The Works of Lord Byron, Volume 4

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TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES

This etext contains only characters from the Latin-1 set. The original
work contained a few phrases or lines of Greek text. These are
represented here as Beta-code transliterations in brackets, for example
[Greek: Oi~moi].

The original text used a few other characters not found in the Latin-1
set. These have been represented using bracket notation, as follows:
[=e], [=i], [=N], [=S] represent those letters with a macron (bar)
above; [)i] represents and i with a breve (curved line). In a few places
superscript letters are shown by carets, as in May 27^th^.

An important feature of this edition is its copious footnotes. Footnotes
indexed with letters (e.g. [c], [bf]) show variant forms of Byron's text
from manuscripts and other sources. Footnotes indexed with arabic
numbers (e.g. [17], [221]) are informational. Text in notes and
elsewhere in square brackets is the work of editor E. H. Coleridge. Text
not in brackets is by Byron himself.

In the original, footnotes were printed at the foot of the page on which
they were referenced, and their indices started over on each page. In
this etext, footnotes have been collected at the ends of each section,
and have been consecutively numbered throughout. Within each block of
footnotes are numbers in braces: {321}. These represent the page number
on which following notes originally appeared. To find a note that was
originally printed on page 27, search for {27}.

In the work "Francesca di Rimini" the original printed lines of the
Italian on facing pages opposite the matching lines of Byron's
translation. In this etext, the lines of the Italian original have been
collected following the translation.

Two minor corrections were made in this etext, both in the note following
the title of MANFRED: the year 1348 was corrected to 1834, and the word
"Tschairowsky" was corrected to "Tschaikowsky."

THE WORKS

OF

LORD BYRON.

A NEW, REVISED AND ENLARGED EDITION,

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS.

Poetry. Vol. IV.

EDITED BY

ERNEST HARTLEY COLERIDGE, M.A., HON. F.R.S.L.

LONDON:
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.
NEW YORK: CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS.
1901

PREFACE TO THE FOURTH VOLUME.

The poems included in this volume consist of thirteen longer or more
important works, written at various periods between June, 1816, and
October, 1821; of eight occasional pieces (_Poems of July-September_,
1816), written in 1816; and of another collection of occasional pieces
(_Poems_ 1816-1823), written at intervals between November, 1816, and
September, 1823. Of this second group of minor poems five are now
printed and published for the first time.

The volume is not co-extensive with the work of the period. The third
and fourth cantos of _Childe Harold_ (1816-1817), the first five cantos
of _Don Juan_ (1818, 1819, 1820), _Sardanapalus_, _The Two Foscari_,
_Cain_, and _Heaven and Earth_ (1821), form parts of other volumes, but,
in spite of these notable exceptions, the fourth volume contains the
work of the poet's maturity, which is and must ever remain famous. Byron
was not content to write on one kind of subject, or to confine himself
to one branch or species of poetry. He tracked the footsteps now of this
master poet, now of another, far outstripping some of his models; soon
spent in the pursuit of others. Even in his own lifetime, and in the
heyday of his fame, his friendliest critics, who applauded him to the
echo, perceived that the "manifold motions" of his versatile and
unsleeping talent were not always sanctioned or blessed by his genius.
Hence the unevenness of his work, the different values of this or that
poem. But, even so, in width of compass, in variety of style, and in
measure of success, his achievement was unparalleled. Take such poems as
_Manfred_ or _Mazeppa_, which have left their mark on the literature of
Europe; as _Beppo_, the _avant courrier_ of _Don Juan_, or the
"inimitable" _Vision of Judgment_, which the "hungry generations" have
not trodden down or despoiled of its freshness. Not one of these poems
suggests or resembles the other, but each has its crowd of associations,
a history and almost a literature of its own.

The whole of this volume was written on foreign soil, in Switzerland or
Italy, and, putting aside _The Dream_, _The Monody on the Death of
Sheridan_, _The Irish Avatar_, and _The Blues_, the places, the persons
and events, the _materiel_ of the volume as a whole, to say nothing of
the style and metre of the poems, are derived from the history and the
literature of Switzerland and Southern Europe. An unwilling, at times a
vindictive exile, he did more than any other poet or writer of his age
to familiarize his own countrymen with the scenery, the art and letters
of the Continent, and, conversely, to make the existence of English
literature, or, at least, the writings of one Englishman, known to
Frenchmen and Italians; to the Teuton and the Slav. If he "taught us
little" as prophet or moralist; as a guide to knowledge; as an educator
of the general reader--"your British blackguard," as he was pleased to
call him--his teaching and influence were "in widest commonalty spread."

