Saturday, April 9th, 1814
I mark this day!
Napoleon Buonaparte has abdicated the throne of the world. "Excellent well." Methinks Sylla did better; for he revenged and resigned in the height of his sway, red with the slaughter of his foes—the finest instance of glorious contempt of the rascals upon record. Dioclesian did well too—Amurath not amiss, had he become aught except a dervise—Charles the Fifth but so so—but Napoleon, worst of all. What! wait till they were in his capital, and then talk of his readiness to give up what is already gone!! "
What
whining monk art thou— what holy cheat?"
'Sdeath!—Dionysius at Corinth was yet a king to this. The "Isle of Elba" to retire to!—Well—if it had been Caprea, I should have marvelled less. "I
see
men's minds are but a parcel of their fortunes."
I am utterly bewildered and confounded.
I don't know—but I think
I
, even
I
(an insect compared with this creature), have set my life on casts not a millionth part of this man's. But, after all, a crown may be not worth dying for. Yet, to outlive
Lodi
for this!!!
Oh
that
Juvenal or Johnson could rise from the dead!
Expende—quot libras in duce summo invenies
?
I knew they were light in the balance of mortality; but I thought their living dust weighed more
carats
. Alas! this imperial diamond hath a flaw in it, and is now hardly fit to stick in a glazier's pencil:—the pen of the historian won't rate it worth a ducat.
Psha
! "something too much of this."
But I won't give him up even now; though all his admirers have, "like the thanes, fallen from him."
Footnote 1:
In Otway's
Venice Preserved
(act iv. sc. 2), Pierre says to Jaffier, who had betrayed him:
"What whining monk art thou? What holy cheat?
That would'st encroach upon my credulous ears,
And cant'st thus vilely! Hence! I know thee not!"
Footnote 2:
"I see, men's judgements are a parcel of their fortunes."
Antony and Cleopatra
, act iii. sc. II, line 32.
Footnote 3:
"Expende Hannibalem: quot libras in duce summo
Invenies?"
Juvenal,
Sat
. x. 147.
"Produce the urn that Hannibal contains,
And weigh the mighty dust which yet remains:
And is this all?"
Gifford's
Juvenal
(ed. 1802), vol. ii. pp. 338, 339.
Footnote 4:
"In the Statistical Account of Scotland, I find that Sir John Paterson had the curiosity to collect, and weigh, the ashes of a person discovered a few years since in the parish of Eccles. Wonderful to relate, he found the whole did not exceed in weight one ounce and a half! And is this all!"
Gifford's
Juvenal, ut supra
.
Footnote 5:
Hamlet
, act iii. sc. 2.
Footnote 6:
Macbeth
, act v. sc. 3,
"Doctor, the thanes fly from me!"
