[287] {381} [In a manuscript note to a letter of Byron's, dated June 11, 1814, Wedderburn Webster writes, "I did take him to Lady Sitwell's party.... He there for the first time saw his cousin, the beautiful Mrs. Wilmot [who had appeared in mourning with numerous spangles in her dress]. When we returned to ... the Albany, he ... desired Fletcher to give him a tumbler of brandy, which he drank at once to Mrs. Wilmot's health.... The next day he wrote some charming lines upon her, 'She walks in beauty,' etc."—Letters, 1899, iii. 92, note 1.

Anne Beatrix, daughter and co-heiress of Eusebius Horton, of Catton Hall, Derbyshire, married Byron's second cousin, Robert John Wilmot (1784-1841), son of Sir Robert Wilmot of Osmaston, by Juliana, second daughter of the Hon. John Byron, and widow of the Hon. William Byron. She died February 4, 1871.

Nathan (Fugitive Pieces, 1829, pp. 2, 3) has a note to the effect that Byron, while arranging the first edition of the Melodies, used to ask for this song, and would not unfrequently join in its execution.]

[le] {382}

The Harp the Minstrel Monarch swept,

The first of men, the loved of Heaven,

Which Music cherished while she wept.—[MS. M.]

[lf] {383} It told the Triumph——.—[MS. M.]

[288] ["When Lord Byron put the copy into my hand, it terminated with this line. This, however, did not complete the verse, and I asked him to help out the melody. He replied, 'Why, I have sent you to Heaven—it would be difficult to go further!' My attention for a few moments was called to some other person, and his Lordship, whom I had hardly missed, exclaimed, 'Here, Nathan, I have brought you down again;' and immediately presented me the beautiful and sublime lines which conclude the melody."—Fugitive Pieces, 1829, p. 33.]

[lg]

It there abode, and there it rings,

But ne'er on earth its sound shall be;

The prophets' race hath passed away;

And all the hallowed minstrelsy—

From earth the sound and soul are fled,

And shall we never hear again?—[MS. M. erased.]

[289] [According to Nathan, the monosyllable "if" at the beginning of the first line led to "numerous attacks on the noble author's religion, and in some an inference of atheism was drawn."

Needless to add, "in a subsequent conversation," Byron repels this charge, and delivers himself of some admirable if commonplace sentiments on the "grand perhaps."-Fugitive Pieces, 1829, pp. 5, 6.]

[lh] {384} ——breaking link.—[Nathan, 1815, 1829.]

[290] [Compare To Ianthe, stanza iv. lines 1, 2—

"Oh! let that eye, which, wild as the Gazelle's,

Now brightly bold or beautifully shy."

Compare, too, The Giaour, lines 473, 474—

"Her eye's dark charm 'twere vain to tell,

But gaze on that of the Gazelle."

Poetical Works, 1899, ii. 13; et ante, p. 108.]

[291] {387} [Nathan (Fugitive Pieces, 1829, pp. 11, 12) seems to have tried to draw Byron into a discussion on the actual fate of Jephtha's daughter—death at her father's hand, or "perpetual seclusion"—and that Byron had no opinion to offer. "Whatever may be the absolute state of the case, I am innocent of her blood; she has been killed to my hands;" and again, "Well, my hands are not imbrued in her blood!"]

[292] {388} ["In submitting the melody to his Lordship's judgment, I once inquired in what manner they might refer to any scriptural subject: he appeared for a moment affected—at last replied, 'Every mind must make its own references; there is scarcely one of us who could not imagine that the affliction belongs to himself, to me it certainly belongs.' 'She is no more, and perhaps the only vestige of her existence is the feeling I sometimes fondly indulge.'"—Fugitive Pieces, 1829, p. 30. It has been surmised that the lines contain a final reminiscence of the mysterious Thyrza.]

[li] ——in gentle gloom.—[MS. M.]

[lj]

Shall Sorrow on the waters gaze,

And lost in deep remembrance dream,

As if her footsteps could disturb the dead.—[MS. M.]

[lk] {389} Even thou——.—[MS. M.]

[ll]

IV.

Nor need I write to tell the tale,

My pen were doubly weak;

Oh what can idle words avail,

Unless my heart could speak?

V.

By day or night, in weal or woe,

That heart no longer free

Must bear the love it cannot show,

And silent turn for thee.—[MS. M.]

[293] [Compare "Nay, now, pry'thee weep no more! you know, ... that 'tis sinful to murmur at ... Providence."—"And should not that reflection check your own, my Blanche?"—"Why are your cheeks so wet? Fie! fie, my child!"—Romantic Tales, by M. G. Lewis, 1808, i. 53.]

[294] [Compare "My soul is dark."—Ossian, "Oina-Morul," The Works of Ossian, 1765, ii. 279.]

[295] {390} ["It was generally conceived that Lord Byron's reported singularities approached on some occasions to derangement; and at one period, indeed, it was very currently asserted that his intellects were actually impaired. The report only served to amuse his Lordship. He referred to the circumstance, and declared that he would try how a Madman could write: seizing the pen with eagerness, he for a moment fixed his eyes in majestic wildness on vacancy; when, like a flash of inspiration, without erasing a single word, the above verses were the result."—Fugitive Pieces, 1829, p. 37.]

[296] [Compare the first Sonnet to Genevra (addressed to Lady Frances Wedderburn Webster), "Thine eye's blue tenderness."]

