The Works of Lord Byron Volume VI Part 55

Her comrades, also, thought themselves undone: Oh! Mahomet! that his Majesty should take Such notice of a giaour, while scarce to one Of them his lips imperial ever spake!

There was a general whisper, toss, and wriggle, But etiquette forbade them all to giggle.

CLVII.

The Turks do well to shut--at least, sometimes-- The women up--because, in sad reality, Their chast.i.ty in these unhappy climes[fz]

Is not a thing of that astringent quality Which in the North prevents precocious crimes, And makes our snow less pure than our morality; The Sun, which yearly melts the polar ice, Has quite the contrary effect--on vice.

CLVIII.

Thus in the East they are extremely strict, And wedlock and a padlock mean the same: Excepting only when the former's picked It ne'er can be replaced in proper frame; Spoilt, as a pipe of claret is when p.r.i.c.ked: But then their own polygamy's to blame; Why don't they knead two virtuous souls for life Into that moral centaur, man and wife?[318]

CLIX.

Thus far our chronicle; and now we pause, Though not for want of matter; but 't is time, According to the ancient epic laws, To slacken sail, and anchor with our rhyme.

Let this fifth canto meet with due applause, The sixth shall have a touch of the sublime; Meanwhile, as Homer sometimes sleeps, perhaps You'll pardon to my muse a few short naps.[ga]

End of Canto 5^th^ Finished Ravenna, Nov. 27^th^ 1820.

Begun Oct. 16, 1820.

and finished copying out, Dec. 26.

with some intermediate additions, 1820.

B.

FOOTNOTES:

{218}[270] [Canto V. was begun at Ravenna, October the 16th, and finished November the 20th, 1820. It was published August 8, 1821, together with Cantos III. and IV.]

[271] This expression of Homer has been much criticized. It hardly answers to our Atlantic ideas of the ocean, but is sufficiently applicable to the h.e.l.lespont, and the Bosphorus, with the Aegean intersected with islands.

[Vide Iliad, xiv. 245, etc. Homer's "ocean-stream" was not the h.e.l.lespont, but the rim of waters which encircled the disk of the world.]

{219}[272] ["The pleasure of going in a barge to Chelsea is not comparable to that of rowing upon the ca.n.a.l of the sea here, where, for twenty miles together, down the Bosphorus, the most beautiful variety of prospects present themselves. The Asian side is covered with fruit trees, villages, and the most delightful landscapes in nature; on the European stands Constantinople, situated on seven hills; showing an agreeable mixture of gardens, pine and cypress trees, palaces, mosques, and public buildings, raised one above another, with as much beauty and appearance of symmetry as your ladyship ever saw in a cabinet adorned by the most skilful hands, where jars show themselves above jars, mixed with canisters, babies, and candlesticks. This is a very odd comparison: but it gives me an exact idea of the thing."--See letter to Mr. Pope, No. xl. June 17, 1717, and letter to the Countess of Bristol, No. xlvi.

n.d., _Letters of the Lady Mary Worthy Montagu,_ 1816, pp. 183-219. See, too, letter to Mrs. Byron, June 28, 1810, _Letters,_ 1890, i. 280, note 1.]

[273] [For Byron's "Marys," see _Poetical Works,_ 1898, i. 192, note 2.]

[274] The "Giant's Grave" is a height on the Asiatic sh.o.r.e of the Bosphorus, much frequented by holiday parties; like Harrow and Highgate.

["The Giant's Mountain, 650 feet high, is almost exactly opposite Buyukdereh ... It is called by the Turks Yoshadagh, _Mountain of Joshua,_ because the _Giant's Grave_ on the top is, according to the Moslem legend, the grave of Joshua. The grave was formerly called the _Couch of Hercules;_ but the cla.s.sical story is that it was the tomb of Amycus, king of the Bebryces [on his grave grew the _laurus insana_, a branch of which caused strife (Plin., _Hist. Nat.,_ lib. xvi. cap. xliv.

ed. 1593, ii. 198)]. The grave is 20 feet long, and 5 feet broad; it is within a stone enclosure, and is planted with flowers and bushes."--_Handbook for Constantinople,_ p. 103.]

{220}[et]

_For then the Parca are most busy spinning_ _The fates of seamen, and the loud winds raise_.--[MS.]

{221}[eu]

_That he a man of rank and birth had been_, _And then they calculated on his ransom_, _And last not least--he was so very handsome_.--[MS.]

[ev]

_It chanced that near him, separately lotted_, _From out the group of slaves put up for sale_, _A man of middle age, and_----.--[MS.]

{222}[275] [The object of Suwarof's campaign of 1789 was the conquest of Belgrade and Servia, that of Wallachia by the Austrians, etc. Neither of these plans succeeded."--_The Life of Field-Marshal Suwarof,_ by L.M.P.

Tranchant de Laverne, 1814, pp. 105, 106.]

{226}[276] [The Turkish zecchino is a gold coin, worth about seven shillings and sixpence. The para is not quite equal to an English halfpenny.]

[277] [Candide's increased satisfaction with life is implied in the narrative. For example, in chap, xviii., where Candide visits Eldorado:--"Never was there a better entertainment, and never was more wit shown at table than that which fell from His Majesty. Cacambo explained the king's _bons mots_ to Candide, and notwithstanding they were translated, they still appeared _bons mots._" This was after supper. See, too, Part II. chap, ii.]

