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The wits of Charles found easiei ways to fame, Nor wished for Jonson's art, or Shakespeare's flame ; Themselves they studied ; as they felt they writ ; Intrigue was plot, Obscenity was wit. Yet bards like these aspired to lasting praise, And proudly hoped to pimp in future days. JOHNSON. CANTO III. LONDON : PRINTED FOR WILLIAM WRIGHT, 46, FLEET-STREET. 1819. W. Shackell, Printer, Johnson's-court, Fleet-street, London. A ~x% TV, R. ANALYSIS OF THE POEM The Author, upon consideration, finds it proper to change the hero and plan of his story, not because the Two Cantos, already published of Don Juan, have been much condemned on account of their immorality, — for he despises the public opinion, — but because he admits that a hero befitting the object of this epic might easily be found at home, either in a red, green, blue, or black coat. His lordship therefore leaves the Spanish gallant, whose adven- tures he has been celebrating, on the Greek island upon which he was thrown, to enjoy the company of the beau- teous Haidee, and boldly resolves to draw from himself, like the noble wits of King Charles's days. Disliking, neverthe- less, to appear an egotist, he resolves to endeavour to speak of himself as of another person. In this manner he com- mences his story. The reader is first introduced to his native place, which he has informed the public, in one of 249037 VI ANALYSIS OF THE POEM. his minor Poems, was the small property of Loch-na-Gair, near the head of the river Dee, in Scotland. — Allusion to the city of Aberdeen, so celebrated for granting honour- able degrees. — Its colleges, and Gordon's Hospital. — Returns to the description of his native place. — The nature of his life and food there. — Might have been doomed to live there and labour for his bread, and not- withstanding might, perhaps, have written much purer and better poetry in the wilds of nature, than he has since done amidst the world of fashion and dissipation, had not fortune intended a higher station for him. — Some of for- tune's whims in raising persons from low conditions to the highest ranks enumerated. — Our hero's removal to a chari- table foundation. — His education and qualities there.' — Good fortune of some persons, and happy circumstance for them that their titles and estates were acquired by those who have lived before them. — " Place a beggar on horseback, and he'll ride to the d ." — Influence of wealth and titles, in throwing a veil of splendour over the failings or vices of their possessors. — Our hero becomes the heir to a peerage. — He is transplanted from the North to the more genial scenes of England. — Way in which the young nobility display their superior worth and acquirements. — Noble blood degenerates. — Some instances of this. — Hero goes to Harrow School, where he obtains a new title. — Early indications of genius.-— ANALYSIS OF THE POEM. vil Always very great among the heirs of nobility. — Beha- viour of the young lord at this scene of education. — Lam- poons his instructors, and is expelled from the seminary. — Goes to Cambridge. — His behaviour there. — Pub- lishes his Juvenile Poems and Satires, and sets out on his travels. — Visits Spain and Portugal. — Reaches the coast of Greece, without any such disaster as befel the crew of the French frigate Medusa, or the raft on which Don Juan is supposed to have been placed. — Pur- chases a pleasure yacht, and roves about among the Greek islands. — His pleasures and occupations there. — Forms an acquaintance with Berinthia, a fisherman's daughter, who very much resembles Haidee, and whom he prevails upon to accompany him in his voyages and perambulations. — Their residence and pleasures at the islands of Scio and Mytilene. — Grecian beauty. — The effect of love upon our hero's mind and melancholy. — The ruins of Troy. — Visits a cave called Homer's School. — Voyage to Mytilene. — Love and Innocence, a Tale. — Berinthia saved from a watery grave by her lover. — His feelings on her recovery. — Fruit of their love. — Parental feelings on the death of a child. — Leaves Berinthia. — His " Farewell" upon that occasion. — Goes to Athens.— Relapses into his gloomy fit.— Wanders to the Castalian region.— Finds the poetical water strongly tinged with gall.— Returns to his native shore.— Fails to 24903? Viii ANALYSIS OF THE POEM. shine as an Orator and Statesman. — Calls all men in power party tools, and rails at the Court. — Marries at length. — Conjugal happiness interrupted. — Makes war upon Governesses. — Advice to peeping women. — Raves in verse about his own self-created sorrows, and again goes abroad. — His sentiments and feelings on passing over some of the scenes of British glory. — On the downfall of the Imperial Diadem of France. — A contrast. — Retires to the Lake of Geneva, and takes up his abode among the scenes where Rousseau, Voltaire, Gibbon, &c. resided. — Associates with the Vampyre crew there. — Monstrous productions of this scribbling coterie.-^Leaves Geneva, and resorts to Venice. — Wretched even amidst the joys of the Carnival. — The Poem concludes with a farewell to Lord Beppo, and a hint by way of advice on the mora- lity of his writings. DON JUAN. CANTO III. I. ON second thoughts, and these, 'tis said, are best, I cannot see why I afar should roam, To Spain, France, Italy, Greece, or the rest Of foreign climes, where Pleasure builds her dome, To find a hero — no uncommon guest ; I might have looked, they say, much nearer home, Where I should find of heroes not a few, Trimmed up in martial red, or green, or blue ; II. Or sacerdotal black, if that will suit The grave, dull colour of the Muse's lay, That like the men who strike at folly's root Dare not, lest censure's tongue should blame, be gay The hypocrites, who hide the cloven foot, Because the idly talkative may say, The man who against vice the loudest bellows Is after all no better than his fellows, i III. I might, 'tis true, have found a plenteous store Of subjects for my Muse's rambling pen Within the sea-girt round of Britain's shore, That teems with noble bards and valorous men And now I weigh the knotty point once more, I think I'd better leave that rogue of Spain, Whom I conducted to the beauteous Haidee, To slumber in the arms of that frail lady ; IV. And like the noble wits of Charles's days Who found an easy way to Fame's sweet bowers Rhyming in unsophisticating lays The guilty pleasures of their own lewd hours, Draw from myself — like those who sought for praise, Covering the shrines of vice with specious flowers ; The dissolute wits that hated virtuous wives, And trumpeted their own licentious lives. V. There are, I own, whose fevered life's a theme Of aberration, whim, and discontent ; Whose bosom is a fountain, whence the stream Of black misanthropy is ever sent In images, dark as the maniac's dream, Who feels his woe and dares not yet repent, To mock and mar with ill-dissembled care The inborn happiness they cannot share. VI. I hate the egotist — I hate that I, Which brings me down to little space indeed ; It heralds in a tale of vanity Which very oft is troublesome to read — I think the critics will not this deny ; — But with my present purpose to proceed, — I urge no title to peculiar grace, So let us e'en like lawyers try the case. VII. Suppose we then to northern wilds repair^ Where fortune seldom sheds her partial gleam, To the lone barren rocks of Loch-na-Gair, Where rises into strength the Dee's fair stream ; That stream near which witij a majestic air Courting the stranger's gaze and fame's esteem, A stately city stands, that grants with ease What the world calls the honourable degrees. VIII. Of Colleges we need not say much here, — They best are judg'd of by their wisdom's fruit ; They're styled the seats of learning, but I fear That learning is not always the pursuit Where towers and temples piously they rear, And chairs, and salaried offices to boot, And youths are congregated from all quarters, That care not much for stockings or for garters. IX. There too in stately form you may espy A goodly Hospital its arms extend, With most paternal love and charity The helpless imps to succour and befriend That bear the founder's name* and where the cry Of noisy boys, resounding without end, Is heard, and ever and anon, the clatter Of knives and forks, and well clean'd pewter platter. X. But to the point first mentioned — let us see — Lone Loch-na-Gair, of wild and Gaelic name, The birth-place of our hero that's to be, And by a song already known to fame — A little lairdship as we've said on Dee That now and then just boasts a shot of game, And sometimes a few goats without a horn — Our hero there — a breechless Lord — was born. XL Lord of the heathery heath and the mud cottage, Or of a trout or two, if he could catch them ; But generally his fare was milk and pottage, For animals escape unless you watch them 'Mid scenes where they run wild until their dotage ; And fowls, unless some other fowls will hatch them, Won't come "like sacrifices in their trim" To pamper even the best with wing or limb. XII. Our ragged hero, though " no vulgar boy," And born to heir a fairer, rich domain, Might there have roved and known no other joy, Starving upon his native hill or plain, Far from the crowd whom fancied cares