LXXII.

Horribly beautiful! but on the verge,
From side to side, beneath the glittering morn,
An Iris sits, amidst the infernal surge,
Like Hope upon a death-bed, and, unworn
Its steady dyes, while all around is torn
By the distracted waters, bears serene

Its brilliant hues with all their beams unshorn:
Resembling, 'mid the torture of the scene,
Love watching Madness with unalterable mien.
LXXIII.

Once more upon the woody Apennine, The infant Alps, which had I not before Gazed on their mightier parents, where the pine Sits on more shaggy summits, and where roar 2 The thundering lauwine-might be worshipp'd But I have seen the soaring Jungfrau rear [more; Her never-trodden snow, and seen the hoar Glaciers of bleak Mont Blanc both far and near, And in Chimari heard the thunder-hills of fear, LXXIV.

Th' Acroceraunian mountains of old name; And on Parnassus seen the eagles fly Like spirits of the spot, as 't were for fame, For still they soar'd unutterably high: I've look'd on Ida with a Trojan's eye; Athos, Olympus, Etna, Atlas, made These hills seem things of lesser dignity, All, save the lone Soracte's height, display'd Not now in snow, which asks the lyric Roman's aid

LXXV.

For our remembrance, and from out the plain
Heaves like a long-swept wave about to break,
And on the curl hangs pausing: not in vain
May he, who will, his recollections rake,
And quote in classic raptures, and awake
The hills with Latian echoes; I abhorr'd

Too much, to conquer for the poet's sake,
The drill'd dull lesson, forced down word by word 3
In my repugnant youth, with pleasure to record

1 of the time, place, and qualities of this kind of iris, the reader will see a short account, in a note to Manfred. The fall looks so much like "the hell of waters," that Addison thought the descent alluded to by the gulf in which Alecto plunged into the infernal regions. It is singular enough, that two of the finest cascades in Europe should be artificialthis of the Velino, and the one at Tivoli. The traveller is strongly recommended to trace the Velino, at least as high as the little lake, called Pie' di Lup. The Reatine territory was the Italian Tempe (Cicer. Epist. ad Attic. xv. lib. iv.), and the ancient naturalists (Plin. Hist. Nat. lib. ii. cap. Ixii.), amongst other beautiful varieties, remarked the daily rain. bows of the lake Velinus. A scholar of great name has devoted a treatise to this district alone. See Ald. Manut. de Reatina Urbe Agroque, ap. Sallengre, Thesaur. tom. i. p. 773. 2 In the greater part of Switzerland, the avalanches are known by the name of lauwine.

3 These stanzas may probably remind the reader of Ensign Northerton's remarks: “D-n Homo," &c. ; but the reasons for our dislike are not exactly the same. I wish to express, that we become tired of the task before we can comprehend the beauty; that we learn by rote before we can get by heart; that the freshness is worn away, and the future pleasure and advantage deadened and destroyed, by the didactic anticipation, at an age when we can neither feel nor understand the power of compositions which it requires an acquaintance with life, as well as Latin and Greek, to relish, or to reason upon. For the same reason, we never can be aware of the fulness of some of the finest passages of Shakspeare ("To be, or not to be," for instance), from the habit of having them hammered into us at eight years old, as an exercise, not of mind, but of memory: so that when we are old enough to enjoy them, the taste is gone, and the appetite palled. In some parts of the continent, young persons are taught from more common authors, and do not read the best classics till their

maturity. I certainly do not speak on this point from any pique or aversion towards the place of my education. I was not a slow, though an idle boy; and I believe no one could, or can be, more attached to Harrow than I have always been, and with reason; a part of the time passed there was the happiest of my life; and my preceptor, the Rev. Dr. Joseph Drury, was the best and worthiest friend I ever possessed, whose warnings I have remembered but too well, though too late when I have erred, and whose counsels I have but followed when I have done well or wisely. If ever this im perfect record of my feelings towards him should reach his eyes, let it remind him of one who never thinks of him but with gratitude and veneration of one who would more gladly boast of having been his pupil, if, by more closely following his injunctions, he could reflect any honour upon his instructor.

4 [Lord Byron's prepossession against Horace is not without a parallel. It was not till released from the duty of reading Virgil as a task, that Gray could feel himself capable of enjoying the beauties of that poet. MOORE.]

["I have been some days in Rome the Wonderful. I am delighted with Rome. As a whole- ancient and modern,it beats Greece, Constantinople, every thing at least that I have ever seen. But I can't describe, because my first impressions are always strong and confused, and my memory selects and reduces them to order, like distance in the landscape, and blends them better, although they may be less distinct. I have been on horseback most of the day, all days since my arrival. I have been to Albano, its lakes, and to the top of the Alban Mount, and to Frescati, Aricia, &c. As for the Coliseum, Pantheon, St. Peter's, the Vatican, Palatine, &c. &c. they are quite inconceivable, and must be seen.". Byron Letters, May, 1817.]

