Chapter III: Introduction: To the Occasional Pieces (2)

What must they feel whom no false vision
But truest, tenderest Passion warmed?
Sincere, but swift in sad transition:
As if a dream alone had charmed?
Ah! sure such _grief_ is _Fancy's_ scheming,
And all thy _Change_ can be but _dreaming!_

[MS. M. First published, _Childe Harold_, 1814 (Seventh Edition).]

ON BEING ASKED WHAT WAS THE "ORIGIN OF LOVE."[bw]

The "Origin of Love!"--Ah, why
That cruel question ask of me,
When thou mayst read in many an eye
He starts to life on seeing thee?
And shouldst thou seek his _end_ to know:
My heart forebodes, my fears foresee,
He'll linger long in silent woe;
But live until--I cease to be.

[First published, _Childe Harold_, 1814 (Seventh Edition).]

ON THE QUOTATION,

"And my true faith can alter never,
Though thou art gone perhaps for ever."

1.

And "thy true faith can alter never?"--
Indeed it lasted for a--week!
I know the length of Love's forever,
And just expected such a freak.
In peace we met, in peace we parted,
In peace we vowed to meet again,
And though I find thee fickle-hearted
No pang of mine shall make thee vain.

2.

One gone--'twas time to seek a second;
In sooth 'twere hard to blame thy haste.
And whatsoe'er thy love be reckoned,
At least thou hast improved in taste:
Though one was young, the next was younger,
His love was new, mine too well known--
And what might make the charm still stronger,
The youth was present, I was flown.

3.

Seven days and nights of single sorrow!
Too much for human constancy!
A fortnight past, why then to-morrow,
His turn is come to follow me:
And if each week you change a lover,
And so have acted heretofore,
Before a year or two is over
We'll form a very pretty _corps_.

4.

Adieu, fair thing! without upbraiding
I fain would take a decent leave;
Thy beauty still survives unfading,
And undeceived may long deceive.
With him unto thy bosom dearer
Enjoy the moments as they flee;
I only wish his love sincerer
Than thy young heart has been to me.

1812.
[From a MS. in the possession of Mr. Murray,
now for the first time printed.]

REMEMBER HIM, WHOM PASSION'S POWER.[51]

1.

Remember him, whom Passion's power
Severely--deeply--vainly proved:
Remember thou that dangerous hour,
When neither fell, though both were loved.[bx]

2.

That yielding breast, that melting eye,[by]
Too much invited to be blessed:
That gentle prayer, that pleading sigh,
The wilder wish reproved, repressed.

3.

Oh! let me feel that all I lost[bz]
But saved thee all that Conscience fears;
And blush for every pang it cost
To spare the vain remorse of years.

4.

Yet think of this when many a tongue,
Whose busy accents whisper blame,
Would do the heart that loved thee wrong,
And brand a nearly blighted name.[ca]

5.

Think that, whate'er to others, thou
Hast seen each selfish thought subdued:
I bless thy purer soul even now,
Even now, in midnight solitude.

6.

Oh, God! that we had met in time,
Our hearts as fond, thy hand more free;
When thou hadst loved without a crime,
And I been less unworthy thee![cb]

7.

Far may thy days, as heretofore,[cc]
From this our gaudy world be past!
And that too bitter moment o'er,
Oh! may such trial be thy last.

8.

This heart, alas! perverted long,
Itself destroyed might there destroy;
To meet thee in the glittering throng,
Would wake Presumption's hope of joy.[cd]

9.

Then to the things whose bliss or woe,
Like mine, is wild and worthless all,
That world resign--such scenes forego,
Where those who feel must surely fall.

10.

Thy youth, thy charms, thy tenderness--
Thy soul from long seclusion pure;
From what even here hath passed, may guess
What there thy bosom must endure.

11.

Oh! pardon that imploring tear,
Since not by Virtue shed in vain,
My frenzy drew from eyes so dear;
For me they shall not weep again.

12.

Though long and mournful must it be,
The thought that we no more may meet;
Yet I deserve the stern decree,
And almost deem the sentence sweet.

13.

Still--had I loved thee less--my heart
Had then less sacrificed to thine;
It felt not half so much to part
As if its guilt had made thee mine.

1813.
[MS. M. First published, _Childe Harold_, 1814 (Seventh Edition).]

IMPROMPTU, IN REPLY TO A FRIEND.[52]

When, from the heart where Sorrow sits,
Her dusky shadow mounts too high,
And o'er the changing aspect flits,
And clouds the brow, or fills the eye;
Heed not that gloom, which soon shall sink:
My Thoughts their dungeon know too well;
Back to my breast the Wanderers shrink,
And _droop_ within their silent cell.[ce]

_September_, 1813.
[MS. M. first published, _Childe Harold_, 1814 (Seventh Edition).]

SONNET.

TO GENEVRA.

Thine eyes' blue tenderness, thy long fair hair,
And the warm lustre of thy features--caught
From contemplation--where serenely wrought,
Seems Sorrow's softness charmed from its despair--
Have thrown such speaking sadness in thine air,
That--but I know thy blessed bosom fraught
With mines of unalloyed and stainless thought--
I should have deemed thee doomed to earthly care.
With such an aspect, by his colours blent,
When from his beauty-breathing pencil born,
(Except that _thou_ hast nothing to repent)
The Magdalen of Guido saw the morn--
Such seem'st thou--but how much more excellent!
With nought Remorse can claim--nor Virtue scorn.

_December_ 17, 1813.[53]
[MS. M. First published, _Corsair_, 1814 (Second Edition).]

SONNET.

TO GENEVRA.

Thy cheek is pale with thought, but not from woe,[cf]
And yet so lovely, that if Mirth could flush
Its rose of whiteness with the brightest blush,
My heart would wish away that ruder glow:
And dazzle not thy deep-blue eyes--but, oh!
While gazing on them sterner eyes will gush,
And into mine my mother's weakness rush,
Soft as the last drops round Heaven's airy bow.
For, through thy long dark lashes low depending,
The soul of melancholy Gentleness
Gleams like a Seraph from the sky descending,
Above all pain, yet pitying all distress;
At once such majesty with sweetness blending,
I worship more, but cannot love thee less.

