of a den like this, - Where the mind rots congenial with the abyss,-- - Adores thee still;--and add--that when the towers - And battlements which guard his joyous hours - Of banquet, dance, and revel, are forgot, - Or left untended in a dull repose, - This--this--shall be a consecrated spot! 240 - But _Thou_--when all that Birth and Beauty throws - Of magic round thee is extinct--shalt have - One half the laurel which o'ershades my grave.[188] - No power in death can tear our names apart, - As none in life could rend thee from my heart.[bj] - Yes, Leonora! it shall be our fate - To be entwined[189] for ever--but too late![190] - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[173] {141}[A MS. of the _Gerusalemme_ is preserved and exhibited at Sir -John Soane's Museum in Lincoln's Inn Fields.] - -[174] [The original MS. of this poem is dated, "The Apennines, April 20, -1817."] - -[175] {143}[The MS. of the _Lament of Tasso_ corresponds, save in three -lines where alternate readings are superscribed, _verbatim et literatim_ -with the text. A letter dated August 21, 1817, from G. Polidori to John -Murray, with reference to the translation of the _Lament_ into Italian, -and a dedicatory letter (in Polidori's handwriting) to the Earl of -Guilford, dated August 3, 1817, form part of the same volume.] - -[176] [In a letter written to his friend Scipio Gonzaga ("Di prizione in -Sant' Anna, questo mese di mezzio l'anno 1579"), Tasso exclaims, "Ah, -wretched me! I had designed to write, besides two epic poems of most -noble argument, four tragedies, of which I had formed the plan. I had -schemed, too, many works in prose, on subjects the most lofty, and most -useful to human life; I had designed to unite philosophy with eloquence, -in such a manner that there might remain of me an eternal memory in the -world. Alas! I had expected to close my life with glory and renown; but -now, oppressed by the burden of so many calamities, I have lost every -prospect of reputation and of honour. The fear of perpetual imprisonment -increases my melancholy; the indignities which I suffer augment it; and -the squalor of my beard, my hair, and habit, the sordidness and filth, -exceedingly annoy me. Sure am I, that, if she who so little has -corresponded to my attachment--if she saw me in such a state, and in -such affliction--she would have some compassion on me."--_Lettere di -Torouato Tasso_, 1853, ii. 60.] - -[177] {144}[Compare-- - - "The second of a tenderer sadder mood, - Shall pour his soul out o'er Jerusalem." - - _Prophecy of Dante_, Canto IV. lines 136, 137.] - -[178] [Tasso's imprisonment in the Hospital of Sant' Anna lasted from -March, 1579, to July, 1586. The _Gerusalemme_ had been finished many -years before. He sent the first four cantos to his friend Scipio -Gonzaga, February 17, and the last three on October 4, 1575 (_Lettere di -Torquato Tasso_, 1852, i. 55-117). A mutilated first edition was -published in 1580 by "Orazio _alias_ Celio de' Malespini, avventuriere -intrigante" (Solerti's _Vita, etc._, 1895, i. 329).] - -[179] [So, too, Gibbon was overtaken by a "sober melancholy" when he had -finished the last line of the last page of the _Decline and Fall_ on the -night of June 27, 1787.] - -[180] {145}[Not long after his imprisonment, Tasso appealed to the mercy -of Alfonso, in a canzone of great beauty, ... and ... in another ode to -the princesses, whose pity he invoked in the name of their own mother, -who had herself known, if not the like horrors, the like solitude of -imprisonment, and bitterness of soul, made a similar appeal. (See _Life -of Tasso_, by John Black, 1810, ii. 64, 408.) Black prints the canzone -in full; Solerti (_Vita, etc._, i. 316-318) gives selections.] - -[181] {146}["For nearly the first year of his confinement Tasso endured -all the horrors of a solitary sordid cell, and was under the care of a -gaoler whose chief virtue, although he was a poet and a man of letters, -was a cruel obedience to the commands of his prince.... His name was -Agostino Mosti.... Tasso says of him, in a letter to his sister, 'ed usa -meco ogni sorte di rigore ed inumanita.'"--Hobhouse, _Historical -Illustrations, etc_., 1818, pp. 20, 21, note 1. - -Tasso, in a letter to Angelo Grillo, dated June 16, 1584 (Letter 288, -_Le Lettere, etc_., ii. 276), complains that Mosti did not interfere to -prevent him being molested by the other inmates, disturbed in his -studies, and treated disrespectfully by the governor's subordinates. In -the letter to his sister Cornelia, from which Hobhouse quotes, the -allusion is not to Mosti, but, according to Solerti, to the Cardinal -Luigi d'Este. Elsewhere (Letter 133, _Lettere_, ii. 88, 89) Tasso -describes Agostino Mosti as a rigorous and zealous Churchman, but far -too cultivated and courteous a gentleman to have exercised any severity -towards him _proprio motu_, or otherwise than in obedience to orders.] - -[182] {147}[It is highly improbable that Tasso openly indulged, or -secretly nourished, a consuming passion for Leonora d'Este, and it is -certain that the "Sister of his Sovereign" had nothing to do with his -being shut up in the Hospital of Sant' Anna. That poet and princess had -known each other for over thirteen years, that the princess was seven -years older than the poet, and, in March, 1579, close upon forty-two -years of age, are points to be considered; but the fact that she died in -February, 1581, and that Tasso remained in confinement for five years -longer, is a stronger argument against the truth of the legend. She was -a beautiful woman, his patroness and benefactress, and the theme of -sonnets and canzoni; but it was not for her "sweet sake" that Tasso lost -either his wits or his liberty.] - -[183] Compare-- - - "I speak not, I trace not, I breathe not thy name." - -[184] {148}[Compare the following lines from the canzone entitled, "La -Prima di Tre Sorelle Scritte a Madaroa Leonora d'Este ... 1567:"-- - - "E certo il primo di che'l bel sereno - Delia tua fronte agli occhi miei s'offerse - E vidi armato spaziarvi Amore, - Se non che riverenza allor converse, - E Meraviglia in fredda selce il seno, - Ivi peria con doppia morte il core; - Ma parte degli strali, e dell' ardore - Sentii pur anco entro 'l gelato marmo."] - -[185] {149}[Ariosto (_Sat._ 7, Terz. 53) complains that his father -chased him "not with spurs only, but with darts and lances, to turn over -old texts," etc.; but Tasso was a studious and dutiful boy, and, though -he finally deserted the law for poetry, and "crossed" his father's -wishes and intentions, he took his own course reluctantly, and without -any breach of decorum. But, perhaps, the following translations from the -_Rinaldo,_ which Black supplies in his footnotes (i. 41. 97), suggested -this picture of a "poetic child" at variance with the authorities:-- - - "Now hasting thence a verdant mead he found, - Where flowers of fragrant smell adorned the ground; - Sweet was the scene, and here from human eyes - Apart he sits, and thus he speaks mid sighs." - - Canto I. stanza xviii. - - "Thus have I sung in youth's aspiring days - Rinaldo's pleasing plains and martial praise: - While other studies slowly I pursued - Ere twice revolved nine annual suns I viewed; - Ungrateful studies, whence oppressed I groaned, - A burden to myself and to the world unknown. - - * * * * * - - But this first-fruit of new awakened powers! - Dear offspring of a few short studious hours! - Thou infant volume child of fancy born - Where Brenta's waves the sunny meads adorn." - - Canto XII. stanza xc.] - -[bh] {150}_My mind like theirs adapted to its grave_.--[MS.] - -[186] ["Nor do I lament," wrote Tasso, shortly after his confinement, -"that my heart is deluged with almost constant misery, that my head is -always heavy and often painful, that my sight and hearing are much -impaired, and that all my frame is become spare and meagre; but, passing -all this with a short sigh, what I would bewail is the infirmity of my -mind.... My mind sleeps, not thinks; my fancy is chill, and forms no -pictures; my negligent senses will no longer furnish the images of -things; my hand is sluggish in writing, and my pen seems as if it shrunk -from the office. I feel as if I were chained in all my operations, and -as if I were overcome by an unwonted numbness and oppressive -stupor."--_Opere_, Venice, 1738, viii. 258, 263.] - -[187] [In a letter to Maurizio Cataneo, dated December 25, 1585, Tasso -gives an account of his sprite (_folletto_): "The little thief has -stolen from me many crowns.... He puts all my books topsy-turvy (_mi -mette tutti i libri sottosopra_), opens my chest and steals my keys, so -that I can keep nothing." Again, December 30, with regard to his -hallucinations he says, "Know then that in addition to the wonders of -the Folletto ... I have many nocturnal alarms. For even when awake I -have seemed to behold small flames in the air, and sometimes my eyes -sparkle in such a manner, that I dread the loss of sight, and I have ... -seen sparks issue from them."--Letters 454, 456, _Le Lettere_, 1853, ii. -475, 479.] - -[bi] {151} - - / _nations yet_ \ -_Which_ < > _shall visit for my sake_.--[MS.] - \ _after days_ / - -[188] {152}["Tasso, notwithstanding the criticisms of the Cruscanti, -would have been crowned in the Capitol, but for his death," Reply to -_Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine_ (Ravenna, March 15, 1820), _Letters_, -1900, iv. Appendix IX. p. 487.] - -[bj] - - / _wrench_ \ -_As none in life could_ < > _thee from my heart_.--[MS.] - \ _wring_ / - -[189] [Compare-- - - "From Life's commencement to its slow decline - We are entwined." - - _Epistle to Augusta_, stanza xvi. lines 6, 7, _vide ante_, p. 62.] - -[190] [The Apennines, April 20, 1817.] - - - - - BEPPO: - - A VENETIAN STORY. - - - _Rosalind_. Farewell, Monsieur Traveller; Look, you lisp, - and wear strange suits: disable all the benefits of your own - country; be out of love with your Nativity, and almost chide - God for making you that countenance you are; or I will - scarce think you have swam in a _Gondola_. - - _As You Like It_, act iv, sc. I, lines 33-35. - - _Annotation of the Commentators_. - That is, _been at Venice_, which was much visited by the young English - gentlemen of those times, and was _then_ what _Paris_ is _now_--the seat - of all dissoluteness.--S. A.[191] - - [The initials S. A. (Samuel Ayscough) are not attached to this note, but - to another note on the same page (see _Dramatic Works_ of William - Shakspeare, 1807, i. 242).] - - - - - INTRODUCTION TO _BEPPO_ - - -_BEPPO_ was written in the autumn (September 6--October 12, _Letters_, -1900, iv. 172) of 1817, whilst Byron was still engaged on the additional -stanzas of the Fourth Canto of _Childe Harold_. His new poem, as he -admitted from the first, was "after the excellent manner" of John -Hookham Frere's _jeu d'esprit_, known as _Whistlecraft_ (_Prospectus and -Specimen of an intended National Work_ by William and Robert -Whistlecraft, London, 1818[192]), which must have reached him in the -summer of 1817. Whether he divined the identity of "Whistlecraft" from -the first, or whether his guess was an after-thought, he did not -hesitate to take the water and shoot ahead of his unsuspecting rival. It -was a case of plagiarism _in excelsis_, and the superiority of the -imitation to the original must be set down to the genius of the -plagiary, unaided by any profound study of Italian literature, or an -acquaintance at first hand with the parents and inspirers of -_Whistlecraft_. - -It is possible that he had read and forgotten some specimens of Pulci's -_Morgante Maggiore_, which J. H. Merivale had printed in the _Monthly -Magazine_ for 1806-1807, vol. xxi. pp. 304, 510, etc., and it is certain -that he was familiar with his _Orlando in Roncesvalles_, published in -1814. He distinctly states that he had not seen W. S. Rose's[193] -translation of Casti's _Animali Parlanti_ (first edition [anonymous], -1816), but, according to Pryse Gordon (_Personal Memoirs_, ii. 328), he -had read the original. If we may trust Ugo Foscolo (see "Narrative and -Romantic Poems of the Italians" in the _Quart. Rev_., April, 1819, vol. -xxi. pp. 486-526), there is some evidence that Byron had read -Forteguerri's _Ricciardetto_ (translated in 1819 by Sylvester (Douglas) -Lord Glenbervie, and again, by John Herman Merivale, under the title of -_The Two First Cantos of Richardetto_, 1820), but the parallel which he -adduces (_vide post_, p. 166) is not very striking or convincing. - -On the other hand, after the poem was completed (March 25, 1818), he was -under the impression that "Berni was the original of _all_ ... the -father of that kind [i.e. the mock-heroic] of writing;" but there is -nothing to show whether he had or had not read the _rifacimento_ of -Orlando's _Innamorato_, or the more distinctively Bernesque _Capitoli_. -Two years later (see Letter to Murray, February 21, 1820, _Letters_, -1900, iv. 407; and "Advertisement" to _Morgante Maggiore_) he had -discovered that "Pulci was the parent of _Whistlecraft_, and the -precursor and model of Berni," but, in 1817, he was only at the -commencement of his studies. A time came long before the "year or two" -of his promise (March 25, 1818) when he had learned to simulate the -_vera imago_ of the Italian Muse, and was able not only to surpass his -"immediate model," but to rival his model's forerunners and inspirers. -In the meanwhile a tale based on a "Venetian anecdote" (perhaps an -"episode" in the history of Colonel Fitzgerald and the Marchesa -Castiglione,--see Letter to Moore, December 26, 1816, _Letters_, 1900, -iv. 26) lent itself to "the excellent manner of Mr. Whistlecraft," and -would show "the knowing ones," that is, Murray's advisers, Gifford, -Croker, Frere, etc., that "he could write cheerfully," and "would repel -the charge of monotony and mannerism." - -Eckermann, mindful of Goethe's hint that Byron had too much _empeiria_ -(an excess of _mondanite_--a _this_-worldliness), found it hard to read -_Beppo_ after _Macbeth_. "I felt," he says, "the predominance of a -nefarious, empirical world, with which the mind which introduced it to -us has in a certain measure associated itself" (_Conversations of -Goethe, etc._, 1874, p. 175). But _Beppo_ must be taken at its own -valuation. It is _A Venetian Story_, and the action takes place behind -the scenes of "a comedy of Goldoni." A less subtle but a more apposite -criticism may be borrowed from "Lord Byron's Combolio" (_sic_), -_Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine_, 1822, xi. 162-165. - - "The story that's in it - May be told in a minute; - But _par parenthese_ chatting, - On this thing and that thing, - Keeps the shuttlecock flying, - And attention from dying." - -_Beppo, a Venetian Story_ (xcv. stanzas) was published February 28, -1818; and a fifth edition, consisting of xcix. stanzas, was issued May -4, 1818. - -Jeffrey, writing in the _Edinburgh Review_ (February, 1818, vol. xxix. -pp. 302-310), is unconcerned with regard to _Whistlecraft_, or any -earlier model, but observes "that the nearest approach to it [_Beppo_] -is to be found in some of the tales and lighter pieces of Prior--a few -stanzas here and there among the trash and burlesque of Peter Pindar, -and in several passages of Mr. Moore, and the author of the facetious -miscellany entitled the _Twopenny Post Bag_." - -Other notices, of a less appreciative kind, appeared in the _Monthly -Review_, March, 1818, vol. 85, pp. 285-290; and in the _Eclectic -Review_, N.S., June, 1818, vol. ix. pp. 555-557. - - - - - BEPPO.[194] - - I. - - 'Tis known, at least it should be, that throughout - All countries of the Catholic persuasion,[195] - Some weeks before Shrove Tuesday comes about, - The People take their fill of recreation, - And buy repentance, ere they grow devout, - However high their rank, or low their station, - With fiddling, feasting, dancing, drinking, masquing, - And other things which may be had for asking. - - II. - - The moment night with dusky mantle covers - The skies (and the more duskily the better), - The Time less liked by husbands than by lovers - Begins, and Prudery flings aside her fetter; - And Gaiety on restless tiptoe hovers, - Giggling with all the gallants who beset her; - And there are songs and quavers, roaring, humming, - Guitars, and every other sort of strumming.[196] - - - III. - - And there are dresses splendid, but fantastical, - Masks of all times and nations, Turks and Jews, - And harlequins and clowns, with feats gymnastical, - Greeks, Romans, Yankee-doodles, and Hindoos; - All kinds of dress, except the ecclesiastical, - All people, as their fancies hit, may choose, - But no one in these parts may quiz the Clergy,-- - Therefore take heed, ye Freethinkers! I charge ye. - - IV. - - You'd better walk about begirt with briars, - Instead of coat and smallclothes, than put on - A single stitch reflecting upon friars, - Although you swore it only was in fun; - They'd haul you o'er the coals, and stir the fires - Of Phlegethon with every mother's son, - Nor say one mass to cool the cauldron's bubble - That boiled your bones, unless you paid them double. - - V. - - But saving this, you may put on whate'er - You like by way of doublet, cape, or cloak, - Such as in Monmouth-street, or in Rag Fair, - Would rig you out in seriousness or joke; - And even in Italy such places are, - With prettier name in softer accents spoke, - For, bating Covent Garden, I can hit on - No place that's called "Piazza" in Great Britain.[197] - - - - VI. - - This feast is named the Carnival, which being - Interpreted, implies "farewell to flesh:" - So called, because the name and thing agreeing, - Through Lent they live on fish both salt and fresh. - But why they usher Lent with so much glee in, - Is more than I can tell, although I guess - 'Tis as we take a glass with friends at parting, - In the Stage-Coach or Packet, just at starting. - - VII. - - And thus they bid farewell to carnal dishes, - And solid meats, and highly spiced ragouts, - To live for forty days on ill-dressed fishes, - Because they have no sauces to their stews; - A thing which causes many "poohs" and "pishes," - And several oaths (which would not suit the Muse), - From travellers accustomed from a boy - To eat their salmon, at the least, with soy; - - VIII. - - And therefore humbly I would recommend - "The curious in fish-sauce," before they cross - The sea, to bid their cook, or wife, or friend, - Walk or ride to the Strand, and buy in gross - (Or if set out beforehand, these may send - By any means least liable to loss), - Ketchup, Soy, Chili-vinegar, and Harvey, - Or, by the Lord! a Lent will well nigh starve ye; - - IX. - - That is to say, if your religion's Roman, - And you at Rome would do as Romans do, - According to the proverb,--although no man, - If foreign, is obliged to fast; and you, - If Protestant, or sickly, or a woman, - Would rather dine in sin on a ragout-- - Dine and be d--d! I don't mean to be coarse, - But that's the penalty, to say no worse. - - X. - - Of all the places where the Carnival - Was most facetious in the days of yore, - For dance, and song, and serenade, and ball, - And Masque, and Mime, and Mystery, and more - Than I have time to tell now, or at all, - Venice the bell from every city bore,-- - And at the moment when I fix my story, - That sea-born city was in all her glory. - - XI. - - They've pretty faces yet, those same Venetians, - Black eyes, arched brows, and sweet expressions still; - Such as of old were copied from the Grecians, - In ancient arts by moderns mimicked ill; - And like so many Venuses of Titian's[198] - (The best's at Florence--see it, if ye will,) - They look when leaning over the balcony, - Or stepped from out a picture by Giorgione,[199] - - XII. - - Whose tints are Truth and Beauty at their best; - And when you to Manfrini's palace go,[200] - That picture (howsoever fine the rest) - Is loveliest to my mind of all the show; - It may perhaps be also to _your_ zest, - And that's the cause I rhyme upon it so: - Tis but a portrait of his Son, and Wife, - And self; but _such_ a Woman! Love in life![201] - - XIII. - - Love in full life and length, not love ideal, - No, nor ideal beauty, that fine name, - But something better still, so very real, - That the sweet Model must have been the same; - A thing that you would purchase, beg, or steal, - Wer't not impossible, besides a shame: - The face recalls some face, as 'twere with pain, - You once have seen, but ne'er will see again; - - XIV. - - One of those forms which flit by us, when we - Are young, and fix our eyes on every face; - And, oh! the Loveliness at times we see - In momentary gliding, the soft grace, - The Youth, the Bloom, the Beauty which agree, - In many a nameless being we retrace, - Whose course and home we knew not, nor shall know, - Like the lost Pleiad[202] seen no more below. - - XV. - - I said that like a picture by Giorgione - Venetian women were, and so they _are_, - Particularly seen from a balcony, - (For beauty's sometimes best set off afar) - And there, just like a heroine of Goldoni,[202A] - They peep from out the blind, or o'er the bar; - And truth to say, they're mostly very pretty, - And rather like to show it, more's the pity! - - XVI. - - For glances beget ogles, ogles sighs, - Sighs wishes, wishes words, and words a letter, - Which flies on wings of light-heeled Mercuries, - Who do such things because they know no better; - And then, God knows what mischief may arise, - When Love links two young people in one fetter, - Vile assignations, and adulterous beds, - Elopements, broken vows, and hearts, and heads. - - XVII. - - Shakspeare described the sex in Desdemona - As very fair, but yet suspect in fame,[202B] - And to this day from Venice to Verona - Such matters may be probably the same, - Except that since those times was never known a - Husband whom mere suspicion could inflame - To suffocate a wife no more than twenty, - Because she had a "Cavalier Servente."[203] - - XVIII. - - Their jealousy (if they are ever jealous) - Is of a fair complexion altogether, - Not like that sooty devil of Othello's, - Which smothers women in a bed of feather, - But worthier of these much more jolly fellows, - When weary of the matrimonial tether - His head for such a wife no mortal bothers, - But takes at once another, or _another's_. - - XIX. - - Didst ever see a Gondola? For fear - You should not, I'll describe it you exactly: - 'Tis a long covered boat that's common here, - Carved at the prow, built lightly, but compactly, - Rowed by two rowers, each call'd "Gondolier," - It glides along the water looking blackly, - Just like a coffin clapt in a canoe, - Where none can make out what you say or do. - - XX. - - And up and down the long canals they go, - And under the Rialto[204] shoot along, - By night and day, all paces, swift or slow, - And round the theatres, a sable throng, - They wait in their dusk livery of woe,-- - But not to them do woeful things belong, - For sometimes they contain a deal of fun, - Like mourning coaches when the funeral's done. - - XXI. - - But to my story.--'Twas some years ago, - It may be thirty, forty, more or less, - The Carnival was at its height, and so - Were all kinds of buffoonery and dress; - A certain lady went to see the show, - Her real name I know not, nor can guess, - And so we'll call her Laura, if you please, - Because it slips into my verse with ease. - - XXII. - - She was not old, nor young, nor at the years - Which certain people call a "_certain age_,"[205] - Which yet the most uncertain age appears, - Because I never heard, nor could engage - A person yet by prayers, or bribes, or tears, - To name, define by speech, or write on page, - The period meant precisely by that word,-- - Which surely is exceedingly absurd. - - XXIII. - - Laura was blooming still, had made the best - Of Time, and Time returned the compliment, - And treated her genteelly, so that, dressed, - She looked extremely well where'er she went; - A pretty woman is a welcome guest, - And Laura's brow a frown had rarely bent; - Indeed, she shone all smiles, and seemed to flatter - Mankind with her black eyes for looking at her. - - XXIV. - - She was a married woman; 'tis convenient, - Because in Christian countries 'tis a rule - To view their little slips with eyes more lenient; - Whereas if single ladies play the fool, - (Unless within the period intervenient - A well-timed wedding makes the scandal cool) - I don't know how they ever can get over it, - Except they manage never to discover it. - - XXV. - - Her husband sailed upon the Adriatic, - And made some voyages, too, in other seas, - And when he lay in Quarantine for pratique[206] - (A forty days' precaution 'gainst disease), - His wife would mount, at times, her highest attic, - For thence she could discern the ship with ease: - He was a merchant trading to Aleppo, - His name Giuseppe, called more briefly, Beppo.[207] - - XXVI. - - He was a man as dusky as a Spaniard, - Sunburnt with travel, yet a portly figure; - Though coloured, as it were, within a tanyard, - He was a person both of sense and vigour-- - A better seaman never yet did man yard; - And she, although her manners showed no rigour, - Was deemed a woman of the strictest principle, - So much as to be thought almost invincible.[208] - - XXVII. - - But several years elapsed since they had met; - Some people thought the ship was lost, and some - That he had somehow blundered into debt, - And did not like the thought of steering home; - And there were several offered any bet, - Or that he would, or that he would not come; - For most men (till by losing rendered sager) - Will back their own opinions with a wager. - - XXVIII. - - 'Tis said that their last parting was pathetic, - As partings often are, or ought to be, - And their presentiment was quite prophetic, - That they should never more each other see, - (A sort of morbid feeling, half poetic, - Which I have known occur in two or three,) - When kneeling on the shore upon her sad knee - He left this Adriatic Ariadne. - - XXIX. - - And Laura waited long, and wept a little, - And thought of wearing weeds, as well she might; - She almost lost all appetite for victual, - And could not sleep with ease alone at night; - She deemed the window-frames and shutters brittle - Against a daring housebreaker or sprite, - And so she thought it prudent to connect her - With a vice-husband, _chiefly_ to _protect her_. - - XXX. - - She chose, (and what is there they will not choose, - If only you will but oppose their choice?) - Till Beppo should return from his long cruise, - And bid once more her faithful heart rejoice, - A man some women like, and yet abuse-- - A Coxcomb was he by the public voice; - A Count of wealth, they said as well as quality, - And in his pleasures of great liberality.[bk] - - XXXI. - - And then he was a Count, and then he knew - Music, and dancing, fiddling, French and Tuscan; - The last not easy, be it known to you, - For few Italians speak the right Etruscan. - He was a critic upon operas, too, - And knew all niceties of sock and buskin; - And no Venetian audience could endure a - Song, scene, or air, when he cried "seccatura!"[209] - - XXXII. - - His "bravo" was decisive, for that sound - Hushed "Academie" sighed in silent awe; - The fiddlers trembled as he looked around, - For fear of some false note's detected flaw; - The "Prima Donna's" tuneful heart would bound, - Dreading the deep damnation of his "Bah!" - Soprano, Basso, even the Contra-Alto, - Wished him five fathom under the Rialto. - - XXXIII. - - He patronised the Improvisatori, - Nay, could himself extemporise some stanzas, - Wrote rhymes, sang songs, could also tell a story, - Sold pictures, and was skilful in the dance as - Italians can be, though in this their glory - Must surely yield the palm to that which France has; - In short, he was a perfect Cavaliero, - And to his very valet seemed a hero.[210] - - XXXIV. - - Then he was faithful too, as well as amorous; - So that no sort of female could complain, - Although they're now and then a little clamorous, - He never put the pretty souls in pain; - His heart was one of those which most enamour us, - Wax to receive, and marble to retain: - He was a lover of the good old school, - Who still become more constant as they cool. - - XXXV. - - No wonder such accomplishments should turn - A female head, however sage and steady-- - With scarce a hope that Beppo could return, - In law he was almost as good as dead, he - Nor sent, nor wrote, nor showed the least concern, - And she had waited several years already: - And really if a man won't let us know - That he's alive, he's _dead_--or should be so. - - XXXVI. - - Besides, within the Alps, to every woman, - (Although, God knows, it is a grievous sin,) - 'Tis, I may say, permitted to have _two_ men; - I can't tell who first brought the custom in, - But "Cavalier Serventes" are quite common, - And no one notices or cares a pin; - An we may call this (not to say the worst) - A _second_ marriage which corrupts the _first_. - - XXXVII. - - The word was formerly a "Cicisbeo,"[211] - But _that_ is now grown vulgar and indecent; - The Spaniards call the person a "_Cortejo_,"[212] - For the same mode subsists in Spain, though recent; - In short it reaches from the Po to Teio, - And may perhaps at last be o'er the sea sent: - But Heaven preserve Old England from such courses! - Or what becomes of damage and divorces? - - XXXVIII.[213] - - However, I still think, with all due deference - To the fair _single_ part of the creation, - That married ladies should preserve the preference - In _tete a tete_ or general conversation-- - And this I say without peculiar reference - To England, France, or any other nation-- - Because they know the world, and are at ease, - And being natural, naturally please. - - XXXIX. - - 'Tis true, your budding Miss is very charming, - But shy and awkward at first coming out, - So much alarmed, that she is quite alarming, - All Giggle, Blush; half Pertness, and half Pout; - And glancing at _Mamma_, for fear there's harm in - What you, she, it, or they, may be about: - The Nursery still lisps out in all they utter-- - Besides, they always smell of bread and butter.[214] - - XL. - - But "Cavalier Servente" is the phrase - Used in politest circles to express - This supernumerary slave, who stays - Close to the lady as a part of dress, - Her word the only law which he obeys. - His is no sinecure, as you may guess; - Coach, servants, gondola, he goes to call, - And carries fan and tippet, gloves and shawl. - - XLI. - - With all its sinful doings, I must say, - That Italy's a pleasant place to me, - Who love to see the Sun shine every day, - And vines (not nailed to walls) from tree to tree - Festooned, much like the back scene of a play, - Or melodrame, which people flock to see, - When the first act is ended by a dance - In vineyards copied from the South of France. - - XLII. - - I like on Autumn evenings to ride out, - Without being forced to bid my groom be sure - My cloak is round his middle strapped about, - Because the skies are not the most secure; - I know too that, if stopped upon my route, - Where the green alleys windingly allure, - Reeling with _grapes_ red wagons choke the way,-- - In England 'twould be dung, dust, or a dray. - - XLIII. - - I also like to dine on becaficas, - To see the Sun set, sure he'll rise to-morrow, - Not through a misty morning twinkling weak as - A drunken man's dead eye in maudlin sorrow, - But with all Heaven t'himself; the day will break as - Beauteous as cloudless, nor be forced to borrow - That sort of farthing candlelight which glimmers - Where reeking London's smoky cauldron simmers. - - XLIV. - - I love the language, that soft bastard Latin,[215] - Which melts like kisses from a female mouth, - And sounds as if it should be writ on satin,[216] - With syllables which breathe of the sweet South, - And gentle liquids gliding all so pat in, - That not a single accent seems uncouth, - Like our harsh northern whistling, grunting guttural, - Which we're obliged to hiss, and spit, and sputter all. - - XLV. - - I like the women too (forgive my folly!), - From the rich peasant cheek of ruddy bronze,[bl] - And large black eyes that flash on you a volley - Of rays that say a thousand things at once, - To the high Dama's brow, more melancholy, - But clear, and with a wild and liquid glance, - Heart on her lips, and soul within her eyes, - Soft as her clime, and sunny as her skies.[bm] - - XLVI. - - Eve of the land which still is Paradise! - Italian Beauty didst thou not inspire - Raphael,[217] who died in thy embrace, and vies - With all we know of Heaven, or can desire, - In what he hath bequeathed us?--in what guise, - Though flashing from the fervour of the Lyre, - Would _words_ describe thy past and present glow, - While yet Canova[218] can create below?[219] - - XLVII. - - "England! with all thy faults I love thee still,"[220] - I said at Calais, and have not forgot it; - I like to speak and lucubrate my fill; - I like the government (but that is not it); - I like the freedom of the press and quill; - I like the Habeas Corpus (when we've got it); - I like a Parliamentary debate, - Particularly when 'tis not too late; - - XLVIII. - - I like the taxes, when they're not too many; - I like a seacoal fire, when not too dear; - I like a beef-steak, too, as well as any; - Have no objection to a pot of beer; - I like the weather,--when it is not rainy, - That is, I like two months of every year. - And so God save the Regent, Church, and King! - Which means that I like all and every thing. - - XLIX. - - Our standing army, and disbanded seamen, - Poor's rate, Reform, my own, the nation's debt, - Our little riots just to show we're free men, - Our trifling bankruptcies in the Gazette, - Our cloudy climate, and our chilly women, - All these I can forgive, and those forget, - And greatly venerate our recent glories, - And wish they were not owing to the Tories. - - L. - - But to my tale of Laura,--for I find - Digression is a sin, that by degrees - Becomes exceeding tedious to my mind, - And, therefore, may the reader too displease-- - The gentle reader, who may wax unkind, - And caring little for the Author's ease, - Insist on knowing what he means--a hard - And hapless situation for a Bard. - - LI. - - Oh! that I had the art of easy writing - What should be easy reading! could I scale - Parnassus, where the Muses sit inditing - Those pretty poems never known to fail, - How quickly would I print (the world delighting) - A Grecian, Syrian,[221] or _Ass_yrian tale; - And sell you, mixed with western Sentimentalism, - Some samples of the _finest Orientalism._ - - LII. - - But I am but a nameless sort of person, - (A broken Dandy[222] lately on my travels) - And take for rhyme, to hook my rambling verse on, - The first that Walker's Lexicon unravels, - And when I can't find that, I put a worse on, - Not caring as I ought for critics' cavils; - I've half a mind to tumble down to prose, - But verse is more in fashion--so here goes! - - LIII. - - The Count and Laura made their new arrangement, - Which lasted, as arrangements sometimes do, - For half a dozen years without estrangement; - They had their little differences, too; - Those jealous whiffs, which never any change meant; - In such affairs there probably are few - Who have not had this pouting sort of squabble, - From sinners of high station to the rabble. - - LIV. - - But, on the whole, they were a happy pair, - As happy as unlawful love could make them; - The gentleman was fond, the lady fair, - Their chains so slight, 'twas not worth while to break them: - The World beheld them with indulgent air; - The pious only wished "the Devil take them!" - He took them not; he very often waits, - And leaves old sinners to be young ones' baits. - - LV. - - But they were young: Oh! what without our Youth - Would Love be! What would Youth be without Love! - Youth lends its joy, and sweetness, vigour, truth, - Heart, soul, and all that seems as from above; - But, languishing with years, it grows uncouth-- - One of few things Experience don't improve; - Which is, perhaps, the reason why old fellows - Are always so preposterously jealous. - - LVI. - - It was the Carnival, as I have said - Some six and thirty stanzas back, and so - Laura the usual preparations made, - Which you do when your mind's made up to go - To-night to Mrs. Boehm's masquerade,[223] - Spectator, or Partaker in the show; - The only difference known between the cases - Is--_here_, we have six weeks of "varnished faces." - - - LVII. - - Laura, when dressed, was (as I sang before) - A pretty woman as was ever seen, - Fresh as the Angel o'er a new inn door, - Or frontispiece of a new Magazine,[224] - With all the fashions which the last month wore, - Coloured, and silver paper leaved between - That and the title-page, for fear the Press - Should soil with parts of speech the parts of dress. - - LVIII. - - They went to the Ridotto;[225] 'tis a hall - Where People dance, and sup, and dance again; - Its proper name, perhaps, were a masqued ball, - But that's of no importance to my strain; - 'Tis (on a smaller scale) like our Vauxhall, - Excepting that it can't be spoilt by rain; - The company is "mixed" (the phrase I quote is - As much as saying, they're below your notice); - - LIX. - - For a "mixed company" implies that, save - Yourself and friends, and half a hundred more, - Whom you may bow to without looking grave, - The rest are but a vulgar set, the Bore - Of public places, where they basely brave - The fashionable stare of twenty score - Of well-bred persons, called "_The World_;" but I, - Although I know them, really don't know why. - - LX. - - This is the case in England; at least was - During the dynasty of Dandies, now - Perchance succeeded by some other class - Of imitated Imitators:--how[bn] - Irreparably soon decline, alas! - The Demagogues of fashion: all below - Is frail; how easily the world is lost - By Love, or War, and, now and then,--by Frost! - - LXI. - - Crushed was Napoleon by the northern Thor, - Who knocked his army down with icy hammer, - Stopped by the _Elements_[226]--like a Whaler--or - A blundering novice in his new French grammar; - Good cause had he to doubt the chance of war, - And as for Fortune--but I dare not d--n her, - Because, were I to ponder to Infinity, - The more I should believe in her Divinity.[227] - - LXII. - - She rules the present, past, and all to be yet, - She gives us luck in lotteries, love, and marriage; - I cannot say that she's done much for me yet; - Not that I mean her bounties to disparage, - We've not yet closed accounts, and we shall see yet - How much she'll make amends for past miscarriage; - Meantime the Goddess I'll no more importune, - Unless to thank her when she's made my fortune. - - LXIII. - - To turn,--and to return;--the Devil take it! - This story slips for ever through my fingers, - Because, just as the stanza likes to make it, - It needs must be--and so it rather lingers; - This form of verse began, I can't well break it, - But must keep time and tune like public singers; - But if I once get through my present measure, - I'll take another when I'm next at leisure. - - LXIV. - - They went to the Ridotto ('tis a place - To which I mean to go myself to-morrow,[228] - Just to divert my thoughts a little space - Because I'm rather hippish, and may borrow - Some spirits, guessing at what kind of face - May lurk beneath each mask; and as my sorrow - Slackens its pace sometimes, I'll make, or find, - Something shall leave it half an hour behind.) - - LXV. - - Now Laura moves along the joyous crowd, - Smiles in her eyes, and simpers on her lips; - To some she whispers, others speaks aloud; - To some she curtsies, and to some she dips, - Complains of warmth, and this complaint avowed, - Her lover brings the lemonade, she sips; - She then surveys, condemns, but pities still - Her dearest friends for being dressed so ill. - - LXVI. - - One has false curls, another too much paint, - A third--where did she buy that frightful turban? - A fourth's so pale she fears she's going to faint, - A fifth's look's vulgar, dowdyish, and suburban, - A sixth's white silk has got a yellow taint, - A seventh's thin muslin surely will be her bane, - And lo! an eighth appears,--"I'll see no more!" - For fear, like Banquo's kings, they reach a score. - - LXVII. - - Meantime, while she was thus at others gazing, - Others were levelling their looks at her; - She heard the men's half-whispered mode of praising - And, till 'twas done, determined not to stir; - The women only thought it quite amazing - That, at her time of life, so many were - Admirers still,--but "Men are so debased, - Those brazen Creatures always suit their taste." - - LXVIII. - - For my part, now, I ne'er could understand - Why naughty women--but I won't discuss - A thing which is a scandal to the land, - I only don't see why it should be thus; - And if I were but in a gown and band, - Just to entitle me to make a fuss, - I'd preach on this till Wilberforce and Romilly - Should quote in their next speeches from my homily. - - LXIX. - - While Laura thus was seen, and seeing, smiling, - Talking, she knew not why, and cared not what, - So that her female friends, with envy broiling, - Beheld her airs, and triumph, and all that; - And well-dressed males still kept before her filing, - And passing bowed and mingled with her chat; - More than the rest one person seemed to stare - With pertinacity that's rather rare. - - LXX. - - He was a Turk, the colour of mahogany; - And Laura saw him, and at first was glad, - Because the Turks so much admire philogyny,[bo] - Although their usage of their wives is sad; - 'Tis said they use no better than a dog any - Poor woman, whom they purchase like a pad: - They have a number, though they ne'er exhibit 'em, - Four wives by law, and concubines "ad libitum." - - LXXI. - - They lock them up, and veil, and guard them daily, - They scarcely can behold their male relations, - So that their moments do not pass so gaily - As is supposed the case with northern nations; - Confinement, too, must make them look quite palely; - And as the Turks abhor long conversations, - Their days are either passed in doing nothing, - Or bathing, nursing, making love, and clothing. - - LXXII. - - They cannot read, and so don't lisp in criticism; - Nor write, and so they don't affect the Muse; - Were never caught in epigram or witticism, - Have no romances, sermons, plays, reviews,-- - In Harams learning soon would make a pretty schism, - But luckily these Beauties are no "Blues;" - No bustling _Botherby_[229] have they to show 'em - "That charming passage in the last new poem:" - - - LXXIII. - - No solemn, antique gentleman of rhyme, - Who having angled all his life for Fame, - And getting but a nibble at a time, - Still fussily keeps fishing on, the same - Small "Triton of the minnows," the sublime - Of Mediocrity, the furious tame, - The Echo's echo, usher of the school - Of female wits, boy bards--in short, a fool! - - LXXIV. - - A stalking oracle of awful phrase, - The approving _"Good!"_ (by no means good in law) - Humming like flies around the newest blaze, - The bluest of bluebottles you e'er saw, - Teasing with blame, excruciating with praise, - Gorging the little fame he gets all raw,[bp] - Translating tongues he knows not even by letter, - And sweating plays so middling, bad were better. - - LXXV. - - One hates an author that's _all author_--fellows - In foolscap uniforms turned up with ink, - So very anxious, clever, fine, and jealous, - One don't know what to say to them, or think, - Unless to puff them with a pair of bellows; - Of Coxcombry's worst coxcombs e'en the pink - Are preferable to these shreds of paper, - These unquenched snuffings of the midnight taper. - - LXXVI. - - Of these same we see several, and of others. - Men of the world, who know the World like Men, - Scott, Rogers, Moore, and all the better brothers, - Who think of something else besides the pen; - But for the children of the "Mighty Mother's," - The would-be wits, and can't-be gentlemen, - I leave them to their daily "tea is ready,"[230] - Smug coterie, and literary lady. - - LXXVII. - - The poor dear Mussul_women_ whom I mention - Have none of these instructive pleasant people, - And _one_ would seem to them a new invention, - Unknown as bells within a Turkish steeple; - I think 'twould almost be worth while to pension - (Though best-sown projects very often reap ill) - A missionary author--just to preach - Our Christian usage of the parts of speech. - - LXXVIII. - - No Chemistry for them unfolds her gases, - No Metaphysics are let loose in lectures, - No Circulating Library amasses - Religious novels, moral tales, and strictures - Upon the living manners, as they pass us; - No Exhibition glares with annual pictures; - They stare not on the stars from out their attics, - Nor deal (thank God for that!) in Mathematics.[231] - - LXXIX. - - Why I thank God for that is no great matter, - I have my reasons, you no doubt suppose, - And as, perhaps, they would not highly flatter, - I'll keep them for my life (to come) in prose; - I fear I have a little turn for Satire, - And yet methinks the older that one grows - Inclines us more to laugh than scold, though Laughter - Leaves us so doubly serious shortly after. - - LXXX.[232] - - Oh, Mirth and Innocence! Oh, Milk and Water! - Ye happy mixtures of more happy days! - In these sad centuries of sin and slaughter, - Abominable Man no more allays - His thirst with such pure beverage. No matter, - I love you both, and both shall have my praise: - Oh, for old Saturn's reign of sugar-candy!--- - Meantime I drink to your return in brandy. - - LXXXI. - - Our Laura's Turk still kept his eyes upon her, - Less in the Mussulman than Christian way, - Which seems to say, "Madam, I do you honour, - And while I please to stare, you'll please to stay." - Could staring win a woman, this had won her, - But Laura could not thus be led astray; - She had stood fire too long and well, to boggle - Even at this Stranger's most outlandish ogle. - - LXXXII. - - The morning now was on the point of breaking, - A turn of time at which I would advise - Ladies who have been dancing, or partaking - In any other kind of exercise, - To make their preparations for forsaking - The ball-room ere the Sun begins to rise, - Because when once the lamps and candles fail, - His blushes make them look a little pale. - - LXXXIII. - - I've seen some balls and revels in my time, - And stayed them over for some silly reason, - And then I looked (I hope it was no crime) - To see what lady best stood out the season; - And though I've seen some thousands in their prime - Lovely and pleasing, and who still may please on, - I never saw but one (the stars withdrawn) - Whose bloom could after dancing dare the Dawn. - - LXXXIV. - - The name of this Aurora I'll not mention, - Although I might, for she was nought to me - More than that patent work of God's invention, - A charming woman, whom we like to see; - But writing names would merit reprehension, - Yet if you like to find out this fair _She,_ - At the next London or Parisian ball - You still may mark her cheek, out-blooming all. - - LXXXV. - - Laura, who knew it would not do at all - To meet the daylight after seven hours' sitting - Among three thousand people at a ball, - To make her curtsey thought it right and fitting; - The Count was at her elbow with her shawl, - And they the room were on the point of quitting, - When lo! those cursed Gondoliers had got - Just in the very place where they _should not._ - - LXXXVI. - - In this they're like our coachmen, and the cause - Is much the same--the crowd, and pulling, hauling, - With blasphemies enough to break their jaws, - They make a never intermitted bawling. - At home, our Bow-street gem'men keep the laws, - And here a sentry stands within your calling; - But for all that, there is a deal of swearing, - And nauseous words past mentioning or bearing. - - LXXXVII. - - The Count and Laura found their boat at last, - And homeward floated o'er the silent tide, - Discussing all the dances gone and past; - The dancers and their dresses, too, beside; - Some little scandals eke; but all aghast - (As to their palace-stairs the rowers glide) - Sate Laura by the side of her adorer,[bq] - When lo! the Mussulman was there before her! - - - LXXXVIII. - - "Sir," said the Count, with brow exceeding grave, - "Your unexpected presence here will make - It necessary for myself to crave - Its import? But perhaps 'tis a mistake; - I hope it is so; and, at once to waive - All compliment, I hope so for _your_ sake; - You understand my meaning, or you _shall._" - "Sir," (quoth the Turk) "'tis no mistake at all: - - LXXXIX. - - "That Lady is _my wife!_" Much wonder paints - The lady's changing cheek, as well it might; - But where an Englishwoman sometimes faints, - Italian females don't do so outright; - They only call a little on their Saints, - And then come to themselves, almost, or quite; - Which saves much hartshorn, salts, and sprinkling faces, - And cutting stays, as usual in such cases. - - XC. - - She said,--what could she say? Why, not a word; - But the Count courteously invited in - The Stranger, much appeased by what he heard: - "Such things, perhaps, we'd best discuss within," - Said he; "don't let us make ourselves absurd - In public, by a scene, nor raise a din, - For then the chief and only satisfaction - Will be much quizzing on the whole transaction." - - XCI. - - They entered, and for Coffee called--it came, - A beverage for Turks and Christians both, - Although the way they make it's not the same. - Now Laura, much recovered, or less loth - To speak, cries "Beppo! what's your pagan name? - Bless me! your beard is of amazing growth! - And how came you to keep away so long? - Are you not sensible 'twas very wrong? - - XCII. - - "And are you _really, truly,_ now a Turk? - With any other women did you wive? - Is't true they use their fingers for a fork? - Well, that's the prettiest Shawl--as I'm alive! - You'll give it me? They say you eat no pork. - And how so many years did you contrive - To--Bless me! did I ever? No, I never - Saw a man grown so yellow! How's your liver? - - XCIII. - - "Beppo! that beard of yours becomes you not; - It shall be shaved before you're a day older: - Why do you wear it? Oh! I had forgot-- - Pray don't you think the weather here is colder? - How do I look? You shan't stir from this spot - In that queer dress, for fear that some beholder - Should find you out, and make the story known. - How short your hair is! Lord! how grey it's grown!" - - XCIV. - - What answer Beppo made to these demands - Is more than I know. He was cast away - About where Troy stood once, and nothing stands; - Became a slave of course, and for his pay - Had bread and bastinadoes, till some bands - Of pirates landing in a neighbouring bay, - He joined the rogues and prospered, and became - A renegade of indifferent fame. - - XCV. - - But he grew rich, and with his riches grew so - Keen the desire to see his home again, - He thought himself in duty bound to do so, - And not be always thieving on the main; - Lonely he felt, at times, as Robin Crusoe, - And so he hired a vessel come from Spain, - Bound for Corfu: she was a fine polacca, - Manned with twelve hands, and laden with tobacco. - - XCVI. - - Himself, and much (heaven knows how gotten!) cash, - He then embarked, with risk of life and limb, - And got clear off, although the attempt was rash; - _He_ said that _Providence_ protected him-- - For my part, I say nothing--lest we clash - In our opinions:--well--the ship was trim, - Set sail, and kept her reckoning fairly on, - Except three days of calm when off Cape Bonn.[233] - - XCVII. - - They reached the Island, he transferred his lading, - And self and live stock to another bottom, - And passed for a true Turkey-merchant, trading - With goods of various names--but I've forgot 'em. - However, he got off by this evading, - Or else the people would perhaps have shot him; - And thus at Venice landed to reclaim - His wife, religion, house, and Christian name. - - XCVIII. - - His wife received, the Patriarch re-baptised him, - (He made the Church a present, by the way;) - He then threw off the garments which disguised him, - And borrowed the Count's smallclothes for a day: - His friends the more for his long absence prized him, - Finding he'd wherewithal to make them gay, - With dinners, where he oft became the laugh of them, - For stories--but _I_ don't believe the half of them. - - XCIX. - - Whate'er his youth had suffered, his old age - With wealth and talking made him some amends; - Though Laura sometimes put him in a rage, - I've heard the Count and he were always friends. - My pen is at the bottom of a page, - Which being finished, here the story ends: - 'Tis to be wished it had been sooner done, - But stories somehow lengthen when begun. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[191] {153}["Although I was in Italie only ix. days, I saw, in that -little tyme, more liberty to sin than ever I heard tell of in our noble -citie of London in ix. yeares."--_Schoolmaster_, bk. i. _ad fin_. By -Roger Ascham.] - -[192] {155} - - ["I've often wish'd that I could write a book, - Such as all English people might peruse; - I never shall regret the pains it took, - That's just the sort of fame that I should choose: - To sail about the world like Captain Cook, - I'd sling a cot up for my favourite Muse, - And we'd take verses out to Demerara, - To New South Wales, and up to Niagara. - - "Poets consume exciseable commodities, - They raise the nation's spirit when victorious, - They drive an export trade in whims and oddities, - Making our commerce and revenue glorious; - As an industrious and pains-taking body 'tis - That Poets should be reckoned meritorious: - And therefore I submissively propose - To erect one Board for Verse and one for Prose. - - "Princes protecting Sciences and Art - I've often seen in copper-plate and print; - I never saw them elsewhere, for my part, - And therefore I conclude there's nothing in't: - But every body knows the Regent's heart; - I trust he won't reject a well-meant hint; - Each Board to have twelve members, with a seat - To bring them in per ann. five hundred neat:-- - - "From Princes I descend to the Nobility: - In former times all persons of high stations, - Lords, Baronets, and Persons of gentility, - Paid twenty guineas for the dedications; - This practice was attended with utility; - The patrons lived to future generations, - The poets lived by their industrious earning,-- - So men alive and dead could live by Learning. - - "Then twenty guineas was a little fortune; - Now, we must starve unless the times should mend: - Our poets now-a-days are deemed importune - If their addresses are diffusely penned; - Most fashionable authors make a short one - To their own wife, or child, or private friend, - To show their independence, I suppose; - And that may do for Gentlemen like those. - - "Lastly, the common people I beseech-- - Dear People! if you think my verses clever, - Preserve with care your noble parts of speech, - And take it as a maxim to endeavour - To talk as your good mothers used to teach, - And then these lines of mine may last for ever; - And don't confound the language of the nation - With long-tailed words in _osity_ and _ation_." - - Canto I. stanzas i.-vi.] - -[193] {156}[For some admirable stanzas in the metre and style of -_Beppo_, by W.S. Rose, who passed the winter of 1817-18 in Venice, and -who sent them to Byron from Albaro in the spring of 1818, see _Letters_, -1900 iv. 211-214, note 1.] - -[194] {159}[The MS. of _Beppo_, in Byron's handwriting, is now in the -possession of Captain the Hon. F. L. King Noel. It is dated October 10, -1817.] - -[195] [The use of "persuasion" as a synonime for "religion," is, -perhaps, of American descent. Thomas Jefferson, in his first inaugural -address as President of U.S.A., speaks "of whatever state or persuasion, -political or religious." At the beginning of the nineteenth century -theological niceties were not regarded, and the great gulph between a -religion and a sect or party was imperfectly discerned. Hence the -solecism.] - -[196] [Compare the lines which Byron enclosed in a letter to Moore, -dated December 24, 1816 (_Letters_, 1900, iv. 30)-- - - "But the Carnival's coming, - Oh Thomas Moore, - * * * * * - Masking and humming, - Fifing and drumming, - Guitarring and strumming, - Oh Thomas Moore."] - -[197] {160}[Monmouth Street, now absorbed in Shaftesbury Avenue (west -side), was noted throughout the eighteenth century for the sale of -second-hand clothes. Compare-- - - "Thames Street gives cheeses, Covent Garden fruits, - Moorfields old books, and Monmouth Street old suits." - - Gay's _Trivia_, ii. 547, 548. - -Rag Fair or Rosemary Lane, now Royal Mint Street, was the Monmouth -Street of the City. Compare-- - - "Where wave the tattered ensigns of Rag Fair." - - Pope's _Dunciad_, i. 29, _var_. - -The Arcade, or "Piazza," so called, which was built by Inigo Jones in -1652, ran along the whole of the north and east sides of the _Piazza_ or -Square of Covent Garden. The Arcade on the north side is still described -as the "Piazzas."--_London Past and Present_, by H. B. Wheatley, 1891, -i. 461, ii. 554, iii. 145.] - -[198] {162}["At Florence I remained but a day.... What struck me most -was ... the mistress of Titian, a portrait; a Venus of Titian in the -Medici Gallery ..."--Letter to Murray, April 27, 1817, _Letters_, 1900, -iv. 113. Compare, too, _Childe Harold_, Canto IV. stanza xlix. line i, -_Poetical Works_, 1899, ii. 365, note 2.] - -[199] ["I know nothing of pictures myself, and care almost as little: -but to me there are none like the Venetian--above all, Giorgione. I -remember well his Judgment of Solomon in the Mareschalchi Gallery [in -the Via Delle Asse, formerly celebrated for its pictures] in -Bologna."--Letter to William Bankes, February 26, 1820, _Letters_, 1900, -iv. 411.] - -[200] ["I also went over the Manfrini Palace, famous for its pictures. -Among them, there is a portrait of Ariosto by Titian [now in the -possession of the Earl of Rosebery], surpassing all my anticipations of -the power of painting or human expression: it is the poetry of portrait, -and the portrait of poetry. There was also one of some learned lady, -centuries old, whose name I forget, but whose features must always be -remembered. I never saw greater beauty, or sweetness, or wisdom:--it is -the kind of face to go mad for, because it cannot walk out of its -frame.... What struck me most in the general collection was the extreme -resemblance of the style of the female faces in the mass of pictures, so -many centuries or generations old, to those you see and meet every day -amongst the existing Italians. The Queen of Cyprus and Giorgione's wife, -particularly the latter, are Venetians as it were of yesterday; the same -eyes and expression, and, to my mind, there is none finer,"--Letter to -Murray, April 14, 1817, _Letters_, 1900, iv. 105. The picture which -caught Byron's fancy was the so-called _Famiglia di Giorgione_, which -was removed from the Manfrini Palace in 1856, and is now in the Palazzo -Giovanelli. It represents "an almost nude woman, probably a gipsy, -seated with a child in her lap, and a standing warrior gazing upon her, -a storm breaking over the landscape."--_Handbook of Painting_, by Austen -H. Layard, 1891, part ii. p. 553.] - -[201] {163}[According to Vasari and others, Giorgione (Giorgio -Barbarelli, b. 1478) was never married. He died of the plague, A.D. -1511.] - -[202] {164} "Quae septem dici, sex tanien esse solent."--Ovid., -[_Fastorum_, lib. iv. line 170.] - -[202A] [Carlo Goldoni (1707-1793). His play, _Belisarius_, was -first performed November 24, 1734; _Le Bourru Bienfaisant_, November 4, -1771. _La Bottega del Caffe_, _La Locandiera, etc_., still hold the -stage. His _Memoires_ were published in 1787.] - -[202B] - ["Look to't: - * * * * * - In Venice they do let heaven see the pranks - They dare not show their husbands; their best conscience - Is not to leave't undone, but keep't unknown." - - _Othello_, act iii. sc. 3, lines 206-208.] - -[203] {165}[Compare-- - - "An English lady asked of an Italian, - What were the actual and official duties - Of the strange thing, some women set a value on, - Which hovers oft about some married beauties, - Called 'Cavalier Servente,' a Pygmalion - Whose statues warm (I fear, alas! too true 't is) - Beneath his art. The dame, pressed to disclose them, - Said--'Lady, I beseech you to _suppose them_.'" - - _Don Juan_, Canto IX. stanza li. - -A critic, in the _Monthly Review_ (March, 1818, vol. lxxxv. p. 286), -took Byron to task for omitting the _e_ in _Cavaliere_. In a letter to -Murray, April 17, 1818, he shows that he is right, and takes his revenge -on the editor (George Edward) Griffiths, and his "scribbler Mr. -Hodgson."--_Letters_, 1900, iv. 226.] - -[204] ["An English abbreviation. Rialto is the name, not of the bridge, -but of the island from which it is called; and the Venetians say, _Il -ponti di Rialto_, as we say Westminster Bridge. In that island is the -Exchange; and I have often walked there as on classic ground.... 'I -Sopportichi,' says Sansovino, writing in 1580 [_Venetia_, 1581, p. 134], -'sono ogni giorno frequentati da i mercatanti Fiorentini, Genovesi, -Milanesi, Spagnuoli, Turchi, e d'altre nationi diverse del mondo, i -quali vi concorrono in tanta copia, che questa piazza e annoverata fra -le prime dell' universo.' It was there that the Christian held discourse -with the Jew; and Shylock refers to it when he says-- - - "'Signer Antonio, many a time and oft, - In the Rialto you have rated me.' - -'Andiamo a Rialto,'--' L'ora di Rialto,' were on every tongue; and -continue so to the present day, as we learn from the Comedies of -Goldoni, and particularly from his _Mercanti_."--Note to the _Brides of -Venice_, Poems, by Samuel Rogers, 1852, ii. 88, 89. See, too, _Childe -Harold_, Canto IV. stanza iv. line 6, _Poetical Works_, 1899, ii. 331.] - -[205] {166}[Compare "At the epoch called a certain age she found herself -an old maid."--Jane Porter, _Thaddeus of Warsaw_ (1803), cap. xxxviii. -(See _N. Eng. Dict_., art. "Certain.") - -Ugo Foscolo, in his article in the _Quarterly Review_, April, 1819, vol. -xxi. pp. 486-556, quotes these lines in illustration of a stanza from -Forteguerri's _Ricciardetto_, iv. 2-- - - Quando si giugne ad una certa eta, - Ch'io non voglio descrivervi qual e," etc.] - -[206] {167}[A clean bill of health after quarantine. Howell spells the -word "pratic," and Milton "pratticke."] - -[207] Beppo is the "Joe" of the Italian Joseph. - -[208] {168}["The general state of morals here is much the same as in the -Doges' time; a woman is virtuous (according to the code) who limits -herself to her husband and one lover; those who have two, three, or -more, are a little wild; but it is only those who are indiscriminately -diffuse, and form a low connection ... who are considered as -over-stepping the modesty of marriage.... There is no convincing a woman -here, that she is in the smallest degree deviating from the rule of -right, or the fitness of things, in having an _Amoroso._"--Letter to -Murray, January 2, 1817, _Letters,_ 1900, iv. 40, 41.] - -[bk] {169} - - _A Count of wealth inferior to his quality,_ - _Which somewhat limited his liberality_.--[MS.] - -[209]["Some of the Italians liked him [a famous improvisatore], others -called his performance '_seccatura_' (a devilish good word, by the way), -and all Milan was in controversy about him."--Letter to Moore, November -6, 1816, _Letters_, 1899, iii. 384.] - -[210] {170}[The saying, "Il n'y a point de heros pour son valet de -chambre," is attributed to Marechal (Nicholas) Catinat (1637-1712). His -biographer speaks of presenting "_le heros en deshabille_." (See his -_Memoires_, 1819, ii. 118.)] - -[211] {171}[The origin of the word is obscure. According to the _Vocab. -della Crusca_, "cicisbeo" is an inversion of "bel cece," beautiful chick -(pea). Pasqualino, cited by Diez, says it is derived from the French -_chiche beau_.--_N. Eng. Dict._, art. "Cicisbeo."] - -[212] Cortejo is pronounced Corte_h_o, with an aspirate, according to -the Arabesque guttural. It means what there is as yet no precise name -for in England, though the practice is as common as in any tramontane -country whatever. - -[213] [Stanzas xxxviii., xxxix., are not in the original MS.] - -[214] {172}[For the association of bread and butter with immaturity, -compare, "Ye bread-and-butter rogues, do ye run from me?" (Beaumont and -Fletcher, _The Humorous Lieutenant_, act iii. sc. 7). (See _N. Eng. -Dict._, art. "Bread.")] - -[215] {173}[Compare-- - - " ... the Tuscan's siren tongue? - That music in itself, whose sounds are song, - The poetry of speech?" - - _Childe Harold,_ Canto IV. stanza lviii. lines 4-6, - _Poetical Works,_ 1899, ii. 374, note i.] - -[216] _Sattin,_ eh? Query, I can't spell it.--[MS.] - -[bl] _From the tall peasant with her ruddy bronze_.--[MS.] - -[bm] _Like her own clime, all sun, and bloom, and skies_.--[MS.] - -[217] {174}[For the received accounts of the cause of Raphael's death, -see his Lives. "Fidem matrimonii quidem dederat nepti cuidam Cardinal. -Bibiani, sed partim Cardinalatus spe lactatus partim pro seculi locique -more, Romae enim plerumque vixit, vagis amoribus delectatus, morbo hinc -contracto, obiit A.C. 1520, aetat. 37."--Art. "Raphael," _apud_ Hofmann, -_Lexicon Universale_. It would seem that Raphael was betrothed to Maria, -daughter of Antonio Divizio da Bibiena, the nephew of Cardinal Bibiena -(see his letter to his uncle Simone di Battista di Ciarla da Urbino, -dated July 1, 1514), and it is a fact that a girl named Margarita, -supposed to be his mistress, is mentioned in his will. But the "causes -of his death," April 6, 1520, were a delicate constitution, overwork, -and a malarial fever, caught during his researches among the ruins of -ancient Rome" (_Raphael of Urbino_, by J. D. Passavant, 1872, pp. 140, -196, 197. See, too, _Raphael_, by E. Muntz, 1888).] - -[218] [Compare the lines enclosed in a letter to Murray, dated November -25, 1816-- - - "In this beloved marble view, - Above the works and thoughts of man, - What Nature _could_ but _would not_ do, - And Beauty and Canova can."] - -[219] - - ["(In talking thus, the writer, more especially - Of women, would be understood to say, - He speaks as a Spectator, not officially, - And always, Reader, in a modest way; - Perhaps, too, in no very great degree shall he - Appear to have offended in this lay, - Since, as all know, without the Sex, our Sonnets - Would seem unfinished, like their untrimmed bonnets.) - "(Signed) Printer's Devil."] - -[220] [_The Task_, by William Cowper, ii. 206. Compare _The Farewell_, -line 27, by Charles Churchill-- - - "Be England what she will, - With all her faults, she is my Country still."] - -[221] {175}[The allusion is to Gally Knight's _Ilderim,_ a Syrian Tale. -See, too, Letter to Moore, March 25, 1817, _Letters,_ 1900, iv. 78: -"Talking of tail, I wish you had not called it [_Lalla Rookh_] a -'_Persian Tale_.' Say a 'Poem,' or 'Romance,' but not 'Tale.' I am very -sorry that I called some of my own things 'Tales.' ... Besides, we have -had Arabian, and Hindoo, and Turkish, and Assyrian Tales." _Beppo_, it -must be remembered, was published anonymously, and in the concluding -lines of the stanza the satire is probably directed against his own -"Tales."] - -[222] {176}["The expressions '_blue-stocking_' and '_dandy_' may furnish -matter for the learning of a commentator at some future period. At this -moment every English reader will understand them. Our present ephemeral -dandy is akin to the maccaroni of my earlier days. The first of these -expressions has become classical, by Mrs. Hannah More's poem of -'_Bas-Bleu_' and the other by the use of it in one of Lord Byron's -poems. Though now become familiar and rather trite, their day may not be -long. - - ' ... Cadentque - Quae nunc sunt in honore vocabula.'" - ---Translation of Forteguerri's _Ricciardetto_, by Lord Glenbervie, 1822 -(note to stanza v.). - -Compare, too, a memorandum of 1820. "I liked the Dandies; they were -always very civil to _me_, though in general they disliked literary -people ... The truth is, that, though I gave up the business early, I -had a tinge of Dandyism in my minority, and probably retained enough of -it to conciliate the great ones at four-and-twenty."--_Letters_, 1901, -v. 423.] - -[223] {177}[The _Morning Chronicle_ of June 17, 1817, reports at length -"Mrs. Boehm's Grand Masquerade." "On Monday evening this distinguished -lady of the _haut ton_ gave a splendid masquerade at her residence in -St. James's Square." "The Dukes of Gloucester, Wellington, etc., were -present in plain dress. Among the dominoes were the Duke and Duchess of -Grafton, etc." Lady Caroline Lamb was among the guests.] - -[224] {178}[The reference is, probably, to the _Repository of Arts, -Literature, Commerce, Manufactures, Fashions, and Politics_ (1809-1829), -which was illustrated by coloured plates of dresses, "artistic" -furniture, Gothic cottages, park lodges, etc.] - -[225] [For "Ridotto," see Letter to Moore, January 28, 1817, _Letters,_ -1900, iv. 49, note 1.] - -[bn] _Of Imited_ (_sic_) _Imitations, how soon! how._--[MS.] - -[226] ["When Brummell was obliged ... to retire to France, he knew no -French; and having obtained a Grammar for the purposes of study, our -friend Scrope Davies was asked what progress Brummell had made in French -... he responded, 'that Brummell had been stopped, like Buonaparte in -Russia, by the _Elements_.' I have put this pun into _Beppo,_ which is -'a fair exchange and no robbery;' for Scrope made his fortune at several -dinners (as he owned himself), by repeating occasionally, as his own, -some of the buffooneries with which I had encountered him in the -Morning."--_Detached Thoughts_, 1821, _Letters_, 1901, v. 422, 423.] - -[227] ["Like Sylla, I have always believed that all things depend upon -Fortune, and nothing upon ourselves. I am not aware of any one thought -or action, worthy of being called good to myself or others, which is not -to be attributed to the Good Goddess--Fortune!"--_Ibid_., p. 451.] - -[228] "January 19th, 1818. To-morrow will be a Sunday, and full -Ridotto."--[MS.] - -[bo] {181} ----_philoguny,_--[MS.] - -[229] {182}[Botherby is, of course, Sotheby. In the _English Bards_ -(line 818) he is bracketed with Gifford and Macneil _honoris causti,_ -but at this time (1817-18) Byron was "against" Sotheby, under the -impression that he had sent him "an anonymous note ... accompanying a -copy of the _Castle of Chillon,_ etc. [_sic_]." Sotheby affirmed that he -had not written the note, but Byron, while formally accepting the -disclaimer, refers to the firmness of his "former persuasion," and -renews the attack with increased bitterness. "As to _Beppo,_ I will not -alter or suppress a syllable for any man's pleasure but my own. If there -are resemblances between Botherby and Sotheby, or Sotheby and Botherby, -the fault is not mine, but in the person who resembles,--or the persons -who trace a resemblance. _Who_ find out this resemblance? Mr. S.'s -_friends._ _Who_ go about moaning over him and laughing? Mr. S.'s -_friends"_ (Letters to Murray, April 17, 23, 1818, _Letters,_ 1900, iv. -226-230). A writer of satires is of necessity satirical, and Sotheby, -like "Wordswords and Co.," made excellent "copy." If he had not written -the "anonymous note," he was, from Byron's point of view, ridiculous and -a bore, and "ready to hand" to be tossed up in rhyme as _Botherby._ (For -a brief account of Sotheby, see _Poetical Works,_ i. 362, note 2.)] - -[bp] {183}_Gorging the slightest slice of Flattery raw_.--[MS. in a -letter to Murray, April 11, 1818, _Letters_, 1900, iv. 218.] - -[230] {184}[So, too, elsewhere. Wordsworth and Coleridge had depreciated -Voltaire, and Byron, _en revanche_, contrasts the "tea-drinking -neutrality of morals" of the _school_, i.e. the Lake poets, with "their -convenient treachery in politics" (see _Letters,_ 1901, v. 600).] - -[231] {184}["Lady Byron," her husband wrote, "would have made an -excellent wrangler at Cambridge." Compare-- - - "Her favourite science was the mathematical." - - _Don Juan,_ Canto I. stanza xii. line 1.] - -[232] {185}[Stanza lxxx. is not in the original MS.] - -[bq] {186}_Sate Laura with a kind of comic horror_.--[MS.] - -[233] {189}[Cap Bon, or Ras Adden, is the northernmost point of Tunis.] - - - - - - ODE ON VENICE - - - - - ODE ON VENICE[234] - - I. - - Oh Venice! Venice! when thy marble walls - Are level with the waters, there shall be - A cry of nations o'er thy sunken halls, - A loud lament along the sweeping sea! - If I, a northern wanderer, weep for thee, - What should thy sons do?--anything but weep: - And yet they only murmur in their sleep. - In contrast with their fathers--as the slime, - The dull green ooze of the receding deep, - Is with the dashing of the spring-tide foam, 10 - That drives the sailor shipless to his home, - Are they to those that were; and thus they creep, - Crouching and crab-like, through their sapping streets. - Oh! agony--that centuries should reap - No mellower harvest! Thirteen hundred years[235] - Of wealth and glory turned to dust and tears; - And every monument the stranger meets, - Church, palace, pillar, as a mourner greets; - And even the Lion all subdued appears,[236] - And the harsh sound of the barbarian drum, 20 - With dull and daily dissonance, repeats - The echo of thy Tyrant's voice along - The soft waves, once all musical to song, - That heaved beneath the moonlight with the throng - Of gondolas[237]--and to the busy hum - Of cheerful creatures, whose most sinful deeds - Were but the overbeating of the heart, - And flow of too much happiness, which needs - The aid of age to turn its course apart - From the luxuriant and voluptuous flood 30 - Of sweet sensations, battling with the blood. - But these are better than the gloomy errors, - The weeds of nations in their last decay, - When Vice walks forth with her unsoftened terrors, - And Mirth is madness, and but smiles to slay; - And Hope is nothing but a false delay, - The sick man's lightning half an hour ere Death, - When Faintness, the last mortal birth of Pain, - And apathy of limb, the dull beginning - Of the cold staggering race which Death is winning, 40 - Steals vein by vein and pulse by pulse away; - Yet so relieving the o'er-tortured clay, - To him appears renewal of his breath, - And freedom the mere numbness of his chain; - And then he talks of Life, and how again - He feels his spirit soaring--albeit weak, - And of the fresher air, which he would seek; - And as he whispers knows not that he gasps, - That his thin finger feels not what it clasps, - And so the film comes o'er him--and the dizzy 50 - Chamber swims round and round--and shadows busy, - At which he vainly catches, flit and gleam, - Till the last rattle chokes the strangled scream, - And all is ice and blackness,--and the earth - That which it was the moment ere our birth.[238] - - II. - - There is no hope for nations!--Search the page - Of many thousand years--the daily scene, - The flow and ebb of each recurring age, - The everlasting _to be_ which _hath been_, - Hath taught us nought or little: still we lean 60 - On things that rot beneath our weight, and wear - Our strength away in wrestling with the air; - For't is our nature strikes us down: the beasts - Slaughtered in hourly hecatombs for feasts - Are of as high an order--they must go - Even where their driver goads them, though to slaughter. - Ye men, who pour your blood for kings as water, - What have they given your children in return? - A heritage of servitude and woes, - A blindfold bondage, where your hire is blows. 70 - What! do not yet the red-hot ploughshares burn,[239] - O'er which you stumble in a false ordeal, - And deem this proof of loyalty the _real_; - Kissing the hand that guides you to your scars, - And glorying as you tread the glowing bars? - All that your Sires have left you, all that Time - Bequeaths of free, and History of sublime, - Spring from a different theme!--Ye see and read, - Admire and sigh, and then succumb and bleed! - Save the few spirits who, despite of all, 80 - And worse than all, the sudden crimes engendered - By the down-thundering of the prison-wall, - And thirst to swallow the sweet waters tendered, - Gushing from Freedom's fountains--when the crowd,[240] - Maddened with centuries of drought, are loud, - And trample on each other to obtain - The cup which brings oblivion of a chain - Heavy and sore,--in which long yoked they ploughed - The sand,--or if there sprung the yellow grain, - 'Twas not for them, their necks were too much bowed, 90 - And their dead palates chewed the cud of pain:-- - Yes! the few spirits--who, despite of deeds - Which they abhor, confound not with the cause - Those momentary starts from Nature's laws, - Which, like the pestilence and earthquake, smite - But for a term, then pass, and leave the earth - With all her seasons to repair the blight - With a few summers, and again put forth - Cities and generations--fair, when free-- - For, Tyranny, there blooms no bud for thee! 100 - - III. - - Glory and Empire! once upon these towers[241] - With Freedom--godlike Triad! how you sate! - The league of mightiest nations, in those hours - When Venice was an envy, might abate, - But did not quench, her spirit--in her fate - All were enwrapped: the feasted monarchs knew - And loved their hostess, nor could learn to hate, - Although they humbled--with the kingly few - The many felt, for from all days and climes - She was the voyager's worship;--even her crimes 110 - Were of the softer order, born of Love-- - She drank no blood, nor fattened on the dead, - But gladdened where her harmless conquests spread; - For these restored the Cross, that from above - Hallowed her sheltering banners, which incessant - Flew between earth and the unholy Crescent,[242] - Which, if it waned and dwindled, Earth may thank - The city it has clothed in chains, which clank - Now, creaking in the ears of those who owe - The name of Freedom to her glorious struggles; 120 - Yet she but shares with them a common woe, - And called the "kingdom"[243] of a conquering foe,-- - But knows what all--and, most of all, _we_ know-- - With what set gilded terms a tyrant juggles! - - IV. - - The name of Commonwealth is past and gone - O'er the three fractions of the groaning globe; - Venice is crushed, and Holland deigns to own - A sceptre, and endures the purple robe;[244] - If the free Switzer yet bestrides alone - His chainless mountains, 't is but for a time, 130 - For Tyranny of late is cunning grown, - And in its own good season tramples down - The sparkles of our ashes. One great clime, - Whose vigorous offspring by dividing ocean[245] - Are kept apart and nursed in the devotion - Of Freedom, which their fathers fought for, and - Bequeathed--a heritage of heart and hand, - And proud distinction from each other land, - Whose sons must bow them at a Monarch's motion, - As if his senseless sceptre were a wand 140 - Full of the magic of exploded science-- - Still one great clime, in full and free defiance, - Yet rears her crest, unconquered and sublime, - Above the far Atlantic!--She has taught - Her Esau-brethren that the haughty flag, - The floating fence of Albion's feebler crag,[246] - May strike to those whose red right hands have bought - Rights cheaply earned with blood.--Still, still, for ever - Better, though each man's life-blood were a river, - That it should flow, and overflow, than creep 150 - Through thousand lazy channels in our veins, - Dammed like the dull canal with locks and chains, - And moving, as a sick man in his sleep, - Three paces, and then faltering:--better be - Where the extinguished Spartans still are free, - In their proud charnel of Thermopylae, - Than stagnate in our marsh,--or o'er the deep - Fly, and one current to the ocean add, - One spirit to the souls our fathers had, - One freeman more, America, to thee![247] 160 - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[234] {193}[The _Ode on Venice_ (originally _Ode_) was completed by July -10, 1818 (_Letters_, 1900, iv. 245), but was published at the same time -as _Mazeppa_ and _A Fragment_, June 28, 1819. The _motif_, a lamentation -over the decay and degradation of Venice, re-echoes the sentiments -expressed in the opening stanzas (i.-xix.) of the Fourth Canto of -_Childe Harold_. A realistic description of the "Hour of Death" (lines -37-55), and a eulogy of the United States of America (lines 133-160), -give distinction to the _Ode_.] - -[235] [Compare _Childe Harold_, Canto IV. stanza xiii. lines 4-6.] - -[236] [Compare _ibid._, stanza xi. lines 5-9.] - -[237] {194}[Compare _Childe Harold_, Canto IV. stanza iii lines 1-4.] - -[238] [Compare _The Prisoner of Chillon_, line 178, note 2, _vide ante_, -p. 21.] - -[239] {195}[In contrasting Sheridan with Brougham, Byron speaks of "the -red-hot ploughshares of public life."--_Diary_, March 10, 1814, -_Letters_, 1898, ii. 397.] - -[240] [Compare-- - - "At last it [the mob] takes to weapons such as men - Snatch when despair makes human hearts less pliant. - Then comes 'the tug of war;'--'t will come again, - I rather doubt; and I would fain say 'fie on't,' - If I had not perceived that revolution - Alone can save the earth from Hell's pollution." - - _Don Juan_, Canto VIII. stanza li. lines 3-8.] - -[241] {196}[Compare Lord Tennyson's stanzas-- - - "Of old sat Freedom on the heights."] - -[242] [Compare _Childe Harold_, Canto IV. stanza xiv. line 3, note 1, -and line 6, _Poetical Works_, 1899, ii. 339, 340.] - -[243] {197}[In 1814 the Italian possessions of the Emperor of Austria -were "constituted into separate and particular states, under the title -of the kingdom of Venetian Lombardy."--Koch's _Europe_, p. 234.] - -[244] [The Prince of Orange ... was proclaimed Sovereign Prince of the -Low Countries, December 1, 1813; and in the following year, August 13, -1814, on the condition that he should make a part of the Germanic -Confederation, he received the title of King of the -Netherlands.-_Ibid_., p. 233.] - -[245] [Compare "Oceano dissociabili," Hor., _Odes_, I. iii 22.] - -[246] [In October, 1812, the American sloop _Wasp_ captured the English -brig _Frolic_; and December 29, 1812, the _Constitution_ compelled the -frigate _Java_ to surrender. In the following year, February 24, 1813, -the _Hornet_ met the _Peacock_ off the Demerara, and reduced her in -fifteen minutes to a sinking condition. On June 28, 1814, the -sloop-of-war _Wasp_ captured and burned the sloop _Reindeer_, and on -September 11, 1814, the _Confiance_, commanded by Commodore Downie, and -other vessels surrendered."--_History of America_, by Justin Winsor, -1888, vii. 380, _seq_.] - -[247] {198}[Byron repented, or feigned to repent, this somewhat -provocative eulogy of the Great Republic: "Somebody has sent me some -American abuse of _Mazeppa_ and 'the Ode;' in future I will compliment -nothing but Canada, and desert to the English."--Letter to Murray, -February 21, 1820, _Letters_, 1900, iv. 410. It is possible that the -allusion is to an article, "Mazeppa and Don Juan," in the _Analectic -Magazine_, November, 1819, vol. xiv, pp. 405-410.] - - - - - MAZEPPA. - - - - - INTRODUCTION TO _MAZEPPA_ - -_Mazeppa_, a legend of the Russian Ukraine, or frontier region, is based -on the passage in Voltaire's _Charles XII_. prefixed as the -"Advertisement" to the poem. Voltaire seems to have known very little -about the man or his history, and Byron, though he draws largely on his -imagination, was content to take his substratum of fact from Voltaire. -The "true story of Mazeppa" is worth re-telling for its own sake, and -lends a fresh interest and vitality to the legend. Ivan Stepanovitch -Mazeppa (or Mazepa), born about the year 1645, was of Cossack origin, -but appears to have belonged, by descent or creation, to the lesser -nobility of the semi-Polish Volhynia. He began life (1660) as a page of -honour in the Court of King John Casimir V. of Poland, where he studied -Latin, and acquired the tongue and pen of eloquent statesmanship. -Banished from the court on account of a quarrel, he withdrew to his -mother's estate in Volhynia, and there, to beguile the time, made love -to the wife of a neighbouring magnate, the _pane_ or Lord Falbowski. The -intrigue was discovered, and to avenge his wrongs the outraged husband -caused Mazeppa to be stripped to the skin, and bound to his own steed. -The horse, lashed into madness, and terror-stricken by the discharge of -a pistol, started off at a gallop, and rushing "thorough bush, thorough -briar," carried his torn and bleeding rider into the courtyard of his -own mansion! - -With regard to the sequel or issue of this episode, history is silent, -but when the curtain rises again (A.D. 1674) Mazeppa is discovered in -the character of writer-general or foreign secretary to Peter -Doroshenko, hetman or president of the Western Ukraine, on the hither -side of the Dnieper. From the service of Doroshenko, who came to an -untimely end, he passed by a series of accidents into the employ of his -rival, Samoilovitch, hetman of the Eastern Ukraine, and, as his -secretary or envoy, continued to attract the notice and to conciliate -the good will of the (regent) Tzarina Sophia and her eminent _boyard_, -Prince Basil Golitsyn. A time came (1687) when it served the interests -of Russia to degrade Samoilovitch, and raise Mazeppa to the post of -hetman, and thenceforward, for twenty years and more, he held something -like a regal sway over the whole of the Ukraine (a fertile "no-man's -land," watered by the Dnieper and its tributaries), openly the loyal and -zealous ally of his neighbour and suzerain, Peter the Great. - -How far this allegiance was genuine, or whether a secret preference for -Poland, the land of his adoption, or a long-concealed impatience of -Muscovite suzerainty would in any case have urged him to revolt, must -remain doubtful, but it is certain that the immediate cause of a final -reversal of the allegiance and a break with the Tsar was a second and -still more fateful _affaire du coeur_. The hetman was upwards of sixty -years of age, but, even so, he fell in love with his god-daughter, -Matrena, who, in spite of difference of age and ecclesiastical kinship, -not only returned his love, but, to escape the upbraidings and -persecution of her mother, took refuge under his roof. Mazeppa sent the -girl back to her home, but, as his love-letters testify, continued to -woo her with the tenderest and most passionate solicitings; and, -although she finally yielded to _force majeure_ and married another -suitor, her parents nursed their revenge, and endeavoured to embroil the -hetman with the Tsar. For a time their machinations failed, and -Matrena's father, Kotchubey, together with his friend Iskra, were -executed with the Tsar's assent and approbation. Before long, however, -Mazeppa, who had been for some time past in secret correspondence with -the Swedes, signalized his defection from Peter by offering his services -first to Stanislaus of Poland, and afterwards to Charles XII. of Sweden, -who was meditating the invasion of Russia. - -"Pultowa's day," July 8, 1709, was the last of Mazeppa's power and -influence, and in the following year (March 31, 1710), "he died of old -age, perhaps of a broken heart," at Varnitza, a village near Bender, on -the Dniester, whither he had accompanied the vanquished and fugitive -Charles. - -Such was Mazeppa, a man destined to pass through the crowded scenes of -history, and to take his stand among the greater heroes of romance. His -deeds of daring, his intrigues and his treachery, have been and still -are sung by the wandering minstrels of the Ukraine. His story has passed -into literature. His ride forms the subject of an _Orientale_ (1829) by -Victor Hugo, who treats Byron's theme symbolically; and the romance of -his old age, his love for his god-daughter Matrena, with its tragical -issue, the judicial murder of Kotchubey and Iskra, are celebrated by the -"Russian Byron" Pushkin, in his poem _Poltava_. He forms the subject of -a novel, _Iwan Wizigin_, by Bulgarin, 1830, and of tragedies by I. -Slowacki, 1840, and Rudolph von Gottschall. From literature Mazeppa has -passed into art in the "symphonic poem" of Franz Lizt (1857); and, yet -again, _pour comble de gloire_, _Mazeppa, or The Wild Horse of Tartary_, -is the title of a "romantic drama," first played at the Royal -Amphitheatre, Westminster Bridge, on Easter Monday, 1831; and revived at -Astley's Theatre, when Adah Isaacs Menken appeared as "Mazeppa," October -3, 1864. (_Peter the Great_, by Eugene Schuyler, 1884, ii. 115, _seq_.; -_Le Fils de Pierre Le Grand, Mazeppa, etc_., by Viscount E. Melchior de -Voguee, Paris, 1884; _Peter the Great_, by Oscar Browning, 1899, pp. -219-229.) - -Of the composition of Mazeppa we know nothing, except that on September -24, 1818, "it was still to finish" (_Letters_, 1900, iv. 264). It was -published together with an _Ode_ (_Venice: An Ode_) and _A Fragment_ -(see _Letters_, 1899, iii. Appendix IV. pp. 446-453), June 28, 1819. - -Notices of _Mazeppa_ appeared in _Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine_, July, -1819, vol. v. p. 429 (for _John Gilpin_ and _Mazeppa_, by William -Maginn, _vide ibid_., pp. 434-439); the _Monthly Review_, July, 1819, -vol. 89, pp. 309-321; and the _Eclectic Review_, August, 1819, vol. xii. -pp. 147-156. - - - - - ADVERTISEMENT. - - -"Celui qui remplissait alors cette place etait un gentilhomme Polonais, -nomine Mazeppa, ne dans le palatinat de Podolie: il avait ete eleve page -de Jean Casimir, et avait pris a sa cour quelque teinture des -belles-lettres. Une intrigue qu'il eut dans sa jeunesse avec la femme -d'un gentilhomme Polonais ayant ete decouverte, le mari le fit lier tout -nu sur un cheval farouche, et le laissa aller en cet etat. Le cheval, -qui etait du pays de l'Ukraine, y retourna, et y porta Mazeppa, -demi-mort de fatigue et de faim. Quelques paysans le secoururent: il -resta longtems parmi eux, et se signala dans plusieurs courses contre -les Tartares. La superiorite de ses lumieres lui donna une grande -consideration parmi les Cosaques: sa reputation s'augmentant de jour en -jour, obligea le Czar a le faire Prince de l'Ukraine."--Voltaire, _Hist. -de Charles XII_., 1772, p. 205. - -"Le roi, fuyant et poursuivi, eut son cheval tue sous lui; le Colonel -Gieta, blesse, et perdant tout son sang, lui donna le sien. Ainsi on -remit deux fois a cheval, dans la fuite,[br] ce conquerant qui n'avait -pu y monter pendant la bataille."--p. 222. - -"Le roi alla par un autre chemin avec quelques cavaliers. Le carrosse, -ou il etait, rompit dans la marche; on le remit a cheval. Pour comble de -disgrace, il s'egara pendant la nuit dans un bois; la, son courage ne -pouvant plus suppleer, a ses forces epuisees, les douleurs de sa -blessure devenues plus insupportables par la fatigue, son cheval etant -tombe de lassitude, il se coucha quelques heures au pied d'un arbre, en -danger d'etre surpris a tout moment par les vainqueurs, qui le -cherchaient de tous cotes."--p. 224. - - - - - MAZEPPA - - I. - - 'Twas after dread Pultowa's day,[248] - When Fortune left the royal Swede-- - Around a slaughtered army lay, - No more to combat and to bleed. - The power and glory of the war, - Faithless as their vain votaries, men, - Had passed to the triumphant Czar, - And Moscow's walls were safe again-- - Until a day more dark and drear,[249] - And a more memorable year, 10 - Should give to slaughter and to shame - A mightier host and haughtier name; - A greater wreck, a deeper fall, - A shock to one--a thunderbolt to all. - - II. - - Such was the hazard of the die; - The wounded Charles was taught to fly[250] - By day and night through field and flood, - Stained with his own and subjects' blood; - For thousands fell that flight to aid: - And not a voice was heard to upbraid 20 - Ambition in his humbled hour, - When Truth had nought to dread from Power. - His horse was slain, and Gieta gave - His own--and died the Russians' slave. - This, too, sinks after many a league - Of well-sustained, but vain fatigue; - And in the depth of forests darkling, - The watch-fires in the distance sparkling-- - The beacons of surrounding foes-- - A King must lay his limbs at length. 30 - Are these the laurels and repose - For which the nations strain their strength? - They laid him by a savage tree,[251] - In outworn Nature's agony; - His wounds were stiff, his limbs were stark; - The heavy hour was chill and dark; - The fever in his blood forbade - A transient slumber's fitful aid: - And thus it was; but yet through all, - Kinglike the monarch bore his fall, 40 - And made, in this extreme of ill, - His pangs the vassals of his will: - All silent and subdued were they. - As once the nations round him lay. - - III. - - A band of chiefs!--alas! how few, - Since but the fleeting of a day - Had thinned it; but this wreck was true - And chivalrous: upon the clay - Each sate him down, all sad and mute, - Beside his monarch and his steed; 50 - For danger levels man and brute, - And all are fellows in their need. - Among the rest, Mazeppa made[252] - His pillow in an old oak's shade-- - Himself as rough, and scarce less old, - The Ukraine's Hetman, calm and bold; - But first, outspent with this long course, - The Cossack prince rubbed down his horse, - And made for him a leafy bed, - And smoothed his fetlocks and his mane, 60 - And slacked his girth, and stripped his rein, - And joyed to see how well he fed; - For until now he had the dread - His wearied courser might refuse - To browse beneath the midnight dews: - But he was hardy as his lord, - And little cared for bed and board; - But spirited and docile too, - Whate'er was to be done, would do. - Shaggy and swift, and strong of limb, 70 - All Tartar-like he carried him; - Obeyed his voice, and came to call, - And knew him in the midst of all: - Though thousands were around,--and Night, - Without a star, pursued her flight,-- - That steed from sunset until dawn - His chief would follow like a fawn. - - - IV. - - This done, Mazeppa spread his cloak, - And laid his lance beneath his oak, - Felt if his arms in order good 80 - The long day's march had well withstood-- - If still the powder filled the pan, - And flints unloosened kept their lock-- - His sabre's hilt and scabbard felt, - And whether they had chafed his belt; - And next the venerable man, - From out his havresack and can, - Prepared and spread his slender stock; - And to the Monarch and his men - The whole or portion offered then 90 - With far less of inquietude - Than courtiers at a banquet would. - And Charles of this his slender share - With smiles partook a moment there, - To force of cheer a greater show, - And seem above both wounds and woe;-- - And then he said--"Of all our band, - Though firm of heart and strong of hand, - In skirmish, march, or forage, none - Can less have said or more have done 100 - Than thee, Mazeppa! On the earth - So fit a pair had never birth, - Since Alexander's days till now, - As thy Bucephalus and thou: - All Scythia's fame to thine should yield - For pricking on o'er flood and field." - Mazeppa answered--"Ill betide - The school wherein I learned to ride!" - Quoth Charles--"Old Hetman, wherefore so, - Since thou hast learned the art so well?" 110 - Mazeppa said--"'Twere long to tell; - And we have many a league to go, - With every now and then a blow, - And ten to one at least the foe, - Before our steeds may graze at ease, - Beyond the swift Borysthenes:[253] - And, Sire, your limbs have need of rest, - And I will be the sentinel - Of this your troop."--"But I request," - Said Sweden's monarch, "thou wilt tell 120 - This tale of thine, and I may reap, - Perchance, from this the boon of sleep; - For at this moment from my eyes - The hope of present slumber flies." - - "Well, Sire, with such a hope, I'll track - My seventy years of memory back: - I think 'twas in my twentieth spring,-- - Aye 'twas,--when Casimir was king[254]-- - John Casimir,--I was his page - Six summers, in my earlier age:[255] 130 - A learned monarch, faith! was he, - And most unlike your Majesty; - He made no wars, and did not gain - New realms to lose them back again; - And (save debates in Warsaw's diet) - He reigned in most unseemly quiet; - Not that he had no cares to vex; - He loved the Muses and the Sex;[256] - And sometimes these so froward are, - They made him wish himself at war; 140 - But soon his wrath being o'er, he took - Another mistress--or new book: - And then he gave prodigious fetes-- - All Warsaw gathered round his gates - To gaze upon his splendid court, - And dames, and chiefs, of princely port. - He was the Polish Solomon, - So sung his poets, all but one, - Who, being unpensioned, made a satire, - And boasted that he could not flatter. 