Don Juan

Canto the First

FOOTNOTES:

{11}[14] [Begun at Venice, September 6; finished November 1, 1818.]

[15] [The pantomime which Byron and his readers "all had seen," was an

abbreviated and bowdlerized version of Shadwell's _Libertine_. "First

produced by Mr. Garrick on the boards of Drury Lane Theatre," it was

recomposed by Charles Anthony Delpini, and performed at the Royalty

Theatre, in Goodman's Fields, in 1787. It was entitled _Don Juan; or,

The Libertine Destroyed_: A Tragic Pantomimical Entertainment, In Two

Acts. Music Composed by Mr. Gluck. "Scaramouch," the "Sganarelle" of

Molire's _Festin de Pierre_, was a favourite character of Joseph

Grimaldi. He was cast for the part, in 1801, at Sadler's Wells, and,

again, on a memorable occasion, November 28, 1809, at Covent Garden

Theatre, when the O.P. riots were in full swing, and (see the _Morning

Chronicle_, November 29, 1809) "there was considerable tumult in the

pit." According to "Boz" (_Memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi_, 1846, ii. 81,

106, 107), Byron patronized Grimaldi's "benefits at Covent Garden," was

repeatedly in his company, and when he left England, in 1816, "presented

him with a valuable silver snuff-box." At the end of the pantomime "the

Furies gather round him [Don Juan], and the Tyrant being bound in chains

is hurried away and thrown into flames." The Devil is conspicuous by his

absence.]

{12}[16] [Edward Vernon, Admiral (1684-1757), took Porto Bello in 1739.

William Augustus, second son of George II. (1721-1765), fought at the

battles of Dettingen, 1743; Fontenoy, 1745; and at Culloden, 1746. For

the "severity of the Duke of Cumberland," see Scott's _Tales of a

Grandfather_, _Prose Works_, 1830, vii. 852, _sq_.

James Wolfe, General, born January 2, 1726, was killed at the siege of

Quebec, September 13, 1759.

Edward, Lord Hawke, Admiral (1715-1781), totally defeated the French

fleet in Quiberon Bay, November 20, 1759.

Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick (1721-1792), gained the victory at Minden,

August 1, 1759.

John Manners, Marquess of Granby (1721-1790), commanded the British

forces in Germany (1766-1769).

John Burgoyne, General, defeated the Americans at Germantown, October 3,

1777, but surrendered to General Gates at Saratoga, October 17, 1778. He

died in 1792.

Augustus, Viscount Keppel, Admiral (1725-1786), was tried by

court-martial, January-February, 1779, for allowing the French fleet off

Ushant to escape, July, 1778. He was honourably acquitted.

Richard, Earl Howe, Admiral (1725-1799), known by the sailors as "Black

Dick," defeated the French off Ushant, June 1, 1794.]

[17] [Compare _Macbeth_, act iv. sc. i, line 65.]

[18] ["In the eighth and concluding lecture of Mr. Hazlitt's canons of

criticism, delivered at the Surrey Institution (_The English Poets_,

1870, pp. 203, 204), I am accused of having 'lauded Buonaparte to the

skies in the hour of his success, and then peevishly wreaking my

disappointment on the god of my idolatry.' The first lines I ever wrote

upon Buonaparte were the 'Ode to Napoleon,' after his abdication in

1814. All that I have ever written on that subject has been done since

his decline;--I never 'met him in the hour of his success.' I have

considered his character at different periods, in its strength and in

its weakness: by his zealots I am accused of injustice--by his enemies

as his warmest partisan, in many publications, both English and foreign.

"For the accuracy of my delineation I have high authority. A year and

some months ago, I had the pleasure of seeing at Venice my friend the

honourable Douglas Kinnaird. In his way through Germany, he told me that

he had been honoured with a presentation to, and some interviews with,

one of the nearest family connections of Napoleon (Eugne Beauharnais).

During one of these, he read and translated the lines alluding to

Buonaparte, in the Third Canto of _Childe Harold_. He informed me, that

he was authorized by the illustrious personage--(still recognized as

such by the Legitimacy in Europe)--to whom they were read, to say, _that

'the delineation was complete,'_ or words to this effect. It is no

puerile vanity which induces me to publish this fact;--but Mr. Hazlitt

accuses my inconsistency, and infers my inaccuracy. Perhaps he will

admit that, with regard to the latter, one of the most intimate family

connections of the Emperor may be equally capable of deciding on the

subject. I tell Mr. Hazlitt that I never flattered Napoleon on the

throne, nor maligned him since his fall. I wrote what I think are the

incredible antitheses of his character.

"Mr. Hazlitt accuses me further of delineating _myself_ in _Childe

Harold_, etc., etc. I have denied this long ago--but, even were it true,

Locke tells us, that all his knowledge of human understanding was

derived from studying his own mind. From Mr. Hazlitt's opinion of my

poetry I do not appeal; but I request that gentleman not to insult me by

imputing the basest of crimes,--viz. 'praising publicly the same man

whom I wished to depreciate in his adversity:'--the _first_ lines I ever

wrote on Buonaparte were in his dispraise, in 1814,--the _last_, though

not at all in his favour, were more impartial and discriminative, in

1818. Has he become more fortunate since 1814?" For Byron's various

estimates of Napoleon's character and career, see _Childe Harold_, Canto

III, stanza xxxvi. line 7, _Poetical Works_, 1899, ii. 238, note 1.]