annoy, Revelling till mad 'mid Dissipation's train ; But with the simple men by nature fed, Labouring without a murmur for their bread. XIII. Here had our youthful hero spent his time Like lonely minstrel of the glen and dale, And built on nature's rock his simple rhime, And told perhaps a far more artless tale, To sympathy more true, more pure, sublime, And o'er the heart more fitted to prevail, Than all the stories of the demon men And worthless jilts that have employed his pen. XIV. But Fortune oft will play most curious pranks, That make even those with wisest heads to stare : She lifts the meanest to the highest ranks And makes a lordling of the beggar's heir ; The urchin that will scarcely give her thanks And late was glad a humble meal to share, Shall, if myjady Fprtune takes the whim, The very first in rank and merit seem. XV. But let us not disparage Fortune's child, Or those that owe their wealth or fame to others, The world would be a rude and gloomy wild If men were not to feerand act like brothers — The sacred glow of charity is mild : — , He is the ungenerous soul the flame that smothers ; And many bright examples might be cited Of those who thus have had their genius lighted. XVI. The youth whose tale I've chosen for my narration, Had powerful claims to hospitable aid, And luckily was placed on the foundation Of the above most charitable shade, For those who boast the name and generation Of him who bade it rear its friendly head : And there his grammar and his food he got From learning's eleemosynary pot. XVII. What talents there the embrio bard displayed We will not say, — 'twould seem they were not bright- Nor will we tell the sportive tricks he played, For school-boys take in mischief much delight : Suffice it that we hint, as it was said, He was from first a very wicked wight, That for the scurvy wager of a fig Would burn the Janitor's old worsted wig. 10 XVIII. He was not good at running — this you'll say Is the chief virtue of the brave in soul — It might be courage — but the reason lay In a small part where nature claimed controul,- Achilles' heel alone need fear the fray, — Our hero's foot was round as any bowl, And his protector was, for with his club He thus could stoutest adversary drub. XIX. 'Tis well for some that others have been born Before them, and acquired superb estates, And titles their descendants to adorn, Or else perhaps the order of the fates Had run in different terms, and spoon of horn Instead of silver, rattled on their plates ; And those who now their fellows scornful view Had gone without a stocking or a shoe. 11 XX. Puff but the beggar's rags with wind of pride Raised from a sudden gust of fortune's store And set the brat on horseback, and he'll ride Where scarcely mortal ever rode before ; His suppliant looks he quickly lays aside, And what of modesty he had before; Kindred and friends alike the wretch despises, And shines in vices as in wealth he rises. XXI. When the keen-sighted destinies espy Deep stains imprinting life's succeeding page, 'Tis kind in favouring Fortune's hand to try With splendid veil to cover passion's rage ; To blend with specious guise the public eye And make mad folly's son appear a sage : — • A peerage can do this — a peerage came, And gave our beggar boy a noble name. 12 XXII. Transplanted soon from the cold chilly north To genial scenes of England, see him now Amid the youths who show superior worth By daring like true lordlings to avow Superior profligacy — issue forth While Fame her trumpet soon begins to blow Lauding the accomplished image of a race That long have reaped gay wreaths in glory's chace. XXIII. But noble blood we see degenerate grows — Honours there are that will not bear the keeping — The stream again at length as vulgar flows As that in meanest veins we may see creeping — And hence we sometimes witness curious shows, A Marlborough pawning plate — a Cecil peeping Through window-blinds to catch the longing eyes Of milliner's apprentice — glorious prize ! 13 XXIV. Hence we perceive with feelings that belong To indignation and to pity too, (For there are sympathies so very strong That injured nature cannot them subdue) Lords of the soil whose noble names have long For generous deeds received from fame their due, Driving their helpless vassals from the land And spreading misery with a stern command ; XXV. Striplings from gaming tables and the stews, As pennyless, as haggard, and as fell As the vile harpies whom such spendthrifts choose To harbour with, and crowd their mimic hell, Issuing with hands unhallowed to abuse Their fathers' well earned honours ;— even to sell Their coffin lids— so monstrously uncivil— To raise the wind — such acts would raise the devil ;- 14 XXVI. Chathams and Nelsons hoarding up their bags Of money, from the public squeezed in taxes ; And men with stars that should be wearing rags, If we could rightly scan their parallaxes ; Princes delighted clasping kitchen hags Reeling like Saturn on a drunken axis, More pleased the poker or the spit to wield Than Britain's glorious sceptre and her shield ! XXVII. Abroad 'tis worse. — We will not far expand Our view to prove the truth of this position ; But for a moment look at Juan's land And see to what a miserable condition The horrid sway of ignorant Ferdinand Has sunk proud Spain — joined to the Inquisition That cramm'd like tyrants down the grandees' throats The captive coward wearing petticoats. 15 XXVIII. Even ladies too, we see, are not much better : The ancient virtues now are laid aside : They care not for the matrimonial fetter In which their modest mothers glorified ; Lucretia's fame is now a mere dead letter — Our modern belles have no such Roman pride. Even now in print some wedded Lady Charlotte Shall tell you how she's doated on some varlet. XXIX. Angel of truth ! forefend that I should throw Unmerited remark on Virtue's train — By Heaven ! I would not fix upon the snow Of spotless Innocence one cruel stain For all of earthly dross that shines below — But 1 have boldly taken up the pen To tell the world its faults ; and shall I spare Anatis' self because her face is fair ? 16 XXX. Now full of noble blood, and cash in pocket — Cash that makes learning look a little thing — And with a sportive soul that would not lock it In caskets where no pleasure it would bring — To Harrow's famous school, as if to mock it, Like many that surround the sacred spring, Behold our hero sent — our Minor Lord — And dubb'd Lord Squander at the revelling board. XXXI. What wondrous signs of early genius burst From striplings born to heir a noble name ? Of learning's prodigies they are the first, Th' inheritors of everlasting fame ! Our sprig of ancient stock too had a thirst, But it was kindled from unhallowed flame. He wooed the Muses but to show his spite, And in lampooning placed his sole delight. 17 XXXII. Science has pleasant tasks to those that prize them Toiling up hill to catch her dawning morn ; But if you cannot master them, despise them, And hold them up to ridicule and scorn ; Our hero took occasion to apprise them The Lord of Newstead Abbey was not born To plod like dull philosophers and tutors, Whom he denominated fools and futors. XXXIII. Or if mayhap you're rakishly inclined, And wish to banish all the moral rules — Give Satire's blackest standard to the wind And war against the fathers of the schools — Call sophistry the mental eyes to blind, And damn all doctrines of the solemn fools Who love with equal fervour to abuse Rakes, gambling tables, and delicious stews. 18 XXXIV. This was the precious lore our hero learned And preached and practised as his lyre he strung-, Wallowing amid the mire, where ne'er was earned The wreath of spotless fame by old or young ; Early it seemed as if his bosom yearned To shine the leader of the immoral throng, And chace the purer virtues from the mind That warm, adorn, and dignify mankind. XXXV. Our hopeful Minor thus laid the foundation Of that strange creed which taints his gloomy page, And thus he perfected his education As many do in this licentious age : Till tired at length, to guard their reputation And check his course, the masters in a rage Decreed expulsion to our lawless hero, Who laughed and fiddled at their wrath like Nero. 19 XXXVI. They might do so — he cared not for their ire- He was not now to fear a schoolman's rod ; But if he had a spark of Juvenal's fire Upon their backs he'd lay it on, by G — df The world loves satire — people too admire Lords that can write — then forth there came abroad The Poems of a Minor, something new, Though scoffed at by the Edinburgh Review. XXXVII. At English Bards and Scotch Reviewers then He raged like one from Bedlam's walls let loose, And tried to point a keen and desperate pen Well charged with gall, with anger and abuse — But might have spared his pains — the Northern men, Like others, cared not for his spiteful muse. So weak his Song, his Satire so ill aimed, That even himself was of the trash ashamed. 