_December_ 17, 1813.
[MS. M. First published, _Corsair_, 1814 (Second Edition).]

FROM THE PORTUGUESE.

"TU MI CHAMAS"

1.

In moments to delight devoted,[54]
"My Life!" with tenderest tone, you cry;
Dear words! on which my heart had doted,
If Youth could neither fade nor die.

2.

To Death even hours like these must roll,
Ah! then repeat those accents never;
Or change "my Life!" into "my Soul!"
Which, like my Love, exists for ever.

[MS. M.]

ANOTHER VERSION.

You call me still your _Life_.--Oh! change the word--
Life is as transient as the inconstant sigh:
Say rather I'm your Soul; more just that name,
For, like the soul, my Love can never die.

[Stanzas 1, 2 first published, _Childe Harold_, 1814
(Seventh Edition). "Another Version," first published, 1832.]

FOOTNOTES:

[1] [These stanzas were inserted in the first draft of the First Canto of _Childe Harold_, after the eighty-sixth stanza. "The struggle 'gainst the Demon's sway" (see stanza lxxxiv.) had, apparently, resulted in victory, for the "unpremeditated lay" poured forth at the time betrays the youth and high spirits of the singer. But the inconsistency was detected in time, and the lines, _To Inez_, dated January 25, 1810, with their "touches of dreariest sadness," were substituted for the simple and cheerful strains of _The Girl of Cadiz_ (see _Poetical Works_, 1899, ii. 75, note 1; _Life_, p. 151).]

[a] {1} _For thou hast never lived to see_.--[MS. M. erased.]

[b] {2} _The Saxon maids_----.--[MS. M.]

[2] [Compare _Childe Harold_, Canto I. stanza lviii. lines 8, 9, _Poetical Works_, 1899, ii. 59, note 1.]

[3] {3} [For "Bolero," see _Poetical Works_, 1898, i. 492, note 1.]

[c]
_Or tells with light and fairy hand_
_Her beads beneath the rays of Hesper_.--[MS. M. erased.]

[d] ----_the lovely Girl of Cadiz_.--[MS. M.]

[e] {4} _Written in an Album_.--[Editions 1812-1831.] _Written in Mrs. Spencer S.'s_----.--[MS. M. erased] _Written at the request of a lady in her memorandum book_.--[MS. B. M.] "_Mrs. S. S.'s request_."--[Erased. MS. B.M.]

[4] [The possessor of the album was, doubtless, Mrs. Spencer Smith, the "Lady" of the lines _To Florence_, "the sweet Florence" of the _Stanzas composed during a Thunderstorm_, and of the _Stanzas written in passing through the Ambracian Gulf_, and, finally, when "The Spell is broke, the Charm is flown," the "fair Florence" of stanzas xxxii., xxxiii. of the Second Canto of _Childe Harold_. In a letter to his mother, dated September 15, 1809, Byron writes, "This letter is committed to the charge of a very extraordinary woman, whom you have doubtless heard of, Mrs. Spencer Smith, of whose escape the Marquis de Salvo published a narrative a few years ago (_Travels in the Year 1806, from Italy to England through the Tyrol, etc., containing the particulars of the liberation of Mrs. Spencer Smith from the hands of the French Police_, London: 12mo, 1807). She has since been shipwrecked, and her life has been from its commencement so fertile in remarkable incidents, that in a romance they would appear improbable. She was born at Constantinople [_circ._ 1785], where her father, Baron Herbert, was Austrian Ambassador; married unhappily, yet has never been impeached in point of character; excited the vengeance of Buonaparte by a part in some conspiracy; several times risked her life; and is not yet twenty-five."

John Spencer Smith, the "Lady's" husband, was a younger brother of Admiral Sir Sidney Smith, the hero of the siege of Acre. He began life as a Page of Honour to Queen Charlotte, was, afterwards, attached to the Turkish Embassy, and (May 4, 1798) appointed Minister Plenipotentiary. On January 5, 1799, he concluded the treaty of defensive alliance with the Porte; and, October 30, 1799, obtained the freedom of the Black Sea for the English flag (see _Remains of the late John Tweddell_. London: 1815. See, too, for Mrs. Spencer Smith, _Letters_, 1898, i. 244, 245, note 1).]

[f] {5} _To_----.--[Editions 1812-1832.]

[g] {6} _Through giant Danger's rugged path_.--[MS. M.]

[h] {7} _Stanzas_--[1812.]

[5] Composed Oct^r. 11, 1809, during the night in a thunderstorm, when the guides had lost the road to Zitza, near the range of mountains formerly called Pindus, in Albania. [Editions 1812-1831.]

[This thunderstorm occurred during the night of the 11th October, 1809, when Lord Byron's guides had lost the road to Zitza, near the range of mountains formerly called Pindus, in Albania. Hobhouse, who had ridden on before the rest of the party, and arrived at Zitza just as the evening set in, describes the thunder as rolling "without intermission--the echoes of one peal had not ceased to roll in the mountains, before another tremendous crash burst over our heads, whilst the plains and the distant hills, visible through the cracks in the cabin, appeared in a perpetual blaze. The tempest was altogether terrific, and worthy of the Grecian Jove. Lord Byron, with the priest and the servants, did not enter our hut before three (in the morning). I now learnt from him that they had lost their way, ... and that after wandering up and down in total ignorance of their position, had, at last, stopped near some Turkish tombstones and a torrent, which they saw by the flashes of lightning. They had been thus exposed for nine hours.... It was long before we ceased to talk of the thunderstorm in the plain of Zitza."--_Travels in Albania_, 1858, i. 70, 72; _Childe Harold_, Canto II. stanza xlviii., _Poetical Works_, 1899, ii. 129, note 1.]

[i] {11} _Stanzas._--[1812.]

[j] {12} _Had Bards but realms along with rhymes_.--[MS. M.]

[k] _Again we'd see some Antonies_.--[MS. M.]

[l] _Though Jove_----.--[MS. M.]

[6] [Compare [_A Woman's Hair_] stanza 1, line 4, "I would not lose you for a world."--_Poetical Works_, 1898, i. 233.]

[m] _Written at Athens_.--[1812.]

