The Works of Lord Byron Volume II Part 51

[kb] _Deep into Nature's breast the existence which they lose_.--[MS.]

[331] [For the a.s.sociation of "Fortune" and "Fame" with a star, compare stanza xi. lines 5, 6--

"Who can contemplate Fame through clouds unfold The _star_ which rises o'er her steep," etc.?

And the allusion to Napoleon's "star," stanza x.x.xviii. line 9--

"Nor learn that tempted Fate will leave the loftiest _Star_."

Compare, too, the opening lines of the _Stanzas to Augusta_ (July 24, 1816)--

"Though the day of my destiny's over, And the _star_ of my fate has declined."

"Power" is symbolized as a star in _Numb._ xxiv. 17, "There shall come a _star_ out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel;" and in the divine proclamation, "I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning _star_" (_Rev._ xxii. 16).

The inclusion of "life" among star similes may have been suggested by the astrological terms, "house of life" and "lord of the ascendant."

Wordsworth, in his Ode (_Intimations of Immortality, etc._) speaks of the soul as "our life's _star_." Mr. Tozer, who supplies most of these "comparisons," adds a line from Sh.e.l.ley's _Adonais_, 55. 8 (Pisa, 1821)--

"The soul of Adonais, like a _star_."]

[332] {271} [Compare Wordsworth's sonnet, "It is a Beauteous," etc.--

"It is a beauteous evening, calm and free, The holy time is quiet as a nun Breathless with adoration."]

[333] [Here, too, the note is Wordsworthian, though Byron represents as inherent in Nature, that "sense of something far more deeply interfused," which Wordsworth (in his _Lines_ on Tintern Abbey) a.s.signs to his own consciousness.]

[kc] {272} _It is a voiceless feeling chiefly felt_.--[MS.]

[kd] _Of a most inward music_----.--[MS.]

[334] [As the cestus of Venus endowed the wearer with magical attraction, so the immanence of the Infinite and the Eternal in "all that formal is and fugitive," binds it with beauty and produces a supernatural charm which even Death cannot resist.]

[335] [Compare Herodotus, i. 131, ?? d? ??????s? ??? ??, ?p? t?

?????tata t?? ?????? ??aa????te?, ??s?a? ??de??, t?? ?????? p??ta t??

??a?? ??a ?a????te?. [Oi(de nomi/zousi Dii) men, e)pi ta y(pselo/tata to~n ou)re/on a)nabai/nontes, thysi/as e(/rdein, ton ky/klon pa/nta tou~ y)rano Di/a kale/ontes.] Perhaps, however, "early Persian" was suggested by a pa.s.sage in "that drowsy, frowsy poem, _The Excursion_"--

"The Persian--zealous to reject Altar and image and the inclusive walls And roofs and temples built by human hands-- To loftiest heights ascending, from their tops With myrtle-wreathed tiara on his brow, Presented sacrifice to moon and stars."

_The Excursion_, iv. (_The Works of Wordsworth_, 1889, p. 461).]

[336] {273} [Compare the well-known song which forms the prelude of the _Hebrew Melodies_--

"She walks in beauty, like the night Of cloudless climes and starry skies; And all that's best of dark and bright Meet in her aspect and her eyes."]

[ke]

----_Oh glorious Night_ _That art not sent_----.--[MS.]

[kf] {274} _A portion of the Storm--a part of thee_.--[MS.]

[kg] ----_a fiery sea_.--[MS.]

[kh] _As they had found an heir and feasted o'er his birth_.--[MS.

erased.]

[ki]

_Hills which look like brethren with twin heights_ _Of a like aspect_----.--[MS. erased.]

[337] [There can be no doubt that Byron borrowed this metaphor from the famous pa.s.sage in Coleridge's _Christabel_ (ii. 408-426), which he afterwards prefixed as a motto to _Fare Thee Well_.

The latter half of the quotation runs thus--

"But never either found another To free the hollow heart from paining-- They stood aloof, the scars remaining, Like cliffs which had been rent asunder; A dreary sea now flows between, But neither heat, nor frost, nor thunder, Shall wholly do away, I ween, The marks of that which once had been."]

[kj] {275} _Of separation drear_----.--[MS. erased.]

[338] [There are numerous instances of the use of "knoll" as an alternative form of the verb "to knell;" but Byron seems, in this pa.s.sage, to be the authority for "knoll" as a substantive.]

[339] [For Rousseau's description of Vevey, see _Julie; ou, La Nouvelle Heloise_, Partie I. Lettre xxiii., _Oevres de J. J. Rousseau_, 1836, ii.

36: "Tantot d'immenses rochers pendoient en ruines au-dessus de ma tete.

Tantot de hautes et bruyantes cascades m'inondoient de leur epais brouillard: tantot un torrent eternel ouvroit a mes cotes un abime dont les yeux n'osoient sonder la profondeur. Quelquefois je me perdois dans l'obscurite d'un bois touffu. Quelquefois, en sortant d'un gouffre, une agreable prairie, rejouissoit tout-a-coup mes regards. Un melange etonnant de la nature sauvage et de la nature cultivee, montroit partout la main des hommes, ou l'on eut cru qu'ils n'avoient jamais penetre: a cote d'une caverne on trouvoit des maisons; on voyoit des pampres secs ou l'on n'eut cherche que des ronces, des vignes dans des terres eboullees, d'excellens fruits sur des rochers, et des champs dans des precipices." See, too, Lettre x.x.xviii. p. 56; Partie IV. Lettre xi. p.

238 (the description of Julie's Elysium); and Partie IV. Lettre xvii. p.

260 (the excursion to Meillerie).

Byron infuses into Rousseau's accurate and charming compositions of scenic effects, if not the "glory," yet "the freshness of a dream." He belonged to the new age, with its new message from nature to man, and, in spite of theories and prejudices, listened and was convinced. He extols Rousseau's recognition of nature, lifting it to the height of his own argument; but, consciously or unconsciously, he desires to find, and finds, in nature a spring of imagination undreamt of by the Apostle of Sentiment. There is a whole world of difference between Rousseau's persuasive and delicate patronage of Nature, and Byron's pa.s.sionate, though somewhat belated, surrender to her inevitable claim. With Rousseau, Nature is a means to an end, a conduct of refined and heightened fancy; whereas, to Byron, "her reward was with her," a draught of healing and refreshment.]

[kk] {277} _The trees have grown from Love_----.--[MS. erased.]

[kl] {278} _By rays which twine there_----.--[MS.]

[km]

_Clarens--sweet Clarens--thou art Love's abode_-- _Undying Love's--who here hath made a throne_.--[MS.]

[kn]

_And girded it with Spirit which is shown_ _From the steep summit to the rus.h.i.+ng Rhone_.--[MS. erased.]

[ko]

----_whose searching power_ _Surpa.s.ses the strong storm in its most desolate hour_.--[MS.]

[340] [Compare _La Nouvelle Helose_, Partie IV. Lettre xvii, _Oeuvres, etc._, ii. 262: "Un torrent, forme par la fonte des neiges, rouloit a vingt pas de nous line eau bourbeuse, et charrioit avec bruit du limon, du sable et des pierres.... Des forets de noirs sapins nous...o...b..ageoient tristement a droite. Un grand bois de chenes etoit a gauche au-dela du torrent."]

[kp] {279} _But branches young as Heaven_----[MS. erased,]

[kq] ----_with sweeter voice than words_.--[MS.]

[341] [Compare the _Pervigilium Veneris_--

"Cras amet qui nunquam amavit, Quique amavit eras amet."

("Let those love now, who never loved before; Let those who always loved, now love the more.")