{13}[19] [Charles Franois Duperier Dumouriez (1739-1823) defeated the

Austrians at Jemappes, November 6, 1792, etc. He published his

_Mmoires_ (Hamburg et Leipsic), 1794. For the spelling, see _Memoirs of

General Dumourier_, written by himself, translated by John Fenwick.

London, 1794. See, too, _Lettre de Joseph Servan_, Ex-ministre de la

Guerre, _Sur le mmoire lu par M. Dumourier le 13 Juin l'Assemble

Nationale; Bibiothque Historique de la Rvolution_, "Justifications,"

7, 8, 9.]

[20] [Antoine Pierre Joseph Barnave, born 1761, was appointed President

of the Constituent Assembly in 1790. He was guillotined November 30,

1793.

Jean Pierre Brissot de Warville, philosopher and politician, born

January 14, 1754, was one of the principal instigators of the revolt of

the Champ de Mars, July, 1789. He was guillotined October 31, 1793.

Marie Jean Antoine, Marquis de Condorcet, born September 17, 1743, was

appointed President of the Legislative Assembly in 1792. Proscribed by

the Girondins, he poisoned himself to escape the guillotine, March 28,

1794.

Honor Gabriel Riquetti, Comte de Mirabeau, born March 9, 1749, died

April 2, 1791.

Jrme Petion de Villeneuve, born 1753, Mayor of Paris in 1791, took an

active part in the imprisonment of the king. In 1793 he fell under

Robespierre's displeasure, and to escape proscription took refuge in the

department of Calvados. In 1794 his body was found in a field, half

eaten by wolves.

Jean Baptiste, Baron de Clootz (better known as Anacharsis Clootz), was

born in 1755. In 1790, at the bar of the National Convention, he

described himself as the "Speaker of Mankind." Being suspected by

Robespierre, he was condemned to death, March 24, 1794. On the scaffold

he begged to be executed last, "in order to establish certain

principles." (See Carlyle's _French Revolution_, 1839, iii. 315.)

Georges Jacques Danton, born October 28, 1759, helped to establish the

Revolutionary Tribunal, March 10, and the Committee of Public Safety,

April 6, 1793; agreed to proscription of the Girondists, June, 1793; was

executed with Camille Desmoulins and others, April 5, 1794.

Jean Paul Marat, born May 24, 1744, physician and man of science,

proposed and carried out the wholesale m******e of September 2-5, 1792;

was denounced to, but acquitted by, the Revolutionary Tribunal, May,

1793; assassinated by Charlotte Corday, July 13, 1793.

Marie Jean Paul, Marquis de La Fayette, born September 6, 1757, died May

19, 1834.

With the exception of La Fayette, who outlived Byron by ten years, and

Lord St. Vincent, all "the famous persons" mentioned in stanzas ii.-iv.

had passed away long before the First Canto of _Don Juan_ was written.]

{14}[21] [Barthlemi Catherine Joubert, born April 14, 1769,

distinguished himself at the engagements of Cava, Montebello, Rivoli,

and in the Tyrol. He was afterwards sent to oppose Suvroff, and was

killed at Novi, August 15, 1799.

For Hoche and Marceau, _vide ante, Poetical Works_, 1899, ii. 296.

Jean Lannes, Duke of Montebello, born April 11, 1769, distinguished

himself at Lodi, Aboukir, Acre, Austerlitz, Jena and, lastly, at

Essling, where he was mortally wounded. He died May 31, 1809.

Louis Charles Antoine Desaix de Voygoux, born August 27, 1768, won the

victory at the Pyramids, July 21, 1798. He was mortally wounded at

Marengo, June 14, 1800.

Jean Victor Moreau, born August 11, 1763, was victorious at Engen, May

3, and at Hohenlinden, December 3, 1800. He was struck by a cannon-ball

at the battle of Dresden, August 27, and died September 2, 1813.]

{15}[22] [Hor., _Od._, iv. c. ix. 1. 25--

"Vixere fortes ante Agamemnona," etc.]

[23] [Hor., _Epist. Ad Pisones_, lines 148, 149--

"Semper ad eventum festinat, et in medias res,

Non secus ac notas, auditorem rapit--"]

[24] ["Quien no ha visto Sevilla, no ha visto maravilla."]

{16}[25] [In his reply to _Blackwood_ (No. xxix. August, 1819), Byron

somewhat disingenuously rebuts the charge that _Don Juan_ contained "an

elaborate satire on the character and manners of his wife." "If," he

writes, "in a poem by no means ascertained to be my production there

appears a disagreeable, casuistical, and by no means respectable female

pedant, it is set down for my wife. Is there any resemblance? If there

be, it is in those who make it--I can see none."--Letters, 1900, iv.

477. The allusions in stanzas xii.-xiv., and, again, in stanzas

xxvii.-xxix., are, and must have been meant to be, unmistakable.]

[26] [Gregor von Feinagle, born? 1765, was the inventor of a system of

mnemonics, "founded on the topical memory of the ancients," as described

by Cicero and Quinctilian. He lectured, in 1811, at the Royal

Institution and elsewhere. When Rogers was asked if he attended the

lectures, he replied, "No; I wished to learn the Art of Forgetting"

(_Table-Talk of Samuel Rogers_, 1856, p. 42).]

