If any person should presume to assert
This story is not moral, first, I pray,
That they will not cry out before they're hurt,
Then that they'll read it o'er again, and say
(But, doubtless, nobody will be so pert),

That this is not a moral tale, though gay: Besides, in Canto Twelfth, I mean to show The very place where wicked people go. CCVIII.

If, after all, there should be some so blind
To their own good this warning to despise,
Led by some tortuosity of mind,

Not to believe my verse and their own eyes,
And cry that they "the moral cannot find,"
I tell him, if a clergyman, he lies;
Should captains the remark, or critics, make,
They also lie too under a mistake.

CCIX.

The public approbation I expect,

And beg they'll take my word about the moral, Which I with their amusement will connect (So children cutting teeth receive a coral); Meantime they'll doubtless please to recollect My epical pretensions to the laurel :

For fear some prudish readers should grow skittish, I've bribed my grandmother's review the British.!

CCX.

I sent it in a letter to the Editor,

1

Daily, or monthly, or three monthly; I

[For the strictures of "The British," on this and the following stanza, see "Testimonies," No. XVI., ante, p. 581.; and compare Lord Byron's "Letter to the Editor of My Grandmother's Review," (post, APPENDIX.) I wrote to you by last post," says Lord B., Bologna, Aug. 24, 1819," enclosing a buffooning letter for publication, addressed to the buffoon Roberts, who has thought proper to tie a canister to his own tail. It was written off-hand, and in the midst of circumstances not very favourable to facetiousness, so that there may, perhaps, be more bitterness than enough for that sort of small acid punch."]

2 ["Such treatment Horace would not bear,

Have not essay'd to multiply their clients,

Because they tell me 't were in vain to try, And that the Edinburgh Review and Quarterly Treat a dissenting author very martyrly.

CCXII.

"Non ego hoc ferrem calida juventâ

Consule Planco 2," Horace said, and so Say I; by which quotation there is meant a Hint that some six or seven good years ago (Long ere I dreamt of dating from the Brenta) I was most ready to return a blow, And would not brook at all this sort of thing In my hot youth when George the Third was King. CCXIII.

But now at thirty years my hair is grey

(I wonder what it will be like at forty?

I thought of a peruke the other day 3-)
My heart is not much greener; and, in short, I
Have squander'd my whole summer while 't was May,
And feel no more the spirit to retort; I
Have spent my life, both interest and principal,
And deem not, what I deem'd, my soul invincible.
CCXIV.

No more no more Oh! never more on me
The freshness of the heart can fall like dew,
Which out of all the lovely things we see

Extracts emotions beautiful and new,

Hived in our bosoms like the bag o' the bee.
Think'st thou the honey with those objects grew ?
Alas! 't was not in them, but in thy power
To double even the sweetness of a flower.

CCXV.

No more no more - Oh! never more, my heart,
Canst thou be my sole world, my universe!
Once all in all, but now a thing apart,

Thou canst not be my blessing or my curse :
The illusion 's gone for ever, and thou art
Insensible, I trust, but none the worse,

And in thy stead I've got a deal of judgment, Though heaven knows how it ever found a lodgment. CCXVI.

My days of love are over; me no more +

The charms of maid, wife, and still less of widow, Can make the fool of which they made before, In short, I must not lead the life I did do; The credulous hope of mutual minds is o'er, The copious use of claret is forbid too, So for a good old-gentlemanly vice,

I think I must take up with avarice. 5

No more the feats of wine I prove,

Nor the delusive hopes of mutual love."-FRANCIS.]

5 [His constant recurrence to the praise of avarice in Don Juan, and the humorous zest with which he delights to dwell on it, show how new-fangled, as well as how far from serious, was his adoption of the " good old-gentlemanly vice." That his parsimony, however, was very far from being of that kind which Bacon condemns as " withholding men from works of liberality," is apparent from all that is known of his munificence at this very period. - MOORE.

"Charity-purchased a shilling's worth of salvation. If that was to be bought, I have given more to my fellowcreatures in this life-sometimes for vice, but, if not more aften, at least more considerably, for virtue than I now possess. I never in my life gave a mistress so much as I have sometimes given a poor man in honest distress. But, no matter! The scoundrels who have all along persecuted me will triumph-and when justice is done to me, it will be when this hand that writes is as cold as the hearts which have stung it."-Byron Diary, 1821.]

Rr

CCXVII.

Ambition was my idol, which was broken
Before the shrines of Sorrow, and of Pleasure;
And the two last have left me many a token

O'er which reflection may be made at leisure : Now, like Friar Bacon's brazen head, I've spoken, "Time is, Time was, Time's past 1: " - a chymic treasure

Is glittering youth, which I have spent betimes
My heart in passion, and my head on rhymes.
CCXVIII.

