Chapter 4

After the completion of the fair copy of the MS. of the _Bride of Abydos_, seventy lines were added to stanza xx. of Canto II. In both MSS. the rough and fair copies, the stanza ends with the line, "The Dove of peace and promise to mine ark!"

Seven MS. sheets are extant, which make up the greater portion of these additional lines.

The _First Addition_ amounts to eight lines, and takes the narrative from line 880 to line 893, "Wait--wave--defend--destroy--at thy command!"

Lines 884-889 do not appear in the first MS. Fragment, but are given in three variants on separate sheets. Two of these are dated December 2 and December 3, 1813.

The _Second Fragment_ begins with line 890, "For thee in those bright isles is built a bower," and, numbering twenty-two lines, ends with a variant of line 907, "Blend every thought, do all--but disunite!" Two lines of this addition, "With thee all toils are sweet," find a place in the text as lines 934, 935.

The _Third Fragment_ amounts to thirty-six lines, and may be taken as the first draft of the whole additions--lines 880-949.

Lines 908-925 and 936-945 of the text are still later additions, but a fourth MS. fragment supplies lines 920-925 and lines 936-945. (A fair copy of this fragment gives text for Revise of November 13.) Between November 13 and November 25 no less than ten revises of the _Bride_ were submitted to Lord Byron. In the earliest of these, dated November 13, the thirty-six lines of the Third Fragment have been expanded into forty lines--four lines of the MS. being omitted, and twelve lines, 908-919, "Once free,"--"social home," being inserted. The text passed through five revises and remained unaltered till November 21, when eighteen lines were added to the forty, viz.: (4) "Mark! where his carnage,"--"sabre's length;" (6) "There ev'n thy soul,"--"Zuleika's name;" and (8) "Aye--let the loud winds,"--"bars escape." Of these the two latter additions belong to the _Fourth Fragment_. The text in this state passed through three more revises, but before the first edition was issued two more lines were added--lines 938, 939,

"The deepest murmur of this lip shall be, No sigh for safety, but a prayer for thee!"

Even then the six lines, "Blest--as the Muezzin's,"--"endears," are wanting in the text; but the four lines, "Soft--as the melody,"--"endears," are inserted in MS. in the margin. The text as it stands first appears in the Seventh Edition.

* * * * *

[_First_ Draft of 880, _sq_., of Canto II. Stanz xx. of the _Bride of Abydos_.]

For thee in those bright isles is built a bower Aden, in its earliest hour Blooming as {-Eden--guarded like a tower-} A thousand swords--thy Selim's soul and hand Wait on thy voice, and bow to thy command pair No Danger daunts--the {-souls-} that Love hath blest steps still roving With {-feet long-wandering-}--but with hearts at rest. {-For thee my blade shall shine--my hand shall toil-} With thee all toils were sweet--each clime hath charms {line 934} Earth--sea--alike--one World within our arms {line 935} Girt by my hand--Zuleika at my side-- The Spoil of nations shall bedeck my bride slumbring The Haram's sluggish life of listless ease Is well exchanged for cares and joys like these {-Mine be the lot to know where'er I rove-} {-A thousand perils wait where-er I rove,-} Not blind to fate I view where-er I rove A thousand perils--but one only love-- Yet well my labor shall fond breast repay When Fortune frowns or falser friends betray How dear the thought in darkest hours of ill Should all be changed to find thee faithful still Be but thy soul like Selim's firmly shown {-mine in firmness-} {-Firm as my own I deem thy tender heart-} To thee be Selim's tender as thine own Exchange, or mingle every thought with his And all our future days unite in this.

* * * * *

Man I may lead--but trust not--I may fall By those now friends to me--yet foes to all-- In this they follow but the bent assigned fatal Nature By {-savage Nature-} to our warning kind _But there--oh, far be every thought of fear_ Life is but peril at the best--and here No more remains to win and much to fear Yes fear--the doubt the dread of losing thee-- That dread must vanish.

FOOTNOTES:

[ey] To the Right Hon^ble^ Henry Richard Vassal Lord Holland This Tale Is inscribed with Every sentiment of the Most affectionate respect by his gratefully obliged serv^t. And sincere Friend Byron.

[_Proof and Revise._--See _Letters to Murray_, November 13, 17, 1813.]

[124] {157} ["Murray tells me that Croker asked him why the thing was called the _Bride_ of Abydos? It is a cursed awkward question, being unanswerable. _She_ is not a _bride_, only about to become one. I don't wonder at his finding out the _Bull_; but the detection ... is too late to do any good. I was a great fool to make it, and am ashamed of not being an Irishman."--_Journal_, December 6, 1813; _Letters_, 1898, ii. 365.

Byron need not have been dismayed. "The term is particularly applied on the day of marriage and during the 'honeymoon,' but is frequently used from the proclamation of the banns.... In the debate on Prince Leopold's allowance, Mr. Gladstone, being criticized for speaking of the Princess Helena as the 'bride,' said he believed that colloquially a lady when engaged was often called a 'bride.' This was met with 'Hear! Hear!' from some, and 'No! No!' from others."--_N. Engl. Dict_., art. "Bride."]