20 XXXVIII. Next Cam received him — Cam that oft has heard 'Mid Learning's shrines the dissolute voice of glee Like sound unblest of night's unhallowed bird, o Revelling 'mid haunts long dear to piety. Young Harold there he says to lore preferred iC His concubines and carnal companie ;" And so we fear our youth in wanton strain Vexed with his mirth the goddess of the fane. XXXIX. " He ne'er in Virtue's ways did take delight, But spent his days in riot most uncouth," And we may well opine what deadly blight In age must be the fruits of such a youth — Ah ! let no noble mind however bright Thus strive th' unsightly paths of shame to smooth, And by the splendour of fair fortune's ray Like a malignant meteor lead astray. 21 XL. Early perverted thus to shameful ways, The mind grows rank with noxious weeds alone, Lost is the voice of glory and of praise, And happiness, alas, is ever gone ; Nature in vain her beauteous face displays And in the heart black Envy builds her throne. Thus stung, to soften disappointment's gravel, Restless and sad, Lord Squander took to travel. XLI. No tender accents breath'd in his farewell, Such as a man who loves his native land Pours with a saddening heart upon the gale Which fans the bark that wafts him from its strand ; These are sweet sympathies that only dwell In breasts where virtue's purest blooms expand. Our Childe, whom Fortune's smile thus lifted high, Saw Albion's cliffs recede without a sigh. 22 XLII. Though pampered thus with wealth by right divine, And honoured far beyond his own desert, He seemed to feel as if no ray benign Had fallen upon his birth and warmed his heart. As if the ancient glories of his line Had fallen at length on an unworthy part ; Ungrateful, leprosed o'er with discontent, Railing at Heaven and human kind, he went. XLIII. His fancy and his passion led to Greece, But 'twas not to imbibe her purer lore ; Fame taught him that still many a beauteous piece Of ripening beauty decorates that shore. He therefore sought amid the Egean seas, The forms of love and pleasure to explore ; To riot amid Cytherea's smiles, And clasp her beauties on their native isles. 23 XLIV. He hated censure, though he pleasure loved, And therefore wished to find some happy land Where, though in luxury bosomed, unreproved He might to loose delight his heart expand ; Where maids by qualms of conscience were not moved, And wives were not declared as contraband ; Where for crim. cons, no damages are given, Except perhaps being sent too soon to Heaven. XLV. But first he took in his wild wandering course The coast of Spain, and landing there at Cadiz, Began to exercise all Cupid's force Against the tender bosoms of the ladies. 'Twould seem he never felt much keen remorse To try what sort of game the lover's trade is— And revelling fondly 'mid the Spanish honey, He spent some time, and not a little money. 24 XLVI. Th' enticing manners of the Spanish fair, Their figures and the way in which they move, Their eyes' blue languish, and their winning air, And all the ways they take to waken love, Much pleas'd him ; but he found in Spain there were Things that he could not half so well approve, Priests, tyrants, brayoes, and an Inquisition To send you in a hurry to perdition. XLVII. He coasted then to Lisbon, and awhile Where once the Taio rolled o'er golden sand- — Golden no more — wooed the voluptuous smile Of beauties that adorn the Lesbian land — Prolific wives their husbands that beguile, And cooped-up maids that have a loving hand, Intriguing, languishing in barren cloyster, For love they say will penetrate an oyster. 25 XLVIII. In Portugal a man may spend his time And money pleasantly enough, if he Has any relish for the true sublime In nature's richest mountain scenery — He may beneath the olive and the lime Drink wine cheap from the manufactory ; Or with some Julia or eloping Anna, Rove by the Minho or the Guadiaria. XLIX. Our hero, as we've said, awhile sojourned Amid the scenes where Camoens' lyre was strung, And with congenial loves and raptures burned For Lesbias brown and fair, and old and young ; Till sick at length, their jealous minds he spurned, And said for venal deeds they should be hung — They cheated, jilted, robbed, and sold their smiles, And Lisbon was of Europe the St. Giles. 26 L. He left th' Hesperian maids to their confessions And wives to appease their tyrants as they could, And the grave Padres to their old trasgressions, Glad to escape the men who deal in blood, For these are fellows that make strong impressions Sometimes along the darkling Tagus' flood. Like Argonaut in search of Golden Fleece, He spread th' adveiflturous sail and steered for Greece. LI. The Egean isles, now styled the Archipelago, He reached — and here we'll state for those who want, These isles, if thither any thing to sell ye go, Are poor, and situate in the Levant ; And if a pirate comes, mayhap to Hell ye go, Unless the rascal's modest wish you grant ; I would advise you to appease their gullets, As the best means, with good hard cannon bullets. 27 LII. The plundering Corsair seldom mercy blends With his rapacious acts — it happed howe'er Our traveller needed not the aid which sends A rude invader to the nether sphere — He and the pirates soon were best of friends, And kindly learnt each other to revere ; Lord Squander loved such characters to paint And sung of Pirate Chiefs where'er he went. LIII. He kept a pleasure yacht, and roved about, Like summer voyager upon the wave, And very frequently he would go out Alone to visit some rude pirate's cave : They feared with whom he held wild pleasure's rout He would not always thus his bacon save ; But Pirates, Corsairs, Turks, and sallow Giaours, Were favourites of his — they are not ours ! 28 LTV. Sweet Scio's Isle 'twould seem he loved the best And Sopriano's mountain, green and high, On whose romantic summits you may rest And feed with fairest sights the gazing eye ; The scenes and temples that Apollo blest And all the beauteous isles that scattered lie Upon the placid surface of the deep On to the woods that wave o'er Helle's steep. LV. Beside the ruins of Apollo's fane Reared by materials from the stately pile, A cottage stands, in aspect very plain, And not the largest that's in Chios' Isle ; But it was rural, and it pleased our swain, Who there did many a lingering hour beguile ; There when he found no pleasure on the flood He nursed his dark and melancholy mood. 29 LVI. He made excursions frequent to the coast So famed in classic page — in search of joy, But found it in barbaric ignorance lost And pleasure like the Muses very coy — He trod the bones of many a warlike host And sat amid the ruined walls of Troy. These lonely scenes to folly's wanton train Speak awful lessons — but they spoke in vain. LVII. There have been wanderers in the climes that boast Superior fame, and shine with brighter ray, Who if they Pleasure's fleeting phantom lost Found Wisdom's god-like form upon their way. Our lonely exile's mind was ever tost Upon a sea of doubts and dark dismay, Where his unruly passions and his pride Spurned at the name of any other guide. ' 30 LVJII. He hated tyrant rules and governesses, And Virtue is a dame that loves controul — She talks of self-denial and modest dresses, And bids us sometimes think about our soul ; Some folks might heap upon her their caresses He'd sit with no such vixen cheek by jowl — His heart was made for love in warm degree, But then 'twas love that glories to be free. LIX. He felt it rather lonely in his rovings And therefore thought a mistress might amuse ; He did as Greeks and Turks do in their lovings, He bought one, as you'd buy a pair of shoes ; One whose untutored heart had tender movings Though bred 'mong pirates and half Christian Jews. She was a fisher's or a corsair's daughter, And knew no art but love's delicious slaughter. 31 LX. Her name Berinthia -lovely as the form Licentious fancy paints to wake desire — Mild as the balmy sky that knows no storm, Yet with an eye that owned love's kindling* fire. There is about a Grecian girl a charm That still a classic passion can inspire ; And tho' their dress is rather odd, between us, They make a pretty substitute for Venus. LXI. If you have seen the eyes of sunny blue And locks in many a beauteous ringlet wreathing, And lips like melting rubies, dipt in dew, And forms like alabaster fondly breathing, That in some eastern regions you may view, Unconsciously the soft desires bequeathing, You may conceive, and have a hankering after, Like our wild spark, the pirate's lovely daughter. 32 LXII. Berinthia was the Haidee of the isle, Our hero though not shipwrecked, was the Juan Who shared that lovely simple creature's smile By help of glittering gold, without much suing ; We will not, can't believe, he did by guile Repay her love and kindness by her ruin — We rather think he treated her with honour, And squandered many a moidore upon her. LXIII. Berinthia was his tutor — taught him Greek, As Venus taught Adonis — her own tongue— A language which before he could not speak Tho 1 he had trod the land where Homer sung — But it is sweet while pressing female cheek To catch love's lore and accents from her tongue- It is, tho' some may view it as a sin, The sweetest way of sucking learning in. 33 LXIV. Cymon they say acquired the art of shining When he to Beauty's pleasant school was sent, And some upon Aspasia's breast reclining- Have learnt the whole good art of government Some too have got the solid means of dining By simply trying the experiment Of Love's advice and gentle revolutions Upon their fortunes and their constitutions. LXV. The Juan of our story felt the power Of Beauty, tho' 'twas thus his passion's slave — She was the goddess of his rural bower His guide and sweet companion on the wave ; With her his temper was not quite so sour, His cheek less pallid grew, his look less grave :• Tho' at mankind he railed for their deceptions, 'Twas plain he made for women some exceptions. 