The Works of Lord Byron Volume IV Part 75

"Justice hath dealt upon the mighty Traitor!"

[_The gates are opened; the populace rush in towards the The foremost of them exclaims to those behind,_

"The gory head rolls down the Giants' Steps!"[fy][481]

[_The curtain falls_.[482]

FOOTNOTES:

[359] {331}[Marin Faliero was not in command of the land forces at the siege of Zara in 1346. According to contemporary doc.u.ments, he held a naval command under Civran, who was in charge of the fleet. Byron was misled by an error in Morelli's Italian version of the _Chronica iadratina seu historia obsidionis Jaderae_, p. xi. (See _Marino faliero avanti il Dogado_, by Vittorio Lazzarino, published in _Nuovo Archivio Veneto_, 1893, vol. v. pt. i. p. 132, note 4.)]

[360] [For the siege of Alesia (Alise in Cote d'Or), which resulted in the defeat of the Gauls and the surrender of Vercingetorix, see _De Bella Gallico_, vii. 68-90. Belgrade fell to Prince Eugene, August 18, 1717.]

[361] {332}[If this event ever took place, it must have been in 1346, when the future Doge was between sixty and seventy years of age. The story appears for the first time in the chronicle of Bartolomeo Zuccato, notajo e cancelliere of the Comune di Treviso, which belongs to the first half of the sixteenth century. The Venetian chroniclers who were Faliero's contemporaries, and Anonimo Torriano, a Trevisan, who wrote before Zuccato, are silent. See _Marino Faliero, La Congiura_, by Vittorio Lazzarino.--_Nuovo Archivio Veneto_, 1897, vol. xiii. pt. i. p.

29.]

[362] ["Square talked in a very different strain.... In p.r.o.nouncing these [sentences from the _Tusculan Questions, etc_.] he was one day so eager that he unfortunately bit his tongue ... this accident gave Thwack.u.m, who was present, and who held all such doctrines to be heathenish and atheistical, an opportunity to clap a judgment on his back."--_The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling_, Bk. V. chap. ii. 1768, i. 234. See, too, Letter to Murray, November 23, 1822, _Letters_, 1901, vi. 142; _Life_, p. 570.]

[363] [[_Principj di storia civile della Repubblica di Venezia_. Scritti da Vettor Sandi, 1755, Part II. tom. i. pp. 127, 128.]

[364] [_Storia della Republica Veneziana_. Scritta da Andrea Navagiero, _apud_ Muratori, _Italic. Rerum, Scriptores_, 1733, xxiii. p. 924, _sq_.]

[365] [_Istoria dell' a.s.sedio e della Ricupera di Zara, Fatta da'

Veneziani nell' anno_ 1346. Scritta da auctore contemporaneo, pp.

i.-x.x.xviii.]

[366] {333}[Michele Steno was not, as Sanudo and others state, one of the Capi of the Quarantia in 1355, but twenty years later, in 1375. When Faliero was elected to the Dogeship, Steno was a youth of twenty, and a man under thirty years of age was not eligible for the Quarantia.--_La Congiura,_ etc., p. 64.]

[367] [History does not bear out the tradition of her youth. Aluica Gradenigo was born in the first decade of the fourteenth century, and became Dogaressa when she was more than forty-five years of age.--_La Congiura,_ p. 69.]

[368] [See _A View of the Society and Manners in Italy,_ by John Moore, M.D., 1781, i. 144-152. The "stale jest" is thus worded: "This lady imagined she had been affronted by a young Venetian n.o.bleman at a public ball, and she complained bitterly ... to her husband. The old Doge, who had all the desire imaginable to please his wife, determined, in this matter, at least, to give her ample satisfaction."]

[369] {334}[For Frederick's verse, "Evitez de Bernis la sterile abondance," see _La Bibliographie Universelle_, art. "Bernis"; and for his jest, "Je ne la connais pas," see _History of Frederick the Great_, by Thomas Carlyle, 1898, vi. 14.]

[370] [For the story of the abduction of Dervorgilla, wife of Tiernan O'Ruarc, by Dermot Mac-Murchad, King of Leinster, in 1153, see Moore's _History of Ireland_, 1837, ii. 200.]

[371] {335}[_Istoria della Repubblica di Venezia_, del Sig. Abate Laugier, Tradotta del Francese. Venice, 1778, iv. 30.]

[372] {336}[The marble staircase on which Faliero took the ducal oath, and on which he was afterwards beheaded, led into the courtyard of the palace. It was erected by a decree of the Senate in 1340, and was pulled down to make room for Rizzo's facade, which was erected in 1484. The "Scala dei Giganti" (built by Antonio Rizzo, circ. 1483) does not occupy the site of the older staircase.]

[373] [On the north side of the Campo, in front of the Church of Santi Giovanni e Paolo (better known as San Zanipolo), stands the Scuola di San Marco. Attached to the lower hall of the Scuola is the Chapel of Santa Maria della Pace, in which the sarcophagus containing the bones of Marino Faliero was discovered in 1815.]

