The Curse of Minerva
Pallas te hoc Vulnere Pallas
Immolat et poenam scelerato ex Sanguine Sumit.
Athens: Capuchin Convent, March 17, 1811.
| Slow sinks, more lovely ere his race be run
1
, Along Morea's hills the setting Sun; Not, as in northern climes, obscurely bright, But one unclouded blaze of living light; O'er the hushed deep the yellow beam he throws a , Gilds the green wave that trembles as it glows; On old Ægina's rock and Hydra's isle 2 The God of gladness sheds his parting smile; O'er his own regions lingering loves to shine, Though there his altars are no more divine b . Descending fast, the mountain-shadows kiss Thy glorious Gulf, unconquered Salamis! Their azure arches through the long expanse c , More deeply purpled, meet his mellowing glance, And tenderest tints, along their summits driven, Mark his gay course, and own the hues of Heaven; Till, darkly shaded from the land and deep, Behind his Delphian rock he sinks to sleep d . On such an eve his palest beam he cast When, Athens! here thy Wisest looked his last. How watched thy better sons his farewell ray, That closed their murdered Sage's 3 latest day! Not yet—not yet—Sol pauses on the hill, The precious hour of parting lingers still; But sad his light to agonizing eyes, And dark the mountain's once delightful dyes; Gloom o'er the lovely land he seemed to pour, The land where Phoebus never frowned before; But ere he sunk below Cithaeron's head, The cup of Woe was quaffed—the Spirit fled; The soul of Him that scorned to fear or fly e , Who lived and died as none can live or die. But lo! from high Hymettus to the plain The Queen of Night asserts her silent reign; 4 f No murky vapour, herald of the storm g , Hides her fair face, or girds her glowing form; With cornice glimmering as the moonbeams play, There the white column greets her grateful ray, And bright around, with quivering beams beset, Her emblem sparkles o'er the Minaret; The groves of olive scattered dark and wide, Where meek Cephisus sheds his scanty tide, The cypress saddening by the sacred mosque, The gleaming turret of the gay kiosk 5 , And sad and sombre 'mid the holy calm, Near Theseus' fane, yon solitary palm; All, tinged with varied hues, arrest the eye; And dull were his that passed them heedless by 6 . Again the Ægean, heard no more afar, Lulls his chafed breast from elemental war: Again his waves in milder tints unfold Their long expanse of sapphire and of gold, Mixed with the shades of many a distant isle That frown, where gentler Ocean deigns to smile h . As thus, within the walls of Pallas' fane, I marked the beauties of the land and main, Alone, and friendless, on the magic shore, Whose arts and arms but live in poets' lore; Oft as the matchless dome I turned to scan, Sacred to Gods, but not secure from Man, The Past returned, the Present seemed to cease, And Glory knew no clime beyond her Greece! Hour rolled along, and Dian's orb on high Had gained the centre of her softest sky; And yet unwearied still my footsteps trod O'er the vain shrine of many a vanished God j : But chiefly, Pallas! thine, when Hecate's glare Checked by thy columns, fell more sadly fair O'er the chill marble, where the startling tread Thrills the lone heart like echoes from the dead. Long had I mused, and treasured every trace The wreck of Greece recorded of her race, When, lo! a giant-form before me strode, And Pallas hailed me in her own Abode! Yes,'twas Minerva's self; but, ah! how changed, Since o'er the Dardan field in arms she ranged! Not such as erst, by her divine command, Her form appeared from Phidias' plastic hand: Gone were the terrors of her awful brow, Her idle Ægis bore no Gorgon now; Her helm was dinted, and the broken lance Seemed weak and shaftless e'en to mortal glance; The Olive Branch, which still she deigned to clasp, Shrunk from her touch, and withered in her grasp; And, ah! though still the brightest of the sky, Celestial tears bedimmed her large blue eye; Round the rent casque her owlet circled slow, And mourned his mistress with a shriek of woe! "Mortal!"