The Works of Lord Byron Volume IV Part 102

[First published, _Letters and Journals_, 1830, ii. 635, 636.]

ARISTOMENES.[608]

Canto First.

1.

The G.o.ds of old are silent on the sh.o.r.e.

Since the great Pan expired, and through the roar Of the Ionian waters broke a dread Voice which proclaimed "the Mighty Pan is dead."

How much died with him! false or true--the dream Was beautiful which peopled every stream With more than finny tenants, and adorned The woods and waters with coy nymphs that scorned Pursuing Deities, or in the embrace Of G.o.ds brought forth the high heroic race 10 Whose names are on the hills and o'er the seas.

Cephalonia, _Sept^r^_ 10^th^ 1823.

[From an autograph MS. in the possession of the Lady Dorchester, now for the first time printed.]

FOOTNOTES:

[568] {529}[Byron does not give his authority for the Spanish original of his _Romance Muy Doloroso_. In default of any definite information, it may be surmised that his fancy was caught by some broadside or chap-book which chanced to come into his possession, and that he made his translation without troubling himself about the origin or composition of the ballad. As it stands, the "Romance" is a cento of three or more ballads which are included in the _Guerras Civiles de Granada_ of Gines Perez de Hita, published at Saragossa in 1595 (see ed.

"En Alcala de Henares," 1601, pp. 249-252). Stanzas 1-11, "Pa.s.seavase el Rey Moro," etc., follow the text which De Hita gives as a translation from the Arabic; stanzas 12-14 are additional, and do not correspond with any of the Spanish originals; stanzas 15-21, with numerous deviations and omissions, follow the text of a second ballad, "Moro Alcayde, Moro Alcayde," described by De Hita as "antiguo Romance," and portions of stanzas 21-23 are imbedded in a ballad ent.i.tled "Muerte dada a Los Abencerrajes" (Duran's _Romancero General_, 1851, ii. 89).

The ballad as a whole was not known to students of Spanish literature previous to the publication of Byron's translation (1818), (see _Ancient Ballads from the Civil Wars of Granada_, by Thomas Rodd, 1801, pp. 93, 98; Southey's _Common-Place Book_, iv. 262-266, and his _Chronicle of the Cid_, 1808, pp. 371-374), and it has not been included by H. Duran in his _Romancero General_, 1851, ii. 89-91, or by F. Wolf and C.

Hofmann in their _Primavera y Flor de Romances_, 1856, i. 270-278. At the same time, it is most improbable that Byron was his own "Centonista," and it may be a.s.sumed that the Spanish text as printed (see _Childe Harold,_ Canto IV., 1818, pp. 240-254, and _Poetical Works_, 1891, pp. 566, 567) was in his possession or within his reach.

(For a correspondence on the subject, see _Notes and Queries_, Third Series, vol. xii. p. 391, and Fourth Series, vol. i. p. 162.)

A MS. of the Spanish text, sent to England for "copy," is in a foreign handwriting. Two MSS. (A, B) of the translation are in Mr. Murray's possession: A, a rough draft; B, a fair copy. The watermark of A is 1808, of B (dated January 4, 1817) 1800. It is to be noted that the refrain in the Spanish text is _Ay de mi Alhama_, and that the insertion of the comma is a printer's or reader's error.]

[569] [In A.D. 886, during the reign of Muley Abul Hacen, King of Granada, Albania was surprised and occupied by the Christians under Don Rodrigo Ponce de Leon.]

[570] The effect of the original ballad--which existed both in Spanish and Arabic--was such, that it was forbidden to be sung by the Moors, on pain of death, within Granada. ["This ballad was so dolorous in the original Arabic language, that every time it was sung it acted as an incitement to grief and despair, and for this reason it was at length finally prohibited in Granada."--_Historia ... de las Guerras Civiles_, translated from the Arabic of Abenhamim, by Gines Perez de Hita, and from the Spanish by Thomas Rodd, 1803, p. 334. According to Ticknor (_Hist. of Spanish Literature_, 1888, iii. 139), the "Arabic origin" of De Hita's work is not at all probable. "He may have obtained Arabic materials for parts of his story."]

[hv] _Alas--alas--Alhama!_--[MS. M.]

[571] [Byron's _Ay de mi, Alhama_, which should be printed _Ay de mi Alhama_, must be rendered "Woe for my Alhama!" "Woe is me, Alhama!" is the equivalent of "_Ay de mi Alhama!_"]

[572] {531}["Un viejo Alfaqui" is "an old Alfaqui," _i.e._ a doctor of the Mussulman law, not a proper name.]

[573] {532}["De leyes tambien hablava" should be rendered "He spake 'also' of the laws," not _tan bien_, "so well," or "exceeding well."]

