Don Juan

Canto the Eleventh

{427}[562] [Berkeley did not deny the reality of existence, but the

reality of matter as an abstract conception. "It is plain," he says (_On

the Principles of Human Knowledge_, sect. ix.), "that the very notion of

what is called _matter_ or _corporeal substance_, involves a

contradiction in it." Again, "It were a mistake to think that what is

here said derogates in the least from the reality of things." His

contention was that this _reality_ depended, not on an abstraction

_called_ matter, "an inert, extended unperceiving substance," but on

"those unextended, indivisible substances or _spirits_, which act, and

think, and perceive them [unthinking beings]."--_Ibid._, sect. xci.,

_The Works_ of George Berkeley, D.D., 1820, i. 27, 69, 70.]

{428}[563] [_Tempest_, act v. sc. i, line 95.]

[564] ["I have been very unwell--four days confined to my bed in 'the

worst inn's worst room' at Lerici, with a violent rheumatic and bilious

attack, constipation, and the devil knows what."--Letter to Murray,

October 9, 1822, _Letters_, 1901, vi. 121. The same letter contains an

announcement that he had "a fifth [Canto of _Don Juan_] (the 10th)

finished, but not transcribed yet; and the _eleventh_ begun."]

{429}[kk] _Or Rome, or Tiber--Naples or the sea_.--[MS. erased.]

{430}[565] [_Vide ante_, Canto I. stanza xiv. lines 7, 8.]

{431}[566] ["_Falstaff_. Let us be Diana's foresters, gentlemen of the

shade, minions of the moon: and let men say, we be men of good

government; being governed, as the sea is, by our noble and chaste

mistress the moon, under whose countenance we--steal."-_I Henry IV._,

act i. sc. 2, lines 24-28.]

[567] [Gin. Hence the antithesis of _"All Max"_ in the East to Almack's

in the West. (See _Life in London_, by Pierce Egan, 1823, pp. 284-290.)]

[568] [According to the _Vocabulary of the Flash Language_, compiled by

James Hardy Vaux, in 1812, and published at the end of his Memoirs,

1819, ii. 149-227, a kiddy, or "flash-kiddy," is a thief of the lower

orders, who, when he is _breeched_ by a course of successful depredation

dresses in the extreme of vulgar gentility, and affects a knowingness in

his air and conversation. A "swell" or "rank swell" ("_real_ swell"

appears in Egan's _Life in London_) is the more recent "toff;" and

"flash" is "fly," "down," or "awake," _i.e._ knowing, not easily imposed

upon.]

{432}[569] [_Hamlet_, act v. sc. 1, line 21.]

[570] ["Ken" is a house, s.c. a thieves' lodging-house; "spellken," a

play-house; "high toby-spice" is robbery on horseback, as distinguished

from "spice," i.e. footpad robbery; to "flash the muzzle" is to show off

the face, to swagger openly; "blowing" or "blowen" is a doxy or trull;

and "nutty" is, conjointly, amorous and fascinating.]

[kl]

_Poor Tom was once a knowing one in town_.

_Not a mere_ kiddy, _but a_ real _one_.--[MS. erased.]

[571] The advance of science and of language has rendered it unnecessary

to translate the above good and true English, spoken in its original

purity by the select mobility and their patrons. The following is a

stanza of a song which was very popular at least in my early days:--

[Gentleman Jackson was of good renown. "Servility," says Egan (_Life in

London_, 1823, p. 217), "is not known to him. Flattery he detests.

Integrity, impartiality, good-nature, and manliness, are the

corner-stones of his understanding." Byron once said of him that "his

manners were infinitely superior to those of the Fellows of the College

whom I meet at the high table" (J.W. Clark, _Cambridge_, 1890, p. 140).

(See, too, letter to John Jackson, September 18, 1808, _Letters_, 1898,

i. 189, note 2; _Hints from Horace_, line 638, _Poetical Works_, 1898,

i. 433, note 3.) As to the stanza quoted by Egan (_Anecdotes of the

Turf_, 1827, p. 44), but not _traduced_ or interpreted, "To be hobbled

for making a clout" is to be taken into custody for stealing a

handkerchief, to "turn snitch" is to inform, and the "forty" is the 40

offered for the detection of a capital crime, and shared by the police

or Bow Street runners. Dangerous characters were let alone and tacitly

encouraged to continue their career of crime, until the measure of their

iniquity was full, and they "weighed forty." If Jack was clumsy enough

to be detected in a trifling theft, his "blowen" would go over to the

enemy, and betray him for the sake of the Government reward (see

_Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue_, by Francis Grose, 1823,

art. "Weigh forty").]