—'twas thus she spake—"that blush of shame Proclaims thee Briton, once a noble name; First of the mighty, foremost of the free k , Now honoured less by all, and least by me: Chief of thy foes shall Pallas still be found. Seek'st thou the cause of loathing!—look around. Lo! here, despite of war and wasting fire, I saw successive Tyrannies expire; 'Scaped from the ravage of the Turk and Goth m , Thy country sends a spoiler worse than both. Survey this vacant, violated fane; Recount the relics torn that yet remain: These Cecrops placed, this Pericles adorned 7 , That Adrian reared when drooping Science mourned. What more I owe let Gratitude attest— Know, Alaric and Elgin did the rest. That all may learn from whence the plunderer came, The insulted wall sustains his hated name 8 : For Elgin's fame thus grateful Pallas pleads, Below, his name—above, behold his deeds! Be ever hailed with equal honour here The Gothic monarch and the Pictish peer n : Arms gave the first his right, the last had none, But basely stole what less barbarians won. So when the Lion quits his fell repast, Next prowls the Wolf, the filthy Jackal last o : Flesh, limbs, and blood the former make their own, The last poor brute securely gnaws the bone. Yet still the Gods are just, and crimes are crossed: See here what Elgin won, and what he lost! Another name with his pollutes my shrine: Behold where Dian's beams disdain to shine! Some retribution still might Pallas claim, When Venus half avenged Minerva's shame." 9 She ceased awhile, and thus I dared reply, To soothe the vengeance kindling in her eye: "Daughter of Jove! in Britain's injured name p , A true-born Briton may the deed disclaim. Frown not on England; England owns him not: Athena, no! thy plunderer was a Scot. Ask'st thou the difference? From fair Phyles' towers Survey Boeotia;—Caledonia's ours. And well I know within that bastard land 10 Hath Wisdom's goddess never held command; A barren soil, where Nature's germs, confined To stern sterility, can stint the mind; Whose thistle well betrays the niggard earth, Emblem of all to whom the Land gives birth; Each genial influence nurtured to resist; A land of meanness, sophistry, and mist q . Each breeze from foggy mount and marshy plain Dilutes with drivel every drizzly brain, Till, burst at length, each wat'ry head o'erflows, Foul as their soil, and frigid as their snows: Then thousand schemes of petulance and pride Despatch her scheming children far and wide; Some East, some West, some—everywhere but North! In quest of lawless gain, they issue forth. And thus—accursed be the day and year! She sent a Pict to play the felon here. Yet Caledonia claims some native worth 11 , As dull Boeotia gave a Pindar birth; So may her few, the lettered and the brave, Bound to no clime, and victors of the grave, Shake off the sordid dust of such a land, And shine like children of a happier strand; As once, of yore, in some obnoxious place, Ten names (if found) had saved a wretched race." "Mortal!" the blue-eyed maid resumed, "once more Bear back my mandate to thy native shore. 12 Though fallen, alas! this vengeance yet is mine, To turn my counsels far from lands like thine. Hear then in silence Pallas' stern behest; Hear and believe, for Time will tell the rest. "First on the head of him who did this deed My curse shall light,—on him and all his seed: Without one spark of intellectual fire, Be all the sons as senseless as the sire: If one with wit the parent brood disgrace, Believe him bastard of a brighter race: Still with his hireling artists let him prate, And Folly's praise repay for Wisdom's hate; Long of their Patron's gusto let them tell, Whose noblest, native gusto is—to sell: To sell, and make—may shame record the day!— The State—Receiver of his pilfered prey. Meantime, the flattering, feeble dotard, West, Europe's worst dauber, and poor Britain's best, With palsied hand shall turn each model o'er, And own himself an infant of fourscore. 