The Works of Lord Byron, Volume 4

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[ew] {428}_That thus you dare assume a brigand's power._--[Alternative
reading. MS. M.]

[ex] ----_storm-clock._--[Alternative reading. MS. M.]

[447] [Byron may have had in his mind the "bell or clocke" (see _var._
ii.) in Southey's ballad of _The Inchcape Rock_.

"On a buoy in the storm it floated and swung,
And over the waves its warning rung."]

[ey] _Or met some unforeseen and fatal obstacle._--[Alternative reading.
MS. M.]

[448] {430}[A translation of _Beltramo Bergamasco_, i.e. a native of the
town and province of Bergamo, in the north of Italy. Compare "Comasco."
Harlequin ... was a Bergamasc, and the personification of the manners,
accent, and jargon of the inhabitants of the Val Brembana.--_Handbook:
Northern Italy_, p. 240.]

[ez] {431}_While Manlius, who hurled back the Gauls_----.--[Alternative
reading. MS. M.]

[fa] _The Grand Chancellor of the Ten_.--[MS. M. erased.]

[449] ["In the notes to _Marino Faliero_, it may be as well to say that
'_Benintende_' was not really of _the ten_, but merely _Grand
Chancellor_--a separate office, though an important one: it was an
arbitrary alteration of mine."--Letter to Murray, October 12, 1820.

Byron's correction was based on a chronicle cited by Sanudo, which is
responsible for the statement that Beneintendi de Ravignani presided as
Grand Chancellor at the Doge's trial, and took down his examination. As
a matter of fact, Beneintendi was at Milan, not at Venice, when the
trial took place. The "college" which conducted the examination of the
Doge consisted of Giovanni Mocenigo, Councillor; Giovanni Marcello,
Chief of the Ten; Luga da Lezze, "Inquisitore;" and Orio Pasqualigo,
"Avogadore."--_La Congiura_, p. 104(2).]

[450] "Giovedi grasso,"--"fat or greasy Thursday,"--which I cannot
literally translate in the text, was the day.

[451] {435}Historical fact. See Sanuto, Appendix, Note A [_vide post_,
p. 466].

[452] {436}["I know what Foscolo means about Calendaro's _spitting_ at
Bertram: _that's_ national--the _objection_, I mean. The Italians and
French, with those 'flags of Abomination,' their pocket handkerchiefs,
spit there, and here, and every where else--in your face almost, and
therefore _object_ to it on the Stage as _too familiar_. But we who
_spit_ nowhere--but in a man's face when we grow savage--are not likely
to feel this. Remember _Massinger_, and Kean's Sir Giles Overreach--

'Lord! _thus_ I _spit_ at thee and thy Counsel!'"

Letter to Murray, October 8, 1820, _Letters_, v. 1901, 89.

"Sir Giles Overreach" says to "Lord Lovel," in _A New Way to Pay Old
Debts_, act v. sc. 1, "Lord! thus I spit at thee, and at thy counsel."
Compare, too--

"You call me misbeliever, cut-throat dog,
And spit upon my Jewish gaberdine."

_Merchant of Venice_, act i. sc. 3, lines 106, 107.]

[fd] {437}_It is impending_----.--[Alternative reading. MS. M.]

[453] {438}["Is [Solon] cum interrogaretur, cur nullum supplicium
constituisset in eum qui parentem necasset, respondit se id neminem
facturum putasse."--Cicero, _Pro Sext. Roscio Amerino_, cap, 25.]

[454] ["Signory" is used loosely to denote the State or Government of
Venice, not the "_collegio_" or "_Signoria Serenissima_."]

[455] [This statement is strictly historical. On the death of Andrea
Dandolo (September 7, 1334) the _Maggior Consiglio_ appointed a
commission of five "savi" to correct and modify the "promissione," or
ducal oath. The alterations which the commissioners suggested were
designed to prevent the Doge from acting on his own initiative in
matters of foreign policy.--_La Congiura_, pp. 30, 31.]

[456] {440}[Gelo is quoted as the type of a successful and beneficent
tyrant held in honour by all posterity; Thrasybulus as a consistent
advocate and successful champion of democracy.]

[457] [The lines from "I would have stood ... while living" are not in
the MS.]

