Chapter 5

... "She has been pleased to be pleased with my slight eulogy in the note annexed to _The Bride_."]

{A} _In this line I have not drawn from fiction but memory--that mirror of regret memory--the too faithful mirror of affliction the long vista through which we gaze. Someone has said that the perfection of Architecture is frozen music--the perfection of Beauty to my mind always presented the idea of living Music_.--[MS. erased.]

[134] {166} Carasman Oglou, or Kara Osman Oglou, is the principal landholder in Turkey; he governs Magnesia: those who, by a kind of feudal tenure, possess land on condition of service, are called Timariots: they serve as Spahis, according to the extent of territory, and bring a certain number into the field, generally cavalry.

[The "line of Carasman" dates back to Kara Youlouk, the founder of the dynasty of the "White Sheep," at the close of the fourteenth century. Hammer-Purgstall (_Hist. de l'Emp. Ottoman_, iii. 151) gives _sang-sue_, "blood-sucker," as the equivalent of Youlouk, which should, however, be interpreted "smooth-face." Of the Magnesian Kara Osman Oglou ("Black Osman-son"), Dallaway (_Constantinople Ancient and Modern_, 1797, p. 190) writes, "He is the most powerful and opulent derè bey ('lord of the valley'), or feudal tenant, in the empire, and, though inferior to the pashas in rank, possesses more wealth and influence, and offers them an example of administration and patriotic government which they have rarely the virtue to follow." For the Timariots, who formed the third class of the feudal cavalry of the Ottoman Empire, see Finlay's _Greece under Othoman ... Domination_, 1856, pp. 50, 51.]

[fn] _Who won of yore paternal lands_.--[MS.]

[fo] _Enough if that thy bridesman true_.--[MS. erased.]

[135] [The Bey Oglou (Begz[=a]de) is "the nobleman," "the high-born chief."]

[136] {167} When a Pacha is sufficiently strong to resist, the single messenger, who is always the first bearer of the order for his death, is strangled instead, and sometimes five or six, one after the other, on the same errand, by command of the refractory patient; if, on the contrary, he is weak or loyal, he bows, kisses the Sultan's respectable signature, and is bowstrung with great complacency. In 1810, several of these presents were exhibited in the niche of the Seraglio gate; among others, the head of the Pacha of Bagdat, a brave young man, cut off by treachery, after a desperate resistance.

[137] Clapping of the hands calls the servants. The Turks hate a superfluous expenditure of voice, and they have no bells.

[138] "Chibouque," the Turkish pipe, of which the amber mouthpiece, and sometimes the ball which contains the leaf, is adorned with precious stones, if in possession of the wealthier orders.

[139] {168} "Maugrabee" [_Maghrab[=i]_, Moors], Moorish mercenaries.

[140] "Delis," bravos who form the forlorn hope of the cavalry, and always begin the action. [See _Childe Harold_, Canto II., _Poetical Works_, 1899, ii. 149, note 1.]

[141] [The Kizlar aghasi was the head of the black eunuchs; kislar, by itself, is Turkish for "girls," "virgins."]

[142] A twisted fold of _felt_ is used for scimitar practice by the Turks, and few but Mussulman arms can cut through it at a single stroke: sometimes a tough turban is used for the same purpose. The jerreed [jar[=i]d] is a game of blunt javelins, animated and graceful.

[143] "Ollahs," Alla il Allah [La il[=a]h ill 'll[=a]h], the "Leilies," as the Spanish poets call them, the sound is Ollah: a cry of which the Turks, for a silent people, are somewhat profuse, particularly during the jerreed [jar[=i]d], or in the chase, but mostly in battle. Their animation in the field, and gravity in the chamber, with their pipes and comboloios [_vide post_, p. 181, note 4], form an amusing contrast.

[fp] {169} _Her heart confessed no cause of shame_.--[MS.]

[144] "Atar-gul," ottar of roses. The Persian is the finest.

[145] The ceiling and wainscots, or rather walls, of the Mussulman apartments are generally painted, in great houses, with one eternal and highly-coloured view of Constantinople, wherein the principal feature is a noble contempt of perspective; below, arms, scimitars, etc., are, in general, fancifully and not inelegantly disposed.

[fq] _The drops that flow upon his vest_ _Unheeded fell upon his breast_.--[MS.]

[146] {170} It has been much doubted whether the notes of this "Lover of the rose" are sad or merry; and Mr. Fox's remarks on the subject have provoked some learned controversy as to the opinions of the ancients on the subject. I dare not venture a conjecture on the point, though a little inclined to the "errare mallem," etc., _if_ Mr. Fox _was_ mistaken.

