Don Juan

Canto the Fifth

{218}[270] [Canto V. was begun at Ravenna, October the 16th, and

finished November the 20th, 1820. It was published August 8, 1821,

together with Cantos III. and IV.]

[271] This expression of Homer has been much criticized. It hardly

answers to our Atlantic ideas of the ocean, but is sufficiently

applicable to the Hellespont, and the Bosphorus, with the Aegean

intersected with islands.

[Vide Iliad, xiv. 245, etc. Homer's "ocean-stream" was not the

Hellespont, but the rim of waters which encircled the disk of the

world.]

{219}[272] ["The pleasure of going in a barge to Chelsea is not

comparable to that of rowing upon the canal of the sea here, where, for

twenty miles together, down the Bosphorus, the most beautiful variety of

prospects present themselves. The Asian side is covered with fruit

trees, villages, and the most delightful landscapes in nature; on the

European stands Constantinople, situated on seven hills; showing an

agreeable mixture of gardens, pine and cypress trees, palaces, mosques,

and public buildings, raised one above another, with as much beauty and

appearance of symmetry as your ladyship ever saw in a cabinet adorned by

the most skilful hands, where jars show themselves above jars, mixed

with canisters, babies, and candlesticks. This is a very odd comparison:

but it gives me an exact idea of the thing."--See letter to Mr. Pope,

No. xl. June 17, 1717, and letter to the Countess of Bristol, No. xlvi.

n.d., _Letters of the Lady Mary Worthy Montagu,_ 1816, pp. 183-219. See,

too, letter to Mrs. Byron, June 28, 1810, _Letters,_ 1890, i. 280,

note 1.]

[273] [For Byron's "Marys," see _Poetical Works,_ 1898, i. 192, note

2.]

[274] The "Giant's Grave" is a height on the Asiatic shore of the

Bosphorus, much frequented by holiday parties; like Harrow and Highgate.

["The Giant's Mountain, 650 feet high, is almost exactly opposite

Buyukdereh ... It is called by the Turks Yoshadagh, _Mountain of

Joshua,_ because the _Giant's Grave_ on the top is, according to the

Moslem legend, the grave of Joshua. The grave was formerly called the

_Couch of Hercules;_ but the classical story is that it was the tomb of

Amycus, king of the Bebryces [on his grave grew the _laurus insana_, a

branch of which caused strife (Plin., _Hist. Nat.,_ lib. xvi. cap. xliv.

ed. 1593, ii. 198)]. The grave is 20 feet long, and 5 feet broad; it is

within a stone enclosure, and is planted with flowers and

bushes."--_Handbook for Constantinople,_ p. 103.]

{220}[et]

_For then the Parca are most busy spinning_

_The fates of seamen, and the loud winds raise_.--[MS.]

{221}[eu]

_That he a man of rank and birth had been_,

_And then they calculated on his ransom_,

_And last not least--he was so very handsome_.--[MS.]

[ev]

_It chanced that near him, separately lotted_,

_From out the group of slaves put up for sale_,

_A man of middle age, and_----.--[MS.]

{222}[275] [The object of Suwarof's campaign of 1789 was the conquest of

Belgrade and Servia, that of Wallachia by the Austrians, etc. Neither of

these plans succeeded."--_The Life of Field-Marshal Suwarof,_ by L.M.P.

Tranchant de Laverne, 1814, pp. 105, 106.]

{226}[276] [The Turkish zecchino is a gold coin, worth about seven

shillings and sixpence. The para is not quite equal to an English

halfpenny.]

[277] [Candide's increased satisfaction with life is implied in the

narrative. For example, in chap, xviii., where Candide visits

Eldorado:--"Never was there a better entertainment, and never was more

wit shown at table than that which fell from His Majesty. Cacambo

explained the king's _bons mots_ to Candide, and notwithstanding they

were translated, they still appeared _bons mots._" This was after

supper. See, too, Part II. chap, ii.]

[278] See Plutarch in _Alex._, Q. Curt. _Hist. Alexand._, and Sir

Richard Clayton's "Critical Inquiry into the Life of Alexander the

Great," 1763 [from the _Examen Critique, etc._, of Guilhem de

Clermont-Lod**, Baron de Sainte Croix, 1775.]

["He used to say that sleep and the commerce with the s*x were the

things that made him most sensible of his mortality, ... He was also

very temperate in eating."--Plutarch's _Alexander_, Langhorne, 1838, p.

473.]

[ew]

_But for mere food, I think with Philip's son_,

_Or Ammon's--for two fathers claimed this one_.--[MS.]