[125] [The opening lines were probably suggested by Goethe's--

"Kennst du das Land wo die citronen blühn?"]

[126] "Gúl," the rose.

[127] {158} ["'Where the Citron,' etc. These lines are in the MS., and _omitted_ by the _Printer_, whom I _again_ request to look over it, and see that no others are _omitted_.--B." (Revise No. 1, November 13, 1813.)

"I ought and do apologise to Mr.---- the Printer for charging him with an omission of the lines which I find was my own--but I also wish _he_ would not print such a stupid word as _finest_ for fairest." (Revise, November 15, 1813.)

The lines, "Where the Citron," etc., are absent from a fair copy dated November 11, but are inserted as an addition in an earlier draft.]

[128] "Souls made of fire, and children of the Sun, With whom revenge is virtue." Young's _Revenge_, act v. sc. 2 (_British Theatre_, 1792, p. 84).

[ez] _For wild as the moment of lovers' farewell_.--[MS.]

[fa] _Canto 1^st^ The Bride of Abydos. Nov. 1^st^ 1813_.--[MS.]

[fb] {159} _The changing cheek and knitting brow_.--[MS. i.]

[fc] _Hence--bid my daughter hither come_ _This hour decides her future doom--_ _Yet not to her these words express_ _But lead her from the tower's recess_.--[MSS. i., ii.]

[These lines must have been altered in proof, for all the revises accord with the text.]

[fd] {160} _With many a tale and mutual song_.--[ms]

[129] Mejnoun and Leila, the Romeo and Juliet of the East. Sadi, the moral poet of Persia. [For the "story of Leila and Mujnoon," see _The Gulistan, or Rose Garden_ of ... Saadi, translated by Francis Gladwin, Boston, 1865, Tale xix. pp. 288, 289; and Gulistan ... du Cheikh Sa'di ... Traduit par W. Semelet, Paris, 1834, Notes on Chapitre V. p. 304. Sa'di "moralizes" the tale, to the effect that love dwells in the eye of the beholder. See, too, J[=a]m[=i]'s _Medjnoun et Leila_, translated by A. L. Chezy, Paris, 1807.]

[130] Tambour. Turkish drum, which sounds at sunrise, noon, and twilight. [The "tambour" is a kind of mandoline. It is the large kettle-drum (_nagaré_) which sounds the hours.]

[fe] {161} _Must walk forsooth where waters flow_ _And pore on every flower below_.--[MS. erased.]

[ff] {162} _For looks of peace and hearts of ire_.--[MS.]

[fg] _And calmly to his Sire's was raised_.--[MS.]

[fh] {163} _No--nor the blood I call my own_.--[MS.]

[131] The Turks abhor the Arabs (who return the compliment a hundredfold) even more than they hate the Christians.

[fi] _Or Christian flying from the fight_.--[MS.]

[fj] _Zuleika! ever welcome here_.--[MS.]

[fk] _Who never was more blest than now_.--[MS.]

[132] {164} [Lines 170-181 were added in the course of printing. They were received by the publisher on November 22, 1813.]

[fl] _Who hath not felt his very power of sight_ _Faint with the languid dimness of delight?_--[MS.]

[fm] _The light of life--the purity of grace_ _The mind of Music breathing in her face_ or, _Mind on her lip and music in her face._ _A heart where softness harmonized the whole_ _And oh! her eye was in itself a Soul!_--[MS.]

[133] This expression has met with objections. I will not refer to "Him who hath not Music in his soul," but merely request the reader to recollect, for ten seconds, the features of the woman whom he believes to be the most beautiful; and, if he then does not comprehend fully what is feebly expressed in the above line, I shall be sorry for us both. For an eloquent passage in the latest work of the first female writer of this, perhaps of any, age, on the analogy (and the immediate comparison excited by that analogy) between "painting and music," see vol. iii. cap. 10, De l'Allemagne. And is not this connection still stronger with the original than the copy? with the colouring of Nature than of Art? After all, this is rather to be felt than described; still I think there are some who will understand it, at least they would have done had they beheld the countenance whose speaking harmony suggested the idea; for this passage is not drawn from imagination but memory,{A} that mirror which Affliction dashes to the earth, and looking down upon the fragments, only beholds the reflection multiplied!

[For the simile of the broken mirror, compare _Childe Harold_, Canto III. stanza xxxiii. line 1 (_Poetical Works_, ii. 236, note 2); and for "the expression," "music breathing from her face," compare Sir Thomas Browne's _Religio Medici_, Part II. sect, ix., _Works_, 1835, ii. 106, "And sure there is musick, even in the beauty and the silent note which Cupid strikes, far sweeter than the sound of any instrument;" and Lovelace's "Song," _Orpheus to Beasts_--

"Oh could you view the melody Of ev'ry grace, And music of her face!"

The effect of the appeal to Madame de Staël is thus recorded in Byron's _Journal_ of December 7, 1813 (_Letters_, 1898, ii. 369): "This morning, a very pretty billet from the Staël," (for passage in _De L'Allemagne_,