The Works of Lord Byron Volume III Part 14

[q] {24} _Oh! what can tongue or pen avail_ _Unless my heart could speak_.--[MS. M.]

[19] [These lines, which are undoubtedly genuine, were published for the first time in the sixth edition of _Poems on his Domestic Circ.u.mstances_ (W. Hone, 1816). They were first included by Murray in the collected _Poetical Works_, in vol. xvii., 1832.]

[20] ["The princ.i.p.al streets of the city of Valetta are flights of stairs."--_Gazetteer of the World_.]

[21] {25} [Major-General Hildebrand Oakes (1754-1822) succeeded Admiral Sir Richard Goodwin Keates as "his Majesty's commissioner for the affairs of Malta," April 27, 1810. There was an outbreak of plague during his tenure of office (1810-13).--_Annual Register_, 1810, p. 320; _Dict. Nat. Biog._, art. "Oakes."]

[22] ["Lord Byron ... was once _rather near_ fighting a duel--and that was with an officer of the staff of General Oakes at Malta"

(1809).--_Westminster Review_, January, 1825, iii. 21 (by J. C.

Hobhouse). (See, too, _Life_ (First Edition, 1830, 4to), i. 202, 222.)]

[23] [On March 13, 1811, Captain (Sir William) Hoste (1780-1828) defeated a combined French and Italian squadron off the island of Lissa, on the Dalmatian coast. "The French commodore's ship _La Favorite_ was burnt, himself (Dubourdieu) being killed." The four victorious frigates with their prizes arrived at Malta, March 31, when the garrison "ran out unarmed to receive and hail them." The _Volage_, in which Byron returned to England, took part in the engagement. Captain Hoste had taken a prize off Fiume in the preceding year.--_Annual Register_, 1811; _Memoirs and Letters of Sir W. Hoste_, ii. 79.]

[24] {26} ["We have had b.a.l.l.s and fetes given us by all cla.s.ses here, and it is impossible to convey to you the sensation our success has given rise to."--_Memoirs and Letters of Sir W. Hoste_, ii. 82.]

[25] [Mrs. (Susan) Fraser published, in 1809, "_Camilla de Florian_ (the scene is laid in Valetta) _and Other Poems._ By an Officer's Wife."

Byron was, no doubt, struck by her admiration for Macpherson's _Ossian_, and had read with interest her version of "The Address to the Sun," in _Carthon_, p. 31 (see _Poetical Works_, 1898, i. 229). He may, too, have regarded with favour some stanzas in honour of the _Bolero_ (p. 82), which begin, "When, my Love, supinely _laying_."]

[26] {27} [Byron left Malta for England June 13, 1811. (See Letter to H.

Drury, July 17, 1811, _Letters_, 1898, i. 318.)]

[r] {28} _And mine was the pride and the worth of a name_--[MS. M.]

[s] _It tells not of time_----.--[MS. M.]

[27] Francis Hodgson.

[28] {30} [Hodgson stipulated that the last twelve lines should be omitted, but Moore disregarded his wishes, and included the poem as it stands in his _Life_. A marginal note ran thus: "N.B. The poor dear soul meant nothing of this. F.H."--_Memoir of Rev. Francis Hodgson_, 1878, i.

212.]

[t] _On the death of----Thyrza_.--[MS.]

[29] [The following note on the ident.i.ty of Thyrza has been communicated to the Editor:--

"The ident.i.ty of Thyrza and the question whether the person addressed under this name really existed, or was an imaginary being, have given rise to much speculation and discussion of a more or less futile kind.

"This difficulty is now incapable of definite and authoritative solution, and the allusions in the verses in some respects disagree with things said by Lord Byron later. According to the poems, Thyrza had met him

"' ... many a day In these, to me, deserted towers.'

(Newstead, October 11, 1811.)

"'When stretched on fever's sleepless bed.'

(At Patras, about September, 1810.)

"'Death for thee Prepared a light and pangless dart.'

"'And oft I thought at Cynthia's noon, When sailing o'er the aegean wave, "Now Thyrza gazes on that moon"-- Alas, it gleam'd upon her grave!'

(_One struggle more, and I am free_.)

"Finally, in the verses of October 11, 1811--

"'The pledge we wore--_I_ wear it still, But where is thine?--Ah! where art thou?'