{227}[279] The assassination alluded to took place on the 8th of

December, 1820, in the streets of Ravenna, not a hundred paces from the

residence of the writer. The circumstances were as described.

["December 9, 1820. I open my letter to tell you a fact, which will show

the state of this country better than I can. The commandant of the

troops is _now_ lying _dead_ in my house. He was shot at a little past

eight o'clock, about two hundred paces from my door. I was putting on my

great coat to visit Madame la Comtessa G., when I heard the shot. On

coming into the hall, I found all my servants on the balcony, exclaiming

that a man was murdered. I immediately ran down, calling on Tita (the

bravest of them) to follow me. The rest wanted to hinder us from going,

as it is the custom for everybody here, it seems, to run away from 'the

stricken deer.' ... we found him lying on his back, almost, if not

quite, dead, with five wounds; one in the heart, two in the stomach, one

in the finger, and the other in the arm. Some soldiers c****d their

guns, and wanted to hinder me from passing. However, we passed, and I

found Diego, the adjutant, crying over him like a child--a surgeon, who

said nothing of his profession--a priest, sobbing a frightened

prayer--and the commandant, all this time, on his back, on the hard,

cold pavement, without light or assistance, or anything around him but

confusion and dismay. As nobody could, or would, do anything but howl

and pray, and as no one would stir a finger to move him, for fear of

consequences, I lost my patience--made my servant and a couple of the

mob take up the body--sent off two soldiers to the guard--despatched

Diego to the Cardinal with the news, and had him carried upstairs into

my own quarters. But it was too late--he was gone.... I had him partly

stripped--made the surgeon examine him, and examined him myself. He had

been shot by cut balls or slugs. I felt one of the slugs, which had gone

through him, all but the skin.... He only said, 'O Dio!' and 'Gesu!' two

or three times, and appeared to have suffered little. Poor fellow! he

was a brave officer; but had made himself much disliked by the

people."--Letter to Moore, December 9, 1820, _Letters,_ 1901, v. 133.

The commandant's name was Del Pinto (_Life,_ p. 472).]

[ex]

---- _so I had_

_Him borne, as soon's I could, up several pair_

_Of stairs--and looked to,----But why should I add_

_More circumstances?_----.--[MS.]

[ey] _And now as silent as an unstrung drum_.--[MS.]

{229}[280] The light and elegant wherries plying about the quays of

Constantinople are so called.

{230}[281] [_Ilderim, a Syrian Tale_, by Henry Gally Knight, was

published in 1816; _Phrosyne, a Grecian Tale_, and _Alashtar, an Arabian

Tale_, in 1817. Moore's _Lalla Kookh_ also appeared in 1817.]

[282] [St. Bartholomew was "discoriate, and flayed quick" (_Golden

Legend_, 1900, v. 43).]

[ez] _We from impalement_----.--[MS.]

{231}[283] "Many of the sera and summer-houses [on the Bosphorus] have

received these significant, or rather fantastic names: one is the Pearl

Pavilion; another is the Star Palace; a third the Mansion of

Looking-glasses."--_Travels in Albania_, 1858, ii. 243.

{232}[fa]

_Of speeches, beauty, flattery--there is no_

_Method more sure_----.--[MS.]

{233}[284] [_Guide des Voyageurs_; _Directions for Travellers_,

etc.--_Rhymes, Incidental and Humorous_; _Rhyming Reminiscences_;

_Effusions in Rhyme_, etc.--Lady Morgan's _Tour in Italy_; _Tour through

Istria_, etc., etc.--_Sketches of Italy_; _Sketches of Modern Greece_,

etc., etc.--_Historical Illustrations of the Fourth Canto of Childe

Harold_, by J.C. Hobhouse, 1818.]

[285] In Turkey nothing is more common than for the Mussulmans to take

several glasses of strong spirits by way of appetiser. I have seen them

take as many as six of raki before dinner, and swear that they dined the

better for it: I tried the experiment, but fared like the Scotchman, who

having heard that the birds called kittiwakes were admirable whets, ate

six of them, and complained that "he was no hungrier than when he

began."

[286] ["Everything is so still [in the court of the Seraglio], that the

motion of a fly might be heard, in a manner; and if any one should

presume to raise his voice ever so little, or show the least want of

respect to the Mansion-place of their Emperor, he would instantly have

the bastinado by the officers that go the rounds."-_A Voyage in the

Levant_, by M. Tournefort, 1741, ii. 183.]

