LITMIR.BIZ

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his death, the distinctive dress of the cynics.]

dq ——gray flits the Ghost of Power.—[MS. D. erased.]

dr ——whose altars cease to burn.—[D.]

ds ——whose Faith is built on reeds.—[MS. D. erased.]

115 [Compare Shakespeare, Measure for Measure, act iii, sc. 1, lines 5-7—

      "Reason thus with life:

       If I do lose thee, I do lose a thing

       That none but fools would keep."]

dt Still wilt thou harp——.—[MS. D. erased.]

du Though 'twas a God, as graver records tell.—[MS. erased.]

116 [The demigods Erechtheus and Theseus "appeared" at Marathon, and fought side by side with Miltiades (Grote's History of Greece, iv. 284).]

117 [Compare Shakespeare, Hamlet, act v. sc. 1, passim.]

118 [Socrates affirmed that true self-knowledge was to know that we know nothing, and in his own case he denied any other knowledge; but "this confession of ignorance was certainly not meant to be a sceptical denial of all knowledge." "The idea of knowledge was to him a boundless field, in the face of which he could not but be ignorant" (Socrates and the Socratic Schools, by Dr. E. Zeller, London, 1868, p. 102).]

119 [Stanzas viii. and ix. are not in the MS.

      The expunged lines (see var. i.) carried the Lucretian tenets of the preceding stanza to their logical conclusion. The end is silence, not a reunion with superior souls. But Dallas objected; and it may well be that, in the presence of death, Byron could not "guard his unbelief," or refrain from a renewed questioning of the "Grand Perhaps." Stanza for stanza, the new version is an improvement on the original. (See Recollections of the Life of Lord Byron, 1824, p. 169. See, too, letters to Hodgson, September 3 and September 13, 1811: Letters, 1898, ii. 18, 34.)]

dv Frown not upon me, churlish Priest! that I Look not for Life, where life may never be: I am no sneerer at thy phantasy; Thou pitiest me, alas! I envy thee, Thou bold Discoverer in an unknown sea Of happy Isles and happier Tenants there; I ask thee not to prove a Sadducee;*] Still dream of Paradise, thou know'st not where,**] Which if it be thy sins never let thee share.[***] —[MS. D. erased.]

      *]The Sadducees did not believe in the Resurrection.—[MS. D.]

      **]

       But look upon a scene that once was fair.—[Erased.] Zion's holy hill which thou wouldst fancy fair.—[Erased.]

      ***]

       As those, which thou delight'st to rear in upper air.—[Erased.] Yet lovs't too well to bid thine erring brother share.—[D. erased.]

120 [Byron forwarded this stanza in a letter to Dallas, dated October 14, 1811, and was careful to add, "I think it proper to state to you, that this stanza alludes to an event which has taken place since my arrival here, and not to the death of any male friend" (Letters. 1898, ii. 57). The reference is not to Edleston, as Dallas might have guessed, and as Wright (see Poetical Works, 1891, p. 17) believed. Again, in a letter to Dallas, dated October 31, 1811 (ibid., ii. 65), he sends "a few stanzas," presumably the lines "To Thyrza," which are dated October 31, 1811, and says that "they refer to the death of one to whose name you are a stranger, and, consequently, cannot be interested (sic) ... They relate to the same person whom I have mentioned in Canto 2nd, and at the conclusion of the poem." It follows from this second statement that we have Byron's authority for connecting stanza ix. with stanzas xcv., xcvi., and, inferentially, his authority for connecting stanzas ix., xcv., xcvi. with the group of "Thyrza" poems. And there our knowledge ends. We must leave the mystery where Byron willed that it should be left. "All that we know is, nothing can be known."]

dw Whate'er beside} Howe'er may be Futurity's behest.[*] Or seeing thee no more to sink in sullen rest.—[MS. D.]

      *][See letter to Dallas, October 14, 1811.]

121 [For note on the "Elgin Marbles," see Introduction to the Curse of Minerva: Poetical Works, 1898, i. 453-456.]

dx

      The last, the worst dull Robber, who was he? Blush Scotland such a slave thy son could be— England! I joy no child he was of thine: Thy freeborn men revere what once was free, Nor tear the Sculpture from its saddening shrine, Nor bear the spoil away athwart the weeping Brine.—[MS. D. erased.]

dy

      This be the wittol Picts ignoble boast.—[MS. D.] To rive what Goth and Turk, and Time hath spared: Cold and accursed as his native coast.—[MS. D. erased]

122 ["On the plaster wall of the Chapel of Pandrosos adjoining the Erechtheum, these words have been very deeply cut—

      'Quod non fecerunt Goti,

       Hoc fecerunt Scoti'"

      (Travels in Albania, 1858, i. 299). M. Darmesteter quotes the original: "mot sur les Barberini" ("Quod non fecere Barbari, Fecere Barberini"). It may be added that Scotchmen are named among the volunteers who joined the Hanoverian mercenaries in the Venetian invasion of Greece in 1686. (See The Curse of Minerva: Poetical Works, 1898, i. 463, note 1; Finlay's Hist. of Greece, v. 189.)]

dz What! shall it e'er be said by British tongue, Albion was happy while Athenæ mourned? Though in thy name the slave her bosom wrung, Albion! I would not see thee thus adorned With gains thy generous spirit should have scorned, From Man distinguished by some monstrous sign, Like Attila the Hun was surely horned,A Who wrought the ravage amid works divine: Oh that Minerva's voice lent its keen aid to mine.—[MS. D. erased.]

      What! shall it e'er be said by British tongue, Albion was happy in Athenæ's tears? Though in thy name the slave her bosom wrung, Let it not vibrate in pale Europe's ears,B The Saviour Queen, the free Britannia, wears The last poor blunder of a bleeding land: That she, whose generous aid her name endears, Tore down those remnants with a Harpy's hand, Which Envious Eld forbore and Tyrants left to stand.—[MS.

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