FOOTNOTES:
[IU] {377}To you this one unflattering Muse inscribes.—[MS. erased.]
[IV] {378}
He strips from man his mantle (which is dear
Though beautiful in youth) his carnal skin.—[MS. erased.]
[487] [Hamlet, act iii. sc. i, line 56.]
[488] ["O dura messorum ilia!" etc.-Hor., Epod. iii. 4.]
[IW] Ye iron guts——.—[MS. erased.]
[489] {379}["Ce n'est qu'à l'édition de 1635 qu'on voit paraître la devise que Montaigne avait adoptée, le que sais-je? avec l'emblème des balances. ... Ce que sais-je que Pascal a si sévèrement analysé se lit au chapitre douze du livre ii; il caractérise parfaitement la philosophie de Montaigne; il est la conséquence de cette maxime qu'il avait inscrite en grec sur les solives de sa librairie: 'Il n'est point de raisonnement au quel on n'oppose un raissonnement contraire.'"—Oeuvres de ... Montaigne, 1837, "Notice Bibliographique," p. xvii.]
[490] [Concerning the Pyrrhonists or Sceptics and their master Pyrrho, who held that Truth was incomprehensible (inprensibilis), and that you may not affirm of aught that it be rather this or that, or neither this nor that (οὐ μᾶλλον οὕτως ἔχει τόδε ἢ ἐκείνως ἢ οὐδετέρως), see Aul. Gellii Noct. Attic., lib. xi. cap. v.]
[491] See Othello, [act ii. sc. 3, lines 206, 207: "Well, God's above all, and there be souls must be saved; and there be souls must not be saved—Let's have no more of this."]
[492] {380}[Hamlet, act v. sc. 2, lines 94, 98, 102.]
[493] [For "Lycanthropy," see "The Soldier's Story" in the Satyricôn of Petronius Arbiter, cap. 62; see, too, Letters on Demonology, etc., by Sir W. Scott, 1830, pp. 211, 212.]
[494] [In respect of suavity and forbearance Melancthon was the counterpart of Luther. John Arrowsmith (1602-1657), in his Tractica Sacra, describes him as "Vir in quo cum pietate doctrina, et cum utrâque candor certavit."]
[IX] Like Moses or like Cobbett who have ne'er.
Moses and Cobbet proclaim themselves the "meekest of men." See their writings.—[MS.]
Like Moses who was "very meek" had ne'er.—[MS. erased.]
[495] {381}[See his "Correspondance avec L'Impératrice de Russie," Oeuvres Complètes de Voltaire, 1836, x. 393-477. M. Waliszewski, in his Story of a Throne, 1895, i. 224, has gathered a handful of these flowers of speech: "She is the chief person in the world.... She is the fire and life of nations.... She is a saint.... She is above all saints.... She is equal to the mother of God.... She is the divinity of the North.—Te Catherinam laudamus, te Dominam confitemur, etc., etc."]
[IY] Of everything that ever cursed a nation.—[MS. erased.]
[496] ["It is still more difficult to say which form of government is the worst—all are so bad. As for democracy, it is the worst of the whole; for what is (in fact) democracy?—an Aristocracy of Blackguards."—See "My Dictionary" (May 1, 1821), Letters, 1901, v. 405, 406.]
[IZ] {382}Though priests and slaves may join the servile cry.—[MS. erased.]
[497] In Greece I never saw or heard these animals; but among the ruins of Ephesus I have heard them by hundreds.
[See Childe Harold, Canto IV. stanza cliii. line 6, Poetical Works, 1899, ii. 441; and Siege of Corinth, line 329, ibid., 1900, iii. 462, note 1.]
[JA] Whereas the others hunt for rascal spiders.—[MS. erased.]
[JB] Which still are strongly fluttering to be free.—[MS. erased.]
[498] {383}[Compare The Age of Bronze, line 576, sq., Poetical Works, 1901, v. 570.]
[499] {384}[Nadir Shah, or Thamas Kouli Khan, born November, 1688, invaded India, 1739-40, was assassinated June 19, 1747.]
—— went mad and was
Killed because what he swallowed would not pass.—[MS. erased.]
[500] He was killed in a conspiracy, after his temper had been exasperated by his extreme costivity to a degree of insanity.
