FOOTNOTES:
[305] {409} [Compare The Corsair, Canto I. stanza xv. lines 480-490.]
[mr] {410}
Never may I behold
Moment like this.—[MS.]
The damp of the morning
Clung chill on my brow.—[MS. erased.]
[mt] Thy vow hath been broken.—[MS.]
——lies hidden
Our secret of sorrow—
And deep in my soul—
But deed more forbidden,
Our secret lies hidden,
But never forgot.—[Erasures, stanza 3, MS.]
[mv] {411}
If one should meet thee
How should we greet thee?
In silence and tears.—[MS.]
[306] [From an autograph MS. in the possession of Mr. Murray, now for the first time printed.
The water-mark of the paper on which a much-tortured rough copy of these lines has been scrawled, is 1809, but, with this exception, there is no hint as to the date of composition. An entry in the Diary for November 30, 1813, in which Annabella (Miss Milbanke) is described "as an heiress, a girl of twenty, a peeress that is to be," etc., and a letter (Byron to Miss Milbanke) dated November 29, 1813 (see Letters, 1898, ii. 357, and 1899, iii. 407), in which there is more than one allusion to her would-be suitors, "your thousand and one pretendants," etc., suggest the idea that the lines were addressed to his future wife, when he first made her acquaintance in 1812 or 1813.]
[307] {413} ["Thou hast asked me for a song, and I enclose you an experiment, which has cost me something more than trouble, and is, therefore, less likely to be worth your taking any in your proposed setting. Now, if it be so, throw it into the fire without phrase."—Letter to Moore, May 4, 1814, Letters, 1899, iii. 80.]
[mw] I speak not—I breathe not—I write not that name.—[MS. erased.]
[mx] {414}
We have loved—and oh, still, my adored one we love!
Oh the moment is past, when that Passion might cease.—
[MS. erased.]
[my] The thought may be madness—the wish may be—guilt.—[MS. erased.]
{ But I cannot repent what we ne'er can recall. But the heart which is thine would disdain to recall
[MS. erased.]
[na] ——though I feel that thou mayst.—[MS. L. erased.]
This soul in its bitterest moments shall be,
And our days run as swift—and our moments more sweet,
With thee at my side, than the world at my feet.—[MS.]
[nc] {415}
And thine is that love which I will never forego
Though the price which I pay be Eternity's woe.—[MS. erased]
[nd] One tear of thy sorrow, one smile——.—[MS. erased]
[308] [The "Caledonian Meeting," at which these lines were, or were intended to be, recited (see Life, p. 254), was a meeting of subscribers to the Highland Society, held annually in London, in support of the [Royal] Caledonian Asylum "for educating and supporting children of soldiers, sailors, and marines, natives of Scotland." "To soothe," says the compiler of the Report for 1814, p. 4, "by the assurance that their offspring will be reared in virtue and comfort, the minds of those brave men, through whose exposure to hardship and danger the independence of the Empire has been preserved, is no less an act of sound policy than of gratitude."]
[309] {416} [As an instance of Scottish gallantry in the Peninsular War it is sufficient to cite the following list of "casualties" at the battle of Vittoria, June 21, 1813: "The battalion [the seventy-first Highland Light Infantry] suffered very severely, having had 1 field officer, 1 captain, 2 lieutenants, 6 sergeants, 1 bugler, and 78 rank and file killed; 1 field officer, 3 captains, 7 lieutenants, 13 sergeants, 2 buglers, and 255 rank and file were wounded."—Historical Record of the 71st Highland Light Infantry, by Lieut. Henry J. T. Hildyard, 1876, p. 91.]
[310] [Compare Temora, bk. vii., "The king took his deathful spear, and struck the deeply-sounding shield.... Ghosts fled on every side, and rolled their gathered forms on the wind.—Thrice from the winding vale arose the voices of death."—Works of Ossian, 1765, ii. 160.]
[311] {417} [The last six lines are printed from the MS.]
