The Works of Lord Byron Volume VI Part 17

"As I have no wish to have mysteries, I merely prohibit the _publication_ of these stanzas in _print_, for the reasons of fairness mentioned; but I by no means wish _him not_ to _know_ their existence or their tenor, nor my intentions as to himself: he has shown no forbearance, and he shall find none. You may show them to _him_ and to all whom it may concern, with the explanation that the only reason that I have not had satisfaction of this man has been, that I have never had an opportunity since I was aware of the facts, which my friends had carefully concealed from me; and it was only by slow degrees, and by piecemeal, that I got at them. I have not sought him, nor gone out of my way for him; but I will _find_ him, and then we can have it out: he has shown so little courage, that he _must_ fight at last in his absolute necessity to escape utter degradation.

"I send you the stanzas, which (except the last) have been written nearly two years, merely because I have been lately copying out most of the MSS. which were in my drawers."

[*F] [Byron's town-house, in 1815-1816, No. 13, Piccadilly, belonged to the d.u.c.h.ess of Devonshire. When he went abroad in April, 1816, the rent was still unpaid. The d.u.c.h.ess, through her agent, distrained, but was unable to recover the debt. See Byron's "Letter to Elizabeth, d.u.c.h.ess of Devonshire," November 3, 1817, _Letters_, 1900, iv. 178.]

{71}[ak]

_Julia was sent into a nunnery_, _And there, perhaps, her feelings may be better_.--[MS. M.]

[al] _Man's love is of his life_----.--[MS. M.]

[84] ["Que les hommes sont heureux d'aller a la guerre, d'exposer leur vie, de se livrer a l'enthousiasme de l'honneur et du danger! Mais il n'y a rien au-dehors qui soulage les femmes."--_Corinne, ou L'Italie_, Madame de Stael, liv., xviii. chap. v. ed. 1835, iii. 209.]

[am]

_To mourn alone the love which has undone._ or, _To lift our fatal love to G.o.d from man._

Take that which, of these three, seems the best prescription.--B.

{72}[an]

_You will proceed in beauty and in pride_, _You will return_----.--[MS. M.]

[ao]

/ fatal now Or, _That word is < lost="" for="" me="">--but let it go_.--[MS. M.]

deadly now /

[ap] _I struggle, but can not collect my mind_.--[MS.]

[aq]

_As turns the needle trembling to the pole_ _It ne'er can reach--so turns to you my soul_.--[MS.]

[ar] _With a neat crow-quill, rather hard, but new_.--[MS.]

{73}[85] [Byron had a seal bearing this motto.]

[as]

_And there are other incidents remaining_ _Which shall be specified in fitting time,_ _With good discretion, and in current rhyme_.--[MS.]

{74}[at]

_To newspapers, to sermons, which the zeal_ _Of pious men have published on his acts_.--[MS.]

[au] _I'll call the work "Reflections o'er a Bottle_."--[MS.]

[86] [Here, and elsewhere in _Don Juan_, Byron attacked Coleridge fiercely and venomously, because he believed that his _protege_ had accepted patronage and money, and, notwithstanding, had retailed scandalous statements to the detriment and dishonour of his advocate and benefactor (see letter to Murray, November 24, 1818, _Letters_, 1900, iv. 272; and "Introduction to the _Vision of Judgment," Poetical Works_, 1901, iv. 475). Byron does not substantiate his charge of ingrat.i.tude, and there is nothing to show whether Coleridge ever knew why a once friendly countenance was changed towards him. He might have asked, with the Courtenays, _Ubi lapsus, quid feci?_ If Byron had been on his mind or his conscience he would have drawn up an elaborate explanation or apology; but nothing of the kind is extant. He took the abuse as he had taken the favours--for the unmerited gifts of the blind G.o.ddess Fortune.

(See, too, _Letter_ ..., by John Bull, 1821, p. 14.)]

