The Works of Lord Byron Volume III Part 66

[298] {395} [Compare _Childe Harold_, Canto I. stanza lx.x.xii.

lines 8, 9--

"Full from the fount of Joy's delicious springs Some bitter o'er the flowers its bubbling venom flings."

_Poetical Works_, 1899, ii. 73, and note 16, p. 93.]

[lt]

_Ah! what hath been but what shall be_, _The same dull scene renewing?_ _And all our fathers were are we_ _In erring and undoing_.--[MS.]

[lu] _When this corroding clay is gone_.--[MS. erased.]

[lv] _The stars in their eternal way_.--[MS. L. erased.]

[lw] {396} _A conscious light that can pervade_.--[MS. erased.]

[299] {397} [Compare the lines ent.i.tled "Belshazzar" (_vide post_, p.

421), and _Don Juan_, Canto III. stanza lxv.]

[lx] ----_in the hall_.--[Copy.]

[ly] _In Israel_----.--[Copy.]

[300] {398} [It was not in his youth, but in extreme old age, that Daniel interpreted the "writing on the wall."]

[lz] _Oh king thy grave_----.--[Copy erased.]

[301] {400} [Mariamne, the wife of Herod the Great, falling under the suspicion of infidelity, was put to death by his order. Ever after, Herod was haunted by the image of the murdered Mariamne, until disorder of the mind brought on disorder of body, which led to temporary derangement. See _History of the Jews_, by H. H. Milman, 1878, pp. 236, 237. See, too, Voltaire's drama, _Mariamne_, _pa.s.sim_.

Nathan, wis.h.i.+ng "to be favoured with so many lines pathetic, some playful, others martial, etc.... one evening ... unfortunately (while absorbed for a moment in worldly affairs) requested so many _dull_ lines--meaning _plaintive_." Byron instantly caught at the expression, and exclaimed, "Well, Nathan! you have at length set me an easy task,"

and before parting presented him with "these beautifully pathetic lines, saying, 'Here, Nathan, I think you will find these _dull_ enough.'"--_Fugitive Pieces_, 1829, p. 51.]

[ma]

_And what was rage is agony_.--[MS. erased.]

_Revenge is turned_----.--[MS.]

[mb] _And deep Remorse_----.--[MS.]

[mc] _And what am I thy tyrant pleading_.--[MS. erased.]

[md]

_Thou art not dead--they could not dare_ _Obey my jealous Frenzy's raving_.--[MS.]

[me] _But yet in death my soul enslaving_.--[MS. erased.]

[mf] {401} _Oh I have earned_----.--[MS.]

[mg] ----_that looks o'er thy once holy dome_.--[MS.]

[mh]

----_o'er thy once holy wall_ _I beheld thee O Sion the day of thy fall_.--[MS. erased.]

[mi] _And forgot in their ruin_----.--[MS. erased.]

[mj] {402} _And the red bolt_----.--[MS. erased.]

_And the thunderbolt crashed_----.--[MS.]

[302] [The following note, in Byron's handwriting, is prefixed to the copy in Lady Byron's handwriting:--

"Dear Kinnaird,--Take only _one_ of these marked 1 and 2 [i.e. 'By the Rivers,' etc.; and 'By the waters,' _vide_ p. 404], as both are but different versions of the _same thought_--leave the choice to any important person you like.

Yours, B."]

[303] [Landor, in his "Dialogue between Southey and Porson" (_Works_, 1846, i. 69), attempted to throw ridicule on the opening lines of this "Melody."

"A prey in 'the hue of his slaughters'! This is very pathetic; but not more so than the thought it suggested to me, which is plainer--

'We sat down and wept by the waters Of Camus, and thought of the day When damsels would show their red garters In their hurry to scamper away.'"]

[mk] {403} _Our mute harps were hung on the willow_ _That grew by the stream of our foe_, _And in sadness we gazed on each billow_ _That rolled on in freedom below_.--[MS, erased.]

[ml]

_On the willow that harp still hangs mutely_ _Oh Salem its sound was for thee_.--[MS. erased.]

[304] {405} [Compare--"As leaves in autumn, so the bodies fell." _The Barons' Wars_, by Michael Drayton, Bk. II. stanza lvii.; Anderson's _British Poets_, iii. 38.]

[mm] _And the foam of his bridle lay cold on the earth_.--[MS.]

[mn] ----_of the cliff-beating surf_.--[MS.]

[mo] _With the crow on his breast_----.--[MS.]

[mp] _And the widows of Babel_----.--[MS. erased.]

[mq] _And the voices of Israel are joyous and high_.--[MS. erased.]

POEMS 1814-1816.

POEMS 1814-1816.

FAREWELL! IF EVER FONDEST PRAYER.

1.