{17}[a]

_Little she spoke--but what she spoke was Attic all_,

_With words and deeds in perfect unanimity._--[MS.]

[27] [Sir Samuel Romilly, born 1757, lost his wife on the 29th of

October, and committed suicide on the 2nd of November, 1818.--"But there

will come a day of reckoning, even if I should not live to see it. I

have at least seen Romilly shivered, who was one of the assassins. When

that felon or lunatic ... was doing his worst to uproot my whole family,

tree, branch, and blossoms--when, after taking my retainer, he went over

to them [see _Letters_, 1899, iii. 324]--when he was bringing desolation

... on my household gods--did he think that, in less than three years, a

natural event--a severe, domestic, but an unexpected and common

calamity--would lay his carcase in a cross-road, or stamp his name in a

verdict of Lunacy! Did he (who in his drivelling sexagenary dotage had

not the courage to survive his Nurse--for what else was a wife to him at

his time of life?)--reflect or consider what _my_ feelings must have

been, when wife, and child, and sister, and name, and fame, and country,

were to be my sacrifice on his legal altar,--and this at a moment when

my health was declining, my fortune embarrassed, and my mind had been

shaken by many kinds of disappointment--while I was yet young, and might

have reformed what might be wrong in my conduct, and retrieved what was

perplexing in my affairs! But the wretch is in his grave," etc.-Letter

to Murray, June 7, 1819, _Letters_, 1900, iv. 316.]

[28] [Maria Edgeworth (1767-1849) published _Castle Rackrent_, etc.,

etc., etc., in 1800. "In 1813," says Byron, "I recollect to have met

them [the Edgeworths] in the fashionable world of London.... She was a

nice little unassuming 'Jeannie Deans-looking body,' as we Scotch say;

and if not handsome, certainly not ill-looking" (_Diary_, January 19,

1821, _Letters_, 1901, v. 177-179).]

[29] [Sarah Trimmer (1741-1810) published, in 1782, _Easy Introduction

to the Study of Nature_; _History of the Robins_ (dedicated to the

Princess Sophia) in 1786, etc.]

[30] [Hannah More (1745-1833) published _Coelebs in Search of a Wife_ in

1809.]

[31] [Pope, _r**e of the Lock_, Canto II, line 17.]

{19}[32] [John Harrison (1693-1776), known as "Longitude" Harrison, was

the inventor of watch compensation. He received, in slowly and

reluctantly paid instalments, a sum of 20,000 from the Government, for

producing a chronometer which should determine the longitude within half

a degree. A watch which contained his latest improvements was worn by

Captain Cook during his three years' circumnavigation of the globe.]

[33] "Description des _vertus incomparables_ de l'Huile de Macassar."

See the Advertisement. [_An Historical, Philosophical and Practical

Essay on the Human Hair_, was published by Alexander Rowland, jun., in

1816. It was inscribed, "To her Royal Highness the Princess Charlotte of

Wales and Cobourg."]

[b] _Where all was innocence and quiet bliss_.--[MS.]

[c] _And so she seemed, in all outside formalities_.--[MS.]

[34] ["'Zounds, an I were now by this rascal, I could brain him with his

lady's fan."--I _Henry IV._, act ii, sc 3, lines 19, 20.]

{21}[d] _Wishing each other damned, divorced, or dead_.--[MS.]

[35] [According to Medwin (_Conversations_, 1824, p. 55), Byron "was

surprised one day by a Doctor and a Lawyer almost forcing themselves at

the same time into my room. I did not know," he adds, "till afterwards

the real object of their visit. I thought their questions singular,

frivolous, and somewhat importunate, if not impertinent: but what should

I have thought, if I had known that they were sent to provide proofs of

my insanity?" Lady Byron, in her _Remarks on Mr. Moore's Life, etc_.

(_Life_, pp. 661-663), says that Dr. Baillie (_vide post_, p. 412, note

2), whom she consulted with regard to her husband's supposed insanity,

"not having had access to Lord Byron, could not pronounce a positive

opinion on this point." It appears, however, that another doctor, a Mr.

Le Mann (see _Letters_, 1899, iii. 293, note 1, 295, 299, etc.), visited

Byron professionally, and reported on his condition to Lady Byron.

Hence, perhaps, the mention of "druggists."]

{22}[36] ["I deem it _my duty to God_ to act as I am acting."--Letter of

Lady Byron to Mrs. Leigh, February 14, 1816, _Letters_, 1899, iii. 311.]

[37] ["This is so very pointed."--[?Hobhouse.] "If people make

application, it is their own fault."--[B.].--[_Revise._]

[38] ["There is some doubt about this."--[H.] "What has the 'doubt' to

do with the poem? it is, at least, poetically true. Why apply everything

to that absurd woman? I have no reference to living

characters."--[B.].--[_Revise._] Medwin (_Conversations_, 1824, p. 54)

attributes the "breaking open my writing-desk" to Mrs. Charlment (i.e.

Mrs. Clermont) the original of "A Sketch," _Poetical Works_, 1900, iii.

540-544. It is evident from Byron's reply to Hobhouse's remonstrance

that Medwin did not invent this incident, but that some one, perhaps

Fletcher's wife, had told him that his papers had been overhauled.]

{23}[e] _First their friends tried at reconciliation_.--[MS.]

