Don Juan

Canto the Ninth

{373}[476] [Stanzas i.-viii., which are headed "_Don Juan_, Canto III.,

July 10, 1819," are in the handwriting of (?) the Countess Guiccioli.

Stanzas ix., x., which were written on the same sheet of paper, are in

Byron's handwriting. The original MS. opens with stanza xi., "Death

laughs," etc. (See letter to Moore, July 12, 1822, _Letters_, 1901, vi.

96.)]

[477]

["Faut qu' lord Villain-ton ait tout pris;

N'y a plus d' argent dans c' gueux de Paris."

De Branger, "Complainte d'une de ces Demoiselles a l'Occasion des

Affaires du Temps (Fvrier, 1816)," _Chansons_, 1821, ii. 17.

Compare a retaliatory epigram which appeared in a contemporary

newspaper--

"These French _petit-matres_ who the spectacle throng,

Say of Wellington's dress _qu'il fait vilain ton!_

But, at Waterloo, Wellington made the French stare

When their army he dressed _ la mode Angleterre!_"]

[it] _Oh Wellington_ (_or "Vilainton"_)----.--[MS. B.]

[478] Query, _Ney?_--Printer's Devil. [Michel Ney, Duke of Elchingen,

"the bravest of the brave" (see _Ode from the French_, stanza i.

_Poetical Works_, 1900, iii. 431), born January 10, 1769, was arrested

August 5, and shot December 7, 1815.]

[479] [The story of the attempted assassination (February 11, 1818) of

the Duke of Wellington, which is dismissed by Alison in a few words

(_Hist. of Europe_ (1815-1852), 1853, i. 577, 578), occupies many pages

of the _Supplementary Despatches_ (1865, xii. 271-546). Byron probably

drew his own conclusions as to the Kinnaird-Marinet incident, from the

_Letter to the Duke of Wellington on the Arrest of M. Marinet_, by Lord

Kinnaird, 1818. The story, which is full of interest, may be briefly

recounted. On January 30, 1818, Lord Kinnaird informed Sir George Murray

(Chief of the Staff of the Army of Occupation) that a person, whose name

he withheld, had revealed to him the existence of a plot to assassinate

the Duke of Wellington. At 12.30 a.m., February 11, 1818, the Duke, on

returning to his Hotel, was fired at by an unknown person; and then, but

not till then, he wrote to urge Lord Clancarty to advise the Prince

Regent to take steps to persuade or force Kinnaird to disclose the name

of his informant. A Mr. G.W. Chad, of the Consular Service, was

empowered to proceed to Brussels, and to seek an interview with

Kinnaird. He carried with him, among other documents, a letter from the

Duke to Lord Clancarty, dated February 12, 1818. A postscript contained

this intimation: "It may be proper to mention to you that the French

Government are disposed to go every length in the way of negotiation

with the person mentioned by Lord Kinnaird, or others, to discover the

plot."

Kinnaird absolutely declined to give up the name of his informant, but,

acting on the strength of the postscript, which had been read but not

shown to him, started for Paris with "the great unknown." Some days

after their arrival, and while Kinnaird was a guest of the Duke, the man

was arrested, and discovered to be one Nicholle or Marinet, who had been

appointed _receveur_ under the restored government of Louis XVIII., but

during the _Cent jours_ had fled to Belgium, retaining the funds he had

amassed during his term of office. Kinnaird regarded this action of the

French Government as a breach of faith, and in a "Memorial" to the

French Chamber of Peers, and his _Letter_, maintained that the Duke's

postscript implied a promise of a safe conduct for Marinet to and from

Paris to Brussels. The Duke, on the other hand, was equally positive

(see his letter to Lord Liverpool, May 30, 1818) "that he never intended

to have any negotiations with anybody." Kinnaird was a "dog with a bad

name," He had been accused (see his _Letter to the Earl of Liverpool_,

1816, p. 16) of "the promulgation of dangerous opinions," and of

intimacy "with persons suspected." The Duke speaks of him as "the friend

of Revolutionists"! It is evident that he held the dangerous doctrine

that a promise to a rogue _is_ a promise, and that the authorities took

a different view of the ethics of the situation. It is clear, too, that

the Duke's postscript was ambiguous, but that it did not warrant the

assumption that if Marinet went to Paris he should be protected. The air

was full of plots. The great Duke despised and was inclined to ignore

the pistol or the dagger of the assassin; but he believed that "mischief

was afoot," and that "great personages" might or might not be

responsible. He was beset by difficulties at every turn, and would have

been more than mortal if he had put too favourable a construction on the

scruples, or condoned the imprudence of a "friend of Revolutionists."]

