The Works of Lord Byron Volume II Part 77

[508] {425} [When Byron visited Rome, and for long afterwards, the ruins of the Colosseum were clad with a mult.i.tude of shrubs and wild flowers.

Books were written on the "Flora of the Coliseum," which were said to number 420 species. But, says Professor Lanciani, "These materials for a _hortus siccus_, so dear to the visitors of our ruins, were destroyed by Rosa in 1871, and the ruins sc.r.a.ped and shaven clean, it being feared by him that the action of roots would accelerate the disintegration of the great structure." If Byron had lived to witness these activities, he might have devoted a stanza to the "tender mercies" of this zealous archaeologist.]

[509] {426} [The whole of this appeal to Nemesis (stanzas cx.x.x.-cx.x.xviii.) must be compared with the "Domestic Poems" of 1816, the Third Canto of _Childe Harold_ (especially stanzas lxix.-lxxv., and cxi.-cxviii.), and with the "Invocation" in the first act of _Manfred_.

It has been argued that Byron inserted these stanzas with the deliberate purpose of diverting sympathy from his wife to himself. The appeal, no doubt, is deliberate, and the plea is followed by an indictment, but the sincerity of the appeal is attested by its inconsistency. Unlike Orestes, who slew his mother to avenge his father, he will not so deal with the "moral Clytemnestra of her lord," requiting murder by murder, but is resolved to leave the balancing of the scale to the omnipotent Time-spirit who rights every wrong and will redress his injuries. But in making answer to his accusers he outruns Nemesis, and himself enacts the part of a "moral" Orestes. It was true that his hopes were "sapped" and "his name blighted," and it was natural, if not heroic, first to persuade himself that his suffering exceeded his fault, that he was more sinned against than sinning, and, so persuaded, to take care that he should not suffer alone. The general purport of plea and indictment is plain enough, but the exact interpretation of his phrases, the appropriation of his dark sayings, belong rather to the biography of the poet than to a commentary on his poems. (For Lady Byron's comment on the "allusions" to herself in _Childe Harold, vide ante_, p. 288, note 1.)]

[op] {427} _Or for my fathers' faults_-----.-[MS. M.]

[oq] {428} 'tis not that now And if my voice break forth--{-it is not that-} I shrink from what is suffered--let him speak decline upon my Who {-humbler in-} {-What-} hath beheld {-me quiver on my-} brow seen my mind's convulsion leave it {-blenched or-} weak?

Or {-my internal spirit changed or weak-} {-found my mind convulsed-} a But in this page {-the-} record {-which-} I seek will {-from out of the deep-} {-stands and-} {-of that remorse-} {-Shall stand and when that hour shall come and come-} {-Shall come--though I be ashes--and shall pile heap-} {-It will-} {-come and wreak-} {-In fire the measure-} {-The fiery prophecy-} {-The fullness of my-} {-The fullness of my prophecy or heap-} {-The mountain of my curse-} Not in the air shall these my words disperse {-'Tis written that an hour of deep remorse-} Though I be ashes {-a deep-} far hour shall wreak {-The fullness Thee-} this The deep prophetic fullness of {-my-} verse And pile on human heads the mountain of my curse.--[MS. M.]

[or] {429} If to forgive be "heaping coals of Fire"

As G.o.d hath spoken--on the heads of foes Mine should lie a Volcano-and rise higher Than o'er the t.i.tans crushed Olympus rose Than Athos soars, or blazing aetna glows: True--they who stung were petty things--but what Than serpent's sting produce more deadly throes.

The Lion may be tortured by the Gnat-- Who sucks the slumberer's blood--the Eagle? no, the Bat.[-]-- [MS. M.]

[-] [The "Bat" was "a sobriquet by which Lady Caroline Lamb was well known in London society." An Italian translation of her novel, _Glenarvon_, was at this time in the press at Venice (see letter to Murray, August 7, 1817), and it is probable that Byron, who declined to interdict its publication, took his revenge in a petulant stanza, which, on second thoughts, he decided to omit. (See note by Mr. Richard Edgc.u.mbe, _Notes and Queries_ eighth series, 1895, viii. 101.)]

[510] [Compare "Lines on hearing that Lady Byron was ill," lines 53-55.]