34 LXVI. O'er every isle he and Berinthia ran Like Tourists, prying into all they could r Taking a pretty picture or a plan, And now descending to take humble food : Like travellers who repose where'er they can, They sometimes laid them down in good green wood, Startling the wild deer as they wandered on, Like Dido, Robin Hood, or Little John. LXVII. Borne o'er the Egean main, our rambling pair Roved where old Cos Meropis spread her smile, The birth-place of Hippocrates, and where Apelles' pencil plied its pleasing toil ; They found, however, little pleasure there,. And often went to Mitylene's Isle, Which is a very sweet inviting place As classic lovers would desire to trace. 35 LXVIII. Scio, and Mitylene, and Valparos, All claim the honour of great Homer's birth ; But their ridiculous struggle to engross This high renown now almost moves our mirth. You might, 'tis true, have seen from Tenedos The siege of Troy, but now that sacred earth Covered in song with such immortal glory Shews few remains of Homer or his story. LXTX. On Scio there's a place called Homer's school, a Dark, ugly cave, like the Calcutta hole, Where there is neither chair, nor bench, nor stool, a Convenient thing to travellers on the whole ; They say the bard there brandished the ferrula, And sung tho' he was blind as any mole. Of this we have from history no mention — I therefore treat the matter as invention. 30 LXX. The keeper of the cave expects some praas For shewing it— our hero gave him three, And a Greek testament, to show the laws Against extortion, lies, and bribery ; The master too, a ragged man who was, Like all that were at his academy, He gave a robe, his nakedness to hide, Which filled the aged pedant's breast with pride. LXXI. Berinthia widely too diffused her bounty Among the maids who haunt the bays for fish, For every fair in city, town, and county, Love presents ; and you sometimes get a dish Of better sort, if you don't scan the amount ay Of what you give to gratify their wish. Our pair thus oft surprised and pleased the Turks Who are not strong believers in good works. 37 LXXII. At length they left the pleasant Isle of Scio, In lovely Mitylene to reside, For they seemed likely to become a trio, The fair Berinthia, neither wife nor bride, Being squeamish grown, and rather apt to sigh " O !" And getting rather round and pale beside. Her lord, whom thus she loved, to please his lady Bade them now get his dear felucca ready. LXXIII. They launched their precious burthens on the billow And set their sail, and steered for Sanchez Bay ; His lordship's bosom was Berinthia's pillow, And they seemed very blest and very gay ; He looked as if he'd never worn the willow, And she was plainly in a thriving way. While thus they glided on, his fair enslaver Asked for a song, and this was what he gave her. 38 LOVE AND INNOCENCE. LXXIV. The bower where love is found will be Of every joy the blissful centre, If lovers, wise amid their glee, Remember Folly must not enter. LXXV. Once, Virtue tells with tearful eye, When she was banished from the plain, The spouse of Prudence, Chastity, Resolved to shun the glance of men. LXXVI. One care she had, one lovely care, Named Innocence, and she was young, And much she feared some villain's snare, Would work the blooming prattler wrong. 39 LXXVII. Retired amid the greenest dell Of a lone isle amid the sea, The blameless pair resolved to dwell With heaven diffused tranquillity. LXXVIII. And there they passed life's sweetest hours. From toil and busy scenes remote, Sporting amid the lotus flowers And light heeled fawns that loved the spot. LXXIX. There duly fell the blessed ray That never set in sorrow's close, Virtue's own bright unclouded day, And night of undisturbed repose ... , 40 LXXX. So calm they lived — till Innocence One day beheld the feathered oar Of Love, with feigned indifference And summer bark, approach their shore. LXXXT. ■ Ah ! need I say acquaintance grew 'Twixt souls so formed to love each other? How swift the happy moments flew While all that passed was — Hobhouse's Travels in Greece, &c. p. 345. 120 NOTES. Ask'st thou the difference ? From fair Phyle's towers Survey Boeotia : — Caledonia's powers — ^P ^p w w And well I know within that murky land 48? 4k. Jfc 4fe w w w w Dispatch her reckoning children far and wide : Some east, some west, some — every where but north. 4k dfe ik 4fe ■«■ ■*¥• W w And thus accursed be the day and year She sent a Pict to play the felon here. Yet Caledonia claims some native worth, And dull Boeotia gave a Pindar birth. So may her few, the letter' d and the brave, Bound to no clime, and victors o'er the grave, Shake off the mossy slime of such a land, And shine like children of a happier strand. " Mortal !" (the blue-eyed maid resumed once more) " Bear back my mandate to thy native shore ; Though fallen, alas ! this vengeance yet is mine, To turn my counsels far from lands like thine. Hear, then, in silence, Pallas' stern behest, Hear and believe, for time will tell the rest : First on the head of him who did the deed My curse shall light, on him and all his seed ; Without one spark of intellectual fire, Be all his sons as senseless as their sire : NOTES, 121 If one with wit the parent breed disgrace, Believe him bastard of a better race; Still with his hireling Artists let him prate, And folly's praise repay for wisdom's hate*. Long of their patron's gusto let them tell, Whose noblest native gusto — is to sell : To sell, and make (may shame record the day) The State receiver of his pilfer'd prey ! «V- •#' 4k 4£? 4t* i TT TS" W W W Jb Jk dfc t tjfe I I 4t , A ~ ^5. *fi? ^g» ^s« Jb . 4fi- . .. Jfe- '4k. t - 4t* rfi? w w 3f w And last of all, amidst the gaping crew, Some calm spectator, as he takes his viewf * Un sot trouve toujours un plus sot qui l'admire. — (Boileau, La ROCHEFOUCAULT, &C.) t Nor will this conduct [the sacrilegious plunder of ancient edifices] appear wonderful in men, either by birth, or by habits and grovelling passions, barbarians, (i. e. Goths) when in our own times, and almost before our own eyes, persons of rank and education have not hesitated to disfigure the most ancient and the most venerable monuments of Grecian architecture ; to tear the works of Phidias and Praxiteles from their original position, and demolish fabrics, which time, war, and barbarism, had respected during twenty centuries. The French wbose rapacity the voice of Europe has so loudly and so justly censured, did not incur the guilt of dismantling ancient edifices ; they spared the walls, and contented themselves with statues and paintings, and even these they have collected and arranged in halls and galleries, for R 122 NOTES. In silent admiration, mixed with grief, Admires the plunder, but abhors the thief. Loathed in life, scarce pardoned in the dust, May hate pursue his sacrilegious lust ; Link'd with the fool who fired th' Ephesian dome, Shall vengeance follow far beyond the tomb. Erostratus and * * * * e'er shall shine In many a branding page and burning line. Alike condemned, for aye to stand accursed, Perchance the second viler than the first : So let him stand, through ages yet unborn, Fix'd statue on the pedestal of scorn !" He wandered too to the Castalian Hilly tyc. P. 50. st ciii. It does indeed appear, that the wandering author of the unhappy Childe did not find the waters of the Casta- lian fountain very sweet. Though not always pleasant or poetical, truth should be spoken. Hear the account the inspection of travellers of all nations ; while, if report does not deceive us, our plunderers have ransacked the temples of Greece to sell their booty to the highest bidder, or at best, to piece the walls of some obscure old mansion with fragments of Parian marble, and of Attic sculpture." (Eustace's Classical Tour through Italy, p. 158.) NOTES. 123 which the noble traveller has given us of his visit to the regions of inspiration. " The fountain of Dirce turns a mill ; at least my com- panion (who resolving to be at once cleanly and classical bathed- in it) pronounced it to be the fountain of Dirce, and any body who thinks it worth his while may contra- dict him. At Castri (Delphos) we drank of half a dozen streamlets, some not of the purest, before we decided to our satisfaction which was the true Castalian, and even that had a villainous twang, probably from the snow, though it did not throw us into an epic fever, like poor Doctor Chandler." (No wonder the verses of the poor Childe seem to smack of the twang so strongly complained of.) " I heard much of the beauty of Arcadia (adds his lordship) but excepting the view from the monastery of Megaspelion, which is inferior to Zitza in a command of country) and the descent from the mountains on the way from Tripolitza to Argos, Arcadia has little to recommend it beyond the name." Such is the account Lord Byron (though an adorer of Greece) has given us of the most interesting region, in a poetical point of view, of that classical land. Thus it is that there are those, who can travel from Dan to Beersheba, and say " 'tis all barren." The following is a better and much more satisfactory ac- count of the present state of the celebrated districts still so interesting to the imagination of the classic reader. 