The Works of Lord Byron Volume VI Part 65

{277}[342] The ladies of the Seraglio.

[343] [Demetrius Cantemir, hospodar of Moldavia. His work, the _History of the Growth and Decay of the Othman Empire_, was translated into English by N. Tyndal, 1734. He died in 1723.]

[344] [Baron de Tott, in his _Memoirs concerning the State of the Turkish Empire_ (1786, i. 72), gives the t.i.tle of this functionary as _Kiaya Kadun_, i.e. Mistress or Governess of the Ladies.]

{278}[345] [The repet.i.tion of the same rhyme-word was noted in _Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine_, July, 1823, vol. xiv. p. 90.]

{279}[346]

["I guess, 't was frightful there to see A lady so richly clad as she-- Beautiful exceedingly."

_Christabel_, Part I. lines 66-68.]

[347] "It is in the adjacent climates of Georgia, Mingrelia, and Circa.s.sia, that nature has placed, at least to our eyes, the model of beauty, in the shape of the limbs, the colour of the skin, the symmetry of the features, and the expression of the countenance: the men are formed for action, the women for love."--Gibbon, [_Decline and Fall, etc._, 1825, iii 126.]

{280}[348] Padisha is the Turkish t.i.tle of the Grand Signior.

[349] [Katinka was the name of the youngest sister of Theresa, the "Maid of Athens."--See letter to H. Drury, May 3, 1810, _Letters_, 1898, i.

269, note 1; and _Poetical Works_, 1900, iii. 15, note 1.

It is probable that the originals of Katinka and Dudu were two Circa.s.sians who were presented for sale to Nicolas Ernest Kleeman (see his _Voyage de Vienne, etc._, 1780, pp. 142, 143) at Kaffa, in the Crimea. Of the first he writes, "Elle me baisa la main, et par l'ordre de son maitre, elle se promena en long et en large, pour me faire remarquer sa taille mince et aisee. Elle avoit un joli pet.i.t pied....

Quand elle a en ote son voile elle a presente a mes yeux une beaute tres-attrayante; ses cheveux etoient blonds argentes; elle avoit de grands yeux bleux, le nez un peu long, et les levres appetissantes. Sa figure etoit reguliere, son teint blanc, delicat, les joues couvertes d'un charmant vermilion.... La seconde etoit un peu pet.i.te, a.s.sez gra.s.se, et avoit les cheveux roux, l'air sensuel et revenant." Kleeman pretended to offer terms, took notes, and retired. But the Circa.s.sians are before us still.]

{281}[350] [_Macbeth_, act ii. sc. 2, line 36.]

{284}[gv] _By which no doubt its Baptism came to pa.s.s_.--[MS. A.

erased.]

[gw] _The Devil in h.e.l.l might melt but never settle_.--[MS. A. erased.]

[351] [Hence the t.i.tle of the satire, _The Age of Bronze_.]

[gx] _For Woman's silence startles more than thunder_.--[MS. A. erased.]

{287}[352] [Compare _Beppo_, stanza xxii. line 2, _Poetical Works_, 1901, iv. 166, note 1.]

[gy] _With no less true and feminine surprise_.--[MS. A. erased.]

{289}[353] [_Julius Caesar_, act iii. sc. II, line 216.]

[354]

["Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita Mi ritrovai per una selva oscura," etc.

_Inferno_, Canto I, lines I, 2.]

[gz]

_Himself in an age when men grow good,_ _As Life's best half is done_----.--[MS. A. erased.]

[ha] _But out of reach--a most provoking sight_.--[MS. A. erased.]

[hb] _That ere her unreluctant lips could ope_.--[MS. A.]

{290}[355] [One of the advocates employed for Queen Caroline in the House of Lords spoke of some of the most puzzling pa.s.sages in the history of her intercourse with Bergami, as amounting to "odd instances of strange coincidence."--Ed. 1833, xvi. 160.]

{291}[hc] _At least as red as the Flamingo's breast_.--[MS. A. erased.]

{292}[356] [Byron used Kaff for Caucasus, _vide ante_, _English Bards, etc._, line 1022, _Poetical Works_, 1898, i. 378, note 3. But there may be some allusion to the fabulous Kaff, "anciently imagined by the Asiatics to surround the world, to bind the horizon on all sides." There was a proverb "From Kaf to Kaf," _i.e._ "the wide world through." See, too, D'Herbelot's _Bibliotheque Orientale_, 1697, art. "Caf."]