[278] See Plutarch in _Alex._, Q. Curt. _Hist. Alexand._, and Sir Richard Clayton's "Critical Inquiry into the Life of Alexander the Great," 1763 [from the _Examen Critique, etc._, of Guilhem de Clermont-Lodeve, Baron de Sainte Croix, 1775.]

["He used to say that sleep and the commerce with the s.e.x were the things that made him most sensible of his mortality, ... He was also very temperate in eating."--Plutarch's _Alexander_, Langhorne, 1838, p.

473.]

[ew]

_But for mere food, I think with Philip's son_, _Or Ammon's--for two fathers claimed this one_.--[MS.]

{227}[279] The a.s.sa.s.sination alluded to took place on the 8th of December, 1820, in the streets of Ravenna, not a hundred paces from the residence of the writer. The circ.u.mstances were as described.

["December 9, 1820. I open my letter to tell you a fact, which will show the state of this country better than I can. The commandant of the troops is _now_ lying _dead_ in my house. He was shot at a little past eight o'clock, about two hundred paces from my door. I was putting on my great coat to visit Madame la Comtessa G., when I heard the shot. On coming into the hall, I found all my servants on the balcony, exclaiming that a man was murdered. I immediately ran down, calling on t.i.ta (the bravest of them) to follow me. The rest wanted to hinder us from going, as it is the custom for everybody here, it seems, to run away from 'the stricken deer.' ... we found him lying on his back, almost, if not quite, dead, with five wounds; one in the heart, two in the stomach, one in the finger, and the other in the arm. Some soldiers c.o.c.ked their guns, and wanted to hinder me from pa.s.sing. However, we pa.s.sed, and I found Diego, the adjutant, crying over him like a child--a surgeon, who said nothing of his profession--a priest, sobbing a frightened prayer--and the commandant, all this time, on his back, on the hard, cold pavement, without light or a.s.sistance, or anything around him but confusion and dismay. As n.o.body could, or would, do anything but howl and pray, and as no one would stir a finger to move him, for fear of consequences, I lost my patience--made my servant and a couple of the mob take up the body--sent off two soldiers to the guard--despatched Diego to the Cardinal with the news, and had him carried upstairs into my own quarters. But it was too late--he was gone.... I had him partly stripped--made the surgeon examine him, and examined him myself. He had been shot by cut b.a.l.l.s or slugs. I felt one of the slugs, which had gone through him, all but the skin.... He only said, 'O Dio!' and 'Gesu!' two or three times, and appeared to have suffered little. Poor fellow! he was a brave officer; but had made himself much disliked by the people."--Letter to Moore, December 9, 1820, _Letters,_ 1901, v. 133.

The commandant's name was Del Pinto (_Life,_ p. 472).]

[ex]

---- _so I had_ _Him borne, as soon's I could, up several pair_ _Of stairs--and looked to,----But why should I add_ _More circ.u.mstances?_----.--[MS.]

[ey] _And now as silent as an unstrung drum_.--[MS.]

{229}[280] The light and elegant wherries plying about the quays of Constantinople are so called.

{230}[281] [_Ilderim, a Syrian Tale_, by Henry Gally Knight, was published in 1816; _Phrosyne, a Grecian Tale_, and _Alashtar, an Arabian Tale_, in 1817. Moore's _Lalla Kookh_ also appeared in 1817.]

[282] [St. Bartholomew was "discoriate, and flayed quick" (_Golden Legend_, 1900, v. 43).]

[ez] _We from impalement_----.--[MS.]

{231}[283] "Many of the sera and summer-houses [on the Bosphorus] have received these significant, or rather fantastic names: one is the Pearl Pavilion; another is the Star Palace; a third the Mansion of Looking-gla.s.ses."--_Travels in Albania_, 1858, ii. 243.

{232}[fa]

_Of speeches, beauty, flattery--there is no_ _Method more sure_----.--[MS.]

{233}[284] [_Guide des Voyageurs_; _Directions for Travellers_, etc.--_Rhymes, Incidental and Humorous_; _Rhyming Reminiscences_; _Effusions in Rhyme_, etc.--Lady Morgan's _Tour in Italy_; _Tour through Istria_, etc., etc.--_Sketches of Italy_; _Sketches of Modern Greece_, etc., etc.--_Historical Ill.u.s.trations of the Fourth Canto of Childe Harold_, by J.C. Hobhouse, 1818.]

[285] In Turkey nothing is more common than for the Mussulmans to take several gla.s.ses of strong spirits by way of appetiser. I have seen them take as many as six of raki before dinner, and swear that they dined the better for it: I tried the experiment, but fared like the Scotchman, who having heard that the birds called kittiwakes were admirable whets, ate six of them, and complained that "he was no hungrier than when he began."

[286] ["Everything is so still [in the court of the Seraglio], that the motion of a fly might be heard, in a manner; and if any one should presume to raise his voice ever so little, or show the least want of respect to the Mansion-place of their Emperor, he would instantly have the bastinado by the officers that go the rounds."-_A Voyage in the Levant_, by M. Tournefort, 1741, ii. 183.]

{234}[287] _A common furniture. I recollect being received by Ali Pacha, in a large room, paved with marble, containing a marble basin, and fountain playing in the centre, etc., etc._

[Compare Childe Harold, Canto II. stanza Ixii.--