[lm] {392}

He stands amidst an earthly cloud,

And the mist mantled o'er his floating shroud.—[MS. erased.]

[ln] At once and scorched beneath——.—[MS. Copy (1, 2).]

[lo] Bloodless are these bones——.—[MS.]

[297] ["Since we have spoken of witches," said Lord Byron at Cephalonia, in 1823, "what think you of the witch of Endor? I have always thought this the finest and most finished witch-scene that ever was written or conceived; and you will be of my opinion, if you consider all the circumstances and the actors in the case, together with the gravity, simplicity, and dignity of the language."—Conversations on Religion with Lord Byron, by James Kennedy, M.D., London, 1830, p. 154.]

[lp] {393} Heed not the carcase that lies in your path.—[MS. Copy (1).]

[lq]

——my shield and my bow,

Should the ranks of your king look away from the foe.—[MS.]

[lr] {394}

Heir to my monarchy——.—[MS.]

Note to Heir—Jonathan.—[Copy.]

[ls]

My father was the shepherd's son,

Ah were my lot as lowly

My earthly course had softly run.—[MS.]

[298] {395} [Compare Childe Harold, Canto I. stanza lxxxii. lines 8, 9—

"Full from the fount of Joy's delicious springs

Some bitter o'er the flowers its bubbling venom flings."

Poetical Works, 1899, ii. 73, and note 16, p. 93.]

[lt]

Ah! what hath been but what shall be,

The same dull scene renewing?

And all our fathers were are we

In erring and undoing.—[MS.]

[lu] When this corroding clay is gone.—[MS. erased.]

[lv] The stars in their eternal way.—[MS. L. erased.]

[lw] {396} A conscious light that can pervade.—[MS. erased.]

[299] {397} [Compare the lines entitled "Belshazzar" (vide post, p. 421), and Don Juan, Canto III. stanza lxv.]

[lx] ——in the hall.—[Copy.]

[ly] In Israel——.—[Copy.]

[300] {398} [It was not in his youth, but in extreme old age, that Daniel interpreted the "writing on the wall."]

[lz] Oh king thy grave——.—[Copy erased.]

[301] {400} [Mariamne, the wife of Herod the Great, falling under the suspicion of infidelity, was put to death by his order. Ever after, Herod was haunted by the image of the murdered Mariamne, until disorder of the mind brought on disorder of body, which led to temporary derangement. See History of the Jews, by H. H. Milman, 1878, pp. 236, 237. See, too, Voltaire's drama, Mariamne, passim.

Nathan, wishing "to be favoured with so many lines pathetic, some playful, others martial, etc.... one evening ... unfortunately (while absorbed for a moment in worldly affairs) requested so many dull lines—meaning plaintive." Byron instantly caught at the expression, and exclaimed, "Well, Nathan! you have at length set me an easy task," and before parting presented him with "these beautifully pathetic lines, saying, 'Here, Nathan, I think you will find these dull enough.'"—Fugitive Pieces, 1829, p. 51.]

[ma]

And what was rage is agony.—[MS. erased.]

Revenge is turned——.—[MS.]

[mb] And deep Remorse——.—[MS.]

[mc] And what am I thy tyrant pleading.—[MS. erased.]

[md]

Thou art not dead—they could not dare

Obey my jealous Frenzy's raving.—[MS.]

[me] But yet in death my soul enslaving.—[MS. erased.]

[mf] {401} Oh I have earned——.—[MS.]

[mg] ——that looks o'er thy once holy dome.—[MS.]

[mh]

——o'er thy once holy wall

I beheld thee O Sion the day of thy fall.—[MS. erased.]

[mi] And forgot in their ruin——.—[MS. erased.]

[mj] {402}

And the red bolt——.—[MS. erased.]

And the thunderbolt crashed——.—[MS.]

[302] [The following note, in Byron's handwriting, is prefixed to the copy in Lady Byron's handwriting:—

"Dear Kinnaird,—Take only one of these marked 1 and 2 [i.e. 'By the Rivers,' etc.; and 'By the waters,' vide p. 404], as both are but different versions of the same thought—leave the choice to any important person you like.

Yours,

B."]

[303] [Landor, in his "Dialogue between Southey and Porson" (Works, 1846, i. 69), attempted to throw ridicule on the opening lines of this "Melody."

"A prey in 'the hue of his slaughters'! This is very pathetic; but not more so than the thought it suggested to me, which is plainer—

'We sat down and wept by the waters

Of Camus, and thought of the day

When damsels would show their red garters

In their hurry to scamper away.'"]

[mk] {403}

Our mute harps were hung on the willow

That grew by the stream of our foe,

And in sadness we gazed on each billow

That rolled on in freedom below.—[MS, erased.]

[ml]

On the willow that harp still hangs mutely

Oh Salem its sound was for thee.—[MS. erased.]

[304] {405} [Compare—"As leaves in autumn, so the bodies fell." The Barons' Wars, by Michael Drayton, Bk. II. stanza lvii.; Anderson's British Poets, iii. 38.]

[mm] And the foam of his bridle lay cold on the earth.—[MS.]

[mn] ——of the cliff-beating surf.—[MS.]

[mo] With the crow on his breast——.—[MS.]

[mp] And the widows of Babel——.—[MS. erased.]

[mq] And the voices of Israel are joyous and high.—[MS. erased.]