The Works of Lord Byron Volume II Part 52

Parnell's _Vigil of Venus: British Poets_, 1794, vii. 7.]

[kr] {279} ----_driven him to repose._--[MS.]

[342] [Compare _Confessions of J. J. Rousseau_, lib. iv., _pa.s.sim._]

[343] {281} [In his appreciation of Voltaire, Byron, no doubt, had in mind certain strictures of the lake school--"a school, as it is called, I presume, from their education being still incomplete." Coleridge, in _The Friend_ (1850, i. 168), contrasting Voltaire with Erasmus, affirms that "the knowledge of the one was solid through its whole extent, and that of the other extensive at a chief rate in its superficiality," and characterizes "the wit of the Frenchman" as being "without imagery, without character, and without that pathos which gives the magic charm to genuine humour;" and Wordsworth, in the second book of _The Excursion_ (_Works of Wordsworth_, 1889, p. 434), "unalarmed" by any consideration of wit or humour, writes down Voltaire's _Optimist_ (_Candide, ou L'Optimisme_), which was accidentally discovered by the "Wanderer" in the "Solitary's" pent-house, "swoln with scorching damp,"

as "the dull product of a scoffer's pen." Byron reverts to these contumelies in a note to the Fifth Canto of _Don Juan_ (see _Life_, Appendix, p. 809), and lashes "the school" _secundum artem._]

[ks]

_Coping with all and leaving all behind_ _Within himself existed all mankind_-- _And laughing at their faults betrayed his own_ _His own was ridicule which as the Wind_.--[MS.]

[344] {282} [In his youth Voltaire was imprisoned for a year (1717-18) in the Bastille, by the regent Duke of Orleans, on account of certain unacknowledged lampoons (_Regnante Puero, etc._); but throughout his long life, so far from "shaking thrones," he showed himself eager to accept the patronage and friends.h.i.+p of the greatest monarchs of the age--of Louis XV., of George II. and his queen, Caroline of Ans.p.a.ch, of Frederick II., and of Catharine of Russia. Even the Pope Benedict XIV.

accepted the dedication of _Mahomet_ (1745), and bestowed an apostolical benediction on "his dear son." On the other hand, his abhorrence of war, his protection of the oppressed, and, above all, the questioning spirit of his historical and philosophical writings (e.g. _Les Lettres sur les Anglais_, 1733; _Annales de l'Empire depuis Charlemagne_, 1753, etc.) were felt to be subversive of civil as well as ecclesiastical tyranny, and, no doubt, helped to precipitate the Revolution.

The first half of the line may be ill.u.s.trated by his quarrel with Maupertuis, the President of the Berlin Academy, which resulted in the production of the famous _Diatribe of Doctor Akakia, Physician to the Pope_ (1752), by a malicious attack on Maupertuis's successor, Le Franc de Pompignan, and by his caricature of the critic Elie Catharine Freron, as _Frelon_ ("Wasp"), in _L'Ecossaise_, which was played at Paris in 1760.--_Life of Voltaire_, by F. Espina.s.se, 1892, pp. 94, 114, 144.]

[kt]

----_concentering thought_ _And gathering wisdom_----.--[MS.]

[ku] {283} _Which stung his swarming foes with rage and fear_.--[MS.]

[345] [The first three volumes of Gibbon's _Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_, contrary to the author's expectation, did not escape criticism and remonstrance. The Rev. David Chetsum (in 1772 and (enlarged) 1778) published _An Examination of, etc._, and Henry Edward Davis, in 1778, _Remarks on_ the memorable Fifteenth and Sixteenth Chapters. Gibbon replied by a _Vindication_, issued in 1779. Another adversary was Archdeacon George Travis, who, in his _Letter_, defended the authenticity of the text on "Three Heavenly Witnesses" (1 _John_ v.

7), which Gibbon was at pains to deny (ch. x.x.xvii. note 120). Among other critics and a.s.sailants were Joseph Milner, Joseph Priestley, and Richard Watson afterwards Bishop of Llandaff. (For Porson's estimate of Gibbon, see preface to _Letters to Mr. Archdeacon Travis, etc._, 1790.)]

[kv] _In sleep upon one pillow_----.--[MS.]

[346] [There is no reason to suppose that this is to be taken ironically. He is not certain whether the "secrets of all hearts shall be revealed," or whether all secrets shall be kept in the silence of universal slumber; but he looks to the possibility of a judgment to come. He is speaking for mankind generally, and is not concerned with his own beliefs or disbeliefs.]

[347] {284} [The poet would follow in the wake of the clouds. He must pierce them, and bend his steps to the region of their growth, the mountain-top, where earth begets and air brings forth the vapours.

Another interpretation is that the Alps must be pierced in order to attain the great and ever-ascending regions of the mountain-tops ("greater and greater as we proceed"). In the next stanza he pictures himself looking down from the summit of the Alps on Italy, the goal of his pilgrimage.]