[357] [See L.A. Seneca, _De Ira_, lib. ii. cap. 25.]

{294}[hd]

_Oh thou her lawful grandson Alexander_ _Let not this quality offend_----.--[MS. A. erased.]

[358] [Compare _The Age of Bronze_, lines 434, sq., _Poetical Works_, 1901, v. 563, note 1.]

{294}[he] _To call a man a wh.o.r.eson_----.--[MS. A. erased.]

[hf] _But a man's grandmother is deemed fair game_.--[MS. A.]

[359] [It is probable that Byron knew that there was a "hint of illegitimacy" in his own pedigree. John Byron of Clayton, grandfather of Richard the second Lord Byron, was born, out of wedlock, to Elizabeth, daughter of William Costerden, of Blakesley, in Lancashire, widow to George Halgh of Halgh (_sic_), and second wife of Sir John Byron of Clayton, "little Sir John with the great beard." He succeeded to Newstead and the Lancashire estates, not as heir-at-law, but by deed of gift. (See letter to Murray, October 20, 1820, _Letters_, 1901, v. 99, note 2.)]

{295}[360] [Aubry de la Motraye, in describing the interior of the Grand Signior's palace, into which he gained admission as the a.s.sistant of a watchmaker who was employed to regulate the clocks, says that the eunuch who received them at the entrance of the harem, conducted them into a hall: "Cette salle est incrustee de porcelaines fines; et le lambris dore et azure qui orne le fond d'une coupole qui regne au-dessus, est des plus riches.... Une fontaine artificielle et jaillissante, dont le ba.s.sin est d'un pretieux marbre verd qui m'a paru serpentin ou jaspe, s'elevoit directement au milieu, sous le dome.... Je me trouvai la tete si pleine de _Sophas_ de pretieux plafonds, de meubles superbes, en un mot, d'une si grande confusion de materiaux magnifiques, ... qu'il seroit difficile d'en donner une idee claire."--_Voyages_, 1727, i. 220, 222.]

{296}[361] ["Il n'ya point de Religieuses ... point de novices, plus soumises a la volonte de leur abbesse que ces filles [les Odaliques] le sont a leurs maitresses."--A. de la Motraye, _Voyages,_ 1727, i. 338.]

{297}[hg]

---- _though seen not heard_ _For it is silent_.--[MS. A. erased.]

[362] ["How fares my Kate? What! sweeting, all amort?"--_Taming of the Shrew,_ act iv. sc. 3, line 36. "Amort" is said to be a corruption of _a la mort_. Byron must have had in mind his silent ecstasy of grief when the Countess Guiccioli endeavoured to break the announcement of Allegra's death (April, 1822). "'I understand,' said he; 'it is enough; say no more.' A mortal paleness spread itself over his face, his strength failed him, and he sunk into a seat. His look was fixed, and the expression such that I began to fear for his reason; he did not shed a tear" (_Life,_ p. 368).]

{299}[363] ["His guilty soul, at enmity with G.o.ds and men, could find no rest; so violently was his mind torn and distracted by a consciousness of guilt. Accordingly his countenance was pale, his eyes ghastly, his pace one while quick, another slow [citus modo, modo tardus incessus]; indeed, in all his looks there was an air of distraction."--Sall.u.s.t, _Catilina_, cap. xv. sf.]

CANTO THE SEVENTH.[364]

I.

O LOVE! O Glory! what are ye who fly Around us ever, rarely to alight?

There's not a meteor in the polar sky Of such transcendent and more fleeting flight.

Chill, and chained to cold earth, we lift on high Our eyes in search of either lovely light; A thousand and a thousand colours they a.s.sume, then leave us on our freezing way.

II.

And such as they are, such my present tale is, A nondescript and ever-varying rhyme, A versified Aurora Borealis, Which flashes o'er a waste and icy clime.

When we know what all are, we must bewail us, But ne'ertheless I hope it is no crime To laugh at _all_ things--for I wish to know _What_, after _all_, are _all_ things--but a _show_?