The Works of Lord Byron Volume II Part 15

[93] [One bull-fight, one matador. In describing the last act Byron confuses the _chulos_ or cloak-waving footmen, who had already played their part, with the single champion, the matador, who is about to administer the _coup de grace_.]

[dd] ----_he lies along the sand._--[MS. erased.]

[de]

_The trophy corse is reared--disgusting prize_.

or, _The corse is reared--sparkling the chariot flies_.--[MS. M.]

[94] [Compare Virgil, _aeneid_, viii. 264--

"Pedibusque informe cadaver Protrahitur. Nequeunt expleri corda tuendo--"]

[95] {72} "The Spaniards are as revengeful as ever. At Santa Otella, I heard a young peasant threaten to stab a woman (an old one, to be sure, which mitigates the offence), and was told, on expressing some small surprise, that this ethic was by no means uncommon."--[MS.]

[96] [Byron's "orthodoxy" of the word "centinel" was suggested by the Spanish _centinela_, or, perhaps, by Spenser's "centonell" (_Faerie Queene_, bk. i. c. ix. st. 41, line 8).]

[df]

_And all whereat the wandering soul revolts_ _Which that stern dotard dreamed he could encage_.--[MS. erased.]

[dg] {73} _Full from the heart of Joy's delicious springs_ _Some Bitter bubbles up, and even on Roses stings_.--[MS.]

[97] [The Dallas Transcript reads "itself," but the MS. and earlier editions "herself."]

[dh] {74} _Had buried then his hopes, no more to rise:_ _Drugged with dull pleasure! life-abhorring Gloom_ _Wrote on his faded brow curst Cain's wandering doom_.-- [MS. erased.]

_Had buried there_.--[MS. D.]

[98] [Byron's belief or, rather, haunting dread, that he was predestined to evil is to be traced to the Calvinistic teaching of his boyhood (compare _Childe Harold_, Canto III. stanza lxx. lines 8, 9; and Canto IV. stanza x.x.xiv. line 6). Lady Byron regarded this creed of despair as the secret of her husband's character, and the source of his aberrations. In a letter to H. C. Robinson, March 5, 1855, she writes, "Not merely from casual expressions, but from the whole tenour of Lord Byron's feelings, I could not but conclude he was a believer in the inspiration of the Bible, and had the gloomiest Calvinistic tenets. To that unhappy view of the relation of the creature to the Creator, I have always ascribed the misery of his life.... Instead of being made happier by any apparent good, he felt convinced that every blessing would be 'turned into a curse' to him. Who, possessed by such ideas, could lead a life of love and service to G.o.d or man? They must in a measure realize themselves. 'The worst of it is, I _do_ believe,' he said. I, like all connected with him, was broken against the rock of predestination."]

[99] {75} "Stanzas to be inserted after stanza 86th in _Childe Harold's Pilgrimage_, instead of the song at present in ma.n.u.script."-[MS. note to "To Inez."] [The stanzas _To Inez_ are dated January 25, 1810, on which day Byron and Hobhouse visited Marathon. Most likely they were addressed to Theresa Macri, the "Maid of Athens," or some favourite of the moment, and not to "Florence" (Mrs. Spencer Smith), whom he had recently (January 16) declared _emerita_ to the tune of "The spell is broke, the charm is flown." A fortnight later (February 10), Hobhouse, accompanied by the Albanian Vasilly and the Athenian Demetrius, set out for the Negroponte. "Lord Byron was unexpectedly detained at Athens" (_Travels in Albania_, i. 390). (For the stanzas to _The Girl of Cadiz_, which were suppressed in favour of those _To Inez,_ see _Poetical Works_, 1891, p. 14, and vol. iii. of the present issue.)]

[100] {76} [Compare Horace, _Odes_, II. xvi. 19, 20--

"Patriae quis exsul Se quoque fugit?"]

[di]

_To other zones howe'er remote_ _Still, still pursuing clings to me._--[MS. erased.]

[101] [Compare Prior's _Solomon_, bk. iii. lines 85, 86--

"In the remotest wood and lonely grot Certain to meet that worst of evils--_thought."_]

[102] {77} [Cadiz was captured from the Moors by Alonso el Sabio, in 1262. It narrowly escaped a siege, January-February, 1810. Soult commenced a "serious bombardment," May 16, 1812, but, three months later, August 24, the siege was broken up. Stanza lx.x.xv. is not in the original MS.]

[103] {78} [Charles IV. abdicated March 19, 1808, in favour of his son Ferdinand VII.; and in the following May, Charles once more abdicated on his own behalf, and Ferdinand for himself and his heirs, in favour of Napoleon. Thenceforward Charles was an exile, and Ferdinand a prisoner at Valencay, and Spain, so far as the Bourbons were concerned, remained "kingless," until motives of policy procured the release of the latter, who re-entered his kingdom March 22, 1814.]

[dj]

Ye, who would more of Spain and Spaniards know, Sights, Saints, Antiques, Arts, Anecdotes and War, Go hie ye hence to Paternoster Row-- Are they not written in the Boke of Carr,[-1]

Green Erin's Knight and Europe's wandering star!

Then listen, Readers, to the Man of Ink, Hear what he did, and sought, and wrote afar; All those are cooped within one Quarto's brink, This borrow, steal,--don't buy,--and tell us what you think.

There may you read with spectacles on eyes, How many Wellesleys did embark for Spain,[-2]

As if therein they meant to colonise, How many troops y-crossed the laughing main That ne'er beheld the said return again: How many buildings are in such a place, How many leagues from this to yonder plain, How many relics each cathedral grace, And where Giralda stands on her gigantic base.[-3]

There may you read (Oh, Phoebus, save Sir John!

