Don Juan

Canto the Third

FOOTNOTES:

[169] [November 30, 1819. Copied in 1820 (MS.D.). Moore (_Life_, 421)

says that Byron was at work on the third canto when he stayed with him

at Venice, in October, 1819. "One day, before dinner, [he] read me two

or three hundred lines of it; beginning with the stanzas "Oh

Wellington," etc., which, at the time, formed the opening of the third

canto, but were afterwards reserved for the commencement of the ninth."

The third canto, as it now stands, was completed by November 8, 1819;

see _Letters_, 1900, iv. 375. The date on the MS. may refer to the first

fair copy.]

{144}[ch] _And fits her like a stocking or a glove_.--[MS. D.]

[170] ["On peut trouver des femmes qui n'ont jamais eu de galanterie,

mais il est rare d'en trouver qui n'en aient jamais eu

qu'une."--_Rflexions_ ... du Duc de la Rochefoucauld, No. lxxiii.

Byron prefixed the maxim as a motto to his "Ode to a Lady whose Lover

was killed by a Ball, which at the same time shivered a Portrait next

his Heart."--_Poetical Works_, 1901, iv. 552.]

{145}[171] [_Merchant of Venice_, act iv. sc. 1, line 254.]

[ci]

_Had Petrarch's passion led to Petrarch's wedding,_

_How many sonnets had ensued the bedding?_--[MS.]

[172] [The Ballad of "Death and the Lady" was printed in a small volume,

entitled _A Guide to Heaven_, 1736, 12mo. It is mentioned in _The Vicar

of Wakefield_ (chap. xvii.), _Works of Oliver Goldsmith_, 1854, i. 369.

See _Old English Popular Music_, by William Chappell, F.S.A., 1893, ii.

170, 171.]

{146}[173] [See _The Prophecy of Dante,_ Canto I. lines 172-174,

_Poetical Works,_ 1901, iv. 253, note 1.]

[174] Milton's first wife ran away from him within the first month. If

she had not, what would John Milton have done?

[Mary Powell did not "run away," but at the end of the honeymoon

obtained her husband's consent to visit her family at Shotover, "upon a

promise of returning at Michaelmas." "And in the mean while his studies

went on very vigorously; and his chief diversion, after the business of

the day, was now and then in an evening to visit the Lady Margaret

Lee.... This lady, being a woman of excellent wit and understanding, had

a particular honour for our author, and took great delight in his

conversation; as likewise did her husband, Captain Hobson." See, too,

his sonnet "To the Lady Margaret Ley."--_The Life of Milton_ (by Thomas

Newton, D.D.), _Paradise Regained,_ ed. (Baskerville), 1758, pp. xvii.,

xviii.]

[175] ["Yesterday a very pretty letter from Annabella.... She is a

poetess--a mathematician--a metaphysician."--_Journal_ November 30,

1813, _Letters_, 1898, ii. 357.]

{147}[cj]

_Displayed much more of nerve, perhaps, of wit,_

_Than any of the parodies of Pitt_.--[MS.]

{148}[ck] _---- toothpicks, a bidet_.--[MS. Alternative reading.]

"_Dr. Murray--As you are squeamish you may put 'teapot, tray,' in case

the other piece of feminine furniture frightens you.--B._"

[176] [For Byron's menagerie, see _Werner_, act i. sc. 1, line 216,

_Poetical Works_, 1902, v. 348, note 1.]

{149}[177] ["But as for canine recollections ... I had one (half a

_wolf_ by the she-side) that doted on me at ten years old, and very

nearly ate me at twenty. When I thought he was going to enact Argus, he

bit away the backside of my breeches, and never would consent to any

kind of recognition, in despite of all kinds of bones which I offered

him."--Letter to Moore, January 19, 1815, _Letters_, 1899, iii. 171,

172. Compare, too, _Childe Harold_, Canto I. Song, stanza ix., _Poetical

Works_, 1899, ii. 30.]

{150}[cl]

_Yet for all that don't stay away too long,_

_A sofa, like a bed, may come by wrong_.--[MS.]

_I've known the friend betrayed_----.--[MS. D.]