"There can be no doubt that Lord Byron referred to Thyrza in conversation with Lady Byron, and probably also with Mrs. Leigh, as a young girl who had existed, and the date of whose death almost coincided with Lord Byron's landing in England in 1811. On one occasion he showed Lady Byron a beautiful tress of hair, which she understood to be Thyrza's. He said he had never mentioned her name, and that now she was gone his breast was the sole depository of that secret. 'I took the name of Thyrza from Gesner. She was Abel's wife.'

"Thyrza is mentioned in a letter from Elizabeth, d.u.c.h.ess of Devonshire, to Augustus Foster (London, May 4, 1812): 'Your little friend, Caro William (Lady Caroline Lamb), as usual, is doing all sorts of imprudent things for him (Lord Byron) and with him; he admires her very much, but is supposed by some to admire our Caroline (the Hon. Mrs. George Lamb) more; he says she is like Thyrsa, and her singing is enchantment to him.' From this extract it is obvious that Thyrza is alluded to in the following lines, which, with the above quotation, may be reproduced, by kind permission of Mr. Vere Foster, from his most interesting book, _The Two d.u.c.h.esses_ (1898, pp. 362-374).

"'Verses Addressed by Lord Byron in the year 1812 to the Hon. Mrs.

George Lamb.

"'The sacred song that on my ear Yet vibrates from that voice of thine I heard before from one so dear, 'Tis strange it still appears divine.

But oh! so sweet that _look_ and _tone_ To her and thee alike is given; It seemed as if for me alone That _both_ had been recalled from Heaven.

And though I never can redeem The vision thus endeared to me, I scarcely can regret my dream When realized again by thee.'"

(It may be noted that the name Thirza, or Thyrza, a variant of Theresa, had been familiar to Byron in his childhood. In the Preface to _Cain_ he writes, "Gesner's _Death of Abel!_ I have never read since I was eight years of age at Aberdeen. The general impression of my recollection is delight; but of the contents I remember only that Cain's wife was called Mahala, and Abel's Thirza." Another and more immediate suggestion of the name may be traced to the following translation of Meleager's Epitaphium _In Heliodoram_, which one of the "a.s.sociate bards," Bland, or Merivale, or Hodgson, contributed to their _Translations chiefly from the Greek Anthology_, 1806, p. 4, a work which Byron singles out for commendation in _English Bards_, etc, (lines 881-890):--

"Tears o'er my parted Thyrza's grave I shed, Affection's fondest tribute to the dead.

Break, break my heart, o'ercharged with bursting woe An empty offering to the shades below!

Ah, plant regretted! Death's remorseless power, With dust unfruitful checked thy full-blown flower.

Take, earth, the gentle inmate to thy breast, And soft-embosomed let my Thyrza rest."

The MSS. of "To Thyrza," "Away, away, ye notes of Woe!" "One struggle more, and I am free," and, "And thou art dead, as young and fair," which belonged originally to Mrs. Leigh, are now in the possession of Sir Theodore Martin, K.C.B.--Editor.)]

[30] [For the subst.i.tution in the present issue of continuous lines for stanzas, Byron's own authority and mandate may be quoted. "In reading the 4th vol.... I perceive that piece 12 ('Without a Stone') is made nonsense of (that is, greater nonsense than usual) by dividing it into stanzas 1, 2, etc."--Letter to John Murray, August 26, 1815, _Letters_, 1899, iii. 215.]

[u] _And soothe if such could soothe thy shade_.--[MS. erased.]

[v] {31} _By many a land_----.--[MS.]

[w] {33} _And shall they not_----.--[MS.]

[x] ----_the walk aside_.--[MS.]

[y]

(_a_) _The kiss that left no sting behind_ _So guiltless Pa.s.sion thus forbore;_ _Those eyes bespoke so pure a mind,_ / _plead_ _That Love forgot to_ { } _for more_.

_ask_ /

(_b_) _The kiss that left no sting behind,_ _So guiltless Love each wish forebore;_ _Those eyes proclaimed so pure a mind,_ _That Pa.s.sion blushed to smile for more_.-- [Pencilled alternative stanzas.]

[z] {34} _Well hast thou fled_----.--[MS. erased.]

[aa]

_If judging from my present pain_ _That rest alone_----.--[MS. erased.]

_If rest alone is in the tomb_.--[MS.]

[ab] _So let it be my hope in Heaven_.--[MS. erased]