[374] [In the Campo in front of the church is the equestrian statue of Bartolomeo Colleoni, designed by Andrea Veroccio, and cast in 1496 by Alessandro Leopardi.--_Handbook: Northern Italy_, p. 374.]

[375] {337}[See _Poetical Works_, 1898, i. 317, note 1.]

[376] [See _Letters_, 1898, ii. 79, note 3.]

[ct] _It is like being at the whole process of a woman's toilet--it disenchants._--[MS. M.]

[cu] _Any man of common independence._--[MS. M. erased.]

[377] {338}While I was in the sub-committee of Drury Lane Theatre, I can vouch for my colleagues, and I hope for myself, that we did our best to bring back the legitimate drama. I tried what I could to get _De Montford_ revived, but in vain, and equally in vain in favour of Sotheby's _Ivan_, which was thought an acting play; and I endeavoured also to wake Mr. Coleridge to write us a tragedy[A]. Those who are not in the secret will hardly believe that the _School for Scandal_ is the play which has brought the _least money_, averaging the number of times it has been acted since its production; so Manager Dibdin a.s.sured me. Of what has occurred since Maturin's _Bertram_ I am not aware[B]; so that I may be traducing, through ignorance, some excellent new writers; if so, I beg their pardon. I have been absent from England nearly five years, and, till last year, I never read an English newspaper since my departure, and am now only aware of theatrical matters through the medium of the _Parisian Gazette_ of Galignani, and only for the last twelve months. Let me, then, deprecate all offence to tragic or comic writers, to whom I wish well, and of whom I know nothing. The long complaints of the actual state of the drama arise, however, from no fault of the performers. I can conceive nothing better than Kemble, Cooke, and Kean, in their very different manners, or than Elliston in _Gentleman's_ comedy, and in some parts of tragedy. Miss O'Neill[C] I never saw, having made and kept a determination to see nothing which should divide or disturb my recollection of Siddons. Siddons and Kemble were the _ideal_ of tragic action; I never saw anything at all resembling them, even in _person_; for this reason, we shall never see again Coriola.n.u.s or Macbeth. When Kean is blamed for want of dignity, we should remember that it is a grace, not an art, and not to be attained by study. In all, _not_ super-natural parts, he is perfect; even his very defects belong, or seem to belong, to the parts themselves, and appear truer to nature. But of Kemble we may say, with reference to his acting, what the Cardinal de Retz said of the Marquis of Montrose, "that he was the only man he ever saw who reminded him of the heroes of Plutarch."[D]

[A] [See letter to Samuel Taylor Coleridge, March 31, 1815, _Letters_, 1899, iii. 190; letter to Moore, October 28, 1815, and note 1 (with quotation from unpublished letter of Coleridge), and pa.s.sages from Byron's _Detached Thoughts_ (1821) ... _ibid_., pp. 230, 233-238.]

[B] [Maturin's _Bertram_ was played for the first time at Drury Lane, May 9, 1816. (See _Detached Thoughts_ (1821), _Letters_, 1899, iii. 233, and letter to Murray, October 12, 1817, _Letters_, 1900, iv. 171.)]

[C] [Elizabeth O'Neill (1791-1872), afterwards Lady Becher, made her _debut_ in 1814, and retired from the stage in 1819. Sarah Siddons (1755-1831) made her final appearance on the stage June 9, 1818, and her brother John Philip Kemble (1757-1823) appeared for the last time in _Coriola.n.u.s_, June 23, 1817. Of the other actors mentioned in this note, George Frederick Cooke (1756-1812) had long been dead; Edmund Kean (1787-1833) had just returned from a successful tour in the United States; and Robert William Elliston (1774-1831) (_vide ante_, p. 328) had, not long before (1819), become lessee of Drury Lane Theatre.]

[D]["Le comte de Montross, ecossais et chef de la maison de Graham, le seul homme du monde qui m'ait jamais rappele l'idee de certains heros que l'on ne voit plus que dans les vies de Plutarque, avail soutenu le parti du roi d'Angleterre dans son pays, avec une grandeur d'ame qui rien avait point de pareille en ce siecle."--_Memoires du Cardinal de Retz_, 1820, ii. 88.]

[378] {339}[This appreciation of the _Mysterious Mother_, which he seems to have read in Lord Dover's preface to Walpole's Letters to Sir Horace Mann, provoked Coleridge to an angry remonstrance. "I venture to remark, first, that I do not believe that Lord Byron spoke sincerely; for I suspect that he made a tacit exception of himself at least.... Thirdly, that the _Mysterious Mother_ is the most disgusting, vile, detestable composition that ever came from the hand of man. No one with a spark of true manliness, of which Horace Walpole had none, could have written it."--_Table Talk_, March 20, 1834. Croker took a very different view, and maintained "that the good old English blank verse, the force of character expressed in the wretched mother ... argue a strength of conception, and vigour of expression capable of great things," etc. Over and above the reasonable hope and expectation that this provocative eulogy of Walpole's play would annoy the "c.o.c.kneys" and the "Lakers,"

Byron was no doubt influenced in its favour by the audacity of the plot, which not only put _septentrional_ prejudices at defiance, but was an instance in point that love ought not "to make a tragic subject unless it is love furious, criminal, and hopeless" (Letter to Murray, January 4, 1821). He would, too, be deeply and genuinely moved by such verse as this--

"Consult a holy man! inquire of him!