[To such a height had his madness (attributed to melancholia produced by dropsy) attained, that he actually ordered the Afghan chiefs to rise suddenly upon the Persian guard, and seize the ... chief nobles; but the project being discovered, the intended victims conspired in turn, and a body of them, including Nadir's guard, and the chief of his own tribe of Afshar, entered his tent at midnight, and, after a moment's involuntary pause—when challenged by the deep voice at which they had so often trembled—rushed upon the king, who being brought to the ground by a sabre-stroke, begged for life, and attempted to rise, but soon expired beneath the repeated blows of the conspirators.—The Indian Empire, by R. Montgomery Martin (1857), i. 172.]
[501] [Compare Childe Harold, Canto I. stanza lxvii. line 5, Poetical Works, 1899, ii. 64, note 3.]
[JD] {385}Or the substrata——.—[MS.]
[502] [Compare Preface to Cain, Poetical Works, 1901, V. 210, note 1.]
[503] [Vide ante, Canto VIII. stanza cxxvi. line 9, p. 368.]
[504] {386}[Hamlet, act i. sc. 5, line 189.]
[JE] I never know what's next to come——.—[MS. erased.]
[505] [It is possible that the phrase "painted snows" was suggested by Tooke's description of the winter-garden of the Taurida Palace: "The genial warmth, ... the voluptuous silence that reigns in this enchanting garden, lull the fancy into sweet romantic dreams: we think ourselves in the groves of Italy, while torpid nature, through the windows of this pavilion, announces the severity of a northern winter" (The Life, etc., 1800, iii. 48).]
[JF] {387}O'er limits which mightily——:—[MS. erased.]
[JG]—— in Youth and Glory's pillory.—[MS. erased.]
[506] [In his Notes sur le Don Juanisme (Mercure de France, 1898, xxvi. 66), M. Bruchard says that this phrase defines and summarizes the Byronic Don Juan.]
The Empress smiled while all the Orloff frowned—
A numerous family, to whose heart or hand
Mild Catherine owed the chance of being crowned,.—[MS. erased.]
[507] {388}[C.F.P. Masson, in his Mémoires Secrets, etc., 1880, i. 150-178, gives a list of twelve favourites, and in this Canto, Don Juan takes upon himself the characteristics of at least three, Lanskoï, Zoritch (or Zovitch), and Plato Zoubof. For example (p. 167), "Zoritch ... est le seul étranger qu'elle ait osé créer son favori pendant son regne. C'étoit un Servien échappé du bagne de Constantinople où il étoit prisonnier: il parut, pour la première fois, en habit de hussard à la cour. Il éblouit tout le monde par sa beauté, et les vielles dames en parlent encore comme d'un Adonis." M. Waliszewski, in his Romance of an Empress (1894), devotes a chapter to "Private Life and Favouritism" (ii. 234-286), in which he graphically describes the election and inauguration of the Vremienchtchik, "the man of the moment," paramour regnant, and consort of the Empress pro hac vice: "'We may observe in Russia a sort of interregnum in affairs, caused by the displacement of one favourite and the installation of his successor.' ... The interregnums are, however, of very short duration. Only one lasts for several months, between the death of Lanskoï (1784) and the succession of Iermolof.... There is no lack of candidates. The place is good.... Sometimes, too, on the height by the throne, reached at a bound, these spoilt children of fate grow giddy.... It is over in an instant, at an evening reception it is noticed that the Empress has gazed attentively at some obscure lieutenant, presented but just before ... next day it is reported that he has been appointed aide-de-camp to her Majesty. What that means is well known. Next day he finds himself in the special suite of rooms.... The rooms are already vacated, and everything is prepared for the new-comer. All imaginable comfort and luxury ... await him; and, on opening a drawer, he finds a hundred thousand roubles [about £20,000], the usual first gift, a foretaste of Pactolus. That evening, before the assembled court, the Empress appears, leaning familiarly on his arm, and on the stroke of ten, as she retires, the new favourite follows her" (ibid., pp. 246-249).]
[508] [After the death or murder of her husband, Peter III., Catherine Alexievna (1729-1796) (born Sophia Augusta), daughter of the Prince of Anhalt Zerbst, was solemnly crowned (September, 1762) Empress of all the Russias.]
