The Works of Lord Byron Volume V Part 143

[339] [Alcina, the personification of carnal pleasure in the _Orlando Furioso_, is the counterpart of Homer's _Circe_. "She enjoyed her lovers for a time, and then changed them into trees, stones, fountains, or beasts, as her fancy dictated." (See Ariosto, _Orlando Furioso_, vi. 35, _seq_.)]

[340] [There were five brothers Rothschild: Anselm, of Frankfort, 1773-1855; Salomon, of Vienna, 1774-1855; Nathan Mayer, of London, 1777-1836; Charles, of Naples, 1788-1855; and James, of Paris, 1792-1868. In 1821 Austria raised 37-1/2 million guldens through the firm, and, as an acknowledgment of their services, the Emperor raised the brothers to the rank of baron, and appointed Baron Nathan Mayer Consul-General in London, and Baron James to the same post in Paris. In 1822 both Russia (see line 684) and England raised 3-1/2 millions sterling through the Rothschilds. The "two Jews" (line 686, etc.) are, probably, the two Consuls-General. In 1822 their honours were new, and some mocked. There is the story that Talleyrand once presented the Parisian brother to Montmorenci as _M. le premier Juif_ to _M. le premier Baron Chretien_; while another tale, parent or offspring of the preceding, which appeared in _La Quotidienne_, December 21, 1822, testifies to the fact, not recorded, that a Rothschild was at Verona during the Congress: "M. de Rotschild, baron et banquier general des gouvernemens absolus, s'est, dit-on, rendu an congres, il a ete presente a l'empereur d'Autriche, et S.M., en lui remettant une decoration, a daigne lui dire: 'Vous pouvez etre a.s.sure, Monsieur, que _la maison d'Autriche_ sera toujours disposee a reconnaitre vos services et a vous accorder ce qui pourra vous etre agreable,'--'Votre Majeste,' a repondu le baron financier, 'pourra toujours egalement compter sur _la maison Rotschild_.'"--See _The Rothschilds_, by John Reeves, 1886.]

[341] {574}[In 1822 the Neapolitan Government raised 22,000,000 ducats through the Rothschilds.]

[342] {575} Monsieur Chateaubriand, who has not forgotten the author in the minister, received a handsome compliment at Verona from a literary sovereign: "Ah! Monsieur C., are you related to that Chateaubriand who--who--who has written _something?_" (ecrit _quelque chose!_) It is said that the author of Atala repented him for a moment of his legitimacy. [Francois Rene Vicomte de Chateaubriand (1768-1848) published _Les Martyrs ou le Triomphe de la religion chretienne_ in 1809.]

[343] [Count Capo d'Istria (b. 1776)--afterwards President of Greece.

The count was murdered, in September, 1831, by the brother and son of a Mainote chief whom he had imprisoned (note to ed. 1832). Byron may have believed that Capo d'Istria was still in the service of the Czar, but, according to Allison, his advocacy of his compatriots the Greeks had led to his withdrawal from the Russian Foreign Office, and prevented his taking part in the Congress. It was, however, stated in the papers that he had been summoned, and was on his way to Verona.]

[344] [Jean Mathieu Felicite, Duc de Montmorenci (1766-1826), was, in his youth, a Jacobin. He proposed, August 4, 1789, to abrogate feudal rights, and June 15, 1790, to abolish the n.o.bility. He was superseded as plenipotentiary by Chateaubriand, and on his return to Paris created a duke. Before the end of the year he was called upon to resign his portfolio as Minister of Foreign Affairs. The king disliked him, and there were personal disagreements between him and the Prime Minister, M.

de Villele.

The following "gazette" appeared in the _Moniteur_:--

"Ordonnance du Roi. Signe Louis. Art 1^er^ Le Vicomte de Chateaubriand, pair de France, est nomme ministre secretaire d'etat au departement des affaires etrangeres. Louis par la grace de Dieu Roi de France et de Navarre.

"Art. 1^er^ Le Duc Mathieu de Montmorenci, pair de France, est nomme ministre d'Etat, et membre de notre Conseil prive.

"Dimanche, 29 Decembre, 1822."

"On Tuesday, January 1, 1823," writes Chateaubriand, _Congress_, 1838, i. 258, "we crossed the bridges, and went to sleep in that minister's bed, which was not made for us,--a bed in which one sleeps but little, and in which one remains only for a short time."]

[345] {576}[From Pope's line on Lord Peterborough, _Imitations of Horace_, Sat. i. 132.]