[Fox, writing to Grey (see Lord Holland's Preface (p. xii.) to the _History ... of James the Second_, by ... C. J. Fox, London, 1808), remarks, "In defence of my opinion about the nightingale, I find Chaucer, who of all poets seems to have been the fondest of the singing of birds, calls it a 'merry note,'" etc. Fox's contention was attacked and disproved by Martin Davy (1763-1839, physician and Master of Caius College, Cambridge), in an interesting and scholarly pamphlet entitled, _Observations upon Mr. Fox's Letter to Mr. Grey_, 1809.]

[fr] _Would I had never seen this hour_ _What knowest thou not who loves thee best._--[MS.]

[fs] {171} _If so by Mecca's hidden shrine_.--[MS.]

[ft] _The day that teareth thee from me_.--[MS.]

[147] "Azrael," the angel of death.

[fu] _When comes that hour and come it must_.--[MS. erased.]

[fv] {172} _Which thanks to terror and the dark_ _Hath missed a trifle of its mark._--[MS.]

[The couplet was expunged in a revise dated November 19.]

[fw] _With life to keep but not with life resign_.--[MS.]

[fx] {173} _That strays along that head so fair._--[MS.] or, _That strays along that neck so fair._--[MS.]

[148] The treasures of the Pre-Adamite Sultans. See D'Herbelot [1781, ii. 405], article _Istakar_ [Estekhar _ou_ Istekhar].

[149] "Musselim," a governor, the next in rank after a Pacha; a Waywode is the third; and then come the Agas.

[This table of precedence applies to Ottoman officials in Greece and other dependencies. The Musselim [Mutaselline] is the governor or commander of a city (e.g. Hobhouse, _Travels in Albania_, ii. 41, speaks of the "Musselim of Smyrna"); Aghas, i.e. heads of departments in the army or civil service, or the Sultan's household, here denote mayors of small towns, or local magnates.]

[150] "Egripo," the Negropont. According to the proverb, the Turks of Egripo, the Jews of Salonica, and the Greeks of Athens, are the worst of their respective races.

[See Gibbon's _Decline and Fall_, 1855, viii. 386.]

[fy] _Like this--and more than this._--[MS.]

[fz] {175} _But--Selim why my heart's reply_ _Should need so much of mystery_ _Is more than I can guess or tell,_ _But since thou say'st 'tis so--'tis well_.--[MS.]

[The fourth line erased.]

[ga] _He blest me more in leaving thee._ _Much should I suffer thus compelled_.--[MS.]

[gb] {176} _This vow I should no more conceal_ _And wherefore should I not reveal?_--[MS.]

[gc] _My breast is consciousness of sin_ _But when and where and what the crime_ _I almost feel is lurking here_.--[MS.]

[151] "Tchocadar"--one of the attendants who precedes a man of authority.

[See D'Ohsson's _Tableau Générale, etc._, 1787, ii. 159, and _Plates_ 87, 88. The Turks seem to have used the Persian word _chawki-d[=a]r_, an officer of the guard-house, a policeman (whence our slang word "chokey"), for a "valet de pied," or, in the case of the Sultan, for an apparitor. The French spelling points to D'Ohsson as Byron's authority.]

[gd] {177} _Be silent thou_.--[MS.]

[ge] {178} _Nov_. 9^th^ 1813.--[MS.]

[152] [_Vide_ Ovid, _Heroïdes,_ Ep. xix.; and the _De Herone atque Leandro_ of Musæus.]

[153] {179} The wrangling about this epithet, "the broad Hellespont" or the "boundless Hellespont," whether it means one or the other, or what it means at all, has been beyond all possibility of detail. I have even heard it disputed on the spot; and not foreseeing a speedy conclusion to the controversy, amused myself with swimming across it in the mean time; and probably may again, before the point is settled. Indeed, the question as to the truth of "the tale of Troy divine" still continues, much of it resting upon the talismanic word[Greek: "a)/peiros:"] probably Homer had the same notion of distance that a coquette has of time; and when he talks of boundless, means half a mile; as the latter, by a like figure, when she says _eternal_ attachment, simply specifies three weeks.

[For a defence of the Homeric[Greek: a)pei/rôn,] and for a _résumé_ of the "wrangling" of the topographers, Jean Baptiste Le Chevalier (1752-1836) and Jacob Bryant (1715-1804), etc., see _Travels in Albania,_ 1858, ii. 179-185.]

[154] {180} Before his Persian invasion, and crowned the altar with laurel, etc. He was afterwards imitated by Caracalla in his race. It is believed that the last also poisoned a friend, named Festus, for the sake of new Patroclan games. I have seen the sheep feeding on the tombs of Æyietes and Antilochus: the first is in the centre of the plain.

[Alexander placed a garland on the tomb of Achilles, and "went through the ceremony of anointing himself with oil, and running naked up to it."--Plut. _Vitæ_, "Alexander M.," cap. xv. line 25, Lipsiæ, 1814, vi. 187. For the tombs of Æsyetes, etc., see _Travels in Albania, ii. 149-151._]

[155] [Compare--

"Or narrow if needs must be, Outside are the storms and the strangers."