[fe] _There were no other ways for truth to pierce them_.--[Alternative
reading. MS. M.]

[ff] {441}_The torture for the exposure of the truth_.--[Alternative
reading. MS. M.]

[fg]

/ _Doge Faliero's consort_. \
_Noble Venetians!_ < >--[MS. M. erased.]
\ _with respect the Duchess_. /

[458] The Venetian senate took the same title as the Roman, of
"conscript fathers." [It was not, however, the Senate, the _Pregadi_,
but the _Consiglio dei Dieci_, supplemented by the _Zonta_ of Twenty,
which tried and condemned the Doge.]

[fh] {443}_He hath already granted his own guilt_.--[Alternative
reading. MS. M.]

[fi] _He is a Sovereign and hath swayed the state_.--[Alternative
reading. MS. M.]

[459] {445}[The accepted spelling is "aerie." The word is said to be
derived from the Latin _atrium_. The form _eyry_, or _eyrie_, was
introduced by Spelman (_Gl_. 1664) to countenance an erroneous
derivation from the Saxon _eghe_, an egg. _N. Eng. Dict._, art.
"aerie."]

[fj] _Of his high aiery_----.--[Alternative reading. MS. M.]

[460] [_Vide_ Suetonius, _De XII. Caesaribus_, lib. iv. cap. 56, ed.
1691, p. 427. Angiolina might surely have omitted this particular
instance of the avenging vigilance of "Great Nemesis."]

[461] {446}[The story is told in Plutarch's _Alexander_, cap. 38.
Compare--

"And the king seized a flambeau with zeal to destroy;
Thais led the way,
To light him to his prey,
And like another Helen, fired another Troy."

Dryden's _Alexanders Feast_, vi. lines 25-28.]

[462] [Byron's imagination was prone to dwell on the "earthworm's slimy
brood." Compare _Childe Harold_, Canto II. stanzas v., vi. Dallas
(_Recollections of Lord Byron_, 1824, p. 124) once ventured to remind
his noble connection "that although our senses make us acquainted with
the chemical decomposition of our bodies," there were other and more
hopeful considerations to be entertained. But Byron was obdurate, "and
the worms crept in and the worms crept out" as unpleasantly as
heretofore.]

[fk] ----_you call your duty_.--[Alternative reading. MS. M.]

[fl] {447} ----_never heard of_.--[Alternative reading. MS. M.]

[fm] _For this almost_----.--[MS. M.]

[463] ["Hic est locus Marini Falethri, decapitati pro criminibus." Even
more impressive is the significant omission of the minutes of the trial
from the pages of the State Register. "The fourth volume of the _Misti
Consiglio X_. contains its decrees in the year 1355. On Friday, the 17th
April in that year, Marin Falier was beheaded. In the usual course, the
minutes of the trial should have been entered on the thirty-third page
of that volume; but in their stead we find a blank space, and the words
'[=N] S[=C]BATUR:' 'Be it not written.'"--_Calendar of State Papers_ ...
in Venice, Preface by Rawdon Brown, 1864, i. xvii.]

[464] [Lines 500-507 were forwarded in a letter to Murray, dated Marzo,
1821 (_Letters_, 1901, v. 261). According to Moore's footnote, "These
lines--perhaps from some difficulty in introducing them--were never
inserted in the Tragedy." It is true that in some copies of the first
edition of _Marino Faliero_ (1821, p. 151) these lines do not appear;
but in other copies of the first edition, in the second and other
editions, they occur in their place. It is strange that Moore, writing
in 1830, did not note the almost immediate insertion of these remarkable
lines.]

[465] {448}[The Council of Ten decided that the possessions of Faliero
should be confiscated; but the "Signoria," as an act of grace, and _ob
ducatus reverentiam_, allowed him to dispose of 2000 "lire dei grossi"
of his own. The same day, April 17, the Doge dictated his will to the
notary Piero de Compostelli, leaving the 2000 lire to his wife
Aluica.--_La Congiura_, p. 105.]

[fn] {449}_Of the house of Rizzando Caminese_.--[MS. M.]

[fo] _Have I aught else to undergo ere Death?_--[Alternative reading.
MS. M.]