[f] _The lawyers recommended a divorce_.--[MS.]

[j] _Defending still their Iliads and Odysseys_.--[MS.]

[41] See Longinus, Section 10, [Greek: "I/na m e(/n ti peri au)tn

pa/thos phai/ntai, pathn de sy/nodos."]

["The effect desired is that not one passion only should be seen in her,

but a concourse of passions" (_Longinis on the Sublime_, by W. Rhys

Roberts, 1899, pp. 70, 71).

The Ode alluded to is the famous [Greek: Phai/netai/ moi knos i(/sos

theisin, k.t.l.]

"Him rival to the gods I place;

Him loftier yet, if loftier be,

Who, Lesbia, sits before thy face,

Who listens and who looks on thee."

W.E. Gladstone.

"I do not think you are quite held out by the quotation. Longinus says

the circumstantial assemblage of the passions makes the sublime; he does

not talk of the sublime being soaring and ample."--[H.] "I do not care

for this--it must stand."--[B.]--[_Marginal notes in Revise._]]

[42] [_Bucol._, Ecl. ii. "Alexis."]

[In the Delphin _Martial_ (Amsterdam, 1701) the _Epigrammata Obscaena_

are printed as an Appendix (pp. 2-56), "[Ne] quiequam desideraretur a

morosis quibusdam hominibus."]

{28}[44] See his _Confessions_, lib. i. cap. ix.; [lib. ii. cap. ii.,

_et passim_]. By the representation which Saint Augustine gives of

himself in his youth, it is easy to see that he was what we should call

a rake. He avoided the school as the plague; he loved nothing but gaming

and public shows; he robbed his father of everything he could find; he

invented a thousand lies to escape the rod, which they were obliged to

make use of to punish his irregularities.

{30}[45] [Byron's early letters are full of complaints of his mother's

violent temper. See, for instance, letter to the Hon. Augusta Byron,

April 23, 1805. In another letter to John M.B. Pigot, August 9, 1806, he

speaks of her as "Mrs. Byron '_furiosa_'" (_Letters_, 1898, i. 60,

101).]

[46] ["Having surrendered the last symbol of power, the unfortunate

Boabdil continued on towards the Alpuxarras, that he might not behold

the entrance of the Christians into his capital.... Having ascended an

eminence commanding the last view of Granada, the Moors paused

involuntarily to take a farewell gaze at their beloved city, which a few

steps more would shut from their sight for ever.... The heart of

Boabdil, softened by misfortunes, and overcharged with grief, could no

longer contain itself. 'Allah achbar! God is great!' said he; but the

words of resignation died upon his lips, and he burst into a flood of

tears."--_Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada_, by Washington Irving,

1829, ii. 379-381.]

["I am not sure it was not St. Francis who had the wife of snow--in that

case the line must run, 'St. Francis back to reason.'"--[_MS. M._]

For the seven snow-balls, of which "the greatest" was his wife, see Life

of "St. Francis of Assisi" (_The Golden Legend_ (edited by F.S. Ellis),

1900, v. 221). See, too, _the Lives of the Saints, etc._, by the Rev.

Alban Butler, 1838, ii. 574.]

{34}[48] [The sorceress in Tasso's _Gerusalemme Liberata_. The story of

Armida and Rinaldo forms the plot of operas by Glck and Rossini.]

[49]35 _Thinking God might not understand the case_.--[MS. M.,

Revise.]

{36}[50] ["Quel giorno pi non vi leggemmo avante." Dante, _Inferno_,

canto v. line 138.]

{37}[51]

["Conscienzia m'assicura,

La buona compagnia che l'uom francheggia

Sotto l'osbergo del sentirsi pura."

_Inferno_, canto xxviii, lines 115-117.]

[n] _Deemed that her thoughts no more required control_.--[MS.]

{38}[52] [See Ovid, _Metamorph_., vii. 9, sq.]

{39}[53] Campbell's _Gertrude of Wyoming_--(I think)--the opening of

Canto Second [Part III. stanza i. lines 1-4]--but quote from memory.

[54] [See Coleridge's _Biographia Literaria_, chap. i. (ed. 1847, i. 14,

15); and _Dejection: An Ode_, lines 86-93.]

{40}[o]

_I say this by the way--so don't look stern_.

_But if you're angry, reader, pass it by_.--[MS.]

[55] [Juan Boscan, of Barcelona (1500-1544), in concert with his friend

Garcilasso, Italianized Castilian poetry. He was the author of the

_Leandro_, a poem in blank verse, of canzoni, and sonnets after the

model of Petrarch, and of _The Allegory_.--_History of Spanish

Literature_, by George Ticknor, 1888, i. 513.]

[56] [Garcias Lasso or Garcilasso de la Vega (1503-1536), of a noble

family at Toledo, was a warrior as well as a poet, "now seizing on the

sword and now the pen." After serving with distinction in Germany,

Africa, and Provence, he was killed at Muy, near Frejus, in 1536, by a

stone, thrown from a tower, which fell on his head as he was leading on

his battalion. He was the author of thirty-seven sonnets, five canzoni,

and three pastorals.--_Vide ibidem_, pp. 522-535.]

{42}[p]

_A real wittol always is suspicious_,

_But always also hunts in the wrong place_.--[MS.]

{43}[q] _Change horses every hour from night till noon_.--[MS.]

[r] _Except the promises of true theology_.--[MS.]