{151}[178] [The Pyrrhic war-dance represented "by rapid movements of the

body, the way in which missiles and blows from weapons were avoided, and

also the mode in which the enemy was attacked" (_Dict. of Ant._).

Dodwell (_Tour through Greece_, 1819, ii. 21, 22) observes that in

Thessaly and Macedon dances are performed at the present day by men

armed with their musket and sword. See, too, Hobhouse's description

(_Travels in Albania_, 1858, i. 166, 167) of the Albanian war-dance at

Loutrki.]

[179] ["Their manner of dancing is certainly the same that Diana is

_sung_ to have danced on the banks of Eurotas. The great lady still

leads the dance, and is followed by a troop of young girls, who imitate

her steps, and, if she sings, make up the chorus. The tunes are

extremely gay and lively, yet with something in them wonderfully soft.

The steps are varied according to the pleasure of her that leads the

dance, but always in exact time, and infinitely more agreeable than any

of our dances."--Lady M.W. Montagu to Pope, April 1, O.S., 1817,

_Letters, etc._, 1816, p. 138. The "kerchief-waving" dance is the

_Romaika_. See _The Waltz_, line 125, _Poetical Works_, 1898, i. 492,

note 1. See, too, _Voyage Pittoresque_ ... by the Comte de

Choiseul-Gouffier, 1782, vol. i. Planche 33.]

[cm] _That would have set Tom Moore, though married, raving._--[MS.]

{152}[180] ["Upon the whole, I think the part of _Don Juan_ in which

Lambro's return to his home, and Lambro himself are described, is the

best, that is, the most individual, thing in all I know of Lord B.'s

works. The festal abandonment puts one in mind of Nicholas Poussin's

pictures."--_Table Talk_ of S.T. Coleridge, June 7, 1824.]

{153}[181] [Compare _Hudibras_, Part I. canto iii. lines 1, 2--

"Ay me! what perils do environ

The man that meddles with cold iron!"

Byron's friend, C.S. Matthews, shouted these lines, _con intenzione_,

under the windows of a Cambridge tradesman named Hiron, who had been

instrumental in the expulsion from the University of Sir Henry Smyth, a

riotous undergraduate. (See letter to Murray, October 19, 1820.)]

{154}[cn]

_All had been open, heart, and open house,_

_Ever since Juan served her for a spouse._--[MS.]

{155}[182]

{157}[co] _For instance, if a first or second wife._--[MS.]

{159}[cp]

_And send him forth like Samson strong in blindness_.--[MS. D.]

_And make him Samson-like--more fierce with blindness_.--[MS. M.]

[cq]

_Not so the single, deep, and wordless ire,_

_Of a strong human heart_--.--[MS.]

{160}[183] ["Almost all _Don Juan_ is _real_ life, either my own, or

from people I knew. By the way, much of the description of the

_furniture_, in Canto Third, is taken from _Tully's Tripoli_ (pray _note

this_), and the rest from my own observation. Remember, I never meant to

conceal this at all, and have only not stated it, because _Don Juan_ had

no preface, nor name to it."--Letter to Murray, August 23, 1821,

_Letters_, 1901, v. 346.

The first edition of _"Tully's Tripoli"_ is entitled _Narrative of a Ten

Years' Residence in Tripoli In Africa: From the original correspondence

in the possession of the Family of the late Richard Tully, Esq., the

British Consul_, 1816, 410. The book is in the form of letters (so says

the _Preface_) written by the Consul's sister. The description of

Haide's _dress_ is taken from the account of a visit to Lilla Kebbiera,

the wife of the Bashaw (p. 30); the description of the furniture and

refreshments from the account of a visit to "Lilla Amnani," Hadgi

Abderrahmam's Greek wife (pp. 132-137). It is evident that the "Chiel"

who took _these_ "notes" was the Consul's _sister_, not the Consul:

"Lilla Aisha, the Bey's wife, is thought to be very sensible, though

rather haughty. Her apartments were grand, and herself superbly habited.