150 - It was a court of jousts and mimes, - Where every courtier tried at rhymes; - Even I for once produced some verses, - And signed my odes 'Despairing Thyrsis.' - There was a certain Palatine,[257] - A Count of far and high descent, - Rich as a salt or silver mine;[258] - And he was proud, ye may divine, - As if from Heaven he had been sent; - He had such wealth in blood and ore 160 - As few could match beneath the throne; - And he would gaze upon his store, - And o'er his pedigree would pore, - Until by some confusion led, - Which almost looked like want of head, - He thought their merits were his own. - His wife was not of this opinion; - His junior she by thirty years, - Grew daily tired of his dominion; - And, after wishes, hopes, and fears, 170 - To Virtue a few farewell tears, - A restless dream or two--some glances - At Warsaw's youth--some songs, and dances, - Awaited but the usual chances, - Those happy accidents which render - The coldest dames so very tender, - To deck her Count with titles given, - 'Tis said, as passports into Heaven; - But, strange to say, they rarely boast - Of these, who have deserved them most. 180 - - V. - - "I was a goodly stripling then; - At seventy years I so may say, - That there were few, or boys or men, - Who, in my dawning time of day, - Of vassal or of knight's degree, - Could vie in vanities with me; - For I had strength--youth--gaiety, - A port, not like to this ye see, - But smooth, as all is rugged now; - For Time, and Care, and War, have ploughed 190 - My very soul from out my brow; - And thus I should be disavowed - By all my kind and kin, could they - Compare my day and yesterday; - This change was wrought, too, long ere age - Had ta'en my features for his page: - With years, ye know, have not declined - My strength--my courage--or my mind, - Or at this hour I should not be - Telling old tales beneath a tree, 200 - With starless skies my canopy. - But let me on: Theresa's[259] form-- - Methinks it glides before me now, - Between me and yon chestnut's bough, - The memory is so quick and warm; - And yet I find no words to tell - The shape of her I loved so well: - She had the Asiatic eye, - Such as our Turkish neighbourhood - Hath mingled with our Polish blood, 210 - Dark as above us is the sky; - But through it stole a tender light, - Like the first moonrise of midnight; - Large, dark, and swimming in the stream, - Which seemed to melt to its own beam; - All love, half languor, and half fire, - Like saints that at the stake expire, - And lift their raptured looks on high, - As though it were a joy to die.[bs] - A brow like a midsummer lake, 220 - Transparent with the sun therein, - When waves no murmur dare to make, - And heaven beholds her face within. - A cheek and lip--but why proceed? - I loved her then, I love her still; - And such as I am, love indeed - In fierce extremes--in good and ill. - But still we love even in our rage, - And haunted to our very age - With the vain shadow of the past,-- 230 - As is Mazeppa to the last. - - VI. - - "We met--we gazed--I saw, and sighed; - She did not speak, and yet replied; - There are ten thousand tones and signs - We hear and see, but none defines-- - Involuntary sparks of thought, - Which strike from out the heart o'erwrought, - And form a strange intelligence, - Alike mysterious and intense, - Which link the burning chain that binds, 240 - Without their will, young hearts and minds; - Conveying, as the electric[260] wire, - We know not how, the absorbing fire. - I saw, and sighed--in silence wept, - And still reluctant distance kept, - Until I was made known to her, - And we might then and there confer - Without suspicion--then, even then, - I longed, and was resolved to speak; - But on my lips they died again, 250 - The accents tremulous and weak, - Until one hour.--There is a game, - A frivolous and foolish play, - Wherewith we while away the day; - It is--I have forgot the name-- - And we to this, it seems, were set, - By some strange chance, which I forget: - I recked not if I won or lost, - It was enough for me to be - So near to hear, and oh! to see 260 - The being whom I loved the most. - I watched her as a sentinel, - (May ours this dark night watch as well!) - Until I saw, and thus it was, - That she was pensive, nor perceived - Her occupation, nor was grieved - Nor glad to lose or gain; but still - Played on for hours, as if her will - Yet bound her to the place, though not - That hers might be the winning lot[bt]. 270 - Then through my brain the thought did pass, - Even as a flash of lightning there, - That there was something in her air - Which would not doom me to despair; - And on the thought my words broke forth, - All incoherent as they were; - Their eloquence was little worth, - But yet she listened--'tis enough-- - Who listens once will listen twice; - Her heart, be sure, is not of ice-- 280 - And one refusal no rebuff. - - VII. - - "I loved, and was beloved again-- - They tell me, Sire, you never knew - Those gentle frailties; if 'tis true, - I shorten all my joy or pain; - To you 'twould seem absurd as vain; - But all men are not born to reign, - Or o'er their passions, or as you - Thus o'er themselves and nations too. - I am--or rather _was_--a Prince, 290 - A chief of thousands, and could lead - Them on where each would foremost bleed; - But could not o'er myself evince - The like control--But to resume: - I loved, and was beloved again; - In sooth, it is a happy doom, - But yet where happiest ends in pain.-- - We met in secret, and the hour - Which led me to that lady's bower - Was fiery Expectation's dower. 300 - My days and nights were nothing--all - Except that hour which doth recall, - In the long lapse from youth to age, - No other like itself: I'd give - The Ukraine back again to live - It o'er once more, and be a page, - The happy page, who was the lord - Of one soft heart, and his own sword, - And had no other gem nor wealth, - Save Nature's gift of Youth and Health. 310 - We met in secret--doubly sweet[261], - Some say, they find it so to meet; - I know not that--I would have given - My life but to have called her mine - In the full view of Earth and Heaven; - For I did oft and long repine - That we could only meet by stealth. - - VIII. - - "For lovers there are many eyes, - And such there were on us; the Devil - On such occasions should be civil-- 320 - The Devil!--I'm loth to do him wrong, - It might be some untoward saint, - Who would not be at rest too long, - But to his pious bile gave vent-- - But one fair night, some lurking spies - Surprised and seized us both. - The Count was something more than wroth-- - I was unarmed; but if in steel, - All cap-a-pie from head to heel, - What 'gainst their numbers could I do? 330 - 'Twas near his castle, far away - From city or from succour near, - And almost on the break of day; - I did not think to see another, - My moments seemed reduced to few; - And with one prayer to Mary Mother, - And, it may be, a saint or two, - As I resigned me to my fate, - They led me to the castle gate: - Theresa's doom I never knew, 340 - Our lot was henceforth separate. - An angry man, ye may opine, - Was he, the proud Count Palatine; - And he had reason good to be, - But he was most enraged lest such - An accident should chance to touch - Upon his future pedigree; - Nor less amazed, that such a blot - His noble 'scutcheon should have got, - While he was highest of his line; 350 - Because unto himself he seemed - The first of men, nor less he deemed - In others' eyes, and most in mine. - 'Sdeath! with a _page_--perchance a king - Had reconciled him to the thing; - But with a stripling of a page-- - I felt--but cannot paint his rage. - - IX. - - "'Bring forth the horse!'--the horse was brought! - In truth, he was a noble steed, - A Tartar of the Ukraine breed, 360 - Who looked as though the speed of thought - Were in his limbs; but he was wild, - Wild as the wild deer, and untaught, - With spur and bridle undefiled-- - 'Twas but a day he had been caught; - And snorting, with erected mane, - And struggling fiercely, but in vain, - In the full foam of wrath and dread - To me the desert-born was led: - They bound me on, that menial throng, - Upon his back with many a thong; 370 - They loosed him with a sudden lash-- - Away!--away!--and on we dash!-- - Torrents less rapid and less rash. - - X. - - "Away!--away!--My breath was gone, - I saw not where he hurried on: - 'Twas scarcely yet the break of day, - And on he foamed--away!--away! - The last of human sounds which rose, - As I was darted from my foes, 380 - Was the wild shout of savage laughter, - Which on the wind came roaring after - A moment from that rabble rout: - With sudden wrath I wrenched my head, - And snapped the cord, which to the mane - Had bound my neck in lieu of rein, - And, writhing half my form about, - Howled back my curse; but 'midst the tread, - The thunder of my courser's speed, - Perchance they did not hear nor heed: 390 - It vexes me--for I would fain - Have paid their insult back again. - I paid it well in after days: - There is not of that castle gate, - Its drawbridge and portcullis' weight, - Stone--bar--moat--bridge--or barrier left; - Nor of its fields a blade of grass, - Save what grows on a ridge of wall, - Where stood the hearth-stone of the hall; - And many a time ye there might pass, 400 - Nor dream that e'er the fortress was. - I saw its turrets in a blaze, - Their crackling battlements all cleft, - And the hot lead pour down like rain - From off the scorched and blackening roof, - Whose thickness was not vengeance-proof. - They little thought that day of pain, - When launched, as on the lightning's flash, - They bade me to destruction dash, - That one day I should come again, 410 - With twice five thousand horse, to thank - The Count for his uncourteous ride. - They played me then a bitter prank, - When, with the wild horse for my guide, - They bound me to his foaming flank: - At length I played them one as frank-- - For Time at last sets all things even-- - And if we do but watch the hour, - There never yet was human power - Which could evade, if unforgiven, 420 - The patient search and vigil long - Of him who treasures up a wrong. - - XI. - - "Away!--away!--my steed and I, - Upon the pinions of the wind! - All human dwellings left behind, - We sped like meteors through the sky, - When with its crackling sound the night[262] - Is chequered with the Northern light. - Town--village--none were on our track, - But a wild plain of far extent, 430 - And bounded by a forest black[263]; - And, save the scarce seen battlement - On distant heights of some strong hold, - Against the Tartars built of old, - No trace of man. The year before - A Turkish army had marched o'er; - And where the Spahi's hoof hath trod, - The verdure flies the bloody sod: - The sky was dull, and dim, and gray, - And a low breeze crept moaning by-- 440 - I could have answered with a sigh-- - But fast we fled,--away!--away!-- - And I could neither sigh nor pray; - And my cold sweat-drops fell like rain - Upon the courser's bristling mane; - But, snorting still with rage and fear, - He flew upon his far career: - At times I almost thought, indeed, - He must have slackened in his speed; - But no--my bound and slender frame 450 - Was nothing to his angry might, - And merely like a spur became: - Each motion which I made to free - My swoln limbs from their agony - Increased his fury and affright: - I tried my voice,--'twas faint and low-- - But yet he swerved as from a blow; - And, starting to each accent, sprang - As from a sudden trumpet's clang: - Meantime my cords were wet with gore, 460 - Which, oozing through my limbs, ran o'er; - And in my tongue the thirst became - A something fierier far than flame. - - XII. - - "We neared the wild wood--'twas so wide, - I saw no bounds on either side: - 'Twas studded with old sturdy trees, - That bent not to the roughest breeze - Which howls down from Siberia's waste, - And strips the forest in its haste,-- - But these were few and far between, 470 - Set thick with shrubs more young and green, - Luxuriant with their annual leaves, - Ere strown by those autumnal eyes - That nip the forest's foliage dead, - Discoloured with a lifeless red[bu], - Which stands thereon like stiffened gore - Upon the slain when battle's o'er; - And some long winter's night hath shed - Its frost o'er every tombless head-- - So cold and stark--the raven's beak 480 - May peck unpierced each frozen cheek: - 'Twas a wild waste of underwood, - And here and there a chestnut stood, - The strong oak, and the hardy pine; - But far apart--and well it were, - Or else a different lot were mine-- - The boughs gave way, and did not tear - My limbs; and I found strength to bear - My wounds, already scarred with cold; - My bonds forbade to loose my hold. 490 - We rustled through the leaves like wind,-- - Left shrubs, and trees, and wolves behind; - By night I heard them on the track, - Their troop came hard upon our back, - With their long gallop, which can tire - The hound's deep hate, and hunter's fire: - Where'er we flew they followed on, - Nor left us with the morning sun; - Behind I saw them, scarce a rood, - At day-break winding through the wood, 500 - And through the night had heard their feet - Their stealing, rustling step repeat. - Oh! how I wished for spear or sword, - At least to die amidst the horde, - And perish--if it must be so-- - At bay, destroying many a foe! - When first my courser's race begun, - I wished the goal already won; - But now I doubted strength and speed: - Vain doubt! his swift and savage breed 510 - Had nerved him like the mountain-roe-- - Nor faster falls the blinding snow - Which whelms the peasant near the door - Whose threshold he shall cross no more, - Bewildered with the dazzling blast, - Than through the forest-paths he passed-- - Untired, untamed, and worse than wild-- - All furious as a favoured child - Balked of its wish; or--fiercer still-- - A woman piqued--who has her will! 520 - - XIII. - - "The wood was passed; 'twas more than noon, - But chill the air, although in June; - Or it might be my veins ran cold-- - Prolonged endurance tames the bold; - And I was then not what I seem, - But headlong as a wintry stream, - And wore my feelings out before - I well could count their causes o'er: - And what with fury, fear, and wrath, - The tortures which beset my path-- 530 - Cold--hunger--sorrow--shame--distress-- - Thus bound in Nature's nakedness; - Sprung from a race whose rising blood - When stirred beyond its calmer mood, - And trodden hard upon, is like - The rattle-snake's, in act to strike-- - What marvel if this worn-out trunk - Beneath its woes a moment sunk?[264] - The earth gave way, the skies rolled round, - I seemed to sink upon the ground; 540 - But erred--for I was fastly bound. - My heart turned sick, my brain grew sore, - And throbbed awhile, then beat no more: - The skies spun like a mighty wheel; - I saw the trees like drunkards reel, - And a slight flash sprang o'er my eyes, - Which saw no farther. He who dies - Can die no more than then I died, - O'ertortured by that ghastly ride.[265] - I felt the blackness come and go, 550 - And strove to wake; but could not make - My senses climb up from below: - I felt as on a plank at sea, - When all the waves that dash o'er thee, - At the same time upheave and whelm, - And hurl thee towards a desert realm. - My undulating life was as - The fancied lights that flitting pass - Our shut eyes in deep midnight, when - Fever begins upon the brain; 560 - But soon it passed, with little pain, - But a confusion worse than such: - I own that I should deem it much, - Dying, to feel the same again; - And yet I do suppose we must - Feel far more ere we turn to dust! - No matter! I have bared my brow - Full in Death's face--before--and now. - - XIV. - - "My thoughts came back. Where was I? Cold, - And numb, and giddy: pulse by pulse 570 - Life reassumed its lingering hold, - And throb by throb,--till grown a pang - Which for a moment would convulse, - My blood reflowed, though thick and chill; - My ear with uncouth noises rang, - My heart began once more to thrill; - My sight returned, though dim; alas! - And thickened, as it were, with glass. - Methought the dash of waves was nigh; - There was a gleam too of the sky, 580 - Studded with stars;--it is no dream; - The wild horse swims the wilder stream! - The bright broad river's gushing tide - Sweeps, winding onward, far and wide, - And we are half-way, struggling o'er - To yon unknown and silent shore. - The waters broke my hollow trance, - And with a temporary strength - My stiffened limbs were rebaptized. - My courser's broad breast proudly braves, 590 - And dashes off the ascending waves, - And onward we advance! - We reach the slippery shore at length, - A haven I but little prized, - For all behind was dark and drear, - And all before was night and fear. - How many hours of night or day[266] - In those suspended pangs I lay, - I could not tell; I scarcely knew - If this were human breath I drew. 600 - - XV. - - "With glossy skin, and dripping mane, - And reeling limbs, and reeking flank, - The wild steed's sinewy nerves still strain - Up the repelling bank. - We gain the top: a boundless plain - Spreads through the shadow of the night, - And onward, onward, onward--seems, - Like precipices in our dreams,[267] - To stretch beyond the sight; - And here and there a speck of white, 610 - Or scattered spot of dusky green, - In masses broke into the light, - As rose the moon upon my right: - But nought distinctly seen - In the dim waste would indicate - The omen of a cottage gate; - No twinkling taper from afar - Stood like a hospitable star; - Not even an ignis-fatuus rose[268] - To make him merry with my woes: 620 - That very cheat had cheered me then! - Although detected, welcome still, - Reminding me, through every ill, - Of the abodes of men. - - XVI. - - "Onward we went--but slack and slow; - His savage force at length o'erspent, - The drooping courser, faint and low, - All feebly foaming went: - A sickly infant had had power - To guide him forward in that hour! 630 - But, useless all to me, - His new-born tameness nought availed-- - My limbs were bound; my force had failed, - Perchance, had they been free. - With feeble effort still I tried - To rend the bonds so starkly tied, - But still it was in vain; - My limbs were only wrung the more, - And soon the idle strife gave o'er, - Which but prolonged their pain. 640 - The dizzy race seemed almost done, - Although no goal was nearly won: - Some streaks announced the coming sun-- - How slow, alas! he came! - Methought that mist of dawning gray - Would never dapple into day, - How heavily it rolled away! - Before the eastern flame - Rose crimson, and deposed the stars, - And called the radiance from their cars,[bv] 650 - And filled the earth, from his deep throne, - With lonely lustre, all his own. - - XVII. - - "Uprose the sun; the mists were curled - Back from the solitary world - Which lay around--behind--before. - What booted it to traverse o'er - Plain--forest--river? Man nor brute, - Nor dint of hoof, nor print of foot, - Lay in the wild luxuriant soil-- - No sign of travel, none of toil-- 660 - The very air was mute: - And not an insect's shrill small horn,[269] - Nor matin bird's new voice was borne - From herb nor thicket. Many a _werst,_ - Panting as if his heart would burst, - The weary brute still staggered on; - And still we were--or seemed--alone: - At length, while reeling on our way, - Methought I heard a courser neigh, - From out yon tuft of blackening firs. 670 - Is it the wind those branches stirs?[270] - No, no! from out the forest prance - A trampling troop; I see them come! - In one vast squadron they advance! - I strove to cry--my lips were dumb! - The steeds rush on in plunging pride; - But where are they the reins to guide? - A thousand horse, and none to ride! - With flowing tail, and flying mane, - Wide nostrils never stretched by pain, 680 - Mouths bloodless to the bit or rein, - And feet that iron never shod, - And flanks unscarred by spur or rod, - A thousand horse, the wild, the free, - Like waves that follow o'er the sea, - Came thickly thundering on, - As if our faint approach to meet! - The sight re-nerved my courser's feet, - A moment staggering, feebly fleet, - A moment, with a faint low neigh, 690 - He answered, and then fell! - With gasps and glazing eyes he lay, - And reeking limbs immoveable, - His first and last career is done! - On came the troop--they saw him stoop, - They saw me strangely bound along - His back with many a bloody thong. - They stop--they start--they snuff the air, - Gallop a moment here and there, - Approach, retire, wheel round and round, 700 - Then plunging back with sudden bound, - Headed by one black mighty steed, - Who seemed the Patriarch of his breed, - Without a single speck or hair - Of white upon his shaggy hide; - They snort--they foam--neigh--swerve aside, - And backward to the forest fly, - By instinct, from a human eye. - They left me there to my despair, - Linked to the dead and stiffening wretch, 710 - Whose lifeless limbs beneath me stretch, - Relieved from that unwonted weight, - From whence I could not extricate - Nor him nor me--and there we lay, - The dying on the dead! - I little deemed another day - Would see my houseless, helpless head. - - "And there from morn to twilight bound, - I felt the heavy hours toil round, - With just enough of life to see 720 - My last of suns go down on me, - In hopeless certainty of, mind, - That makes us feel at length resigned - To that which our foreboding years - Present the worst and last of fears: - Inevitable--even a boon, - Nor more unkind for coming soon, - Yet shunned and dreaded with such care, - As if it only were a snare - That Prudence might escape: 730 - At times both wished for and implored, - At times sought with self-pointed sword, - Yet still a dark and hideous close - To even intolerable woes, - And welcome in no shape. - And, strange to say, the sons of pleasure, - They who have revelled beyond measure - In beauty, wassail, wine, and treasure, - Die calm, or calmer, oft than he - Whose heritage was Misery. 740 - For he who hath in turn run through - All that was beautiful and new, - Hath nought to hope, and nought to leave; - And, save the future, (which is viewed - Not quite as men are base or good, - But as their nerves may be endued,) - With nought perhaps to grieve: - The wretch still hopes his woes must end, - And Death, whom he should deem his friend, - Appears, to his distempered eyes, 750 - Arrived to rob him of his prize, - The tree of his new Paradise. - To-morrow would have given him all, - Repaid his pangs, repaired his fall; - To-morrow would have been the first - Of days no more deplored or curst, - But bright, and long, and beckoning years, - Seen dazzling through the mist of tears, - Guerdon of many a painful hour; - To-morrow would have given him power 760 - To rule--to shine--to smite--to save-- - And must it dawn upon his grave? - - XVIII. - - "The sun was sinking--still I lay - Chained to the chill and stiffening steed! - I thought to mingle there our clay;[271] - And my dim eyes of death had need, - No hope arose of being freed. - I cast my last looks up the sky, - And there between me and the sun[272] - I saw the expecting raven fly, 770 - Who scarce would wait till both should die, - Ere his repast begun;[273] - He flew, and perched, then flew once more, - And each time nearer than before; - I saw his wing through twilight flit, - And once so near me he alit - I could have smote, but lacked the strength; - But the slight motion of my hand, - And feeble scratching of the sand, - The exerted throat's faint struggling noise, 780 - Which scarcely could be called a voice, - Together scared him off at length. - I know no more--my latest dream - Is something of a lovely star - Which fixed my dull eyes from afar, - And went and came with wandering beam, - And of the cold--dull--swimming--dense - Sensation of recurring sense, - And then subsiding back to death, - And then again a little breath, 790 - A little thrill--a short suspense, - An icy sickness curdling o'er - My heart, and sparks that crossed my brain-- - A gasp--a throb--a start of pain, - A sigh--and nothing more. - - XIX. - - "I woke--where was I?--Do I see - A human face look down on me? - And doth a roof above me close? - Do these limbs on a couch repose? - Is this a chamber where I lie? 800 - And is it mortal yon bright eye, - That watches me with gentle glance? - I closed my own again once more, - As doubtful that my former trance - Could not as yet be o'er. - A slender girl, long-haired, and tall, - Sate watching by the cottage wall. - The sparkle of her eye I caught, - Even with my first return of thought; - For ever and anon she threw 810 - A prying, pitying glance on me - With her black eyes so wild and free: - I gazed, and gazed, until I knew - No vision it could be,-- - But that I lived, and was released - From adding to the vulture's feast: - And when the Cossack maid beheld - My heavy eyes at length unsealed, - She smiled--and I essayed to speak, - But failed--and she approached, and made 820 - With lip and finger signs that said, - I must not strive as yet to break - The silence, till my strength should be - Enough to leave my accents free; - And then her hand on mine she laid, - And smoothed the pillow for my head, - And stole along on tiptoe tread, - And gently oped the door, and spake - In whispers--ne'er was voice so sweet![274] - Even music followed her light feet. 830 - But those she called were not awake, - And she went forth; but, ere she passed, - Another look on me she cast, - Another sign she made, to say, - That I had nought to fear, that all - Were near, at my command or call, - And she would not delay - Her due return:--while she was gone, - Methought I felt too much alone. - - XX. - - "She came with mother and with sire-- 840 - What need of more?--I will not tire - With long recital of the rest, - Since I became the Cossack's guest. - They found me senseless on the plain, - They bore me to the nearest hut, - They brought me into life again-- - Me--one day o'er their realm to reign! - Thus the vain fool who strove to glut - His rage, refining on my pain, - Sent me forth to the wilderness, 850 - Bound--naked--bleeding--and alone, - To pass the desert to a throne,-- - What mortal his own doom may guess? - Let none despond, let none despair! - To-morrow the Borysthenes - May see our coursers graze at ease - Upon his Turkish bank,--and never - Had I such welcome for a river - As I shall yield when safely there.[275] - Comrades, good night!"--The Hetman threw 860 - His length beneath the oak-tree shade, - With leafy couch already made-- - A bed nor comfortless nor new - To him, who took his rest whene'er - The hour arrived, no matter where: - His eyes the hastening slumbers steep. - And if ye marvel Charles forgot - To thank his tale, _he_ wondered not,-- - The King had been an hour asleep! - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[br] {205}_la suite_.--[MS. and First Edition.] - -[248] {207}[The Battle of Poltava on the Vorskla took place July 8, -1709. "The Swedish troops (under Rehnskjoeld) numbered only 12,500 -men.... The Russian army was four times as numerous.... The Swedes -seemed at first to get the advantage, ... but everywhere the were -overpowered and surrounded--beaten in detail; and though for two hours -they fought with the fierceness of despair, they were forced either to -surrender or to flee.... Over 2800 officers and men were taken -prisoners."--_Peter the Great_, by Eugene Schuyler, 1884, ii. 148, 149.] - -[249] [Napoleon began his retreat from Moscow, October 15, 1812. He was -defeated at Vitepsk, November 14; Krasnoi, November 16-18; and at -Beresina, November 25-29, 1812.] - -[250] ["It happened ... that during the operations of June 27-28, -Charles was severely wounded in the foot. On the morning of June 28 he -was riding close to the river ... when a ball struck him on the left -heel, passed through his foot, and lodged close to the great toe.... On -the night of July 7, 1709 ... Charles had the foot carefully dressed, -while he wore a spurred boot on his sound foot, put on his uniform, and -placed himself on a kind of litter, in which he was drawn before the -lines of the array.... [After the battle, July 8] those who survived -took refuge in flight, the King--whose litter had been smashed by a -cannon-ball, and who was carried by the soldiers on crossed poles--going -with them, and the Russians neglecting to pursue. In this manner they -reached their former camp."--_Charles XII._, by Oscar Browning, 1899, -pp. 213, 220, 224, sq. For an account of his flight southwards into -Turkish territory, _vide post_, p. 233, note 1. The bivouack "under a -savage tree" must have taken place on the night of the battle, at the -first halt, between Poltava and the junction of the Vorskla and -Dnieper.] - -[251] {208}[Compare-- - - "Thus elms and thus the savage cherry grows." - - Dryden's _Georgics_, ii. 24.] - -[252] {209}[For some interesting particulars concerning the Hetman -Mazeppa, see Barrow's _Memoir of the Life of Peter the Great_, 1832, pp. -181-202.] - -[253] {211}[The Dnieper.] - -[254] [John Casimir (1609-1672), Jesuit, cardinal, and king, was a -Little-Polander, not to say a pro-Cossack, and suffered in consequence. -At the time of his proclamation as King of Poland, November, 1649, -Poland was threatened by an incursion of Cossacks. The immediate cause -was, or was supposed to be, the ill treatment which [Bogdan Khmelnitzky] -a Lithuanian had received at the hands of the Polish governor, -Czaplinski. The governor, it was alleged, had carried off, ravished, and -put to death Khmelnitzky's wife, and, not content with this outrage, had -set fire to the house of the Cossack, "in which perished his infant son -in his cradle." Others affirmed that the Cossack had begun the strife by -causing the governor "to be publicly and ignominiously whipped," and -that it was the Cossack's mill and not his house which he burnt. Be that -as it may, Casimir, on being exhorted to take the field, declined, on -the ground that the Poles "ought not to have set fire to Khmelnitzky's -house." It is probably to this unpatriotic determination to look at both -sides of the question that he earned the character of being an unwarlike -prince. As a matter of fact, he fought and was victorious against the -Cossacks and Tartars at Bereteskow and elsewhere. (See _Mod. Univ. -Hist._, xxxiv. 203, 217; Puffend, _Hist. Gener._, 1732, iv. 328; and -_Histoire des Kosaques_, par M. (Charles Louis) Le Sur, 1814, i. 321.)] - -[255] [A.D. 1660 or thereabouts.] - -[256] {212}[According to the editor of Voltaire's Works (_Oeuvres_, -Beuchot, 1830, xix. 378, note 1), there was a report that Casimir, after -his retirement to Paris in 1670, secretly married "_Marie Mignot, fille -d'une blanchisseuse_;" and there are other tales of other loves, e.g. -Ninon de Lenclos.] - -[257] [According to the biographers, Mazeppa's intrigue took place after -he had been banished from the court of Warsaw, and had retired to his -estate in Volhynia. The _pane_ [Lord] Falbowsky, the old husband of the -young wife, was a neighbouring magnate. It was a case of "love in -idlenesse."--_Vide ante_, "The Introduction to _Mazeppa_," p. 201.] - -[258] This comparison of a "_salt_ mine" may, perhaps, be permitted to a -Pole, as the wealth of the country consists greatly in the salt mines. - -[259] {213}[It is improbable that Byron, when he wrote these lines, was -thinking of Theresa Gamba, Countess Guiccioli. He met her for the first -time "in the autumn of 1818, three days after her marriage," but it was -not till April, 1819, that he made her acquaintance. (See _Life_, p. -393, and _Letters_, 1900, iv. 289.) The copy of _Mazeppa_ sent home to -Murray is in the Countess Guiccioli's handwriting, but the assertion -(see Byron's _Works_, 1832, xi. 178), that "it is impossible not to -suspect that the Poet had some circumstances of his own personal -history, when he portrayed the fair Polish _Theresa_, her faithful -lover, and the jealous rage of the old Count Palatine," is open to -question. It was Marianna Segati who had "large, black, Oriental eyes, -with that peculiar expression in them which is seen rarely among -_Europeans_ ... forehead remarkably good" (see lines 208-220); not -Theresa Guiccioli, who was a "blonde," with a "brilliant complexion and -blue eyes." (See Letters to Moore, November 17, 1816; and to Murray, May -6, 1819: _Letters_, 1900, iv. 8, 289, note 1.) Moreover, the "Maid of -Athens" was called Theresa. Dr. D. Englaender, in his exhaustive -monologue, _Lord Byron's Mazeppa_, pp. 48, sq., insists on the identity -of the Theresa of the poem with the Countess Guiccioli, but from this -contention the late Professor Koelbing (see _Englische Studien_, 1898, -vol. xxiv. pp 448-458) dissents.] - -[bs] {214}_Until it proves a joy to die_.--[MS. erased.] - -[260] {215}[For the use of "electric" as a metaphor, compare _Parisina_, -line 480, _Poetical Works_, 1900, iii. 524, note i.] - -[bt] {216} - - --_but not_ - _For that which we had both forgot_.--[MS. erased.] - -[261] {217}[Compare-- - - "We loved, Sir, used to meet: - How sad, and bad, and mad it was! - But then how it was sweet!" - - _Confessions_, by Robert Browning.] - -[262] {220}[Compare-- - - "In sleep I heard the northern gleams; ... - In rustling conflict through the skies, - I heard, I saw the flashes drive." - - _The Complaint_, stanza i. lines 3, 5, 6. - -See, too, reference to _Hearne's Journey from Hudson's Bay, etc_., in -prefatory note, _Works_ of W. Wordsworth, 1889, p. 86.] - -[263] [As Dr. Englaender points out (_Mazeppa_, 1897, p. 73), it is -probable that Byron derived his general conception of the scenery of the -Ukraine from passages in Voltaire's _Charles XII._, e.g.: "Depuis Grodno -jusqu'au Borysthene, en tirant vers l'orient ce sont des marais, des -deserts, des forets immenses" (_Oeuvres_, 1829, xxiv. 170). The -exquisite beauty of the virgin steppes, the long rich grass, the -wild-flowers, the "diviner air," to which the Viscount de Voguee -testifies so eloquently in his _Mazeppa_, were not in the "mind's eye" -of the poet or the historian.] - -[bu] {222} - - _And stains it with a lifeless red_.--[MS.] - _Which clings to it like stiffened gore_.--[MS. erased.] - -[264] {223}[The thread on which the successive tropes or images are -loosely strung seems to give if not to snap at this point. "Considering -that Mazeppa was sprung of a race which in moments of excitement, when -an enemy has stamped upon its vitals, springs up to repel the attack, it -was only to be expected that he should sink beneath the blow--and sink -he did." The conclusion is at variance with the premiss.] - -[265] {224}[Compare-- - - "'Alas,' said she, 'this ghastly ride, - Dear Lady! it hath wildered you.'" - - _Christabel_, Part I. lines 216, 217.] - -[266] {225}[Compare-- - - "How long in that same fit I lay, - I have not to declare." - - _Ancient Mariner,_ Part V. lines 393, 394.] - -[267] [Compare-- - - "From precipices of distempered sleep." - -Sonnet, "No more my visionary soul shall dwell," by S. T. Coleridge, -attributed by Southey to Favell.--_Letters of S. T. Coleridge,_ 1895, i. -83; Southey's _Life and Correspondence,_ 1849, i. 224.] - -[268] {226}[Compare _Werner_, iii. 3-- - - "Burn still, - Thou little light! Thou art my _ignis fatuus_. - My stationary Will-o'-the-wisp!--So! So!" - -Compare, too, _Don Juan_, Canto XI. stanza xxvii. line 6, and Canto XV, -stanza liv. line 6.] - -[bv] {227} - - _Rose crimson, and forebade the stars_ - _To sparkle in their radiant cars_.--[MS, erased.] - -[269] [Compare-- - - "What time the gray-fly winds her sultry horn." - - _Lycidas,_ line 28.] - -[270] [Compare-- - - "Was it the wind through some hollow stone?" - - _Siege of Corinth,_ line 521, _Poetical Works,_ - 1900, iii. 471, note 1.] - -[271] {230}[Compare-- - - "The Architect ... did essay - To extricate remembrance from the clay, - Whose minglings might confuse a Newton's thought." - - _Churchill's Grave_, lines 20-23 (_vide ante_, p. 47).] - -[272] [Compare-- - - " ... that strange shape drove suddenly - Betwixt us and the Sun." - - _Ancient Mariner_, Part III. lines 175, 176.] - -[273] [_Vide infra_, line 816. The raven turns into a vulture a few -lines further on. Compare-- - - "The scalps were in the wild dog's maw, - The hair was tangled round his jaw: - But close by the shore, on the edge of the gulf, - There sat a vulture flapping a wolf." - - _Siege of Corinth_, lines 471-474, _Poetical Works_, 1900, iv. 468.] - -[274] {232}[Compare-- - - "Her eyes were eloquent, her words would pose, - Although she told him, in good modern Greek, - With an Ionian accent, low and sweet, - That he was faint, and must not talk but eat. - - "Now Juan could not understand a word, - Being no Grecian; but he had an ear, - And her voice was the warble of a bird, - So soft, so sweet, so delicately clear." - - _Don Juan_, Canto II. stanza cl. line 5 to stanza cli. line 4.] - -[275] {233}["By noon the battle (of Poltava) was over.... Charles had -been induced to return to the camp and rally the remainder of the army. -In spite of his wounded foot, he had to ride, lying on the neck of his -horse.... The retreat (down the Vorskla to the Dnieper) began towards -evening.... On the afternoon of July 11 the Swedes arrived at the little -town of Perevolotchna, at the mouth of the Vorskla, where there was a -ferry across the Dnieper ... the king, Mazeppa, and about 1000 men -crossed the Dnieper.... The king, with the Russian cavalry in hot -pursuit, rode as fast as he could to the Bug, where half his escourt was -captured, and he barely escaped. Thence he went to Bender, on the -Dniester, and for five years remained the guest of Turkey."--_Peter the -Great_, by Eugene Schuyler, 1884, ii. 149-151.] - - - - - - THE PROPHECY OF DANTE. - - "'Tis the sunset of life gives me mystical lore, - And coming events cast their shadows before." - - Campbell, [_Lochiel's Warning_]. - - - - - INTRODUCTION TO _THE PROPHECY OF DANTE_. - - -The _Prophecy of Dante_ was written at Ravenna, during the month of -June, 1819, "to gratify" the Countess Guiccioli. Before she left Venice -in April she had received a promise from Byron to visit her at Ravenna. -"Dante's tomb, the classical pinewood," and so forth, had afforded a -pretext for the invitation to be given and accepted, and, at length, -when she was, as she imagined, "at the point of death," he arrived, -better late than never, "on the Festival of the _Corpus Domini_" which -fell that year on the tenth of June (see her communication to Moore, -_Life_, p. 399). Horses and books were left behind at Venice, but he -could occupy his enforced leisure by "writing something on the subject -of Dante" (_ibid_., p. 402). A heightened interest born of fuller -knowledge, in Italian literature and Italian politics, lent zest to this -labour of love, and, time and place conspiring, he composed "the best -thing he ever wrote" (Letter to Murray, March 23, 1820, _Letters_, 1900, -iv. 422), his _Vision_ (or _Prophecy_) _of Dante_. - -It would have been strange if Byron, who had sounded his _Lament_ over -the sufferings of Tasso, and who had become _de facto_ if not _de jure_ -a naturalized Italian, had forborne to associate his name and fame with -the sacred memory of the "Gran padre Alighier." If there had been any -truth in Friedrich Schlegel's pronouncement, in a lecture delivered at -Vienna in 1814, "that at no time has the greatest and most national of -all Italian poets ever been much the favourite of his countrymen," the -reproach had become meaningless. As the sumptuous folio edition (4 -vols.) of the _Divina Commedia_, published at Florence, 1817-19; a -quarto edition (4 vols.) published at Rome, 1815-17; a folio edition (3 -vols.) published at Bologna 1819-21, to which the Conte Giovanni -Marchetti (_vide_ the Preface, _post_, p. 245) contributed his famous -excursus on the allegory in the First Canto of the _Inferno_, and -numerous other issues remain to testify, Dante's own countrymen were -eager "to pay honours almost divine" to his memory. "The last age," -writes Hobhouse, in 1817 (note 18 to Canto IV. of _Childe Harold's -Pilgrimage_, _Poetical Works_, 1899, ii. 496), "seemed inclined to -undervalue him.... The present generation ... has returned to the -ancient worship, and the _Danteggiare_ of the northern Italians is -thought even indiscreet by the more moderate Tuscans." Dante was in the -air. As Byron wrote in his Diary (January 29, 1821), "Read Schlegel -[probably in a translation published at Edinburgh, 1818]. Not a -favourite! Why, they talk Dante, write Dante, and think and dream Dante -at this moment (1821), to an excess which would be ridiculous, but that -he deserves it." - -There was, too, another reason why he was minded to write a poem "on the -subject of Dante." There was, at this time, a hope, if not a clear -prospect, of political change--of throwing off the yoke of the Bourbon, -of liberating Italy from the tyrant and the stranger. "Dante was the -poet of liberty. Persecution, exile, the dread of a foreign grave, could -not shake his principles" (Medwin, _Conversations_, 1824, p. 242). The -_Prophecy_ was "intended for the Italians," intended to foreshadow as in -a vision "liberty and the resurrection of Italy" (_ibid_., p. 241). As -he rode at twilight through the pine forest, or along "the silent shore -Which bounds Ravenna's immemorial wood," the undying past inspired him -with a vision of the future, delayed, indeed, for a time, "the flame -ending in smoke," but fulfilled after many days, a vision of a redeemed -and united Italy. - -"The poem," he says, in the Preface, "may be considered as a metrical -experiment." In _Beppo_, and the two first cantos of _Don Juan_, he had -proved that the _ottava rima_ of the Italians, which Frere had been one -of the first to transplant, might grow and flourish in an alien soil, -and now, by way of a second venture, he proposed to acclimatize the -_terza rima_. He was under the impression that Hayley, whom he had held -up to ridicule as "for ever feeble, and for ever tame," had been the -first and last to try the measure in English; but of Hayley's excellent -translation of the three first cantos of the _Inferno_ (_vide post_, p. -244, note 1), praised but somewhat grudgingly praised by Southey, he had -only seen an extract, and of earlier experiments he was altogether -ignorant. As a matter of fact, many poets had already essayed, but -timidly and without perseverance, to "come to the test in the -metrification" of the _Divine Comedy_. Some twenty-seven lines, "the -sole example in English literature of that period, of the use of _terza -rima_, obviously copied from Dante" (_Complete Works of Chaucer_, by the -Rev. W. Skeat, 1894, i. 76, 261), are imbedded in Chaucer's _Compleint -to his Lady_. In the sixteenth century Sir Thomas Wyatt and Henry -Howard, Earl of Surrey ("Description of the restless state of a lover"), -"as novises newly sprung out of the schools of Dante, Ariosto, and -Petrarch" (Puttenham's _Art of Poesie_, 1589, pp. 48-50); and later -again, Daniel ("To the Lady Lucy, Countess of Bedford"), Ben Jonson, and -Milton (_Psalms_ ii., vi.) afford specimens of _terza rima_. There was, -too, one among Byron's contemporaries who had already made trial of the -metre in his _Prince Athanase_ (1817) and _The Woodman and the -Nightingale_ (1818), and who, shortly, in his _Ode to the West Wind_ -(October, 1819, published 1820) was to prove that it was not impossible -to write English poetry, if not in genuine _terza rima_, with its -interchange of double rhymes, at least in what has been happily styled -the "Byronic _terza rima_." It may, however, be taken for granted that, -at any rate in June, 1819, these fragments of Shelley's were unknown to -Byron. Long after Byron's day, but long years before his dream was -realized, Mrs. Browning, in her _Casa Guidi Windows_ (1851), in the same -metre, re-echoed the same aspiration (see her _Preface_), "that the -future of Italy shall not be disinherited." (See for some of these -instances of _terza rima_, _Englische Metrik_, von Dr. J. Schipper, -1888, ii. 896. See, too, _The Metre of Dante's Comedy discussed and -exemplified_, by Alfred Forman and Harry Buxton Forman, 1878, p. 7.) - -The MS. of the _Prophecy of Dante_, together with the Preface, was -forwarded to Murray, March 14, 1820; but in spite of some impatience on -the part of the author (Letter to Murray, May 8, 1820, _Letters_, 1901, -v. 20), and, after the lapse of some months, a pretty broad hint -(Letter, August 17, 1820, _ibid_., p. 165) that "the time for the Dante -would be good now ... as Italy is on the eve of great things," -publication was deferred till the following year. _Marino Faliero, Doge -of Venice_, and the _Prophecy of Dante_ were published in the same -volume, April 21, 1821. - -The _Prophecy of Dante_ was briefly but favourably noticed by Jeffrey in -his review of _Marino Faliero_ (_Edinb. Rev._, July, 1821, vol. 35, p. -285). "It is a very grand, fervid, turbulent, and somewhat mystical -composition, full of the highest sentiment and the highest poetry; ... -but disfigured by many faults of precipitation, and overclouded with -many obscurities. Its great fault with common readers will be that it -is not sufficiently intelligible.... It is, however, beyond all -question, a work of a man of great genius." - -Other notices of _Marino Faliero_ and the _Prophecy of Dante_ appeared -in _Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine_, April, 1821, vol. 9, pp. 93-103; in -the _Monthly Review_, May, 1821, Enlarged Series, vol. 95, pp. 41-50; -and in the _Eclectic Review_, June 21, New Series, vol. xv. pp. -518-527. - - - - - DEDICATION. - - Lady! if for the cold and cloudy clime - Where I was born, but where I would not die, - Of the great Poet-Sire of Italy - I dare to build[276] the imitative rhyme, - Harsh Runic[277] copy of the South's sublime, - Thou art the cause; and howsoever I - Fall short of his immortal harmony, - Thy gentle heart will pardon me the crime. - Thou, in the pride of Beauty and of Youth, - Spakest; and for thee to speak and be obeyed - Are one; but only in the sunny South - Such sounds are uttered, and such charms displayed, - So sweet a language from so fair a mouth--[278] - Ah! to what effort would it not persuade? - - Ravenna, June 21, 1819. - - - - - - PREFACE - -In the course of a visit to the city of Ravenna in the summer of 1819, -it was suggested to the author that having composed something on the -subject of Tasso's confinement, he should do the same on Dante's -exile,--the tomb of the poet forming one of the principal objects[279] -of interest in that city, both to the native and to the stranger. - -"On this hint I spake," and the result has been the following four -cantos, in _terza rima_, now offered to the reader. If they are -understood and approved, it is my purpose to continue the poem in -various other cantos to its natural conclusion in the present age. The -reader is requested to suppose that Dante addresses him in the interval -between the conclusion of the _Divina Commedia_ and his death, and -shortly before the latter event, foretelling the fortunes of Italy in -general in the ensuing centuries. In adopting this plan I have had in my -mind the Cassandra of Lycophron,[280] and the Prophecy of Nereus by -Horace, as well as the Prophecies of Holy Writ. The measure adopted is -the _terza rima_ of Dante, which I am not aware to have seen hitherto -_tried in our language, except it may be by Mr. Hayley_,[281] of whose -translation I never saw but one extract, quoted in the notes to _Caliph -Vathek_; so that--if I do not err--this poem may be considered as a -metrical experiment. The cantos are short, and about the same length of -those of the poet, whose name I have borrowed and most likely taken in -vain. - -Amongst the inconveniences of authors in the present day, it is -difficult for any who have a name, good or bad, to escape translation. I -have had the fortune to see the fourth canto of _Childe Harold_[282] -translated into Italian _versi sciolti_,--that is, a poem written in the -_Spenserean stanza_ into _blank verse_, without regard to the natural -divisions of the stanza or the sense. If the present poem, being on a -national topic, should chance to undergo the same fate, I would request -the Italian reader to remember that when I have failed in the imitation -of his great "Padre Alighier,"[283] I have failed in imitating that -which all study and few understand, since to this very day it is not yet -settled what was the meaning of the allegory[284] in the first canto of -the _Inferno_, unless Count Marchetti's ingenious and probable -conjecture may be considered as having decided the question. - -He may also pardon my failure the more, as I am not quite sure that he -would be pleased with my success, since the Italians, with a pardonable -nationality, are particularly jealous of all that is left them as a -nation--their literature; and in the present bitterness of the classic -and romantic war, are but ill disposed to permit a foreigner even to -approve or imitate them, without finding some fault with his -ultramontane presumption. I can easily enter into all this, knowing what -would be thought in England of an Italian imitator of Milton, or if a -translation of Monti, Pindemonte, or Arici,[285] should be held up to -the rising generation as a model for their future poetical essays. But I -perceive that I am deviating into an address to the Italian reader, -where my business is with the English one; and be they few or many, I -must take my leave of both. - - - - - THE PROPHECY OF DANTE. - - - CANTO THE FIRST. - - Once more in Man's frail world! which I had left - So long that 'twas forgotten; and I feel - The weight of clay again,--too soon bereft - Of the Immortal Vision which could heal - My earthly sorrows, and to God's own skies - Lift me from that deep Gulf without repeal, - Where late my ears rung with the damned cries - Of Souls in hopeless bale; and from that place - Of lesser torment, whence men may arise - Pure from the fire to join the Angelic race; 10 - Midst whom my own bright Beatric[=e][286] blessed - My spirit with her light; and to the base - Of the Eternal Triad! first, last, best,[287] - Mysterious, three, sole, infinite, great God! - Soul universal! led the mortal guest, - Unblasted by the Glory, though he trod - From star to star to reach the almighty throne.[bw] - Oh Beatrice! whose sweet limbs the sod - So long hath pressed, and the cold marble stone, - Thou sole pure Seraph of my earliest love, 20 - Love so ineffable, and so alone, - That nought on earth could more my bosom move, - And meeting thee in Heaven was but to meet - That without which my Soul, like the arkless dove, - Had wandered still in search of, nor her feet - Relieved her wing till found; without thy light - My Paradise had still been incomplete.[288] - Since my tenth sun gave summer to my sight - Thou wert my Life, the Essence of my thought, - Loved ere I knew the name of Love,[289] and bright 30 - Still in these dim old eyes, now overwrought - With the World's war, and years, and banishment, - And tears for thee, by other woes untaught; - For mine is not a nature to be bent - By tyrannous faction, and the brawling crowd, - And though the long, long conflict hath been spent - In vain,--and never more, save when the cloud - Which overhangs the Apennine my mind's eye - Pierces to fancy Florence, once so proud - Of me, can I return, though but to die, 40 - Unto my native soil,--they have not yet - Quenched the old exile's spirit, stern and high. - But the Sun, though not overcast, must set - And the night cometh; I am old in days, - And deeds, and contemplation, and have met - Destruction face to face in all his ways. - The World hath left me, what it found me, pure, - And if I have not gathered yet its praise, - I sought it not by any baser lure; - Man wrongs, and Time avenges, and my name 50 - May form a monument not all obscure, - Though such was not my Ambition's end or aim, - To add to the vain-glorious list of those - Who dabble in the pettiness of fame, - And make men's fickle breath the wind that blows - Their sail, and deem it glory to be classed - With conquerors, and Virtue's other foes, - In bloody chronicles of ages past. - I would have had my Florence great and free;[290] - Oh Florence! Florence![291] unto me thou wast 60 - Like that Jerusalem which the Almighty He - Wept over, "but thou wouldst not;" as the bird - Gathers its young, I would have gathered thee - Beneath a parent pinion, hadst thou heard - My voice; but as the adder, deaf and fierce, - Against the breast that cherished thee was stirred - Thy venom, and my state thou didst amerce, - And doom this body forfeit to the fire.[292] - Alas! how bitter is his country's curse - To him who _for_ that country would expire, 70 - But did not merit to expire _by_ her, - And loves her, loves her even in her ire. - The day may come when she will cease to err, - The day may come she would be proud to have - The dust she dooms to scatter, and transfer[bx] - Of him, whom she denied a home, the grave. - But this shall not be granted; let my dust - Lie where it falls; nor shall the soil which gave - Me breath, but in her sudden fury thrust - Me forth to breathe elsewhere, so reassume 80 - My indignant bones, because her angry gust - Forsooth is over, and repealed her doom; - No,--she denied me what was mine--my roof, - And shall not have what is not hers--my tomb. - Too long her armed wrath hath kept aloof - The breast which would have bled for her, the heart - That beat, the mind that was temptation proof, - The man who fought, toiled, travelled, and each part - Of a true citizen fulfilled, and saw - For his reward the Guelf's ascendant art 90 - Pass his destruction even into a law. - These things are not made for forgetfulness, - Florence shall be forgotten first; too raw - The wound, too deep the wrong, and the distress - Of such endurance too prolonged to make - My pardon greater, her injustice less, - Though late repented; yet--yet for her sake - I feel some fonder yearnings, and for thine, - My own Beatric, I would hardly take - Vengeance upon the land which once was mine, 100 - And still is hallowed by thy dust's return, - Which would protect the murderess like a shrine, - And save ten thousand foes by thy sole urn. - Though, like old Marius from Minturnae's marsh - And Carthage ruins, my lone breast may burn - At times with evil feelings hot and harsh,[293] - And sometimes the last pangs of a vile foe - Writhe in a dream before me, and o'erarch - My brow with hopes of triumph,--let them go! - Such are the last infirmities of those 110 - Who long have suffered more than mortal woe, - And yet being mortal still, have no repose - But on the pillow of Revenge--Revenge, - Who sleeps to dream of blood, and waking glows - With the oft-baffled, slakeless thirst of change, - When we shall mount again, and they that trod - Be trampled on, while Death and Ate range - O'er humbled heads and severed necks----Great God! - Take these thoughts from me--to thy hands I yield - My many wrongs, and thine Almighty rod 120 - Will fall on those who smote me,--be my Shield! - As thou hast been in peril, and in pain, - In turbulent cities, and the tented field-- - In toil, and many troubles borne in vain - For Florence,--I appeal from her to Thee! - Thee, whom I late saw in thy loftiest reign, - Even in that glorious Vision, which to see - And live was never granted until now, - And yet thou hast permitted this to me. - Alas! with what a weight upon my brow 130 - The sense of earth and earthly things come back, - Corrosive passions, feelings dull and low, - The heart's quick throb upon the mental rack, - Long day, and dreary night; the retrospect - Of half a century bloody and black, - And the frail few years I may yet expect - Hoary and hopeless, but less hard to bear, - For I have been too long and deeply wrecked - On the lone rock of desolate Despair, - To lift my eyes more to the passing sail 140 - Which shuns that reef so horrible and bare; - Nor raise my voice--for who would heed my wail? - I am not of this people, nor this age, - And yet my harpings will unfold a tale - Which shall preserve these times when not a page - Of their perturbed annals could attract - An eye to gaze upon their civil rage,[by] - Did not my verse embalm full many an act - Worthless as they who wrought it: 'tis the doom - Of spirits of my order to be racked 150 - In life, to wear their hearts out, and consume - Their days in endless strife, and die alone; - Then future thousands crowd around their tomb, - And pilgrims come from climes where they have known - The name of him--who now is but a name, - And wasting homage o'er the sullen stone, - Spread his--by him unheard, unheeded--fame; - And mine at least hath cost me dear: to die - Is nothing; but to wither thus--to tame - My mind down from its own infinity-- 160 - To live in narrow ways with little men, - A common sight to every common eye, - A wanderer, while even wolves can find a den, - Ripped from all kindred, from all home, all things - That make communion sweet, and soften pain-- - To feel me in the solitude of kings - Without the power that makes them bear a crown-- - To envy every dove his nest and wings - Which waft him where the Apennine looks down - On Arno, till he perches, it may be, 170 - Within my all inexorable town, - Where yet my boys are, and that fatal She,[294] - Their mother, the cold partner who hath brought - Destruction for a dowry--this to see - And feel, and know without repair, hath taught - A bitter lesson; but it leaves me free: - I have not vilely found, nor basely sought, - They made an Exile--not a Slave of me. - - - CANTO THE SECOND. - - The Spirit of the fervent days of Old, - When words were things that came to pass, and Thought - Flashed o'er the future, bidding men behold - Their children's children's doom already brought - Forth from the abyss of Time which is to be, - The Chaos of events, where lie half-wrought - Shapes that must undergo mortality; - What the great Seers of Israel wore within, - That Spirit was on them, and is on me, - And if, Cassandra-like, amidst the din 10 - Of conflict none will hear, or hearing heed - This voice from out the Wilderness, the sin - Be theirs, and my own feelings be my meed, - The only guerdon I have ever known. - Hast thou not bled? and hast thou still to bleed, - Italia? Ah! to me such things, foreshown - With dim sepulchral light, bid me forget - In thine irreparable wrongs my own; - We can have but one Country, and even yet - Thou'rt mine--my bones shall be within thy breast, 20 - My Soul within thy language, which once set - With our old Roman sway in the wide West; - But I will make another tongue arise - As lofty and more sweet, in which expressed - The hero's ardour, or the lover's sighs, - Shall find alike such sounds for every theme - That every word, as brilliant as thy skies, - Shall realise a Poet's proudest dream, - And make thee Europe's Nightingale of Song;[295] - So that all present speech to thine shall seem 30 - The note of meaner birds, and every tongue - Confess its barbarism when compared with thine.[bz] - This shalt thou owe to him thou didst so wrong, - Thy Tuscan bard, the banished Ghibelline. - Woe! woe! the veil of coming centuries - Is rent,--a thousand years which yet supine - Lie like the ocean waves ere winds arise, - Heaving in dark and sullen undulation, - Float from Eternity into these eyes; - The storms yet sleep, the clouds still keep their station, 40 - The unborn Earthquake yet is in the womb, - The bloody Chaos yet expects Creation, - But all things are disposing for thy doom; - The Elements await but for the Word, - "Let there be darkness!" and thou grow'st a tomb! - Yes! thou, so beautiful, shalt feel the sword,[296] - Thou, Italy! so fair that Paradise, - Revived in thee, blooms forth to man restored: - Ah! must the sons of Adam lose it twice? - Thou, Italy! whose ever golden fields, 50 - Ploughed by the sunbeams solely, would suffice - For the world's granary; thou, whose sky Heaven gilds[ca] - With brighter stars, and robes with deeper blue; - Thou, in whose pleasant places Summer builds - Her palace, in whose cradle Empire grew, - And formed the Eternal City's ornaments - From spoils of Kings whom freemen overthrew; - Birthplace of heroes, sanctuary of Saints, - Where earthly first, then heavenly glory made[cb] - Her home; thou, all which fondest Fancy paints, 60 - And finds her prior vision but portrayed - In feeble colours, when the eye--from the Alp - Of horrid snow, and rock, and shaggy shade - Of desert-loving pine, whose emerald scalp - Nods to the storm--dilates and dotes o'er thee, - And wistfully implores, as 'twere, for help - To see thy sunny fields, my Italy, - Nearer and nearer yet, and dearer still - The more approached, and dearest were they free, - Thou--Thou must wither to each tyrant's will: 70 - The Goth hath been,--the German, Frank, and Hun[297] - Are yet to come,--and on the imperial hill - Ruin, already proud of the deeds done - By the old barbarians, there awaits the new, - Throned on the Palatine, while lost and won - Rome at her feet lies bleeding; and the hue - Of human sacrifice and Roman slaughter - Troubles the clotted air, of late so blue, - And deepens into red the saffron water - Of Tiber, thick with dead; the helpless priest, 80 - And still more helpless nor less holy daughter, - Vowed to their God, have shrieking fled, and ceased - Their ministry: the nations take their prey, - Iberian, Almain, Lombard, and the beast - And bird, wolf, vulture, more humane than they - Are; these but gorge the flesh, and lap the gore - Of the departed, and then go their way; - But those, the human savages, explore - All paths of torture, and insatiate yet, - With Ugolino hunger prowl for more. 90 - Nine moons shall rise o'er scenes like this and set;[298] - The chiefless army of the dead, which late - Beneath the traitor Prince's banner met, - Hath left its leader's ashes at the gate; - Had but the royal Rebel lived, perchance - Thou hadst been spared, but his involved thy fate. - Oh! Rome, the Spoiler or the spoil of France, - From Brennus to the Bourbon, never, never - Shall foreign standard to thy walls advance, - But Tiber shall become a mournful river. 100 - Oh! when the strangers pass the Alps and Po, - Crush them, ye Rocks! Floods whelm them, and for ever! - Why sleep the idle Avalanches so, - To topple on the lonely pilgrim's head? - Why doth Eridanus but overflow - The peasant's harvest from his turbid bed? - Were not each barbarous horde a nobler prey? - Over Cambyses' host[299] the desert spread - Her sandy ocean, and the Sea-waves' sway - Rolled over Pharaoh and his thousands,--why,[cc] 110 - Mountains and waters, do ye not as they? - And you, ye Men! Romans, who dare not die, - Sons of the conquerors who overthrew - Those who overthrew proud Xerxes, where yet lie - The dead whose tomb Oblivion never knew, - Are the Alps weaker than Thermopylae? - Their passes more alluring to the view - Of an invader? is it they, or ye, - That to each host the mountain-gate unbar, - And leave the march in peace, the passage free? 120 - Why, Nature's self detains the Victor's car, - And makes your land impregnable, if earth - Could be so; but alone she will not war, - Yet aids the warrior worthy of his birth - In a soil where the mothers bring forth men: - Not so with those whose souls are little worth; - For them no fortress can avail,--the den - Of the poor reptile which preserves its sting - Is more secure than walls of adamant, when - The hearts of those within are quivering. 130 - Are ye not brave? Yes, yet the Ausonian soil - Hath hearts, and hands, and arms, and hosts to bring - Against Oppression; but how vain the toil, - While still Division sows the seeds of woe - And weakness, till the Stranger reaps the spoil.[300] - Oh! my own beauteous land! so long laid low, - So long the grave of thy own children's hopes, - When there is but required a single blow - To break the chain, yet--yet the Avenger stops, - And Doubt and Discord step 'twixt thine and thee, 140 - And join their strength to that which with thee copes; - What is there wanting then to set thee free, - And show thy beauty in its fullest light? - To make the Alps impassable; and we, - Her Sons, may do this with one deed--Unite. - - - CANTO THE THIRD. - - From out the mass of never-dying ill,[cd] - The Plague, the Prince, the Stranger, and the Sword, - Vials of wrath but emptied to refill - And flow again, I cannot all record - That crowds on my prophetic eye: the Earth - And Ocean written o'er would not afford - Space for the annal, yet it shall go forth; - Yes, all, though not by human pen, is graven, - There where the farthest suns and stars have birth, - Spread like a banner at the gate of Heaven, 10 - The bloody scroll of our millennial wrongs - Waves, and the echo of our groans is driven - Athwart the sound of archangelic songs, - And Italy, the martyred nation's gore, - Will not in vain arise to where belongs[ce] - Omnipotence and Mercy evermore: - Like to a harpstring stricken by the wind, - The sound of her lament shall, rising o'er - The Seraph voices, touch the Almighty Mind. - Meantime I, humblest of thy sons, and of 20 - Earth's dust by immortality refined - To Sense and Suffering, though the vain may scoff, - And tyrants threat, and meeker victims bow - Before the storm because its breath is rough, - To thee, my Country! whom before, as now, - I loved and love, devote the mournful lyre - And melancholy gift high Powers allow - To read the future: and if now my fire - Is not as once it shone o'er thee, forgive! - I but foretell thy fortunes--then expire; 30 - Think not that I would look on them and live. - A Spirit forces me to see and speak, - And for my guerdon grants _not_ to survive; - My Heart shall be poured over thee and break: - Yet for a moment, ere I must resume - Thy sable web of Sorrow, let me take - Over the gleams that flash athwart thy gloom - A softer glimpse; some stars shine through thy night, - And many meteors, and above thy tomb - Leans sculptured Beauty, which Death cannot blight: 40 - And from thine ashes boundless Spirits rise - To give thee honour, and the earth delight; - Thy soil shall still be pregnant with the wise, - The gay, the learned, the generous, and the brave, - Native to thee as Summer to thy skies, - Conquerors on foreign shores, and the far wave,[301] - Discoverers of new worlds, which take their name;[302] - For _thee_ alone they have no arm to save, - And all thy recompense is in their fame, - A noble one to them, but not to thee-- 50 - Shall they be glorious, and thou still the same? - Oh! more than these illustrious far shall be - The Being--and even yet he may be born-- - The mortal Saviour who shall set thee free, - And see thy diadem, so changed and worn - By fresh barbarians, on thy brow replaced; - And the sweet Sun replenishing thy morn, - Thy moral morn, too long with clouds defaced, - And noxious vapours from Avernus risen, - Such as all they must breathe who are debased 60 - By Servitude, and have the mind in prison.[303] - Yet through this centuried eclipse of woe[cf] - Some voices shall be heard, and Earth shall listen; - Poets shall follow in the path I show, - And make it broader: the same brilliant sky - Which cheers the birds to song shall bid them glow,[cg] - And raise their notes as natural and high; - Tuneful shall be their numbers; they shall sing - Many of Love, and some of Liberty, - But few shall soar upon that Eagle's wing, 70 - And look in the Sun's face, with Eagle's gaze, - All free and fearless as the feathered King, - But fly more near the earth; how many a phrase - Sublime shall lavished be on some small prince - In all the prodigality of Praise! - And language, eloquently false, evince[ch] - The harlotry of Genius, which, like Beauty,[ci] - Too oft forgets its own self-reverence, - And looks on prostitution as a duty.[304] - He who once enters in a Tyrant's hall[cj][305] 80 - As guest is slave--his thoughts become a booty, - And the first day which sees the chain enthral - A captive, sees his half of Manhood gone[306]-- - The Soul's emasculation saddens all - His spirit; thus the Bard too near the throne - Quails from his inspiration, bound to _please_,-- - How servile is the task to please alone! - To smooth the verse to suit his Sovereign's ease - And royal leisure, nor too much prolong - Aught save his eulogy, and find, and seize, 90 - Or force, or forge fit argument of Song! - Thus trammelled, thus condemned to Flattery's trebles, - He toils through all, still trembling to be wrong: - For fear some noble thoughts, like heavenly rebels, - Should rise up in high treason to his brain, - He sings, as the Athenian spoke, with pebbles - In's mouth, lest Truth should stammer through his strain. - But out of the long file of sonneteers - There shall be some who will not sing in vain, - And he, their Prince, shall rank among my peers,[307] - And Love shall be his torment; but his grief - Shall make an immortality of tears, - And Italy shall hail him as the Chief - Of Poet-lovers, and his higher song - Of Freedom wreathe him with as green a leaf. - But in a farther age shall rise along - The banks of Po two greater still than he; - The World which smiled on him shall do them wrong - Till they are ashes, and repose with me. - The first will make an epoch with his lyre, 110 - And fill the earth with feats of Chivalry:[308] - His Fancy like a rainbow, and his Fire, - Like that of Heaven, immortal, and his Thought - Borne onward with a wing that cannot tire; - Pleasure shall, like a butterfly new caught, - Flutter her lovely pinions o'er his theme, - And Art itself seem into Nature wrought - By the transparency of his bright dream.-- - The second, of a tenderer, sadder mood, - Shall pour his soul out o'er Jerusalem; 120 - He, too, shall sing of Arms, and Christian blood - Shed where Christ bled for man; and his high harp - Shall, by the willow over Jordan's flood, - Revive a song of Sion, and the sharp - Conflict, and final triumph of the brave - And pious, and the strife of Hell to warp - Their hearts from their great purpose, until wave - The red-cross banners where the first red Cross - Was crimsoned from His veins who died to save,[ck] - Shall be his sacred argument; the loss 130 - Of years, of favour, freedom, even of fame - Contested for a time, while the smooth gloss - Of Courts would slide o'er his forgotten name - And call Captivity a kindness--meant - To shield him from insanity or shame-- - Such shall be his meek guerdon! who was sent - To be Christ's Laureate--they reward him well! - Florence dooms me but death or banishment, - Ferrara him a pittance and a cell,[309] - Harder to bear and less deserved, for I 140 - Had stung the factions which I strove to quell; - But this meek man who with a lover's eye - Will look on Earth and Heaven, and who will deign - To embalm with his celestial flattery, - As poor a thing as e'er was spawned to reign,[310] - What will _he_ do to merit such a doom? - Perhaps he'll _love_,--and is not Love in vain - Torture enough without a living tomb? - Yet it will be so--he and his compeer, - The Bard of Chivalry, will both consume[311] 150 - In penury and pain too many a year, - And, dying in despondency, bequeath - To the kind World, which scarce will yield a tear, - A heritage enriching all who breathe - With the wealth of a genuine Poet's soul, - And to their country a redoubled wreath, - Unmatched by time; not Hellas can unroll - Through her Olympiads two such names, though one[312] - Of hers be mighty;--and is this the whole - Of such men's destiny beneath the Sun?[313] 160 - Must all the finer thoughts, the thrilling sense, - The electric blood with which their arteries run,[cl] - Their body's self turned soul with the intense - Feeling of that which is, and fancy of - That which should be, to such a recompense - Conduct? shall their bright plumage on the rough - Storm be still scattered? Yes, and it must be; - For, formed of far too penetrable stuff, - These birds of Paradise[314] but long to flee - Back to their native mansion, soon they find 170 - Earth's mist with their pure pinions not agree, - And die or are degraded; for the mind - Succumbs to long infection, and despair, - And vulture Passions flying close behind, - Await the moment to assail and tear;[315] - And when, at length, the winged wanderers stoop, - Then is the Prey-birds' triumph, then they share - The spoil, o'erpowered at length by one fell swoop. - Yet some have been untouched who learned to bear, - Some whom no Power could ever force to droop, 180 - Who could resist themselves even, hardest care! - And task most hopeless; but some such have been, - And if my name amongst the number were, - That Destiny austere, and yet serene, - Were prouder than more dazzling fame unblessed; - The Alp's snow summit nearer heaven is seen - Than the Volcano's fierce eruptive crest, - Whose splendour from the black abyss is flung, - While the scorched mountain, from whose burning breast - A temporary torturing flame is wrung, 190 - Shines for a night of terror, then repels - Its fire back to the Hell from whence it sprung, - The Hell which in its entrails ever dwells. - - - CANTO THE FOURTH. - - Many are Poets who have never penned - Their inspiration, and perchance the best: - They felt, and loved, and died, but would not lend - Their thoughts to meaner beings; they compressed - The God within them, and rejoined the stars - Unlaurelled upon earth, but far more blessed - Than those who are degraded by the jars - Of Passion, and their frailties linked to fame, - Conquerors of high renown, but full of scars. - Many are Poets but without the name; 10 - For what is Poesy but to create - From overfeeling Good or Ill; and aim[316] - At an external life beyond our fate, - And be the new Prometheus of new men,[317] - Bestowing fire from Heaven, and then, too late, - Finding the pleasure given repaid with pain, - And vultures to the heart of the bestower, - Who, having lavished his high gift in vain, - Lies to his lone rock by the sea-shore? - So be it: we can bear.--But thus all they 20 - Whose Intellect is an o'ermastering Power - Which still recoils from its encumbering clay - Or lightens it to spirit, whatsoe'er - The form which their creations may essay, - Are bards; the kindled Marble's bust may wear - More poesy upon its speaking brow - Than aught less than the Homeric page may bear; - One noble stroke with a whole life may glow, - Or deify the canvass till it shine - With beauty so surpassing all below, 30 - That they who kneel to Idols so divine - Break no commandment, for high Heaven is there - Transfused, transfigurated:[318] and the line - Of Poesy, which peoples but the air - With Thought and Beings of our thought reflected, - Can do no more: then let the artist share - The palm, he shares the peril, and dejected - Faints o'er the labour unapproved--Alas! - Despair and Genius are too oft connected. - Within the ages which before me pass 40 - Art shall resume and equal even the sway - Which with Apelles and old Phidias - She held in Hellas' unforgotten day. - Ye shall be taught by Ruin to revive - The Grecian forms at least from their decay, - And Roman souls at last again shall live - In Roman works wrought by Italian hands, - And temples, loftier than the old temples, give - New wonders to the World; and while still stands - The austere Pantheon, into heaven shall soar 50 - A Dome,[319] its image, while the base expands - Into a fane surpassing all before, - Such as all flesh shall flock to kneel in: ne'er - Such sight hath been unfolded by a door - As this, to which all nations shall repair, - And lay their sins at this huge gate of Heaven. - And the bold Architect[320] unto whose care - The daring charge to raise it shall be given, - Whom all Arts shall acknowledge as their Lord, - Whether into the marble chaos driven 60 - His chisel bid the Hebrew,[321] at whose word - Israel left Egypt, stop the waves in stone,[cm] - Or hues of Hell be by his pencil poured - Over the damned before the Judgement-throne,[322] - Such as I saw them, such as all shall see, - Or fanes be built of grandeur yet unknown-- - The Stream of his great thoughts shall spring from me[323] - The Ghibelline, who traversed the three realms - Which form the Empire of Eternity. - Amidst the clash of swords, and clang of helms, 70 - The age which I anticipate, no less - Shall be the Age of Beauty, and while whelms - Calamity the nations with distress, - The Genius of my Country shall arise, - A Cedar towering o'er the Wilderness, - Lovely in all its branches to all eyes, - Fragrant as fair, and recognised afar, - Wafting its native incense through the skies. - Sovereigns shall pause amidst their sport of war, - Weaned for an hour from blood, to turn and gaze 80 - On canvass or on stone; and they who mar - All beauty upon earth, compelled to praise, - Shall feel the power of that which they destroy; - And Art's mistaken gratitude shall raise - To tyrants, who but take her for a toy, - Emblems and monuments, and prostitute - Her charms to Pontiffs proud,[324] who but employ - The man of Genius as the meanest brute - To bear a burthen, and to serve a need, - To sell his labours, and his soul to boot. 90 - Who toils for nations may be poor indeed, - But free; who sweats for Monarchs is no more - Than the gilt Chamberlain, who, clothed and feed, - Stands sleek and slavish, bowing at his door. - Oh, Power that rulest and inspirest! how - Is it that they on earth, whose earthly power[325] - Is likest thine in heaven in outward show, - Least like to thee in attributes divine, - Tread on the universal necks that bow, - And then assure us that their rights are thine? 100 - And how is it that they, the Sons of Fame, - Whose inspiration seems to them to shine - From high, they whom the nations oftest name, - Must pass their days in penury or pain, - Or step to grandeur through the paths of shame, - And wear a deeper brand and gaudier chain? - Or if their Destiny be born aloof - From lowliness, or tempted thence in vain, - In their own souls sustain a harder proof, - The inner war of Passions deep and fierce? 110 - Florence! when thy harsh sentence razed my roof, - I loved thee; but the vengeance of my verse, - The hate of injuries which every year - Makes greater, and accumulates my curse, - Shall live, outliving all thou holdest dear-- - Thy pride, thy wealth, thy freedom, and even _that_, - The most infernal of all evils here, - The sway of petty tyrants in a state; - For such sway is not limited to Kings, - And Demagogues yield to them but in date, 120 - As swept off sooner; in all deadly things, - Which make men hate themselves, and one another, - In discord, cowardice, cruelty, all that springs - From Death the Sin-born's incest with his mother,[326] - In rank oppression in its rudest shape, - The faction Chief is but the Sultan's brother, - And the worst Despot's far less human ape. - Florence! when this lone spirit, which so long - Yearned, as the captive toiling at escape, - To fly back to thee in despite of wrong, 130 - An exile, saddest of all prisoners,[327] - Who has the whole world for a dungeon strong, - Seas, mountains, and the horizon's[328] verge for bars,[cn] - Which shut him from the sole small spot of earth - Where--whatsoe'er his fate--he still were hers, - His Country's, and might die where he had birth-- - Florence! when this lone Spirit shall return - To kindred Spirits, thou wilt feel my worth, - And seek to honour with an empty urn[329] - The ashes thou shalt ne'er obtain--Alas! 140 - "What have I done to thee, my People?"[330] Stern - Are all thy dealings, but in this they pass - The limits of Man's common malice, for - All that a citizen could be I was-- - Raised by thy will, all thine in peace or war-- - And for this thou hast warred with me.--'Tis done: - I may not overleap the eternal bar[331] - Built up between us, and will die alone, - Beholding with the dark eye of a Seer - The evil days to gifted souls foreshown, 150 - Foretelling them to those who will not hear; - As in the old time, till the hour be come - When Truth shall strike their eyes through many a tear, - And make them own the Prophet in his tomb. - - Ravenna, 1819. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[276] {241}[Compare-- - - "He knew - Himself to sing, and build the lofty rhime." - - Milton, _Lycidas_, line 11.] - -[277] [By "Runic" Byron means "Northern," "Anglo-Saxon."] - -[278] [Compare "In that word, beautiful in all languages, but most so in -yours--_Amor mio_--is comprised my existence here and -hereafter."--Letter of Byron to the Countess Guiccioli, August 25, 1819, -_Letters_, 1900, iv. 350. Compare, too, _Beppo_, stanza xliv.; _vide -ante_, p. 173.] - -[279] {243}[Compare-- - - "I pass each day where Dante's bones are laid: - A little cupola more neat than solemn, - Protects his dust." - - _Don Juan_, Canto IV. stanza civ. lines 1-3.] - -[280] [The _Cassandra_ or _Alexandra_ of Lycophron, one of the seven -"Pleiades" who adorned the court of Ptolemy Philadelphus (third century -B.C.), is "an iambic monologue of 1474 verses, in which Cassandra is -made to prophesy the fall of Troy ... with numerous other historical -events, ... ending with [the reign of] Alexandra the Great." Byron had -probably read a translation of the _Cassandra_ by Philip Yorke, Viscount -Royston (born 1784, wrecked in the _Agatha_ off Memel, April 7, 1808), -which was issued at Cambridge in 1806. The _Alexandra_ forms part of the -_Bibliotheca Teubneriana_ (ed. G. Kinkel, Lipsiae, 1880). For the -prophecy of Nereus, _vide_ Hor., _Odes_, lib. i. c. xv.] - -[281] {244}[In the notes to his _Essay on Epic Poetry_, 1782 (Epistle -iii. pp. 175-197), Hayley (see _English Bards, etc._, line 310, -_Poetical Works_, 1898, i. 321, note 1) prints a translation of the -three first cantos of the _Inferno_, which, he says (p. 172), was -written "a few years ago to oblige a particular friend." "Of all -Hayley's compositions," writes Southey (_Quart. Rev._, vol. xxxi. pp. -283, 284), "these specimens are the best ... in thus following his -original Hayley was led into a sobriety and manliness of diction which -... approached ... to the manner of a better age." - -In a note on the Hall of Eblis, S. Henley quotes with approbation -Hayley's translation of lines 1-9 of this Third Canto of the _Inferno_. -_Vathek_ ... by W. Beckford, 1868, p. 188.] - -[282] [_L'Italia_: _Canto IV. del Pellegrinaggio di Childe Harold_ ... -tradotto da Michele Leoni, Italia (London?), 1819, 8º. Leoni also -translated the _Lament of Tasso_ (_Lamento di Tasso_ ... Recato in -Italiano da M. Leoni, Pisa, 1818).] - -[283] [Alfieri has a sonnet on the tomb of Dante, beginning-- - - "O gran padre Alighier, se dal ciel miri." - - _Opere Scelle_, di Vittorio Alfieri, 1818, iii. 487.] - -[284] [The Panther, the Lion, and the She-wolf, which Dante encountered -on the "desert slope" (_Inferno_, Canto I. lines 31, _sq._), were no -doubt suggested by Jer. v. 6: "Idcirco percussit eos leo de silva, lupus -ad vesperam vastavit eos, pardus vigilans super civitates corum." -Symbolically they have been from the earliest times understood as -denoting--the panther, lust; the lion, pride; the wolf, avarice; the -sins affecting youth, maturity, and old age. Later commentators have -suggested that there may be an underlying political symbolism as well, -and that the three beasts may stand for Florence with her "Black" and -"White" parties, the power of France, and the Guelf party as typically -representative of these vices (_The Hell of Dante_, by A. J. Butler, -1892, p. 5, note). - -Count Giovanni Marchetti degli Angelini (1790-1852), in his _Discorso_ -... _della prima e principale Allegoria del Poema di Dante_, contributed -to an edition of _La Divina Commedia_, published at Bologna, 1819-21, i. -17-44, and reissued in _La Biografia di Dante_ ... 1822, v. 397, _sq_., -etc., argues in favour of a double symbolism. (According to a life of -Marchetti, prefixed to his _Poesie_, 1878 [_Una notte di Dante, etc._], -he met Byron at Bologna in 1819, and made his acquaintance.)] - -[285] {245}[For Vincenzo Monti (1754-1828), see letter to Murray, -October 15, 1816 (_Letters_, 1899, iii. 377, note 3); and for Ippolito -Pindemonte (1753-1828), see letter to Murray, June 4, 1817, (_Letters_, -1900, iv. 127, note 4). In his _Essay on the Present Literature of -Italy_, Hobhouse supplies critical notices of Pindemonte and Monti, -_Historical Illustrations_, 1818, pp. 413-449. Cesare Arici, lawyer and -poet, was born at Brescia, July 2, 1782. His works (Padua, 1858, 4 -vols.) include his didactic poems, _La coltivazione degli Ulivi_ (1805), -_Il Corallo_, 1810, _La Pastorizia_ (on sheep-farming), 1814, and a -translation of the works of Virgil. He died in 1836. (See, for a long -and sympathetic notice, Tipaldo's _Biografia degli Italiani Illustri_, -iii. 491, _sq_.)] - -[286] {247}The reader is requested to adopt the Italian pronunciation of -Beatrice, sounding all the syllables. - -[287] [Compare-- - - "Within the deep and luminous subsistence - Of the High Light appeared to me three circles, - Of threefold colour and of one dimension, - And by the second seemed the first reflected - As Iris is by Iris, and the third - Seemed fire that equally from both is breathed.... - O Light Eterne, sole in thyself that dwellest." - - _Paradiso,_ xxxiii. 115-120, 124 (_Longfellow's Translation_).] - -[bw] {248}_Star over star_----.--[MS. Alternative reading.] - -[288] - - "Che sol per le belle opre - Che sono in cielo, il sole e l'altre stelle, - Dentro da lor _si crede il Paradiso:_ - Cosi se guardi fiso - Pensar ben dei, che ogni terren piacere. - [Si trova in lei, ma tu nol puoi vedere."] - -Canzone, in which Dante describes the person of Beatrice, Strophe third. - -[Byron was mistaken in attributing these lines, which form part of a -Canzone beginning "Io miro i crespi e gli biondi capegli," to Dante. -Neither external nor internal evidence supports such an ascription. The -Canzone is attributed in the MSS. either to Fazio degli Uberti, or to -Bindo Borrichi da Siena, but was not assigned to Dante before 1518 -(_Canzoni di Dante, etc._ [Colophon]. Impresso in Milano per Augustino -da Vimercato ... MCCCCCXVIII ...). See, too, _Il Canzoniere di Dante_ -... Fraticelli, Firenze, 1873, pp. 236-240 (from information kindly -supplied by the Rev. Philip H. Wicksteed).] - -[289] ["Nine times already since my birth had the heaven of light -returned to the selfsame point almost, as concerns its own revolution, -when first the glorious Lady of my mind was made manifest to mine eyes; -even she who was called Beatrice by many who knew not wherefore."--_La -Vita Nuova,_ Sec. 2 (Translation by D. G. Rossetti, _Dante and his Circle,_ -1892, p. 30). - -"In reference to the meaning of the name, '_she who confers blessing_,' -we learn from Boccaccio that this first meeting took place at a May -Feast, given in the year 1274, by Folco Portinari, father of Beatrice -... to which feast Dante accompanied his father, Alighiero -Alighieri."--_Note_ by D. G. Rossetti, ibid., p. 30.] - -[290] {249} - - "L'Esilio che m' e dato onor mi tegno - * * * * * - Cader tra' buoni e pur di lode degno." - - _Sonnet of Dante_ [Canzone xx. lines 76-80, _Opere_ - di Dante 1897, p. 171] - -in which he represents Right, Generosity, and Temperance as banished -from among men, and seeking refuge from Love, who inhabits his bosom. - -[291] [Compare-- - - "On the stone - Called Dante's,--a plain flat stone scarce discerned - From others in the pavement,--whereupon - He used to bring his quiet chair out, turned - To Brunelleschi's Church, and pour alone - The lava of his spirit when it burned: - It is not cold to-day. O passionate - Poor Dante, who, a banished Florentine, - Didst sit austere at banquets of the great - And muse upon this far-off stone of thine, - And think how oft some passer used to wait - A moment, in the golden day's decline, - With 'Good night, dearest Dante!' Well, good night!" - - _Casa Guidi Windows_, by E. B. Browning, _Poetical Works_, - 1866, iii. 259.] - -[292] {250} "Ut si quis predictorum ullo tempore in fortiam dicti -communis pervenerit, _talis perveniens igne comburatur, sic quod -moriatur_." Second sentence of Florence against Dante, and the fourteen -accused with him. The Latin is worthy of the sentence. [The decree -(March 11, 1302) that he and his associates in exile should be burned, -if they fell into the hands of their enemies, was first discovered in -1772 by the Conte Ludovico Savioli. Dante had been previously, January -27, fined eight thousand lire, and condemned to two years' banishment.] - -[bx] _The ashes she would scatter_----.--[MS. Alternative reading.] - -[293] {251}[At the end of the Social War (B.C. 88), when Sulla marched -to Rome at the head of his army, and Marius was compelled to take -flight, he "stripped himself, plunged into the bog (_Paludes -Minturnenses_, near the mouth of the Liris), amidst thick water and -mud.... They hauled him out naked and covered with dirt, and carried him -to Minturnae." Afterwards, when he sailed for Carthage, he had no sooner -landed than he was ordered by the governor (Sextilius) to quit Africa. -On his once more gaining the ascendancy and re-entering Rome (B.C. 87), -he justified the massacre of Sulla's adherents in a blood-thirsty -oration. Past ignominy and present triumph seem to have turned his head -("ut erat inter iram toleratae fortunae, et laetitiam emendatae, parum -compos animi").--Plut., "Marius," _apud_ Langhorne, 1838, p. 304; Livii -_Epit_., lxxx. 28.] - -[by] {252}----_their civic rage_.--[MS. Alternative reading.] - -[294] {253} This lady, whose name was _Gemma_, sprung from one of the -most powerful Guelph families, named Donati. Corso Donati was the -principal adversary of the Ghibellines. She is--described as being -"_Admodum morosa, ut de Xantippe Socratis philosophi conjuge scriptum -esse legimus,_" according to Giannozzo Manetti. But Lionardo Aretino is -scandalised with Boccace, in his life of Dante, for saying that literary -men should not marry. "Qui il Boccaccio non ha pazienza, e dice, le -mogli esser contrarie agli studj; e non si ricorda che Socrate, il piu -nobile filosofo che mai fusse, ebbe moglie e figliuoli e ufici nella -Repubblica nella sua Citta; e Aristotile che, etc., etc., ebbe due -moglie in varj tempi, ed ebbe figliuoli, e ricchezze assai.--E Marco -Tullio--e Catone--e Varrone--e Seneca--ebbero moglie," etc., etc. [_Le -Vite di Dante, etc._, Firenze, 1677, pp. 22, 23]. It is odd that honest -Lionardo's examples, with the exception of Seneca, and, for anything I -know, of Aristotle, are not the most felicitous. Tully's Terentia, and -Socrates' Xantippe, by no means contributed to their husbands' -happiness, whatever they might do to their philosophy--Cato gave away -his wife--of Varro's we know nothing--and of Seneca's, only that she was -disposed to die with him, but recovered and lived several years -afterwards. But says Leonardo, "L'uomo e _animale civile_, secondo piace -a tutti i filosofi." And thence concludes that the greatest proof of the -_animal's civism_ is "la prima congiunzione, dalla quale multiplicata -nasce la Citta." - -[There is nothing in the _Divina Commedia_, or elsewhere in his -writings, to justify the common belief that Dante was unhappily married, -unless silence may be taken to imply dislike and alienation. It has been -supposed that he alludes to his wife, Gemma Donati, in the _Vita Nuova_, -Sec. 36, "as a young and very beautiful lady, who was gazing upon me from a -window, with a gaze full of pity," "who remembered me many times of my -own most noble lady," whom he consented to serve "more because of her -gentle goodness than from any choice" of his own (_Convito_, ii. 2. 7), -but there are difficulties in the way of accepting this theory. There -is, however, not the slightest reason for believing that the words which -he put into the mouth of Jacopo Rusticucci, "La fiera moglie piu -ch'altro, mi nuoce" ["and truly, my savage wife, more than aught else, -doth harm me"] (_Inferno_, xvi. 45), were winged with any personal -reminiscence or animosity. But with Byron (see his letter to Lady Byron, -dated April 3, 1820, in which he quotes these lines "with intention" -[_Letters_, 1901, v. 2]), as with Boccaccio, "the wish was father to the -thought," and both were glad to quote Dante as a victim to matrimony. - -Seven children were born to Dante and Gemma. Of these "his son Pietro, -who wrote a commentary on the _Divina Commedia_, settled as judge in -Verona. His daughter Beatrice lived as a nun in Ravenna" (_Dante_, by -Oscar Browning, 1891, p. 47).] - -[295] {256}[In his defence of the "mother-tongue" as a fitting vehicle -for a commentary on his poetry, Dante argues "that natural love moves -the lover principally to three things: the one is to exalt the loved -object, the second is to be jealous thereof, the third is to defend it -... and these three things made me adopt it, that is, our mother-tongue, -which naturally and accidentally I love and have loved." Again, having -laid down the premiss that "the magnanimous man always praises himself -in his heart; and so the pusillanimous man always deems himself less -than he is," he concludes, "Wherefore many on account of this vileness -of mind, depreciate their native tongue, and applaud that of others; and -all such as these are the abominable wicked men of Italy, who hold this -precious mother-tongue in vile contempt, which, if it be vile in any -case, is so only inasmuch as it sounds in the evil mouth of these -adulterers."--_Il Convito_, caps. x., xi., translated by Elizabeth Price -Sayer, 1887, pp. 34-40.] - -[bz] ----_when matched with thine_.--[MS. Alternative reading.] - -[296] [With the whole of this apostrophe to Italy, compare _Purgatorio_, -vi. 76-127.] - -[ca] _From the world's harvest_----.--[MS. Alternative reading.] - -[cb] {257} - - _Where earthly Glory first then Heavenly made._-- - [MS. Alternative reading.] - _Where Glory first, and then Religion made_.--[MS. erased.] - -[297] [Compare-- - - "The Goth, the Christian--Time--War--Flood, and Fire, - Have dealt upon the seven-hilled City's pride." - - _Childe Harold_, Canto IV. stanza lxxx. lines 1, 2, - _Poetical Works_, 1899, ii. 390, note 2.] - -[298] {258}See "Sacco di Roma," generally attributed to Guicciardini -[Francesco (1482-1540)]. There is another written by a Jacopo -_Buonaparte_. - -[The original MS. of the latter work is preserved in the Royal Library -at Paris. It is entitled, "Ragguaglio Storico di tutto I'occorso, giorno -per giorno, nel Sacco di Roma dell' anno mdxxvii., scritto da Jacopo -Buonaparte, Gentiluomo Samminiatese, che vi si trovo' presente." An -edition of it was printed at Cologne, in 1756, to which is prefixed a -genealogy of the Buonaparte family. - -The "traitor Prince" was Charles IV., Connetable de Bourbon, Comte de -Montpensier, born 1490, who was killed at the capture of Rome, May 6, -1527. "His death, far from restraining the ardour of the assailants [the -Imperial troops, consisting of Germans and Spanish foot], increased it; -and with the loss of about 1000 men, they entered and sacked the -city.... The disorders committed by the soldiers were dreadful, and the -booty they made incredible. They added insults to cruelty, and scoffs to -rapaciousness. Upon the news of Bourbon's death, His Holiness, imagining -that his troops, no longer animated by his implacable spirit, might -listen to an accommodation, demanded a parley; but ... neglected all -means for defence.... Cardinals and bishops were ignominiously exposed -upon asses with their legs and hands bound; and wealthy citizens ... -suspected of having secreted their effects ... were tortured ... to -oblige them to make discoveries, ... the booty ... is said to have -amounted to about two millions and a half of ducats."--_Mod. Univ. -History_, xxxvi. 512.] - -[299] {259}[Cambyses, the second King of Persia, who reigned B.C. -529-532, sent an army against the Ammonians, which perished in the -sands.] - -[cc] ----_and his phalanx--why_.