s: His angry tail; red rolls his eye's dilated glow.


s: Sudden he stops--his eye is fixed--away--


s: Away, thou heedless boy! prepare the spear:


s: The skill that yet may check his mad career!


s: With well-timed croupe the nimble coursers veer;


s: On foams the Bull, but not unscathed he goes;


s: Streams from his flank the crimson torrent clear:


s: He flies, he wheels, distracted with his throes;


s: Dart follows dart--lance, lance--loud bellowings speak his woes.


s: Again he comes; nor dart nor lance avail,


s: Nor the wild plunging of the tortured horse;


s: Though Man and Man's avenging arms assail,


s: Vain are his weapons, vainer is his force.


s: One gallant steed is stretched a mangled corse;


s: Another, hideous sight! unseamed appears,


s: His gory chest unveils life's panting source;


s: Though death-struck, still his feeble frame he rears;


s: Staggering, but stemming all, his Lord unharmed he bears.


s: Foiled, bleeding, breathless, furious to the last,


s: Full in the centre stands the Bull at bay,


s: Mid wounds, and clinging darts, and lances brast,


s: Shake the red cloak, and poise the ready brand:


s: Once more through all he bursts his thundering way--


s: Vain rage! the mantle quits the conynge hand,


s: Wraps his fierce eye--'tis past--he sinks upon the sand![dd]


s: Where his vast neck just mingles with the spine,


s: Sheathed in his form the deadly weapon lies.


s: He stops--he starts--disdaining to decline:


s: Slowly he falls, amidst triumphant cries,


s: Without a groan, without a struggle dies.


s: The corse is piled--sweet sight for vulgar eyes--[de]


s: Four steeds that spurn the rein, as swift as shy,


s: Hurl the dark bulk along, scarce seen in dashing by.


s: Such the ungentle sport that oft invites


s: The Spanish maid, and cheers the Spanish swain.


s: Nurtured in blood betimes, his heart delights


s: In vengeance, gloating on another's pain.


s: What private feuds the troubled village stain!


s: Though now one phalanxed host should meet the foe,


s: To meditate 'gainst friend the secret blow,


s: But Jealousy has fled: his bars, his bolts,


s: And all whereat the generous soul revolts,[df]


s: Have passed to darkness with the vanished age.


s: Who late so free as Spanish girls were seen,


s: With braided tresses bounding o'er the green,


s: While on the gay dance shone Night's lover-loving Queen?


s: Oh! many a time and oft, had Harold loved,


s: Or dreamed he loved, since Rapture is a dream;


s: For not yet had he drunk of Lethe's stream;


s: And lately had he learned with truth to deem


s: Love has no gift so grateful as his wings:


s: How fair, how young, how soft soe'er he seem,


s: Full from the fount of Joy's delicious springs[dg]


s: Some bitter o'er the flowers its bubbling venom flings.[16.B.]


s: Yet to the beauteous form he was not blind,


s: Though now it moved him as it moves the wise;


s: E'er deigned to bend her chastely-awful eyes:


s: But Passion raves herself to rest, or flies;


s: And Vice, that digs her own voluptuous tomb,


s: Had buried long his hopes, no more to rise:[dh]


s: Pleasure's palled Victim! life-abhorring Gloom


s: Wrote on his faded brow curst Cain's unresting doom.


s: Still he beheld, nor mingled with the throng;


s: But viewed them not with misanthropic hate:


s: Fain would he now have joined the dance, the song;


s: But who may smile that sinks beneath his fate?


s: Nought that he saw his sadness could abate:


s: Yet once he struggled 'gainst the Demon's sway,


s: And as in Beauty's bower he pensive sate,


s: To charms as fair as those that soothed his happier day.


s: To zones though more and more remote,[di]


s: Man's heart, and view the Hell that's there.


s: Who may forget how well thy walls have stood?


s: When all were changing thou alone wert true,


s: First to be free and last to be subdued;


s: Some native blood was seen thy streets to dye,


s: A Traitor only fell beneath the feud: [17.B.]


s: None hugged a Conqueror's chain, save fallen Chivalry!


s: Such be the sons of Spain, and strange her Fate!


s: They fight for Freedom who were never free,


s: A Kingless people for a nerveless state;


s: Her vassals combat when their Chieftains flee,


s: True to the veriest slaves of Treachery:


s: Fond of a land which gave them nought but life,


s: Pride points the path that leads to Liberty;


s: Back to the struggle, baffled in the strife,


s: War, war is still the cry, "War even to the knife!"[18.B.]


s: Ye, who would more of Spain and Spaniards know[dj]


s: Go, read whate'er is writ of bloodiest strife:


s: Whate'er keen Vengeance urged on foreign foe


s: Can act, is acting there against man's life:


s: War mouldeth there each weapon to his need--


s: So may he guard the sister and the wife,


s: So may he make each curst oppressor bleed--


s: So may such foes deserve the most remorseless deed!


s: Flows there a tear of Pity for the dead?


s: Look o'er the ravage of the reeking plain;


s: Look on the hands with female slaughter red;


s: Then to the dogs resign the unburied slain,


s: Then to the vulture let each corse remain,


s: Let their bleached bones, and blood's unbleaching stain,


s: Long mark the battle-field with hideous awe:


s: Thus only may our sons conceive the scenes we saw!


s: Nor yet, alas! the dreadful work is done;


s: It deepens still, the work is scarce begun,


s: Nor mortal eye the distant end foresees.


s: Fall'n nations gaze on Spain; if freed, she frees


s: More than her fell Pizarros once enchained:


s: Strange retribution! now Columbia's ease


s: Repairs the wrongs that Quito's sons sustained,


s: While o'er the parent clime prowls Murder unrestrained.


s: Have won for Spain her well asserted right.


s: When shall her Olive-Branch be free from blight?


s: When shall she breathe her from the blushing toil?


s: How many a doubtful day shall sink in night,


s: Ere the Frank robber turn him from his spoil,


s: And Freedom's stranger-tree grow native of the soil!


s: And thou, my friend!--since unavailing woe[dk][19.B.]


s: Bursts from my heart, and mingles with the strain--


s: Had the sword laid thee with the mighty low,


s: Pride might forbid e'en Friendship to complain:


s: But thus unlaurelled to descend in vain,


s: By all forgotten, save the lonely breast,


s: And mix unbleeding with the boasted slain,


s: While Glory crowns so many a meaner crest!


s: What hadst thou done to sink so peacefully to rest?


s: Oh, known the earliest, and esteemed the most![dl]


s: Dear to a heart where nought was left so dear![dm]


s: Though to my hopeless days for ever lost,


s: And Fancy hover o'er thy bloodless bier,[dn]


s: Till my frail frame return to whence it rose,


s: And mourned and mourner lie united in repose.


s: Here is one fytte of Harold's pilgrimage:


s: Shall find some tidings in a future page,


s: If he that rhymeth now may scribble moe.


s: Is this too much? stern Critic! say not so:


s: Patience! and ye shall hear what he beheld


s: In other lands, where he was doomed to go:


s: Lands that contain the monuments of Eld,


s: Ere Greece and Grecian arts by barbarous hands were quelled.


s: "The first and second cantos of _Childe Harold_ were written in


s: "_The cheerless thing, the man without a friend_,"


s: [The phrase occurs in _The Rovers, or the Double Arrangement_


s: [Passages relating to the Queen of Tahiti, in _Hawkesworth's


s: "Weary of love, of life, devour'd with spleen,


s: [John Moore (1729-1802), the father of the celebrated Sir John


s: [In 1814, when the dedication was published, Byron completed his


s: {13} [For the modulation of the verse, compare Pope's lines--


s: "Glows while he reads, but trembles as he writes."


s: _And long as kinder eyes shall deign to cast_


s: _A look along my page, that name enshrined_


s: _Shalt thou be_ first _beheld, forgotten_ last.--[MS.]


s: or, --_wooed thee, drank the vaunted rill_.--[D.]


s: _He chused the bad, and did the good affright_


s: ["We [i.e. Byron and C.S. Matthews] went down [April, 1809] to


s: {17} ["Hight" is the preterite of the passive "hote," and means


s: [William, fifth Lord Byron (the poet's grand-uncle), mortally


s: _And strait he fell into a reverie_.--[MS.]


s: _Now Paphian jades were heard to sing and smile_.--[MS. erased.]


s: [The brass eagle which was fished out of the lake at Newstead in


s: "'Hail, venerable pile!' whose ivied walls


s: And hail, ye hills, and murmuring waterfalls,


s: Where yet her head the ruin'd Abbey rears.


s: Calls the fat abbot from his drowsy cell,


s: And warns the maid to flee, if yet a maid.


s: No longer now the festive bowl goes round,


s: Nor monks get drunk in honour of their God."]


s: _Of all his train there was a henchman page,_


s: _A {-dark eyed-} boy, who {-loved-} his master well;_


s: _And often would his pranksome prate engage_


s: _Childe {-Burun's-} ear, when his proud heart did swell_


s: _With sable thoughts that he disdained to tell_.


s: _Then would he smile on him, as {-Rupert-} smiled,_


s: _When aught that from his young lips archly fell_


s: _The gloomy film from {-Burun's-} eye beguiled;_


s: _And pleased the Childe appeared nor ere the boy reviled_.}


s: _And pleased for a glimpse appeared the woeful Childe_.   }


s: _And though the boy was grieved to leave the lake_


s: _On whose firm banks he grew from Infancy,_


s: _Eftsoons his little heart beat merrily_


s: _With hope of foreign nations to behold,_


s: _And many things right marvellous to see,_


s: _Of which our {-lying-} voyagers oft have told,_


s: _{-From Mandevilles' and scribes of similar mold.-}_ }


s: or, _In tomes pricked out with prints to monied ... sold_}


s: _In many a tome as true as Mandeville's of old_.     }


s: _And none did love him though to hall and bower_


s: _Haughty he gathered revellers from far and near_


s: _{-An evil smile just bordering on a sneer-}_


s: _He knew them flatterers of the festal hour_


s: _The heartless Parasites of present cheer,_


s: _{-And deemed no mortal wight his peer-}_


s: _Yea! none did love him not his lemmans dear_


s: _{-To gentle Dames still less he could be dear-}_


s: _{-Were aught-} But pomp and power alone are Woman's care_


s: _{-But-} And where these are let no Possessor fear_


s: [The "trivial particular" which suggested to Byron the


s: The word "lemman" is used by Chaucer in both senses, but more


s: And father of that chaste dishonoured dame."


s: Whither I know not; but the hour's gone by,


s: When Albion's lessening shores could grieve or glad mine eye."


s: {26} [Robert Rushton, the son of one of the Newstead tenants.


s: _Our best greyhound can hardly fly_.--[D. erased.]


s: {28} [William Fletcher, Byron's valet. He was anything but


s: _Though her blue eyes were streaming o'er_,


s: ["I leave England without regret--I shall return to it without


s: _Since youth I scarce have pass'd an hour_


s: Byron was recalling an incident which had befallen him some time


s: {31} [Cintra's "needle-like peaks," to the north-west of Lisbon,


s: ["_Lisboa_ is the Portuguese word, consequently the very best.


s: _Which poets, prone to lie, have paved with gold_.--[MS.]


s: _Which poets sprinkle o'er with sands of gold_.--[MS. pencil.]


s: {33} [For Byron's estimate of the Portuguese, see _The Curse of


s: _Who hate the very hand that waves the sword_


s: _Mid many things that grieve both nose and ee_.--[MS.]


s: {35} [The convent of Nossa Señora (now the Palazio) da Peña, and


s: materials ... but for correctness of costume ... and power of


s: _When Wealth and Taste their worst and best have done_,


s: _Meek Peace pollution's lure voluptuous still must shun_.--[MS.]


s: _But now thou blasted Beacon unto man_.--[MS.]


s: In golden characters right well designed


s: First on the list appeareth one "Junot;"


s: Then certain other glorious names we find,


s: (Which Rhyme compelleth me to place below:)


s: Dull victors! baffled by a vanquished foe,


s: Wheedled by conynge tongues of laurels due,


s: Dalrymple, seely wight, sore dupe of t'other tew.


s: That failed the knights in Marialva's dome:


s: Of brains (if brains they had) he them beguiled,


s: And turned a nation's shallow joy to gloom.