[JI] {389}And almost died for the scarce-fledged Lanskoi.—[MS. erased.]
[509] He was the grande passion of the grande Catherine. See her Lives under the head of "Lanskoi."
[Lanskoi was a youth of as fine and interesting a figure as the imagination can paint. Of all Catherine's favourites, he was the man whom she loved the most. In 1784 he was attacked with a fever, and perished in the arms of her Majesty. When he was no more, Catherine gave herself up to the most poignant grief, and remained three months without going out of her palace of Tzarsko-selo. She afterwards raised a superb monument to his memory. (See Life of Catherine II., by W. Tooke, 1800, iii. 88, 89.)]
[510] [Ten months after the death of Lanskoi, the Empress consoled herself with Iermolof, described, by Bezborodky, as "a modest refined young man, who cultivates the society of serious people." In less than a year this excellent youth is, in turn, displaced by Dmitrief Mamonof. His petit nom was Red Coat, and, for a time, he is a "priceless creature." "He has," says Catherine, "two superb black eyes, with eyebrows outlined as one rarely sees; about the middle height, noble in manner, easy in demeanour." But Mamonof suffered from "scruples of conscience," and, after a while, with Catherine's consent and blessing, was happily married to the Princess Shtcherbatof, a maid of honour, and not, as Byron supposed, a rival "man of the moment."—See The Story of a Throne, by K. Waliszewski, 1895, ii. 135, sq.]
[511] This was written long before the suicide of that person. [For "his parts of speech" compare—
" ... that long mandarin
C-stle-r-agh (whom Fum calls the Confucius of Prose)
Was rehearsing a speech upon Europe's repose
To the deep double bass of the fat Idol's nose."
Moore's Fum and Hum, The Two Birds of Royalty.]
[512] {390}[Compare Beppo, stanza xvii. line 8, Poetical Works, 1901, iv. 165. See, too, letter to Hoppner, December 31, 1819, Letters, 1900, iv. 393.]
Beneath his chisel—
or, Beneath his touches——.—[MS. erased.]
[JK] {391}—— and bound fair Helen in a bond.—[MS. erased.]
[513] Hor., Sat., lib. i. sat. iii. lines 107, 108.
[JL] That Riddle which all read, none understand.—[MS. erased.]
[JM]—— thou Sea which lavest Life's sand.—[MS. erased.]
[514] {392}["Fortune and victory sit on thy helm."—Richard III., act v, sc. 3, line 79.]
[515] ["Catherine had been handsome in her youth, and she preserved a gracefulness and majesty to the last period of her life. She was of a moderate stature, but well proportioned; and as she carried her head very high, she appeared rather tall. She had an open front, an aquiline nose, an agreeable mouth, and her chin, though long, was not mis-shapen. Her hair was auburn, her eyebrows black and rather thick, and her blue eyes had a gentleness which was often affected, but oftener still a mixture of pride. Her physiognomy was not deficient in expression; but this expression never discovered what was passing in the soul of Catherine, or rather it served her the better to disguise it."—Life of Catherine II., by W. Tooke, iii. 381 (translated from Vie de Catherine II. (J.H. Castéra), 1797, ii. 450).]
[516] {393}["His fortune swells him: 'Tis rank, he's married."—Sir Giles Overreach, in Massinger's New Way to pay Old Debts, act v. sc. 1.]
[517] {394}[Hamlet, act iii. sc. iv. lines 58, 59.]
[518] {395}
["Not Cæsar's empress would I deign to prove;
No! make me mistress to the man I love."
Pope, Eloisa to Abelard, lines 87, 88.]
O'er whom an Empress her Crown-jewels scattering
Was wed with something better than a ring.—[MS. erased.]
[519] ["Several persons who lived at the court affirm that Catherine had very blue eyes, and not brown, as M. Rulhières has stated."—Life of Catherine II., by W. Tooke, 1800, iii. 382.]
[520] {396}[The historic Catherine (æt. 62) was past her meridian in the spring of 1791.]
[JO] Her figure, and her vigour, and her rigour.—[MS. erased.]
[524] End of Canto 9th, Augt. Sept., 1822. B.
