The Works of Lord Byron Volume IV Part 91

[502] [George III. died the 29th of January, 1820. "The year 1820 was an era signalized ... by the many efforts of the revolutionary spirit which at that time broke forth, like ill-suppressed fire, throughout the greater part of the South of Europe. In Italy Naples had already raised the const.i.tutional standard.... Throughout Romagna, secret societies, under the name of Carbonari, had been organized."--_Life_. p. 467.]

[gi] _Who fought for tyranny until withdrawn_.--[MS. erased.]

[503]

["Thus as I stood, the bell, which awhile from its warning had rested, Sent forth its note again, Toll! Toll! through the silence of evening....

Thou art released! I cried: thy soul is delivered from bondage!

Thou who hast lain so long in mental and visual darkness, Thou art in yonder Heaven! thy place is in light and glory."

_A Vision of Judgement_, by R. Southey, i.]

[gj] _A better country squire----.--[MS. erased.]_

[gk] {490}

_He died and left his kingdom still behind_ _Not much less mad--and certainly as blind_.--[MS. erased.]

[504] [At the time of the king's death Byron expressed himself somewhat differently. "I see," he says (Letter to Murray, February 21, 1820), "the good old King is gone to his place; one can't help being sorry, though blindness, and age, and insanity are supposed to be drawbacks on human felicity."]

[505] ["The display was most magnificent; the powerful light which threw all below into strong relief, reached but high enough to touch the pendent helmets and banners into faint colouring, and the roof was a vision of tarnished gleams and tissues among the Gothic tracery. The vault was still open, and the Royal coffin lay below, with the crowns of England and Hanover on cus.h.i.+ons of purple and the broken wand crossing it. At the altar four Royal banners covered with golden emblems were strewed upon the ground, as if their office was completed; the altar was piled with consecrated gold plate, and the whole aspect of the Chapel was the deepest and most magnificent display of melancholy grandeur."-From a description of the funeral of George the Third (signed J. T.), in the _European Magazine_, February, 1820, vol. 77, p. 123.]

[506]

["So by the unseen comforted, raised I my head in obedience, And in a vault I found myself placed, arched over on all sides Narrow and low was that house of the dead. Around it were coffins, Each in its niche, and pails, and urns, and funeral hatchments, Velvets of Tyrian dye, retaining their hues unfaded; Blazonry vivid still, as if fresh from the touch of the limner; Nor was the golden fringe, nor the golden broidery, tarnished."

_A Vision, etc._, ii.

"On Thursday night, the 3rd inst. [February, 1820], the body being wrapped in an exterior fold of white satin, was placed in the inside coffin, which was composed of mahogany, pillowed and ornamented in the customary manner with white satin.... This was enclosed in a leaden coffin, again enclosed in another mahogany coffin, and the whole finally placed in the state coffin of Spanish mahogany, covered with the richest Genoa velvet of royal purple, a few shades deeper in tint than Garter blue. The lid was divided into three compartments by double rows of silver-gilt nails, and in the compartment at the head, over a rich star of the Order of the Garter was placed the Royal Arms of England, beautifully executed in dead Gold.... In the lower compartment at the feet was the British Lion _Rampant, regardant_, supporting a s.h.i.+eld with the letters G. R. surrounded with the garter and motto of the same order in dead gold.... The handles were of silver, richly gilt of a ma.s.sive modern pattern, and the most exquisite workmans.h.i.+p."--Ibid., p. 126.]

[507] {491}["The body of his Majesty was not embalmed in the usual manner, but has been wrapped in cere-clothes, to preserve it as long as possible.... The corpse, indeed, exhibited a painful spectacle of the rapid decay which had recently taken place in his Majesty's const.i.tution, ... and hence, possibly, the surgeons deemed it impossible to perform the process of embalming in the usual way."--Ibid., p. 126.]

[508] [The fact that George II. pocketed, and never afterwards produced or attempted to carry out his father's will, may have suggested to the scandalous the possibility of a similar act on the part of his great-grandson.]

[gl] {492}

/ _vices_ _In whom his_ <> _all are reigning still_.--[MS. erased.]

_virtues_ /

[509] [Lady Byron's account of her husband's theological opinions is at variance with this statement. (See _Diary_ of H. C. Robinson, 1869, iii.

436.)]

[gm] {493}

_But he with first a start and then a nod_.--[MS.]