{234}[287] _A common furniture. I recollect being received by Ali Pacha,

in a large room, paved with marble, containing a marble basin, and

fountain playing in the centre, etc., etc._

[Compare Childe Harold, Canto II. stanza Ixii.--

"In marble-paved pavilion, where a spring

Of living water from the centre rose,

Whose bubbling did a genial freshness fling,

And soft voluptuous couches breathed repose,

Ali reclined, a man of war and woes," etc.]

[288] [A reminiscence of Newstead. Compare Moore's song, "Oft in the

Stilly Night"--

"I feel like one

Who treads alone

Some banquet-hall deserted."]

{235}[sss]

_A small, snug chamber on a winter's night_,

Well furnished with a book, friend, girl, or glass, etc_.--[MS.]

[fc] _I pass my days in long dull galleries solely_.--[MS. erased.]

[289] [When this stanza was written Byron was domiciled in the Palazzo

Guiccioli (in the Via di Porta Adriana) at Ravenna; but he may have had

in his mind the monks' refectory at Newstead Abbey, "the dark gallery,

where his fathers frowned" (_Lara_, Canto I. line 137), or the corridors

which form the upper story of the cloisters.]

[290] ["Nabuch_o_donosor," here used _metri grati*, is Latin (see the

Vulgate) and French (see J.P. De B******, _Chansons In*****_, 1828, p.

48) for Nebuchadnezzar.]

[291] [See Ovid's _Metamorphoses_, lib. iv. lines 55-58--

"In Babylon, where first her queen, for state,

Raised walls of brick magnificently great,

Lived Pyramus and Thisbe, lovely pair!

He found no Eastern youth his equal there,

And she beyond the fairest nymph was fair."

Garth.]

{236}[292] Babylon was enlarged by Nimrod, strengthened and beautified

by Nabuchadonosor, and rebuilt by Semiramis.

[Pliny (_Nat. Hist._, lib. viii. cap. xlii. ed. 1593, i. 392) cites

Juba, King of Mauretania, died A.D. 19, as his authority for the

calumny.]

[fd] _In an Erratum of her Horse for Courier_.--[MS.]

[293] [Queen Caroline--whose trial (August--November, 1820) was

proceeding whilst this canto was being written--was charged with having

committed adultery with Bartolommeo Bergami, who had been her courier,

and was, afterwards, her chamberlain.]

[294] ["_Memoir on the Ruins of Babylon_, by Claudius James Rich, Esq.,

Resident for the Honourable East India Company at the Court of the Pasha

of Bagdad, 1815," pp. 61-64: _Second Memoir on Babylon,_ ... 1818, by

Claudius James Rich. See the plates at the end of the volume.]

[fe] _If they shall not as soon cut off my head._--[MS.]

{240}[ff] _A pair of drawers_----.--[MS.]

[295] [Compare "Extracts from a Diary," January 24, 1821, _Letters_,

1901, v. 184.]

[fg] _Kings are not more imperative than rhymes_.--[MS.]

{241}[fh] _He looked almost in modesty a maid_.--[MS.]

{242}[296] _Features_ of a gate--a ministerial metaphor: "the _feature_

upon which this question _hinges_." See the "Fudge Family," or hear

Castlereagh.

[Phil. Fudge, in his letter to Lord Castlereagh, says--

"As _thou_ would'st say, my guide and teacher

In these gay metaphoric fringes,

I must _embark_ into the _feature_

On which this letter chiefly _hinges_."

Moore's note adds, "Verbatim from one of the noble Viscount's

speeches:--'_And now, sir, I must embark into the_ feature _on which

this question chiefly hinges_.'"--_Fudge Family in Paris_, Letter II.

See, too, _post_, the Preface to Cantos VI., VII., and VIII., p. 264,

note 3.]

{243}[297] [Compare--

"A snake's small eye blinks dull and sly,

And the lady's eyes they shrunk in her head,

Each shrunk up to a serpent's eye."

_Christabel_, Part II. lines 583-585.]

{244}[298] A few years ago the wile of Muchtar Pacha complained to his

father of his son's supposed infidelity: he asked with whom, and she had

the barbarity to give in a list of the twelve handsomest women in

Yanina. They were seized, fastened up in sacks, and drowned in the lake

the same night. One of the guards who was present informed me, that not

one of the victims uttered a cry, or showed a symptom of terror at so

sudden a "wrench from all we know, from all we love."

[See _The Giaour_, line _1328, Poetical Works, 1900_, iii. 144, note

1.]

{245}[fi]

_As Venus rose from Ocean--bent on them_

_With a far-reaching glance, a Paphian pair_.--[MS.]

[fj]

_But there are forms which Time adorns, not wears_,

_And to which Beauty obstinately clings_.--[MS.]