{433}[572] [Don Juan must have driven by _Pleasant Row_, and passed

within hail of _Paradise Row_, on the way from Kennington to Westminster

Bridge. (See Cary's _New Pocket Plan of London, Westminster, and

Southwark_, 1819.) But, perhaps, there is more in the names of streets

and places than meets the eye. Here, as elsewhere, there is, or there

may be, "a paltering with us in a double sense."]

[km]

_Through rows called "Paradise," by way of showing_

_Good Christians that to which they all are going_.--[MS. erased.]

{434}[573] [Compare _Childe Harold_, Canto 1. stanza lxix. line 8, var.

ii., _Poetical Works_, 1899, ii. 66, note 2.]

[kn]---- _distilling into the re-kindling glass_.--[MS.]

[574] [The streets of London were first regularly lighted with gas in

1812.]

{435}[575] [Thomas Pennant, in _Some Account of London_, 1793, p. 444.

writes down the Mansion House (1739-1752) as "damned ... to everlasting

fame."]

[576] [Fifty years ago "the lights of Piccadilly" were still regarded as

one of the "sights" of London. Byron must often have looked at them from

his house in Piccadilly Terrace.]

[577] [Joseph Fran*** Foulon, army commissioner, provoked the penalty

of the "lantern" (i.e. an improvised gallows on the yard of a lamp-post

at the corner of the Rue de la Vannerie) by his heartless sneer, "Eh

bien! si cette canaille n'a pas de pain, elle mangera du foin." He was

hanged, July 22, 1789. See _The Tale of Two Cities_, by Charles Dickens,

cap. xxii.; see, too, Carlyle's _French Revolution_, 1839, i. 253: "With

wild yells, Sansculottism clutches him, in its hundred hands: he is

whirled ... to the _'Lanterne,'_ ... pleading bitterly for life,--to the

deaf winds. Only with the third rope (for two ropes broke, and the

quavering voice still pleaded), can he be so much as got hanged! His

Body is dragged through the streets; his Head goes aloft on a pike, the

mouth filled with grass: amid sounds as of Tophet, from a grass-eating

people."]

{436}[578] "Hells," gaming-houses. What their number may now be in this

life, I know not. Before I was of age I knew them pretty accurately,

both "gold" and "silver." I was once nearly called out by an

acquaintance, because when he asked me where I thought that his soul

would be found hereafter, I answered, "In Silver Hell."

[579] [Perhaps Grillion's Hotel (afterwards Grillion's Club) in

Albemarle Street. In 1822 diplomats patronized more than one hotel in

and near St. James's Street, but among the "Departures from Grillion's

Hotel," recorded in the _Morning Chronicle_ of September, 17, 1822,

appositely enough, is that of H.E. Don Juan Garcia, del Rio.]

[kq]

---- _of his loves and wars_;

_And as romantic heads are pretty painters,_

_And ladies like a little spice of Mars_.--[MS. erased.]

{438}[kr] _The false attempt at Truth_----.--[MS.]

{439}[580] [Compare--

"Lo! Erin, thy Lord!

Kiss his foot with thy blessing"----

_The Irish Avatar_, stanza 14, _Poetical Works_, 1901, iv. 558.]

[ks]

_Kiss hands--or feet--or what Man by and by_

Will _kiss, not in sad metaphor--but earnest,_

_Unless on Tyrants' sterns--we turn the sternest_.--[MS.]

{440}[581] "Anent" was a Scotch phrase meaning "concerning"--"with

regard to: "it has been made English by the Scotch novels; and, as the

Frenchman said, "If it _be not, ought to be_ English." [See, for

instance, _The Abbot_, chap. xvii. 132.]

[kt]

_But "Damme's" simple--dashing--free and daring_

_The purest blasphemy_----.--[MS.]

[ku]

_About such general matters--but particular_

_A poem's progress should be perpendicular_.--[MS.]

{441}[582] [_Macbeth_, act iii. sc. 4, line 63.]

[kv] _Blushed, too, but it was hidden by their rouge_.--[MS. erased.]

[kw] _The natural and the prepared ceruse_.--[MS. erased.]