[7] {13} On the 3rd of May, 1810, while the _Salsette_ (Captain Bathurst) was lying in the Dardanelles, Lieutenant Ekenhead, of that frigate, and the writer of these rhymes, swam from the European shore to the Asiatic--by the by, from Abydos to Sestos would have been more correct. The whole distance, from the place whence we started to our landing on the other side, including the length we were carried by the current, was computed by those on board the frigate at upwards of four English miles, though the actual breadth is barely one. The rapidity of the current is such that no boat can row directly across, and it may, in some measure, be estimated from the circumstance of the whole distance being accomplished by one of the parties in an hour and five, and by the other in an hour and ten minutes. The water was extremely cold, from the melting of the mountain snows. About three weeks before, in April, we had made an attempt; but having ridden all the way from the Troad the same morning, and the water being of an icy chillness, we found it necessary to postpone the completion till the frigate anchored below the castles, when we swam the straits as just stated, entering a considerable way above the European, and landing below the Asiatic, fort. [Le] Chevalier says that a young Jew swam the same distance for his mistress; and Olivier mentions its having been done by a Neapolitan; but our consul, Tarragona, remembered neither of these circumstances, and tried to dissuade us from the attempt. A number of the _Salsette's_ crew were known to have accomplished a greater distance; and the only thing that surprised me was that, as doubts had been entertained of the truth of Leander's story, no traveller had ever endeavoured to ascertain its practicability. [See letter to Drury, dated May 3; to his mother, May 24, 1810, etc. (_Letters_, 1898, i. 262, 275). Compare the well-known lines in _Don Juan_, Canto II. stanza cv.--

"A better swimmer you could scarce see ever,
He could perhaps have passed the Hellespont,
As once (a feat on which ourselves we prided)
Leander, Mr. Ekenhead, and I did."

Compare, too, _Childe Harold_, Canto IV. stanza clxxxiv. line 3, and the _Bride of Abydos_, Canto II. stanza i.: _Poetical Works_, 1899, ii. 461, note 2, _et post_, p. 178.]

[8] {14} [Hobhouse, who records the first attempt to cross the Hellespont, on April 16, and the successful achievement of the feat, May 3, 1810, adds the following note: "In my journal, in my friend's handwriting: 'The whole distance E. and myself swam was more than four miles--the current very strong and cold--some large fish near us when half across--we were not fatigued, but a little chilled--did it with little difficulty.--May, 6, 1810. Byron.'"--_Travels in Albania_, ii. 195.]

[9] {15} ["At Orchomenus, where stood the Temple of the Graces, I was tempted to exclaim, 'Whither have the Graces fled?' Little did I expect to find them here. Yet here comes one of them with golden cups and coffee, and another with a book. The book is a register of names.... Among these is Lord Byron's connected with some lines which I shall send you: 'Fair Albion,' etc." (See _Travels in Italy, Greece, etc._, by H. W. Williams, ii. 290, 291; _Life_, p. 101.)]

[n] _Song_.--[1812.]

[10] [The Maid of Athens was, it is supposed, the eldest of three sisters, daughters of Theodora Macri, the widow of a former English vice-consul. Byron and Hobhouse lodged at her house. The sisters were sought out and described by the artist, Hugh W. Williams, who visited Athens in May, 1817: "Theresa, the Maid of Athens, Catinco, and Mariana, are of middle stature.... The two eldest have black, or dark hair and eyes; their visage oval, and complexion somewhat pale, with teeth of pearly whiteness. Their cheeks are rounded, their noses straight, rather inclined to aquiline. The youngest, Mariana, is very fair, her face not so finely rounded, but has a gayer expression than her sisters', whose countenances, except when the conversation has something of mirth in it, may be said to be rather pensive. Their persons are elegant, and their manners pleasing and lady-like, such as would be fascinating in any country. They possess very considerable powers of conversation, and their minds seem to be more instructed than those of the Greek women in general."--_Travels in Italy, Greece, etc._, ii. 291, 292.

Other travellers, Hughes, who visited Athens in 1813, and Walsh (_Narrative of a Resident in Constantinople_, i. 122), who saw Theresa in 1821, found her charming and interesting, but speak of her beauty as a thing of the past. "She married an Englishman named Black, employed in H.M. Consular Service at Mesolonghi. She survived her husband and fell into great poverty.... Theresa Black died October 15, 1875, aged 80 years." (See _Letters_, 1898, i. 269, 270, note 1; and _Life_, p. 105, note.)

"Maid of Athens" is possibly the best-known of Byron's short poems, all over the English-speaking world. This is no doubt due in part to its having been set to music by about half a dozen composers--the latest of whom was Gounod.]

[11] {16} Romaic expression of tenderness. If I translate it, I shall affront the gentlemen, as it may seem that I supposed they could not; and if I do not, I may affront the ladies. For fear of any misconstruction on the part of the latter, I shall do so, begging pardon of the learned. It means, "My life, I love you!" which sounds very prettily in all languages, and is as much in fashion in Greece at this day as, Juvenal tells us, the two first words were amongst the Roman ladies, whose erotic expressions were all Hellenised. [The reference is to the [Greek: Zôê/ kai\ Psychê\] of Roman courtesans. _Vide_ Juvenal, lib. ii., _Sat._ vi. line 195; Martial, _Epig._ x. 68. 5.]

[12] {17} In the East (where ladies are not taught to write, lest they should scribble assignations), flowers, cinders, pebbles, etc., convey the sentiments of the parties, by that universal deputy of Mercury--an old woman. A cinder says, "I burn for thee;" a bunch of flowers tied with hair, "Take me and fly;" but a pebble declares--what nothing else can. [Compare _The Bride of Abydos_, line 295--

"What! not receive my foolish flower?"

See, too, Medwin's story of "one of the principal incidents in _The Giaour_." "I was in despair, and could hardly contrive to get a cinder, or a token-flower sent to express it."--_Conversations of Lord Byron_, 1824, p. 122.]

[13] Constantinople. [Compare--

"Tho' I am parted, yet my mind
That's more than self still stays behind."

_Poems_, by Thomas Carew, ed. 1640, p. 36.]