124 NOTES. THE KASTALIAN SPRING. " The Kastalian spring is clear, and forms an excellent beverage ; but I confess that its waters produced none of those effects upon me, which were felt by travellers of more lively imaginations, or more tender stomachs, than myself. " Nil turn Castalige rivis communibas undae " Dissimiles ■ ■■" " Dr. Spon, it seems, was converted into a poet by its draught ! while, in Dr. Chandler (a far more credible fact) it manifested its effects in a stomach-ache and a shivering fit. But if similar result?_were the uniform product of the Kastalian spring, we might expect to find all the inha- bitants of Kastri particularly liable to frigid shiverings, or poetic extacies. " The water which oozes from the rock, was in ancient times introduced into a hollow square, where it was retained for the use of the Pythia and the oracular priests. Some steps that are cut in the rock formed a descent to this bath. The face and sides of the precipice, which in- close the spring, have been cut and flattened : it was no doubt anciently covered in ; for it cannot well be ima- gined that the Pythoness laved her holy limbs in open NOTES. 125 day. A circular niche, which was probably designed for a statue, is cut in the face of the rock : a small arch and passage is seen on the western side a little above the usual level of the spring : this was made to let off the superfluous water. At the opposite side is the diminutive chapel of Saint John, which seems to have been contrived in order to exhibit the triumph of the Cross, over the ado- ration of Apollo and the Muses. " The fountain is ornamented with pendant ivy, and overshadowed by a large fig-tree, the roots of which have penetrated the fissures of the rock, while its wide-spread- ing branches throw a cool and refreshing gloom over this interesting spot. At the front of the spring we were gra- tified by the sight of a majestic plane tree, that nearly defends it from the rays of the sun, which shines on it only a few hours in the day. Homer, in his Hymn to Apollo, mentions the fount Delphousa at this place, pro- bably meaning the Kastalian. " Above the Phaedriades is a plain, and a small lake, the waters of which enter a katabathron, or chasm ; and it is probably from this that the Kastalian spring is sup- plied. The superfluous water, after trickling amongst the rocks, crosses the road, and enters a modern fount, from which it makes a quick descent to the bottom of the valley, through a narrow and rocky glen, fringed with olive and mulberry trees, when it joins the little river Pleistos, and 126 NOTES. enters the sea near the ruins of Kirra. While we were at Delphi, the Kastalian spring was flowing in a copious stream, and formed several small cascades, the appearance of which was highly picturesque. The sides of the foun- tain" were covered with fine water-cresses: I gathered some for dinner, which the poor people observing, asked if they .were medicinal ; and when I explained to them how they were to be eaten, they communicated the discovery to the others ; and, the next morning, I met a party of the vil- lagers returning from the spring, each with a provision of the newly discovered vegetable : they thanked me for the information I had given them ; and, pointing to their cresses, told me they should for the future give them the name Frankochorton, or the Frank's Herb. The poorer Greeks, particularly those who live so far from the sea, have so little to eat during their long and rigorous fasts, that the discovery of a new vegetable, which they did not know was palatable or wholesome, was a circumstance of some importance to them." — DodweWs Travels in Greece. He seemed as bred in the Corycian Cave, fyc. P. 50. st civ. The Corycian cave in the regions of Parnassus has been NOTES. 127 described by various travellers, but no where more per- spicuously, or with more felicity, than by Mr. Raikes. " The narrow and low entrance of the cave spread at once into a chamber three hundred and thirty feet long, by nearly two hundred wide ; the stalactites from the top hung in the most graceful forms, the whole length of the roof, and fell, like drapery, down the sides. The depth of the folds was so vast, and the masses thus sus- pended in the air were so great, that the relief and full- ness of these natural hangings were as complete as the fancy could have wished. They were not like concretions or incrustrations, mere coverings of the rock ; they were the gradual growth of ages, disposed! in the most simple and majestic forms, and so rich and large, as to accord with the size and loftiness of the cavern. The stalag- mites below and on the sides of the chamber were still more fantastic in their forms, than the pendants above, and struck the eye with the fancied resemblance of vast human figures. " At the end of this great vault, a narrow passage leads down a wet slope of rock; with some difficulty, from the slippery nature of the ground on which I trod, I went a considerable way on, until I came to a place where the descent grew very steep, and my light being nearly exhausted, it seemed best to return. On my way back, I found half buried in the clay, on one side of the pas- 128 NOTES. sage, a small antique Patera, of the common black and red ware. The incrustation of the grotto had begun to appear ; but it was unbroken, and I was interested in finding this simple relic of the homage once paid to the Corycian nymphs by the ancient inhabitants of the coun- try. The stalagmitic formations on the entrance of this second passage are wild as imagination can conceive, and of the most brilliant whiteness. " It would not require a fancy, lively, like that of the ancient Greeks, to assign this beautiful grotto, as a re- sidence to the nymphs. The stillness which reigns through it, only broken by the gentle sound of the water, which drops from the point of the stalactites, the JJ«t' anolovra, of ■. the grotto of the nymphs in the Odyssey, the dim light admitted by its narrow entrance, and reflected by the white ribs of the roof, with all the miraculous decora- tions of the interior, would impress the most insensible with feelings of awe, and lead him to attribute the influence of the scene to the presence of some supernatural being." (Remarks on parts of Bceotia and Phocis,from the Jour- nals of Mr. RaikesS) Appalled the fiend that thus so sadly dulls, By drinking wine from his forefathers' skulls. P. 62. st. cviii. Our Don Juan in his greener age is said to have at- NOTES. 129 tempted to rival his adopted namesake in his disgusting daring, so far as to have actually indulged in feats of this kind ; and the following stanzas give countenance to this assertion : LINES, Engraved on the silver Foot of a Skull, mounted as a Cup for Wine. I. Start not ! — nor deem my spirit fled , In me behold the only skull From which (unlike a living head) Whatever flows is never dull. I lived — I loved — I quaffed like thee I died — let earth my bones resign ! Fill up — thou canst not injure me, The Worm hath fouler lips than thine. 3. Better to hold the sparkling grape, Than nurse the earth-worm's slimy brood, And circle in the goblet's shape The drink of Gods, than reptiles' food. s ISO NOTES. 4. Where once my wit perchance hath shone In aid of others let me shine, And when, alas ! our brains are gone, What nobler substitute than wine ? 5. Quaff whilst thou canst ! — another race. When thou and thine like me are sped, May rescue thee from earth's embrace, And rhyme and revel with the dead. 6. Why not ? — since through life's little day Our heads such sad effects produce, Redeemed from worms and wasting clay, This chance is their's, to be of use. At length his wasted fortune to repair, He thought on marriage and its sober joys : — P. 53. st. cix. On January 2, 1815, Lord Byron was married to the beautiful and accomplished Anne-Isabella, only child of Sir Ralph Milbank Noel, Bart, by whom he has one NOTES. 131 daughter. This union, which, at first, promised every happiness, has unfortunately deceived the hopes of both parties ; but has given birth to two poems on Lord Byron's " Domestic Circumstances," which will not easily be forgotten: the first, remarkable for its affec- tation of regret and sensibility at an event which his lordship could himself have easily prevented ; and the second for the inveterate spirit of resentment and deep settled malevolence which pervade every line. After the union, it was soon discovered how different were the habits and manners of the contracted pair. Towards the close of 1815, the tongue of rumour had begun to whisper some intimations of that wedded discord which soon unfortunately became the subject of conver- sation from one extremity of the empire to another. His lordship's turn of mind was not at all times favourable to the cheerful socialities of the fire-side. It would be idle, and be perhaps looked upon as invidious, to repeat the various statements made to account for the separation which ensued ; but it seems admitted on all sides, that no common kind of matrimonial disarrangement had arisen between Lord Byron and his lady, as a legal instrument of separation was signed by both parties ; and his lordship shortly afterwards quitted his native land. 132 NOTES. But our redoubted sage, who felt as no man, Fell furious on a poor defenceless woman. P. 57. st. cxvii. The " Sketch from Private Life," in which a noble muse has striven to give immortality to its hatred against a defenceless woman is well known ; but as that pro- duction, like some other effusions of the noble writer's pen, is likely to become at some period a curiosity ', it may gratify the taste of some future connoisseur to find it included in these illustrations. It will show with what deliberation a refined and exalted mind can voluntarily degrade it powers, and indulge in passion and desire for revenge, till it reaches the climax of absurdity and disgust. A SKETCH FROM PRIVATE LIFE. Born in the garret, in the kitchen bred/ Promoted thence to deck her mistress' head ; Next — for some gracious service unexprest, And from its wages only to be guess'd — Rais'd from the toilet to the table— where Her wondering betters wait behind her chair. NOTES. 