Questions with regard to his personality, his morals, his theological
opinions, his qualifications as an artist, his grammar, his technique,
and so forth, have, perhaps inevitably, absorbed the attention of friend
and foe, and the one point on which all might agree has been overlooked,
namely, the fact that he taught us a great deal which it is desirable
and agreeable to know--which has passed into common knowledge through
the medium of his poetry. It is true that he wrote his plays and poems
at lightning speed, and that if he was at pains to correct some obvious
blunders, he expended but little labour on picking his phrases or
polishing his lines; but it is also true that he read widely and studied
diligently, in order to prepare himself for an outpouring of verse, and
that so far from being a superficial observer or inaccurate recorder,
his authority is worth quoting in questions of fact and points of
detail.

The appreciation of poetry is a matter of taste, and still more of
temperament. Readers cannot be coerced into admiration, or scolded into
disapproval and contempt. But if they are willing or can be persuaded to
read with some particularity and attention the writings of the
illustrious dead, not entirely as partisans, or with the view to
dethroning other "Monarchs of Parnassus," they will divine the secret of
their fame, and will understand, perhaps recover, the "first rapture" of
contemporaries.

Byron sneered and carped at Southey as a "scribbler of all works." He
was himself a reader of all works, and without some measure of
book-learning and not a little research the force and significance of
his various numbers are weakened or obliterated.

It is with the hope of supplying this modicum of book-learning that the
Introductions and notes in this and other volumes have been compiled.

I desire to acknowledge, with thanks, the courteous response of Mons. J.
Capre, Commandant of the Castle of Chillon, to a letter of inquiry with
regard to the "Souterrains de Chillon."

I have to express my gratitude to Sir Henry Irving, to Mr. Joseph
Knight, and to Mr. F. E. Taylor, for valuable information concerning the
stage representation of _Manfred_ and _Marino Faliero_.

I am deeply indebted to Dr. Richard Garnett, C.B., and to my friend, Mr.
Thomas Hutchinson, for assistance in many important particulars during
the construction of the volume.

I must also record my thanks to Mr. Oscar Browning, Mr. Josceline
Courtenay, and other correspondents, for information and assistance in
points of difficulty.

I have consulted and derived valuable information from the following
works: _The Prisoner of Chillon_, etc., by the late Professor Koelbing;
_Mazeppa_, by Dr. Englaender; _Marino Faliero avanti il Dogado_ and _La
Congiura_ (published in the _Nuovo Archivio Veneto_), by Signor Vittorio
Lazzarino; and _Selections from the Poetry of Lord Byron_, by Dr. F. I.
Carpenter of Chicago, U.S.A.

I take the opportunity of expressing my acknowledgments to Miss K.
Schlesinger, Miss De Alberti, and to Signor F. Bianco, for their able
and zealous services in the preparation of portions of the volume.

On behalf of the publisher I beg to acknowledge the kindness of Captain
the Hon. F. L. King Noel, in sanctioning the examination and collation
of the MS. of _Beppo_, now in his possession; and of Mrs. Horace Pym of
Foxwold Chace, for permitting the portrait of Sheridan by Sir Joshua
Reynolds to be reproduced for this volume.

ERNEST HARTLEY COLERIDGE.
_May_ 5, 1901.

CONTENTS OF VOL. IV.

Preface to Vol. IV. of the Poems

The Prisoner of Chillon.

Introduction to _The Prisoner of Chillon_ 3
Sonnet on Chillon 7
Advertisement 9
_The Prisoner of Chillon_ 13

Poems of July-September, 1816. The Dream.

Introduction to _The Dream_ 31
_The Dream_. First published, _Prisoner of
Chillon, etc._, 1816 33
Darkness. First published, _Prisoner of
Chillon, etc._, 1816 42
Churchill's Grave. First published, _Prisoner of
Chillon, etc._, 1816 45
Prometheus. First published, _Prisoner of
Chillon, etc_., 1816 48
A Fragment. First published, _Letters and Journals_,
1830, ii. 36 51
Sonnet to Lake Leman, First published, _Prisoner of
Chillon, etc._, 1816 53
Stanzas to Augusta. First published,
_Prisoner of Chillon, etc._, 1816 54
Epistle to Augusta. First published, _Letters and Journals_,
1830, ii. 38-41 57
Lines on hearing that Lady Byron was Ill. First published, 1831 63

MONODY ON THE DEATH OF THE RIGHT HON. R. B. SHERIDAN.