_Never the Time, etc.,_ lines 19, 20, by Robert Browning.]

[156] {181} When rubbed, the amber is susceptible of a perfume, which is slight, but _not_ disagreeable. [Letter to Murray, December 6, 1813, _Letters_, 1898, ii. 300.]

[157] ["Coeterum castitatis hieroglyphicum gemma est."--Hoffmann, _Lexic. Univ._, art. "Smaragdus." Compare, too, _Lalla Rookh_ ("Chandos Classics," p. 406), "The emerald's virgin blaze."]

[158] The belief in amulets engraved on gems, or enclosed in gold boxes, containing scraps from the Koran, worn round the neck, wrist, or arm, is still universal in the East. The Koorsee (throne) verse in the second cap. of the Koran describes the attributes of the Most High, and is engraved in this manner, and worn by the pious, as the most esteemed and sublime of all sentences.

[The _âyatu 'l kursîy_, or verse of the throne (Sura II. "Chapter of the Heifer," v. 257), runs thus: "God, there is no God but He, the living and self-subsistent. Slumber takes Him not, nor sleep. His is what is in the heavens and what is in the earth. Who is it that intercedes with Him, save by His permission? He knows what is before them, and what behind them, and they comprehend not aught of His knowledge but of what He pleases. His throne extends over the heavens and the earth, and it tires Him not to guard them both, for He is high and grand."--The _Qur'ân_, translated by E. H. Palmer, 1880, Part I., _Sacred Books of the East_, vi. 40.]

[159] "Comboloio"--a Turkish rosary. The MSS., particularly those of the Persians, are richly adorned and illuminated. The Greek females are kept in utter ignorance; but many of the Turkish girls are highly accomplished, though not actually qualified for a Christian coterie. Perhaps some of our own _"blues"_ might not be the worse for _bleaching._

[The comboloio consists of ninety-nine beads. Compare _Lalla Rookh_ ("Chandos Classics," p. 420), "Her ruby rosary," etc., and note on "Le Tespih." _Lord Byron's Comboloio_ is the title of a metrical _jeu d'esprit,_ a rhymed catalogue of the _Poetical Works,_ beginning with _Hours of Idleness,_ and ending with _Cain, a Mystery_.--_Blackwood's Magazine,_ 1822, xi. 162-165.]

[160] {182} [Shiraz, capital of the Persian province of Fars, is celebrated for the attar-gûl, or attar of roses.]

[gf] {183} _Her Prophet did not clearly show_ _But Selim's place was quite secure_.--[MS.]

[161] [Compare _The Giaour_, line 490, note 1, _vide ante_, p. 110.]

[gg] _And one seemed red with recent guilt_.--[MS.]

[gh] {184} _Her Selim--"Alla--is it he?"_--[MS.]

[162] "Galiongée" or Galiongi [i.e. a Galleon-er], a sailor, that is, a Turkish sailor; the Greeks navigate, the Turks work the guns. Their dress is picturesque; and I have seen the Capitan Pacha, more than once, wearing it as a kind of _incog_. Their legs, however, are generally naked. The buskins described in the text as sheathed behind with silver are those of an Arnaut robber, who was my host (he had quitted the profession) at his Pyrgo, near Gastouni in the Morea; they were plated in scales one over the other, like the back of an armadillo.

[Gastuni lies some eight miles S.W. of Palæopolis, the site of the ancient Elis. The "Pyrgo" must be the Castle of Chlemutzi (Castel Tornese), built by Geoffrey II. of Villehouardin, circ. A.D. 1218.]

[gi] {185} _What--have I lived to curse the day?_--[MS. M.] _To curse--if I could curse--the day_.--[MS., ed. 1892.]

[gj] {186} _I swear it by Medina's shrine_.--[MS. erased.]

[163] The characters on all Turkish scimitars contain sometimes the name of the place of their manufacture, but more generally a text from the Koran, in letters of gold. Amongst those in my possession is one with a blade of singular construction: it is very broad, and the edge notched into serpentine curves like the ripple of water, or the wavering of flame. I asked the Armenian who sold it, what possible use such a figure could add: he said, in Italian, that he did not know; but the Mussulmans had an idea that those of this form gave a severer wound; and liked it because it was "piu feroce." I did not much admire the reason, but bought it for its peculiarity.

[Compare _Lalla Rookh_ ("Chandos Classics," p. 373)--"The flashing of their swords' rich marquetry."]

[164] {187} It is to be observed, that every allusion to any thing or personage in the Old Testament, such as the Ark, or Cain, is equally the privilege of Mussulman and Jew: indeed, the former profess to be much better acquainted with the lives, true and fabulous, of the patriarchs, than is warranted by our own sacred writ; and not content with Adam, they have a biography of Pre-Adamites. Solomon is the monarch of all necromancy, and Moses a prophet inferior only to Christ and Mahomet. Zuleika is the Persian name of Potiphar's wife; and her amour with Joseph constitutes one of the finest poems in their language. It is, therefore, no violation of costume to put the names of Cain, or Noah, into the mouth of a Moslem.

