The Works of Lord Byron Volume II Part 53

?s?????? t' ????a? ?p???s?t?? [I)sono/mous t' A)the/nas e)poiesa/ten]

"Hence," says Mr. Tozer, "'the sword in myrtles drest' (Keble's _Christian Year_, Third Sunday in Lent) became the emblem of a.s.sertors of liberty."--_Childe Harold_, 1885, p. 262.]

3.

And all went merry as a marriage bell.

Stanza xxi. line 8.

On the night previous to the action, it is said that a ball was given at Brussels. [See notes to the text.]

4.

And Evan's--Donald's fame rings in each clansman's ears!

Stanza xxvi. line 9.

Sir Evan Cameron, and his descendant, Donald, the "gentle Lochiel" of the "forty-five."

[Sir Evan Cameron (1629-1719) fought against Cromwell, finally yielding on honourable terms to Monk, June 5, 1658, and for James II. at Killiecrankie, June 17, 1689. His grandson, Donald Cameron of Lochiel (1695-1748), celebrated by Campbell, in _Lochiel's Warning_, 1802, was wounded at Culloden, April 16, 1746. His great-great-grandson, John Cameron, of Fa.s.sieferne (b. 1771), in command of the 92nd Highlanders, was mortally wounded at Quatre-Bras, June 16, 1815. Compare Scott's stanzas, _The Dance of Death_, lines 33, _sq_.--

"Where through battle's rout and reel, Storm of shot and hedge of steel, Led the grandson of Lochiel, Valiant Fa.s.siefern.

And Morven long shall tell, And proud Ben Nevis hear with awe, How, upon b.l.o.o.d.y Quatre-Bras, Brave Cameron heard the wild hurra Of conquest as he fell."

Compare, too, Scott's _Field of Waterloo_, stanza xxi. lines 14, 15--

"And Cameron, in the shock of steel.

Die like the offspring of Lochiel."]

5.

And Ardennes waves above them her green leaves.

Stanza xxvii. line 1.

The wood of Soignies is supposed to be a remnant of the forest of Ardennes, famous in Bojardo's _Orlando_, and immortal in Shakspeare's _As You Like It_. It is also celebrated in Tacitus, as being the spot of successful defence by the Germans against the Roman encroachments. I have ventured to adopt the name connected with n.o.bler a.s.sociations than those of mere slaughter.

[It is a far cry from Soignies in South Brabant to Ardennes in Luxembourg. Possibly Byron is confounding the "saltus quibus nomen Arduenna" (Tacitus, _Ann._, 3. 42), the scene of the revolt of the Treviri, with the "saltus Teutoburgiensis" (the Teutoburgen or Lippische Wald, which divides Lippe Detmold from Westphalia), where Arminius defeated the Romans (Tacitus, _Ann_., 1. 60). (For Boiardo's "Ardenna,"

see _Orlando Innamorato_, lib. i. canto 2, st. 30.) Shakespeare's Arden, the "immortal" forest, in _As You Like It_, "favours" his own Arden in Warwickshire, but derived its name from the "forest of Arden" in Lodge's _Rosalynd_.]

6.

I turned from all she brought to those she could not bring.

Stanza x.x.x. line 9.

My guide from Mount St. Jean over the field seemed intelligent and accurate. The place where Major Howard fell was not far from two tall and solitary trees (there was a third cut down, or shivered in the battle), which stand a few yards from each other at a pathway's side.

Beneath these he died and was buried. The body has since been removed to England. A small hollow for the present marks where it lay, but will probably soon be effaced; the plough has been upon it, and the grain is.

After pointing out the different spots where Picton and other gallant men had perished; the guide said, "Here Major Howard lay: I was near him when wounded." I told him my relationship, and he seemed then still more anxious to point out the particular spot and circ.u.mstances. The place is one of the most marked in the field, from the peculiarity of the two trees above mentioned. I went on horseback twice over the field, comparing it with my recollection of similar scenes. As a plain, Waterloo seems marked out for the scene of some great action, though this may be mere imagination: I have viewed with attention those of Platea, Troy, Mantinea, Leuctra, Chaeronea, and Marathon; and the field around Mount St. Jean and Hougoumont appears to want little but a better cause, and that undefinable but impressive halo which the lapse of ages throws around a celebrated spot, to vie in interest with any or all of these, except, perhaps, the last mentioned.