[466] {450}[The story as related by Sanudo is of doubtful authenticity,
_vide ante_, p. 332, note 1.]

[fp] {451}_Until he rolled beneath_----.--[Alternative reading. MS. M.]

[fq] _A madness of the heart shall rise within_.--[Alternative reading.
MS. M.]

[467] [Compare--

"I pull in resolution."

_Macbeth_, act v. sc. 5, line 42.]

[468] {452}[See the translation of Sanudo's narrative in Appendix, p.
463.]

[fr]

----_whom I know_
_To be as worthless as the dust they trample_.--[MS. M. erased.]

[fs] {453}_With unimpaired but not outrageous grief_.--[Alternative
reading, MS. M.]

[469] {454}[An anachronism, _vide ante_, p. 336.]

[ft] _I am glad to be so_----.--[Alternative reading. MS. M.]

[470] This was the actual reply of Bailli, maire of Paris, to a
Frenchman who made him the same reproach on his way to execution, in the
earliest part of their revolution. I find in reading over (since the
completion of this tragedy), for the first time these six years, "Venice
Preserved," a similar reply on a different occasion by Renault, and
other coincidences arising from the subject. I need hardly remind the
gentlest reader, that such coincidences must be accidental, from the
very facility of their detection by reference to so popular a play on
the stage and in the closet as Otway's chef-d'oeuvre.

["Still crueller was the fate of poor Bailly [Jean Sylvani, born
September 17, 1736], First National President, First Mayor of Paris....
It is the 10th of November, 1793, a cold bitter drizzling rain, as poor
Bailly is led through the streets.... Silent, unpitied, sits the
innocent old man.... The Guillotine is taken down ... is carried to the
riverside; is there set up again, with slow numbness; pulse after pulse
still counting itself out in the old man's weary heart. For hours long;
amid curses and bitter frost-rain! 'Bailly, thou tremblest,' said one.
'_Mon ami_, it is for cold,' said Bailly, '_C'est de froid_.' Crueller
end had no mortal."--Carlyle's _French Revolution_, 1839, iii. 264.]

[fu] {455}_Who makest and destroyest suns!_--[MS. M. Vide letter of
February 2, 1821.]

[471] {456}[In his reply to the envoys of the Venetian Senate (April,
1797), Buonaparte threatened to "prove an Attila to Venice. If you
cannot," he added, "disarm your population, I will do it in your
stead--your government is antiquated--it must crumble to
pieces."--Scott's _Life of Napoleon Bonaparte_, 1828, p. 230. Compare,
too, _Childe Harold_, Canto IV. stanza xc. lines 1, 2--

"The fool of false dominion--and a kind
Of bastard Caesar," etc.]

[472] Should the dramatic picture seem harsh, let the reader look to the
historical of the period prophesied, or rather of the few years
preceding that period. Voltaire calculated their "nostre bene merite
Meretrici" at 12,000 of regulars, without including volunteers and local
militia, on what authority I know not; but it is, perhaps, the only part
of the population not decreased. Venice once contained two hundred
thousand inhabitants: there are now about ninety thousand; and THESE!!
few individuals can conceive, and none could describe, the actual state
into which the more than infernal tyranny of Austria has plunged this
unhappy city. From the present decay and degeneracy of Venice under the
Barbarians, there are some honourable individual exceptions. There is
Pasqualigo, the last, and, alas! _posthumous_ son of the marriage of the
Doges with the Adriatic, who fought his frigate with far greater
gallantry than any of his French coadjutors in the memorable action off
Lissa. I came home in the squadron with the prizes in 1811, and
recollect to have heard Sir William Hoste, and the other officers
engaged in that glorious conflict, speak in the highest terms of
Pasqualigo's behaviour. There is the Abbate Morelli. There is Alvise
Querini, who, after a long and honourable diplomatic career, finds some
consolation for the wrongs of his country, in the pursuits of literature
with his nephew, Vittor Benzon, the son of the celebrated beauty, the
heroine of "La Biondina in Gondoleta." There are the patrician poet
Morosini, and the poet Lamberti, the author of the "Biondina," etc., and
many other estimable productions; and, not least in an Englishman's
estimation, Madame Michelli, the translator of Shakspeare. There are the
young Dandolo and the improvvisatore Carrer, and Giuseppe Albrizzi, the
accomplished son of an accomplished mother. There is Aglietti, and were
there nothing else, there is the immortality of Canova. Cicognara,
Mustoxithi, Bucati, etc., etc., I do not reckon, because the one is a
Greek, and the others were born at least a hundred miles off, which,
throughout Italy, constitutes, if not a _foreigner_, at least a
_stranger_ (_forestiere_).

