XIX.

Where may the wearied eye repose[iz] When gazing on the Great; Where neither guilty glory glows, Nor despicable state? Yes--One--the first--the last--the best-- The Cincinnatus of the West, Whom Envy dared not hate, Bequeathed the name of Washington, To make man blush there was but one![ja][264]

FOOTNOTES:

[240] {301} [ODE TO NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE. By----London: Printed for J. Murray, Albemarle Street, By W. Bulmer and Co. Cleveland-Row, St. James's, 1814.--_First Proof, title-page_.]

[241] [The quotation from Juvenal was added in Second Proof.

"Produce the urn that Hannibal contains, And weigh the mighty dust which yet remains; And is This All!"

"I know not that this was ever done in the old world; at least with regard to Hannibal: but in the statistical account of Scotland, I find that Sir John Paterson had the curiosity to collect and weigh the ashes of a person discovered a few years since in the parish of Eccles.... Wonderful to relate, he found the whole did not exceed in weight one ounce and a half! And is This All? Alas! the _quot libras_ itself is a satirical exaggeration."--Gifford's _Translation of Juvenal_ (ed. 1817), ii. 26, 27.

The motto, "Expende--Quot Libras In Duce Summo Invenies," was inscribed on one side of the silver urn presented by Byron to Walter Scott in April, 1815. (See _Letters_, 1899, iii. 414, Appendix IV.)]

[242] ["I send you ... an additional motto from Gibbon, which you will find _singularly appropriate_."--Letter to Murray, April 12, 1814, _ibid._, p. 68.]

[243] {305} ["I don't know--but I think _I_, even _I_ (an insect compared with this creature), have set my life on casts not a millionth part of this man's. But, after all, a crown may not be worth dying for. Yet, to outlive _Lodi_ for this!!! Oh that Juvenal or Johnson could rise from the dead! 'Expende--quot libras in duce summo invenies?' I knew they were light in the balance of mortality; but I thought their living dust weighed more _carats_. Alas! this imperial diamond hath a flaw in it, and is now hardly fit to stick in a glazier's pencil;--the pen of the historian won't rate it worth a ducat. Psha! 'something too much of this.' But I won't give him up even now; though all his admirers have, 'like the thanes, fallen from him.'"--_Journal_, April 9, 1814, _Letters_, 1898, ii. 409.]

[244] [Compare "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!"--_Isaiah_ xiv. 12.]

[245] {306} [Stanzas ii. and iii. were added in Proof iv.]

[246] [A "spell" may be broken, but it is difficult to understand how, like the two halves of a seal or amulet, a broken spell can "unite again."]

[247] "Certaminis _gaudia_"--the expression of Attila in his harangue to his army, previous to the battle of Chalons, given in Cassiodorus. ["Nisi ad certaminis hujus gaudia præparasset."--_Attilæ Oratio ad Hunnos_, caput xxxix., _Appendix ad Opera Cassiodori_, Migne, lxix. 1279.]

[248] {307} [Added in Proof v.]

[249] [The first four lines of stanza v. were quoted by "Mr. Miller in the House of Representatives of the United States," in a debate on the Militia Draft Bill (_Weekly Messenger_, Boston, February 10, 1815). "Take warning," he went on to say, "by this example. Bonaparte split on this rock of conscription," etc. This would have pleased Byron, who confided to his _Journal_, December 3, 1813 (_Letters_, 1898, ii. 360), that the statement that "my rhymes are very popular in the United States," was "the first tidings that have ever sounded like _Fame_ to my ears."]

[250] ["Like Milo, he would rend the oak; but it closed again, wedged his hands, and now the beasts--lion, bear, down to the dirtiest jackal--may all tear him."--_Journal_, April 8, 1814, _Letters_, 1898, ii. 408. For the story of Milo and the Oak, see Valerius Maximus, _Factorum, Dictorumque Memorabilium_, lib. ix. cap. xii. Part II. example 9.]

[251] {308} Sylla. [We find the germ of this stanza in the Diary of the evening before it was written: "I mark this day! Napoleon Buonaparte has abdicated the throne of the world. 'Excellent well.' Methinks Sylla did better; for he revenged, and resigned in the height of his sway, red with the slaughter of his foes--the finest instance of glorious contempt of the rascals upon record. Dioclesian did well too--Amurath not amiss, had he become aught except a dervise--Charles the Fifth but so so; but Napoleon worst of all."--_Journal_, April 9, 1814, _Letters_, 1898, ii. 409.]

[252] ["Alter '_potent_ spell' to 'quickening spell:' the first (as Polonius says) 'is a vile phrase,' and means nothing, besides being commonplace and Rosa-Matildaish."--Letter to Murray, April 11, 1814, _Letters_, 1899, iii. 68.]

[253] {309} [Charles V. resigned the kingdom to his son Philip, circ. October, 1555, and the imperial crown to his brother Ferdinand, August 27, 1556, and entered the Jeronymite Monastery of St. Justus at Placencia in Estremadura. Before his death (September 21, 1558) he dressed himself in his shroud, was laid in his coffin, "joined in the prayers which were offered up for the rest of his soul, mingling his tears with those which his attendants shed, as if they had been celebrating a real funeral."--Robertson's _Charles V._, 1798, iv. 180, 205, 254.]

