The Works of Lord Byron Volume IV Part 1

The Works of Lord Byron.

Volume 4.

by Lord Byron.

PREFACE TO THE FOURTH VOLUME.

The poems included in this volume consist of thirteen longer or more important works, written at various periods between June, 1816, and October, 1821; of eight occasional pieces (_Poems of July-September_, 1816), written in 1816; and of another collection of occasional pieces (_Poems_ 1816-1823), written at intervals between November, 1816, and September, 1823. Of this second group of minor poems five are now printed and published for the first time.

The volume is not co-extensive with the work of the period. The third and fourth cantos of _Childe Harold_ (1816-1817), the first five cantos of _Don Juan_ (1818, 1819, 1820), _Sardanapalus_, _The Two Foscari_, _Cain_, and _Heaven and Earth_ (1821), form parts of other volumes, but, in spite of these notable exceptions, the fourth volume contains the work of the poet's maturity, which is and must ever remain famous. Byron was not content to write on one kind of subject, or to confine himself to one branch or species of poetry. He tracked the footsteps now of this master poet, now of another, far outstripping some of his models; soon spent in the pursuit of others. Even in his own lifetime, and in the heyday of his fame, his friendliest critics, who applauded him to the echo, perceived that the "manifold motions" of his versatile and unsleeping talent were not always sanctioned or blessed by his genius.

Hence the unevenness of his work, the different values of this or that poem. But, even so, in width of compa.s.s, in variety of style, and in measure of success, his achievement was unparalleled. Take such poems as _Manfred_ or _Mazeppa_, which have left their mark on the literature of Europe; as _Beppo_, the _avant courrier_ of _Don Juan_, or the "inimitable" _Vision of Judgment_, which the "hungry generations" have not trodden down or despoiled of its freshness. Not one of these poems suggests or resembles the other, but each has its crowd of a.s.sociations, a history and almost a literature of its own.

The whole of this volume was written on foreign soil, in Switzerland or Italy, and, putting aside _The Dream_, _The Monody on the Death of Sheridan_, _The Irish Avatar_, and _The Blues_, the places, the persons and events, the _materiel_ of the volume as a whole, to say nothing of the style and metre of the poems, are derived from the history and the literature of Switzerland and Southern Europe. An unwilling, at times a vindictive exile, he did more than any other poet or writer of his age to familiarize his own countrymen with the scenery, the art and letters of the Continent, and, conversely, to make the existence of English literature, or, at least, the writings of one Englishman, known to Frenchmen and Italians; to the Teuton and the Slav. If he "taught us little" as prophet or moralist; as a guide to knowledge; as an educator of the general reader--"your British blackguard," as he was pleased to call him--his teaching and influence were "in widest commonalty spread."

Questions with regard to his personality, his morals, his theological opinions, his qualifications as an artist, his grammar, his technique, and so forth, have, perhaps inevitably, absorbed the attention of friend and foe, and the one point on which all might agree has been overlooked, namely, the fact that he taught us a great deal which it is desirable and agreeable to know--which has pa.s.sed into common knowledge through the medium of his poetry. It is true that he wrote his plays and poems at lightning speed, and that if he was at pains to correct some obvious blunders, he expended but little labour on picking his phrases or polis.h.i.+ng his lines; but it is also true that he read widely and studied diligently, in order to prepare himself for an outpouring of verse, and that so far from being a superficial observer or inaccurate recorder, his authority is worth quoting in questions of fact and points of detail.

The appreciation of poetry is a matter of taste, and still more of temperament. Readers cannot be coerced into admiration, or scolded into disapproval and contempt. But if they are willing or can be persuaded to read with some particularity and attention the writings of the ill.u.s.trious dead, not entirely as partisans, or with the view to dethroning other "Monarchs of Parna.s.sus," they will divine the secret of their fame, and will understand, perhaps recover, the "first rapture" of contemporaries.

Byron sneered and carped at Southey as a "scribbler of all works." He was himself a reader of all works, and without some measure of book-learning and not a little research the force and significance of his various numbers are weakened or obliterated.

It is with the hope of supplying this modic.u.m of book-learning that the Introductions and notes in this and other volumes have been compiled.

I desire to acknowledge, with thanks, the courteous response of Mons. J.

Capre, Commandant of the Castle of Chillon, to a letter of inquiry with regard to the "Souterrains de Chillon."

I have to express my grat.i.tude to Sir Henry Irving, to Mr. Joseph Knight, and to Mr. F. E. Taylor, for valuable information concerning the stage representation of _Manfred_ and _Marino Faliero_.

I am deeply indebted to Dr. Richard Garnett, C.B., and to my friend, Mr.

Thomas Hutchinson, for a.s.sistance in many important particulars during the construction of the volume.

I must also record my thanks to Mr. Oscar Browning, Mr. Josceline Courtenay, and other correspondents, for information and a.s.sistance in points of difficulty.