[57]

["Oh, Susan! I've said, in the moments of mirth,

What's devotion to thee or to me?

I devoutly believe there's a heaven on earth,

And believe that _that_ heaven's in _thee._"

"The Catalogue," _Poetical Works of the late Thomas Little_, 1803, p.

128.]

{44}[s]

_She stood on Guilt's steep brink, in all the sense_

_And full security of Innocence_.--[MS.]

{45}[t] _To leave these two young people then and there.--[MS.]_

{46}[58] ["Age Xerxes.. eo usque luxuria gaudens, ut edicto prmium ei

proponeret, qui novum voluptatis genus reperisset."--Val. Max, _De

Dictis, etc._, lib. ix. cap. 1, ext. 3.]

[59] ["You certainly will be damned for all this scene."--[H.]]

{48}[60] [Compare _Childe Harold_, Canto IV. stanza iii. line 2,

_Poetical Works_, ii. 329, note 3.]

[u] _Our coming, nor look brightly till we come_.--[MS.]

[v] _Sweet is a lawsuit to the attorney--sweet, etc_.--[MS.]

[61] [So, too, Falstaff, _Henry IV._, act ii. sc. 2, lines 79, 80.]

{49}[w]

_Who've made us wait--God knows how long already,_

_For an entailed estate, or country-seat,_

_Wishing them not exactly damned, but dead--he_

_Knows nought of grief, who has not so been worried--_

_'T is strange old people don't like to be buried_.--[MS.]

[62] [Byron has not been forgotten at Harrow, though it is a bend of the

Cam (Byron's Pool), not his favourite Duck Pool (now "Ducker") which

bears his name.]

{50}[63] [The reference is to the metallic tractors of Benjamin Charles

Perkins, which were advertised as a "cure for all disorders, Red Noses,"

etc. Compare _English Bards, etc._, lines 131, 132--

"What varied wonders tempt us as they pass!

The Cow-pox, Tractors, Galvanism, and Gas."

See _Poetical Works_, 1898, i. 307, note 3.]

[64] [Edward Jenner (1749-1823) made his first experiments in

vaccination, May 14, 1796. Napoleon caused his soldiers to be

vaccinated, and imagined that the English would be gratified by his

recognition of Jenner's discovery.

Sir William Congreve (1772-1828) invented "Congreve rockets" or shells

in 1804. They were used with great effect at the battle of Leipzig, in

1813.]

[65] ["Mon cher ne touchez pas la petite Vrole."--[H.]--[Revise.]]

[66] [Experiments in galvanism were made on the body of Forster the

murderer, by Galvani's nephew, Professor Aldini, January and February,

1803.]

[67] ["Put out these lines, and keep the others."--[H.]--[_Revise._]]

{51}[68] [Sir Humphry Davy, P.R.S. (1778-1829), invented the safety-lamp

in 1815.]

[69] [In a critique of _An Account of the Empire of Marocco_.... _To

which is added an_ ... _account of Tombuctoo, the great Emporium of

Central Africa,_ by James Grey Jackson, London, 1809, the reviewer

comments on the author's pedantry in correcting "the common orthography

of African names." "We do not," he writes, "greatly object to ... _Fas_

for _Fez,_ or even _Timbuctoo_ for _Tombuctoo,_ but _Marocco_ for

_Morocco_ is a little too much."--_Edinburgh Review_, July, 1809 vol.

xiv. p. 307.]

[70] [Sir John Ross (1777-1856) published _A Voyage of Discovery_ ...

_for the purpose of Exploring Baffin's Bay, etc.,_ in 1819; Sir W.E.

Parry (1790-1855) published his _Journal of a Voyage of Discovery to the

Arctic Regions between 4th April and 18th November_, 1818, in 1820.]

[x] _Not only pleasure's sin, but sin's a pleasure_.--[MS.]

[y] _And lose in shining snow their summits blue_.--[MS.]

[z] _'Twas midnight--dark and sombre was the night, etc_.--[MS.]

[aa] _And supper, punch, ghost-stories, and such chat_.--[MS.]

[71] ["'All that, Egad,' as Bayes says" [in the Duke of Buckingham's

play _The Rehearsal_].--Letter to Murray, September 28, 1820, _Letters_,

1901, v. 80.]

[72] ["Lobster-sallad, _not_ a lobster-salad. Have you been at a London

_ball_, and not known a Lobster-_sallad?_"--[H.]--[_Revise._] ]

[73] ["To-night, as Countess Guiccioli observed me poring over _Don

Juan_, she stumbled by mere chance on the 137th stanza of the First

Canto, and asked me what it meant. I told her, 'Nothing,--but your

husband is coming.' As I said this in Italian with some emphasis, she

started up in a fright, and said, _'Oh, my God, is_ he _coming?'_

thinking it was _her own_....You may suppose we laughed when she found

out the mistake. You will be amused, as I was;--it happened not three

hours ago."--Letter to Murray, November 8, 1819, _Letters_, 1900, iv.

374.

It should be borne in mind that the loves of Juan and Julia, the

irruption of Don Alfonso, etc., were rather of the nature of prophecy

than of reminiscence. The First Canto had been completed before the

Countess Guiccioli appeared on the scene.]

[ab] _And thus as 'twere herself from out them crept_.--[MS. M.]

{54}[ac] _Ere I the wife of such a man had been!_--[MS.]