Her chemise was covered with gold embroidery at the neck; over it she

wore a gold and silver tissue _jileck_, or jacket without sleeves, and

over that another of purple velvet richly laced with gold, with coral

and pearl buttons set quite close together down the front; it had short

sleeves finished with a gold band not far below the shoulder, and

discovered a wide loose chemise of transparent gauze, with gold, silver,

and ribband strips. She wore round her ancles ... a sort of fetter made

of a thick bar of gold so fine that they bound it round the leg with one

hand; it is an inch and a half wide, and as much in thickness: each of

these weighs four pounds. Just above this a band three inches wide of

gold thread finished the ends of a pair of trousers made of pale yellow

and white silk."

Page 132. "[Lilla] rose to take coffee, which was served in very small

china cups, placed in silver filigree cups; and gold filigree cups were

put under those presented to the married ladies. They had introduced

cloves, cinnamon, and saffron into the coffee, which was abundantly

sweetened; but this mixture was very soon changed, and replaced by

excellent simple coffee for the European ladies...."

Page 133. "The Greek then shewed us the gala furniture of her own

room.... The hangings of the room were of tapestry, made in pannels of

different coloured velvets, thickly inlaid with flowers of silk damask;

a yellow border, of about a foot in depth, finished the tapestry at top

and bottom, the upper border being embroidered with Moorish sentences

from the Koran in lilac letters. The carpet was of crimson satin, with a

deep border of pale blue quilted; this is laid over Indian mats and

other carpets. In the best part of the room the sofa is placed, which

occupies three sides in an alcove, the floor of which is raised. The

sofa and the cushions that lay around were of crimson velvet, the centre

cushions were embroidered with a sun in gold of highly embossed work,

the rest were of gold and silver tissue. The curtains of the alcove were

made to match those before the bed. A number of looking-glasses, and a

profusion of fine china and chrystal completed the ornaments and

furniture of the room, in which were neither tables nor chairs. A small

table, about six inches high, is brought in when refreshments are

served; it is of ebony, inlaid with mother-of-pearl, tortoiseshell,

ivory, gold and silver, of choice woods, or of plain mahogany, according

to the circumstances of the proprietor."

Page 136. "On the tables were placed all sorts of refreshments, and

thirty or forty dishes of meat and poultry, dressed different ways;

there were no knives nor forks, and only a few spoons of gold, silver,

ivory, or coral...."

Page 137. "The beverage was various sherbets, some composed of the juice

of boiled raisins, very sweet; some of the juice of pomegranates

squeezed through the rind; and others of the pure juice of oranges.

These sherbets were copiously supplied in high glass ewers, placed in

great numbers on the ground.... After the dishes of meat were removed, a

dessert of Arabian fruits, confectionaries, and sweetmeats was served;

among the latter was the date-bread. This sweetmeat is made in

perfection only by the blacks at Fezzan, of the ripe date of the

country.... They make it in the shape of loaves, weighing from twenty to

thirty pounds; the stones of the fruit are taken out, and the dates

simply pressed together with great weights; thus preserved, it keeps

perfectly good for a year."]

{162}[184] ["He writes like a man who has that clear perception of the

truth of things which is the result of the guilty knowledge of good and

evil; and who, by the light of that knowledge, has deliberately

preferred the evil with a proud malignity of purpose, which would seem

to leave little for the last consummating change to accomplish. When he

calculates that the reader is on the verge of pitying him, he takes care

to throw him back the defiance of laughter, as if to let him know that

all the Poet's pathos is but the sentimentalism of the drunkard between

his cups, or the relenting softness of the courtesan, who the next

moment resumes the bad boldness of her degraded character. With such a

man, who would wish either to laugh or to weep?"--_Eclectic Review_

(Lord Byron's _Mazeppa_), August, 1819, vol. xii. p. 150.]

[cr] _For that's the name they like to cant beneath._--[MS.]

{163}[cs] _The upholsterer's_ "fiat lux" _had bade to issue._--[MS.]

{164}[185] This dress is Moorish, and the bracelets and bar are worn in

the manner described. The reader will perceive hereafter, that as the

mother of Haide was of Fez, her daughter wore the garb of the country.