I have consulted and derived valuable information from the following works: _The Prisoner of Chillon_, etc., by the late Professor Kolbing; _Mazeppa_, by Dr. Englaender; _Marino Faliero avanti il Dogado_ and _La Congiura_ (published in the _Nuovo Archivio Veneto_), by Signor Vittorio Lazzarino; and _Selections from the Poetry of Lord Byron_, by Dr. F. I.

Carpenter of Chicago, U.S.A.

I take the opportunity of expressing my acknowledgments to Miss K.

Schlesinger, Miss De Alberti, and to Signor F. Bianco, for their able and zealous services in the preparation of portions of the volume.

On behalf of the publisher I beg to acknowledge the kindness of Captain the Hon. F. L. King Noel, in sanctioning the examination and collation of the MS. of _Beppo_, now in his possession; and of Mrs. Horace Pym of Foxwold Chace, for permitting the portrait of Sheridan by Sir Joshua Reynolds to be reproduced for this volume.

ERNEST HARTLEY COLERIDGE.

_May_ 5, 1901.

INTRODUCTION TO _THE PRISONER OF CHILLON_.

The _Prisoner of Chillon_, says Moore (_Life_, p. 320), was written at Ouchy, near Lausanne, where Byron and Sh.e.l.ley "were detained two days in a small inn [Hotel de l'Ancre, now d'Angleterre] by the weather."

Byron's letter to Murray, dated June 27 (but? 28), 1816, does not precisely tally with Sh.e.l.ley's journal contained in a letter to Peac.o.c.k, July 12, 1816 (_Prose Works of P. B. Sh.e.l.ley_, 1880, ii. 171, _sq._); but, if Sh.e.l.ley's first date, June 23, is correct, it follows that the two poets visited the Castle of Chillon on Wednesday, June 26, reached Ouchy on Thursday, June 27, and began their homeward voyage on Sat.u.r.day, June 29 (Sh.e.l.ley misdates it June 30). On this reckoning the _Prisoner of Chillon_ was begun and finished between Thursday, June 27, and Sat.u.r.day, June 29, 1816. Whenever or wherever begun, it was completed by July 10 (see _Memoir of John Murray_, 1891, i. 364), and was ready for transmission to England by July 25. The MS., in Claire's handwriting, was placed in Murray's hands on October 11, and the poem, with seven others, was published December 5, 1816.

In a final note to the _Prisoner of Chillon_ (First Edition, 1816, p.

59), Byron confesses that when "the foregoing poem was composed he knew too little of the history of Bonnivard to do justice to his courage and virtues," and appends as a note to the "Sonnet on Chillon," "some account of his life ... furnished by the kindness of a citizen of that Republic," i.e. Geneva. The note, which is now ent.i.tled "Advertis.e.m.e.nt,"

is taken bodily from the pages of a work published in 1786 by the Swiss naturalist, Jean Senebier, who died in 1809. It was not Byron's way to invent imaginary authorities, but rather to give his references with some pride and particularity, and it is possible that this unacknowledged and hitherto unverified "account" was supplied by some literary acquaintance, who failed to explain that his information was common property. Be that as it may, Senebier's prose is in some respects as unhistorical as Byron's verse, and stands in need of some corrections and additions.

Francois Bonivard (there is no contemporary authority for "Bonnivard") was born in 1493. In early youth (1510) he became by inheritance Prior of St. Victor, a monastery outside the walls of Geneva, and on reaching manhood (1514) he accepted the office and the benefice, "la dignite ecclesiastique de Prieur et de la Seigneurie temporelle de St. Victor."

A lover of independence, a child of the later Renaissance, in a word, a Genevese, he threw in his lot with a band of ardent reformers and patriots, who were conspiring to shake off the yoke of Duke Charles III.

of Savoy, and convert the city into a republic. Here is his own testimony: "Des que j'eus commence de lire l'histoire des nations, je me sentis entraine par un gout p.r.o.nonce pour les Republiques dont j'epousai toujours les interets." Hence, in a great measure, the unrelenting enmity of the duke, who not only ousted him from his priory, but caused him to be shut up for two years at Grolee, Gex, and Belley, and again, after he had been liberated on a second occasion, ordered him, a safe conduct notwithstanding, to be seized and confined in the Castle of Chillon. Here he remained from 1530 to February 1, 1536, when he was released by the Bernese.

For the first two years he was lodged in a room near the governor's quarters, and was fairly comfortable; but a day came when the duke paid a visit to Chillon; and "then," he writes, "the captain thrust me into a cell lower than the lake, where I lived four years. I know not whether he did it by the duke's orders or of his own accord; but sure it is that I had so much leisure for walking, that I wore in the rock which was the pavement a track or little path, as it had been made with a hammer"

(_Chroniques des Ligues_ de Stumpf, addition de Bonivard).