_Snored, "There is some new star gone out by G--d!"-_-[MS. erased.]

[510] {493}[Louis the Sixteenth was guillotined January 21, 1793.]

[gn] {494}_That fellow Paul the d.a.m.ndest Saint_.--[MS. erased.]

[511] ["The blessed apostle Bartholomew preached first in Lycaonia, and, at the last, in Athens ... and there he was first flayed, and afterwards his head was smitten off."--_Golden Legend_, edited by F. S. Ellis, 1900, v. 41.]

[512] {495} "Then I beheld the King. From a cloud which covered the pavement His reverend form uprose: heavenward his face was directed.

Heavenward his eyes were raised, and heavenward his arms were directed."

_The Vision, etc._, iii.

[513] [The reading of the MS. and of the _Liberal_ is "pottered." The editions of 1831, 1832, 1837, etc., read "pattered."]

[go] ----_his whole celestial skin_.--[MS. erased.]

[gp] _Or some such other superhuman ichor_.--[MS. erased.]

[gq] {496}_By Captain Parry's crews_----.--[_The Liberal_, 1822, i. 12.]

[514] ["The luminous arch had broken into irregular ma.s.ses, streaming with much rapidity in different directions, varying continually, in shape and interest, and extending themselves from north, by the east, to north. The usual pale light of the aurora strongly resembled that produced by the combustion of phosphorus; a very slight tinge of red was noticed when the aurora was most vivid, but no other colours were visible."--_Sir E. Parry's Voyage in_ 1819-20, p. 135.]

[515] [Compare "Methought I saw a fair youth borne with prodigious speed through the heavens, who gave a blast to his trumpet so violent, that the radiant beauty of his countenance was in part disfigured by it."--Translation of Quevedo's "Dream of Skulls," by G. Ticknor, _History of Spanish Literature_, 1888, ii. 340.]

[516] {497}[Joanna Southcott, born 1750, published her _Book of Wonders_, 1813-14, died December 27, 1814.]

[517]

["Eminent on a hill, there stood the Celestial City; Beaming afar it shone; its towers and cupolas rising High in the air serene, with the brightness of gold in the furnace, Where on their breadth the splendour lay intense and quiescent.

Part with a fierier glow, and a short thick tremulous motion Like the burning pyropus; and turrets and pinnacles sparkled, Playing in jets of light, with a diamond-like glory coruscant."

_The Vision, etc.,_ iv.]

[518] {498}[See _The Book of Job_ literally translated from the original Hebrew, by John Mason Good, F.R.S. (1764-1827), London, 1812. In the "Introductory Dissertation," the author upholds the biographical and historical character of the Book of Job against the contentions of Professor Michaelis (Johann David, 1717-1791). The notes abound in citations from the Hebrew and from the Arabic version.]

[519] {499}["The gates or gateways of Eastern cities" were used as "places for public deliberation, administration of justice, or audience for kings and nations, or amba.s.sadors." See _Deut_. xvi. 18. "Judges and officers shall thou make thee in all thy gates ... and they shall judge the people with just judgment." Hence came the use of the word "Porte"

in speaking of the Government of Constantinople.--Smith's _Diet, of the Bible_, art. "Gate."]

[gr] _Crossing his radiant arms_----.--[MS. erased.]

[gs] _But kindly; Sathan met_----.--[MS. erased.]

[520] ["No saint in the course of his religious warfare was more sensible of the unhappy failure of pious resolves than Dr. Johnson; he said one day, talking to an acquaintance on this subject, 'Sir, h.e.l.l is paved with good intentions.'" Compare "h.e.l.l is full of good meanings and wishes." _Jacula Prudentum,_ by George Herbert, ed. 1651, p. 11; Boswell's _Life of Johnson,_ 1876, p. 450, note 5.]

[521] {501}[Compare--

"Not once or twice in our rough Island's story The path of duty has become the path of glory."

Tennyson's _Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington._]

[522] [John Stuart, Earl of Bute (1713-1792), was Secretary of State March 25, 1761, and Prime Minister May 29, 1762-April, 1763. For the general estimate of the influence which Bute exercised on the young king, see a caricature ent.i.tled "The Royal Dupe" (Wright, p. 285), _Dict. of Nat. Biog._, art. "George III."]

[gt] {502}_With blood and debt_----.--[MS.]