s: For well I wot, when first the news did come


s: Such Pæans teemed for our triumphant host,


s: Pens, tongues, feet, hands combined in wild uproar;


s: Mayor, Aldermen, laid down the uplifted fork;


s: The Bench of Bishops half forgot to snore;


s: Stern Cobbett,[§]--who for one whole week forbore


s: To question aught, once more with transport leapt,


s: And bit his devilish quill agen, and swore


s: With foes such treaty never should be kept,


s: Thus unto Heaven appealed the people: Heaven


s: Which loves the lieges of our gracious King,


s: Decreed that ere our Generals were forgiven,


s: But Mercy cloaked the babes beneath her wing;


s: And as they spared our foes so spared we them;


s: (Where was the pity of our Sires for Byng?)[§§§]


s: Then live ye gallant Knights! and bless your Judges' phlegm!


s: complaisantly carry the bone for him." The rest of the article is


s: [Byron and Hobhouse sailed from Falmouth, July 2, 1809; reached


s: _Less swoln with culture soon the vales extend_


s: _And long horizon-bounded realms appear_.--[MS. erased.]


s: [If, as stanza xliii. of this canto (added in 1811) intimates,


s: Byron passed through "Albuera's plain" on his way from Lisbon to


s: _For ever famed--in many a native song_.--[MS. erased.]


s: Scuta virûm galeasque et fortia corpora volvit."]


s: [The standard, a cross made of Asturian oak (_La Cruz de la


s: [The reference is to the Romanceros and Caballerías of the


s: _Blue columns soaring loft in sulphury wreath_


s: _Fragments on fragments in contention knock_.--[MS. erased, D.]


s: "The Siroc is the violent hot wind that for weeks together blows


s: {49} [The battle of Talavera began July 27, 1809, and lasted two


s: _Their rival scarfs that shine so gloriously_.--[MS. erased.]


s: _There shall they rot--while rhymers tell the fools_


s: _How honour decks the turf that wraps their clay!_


s: To bless the turf that wraps their clay."


s: _As if they compassed half that hails their sway_.--[MS. erased.]


s: [In this "particular" Childe Harold did not resemble his _alter


s: [The scene is laid on the heights of the Sierra Morena. The


s: {55} [The Sierra Morena gets its name from the classical _Montes


s: [As time went on, Byron's sentiments with regard to Napoleon


s: "The Time has been, my senses would have cooled


s: _The seal Love's rosy finger has imprest_


s: _On her fair chin denotes how soft his touch:_


s: _Her lips where kisses make voluptuous nest_.--[MS. erased.]


s: [Writing to his mother (August 11, 1809), Byron compares "the


s: But though the soil may give you time and trouble,


s: Well cultivated, it will render double."]


s: _Beauties that need not fear a broken vow_.--[MS. erased.]


s: [The summit of Parnassus is not visible from Delphi or the


s: _Let me some remnant of thy Spirit bear_


s: _Some glorious thought to my petition grant_.--[MS. erased, D.]


s: {63} [In his first letter from Spain (to F. Hodgson, August 6,


s: _While boyish blood boils gaily, who can 'scape_


s: _The lurking lures of thy enchanting gaze_.--[MS. erased.]


s: "Ipsa Paphum sublimis abit, sedesque revisit


s: Læta suas, ubi templum illi, centumque Sabæo


s: To noon he fell, from noon to dewy eve.]


s: [It was seldom that Byron's memory played him false, but here a


s: _Of true devotion monkish temples share_


s: _The hours misspent, and all in turns is Love or Prayer_.----


s: {67} [M. Darmesteter quotes a striking passage from Gautier's


s: physionomie de Cadix en une seule touche:


s: [One bull-fight, one matador. In describing the last act Byron


s: _The trophy corse is reared--disgusting prize_.


s: or, _The corse is reared--sparkling the chariot flies_.--[MS. M.]


s: Protrahitur. Nequeunt expleri corda tuendo--"]


s: [Byron's "orthodoxy" of the word "centinel" was suggested by the


s: _And all whereat the wandering soul revolts_


s: _Full from the heart of Joy's delicious springs_


s: _Some Bitter bubbles up, and even on Roses stings_.--[MS.]


s: [The Dallas Transcript reads "itself," but the MS. and earlier


s: _Had buried then his hopes, no more to rise:_


s: _Drugged with dull pleasure! life-abhorring Gloom_


s: _Wrote on his faded brow curst Cain's wandering doom_.--


s: _Still, still pursuing clings to me._--[MS. erased.]


s: Certain to meet that worst of evils--_thought."_]


s: {77} [Cadiz was captured from the Moors by Alonso el Sabio, in


s: {78} [Charles IV. abdicated March 19, 1808, in favour of his son


s: Ye, who would more of Spain and Spaniards know,


s: Are they not written in the Boke of Carr,[§1]


s: Green Erin's Knight and Europe's wandering star!


s: Then listen, Readers, to the Man of Ink,


s: Hear what he did, and sought, and wrote afar;


s: All those are cooped within one Quarto's brink,


s: This borrow, steal,--don't buy,--and tell us what you think.


s: There may you read with spectacles on eyes,


s: How many Wellesleys did embark for Spain,[§2]


s: How many troops y-crossed the laughing main


s: That ne'er beheld the said return again:


s: How many leagues from this to yonder plain,


s: And where Giralda stands on her gigantic base.[§3]


s: There may you read (Oh, Phoebus, save Sir John!


s: That these my words prophetic may not err)[§4]


s: All that was said, or sung, and lost, or won,


s: By vaunting Wellesley or by blundering Frere,[§a]


s: He that wrote half the "Needy Knife-Grinder,"[§5]


s: Thus Poesy the way to grandeur paves--[§b]


s: But cease, my Muse, thy speed some respite craves,


s: Leave legates to the House, and armies to their graves.


s: Yet here of Vulpes mention may be made,[§c][§6]


s: Who for the Junta modelled sapient laws,


s: Taught them to govern ere they were obeyed:


s: Blest with a Dame in Virtue's bosom nurst,--


s: True to her second husband and her first:


s: On such unshaken fame let Satire do its worst.


s: _None better known for doing things by halves_


s: _As many in our Senate did aver_.--[MS. erased.]


s: {81} [Stanzas lxxxviii.-xciii., which record the battles of


s: _And thou, my friend! since thus my selfish woe_


s: _Bursts from my heart,_ {_however light my strain,_


s: _Had the sword laid thee, with the mighty, low_


s: _Pride had forbade me of thy fall to plain_.--[MS. D.]


s: [Compare the In Memoriam stanzas at the end of Beattie's


s: _Minstrel_--"And am I left to unavailing woe?" II. 63, line 2.]


s: "Oh, known the earliest and _beloved_ the most,


s: I shall alter the epithet to '_esteemed_ the most.'"]


s: Yes! sighed o'er Delphi's long deserted shrine.


s: And rest ye at "Our Lady's house of Woe."


s: Throughout this purple land, where Law secures not life.


s: Behold the hall where chiefs were late convened!


s: The Convention of Cintra was signed in the palace of the Marchese


s: Well doth the Spanish hind the difference know


s: 'Twixt him and Lusian slave, the lowest of the low.


s: When Cava's traitor-sire first called the band


s: That dyed thy mountain streams with Gothic gore.


s: No! as he speeds, he chants "Vivā el Rey!"


s: Bears in his cap the badge of crimson hue,


s: Which tells you whom to shun and whom to greet.


s: The red cockade, with "Fernando Septimo" in the centre.


s: The ball-piled pyramid, the ever-blazing match.


s: Foiled by a woman's hand, before a battered wall.


s: Such were the exploits of the Maid of Saragoza, who by her valour


s: Napier, "neither wholly believing nor absolutely denying these


s: The man nerved to a spirit, and the maid


s: The seal Love's dimpling finger hath impressed


s: Denotes how soft that chin which bears his touch.


s: "Sigilla in mento impressa Amoris digitulo


s: These stanzas were written in Castri (Delphos), at the foot of


s: Parnassus, now called Λιακυρα [Liakyra] (Liakura), Dec. , 1809.


s: Fair is proud Seville; let her country boast


s: Her strength, her wealth, her site of ancient days.


s: Ask ye, Boeotian Shades! the reason why?


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


s: Surgit amari aliquid quod in ipseis floribus angat."


s: abilities, courage, and unblemished character have never been


s: "Insatiate archer! could not one suffice?


s: Thy shaft flew thrice, and thrice my peace was slain,


s: And thrice ere thrice yon moon had fill'd her horn."


s: superiority. [To an objection made by Dallas to this note, Byron


s: Come, blue-eyed Maid of Heaven!--but Thou, alas!


s: Didst never yet one mortal song inspire--


s: And is, despite of War and wasting fire,[1.B.]


s: And years, that bade thy worship to expire:


s: But worse than steel, and flame, and ages slow,[2.B.]


s: That thoughts of thee and thine on polished breasts bestow.


s: Ancient of days! august Athena! where,[do]


s: Where are thy men of might? thy grand in soul?


s: Gone--glimmering through the dream of things that were:[dp]


s: First in the race that led to Glory's goal,


s: They won, and passed away--is this the whole?


s: A schoolboy's tale, the wonder of an hour!


s: The Warrior's weapon and the Sophist's stole


s: Are sought in vain, and o'er each mouldering tower,


s: Dim with the mist of years, gray flits the shade of power.[dq]


s: Son of the Morning, rise! approach you here!


s: Come--but molest not yon defenceless Urn:


s: Look on this spot--a Nation's sepulchre!


s: Abode of Gods, whose shrines no longer burn.[dr]


s: Even Gods must yield--Religions take their turn:


s: 'Twas Jove's--'tis Mahomet's--and other Creeds


s: Will rise with other years, till Man shall learn


s: Vainly his incense soars, his victim bleeds;


s: Poor child of Doubt and Death, whose hope is built on reeds.[ds]


s: Bound to the Earth, he lifts his eye to Heaven--


s: Thou art? Is this a boon so kindly given,


s: That being, thou would'st be again, and go,


s: Thou know'st not, reck'st not to what region, so


s: On Earth no more, but mingled with the skies?


s: Still wilt thou dream on future Joy and Woe?[dt]


s: Regard and weigh yon dust before it flies:


s: That little urn saith more than thousand Homilies.


s: Or burst the vanished Hero's lofty mound;


s: Far on the solitary shore he sleeps:[3.B.]


s: He fell, and falling nations mourned around;


s: But now not one of saddening thousands weeps,


s: Where demi-gods appeared, as records tell.[du]


s: Remove yon skull from out the scattered heaps:


s: Why ev'n the Worm at last disdains her shattered cell!


s: Look on its broken arch, its ruined wall,


s: Its chambers desolate, and portals foul:


s: Yes, this was once Ambition's airy hall,


s: Behold through each lack-lustre, eyeless hole,


s: And Passion's host, that never brooked control:


s: Can all Saint, Sage, or Sophist ever writ,


s: People this lonely tower, this tenement refit?


s: Well didst thou speak, Athena's wisest son!


s: "All that we know is, nothing can be known."


s: Why should we shrink from what we cannot shun?


s: Each hath its pang, but feeble sufferers groan


s: With brain-born dreams of Evil all their own.


s: Pursue what Chance or Fate proclaimeth best;


s: Peace waits us on the shores of Acheron:


s: There no forced banquet claims the sated guest,


s: But Silence spreads the couch of ever welcome Rest.


s: Yet if, as holiest men have deemed, there be[dv]


s: A land of Souls beyond that sable shore,


s: And Sophists, madly vain of dubious lore;


s: With those who made our mortal labours light!


s: To hear each voice we feared to hear no more!


s: Behold each mighty shade revealed to sight,


s: The Bactrian, Samian sage, and all who taught the Right!


s: There, Thou!--whose Love and Life together fled,


s: Have left me here to love and live in vain--


s: Twined with my heart, and can I deem thee dead


s: Well--I will dream that we may meet again,


s: If aught of young Remembrance then remain,


s: For me 'twere bliss enough to know thy spirit blest!


s: Here, son of Saturn! was thy favourite throne:[4.B.]


s: Mightiest of many such! Hence let me trace


s: The latent grandeur of thy dwelling-place.


s: Restore what Time hath laboured to deface.


s: Yet these proud Pillars claim no passing sigh;


s: Unmoved the Moslem sits, the light Greek carols by.


