The Works of Lord Byron Volume II Part 38

The mistake seemed so completely a lapse of the pen (from the great _similarity_ of the two words, and the _total absence of error_ from the former pages of the literary leviathan) that I should have pa.s.sed it over as in the text, had I not perceived in the _Edinburgh Review_ much facetious exultation on all such detections, particularly a recent one, where words and syllables are subjects of disquisition and transposition; and the above-mentioned parallel pa.s.sage in my own case irresistibly propelled me to hint how much easier it is to be critical than correct. The _gentlemen_, having enjoyed many a _triumph_ on such victories, will hardly begrudge me a slight _ovation_ for the present.

[At the end of the review of _Childe Harold_, February, 1812 (xix., 476), the editor inserted a ponderous retort to this harmless and good-natured "chaff:" "To those strictures of the n.o.ble author we feel no inclination to trouble our readers with any reply ... we shall merely observe that if we viewed with astonishment the immeasurable fury with which the minor poet received the innocent pleasantry and moderate castigation of our remarks on his first publication, we now feel nothing but pity for the strange irritability of temperament which can still cherish a private resentment for such a cause, or wish to perpetuate memory of personalities as outrageous as to have been injurious only to their authors."]

[261] ["O Athens, first of all lands, why in these latter days dost thou nourish a.s.ses?"]

[262] [Anna Comnena (1083-1148), daughter of Alexis I., wrote the _Alexiad_, a history of her father's reign.]

[263] [Zonaras (_Annales_, B 240), lib. viii. cap. 26, A 4. Venice, 1729.]

[264] [See _English Bards, etc._, line 877: _Poems_, 1898, i. 366, _note 1._]

[265] {203} [For Vely Pacha, the son of Ali Pacha, Vizier of the Morea, see _Letters_, 1898, i. 248, note 1.]

[266] [The Caimacam was the deputy or lieutenant of the grand Vizier.]

[267] [Scott published "_Sir Tristrem, a Metrical Romance of the Thirteenth Century_, by Thomas of Ercildoun," in 1804.]

[268] [Captain Lismahago, a paradoxical and pedantic Scotchman, the favoured suitor of Miss Tabitha Bramble, in Smollett's _Expedition of Humphry Clinker_.]

[269] {204} [Sir William Drummond (1780?-1828) published, _inter alia_, _A Review of the Government of Athens and Sparta_, in 1795; and _Herculanensia, an Archaeological and Philological Dissertation containing a Ma.n.u.script found at Herculaneum_, in conjunction with the Rev. Robert Walpole (see letter to Harness, December 8, 1811. See _Letters_, 1898, ii. 79, note 3).

For Aberdeen and Hamilton, see _English Bards, etc._, line 509: _Poetical Works_, 1898, i. 336, note 2, and _Childe Harold_, Canto II.

supplementary stanzas, _ibid._, ii. 108.

Edward Daniel Clarke, LL.D. (1769-1822), published _Travels in Various Countries_, 1810-1823 (_vide ante_, p. 172, note 7).

For Leake, _vide ante_, p. 174, note 1.

For Gell, see _English Bards, etc._, line 1034, note 1: _Poetical Works_, 1898, i. 379.

The Rev. Robert Walpole (1781-1856), in addition to his share in _Herculanensia_, completed the sixth volume of Clarke's _Travels_, which appeared in 1823.]

[270] {205} [Compare English Bards, etc., line 655, note 2: _Poetical Works_, 1898, i. 349.]

[271] [The judge of a town or village--the Spanish _alcalde_.--_N. Eng.

Dict._, art. "Cadi."]

[272] {206} [Mouradja D'Ohsson (1740-1804), an Armenian by birth, spent many years at Constantinople as Swedish envoy. He published at Paris (1787-90, two vols. fol.) his _Tableau general de l'empire Othoman_, a work still regarded as the chief authority on the subject.]

[273] ["Effendi," derived from the Greek a????t?? [au)the/ntes], through the Romaic ?f??t?? [a)phe/ntes], an "absolute master," is a t.i.tle borne by distinguished civilians.

The Spanish order of St. James of Compostella was founded circ. A.D.

1170.]

[274] {207} [The "Nizam Gedidd," or new ordinance, which aimed at remodelling the Turkish army on a quasi-European system, was promulgated by Selim III in 1808.

A "mufti" is an expounder, a "molla" or "mollah" a superior judge, of the sacred Moslem law. The "tefterdars" or "defterdars" were provincial registrars and treasurers under the supreme defterdar, or Chancellor of the Exchequer.]

CHILDE HAROLD'S PILGRIMAGE.

CANTO THE THIRD.

"Afin que cette application vous forcat a penser a autre chose.

Il n'y a en verite de remede que celui-la et le temps."--_Lettres du Roi de Prusse et de M. D'Alembert_.[275] [_Lettre_ cxlvi.

Sept. 7, 1776.]

INTRODUCTION TO THE THIRD CANTO.

The Third Canto of _Childe Harold_ was begun early in May, and finished at Ouchy, near Lausanne, on the 27th of June, 1816. Byron made a fair copy of the first draft of his poem, which had been scrawled on loose sheets, and engaged the services of "Claire" (Jane Clairmont) to make a second transcription. Her task was completed on the 4th of July. The fair copy and Claire's transcription remained in Byron's keeping until the end of August or the beginning of September, when he consigned the transcription to "his friend Mr. Sh.e.l.ley," and the fair copy to Scrope Davies, with instructions to deliver them to Murray (see Letters to Murray, October 5, 9, 15, 1816). Sh.e.l.ley landed at Portsmouth, September 8, and on the 11th of September he discharged his commission.

