Still gentler purchaser! the bard that 's I Must, with permission, shake you by the hand, 7 And so your humble servant, and good-bye! We meet again, if we should understand Each other; and if not, I shall not try Your patience further than by this short sample "T were well if others follow'd my example. [The old legend of Friar Bacon says, that the brazen head which he formed capable of speech, after uttering successively, "Time is ""Time was "-and "Time is past,' the opportunity of catechising it having been neglected, tumbled itself from the stand, and was shattered into a thousand pieces.] 2["Out of spirits-read the papers-thought what Fame was, on reading, in a case of murder, that Mr. Wych, grocer, at Tunbridge, sold some bacon, flour, cheese, and, it is believed, some plums, to some gipsy woman accused. He had on his counter (I quote faithfully), a book, the Life of Pamela, which he was tearing for waste paper, &c. &c. In the cheese was found, &c., and a leaf of Pamela wrapt round the bacon!' What would Richardson, the vainest and luckiest of living authors (i. e. while alive) -he who, with Aaron Hill, used to prophesy and chuckle over the presumed fall of Fielding (the prose Homer of human nature), and of Pope (the most beautiful of poets)-what would he have said, could he have traced his pages from their place on the French princes' toilets (see Boswell's Johnson), to the grocer's counter, and the gipsy-murderer's bacon !!!"— Byron Diary, 1821.] 3 ["Ah! who can tell how hard it is to climb The steep where Fame's proud temple shines afar," &c.-BEATTIE.] 4 ["It is impossible not to regret that Lord Byron, being the contemporary of Lawrence and Chantrey, never sat to either of those unrivalled artists, whose canvass and marble have fixed, with such magical felicity, the very air and ges CCXXII. "Go, little book, from this my solitude! cast thee on the waters-go thy ways! And if, as I believe, thy vein be good, The world will find thee after many days." 8 When Southey's read, and Wordsworth understood, I can't help putting in my claim to praise — The four first rhymes are Southey's every line: For God's sake, reader! take them not for mine. Don Juan. CANTO THE SECOND.9 Oн ye! who teach the ingenuous youth of nations, Holland, France, England, Germany, or Spain, I pray ye flog them upon all occasions, It mends their morals, never mind the pain : The best of mothers and of educations In Juan's case were but employ'd in vain, Since, in a way that's rather of the oddest, he Became divested of his native modesty, 10 II. Had he but been placed at a public school, At least, had he been nurtured in the north; III. I can't say that it puzzles me at all, If all things be consider'd: first, there was His lady-mother, mathematical, A never mind; his tutor, an old ass; tures of the other illustrious men of this age-our Wellingtons, our Cannings, our Scotts, and Southeys."- Quart. Rev. vol. xliv. p. 221.] 5 ["A book—a damn'd bad picture—and worse bust.””MS.] 6 [This stanza appears to have been suggested by the following passage in the Quarterly Review, vol. xix. p. 203. :"It was the opinion of the Egyptians, that the soul never deserted the body while the latter continued in a perfect state. To secure this opinion, King Cheops is said, by Herodotus, to have employed three hundred and sixty thousand of his subjects for twenty years in raising over the * angusta domus destined to hold his remains, a pile of stone equal in weight to six millions of tons, which is just three times that of the vast Breakwater thrown across Plymouth Sound; and, to render this precious dust still more secure, the narrow chamber was made accessible only by small, intricate passages, obstructed by stones of an enormous weight, and so carefully closed externally as not to be perceptible. Yet how vain are all the precautions of man! Not a bone was left of Cheops, either in the stone coffin, or in the vault, whea Shaw entered the gloomy chamber."] 7 ["Must bid you both farewell in accents bland."-MS.] 8 [See Southey's Pilgrimage to Waterloo, sub fine.] 9 ["Begun at Venice, December 13, 1818,-- finished January 20, 1819.- Byron."] 