Chapter XLII: Preface (3)

"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 Cæsar 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 Ginès 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 á 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 Ginès 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, longæ 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 Lacedæmonians--

"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 Græciæ_ (_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_.