{374}[480] [The reference may be to the Duke of Wellington's intimacy

with Lady Frances Wedderburn Webster. Byron had "passed that way"

himself (see _Letters_, 1898, ii. 251, note i, 323, etc.), and could

hardly attack the Duke on _that_ score.]

[481] ["Thou art the best o' the cut-throats." _Macbeth_, act iii.

sc. 4, line 17.]

[482] ["I have supped full of horrors." _Macbeth_, act v. sc. 5, line 13.]

[483] _Vide_ speeches in Parliament, after the battle of Waterloo.

{376}[484] ["I at this time got a post, being for fatigue, with four

others. We were sent to break biscuit, and make a mess for Lord

Wellington's hounds. I was very hungry, and thought it a good job at the

time, as we got our own fill, while we broke the biscuit,--a thing I had

not got for some days. When thus engaged, the Prodigal Son was never

once out of my mind; and I sighed, as I fed the dogs, over my humble

situation and my ruined hopes."--_Journal of a Soldier of the 71st

Regiment_, 1806 to 1815 (Edinburgh, 1822), pp. 132, 133.]

[485] ["We are assured that Epaminondas died so poor that the Thebans

buried him at the public charge; for at his death nothing was found in

his house but an iron spit."--Plutarch's _Fabius Maximus_, Langhorne's

translation, 1838, p. 140. See, too, Cornelius Nepos, _Epam_., cap. iii.

"Paupertatem adeo facil perpessus est, ut de Republica nihil prter

gloriam ceperit."]

[486] [For Pitt's refusal to accept 100,000 from the merchants of

London towards the payment of his debts, or 30,000 from the King's

Privy Purse, see _Pitt_, by Lord Rosebery, 1891. p. 231.]

{377}[iu] _To_ you _this_ one _unflattering Muse inscribes_.--[MS.

erased.]

{377}[iv]

_He strips from man his mantle (which is dear_

_Though beautiful in youth) his carnal skin_.--[MS. erased.]

[487] [_Hamlet_, act iii. sc. i, line 56.]

[488] ["O dura messorum ilia!" etc.-Hor., _Epod._ iii. 4.]

[iw] _Ye iron guts_----.--[MS. erased.]

{379}[489] ["Ce n'est qu' l'dition de 1635 qu'on voit paratre la

devise que Montaigne avait adopte, le _que sais-je_? avec l'emblme des

balances. ... Ce _que sais-je_ que Pascal a si svrement analys se lit

au chapitre douze du livre ii; il caractrise parfaitement la

philosophie de Montaigne; il est la consquence de cette maxime qu'il

avait inscrite en grec sur les solives de sa librairie: 'Il n'est point

de raisonnement au quel on n'oppose un raissonnement

contraire.'"--_Oeuvres de ... Montaigne_, 1837, "Notice

Bibliographique," p. xvii.]

[490] [Concerning the Pyrrhonists or Sceptics and their master Pyrrho,

who held that Truth was incomprehensible (_inprensibilis_), and that you

may not affirm of aught that it be rather this or that, or neither this

nor that ([Greek: ou) ma~llon ou(/ts e(/chei to/de ) e)kei/ns )

ou)detes]), see Aul. Gellii _Noct. Attic._, lib. xi. cap. v.]

[491] See _Othello_, [act ii. sc. 3, lines 206, 207: "Well, God's above

all, and there be souls must be saved; and there be souls must not be

saved--Let's have no more of this."]

{380}[492] [_Hamlet_, act v. sc. 2, lines 94, 98, 102.]

[493] [For "Lycanthropy," see "The Soldier's Story" in the _Satyricn_

of Petronius Arbiter, cap. 62; see, too, _Letters on Demonology, etc._,

by Sir W. Scott, 1830, pp. 211, 212.]