6 For a comment on this and the two following stanzas, the reader may consult "Historical Illustrations," p. 46.

The dictatorial wreath 2,- couldst thou divine
To what would one day dwindle that which made
Thee more than mortal? and that so supine

By aught than Romans Rome should thus be laid?
She who was named Eternal, and array'd
Her warriors but to conquer she who veil'd
Earth with her haughty shadow, and display'd,
Until the o'er-canopied horizon fail'd,

Her rushing wings-Oh! she who was Almighty

hail'd!

Orosius gives 320 for the number of triumphs. He is lowed by Panvinius; and Panvinius by Mr. Gibbon and the modern writers.

Certainly, were it not for these two traits in the life of Srila, alluded to in this stanza, we should regard him as a monster unredeemed by any admirable quality. The atone. ment of his voluntary resignation of empire may perhaps be accepted by us, as it seems to have satisfied the Romans, who they had not respected must have destroyed him. There could be no mean, no division of opinion; they must have all thought, like Bucrates, that what had appeared ambition was a love of glory, and that what had been mistaken for pride was a real grandeur of soul.- ["Seigneur, vous changez

Thou dost ; but all thy foster-babes are dead
The men of iron: and the world hath rear'd
Cities from out their sepulchres: men bled
In imitation of the things they fear'd,
And fought and conquer'd, and the same course
At apish distance; but as yet none have,
Nor could, the same supremacy have near'd,
Save one vain man, who is not in the grave,

But, vanquish'd by himself, to his own slaves a slave

toutes mes idées de la façon dont je vous vois agir. Je croyais que vous aviez de l'ambition, mais aucune amour pour la gloire je voyais bien que votre âme était haute; mais je ne soupçonnais pas qu'elle fut grande.” — Dialogues de Sylla et d'Eucrate.]

3 On the 3d of September Cromwell gained the victory of Dunbar a year afterwards he obtained "his crowning mercy" of Worcester; and a few years after, on the same day, which he had ever esteemed the most fortunate for him, died.

5 See Appendix, "Historical Notes," Nos. XXIV. XXV.

CI.

Was she as those who love their lords, or they
Who love the lords of others? such have been
Even in the olden time, Rome's annals say.
Was she a matron of Cornelia's mien,
Or the light air of Egypt's graceful queen,
Profuse of joy or 'gainst it did she war
Inveterate in virtue? Did she lean

To the soft side of the heart, or wisely bar

Love from amongst her griefs? -for such the affections are.

CII.

[shed

Perchance she died in youth: it may be, bow'd
With woes far heavier than the ponderous tomb
That weigh'd upon her gentle dust, a cloud
Might gather o'er her beauty, and a gloom
In her dark eye, prophetic of the doom
Heaven gives its favourites - early death; yet
A sunset charm around her, and illume
With hectic light, the Hesperus of the dead,
Of her consuming cheek the autumnal leaf-like red.
СПІ.

Perchance she died in age— surviving all,
Charms, kindred, children- -with the silver gray
On her long tresses, which might yet recall,
It may be, still a something of the day
When they were braided, and her proud array
And lovely form were envied, praised, and eyed
By Rome-But whither would Conjecture stray?
Thus much alone we know -Metella died,

The wealthiest Roman's wife: Behold his love or pride!

CIV.

I know not why-but standing thus by thee
It seems as if I had thine inmate known,
Thon Tomb and other days come back on me
With recollected music, though the tone

Is changed and solemn, like the cloudy groan

Of dying thunder on the distant wind;

Yet could I seat me by this ivied stone
Till I had bodied forth the heated mind

Forms from the floating wreck which Ruin leaves behind;2

CV.

And from the planks, far shatter'd o'er the rocks,
Built me a little bark of hope, once more
To battle with the ocean and the shocks
Of the loud breakers, and the ceaseless roar
Which rushes on the solitary shore

1 *Ον οἱ θεοὶ φιλοῦσιν, ἀποθνήσκει νέος

Το γὰρ θανεῖν οὐκ αἰσχρον, ἀλλ' αἰσχρῶς θανεῖν. Rich. Frane. Phil. Brunck. Poetæ Gnomici, p. 231. ed. 1784. [Four words, and two initials, compose the whole of the inscription which, whatever was its ancient position, is now placed in front of this towering sepulchre: CECILIE. Q. CREC. F. METELLE. CRASSI. It is more likely to have been the pride than the love of Crassus, which raised so superb a memorial to a wife, whose name is not mentioned in history, unless she be supposed to be that lady whose intimacy with Dolabella was so offensive to Tullia, the daughter of Cicero ; or she who was divorced by Lentulus Spinther; or she, perhaps the same person, from whose ear the son of Esopus transferred a precious jewel to enrich his daughter. - HOBHOUSE.]

