The Works of Lord Byron Volume II Part 36

I remember Mahmout, the grandson of Ali Pacha, asking whether my fellow-traveller and myself were in the upper or lower House of Parliament. Now, this question from a boy of ten years old proved that his education had not been neglected. It may be doubted if an English boy at that age knows the difference of the Divan from a College of Dervises; but I am very sure a Spaniard does not. How little Mahmout, surrounded as he had been entirely by his Turkish tutors, had learned that there was such a thing as a Parliament, it were useless to conjecture, unless we suppose that his instructors did not confine his studies to the Koran.

In all the mosques there are schools established, which are very regularly attended; and the poor are taught without the church of Turkey being put into peril. I believe the system is not yet printed (though there is such a thing as a Turkish press, and books printed on the late military inst.i.tution of the Nizam Gedidd);[274] nor have I heard whether the Mufti and the Mollas have subscribed, or the Caimacan and the Tefterdar taken the alarm, for fear the ingenuous youth of the turban should be taught not to "pray to G.o.d their way." The Greeks also--a kind of Eastern Irish papists--have a college of their own at Maynooth,--no, at Haivali; where the heterodox receive much the same kind of countenance from the Ottoman as the Catholic college from the English legislature. Who shall then affirm that the Turks are ignorant bigots, when they thus evince the exact proportion of Christian charity which is tolerated in the most prosperous and orthodox of all possible kingdoms?

But though they allow all this, they will not suffer the Greeks to partic.i.p.ate in their privileges: no, let them fight their battles, and pay their haratch (taxes), be drubbed in this world, and d.a.m.ned in the next. And shall we then emanc.i.p.ate our Irish Helots? Mahomet forbid! We should then be bad Mussulmans, and worse Christians: at present we unite the best of both--jesuitical faith, and something not much inferior to Turkish toleration.

APPENDIX.

Amongst an enslaved people, obliged to have recourse to foreign presses even for their books of religion, it is less to be wondered at that we find so few publications on general subjects than that we find any at all. The whole number of the Greeks, scattered up and down the Turkish empire and elsewhere, may amount, at most, to three millions; and yet, for so scanty a number, it is impossible to discover any nation with so great a proportion of books and their authors as the Greeks of the present century. "Aye," but say the generous advocates of oppression, who, while they a.s.sert the ignorance of the Greeks, wish to prevent them from dispelling it, "ay, but these are mostly, if not all, ecclesiastical tracts, and consequently good for nothing." Well! and pray what else can they write about? It is pleasant enough to hear a Frank, particularly an Englishman, who may abuse the government of his own country; or a Frenchman, who may abuse every government except his own, and who may range at will over every philosophical, religious, scientific, sceptical, or moral subject, sneering at the Greek legends.

A Greek must not write on politics, and cannot touch on science for want of instruction; if he doubts he is excommunicated and d.a.m.ned; therefore his countrymen are not poisoned with modern philosophy; and as to morals, thanks to the Turks! there are no such things. What then is left him, if he has a turn for scribbling? Religion and holy biography; and it is natural enough that those who have so little in this life should look to the next. It is no great wonder then, that in a catalogue now before me of fifty-five Greek writers, many of whom were lately living, not above fifteen should have touched on anything but religion. The catalogue alluded to is contained in the twenty-sixth chapter of the fourth volume of Meletius' _Ecclesiastical History_.

[The above forms a preface to an Appendix, headed "Remarks on the Romaic or Modern Greek Language, with Specimens and Translations," which was printed at the end of the volume, after the "Poems," in the first and successive editions of _Childe Harold_. It contains (1) a "List of Romaic Authors;" (2) the "Greek War-Song," ?e?te, ?a?de? t?? ???????

[Deu~te, Pai~des to~n E(lle/non]; (3) "Romaic Extracts," of which the first, "a Satire in dialogue" (_vide_ Note III. _supra_), is translated (see _Epigrams, etc._, vol. vi. of the present issue); (4) scene from ?

?afe??? [O Kaphenes] (the Cafe), translated from the Italian of Goldoni by Spiridion Vlanti, with a "Translation;" (5) "Familiar Dialogues" in Romaic and English; (6) "Parallel Pa.s.sages from St. John's Gospel;" (7) "The Inscriptions at Orchomenos from Meletius" (see _Travels in Albania, etc._, i. 224); (8) the "Prospectus of a Translation of Anacharsis into Romaic, by my Romaic master, Marmarotouri, who wished to publish it in England;" (9) "The Lord's Prayer in Romaic" and in Greek.

The Excursus, which is remarkable rather for the evidence which it affords of Byron's industry and zeal for acquiring knowledge, than for the value or interest of the subject-matter, has been omitted from the present issue. The "Remarks," etc., are included in the "Appendix" to _Lord Byron's Poetical Works_, 1891, pp. 792-797. (See, too, letter to Dallas, September 21, 1811: _Letters_, ii. 43.)]