[494] [In respect of suavity and forbearance Melancthon was the

counterpart of Luther. John Arrowsmith (1602-1657), in his _Tractica

Sacra_, describes him as "Vir in quo c*m pietate doctrina, et cum

utrque candor certavit."]

[ix] _Like Moses or like Cobbett who have ne'er._

Moses and Cobbet proclaim themselves the "meekest of men." See their

writings.--[MS.]

_Like Moses who was "very meek" had ne'er_.--[MS. erased.]

{381}[495] [See his "Correspondance avec L'Impratrice de Russie,"

_Oeuvres Compltes_ de Voltaire, 1836, x. 393-477. M. Waliszewski, in

his _Story of a Throne_, 1895, i. 224, has gathered a handful of these

flowers of speech: "She is the chief person in the world.... She is the

fire and life of nations.... She is a saint.... She is above all

saints.... She is equal to the mother of God.... She is the divinity of

the North.--_Te Catherinam laudamus, te Dominam confitemur, etc.,

etc._"]

[iy] _Of everything that ever cursed a nation._--[_MS. erased._]

[496] ["It is still more difficult to say which form of government is

the _worst_--all are so bad. As for democracy, it is the worst of the

whole; for what is (_in fact_) democracy?--an Aristocracy of

Blackguards."--See "My Dictionary" (May 1, 1821), _Letters_, 1901, v.

405, 406.]

{382}[iz] _Though priests and slaves may join the servile cry_.--[_MS.

erased._]

[497] In Greece I never saw or heard these animals; but among the ruins

of Ephesus I have heard them by hundreds.

[See _Childe Harold_, Canto IV. stanza cliii. line 6, _Poetical Works_,

1899, ii. 441; and _Siege of Corinth_, line 329, ibid., 1900, iii. 462,

note 1.]

[ja] _Whereas the others hunt for rascal spiders._--[_MS. erased._]

[jb] _Which still are strongly fluttering to be free_.--[_MS. erased._]

{383}[498] [Compare _The Age of Bronze_, line 576, sq., _Poetical

Works_, 1901, v. 570.]

{384}[499] [Nadir Shah, or Thamas Kouli Khan, born November, 1688,

invaded India, 1739-40, was assassinated June 19, 1747.]

[jc]

---- _went mad and was_

_Killed because what he swallowed would not pass_.--[MS. erased.]

[500] He was killed in a conspiracy, after his temper had been

exasperated by his extreme costivity to a degree of insanity.

[To such a height had his madness (attributed to _melancholia_ produced

by dropsy) attained, that he actually ordered the Afghan chiefs to rise

suddenly upon the Persian guard, and seize the ... chief nobles; but the

project being discovered, the intended victims conspired in turn, and a

body of them, including Nadir's guard, and the chief of his own tribe of

Afshar, entered his tent at midnight, and, after a moment's involuntary

pause--when challenged by the deep voice at which they had so often

trembled--rushed upon the king, who being brought to the ground by a

sabre-stroke, begged for life, and attempted to rise, but soon expired

beneath the repeated blows of the conspirators.--_The Indian Empire_, by

R. Montgomery Martin (1857), i. 172.]

[501] [Compare _Childe Harold_, Canto I. stanza lxvii. line 5, _Poetical

Works_, 1899, ii. 64, note 3.]

{385}[jd] _Or the substrata_----.--[MS.]

[502] [Compare Preface to _Cain_, _Poetical Works_, 1901, V. 210, note

1.]

[503] [_Vide ante,_ Canto VIII. stanza cxxvi. line 9, p. 368.]

{386}[504] [_Hamlet_, act i. sc. 5, line 189.]

[je] _I never know what's next to come_----.--[MS. erased.]

[505] [It is possible that the phrase "painted snows" was suggested by

Tooke's description of the winter-garden of the Taurida Palace: "The

genial warmth, ... the voluptuous silence that reigns in this enchanting

garden, lull the fancy into sweet romantic dreams: we think ourselves in

the groves of Italy, while torpid nature, through the windows of this

pavilion, announces the severity of a northern winter" (_The Life,

etc._, 1800, iii. 48).]