[511] {431} Whether the wonderful statue which suggested this image be a laquearian gladiator, which, in spite of Winckelmann's criticism, has been stoutly maintained; or whether it be a Greek herald, as that great antiquary positively a.s.serted;[-] or whether it is to be thought a Spartan or barbarian s.h.i.+eldbearer, according to the opinion of his Italian editor; it must a.s.suredly seem _a copy_ of that masterpiece of Ctesilaus which represented "a wounded man dying, who perfectly expressed what there remained of life in him." Montfaucon and Maffei thought it the identical statue; but that statue was of bronze. The Gladiator was once in the Villa Ludovisi, and was bought by Clement XII.

The right arm is an entire restoration of Michael Angelo.

[There is no doubt that the statue of the "Dying Gladiator" represents a dying Gaul. It is to be compared with the once-named "Arria and Paetus"

of the Villa Ludovisi, and with other sculptures in the museums of Venice, Naples, and Rome, representing "Gauls and Amazons lying fatally wounded, or still in the att.i.tude of defending life to the last," which belong to the Pergamene school of the second century B.C. M. Collignon hazards a suggestion that the "Dying Gaul" is the trumpet-sounder of Epigonos, in which, says Pliny (_Hist. Nat._, x.x.xiv. 88), the sculptor surpa.s.sed all his previous works ("omnia fere praedicta imitatus praecessit in tubicine"); while Dr. H. S. Urlichs (see _The Elder Pliny's Chapters on the History of Art_, translated by K. Jex-Blake, with Commentary and Historical Ill.u.s.trations, by E. Sellers, 1896, p. 74, note) falls back on Winckelmann's theory that the "statue ... may have been simply the votive-portrait of the winner in the contest of heralds, such as that of Archias of Hybla in Delphoi." (See, too, Helbig's _Guide to the Collection of Public Antiquities in Rome_, Engl. transl., 1895.

i. 399; _History of Greek Sculpture_, by A. S. Murray, L.L.D., F.S.A., 1890, ii. 381-383.)]

[-] Either Polyphontes, herald of Laus, killed by Oedipus; or Kopreas, herald of Eurystheus, killed by the Athenians when he endeavoured to drag the Heraclidae from the altar of mercy, and in whose honour they inst.i.tuted annual games, continued to the time of Hadrian; or Anthemocritus, the Athenian herald, killed by the Megarenses, who never recovered the impiety. [See _Hist, of Ancient Art_, translated by G. H.

Lodge, 1881, ii. 207.]

[os] Leaning upon his hand, his mut[e] brow Yielding to death but conquering agony.--[MS. M. erased.]

[ot] {432} _From the red gash fall bigly_----.--[MS. M.]

[ou] _Like the last of a thunder-shower_----.--[MS. M.]

[ov] _The earth swims round him_----.--[MS. M. erased.]

[ow] {433} _Slaughtered to make a Roman holiday_.--[MS. M. erased.]

[ox] _Was death and life_----.--[MS. M.]

[oy] _My voice is much_----.--[MS. M. erased.]

[oz] _Yet the colossal skeleton ye pa.s.s_.--[MS. M. erased.]

[pa] {434} _The ivy-forest, which its walls doth wear_.--[MS. M.

erased.]

[512] Suetonius [Lib. i. cap. xlv.] informs us that Julius Caesar was particularly gratified by that decree of the senate which enabled him to wear a wreath of laurel on all occasions. He was anxious not to show that he was the conqueror of the world, but to hide that he was bald. A stranger at Rome would hardly have guessed at the motive, nor should we without the help of the historian.

[pb] _The Hero race who trod--the imperial dust ye tread_.--[MS. M.

erased.]

[513] This is quoted in the _Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_, as a proof that the Coliseum was entire, when seen by the Anglo-Saxon pilgrims at the end of the seventh, or the beginning of the eighth, century. A notice on the Coliseum may be seen in the _Historical Ill.u.s.trations_, p. 263.

["'Quamdiu stabit Colyseus, stabit et Roma; quando cadet Colyseus, cadet Roma; quando cadet Roma, cadet et mundus.' (Beda in 'Excerptis seu Collectaneis,' apud Ducange, _Glossarium ad Scriptores Med., et Infimae Latinitatis_, tom. ii. p. 407, edit. Basil.) This saying must be ascribed to the Anglo-Saxon pilgrims who visited Rome before the year 735, the aera of Bede's death; for I do not believe that our venerable monk ever pa.s.sed the sea."--Gibbon's _Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_, 1855, viii. 281, note.]