--[MS. Alternative reading.] - -[300] [The _Prophecy of Dante_ was begun and finished before Byron took -up the cause of Italian independence, or definitely threw in his lot -with the Carbonari, but his intimacy with the Gambas, which dates from -his migration to Ravenna in 1819, must from the first have brought him -within the area of political upheaval and disturbance. A year after -(April 16, 1820) he writes to Murray, "I have, besides, another reason -for desiring you to be speedy, which is, that there is that brewing in -Italy which will speedily cut off all security of communication.... I -shall, if permitted by the natives, remain to see what will come of it, -... for I shall think it by far the most interesting spectacle and -moment in existence, to see the Italians send the Barbarians of all -nations back to their own dens. I have lived long enough among them to -feel more for them as a nation than for any other people in existence: -but they want Union [see line 145], and they want principle; and I doubt -their success."--_Letters_, 1901, v. 8, note 1.] - -[cd] {261} ----_of long-enduring ill._--[MS. erased.] - -[ce] - - ----_the martyred country's gore_ - _Will not in vain arise to whom belongs._--[MS. erased.] - -[301] {262}Alexander of Parma, Spinola, Pescara, Eugene of Savoy, -Montecuccoli. - -[Alessandro Farnese, Duke of Parma (1546-1592), recovered the Southern -Netherlands for Spain, 1578-79, made Henry IV. raise the siege of Paris, -1590, etc. - -Ambrogio, Marchese di Spinola (1569-1630), a Maltese by birth, entered -the Spanish service 1602, took Ostend 1604, invested Bergen-op-Zoom, -etc. - -Ferdinando Francesco dagli Avalos, Marquis of Pescara (1496-1525), took -Milan November 19, 1521, fought at Lodi, etc., was wounded at the battle -of Padua, February 24, 1525. He was the husband of Vittoria Colonna, and -when he was in captivity at Ravenna wrote some verses in her honour. - -Francois Eugene (1663-1736), Prince of Savoy-Carignan, defeated the -French at Turin, 1706, and (with Marlborough) at Malplaquet, 1709; the -Turks at Peterwardein, 1716, etc. - -Raimondo Montecuccoli, a Modenese (1608-1680), defeated the Turks at St. -Gothard in 1664, and in 1675-6 commanded on the Rhine, and -out-generalled Turenne and the Prince de Conde] - -[302] Columbus, Americus Vespusius, Sebastian Cabot. - -[Christopher Columbus (circ. 1430-1506), a Genoese, discovered mainland -of America, 1498; Amerigo Vespucci (1451-1512), a Florentine, explored -coasts of America, 1497-1504; Sebastian Cabot (1477-1557), son of -Giovanni Cabotto or Gavotto, a Venetian, discovered coasts of Labrador, -etc., June, 1497.] - -[303] {263}[Compare-- - - "Ah! servile Italy, griefs hostelry! - A ship without a pilot in great tempest!" - - _Purgatorio_, vi. 76, 77.] - -[cf] - - _Yet through this many-yeared eclipse of Woe_. - --[MS. Alternative reading.] - _Yet through this murky interreign of Woe_.--[MS. erased.] - -[cg] _Which choirs the birds to song_---.--[MS. Alternative reading.] - -[ch] _And Pearls flung down to regal Swine evince_.--[MS. Alternative -reading.] - -[ci] _The whoredom of high Genius_----.--[MS. Alternative reading.] - -[304] {264}[Alfieri, in his _Autobiography_ ... (1845, _Period III_. -chap. viii. p. 92) notes and deprecates the servile manner in which -Metastasio went on his knees before Maria Theresa in the Imperial -gardens of Schoenbrunnen.] - -[cj] _And prides itself in prostituted duty_.--[MS. Alternative -reading.] - -[305] A verse from the Greek tragedians, with which Pompey took leave of -Cornelia [daughter of Metellus Scipio, and widow of P. Crassus] on -entering the boat in which he was slain. [The verse, or verses, are said -to be by Sophocles, and are quoted by Plutarch, in his Life of Pompey, -c. 78, _Vitae_, 1814, vii. 159. They run thus-- - - [Greek: O(/stis ga\r o(s ty/rannon e)mporeu/etai,] - [Greek: Kei/nou e)sti\ dou~los, ka)\n e)leu/theros me|.] - - ("Seek'st thou a tyrant's door? then farewell, freedom! - Though _free_ as air before.") - - _Vide Incert. Fab. Fragm_., No. 789, _Trag. Grec. Fragm_., - A. Nauck, 1889, p. 316.] - -[306] The verse and sentiment are taken from Homer. - - [Greek: [E(/misy ga/r t' a)rete~s a)poai/nytai eu)ry/opa Zeu/s] - [Greek: 'Ane/ros, eu~(t' a(/n min kata\ dou/lion e~)mare(/le|sin.] - - _Odyssey_, xvii. 322, 323.] - -[307] {265}Petrarch. [Dante died September 14, 1321, when Petrarch, born -July 20, 1304, had entered his eighteenth year.] - -[308] [Historical events may be thrown into the form of prophecy with -some security, but not so the critical opinions of the _soi-disani_ -prophet. If Byron had lived half a century later, he might have placed -Ariosto and Tasso after and not before Petrarch.] - -[ck] - - _Was crimsoned with his veins who died to save,_ - _Shall be his glorious argument,_----.--[MS, Alternative reading.] - -[309] {266}[See the Introduction to the _Lament of Tasso_, _ante_, p. -139, and _Childe Harold_, Canto IV. stanza xxxvi. line 2, _Poetical -Works_, 1899, ii. 355, note 1.] - -[310] [Alfonso d'Este (II.), Duke of Ferrara, died 1597.] - -[311] [Compare the opening lines of the _Orlando Furioso_-- - - "Le Donne, i Cavalier'! l'arme, gli amori, - Le Cortesie, l'audaci imprese io canto." - - See _Childe Harold_, Canto IV. stanzas xl., xli., - _Poetical Works_, 1899, ii. 359, 360, note 1.] - -[312] [The sense is, "Ariosto may be matched with, perhaps excelled by, -Homer; but where is the Greek poet to set on the same pedestal with -Tasso?"] - -[313] [Compare _Churchill's Grave_, lines 15-19-- - - "And is this all? I thought,--and do we rip - The veil of Immortality, and crave - I know not what of honour and of light - Through unborn ages, to endure this blight? - So soon, and so successless?" - - _Vide ante_, p. 47.] - -[cl] {267} - - / _winged_ \ -_The_ < > _blood_----.--[MS. Alternative reading.] - \ _lightning_ / - -[314] [Compare-- - - "For he on honey-dew hath fed, - And drunk the milk of Paradise." - - _Kubla Khan,_ lines 52, 53, _Poetical Works_. of - S. T. Coleridge, 1893, p. 94.] - -[315] [Compare-- - - "By our own spirits are we deified: - We Poets in our youth begin in gladness; - But thereof come in the end despondency and madness." - - _Resolution and Independence_, vii. lines 5-7, - Wordsworth's _Poetical Works_, 1889, p. 175. - -Compare, too, Moore's fine apology for Byron's failure to submit to the -yoke of matrimony, "and to live happily ever afterwards"-- - -"But it is the cultivation and exercise of the imaginative faculty that, -more than anything, tend to wean the man of genius from actual life, -and, by substituting the sensibilities of the imagination for those of -the heart, to render, at last, the medium through which he feels no less -unreal than that through which he thinks. Those images of ideal good and -beauty that surround him in his musings soon accustom him to consider -all that is beneath this high standard unworthy of his care; till, at -length, the heart becoming chilled as the fancy warms, it too often -happens that, in proportion as he has refined and elevated his theory of -all the social affections, he has unfitted himself for the practice of -them."--_Life_, p. 268.] - -[316] {269}[So too Wordsworth, in his Preface to the _Lyrical Ballads_ -(1800); "Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings."] - -[317] [Compare-- - - "Thy Godlike crime was to be kind, - To render with thy precepts less - The sum of human wretchedness ... - But baffled as thou wert from high ... - Thou art a symbol and a sign - To Mortals." - - _Prometheus_, iii. lines 35, _seq_.; _vide ante_, p. 50. - -Compare, too, the _Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte_, stanza xvi. _var_ ii.-- - - "He suffered for kind acts to men." - - _Poetical Works_, 1900, iii. 312.] - -[318] {270}["Transfigurate," whence "transfiguration," is derived from -the Latin _transfiguro,_ found in Suetonius and Quintilian. Byron may -have thought to anglicize the Italian _trasfigurarsi._] - -[319] The Cupola of St. Peter's. [Michel Angelo, then in his -seventy-second year, received the appointment of architect of St. -Peter's from Pope Paul III. He began the dome on a different plan from -that of the first architect, Bramante, "declaring that he would raise -the Pantheon in the air." The drum of the dome was constructed in his -life-time, but for more than twenty-four years after his death (1563), -the cupola remained untouched, and it was not till 1590, in the -pontificate of Sixtus V., that the dome itself was completed. The ball -and cross were placed on the summit in November, 1593.--_Handbook of -Rome_, p. 239. - -Compare _Childe Harold_, Canto IV. stanza cliii. line i, _Poetical -Works_, 1892, ii. 440, 441, note 2.] - -[320] {271}["Yet, however unequal I feel myself to that attempt, were I -now to begin the world again, I would tread in the steps of that great -master [Michel Angelo]. To kiss the hem of his garment, to catch the -slightest of his perfections, would be glory and distinction enough for -an ambitious man."--_Discourses_ of Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1884, p. 289.] - -[321] The statue of Moses on the monument of Julius II. [Michel Angelo's -Moses is near the end of the right aisle of the Church of S. -Pietro-in-Vincoli.] - - "SONETTO - - "_Di Giovanni Battista Zappi_. - - "Chi e costui, che in si gran pietra scolto, - Siede gigante, e le piu illustri, e conte - Opre dell' arte avanza, e ha vive, e pronte - Le labbra si, che le parole ascolto? - Quest' e Mose; ben me 'l diceva il folto - Onor del mento, e 'l doppio raggio in fronte; - Quest' e Mose, quando scendea dal monte, - E gran parte del Nume avea nel volto. - Tal' era allor, che le sonanti, e vaste - Acque ei sospese, a se d' intorno; e tale - Quando il Mar chiuse, e ne fe tomba altrui. - E voi, sue turbe, un rio vitello alzaste? - Alzata aveste immago a questa eguale! - Ch' era men fallo i' adorar costui." - - [_Scelta di Sonetti ... del Gobbi_, 1709, iii. 216.] - - ["And who is he that, shaped in sculptured stone - Sits giant-like? stern monument of art - Unparalleled, while language seems to start - From his prompt lips, and we his precepts own? - --'Tis Moses; by his beard's thick honours known, - And the twin beams that from his temples dart; - 'Tis Moses; seated on the mount apart, - Whilst yet the Godhead o'er his features shone. - Such once he looked, when Ocean's sounding wave - Suspended hung, and such amidst the storm, - When o'er his foes the refluent waters roared. - An idol calf his followers did engrave: - But had they raised this awe-commanding form, - Then had they with less guilt their work adored." - - Rogers.] - -[cm] {272} - - ----_from whose word_ - {_Israel took God, pronounce the law in stone._ - {_Israel left Egypt, cleave the sea in stone_.-- - - [MS. Alternative readings.] - -[322] The Last Judgment, in the Sistine Chapel. - -["It is obvious, throughout his [Michel Angelo's] works, that the -poetical mind of the latter [Dante] influenced his feelings. The Demons -in the Last Judgment ... may find a prototype in _La Divina Comedia_. -The figures rising from the grave mark his study of _L'Inferno_, e _Il -Purgatorio_; and the subject of the Brazen Serpent, in the Sistine -Chapel, must remind every reader of Canto XXV. dell' _Inferno_."--_Life -of Michael Angelo_ by R. Duppa, 1856, p. 120.] - -[323] I have read somewhere (if I do not err, for I cannot recollect -where,) that Dante was so great a favourite of Michael Angelo's, that he -had designed the whole of the Divina Commedia: but that the volume -containing these studies was lost by sea. - -[Michel Angelo's copy of Dante, says Duppa (_ibid_., and note 1), "was a -large folio, with Landino's commentary; and upon the broad margin of the -leaves he designed with a pen and ink, all the interesting subjects. -This book was possessed by Antonio Montanti, a sculptor and architect in -Florence, who, being appointed architect to St. Peter's, removed to -Rome, and shipped his ... effects at Leghorn for Civita Vecchia, among -which was this edition of Dante. In the voyage the vessel foundered at -sea, and it was unfortunately lost in the wreck."] - -[324] {273} See the treatment of Michel Angelo by Julius II., and his -neglect by Leo X. [Julius II. encouraged his attendance at the Vatican, -but one morning he was stopped by the chamberlain in waiting, who said, -"I have an order not to let you enter." Michel Angelo, indignant at the -insult, left Rome that very evening. Though Julius despatched five -couriers to bring him back, it was some months before he returned. Even -a letter (July 8, 1506), in which the Pope promised his "dearly beloved -Michel Angelo" that he should not be touched nor offended, but be -"reinstated in the apostolic grace," met with no response. It was this -quarrel with Julius II. which prevented the completion of the sepulchral -monument. The "Moses" and the figures supposed to represent the Active -and the Contemplative Life, and three Caryatides (since removed) -represent the whole of the original design, "a parallelogram surmounted -with forty statues, and covered with reliefs and other ornaments."--See -Duppa's _Life, etc_., 1856, pp. 33, 34, and _Handbook of Rome_, p. 133.] - -[325] [Compare _Merchant of Venice_, act iv. sc. 1, lines 191, 192.] - -[326] {274}[Compare-- - - "I fled, and cried out Death ... - I fled, but he pursued, (though more, it seems, - Inflamed with lust than rage), and swifter far, - Me overtook, his mother, all dismayed, - And in embraces forcible and foul, - Ingendering with me, of that rape begot - These yelling monsters, that with ceaseless cry - Surround me." - - _Paradise Lost_, book ii. lines 787-796.] - -[327] [In his _Convito_, Dante speaks of his banishment, and the poverty -and distress which attended it, in very affecting terms. "Ah! would it -had pleased the Dispenser of all things that this excuse had never been -needed; that neither others had done me wrong, nor myself undergone -penalty undeservedly,--the penalty, I say, of exile and of poverty. For -it pleased the citizens of the fairest and most renowned daughter of -Rome--Florence--to cast me out of her most sweet bosom, where I was born -and bred, and passed half of the life of man, and in which, with her -good leave, I still desire with all my heart to repose my weary spirit, -and finish the days allotted me; and so I have wandered in almost every -place to which our language extends, a stranger, almost a beggar, -exposing against my will the wounds given me by fortune, too often -unjustly imputed to the sufferer's fault. Truly I have been a vessel -without sail and without rudder, driven about upon different ports and -shores by the dry wind that springs out of dolorous poverty; and hence -have I appeared vile in the eyes of many, who, perhaps, by some better -report, had conceived of me a different impression, and in whose sight -not only has my person become thus debased, but an unworthy opinion -created of everything which I did, or which I had to do."--_Il Convito_, -book i. chap. iii., translated by Leigh Hunt, _Stories from the Italian -Poets_, 1846, i. 22, 23.] - -[328] {275} What is Horizon's quantity? Hor[=i]zon, or Hor[)i]zon? adopt -accordingly.--[B.] - -[cn]--_and the Horizon for bars_.--[MS. Alternative reading.] - -[329] [Compare-- - - "Ungrateful Florence! Dante sleeps afar." - - _Childe Harold_, Canto IV. stanza lvii., - _Poetical Works_, 1899, ii. 371, note 1. - -"Between the second and third chapels [in the nave of Santa Croce at -Florence] is the colossal monument to Dante, by Ricci ... raised by -subscription in 1829. The inscription, '_A majoribus ter frustra -decretum_,' refers to the successive efforts of the Florentines to -recover his remains, and raise a monument to their great -countryman."--_Handbook, Central Italy_, p. 32.] - -[330] "E scrisse piu volte non solamente a' particolari Cittadini del -Reggimento, ma ancora al Popolo; e intra l' altre un' Epistola assai -lunga che incomincia: '_Popule mee_ (sic), _quid feci tibi?_"--_Le vite -di Dante, etc._, _scritte da Lionardo Aretino_, 1672, p. 47. - -[331] {276}[About the year 1316 his friends obtained his restoration to -his country and his possessions, on condition that he should pay a -certain sum of money, and, entering a church, avow himself guilty, and -ask pardon of the republic. - -The following was his answer to a religious, who appears to have been -one of his kinsmen: "From your letter, which I received with due respect -and affection, I observe how much you have at heart my restoration to my -country. I am bound to you the more gratefully inasmuch as an exile -rarely finds a friend. But, after mature consideration, I must, by my -answer, disappoint the writers of some little minds ... Your nephew and -mine has written to me ... that ... I am allowed to return to Florence, -provided I pay a certain sum of money, and submit to the humiliation of -asking and receiving absolution.... Is such an invitation then to return -to his country glorious to d. all. after suffering in exile almost -fifteen years? Is it thus, then, they would recompense innocence which -all the world knows, and the labour and fatigue of unremitting study? -Far from the man who is familiar with philosophy, be the senseless -baseness of a heart of earth, that could imitate the infamy of some -others, by offering himself up as it were in chains. Far from the man -who cries aloud for justice, this compromise, by his money, with his -persecutors! No, my Father, this is not the way that shall lead me back -to my country. I will return with hasty steps, if you or any other can -open to me a way that shall not derogate from the fame and honour of d.; -but if by no such way Florence can be entered, then Florence I shall -never enter. What! shall I not every where enjoy the light of the sun -and the stars? and may I not seek and contemplate, in every corner of -the earth, under the canopy of heaven, consoling and delightful truth, -without first rendering myself inglorious, nay infamous, to the people -and republic of Florence? Bread, I hope, will not fail me."--_Epistola, -IX. Amico Florentino: Opere di Dante_, 1897, p. 413.] - - - - - - THE MORGANTE MAGGIORE - - OF PULCI. - - - - - INTRODUCTION TO THE _MORGANTE MAGGIORE_. - -It is possible that Byron began his translation of the First Canto of -Pulci's _Morgante Maggiore_ (so called to distinguish the entire poem of -twenty-eight cantos from the lesser _Morgante_ [or, to coin a title, -"_Morganid_"] which was published separately) in the late autumn of -1819, before he had left Venice (see his letter to Bankes, February 19, -1820, _Letters_, 1900, iv. 403). It is certain that it was finished at -Ravenna during the first week of his "domestication" in the Palazzo -Guiccioli (Letters to Murray, February 7, February 21, 1820). He took a -deal of pains with his self-imposed task, "servilely translating stanza -from stanza, and line from line, two octaves every night;" and when the -first canto was finished he was naturally and reasonably proud of his -achievement. More than two years had elapsed since Frere's -_Whistlecraft_ had begotten _Beppo_, and in the interval he had written -four cantos of _Don Juan_, outstripping his "immediate model," and -equalling if not surpassing his model's parents and precursors, the -masters of "narrative romantic poetry among the Italians." - -In attempting this translation--something, as he once said of his -Armenian studies, "craggy for his mind to break upon" (Letter to Moore, -December 5, 1816, _Letters_, 1900, iv. 10)--Byron believed that he was -working upon virgin soil. He had read, as he admits in his -"Advertisement," John Herman Merivale's poem, _Orlando in Roncesvalles_, -which is founded upon the _Morgante Maggiore_; but he does not seem to -have been aware that many years before (1806, 1807) the same writer (one -of the "associate bards") had published in the _Monthly Magazine_ (May, -July, 1806, etc., _vide ante_ Introduction to _Beppo_, p. 156) a series -of translations of selected passages of the poem. There is no -resemblance whatever between Byron's laboured and faithful rendering of -the text, and Merivale's far more readable paraphrase, and it is -evident that if these selections ever passed before his eyes, they had -left no impression on his memory. He was drawn to the task partly on -account of its difficulty, but chiefly because in Pulci he recognized a -kindred spirit who suggested and compelled a fresh and final dedication -of his genius to the humorous epopee. The translation was an act of -devotion, the offering of a disciple to a master. - -"The apparent contradictions of the _Morgante Maggiore_ ... the brusque -transition from piety to ribaldry, from pathos to satire," the -paradoxical union of persiflage with gravity, a confession of faith -alternating with a profession of mockery and profanity, have puzzled and -confounded more than one student and interpreter. An intimate knowledge -of the history, the literature, the art, the manners and passions of the -times has enabled one of his latest critics and translators, John -Addington Symonds, to come as near as may be to explaining the -contradictions; but the essential quality of Pulci's humour eludes -analysis. - -We know that the poem itself, as Pio Rajna has shown, "the _rifacimento_ -of two earlier popular poems," was written to amuse Lucrezia Tornabuoni, -the mother of Lorenzo de' Medici, and that it was recited, canto by -canto, in the presence of such guests as Poliziano, Ficino, and -Michelangelo Buonarotti; but how "it struck these contemporaries," and -whether a subtler instinct permitted them to untwist the strands and to -appraise the component parts at their precise ethical and spiritual -value, are questions for the exercise of the critical imagination. That -which attracted Byron to Pulci's writings was, no doubt, the co-presence -of faith, a certain _simplicity_ of faith, with an audacious and even -outrageous handling of the objects of faith, combined with a facile and -wanton alternation of romantic passion with a cynical mockery of -whatsoever things are sober and venerable. _Don Juan_ and the _Vision of -Judgment_ owe their existence to the _Morgante Maggiore_. - -The MS. of the translation of Canto I. was despatched to England, -February 28, 1820. It is evident (see Letters, March 29, April 23, May -18, 1820, _Letters_, 1900, iv. 425, 1901, v. 17, 21) that Murray looked -coldly on Byron's "masterpiece" from the first. It was certain that any -new work by the author of _Don Juan_ would be subjected to the severest -and most hostile scrutiny, and it was doubtful if a translation of part -of an obscure and difficult poem, vaguely supposed to be coarse and -irreligious, would meet with even a tolerable measure of success. At any -rate, in spite of many inquiries and much vaunting of its excellence -(see Letters, June 29, September 12, 1821, _Letters_, 1901, v. 314, -362), the MS. remained for more than two years in Murray's hands, and it -was not until other arrangements came into force that the translation of -the First Canto of the _Morgante Maggiore_ appeared in the fourth and -last number of _The Liberal_, which was issued (by John Hunt) July 30, -1823. - -For critical estimates of Luigi Pulci and the _Morgante Maggiore_, see -an article (_Quarterly Review_, April, 1819, vol. xxi. pp. 486-556), by -Ugo Foscolo, entitled "Narrative and Romantic Poems of the Italians;" -_Preface_ to the _Orlando Innamorato of Boiardo_, by A. Panizzi, 1830, -i. 190-302; _Poems Original and Translated_, by J. H. Merivale, 1838, -ii. 1-43; _Stories of the Italian Poets_, by J. H. Leigh Hunt, 1846, i. -283-314; _Renaissance in Italy_, by J. A. Symonds, 1881, iv. 431, 456, -and for translations of the _Morgante Maggiore_, _vide ibid_., Appendix -V. pp. 543-560; and _Italian Literature_, by R. Garnett, C.B., LL.D., -1898, pp. 128-131. - - - - - ADVERTISEMENT. - -The Morgante Maggiore, of the first canto of which this translation is -offered, divides with the Orlando Innamorato the honour of having formed -and suggested the style and story of Ariosto.[332] The great defects of -Boiardo were his treating too seriously the narratives of chivalry, and -his harsh style. Ariosto, in his continuation, by a judicious mixture of -the gaiety of Pulci, has avoided the one; and Berni, in his reformation -of Boiardo's poem, has corrected the other. Pulci may be considered as -the precursor and model of Berni altogether, as he has partly been to -Ariosto, however inferior to both his copyists. He is no less the -founder of a new style of poetry very lately sprung up in England. I -allude to that of the ingenious Whistlecraft. The serious poems on -Roncesvalles in the same language, and more particularly the excellent -one of Mr. Merivale, are to be traced to the same source.[333] It has -never yet been decided entirely whether Pulci's intention was or was not -to deride the religion which is one of his favourite topics. It appears -to me, that such an intention would have been no less hazardous to the -poet than to the priest, particularly in that age and country; and the -permission to publish the poem, and its reception among the classics of -Italy, prove that it neither was nor is so interpreted. That he -intended to ridicule the monastic life, and suffered his imagination to -play with the simple dulness of his converted giant, seems evident -enough; but surely it were as unjust to accuse him of irreligion on this -account, as to denounce Fielding for his Parson Adams, Barnabas,[334] -Thwackum, Supple, and the Ordinary in Jonathan Wild,--or Scott, for the -exquisite use of his Covenanters in the "Tales of my Landlord." - -In the following translation I have used the liberty of the original -with the proper names, as Pulci uses Gan, Ganellon, or Ganellone; Carlo, -Carlomagno, or Carlornano; Rondel, or Rondello, etc., as it suits his -convenience; so has the translator. In other respects the version is -faithful to the best of the translator's ability in combining his -interpretation of the one language with the not very easy task of -reducing it to the same versification in the other. The reader, on -comparing it with the original, is requested to remember that the -antiquated language of Pulci, however pure, is not easy to the -generality of Italians themselves, from its great mixture of Tuscan -proverbs; and he may therefore be more indulgent to the present attempt. -How far the translator has succeeded, and whether or no he shall -continue the work, are questions which the public will decide. He was -induced to make the experiment partly by his love for, and partial -intercourse with, the Italian language, of which it is so easy to -acquire a slight knowledge, and with which it is so nearly impossible -for a foreigner to become accurately conversant. The Italian language is -like a capricious beauty, who accords her smiles to all, her favours to -few, and sometimes least to those who have courted her longest. The -translator wished also to present in an English dress a part at least of -a poem never yet rendered into a northern language; at the same time -that it has been the original of some of the most celebrated productions -on this side of the Alps, as well of those recent experiments in poetry -in England which have been already mentioned. - - - - - THE MORGANTE MAGGIORE.[335] - - - - CANTO THE FIRST. - - - I. - - In the beginning was the Word next God; - God was the Word, the Word no less was He: - This was in the beginning, to my mode - Of thinking, and without Him nought could be: - Therefore, just Lord! from out thy high abode, - Benign and pious, bid an angel flee, - One only, to be my companion, who - Shall help my famous, worthy, old song through. - - II. - - And thou, oh Virgin! daughter, mother, bride, - Of the same Lord, who gave to you each key - Of Heaven, and Hell, and every thing beside, - The day thy Gabriel said "All hail!" to thee, - Since to thy servants Pity's ne'er denied, - With flowing rhymes, a pleasant style and free, - Be to my verses then benignly kind, - And to the end illuminate my mind. - - III. - - 'Twas in the season when sad Philomel[336] - Weeps with her sister, who remembers and - Deplores the ancient woes which both befel, - And makes the nymphs enamoured, to the hand - Of Phaeton, by Phoebus loved so well, - His car (but tempered by his sire's command) - Was given, and on the horizon's verge just now - Appeared, so that Tithonus scratched his brow: - - IV. - - When I prepared my bark first to obey, - As it should still obey, the helm, my mind, - And carry prose or rhyme, and this my lay - Of Charles the Emperor, whom you will find - By several pens already praised; but they - Who to diffuse his glory were inclined, - For all that I can see in prose or verse, - Have understood Charles badly, and wrote worse. - - V. - - Leonardo Aretino said already,[337] - That if, like Pepin, Charles had had a writer - Of genius quick, and diligently steady, - No hero would in history look brighter; - He in the cabinet being always ready, - And in the field a most victorious fighter, - Who for the church and Christian faith had wrought, - Certes, far more than yet is said or thought. - - VI. - - You still may see at Saint Liberatore,[338] - The abbey, no great way from Manopell, - Erected in the Abruzzi to his glory, - Because of the great battle in which fell - A pagan king, according to the story, - And felon people whom Charles sent to Hell: - And there are bones so many, and so many, - Near them Giusaffa's[339] would seem few, if any. - - VII. - - But the world, blind and ignorant, don't prize - His virtues as I wish to see them: thou, - Florence, by his great bounty don't arise,[340] - And hast, and may have, if thou wilt allow, - All proper customs and true courtesies: - Whate'er thou hast acquired from then till now, - With knightly courage, treasure, or the lance, - Is sprung from out the noble blood of France. - - - VIII. - - Twelve Paladins had Charles in court, of whom - The wisest and most famous was Orlando; - Him traitor Gan[341] conducted to the tomb - In Roncesvalles, as the villain planned too, - While the horn rang so loud, and knelled the doom - Of their sad rout, though he did all knight can do: - And Dante in his comedy has given - To him a happy seat with Charles in Heaven.[342] - - IX. - - 'Twas Christmas-day; in Paris all his court - Charles held; the Chief, I say, Orlando was, - The Dane; Astolfo there too did resort, - Also Ansuigi, the gay time to pass - In festival and in triumphal sport, - The much-renowned St. Dennis being the cause; - Angiolin of Bayonne, and Oliver, - And gentle Belinghieri too came there: - - X. - - Avolio, and Arino, and Othone - Of Normandy, and Richard Paladin, - Wise Hamo, and the ancient Salamone, - Walter of Lion's Mount, and Baldovin, - Who was the son of the sad Ganellone, - Were there, exciting too much gladness in - The son of Pepin:--when his knights came hither, - He groaned with joy to see them altogether. - - XI. - - But watchful Fortune, lurking, takes good heed - Ever some bar 'gainst our intents to bring. - While Charles reposed him thus, in word and deed, - Orlando ruled court, Charles, and every thing; - Curst Gan, with envy bursting, had such need - To vent his spite, that thus with Charles the king - One day he openly began to say, - "Orlando must we always then obey? - - XII. - - "A thousand times I've been about to say, - Orlando too presumptuously goes on; - Here are we, counts, kings, dukes, to own thy sway, - Hamo, and Otho, Ogier, Solomon, - Each have to honour thee and to obey; - But he has too much credit near the throne, - Which we won't suffer, but are quite decided - By such a boy to be no longer guided. - - XIII. - - "And even at Aspramont thou didst begin - To let him know he was a gallant knight, - And by the fount did much the day to win; - But I know _who_ that day had won the fight - If it had not for good Gherardo been; - The victory was Almonte's else; his sight - He kept upon the standard--and the laurels, - In fact and fairness, are his earning, Charles! - - XIV. - - "If thou rememberest being in Gascony, - When there advanced the nations out of Spain - The Christian cause had suffered shamefully, - Had not his valour driven them back again. - Best speak the truth when there's a reason why: - Know then, oh Emperor! that all complain: - As for myself, I shall repass the mounts - O'er which I crossed with two and sixty counts. - - XV. - - "'Tis fit thy grandeur should dispense relief, - So that each here may have his proper part, - For the whole court is more or less in grief: - Perhaps thou deem'st this lad a Mars in heart?" - Orlando one day heard this speech in brief, - As by himself it chanced he sate apart: - Displeased he was with Gan because he said it, - But much more still that Charles should give him credit. - - XVI. - - And with the sword he would have murdered Gan, - But Oliver thrust in between the pair, - And from his hand extracted Durlindan, - And thus at length they separated were. - Orlando angry too with Carloman, - Wanted but little to have slain him there; - Then forth alone from Paris went the Chief, - And burst and maddened with disdain and grief. - - XVII. - - From Ermellina, consort of the Dane, - He took Cortana, and then took Rondell, - And on towards Brara pricked him o'er the plain; - And when she saw him coming, Aldabelle - Stretched forth her arms to clasp her lord again: - Orlando, in whose brain all was not well, - As "Welcome, my Orlando, home," she said, - Raised up his sword to smite her on the head. - - XVIII. - - Like him a Fury counsels, his revenge - On Gan in that rash act he seemed to take, - Which Aldabella thought extremely strange; - But soon Orlando found himself awake; - And his spouse took his bridle on this change, - And he dismounted from his horse, and spake - Of every thing which passed without demur, - And then reposed himself some days with her. - - XIX. - - Then full of wrath departed from the place, - As far as pagan countries roamed astray, - And while he rode, yet still at every pace - The traitor Gan remembered by the way; - And wandering on in error a long space, - An abbey which in a lone desert lay, - 'Midst glens obscure, and distant lands, he found, - Which formed the Christian's and the Pagan's bound. - - XX. - - The Abbot was called Clermont, and by blood - Descended from Angrante: under cover - Of a great mountain's brow the abbey stood, - But certain savage giants looked him over; - One Passamont was foremost of the brood, - And Alabaster and Morgante hover - Second and third, with certain slings, and throw - In daily jeopardy the place below. - - XXI. - - The monks could pass the convent gate no more, - Nor leave their cells for water or for wood; - Orlando knocked, but none would ope, before - Unto the Prior it at length seemed good; - Entered, he said that he was taught to adore - Him who was born of Mary's holiest blood, - And was baptized a Christian; and then showed - How to the abbey he had found his road. - - XXII. - - Said the Abbot, "You are welcome; what is mine - We give you freely, since that you believe - With us in Mary Mother's Son divine; - And that you may not, Cavalier, conceive - The cause of our delay to let you in - To be rusticity, you shall receive - The reason why our gate was barred to you: - Thus those who in suspicion live must do. - - XXIII. - - "When hither to inhabit first we came - These mountains, albeit that they are obscure, - As you perceive, yet without fear or blame - They seemed to promise an asylum sure: - From savage brutes alone, too fierce to tame, - 'Twas fit our quiet dwelling to secure; - But now, if here we'd stay, we needs must guard - Against domestic beasts with watch and ward. - - XXIV. - - "These make us stand, in fact, upon the watch; - For late there have appeared three giants rough, - What nation or what kingdom bore the batch - I know not, but they are all of savage stuff; - When Force and Malice with some genius match, - You know, they can do all--_we_ are not enough: - And these so much our orisons derange, - I know not what to do, till matters change. - - XXV. - - "Our ancient fathers, living the desert in, - For just and holy works were duly fed; - Think not they lived on locusts sole, 'tis certain - That manna was rained down from heaven instead; - But here 'tis fit we keep on the alert in - Our bounds, or taste the stones showered down for bread, - From off yon mountain daily raining faster, - And flung by Passamont and Alabaster. - - XXVI. - - "The third, Morgante, 's savagest by far; he - Plucks up pines, beeches, poplar-trees, and oaks, - And flings them, our community to bury; - And all that I can do but more provokes." - While thus they parley in the cemetery, - A stone from one of their gigantic strokes, - Which nearly crushed Rondell, came tumbling over, - So that he took a long leap under cover. - - XXVII. - - "For God-sake, Cavalier, come in with speed; - The manna's falling now," the Abbot cried. - "This fellow does not wish my horse should feed, - Dear Abbot," Roland unto him replied, - "Of restiveness he'd cure him had he need; - That stone seems with good will and aim applied." - The holy father said, "I don't deceive; - They'll one day fling the mountain, I believe." - - XXVIII. - - Orlando bade them take care of Rondello, - And also made a breakfast of his own; - "Abbot," he said, "I want to find that fellow - Who flung at my good horse yon corner-stone." - Said the abbot, "Let not my advice seem shallow; - As to a brother dear I speak alone; - I would dissuade you, Baron, from this strife, - As knowing sure that you will lose your life. - - XXIX. - - "That Passamont has in his hand three darts-- - Such slings, clubs, ballast-stones, that yield you must: - You know that giants have much stouter hearts - Than us, with reason, in proportion just: - If go you will, guard well against their arts, - For these are very barbarous and robust." - Orlando answered," This I'll see, be sure, - And walk the wild on foot to be secure." - - XXX. - - The Abbot signed the great cross on his front, - "Then go you with God's benison and mine." - Orlando, after he had scaled the mount, - As the Abbot had directed, kept the line - Right to the usual haunt of Passamont; - Who, seeing him alone in this design, - Surveyed him fore and aft with eyes observant, - Then asked him, "If he wished to stay as servant?" - - XXXI. - - And promised him an office of great ease. - But, said Orlando, "Saracen insane! - I come to kill you, if it shall so please - God, not to serve as footboy in your train; - You with his monks so oft have broke the peace-- - Vile dog! 'tis past his patience to sustain." - The Giant ran to fetch his arms, quite furious, - When he received an answer so injurious. - - XXXII. - - And being returned to where Orlando stood, - Who had not moved him from the spot, and swinging - The cord, he hurled a stone with strength so rude, - As showed a sample of his skill in slinging; - It rolled on Count Orlando's helmet good - And head, and set both head and helmet ringing, - So that he swooned with pain as if he died, - But more than dead, he seemed so stupified. - - XXXIII. - - Then Passamont, who thought him slain outright, - Said, "I will go, and while he lies along, - Disarm me: why such craven did I fight?" - But Christ his servants ne'er abandons long, - Especially Orlando, such a knight, - As to desert would almost be a wrong. - While the giant goes to put off his defences, - Orlando has recalled his force and senses: - - XXXIV. - - And loud he shouted, "Giant, where dost go? - Thou thought'st me doubtless for the bier outlaid; - To the right about--without wings thou'rt too slow - To fly my vengeance--currish renegade! - 'Twas but by treachery thou laid'st me low." - The giant his astonishment betrayed, - And turned about, and stopped his journey on, - And then he stooped to pick up a great stone. - - XXXV. - - Orlando had Cortana bare in hand; - To split the head in twain was what he schemed: - Cortana clave the skull like a true brand, - And pagan Passamont died unredeemed; - Yet harsh and haughty, as he lay he banned, - And most devoutly Macon still blasphemed[343]; - But while his crude, rude blasphemies he heard, - Orlando thanked the Father and the Word,-- - - XXXVI. - - Saying, "What grace to me thou'st this day given! - And I to thee, O Lord! am ever bound; - I know my life was saved by thee from Heaven, - Since by the Giant I was fairly downed. - All things by thee are measured just and even; - Our power without thine aid would nought be found: - I pray thee take heed of me, till I can - At least return once more to Carloman." - - XXXVII. - - And having said thus much, he went his way; - And Alabaster he found out below, - Doing the very best that in him lay - To root from out a bank a rock or two. - Orlando, when he reached him, loud 'gan say, - "How think'st thou, glutton, such a stone to throw?" - When Alabaster heard his deep voice ring, - He suddenly betook him to his sling, - - XXXVIII. - - And hurled a fragment of a size so large - That if it had in fact fulfilled its mission, - And Roland not availed him of his targe, - There would have been no need of a physician[344]. - Orlando set himself in turn to charge, - And in his bulky bosom made incision - With all his sword. The lout fell; but o'erthrown, he - However by no means forgot Macone. - - XXXIX. - - Morgante had a palace in his mode, - Composed of branches, logs of wood, and earth, - And stretched himself at ease in this abode, - And shut himself at night within his berth. - Orlando knocked, and knocked again, to goad - The giant from his sleep; and he came forth, - The door to open, like a crazy thing, - For a rough dream had shook him slumbering. - - XL. - - He thought that a fierce serpent had attacked him, - And Mahomet he called; but Mahomet - Is nothing worth, and, not an instant backed him; - But praying blessed Jesu, he was set - At liberty from all the fears which racked him; - And to the gate he came with great regret-- - "Who knocks here?" grumbling all the while, said he. - "That," said Orlando, "you will quickly see: - - XLI. - - "I come to preach to you, as to your brothers,-- - Sent by the miserable monks--repentance; - For Providence divine, in you and others, - Condemns the evil done, my new acquaintance! - 'Tis writ on high--your wrong must pay another's: - From Heaven itself is issued out this sentence. - Know then, that colder now than a pilaster - I left your Passamont and Alabaster." - - XLII. - - Morgante said, "Oh gentle Cavalier! - Now by thy God say me no villany; - The favour of your name I fain would hear, - And if a Christian, speak for courtesy." - Replied Orlando, "So much to your ear - I by my faith disclose contentedly; - Christ I adore, who is the genuine Lord, - And, if you please, by you may be adored." - - XLIII. - - The Saracen rejoined in humble tone, - "I have had an extraordinary vision; - A savage serpent fell on me alone, - And Macon would not pity my condition; - Hence to thy God, who for ye did atone - Upon the cross, preferred I my petition; - His timely succour set me safe and free, - And I a Christian am disposed to be." - - XLIV. - - Orlando answered, "Baron just and pious, - If this good wish your heart can really move - To the true God, who will not then deny us - Eternal honour, you will go above, - And, if you please, as friends we will ally us, - And I will love you with a perfect love. - Your idols are vain liars, full of fraud: - The only true God is the Christian's God. - - XLV. - - "The Lord descended to the virgin breast - Of Mary Mother, sinless and divine; - If you acknowledge the Redeemer blest, - Without whom neither sun nor star can shine, - Abjure bad Macon's false and felon test, - Your renegado god, and worship mine, - Baptize yourself with zeal, since you repent." - To which Morgante answered, "I'm content." - - XLVI. - - And then Orlando to embrace him flew, - And made much of his convert, as he cried, - "To the abbey I will gladly marshal you." - To whom Morgante, "Let us go," replied: - "I to the friars have for peace to sue." - Which thing Orlando heard with inward pride, - Saying, "My brother, so devout and good, - Ask the Abbot pardon, as I wish you would: - - XLVII. - - "Since God has granted your illumination, - Accepting you in mercy for his own, - Humility should be your first oblation." - Morgante said, "For goodness' sake, make known,-- - Since that your God is to be mine--your station, - And let your name in verity be shown; - Then will I everything at your command do." - On which the other said, he was Orlando. - - XLVIII. - - "Then," quoth the Giant, "blessed be Jesu - A thousand times with gratitude and praise! - Oft, perfect Baron! have I heard of you - Through all the different periods of my days: - And, as I said, to be your vassal too - I wish, for your great gallantry always." - Thus reasoning, they continued much to say, - And onwards to the abbey went their way. - - XLIX. - - And by the way about the giants dead - Orlando with Morgante reasoned: "Be, - For their decease, I pray you, comforted, - And, since it is God's pleasure, pardon me; - A thousand wrongs unto the monks they bred; - And our true Scripture soundeth openly, - Good is rewarded, and chastised the ill, - Which the Lord never faileth to fulfil: - - L. - - "Because His love of justice unto all - Is such, He wills His judgment should devour - All who have sin, however great or small; - But good He well remembers to restore. - Nor without justice holy could we call - Him, whom I now require you to adore. - All men must make His will their wishes sway, - And quickly and spontaneously obey. - - LI. - - "And here our doctors are of one accord, - Coming on this point to the same conclusion,-- - That in their thoughts, who praise in Heaven the Lord, - If Pity e'er was guilty of intrusion - For their unfortunate relations stored - In Hell below, and damned in great confusion, - Their happiness would be reduced to nought,-- - And thus unjust the Almighty's self be thought. - - LII. - - "But they in Christ have firmest hope, and all - Which seems to Him, to them too must appear - Well done; nor could it otherwise befall; - He never can in any purpose err. - If sire or mother suffer endless thrall, - They don't disturb themselves for him or her: - What pleases God to them must joy inspire;-- - Such is the observance of the eternal choir." - - LIII. - - "A word unto the wise," Morgante said, - "Is wont to be enough, and you shall see - How much I grieve about my brethren dead; - And if the will of God seem good to me, - Just, as you tell me, 'tis in Heaven obeyed-- - Ashes to ashes,--merry let us be! - I will cut off the hands from both their trunks, - And carry them unto the holy monks. - - LIV. - - "So that all persons may be sure and certain - That they are dead, and have no further fear - To wander solitary this desert in, - And that they may perceive my spirit clear - By the Lord's grace, who hath withdrawn the curtain - Of darkness, making His bright realm appear." - He cut his brethren's hands off at these words, - And left them to the savage beasts and birds. - - LV. - - Then to the abbey they went on together, - Where waited them the Abbot in great doubt. - The monks, who knew not yet the fact, ran thither - To their superior, all in breathless rout, - Saying with tremor, "Please to tell us whether - You wish to have this person in or out?" - The Abbot, looking through upon the Giant, - Too greatly feared, at first, to be compliant. - - LVI. - - Orlando seeing him thus agitated, - Said quickly, "Abbot, be thou of good cheer; - He Christ believes, as Christian must be rated, - And hath renounced his Macon false;" which here - Morgante with the hands corroborated, - A proof of both the giants' fate quite clear: - Thence, with due thanks, the Abbot God adored, - Saying, "Thou hast contented me, O Lord!" - - LVII. - - He gazed; Morgante's height he calculated, - And more than once contemplated his size; - And then he said, "O Giant celebrated! - Know, that no more my wonder will arise, - How you could tear and fling the trees you late did, - When I behold your form with my own eyes. - You now a true and perfect friend will show - Yourself to Christ, as once you were a foe. - - LVIII. - - "And one of our apostles, Saul once named, - Long persecuted sore the faith of Christ, - Till, one day, by the Spirit being inflamed, - 'Why dost thou persecute me thus?' said Christ; - And then from his offence he was reclaimed, - And went for ever after preaching Christ, - And of the faith became a trump, whose sounding - O'er the whole earth is echoing and rebounding. - - LIX. - - "So, my Morgante, you may do likewise: - He who repents--thus writes the Evangelist-- - Occasions more rejoicing in the skies - Than ninety-nine of the celestial list. - You may be sure, should each desire arise - With just zeal for the Lord, that you'll exist - Among the happy saints for evermore; - But you were lost and damned to Hell before!" - - LX. - - And thus great honour to Morgante paid - The Abbot: many days they did repose. - One day, as with Orlando they both strayed, - And sauntered here and there, where'er they chose, - The Abbot showed a chamber, where arrayed - Much armour was, and hung up certain bows; - And one of these Morgante for a whim - Girt on, though useless, he believed, to him. - - LXI. - - There being a want of water in the place, - Orlando, like a worthy brother, said, - "Morgante, I could wish you in this case - To go for water." "You shall be obeyed - In all commands," was the reply, "straight ways." - Upon his shoulder a great tub he laid, - And went out on his way unto a fountain, - Where he was wont to drink, below the mountain. - - LXII. - - Arrived there, a prodigious noise he hears, - Which suddenly along the forest spread; - Whereat from out his quiver he prepares - An arrow for his bow, and lifts his head; - And lo! a monstrous herd of swine appears, - And onward rushes with tempestuous tread, - And to the fountain's brink precisely pours; - So that the Giant's joined by all the boars. - - LXIII. - - Morgante at a venture shot an arrow, - Which pierced a pig precisely in the ear, - And passed unto the other side quite through; - So that the boar, defunct, lay tripped up near. - Another, to revenge his fellow farrow, - Against the Giant rushed in fierce career, - And reached the passage with so swift a foot, - Morgante was not now in time to shoot. - - LXIV. - - Perceiving that the pig was on him close, - He gave him such a punch upon the head[345], - As floored him so that he no more arose, - Smashing the very bone; and he fell dead - Next to the other. Having seen such blows, - The other pigs along the valley fled; - Morgante on his neck the bucket took, - Full from the spring, which neither swerved nor shook. - - LXV. - - The tub was on one shoulder, and there were - The hogs on t'other, and he brushed apace - On to the abbey, though by no means near, - Nor spilt one drop of water in his race. - Orlando, seeing him so soon appear - With the dead boars, and with that brimful vase, - Marvelled to see his strength so very great; - So did the Abbot, and set wide the gate. - - LXVI. - - The monks, who saw the water fresh and good[346], - Rejoiced, but much more to perceive the pork; - All animals are glad at sight of food: - They lay their breviaries to sleep, and work - With greedy pleasure, and in such a mood, - That the flesh needs no salt beneath their fork. - Of rankness and of rot there is no fear, - For all the fasts are now left in arrear. - - LXVII. - - As though they wished to burst at once, they ate; - And gorged so that, as if the bones had been - In water, sorely grieved the dog and cat, - Perceiving that they all were picked too clean. - The Abbot, who to all did honour great, - A few days after this convivial scene, - Gave to Morgante a fine horse, well trained, - Which he long time had for himself maintained. - - LXVIII. - - The horse Morgante to a meadow led, - To gallop, and to put him to the proof, - Thinking that he a back of iron had, - Or to skim eggs unbroke was light enough; - But the horse, sinking with the pain, fell dead, - And burst, while cold on earth lay head and hoof. - Morgante said, "Get up, thou sulky cur!" - And still continued pricking with the spur. - - LXIX. - - But finally he thought fit to dismount, - And said, "I am as light as any feather, - And he has burst;--to this what say you, Count?" - Orlando answered, "Like a ship's mast rather - You seem to me, and with the truck for front: - Let him go! Fortune wills that we together - Should march, but you on foot Morgante still." - To which the Giant answered," So I will. - - LXX. - - "When there shall be occasion, you will see - How I approve my courage in the fight." - Orlando said, "I really think you'll be, - If it should prove God's will, a goodly knight; - Nor will you napping there discover me. - But never mind your horse, though out of sight - 'Twere best to carry him into some wood, - If but the means or way I understood." - - LXXI. - - The Giant said, "Then carry him I will, - Since that to carry me he was so slack-- - To render, as the gods do, good for ill; - But lend a hand to place him on my back." - Orlando answered, "If my counsel still - May weigh, Morgante, do not undertake - To lift or carry this dead courser, who, - As you have done to him, will do to you. - - LXXII. - - "Take care he don't revenge himself, though dead, - As Nessus did of old beyond all cure. - I don't know if the fact you've heard or read; - But he will make you burst, you may be sure." - "But help him on my back," Morgante said, - "And you shall see what weight I can endure. - In place, my gentle Roland, of this palfrey, - With all the bells, I'd carry yonder belfry." - - LXXIII. - - The Abbot said, "The steeple may do well, - But for the bells, you've broken them, I wot." - Morgante answered, "Let them pay in Hell - The penalty who lie dead in yon grot;" - And hoisting up the horse from where he fell, - He said, "Now look if I the gout have got, - Orlando, in the legs,--or if I have force;"-- - And then he made two gambols with the horse. - - LXXIV. - - Morgante was like any mountain framed; - So if he did this 'tis no prodigy; - But secretly himself Orlando blamed, - Because he was one of his family; - And fearing that he might be hurt or maimed, - Once more he bade him lay his burden by: - "Put down, nor bear him further the desert in." - Morgante said, "I'll carry him for certain." - - LXXV. - - He did; and stowed him in some nook away, - And to the abbey then returned with speed. - Orlando said, "Why longer do we stay? - Morgante, here is nought to do indeed." - The Abbot by the hand he took one day, - And said, with great respect, he had agreed - To leave his reverence; but for this decision - He wished to have his pardon and permission. - - LXXVI. - - The honours they continued to receive - Perhaps exceeded what his merits claimed: - He said, "I mean, and quickly, to retrieve - The lost days of time past, which may be blamed; - Some days ago I should have asked your leave, - Kind father, but I really was ashamed, - And know not how to show my sentiment, - So much I see you with our stay content. - - LXXVII. - - "But in my heart I bear through every clime - The Abbot, abbey, and this solitude-- - So much I love you in so short a time; - For me, from Heaven reward you with all good - The God so true, the eternal Lord sublime! - Whose kingdom at the last hath open stood. - Meantime we stand expectant of your blessing. - And recommend us to your prayers with pressing." - - LXXVIII. - - Now when the Abbot Count Orlando heard, - His heart grew soft with inner tenderness, - Such fervour in his bosom bred each word; - And, "Cavalier," he said, "if I have less - Courteous and kind to your great worth appeared, - Than fits me for such gentle blood to express, - I know I have done too little in this case; - But blame our ignorance, and this poor place. - - LXXIX. - - "We can indeed but honour you with masses, - And sermons, thanksgivings, and pater-nosters, - Hot suppers, dinners (fitting other places - In verity much rather than the cloisters); - But such a love for you my heart embraces, - For thousand virtues which your bosom fosters, - That wheresoe'er you go I too shall be, - And, on the other part, you rest with me. - - LXXX. - - "This may involve a seeming contradiction; - But you I know are sage, and feel, and taste, - And understand my speech with full conviction. - For your just pious deeds may you be graced - With the Lord's great reward and benediction, - By whom you were directed to this waste: - To His high mercy is our freedom due, - For which we render thanks to Him and you. - - LXXXI. - - "You saved at once our life and soul: such fear - The Giants caused us, that the way was lost - By which we could pursue a fit career - In search of Jesus and the saintly Host; - And your departure breeds such sorrow here, - That comfortless we all are to our cost; - But months and years you would not stay in sloth, - Nor are you formed to wear our sober cloth, - - LXXXII. - - "But to bear arms, and wield the lance; indeed, - With these as much is done as with this cowl; - In proof of which the Scripture you may read, - This Giant up to Heaven may bear his soul - By your compassion: now in peace proceed. - Your state and name I seek not to unroll; - But, if I'm asked, this answer shall be given, - That here an angel was sent down from Heaven. - - LXXXIII. - - "If you want armour or aught else, go in, - Look o'er the wardrobe, and take what you choose, - And cover with it o'er this Giant's skin." - Orlando answered, "If there should lie loose - Some armour, ere our journey we begin, - Which might be turned to my companion's use, - The gift would be acceptable to me." - The Abbot said to him, "Come in and see." - - LXXXIV. - - And in a certain closet, where the wall - Was covered with old armour like a crust, - The Abbot said to them, "I give you all." - Morgante rummaged piecemeal from the dust - The whole, which, save one cuirass[347], was too small, - And that too had the mail inlaid with rust. - They wondered how it fitted him exactly, - Which ne'er had suited others so compactly. - - LXXXV. - - 'Twas an immeasurable Giant's, who - By the great Milo of Agrante fell - Before the abbey many years ago. - The story on the wall was figured well; - In the last moment of the abbey's foe, - Who long had waged a war implacable: - Precisely as the war occurred they drew him, - And there was Milo as he overthrew him. - - LXXXVI. - - Seeing this history, Count Orlando said - In his own heart, "O God who in the sky - Know'st all things! how was Milo hither led? - Who caused the Giant in this place to die?" - And certain letters, weeping, then he read, - So that he could not keep his visage dry,-- - As I will tell in the ensuing story: - From evil keep you the high King of Glory! - -[Note to Stanza v. Lines 1, 2.--In an Edition of the _Morgante Maggiore_ -issued at Florence by G. Pulci, in 1900, line 2 of stanza v. runs thus-- - - "Com' egli ebbe un Ormanno e 'l suo Turpino." - -The allusion to "Ormanno," who has been identified with a mythical -chronicler, "Urmano from Paris" (see Rajna's _Ricerche sui Reali di -Francia_, 1872, p. 51), and the appeal to the authority of Leonardo -Aretino, must not be taken _au pied de la lettre_. At the same time, the -opinion attributed to Leonardo is in accordance with contemporary -sentiment and phraseology. Compare "Horum res gestas si qui auctores -digni celebrassent, quam magnae, quam admirabiles, quam veteribus illis -similes viderentur."--B. Accolti Aretini (_ob._ 1466) _Dialogus de -Praestantia Virorum sui AEvi_. P. Villani, _Liber de Florentiae Famosis -Civibus_, 1847, p. 112. From information kindly supplied by Professor V. -Rossi, of the University of Pavia.] - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[332] {283}[Matteo Maria Bojardo (1434-1494) published his _Orlando -Innamorato_ in 1486; Lodovico Ariosto (1474-1533) published the _Orlando -Furioso_ in 1516. A first edition of Cantos I.-XXV. of Luigi Pulci's -(1431-1487) _Il Morgante Maggiore_ was printed surreptitiously by Luca -Veneziano in 1481. Francesco Berni, who recast the _Orlando Innamorato_, -was born circ. 1490, and died in 1536.] - -[333] [John Hermann Merivale (1779-1844), the father of Charles -Merivale, the historian (Dean of Ely, 1869), and of Herman, -Under-Secretary for India, published his _Orlando in Roncesvalles_ in -1814.] - -[334] {284}[Parson Adams and Barnabas are characters in _Joseph -Andrews_; Thwackum and Supple, in _The History of Tom Jones, a -Foundling_.] - -[335] {285}[Byron insisted, in the first place with Murray (February 7, -1820, _Letters_, 1900, iv. 402), and afterwards, no doubt, with the -Hunts, that his translation of the _Morgante Maggiore_ should be "put by -the original, stanza for stanza, and verse for verse." In the present -issue a few stanzas are inserted for purposes of comparison, but it has -not been thought necessary to reprint the whole of the Canto. - - "IL MORGANTE MAGGIORE. - - ARGOMENTO. - - "Vivendo Carlo Magno Imperadore - Co' Paladini in festa e in allegria, - Orlando contra Gano traditore - S'adira, e parte verso Pagania: - Giunge a un deserto, e del bestial furore - Di tre giganti salva una badia, - Che due n'uccide, e con Morgante elegge, - Di buon sozio e d'amico usar la legge." - - CANTO PRIMO. - - I. - - "In principio era il Verbo appresso a Dio; - Ed era Iddio il Verbo, e 'l Verbo lui: - Quest' era nel principio, al parer mio; - E nulla si puo far sanza costui: - Pero, giusto Signor benigno e pio, - Mandami solo un de gli angeli tui, - Che m'accompagni, e rechimi a memoria - Una famosa antica e degna storia. - - II. - - "E tu, Vergine, figlia, e madre, e sposa, - Di quel Signor, che ti dette le chiave - Del cielo e dell' abisso, e d' ogni cosa, - Quel di che Gabriel tuo ti disse Ave! - Perche tu se' de' tuo' servi pietosa, - Con dolce rime, e stil grato e soave, - Ajuta i versi miei benignamente, - E'nsino al fine allumina la mente. - - III. - - "Era nel tempo, quando Filomena - Colla sorella si lamenta e plora, - Che si ricorda di sua antica pena, - E pe' boschetti le ninfe innamora, - E Febo il carro temperato mena, - Che 'l suo Fetonte l'ammaestra ancora; - Ed appariva appunto all' orizzonte, - Tal che Titon si graffiava la fronte: - - IV. - - "Quand'io varai la mia barchetta, prima - Per ubbidir chi sempre ubbidir debbe - La mente, e faticarsi in prosa e in rima, - E del mio Carlo Imperador m'increbbe; - Che so quanti la penna ha posto in cima, - Che tutti la sua gloria prevarrebbe: - E stata quella istoria, a quel ch'i' veggio, - Di Carlo male intesa, e scritta peggio."] - -[336] {287}[Philomela and Procne were daughters of Pandion, King of -Attica. Tereus, son of Ares, wedded Procne, and, after the birth of her -son Itys, concealed his wife in the country, with a view to dishonouring -Philomela, on the plea of her sister's death. Procne discovered the -plot, killed her babe, and served up his flesh in a dish for her -husband's dinner. The sisters fled, and when Tereus pursued them with an -axe they besought the gods to change them into birds. Thereupon Procne -became a swallow, and Philomela a nightingale. So Hyginus, _Fabulae_, -xlv.; but there are other versions of Philomela's woes.] - -[337] [In the first edition of the _Morgante Maggiore_ (Firenze, 1482 -[_B. M._ G. 10834]), which is said (_vide_ the _colophon_) to have been -issued "under the correction of the author, line 2 of this stanza runs -thus: "_comegliebbe u armano el suo turpino_;" and, apparently, it was -not till 1518 (Milano, by Zarotti) that _Pipino_ was substituted for -_Turpino_. Leonardo Bruni, surnamed Aretino (1369-1444), in his _Istoria -Fiorentina_ (1861, pp. 43, 47), commemorates the imperial magnificence -of _Carlo Magno_, and speaks of his benefactions to the Church, but does -not--in that work, at any rate--mention his biographers. It is possible -that if Pulci or Bruni had read Eginhard, they thought that his -chronicle was derogatory to Charlemagne. (See Gibbon's _Decline and -Fall_, 1825, iii. 376, note 1, and Hallam's _Europe during the Middle -Ages_, 1868, p. 16, note 3; _et vide post_, p. 309.)] - -[338] {288}[For an account of the Benedictine Monastery of San -Liberatore alla Majella, which lies to the south of Manoppello (eight -miles southwest of Chieto, in the Abruzzi), see _Monumenti Storici ed. -Artistici degli Abruzzi_, by V. Bindi, Naples, 1889, Part I. (Testo), -pp. 655, _sq_. The abbey is in a ruinous condition, but on the walls of -"_un ampio porticato_," there is still to be seen a fresco of -Charlemagne, holding in his hands the deed of gift of the Abbey lands.] - -[339] [That is, the valley of Jehoshaphat, the "valley where Jehovah -judges" (see Joel iii. 2-12); and, hence, a favourite burial-ground of -Jews and Moslems.] - -[340] [The text as it stands is meaningless. Probably Byron wrote "dost -arise." The reference is no doubt to the supposed restoration of -Florence by Charlemagne.] - -[341] {289}["The _Morgante_ is in truth the epic of treason, and the -character of Gano, as an accomplished but not utterly abandoned Judas, -is admirably sustained throughout."--_Renaissance in Italy_, 1881, iv. -444.] - -[342] - - ["Cosi per Carlo Magno e per Orlando, - Due ne segui lo mio attento sguardo, - Com' occhio segue suo falcon volando." - - _Del Paradiso_, Canto XVIII. lines 43-45.] - -[343] {296}["Macon" is another form of "Mahomet." Compare-- - - "O Macon! break in twain the steeled lance." - -Fairfax's Tasso, _Gerusalemme Liberata_, book ix. stanza xxx. line i.] - -[344] [Pulci seems to have been the originator of the humorous -understatement. Compare-- - - "And the subsequent proceedings interested him no more." - - Bret Harte's Poems, _The Society upon the Stanislaus_, line 26.] - -[345] {303} "Gli dette in su la testa un gran punzone." It is strange -that Pulci should have literally anticipated the technical terms of my -old friend and master, Jackson, and the art which he has carried to its -highest pitch. "_A punch on the head_" or "_a punch in the head_"--"un -punzone in su la testa,"--is the exact and frequent phrase of our best -pugilists, who little dream that they are talking the purest Tuscan. - -[346] {304}["Half a dozen invectives against tyranny confiscate C^d.^ -H^d.^ in a month; and eight and twenty cantos of quizzing Monks, -Knights, and Church Government, are let loose for centuries."--Letter to -Murray, May 8, 1820, _Letters_, 1901, v. 21.] - -[347] {308}[Byron could not make up his mind with regard to the -translation of the Italian _sbergo_, which he had, correctly, rendered -"cuirass." He was under the impression that the word "meant _helmet_ -also" (see his letters to Murray, March 1, 5, 1820, _Letters_, 1900, iv. -413-417). _Sbergo_ or _usbergo_, as Moore points out (_Life_, p. 438, -note 2), "is obviously the same as hauberk, habergeon, etc., all from -the German _halsberg_, or covering for the neck." An old dictionary -which Byron might have consulted, _Vocabolario Italiano-Latino_, Venice, -1794, gives _thorax_, _lorica_, as the Latin equivalent of "Usbergo = -armadura del busto, corazza." (See, too, for an authority quoted in the -_Dizzionario Universale_ (1797-1805) of Alberti di Villanuova, -_Letters_, 1900, iv. 417, note 2.)] - - - - - - FRANCESCA OF RIMINI. - - - - - INTRODUCTION TO _FRANCESCA OF RIMINI_. - - -The MS. of "a _literal_ translation, word for word (versed like the -original), of the episode of Francesca of Rimini" (Letter March 23, -1820, _Letters_, 1900, iv. 421), was sent to Murray from Ravenna, March -20, 1820 (_ibid_., p. 419), a week after Byron had forwarded the MS. of -the _Prophecy of Dante_. Presumably the translation had been made in the -interval by way of illustrating and justifying the unfamiliar metre of -the "Dante Imitation." In the letter which accompanied the translation -he writes, "Enclosed you will find, _line for line_, in _third rhyme_ -(_terza rima_,) of which your British Blackguard reader as yet -understands nothing, Fanny of Rimini. You know that she was born here, -and married, and slain, from Cary, Boyd, and such people already. I have -done it into _cramp_ English, line for line, and rhyme for rhyme, to try -the possibility. You had best append it to the poems already sent by -last three posts." - -In the matter of the "British Blackguard," that is, the general reader, -Byron spoke by the card. Hayley's excellent translation of the three -first cantos of the _Inferno_ (_vide ante_, "Introduction to the -_Prophecy of Dante_," p. 237), which must have been known to a previous -generation, was forgotten, and with earlier experiments in _terza rima_, -by Chaucer and the sixteenth and seventeenth century poets, neither -Byron nor the British public had any familiar or definite acquaintance. -But of late some interest had been awakened or revived in Dante and the -_Divina Commedia_. - -Cary's translation--begun in 1796, but not published as a whole till -1814--had met with a sudden and remarkable success. "The work, which had -been published four years, but had remained in utter obscurity, was at -once eagerly sought after. About a thousand copies of the first edition, -that remained on hand, were immediately disposed of; in less than three -months a new edition was called for." Moreover, the _Quarterly_ and -_Edinburgh Reviews_ were loud in its praises (_Memoir of H. F. Cary_, -1847, ii. 28). Byron seems to have thought that a fragment of the -_Inferno_, "versed like the original," would challenge comparison with -Cary's rendering in blank verse, and would lend an additional interest -to the "Pulci Translations, and the Dante Imitation." _Dis aliter -visum_, and Byron's translation of the episode of _Francesca of Rimini_, -remained unpublished till it appeared in the pages of _The Letters and -Journals of Lord Byron_, 1830, ii. 309-311. (For separate translations -of the episode, see _Stories of the Italian Poets_, by Leigh Hunt, 1846, -i. 393-395, and for a rendering in blank verse by Lord [John] Russell, -see _Literary Souvenir_, 1830, pp. 285-287.) - - FRANCESCA DA RIMINI. - - - - - FRANCESCA OF RIMINI[348] - - - FROM THE INFERNO OF DANTE. - - - CANTO THE FIFTH. - - "The Land where I was born[349] sits by the Seas - Upon that shore to which the Po descends, - With all his followers, in search of peace. - Love, which the gentle heart soon apprehends, - Seized him for the fair person which was ta'en - From me[350], and me even yet the mode offends. - Love, who to none beloved to love again - Remits, seized me with wish to please, so strong[351], - That, as thou see'st, yet, yet it doth remain. - Love to one death conducted us along, 10 - But Caina[352] waits for him our life who ended:" - These were the accents uttered by her tongue.-- - Since I first listened to these Souls offended, - I bowed my visage, and so kept it till-- - 'What think'st thou?' said the bard[353]; when I unbended, - And recommenced: 'Alas! unto such ill - How many sweet thoughts, what strong ecstacies, - Led these their evil fortune to fulfill!' - And then I turned unto their side my eyes, - And said, 'Francesca, thy sad destinies 20 - Have made me sorrow till the tears arise. - But tell me, in the Season of sweet sighs, - By what and how thy Love to Passion rose, - So as his dim desires to recognize?' - Then she to me: 'The greatest of all woes - Is to remind us of our happy days[co][354] - In misery, and that thy teacher knows. - But if to learn our Passion's first root preys - Upon thy spirit with such Sympathy, - I will do even as he who weeps and says.[cp][355] 30 - We read one day for pastime, seated nigh, - Of Lancilot, how Love enchained him too. - We were alone, quite unsuspiciously. - But oft our eyes met, and our Cheeks in hue - All o'er discoloured by that reading were; - But one point only wholly us o'erthrew;[cq] - When we read the long-sighed-for smile of her,[cr] - To be thus kissed by such devoted lover,[cs] - He, who from me can be divided ne'er, - Kissed my mouth, trembling in the act all over: 40 - Accursed was the book and he who wrote![356] - That day no further leaf we did uncover.' - While thus one Spirit told us of their lot, - The other wept, so that with Pity's thralls - I swooned, as if by Death I had been smote,[357] - And fell down even as a dead body falls."[358] - - _March_ 20, 1820. - - - - - FRANCESCA DA RIMINI. - - - DANTE, L'INFERNO. - - - CANTO QUINTO. - - 'Siede la terra dove nata fui - Sulla marina, dove il Po discende - Per aver pace co' seguaci sui. - Amor, che al cor gentil ratto s'apprende, - Prese costui della bella persona - Che mi fu tolta, e il modo ancor m' offende. - Amor, che a nullo amato amar perdona, - Mi prese del costui piacer si forte, - Che, come vedi, ancor non mi abbandona. - Amor condusse noi ad una morte: 10 - Caino attende chi vita ci spense.' - Queste parole da lor ci fur porte. - Da che io intesi quelle anime offense - Chinai 'l viso, e tanto il tenni basso, - Finche il Poeta mi disse: 'Che pense?' - Quando risposi, cominciai: 'O lasso! - Quanti dolci pensier, quanto disio - Meno costoro al doloroso passo!' - Poi mi rivolsi a loro, e parla' io, - E cominciai: 'Francesca, i tuoi martiri 20 - A lagrimar mi fanno tristo e pio. - Ma dimmi: al tempo de' dolci sospiri - A che e come concedette Amore, - Che conoscesti i dubbiosi desiri?' - Ed ella a me: 'Nessun maggior dolore - Che ricordarsi del tempo felice - Nella miseria; e cio sa il tuo dottore. - Ma se a conoscer la prima radice - Del nostro amor tu hai cotanto affetto - Faro come colui che piange e dice. 30 - Noi leggevamo un giorno per diletto - Di Lancelotto, come Amor lo strinse: - Soli eravamo, e senza alcun sospetto. - Per piu fiate gli occhi ci sospinse - Quella lettura, e scolorocci il viso: - Ma solo un punto fu quel che ci vinse. - Quando leggemmo il disiato riso - Esser baciato da cotanto amante, - Questi, che mai da me non fia diviso, - La bocca mi bacio tutto tremante: 40 - Galeotto fu il libro, e chi lo scrisse-- - Quel giorno piu non vi leggemmo avante - Mentre che l'uno spirto questo disse, - L'altro piangeva si che di pietade - Io venni meno cos com' io morisse; - E caddi, come corpo morto cade. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[348] {317}[Dante, in his _Inferno_ (Canto V. lines 97-142), places -Francesca and her lover Paolo among the lustful in the second circle of -Hell. Francesca, daughter of Guido Vecchio da Polenta, Lord of Ravenna, -married (circ. 1275) Gianciotto, second son of Malatesta da Verrucchio, -Lord of Rimini. According to Boccaccio (_Il Comento sopra la Commedia_, -1863, i. 476, _sq._), Gianciotto was "hideously deformed in countenance -and figure," and determined to woo and marry Francesca by proxy. He -accordingly "sent, as his representative, his younger brother Paolo, the -handsomest and most accomplished man in all Italy. Francesca saw Paolo -arrive, and imagined she beheld her future husband. That mistake was the -commencement of her passion." A day came when the lovers were surprised -together, and Gianciotto slew both his brother and his wife.] - -[349] ["On arrive a Ravenne en longeant une foret de pins qui a sept -lieues de long, et qui me semblait un immense bois funebre servant -d'avenue au sepulcre commun de ces deux grandes puissances. A peine y -a-t-il place pour d'autres souvenirs a cote de leur memoire. Cependant -d'autres noms poetiques sont attaches a la Pineta de Ravenne. Naguere -lord Byron y evoquait les fantastiques recits empruntes par Dryden a -Boccace, et lui-meme est maintenant une figure du passe, errante dans ce -lieu melancolique. Je songeais, en le traversant, que le chantre du -desespoir avait chevauche sur cette plage lugubre, foulee avant lui par -le pas grave et lent du poete de _l'Enfer_.... - -"Il suffit de jeter les yeux sur une carte pour reconnaitre l'exactitude -topographique de cette derniere expression. En effet, dans toute la -partie superieure de son cours, le Po recoit une foule d'affluents qui -convergent vers son lit; ce sont le Tesin, l'Adda, l'Olio, le Mincio, la -Trebbia, la Bormida, le Taro...."--_La Grece, Rome, et Dante_ ("Voyage -Dantesque"), par M. J. J. Ampere, 1850, pp. 311-313.] - -[350] [The meaning is that she was despoiled of her beauty by death, and -that the manner of her death excites her indignation still. "Among Lord -Byron's unpublished letters we find the following varied readings of the -translation from Dante:-- - - Seized him for the fair person, which in its - Bloom was ta'en from me, yet the mode offends. - _or_, - Seized him for the fair form, of which in its - Bloom I was reft, and yet the mode offends. - - Love, which to none beloved to love remits, - / with mutual wish to please \ - Seized me < with wish of pleasing him > so strong, - \ with the desire to please / - That, as thou see'st, not yet that passion quits, etc. - -You will find these readings vary from the MS. I sent you. They are -closer, but rougher: take which is liked best; or, if you like, print -them as variations. They are all close to the text."--_Works of Lord -Byron_, 1832, xii. 5, note 2.] - -[351] {319}["The man's desire is for the woman; but the woman's desire -is rarely other than for the desire of the man."--S. T. Coleridge, -_Table Talk_, July 23, 1827.] - -[352] [Caina is the first belt of Cocytus, that is, circle ix. of the -Inferno, in which fratricides and betrayers of their kindred are -immersed up to the neck.] - -[353] [Virgil.] - -[co] {319} - - _Is to recall to mind our happy days_. - _In misery, and this thy teacher knows_.--[MS.] - -[354] [The sentiment is derived from Boethius: "_In omni adversitate -fortunae infelicissimum genus est infortunii, fuisse felicem_."--_De -Consolat. Philos. Lib. II. Prosa_ 4. The earlier commentators (_e.g._ -Venturi and Biagioli), relying on a passage in the _Convito_ (ii. 16), -assume that the "teacher" (line 27) is the author of the sentence, but -later authorities point out that "mio dottore" can only apply to Virgil -(v. 70), who then and there in the world of shades was suffering the -bitter experience of having "known better days." Compare-- - - "For of fortunes sharp adversitee - The worst kinde of infortune is this, - A man to have ben in prosperitee, - And it remembren whan it passed is." - - _Troilus and Criseyde_, Bk. III. stanza ccxxxiii. lines 1-4. - - "E perche rimembrare il ben perduto - Fa piu meschino lo stato presente." - - Fortiguerra's _Ricciardetto_, Canto XI. stanza lxxxiii. - -Compare, too-- - - "A sorrow's crown of sorrow is remembering happier things." - - Tennyson's _Locksley Hall_.] - -[cp] _I will relate as he who weeps and says_.--[MS.] (The sense is, _I -will do even as one who relates while weeping_.) - -[355] [Byron affixed the following note to line 126 of the Italian: "In -some of the editions it is 'diro,' in others 'faro;'--an essential -difference between 'saying' and 'doing' which I know not how to -decide--Ask Foscolo--the damned editions drive me mad." In _La Divina -Commedia_, Firenze, 1892, and the _Opere de Dante_, Oxford, 1897, the -reading is _faro_.] - -[cq] {321}----_wholly overthrew_.--[MS.] - -[cr] _When we read the desired-for smile of her_. [MS, Alternative -reading.] - -[cs]--_by such a fervent lover_.--[MS.] - -[356] ["A Gallehault was the book and he who wrote it" (A. J. Butler). -"Writer and book were Gallehault to our will" (E. J. Plumptre). The book -which the lovers were reading is entitled _L'Illustre et Famosa Historia -di Lancilotto del Lago_. The "one point" of the original runs thus: "Et -la reina ... lo piglia per il mento, et lo bacia davanti a Gallehault, -assai lungamente."--Venice, 1558, _Lib. Prim_. cap. lxvi. vol. i. p. -229. The Gallehault of the _Lancilotto_, the shameless "purveyor," must -not be confounded with the stainless Galahad of the _Morte d'Arthur_.'] - -[357] [Dante was in his twentieth, or twenty-first year when the tragedy -of Francesca and Paolo was enacted, not at Rimini, but at Pesaro. Some -acquaintance he may have had with her, through his friend Guido (not her -father, but probably her nephew), enough to account for the peculiar -emotion caused by her sanguinary doom.] - -[358] - -Alternative Versions Transcribed by Mrs. Shelley. - - _March_ 20, 1820. - - -line 4: Love, which too soon the soft heart apprehends, - Seized him for the fair form, the which was there - Torn from me, and even yet the mode offends. - -line 8: Remits, seized him for me with joy so strong-- - -line 12: These were the words then uttered-- - Since I had first perceived these souls offended, - I bowed my visage and so kept it till-- - "What think'st thou?" said the bard, whom I (_sic_) - And then commenced--"Alas unto such ill-- - -line 18: Led these? "and then I turned me to them still - And spoke, "Francesca, thy sad destinies - Have made me sad and tender even to tears, - But tell me, in the season of sweet sighs, - By what and how Love overcame your fears, - So ye might recognize his dim desires?" - Then she to me, "No greater grief appears - Than, when the time of happiness expires, - To recollect, and this your teacher knows. - But if to find the first root of our-- - Thou seek'st with such a sympathy in woes, - I will do even as he who weeps and speaks. - We read one day for pleasure, sitting close, - Of Launcelot, where forth his passion breaks. - We were alone and we suspected nought, - But oft our eyes exchanged, and changed our cheeks. - When we read the desiring smile of her - Who to be kissed by such true lover sought, - He who from me can be divided ne'er - All tremulously kissed my trembling mouth. - Accursed the book and he who wrote it were-- - That day no further did we read in sooth." - While the one spirit in this manner spoke - The other wept, so that, for very ruth, - I felt as if my trembling heart had broke, - To see the misery which both enthralls: - So that I swooned as dying with the stroke,-- - And fell down even as a dead body falls. - - Another version of the same. -line 21: Have made me sad even until the tears arise-- - -line 27: In wretchedness, and that your teacher knows. - -line 31: We read one day for pleasure-- - Of Launcelot, how passion shook his frame. - We were alone all unsuspiciously. - But oft our eyes met and our cheeks the same, - Pale and discoloured by that reading were; - But one part only wholly overcame; - When we read the desiring smile of her - Who sought the kiss of such devoted lover; - He who from me can be divided ne'er - Kissed my mouth, trembling to that kiss all over! - Accursed was that book and he who wrote-- - That day we did no further page uncover." - While thus--etc. - -line 45: I swooned to death with sympathetic thought-- - - [Another version.] -line 33: We were alone, and we suspected nought. - But oft our meeting eyes made pale our cheeks, - Urged by that reading for our ruin wrought; - But one point only wholly overcame: - When we read the desiring smile which sought - By such true lover to be kissed--the same - Who from my side can be divided ne'er - Kissed my mouth, trembling o'er all his frame! - Accurst the book, etc., etc. - - [Another version.] -line 33: We were alone and--etc. - But one point only 'twas our ruin wrought. - When we read the desiring smile of her - Who to be kissed of such true lover sought; - He who for me, etc., etc. - - - - - - - MARINO FALIERO, - - DOGE OF VENICE; - - AN HISTORICAL TRAGEDY, - - IN FIVE ACTS. - - "_Dux_ inquieti turbidus Adria." - Horace, [_Od._ III. c. iii. line 5] - -[_Marino Faliero_ was produced for the first time at the Theatre Royal, -Drury Lane, April 25, 1821. Mr. Cooper played "The Doge;" Mrs. W. West, -"Angiolina, wife of the Doge." The piece was repeated on April 30, May -1, 2, 3, 4, and 14, 1821. - -A revival was attempted at Drury Lane, May 20, 21, 1842, when Macready -appeared as "The Doge," and Helen Faucit as "Angiolina" (see _Life_ and -_Remains_ of E. L. Blanchard, 1891, i. 346-348). - -An adaptation of Byron's play, by W. Bayle Bernard, was produced at -Drury Lane, November 2, 1867. It was played till December 17, 1867. -Phelps took the part of "The Doge," and Mrs. Hermann of "Angiolina." In -Germany an adaptation by Arthur Fitger was performed nineteen times by -the "Meiningers," circ. 1887 (see _Englische Studien_, 1899, xxvii. -146).] - - - - - INTRODUCTION TO _MARINO FALIERO_. - - -Byron had no sooner finished the first draft of _Manfred_ than he began -(February 25, 1817) to lay the foundation of another tragedy. Venice was -new to him, and, on visiting the Doge's Palace, the veiled space -intended for the portrait of Marin Falier, and the "Giants' Staircase," -where, as he believed, "he was once crowned and afterwards decapitated," -had laid hold of his imagination, while the legend of the _Congiura_, -"an old man jealous and conspiring against the state of which he was ... -Chief," promised a subject which the "devil himself" might have -dramatized _con amore_. - -But other interests and ideas claimed his attention, and for more than -three years the project slept. At length he slips into the postscript of -a letter to Murray, dated, "Ravenna, April 9, 1820" (_Letters_, 1901, v. -7), an intimation that he had begun "a tragedy on the subject of Marino -Faliero, the Doge of Venice." The "Imitation of Dante, the Translation -of Pulci, the Danticles," etc., were worked off, and, in prospecting for -a new vein, a fresh lode of literary ore, he passed, by a natural -transition, from Italian literature to Italian history, from the -romantic and humorous _epopee_ of Pulci and Berni, to the pseudo-classic -drama of Alfieri and Monti. - -Jealousy, as "Monk" Lewis had advised him (August, 1817), was an -"exhausted passion" in the drama, and to lay the scene in Venice was to -provoke comparison with Shakespeare and Otway; but the man himself, the -fiery Doge, passionate but not jealous, a noble turned democrat _pro hac -vice_, an old man "greatly" finding "quarrel in a straw," afforded a -theme historically time-honoured, and yet unappropriated by tragic art. - -There was, too, a living interest in the story. For history was -repeating itself, and "politics were savage and uncertain." "Mischief -was afoot," and the tradition of a conspiracy which failed might find an -historic parallel in a conspiracy which would succeed. There was "that -brewing in Italy" which might, perhaps, inspire "a people to redress -itself," "and with a cry of, 'Up with the Republic!' 'Down with the -Nobility!' send the Barbarians of all nations back to their own dens!" -(_Letters_, 1901, v. 10, 12, 19.) - -In taking the field as a dramatist, Byron sought to win distinction for -himself--in the first place by historical accuracy, and, secondly, by -artistic regularity--by a stricter attention to the dramatic "unities." -"History is closely followed," he tells Murray, in a letter dated July -17, 1820; and, again, in the Preface (_vide post_, pp. 332-337), which -is an expansion of the letter, he gives a list of the authorities which -he had consulted, and claims to have "transferred into our language an -historical fact worthy of commemoration." More than once in his letters -to Murray he reverts to this profession of accuracy, and encloses some -additional note, in which he points out and rectifies an occasional -deviation from the historical record. In this respect, at any rate, he -could contend on more than equal terms "with established writers," that -is, with Shakespeare and Otway, and could present to his countrymen an -exacter and, so, more lifelike picture of the Venetian Republic. It is -plain, too, that he was bitten with the love of study for its own sake, -with a premature passion for erudition, and that he sought and found -relief from physical and intellectual excitement in the intricacies of -research. If his history is at fault, it was not from any lack of -diligence on his part, but because the materials at his disposal or -within his cognizance were inaccurate and misleading. He makes no -mention of the huge collection of Venetian archives which had recently -been deposited in the Convent of the Frari, or of Doria's transcript of -Sanudo's Diaries, bequeathed in 1816 to the Library of St. Mark; but he -quotes as his authorities the _Vitae Ducum Venetorum_, of Marin Sanudo -(1466-1535), the _Storia, etc._, of Andrea Navagero (1483-1529), and the -_Principj di Storia, etc._, of Vettor Sandi, which belongs to the latter -half of the eighteenth century. Byron's chroniclers were ancient, but -not ancient enough; and, though they "handed down the story" (see -Medwin, _Conversations_, p. 173), they depart in numerous particulars -from the facts recorded in contemporary documents. Unquestionably the -legend, as it appears in Sanudo's perplexing and uncritical narrative -(see, for the translation of an original version of the Italian, -_Appendix_, pp. 462-467), is more dramatic than the "low beginnings" of -the myth, which may be traced to the annalists of the fourteenth and -fifteenth centuries; but, like other legends, it is insusceptible of -proof. Byron's Doge is almost, if not quite, as unhistorical as his -Bonivard or his Mazeppa. (See _Nuovo Archivio Veneto_, 1893, vol. v. pt. -i. pp. 95-197; 1897, vol. xiii. pt. i. pp. 5-107; pt. ii. pp. 277-374; -_Les Archives de Venise_, par Armand Baschet, 1870; _Storia della -Repubblica di Venizia_, Giuseppe Cappelletti, 1849, iv. pp. 262-317.) - -At the close of the Preface, by way of an afterthought, Byron announces -his determination to escape "the reproach of the English theatrical -compositions" "by preserving a nearer approach to unity," by -substituting the regularity of French and Italian models for the -barbarities of the Elizabethan dramatists and their successors. Goethe -(_Conversations_, 1874, p. 114) is said to have "laughed to think that -Byron, who, in practical life, could never adapt himself, and never even -asked about a law, finally subjected himself to the stupidest of -laws--that of the _three unities_." It was, perhaps, in part with this -object in view, to make his readers smile, to provoke their -astonishment, that he affected a severity foreign to his genius and at -variance with his record. It was an agreeable thought that he could so -easily pass from one extreme to another, from _Manfred_ to _Marino -Faliero_, and, at the same time, indulge "in a little sally of -gratuitous sauciness" (_Quarterly Review_, July, 1822, vol. xxvii, p. -480) at the expense of his own countrymen. But there were other -influences at work. He had been powerfully impressed by the energy and -directness of Alfieri's work, and he was eager to emulate the gravity -and simplicity, if not the terseness and conciseness, of his style and -language. The drama was a new world to conquer, and so far as "his own -literature" was concerned it appeared that success might be attainable -by "a severer approach to the rules" (Letter to Murray, February 16, -1821)--that by taking Alfieri as his model he might step into the first -rank of English dramatists. - -Goethe thought that Byron failed "to understand the purpose" of the -"three unities," that he regarded the law as an end in itself, and did -not perceive that if a play was comprehensible the unities might be -neglected and disregarded. It is possible that his "blind obedience to -the law" may have been dictated by the fervour of a convert; but it is -equally possible that he looked beyond the law or its fulfilment to an -ulterior object, the discomfiture of the romantic school, with its -contempt for regularity, its passionate appeal from art to nature. If he -was minded to raise a "Grecian temple of the purest architecture" -(_Letters_, 1901, v. Appendix III. p. 559), it was not without some -thought and hope of shaming, by force of contrast, the "mosque," the -"grotesque edifice" of barbarian contemporaries and rivals. Byron was -"ever a fighter," and his claim to regularity, to a closer preservation -of the "unities," was of the nature of a challenge. - -_Marino Faliero_ was dedicated to "Baron Goethe," but the letter which -should have contained the dedication was delayed in transit. Goethe -never saw the dedication till it was placed in his hands by John Murray -the Third, in 1831, but he read the play, and after Byron's death bore -testimony to its peculiar characteristics and essential worth. "Lord -Byron, notwithstanding his predominant personality, has sometimes had -the power of renouncing himself altogether, as may be seen in some of -his dramatic pieces, particularly in his _Marino Faliero_. In this piece -one quite forgets that Lord Byron, or even an Englishman, wrote it. We -live entirely in Venice, and entirely in the time in which the action -takes place. The personages speak quite from themselves and their own -condition, without having any of the subjective feelings, thoughts, and -opinions of the poet" (_Conversations_, 1874, p. 453). - -Byron spent three months over the composition of _Marino Faliero_. The -tragedy was completed July 17 (_Letters_, 1901, v. 52), and the copying -(_vide post_, p. 461, note 2) a month later (August 16, 17, 1820). The -final draft of "all the acts corrected" was despatched to England some -days before October 6, 1820. - -Early in January, 1821 (see Letters to Murray, January 11, 20, 1821, -_Letters_, 1901, v. 221-228), an announcement reached Byron that his -play was to be brought out at Drury Lane Theatre, by Elliston. Against -this he protested by every means in his power, and finally, on -Wednesday, April 25, four days after the publication of the first -edition (April 21, 1821), an injunction was obtained from Lord -Chancellor Eldon, prohibiting a performance announced for that evening. -Elliston pursued the Chancellor to the steps of his own house, and at -the last moment persuaded him to allow the play to be acted on that -night only. Legal proceeedings were taken, but, in the end, the -injunction was withdrawn, with the consent of Byron's solicitors, and -the play was represented again on April 30, and on five nights in the -following May. As Byron had foreseen, _Marino Faliero_ was coldly -received by the playgoing public, and proved a loss to the "speculating -buffoons," who had not realized that it was "unfit for their Fair or -their booth" (Letter to Murray, January 20, 1821, _Letters_, 1901, v. -228, and p. 226, note 2. See, too, _Memoirs of Robert W. Elliston_, -1845, pp. 268-271). - -Byron was the first to perceive that the story of Marino Faliero was a -drama "ready to hand;" but he has had many followers, if not imitators -or rivals. - -"_Marino Faliero_, tragedie en cinq actes," by Casimir Jean Francois -Delavigne, was played for the first time at the Theatre of Porte Saint -Martin, May 31, 1829. - -In Germany tragedies based on the same theme have been published by Otto -Ludwig, Leipzig, 1874; Martin Grief, Vienna, 1879; Murad Effendi (Franz -von Werner), 1881, and others (_Englische Studien_, vol. xxvii. pp. 146, -147). - -_Marino Faliero_, a Tragedy, by A. C. Swinburne, was published in 1885. - -_Marino Faliero_ was reviewed by Jeffrey, in the _Edinburgh Review_, -July 21, 1821, vol. 35, pp. 271-285; by Heber, in the _Quarterly -Review_, July, 1822, vol. xxvii. pp. 476-492; and by John Wilson, in -_Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine_, April, 1821, vol. 9, pp. 93-103. For -other notices, _vide ante_ ("Introduction to _The Prophecy of Dante_"), -p. 240. - - - - - PREFACE. - -The conspiracy of the Doge Marino Faliero is one of the most remarkable -events in the annals of the most singular government, city, and people -of modern history. It occurred in the year 1355. Every thing about -Venice is, or was, extraordinary--her aspect is like a dream, and her -history is like a romance. The story of this Doge is to be found in all -her Chronicles, and particularly detailed in the "Lives of the Doges," -by Marin Sanuto, which is given in the Appendix. It is simply and -clearly related, and is perhaps more dramatic in itself than any scenes -which can be founded upon the subject. - -Marino Faliero appears to have been a man of talents and of courage. I -find him commander-in-chief of the land forces at the siege of -Zara,[359] where he beat the King of Hungary and his army of eighty -thousand men, killing eight thousand men, and keeping the besieged at -the same time in check; an exploit to which I know none similar in -history, except that of Caesar at Alesia,[360] and of Prince Eugene at -Belgrade. He was afterwards commander of the fleet in the same war. He -took Capo d'Istria. He was ambassador at Genoa and Rome,--at which last -he received the news of his election to the dukedom; his absence being a -proof that he sought it by no intrigue, since he was apprised of his -predecessor's death and his own succession at the same moment. But he -appears to have been of an ungovernable temper. A story is told by -Sanuto, of his having, many years before, when podesta and captain at -Treviso, boxed the ears of the bishop, who was somewhat tardy in -bringing the Host.