The Works of Lord Byron Volume VI Part 86

{381}[495] [See his "Correspondance avec L'Imperatrice de Russie,"

_Oeuvres Completes_ de Voltaire, 1836, x. 393-477. M. Waliszewski, in his _Story of a Throne_, 1895, i. 224, has gathered a handful of these flowers of speech: "She is the chief person in the world.... She is the fire and life of nations.... She is a saint.... She is above all saints.... She is equal to the mother of G.o.d.... She is the divinity of the North.--_Te Catherinam laudamus, te Dominam confitemur, etc., etc._"]

[iy] _Of everything that ever cursed a nation._--[_MS. erased._]

[496] ["It is still more difficult to say which form of government is the _worst_--all are so bad. As for democracy, it is the worst of the whole; for what is (_in fact_) democracy?--an Aristocracy of Blackguards."--See "My Dictionary" (May 1, 1821), _Letters_, 1901, v.

405, 406.]

{382}[iz] _Though priests and slaves may join the servile cry_.--[_MS.

erased._]

[497] In Greece I never saw or heard these animals; but among the ruins of Ephesus I have heard them by hundreds.

[See _Childe Harold_, Canto IV. stanza cliii. line 6, _Poetical Works_, 1899, ii. 441; and _Siege of Corinth_, line 329, ibid., 1900, iii. 462, note 1.]

[ja] _Whereas the others hunt for rascal spiders._--[_MS. erased._]

[jb] _Which still are strongly fluttering to be free_.--[_MS. erased._]

{383}[498] [Compare _The Age of Bronze_, line 576, sq., _Poetical Works_, 1901, v. 570.]

{384}[499] [Nadir Shah, or Thamas Kouli Khan, born November, 1688, invaded India, 1739-40, was a.s.sa.s.sinated June 19, 1747.]

[jc]

---- _went mad and was_ _Killed because what he swallowed would not pa.s.s_.--[MS. erased.]

[500] He was killed in a conspiracy, after his temper had been exasperated by his extreme costivity to a degree of insanity.

[To such a height had his madness (attributed to _melancholia_ produced by dropsy) attained, that he actually ordered the Afghan chiefs to rise suddenly upon the Persian guard, and seize the ... chief n.o.bles; but the project being discovered, the intended victims conspired in turn, and a body of them, including Nadir's guard, and the chief of his own tribe of Afshar, entered his tent at midnight, and, after a moment's involuntary pause--when challenged by the deep voice at which they had so often trembled--rushed upon the king, who being brought to the ground by a sabre-stroke, begged for life, and attempted to rise, but soon expired beneath the repeated blows of the conspirators.--_The Indian Empire_, by R. Montgomery Martin (1857), i. 172.]

[501] [Compare _Childe Harold_, Canto I. stanza lxvii. line 5, _Poetical Works_, 1899, ii. 64, note 3.]

{385}[jd] _Or the substrata_----.--[MS.]

[502] [Compare Preface to _Cain_, _Poetical Works_, 1901, V. 210, note 1.]

[503] [_Vide ante,_ Canto VIII. stanza cxxvi. line 9, p. 368.]

{386}[504] [_Hamlet_, act i. sc. 5, line 189.]

[je] _I never know what's next to come_----.--[MS. erased.]

[505] [It is possible that the phrase "painted snows" was suggested by Tooke's description of the winter-garden of the Taurida Palace: "The genial warmth, ... the voluptuous silence that reigns in this enchanting garden, lull the fancy into sweet romantic dreams: we think ourselves in the groves of Italy, while torpid nature, through the windows of this pavilion, announces the severity of a northern winter" (_The Life, etc._, 1800, iii. 48).]

{387}[jf] _O'er limits which mightily_----:--[MS. erased.]

[jg]---- _in Youth and Glory's pillory_.--[MS. erased.]

[506] [In his _Notes sur le Don Juanisme_ (_Mercure de France_, 1898, xxvi. 66), M. Bruchard says that this phrase defines and summarizes the Byronic Don Juan.]

[jh]

_The Empress smiled while all the Orloff frowned_-- _A numerous family, to whose heart or hand_ _Mild Catherine owed the chance of being crowned,_.--[MS. erased.]

{388}[507] [C.F.P. Ma.s.son, in his _Memoires Secrets, etc._, 1880, i.

150-178, gives a list of twelve favourites, and in this Canto, Don Juan takes upon himself the characteristics of at least three, Lansko, Zoritch (or Zovitch), and Plato Zoubof. For example (p. 167), "Zoritch ... est le seul etranger qu'elle ait ose creer son favori pendant son regne. C'etoit un _Servien_ echappe du bagne de Constantinople ou il etoit prisonnier: il parut, pour la premiere fois, en habit de hussard a la cour. Il eblouit tout le monde par sa beaute, et les vielles dames en parlent encore comme d'un Adonis." M. Waliszewski, in his _Romance of an Empress_ (1894), devotes a chapter to "Private Life and Favouritism"

(ii. 234-286), in which he graphically describes the election and inauguration of the _Vremienchtchik_, "the man of the moment," paramour regnant, and consort of the Empress _pro hac vice_: "'We may observe in Russia a sort of interregnum in affairs, caused by the displacement of one favourite and the installation of his successor.' ... The interregnums are, however, of very short duration. Only one lasts for several months, between the death of Lansko (1784) and the succession of Iermolof.... There is no lack of candidates. The place is good....

