The Works of Lord Byron Volume I Part 130

[Footnote 2: Lines 15-28 do not appear in the MS., but ten lines (omitting lines 21-24) were inserted in Proof No. 1.]

[Footnote 3: To rival Lord Wellesley's, or his nephew's, as the reader pleases:--the one gained a pretty woman, whom he deserved, by fighting for; and the other has been fighting in the Peninsula many a long day, "by Shrewsbury clock," without gaining anything in 'that' country but the t.i.tle of "the Great Lord," and "the Lord;" which savours of profanation, having been hitherto applied only to that Being to whom "'Te Deums'" for carnage are the rankest blasphemy.--It is to be presumed the general will one day return to his Sabine farm: there

"To tame the genius of the stubborn plain, 'Almost as quickly' as he conquer'd Spain!"

The Lord Peterborough conquered continents in a summer; we do more--we contrive both to conquer and lose them in a shorter season. If the "great Lord's" 'Cincinnatian' progress in agriculture be no speedier than the proportional average of time in Pope's couplet, it will, according to the farmer's proverb, be "ploughing with dogs."

By the bye--one of this ill.u.s.trious person's new t.i.tles is forgotten--it is, however, worth remembering--"'Salvador del mundo!" credite, posteri'! If this be the appellation annexed by the inhabitants of the Peninsula to the name of a 'man' who has not yet saved them--query--are they worth saving, even in this world? for, according to the mildest modifications of any Christian creed, those three words make the odds much against them in the next--"Saviour of the world," quotha!--it were to be wished that he, or any one else, could save a corner of it--his country. Yet this stupid misnomer, although it shows the near connection between superst.i.tion and impiety, so far has its use, that it proves there can be little to dread from those Catholics (inquisitorial Catholics too) who can confer such an appellation on a 'Protestant'. I suppose next year he will be ent.i.tled the "Virgin Mary;" if so, Lord George Gordon himself would have nothing to object to such liberal b.a.s.t.a.r.ds of our Lady of Babylon.

[William Pole-Wellesley (1785?-1857), afterwards fourth Lord Mornington, a nephew of the great Duke of Wellington, married, in March, 1812, Catharine, daughter and heiress of Sir Tylney Long, Bart. On his marriage he added his wife's double surname to his own, and, thereby, gave the wits their chance. In 'Rejected Addresses' Fitzgerald is made to exclaim--

"Bless every man possess'd of aught to give, Long may Long-Tilney-Wellesley-Long-Pole live."

The princ.i.p.als in the duel to which Byron alludes were Wellesley-Pole and Lord Kilworth. The occasion of the quarrel was a misconception of some expression of Pole's at an a.s.sembly at Lady Hawarden's (August 6, 1811). A meeting took place on Wimbledon Common (August 9), at which the seconds intervened, and everything was "amicably adjusted." Some days later a letter appeared in the 'Morning Post' (August 14, 1811), signed "Kilworth," to the effect that an apology had been offered and accepted.

This led to a second meeting on Hounslow Heath (August 15), when shots were exchanged. Again the seconds intervened, and, after more explanations, matters were finally arranged. A 'jeu d'esprit' which appeared in the 'Morning Chronicle' (August 16, 1811) connects the "mortal fracas" with Pole's prowess in waltzing at a fete at Wanstead House, near Hackney, where, when the heiress had been wooed and won, his guests used to dine at midnight after the opera.

"Mid the tumult of waltzing and wild Irish reels, A prime dancer, I'm sure to get at her-- And by Love's graceful movements to trip up her heels, Is the Long and the short of the matter."]

[Footnote 4: Thomas Busby, Mus. Doc. (1755-1838), musical composer, and author of 'A New and Complete Musical Dictionary', 1801, etc. He was also a versifier. As early as 1785 he published 'The Age of Genius, A Satire'; and, after he had ceased to compose music for the stage, brought out a translation of Lucretius, which had long been in MS. His "rejected address" on the reopening of Drury Lane Theatre, would have been recited by his son (October 15), but the gallery refused to hear it out. On the next night (October 16) "Master" Busby was more successful.