The Palatine is one mass of ruins, particularly on the side towards the Circus Maximus. The very soil is formed crumbled brickwork. Nothing has been told, nothing can be told, to satisfy the belief of any but a Roman antiquary. See" Historical Illustrations," p. 206.-[" The voice of Marius could not sound more deep and solemn among the rumed arches of Carthage, than the strains of the Pilgrim amid the

broken shrines and fallen statues of her subduer." - SIR WALTER SCOTT.]

4 The author of the Life of Cicero, speaking of the opinion entertained of Britain by that orator and his cotemporary Romans, has the following eloquent passage:-"From their railleries of this kind, on the barbarity and misery of our island, one cannot help reflecting on the surprising fate and revolutions of kingdoms; how Rome, once the mistress of the world, the seat of arts, empire, and glory, now lies sunk in sloth, ignorance, and poverty, enslaved to the most cruel as well as to the most contemptible of tyrants, superstition and religious imposture: while this remote country, anciently the jest and contempt of the polite Romans, is become the happy seat of liberty, plenty, and letters; flourishing in all the arts and refinements of civil life; yet running perhaps the same course which Rome itself had run before it, from virtuous industry to wealth: from wealth to luxury; from luxury to an impatience of discipline, and corruption of morals: till, by a total degeneracy and loss of virtue, being grown ripe for destruction, it fall a prey at last to some hardy oppressor, and, with the loss of liberty, losing every thing that is valuable, sinks gradually again into its original barbarism." (See History of the Life of M. Tullius Cicero, sect. vi. vol. ii. p. 102.)

CX.

Tully was not so eloquent as thou,
Thou nameless column with the buried base!
What are the laurels of the Cæsar's brow?
Crown me with ivy from his dwelling-place.
Whose arch or pillar meets me in the face,
Titus or Trajan's? No-'t is that of Time:
Triumph, arch, pillar, all he doth displace
Scoffing; and apostolic statues climb

To crush the imperial urn, whose ashes slept sublime,

CXI.

Buried in air, the deep blue sky of Rome, And looking to the stars: they had contain'd A spirit which with these would find a home, The last of those who o'er the whole earth reign'd, The Roman globe, for after none sustain'd, But yielded back his conquests :-) he was more Than a mere Alexander, and, unstain'd With household blood and wine, serenely wore His sovereign virtues - still we Trajan's name adore. ?

CXII.

Where is the rock of Triumph, the high place Where Rome embraced her heroes? where the steep

Tarpeian? fittest goal of Treason's race, The promontory whence the Traitor's Leap Cured all ambition. Did the conquerors heap Their spoils here? Yes; and in yon field below, A thousand years of silenced factions sleepThe Forum, where the immortal accents glow, And still the eloquent air breathes-burns with Cicero !

CXIII.

The field of freedom, faction, fame, and blood : Here a proud people's passions were exhaled, From the first hour of empire in the bud To that when further worlds to conquer fail'd; But long before had Freedom's face been veil'd, And Anarchy assumed her attributes; Till every lawless soldier who assail'd Trod on the trembling senate's slavish mutes, Or raised the venal voice of baser prostitutes.

CXIV.

Then turn we to her latest tribune's name,
From her ten thousand tyrants turn to thee,
Redeemer of dark centuries of shame-
The friend of Petrarch-hope of Italy-
Rienzi! last of Romans !3 While the tree
Of freedom's wither'd trunk puts forth a leaf,
Even for thy tomb a garland let it be-

The forum's champion, and the people's chief — Her new-born Numa thou-with reign, alas! too brief.

1 The column of Trajan is surmounted by St. Peter; that of Aurelius by St. Paul. See "Historical Illustrations," p. 214.

3 Trajan was proverbially the best of the Roman princes (Eutrop. 1. viii. c. 5.); and it would be easier to find a sovereign uniting exactly the opposite characteristics, than one possessed of all the happy qualities ascribed to this emperor. When he mounted the throne," says the historian Dion, "he was strong in body, he was vigorous in mind; age had impaired none of his faculties; he was altogether free from envy and from detraction; he honoured all the good, and he advanced them; and on this account they could not be the

objects of his fear, or of his hate; he never listened to informers; he gave not way to his anger; he abstained equally from unfair exactions and unjust punishments; he had rather be loved as a man than honoured as a sovereign; he was affable with his people, respectful to the senate, and universally beloved by both; he inspired none with dread but the enemies of his country."- Hist. Rom. 1. Ixiii. c. 6, 7.

3 The name and exploits of Rienzi must be familiar to the reader of Gibbon. Some details and unedited manuscripts, relative to this unhappy hero, will be seen in the " Historical Illustrations of the Fourth Canto," p. 248.

4 See Appendix," Historical Notes," No. XXVII.