s: But who, of all the plunderers of yon Fane


s: On high--where Pallas linger'd, loth to flee


s: The last, the worst, dull spoiler, who was he?[dx]


s: Blush, Caledonia! such thy son could be!


s: England! I joy no child he was of thine:


s: Thy free-born men should spare what once was free;


s: Yet they could violate each saddening shrine,


s: And hear these altars o'er the long-reluctant brine.[5.B.]


s: But most the modern Pict's ignoble boast,[dy]


s: To rive what Goth, and Turk, and Time hath spared:[6.B.]


s: Cold as the crags upon his native coast,


s: His mind as barren and his heart as hard,


s: Is he whose head conceived, whose hand prepared.


s: Aught to displace Athenæ's poor remains:


s: Her Sons too weak the sacred shrine to guard,


s: Yet felt some portion of their Mother's pains,[7.B.]


s: And never knew, till then, the weight of Despot's chains.


s: What! shall it e'er be said by British tongue,[dz]


s: Though in thy name the slaves her bosom wrung,


s: Tell not the deed to blushing Europe's ears;


s: The Ocean Queen, the free Britannia, bears


s: The last poor plunder from a bleeding land:


s: Yes, she, whose generous aid her name endears,


s: Tore down those remnants with a Harpy's hand,


s: Which envious Eld forbore, and tyrants left to stand.[ea]


s: Where was thine Ægis, Pallas! that appalled[eb]


s: Stern Alaric and Havoc on their way?[8.B.]


s: Where Peleus' son? whom Hell in vain enthralled.


s: His shade from Hades upon that dread day


s: What! could not Pluto spare the Chief once more,


s: Nor now preserved the walls he loved to shield before.


s: Cold is the heart, fair Greece! that looks on Thee,


s: Nor feels as Lovers o'er the dust they loved;


s: Dull is the eye that will not weep to see


s: Thy walls defaced, thy mouldering shrines removed


s: By British hands, which it had best behoved[ec]


s: To guard those relics ne'er to be restored:--


s: Curst be the hour when from their isle they roved,


s: And snatched thy shrinking Gods to Northern climes abhorred!


s: But where is Harold? shall I then forget


s: To urge the gloomy Wanderer o'er the wave?


s: Little recked he of all that Men regret;


s: No loved-one now in feigned lament could rave;


s: No friend the parting hand extended gave,


s: Ere the cold Stranger passed to other climes:


s: Hard is his heart whom charms may not enslave;


s: And left without a sigh the land of War and Crimes.


s: He that has sailed upon the dark blue sea


s: Has viewed at times, I ween, a full fair sight,


s: When the fresh breeze is fair as breeze may be,


s: The white sail set, the gallant Frigate tight--


s: Masts, spires, and strand retiring to the right,


s: The glorious Main expanding o'er the bow,


s: The Convoy spread like wild swans in their flight,


s: The dullest sailer wearing bravely now--


s: So gaily curl the waves before each dashing prow.


s: And oh, the little warlike world within!


s: The well-reeved guns, the netted canopy,[9.B.]


s: The hoarse command, the busy humming din,


s: When, at a word, the tops are manned on high:


s: Hark, to the Boatswain's call, the cheering cry!


s: While through the seaman's hand the tackle glides;


s: Or schoolboy Midshipman that, standing by,


s: Strains his shrill pipe as good or ill betides,


s: And well the docile crew that skilful Urchin guides.[ed]


s: White is the glassy deck, without a stain,


s: Where on the watch the staid Lieutenant walks:


s: Look on that part which sacred doth remain[ee]


s: For the lone Chieftain, who majestic stalks,


s: Silent and feared by all--not oft he talks


s: With aught beneath him, if he would preserve


s: That strict restraint, which broken, ever balks


s: Conquest and Fame: but Britons rarely swerve


s: From law, however stern, which tends their strength to nerve[ef].


s: Blow! swiftly blow, thou keel-compelling gale!


s: Till the broad Sun withdraws his lessening ray:


s: Then must the Pennant-bearer slacken sail,


s: That lagging barks may make their lazy way.


s: Ah! grievance sore, and listless dull delay,


s: To waste on sluggish hulks the sweetest breeze!


s: What leagues are lost, before the dawn of day,


s: Thus loitering pensive on the willing seas,


s: The flapping sail hauled down to halt for logs like these!


s: The Moon is up; by Heaven, a lovely eve!


s: Long streams of light o'er dancing waves expand;


s: Now lads on shore may sigh, and maids believe[eg]:


s: Such be our fate when we return to land!


s: Meantime some rude Arion's restless hand[eh]


s: Wakes the brisk harmony that sailors love;


s: Or to some well-known measure featly move,


s: Thoughtless, as if on shore they still were free to rove.


s: Through Calpe's straits survey the steepy shore;[ei]


s: Lands of the dark-eyed Maid and dusky Moor


s: Alike beheld beneath pale Hecate's blaze:


s: How softly on the Spanish shore she plays!


s: Disclosing rock, and slope, and forest brown,


s: Distinct, though darkening with her waning phase;


s: From mountain-cliff to coast descending sombre down.


s: 'Tis night, when Meditation bids us feel


s: We once have loved, though Love is at an end:


s: The Heart, lone mourner of its baffled zeal,[ej]


s: Though friendless now, will dream it had a friend.


s: Who with the weight of years would wish to bend,


s: When Youth itself survives young Love and Joy?


s: Alas! when mingling souls forget to blend,


s: Death hath but little left him to destroy!


s: Ah! happy years! once more who would not be a boy?[ek]


s: Thus bending o'er the vessel's laving side,


s: To gaze on Dian's wave-reflected sphere,[el]


s: The Soul forgets her schemes of Hope and Pride,[em]


s: And flies unconscious o'er each backward year;


s: None are so desolate but something dear,[en]


s: Dearer than self, possesses or possessed


s: A thought, and claims the homage of a tear;


s: A flashing pang! of which the weary breast


s: Would still, albeit in vain, the heavy heart divest.


s: To sit on rocks--to muse o'er flood and fell--


s: To slowly trace the forest's shady scene,


s: Where things that own not Man's dominion dwell,


s: And mortal foot hath ne'er or rarely been;


s: To climb the trackless mountain all unseen,


s: With the wild flock that never needs a fold;


s: Alone o'er steeps and foaming falls to lean;[ep]


s: Converse with Nature's charms, and view her stores unrolled.


s: But midst the crowd, the hum, the shock of men,


s: To hear, to see, to feel, and to possess,


s: And roam along, the World's tired denizen,


s: With none who bless us, none whom we can bless;


s: Minions of Splendour shrinking from distress!


s: None that, with kindred consciousness endued,


s: If we were not, would seem to smile the less,


s: Of all that flattered--followed--sought, and sued:


s: This is to be alone--This, This is Solitude![eq]


s: Which looks o'er waves so blue, skies so serene,


s: That he who there at such an hour hath been


s: Will wistful linger on that hallowed spot;


s: Then slowly tear him from the 'witching scene,


s: Sigh forth one wish that such had been his lot,


s: Then turn to hate a world he had almost forgot.


s: Pass we the long unvarying course, the track


s: Oft trod, that never leaves a trace behind;


s: Pass we the calm--the gale--the change--the tack,


s: And each well known caprice of wave and wind;


s: Pass we the joys and sorrows sailors find,


s: Cooped in their wingéd sea-girt citadel;


s: The foul--the fair--the contrary--the kind--


s: As breezes rise and fall and billows swell,


s: Till on some jocund morn--lo, Land! and All is well!


s: But not in silence pass Calypso's isles,[10.B.]


s: There for the weary still a Haven smiles,


s: Though the fair Goddess long hath ceased to weep,


s: And o'er her cliffs a fruitless watch to keep


s: For him who dared prefer a mortal bride:


s: Here, too, his boy essayed the dreadful leap


s: Stern Mentor urged from high to yonder tide;


s: While thus of both bereft, the Nymph-Queen doubly sighed.


s: Her reign is past, her gentle glories gone:


s: But trust not this; too easy Youth, beware!


s: A mortal Sovereign holds her dangerous throne,


s: And thou may'st find a new Calypso there.


s: This wayward, loveless heart, it would be thine:


s: But checked by every tie, I may not dare


s: To cast a worthless offering at thy shrine,


s: Nor ask so dear a breast to feel one pang for _mine_.


s: Thus Harold deemed, as on that Lady's eye


s: He looked, and met its beam without a thought,


s: Who knew his Votary often lost and caught,


s: And ne'er again the Boy his bosom sought:


s: Well deemed the little God his ancient sway was o'er.


s: Fair Florence found, in sooth with some amaze,


s: One who, 'twas said, still sighed to all he saw,


s: Withstand, unmoved, the lustre of her gaze,


s: Which others hailed with real or mimic awe,


s: Their hope, their doom, their punishment, their law;


s: All that gay Beauty from her bondsmen claims:


s: And much she marvelled that a youth so raw


s: Nor felt, nor feigned at least, the oft-told flames,


s: Which though sometimes they frown, yet rarely anger dames.


s: Little knew she that seeming marble heart,


s: Now masked in silence or withheld by Pride,


s: And spread its snares licentious far and wide;


s: Nor from the base pursuit had turned aside,


s: Yet never would he join the lover's whining crew.


s: Not much he kens, I ween, of Woman's breast,


s: Who thinks that wanton thing is won by sighs;


s: What careth she for hearts when once possessed?


s: Thee and thy suit, though told in moving tropes:


s: Disguise ev'n tenderness, if thou art wise;


s: Brisk Confidence still best with woman copes:[er]


s: Pique her and soothe in turn--soon Passion crowns thy hopes.


s: 'Tis an old lesson--Time approves it true,


s: And those who know it best, deplore it most;


s: The paltry prize is hardly worth the cost:


s: Youth wasted--Minds degraded--Honour lost--[es]


s: These are thy fruits, successful Passion! these!


s: Still to the last it rankles, a disease,


s: Not to be cured when Love itself forgets to please.


s: For we have many a mountain-path to tread,


s: By pensive Sadness, not by Fiction, led--


s: Climes, fair withal as ever mortal head[et]


s: Imagined in its little schemes of thought;[eu]


s: To teach Man what he might be, or he ought--


s: If that corrupted thing could ever such be taught.


s: Dear Nature is the kindest mother still!


s: Though always changing, in her aspect mild;


s: From her bare bosom let me take my fill,


s: Her never-weaned, though not her favoured child.[ev]


s: Oh! she is fairest in her features wild,


s: Where nothing polished dares pollute her path:


s: Though I have marked her when none other hath,


s: And sought her more and more, and loved her best in wrath.


s: Theme of the young, and beacon of the wise,


s: And he his namesake, whose oft-baffled foes


s: Shrunk from his deeds of chivalrous emprize:


s: Land of Albania! let me bend mine eyes[11.B.]


s: On thee, thou rugged Nurse of savage men!


s: And the pale Crescent sparkles in the glen,


s: Through many a cypress-grove within each city's ken.


s: Childe Harold sailed, and passed the barren spot,


s: Where sad Penelope o'erlooked the wave;[12.B.]


s: And onward viewed the mount, not yet forgot,


s: The Lover's refuge, and the Lesbian's grave.


s: Dark Sappho! could not Verse immortal save


s: That breast imbued with such immortal fire?


s: Could she not live who life eternal gave?


s: That only Heaven to which Earth's children may aspire.


s: Childe Harold hailed Leucadia's cape afar;


s: A spot he longed to see, nor cared to leave:


s: Oft did he mark the scenes of vanished war,


s: Mark them unmoved, for he would not delight


s: (Born beneath some remote inglorious star)


s: In themes of bloody fray, or gallant fight,


s: But loathed the bravo's trade, and laughed at martial wight.[ew]


s: And hailed the last resort of fruitless love,[14.B.]


s: He felt, or deemed he felt, no common glow:


s: Beneath the shadow of that ancient mount,


s: He watched the billows' melancholy flow,


s: And, sunk albeit in thought as he was wont,[ex]


s: More placid seemed his eye, and smooth his pallid front.