[_Vide ante, p. 160, note 1._]

[186] The bar of gold above the instep is a mark of sovereign rank in

the women of the families of the Deys, and is worn as such by their

female relatives. [_Vide ibid._]

[187] This is no exaggeration: there were four women whom I remember to

have seen, who possessed their hair in this profusion; of these, three

were English, the other was a Levantine. Their hair was of that length

and quantity, that, when let down, it almost entirely shaded the person,

so as nearly to render dress a superfluity. Of these, only one had dark

hair; the Oriental's had, perhaps, the lightest colour of the four.

[188] [Compare--

"Yet there was round thee such a dawn

Of Light ne'er seen before,

As Fancy never could have drawn,

And never can restore."

Song by Rev. C. Wolfe (1791-1823).

Compare, too--

"She was a form of Life and Light

That, seen, became a part of sight."

_The Giaour_, lines 1127, 1128.]

{165}[189]

[" ... but Psyche owns no lord--

She walks a goddess from above;

All saw, all praised her, all adored,

But no one ever dared to love."

_The Golden Ass of Apuleius; in English verse, entitled Cupid and

Psyche_, by Hudson Gurney, 1799.]

[190] [_King John_, act iv. sc. 2, line 11.]

{166}[191] ["Richard Crashaw (died 1650), the friend of Cowley, was

honoured," says Warton, "with the praise of Pope; who both read his

poems and borrowed from them. After he was ejected from his Fellowship

at Peterhouse for denying the covenant, he turned Roman Catholic, and

died canon of the church at Loretto." Cowley sang his _In Memoriam_--

"_Angels_ (they say) brought the famed _Chappel_ there;

And bore the sacred Load in Triumph through the air:--

'T is surer much they brought thee there, and _They_,

And _Thou_, their charge, went _singing_ all the way."

_The Works, etc._, 1668, pp. 29, 30.]

[ct] _Believed like Southey--and perused like Crashaw._--[MS.]

{167}[192] [The second chapter of Coleridge's _Biographia Literaria_ is

on the "supposed irritability of men of genius." Ed. 1847, i. 29.]

[cu] _Their poet a sad Southey_.--[MS. D.]

[cv] _Of rogues_--.--[MS. D.]

[cw] _Of which the causers never know the cause_.--[MS. D.]

{168}[193] [_Vide St. August. Epist._, xxxvi., cap. xiv., "Ille

[Ambrosius, Mediolanensis Episcopus] adjecit; Quando hic sum, non jejuno

sabbato; quando Romae sum, jejuno sabbato."--Migne's _Patrologi

Cursus_, 1845, xxxiii. 151.]

[cx] _From the high lyrical to the low rational_.--[MS.D.]

[194] [The allusion is to Coleridge's eulogy of Southey in the

Biographia Literaria (ed. 1847, i. 61): "In poetry he has attempted

almost every species of composition known before, and he has added new

ones; and if we except the very highest lyric ... he has attempted every

species successfully." But the satire, primarily and ostensibly aimed at

Southey, now and again glances at Southey's eulogist.]

[195] ["Goethe pourroit reprsenter la littrature allemande toute

entire."--_De L'Allemagne_, par Mme. la Baronne de Stal-Holstein,

1818, i. 227.]

[196] [The poet is not "a sad Southey," but is sketched from memory.

"Lord Byron," writes Finlay (_History of Greece_, vi. 335, note), "used

to describe an evening passed in the company of Londos [a Morean

landowner, who took part in the first and second Greek Civil Wars], at

Vostitza (in 1809), when both were young men, with a spirit that

rendered the scene worthy of a place in _Don Juan_. After supper Londos,

who had the face and figure of a chimpanzee, sprang upon a table, ...

and commenced singing through his nose Rhiga's Hymn to Liberty. A new

cadi, passing near the house, inquired the cause of the discordant

hubbub. A native Mussulman replied, 'It is only the young primate

Londos, who is drunk, and is singing hymns to the new panaghia of the

Greeks, whom they call Eleutheria.'" (See letter to Andreas Londos

(undated), _Letters_, 1901, vi. 320, note 1.)]