[_À propos_ of this note "for the ignorant," Byron writes to Murray (November 13, 1813), "Do you suppose that no one but the Galileans are acquainted with Adam, and Eve, and Cain, and Noah?--_Zuleika_ is the Persian _poetical name_ for Potiphar's wife;" and, again, November 14, "I don't care one lump of sugar for my _poetry;_ but for my _costume_, and my correctness on these points ... I will combat lustily."--_Letters_, 1898, ii. 282, 283.]

[165] {188} [Karaji['c] (Vuk Stefanovi['c], born 1787), secretary to Kara George, published _Narodne Srpske Pjesme_, at Vienna, 1814, 1815. See, too, _Languages and Literature of the Slavic Nations_, by Talvi, New York, 1850, pp. 366-382; _Volkslieder der Serben_, von Talvi, Leipzig, 1835, ii. 245, etc., and _Chants Populaires des Servics_, Recueillis par Wuk Stephanowitsch, et Traduits d'après Talvy, par Madame Élise Voïart, Paris, 1834, ii. 183, etc.]

[166] Paswan Oglou, the rebel of Widdin; who, for the last years of his life, set the whole power of the Porte at defiance.

[Passwan Oglou (1758-1807) [Passewend's, or the Watchman's son, according to Hobhouse] was born and died at Widdin. He first came into notice in 1788, in alliance with certain disbanded Turkish levies, named _Krdschalies_. "It was their pride to ride along on stately horses, with trappings of gold and silver, and bearing costly arms. In their train were female slaves, Giuvendi, in male attire, who not only served to amuse them in their hours of ease with singing and dancing, but also followed them to battle (as Kaled followed Lara, see _Lara_, Canto II. stanza xv., etc.), for the purpose of holding their horses when they fought." On one occasion he is reported to have addressed these "rebel hordes" much in the spirit of the "Corsair," "The booty be yours, and mine the glory." "After having for some time suffered a Pacha to be associated with him, he at length expelled his superior, and demanded 'the three horse-tails' for himself." In 1798 the Porte despatched another army, but Passwan was completely victorious, and "at length the Porte resolved to make peace, and actually sent him the 'three horse-tails'" (i.e. made him commander-in-chief of the Janissaries at Widdin). (See _History of Servia_, by Leopold von Ranke, Bohn, 1853, pp. 68-71. See, too, _Voyage dans l'Empire Othoman_, par G. A. Olivier, an. 9 (1801), i. 108-125; and Madame Voïart's "Abrégé de l'histoire du royaume de Servie," prefixed to _Chants Populaires, etc._, Paris, 1834.)]

[gk] _And how that death made known to me_ _Hath made me what thou now shalt see._--[MS.]

[167] {189} "Horse-tail,"--the standard of a Pacha.

[gl] _With venom blacker than his soul_.--[MS.]

[168] Giaffir, Pacha of Argyro Castro, or Scutari, I am not sure which, was actually taken off by the Albanian Ali, in the manner described in the text. Ali Pacha, while I was in the country, married the daughter of his victim, some years after the event had taken place at a bath in Sophia or Adrianople. The poison was mixed in the cup of coffee, which is presented before the sherbet by the bath keeper, after dressing.

[gm] {190} _Nor, if his sullen spirit could,_ _Can I forgive a parent's blood_.--[MS.]

[gn] {191} _Yet I must be all truth to thee_.--[MS.]

[go] {192} _To Haroun's care in idlesse left,_ _In spirit bound, of fame bereft_.--[MS. erased.]

[gp] {193} _That slave who saw my spirit pining_ _Beneath Inaction's heavy yoke,_ _Compassionate his charge resigning_.--[MS.]

[gq] _Oh could my tongue to thee impart_ _That liberation of my heart_.--[MS. erased.]

[169] I must here shelter myself with the Psalmist--is it not David that makes the "Earth reel to and fro like a Drunkard"? If the Globe can be thus lively on seeing its Creator, a liberated captive can hardly feel less on a first view of his work.--[Note, MS. erased.]

[170] The Turkish notions of almost all islands are confined to the Archipelago, the sea alluded to.

[171] {194} Lambro Canzani, a Greek, famous for his efforts, in 1789-90, for the independence of his country. Abandoned by the Russians, he became a pirate, and the Archipelago was the scene of his enterprises. He is said to be still alive at Petersburgh. He and Riga are the two most celebrated of the Greek revolutionists.

[For Lambros Katzones (Hobhouse, _Travels in Albania_, ii. 5, calls him Canziani), see Finlay's _Greece under Othoman ... Domination,_ 1856, pp. 330-334. Finlay dwells on his piracies rather than his patriotism.]

[172] {195} "Rayahs,"--all who pay the capitation tax, called the "Haratch."