[348] [The Roman Empire engulfed and comprehended the great empires of the past--the Persian, the Carthaginian, the Greek. It fell, and kingdoms such as the Gothic (A.D. 493-554), the Lombardic (A.D. 568-774) rose out of its ashes, and in their turn decayed and pa.s.sed away.]

[349] {285} [The task imposed upon his soul, which dominates every other instinct, is the concealment of any and every emotion--"love, or hate, or aught," not the concealment of the particular emotion "love or hate,"

which may or may not be the "master-spirit" of his thought. He is anxious to conceal his feelings, not to keep the world in the dark as to the supreme feeling which holds the rest subject.]

[kw] _They are but as a self-deceiving wile_.-[MS. erased.]

[kx] _The shadows of the things that pa.s.s along_.--[MS.]

[ky] {286} _Fame is the dream of boyhood--I am not_ _So young as to regard the frown or smile_ _Of crowds as making an immortal lot_.--[MS. (lines 6, 7 erased).]

[350] [Compare Shakespeare, _Coriola.n.u.s_, act iii. sc. 1, lines 66, 67--

"For the mutable, rank-scented many, let them Regard me as I do not flatter."]

[351] [Compare _Manfred_, act ii. sc. 2, lines 54-57--

"My spirit walked not with the souls of men, Nor looked upon the earth with human eyes; The thirst of their ambition was not mine, The aim of their existence was not mine."]

[kz] {287} _O'er misery unmixedly some grieve_.--[MS.]

[352] [Byron was at first in some doubt whether he should or should not publish the "concluding stanzas of _Childe Harold_ (those to my _daughter_);" but in a letter to Murray, October 9, 1816, he reminds him of his later determination to publish them with "the rest of the Canto."]

[353] {288} ["His allusions to me in _Childe Harold_ are cruel and cold, but with such a semblance as to make _me_ appear so, and to attract sympathy to himself. It is said in this poem that hatred of him will be taught as a lesson to his child. I might appeal to all who have ever heard me speak of him, and still more to my own heart, to witness that there has been no moment when I have remembered injury otherwise than affectionately and sorrowfully. It is not my duty to give way to hopeless and wholly unrequited affection, but so long as I live my chief struggle will probably be not to remember him too kindly."--(_Letter of Lady Byron to Lady Anne Lindsay_, extracted from Lord Lindsay's letter to the _Times_, September 7, 1869.)

According to Mrs. Leigh (see her letter to Hodgson, Nov., 1816, _Memoirs of Rev. F. Hodgson_, 1878, ii. 41), Murray paid Lady Byron "the compliment" of showing her the transcription of the Third Canto, a day or two after it came into his possession. Most probably she did not know or recognize Claire's handwriting, but she could not fail to remember that but one short year ago she had herself been engaged in transcribing _The Siege of Corinth_ and _Parisina_ for the press. Between the making of those two "fair copies," a tragedy had intervened.]

[354] {289} [The Countess Guiccioli is responsible for the statement that Byron looked forward to a time when his daughter "would know her father by his works." "Then," said he, "shall I triumph, and the tears which my daughter will then shed, together with the knowledge that she will have the feelings with which the various allusions to herself and me have been written, will console me in my darkest hours. Ada's mother may have enjoyed the smiles of her youth and childhood, but the tears of her maturer age will be for me."--_My Recollections of Lord Byron_, by the Countess Guiccioli, 1869, p. 172.]

[355] [For a biographical notice of Ada Lady Lovelace, including letters, elsewhere unpublished, to Andrew Crosse, see _Ada Byron_, von E. Kolbing, _Englische Studien_, 1894, xix. 154-163.]

[la]

_End of Canto Third_.

_Byron. July 4, 1816, Diodati_.--[C.]

NOTES TO CHILDE HAROLD'S PILGRIMAGE.

CANTO III.

1.

In "pride of place" here last the Eagle flew.

Stanza xviii. line 5.

"Pride of place" is a term of falconry, and means the highest pitch of flight. See _Macbeth_, etc.--

"An eagle towering in his pride of place Was by a mousing owl hawk'd at and killed."

["A falcon towering in her pride of place," etc.

_Macbeth_, act ii. sc. 4, line 12.]

2.

Such as Harmodius drew on Athens' tyrant Lord.

Stanza xx. line 9.

See the famous song on Harmodius and Aristogeiton. The best English translation is in Bland's _Anthology_, by Mr. Denman--

"With myrtle my sword will I wreathe," etc.

[_Translations chiefly from the Greek Anthology, etc._, 1806, pp. 24, 25. The _Scholium_, attributed to Callistratus (_Poetae Lyrici Graeci_, Bergk. Lipsiae, 1866, p. 1290), begins thus--

?? ??t?? ??ad? t? ??f?? f???s? [E)n my/rtou kladi to xi/phos ph.o.r.e/so], ?spe? ???d??? ?a? ???st??e?t?? [o(sper A(rmo/dios kai A)ristogei/ton], ?te t?? ??a???? ?ta?et?? [O(/te ton y/rannon ktaneten]