That these my words prophetic may not err)[-4]

All that was said, or sung, and lost, or won, By vaunting Wellesley or by blundering Frere,[-a]

He that wrote half the "Needy Knife-Grinder,"[-5]

Thus Poesy the way to grandeur paves--[-b]

Who would not such diplomatists prefer?

But cease, my Muse, thy speed some respite craves, Leave legates to the House, and armies to their graves.

Yet here of Vulpes mention may be made,[-c][-6]

Who for the Junta modelled sapient laws, Taught them to govern ere they were obeyed: Certes fit teacher to command, because His soul Socratic no Xantippe awes; Blest with a Dame in Virtue's bosom nurst,-- With her let silent Admiration pause!-- True to her second husband and her first: On such unshaken fame let Satire do its worst.

[-1] "Porphyry said that the prophecies of Daniel were written after their completion, and such may be my fate here; but it requires no second sight to foretell a tome; the first glimpse of the knight was enough."--[MS.]

["I have seen Sir John Carr at Seville and Cadiz, and, like Swift's barber, have been down on my knees to beg he would not put me into black and white" (letter to Hodgson, August 6, 1809, _Letters_, 1898, i. 235, note).]

[-2] "I presume Marquis and Mr. and Pole and Sir A. are returned by this time, and eke the bewildered Frere whose conduct was canva.s.sed by the Commons."--[MS.]

[A motion which had been brought forward in the House of Commons, February 24, 1809, "to inquire into the causes ...of the late campaign in Spain," was defeated, but the Government recalled J. Hookham Frere, British Minister to the Supreme Junta, and nominated the Marquis Wellesley Amba.s.sador Extraordinary to Seville. Wellesley landed in Spain early in August, but a duel which took place, September 21, between Perceval and Canning led to changes in the ministry, and, with a view to taking office, he left Cadiz November 10, 1809. His brother, Henry Wellesley (1773-1847, first Baron Cowley), succeeded him as Envoy Extraordinary. If "Mr." stands for Henry Wellesley, "Pole" may be William Wellesley Pole, afterwards third Earl of Mornington.]

[-3] [The base of the Giralda, the cathedral tower at Seville, is a square of fifty feet. The pinnacle of the filigree belfry, which surmounts the original Moorish tower, "is crowned with _El Girardillo_, a bronze statue of _La Fe_, The Faith.... Although 14 feet high, and weighing 2800 lbs., it turns with the slightest breeze."--Ford's _Handbook for Spain_, i. 174.]

[-4] [_Vide ante_, p. 78, note 2.]

[-a] _By shrivelled Wellesley_----.--[MS. erased.]

[-b]

_None better known for doing things by halves_ _As many in our Senate did aver_.--[MS. erased.]

[-c] _Yet surely Vulpes merits some applause_.--[MS. erased.]

[-5] "The Needy Knife-grinder," in the _Anti-Jacobin_, was a joint production of Messrs. Frere and Canning.

[-6] [Henry Richard Va.s.sall Fox, second Lord Holland (1773-1840), accompanied Sir David Baird to Corunna, September, 1808, and made a prolonged tour in Spain, returning in the autumn of 1809. He suggested to the Junta of Seville to extend their functions as a committee of defence, and proposed a new const.i.tution. His wife, Elizabeth Va.s.sall, the daughter of a rich Jamaica planter, was first married (June 27, 1786) to Sir G.o.dfrey Webster, Bart. Sir G.o.dfrey divorced his wife July 3, 1797, and three days later she was married to Lord Holland. She had lived with him for some time previously, and before the divorce had borne him a son, Charles Richard Fox (1796-1873), who was acknowledged by Lord Holland.]

[104] {81} [Stanzas lx.x.xviii.-xciii., which record the battles of Barossa (March 5, 1811) and Albuera (May 16, 1811), and the death of Byron's school-friend Wingfield (May 14, 1811), were written at Newstead in August, 1811, and take the place of four omitted stanzas (_q.v.

supra_).]

[105] [Francisco Pizarro (1480-1541), with his brothers, Hernando, Juan Gonzalo, and his half-brother Martin de Alcantara, having revisited Spain, set sail for Panama in 1530. During his progress southward from Panama, he took the island of Puna, which formed part of the province of Quito. His defeat and treacherous capture of Atuahalpa, King of Quito, younger brother of Huascar the Supreme Inca, took place in 1532, near the town of Caxamarca, in Peno (_Mod. Univ. History_, 1763, x.x.xviii.

295, _seq._). Spain's weakness during the Napoleonic invasion was the opportunity of her colonies. Quito, the capital of Ecuador, rose in rebellion, August 10, 1810, and during the same year Mexico and La Plata began their long struggle for independence.]

[106] {82} [During the American War of Independence (1775-83), and afterwards during the French Revolution, it was the custom to plant trees as "symbols of growing freedom." The French trees were decorated with "caps of Liberty." No such trees had ever been planted in Spain.

(See note by the Rev. E.C. Everard Owen, _Childe Harold_, 1897, p.

158.)]

[dk]

_And thou, my friend! since thus my selfish woe_ {_to weaken in_ _Bursts from my heart,_ {_however light my strain,_ {_for ever light the_----.--[D.]

_Had the sword laid thee, with the mighty, low_ _Pride had forbade me of thy fall to plain_.--[MS. D.]