s: Morn dawns; and with it stern Albania's hills,


s: Dark Suli's rocks, and Pindus' inland peak,


s: Robed half in mist, bedewed with snowy rills,


s: Arrayed in many a dun and purple streak,


s: Arise; and, as the clouds along them break,


s: Disclose the dwelling of the mountaineer:


s: Here roams the wolf--the eagle whets his beak--


s: Birds--beasts of prey--and wilder men appear,


s: And gathering storms around convulse the closing year.


s: Now Harold felt himself at length alone,


s: And bade to Christian tongues a long adieu;


s: Which all admire, but many dread to view:


s: His breast was armed 'gainst fate, his wants were few


s: Peril he sought not, but ne'er shrank to meet:


s: The scene was savage, but the scene was new;


s: _This_ made the ceaseless toil of travel sweet,


s: Beat back keen Winter's blast, and welcomed Summer's heat.


s: Here the red Cross, for still the Cross is here,


s: Though sadly scoffed at by the circumcised,


s: Forgets that Pride to pampered priesthood dear;


s: Who from true Worship's gold can separate thy dross?


s: Ambracia's gulf behold, where once was lost


s: A world for Woman, lovely, harmless thing![ey]


s: In yonder rippling bay, their naval host


s: Did many a Roman chief and Asian King[15.B.]


s: To doubtful conflict, certain slaughter bring:


s: Look where the second Cæsar's trophies rose![16.B.]


s: Now, like the hands that reared them, withering:


s: Imperial Anarchs, doubling human woes![ez]


s: GOD! was thy globe ordained for such to win and lose?


s: From the dark barriers of that rugged clime,


s: Childe Harold passed o'er many a mount sublime,


s: Through lands scarce noticed in historic tales:


s: Are rarely seen; nor can fair Tempe boast


s: A charm they know not; loved Parnassus fails,


s: Though classic ground and consecrated most,


s: To match some spots that lurk within this lowering coast.


s: He passed bleak Pindus, Acherusia's lake,[17.B.]


s: And onwards did his further journey take


s: To greet Albania's Chief, whose dread command[18.B.]


s: Yet here and there some daring mountain-band


s: Disdain his power, and from their rocky hold


s: Hurl their defiance far, nor yield, unless to gold.[19.B.]


s: Monastic Zitza! from thy shady brow,[20.B.]


s: Thou small, but favoured spot of holy ground!


s: What rainbow tints, what magic charms are found!


s: Rock, river, forest, mountain, all abound,


s: And bluest skies that harmonise the whole:


s: Beneath, the distant Torrent's rushing sound


s: Tells where the volumed Cataract doth roll


s: Between those hanging rocks, that shock yet please the soul.


s: Amidst the grove that crowns yon tufted hill,


s: Which, were it not for many a mountain nigh


s: Rising in lofty ranks, and loftier still,


s: The Convent's white walls glisten fair on high:


s: Here dwells the caloyer, nor rude is he,[21.B.]


s: Is welcome still; nor heedless will he flee


s: From hence, if he delight kind Nature's sheen to see.


s: Here in the sultriest season let him rest,


s: Fresh is the green beneath those aged trees;


s: Here winds of gentlest wing will fan his breast,[fa]


s: From Heaven itself he may inhale the breeze:


s: The plain is far beneath--oh! let him seize


s: Pure pleasure while he can; the scorching ray


s: Here pierceth not, impregnate with disease:


s: Then let his length the loitering pilgrim lay,


s: And gaze, untired, the Morn--the Noon--the Eve away.


s: Chimæra's Alps extend from left to right:


s: Flocks play, trees wave, streams flow, the mountain-fir


s: Nodding above; behold black Acheron![23.B.]


s: Close shamed Elysium's gates, my shade shall seek for none[fb].


s: Ne city's towers pollute the lovely view;


s: Veiled by the screen of hills: here men are few,


s: But, peering down each precipice, the goat[fc]


s: Browseth; and, pensive o'er his scattered flock,


s: The little shepherd in his white capote[24.B.]


s: Doth lean his boyish form along the rock,


s: Or in his cave awaits the Tempest's short-lived shock.[fd]


s: What valley echoed the response of Jove?


s: What trace remaineth of the Thunderer's shrine?


s: All, all forgotten--and shall Man repine


s: That his frail bonds to fleeting life are broke?


s: Cease, Fool! the fate of Gods may well be thine:


s: Wouldst thou survive the marble or the oak?


s: When nations, tongues, and worlds must sink beneath the stroke!


s: Epirus' bounds recede, and mountains fail;


s: Tired of up-gazing still, the wearied eye


s: Where some bold river breaks the long expanse,


s: And woods along the banks are waving high,


s: Whose shadows in the glassy waters dance,


s: Or with the moonbeam sleep in Midnight's solemn trance.


s: The Sun had sunk behind vast Tomerit,[25.B.]


s: And Laos wide and fierce came roaring by;[26.B.]


s: The shades of wonted night were gathering yet,


s: When, down the steep banks winding warily,


s: Childe Harold saw, like meteors in the sky,


s: Whose walls o'erlook the stream; and drawing nigh,


s: Swelling the breeze that sighed along the lengthening glen.


s: He passed the sacred Haram's silent tower,


s: And underneath the wide o'erarching gate


s: Surveyed the dwelling of this Chief of power,


s: Where all around proclaimed his high estate.


s: Slaves, eunuchs, soldiers, guests, and santons wait;[fe]


s: Here men of every clime appear to make resort.


s: Of arméd horse, and many a warlike store,


s: Above, strange groups adorned the corridore;


s: And oft-times through the area's echoing door


s: Some high-capped Tartar spurred his steed away:


s: The Turk--the Greek--the Albanian--and the Moor,


s: While the deep war-drum's sound announced the close of day.[ff]


s: With shawl-girt head and ornamented gun,


s: And gold-embroidered garments, fair to see;


s: And crooked glaive--the lively, supple Greek


s: The bearded Turk that rarely deigns to speak,


s: Master of all around, too potent to be meek,


s: Are mixed conspicuous: some recline in groups,


s: Scanning the motley scene that varies round;


s: There some grave Moslem to devotion stoops,


s: And some that smoke, and some that play, are found;


s: Here the Albanian proudly treads the ground;


s: Half-whispering there the Greek is heard to prate;


s: Hark! from the Mosque the nightly solemn sound,


s: The Muezzin's call doth shake the minaret,


s: "There is no god but God!--to prayer--lo! God is great!"


s: Through the long day its penance did maintain:


s: But when the lingering twilight hour was past,


s: Now all was bustle, and the menial train


s: Prepared and spread the plenteous board within;


s: The vacant Gallery now seemed made in vain,


s: But from the chambers came the mingling din,


s: As page and slave anon were passing out and in.


s: Here woman's voice is never heard: apart,


s: And scarce permitted, guarded, veiled, to move,[fg]


s: She yields to one her person and her heart,


s: Tamed to her cage, nor feels a wish to rove:


s: For, not unhappy in her Master's love,[fh]


s: And joyful in a mother's gentlest cares,


s: Blest cares! all other feelings far above!


s: Herself more sweetly rears the babe she bears


s: Who never quits the breast--no meaner passion shares.


s: In marble-paved pavilion, where a spring


s: Whose bubbling did a genial freshness fling,


s: And soft voluptuous couches breathed repose,


s: While Gentleness her milder radiance throws


s: The deeds that lurk beneath, and stain him with disgrace.


s: It is not that yon hoary lengthening beard


s: Ill suits the passions which belong to Youth;[fi]


s: Love conquers Age--so Hafiz hath averr'd,


s: So sings the Teian, and he sings in sooth--


s: But crimes that scorn the tender voice of ruth,[fj]


s: In years, have marked him with a tiger's tooth;


s: Blood follows blood, and, through their mortal span,


s: In bloodier acts conclude those who with blood began.[fk]


s: 'Mid many things most new to ear and eye[fl]


s: Till quickly, wearied with that spacious seat


s: Of Wealth and Wantonness, the choice retreat


s: Of sated Grandeur from the city's noise:


s: And were it humbler it in sooth were sweet;


s: And Pleasure, leagued with Pomp, the zest of both destroys.


s: Fierce are Albania's children, yet they lack


s: Not virtues, were those virtues more mature.


s: Where is the foe that ever saw their back?


s: Than they in doubtful time of troublous need:


s: Their wrath how deadly! but their friendship sure,


s: When Gratitude or Valour bids them bleed,


s: Unshaken rushing on where'er their Chief may lead.


s: Childe Harold saw them in their Chieftain's tower


s: Thronging to War in splendour and success;


s: And after viewed them, when, within their power,


s: That saddening hour when bad men hotlier press:


s: But these did shelter him beneath their roof,


s: When less barbarians would have cheered him less,


s: And fellow-countrymen have stood aloof--[27.B.]


s: In aught that tries the heart, how few withstand the proof!


s: It chanced that adverse winds once drove his bark


s: Full on the coast of Suli's shaggy shore,


s: Dubious to trust where Treachery might lurk:


s: At length they ventured forth, though doubting sore


s: That those who loathe alike the Frank and Turk


s: Might once again renew their ancient butcher-work.


s: Vain fear! the Suliotes stretched the welcome hand,


s: Led them o'er rocks and past the dangerous swamp,


s: Kinder than polished slaves though not so bland,


s: And piled the hearth, and wrung their garments damp,


s: And filled the bowl, and trimmed the cheerful lamp,


s: And spread their fare; though homely, all they had:


s: Such conduct bears Philanthropy's rare stamp:


s: To rest the weary and to soothe the sad,


s: Doth lesson happier men, and shames at least the bad.


s: It came to pass, that when he did address


s: Himself to quit at length this mountain-land,


s: Combined marauders half-way barred egress,


s: And wasted far and near with glaive and brand;


s: In war well-seasoned, and with labours tanned,


s: And from his further bank Ætolia's wolds espied.


s: Where lone Utraikey forms its circling cove,


s: And weary waves retire to gleam at rest,


s: How brown the foliage of the green hill's grove,


s: Nodding at midnight o'er the calm bay's breast,


s: As winds come lightly whispering from the West,


s: Kissing, not ruffling, the blue deep's serene:--


s: Here Harold was received a welcome guest;


s: Nor did he pass unmoved the gentle scene,


s: For many a joy could he from Night's soft presence glean.


s: On the smooth shore the night-fires brightly blazed,


s: The feast was done, the red wine circling fast,[28.B.]


s: With gaping wonderment had stared aghast;


s: For ere night's midmost, stillest hour was past,


s: Each Palikar his sabre from him cast,[29.B.]


s: And bounding hand in hand, man linked to man,


s: Yelling their uncouth dirge, long daunced the kirtled clan.


s: Childe Harold at a little distance stood


s: And viewed, but not displeased, the revelrie,


s: Their barbarous, yet their not indecent, glee;


s: And, as the flames along their faces gleamed,


s: Their gestures nimble, dark eyes flashing free,


s: The long wild locks that to their girdles streamed,


s: While thus in concert they this lay half sang,


s: Tambourgi! Tambourgi! thy 'larum afar[fm][31.B.]


s: Gives hope to the valiant, and promise of war;


s: All the Sons of the mountains arise at the note,


s: Oh! who is more brave than a dark Suliote,


s: In his snowy camese and his shaggy capote?


s: To the wolf and the vulture he leaves his wild flock,


s: And descends to the plain like the stream from the rock.


s: Shall the sons of Chimari, who never forgive[fn]


s: The fault of a friend, bid an enemy live?


s: Let those guns so unerring such vengeance forego?


s: What mark is so fair as the breast of a foe?


s: Macedonia sends forth her invincible race;


s: For a time they abandon the cave and the chase:


s: But those scarfs of blood-red shall be redder, before


s: The sabre is sheathed and the battle is o'er.


s: Then the Pirates of Parga that dwell by the waves,


s: And teach the pale Franks what it is to be slaves,


s: Shall leave on the beach the long galley and oar,


s: And track to his covert the captive on shore.


s: I ask not the pleasures that riches supply,


s: My sabre shall win what the feeble must buy;


s: Shall win the young bride with her long flowing hair,[fo]


s: And many a maid from her mother shall tear.


s: I love the fair face of the maid in her youth,[fp]


s: Her caresses shall lull me, her music shall soothe;[fq]


s: Let her bring from the chamber her many-toned lyre,


s: And sing us a song on the fall of her Sire.


s: Remember the moment when Previsa fell,[32.B.]