[574] {533}[The Alcaide or "governor" of the original ballad is converted into the Alfaqui of stanza 9. It was the "Alcaide," in whose absence Alhama was taken, and who lost children, wife, honour, and his own head in consequence (_Notes and Queries_, iv. i. 162).]

[hw] ----_so white to see_.--[MS. M.]

[575] {535}[Jacopo Vittorelli (1749-1835) was born at Ba.s.sano, in Venetian territory. Under the Napoleonic "kingdom of Italy" he held office as a subordinate in the Ministry of Education at Milan, and was elected a member of the college of "Dotti." At a later period of his life he returned to Ba.s.sano, and received an appointment as censor of the press. His poetry, which is sweet and musical, but lacking in force and substance, recalls and embodies the style and spirit of the dying literature of the eighteenth century. "He lived and died," says Luigi Carrer, "the poet of Irene and Dori," unmoved by the hopes and fears, the storms and pa.s.sions, of national change and development.--See _Manuale della Letteratura Italiana_, by A. d'Ancona and O. Bacci, 1894, iv. 585.]

[576] {536}["The Helen of Canova (a bust which is in the house of Madame the Countess d'Albrizzi, whom I know) is without exception, to my mind, the most perfectly beautiful of human conceptions, and far beyond my ideas of human execution,"--Letter to Murray, November 25, 1816. In the works of Antonio Canova, engraved in outline by Henry Moses (London, 1873), the bust of Helen is figured (to face p. 58), and it is stated that it was executed in 1814, and presented to the Countess Albrizzi.

(See _Letters_, 1900, iv. 14, 15, note.)]

[577] {537}[From an autograph MS. in the possession of Mr. Murray, now for the first time printed.]

[578] {538}["The mumming closed with a masked ball at the Fenice, where I went, as also to most of the ridottos, etc., etc.; and, though I did not dissipate much upon the whole, yet I find 'the sword wearing out the scabbard,' though I have but just turned the corner of twenty-nine."--Letter to Moore, February 28, 1817. The verses form part of the letter. (See _Letters_, 1900, iv. 59, 60.)]

[579] [Lady Blessington told Crabb Robinson (Diary, 1869, in. 17) that the publication of the _Question and Answer_ would "kill Rogers." The MS. is dated 1818, and it is probable that the lines were written in the early spring of that year. Moore or Murray had told Byron that Rogers was in doubt whether to praise or blame him in his poem on "Human Life"

now approaching completion; and he had heard, from other sources, that it was Rogers who was the author or retailer of certain scandalous stories which were current in the "whispering-gallery of the world." He had reason to believe that everybody was talking about him, and it was a relief to be able to catch and punish so eminent a scandal-monger. It was in this spirit that he wrote to Murray (February 20, 1818), "What you tell me of Rogers, ... is like him. He cannot say that I have not been a sincere and warm friend to him, till the black drop of his liver oozed through too palpably to be overlooked. Now if I once catch him at any of his jugglery with me or mine, let him look to it," etc., etc., and in all probability the "poem on Rogers" was then in existence, or was working in his brain. The lines once written, Byron swallowed his venom, and, when Rogers visited Italy in the autumn of 1821, he met him at Bologna, travelled with him across the Apennines to Florence, and invited him "to stay as long as he liked" at Pisa. Thither Rogers came, presumably, in November, 1821, and, if we may trust the _Table Talk_ (1856, p. 238), remained at the Palazzo Lanfranchi for several days.

Byron seems to have been more than usually provocative and cross-grained, and, on one occasion (see Medwin, _Angler in Wales_, 1834, i. 26, _sq_.; and _Records of Sh.e.l.ley, etc_., by E. T. Trelawney, 1878, i. 53), when he was playing billiards, and Rogers was in the lobby outside, secretly incited his bull-dog, "Faithful Moretto," to bark and show his teeth; and, when Medwin had convoyed the terror-stricken bard into his presence, greeted him with effusion, but contrived that he should sit down on the very sofa which hid from view the MS. of "Question and Answer." _Longa est injuria, longae ambages_; but the story rests on the evidence of independent witnesses.

By far the best comment on satire and satirist is to be found in the n.o.ble lines in _Italy_, in which Rogers commemorates his last meeting with the "Youth who swam from Sestos to Abydos"--

"If imagined wrongs Pursued thee, urging thee sometimes to do Things long regretted, oft, as many know, None more than I, thy grat.i.tude would build On slight foundations; and, if in thy life Not happy, in thy death thou surely wert, Thy wish accomplished."

_Poems_ by Samuel Rogers, 1852, ii. 119.]