[ip] {310} _But who would rise in brightest day_ _To set without one parting ray?_--[MS.]

[iq] ----_common clay_.--[First Proof.]

[254] [Added in Proof v.]

[255] {311} [Count Albert Adam de Neipperg, born 1774, an officer in the Austrian Army, and, 1811, Austrian envoy to the Court of Stockholm, was presented to Marie Louise a few days after Napoleon's abdication, became her chamberlain; and, according to the _Nouvelle Biographie Universelle_, "plus tard il l'épousa." The count, who is said to have been remarkably plain (he had lost an eye in a scrimmage with the French), died April 12, 1829.]

[ir] _And look along the sea;_ _That element may meet thy smile,_ _For Albion kept it free_. _But gaze not on the land for there_ _Walks crownless Power with temples bare_ _And shakes the head at thee_ _And Corinth's Pedagogue hath now_.--[Proof ii.]

[is] _Or sit thee down upon the sand_ _And trace with thine all idle hand_.-- [A final correction made in Proof ii.]

[256] ["Dionysius at Corinth was yet a king to this."--_Diary_, April 9. Dionysius the Younger, on being for the second time banished from Syracuse, retired to Corinth (B.C. 344), where "he is said to have opened a school for teaching boys to read" (see Plut., _Timal._, c. 14), but not, apparently, with a view to making a living by pedagogy.--Grote's _Hist. of Greece_, 1872, ix. 152.]

[257] {312} The cage of Bajazet, by order of Tamerlane.

[The story of the cage is said to be a fable. After the battle of Angora, July 20, 1402, Bajazet, whose escape from prison had been planned by one of his sons, was chained during the night, and placed in a kafes (_kàfess_), a Turkish word, which signifies either a cage or a grated room or bed. Hence the legend.--_Hist. de l'Empire Othoman_, par J. von Hammer-Purgstall, 1836, ii. 97.]

[it] _There Timour in his captive cage_.--[First Proof.]

[258] [Presumably another instance of "careless and negligent ease."]

[259] ["Have you heard that Bertrand has returned to Paris with the account of Napoleon's having lost his senses? It is a _report_; but, if true, I must, like Mr. Fitzgerald and Jeremiah (of lamentable memory), lay claim to prophecy."--Letter to Murray, June 14, 1814, _Letters_, 1899, iii. 95.]

[260] Prometheus.

[iu] _He suffered for kind acts to men_ _Who have not seen his like again,_ _At least of kingly stock_ _Since he was good, and thou but great_ _Thou canst not quarrel with thy fate_.--[First Proof, stanza x.]

[261] {313} "O! 'tis the spite of hell, the fiend's arch-mock, To lip a wanton in a secure couch, And to suppose her chaste!" _Othello_, act iv. sc. 1, lines 69-71.

[We believe there is no doubt of the truth of the anecdote here alluded to--of Napoleon's having found leisure for an unworthy amour, the very evening of his arrival at Fontainebleau.--_Note to Edition_ 1832.

A consultation of numerous lives and memoirs of Napoleon has not revealed the particulars of this "unworthy amour." It is possible that Murray may have discovered the source of Byron's allusion among the papers "in the possession of one of Napoleon's generals, a friend of Miss Waldie," which were offered him "for purchase and publication," in 1815.--See _Memoir of John Murray_, 1891, i. 279.]

[iv] _And--were he mortal had as proudly died,_--[Alteration in First Proof.]

[262] [Of Prometheus--

"Unlike the offence, though like would be the fate-- _His_ to give life, but _thine_ to desolate; _He_ stole from Heaven the flame for which he fell, Whilst _thine_ be stolen from thy native Hell."

--Attached to Proof v., April 25.]

[iw] _While earth was Gallia's, Gallia thine_.--[MS.]

[ix] {314} _Where is that tattered_----.--[MS.]

[iy] ----_the laurel-circled crest_.--[MS.]

[263] [Byron had recently become possessed of a "fine print" (by Raphael Morghen, after Gérard) of Napoleon in his imperial robes, which (see _Journal_, March 6, 1814, _Letters_, 1898, ii. 393, note 2) became him "as if he had been hatched in them." According to the catalogue of Morghen's works, the engraving represents "the head nearly full-face, looking to the right, crowned with laurel. He wears an enormous velvet robe embroidered with bees--hanging over it the collar and jewel of the Legion of Honour." It was no doubt this "fine print" which suggested "the star, the string [i.e. the chain of enamelled eagles], the crest."]

[iz] _Where may the eye of man repose_.--[MS.]

[ja] _Alas! and must there be but one!_--[MS.]

[264] ["The two stanzas which I now send you were, by some mistake, omitted in the copies of Lord Byron's spirited and poetical 'Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte,' already published. One of 'the devils' in Mr. Davison's employ procured a copy of this for me, and I give you the chance of first discovering them to the world.

"Your obedient servant,

"J. R."