[312] [Sir P. Parker fell in August, 1814, in his twenty-ninth year, whilst leading a party from his ship, the Menelaus, at the storming of the American camp near Baltimore. He was Byron's first cousin (his father, Christopher Parker (1761-1804), married Charlotte Augusta, daughter of Admiral the Hon. John Byron); but they had never met since boyhood. (See letter to Moore, Letters, 1899, iii. 150; see too Letters, i. 6, note 1.) The stanzas were included in Hebrew Melodies, 1815, and in the Ninth Edition of Childe Harold, 1818.]
[313] [Compare Tasso's sonnet—"Questa Tomba non è, ehe non è morto," etc. Rime Eroiche, Parte Seconda, No. 38, Opere di Torquato Tasso, Venice, 1736, vi. 169.]
[314] {419} [From an autograph MS. in the possession of Mr. Murray, now for the first time printed.]
[ne] {421}
1.
The red light glows, the wassail flows,
Around the royal hall;
And who, on earth, dare mar the mirth
Of that high festival?
The prophet dares—before thee glows—
Belshazzar rise, nor dare despise
The writing on the wall!
2
Thy vice might raise th' avenging steel,
Thy meanness shield thee from the blow—
And they who loathe thee proudly feel.—[MS.]
[nf] {422}
The words of God along the wall.—[MS. erased.]
The word of God—the graven wall.—[MS.]
[ng] Behold it written——.—[MS.]
[nh] ——thy sullied diadem.—[MS.]
[315] {423} [Byron gave these verses to Moore for Mr. Power of the Strand, who published them, with music by Sir John Stevenson. "I feel merry enough," he wrote, March 2, "to send you a sad song." And again, March 8, 1815, "An event—the death of poor Dorset—and the recollection of what I once felt, and ought to have felt now, but could not—set me pondering, and finally into the train of thought which you have in your hands." A year later, in another letter to Moore, he says, "I pique myself on these lines as being the truest, though the most melancholy, I ever wrote." (March 8, 1816.)—Letters, 1899, iii. 181, 183, 274.]
[ni] 'Tis not the blush alone that fades from Beauty's cheek.—[MS.]
[nj] {424} As ivy o'er the mouldering wall that heavily hath crept.—[MS.]
[316] [Compare—
"And oft we see gay ivy's wreath
The tree with brilliant bloom o'erspread,
When, part its leaves and gaze beneath,
We find the hidden tree is dead."
"To Anna," The Warrior's Return, etc.,
by Mrs. Opie, 1808, p. 144.]
[317] {425} [From an autograph MS. in the possession of Mr. Murray, now for the first time printed. The MS. is headed, in pencil, "Lines written on the Death of the Duke of Dorset, a College Friend of Lord Byron's, who was killed by a fall from his horse while hunting." It is endorsed, "Bought of Markham Thorpe, August 29, 1844." (For Duke of Dorset, see Poetical Works, 1898, i. 194, note 2; and Letters, 1899, in. 181, note 1.)]
[nk] {426} ——shall eternally be.—[MS. erased.]
[nl] Green be the turf——.—[MS.]
[318] [Compare "O lay me, ye that see the light, near some rock of my hills: let the thick hazels be around, let the rustling oaks be near. Green be the place of my rest."—"The War of Inis-Thona," Works of Ossin, 1765, i. 156.]
[nm] May its verdure be sweetest to see.—[MS.]
[nn] {427}
Young flowers and a far-spreading tree
May wave on the spot of thy rest;
But nor cypress nor yew let it be.—[MS.]
[319] ["We need scarcely remind our readers that there are points in these spirited lines, with which our opinions do not accord; and, indeed, the author himself has told us that he rather adapted them to what he considered the speaker's feelings than his own."—Examiner, July 30, 1815.]
[no] The brightest and blackest are due to my fame.—[MS.]
[np] But thy destiny wills——.—[MS.]
[nq] {428}
Oh for the thousands of Those who have perished
By elements blasted, unvanquished by man—
Then the hope which till now I have fearlessly cherished,
Had waved o'er thine eagles in Victory's van.—[MS.]
[320] ["All wept, but particularly Savary, and a Polish officer who had been exalted from the ranks by Buonaparte. He clung to his master's knees; wrote a letter to Lord Keith, entreating permission to accompany him, even in the most menial capacity, which could not be admitted."—Private Letter from Brussels.]
[nr] {429} ——that mute adieu.—[MS.]