[346] [Marie Louise, daughter of Francis I. of Austria, was born December 12, 1791, and died December 18, 1849. She was married to Napoleon, April 2, 1810, and gave birth to a son, March 29, 1811. In accordance with the Treaty of Paris, she left France April 26, 1814, renounced the t.i.tle of Empress, and was created d.u.c.h.ess of Parma, Placentia, and Guastalla. After Napoleon's death (May 5, 1821). "Proud Austria's mournful flower" did not long remain a widow, but speedily and secretly married her chamberlain and gentleman of honour, Count Adam de Neipperg (_ce polisson_ Neipperg, as Napoleon called him), to whom she had long been attached. It was supposed that she attended the Congress of Verona in the interest of her son, the ex-King of Rome, to whom Napoleon had bequeathed money and heirlooms. She was a solemn stately personage, _tant soit peu decla.s.see_, and the other potentates whispered and joked at her expense. Chateaubriand says that when the Duke of Wellington was bored with the meetings of the Congress, he would while away the time in the company of the Orsini, who scribbled on the margin of intercepted French despatches, "Pas pour Mariee." Not for Madame de Neipperg.]

[347] [Napoleon Francois Charles Joseph, Duke of Reichstadt, died at the palace of Schonbrunn, July 22, 1832, having just attained his twenty-first year.]

[348] [Count Adam Albrecht de Neipperg had lost an eye from a wound in battle.]

[349] {577}[_La Quotidienne_ of December 4, 1822, has a satirical reference to a pa.s.sage in the _Courrier_, which attached a diplomatic importance to the "galanterie respectueuse que le duc de Wellington aurait faite a cette jeune Princesse." We read, too, of another victorious foe, the King of Prussia, giving "la main a l'archd.u.c.h.esse Marie-Louise jusqu'a son carrosse" (_Le Const.i.tutionnel_, November 19, 1822). "All the world wondered" what Andromache did, and how she would fare--_dans ce galere_. It is difficult to explain the allusion to Pyrrhus. Andromache was the unwilling bride of Pyrrhus or Neoptolemus, whose father had slain her husband, Hector; Marie Louise the willing bride of Neipperg, who had certainly fought at Leipsic, but who could not be said to have given the final blow to Napoleon at Waterloo.

Pyrrhus must stand for the victorious foe, and the right arm on which the too-forgiving Andromache leant, must have been offered by "the respectful gallantry" of the Duke of Wellington.]

[ew]

_She comes the Andromache of Europe's Queens,_ _And led by Pyrrhus arm on which she leans_.--[MS. M.]

[350] {578}[Sir William Curtis (1752-1805), maker of sea-biscuits at Wapping, was M.P. for the City of London 1790-1818, Lord Mayor 1795-6.

George IV. affected his society, visited him at Ramsgate, and sailed with him in his gorgeously appointed yacht. When the king visited Scotland in August, 1822, Curtis followed in his train. On first landing at Leith, "Sir William Curtis, who had _celtified_ himself on the occasion, marched joyously in his scanty longitude of kilt." At the Levee, August 17, "Sir William Curtis again appeared in the Royal tartan, but he had forsaken the philabeg and addicted himself to the trews" (_Morning Chronicle_, August 19, 20, 1822). "The Fat Knight" was seventy years of age, and there was much joking at his expense. See, for instance, some lines in "Hudibrastic measure," _Gentleman's Magazine_, vol. 92, Part II. p. 606--

"And who is he, that sleek and smart one Pot-bellied pyramid of Tartan?

So mountainous in pinguitude, _Ponderibus librata_ SUIS, He stands like _pig_ of lead, so true is, That his abdomen throws alone A _Body-guard_ around the Throne!"]

[351] [Lines 771, 772 are not in the MS.]

THE ISLAND

OR,

CHRISTIAN AND HIS COMRADES.

INTRODUCTION TO _THE ISLAND_

The first canto of _The Island_ was finished January 10, 1823. We know that Byron was still at work on "the poeshie," January 25 (_Letters_, 1901, vi. 164), and may reasonably conjecture that a somewhat illegible date affixed to the fourth canto, stands for February 14, 1823. The MS.

had been received in London before April 9 (_ibid_., p. 192); and on June 26, 1823, _The Island; or, The Adventures of Christian and his Comrades_, was published by John Hunt.

Byron's "Advertis.e.m.e.nt," or note, prefixed to _The Island_ contains all that need be said with regard to the "sources" of the poem.