[514] {435} "Though plundered of all its bra.s.s, except the ring which was necessary to preserve the aperture above; though exposed to repeated fires; though sometimes flooded by the river, and always open to the rain, no monument of equal antiquity is so well preserved as this rotundo. It pa.s.sed with little alteration from the Pagan into the present wors.h.i.+p; and so convenient were its niches for the Christian altar, that Michael Angelo, ever studious of ancient beauty, introduced their design as a model in the Catholic church."--Forsyth's _Italy_, 1816, p. 137.

[The Pantheon consists of two parts, a porch or _p.r.o.naos_ supported by sixteen Corinthian columns, and behind it, but "obviously disjointed from it," a rotunda or round temple, 143 feet high, and 142 feet in diameter. The inscription on the portico (M. AGRIPPA, L. F. Cos.

tertium. Fecit.) affirms that the temple was built by Agrippa (M.

Vipsanius), B.C. 27.

It has long been suspected that with regard to the existing building the inscription was "historically and artistically misleading;" but it is only since 1892 that it has been known for certain (from the stamp on the bricks in various parts of the building) that the rotunda was built by Hadrian. Difficulties with regard to the relations between the two parts of the Pantheon remain unsolved, but on the following points Professor Lanciani claims to speak with certainty:--

(1) "The present Pantheon, portico included, is not the work of Agrippa, but of Hadrian, and dates from A.D. 120-124.

(2) "The columns, capital, and entablature of the portico, inscribed with Agrippa's name, may be original, and may date from 27-25 B.C., but they were first removed and then put together by Hadrian.

(3) "The original structure of Agrippa was rectangular instead of round, and faced the south instead of the north."--_Ruins and Excavations, etc._, by R. Lanciani, 1897, p. 483.]

[pc] {436} ----_the pride of proudest Rome_.--[MS. M. erased.]

[515] {437} The Pantheon has been made a receptacle for the busts of modern great, or, at least, distinguished men. The flood of light which once fell through the large orb above on the whole circle of divinities, now s.h.i.+nes on a numerous a.s.semblage of mortals, some one or two of whom have been almost deified by the veneration of their countrymen.

["The busts of Raphael, Hannibal Caracci, Pierrin del Vaga, Zuccari, and others ... are ill a.s.sorted with the many modern contemporary heads of ancient worthies which now glare in all the niches of the Rotunda."--_Historical Ill.u.s.trations_, p. 293.]

[516] This and the three next stanzas allude to the story of the Roman daughter, which is recalled to the traveller by the site, or pretended site, of that adventure, now shown at the Church of St. Nicholas _in Carcere_. The difficulties attending the full belief of the tale are stated in _Historical Ill.u.s.trations_, p. 295.

[The traditional scene of the "Caritas Romana" is a cell forming part of the substructions of the Church of S. Nicola in Carcere, near the Piazza Montanara. Festus (_De Verb. Signif._, lib. xiv., A. J. Valpy, 1826, ii.

594), by way of ill.u.s.trating Pietas, tells the story in a few words: "It is said that aelius dedicated a temple to Pietas on the very spot where a woman dwelt of yore. Her father was shut up in prison, and she kept him alive by giving him the breast by stealth, and, as a reward for her deed, obtained his forgiveness and freedom." In Pliny (Hist. Nat., vii.

36) and in Valerius Maximus (V. 4) it is not a father, but a mother, whose life is saved by a daughter's piety.]

[pd] {438} _Two isolated phantoms_----.--[MS. M.]

[pe] _With her unkerchiefed neck_----.--[MS. M. erased.]

[pf]

_Or even the shrill impatient_ [_cries that brook_].

or, _Or even the shrill small cry_----.--[MS. M. erased.]

[pg] _No waiting silence or suspense_----.--[MS. M. erased.]

[517] {439} [It was fabled of the Milky Way that when Mercury held up the infant Hercules to Juno's breast, that he might drink in divinity, the G.o.ddess pushed him away, and that drops of milk fell into the void, and became a mult.i.tude of tiny stars. The story is told by Eratosthenes of Cyrene (B.C. 276), in his _Catasterismi_ (Treatise on Star Legends), No. 44: _Opusc. Mythol._, Amsterdam, 1688, p. 136.]

[ph]

_To its original fountain but repierce_ _Thy sire's heart_----.--[MS. M. erased.]

[518] The castle of St. Angelo. (See _Historical Ill.u.s.trations._)