What is the end of Fame?? 't is but to fill

A certain portion of uncertain paper:

Some liken it to climbing up a hill,

Whose summit, like all hills, is lost in vapour; 3 For this men write, speak, preach, and heroes kill, And bards burn what they call their "midnight To have, when the original is dust,

[taper,"

[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

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; A pretty woman— (that's quite natural, Or else the thing had hardly come to pass) A husband rather old, not much in unity With his young wife. e-a time, and opportunity.

tures of the other illustrious men of this age-our Welling tons, 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 fol lowing passage in the Quarterly Review, vol. xix. p. 203.:"It was the opinion of the Egyptians, that the soul never de serted 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 wa left of Cheops, either in the stone coffin, or in the vault, when Shaw entered the gloomy chamber."]

7 ["Must bid you both farewell in accents bland."-MS] [See Southey's Pilgrimage to Waterloo, sub fine.]

9 ["Begun at Venice, December 13, 1818,-inished January 20, 1819.-. Byron."]

To Lost that most precious stone of stones—his modesty." - MS.]

1 [" But d―n me if I ever saw the like."-MS.]

2 Fazzioli-literally, little handkerchiefs the veils most availing of St. Mark.

["Their manners mending, and their morals curing, · She taught them to suppress their vice-and urine." il - MS.]

4["Hogg writes me, that Scott is gone to the Orkneys in a gale of wind;-during which wind he affirms the said Scott 'he is sure is not at his ease, to say the best of it.' Lord, Lord! if these home-keeping minstrels had tasted a little open boating in a white squall-or a gale in the Gat'.

X.

In the mean time, to pass her hours away,
Brave Inez now set up a Sunday school
For naughty children, who would rather play
(Like truant rogues) the devil, or the fool;
Infants of three years old were taught that day,
Dunces were whipt, or set upon a stool:
The great success of Juan's education
Spurr'd her to teach another generation. 3
XI.

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 5: 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,
Beheld his native Spain receding far:
First partings form a lesson hard to learn,
Even nations feel this when they go to war;
There is a sort of unexprest concern,

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 vomiting, or 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.]

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 who has looked into the sources from which Shakspeare took the stories of his plays, must know that in Jas Cæsar' and Coriolanus," he has taken whole dialogues, with remarkable exactness, from North's translation of Plutarca. 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 communicate to them."- TIMES.

PLUTARCH." I am Caius Martius, who hath done to thy selfe particularly, and to all the Volsces generally, great hurt and mischiefe, which I cannot denie for my surname of Coriolanus that 1 beare. For I never had other benefit nor recompense of the true and painefull service I have done, and the extreme dangers I have bene in, but this onely sur a good memorie and witnesse of the malice and displeasure thou shouldest bear me. Indeed, the name only rem with me: for the rest, the envie and crueltie of the peop 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 feared death, I would not come hither to put myself in hazard."

SHAKSPEARE.

My name is Caius Martius, who hath done
To thee particularly, and to all the Volsces,
Great hurt and mischief; thereto witness may
My surname, Coriolanus: The painful service,
The extreme dangers, and the drops of blood
Shed for my thankless country, are requited
But with that surname: a good memory,

XXV.

His suite consisted of three servants and
A tutor, the licentiate Pedrillo,
Who several languages did understand,

But now lay sick and speechless on his pillow,
And, rocking in his hammock, long'd for land,
His headache being increased by every billow;
And the waves oozing through the port-hole made
His berth a little damp, and him afraid.

XXVI.

"T was not without some reason, for the wind
Increased at night, until it blew a gale;
And though 't was not much to a naval mind,
Some landsmen would have look'd a little pale,
For sailors are, in fact, a different kind:

At sunset they began to take in sail,
For the sky show'd it would come on to blow,
And carry away, perhaps, a mast or so.

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
To get up part of the cargo, and what not;
But they could not come at the leak as yet;

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,
But for the maker, Mr. Mann, of London. 3

And witness of the malice and displeasure
Which thou should'st bear me: only that name remains;
The cruelty and envy of the people,
Permitted by our dastard nobles, who
Have all forsook me, hath devour'd the rest;
And suffer'd me by the voice of slaves to be
Whoop'd out of Rome. Now, this extremity
Hath brought me to thy hearth; Not out of hope,
Mistake me not, to save my life; for if
I had fear'd death, of all men i' the world
I would have 'voided thee."

Coriolanus, Act 4th, Scene 5th.]

There she lay, motionless, and seem'd upset;
The water left the hold, and wash'd the decks, 5
And made a scene men do not soon forget;

For they remember battles, fires, and wrecks,
Or any other thing that brings regret,

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
As rum and true religion: thus it was,
Some plunder'd, some drank spirits, some sung psalms,
The high wind made the treble, and as bass
The hoarse harsh waves kept time; fright cured the

qualms

Of all the luckless landsmen's sea-sick maws: 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.]