The Works of Lord Byron Volume VI Part 119

_And what not--though he had ridden like a Centaur_ _When called next day declined the same adventure_.--[MS.]

[712] [Mr. W. Ernst, in his _Memoirs of the Life of Lord Chesterfield_, 1893 (p. 425, note 2), quotes these lines in connection with a comparison between French and English sport, contained in a letter from Lord Chesterfield to his son, dated June 30, 1751: "The French manner of hunting is gentlemanlike; ours is only for b.u.mpkins and b.o.o.bies."

Elsewhere, however (_The World_, No. 92, October 3, 1754), commenting on a remark of Pascal's, he admits "that the jolly sportsman ... improves his health, at least, by his exercise."]

{526}[713]

[" ... as she skimm'd along, Her flying feet unbath'd on billows hung."

Dryden's _Virgil_ (_Aen._, vii. 1101, 1102).]

[714] [See _Poetical Works_, 1898, i. 492, note 1.]

[715] [Guido's fresco of the Aurora, "scattering flowers before the chariot of the sun" is on a ceiling of the Casino in the Palazzo Rospigliosi, in Rome.]

[716] [Byron described Count Alfred D'Orsay as having "all the airs of a _Cupidon dechaine_." See letters to Moore and the Earl of Blessington, April 2, 1823, _Letters_, 1901, vi. 180, 185.]

{528}[717] In Swift's or Horace Walpole's letters I think it is mentioned that somebody, regretting the loss of a friend, was answered by an universal Pylades: "When I lose one, I go to the Saint James's Coffee-house, and take another." I recollect having heard an anecdote of the same kind.--Sir W.D. was a great gamester. Coming in one day to the Club of which he was a member, he was observed to look melancholy.--"What is the matter, Sir William?" cried Hare, of facetious memory.--"Ah!" replied Sir W., "I have just lost poor Lady D."--"Lost!

What at? Quinze or Hazard?" was the consolatory rejoinder of the querist.

[The _dramatis personae_ are probably Sir William Drummond (1770--1828), author of the _Academical Questions, etc._, and Francis Hare, the wit, known as the "'Silent Hare,' from his extreme loquacity."--Gronow's _Reminiscences_, 1889, ii. 98-101.]

{529}[my] _They own that you are fairly dished at last_.--[MS. erased.]

{531}[718] The famous Chancellor [Axel Oxenstiern (1583-1654)] said to his son, on the latter expressing his surprise upon the great effects arising from petty causes in the presumed mystery of politics: "You see by this, my son, with how little wisdom the kingdoms of the world are governed."

[The story is that his son John, who had been sent to represent him at the Congress of Westphalia, 1648, wrote home to complain that the task was beyond him, and that he could not cope with the difficulties which he was encountering, and that the Chancellor replied, "Nescis, mi fili, quantilla prudentia homines regantur."--_Biographie Universelle_, art.

"Oxenstierna."]

{532}[mz] _Who are our sureties that our moral pure is_.--[MS. erased.]

{533}[na] And not to encourage whispering in the house.--[MS. erased.]

{535}[719] [Once upon a time, Tiresias, who was shepherding on Mount Cyllene, wantonly stamped with his heel on a pair of snakes, and was straightway turned into a woman. Seven years later he was led to treat another pair of snakes in like fas.h.i.+on, and, happily or otherwise, was turned back into a man. Hence, when Jupiter and Juno fell to wrangling on the comparative enjoyments of men and women, the question was referred to Tiresias, as a person of unusual experience and authority.

He gave it in favour of the woman, and Juno, who was displeased at his answer, struck him with blindness. But Jupiter, to make amends, gave him the "liberty of prophesying" for seven, some say nine, generations. (See Ovid, _Metam._, iii. 320; and Thomas Muncker's notes on the _Fabulae_ of Hyginus, No. lxxv. ed. 1681, pp. 126-128.)]

[720] [_Midsummer Night's Dream_, act ii. sc. i, line 168.]

{536}[721] See _La Nouvelle Helose_.

[722] Hor., _Epod._, II. line 1.

[723] [The Latin proverb, _Noscitur ex sociis_, is not an Horatian maxim.]

{537}[nb] _I, therefore, deal in generals--which is wise_.--[MS.

erased.]

[724] [See Sheridan's _Critic_ ("Tilburina" _loq._), act iii. _s.f._]

{538}[725] [For "the c.o.xcomb Czar ... the somewhat aged youth," see _The Age of Bronze_, lines 434-483, _Poetical Works_, 1901, v. 563, note 1.]

[726] [Compare _Sardanapalus_, act i. sc. 2, line 1, _ibid._, p. 15, note 1.]

{539}[727] [Compare _Childe Harold_, Canto III. stanza lxxi. line 3, _Poetical Works_, 1899, ii. 261, 300. note 17.]

{540}[nc]

_Or Germany--she knew nought of all this_ _Impracticable, novel-reading trance_.--[MS. erased.]

[nd]

_Even there--as in relations.h.i.+p will hold, And make the feeling of a finer mood_.--[MS. erased.]

[728]

["These violent delights have violent ends, And in their triumph die."

_Romeo and Juliet_, act ii. sc. 6, lines 9, 10.]

{541}[ne]

_Alas! I quote experience--seldom yet I had a paramour--and I've had many-- Whom I had not some reason to regret-- For whom I did not make myself a Zany_.--[MS.]

[nf]

_I also had a wife--not to forget_ _The marriage state--the best or worst of any,_ _Who was the very paragon of wives_ / many _Yet made the misery of < both="" our=""> lives_.--[MS. erased.]

several /

[729] [Lady Holland, Lady Jersey, Madame de Stael, and before and above all, his sister, Mrs. Leigh.]

[ng]

_I also had some female_ friends--_by G--d!_ _Or if the oath seem strong--I swear by Jove!_--[MS.]

[nh] _Who stuck to me_----.--[MS. erased.]

{542}[730] [Byron must have been among the first to naturalize the French _milliard_ (a thousand millions), which was used by Voltaire.]

{543}[731] [_Oth.e.l.lo_, act i. sc. 3, line 140.]

[732] B. March 4^th^ 1823.--[MS.]

CANTO THE FIFTEENTH.

I.

AH!--What should follow slips from my reflection; Whatever follows ne'ertheless may be As a-propos of Hope or Retrospection, As though the lurking thought had followed free.

All present life is but an Interjection, An "Oh!" or "Ah!" of Joy or Misery, Or a "Ha! ha!" or "Bah!"--a yawn, or "Pooh!"

Of which perhaps the latter is most true.

II.