The Works of Lord Byron Volume III Part 80

_Monuments that the coming age_ _Leaves to the spoil of the season's rage_-- _Till Ruin makes the relics scarce_, _Then Learning acts her solemn farce_, _And, roaming through the marble waste_, _Prates of beauty, art, and taste_.

XIX.

_That Temple was more in the midst of the plain_-- or, _What of that shrine did yet remain_ _Lay to his left more in midst of the plain_.--[MS. G.]

[364] [From this all is beautiful to--"He saw not--he knew not--but nothing is there."--Gifford. For "pillar's base," compare _Childe Harold_, Canto II. stanza x. line 2, _Poetical Works_, 1899, ii. 105.]

[ps] {471} _Is it the wind that through the stone._ or,----_o'er the heavy stone_.--[MS. G. erased.]

[365] I must here acknowledge a close, though unintentional, resemblance in these twelve lines to a pa.s.sage in an unpublished poem of Mr.

Coleridge, called "Christabel." It was not till after these lines were written that I heard that wild and singularly original and beautiful poem recited; and the MS. of that production I never saw till very recently, by the kindness of Mr. Coleridge himself, who, I hope, is convinced that I have not been a wilful plagiarist. The original idea undoubtedly pertains to Mr. Coleridge, whose poem has been composed above fourteen years. Let me conclude by a hope that he will not longer delay the publication of a production, of which I can only add my mite of approbation to the applause of far more competent judges.

[The lines in _Christabel_, Part the First, 43-52, 57, 58, are these--

"The night is chill; the forest bare; Is it the wind that moaneth bleak?

There is not wind enough in the air To move away the ringlet curl From the lovely lady's cheek-- There is not wind enough to twirl The one red leaf, the last of its clan, That dances as often as dance it can, Hanging so light, and hanging so high, On the topmost twig that looks up at the sky."

" ... What sees she there?

There she sees a damsel bright, Drest in a silken robe of white."

Byron (_vide ante_, p. 443), in a letter to Coleridge, dated October 27, 1815, had already expressly guarded himself against a charge of plagiarism, by explaining that lines 521-532 of stanza xix. were written before he heard Walter Scott repeat _Christabel_ in the preceding June.

Now, as Byron himself perceived, perhaps for the first time, when he had the MS. of _Christabel_ before him, the coincidence in language and style between the two pa.s.sages is unquestionable; and, as he hoped and expected that Coleridge's fragment, when completed, would issue from the press, he was anxious to avoid even the semblance of pilfering, and went so far as to suggest that the pa.s.sage should be cancelled. Neither in the private letter nor the published note does Byron attempt to deny or explain away the coincidence, but pleads that his lines were written before he had heard Coleridge's poem recited, and that he had not been guilty of a "wilful plagiarism." There is no difficulty in accepting his statement. Long before the summer of 1815 _Christabel_ "had a pretty general circulation in the literary world" (Medwin, _Conversations_, 1824, p. 261), and he may have heard without heeding this and other pa.s.sages quoted by privileged readers; or, though never a line of _Christabel_ had sounded in his ears, he may (as Kolbing points out) have caught its lilt at second hand from the published works of Southey, or of Scott himself.

Compare _Thalaba the Destroyer_, v. 20 (1838, iv. 187)--

"What sound is borne on the wind?

Is it the storm that shakes The thousand oaks of the forest?

Is it the river's roar Dashed down some rocky descent?" etc.

Or compare _The Lay of the Last Minstrel_, I. xii. 5. _seq._ (1812, p.

24)--

"And now she sits in secret bower In old Lord David's western tower, And listens to a heavy sound, That moans the mossy turrets round.

Is it the roar of Teviot's tide, That chafes against the scaur's red side?

Is it the wind that swings the oaks?

Is it the echo from the rocks?" etc.

Certain lines of Coleridge's did, no doubt, "find themselves" in the _Siege of Corinth_, having found their way to the younger poet's ear and fancy before the Lady of the vision was directly and formally introduced to his notice.]

[pt] {473}_There sate a lady young and bright_.--[MS. G. erased.]

[366] [Contemporary critics fell foul of these lines for various reasons. The _Critical Review_ (February, 1816, vol. iii. p. 151) remarks that "the following couplet [i.e. lines 531, 532] reminds us of the _persiflage_ of Lewis or the pathos of a vulgar ballad;" while the _Dublin Examiner_ (May, 1816, vol. i. p. 19) directs a double charge against the founders of the schism and their proselyte: "If the c.u.mberland _Lakers_ were not well known to be personages of the most pious and saintly temperament, we would really have serious apprehensions lest our n.o.ble Poet should come to any harm in consequence of the envy which the two following lines and a great many others through the poems, might excite by their successful rivalship of some of the finest effects of babyism that these Gentlemen can boast."]