Two separate works were consulted: (1) _A Narrative of the Mutiny on board His Majesty's Ship Bounty, and the subsequent Voyage of ... the Ship's Boat from Tafoa, one of the Friendly Islands, to Timor, a Dutch Settlement in the East Indies_, written by Lieutenant William Bligh, 1790; and (2) _An Account of the Natives of the Tonga Islands_, Compiled and Arranged from the Extensive Communications of Mr. William Mariner, by John Martin, M.D., 1817.

According to George Clinton (_Life and Writings of Lord Byron_, 1824, p.

656), Byron was profoundly impressed by Mariner's report of the scenery and folklore of the _Friendly Islands_, was "never tired of talking of it to his friends," and, in order to turn this poetic material to account, finally bethought him that Bligh's _Narrative_ of the mutiny of the _Bounty_ would serve as a framework or structure "for an embroidery of rare device"--the figures and foliage of a tropical pattern. That, at least, is the substance of Clinton's a.n.a.lysis of the "sources" of _The Island_, and whether he spoke, or only feigned to speak, with authority, his criticism is sound and to the point. The story of the mutiny of the _Bounty_, which is faithfully related in the first canto, is not, as the second t.i.tle implies, a prelude to the "Adventures of Christian and his Comrades," but to a description of "The Island," an Ogygia of the South Seas.

It must be borne in mind that Byron's acquaintance with the details of the mutiny of the _Bounty_ was derived exclusively from Bligh's _Narrative_; that he does not seem to have studied the minutes of the court-martial on Peter Heywood and the other prisoners (September, 1792), or to have possessed the information that in 1809, and, again, in 1815, the Admiralty received authentic information with regard to the final settlement of Christian and his comrades on Pitcairn Island.

Articles, however, had appeared in the _Quarterly Review_, February, 1810, vol. iii. pp. 23, 24, and July, 1815, vol. xiii. pp. 376-378, which contained an extract from the log-book of Captain Mayhew Folger, of the American ship _Topaz_, dated September 29, 1808, and letters from Folger (March 1, 1813), and Sir Thomas Staines, October 18, 1814, which solved the mystery. Moreover, the article of February, 1810, is quoted in the notes (pp. 313-318) affixed to Miss Mitford's _Christina, the Maid of the South Seas_, 1811, a poem founded on Bligh's _Narrative_, of which neither Byron or his reviewers seem to have heard.

But whatever may have been his opportunities of ascertaining the facts of the case, it is certain (see his note to Canto IV. section vi. line 122) that he did not know what became of Christian, and that whereas in the first canto he follows the text of Bligh's _Narrative_, in the three last cantos he draws upon his imagination, turning Tahiti into Toobonai (Tubuai), and transporting Toobonai from one archipelago to another--from the Society to the Friendly Islands.

Another and still more surprising feature of _The Island_ is that Byron accepts, without qualification or reserve, the guilt of the mutineers and the innocence and worth of Lieutenant Bligh. It is true that by inheritance he was imbued with the traditions of the service, and from personal experience understood the necessity of discipline on board ship; but it may be taken for granted that if he had known that the sympathy, if not the esteem, of the public had been transferred from Bligh to Christian, that in the opinion of grave and competent writers, the guilt of mutiny on the high seas had been almost condoned by the violence and brutality of the commanding officer, he would have sided with the oppressed rather than the oppressor. As it is, he takes Bligh at his own valuation, and carefully abstains from "eulogizing mutiny."

(Letter to L. Hunt, January 25, 1823.)