["This tax was levied on the whole male unbelieving population," except children under ten, old men, Christian and Jewish priests.--Finlay, _Greece under Ottoman ... Domination_, 1856, p. 26. See, too, the _Qur'ân_, cap. ix., "The Declaration of Immunity."]

[173] This first of voyages is one of the few with which the Mussulmans profess much acquaintance.

[174] The wandering life of the Arabs, Tartars, and Turkomans, will be found well detailed in any book of Eastern travels. That it possesses a charm peculiar to itself, cannot be denied. A young French renegado confessed to Châteaubriand, that he never found himself alone, galloping in the desert, without a sensation approaching to rapture which was indescribable.

[175] [Inns, caravanserais. From _sar[=a]y_, a palace or inn.]

[176] [The remaining seventy lines of stanza xx. were not included in the original MS., but were sent to the publisher in successive instalments while the poem was passing through the press.]

[177] [In the first draft of a supplementary fragment, line 883 ran thus--

/ _a fancied_ \ _"and tints tomorrow with_ { } _ray_." \ _an airy_ /

A note was appended--

"Mr. M^y.^ Choose which of the 2 epithets 'fancied' or 'airy' may be best--or if neither will do--tell me and I will dream another--

"Yours,

"B^n^"

The epithet ("prophetic") which stands in the text was inserted in a revise dated December 3, 1813. Two other versions were also sent, that Gifford might select that which was "best, or rather _not worst_"--

/ _gilds_ \ "_And_ { } _the hope of morning with its ray_." \ _tints_ /

"_And gilds to-morrow's hope with heavenly ray_."

(_Letters_, 1898, ii. 282.)

On the same date, December 3rd, two additional lines were affixed to the quatrain (lines 886-889)--

_"Soft as the Mecca Muezzin's strains invite_ _Him who hath journeyed far to join the rite."_

And in a later revise, as "a last alteration"--

_"Blest as the call which from Medina's dome_ _Invites devotion to her Prophet's tomb."_

An erased version of this "last alteration" ran thus--

_"Blest as the Muezzin's strain from Mecca's dome_ _Which welcomes Faith to view her Prophet's tomb_."{A}

{A} [It is probable that Byron, who did not trouble himself to distinguish between "lie" and "lay," and who, as the MS. of _English Bards, and Scotch Reviewers_ (see line 732, _Poetical Works_, 1898, i. 355) reveals, pronounced "petit maître" _anglicé_ in four syllables, regarded "dome" (_vide supra_) as a true and exact rhyme to "tomb," but, with his wonted compliance, was persuaded to make yet another alteration.] ]

[gr] {196} Of lines 886-889, two, if not three, variants were sent to the publisher--

(1) _Dear as the Melody of better days_ _That steals the trembling tear of speechless praise_-- _Sweet as his native song to Exile's ears_ _Shall sound each tone thy long-loved voice endears_.-- [December 2, 1813.]

(2) /_Dear_\ /_better_ \ { } _as the melody of_ { } _days_ \_Soft_/ \_youthful_/ / _a silent_ \ _That steals_ { } _tear of speechless praise_-- \_the trembling_/

[178] {197} "Jannat-al-Aden," the perpetual abode, the Mussulman paradise. [See Sale's _Koran_, "Preliminary Discourse," sect. i.; and _Journal_, November 17, 1813, _Letters_, 1898, ii. 326.]

[gs] _Wait on thy voice and bow at thy command_.--[MS.]

[gt] _Oh turn and mingle every thought with his,_ _And all our future days unite in this_.--[MS.]

[179] ["You wanted some reflections, and I send you _per Selim_, eighteen lines in decent couplets, of a pensive, if not an _ethical_ tendency.... Mr. Canning's approbation (_if_ he did approve) I need not say makes me proud."--Letter to Murray, November 23, 1813, _Letters_, 1898, ii. 286.]

[gu] _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_, _By fatal Nature to our warring kind_.--[MS.]

[gv] {198} _Behold a wilderness and call it peace_,--[MS. erased.] _Look round our earth and lo! where battles cease_, _"Behold a Solitude and call it" peace_.--[MS.] or, _Mark even where Conquest's deeds of carnage cease_ _She leaves a solitude and calls it peace_.--[November 21, 1813].

[For the final alteration to the present text, see letter to Murray of November 24, 1813.]

[180] [Compare Tacitus, _Agricola_, cap. 30--

"Solitudinem faciun--pacem appellant."

See letter to Murray, November 24, 1813, _Letters_, 1898, ii. 287.]

[gw] _Power sways but by distrust--her sole source_.--[MS. erased.]

[gx] _Which Love to-night hath lent by swelling sail_.--[MS.]

[181] {199} [Compare--

"Quam juvat immites ventos audire cubantem, Et dominam tenero detinuisse sinu." Tibullus, _Eleg_., Lib. I. i. 45, 46.]