{76}[87] [Compare Byron's "Letter to the Editor of My Grandmother's Review," _Letters_, 1900, iv. Appendix VII. 465-470; and letter to Murray, August 24, 1819, ibid., p. 348: "I wrote to you by last post, enclosing a buffooning letter for publication, addressed to the buffoon Roberts, who has thought proper to tie a canister to his own tail. It was written off-hand, and in the midst of circ.u.mstances not very favourable to facetiousness, so that there may, perhaps, be more bitterness than enough for that sort of small acid punch." The letter was in reply to a criticism of _Don Juan_ (Cantos I., II.) in the _British Review_ (No. xxvii., 1819, vol. 14, pp. 266-268), in which the Editor a.s.sumed, or feigned to a.s.sume, that the accusation of bribery was to be taken _au grand serieux_.]

{77}[88] [Hor., _Od._ III. C. xiv. lines 27, 28.]

[av] _I thought of dyeing it the other day_.--[MS.]

[89] [Compare _Childe Harold_, Canto III. stanza cvii. line 2.]

{78}[90]

"Me nec femina, nec puer Jam, nec spes animi credula mutui, Nec certare juvat mero; Nec vincire novis tempora floribus."

Hor., _Od._ IV. i. 30.

[In the revise the words _nec puer Jam_ were omitted. On this Hobhouse comments, "Better add the whole or scratch out all after femina."--"Quote the whole then--it was only in compliance with your _settentrionale_ notions that I left out the remnant of the line."--[B.]]

[91] [For "How Fryer Bacon made a Brazen head to speak," see _The Famous Historie of Fryer Bacon_ (Reprint, London, 1815, pp. 13-18); see, too, _Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay_, by Robert Greene, ed. Rev. Alexander Dyce, 1861, pp. 153-181.]

[92]

["Ah! who can tell how hard it is to climb The steep where Fame's proud temple shines afar?" etc.

Beattie's _Minstrel_, Bk. I. stanza i. lines 1, 2.]

{79}[aw] _A book--a d.a.m.ned bad picture--and worse bust_.--[MS.]

["Don't swear again--the third 'd.a.m.n.'"--[H.]--[_Revise._]]

[93] [Byron sat for his bust to Thorwaldsen, in May, 1817.]

[94] [This stanza appears to have been suggested by the following pa.s.sage in the _Quarterly Review_, April, 1818, vol. xix. p. 203: "[It was] the opinion of the Egyptians, that the soul never deserted the body while the latter continued in a perfect state. To secure this union, King Cheops is said, by Herodotus, to have employed three hundred and sixty thousand of his subjects for twenty years in raising over the 'angusta domus' destined to hold his remains, a pile of stone equal in weight to six millions of tons, which is just three times that of the vast Breakwater thrown across Plymouth Sound; and, to render this precious dust still more secure, the narrow chamber was made accessible only by small, intricate pa.s.sages, obstructed by stones of an enormous weight, and so carefully closed externally as not to be perceptible.--Yet, how vain are all the precautions of man! Not a bone was left of Cheops, either in the stone coffin, or in the vault, when Shaw entered the gloomy chamber.]

{80}[ax] _Must bid you both farewell in accents bland_.--[MS.]

[95] [Lines 1-4 are taken from the last stanza of the _Epilogue to the Lay of the Laureate_, ent.i.tled "L'Envoy." (See _Poetical Works_ of Robert Southey, 1838, x. 174.)]

CANTO THE SECOND.[96]

I.

OH ye! who teach the ingenuous youth of nations, Holland, France, England, Germany, or Spain, I pray ye flog them upon all occasions-- It mends their morals, never mind the pain: The best of mothers and of educations In Juan's case were but employed in vain, Since, in a way that's rather of the oddest, he Became divested of his native modesty.[ay]

II.

Had he but been placed at a public school, In the third form, or even in the fourth, His daily task had kept his fancy cool, At least, had he been nurtured in the North; Spain may prove an exception to the rule, But then exceptions always prove its worth-- A lad of sixteen causing a divorce Puzzled his tutors very much, of course.

III.

I can't say that it puzzles me at all, If all things be considered: first, there was His lady-mother, mathematical, A----never mind;--his tutor, an old a.s.s; A pretty woman--(that's quite natural, Or else the thing had hardly come to pa.s.s) A husband rather old, not much in unity With his young wife--a time, and opportunity.