[ns] Dear as they have seemed to me.—[MS.]
[nt] In the faith I pledged to thee.—[MS.]
Glory lightened from thy soul.
Never did I grieve till now.—[MS.]
[321] ["At Waterloo one man was seen, whose left arm was shattered by a cannon-ball, to wrench it off with the other, and, throwing it up in the air, exclaimed to his comrades, 'Vive l'Empereur, jusqu'à la mort!' There were many other instances of the like: this you may, however, depend on as true."—Private Letter from Brussels.]
[nv] When the hearts of coward foes.—[MS.]
[nw] {430} ——to Friendship's prayer.—[MS.]
'Twould not gather round his throne
Half the hearts that still are thine.—[MS.]
Let me but partake his doom,
Be it exile or the grave.
or, All I ask is to abide
All the perils he must brave,
All my hope was to divide.—[MS.]
or, Let me still partake his gloom,
Late his soldier, now his slave—
Grant me but to share the gloom
Of his exile or his grave.—[MS.]
[322] {431} [These lines "are said to have been done into English verse by R. S. —— P. L. P. R., Master of the Royal Spanish Inqn., etc., etc."—Morning Chronicle, March 15, 1816. "The French have their Poems and Odes on the famous Battle of Waterloo, as well as ourselves. Nay, they seem to glory in the battle as the source of great events to come. We have received the following poetical version of a poem, the original of which is circulating in Paris, and which is ascribed (we know not with what justice) to the Muse of M. de Chateaubriand. If so, it may be inferred that in the poet's eye a new change is at hand, and he wishes to prove his secret indulgence of old principles by reference to this effusion."—Note, ibid.]
[323] [Charles Angélique François Huchet, Comte de La Bédoyère, born 1786, was in the retreat from Moscow, and in 1813 distinguished himself at the battles of Lutzen and Bautzen. On the return of Napoleon from Elba he was the first to bring him a regiment. He was promoted, and raised to the peerage, but being found in Paris after its occupation by the Allied army, he was tried by a court-martial, and suffered death August 15, 1815.]
[324] {432} See Rev. Chap. viii. V. 7, etc., "The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood," etc. V. 8, "And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood," etc. V. 10, "And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters." V. 11, "And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter."
[325] Murat's remains are said to have been torn from the grave and burnt. ["Poor dear Murat, what an end ...! His white plume used to be a rallying point in battle, like Henry the Fourth's. He refused a confessor and a bandage; so would neither suffer his soul or body to be bandaged."—Letter to Moore, November 4. 1815, Letters, 1899, iii. 245. See, too, for Joachim Murat (born 1771), proclaimed King of Naples and the Two Sicilies, August, 1808, ibid., note 1.]
[326] {434} ["Write, Britain, write the moral lesson down." Scott's Field of Waterloo, Conclusion, stanza vi. line 3.]
[327] {435} ["Talking of politics, as Caleb Quotem says, pray look at the conclusion of my 'Ode on Waterloo,' written in the year 1815, and comparing it with the Duke de Berri's catastrophe in 1820, tell me if I have not as good a right to the character of 'Vates,' in both senses of the word, as Fitzgerald and Coleridge?—
'Crimson tears will follow yet;'
and have not they?"—Letter to Murray, April 24, 1820.
In the Preface to The Tyrant's Downfall, etc., 1814, W. L. Fitzgerald (see English Bards, etc., line 1, Poetical Works, 1898, i. 297, note 3) "begs leave to refer his reader to the dates of his Napoleonics ... to prove his legitimate title to the prophetical meaning of Vates" (Cent. Mag., July, 1814, vol. lxxxiv. p. 58). Coleridge claimed to have foretold the restoration of the Bourbons (see Biographia Literaria, cap. x.).]
[328] {436} ["The Friend who favoured us with the following lines, the poetical spirit of which wants no trumpet of ours, is aware that they imply more than an impartial observer of the late period might feel, and are written rather as by Frenchman than Englishman;—but certainly, neither he nor any lover of liberty can help feeling and regretting that in the latter time, at any rate, the symbol he speaks of was once more comparatively identified with the cause of Freedom."—Examiner. April 7, 1816.]
[329] {437} The tricolor.