[361] For this, honest Sanuto "saddles him with a -judgment," as Thwackum did Square;[362] but he does not tell us whether -he was punished or rebuked by the Senate for this outrage at the time of -its commission. He seems, indeed, to have been afterwards at peace with -the church, for we find him ambassador at Rome, and invested with the -fief of Val di Marino, in the march of Treviso, and with the title of -count, by Lorenzo, Count-bishop of Ceneda. For these facts my -authorities are Sanuto, Vettor Sandi,[363] Andrea Navagero,[364] and the -account of the siege of Zara, first published by the indefatigable Abate -Morelli, in his _Monumenti Veneziani di varia Letteratura_, printed in -1796,[365] all of which I have looked over in the original language. The -moderns, Daru, Sismondi, and Laugier, nearly agree with the ancient -chroniclers. Sismondi attributes the conspiracy to his _jealousy_; but I -find this nowhere asserted by the national historians. Vettor Sandi, -indeed, says that "Altri scrissero che....dalla gelosa suspizion di esso -Doge siasi fatto (Michel Steno) staccar con violenza," etc., etc.; but -this appears to have been by no means the general opinion, nor is it -alluded to by Sanuto, or by Navagero; and Sandi himself adds, a moment -after, that "per altre Veneziane memorie traspiri, che non il _solo_ -desiderio di vendetta lo dispose alla congiura ma anche la innata -abituale ambizion sua, per cui aneleva a farsi principe independente." -The first motive appears to have been excited by the gross affront of -the words written by Michel Steno on the ducal chair, and by the light -and inadequate sentence of the Forty on the offender, who was one of -their "tre Capi."[366] The attentions of Steno himself appear to have -been directed towards one of her damsels, and not to the -"Dogaressa"[367] herself, against whose fame not the slightest -insinuation appears, while she is praised for her beauty, and remarked -for her youth. Neither do I find it asserted (unless the hint of Sandi -be an assertion) that the Doge was actuated by jealousy of his wife; but -rather by respect for her, and for his own honour, warranted by his past -services and present dignity. - -I know not that the historical facts are alluded to in English, unless -by Dr. Moore in his View of Italy[368]. His account is false and -flippant, full of stale jests about old men and young wives, and -wondering at so great an effect from so slight a cause. How so acute -and severe an observer of mankind as the author of Zeluco could wonder -at this is inconceivable. He knew that a basin of water spilt on Mrs. -Masham's gown deprived the Duke of Marlborough of his command, and led -to the inglorious peace of Utrecht--that Louis XIV. was plunged into the -most desolating wars, because his minister was nettled at his finding -fault with a window, and wished to give him another occupation--that -Helen lost Troy--that Lucretia expelled the Tarquins from Rome--and that -Cava brought the Moors to Spain--that an insulted husband led the Gauls -to Clusium, and thence to Rome--that a single verse of Frederick -II.[369] of Prussia on the Abbe de Bernis, and a jest on Madame de -Pompadour, led to the battle of Rosbach--that the elopement of -Dearbhorgil[370] with Mac Murchad conducted the English to the slavery -of Ireland that a personal pique between Maria Antoinette and the Duke -of Orleans precipitated the first expulsion of the Bourbons--and, not to -multiply instances of the _teterrima causa,_ that Commodus, Domitian, -and Caligula fell victims not to their public tyranny, but to private -vengeance--and that an order to make Cromwell disembark from the ship in -which he would have sailed to America destroyed both King and -Commonwealth. After these instances, on the least reflection it is -indeed extraordinary in Dr. Moore to seem surprised that a man used to -command, who had served and swayed in the most important offices, should -fiercely resent, in a fierce age, an unpunished affront, the grossest -that can be offered to a man, be he prince or peasant. The age of -Faliero is little to the purpose, unless to favour it-- - - "The young man's wrath is like [light] straw on fire, - _But like red hot steel is the old man's ire._" - - [Davie Gellatley's song in _Waverley_, chap. xiv.] - - "Young men soon give and soon forget affronts, - Old age is slow at both." - -Laugier's reflections are more philosophical:--"Tale fu il fine -ignominioso di un' uomo, che la sua nascita, la sua eta, il suo -carattere dovevano tener lontano dalle passioni produttrici di grandi -delitti. I suoi _talenti_ per lungo tempo esercitati ne' maggiori -impieghi, la sua capacita sperimentata ne' governi e nelle ambasciate, -gli avevano acquistato la stima e la fiducia de' cittadini, ed avevano -uniti i suffragj per collocarlo alla testa della repubblica. Innalzato -ad un grado che terminava gloriosamente la sua vita, il risentimento di -un' ingiuria leggiera insinuo nel suo cuore tal veleno che basto a -corrompere le antiche sue qualita, e a condurlo al termine dei -scellerati; serio esempio, che prova _non esservi eta, in cui la -prudenza umana sia sicura, e che nell' uomo restano sempre passioni -capaci a disonorarlo, quando non invigili sopra se stesso_."[371] - -Where did Dr. Moore find that Marino Faliero begged his life? I have -searched the chroniclers, and find nothing of the kind: it is true that -he avowed all. He was conducted to the place of torture, but there is no -mention made of any application for mercy on his part; and the very -circumstance of their having taken him to the rack seems to argue any -thing but his having shown a want of firmness, which would doubtless -have been also mentioned by those minute historians, who by no means -favour him: such, indeed, would be contrary to his character as a -soldier, to the age in which he lived, and _at_ which he died, as it is -to the truth of history. I know no justification, at any distance of -time, for calumniating an historical character: surely truth belongs to -the dead, and to the unfortunate: and they who have died upon a scaffold -have generally had faults enough of their own, without attributing to -them that which the very incurring of the perils which conducted them to -their violent death renders, of all others, the most improbable. The -black veil which is painted over the place of Marino Faliero amongst -the Doges, and the Giants' Staircase[372], where he was crowned, and -discrowned, and decapitated, struck forcibly upon my imagination; as did -his fiery character and strange story. I went, in 1819, in search of his -tomb more than once to the church San Giovanni e San Paolo; and, as I -was standing before the monument of another family, a priest came up to -me and said, "I can show you finer monuments than that." I told him that -I was in search of that of the Faliero family, and particularly of the -Doge Marino's. "Oh," said he, "I will show it you;" and, conducting me -to the outside, pointed out a sarcophagus in the wall with an illegible -inscription[373]. He said that it had been in a convent adjoining, but -was removed after the French came, and placed in its present situation; -that he had seen the tomb opened at its removal; there were still some -bones remaining, but no positive vestige of the decapitation. The -equestrian statue[374] of which I have made mention in the third act as -before that church is not, however, of a Faliero, but of some other now -obsolete warrior, although of a later date. There were two other Doges -of this family prior to Marino; Ordelafo, who fell in battle at Zara, in -1117 (where his descendant afterwards conquered the Huns), and Vital -Faliero, who reigned in 1082. The family, originally from Fano, was of -the most illustrious in blood and wealth in the city of once the most -wealthy and still the most ancient families in Europe. The length I have -gone into on this subject will show the interest I have taken in it. -Whether I have succeeded or not in the tragedy, I have at least -transferred into our language an historical fact worthy of -commemoration. - -It is now four years that I have meditated this work; and before I had -sufficiently examined the records, I was rather disposed to have made it -turn on a jealousy in Faliero. But, perceiving no foundation for this in -historical truth, and aware that jealousy is an exhausted passion in the -drama, I have given it a more historical form. I was, besides, well -advised by the late Matthew Lewis[375] on that point, in talking with -him of my intention at Venice in 1817. "If you make him jealous," said -he, "recollect that you have to contend with established writers, to say -nothing of Shakespeare, and an exhausted subject:--stick to the old -fiery Doge's natural character, which will bear you out, if properly -drawn; and make your plot as regular as you can." Sir William -Drummond[376] gave me nearly the same counsel. How far I have followed -these instructions, or whether they have availed me, is not for me to -decide. I have had no view to the stage; in its present state it is, -perhaps, not a very exalted object of ambition; besides, I have been too -much behind the scenes to have thought it so at any time.[ct] And I -cannot conceive any man of irritable feeling[cu] putting himself at the -mercies of an audience. The sneering reader, and the loud critic, and -the tart review, are scattered and distant calamities; but the trampling -of an intelligent or of an ignorant audience on a production which, be -it good or bad, has been a mental labour to the writer, is a palpable -and immediate grievance, heightened by a man's doubt of their competency -to judge, and his certainty of his own imprudence in electing them his -judges. Were I capable of writing a play which could be deemed -stage-worthy, success would give me no pleasure, and failure great pain. -It is for this reason that, even during the time of being one of the -committee of one of the theatres, I never made the attempt, and never -will[377]. But I wish that others would, for surely there is dramatic -power somewhere, where Joanna Baillie, and Milman, and John Wilson -exist. The _City of the Plague_[1816] and the _Fall of Jerusalem_ [1820] -are full of the best "_materiel_" for tragedy that has been seen since -Horace Walpole, except passages of _Ethwald_[1802] and _De -Montfort_[1798]. It is the fashion to underrate Horace Walpole; firstly, -because he was a nobleman, and secondly, because he was a gentleman; -but, to say nothing of the composition of his incomparable letters, and -of the _Castle of Otranto_[1765], he is the "Ultimus Romanorum," the -author of the _Mysterious Mother_[1768], a tragedy of the highest order, -and not a puling love-play. He is the father of the first romance and of -the last tragedy in our language, and surely worthy of a higher place -than any living writer, be he who he may.[378] - -In speaking of the drama of _Marino Faliero_, I forgot to mention that -the desire of preserving, though still too remote, a nearer approach to -unity than the irregularity, which is the reproach of the English -theatrical compositions, permits, has induced me to represent the -conspiracy as already formed, and the Doge acceding to it; whereas, in -fact, it was of his own preparation and that of Israel Bertuccio. The -other characters (except that of the Duchess), incidents, and almost the -time, which was wonderfully short for such a design in real life, are -strictly historical, except that all the consultations took place in the -palace. Had I followed this, the unity would have been better preserved; -but I wished to produce the Doge in the full assembly of the -conspirators, instead of monotonously placing him always in dialogue -with the same individuals. For the real facts, I refer to the -Appendix.[379] - - DRAMATIS PERSONAE. - - MEN. - - Marino Faliero, _Doge of Venice_. - Bertuccio Faliero, _Nephew of the Doge_. - Lioni, _a Patrician and Senator_. - Benintende, _Chief of the Council of Ten_. - Michel Steno, _One of the three Capi of the Forty_. - Israel Bertuccio, _Chief of the Arsenal_, } - Philip Calendaro, } _Conspirators_. - Dagolino, } - Bertram, } - - _Signor of the Night_, "_Signore di Notte," one of - the Officers belonging to the Republic_. - _First Citizen_. - _Second Citizen_. - _Third Citizen_. - - Vincenzo, } - Pietro, } _Officers belonging to the Ducal Palace_. - Battista, } - - _Secretary of the Council of Ten_. - - _Guards_, _Conspirators_, _Citizens_, - _The Council of Ten_, _the Giunta_, etc., etc. - - WOMEN. - - Angiolina, _Wife to the Doge_. - Marianna, _her Friend_. - _Female Attendants, etc_. - - Scene Venice--in the year 1355. - - - - - MARINO FALIERO, DOGE OF VENICE. - - - (AN HISTORICAL TRAGEDY IN FIVE ACTS.) - - - - - ACT I. - - - SCENE I.--_An Antechamber in the Ducal Palace_. - - PIETRO _speaks, in entering, to_ BATTISTA. - - _Pie_. Is not the messenger returned?[cv] - - _Bat_. Not yet; - I have sent frequently, as you commanded, - But still the Signory[380] is deep in council, - And long debate on Steno's accusation. - - _Pie_. Too long--at least so thinks the Doge. - - _Bat_. How bears he - These moments of suspense? - - _Pie_. With struggling patience.[cw] - Placed at the Ducal table, covered o'er - With all the apparel of the state--petitions, - Despatches, judgments, acts, reprieves, reports,-- - He sits as rapt in duty; but whene'er[cx] 10 - He hears the jarring of a distant door, - Or aught that intimates a coming step,[cy] - Or murmur of a voice, his quick eye wanders, - And he will start up from his chair, then pause, - And seat himself again, and fix his gaze - Upon some edict; but I have observed - For the last hour he has not turned a leaf. - - _Bat_. 'Tis said he is much moved,--and doubtless 'twas - Foul scorn in Steno to offend so grossly. - - _Pie_. Aye, if a poor man: Steno's a patrician, 20 - Young, galliard, gay, and haughty.[cz] - - _Bat_. Then you think - He will not be judged hardly? - - _Pie_. 'Twere enough - He be judged justly; but 'tis not for us - To anticipate the sentence of the Forty. - - _Bat_. And here it comes.--What news, Vincenzo? - - _Enter_ VINCENZO. - - _Vin_. 'Tis - Decided; but as yet his doom's unknown: - I saw the President in act to seal - The parchment which will bear the Forty's judgment - Unto the Doge, and hasten to inform him. - [_Exeunt_. - - - SCENE II.--The Ducal Chamber. - - MARINO FALIERO, _Doge; and his Nephew_, BERTUCCIO FALIERO.[381] - - _Ber. F._ It cannot be but they will do you justice. - - _Doge_. Aye, such as the Avogadori[382] did, - Who sent up my appeal unto the Forty - To try him by his peers, his own tribunal. - - _Ber. F._ His peers will scarce protect him; such an act - Would bring contempt on all authority. - - _Doge_. Know you not Venice? Know you not the Forty? - But we shall see anon. - - _Ber. F._ (_addressing_ VINCENZO, _then entering_.) - How now--what tidings? - - _Vin_. I am charged to tell his Highness that the court - Has passed its resolution, and that, soon 10 - As the due forms of judgment are gone through, - The sentence will be sent up to the Doge; - In the mean time the Forty doth salute - The Prince of the Republic, and entreat - His acceptation of their duty. - - _Doge_. Yes-- - They are wond'rous dutiful, and ever humble. - Sentence is passed, you say? - - _Vin_. It is, your Highness: - The President was sealing it, when I - Was called in, that no moment might be lost - In forwarding the intimation due 20 - Not only to the Chief of the Republic, - But the complainant, both in one united. - - _Ber. F._ Are you aware, from aught you have perceived, - Of their decision? - - _Vin_. No, my Lord; you know - The secret custom of the courts in Venice. - - _Ber. F._ True; but there still is something given to guess, - Which a shrewd gleaner and quick eye would catch at; - A whisper, or a murmur, or an air - More or less solemn spread o'er the tribunal. - The Forty are but men--most worthy men, 30 - And wise, and just, and cautious--this I grant-- - And secret as the grave to which they doom - The guilty: but with all this, in their aspects-- - At least in some, the juniors of the number-- - A searching eye, an eye like yours, Vincenzo, - Would read the sentence ere it was pronounced. - - _Vin_. My Lord, I came away upon the moment, - And had no leisure to take note of that - Which passed among the judges, even in seeming; - My station near the accused too, Michel Steno, 40 - Made me-- - - _Doge_ (_abruptly_). And how looked _he_? deliver that. - - _Vin_. Calm, but not overcast, he stood resigned - To the decree, whate'er it were;--but lo! - It comes, for the perusal of his Highness. - - _Enter the_ SECRETARY _of the Forty_. - - _Sec_. The high tribunal of the Forty sends - Health and respect to the Doge Faliero,[da] - Chief magistrate of Venice, and requests - His Highness to peruse and to approve - The sentence passed on Michel Steno, born - Patrician, and arraigned upon the charge 50 - Contained, together with its penalty, - Within the rescript which I now present. - - _Doge_. Retire, and wait without. - [_Exeunt_ SECRETARY _and_ VINCENZO.] - Take thou this paper: - The misty letters vanish from my eyes; - I cannot fix them. - - _Ber. F._ Patience, my dear Uncle: - Why do you tremble thus?--nay, doubt not, all - Will be as could be wished. - - _Doge_. Say on. - - _Ber. F._ (_reading_). "Decreed - In council, without one dissenting voice, - That Michel Steno, by his own confession, - Guilty on the last night of Carnival 60 - Of having graven on the ducal throne - The following words--"[383] - - _Doge_. Would'st thou repeat them? - Would'st _thou_ repeat them--_thou_, a Faliero, - Harp on the deep dishonour of our house, - Dishonoured in its Chief--that Chief the Prince - Of Venice, first of cities?--To the sentence. - - _Ber. F._ Forgive me, my good Lord; I will obey-- - (_Reads_) "That Michel Steno be detained a month - In close arrest."[384] - - _Doge_. Proceed. - - _Ber. F._ My Lord, 'tis finished. - - _Doge_. How say you?--finished! Do I dream?--'tis false-- 70 - Give me the paper--(_snatches the paper and reads_)-- - "'Tis decreed in council - That Michel Steno"--Nephew, thine arm! - - _Ber. F._ Nay, - Cheer up, be calm; this transport is uncalled for-- - Let me seek some assistance. - - _Doge_. Stop, sir--Stir not-- - 'Tis past. - - _Ber. F._ I cannot but agree with you - The sentence is too slight for the offence; - It is not honourable in the Forty - To affix so slight a penalty to that - Which was a foul affront to you, and even - To them, as being your subjects; but 'tis not 80 - Yet without remedy: you can appeal - To them once more, or to the Avogadori, - Who, seeing that true justice is withheld, - Will now take up the cause they once declined, - And do you right upon the bold delinquent. - Think you not thus, good Uncle? why do you stand - So fixed? You heed me not:--I pray you, hear me! - - _Doge_ (_dashing down the ducal bonnet, and offering to - trample upon it, exclaims, as he is withheld by his nephew_). - Oh! that the Saracen were in St. Mark's! - Thus would I do him homage. - - _Ber. F._ For the sake - Of Heaven and all its saints, my Lord-- - - _Doge_. Away! 90 - Oh, that the Genoese were in the port! - Oh, that the Huns whom I o'erthrew at Zara[385] - Were ranged around the palace! - - _Ber. F._ 'Tis not well - In Venice' Duke to say so. - - _Doge_. Venice' Duke! - Who now is Duke in Venice? let me see him, - That he may do me right. - - _Ber. F._ If you forget - Your office, and its dignity and duty. - Remember that of man, and curb this passion. - The Duke of Venice---- - - _Doge_ (_interrupting him_). There is no such thing-- - It is a word--nay, worse--a worthless by-word: 100 - The most despised, wronged, outraged, helpless wretch, - Who begs his bread, if 'tis refused by one, - May win it from another kinder heart; - But he, who is denied his right by those - Whose place it is to do no wrong, is poorer - Than the rejected beggar--he's a slave-- - And that am I--and thou--and all our house, - Even from this hour; the meanest artisan - Will point the finger, and the haughty noble - May spit upon us:--where is our redress? 110 - - _Ber. F._ The law, my Prince-- - - _Doge_ (_interrupting him_). You see what it has done; - I asked no remedy but from the law--[386] - I sought no vengeance but redress by law-- - I called no judges but those named by law-- - As Sovereign, I appealed unto my subjects, - The very subjects who had made me Sovereign, - And gave me thus a double right to be so. - The rights of place and choice, of birth and service, - Honours and years, these scars, these hoary hairs, - The travel--toil--the perils--the fatigues-- 120 - The blood and sweat of almost eighty years, - Were weighed i' the balance, 'gainst the foulest stain, - The grossest insult, most contemptuous crime - Of a rank, rash patrician--and found wanting! - And this is to be borne! - - _Ber. F._ I say not that:-- - In case your fresh appeal should be rejected, - We will find other means to make all even. - - _Doge_. Appeal again! art thou my brother's son? - A scion of the house of Faliero? - The nephew of a Doge? and of that blood 130 - Which hath already given three dukes to Venice? - But thou say'st well--we must be humble now. - - _Ber. F._ My princely Uncle! you are too much moved;-- - I grant it was a gross offence, and grossly - Left without fitting punishment: but still - This fury doth exceed the provocation, - Or any provocation: if we are wronged, - We will ask justice; if it be denied, - We'll take it; but may do all this in calmness-- - Deep Vengeance is the daughter of deep Silence. 140 - I have yet scarce a third part of your years, - I love our house, I honour you, its Chief, - The guardian of my youth, and its instructor-- - But though I understand your grief, and enter - In part of your disdain, it doth appal me - To see your anger, like our Adrian waves, - O'ersweep all bounds, and foam itself to air. - - _Doge_. I tell thee--_must_ I tell thee--what thy father - Would have required no words to comprehend? - Hast thou no feeling save the external sense 150 - Of torture from the touch? hast thou no soul-- - No pride--no passion--no deep sense of honour? - - _Ber. F._ 'Tis the first time that honour has been doubted, - And were the last, from any other sceptic. - - _Doge_. You know the full offence of this born villain, - This creeping, coward, rank, acquitted felon, - Who threw his sting into a poisonous libel,[db] - And on the honour of--Oh God! my wife, - The nearest, dearest part of all men's honour, - Left a base slur to pass from mouth to mouth 160 - Of loose mechanics, with all coarse foul comments, - And villainous jests, and blasphemies obscene; - While sneering nobles, in more polished guise, - Whispered the tale, and smiled upon the lie - Which made me look like them--a courteous wittol, - Patient--aye--proud, it may be, of dishonour. - - _Ber. F._ But still it was a lie--you knew it false, - And so did all men. - - _Doge_. Nephew, the high Roman - Said, "Caesar's wife must not even be suspected,"[387] - And put her from him. - - _Ber. F._ True--but in those days---- 170 - - _Doge_. What is it that a Roman would not suffer, - That a Venetian Prince must bear? old Dandolo[dc] - Refused the diadem of all the Caesars,[388] - And wore the ducal cap _I_ trample on-- - Because 'tis now degraded. - - _Ber. F._ 'Tis even so. - - _Doge_. It is--it is;--I did not visit on - The innocent creature thus most vilely slandered - Because she took an old man for her lord, - For that he had been long her father's friend - And patron of her house, as if there were 180 - No love in woman's heart but lust of youth - And beardless faces;--I did not for this - Visit the villain's infamy on her, - But craved my country's justice on his head, - The justice due unto the humblest being - Who hath a wife whose faith is sweet to him, - Who hath a home whose hearth is dear to him-- - Who hath a name whose honour's all to him, - When these are tainted by the accursing breath - Of Calumny and Scorn. - - _Ber. F._ And what redress 190 - Did you expect as his fit punishment? - - _Doge_. Death! Was I not the Sovereign of the state-- - Insulted on his very throne, and made - A mockery to the men who should obey me? - Was I not injured as a husband? scorned - As man? reviled, degraded, as a Prince? - Was not offence like his a complication - Of insult and of treason?--and he lives! - Had he instead of on the Doge's throne - Stamped the same brand upon a peasant's stool, 200 - His blood had gilt the threshold; for the carle - Had stabbed him on the instant. - - _Ber. F._ Do not doubt it, -f He shall not live till sunset--leave to me - The means, and calm yourself. - - _Doge_. Hold, nephew: this - Would have sufficed but yesterday; at present - I have no further wrath against this man. - - _Ber. F._ What mean you? is not the offence redoubled - By this most rank--I will not say--acquittal; - For it is worse, being full acknowledgment - Of the offence, and leaving it unpunished? 210 - - _Doge_. It is _redoubled_, but not now by him: - The Forty hath decreed a month's arrest-- - We must obey the Forty. - - _Ber. F._ Obey _them_! - Who have forgot their duty to the Sovereign? - - _Doge_. Why, yes;--boy, you perceive it then at last; - Whether as fellow citizen who sues - For justice, or as Sovereign who commands it, - They have defrauded me of both my rights - (For here the Sovereign is a citizen); - But, notwithstanding, harm not thou a hair 220 - Of Steno's head--he shall not wear it long. - - _Ber. F._ Not twelve hours longer, had you left to me - The mode and means; if you had calmly heard me, - I never meant this miscreant should escape, - But wished you to suppress such gusts of passion, - That we more surely might devise together - His taking off. - - _Doge_. No, nephew, he must live; - At least, just now--a life so vile as his - Were nothing at this hour; in th' olden time[dd] - Some sacrifices asked a single victim, 230 - Great expiations had a hecatomb. - - _Ber. F._ Your wishes are my law: and yet I fain - Would prove to you how near unto my heart - The honour of our house must ever be. - - _Doge_. Fear not; you shall have time and place of proof: - But be not thou too rash, as I have been. - I am ashamed of my own anger now; - I pray you, pardon me. - - _Ber. F._ Why, that's my uncle! - The leader, and the statesman, and the chief - Of commonwealths, and sovereign of himself! 240 - I wondered to perceive you so forget - All prudence in your fury at these years, - Although the cause-- - - _Doge_. Aye--think upon the cause-- - Forget it not:--When you lie down to rest, - Let it be black among your dreams; and when - The morn returns, so let it stand between - The Sun and you, as an ill-omened cloud - Upon a summer-day of festival: - So will it stand to me;--but speak not, stir not,-- - Leave all to me; we shall have much to do, 250 - And you shall have a part.--But now retire, - 'Tis fit I were alone. - - _Ber. F._ (_taking up and placing the ducal bonnet on the table_). - Ere I depart, - I pray you to resume what you have spurned, - Till you can change it--haply, for a crown! - And now I take my leave, imploring you - In all things to rely upon my duty, - As doth become your near and faithful kinsman, - And not less loyal citizen and subject. - [Exit BERTUCCIO FALIERO. - - _Doge_ (_solus_). Adieu, my worthy nephew.--Hollow bauble! - [_Taking up the ducal cap_. - Beset with all the thorns that line a crown, 260 - Without investing the insulted brow - With the all-swaying majesty of Kings; - Thou idle, gilded, and degraded toy, - Let me resume thee as I would a vizor. [_Puts it on_. - How my brain aches beneath thee! and my temples - Throb feverish under thy dishonest weight. - Could I not turn thee to a diadem? - Could I not shatter the Briarean sceptre - Which in this hundred-handed Senate rules, - Making the people nothing, and the Prince 270 - A pageant? In my life I have achieved - Tasks not less difficult--achieved for them, - Who thus repay me! Can I not requite them? - Oh for one year! Oh! but for even a day - Of my full youth, while yet my body served - My soul as serves the generous steed his lord, - I would have dashed amongst them, asking few - In aid to overthrow these swoln patricians; - But now I must look round for other hands - To serve this hoary head; but it shall plan 280 - In such a sort as will not leave the task - Herculean, though as yet 'tis but a chaos - Of darkly brooding thoughts: my fancy is - In her first work, more nearly to the light - Holding the sleeping images of things - For the selection of the pausing judgment.-- - The troops are few in---- - - _Enter_ VINCENZO. - - _Vin_. There is one without - Craves audience of your Highness. - - _Doge_. I'm unwell-- - I can see no one, not even a patrician-- - Let him refer his business to the Council. 290 - - _Vin_. My Lord, I will deliver your reply; - It cannot much import--he's a plebeian, - The master of a galley, I believe. - - _Doge_. How! did you say the patron of a galley?[389] - That is--I mean--a servant of the state: - Admit him, he may be on public service. - [_Exit_ VINCENZO. - - _Doge_ (_solus_). This patron may be sounded; I will try him. - I know the people to be discontented: - They have cause, since Sapienza's[390] adverse day, - When Genoa conquered: they have further cause, 300 - Since they are nothing in the state, and in - The city worse than nothing--mere machines, - To serve the nobles' most patrician pleasure. - The troops have long arrears of pay, oft promised, - And murmur deeply--any hope of change - Will draw them forward: they shall pay themselves - With plunder:--but the priests--I doubt the priesthood - Will not be with us; they have hated me - Since that rash hour, when, maddened with the drone, - I smote the tardy Bishop at Treviso,[391] 310 - Quickening his holy march; yet, ne'ertheless, - They may be won, at least their Chief at Rome, - By some well-timed concessions; but, above - All things, I must be speedy: at my hour - Of twilight little light of life remains. - Could I free Venice, and avenge my wrongs, - I had lived too long, and willingly would sleep - Next moment with my sires; and, wanting this, - Better that sixty of my fourscore years - Had been already where--how soon, I care not-- 320 - The whole must be extinguished;--better that - They ne'er had been, than drag me on to be - The thing these arch-oppressors fain would make me. - Let me consider--of efficient troops - There are three thousand posted at---- - - _Enter_ VINCENZO _and_ ISRAEL BERTUCCIO. - - _Vin_. May it please - Your Highness, the same patron whom I spake of - Is here to crave your patience. - - _Doge_. Leave the chamber, - Vincenzo.-- - [_Exit_ VINCENZO. - Sir, you may advance--what would you? - - _I. Ber_. Redress. - - _Doge_. Of whom? - - _I. Ber_. Of God and of the Doge. - - _Doge_. Alas! my friend, you seek it of the twain 330 - Of least respect and interest in Venice. - You must address the Council. - - _I. Ber_. 'Twere in vain; - For he who injured me is one of them. - - _Doge_. There's blood upon thy face--how came it there? - - _I. Ber_. 'Tis mine, and not the first I've shed for Venice, - But the first shed by a Venetian hand: - A noble smote me. - - _Doge_. Doth he live? - - _I. Ber_. Not long-- - But for the hope I had and have, that you, - My Prince, yourself a soldier, will redress - Him, whom the laws of discipline and Venice 340 - Permit not to protect himself:--if not-- - I say no more. - - _Doge_. But something you would do-- - Is it not so? - - _I. Ber_. I am a man, my Lord. - - _Doge_. Why so is he who smote you. - - _I. Ber_. He is called so; - Nay, more, a noble one--at least, in Venice: - But since he hath forgotten that I am one, - And treats me like a brute, the brute may turn-- - 'Tis said the worm will. - - _Doge_. Say--his name and lineage? - - _I. Ber_. Barbaro. - - _Doge_. What was the cause? or the pretext? - - _I. Ber_. I am the chief of the arsenal,[392] employed 350 - At present in repairing certain galleys - But roughly used by the Genoese last year. - This morning comes the noble Barbaro[393] - Full of reproof, because our artisans - Had left some frivolous order of his house, - To execute the state's decree: I dared - To justify the men--he raised his hand;-- - Behold my blood! the first time it e'er flowed - Dishonourably. - - _Doge_. Have you long time served? - - _I. Ber_. So long as to remember Zara's siege, 360 - And fight beneath the Chief who beat the Huns there, - Sometime my general, now the Doge Faliero.-- - - _Doge_. How! are we comrades?--the State's ducal robes - Sit newly on me, and you were appointed - Chief of the arsenal ere I came from Rome; - So that I recognised you not. Who placed you? - - _I. Ber_. The late Doge; keeping still my old command - As patron of a galley: my new office - Was given as the reward of certain scars - (So was your predecessor pleased to say): 370 - I little thought his bounty would conduct me - To his successor as a helpless plaintiff; - At least, in such a cause. - - _Doge_. Are you much hurt? - - _I. Ber_. Irreparably in my self-esteem. - - _Doge_. Speak out; fear nothing: being stung at heart, - What would you do to be revenged on this man? - - _I. Ber_. That which I dare not name, and yet will do. - - _Doge_. Then wherefore came you here? - - _I. Ber_. I come for justice, - Because my general is Doge, and will not - See his old soldier trampled on. Had any, 380 - Save Faliero, filled the ducal throne, - This blood had been washed out in other blood. - - _Doge_. You come to me for justice--unto _me!_ - The Doge of Venice, and I cannot give it; - I cannot even obtain it--'twas denied - To me most solemnly an hour ago! - - _I. Ber_. How says your Highness? - - _Doge_. Steno is condemned - To a month's confinement. - - _I. Ber_. What! the same who dared - To stain the ducal throne with those foul words, - That have cried shame to every ear in Venice? 390 - - _Doge_. Aye, doubtless they have echoed o'er the arsenal, - Keeping due time with every hammer's clink, - As a good jest to jolly artisans; - Or making chorus to the creaking oar, - In the vile tune of every galley-slave, - Who, as he sung the merry stave, exulted - _He_ was not a shamed dotard like the Doge. - - _I. Ber_. Is't possible? a month's imprisonment! - No more for Steno? - - _Doge_. You have heard the offence, - And now you know his punishment; and then 400 - You ask redress of _me_! Go to the Forty, - Who passed the sentence upon Michel Steno; - They'll do as much by Barbaro, no doubt. - - _I. Ber_. Ah! dared I speak my feelings! - - _Doge_. Give them breath. - Mine have no further outrage to endure. - - _I. Ber_. Then, in a word, it rests but on your word - To punish and avenge--I will not say - _My_ petty wrong, for what is a mere blow, - However vile, to such a thing as I am?-- - But the base insult done your state and person. 410 - - _Doge_. You overrate my power, which is a pageant. - This Cap is not the Monarch's crown; these robes - Might move compassion, like a beggar's rags; - Nay, more, a beggar's are his own, and these - But lent to the poor puppet, who must play - Its part with all its empire in this ermine. - - _I. Ber_. Wouldst thou be King? - - _Doge_. Yes--of a happy people. - - _I. Ber_. Wouldst thou be sovereign lord of Venice? - - _Doge_. Aye, - If that the people shared that sovereignty, - So that nor they nor I were further slaves 420 - To this o'ergrown aristocratic Hydra,[394] - The poisonous heads of whose envenomed body - Have breathed a pestilence upon us all. - - _I. Ber_. Yet, thou wast born, and still hast lived, patrician. - - _Doge_. In evil hour was I so born; my birth - Hath made me Doge to be insulted: but - I lived and toiled a soldier and a servant - Of Venice and her people, not the Senate; - Their good and my own honour were my guerdon. - I have fought and bled; commanded, aye, and conquered; 430 - Have made and marred peace oft in embassies, - As it might chance to be our country's 'vantage; - Have traversed land and sea in constant duty, - Through almost sixty years, and still for Venice, - My fathers' and my birthplace, whose dear spires, - Rising at distance o'er the blue Lagoon, - It was reward enough for me to view - Once more; but not for any knot of men, - Nor sect, nor faction, did I bleed or sweat! - But would you know why I have done all this? 440 - Ask of the bleeding pelican why she - Hath ripped her bosom? Had the bird a voice, - She'd tell thee 'twas for _all_ her little ones. - - _I. Ber_. And yet they made thee Duke. - - _Doge_. _They made_ me so; - I sought it not, the flattering fetters met me - Returning from my Roman embassy, - And never having hitherto refused - Toil, charge, or duty for the state, I did not, - At these late years, decline what was the highest - Of all in seeming, but of all most base 450 - In what we have to do and to endure: - Bear witness for me thou, my injured subject, - When I can neither right myself nor thee. - - _I. Ber_. You shall do both, if you possess the will; - And many thousands more not less oppressed, - Who wait but for a signal--will you give it? - - _Doge_. You speak in riddles. - - _I. Ber_. Which shall soon be read - At peril of my life--if you disdain not - To lend a patient ear. - - _Doge_. Say on. - - _I. Ber_. Not thou, - Nor I alone, are injured and abused, 460 - Contemned and trampled on; but the whole people - Groan with the strong conception of their wrongs: - The foreign soldiers in the Senate's pay - Are discontented for their long arrears; - The native mariners, and civic troops, - Feel with their friends; for who is he amongst them - Whose brethren, parents, children, wives, or sisters, - Have not partook[395] oppression, or pollution, - From the patricians? And the hopeless war - Against the Genoese, which is still maintained 470 - With the plebeian blood, and treasure wrung - From their hard earnings, has inflamed them further: - Even now--but, I forget that speaking thus, - Perhaps I pass the sentence of my death! - - _Doge_. And suffering what thou hast done--fear'st thou death? - Be silent then, and live on, to be beaten - By those for whom thou hast bled. - - _I. Ber_. No, I will speak - At every hazard; and if Venice' Doge - Should turn delator, be the shame on him, - And sorrow too; for he will lose far more 480 - Than I. - - _Doge_. From me fear nothing; out with it! - - _I. Ber_. Know then, that there are met and sworn in secret - A band of brethren, valiant hearts and true; - Men who have proved all fortunes, and have long - Grieved over that of Venice, and have right - To do so; having served her in all climes, - And having rescued her from foreign foes, - Would do the same from those within her walls. - They are not numerous, nor yet too few - For their great purpose; they have arms, and means, 490 - And hearts, and hopes, and faith, and patient courage. - - _Doge_. For what then do they pause? - - _I. Ber_. An hour to strike. - - _Doge_ (_aside_). Saint Mark's shall strike that hour![396] - - _I. Ber_. I now have placed - My life, my honour, all my earthly hopes - Within thy power, but in the firm belief - That injuries like ours, sprung from one cause, - Will generate one vengeance: should it be so, - Be our Chief now--our Sovereign hereafter. - - _Doge_. How many are ye? - - _I. Ber_. I'll not answer that - Till I am answered. - - _Doge_. How, sir! do you menace? 500 - - _I. Ber_. No; I affirm. I have betrayed myself; - But there's no torture in the mystic wells - Which undermine your palace, nor in those - Not less appalling cells, the "leaden roofs," - To force a single name from me of others. - The Pozzi[397] and the Piombi were in vain; - They might wring blood from me, but treachery never. - And I would pass the fearful "Bridge of Sighs," - Joyous that mine must be the last that e'er - Would echo o'er the Stygian wave which flows 510 - Between the murderers and the murdered, washing - The prison and the palace walls: there are - Those who would live to think on't, and avenge me. - - _Doge_. If such your power and purpose, why come here - To sue for justice, being in the course - To do yourself due right? - - _I. Ber_. Because the man, - Who claims protection from authority, - Showing his confidence and his submission - To that authority, can hardly be - Suspected of combining to destroy it. 520 - Had I sate down too humbly with this blow, - A moody brow and muttered threats had made me - A marked man to the Forty's inquisition; - But loud complaint, however angrily - It shapes its phrase, is little to be feared, - And less distrusted. But, besides all this, - I had another reason. - - _Doge_. What was that? - - _I. Ber_. Some rumours that the Doge was greatly moved - By the reference of the Avogadori - Of Michel Steno's sentence to the Forty 530 - Had reached me. I had served you, honoured you, - And felt that you were dangerously insulted, - Being of an order of such spirits, as - Requite tenfold both good and evil: 'twas - My wish to prove and urge you to redress. - Now you know all; and that I speak the truth, - My peril be the proof. - - _Doge_. You have deeply ventured; - But all must do so who would greatly win: - Thus far I'll answer you--your secret's safe. - - _I. Ber_. And is this all? - - _Doge_. Unless with all intrusted, 540 - What would you have me answer? - - _I. Ber_. I would have you - Trust him who leaves his life in trust with you. - - _Doge_. But I must know your plan, your names, and numbers; - The last may then be doubled, and the former - Matured and strengthened. - - _I. Ber_. We're enough already; - You are the sole ally we covet now. - - _Doge_. But bring me to the knowledge of your chiefs. - - _I. Ber_. That shall be done upon your formal pledge - To keep the faith that we will pledge to you. - - _Doge_. When? where? - - _I. Ber_. This night I'll bring to your apartment 550 - Two of the principals: a greater number - Were hazardous. - - _Doge_. Stay, I must think of this.-- - What if I were to trust myself amongst you, - And leave the palace? - - _I. Ber_. You must come alone. - - _Doge_. With but my nephew. - - _I. Ber_. Not were he your son! - - _Doge_. Wretch! darest thou name my son? He died in arms - At Sapienza[398] for this faithless state. - Oh! that he were alive, and I in ashes! - Or that he were alive ere I be ashes! - I should not need the dubious aid of strangers. 560 - - _I. Ber_. Not one of all those strangers whom thou doubtest, - But will regard thee with a filial feeling, - So that thou keep'st a father's faith with them. - - _Doge_. The die is cast. Where is the place of meeting? - - _I. Ber_. At midnight I will be alone and masked - Where'er your Highness pleases to direct me, - To wait your coming, and conduct you where - You shall receive our homage, and pronounce - Upon our project. - - _Doge_. At what hour arises - The moon? - - _I. Ber_. Late, but the atmosphere is thick and dusky, 570 - 'Tis a sirocco. - - _Doge_. At the midnight hour, then, - Near to the church where sleep my sires;[399] the same, - Twin-named from the apostles John and Paul; - A gondola,[400] with one oar only, will - Lurk in the narrow channel which glides by. - Be there. - - _I. Ber_. I will not fail. - - _Doge_. And now retire---- - - _I. Ber_. In the full hope your Highness will not falter - In your great purpose. Prince, I take my leave. - [_Exit_ Isreal Bertuccio. - - _Doge_ (_solus_). At midnight, by the church Saints John and Paul, - Where sleep my noble fathers, I repair-- 580 - To what? to hold a council in the dark - With common ruffians leagued to ruin states! - And will not my great sires leap from the vault, - Where lie two Doges who preceded me, - And pluck me down amongst them? Would they could! - For I should rest in honour with the honoured. - Alas! I must not think of them, but those - Who have made me thus unworthy of a name - Noble and brave as aught of consular - On Roman marbles; but I will redeem it 590 - Back to its antique lustre in our annals, - By sweet revenge on all that's base in Venice, - And freedom to the rest, or leave it black - To all the growing calumnies of Time, - Which never spare the fame of him who fails, - But try the Caesar, or the Catiline, - By the true touchstone of desert--Success.[401] - - - - - ACT II. - - - SCENE I.--_An Apartment in the Ducal Palace_. - - ANGIOLINA[402] (_wife of the_ DOGE) _and_ MARIANNA. - - _Ang_. What was the Doge's answer? - - _Mar_. That he was - That moment summoned to a conference; - But 'tis by this time ended. I perceived - Not long ago the Senators embarking; - And the last gondola may now be seen - Gliding into the throng of barks which stud - The glittering waters. - - _Ang_. Would he were returned! - He has been much disquieted of late; - And Time, which has not tamed his fiery spirit, - Nor yet enfeebled even his mortal frame, 10 - Which seems to be more nourished by a soul - So quick and restless that it would consume - Less hardy clay--Time has but little power - On his resentments or his griefs. Unlike - To other spirits of his order, who, - In the first burst of passion, pour away - Their wrath or sorrow, all things wear in him - An aspect of Eternity: his thoughts, - His feelings, passions, good or evil, all - Have nothing of old age;[403] and his bold brow 20 - Bears but the scars of mind, the thoughts of years, - Not their decrepitude: and he of late - Has been more agitated than his wont. - Would he were come! for I alone have power - Upon his troubled spirit. - - _Mar_. It is true, - His Highness has of late been greatly moved - By the affront of Steno, and with cause: - But the offender doubtless even now - Is doomed to expiate his rash insult with - Such chastisement as will enforce respect 30 - To female virtue, and to noble blood. - - _Ang_. 'Twas a gross insult; but I heed it not - For the rash scorner's falsehood in itself, - But for the effect, the deadly deep impression - Which it has made upon Faliero's soul, - The proud, the fiery, the austere--austere - To all save me: I tremble when I think - To what it may conduct. - - _Mar_. Assuredly - The Doge can not suspect you? - - _Ang_. Suspect _me!_ - Why Steno dared not: when he scrawled his lie, 40 - Grovelling by stealth in the moon's glimmering light, - His own still conscience smote him for the act, - And every shadow on the walls frowned shame - Upon his coward calumny. - - _Mar_. 'Twere fit - He should be punished grievously. - - _Ang_. He is so. - - _Mar_. What! is the sentence passed? is he condemned?[de] - - _Ang_. I know not that, but he has been detected. - - _Mar_. And deem you this enough for such foul scorn? - - _Ang_. I would not be a judge in my own cause, - Nor do I know what sense of punishment 50 - May reach the soul of ribalds such as Steno; - But if his insults sink no deeper in - The minds of the inquisitors than they - Have ruffled mine, he will, for all acquittance, - Be left to his own shamelessness or shame. - - _Mar_. Some sacrifice is due to slandered virtue. - - _Ang_. Why, what is virtue if it needs a victim? - Or if it must depend upon men's words? - The dying Roman said, "'twas but a name:"[404] - It were indeed no more, if human breath 60 - Could make or mar it. - - _Mar_. Yet full many a dame, - Stainless and faithful, would feel all the wrong - Of such a slander; and less rigid ladies, - Such as abound in Venice, would be loud - And all-inexorable in their cry - For justice. - - _Ang_. This but proves it is the name - And not the quality they prize: the first - Have found it a hard task to hold their honour, - If they require it to be blazoned forth; - And those who have not kept it, seek its seeming 70 - As they would look out for an ornament - Of which they feel the want, but not because - They think it so; they live in others' thoughts, - And would seem honest as they must seem fair. - - _Mar_. You have strange thoughts for a patrician dame. - - _Ang_. And yet they were my father's; with his name, - The sole inheritance he left. - - _Mar_. You want none; - Wife to a Prince, the Chief of the Republic. - - _Ang_. I should have sought none though a peasant's bride, - But feel not less the love and gratitude 80 - Due to my father, who bestowed my hand - Upon his early, tried, and trusted friend, - The Count Val di Marino, now our Doge. - - _Mar_. And with that hand did he bestow your heart? - - _Ang_. He did so, or it had not been bestowed. - - _Mar_. Yet this strange disproportion in your years, - And, let me add, disparity of tempers, - Might make the world doubt whether such an union - Could make you wisely, permanently happy. - - _Ang_. The world will think with worldlings; but my heart 90 - Has still been in my duties, which are many, - But never difficult. - - _Mar_. And do you love him? - - _Ang_. I love all noble qualities which merit - Love, and I loved my father, who first taught me - To single out what we should love in others, - And to subdue all tendency to lend - The best and purest feelings of our nature - To baser passions. He bestowed my hand - Upon Faliero: he had known him noble, - Brave, generous; rich in all the qualities 100 - Of soldier, citizen, and friend; in all - Such have I found him as my father said. - His faults are those that dwell in the high bosoms - Of men who have commanded; too much pride, - And the deep passions fiercely fostered by - The uses of patricians, and a life - Spent in the storms of state and war; and also - From the quick sense of honour, which becomes - A duty to a certain sign, a vice - When overstrained, and this I fear in him. 110 - And then he has been rash from his youth upwards, - Yet tempered by redeeming nobleness - In such sort, that the wariest of republics - Has lavished all its chief employs upon him, - From his first fight to his last embassy, - From which on his return the Dukedom met him. - - _Mar_. But previous to this marriage, had your heart - Ne'er beat for any of the noble youth, - Such as in years had been more meet to match - Beauty like yours? or, since, have you ne'er seen 120 - One, who, if your fair hand were still to give, - Might now pretend to Loredano's daughter? - - _Ang_. I answered your first question when I said - I married. - - _Mar_. And the second? - - _Ang_. Needs no answer. - - _Mar_. I pray you pardon, if I have offended. - - _Ang_. I feel no wrath, but some surprise: I knew not - That wedded bosoms could permit themselves - To ponder upon what they _now_ might choose, - Or aught save their past choice. - - _Mar_. 'Tis their past choice - That far too often makes them deem they would 130 - Now choose more wisely, could they cancel it. - - _Ang_. It may be so. I knew not of such thoughts. - - _Mar_. Here comes the Doge--shall I retire? - - _Ang_. It may - Be better you should quit me; he seems rapt - In thought.--How pensively he takes his way! - [_Exit_ MARIANNA. - - _Enter the_ DOGE _and_ PIETRO. - - _Doge_ (_musing_). There is a certain Philip Calendaro - Now in the Arsenal, who holds command - Of eighty men, and has great influence - Besides on all the spirits of his comrades: - This man, I hear, is bold and popular, 140 - Sudden and daring, and yet secret; 'twould - Be well that he were won: I needs must hope - That Israel Bertuccio has secured him, - But fain would be---- - - _Pie_. My Lord, pray pardon me - For breaking in upon your meditation; - The Senator Bertuccio, your kinsman, - Charged me to follow and enquire your pleasure - To fix an hour when he may speak with you. - - _Doge_. At sunset.--Stay a moment--let me see-- - Say in the second hour of night. [_Exit_ PIETRO. - - _Ang_. My Lord! 150 - - _Doge_. My dearest child, forgive me--why delay - So long approaching me?--I saw you not. - - _Ang_. You were absorbed in thought, and he who now - Has parted from you might have words of weight - To bear you from the Senate. - - _Doge_. From the Senate? - - _Ang_. I would not interrupt him in his duty - And theirs. - - _Doge_. The Senate's duty! you mistake; - 'Tis we who owe all service to the Senate. - - _Ang_. I thought the Duke had held command in Venice. - - _Doge_. He shall.--But let that pass.--We will be jocund. 160 - How fares it with you? have you been abroad? - The day is overcast, but the calm wave - Favours the gondolier's light skimming oar; - Or have you held a levee of your friends? - Or has your music made you solitary? - Say--is there aught that you would will within - The little sway now left the Duke? or aught - Of fitting splendour, or of honest pleasure, - Social or lonely, that would glad your heart, - To compensate for many a dull hour, wasted 170 - On an old man oft moved with many cares? - Speak, and 'tis done. - - _Ang_. You're ever kind to me. - I have nothing to desire, or to request, - Except to see you oftener and calmer. - - _Doge_. Calmer? - - _Ang_. Aye, calmer, my good Lord.--Ah, why - Do you still keep apart, and walk alone, - And let such strong emotions stamp your brow, - As not betraying their full import, yet - Disclose too much? - - _Doge_. Disclose too much!--of what? - What is there to disclose? - - _Ang_. A heart so ill 180 - At ease. - - _Doge_. 'Tis nothing, child.--But in the state - You know what daily cares oppress all those - Who govern this precarious commonwealth; - Now suffering from the Genoese without, - And malcontents within--'tis this which makes me - More pensive and less tranquil than my wont. - - _Ang_. Yet this existed long before, and never - Till in these late days did I see you thus. - Forgive me; there is something at your heart - More than the mere discharge of public duties, 190 - Which long use and a talent like to yours - Have rendered light, nay, a necessity, - To keep your mind from stagnating. 'Tis not - In hostile states, nor perils, thus to shake you,-- - You, who have stood all storms and never sunk, - And climbed up to the pinnacle of power - And never fainted by the way, and stand - Upon it, and can look down steadily - Along the depth beneath, and ne'er feel dizzy. - Were Genoa's galleys riding in the port, 200 - Were civil fury raging in Saint Mark's, - You are not to be wrought on, but would fall, - As you have risen, with an unaltered brow: - Your feelings now are of a different kind; - Something has stung your pride, not patriotism. - - _Doge_. Pride! Angiolina? Alas! none is left me. - - _Ang_. Yes--the same sin that overthrew the angels, - And of all sins most easily besets - Mortals the nearest to the angelic nature: - The vile are only vain; the great are proud. 210 - - _Doge_. I _had_ the pride of honour, of _your_ honour, - Deep at my heart--But let us change the theme. - - _Ang_. Ah no!--As I have ever shared your kindness - In all things else, let me not be shut out - From your distress: were it of public import, - You know I never sought, would never seek - To win a word from you; but feeling now - Your grief is private, it belongs to me - To lighten or divide it. Since the day - When foolish Steno's ribaldry detected 220 - Unfixed your quiet, you are greatly changed, - And I would soothe you back to what you were. - - _Doge_. To what I was!--have you heard Steno's sentence? - - _Ang_. No. - - _Doge_. A month's arrest. - - _Ang_. Is it not enough? - - _Doge_. Enough!--yes, for a drunken galley slave, - Who, stung by stripes, may murmur at his master; - But not for a deliberate, false, cool villain, - Who stains a Lady's and a Prince's honour - Even on the throne of his authority. - - _Ang_. There seems to be enough in the conviction 230 - Of a patrician guilty of a falsehood: - All other punishment were light unto - His loss of honour. - - _Doge_. Such men have no honour; - They have but their vile lives--and these are spared. - - _Ang_. You would not have him die for this offence? - - _Doge_. Not _now_:--being still alive, I'd have him live - Long as _he_ can; he has ceased to merit death; - The guilty saved hath damned his hundred judges, - And he is pure, for now his crime is theirs. - - _Ang_. Oh! had this false and flippant libeller 240 - Shed his young blood for his absurd lampoon, - Ne'er from that moment could this breast have known - A joyous hour, or dreamless slumber more. - - _Doge_. Does not the law of Heaven say blood for blood? - And he who _taints_ kills more than he who sheds it. - Is it the _pain_ of blows, or _shame_ of blows, - That makes such deadly to the sense of man? - Do not the laws of man say blood for honour,-- - And, less than honour, for a little gold? - Say not the laws of nations blood for treason? 250 - Is't nothing to have filled these veins with poison - For their once healthful current? is it nothing - To have stained your name and mine--the noblest names? - Is't nothing to have brought into contempt - A Prince before his people? to have failed - In the respect accorded by Mankind - To youth in woman, and old age in man? - To virtue in your sex, and dignity - In ours?--But let them look to it who have saved him. - - _Ang_. Heaven bids us to forgive our enemies. 260 - - _Doge_. Doth Heaven forgive her own? Is there not Hell - For wrath eternal?[df][405] - - _Ang_. Do not speak thus wildly--[dg] - Heaven will alike forgive you and your foes. - - _Doge_. Amen! May Heaven forgive them! - - _Ang_. And will you? - - _Doge_. Yes, when they are in Heaven! - - _Ang_. And not till then? - - _Doge_. What matters my forgiveness? an old man's, - Worn out, scorned, spurned, abused; what matters then - My pardon more than my resentment, both - Being weak and worthless? I have lived too long; - But let us change the argument.--My child! 270 - My injured wife, the child of Loredano, - The brave, the chivalrous, how little deemed - Thy father, wedding thee unto his friend, - That he was linking thee to shame!--Alas! - Shame without sin, for thou art faultless. Hadst thou - But had a different husband, _any_ husband - In Venice save the Doge, this blight, this brand, - This blasphemy had never fallen upon thee. - So young, so beautiful, so good, so pure, - To suffer this, and yet be unavenged! 280 - - _Ang_. I am too well avenged, for you still love me, - And trust, and honour me; and all men know - That you are just, and I am true: what more - Could I require, or you command? - - _Doge_. 'Tis well, - And may be better; but whate'er betide, - Be thou at least kind to my memory. - - _Ang_. Why speak you thus? - - _Doge_. It is no matter why; - But I would still, whatever others think, - Have your respect both now and in my grave. - - _Ang_. Why should you doubt it? has it ever failed? 290 - - _Doge_. Come hither, child! I would a word with you. - Your father was my friend; unequal Fortune - Made him my debtor for some courtesies - Which bind the good more firmly: when, oppressed - With his last malady, he willed our union, - It was not to repay me, long repaid - Before by his great loyalty in friendship; - His object was to place your orphan beauty - In honourable safety from the perils, - Which, in this scorpion nest of vice, assail 300 - A lonely and undowered maid. I did not - Think with him, but would not oppose the thought - Which soothed his death-bed. - - _Ang_. I have not forgotten - The nobleness with which you bade me speak - If my young heart held any preference - Which would have made me happier; nor your offer - To make my dowry equal to the rank - Of aught in Venice, and forego all claim - My father's last injunction gave you. - - _Doge_. Thus, - 'Twas not a foolish dotard's vile caprice, 310 - Nor the false edge of aged appetite, - Which made me covetous of girlish beauty, - And a young bride: for in my fieriest youth - I swayed such passions; nor was this my age - Infected with that leprosy of lust[406] - Which taints the hoariest years of vicious men, - Making them ransack to the very last - The dregs of pleasure for their vanished joys; - Or buy in selfish marriage some young victim, - Too helpless to refuse a state that's honest, 320 - Too feeling not to know herself a wretch. - Our wedlock was not of this sort; you had - Freedom from me to choose, and urged in answer - Your father's choice. - - _Ang_. I did so; I would do so - In face of earth and Heaven; for I have never - Repented for my sake; sometimes for yours, - In pondering o'er your late disquietudes. - - _Doge_. I knew my heart would never treat you harshly: - I knew my days could not disturb you long; - And then the daughter of my earliest friend, 330 - His worthy daughter, free to choose again. - Wealthier and wiser, in the ripest bloom - Of womanhood, more skilful to select - By passing these probationary years, - Inheriting a Prince's name and riches, - Secured, by the short penance of enduring - An old man for some summers, against all - That law's chicane or envious kinsmen might - Have urged against her right; my best friend's child - Would choose more fitly in respect of years, 340 - And not less truly in a faithful heart. - - _Ang_. My Lord, I looked but to my father's wishes, - Hallowed by his last words, and to my heart - For doing all its duties, and replying - With faith to him with whom I was affianced. - Ambitious hopes ne'er crossed my dreams; and should - The hour you speak of come, it will be seen so. - - _Doge_. I do believe you; and I know you true: - For Love--romantic Love--which in my youth - I knew to be illusion, and ne'er saw 350 - Lasting, but often fatal, it had been - No lure for me, in my most passionate days, - And could not be so now, did such exist. - But such respect, and mildly paid regard - As a true feeling for your welfare, and - A free compliance with all honest wishes,-- - A kindness to your virtues, watchfulness - Not shown, but shadowing o'er such little failings - As Youth is apt in, so as not to check - Rashly, but win you from them ere you knew 360 - You had been won, but thought the change your choice; - A pride not in your beauty, but your conduct; - A trust in you; a patriarchal love, - And not a doting homage; friendship, faith,-- - Such estimation in your eyes as these - Might claim, I hoped for. - - _Ang_. And have ever had. - - _Doge_. I think so. For the difference in our years - You knew it choosing me, and chose; I trusted - Not to my qualities, nor would have faith - In such, nor outward ornaments of nature, 370 - Were I still in my five and twentieth spring; - I trusted to the blood of Loredano[407] - Pure in your veins; I trusted to the soul - God gave you--to the truths your father taught you-- - To your belief in Heaven--to your mild virtues-- - To your own faith and honour, for my own. - - _Ang_. You have done well.--I thank you for that trust, - Which I have never for one moment ceased - To honour you the more for. - - _Doge_. Where is Honour, - Innate and precept-strengthened, 'tis the rock 380 - Of faith connubial: where it is not--where - Light thoughts are lurking, or the vanities - Of worldly pleasure rankle in the heart, - Or sensual throbs convulse it, well I know - 'Twere hopeless for humanity to dream - Of honesty in such infected blood, - Although 'twere wed to him it covets most: - An incarnation of the poet's God - In all his marble-chiselled beauty, or - The demi-deity, Alcides, in 390 - His majesty of superhuman Manhood, - Would not suffice to bind where virtue is not; - It is consistency which forms and proves it: - Vice cannot fix, and Virtue cannot change. - The once fall'n woman must for ever fall; - For Vice must have variety, while Virtue - Stands like the Sun, and all which rolls around - Drinks life, and light, and glory from her aspect. - - _Ang_. And seeing, feeling thus this truth in others, - (I pray you pardon me;) but wherefore yield you 400 - To the most fierce of fatal passions, and - Disquiet your great thoughts with restless hate - Of such a thing as Steno? - - _Doge_. You mistake me. - It is not Steno who could move me thus; - Had it been so, he should--but let that pass. - - _Ang_. What is't you feel so deeply, then, even now? - - _Doge_. The violated majesty of Venice, - At once insulted in her Lord and laws. - - _Ang_. Alas! why will you thus consider it? - - _Doge_. I have thought on't till--but let me lead you back 410 - To what I urged; all these things being noted, - I wedded you; the world then did me justice - Upon the motive, and my conduct proved - They did me right, while yours was all to praise: - You had all freedom--all respect--all trust - From me and mine; and, born of those who made - Princes at home, and swept Kings from their thrones - On foreign shores, in all things you appeared - Worthy to be our first of native dames. - - _Ang_. To what does this conduct? - - _Doge_. To thus much--that 420 - A miscreant's angry breath may blast it all-- - A villain, whom for his unbridled bearing, - Even in the midst of our great festival, - I caused to be conducted forth, and taught - How to demean himself in ducal chambers; - A wretch like this may leave upon the wall - The blighting venom of his sweltering heart, - And this shall spread itself in general poison; - And woman's innocence, man's honour, pass - Into a by-word; and the doubly felon 430 - (Who first insulted virgin modesty - By a gross affront to your attendant damsels - Amidst the noblest of our dames in public) - Requite himself for his most just expulsion - By blackening publicly his Sovereign's consort, - And be absolved by his upright compeers. - - _Ang_. But he has been condemned into captivity. - - _Doge_. For such as him a dungeon were acquittal; - And his brief term of mock-arrest will pass - Within a palace. But I've done with him; 440 - The rest must be with you. - - _Ang_. With me, my Lord? - - _Doge_. Yes, Angiolina. Do not marvel; I - Have let this prey upon me till I feel - My life cannot be long; and fain would have you - Regard the injunctions you will find within - This scroll (_giving her a paper_) - ----Fear not; they are for your advantage: - Read them hereafter at the fitting hour. - - _Ang_. My Lord, in life, and after life, you shall - Be honoured still by me: but may your days - Be many yet--and happier than the present! 450 - This passion will give way, and you will be - Serene, and what you should be--what you were. - - _Doge_. I will be what I should be, or be nothing; - But never more--oh! never, never more, - O'er the few days or hours which yet await - The blighted old age of Faliero, shall - Sweet Quiet shed her sunset! Never more - Those summer shadows rising from the past - Of a not ill-spent nor inglorious life, - Mellowing the last hours as the night approaches, 460 - Shall soothe me to my moment of long rest. - I had but little more to ask, or hope, - Save the regards due to the blood and sweat, - And the soul's labour through which I had toiled - To make my country honoured. As her servant-- - Her servant, though her chief--I would have gone - Down to my fathers with a name serene - And pure as theirs; but this has been denied me. - Would I had died at Zara! - - _Ang_. There you saved - The state; then live to save her still. A day, 470 - Another day like that would be the best - Reproof to them, and sole revenge for you. - - _Doge_. But one such day occurs within an age; - My life is little less than one, and 'tis - Enough for Fortune to have granted _once_, - That which scarce one more favoured citizen - May win in many states and years. But why - Thus speak I? Venice has forgot that day-- - Then why should I remember it?--Farewell, - Sweet Angiolina! I must to my cabinet; 480 - There's much for me to do--and the hour hastens.[408] - - _Ang_. Remember what you were. - - _Doge_. It were in vain! - Joy's recollection is no longer joy, - While Sorrow's memory is a sorrow still. - - _Ang_. At least, whate'er may urge, let me implore - That you will take some little pause of rest: - Your sleep for many nights has been so turbid, - That it had been relief to have awaked you, - Had I not hoped that Nature would o'erpower - At length the thoughts which shook your slumbers thus. 490 - An hour of rest will give you to your toils - With fitter thoughts and freshened strength. - - _Doge_. I cannot-- - I must not, if I could; for never was - Such reason to be watchful: yet a few-- - Yet a few days and dream-perturbed nights, - And I shall slumber well--but where?--no matter. - Adieu, my Angiolina. - - _Ang_. Let me be - An instant--yet an instant your companion! - I cannot bear to leave you thus. - - _Doge_. Come then, - My gentle child--forgive me: thou wert made 500 - For better fortunes than to share in mine, - Now darkling in their close toward the deep vale - Where Death sits robed in his all-sweeping shadow.[dh] - When I am gone--it may be sooner than - Even these years warrant, for there is that stirring - Within--above--around, that in this city - Will make the cemeteries populous - As e'er they were by pestilence or war,-- - When I _am_ nothing, let that which I _was_ - Be still sometimes a name on thy sweet lips, 510 - A shadow in thy fancy, of a thing - Which would not have thee mourn it, but remember. - Let us begone, my child--the time is pressing. - - - SCENE II.--_A retired spot near the Arsenal_. - - ISRAEL BERTUCCIO _and_ PHILIP CALENDARO.[409] - - _Cal_. How sped you, Israel, in your late complaint? - - _I. Ber_. Why, well. - - _Cal_. Is't possible! will he be punished? - - _I. Ber_. Yes. - - _Cal_. With what? a mulct or an arrest? - - _I. Ber_. With death! - - _Cal_. Now you rave, or must intend revenge, - Such as I counselled you, with your own hand. - - _I. Ber_. Yes; and for one sole draught of hate, forego - The great redress we meditate for Venice, - And change a life of hope for one of exile; - Leaving one scorpion crushed, and thousands stinging - My friends, my family, my countrymen! 10 - No, Calendaro; these same drops of blood, - Shed shamefully, shall have the whole of his - For their requital----But not only his; - We will not strike for private wrongs alone: - Such are for selfish passions and rash men, - But are unworthy a Tyrannicide. - - _Cal_. You have more patience than I care to boast. - Had I been present when you bore this insult, - I must have slain him, or expired myself - In the vain effort to repress my wrath. 20 - - _I. Ber_. Thank Heaven you were not--all had else been marred: - As 'tis, our cause looks prosperous still. - - _Cal_. You saw - The Doge--what answer gave he? - - _I. Ber_. That there was - No punishment for such as Barbaro. - - _Cal_. I told you so before, and that 'twas idle - To think of justice from such hands. - - _I. Ber_. At least, - It lulled suspicion, showing confidence. - Had I been silent, not a Sbirro[410] but - Had kept me in his eye, as meditating - A silent, solitary, deep revenge. 30 - - _Cal_. But wherefore not address you to the Council? - The Doge is a mere puppet, who can scarce - Obtain right for himself. Why speak to _him_? - - _I. Ber_. You shall know that hereafter. - - _Cal_. Why not now? - - _I. Ber_. Be patient but till midnight. Get your musters, - And bid our friends prepare their companies: - Set all in readiness to strike the blow, - Perhaps in a few hours: we have long waited - For a fit time--that hour is on the dial, - It may be, of to-morrow's sun: delay 40 - Beyond may breed us double danger. See - That all be punctual at our place of meeting, - And armed, excepting those of the Sixteen,[411] - Who will remain among the troops to wait - The signal. - - _Cal_. These brave words have breathed new life - Into my veins; I am sick of these protracted - And hesitating councils: day on day - Crawled on, and added but another link - To our long fetters, and some fresher wrong - Inflicted on our brethren or ourselves, 50 - Helping to swell our tyrants' bloated strength. - Let us but deal upon them, and I care not - For the result, which must be Death or Freedom! - I'm weary to the heart of finding neither. - - _I. Ber_. We will be free in Life or Death! the grave - Is chainless. Have you all the musters ready? - And are the sixteen companies completed - To sixty? - - _Cal_. All save two, in which there are - Twenty-five wanting to make up the number. - - _I. Ber_. No matter; we can do without. Whose are they? 60 - - _Cal_. Bertram's[412] and old Soranzo's, both of whom - Appear less forward in the cause than we are. - - _I. Ber_. Your fiery nature makes you deem all those - Who are not restless cold; but there exists - Oft in concentred spirits not less daring - Than in more loud avengers. Do not doubt them. - - _Cat_. I do not doubt the elder; but in Bertram - There is a hesitating softness, fatal - To enterprise like ours: I've seen that man - Weep like an infant o'er the misery 70 - Of others, heedless of his own, though greater; - And in a recent quarrel I beheld him - Turn sick at sight of blood, although a villain's. - - _I. Ber_. The truly brave are soft of heart and eyes, - And feel for what their duty bids them do. - I have known Bertram long; there doth not breathe - A soul more full of honour. - - _Cal_. It may be so: - I apprehend less treachery than weakness; - Yet as he has no mistress, and no wife - To work upon his milkiness of spirit, 80 - He may go through the ordeal; it is well - He is an orphan, friendless save in us: - A woman or a child had made him less - Than either in resolve. - - _I. Ber_. Such ties are not - For those who are called to the high destinies - Which purify corrupted commonwealths; - We must forget all feelings save the _one_, - We must resign all passions save our purpose, - We must behold no object save our country, - And only look on Death as beautiful, 90 - So that the sacrifice ascend to Heaven, - And draw down Freedom on her evermore. - - _Cal_. But if we fail----[413] - - _I. Ber_. They never fail who die - In a great cause: the block may soak their gore:[di] - Their heads may sodden in the sun; their limbs - Be strung to city gates and castle walls-- - But still their Spirit walks abroad. Though years - Elapse, and others share as dark a doom, - They but augment the deep and sweeping thoughts - Which overpower all others, and conduct 100 - The world at last to Freedom. What were we, - If Brutus had not lived? He died in giving[dj] - Rome liberty, but left a deathless lesson-- - A name which is a virtue, and a Soul - Which multiplies itself throughout all time, - When wicked men wax mighty, and a state - Turns servile. He and his high friend were styled - "The last of Romans!"[414] Let us be the first - Of true Venetians, sprung from Roman sires. - - _Cal_. Our fathers did not fly from Attila[415] 110 - Into these isles, where palaces have sprung - On banks redeemed from the rude ocean's ooze, - To own a thousand despots in his place. - Better bow down before the Hun, and call - A Tartar lord, than these swoln silkworms[416] masters! - The first at least was man, and used his sword - As sceptre: these unmanly creeping things - Command our swords, and rule us with a word - As with a spell. - - _I. Ber_. It shall be broken soon. - You say that all things are in readiness; 120 - To-day I have not been the usual round, - And why thou knowest; but thy vigilance - Will better have supplied my care: these orders - In recent council to redouble now - Our efforts to repair the galleys, have - Lent a fair colour to the introduction - Of many of our cause into the arsenal, - As new artificers for their equipment, - Or fresh recruits obtained in haste to man - The hoped-for fleet.--Are all supplied with arms? 130 - - _Cal_. All who were deemed trust-worthy: there are some - Whom it were well to keep in ignorance - Till it be time to strike, and then supply them; - When in the heat and hurry of the hour - They have no opportunity to pause, - But needs must on with those who will surround them. - - _I. Ber_. You have said well. Have you remarked all such? - - _Cal_. I've noted most; and caused the other chiefs - To use like caution in their companies. - As far as I have seen, we are enough 140 - To make the enterprise secure, if 'tis - Commenced to-morrow; but, till 'tis begun, - Each hour is pregnant with a thousand perils. - - _I. Ber_. Let the Sixteen meet at the wonted hour, - Except Soranzo, Nicoletto Blondo, - And Marco Giuda, who will keep their watch - Within the arsenal, and hold all ready, - Expectant of the signal we will fix on. - - _Cal_. We will not fail. - - _I. Ber_. Let all the rest be there; - I have a stranger to present to them. 150 - - _Cal_. A stranger! doth he know the secret? - - _I. Ber_. Yes. - - _Cal_. And have you dared to peril your friends' lives - On a rash confidence in one we know not? - - _I. Ber_. I have risked no man's life except my own-- - Of that be certain: he is one who may - Make our assurance doubly sure, according[417] - His aid; and if reluctant, he no less - Is in our power: he comes alone with me, - And cannot 'scape us; but he will not swerve. - - _Cal_. I cannot judge of this until I know him: 160 - Is he one of our order? - - _I. Ber_. Aye, in spirit, - Although a child of Greatness; he is one - Who would become a throne, or overthrow one-- - One who has done great deeds, and seen great changes; - No tyrant, though bred up to tyranny; - Valiant in war, and sage in council; noble - In nature, although haughty; quick, yet wary: - Yet for all this, so full of certain passions, - That if once stirred and baffled, as he has been - Upon the tenderest points, there is no Fury 170 - In Grecian story like to that which wrings - His vitals with her burning hands, till he - Grows capable of all things for revenge; - And add too, that his mind is liberal, - He sees and feels the people are oppressed, - And shares their sufferings. Take him all in all, - We have need of such, and such have need of us. - - _Cal_. And what part would you have him take with us? - - _I. Ber_. It may be, that of Chief. - - _Cal_. What! and resign - Your own command as leader? - - _I. Ber_. Even so. 180 - My object is to make your cause end well, - And not to push myself to power. Experience, - Some skill, and your own choice, had marked me out - To act in trust as your commander, till - Some worthier should appear: if I have found such - As you yourselves shall own more worthy, think you - That I would hesitate from selfishness, - And, covetous of brief authority, - Stake our deep interest on my single thoughts, - Rather than yield to one above me in 190 - All leading qualities? No, Calendaro, - Know your friend better; but you all shall judge. - Away! and let us meet at the fixed hour. - Be vigilant, and all will yet go well. - - _Cal_. Worthy Bertuccio, I have known you ever - Trusty and brave, with head and heart to plan - What I have still been prompt to execute. - For my own part, I seek no other Chief; - What the rest will decide, I know not, but - I am with YOU, as I have ever been, 200 - In all our undertakings. Now farewell, - Until the hour of midnight sees us meet. [_Exeunt_. - - - - - ACT III. - - - SCENE I.--_Scene, the Space between the Canal and the - Church of San Giovanni e San Paolo. An equestrian Statue - before it.--A Gondola lies in the Canal at some distance._ - - _Enter the_ DOGE _alone, disguised_. - - _Doge_ (_solus_). I am before the hour, the hour whose voice, - Pealing into the arch of night, might strike - These palaces with ominous tottering, - And rock their marbles to the corner-stone, - Waking the sleepers from some hideous dream - Of indistinct but awful augury - Of that which will befall them. Yes, proud city! - Thou must be cleansed of the black blood which makes thee - A lazar-house of tyranny: the task - Is forced upon me, I have sought it not; 10 - And therefore was I punished, seeing this - Patrician pestilence spread on and on, - Until at length it smote me in my slumbers, - And I am tainted, and must wash away - The plague spots in the healing wave. Tall fane! - Where sleep my fathers, whose dim statues shadow - The floor which doth divide us from the dead, - Where all the pregnant hearts of our bold blood, - Mouldered into a mite of ashes, hold - In one shrunk heap what once made many heroes, 20 - When what is now a handful shook the earth-- - Fane of the tutelar saints who guard our house! - Vault where two Doges rest[418]--my sires! who died - The one of toil, the other in the field, - With a long race of other lineal chiefs - And sages, whose great labours, wounds, and state - I have inherited,--let the graves gape, - Till all thine aisles be peopled with the dead, - And pour them from thy portals to gaze on me! - I call them up, and them and thee to witness 30 - What it hath been which put me to this task-- - Their pure high blood, their blazon-roll of glories, - Their mighty name dishonoured all _in_ me, - Not _by_ me, but by the ungrateful nobles - We fought to make our equals, not our lords:[dk] - And chiefly thou, Ordelafo the brave, - Who perished in the field, where I since conquered, - Battling at Zara, did the hecatombs - Of thine and Venice' foes, there offered up - By thy descendant, merit such acquittance?[dl] 40 - Spirits! smile down upon me! for my cause - Is yours, in all life now can be of yours,-- - Your fame, your name, all mingled up in mine, - And in the future fortunes of our race! - Let me but prosper, and I make this city - Free and immortal, and our House's name - Worthier of what you were--now and hereafter! - - _Enter_ ISRAEL BERTUCCIO. - - _I. Ber_. Who goes there? - - _Doge_. A friend to Venice. - - _I. Ber_. 'Tis he. - Welcome, my Lord,--you are before the time. - - _Doge_. I am ready to proceed to your assembly. 50 - - _I. Ber_. Have with you.--I am proud and pleased to see - Such confident alacrity. Your doubts - Since our last meeting, then, are all dispelled? - - _Doge_. Not so--but I have set my little left[419] - Of life upon this cast: the die was thrown - When I first listened to your treason.--Start not! - _That_ is the word; I cannot shape my tongue - To syllable black deeds into smooth names, - Though I be wrought on to commit them. When - I heard you tempt your Sovereign, and forbore 60 - To have you dragged to prison, I became - Your guiltiest accomplice: now you may, - If it so please you, do as much by me. - - _I. Ber_. Strange words, my Lord, and most unmerited; - I am no spy, and neither are we traitors. - - _Doge_. _We--We!_--no matter--you have earned the right - To talk of _us_.--But to the point.--If this - Attempt succeeds, and Venice, rendered free - And flourishing, when we are in our graves, - Conducts her generations to our tombs, 70 - And makes her children with their little hands - Strew flowers o'er her deliverers' ashes, then - The consequence will sanctify the deed, - And we shall be like the two Bruti in - The annals of hereafter; but if not, - If we should fail, employing bloody means - And secret plot, although to a good end, - Still we are traitors, honest Israel;--thou - No less than he who was thy Sovereign - Six hours ago, and now thy brother rebel. 80 - - _I. Ber_. 'Tis not the moment to consider thus, - Else I could answer.--Let us to the meeting, - Or we may be observed in lingering here. - - _Doge_. We _are_ observed, and have been. - - _I. Ber_. We observed! - Let me discover--and this steel----- - - _Doge_. Put up; - Here are no human witnesses: look there-- - What see you? - - _I. Ber_. Only a tall warrior's statue[420] - Bestriding a proud steed, in the dim light - Of the dull moon. - - _Doge_. That Warrior was the sire - Of my sire's fathers, and that statue was 90 - Decreed to him by the twice rescued city:-- - Think you that he looks down on us or no? - - _I. Ber_. My Lord, these are mere fantasies; there are - No eyes in marble. - - _Doge_. But there are in Death. - I tell thee, man, there is a spirit in - Such things that acts and sees, unseen, though felt; - And, if there be a spell to stir the dead, - 'Tis in such deeds as we are now upon. - Deem'st thou the souls of such a race as mine - Can rest, when he, their last descendant Chief, 100 - Stands plotting on the brink of their pure graves - With stung plebeians? - - _I. Ber_. It had been as well - To have pondered this before,--ere you embarked - In our great enterprise.--Do you repent? - - _Doge_. No--but I _feel_, and shall do to the last. - I cannot quench a glorious life at once, - Nor dwindle to the thing I now must be,[dm] - And take men's lives by stealth, without some pause: - Yet doubt me not; it is this very feeling, - And knowing _what_ has wrung me to be thus, 110 - Which is your best security. There's not - A roused mechanic in your busy plot[dn] - So wronged as I, so fall'n, so loudly called - To his redress: the very means I am forced - By these fell tyrants to adopt is such, - That I abhor them doubly for the deeds - Which I must do to pay them back for theirs. - - _I. Ber_. Let us away--hark--the Hour strikes. - - _Doge_. On--on-- - It is our knell, or that of Venice.--On. - - _I. Ber_. Say rather, 'tis her Freedom's rising peal 120 - Of Triumph. This way--we are near the place. - [_Exeunt_. - - - SCENE II.--_The House where the Conspirators meet._ - - DAGOLINO, DORO, BERTRAM, FEDELE TREVISANO, CALENDARO, - ANTONIO DELLE BENDE, ETC., ETC. - - _Cal_. (_entering_). Are all here? - - _Dag_. All with you; except the three - On duty, and our leader Israel, - Who is expected momently. - - _Cal_. Where's Bertram? - - _Ber_. Here! - - _Cal_. Have you not been able to complete - The number wanting in your company? - - _Ber_. I had marked out some: but I have not dared - To trust them with the secret, till assured - That they were worthy faith. - - _Cal_. There is no need - Of trusting to their faith; _who_, save ourselves - And our more chosen comrades, is aware 10 - Fully of our intent? they think themselves - Engaged in secret to the Signory,[421] - To punish some more dissolute young nobles - Who have defied the law in their excesses; - But once drawn up, and their new swords well fleshed - In the rank hearts of the more odious Senators, - They will not hesitate to follow up - Their blow upon the others, when they see - The example of their chiefs, and I for one - Will set them such, that they for very shame 20 - And safety will not pause till all have perished. - - _Ber_. How say you? _all!_ - - _Cal_. Whom wouldst thou spare? - - _Ber_. _I spare?_ - I have no power to spare. I only questioned, - Thinking that even amongst these wicked men - There might be some, whose age and qualities - Might mark them out for pity. - - _Cal_. Yes, such pity - As when the viper hath been cut to pieces, - The separate fragments quivering in the sun, - In the last energy of venomous life, - Deserve and have. Why, I should think as soon 30 - Of pitying some particular fang which made - One in the jaw of the swoln serpent, as - Of saving one of these: they form but links - Of one long chain; one mass, one breath, one body; - They eat, and drink, and live, and breed together, - Revel, and lie, oppress, and kill in concert,-- - So let them die as _one!_[do] - - _Dag_. Should _one_ survive, - He would be dangerous as the whole; it is not - Their number, be it tens or thousands, but - The spirit of this Aristocracy 40 - Which must be rooted out; and if there were - A single shoot of the old tree in life, - 'Twould fasten in the soil, and spring again - To gloomy verdure and to bitter fruit. - Bertram, we must be firm! - - _Cal_. Look to it well - Bertram! I have an eye upon thee. - - _Ber_. Who - Distrusts me? - - _Cal_. Not I; for if I did so, - Thou wouldst not now be there to talk of trust: - It is thy softness, not thy want of faith, - Which makes thee to be doubted. - - - _Ber_. You should know 50 - Who hear me, who and what I am; a man - Roused like yourselves to overthrow oppression; - A kind man, I am apt to think, as some - Of you have found me; and if brave or no, - You, Calendaro, can pronounce, who have seen me - Put to the proof; or, if you should have doubts, - I'll clear them on your person! - - _Cal_. You are welcome, - When once our enterprise is o'er, which must not - Be interrupted by a private brawl. - - _Ber_. I am no brawler; but can bear myself 60 - As far among the foe as any he - Who hears me; else why have I been selected - To be of your chief comrades? but no less - I own my natural weakness; I have not - Yet learned to think of indiscriminate murder - Without some sense of shuddering; and the sight - Of blood which spouts through hoary scalps is not - To me a thing of triumph, nor the death - Of man surprised a glory. Well--too well - I know that we must do such things on those 70 - Whose acts have raised up such avengers; but - If there were some of these who could be saved - From out this sweeping fate, for our own sakes - And for our honour, to take off some stain - Of massacre, which else pollutes it wholly, - I had been glad; and see no cause in this - For sneer, nor for suspicion! - - _Dag_. Calm thee, Bertram, - For we suspect thee not, and take good heart. - It is the cause, and not our will, which asks - Such actions from our hands: we'll wash away 80 - All stains in Freedom's fountain! - - _Enter_ ISRAEL BERTUCCIO, _and the_ DOGE, _disguised_. - - _Dag_. Welcome, Israel. - - _Consp_. Most welcome.--Brave Bertuccio, thou art late-- - Who is this stranger? - - _Cal_. It is time to name him. - Our comrades are even now prepared to greet him - In brotherhood, as I have made it known - That thou wouldst add a brother to our cause, - Approved by thee, and thus approved by all, - Such is our trust in all thine actions. Now - Let him unfold himself. - - _I. Ber_. Stranger, step forth! - [_The Doge discovers himself_. - - _Consp_. To arms!--we are betrayed--it is the Doge! 90 - Down with them both! our traitorous captain, and - The tyrant he hath sold us to. - - _Cal_. (_drawing his sword_). Hold! hold! - Who moves a step against them dies. Hold! hear - Bertuccio--What! are you appalled to see - A lone, unguarded, weaponless old man - Amongst you?--Israel, speak! what means this mystery? - - _I. Ber_. Let them advance and strike at their own bosoms, - Ungrateful suicides! for on our lives - Depend their own, their fortunes, and their hopes. - - _Doge_. Strike!--If I dreaded death, a death more fearful 100 - Than any your rash weapons can inflict, - I should not now be here: Oh, noble Courage! - The eldest born of Fear, which makes you brave - Against this solitary hoary head! - See the bold chiefs, who would reform a state - And shake down senates, mad with wrath and dread - At sight of one patrician! Butcher me! - You can, I care not.--Israel, are these men - The mighty hearts you spoke of? look upon them! - - _Cal_. Faith! he hath shamed us, and deservedly, 110 - Was this your trust in your true Chief Bertuccio, - To turn your swords against him and his guest? - Sheathe them, and hear him. - - _I. Ber_. I disdain to speak. - They might and must have known a heart like mine - Incapable of treachery; and the power - They gave me to adopt all fitting means - To further their design was ne'er abused. - They might be certain that who e'er was brought - By me into this Council had been led - To take his choice--as brother, or as victim. 120 - - _Doge_. And which am I to be? your actions leave - Some cause to doubt the freedom of the choice. - - _I. Ber_. My Lord, we would have perished here together, - Had these rash men proceeded; but, behold, - They are ashamed of that mad moment's impulse, - And droop their heads; believe me, they are such - As I described them.--Speak to them. - - _Cal_. Aye, speak; - We are all listening in wonder.[dp] - - _I. Ber_. (_addressing the conspirators_). You are safe, - Nay, more, almost triumphant--listen then, - And know my words for truth. - - _Doge_. You see me here, 130 - As one of you hath said, an old, unarmed, - Defenceless man; and yesterday you saw me - Presiding in the hall of ducal state, - Apparent Sovereign of our hundred isles,[dq][422] - Robed in official purple, dealing out - The edicts of a power which is not mine, - Nor yours, but of our masters--the patricians. - Why I was there you know, or think you know; - Why I am _here_, he who hath been most wronged, - He who among you hath been most insulted, 140 - Outraged and trodden on, until he doubt - If he be worm or no, may answer for me, - Asking of his own heart what brought him here? - You know my recent story, all men know it, - And judge of it far differently from those - Who sate in judgement to heap scorn on scorn. - But spare me the recital--it is here, - Here at my heart the outrage--but my words, - Already spent in unavailing plaints, - Would only show my feebleness the more, 150 - And I come here to strengthen even the strong, - And urge them on to deeds, and not to war - With woman's weapons; but I need not urge you. - Our private wrongs have sprung from public vices, - In this--I cannot call it commonwealth, - Nor kingdom, which hath neither prince nor people, - But all the sins of the old Spartan state[dr] - Without its virtues--temperance and valour. - The Lords of Lacedaemon were true soldiers,[ds] - But ours are Sybarites, while we are Helots, 160 - Of whom I am the lowest, most enslaved; - Although dressed out to head a pageant, as - The Greeks of yore made drunk their slaves to form - A pastime for their children. You are met - To overthrow this Monster of a state, - This mockery of a Government, this spectre, - Which must be exorcised with blood,--and then - We will renew the times of Truth and Justice, - Condensing in a fair free commonwealth - Not rash equality but equal rights, 170 - Proportioned like the columns to the temple, - Giving and taking strength reciprocal, - And making firm the whole with grace and beauty, - So that no part could be removed without - Infringement of the general symmetry. - In operating this great change, I claim - To be one of you--if you trust in me; - If not, strike home,--my life is compromised, - And I would rather fall by freemen's hands - Than live another day to act the tyrant 180 - As delegate of tyrants: such I am not, - And never have been--read it in our annals; - I can appeal to my past government - In many lands and cities; they can tell you - If I were an oppressor, or a man - Feeling and thinking for my fellow men. - Haply had I been what the Senate sought, - A thing of robes and trinkets,[423] dizened out - To sit in state as for a Sovereign's picture; - A popular scourge, a ready sentence-signer, 190 - A stickler for the Senate and "the Forty," - A sceptic of all measures which had not - The sanction of "the Ten,"[424] a council-fawner, - A tool--a fool--a puppet,--they had ne'er - Fostered the wretch who stung me. What I suffer - Has reached me through my pity for the people; - That many know, and they who know not yet - Will one day learn: meantime I do devote, - Whate'er the issue, my last days of life-- - My present power such as it is, not that 200 - Of Doge, but of a man who has been great - Before he was degraded to a Doge, - And still has individual means and mind; - I stake my fame (and I had fame)--my breath-- - (The least of all, for its last hours are nigh) - My heart--my hope--my soul--upon this cast! - Such as I am, I offer me to you - And to your chiefs; accept me or reject me,-- - A Prince who fain would be a Citizen - Or nothing, and who has left his throne to be so. 210 - - _Cal_. Long live Faliero!--Venice shall be free! - - _Consp_. Long live Faliero! - - _I. Ber_. Comrades! did I well? - Is not this man a host in such a cause? - - _Doge_. This is no time for eulogies, nor place - For exultation. Am I one of you? - - _Cal_. Aye, and the first among us, as thou hast been - Of Venice--be our General and Chief. - - _Doge_. Chief!--General!--I was General at Zara, - And Chief in Rhodes and Cyprus,[425] Prince in Venice: - I cannot stoop--that is, I am not fit 220 - To lead a band of--patriots: when I lay - Aside the dignities which I have borne, - 'Tis not to put on others, but to be - Mate to my fellows--but now to the point: - Israel has stated to me your whole plan-- - 'Tis bold, but feasible if I assist it, - And must be set in motion instantly. - - _Cal_. E'en when thou wilt. Is it not so, my friends? - I have disposed all for a sudden blow; - When shall it be then? - - _Doge_. At sunrise. - - _Ber_. So soon? 230 - - _Doge_. So soon?