s: The shrieks of the conquered, the conquerors' yell;


s: The roofs that we fired, and the plunder we shared,


s: The wealthy we slaughtered, the lovely we spared.


s: I talk not of mercy, I talk not of fear;


s: He neither must know who would serve the Vizier:


s: Since the days of our Prophet the Crescent ne'er saw


s: Dark Muchtar his son to the Danube is sped,


s: When his Delhis come dashing in blood o'er the banks,


s: How few shall escape from the Muscovite ranks!


s: Selictar! unsheathe then our chief's Scimitār;


s: Tambourgi! thy 'larum gives promise of War.[fr]


s: Ye Mountains, that see us descend to the shore,


s: Shall view us as Victors, or view us no more!


s: Fair Greece! sad relic of departed Worth![33.B.]


s: Immortal, though no more; though fallen, great!


s: Who now shall lead thy scattered children forth,


s: Not such thy sons who whilome did await,


s: The helpless warriors of a willing doom,


s: In bleak Thermopylæ's sepulchral strait--


s: Oh! who that gallant spirit shall resume,


s: Leap from Eurotas' banks, and call thee from the tomb?


s: Spirit of Freedom! when on Phyle's brow[34.B.]


s: Thou sat'st with Thrasybulus and his train,


s: Couldst thou forebode the dismal hour which now


s: Dims the green beauties of thine Attic plain?


s: Not thirty tyrants now enforce the chain,


s: But every carle can lord it o'er thy land;


s: Nor rise thy sons, but idly rail in vain,


s: Trembling beneath the scourge of Turkish hand,


s: From birth till death enslaved; in word, in deed, unmanned.[fs]


s: In all save form alone, how changed! and who


s: That marks the fire still sparkling in each eye,


s: Who but would deem their bosoms burned anew


s: With thy unquenchéd beam, lost Liberty![ft]


s: That gives them back their fathers' heritage:


s: For foreign arms and aid they fondly sigh,


s: Or tear their name defiled from Slavery's mournful page.


s: _Who_ would be free _themselves_ must strike the blow?


s: By their right arms the conquest must be wrought?


s: True--they may lay your proud despoilers low,


s: But not for you will Freedom's Altars flame.


s: Shades of the Helots! triumph o'er your foe!


s: Greece! change thy lords, thy state is still the same;


s: Thy glorious day is o'er, but not thine years of shame.


s: The Giaour from Othman's race again may wrest;


s: Receive the fiery Frank, her former guest;[35.B.]


s: The Prophet's tomb of all its pious spoil,[36.B.]


s: May wind their path of blood along the West;


s: But ne'er will Freedom seek this fated soil,


s: But slave succeed to slave through years of endless toil.


s: Yet mark their mirth--ere Lenten days begin,


s: That penance which their holy rites prepare


s: To shrive from Man his weight of mortal sin,


s: But ere his sackcloth garb Repentance wear,


s: Some days of joyaunce are decreed to all,


s: To take of pleasaunce each his secret share,


s: In motley robe to dance at masking ball,


s: And join the mimic train of merry Carnival.


s: And whose more rife with merriment than thine,


s: Oh Stamboul! once the Empress of their reign?


s: Though turbans now pollute Sophia's shrine,


s: And Greece her very altars eyes in vain:


s: (Alas! her woes will still pervade my strain!)


s: Gay were her minstrels once, for free her throng,


s: All felt the common joy they now must feign,


s: Nor oft I've seen such sight, nor heard such song,


s: As wooed the eye, and thrilled the Bosphorus along.


s: Loud was the lightsome tumult on the shore,


s: Oft Music changed, but never ceased her tone,


s: And timely echoed back the measured oar,


s: And rippling waters made a pleasant moan:


s: The Queen of tides on high consenting shone,


s: And when a transient breeze swept o'er the wave,


s: 'Twas, as if darting from her heavenly throne,


s: A brighter glance her form reflected gave,


s: Till sparkling billows seemed to light the banks they lave.


s: Glanced many a light Caique along the foam,


s: Danced on the shore the daughters of the land,


s: No thought had man or maid of rest or home,


s: While many a languid eye and thrilling hand


s: Exchanged the look few bosoms may withstand,


s: Or gently prest, returned the pressure still:


s: Oh Love! young Love! bound in thy rosy band,


s: These hours, and only these, redeem Life's years of ill!


s: But, midst the throng in merry masquerade,


s: Lurk there no hearts that throb with secret pain,


s: Even through the closest searment half betrayed?


s: To such the gladness of the gamesome crowd


s: Is source of wayward thought and stern disdain:


s: How do they loathe the laughter idly loud,


s: And long to change the robe of revel for the shroud!


s: This must he feel, the true-born son of Greece,


s: If Greece one true-born patriot still can boast:


s: Not such as prate of War, but skulk in Peace,


s: The bondsman's peace, who sighs for all he lost,


s: Yet with smooth smile his Tyrant can accost,


s: And wield the slavish sickle, not the sword:


s: Ah! Greece! they love thee least who owe thee most--


s: Their birth, their blood, and that sublime record


s: Of hero Sires, who shame thy now degenerate horde!


s: When Athens' children are with hearts endued,[fu]


s: When Grecian mothers shall give birth to men,


s: Then may'st thou be restored; but not till then.


s: A thousand years scarce serve to form a state;


s: An hour may lay it in the dust: and when


s: Can Man its shattered splendour renovate,


s: Recall its virtues back, and vanquish Time and Fate?


s: Land of lost Gods and godlike men, art thou!


s: Thy vales of evergreen, thy hills of snow,[37.B.]


s: Proclaim thee Nature's varied favourite now:


s: Thy fanes, thy temples to thy surface bow,


s: Broke by the share of every rustic plough:


s: So perish all in turn, save well-recorded _Worth_:


s: Above its prostrate brethren of the cave;[38.B.]


s: Save where Tritonia's airy shrine adorns


s: Colonna's cliff, and gleams along the wave;


s: Save o'er some warrior's half-forgotten grave,


s: Where the gray stones and unmolested grass


s: While strangers, only, not regardless pass,


s: Lingering like me, perchance, to gaze, and sigh "Alas!"


s: Yet are thy skies as blue, thy crags as wild;


s: Sweet are thy groves, and verdant are thy fields,


s: Thine olive ripe as when Minerva smiled,


s: And still his honied wealth Hymettus yields;


s: There the blithe Bee his fragrant fortress builds,


s: The free-born wanderer of thy mountain-air;


s: Apollo still thy long, long summer gilds,


s: Still in his beam Mendeli's marbles glare:[fv]


s: Art, Glory, Freedom fail, but Nature still is fair.


s: Where'er we tread 'tis haunted, holy ground;


s: No earth of thine is lost in vulgar mould,


s: But one vast realm of Wonder spreads around,


s: And all the Muse's tales seem truly told,


s: Till the sense aches with gazing to behold


s: The scenes our earliest dreams have dwelt upon;


s: Each hill and dale, each deepening glen and wold


s: Defies the power which crushed thy temples gone:


s: Age shakes Athenæ's tower, but spares gray Marathon.


s: The Sun, the soil--but not the slave, the same;--


s: Unchanged in all except its foreign Lord,


s: Preserves alike its bounds and boundless fame[fw]


s: The Battle-field, where Persia's victim horde


s: First bowed beneath the brunt of Hellas' sword,


s: When Marathon became a magic word;[39.B.]


s: Which uttered, to the hearer's eye appear[fx]


s: The camp, the host, the fight, the Conqueror's career,[fy]


s: The flying Mede, his shaftless broken bow--[fz]


s: The fiery Greek, his red pursuing spear;


s: Mountains above--Earth's, Ocean's plain below--


s: Death in the front, Destruction in the rear!


s: Such was the scene--what now remaineth here?


s: What sacred Trophy marks the hallowed ground,


s: Recording Freedom's smile and Asia's tear?[ga]


s: The dust thy courser's hoof, rude stranger! spurns around.


s: Yet to the remnants of thy Splendour past[gb]


s: Shall pilgrims, pensive, but unwearied, throng;


s: Long shall the voyager, with th' Ionian blast,


s: Hail the bright clime of Battle and of Song:


s: Long shall thine annals and immortal tongue


s: Fill with thy fame the youth of many a shore;


s: As Pallas and the Muse unveil their awful lore.


s: If aught that's kindred cheer the welcome hearth;


s: Greece is no lightsome land of social mirth:


s: And scarce regret the region of his birth,


s: When wandering slow by Delphi's sacred side,


s: Or gazing o'er the plains where Greek and Persian died.


s: Let such approach this consecrated Land,


s: And pass in peace along the magic waste;


s: Not for such purpose were these altars placed:


s: Revere the remnants Nations once revered:


s: So may our Country's name be undisgraced,


s: So may'st thou prosper where thy youth was reared,


s: By every honest joy of Love and Life endeared!


s: For thee, who thus in too protracted song


s: Hast soothed thine Idlesse with inglorious lays,


s: Soon shall thy voice be lost amid the throng


s: Of louder Minstrels in these later days:


s: To such resign the strife for fading Bays--


s: Ill may such contest now the spirit move


s: Which heeds nor keen Reproach nor partial Praise,[gc]


s: Since cold each kinder heart that might approve--


s: And none are left to please when none are left to love.


s: Thou too art gone, thou loved and lovely one!


s: Whom Youth and Youth's affections bound to me;


s: Who did for me what none beside have done,


s: Nor shrank from one albeit unworthy thee.


s: What is my Being! thou hast ceased to be!


s: Nor staid to welcome here thy wanderer home,


s: Who mourns o'er hours which we no more shall see--


s: Would they had never been, or were to come!


s: Would he had ne'er returned to find fresh cause to roam![gd]


s: And clings to thoughts now better far removed!


s: But Time shall tear thy shadow from me last.[ge]


s: All thou couldst have of mine, stern Death! thou hast;


s: The Parent, Friend, and now the more than Friend:


s: Ne'er yet for one thine arrows flew so fast,


s: And grief with grief continuing still to blend,


s: Hath snatched the little joy that Life had yet to lend.


s: Then must I plunge again into the crowd,


s: And follow all that Peace disdains to seek?


s: Where Revel calls, and Laughter, vainly loud,


s: False to the heart, distorts the hollow cheek,


s: To leave the flagging spirit doubly weak;


s: Still o'er the features, which perforce they cheer,


s: To feign the pleasure or conceal the pique:


s: Smiles form the channel of a future tear,


s: Or raise the writhing lip with ill-dissembled sneer.


s: What is the worst of woes that wait on Age?


s: What stamps the wrinkle deeper on the brow?


s: To view each loved one blotted from Life's page,


s: O'er Hearts divided and o'er Hopes destroyed:


s: Roll on, vain days! full reckless may ye flow,


s: Since Time hath reft whate'er my soul enjoyed,[gf]


s: And with the ills of Eld mine earlier years alloyed.


s: {99} [Stanzas i.-xv. form a kind of dramatic prologue to the


s: [The demigods Erechtheus and Theseus "appeared" at Marathon, and


s: [Socrates affirmed that true self-knowledge was to know that we


s: [Stanzas viii. and ix. are not in the MS.


s: _Frown not upon me, churlish Priest! that I_


s: _Look not for Life, where life may never be:_


s: _Thou bold Discoverer in an unknown sea_


s: _Of happy Isles and happier Tenants there;_


s: _I ask thee not to prove a Sadducee;_[§1]


s: _Still dream of Paradise, thou know'st not where,_[§2]


s: _Which if it be thy sins will never let thee share_.[§3]


s: _But look upon a scene that once was fair_.--[Erased.]


s: _Zion's holy hill which thou wouldst fancy fair_.--[Erased.]


s: {104} [Byron forwarded this stanza in a letter to Dallas, dated


s: Or seeing thee no more to sink in sullen rest_.--[MS. D.]


s: {106} [For note on the "Elgin Marbles," see _Introduction to the


s: _The last, the worst dull Robber, who was he?_


s: _Blush Scotland such a slave thy son could be_--


s: _England! I joy no child he was of thine:_


s: _Thy freeborn men revere what once was free,_


s: _Nor tear the Sculpture from its saddening shrine,_


s: _This be the wittol Picts ignoble boast_.--[MS. D.]