{169}[197] The [Greek: Makan nsoi] [Hesiod, _Works and Days_, line

169] of the Greek poets were supposed to have been the Cape de Verd

Islands, or the Canaries.

[cy]

_Euboea looks on Marathon,

And Marathon looks on the sea, etc._--[MS.]

[198] [See schylus, _Pers_, 463, sq.; and Herodotus, viii. 90.

Harpocration records the preservation, in the Acropolis, of the

silver-footed throne on which Xerxes sat when he watched the battle of

Salamis from the slope of Mount galeos.]

{170}[cz] _The Heroic heart awakes no more_.--[MS. D.]

{171}[199] [For "that most ancient military dance, the _Pyrrhica_," see

_Travels_, by E.D. Clarke, 1814, part ii. sect. 11, p. 641; and for

specimens of "Cadmean characters," _vide ibid._, p. 593.]

[200] [After his birthplace Teos was taken by the Persians, B.C. 510,

Anacreon migrated to Abdera, but afterwards lived at Samos, under the

protection of Polycrates.]

[da] _Which Hercules might deem his own._--[MS.]

{172}[201] [See the translation of a speech delivered to the Pargiots,

in 1815, by an aged citizen: "I exhort you well to consider, before you

yield yourselves up to the English, that the King of England now has in

his pay all the kings of Europe--obtaining money for this purpose from

his merchants; whence, should it become advantageous to the merchants to

sell you, in order to conciliate Ali, and obtain certain commercial

advantages in his harbours, the _English will sell you to Ali._"

--"Parga," _Edinburgh Review_, October, 1819. vol. 32, pp. 263-293.

Here, perhaps, the "Franks" are the Russians. Compare--

"Greeks only should free Greece,

Not the barbarian with his masque of peace."

_The Age of Bronze_, lines 298, 299, _Poetical Works_, 1901, v. 557,

note 1.]

[202]

[Greek: Genoi/man, i(/n' y(laen e)/pesti po/n-]

[Greek: tou pro/blm' a(likyston, a)/-]

[Greek: kran y(po pla/ka Souni/ou, k.t.l.]

Sophocles, _Ajax_, lines 1190-1192.]

{173}[203] [Compare--

"What poets feel not, when they make,

A pleasure in creating,

The world, in _its_ turn, will not take

Pleasure in contemplating."

Matthew Arnold (Motto to _Poems_, 1869, vol. i. Fly-leaf).]

[204] [For this "sentence," see _Journal_, November 16, 1813, _Letters_,

1898, ii. 320, note 1; see, too, letter to Rogers, 1814, _Letters_,

1899, iii. 89, note 1.]

[db] _In digging drains for a new water-closet._--[MS.]

[205] [For Edmund Hoyle (1672-1769), see _English Bards, etc._, lines

966-968, _Poetical Works_, 1898, i. 372, note 4.]

{174}[206] [William Coxe (1747-1828), Archdeacon of Wilts, a voluminous

historian and biographer, published _Memoirs of John, Duke of

Marlborough_, in 1817-1819.]

[207] [See _Life of Milton, Works_ of Samuel Johnson, 1825, vii. pp. 67,

68, 80, _et vide ante_, p. 146, note 2.]

[208] [According to Suetonius, the youthful Titus amused himself by

copying handwriting, and boasted that he could have made a first-rate

_falsarius_. One of Csar's "earliest acts" was to crucify some jovial

pirates, who had kidnapped him, and with whom he pretended to be on

pleasant if not friendly terms.]

[209] [James Currie, M.D. (1756-1805), published, anonymously, the

_Works of Robert Burns, with an account of his Life, etc._, in 1800.]

[210] ["He [Cromwell] was very notorious for robbing orchards, a puerile

crime ... but grown so scandalous and injurious by the frequent spoyls

and damages of Trees, breaking of Hedges, and Inclosures, committed by

this _Apple-Dragon_, that many solemn complaints were made both to his

Father and Mother for redresse thereof; which missed not their

satisfaction and expiation out of his hide," etc.--_Flagellum_, by James

Heath, 1663, p. 5. See, too, for his "name of a Royster" at Cambridge,

_A Short View of the Late Troubles in England_, by Sir William Dugdale,

1681, p. 459.]