[14] {18} [Given to the Hon. Roden Noel by S. McCalmont Hill, who inherited it from his great-grandfather, Robert Dallas. No date or occasion of the piece has been recorded.--_Life of Lord Byron_, 1890, p. 5.]

[15] {19} [These lines are copied from a leaf of the original MS. of the Second Canto of _Childe Harold_. They are headed, "Lines written beneath the Picture of J.U.D."

In a curious work of doubtful authority, entitled, _The Life, Writings, Opinions and Times of the Right Hon. G. G. Noel Byron_, London, 1825 (iii. 123-132), there is a long and circumstantial narrative of a "defeated" attempt of Byron's to rescue a Georgian girl, whom he had bought in the slave-market for 800 piastres, from a life of shame and degradation. It is improbable that these verses suggested the story; and, on the other hand, the story, if true, does afford some clue to the verses.]

[16] {20} The son [Greek: Deu~te pai~des,] etc., was written by Riga, who perished in the attempt to revolutionize Greece. This translation is as literal as the author could make it in verse. It is of the same measure as that of the original. [For the original, see _Poetical Works_, 1891, Appendix, p. 792. For Constantine Rhigas, see _Poetical Works_, 1899, ii. 199, note 2. Hobhouse (_Travels in Albania_, 1858, ii. 3) prints a version (Byron told Murray that it was "well enough," _Letters_, 1899, iii. 13) of [Greek: Deu~te pai~des,] of his own composition. He explains in a footnote that the metre is "a mixed trochaic, except the chorus." "This song," he adds, "the chorus particularly, is sung to a tune very nearly the same as the Marseillois Hymn. Strangely enough, Lord Byron, in his translation, has entirely mistaken the metre." The first stanza runs as follows:--

"Greeks arise! the day of glory
Comes at last your swords to claim.
Let us all in future story
Rival our forefathers' fame.
Underfoot the yoke of tyrants
Let us now indignant trample,
Mindful of the great example,
And avenge our country's shame."]

[17] {21} Constantinople. "[Greek: Heptalophos]."

[18] {22} The song from which this is taken is a great favourite with the young girls of Athens of all classes. Their manner of singing it is by verses in rotation, the whole number present joining in the chorus. I have heard it frequently at our [Greek: "cho/roi"] in the winter of 1810-11. The air is plaintive and pretty.

[o] {23} _Has bound my soul to thee_----[MS. M.]

[p] _When wandering forth alone_----[MS. M.]

[q] {24}
_Oh! what can tongue or pen avail_
_Unless my heart could speak_.--[MS. M.]

[19] [These lines, which are undoubtedly genuine, were published for the first time in the sixth edition of _Poems on his Domestic Circumstances_ (W. Hone, 1816). They were first included by Murray in the collected _Poetical Works_, in vol. xvii., 1832.]

[20] ["The principal streets of the city of Valetta are flights of stairs."--_Gazetteer of the World_.]

[21] {25} [Major-General Hildebrand Oakes (1754-1822) succeeded Admiral Sir Richard Goodwin Keates as "his Majesty's commissioner for the affairs of Malta," April 27, 1810. There was an outbreak of plague during his tenure of office (1810-13).--_Annual Register_, 1810, p. 320; _Dict. Nat. Biog._, art. "Oakes."]

[22] ["Lord Byron ... was once _rather near_ fighting a duel--and that was with an officer of the staff of General Oakes at Malta" (1809).--_Westminster Review_, January, 1825, iii. 21 (by J. C. Hobhouse). (See, too, _Life_ (First Edition, 1830, 4to), i. 202, 222.)]

[23] [On March 13, 1811, Captain (Sir William) Hoste (1780-1828) defeated a combined French and Italian squadron off the island of Lissa, on the Dalmatian coast. "The French commodore's ship _La Favorite_ was burnt, himself (Dubourdieu) being killed." The four victorious frigates with their prizes arrived at Malta, March 31, when the garrison "ran out unarmed to receive and hail them." The _Volage_, in which Byron returned to England, took part in the engagement. Captain Hoste had taken a prize off Fiume in the preceding year.--_Annual Register_, 1811; _Memoirs and Letters of Sir W. Hoste_, ii. 79.]

[24] {26} ["We have had balls and fetes given us by all classes here, and it is impossible to convey to you the sensation our success has given rise to."--_Memoirs and Letters of Sir W. Hoste_, ii. 82.]

[25] [Mrs. (Susan) Fraser published, in 1809, "_Camilla de Florian_ (the scene is laid in Valetta) _and Other Poems._ By an Officer's Wife." Byron was, no doubt, struck by her admiration for Macpherson's _Ossian_, and had read with interest her version of "The Address to the Sun," in _Carthon_, p. 31 (see _Poetical Works_, 1898, i. 229). He may, too, have regarded with favour some stanzas in honour of the _Bolero_ (p. 82), which begin, "When, my Love, supinely _laying_."]

[26] {27} [Byron left Malta for England June 13, 1811. (See Letter to H. Drury, July 17, 1811, _Letters_, 1898, i. 318.)]

[r] {28} _And mine was the pride and the worth of a name_--[MS. M.]

[s] _It tells not of time_----.--[MS. M.]

[27] Francis Hodgson.

[28] {30} [Hodgson stipulated that the last twelve lines should be omitted, but Moore disregarded his wishes, and included the poem as it stands in his _Life_. A marginal note ran thus: "N.B. The poor dear soul meant nothing of this. F.H."--_Memoir of Rev. Francis Hodgson_, 1878, i. 212.]

[t] _On the death of----Thyrza_.--[MS.]

[29] [The following note on the identity of Thyrza has been communicated to the Editor:--

"The identity of Thyrza and the question whether the person
addressed under this name really existed, or was an imaginary
being, have given rise to much speculation and discussion of a more
or less futile kind.

"This difficulty is now incapable of definite and authoritative
solution, and the allusions in the verses in some respects disagree
with things said by Lord Byron later. According to the poems,
Thyrza had met him

"' ... many a day
In these, to me, deserted towers.'
(Newstead, October 11, 1811.)

"'When stretched on fever's sleepless bed.'
(At Patras, about September, 1810.)

"'Death for thee
Prepared a light and pangless dart.'