{442}[583] "Drapery Misses."--This term is probably anything now but a

_mystery_. It was, however, almost so to me when I first returned from

the East in 1811-1812. It means a pretty, a high-born, a fashionable

young female, well instructed by her friends, and furnished by her

milliner with a wardrobe upon credit, to be repaid, when married, by the

_husband_. The riddle was first read to me by a young and pretty

heiress, on my praising the "drapery" of the _"untochered"_ but "pretty

virginities" (like Mrs. Anne Page) of the _then_ day, which has now been

some years yesterday: she assured me that the thing was common in

London; and as her own thousands, and blooming looks, and rich

simplicity of array, put any suspicion in her own case out of the

question, I confess I gave some credit to the allegation. If necessary,

authorities might be cited; in which case I could quote both "drapery"

and the wearers. Let us hope, however, that it is now obsolete.

[584] [Compare _Hints from Horace_, line 173, _Poetical Works_, 1898, i.

401, note 1.]

{443}[585] [In his so-called "Dedication" of _Marino Faliero_ to Goethe,

Byron makes fun of the "nineteen hundred and eighty-seven poets," whose

names were to be found in _A Biographical Dictionary of Living Authors,

etc._ (See Introduction to _Marino Faliero, Poetical Works_, 1901, iv.

340, 341, note 1.)]

{444}[kx] _A paper potentate_----.--[MS. erased.]

[586] [See "Introduction to _Cain_," _Poetical Works_, 1901, v. 204.]

[ky] _With turnkey Southey for my Hudson Lowe._--[MS.]

[kz] _Beneath the reverend Cambyses Croly._--[MS.]

[587] [The Reverend George Croly, D.D. (1780-1860), began his literary

career as dramatic critic of the _Times_. "Croly," says H.C. Robinson

(_Diary_, 1869, i. 412), "is a fierce-looking Irishman, very lively in

conversation, and certainly has considerable talents as a writer; his

eloquence, like his person, is rather energetic than eloquent" (hence

the epithet "Cambyses," i.e. "King Cambyses' vein" in _var._ iii.). "He

wrote tragedies, comedies, and novels; and, at last, settled down as a

preacher, with the rank of doctor, but of what faculty I do not know"

(ibid., footnote, H.C.R., 1847). He wrote, _inter alia_, _Paris in

1815_, a poem; _Catiline, A Tragedy_, 1822; and _Salathiel_, a novel,

1827. In lines 7, 8, Byron seems to refer to _The Angel of the World, An

Arabian Poem_, published in 1820.]

[588] [_I Henry IV._, act ii. sc. 4, line 197.]

{445}[589] [Stanza lviii. was first published in 1837. The reference is

to Henry Hart Milman (1791-1868). Byron was under the impression that

Milman had influenced Murray against continuing the publication of _Don

Juan_. Added to this surmise, was the mistaken belief that it was Milman

who had written the article in the _Quarterly_, which "killed John

Keats." Hence the virulence of the attack.

"Dull Dorus" is obscure, but compare Propertius, _Eleg._ III. vii. 44,

where Callimachus is addressed as "Dore poeta." He is the "ox of verse,"

because he had been recently appointed to the Professorship of Poetry at

Oxford. The "roaring Romans" are "The soldiery" who shout "All, All," in

Croly's _Catiline_, act v. sc. 2.]

[la] _Then there's my gentle Barry--who they say._--[MS.]

[590] [Jeffrey, in his review of _A Sicilian Story, etc._, Bryan Waller

Procter (Barry Cornwall), 1787-1874 (_Edinburgh Review_, January, 1820,

vol. 33, pp. 144-155), compares _Diego de Montilla_, a poem in _ottava

rima_, with _Don Juan_, favourably and unfavourably: "There is no

profligacy and no horror ... no mocking of virtue and honour, and no

strong mixtures of buffoonery and grandeur." But it may fairly match

with Byron and his Italian models "as to the better qualities of

elegance, delicacy, and tenderness." See, too, _Blackwood's Edinburgh

Magazine_, March, 1820, vol. vi. pp. 153, 647.]

[591] [See Preface to the _Vision of Judgment, Poetical Works_, 1901,

iv. 484, note 3.]

[592] [Croker's article in the _Quarterly_ (April, 1818 [pub,

September], vol. xix. pp. 204-208) did not "kill John Keats." See letter

to George and Georgiana Keats, October, 1818 (_Letters, etc._, 1895, p.

215). Byron adopts Shelley's belief that the Reviewer, "miserable man,"

"one of the meanest," had "wantonly defaced one of the noblest specimens

of the workmanship of God." See Preface to _Adonais_, and stanzas

xxxvi., xxxvii.]

{446}[lb]

_And weakly mind, to let that all celestial Particle_.--[MS. erased.]

or, _'T is strange the mind should let such phrases quell its_

Chief Impulse with a few, frail, paper pellets_.--[MS. erased.]

