The Works of Lord Byron Volume III Part 52

[245] {306} [Stanzas ii. and iii. were added in Proof iv.]

[246] [A "spell" may be broken, but it is difficult to understand how, like the two halves of a seal or amulet, a broken spell can "unite again."]

[247] "Certaminis _gaudia_"--the expression of Attila in his harangue to his army, previous to the battle of Chalons, given in Ca.s.siodorus.

["Nisi ad certaminis hujus gaudia praepara.s.set."--_Attilae Oratio ad Hunnos_, caput x.x.xix., _Appendix ad Opera Ca.s.siodori_, Migne, lxix.

1279.]

[248] {307} [Added in Proof v.]

[249] [The first four lines of stanza v. were quoted by "Mr. Miller in the House of Representatives of the United States," in a debate on the Militia Draft Bill (_Weekly Messenger_, Boston, February 10, 1815).

"Take warning," he went on to say, "by this example. Bonaparte split on this rock of conscription," etc. This would have pleased Byron, who confided to his _Journal_, December 3, 1813 (_Letters_, 1898, ii. 360), that the statement that "my rhymes are very popular in the United States," was "the first tidings that have ever sounded like _Fame_ to my ears."]

[250] ["Like Milo, he would rend the oak; but it closed again, wedged his hands, and now the beasts--lion, bear, down to the dirtiest jackal--may all tear him."--_Journal_, April 8, 1814, _Letters_, 1898, ii. 408. For the story of Milo and the Oak, see Valerius Maximus, _Factorum, Dictorumque Memorabilium_, lib. ix. cap. xii. Part II.

example 9.]

[251] {308} Sylla. [We find the germ of this stanza in the Diary of the evening before it was written: "I mark this day! Napoleon Buonaparte has abdicated the throne of the world. 'Excellent well.' Methinks Sylla did better; for he revenged, and resigned in the height of his sway, red with the slaughter of his foes--the finest instance of glorious contempt of the rascals upon record. Dioclesian did well too--Amurath not amiss, had he become aught except a dervise--Charles the Fifth but so so; but Napoleon worst of all."--_Journal_, April 9, 1814, _Letters_, 1898, ii.

409.]

[252] ["Alter '_potent_ spell' to 'quickening spell:' the first (as Polonius says) 'is a vile phrase,' and means nothing, besides being commonplace and Rosa-Matildaish."--Letter to Murray, April 11, 1814, _Letters_, 1899, iii. 68.]

[253] {309} [Charles V. resigned the kingdom to his son Philip, circ.

October, 1555, and the imperial crown to his brother Ferdinand, August 27, 1556, and entered the Jeronymite Monastery of St. Justus at Placencia in Estremadura. Before his death (September 21, 1558) he dressed himself in his shroud, was laid in his coffin, "joined in the prayers which were offered up for the rest of his soul, mingling his tears with those which his attendants shed, as if they had been celebrating a real funeral."--Robertson's _Charles V._, 1798, iv. 180, 205, 254.]

[ip] {310} _But who would rise in brightest day_ _To set without one parting ray?_--[MS.]

[iq] ----_common clay_.--[First Proof.]

[254] [Added in Proof v.]

[255] {311} [Count Albert Adam de Neipperg, born 1774, an officer in the Austrian Army, and, 1811, Austrian envoy to the Court of Stockholm, was presented to Marie Louise a few days after Napoleon's abdication, became her chamberlain; and, according to the _Nouvelle Biographie Universelle_, "plus tard il l'epousa." The count, who is said to have been remarkably plain (he had lost an eye in a scrimmage with the French), died April 12, 1829.]

[ir]

_And look along the sea;_ _That element may meet thy smile,_ _For Albion kept it free_.

_But gaze not on the land for there_ _Walks crownless Power with temples bare_ _And shakes the head at thee_ _And Corinth's Pedagogue hath now_.--[Proof ii.]

[is]

_Or sit thee down upon the sand_ _And trace with thine all idle hand_.-- [A final correction made in Proof ii.]

[256] ["Dionysius at Corinth was yet a king to this."--_Diary_, April 9.