13 Be all the Bruisers culled from all St. Giles', That Art and Nature may compare their styles r ; While brawny brutes in stupid wonder stare, And marvel at his Lordship's 'stone shop' there. 14 Round the thronged gate shall sauntering coxcombs creep To lounge and lucubrate, to prate and peep; While many a languid maid, with longing sigh, On giant statues casts the curious eye; The room with transient glance appears to skim, Yet marks the mighty back and length of limb; Mourns o'er the difference of now and then; Exclaims, 'These Greeks indeed were proper men!' Draws slight comparisons of these with those, s And envies Laïs all her Attic beaux. When shall a modern maid have swains like these? t Alas! Sir Harry is no Hercules! And last of all, amidst the gaping crew, Some calm spectator, as he takes his view, In silent indignation mixed with grief, Admires the plunder, but abhors the thief. Oh, loathed in life, nor pardoned in the dust, May Hate pursue his sacrilegious lust! Linked with the fool that fired the Ephesian dome, Shall vengeance follow far beyond the tomb, 15 And Eratostratus 16 and Elgin shine In many a branding page and burning line; Alike reserved for aye to stand accursed, Perchance the second blacker than the first. "So let him stand, through ages yet unborn, Fixed statue on the pedestal of Scorn; Though not for him alone revenge shall wait, But fits thy country for her coming fate: Hers were the deeds that taught her lawless son To do what oft Britannia's self had done. Look to the Baltic—blazing from afar, Your old Ally yet mourns perfidious war. 17 Not to such deeds did Pallas lend her aid, Or break the compact which herself had made; Far from such counsels, from the faithless field She fled—but left behind her Gorgon shield; A fatal gift that turned your friends to stone, And left lost Albion hated and alone. "Look to the East, 18 where Ganges' swarthy race Shall shake your tyrant empire to its base; Lo! there Rebellion rears her ghastly head, And glares the Nemesis of native dead; Till Indus rolls a deep purpureal flood, And claims his long arrear of northern blood. So may ye perish!—Pallas, when she gave Your free-born rights, forbade ye to enslave. "Look on your Spain!—she clasps the hand she hates, But boldly clasps, and thrusts you from her gates. Bear witness, bright Barossa! 19 thou canst tell Whose were the sons that bravely fought and fell. But Lusitania, kind and dear ally, Can spare a few to fight, and sometimes fly. Oh glorious field! by Famine fiercely won, The Gaul retires for once, and all is done! But when did Pallas teach, that one retreat Retrieved three long Olympiads of defeat? "Look last at home—ye love not to look there On the grim smile of comfortless despair: Your city saddens: loud though Revel howls, Here Famine faints, and yonder Rapine prowls. See all alike of more or less bereft; No misers tremble when there's nothing left. 'Blest paper credit;' 20 who shall dare to sing? It clogs like lead Corruption's weary wing. Yet Pallas pluck'd each Premier by the ear, Who Gods and men alike disdained to hear; But one, repentant o'er a bankrupt state, On Pallas calls,—but calls, alas! too late: Then raves for '——'; to that Mentor bends, Though he and Pallas never yet were friends. Him senates hear, whom never yet they heard, Contemptuous once, and now no less absurd. So, once of yore, each reasonable frog, Swore faith and fealty to his sovereign 'log.' Thus hailed your rulers their patrician clod, As Egypt chose an onion 21 for a God. "Now fare ye well! enjoy your little hour; Go, grasp the shadow of your vanished power; Gloss o'er the failure of each fondest scheme; Your strength a name, your bloated wealth a dream. Gone is that Gold, the marvel of mankind. And Pirates barter all that's left behind. 