{175}[211] [In _The Friend_, 1818, ii. 38, Coleridge refers to "a plan

... of trying the experiment of human perfectibility on the banks of the

Susquehanna;" and Southey, in his _Letter to William Smith, Esq._

(1817), (_Essays Moral and Political_, by Robert Southey, 1832, ii. 17),

speaks of his "purpose to retire with a few friends into the wilds of

America, and there lay the foundations of a community," etc.; but the

word "_Pantisocracy_" is not mentioned. It occurs, perhaps, for the

first time in print, in George Dyer's biographical sketch of Southey,

which he contributed to _Public Characters of 1799-1800_, p. 225,

"Coleridge, no less than Southey, possessed a strong passion for poetry.

They commenced, like two young poets, an enthusiastic friendship, and in

connection with others, struck out a plan for settling in America, and

for having all things in common. This scheme they called Pantisocracy."

Hence, the phrase must have "caught on," for, in a footnote to his

review of Coleridge's _Literary Life_ (_Edin. Rev._, August, 1817, vol.

xxviii. p. 501), Jeffrey speaks of "the Pantisocratic or Lake School."]

[212] [Wordsworth _was_ "hired," but not, like Burns, "excised." Hazlitt

(_Lectures on the English Poets_, 1870, p. 174) is responsible for the

epithet: "Mr. Wordsworth might have shown the incompatibility between

the Muse and the Excise," etc.]

[dc] _Confined his pedlar poems to democracy._--[MS.]

[213] [Coleridge began his poetical contributions to the _Morning Post_

in January, 1798; his poetical articles in 1800.]

[dd] _Flourished its sophistry for aristocracy._--[MS.]

[214] [Coleridge was married to Sarah Fricker, October 5; Southey to her

younger sister Edith, November 15, 1795. Their father, Stephen Fricker,

who had been an innkeeper, and afterwards a potter at Bristol, migrated

to Bath about the year 1780. For the last six years of his life he was

owner and manager of a coal wharf. He had inherited a small fortune, and

his wife brought him money, but he died bankrupt, and left his family

destitute. His widow returned to Bristol, and kept a school. In a letter

to Murray, dated September 11, 1822 (_Letters_, 1901, vi. 113), Byron

quotes the authority of "Luttrell," and "his friend Mr. Nugent," for the

statement that Mrs. Southey and "Coleridge's Sara ... before they were

married ... were milliner's or dressmaker's apprentices." The story

rests upon their evidence. It is certain that in 1794, when Coleridge

appeared upon the scene, the sisters earned their living by going out to

work in the houses of friends, and were not, at that time, "milliners of

Bath."]

{176}[215] [For Joanna Southcott (1750-1814), see _Letters_, 1899, iii.

128-130, note 2.]

[216] [Here follows, in the original MS.--

[218] [Wordsworth's _Benjamin the Waggoner_, was written in 1805, but

was not published till 1819. "Benjamin" was servant to William Jackson,

a Keswick carrier, who built Greta Hall, and let off part of the house

to Coleridge.]

[219]

["There's something in a flying horse,

There's something in a huge balloon;

But through the clouds I'll never float

Until I have a little Boat,

Shaped like the crescent-moon."

Wordsworth's _Peter Bell_, stanza i.]

[220] [For Medea's escape from the wrath of Jason, "Titaniacis ablata

draconibus," see Ovid., _Met._, vii. 398.]

[221] [In his "Essay, Supplementary to the Preface," to his "Poems" of

1815, Wordsworth, commenting on a passage on Night in Dryden's _Indian

Emperor_, says, "Dryden's lines are vague, bombastic, and senseless....

The verses of Dryden once celebrated are forgotten." He is not passing

any general criticism on "him who drew _Achitophel_." In a letter to Sir

Walter Scott (November 7, 1805), then engaged on his great edition of

Dryden's _Works_, he admits that Dryden is not "as a poet any great

favourite of mine. I admire his talents and genius highly, but he is not

a poetical genius. The only qualities I can find in Dryden that are

_essentially_ poetical, are a certain ardour and impetuosity of mind,

with an excellent ear" (_Life of Wordsworth_, by W. Knight, 1889, ii.