{55}[ad] _But while this search was making, Julia's tongue_.--[MS.]

[74] The Spanish "Cortejo" is much the same as the Italian "Cavalier

Servente."

{56}[75] Donna Julia here made a mistake. Count O'Reilly did not take

Algiers--but Algiers very nearly took him: he and his army and fleet

retreated with great loss, and not much credit, from before that city,

in the year 1775.

[Alexander O'Reilly, born 1722, a Spanish general of Irish extraction,

failed in an expedition against Algiers in 1775, in which the Spaniards

lost four thousand men. In 1794 he was appointed commander-in-chief of

the forces equipped against the army of the French National Convention.

He died March 23, 1794.]

[76] [The Italian names have an obvious signification.]

[ae] _The chimney--fit retreat for any lover!_--[MS.]

{58}[af] ---- _may deplore_.--[Alternative reading. MS. M.]

{59}[77] ["Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh" (_Job_

ii. 10).]

[78] ["Don't be read aloud."--[H.]--[_Revise._]]

{60}[ag]

---- _than be put_

_To drown with Clarence in his Malmsey butt_.--[MS.]

[ah] _And reckon up our balance with the devil_.--[MS.]

{62}[79] ["Carissimo, do review the whole scene, and think what you

would say of it, if written by another."--[H.] "I would say, read 'The

Miracle' ['A Tale from Boccace'] in Hobhouse's poems, and 'January and

May,' and 'Paulo Purganti,' and 'Hans Carvel,' and 'Joconde.' _These_

are laughable: it is the _serious_--Little's poems and _Lalla

Rookh_--that affect seriously. Now Lust is a serious passion, and cannot

be excited by the ludicrous."--[B.]--_Marginal Notes in Revise_.]

For the "Miracle," see _Imitations and Translations_, 1809, pp.

111--128. "January and May" is Pope's version of Chaucer's _Merchant's

Tale_. "Paulo Purganti" and "Hans Carvel" are by Matthew Prior; and for

"Joconde" (_Nouvelle Tire de L'Ariosto_, canto xxviii.) see _Contes et

Nouvelles en Vers_, de Mr. de la Fontaine, 1691, i. 1-19.]

{63}[80] [Compare "The use made in the French tongue of the word _tact_,

to denote that delicate sense of propriety, which enables a man to _feel

his way_ in the difficult intercourse of polished society, seems to have

been suggested by similar considerations (i.e. similar to those which

suggested the use of the word _taste_)."--_Outlines of Moral

Philosophy_, by Dugald Stewart, Part I. sect. x. ed. 1855, p. 48. For

D'Alembert's use of _tact_, to denote "that peculiar delicacy of

perception (which, like the nice touch of a blind man) arises from

habits of close attention to those slighter feelings which escape

general notice," see _Philosophical Essays_, by Dugald Stewart, 1818, p.

603.]

{64}[ai] _With base suspicion now no longer haunted._--[MS.]

[81] [For the incident of the shoes, Lord Byron was probably indebted to

the Scottish ballad--

{66}[aj] _Found--heaven knows how--his solitary way._--[MS.]

[82] [William Brodie Gurney (1777-1855), the son and grandson of eminent

shorthand writers, "reported the proceedings against the Duke of York in

1809, the trials of Lord Cochrane in 1814, and of Thistlewood in 1820,

and the proceedings against Queen Caroline."--_Dict. of Nat. Biog_.,

art. "Gurney."]

{67}[83] ["Venice, December 7, 1818.

"After _that stanza_ in the first canto of _Don Juan_ (sent by Lord

Lauderdale) towards the _conclusion_ of the canto--I speak of the stanza

whose two last lines are--

"'The best is that in short-hand ta'en by Gurney,

Who to Madrid on purpose made a journey,'

insert the following stanzas, 'But Donna Inez,' etc."--B.

The text is based on a second or revised copy of stanzas cxc.-cxcviii.

Many of the corrections and emendations which were inserted in the first

draft are omitted in the later and presumably improved version. Byron's

first intention was to insert seven stanzas after stanza clxxxix.,

descriptive and highly depreciatory of Brougham, but for reasons of

"fairness" (_vide infra_) he changed his mind. The casual mention of

"blundering Brougham" in _English Bards, etc._ (line 524, _Poetical

Works_, 1898, i. 338, note 2), is a proof that his suspicions were not

aroused as to the authorship of the review of _Hours of Idleness_

(_Edin. Rev._, January, 1808), and it is certain that Byron's animosity

was due to the part played by Brougham at the time of the Separation.

(In a letter to Byron, dated February 18, 1817, Murray speaks of a

certain B. "as your incessant persecutor--the source of all affected

public opinion respecting you.") The stanzas, with the accompanying

notes, are not included in the editions of 1833 or 1837, and are now

printed for the first time.

[[*A] For Brougham's Fabian tactics with regard to duelling, _vide

post_, Canto XIII. stanza lxxxiv. line 1, p. 506, note 1.]

[[*B] Vide post, Canto XIII. stanza lxxxiv. line 1, p. 506, note 1.]

[[*C] For "Captain Bobadill, a Paul's man," see Ben Jonson's _Every Man

in his Humour_, act iv. sc. 5, et passim.]

[[*D] The _N. Eng. Dict._, quotes a passage in _Phil. Trans._, iv. 286

(1669), as the latest instance of "courtisan" for "courtier."]