22 No more the hirelings, purchased near and far, Crowd to the ranks of mercenary war. The idle merchant on the useless quay Droops o'er the bales no bark may bear away; Or, back returning, sees rejected stores Rot piecemeal on his own encumbered shores: The starved mechanic breaks his rusting loom, And desperate mans him 'gainst the coming doom. Then in the Senates of your sinking state Show me the man whose counsels may have weight. Vain is each voice where tones could once command; E'en factions cease to charm a factious land: Yet jarring sects convulse a sister Isle, And light with maddening hands the mutual pile. "'Tis done, 'tis past—since Pallas warns in vain; The Furies seize her abdicated reign: Wide o'er the realm they wave their kindling brands, And wring her vitals with their fiery hands. But one convulsive struggle still remains, u And Gaul shall weep ere Albion wear her chains, The bannered pomp of war, the glittering files, v O'er whose gay trappings stern Bellona smiles; The brazen trump, the spirit-stirring drum, That bid the foe defiance ere they come; The hero bounding at his country's call, The glorious death that consecrates his fall, Swell the young heart with visionary charms. And bid it antedate the joys of arms. But know, a lesson you may yet be taught, With death alone are laurels cheaply bought; Not in the conflict Havoc seeks delight, His day of mercy is the day of fight. But when the field is fought, the battle won, Though drenched with gore, his woes are but begun: His deeper deeds as yet ye know by name; The slaughtered peasant and the ravished dame, The rifled mansion and the foe-reaped field, Ill suit with souls at home, untaught to yield. Say with what eye along the distant down Would flying burghers mark the blazing town? How view the column of ascending flames Shake his red shadow o'er the startled Thames? Nay, frown not, Albion! for the torch was thine That lit such pyres from Tagus to the Rhine: Now should they burst on thy devoted coast, Go, ask thy bosom who deserves them most? The law of Heaven and Earth is life for life, And she who raised, in vain regrets, the strife." |
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| Footnote 1: Ý The lines (1-54) with which the Satire begins, down to "As thus, within the walls of Pallas' fane," first appeared (1814) as the opening stanza of the Third Canto of The Corsair. At that time the publication of The Curse of Minerva had been abandoned. (See Byron's note to The Corsair, Canto III. st. i. line i.) return to footnote mark |
Footnote a: Ý O'er the blue ocean way his... [MS.
A
] |
| Footnote 2: Ý Idra; The Corsair, III. st. i. line 7. Hydra, or Hydrea, is an island on the east coast of the Peloponnese, between the gulfs of Nauplia and Ægina. As an "isle of Greece" it had almost no history until the War of Independence, when its chief town became a "city of refuge" for the inhabitants of the Morea and Northern Greece. Byron was, perhaps, the first poet to give it a name in song. return |
Footnote b: Ý Nor yet forbears each long-abandoned shrine... [MS.] |
| Footnote 3: Ý Socrates drank the hemlock a short time before sunset (the hour of execution), notwithstanding the entreaties of his disciples to wait till the sun went down. return |
Footnote c: Ý Their varying azure mingled with the sky Beneath his rays assumes a deeper dye... [MS.] |
| Footnote 4: ÝThe twilight in Greece is much shorter than in our own country; the days in winter are longer, but in summer of less duration. return |
Footnote d: Ý Behind his Delphian cliff... [Corsair, III. st. i. l. 18.] |
| Footnote 5: Ý The kiosk is a Turkish summer-house; the palm is without the present walls of Athens, not far from the temple of Theseus, between which and the tree the wall intervenes. Cephisus' stream is indeed scanty, and Ilissus has no stream at all. return |
Footnote e: Ý The soul of him who... [Corsair, III. st. i. 1. 31. |
|
Footnote 6: Ý "The Temple of Theseus is the most perfect ancient edifice in the world. In this fabric, the most enduring stability, and a simplicity of design peculiarly striking, are united with the highest elegance and accuracy of workmanship."