[This note is not in the MS. The first eight lines were included among
the notes, and the remainder formed part of the Appendix in all editions
1821-1831.

Nicolo Pasqualigo (1770-1821) received the command of a ship in the
Austrian Navy in 1800, and in 1805 was appointed Director of the Arsenal
of Venice. He took part in both the Lissa expeditions, and was made
prisoner after a prolonged resistance, March 13, 1811. (See _Personaggi
illustri delta Veneta patrizia gente_, by E. A. Cicogna, 1822, p. 33.
See, too, for Lissa, _Poetical Works_, 1900, iii. 25, note 3.)

The Abate Jacopo Morelli (1745-1819), known as _Principe dei
Bibliotecarj_, became custodian of the Marciana Library in 1778, and
devoted the whole of his long and laborious life to the service of
literature. (For a list of his works, etc., see Tipaldo's _Biografia,
etc._, 1835, ii. 481. See, too, _Elogio di Jacopo Morelli_, by A.
Zendrini, Milano, 1822.)

Alvisi Querini, brother to Marina Querini Benzon, published in 1759 a
poem entitled _L'Ammiraglio dell' Indie_. He wrote under a pseudonym,
Ormildo Emeressio.

Vittore Benzon (d. 1822), whose mother, Marina, was celebrated by Anton
Maria Lamberti (1757-1832) as _La biondina in gondoleta (Poesie_, 1817,
i. 20), was the author of _Nella_, a love-poem, abounding in political
allusions. (See Tipaldo, v. 122, and _Isabella Teotochi Albrizzi, I Suoi
amici_, by V. Malamani, 1882, pp. 119, 136.)

II Conte Domenico Morosini (see _Letters_, Venezia, 1829) was the author
of two tragedies, _Medea in Corinto_ and _Giulio Sabino_, published in
1806.

Giustina Renier Michiel (1755-1832) was niece to the last Doge, Lodovico
Manin. Her _salon_ was the centre of a brilliant circle of friends,
including such names as Pindemonte, Foscolo, and Cesarotti. Her
translation of _Othello_, _Macbeth_, and _Coriolanus_ formed part of the
_Opere Drammatiche di Shakspeare_, published in Venice in 1797. Her
work, _Origine delle Feste Veneziane_, was published at Milan in 1829.
(See _G. R. Michiel, Archivio Veneto_, tom. xxxviii. 1889.)

Luigi Carrer (1801-1856) began life as a lawyer, but afterwards devoted
himself to poetry and literature. He was secretary of the Venetian
Institute in 1842, and, later, Director of the Carrer Museum. (See Gio.
Crespan, _Della vita e delle lettere di Luigi Carrer_, 1869.)

For Giuseppino Albrizzi (1800-1860), and for Isabella Teotochi Albrizzi,
Countess Albrizzi (? 1761-1836), see _Letters_, 1900, iv. 14, note 1;
and for Francesco Aglietti (1757-1836), Leopoldo Cicognara (1767-1835),
and Andreas Moustoxudes (1787-1860), see _Poetical Works_, 1899, ii.
324, note 1.

The "younger Dandolo" may be Conte Girolamo Antonio Dandolo, author of
_Sui Quattro Cavalli, etc._, published in 1817, and of _La Caduta della
Repubblica di Venezia_, 1855. By "Bucati" may possibly be meant the
satirist Pietro Buratti (1772-1832). (See _Poesie Veneziane_, by R.
Barbiera, 1886, p. 209.)]

[fv] {457}

/ _lazars_ \
_Beggars for nobles_, < _lepers_ > _for a people_!--[MS. M.]
\ _wretches_ /

[473] The chief palaces on the Brenta now belong to the Jews; who in the
earlier times of the republic were only allowed to inhabit Mestri, and
not to enter the city of Venice. The whole commerce is in the hands of
the Jews and Greeks, and the Huns form the garrison.