{246}[299] [Legend has credited Ninon de Lenclos (1620-1705) with lovers

when she had "come to four-score years." According to Voltaire, John

Casimir, ex-king of Poland, succumbed to her secular charms (see

_Mazeppa_, line 138, _Poetical Works_, 1901, iv. 212, note 1). "In her

old age, her house was the rendezvous of wits and men of letters.

Scarron is said to have consulted her on his romances, Saint-Evremond on

his poems, Moli** on his comedies, Fontenelle on his dialogues, and La

Rochefoucauld on his maxims. Coligny, S****, etc., were her lovers and

friends. At her death, in 1705, she bequeathed to Voltaire two thousand

francs, to expend in books."--_Biographic Universelle_, art. "Lenclos."]

[300] ["Her fair maids were ranged below the sofa, to the number of

twenty, and put me in mind of the pictures of the ancient nymphs. I did

not think all nature could have furnished such a scene of beauty,"

etc.--Lady M.W. Montagu to the Countess of Mar, April 18, O.S. 1717, ed.

1816, p. 163.]

[301]

["Nil admirari prope res est una, Numici,

Solaque qu possit facere et servare beatum."

Hor., _Epist._, lib. 1, ep. vi. lines 1, 2.]

{247}[302]

["Not to admire, is all the Art I know

To make men happy, and to keep them so,

(Plain Truth, dear MURRAY, needs no flow'rs of speech,

So take it in the very words of Creech).

_To Mr. Murray_ (Lord Mansfield), Pope's _Imitations of Horace_, Book I.

epist. vi. lines 1-4.

Thomas Creech (1659-1701) published his _Translation of Horace_ in 1684.

In the second edition, 1688, p. 487, the lines run--

"Not to admire, as most are wont to do,

It is the only method that I know,

To make Men happy and to keep 'em so."]

[303] [Johnson placed judgment and friendship above admiration and love.

"Admiration and love are like being intoxicated with champagne; judgment

and friendship like being enlivened." See Boswell's _Life of Johnson_,

1876, p. 450.]

{248}[304] There is nothing, perhaps, more distinctive of birth than the

hand. It is almost the only sign of blood which aristocracy can

generate.

{249}[305] [In old pictures of the Fall, it is a cherub who whispers

into the ear of Eve. The serpent's coils are hidden in the foliage of

the tree.]

{250}[fk] _The very women half forgave her face_.--[MS, Erased.]

[fl] _Had his instructions--where and how to deal_.--[MS.]

[fm] _And husbands now and then are mystified_.--[MS.]

{251}[306] [Narrow javelins, once known as archegays--the assegais of

Zulu warfare.]

{252}[fn]

_But nature teaches what power cannot spoil_

_And, though it was a new and strange sensation_,

_Young female hearts are such a genial soil_

_For kinder feelings, she forgot her station_.--[MS.]

[fo] _War with your heart_--.--[MS.]

{254}[307] [See _Fielding's History of the Adventures of Joseph

Andrews_, bk. i. chap. v.]

[308]

["'But if my boy with virtue be endued,

What harm will beauty do him?' Nay, what good?

Say, what avail'd, of old, to Theseus' son,

The stern resolve? what to Bellerophon?--

O, then did Phaedra redden, then her pride

Took fire to be so steadfastly denied!

Then, too, did Sthenobaea glow with shame,

And both burst forth with unextinguish'd flame!"

Gifford, _Juvenal_, Sat. x. 473-480.

The adventures of Hippolytus, the son of Theseus, and Bellerophon are

well known. They were accused of incontinence, by the women whose

inordinate passions they had refused to gratify at the expense of their

duty, and sacrificed to the fatal credulity of the husbands of the

disappointed fair ones. It is very probable that both the stories are

founded on the Scripture account of Joseph and Potiphar's

wife.--Footnote, ibid., ed. 1817, ii. pp. 49, 50.]

[fp] _The poets and romances_----.--[MS.]

[fq]

_And this strong second cause (to tire no longer_

_Your patience) shows the first must still be stronger_.

--[MS. Alternative reading.]

{256}[309]

["By Heaven! methinks, it were an easy leap,

To pluck bright honour from the pale-faced moon."

_Henry IV_., act i. sc. 3, lines 201, 202.]

[fr] _Like natural Shakespeare on the immortal page_.--[MS.]

[310]

["And when I have stol'n upon these sons-in law,

Then kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill."

_King Lear_, act iv. sc. 6, lines 185, 186.]

[311]

["A woman scorn'd is pitiless as fate,

For, there, the dread of shame adds stings to hate."