[pu] _He would have made it_----.--[MS. G. erased.]

[pv] _She who would_----.--[MS. G. erased.]

[pw] {474} _The ocean spread before their view_.--[Copy.]

[367] ["And its _thrilling_ glance, etc."--Gifford.]

[368] [Warton (_Observations en the Fairy Queen_, 1807, ii. 131), commenting on Spenser's famous description of "Una and the Lion" (_Faery Queene_, Book I. canto iii. stanzas 5, 6, 7), quotes the following pa.s.sage from _Seven Champions of Christendom_: "Now, Sabra, I have by this sufficiently proved thy true virginitie: for it is the nature of a lion, be he never so furious, not to harme the unspotted virgin, but humbly to lay his bristled head upon a maiden's lap."

Byron, according to Leigh Hunt (_Lord Byron and some of his Contemporaries_, 1828, i. 77), could not "see anything" in Spenser, and was not familiar with the _Fairy Queen_; but he may have had in mind Scott's allusion to Spenser's Una--

"Harpers have sung and poets told That he, in fury uncontrolled, The s.h.a.ggy monarch of the wood, Before a virgin, fair and good, Hath pacified his savage mood."

_Marmion_, Canto II. stanza vii. line 3, _seq_.

(See Kolbing's note to _Siege of Corinth_, 1893, pp. 110-112.)]

[px] {476} _She laid her fingers on his hand_, _Its coldness thrilled through every bone_.--[MS. G. erased.]

[py] _As he looked on her face_----.--[MS. G.]

[pz] ----_on her bosom's swell_.--[MS. G. erased. Copy.]

[369] [Compare Shakespeare, _Macbeth_, act v. sc. 1, line 30--

"You see, her eyes are open, Aye, but their sense is shut."

Compare, too, _Christabel_, Conclusion to Part the First (lines 292, 293)--

"With open eyes (ah, woe is me!) Asleep, and dreaming fearfully."]

[qa] {477} _Like a picture, that magic had charmed from its frame_, _Lifeless but life-like, and ever the same_.

or, _Like a picture come forth from its canvas and frame_.-- [MS. G. erased.]

[qb]

_And seen_----.--[MS. G.]

----_its fleecy mail_.--[MS. G. erased.]

[370] [In the summer of 1803, Byron, then turned fifteen, though offered a bed at Annesley, used at first to return every night to Newstead; alleging that he was afraid of the family pictures of the Chaworths, which he fancied "had taken a grudge to him on account of the duel, and would come down from their frames to haunt him." Moore thinks this pa.s.sage may have been suggested by the recollection (_Life_, p. 27).

Compare _Lara_, Canto I. stanza xi. line 1, _seq_. (_vide ante_, p. 331, note 1).]

[371] [Compare Southey's _Roderick_, Canto XXI. (ed. 1838, ix. 195)--

" ... and till the grave Open, the gate of mercy is not closed."]

[372] {478} I have been told that the idea expressed in this and the five following lines has been admired by those whose approbation is valuable. I am glad of it; but it is not original--at least not mine; it may be found much better expressed in pages 182-3-4 of the English version of "Vathek" (I forget the precise page of the French), a work to which I have before referred; and never recur to, or read, without a renewal of gratification.--[The following is the pa.s.sage: "'Deluded prince!' said the Genius, addressing the Caliph ... 'This moment is the last, of grace, allowed thee: ... give back Nouronihar to her father, who still retains a few sparks of life: destroy thy tower, with all its abominations: drive Carathis from thy councils: be just to thy subjects: respect the ministers of the Prophet: compensate for thy impieties by an exemplary life; and, instead of squandering thy days in voluptuous indulgence, lament thy crimes on the sepulchres of thy ancestors. Thou beholdest the clouds that obscure the sun: at the instant he recovers his splendour, if thy heart be not changed, the time of mercy a.s.signed thee will be past for ever.'"

"Vathek, depressed with fear, was on the point of prostrating himself at the feet of the shepherd ... but, his pride prevailing ... he said, 'Whoever thou art, withhold thy useless admonitions.... If what I have done be so criminal ... there remains not for me a moment of grace. I have traversed a sea of blood to acquire a power which will make thy equals tremble; deem not that I shall retire when in view of the port; or that I will relinquish her who is dearer to me than either my life or thy mercy. Let the sun appear! let him illumine my career! it matters not where it may end!' On uttering these words ... Vathek ... commanded that his horses should be forced back to the road.

"There was no difficulty in obeying these orders; for the attraction had ceased; the sun shone forth in all his glory, and the shepherd vanished with a lamentable scream" (ed. 1786, pp. 183-185).]

[qc] {479} _By rooted and unhallowed pride_.--[MS. G. erased.]