{387}[jf] _O'er limits which mightily_----:--[MS. erased.]

[jg]---- _in Youth and Glory's pillory_.--[MS. erased.]

[506] [In his _Notes sur le Don Juanisme_ (_Mercure de France_, 1898,

xxvi. 66), M. Bruchard says that this phrase defines and summarizes the

Byronic Don Juan.]

[jh]

_The Empress smiled while all the Orloff frowned_--

_A numerous family, to whose heart or hand_

_Mild Catherine owed the chance of being crowned,_.--[MS. erased.]

{388}[507] [C.F.P. Masson, in his _Mmoires Secrets, etc._, 1880, i.

150-178, gives a list of twelve favourites, and in this Canto, Don Juan

takes upon himself the characteristics of at least three, Lansko,

Zoritch (or Zovitch), and Plato Zoubof. For example (p. 167), "Zoritch

... est le seul tranger qu'elle ait os crer son favori pendant son

regne. C'toit un _Servien_ chapp du bagne de Constantinople o il

toit prisonnier: il parut, pour la premire fois, en habit de hussard

la cour. Il blouit tout le monde par sa beaut, et les vielles dames en

parlent encore comme d'un Adonis." M. Waliszewski, in his _Romance of an

Empress_ (1894), devotes a chapter to "Private Life and Favouritism"

(ii. 234-286), in which he graphically describes the election and

inauguration of the _Vremienchtchik_, "the man of the moment," paramour

regnant, and consort of the Empress _pro hac vice_: "'We may observe in

Russia a sort of interregnum in affairs, caused by the displacement of

one favourite and the installation of his successor.' ... The

interregnums are, however, of very short duration. Only one lasts for

several months, between the death of Lansko (1784) and the succession

of Iermolof.... There is no lack of candidates. The place is good....

Sometimes, too, on the height by the throne, reached at a bound, these

spoilt children of fate grow giddy.... It is over in an instant, at an

evening reception it is noticed that the Empress has gazed attentively

at some obscure lieutenant, presented but just before ... next day it is

reported that he has been appointed aide-de-camp to her Majesty. What

that means is well known. Next day he finds himself in the special suite

of rooms.... The rooms are already vacated, and everything is prepared

for the new-comer. All imaginable comfort and luxury ... await him; and,

on opening a drawer, he finds a hundred thousand roubles [about

20,000], the usual first gift, a foretaste of Pactolus. That evening,

before the assembled court, the Empress appears, leaning familiarly on

his arm, and on the stroke of ten, as she retires, the new favourite

follows her" (_ibid._, pp. 246-249).]

[508] [After the death or murder of her husband, Peter III., Catherine

Alexievna (1729-1796) (born Sophia Augusta), daughter of the Prince of

Anhalt Zerbst, was solemnly crowned (September, 1762) Empress of all the

Russias.]

{389}[ji] _And almost died for the scarce-fledged Lanskoi_.--[MS.

erased.]

[509] He was the grande passion of the grande Catherine. See her Lives

under the head of "Lanskoi."

[Lanskoi was a youth of as fine and interesting a figure as the

imagination can paint. Of all Catherine's favourites, he was the man

whom she loved the most. In 1784 he was attacked with a fever, and

perished in the arms of her Majesty. When he was no more, Catherine gave

herself up to the most poignant grief, and remained three months without

going out of her palace of Tzarsko-selo. She afterwards raised a superb

monument to his memory. (See _Life of Catherine II._, by W. Tooke, 1800,

iii. 88, 89.)]

[510] [Ten months after the death of Lanskoi, the Empress consoled

herself with Iermolof, described, by Bezborodky, as "a modest refined

young man, who cultivates the society of serious people." In less than a

year this excellent youth is, in turn, displaced by Dmitrief Mamonof.

His _petit nom_ was _Red Coat_, and, for a time, he is a "priceless

creature." "He has," says Catherine, "two superb black eyes, with

eyebrows outlined as one rarely sees; about the middle height, noble in

manner, easy in demeanour." But Mamonof suffered from "scruples of

conscience," and, after a while, with Catherine's consent and blessing,

was happily married to the Princess Shtcherbatof, a maid of honour, and

not, as Byron supposed, a rival "man of the moment."--See _The Story of

a Throne_, by K. Waliszewski, 1895, ii. 135, sq.]