NOTE TO THE ANNEXED STANZAS ON BROUGHAM.

"Distrusted by the Democracy, disliked by the Whigs, and detested

by the Tories, too much of a lawyer for the people, and too much of

a demagogue for Parliament, a contestor of counties, and a

Candidate for cities, the refuse of half the Electors of England,

and representative at last upon sufferance of the proprietor of

some rotten borough, which it would have been more independent to

have purchased, a speaker upon all questions, and the outcast of

all parties, his support has become alike formidable to all his

enemies (for he has no friends), and his vote can be only valuable

when accompanied by his Silence. A disappointed man with a bad

temper, he is endowed with considerable but not first-rate

abilities, and has blundered on through life, remarkable only for a

fluency, in which he has many rivals at the bar and in the Senate,

and an eloquence in which he has several Superiors. 'Willing to

wound and _not_ afraid to strike, until he receives a blow in

return, he has not yet betrayed any illegal ardour, or Irish

alacrity, in accepting the defiances, and resenting the disgraceful

terms which his proneness to evil-speaking have (sic) brought upon

him. In the cases of Mackinnon and Manners,[*E] he sheltered

himself behind those parliamentary privileges, which Fox, Pitt,

Canning, Castlereagh, Tierney, Adam, Shelburne, Grattan, Corry,

Curran, and Clare disdained to adopt as their buckler. The House of

Commons became the Asylum of his Slander, as the Churches of Rome

were once the Sanctuary of Assassins.

"His literary reputation (with the exception of one work of his

early career) rests upon some anonymous articles imputed to him in

a celebrated periodical work; but even these are surpassed by the

Essays of others in the same Journal. He has tried every thing and

succeeded in nothing; and he may perhaps finish as a Lawyer without

practice, as he has already been occasionally an orator without an

audience, if not soon cut short in his career.

"The above character is _not_ written impartially, but by one who

has had occasion to know some of the baser parts of it, and regards

him accordingly with shuddering abhorrence, and just so much fear

as he deserves. In him is to be dreaded the crawling of the

centipede, not the spring of the tiger--the venom of the reptile,

not the strength of the animal--the rancour of the miscreant, not

the courage of the Man.

"In case the prose or verse of the above should be actionable, I

put my name, that the man may rather proceed against me than the

publisher--not without some faint hope that the brand with which I

blast him may induce him, however reluctantly, to a manlier

revenge."

[*E] [Possibly George Manners (1778-1853), editor of _The Satirist_,

whose appointment to a foreign consulate Brougham sharply criticized in

the House of Commons, July 9, 1817 (_Parl. Deb._, vol. xxxvi. pp. 1320,

1321); and Daniel Mackinnon (1791-1836), the nephew of Henry Mackinnon,

who fell at Ciudad Rodrigo. Byron met "Dan" Mackinnon at Lisbon in 1809,

and (Gronow, _Reminiscences_, 1889, ii. 259, 260) was amused by his

"various funny stories."]

EXTRACT FROM LETTER TO MURRAY.

"I enclose you the stanzas which were intended for 1st Canto, after

the line

'Who to Madrid on purpose made a journey:'

but I do not mean them for present publication, because I will not,

at this distance, publish _that_ of a Man, for which he has a claim

upon another too remote to give him redress.

"With regard to the Miscreant Brougham, however, it was only long

after the fact, and I was made acquainted with the language he had

held of me on my leaving England (with regard to the D^ss^ of D.'s

house),[*F] and his letter to Me. de Stal, and various matters for

all of which the first time he and I foregather--be it in England,

be it on earth--he shall account, and one of the two be carried

home.

"As I have no wish to have mysteries, I merely prohibit the

_publication_ of these stanzas in _print_, for the reasons of

fairness mentioned; but I by no means wish _him not_ to _know_

their existence or their tenor, nor my intentions as to himself: he

has shown no forbearance, and he shall find none. You may show them

to _him_ and to all whom it may concern, with the explanation that

the only reason that I have not had satisfaction of this man has

been, that I have never had an opportunity since I was aware of the

facts, which my friends had carefully concealed from me; and it was

only by slow degrees, and by piecemeal, that I got at them. I have

not sought him, nor gone out of my way for him; but I will _find_

him, and then we can have it out: he has shown so little courage,

that he _must_ fight at last in his absolute necessity to escape

utter degradation.

"I send you the stanzas, which (except the last) have been written

nearly two years, merely because I have been lately copying out

most of the MSS. which were in my drawers."

[*F] [Byron's town-house, in 1815-1816, No. 13, Piccadilly, belonged to

the Duchess of Devonshire. When he went abroad in April, 1816, the rent

was still unpaid. The duchess, through her agent, distrained, but was

unable to recover the debt. See Byron's "Letter to Elizabeth, Duchess of

Devonshire," November 3, 1817, _Letters_, 1900, iv. 178.]

{71}[ak]

_Julia was sent into a nunnery_,

_And there, perhaps, her feelings may be better_.--[MS. M.]

[al] _Man's love is of his life_----.--[MS. M.]

[84] ["Que les hommes sont heureux d'aller la guerre, d'exposer leur

vie, de se livrer l'enthousiasme de l'honneur et du danger! Mais il

n'y a rien au-dehors qui soulage les femmes."--_Corinne, ou L'Italie_,

Madame de Stal, liv., xviii. chap. v. ed. 1835, iii. 209.]

