9. "And now I'm in the world alone, But why should I for others groan, But long ere I come back again, 10. "With thee, my bark, I'll swiftly go Nor care what land thou bear'st me to, Welcome, welcome, ye dark-blue waves! Welcome, ye deserts, and ye caves! (1) [Here follows in the original MS. : "Methinks it would my bosom glad, To change my proud estate, And be again a laughing lad With one beloved playmate. Since youth I scarce have pass'd an hour Except sometimes in Lady's bower, (2) [Originally, the "little page" and the " in the following stanzas: yeoman " were introduced "And of his train there was a henchman page, XIV. On, on the vessel flies, the land is gone, And soon on board the Lusian pilots leap, [reap. And steer 'twixt fertile shores where yet few rustics XV. Oh, Christ! it is a goodly sight to see What Heaven hath done for this delicious land! What fruits of fragrance blush on every tree! What goodly prospects o'er the hills expand! But man would mar them with an impious hand: And when the Almighty lifts his fiercest scourge 'Gainst those who most transgress his high command, With treble vengeance will his hot shafts urge Gaul's locust host, and earth from fellest foemen purge. Then would he smile on him, and Alwin smiled, Him and one yeoman only did he take To travel eastward to a far countrie; And, though the boy was grieved to leave the lake On whose fair banks he grew from infancy, Eftsoons his little heart beat merrily With hope of foreign nations to behold, And many things right marvellous to see, Of which our vaunting voyagers oft have told, In many a tome as true as Mandeville's of old."-E.] XVI. What beauties doth Lisboa (1) first unfold! Who lick yet loathe the hand that waves the sword To save them from the wrath of Gaul's unsparing lord. (2) XVII. But whoso entereth within this town, That, sheening far, celestial seems to be, Disconsolate will wander up and down, 'Mid many things unsightly to strange ee; For hut and palace show like filthily: The dingy denizens are rear'd in dirt; Ne personage of high or mean degree Doth care for cleanness of surtout or shirt, Though shent with Egypt's plague, unkempt, unwash'd; unhurt. (1) [“ A friend advises Ulissipont; but Lisboa is the Portuguese word, consequently the best. Ulissipont is pedantic; and as I had lugged in Hellus and Eros not long before, there would have been something like an affectation of Greek terms, which I wished to avoid. On the submission of Lusitania to the Moors, they changed the name of the capital, which till then had been Ulisipo, or Lispo ; because, in the Arabic alphabet, the letter p is not used. Hence, I believe, Lisboa; whence, again, the French Lisbonne, and our Lisbon,-God knows which the earlier corruption!" Byron, MS.] (2) [By comparing this and the thirteen following stanzas with the account of his progress which Lord Byron sent home to his mother, the reader will see that they are the exact echoes of the thoughts which occurred to his mind as he went over the spots described. See the Notices of Lord Byron's Life, vol. i. p. 280.-E.] XVIII. Poor, paltry slaves! yet born 'midst noblest scenesWhy, Nature, waste thy wonders on such men? Lo! Cintra's (1) glorious Eden intervenes In variegated maze of mount and glen. Ah, me! what hand can pencil guide, or pen, To follow half on which the eye dilates Through views more dazzling unto mortal ken Than those whereof such things the bard relates, Who to the awe-struck world unlock'd Elysium's gates ? XIX. The horrid crags, by toppling convent crown'd, The vine on high, the willow branch below, Mix'd in one mighty scene, with varied beauty glow. (1) ["To make amends for the filthiness of Lisbon, and its still filthier inhabitants, the village of Cintra, about fifteen miles from the capital, is, perhaps, in every respect, the most delightful in Europe. It contains beauties of every description, natural and artificial: palaces and gardens rising in the midst of rocks, cataracts, and precipices; convents on stupendous heights; a distant view of the sea and the Tagus; and, besides (though that is a secondary consideration), is remarkable as the scene of Sir Hew Dalrymple's convention. It unites in itself all the wildness of the western Highlands, with the verdure of the south of France."B. to Mrs. Byron, 1809.-E.] XX. Then slowly climb the many-winding way, And frequent turn to linger as you go, From loftier rocks new loveliness survey, And rest ye at " Our Lady's house of woe;" (1) Where frugal monks their little relics show, And sundry legends to the stranger tell: Here impious men have punish'd been, and lo! Deep in yon cave Honorius long did dwell, In hope to merit Heaven by making earth a Hell. XXI. And here and there, as up the crags you spring, Mark many rude-carved crosses near the path : Yet deem not these devotion's offering These are memorials frail of murderous wrath: For wheresoe'er the shrieking victim hath Pour'd forth his blood beneath the assassin's knife, Some hand erects a cross of mouldering lath; And grove and glen with thousand such are rife Throughout this purple land, where law secures not life. (2) (1) The convent of " Our Lady of Punishment," Nossa Señora de Pena, on the summit of the rock. Below, at some distance, is the Cork Convent, where St. Honorius dug his den, over which is his epitaph. From the hills, the sea adds to the beauty of the view.-[Since the publication of this poem, I have been informed of the misapprehension of the term Nossa Señora de Pena. It was owing to the want of the tilde, or mark over the s, which alters the signification of the word: with it, Peña signifies a rock; without it, Pena has the sense I adopted. I do not think it necessary to alter the passage; as though the common acceptation affixed to it is "Our Lady of the Rock," I may well assume the other sense from the severities practised there. Note to 2d Edition.] (2) It is a well known fact, that in the year 1809, the assassinations in the streets of Lisbon and its vicinity were not confined by the Portuguese to their countrymen; but that Englishmen were daily butchered: and so far |