Gifford's _Juvenal, Sat_. x. lines 481, 482, ed. 1817, ii. p. 50.]

{258}[312] ["Yes--my valour is certainly going! it is sneaking off! I

feel it _oozing_ out, as it were, at the palms of my hands!"--Sheridan's

_Rivals_, act v. sc. 3.]

[fs] _Or all the stuff which uttered by the "Blues" is_.--[MS.]

{259}[ft]

_But prithee--get my women in the way_,

_That all the stars may gleam with due adorning_.--[MS.]

[fu] _Of Cantemir or Knoll[-e]s_-----.--[MS.]

[313] It may not be unworthy of remark, that Bacon, in his essay on

"Empire" (Essays, No. xx.), hints that Solyman was the last of his line;

on what authority, I know not. These are his words: "The destruction of

Mustapha was so fatal to Solyman's line; as the succession of the Turks

from Solyman until this day is suspected to be untrue, and of strange

blood; for that Selymus the second was thought to be supposititious."

But Bacon, in his historical authorities, is often inaccurate. I could

give half a dozen instances from his Apophthegms only.

[Selim II. (1524-1574) succeeded his father as Sultan in 1566. Hofmann

(_Lexicon Univ_.) describes him as "meticulosus, effeminatus, ebriosus,"

but neither Demetrius Cantemir, in his _History of the Growth and Decay

of the Othman Empire_ (translated by N. Tyndal, 1734); nor _The Turkish

History_ (written by Mr. Knolles, 1701), cast any doubts on his

legitimacy. Byron complained of the omission from the notes to the first

edition of Don Juan, of his corrections of Bacon's "Apophthegms" (see

_Letters_, 1901, v. Appendix VI. pp. 597-600), in a letter to Murray,

dated January 21, 1821,--_vide ibid_., p. 220.]

{260}[314] [Gibbon.]

[fv]

_Because he kept them wrapt up in his closet, he_

_Ruled fair wives and twelve hundred whores, unseen,_

_More easily than Christian kings one queen_.--[MS.]

[fw]

_Then ended many a fair Sultana's trip_:

_The Public knew no more than does this rhyme_;

_No printed scandals flew,--the fish, of course,_

_Were better--while the morals were no worse_.--[MS.]

[fx] _No sign of its depression anywhere_.--[MS.]

[315] ["We attempted to visit the Seven Towers, but were stopped at the

entrance, and informed that without a firman it was inaccessible to

strangers.... It was supposed that Count Bulukof, the Russian minister,

would be the last of the _Moussafirs_, or imperial hostages, confined in

this fortress; but since the year 1784 M. Ruffin and many of the French

have been imprisoned in the same place; and the dungeons.... were

gaping, it seems, for the sacred persons of the gentlemen composing his

Britannic Majesty's mission, previous to the rupture between Great

Britain and the Porte in 1809."--Hobhouse, _Travels in Albania_, 1858,

ii. 311, 312.]

{261}[316] ["The princess" (Asma Sultana, daughter of Achmet III.)

"complained of the barbarity which, at thirteen years of age, united her

to a decrepit old man, who, by treating her like a child, had inspired

her with nothing but disgust."--_Memoirs of Baron de Toil_, 1786, i. 74.

See, too, _M******_, etc., 1784, i. 84, 85.]

{262}[317] [The connection between "horns" and Heaven, to which Byron

twice alludes, is not very obvious. The reference may be to the Biblical

"horn of salvation," or to the symbolical horns of Divine glory as

depicted in the Moses of Michel Angelo. Compare _Mazeppa_, lines 177,

178, _Poetical Works_, 1901, iv. 213.]

[fy]---- _with solemn air and wise_.--[MS.]

[fz] _Virginity in these unhappy climes_.--[MS.]

{263}[318] [This stanza, which Byron composed in bed, February 27, 1821

(see _Extracts from a Diary, Letters_, 1901, v. 209), is not in the

first edition. On discovering the omission, he wrote to Murray: "Upon

what principle have you omitted ... one of the concluding stanzas sent

as an addition?--because it ended, I suppose, with--

'And do not link two virtuous souls for life

Into that moral centaur, man and wife?'

Now, I must say, once for all, that I will not permit any human being to

take such liberties with my writings because I am absent. I desire the

omissions to be replaced (except the stanza on Semiramis)--particularly

the stanza upon the Turkish marriages."--Letter to Murray, August 31,

1821, ibid., p. 351.]

[ga]

_Meanwhile as Homer sometimes sleeps, much more_

_The modern muse may be allowed to snore_.--[MS.]