The Works of Lord Byron Volume VI Part 85

Lx.x.xI.

Love had made Catherine make each lover's fortune, Unlike our own half-chaste Elizabeth, Whose avarice all disburs.e.m.e.nts did importune, If History, the grand liar, ever saith The truth; and though grief her old age might shorten, Because she put a favourite to death, Her vile, ambiguous method of flirtation, And stinginess, disgrace her s.e.x and station.

Lx.x.xII.

But when the levee rose, and all was bustle In the dissolving circle, all the nations'

Amba.s.sadors began as 't were to hustle Round the young man with their congratulations.

Also the softer silks were heard to rustle Of gentle dames, among whose recreations It is to speculate on handsome faces, Especially when such lead to high places.

Lx.x.xIII.

Juan, who found himself, he knew not how, A general object of attention, made His answers with a very graceful bow, As if born for the ministerial trade.

Though modest, on his unembarra.s.sed brow Nature had written "Gentleman!" He said Little, but to the purpose; and his manner Flung hovering graces o'er him like a banner.

Lx.x.xIV.

An order from her Majesty consigned Our young Lieutenant to the genial care Of those in office: all the world looked kind, (As it will look sometimes with the first stare, Which Youth would not act ill to keep in mind,) As also did Miss Protasoff[523] then there,[js]

Named from her mystic office "l'Eprouveuse,"

A term inexplicable to the Muse.

Lx.x.xV.

With _her_ then, as in humble duty bound, Juan retired,--and so will I, until My Pegasus shall tire of touching ground.

We have just lit on a "heaven-kissing hill,"

So lofty that I feel my brain turn round, And all my fancies whirling like a mill; Which is a signal to my nerves and brain, To take a quiet ride in some green lane.[524]

FOOTNOTES:

{373}[476] [Stanzas i.-viii., which are headed "_Don Juan_, Canto III., July 10, 1819," are in the handwriting of (?) the Countess Guiccioli.

Stanzas ix., x., which were written on the same sheet of paper, are in Byron's handwriting. The original MS. opens with stanza xi., "Death laughs," etc. (See letter to Moore, July 12, 1822, _Letters_, 1901, vi.

96.)]

[477]

["Faut qu' lord Villain-ton ait tout pris; N'y a plus d' argent dans c' gueux de Paris."

De Beranger, "Complainte d'une de ces Demoiselles a l'Occasion des Affaires du Temps (Fevrier, 1816)," _Chansons_, 1821, ii. 17.

Compare a retaliatory epigram which appeared in a contemporary newspaper--

"These French _pet.i.t-maitres_ who the spectacle throng, Say of Wellington's dress _qu'il fait vilain ton!_ But, at Waterloo, Wellington made the French stare When their army he dressed _a la mode Angleterre!_"]

[it] _Oh Wellington_ (_or "Vilainton"_)----.--[MS. B.]

[478] Query, _Ney?_--Printer's Devil. [Michel Ney, Duke of Elchingen, "the bravest of the brave" (see _Ode from the French_, stanza i.

_Poetical Works_, 1900, iii. 431), born January 10, 1769, was arrested August 5, and shot December 7, 1815.]

[479] [The story of the attempted a.s.sa.s.sination (February 11, 1818) of the Duke of Wellington, which is dismissed by Alison in a few words (_Hist. of Europe_ (1815-1852), 1853, i. 577, 578), occupies many pages of the _Supplementary Despatches_ (1865, xii. 271-546). Byron probably drew his own conclusions as to the Kinnaird-Marinet incident, from the _Letter to the Duke of Wellington on the Arrest of M. Marinet_, by Lord Kinnaird, 1818. The story, which is full of interest, may be briefly recounted. On January 30, 1818, Lord Kinnaird informed Sir George Murray (Chief of the Staff of the Army of Occupation) that a person, whose name he withheld, had revealed to him the existence of a plot to a.s.sa.s.sinate the Duke of Wellington. At 12.30 a.m., February 11, 1818, the Duke, on returning to his Hotel, was fired at by an unknown person; and then, but not till then, he wrote to urge Lord Clancarty to advise the Prince Regent to take steps to persuade or force Kinnaird to disclose the name of his informant. A Mr. G.W. Chad, of the Consular Service, was empowered to proceed to Brussels, and to seek an interview with Kinnaird. He carried with him, among other doc.u.ments, a letter from the Duke to Lord Clancarty, dated February 12, 1818. A postscript contained this intimation: "It may be proper to mention to you that the French Government are disposed to go every length in the way of negotiation with the person mentioned by Lord Kinnaird, or others, to discover the plot."

