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Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (With Byron's Biography). Lord Byron
Читать онлайн.Название Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (With Byron's Biography)
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isbn 4064066301279
Автор произведения Lord Byron
Жанр Языкознание
Издательство Bookwire
94 [Compare Virgil, Æneid, viii. 264—
"Pedibusque informe cadaver
Protrahitur. Nequeunt expleri corda tuendo—"]
95 "The Spaniards are as revengeful as ever. At Santa Otella, I heard a young peasant threaten to stab a woman (an old one, to be sure, which mitigates the offence), and was told, on expressing some small surprise, that this ethic was by no means uncommon."—[MS.]
96 [Byron's "orthodoxy" of the word "centinel" was suggested by the Spanish centinela, or, perhaps, by Spenser's "centonell" (Faërie Queene, bk. i. c. ix. st. 41, line 8).]
df And all whereat the wandering soul revolts Which that stern dotard dreamed he could encage.—[MS. erased.]
Full from the heart of Joy's delicious springs Some Bitter bubbles up, and even on Roses stings.—[MS.]
97 [The Dallas Transcript reads "itself," but the MS. and earlier editions "herself."]
dh Had buried then his hopes, no more to rise: Drugged with dull pleasure! life-abhorring Gloom Wrote on his faded brow curst Cain's wandering doom.—[MS. erased.] Had buried there.—[MS. D.]
98 [Byron's belief or, rather, haunting dread, that he was predestined to evil is to be traced to the Calvinistic teaching of his boyhood (compare Childe Harold, Canto III. stanza lxx. lines 8, 9; and Canto IV. stanza xxxiv. line 6). Lady Byron regarded this creed of despair as the secret of her husband's character, and the source of his aberrations. In a letter to H. C. Robinson, March 5, 1855, she writes, "Not merely from casual expressions, but from the whole tenour of Lord Byron's feelings, I could not but conclude he was a believer in the inspiration of the Bible, and had the gloomiest Calvinistic tenets. To that unhappy view of the relation of the creature to the Creator, I have always ascribed the misery of his life.... Instead of being made happier by any apparent good, he felt convinced that every blessing would be 'turned into a curse' to him. Who, possessed by such ideas, could lead a life of love and service to God or man? They must in a measure realize themselves. 'The worst of it is, I do believe,' he said. I, like all connected with him, was broken against the rock of predestination."]
99 "Stanzas to be inserted after stanza 86th in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, instead of the song at present in manuscript."-[MS. note to "To Inez."] [The stanzas To Inez are dated January 25, 1810, on which day Byron and Hobhouse visited Marathon. Most likely they were addressed to Theresa Macri, the "Maid of Athens," or some favourite of the moment, and not to "Florence" (Mrs. Spencer Smith), whom he had recently (January 16) declared emerita to the tune of "The spell is broke, the charm is flown." A fortnight later (February 10), Hobhouse, accompanied by the Albanian Vasilly and the Athenian Demetrius, set out for the Negroponte. "Lord Byron was unexpectedly detained at Athens" (Travels in Albania, i. 390). (For the stanzas to The Girl of Cadiz, which were suppressed in favour of those To Inez, see Poetical Works, 1891, p. 14, and vol. iii. of the present issue.)]
100 [Compare Horace, Odes, II. xvi. 19, 20—
"Patriæ quis exsul
Se quoque fugit?"]
To other zones howe'er remote Still, still pursuing clings to me.—[MS. erased.]
101 [Compare Prior's Solomon, bk. iii. lines 85, 86—
"In the remotest wood and lonely grot
Certain to meet that worst of evils—thought."]
102 [Cadiz was captured from the Moors by Alonso el Sabio, in 1262. It narrowly escaped a siege, January-February, 1810. Soult commenced a "serious bombardment," May 16, 1812, but, three months later, August 24, the siege was broken up. Stanza lxxxv. is not in the original MS.]
103 [Charles IV. abdicated March 19, 1808, in favour of his son Ferdinand VII.; and in the following May, Charles once more abdicated on his own behalf, and Ferdinand for himself and his heirs, in favour of Napoleon. Thenceforward Charles was an exile, and Ferdinand a prisoner at Valençay, and Spain, so far as the Bourbons were concerned, remained "kingless," until motives of policy procured the release of the latter, who re-entered his kingdom March 22, 1814.]
Ye, who would more of Spain and Spaniards know, Sights, Saints, Antiques, Arts, Anecdotes and War, Go hie ye hence to Paternoster Row— Are they not written in the Boke of Carr,A Green Erin's Knight and Europe's wandering star! Then listen, Readers, to the Man of Ink, Hear what he did, and sought, and wrote afar; All those are cooped within one Quarto's brink, This borrow, steal,—don't buy,—and tell us what you think.
There may you read with spectacles on eyes, How many Wellesleys did embark for Spain,B As if therein they meant to colonise, How many troops y-crossed the laughing main That ne'er beheld the said return again: How many buildings are in such a place, How many leagues from this to yonder plain, How many relics each cathedral grace, And where Giralda stands on her gigantic base.C
There may you read (Oh, Phoebus, save Sir John! That these my words prophetic may not err)D All that was said, or sung, and lost, or won, By vaunting Wellesley or by blundering Frere,E He that wrote half the "Needy Knife-Grinder,"F Thus Poesy the way to grandeur paves—G Who would not such diplomatists prefer? But cease, my Muse, thy speed some respite craves, Leave legates to the House, and armies to their graves.
Yet here of Vulpes mention may be made,HJ Who for the Junta modelled sapient laws, Taught them to govern ere they were obeyed: Certes fit teacher to command, because His soul Socratic no Xantippe awes; Blest with a Dame in Virtue's bosom nurst,— With her let silent Admiration pause!— True to her second husband and her first: On such unshaken