The Works of Lord Byron Volume III Part 88

[sd] _At times the highest_----.--[MS. M.]

[se] ----_of her evil will_.--[MS. M.]

[sf]

_What marvel that this mistress demon works_ / _wheresoe'er she lurks_.--[MS. M.]

_Eternal evil_ { _when she latent works_.--[Copy.]

[sg] _A gloss of candour of a web of wiles_.--[MS. M.]

[sh] {543} Lines 65-68 were added April 2, 1816.

[si] The parenthesis was added April 2, 1816.

[sj] _Look on her body_----.--[MS. M.]

[435] [See _Hamlet_, act iii. sc. 2, line 31.]

[sk] _Where all that gaze upon her droop or die_.--[MS. altered April 2, 1816.]

[436] Lines 85-91 were added April 2, 1816, on a page endorsed, "Quick--quick--quick--quick."

[sl] {544} ----_in thy poisoned clay_.--[MS. M. erased.]

[437] ["I doubt about 'weltering' but the dictionary should decide--look at it. We say 'weltering in blood'--but do they not also use 'weltering in the wind' 'weltering on a gibbet'?--there is no dictionary, so look or ask. In the meantime, I have put 'festering,' which perhaps in any case is the best word of the two.--P.S. Be quick. Shakespeare has it often and I do not think it too strong for the figure in this thing."--Letter to Murray, April 2.]

[sm] _And weltering in the infamy of years_.--[MS. M.]

[438] [His sister, the Honourable Mrs. Leigh.--These stanzas--the parting tribute to her whose tenderness had been his sole consolation in the crisis of domestic misery--were, we believe, the last verses written by Lord Byron in England. In a note to Mr. Rogers, dated April 16 [1816], he says, "My sister is now with me, and leaves town to-morrow; we shall not meet again for some time at all events--_if ever!_ and under these circ.u.mstances I trust to stand excused to you and Mr.

Sheridan, for being unable to wait upon him this evening."--Note to Edition of 1832, x. 193.

A fair copy, broken up into stanzas, is endorsed by Murray, "Given to me (and I believe composed by Ld. B.), Friday, April 12, 1816."]

[sn] ----_grew waste and dark_.--[MS. M.]

[so] {545} _When Friends.h.i.+p shook_----.--[MS. M.]

[sp] _Thine was the solitary star_.--[MS. M.]

[sq] _Which rose above me to the last_.--[MS. M.]

[sr]

_And when the cloud between us came_.--[MS. M.]

_And when the cloud upon me came_.--[Copy C. H.]

[ss] _Which would have closed on that last ray_.--[MS. M.]

[st] _Then stiller stood the gentle Flame_.--[MS. M.]

[su] _Still may thy Spirit sit on mine_.--[MS. M.]

[sv] {546} _And thou wast as a lovely Tree_ _Whose branch unbroke but gently bent_ _Still waved with fond Fidelity_.--[Copy C. H.]

END OF VOL. III.