--so late--each hour accumulates - Peril on peril, and the more so now - Since I have mingled with you;--know you not - The Council, and "the Ten?" the spies, the eyes - Of the patricians dubious of their slaves, - And now more dubious of the Prince they have made one? - I tell you, you must strike, and suddenly, - Full to the Hydra's heart--its heads will follow. - - _Cal_. With all my soul and sword, I yield assent; - Our companies are ready, sixty each, 240 - And all now under arms by Israel's order; - Each at their different place of rendezvous, - And vigilant, expectant of some blow; - Let each repair for action to his post! - And now, my Lord, the signal? - - _Doge_. When you hear - The great bell of Saint Mark's, which may not be - Struck without special order of the Doge - (The last poor privilege they leave their Prince), - March on Saint Mark's! - - _I. Ber_. And there?-- - - _Doge_. By different routes - Let your march be directed, every sixty 250 - Entering a separate avenue, and still - Upon the way let your cry be of War - And of the Genoese Fleet, by the first dawn - Discerned before the port; form round the palace, - Within whose court will be drawn out in arms - My nephew and the clients of our house, - Many and martial; while the bell tolls on, - Shout ye, "Saint Mark!--the foe is on our waters!" - - _Cal_. I see it now--but on, my noble Lord. - - _Doge_. All the patricians flocking to the Council, 260 - (Which they dare not refuse, at the dread signal - Pealing from out their Patron Saint's proud tower,) - Will then be gathered in unto the harvest, - And we will reap them with the sword for sickle. - If some few should be tardy or absent, them, - 'Twill be but to be taken faint and single, - When the majority are put to rest. - - _Cal_. Would that the hour were come! we will not scotch,[426] - But kill. - - _Ber_. Once more, sir, with your pardon, I - Would now repeat the question which I asked 270 - Before Bertuccio added to our cause - This great ally who renders it more sure, - And therefore safer, and as such admits - Some dawn of mercy to a portion of - Our victims--must all perish in this slaughter? - - _Cal_. All who encounter me and mine--be sure, - The mercy they have shown, I show. - - _Consp_. All! all! - Is this a time to talk of pity? when - Have they e'er shown, or felt, or feigned it? - - _I. Ber_. Bertram, - This false compassion is a folly, and 280 - Injustice to thy comrades and thy cause! - Dost thou not see, that if we single out - Some for escape, they live but to avenge - The fallen? and how distinguish now the innocent - From out the guilty? all their acts are one-- - A single emanation from one body, - Together knit for our oppression! 'Tis - Much that we let their children live; I doubt - If all of these even should be set apart: - The hunter may reserve some single cub 290 - From out the tiger's litter, but who e'er - Would seek to save the spotted sire or dam, - Unless to perish by their fangs? however, - I will abide by Doge Faliero's counsel: - Let him decide if any should be saved. - - _Doge_. Ask me not--tempt me not with such a question-- - Decide yourselves. - - _I. Ber_. You know their private virtues - Far better than we can, to whom alone - Their public vices, and most foul oppression, - Have made them deadly; if there be amongst them 300 - One who deserves to be repealed, pronounce. - - _Doge_. Dolfino's father was my friend, and Lando - Fought by my side, and Marc Cornaro shared[dt][427] - My Genoese embassy: I saved the life[du] - Of Veniero--shall I save it twice? - Would that I could save them and Venice also! - All these men, or their fathers, were my friends - Till they became my subjects; then fell from me - As faithless leaves drop from the o'erblown flower, - And left me a lone blighted thorny stalk, 310 - Which, in its solitude, can shelter nothing; - So, as they let me wither, let them perish! - - _Cal_. They cannot co-exist with Venice' freedom! - - _Doge_. Ye, though you know and feel our mutual mass - Of many wrongs, even ye are ignorant[dv] - What fatal poison to the springs of Life, - To human ties, and all that's good and dear, - Lurks in the present institutes of Venice: - All these men were my friends; I loved them, they - Requited honourably my regards; 320 - We served and fought; we smiled and wept in concert; - We revelled or we sorrowed side by side; - We made alliances of blood and marriage; - We grew in years and honours fairly,--till - Their own desire, not my ambition, made - Them choose me for their Prince, and then farewell! - Farewell all social memory! all thoughts - In common! and sweet bonds which link old friendships, - When the survivors of long years and actions, - Which now belong to history, soothe the days 330 - Which yet remain by treasuring each other, - And never meet, but each beholds the mirror - Of half a century on his brother's brow, - And sees a hundred beings, now in earth, - Flit round them whispering of the days gone by, - And seeming not all dead, as long as two - Of the brave, joyous, reckless, glorious band, - Which once were one and many, still retain - A breath to sigh for them, a tongue to speak - Of deeds that else were silent, save on marble---- 340 - _Oime Oime!_[428]--and must I do this deed? - - _I. Ber_. My Lord, you are much moved: it is not now - That such things must be dwelt upon. - - _Doge_. Your patience - A moment--I recede not: mark with me - The gloomy vices of this government. - From the hour they made me Doge, the _Doge_ they _made_ me-- - Farewell the past! I died to all that had been, - Or rather they to me: no friends, no kindness, - No privacy of life--all were cut off: - They came not near me--such approach gave umbrage; 350 - They could not love me--such was not the law; - They thwarted me--'twas the state's policy; - They baffled me--'twas a patrician's duty; - They wronged me, for such was to right the state; - They could not right me--that would give suspicion; - So that I was a slave to my own subjects; - So that I was a foe to my own friends; - Begirt with spies for guards, with robes for power, - With pomp for freedom, gaolers for a council, - Inquisitors for friends, and Hell for life! 360 - I had only one fount of quiet left, - And _that_ they poisoned! My pure household gods[429] - Were shivered on my hearth, and o'er their shrine - Sate grinning Ribaldry, and sneering Scorn.[dw] - - _I. Ber_. You have been deeply wronged, and now shall be - Nobly avenged before another night. - - _Doge_. I had borne all--it hurt me, but I bore it-- - Till this last running over of the cup - Of bitterness--until this last loud insult, - Not only unredressed, but sanctioned; then, 370 - And thus, I cast all further feelings from me-- - The feelings which they crushed for me, long, long[dx] - Before, even in their oath of false allegiance! - Even in that very hour and vow, they abjured - Their friend and made a Sovereign, as boys make - _Playthings_, to do their pleasure--and be broken![dy] - I from that hour have seen but Senators - In dark suspicious conflict with the Doge, - Brooding with him in mutual hate and fear; - They dreading he should snatch the tyranny 380 - From out their grasp, and he abhorring tyrants. - To me, then, these men have no _private_ life, - Nor claim to ties they have cut off from others; - As Senators for arbitrary acts - Amenable, I look on them--as such - Let them be dealt upon. - - _Cal_. And now to action! - Hence, brethren, to our posts, and may this be - The last night of mere words: I'd fain be doing! - Saint Mark's great bell at dawn shall find me wakeful! - - _I. Ber_. Disperse then to your posts: be firm and vigilant; 390 - Think on the wrongs we bear, the rights we claim. - This day and night shall be the last of peril! - Watch for the signal, and then march. I go - To join my band; let each be prompt to marshal - His separate charge: the Doge will now return - To the palace to prepare all for the blow. - We part to meet in Freedom and in Glory! - - _Cal_. Doge, when I greet you next, my homage to you - Shall be the head of Steno on this sword! - - _Doge_. No; let him be reserved unto the last, 400 - Nor turn aside to strike at such a prey,[dz] - Till nobler game is quarried: his offence - Was a mere ebullition of the vice, - The general corruption generated - By the foul Aristocracy: he could not-- - He dared not in more honourable days - Have risked it. I have merged all private wrath - Against him in the thought of our great purpose. - A slave insults me--I require his punishment - From his proud master's hands; if he refuse it, 410 - The offence grows his, and let him answer it. - - _Cal_. Yet, as the immediate cause of the alliance - Which consecrates our undertaking more, - I owe him such deep gratitude, that fain - I would repay him as he merits; may I? - - _Doge_. You would but lop the hand, and I the head; - You would but smite the scholar, I the master; - You would but punish Steno, I the Senate. - I cannot pause on individual hate, - In the absorbing, sweeping, whole revenge, 420 - Which, like the sheeted fire from Heaven, must blast - Without distinction, as it fell of yore, - Where the Dead Sea hath quenched two Cities' ashes. - - _I. Ber_. Away, then, to your posts! I but remain - A moment to accompany the Doge - To our late place of tryst, to see no spies - Have been upon the scout, and thence I hasten - To where my allotted band is under arms. - - _Cal_. Farewell, then,--until dawn! - - _I. Ber_. Success go with you! - - _Consp_. We will not fail--Away! My Lord, farewell! 430 - - [_The Conspirators salute the_ DOGE _and_ ISRAEL BERTUCCIO, - _and retire, headed by_ PHILIP CALENDARO. _The_ DOGE _and_ - ISRAEL BERTUCCIO _remain_. - - _I. Ber_. We have them in the toil--it cannot fail! - Now thou'rt indeed a Sovereign, and wilt make - A name immortal greater than the greatest: - Free citizens have struck at Kings ere now; - Caesars have fallen, and even patrician hands - Have crushed dictators, as the popular steel - Has reached patricians: but, until this hour, - What Prince has plotted for his people's freedom? - Or risked a life to liberate his subjects? - For ever, and for ever, they conspire 440 - Against the people, to abuse their hands - To chains, but laid aside to carry weapons - Against the fellow nations, so that yoke - On yoke, and slavery and death may whet, - _Not glut_, the never-gorged Leviathan! - Now, my Lord, to our enterprise;--'tis great, - And greater the reward; why stand you rapt? - A moment back, and you were all impatience! - - _Doge_. And is it then decided! must they die? - - _I. Ber_. Who? - - _Doge_. My own friends by blood and courtesy, 450 - And many deeds and days--the Senators? - - _I. Ber_. You passed their sentence, and it is a just one. - - _Doge_. Aye, so it seems, and so it is to _you_; - You are a patriot, a plebeian Gracchus--[ea] - The rebel's oracle, the people's tribune-- - I blame you not--you act in your vocation;[430] - They smote you, and oppressed you, and despised you; - So they have _me_: but _you_ ne'er spake with them; - You never broke their bread, nor shared their salt; - You never had their wine-cup at your lips: 460 - You grew not up with them, nor laughed, nor wept, - Nor held a revel in their company; - Ne'er smiled to see them smile, nor claimed their smile - In social interchange for yours, nor trusted - Nor wore them in your heart of hearts, as I have: - These hairs of mine are grey, and so are theirs, - The elders of the Council: I remember - When all our locks were like the raven's wing, - As we went forth to take our prey around - The isles wrung from the false Mahometan; 470 - And can I see them dabbled o'er with blood? - Each stab to them will seem my suicide. - - _I. Ber_. Doge! Doge! this vacillation is unworthy - A child; if you are not in second childhood, - Call back your nerves to your own purpose, nor - Thus shame yourself and me. By Heavens! I'd rather - Forego even now, or fail in our intent, - Than see the man I venerate subside - From high resolves into such shallow weakness! - You have seen blood in battle, shed it, both 480 - Your own and that of others; can you shrink then - From a few drops from veins of hoary vampires, - Who but give back what they have drained from millions? - - _Doge_. Bear with me! Step by step, and blow on blow, - I will divide with you; think not I waver: - Ah! no; it is the _certainty_ of all - Which I must do doth make me tremble thus. - But let these last and lingering thoughts have way, - To which you only and the night are conscious, - And both regardless; when the Hour arrives, 490 - 'Tis mine to sound the knell, and strike the blow, - Which shall unpeople many palaces, - And hew the highest genealogic trees - Down to the earth, strewed with their bleeding fruit, - And crush their blossoms into barrenness: - _This will_ I--must I--have I sworn to do, - Nor aught can turn me from my destiny; - But still I quiver to behold what I - Must be, and think what I have been! Bear with me. - - _I. Ber_. Re-man your breast; I feel no such remorse, 500 - I understand it not: why should you change? - You acted, and you act, on your free will. - - _Doge_. Aye, there it is--_you_ feel not, nor do I, - Else I should stab thee on the spot, to save - A thousand lives--and killing, do no murder; - You _feel_ not--you go to this butcher-work - As if these high-born men were steers for shambles: - When all is over, you'll be free and merry, - And calmly wash those hands incarnadine; - But I, outgoing thee and all thy fellows 510 - In this surpassing massacre, shall be, - Shall see and feel--oh God! oh God! 'tis true, - And thou dost well to answer that it was - "My own free will and act," and yet you err, - For I will do this! Doubt not--fear not; I - Will be your most unmerciful accomplice! - And yet I act no more on my free will, - Nor my own feelings--both compel me back; - But there is _Hell_ within me and around, - And like the Demon who believes and trembles 520 - Must I abhor and do. Away! away! - Get thee unto thy fellows, I will hie me - To gather the retainers of our house. - Doubt not, St. Mark's great bell shall wake all Venice, - Except her slaughtered Senate: ere the Sun - Be broad upon the Adriatic there - Shall be a voice of weeping, which shall drown - The roar of waters in the cry of blood! - I am resolved--come on. - - _I. Ber_. With all my soul! - Keep a firm rein upon these bursts of passion; 530 - Remember what these men have dealt to thee, - And that this sacrifice will be succeeded - By ages of prosperity and freedom - To this unshackled city: a true tyrant[eb] - Would have depopulated empires, nor - Have felt the strange compunction which hath wrung you - To punish a few traitors to the people. - Trust me, such were a pity more misplaced - Than the late mercy of the state to Steno. - - _Doge_. Man, thou hast struck upon the chord which jars 540 - All nature from my heart. Hence to our task! - [_Exeunt_. - - - - - ACT IV. - - - SCENE I.--_Palazzo of the Patrician_ LIONI.[431] LIONI _laying - aside the mask and cloak which the Venetian Nobles wore in - public, attended by a Domestic_. - - _Lioni_. I will to rest, right weary of this revel, - The gayest we have held for many moons, - And yet--I know not why--it cheered me not; - There came a heaviness across my heart, - Which, in the lightest movement of the dance, - Though eye to eye, and hand in hand united - Even with the Lady of my Love, oppressed me, - And through my spirit chilled my blood, until - A damp like Death rose o'er my brow; I strove - To laugh the thought away, but 'twould not be; 10 - Through all the music ringing in my ears[ec] - A knell was sounding as distinct and clear, - Though low and far, as e'er the Adrian wave - Rose o'er the City's murmur in the night, - Dashing against the outward Lido's bulwark: - So that I left the festival before - It reached its zenith, and will woo my pillow - For thoughts more tranquil, or forgetfulness. - Antonio, take my mask and cloak, and light - The lamp within my chamber. - - _Ant_. Yes, my Lord: 20 - Command you no refreshment? - - _Lioni_. Nought, save sleep, - Which will not be commanded. Let me hope it, - [_Exit_ ANTONIO. - Though my breast feels too anxious; I will try - Whether the air will calm my spirits: 'tis - A goodly night; the cloudy wind which blew - From the Levant hath crept into its cave, - And the broad Moon hath brightened. What a stillness! - [_Goes to an open lattice_. - And what a contrast with the scene I left, - Where the tall torches' glare, and silver lamps' - More pallid gleam along the tapestried walls, 30 - Spread over the reluctant gloom which haunts - Those vast and dimly-latticed galleries - A dazzling mass of artificial light, - Which showed all things, but nothing as they were. - There Age essaying to recall the past, - After long striving for the hues of Youth - At the sad labour of the toilet, and - Full many a glance at the too faithful mirror, - Pranked forth in all the pride of ornament, - Forgot itself, and trusting to the falsehood 40 - Of the indulgent beams, which show, yet hide, - Believed itself forgotten, and was fooled. - There Youth, which needed not, nor thought of such - Vain adjuncts, lavished its true bloom, and health, - And bridal beauty, in the unwholesome press - Of flushed and crowded wassailers, and wasted - Its hours of rest in dreaming this was pleasure, - And so shall waste them till the sunrise streams - On sallow cheeks and sunken eyes, which should not - Have worn this aspect yet for many a year.[432] 50 - The music, and the banquet, and the wine, - The garlands, the rose odours, and the flowers, - The sparkling eyes, and flashing ornaments, - The white arms and the raven hair, the braids - And bracelets; swanlike bosoms, and the necklace, - An India in itself, yet dazzling not - The eye like what it circled; the thin robes, - Floating like light clouds 'twixt our gaze and heaven; - The many-twinkling feet so small and sylphlike, - Suggesting the more secret symmetry[ed] 60 - Of the fair forms which terminate so well-- - All the delusion of the dizzy scene, - Its false and true enchantments--Art and Nature, - Which swam before my giddy eyes, that drank - The sight of beauty as the parched pilgrim's - On Arab sands the false mirage, which offers - A lucid lake to his eluded thirst, - Are gone. Around me are the stars and waters-- - Worlds mirrored in the Ocean, goodlier sight[ee] - Than torches glared back by a gaudy glass; 70 - And the great Element, which is to space - What Ocean is to Earth, spreads its blue depths, - Softened with the first breathings of the spring; - The high Moon sails upon her beauteous way, - Serenely smoothing o'er the lofty walls - Of those tall piles and sea-girt palaces,[ef] - Whose porphyry pillars, and whose costly fronts, - Fraught with the Orient spoil of many marbles, - Like altars ranged along the broad canal, - Seem each a trophy of some mighty deed 80 - Reared up from out the waters, scarce less strangely - Than those more massy and mysterious giants - Of architecture, those Titanian fabrics, - Which point in Egypt's plains to times that have - No other record. All is gentle: nought - Stirs rudely; but, congenial with the night, - Whatever walks is gliding like a spirit. - The tinklings of some vigilant guitars - Of sleepless lovers to a wakeful mistress, - And cautious opening of the casement, showing 90 - That he is not unheard; while her young hand, - Fair as the moonlight of which it seems part, - So delicately white, it trembles in - The act of opening the forbidden lattice,[433] - To let in love through music, makes his heart - Thrill like his lyre-strings at the sight; the dash - Phosphoric of the oar, or rapid twinkle - Of the far lights of skimming gondolas,[434] - And the responsive voices of the choir - Of boatmen answering back with verse for verse; 100 - Some dusky shadow checkering the Rialto; - Some glimmering palace roof, or tapering spire,[eg] - Are all the sights and sounds which here pervade - The ocean-born and earth-commanding City-- - How sweet and soothing is this hour of calm! - I thank thee, Night! for thou hast chased away - Those horrid bodements which, amidst the throng, - I could not dissipate: and with the blessing - Of thy benign and quiet influence, - Now will I to my couch, although to rest 110 - Is almost wronging such a night as this,---- - [_A knocking is heard from without_. - Hark! what is that? or who at such a moment?[eh] - - _Enter_ ANTONIO. - - _Ant_. My Lord, a man without, on urgent business, - Implores to be admitted. - - _Lioni_. Is he a stranger?[ei] - - _Ant_. His face is muffled in his cloak, but both - His voice and gestures seem familiar to me;[ej] - I craved his name, but this he seemed reluctant - To trust, save to yourself; most earnestly - He sues to be permitted to approach you. - - _Lioni_. 'Tis a strange hour, and a suspicious bearing! 120 - And yet there is slight peril: 'tis not in - Their houses noble men are struck at; still, - Although I know not that I have a foe - In Venice, 'twill be wise to use some caution. - Admit him, and retire; but call up quickly - Some of thy fellows, who may wait without.-- - Who can this man be?-- - [_Exit_ ANTONIO, _and returns with_ BERTRAM _muffled_. - - _Ber_. My good Lord Lioni, - I have no time to lose, nor thou,--dismiss - This menial hence; I would be private with you. - - _Lioni_. It seems the voice of Bertram--Go, Antonio. 130 - [_Exit_ ANTONIO. - Now, stranger, what would you at such an hour? - - _Ber_. (_discovering himself_). - A boon, my noble patron; you have granted - Many to your poor client, Bertram; add - This one, and make him happy. - - _Lioni_. Thou hast known me - From boyhood, ever ready to assist thee - In all fair objects of advancement, which - Beseem one of thy station; I would promise - Ere thy request was heard, but that the hour, - Thy bearing, and this strange and hurried mode - Of suing, gives me to suspect this visit 140 - Hath some mysterious import--but say on-- - What has occurred, some rash and sudden broil?-- - A cup too much, a scuffle, and a stab? - Mere things of every day; so that thou hast not - Spilt noble blood, I guarantee thy safety; - But then thou must withdraw, for angry friends - And relatives, in the first burst of vengeance, - Are things in Venice deadlier than the laws. - - _Ber_. My Lord, I thank you; but---- - - _Lioni_. But what? You have not - Raised a rash hand against one of our order? 150 - If so--withdraw and fly--and own it not;[ek] - I would not slay--but then I must not save thee! - He who has shed patrician blood---- - - _Ber_. I come - To save patrician blood, and not to shed it! - And thereunto I must be speedy, for - Each minute lost may lose a life; since Time - Has changed his slow scythe for the two-edged sword, - And is about to take, instead of sand, - The dust from sepulchres to fill his hour-glass!-- - Go not _thou_ forth to-morrow! - - _Lioni_. Wherefore not?-- 160 - What means this menace? - - _Ber_. Do not seek its meaning, - But do as I implore thee;--stir not forth, - Whate'er be stirring; though the roar of crowds-- - The cry of women, and the shrieks of babes-- - The groans of men--the clash of arms--the sound - Of rolling drum, shrill trump, and hollow bell, - Peal in one wide alarum l--Go not forth, - Until the Tocsin's silent, nor even then - Till I return! - - _Lioni_. Again, what does this mean? - - _Ber_. Again, I tell thee, ask not; but by all 170 - Thou holdest dear on earth or Heaven--by all - The Souls of thy great fathers, and thy hope - To emulate them, and to leave behind - Descendants worthy both of them and thee-- - By all thou hast of blessed in hope or memory-- - By all thou hast to fear here or hereafter-- - By all the good deeds thou hast done to me, - Good I would now repay with greater good,[el] - Remain within--trust to thy household gods,[em] - And to my word for safety, if thou dost, 180 - As I now counsel--but if not, thou art lost! - - _Lioni_. I am indeed already lost in wonder; - Surely thou ravest! what have _I_ to dread? - Who are my foes? or if there be such, _why_ - Art _thou_ leagued with them?--_thou!_ or, if so leagued, - Why comest thou to tell me at this hour, - And not before? - - _Ber_. I cannot answer this. - Wilt thou go forth despite of this true warning? - - _Lioni_. I was not born to shrink from idle threats, - The cause of which I know not: at the hour 190 - Of council, be it soon or late, I shall not - Be found among the absent. - - _Ber_. Say not so! - Once more, art thou determined to go forth? - - _Lioni_. I am. Nor is there aught which shall impede me! - - _Ber_. Then, Heaven have mercy on thy soul!--Farewell! - [_Going_. - - _Lioni_. Stay--there is more in this than my own safety - Which makes me call thee back; we must not part thus: - Bertram, I have known thee long. - - _Ber_. From childhood, Signor, - You have been my protector: in the days - Of reckless infancy, when rank forgets, 200 - Or, rather, is not yet taught to remember - Its cold prerogative, we played together; - Our sports, our smiles, our tears, were mingled oft; - My father was your father's client, I - His son's scarce less than foster-brother; years - Saw us together--happy, heart-full hours! - Oh God! the difference 'twixt those hours and this! - - _Lioni_. Bertram, 'tis thou who hast forgotten them. - - _Ber_. Nor now, nor ever; whatsoe'er betide, - I would have saved you: when to Manhood's growth 210 - We sprung, and you, devoted to the state, - As suits your station, the more humble Bertram - Was left unto the labours of the humble, - Still you forsook me not; and if my fortunes - Have not been towering, 'twas no fault of him - Who ofttimes rescued and supported me, - When struggling with the tides of Circumstance, - Which bear away the weaker: noble blood - Ne'er mantled in a nobler heart than thine - Has proved to me, the poor plebeian Bertram. 220 - Would that thy fellow Senators were like thee! - - _Lioni_. Why, what hast thou to say against the Senate?[en] - - _Ber_. Nothing. - - _Lioni_. I know that there are angry spirits - And turbulent mutterers of stifled treason, - Who lurk in narrow places, and walk out - Muffled to whisper curses to the night; - Disbanded soldiers, discontented ruffians, - And desperate libertines who brawl in taverns; - _Thou_ herdest not with such: 'tis true, of late - I have lost sight of thee, but thou wert wont 230 - To lead a temperate life, and break thy bread - With honest mates, and bear a cheerful aspect. - What hath come to thee? in thy hollow eye - And hueless cheek, and thine unquiet motions, - Sorrow and Shame and Conscience seem at war - To waste thee. - - _Ber_. Rather Shame and Sorrow light - On the accursed tyranny which rides[eo] - The very air in Venice, and makes men - Madden as in the last hours of the plague - Which sweeps the soul deliriously from life! 240 - - _Lioni_. Some villains have been tampering with thee, Bertram; - This is not thy old language, nor own thoughts; - Some wretch has made thee drunk with disaffection: - But thou must not be lost so; thou _wert_ good - And kind, and art not fit for such base acts - As Vice and Villany would put thee to: - Confess--confide in me--thou know'st my nature. - What is it thou and thine are bound to do, - Which should prevent thy friend, the only son - Of him who was a friend unto thy father, 250 - So that our good-will is a heritage - We should bequeath to our posterity - Such as ourselves received it, or augmented; - I say, what is it thou must do, that I - Should deem thee dangerous, and keep the house - Like a sick girl? - - _Ber_. Nay, question me no further: - I must be gone.---- - - _Lioni_. And I be murdered!--say, - Was it not thus thou said'st, my gentle Bertram? - - _Ber_. Who talks of murder? what said I of murder? - Tis false! I did not utter such a word. 260 - - _Lioni_. Thou didst not; but from out thy wolfish eye, - So changed from what I knew it, there glares forth - The gladiator. If _my_ life's thine object, - Take it--I am unarmed,--and then away! - I would not hold my breath on such a tenure[ep] - As the capricious mercy of such things - As thou and those who have set thee to thy task-work. - - _Ber_. Sooner than spill thy blood, I peril mine; - Sooner than harm a hair of thine, I place - In jeopardy a thousand heads, and some 270 - As noble, nay, even nobler than thine own. - - _Lioni_. Aye, is it even so? Excuse me, Bertram; - I am not worthy to be singled out - From such exalted hecatombs--who are they - That _are_ in danger, and that _make_ the danger? - - _Ber_. Venice, and all that she inherits, are - Divided like a house against itself, - And so will perish ere to-morrow's twilight! - - _Lioni_. More mysteries, and awful ones! But now, - Or thou, or I, or both, it may be, are 280 - Upon the verge of ruin; speak once out, - And thou art safe and glorious: for 'tis more - Glorious to save than slay, and slay i' the dark too-- - Fie, Bertram! that was not a craft for thee! - How would it look to see upon a spear - The head of him whose heart was open to thee! - Borne by thy hand before the shuddering people? - And such may be my doom; for here I swear, - Whate'er the peril or the penalty - Of thy denunciation, I go forth, 290 - Unless thou dost detail the cause, and show - The consequence of all which led thee here! - - _Ber_. Is there no way to save thee? minutes fly, - And thou art lost!--_thou_! my sole benefactor, - The only being who was constant to me - Through every change. Yet, make me not a traitor! - Let me save thee--but spare my honour! - - _Lioni_. Where - Can lie the honour in a league of murder? - And who are traitors save unto the State? - - _Ber_. A league is still a compact, and more binding 300 - In honest hearts when words must stand for law; - And in my mind, there is no traitor like - He whose domestic treason plants the poniard[435] - Within the breast which trusted to his truth. - Lioni. And who will strike the steel to mine? - - _Ber_. Not I; - I could have wound my soul up to all things - Save this. _Thou_ must not die! and think how dear - Thy life is, when I risk so many lives, - Nay, more, the Life of lives, the liberty - Of future generations, _not_ to be 310 - The assassin thou miscall'st me:--once, once more - I do adjure thee, pass not o'er thy threshold! - - _Lioni_. It is in vain--this moment I go forth. - - _Ber_. Then perish Venice rather than my friend! - I will disclose--ensnare--betray--destroy-- - Oh, what a villain I become for thee! - - _Lioni_. Say, rather thy friend's saviour and the State's!-- - Speak--pause not--all rewards, all pledges for - Thy safety and thy welfare; wealth such as - The State accords her worthiest servants; nay, 330 - Nobility itself I guarantee thee, - So that thou art sincere and penitent. - - _Ber_. I have thought again: it must not be--I love thee-- - Thou knowest it--that I stand here is the proof, - Not least though last; but having done my duty - By thee, I now must do it by my country! - Farewell--we meet no more in life!--farewell! - - _Lioni_. What, ho!--Antonio--Pedro--to the door! - See that none pass--arrest this man!---- - - _Enter_ ANTONIO _and other armed Domestics, who seize_ BERTRAM. - - _Lioni_ (_continues_). Take care - He hath no harm; bring me my sword and cloak, 330 - And man the gondola with four oars--quick-- - [_Exit_ ANTONIO. - We will unto Giovanni Gradenigo's, - And send for Marc Cornaro:--fear not, Bertram; - This needful violence is for thy safety, - No less than for the general weal. - - _Ber_. Where wouldst thou - Bear me a prisoner? - - _Lioni_. Firstly to "the Ten;" - Next to the Doge. - - _Ber_. To the Doge? - - _Lioni_. Assuredly: - Is he not Chief of the State? - - _Ber_. Perhaps at sunrise-- - - _Lioni_. What mean you?--but we'll know anon. - - _Ber_. Art sure? - - _Lioni_. Sure as all gentle means can make; and if 340 - They fail, you know "the Ten" and their tribunal, - And that St. Mark's has dungeons, and the dungeons - A rack. - - _Ber_. Apply it then before the dawn - Now hastening into heaven.--One more such word, - And you shall perish piecemeal, by the death - You think to doom to me. - - _Re-enter_ ANTONIO. - - _Ant_. The bark is ready, - My Lord, and all prepared. - - _Lioni_. Look to the prisoner. - Bertram, I'll reason with thee as we go - To the Magnifico's, sage Gradenigo. [_Exeunt_. - - - SCENE II.--_The Ducal Palace_--_The Doge's Apartment_. - - _The_ DOGE _and his Nephew_ BERTUCCIO FALIERO. - - _Doge_. Are all the people of our house in muster? - - _Ber. F._ They are arrayed, and eager for the signal, - Within our palace precincts at San Polo:[436] - I come for your last orders. - - _Doge_. It had been - As well had there been time to have got together, - From my own fief, Val di Marino, more - Of our retainers--but it is too late. - - _Ber. F._ Methinks, my Lord,'tis better as it is: - A sudden swelling of our retinue - Had waked suspicion; and, though fierce and trusty, 10 - The vassals of that district are too rude - And quick in quarrel to have long maintained - The secret discipline we need for such - A service, till our foes are dealt upon. - - _Doge_. True; but when once the signal has been given, - _These_ are the men for such an enterprise; - These city slaves have all their private bias, - Their prejudice _against_ or _for_ this noble, - Which may induce them to o'erdo or spare - Where mercy may be madness; the fierce peasants, 20 - Serfs of my county of Val di Marino, - Would do the bidding of their lord without - Distinguishing for love or hate his foes; - Alike to them Marcello or Cornaro, - A Gradenigo or a Foscari;[eq] - They are not used to start at those vain names, - Nor bow the knee before a civic Senate; - A chief in armour is their Suzerain, - And not a thing in robes. - - _Ber. F._ We are enough; - And for the dispositions of our clients 30 - Against the Senate I will answer. - - _Doge_. Well, - The die is thrown; but for a warlike service, - Done in the field, commend me to my peasants: - They made the sun shine through the host of Huns - When sallow burghers slunk back to their tents, - And cowered to hear their own victorious trumpet. - If there be small resistance, you will find - These Citizens all Lions, like their Standard;[437] - But if there's much to do, you'll wish, with me, - A band of iron rustics at our backs. 40 - - _Ber_. Thus thinking, I must marvel you resolve - To strike the blow so suddenly. - - _Doge_. Such blows - Must be struck suddenly or never. When - I had o'ermastered the weak false remorse - Which yearned about my heart, too fondly yielding - A moment to the feelings of old days, - I was most fain to strike; and, firstly, that - I might not yield again to such emotions; - And, secondly, because of all these men, - Save Israel and Philip Calendaro, 50 - I know not well the courage or the faith: - To-day might find 'mongst them a traitor to us, - As yesterday a thousand to the Senate; - But once in, with their hilts hot in their hands, - They must _on_ for their own sakes; one stroke struck, - And the mere instinct of the first-born Cain, - Which ever lurks somewhere in human hearts, - Though Circumstance may keep it in abeyance, - Will urge the rest on like to wolves; the sight - Of blood to crowds begets the thirst of more, 60 - As the first wine-cup leads to the long revel; - And you will find a harder task to quell - Than urge them when they _have_ commenced, but _till_ - That moment, a mere voice, a straw, a shadow, - Are capable of turning them aside.-- - How goes the night? - - _Ber. F._ Almost upon the dawn. - - _Doge_. Then it is time to strike upon the bell. - Are the men posted? - - _Ber. F._ By this time they are; - But they have orders not to strike, until - They have command from you through me in person. 70 - - _Doge_. 'Tis well.--Will the morn never put to rest - These stars which twinkle yet o'er all the heavens? - I am settled and bound up, and being so, - The very effort which it cost me to - Resolve to cleanse this Commonwealth with fire, - Now leaves my mind more steady. I have wept, - And trembled at the thought of this dread duty; - But now I have put down all idle passion, - And look the growing tempest in the face, - As doth the pilot of an Admiral Galley:[438] 80 - Yet (wouldst thou think it, kinsman?) it hath been - A greater struggle to me, than when nations - Beheld their fate merged in the approaching fight, - Where I was leader of a phalanx, where - Thousands were sure to perish--Yes, to spill - The rank polluted current from the veins - Of a few bloated despots needed more - To steel me to a purpose such as made - Timoleon immortal,[439] than to face - The toils and dangers of a life of war. 90 - - _Ber. F._ It gladdens me to see your former wisdom - Subdue the furies which so wrung you ere - You were decided. - - _Doge_. It was ever thus - With me; the hour of agitation came - In the first glimmerings of a purpose, when - Passion had too much room to sway; but in - The hour of action I have stood as calm - As were the dead who lay around me: this - They knew who made me what I am, and trusted - To the subduing power which I preserved 100 - Over my mood, when its first burst was spent. - But they were not aware that there are things - Which make revenge a virtue by reflection, - And not an impulse of mere anger; though - The laws sleep, Justice wakes, and injured souls - Oft do a public right with private wrong, - And justify their deeds unto themselves.-- - Methinks the day breaks--is it not so? look, - Thine eyes are clear with youth;--the air puts on - A morning freshness, and, at least to me, 110 - The sea looks greyer through the lattice. - - _Ber. F._ True, - The morn is dappling in the sky.[er][440] - - _Doge_. Away then! - See that they strike without delay, and with - The first toll from St. Mark's, march on the palace - With all our House's strength; here I will meet you; - The Sixteen and their companies will move - In separate columns at the self-same moment: - Be sure you post yourself at the great Gate: - I would not trust "the Ten" except to us-- - The rest, the rabble of patricians, may 120 - Glut the more careless swords of those leagued with us. - Remember that the cry is still "Saint Mark! - The Genoese are come--ho! to the rescue! - Saint Mark and Liberty!"--Now--now to action![es] - - _Ber. F._ Farewell then, noble Uncle! we will meet - In freedom and true sovereignty, or never! - - _Doge_. Come hither, my Bertuccio--one embrace; - Speed, for the day grows broader; send me soon - A messenger to tell me how all goes - When you rejoin our troops, and then sound--sound 130 - The storm-bell from St. Mark's![et] - [_Exit_ BERTUCCIO FALIERO. - - _Doge_ (_solus_). He is gone, - And on each footstep moves a life. 'Tis done.[441] - Now the destroying Angel hovers o'er - Venice, and pauses ere he pours the vial, - Even as the eagle overlooks his prey, - And for a moment, poised in middle air, - Suspends the motion of his mighty wings, - Then swoops with his unerring beak.[442] Thou Day! - That slowly walk'st the waters! march--march on-- - I would not smite i' the dark, but rather see 140 - That no stroke errs. And you, ye blue sea waves! - I have seen you dyed ere now, and deeply too, - With Genoese, Saracen, and Hunnish gore, - While that of Venice flowed too, but victorious: - Now thou must wear an unmixed crimson; no - Barbaric blood can reconcile us now - Unto that horrible incarnadine, - But friend or foe will roll in civic slaughter. - And have I lived to fourscore years[443] for this? - I, who was named Preserver of the City? 150 - I, at whose name the million's caps were flung[eu] - Into the air, and cries from tens of thousands - Rose up, imploring Heaven to send me blessings, - And fame, and length of days--to see this day? - But this day, black within the calendar, - Shall be succeeded by a bright millennium. - Doge Dandolo survived to ninety summers - To vanquish empires, and refuse their crown;[444] - I will resign a crown, and make the State - Renew its freedom--but oh! by what means? 160 - The noble end must justify them. What - Are a few drops of human blood? 'tis false, - The blood of tyrants is not human; they, - Like to incarnate Molochs, feed on ours, - Until 'tis time to give them to the tombs - Which they have made so populous.--Oh World! - Oh Men! what are ye, and our best designs, - That we must work by crime to punish crime? - And slay as if Death had but this one gate, - When a few years would make the sword superfluous? 170 - And I, upon the verge of th' unknown realm, - Yet send so many heralds on before me?-- - I must not ponder this. [_A pause._ - Hark! was there not - A murmur as of distant voices, and - The tramp of feet in martial unison? - What phantoms even of sound our wishes raise! - It cannot be--the signal hath not rung-- - Why pauses it? My nephew's messenger - Should be upon his way to me, and he - Himself perhaps even now draws grating back 180 - Upon its ponderous hinge the steep tower portal, - Where swings the sullen huge oracular bell,[ev] - Which never knells but for a princely death, - Or for a state in peril, pealing forth - Tremendous bodements; let it do its office, - And be this peal its awfullest and last - Sound till the strong tower rock!--What! silent still? - I would go forth, but that my post is here, - To be the centre of re-union to - The oft discordant elements which form 190 - Leagues of this nature, and to keep compact - The wavering of the weak, in case of conflict; - For if they should do battle,'twill be here, - Within the palace, that the strife will thicken: - Then here must be my station, as becomes - The master-mover.--Hark! he comes--he comes, - My nephew, brave Bertuccio's messenger.-- - What tidings? Is he marching? hath he sped? - _They_ here!-all's lost-yet will I make an effort. - - _Enter a_ SIGNOR OF THE NIGHT,[445] _with Guards, etc., etc._ - - _Sig_. Doge, I arrest thee of high treason! - - _Doge_. Me! 200 - Thy Prince, of treason?--Who are they that dare - Cloak their own treason under such an order? - - _Sig_. (_showing his order_). - Behold my order from the assembled Ten. - - _Doge_. And _where_ are they, and _why_ assembled? no - Such Council can be lawful, till the Prince - Preside there, and that duty's mine:[446] on thine - I charge thee, give me way, or marshal me - To the Council chamber. - - _Sig_. Duke! it may not be: - Nor are they in the wonted Hall of Council, - But sitting in the convent of Saint Saviour's. 210 - - _Doge_. You dare to disobey me, then? - - _Sig_. I serve - The State, and needs must serve it faithfully; - My warrant is the will of those who rule it. - - _Doge_. And till that warrant has my signature - It is illegal, and, as _now_ applied, - Rebellious. Hast thou weighed well thy life's worth, - That thus you dare assume a lawless function?[ew] - - _Sig_. 'Tis not my office to reply, but act-- - I am placed here as guard upon thy person, - And not as judge to hear or to decide. 220 - - _Doge_ (_aside_). - I must gain time. So that the storm-bell sound,[ex][447] - All may be well yet. Kinsman, speed--speed--speed!-- - Our fate is trembling in the balance, and - Woe to the vanquished! be they Prince and people, - Or slaves and Senate-- - [_The great bell of St. Mark's tolls._ - Lo! it sounds--it tolls! - - _Doge_ (_aloud_). - Hark, Signor of the Night! and you, ye hirelings, - Who wield your mercenary staves in fear, - It is your knell.--Swell on, thou lusty peal! - Now, knaves, what ransom for your lives? - - _Sig_. Confusion! - Stand to your arms, and guard the door--all's lost 230 - Unless that fearful bell be silenced soon. - The officer hath missed his path or purpose, - Or met some unforeseen and hideous obstacle,[ey] - Anselmo, with thy company proceed - Straight to the tower; the rest remain with me. - [_Exit part of the Guard._ - - _Doge_. Wretch! if thou wouldst have thy vile life, implore it; - It is not now a lease of sixty seconds. - Aye, send thy miserable ruffians forth; - They never shall return. - - _Sig_. So let it be! - They die then in their duty, as will I. 240 - - _Doge_. Fool! the high eagle flies at nobler game - Than thou and thy base myrmidons,--live on, - So thou provok'st not peril by resistance, - And learn (if souls so much obscured can bear - To gaze upon the sunbeams) to be free. - - _Sig_. And learn thou to be captive. It hath ceased, - [_The bell ceases to toll_. - The traitorous signal, which was to have set - The bloodhound mob on their patrician prey-- - The knell hath rung, but it is not the Senate's! - - _Doge_ (_after a pause_). - All's silent, and all's lost! - - _Sig_. Now, Doge, denounce me 250 - As rebel slave of a revolted Council! - Have I not done my duty? - - _Doge_. Peace, thou thing! - Thou hast done a worthy deed, and earned the price - Of blood, and they who use thee will reward thee. - But thou wert sent to watch, and not to prate, - As thou said'st even now--then do thine office, - But let it be in silence, as behoves thee, - Since, though thy prisoner, I am thy Prince. - - _Sig_. I did not mean to fail in the respect - Due to your rank: in this I shall obey you. 260 - - _Doge_ (_aside_). There now is nothing left me save to die; - And yet how near success! I would have fallen, - And proudly, in the hour of triumph, but - To miss it thus!---- - - _Enter other_ SIGNORS OF THE NIGHT, _with_ - BERTUCCIO FALIERO _prisoner_. - - _2nd Sig_. We took him in the act - Of issuing from the tower, where, at his order, - As delegated from the Doge, the signal - Had thus begun to sound. - - _1st Sig_. Are all the passes - Which lead up to the palace well secured? - - _2nd Sig_. They are--besides, it matters not; the Chiefs - Are all in chains, and some even now on trial-- 270 - Their followers are dispersed, and many taken. - - _Ber. F._ Uncle! - - _Doge_. It is in vain to war with Fortune; - The glory hath departed from our house. - - _Ber. F._ Who would have deemed it?--Ah! one moment sooner! - - _Doge_. That moment would have changed the face of ages; - _This_ gives us to Eternity--We'll meet it - As men whose triumph is not in success, - But who can make their own minds all in all, - Equal to every fortune. Droop not,'tis - But a brief passage--I would go alone, 280 - Yet if they send us, as 'tis like, together, - Let us go worthy of our sires and selves. - - _Ber. F._ I shall not shame you, Uncle. - - _1st Sig_. Lords, our orders - Are to keep guard on both in separate chambers, - Until the Council call ye to your trial. - - _Doge_. Our trial! will they keep their mockery up - Even to the last? but let them deal upon us, - As we had dealt on them, but with less pomp. - 'Tis but a game of mutual homicides, - Who have cast lots for the first death, and they 290 - Have won with false dice.--Who hath been our Judas? - - _1st Sig_. I am not warranted to answer that. - - _Ber. F._ I'll answer for thee--'tis a certain Bertram, - Even now deposing to the secret Giunta. - - _Doge_. Bertram, the Bergamask! With what vile tools[448] - We operate to slay or save! This creature, - Black with a double treason, now will earn - Rewards and honours, and be stamped in story - With the geese in the Capitol, which gabbled - Till Rome awoke, and had an annual triumph, 300 - While Manlius, who hurled down the Gauls, was cast[ez] - From the Tarpeian. - - _1st Sig_. He aspired to treason, - And sought to rule the State. - - _Doge_. He saved the State, - And sought but to reform what he revived-- - But this is idle--Come, sirs, do your work. - - _1st Sig_. Noble Bertuccio, we must now remove you - Into an inner chamber. - - _Ber. F._ Farewell, Uncle! - If we shall meet again in life I know not, - But they perhaps will let our ashes mingle. - - _Doge_. Yes, and our spirits, which shall yet go forth, 310 - And do what our frail clay, thus clogged, hath failed in! - They cannot quench the memory of those - Who would have hurled them from their guilty thrones, - And such examples will find heirs, though distant. - - - - - ACT V. - - - SCENE 1.--_The Hall of the Council of Ten assembled with the additional - Senators, who, on the Trials of the Conspirators for the Treason of_ - MARINO FALIERO, _composed what was called the Giunta,--Guards, Officers, - etc., etc._ ISRAEL BERTUCCIO _and_ PHILIP CALENDARO _as Prisoners_. - BERTRAM, LIONI, _and Witnesses, etc._ - - _The Chief of the Ten_, BENINTENDE.[fa][449] - - _Ben_. There now rests, after such conviction of - Their manifold and manifest offences, - But to pronounce on these obdurate men - The sentence of the Law:--a grievous task - To those who hear, and those who speak. Alas! - That it should fall to me! and that my days - Of office should be stigmatised through all - The years of coming time, as bearing record - To this most foul and complicated treason - Against a just and free state, known to all 10 - The earth as being the Christian bulwark 'gainst - The Saracen and the schismatic Greek, - The savage Hun, and not less barbarous Frank; - A City which has opened India's wealth - To Europe; the last Roman refuge from - O'erwhelming Attila; the Ocean's Queen; - Proud Genoa's prouder rival! 'Tis to sap - The throne of such a City, these lost men - Have risked and forfeited their worthless lives-- - So let them die the death. - - _I. Ber_. We are prepared; 20 - Your racks have done that for us. Let us die. - - _Ben_. If ye have that to say which would obtain - Abatement of your punishment, the Giunta - Will hear you; if you have aught to confess, - Now is your time,--perhaps it may avail ye. - - _I. Ber_. We stand to hear, and not to speak. - - _Ben_. Your crimes - Are fully proved by your accomplices, - And all which Circumstance can add to aid them; - Yet we would hear from your own lips complete - Avowal of your treason: on the verge 30 - Of that dread gulf which none repass, the truth - Alone can profit you on earth or Heaven-- - Say, then, what was your motive? - - _I. Ber_. Justice![fb] - - _Ben_. What - Your object? - - _I. Ber_. Freedom! - - _Ben_. You are brief, sir. - - _I. Ber_. So my life grows: I - Was bred a soldier, not a senator. - - _Ben_. Perhaps you think by this blunt brevity - To brave your judges to postpone the sentence? - - _I. Ber_. Do you be brief as I am, and believe me, - I shall prefer that mercy to your pardon. 40 - - _Ben_. Is this your sole reply to the Tribunal? - - _I. Ber_. Go, ask your racks what they have wrung from us, - Or place us there again; we have still some blood left, - And some slight sense of pain in these wrenched limbs: - But this ye dare not do; for if we die there-- - And you have left us little life to spend - Upon your engines, gorged with pangs already-- - Ye lose the public spectacle, with which - You would appal your slaves to further slavery! - Groans are not words, nor agony assent, 50 - Nor affirmation Truth, if Nature's sense - Should overcome the soul into a lie, - For a short respite--must we bear or die? - - _Ben_. Say, who were your accomplices? - - _I. Ber_. The Senate. - - _Ben_. What do you mean? - - _I. Ber_. Ask of the suffering people, - Whom your patrician crimes have driven to crime. - - _Ben_. You know the Doge? - - _I. Ber_. I served with him at Zara - In the field, when _you_ were pleading here your way - To present office; we exposed our lives, - While you but hazarded the lives of others, 60 - Alike by accusation or defence; - And for the rest, all Venice knows her Doge, - Through his great actions, and the Senate's insults. - - _Ben_. You have held conference with him? - - _I. Ber_. I am weary-- - Even wearier of your questions than your tortures: - I pray you pass to judgment. - - _Ben_. It is coming. - And you, too, Philip Calendaro, what - Have you to say why you should not be doomed? - - _Cal_. I never was a man of many words, - And now have few left worth the utterance. 70 - - _Ben_. A further application of yon engine - May change your tone. - - _Cal_. Most true, it _will_ do so; - A former application did so; but - It will not change my words, or, if it did-- - - _Ben_. What then? - - _Cal_. Will my avowal on yon rack - Stand good in law? - - _Ben_. Assuredly. - - _Cal_. Whoe'er - The culprit be whom I accuse of treason? - - _Ben_. Without doubt, he will be brought up to trial. - - _Cal_. And on this testimony would he perish? - - _Ben_. So your confession be detailed and full, 80 - He will stand here in peril of his life. - - _Cal_. Then look well to thy proud self, President! - For by the Eternity which yawns before me, - I swear that _thou_, and only thou, shall be - The traitor I denounce upon that rack, - If I be stretched there for the second time. - - _One of the Giunta_. Lord President,'twere best proceed to judgment; - There is no more to be drawn from these men.[fc] - - _Ben_. Unhappy men! prepare for instant death. - The nature of your crime--our law--and peril 90 - The State now stands in, leave not an hour's respite. - Guards! lead them forth, and upon the balcony - Of the red columns, where, on festal Thursday,[450] - The Doge stands to behold the chase of bulls, - Let them be justified: and leave exposed - Their wavering relics, in the place of judgment, - To the full view of the assembled people! - And Heaven have mercy on their souls! - - _The Giunta_. Amen! - - _I. Ber_. Signors, farewell! we shall not all again - Meet in one place. - - _Ben_. And lest they should essay 100 - To stir up the distracted multitude-- - Guards! let their mouths be gagged[451] even in the act - Of execution. Lead them hence! - - _Cal_. What! must we - Not even say farewell to some fond friend, - Nor leave a last word with our confessor? - - _Ben_. A priest is waiting in the antechamber; - But, for your friends, such interviews would be - Painful to them, and useless all to you. - - _Cal_. I knew that we were gagged in life; at least - All those who had not heart to risk their lives 110 - Upon their open thoughts; but still I deemed - That in the last few moments, the same idle - Freedom of speech accorded to the dying, - Would not now be denied to us; but since---- - - _I. Ber_. Even let them have their way, brave Calendaro! - What matter a few syllables? let's die - Without the slightest show of favour from them; - So shall our blood more readily arise - To Heaven against them, and more testify - To their atrocities, than could a volume 120 - Spoken or written of our dying words! - They tremble at our voices--nay, they dread - Our very silence--let them live in fear! - Leave them unto their thoughts, and let us now - Address our own above!--Lead on; we are ready. - - _Cal_. Israel, hadst thou but hearkened unto me - It had not now been thus; and yon pale villain, - The coward Bertram, would---- - - _I. Ber_. Peace, Calendaro! - What brooks it now to ponder upon this? - - _Bert_. Alas! I fain you died in peace with me: 130 - I did not seek this task; 'twas forced upon me: - Say, you forgive me, though I never can - Retrieve my own forgiveness--frown not thus! - - _I. Ber_. I die and pardon thee! - - _Cal_. (_spitting at him_).[452] I die and scorn thee! - [_Exeunt_ ISRAEL BERTUCCIO _and_ PHILIP CALENDARO, _Guards, etc_. - - _Ben_. Now that these criminals have been disposed of, - 'Tis time that we proceed to pass our sentence - Upon the greatest traitor upon record - In any annals, the Doge Faliero! - The proofs and process are complete; the time - And crime require a quick procedure: shall 140 - He now be called in to receive the award? - - _The Giunta_. Aye, aye. - - _Ben_. Avogadori, order that the Doge - Be brought before the Council. - - _One of the Giunta_. And the rest, - When shall they be brought up? - - _Ben_. When all the Chiefs - Have been disposed of. Some have fled to Chiozza; - But there are thousands in pursuit of them, - And such precaution ta'en on terra firma, - As well as in the islands, that we hope - None will escape to utter in strange lands - His libellous tale of treasons 'gainst the Senate. 150 - - _Enter the_ DOGE _as Prisoner, with Guards, etc., etc._ - - _Ben_. Doge--for such still you are, and by the law - Must be considered, till the hour shall come - When you must doff the Ducal Bonnet from - That head, which could not wear a crown more noble - Than Empires can confer, in quiet honour, - But it must plot to overthrow your peers, - Who made you what you are, and quench in blood - A City's glory--we have laid already - Before you in your chamber at full length, - By the Avogadori, all the proofs 160 - Which have appeared against you; and more ample - Ne'er reared their sanguinary shadows to - Confront a traitor. What have you to say - In your defence? - - _Doge_. What shall I say to ye, - Since my defence must be your condemnation? - You are at once offenders and accusers, - Judges and Executioners!--Proceed - Upon your power. - - _Ben_. Your chief accomplices - Having confessed, there is no hope for you. - - _Doge_. And who be they? - - _Ben_. In number many; but 170 - The first now stands before you in the court, - Bertram of Bergamo,--would you question him? - - _Doge_ (_looking at him contemptuously_). No. - - _Ben_. And two others, Israel Bertuccio, - And Philip Calendaro, have admitted - Their fellowship in treason with the Doge! - - _Doge_. And where are they? - - _Ben_. Gone to their place, and now - Answering to Heaven for what they did on earth. - - _Doge_. Ah! the plebeian Brutus, is he gone? - And the quick Cassius of the arsenal?-- - How did they meet their doom? - - _Ben_. Think of your own: 180 - It is approaching. You decline to plead, then?[fd] - - _Doge_. I cannot plead to my inferiors, nor - Can recognise your legal power to try me. - Show me the law! - - _Ben_. On great emergencies, - The law must be remodelled or amended: - Our fathers had not fixed the punishment - Of such a crime, as on the old Roman tables - The sentence against parricide was left - In pure forgetfulness; they could not render - That penal, which had neither name nor thought 190 - In their great bosoms; who would have foreseen - That Nature could be filed to such a crime[453] - As sons 'gainst sires, and princes 'gainst their realms? - Your sin hath made us make a law which will - Become a precedent 'gainst such haught traitors, - As would with treason mount to tyranny; - Not even contented with a sceptre, till - They can convert it to a two-edged sword! - Was not the place of Doge sufficient for ye? - What's nobler than the signory[454] of Venice? 200 - - _Doge_. The signory of Venice! You betrayed me-- - _You--you_, who sit there, traitors as ye are! - From my equality with you in birth, - And my superiority in action, - You drew me from my honourable toils - In distant lands--on flood, in field, in cities-- - _You_ singled me out like a victim to - Stand crowned, but bound and helpless, at the altar - Where you alone could minister. I knew not, - I sought not, wished not, dreamed not the election, 210 - Which reached me first at Rome, and I obeyed; - But found on my arrival, that, besides - The jealous vigilance which always led you - To mock and mar your Sovereign's best intents, - You had, even in the interregnum[455] of - My journey to the capital, curtailed - And mutilated the few privileges - Yet left the Duke: all this I bore, and would - Have borne, until my very hearth was stained - By the pollution of your ribaldry, 220 - And he, the ribald, whom I see amongst you-- - Fit judge in such tribunal!---- - - _Ben_. (_interrupting him_). Michel Steno - Is here in virtue of his office, as - One of the Forty; "the Ten" having craved - A Giunta of patricians from the Senate - To aid our judgment in a trial arduous - And novel as the present: he was set - Free from the penalty pronounced upon him, - Because the Doge, who should protect the law, - Seeking to abrogate all law, can claim 230 - No punishment of others by the statutes - Which he himself denies and violates! - - _Doge_. _His_ punishment! I rather see him _there_, - Where he now sits, to glut him with my death, - Than in the mockery of castigation, - Which your foul, outward, juggling show of justice - Decreed as sentence! Base as was his crime, - 'Twas purity compared with your protection. - - _Ben_. And can it be, that the great Doge of Venice, - With three parts of a century of years 240 - And honours on his head, could thus allow - His fury, like an angry boy's, to master - All Feeling, Wisdom, Faith and Fear, on such - A provocation as a young man's petulance? - - _Doge_. A spark creates the flame--'tis the last drop - Which makes the cup run o'er, and mine was full - Already: you oppressed the Prince and people; - I would have freed both, and have failed in both: - The price of such success would have been glory, - Vengeance, and victory, and such a name 250 - As would have made Venetian history - Rival to that of Greece and Syracuse - When they were freed, and flourished ages after, - And mine to Gelon and to Thrasybulus:[456] - Failing, I know the penalty of failure - Is present infamy and death--the future - Will judge, when Venice is no more, or free; - Till then, the truth is in abeyance. Pause not; - I would have shown no mercy, and I seek none; - My life was staked upon a mighty hazard, 260 - And being lost, take what I would have taken! - I would have stood alone amidst your tombs: - Now you may flock round mine, and trample on it, - As you have done upon my heart while living.[457] - - _Ben_. You do confess then, and admit the justice - Of our Tribunal? - - _Doge_. I confess to have failed; - Fortune is female: from my youth her favours - Were not withheld, the fault was mine to hope - Her former smiles again at this late hour. - - _Ben_. You do not then in aught arraign our equity? 270 - - _Doge_. Noble Venetians! stir me not with questions. - I am resigned to the worst; but in me still - Have something of the blood of brighter days, - And am not over-patient. Pray you, spare me - Further interrogation, which boots nothing, - Except to turn a trial to debate. - I shall but answer that which will offend you, - And please your enemies--a host already; - 'Tis true, these sullen walls should yield no echo: - But walls have ears--nay, more, they have tongues; and if 280 - There were no other way for Truth to o'erleap them,[fe] - You who condemn me, you who fear and slay me, - Yet could not bear in silence to your graves - What you would hear from me of Good or Evil; - The secret were too mighty for your souls: - Then let it sleep in mine, unless you court - A danger which would double that you escape. - Such my defence would be, had I full scope - To make it famous; for true _words_ are _things_, - And dying men's are things which long outlive, 290 - And oftentimes avenge them; bury mine, - If ye would fain survive me: take this counsel, - And though too oft ye make me live in wrath, - Let me die calmly; you may grant me this; - I deny nothing--defend nothing--nothing - I ask of you, but silence for myself, - And sentence from the Court! - - _Ben_. This full admission - Spares us the harsh necessity of ordering - The torture to elicit the whole truth.[ff] - - _Doge_. The torture! you have put me there already, 300 - Daily since I was Doge; but if you will - Add the corporeal rack, you may: these limbs - Will yield with age to crushing iron; but - There's that within my heart shall strain your engines. - - _Enter an_ OFFICER. - - _Officer_. Noble Venetians! Duchess Faliero[fg] - Requests admission to the Giunta's presence. - - _Ben_. Say, Conscript Fathers,[458] shall she be admitted? - - _One of the Giunta_. She may have revelations of importance - Unto the state, to justify compliance - With her request. - - _Ben_. Is this the general will? 310 - - _All_. It is. - - _Doge_. Oh, admirable laws of Venice! - Which would admit the wife, in the full hope - That she might testify against the husband. - What glory to the chaste Venetian dames! - But such blasphemers 'gainst all Honour, as - Sit here, do well to act in their vocation. - Now, villain Steno! if this woman fail, - I'll pardon thee thy lie, and thy escape, - And my own violent death, and thy vile life. - - _The_ DUCHESS _enters_. - - _Ben_. Lady! this just Tribunal has resolved, 320 - Though the request be strange, to grant it, and - Whatever be its purport, to accord - A patient hearing with the due respect - Which fits your ancestry, your rank, and virtues: - But you turn pale--ho! there, look to the Lady! - Place a chair instantly. - - _Ang_. A moment's faintness-- - 'Tis past; I pray you pardon me,--I sit not - In presence of my Prince and of my husband, - While he is on his feet. - - _Ben_. Your pleasure, Lady? - - _Ang_. Strange rumours, but most true, if all I hear 330 - And see be sooth, have reached me, and I come - To know the worst, even at the worst; forgive - The abruptness of my entrance and my bearing. - Is it--I cannot speak--I cannot shape - The question--but you answer it ere spoken, - With eyes averted, and with gloomy brows-- - Oh God! this is the silence of the grave! - - _Ben_. (_after a pause_). Spare us, and spare thyself the repetition - Of our most awful, but inexorable - Duty to Heaven and man! - - _Ang_. Yet speak; I cannot-- 340 - I cannot--no--even now believe these things. - Is _he_ condemned? - - _Ben_. Alas! - - _Ang_. And was he guilty? - - _Ben_. Lady! the natural distraction of - Thy thoughts at such a moment makes the question - Merit forgiveness; else a doubt like this - Against a just and paramount tribunal - Were deep offence. But question even the Doge, - And if he can deny the proofs, believe him - Guiltless as thy own bosom. - - _Ang_. Is it so? - My Lord, my Sovereign, my poor father's friend, 350 - The mighty in the field, the sage in Council, - Unsay the words of this man!--thou art silent! - - _Ben_. He hath already owned to his own guilt,[fh] - Nor, as thou see'st, doth he deny it now. - - _Ang_. Aye, but he must not die! Spare his few years, - Which Grief and Shame will soon cut down to days! - One day of baffled crime must not efface - Near sixteen lustres crowned with brave acts. - - _Ben_. His doom must be fulfilled without remission - Of time or penalty--'tis a decree. 360 - - _Ang_. He hath been guilty, but there may be mercy. - - _Ben_. Not in this case with justice. - - _Ang_. Alas! Signor, - He who is only just is cruel; who - Upon the earth would live were all judged justly? - - _Ben_. His punishment is safety to the State. - - _Ang_. He was a subject, and hath served the State; - He was your General, and hath saved the State; - He is your Sovereign, and hath ruled the State.[fi] - - _One of the Council_. He is a traitor, and betrayed the State. - - _Ang_. And, but for him, there now had been no State 370 - To save or to destroy; and you, who sit - There to pronounce the death of your deliverer, - Had now been groaning at a Moslem oar, - Or digging in the Hunnish mines in fetters! - - _One of the Council_. No, Lady, there are others who would die - Rather than breathe in slavery! - - _Ang_. If there are so - Within _these_ walls, _thou_ art not of the number: - The truly brave are generous to the fallen!-- - Is there no hope? - - _Ben_. Lady, it cannot be. - - _Ang_. (_turning to the Doge_). - Then die, Faliero! since it must be so; 380 - But with the spirit of my father's friend. - Thou hast been guilty of a great offence, - Half cancelled by the harshness of these men. - I would have sued to them, have prayed to them. - Have begged as famished mendicants for bread, - Have wept as they will cry unto their God - For mercy, and be answered as they answer,-- - Had it been fitting for thy name or mine, - And if the cruelty in their cold eyes - Had not announced the heartless wrath within. 390 - Then, as a Prince, address thee to thy doom! - - _Doge_. I have lived too long not to know how to die! - Thy suing to these men were but the bleating - Of the lamb to the butcher, or the cry - Of seamen to the surge: I would not take - A life eternal, granted at the hands - Of wretches, from whose monstrous villanies - I sought to free the groaning nations! - - _Michel Steno_. Doge, - A word with thee, and with this noble lady, - Whom I have grievously offended. Would 400 - Sorrow, or shame, or penance on my part, - Could cancel the inexorable past! - But since that cannot be, as Christians let us - Say farewell, and in peace: with full contrition - I crave, not pardon, but compassion from you, - And give, however weak, my prayers for both. - - _Ang_. Sage Benintende, now chief Judge of Venice, - I speak to thee in answer to yon Signor. - Inform the ribald Steno, that his words - Ne'er weighed in mind with Loredano's daughter, 410 - Further than to create a moment's pity - For such as he is: would that others had - Despised him as I pity! I prefer - My honour to a thousand lives, could such - Be multiplied in mine, but would not have - A single life of others lost for that - Which nothing human can impugn--the sense - Of Virtue, looking not to what is called - A good name for reward, but to itself. - To me the scorner's words were as the wind 420 - Unto the rock: but as there are--alas! - Spirits more sensitive, on which such things - Light as the Whirlwind on the waters; souls - To whom Dishonour's shadow is a substance - More terrible than Death, here and hereafter; - Men whose vice is to start at Vice's scoffing, - And who, though proof against all blandishments - Of pleasure, and all pangs of Pain, are feeble - When the proud name on which they pinnacled - Their hopes is breathed on, jealous as the eagle 430 - Of her high aiery;[459] let what we now[fj] - Behold, and feel, and suffer, be a lesson - To wretches how they tamper in their spleen - With beings of a higher order. Insects - Have made the lion mad ere now; a shaft - I' the heel o'erthrew the bravest of the brave; - A wife's Dishonour was the bane of Troy; - A wife's Dishonour unkinged Rome for ever; - An injured husband brought the Gauls to Clusium, - And thence to Rome, which perished for a time; 440 - An obscene gesture cost Caligula[460] - His life, while Earth yet bore his cruelties; - A virgin's wrong made Spain a Moorish province; - And Steno's lie, couched in two worthless lines, - Hath decimated Venice, put in peril - A Senate which hath stood eight hundred years, - Discrowned a Prince, cut off his crownless head, - And forged new fetters for a groaning people! - Let the poor wretch, like to the courtesan[461] - Who fired Persepolis, be proud of this, 450 - If it so please him--'twere a pride fit for him! - But let him not insult the last hours of - Him, who, whate'er he now is, _was_ a Hero, - By the intrusion of his very prayers; - Nothing of good can come from such a source, - Nor would we aught with him, nor now, nor ever: - We leave him to himself, that lowest depth - Of human baseness. Pardon is for men, - And not for reptiles--we have none for Steno, - And no resentment: things like him must sting, 460 - And higher beings suffer; 'tis the charter - Of Life. The man who dies by the adder's fang - May have the crawler crushed, but feels no anger: - 'Twas the worm's nature; and some men are worms - In soul, more than the living things of tombs.[462] - - _Doge_ (_to Ben._). - Signor! complete that which you deem your duty.[fk] - - _Ben_. Before we can proceed upon that duty, - We would request the Princess to withdraw; - 'Twill move her too much to be witness to it. - - _Ang_. I know it will, and yet I must endure it, 470 - For 'tis a part of mine--I will not quit, - Except by force, my husband's side--Proceed! - Nay, fear not either shriek, or sigh, or tear; - Though my heart burst, it shall be silent.--Speak! - I have that within which shall o'ermaster all. - - _Ben_. Marino Faliero, Doge of Venice, - Count of Val di Marino, Senator, - And some time General of the Fleet and Army, - Noble Venetian, many times and oft - Intrusted by the state with high employments, 480 - Even to the highest, listen to the sentence. - Convict by many witnesses and proofs, - And by thine own confession, of the guilt - Of Treachery and Treason, yet unheard of[fl] - Until this trial--the decree is Death-- - Thy goods are confiscate unto the State, - Thy name is razed from out her records, save - Upon a public day of thanksgiving - For this our most miraculous deliverance,[fm] - When thou art noted in our calendars 490 - With earthquakes, pestilence, and foreign foes, - And the great Enemy of man, as subject - Of grateful masses for Heaven's grace in snatching - Our lives and country from thy wickedness. - The place wherein as Doge thou shouldst be painted - With thine illustrious predecessors, is - To be left vacant, with a death-black veil - Flung over these dim words engraved beneath,-- - "This place is of Marino Faliero, - Decapitated for his crimes."[463] - - _Doge_. "His _crimes_!"[464]500 - But let it be so:--it will be in vain. - The veil which blackens o'er this blighted name, - And hides, or seems to hide, these lineaments, - Shall draw more gazers than the thousand portraits - Which glitter round it in their pictured trappings-- - _Your_ delegated slaves--the people's tyrants! - "Decapitated for his crimes!"--_What_ crimes? - Were it not better to record the facts, - So that the contemplator might approve, - Or at the least learn _whence_ the crimes arose? 510 - When the beholder knows a Doge conspired, - Let him be told the cause--it is your history. - - _Ben_. Time must reply to that; our sons will judge - Their fathers' judgment, which I now pronounce. - As Doge, clad in the ducal robes and Cap, - Thou shalt be led hence to the Giants' Staircase, - Where thou and all our Princes are invested; - And there, the Ducal Crown being first resumed - Upon the spot where it was first assumed, - Thy head shall be struck off; and Heaven have mercy 520 - Upon thy soul! - - _Doge_. Is this the Giunta's sentence? - - _Ben_. It is. - - _Doge_. I can endure it.--And the time? - - _Ben_. Must be immediate.--Make thy peace with God: - Within an hour thou must be in His presence. - - _Doge_. I am _already_; and my blood will rise - To Heaven before the souls of those who shed it. - Are all my lands confiscated?[465] - - _Ben_. They are; - And goods, and jewels, and all kind of treasure, - Except two thousand ducats--these dispose of. - - _Doge_. That's harsh.--I would have fain reserved the lands 530 - Near to Treviso, which I hold by investment - From Laurence the Count-bishop of Ceneda,[fn] - In fief perpetual to myself and heirs, - To portion them (leaving my city spoil, - My palace and my treasures, to your forfeit) - Between my consort and my kinsmen. - - _Ben_. These - Lie under the state's ban--their Chief, thy nephew, - In peril of his own life; but the Council - Postpones his trial for the present. If - Thou will'st a state unto thy widowed Princess, 540 - Fear not, for we will do her justice. - - _Ang_. Signors, - I share not in your spoil! From henceforth, know - I am devoted unto God alone, - And take my refuge in the cloister. - - _Doge_. Come! - The hour may be a hard one, but 'twill end. - Have I aught else to undergo save Death?[fo] - - _Ben_. You have nought to do, except confess and die. - The priest is robed, the scimitar is bare, - And both await without.--But, above all, - Think not to speak unto the people; they 550 - Are now by thousands swarming at the gates, - But these are closed: the Ten, the Avogadori, - The Giunta, and the chief men of the Forty, - Alone will be beholders of thy doom, - And they are ready to attend the Doge. - - _Doge_. The Doge! - - _Ben_. Yes, Doge, thou hast lived and thou shalt die - A Sovereign; till the moment which precedes - The separation of that head and trunk, - That ducal crown and head shall be united. - Thou hast forgot thy dignity in deigning 560 - To plot with petty traitors; not so we, - Who in the very punishment acknowledge - The Prince. Thy vile accomplices have died - The dog's death, and the wolf's; but them shall fall - As falls the lion by the hunters, girt - By those who feel a proud compassion for thee, - And mourn even the inevitable death - Provoked by thy wild wrath, and regal fierceness. - Now we remit thee to thy preparation: - Let it be brief, and we ourselves will be 570 - Thy guides unto the place where first we were - United to thee as thy subjects, and - Thy Senate; and must now be parted from thee - As such for ever, on the self-same spot. - Guards! form the Doge's escort to his chamber. - [_Exeunt_. - - - SCENE II.--_The Doge's Apartment_. - - _The_ DOGE _as Prisoner, and the_ DUCHESS _attending him_. - - _Doge_. Now, that the priest is gone, 'twere useless all - To linger out the miserable minutes; - But one pang more, the pang of parting from thee, - And I will leave the few last grains of sand, - Which yet remain of the accorded hour, - Still falling--I have done with Time. - - _Ang_. Alas! - And I have been the cause, the unconscious cause; - And for this funeral marriage, this black union, - Which thou, compliant with my father's wish, - Didst promise at _his_ death, thou hast sealed thine own. 10 - - _Doge_. Not so: there was that in my spirit ever - Which shaped out for itself some great reverse; - The marvel is, it came not until now-- - And yet it was foretold me. - - _Ang_. How foretold you? - - _Doge_. Long years ago--so long, they are a doubt[466] - In memory, and yet they live in annals: - When I was in my youth, and served the Senate - And Signory as Podesta and Captain - Of the town of Treviso, on a day - Of festival, the sluggish Bishop who 20 - Conveyed the Host aroused my rash young anger, - By strange delay, and arrogant reply - To my reproof: I raised my hand and smote him, - Until he reeled beneath his holy burthen;[fp] - And as he rose from earth again, he raised - His tremulous hands in pious wrath towards Heaven. - Thence pointing to the Host, which had fallen from him, - He turned to me, and said, "The Hour will come - When he thou hast o'erthrown shall overthrow thee: - The Glory shall depart from out thy house, 30 - The Wisdom shall be shaken from thy soul, - And in thy best maturity of Mind - A madness of the heart shall seize upon thee;[fq] - Passion shall tear thee when all passions cease - In other men, or mellow into virtues; - And Majesty which decks all other heads, - Shall crown to leave thee headless; honours shall - But prove to thee the heralds of Destruction, - And hoary hairs of Shame, and both of Death, - But not such death as fits an aged man."40 - Thus saying, he passed on.--That Hour is come. - - _Ang_. And with this warning couldst thou not have striven - To avert the fatal moment, and atone, - By penitence, for that which thou hadst done? - - _Doge_. I own the words went to my heart, so much - That I remembered them amid the maze - Of Life, as if they formed a spectral voice, - Which shook me in a supernatural dream; - And I repented; but 'twas not for me - To pull in resolution:[467] what must be 50 - I could not change, and would not fear.--Nay more, - Thou can'st not have forgot, what all remember, - That on my day of landing here as Doge,[468] - On my return from Rome, a mist of such - Unwonted density went on before - The Bucentaur, like the columnar cloud - Which ushered Israel out of Egypt, till - The pilot was misled, and disembarked us - Between the Pillars of Saint Mark's, where 'tis - The custom of the state to put to death 60 - Its criminals, instead of touching at - The Riva della Paglia, as the wont is,-- - So that all Venice shuddered at the omen. - - _Ang_. Ah! little boots it now to recollect - Such things. - - _Doge_. And yet I find a comfort in - The thought, that these things are the work of Fate; - For I would rather yield to Gods than men, - Or cling to any creed of destiny, - Rather than deem these mortals, most of whom[fr] - I know to be as worthless as the dust, 70 - And weak as worthless, more than instruments - Of an o'er-ruling Power; they in themselves - Were all incapable--they could not be - Vistors of him who oft had conquered for them. - - _Ang_. Employ the minutes left in aspirations - Of a more healing nature, and in peace - Even with these wretches take thy flight to Heaven. - - _Doge_. I _am_ at peace: the peace of certainty - That a sure Hour will come, when their sons' sons, - And this proud city, and these azure waters, 80 - And all which makes them eminent and bright, - Shall be a desolation and a curse, - A hissing and a scoff unto the nations, - A Carthage, and a Tyre, an Ocean Babel. - - _Ang_. Speak not thus now: the surge of Passion still - Sweeps o'er thee to the last; thou dost deceive - Thyself, and canst not injure them--be calmer. - - _Doge_. I stand within Eternity, and see - Into Eternity, and I behold-- - Aye, palpable as I see thy sweet face 90 - For the last time--the days which I denounce - Unto all time against these wave-girt walls, - And they who are indwellers. - - _Guard_ (_coming forward_). Doge of Venice, - The Ten are in attendance on your Highness. - - _Doge_. Then farewell, Angiolina!--one embrace-- - Forgive the old man who hath been to thee - A fond but fatal husband--love my memory-- - I would not ask so much for me still living, - But thou canst judge of me more kindly now, - Seeing my evil feelings are at rest. 100 - Besides, of all the fruit of these long years, - Glory, and Wealth, and Power, and Fame, and Name, - Which generally leave some flowers to bloom - Even o'er the grave, I have nothing left, not even - A little love, or friendship, or esteem, - No, not enough to extract an epitaph - From ostentatious kinsmen; in one hour - I have uprooted all my former life, - And outlived everything, except thy heart, - The pure, the good, the gentle, which will oft 110 - With unimpaired but not a clamorous grief[fs] - Still keep----Thou turn'st so pale!--Alas! she faints, - She has no breath, no pulse!--Guards! lend your aid-- - I cannot leave her thus, and yet 'tis better, - Since every lifeless moment spares a pang. - When she shakes off this temporary death, - I shall be with the Eternal.--Call her women-- - One look!--how cold her hand!--as cold as mine - Shall be ere she recovers.--Gently tend her, - And take my last thanks--I am ready now. 120 - - [_The Attendants of_ ANGIOLINA _enter, and surround - their Mistress, who has fainted.--Exeunt the_ DOGE, - _Guards, etc., etc._ - - - SCENE III.--_The Court of the Ducal Palace; the outer gates - are shut against the people.--The_ DOGE _enters in his ducal - robes, in procession with the_ COUNCIL OF TEN _and other Patricians, - attended by the Guards, till they arrive at the top of the - "Giants' Staircase[469] (where the Doges took the oaths); the - the Executioner is stationed there with his sword.--On arriving, a_ - CHIEF OF THE TEN _takes off the ducal cap from the Doge's head_. - - _Doge_. So now the Doge is nothing, and at last - I am again Marino Faliero: - 'Tis well to be so, though but for a moment,[ft] - Here was I crowned, and here, bear witness, Heaven! - With how much more contentment I resign - That shining mockery, the ducal bauble, - Than I received the fatal ornament. - - _One of the Ten_. Thou tremblest, Faliero! - - _Doge_. 'Tis with age, then.[470] - - _Ben_. Faliero! hast thou aught further to commend, - Compatible with justice, to the Senate? 10 - - _Doge_. I would commend my nephew to their mercy, - My consort to their justice; for methinks - My death, and such a death, might settle all - Between the State and me. - - _Ben_. They shall be cared for; - Even notwithstanding thine unheard-of crime. - - _Doge_. Unheard of! aye, there's not a history - But shows a thousand crowned conspirators - _Against_ the people; but to set them free, - One Sovereign only died, and one is dying. - - _Ben_. And who were they who fell in such a cause? 20 - - _Doge_. The King of Sparta, and the Doge of Venice-- - Agis and Faliero! - - _Ben_. Hast thou more - To utter or to do? - - _Doge_. May I speak? - - _Ben_. Thou may'st; - But recollect the people are without, - Beyond the compass of the human voice. - - _Doge_. I speak to Time and to Eternity, - Of which I grow a portion, not to man. - Ye Elements! in which to be resolved - I hasten, let my voice be as a Spirit - Upon you! Ye blue waves! which bore my banner. 30 - Ye winds! which fluttered o'er as if you loved it, - And filled my swelling sails as they were wafted - To many a triumph! Thou, my native earth, - Which I have bled for! and thou, foreign earth, - Which drank this willing blood from many a wound! - Ye stones, in which my gore will not sink, but - Reek up to Heaven! Ye skies, which will receive it! - Thou Sun! which shinest on these things, and Thou! - Who kindlest and who quenchest suns!--Attest![fu] - I am not innocent--but are these guiltless? 40 - I perish, but not unavenged; far ages - Float up from the abyss of Time to be, - And show these eyes, before they close, the doom - Of this proud City, and I leave my curse - On her and hers for ever!----Yes, the hours - Are silently engendering of the day, - When she, who built 'gainst Attila a bulwark, - Shall yield, and bloodlessly and basely yield, - Unto a bastard Attila,[471] without - Shedding so much blood in her last defence, 50 - As these old veins, oft drained in shielding her, - Shall pour in sacrifice.--She shall be bought - And sold, and be an appanage to those - Who shall despise her![472]--She shall stoop to be - A province for an Empire, petty town - In lieu of Capital, with slaves for senates, - Beggars for nobles, panders for a people![fv] - Then when the Hebrew's in thy palaces,[473] - The Hun in thy high places, and the Greek - Walks o'er thy mart, and smiles on it for his; 60 - When thy patricians beg their bitter bread - In narrow streets, and in their shameful need - Make their nobility a plea for pity; - Then, when the few who still retain a wreck - Of their great fathers' heritage shall fawn - Round a barbarian Vice of Kings' Vice-gerent,[474] - Even in the Palace where they swayed as Sovereigns, - Even in the Palace where they slew their Sovereign, - Proud of some name they have disgraced, or sprung - From an adulteress boastful of her guilt 70 - With some large gondolier or foreign soldier, - Shall bear about their bastardy in triumph - To the third spurious generation;--when - Thy sons are in the lowest scale of being, - Slaves turned o'er to the vanquished by the victors, - Despised by cowards for greater cowardice, - And scorned even by the vicious for such vices - As in the monstrous grasp of their conception - Defy all codes to image or to name them; - Then, when of Cyprus, now thy subject kingdom, 80 - All thine inheritance shall be her shame - Entailed on thy less virtuous daughters, grown - A wider proverb for worse prostitution;-- - When all the ills of conquered states shall cling thee, - Vice without splendour, Sin without relief[fw][475] - Even from the gloss of Love to smooth it o'er, - But in its stead, coarse lusts of habitude,[476] - Prurient yet passionless, cold studied lewdness, - Depraving Nature's frailty to an art;-- - When these and more are heavy on thee, when 90 - Smiles without mirth, and pastimes without Pleasure, - Youth without Honour, Age without respect, - Meanness and Weakness, and a sense of woe - 'Gainst which thou wilt not strive, and dar'st not murmur,[477] - Have made thee last and worst of peopled deserts, - Then, in the last gasp of thine agony, - Amidst thy many murders, think of _mine!_ - Thou den of drunkards with the blood of Princes![478] - Gehenna of the waters! thou Sea-Sodom![fx][479] - Thus I devote thee to the Infernal Gods! 100 - Thee and thy serpent seed! - [_Here the_ DOGE _turns and addresses the Executioner._ - Slave, do thine office! - Strike as I struck the foe! Strike as I would - Have struck those tyrants! Strike deep as my curse! - Strike--and but once! - - [_The_ DOGE _throws himself upon his knees, and as - the Executioner raises his sword the scene closes._ - - - SCENE IV.--_The Piazza and Piazzetta of St. Mark's.-- - The people in crowds gathered round the grated gates - of the Ducal Palace, which are shut._ - - _First Citizen_. I have gained the Gate, and can discern the Ten, - Robed in their gowns of state, ranged round the Doge. - - _Second Cit_. I cannot reach thee with mine utmost effort. - How is it? let us hear at least, since sight - Is thus prohibited unto the people, - Except the occupiers of those bars. - - _First Cit_. One has approached the Doge, and now they strip - The ducal bonnet from his head--and now - He raises his keen eyes to Heaven; I see - Them glitter, and his lips move--Hush! hush!--no, 10 - 'Twas but a murmur--Curse upon the distance! - His words are inarticulate, but the voice - Swells up like muttered thunder; would we could - But gather a sole sentence! - - _Second Cit_. Hush! we perhaps may catch the sound. - - _First Cit_. 'Tis vain. - I cannot hear him.--How his hoary hair - Streams on the wind like foam upon the wave! - Now--now--he kneels--and now they form a circle - Round him, and all is hidden--but I see - The lifted sword in air----Ah! hark! it falls! 20 - - [_The people murmur._ - - _Third Cit_. Then they have murdered him who would have freed us. - - _Fourth Cit_. He was a kind man to the commons ever. - - _Fifth Cit_. Wisely they did to keep their portals barred. - Would we had known the work they were preparing - Ere we were summoned here--we would have brought - Weapons, and forced them! - - _Sixth Cit_. Are you sure he's dead? - - _First Cit_. I saw the sword fall--Lo! what have we here? - - _Enter on the Balcony of the Palace which fronts St. Mark's - Place a_ CHIEF OF THE TEN,[480] _with a bloody sword. - He waves it thrice before the People, and exclaims,_ - - "Justice hath dealt upon the mighty Traitor!" - - [_The gates are opened; the populace rush in towards the - The foremost of them exclaims to those behind,_ - - "The gory head rolls down the Giants' Steps!"[fy][481] - [_The curtain falls_.[482] - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[359] {331}[Marin Faliero was not in command of the land forces at the -siege of Zara in 1346. According to contemporary documents, he held a -naval command under Civran, who was in charge of the fleet. Byron was -misled by an error in Morelli's Italian version of the _Chronica -iadratina seu historia obsidionis Jaderae_, p. xi. (See _Marino faliero -avanti il Dogado_, by Vittorio Lazzarino, published in _Nuovo Archivio -Veneto_, 1893, vol. v. pt. i. p. 132, note 4.)] - -[360] [For the siege of Alesia (Alise in Cote d'Or), which resulted in -the defeat of the Gauls and the surrender of Vercingetorix, see _De -Bella Gallico_, vii. 68-90. Belgrade fell to Prince Eugene, August 18, -1717.] - -[361] {332}[If this event ever took place, it must have been in 1346, -when the future Doge was between sixty and seventy years of age. The -story appears for the first time in the chronicle of Bartolomeo Zuccato, -notajo e cancelliere of the Comune di Treviso, which belongs to the -first half of the sixteenth century. The Venetian chroniclers who were -Faliero's contemporaries, and Anonimo Torriano, a Trevisan, who wrote -before Zuccato, are silent. See _Marino Faliero, La Congiura_, by -Vittorio Lazzarino.--_Nuovo Archivio Veneto_, 1897, vol. xiii. pt. i. p. -29.] - -[362] ["Square talked in a very different strain.... In pronouncing -these [sentences from the _Tusculan Questions, etc_.] he was one day so -eager that he unfortunately bit his tongue ... this accident gave -Thwackum, who was present, and who held all such doctrines to be -heathenish and atheistical, an opportunity to clap a judgment on his -back."--_The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling_, Bk. V. chap. ii. 1768, -i. 234. See, too, Letter to Murray, November 23, 1822, _Letters_, 1901, -vi. 142; _Life_, p. 570.] - -[363] [[_Principj di storia civile della Repubblica di Venezia_. Scritti -da Vettor Sandi, 1755, Part II. tom. i. pp. 127, 128.] - -[364] [_Storia della Republica Veneziana_. Scritta da Andrea Navagiero, -_apud_ Muratori, _Italic. Rerum, Scriptores_, 1733, xxiii. p. 924, -_sq_.] - -[365] [_Istoria dell' assedio e della Ricupera di Zara, Fatta da' -Veneziani nell' anno_ 1346. Scritta da auctore contemporaneo, pp. -i.-xxxviii.] - -[366] {333}[Michele Steno was not, as Sanudo and others state, one of -the Capi of the Quarantia in 1355, but twenty years later, in 1375. When -Faliero was elected to the Dogeship, Steno was a youth of twenty, and a -man under thirty years of age was not eligible for the Quarantia.--_La -Congiura,_ etc., p. 64.] - -[367] [History does not bear out the tradition of her youth. Aluica -Gradenigo was born in the first decade of the fourteenth century, and -became Dogaressa when she was more than forty-five years of age.--_La -Congiura,_ p. 69.] - -[368] [See _A View of the Society and Manners in Italy,_ by John Moore, -M.D., 1781, i. 144-152. The "stale jest" is thus worded: "This lady -imagined she had been affronted by a young Venetian nobleman at a public -ball, and she complained bitterly ... to her husband. The old Doge, who -had all the desire imaginable to please his wife, determined, in this -matter, at least, to give her ample satisfaction."] - -[369] {334}[For Frederick's verse, "Evitez de Bernis la sterile -abondance," see _La Bibliographie Universelle_, art. "Bernis"; and for -his jest, "Je ne la connais pas," see _History of Frederick the Great_, -by Thomas Carlyle, 1898, vi. 14.] - -[370] [For the story of the abduction of Dervorgilla, wife of Tiernan -O'Ruarc, by Dermot Mac-Murchad, King of Leinster, in 1153, see Moore's -_History of Ireland_, 1837, ii. 200.] - -[371] {335}[_Istoria della Repubblica di Venezia_, del Sig. Abate -Laugier, Tradotta del Francese. Venice, 1778, iv. 30.] - -[372] {336}[The marble staircase on which Faliero took the ducal oath, -and on which he was afterwards beheaded, led into the courtyard of the -palace. It was erected by a decree of the Senate in 1340, and was pulled -down to make room for Rizzo's facade, which was erected in 1484. The -"Scala dei Giganti" (built by Antonio Rizzo, circ. 1483) does not occupy -the site of the older staircase.] - -[373] [On the north side of the Campo, in front of the Church of Santi -Giovanni e Paolo (better known as San Zanipolo), stands the Scuola di -San Marco. Attached to the lower hall of the Scuola is the Chapel of -Santa Maria della Pace, in which the sarcophagus containing the bones of -Marino Faliero was discovered in 1815.] - -[374] [In the Campo in front of the church is the equestrian statue of -Bartolomeo Colleoni, designed by Andrea Veroccio, and cast in 1496 by -Alessandro Leopardi.--_Handbook: Northern Italy_, p. 374.] - -[375] {337}[See _Poetical Works_, 1898, i. 317, note 1.] - -[376] [See _Letters_, 1898, ii. 79, note 3.] - -[ct] _It is like being at the whole process of a woman's toilet--it -disenchants._--[MS. M.] - -[cu] _Any man of common independence._--[MS. M. erased.] - -[377] {338}While I was in the sub-committee of Drury Lane Theatre, I can -vouch for my colleagues, and I hope for myself, that we did our best to -bring back the legitimate drama. I tried what I could to get _De -Montford_ revived, but in vain, and equally in vain in favour of -Sotheby's _Ivan_, which was thought an acting play; and I endeavoured -also to wake Mr. Coleridge to write us a tragedy[A]. Those who are not -in the secret will hardly believe that the _School for Scandal_ is the -play which has brought the _least money_, averaging the number of times -it has been acted since its production; so Manager Dibdin assured me. Of -what has occurred since Maturin's _Bertram_ I am not aware[B]; so that I -may be traducing, through ignorance, some excellent new writers; if so, -I beg their pardon. I have been absent from England nearly five years, -and, till last year, I never read an English newspaper since my -departure, and am now only aware of theatrical matters through the -medium of the _Parisian Gazette_ of Galignani, and only for the last -twelve months. Let me, then, deprecate all offence to tragic or comic -writers, to whom I wish well, and of whom I know nothing. The long -complaints of the actual state of the drama arise, however, from no -fault of the performers. I can conceive nothing better than Kemble, -Cooke, and Kean, in their very different manners, or than Elliston in -_Gentleman's_ comedy, and in some parts of tragedy. Miss O'Neill[C] I -never saw, having made and kept a determination to see nothing which -should divide or disturb my recollection of Siddons. Siddons and Kemble -were the _ideal_ of tragic action; I never saw anything at all -resembling them, even in _person_; for this reason, we shall never see -again Coriolanus or Macbeth. When Kean is blamed for want of dignity, we -should remember that it is a grace, not an art, and not to be attained -by study. In all, _not_ super-natural parts, he is perfect; even his -very defects belong, or seem to belong, to the parts themselves, and -appear truer to nature. But of Kemble we may say, with reference to his -acting, what the Cardinal de Retz said of the Marquis of Montrose, "that -he was the only man he ever saw who reminded him of the heroes of -Plutarch."