[511] This was written long before the suicide of that person. [For "his

parts of speech" compare--

" ... that long mandarin

C-stle-r-agh (whom Fum calls the Confucius of Prose)

Was rehearsing a speech upon Europe's repose

To the deep double bass of the fat Idol's nose."

Moore's _Fum and Hum, The Two Birds of Royalty_.]

{390}[512] [Compare _Beppo_, stanza xvii. line 8, _Poetical Works_,

1901, iv. 165. See, too, letter to Hoppner, December 31, 1819,

_Letters_, 1900, iv. 393.]

[jj]

_Beneath his chisel_--

or, _Beneath his touches_----.--[MS. erased.]

{391}[jk] ---- _and bound fair Helen in a bond_.--[MS. erased.]

[513] Hor., _Sat._, lib. i. sat. iii. lines 107, 108.

[jl] _That Riddle which all read, none understand_.--[MS. erased.]

[jm]---- _thou Sea which lavest Life's sand_.--[MS. erased.]

{392}[514] ["Fortune and victory sit on thy helm."--_Richard III._, act

v, sc. 3, line 79.]

[515] ["Catherine had been handsome in her youth, and she preserved a

gracefulness and majesty to the last period of her life. She was of a

moderate stature, but well proportioned; and as she carried her head

very high, she appeared rather tall. She had an open front, an aquiline

nose, an agreeable mouth, and her chin, though long, was not mis-shapen.

Her hair was auburn, her eyebrows black and rather thick, and her blue

eyes had a gentleness which was often affected, but oftener still a

mixture of pride. Her physiognomy was not deficient in expression; but

this expression never discovered what was passing in the soul of

Catherine, or rather it served her the better to disguise it."--_Life of

Catherine II._, by W. Tooke, in. 381 (translated from _Vie de Catherine

II._ (J.H. Castra), 1797, ii. 450).]

{393}[516] ["His fortune swells him: 'Tis rank, he's married."--_Sir

Giles Overreach_, in Massinger's _New Way to pay Old Debts_, act v. sc.

1.]

{394}[517] [_Hamlet_, act iii. sc. iv. lines 58, 59.]

{395}[518]

["Not Csar's empress would I deign to prove;

No! make me mistress to the man I love."

Pope, _Eloisa to Abelard_, lines 87, 88.]

[jn]

_O'er whom an Empress her Crown-jewels scattering_

_Was wed with something better than a ring_.--[MS. erased.]

[519] ["Several persons who lived at the court affirm that Catherine had

very blue eyes, and not brown, as M. Rulhires has stated."--_Life of

Catherine II._, by W. Tooke, 1800, iii. 382.]

{396}[520] [The historic Catherine (_t._ 62) was past her meridian in

the spring of 1791.]

[jo] _Her figure, and her vigour, and her rigour_.--[MS. erased.]

[jp] _In its sincere beginning, or dull end_.--[MS. erased.]

{397}[jq] _For such all women are just_ then, _no doubt_.--[MS.]

[jr]

_Of such sensations, in the drowsy drear_

After--_which shadows the, say_--second _year_.--[MS.]

_Of that sad heavy, drowsy, doubly drear_

After, _which shadows the first--say, year_.--[MS. erased.]

[521] [Stanza lxxvi. is not in the MS.]

{398}[522] A Russian estate is always valued by the number of the slaves

upon it.

{399}[523] [The "Protassova" (born 1744) was a cousin of the Orlofs. She

survived Catherine by many years, and was, writes M. Waliszewski (_The

Story of a Throne_, 1895, ii. 193), "present at the Congress of Vienna,

covered with diamonds like a reliquary, and claiming precedence of every

one." She is named _l'prouveuse_ in a note to the _Mmoires Secrets_,

1800, i. 148.]

[js] _And not be dazzled by its early glare_.--[MS. erased.]

[524] End of Canto 9^th^, Augt. Sept., 1822. B.