[hx] ----_would shame a knocker_.--[_Fraser's Magazine_, 1833.]

[hy] {539}_Turning its quick tail_----.--[_Fraser's_, etc.]

[580] {540}["'De mortuis nihil nisi bonum!' There is Sam Rogers [No. IV.

of the Maclise Caricatures] a mortal likeness--painted to the very death!" A string of jests upon Rogers's corpse-like appearance accompanied the portrait.]

[hz] _With the Scripture in connexion_.--[_Fraser's_, etc.]

[581] {541}[Among other "bogus" notes (parodies of the notes in Murray's new edition of Byron's _Works_ in seventeen volumes), is one signed Sir E. Brydges, which enumerates a string of heiresses, beauties, and blues, whom Rogers had wooed in vain. Among the number are Mrs. Apreece (Lady Davy), Mrs. Coutts, "beat by the Duke of St. Albans," and the Princess Olive of c.u.mberland. "We have heard," the note concludes, "that he proposed for the d.u.c.h.ess of Cleveland, and was cut out by Beau Fielding, but we think that must have been before his time a little."]

[582] {542}["If '_the_ person' had not by many little dirty sneaking traits provoked it, I should have been silent, though I _had observed_ him. Here follows an alteration. Put--

"Devil with such delight in d.a.m.ning That if at the resurrection Unto him the free selection Of his future could be given 'Twould be rather h.e.l.l than Heaven.

You have a discretionary power about showing."--Letter to Murray, November 9, 1820, _Letters_, 1901, v. 113.]

[ia] ----_would you know 'em?_--[_Fraser's_, etc.]

[583] [Addressed to Miss Chaworth, in allusion to a duel fought between two of their ancestors, D[ominus] B[yron] and Mr. C., January 26, 1765.

Byron and Mary Anne Chaworth were fourth cousins, both being fifth in descent from George, Viscount Chaworth, whose daughter Elizabeth was married to William, third Lord Byron (d. 1695), the poet's great-great-grandfather. The duel between their grand-uncles, William, fifth Lord Byron, and William Chaworth, Esq., of Annesley, was fought between eight and nine o'clock in the evening of Sat.u.r.day, January 26, 1765 (see _The Gazetteer_, Monday, January 28, 1765), at the Star and Garter Tavern, Pall Mall. The coroner's jury brought in a verdict of wilful murder (see for the "Inquisition," and report of trial, _Journals of the House of Lords_, 1765, pp. 49, 126-135), and on the presentation of their testimony to the House of Lords, Byron pleaded for a trial "by G.o.d and his peers," whereupon he was arrested and sent to the Tower. The case was tried by the Lords Temporal (the Lords Spiritual asked permission to withdraw), and, after a defence had been read by the prisoner, 119 peers brought in a verdict of "Not guilty of murder, guilty of manslaughter, on my honour." Four peers only returned a verdict of "Not guilty." The result of this verdict was that Lord Byron claimed the benefit of the statute of Edward VI., and was discharged on paying the fees.

The defence, which is given in full (see Journal, etc., for April 17, 1765), is able and convincing. Whilst maintaining an air of chivalry and candour, the accused contrived to throw the onus of criminality on his antagonist. It was Mr. Chaworth who began the quarrel, by sneering at his cousin's absurd and disastrous leniency towards poachers. It was Chaworth who insisted on an interview, not on the stairs, but in a private room, who locked the door, and whose demeanour made a challenge "to draw" inevitable. The room was dimly lit, and when the table was pushed back, the s.p.a.ce for the combatants was but twelve feet by five.

After two thrusts had been parried, and Lord Byron's s.h.i.+rt had been torn, he s.h.i.+fted a little to the right, to take advantage of such light as there was, came to close quarters with his adversary and, "as he supposed, gave the unlucky wound which he would ever reflect upon with the utmost regret."

If there was any truth in his plea, the "wicked Lord Byron" has been misjudged, and, at least in the matter of the duel, was not so black as he has been painted. For Byron's defence of his grand-uncle, see letter to M. J. J. Coulmann, Genoa, July 12, 1823, _Life_, by Karl Elze, 1872, pp. 443-446.]

[584] {543}[In the coroner's "Inquisition," the sword is described as being "made of iron and steel, of the value of five s.h.i.+llings." Byron says that "so far from feeling any remorse for having killed Mr.

Chaworth, who was a fire-eater (_spada.s.sin_), ... he always kept the sword ... in his bed-chamber, where it still was when he died."--_Ibid._, p. 445.]

[585] [Ralph de Burun held h.o.r.estan Castle and other manors from the Conqueror. Byron's mother was descended from James I. of Scotland.]