The Works of Lord Byron Volume I Part 31

Those beauties, grateful to my ardent sight, No more entrance my senses in delight; Those bosoms, form'd of animated snow, Alike are tasteless and unfeeling now.

These to some happier lover, I resign; The memory of those joys alone is mine.

Censure no more shall brand my humble name, The child of pa.s.sion and the fool of fame.

Weary of love, of life, devoured with spleen, I rest a perfect Timon, not nineteen; World! I renounce thee! all my hope's o'ercast!

One sigh I give thee, but that sigh's the last.

Friends, foes, and females, now alike, adieu!

Would I could add remembrance of you, too!

Yet though the future, dark and cheerless gleams, The curse of memory, hovering in my dreams, Depicts with glowing pencil all those years, Ere yet, my cup, empoison'd, flow'd with tears, Still rules my senses with tyrannic sway, The past confounding with the present day.

Alas! in vain I check the maddening thought; It still recurs, unlook'd for and unsought: My soul to Fancy's', etc., etc., as at line 29.--]

[Footnote ii: 'Cunning with age.' ['MS. Newstead'.]]

[Footnote iii: 'Nor shrunk before.' ['Hours of Idleness'.]]

[Footnote iv:

'Careless to soothe the pedant's furious frown, Scarcely respecting his majestic gown; By which, in vain, he gain'd a borrow'd grace, Adding new terror to his sneering face,'

['P. on V. Occasions'.]]

[Footnote v:

'With him for years I search'd the cla.s.sic page, Culling the treasures of the letter'd sage,'

['P. on V. Occasions'.]]

[Footnote vi:

'Contempt, in silence, be the pedant's lot, Soon shall his shallow precepts be forgot; No more his mention shall my pen degrade-- My tribute to his name's already paid.'

['P. on V. Occasions'.]

Another variant for a new edition ran--

'Another fills his magisterial chair; Reluctant Ida owns a stranger's care; Oh! may like honours crown his future name: If such his virtues, such shall be his fame.'

['MS. M.']

[Footnote vii:

'Joannes! best and dearest of my friends.'

['P. on V. Occasions.']]

[Footnote viii:

'Could aught inspire me with poetic fire, For thee, alone, I'd strike the hallow'd lyre; But, to some abler hand, the task I wave, Whose strains immortal may outlive the grave'.--

['P. on V. Occasions.']]

[Footnote ix:

'Our l.u.s.ty limbs.'

['P. on V. Occasions.']

'--the buoyant waters bore.'

['Hours of Idleness.']]

[Footnote x:

'Thus did you save that life I scarcely prize-- A life unworthy such a sacrifice.

Oh! when my breast forgets the generous deed.'

['P. on V. Occasions'.] ]

[Footnote xi:

'For ever to possess a friend in thee, Was bliss unhop'd, though not unsought by me; Thy softer soul was form'd for love alone, To ruder pa.s.sions and to hate unknown; Thy mind, in union with thy beauteous form, Was gentle, but unfit to stem the storm; That face, an index of celestial worth, Proclaim'd a heart abstracted from the earth.

Oft, when depress'd with sad, foreboding gloom, I sat reclin'd upon our favourite tomb, I've seen those sympathetic eyes o'erflow With kind compa.s.sion for thy comrade's woe; Or, when less mournful subjects form'd our themes, We tried a thousand fond romantic schemes, Oft hast thou sworn, in friends.h.i.+p's soothing tone.

Whatever wish was mine, must be thine own.

The next can boast to lead in senates fit, A Spartan firmness,--with Athenian wit; Tho' yet, in embryo, these perfections s.h.i.+ne, Clarus! thy father's fame will soon be thine.'--

['P. on V. Occasions'.]

A remonstrance which Lord Clare addressed to him at school; was found among his papers (as were most of the notes of his early favourites), and on the back of it was an endors.e.m.e.nt which is a fresh testimony of his affection:--

"This and another letter were written at Harrow, by my 'then' and, I hope, 'ever' beloved friend, Lord Clare, when we were both schoolboys; and sent to my study in consequence of some 'childish'

misunderstanding,--the only one which ever arose between us. It was of short duration, and I retain this note solely for the purpose of submitting it to his perusal, that we may smile over the recollection of the insignificance of our first and last quarrel."

See, also, Byron's account of his accidental meeting with Lord Clare in Italy in 1821, as recorded in 'Detached Thoughts', Nov. 5, 1821; in letters to Moore, March 1 and June 8, 1822; and Mme. Guiccioli's description of his emotion on seeing Clare ('My Recollections of Lord Byron', ed. 1869, p. 156).]

[Footnote xii:

'Where is the restless fool, would wish for more?'

['P. on V. Occasions.']]