"Yes! better to have stood the storm, A Monarch to the last! Although that heartless fireless form Had crumbled in the blast: Than stoop to drag out Life's last years, The nights of terror, days of tears For all the splendour past; Then,--after ages would have read Thy awful death with more than dread.

"A lion in the conquering hour! In wild defeat a hare! Thy mind hath vanished with thy power, For Danger brought despair. The dreams of sceptres now depart, And leave thy desolated heart The Capitol of care! Dark Corsican, 'tis strange to trace Thy long deceit and last disgrace." _Morning Chronicle_, April 27, 1814.]

LARA:

A TALE.

INTRODUCTION TO _LARA_

The MS. of _Lara_ is dated May 14, 1814. The opening lines, which were not prefixed to the published poem, and were first printed in _Murray's Magazine_ (January, 1887), are of the nature of a Dedication. They were probably written a few days after the well-known song, "I speak not, I trace not, I breathe not thy name," which was enclosed to Moore in a letter dated May 4, 1814. There can be little doubt that both song and dedication were addressed to Lady Frances Wedderburn Webster, and that _Lara_, like the _Corsair_ and the _Bride of Abydos_, was written _con amore_, and because the poet was "eating his heart away."

By the 14th of June Byron was able to announce to Moore that "_Lara_ was finished, and that he had begun copying." It was written, owing to the length of the London season, "amidst balls and fooleries, and after coming home from masquerades and routs, in the summer of the sovereigns" (Letter to Moore, June 8, 1822, _Life_, p. 561).

By way of keeping his engagement--already broken by the publication of the _Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte_--not to "trespass on public patience," Byron began by protesting (June 14) that _Lara_ was not to be published separately, but "might be included in a third volume now collecting." A fortnight later (June 27) an interchange of unpublished poems between himself and Rogers, "two cantos of darkness and dismay" in return for a privately printed copy of _Jacqueline_, who is "all grace and softness and poetry" (Letter to Rogers, _Letters_, 1899, iii. 101), suggested another and happier solution of the difficulty, a coalescing with Rogers, and, if possible, Moore (_Life_, 1892, p. 257, note 2), "into a joint invasion of the public" (Letter to Moore, July 8, 1814, _Letters_, 1899, iii. 102). But Rogers hesitated, and Moore refused to embark on so doubtful a venture, with the result that, as late as the 3rd of August, Byron thought fit to remonstrate with Murray for "advertising _Lara and Jacqueline_," and confessed to Moore that he was "still demurring and delaying and in a fuss" (_Letters_, 1899, iii. 115, 119). Murray knew his man, and, though he waited for Byron's formal and ostensibly reluctant word of command, "Out with Lara, since it must be" (August 5, 1814, _Letters_, 1899, iii. 122), he admitted (August 6, _Memoir of John Murray_, 1891, i. 230) that he had "anticipated his consent," and "had done everything but actually deliver the copies of _Lara_." "The moment," he adds, "I received your letter, for for it I waited, I cut the last cord of my aerial work, and at this instant 6000 copies are sold." _Lara, a Tale_; _Jacqueline, a Tale_, was published on Saturday, August 6, 1814.

_Jacqueline_ is a somewhat insipid pastoral, betraying the influence of the Lake School, more especially Coleridge, on a belated and irresponsive disciple, and wholly out of place as contrast or foil to the melodramatic _Lara_.

No sooner had the "lady," as Byron was pleased to call her, played her part as decoy, than she was discharged as _emerita_. A week after publication (August 12, 1814, _Letters_, iii. 125) Byron told Moore that "Murray talks of divorcing Larry and Jacky--a bad sign for the authors, who will, I suppose, be divorced too.... Seriously, I don't care a cigar about it." The divorce was soon pronounced, and, contrary to Byron's advice (September 2, 1814, _Letters_, iii. 131), at least four separate editions of _Lara_ were published during the autumn of 1814.

The "advertisement" to _Lara and Jacqueline_ contains the plain statement that "the reader ... may probably regard it [_Lara_] as a sequel to the _Corsair_"--an admission on the author's part which forestalls and renders nugatory any prolonged discussion on the subject. It is evident that Lara is Conrad, and that Kaled, the "darkly delicate" and mysterious page, whose "hand is femininely white," is Gulnare in a transparent and temporary disguise.

If the facts which the "English Gentleman in the Greek Military Service" (_Life, Writings, etc., of Lord Byron_, 1825, i. 191-201) gives in detail with regard to the sources of the _Corsair_ are not wholly imaginary, it is possible that the original Conrad's determination to "quit so horrible a mode of life" and return to civilization may have suggested to Byron the possible adventures and fate of a _grand seigneur_ who had played the pirate in his time, and resumed his ancestral dignities only to be detected and exposed by some rival or victim of his wild and lawless youth.

_Lara_ was reviewed together with the _Corsair_, by George Agar Ellis in the _Quarterly Review_ for July, 1814, vol. xi. p. 428; and in the _Portfolio_, vol. xiv. p. 33.

LARA.[jb]

CANTO THE FIRST.[265]