133 With eye unmoved, and forehead unabash'd She dines from off the plate she lately wash'd. Quick with the tale, and ready with the lie — The genial confidante, and general spy — Who could, ye gods ! her next employment guess — An only infant's earliest governess ! She taught the child to read, and taught so well, That she herself, by teaching, learn'd to spell. An adept next in penmanship she grows, As many a nameless slander deftly shows : What she had made the pupil of her art. None know — but that high soul secured the heart And panted for the truth it could not hear, With longing breast and undeluded ear. Foil'd was perversion by that youthful mind, Which Flattery fool'd not — Baseness could not blind, Deceit infect not — near Contagion soil — Indulgence weaken — nor Example spoil, Nor master'd Science tempt her to look down On humbler talents with a pitying frown— Nor Genius swell — nor Beauty render vain — Nor Envy ruffle to retaliate pain— Nor fortune change— Pride raise— nor Passion bow, Nor Virtue teach austerity — till now. Serenely purest of her sex that live, But wanting one sweet weakness— to forgive, 134 NOTES. Too shock'd at faults her soul can never know, She deems that all should be like her below ; Foe to all Vice, yet hardly Virtue's friend, For Virtue pardons those she would amend. But to the theme : now laid aside too long, The baleful burthen of this honest song — Though all her former functions are no more, She rules the circle which she served before. If mothers — none know why— before her quake ; If daughters dread her for the mother's sake ; If early habits — those false links, which bind At times the loftiest to the meanest mind — Have given her power too deeply to instil The angry essence of her deadly will ; If, like a snake, she steal within your walls, Till the black slime betray her as she crawls ; If, like a viper, to the heart she wind, And leave the venom there she did not find ; What marvel that this hag of hatred works Eternal evil latent as she lurks, To make a Pandemonium where she dwells, And reign the Hecate of domestic hells ? Skill'd by a touch to deepen scandal's tints With all the kind mendacity of hints, While mingling truth with falsehood — sneers with smiles- A thread of candour with a web of wiles ; NOTES. 135 A plain blunt show of briefly-spoken seeming, To hide her bloodless heart's soul-harden'd scheming; A lip of lies — a face formed to conceal ; And, without feeling, mock at all who feel : With a vile mask the Gorgon would disown ; A cheek of parchment — and an eye of stone. Mark, how the channels of her yellow blood Ooze to her skin, and stagnate there to mud, Cased like the centipede in saffron mail, Or darker greenness of the scorpion's scale — , (For drawn from reptiles only may we trace Congenial colours in that soul or face) — Look on her features ! and behold her mind As in a mirror of itself defined: Look on the picture ! deem it not o'ercharged— There is no trait which might not be enlarged ; — Yet true to " Nature's journeymen," who made This monster when their mistress left off trade,— This female dog-star of her little sky, Where all beneath her influence droop or die. Oh ! wretch without a tear — without a thought, Save joy above the ruin thou hast wrought — The time shall come, nor long remote when thou Shalt feel far more than thou inflictest now ; Feel for thy vile self-loving self in vain, And turn thee howling in unpitied pain. J36 NOTES. May the strong curse of crush'd affections light Back on thy bosom with reflected blight ! And make thee in thy leprosy of mind As loathsome to thyself as to mankind ! Till all thy self-thoughts curdle into hate, Black — as thy will for others would create : Till thy hard heart be calcined into dust, And thy soul welter in its hideous crust. Oh, may thy grave be sleepless as the bed, — The widow'd couch of fire, that thou hast spread ! Then, when thou fain would'st weary Heaven with prayer, Look on thine earthly victims — and despair ! Down to the dust ! — and, as thou rott'st away, Even worms shall perish on thy poisonous clay, But for the love I bore, and still must bear, To her thy malice from all ties would tear Thy name — thy human name — to every eye The climax of all scorn should hang on high, Exalted o'er thy less abhorred compeers— And festering in the infamy of years. Think of the Lady Godiva, and think Of peeping Tom of the historic page. P. 58. st. cxix. The story of peeping Tom of Coventry and the fair and NOTES. 137 frail Lady Godiva is well known. Her ladyship is still represented on horseback on the first day of the Trinity Fair. Can pride " which not a world can bow" fyc. P. 61. st. cxxvi. " Every feeling hath been shaken, Pride, which not a world could bow, Bows to thee — by thee forsaken, Even my soul forsakes me now !" Fare thee well. u His mind is evidently of a wilful and over-bearing cast — fond of power and pre-eminence, and impatient and vindictive under disappointment. He has been habituated to look upon himself with an adoring fondness, and upon the rest of mankind with a contemptuous and disdainful eye, — and, in his mad ambition, and his cold disdain of his species, he has come at last to outrage every sentiment in which other men recognise the dignity of their nature. At an early period of life, but after one rude repulse, he found himself placed at the head of our literature, and basking in the sunshine of unrivalled fame. This was too T J 38 NOTES. much for his climbing and impetuous soul : — he soon be- came cloyed with praise, and disdained the offerings pre- sented to him by beings who had first trampled upon his weakness, — then trembled before the frown of his indig- nation, — and finally worshipped the resistless triumphs of his genius. He could bear to be insulted, because that only stimulated him to exertion, and summoned him to revenge ; but when he found the world at his feet, he began to despise and to loathe it. "The pride — the excessive and inordinate pride of Byron — is the first and principal cause of those deplorable aberrations into which he has been betrayed ; but there is another, scarcely less operative, namely, the power of strong passion, to which he readily submits ; and to which, as it has been the source of his most brilliant successes, he seems willingly to surrender the troubled course of his existence. He is, perhaps, more decidedly the creature of passion in its most intense and indomitable form, than any other living man ; — and he certainly has it less under the government of refined and enlightened intellect than any of tire great poets of former times, with whom, in other points, he may bear a comparison. — Edinburgh Monthly Review. NOTES. 139 Of Bravoes, Endriagos, Caichpoles, Giaours, Corsairs, or Demons with unearthly powers. P. 62. si. cxxvii. The voice of blame I hate to hear or swell, And yet some strains the censor's frown impel. Giaours; Selims ; Corsairs ; Alps and Harolds teaze ; And all the misanthropes and ruffians please. Paris and Weimar drilled us to admire Outrageous sentiment and maniac fire. With humble plagiarising skill we toil, And their worst shoots transplant to British soil. Our rage for novelty th' exotic hails, And German Endriagos crowd our tales. Montorios, Bertrams, Christabels delight : Ambrosios, sorcerers, bravos, fiends affright. As if a bedlam were the general school, Or Bacchus' orgies gave the poet rule. As if chew'd opium were the happiest muse, And her best forms, phantasmagoria views. Turner's Prolusions. He bound a cypress wreath around his head, And went to ride on Neptune's horse again. P. 62. si. cxxvii. Once more upon the waters — yet once more, And the waves bound beneath me as a steed That knows his rider.— Childe Harold, Third Canto. 140 NOTES. O'er Europe's late Thermopylae he trod. P. 63. st. cxxx. Vide Childe Harold's reflections on the field of Water- loo. The modern " Hubert." P. 63. st. cxxx. Vide the poem, in a previous note, " On leaving New- stead Abbey." The fall of that Imperial diadem That blazed afar with unpropitious light. P. 64. st. cxxxL The Ode to Napoleon on his exile to Elba forms a curious contrast to the sentiments expressed in that ad- dressed to the French nation, beginning thus : Oh, shame to thee, Land of the Gaul I Oh, shame to thy children and thee ! Unwise in thy glory, and base in thy fall, How wretched thy portion shall be ! NOTES. 