"I was thrilled with delight yesterday," writes Murray (September 12), "by the announcement of Mr. Sh.e.l.ley with the MS. of _Childe Harold_. I had no sooner got the quiet possession of it than, trembling with auspicious hope, ... I carried it ... to Mr. Gifford.... He says that what you have heretofore published is nothing to this effort.... Never, since my intimacy with Mr. Gifford, did I see him so heartily pleased, or give one fiftieth part of the praise, with one thousandth part of the warmth."

The correction of the press was undertaken by Gifford, not without some remonstrance on the part of Sh.e.l.ley, who maintained that "the revision of the proofs, and the retention or alteration of certain particular pa.s.sages had been entrusted to his discretion" (Letter to Murray, October 30, 1816).

When, if ever, Mr. Davies, of "inaccurate memory" (Letter to Murray, December 4, 1816), discharged his trust is a matter of uncertainty. The "original MS." (Byron's "fair copy") is not forthcoming, and it is improbable that Murray, who had stipulated (September 20) "for all the original MSS., copies, and sc.r.a.ps," ever received it. The "sc.r.a.ps" were sent (October 5) in the first instance to Geneva, and, after many wanderings, ultimately fell into the possession of Mrs. Leigh, from whom they were purchased by the late Mr. Murray.

The July number of the _Quarterly Review_ (No. x.x.x.) was still in the press, and, possibly, for this reason it was not till October 29 that Murray inserted the following advertis.e.m.e.nt in the _Morning Chronicle:_ "Lord Byron's New Poems. On the 23^d of November will be published The Prisoners (_sic_) of Chillon, a Tale and other Poems. A Third Canto of Childe Harold...." But a rival was in the field. The next day (October 30), in the same print, another advertis.e.m.e.nt appeared: "_The R. H. Lord Byron's Pilgrimage to the Holy Land...._ Printed for J. Johnston, Cheapside.... Of whom may be had, by the same author, a new ed. (the third) of _Farewell to England: with three other poems...._" It was, no doubt, the success of his first venture which had stimulated the "Cheapside impostor," as Byron called him, to forgery on a larger scale.

The controversy did not end there. A second advertis.e.m.e.nt (_Morning Chronicle_, November 15) of "Lord Byron's Pilgrimage," etc., stating that "the copyright of the work was consigned" to the Publisher "exclusively by the n.o.ble Author himself, and for which he gives 500 guineas," precedes Murray's second announcement of _The Prisoners of Chillon_, and the Third Canto of _Childe Harold_, in which he informs "the public that the poems lately advertised are not written by Lord Byron. The only bookseller at present authorised to print Lord Byron's poems is Mr. Murray...." Further precautions were deemed necessary. An injunction in Chancery was applied for by Byron's agents and representatives (see, for a report of the case in the _Morning Chronicle_, November 28, 1816, _Letters_, vol. iv., Letter to Murray, December 9, 1816, note), and granted by the Chancellor, Lord Eldon.

Strangely enough, Sir Samuel Romilly, whom Byron did not love, was counsel for the plaintiff.

In spite of the injunction, a volume ent.i.tled "_Lord Byron's Pilgrimage to the Holy Land_, a Poem in Two Cantos. To which is attached a fragment, _The Tempest_," was issued in 1817. It is a dull and, apparently, serious production, suggested by, but hardly an imitation of, _Childe Harold_. The notes are descriptive of the scenery, customs, and antiquities of Palestine. _The Tempest_, on the other hand, is a parody, and by no means a bad parody, of Byron at his worst; e.g.--

"There was a sternness in his eye, Which chilled the soul--one knew not why-- But when returning vigour came, And kindled the dark glare to flame, So fierce it flashed, one well might swear, A thousand souls were centred there."

It is possible that this _Pilgrimage_ was the genuine composition of some poetaster who failed to get his poems published under his own name, or it may have been the deliberate forgery of John Agg, or Hewson Clarke, or C. F. Lawler, the _pseudo_ Peter Pindar--"Druids" who were in Johnston's pay, and were prepared to compose pilgrimages to any land, holy or unholy, which would bring grist to their employer's mill. (See the _Advertis.e.m.e.nts_ at the end of _Lord Byron's Pilgrimage, etc._)

The Third Canto was published, not as announced, on the 23rd, but on the 18th of November. Murray's "auspicious hope" of success was amply fulfilled. He "wrote to Lord Byron on the 13th of December, 1816, informing him that at a dinner at the Albion Tavern, he had sold to the a.s.sembled booksellers 7000 of his Third Canto of _Childe Harold_...."

The reviews were for the most part laudatory. Sir Walter Scott's finely-tempered eulogium (_Quart. Rev_., No. x.x.xi., October, 1816 [published February 11, 1817]), and Jeffrey's balanced and cautious appreciation (_Edin. Rev_., No. liv., December, 1816 [published February 14, 1817]) have been reprinted in their collected works. Both writers conclude with an aspiration--Jeffrey, that

"This puissant spirit Yet shall reascend, Self-raised, and repossess its native seat!"

Scott, in the "tenderest strain" of Virgilian melody--

"I decus, i nostrum, melioribus utere fatis!"

NOTE ON MSS. OF THE THIRD CANTO.