Dionysius the Younger, on being for the second time banished from Syracuse, retired to Corinth (B.C. 344), where "he is said to have opened a school for teaching boys to read" (see Plut., _Timal._, c. 14), but not, apparently, with a view to making a living by pedagogy.--Grote's _Hist. of Greece_, 1872, ix. 152.]

[257] {312} The cage of Bajazet, by order of Tamerlane.

[The story of the cage is said to be a fable. After the battle of Angora, July 20, 1402, Bajazet, whose escape from prison had been planned by one of his sons, was chained during the night, and placed in a kafes (_kafess_), a Turkish word, which signifies either a cage or a grated room or bed. Hence the legend.--_Hist. de l'Empire Othoman_, par J. von Hammer-Purgstall, 1836, ii. 97.]

[it] _There Timour in his captive cage_.--[First Proof.]

[258] [Presumably another instance of "careless and negligent ease."]

[259] ["Have you heard that Bertrand has returned to Paris with the account of Napoleon's having lost his senses? It is a _report_; but, if true, I must, like Mr. Fitzgerald and Jeremiah (of lamentable memory), lay claim to prophecy."--Letter to Murray, June 14, 1814, _Letters_, 1899, iii. 95.]

[260] Prometheus.

[iu]

_He suffered for kind acts to men_ _Who have not seen his like again,_ _At least of kingly stock_ _Since he was good, and thou but great_ _Thou canst not quarrel with thy fate_.--[First Proof, stanza x.]

[261] {313} "O! 'tis the spite of h.e.l.l, the fiend's arch-mock, To lip a wanton in a secure couch, And to suppose her chaste!"

_Oth.e.l.lo_, act iv. sc. 1, lines 69-71.

[We believe there is no doubt of the truth of the anecdote here alluded to--of Napoleon's having found leisure for an unworthy amour, the very evening of his arrival at Fontainebleau.--_Note to Edition_ 1832.

A consultation of numerous lives and memoirs of Napoleon has not revealed the particulars of this "unworthy amour." It is possible that Murray may have discovered the source of Byron's allusion among the papers "in the possession of one of Napoleon's generals, a friend of Miss Waldie," which were offered him "for purchase and publication," in 1815.--See _Memoir of John Murray_, 1891, i. 279.]

[iv] _And--were he mortal had as proudly died,_--[Alteration in First Proof.]

[262] [Of Prometheus--

"Unlike the offence, though like would be the fate-- _His_ to give life, but _thine_ to desolate; _He_ stole from Heaven the flame for which he fell, Whilst _thine_ be stolen from thy native h.e.l.l."

--Attached to Proof v., April 25.]

[iw] _While earth was Gallia's, Gallia thine_.--[MS.]

[ix] {314} _Where is that tattered_----.--[MS.]

[iy] ----_the laurel-circled crest_.--[MS.]

[263] [Byron had recently become possessed of a "fine print" (by Raphael Morghen, after Gerard) of Napoleon in his imperial robes, which (see _Journal_, March 6, 1814, _Letters_, 1898, ii. 393, note 2) became him "as if he had been hatched in them." According to the catalogue of Morghen's works, the engraving represents "the head nearly full-face, looking to the right, crowned with laurel. He wears an enormous velvet robe embroidered with bees--hanging over it the collar and jewel of the Legion of Honour." It was no doubt this "fine print" which suggested "the star, the string [i.e. the chain of enamelled eagles], the crest."]

[iz] _Where may the eye of man repose_.--[MS.]

[ja] _Alas! and must there be but one!_--[MS.]

[264] ["The two stanzas which I now send you were, by some mistake, omitted in the copies of Lord Byron's spirited and poetical 'Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte,' already published. One of 'the devils' in Mr.

Davison's employ procured a copy of this for me, and I give you the chance of first discovering them to the world.

"Your obedient servant,

"J. R."

"Yes! better to have stood the storm, A Monarch to the last!

Although that heartless fireless form Had crumbled in the blast: Than stoop to drag out Life's last years, The nights of terror, days of tears For all the splendour past; Then,--after ages would have read Thy awful death with more than dread.

"A lion in the conquering hour!

In wild defeat a hare!

Thy mind hath vanished with thy power, For Danger brought despair.

The dreams of sceptres now depart, And leave thy desolated heart The Capitol of care!

Dark Corsican, 'tis strange to trace Thy long deceit and last disgrace."