10 [Lost that most precious stone of stones-his modesty," - MS.] 1 X. In the mean time, to pass her hours away, Juan embark'd the ship got under way, The wind was fair, the water passing rough; A devil of a sea rolls in that bay, 4 As I, who 've cross'd it oft, know well enough; And, standing upon the deck, the dashing spray Flies in one's face, and makes it weather-tough: And there he stood to take, and take again, His first-perhaps his last-farewell of Spain. XII. I can't but say it is an awkward sight To see one's native land receding through The growing waters; it unmans one quite, Especially when life is rather new: I recollect Great Britain's coast looks white, But almost every other country's blue, When gazing on them, mystified by distance, We enter on our nautical existence. XIII. So Juan stood, bewilder'd on the deck: The wind sung, cordage strain'd, and sailors swore, And the ship creak'd, the town became a speck, From which away so fair and fast they bore. The best of remedies is a beef-steak Against sea-sickness : try it, sir, before You sneer, and I assure you this is true, For I have found it answer-so may you. XIV. Don Juan stood, and, gazing from the stern, A kind of shock that sets one's heart ajar: At leaving even the most unpleasant people And places, one keeps looking at the steeple. XV. But Juan had got many things to leave, His mother, and a mistress, and no wife, So that he had much better cause to grieve, Than many persons more advanced in life; And if we now and then a sigh must heave At quitting even those we quit in strife, No doubt we weep for those the heart endears That is, till deeper griefs congeal our tears. how it would enliven and introduce them to a few of the sensations."-Byron Letters, 1814.] 5 [My friend, Dr. Granville, in his Travels to St. Petersburg, 1829, says that "sea-sickness consists of vomitingor something like it," and that the true way to escape the malady, is to take 45 drops of laudanum at starting, and as often afterwards as uneasiness recurs. Dr. Kitchener observes, that the beef-steak, recommended by Lord Byron, can suit only a very young and vigorous stomach on such occasions, and advises his pupil to adhere to salted fish and devils, with quant, suff. of hock or brandy in soda water. — HILL.] Julia, my love! - (you rascal, Pedro, quicker) — He felt that chilling heaviness of heart, The loss of love, the treachery of friends, XXII. Love's a capricious power: I've known it hold Out through a fever caused by its own heat, But be much puzzled by a cough and cold, And find a quinsy very hard to treat; Against all noble maladies he 's bold, But vulgar illnesses don't like to meet, Nor that a sneeze should interrupt his sigh, Nor inflammations redden his blind eye. XXIII. But worst of all is nausea, or a pain About the lower region of the bowels; Love, who heroically breathes a vein, Shrinks from the application of hot towels, And purgatives are dangerous to his reign, Sea-sickness death: his love was perfect, how else Could Juan's passion, while the billows roar, Resist his stomach, ne'er at sea before? XXIV. The ship, call'd the most holy "Trinidada,” 1 "Sooner shall heaven kiss earth —(here he fell sicker) They were relations, and for them he had a Oh, Julia what is every other woe? (For God's sake let me have a glass of liquor; Pedro, Battista, help me down below.) [In 1799, while Lord Byron was the pupil of Dr. Glennie, at Dulwich, among the books that lay accessible to the boys was a pamphlet, entitled "Narrative of the Shipwreck of the Juno on the Coast of Arracan, in the Year 1795." The pamphlet attracted but little public attention; but, among the young students of Dulwich Grove it was a favourite study; and the impression which it left on the retentive mind of Byron may have had some share, perhaps, in suggesting that curious research through all the various accounts of Shipwrecks upon record, by which he prepared himself to depict, with such power, a scene of the same description in Don Juan..... As to the charge of plagiarism brought against him by some scribblers of the day, for so doing, with as much justice might the Italian author, who wrote a Discourse on the Military Science displayed by Tasso in his battles, have reproached that poet with the sources from which he drew his knowledge; with as much justice might Puysegur and Segrais, who have pointed out the same merit in Homer and Virgil, have withheld their praise, because the science on which this merit was founded, must have been derived by the skill and industry of these poets from others. So little was Tasso ashamed of those casual imitations of other poets which are so often branded as plagiarisms, that, in his Commentary on his Rime, he takes pains to point out whatever coincidences of this kind occur in his own verses. MOORE. "With regard to the charges about the Shipwreck, I think that I told you and Mr. Hobhouse, years ago, that there was not a single circumstance of it not taken from fact; not, indeed, from any single shipwreck, but all from actual facts of different wrecks."- Lord Byron to Mr. Murray. "Of late, some persons have been nibbling at the reputation of Lord Byron, by charging him with plagiarism. There is a curious charge of this kind lately published, which re Letter of introduction, which the morn Of his departure had been sent him by His Spanish friends for those in Italy. dounds, in reality, to the noble author's credit. Every one who has looked into the sources from which Shakspeare took the stories of his plays, must know that in Julias Cæsar' and Coriolanus," he has taken whole dialogues, with remarkable exactness, from North's translation of Plutarch. Now, it is that very circumstance which impresses those plays with the stamp of antique reality, which the general knowledge of the poet could not have enabled him to com municate to them."