141 Derision shall strike thee forlorn, A mockery that never shall die % , . The curses of Hate, and the hisses of Scorn Shall burthen the winds of thy sky ; And, proud o'er thy ruin, for ever be hurl'd The laughter of Triumph, the jeers of the World ! Like that unhappy maniac, poor Bousseau, He then retired to nature's bosom wild — To famed Geneva's lake, §c. p. 64. st. cxxxi. Jean Jaques Rousseau. — The madness of this extraordi- nary character was too remarkable to be soon forgotten : it is perpetuated in the fruits of his imagination, and has proved indeed a seductive contagion. Butthephrenzy of the Genevan philosopher was a sentimental elysium compared to the " moody madness, laughing wild," amid the horrors of its own creation, which seems to possess the monster- making coterie that have lately established themselves on the ground where Gibbon, Voltaire, and Rousseau wrote and resided: we mean the Vampyre family— or that knot of scribblers, male and female, with weak nerves, and 142 NOTES. disordered brains, from whom have sprung those disgust- ing compounds of unnatural conception, bad taste, and absurdity, entitled " Frankenstein, or the modern Prome- theus," the " Vampyre," &c. &c. " 'Tis said that Xerxes offered a reward To those who could invent him a new pleasure." As " pleasure is a very pleasant thing," according to Lord Byron and Don Juan, we agree that an addition to that stock is highly desirable ; but what sort of reward is due to those who labour to invent new monsters, to degrade their species into imaginary forms of disgust and hideousness, and to augment the source of mental miseries to themselves and to mankind ? " Verily they have their reward" in the effects produced upon their own minds by their horrid and beloved phantasmagoria. The following details from one who appears to have formed a part of the literary society alluded to, furnish a curious illustration of this part of the poem. EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM GENEVA. Not to look back to earlier times of battles and sieges, here is a bust of Rousseau — here is a house with an in- NOTES. 143 scription denoting that the Genevan philosopher first drew breath under its roof. A little out of the town is Ferney, the residence of Voltaire ; where that wonderful, though certainly in many respects contemptible, charac- ter, received, like the hermits of old, the visits of pilgrims, not only from his own nation, but from the farthest boundaries of Europe. ! Here too is Bonnet's abode, and a few steps beyond, the house of that astonishing woman Madame de Stael : perhaps the first of her sex, who has really proved its often claimed equality with the nobler man. We have before had women who have written interesting novels and poems, in which their tact at observing drawing-room characters has availed them ; but never since the days of Heloise have those faculties which are peculiar to man, been developed as the possible inheritance of woman. Though even here, as in the case of Heloise, our sex have not been backward in alledging the existence of an Abeilard in the person of M. Schlegel as the inspirer of her works. But to proceed : upon the same side of the lake, Gibbon, Bonnivard, Bradshaw, and others mark, as it were, the stages of our progress ; whilst on the other side there is one house, built by Diodati, the friend of Milton, which has contained within its walls, for several months, that poet whom we have so often read together, and who — if human passions remain 144 NOTES. the same, and human feelings, like chords, on being swept by nature's impulses shall vibrate as before — will be placed by posterity in the first rank of our English Poets. You must have heard, or the Third Canto of Childe Harold will have informed you, that Lord Byron resided , many months in this neighbourhood. I went with some friends a few days ago, after having seen Ferney, to view this mansion. I trod the floors with the same feelings of awe and respect as we did, together, those of Shakspeare's dwelling at Stratford. I sat down in a chair of the saloon, and satisfied myself that I was resting on what he had made his constant seat. I found a servant there who had lived with him ; she, however, gave me but little informa- tion. She pointed out his bed-chamber upon the same level as the saloon and dining-room, and informed me that he retired to rest at three, got up at two, and em- ployed himself a long time over his toilette ; that he never went to sleep without a pair of pistols and a dagger by his side, and that he never eat animal food. He ap- parently spent some part of every day upon the lake in an English boat. There is a balcony from the saloon which looks upon the lake and the mountain Jura ; and I imagine, that it must have been hence he contemplated the storm so magnificently described in the Third Canto ; for you have from here a most extensive view of all the NOTES. 145 points he has therein depicted. I can fancy him like the scathed pine, whilst all around was sunk to repose, still waking to observe, what gave but a weak image of the storms which had desolated his own breast. The sky is changed ; — and such a change ; Oh, night ! And storm and darkness, ye are wondrous strong, Yet lovely in your strength as is the light Of a dark eye in woman ! Far along From peak to peak, the rattling crags among, Leaps the live thunder ! Not from one lone cloud, But every mountain now hath found a tongue, And Jura answers thro' her misty shroud, Back to the joyous Alps who call to her aloud. And this is in the night :— Most glorious night ! Thou wert not sent for slumber, let me be A sharer in thy far and fierce delight,— A portion of the tempest and of me ! How the lit lake shines a phosphoric sea, And the big rain comes dancing to the earth ! And now again 'tis black, — and now the glee Of the loud hills shakes with its mountain mirth, As if they did rejoice o'er a young earthquake's birth. u 146 NOTES. Now where the swift Rhine cleaves his way between Heights which appear, as lovers who have parted In haste, whose mining depths so intervene, That they can meet no more, tho' broken hearted; Tho' in their souls which thus each other thwarted, Love was the very root of the fond rage Which blighted their life's bloom and then departed — Itself expired, but leaving them an age Of years all winter — war within themselves to wage. Childe Harold. I went down to the little port, if I may use the expres- sion, wherein his vessel used to lay> and conversed with the cottager, who had the care of it. You may smile, but I have my pleasure in thus helping my personifica- tion of the individual I admire, by attaining to the know- ledge of those circumstances which were daily around him. I have made numerous enquiries in the town con- cerning him, but can learn nothing. He only went into society there once, when M. Pictet took him to the house of a lady to spend the evening. They say he is a very singular man, and seemed to think him very uncivil. Amongst other things they relate, that having invited M. Pictet and Bonstetten to dinner, he went on the lake to Chillon, leaving a gentleman who travelled with him to NOTES. 147 receive them and make his apologies. Another evening, being invited to the house of Lady D H , he promised to attend, but upon approaching the windows of her ladyship's villa, and perceiving the room to be full of company, he set down his friend, desired him to plead his excuse, and immediately returned home. {Prefatory Let- ter to the Vampyre.) Who mock the inscrutable Almighty's plan, By seeking truth and order to subdue. P. 67. st. cxxxviii. " It has long been sufficiently manifest, that this man is devoid of religion. At times, indeed, the power and presence of the Deity, as speaking in the sterner work- ings of the elements, seems to force some momentary consciousness of their existence into his labouring breast ; a -spirit in which there breathes so much of the divine, cannot always resist the majesty of its Maker. But of true religion terror is a small part — and of all religion, that founded on mere terror, is the least worthy of such a man as Byron. We may look in vain through all his works, for the slightest evidence that his soul had ever listened to the gentle voice of the oracles. His under- standing has been subdued into conviction, by some pass- 148 NOTES. ing cloud ; but his heart has never been touched. He has never written one line that savours of the spirit of meekness. His faith is but for a moment — " he believes and trembles," and relapses again into his gloom of unbe- lief — a gloom in which he is at least as devoid of Hope and Charity as he is of Faith. — The same proud hard- ness of heart which makes the author of Don Juan a despiser of the Faith for which his fathers bled, has ren- dered him a scorner of the better part of woman ; and therefore it is that his love poetry is a continual insult to the beauty that inspires it. The earthy part of the passion is all that has found a resting place within his breast — His idol is all of clay — and he dashes her to pieces almost in the moment of his worship. Impiously railing against his God, — and brutally outraging all the best feelings of fe- male honour, affection, and confidence — How small a part of chivalry is that which remains to the descendant of the Byrons — A gloomy vizor, and a deadly weapon!" — Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine. In rival conclave there and dark divan, He met and mingled with the Vampyre crew, tyc. P. 67. st. cxxxvii. There is a society three or four miles from Geneva, NOTES. 