Sometimes, too, on the height by the throne, reached at a bound, these spoilt children of fate grow giddy.... It is over in an instant, at an evening reception it is noticed that the Empress has gazed attentively at some obscure lieutenant, presented but just before ... next day it is reported that he has been appointed aide-de-camp to her Majesty. What that means is well known. Next day he finds himself in the special suite of rooms.... The rooms are already vacated, and everything is prepared for the new-comer. All imaginable comfort and luxury ... await him; and, on opening a drawer, he finds a hundred thousand roubles [about 20,000], the usual first gift, a foretaste of Pactolus. That evening, before the a.s.sembled court, the Empress appears, leaning familiarly on his arm, and on the stroke of ten, as she retires, the new favourite follows her" (_ibid._, pp. 246-249).]

[508] [After the death or murder of her husband, Peter III., Catherine Alexievna (1729-1796) (born Sophia Augusta), daughter of the Prince of Anhalt Zerbst, was solemnly crowned (September, 1762) Empress of all the Russias.]

{389}[ji] _And almost died for the scarce-fledged Lanskoi_.--[MS.

erased.]

[509] He was the grande pa.s.sion of the grande Catherine. See her Lives under the head of "Lanskoi."

[Lanskoi was a youth of as fine and interesting a figure as the imagination can paint. Of all Catherine's favourites, he was the man whom she loved the most. In 1784 he was attacked with a fever, and perished in the arms of her Majesty. When he was no more, Catherine gave herself up to the most poignant grief, and remained three months without going out of her palace of Tzarsko-selo. She afterwards raised a superb monument to his memory. (See _Life of Catherine II._, by W. Tooke, 1800, iii. 88, 89.)]

[510] [Ten months after the death of Lanskoi, the Empress consoled herself with Iermolof, described, by Bezborodky, as "a modest refined young man, who cultivates the society of serious people." In less than a year this excellent youth is, in turn, displaced by Dmitrief Mamonof.

His _pet.i.t nom_ was _Red Coat_, and, for a time, he is a "priceless creature." "He has," says Catherine, "two superb black eyes, with eyebrows outlined as one rarely sees; about the middle height, n.o.ble in manner, easy in demeanour." But Mamonof suffered from "scruples of conscience," and, after a while, with Catherine's consent and blessing, was happily married to the Princess Shtcherbatof, a maid of honour, and not, as Byron supposed, a rival "man of the moment."--See _The Story of a Throne_, by K. Waliszewski, 1895, ii. 135, sq.]

[511] This was written long before the suicide of that person. [For "his parts of speech" compare--

" ... that long mandarin C-stle-r-agh (whom Fum calls the Confucius of Prose) Was rehearsing a speech upon Europe's repose To the deep double ba.s.s of the fat Idol's nose."

Moore's _Fum and Hum, The Two Birds of Royalty_.]

{390}[512] [Compare _Beppo_, stanza xvii. line 8, _Poetical Works_, 1901, iv. 165. See, too, letter to Hoppner, December 31, 1819, _Letters_, 1900, iv. 393.]

[jj]

_Beneath his chisel_-- or, _Beneath his touches_----.--[MS. erased.]

{391}[jk] ---- _and bound fair Helen in a bond_.--[MS. erased.]

[513] Hor., _Sat._, lib. i. sat. iii. lines 107, 108.

[jl] _That Riddle which all read, none understand_.--[MS. erased.]

[jm]---- _thou Sea which lavest Life's sand_.--[MS. erased.]

{392}[514] ["Fortune and victory sit on thy helm."--_Richard III._, act v, sc. 3, line 79.]

[515] ["Catherine had been handsome in her youth, and she preserved a gracefulness and majesty to the last period of her life. She was of a moderate stature, but well proportioned; and as she carried her head very high, she appeared rather tall. She had an open front, an aquiline nose, an agreeable mouth, and her chin, though long, was not mis-shapen.

Her hair was auburn, her eyebrows black and rather thick, and her blue eyes had a gentleness which was often affected, but oftener still a mixture of pride. Her physiognomy was not deficient in expression; but this expression never discovered what was pa.s.sing in the soul of Catherine, or rather it served her the better to disguise it."--_Life of Catherine II._, by W. Tooke, in. 381 (translated from _Vie de Catherine II._ (J.H. Castera), 1797, ii. 450).]

{393}[516] ["His fortune swells him: 'Tis rank, he's married."--_Sir Giles Overreach_, in Ma.s.singer's _New Way to pay Old Debts_, act v. sc.

1.]

{394}[517] [_Hamlet_, act iii. sc. iv. lines 58, 59.]