[D] - -[A] [See letter to Samuel Taylor Coleridge, March 31, 1815, _Letters_, -1899, iii. 190; letter to Moore, October 28, 1815, and note 1 (with -quotation from unpublished letter of Coleridge), and passages from -Byron's _Detached Thoughts_ (1821) ... _ibid_., pp. 230, 233-238.] - -[B] [Maturin's _Bertram_ was played for the first time at Drury Lane, -May 9, 1816. (See _Detached Thoughts_ (1821), _Letters_, 1899, iii. 233, -and letter to Murray, October 12, 1817, _Letters_, 1900, iv. 171.)] - -[C] [Elizabeth O'Neill (1791-1872), afterwards Lady Becher, made her -_debut_ in 1814, and retired from the stage in 1819. Sarah Siddons -(1755-1831) made her final appearance on the stage June 9, 1818, and her -brother John Philip Kemble (1757-1823) appeared for the last time in -_Coriolanus_, June 23, 1817. Of the other actors mentioned in this note, -George Frederick Cooke (1756-1812) had long been dead; Edmund Kean -(1787-1833) had just returned from a successful tour in the United -States; and Robert William Elliston (1774-1831) (_vide ante_, p. 328) -had, not long before (1819), become lessee of Drury Lane Theatre.] - -[D]["Le comte de Montross, Ecossais et chef de la maison de Graham, le -seul homme du monde qui m'ait jamais rappele l'idee de certains heros -que l'on ne voit plus que dans les vies de Plutarque, avail soutenu le -parti du roi d'Angleterre dans son pays, avec une grandeur d'ame qui -rien avait point de pareille en ce siecle."--_Memoires du Cardinal de -Retz_, 1820, ii. 88.] - -[378] {339}[This appreciation of the _Mysterious Mother_, which he seems -to have read in Lord Dover's preface to Walpole's Letters to Sir Horace -Mann, provoked Coleridge to an angry remonstrance. "I venture to remark, -first, that I do not believe that Lord Byron spoke sincerely; for I -suspect that he made a tacit exception of himself at least.... Thirdly, -that the _Mysterious Mother_ is the most disgusting, vile, detestable -composition that ever came from the hand of man. No one with a spark of -true manliness, of which Horace Walpole had none, could have written -it."--_Table Talk_, March 20, 1834. Croker took a very different view, -and maintained "that the good old English blank verse, the force of -character expressed in the wretched mother ... argue a strength of -conception, and vigour of expression capable of great things," etc. Over -and above the reasonable hope and expectation that this provocative -eulogy of Walpole's play would annoy the "Cockneys" and the "Lakers," -Byron was no doubt influenced in its favour by the audacity of the plot, -which not only put _septentrional_ prejudices at defiance, but was an -instance in point that love ought not "to make a tragic subject unless -it is love furious, criminal, and hopeless" (Letter to Murray, January -4, 1821). He would, too, be deeply and genuinely moved by such verse as -this-- - - "Consult a holy man! inquire of him! - --Good father, wherefore? what should I inquire? - Must I be taught of him that guilt is woe? - That innocence alone is happiness-- - That martyrdom itself shall leave the villain - The villain that it found him? Must I learn - That minutes stamped with crime are past recall? - That joys are momentary; and remorse - Eternal?... - Nor could one risen from the dead proclaim - This truth in deeper sounds to my conviction; - We want no preacher to distinguish vice - From virtue. At our birth the God revealed - All conscience needs to know. No codicil - To duty's rubric here and there was placed - In some Saint's casual custody." - - Act i. sc. 3, _s.f._ _Works of the Earl of Orford_, 1798, i. 55.] - -[379] {340}[Byron received a copy of Goethe's review of _Manfred_, which -appeared in _Kunst und Alterthum_ (ii. 2. 191) in May, 1820. In a letter -to Murray, dated October 17, 1820 (_Letters_, 1901, v. 100), he enclosed -a letter to Goethe, headed "For _Marino Faliero_. Dedication to Baron -Goethe, etc., etc., etc." It is possible that Murray did not take the -"Dedication" seriously, but regarded it as a _jeu d'esprit_, designed -for the amusement of himself and his "synod." At any rate, the -"Dedication" did not reach Goethe's hand till 1831, when it was -presented to him at Weimar by John Murray the Third. "It is written," -says Moore, who printed a mutilated version in his _Letters and -Journals, etc._, 1830, ii. 356-358, "in the poet's most whimsical and -mocking mood; and the unmeasured severity poured out in it upon the two -favourite objects of his wrath and ridicule, compels me to deprive the -reader of its most amusing passages." The present text, which follows -the MS., is reprinted from _Letters_, 1901, v. 100-104-- - - "Dedication to Baron Goethe, etc., etc., etc. - - "Sir--In the Appendix to an English work lately translated into - German and published at Leipsic, a judgment of yours upon English - poetry is quoted as follows: 'That in English poetry, great genius, - universal power, a feeling of profundity, with sufficient - tenderness and force, are to be found; but that _altogether these - do not constitute poets_,' etc., etc. - - "I regret to see a great man falling into a great mistake. This - opinion of yours only proves that the '_Dictionary of Ten Thousand - living English Authors_'[A] has not been translated into German. - You will have read, in your friend Schlegel's version, the dialogue - in _Macbeth_-- - - "'There are _ten thousand!_ - _Macbeth_. _Geese_, villain? - _Answer_. _Authors_, sir.'[B] - - Now, of these 'ten thousand authors,' there are actually nineteen - hundred and eighty-seven poets, all alive at this moment, whatever - their works may be, as their booksellers well know: and amongst - these there are several who possess a far greater reputation than - mine, though considerably less than yours. It is owing to this - neglect on the part of your German translators that you are not - aware of the works of William Wordsworth, who has a baronet in - London[C] who draws him frontispieces and leads him about to - dinners and to the play; and a Lord in the country,[D] who gave him - a place in the Excise--and a cover at his table. You do not know - perhaps that this Gentleman is the greatest of all poets - past--present and to come--besides which he has written an '_Opus - Magnum_' in prose--during the late election for Westmoreland.[E] - His principal publication is entitled '_Peter Bell_' which he had - withheld from the public for '_one and twenty years_'--to the - irreparable loss of all those who died in the interim, and will - have no opportunity of reading it before the resurrection. There is - also another named Southey, who is more than a poet, being actually - poet Laureate,--a post which corresponds with what we call in Italy - Poeta Cesareo, and which you call in German--I know not what; but - as you have a '_Caesar_'--probably you have a name for it. In - England there is no _Caesar_--only the Poet. - - "I mention these poets by way of sample to enlighten you. They form - but two bricks of our Babel, (Windsor bricks, by the way) but may - serve for a specimen of the building. - - "It is, moreover, asserted that 'the predominant character of the - whole body of the present English poetry is a _disgust_ and - _contempt_ for life.' But I rather suspect that by one single work - of _prose_, _you_ yourself have excited a greater contempt for life - than all the English volumes of poesy that ever were written. - Madame de Staeel says, that 'Werther has occasioned more suicides - than the most beautiful woman;' and I really believe that he has - put more individuals out of this world than Napoleon - himself,--except in the way of his profession. Perhaps, Illustrious - Sir, the acrimonious judgment passed by a celebrated northern - journal[F] upon you in particular, and the Germans in general, has - rather indisposed you towards English poetry as well as criticism. - But you must not regard our critics, who are at bottom good-natured - fellows, considering their two professions,--taking up the law in - court, and laying it down out of it. No one can more lament their - hasty and unfair judgment, in your particular, than I do; and I so - expressed myself to your friend Schlegel, in 1816, at Coppet. - - "In behalf of my 'ten thousand' living brethren, and of myself, I - have thus far taken notice of an opinion expressed with regard to - 'English poetry' in general, and which merited notice, because it - was yours. - - "My principal object in addressing you was to testify my sincere - respect and admiration of a man, who, for half a century, has led - the literature of a great nation, and will go down to posterity as - the first literary Character of his Age. - - "You have been fortunate, Sir, not only in the writings which have - illustrated your name, but in the name itself, as being - sufficiently musical for the articulation of posterity. In this you - have the advantage of some of your countrymen, whose names would - perhaps be immortal also--if anybody could pronounce them. - - "It may, perhaps, be supposed, by this apparent tone of levity, - that I am wanting in intentional respect towards you; but this will - be a mistake: I am always flippant in prose. Considering you, as I - really and warmly do, in common with all your own, and with most - other nations, to be by far the first literary Character which has - existed in Europe since the death of Voltaire, I felt, and feel, - desirous to inscribe to you the following work,--_not_ as being - either a tragedy or a _poem_, (for I cannot pronounce upon its - pretensions to be either one or the other, or both, or neither,) - but as a mark of esteem and admiration from a foreigner to the man - who has been hailed in Germany 'the great Goethe.' - - "I have the honour to be, - - With the truest respect, - - Your most obedient and - - Very humble servant, - - Byron, - - "Ravenna, 8^bre^ 14º, 1820. - - "P.S.--I perceive that in Germany, as well as in Italy, there is a - great struggle about what they call '_Classical_' and - '_Romantic_,'--terms which were not subjects of classification in - England, at least when I left it four or five years ago. Some of - the English Scribblers, it is true, abused Pope and Swift, but the - reason was that they themselves did not know how to write either - prose or verse; but nobody thought them worth making a sect of. - Perhaps there may be something of the kind sprung up lately, but I - have not heard much about it, and it would be such bad taste that I - shall be very sorry to believe it." - -Another Dedication, to be prefixed to a Second Edition of the play was -found amongst Byron's papers. It remained in MS. till 1832, when it was -included in a prefatory note to _Marino Faliero, Works of Lord Byron_, -1832, xii. 50. - - "Dedication of _Marino Faliero_. - - "To the Honourable Douglas Kinnaird. - - "My dear Douglas,--I dedicate to you the following tragedy, rather - on account of your good opinion of it, than from any notion of my - own that it may be worthy of your acceptance. But if its merits - were ten times greater than they possibly can be, this offering - would still be a very inadequate acknowledgment of the active and - steady friendship with which, for a series of years, you have - honoured your obliged and affectionate friend, - - "BYRON. - "Ravenna, Sept. 1st, 1821." - -[A][_A Biographical Dictionary of Living Authors of Great Britain and -Ireland, etc_., London, 1816, 8vo.] - -[B] [_Macbeth_. Where got'st thou that goose look? - _Servant_. There is ten thousand-- - _Macbeth_. Geese, villain? - _Servant_. Soldiers, sir." - _Macbeth_, act v. sc. 3, lines 12, 13.] - -[C][Sir George Beaumont. See Professor W. Knight, _Life of Wordsworth_, -ii. (_Works_, vol. x.) 56.] - -[D][Lord Lonsdale (_ibid_., p. 209).] - -[E][_Two Addresses to the Freeholders of Westmoreland_, 1818.] - -[F][See an article on Goethe's _Aus Meinem Leben_, etc., in the -_Edinburgh Review_ for June, 1816, vol. xxvi. pp. 304-337.] ] - -[cv] {345} _Are none yet of the Messengers returned_?--[MS. M.] - -[380] [The _Consiglio Minore_, which originally consisted of the Doge -and his six councillors, was afterwards increased, by the addition of -the three _Capi_ of the _Quarantia Criminale_, and was known as the -_Serenissima Signoria_ (G. Cappelletti, _Storia della Repubblica di -Venezia_, 1850, i. 483). The Forty who were "debating on Steno's -accusation" could not be described as the "_Signory_."] - -[cw] _With seeming patience_.--[MS. M.] - -[cx] _He sits as deep_--[MS. M.] - -[cy] {346}_Or aught that imitates_--.--[Alternative reading. MS. M.] - -[cz] _Young, gallant_--.--[Alternative reading. MS. M.] - -[381] [Bertuccio Faliero was a distant connection of the Doge, not his -nephew. Matters of business and family affairs seem to have brought them -together, and it is evident that they were on intimate terms.--_La -Congiura_, p. 84.] - -[382] [The Avogadori, three in number, were the conductors of criminal -prosecutions on the part of the State; and no act of the councils was -valid, unless sanctioned by the presence of one of them; but they were -not, as Byron seems to imply, a court of first instance. The implied -reproach that they preferred to send the case to appeal because Steno -was a member of the "Quarantia," is based on an error of Sanudo's (_vide -ante_, p. 333).] - -[da] {348} ----_Marin! Falierae_ [sic].--[MS. M.] - -[383] ["Marin Faliero, dalla bella moglie--altri la gode, ed egli la -mantien."--Marino Samuto, _Vitae Ducum Venetorum, apud_ Muratori, _Rerum -Italicurum Scriptores_, 1733, xxii. 628-638]. Navagero, in his _Storia -della Repubblica Veneriana_, _ibid_., xxiii. 1040, gives a coarser -rendering of Steno's Lampoon.--"Becco Marino Fallier dalla belta -mogier;" and there are older versions agreeing in the main with that -Faliero's by Sanudo. It is, however, extremely doubtful whether Faliro's -conspiracy was, in any sense, the outcome of a personal insult. The -story of the Lampoon first appears in the Chronicle of Lorenzo de -Monaci, who wrote in the latter half of the fifteenth century. "Fama -fuit ... quia aliqui adolescentuli nobiles scripserunt in angulis -interioris palatii aliqua verba ignominiosa, et quod ipse (il Doge) -magis incanduit quoniam adolescentuli illi parva fuerant animadversione -puniti." In course of time the "noble youths" became a single noble -youth, whose name occurred in the annals, and the derivation or -evolution of the "verba ignominiosa," followed by a natural -process.--_La Congiura, Nuona Archivio Veneto_, 1897, tom. xiii. pt. ii. -p. 347.] - -[384] {349}[Sanudo gives two versions of Steno's punishment: (1) that he -should be imprisoned for two months, and banished from Venice for a -year; (2) that he should be imprisoned for one month, flogged with a -fox's tail, and pay one hundred lire to the Republic.] - -[385] {350}[_Vide ante_, p. 331.] - -[386] {351}[Faliero's appeal to the "law" is a violation of "historical -accuracy." The penalty for an injury to the Doge was not fixed by law, -but was decided from time to time by the Judge, in accordance with -unwritten custom.--_La Congiura_, p. 60.] - -[db] {352}_Who threw his sting into a poisonous rhyme_.--[Alternative -reading. MS. M.] - -[387] [For the story of Caesar, Pompeia, and Clodius, see Plutarch's -_Lives_, "Caesar," Langhorne's translation, 1838, p. 498.] - -[dc]----_Enrico_.--[Alternative reading. MS. M.] - -[388] [According to Sanudo (_Vitae Ducum Venetorum, apud_ Muratori, -_Rerum Ital. Script_., 1733, xxii. 529), it was Ser Pantaleone Barbo who -intervened, when (A.D. 1204) the election to the Empire of -Constantinople lay between the Doge "Arrigo Dandolo" and "Conte -Baldovino di Fiandra."] - -[dd] {354} ----_in olden days._--[MS. M.] - -[389] {356}[According to the much earlier, and, presumably, more -historical narrative of Lorenzo de Monaci, Bertuccio Isarello was not -chief of the _Arsenalotti_, but simply the patron, that is the owner, of -a vessel (_paron di nave_), and consequently a person of importance -amongst sailors and naval artisans; and the noble who strikes the fatal -blow is not Barbaro, but a certain Giovanni Dandolo, who is known, at -that time, to have been "_sopracomito and consigliere del capitano da -mar_." If the Admiral of the Arsenal had been engaged in the conspiracy, -the fact could hardly have escaped the notice of contemporary -chroniclers. Signor Lazzarino suggests that the name Gisello, or -Girello, which has been substituted for that of Israel Bertuccio, is a -corruption of Isarello.--_La Congiura_, p. 74.] - -[390] [The island of Sapienza lies about nine miles to the north-west of -Capo Gallo, in the Morea. The battle in which the Venetians under Nicolo -Pisani were defeated by the Genoese under Paganino Doria was fought -November 4, 1354. (See _Venice, an Historical Sketch_, by Horatio F. -Brown, 1893, p. 201.)] - -[391] An historical fact. See Marin Sanuto's _Lives of the Doges_. -["Sanuto says that Heaven took away his senses for this buffet, and -induced him to conspire:--'Pero fu permesso che il Faliero perdesse -l'intelletto.'"--_B. Letters_ (_Works, etc._, 1832, xii. 82. note 1). - -[392] {358}["The number of their constant Workmen is 1200; and all these -Artificers have a Superior Officer called _Amiraglio_, who commands the -_Bucentaure_ on Ascension Day, when the Duke goes in state to marry the -sea. And here we cannot but notice, that by a ridiculous custom this -Admiral makes himself Responsible to the _Senat_ for the inconstancy of -the Sea, and engages his Life there shall be no Tempest that day. 'Tis -this Admiral who has the Guard of the Palais, St. Mark, with his -_Arsenalotti_, during the _interregnum_. He carries the Red Standard -before the Prince when he makes his Entry, by virtue of which office he -has his Cloak, and the two Basons (out of which the Duke throws the -money to the People) for his fee."--_The History of the Government of -Venice_, written in the year 1675, by the Sieur Amelott de la Houssaie, -London, 1677, p. 63.] - -[393] [_Vide ante_, p. 356, note 1.] - -[394] {360}[The famous measure known as the closing of the Great Council -was carried into force during the Dogeship (1289-1311) of Pietro -Gradenigo. On the last day of February, 1297, a law was proposed and -passed, "That the Council of Forty are to ballot, one by one, the names -of all those who during the last four years have had a seat in the Great -Council.... Three electors shall be chosen to submit names of fresh -candidates for the Great Council, on the ... approval of the Doge." But -strict as these provisions were, they did not suffice to restrict the -government to the aristocracy. It was soon decreed "that only those who -could prove that a paternal ancestor had sat on the Great Council, after -its creation in 1176, should now be eligible as members.... It is in -this provision that we find the essence of the _Serrata del Maggior -Consiglio_.... The work was not completed at one stroke.... In 1315 a -list of all those who were eligible ... was compiled. The scrutiny ... -was entrusted to the _Avogadori di Comun_, and became ... more and more -severe. To ensure the purity of blood, they opened a register of -marriages and births.... Thus the aristocracy proceeded to construct -itself more and more upon a purely oligarchical basis."--_Venice, an -Historical Sketch_, by Horatio F. Brown, 1893, pp. 162-164.] - -[395] {362}[To "partake" this or that is an obsolete construction, but -rests on the authority of Dryden and other writers of the period. -Byron's "have partook" cannot come under the head of "good, sterling, -genuine English"! (See letter to Murray, October 8, 1820, _Letters_, -1901, v. 89.)] - -[396] {363}[The bells of San Marco were never rung but by order of the -Doge. One of the pretexts for ringing this alarm was to have been an -announcement of the appearance of a Genoese fleet off the Lagune. -According to Sanudo, "on the appointed day they [the followers of the -sixteen leaders of the conspiracy] were to make affrays amongst -themselves, here and there, in order that the Duke might have a pretence -for tolling the bells of San Marco." (See, too, _Sketches from Venetian -History, 1831, i. 266, note._)] - -[397] ["Le Conseil des Dix avail ses prisons speciales dites -_camerotti_; celles non officiellement appelees les _pozzi_ et les -_piombi_, les puits et les plombs, etaient de son redoubtable domaine. -Les _Camerotti di sotto_ (les puits) etaient obscurs mais non -accessibles a l'eau du canal, comme on l'a fait croire en des recits -dignes d'Anne Radcliffe; les _camerotti di sopra_ (les plombs) etaient -des cellules fortement doublees de bois mais non privees de -lumiere."--_Les Archives de Venise_, par Armand Baschet, 1870, p. 535. -For the _pozzi_ and the "Bridge of Sighs" see note by Hobhouse, -_Poetical Works_, 1899, ii. 465; and compare _Childe Harold_, Canto IV. -stanza i. line 1 (and _The Two Foscari_, act iv. sc. 1), _Poetical -Works_, 1899, ii. 327, note 2.] - -[398] {365}[For "Sapienza," _vide ante_, p. 356. According to the -genealogies, Marin Falier, by his first wife, had a daughter Lucia, who -was married to Franceschino Giustiniani; but there is no record of a -son. (See _La Congiura_, p. 21.)] - -[399] {366}["The Doges were all _buried_ in _St. Mark's before_ Faliero: -it is singular that when his predecessor, _Andrea Dandolo_, died, the -Ten made a law that _all_ the _future Doges_ should be _buried with -their families in their own churches,--one would think by a kind of -presentiment_. So that all that is said of his _Ancestral Doges_, as -buried at St. John's and Paul's, is altered from the fact, _they being -in St. Mark's_. _Make a note_ of this, and put _Editor_ as the -subscription to it. As I make such pretensions to accuracy, I should not -like to be _twitted_ even with such trifles on that score. Of the play -they may say what they please, but not so of my costume and _dram. -pers_.--they having been real existences."--Letter to Murray, October -12, 1820, _Letters_, 1901, v. 95. Byron's injunction was not carried out -till 1832.] - -[400] A gondola is not like a common boat, but is as easily rowed with -one oar as with two (though, of course, not so swiftly), and often is so -from motives of privacy; and, since the decay of Venice, of economy. - -[401] {367}["What Gifford says (of the first act) is very consolatory. -'English, sterling _genuine English_,' is a desideratum amongst you, and -I am glad that I have got so much left; though Heaven knows how I retain -it: I _hear_ none but from my Valet, and his is _Nottinghamshire_; and I -_see_ none but in your new publications, and theirs is _no_ language at -all, but jargon.... Gifford says that it is 'good, sterling, genuine -English,' and Foscolo says that the characters are right -Venetian."--Letters to Murray, Sept. 11, Oct. 8, 1820, _Letters_, 1901, -v. 75-89.] - -[402] [Byron admits (_vide ante_, p. 340) that the character of the -"Dogaressa" is more or less his own creation. It may be remarked that in -Casimir Delavigne's version of the story, the Duchess (Elena) cherishes -a secret and criminal attachment for Bertuccio Faliero, and that in Mr. -Swinburne's tragedy, while innocent in act, she is smitten with remorse -for a passion which overmasters her loyalty to her husband. Byron's -Angiolina is "faultily faultless, ... splendidly null." - -In a letter to Murray, dated January 4, 1821 (_Letters_, 1901, v. 218), -he says, "As I think that _love_ is not the principal passion for -tragedy, you will not find me a popular writer. Unless it is Love, -_furious_, _criminal_, and _hapless_ [as in _The Mysterious Mother_, or -in Alfieri's _Mirra_, or Shelley's _Cenci_], it ought not to make a -tragic subject. When it is melting and maudlin, it _does_, but it ought -not to do; it is then for the gallery and second-price boxes." It is -probable that he owed these sentiments to the theory and practice of -Vittorio Alfieri. "It is extraordinary," writes M. de Fallette Barrol -(_Monthly Magazine_, April, 1805, reprinted in Preface to _Tragedie di -Alfieri_, A. Montucci, Edinburgh, 1805, i. xvi. _sq._), "that a man -whose soul possessed an uncommon share of ardour and sensibility, and -had experienced all the violence of the passions, should scarcely have -condescended to introduce love into his tragedies; or, when he does, -that he should only employ it with a kind of reserve and severity.... He -probably regarded it as a hackneyed agent; for in ... _Myrrha_ it -appears in such a strange character, that all the art of the writer is -not capable of divesting it of an air at once ludicrous and disgusting." - -But apart from the example of Alfieri, there was another motive at -work--a determination to prove to the world that he was the master of -his own temperament, and that, if he chose, he could cast away frivolity -and cynicism, and clothe himself with austerity "as with a garment." He -had been taken to task for "treating well-nigh with equal derision the -most pure of virtues, and the most odious of vices" (_Blackwood's Edin. -Mag._, August, 1819), and here was an "answer to his accusers!"] - -[403] {368}[The exact date of Marin Falier's birth is a matter of -conjecture, but there is reason to believe that he Was under -seventy-five years of age at the time of the conspiracy. The date -assigned is 1280-1285 A.D.] - -[de] {369} ----_has he been doomed?_--[Alternative reading. MS. M.] - -[404] {370}[According to Dio Cassius, the last words of Brutus were, -[Greek: O~) tle~mon a)rete/, lo/gos a)/r e~)sth a)/llos], -[Greek: e)go\ de\ o(s e(/rgon e(/skoun' sy\ d'a)r' e)dou/leues ty/che|]-- -_Hist. Rom._, lib. xlvii. c. 49, ed. v., P. Boissevain, 1898, ii. 246.] - -[df] {375} - - _Doth Heaven forgive her own? is Satan saved?_ - _But be it so?_--[Alternative reading. MS. M.] - -[405] [There is no MS. authority for "From wrath eternal."] - -[dg] _Oh do not speak thus rashly_.-[Alternative reading. MS. M.] - -[406] {377} - - ["Beg Heaven to cleanse the leprosy of lust." - - _'Tis Pity she's a Whore_, by John Ford. - Lamb's _Dramatic Poets_, 1835, i. 265.] - -[407] {378}[The Dogaressa Aluica was the daughter of Nicolo Gradenigo. -It was the Doge who inherited the "blood of Loredano" through his mother -Beriola.] - -[408] {381}[The lines "and the hour hastens" to "whate'er may urge" are -not in the MS.] - -[dh] {382}_Where Death sits throned_----.--[Alternative reading. MS. M.] - -[409] [Filippo Calendario, who is known to have been one of the -principal conspirators, was a master stone-cutter, who worked as a -sculptor, and ranked as such. The tradition, to which Byron does not -allude, that he was an architect, and designed the new palace begun in -1354, may probably be traced to a document of the fifteenth century, in -which Calendario is described as _commissario_, i.e. executor, of Piero -Basejo, who worked as a master stone-cutter for the Republic. The -_Maggior Consiglio_ was its own architect, and would not have empowered -a _tagliapietra_, however eminent, to act on his own -responsibility.--_La Congiura_, pp. 76, 77.] - -[410] {383}[The _sbirri_ were constables, officers of the police -magistrates, the _signori di notte_. The Italians have a saying, _Dir le -sue ragioni agli sbirri_, that is, to argue with a policeman.] - -[411] {384}["It was concerted that sixteen or seventeen leaders should -be stationed in various parts of the city, each being at the head of -forty men, armed and prepared; but the followers were not to know their -destination."--See translation of Sanudo's _Narrative_, _post_, p. 464.] - -[412] [In the earlier chronicles Beltramo is named Vendrame. He was, -according to some authorities, _compare_ with Lioni, _i.e._ a co-sponsor -of the same godchild. Signor Lazzarino (_La Congiura_, p. 90 (2)) -maintains that in all probability Beltramo betrayed his companions from -selfish motives, in order to save himself, and not from any -"compunctious visitings," or because he was "too full o' the milk of -human kindness." According to Sanudo (_vide post_, p. 465), "Beltramo -Bergamasco" was not one of the principal conspirators, but "had heard a -word or two of what was to take place." Ser Marco Soranzano (p. 466) was -one of the "Zonta" of twenty who were elected as assessors to the Ten, -to try the Doge of high treason against the Republic.] - -[413] {386}[Compare-- - - "If we should fail,----We fail. - But screw your courage to the sticking-place, - And we'll not fail." - - _Macbeth_, act i. sc. 7, lines 59-61.] - -[di] _In a great cause the block may soak their gore_.--[Alternative -reading. MS. M.] - -[dj] _If Brutus had not lived? He failed in giving_.--[MS. M.] - -[414] [At the battle of Philippi, B.C. 42, Brutus lamented over the body -of Cassius, and called him the "last of the Romans."--Plutarch's -_Lives_, "Marcus Brutus," Langhorne's translation, 1838, p. 686.] - -[415] [The citizens of Aquileia and Padua fled before the invasion of -Attila, and retired to the Isle of Gradus, and Rivus Altus, or Rialto. -Theodoric's minister, Cassiodorus, who describes the condition of the -fugitives some seventy years after they had settled on the "hundred -isles," compares them to "waterfowl who had fixed their nests on the -bosom of the waves." (See Gibbon's _Decline and Fall, etc._, 1825, ii. -375, note 6, and 376, notes 1, 2.)] - -[416] [_Mal bigatto_, "vile silkworm," is a term of contempt and -reproach = "uomo de maligna intenzione," a knave.] - -[417] {388}[Compare-- - - "I'll make assurance double sure, - And take a bond of fate." - - _Macbeth_, act iv. sc. I, lines 83, 84.] - -[418] {390}[For Byron's correction of this statement, _vide ante_, p. -366. The monument of the Doge Vitale Falier (d. 1096) "was at the right -side of the principal entrance into the Vestibule." According to G. -Meschinello (La Chiesa Ducale, 1753), Ordelafo Falier was buried in the -Atrio of St. Mark's. See, too, _Venetia citta nobilissima ... descritta -da F. Sansovino_, 1663, pp. 96, 556.] - -[dk] _We thought to make our peers and not our masters_.--[Alternative -reading. MS. M.] - -[dl] ----_merit such requital_.--[Alternative reading. MS. M.] - -[419] {391}[Compare-- - - "I have set my life upon a cast, - And I will stand the hazard of the die." - - _Richard III_., act v. sc. 4, lines 9, 10.] - -[420] {392}["The equestrian statue of which I have made mention in the -third act as before the church, is not ... of a Faliero, but of some -other now obsolete warrior, although of a later date."--_Vide ante_, -Preface, p. 336. "In the Campo in front of the church [facing the Rio -dei Mendicanti] stands the equestrian statue of Bartolomeo Colleoni, the -second equestrian statue raised in Italy after the revival of the -arts....The handsome marble pedestal is lofty, supported and flanked by -composite columns."--_Handbook: Northern Italy_, p. 374.] - -[dm] {393}_Nor dwindle to a cut-throat without shuddering_.--[MS. M. -erased.] - -[dn] _A scourged mechanic_----.--[MS. M.] _A roused mechanic_----.--[MS. -M. erased.] - -[421] {394}An historical fact. [See Appendix A, p. 464.] - -[do] - - / _in_ \ -_So let them die_ < > _one_.--[MS. M.] - \ _as_ / - -[dp] {397}_We are all lost in wonder_--[Alternative reading. MS. M.] - -[dq] ----_of our splendid City_.--[MS. M. erased.] - -[422] [Compare-- - - "Where Venice sate in state, throned on her hundred isles." - - _Childe Harold_, Canto IV. stanza i. line 9, and _var_. i.] - -[dr] {398}_But all the worst sins of the Spartan state_.--[Alternative -reading. MS. M.] - -[ds] _The Lords of old Laconia_----.--[MS. M. erased.] - -[423] {399}[Compare-- - - "A king of shreds and patches." - - _Hamlet_, act iii. sc. 4, line 102.] - -[424] ["The members of the Ten (_Il Cousiglio de' Dieci_) were elected -in the Great Council for one year only, and were not re-eligible for the -year after they had held office. Every month the Ten elected three of -their own number as chiefs, or _Capi_ of the Council.... The court -consisted, besides the Ten, of the Doge and his six councillors, -seventeen members in all, of whom twelve were necessary to make a -_quorum_. One of the _Avogadori di Comun_, or State advocates, was -always present, without the power to vote, but to act as clerk to the -court, informing it of the law, and correcting it where its procedure -seemed informal. Subsequently it became customary to add twenty members -to the Council, elected in the Maggior Consiglio, for each important -case as it arose."--_Venice, an Historical Sketch_, by Horatio F. Brown, -1893, pp. 177, 178. (See, too, _Les Archives de Venise_, par Armand -Baschet, 1870, p. 525.)] - -[425] {400}[The chronicles are silent as to any embassy or commission -from the Republic to Rhodes or Cyprus in which Marin Falier held office -or took any part whatever. Cyprus did not pass into the hands of Venice -till 1489, and Rhodes was held by the Knights of St. John till 1522.] - -[426] {401}[Compare-- - - "We have scotched the snake, not killed it." - - Macbeth, act iii. sc. II, line 13.] - -[dt] {402}_Fought by my side, and John Grimani shared._--[MS. M. -erased.] - -[427] [Marc Cornaro did not "share" his Genoese, but his Hungarian -embassy.--_M. Faliero Avanti il Dogado: Archivio Veneto_, 1893, vol. v. -pt. i. p. 144.] - -[du] {403}_My mission to the Pope; I saved the life._--[MS. M. erased.] - -[dv] - - _Bear witness with me! ye who hear and know,_ - _And feel our mutual mass of many wrongs._--[MS. M. erased.] - -[428] {404}[The Italian Oime recalls the Latin _Hei mihi_ and the Greek -[Greek: Oi~moi] ] - -[429] [Compare-- - - "Have I not had my brain seared, my heart riven, - Hope sapped, name blighted, Life's life lied away?" - - _Childe Harold_, Canto IV. stanza cxxxv. lines 5, 6. - -And-- - - "The beings which surrounded him were gone. - Or were at war with him." - - _The Dream_, sect. viii. lines 3, 4, _vide ante_, p. 40] - -[dw] _Sate grinning Mockery_----.--[Alternative reading. MS. M.] - -[dx] {405}_The feelings they abused_----.--[MS. M. erased.] - -[dy] ----_and then perish_.--[Alternative reading. MS. M.] - -[dz] {406} - - / _carrion_ \ -_Nor turn aside to strike at such a_ < >--[MS. M.] - \ _wretch_ / - -[ea] {407}_You are a patriot, plebeian Gracchus_.--[Ed. 1832.] (MS., and -First Edition, 1821, insert "a.") - -[430] [Compare "Why, Hal, 'tis my vocation, Hal; 'tis no sin for a man -to labour in his vocation."--I _Henry IV_., act i. sc. 2, lines 101, -102.] - -[eb] {409}_To this now shackled_----.--[MS. M. erased.] - -[431] {410}[Byron told Medwin that he wrote "Lioni's soliloquy one -moonlight night, after coming from the Benzoni's."--_Conversations_, -1824, p. 177.] - -[ec] _High o'er the music_----.--[MS. M. erased.] - -[432] {411}["At present, I am on the invalid regimen myself. The -Carnival--that is, the latter part of it, and sitting up late o' nights, -had knocked me up a little.... The mumming closed with a masked ball at -the Fenice, where I went, as also to most of the ridottos, etc., etc.; -and, though I did not dissipate much upon the whole, yet I find 'the -sword wearing out the scabbard,' though I have but just turned the -corner of twenty-nine. - - "So we'll go no more a roving - So late into the night, - Though the heart be still as loving, - And the moon be still as bright. - - "For the sword outwears its sheath, - And the soul wears out the breast, - And the heart must pause to breathe, - And Love itself have rest. - - "Though the night was made for loving, - And the day returns too soon, - Yet we'll go no more a roving - By the light of the moon." - -Letter to Moore, February 28, 1817, _Letters_, 1900, iv. 59.] - -[ed] {412}_Suggesting dreams or unseen Symmetry_.--[MS. M. erased.] - -[ee] _Which give their glitter lack, and the vast AEther_.--[MS. M. -erased.] - -[ef] ----_seaborn palaces_.--[Alternative reading. MS. M.] - -[433] {413}[Compare "What, ma'amselle, don't you remember Ludovico, who -rowed the Cavaliero's gondola at the last regatta, and won the prize? -and who used to sing such sweet verses about Orlando's ... all under my -lattice ... on the moonlight nights at Venice?"--_Mysteries of Udolpho_, -by Anne Radcliffe, 1882, p. 195. Compare, too, _Beppo_, stanza xv. lines -1-6, _vide ante_, p. 164.] - -[434] [Compare "The gondolas gliding down the canals are like coffins or -cradles ... At night the darkness reveals the tiny lanterns which guide -these boats, and they look like shadows passing by, lit by stars. -Everything in this region is mystery--government, custom, -love."--_Corinne or Italy_, by Madame de Stael, 1888, pp. 279, 280. -Compare, too-- - - "In Venice Tasso's echoes are no more, - And silent rows the songless Gondolier." - - _Childe Harold_, Canto IV. stanza iii. lines 1, 2, - _Poetical Works_, 1899, ii. note 3.] - -[eg] ----_or towering spire_.--[MS. M.] - -[eh] ----_at this moment_.--[Alternative reading. MS. M.] - -[ei] {414} ----_Has he no name?_--[Alternative reading. MS. M.] - -[ej] _His voice and carriage_----.--[Alternative reading. MS. M.] - -[ek] {415}_If so withdraw and fly and tell me not_.--[Alternative -reading. MS. M.] - -[el] {416}_Good I would now requite_----.--[Alternative reading. MS. M.] - -[em] _Remain at home_----.--[Alternative reading. MS. M.] - -[en] {417}_Why what hast thou to gainsay of the Senate?_--[Alternative -reading. MS. M.] - -[eo] _On the accursed tyranny which taints._--[Alternative reading. MS. -M.] - -[ep] {418}_I would not draw my breath_----.--[Alternative reading. MS. -M.] - -[435] {419}[If Gifford had been at the pains to _read_ Byron's -manuscripts, or revise the proofs, he would surely have pointed out, if -he had not ventured to amend, his bad grammar.] - -[436] {421}The Doge's family palace. - -[eq] {422}_A Loredano_----.--[MS. erased.] - -[437] [Compare _Childe Harold_, Canto IV. stanza xiv. line 3, _Poetical -Works_, 1898, ii. 339, note i.] - -[438] {423}[Compare "Themistocles was sacrificing on the deck of the -admiral-galley."--_Plutarch's Lives_, Langhorne, 1838, p. 89.] - -[439] [For Timoleon, who first saved, and afterwards slew his brother -Timophanes, for aiming at sovereignty, see _The Siege of Corinth_, line -59, note 1, _Poetical Works_, 1900, iii. 452.] - -[er] {424}_The night is clearing from the sky_.--[MS. M. erased.] - -[440] [For the use of "dapple" as an intransitive verb, compare -_Mazeppa_, xvi. line 646, _vide ante_, p. 227.] - -[es] ----_Now--now to business_.--[Alternative reading. MS. M.] - -[et] {425}_The signal_----.--[MS. M. erased.] - -_The storm-clock_----.--[Alternative reading. MS. M.] - -[441] ["'Tis done ... unerring beak" (six lines), not in MS.] - -[442] [Byron had forgotten the dictum of the artist Reinagle, that -"eagles and all birds of prey attack with their talons and not with -their beaks" (see _Childe Harold_, Canto III. stanza xviii. line 6, -_Poetical Works_, 1899, ii. 226, note 1); or, possibly, had discovered -that eagles attack with their beaks as well as their talons.] - -[443] [_Vide ante_, p. 368, note 1.] - -[eu] - - ----_ten thousand caps were flung_ - _Into the air and thrice ten_----.--[MS. M. erased.] - -[444] {426}[Compare-- - - "Oh for one hour of blind old Dandolo!" - - _Childe Harold_, Canto IV. stanza xii. line 8, - _Poetical Works_, 1899, ii. 337.] - -[ev] - - / _iron oracle_. \ -_Where swings the sullen_ < > - \ _huge oracular bell_. / - [Alternative reading. MS. M.] - -[445] {427} "I Signori di Notte" held an important charge in the old -republic. [The surveillance of the "sestieri" was assigned to the -"Collegio dei Signori di notte al criminal." Six in all, they were at -once police magistrates and superintendents of police. (See Cappelletti, -_Storia, etc._, 1856, ii. 293.)] - -[446] [The Doge overstates his authority. He could not preside without -his Council "in the _Maggior Consiglio_, or in the Senate, or in the -College; but four ducal councillors had the power to preside without the -Doge. The Doge might not open despatches except in the presence of his -Council, but his Council might open despatches in the absence of the -Doge."--_Venetian Studies_, by H. F. Brown, 1887, p. 189.] - -[ew] {428}_That thus you dare assume a brigand's power._--[Alternative -reading. MS. M.] - -[ex] ----_storm-clock._--[Alternative reading. MS. M.] - -[447] [Byron may have had in his mind the "bell or clocke" (see _var._ -ii.) in Southey's ballad of _The Inchcape Rock_. - - "On a buoy in the storm it floated and swung, - And over the waves its warning rung."] - -[ey] _Or met some unforeseen and fatal obstacle._--[Alternative reading. -MS. M.] - -[448] {430}[A translation of _Beltramo Bergamasco_, i.e. a native of the -town and province of Bergamo, in the north of Italy. Compare "Comasco." -Harlequin ... was a Bergamasc, and the personification of the manners, -accent, and jargon of the inhabitants of the Val Brembana.--_Handbook: -Northern Italy_, p. 240.] - -[ez] {431}_While Manlius, who hurled back the Gauls_----.--[Alternative -reading. MS. M.] - -[fa] _The Grand Chancellor of the Ten_.--[MS. M. erased.] - -[449] ["In the notes to _Marino Faliero_, it may be as well to say that -'_Benintende_' was not really of _the ten_, but merely _Grand -Chancellor_--a separate office, though an important one: it was an -arbitrary alteration of mine."--Letter to Murray, October 12, 1820. - -Byron's correction was based on a chronicle cited by Sanudo, which is -responsible for the statement that Beneintendi de Ravignani presided as -Grand Chancellor at the Doge's trial, and took down his examination. As -a matter of fact, Beneintendi was at Milan, not at Venice, when the -trial took place. The "college" which conducted the examination of the -Doge consisted of Giovanni Mocenigo, Councillor; Giovanni Marcello, -Chief of the Ten; Luga da Lezze, "Inquisitore;" and Orio Pasqualigo, -"Avogadore."--_La Congiura_, p. 104(2).] - -[450] "Giovedi grasso,"--"fat or greasy Thursday,"--which I cannot -literally translate in the text, was the day. - -[451] {435}Historical fact. See Sanuto, Appendix, Note A [_vide post_, -p. 466]. - -[452] {436}["I know what Foscolo means about Calendaro's _spitting_ at -Bertram: _that's_ national--the _objection_, I mean. The Italians and -French, with those 'flags of Abomination,' their pocket handkerchiefs, -spit there, and here, and every where else--in your face almost, and -therefore _object_ to it on the Stage as _too familiar_. But we who -_spit_ nowhere--but in a man's face when we grow savage--are not likely -to feel this. Remember _Massinger_, and Kean's Sir Giles Overreach-- - - 'Lord! _thus_ I _spit_ at thee and thy Counsel!'" - -Letter to Murray, October 8, 1820, _Letters_, v. 1901, 89. - -"Sir Giles Overreach" says to "Lord Lovel," in _A New Way to Pay Old -Debts_, act v. sc. 1, "Lord! thus I spit at thee, and at thy counsel." -Compare, too-- - - "You call me misbeliever, cut-throat dog, - And spit upon my Jewish gaberdine." - - _Merchant of Venice_, act i. sc. 3, lines 106, 107.] - -[fd] {437}_It is impending_----.--[Alternative reading. MS. M.] - -[453] {438}["Is [Solon] cum interrogaretur, cur nullum supplicium -constituisset in eum qui parentem necasset, respondit se id neminem -facturum putasse."--Cicero, _Pro Sext. Roscio Amerino_, cap, 25.] - -[454] ["Signory" is used loosely to denote the State or Government of -Venice, not the "_collegio_" or "_Signoria Serenissima_."] - -[455] [This statement is strictly historical. On the death of Andrea -Dandolo (September 7, 1334) the _Maggior Consiglio_ appointed a -commission of five "savi" to correct and modify the "promissione," or -ducal oath. The alterations which the commissioners suggested were -designed to prevent the Doge from acting on his own initiative in -matters of foreign policy.--_La Congiura_, pp. 30, 31.] - -[456] {440}[Gelo is quoted as the type of a successful and beneficent -tyrant held in honour by all posterity; Thrasybulus as a consistent -advocate and successful champion of democracy.] - -[457] [The lines from "I would have stood ... while living" are not in -the MS.] - -[fe] _There were no other ways for truth to pierce them_.--[Alternative -reading. MS. M.] - -[ff] {441}_The torture for the exposure of the truth_.--[Alternative -reading. MS. M.] - -[fg] - - / _Doge Faliero's consort_. \ -_Noble Venetians!_ < >--[MS. M. erased.] - \ _with respect the Duchess_. / - -[458] The Venetian senate took the same title as the Roman, of -"conscript fathers." [It was not, however, the Senate, the _Pregadi_, -but the _Consiglio dei Dieci_, supplemented by the _Zonta_ of Twenty, -which tried and condemned the Doge.] - -[fh] {443}_He hath already granted his own guilt_.--[Alternative -reading. MS. M.] - -[fi] _He is a Sovereign and hath swayed the state_.--[Alternative -reading. MS. M.] - -[459] {445}[The accepted spelling is "aerie." The word is said to be -derived from the Latin _atrium_. The form _eyry_, or _eyrie_, was -introduced by Spelman (_Gl_. 1664) to countenance an erroneous -derivation from the Saxon _eghe_, an egg. _N. Eng. Dict._, art. -"aerie."] - -[fj] _Of his high aiery_----.--[Alternative reading. MS. M.] - -[460] [_Vide_ Suetonius, _De XII. Caesaribus_, lib. iv. cap. 56, ed. -1691, p. 427. Angiolina might surely have omitted this particular -instance of the avenging vigilance of "Great Nemesis."] - -[461] {446}[The story is told in Plutarch's _Alexander_, cap. 38. -Compare-- - - "And the king seized a flambeau with zeal to destroy; - Thais led the way, - To light him to his prey, - And like another Helen, fired another Troy." - - Dryden's _Alexanders Feast_, vi. lines 25-28.] - -[462] [Byron's imagination was prone to dwell on the "earthworm's slimy -brood." Compare _Childe Harold_, Canto II. stanzas v., vi. Dallas -(_Recollections of Lord Byron_, 1824, p. 124) once ventured to remind -his noble connection "that although our senses make us acquainted with -the chemical decomposition of our bodies," there were other and more -hopeful considerations to be entertained. But Byron was obdurate, "and -the worms crept in and the worms crept out" as unpleasantly as -heretofore.] - -[fk] ----_you call your duty_.--[Alternative reading. MS. M.] - -[fl] {447} ----_never heard of_.--[Alternative reading. MS. M.] - -[fm] _For this almost_----.--[MS. M.] - -[463] ["Hic est locus Marini Falethri, decapitati pro criminibus." Even -more impressive is the significant omission of the minutes of the trial -from the pages of the State Register. "The fourth volume of the _Misti -Consiglio X_. contains its decrees in the year 1355. On Friday, the 17th -April in that year, Marin Falier was beheaded. In the usual course, the -minutes of the trial should have been entered on the thirty-third page -of that volume; but in their stead we find a blank space, and the words -'[=N] S[=C]BATUR:' 'Be it not written.'"--_Calendar of State Papers_ ... -in Venice, Preface by Rawdon Brown, 1864, i. xvii.] - -[464] [Lines 500-507 were forwarded in a letter to Murray, dated Marzo, -1821 (_Letters_, 1901, v. 261). According to Moore's footnote, "These -lines--perhaps from some difficulty in introducing them--were never -inserted in the Tragedy." It is true that in some copies of the first -edition of _Marino Faliero_ (1821, p. 151) these lines do not appear; -but in other copies of the first edition, in the second and other -editions, they occur in their place. It is strange that Moore, writing -in 1830, did not note the almost immediate insertion of these remarkable -lines.] - -[465] {448}[The Council of Ten decided that the possessions of Faliero -should be confiscated; but the "Signoria," as an act of grace, and _ob -ducatus reverentiam_, allowed him to dispose of 2000 "lire dei grossi" -of his own. The same day, April 17, the Doge dictated his will to the -notary Piero de Compostelli, leaving the 2000 lire to his wife -Aluica.--_La Congiura_, p. 105.] - -[fn] {449}_Of the house of Rizzando Caminese_.--[MS. M.] - -[fo] _Have I aught else to undergo ere Death?_--[Alternative reading. -MS. M.] - -[466] {450}[The story as related by Sanudo is of doubtful authenticity, -_vide ante_, p. 332, note 1.] - -[fp] {451}_Until he rolled beneath_----.--[Alternative reading. MS. M.] - -[fq] _A madness of the heart shall rise within_.--[Alternative reading. -MS. M.] - -[467] [Compare-- - - "I pull in resolution." - - _Macbeth_, act v. sc. 5, line 42.] - -[468] {452}[See the translation of Sanudo's narrative in Appendix, p. -463.] - -[fr] - - ----_whom I know_ - _To be as worthless as the dust they trample_.--[MS. M. erased.] - -[fs] {453}_With unimpaired but not outrageous grief_.--[Alternative -reading, MS. M.] - -[469] {454}[An anachronism, _vide ante_, p. 336.] - -[ft] _I am glad to be so_----.--[Alternative reading. MS. M.] - -[470] This was the actual reply of Bailli, maire of Paris, to a -Frenchman who made him the same reproach on his way to execution, in the -earliest part of their revolution. I find in reading over (since the -completion of this tragedy), for the first time these six years, "Venice -Preserved," a similar reply on a different occasion by Renault, and -other coincidences arising from the subject. I need hardly remind the -gentlest reader, that such coincidences must be accidental, from the -very facility of their detection by reference to so popular a play on -the stage and in the closet as Otway's chef-d'oeuvre. - -["Still crueller was the fate of poor Bailly [Jean Sylvani, born -September 17, 1736], First National President, First Mayor of Paris.... -It is the 10th of November, 1793, a cold bitter drizzling rain, as poor -Bailly is led through the streets.... Silent, unpitied, sits the -innocent old man.... The Guillotine is taken down ... is carried to the -riverside; is there set up again, with slow numbness; pulse after pulse -still counting itself out in the old man's weary heart. For hours long; -amid curses and bitter frost-rain! 'Bailly, thou tremblest,' said one. -'_Mon ami_, it is for cold,' said Bailly, '_C'est de froid_.' Crueller -end had no mortal."--Carlyle's _French Revolution_, 1839, iii. 264.] - -[fu] {455}_Who makest and destroyest suns!_--[MS. M. Vide letter of -February 2, 1821.] - -[471] {456}[In his reply to the envoys of the Venetian Senate (April, -1797), Buonaparte threatened to "prove an Attila to Venice. If you -cannot," he added, "disarm your population, I will do it in your -stead--your government is antiquated--it must crumble to -pieces."--Scott's _Life of Napoleon Bonaparte_, 1828, p. 230. Compare, -too, _Childe Harold_, Canto IV. stanza xc. lines 1, 2-- - - "The fool of false dominion--and a kind - Of bastard Caesar," etc.] - -[472] Should the dramatic picture seem harsh, let the reader look to the -historical of the period prophesied, or rather of the few years -preceding that period. Voltaire calculated their "nostre bene merite -Meretrici" at 12,000 of regulars, without including volunteers and local -militia, on what authority I know not; but it is, perhaps, the only part -of the population not decreased. Venice once contained two hundred -thousand inhabitants: there are now about ninety thousand; and THESE!! -few individuals can conceive, and none could describe, the actual state -into which the more than infernal tyranny of Austria has plunged this -unhappy city. From the present decay and degeneracy of Venice under the -Barbarians, there are some honourable individual exceptions. There is -Pasqualigo, the last, and, alas! _posthumous_ son of the marriage of the -Doges with the Adriatic, who fought his frigate with far greater -gallantry than any of his French coadjutors in the memorable action off -Lissa. I came home in the squadron with the prizes in 1811, and -recollect to have heard Sir William Hoste, and the other officers -engaged in that glorious conflict, speak in the highest terms of -Pasqualigo's behaviour. There is the Abbate Morelli. There is Alvise -Querini, who, after a long and honourable diplomatic career, finds some -consolation for the wrongs of his country, in the pursuits of literature -with his nephew, Vittor Benzon, the son of the celebrated beauty, the -heroine of "La Biondina in Gondoleta." There are the patrician poet -Morosini, and the poet Lamberti, the author of the "Biondina," etc., and -many other estimable productions; and, not least in an Englishman's -estimation, Madame Michelli, the translator of Shakspeare. There are the -young Dandolo and the improvvisatore Carrer, and Giuseppe Albrizzi, the -accomplished son of an accomplished mother. There is Aglietti, and were -there nothing else, there is the immortality of Canova. Cicognara, -Mustoxithi, Bucati, etc., etc., I do not reckon, because the one is a -Greek, and the others were born at least a hundred miles off, which, -throughout Italy, constitutes, if not a _foreigner_, at least a -_stranger_ (_forestiere_). - -[This note is not in the MS. The first eight lines were included among -the notes, and the remainder formed part of the Appendix in all editions -1821-1831. - -Nicolo Pasqualigo (1770-1821) received the command of a ship in the -Austrian Navy in 1800, and in 1805 was appointed Director of the Arsenal -of Venice. He took part in both the Lissa expeditions, and was made -prisoner after a prolonged resistance, March 13, 1811. (See _Personaggi -illustri delta Veneta patrizia gente_, by E. A. Cicogna, 1822, p. 33. -See, too, for Lissa, _Poetical Works_, 1900, iii. 25, note 3.) - -The Abate Jacopo Morelli (1745-1819), known as _Principe dei -Bibliotecarj_, became custodian of the Marciana Library in 1778, and -devoted the whole of his long and laborious life to the service of -literature. (For a list of his works, etc., see Tipaldo's _Biografia, -etc._, 1835, ii. 481. See, too, _Elogio di Jacopo Morelli_, by A. -Zendrini, Milano, 1822.) - -Alvisi Querini, brother to Marina Querini Benzon, published in 1759 a -poem entitled _L'Ammiraglio dell' Indie_. He wrote under a pseudonym, -Ormildo Emeressio. - -Vittore Benzon (d. 1822), whose mother, Marina, was celebrated by Anton -Maria Lamberti (1757-1832) as _La biondina in gondoleta (Poesie_, 1817, -i. 20), was the author of _Nella_, a love-poem, abounding in political -allusions. (See Tipaldo, v. 122, and _Isabella Teotochi Albrizzi, I Suoi -amici_, by V. Malamani, 1882, pp. 119, 136.) - -II Conte Domenico Morosini (see _Letters_, Venezia, 1829) was the author -of two tragedies, _Medea in Corinto_ and _Giulio Sabino_, published in -1806. - -Giustina Renier Michiel (1755-1832) was niece to the last Doge, Lodovico -Manin. Her _salon_ was the centre of a brilliant circle of friends, -including such names as Pindemonte, Foscolo, and Cesarotti. Her -translation of _Othello_, _Macbeth_, and _Coriolanus_ formed part of the -_Opere Drammatiche di Shakspeare_, published in Venice in 1797. Her -work, _Origine delle Feste Veneziane_, was published at Milan in 1829. -(See _G. R. Michiel, Archivio Veneto_, tom. xxxviii. 1889.) - -Luigi Carrer (1801-1856) began life as a lawyer, but afterwards devoted -himself to poetry and literature. He was secretary of the Venetian -Institute in 1842, and, later, Director of the Carrer Museum. (See Gio. -Crespan, _Della vita e delle lettere di Luigi Carrer_, 1869.) - -For Giuseppino Albrizzi (1800-1860), and for Isabella Teotochi Albrizzi, -Countess Albrizzi (? 1761-1836), see _Letters_, 1900, iv. 14, note 1; -and for Francesco Aglietti (1757-1836), Leopoldo Cicognara (1767-1835), -and Andreas Moustoxudes (1787-1860), see _Poetical Works_, 1899, ii. -324, note 1. - -The "younger Dandolo" may be Conte Girolamo Antonio Dandolo, author of -_Sui Quattro Cavalli, etc._, published in 1817, and of _La Caduta della -Repubblica di Venezia_, 1855. By "Bucati" may possibly be meant the -satirist Pietro Buratti (1772-1832). (See _Poesie Veneziane_, by R. -Barbiera, 1886, p. 209.)] - -[fv] {457} - - / _lazars_ \ -_Beggars for nobles_, < _lepers_ > _for a people_!--[MS. M.] - \ _wretches_ / - -[473] The chief palaces on the Brenta now belong to the Jews; who in the -earlier times of the republic were only allowed to inhabit Mestri, and -not to enter the city of Venice. The whole commerce is in the hands of -the Jews and Greeks, and the Huns form the garrison. - -[474] {458}[Napoleon was crowned King of Italy, May 3, 1805. Venice was -ceded by Austria, December 26, 1805, and shortly after, Eugene -Beauharnais was appointed Viceroy of Italy, with the title of Prince of -Venice. It is certain that the "Vice-gerent" stands for Beauharnais, but -it is less evident why Byron, doubtless quoting from _Hamlet_, calls -Napoleon the "Vice of Kings." Did he mean a "player-king," one who not -being a king acted the part, as the "vice" in the old moralities; or did -he misunderstand Shakespeare, and seek to depreciate Beauharnais as the -Viceroy of a Viceroy, that is Joseph Bonaparte?] - -[fw] _Vice without luxury_----.--[Alternative reading, MS. M.] - -[475] [Compare-- - - "When Vice walks forth with her unsoftened terrors." - - _Ode on Venice_, line 34, _vide ante_, p. 194.] - -[476] See Appendix, Note C. - -[477] {459}If the Doge's prophecy seem remarkable, look to the -following, made by Alamanni two hundred and seventy years ago;--"There -is one very singular prophecy concerning Venice: 'If thou dost not -change,' it says to that proud republic, 'thy liberty, which is already -on the wing, will not reckon a century more than the thousandth year.' -If we carry back the epocha of Venetian freedom to the establishment of -the government under which the republic flourished, we shall find that -the date of the election of the first Doge is 697: and if we add one -century to a thousand, that is, eleven hundred years, we shall find the -sense of the prediction to be literally this: 'Thy liberty will not last -till 1797.' Recollect that Venice ceased to be free in the year 1796, -the fifth year of the French republic; and you will perceive that there -never was prediction more pointed, or more exactly followed by the -event. You will, therefore, note as very remarkable the three lines of -Alamanni addressed to Venice; which, however, no one has pointed out:-- - - "'Se non cangi pensier, l'un secol solo - Non contera sopra 'l millesimo anno - Tua liberta, che va fuggendo a volo.' - - _Sat_., xii. ed. 1531, p. 413. - -Many prophecies have passed for such, and many men have been called -prophets for much less."--P. L. Ginguene, _Hist. Lit. d'Italie_, ix. 144 -[Paris Edition, 1819]. - -[478] Of the first fifty Doges, _five_ abdicated--_five_ were banished -with their eyes put out--_five_ were massacred--and _nine_ deposed; so -that _nineteen_ out of fifty lost the throne by violence, besides two -who fell in battle: this occurred long previous to the reign of Marino -Faliero. One of his more immediate predecessors, Andrea Dandolo, died of -vexation. Marino Faliero himself perished as related. Amongst his -successors, _Foscari_, after seeing his son repeatedly tortured and -banished, was deposed, and died of breaking a blood-vessel, on hearing -the bell of Saint Mark's toll for the election of his successor. -Morosini was impeached for the loss of Candia; but this was previous to -his dukedom, during which he conquered the Morea, and was styled the -Peloponnesian. Faliero might truly say,-- - - "Thou den of drunkards with the blood of princes!" - -[fx] _Thou brothel of the waters! thou sea Sodom!_--[Alternative -reading. MS. M.] - -[479] [See letters to Webster, September 8, 1818, and to Hoppner, -December 31, 1819, _Letters_, 1900, iv. 255, 393.] - -[480] {461} "Un Capo de' Dieci" are the words of Sanuto's Chronicle. - -[fy] - - _The gory head is rolling down the steps!_ - _The head is rolling dawn the gory steps!_-- - - [Alternative readings. MS. M.] - -[481] [A picture in oils of the execution of Marino Faliero, by -Ferdinand Victor Eugene Delacroix (1798-1863), which was exhibited in -the Salon in 1827, is now in the Wallace Collection (_Provisional -Catalogue_, 1900, p. 28).] - -[482] [End of the Historical Tragedy of Marino Faliero, or the Doge of -Venice. - -Begun April 4th, 1820. - -Completed July 16th, 1820. - -Finished copying in August 16th, 17th, 1820. - -The which copying takes ten times the toil of composing, considering the -weather--_thermometer 90 in the shade_--and my domestic duties. - -The motto is-- - - "Dux inquietae turbidus Adrirae." - - Horace.] - - - - - - - - - - APPENDIX. - - - NOTE A. - - -I am obliged for the following excellent translation of the old -Chronicle to Mr. F. Cohen,[483] to whom the reader will find himself -indebted for a version that I could not myself--though after many years' -intercourse with Italian--have given by any means so purely and so -faithfully. - - -Story of Marino Faliero, Doge XLIV. mcccliv.[483a] - - -On the eleventh day of September, in the year of our Lord, 1354, Marino -Faliero was elected and chosen to be the Duke of the Commonwealth of -Venice. He was Count of Valdemarino, in the Marches of Treviso, and a -Knight, and a wealthy man to boot. As soon as the election was -completed, it was resolved in the Great Council, that a deputation of -twelve should be despatched to Marino Faliero the Duke, who was then on -his way from Rome; for when he was chosen, he was ambassador at the -court of the Holy Father, at Rome,--the Holy Father himself held his -court at Avignon. When Messer Marino Faliero the Duke was about to land -in this city, on the 5th day of October, 1354, a thick haze came on and -darkened the air: and he was enforced to land on the place of Saint -Mark, between the two columns, on the spot where evil doers are put to -death; and all thought that this was the worst of tokens.--Nor must I -forget to write that which I have read in a chronicle.--When Messer -Marino Faliero was Podesta and Captain of Treviso, the Bishop delayed -coming in with the holy sacrament, on a day when a procession was to -take place. Now, the said Marino Faliero was so very proud and wrathful, -that he buffeted the Bishop, and almost struck him to the ground: and, -therefore, Heaven allowed Marino Faliero to go out of his right senses, -in order that he might bring himself to an evil death. - -When this Duke had held the dukedom during nine months and six days, he, -being wicked and ambitious, sought to make himself Lord of Venice, in -the manner which I have read in an ancient chronicle. When the Thursday -arrived upon which they were wont to hunt the bull, the bull hunt took -place as usual; and, according to the usage of those times, after the -bull hunt had ended, they all proceeded unto the palace of the Duke, and -assembled together in one of his halls; and they disported themselves -with the women. And until the first bell tolled they danced, and then a -banquet was served up. My Lord the Duke paid the expenses thereof, -provided he had a Duchess, and after the banquet they all returned to -their homes. - -Now to this feast there came a certain Ser Michele Steno, a gentleman of -poor estate and very young, but crafty and daring, and who loved one of -the damsels of the Duchess. Ser Michele stood amongst the women upon the -solajo; and he behaved indiscreetly, so that my Lord the Duke ordered -that he should be kicked off the solajo [i.e. platform]; and the -esquires of the Duke flung him down from the solajo accordingly. Ser -Michele thought that such an affront was beyond all bearing; and when -the feast was over, and all other persons had left the palace, he, -continuing heated with anger, went to the hall of audience, and wrote -certain unseemly words relating to the Duke and the Duchess upon the -chair in which the Duke was used to sit; for in those days the Duke did -not cover his chair with cloth of sendal, but he sat in a chair of wood. -Ser Michele wrote thereon--"_Marin Falier, the husband of the fair wife; -others kiss her, but he keeps her._"[484] In the morning the words were -seen, and the matter was considered to be very scandalous; and the -Senate commanded the Avogadori of the Commonwealth to proceed therein -with the greatest diligence. A largess of great amount was immediately -proffered by the Avogadori, in order to discover who had written these -words. And at length it was known that Michele Steno had written them. -It was resolved in the Council of Forty that he should be arrested; and -he then confessed that in the fit of vexation and spite, occasioned by -his being thrust off the solajo in the presence of his mistress, he had -written the words. Therefore the Council debated thereon. And the -Council took his youth into consideration, and that he was a lover; and -therefore they adjudged that he should be kept in close confinement -during two months, and that afterwards he should be banished from Venice -and the state during one year. In consequence of this merciful sentence -the Duke became exceedingly wroth, it appearing to him, that the Council -had not acted in such a manner as was required by the respect due to his -ducal dignity; and he said that they ought to have condemned Ser Michele -to be hanged by the neck, or at least to be banished for life. - -Now it was fated that my Lord Duke Marino was to have his head cut off. -And as it is necessary when any effect is to be brought about, that the -cause of such effect must happen, it therefore came to pass, that on the -very day after sentence had been pronounced on Ser Michele Steno, being -the first day of Lent, a gentleman of the house of Barbara, a choleric -gentleman, went to the arsenal, and required certain things of the -masters of the galleys. This he did in the presence of the Admiral of -the arsenal, and he, bearing the request, answered, No, it cannot be -done. High words arose between the gentleman and the Admiral, and the -gentleman struck him with his fist just above the eye; and as he -happened to have a ring on his finger, the ring cut the Admiral and drew -blood. The Admiral, all bruised and bloody, ran straight to the Duke to -complain, and with the intent of praying him to inflict some heavy -punishment upon the gentleman of Ca Barbaro.--"What wouldst thou have me -do for thee?" answered the Duke: "think upon the shameful gibe which -hath been written concerning me; and think on the manner in which they -have punished that ribald Michele Steno, who wrote it; and see how the -Council of Forty respect our person."--Upon this the Admiral answered, -"My Lord Duke, if you would wish to make yourself a prince, and to cut -all those cuckoldy gentlemen to pieces, I have the heart, if you do but -help me, to make you prince of all this state; and then you may punish -them all." Hearing this, the Duke said, "How can such a matter be -brought about?"--and so they discoursed thereon. - -The Duke called for his nephew, Ser Bertuccio Faliero, who lived with -him in the palace, and they communed about this plot. And without -leaving the place, they sent for Philip Calendaro, a seaman of great -repute, and for Bertuccio Israello, who was exceedingly wily and -cunning. Then taking counsel among themselves, they agreed to call in -some others; and so, for several nights successively, they met with the -Duke at home in his palace. And the following men were called in singly; -to wit:--Niccolo Fagiuolo, Giovanni da Corfu, Stefano Fagiono, Niccolo -dalle Bende, Niccolo Biondo, and Stefano Trivisano.--It was concerted -that sixteen or seventeen leaders should be stationed in various parts -of the city, each being at the head of forty men, armed and prepared; -but the followers were not to know their destination. On the appointed -day they were to make affrays amongst themselves here and there, in -order that the Duke might have a pretence for tolling the bells of San -Marco; these bells are never rung but by the order of the Duke. And at -the sound of the bells, these sixteen or seventeen, with their -followers, were to come to San Marco, through the streets which open -upon the Piazza. And when the noble and leading citizens should come -into the Piazza, to know the cause of the riot, then the conspirators -were to cut them in pieces; and this work being finished, my Lord Marino -Faliero the Duke was to be proclaimed the Lord of Venice. Things having -been thus settled, they agreed to fulfil their intent on Wednesday, the -15th day of April, in the year 1355. So covertly did they plot, that no -one ever dreamt of their machinations. - -But the Lord, who hath always helped this most glorious city, and who, -loving its righteousness and holiness, hath never forsaken it, inspired -one Beltramo Bergamasco to be the cause of bringing the plot to light, -in the following manner. This Beltramo, who belonged to Ser Niccolo -Lioni of Santo Stefano, had heard a word or two of what was to take -place; and so, in the above-mentioned month of April, he went to the -house of the aforesaid Ser Niccolo Lioni, and told him all the -particulars of the plot. Ser Niccolo, when he heard all these things, -was struck dead, as it were, with affright. He heard all the -particulars; and Beltramo prayed him to keep it all secret; and if he -told Ser Niccolo, it was in order that Ser Niccolo might stop at home on -the 15th of April, and thus save his life. Beltramo was going, but Ser -Niccolo ordered his servants to lay hands upon him, and lock him up. Ser -Niccolo then went to the house of Messer Giovanni Gradenigo Nasoni, who -afterwards became Duke, and who also lived at Santo Stefano, and told -him all. The matter seemed to him to be of the very greatest importance, -as indeed it was; and they two went to the house of Ser Marco Cornaro, -who lived at San Felice; and, having spoken with him, they all three -then determined to go back to the house of Ser Niccolo Lioni, to examine -the said Beltramo; and having questioned him, and heard all that he had -to say, they left him in confinement. And then they all three went into -the sacristy of San Salvatore, and sent their men to summon the -Councillors, the Avogadori, the Capi de' Dieci, and those of the Great -Council. - -When all were assembled, the whole story was told to them. They were -struck dead, as it were, with affright. They determined to send for -Beltramo. He was brought in before them. They examined him, and -ascertained that the matter was true; and, although they were -exceedingly troubled, yet they determined upon their measures. And they -sent for the Capi de' Quarante, the Signori di Notte, the Capi de' -Sestieri, and the Cinque della Pace; and they were ordered to associate -to their men other good men and true, who were to proceed to the houses -of the ringleaders of the conspiracy, and secure them. And they secured -the foreman of the arsenal, in order that the conspirators might not do -mischief. Towards nightfall they assembled in the palace. When they were -assembled in the palace, they caused the gates of the quadrangle of the -palace to be shut. And they sent to the keeper of the Bell-tower, and -forbade the tolling of the bells. All this was carried into effect. The -before-mentioned conspirators were secured, and they were brought to the -palace; and, as the Council of Ten saw that the Duke was in the plot, -they resolved that twenty of the leading men of the state should be -associated to them, for the purpose of consultation and deliberation, -but that they should not be allowed to ballot. - -The counsellors were the following:--Ser Giovanni Mocenigo, of the -Sestiero of San Marco; Ser Almoro Veniero da Santa Marina, of the -Sestiero of Castello; Ser Tomaso Viadro, of the Sestiero of Canaregio; -Ser Giovanni Sanudo, of the Sestiero of Santa Croce; Ser Pietro -Trivisano, of the Sestiero of San Paolo; Ser Pantalione Barbo il Grando, -of the Sestiero of Ossoduro. The Avogadori of the Commonwealth were -Zufredo Morosini, and Ser Orio Pasqualigo; and these did not ballot. -Those of the Council of Ten were Ser Giovanni Marcello, Ser Tomaso -Sanudo, and Ser Micheletto Dolfino, the heads of the aforesaid Council -of Ten. Ser Luca da Legge, and Ser Pietro da Mosto, inquisitors of the -aforesaid Council. And Ser Marco Polani, Ser Marino Veniero, Ser Lando -Lombardo, and Ser Nicoletto Trivisano, of Sant' Angelo. - -Late in the night, just before the dawning, they chose a junta of -twenty noblemen of Venice from amongst the wisest, and the worthiest, -and the oldest. They were to give counsel, but not to ballot. And they -would not admit any one of Ca Faliero. And Niccolo Faliero, and another -Niccolo Faliero, of San Tomaso, were expelled from the Council, because -they belonged to the family of the Doge. And this resolution of creating -the junta of twenty was much praised throughout the state. The following -were the members of the junta of twenty:--Ser Marco Giustiniani, -Procuratore, Ser Andrea Erizzo, Procuratore, Ser Lionardo Giustiniani, -Procuratore, Ser Andrea Contarini, Ser Simone Dandolo, Ser Niccolo -Volpe, Ser Giovanni Loredano, Ser Marco Diedo, Ser Giovanni Gradenigo, -Ser Andrea Cornaro Cavaliere, Ser Marco Soranzo, Ser Rinieri du Mosto, -Ser Gazano Marcello, Ser Marino Morosini, Ser Stefano Belegno, Ser -Niccolo Lioni, Ser Filippo Orio, Ser Marco Trivisano, Ser Jacopo -Bragadino, Ser Giovanni Foscarini. - -These twenty were accordingly called in to the Council of Ten; and they -sent for my Lord Marino Faliero, the Duke: and my Lord Marino was then -consorting in the palace with people of great estate, gentlemen, and -other good men, none of whom knew yet how the fact stood. - -At the same time Bertuccio Israello, who, as one of the ringleaders, was -to head the conspirators in Santa Croce, was arrested and bound, and -brought before the Council. Zanello del Brin, Nicoletto di Rosa, -Nicoletto Alberto, and the Guardiaga, were also taken, together with -several seamen, and people of various ranks. These were examined, and -the truth of the plot was ascertained. - -On the 16th of April judgment was given in the Council of Ten, that -Filippo Calendaro and Bertuccio Israello should be hanged upon the red -pillars of the balcony of the palace, from which the Duke is wont to -look at the bull hunt: and they were hanged with gags in their mouths. - -The next day the following were condemned:--Niccolo Zuccuolo, Nicoletto -Blondo, Nicoletto Doro, Marco Giuda, Jacomello Dagolino, Nicoletto -Fidele, the son of Filippo Calendaro, Marco Torello, called Israello, -Stefano Trivisano, the money-changer of Santa Margherita, and Antonio -dalle Bende. These were all taken at Chiozza, for they were endeavouring -to escape. Afterwards, by virtue of the sentence which was passed upon -them in the Council of Ten, they were hanged on successive days; some -singly and some in couples, upon the columns of the palace, beginning -from the red columns, and so going onwards towards the canal. And other -prisoners were discharged, because, although they had been involved in -the conspiracy, yet they had not assisted in it; for they were given to -understand by some of the heads of the plot, that they were to come -armed and prepared for the service of the state, and in order to secure -certain criminals; and they knew nothing else. Nicoletto Alberto, the -Guardiaga, and Bartolommeo Ciricolo and his son, and several others, who -were not guilty, were discharged. - -On Friday, the 16th day of April, judgment was also given in the -aforesaid Council of Ten, that my Lord Marino Faliero, the Duke, should -have his head cut off; and that the execution should be done on the -landing-place of the stone staircase, where the Dukes take their oath -when they first enter the palace. On the following day, the 17th of -April, the doors of the palace being shut, the Duke had his head cut -off, about the hour of noon. And the cap of estate was taken from the -Duke's head before he came down stairs. When the execution was over, it -is said that one of the Council of Ten went to the columns of the palace -over against the place of St. Mark, and that he showed the bloody sword -unto the people, crying out with a loud voice--"The terrible doom hath -fallen upon the traitor!"--and the doors were opened, and the people all -rushed in, to see the corpse of the Duke, who had been beheaded. - -It must be known that Ser Giovanni Sanudo, the councillor, was not -present when the aforesaid sentence was pronounced; because he was -unwell and remained at home. So that only fourteen balloted; that is to -say, five councillors, and nine of the Council of Ten. And it was -adjudged, that all the lands and chattels of the Duke, as well as of the -other traitors, should be forfeited to the state. And as a grace to the -Duke, it was resolved in the Council of Ten, that he should be allowed -to dispose of two thousand ducats out of his own property. And it was -resolved, that all the councillors and all the Avogadori of the -Commonwealth, those of the Council of Ten, and the members of the junta, -who had assisted in passing sentence on the Duke and the other traitors, -should have the privilege of carrying arms both by day and by night in -Venice, and from Grado to Cavazere. And they were also to be allowed two -footmen carrying arms, the aforesaid footmen living and boarding with -them in their own houses. And he who did not keep two footmen might -transfer the privilege to his sons or his brothers; but only to two. -Permission of carrying arms was also granted to the four Notaries of the -Chancery, that is to say, of the Supreme Court, who took the -depositions; and they were, Amedio, Nicoletto di Lorino, Steffanello, -and Pietro de Compostelli, the secretaries of the Signori di Notte. - -After the traitors had been hanged, and the Duke had had his head cut -off, the state remained in great tranquillity and peace. And, as I have -read in a Chronicle, the corpse of the Duke was removed in a barge, with -eight torches, to his tomb in the church of San Giovanni e Paolo, where -it was buried. The tomb is now in that aisle in the middle of the little -church of Santa Maria della Pace which was built by Bishop Gabriel of -Bergamo. It is a coffin of stone, with these words engraven thereon: -"_Heic jacet Dominus Marinus Faletro Dux._"--And they did not paint his -portrait in the hall of the Great Council:--but in the place where it -ought to have been, you see these words:--"_Hic est locus Marini -Faletro, decapitati pro criminibus._"--And it is thought that his house -was granted to the church of Sant' Apostolo; it was that great one near -the bridge. Yet this could not be the case, or else the family bought it -back from the church; for it still belongs to Ca Faliero. I must not -refrain from noting, that some wished to write the following words in -the place where his portrait ought to have been, as -aforesaid:--"_Marinus Faletro Dux, temeritas me cepit. Paenas lui, -decapitatus pro criminibus._"--Others, also, indited a couplet, worthy -of being inscribed upon his tomb. - - "_Dux Venetum jacet heic, patriam qui prodere tentans,_ - _Sceptra, decus, censum perdidit, atque caput._" - -NOTE B. - -Petrarch on the Conspiracy of Marino Faliero.[485] - -"Al giovane doge Andrea Dandolo succedette un vecchio, il quale tardi si -pose al timone della repubblica, ma sempre prima di quel, che facea d' -uopo a lui ed alia patria: egli e Marino Faliero, personaggio a me noto -per antica dimestichezza. Falsa era l' opinione intorno a lui, giacche -egli si mostro fornito piu di coraggio, che di senno. Non pago della -prima dignita, entro con sinistro piede nel pubblico Palazzo: -imperciocche questo doge dei Veneti, magistrato sacro in tutti i secoli, -che dagli antichi fu sempre venerato qual nume in quella citta, l' -altr'jeri fu decollato nel vestibolo dell' istesso Palazzo. Discorrerei -fin dal principio le cause di un tale evento, se cosi vario, ed ambiguo -non ne fosse il grido: nessuno pero lo scusa, tutti affermano, che egli -abbia voluto cangiar qualche cosa nell' ordine della repubblica a lui -tramandato dai maggiori. Che desiderava egli di piu? Io son d' avviso, -che egli abbia ottenuto cio, che non si concedette a nessun altro: -mentre adempiva gli uffici di legato presso il Pontefice, e sulle rive -del Rodano trattava la pace, che io prima di lui avevo indarno tentato -di conchiudere, gli fu conferito l' onore del ducato, che ne chiedeva, -ne s' aspettava. Tornato in patria, penso a quello, cui nessuno non pose -mente giammai, e soffri quello, che a niuno accadde mai di soffrire: -giacche in quel luogo celeberrimo, e chiarissimo, e bellissimo infra -tutti quelli, che io vidi, ove i suoi antenati avevano ricevuti -grandissimi onori in mezzo alle pompe trionfali, ivi egli fu trascinato -in modo servile, e spogliato delle insegne ducali, perdette la testa, e -macchio col proprio sangue le soglie del tempio, l' atrio del Palazzo, e -le scale marmoree endute spesse volte illustri o dalle solenni -festivita, o dalle ostili spoglie. Ho notato il luogo, ora noto il -tempo: e l' anno del Natale di Cristo, 1355, fu il giorno diciotto -aprile si alto e il grido sparso, che se alcuno esaminera la disciplina, -e le costumanze di quella citta, e quanto mutamento di cose venga -minacciato dalla morte di un solo uomo (quantunque molti altri, come -narrano, essendo complici, o subirono l' istesso supplicio, o lo -aspettano) si accorgera, che nulla di piu grande avvenne ai nostri tempi -nella Italia. Tu forse qui attendi il mio giudizio: assolvo il popolo, -se credere si dee alia fama, benche abbia potuto e castigate piu -mitemente, e con maggior dolcezza vendicare il suo dolore: ma non cosi -facilmente, si modera un' ira giusta insieme, e grande in un numeroso -popolo principalmente, nel quale il precipitoso, ed instabile volgo -aguzza gli stimoli dell' iracondia con rapidi, e sconsigliati clamori. -Compatisco, e nell' istesso tempo mi adiro con quell' infelice uomo, il -quale adorno di un' insolito onore, non so, che cosa si volesse negli -estremi anni della sua vita: la calamita di lui diviene sempre piu -grave, perche dalla sentenza contra di esso promulgata apparira, che -egli fu non solo misero, ma insano, e demente, e che con vane arti si -usurpo per tanti anni una falsa fama di sapienza. Ammonisco i dogi, i -quali gli succederanno, che questo e un' esempio posto innanzi ai loro -occhi, quale specchio, nel quale veggano d' essere non signori, ma duci, -anzi nemmeno duci, ma onorati servi della Repubblica. Tu sta sano; e -giacche fluttuano le pubbliche cose, sforziamoci di governar -modestissimamente i privati nostri affari."--_Viaggi di Francesco -Petrarca_, descritti dal Professore Ambrogio Levati, Milano, 1820, iv. -323-325. - -The above Italian translation from the Latin epistles of Petrarch -proves--1stly, That Marino Faliero was a personal friend of Petrarch's; -"antica dimestichezza," old intimacy, is the phrase of the poet. 2dly, -That Petrarch thought that he had more courage than conduct, "piu di -_coraggio_ che di senno." 3dly, That there was some jealousy on the part -of Petrarch; for he says that Marino Faliero was treating of the peace -which he himself had "vainly attempted to conclude." 4thly, That the -honour of the Dukedom was conferred upon him, which he neither sought -nor expected, "che ne chiedeva, ne aspettava," and which had never been -granted to any other in like circumstances, "cio che non si concedette a -nessun altro," a proof of the high esteem in which he must have been -held. 5thly, That he had a reputation for _wisdom_, _only_ forfeited by -the last enterprise of his life, "si usurpo per tanti anni una falsa -fama di sapienza."--"He had usurped for so many years a false fame of -wisdom," rather a difficult task, I should think. People are generally -found out before eighty years of age, at least in a republic.--From -these, and the other historical notes which I have collected, it may be -inferred, that Marino Faliero possessed many of the qualities, but not -the success of a hero; and that his passions were too violent. The -paltry and ignorant account of Dr. Moore falls to the ground. Petrarch -says, "that there had been no greater event in his times" (_our times_ -literally), "nostri tempi," in Italy. He also differs from the historian -in saying that Faliero was "on the banks of the _Rhone_," instead of at -Rome, when elected; the other accounts say, that the deputation of the -Venetian senate met him at Ravenna. How this may have been, it is not -for me to decide, and is of no great importance. Had the man succeeded, -he would have changed the face of Venice, and perhaps of Italy. As it -is, what _are_ they both? - - - - NOTE C. - -Venetian Society and Manners. - - "Vice without splendour, sin without relief - Even from the gloss of love to smooth it o'er; - But in its stead, coarse lusts of habitude," etc. - -"To these attacks so frequently pointed by the government against the -clergy,--to the continual struggles between the different constituted -bodies,--to these enterprises carried on by the mass of the nobles -against the depositaries of power,--to all those projects of innovation, -which always ended by a stroke of state policy; we must add a cause not -less fitted to spread contempt for ancient doctrines; _this was the -excess of corruption_. - -"That freedom of manners, which had been long boasted of as the -principal charm of Venetian society, had degenerated into scandalous -licentiousness: the tie of marriage was less sacred in that Catholic -country, than among those nations where the laws and religion admit of -its being dissolved. Because they could not break the contract, they -feigned that it had not existed; and the ground of nullity, immodestly -alleged by the married pair, was admitted with equal facility by priests -and magistrates, alike corrupt. These divorces, veiled under another -name, became so frequent, that the most important act of civil society -was discovered to be amenable to a tribunal of exceptions; and to -restrain the open scandal of such proceedings became the office of the -police. In 1782 the Council of Ten decreed, that every woman who should -sue for a dissolution of her marriage should be compelled to await the -decision of the judges in some convent, to be named by the court.[486] -Soon afterwards the same council summoned all causes of that nature -before itself.[487] This infringement on ecclesiastical jurisdiction -having occasioned some remonstrance from Rome, the council retained only -the right of rejecting the petition of the married persons, and -consented to refer such causes to the holy office as it should not -previously have rejected.[488] - -"There was a moment in which, doubtless, the destruction of private -fortunes, the ruin of youth, the domestic discord occasioned by these -abuses, determined the government to depart from its established maxims -concerning the freedom of manners allowed the subject. All the -courtesans were banished from Venice; but their absence was not enough -to reclaim and bring back good morals to a whole people brought up in -the most scandalous licentiousness. Depravity reached the very bosoms of -private families, and even into the cloister; and they found themselves -obliged to recall, and even to indemnify,[489] women who sometimes -gained possession of important secrets, and who might be usefully -employed in the ruin of men whose fortunes might have rendered them -dangerous. Since that time licentiousness has gone on increasing; and we -have seen mothers, not only selling the innocence of their daughters, -but selling it by a contract, authenticated by the signature of a public -officer, and the performance of which was secured by the protection of -the laws.[490] - -"The parlours of the convents of noble ladies, and the houses of the -courtesans, though the police carefully kept up a number of spies about -them, were the only assemblies for society in Venice; and in these two -places, so different from each other, there was equal freedom. Music, -collations, gallantry, were not more forbidden in the parlours than at -the casinos. There were a number of casinos for the purpose of public -assemblies, where gaming was the principal pursuit of the company. It -was a strange sight to see persons of either sex masked, or grave in -their magisterial robes, round a table, invoking chance, and giving way -at one instant to the agonies of despair, at the next to the illusions -of hope, and that without uttering a single word. - -"The rich had private casinos, but they lived _incognito_ in them; and -the wives whom they abandoned found compensation in the liberty they -enjoyed. The corruption of morals had deprived them of their empire. We -have just reviewed the whole history of Venice, and we have not once -seen them exercise the slightest influence."--Daru, _Hist. de la Repub. -de Venise_, Paris, 1821, v. 328-332. - - * * * * * - -The author of "Sketches Descriptive of Italy," (1820), etc., one of the -hundred tours lately published, is extremely anxious to disclaim a -possible plagiarism from _Childe Harold_ and _Beppo_. See p. 159, vol. -iv. He adds that still less could this presumed coincidence arise from -"my conversation," as he had "_repeatedly declined an introduction to me -while in Italy_." - -Who this person may be I know not;[491] but he must have been deceived -by all or any of those who "repeatedly offered to introduce" him, as I -invariably refused to receive any English with whom I was not previously -acquainted, even when they had letters from England. If the whole -assertion is not an invention, I request this person not to sit down -with the notion that he could have been introduced, since there has been -nothing I have so carefully avoided as any kind of intercourse with his -countrymen,--excepting the very few who were for a considerable time -resident in Venice, or had been of my previous acquaintance. Whoever -made him any such offer was possessed of impudence equal to that of -making such an assertion without having had it. The fact is, that I hold -in utter abhorrence any contact with the travelling English, as my -friend the Consul General Hoppner and the Countess Benzoni (in whose -house the Conversazione mostly frequented by them is held), could amply -testify, were it worth while. I was persecuted by these tourists even to -my riding ground at Lido, and reduced to the most disagreeable circuits -to avoid them. At Madame Benzoni's I repeatedly refused to be introduced -to them;--of a thousand such presentations pressed upon me, I accepted -two, and both were to Irish women. - - * * * * * - -I should hardly have descended to speak of such trifles publicly, if the -impudence of this "sketcher" had not forced me to a refutation of a -disingenuous and gratuitously impertinent assertion; so meant to be, for -what could it import to the reader to be told that the author "had -repeatedly declined an introduction," even if it had been true, which, -for the reasons I have above given, is scarcely possible. Except Lords -Lansdowne, Jersey, and Lauderdale, Messrs. Scott, Hammond, Sir Humphry -Davy, the late M. Lewis, W. Bankes, Mr. Hoppner, Thomas Moore, Lord -Kinnaird, his brother, Mr. Joy, and Mr. Hobhouse, I do not recollect to -have exchanged a word with another Englishman since I left their -Country; and almost all these I had known before. The others,--and God -knows there were some hundreds, who bored me with letters or visits, I -refused to have any communication with, and shall be proud and happy -when that wish becomes mutual. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[483] {462}Mr. Francis Cohen, afterwards Sir Francis Palgrave -(1788-1861), the author of the _Rise and Progress of the English -Constitution, History of the Anglo-Saxons_, etc., etc. - -[483a][In the earlier editions (1821-1825) Francis Cohen's translation -(Appendix II.) is preceded by an Italian version (Appendix I.), taken -directly from Muratori's edition of Marin Sanudo's _Vite dei Dogi_ -(_Rerum Italicarum Scriptores_, 1733, xii. 628-635). The two versions -are by no means identical. Cohen's "translation" is, presumably an -accurate rendering of Sanudo's text, and must have been made either from -the original MS. or from a transcript sent from Italy to England. -Muratori's Italian is a _rifacimento_ of the original, which has been -altered and condensed with a view to convenience or literary effect. -Proper names of persons and places are changed, Sanudo's Venetian -dialect gives place to Muratori's Italian, and notes which Sanudo added -in the way of illustration and explanation are incorporated in the text. -In the _Life of Marino Faliero_, pp. 199, 200 of the original text are -omitted, and a passage from an old chronicle, which Sanudo gives as a -note, is made to appear part of the original narrative. (See Preface to -_Le Vite dei Dogi di Marin Sanudo_, by G. Monticolo, 1900; _Marino -Faliero, La Congiura_, by V. Lazzarino; _Nuovo Archivio Veneto_, 1897, -vol. xiii. pt. i. p. 15, note 1.)] - -[484] {463}["_Marin Faliero dalla bella moglie: altri la gode, ed egli -la mantien._" According to Andrea Navagero (_It. Rer. Script._, xxiii. -1038), the writing on the chair ran thus: "_Becco Marino Falier dalla -bella mogier_" (_vide ante_, p. 349). Palgrave has bowdlerized Steno's -lampoon.] - -[485] {468}["Had a copy taken of an extract from Petrarch's Letters, -with reference to the conspiracy of the Doge Marino Faliero, containing -the poet's opinion of the matter."