"'And oft I thought at Cynthia's noon,
When sailing o'er the Ægean wave,
"Now Thyrza gazes on that moon"--
Alas, it gleam'd upon her grave!'
(_One struggle more, and I am free_.)

"Finally, in the verses of October 11, 1811--

"'The pledge we wore--_I_ wear it still,
But where is thine?--Ah! where art thou?'

"There can be no doubt that Lord Byron referred to Thyrza in
conversation with Lady Byron, and probably also with Mrs. Leigh, as
a young girl who had existed, and the date of whose death almost
coincided with Lord Byron's landing in England in 1811. On one
occasion he showed Lady Byron a beautiful tress of hair, which she
understood to be Thyrza's. He said he had never mentioned her name,
and that now she was gone his breast was the sole depository of
that secret. 'I took the name of Thyrza from Gesner. She was Abel's
wife.'

"Thyrza is mentioned in a letter from Elizabeth, Duchess of
Devonshire, to Augustus Foster (London, May 4, 1812): 'Your little
friend, Caro William (Lady Caroline Lamb), as usual, is doing all
sorts of imprudent things for him (Lord Byron) and with him; he
admires her very much, but is supposed by some to admire our
Caroline (the Hon. Mrs. George Lamb) more; he says she is like
Thyrsa, and her singing is enchantment to him.' From this extract
it is obvious that Thyrza is alluded to in the following lines,
which, with the above quotation, may be reproduced, by kind
permission of Mr. Vere Foster, from his most interesting book, _The
Two Duchesses_ (1898, pp. 362-374).

"'Verses Addressed by Lord Byron in the year 1812 to the Hon. Mrs.
George Lamb.

"'The sacred song that on my ear
Yet vibrates from that voice of thine
I heard before from one so dear,
'Tis strange it still appears divine.
But oh! so sweet that _look_ and _tone_
To her and thee alike is given;
It seemed as if for me alone
That _both_ had been recalled from Heaven.
And though I never can redeem
The vision thus endeared to me,
I scarcely can regret my dream
When realized again by thee.'"

(It may be noted that the name Thirza, or Thyrza, a variant of Theresa, had been familiar to Byron in his childhood. In the Preface to _Cain_ he writes, "Gesner's _Death of Abel!_ I have never read since I was eight years of age at Aberdeen. The general impression of my recollection is delight; but of the contents I remember only that Cain's wife was called Mahala, and Abel's Thirza." Another and more immediate suggestion of the name may be traced to the following translation of Meleager's Epitaphium _In Heliodoram_, which one of the "associate bards," Bland, or Merivale, or Hodgson, contributed to their _Translations chiefly from the Greek Anthology_, 1806, p. 4, a work which Byron singles out for commendation in _English Bards_, etc, (lines 881-890):--

"Tears o'er my parted Thyrza's grave I shed,
Affection's fondest tribute to the dead.
* * * * *
Break, break my heart, o'ercharged with bursting woe
An empty offering to the shades below!
Ah, plant regretted! Death's remorseless power,
With dust unfruitful checked thy full-blown flower.
Take, earth, the gentle inmate to thy breast,
And soft-embosomed let my Thyrza rest."

The MSS. of "To Thyrza," "Away, away, ye notes of Woe!" "One struggle more, and I am free," and, "And thou art dead, as young and fair," which belonged originally to Mrs. Leigh, are now in the possession of Sir Theodore Martin, K.C.B.--Editor.)]

[30] [For the substitution in the present issue of continuous lines for stanzas, Byron's own authority and mandate may be quoted. "In reading the 4th vol.... I perceive that piece 12 ('Without a Stone') is made nonsense of (that is, greater nonsense than usual) by dividing it into stanzas 1, 2, etc."--Letter to John Murray, August 26, 1815, _Letters_, 1899, iii. 215.]

[u] _And soothe if such could soothe thy shade_.--[MS. erased.]

[v] {31} _By many a land_----.--[MS.]

[w] {33} _And shall they not_----.--[MS.]

[x] ----_the walk aside_.--[MS.]

[y]
(_a_) _The kiss that left no sting behind_
_So guiltless Passion thus forbore;_
_Those eyes bespoke so pure a mind,_
/ _plead_ \
_That Love forgot to_ { } _for more_.
\ _ask_ /

(_b_) _The kiss that left no sting behind,_
_So guiltless Love each wish forebore;_
_Those eyes proclaimed so pure a mind,_
_That Passion blushed to smile for more_.--
[Pencilled alternative stanzas.]

[z] {34} _Well hast thou fled_----.--[MS. erased.]

[aa]
_If judging from my present pain_
_That rest alone_----.--[MS. erased.]
_If rest alone is in the tomb_.--[MS.]

[ab] _So let it be my hope in Heaven_.--[MS. erased]

[ac] {35} _Stanzas_.--[MS. Editions 1812-1832.]

[31] ["I wrote it a day or two ago, on hearing a song of former days."--Letter to Hodgson, December 8, 1811, _Letters_, 1898, ii. 82.]

[ad] _I dare not hear_----.--[MS. erased.]

[ae] _But hush the chords_----.--[MS. erased.]

[af] ----_I dare not gaze_.--[MS. erased.]

[ag] _The voice that made that song more sweet_.--[MS.]

[ah] _'Tis silent now_----.--[MS.]

[ai] {36} _To Thyrza_.--[Editions 1812-1831.]

[aj]
_From pangs that tear_----.--[MS.]
_Such pangs that tear_----.--[MS. erased.]

[ak] _With things that moved me not before_.--[MS. erased.]

[al] _What sorrow cannot_----.--[MS.]

[am]
_It would not be, so hadst not thou_
_Withdrawn so soon_----.--[MS. erased.]

[an] {38} _--how oft I said_.--[MS. erased.]

[ao]
_Like freedom to the worn-out slave_.--[MS.]
_But Health and life returned and gave_,
_A boon 'twas idle then to give_,
_Relenting Health in mocking gave_.--[MS. B. M. erased.]

[32] [Compare _My Epitaph:_ "Youth, Nature and relenting Jove."--Letter to Hodgson, October 3, 1810, _Letters_, 1898, i. 298.]

[ap] _Dear simple gift_----.--[MS. erased.]