Kinnaird absolutely declined to give up the name of his informant, but, acting on the strength of the postscript, which had been read but not shown to him, started for Paris with "the great unknown." Some days after their arrival, and while Kinnaird was a guest of the Duke, the man was arrested, and discovered to be one Nicholle or Marinet, who had been appointed _receveur_ under the restored government of Louis XVIII., but during the _Cent jours_ had fled to Belgium, retaining the funds he had ama.s.sed during his term of office. Kinnaird regarded this action of the French Government as a breach of faith, and in a "Memorial" to the French Chamber of Peers, and his _Letter_, maintained that the Duke's postscript implied a promise of a safe conduct for Marinet to and from Paris to Brussels. The Duke, on the other hand, was equally positive (see his letter to Lord Liverpool, May 30, 1818) "that he never intended to have any negotiations with anybody." Kinnaird was a "dog with a bad name," He had been accused (see his _Letter to the Earl of Liverpool_, 1816, p. 16) of "the promulgation of dangerous opinions," and of intimacy "with persons suspected." The Duke speaks of him as "the friend of Revolutionists"! It is evident that he held the dangerous doctrine that a promise to a rogue _is_ a promise, and that the authorities took a different view of the ethics of the situation. It is clear, too, that the Duke's postscript was ambiguous, but that it did not warrant the a.s.sumption that if Marinet went to Paris he should be protected. The air was full of plots. The great Duke despised and was inclined to ignore the pistol or the dagger of the a.s.sa.s.sin; but he believed that "mischief was afoot," and that "great personages" might or might not be responsible. He was beset by difficulties at every turn, and would have been more than mortal if he had put too favourable a construction on the scruples, or condoned the imprudence of a "friend of Revolutionists."]

{374}[480] [The reference may be to the Duke of Wellington's intimacy with Lady Frances Wedderburn Webster. Byron had "pa.s.sed that way"

himself (see _Letters_, 1898, ii. 251, note i, 323, etc.), and could hardly attack the Duke on _that_ score.]

[481] ["Thou art the best o' the cut-throats." _Macbeth_, act iii.

sc. 4, line 17.]

[482] ["I have supped full of horrors." _Macbeth_, act v. sc. 5, line 13.]

[483] _Vide_ speeches in Parliament, after the battle of Waterloo.

{376}[484] ["I at this time got a post, being for fatigue, with four others. We were sent to break biscuit, and make a mess for Lord Wellington's hounds. I was very hungry, and thought it a good job at the time, as we got our own fill, while we broke the biscuit,--a thing I had not got for some days. When thus engaged, the Prodigal Son was never once out of my mind; and I sighed, as I fed the dogs, over my humble situation and my ruined hopes."--_Journal of a Soldier of the 71st Regiment_, 1806 to 1815 (Edinburgh, 1822), pp. 132, 133.]

[485] ["We are a.s.sured that Epaminondas died so poor that the Thebans buried him at the public charge; for at his death nothing was found in his house but an iron spit."--Plutarch's _Fabius Maximus_, Langhorne's translation, 1838, p. 140. See, too, Cornelius Nepos, _Epam_., cap. iii.

"Paupertatem adeo facile perpessus est, ut de Republica nihil praeter gloriam ceperit."]

[486] [For Pitt's refusal to accept 100,000 from the merchants of London towards the payment of his debts, or 30,000 from the King's Privy Purse, see _Pitt_, by Lord Rosebery, 1891. p. 231.]

{377}[iu] _To_ you _this_ one _unflattering Muse inscribes_.--[MS.

erased.]

{377}[iv]

_He strips from man his mantle (which is dear_ _Though beautiful in youth) his carnal skin_.--[MS. erased.]

[487] [_Hamlet_, act iii. sc. i, line 56.]

[488] ["O dura messorum ilia!" etc.-Hor., _Epod._ iii. 4.]

[iw] _Ye iron guts_----.--[MS. erased.]

{379}[489] ["Ce n'est qu'a l'edition de 1635 qu'on voit paraitre la devise que Montaigne avait adoptee, le _que sais-je_? avec l'embleme des balances. ... Ce _que sais-je_ que Pascal a si severement a.n.a.lyse se lit au chapitre douze du livre ii; il caracterise parfaitement la philosophie de Montaigne; il est la consequence de cette maxime qu'il avait inscrite en grec sur les solives de sa librairie: 'Il n'est point de raisonnement au quel on n'oppose un raissonnement contraire.'"--_Oeuvres de ... Montaigne_, 1837, "Notice Bibliographique," p. xvii.]

[490] [Concerning the Pyrrhonists or Sceptics and their master Pyrrho, who held that Truth was incomprehensible (_inprensibilis_), and that you may not affirm of aught that it be rather this or that, or neither this nor that (?? ????? ??t?? ??e? t?de ? ??e???? ? ??det????), [Greek: (ou) ma~llon ou(/tos e(/chei to/de e) e)kei/nos e) ou)dete/ros),] see Aul.

Gellii _Noct. Attic._, lib. xi. cap. v.]

[491] See _Oth.e.l.lo_, [act ii. sc. 3, lines 206, 207: "Well, G.o.d's above all, and there be souls must be saved; and there be souls must not be saved--Let's have no more of this."]

{380}[492] [_Hamlet_, act v. sc. 2, lines 94, 98, 102.]

[493] [For "Lycanthropy," see "The Soldier's Story" in the _Satyricon_ of Petronius Arbiter, cap. 62; see, too, _Letters on Demonology, etc._, by Sir W. Scott, 1830, pp. 211, 212.]

[494] [In respect of suavity and forbearance Melancthon was the counterpart of Luther. John Arrowsmith (1602-1657), in his _Tractica Sacra_, describes him as "Vir in quo c.u.m pietate doctrina, et c.u.m utraque candor certavit."]

[ix] _Like Moses or like Cobbett who have ne'er._

Moses and Cobbet proclaim themselves the "meekest of men." See their writings.--[MS.]

_Like Moses who was "very meek" had ne'er_.--[MS. erased.]