-TIMES. PLUTARCH." I am Caius Martius, who hath done to the selfe particularly, and to all the Volsces generally, great hurt and mischiefe, which I cannot denie for my surname of Coriolanus that I beare. For I never had other benefit not recompense of the true and painefull service I have done, and the extreme dangers I have bene in, but this onely surname a good memorie and witnesse of the malice and displeasure thou shouldest bear me. Indeed, the name only remain with me: for the rest, the envie and crueltie of the people of Rome have taken from me, by the sufferance of the dastardly nobilitie and magistrates, who have forsaken me, and let me be banished by the people. That extremitie hath now drive me to come as a poor suter, to take thy chimnie karth, any hope I have to save my life thereby. For if I had fears death, I would not come hither to put myself in hazard.” XXV. His suite consisted of three servants and But now lay sick and speechless on his pillow, XXVI. "T was not without some reason, for the wind At sunset they began to take in sail, XXVII. At one o'clock the wind with sudden shift Threw the ship right into the trough of the sea, Which struck her aft, and made an awkward rift, Started the stern-post, also shatter'd the Whole of her stern-frame, and, ere she could lift Herself from out her present jeopardy, The rudder tore away: 't was time to sound The pumps, and there were four feet water found. 1 XXVIII. One gang of people instantly was put Upon the pumps, and the remainder set At last they did get at it really, but Still their salvation was an even bet: The water rush'd through in a way quite puzzling, While they thrust sheets, shirts, jackets, bales of muslin, 2 Would have been vain, and they must have gone Despite of all their efforts and expedients, But for the pumps : I'm glad to make them known To all the brother tars who may have need hence, For fifty tons of water were upthrown By them per hour, and they had all been undone, And witness of the malice and displeasure Which thou should'st bear me: only that name remains; I had fear'd death, of all men i' the world Coriolanus, Act 4th, Scene 5th.] ["Night came on worse than the day had been; and a sudden shift of wind, about midnight, threw the ship into the trough of the sea, which struck her aft, tore away the rudder, started the stern-post, and shattered the whole of her stern frame. The pumps were immediately sounded, and in the course of a few minutes the water had increased to four fect."-Loss of the Hercules.] 2["One gang was instantly put on them, and the remainder of the people employed in getting up rice from the run of the ship, and heaving it over, to come at the leak, if possible. After three or four hundred bags were thrown into the sea, we did get at it, and found the water rushing into the ship with astonishing rapidity; therefore we thrust sheets, shirts, XXX. As day advanced the weather seem'd to abate, A squall came on, and while some guns broke loose, XXXI. There she lay, motionless, and seem'd upset; For they remember battles, fires, and wrecks, Or breaks their hopes, or hearts, or heads, or necks: Thus drownings are much talk'd of by the divers, And swimmers, who may chance to be survivors. XXXII. Immediately the masts were cut away, Both main and mizen; first the mizen went, The main-mast follow'd: but the ship still lay Like a mere log, and baffled our intent. Foremast and bowsprit were cut down, and they Eased her at last (although we never meant To part with all till every hope was blighted), And then with violence the old ship righted. 6 XXXIII. It may be easily supposed, while this Was going on, some people were unquiet, That passengers would find it much amiss To lose their lives, as well as spoil their diet; That even the able seaman, deeming his Days nearly o'er, might be disposed to riot, As upon such occasions tars will ask For grog, and sometimes drink rum from the cask. XXXIV. There's nought, no doubt, so much the spirit calms qualms Of all the luckless landsmen's sea-sick måws: Strange sounds of wailing, blasphemy, devotion, Clamour'd in chorus to the roaring ocean. jackets, bales of muslin, and everything of the like description that could be got, into the opening." -Loss of the Hercules.] 3 ["Notwithstanding the pumps discharged fifty tons of water an hour, the ship certainly must have gone down, had not our expedients been attended with some success. The pumps, to the excellent construction of which I owe the preservation of my life, were made by Mr. Mann of London.”