[33] {39} Compare _A Wish_, by Matthew Arnold, stanza 3, etc.--

"Spare me the whispering, crowded room,
The friends who come and gape and go," etc.

[aq] {41} _Stanzas_.--[Editions 1812-1831.]

[34] ["The Lovers' Walk is terminated with an ornamental urn, inscribed to Miss Dolman, a beautiful and amiable relation of Mr. Shenstone's, who died of the small-pox, about twenty-one years of age, in the following words on one side:--

'Peramabili consobrinæ
M.D.'

On the other side--

'Ah! Maria!
pvellarvm elegantissima!
ah Flore venvstatis abrepta,
vale!
hev qvanto minvs est
cvm reliqvis versari
qvam tui
meminisse.'"

(From a _Description of the Leasowes_, by A. Dodsley; _Poetical Works_ of William Shenstone [1798], p. xxix.)]

[ar]
_Are mingled with the Earth_.--[MS.]
_Were never meant for Earth_.--[MS. erased.]

[as] _Unhonoured with the vulgar dread_.--[MS. erased.]

[at] {42}
_I will not ask where thou art laid,_
_Nor look upon the name_.--[MS. erased.]

[au] _So I shall know it not_.--[MS. erased.]

[av] _Like common dust can rot_.--[MS.]

[aw] _I would not wish to see nor touch_.--[MS. erased.]

[ax] _As well as warm as thou_.--[MS. erased.]

[ay] MS. transposes lines 5 and 6 of stanza 3.

[az] _Nor frailty disavow_.--[MS.]

[ba] _Nor canst thou fair and faultless see_.--[MS. erased.]

[bb] _Nor wrong, nor change, nor fault in me_.--[MS.]

[bc] {43} _The cloud that cheers_----.--[MS.]

[bd] _The sweetness of that silent deep_.--[MS.]

[be]
_The flower in beauty's bloom unmatched_
_Is still the earliest prey_.--[MS.]
_The rose by some rude fingers snatched_,
_Is earliest doomed to fade_.--[MS. erased.]

[bf] _I do not deem I could have borne_.--[MS.]

[bg]
_But night and day of thine are passed_,
_And thou wert lovely to the last;_
_Destroyed_----.--[MS. erased.]

[bh] {44} _As stars that seem to quit the sky_.--[MS.]

[bi]
_O how much less it were to gain,_
_All beauteous though they be_.--[MS.]

[bj] _Through dark and dull Eternity_.--[MS.]

[bk] {45} _Sympathetic Address to a Young Lady_.--[_Morning Chronicle_, March 7, 1812.]

[35] [The scene which begat these memorable stanzas was enacted at a banquet at Carlton House, February 22, 1812. On March 6 the following quatrain, entitled, "Impromptu on a Recent Incident," appeared in the _Morning Chronicle_:--

"Blest omens of a happy reign,
In swift succession hourly rise,
Forsaken friends, vows made in vain--
A daughter's tears, a nation's sighs."

Byron's lines, headed, "Sympathetic Address to a Young Lady," were published anonymously in the _Morning Chronicle_ of March 7, but it was not till March 10 that the _Courier_ ventured to insert a report of "The Fracas at Carlton House on the 22nd ult.," which had already been communicated to the _Caledonian Mercury_.

"The party consisted of the Princess Charlotte, the Duchess of
York, the Dukes of York and Cambridge, Lords Moira, Erskine,
Lauderdale, Messrs. Adams and Sheridan.

"The Prince Regent expressed 'his surprise and mortification' at
the conduct of Lords Grey and Grenville [who had replied
unfavourably to a letter addressed by the P.R. to the Duke of York,
suggesting an united administration]. Lord Lauderdale thereupon,
with a freedom unusual in courts, asserted that the reply did not
express the opinions of Lords Grey and Grenville only, but of every
political friend of that way of thinking, and that he had been
present at and assisted in the drawing-up, and that every sentence
had his cordial assent. The Prince was suddenly and deeply affected
by Lord Lauderdale's reply, so much so, that the Princess,
observing his agitation, dropt her head and burst into tears--upon
which the Prince turned round and begged the female part of the
company to withdraw."

In the following June, at a ball at Miss Johnson's, Byron was "presented by order to our gracious Regent, who honoured me with some conversation," and for a time he ignored and perhaps regretted his anonymous _jeu d'esprit_. But early in 1814, either out of mere bravado or in an access of political rancour, he determined to republish the stanzas under his own name. The first edition of the _Corsair_ was printed, if not published, but in accordance with a peremptory direction (January 22, 1814), "eight lines on the little Royalty weeping in 1812," were included among the poems printed at the end of the second edition.

The "newspapers were in hysterics and town in an uproar on the avowal and republication" of the stanzas (_Diary_, February 18), and during Byron's absence from town "Murray omitted the Tears in several of the copies"--that is, in the Third Edition--but yielding to _force majeure_, replaced them in a Fourth Edition, which was issued early in February. (See Letters of July 6, 1812, January 22, February 2, and February 10, 1814 (_Letters_, 1898, ii. 134, etc.); and for "Newspaper Attacks upon Byron," see _Letters_, 1898, ii. Appendix VII. pp. 463-492.)]

[bl] _Stanzas_.--[1812.]

[36] {48} [For allusion to the "Cornelian" see "The Cornelian," ["Pignus Amoris"], and "The Adieu," stanza 7, _Poetical Works_, 1898, i. 66, 231, 240. See, too, _Letters_, 1898, i. 130, note 3.]

[bm] {50} _To Samuel Rogers, Esq_.--[_Poems_, 1816.]

[37] ["Rogers is silent,--and, it is said, severe. When he does talk, he talks well; and, on all subjects of taste, his delicacy of expression is pure as his poetry. If you enter his house--his drawing-room--his library--you of yourself say, this is not the dwelling of a common mind. There is not a gem, a coin, a book thrown aside on his chimney-piece, his sofa, his table, that does not bespeak an almost fastidious elegance in the possessor."--_Diary_, 1813; _Letters_, 1898, ii. 331.]

[38] [Compare Collins' _Ode on the Death of Mr. Thomson_--"In yonder grave a Druid lies."]