--Good father, wherefore? what should I inquire?

Must I be taught of him that guilt is woe?

That innocence alone is happiness-- That martyrdom itself shall leave the villain The villain that it found him? Must I learn That minutes stamped with crime are past recall?

That joys are momentary; and remorse Eternal?...

Nor could one risen from the dead proclaim This truth in deeper sounds to my conviction; We want no preacher to distinguish vice From virtue. At our birth the G.o.d revealed All conscience needs to know. No codicil To duty's rubric here and there was placed In some Saint's casual custody."

Act i. sc. 3, _s.f._ _Works of the Earl of Orford_, 1798, i. 55.]

[379] {340}[Byron received a copy of Goethe's review of _Manfred_, which appeared in _Kunst und Alterthum_ (ii. 2. 191) in May, 1820. In a letter to Murray, dated October 17, 1820 (_Letters_, 1901, v. 100), he enclosed a letter to Goethe, headed "For _Marino Faliero_. Dedication to Baron Goethe, etc., etc., etc." It is possible that Murray did not take the "Dedication" seriously, but regarded it as a _jeu d'esprit_, designed for the amus.e.m.e.nt of himself and his "synod." At any rate, the "Dedication" did not reach Goethe's hand till 1831, when it was presented to him at Weimar by John Murray the Third. "It is written,"

says Moore, who printed a mutilated version in his _Letters and Journals, etc._, 1830, ii. 356-358, "in the poet's most whimsical and mocking mood; and the unmeasured severity poured out in it upon the two favourite objects of his wrath and ridicule, compels me to deprive the reader of its most amusing pa.s.sages." The present text, which follows the MS., is reprinted from _Letters_, 1901, v. 100-104--

"Dedication to Baron Goethe, etc., etc., etc.

"Sir--In the Appendix to an English work lately translated into German and published at Leipsic, a judgment of yours upon English poetry is quoted as follows: 'That in English poetry, great genius, universal power, a feeling of profundity, with sufficient tenderness and force, are to be found; but that _altogether these do not const.i.tute poets_,' etc., etc.

"I regret to see a great man falling into a great mistake. This opinion of yours only proves that the '_Dictionary of Ten Thousand living English Authors_'[A] has not been translated into German.

You will have read, in your friend Schlegel's version, the dialogue in _Macbeth_--

"'There are _ten thousand!_ _Macbeth_. _Geese_, villain?

_Answer_. _Authors_, sir.'[B]

Now, of these 'ten thousand authors,' there are actually nineteen hundred and eighty-seven poets, all alive at this moment, whatever their works may be, as their booksellers well know: and amongst these there are several who possess a far greater reputation than mine, though considerably less than yours. It is owing to this neglect on the part of your German translators that you are not aware of the works of William Wordsworth, who has a baronet in London[C] who draws him frontispieces and leads him about to dinners and to the play; and a Lord in the country,[D] who gave him a place in the Excise--and a cover at his table. You do not know perhaps that this Gentleman is the greatest of all poets past--present and to come--besides which he has written an '_Opus Magnum_' in prose--during the late election for Westmoreland.[E]

His princ.i.p.al publication is ent.i.tled '_Peter Bell_' which he had withheld from the public for '_one and twenty years_'--to the irreparable loss of all those who died in the interim, and will have no opportunity of reading it before the resurrection. There is also another named Southey, who is more than a poet, being actually poet Laureate,--a post which corresponds with what we call in Italy Poeta Cesareo, and which you call in German--I know not what; but as you have a '_Caesar_'--probably you have a name for it. In England there is no _Caesar_--only the Poet.

"I mention these poets by way of sample to enlighten you. They form but two bricks of our Babel, (Windsor bricks, by the way) but may serve for a specimen of the building.

"It is, moreover, a.s.serted that 'the predominant character of the whole body of the present English poetry is a _disgust_ and _contempt_ for life.' But I rather suspect that by one single work of _prose_, _you_ yourself have excited a greater contempt for life than all the English volumes of poesy that ever were written.

Madame de Stael says, that 'Werther has occasioned more suicides than the most beautiful woman;' and I really believe that he has put more individuals out of this world than Napoleon himself,--except in the way of his profession. Perhaps, Ill.u.s.trious Sir, the acrimonious judgment pa.s.sed by a celebrated northern journal[F] upon you in particular, and the Germans in general, has rather indisposed you towards English poetry as well as criticism.

But you must not regard our critics, who are at bottom good-natured fellows, considering their two professions,--taking up the law in court, and laying it down out of it. No one can more lament their hasty and unfair judgment, in your particular, than I do; and I so expressed myself to your friend Schlegel, in 1816, at Coppet.

"In behalf of my 'ten thousand' living brethren, and of myself, I have thus far taken notice of an opinion expressed with regard to 'English poetry' in general, and which merited notice, because it was yours.