[am]

_To mourn alone the love which has undone._

or, _To lift our fatal love to God from man._

Take that which, of these three, seems the best prescription.--B.

{72}[an]

_You will proceed in beauty and in pride_,

_You will return_----.--[MS. M.]

[aq]

_As turns the needle trembling to the pole_

_It ne'er can reach--so turns to you my soul_.--[MS.]

[ar] _With a neat crow-quill, rather hard, but new_.--[MS.]

{73}[85] [Byron had a seal bearing this motto.]

[as]

_And there are other incidents remaining_

_Which shall be specified in fitting time,_

_With good discretion, and in current rhyme_.--[MS.]

{74}[at]

_To newspapers, to sermons, which the zeal_

_Of pious men have published on his acts_.--[MS.]

[au] _I'll call the work "Reflections o'er a Bottle_."--[MS.]

[86] [Here, and elsewhere in _Don Juan_, Byron attacked Coleridge

fiercely and venomously, because he believed that his _protg_ had

accepted patronage and money, and, notwithstanding, had retailed

scandalous statements to the detriment and dishonour of his advocate and

benefactor (see letter to Murray, November 24, 1818, _Letters_, 1900,

iv. 272; and "Introduction to the _Vision of Judgment," Poetical Works_,

1901, iv. 475). Byron does not substantiate his charge of ingratitude,

and there is nothing to show whether Coleridge ever knew why a once

friendly countenance was changed towards him. He might have asked, with

the Courtenays, _Ubi lapsus, quid feci?_ If Byron had been on his mind

or his conscience he would have drawn up an elaborate explanation or

apology; but nothing of the kind is extant. He took the abuse as he had

taken the favours--for the unmerited gifts of the blind goddess Fortune.

(See, too, _Letter_ ..., by John Bull, 1821, p. 14.)]

{76}[87] [Compare Byron's "Letter to the Editor of My Grandmother's

Review," _Letters_, 1900, iv. Appendix VII. 465-470; and letter to

Murray, August 24, 1819, ibid., p. 348: "I wrote to you by last post,

enclosing a buffooning letter for publication, addressed to the buffoon

Roberts, who has thought proper to tie a canister to his own tail. It

was written off-hand, and in the midst of circumstances not very

favourable to facetiousness, so that there may, perhaps, be more

bitterness than enough for that sort of small acid punch." The letter

was in reply to a criticism of _Don Juan_ (Cantos I., II.) in the

_British Review_ (No. xxvii., 1819, vol. 14, pp. 266-268), in which the

Editor assumed, or feigned to assume, that the accusation of bribery was

to be taken _au grand srieux_.]

{77}[88] [Hor., _Od._ III. C. xiv. lines 27, 28.]

[av] _I thought of dyeing it the other day_.--[MS.]

[89] [Compare _Childe Harold_, Canto III. stanza cvii. line 2.]

{78}[90]

"Me nec femina, nec puer

Jam, nec spes animi credula mutui,

Nec certare juvat mero;

Nec vincire novis tempora floribus."

Hor., _Od._ IV. i. 30.

[In the revise the words _nec puer Jam_ were omitted. On this Hobhouse

comments, "Better add the whole or scratch out all after

femina."--"Quote the whole then--it was only in compliance with your

_settentrionale_ notions that I left out the remnant of the

line."--[B.]]

[91] [For "How Fryer Bacon made a Brazen head to speak," see _The Famous

Historie of Fryer Bacon_ (Reprint, London, 1815, pp. 13-18); see, too,

_Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay_, by Robert Greene, ed. Rev. Alexander

Dyce, 1861, pp. 153-181.]

[92]

["Ah! who can tell how hard it is to climb

The steep where Fame's proud temple shines afar?" etc.

Beattie's _Minstrel_, Bk. I. stanza i. lines 1, 2.]

{79}[aw] _A book--a damned bad picture--and worse bust_.--[MS.]

["Don't swear again--the third 'damn.'"--[H.]--[_Revise._]]

[93] [Byron sat for his bust to Thorwaldsen, in May, 1817.]

[94] [This stanza appears to have been suggested by the following

passage in the _Quarterly Review_, April, 1818, vol. xix. p. 203: "[It

was] the opinion of the Egyptians, that the soul never deserted the body

while the latter continued in a perfect state. To secure this union,

King Cheops is said, by Herodotus, to have employed three hundred and

sixty thousand of his subjects for twenty years in raising over the

'angusta domus' destined to hold his remains, a pile of stone equal in

weight to six millions of tons, which is just three times that of the

vast Breakwater thrown across Plymouth Sound; and, to render this

precious dust still more secure, the narrow chamber was made accessible

only by small, intricate passages, obstructed by stones of an enormous

weight, and so carefully closed externally as not to be

perceptible.--Yet, how vain are all the precautions of man! Not a bone

was left of Cheops, either in the stone coffin, or in the vault, when

Shaw entered the gloomy chamber.]

{80}[ax] _Must bid you both farewell in accents bland_.--[MS.]

[95] [Lines 1-4 are taken from the last stanza of the _Epilogue to the

Lay of the Laureate_, entitled "L'Envoy." (See _Poetical Works_ of

Robert Southey, 1838, x. 174.)]