s: _To rive what Goth and Turk, and Time hath spared:_


s: _Cold and accursed as his native coast_.--[MS. D. erased]


s: ["On the plaster wall of the Chapel of Pandrosos adjoining the


s: Erechtheum, these words have been very deeply cut--


s: volunteers who joined the Hanoverian mercenaries in the Venetian


s: What! shall it e'er be said by British tongue,


s: Though in thy name the slave her bosom wrung,


s: Albion! I would not see thee thus adorned


s: With gains thy generous spirit should have scorned,


s: From Man distinguished by some monstrous sign,


s: Like Attila the Hun was surely horned,[§1]


s: Who wrought the ravage amid works divine:


s: Let it not vibrate in pale Europe's ears,[§2]


s: The Saviour Queen, the free Britannia, wears


s: The last poor blunder of a bleeding land:


s: That she, whose generous aid her name endears,


s: Tore down those remnants with a Harpy's hand,


s: Come then, ye classic Thieves of each degree,


s: Come pilfer all the Pilgrim loves to see,


s: All that yet consecrates the fading scene:


s: Nor ye, nor Elgin, nor that lesser wight.


s: The victim sad of vase-collecting spleen.


s: House-furnisher withal, one Thomas[§2] hight,


s: Than ye should bear one stone from wronged Athenæ's site.


s: Now delegate the task to digging Gell,[§3]


s: That mighty limner of a bird's eye view,


s: How like to Nature let his volumes tell:


s: Who can with him the folio's limit swell


s: With all the Author saw, or said he saw?


s: [The Athenians believed, or feigned to believe, that the marbles


s: An additional "misery to human life!"--lying to at sunset for a


s: _Meantime some rude musician's restless hand_


s: _Ply's the brisk instrument that sailors love_.--[MS. D. erased.]


s: [Campbell, in _Gertrude of Wyoming_, Canto I. stanza ii. line 6,


s: _Bleeds the lone heart, once boundless in its zeal_.--[D.]


s: _And friendless now, yet dreams it had a friend_.--[MS.]


s: or, _Far from affection's chilled or changing zeal_.--[MS.]


s: _Though friendless now we once have had a friend_.--


s: [In this stanza M. Darmesteter detects "l'accent Wordsworthien"


s: "And oft the craggy cliff he lov'd to climb,


s: When all in mist the world below was lost,


s: What dreadful pleasure! there to stand sublime,


s: Like shipwreck'd mariner on desert coast,


s: And view th' enormous waste of vapour, tost


s: In billows, lengthening to th' horizon round,


s: Now scoop'd in gulfs, with mountains now emboss'd!


s: And hear the voice of mirth, and song rebound,


s: Flocks, herds, and waterfalls, along the hoar profound."


s: [There are none to bless us, for when we are in distress the


s: success. Neither do they bless us, or we them.]


s: The actual mount, "the giant height [6350 feet], rears itself in


s: Janissary, is careful to record that "Athos itself is said to be


s: {120} [More than one commentator gravely "sets against" this


s: "Adde quod absumunt viris pereuntque labore,


s: Labitur interea res, et Babylonica fiunt:


s: Languent officia, atque ægrotat fama vacillans."]


s: ["Were counselled or advised." The passive "were ared" seems to


s: _Her not unconscious though her weakly child_.


s: [Compare the description of the thunderstorm in the Alps (Canto


s: "My joy was in the wilderness; to breathe


s: The difficult air of the iced mountain-top--


s: To follow through the night the moving moon,


s: The stars and their development; or catch


s: The dazzling lightnings till my eyes grew dim."


s: "In sooth he was a strange and wayward youth.


s: Fond of each gentle and each dreadful scene.


s: In darkness and in storm he found delight;


s: The Southern sun diffus'd his dazzling sheen;


s: When the hoarse tempest shook the vaulted sky."


s: {123} [Alexander's mother, Olympias, was an Epiriote. She had a


s: Roll'd round her ankles, round her waist


s: Surety secure; but modest doubt is call'd


s: The beacon of the wise, the tent that searches


s: [Byron and Hobhouse sailed for Malta in the brig-of-war _Spider_


s: {125} [The meaning of this passage is not quite so obvious as it


s: _And roused him more from thought than he was wont_


s: [By "Suli's rocks" Byron means the mountainous district in the


s: [Compare Byron's _Stanzas written on passing the Ambracian


s: [Nicopolis, "the city of victory," which Augustus, "the second


s: _Imperial wretches, doubling human woes!_


s: {129} [The travellers left Prevesa on October 1, and arrived at


s: {130} ["The prior of the monastery, a humble, meek-mannered man,


s: _But frequent is the lamb, the kid, the goat_--


s: _And watching pensive with his browsing flock_.--[MS. erased.]


s: "bouquets de chêne," sprung it may be from the offspring of the


s: Copre i fasti, e le pompe, arena ed erba;


s: E l'uom d'esser mortal par cue si sdegni!"


s: frontier village of Illyria, to Libokhovo.]


s: {134} ["Yclad," used as a preterite, not a participle (compare


s: Coleridge's "I wis" [_Christabel_, part i. line 92]), is a


s: Byronism--"archaisme incorrect," says M. Darmesteter.]


s: Of Bairam through the boundless East.")]


s: {135} ["A kind of dervish or recluse ... regarded as a


s: {136} ["We were disturbed during the night by the perpetual


s: _The shameless torch of wild desire is lit_,


s: _Caressed, preferred even to woman's self above_,


s: _Whose forms for Nature's gentler errors fit_


s: _All frailties mote excuse save that which they commit_.


s: [In a letter to his mother, November 12, 1809, Byron writes, "He


s: [Anacreon sometimes bewails, but more often defies old age.


s: [In the first edition the reading (see _var_. ii.) is, "But


s: _Childe Harold with that chief held colloquy_


s: _Yet what they spake it boots not to repeat;_


s: _Converse may little charm strange ear or eye;_


s: _Albeit he rested on that spacious seat,_


s: _Of Moslem luxury the choice retreat_.--[MS. D. erased.]


s: _Four days he rested on that worthy seat_.-[MS. erased.]


s: {141} [The travellers left Janina on November 3, and reached


s: {143} [The route from Utraikey to Gouria (November 15-18) lay


s: through "thick woods of oak," with occasional peeps of the open


s: [With this description Mr. Tozer compares Virgil, _Æneid_, i.


s: "Amidst these isles a lone recess is found,


s: Where circling shores the subject flood resound ...


s: Within the waves repose in peace serene;


s: Black forests nod above, a silvan scene!"]


s: {144} ["In the evening the gates were secured, and preparations


s: Κλέφτεις ποτὲ Πάργα! [Kle/phteis pote\ Pa/rga!]


s: {145} [This was not Byron's first experience of an Albanian


s: {146} [Tambourgi, "drummer," a Turkish word, formed by affixing


s: the termination _-gi_, which signifies "one who discharges any


s: [The _camese_ is the _fustanella_ or white kilt of the Toska, a


s: branch of the Albanian, or Shkipetar, race. Spenser has the forms


s: Albanians against their common foe, the Russians.]


s: [Ali's eldest son, Mukhtar, the Pasha of Berat, had been sent


s: Yellow is the epithet given to the Russians.


s: {149} [The literal meaning of Delhi or Deli, is, says M.


s: [Compare "The Isles of Greece," stanza 7 (_Don Juan_, Canto


s: The meaning is, "When shall another Lysander spring from Laconia


s: [The Wahabees, who took their name from the Arab sheik Mohammed


s: {152} [Byron spent two months in Constantinople (Stamboul, i.e.


s: {153} [These _al-fresco_ festivities must, it is presumed, have


s: There's nothing like young love at last."]


s: [For the accentuation of the word, compare Chaucer, "The


s: {156} [The "solitary column" may be that on the shore of the


s: [Tritonia, or Tritogenia, one of Athena's names of uncertain


s: Tritonis, on the Mediterranean coast of Libya--


s: "Hanc et Pallas amat: patrio quæ vertice nata


s: Terrarum primum Libyen (nam proxima coelo est,


s: Ut probat ipse calor) tetigit, stagnique quietâ


s: Vultus vidit aquâ, posuitque in margine plantas,


s: Et se dilectâ Tritonida dixit ab undâ."]


s: [Hobhouse dates the first visit to Cape Colonna, January 24,


s: ["The wild thyme is in great abundance; but there are only two


s: ["The plain of Marathon is enclosed on three sides by the rocky


s: [The "Ionian blast" is the western wind that brings the voyager


s: {160} [The original MS. closes with this stanza.]


s: The 'he' refers to 'Wanderer' and anything is better than


s: [Compare Young's _Night Thoughts_ ("The Complaint," Night i.).


s: _Though Time not yet hath ting'd my locks with snow,_[§]


s: _Yet hath he reft whate'er my soul enjoy'd_.--[D.]


s: But worse than steel, and flame, and ages slow,


s: according to the tenor of each succeeding firman! Sylla could but


s: Plays such fantastic tricks before high Heaven


s: Here, son of Saturn! was thy favourite throne.


s: And bear these altars o'er the long-reluctant brine.


s: The ship was wrecked in the Archipelago.


s: To rive what Goth, and Turk, and Time hath spared.


s: At this moment (January 3, 1810), besides what has been already


s: devastation; and like the Greek _finder_ of Verres in Sicily, who


s: "priggism"--quarrelled with another, _Gropius_ by name (a very


s: good name too for his business), and muttered something about


s: Her Sons too weak the sacred shrine to guard,


s: Yet felt some portion of their Mother's pains.


s: Where was thine Ægis, Pallas! that appalled


s: mischievous as the Scottish peer.--See Chandler.


s: But not in silence pass Calypso's isles.


s: Goza is said to have been the island of Calypso.


s: Where is the navel of the sea, a woodland isle."


s: On thee, thou rugged Nurse of savage men!


s: Scanderbeg (Lord Alexander) is alluded to in the third and fourth


s: When, in 1810, after the departure of my friend Mr. Hobhouse for


s: squabbling with the husbands of Athens; insomuch that four of the


s: ci-devant Anglo-consul of Athens, and some other of my Greek


s: For my own part, when I remembered that, a short time before my


s: Greeks, of which our Athenian party had so many specimens.


s: And hailed the last resort of fruitless love.


s: Cleopatra_, act iii. sc. 6, lines 68-75), quoting Plutarch almost


s: Of Paphlagonia; the Thracian king, Adallas;


s: Look where the second Cæsar's trophies rose.


s: The celebrated Ali Pacha. Of this extraordinary man there is an


s: Yet here and there some daring mountain-band


s: Disdain his power, and from their rocky hold


s: Hurl their defiance far, nor yield, unless to gold.


s: leaders, Botzaris and Koutsonika and others, finally


s: The Chimariot mountains appear to have been volcanic.


s: Tepalen, and therefore the sun could not set behind it" (_Childe


s: Ruines_, 1878, p. 8). (For the Aöus and approach to Tepeleni, see


s: And Laos wide and fierce came roaring by.


s: The river Laos was full at the time the author passed it; and,


s: Naciarura, popuso.               be thou silent.


s: Ha pen derini ti hin.            door that I may enter.


s: Ti vin ti mar servetini.         that I may take my turban.


s: Ea ha pe pse dua tive.           eyes, open the gate that


s: Ede vete tunde tunde.            garb, walks with graceful pride.


s: Ti mi put e poi mi le.           eyes, give me a kiss.


s: Si mi ri ni veti udo gia.        My soul is consumed with fire.


s: Celo more, more celo.            gently, and gently still.


s: "Caliriotes," for what reason I inquired in vain.


s: Vettimi upri vi lofsa.         have loved but to scorch myself.


s: Sitti eve tulati dua.        but thine eyes and eyelashes.


s: Qu mi sini vetti dua.          want not, but thee only.


s: Roba ti siarmi tildi eni.     let the portion feed the flames.


s: simi rin ti hapti              with a sincere soul, but


s: Eti mi bire a piste si gui      thou hast left me like


s: dendroi tiltati.               a withered tree.


s: cicova cilti mora              thy bosom, what have I gained?


s: Udorini talti hollna u ede       my hand is withdrawn, but


s: caimoni mora.                  retains the flame.


s: It was taken by storm from the French [October, 1798].


s: Fair Greece! sad relic of departed Worth! etc.


s: Thou sat'st with Thrasybulus and his train.