[593] "Divin particulam aur" [Hor., _Sat._ ii. 2. 79]

[594] [For "the crowd of usurpers" who started up in the reign of

Gallienus, and were dignified with the honoured appellation of "the

thirty tyrants," see Gibbon's _Decline and Fall_, 1825, i. 164.]

[595] [_King Lear_, act iv. sc. 6, line 15.]

{447}[596] ["Illita Nesseo misi tibi texta veneno."

Ovid., _Heroid. Epist_. ix. 163.]

[597] [A "bower," in Moore's phrase, signifies a solitude _ deux_; e.g.

"Here's the Bower she lov'd so much."

"Come to me, love, the twilight star

Shall guide thee to my bower."

Moore.]

{448}[598] [Compare _The Waltz_, lines 220-229, _et passim_, _Poetical

Works_, 1898, i. 501.]

{449}[599] Scotch for goblin.

[lc] _Handsome but_ blas----[MS.]

{450}[600] [The sentiment is reiterated in _The Night Thoughts_, and is

the theme of _Resignation_, which was written and published when Young

was more than eighty years old. ]

[ld] _And fresher, since without a breath of air_.--[MS.]

[le] _Where are the thousand lovely innocents?_--[MS.]

[601] ["I have ... written ... to express my willingness to accept the,

or almost any mortgage, any thing to get out of the tremulous Funds of

these oscillating times. There will be a war somewhere, no doubt--and

whatever it may be, the Funds will be affected more or less; so pray get

us out of them with all proper expedition. It has been the burthen of my

song to you three years and better, and about as useful as better

counsels."--Letter of Byron to Kinnaird, January 18, 1823, _Letters_,

1901, vi. 162, 163.]

{451}[602] [For William Pole Tylney Long Wellesley (1788-1857), see _The

Waltz_, line 21, _Poetical Works_, 1898, i. 484, note 1. He was only

on the way to being "diddled" in 1822, but the prophecy (suggested, no

doubt, by the announcement of the sale of furniture, etc., at Wanstead

House, in the _Morning Chronicle_, July 8, 1822) was ultimately

fulfilled. Samuel Whitbread, born 1758, committed suicide July 6, 1815.

Sir Samuel Romilly, born 1758, committed suicide November 2, 1818.]

[603] [According to Charles Greville, George the Third made two

wills--the first in 1770, the second, which he never signed, in 1810. By

the first will he left "all he had to the Queen for her life, Buckingham

House to the Duke of Clarence," etc., and as Buckingham House had been

twice sold, and the other legatees were dead, a question arose between

the King and the Duke of York as to the right of inheritance of their

father's personal property. George IV. conceived that it devolved upon

him personally, and not on the Crown, and "consequently appropriated to

himself the whole of the money and the jewels." It is possible that this

difference between the brothers was noised abroad, and that old stories

of the destruction of royal wills were revived to the new king's

discredit. (See _The Greville Memoirs_, 1875, i. 64, 65.)]

[604] [See Moore's _Fum and Hum, the Two Birds of Royalty_, appended to

his _Fudge Family_.]

[605] [Lady Caroline Lamb and Lady Frances Wedderburn Webster.]

{452}[lf] ---- _their caps and curls at Dukes._--[MS.]

{453}[606] [The Congress at Verona, in 1822. See the Introduction to

_The Age of Bronze, Poetical Works_, 1891, v. 537-540.]

[607] [_2 Henry IV._, act iv. sc. 3, line 117.]

[608] [Hor., _Od._ I. xi. line 8.]

[609] [_Macbeth_, act v. sc. 5, line 24.]

[610] [_1 Henry IV._, act ii. sc. 4, line 463.]

[611] [See the _Secret Memoirs and Manners of several Persons of

Quality, of Both Sexes, from the New Atalantis_, 1709, a work in which

the authoress, Mrs. Manley, satirizes the distinguished characters of

her day. Warburton (_Works of Pope_, ed. 1751, i. 244) calls it "a

famous book.... full of court and party scandal, and in a loose

effeminacy of style and sentiment, which well suited the debauched taste

of the better vulgar." Pope also alludes to it in the _r**e of the

Lock_, iii. 165, 166--

"As long as _Atalantis_ shall be read.

Or the small pillow grace a lady's bed."

And Swift, in his ballad on "Corinna" (stanza 8)--

"Her common-place book all gallant is,

Of scandal now a cornucopia,

She pours it out in _Atalantis_,

Or memoirs of the New Utopia."

_Works_, 1824, xii. 302.]

{454}[612] [Oct. 17, 1822.--MS.]