--_Diary_, February 11, 1821, -_Letters_, 1901, v. 201.] - -[486] {470}Correspondence of M. Schlick, French charge d'affaires. -Despatch of 24th August, 1782. - -[487] _Ibid_. Despatch, 31st August. - -[488] _Ibid_. Despatch of 3d September, 1785. - -[489] The decree for their recall designates them as _nostre benemerite -meretrici_: a fund and some houses, called _Case rampane_, were assigned -to them; hence the opprobrious appellation of _Carampane_. [The writer -of the Preface to _Leggi e memorie Venete sulla Prostituzione_, which -was issued from Lord Orford's private press in 1870, maintains that the -designation is mythical. "Tale asserzione che non ha verum fondamento, -salvo che nella imaginazione di chi primo la scrisse lo storico francese -Daru non si fece scrupolo di ripetuta ciecamente. Fu altresi ripetuta da -Lord Byron e da altri," etc. The volume, a sumptuous folio, prints a -series of rescripts promulgated by the Venetian government against -_meretrici_ and other disagreeable persons.] - -[490] Meyer, Description of Venice, vol. ii.; and M. de Archenholtz, -Picture of Italy, vol. i. sect. 2, pp. 65, 66. [_Voyage en Italie_, par -F. J. L. Meyer, An X. cap. iii.] - -[491] {471}[In a letter to Murray, September 11, 1820 (_Letters_, 1901, -v. 75, 84), Byron writes, "Last post I sent you a note fierce as Faliero -himself, in answer to a trashy tourist, who pretends that he could have -been introduced to me;" but at the end of the month, September 29, 1820, -he withdraws his animadversions: "I open my letter to say, that on -reading more of the 4 volumes on Italy [_Sketches descriptive of Italy -in the Years_ 1816, 1817, etc., by Miss Jane Waldie] ... I perceive -(_horresco referens_) that it is written by a WOMAN!!! In that case you -must suppress my note and answer.... I can only say that I am sorry that -a Lady should say anything of the kind. What I would have said to one of -the other sex you know already." Nevertheless, the note was appended to -the first edition, which appeared April 21, 1821.] - - - - - - - THE VISION OF JUDGMENT. - - BY - - QUEVEDO REDIVIVUS. - - - SUGGESTED BY THE COMPOSITION SO ENTITLED BY THE AUTHOR - OF "WAT TYLER." - - "A Daniel come to judgment! yea, a Daniel! - I thank thee, Jew, for teaching me that word." - - [_Merchant of Venice_, act iv. sc. 1, lines 218, 336.] - - - - - INTRODUCTION TO _THE VISION OF JUDGMENT_. - - -Byron's _Vision of Judgment_ is a parody of Southey's _Vision of -Judgement_. - -The acts or fyttes of the quarrel between Byron and Southey occur in the -following order. In the summer of 1817 Southey, accompanied by his -friends, Humphrey Senhouse and the artist Edward Nash, passed some weeks -(July) in Switzerland. They visited Chamouni, and at Montanvert, in the -travellers' album, they found, in Shelley's handwriting, a Greek -hexameter verse, in which he affirmed that he was an "atheist," together -with an indignant comment ("fool!" also in Greek) superadded in an -unknown hand (see _Life of Shelley_, by E. Dowden, 1886, ii. 30, note). -Southey copied this entry into his note-book, and "spoke of the -circumstance on his return" (circ. August 12, 1817). In the course of -the next year some one told Byron that a rumour had reached England that -he and Shelley "had formed a league of incest with two sisters," and -that Southey and Coleridge were the authors of the scandal. There is -nothing to show through what channel the report of the rumour reached -Byron's ears, but it may be inferred that it was in his mind (see Letter -to Murray, November 24, 1818, _Letters_, 1900, iv. 272) when he assailed -Southey in the "Dedication" ("in good, simple, savage verse") to the -First Canto of _Don Juan_, which was begun September 6, 1818. Shelley, -who was already embittered against Southey (see the account of a dinner -at Godwin's, November 6, 1817, _Diary of H. C. Robinson_, 1869, ii. 67), -heard Byron read this "Dedication," and, in a letter to Peacock (October -8, 1818), describes it as being "more like a mixture of wormwood and -verdigrease than satire." - -When _Don Juan_ appeared (July 15, 1819), the "Dedication" was not -forthcoming, but of its existence and character Southey had been -informed. "Have you heard," he asks (Letter to the Rev. H. Hill, -_Selections from the Letters, etc._, 1856, iii. 142), "that _Don Juan_ -came over with a Dedication to me, in which Lord Castlereagh and I ... -were coupled together for abuse as the 'two Roberts'? A fear of -persecution (_sic_) from the _one_ Robert is supposed to be the reason -why it has been suppressed. Lord Byron might have done well to remember -that the other can write dedications also; and make his own cause good, -if it were needful, in prose or rhyme, against a villain, as well as -against a slanderer." - -When George III. died (January 29, 1820), it became the duty of the -"laurel-honouring laureate" to write a funeral ode, and in composing a -Preface, in vindication of the English hexameter, he took occasion -"incidentally to repay some of his obligations to Lord Byron by a few -comments on _Don Juan_" (Letter to the Rev. H. Hill, January 8, 1821, -_Selections, etc._, iii. 225). He was, no doubt, impelled by other and -higher motives to constitute himself a _censor morum_, and take up his -parable against the spirit of the age as displayed and fostered in _Don -Juan_ (see a letter to Wynne, March 23, 1821, _Selections, etc._, iii. -238), but the suppressed "Dedication" and certain gibes, which had been -suffered to appear, may be reckoned as the immediate causes of his -anathema. - -Southey's _Vision of Judgement_ was published April 11, 1821--an -undivine comedy, in which the apotheosis of George III., the -beatification of the virtuous, and the bale and damnation of such -egregious spirits as Robespierre, Wilkes, and Junius, are "thrown upon -the screen" of the showman or lecturer. Southey said that the "Vision" -ought to be read aloud, and, if the subject could be forgotten and -ignored, the hexameters might not sound amiss, but the subject and its -treatment are impossible and intolerable. The "Vision" would have "made -sport" for Byron in any case, but, in the Preface, Southey went out of -his way to attack and denounce the anonymous author of _Don Juan_. - -"What, then," he asks (ed. 1838, x. 204), "should be said of those for -whom the thoughtlessness and inebriety of wanton youth can no longer be -pleaded, but who have written in sober manhood, and with deliberate -purpose?... Men of diseased hearts and depraved imaginations, who, -forming a system of opinions to suit their own unhappy course of -conduct, have rebelled against the holiest ordinances of human society, -and hating that revealed religion which, with all their efforts and -bravadoes, they are unable entirely to disbelieve, labour to make others -as miserable as themselves, by infecting them with a moral virus that -eats into the soul! The school which they have set up may properly be -called the Satanic school; for, though their productions breathe the -spirit of Belial in their lascivious parts, and the spirit of Moloch in -those loathsome images of atrocities and horrors which they delight to -represent, they are more especially characterized by a Satanic pride and -audacious impiety, which still betrays the wretched feeling of -hopelessness wherewith it is allied." - -Byron was not slow to take up the challenge. In the "Appendix" to the -_Two Foscari_ (first ed., pp. 325-329), which was written at Ravenna, -June-July, but not published till December 11, 1821, he retaliates on -"Mr. Southey and his 'pious preface'" in many words; but when it comes -to the point, ignores the charge of having "published a lascivious -book," and endeavours by counter-charges to divert the odium and to -cover his adversary with shame and confusion. "Mr. S.," he says, "with a -cowardly ferocity, exults over the anticipated 'death-bed repentance' of -the objects of his dislike; and indulges himself in a pleasant 'Vision -of Judgment,' in prose as well as verse, full of impious impudence.... I -am not ignorant," he adds, "of Mr. Southey's calumnies on a different -occasion, knowing them to be such, which he scattered abroad on his -return from Switzerland against me and others.... What _his_ 'death-bed' -may be it is not my province to predicate; let him settle it with his -Maker, as I must do with mine. There is something at once ludicrous and -blasphemous in this arrogant scribbler of all works sitting down to deal -damnation and destruction upon his fellow-creatures, with Wat Tyler, the -Apotheosis of George the Third, and the Elegy on Martin the regicide, -all shuffled together in his writing-desk." - -Southey must have received his copy of the _Two Foscari_ in the last -week of December, 1821, and with the "Appendix" (to say nothing of the -Third Canto of _Don Juan_) before him, he gave tongue, in the pages of -the _Courier_, January 6, 1822. His task was an easy one. He was able to -deny, _in toto_, the charge of uttering calumnies on his return from -Switzerland, and he was pleased to word his denial in a very -disagreeable way. He had come home with a stock of travellers' tales, -but not one of them was about Lord Byron. He had "sought for no staler -subject than St. Ursula." His charges of "impiety," "lewdness," -"profanation," and "pollution," had not been answered, and were -unanswerable; and as to his being a "scribbler of all work," there were -exceptions--works which he had _not_ scribbled, the _nefanda_ which -disfigured the writings of Lord Byron. "Satanic school" would stick. - -So far, the battle went in Southey's favour. "The words of the men of -Judah were fiercer than the words of the men of Israel," and Byron was -reduced to silence. A challenge (sent through Kinnaird, but not -delivered) was but a confession of impotence. There was, however, in -Southey's letter to the _Courier_ just one sentence too many. Before he -concluded he had given "one word of advice to Lord Byron"--"When he -attacks me again, let it be in rhyme. For one who has so little command -of himself, it will be a great advantage that his temper should be -obliged to _keep tune_." - -Byron had anticipated this advice, and had already attacked the laureate -in rhyme, scornfully and satirically, but with a gay and genial mockery -which dispensed with "wormwood and verdigrease" or yet bitterer and more -venomous ingredients. - -There was a truth in Lamb's jest, that it was Southey's _Vision of -Judgement_ which was worthy of prosecution; that "Lord Byron's poem was -of a most good-natured description--no malevolence" (_Diary of H. C. -Robinson_, 1869, ii. 240). Good-natured or otherwise, it awoke -inextinguishable laughter, and left Byron in possession of the field. - -The _Vision of Judgment_, begun May 7 (but probably laid aside till -September 11), was forwarded to Murray October 4, 1821. "By this post," -he wrote to Moore, October 6, 1821 (_Letters_, 1901, v. 387), "I have -sent my nightmare to balance the incubus of Southey's impudent -anticipation of the Apotheosis of George the Third." A chance perusal of -Southey's letter in the _Courier_ (see Medwin's _Conversations_, 1824, -p. 222, and letters to Douglas Kinnaird, February 6, 25, 1822) quickened -his desire for publication; but in spite of many appeals and suggestions -to Murray, who had sent Byron's "copy" to his printer, the decisive step -of passing the proofs for press was never taken. At length Byron lost -patience, and desired Murray to hand over "the corrected copy of the -proof with the Preface" of the _Vision of Judgment_ to John Hunt (see -letters to Murray, July 3, 6, 1822, _Letters_, 1901, vi. 92, 93). -Finally, a year after the MS. had been sent to England, the _Vision of -Judgment_, by Quevedo Redivivus, appeared in the first number (pp. 1-39) -of the _Liberal_, which was issued October 15, 1822. The Preface, to -Byron's astonishment and annoyance, was not forthcoming (see letter to -Murray, October 22, 1822, _Letters_, 1901, vi. 126, and _Examiner_, -Sunday, November 3, 1822, p. 697), and is not prefixed to the first -issue of the _Vision of Judgment_ in the first number of the _Liberal_. - -The _Liberal_ was severely handled by the press (see, for example, the -_Literary Gazette_ for October 19, 26, November 2, 1822; see, too, an -anonymous pamphlet entitled _A Critique on the "Liberal"_ (London, -1822, 8vo, 16 pages), which devotes ten pages to an attack on the -_Vision of Judgment_). The daily press was even more violent. The -_Courier_ for October 26 begins thus: "This _scoundrel-like_ publication -has at length made its appearance." - -There was even a threat of prosecution. Byron offered to employ counsel -for Hunt, to come over to England to stand his trial in his stead, and -blamed Murray for not having handed over the corrected proof, in which -some of the more offensive passages had been omitted or mitigated (see -letter to Murray, December 25, 1822, and letter to John Hunt, January 8, -1823, _Letters,_ 1901, vi. 155, 159). It is to be noted that in the list -of _Errata_ affixed to the table of Contents at the end of the first -volume of the _Liberal,_ the words, a "weaker king ne'er," are -substituted for "a worse king never" (stanza viii. line 6), and "an -unhandsome woman" for "a bad, ugly woman" (stanza xii. line 8). It would -seem that these emendations, which do not appear in the MS., were -slipped into the _Errata_ as precautions, not as after-thoughts. - -Nevertheless, it was held that a publication "calumniating the late -king, and wounding the feelings of his present Majesty," was a danger to -the public peace, and on January 15, 1824, the case of the King _v._ -John Hunt was tried in the Court of King's Bench. The jury brought in a -verdict of "Guilty," but judgment was deferred, and it was not till July -19, 1824, three days after the author of the _Vision of Judgment_ had -been laid to rest at Hucknall Torkard, that the publisher was sentenced -to pay to the king a fine of one hundred pounds, and to enter into -securities, for five years, for a larger amount. - -For the complete text of section iii. of Southey's Preface, Byron's -"Appendix" to the _Two Foscari_, etc., see _Essays Moral and Political_, -by Robert Southey, 1832, ii. 183, 205. See, too, for "Quarrel between -Byron and Southey," Appendix I. of vol. vi. of _Letters of Lord Byron,_ -1901. - - * * * * * - -NOTE. - -The following excerpt from H. C. Robinson's _Diary_ is printed from the -original MS., with the kind permission of the trustees of Dr. Williams' -Theological Library (see "Diary," 1869, ii. 437):-- - - "[Weimar], August 15, [1829]. - - "W[ordsworth] will not put the nose of B[yron] out with Frau von - Goethe, but he will be appreciated by her. I am afraid of the - experiment with the great poet himself.... - - " ... I alone to the poet.... - - "I read to him the _Vision of Judgment_. He enjoyed it like a - child; but his criticisms went little beyond the exclamatory 'Toll! - Ganz grob! himmlisch! unuebertrefflich!' etc., etc. - - "In general, the more strongly peppered passages pleased him the - best. Stanza 9 he praised for the clear distinct painting; 10 he - repeated with emphasis,--the last two lines conscious that his own - age was eighty; 13, 14, and 15 are favourites with me. G. concurred - in the suggested praise. The stanza 24 he declared to be sublime. - The characteristic speeches of Wilkes and Junius he thought most - admirable. - - "Byron 'hat selbst viel uebertroffen;' and the introduction of - Southey made him laugh heartily. - - "August 16. - - "Lord B. he declared to be inimitable. Ariosto was not so _keck_ as - Lord B. in the _Vision of Judgment_." - - - - - PREFACE - -It hath been wisely said, that "One fool makes many;" and it hath been -poetically observed-- - - "[That] fools rush in where angels fear to tread." - - [POPE'S _Essay on Criticism_, line 625.] - -If Mr. Southey had not rushed in where he had no business, and where he -never was before, and never will be again, the following poem would not -have been written. It is not impossible that it may be as good as his -own, seeing that it cannot, by any species of stupidity, natural or -acquired, be _worse._ The gross flattery, the dull impudence, the -renegade intolerance, and impious cant, of the poem by the author of -"Wat Tyler," are something so stupendous as to form the sublime of -himself--containing the quintessence of his own attributes. - -So much for his poem--a word on his preface. In this preface it has -pleased the magnanimous Laureate to draw the picture of a supposed -"Satanic School," the which he doth recommend to the notice of the -legislature; thereby adding to his other laurels the ambition of those -of an informer. If there exists anywhere, except in his imagination, -such a School, is he not sufficiently armed against it by his own -intense vanity? The truth is that there are certain writers whom Mr. S. -imagines, like Scrub, to have "talked of _him_; for they laughed -consumedly."[492] - -I think I know enough of most of the writers to whom he is supposed to -allude, to assert, that they, in their individual capacities, have done -more good, in the charities of life, to their fellow-creatures, in any -one year, than Mr. Southey has done harm to himself by his absurdities -in his whole life; and this is saying a great deal. But I have a few -questions to ask. - -1stly, Is Mr. Southey the author of _Wat Tyler_? - -2ndly, Was he not refused a remedy at law by the highest judge of his -beloved England, because it was a blasphemous and seditious -publication?[493] - -3rdly, Was he not entitled by William Smith, in full parliament, "a -rancorous renegado?"[494] - -4thly, Is he not poet laureate, with his own lines on Martin the -regicide staring him in the face?[495] - -And, 5thly, Putting the four preceding items together, with what -conscience dare _he_ call the attention of the laws to the publications -of others, be they what they may? - -I say nothing of the cowardice of such a proceeding; its meanness speaks -for itself; but I wish to touch upon the _motive_, which is neither more -nor less than that Mr. S. has been laughed at a little in some recent -publications, as he was of yore in the _Anti-jacobin_, by his present -patrons. Hence all this "skimble scamble stuff" about "Satanic," and so -forth. However, it is worthy of him--"_qualis ab incepto_." - -If there is anything obnoxious to the political opinions of a portion of -the public in the following poem, they may thank Mr. Southey. He might -have written hexameters, as he has written everything else, for aught -that the writer cared--had they been upon another subject. But to -attempt to canonise a monarch, who, whatever were his household virtues, -was neither a successful nor a patriot king,--inasmuch as several years -of his reign passed in war with America and Ireland, to say nothing of -the aggression upon France--like all other exaggeration, necessarily -begets opposition. In whatever manner he may be spoken of in this new -_Vision_, his _public_ career will not be more favourably transmitted by -history. Of his private virtues (although a little expensive to the -nation) there can be no doubt. - -With regard to the supernatural personages treated of, I can only say -that I know as much about them, and (as an honest man) have a better -right to talk of them than Robert Southey. I have also treated them more -tolerantly. The way in which that poor insane creature, the Laureate, -deals about his judgments in the next world, is like his own judgment in -this. If it was not completely ludicrous, it would be something worse. I -don't think that there is much more to say at present. - - QUEVEDO REDIVIVUS. - -P.S.--It is possible that some readers may object, in these -objectionable times, to the freedom with which saints, angels, and -spiritual persons discourse in this _Vision_. But, for precedents upon -such points, I must refer him to Fielding's _Journey from this World to -the next_, and to the Visions of myself, the said Quevedo, in Spanish -or translated.[496] The reader is also requested to observe, that no -doctrinal tenets are insisted upon or discussed; that the person of the -Deity is carefully withheld from sight, which is more than can be said -for the Laureate, who hath thought proper to make him talk, not "like a -school-divine,"[497] but like the unscholarlike Mr. Southey. The whole -action passes on the outside of heaven; and Chaucer's _Wife of Bath_, -Pulci's _Morgante Maggiore_, Swift's _Tale of a Tub_, and the other -works above referred to, are cases in point of the freedom with which -saints, etc., may be permitted to converse in works not intended to be -serious. - - Q.R. - -* * * Mr. Southey being, as he says, a good Christian and vindictive, -threatens, I understand, a reply to this our answer. It is to be hoped -that his visionary faculties will in the meantime have acquired a little -more judgment, properly so called: otherwise he will get himself into -new dilemmas. These apostate jacobins furnish rich rejoinders. Let him -take a specimen. Mr. Southey laudeth grievously "one Mr. Landor,"[498] -who cultivates much private renown in the shape of Latin verses; and -not long ago, the poet laureate dedicated to him, it appeareth, one of -his fugitive lyrics, upon the strength of a poem called "_Gebir_." Who -could suppose, that in this same Gebir the aforesaid Savage Landor (for -such is his grim cognomen) putteth into the infernal regions no less a -person than the hero of his friend Mr. Southey's heaven,--yea, even -George the Third! See also how personal Savage becometh, when he hath a -mind. The following is his portrait of our late gracious sovereign:-- - - (Prince Gebir having descended into the infernal regions, the - shades of his royal ancestors are, at his request, called up to his - view; and he exclaims to his ghostly guide)-- - - "'Aroar, what wretch that nearest us? what wretch - Is that with eyebrows white and slanting brow? - Listen! him yonder who, bound down supine, - Shrinks yelling from that sword there, engine-hung; - He too amongst my ancestors! [I hate - The despot, but the dastard I despise. - Was he our countryman?' - 'Alas,][499] O king! - Iberia bore him, but the breed accurst - Inclement winds blew blighting from north-east.' - 'He was a warrior then, nor fear'd the gods?' - 'Gebir, he feared the Demons, not the gods, - Though them indeed his daily face adored; - And was no warrior, yet the thousand lives - Squandered, as stones to exercise a sling, - And the tame cruelty and cold caprice-- - Oh madness of mankind! addressed, adored!'" - - _Gebir_ [_Works, etc._, 1876, vii. 17]. - -I omit noticing some edifying Ithyphallics of Savagius, wishing to keep -the proper veil over them, if his grave but somewhat indiscreet -worshipper will suffer it; but certainly these teachers of "great moral -lessons" are apt to be found in strange company. - - - - - THE VISION OF JUDGMENT.[500] - - I. - - Saint Peter sat by the celestial gate: - His keys were rusty, and the lock was dull, - So little trouble had been given of late; - Not that the place by any means was full, - But since the Gallic era "eighty-eight" - The Devils had ta'en a longer, stronger pull, - And "a pull altogether," as they say - At sea--which drew most souls another way. - - II. - - The Angels all were singing out of tune, - And hoarse with having little else to do, - Excepting to wind up the sun and moon, - Or curb a runaway young star or two,[fz] - Or wild colt of a comet, which too soon - Broke out of bounds o'er the ethereal blue, - Splitting some planet with its playful tail, - As boats are sometimes by a wanton whale. - - III. - - The Guardian Seraphs had retired on high, - Finding their charges past all care below;[ga] - Terrestrial business filled nought in the sky - Save the Recording Angel's black bureau; - Who found, indeed, the facts to multiply - With such rapidity of vice and woe, - That he had stripped off both his wings in quills, - And yet was in arrear of human ills. - - IV. - - His business so augmented of late years, - That he was forced, against his will, no doubt, - (Just like those cherubs, earthly ministers,) - For some resource to turn himself about, - And claim the help of his celestial peers,[gb] - To aid him ere he should be quite worn out - By the increased demand for his remarks:[gc] - Six Angels and twelve Saints were named his clerks. - - V. - - This was a handsome board--at least for Heaven; - And yet they had even then enough to do, - So many Conquerors' cars were daily driven, - So many kingdoms fitted up anew; - Each day, too, slew its thousands six or seven, - Till at the crowning carnage, Waterloo, - They threw their pens down in divine disgust-- - The page was so besmeared with blood and dust.[gd] - - VI. - - This by the way; 'tis not mine to record - What Angels shrink from: even the very Devil - On this occasion his own work abhorred, - So surfeited with the infernal revel: - Though he himself had sharpened every sword,[ge] - It almost quenched his innate thirst of evil. - (Here Satan's sole good work deserves insertion-- - 'Tis, that he has both Generals in reversion.)[gf][501] - - VII. - - Let's skip a few short years of hollow peace, - Which peopled earth no better, Hell as wont, - And Heaven none--they form the tyrant's lease, - With nothing but new names subscribed upon't; - 'Twill one day finish: meantime they increase,[gg] - "With seven heads and ten horns," and all in front, - Like Saint John's foretold beast; but ours are born - Less formidable in the head than horn.[gh] - - VIII. - - In the first year of Freedom's second dawn[502] - Died George the Third; although no tyrant, one - Who shielded tyrants, till each sense withdrawn[gi] - Left him nor mental nor external sun:[503] - A better farmer ne'er brushed dew from lawn,[gj] - A worse king never left a realm undone! - He died--but left his subjects still behind, - One half as mad--and t'other no less blind.[gk][504] - - IX. - - He died! his death made no great stir on earth: - His burial made some pomp; there was profusion - Of velvet--gilding--brass--and no great dearth - Of aught but tears--save those shed by collusion: - For these things may be bought at their true worth; - Of elegy there was the due infusion-- - Bought also; and the torches, cloaks and banners, - Heralds, and relics of old Gothic manners,[505] - - X. - - Formed a sepulchral melodrame. Of all - The fools who flocked to swell or see the show, - Who cared about the corpse? The funeral - Made the attraction, and the black the woe, - There throbbed not there a thought which pierced the pall; - And when the gorgeous coffin was laid low, - It seemed the mockery of hell to fold - The rottenness of eighty years in gold.[506] - - - XI. - - So mix his body with the dust! It might - Return to what it _must_ far sooner, were - The natural compound left alone to fight - Its way back into earth, and fire, and air; - But the unnatural balsams merely blight - What Nature made him at his birth, as bare - As the mere million's base unmummied clay-- - Yet all his spices but prolong decay.[507] - - XII. - - He's dead--and upper earth with him has done; - He's buried; save the undertaker's bill, - Or lapidary scrawl, the world is gone - For him, unless he left a German will:[508] - But where's the proctor who will ask his son? - In whom his qualities are reigning still,[gl] - Except that household virtue, most uncommon, - Of constancy to a bad, ugly woman. - - XIII. - - "God save the king!" It is a large economy - In God to save the like; but if he will - Be saving, all the better; for not one am I - Of those who think damnation better still:[509] - I hardly know too if not quite alone am I - In this small hope of bettering future ill - By circumscribing, with some slight restriction, - The eternity of Hell's hot jurisdiction. - - XIV. - - I know this is unpopular; I know - 'Tis blasphemous; I know one may be damned - For hoping no one else may e'er be so; - I know my catechism; I know we're crammed - With the best doctrines till we quite o'erflow; - I know that all save England's Church have shammed, - And that the other twice two hundred churches - And synagogues have made a _damned_ bad purchase. - - XV. - - God help us all! God help me too! I am, - God knows, as helpless as the Devil can wish, - And not a whit more difficult to damn, - Than is to bring to land a late-hooked fish, - Or to the butcher to purvey the lamb; - Not that I'm fit for such a noble dish, - As one day will be that immortal fry - Of almost every body born to die. - - XVI. - - Saint Peter sat by the celestial gate, - And nodded o'er his keys: when, lo! there came - A wondrous noise he had not heard of late-- - A rushing sound of wind, and stream, and flame; - In short, a roar of things extremely great, - Which would have made aught save a Saint exclaim; - But he, with first a start and then a wink, - Said, "There's another star gone out, I think!"[gm] - - XVII. - - But ere he could return to his repose, - A Cherub flapped his right wing o'er his eyes-- - At which Saint Peter yawned, and rubbed his nose: - "Saint porter," said the angel, "prithee rise!" - Waving a goodly wing, which glowed, as glows - An earthly peacock's tail, with heavenly dyes: - To which the saint replied, "Well, what's the matter? - "Is Lucifer come back with all this clatter?" - - XVIII. - - "No," quoth the Cherub: "George the Third is dead." - "And who _is_ George the Third?" replied the apostle: - "_What George? what Third?_" "The King of England," said - The angel. "Well! he won't find kings to jostle - Him on his way; but does he wear his head? - Because the last we saw here had a tustle, - And ne'er would have got into Heaven's good graces, - Had he not flung his head in all our faces. - - XIX. - - "He was--if I remember--King of France;[510] - That head of his, which could not keep a crown - On earth, yet ventured in my face to advance - A claim to those of martyrs--like my own: - If I had had my sword, as I had once - When I cut ears off, I had cut him down; - But having but my _keys_, and not my brand, - I only knocked his head from out his hand. - - XX. - - "And then he set up such a headless howl, - That all the Saints came out and took him in; - And there he sits by Saint Paul, cheek by jowl;[gn] - That fellow Paul--the parvenu! The skin[511] - Of Saint Bartholomew, which makes his cowl - In heaven, and upon earth redeemed his sin, - So as to make a martyr, never sped - Better than did this weak and wooden head. - - XXI. - - "But had it come up here upon its shoulders, - There would have been a different tale to tell: - The fellow-feeling in the Saint's beholders - Seems to have acted on them like a spell; - And so this very foolish head Heaven solders - Back on its trunk: it may be very well, - And seems the custom here to overthrow - Whatever has been wisely done below." - - XXII. - - The Angel answered, "Peter! do not pout: - The King who comes has head and all entire, - And never knew much what it was about-- - He did as doth the puppet--by its wire, - And will be judged like all the rest, no doubt: - My business and your own is not to inquire - Into such matters, but to mind our cue-- - Which is to act as we are bid to do." - - XXIII. - - While thus they spake, the angelic caravan, - Arriving like a rush of mighty wind, - Cleaving the fields of space, as doth the swan - Some silver stream (say Ganges, Nile, or Inde, - Or Thames, or Tweed), and midst them an old man - With an old soul, and both extremely blind, - Halted before the gate, and, in his shroud, - Seated their fellow-traveller on a cloud.[512] - - XXIV. - - But bringing up the rear of this bright host - A Spirit of a different aspect waved - His wings, like thunder-clouds above some coast - Whose barren beach with frequent wrecks is paved; - His brow was like the deep when tempest-tossed; - Fierce and unfathomable thoughts engraved - Eternal wrath on his immortal face, - And _where_ he gazed a gloom pervaded space. - - XXV. - - As he drew near, he gazed upon the gate - Ne'er to be entered more by him or Sin, - With such a glance of supernatural hate, - As made Saint Peter wish himself within; - He pottered[513] with his keys at a great rate, - And sweated through his Apostolic skin:[go] - Of course his perspiration was but ichor, - Or some such other spiritual liquor.[gp] - - XXVI. - - The very Cherubs huddled all together, - Like birds when soars the falcon; and they felt - A tingling to the tip of every feather, - And formed a circle like Orion's belt - Around their poor old charge; who scarce knew whither - His guards had led him, though they gently dealt - With royal Manes (for by many stories, - And true, we learn the Angels all are Tories). - - XXVII. - - As things were in this posture, the gate flew - Asunder, and the flashing of its hinges - Flung over space an universal hue - Of many-coloured flame, until its tinges - Reached even our speck of earth, and made a new - Aurora borealis spread its fringes - O'er the North Pole; the same seen, when ice-bound, - By Captain Parry's crew, in "Melville's Sound."[gq][514] - - XXVIII. - - And from the gate thrown open issued beaming - A beautiful and mighty Thing of Light,[515] - Radiant with glory, like a banner streaming - Victorious from some world-o'erthrowing fight: - My poor comparisons must needs be teeming - With earthly likenesses, for here the night - Of clay obscures our best conceptions, saving - Johanna Southcote,[516] or Bob Southey raving.[517] - - XXIX. - - 'Twas the Archangel Michael: all men know - The make of Angels and Archangels, since - There's scarce a scribbler has not one to show, - From the fiends' leader to the Angels' Prince. - There also are some altar-pieces, though - I really can't say that they much evince - One's inner notions of immortal spirits; - But let the connoisseurs explain _their_ merits. - - XXX. - - Michael flew forth in glory and in good; - A goodly work of him from whom all Glory - And Good arise; the portal past--he stood; - Before him the young Cherubs and Saints hoary-- - (I say _young_, begging to be understood - By looks, not years; and should be very sorry - To state, they were not older than St. Peter, - But merely that they seemed a little sweeter). - - XXXI. - - The Cherubs and the Saints bowed down before - That arch-angelic Hierarch, the first - Of Essences angelical who wore - The aspect of a god; but this ne'er nursed - Pride in his heavenly bosom, in whose core - No thought, save for his Maker's service, durst - Intrude, however glorified and high; - He knew him but the Viceroy of the sky. - - XXXII. - - He and the sombre, silent Spirit met-- - They knew each other both for good and ill; - Such was their power, that neither could forget - His former friend and future foe; but still - There was a high, immortal, proud regret - In either's eye, as if 'twere less their will - Than destiny to make the eternal years - Their date of war, and their "Champ Clos" the spheres. - - XXXIII. - - But here they were in neutral space: we know - From Job, that Satan hath the power to pay - A heavenly visit thrice a-year or so; - And that the "Sons of God," like those of clay, - Must keep him company; and we might show - From the same book, in how polite a way - The dialogue is held between the Powers - Of Good and Evil--but 'twould take up hours. - - XXXIV. - - And this is not a theologic tract,[518] - To prove with Hebrew and with Arabic, - If Job be allegory or a fact, - But a true narrative; and thus I pick - From out the whole but such and such an act - As sets aside the slightest thought of trick. - 'Tis every tittle true, beyond suspicion, - And accurate as any other vision. - - - XXXV. - - The spirits were in neutral space, before - The gate of Heaven; like eastern thresholds is[519] - The place where Death's grand cause is argued o'er, - And souls despatched to that world or to this; - And therefore Michael and the other wore - A civil aspect: though they did not kiss, - Yet still between his Darkness and his Brightness - There passed a mutual glance of great politeness. - - XXXVI. - - The Archangel bowed, not like a modern beau, - But with a graceful oriental bend, - Pressing one radiant arm just where below[gr] - The heart in good men is supposed to tend; - He turned as to an equal, not too low, - But kindly; Satan met his ancient friend[gs] - With more hauteur, as might an old Castilian - Poor Noble meet a mushroom rich civilian. - - XXXVII. - - He merely bent his diabolic brow - An instant; and then raising it, he stood - In act to assert his right or wrong, and show - Cause why King George by no means could or should - Make out a case to be exempt from woe - Eternal, more than other kings, endued - With better sense and hearts, whom History mentions, - Who long have "paved Hell with their good intentions."[520] - - - XXXVIII. - - Michael began: "What wouldst thou with this man, - Now dead, and brought before the Lord? What ill - Hath he wrought since his mortal race began, - That thou canst claim him? Speak! and do thy will, - If it be just: if in this earthly span - He hath been greatly failing to fulfil - His duties as a king and mortal, say, - And he is thine; if not--let him have way." - - XXXIX. - - "Michael!" replied the Prince of Air, "even here - Before the gate of Him thou servest, must - I claim my subject: and will make appear - That as he was my worshipper in dust, - So shall he be in spirit, although dear - To thee and thine, because nor wine nor lust - Were of his weaknesses; yet on the throne - He reigned o'er millions to serve me alone. - - XL. - - "Look to _our_ earth, or rather _mine_; it was, - _Once, more_ thy master's: but I triumph not - In this poor planet's conquest; nor, alas! - Need he thou servest envy me my lot: - With all the myriads of bright worlds which pass - In worship round him, he may have forgot - Yon weak creation of such paltry things: - I think few worth damnation save their kings, - - XLI. - - "And these but as a kind of quit-rent, to - Assert my right as Lord: and even had - I such an inclination,'twere (as you - Well know) superfluous; they are grown so bad, - That Hell has nothing better left to do - Than leave them to themselves: so much more mad - And evil by their own internal curse, - Heaven cannot make them better, nor I worse. - - XLII. - - "Look to the earth, I said, and say again: - When this old, blind, mad, helpless, weak, poor worm - Began in youth's first bloom and flush to reign, - The world and he both wore a different form, - And much of earth and all the watery plain - Of Ocean called him king: through many a storm - His isles had floated on the abyss of Time; - For the rough virtues chose them for their clime.[521] - - XLIII. - - "He came to his sceptre young; he leaves it old: - Look to the state in which he found his realm, - And left it; and his annals too behold, - How to a minion first he gave the helm;[522] - How grew upon his heart a thirst for gold, - The beggar's vice, which can but overwhelm - The meanest hearts; and for the rest, but glance - Thine eye along America and France. - - XLIV. - - "'Tis true, he was a tool from first to last - (I have the workmen safe); but as a tool - So let him be consumed. From out the past - Of ages, since mankind have known the rule - Of monarchs--from the bloody rolls amassed - Of Sin and Slaughter--from the Caesars' school, - Take the worst pupil; and produce a reign - More drenched with gore, more cumbered with the slain. - - XLV. - - "He ever warred with freedom and the free: - Nations as men, home subjects, foreign foes, - So that they uttered the word 'Liberty!' - Found George the Third their first opponent. Whose - History was ever stained as his will be - With national and individual woes?[gt] - I grant his household abstinence; I grant - His neutral virtues, which most monarchs want; - - XLVI. - - "I know he was a constant consort; own - He was a decent sire, and middling lord. - All this is much, and most upon a throne; - As temperance, if at Apicius' board, - Is more than at an anchorite's supper shown. - I grant him all the kindest can accord; - And this was well for him, but not for those - Millions who found him what Oppression chose. - - XLVII. - - "The New World shook him off; the Old yet groans - Beneath what he and his prepared, if not - Completed: he leaves heirs on many thrones - To all his vices, without what begot - Compassion for him--his tame virtues; drones - Who sleep, or despots who have now forgot - A lesson which shall be re-taught them, wake - Upon the thrones of earth; but let them quake! - - XLVIII. - - "Five millions of the primitive, who hold - The faith which makes ye great on earth, implored - A _part_ of that vast _all_ they held of old,--[gu] - Freedom to worship--not alone your Lord, - Michael, but you, and you, Saint Peter! Cold - Must be your souls, if you have not abhorred - The foe to Catholic participation[523] - In all the license of a Christian nation. - - XLIX. - - "True! he allowed them to pray God; but as - A consequence of prayer, refused the law - Which would have placed them upon the same base - With those who did not hold the Saints in awe." - But here Saint Peter started from his place - And cried, "You may the prisoner withdraw: - Ere Heaven shall ope her portals to this Guelph, - While I am guard, may I be damned myself! - - L. - - "Sooner will I with Cerberus exchange - My office (and _his_ is no sinecure) - Than see this royal Bedlam-bigot range[gv] - The azure fields of Heaven, of that be sure!" - "Saint!" replied Satan, "you do well to avenge - The wrongs he made your satellites endure; - And if to this exchange you should be given, - I'll try to coax _our_ Cerberus up to Heaven!" - - LI. - - Here Michael interposed: "Good Saint! and Devil! - Pray, not so fast; you both outrun discretion. - Saint Peter! you were wont to be more civil: - Satan! excuse this warmth of his expression, - And condescension to the vulgar's level:[gw] - Even Saints sometimes forget themselves in session. - Have you got more to say?"--"No."--"If you please, - I'll trouble you to call your witnesses." - - LII. - - Then Satan turned and waved his swarthy hand, - Which stirred with its electric qualities - Clouds farther off than we can understand, - Although we find him sometimes in our skies; - Infernal thunder shook both sea and land - In all the planets--and Hell's batteries - Let off the artillery, which Milton mentions - As one of Satan's most sublime inventions.[524] - - LIII. - - This was a signal unto such damned souls - As have the privilege of their damnation - Extended far beyond the mere controls - Of worlds past, present, or to come; no station - Is theirs particularly in the rolls - Of Hell assigned; but where their inclination - Or business carries them in search of game, - They may range freely--being damned the same. - - LIV. - - They are proud of this--as very well they may, - It being a sort of knighthood, or gilt key - Stuck in their loins;[525] or like to an "entre"[gx] - Up the back stairs, or such free-masonry. - I borrow my comparisons from clay, - Being clay myself. Let not those spirits be - Offended with such base low likenesses; - We know their posts are nobler far than these.[gy] - - LV. - - When the great signal ran from Heaven to Hell-- - About ten million times the distance reckoned - From our sun to its earth, as we can tell - How much time it takes up, even to a second, - For every ray that travels to dispel - The fogs of London, through which, dimly beaconed, - The weathercocks are gilt some thrice a year, - If that the _summer_ is not too severe:[526] - - LVI. - - I say that I can tell--'twas half a minute; - I know the solar beams take up more time - Ere, packed up for their journey, they begin it;[gz] - But then their Telegraph is less sublime,[527] - And if they ran a race, they would not win it - 'Gainst Satan's couriers bound for their own clime. - The sun takes up some years for every ray - To reach its goal--the Devil not half a day. - - LVII. - - Upon the verge of space, about the size - Of half-a-crown, a little speck appeared - (I've seen a something like it in the skies - In the AEgean, ere a squall); it neared, - And, growing bigger, took another guise; - Like an aerial ship it tacked, and steered,[528] - Or _was_ steered (I am doubtful of the grammar - Of the last phrase, which makes the stanza stammer; - - LVIII. - - But take your choice): and then it grew a cloud; - And so it was--a cloud of witnesses. - But such a cloud! No land ere saw a crowd - Of locusts numerous as the heavens saw these;[ha] - They shadowed with their myriads Space; their loud - And varied cries were like those of wild geese,[hb] - (If nations may be likened to a goose), - And realised the phrase of "Hell broke loose."[529] - - LIX. - - Here crashed a sturdy oath of stout John Bull, - Who damned away his eyes as heretofore: - There Paddy brogued "By Jasus!"--"What's your wull?" - The temperate Scot exclaimed: the French ghost swore - In certain terms I shan't translate in full, - As the first coachman will; and 'midst the war,[hc] - The voice of Jonathan was heard to express, - "_Our_ President is going to war, I guess." - - LX. - - Besides there were the Spaniard, Dutch, and Dane; - In short, an universal shoal of shades - From Otaheite's isle to Salisbury Plain, - Of all climes and professions, years and trades, - Ready to swear against the good king's reign,[hd] - Bitter as clubs in cards are against spades:[530] - All summoned by this grand "subpoena," to - Try if kings mayn't be damned like me or you. - - LXI. - - When Michael saw this host, he first grew pale, - As Angels can; next, like Italian twilight, - He turned all colours--as a peacock's tail, - Or sunset streaming through a Gothic skylight - In some old abbey, or a trout not stale, - Or distant lightning on the horizon by night, - Or a fresh rainbow, or a grand review - Of thirty regiments in red, green, and blue. - - LXII. - - Then he addressed himself to Satan: "Why-- - My good old friend, for such I deem you, though - Our different parties make us fight so shy, - I ne'er mistake you for a _personal_ foe; - Our difference _political_, and I - Trust that, whatever may occur below, - You know my great respect for you: and this - Makes me regret whate'er you do amiss-- - - LXIII. - - "Why, my dear Lucifer, would you abuse - My call for witnesses? I did not mean - That you should half of Earth and Hell produce; - 'Tis even superfluous, since two honest, clean, - True testimonies are enough: we lose - Our Time, nay, our Eternity, between - The accusation and defence: if we - Hear both, 'twill stretch our immortality." - - LXIV. - - Satan replied, "To me the matter is - Indifferent, in a personal point of view: - I can have fifty better souls than this - With far less trouble than we have gone through - Already; and I merely argued his - Late Majesty of Britain's case with you - Upon a point of form: you may dispose - Of him; I've kings enough below, God knows!" - - LXV. - - Thus spoke the Demon (late called "multifaced"[531] - By multo-scribbling Southey). "Then we'll call - One or two persons of the myriads placed - Around our congress, and dispense with all - The rest," quoth Michael: "Who may be so graced - As to speak first? there's choice enough--who shall - It be?" Then Satan answered, "There are many; - But you may choose Jack Wilkes as well as any." - - LXVI. - - A merry, cock-eyed, curious-looking Sprite[532] - Upon the instant started from the throng, - Dressed in a fashion now forgotten quite; - For all the fashions of the flesh stick long - By people in the next world; where unite - All the costumes since Adam's, right or wrong, - From Eve's fig-leaf down to the petticoat, - Almost as scanty, of days less remote.[533] - - LXVII. - - The Spirit looked around upon the crowds - Assembled, and exclaimed, "My friends of all - The spheres, we shall catch cold amongst these clouds; - So let's to business: why this general call? - If those are freeholders I see in shrouds, - And 'tis for an election that they bawl, - Behold a candidate with unturned coat![he] - Saint Peter, may I count upon your vote?" - - LXVIII. - - "Sir," replied Michael, "you mistake; these things - Are of a former life, and what we do - Above is more august; to judge of kings - Is the tribunal met: so now you know." - "Then I presume those gentlemen with wings,"[hf] - Said Wilkes, "are Cherubs; and that soul below - Looks much like George the Third, but to my mind - A good deal older--bless me! is he blind?" - - LXIX. - - "He is what you behold him, and his doom - Depends upon his deeds," the Angel said; - "If you have aught to arraign in him, the tomb - Gives license to the humblest beggar's head - To lift itself against the loftiest."--"Some," - Said Wilkes, "don't wait to see them laid in lead, - For such a liberty--and I, for one, - Have told them what I thought beneath the sun." - - LXX. - - "_Above_ the sun repeat, then, what thou hast - To urge against him," said the Archangel. "Why," - Replied the spirit, "since old scores are past, - Must I turn evidence? In faith, not I. - Besides, I beat him hollow at the last[534], - With all his Lords and Commons: in the sky - I don't like ripping up old stories, since - His conduct was but natural in a prince. - - LXXI. - - "Foolish, no doubt, and wicked, to oppress - A poor unlucky devil without a shilling; - But then I blame the man himself much less - Than Bute and Grafton[535], and shall be unwilling - To see him punished here for their excess, - Since they were both damned long ago, and still in - Their place below: for me, I have forgiven, - And vote his _habeas corpus_ into Heaven." - - LXXII. - - "Wilkes," said the Devil, "I understand all this; - You turned to half a courtier[536] ere you died, - And seem to think it would not be amiss - To grow a whole one on the other side - Of Charon's ferry; you forget that _his_ - Reign is concluded; whatsoe'er betide, - He won't be sovereign more: you've lost your labour, - For at the best he will but be your neighbour. - - LXXIII. - - "However, I knew what to think of it, - When I beheld you in your jesting way, - Flitting and whispering round about the spit - Where Belial, upon duty for the day[hg], - With Fox's lard was basting William Pitt, - His pupil; I knew what to think, I say: - That fellow even in Hell breeds farther ills; - I'll have him _gagged_--'twas one of his own Bills[537]. - - LXXIV. - - "Call Junius!" From the crowd a shadow stalked[538]. - And at the name there was a general squeeze, - So that the very ghosts no longer walked - In comfort, at their own aerial ease, - But were all rammed, and jammed (but to be balked, - As we shall see), and jostled hands and knees, - Like wind compressed and pent within a bladder, - Or like a human colic, which is sadder.[hh] - - LXXV. - - The shadow came--a tall, thin, grey-haired figure, - That looked as it had been a shade on earth[hi]; - Quick in its motions, with an air of vigour, - But nought to mark its breeding or its birth; - Now it waxed little, then again grew bigger[hj], - With now an air of gloom, or savage mirth: - But as you gazed upon its features, they - Changed every instant--to _what_, none could say. - - LXXVI. - - The more intently the ghosts gazed, the less - Could they distinguish whose the features were; - The Devil himself seemed puzzled even to guess; - They varied like a dream--now here, now there; - And several people swore from out the press, - They knew him perfectly; and one could swear - He was his father; upon which another - Was sure he was his mother's cousin's brother: - - LXXVII. - - Another, that he was a duke, or knight, - An orator, a lawyer, or a priest, - A nabob, a man-midwife;[539] but the wight[hk] - Mysterious changed his countenance at least - As oft as they their minds: though in full sight - He stood, the puzzle only was increased; - The man was a phantasmagoria in - Himself--he was so volatile and thin. - - LXXVIII. - - The moment that you had pronounced him _one_, - Presto! his face changed, and he was another; - And when that change was hardly well put on, - It varied, till I don't think his own mother - (If that he had a mother) would her son - Have known, he shifted so from one to t'other; - Till guessing from a pleasure grew a task,[hl] - At this epistolary "Iron Mask."[540] - - LXXIX. - - For sometimes he like Cerberus would seem-- - "Three gentlemen at once"[541] (as sagely says - Good Mrs. Malaprop); then you might deem - That he was not even _one_; now many rays - Were flashing round him; and now a thick steam - Hid him from sight--like fogs on London days: - Now Burke, now Tooke, he grew to people's fancies - And certes often like Sir Philip Francis. - - LXXX. - - I've an hypothesis--'tis quite my own; - I never let it out till now, for fear - Of doing people harm about the throne, - And injuring some minister or peer, - On whom the stigma might perhaps be blown; - It is--my gentle public, lend thine ear! - 'Tis, that what Junius we are wont to call,[hm] - Was _really--truly_--nobody at all. - - - LXXXI. - - I don't see wherefore letters should not be - Written without hands, since we daily view - Them written without heads; and books, we see, - Are filled as well without the latter too: - And really till we fix on somebody - For certain sure to claim them as his due, - Their author, like the Niger's mouth,[542] will bother - The world to say if _there_ be mouth or author. - - LXXXII. - - "And who and what art thou?" the Archangel said. - "For _that_ you may consult my title-page,"[543] - Replied this mighty shadow of a shade: - "If I have kept my secret half an age, - I scarce shall tell it now."--"Canst thou upbraid," - Continued Michael, "George Rex, or allege - Aught further?" Junius answered, "You had better - First ask him for _his_ answer to my letter: - - LXXXIII. - - "My charges upon record will outlast[hn] - The brass of both his epitaph and tomb." - "Repent'st thou not," said Michael, "of some past - Exaggeration? something which may doom - Thyself if false, as him if true? Thou wast - Too bitter--is it not so?--in thy gloom - Of passion?"--"Passion!" cried the phantom dim, - "I loved my country, and I hated him. - - - LXXXIV. - - "What I have written, I have written: let - The rest be on his head or mine!" So spoke - Old "_Nominis Umbra_;" and while speaking yet, - Away he melted in celestial smoke. - Then Satan said to Michael, "Don't forget - To call George Washington, and John Horne Tooke, - And Franklin;"[544]--but at this time there was heard - A cry for room, though not a phantom stirred. - - LXXXV. - - At length with jostling, elbowing, and the aid - Of Cherubim appointed to that post, - The devil Asmodeus[545] to the circle made - His way, and looked as if his journey cost - Some trouble. When his burden down he laid, - "What's this?" cried Michael; "why, 'tis not a ghost?" - "I know it," quoth the Incubus; "but he - Shall be one, if you leave the affair to me. - - LXXXVI. - - "Confound the renegado![546] I have sprained - My left wing, he's so heavy;[547] one would think - Some of his works about his neck were chained. - But to the point; while hovering o'er the brink - Of Skiddaw (where as usual it still rained), - I saw a taper, far below me, wink, - And stooping, caught this fellow at a libel--[ho] - No less on History--than the Holy Bible. - - LXXXVII. - - "The former is the Devil's scripture, and - The latter yours, good Michael: so the affair - Belongs to all of us, you understand. - I snatched him up just as you see him there, - And brought him off for sentence out of hand: - I've scarcely been ten minutes in the air-- - At least a quarter it can hardly be: - I dare say that his wife is still at tea."[548] - - LXXXVIII. - - Here Satan said, "I know this man of old, - And have expected him for some time here; - A sillier fellow you will scarce behold, - Or more conceited in his petty sphere: - But surely it was not worth while to fold - Such trash below your wing, Asmodeus dear: - We had the poor wretch safe (without being bored - With carriage) coming of his own accord. - - LXXXIX. - - "But since he's here, let's see what he has done." - "Done!" cried Asmodeus, "he anticipates - The very business you are now upon, - And scribbles as if head clerk to the Fates.[hp] - Who knows to what his ribaldry may run, - When such an ass[549] as this, like Balaam's, prates?" - "Let's hear," quoth Michael, "what he has to say: - You know we're bound to that in every way." - - XC. - - Now the bard, glad to get an audience, which - By no means often was his case below, - Began to cough, and hawk, and hem, and pitch - His voice into that awful note of woe - To all unhappy hearers within reach - Of poets when the tide of rhyme's in flow;[550] - But stuck fast with his first hexameter, - Not one of all whose gouty feet would stir. - - XCI. - - But ere the spavined dactyls could be spurred - Into recitative, in great dismay - Both Cherubim and Seraphim were heard - To murmur loudly through their long array; - And Michael rose ere he could get a word - Of all his foundered verses under way, - And cried, "For God's sake stop, my friend! 'twere best--[551] - '_Non Di, non homines_'--you know the rest."[552] - - XCII. - - A general bustle spread throughout the throng, - Which seemed to hold all verse in detestation; - The Angels had of course enough of song - When upon service; and the generation - Of ghosts had heard too much in life, not long - Before, to profit by a new occasion: - The Monarch, mute till then, exclaimed, "What! what![553] - _Pye_[554] come again? No more--no more of that!" - - XCIII. - - The tumult grew; an universal cough - Convulsed the skies, as during a debate, - When Castlereagh has been up long enough - (Before he was first minister of state, - I mean--the _slaves hear now_); some cried "Off, off!" - As at a farce; till, grown quite desperate, - The Bard Saint Peter prayed to interpose - (Himself an author) only for his prose. - - XCIV. - - The varlet was not an ill-favoured knave;[hq][555] - A good deal like a vulture in the face, - With a hook nose and a hawk's eye, which gave - A smart and sharper-looking sort of grace - To his whole aspect, which, though rather grave, - Was by no means so ugly as his case; - But that, indeed, was hopeless as can be, - Quite a poetic felony "_de se_." - - XCV. - - Then Michael blew his trump, and stilled the noise - With one still greater, as is yet the mode - On earth besides; except some grumbling voice, - Which now and then will make a slight inroad - Upon decorous silence, few will twice - Lift up their lungs when fairly overcrowed; - And now the Bard could plead his own bad cause, - With all the attitudes of self-applause. - - XCVI. - - He said--(I only give the heads)--he said, - He meant no harm in scribbling; 'twas his way - Upon all topics; 'twas, besides, his bread, - Of which he buttered both sides; 'twould delay - Too long the assembly (he was pleased to dread), - And take up rather more time than a day, - To name his works--he would but cite a few--[hr] - "Wat Tyler"--"Rhymes on Blenheim"--"Waterloo."[556] - - XCVII. - - He had written praises of a Regicide;[557] - He had written praises of all kings whatever; - He had written for republics far and wide, - And then against them bitterer than ever; - For pantisocracy he once had cried[558] - Aloud, a scheme less moral than 'twas clever; - Then grew a hearty anti-jacobin-- - Had turned his coat--and would have turned his skin. - - XCVIII. - - He had sung against all battles, and again - In their high praise and glory; he had called - Reviewing "the ungentle craft," and then[559] - Became as base a critic as e'er crawled-- - Fed, paid, and pampered by the very men - By whom his muse and morals had been mauled: - He had written much blank verse, and blanker prose, - And more of both than any body knows. - - XCIX. - - He had written Wesley's[560] life:--here turning round - To Satan, "Sir, I'm ready to write yours, - In two octavo volumes, nicely bound, - With notes and preface, all that most allures - The pious purchaser; and there's no ground - For fear, for I can choose my own reviewers: - So let me have the proper documents, - That I may add you to my other saints." - - C. - - Satan bowed, and was silent. "Well, if you, - With amiable modesty, decline - My offer, what says Michael? There are few - Whose memoirs could be rendered more divine. - Mine is a pen of all work;[561] not so new - As it was once, but I would make you shine - Like your own trumpet. By the way, my own - Has more of brass in it, and is as well blown.[hs] - - CI. - - "But talking about trumpets, here's my 'Vision!' - Now you shall judge, all people--yes--you shall - Judge with my judgment! and by my decision - Be guided who shall enter heaven or fall. - I settle all these things by intuition, - Times present, past, to come--Heaven--Hell--and all, - Like King Alfonso[562]. When I thus see double, - I save the Deity some worlds of trouble." - - CII. - - He ceased, and drew forth an MS.; and no - Persuasion on the part of Devils, Saints, - Or Angels, now could stop the torrent; so - He read the first three lines of the contents: - But at the fourth, the whole spiritual show - Had vanished, with variety of scents, - Ambrosial and sulphureous, as they sprang, - Like lightning, off from his "melodious twang."[563] - - CIII. - - Those grand heroics acted as a spell; - The Angels stopped their ears and plied their pinions; - The Devils ran howling, deafened, down to Hell; - The ghosts fled, gibbering, for their own dominions-- - (For 'tis not yet decided where they dwell, - And I leave every man to his opinions); - Michael took refuge in his trump--but, lo! - His teeth were set on edge, he could not blow! - - CIV. - - Saint Peter, who has hitherto been known - For an impetuous saint, upraised his keys, - And at the fifth line knocked the poet down;[564] - Who fell like Phaeton, but more at ease, - Into his lake, for there he did not drown; - A different web being by the Destinies - Woven for the Laureate's final wreath, whene'er - Reform shall happen either here or there. - - CV. - - He first sank to the bottom--like his works, - But soon rose to the surface--like himself; - For all corrupted things are buoyed like corks,[565] - By their own rottenness, light as an elf, - Or wisp that flits o'er a morass: he lurks, - It may be, still, like dull books on a shelf, - In his own den, to scrawl some "Life" or "Vision,"[ht] - As Welborn says--"the Devil turned precisian."[566] - - CVI. - - As for the rest, to come to the conclusion - Of this true dream, the telescope is gone[hu] - Which kept my optics free from all delusion, - And showed me what I in my turn have shown; - All I saw farther, in the last confusion, - Was, that King George slipped into Heaven for one; - And when the tumult dwindled to a calm, - I left him practising the hundredth psalm.[567] - - R^a^ Oct. 4, 1821. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[492] {481}["Aye, he and the count's footman were jabbering French like -two intriguing ducks in a mill-pond; and I believe they talked of me, -for they laughed consumedly."--Farquhar, _The Beaux' Stratagem_, act -iii. sc. 2.] - -[493] {482}[These were not the expressions employed by Lord Eldon. The -Chancellor laid down the principle that "damages cannot be recovered for -a work which is in its nature calculated to do an injury to the public," -and assuming _Wat Tyler_ to be of this description, he refused the -injunction until Southey should have established his right to the -property by an action. _Wat Tyler_ was written at the age of nineteen, -when Southey was a republican, and was entrusted to two booksellers, -Messrs. Ridgeway and Symonds, who agreed to publish it, but never put it -to press. The MS. was not returned to the author, and in February, 1817, -at the interval of twenty-two years, when his sentiments were widely -different, it was printed, to his great annoyance, by W. Benbow (see his -_Scourge for the Laureate_ (1825), p. 14), Sherwood, Neely and Jones, -John Fairburn, and others. It was reported that 60,000 copies were sold -(see _Life and Correspondence of R. Southey_, 1850, iv. 237, 241, 249, -252).] - -[494] [William Smith, M.P. for Norwich, attacked Southey in the House of -Commons on the 14th of March, 1817, and the Laureate replied by a letter -in the _Courier_, dated March 17, 1817, and by a letter "To William -Smith, Esq., M.P." (see _Essays Moral and Political_, by R. Southey, -1832, ii. 7-31). The exact words used were, "the determined malignity of -a renegade" (see Hansard's _Parl. Debates_, xxxv. 1088).] - -[495] [One of Southey's juvenile poems is an "Inscription for the -Apartment in Chepstow Castle, where Henry Martin, the Regicide, was -imprisoned thirty years" (see Southey's _Poems_, 1797, p. 59). Canning -parodied it in the _Anti-jacobin_ (see his well-known "Inscription for -the Door of the Cell in Newgate, where Mrs. Brownrigg, the -'Prentice-cide, was confined, previous to her Execution," _Poetry of the -Anti-jacobin_, 1828, p. 6).] - -[496] {484}[See "_The Vision, etc._, made English by Sir R. Lestrange, -and burlesqued by a Person of Quality:" _Visions, being a Satire on the -corruptions and vices of all degrees of Mankind_. Translated from the -original Spanish by Mr. Nunez, London, 1745, etc. - -The Suenos or Visions of Francisco Gomez de Quevedo of Villegas are six -in number. They were published separately in 1635. For an account of the -"_Visita de los Chistes_," "A Visit in Jest to the Empire of Death," and -for a translation of part of the "Dream of Skulls," or "Dream of the -Judgment," see _History of Spanish Literature_, by George Ticknor, 1888, -ii. 339-344.] - -[497] - - ["Milton's strong pinion now not Heav'n can bound, - Now Serpent-like, in prose he sweeps the ground, - In Quibbles, Angel and Archangel join, - And God the Father turns a School-divine." - - Pope's _Imitations of Horace_, Book ii. Ep. i. lines 99-102.] - -[498] [Walter Savage Landor (1775-1864) had recently published a volume -of Latin poems (_Idyllia Heroica Decem. Librum Phaleuciorum Unum_. -Partim jam primum Partim iterum atque tertio edit Savagius Landor. -Accedit Quaestiuncula cur Poetae Latini Recentiores minus leguntur, Pisis, -1820, 410). In his Preface to the _Vision of Judgement_, Southey -illustrates his denunciation of "Men of diseased hearts," etc. (_vide -ante_, p. 476), by a quotation from the Latin essay: "Summi poetae in -omni poetarum saeculo viri fuerunt probi: in nostris id vidimus et -videmus; neque alius est error a veritate longius quam magna ingenia -magnis necessario corrumpi vitiis," etc. (_Idyllia_, p. 197). It was a -cardinal maxim of the Lake School "that there can be no great poet who -is not a good man.... His heart must be pure" (see Table Talk, by S. T. -Coleridge, August 20, 1833); and Landor's testimony was welcome and -consolatory. "Of its author," he adds, "I will only say in this place, -that, to have obtained his approbation as a poet, and possessed his -friendship as a man, will be remembered among the honours of my life." -Now, apart from the essay and its evident application, Byron had -probably observed that among the _Phaleucia_, or Hendecasyllables, were -included some exquisite lines _Ad Sutheium_ (on the death of Herbert -Southey), followed by some extremely unpleasant ones on _Taunto_ and his -tongue, and would naturally conclude that "Savagius" was ready to do -battle for the Laureate if occasion arose. Hence the side issue. With -regard to the "Ithyphallics," there are portions of the Latin poems -(afterwards expunged, see _Poemata et Inscriptiones_, Moxon, 1847) -included in the Pisa volume which might warrant the description; but -from a note to _The Island_ (Canto II. stanza xvii. line 10) it may be -inferred that some earlier collection of Latin verses had come under -Byron's notice. For Landor's various estimates of Byron's works and -genius, see _Works_, 1876, iv. 44-46, 88, 89, etc.] - -[499] {485}[The words enclosed in brackets were expunged in later -editions.] - -[500] {487}[Ra[venna] May 7^th^, 1821.] - -[fz] {487}_Or break a runaway_--[MS., alternative reading.] - -[ga] _Finding their patients past all care and cure._--[MS. erased.] - -[gb] {488} - - _To turn him here and there for some resource_ - {_And found no better counsel from his peers_, - {_And claimed the help of his celestial peers_.--[MS. erased.] - -[gc] _By the immense extent of his remarks_.--[MS. erased.] - -[gd] _The page was so splashed o'er_----.--[MS. erased.] - -[ge] _Though he himself had helped the Conqueror's sword_.--[MS. -erased.] - -[gf] {489}_'Tis that he has that Conqueror in reversion_.--[MS. erased.] - -[501] [Napoleon died May 5, 1821, two days before Byron began his -_Vision of Judgment_, but, of course, the news did not reach Europe till -long afterwards.] - -[gg] _They will be crushed yet_----.--[MS. erased.] - -[gh] _Not so gigantic in the head as horn_.--[MS. erased.] - -[502] [George III. died the 29th of January, 1820. "The year 1820 was an -era signalized ... by the many efforts of the revolutionary spirit which -at that time broke forth, like ill-suppressed fire, throughout the -greater part of the South of Europe. In Italy Naples had already raised -the constitutional standard.... Throughout Romagna, secret societies, -under the name of Carbonari, had been organized."--_Life_. p. 467.] - -[gi] _Who fought for tyranny until withdrawn_.--[MS. erased.] - -[503] -["Thus as I stood, the bell, which awhile from its warning had rested, -Sent forth its note again, Toll! Toll! through the silence of evening.... -Thou art released! I cried: thy soul is delivered from bondage! -Thou who hast lain so long in mental and visual darkness, -Thou art in yonder Heaven! thy place is in light and glory." - - _A Vision of Judgement_, by R. Southey, i.] - -[gj] _A better country squire----.--[MS. erased.]_ - -[gk] {490} - - _He died and left his kingdom still behind_ - _Not much less mad--and certainly as blind_.--[MS. erased.] - -[504] [At the time of the king's death Byron expressed himself somewhat -differently. "I see," he says (Letter to Murray, February 21, 1820), -"the good old King is gone to his place; one can't help being sorry, -though blindness, and age, and insanity are supposed to be drawbacks on -human felicity."] - -[505] ["The display was most magnificent; the powerful light which threw -all below into strong relief, reached but high enough to touch the -pendent helmets and banners into faint colouring, and the roof was a -vision of tarnished gleams and tissues among the Gothic tracery. The -vault was still open, and the Royal coffin lay below, with the crowns of -England and Hanover on cushions of purple and the broken wand crossing -it. At the altar four Royal banners covered with golden emblems were -strewed upon the ground, as if their office was completed; the altar was -piled with consecrated gold plate, and the whole aspect of the Chapel -was the deepest and most magnificent display of melancholy -grandeur."-From a description of the funeral of George the Third (signed -J. T.), in the _European Magazine_, February, 1820, vol. 77, p. 123.] - -[506] - - ["So by the unseen comforted, raised I my head in obedience, - And in a vault I found myself placed, arched over on all sides - Narrow and low was that house of the dead. Around it were coffins, - Each in its niche, and pails, and urns, and funeral hatchments, - Velvets of Tyrian dye, retaining their hues unfaded; - Blazonry vivid still, as if fresh from the touch of the limner; - Nor was the golden fringe, nor the golden broidery, tarnished." - - _A Vision, etc._, ii. - -"On Thursday night, the 3rd inst. [February, 1820], the body being -wrapped in an exterior fold of white satin, was placed in the inside -coffin, which was composed of mahogany, pillowed and ornamented in the -customary manner with white satin.... This was enclosed in a leaden -coffin, again enclosed in another mahogany coffin, and the whole finally -placed in the state coffin of Spanish mahogany, covered with the richest -Genoa velvet of royal purple, a few shades deeper in tint than Garter -blue. The lid was divided into three compartments by double rows of -silver-gilt nails, and in the compartment at the head, over a rich star -of the Order of the Garter was placed the Royal Arms of England, -beautifully executed in dead Gold.... In the lower compartment at the -feet was the British Lion _Rampant, regardant_, supporting a shield with -the letters G. R. surrounded with the garter and motto of the same order -in dead gold.... The handles were of silver, richly gilt of a massive -modern pattern, and the most exquisite workmanship."--Ibid., p. 126.] - -[507] {491}["The body of his Majesty was not embalmed in the usual -manner, but has been wrapped in cere-clothes, to preserve it as long as -possible.... The corpse, indeed, exhibited a painful spectacle of the -rapid decay which had recently taken place in his Majesty's -constitution, ... and hence, possibly, the surgeons deemed it impossible -to perform the process of embalming in the usual way."--Ibid., p. 126.] - -[508] [The fact that George II. pocketed, and never afterwards produced -or attempted to carry out his father's will, may have suggested to the -scandalous the possibility of a similar act on the part of his -great-grandson.] - -[gl] {492} - - / _vices_ \ -_In whom his_ < > _all are reigning still_.--[MS. erased.] - \ _virtues_ / - -[509] [Lady Byron's account of her husband's theological opinions is at -variance with this statement. (See _Diary_ of H. C. Robinson, 1869, iii. -436.)] - -[gm] {493} - - _But he with first a start and then a nod_.--[MS.] - _Snored, "There is some new star gone out by G--d!"-_-[MS. erased.] - -[510] {493}[Louis the Sixteenth was guillotined January 21, 1793.] - -[gn] {494}_That fellow Paul the damndest Saint_.--[MS. erased.] - -[511] ["The blessed apostle Bartholomew preached first in Lycaonia, and, -at the last, in Athens ... and there he was first flayed, and afterwards -his head was smitten off."--_Golden Legend_, edited by F. S. Ellis, -1900, v. 41.] - -[512] {495} - "Then I beheld the King. From a cloud which covered the pavement - His reverend form uprose: heavenward his face was directed. - Heavenward his eyes were raised, and heavenward his arms were directed." - - _The Vision, etc._, iii. - -[513] [The reading of the MS. and of the _Liberal_ is "pottered." The -editions of 1831, 1832, 1837, etc., read "pattered."] - -[go] ----_his whole celestial skin_.--[MS. erased.] - -[gp] _Or some such other superhuman ichor_.--[MS. erased.] - -[gq] {496}_By Captain Parry's crews_----.--[_The Liberal_, 1822, i. 12.] - -[514] ["The luminous arch had broken into irregular masses, streaming -with much rapidity in different directions, varying continually, in -shape and interest, and extending themselves from north, by the east, to -north. The usual pale light of the aurora strongly resembled that -produced by the combustion of phosphorus; a very slight tinge of red was -noticed when the aurora was most vivid, but no other colours were -visible."--_Sir E. Parry's Voyage in_ 1819-20, p. 135.] - -[515] [Compare "Methought I saw a fair youth borne with prodigious speed -through the heavens, who gave a blast to his trumpet so violent, that -the radiant beauty of his countenance was in part disfigured by -it."--Translation of Quevedo's "Dream of Skulls," by G. Ticknor, -_History of Spanish Literature_, 1888, ii. 340.] - -[516] {497}[Joanna Southcott, born 1750, published her _Book of -Wonders_, 1813-14, died December 27, 1814.] - -[517] - - ["Eminent on a hill, there stood the Celestial City; - Beaming afar it shone; its towers and cupolas rising - High in the air serene, with the brightness of gold in the furnace, - Where on their breadth the splendour lay intense and quiescent. - Part with a fierier glow, and a short thick tremulous motion - Like the burning pyropus; and turrets and pinnacles sparkled, - Playing in jets of light, with a diamond-like glory coruscant." - - _The Vision, etc.,_ iv.] - -[518] {498}[See _The Book of Job_ literally translated from the original -Hebrew, by John Mason Good, F.R.S. (1764-1827), London, 1812. In the -"Introductory Dissertation," the author upholds the biographical and -historical character of the Book of Job against the contentions of -Professor Michaelis (Johann David, 1717-1791). The notes abound in -citations from the Hebrew and from the Arabic version.] - -[519] {499}["The gates or gateways of Eastern cities" were used as -"places for public deliberation, administration of justice, or audience -for kings and nations, or ambassadors." See _Deut_. xvi. 18. "Judges and -officers shall thou make thee in all thy gates ... and they shall judge -the people with just judgment." Hence came the use of the word "Porte" -in speaking of the Government of Constantinople.--Smith's _Diet, of the -Bible_, art. "Gate."] - -[gr] _Crossing his radiant arms_----.--[MS. erased.] - -[gs] _But kindly; Sathan met_----.--[MS. erased.] - -[520] ["No saint in the course of his religious warfare was more -sensible of the unhappy failure of pious resolves than Dr. Johnson; he -said one day, talking to an acquaintance on this subject, 'Sir, hell is -paved with good intentions.'" Compare "Hell is full of good meanings and -wishes." _Jacula Prudentum,_ by George Herbert, ed. 1651, p. 11; -Boswell's _Life of Johnson,_ 1876, p. 450, note 5.] - -[521] {501}[Compare-- - - "Not once or twice in our rough Island's story - The path of duty has become the path of glory." - - Tennyson's _Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington._] - -[522] [John Stuart, Earl of Bute (1713-1792), was Secretary of State -March 25, 1761, and Prime Minister May 29, 1762-April, 1763. For the -general estimate of the influence which Bute exercised on the young -king, see a caricature entitled "The Royal Dupe" (Wright, p. 285), -_Dict. of Nat. Biog._, art. "George III."] - -[gt] {502}_With blood and debt_----.--[MS.] - -[gu] _A_ part _of that which they held all of old_.--[MS. erased] - -[523] {503}[George III. resisted Catholic Emancipation in 1795. "The -more I reflect on the subject, the more I feel the danger of the -proposal."--Letter to Pitt, February 6, 1795. Again, February 1, 1801, -"This principle of duty must therefore prevent me from discussing any -proposition [to admit 'Catholics and Dissenters to offices, and -Catholics to Parliament'] tending to destroy the groundwork [that all -who held employments in the State must be members of the Church of -England] of our happy constitution." Finally, in 1807, he demanded of -ministers "a positive assurance that they would never again propose to -him any concession to the Catholics."--See _Life of Pitt_, by Earl -Stanhope, 1879, ii. 434, 461; _Dict. of Nat. Biog._, art. "George III."] - -[gv] _Than see this blind old_----.--[MS. erased.] - -[gw] {504}_And interruption of your speech_.--[MS. erased.] - -[524] - - ["Which into hollow engines long and round, - Thick-rammed at th' other bore with touch of fire - Dilated and infuriate," etc. - - _Paradise Lost_, vi. 484, sq.] - -[525] [A gold key is part of the insignia of office of the Lord -Chamberlain and other court officials. In Plate 17 of Francis Sandford's -_History of the Coronation of James the Second_, 1687, Henry Mordaunt, -Earl of Peterborow, who carries the sceptre of King Edward, is -represented with a key hanging from his belt. He was First Groom of the -Stole and Gentleman of Bedchamber. The Queen's Vice-chamberlain, who -appears in another part of the procession, also carries a key.] - -[gx] _Stuck in their buttocks----.--[MS. erased._] - -[gy] {505}_For theirs are honours nobler far than these_.--[MS. erased.] - -[526] [It is possible that Byron was thinking of Horace Walpole's famous -quip, "The summer has set in with its usual _severity_." But, of course, -the meaning is that, owing to excessive and abnormal fogs, the _summer_ -gilding might have to be pretermitted.] - -[gz] _Before they make their journey, ere begin it_.--[MS. erased.] - -[527] [For the invention of the electric telegraph before the date of -this poem, see _Sir Francis Ronalds, F. R. S., and his Works in -connection with Electric Telegraphy in 1816_, by J. Sime, 1893. But the -"Telegraph" to which Byron refers was, probably, the semaphore (from -London to Portsmouth), which, according to [Sir] John Barrow, the -Secretary of the Admiralty, rendered "telegraphs of any kind now wholly -unnecessary" (_vide ibid._, p. 10).] - -[528] {506}[Compare, for similarity of sound-- - - "It plunged and tacked and veered." - - _Ancient Mariner_, pt. iii. line 156.] - -[ha] - - ----_No land was ever overflowed_ - _By locusts as the Heaven appeared by these_.--[MS. erased.] - -[hb] _And many-languaged cries were like wild geese_.--[Erased.] - -[529] [Compare-- - - "Wherefore with thee - Came not all Hell broke loose?" - - _Paradise Lost_, iv. 917, 918.] - -[hc] _Though the first Hackney will_----.--[MS.] - -[hd] {507}_Ready to swear the cause of all their pain_.--[Erased.] - -[530] [In the game of ombre the ace of spades, _spadille_, ranks as the -best trump card, and basto, the ace of clubs, ranks as the third best -trump card. (For a description of ombre, see Pope's _Rape of the Lock_, -in. 47-64.)] - -[531] {508}["'Caitiffs, are ye dumb?' cried the multifaced Demon in -anger." - - _Vision of Judgement_, v.] - -[532] - - ["Beholding the foremost, - Him by the cast of his eye oblique, I knew as the firebrand - Whom the unthinking populace held for their idol and hero, - Lord of Misrule in his day." - - _Ibid._, v. - -In Hogarth's caricature (the original pen-and-ink sketch is in the -"Rowfant Library:" see Cruikshank's frontispiece to _Catalogue_, 1886) -Wilkes squints more than "a gentleman should squint." The costume--long -coat, waistcoat buttoned to the neck, knee-breeches, and stockings--is -not unpleasing, but the expression of the face is something between a -leer and a sneer. Walpole (_Letters_, 1858, vii. 274) describes another -portrait (by Zoffani) as "a delightful piece of Wilkes looking--no, -squinting tenderly at his daughter. It is a caricature of the Devil -acknowledging Miss Sin in Milton."] - -[533] {509}[For the "Coan" skirts of the First Empire, see the fashion -plates and Gillray's and Rowlandson's caricatures _passim_.] - -[he] _It shall be me they'll find the trustiest patriot_.--[MS. erased.] - -[hf] _Said Wilkes I've done as much before_.--[MS. erased.] - -[534] {510}[On his third return to Parliament for Middlesex, October 8, -1774, Wilkes took his seat (December 2) without opposition. In the -following February, and on subsequent occasions, he endeavoured to -induce the House to rescind the resolutions passed January 19, 1764, -under which he had been expelled from Parliament, and named as -blasphemous, obscene, etc. Finally, May, 1782, he obtained a substantial -majority on a division, and the obnoxious resolutions were ordered to be -expunged from the journals of the House.] - -[535] [Bute, as leader of the king's party, was an open enemy; Grafton, -a half-hearted friend. The duke (1736-1811) would have visited him in -the Tower (1763), "to hear from himself his own story and his defence;" -but rejected an appeal which Wilkes addressed to him (May 3) to become -surety for bail. He feared that such a step might "come under the -denomination of an insult on the Crown." A writ of _Habeas Corpus_ (see -line 8) was applied for by Lord Temple and others, and, May 6, Wilkes -was discharged by Lord Chief Justice Pratt, on the ground of privilege. -Three years later (November 1, 1766), on his return from Italy, Wilkes -sought to obtain Grafton's protection and interest; but the duke, though -he consulted Chatham, and laid Wilkes's letter before the King, decided -to "take no notice" of this second appeal. In his _Autobiography_ -Grafton is careful to define "the extent of his knowledge" of Mr. -Wilkes, and to explain that he was not "one of his intimates"--a -_caveat_ which warrants the statement of Junius that "as for Mr. Wilkes, -it is, perhaps, the greatest misfortune of his life, that you should -have so many compensations to make in the closet for your former -friendship with him. Your gracious Master understands your character; -and makes you a persecutor because you have been a friend" ("Letter -(xii.) to the Duke of Grafton," May 30, 1769).--_Memoirs of Augustus -Henry, Third Duke of Grafton_, by Sir W. Anson, Bart., D.C.L., 1898, pp. -190-197.] - -[536] {511}[In 1774 Wilkes was elected Lord Mayor, and in the following -spring it fell to his lot to present to the King a remonstrance from the -Livery against the continuance of the war with America. Walpole (April -17, 1775, Letters, 1803, vi. 257) says that "he used his triumph with -moderation--in modern language with good breeding." The King is said to -have been agreeably surprised at his demeanour. In his old age (1790) he -voted against the Whigs. A pasquinade, written by Sheridan, Tickell, and -Lord John Townshend, anticipated the devil's insinuations-- - - "Johnny Wilkes, Johnny Wilkes, - Thou greatest of bilks, - How changed are the notes you now sing! - Your famed 'Forty-five' - Is prerogative, - And your blasphemy 'God save the King'! - Johnny Wilkes, - And your blasphemy, 'God save the King '!" - - _Wilkes, Sheridan, Fox_, by W. F. Rae, 1874, pp. 132, 133.] - -[hg] _Where Beelzebub upon duty_----.--[MS. erased.] - -[537] ["In consequence of Kyd Wake's attack upon the King, two Acts were -introduced [the "Treason" and "Sedition Bills," November 6, November 10, -1795], called the Pitt and Grenville Acts, for better securing the -King's person "(_Diary of H. C. Robinson_, 1869, i. 32). "'The first of -these bills [_The Plot Discovered, etc._, by S. T. Coleridge, November -28, 1795, _Essays on his own Times_, 1850, i. 56] is an attempt to -assassinate the liberty of the press; the second to smother the liberty -of speech." The "Devil" feared that Wilkes had been "gagged" for good -and all. - -[538] {512} - - ["Who might the other be, his comrade in guilt and in suffering, - Brought to the proof like him, and shrinking like him from the trial? - Nameless the Libeller lived, and shot his arrows in darkness; - Undetected he passed to the grave, and leaving behind him - Noxious works on earth, and the pest of an evil example, - Went to the world beyond, where no offences are hidden. - Masked had he been in his life, and now a visor of iron, - Rivetted round his head, had abolished his features for ever. - Speechless the slanderer stood, and turned his face from the Monarch, - Iron-bound as it was ... so insupportably dreadful - Soon or late to conscious guilt is the eye of the injured." - - _Vision of Judgement_, v. i] - -[hh] _Or in the human cholic_----.--[MS. erased.] - -[hi] _Which looked as 'twere a phantom even on earth_.--[MS. erased.] - -[hj] _Now it seemed little, now a little bigger_.--[MS. erased.] - -[539] {513}[The Letters of Junius have been attributed to more than -fifty authors. Among the more famous are the Duke of Portland, Lord -George Sackville, Sir Philip Francis, Edmund Burke, John Dunning, Lord -Ashburton, John Home Tooke, Hugh Boyd, George Chalmers, etc. Of Junius, -Byron wrote, in his _Journal_ of November 23, 1813, "I don't know what -to think. Why should Junius be yet dead?.... the man must be alive, and -will never die without the disclosure" (_Letters_, 1893, ii. 334); but -an article (by Brougham) in the _Edinburgh Review_, vol. xxix. p. 94, on -_The Identity of Junius with a Distinguished Living Character -established_ (see _Letters_, 1900, iv. 210), seems to have almost -persuaded him that "Francis is Junius." (For a _resume_ of the arguments -in favour of the identity of Junius with Francis, see Mr. Leslie -Stephen's article in the _Dict. of Nat. Biography_, art. "Francis." See, -too, _History of England in the Eighteenth Century_, by W. E. H. Lecky, -1887, iii. 233-255. For a series of articles (by W. Fraser Rae) against -this theory, see _Athenaeum_, 1888, ii. 192, 258, 319. The question is -still being debated. See _The Francis Letters_, with a note on the -Junius Controversy, by C. F. Keary, 1901.)] - -[hk] _A doctor, a man-midwife_----.--[MS. erased.] - -[hl] {514}_Till curiosity became a task_.--[MS. erased.] - -[540] [The "Man in the Iron Mask," or, more correctly, the "Man in the -Black Velvet Mask," has been identified with Count Ercole Antonio -Mattioli, Secretary of State at the Court of Ferdinando Carlo Gonzaga, -Duke of Mantua. Mattioli was convicted of high treason, and at the -instance of Louis XIV. was seized by the Marechal Catinat, May 2, 1679, -and confined at Pinerolo. He was deported to the Iles Sainte-Marguerite, -March 19, 1694, and afterwards transferred to the Bastille, September -18, 1698. He died November 19, 1703. Baron Heiss was the first to solve -the mystery. Chambrier, Roux-Fazillac, Delort, G. A. Ellis (see a notice -in the _Quart. Rev_., June, 1826, vol. xxxiv. p. 19), and others take -the same view. (See, for confirmation of this theory, an article -_L'Homme au Masque de Velours Noir_, in the _Revue Historique_, by M. -Frantz Funck-Brentano, November, December, 1894, tom. 56, pp. 253-303.)] - -[541] [See _The Rivals_, act iv. sc. II] - -[hm] _It is that he_----.--[MS. erased.] - -[542] {515}[The Delta of the Niger is a vast alluvial morass, covered -with dense forests of mangrove. "Along the whole coast ... there opens -into the Atlantic its successive estuaries, which navigators have -scarcely been able to number."] - -[543] [The title-page runs thus: "_Letters of Junius, Stat Nominis -Umbra_." _That_, and nothing more! On the title-page of his copy, across -the motto, S. T. Coleridge wrote this sentence, "As he never dropped the -mask, so he too often used the poisoned dagger of the -assassin."--_Miscellanies_, etc., by S. T. Coleridge, ed. T. Asle, 1885, -p. 341.] - -[hn] - - _My charge is upon record and will last_ - _Longer than will his lamentation_.--[MS. erased.] - -[544] {516}[John Horne Tooke (1736-1812), as an opponent of the American -War, and as a promoter of the Corresponding Society, etc.; and Benjamin -Franklin (1706-1790), as the champion of American Independence, would -have been cited as witnesses against George III.] - -[545] [In the _Diable Boiteux_ (1707) of Le Sage, Don Cleofas, clinging -to the cloak of Asmodeus, is carried through the air to the summit of -San Salvador. Compare-- - - "Oh! could Le Sage's demon's gift - Be realiz'd at my desire, - This night my trembling form he'd lift, - To place it on St. Mary's spire." - - _Granta, a Medley_, stanza 1., _Poetical Works_, 1898, i. 56, note 2.] - -[546] ["But what he most detested, what most filled him with disgust, -was the settled, determined malignity of a renegado."--_Speech of -William Smith, M.P., in the House of Commons_, March 14, 1817. (See, -too, for the use of the word "renegado," _Poetical Works_, 1900, iii. -488, note i.)] - -[547] [For the "weight" of Southey's quartos, compare Byron's note (1) -to _Hints from Horace_, line 657, and a variant of lines 753-756. "Thus -let thy ponderous quarto steep and stink" (_Poetical Works_, 1898, i. -435, 443).] - -[ho] {517}_And drawing nigh I caught him at a libel_.--[MS. erased.] - -[548] [Compare-- - - "But for the children of the 'Mighty Mother's,' - The would-be wits, and can't-be gentlemen, - I leave them to their daily 'tea is ready,' - Smug coterie, and literary lady." - - _Beppo_, stanza lxxvi. lines 5-8, _vide ante_, p. 183.] - -[hp] - - _And scrawls as though he were head clerk to the "Fates,"_ - _And this I think is quite enough for one_.--[Erased.] - -[549] {518}[Compare-- - - "One leaf from Southey's laurels may explode - All his combustibles, - 'An ass, by God!'" - - _A Satire on Satirists, etc._, by W. S. Landor, 1836, p. 22.] - -[550] ["There is a chaunt in the recitation both of Coleridge and -Wordsworth, which acts as a spell upon the hearers."--Hazlitt's _My -First Acquaintance with Poets_; _The Liberal_, 1823, ii. 23, 46.] - -[551] [Compare the attitude of Minos to the "poet" in Fielding's -_Journey from This World to the Next_: "The poet answered, he believed -if Minos had read his works he would set a higher value on them. [The -poet had begged for admittance to Elysium on the score of his 'dramatic -works.' Minos dismissed the plea, but relented on being informed that he -had once lent the whole profits of a benefit-night to a friend.] He was -then beginning to repeat, but Minos pushed him forward, and turning his -back to him, applied himself to the next passengers."--_Novelist's -Magazine_, 1783, vol. xii. cap. vii. p. 17.] - -[552] - - [" ... Mediocribus esse poetis - Non homines, non di, non concessere columnae." - - Horace, _Ars Poetica_, lines 372, 373.] - -[553] {519}[For the King's habit of duplicating his phrases, compare-- - - "Whitbread, is't true? I hear, I hear - You're of an ancient family renowned. - What? what? I'm told that you're a limb - Of Pym, the famous fellow Pym: - What, Whitbread, is it true what people say? - Son of a Roundhead are you? hae? hae? hae? - * * * * * - Thirtieth of January don't you _feed_? - Yes, yes, you eat Calf's head, you eat Calf's head." - - _Instructions to a Celebrated Laureat_, Peter Pindar's - _Works_, 1812, i. 493.] - -[554] [For Henry James Pye (1745-1813), see _English Bards, etc._, line -102, _Poetical Works_, 1898, i. 305, note 1.] - -[hq] {520} ----_an ill-looking knave_.--[MS. erased.] - -[555] ["Yesterday, at Holland House, I was introduced to Southey--the -best-looking bard I have seen for some time. To have that poet's head -and shoulders, I would almost have written his Sapphics. He is certainly -a prepossessing person to look on, and a man of talent, and all that, -and--_there_ is his eulogy."--Letter to Moore, September 27, 1813, -_Letters_, 1898, ii. 266. - -"I have not seen the _Liberal_," wrote Southey to Wynn, October 26, -1822, "but a Leeds paper has been sent me ... including among its -extracts the description and behaviour of a certain 'varlet.' He has not -offended me in the way that the pious painter exasperated the Devil" -(i.e. by painting him "more ugly than ever:" see Southey's Ballad of the -_Pious Painter_, _Works_, 1838, vi. 64).] - -[hr] {521}_He therefore was content to cite a few_.--[MS. erased.] - -[556] [Southey's "Battle of Blenheim" was published in the _Annual -Anthology_ of 1800, pp. 34-37. It is quoted at length, as a republican -and seditious poem, in the _Preface_ to an edition of _Wat Tyler_, -published by W. Hone in 1817; and it is also included in an "Appendix" -entitled _The Stripling Bard, or the Apostate Laureate_, affixed to -another edition issued in the same year by John Fairburn. The purport -and _motif_ of these excellent rhymes is non-patriotic if not -Jacobinical, but, for some reason, the poem has been considered -improving for the young, and is included in many "Poetry Books" for -schools. _The Poet's Pilgrimage to Waterloo_ was published in 1816, not -long before the resuscitation of _Wat Tyler_.] - -[557] [_Vide ante_, p. 482.] - -[558] ["He has written _Wat Tyler_, and taken the office of poet -laureate--he has, in the _Life of Henry Kirke White_ (see Byron's note -_infra_), denominated reviewing 'the ungentle craft,' and has become a -reviewer--he was one of the projectors of a scheme called -'pantisocracy,' for having all things, including women, in common -(_query_ common women?)."--_Some Observations upon an Article in -Blackwood's Magazine_ (No. xxix., August, 1819), _Letters_, 1900 -[Appendix IX.], iv. 483. The invention or, possibly, disinterment of -this calumny was no doubt a counterblast on Byron's part to the supposed -charge of a "league of incest" (at Diodati, in 1816), which he -maintained had been disseminated by Coleridge on the authority of -Southey (_vide ante_, p. 475). It is, perhaps, unnecessary to state that -before Pantisocracy was imagined or devised, one of the future -pantisocrats, Robert Lovell, was married to Mary Fricker; that Robert -Southey was engaged to be married to her sister Edith; and that, as a -result of the birth and evolution of the scheme, Coleridge became -engaged to be married to a third sister, Sarah, hitherto loverless, in -order that "every Jack should have his Jill," and the world begin anew -in a second Eden across the seas. All things were to be held in common, -in order that each man might hold his wife in particular.] - -[559] {522}_Remains of Henry Kirke White_ [1808, i. 23] - -[560] [Southey's _Life of Wesley, and Rise and Progress of Methodism_, -in two volumes octavo, was published in 1820. In a "Memento" written in -a blank leaf of the first volume, Coleridge expressed his desire that -his copy should be given to Southey as a bequest. "One or other volume," -he writes, "was more often in my hands than any other in my ragged -book-regiment ... How many an hour of self-oblivion do I owe to this -Life of Wesley!"--Third ed. 1846, i. xv.] - -[561] [In his reply to the Preface to Southey's _Vision of Judgement_, -Byron attacked the Laureate as "this arrogant scribbler of all works."] - -[hs] _Is not unlike it, and is_----.--[MS.] - -[562] {523}King Alfonso, speaking of the Ptolomean system, said, that -"had he been consulted at the creation of the world, he would have -spared the Maker some absurdities. [Alphonso X., King of Castile -(1221-1284), surnamed the Wise and the Astronomer, "gave no small -encouragement to the Jewish rabbis." Under his patronage Judah de Toledo -translated the works of Avicenna, and improved them by a new division of -the stars. Moreover, "he sent for about 50 learned men from Gascony, -Paris, and other places, to translate the tables of Ptolemy, and to -compile a more correct set of them (i.e. the famous _Tabulae Alphonsinae_) -... The king himself presided over the assembly."--_Mod. Univ. Hist._, -xiii. 304, 305, note(U). - -Alfonso has left behind him the reputation of a Castilian -Hamlet--"infinite in faculty," but "unpregnant of his cause." "He was -more fit," says Mariana (_Hist._, lib. xiii. c. 20), "for letters than -for the government of his subjects; he studied the heavens and watched -the stars, but forgot the earth and lost his kingdom." Nevertheless his -works do follow him. "He is to be remembered for his poetry -(_'Cantigas'_, chants in honour of the Virgin, and _'Tesoro'_ a treatise -on the philosopher's stone), for his astronomical tables, which all the -progress of science have not deprived of their value, and for his great -work on legislation, which is at this moment an authority in both -hemispheres."--_Hist. of Spanish Literature_, by G. Ticknor, 1888, i. 7. - -Byron got the quip about Alfonso and "the absurdities of creation" from -Bayle (_Dict_., 1735, art. "Castile"), who devotes a long note (H) to a -somewhat mischievous apology for the king's apparent profanity. Bayle's -immediate authority is Le Bovier de Fontenelle, in his _Entretiens sur -la Pluralite des Mondes_, 1686, p. 38, "L'embaras de tous ces cercles -estoit si grand, que dans un temps ou l'on ne connoissoit encore rien de -meilleur, un roy d'Aragon (_sic_) grand mathematicien mais apparemment -peu devot, disoit que si Dieu l'eust appelle a son conseil quand il fit -le Monde, il luy eust donne de bons avis."] - -[563] {524}[See Aubrey's account (_Miscellanies upon Various Subjects_, -by John Aubrey, F.R.S., 1857, p. 81) of the apparition which disappeared -"with a curious perfume, and _most melodious twang_;" or see Scott's -_Antiquary, The Novels, etc_., 1851, i. 375.] - -[564] - - ["When I beheld them meet, the desire of my soul o'ercame me, - ----I, too, pressed forward to enter-- - But the weight of the body withheld me.--I stooped to the fountain. - - * * * * * - - And my feet methought sunk, and I fell precipitate. Starting, - Then I awoke, and beheld the mountains in twilight before me, - Dark and distinct; and instead of the rapturous sound of hosannahs, - Heard the bell from the tower, Toll! Toll! through the - silence of evening." - - _Vision of Judgement_, xii.] - -[565] {525}A drowned body lies at the bottom till rotten; it then -floats, as most people know. [Byron may, possibly, have heard of the -"Floating Island" on Derwentwater.] - -[ht] _In his own little nook_----.--[MS.] - -[566] - - ["Verily, you brache! - The devil turned precisian." - - Massinger's _A New Way to Pay Old Debts_, act i. sc. 1] - -[hu] ----_the light is now withdrawn_.