s: Receive the fiery Frank, her former guest.


s: The Prophet's tomb of all its pious spoil.


s: Thy vales of evergreen, thy hills of snow.


s: On many of the mountains, particularly Liakura, the snow never is


s: Above its prostrate brethren of the cave.


s: "Siste Viator--heroa calcas!" was the epitaph on the famous Count


s: volumes, to have the goodness to marry her to somebody more of a


s: perceptible. But I fear Hesiod will still be found correct in his


s: We found at Livadia an "esprit fort" in a Greek bishop, of all


s: phenomenon (with the exception indeed of Thebes, the remains of


s: The fountain of Dirce turns a mill: at least my companion (who,


s: From Fort Phyle, of which large remains still exist, the plain of


s: "Sternitur, et _dulces_ moriens reminiscitur Argos."


s: _Greeks_; for Joannina in Epirus is universally allowed, amongst


s: M. Roque, a French merchant of respectability long settled in


s: Eton and Sonnini have led us astray by their panegyrics and


s: themselves of the Ionian republic, Corfu excepted. But whoever


s: "I must have some talk with this learned Theban."


s: unpleasant controversy with M. Gail, a Parisian commentator and


s: him "Μετὰ τὸν Θουκυδίδην καὶ Ξενοφώντα ἄριστος Ἑλλήνων [Meta\ to


s: Panagiotes Kodrikas, the translator of Fontenelle, and Kamarases,


s: Christodoulus, and more particularly Psalida, whom I have


s: conversed with in Joannina, are also in high repute among their


s: The Reviewer mentions a school established at Hecatonesi, and


s: The Reviewer mentions a plan "_we believe_" by Potemkin for the


s: "Ὠ Ἀθῆναι, πρώτη χώρα [Ô) A)thê~nai, prô/tê chô/ra],


s: Τί γαιδάρους τρέφεις τώρα [Ti/ gaida/rous tre/pheis tô/ra];"


s: thousand in the army of Vely Pacha) praised for their Greek, but


s: often laughed at for their provincial barbarisms.


s: information, at least from themselves. As far as my own slight


s: The lower orders are in as tolerable discipline as the rabble in


s: With regard to that ignorance of which they are so generally, and


s: I remember Mahmout, the grandson of Ali Pacha, asking whether my


s: fellow-traveller and myself were in the upper or lower House of


s: In all the mosques there are schools established, which are very


s: [For Herr Gropius, _vide post_, note 6.]


s: ["Mirandum in modum (canes venaticos diceres) ita odorabantur


s: omnia et pervestigabant, ut, ubi quidque esset, aliqua ratione


s: [M. Fauvel was born in Burgundy, circ. 1754. In 1787 he was


s: {169} In all Attica, if we except Athens itself and Marathon,


s: there is no scene more interesting than Cape Colonna.[§1] To the


s: "Here in the dead of night, by Lonna's steep,[§3]


s: The seaman's cry was heard along the deep."


s: deterred from attacking us by the appearance of my two Albanians:


s: "The hireling artist plants his paltry desk,


s: September, 1769, he embarked for India as purser of the _Aurora_


s: {171} ["It was, however, during our stay in the place, to be


s: This word, in the cant language, signifies thieving.--Fielding's


s: [_A Journey through Albania during the Years 1809-10_, London,


s: generally Mussulmans (Finlay's _History of Greece_, i. 35).]


s: {176} [The mayor of the village; in Greek, προεστός [proestos].]


s: [See _Recollections of the Life of Lord Byron_, 1824, p.64.]


s: {186} [François Mercy de Lorraine, who fought against the


s: [Miss Owenson (Sydney, Lady Morgan), 1783-1859, published her


s: {188} [For the Disdar's extortions, see _Travels in Albania_, i.


s: Grow sick, and damn the climate like a lord."


s: {189} [Hobhouse pronounced it to be the Fountain of Ares, the


s: Paraporti Spring, "which serves to swell the scanty waters of the


s: [Cornelius de Pauw (1739-1799), Dutch historian, published, in


s: surrendered till the restoration of the Bourbons in 1815.]


s: [The Mainotes or Mainates, who take their name from Maina, near


s: ["I'll talk a word with this same learned Theban." Shakespeare,


s: [Diamant or Adamantius Coray (1748-1833), scholar and


s: I have in my possession an excellent lexicon "τρίγλωσσον


s: (Bentotes, or Bendotes) of Joanina. The book was in Hobhouse's


s: In Gail's pamphlet against Coray, he talks of "throwing the


s: insolent Hellenist out of the windows." On this a French critic


s: exclaims, "Ah, my God! throw an Hellenist out of the window! what


s: published at Vienna, in 1794, a Greek translation of Fontenelle's


s: Christodoulos, an Acarnanian, published a work, Περὶ Φιλοσόφου,


s: Φιλοσοφίας, Φυσιῶν, Μεταφυσικῶν, κ.τ.λ. [Peri\ Philoso/phou,


s: Athanasius Psalidas published, at Vienna, in 1791, a sceptical


s: work entitled, _True Felicity_ (Ἀληθὴς Εὐδαιμονία [A)lêthê\s


s: Hobhouse mentions a patriotic poet named Polyzois, "the new


s: {199} [By Blackbey is meant Bey of Vlack, i.e. Wallachia. (See a


s: [Constantine Rhigas (born 1753), the author of the original of


s: {200} [The Hecatonnesi are a cluster of islands in the Gulf of


s: {201} In a former number of the _Edinburgh Review_, 1808, it is


s: "Cædimus, inque vicem præbemus crura sagittis."


s: _Alexiad_, a history of her father's reign.]


s: [The Caimacam was the deputy or lieutenant of the grand Vizier.]


s: [Scott published "_Sir Tristrem, a Metrical Romance of the


s: [Captain Lismahago, a paradoxical and pedantic Scotchman, the


s: For Aberdeen and Hamilton, see _English Bards, etc._, line 509:


s: For Gell, see _English Bards, etc._, line 1034, note 1: _Poetical


s: The Rev. Robert Walpole (1781-1856), in addition to his share in


s: {207} [The "Nizam Gedidd," or new ordinance, which aimed at


s: "Afin que cette application vous forcât à penser à autre chose.


s: Il n'y a en vérité de remède que celui-là et le temps."--_Lettres


s: representatives (see, for a report of the case in the _Morning


s: fragment, _The Tempest_," was issued in 1817. It is a dull and,


s: Which chilled the soul--one knew not why--


s: So fierce it flashed, one well might swear,


s: Self-raised, and repossess its native seat!"


s: Scott, in the "tenderest strain" of Virgilian melody--


s: "I decus, i nostrum, melioribus utere fatis!"


s: "This copy is to be printed from--subject to comparison with the


s: notes in this copy are more complete and extended than in the


s: former--and there is also _one stanza more_ inserted and added to


s: Claire's Transcription (C.) occupies the first 119 pages of a


s: Is thy face like thy mothers, my fair child!


s: ADA! sole daughter of my house and heart?


s: When last I saw thy young blue eyes they smiled,


s: And then we parted,--not as now we part,


s: The winds lift up their voices: I depart,


s: Whither I know not; but the hour's gone by,


s: When Albion's lessening shores could grieve or glad mine eye.[gh]


s: Once more upon the waters! yet once more!


s: And the waves bound beneath me as a steed


s: That knows his rider. Welcome to their roar!


s: Swift be their guidance, wheresoe'er it lead!


s: Though the strained mast should quiver as a reed,


s: And the rent canvass fluttering strew the gale,[gi]


s: Flung from the rock, on Ocean's foam, to sail


s: Where'er the surge may sweep, the tempest's breath prevail.


s: The wandering outlaw of his own dark mind;


s: Again I seize the theme, then but begun,


s: And bear it with me, as the rushing wind


s: Bears the cloud onwards: in that Tale I find


s: The furrows of long thought, and dried-up tears,


s: Which, ebbing, leave a sterile track behind,


s: O'er which all heavily the journeying years


s: Plod the last sands of life,--where not a flower appears.


s: Since my young days of passion--joy, or pain--


s: Perchance my heart and harp have lost a string--


s: And both may jar: it may be, that in vain


s: I would essay as I have sung to sing[gj]:


s: Yet, though a dreary strain, to this I cling;


s: Of selfish grief or gladness--so it fling


s: To me, though to none else, a not ungrateful theme.


s: He, who grown aged in this world of woe,


s: In deeds, not years, piercing the depths of life,


s: Cut to his heart again with the keen knife


s: Why Thought seeks refuge in lone caves, yet rife


s: With airy images, and shapes which dwell


s: Still unimpaired, though old, in the Soul's haunted cell.[gk]


s: What am I? Nothing: but not so art thou,


s: Soul of my thought! with whom I traverse earth,


s: Mixed with thy spirit, blended with thy birth,


s: And feeling still with thee in my crushed feelings' dearth.


s: Yet must I think less wildly:--I _have_ thought


s: Too long and darkly, till my brain became,


s: In its own eddy boiling and o'erwrought,


s: A whirling gulf of phantasy and flame:[gm]


s: And thus, untaught in youth my heart to tame,


s: My springs of life were poisoned. 'Tis too late:


s: Yet am I changed; though still enough the same


s: In strength to bear what Time can not abate,[gn]


s: And feed on bitter fruits without accusing Fate.


s: Something too much of this:--but now 'tis past,


s: And the spell closes with its silent seal--


s: He of the breast which fain no more would feel,[go]


s: Wrung with the wounds which kill not, but ne'er heal;


s: Yet Time, who changes all, had altered him


s: In soul and aspect as in age: years steal


s: Fire from the mind as vigour from the limb;


s: And Life's enchanted cup but sparkles near the brim.


s: His had been quaffed too quickly, and he found


s: The dregs were wormwood; but he filled again,


s: And from a purer fount, on holier ground,


s: And deemed its spring perpetual--but in vain!


s: Which galled for ever, fettering though unseen,


s: And heavy though it clanked not; worn with pain,


s: Which pined although it spoke not, and grew keen,


s: Entering with every step he took through many a scene.


s: Secure in guarded coldness, he had mixed[gp]


s: And deemed his spirit now so firmly fixed


s: That, if no joy, no sorrow lurked behind;


s: And he, as one, might 'midst the many stand


s: Unheeded, searching through the crowd to find


s: Fit speculation--such as in strange land


s: He found in wonder-works of God and Nature's hand.[gq]


s: But who can view the ripened rose, nor seek[gr]


s: The smoothness and the sheen of Beauty's cheek,


s: Nor feel the heart can never all grow old?[gs]


s: Who can contemplate Fame through clouds unfold


s: The star which rises o'er her steep, nor climb?


s: Harold, once more within the vortex, rolled


s: Yet with a nobler aim than in his Youth's fond prime.[gt]


s: But soon he knew himself the most unfit[gu]


s: Of men to herd with Man, with whom he held


s: His thoughts to others, though his soul was quelled


s: In youth by his own thoughts; still uncompelled,


s: To Spirits against whom his own rebelled,


s: Proud though in desolation--which could find


s: A life within itself, to breathe without mankind.


s: Where rose the mountains, there to him were friends;[gv]


s: Where rolled the ocean, thereon was his home;


s: Where a blue sky, and glowing clime, extends,


s: He had the passion and the power to roam;


s: The desert, forest, cavern, breaker's foam,


s: A mutual language, clearer than the tome


s: Of his land's tongue, which he would oft forsake


s: For Nature's pages glassed by sunbeams on the lake.


s: Like the Chaldean, he could watch the stars,[gw]


s: Till he had peopled them with beings bright


s: As their own beams; and earth, and earth-born jars,


s: And human frailties, were forgotten quite:


s: Could he have kept his spirit to that flight


s: He had been happy; but this clay will sink


s: Its spark immortal, envying it the light


s: To which it mounts, as if to break the link


s: That keeps us from yon heaven which woos us to its brink.[gx]


s: But in Man's dwellings he became a thing[gy]


s: Restless and worn, and stern and wearisome,


s: Drooped as a wild-born falcon with clipt wing,


s: To whom the boundless air alone were home:


s: Then came his fit again, which to o'ercome,


s: His breast and beak against his wiry dome


s: Till the blood tinge his plumage--so the heat


s: Of his impeded Soul would through his bosom eat.