After he had been liberated, "par la grace de Dieu donnee a Mess^rs^ de Berne," he returned to Geneva, and was made a member of the Council of the State, and awarded a house and a pension of two hundred crowns a year. A long life was before him, which he proceeded to spend in characteristic fas.h.i.+on, finely and honourably as scholar, author, and reformer, but with little self-regard or self-respect as a private citizen. He was married no less than four times, and not one of these alliances was altogether satisfactory or creditable. Determined "to warm both hands before the fire of life," he was p.r.o.ne to ignore the prejudices and even the decencies of his fellow-citizens, now incurring their displeasure, and now again, as one who had greatly testified for truth and freedom, being taken back into favour and forgiven. There was a deal of human nature in Bonivard, with the result that, at times, conduct fell short of pretension and principle. Estimates of his character differ widely. From the standpoint of Catholic orthodoxy, "C'etait un fort mauvais sujet et un plus mauvais pretre;" and even his captivity, infamous as it was, "ne peut rendre Bonivard interessant"

(_Notices Genealogiques sur les Famillies Genevoises_, par J. A.

Galiffe, 1836, iii. 67, sq.); whilst an advocate and champion, the author of the _Preface_ to _Les Chroniques de Geneve_ par Francois de Bonnivard, 1831, tom. i. pt. i. p. xli., avows that "aucun homme n'a fait preuve d'un plus beau caractere, d'un plus parfait desinteress.e.m.e.nt que l'ill.u.s.tre Prieur de St. Victor." Like other great men, he may have been guilty of "quelques egaremens du coeur, quelques concessions pa.s.sageres aux devices des sens," but "Peu importe a la posterite les irregularites de leur vie privee" (p. xlviii.).

But whatever may be the final verdict with regard to the morals, there can be no question as to the intellectual powers of the "Prisoner of Chillon." The publication of various MS. tracts, e.g. _Advis et Devis de l'ancienne et nouvelle Police de Geneve_, 1865; _Advis et Devis des Lengnes_, etc., 1865, which were edited by the late J. J. Chaponniere, and, after his death, by M. Gustave Revilliod, has placed his reputation as historian, satirist, philosopher, beyond doubt or cavil. One quotation must suffice. He is contrasting the Protestants with the Catholics (_Advis et Devis de la Source de Lidolatrie_, Geneva, 1856, p.

159): "Et nous disons que les prebstres rongent les mortz et est vray; mais nous faisons bien pys, car nous rongeons les vifz. Quel profit revient aux paveures du dommage des prebstres? Nous nous ventons touttes les deux parties de prescher Christ cruciffie et disons vray, car nous le laissons cruciffie et nud en l'arbre de la croix, et jouons a beaux dez au pied dicelle croix, pour scavoir qui haura sa robe."

For Bonivard's account of his second imprisonment, see _Les Chroniques de Geneve_, tom. ii. part ii. pp. 571-577; see, too, _Notice sur Francois Bonivard_, ...par Le Docteur J. J. Chaponniere, Memoires et Doc.u.ments Publies, par La Societe d'Histoire, etc., de Geneve, 1845, iv.

137-245; _Chillon Etude Historique_, par L. Vulliemin, Lausanne, 1851; _Revue des Deux Mondes_, Seconde Periode, vol. 82, Aout, 1869, pp.

682-709; "True Story of the Prisoner of Chillon," _Nineteenth Century_, May, 1900, No. 279, pp. 821-829, by A. van Amstel (Johannes Christiaan Neuman).

_The Prisoner of Chillon_ was reviewed (together with the Third Canto of _Childe Harold_) by Sir Walter Scott (_Quarterly Review_, No. x.x.xi., October, 1816), and by Jeffrey (_Edinburgh Review_, No. liv., December, 1816).

With the exception of the _Eclectic_ (March, 1817, N.S., vol. vii. pp.

298-304), the lesser reviews were unfavourable. For instance, the _Critical Review_ (December, 1816, Series V. vol. iv. pp. 567-581) detected the direct but unacknowledged influence of Wordsworth on thought and style; and the _Portfolio_ (No. vi. pp. 121-128), in an elaborate skit, ent.i.tled "Literary Frauds," a.s.sumed, and affected to prove, that the entire poem was a forgery, and belonged to the same category as _The Right Honourable Lord Byron's Pilgrimage to the Holy Land, etc._

For extracts from these and other reviews, see Kolbing, _Prisoner of Chillon, and Other Poems_, Weimar, 1896, excursus i. pp. 3-55.

SONNET ON CHILLON

Eternal Spirit of the chainless Mind![1]

Brightest in dungeons, Liberty! thou art: For there thy habitation is the heart-- The heart which love of thee alone can bind; And when thy sons to fetters are consigned-- To fetters, and the damp vault's dayless gloom, Their country conquers with their martyrdom, And Freedom's fame finds wings on every wind.

Chillon! thy prison is a holy place, And thy sad floor an altar--for 'twas trod, Until his very steps have left a trace Worn, as if thy cold pavement were a sod, By Bonnivard!--May none those marks efface!

For they appeal from tyranny to G.o.d.[2]

ADVERTIs.e.m.e.nT

When this poem[a] was composed, I was not sufficiently aware of the history of Bonnivard, or I should have endeavoured to dignify the subject by an attempt to celebrate his courage and his virtues. With some account of his life I have been furnished, by the kindness of a citizen of that republic, which is still proud of the memory of a man worthy of the best age of ancient freedom:--