. Ibid.] 4["As the next day advanced, the weather appeared to moderate, the men continued incessantly at the pumps, and every exertion was made to keep the ship afloat. Scarce was this done, when a gust, exceeding in violence everything of the kind I had ever seen, or could conceive, laid the ship on her beam ends."- Loss of the Centaur.] 5 ["The ship lay motionless, and, to all appearance, irrevocably overset. The water forsook the hold, and appeared between decks."— Ibid.] 6["Immediate directions were given to cut away the main and mizen masts, trusting, when the ship righted, to be able to wear her. On cutting one or two lanyards, the mizenmast went first over, but without producing the smallest effect on the ship, and, on cutting the lanyard of one shroud, the main-mast followed. I had the mortification to see the foremast and bowsprit also go over. On this, the ship immediately righted with great violence." — Ibid.] 1 [“ Perhaps the whole would have got drunk, but for.”— MS.] 2 [A midshipman was appointed to guard the spirit-room, to repress that unhappy desire of a devoted crew to die in a state of intoxication. The sailors, though in other respects orderly in conduct, here pressed eagerly upon him."-Loss of the Abergavenny.] 3 ["Give us some grog,' they exclaimed, it will be all one an hour hence.'-'I know we must die,' replied the gallant officer, coolly, but let us die like men!'-armed with a brace of pistols, he kept his post, even while the ship was sinking." Ibid.] ["However, by great exertion of the chain-pump, we held our own. All who were not seamen by profession, had been employed in thrumming a sail.” — Ibid.] 5 [ --"which was passed under the ship's bottom, and I thought had some effect."-Ibid.] 6 ["Tis ugly dying in the Gulf of Lyons."- MS.] 7 ["The ship laboured so much, that I could scarce hope she would swim till morning: our sufferings were very great for want of water."- Loss of the Abergavenny.] 8 ["The weather again threatened, and by noon it blew a storm. The ship laboured greatly; the water appeared in the fore and after hold. The leathers were nearly consumed, and the chains of the pumps, by constant exertion, and friction of the coils, were rendered almost useless." - Ibid.] 9 ["At length, the carpenter came up from below, and told the crew, who were working at the pumps, he could do no And though 'tis true that man can only die once, 'Tis not so pleasant in the Gulf of Lyons. 6 XL. There winds and waves had hurl'd them, and from thence, Without their will, they carried them away; For they were forced with steering to dispense, And never had as yet a quiet day On which they might repose, or even commence A Jurymast or rudder, or could say The ship would swim an hour, which, by good luck, Still swam-though not exactly like a duck. XLI. The wind, in fact, perhaps, was rather less, Again the weather threaten'd,—again blew s All this, the most were patient, and some bold, XLIII. Then came the carpenter, at last, with tears The ship was evidently settling now 10 Fast by the head; and, all distinction gone, Some went to prayers again, and made a vow more for them. Seeing their efforts useless, many of them burst into tears, and wept like children."— Loss of the sergavenny.] 10 [" I perceived the ship settling by the head."— [bad.] 11 [The following extract is taken from Lord Byron's own copy of Erasmus's Dialogues. The delightful colloque entitled "Naufragium" must, as it is obvious from his lordship's pencil-marks, have been much in his hands:- Aderat Anglus quidam, qui promittebat montes aureos Virgin. Walsamgamicæ, si vivus attigisset terram: alii multa pro mittebant ligno crucis, quod esset in tali loco. Unum audivi non sine risu, qui clarâ voce, ne non exaudiretur, polliceretur Christophoro, qui est Lutetiæ in summo templo, mons vertas quam statua, cereum tantum quantus esset ipse. Hæc cum vociferans quantum poterat identidem inculcaret, qui forte proximus assistebat illi notus, cubito illum tetigit, ac submonuit: Vide quid pollicearis: etiamsi rerum omnium tua rum auctionem facias, non fueris solvendo. Tum ille, voce inquit, fatue! An credis me ex animo loqui? Si semel corjam pressiore, ne videlicet exaudiret Christophorus: Tace, tigero terram, non daturus sum illi candelam sebaceam! There was there a certain Englishman, who promised golden mountains to Our Lady of Walsingham, if he touched land again. Others promised many things to the Wood of the Cross, which was in such a place. I heard one, not without laughter, who, with a clear voice, lest he should not be heard, promised Christopher, who is at Paris, on the top cfa church, a mountain more truly than a statue,- S candle as big as he was himself. When, bawling out as hard |