26-29). Scott may have remarked on Wordsworth's estimate of Dryden in

conversation with Byron.]

{178}[de] _While swung the signal from the sacred tower._--[MS.]

{179}[df]

_Are not these pretty stanzas?--some folks say--_

_Downright in print_--.--[MS.]

[222] [Compare Coleridge's _Lines to Nature_, which were published in

the _Morning Herald_, in 1815, but must have been unknown to Byron--

"So will I build my altar in the fields,

And the blue sky my fretted dome shall be."]

[223] ["As early as the fifth or sixth century of the Christian era, the

port of Augustus was converted into pleasant orchards, and a lovely

grove of pines covered the ground where the Roman fleet once rode at

anchor.... This advantageous situation was fortified by art and

_labour_, and in the twentieth year of his age, the Emperor of the West

... retired to ... the walls and morasses of Ravenna."--Gibbon's

_Decline and Fall_, 1825, ii. 244, 245.]

[224] ["The first time I had a conversation with Lord Byron on the

subject of religion was at Ravenna, my native country, in 1820, while we

were riding on horseback in an extensive solitary wood of pines. The

scene invited to religious meditation. It was a fine day in spring.

'How,' he said, 'raising our eyes to heaven, or directing them to the

earth, can we doubt of the existence of God?--or how, turning them to

what is within us, can we doubt that there is something more noble and

durable than the clay of which we are formed?'"--Count Gamba.]

{180}[225] [If the _Pineta_ of Ravenna, _bois funbre_, invited Byron

"to religious meditation," the mental picture of the "spectre huntsman"

pursuing his eternal vengeance on "the inexorable dame"--"that fatal

she," who had mocked his woes--must have set in motion another train of

thought. Such lines as these would "speak comfortably" to him--

[226]

[Greek: Espere panta phereis]

[Greek: Phereis oinon--phereis aiga,]

[Greek: Phereis materi paida.]

_Fragment of Sappho._

[Greek: We/spere, pa/nta phen, o(/sa phai/nolis e)ske/das' au)/s]

[Greek: Pheeis oi)/n pheeis ai~)ga, Pheeis a)/py matei pai~da.]

_Sappho_, Memoir, Text, by Henry Thornton Wharton, 1895, p. 136.

"Evening, all things thou bringest

Which dawn spread apart from each other;

The lamb and the kid thou bringest,

Thou bringest the boy to his mother."

J.A. Symonds.

Compare Tennyson's _Locksley Hall, Sixty Years After_--"Hesper, whom the

poet call'd the Bringer home of all good things."]

{181}[227]

"Era gi l'ora che volge il disio

Ai naviganti, e intenerisce il cuore;

Lo di ch' han detto ai dolci amici addio;

E che lo nuovo peregrin' damore

Punge, se ode squilla di lontano,

Che paia il giorno pianger che si more."

Dante's _Purgatory_, canto viii., lines 1-6.

This last line is the first of Gray's Elegy, taken by him without

acknowledgment.

[228] See Suetonius for this fact.

["The public joy was so great upon the occasion of his death, that the

common people ran up and down with caps upon their heads. And yet there

were some, who for a long time trimmed up his tomb with spring and

summer flowers, and, one while, placed his image upon his rostra dressed

up in state robes, another while published proclamations in his name, as

if he was yet alive, and would shortly come to Rome again, with a

vengeance to all his enemies."--_De XII. Cs._, lib. vi. cap. lvii.]

[dg]

_But I'm digressing--what on earth have Nero

And Wordsworth--both poetical buffoons, etc._--[MS.]

{182}[229] [See _De Poetic_, cap. xxiv. See, too, the Preface to

Dryden's "Dedication" of the _neis_ (_Works_ of John Dryden, 1821, xiv.

130-134). Dryden is said to have derived his knowledge of Aristotle from

Dacier's translation, and it is probable that Byron derived his from

Dryden. See letter to Hodgson (_Letters_, 1891, v. 284), in which he

quotes Aristotle as quoted in Johnson's _Life of Dryden_.]