FOOTNOTES:

[202] {166} ["Owls and serpents" are taken from _Isa._ xiii. 21, 22; "foxes" from _Lam._ v. 18, "Zion is desolate, the foxes walk upon it."]

[203] [For Herr Gropius, _vide post_, note 6.]

[204] [The Parthenon was converted into a church in the sixth century by Justinian, and dedicated to the _Divine Wisdom_. About 1460 the church was turned into a mosque. After the siege in 1687 the Turks erected a smaller mosque within the original enclosure. "The only relic of the mosque dedicated by Mohammed the Conqueror (1430-1481) is the base of the minaret ... at the south-west corner of the Cella" (_Handbook for Greece_, p. 319).]

[205] {168} ["Don Battista Lusieri, better known as Don t.i.ta," was born at Naples. He followed Sir William Hamilton "to Constantinople, in 1799, whence he removed to Athens." "It may be said of Lusieri, as of Claude Lorraine, 'If he be not the _poet_, he is the historian of nature.'"--_Travels, etc_., by E. D. Clarke, 1810-1823, Part II. sect.

ii. p. 469, note. See, too, _Poetical Works_, 1898, i. 455.]

[206] ["Mirandum in modum (canes venaticos diceres) ita odorabantur omnia et pervestigabant, ut, ubi quidque esset, aliqua ratione invenirent" (Cicero, _In Verrem_, Act. II. lib. iv. 13). Verres had two _finders_: Tlepolemus a worker in wax, and Hiero a painter. (See _Introduction to The Curse of Minerva: Poems_, 1898, i. 455.)]

[207] [M. Fauvel was born in Burgundy, circ. 1754. In 1787 he was attached to the suite of the Count Choiseul-Gouffier, French Amba.s.sador at Constantinople, and is said to have prepared designs and ill.u.s.trations for his patron's _Voyage Pittoresque de la Grece_, vol. i.

1787, vol. ii. 1809. He settled at Athens, and was made vice-consul by the French Government. In his old age, after more than forty years'

service at Athens, he removed finally to Smyrna, where he was appointed consul-general.--_Biographic des Contemporains_ (Rabbe), 1834, art.

"(N.) Fauvel."]

[208] {169} In all Attica, if we except Athens itself and Marathon, there is no scene more interesting than Cape Colonna.[-1] To the antiquary and artist, sixteen columns are an inexhaustible source of observation and design; to the philosopher, the supposed scene of some of Plato's conversations will not be unwelcome; and the traveller will be struck with the beauty of the prospect over "Isles that crown the aegean deep:" but, for an Englishman, Colonna has yet an additional interest, as the actual spot of Falconer's[-2] s.h.i.+pwreck. Pallas and Plato are forgotten in the recollection of Falconer and Campbell:--

"Here in the dead of night, by Lonna's steep,[-3]

The seaman's cry was heard along the deep."

This temple of Minerva may be seen at sea from a great distance. In two journeys which I made, and one voyage to Cape Colonna, the view from either side, by land, was less striking than the approach from the isles. In our second land excursion, we had a narrow escape from a party of Mainotes, concealed in the caverns beneath. We were told afterwards, by one of their prisoners, subsequently ransomed, that they were deterred from attacking us by the appearance of my two Albanians: conjecturing very sagaciously, but falsely, that we had a complete guard of these Arnaouts at hand, they remained stationary, and thus saved our party, which was too small to have opposed any effectual resistance.

Colonna is no less a resort of painters than of pirates; there

"The hireling artist plants his paltry desk, And makes degraded nature picturesque."

See Hodgson's _Lady Jane Grey_, etc.[-4][1809, p. 214].

But there Nature, with the aid of Art, has done that for herself. I was fortunate enough to engage a very superior German artist; and hope to renew my acquaintance with this and many other Levantine scenes, by the arrival of his performances.

[-1] [This must have taken place in 1811, after Hobhouse returned to England.--_Travels in Albania_, i. 373, note.]

[-2] [William Falconer (1732-1769), second mate of a vessel in the Levant trade, was wrecked between Alexandria and Venice. Only three of the crew survived. His poem, _The s.h.i.+pwreck_, was published in 1762. It was dedicated to the Duke of York, and through his intervention he was "rated as a mids.h.i.+pman in the Royal Navy." Either as author or naval officer, he came to be on intimate terms with John Murray the first, who thought highly of his abilities, and offered him (October 16, 1768) a partners.h.i.+p in his new bookselling business in Fleet Street. In September, 1769, he embarked for India as purser of the _Aurora_ frigate, which touched at the Cape, but never reached her destination.

See _Memoir_, by J. S. Clarke; _The s.h.i.+pwreck_, 1804, pp. viii.-xlvi.]