[gy] _Then if my lip once murmurs, it must be_.--[MS.]

[182] [The omission of lines 938, 939 drew from Byron an admission (Letter to Murray, November 29, 1813) that "the passage is an imitation altogether from Medea in Ovid" (_Metamorph_., vii. 66-69)--

"My love possest, in Jason's bosom laid, Let seas swell high;--I cannot be dismay'd While I infold my husband in my arms: Or should I fear, I should but fear his harms." Englished by Sandys, 1632.]

[gz] _This hour decides my doom or thy escape_.--[MS.]

[183] {200} [Compare--

"That thought has more of hell than had the former. Another, and another, and another!" _The Revenge_, by Edward Young, act iv. (_Modern British Drama_, 1811, ii. 17).]

[ha] {202} _Or grazed by wounds he scorned to feel_.--[MS.]

[hb] {203} Three MS. variants of these lines were rejected in turn before the text was finally adopted--

(1) {_Ah! wherefore did he turn to look_ {_I know not why he turned to look_ _Since fatal was the gaze he took?_ _So far escaped from death or chain_, _To search for her and search in vain:_ _Sad proof in peril and in pain_ _How late will Lover's hope remain._

(2) _Thus far escaped from death or chain_ _Ah! wherefore did he turn to look?_ _For her his eye must seek in vain,_ _Since fatal was the gaze he took._ _Sad proof, etc_.--

(3) _Ah! wherefore did he turn to look_ _So far escaped from death or chain?_ _Since fatal was the gaze he took_ _For her his eye but sought in vain,_ _Sad proof, etc_.--

A fourth variant of lines 1046, 1047 was inserted in a revise dated November 16--

_That glance he paused to send again_ _To her for whom he dies in vain_.

[hc] {204} _O'er which their talons yet delay_.--[MS. erased.]

[hd] {205} _And that changed hand whose only life_ _Is motion-seems to menace strife_.--[MS.]

[184] ["While the _Salsette_ lay off the Dardanelles, Lord Byron saw the body of a man who had been executed by being cast into the sea, floating on the stream, moving to and fro with the tumbling of the water, which gave to his arms the effect of scaring away several sea-fowl that were hovering to devour. This incident he has strikingly depicted in the _Bride of Abydos."--Life of Lord Byron_, by John Galt, 1830, p. 144.]

[185] A turban is carved in stone above the graves of _men_ only.

[186] The death-song of the Turkish women. The "silent slaves" are the men, whose notions of decorum forbid complaint in _public_.

[he] {206} _The Koran-chapter chaunts thy fate_.--[MS.]

[187] [At a Turkish funeral, after the interment has taken place, the Imâm "assis sur les genoux à côté de la tombe," offers the prayer _Telkin_, and at the conclusion of the prayer recites the _Fathah_, or "opening chapter" of the Korân. ("In the name of the merciful and compassionate God. Praise belongs to God, the Lord of the worlds, the Merciful, the Compassionate, the Ruler of the day of judgment. Thee we serve, and Thee we ask for aid. Guide us in the right path, the path of those Thou art gracious to; not of those Thou art wroth with; nor of those who err."--_The Qur'ân_, p. 1, translated by E. H. Palmer, Oxford, 1880): _Tableau Générale de l'Empire Ottoman_, par Mouradja D'Ohsson, Paris, 1787, i. 235-248. Writing to Murray, November 14, 1813, Byron instances the funeral (in the _Bride of Abydos_) as proof of his correctness with regard to local colouring.--_Letters_, 1898, ii. 283.]

[188] {207} ["I one evening witnessed a funeral in the vast cemetery of Scutari. An old man, with a venerable beard, threw himself by the side of the narrow grave, and strewing the earth on his head, cried aloud, 'He was my son! my only son!'"--_Constantinople in 1828_, by Charles Macfarlane, 1829, p. 233, note.]

[hf] _She whom thy Sultan had been fain to wed_.--[MS.]

[189] ["The body of a Moslemin is ordered to be carried to the grave in haste, with hurried steps."--_Ibid._, p. 233, note.]

[190] "I came to the place of my birth, and cried, 'The friends of my Youth, where are they?' and an Echo answered, 'Where are they?'"--_From an Arabic MS._ The above quotation (from which the idea in the text is taken) must be already familiar to every reader: it is given in the second annotation, p. 67, of _The Pleasures of Memory_ [note to Part I. line 103]; a poem so well known as to render a reference almost superfluous: but to whose pages all will be delighted to recur [_Poems_, by Samuel Rogers, 1852, i. 48].

[hg] _There the sad cypress ever glooms_.--[MS.]

[hh] {209} _But with the day blush of the sky_.--[MS.]

[hi] _And some there be who could believe_.--[MS.]

[191] "And airy tongues that _syllable_ men's names." Milton, _Comus_, line 208.