The story of the "mutiny of the _Bounty_" happened in this wise. In 1787 it occurred to certain West India planters and merchants, resident in London, that it would benefit the natives, and perhaps themselves, if the bread-fruit tree, which flourished in Tahiti (the Otaheite of Captain Cook and Sir Joseph Banks, see _Poetical Works_, 1899, ii. 7, note 2) and other islands of the South Seas, could be acclimatized in the West Indies. A pet.i.tion was addressed to the king, with the result that a vessel, with a burden of 215 tons, which Banks christened the _Bounty_, sailed from Spithead December 23, 1787. Lieutenant William Bligh, who had sailed with Cook in the _Resolution_, acted as commanding officer, and under him were five midshipmen, a master, two master's mates, etc.--forty-four persons all told. The _Bounty_ arrived at Tahiti October 26, 1788, and there for six delightful months the ship's company tarried, "fleeting the time carelessly, as in the elder world." But "Scripture saith an ending to all fine things must be," and on April 4, 1789, the _Bounty_, with a cargo of over a thousand bread-fruit trees, planted in pots, tubs, and boxes (see for plate of the pots, etc., _A Voyage, etc._, 1792, p. 1), sailed away westward for the Cape of Good Hope, and the West Indies. All went well at first, but "just before sun-rising" on Tuesday, April 28, 1789, "the north-westernmost of the Friendly Islands, called Tofoa, bearing north-east," Fletcher Christian, who was mate of the watch, a.s.sisted by Charles Churchill, master-at-arms, Alexander Smith (the John Adams of Pitcairn Island), and Thomas Burkitt, able seamen, seized the captain, tied his hands behind his back, hauled him out of his berth, and forced him on deck. The boatswain, William Cole, was ordered to hoist out the ship's launch, which measured twenty-three feet from stem to stern, and into this open boat Bligh, together with eighteen of the crew, who were or were supposed to be on his side, were thrust, on pain of instant death. When they were in the boat they were "veered round with a rope, and finally cast adrift." Bligh and his eighteen innocent companions sailed westward, and, after a voyage of "twelve hundred leagues," during which they were preserved from death and destruction by the wise ordering and patient heroism of the commander, safely anch.o.r.ed in Kpang Bay, on the north-west coast of the Isle of Timor, June 14, 1789. (See Bligh's _Narrative, etc._, 1790, pp. 11-88; and _The Island_, Canto I. section ix. lines 169-201.)

The _Bounty_, with the remainder of the crew, twenty-five in number, "the most able of the ship's company," sailed eastward, first to Toobooai, or Tubuai, an island to the south of the Society Islands, thence to Tahiti (June 6), back to Tubuai (June 26), and yet again, to Tahiti (September 20), where sixteen of the mutineers, including the midshipman George Stewart (the "Torquil" of _The Island_), were put on sh.o.r.e. Finally, September 21, 1789, Fletcher Christian, with the _Bounty_ and eight of her crew, six Tahitian men, and twelve women, sailed away still further east to unknown sh.o.r.es, and, so it was believed, disappeared for good and all. Long afterwards it was known that they had landed on Pitcairn Island, broken up the _Bounty_, and founded a permanent settlement.

When Bligh returned to England (March 14, 1790), and acquainted the Government "with the atrocious act of piracy and mutiny" which had been committed on the high seas, the _Pandora_ frigate, with Captain Edwards, was despatched to apprehend the mutineers, and bring them back to England for trial and punishment. The _Pandora_ reached Tahiti March 23, 1791, set sail, with fourteen prisoners, May 8, and was wrecked on the "Great Barrier Reef" north-east of Queensland, August 29, 1791. Four of the prisoners, including George Stewart, who had been manacled, and were confined in "Pandora's box," perished in the wreck, and the remaining ten were brought back to England, and tried by court-martial. (See _The Eventful History of the Mutiny, etc._ (by Sir John Barrow), 1831, pp.

205-244.)

The story, which runs through the second, third, and fourth cantos, may possibly owe some of its details to a vague recollection of incidents which happened, or were supposed to happen, at Tahiti, in the interval between the final departure of the _Bounty_, September 21, 1789, and the arrival of the _Pandora_, March 23, 1791; but, as a whole, it is a work of fiction.

With the exception of the fifteenth and sixteenth cantos of _Don Juan_, _The Island_ was the last poem of any importance which Byron lived to write, and the question naturally suggests itself--Is the new song as good as the old? Byron answers the question himself. He tells Leigh Hunt (January 25, 1823) that he hopes the "poem will be a little above the ordinary run of periodical poesy," and that, though portions of the Toobonai (_sic_) islanders are "pamby," he intends "to scatter some _un_common places here and there nevertheless." On the whole, in point of conception and execution, _The Island_ is weaker and less coherent than the _Corsair_; but it contains lines and pa.s.sages (_e.g._ Canto I.

lines 107-124, 133-140; Canto II. lines 272-297; Canto IV. lines 94-188) which display a finer feeling and a more "exalted wit" than the "purple patches" of _The Turkish Tales_.

The poetic faculty is somewhat exhausted, but the poetic vision has been purged and heightened by suffering and self-knowledge.

_The Island_ was reviewed in the _Monthly Review_, July, 1823, E.S., vol. 101, pp. 316-319; the _New Monthly Magazine_, N.S., 1823, vol. 8, pp. 136-141; the _Atlantic Magazine_, April, 1826, vol. 2, pp. 333-337; in the _Literary Chronicle_, June 21, 1823; and the _Literary Gazette_, June 21, 1823.