[474] {458}[Napoleon was crowned King of Italy, May 3, 1805. Venice was
ceded by Austria, December 26, 1805, and shortly after, Eugene
Beauharnais was appointed Viceroy of Italy, with the title of Prince of
Venice. It is certain that the "Vice-gerent" stands for Beauharnais, but
it is less evident why Byron, doubtless quoting from _Hamlet_, calls
Napoleon the "Vice of Kings." Did he mean a "player-king," one who not
being a king acted the part, as the "vice" in the old moralities; or did
he misunderstand Shakespeare, and seek to depreciate Beauharnais as the
Viceroy of a Viceroy, that is Joseph Bonaparte?]

[fw] _Vice without luxury_----.--[Alternative reading, MS. M.]

[475] [Compare--

"When Vice walks forth with her unsoftened terrors."

_Ode on Venice_, line 34, _vide ante_, p. 194.]

[476] See Appendix, Note C.

[477] {459}If the Doge's prophecy seem remarkable, look to the
following, made by Alamanni two hundred and seventy years ago;--"There
is one very singular prophecy concerning Venice: 'If thou dost not
change,' it says to that proud republic, 'thy liberty, which is already
on the wing, will not reckon a century more than the thousandth year.'
If we carry back the epocha of Venetian freedom to the establishment of
the government under which the republic flourished, we shall find that
the date of the election of the first Doge is 697: and if we add one
century to a thousand, that is, eleven hundred years, we shall find the
sense of the prediction to be literally this: 'Thy liberty will not last
till 1797.' Recollect that Venice ceased to be free in the year 1796,
the fifth year of the French republic; and you will perceive that there
never was prediction more pointed, or more exactly followed by the
event. You will, therefore, note as very remarkable the three lines of
Alamanni addressed to Venice; which, however, no one has pointed out:--

"'Se non cangi pensier, l'un secol solo
Non contera sopra 'l millesimo anno
Tua liberta, che va fuggendo a volo.'

_Sat_., xii. ed. 1531, p. 413.

Many prophecies have passed for such, and many men have been called
prophets for much less."--P. L. Ginguene, _Hist. Lit. d'Italie_, ix. 144
[Paris Edition, 1819].

[478] Of the first fifty Doges, _five_ abdicated--_five_ were banished
with their eyes put out--_five_ were massacred--and _nine_ deposed; so
that _nineteen_ out of fifty lost the throne by violence, besides two
who fell in battle: this occurred long previous to the reign of Marino
Faliero. One of his more immediate predecessors, Andrea Dandolo, died of
vexation. Marino Faliero himself perished as related. Amongst his
successors, _Foscari_, after seeing his son repeatedly tortured and
banished, was deposed, and died of breaking a blood-vessel, on hearing
the bell of Saint Mark's toll for the election of his successor.
Morosini was impeached for the loss of Candia; but this was previous to
his dukedom, during which he conquered the Morea, and was styled the
Peloponnesian. Faliero might truly say,--

"Thou den of drunkards with the blood of princes!"

[fx] _Thou brothel of the waters! thou sea Sodom!_--[Alternative
reading. MS. M.]

[479] [See letters to Webster, September 8, 1818, and to Hoppner,
December 31, 1819, _Letters_, 1900, iv. 255, 393.]

[480] {461} "Un Capo de' Dieci" are the words of Sanuto's Chronicle.

[fy]

_The gory head is rolling down the steps!_
_The head is rolling dawn the gory steps!_--

[Alternative readings. MS. M.]

[481] [A picture in oils of the execution of Marino Faliero, by
Ferdinand Victor Eugene Delacroix (1798-1863), which was exhibited in
the Salon in 1827, is now in the Wallace Collection (_Provisional
Catalogue_, 1900, p. 28).]

[482] [End of the Historical Tragedy of Marino Faliero, or the Doge of
Venice.

Begun April 4th, 1820.

Completed July 16th, 1820.

Finished copying in August 16th, 17th, 1820.

The which copying takes ten times the toil of composing, considering the
weather--_thermometer 90 in the shade_--and my domestic duties.

