The Works of Lord Byron Volume IV Part 92

[gu] _A_ part _of that which they held all of old_.--[MS. erased]

[523] {503}[George III. resisted Catholic Emanc.i.p.ation in 1795. "The more I reflect on the subject, the more I feel the danger of the proposal."--Letter to Pitt, February 6, 1795. Again, February 1, 1801, "This principle of duty must therefore prevent me from discussing any proposition [to admit 'Catholics and Dissenters to offices, and Catholics to Parliament'] tending to destroy the groundwork [that all who held employments in the State must be members of the Church of England] of our happy const.i.tution." Finally, in 1807, he demanded of ministers "a positive a.s.surance that they would never again propose to him any concession to the Catholics."--See _Life of Pitt_, by Earl Stanhope, 1879, ii. 434, 461; _Dict. of Nat. Biog._, art. "George III."]

[gv] _Than see this blind old_----.--[MS. erased.]

[gw] {504}_And interruption of your speech_.--[MS. erased.]

[524]

["Which into hollow engines long and round, Thick-rammed at th' other bore with touch of fire Dilated and infuriate," etc.

_Paradise Lost_, vi. 484, sq.]

[525] [A gold key is part of the insignia of office of the Lord Chamberlain and other court officials. In Plate 17 of Francis Sandford's _History of the Coronation of James the Second_, 1687, Henry Mordaunt, Earl of Peterborow, who carries the sceptre of King Edward, is represented with a key hanging from his belt. He was First Groom of the Stole and Gentleman of Bedchamber. The Queen's Vice-chamberlain, who appears in another part of the procession, also carries a key.]

[gx] _Stuck in their b.u.t.tocks----.--[MS. erased._]

[gy] {505}_For theirs are honours n.o.bler far than these_.--[MS. erased.]

[526] [It is possible that Byron was thinking of Horace Walpole's famous quip, "The summer has set in with its usual _severity_." But, of course, the meaning is that, owing to excessive and abnormal fogs, the _summer_ gilding might have to be pretermitted.]

[gz] _Before they make their journey, ere begin it_.--[MS. erased.]

[527] [For the invention of the electric telegraph before the date of this poem, see _Sir Francis Ronalds, F. R. S., and his Works in connection with Electric Telegraphy in 1816_, by J. Sime, 1893. But the "Telegraph" to which Byron refers was, probably, the semaph.o.r.e (from London to Portsmouth), which, according to [Sir] John Barrow, the Secretary of the Admiralty, rendered "telegraphs of any kind now wholly unnecessary" (_vide ibid._, p. 10).]

[528] {506}[Compare, for similarity of sound--

"It plunged and tacked and veered."

_Ancient Mariner_, pt. iii. line 156.]

[ha]

----_No land was ever overflowed_ _By locusts as the Heaven appeared by these_.--[MS. erased.]

[hb] _And many-languaged cries were like wild geese_.--[Erased.]

[529] [Compare--

"Wherefore with thee Came not all h.e.l.l broke loose?"

_Paradise Lost_, iv. 917, 918.]

[hc] _Though the first Hackney will_----.--[MS.]

[hd] {507}_Ready to swear the cause of all their pain_.--[Erased.]

[530] [In the game of ombre the ace of spades, _spadille_, ranks as the best trump card, and basto, the ace of clubs, ranks as the third best trump card. (For a description of ombre, see Pope's _Rape of the Lock_, in. 47-64.)]

[531] {508}["'Caitiffs, are ye dumb?' cried the multifaced Demon in anger."

_Vision of Judgement_, v.]

[532]

["Beholding the foremost, Him by the cast of his eye oblique, I knew as the firebrand Whom the unthinking populace held for their idol and hero, Lord of Misrule in his day."

_Ibid._, v.

In Hogarth's caricature (the original pen-and-ink sketch is in the "Rowfant Library:" see Cruikshank's frontispiece to _Catalogue_, 1886) Wilkes squints more than "a gentleman should squint." The costume--long coat, waistcoat b.u.t.toned to the neck, knee-breeches, and stockings--is not unpleasing, but the expression of the face is something between a leer and a sneer. Walpole (_Letters_, 1858, vii. 274) describes another portrait (by Zoffani) as "a delightful piece of Wilkes looking--no, squinting tenderly at his daughter. It is a caricature of the Devil acknowledging Miss Sin in Milton."]

[533] {509}[For the "Coan" skirts of the First Empire, see the fas.h.i.+on plates and Gillray's and Rowlandson's caricatures _pa.s.sim_.]