[-3] _Yes, at the dead of night_, etc.--_Pleasures of Hope_, lines 149, 150.

[-4] [The quotation is from Hodgson's "Lines on a Ruined Abbey in a Romantic Country," _vide ante_, Canto I., p. 20, note.]

[209] {171} ["It was, however, during our stay in the place, to be lamented that a war, more than civil, was raging on the subject of Lord Elgin's pursuits in Greece, and had enlisted all the French settlers and the princ.i.p.al Greeks on one side or the other of the controversy. The factions of Athens were renewed."--_Travels in Albania, etc._, i. 243.]

[210] This word, in the cant language, signifies thieving.--Fielding's _History of Jonathan Wild_, i. 3, note.

[211] This Sr. Gropius was employed by a n.o.ble Lord for the sole purpose of sketching, in which he excels: but I am sorry to say, that he has, through the abused sanction of that most respectable name, been treading at humble distance in the steps of Sr. Lusieri.--A s.h.i.+pful of his trophies was detained, and I believe confiscated, at Constantinople in 1810. I am most happy to be now enabled to state, that "this was not in his bond;" that he was employed solely as a painter, and that his n.o.ble patron disavows all connection with him, except as an artist. If the error in the first and second edition of this poem has given the n.o.ble Lord a moment's pain, I am very sorry for it: Sr. Gropius has a.s.sumed for years the name of his agent; and though I cannot much condemn myself for sharing in the mistake of so many, I am happy in being one of the first to be undeceived. Indeed, I have as much pleasure in contradicting this as I felt regret in stating it.--[_Note to Third Edition._]

[According to Bryant's _Dict. of Painters_, and other biographical dictionaries, Karl Wilhelm Gropius (whom Lamartine, in his _Voyage en Orient_, identifies with the Gropius "injustement accuse par lord Byron dans ses notes mordantes sur Athenes") was born at Brunswick, in 1793, travelled in Italy and Greece, making numerous landscape and architectural sketches, and finally settled at Berlin in 1827, where he opened a diorama, modelled on that of Daguerre, "in connection with a permanent exhibition of painting.... He was considered the first wit in Berlin, where he died in 1870." In 1812, when Byron wrote his note to the third edition of _Childe Harold_, Gropius must have been barely of age, and the statement "that he has for years a.s.sumed the name of his (a n.o.ble Lord's) agent" is somewhat perplexing.]

[212] {173} [George Castriota (1404-1467) (Scanderbeg, or Scander Bey), the youngest son of an Albanian chieftain, was sent with his four brothers as hostage to the Sultan Amurath II. After his father's death in 1432 he carried on a protracted warfare with the Turks, and finally established the independence of Albania. "His personal strength and address were such as to make his prowess in the field resemble that of a knight of romance." He died at Lissa, in the Gulf of Venice, and when the island was taken by Mohammed II., the Turks are said to have dug up his bones and hung them round their necks, either as charms against wounds or "amulets to transfer his courage to themselves." (Hofmann's _Lexicon Universale_; Gorton's _Biog. Dict._, art. "Scanderbeg.")]

[213] {174} [William Martin Leake (1777-1860), traveller and numismatist, published (_inter alia_) _Researches in Greece_, in 1814.

He was "officially resident" in Albania, February, 1809-March, 1810.]

[214] [_A Journey through Albania during the Years 1809-10_, London, 1812.]

[215] {175} [The inhabitants of Albania, of the Shkipetar race, consist of two distinct branches: the Gueghs, who belong to the north, and are for the most part Catholics; and the Tosks of the south, who are generally Mussulmans (Finlay's _History of Greece_, i. 35).]

[gg] _I laughed so much as to induce a violent perspiration to which ...

I attribute my present individuality_.--[D.]

[216] {176} [The mayor of the village; in Greek, p??est?? [proestos].]

[217] [The father of the Consulina Teodora Macri, and grandfather of the "Maid of Athens."]

[218] [_Tristram Shandy_, 1775, iv. 44.]

[219] [See _Recollections of the Life of Lord Byron_, 1824, p.64.]

[220] {177} [Compare _The Waltz_, line 125--"O say, shall dull _Romaika's_ heavy sound." _Poems_, 1898, i. 492.]

[221] {186} [Francois Mercy de Lorraine, who fought against the Protestants in the Thirty Years' War, was mortally wounded at the battle of Nordlingen, August 3, 1645.]

[222] {187} [Byron and Hobhouse visited Marathon, January 25, 1810. The unconsidered trifle of the "plain" must have been offered to Byron during his second residence at Athens, in 1811.]

[223] ["Expende Annibalem--quot libras," etc. (Juvenal, x. 147), is the motto of the _Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte_, which was written April 10, 1814.--_Journal_, 1814; _Life_, p. 325.]

[224] [Compare letter to Hodgson, September 25, 1811: _Letters_, 1898, ii. 45.]