Travels in Albania, etc., by Lord Broughton (1858), i. 259. |
Footnote f: Ý silver reign... [MS.] |
| Footnote 7: Ý This is spoken of the city in general, and not of the Acropolis in particular. The temple of Jupiter Olympius, by some supposed the Pantheon, was finished by Hadrian; sixteen columns are standing, of the most beautiful marble and architecture. return |
Footnote g: Ý How sweet and Silent, not a passing cloud Hides her fair face with intervening shroud... [MS.] |
|
Footnote 8: Ý The following lines, of which the first two were written on the original MS., are in Byron's handwriting:— "Aspice quos Scoto Pallas concedit honores; Subter stat nomen, facta superque vide. Scote miser! quamvis nocuisti Palladis ædi, Infandum facinus vindicat ipsa Venus. Pygmalion statuam pro sponsâ arsisse refertur; Tu statuam rapias, Scote, sed uxor abest." Compare Horace in London, by the authors of Rejected Addresses (James and Horace Smith), London, 1813, ode xv., "The Parthenon," "Pastor quum traheret per freta navibus." "And Hymen shall thy nuptial hopes consume, Unless, like fond Pygmalion, thou canst wed Statues thy hand could never give to bloom. In wifeless wedlock shall thy life be led, No marriage joys to bless thy solitary bed." [Lord Elgin's first marriage with Mary, daughter of William Hamilton Nisbet, was dissolved by Act of Parliament in 1808.] |
Footnote h: Ý seems to smile... [Corsair, III. st. i. 1. 54.] |
|
Footnote 9: Ý His lordship's name, and that of one who no longer bears it, are carved conspicuously on the Parthenon; above, in a part not far distant, are the torn remnants of the bassorelievos, destroyed in a vain attempt to remove them. "Quod Non Fecerunt Goti, Hoc Fecerunt Scoti."] |
Footnote j: Ý Sad shrine... [MS.] |
| Footnote 10: Ý"Irish bastards," according to Sir Callaghan O'Brallaghan. ["A wild Irish soldier in the Prussian Army," in Macklin's Love-à-la-Mode (first played December 12, 1759).] return |
Footnote k: Ý Welcome to slaves, and foremost... [MS.] |
| Footnote 11: ÝLines 149-156 not in original MS. return |
Footnote m: Ý Ah, Athens! scarce escaped from Turk and Goth, Hell sends a paltry Scotchman worse than both.... [MS.] |
|
Footnote 12: Ý Compare Horace in London, ode xv.:— "All who behold my mutilated pile, Shall brand its ravages with classic rage; And soon a titled bard from Britain's isle Thy country's praise and suffrage shall engage, And fire with Athens' wrongs an angry age." |
Footnote n: Ý British peer... [MS.] |
| Footnote 13: Ý Mr. West, on seeing the "Elgin Collection," (I suppose we shall hear of the "Abershaw" and "Jack Shephard" collection) declared himself a "mere tyro" in art. [Compare Letters of Benjamin West to the Earl of Elgin, February 6, 1809, March 20, 1811, published in W.R. Hamilton's Memorandum, 1811.] return |
Footnote o: Ý Sneaking Jackal... [MS.] |
| Footnote 14: ÝPoor Crib was sadly puzzled when the marbles were first exhibited at Elgin House; he asked if it was not "a stone shop?"—He was right; it is a shop. return |
Footnote p: Ý guilty name... [MS.] |
| Footnote 15: Ý Lines 202-265 are not in the MS. return |
Footnote q: Ý A land of liars, mountebanks, and Mist... [MS.] |
| Footnote 16: Ý Herostratus or Eratostratus fired the temple of Artemis on the same night that Alexander the Great was born. (See Plut., Alex., 3, etc.) return |
Footnote r: Ý That Art may measure old and modern styles... [MS.] |
| Footnote 17: ÝThe affair of Copenhagen. Copenhagen was bombarded by sea by Admiral Lord Gambier (1756-1833), and by land by General Lord Cathcart (1755-1843), September 2-8, 1807. The citadel was given up to the English, and the Danes surrendered their fleet, with all the naval stores, and their arsenals and dockyards. The expedition was "promptly and secretly equipped" by the British Government "with an activity and celerity," says Koch (Hist. of Europe, p. 214), "such as they had never displayed in sending aid to their allies," with a view to anticipate the seizure and appropriation of the Danish fleet by Napoleon and Alexander (Green's Hist. English People (1875), p. 799). return |
Footnote s: Ý shy comparisons... [MS.] |
| Footnote 18: Ý"The East" is brought within range of Minerva's curse, symmetriae causâ, and it is hard to say to which "rebellion" she refers. A choice lies between the mutiny which broke out in 1809, during Sir George Barlow's presidency of Madras, among the officers of the Company's service, and which at one time threatened the continuance of British sway in India; and later troubles, in 1810, arising from the Pindárí hordes, who laid waste the villages of Central India and Hindostan, and from the Pathans, who invaded Berar under Ameer Khan. But here, as in lines 245-258 (click on c13 to return) (vide infra, p. 470,
note