Introduction to _Monody, etc._ 69
_Monody on the Death of the Right Hon. R. B. Sheridan,_
Spoken at Drury Lane Theatre, London 71

Manfred: A Dramatic Poem.

Introduction to _Manfred_ 79
_Manfred_ 85

The Lament of Tasso.

Introduction to _The Lament of Tasso_ 139
Advertisement 141
_The Lament of Tasso_ 143

Beppo: A Venetian Story.

Introduction to _Beppo_ 155
_Beppo_ 159

Ode on Venice.

_Ode on Venice_ 193

Mazeppa.

Introduction to _Mazeppa_ 201
Advertisement 205
_Mazeppa_ 207

The Prophecy of Dante.

Introduction to _The Prophecy of Dante_ 237
Dedication 241
Preface 243
_The Prophecy of Dante_. Canto the First 247
Canto the Second 255
Canto the Third 261
Canto the Fourth 269

The Morgante Maggiore of Pulci.

Introduction to _The Morgante Maggiore_ 279
Advertisement 283
_The Morgante Maggiore_. Canto the First 285

Francesca Of Rimini.

Introduction to _Francesca of Rimini_ 313
_Francesco of Rimini_ 317

Marino Faliero, Doge of Venice: an Historical Tragedy.

Introduction to _Marino Faliero_ 325
Preface 331
_Marino Faliero_ 345
Appendix 462

The Vision Of Judgment.

Introduction to _The Vision of Judgment_ 475
Preface 481
_The Vision of Judgment_ 487

Poems 1816-1823.

A very Mournful Ballad on the Siege and Conquest of Alhama. First
published, _Childe Harold_, Canto IV., 1818 529
Sonetto di Vittorelli. Per Monaca 535
Translation from Vittorelli. On a Nun. First published,
_Childe Harold_, Canto IV., 1818 535
On the Bust of Helen by Canova. First published,
_Letters and Journals_, 1830, ii. 61 536
[Venice. A Fragment.] _MS. M_ 537
So we'll go no more a-roving. First published, _Letters and
Journals_, 1830, ii. 79 538
[Lord Byron's Verses on Sam Rogers.] Question and Answer. First
published, _Fraser's Magazine_, January, 1833,
vol. vii. pp. 82-84 538
The Duel. _MS. M_ 542
Stanzas to the Po. First published,
_Conversations of Lord Byron_, 1824 545
Sonnet on the Nuptials of the Marquis Antonio Cavalli with the
Countess Clelia Rasponi of Ravenna. _MS. M_ 547
Sonnet to the Prince Regent. On the Repeal of Lord Edward
Fitzgerald's Forfeiture. First published, _Letters and
Journals_, ii. 234, 235 548
Stanzas. First published, _New Monthly Magazine_, 1832 549
Ode to a Lady whose Lover was killed by a Ball, which at the
same time shivered a portrait next his heart. _MS. M._ 552
The Irish Avatar. First published, _Conversations of
Lord Byron_, 1824 555
Stanzas written on the Road between Florence and Pisa. First
published, _Letters and Journals_, 1830, ii. 566, not 562
Stanzas to a Hindoo Air. First published, _Works of Lord Byron_ 563
To ---- First published, _New Monthly Magazine_, 1833 564
To the Countess of Blessington. First published,
_Letters and Journals_, 1830 565
Aristomanes. Canto First. _MS. D._ 566

The Blues: A Literary Eclogue.

Introduction to _The Blues_ 569
_The Blues_. Eclogue the First 573
Eclogue the Second 580

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

1. Lord Byron, from an Engraving after a Drawing by G. H. Harlowe

2. The Prison of Bonivard

3. The Right Honourable Richard Brinsley Sheridan, from a Portrait
in Oils by Sir Joshua Reynolds, P.R.A., in the Possession of
Mrs. Horace Pym of Foxwold Chace

4. The Right Honourable John Hookham Frere, from a Mezzotint by
W. W. Barney, after a Picture by John Hoppner, R.A.

5. Robert Southey, Poet Laureate, from a Drawing made in 1811 by
John Downman, A.R.A., in the Possession of A. H. Hallam Murray, Esq.

THE PRISONER OF CHILLON

INTRODUCTION TO _THE PRISONER OF CHILLON_.

