The Works of Lord Byron Volume VI Part 56

"In marble-paved pavilion, where a spring Of living water from the centre rose, Whose bubbling did a genial freshness fling, And soft voluptuous couches breathed repose, Ali reclined, a man of war and woes," etc.]

[288] [A reminiscence of Newstead. Compare Moore's song, "Oft in the Stilly Night"--

"I feel like one Who treads alone Some banquet-hall deserted."]

{235}[fb]

_A small, snug chamber on a winter's night_, _Well furnished with a book, friend, girl, or gla.s.s, etc_.--[MS.]

[fc] _I pa.s.s my days in long dull galleries solely_.--[MS. erased.]

[289] [When this stanza was written Byron was domiciled in the Palazzo Guiccioli (in the Via di Porta Adriana) at Ravenna; but he may have had in his mind the monks' refectory at Newstead Abbey, "the dark gallery, where his fathers frowned" (_Lara_, Canto I. line 137), or the corridors which form the upper story of the cloisters.]

[290] ["Nabuch_o_donosor," here used _metri gratia_, is Latin (see the Vulgate) and French (see J.P. De Beranger, _Chansons Inedites_, 1828, p.

48) for Nebuchadnezzar.]

[291] [See Ovid's _Metamorphoses_, lib. iv. lines 55-58--

"In Babylon, where first her queen, for state, Raised walls of brick magnificently great, Lived Pyramus and Thisbe, lovely pair!

He found no Eastern youth his equal there, And she beyond the fairest nymph was fair."

Garth.]

{236}[292] Babylon was enlarged by Nimrod, strengthened and beautified by Nabuchadonosor, and rebuilt by Semiramis.

[Pliny (_Nat. Hist._, lib. viii. cap. xlii. ed. 1593, i. 392) cites Juba, King of Mauretania, died A.D. 19, as his authority for the calumny.]

[fd] _In an Erratum of her Horse for Courier_.--[MS.]

[293] [Queen Caroline--whose trial (August--November, 1820) was proceeding whilst this canto was being written--was charged with having committed adultery with Bartolommeo Bergami, who had been her courier, and was, afterwards, her chamberlain.]

[294] ["_Memoir on the Ruins of Babylon_, by Claudius James Rich, Esq., Resident for the Honourable East India Company at the Court of the Pasha of Bagdad, 1815," pp. 61-64: _Second Memoir on Babylon,_ ... 1818, by Claudius James Rich. See the plates at the end of the volume.]

[fe] _If they shall not as soon cut off my head._--[MS.]

{240}[ff] _A pair of drawers_----.--[MS.]

[295] [Compare "Extracts from a Diary," January 24, 1821, _Letters_, 1901, v. 184.]

[fg] _Kings are not more imperative than rhymes_.--[MS.]

{241}[fh] _He looked almost in modesty a maid_.--[MS.]

{242}[296] _Features_ of a gate--a ministerial metaphor: "the _feature_ upon which this question _hinges_." See the "Fudge Family," or hear Castlereagh.

[Phil. Fudge, in his letter to Lord Castlereagh, says--

"As _thou_ would'st say, my guide and teacher In these gay metaphoric fringes, I must _embark_ into the _feature_ On which this letter chiefly _hinges_."

Moore's note adds, "Verbatim from one of the n.o.ble Viscount's speeches:--'_And now, sir, I must embark into the_ feature _on which this question chiefly hinges_.'"--_Fudge Family in Paris_, Letter II.

See, too, _post_, the Preface to Cantos VI., VII., and VIII., p. 264, note 3.]

{243}[297] [Compare--

"A snake's small eye blinks dull and sly, And the lady's eyes they shrunk in her head, Each shrunk up to a serpent's eye."

_Christabel_, Part II. lines 583-585.]

{244}[298] A few years ago the wile of Muchtar Pacha complained to his father of his son's supposed infidelity: he asked with whom, and she had the barbarity to give in a list of the twelve handsomest women in Yanina. They were seized, fastened up in sacks, and drowned in the lake the same night. One of the guards who was present informed me, that not one of the victims uttered a cry, or showed a symptom of terror at so sudden a "wrench from all we know, from all we love."

[See _The Giaour_, line _1328, Poetical Works, 1900_, iii. 144, note 1.]

{245}[fi]

_As Venus rose from Ocean--bent on them_ _With a far-reaching glance, a Paphian pair_.--[MS.]

[fj]

_But there are forms which Time adorns, not wears_, _And to which Beauty obstinately clings_.--[MS.]

{246}[299] [Legend has credited Ninon de Lenclos (1620-1705) with lovers when she had "come to four-score years." According to Voltaire, John Casimir, ex-king of Poland, succ.u.mbed to her secular charms (see _Mazeppa_, line 138, _Poetical Works_, 1901, iv. 212, note 1). "In her old age, her house was the rendezvous of wits and men of letters.

Scarron is said to have consulted her on his romances, Saint-Evremond on his poems, Moliere on his comedies, Fontenelle on his dialogues, and La Rochefoucauld on his maxims. Coligny, Sevigne, etc., were her lovers and friends. At her death, in 1705, she bequeathed to Voltaire two thousand francs, to expend in books."--_Biographic Universelle_, art. "Lenclos."]

[300] ["Her fair maids were ranged below the sofa, to the number of twenty, and put me in mind of the pictures of the ancient nymphs. I did not think all nature could have furnished such a scene of beauty,"

etc.--Lady M.W. Montagu to the Countess of Mar, April 18, O.S. 1717, ed.

1816, p. 163.]

[301]

["Nil admirari prope res est una, Numici, Solaque quae possit facere et servare beatum."

Hor., _Epist._, lib. 1, ep. vi. lines 1, 2.]

{247}[302]

["Not to admire, is all the Art I know To make men happy, and to keep them so, (Plain Truth, dear MURRAY, needs no flow'rs of speech, So take it in the very words of Creech).

_To Mr. Murray_ (Lord Mansfield), Pope's _Imitations of Horace_, Book I.

epist. vi. lines 1-4.

Thomas Creech (1659-1701) published his _Translation of Horace_ in 1684.

In the second edition, 1688, p. 487, the lines run--

"Not to admire, as most are wont to do, It is the only method that I know, To make Men happy and to keep 'em so."]

[303] [Johnson placed judgment and friendship above admiration and love.

"Admiration and love are like being intoxicated with champagne; judgment and friendship like being enlivened." See Boswell's _Life of Johnson_, 1876, p. 450.]

{248}[304] There is nothing, perhaps, more distinctive of birth than the hand. It is almost the only sign of blood which aristocracy can generate.

{249}[305] [In old pictures of the Fall, it is a cherub who whispers into the ear of Eve. The serpent's coils are hidden in the foliage of the tree.]