[For particulars of the death of Major Howard, see _Personal Memoirs, etc._, by Pryse Lockhart Gordon, 1830, ii. 322, 323.]

7.

Like to the apples on the Dead Sea's sh.o.r.e.

Stanza x.x.xiv. line 6.

The (fabled) apples on the brink of the lake Asphalt.i.tes were said to be fair without, and, within, ashes.

[Compare Tacitus, _Histor._, lib. v. 7, "Cuncta sponte edita, aut manu sata, sive herbae tenues, aut flores, ut solitam in speciem adolevere, atra et inania velut in cinerem vanesc.u.n.t." See, too, _Deut._ x.x.xii. 32, "For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah: their grapes are grapes of gall, their cl.u.s.ters are bitter."

They are a species of gall-nut, and are described by Curzon (_Visits to Monasteries of the Levant_, 1897, p. 141), who met with the tree that bears them, near the Dead Sea, and, mistaking the fruit for a ripe plum, proceeded to eat one, whereupon his mouth was filled "with a dry bitter dust."

"The apple of Sodom ... is supposed by some to refer to the fruit of _Solanum Sodomeum_ (allied to the tomato), by others to the _Calotropis procera_" (_N. Eng. Dict._, art. "Apple").]

8.

For sceptred Cynics Earth were far too wide a den.

Stanza xli. line 9.

The great error of Napoleon, "if we have writ our annals true," was a continued obtrusion on mankind of his want of all community of feeling for or with them; perhaps more offensive to human vanity than the active cruelty of more trembling and suspicious tyranny. Such were his speeches to public a.s.semblies as well as individuals; and the single expression which he is said to have used on returning to Paris after the Russian winter had destroyed his army, rubbing his hands over a fire, "This is pleasanter than Moscow," would probably alienate more favour from his cause than the destruction and reverses which led to the remark.

9.

What want these outlaws conquerors should have?

Stanza xlviii. line 6.

"What wants that knave that a king should have?" was King James's question on meeting Johnny Armstrong and his followers in full accoutrements. See the Ballad.

[Johnie Armstrong, the laird of Gilnockie, on the occasion of an enforced surrender to James V. (1532), came before the king somewhat too richly accoutred, and was hanged for his effrontery--

"There hang nine targats at Johnie's hat, And ilk ane worth three hundred pound-- 'What wants that knave a king suld have But the sword of honour and the crown'?"

_Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border_, 1821, i. 127.]

10.

The castled Crag of Drachenfels.

Song, stanza 1, line 1.

The castle of Drachenfels stands on the highest summit of "the Seven Mountains," over the Rhine banks; it is in ruins, and connected with some singular traditions. It is the first in view on the road from Bonn, but on the opposite side of the river: on this bank, nearly facing it, are the remains of another, called the Jew's Castle, and a large cross, commemorative of the murder of a chief by his brother. The number of castles and cities along the course of the Rhine on both sides is very great, and their situations remarkably beautiful.

[The castle of Drachenfels (Dragon's Rock) stands on the summit of one, but not the highest, of the Siebengebirge, an isolated group of volcanic hills on the right bank of the Rhine between Remagen and Bonn. The legend runs that in one of the caverns of the rock dwelt the dragon which was slain by Siegfried, the hero of the Nibelungen Lied. Hence the _vin du pays_ is called _Drachenblut_.]

11.

The whiteness of his soul--and thus men o'er him wept.

Stanza lvii. line 9.

The monument of the young and lamented General Marceau (killed by a rifle-ball at Alterkirchen, on the last day of the fourth year of the French Republic) still remains as described. The inscriptions on his monument are rather too long, and not required: his name was enough; France adored, and her enemies admired; both wept over him. His funeral was attended by the generals and detachments from both armies. In the same grave General Hoche is interred, a gallant man also in every sense of the word; but though he distinguished himself greatly in battle, he had not the good fortune to die there: his death was attended by suspicions of poison.

A separate monument (not over his body, which is buried by Marceau's) is raised for him near Andernach, opposite to which one of his most memorable exploits was performed, in throwing a bridge to an island on the Rhine [April 18, 1797]. The shape and style are different from that of Marceau's, and the inscription more simple and pleasing.