Byron's parody of Busby's address, which began with the line, "When energising objects men pursue," is headed, "Parenthetical Address. By Dr. Plagiary."]

[Footnote 5: The Confederation of the Rhine (1803-1813), by which the courts of Wurtemberg and Bavaria, together with some lesser princ.i.p.alities, detached themselves from the Germanic Body, and accepted the immediate protection of France.]

[Footnote 6: The patriotic arson of our amiable allies cannot be sufficiently commended--nor subscribed for. Amongst other details omitted in the various [A] despatches of our eloquent amba.s.sador, he did not state (being too much occupied with the exploits of Colonel C----, in swimming rivers frozen, and galloping over roads impa.s.sable,) that one entire province perished by famine in the most melancholy manner, as follows:--In General Rostopchin's consummate conflagration, the consumption of tallow and train oil was so great, that the market was inadequate to the demand: and thus one hundred and thirty-three thousand persons were starved to death, by being reduced to wholesome diet! the lamp-lighters of London have since subscribed a pint (of oil) a piece, and the tallow-chandlers have unanimously voted a quant.i.ty of best moulds (four to the pound), to the relief of the surviving Scythians;--the scarcity will soon, by such exertions, and a proper attention to the 'quality' rather than the quant.i.ty of provision, be totally alleviated. It is said, in return, that the untouched Ukraine has subscribed sixty thousand beeves for a day's meal to our suffering manufacturers.

[Hamburg fell to Napoleon's forces in 1810, and thence-forward the mails from the north of Europe were despatched from Anholt, or Gothenberg, or Heligoland. In 1811 an attempt to enforce the conscription resulted in the emigration of numbers of young men of suitable age for military service. The unfortunate city was deprived of mails and males at the same time. Heligoland, which was taken by the British in 1807, and turned into a depot for the importation of smuggled goods to French territory, afforded a meeting-place for British and continental traders.

Mails from Heligoland detailed rumours of what was taking place at the centres of war; but the newspapers occasionally threw doubts on the information obtained from this source. Lord Cathcart's despatch, dated November 23, appeared in the 'Gazette' December 16, 1812. The paragraph which appealed to Byron's sense of humour is as follows: "The expedition of Colonel Chernichef ('sic') [the Czar's aide-de-camp] was a continued and extraordinary exertion, he having marched seven hundred wersts ('sic') in five days, and swam several rivers."]

[Sub-Footnote A: Veracious despatches.--['MS. M'.] ]

[Footnote 7: Austerlitz was fought on Dec. 2, 1805. On Dec. 20 the 'Morning Chronicle' published a communication from a correspondent, giving the substance of Napoleon's "Proclamation to the Army," issued on the evening after the battle, which had reached Bourrienne, the French minister at Hamburg. "An army," ran the proclamation, "of 100,000 men, which was commanded by the Emperors of Russia and Austria, has been in less than four hours either cut off or dispersed." It was an official note of this "blest despatch," forwarded by courier to Bath, which brought "the heavy news" to Pitt, and, it is believed, hastened his death.]

[Footnote 8: August Frederick Ferdinand von Kotzebue (1761-1819), whom Coleridge appraised as "the German Beaumont and Fletcher without their poetic powers," and Carlyle as "a bundle of dyed rags," wrote over a hundred plays, publishing twenty within a few years.

An adaptation of 'Misanthropy and Repentance' as 'The Stranger', Sheridan's 'Pizarro', and Lewis' 'Castle Spectre' are well-known instances of his powerful influence on English dramatists.

"The Present," writes Sara Coleridge, in a note to one of her father's letters, "will ever have her special votaries in the world of letters, who collect into their focus, by a kind of burning-gla.s.s, the feelings of the day. Amongst such Kotzebue holds a high rank. Those 'dyed rags'

of his once formed gorgeous banners, and flaunted in the eyes of refined companies from London to Madrid, from Paris to Moscow."