[39] {51} ["Mr. Elliston then came forward and delivered the following _Prize_ address. We cannot boast of the eloquence of the delivery. It was neither gracefully nor correctly recited. The merits of the production itself we submit to the criticism of our readers. We cannot suppose that it was selected as the most poetical composition of all the scores that were submitted to the committee. But perhaps by its tenor, by its allusions to Garrick, to Siddons, and to Sheridan, it was thought most applicable to the occasion, notwithstanding its being in part unmusical, and in general tame."--_Morning Chronicle_, October 12, 1812.]

[40] ["By the by, the best view of the said fire [February 24, 1809] (which I myself saw from a house-top in Covent-garden) was at Westminster Bridge, from the reflection on the Thames."--Letter to Lord Holland, September 25, 1812, _Letters_, 1898, ii. 148.]

[bn]
_As flashing far the new Volcano shone_
/ _meteors_ \
_And swept the skies with_ { } _not their own_.
\ _lightnings_ /

/ _sadly_ \
or, _As flashed the volumed blaze, and_ { } _shone_
\ _ghastly_ /
_The skies with lightnings awful as their own._--
[_Letter to Lord Holland, Sept_. 25, 1812.]
or, _As glared each rising flash, and ghastly shone_
_The skies with lightnings awful as their own_.--
[_Letter to Lord Holland, Sept_. 27, 1812.]

[bo] {52}
/ lava of the \
_Till slowly ebbed the_ { } _wave_.
\ _spent volcanic_ /
/ the burning \
or, _Till ebb'd the lava of_ { } _wave_,
\ _that molten_ /
_And blackening ashes mark'd the Muse's grave_.--
[_Letter to Lord Holland, Sept_. 28, 1812]

[bp] _That scorns the scythe of Time, the torch of Flame_.--[Letter to Lord Holland, Sept, 28, 1812.]

[bq] {53}
_Far be from him that hour which asks in vain_
_Tears such as flow for Garrick in his strain;_
or, _Far be that hour that vainly asks in turn_
/ crowned his \
_Sad verse for him as_ { } _Garrick's urn_.--
\ _wept o'er_ /
[_Letter to Lord Holland, Sept_. 30, 1812.]

[41] [Originally, "Ere Garrick _died_," etc. "By the by, one of my corrections in the fair copy sent yesterday has dived into the bathos some sixty fathom--

'When Garrick died, and Brinsley ceased to write.'

Ceasing to _live_ is a much more serious concern, and ought not to be first; therefore I will let the old couplet stand, with its half rhymes 'sought' and 'wrote' [_vide supra, variant_ ii.] Second thoughts in every thing are best, but, in rhyme, third and fourth don't come amiss.... I always scrawl in this way, and smooth as much as I can, but never sufficiently."--Letter to Lord Holland, September 26, 1812, _Letters_, 1898, ii. 150.]

[br]
_Such are the names that here your plaudits sought,_
_When Garrick acted, and when Brinsley wrote_.--[MS.]

[42] {54} [The following lines were omitted by the Committee:--

"_Nay, lower still, the Drama yet deplores_
_That late she deigned to crawl upon all-fours_.
_When Richard roars in Bosworth for a horse_,
_If you command, the steed must come in course_.
_If you decree, the Stage must condescend_
To soothe the sickly taste we dare not mend.
_Blame not our judgment should we acquiesce_,
_And gratify you more by showing less_.
Oh, since your Fiat stamps the Drama's laws,
Forbear to mock us with misplaced applause;
_That public praise be ne'er again disgraced_,
/ brutes to man recall \
_From_ { } _a nation's taste;_
\ _babes and brutes redeem_ /
Then pride shall doubly nerve the actor's powers,
When Reason's voice is echoed back with ours."

The last couplet but one was altered in a later copy, thus--

"_The past reproach let present scenes refute_,
_Nor shift from man to babe, from babe to brute._"

"Is Whitbread," wrote Lord Byron, "determined to castrate all my _cavalry_ lines?... I do implore, for my _own_ gratification, one lash on those accursed quadrupeds--'a long shot, Sir Lucius, if you love me.'"--_Letter to Lord Holland_, September 28, 1812, _Letters_, 1898, ii. 156. For "animal performers," vide ibid., note 1.]

[43] [Lines 66-69 were added on September 24, in a letter to Lord Holland.]

[44] {55} [The original of Dr. Busby's address, entitled "Monologue submitted to the Committee of Drury Lane Theatre," which was published in the _Morning Chronicle_, October 17, 1812, "will be found in the _Genuine Rejected Addresses_, as well as parodied in _Rejected Addresses_ ('Architectural Atoms'). On October 14 young Busby forced his way on to the stage of Drury Lane, attempted to recite his father's address, and was taken into custody. On the next night, Dr. Busby, speaking from one of the boxes, obtained a hearing for his son, who could not, however, make his voice heard in the theatre.... To the failure of the younger Busby (himself a competitor and the author of an 'Unalogue' ...) to make himself heard, Byron alludes in the stage direction, 'to be spoken in an inarticulate voice.'" (See _Letters_, 1898, ii. 176; and for Dr. Busby, see _Poetical Works_, 1898, i. 481, 485.) Busby's "Address" ran as follows:--

"When energising objects men pursue,
What are the prodigies they cannot do?
A magic edifice you here survey,
Shot from the ruins of the other day!
As Harlequin had smote the slumberous heap,
And bade the rubbish to a fabric leap.
Yet at that speed you'd never be amazed,
Knew you the _zeal_ with which the pile was raised;
Nor even here your smiles would be represt,
Knew you the rival flame that fires our breast, 10
Flame! fire and flame! sad heart-appalling sounds,
Dread metaphors that ope our healing wounds--
A sleeping pang awakes--and----But away
With all reflections that would cloud the day
That this triumphant, brilliant prospect brings,
Where Hope reviving re-expands her wings;
Where generous joy exults, where duteous ardour springs.

