The Works of Lord Byron Volume VI Part 126

[According to Pliny (_Nat, Hist._, lib. xv. cap. xxv. ed. 1593, ii.

131), there were no cherry trees in Italy until L. Lucullus brought them home with him from Pontus after the Mithridatic War (B.C. 74), and it was not for another hundred and twenty years that the cherry tree crossed the Channel and was introduced into Britain.]

[757] "Pet.i.ts puits d'amour garnis de confitures,"--a cla.s.sical and well-known dish for part of the flank of a second course [_vide ante_, p. 562].

{564}[758] ["To-day in a palace, to-morrow in a cow-house--this day with a Pacha, the next with a shepherd."--Letter to his mother, July 30, 1810, _Letters_, 1898, i. 295.]

[nx] _No lady but a dish_----.--[MS.]

{567}[759] ["This construction ('commence' with the infinitive) has been objected to by stylists," says the _New English Dictionary_ (see art.

"Commence"). Its use is sanctioned by the authority of Pope, Landor, Helps, and Lytton; but even so, it is questionable, if not objectionable.]

[ny] _Sweet Lord! she was so sagely innocent_.--[MS.]

{568}[760] Subauditur "_non_;" omitted for the sake of euphony.

{569}[761] [John Scott, Earl of Eldon, Lord Chancellor, 1801 to 1827, sat as judge (November 7, 1822) to hear the pet.i.tion of Henry Wallop Fellowes, that a commission of inquiry should be issued to ascertain whether his uncle, Lord Portsmouth (who married Mary Anne Hanson, the daughter of Byron's solicitor), was of sound mind, "and capable of managing his own person and property." The Chancellor gave judgment that a commission be issued, and the jury, February, 1823, returned a verdict that Lord Portsmouth had been a lunatic since 1809. (See _Letters_, 1898, ii. 393, note 3, _et ibid._, 1901, vi. 170, note i.)]

[762] Hecla is a famous hot-spring in Iceland. [Byron seems to mistake the volcano for the Geysers.]

{570}[763] [_Hamlet_, act iii. sc. 2, line 367.]

[764]

["By the apostle Paul, shadows to-night Have struck more terror to the soul of Richard Than can the substance of ten thousand soldiers," etc.

_Richard III._, act v. sc. 3, lines 216-218.]

[765] Hobbes: who, doubting of his own soul, paid that compliment to the souls of other people as to decline their visits, of which he had some apprehension.

[Bayle (see art. "Hobbes" [_Dict. Crit. and Hist._, 1736, iii. 471, note N.]) quotes from _Vita Hobb._, p. 106: "He was as falsely accused by some of being unwilling to be alone, because he was afraid of spectres and apparitions, vain bugbears of fools, which he had chased away by the light of his Philosophy," and proceeds to argue that, perhaps, after all, Hobbes was afraid of the dark. "He was timorous to the last degree, and consequently he had reason to distrust his imagination when he was alone in a chamber in the night; for in spite of him the memory of what he had read and heard concerning apparitions would revive, though he was not persuaded of the reality of these things." See, however, for his own testimony that he was "not afrayd of sprights," _Letters and Lives of Eminent Persons_, by John Aubrey, 1813, vol. ii. pt. ii. p. 624.]

{571}[766] [_Hamlet_, act iv. sc. 5, lines 41, 42.]

[767] End of Canto 15^th^. M^ch^. 25, 1823. B.--[MS.]

CANTO THE SIXTEENTH.[768]

I.

The antique Persians taught three useful things, To draw the bow, to ride, and speak the truth,[769]

This was the mode of Cyrus, best of kings-- A mode adopted since by modern youth.

Bows have they, generally with two strings; Horses they ride without remorse or ruth; At speaking truth perhaps they are less clever, But draw the long bow better now than ever.

II.

The cause of this effect, or this defect,-- "For this effect defective comes by cause,"--[770]

Is what I have not leisure to inspect; But this I must say in my own applause, Of all the Muses that I recollect, Whate'er may be her follies or her flaws In some things, mine's beyond all contradiction The most sincere that ever dealt in fiction.

III.

And as she treats all things, and ne'er retreats From anything, this Epic will contain A wilderness of the most rare conceits, Which you might elsewhere hope to find in vain.

'Tis true there be some bitters with the sweets, Yet mixed so slightly, that you can't complain, But wonder they so few are, since my tale is "_De rebus cunctis et quibusdam aliis._"[771]

IV.

But of all truths which she has told, the most True is that which she is about to tell.

I said it was a story of a ghost-- What then? I only know it so befell.

Have you explored the limits of the coast, Where all the dwellers of the earth must dwell?

'Tis time to strike such puny doubters dumb as The sceptics who would not believe Columbus.

V.

Some people would impose now with authority, Turpin's or Monmouth Geoffry's Chronicle; Men whose historical superiority Is always greatest at a miracle.

But Saint Augustine has the great priority, Who bids all men believe the impossible, _Because 'tis so._ Who nibble, scribble, quibble, he Quiets at once with "_quia impossibile._"[772]

VI.

And therefore, mortals, cavil not at all; Believe:--if 'tis improbable, you _must_, And if it is impossible, you _shall_: 'Tis always best to take things upon trust.

I do not speak profanely to recall Those holier Mysteries which the wise and just Receive as Gospel, and which grow more rooted, As all truths must, the more they are disputed:

VII.

I merely mean to say what Johnson said, That in the course of some six thousand years, All nations have believed that from the dead A visitant at intervals appears:[773]

And what is strangest upon this strange head, Is, that whatever bar the reason rears 'Gainst such belief, there's something stronger still In its behalf--let those deny who will.

VIII.

The dinner and the _soiree_ too were done, The supper too discussed, the dames admired, The banqueteers had dropped off one by one-- The song was silent, and the dance expired: The last thin petticoats were vanished, gone Like fleecy clouds into the sky retired, And nothing brighter gleamed through the saloon Than dying tapers--and the peeping moon.

IX.

The evaporation of a joyous day Is like the last gla.s.s of champagne, without The foam which made its virgin b.u.mper gay; Or like a system coupled with a doubt; Or like a soda bottle when its spray Has sparkled and let half its spirit out; Or like a billow left by storms behind, Without the animation of the wind;

X.

Or like an opiate, which brings troubled rest, Or none; or like--like nothing that I know Except itself;--such is the human breast; A thing, of which similitudes can show No real likeness,--like the old Tyrian vest Dyed purple, none at present can tell how, If from a sh.e.l.l-fish or from cochineal.[774]

So perish every Tyrant's robe piece-meal!

XI.

But next to dressing for a rout or ball, Undressing is a woe; our _robe de chambre_ May sit like that of Nessus,[775] and recall Thoughts quite as yellow, but less clear than amber.

t.i.tus exclaimed, "I've lost a day!"[776] Of all The nights and days most people can remember, (I have had of both, some not to be disdained,) I wish they'd state how many they have gained.

XII.