Coleridge's 'Biographia Literaria' (1847), ii. 227.]

[Footnote 9: A translation of Christopher Meiner's 'History of the Female s.e.x', in four volumes, was published in London in 1808. Lapland wizards, not witches, were said to raise storms by knotting pieces of string, which they exposed to the wind.]

[Footnote 10: Richard Franz Philippe Brunck (1729-1803). His editions of the 'Anthologia Graeca', and of the Greek dramatists are among his best known works. Compare Sheridan's doggerel--

"Huge leaves of that great commentator, old Brunck, Perhaps is the paper that lined my poor 'Trunk'."]

[Footnote 11: Christian Gottlob Heyne (1729-1812) published editions of 'Virgil' (1767-1775), 'Pindar' (1773), and 'Opuscula Academica', in six vols. (1785-1812).]

[Footnote 12: A lively dance for one couple, characterized by a peculiar jumping step. It probably originated in Provence.]

[Footnote 13: Dancing girls--who do for hire what Waltz doth gratis.

[The Romaika is a modern Greek dance, characterized by serpentining figures and handkerchief-throwing among the dancers. The Fandango (Spaniards use the word "seguidilla") was of Moorish origin. The Bolero was brought from Provence, circ. 1780.

"The Bolero intoxicates, the Fandango inflames"

('Hist. of Dancing', by G. Vuillier-Heinemann, 1898).]]

[Footnote 14: For Morier, see note to line 211. Galt has a paragraph descriptive of the waltzing Dervishes ('Voyages and Travels' (1812), p.190).]

[Footnote 15: It cannot be complained now, as in the Lady Baussiere's time, of the "Sieur de la Croix," that there be "no whiskers;" but how far these are indications of valour in the field, or elsewhere, may still be questionable. Much may be, and hath been;[A] avouched on both sides. In the olden time philosophers had whiskers, and soldiers none--Scipio himself was shaven--Hannibal thought his one eye handsome enough without a beard; but Adrian, the emperor, wore a beard (having warts on his chin, which neither the Empress Sabina nor even the courtiers could abide)--Turenne had whiskers, Marlborough none--Buonaparte is unwhiskered, the Regent whiskered; "'argal'"

greatness of mind and whiskers may or may not go together; but certainly the different occurrences, since the growth of the last mentioned, go further in behalf of whiskers than the anathema of Anselm did 'against' long hair in the reign of Henry I.--Formerly, 'red'

was a favourite colour. See Lodowick Barrey's comedy of 'Ram Alley', 1661; Act I. Scene I.

'Taffeta'. Now for a wager--What coloured beard comes next by the window?

'Adriana'. A black man's, I think.

'Taffeta'. I think not so: I think a 'red', for that is most in fashion.

There is "nothing new under the sun:" but 'red', then a 'favourite', has now subsided into a favourite's colour. [This is, doubtless, an allusion to Lord Yarmouth, whose fiery whiskers gained him the nickname of "Red Herrings."]

[Sub-Footnote A: The paragraph "Much may be" down to "reign of Henry I." was added in Revise 1, and the remainder of the note in Revise 2.]]

[Footnote 16: Madame Genlis (Stephanie Felicite Ducrest, Marquise de Sillery), commenting on the waltz, writes,

"As a foreigner, I shall not take the liberty to censure this kind of dance; but this I can say, that it appears intolerable to German writers of superior merits who are not accused of severity of manners,"

and by way of example instances M. Jacobi, who affirms that "Werther ('Sorrows of Werther', Letter ix.), the lover of Charlotte, swears that, were he to perish for it, never should a girl for whom he entertained any affection, and on whom he had honourable views, dance the waltz with any other man besides himself."--'Selections from the Works of Madame de Genlis' (1806), p. 65.

Compare, too, "Faulkland" on country-dances in 'The Rivals', act ii. sc.