--[MS.] - -[567] ["Mem. This poem was begun on May 7, 1821, but left off the same -day--resumed about the 20th of September of the same year, and concluded -as dated."] - - - - - - - POEMS 1816-1823. - - - - - POEMS 1816-1823 - - - A VERY MOURNFUL BALLAD[568] ON THE SIEGE AND CONQUEST OF ALHAMA.[569] - - -_Which, in the Arabic language, is to the following purport_[570] - - - 1. - - The Moorish King rides up and down. - Through Granada's royal town: - From Elvira's gates to those - Of Bivarambla on he goes. - Woe is me, Alhama![hv][571] - - 2. - - Letters to the Monarch tell - How Alhama's city fell: - In the fire the scroll he threw, - And the messenger he slew. - Woe is me, Alhama! - - 3. - - He quits his mule, and mounts his horse, - And through the street directs his course; - Through the street of Zacatin - To the Alhambra spurring in. - Woe is me, Alhama! - - 4. - - When the Alhambra walls he gained, - On the moment he ordained - That the trumpet straight should sound - With the silver clarion round. - Woe is me, Alhama! - - 5. - - And when the hollow drums of war - Beat the loud alarm afar, - That the Moors of town and plain - Might answer to the martial strain. - Woe is me, Alhama! - - 6. - - Then the Moors, by this aware, - That bloody Mars recalled them there, - One by one, and two by two, - To a mighty squadron grew. - Woe is me, Alhama! - - 7. - - Out then spake an aged Moor - In these words the king before, - "Wherefore call on us, oh King? - What may mean this gathering?" - Woe is me, Alhama! - - 8. - - "Friends! ye have, alas! to know - Of a most disastrous blow-- - That the Christians, stern and bold, - Have obtained Alhama's hold." - Woe is me, Alhama! - - 9. - - Out then spake old Alfaqui,[572] - With his beard so white to see, - "Good King! thou art justly served, - Good King! this thou hast deserved. - Woe is me, Alhama! - - 10. - - "By thee were slain, in evil hour, - The Abencerrage, Granada's flower; - And strangers were received by thee, - Of Cordova the Chivalry. - Woe is me, Alhama! - - 11. - - "And for this, oh King! is sent - On thee a double chastisement; - Thee and thine, thy crown and realm, - One last wreck shall overwhelm. - Woe is me, Alhama! - - 12. - - "He who holds no laws in awe, - He must perish by the law; - And Granada must be won, - And thyself with her undone." - Woe is me, Alhama! - - 13. - - Fire flashed from out the old Moor's eyes, - The Monarch's wrath began to rise, - Because he answered, and because - He spake exceeding well of laws.[573] - Woe is me, Alhama! - - 14. - - "There is no law to say such things - As may disgust the ear of kings:"-- - Thus, snorting with his choler, said - The Moorish King, and doomed him dead. - Woe is me, Alhama! - - 15. - - Moor Alfaqui! Moor Alfaqui![574] - Though thy beard so hoary be,[hw] - The King hath sent to have thee seized, - For Alhama's loss displeased. - Woe is me, Alhama! - - 16. - - And to fix thy head upon - High Alhambra's loftiest stone; - That this for thee should be the law, - And others tremble when they saw. - Woe is me, Alhama! - - 17. - - "Cavalier, and man of worth! - Let these words of mine go forth; - Let the Moorish Monarch know, - That to him I nothing owe. - Woe is me, Alhama! - - 18. - - "But on my soul Alhama weighs, - And on my inmost spirit preys; - And if the King his land hath lost, - Yet others may have lost the most. - Woe is me, Alhama! - - 19. - - "Sires have lost their children, wives - Their lords, and valiant men their lives! - One what best his love might claim - Hath lost, another wealth, or fame. - Woe is me, Alhama! - - 20. - - "I lost a damsel in that hour, - Of all the land the loveliest flower; - Doubloons a hundred I would pay, - And think her ransom cheap that day." - Woe is me, Alhama! - - 21. - - And as these things the old Moor said, - They severed from the trunk his head; - And to the Alhambra's wall with speed - 'Twas carried, as the King decreed. - Woe is me, Alhama! - - 22. - - And men and infants therein weep - Their loss, so heavy and so deep; - Granada's ladies, all she rears - Within her walls, burst into tears. - Woe is me, Alhama! - - 23. - - And from the windows o'er the walls - The sable web of mourning falls; - The King weeps as a woman o'er - His loss, for it is much and sore. - Woe is me, Alhama! - - [First published, _Childe Harold_, Canto IV., 1818.] - - - - - SONETTO DI VITTORELLI.[575] - - PER MONACA. - - Sonetto composto in nome di un genitore, a cui era motta poco - innanzi una figlia appena maritata: e diretto al genitore della - sacra sposa. - - Di due vaghe donzelle, oneste, accorte - Lieti e miseri padri il ciel ne feo, - Il ciel, die degne di piu nobil sorte - L' una e l' altra veggendo, ambe chiedeo. - - La mia fu tolta da veloce morte - A le fumanti tede d' Imeneo: - La tua, Francesco, in suggellate porte - Eterna prigioniera or si rendeo. - - Ma tu almeno potrai dalla gelosa - Irremeabil soglia, ove s' asconde, - La sua tenera udir voce pietosa. - - Io verso un flume d' amarissim' onde, - Corro a quel marmo, in cui la figlia or posa: - Batto, e ribatto, ma nessun risponde. - - [_Opere Edite e Postume_ di J. Vittorelli, Bassano, 1841, p. 294.] - - - - TRANSLATION FROM VITTORELLI. - - - ON A NUN. - - Sonnet composed in the name of a father, whose daughter had - recently died shortly after her marriage; and addressed to the - father of her who had lately taken the veil. - - Of two fair virgins, modest, though admired, - Heaven made us happy; and now, wretched sires, - Heaven for a nobler doom their worth desires, - And gazing upon _either, both_ required. - - Mine, while the torch of Hymen newly fired - Becomes extinguished,--soon--too soon expires; - But thine, within the closing grate retired, - Eternal captive, to her God aspires. - - But _thou_ at least from out the jealous door, - Which shuts between your never-meeting eyes, - May'st hear her sweet and pious voice once more: - - I to the marble, where _my_ daughter lies, - Rush,--the swoln flood of bitterness I pour, - And knock, and knock, and knock--but none replies. - - [First published, _Childe Harold_, Canto IV., 1818.] - - - - ON THE BUST OF HELEN BY CANOVA.[576] - - In this beloved marble view - Above the works and thoughts of Man, - What Nature _could_ but _would not_ do, - And Beauty and Canova _can!_ - Beyond Imagination's power, - Beyond the Bard's defeated art, - With Immortality her dower, - Behold the _Helen_ of the heart. - - _November_ 23, 1816. - [First published, _Letters and Journals_, 1830, ii. 61.] - - - - - VENICE. A FRAGMENT.[577] - - 'Tis midnight--but it is not dark - Within thy spacious place, St. Mark! - The Lights within, the Lamps without, - Shine above the revel rout. - The brazen Steeds are glittering o'er - The holy building's massy door, - Glittering with their collars of gold, - The goodly work of the days of old-- - And the winged Lion stern and solemn - Frowns from the height of his hoary column, - Facing the palace in which doth lodge - The ocean-city's dreaded Doge. - The palace is proud--but near it lies, - Divided by the "Bridge of Sighs," - The dreary dwelling where the State - Enchains the captives of their hate: - These--they perish or they pine; - But which their doom may none divine: - Many have passed that Arch of pain, - But none retraced their steps again. - - It is a princely colonnade! - And wrought around a princely place, - When that vast edifice displayed - Looks with its venerable face - Over the far and subject sea, - Which makes the fearless isles so free! - And 'tis a strange and noble pile, - Pillared into many an aisle: - Every pillar fair to see, - Marble--jasper--and porphyry-- - The Church of St. Mark--which stands hard by - With fretted pinnacles on high, - And Cupola and minaret; - More like the mosque of orient lands, - Than the fanes wherein we pray, - And Mary's blessed likeness stands.-- - - Venice, _December_ 6, 1816. - - - - - SO WE'LL GO NO MORE A-ROVING.[578] - - 1. - - So we'll go no more a-roving - So late into the night, - Though the heart be still as loving, - And the moon be still as bright. - - 2. - - For the sword outwears its sheath, - And the soul wears out the breast, - And the heart must pause to breathe, - And Love itself have rest. - - 3. - - Though the night was made for loving, - And the day returns too soon, - Yet we'll go no more a-roving - By the light of the moon. - - _Feb_. 28, 1817. - - [First published, _Letters and Journals_, 1830, ii. 79.] - - - - - [LORD BYRON'S VERSES ON SAM ROGERS.][579] - - - QUESTION. - - Nose and Chin that make a knocker,[hx] - Wrinkles that would puzzle Cocker; - Mouth that marks the envious Scorner, - With a Scorpion in each corner - Curling up his tail to sting you,[hy] - In the place that most may wring you; - Eyes of lead-like hue and gummy, - Carcase stolen from some mummy, - Bowels--(but they were forgotten, - Save the Liver, and that's rotten), 10 - Skin all sallow, flesh all sodden, - Form the Devil would frighten G--d in. - Is't a Corpse stuck up for show,[580] - Galvanized at times to go? - With the Scripture has't connection,[hz] - New proof of the Resurrection? - Vampire, Ghost, or Goul (_sic_), what is it? - I would walk ten miles to miss it. - - - - ANSWER. - - Many passengers arrest one, - To demand the same free question. 20 - Shorter's my reply and franker,-- - That's the Bard, and Beau, and Banker: - Yet, if you could bring about - Just to turn him inside out, - Satan's self would seem less sooty, - And his present aspect--Beauty. - Mark that (as he masks the bilious) - Air so softly supercilious, - Chastened bow, and mock humility, - Almost sickened to Servility: 30 - Hear his tone (which is to talking - That which creeping is to walking-- - Now on all fours, now on tiptoe): - Hear the tales he lends his lip to-- - Little hints of heavy scandals-- - Every friend by turns he handles: - All that women or that men do - Glides forth in an inuendo (_sic_)-- - Clothed in odds and ends of humour, - Herald of each paltry rumour-- 40 - From divorces down to dresses, - Woman's frailties, Man's excesses: - All that life presents of evil - Make for him a constant revel. - You're his foe--for that he fears you, - And in absence blasts and sears you: - You're his friend--for that he hates you, - First obliges, and then baits you, - Darting on the opportunity - When to do it with impunity: 50 - You are neither--then he'll flatter, - Till he finds some trait for satire; - Hunts your weak point out, then shows it, - Where it injures, to expose it - In the mode that's most insidious, - Adding every trait that's hideous-- - From the bile, whose blackening river - Rushes through his Stygian liver. - - Then he thinks himself a lover--[581] - Why? I really can't discover, 60 - In his mind, age, face, or figure; - Viper broth might give him vigour: - Let him keep the cauldron steady, - He the venom has already. - - For his faults--he has but _one_; - 'Tis but Envy, when all's done: - He but pays the pain he suffers, - Clipping, like a pair of Snuffers, - Light that ought to burn the brighter - For this temporary blighter. 70 - He's the Cancer of his Species, - And will eat himself to pieces,-- - Plague personified and Famine,-- - Devil, whose delight is damning.[582] - For his merits--don't you know 'em?[ia] - Once he wrote a pretty Poem. - - 1818. - - [First published, _Fraser's Magazine_, January, 1833, - vol. vii. pp. 88-84.] - - - - - THE DUEL.[583] - - 1. - - 'Tis fifty years, and yet their fray - To us might seem but yesterday. - Tis fifty years, and three to boot, - Since, hand to hand, and foot to foot, - And heart to heart, and sword to sword, - One of our Ancestors was gored. - I've seen the sword that slew him;[584] he, - The slain, stood in a like degree - To thee, as he, the Slayer, stood - (Oh had it been but other blood!) - In kin and Chieftainship to me. - Thus came the Heritage to thee. - - 2. - - To me the Lands of him who slew - Came through a line of yore renowned; - For I can boast a race as true - To Monarchs crowned, and some discrowned, - As ever Britain's Annals knew: - For the first Conqueror gave us Ground,[585] - And the last Conquered owned the line - Which was my mother's, and is mine. - - 3. - - I loved thee--I will not say _how_, - Since things like these are best forgot: - Perhaps thou may'st imagine now - Who loved thee, and who loved thee not. - And thou wert wedded to another,[586] - And I at last another wedded: - I am a father, thou a mother, - To Strangers vowed, with strangers bedded. - For land to land, even blood to blood-- - Since leagued of yore our fathers were-- - Our manors and our birthright stood; - And not unequal had I wooed, - If to have wooed thee I could dare. - But this I never dared--even yet - When naught is left but to forget. - I feel that I could only love: - To sue was never meant for me, - And least of all to sue to thee; - For many a bar, and many a feud, - Though never told, well understood - Rolled like a river wide between-- - And then there was the Curse of blood, - Which even my Heart's can not remove. - Alas! how many things have been! - Since we were friends; for I alone - Feel more for thee than can be shown. - - 4. - - How many things! I loved thee--thou - Loved'st me not: another was - The Idol of thy virgin vow, - And I was, what I am, Alas! - And what he is, and what thou art, - And what we were, is like the rest: - We must endure it as a test, - And old Ordeal of the Heart.[587] - - Venice, _Dec_. 29, 1818. - - - - - STANZAS TO THE PO.[588] - - 1. - - River, that rollest by the ancient walls, - Where dwells the Lady of my love, when she - Walks by thy brink, and there perchance recalls - A faint and fleeting memory of me: - - 2. - - What if thy deep and ample stream should be - A mirror of my heart, where she may read - The thousand thoughts I now betray to thee, - Wild as thy wave, and headlong as thy speed! - - 3. - - What do I say--a mirror of my heart? - Are not thy waters sweeping, dark, and strong? - Such as my feelings were and are, thou art; - And such as thou art were my passions long. - - 4. - - Time may have somewhat tamed them,--not for ever; - Thou overflow'st thy banks, and not for aye - Thy bosom overboils, congenial river! - Thy floods subside, and mine have sunk away: - - 5. - - But left long wrecks behind, and now again,[ib] - Borne in our old unchanged career, we move: - Thou tendest wildly onwards to the main, - And I--to loving _one_ I should not love. - - 6. - - The current I behold will sweep beneath - Her native walls, and murmur at her feet; - Her eyes will look on thee, when she shall breathe - The twilight air, unharmed by summer's heat. - - 7. - - She will look on thee,--I have looked on thee, - Full of that thought: and, from that moment, ne'er - Thy waters could I dream of, name, or see, - Without the inseparable sigh for her! - - 8. - - Her bright eyes will be imaged in thy stream,-- - Yes! they will meet the wave I gaze on now: - Mine cannot witness, even in a dream, - That happy wave repass me in its flow! - - 9. - - The wave that bears my tears returns no more: - Will she return by whom that wave shall sweep?-- - Both tread thy banks, both wander on thy shore, - I by thy source, she by the dark-blue deep.[ic] - - - 10. - - But that which keepeth us apart is not - Distance, nor depth of wave, nor space of earth, - But the distraction of a various lot, - As various as the climates of our birth. - - 11. - - A stranger loves the Lady of the land,[id] - Born far beyond the mountains, but his blood - Is all meridian, as if never fanned - By the black wind that chills the polar flood.[ie] - - 12. - - My blood is all meridian; were it not, - I had not left my clime, nor should I be,[if] - In spite of tortures, ne'er to be forgot, - A slave again of love,--at least of thee. - - 13. - - 'Tis vain to struggle--let me perish young-- - Live as I lived, and love as I have loved; - To dust if I return, from dust I sprung, - And then, at least, my heart can ne'er be moved. - - June, 1819. - - [First published, _Conversations of Lord Byron_, 1824, 4º, pp. 24-26.] - - - - - SONNET ON THE NUPTIALS OF THE MARQUIS ANTONIO CAVALLI - WITH THE COUNTESS CLELIA RASPONI OF RAVENNA.[589] - - A noble Lady of the Italian shore - Lovely and young, herself a happy bride, - Commands a verse, and will not be denied, - From me a wandering Englishman; I tore - One sonnet, but invoke the muse once more - To hail these gentle hearts which Love has tied, - In Youth, Birth, Beauty, genially allied - And blest with Virtue's soul, and Fortune's store. - A sweeter language, and a luckier bard - Were worthier of your hopes, Auspicious Pair! - And of the sanctity of Hymen's shrine, - But,--since I cannot but obey the Fair, - To render your new state your true reward, - May your Fate be like _Hers_, and unlike _mine._ - - Ravenna, July 31, 1819. - - [From an autograph MS. in the possession of the Lady Dorchester, now - for the first time printed.] - - - - - SONNET TO THE PRINCE REGENT.[ig] - ON THE REPEAL OF LORD EDWARD FITZGERALD'S FORFEITURE. - - To be the father of the fatherless, - To stretch the hand from the throne's height, and raise - _His_ offspring, who expired in other days - To make thy Sire's sway by a kingdom less,--[ih] - _This_ is to be a monarch, and repress - Envy into unutterable praise. - Dismiss thy guard, and trust thee to such traits, - For who would lift a hand, except to bless?[ii] - Were it not easy, Sir, and is't not sweet - To make thyself beloved? and to be - Omnipotent by Mercy's means? for thus - Thy Sovereignty would grow but more complete, - A despot thou, and yet thy people free,[ij] - And by the heart--not hand--enslaving us. - - Bologna, _August_ 12, 1819.[590] - - [First published, _Letters and Journals,_ ii. 234, 235.] - - - - - STANZAS.[591] - - - 1. - - Could Love for ever - Run like a river, - And Time's endeavour - Be tried in vain-- - No other pleasure - With this could measure; - And like a treasure[ik] - We'd hug the chain. - But since our sighing - Ends not in dying, - And, formed for flying, - Love plumes his wing; - Then for this reason - Let's love a season; - But let that season be only Spring. - - - 2. - - When lovers parted - Feel broken-hearted, - And, all hopes thwarted, - Expect to die; - A few years older, - Ah! how much colder - They might behold her - For whom they sigh! - When linked together, - In every weather,[il] - They pluck Love's feather - From out his wing-- - He'll stay for ever,[im] - But sadly shiver - Without his plumage, when past the Spring.[in] - - 3. - - Like Chiefs of Faction, - His life is action-- - A formal paction - That curbs his reign, - Obscures his glory, - Despot no more, he - Such territory - Quits with disdain. - Still, still advancing, - With banners glancing, - His power enhancing, - He must move on-- - Repose but cloys him, - Retreat destroys him, - Love brooks not a degraded throne. - - 4. - - Wait not, fond lover! - Till years are over, - And then recover - As from a dream. - While each bewailing - The other's failing. - With wrath and railing, - All hideous seem-- - While first decreasing, - Yet not quite ceasing, - Wait not till teasing, - All passion blight: - If once diminished - Love's reign is finished-- - Then part in friendship,--and bid good-night.[io] - - 5. - - So shall Affection - To recollection - The dear connection - Bring back with joy: - You had not waited[ip] - Till, tired or hated, - Your passions sated - Began to cloy. - Your last embraces - Leave no cold traces-- - The same fond faces - As through the past: - And eyes, the mirrors - Of your sweet errors, - Reflect but rapture--not least though last. - - - 6. - - True, separations[iq] - Ask more than patience; - What desperations - From such have risen! - But yet remaining, - What is't but chaining - Hearts which, once waning, - Beat 'gainst their prison? - Time can but cloy love, - And use destroy love: - The winged boy, Love, - Is but for boys-- - You'll find it torture - Though sharper, shorter, - To wean, and not wear out your joys. - - _December_ 1, 1819. - - [First published, _New Monthly Magazine_, 1832, - vol. xxxv. pp. 310-312.] - - - - - ODE TO A LADY WHOSE LOVER WAS KILLED BY A BALL, - WHICH AT THE SAME TIME SHIVERED A PORTRAIT NEXT HIS HEART. - - -Motto. - - _On peut trouver des femmes qui n'ont jamais eu de galanterie, mais - il est rare d'en trouver qui n'en aient jamais eu - qu'une_.--[_Reflexions_ ... du Duc de la Rochefoucauld, No. - lxxiii.] - - 1. - - Lady! in whose heroic port - And Beauty, Victor even of Time, - And haughty lineaments, appear - Much that is awful, more that's dear-- - Wherever human hearts resort - _There_ must have been for thee a Court, - And Thou by acclamation Queen, - Where never Sovereign yet had been. - That eye so soft, and yet severe, - Perchance might look on Love as Crime; - And yet--regarding thee more near-- - The traces of an unshed tear - Compressed back to the heart, - And mellowed Sadness in thine air, - Which shows that Love hath once been there, - To those who watch thee will disclose - More than ten thousand tomes of woes - Wrung from the vain Romancer's art. - With thee how proudly Love hath dwelt! - His full Divinity was felt, - Maddening the heart he could not melt, - Till Guilt became Sublime; - But never yet did Beauty's Zone - For him surround a lovelier throne, - Than in that bosom once his own: - And he the Sun and Thou the Clime - Together must have made a Heaven - For which the Future would be given. - - 2. - - And thou hast loved--Oh! not in vain! - And not as common Mortals love. - The Fruit of Fire is Ashes, - The Ocean's tempest dashes - Wrecks and the dead upon the rocky shore: - True Passion must the all-searching changes prove, - The Agony of Pleasure and of Pain, - Till Nothing but the Bitterness remain; - And the Heart's Spectre flitting through the brain - Scoffs at the Exorcism which would remove. - - 3. - - And where is He thou lovedst? in the tomb, - Where should the happy Lover be! - For him could Time unfold a brighter doom, - Or offer aught like thee? - He in the thickest battle died, - Where Death is Pride; - And _Thou_ his widow--not his bride, - Wer't not more free-- - _Here_ where all love, till Love is made - A bondage or a trade, - _Here_--thou so redolent of Beauty, - In whom Caprice had seemed a duty, - _Thou_, who could'st trample and despise - The holiest chain of human ties - For him, the dear One in thine eyes, - Broke it no more. - Thy heart was withered to it's Core, - It's hopes, it's fears, it's feelings o'er: - Thy Blood grew Ice when _his_ was shed, - And Thou the Vestal of the Dead. - - 4. - - Thy Lover died, as All - Who truly love should die; - For such are worthy in the fight to fall - Triumphantly. - No Cuirass o'er that glowing heart - The deadly bullet turned apart: - Love had bestowed a richer Mail, - Like Thetis on her Son; - But hers at last was vain, and thine could fail-- - The hero's and the lover's race was run. - Thy worshipped portrait, thy sweet face, - _Without_ that bosom kept it's place - As Thou _within_. - Oh! enviously destined Ball! - Shivering thine imaged charms and all - Those Charms would win: - Together pierced, the fatal Stroke hath gored - Votary and Shrine, the adoring and the adored. - That Heart's last throb was thine, that blood - Baptized thine Image in it's flood, - And gushing from the fount of Faith - O'erflowed with Passion even in Death, - Constant to thee as in it's hour - Of rapture in the secret bower. - Thou too hast kept thy plight full well, - As many a baffled Heart can tell. - - [From an autograph MS. in the possession of Mr. Murray, now for the - first time printed.] - - - - - THE IRISH AVATAR.[ir][592] - -"And Ireland, like a bastinadoed elephant, kneeling to receive the -paltry rider."--[_Life of Curran_, ii. 336.] - - - 1. - - Ere the daughter of Brunswick is cold in her grave,[593] - And her ashes still float to their home o'er the tide, - Lo! George the triumphant speeds over the wave, - To the long-cherished Isle which he loved like his--bride. - - 2. - - True, the great of her bright and brief Era are gone, - The rain-bow-like Epoch where Freedom could pause - For the few little years, out of centuries won, - Which betrayed not, or crushed not, or wept not her cause. - - 3. - - True, the chains of the Catholic clank o'er his rags, - The Castle still stands, and the Senate's no more, - And the Famine which dwelt on her freedomless crags - Is extending its steps to her desolate shore. - - 4. - - To her desolate shore--where the emigrant stands - For a moment to gaze ere he flies from his hearth; - Tears fall on his chain, though it drops from his hands, - For the dungeon he quits is the place of his birth. - - 5. - - But he comes! the Messiah of Royalty comes! - Like a goodly Leviathan rolled from the waves; - Then receive him as best such an advent becomes,[is] - With a legion of cooks,[594] and an army of slaves! - - 6. - - He comes in the promise and bloom of threescore, - To perform in the pageant the Sovereign's part--[it] - But long live the Shamrock, which shadows him o'er! - Could the Green in his _hat_ be transferred to his _heart!_ - - 7. - - Could that long-withered spot but be verdant again, - And a new spring of noble affections arise-- - Then might Freedom forgive thee this dance in thy chain, - And this shout of thy slavery which saddens the skies. - - 8. - - Is it madness or meanness which clings to thee now? - Were he God--as he is but the commonest clay, - With scarce fewer wrinkles than sins on his brow-- - Such servile devotion might shame him away. - - 9. - - Aye, roar in his train![595] let thine orators lash - Their fanciful spirits to pamper his pride-- - Not thus did thy Grattan indignantly flash - His soul o'er the freedom implored and denied. - - 10. - - Ever glorious Grattan! the best of the good! - So simple in heart, so sublime in the rest! - With all which Demosthenes wanted endued, - And his rival, or victor, in all he possessed. - - 11. - - Ere Tully arose in the zenith of Rome, - Though unequalled, preceded, the task was begun-- - But Grattan sprung up like a god from the tomb - Of ages, the first, last, the saviour, the _one!_[596] - - 12. - - With the skill of an Orpheus to soften the brute; - With the fire of Prometheus to kindle mankind; - Even Tyranny, listening, sate melted or mute, - And Corruption shrunk scorched from the glance of his mind. - - 13. - - But back to our theme! Back to despots and slaves![iu] - Feasts furnished by Famine! rejoicings by Pain! - True Freedom but _welcomes_, while Slavery still _raves_, - When a week's Saturnalia hath loosened her chain. - - 14. - - Let the poor squalid splendour thy wreck can afford, - (As the bankrupt's profusion his ruin would hide) - Gild over the palace, Lo! Erin, thy Lord! - Kiss his foot with thy blessing--his blessings denied![iv] - - 15. - - Or _if_ freedom past hope be extorted at last,[iw] - If the idol of brass find his feet are of clay, - Must what terror or policy wring forth be classed - With what monarchs ne'er give, but as wolves yield their prey? - - 16. - - Each brute hath its nature; a King's is to _reign_,-- - To _reign!_ in that word see, ye ages, comprised - The cause of the curses all annals contain, - From Caesar the dreaded to George the despised! - - 17. - - Wear, Fingal, thy trapping![597] O'Connell, proclaim[ix] - His accomplishments! _His!!!_ and thy country convince - Half an age's contempt was an error of fame, - And that "Hal is the rascaliest, sweetest _young_ prince!"[iy] - - 18. - - Will thy yard of blue riband, poor Fingal, recall - The fetters from millions of Catholic limbs? - Or, has it not bound thee the fastest of all - The slaves, who now hail their betrayer with hymns? - - 19. - - Aye! "Build him a dwelling!" let each give his mite![598] - Till, like Babel, the new royal dome hath arisen![iz] - Let thy beggars and helots their pittance unite-- - And a palace bestow for a poor-house and prison! - - 20. - - Spread--spread for Vitellius, the royal repast, - Till the gluttonous despot be stuffed to the gorge! - And the roar of his drunkards proclaim him at last - The Fourth of the fools and oppressors called "George!" - - 21. - - Let the tables be loaded with feasts till they groan! - Till they _groan_ like thy people, through ages of woe! - Let the wine flow around the old Bacchanal's throne, - Like their blood which has flowed, and which yet has to flow. - - 22. - - But let not _his_ name be thine idol alone-- - On his right hand behold a Sejanus appears! - Thine own Castlereagh! let him still be thine own! - A wretch never named but with curses and jeers! - - 23. - - Till now, when the Isle which should blush for his birth, - Deep, deep as the gore which he shed on her soil, - Seems proud of the reptile which crawled from her earth, - And for murder repays him with shouts and a smile.[599] - - 24. - - Without one single ray of her genius,--without - The fancy, the manhood, the fire of her race-- - The miscreant who well might plunge Erin in doubt[ja] - If _she_ ever gave birth to a being so base. - - 25. - - If she did--let her long-boasted proverb be hushed, - Which proclaims that from Erin no reptile can spring-- - See the cold-blooded Serpent, with venom full flushed, - Still warming its folds in the breast of a King![jb] - - 26. - - Shout, drink, feast, and flatter! Oh! Erin, how low - Wert thou sunk by misfortune and tyranny, till - Thy welcome of tyrants hath plunged thee below - The depth of thy deep in a deeper gulf still. - - 27. - - My voice, though but humble, was raised for thy right;[600] - My vote, as a freeman's, still voted thee free; - This hand, though but feeble, would arm in thy fight,[jc] - And this heart, though outworn, had a throb still for _thee!_ - - 28. - - Yes, I loved thee and thine, though thou art not my land;[jd] - I have known noble hearts and great souls in thy sons, - And I wept with the world, o'er the patriot band - Who are gone, but I weep them no longer as once. - - 29. - - For happy are they now reposing afar,-- - Thy Grattan, thy Curran, thy Sheridan,[601] all - Who, for years, were the chiefs in the eloquent war, - And redeemed, if they have not retarded, thy fall. - - 30. - - Yes, happy are they in their cold English graves! - Their shades cannot start to thy shouts of to-day-- - Nor the steps of enslavers and chain-kissing slaves[je] - Be stamped in the turf o'er their fetterless clay. - - 31. - - Till now I had envied thy sons and their shore, - Though their virtues were hunted, their liberties fled;[jf] - There was something so warm and sublime in the core - Of an Irishman's heart, that I envy--thy _dead_.[jg] - - 32. - - Or, if aught in my bosom can quench for an hour - My contempt for a nation so servile, though sore, - Which though trod like the worm will not turn upon power, - 'Tis the glory of Grattan, and genius of Moore![jh][602] - - Ra. _September_ 16, 1821. - [First published, _Conversations of Lord Byron_, 1824, pp. 331-338.] - - - - - STANZAS WRITTEN ON THE ROAD BETWEEN FLORENCE AND PISA.[603] - - 1. - - Oh, talk not to me of a name great in story-- - The days of our Youth are the days of our glory; - And the myrtle and ivy of sweet two-and-twenty - Are worth all your laurels, though ever so plenty.[604] - - - 2. - - What are garlands and crowns to the brow that is wrinkled? - Tis but as a dead flower with May-dew besprinkled: - Then away with all such from the head that is hoary, - What care I for the wreaths that can _only_ give glory? - - 3. - - Oh Fame!--if I e'er took delight in thy praises, - 'Twas less for the sake of thy high-sounding phrases, - Than to see the bright eyes of the dear One discover, - She thought that I was not unworthy to love her. - - 4. - - _There_ chiefly I sought thee, _there_ only I found thee; - Her Glance was the best of the rays that surround thee, - When it sparkled o'er aught that was bright in my story, - I knew it was Love, and I felt it was Glory. - - _November_ 6, 1821. - -[First published, _Letters and Journals of Lord Byron_, 1830, ii. 366, -note.] - - - - - STANZAS TO A HINDOO AIR.[605] - - 1. - - Oh! my lonely--lonely--lonely--Pillow! - Where is my lover? where is my lover? - Is it his bark which my dreary dreams discover? - Far--far away! and alone along the billow? - - 2. - - Oh! my lonely--lonely--lonely--Pillow! - Why must my head ache where his gentle brow lay? - How the long night flags lovelessly and slowly, - And my head droops over thee like the willow! - - 3. - - Oh! thou, my sad and solitary Pillow! - Send me kind dreams to keep my heart from breaking, - In return for the tears I shed upon thee waking; - Let me not die till he comes back o'er the billow. - - 4. - - Then if thou wilt--no more my _lonely_ Pillow, - In one embrace let these arms again enfold him, - And then expire of the joy--but to behold him! - Oh! my lone bosom!--oh! my lonely Pillow! - - [First published, _Works of Lord Byron_, 1832, xiv. 357.] - - - - - TO----[606] - - 1. - - But once I dared to lift my eyes-- - To lift my eyes to thee; - And since that day, beneath the skies, - No other sight they see. - - 2. - - In vain sleep shuts them in the night-- - The night grows day to me; - Presenting idly to my sight - What still a dream must be. - - 3. - - A fatal dream--for many a bar - Divides thy fate from mine; - And still my passions wake and war, - But peace be still with thine. - - [First published, _New Monthly Magazine_, 1833, vol. 37, p. 308.] - - - - - TO THE COUNTESS OF BLESSINGTON. - - 1. - - You have asked for a verse:--the request - In a rhymer 'twere strange to deny; - But my Hippocrene was but my breast, - And my feelings (its fountain) are dry. - - 2. - - Were I now as I was, I had sung - What Lawrence has painted so well;[607] - But the strain would expire on my tongue, - And the theme is too soft for my shell. - - 3. - - I am ashes where once I was fire, - And the bard in my bosom is dead; - What I loved I now merely admire, - And my heart is as grey as my head. - - 4. - - My Life is not dated by years-- - There are _moments_ which act as a plough, - And there is not a furrow appears - But is deep in my soul as my brow. - - 5. - - Let the young and the brilliant aspire - To sing what I gaze on in vain; - For Sorrow has torn from my lyre - The string which was worthy the strain. - - B. - -[First published, _Letters and Journals_, 1830, ii. 635, 636.] - - - - - ARISTOMENES.[608] - - - Canto First. - - 1. - - The Gods of old are silent on the shore. - Since the great Pan expired, and through the roar - Of the Ionian waters broke a dread - Voice which proclaimed "the Mighty Pan is dead." - How much died with him! false or true--the dream - Was beautiful which peopled every stream - With more than finny tenants, and adorned - The woods and waters with coy nymphs that scorned - Pursuing Deities, or in the embrace - Of gods brought forth the high heroic race 10 - Whose names are on the hills and o'er the seas. - - Cephalonia, _Sept^r^_ 10^th^ 1823. - [From an autograph MS. in the possession of the Lady Dorchester, - now for the first time printed.] - - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[568] {529}[Byron does not give his authority for the Spanish original -of his _Romance Muy Doloroso_. In default of any definite information, -it may be surmised that his fancy was caught by some broadside or -chap-book which chanced to come into his possession, and that he made -his translation without troubling himself about the origin or -composition of the ballad. As it stands, the "Romance" is a cento of -three or more ballads which are included in the _Guerras Civiles de -Granada_ of Gines Perez de Hita, published at Saragossa in 1595 (see ed. -"En Alcala de Henares," 1601, pp. 249-252). Stanzas 1-11, "Passeavase el -Rey Moro," etc., follow the text which De Hita gives as a translation -from the Arabic; stanzas 12-14 are additional, and do not correspond -with any of the Spanish originals; stanzas 15-21, with numerous -deviations and omissions, follow the text of a second ballad, "Moro -Alcayde, Moro Alcayde," described by De Hita as "antiguo Romance," and -portions of stanzas 21-23 are imbedded in a ballad entitled "Muerte dada -a Los Abencerrajes" (Duran's _Romancero General_, 1851, ii. 89). - -The ballad as a whole was not known to students of Spanish literature -previous to the publication of Byron's translation (1818), (see _Ancient -Ballads from the Civil Wars of Granada_, by Thomas Rodd, 1801, pp. 93, -98; Southey's _Common-Place Book_, iv. 262-266, and his _Chronicle of -the Cid_, 1808, pp. 371-374), and it has not been included by H. Duran -in his _Romancero General_, 1851, ii. 89-91, or by F. Wolf and C. -Hofmann in their _Primavera y Flor de Romances_, 1856, i. 270-278. At -the same time, it is most improbable that Byron was his own -"Centonista," and it may be assumed that the Spanish text as printed -(see _Childe Harold,_ Canto IV., 1818, pp. 240-254, and _Poetical -Works_, 1891, pp. 566, 567) was in his possession or within his reach. -(For a correspondence on the subject, see _Notes and Queries_, Third -Series, vol. xii. p. 391, and Fourth Series, vol. i. p. 162.) - -A MS. of the Spanish text, sent to England for "copy," is in a foreign -handwriting. Two MSS. (A, B) of the translation are in Mr. Murray's -possession: A, a rough draft; B, a fair copy. The watermark of A is -1808, of B (dated January 4, 1817) 1800. It is to be noted that the -refrain in the Spanish text is _Ay de mi Alhama_, and that the insertion -of the comma is a printer's or reader's error.] - -[569] [In A.D. 886, during the reign of Muley Abul Hacen, King of -Granada, Albania was surprised and occupied by the Christians under Don -Rodrigo Ponce de Leon.] - -[570] The effect of the original ballad--which existed both in Spanish -and Arabic--was such, that it was forbidden to be sung by the Moors, on -pain of death, within Granada. ["This ballad was so dolorous in the -original Arabic language, that every time it was sung it acted as an -incitement to grief and despair, and for this reason it was at length -finally prohibited in Granada."--_Historia ... de las Guerras Civiles_, -translated from the Arabic of Abenhamim, by Gines Perez de Hita, and -from the Spanish by Thomas Rodd, 1803, p. 334. According to Ticknor -(_Hist. of Spanish Literature_, 1888, iii. 139), the "Arabic origin" of -De Hita's work is not at all probable. "He may have obtained Arabic -materials for parts of his story."] - -[hv] _Alas--alas--Alhama!_--[MS. M.] - -[571] [Byron's _Ay de mi, Alhama_, which should be printed _Ay de mi -Alhama_, must be rendered "Woe for my Alhama!" "Woe is me, Alhama!" is -the equivalent of "_Ay de mi Alhama!_"] - -[572] {531}["Un viejo Alfaqui" is "an old Alfaqui," _i.e._ a doctor of -the Mussulman law, not a proper name.] - -[573] {532}["De leyes tambien hablava" should be rendered "He spake -'also' of the laws," not _tan bien_, "so well," or "exceeding well."] - -[574] {533}[The Alcaide or "governor" of the original ballad is -converted into the Alfaqui of stanza 9. It was the "Alcaide," in whose -absence Alhama was taken, and who lost children, wife, honour, and his -own head in consequence (_Notes and Queries_, iv. i. 162).] - -[hw] ----_so white to see_.--[MS. M.] - -[575] {535}[Jacopo Vittorelli (1749-1835) was born at Bassano, in -Venetian territory. Under the Napoleonic "kingdom of Italy" he held -office as a subordinate in the Ministry of Education at Milan, and was -elected a member of the college of "Dotti." At a later period of his -life he returned to Bassano, and received an appointment as censor of -the press. His poetry, which is sweet and musical, but lacking in force -and substance, recalls and embodies the style and spirit of the dying -literature of the eighteenth century. "He lived and died," says Luigi -Carrer, "the poet of Irene and Dori," unmoved by the hopes and fears, -the storms and passions, of national change and development.--See -_Manuale della Letteratura Italiana_, by A. d'Ancona and O. Bacci, 1894, -iv. 585.] - -[576] {536}["The Helen of Canova (a bust which is in the house of Madame -the Countess d'Albrizzi, whom I know) is without exception, to my mind, -the most perfectly beautiful of human conceptions, and far beyond my -ideas of human execution,"--Letter to Murray, November 25, 1816. In the -works of Antonio Canova, engraved in outline by Henry Moses (London, -1873), the bust of Helen is figured (to face p. 58), and it is stated -that it was executed in 1814, and presented to the Countess Albrizzi. -(See _Letters_, 1900, iv. 14, 15, note.)] - -[577] {537}[From an autograph MS. in the possession of Mr. Murray, now -for the first time printed.] - -[578] {538}["The mumming closed with a masked ball at the Fenice, where -I went, as also to most of the ridottos, etc., etc.; and, though I did -not dissipate much upon the whole, yet I find 'the sword wearing out the -scabbard,' though I have but just turned the corner of -twenty-nine."--Letter to Moore, February 28, 1817. The verses form part -of the letter. (See _Letters_, 1900, iv. 59, 60.)] - -[579] [Lady Blessington told Crabb Robinson (Diary, 1869, in. 17) that -the publication of the _Question and Answer_ would "kill Rogers." The -MS. is dated 1818, and it is probable that the lines were written in the -early spring of that year. Moore or Murray had told Byron that Rogers -was in doubt whether to praise or blame him in his poem on "Human Life" -now approaching completion; and he had heard, from other sources, that -it was Rogers who was the author or retailer of certain scandalous -stories which were current in the "whispering-gallery of the world." He -had reason to believe that everybody was talking about him, and it was a -relief to be able to catch and punish so eminent a scandal-monger. It -was in this spirit that he wrote to Murray (February 20, 1818), "What -you tell me of Rogers, ... is like him. He cannot say that I have not -been a sincere and warm friend to him, till the black drop of his liver -oozed through too palpably to be overlooked. Now if I once catch him at -any of his jugglery with me or mine, let him look to it," etc., etc., -and in all probability the "poem on Rogers" was then in existence, or -was working in his brain. The lines once written, Byron swallowed his -venom, and, when Rogers visited Italy in the autumn of 1821, he met him -at Bologna, travelled with him across the Apennines to Florence, and -invited him "to stay as long as he liked" at Pisa. Thither Rogers came, -presumably, in November, 1821, and, if we may trust the _Table Talk_ -(1856, p. 238), remained at the Palazzo Lanfranchi for several days. - -Byron seems to have been more than usually provocative and -cross-grained, and, on one occasion (see Medwin, _Angler in Wales_, -1834, i. 26, _sq_.; and _Records of Shelley, etc_., by E. T. Trelawney, -1878, i. 53), when he was playing billiards, and Rogers was in the lobby -outside, secretly incited his bull-dog, "Faithful Moretto," to bark and -show his teeth; and, when Medwin had convoyed the terror-stricken bard -into his presence, greeted him with effusion, but contrived that he -should sit down on the very sofa which hid from view the MS. of -"Question and Answer." _Longa est injuria, longae ambages_; but the story -rests on the evidence of independent witnesses. - -By far the best comment on satire and satirist is to be found in the -noble lines in _Italy_, in which Rogers commemorates his last meeting -with the "Youth who swam from Sestos to Abydos"-- - - "If imagined wrongs - Pursued thee, urging thee sometimes to do - Things long regretted, oft, as many know, - None more than I, thy gratitude would build - On slight foundations; and, if in thy life - Not happy, in thy death thou surely wert, - Thy wish accomplished." - - _Poems_ by Samuel Rogers, 1852, ii. 119.] - -[hx] ----_would shame a knocker_.--[_Fraser's Magazine_, 1833.] - -[hy] {539}_Turning its quick tail_----.--[_Fraser's_, etc.] - -[580] {540}["'De mortuis nihil nisi bonum!' There is Sam Rogers [No. IV. -of the Maclise Caricatures] a mortal likeness--painted to the very -death!" A string of jests upon Rogers's corpse-like appearance -accompanied the portrait.] - -[hz] _With the Scripture in connexion_.--[_Fraser's_, etc.] - -[581] {541}[Among other "bogus" notes (parodies of the notes in Murray's -new edition of Byron's _Works_ in seventeen volumes), is one signed Sir -E. Brydges, which enumerates a string of heiresses, beauties, and blues, -whom Rogers had wooed in vain. Among the number are Mrs. Apreece (Lady -Davy), Mrs. Coutts, "beat by the Duke of St. Albans," and the Princess -Olive of Cumberland. "We have heard," the note concludes, "that he -proposed for the Duchess of Cleveland, and was cut out by Beau Fielding, -but we think that must have been before his time a little."] - -[582] {542}["If '_the_ person' had not by many little dirty sneaking -traits provoked it, I should have been silent, though I _had observed_ -him. Here follows an alteration. Put-- - - "Devil with such delight in damning - That if at the resurrection - Unto him the free selection - Of his future could be given - 'Twould be rather Hell than Heaven. - -You have a discretionary power about showing."--Letter to Murray, -November 9, 1820, _Letters_, 1901, v. 113.] - -[ia] ----_would you know 'em?_--[_Fraser's_, etc.] - -[583] [Addressed to Miss Chaworth, in allusion to a duel fought between -two of their ancestors, D[ominus] B[yron] and Mr. C., January 26, 1765. - -Byron and Mary Anne Chaworth were fourth cousins, both being fifth in -descent from George, Viscount Chaworth, whose daughter Elizabeth was -married to William, third Lord Byron (d. 1695), the poet's -great-great-grandfather. The duel between their grand-uncles, William, -fifth Lord Byron, and William Chaworth, Esq., of Annesley, was fought -between eight and nine o'clock in the evening of Saturday, January 26, -1765 (see _The Gazetteer_, Monday, January 28, 1765), at the Star and -Garter Tavern, Pall Mall. The coroner's jury brought in a verdict of -wilful murder (see for the "Inquisition," and report of trial, _Journals -of the House of Lords_, 1765, pp. 49, 126-135), and on the presentation -of their testimony to the House of Lords, Byron pleaded for a trial "by -God and his peers," whereupon he was arrested and sent to the Tower. The -case was tried by the Lords Temporal (the Lords Spiritual asked -permission to withdraw), and, after a defence had been read by the -prisoner, 119 peers brought in a verdict of "Not guilty of murder, -guilty of manslaughter, on my honour." Four peers only returned a -verdict of "Not guilty." The result of this verdict was that Lord Byron -claimed the benefit of the statute of Edward VI., and was discharged on -paying the fees. - -The defence, which is given in full (see Journal, etc., for April 17, -1765), is able and convincing. Whilst maintaining an air of chivalry and -candour, the accused contrived to throw the onus of criminality on his -antagonist. It was Mr. Chaworth who began the quarrel, by sneering at -his cousin's absurd and disastrous leniency towards poachers. It was -Chaworth who insisted on an interview, not on the stairs, but in a -private room, who locked the door, and whose demeanour made a challenge -"to draw" inevitable. The room was dimly lit, and when the table was -pushed back, the space for the combatants was but twelve feet by five. -After two thrusts had been parried, and Lord Byron's shirt had been -torn, he shifted a little to the right, to take advantage of such light -as there was, came to close quarters with his adversary and, "as he -supposed, gave the unlucky wound which he would ever reflect upon with -the utmost regret." - -If there was any truth in his plea, the "wicked Lord Byron" has been -misjudged, and, at least in the matter of the duel, was not so black as -he has been painted. For Byron's defence of his grand-uncle, see letter -to M. J. J. Coulmann, Genoa, July 12, 1823, _Life_, by Karl Elze, 1872, -pp. 443-446.] - -[584] {543}[In the coroner's "Inquisition," the sword is described as -being "made of iron and steel, of the value of five shillings." Byron -says that "so far from feeling any remorse for having killed Mr. -Chaworth, who was a fire-eater (_spadassin_), ... he always kept the -sword ... in his bed-chamber, where it still was when he -died."--_Ibid._, p. 445.] - -[585] [Ralph de Burun held Horestan Castle and other manors from the -Conqueror. Byron's mother was descended from James I. of Scotland.] - -[586] {544}[See _The Dream_, line 127, _et passim_, _vide ante_, p. 31, -_et sq._] - -[587] [From an autograph MS. in the possession of Mr. Murray, now for -the first time printed.] - -[588] {545} [There has been some misunderstanding with regard to this -poem. According to the statement of the Countess Guiccioli (see _Works -of Lord Byron_, ed. 1832, xii. 14), "Stanzas to the Po" were composed -about the middle of April, 1819, "while Lord Byron was actually sailing -on the Po," _en route_ from Venice to Ravenna. Medwin, who was the first -to publish the lines (_Conversations, etc._, 1824, 410, pp. 24-26), says -that they were written when Byron was about to "quit Venice to join" the -Countess at Ravenna, and, in a footnote, explains that the river -referred to is the Po. Now, if the Countess and Medwin (and Moore, who -follows Medwin, _Life_, p. 396) are right, and the river is the Po, the -"ancient walls" Ravenna, and the "Lady of the land" the Guiccioli, the -stanzas may have been written in June (not April), 1819, possibly at -Ferrara, and the river must be the Po di Primaro. Even so, the first -line of the first stanza and the third and fourth lines of the ninth -stanza require explanation. The Po does not "roll by the ancient walls" -of Ravenna; and how could Byron be at one and the same time "by the -source" (stanza 9, line 4), and sailing on the river, or on some -canalized tributary or effluent? Be the explanation what it may--and it -is possible that the lines were _not_ originally designed for the -Countess, but for another "Lady of the land" (see letter to Murray, May -18, 1819)--it may be surmised that "the lines written last year on -crossing the Po," the "mere verses of society," which were given to -Kinnaird (see letter to Murray, May 8, 1820, and _Conversations of Lord -Byron with Lady Blessington_, 1834, p. 143), were not the sombre though -passionate elegy, "River, that rollest," but the bitter and somewhat -cynical rhymes, "Could Love for ever, Run like a river" (_vide post_, p. -549).] - -[ib] {546} - - _But left long wrecks behind them, and again_. - _Borne on our old unchanged career, we move;_ - _Thou tendest wildly onward to the main_.--[Medwin.] - -[ic] _I near thy source_----.--[Medwin.] - -[id] {547}_A stranger loves a lady_----.--[Medwin.] - -[ie] _By the bleak wind_----.--[Medwin.] - -[if] _I had not left my clime;--I shall not be_.--[Medwin.] - -[589] I wrote this sonnet (after tearing the first) on being repeatedly -urged to do so by the Countess G. [It was at the house of the Marquis -Cavalli, uncle to the countess, that Byron appeared in the part of a -fully-recognized "Cicisbeo."--See letter to Hoppner, December 31, 1819, -_Letters, 1900_, iv. 393.] - -[ig] {548}_To the Prince Regent on the repeal of the bill of attainder -against Lord E. Fitzgerald, June, 1819._ - -[ih] _To leave_----.--[MS. M.] - -[ii] _Who_ NOW _would lift a hand_----.--[MS. M.] - -[ij] - - ----_becomes but more complete_ - _Thyself a despot_----.--[MS. M.] - -[590] ["So the prince has been repealing Lord Fitzgerald's forfeiture? -_Ecco un' Sonetto!_ There, you dogs! there's a Sonnet for you: you won't -have such as that in a hurry from Mr. Fitzgerald. You may publish it -with my name, an ye wool. He deserves all praise, bad and good; it was a -very noble piece of principality."--Letter to Murray, August 12, 1819. - -For [William Thomas] Fitgerald, see _Poetical Works_, 1898, i. 297, note -3; for Lord Edward Fitzgerald (1763-1798), see _Letters_, 1900, iv. 345, -note 1. The royal assent was given to a bill for "restoring Edward Fox -Fitzgerald and his sisters Pamela and Lucy to their blood," July 13, -1819. The sonnet was addressed to George IV. when Prince Regent. The -title, "To George the Fourth," affixed in 1831, is incorrect.] - -[591] {549}["A friend of Lord Byron's, who was with him at Ravenna when -he wrote these stanzas, says, They were composed, like many others, with -no view of publication, but merely to relieve himself in a moment of -suffering. He had been painfully excited by some circumstances which -appeared to make it necessary that he should immediately quit Italy; and -in the day and the hour that he wrote the song was labouring under an -access of fever" (_Works_, 1832, xii. 317, note 1). Here, too, there is -some confusion of dates and places. Byron was at Venice, not at Ravenna, -December 1, 1819, when these lines were composed. They were sent, as -Lady Blessington testifies, to Kinnaird, and are probably identical with -the "mere verses of society," mentioned in the letter to Murray of May -8, 1820. The last stanza reflects the mood of a letter to the Countess -Guiccioli, dated November 25 (1819), "I go to save you, and leave a -country insupportable to me without you" (_Letters_, 1900, iv. 379, note -2).] - -[ik] _And as a treasure_.--[MS. Guiccioli.] - -[il] {550} - - _Through every weather_ - _We pluck_.--[MS. G.] - -[im] - - _He'll sadly shiver_ - _And droop for ever,_ - _Shorn of the plumage which sped his spring_.--[MS. G.] - -[in] ----_that sped his Spring_.--[MS. G.] - -[io] {551} - - _His reign is finished_ - _One last embrace, then, and bid good-night_.--[MS. G.] - -[ip] - - _You have not waited_ - _Till tired and hated_ - _All passions sated_.--[MS. G.] - -[iq] {552}_True separations_.--[MS. G.] - -[ir] {555}_The enclosed lines, as you will directly perceive, are -written by the Rev. W. L. Bowles. Of course it is for him to deny them, -if they are not_.--[_Letter to Moore, September_ 17, 1821, _Letters_, -1901, v. 364.] - -[592] [A few days before Byron enclosed these lines in a letter to Moore -(September 17, 1821) he had written to Murray (September 12): "If ever I -_do_ return to England ... I will write a poem to which _English Bards, -etc._, shall be New Milk, in comparison. Your present literary world of -mountebanks stands in need of such an Avatar." Hence the somewhat -ambiguous title. The word "Avatar" is not only applied ironically to -George IV. as the "Messiah of Royalty," but metaphorically to the poem, -which would descend in the "Capacity of Preserver" (see Sir W. Jones, -_Asiatic Research_, i. 234). - -The "fury" which sent Byron into this "lawless conscription of -rhythmus," was inspired partly by an ungenerous attack on Moore, which -appeared in the pages of _John Bull_ ("Thomas Moore is not likely to -fall in the way of knighthood ... being public defaulter in his office -to a large amount.... [August 5]. It is true that we cannot from -principle esteem the writer of the _Twopenny Postbag_.... It is equally -true that we shrink from the profligacy," etc., August 12, 1821); and, -partly, by the servility of the Irish, who had welcomed George IV. with -an outburst of enthusiastic loyalty, when he entered Dublin in triumph -within ten days of the death of Queen Caroline. The _Morning Chronicle_, -August 8-August 18, 1821, prints effusive leading articles, edged with -black borders, on the Queen's illness, death, funeral procession, etc., -over against a column (in small type) headed "The King in Dublin." -Byron's satire is a running comment on the pages of the _Morning -Chronicle_. Moore was in Paris at the time, being, as _John Bull_ said, -"obliged to live out of England," and Byron gave him directions that -twenty copies of the _Irish Avatar_ "should be carefully and privately -printed off." Medwin says that Byron gave him "a printed copy," but his -version (see _Conversations_, 1824, pp. 332-338), doubtless for -prudential reasons, omits twelve of the more libellous stanzas. The poem -as a whole was not published in England till 1831, when "George the -despised" was gone to his account. According to Crabb Robinson (_Diary_, -1869, ii. 437), Goethe said that "Byron's verses on George IV. (_Query? -The Irish Avatar_) were the sublime of hatred."] - -[593] {556}[The Queen died on the night (10.20 p.m.) of Tuesday, August -7. The King entered Dublin in state Friday, August 17. The vessel -bearing the Queen's remains sailed from Harwich on the morning of -Saturday, August 18, 1821.] - -[is] ----_such a hero becomes_.--[MS. M.] - -[594] ["Seven covered waggons arrived at the Castle (August 3). They -were laden with plate.... Upwards of forty men cooks will be -employed."--_Morning Chronicle_, August 8.] - -[it] {557}_To enact in the pageant_----.-[MS. M.] - -[595] ["Never did I witness such enthusiasm.... Cheer followed -cheer--and shout followed shout ... accompanied by exclamation of 'God -bless King George IV.!' 'Welcome, welcome, ten thousand times to these -shores!'"--_Morning Chronicle_, August 16.] - -[596] {558}["After the stanza on Grattan, ... will it please you to -cause insert the following Addenda, which I dreamed of during to-day's -Siesta."--Letter to Moore, September 20, 1821.] - -[iu] _Aye! back to our theme_----.--[Medwin] - -[iv] _Kiss his foot, with thy blessing, for blessings -denied!_--[Medwin.] - -[iw] _Or if freedom_----.--[Medwin.] - -[597] {559}["The Earl of Fingall (Arthur James Plunkett, K.P., eighth -earl, d. 1836), the leading Catholic nobleman, is to be created a Knight -of St. Patrick."--_Morning Chronicle_, August 18.] - -[ix] _Wear Fingal thy ribbon_----.--[MS. M.] - -[iy] _And the King is no scoundrel--whatever the Prince_.--[MS. M.] - -[598] [There was talk of a testimonial being presented to the King. -O'Connell suggested that if possible it should take the form of "a -palace, to which not only the rank around him could contribute, but to -the erection of which every peasant could from his cottage contribute -his humble mite."--_Morning Chronicle_, August 18.] - -[iz] _Till proudly the new_----.--[MS. M.] - -[599] {560}["The Marquis of Londonderry was cheered in the Castle-yard." -"He was," says the correspondent of the _Morning Chronicle_, "the -instrument of Ireland's degradation--he broke down her spirit, and -prostrated, I fear, for ever her independence. To see the author of this -measure cheered near the very spot," etc.] - -[ja] ----_might make Humanity doubt_.--[MS. M.] - -[jb] ----_in the heart of a king_.--[Medwin. MS. M. erased.] - -[600] {561}[Byron spoke and voted in favour of the Earl of Donoughmore's -motion for a Committee on the Roman Catholic claims, April 21, 1812. -(See "Parliamentary Speeches," Appendix II., _Letters_, 1898, ii. -431-443.)] - -[jc] _My arm, though but feeble_----.--[Medwin.] - -[jd] ----_though thou wert not my land_.--[Medwin.] - -[601] [For Grattan and Curran, see letter to Moore, October 2, 1813, -_Letters_, 1898, ii. 271, note 1; for Sheridan, see "Introduction to -_Monody_," etc., _ante_, pp. 69, 70.] - -[je] - - _Nor the steps of enslavers, and slave-kissing slaves_ - _Be damp'd in the turf_----.--[Medwin.] - -[jf] _Though their virtues are blunted_----.--[Medwin.] - -[jg] {562} ----_that I envy their dead_.--[Medwin.] - -[jh] _They're the heart--the free spirit--the genius of Moore_.--[MS. -M.] - -[602] ["Signed W. L. B----, M.A., and written with a view to a -Bishoprick."--_Letters and Journals_, 1830, ii. 527, note. - -Endorsed, "MS. Lord Byron. The King's visit to Ireland; a very seditious -and horrible libel, which never was intended to be published, and which -Lord B. called, himself, silly, being written in a moment of ill -nature.--C. B."] - -[603] ["I composed these stanzas (except the fourth, added now) a few -days ago, on the road from Florence to Pisa."--Pisa, 6th November, 1821, -_Detached Thoughts_, No. 118, _Letters_, 1901, v. 466.] - -[604] ["I told Byron that his poetical sentiments of the attractions of -matured beauty had, at the moment, suggested four lines to me; which he -begged me to repeat, and he laughed not a little when I recited the -following lines to him:-- - - "Oh! talk not to me of the charms of Youth's dimples, - There's surely more sentiment center'd in wrinkles. - They're the triumphs of Time that mark Beauty's decay, - Telling tales of years past, and the few left to stay." - - _Conversations of Lord Byron_, 1834, pp. 255, 256.] - -[605] [These verses were written by Lord Byron a little before he left -Italy for Greece. They were meant to suit the Hindostanee air, "Alia -Malla Punca," which the Countess Guiccioli was fond of -singing.--Editor's note, _Works, etc._, xiv. 357, Pisa, September, -1821.] - -[606] {564}[Probably "To Lady Blessington," who includes them in her -_Conversations of Lord Byron_.] - -[607] {565}[For reproduction of Lawrence's portrait of Lady Blessington, -see "List of Illustrations," _Letters_, 1901, v. [xv.].] - -[608] {566}[Aristomenes, the Achilles of the Alexandrian poet Rhianus -(Grote's _History of Greece_, 1869, ii. 428), is the legendary hero of -the second Messenian War (B.C. 685-668). Thrice he slew a hundred of the -Spartan foe, and thrice he offered the Hekatomphonia on Mount Ithome. -His name was held in honour long after "the rowers on their benches" -heard the wail, "Pan, Pan is dead!" At the close of the second century -of the Christian era, Pausanias (iv. 16. 4) made a note of Messenian -maidens hymning his victory over the Lacedaemonians-- - - "From the heart of the plain he drove them, - And he drove them back to the hill: - To the top of the hill he drove them, - As he followed them, followed them still!" - -Byron was familiar with Thomas Taylor's translation of the _Periegesis -Graeciae_ (_vide ante_, p. 109, and "Observations," etc., _Letters_, v. -Appendix III. p. 574), and with Mitford's _Greece_ (_Don Juan_, Canto -XII. stanza xix. line 7). Hence his knowledge of Aristomenes. The -thought expressed in lines 5-11 was, possibly, suggested by Coleridge's -translation of the famous passage in Schiller's _Piccolomini_ (act ii. -sc. 4, lines 118, _sq._, "For fable is Love's world, his home," etc.), -which is quoted by Sir Walter Scott, in the third chapter of _Guy -Mannering_.] - - - - - - THE BLUES: - - A LITERARY ECLOGUE. - - "Nimium ne crede colori."--Virgil, [_Ecl_. ii. 17] - -O trust not, ye beautiful creatures, to hue, -Though your _hair_ were as _red_, as your _stockings_ are _blue_. - - - - - - INTRODUCTION TO _THE BLUES_. - - -Byron's correspondence does not explain the mood in which he wrote _The -Blues_, or afford the slightest hint or clue to its _motif_ or occasion. -In a letter to Murray, dated Ravenna, August 7, 1821, he writes, "I send -you a thing which I scribbled off yesterday, a mere buffoonery, to quiz -'The Blues.' If published it must be _anonymously_.... You may send me a -proof if you think it worth the trouble." Six weeks later, September 20, -he had changed his mind. "You need not," he says, "send _The Blues_, -which is a mere buffoonery not meant for publication." With these -intimations our knowledge ends, and there is nothing to show why in -August, 1821, he took it into his head "to quiz The Blues," or why, -being so minded, he thought it worth while to quiz them in so pointless -and belated a fashion. We can but guess that an allusion in a letter -from England, an incident at a conversazione at Ravenna, or perhaps the -dialogues in Peacock's novels, _Melincourt_ and _Nightmare Abbey_, -brought to his recollection the half-modish, half-literary coteries of -the earlier years of the Regency, and that he sketches the scenes and -persons of his eclogue not from life, but from memory. - -In the Diary of 1813, 1814, there is more than one mention of the -"Blues." For instance, November 27, 1813, he writes, "Sotheby is a -_Litterateur_, the oracle of the Coteries of the * *'s, Lydia White -(Sydney Smith's 'Tory Virgin'), Mrs. Wilmot (she, at least, is a swan, -and might frequent a purer stream), Lady Beaumont and all the Blues, -with Lady Charlemont at their head." Again on December 1, "To-morrow -there is a party _purple_ at the 'blue' Miss Berry's. Shall I go? um!--I -don't much affect your blue-bottles;--but one ought to be civil.... -Perhaps that blue-winged Kashmirian butterfly of book-learning Lady -Charlemont will be there" (see _Letters_, 1898, ii. 333, 358, note 2). - -Byron was, perhaps, a more willing guest at literary entertainments -than he professed to be. "I met him," says Sir Walter Scott (_Memoirs of -the Life, etc._, 1838, ii. 167), "frequently in society.... Some very -agreeable parties I can recollect, particularly one at Sir George -Beaumont's, where the amiable landlord had assembled some persons -distinguished for talent. Of these I need only mention the late Sir -Humphry Davy.... Mr. Richard Sharpe and Mr. Rogers were also present." - -Again, Miss Berry, in her _Journal_ (1866, in. 49) records, May 8, 1815, -that "Lord and Lady Byron persuaded me to go with them to Miss [Lydia] -White (_vide post_, p. 587). Never have I seen a more imposing -convocation of ladies arranged in a circle than when we entered ... Lord -Byron brought me home. He stayed to supper." If he did not affect "your -blue-bottles," he was on intimate terms with Madame de Stael, "the -_Begum_ of Literature," as Moore called her; with the Contessa -d'Albrizzi (the De Stael of Italy); with Mrs. Wilmot, the inspirer of -"She walks in beauty like the night;" with Mrs. Shelley; with Lady -Blessington. Moreover, to say nothing of his "mathematical wife," who -was as "blue as ether," the Countess Guiccioli could not only read and -"inwardly digest" _Corinna_ (see letter to Moore, January 2, 1820), but -knew the _Divina Commedia_ by heart, and was a critic as well as an -inspirer of her lover's poetry. - -If it is difficult to assign a reason or occasion for the composition of -_The Blues_, it is a harder, perhaps an impossible, task to identify all -the _dramatis personae_. Botherby, Lady Bluemount, and Miss Diddle are, -obviously, Sotheby, Lady Beaumont, and Lydia White. Scamp the Lecturer -may be Hazlitt, who had incurred Byron's displeasure by commenting on -his various and varying estimates of Napoleon (see _Lectures on the -English Poets_, 1818, p. 304, and _Don Juan_, Canto 1. stanza ii. line -7, note to Buonaparte). Inkel seems to be meant for Byron himself, and -Tracy, a friend, _not_ a Lake poet, for Moore. Sir Richard and Lady -Bluebottle may possibly symbolize Lord and Lady Holland; and Miss Lilac -is, certainly, Miss Milbanke, the "Annabella" of Byron's courtship, not -the "moral Clytemnestra" of his marriage and separation. - -_The Blues_ was published anonymously in the third number of the -_Liberal_, which appeared April 26, 1823. The "Eclogue" was not -attributed to Byron, and met with greater contempt than it deserved. In -the _Noctes Ambrosiance_ (Blackwood's _Edinburgh Magazine_, May, 1823, -vol. xiii. p. 607), the third number of the _Liberal_ is dismissed with -the remark, "The last Number contains not one _line_ of Byron's! Thank -God! he has seen his error, and kicked them out." Brief but contemptuous -notices appeared in the _Literary Chronicle_, April 26, and the -_Literary Gazette_, May 3, 1823; while a short-lived periodical, named -the _Literary Register_ (May 3, quoted at length in _John Bull_, May 4, -1823), implies that the author (i.e. Leigh Hunt) would be better -qualified to "catch the manners" of Lisson Grove than of May Fair. It is -possible that this was the "last straw," and that the reception of _The -Blues_ hastened Byron's determination to part company with the -profitless and ill-omened _Liberal_. - - - - - THE BLUES:[609] - - A LITERARY ECLOGUE. - - - - - ECLOGUE THE FIRST. - - _London.--Before the Door of a Lecture Room_. - - _Enter_ TRACY, _meeting_ INKEL. - - _Ink_. You're too late. - - _Tra_. Is it over? - - _Ink_. Nor will be this hour. - But the benches are crammed, like a garden in flower. - With the pride of our belles, who have made it the fashion; - So, instead of "beaux arts," we may say "la _belle_ passion" - For learning, which lately has taken the lead in - The world, and set all the fine gentlemen reading. - - _Tra_. I know it too well, and have worn out my patience - With studying to study your new publications. - There's Vamp, Scamp, and Mouthy, and Wordswords and Co.[610] - With their damnable---- - - _Ink_. Hold, my good friend, do you know 10 - Whom you speak to? - - _Tra_. Right well, boy, and so does "the Row:"[611] - You're an author--a poet-- - - _Ink_. And think you that I - Can stand tamely in silence, to hear you decry - The Muses? - - _Tra_. Excuse me: I meant no offence - To the Nine; though the number who make some pretence - To their favours is such----but the subject to drop, - I am just piping hot from a publisher's shop, - (Next door to the pastry-cook's; so that when I - Cannot find the new volume I wanted to buy - On the bibliopole's shelves, it is only two paces, 20 - As one finds every author in one of those places:) - Where I just had been skimming a charming critique, - So studded with wit, and so sprinkled with Greek! - Where your friend--you know who--has just got such a threshing, - That it is, as the phrase goes, extremely "_refreshing._"[612] - What a beautiful word! - - _Ink_. Very true; 'tis so soft - And so cooling--they use it a little too oft; - And the papers have got it at last--but no matter. - So they've cut up our friend then? - - _Tra_. Not left him a tatter-- - Not a rag of his present or past reputation, 30 - Which they call a disgrace to the age, and the nation. - - _Ink_. I'm sorry to hear this! for friendship, you know-- - Our poor friend!--but I thought it would terminate so. - Our friendship is such, I'll read nothing to shock it. - You don't happen to have the Review in your pocket? - - _Tra_. No; I left a round dozen of authors and others - (Very sorry, no doubt, since the cause is a brother's) - All scrambling and jostling, like so many imps, - And on fire with impatience to get the next glimpse. - - _Ink_. Let us join them. - - _Tra_. What, won't you return to the lecture? 40 - - _Ink_. Why the place is so crammed, there's not room for a spectre. - Besides, our friend Scamp is to-day so absurd--[613] - - _Tra_. How can you know that till you hear him? - - _Ink_. I heard - Quite enough; and, to tell you the truth, my retreat - Was from his vile nonsense, no less than the heat. - - _Tra_. I have had no great loss then? - - _Ink_. Loss!--such a palaver! - I'd inoculate sooner my wife with the slaver - Of a dog when gone rabid, than listen two hours - To the torrent of trash which around him he pours, - Pumped up with such effort, disgorged with such labour, 50 - That----come--do not make me speak ill of one's neighbour. - - _Tra_. _I_ make you! - - _Ink_. Yes, you! I said nothing until - You compelled me, by speaking the truth---- - - _Tra_. _To speak ill?_ - Is that your deduction? - - _Ink_. When speaking of Scamp ill, - I certainly _follow, not set_ an example. - The fellow's a fool, an impostor, a zany. - - _Tra_. And the crowd of to-day shows that one fool makes many. - But we two will be wise. - - _Ink_. Pray, then, let us retire. - - _Tra_. I would, but---- - - _Ink_. There must be attraction much higher - Than Scamp, or the Jew's harp he nicknames his lyre, 60 - To call you to this hotbed. - - _Tra_. I own it--'tis true-- - A fair lady---- - - _Ink_. A spinster? - - _Tra_. Miss Lilac. - - _Ink_. The Blue! - - _Tra_. The heiress! The angel! - - _Ink_. The devil! why, man, - Pray get out of this hobble as fast as you can. - _You_ wed with Miss Lilac! 'twould be your perdition: - She's a poet, a chymist, a mathematician.[614] - - _Tra_. I say she's an angel. - - _Ink_. Say rather an angle. - If you and she marry, you'll certainly wrangle. - I say she's a Blue, man, as blue as the ether. - - _Tra_. And is that any cause for not coming together? 70 - - _Ink_. Humph! I can't say I know any happy alliance - Which has lately sprung up from a wedlock with science. - She's so learned in all things, and fond of concerning - Herself in all matters connected with learning, - That---- - - _Tra_. What? - - _Ink_. I perhaps may as well hold my tongue; - But there's five hundred people can tell you you're - wrong. - - _Tra_. You forget Lady Lilac's as rich as a Jew. - - _Ink_. Is it miss or the cash of mamma you pursue? - - _Tra_. Why, Jack, I'll be frank with you--something of both. - The girl's a fine girl. - - _Ink_. And you feel nothing loth 80 - To her good lady-mother's reversion; and yet - Her life is as good as your own, I will bet. - - _Tra_. Let her live, and as long as she likes; I demand - Nothing more than the heart of her daughter and hand. - - _Ink_. Why, that heart's in the inkstand--that hand on the pen. - - _Tra_. A propos--Will you write me a song now and then? - - _Ink_. To what purpose? - - _Tra_. You know, my dear friend, that in prose - My talent is decent, as far as it goes; - But in rhyme---- - - _Ink_. You're a terrible stick, to be sure. - - _Tra_. I own it; and yet, in these times, there's no lure 90 - For the heart of the fair like a stanza or two; - And so, as I can't, will you furnish a few? - - _Ink_. In your name? - - _Tra_. In my name. I will copy them out, - To slip into her hand at the very next rout. - - _Ink_. Are you so far advanced as to hazard this? - - _Tra_. Why, - Do you think me subdued by a Blue-stocking's eye, - So far as to tremble to tell her in rhyme - What I've told her in prose, at the least, as sublime? - - _Ink_. _As sublime!_ If i be so, no need of my Muse. - - _Tra_. But consider, dear Inkel, she's one of the "Blues."100 - - _Ink_. As sublime!--Mr. Tracy--I've nothing to say. - Stick to prose--As sublime!!--but I wish you good day. - - _Tra_. Nay, stay, my dear fellow--consider--I'm wrong; - I own it; but, prithee, compose me the song. - - _Ink_. _As_ sublime!! - - _Tra_. I but used the expression in haste. - - _Ink_. That may be, Mr. Tracy, but shows damned bad taste. - - _Tra_. I own it, I know it, acknowledge it--what - Can I say to you more? - - _Ink_. I see what you'd be at: - You disparage my parts with insidious abuse, - Till you think you can turn them best to your own use. 110 - - _Tra_. And is that not a sign I respect them? - - _Ink_. Why that - To be sure makes a difference. - - _Tra_. I know what is what: - And you, who're a man of the gay world, no less - Than a poet of t'other, may easily guess - That I never could mean, by a word, to offend - A genius like you, and, moreover, my friend. - - _Ink_. No doubt; you by this time should know what is due - To a man of----but come--let us shake hands. - - _Tra_. You knew, - And you _know_, my dear fellow, how heartily I, - Whatever you publish, am ready to buy. 120 - - _Ink_. That's my bookseller's business; I care not for sale; - Indeed the best poems at first rather fail. - There were Renegade's epics, and Botherby's plays,[615] - And my own grand romance-- - - _Tra_. Had its full share of praise. - I myself saw it puffed in the "Old Girl's Review."[616] - - _Ink_. What Review? - - _Tra_. Tis the English "Journal de Trevoux;"[617] - A clerical work of our Jesuits at home. - Have you never yet seen it? - - _Ink_. That pleasure's to come. - - _Tra_. Make haste then. - - _Ink_. Why so? - - _Tra_. I have heard people say - That it threatened to give up the _ghost_ t'other day.[618] 130 - - _Ink_. Well, that is a sign of some _spirit_. - - _Tra_. No doubt. - Shall you be at the Countess of Fiddlecome's rout? - - _Ink_. I've a card, and shall go: but at present, as soon - As friend Scamp shall be pleased to step down from the moon, - (Where he seems to be soaring in search of his wits), - And an interval grants from his lecturing fits, - I'm engaged to the Lady Bluebottle's collation, - To partake of a luncheon and learn'd conversation: - 'Tis a sort of reunion for Scamp, on the days - Of his lecture, to treat him with cold tongue and praise. 140 - And I own, for my own part, that 'tis not unpleasant. - Will you go? There's Miss Lilac will also be present. - - _Tra_. That "metal's attractive." - - _Ink_. No doubt--to the pocket. - - _Tra_. You should rather encourage my passion than shock it. - But let us proceed; for I think by the hum---- - - _Ink_. Very true; let us go, then, before they can come, - Or else we'll be kept here an hour at their levee, - On the rack of cross questions, by all the blue bevy. - Hark! Zounds, they'll be on us; I know by the drone - Of old Botherby's spouting ex-cathedra tone.[619] 150 - Aye! there he is at it. Poor Scamp! better join - Your friends, or he'll pay you back in your own coin. - - _Tra_. All fair; 'tis but lecture for lecture. - - _Ink_. That's clear. - But for God's sake let's go, or the Bore will be here. - Come, come: nay, I'm off. - [_Exit_ INKEL. - - _Tra_. You are right, and I'll follow; - 'Tis high time for a "_Sic me servavit Apollo_."[620] - And yet we shall have the whole crew on our kibes,[621] - Blues, dandies, and dowagers, and second-hand scribes, - All flocking to moisten their exquisite throttles - With a glass of Madeira[622] at Lady Bluebottle's. 160 - [_Exit_ TRACY. - - - - - ECLOGUE THE SECOND. - - _An Apartment in the House of_ LADY BLUEBOTTLE.--_A Table prepared._ - - SIR RICHARD BLUEBOTTLE _solus_. - - Was there ever a man who was married so sorry? - Like a fool, I must needs do the thing in a hurry. - My life is reversed, and my quiet destroyed; - My days, which once passed in so gentle a void, - Must now, every hour of the twelve, be employed; - The twelve, do I say?--of the whole twenty-four, - Is there one which I dare call my own any more? - What with driving and visiting, dancing and dining, - What with learning, and teaching, and scribbling, and shining, - In science and art, I'll be cursed if I know 10 - Myself from my wife; for although we are two, - Yet she somehow contrives that all things shall be done - In a style which proclaims us eternally one. - But the thing of all things which distresses me more - Than the bills of the week (though they trouble me sore) - Is the numerous, humorous, backbiting crew - Of scribblers, wits, lecturers, white, black, and blue, - Who are brought to my house as an inn, to my cost-- - For the bill here, it seems, is defrayed by the host-- - No pleasure! no leisure! no thought for my pains, 20 - But to hear a vile jargon which addles my brains; - A smatter and chatter, gleaned out of reviews, - By the rag, tag, and bobtail, of those they call "Blues;" - A rabble who know not----But soft, here they come! - Would to God I were deaf! as I'm not, I'll be dumb. - - _Enter_ LADY BLUEBOTTLE, MISS LILAC, LADY BLUEMOUNT, MR. BOTHERBY, - INKEL, TRACY, MISS MAZARINE, _and others, with_ SCAMP _the Lecturer, - etc., etc._ - - _Lady Blueb_. - Ah! Sir Richard, good morning: I've brought you some friends. - - _Sir Rich_. (_bows, and afterwards aside_). - If friends, they're the first. - - _Lady Blueb_. But the luncheon attends. - I pray ye be seated, "_sans ceremonie_." - Mr. Scamp, you're fatigued; take your chair there, next me. - [_They all sit._ - - _Sir Rich_. (_aside_). If he does, his fatigue is to come. - - _Lady Blueb_. Mr. Tracy-- - Lady Bluemount--Miss Lilac--be pleased, pray, to place ye; 31 - And you, Mr. Botherby-- - - _Both_. Oh, my dear Lady, - I obey. - - _Lady Blueb_. Mr. Inkel, I ought to upbraid ye: - You were not at the lecture. - - _Ink_. Excuse me, I was; - But the heat forced me out in the best part--alas! - And when-- - - _Lady Blueb_. To be sure it was broiling; but then - You have lost such a lecture! - - _Both_. The best of the ten. - - _Tra_. How can you know that? there are two more. - - _Both_. Because - I defy him to beat this day's wondrous applause. - The very walls shook. - - _Ink_. Oh, if that be the test, 40 - I allow our friend Scamp has this day done his best. - Miss Lilac, permit me to help you;--a wing? - - _Miss Lil_. No more, sir, I thank you. Who lectures next spring? - - _Both_. Dick Dunder. - - _Ink_. That is, if he lives. - - _Miss Lil_. And why not? - - _Ink_. No reason whatever, save that he's a sot. - Lady Bluemount! a glass of Madeira? - - _Lady Bluem_. With pleasure. - - _Ink_. How does your friend Wordswords, that Windermere treasure? - Does he stick to his lakes, like the leeches he sings,[623] - And their gatherers, as Homer sung warriors and kings? - - _Lady Bluem_. He has just got a place.[624] - - _Ink_. As a footman? - - _Lady Bluem_. For shame! - Nor profane with your sneers so poetic a name. 51 - - _Ink_. Nay, I meant him no evil, but pitied his master; - For the poet of pedlers 'twere, sure, no disaster - To wear a new livery; the more, as 'tis not - The first time he has turned both his creed and his coat. - - _Lady Bluem_. For shame! I repeat. If Sir George could but hear-- - - _Lady Blueb_. Never mind our friend Inkel; we all know, my dear, - 'Tis his way. - - _Sir Rich_. But this place-- - - _Ink_. Is perhaps like friend Scamp's, - A lecturer's. - - _Lady Bluem_. Excuse me--'tis one in the "Stamps:" - He is made a collector. - - _Tra_. Collector! - - _Sir Rich_. How? - - _Miss Lil_. What? 60 - - _Ink_. I shall think of him oft when I buy a new hat: - There his works will appear-- - - _Lady Bluem_. Sir, they reach to the Ganges. - - _Ink_. I sha'n't go so far--I can have them at Grange's.[625] - - _Lady Bluem_. Oh fie! - - _Miss Lil_. And for shame! - - _Lady Bluem_. You're too bad. - - _Both_. Very good! - - _Lady Bluem_. How good? - - _Lady Blueb_. He means nought--'tis his phrase. - - _Lady Bluem_. He grows rude. - - _Lady Blueb_. He means nothing; nay, ask him. - - _Lady Bluem_. Pray, Sir! did you mean - What you say? - - _Ink_. Never mind if he did; 'twill be seen - That whatever he means won't alloy what he says. - - _Both_. Sir! - - _Ink_. Pray be content with your portion of praise; - 'Twas in your defence. - - _Both_. If you please, with submission 70 - I can make out my own. - - _Ink_. It would be your perdition. - While you live, my dear Botherby, never defend - Yourself or your works; but leave both to a friend. - Apropos--Is your play then accepted at last? - - _Both_. At last? - - _Ink_. Why I thought--that's to say--there had passed - A few green-room whispers, which hinted,--you know - That the taste of the actors at best is so so.[626] - - _Both_. Sir, the green-room's in rapture, and so's the Committee. - - _Ink_. Aye--yours are the plays for exciting our "pity - And fear," as the Greek says: for "purging the mind,"80 - I doubt if you'll leave us an equal behind. - - _Both_. I have written the prologue, and meant to have prayed - For a spice of your wit in an epilogue's aid. - - _Ink_. Well, time enough yet, when the play's to be played. - Is it cast yet? - - _Both_. The actors are fighting for parts, - As is usual in that most litigious of arts. - - _Lady Blueb_. We'll all make a party, and go the _first_ night. - - _Tra_. And you promised the epilogue, Inkel. - - _Ink_. Not quite. - However, to save my friend Botherby trouble, - I'll do what I can, though my pains must be double. 90 - - _Tra_. Why so? - - _Ink_. To do justice to what goes before. - - _Both_. Sir, I'm happy to say, I've no fears on that score. - Your parts, Mr. Inkel, are---- - - _Ink_. Never mind _mine_; - Stick to those of your play, which is quite your own line. - - _Lady Bluem_. You're a fugitive writer, I think, sir, of rhymes?[627] - - _Ink_. Yes, ma'am; and a fugitive reader sometimes. - On Wordswords, for instance, I seldom alight, - Or on Mouthey, his friend, without taking to flight. - - _Lady Bluem_. Sir, your taste is too common; but time and posterity - Will right these great men, and this age's severity 100 - Become its reproach. - - _Ink_. I've no sort of objection, - So I'm not of the party to take the infection. - - _Lady Blueb_. Perhaps you have doubts that they ever will _take_? - - _Ink_. Not at all; on the contrary, those of the lake - Have taken already, and still will continue - To take--what they can, from a groat to a guinea, - Of pension or place;--but the subject's a bore. - - _Lady Bluem_. Well, sir, the time's coming. - - _Ink_. Scamp! don't you feel sore? - What say you to this? - - _Scamp_. They have merit, I own; - Though their system's absurdity keeps it unknown, 110 - - _Ink_. Then why not unearth it in one of your lectures? - - _Scamp_. It is only time past which comes under my strictures. - - _Lady Blueb_. Come, a truce with all tartness;--the joy of my heart - Is to see Nature's triumph o'er all that is art. - Wild Nature!--Grand Shakespeare! - - _Both_. And down Aristotle! - - _Lady Bluem_. Sir George[628] thinks exactly with Lady Bluebottle: - And my Lord Seventy-four,[629] who protects our dear Bard, - And who gave him his place, has the greatest regard - For the poet, who, singing of pedlers and asses, - Has found out the way to dispense with Parnassus. 120 - - _Tra_. And you, Scamp!-- - - _Scamp_. I needs must confess I'm embarrassed. - - _Ink_. Don't call upon Scamp, who's already so harassed - With old _schools_, and new _schools_, - and no _schools_, and all _schools_[630]. - - _Tra_. Well, one thing is certain, that _some_ must be fools. - I should like to know who. - - _Ink_. And I should not be sorry - To know who are _not_:--it would save us some worry. - - _Lady Blueb_. A truce with remark, and let nothing control - This "feast of our reason, and flow of the soul." - Oh! my dear Mr. Botherby! sympathise!--I - Now feel such a rapture, I'm ready to fly, 130 - I feel so elastic--"_so buoyant--so buoyant!_"[631] - - _Ink_. Tracy! open the window. - - _Tra_. I wish her much joy on't. - - _Both_. For God's sake, my Lady Bluebottle, check not - This gentle emotion, so seldom our lot - Upon earth. Give it way: 'tis an impulse which lifts - Our spirits from earth--the sublimest of gifts; - For which poor Prometheus was chained to his mountain: - 'Tis the source of all sentiment--feeling's true fountain; - 'Tis the Vision of Heaven upon Earth: 'tis the gas - Of the soul: 'tis the seizing of shades as they pass, 140 - And making them substance: 'tis something divine:-- - - _Ink_. Shall I help you, my friend, to a little more wine? - - _Both_. I thank you: not any more, sir, till I dine.[632] - - _Ink_. Apropos--Do you dine with Sir Humphry to day? - - _Tra_. I should think with _Duke_ Humphry[633] was more in your way. - - _Ink_. It might be of yore; but we authors now look - To the Knight, as a landlord, much more than the Duke. - The truth is, each writer now quite at his ease is, - And (except with his publisher) dines where he pleases. - But 'tis now nearly five, and I must to the Park. 150 - - _Tra_. And I'll take a turn with you there till 'tis dark. - And you, Scamp-- - - _Scamp_. Excuse me! I must to my notes, - For my lecture next week. - - _Ink_. He must mind whom he quotes - Out of "Elegant Extracts." - - _Lady Blueb_. Well, now we break up; - But remember Miss Diddle[634] invites us to sup. - - _Ink_. Then at two hours past midnight we all meet again, - For the sciences, sandwiches, hock, and champagne! - - _Tra_. And the sweet lobster salad![635] - - _Both_. I honour that meal; - For 'tis then that our feelings most genuinely--feel. - - _Ink_. True; feeling is truest _then_, far beyond question: - I wish to the gods 'twas the same with digestion! 161 - - _Lady Blueb_. Pshaw!--never mind that; for one moment of feeling - Is worth--God knows what. - - _Ink_. 'Tis at least worth concealing - For itself, or what follows--But here comes your carriage. - - _Sir Rich_. (_aside_). - I wish all these people were d----d with _my_ marriage! - [_Exeunt._ - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[609] {573}[Benjamin Stillingfleet is said to have attended evening -parties at Mrs. Montague's in grey or blue worsted stockings, in lieu of -full dress. The ladies who excused and tolerated this defiance of the -conventions were nicknamed "blues," or "blue-stockings." Hannah More -describes such a club or coterie in her _Bas Bleu_, which was circulated -in MS. in 1784 (Boswell's _Life of Johnson_, 1848, p. 689). A farce by -Moore, entitled _The M. P., or The Blue-Stocking_, was played for the -first time at the Lyceum, September 30, 1811. The heroine, "Lady Bab -Blue, is a pretender to poetry, chemistry, etc."--Genest's _Hist. of the -Stage_, 1832, viii. 270.] - -[610] {574}[Compare the dialogue between Mr. Paperstamp, Mr. -Feathernest, Mr. Vamp, etc., in Peacock's _Melincourt_, cap. xxxii., -_Works_, 1875, i. 272.] - -[611] [Compare-- - - "The last edition see by Long. and Co., - Rees, Hurst, and Orme, our fathers of the Row." - - _The Search after Happiness_, by Sir Walter Scott.] - - - -[612] [This phrase is said to have been first used in the _Edinburgh -Review_--probably by Jeffrey. (See review of _Rogers's Human Life_, -1818, _Edin. Rev._, vol. 31, p. 325.)] - -[613] {575}[It is possible that the description of Hazlitt's Lectures of -1818 is coloured by recollections of Coleridge's Lectures of 1811-1812, -which Byron attended (see letter to Harness, December 6, 1811, -_Letters_, 1898, ii. 76, note 1); but the substance of the attack is -probably derived from Gifford's review of _Lectures on the English -Poets, delivered at the Surrey Institution_ (_Quarterly Review_, -December, 1818, vol. xix. pp. 424-434.)] - -[614] {576}["Yesterday, a very pretty letter from Annabella.... She is -... very little spoiled, which is strange in an heiress.... She is a -poetess--a mathematician--a metaphysician."--_Journal_, November 30, -1813, _Letters_, 1898, ii. 357] - -[615] {578}[The term "renegade" was applied to Southey by William Smith, -M.P., in the House of Commons, March 14, 1817 (_vide ante_, p. 482). -Sotheby's plays, _Ivan_, _The Death of Darnley_, _Zamorin and Zama_, -were published under the title of _Five Tragedies_, in 1814.] - -[616] [Compare-- - - "I've bribed my Grandmother's Review the British." - - _Don Juan_, Canto I. stanza ccix. line 9. - -And see "Letter to the Editor of 'My Grandmother's Review,'" _Letters_, -1900, iv. Appendix VII. pp. 465-470. The reference may be to a review of -the Fourth Canto of _Childe Harold_, which appeared in the _British -Review_, January, 1818, or to a more recent and, naturally, most hostile -notice of _Don Juan_ (No. xviii. 1819).] - -[617] [_The Journal de Trevoux_, published under the title of _Memoires -de Trevoux_ (1701-1775, 265 vols. 12º), edited by members of the Society -of Jesus, was an imitation of the _Journal des Savants_. The original -matter, the Memoires, contain a mine of information for the student of -the history of French Literature; but the reviews, critical notices, -etc., to which Byron refers, were of a highly polemical and partisan -character, and were the subject of attack on the part of Protestant and -free-thinking antagonists. In a letter to Moore, dated Ravenna, June 22, -1821, Byron says, "Now, if we were but together a little to combine our -_Journal of Trevoux_!" (_Letters_, 1901, v. 309). The use of the same -illustration in letter and poem is curious and noteworthy.] - -[618] {579}[The publication of the _British Review_ was discontinued in -1825.] - -[619] [For "Botherby," _vide ante_, _Beppo_, stanza lxxii. line 7, p. -182, note 1; and with the "ex-cathedra tone" compare "that awful note of -woe," _Vision of Judgment_, stanza xc. line 4, _ante_, p. 518.] - -[620] {580}["Sotheby is a good man, rhymes well (if not wisely), but is -a bore. He seizes you by the button. One night of a rout at Mrs. Hope's, -he had fastened upon me (something about Agamemnon, or Orestes, or some -of his plays), notwithstanding my symptoms of manifest distress (for I -was in love, and just nicked a minute, when neither mothers, nor -husbands, nor rivals, nor gossips, were near my then idol, who was -beautiful as the Statues of the Gallery where we stood at the -time)--Sotheby I say had seized upon me by the button and the -heart-strings, and spared neither. William Spencer, who likes fun, and -don't dislike mischief, saw my case, and coming up to us both, took me -by the hand, and pathetically bade me farewell; 'for,' said he, 'I see -it is all over with you.' Sotheby then went way. '_Sic me servavit -Apollo_.'"--_Detached Thoughts_, 1821, _Letters_, 1901, v. 433.] - -[621] [For Byron's misapprehension concerning "kibes," see _Childe -Harold_, Canto I. stanza lxvii. line 5, _Poetical Works_, 1899, ii. 64, -note 3.] - -[622] ["Where can the animals who write this trash have been bred, to -fancy that ladies drink bumpers of Madeira at luncheon?"--_Literary -Register_, May 3, 1823.] - -[623] {582}[Wordsworth's _Resolution and Independence_, originally -entitled _The Leech-gatherer_, was written in 1802, and published in -1807.] - -[624] [Wordsworth was appointed Distributor of Stamps for the County of -Westmoreland, in March, 1813. Lord Lonsdale and Sir George Beaumont were -"suretys for the due execution of the trust."--_Life of William -Wordsworth_, by William Knight, 1889, ii. 210.] - -[625] Grange is or was a famous pastry-cook and fruiterer in Piccadilly. -["Grange's" (James Grange, confectioner, No. 178, Piccadilly, see Kent's -London Directory of 1820), moved farther west some fifteen years ago.] - -[626] {584}["When I belonged to the Drury Lane Committee ... the number -of plays upon the shelves were about _five_ hundred.... Mr. Sotheby -obligingly offered us all his tragedies, and I pledged myself; and, -notwithstanding many squabbles with my Committe[e]d Brethren, did get -'Ivan' accepted, read, and the parts distributed. But lo! in the very -heart of the matter, upon some _tepid_-ness on the part of Kean, or -warmth on that of the author, Sotheby withdrew his play."--_Detached -Thoughts_, 1821, _Letters_, 1901, v. 442.] - -[627] [_Fugitive Pieces_ is the title of the suppressed quarto edition -of Byron's juvenile poems.] - -[628] {585}[Sir George Beaumont, Bart., of Coleorton, Leicestershire -(1753-1827), landscape-painter, art critic, and picture-collector, one -of the founders of the National Gallery, married, in 1778, Margaret -Willis, granddaughter of Chief Justice Willis. She corresponded with -Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy, and with Coleridge (see _Memorials of -Coleorton_, 1888). Coleridge visited the Beaumonts for the first time at -Dunmore, in 1804. "I was not received here," he tells Wordsworth, "with -mere kindness; I was welcomed _almost_ as you welcomed me when first I -visited you at Racedown" (_Letters of S. T. Coleridge_, 1895, ii. 459). -Scott (_Memoirs of the life, etc._, 1838, ii, II) describes Sir George -Beaumont as "by far the most sensible and pleasing man I ever knew, -kind, too, in his nature, and generous and gentle in society.... He was -the great friend of Wordsworth, and understood his poetry."] - -[629] [It was not Wordsworth's patron, William Lord Lonsdale, but his -kinsman James, the first earl, who, towards the close of the American -war, offered to build and man a ship of seventy-four guns.] - -[630] {586}[For this harping on "schools" of poetry, see Hazlitt's -Lectures "On the Living Poets" _Lectures on the English Poets_ (No. -viii.), 1818, p. 318.] - -[631] Fact from life, with the _words_. - -[632] [Sir Humphry Davy (1778-1829), President of the Royal Society, -received the honour of knighthood April 8, 1812. He was created a -baronet January 18, 1819.] - -[633] {587}[Compare "We have been for many years at a great distance -from each other; we are now separated. You have combined arsenic with -your gold, Sir Humphry! You are brittle, and I will rather dine with -Duke Humphry than with you."--_Anima Poetae_, by S. T. Coleridge, 1895, -p. 218.] - -[634] ["Lydia White," writes Lady Morgan (_Memoirs_, 1862, ii. 236), -"was a personage of much social celebrity in her day. She was an Irish -lady of large fortune and considerable talent, noted for her hospitality -and dinners in all the capitals of Europe." She is mentioned by Moore -(_Memoirs_, 1853, in. 21), Miss Berry (_Journal_, 1866, ii. 484), -Ticknor (_Life, Letters, and Journal_, 1876, i. 176), etc., etc. - -Byron saw her for the last time in Venice, when she borrowed a copy of -_Lalla Rookh_ (Letter to Moore, June 1, 1818, _Letters_, 1900, iv. 237). -Sir Walter Scott, who knew her well, records her death: "January 28, -[1827]. Heard of Miss White's death--she _was_ a woman of wit, and had a -feeling and kind heart. Poor Lydia! I saw the Duke of York and her in -London, when Death, it seems, was brandishing his dart over them. - - 'The view o't gave them little fright.'" - -(_Memoirs of the Life, etc._, 1838, iv. 110.)] - -[635] [Moore, following the example of Pope, who thought his "delicious -lobster-nights" worth commemorating, gives details of a supper at -Watier's, May 19, 1814, at which Kean was present, when Byron "confined -himself to lobsters, and of these finished two or three, to his own -share," etc.--an Ambrosian night, indeed!--_Life_, p. 254.] - - - END OF VOL. 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