The motto is--

"Dux inquietae turbidus Adrirae."

Horace.]

APPENDIX.

NOTE A.

I am obliged for the following excellent translation of the old
Chronicle to Mr. F. Cohen,[483] to whom the reader will find himself
indebted for a version that I could not myself--though after many years'
intercourse with Italian--have given by any means so purely and so
faithfully.

Story of Marino Faliero, Doge XLIV. mcccliv.[483a]

On the eleventh day of September, in the year of our Lord, 1354, Marino
Faliero was elected and chosen to be the Duke of the Commonwealth of
Venice. He was Count of Valdemarino, in the Marches of Treviso, and a
Knight, and a wealthy man to boot. As soon as the election was
completed, it was resolved in the Great Council, that a deputation of
twelve should be despatched to Marino Faliero the Duke, who was then on
his way from Rome; for when he was chosen, he was ambassador at the
court of the Holy Father, at Rome,--the Holy Father himself held his
court at Avignon. When Messer Marino Faliero the Duke was about to land
in this city, on the 5th day of October, 1354, a thick haze came on and
darkened the air: and he was enforced to land on the place of Saint
Mark, between the two columns, on the spot where evil doers are put to
death; and all thought that this was the worst of tokens.--Nor must I
forget to write that which I have read in a chronicle.--When Messer
Marino Faliero was Podesta and Captain of Treviso, the Bishop delayed
coming in with the holy sacrament, on a day when a procession was to
take place. Now, the said Marino Faliero was so very proud and wrathful,
that he buffeted the Bishop, and almost struck him to the ground: and,
therefore, Heaven allowed Marino Faliero to go out of his right senses,
in order that he might bring himself to an evil death.

When this Duke had held the dukedom during nine months and six days, he,
being wicked and ambitious, sought to make himself Lord of Venice, in
the manner which I have read in an ancient chronicle. When the Thursday
arrived upon which they were wont to hunt the bull, the bull hunt took
place as usual; and, according to the usage of those times, after the
bull hunt had ended, they all proceeded unto the palace of the Duke, and
assembled together in one of his halls; and they disported themselves
with the women. And until the first bell tolled they danced, and then a
banquet was served up. My Lord the Duke paid the expenses thereof,
provided he had a Duchess, and after the banquet they all returned to
their homes.

Now to this feast there came a certain Ser Michele Steno, a gentleman of
poor estate and very young, but crafty and daring, and who loved one of
the damsels of the Duchess. Ser Michele stood amongst the women upon the
solajo; and he behaved indiscreetly, so that my Lord the Duke ordered
that he should be kicked off the solajo [i.e. platform]; and the
esquires of the Duke flung him down from the solajo accordingly. Ser
Michele thought that such an affront was beyond all bearing; and when
the feast was over, and all other persons had left the palace, he,
continuing heated with anger, went to the hall of audience, and wrote
certain unseemly words relating to the Duke and the Duchess upon the
chair in which the Duke was used to sit; for in those days the Duke did
not cover his chair with cloth of sendal, but he sat in a chair of wood.
Ser Michele wrote thereon--"_Marin Falier, the husband of the fair wife;
others kiss her, but he keeps her._"[484] In the morning the words were
seen, and the matter was considered to be very scandalous; and the
Senate commanded the Avogadori of the Commonwealth to proceed therein
with the greatest diligence. A largess of great amount was immediately
proffered by the Avogadori, in order to discover who had written these
words. And at length it was known that Michele Steno had written them.
It was resolved in the Council of Forty that he should be arrested; and
he then confessed that in the fit of vexation and spite, occasioned by
his being thrust off the solajo in the presence of his mistress, he had
written the words. Therefore the Council debated thereon. And the
Council took his youth into consideration, and that he was a lover; and
therefore they adjudged that he should be kept in close confinement
during two months, and that afterwards he should be banished from Venice
and the state during one year. In consequence of this merciful sentence
the Duke became exceedingly wroth, it appearing to him, that the Council
had not acted in such a manner as was required by the respect due to his
ducal dignity; and he said that they ought to have condemned Ser Michele
to be hanged by the neck, or at least to be banished for life.