149 the centre of which is the Countess of Breuss, a Russian lady well acquainted with the agr6mens de la socUU, and who has collected them round herself at her man- sion. It was chiefly here, I find, that the gentleman who travelled with Lord Byron, as physician, sought for society. He used almost every day to cross the lake by himself, in one of their flat-bottomed boats, and return after passing the evening with his friends, about eleven or twelve at night, often whilst the storms were raging in the circling summits of the mountains around. As he became intimate, from long acquaintance, with several of the families in this neighbourhood, I have gathered from their accounts some excellent traits of his lordship's character, which I will relate to you at some future opportunity. Among other particulars mentioned, was the outline of a ghost story by Lord Byron. It appears that one evening Lord Byron, Mr. P. B. Shelley, two ladies and the gentleman before alluded to, after having perused a German work, entitled Phantasmagoriana, began relat- ing ghost stories ; when his lordship having recited the beginning of Christabel, then unpublished, the whole took so strong a hold of Mr. Shelley's mind, that he sud- denly started up and ran out of the room. The physician and Lord Byron followed, and discovered him leaning 150 NOTES. against a mantle-piece, with cold drops of perspiration trickling down his face ! After having given him some- thing to refresh him, upon enquiring into the cause of his alarm, they found that his wild imagination having pic- tured to him the bosom of one of the ladies with eyes (which was reported of a lady in the neighbourhood where he lived) he was obliged to leave the room in order to destroy the impression! It was afterwards proposed, in the course of conversation, that each of the company present should write a tale depending upon some super- natural agency, which was undertaken by Lord Byron, the physician, and one of the ladies before mentioned. I obtained the outline of each of these stories as a great favour, and herewith forward them to you, as I was assured you would feel as much curiosity as myself, to peruse the ebauches of so great a genius, and those im- mediately under his influence. — Preface to the Vampyre. Here then we y ll leave our wandering poet, planning Some tale to speak the colour of his mind. P. 70. st. cxliii. There is something quite new and peculiar, indeed, in the whole career of Byron. Madame de.Stael, in treat- NOTES. 151 ing of English literature, remarks, " II n'y a point en Angleterre de memoires, de confessions, de recits de soi faits par soi-meme : la fiert6 du caractere Anglais se refuse a ce genre de details et d'aveux." Lord Byron has proved a conspicuous exception to the truth of this remark. He seems to have identified his character with his writings ; his poetry, at least a considerable portion of it, is a mirror in which are reflected the movements of his soul. He has even obtruded the events of his life upon public notice ; he has solicited regard to the dark current of his sorrows ; he has revealed the privacy of his domes- tic life, and demanded the public judgment of his charac- ter. His spirit has already been, in great part, developed to the world by his poetical pilgrimage, which embodied the dark and tumultuous aspirations of a soul that had ever been a stranger to repose. The world, which ad- mired his genius, was subdued into compassion for his sorrows, however capricious and distempered might be the source from which they flowed. The moody and self-tormenting temperament of genius was recognized, pitied, and reverenced ; and the complaints of Byron, however whimsical their origin, in the midst of all the apparent elements of happiness, and however questionable or unintelligible their tendency, were listened to with a 152 NOTES. sort of charmed sympathy and commiseration. But the sudden transfusion of this poetical character into the realities of life, — the dreadful apparition of it in the most hallowed retreats of domestic purity, — the destroy- ing taint of its sullen egotism and unintelligible fury, amid scenes over which the smooth clear stream of gentle affection is alone permitted to wind its course, — struck every one with amazement and aversion. It became but too evident that the delicious repose of English domestic life was utterly uncongenial to the perturbed soul of Byron. He voluntarily exiled himself from a country which he had equally honoured and insulted, — honoured by the display of his extraordinary talents, and insulted by the outrage of its most cherished affections and revered institutions. He has now chosen as his place of exile a region where all things that present themselves — 'whether the melancholy monu- ments of decayed grandeur, or the living varieties of un- scrupulous luxury and gratification — will correspond to the majestic but depraved temperament of his own unin- telligible nature ; but he must not from this voluptuous retirement insult the purity which he has voluntarily re- nounced, and to which it now appears but too probable that he is fated never to return. — Edinburgh Monthly Review, Oct. 1819. NOTES. 153 -poor whipt Mazeppa. P. 70. st. cxliii. His lordship in his poem of Mazeppa differs from the historian. M. Voltaire says : " Le Colonel Gieta, blesse, et perdant tout sa sang, lui donna le sien." The poet adds to this, no doubt from other sources of information, His horse was slain, and Gieta gave His own — and died the Russians' slave. If this be an error of amplification, there is a counter- vailing one: In our edition of the history, Mazeppa is said to have been soundly whipped, before being tied to the horse, (Le niari le fit fouetter de verges ;) but this circumstance may have been suppressed, as adding unnecessary dis- grace to the character of the hero. May teach. Lord Beppo, your nobility A due attention to this simple matter. P. 70. st. cxliv. Beppo was in many parts reprehensible, but Don Juan is scandalous throughout. There was in Beppo wit, ease, naivete, abundant humour, and occasional x 154 NOTES. strength, such as no other living author could have put forth ; but there was also much intemperate and unrea- sonable levity. Is it a venial offence to have cast mock- ery on the chastity of woman, and the sanctity of the marriage bed, and to have made the violation of conjugal fidelity the object of a gay and approving smile ? Every one saw with regret, that Italian morals, not less than Italian skies, had found favour with the author of Beppo, — and that the majestic spirt of the noble poet was begin- ning to bow before the voluptuous profligacy of a foreign muse. With his voluntary exile from his native land, every proud and generous feeling passed away ; and the Dante of England, as Byron has often, although fantas- tically been called, took his willing station among the tuneful purveyors of an exotic licentiousness. NOTES. 155 A SUPPRESSED PASSAGE. For not to you belongs the power to say What shall appear in type or glossy page ; Nor have alone the gayest of the gay The right unquestioned to pollute the age My lay, though not a very cheerful lay, Is noble, and beyond the critic's rage ; I'll dedicate it hence to Papliian pleasures, And teach the muse to dance in frolic measures. I hate your printer's stars — and coward blanks — I'm not to be controuled by knaves in place ; Print boldly, and you'll have my muse's thanks, And welcome guineas will come in apace — Think not upon the ministerial ranks, Nor draw the modest bonnet o'er thy face : With lords and statesmen boast your high alliance, And set the vice suppressors at defiance. What's Wordsworth, water drinking bard, to you, Or turncoat Southey, with his blighted laurel ? I hate the sing-song of the Laking crew, And hope the Muses will take up my quarrel — 156 NOTES. Leave all such to the Quarterly Review, To laud with fulsome praise. Apollo's barrel No drop of inspiration ever gave To wet the windpipe of Corruption's slave. Fear not the lash of Gilford's friendly pen, To satire and the Muses listless grown, Tho' it was once the scourge of guilty men, And to each Bavius and Mavius known ; Nor fear ye aught from Croker's courtly strain, Who sings of war and Wellington alone — Some may like prudes affect a virtuous passion, But mind, morality is not the fashion. " What's in a name" that on the title-page The vender should in pompous letters shine, As if 'twere his bright wit illum'd the age ? You see I'm not tenacious about mine — Let but a lord — you know the old adage — Let but a lord be said to write each line, And though 'tis most abominable stuff, Print it — the work will sell — and that's enough. THE END. NEW WORKS JUST PUBLISHED, W. WRIGHT, 46, FLEET-STREET. 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