[he] _It shall be me they'll find the trustiest patriot_.--[MS. erased.]

[hf] _Said Wilkes I've done as much before_.--[MS. erased.]

[534] {510}[On his third return to Parliament for Middles.e.x, October 8, 1774, Wilkes took his seat (December 2) without opposition. In the following February, and on subsequent occasions, he endeavoured to induce the House to rescind the resolutions pa.s.sed January 19, 1764, under which he had been expelled from Parliament, and named as blasphemous, obscene, etc. Finally, May, 1782, he obtained a substantial majority on a division, and the obnoxious resolutions were ordered to be expunged from the journals of the House.]

[535] [Bute, as leader of the king's party, was an open enemy; Grafton, a half-hearted friend. The duke (1736-1811) would have visited him in the Tower (1763), "to hear from himself his own story and his defence;"

but rejected an appeal which Wilkes addressed to him (May 3) to become surety for bail. He feared that such a step might "come under the denomination of an insult on the Crown." A writ of _Habeas Corpus_ (see line 8) was applied for by Lord Temple and others, and, May 6, Wilkes was discharged by Lord Chief Justice Pratt, on the ground of privilege.

Three years later (November 1, 1766), on his return from Italy, Wilkes sought to obtain Grafton's protection and interest; but the duke, though he consulted Chatham, and laid Wilkes's letter before the King, decided to "take no notice" of this second appeal. In his _Autobiography_ Grafton is careful to define "the extent of his knowledge" of Mr.

Wilkes, and to explain that he was not "one of his intimates"--a _caveat_ which warrants the statement of Junius that "as for Mr. Wilkes, it is, perhaps, the greatest misfortune of his life, that you should have so many compensations to make in the closet for your former friends.h.i.+p with him. Your gracious Master understands your character; and makes you a persecutor because you have been a friend" ("Letter (xii.) to the Duke of Grafton," May 30, 1769).--_Memoirs of Augustus Henry, Third Duke of Grafton_, by Sir W. Anson, Bart., D.C.L., 1898, pp.

190-197.]

[536] {511}[In 1774 Wilkes was elected Lord Mayor, and in the following spring it fell to his lot to present to the King a remonstrance from the Livery against the continuance of the war with America. Walpole (April 17, 1775, Letters, 1803, vi. 257) says that "he used his triumph with moderation--in modern language with good breeding." The King is said to have been agreeably surprised at his demeanour. In his old age (1790) he voted against the Whigs. A pasquinade, written by Sheridan, Tickell, and Lord John Townshend, antic.i.p.ated the devil's insinuations--

"Johnny Wilkes, Johnny Wilkes, Thou greatest of bilks, How changed are the notes you now sing!

Your famed 'Forty-five'

Is prerogative, And your blasphemy 'G.o.d save the King'!

Johnny Wilkes, And your blasphemy, 'G.o.d save the King '!"

_Wilkes, Sheridan, Fox_, by W. F. Rae, 1874, pp. 132, 133.]

[hg] _Where Beelzebub upon duty_----.--[MS. erased.]

[537] ["In consequence of Kyd Wake's attack upon the King, two Acts were introduced [the "Treason" and "Sedition Bills," November 6, November 10, 1795], called the Pitt and Grenville Acts, for better securing the King's person "(_Diary of H. C. Robinson_, 1869, i. 32). "'The first of these bills [_The Plot Discovered, etc._, by S. T. Coleridge, November 28, 1795, _Essays on his own Times_, 1850, i. 56] is an attempt to a.s.sa.s.sinate the liberty of the press; the second to smother the liberty of speech." The "Devil" feared that Wilkes had been "gagged" for good and all.

[538] {512}

["Who might the other be, his comrade in guilt and in suffering, Brought to the proof like him, and shrinking like him from the trial?

Nameless the Libeller lived, and shot his arrows in darkness; Undetected he pa.s.sed to the grave, and leaving behind him Noxious works on earth, and the pest of an evil example, Went to the world beyond, where no offences are hidden.

Masked had he been in his life, and now a visor of iron, Rivetted round his head, had abolished his features for ever.

Speechless the slanderer stood, and turned his face from the Monarch, Iron-bound as it was ... so insupportably dreadful Soon or late to conscious guilt is the eye of the injured."

_Vision of Judgement_, v. i]

[hh] _Or in the human cholic_----.--[MS. erased.]