* * * * *

If mighty things with small we may compare,
This spirit drives Britannia's conquering car,
Burns in her ranks and kindles every tar.
Nelson displayed its power upon the main,
And Wellington exhibits it in Spain;
Another Marlborough points to Blenheim's story,
And with its lustre, blends his kindred glory. 40

In Arms and Science long our Isle hath shone,
And Shakespeare--wondrous Shakespeare--reared a throne
For British Poesy--whose powers inspire
The British pencil, and the British lyre--
Her we invoke--her Sister Arts implore:
Their smiles beseech whose charms yourselves adore,
These if we win, the Graces too we gain--
Their dear, beloved, inseparable train;
Three who their witching arts from Cupid stole
And three acknowledged sovereigns of the soul: 50
Harmonious throng! with nature blending art!
Divine Sestetto! warbling to the heart
For Poesy shall here sustain the upper part.
Thus lifted gloriously we'll sweep along,
Shine in our music, scenery and song;
Shine in our farce, masque, opera and play,
And prove old Drury has not had her day,
Nay more--so stretch the wing the world shall cry,
Old Drury never, never soared so high.
'But hold,' you'll say, 'this self-complacent boast; 60
Easy to reckon thus without your host.'
True, true--that lowers at once our mounting pride;
'Tis yours alone our merit to decide;
'Tis ours to look to you, you hold the prize
That bids our great, our best ambitions rise.
A _double_ blessing _your_ rewards impart,
Each good provide and elevate the heart.
Our twofold feeling owns its twofold cause,
Your bounty's _comfort_--_rapture_ your applause;
When in your fostering beam you bid us live, 70
You give the means of life, and gild the means you give."

_Morning Chronicle_, October 17, 1812.]

[45] {57} [Busby's translation of Lucretius (_The Nature of Things_, a Didascalie Poem) was published in 1813. Byron was a subscriber, and is mentioned in the preface as "one of the most distinguished poets of the age." The passage in question is, perhaps, taken from the Second Book, lines 880, 881, which Busby renders--

"Just as she quickens fuel into fire,
And bids it, flaming, to the skies aspire."]

[46] {59} [The Leasowes, the residence of the poet Shenstone, is near the village of Halesowen, in Shropshire.]

[47] [See Dryden's _Cymon and Iphigenia_, lines 84, 85.]

[48] [The sequel of a temporary liaison formed by Lord Byron during his career in London, occasioned this impromptu. On the cessation of the connection, the fair one [Lady C. Lamb: see _Letters_, 1898, ii. 451] called one morning at her quondam lover's apartments. His Lordship was from home; but finding _Vathek_ on the table, the lady wrote in the first page of the volume the words, "Remember me!" Byron immediately wrote under the ominous warning these two stanzas.--_Conversations of Lord Byron_, by Thomas Medwin, 1824, pp. 329, 330.

In Medwin's work the euphemisms _false_ and _fiend_ are represented by asterisks.]

[49] {60} ["To Bd., Feb. 22, 1813.

"'Remember thee,' nay--doubt it not--
Thy Husband too may '_think_' of thee!
By neither canst thou be forgot,
Thou false to him--thou fiend to me!

"'Remember thee'? Yes--yes--till Fate
In Lethe quench the guilty dream.
Yet then--e'en then--Remorse and _Hate_
Shall vainly quaff the vanquished stream."

From a MS. (in the possession of Mr. Hallam Murray) not in Byron's handwriting.]

[bs] {61} ----_not confessed thy power_.--[MS. M. erased.]

[bt] ----_still forgets the hour_.--[MS. M. erased.]

[bu] {64} _Song_.--[_Childe Harold_, 1814.]

[50] ["I send you some lines which may as well be called 'A Song' as anything else, and will do for your new edition."--B.--(MS. M.)]

[bv] _But her who not_----.--[MS. M.]

[bw] {65} _To Ianthe_.--[MS. M. Compare "The Dedication" to _Childe Harold_.]

[51] {67} [It is possible that these lines, as well as the Sonnets "To Genevra," were addressed to Lady Frances Wedderburn Webster.--See _Letters,_ 1898, ii. 2, note 1; and _Letters,_ 1899, iii. 8, note 1.]

[bx] _To him who loves and her who loved_.--[MS. M.]

[by] _That trembling form_----.--[MS. M.]

[bz]
_Resigning thee, alas! I lost_
_Joys bought too dear, if bright with tears,_
_Yet ne'er regret the pangs it cost_.--[MS. M. erased.]

[ca] _And crush_----.--[MS. M.]

[cb] _And I been not unworthy thee_.--[MS. M.]

[cc] _Long may thy days_----.--[MS. M.]

[cd] _Might make my hope of guilty joy_.--[MS.]

[52] [Byron forwarded these lines to Moore in a postscript to a letter dated September 27, 1813. "Here's," he writes, "an impromptu for you by a 'person of quality,' written last week, on being reproached for low spirits."--_Letters_, 1898, ii. 268. They were written at Aston Hall, Rotherham, where he "stayed a week ... and behaved very well--though the lady of the house [Lady F. Wedderburn Webster] is young, and religious, and pretty, and the master is my particular friend."--_Letters_, 1898, ii. 267.]

[ce] {70} _And bleed_----.--[MS. M.]

[53] ["Redde some Italian, and wrote two Sonnets.... I never wrote but one sonnet before, and that was not in earnest, and many years ago, as an exercise--and I will never write another. They are the most puling, petrifying, stupidly platonic compositions."--_Diary_, December 18, 1813; _Letters_, 1898, ii. 379.]

[cf] {71} ----_Hope whispers not from woe_.--[MS. M.]

[54]
["In moments to delight devoted
'My Life!' is still the name you give,
Dear words! on which my heart had doted
Had Man an endless term to live.
But, ah! so swift the seasons roll
That name must be repeated never,
For 'Life' in future say, 'My Soul,'
Which like my love exists for ever."

Byron wrote these lines in 1815, in Lady Lansdowne's album, at Bowood.--Note by Mr. Richard Edgecombe, _Notes and Queries_, Sixth Series, vii. 46.]

THE GIAOUR:

A FRAGMENT OF A TURKISH TALE.

"One fatal remembrance--one sorrow that throws
Its bleak shade alike o'er our joys and our woes--
To which Life nothing darker nor brighter can bring,
For which joy hath no balm--and affliction no sting."

MOORE.
["As a beam o'er the face," etc.--_Irish Melodies_.]