i), Byron is taking toll of a note to Epics of the Ton, pp. 246, 247, which enlarges on the mutiny of native soldiers which took place at Vellore in 1806, where several "European officers and a considerable portion of the 69th Regiment were massacred," in consequence of "an injudicious order with respect to the dress of the Sepoys."—Gleig's History of the British Empire in India (1835), iii. 233, note.x return |
Footnote t: Ý In sooth the Nymph 'twere no slight task to please Since young Sir Harry, etc.... [MS.] |
| Footnote 19: Ý The victory of "bright Barossa," March 5, 1811, was achieved by the sudden determination—"an inspiration rather than a resolution," says Napier—of the British commander, General Graham (Thomas, Lord Lynedoch, 1750-1843), to counter-march his troops, and force the eminence known as the Cerro de Puerco, or hill of Barosa, which had fallen into the hands of the French under Ruffin. Graham was at this time second in command to the Spanish Captain-general, La Peña, and at his orders, but under the impression that the hill would be guarded by the Spanish troops, was making his way to a neighbouring height. Meantime La Peña had withdrawn the corps of battle to a distance, and left the hill covered with baggage and imperfectly protected. Graham recaptured Barosa, and repulsed the French with heavy loss, in an hour and a half. Napier affirms that La Peña "looked idly on, neither sending his cavalry nor his horse artillery to the assistance of his ally;" and testifies "that no stroke in aid of the British was struck by a Spanish sabre that day." "Famine" may have raised the devil in the English troops, but it prevented them from following up the victory. A further charge against the Spaniards was that, after Barosa had been won, the English were left for hours without food, and, as they had marched through the night before they came into action, they could only look on while the French made good their retreat. Two companies of the 20th Portuguese formed part of the British contingent, and took part in the engagement. The year before, at Busaco (September 27, 1810), the Portuguese had displayed signal bravery; but at Gebora (February 19, 1811) "Madden's Portuguese, regardless of his example and reproaches, shamefully turned their backs" (Napier's History of the Peninsular War (1890), iii. 26, 98, 102-107). return |
Footnote u: Ý Fallen is each dear bought friend on Foreign Coast Or leagued to add you to the world you lost... [MS.] |
|
Footnote 20: Ý "Blest paper credit! last and best supply, That lends Corruption lighter wings to fly." (Pope.) [In February, 1811, a select committee of the House of Commons "on commercial credit" recommended an advance of £6,000,000 to manufacturers who were suffering from over-speculation. "Did they not know," asked Lord Grenville, in the House of Lords, March 21, "that they were adding to the mass of paper at this moment in existence a sum of £6,000,000, as if there was not paper enough already in the country, in order to protect their commerce and manufactures from destruction?" Nevertheless, the measure passed. The year before (February 19, 1810), a committee which had sat under the presidency of Francis Horner, to inquire into the cause of the high price of gold bullion (gold was worth £4. 10s. an ounce), returned (June 10) a report urging the resumption of cash payment at the end of two years. "Those imps which make the senses reel, and zounds! Mistake a cypher for a thousand pounds;" and her note-writer comments thus: "It somewhat hurts the feelings to see a minister stand up in his place, and after a very pretty exordium to the budget, take up a bundle of papers from the table, gaze at the incomprehensible calculations before him, stammer out a few confused numbers, and then, with a rueful face, look over his shoulder to V—ns—rt for assistance. How often have I grieved to see unhappy A—d—g—n in this lamentable predicament!" Again, on Thellusson being raised to the peerage as Lord Rendlesham, she asks— "Say, shall we bend to titles thus bestowed, And like the Egyptians, hail the calf a god? With toads, asps, onions, ornament the shrine, And reptiles own and pot-herbs things divine?" It is evident that Byron, uninspired by Pallas, turned to the Epics of the Ton for "copy," but whether he left a blank on purpose because "Vansittart" (to whom Perceval did turn) would not scan, or, misled by old newspapers, would have written "Horner," must remain a mystery. |
Footnote v: Ý —-the glittering file The martial sounds that animate the while... [MS.] |
| Footnote 21: Ý See the portrait of Spencer Perceval in the National Portrait Gallery. return cross-reference: return to Footnote 18 of this poem |
|
| Footnote 22: ÝThe Deal and Dover traffickers in specie. return |
