The Works of Lord Byron Volume IV Part 11

[72] [The edition of 1832 and subsequent issues read "and equal." It is clear that the earlier reading, "an equal," is correct. The spirit opposed by the spirit is an equal, etc. The spirit can also oppose to "its own funereal destiny" a firm will, etc.]

[73] [_A Fragment_, which remained unpublished till 1830, was written at the same time as _Churchill's Grave_ (July, 1816), and is closely allied to it in purport and in sentiment. It is a questioning of Death! O Death, _what_ is thy sting? There is an a.n.a.logy between exile end death.

As Churchill lay in his forgotten grave at Dover, one of "many millions decomposed to clay," so he the absent is dead to the absent, and the absent are dead to him. And what are the dead? the aggregate of nothingness? or are they a mult.i.tude of atoms having neither part nor lot one with the other? There is no solution but in the grave. Death alone can unriddle death. The poet's questioning spirit would plunge into the abyss to bring back the answer.]

[74] {52}[Compare--

"'Tis said thou holdest converse with the things Which are forbidden to the search of man; That with the dwellers of the dark abodes, The many evil and unheavenly spirits Which walk the valley of the Shade of Death, Thou communest."

_Manfred_, act iii. sc. 1, lines 34, seq., _vide post_, p. 121.]

[75] {53}Geneva, Ferney, Copet, Lausanne. [For Rousseau, see _Poetical Works_, 1899, ii. 277, note 1, 300, 301, note 18; for Voltaire and Gibbon, _vide ibid._, pp. 306, 307, note 22; and for De Stael, see _Letters_, 1898, ii. 223, note 1. Byron, writing to Moore, January 2, 1821, declares, on the authority of Monk Lewis, "who was too great a bore ever to lie," that Madame de Stael alleged this sonnet, "in which she was named with Voltaire, Rousseau, etc.," as a reason for changing her opinion about him--"she could not help it through decency"

(_Letters_, 1901, v. 213). It is difficult to believe that Madame de Stael was ashamed of her companions, or was sincere in disclaiming the compliment, though, as might have been expected, the sonnet excited some disapprobation in England. A writer in the _Gentleman's Magazine_ (February, 1818, vol. 88, p. 122) relieved his feelings by a "Retort Addressed to the Thames"--

"Restor'd to my dear native Thames' bank, My soul disgusted spurns a Byron's lay,-- * * * * *

Leman may idly boast her Stael, Rousseau, Gibbon, Voltaire, whom Truth and Justice shun-- * * * * *

Whilst meekly s.h.i.+nes midst Fulham's bowers the sun O'er Sherlock's and o'er Porteus' honour'd graves, Where Thames Britannia's choicest meads exulting laves."]

[76] [Compare--

"Lake Leman woos me with its crystal face."

_Childe Harold_, Canto III. stanza lxviii. line 1, _Poetical Works_, 1899, ii. 257.]

[n] {54}_Stanzas To_----.--[Editions 1816-1830.]

"Though the Day."--[MS. in Mrs. Leigh's handwriting.]

[77] [The "Stanzas to Augusta" were written in July, at the Campagne Diodati, near Geneva. "Be careful," he says, "in printing the stanzas beginning, 'Though the day of my Destiny's,' etc., which I think well of as a composition."--Letter to Murray, October 5, 1816, _Letters_, 1899, iii. 371.]

[o]

_Though the days of my Glory are over,_ _And the Sun of my fame has declined._--[Dillon MS.]

[p] ----_had painted._--[MS.]

[78] [Compare--

"Dear Nature is the kindest mother still!...

To me by day or night she ever smiled."

_Childe Harold_, Canto II. stanza x.x.xvii. lines 1, 7, _Poetical Works_, 1899, ii. 122.]

[q] _I will not_----.--[MS. erased.]

[r] {55}_As the b.r.e.a.s.t.s I reposed in with me._--[MS.]

[s]

_Though the rock of my young hope is s.h.i.+vered,_ _And its fragments lie sunk in the wave._--[MS. erased.]

[t]

_There is many a pang to pursue me,_ _And many a peril to stem;_ _They may torture, but shall not subdue me;_ _They may crush, but they shall not contemn._--[MS. erased.]

_And I think not of thee but of them._--[MS. erased.]

[u] _Though tempted_----.--[MS.]

[79] [Compare _Childe Harold,_ Canto III. stanzas liii., lv., _Poetical Works,_ 1899, ii. 247, 248, note 1.]

[v]

_Though watchful, 'twas but to reclaim me,_ _Nor, silent, to sanction a lie._--[MS.]

[80] {56}[Compare--

"Had I but sooner learnt the crowd to shun, I had been better than I now can be."

_Epistle to Augusta_, stanza xii. lines 5, 6, _vide post_, p. 61.

Compare, too--

"But soon he knew himself the most unfit Of men to herd with Man."

_Childe Harold_, Canto III. stanza xii. lines 1, 2, _Poetical Works_, 1899, ii. 223.]

[w]

_And more than I then could foresee._ _I have met but the fate that hath crost me._--[MS.]

[x] _In the wreck of the past_--[MS.]

[y]

_In the Desert there still are sweet waters,_ _In the wild waste a sheltering tree._--[MS.]

[81] [Byron often made use of this ill.u.s.tration. Compare--

"My Peri! ever welcome here!

Sweet, as the desert fountain's wave."

_The Bride of Abydos_, Canto I. lines 151, 152, _Poetical Works_, 1900, iii. 163.]

[82] [For Hobhouse's parody of these stanzas, see _Letters_, 1900, iv.

73,74.]

[83] {57}[These stanzas--"than which," says the _Quarterly Review_ for January, 1831, "there is nothing, perhaps, more mournfully and desolately beautiful in the whole range of Lord Byron's poetry," were also written at Diodati, and sent home to be published, if Mrs. Leigh should consent. She decided against publication, and the "Epistle" was not printed till 1830. Her first impulse was to withhold her consent to the publication of the "Stanzas to Augusta," as well as the "Epistle,"

and to say, "Whatever is addressed to me do not publish," but on second thoughts she decided that "the _least objectionable_ line will be _to let them be published_."--See her letters to Murray, November 1, 8, 1816, _Letters_, 1899, iii. 366, note 1.]