For a belief that the souls of the dead inhabit the form of birds, we need not travel to the East. Lord Lyttleton's ghost story, the belief of the Duchess of Kendal, that George I. flew into her window in the shape of a raven (see _Orford's Reminiscences, Lord Orford's Works_, 1798, iv. 283), and many other instances, bring this superstition nearer home. The most singular was the whim of a Worcester lady, who, believing her daughter to exist in the shape of a singing bird, literally furnished her pew in the cathedral with cages full of the kind; and as she was rich, and a benefactress in beautifying the church, no objection was made to her harmless folly. For this anecdote, see _Orford's Letters_.

["But here (at Gloucester) is a _modernity_, which beats all antiquities for curiosity. Just by the high altar is a small pew hung with green damask, with curtains of the same; a small corner-cupboard, painted, carved, and gilt, for books, in one corner, and two troughs of a bird-cage, with seeds and water. If any mayoress on earth was small enough to inclose herself in this tabernacle, or abstemious enough to feed on rape and canary, I should have sworn that it was the shrine of the queen of the aldermen. It belongs to a Mrs. Cotton, who, having lost a favourite daughter, is convinced her soul is transmigrated into a robin redbreast, for which reason she passes her life in making an aviary of the cathedral of Gloucester."--Letter to Richard Bentley, September, 1753 (_Lord Orford's Works_, 1798, v. 279).]

[192] {210} [According to J. B. Le Chevalier (_Voyage de La Propontide, etc._, an. viii. (1800), p. 17), the Turkish name for a small bay which formed the ancient port of Sestos, is _Ak-Bachi-Liman_ (Port de la Tête blanche).]

[hj] _And in its stead that mourning flower_ _Hath flourished--flourisheth this hour,_ _Alone and coldly pure and pale_ _As the young cheek that saddens to the tale_. _And withers not, though branch and leaf_ _Are stamped with an eternal grief_.--[MS.]

An earlier version of the final text reads--

_As weeping Childhood's cheek at Sorrow's tale!_

[193] ["_The Bride_, such as it is is my first _entire_ composition of any length (except the Satire, and be damned to it), for _The Giaour_ is but a string of passages, and _Childe Harold_ is, and I rather think always will be, unconcluded" (Letter to Murray, November 29, 1813). It (the _Bride_) "was published on Thursday the second of December; but how it is liked or disliked, I know not. Whether it succeeds or not is no fault of the public, against whom I can have no complaint. But I am much more indebted to the tale than I can ever be to the most partial reader; as it wrung my thoughts from reality to imagination--from selfish regrets to vivid recollections--and recalled me to a country replete with the _brightest_ and _darkest_, but always most _lively_ colours of my memory" (_Journal_, December 5, 1813, _Letters_, 1898, ii. 291, 361).]

THE CORSAIR:

A TALE.

----"I suoi pensieri in lui dormir non ponno."

Tasso, _Gerusalemme Liberata_, Canto X. [stanza lxxviii. line 8].

INTRODUCTION TO _THE CORSAIR_.

A seventh edition of the _Giaour_, including the final additions, and the first edition of the _Bride of Abydos_, were published on the twenty-ninth of November, 1813. In less than three weeks (December 18) Byron began the _Corsair_, and completed the fair copy of the first draft by the last day of the year. The _Corsair_ in all but its final shape, together with the sixth edition of the _Bride of Abydos_, the seventh of _Childe Harold_, and the ninth of the _Giaour_, was issued on the first of February, 1814.

A letter from John Murray to Lord Byron, dated February 3, 1814 (_Memoir of John Murray_, 1891, i. 223), presents a vivid picture of a great literary triumph--

"My Lord,--I have been unwilling to write until I had something to say.... I am most happy to tell you that your last poem _is_--what Mr. Southey's is _called_--a _Carmen Triumphale_. Never in my recollection has any work ... excited such a ferment ... I sold on the day of publication--a thing perfectly unprecedented--10,000 copies.... Mr. Moore says it is masterly--a wonderful performance. Mr. Hammond, Mr. Heber, D'Israeli, every one who comes ... declare their unlimited approbation. Mr. Ward was here with Mr. Gifford yesterday, and mingled his admiration with the rest ... and Gifford did, what I never knew him do before--he repeated several stanzas from memory, particularly the closing stanza--

"'His death yet dubious, deeds too widely known.'

"I have the highest encomiums in letters from Croker and Mr. Hay; but I rest most upon the warm feeling it has created in Gifford's critic heart.... You have no notion of the sensation which the publication has occasioned; and my only regret is that you were not present to witness it."

For some time before and after the poem appeared, Byron was, as he told Leigh Hunt (February 9, 1814; _Letters_, 1899, iii. 27), "snow-bound and thaw-swamped in 'the valley of the shadow' of Newstead Abbey," and it was not till he had returned to town that he resumed his journal, and bethought him of placing on record some dark sayings with regard to the story of the _Corsair_ and the personality of Conrad. Under date February 18, 1814, he writes--

"The _Corsair_ has been conceived, written, published, etc., since I last took up this journal [?last day but one]. They tell me it has great success; it was written _con amore_ [i.e. during the reign of Lady Frances Wedderburn Webster], and much from _existence_."