The _Prisoner of Chillon_, says Moore (_Life_, p. 320), was written at
Ouchy, near Lausanne, where Byron and Shelley "were detained two days in
a small inn [Hotel de l'Ancre, now d'Angleterre] by the weather."
Byron's letter to Murray, dated June 27 (but? 28), 1816, does not
precisely tally with Shelley's journal contained in a letter to Peacock,
July 12, 1816 (_Prose Works of P. B. Shelley_, 1880, ii. 171, _sq._);
but, if Shelley's first date, June 23, is correct, it follows that the
two poets visited the Castle of Chillon on Wednesday, June 26, reached
Ouchy on Thursday, June 27, and began their homeward voyage on Saturday,
June 29 (Shelley misdates it June 30). On this reckoning the _Prisoner
of Chillon_ was begun and finished between Thursday, June 27, and
Saturday, June 29, 1816. Whenever or wherever begun, it was completed by
July 10 (see _Memoir of John Murray_, 1891, i. 364), and was ready for
transmission to England by July 25. The MS., in Claire's handwriting,
was placed in Murray's hands on October 11, and the poem, with seven
others, was published December 5, 1816.

In a final note to the _Prisoner of Chillon_ (First Edition, 1816, p.
59), Byron confesses that when "the foregoing poem was composed he knew
too little of the history of Bonnivard to do justice to his courage and
virtues," and appends as a note to the "Sonnet on Chillon," "some
account of his life ... furnished by the kindness of a citizen of that
Republic," i.e. Geneva. The note, which is now entitled "Advertisement,"
is taken bodily from the pages of a work published in 1786 by the Swiss
naturalist, Jean Senebier, who died in 1809. It was not Byron's way to
invent imaginary authorities, but rather to give his references with
some pride and particularity, and it is possible that this
unacknowledged and hitherto unverified "account" was supplied by some
literary acquaintance, who failed to explain that his information was
common property. Be that as it may, Senebier's prose is in some respects
as unhistorical as Byron's verse, and stands in need of some corrections
and additions.

Francois Bonivard (there is no contemporary authority for "Bonnivard")
was born in 1493. In early youth (1510) he became by inheritance Prior
of St. Victor, a monastery outside the walls of Geneva, and on reaching
manhood (1514) he accepted the office and the benefice, "la dignite
ecclesiastique de Prieur et de la Seigneurie temporelle de St. Victor."
A lover of independence, a child of the later Renaissance, in a word, a
Genevese, he threw in his lot with a band of ardent reformers and
patriots, who were conspiring to shake off the yoke of Duke Charles III.
of Savoy, and convert the city into a republic. Here is his own
testimony: "Des que j'eus commence de lire l'histoire des nations, je me
sentis entraine par un gout prononce pour les Republiques dont j'epousai
toujours les interets." Hence, in a great measure, the unrelenting
enmity of the duke, who not only ousted him from his priory, but caused
him to be shut up for two years at Grolee, Gex, and Belley, and again,
after he had been liberated on a second occasion, ordered him, a safe
conduct notwithstanding, to be seized and confined in the Castle of
Chillon. Here he remained from 1530 to February 1, 1536, when he was
released by the Bernese.

For the first two years he was lodged in a room near the governor's
quarters, and was fairly comfortable; but a day came when the duke paid
a visit to Chillon; and "then," he writes, "the captain thrust me into a
cell lower than the lake, where I lived four years. I know not whether
he did it by the duke's orders or of his own accord; but sure it is that
I had so much leisure for walking, that I wore in the rock which was the
pavement a track or little path, as it had been made with a hammer"
(_Chroniques des Ligues_ de Stumpf, addition de Bonivard).