s: With nought of Hope left--but with less of gloom;


s: The very knowledge that he lived in vain,


s: That all was over on this side the tomb,


s: Which, though 'twere wild,--as on the plundered wreck


s: When mariners would madly meet their doom


s: With draughts intemperate on the sinking deck,--


s: Did yet inspire a cheer, which he forbore to check.


s: Stop!--for thy tread is on an Empire's dust!


s: An Earthquake's spoil is sepulchred below!


s: Is the spot marked with no colossal bust?


s: None; but _the moral's truth_ tells simpler so.--[gz]


s: As the ground was before, thus let it be;--[ha]


s: How that red rain hath made the harvest grow!


s: And is this all the world has gained by thee,


s: Thou first and last of Fields! king-making Victory?


s: And Harold stands upon this place of skulls,


s: The grave of France, the deadly Waterloo![hb]


s: How in an hour the Power which gave annuls


s: Its gifts, transferring fame as fleeting too!--


s: In "pride of place" here last the Eagle flew,[1.B.]


s: Then tore with bloody talon the rent plain,[hc]


s: Pierced by the shaft of banded nations through;


s: Ambition's life and labours all were vain--


s: He wears the shattered links of the World's broken chain.[hd]


s: And foam in fetters;--but is Earth more free?


s: Did nations combat to make _One_ submit?


s: Or league to teach all Kings true Sovereignty?[he]


s: The patched-up Idol of enlightened days?


s: Shall we, who struck the Lion down, shall we


s: Pay the Wolf homage? proffering lowly gaze


s: And servile knees to Thrones? No! _prove_ before ye praise!


s: If not, o'er one fallen Despot boast no more!


s: In vain fair cheeks were furrowed with hot tears


s: For Europe's flowers long rooted up before


s: The trampler of her vineyards; in vain, years


s: Have all been borne, and broken by the accord


s: Of roused-up millions: all that most endears


s: Glory, is when the myrtle wreathes a Sword,


s: Such as Harmodius[2.B.] drew on Athens' tyrant Lord.


s: The lamps shone o'er fair women and brave men;[hf]


s: A thousand hearts beat happily; and when


s: Soft eyes looked love to eyes which spake again,


s: And all went merry as a marriage bell;[3.B.]


s: But hush! hark! a deep sound strikes like a rising knell!


s: Did ye not hear it?--No--'twas but the Wind,


s: Or the car rattling o'er the stony street;


s: On with the dance! let joy be unconfined;


s: No sleep till morn, when Youth and Pleasure meet


s: To chase the glowing Hours with flying feet--


s: But hark!--that heavy sound breaks in once more,


s: And nearer--clearer--deadlier than before![hg]


s: Arm! Arm! it is--it is--the cannon's opening roar![hh]


s: Within a windowed niche of that high hall


s: Sate Brunswick's fated Chieftain; he did hear


s: That sound the first amidst the festival,


s: And caught its tone with Death's prophetic ear;


s: And when they smiled because he deemed it near,


s: His heart more truly knew that peal too well[hi]


s: Which stretched his father on a bloody bier,


s: And roused the vengeance blood alone could quell;


s: He rushed into the field, and, foremost fighting, fell.


s: Ah! then and there was hurrying to and fro--


s: And gathering tears, and tremblings of distress,[hj]


s: And cheeks all pale, which but an hour ago


s: Blushed at the praise of their own loveliness--


s: And there were sudden partings, such as press[hk]


s: The life from out young hearts, and choking sighs


s: Which ne'er might be repeated; who could guess


s: If ever more should meet those mutual eyes,


s: Since upon night so sweet such awful morn could rise![hl]


s: And there was mounting in hot haste--the steed,


s: The mustering squadron, and the clattering car,


s: Went pouring forward with impetuous speed,


s: And swiftly forming in the ranks of war--


s: Roused up the soldier ere the Morning Star;


s: Or whispering, with white lips--"The foe! They come! they come!"


s: And wild and high the "Cameron's Gathering" rose!


s: The war-note of Lochiel, which Albyn's hills


s: Have heard, and heard, too, have her Saxon foes;--


s: How in the noon of night that pibroch thrills,


s: Savage and shrill! But with the breath which fills


s: Their mountain-pipe, so fill the mountaineers


s: With the fierce native daring which instils


s: The stirring memory of a thousand years,


s: And Evan's--Donald's[4.B.] fame rings in each clansman's ears!


s: And Ardennes[5.B.] waves above them her green leaves,[hn]


s: Dewy with Nature's tear-drops, as they pass--


s: Grieving, if aught inanimate e'er grieves,


s: Ere evening to be trodden like the grass


s: Which now beneath them, but above shall grow


s: In its next verdure, when this fiery mass


s: And burning with high Hope, shall moulder cold and low.


s: Last noon beheld them full of lusty life;--


s: Last eve in Beauty's circle proudly gay;


s: The Midnight brought the signal-sound of strife,


s: The Morn the marshalling in arms,--the Day


s: The thunder-clouds close o'er it, which when rent


s: The earth is covered thick with other clay


s: Which her own clay shall cover, heaped and pent,


s: Rider and horse,--friend,--foe,--in one red burial blent!


s: Their praise is hymned by loftier harps than mine;


s: Yet one I would select from that proud throng,


s: Partly because they blend me with his line,


s: And partly that I did his Sire some wrong,


s: And partly that bright names will hallow song;[ho]


s: And his was of the bravest, and when showered


s: The death-bolts deadliest the thinned files along,


s: Even where the thickest of War's tempest lowered,


s: They reached no nobler breast than thine, young, gallant Howard!


s: There have been tears and breaking hearts for thee,


s: And mine were nothing, had I such to give;


s: But when I stood beneath the fresh green tree,


s: Which living waves where thou didst cease to live,


s: With fruits and fertile promise, and the Spring


s: Come forth her work of gladness to contrive,


s: With all her reckless birds upon the wing,


s: I turned from all she brought to those she could not bring.[6.B.]


s: I turned to thee, to thousands, of whom each


s: In his own kind and kindred, whom to teach


s: Forgetfulness were mercy for their sake;


s: The Archangel's trump, not Glory's, must awake


s: Those whom they thirst for; though the sound of Fame


s: May for a moment soothe, it cannot slake


s: So honoured but assumes a stronger, bitterer claim.


s: They mourn, but smile at length--and, smiling, mourn:


s: The tree will wither long before it fall;


s: The hull drives on, though mast and sail be torn;[hp]


s: The roof-tree sinks, but moulders on the hall


s: Stands when its wind-worn battlements are gone;


s: The bars survive the captive they enthral;


s: The day drags through though storms keep out the sun;[hq]


s: And thus the heart will break, yet brokenly live on:


s: Even as a broken Mirror, which the glass


s: The same--and still the more, the more it breaks;


s: And thus the heart will do which not forsakes,


s: Living in shattered guise; and still, and cold,


s: And bloodless, with its sleepless sorrow aches,


s: Showing no visible sign, for such things are untold.


s: Which feeds these deadly branches; for it were


s: As nothing did we die; but Life will suit


s: Like to the apples on the Dead Sea's shore,[7.B.]


s: Such hours 'gainst years of life,--say, would he name threescore?


s: The Psalmist numbered out the years of man:


s: They are enough; and if thy tale be _true_,[hr]


s: Thou, who didst grudge him even that fleeting span,


s: Millions of tongues record thee, and anew


s: Their children's lips shall echo them, and say--


s: "Here, where the sword united nations drew,[hs]


s: Our countrymen were warring on that day!"


s: And this is much--and all--which will not pass away.


s: There sunk the greatest, nor the worst of men,


s: On little objects with like firmness fixed;[ht]


s: Extreme in all things! hadst thou been betwixt,


s: Thy throne had still been thine, or never been;


s: For Daring made thy rise as fall: thou seek'st[hu]


s: Even now to re-assume the imperial mien,


s: And shake again the world, the Thunderer of the scene!


s: Conqueror and Captive of the Earth art thou!


s: She trembles at thee still, and thy wild name[hv]


s: Was ne'er more bruited in men's minds than now


s: That thou art nothing, save the jest of Fame,


s: Who wooed thee once, thy Vassal, and became[hw]


s: The flatterer of thy fierceness--till thou wert


s: Who deemed thee for a time whate'er thou didst assert.


s: Oh, more or less than man--in high or low--


s: Battling with nations, flying from the field;


s: Now making monarchs' necks thy footstool, now


s: More than thy meanest soldier taught to yield;


s: An Empire thou couldst crush, command, rebuild,


s: But govern not thy pettiest passion, nor,


s: However deeply in men's spirits skilled,


s: Look through thine own, nor curb the lust of War,


s: Nor learn that tempted Fate will leave the loftiest Star.


s: Yet well thy soul hath brooked the turning tide


s: Which, be it Wisdom, Coldness, or deep Pride,[hx]


s: When the whole host of hatred stood hard by,


s: To watch and mock thee shrinking, thou hast smiled[hy]


s: When Fortune fled her spoiled and favourite child,


s: He stood unbowed beneath the ills upon him piled.


s: Sager than in thy fortunes; for in them[hz]


s: Ambition steeled thee on too far to show


s: That just habitual scorn, which could contemn


s: Men and their thoughts; 'twas wise to feel, not so


s: And spurn the instruments thou wert to use


s: Till they were turned unto thine overthrow:


s: 'Tis but a worthless world to win or lose;


s: So hath it proved to thee, and all such lot who choose.


s: Thou hadst been made to stand or fall alone,


s: Such scorn of man had helped to brave the shock;


s: But men's thoughts were the steps which paved thy throne,


s: _Their_ admiration thy best weapon shone;


s: The part of Philip's son was thine, not then


s: (Unless aside thy Purple had been thrown)


s: For sceptred Cynics Earth were far too wide a den.[8.B.]


s: And _there_ hath been thy bane; there is a fire


s: And motion of the Soul which will not dwell


s: And, but once kindled, quenchless evermore,


s: Preys upon high adventure, nor can tire[ia]


s: Fatal to him who bears, to all who ever bore.


s: This makes the madmen who have made men mad


s: By their contagion; Conquerors and Kings,


s: Founders of sects and systems, to whom add


s: Sophists, Bards, Statesmen, all unquiet things


s: Which stir too strongly the soul's secret springs,[ib]


s: And are themselves the fools to those they fool;


s: Are theirs! One breast laid open were a school


s: Which would unteach Mankind the lust to shine or rule:


s: Their breath is agitation, and their life


s: A storm whereon they ride, to sink at last,


s: And yet so nursed and bigoted to strife,


s: That should their days, surviving perils past,


s: Melt to calm twilight, they feel overcast[ic]


s: Even as a flame unfed, which runs to waste


s: With its own flickering, or a sword laid by,


s: Which eats into itself, and rusts ingloriously.


s: He who ascends to mountain-tops, shall find


s: The loftiest peaks most wrapt in clouds and snow;


s: Must look down on the hate of those below.[id]


s: Though high _above_ the Sun of Glory glow,


s: And far _beneath_ the Earth and Ocean spread,


s: _Round_ him are icy rocks, and loudly blow


s: Contending tempests on his naked head,[ie]


s: And thus reward the toils which to those summits led.


s: Away with these! true Wisdom's world will be[if]


s: Maternal Nature! for who teems like thee,[ig]


s: Thus on the banks of thy majestic Rhine?


s: A blending of all beauties; streams and dells,


s: Fruit, foliage, crag, wood, cornfield, mountain, vine,


s: And chiefless castles breathing stern farewells


s: From gray but leafy walls, where Ruin greenly dwells.[ih]


s: And there they stand, as stands a lofty mind,


s: Worn, but unstooping to the baser crowd,


s: All tenantless, save to the crannying Wind,


s: Or holding dark communion with the Cloud


s: There was a day when they were young and proud;


s: Banners on high, and battles passed below;


s: But they who fought are in a bloody shroud,


s: And those which waved are shredless dust ere now,[ii]


s: And the bleak battlements shall bear no future blow.


s: Beneath these battlements, within those walls,


s: Power dwelt amidst her passions; in proud state


s: Each robber chief upheld his arméd halls,


s: What want these outlaws conquerors should have[ij][9.B.]


s: But History's purchased page to call them great?


s: In their baronial feuds and single fields,


s: And Love, which lent a blazon to their shields,


s: With emblems well devised by amorous pride,