And again, _Journal_, March 10 (_Letters_, 1898, ii. 399),

"He [Hobhouse] told me an odd report,--that _I_ am the actual Conrad, the veritable Corsair, and that part of my travels are supposed to have passed in privacy [_sic;_?piracy]. Um! people sometimes hit near the truth; but never the whole truth. H. don't know what I was about the year after he left the Levant; nor does any one--nor--nor--nor--however, it is a lie--but, 'I doubt the equivocation of the fiend that lies like truth.'"

Very little weight can be attached to these "I could an I would" pronouncements, deliberately framed to provoke curiosity, and destined, no doubt, sooner or later to see the light; but the fact remains that Conrad is not a mere presentation of Byron in a fresh disguise, or "The Pirate's Tale" altogether a "painting of the imagination."

That the _Corsair_ is founded upon fact is argued at some length by the author (an "English Gentleman in the Greek Military Service") of the _Life, Writings, Opinions, and Times of the R. H. George Gordon Noel Byron_, which was published in 1825. The point of the story (i. 197-201), which need not be repeated at length, is that Byron, on leaving Constantinople and reaching the island of Zea (July, 1810), visited ["strolled about"] the islands of the Archipelago, in company with a Venetian gentleman who had turned buccaneer _malgré lui_, and whose history and adventures, amatory and piratical, prefigured and inspired the "gestes" of Conrad. The tale must be taken for what it is worth; but it is to be remarked that it affords a clue to Byron's mysterious entries in a journal which did not see the light till 1830, five years after the "English Gentleman" published his volumes of gossiping anecdote. It may, too, be noted that, although, in his correspondence of 1810, 1811, there is no mention of any tour among the "Isles of Greece," in a letter to Moore dated February 2, 1815 (_Letters_, 1899, iii. 176), Byron recalls "the interesting white squalls and short seas of Archipelago memory."

How far Byron may have drawn on personal experience for his picture of a pirate _chez lui_, it is impossible to say; but during the year 1809-11, when he was travelling in Greece, the exploits of Lambros Katzones and other Greek pirates sailing under the Russian flag must have been within the remembrance and on the lips of the islanders and the "patriots" of the mainland. The "Pirate's Island," from which "Ariadne's isle" (line 444) was visible, may be intended for Paros or Anti-Paros.

For the inception of Conrad (see Canto I. stanza ii.), the paradoxical hero, an assortment rather than an amalgam of incongruous characteristics, Byron may, perhaps, have been in some measure indebted to the description of Malefort, junior, in Massinger's _Unnatural Combat_, act i. sc. 2, line 20, sq.--

"I have sat with him in his cabin a day together,

* * * * *

Sigh he did often, as if inward grief And melancholy at that instant would Choke up his vital spirits.... When from the maintop A sail's descried, all thoughts that do concern Himself laid by, no lion pinched with hunger Rouses himself more fiercely from his den, Then he comes on the deck; and then how wisely He gives directions," etc.

The _Corsair_, together with the _Bride of Abydos_, was reviewed by Jeffrey in the _Edinburgh Review_ of April, 1814, vol. xxiii. p. 198; and together with _Lara_, by George Agar Ellis in the _Quarterly Review_ of July, 1814, vol. ii. p. 428.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE ON _THE CORSAIR_.

In comparison with the _Giaour_, the additions made to the _Corsair_ whilst it was passing through the press were inconsiderable. The original MS., which numbers 1737 lines, is probably the fair copy of a number of loose sheets which have not been preserved. The erasures are few and far between, and the variations between the copy and the text are neither numerous nor important.

In one of the latest revises stanza x. was added to the First Canto. The last four lines of stanza xi. first appeared in the Seventh Edition.

The Second Canto suffered no alteration except the substitution of lines 1131-1133 for two lines which were expunged.

Larger additions were made to the Third Canto. Lines 1299-1375, or stanza v. (included in a revise dated January 6, 1814), stanzas xvii. and xxiii., numbering respectively 77, 32, and 16 lines, and the two last lines of stanza x., 127 lines in all, represent the difference between the text as it now stands and the original MS.

In a note to Byron's _Poetical Works_, 1832, ix. 257, it is stated that the _Corsair_ was begun on the 18th and finished on the 31st of December, 1813. In the Introduction to the _Corsair_ prefixed to the Library Edition, the poem is said to have been composed in ten days, "at the rate of 200 lines a day." The first page of the MS. is dated "27th of December, 1813," and the last page "December 31, 1813, January 1, 1814." It is probable that the composition of the first draft was begun on the 18th and finished on the 27th of December, and that the work of transcription occupied the last five days of the month. Stanza v. of