After he had been liberated, "par la grace de Dieu donnee a Mess^rs^ de
Berne," he returned to Geneva, and was made a member of the Council of
the State, and awarded a house and a pension of two hundred crowns a
year. A long life was before him, which he proceeded to spend in
characteristic fashion, finely and honourably as scholar, author, and
reformer, but with little self-regard or self-respect as a private
citizen. He was married no less than four times, and not one of these
alliances was altogether satisfactory or creditable. Determined "to warm
both hands before the fire of life," he was prone to ignore the
prejudices and even the decencies of his fellow-citizens, now incurring
their displeasure, and now again, as one who had greatly testified for
truth and freedom, being taken back into favour and forgiven. There was
a deal of human nature in Bonivard, with the result that, at times,
conduct fell short of pretension and principle. Estimates of his
character differ widely. From the standpoint of Catholic orthodoxy,
"C'etait un fort mauvais sujet et un plus mauvais pretre;" and even his
captivity, infamous as it was, "ne peut rendre Bonivard interessant"
(_Notices Genealogiques sur les Famillies Genevoises_, par J. A.
Galiffe, 1836, iii. 67, sq.); whilst an advocate and champion, the
author of the _Preface_ to _Les Chroniques de Geneve_ par Francois de
Bonnivard, 1831, tom. i. pt. i. p. xli., avows that "aucun homme n'a
fait preuve d'un plus beau caractere, d'un plus parfait desinteressement
que l'illustre Prieur de St. Victor." Like other great men, he may have
been guilty of "quelques egaremens du coeur, quelques concessions
passageres aux devices des sens," but "Peu importe a la posterite les
irregularites de leur vie privee" (p. xlviii.).

But whatever may be the final verdict with regard to the morals, there
can be no question as to the intellectual powers of the "Prisoner of
Chillon." The publication of various MS. tracts, e.g. _Advis et Devis de
l'ancienne et nouvelle Police de Geneve_, 1865; _Advis et Devis des
Lengnes_, etc., 1865, which were edited by the late J. J. Chaponniere,
and, after his death, by M. Gustave Revilliod, has placed his reputation
as historian, satirist, philosopher, beyond doubt or cavil. One
quotation must suffice. He is contrasting the Protestants with the
Catholics (_Advis et Devis de la Source de Lidolatrie_, Geneva, 1856, p.
159): "Et nous disons que les prebstres rongent les mortz et est vray;
mais nous faisons bien pys, car nous rongeons les vifz. Quel profit
revient aux paveures du dommage des prebstres? Nous nous ventons touttes
les deux parties de prescher Christ cruciffie et disons vray, car nous
le laissons cruciffie et nud en l'arbre de la croix, et jouons a beaux
dez au pied dicelle croix, pour scavoir qui haura sa robe."

For Bonivard's account of his second imprisonment, see _Les Chroniques
de Geneve_, tom. ii. part ii. pp. 571-577; see, too, _Notice sur
Francois Bonivard_, ...par Le Docteur J. J. Chaponniere, Memoires et
Documents Publies, par La Societe d'Histoire, etc., de Geneve, 1845, iv.
137-245; _Chillon Etude Historique_, par L. Vulliemin, Lausanne, 1851;
_Revue des Deux Mondes_, Seconde Periode, vol. 82, Aout, 1869, pp.
682-709; "True Story of the Prisoner of Chillon," _Nineteenth Century_,
May, 1900, No. 279, pp. 821-829, by A. van Amstel (Johannes Christiaan
Neuman).

_The Prisoner of Chillon_ was reviewed (together with the Third Canto of
_Childe Harold_) by Sir Walter Scott (_Quarterly Review_, No. xxxi.,
October, 1816), and by Jeffrey (_Edinburgh Review_, No. liv., December,
1816).

With the exception of the _Eclectic_ (March, 1817, N.S., vol. vii. pp.
298-304), the lesser reviews were unfavourable. For instance, the
_Critical Review_ (December, 1816, Series V. vol. iv. pp. 567-581)
detected the direct but unacknowledged influence of Wordsworth on
thought and style; and the _Portfolio_ (No. vi. pp. 121-128), in an
elaborate skit, entitled "Literary Frauds," assumed, and affected to
prove, that the entire poem was a forgery, and belonged to the same
category as _The Right Honourable Lord Byron's Pilgrimage to the Holy
Land, etc._

For extracts from these and other reviews, see Koelbing, _Prisoner of
Chillon, and Other Poems_, Weimar, 1896, excursus i. pp. 3-55.

SONNET ON CHILLON

Eternal Spirit of the chainless Mind![1]
Brightest in dungeons, Liberty! thou art:
For there thy habitation is the heart--
The heart which love of thee alone can bind;
And when thy sons to fetters are consigned--
To fetters, and the damp vault's dayless gloom,
Their country conquers with their martyrdom,
And Freedom's fame finds wings on every wind.
Chillon! thy prison is a holy place,
And thy sad floor an altar--for 'twas trod,
Until his very steps have left a trace
Worn, as if thy cold pavement were a sod,
By Bonnivard!--May none those marks efface!
For they appeal from tyranny to God.[2]