Chapter 9

[223] {265} In Sir Thomas More, for instance, on the scaffold, and Anne Boleyn, in the Tower, when, grasping her neck, she remarked, that it "was too slender to trouble the headsman much." During one part of the French Revolution, it became a fashion to leave some "_mot_" as a legacy; and the quantity of facetious last words spoken during that period would form a melancholy jest-book of a considerable size.

[hv] {268} _I breathe but in the hope--his altered breast_ _May seek another--and have mine at rest._ _Or if unwonted fondness now I feign_.{A}--[MS.]

{A}[The alteration was sent to the publishers on a separate quarto sheet, with a memorandum, "In Canto _first_--nearly the end," etc.--a rare instance of inaccuracy on the part of the author.]

[224] {270} The opening lines, as far as section ii., have, perhaps, little business here, and were annexed to an unpublished (though printed) poem [_The Curse of Minerva_]; but they were written on the spot, in the Spring of 1811, and--I scarce know why--the reader must excuse their appearance here--if he can. [See letter to Murray, October 23, 1812.]

[225] [See _Curse of Minerva_, line 7, _Poetical Works_, 1898, i. 457. For Hydra, see A. L. Castellan's _Lettres sur la Morée_, 1820, i. 155-176. He gives (p. 174) a striking description of a _sunrise_ off the Cape of Sunium.]

[226] {271} Socrates drank the hemlock a short time before sunset (the hour of execution), notwithstanding the entreaties of his disciples to wait till the sun went down.

[227] The twilight in Greece is much shorter than in our own country: the days in winter are longer, but in summer of shorter duration.

[228] {272} The Kiosk is a Turkish summer house: the palm is without the present walls of Athens, not far from the temple of Theseus, between which and the tree, the wall intervenes.--Cephisus' stream is indeed scanty, and Ilissus has no stream at all.

[E. Dodwell (_Classical Tour_, 1819, i. 371) speaks of "a magnificent palm tree, which shoots among the ruins of the Ptolemaion," a short distance to the east of the Theseion. There is an illustration in its honour. The Theseion--which was "within five minutes' walk" of Byron's lodgings (_Travels in Albania_, 1858, i. 259)--contains the remains of the scholar, John Tweddell, died 1793, "over which a stone was placed, owing to the exertions of Lord Byron" (Clarke's _Travels_, Part II. sect. i. p. 534). When Byron died, Colonel Stanhope proposed, and the chief Odysseus decreed, that he should be buried in the same spot.--_Life_, p. 640.]

[229] {273} [After the battle of Salamis, B.C. 480, Paros fell under the dominion of Athens.]

[hw] {274} _They gather round and each his aid supplies_.--[MS.]

[hx] {275} _Within that cave Debate waxed warm and strange_.--[_MS_.] _Loud in the cave Debate waxed warm and strange_.-- [_January_ 6, 1814.] _In that dark Council words waxed warm and strange_.-- [_January_ 13, 1814.]

[230] [Lines 1299-1375 were written after the completion of the poem. They were forwarded to the publisher in time for insertion in a revise dated January 6, 1814.]

[231] The comboloio, or Mahometan rosary; the beads are in number ninety-nine. [_Vide ante_, p. 181, _The Bride of Abydos_, Canto II. line 554.]

[hy] {276} _Methinks a short release by ransom wrought_ _Of all his treasures not too cheaply bought_.--[MS. erased.] _Methinks a short release for ransom--gold_.--[MS.]

[hz] {277} _Of thine adds certainty to all I heard_.--[MS.]

[ia] {278} _When every coming hour might view him dead_.--[MS.]

[232] ["By the way--I have a charge against you. As the great Mr. Dennis roared out on a similar occasion--'By G-d, _that_ is _my_ thunder!' so do I exclaim, '_This_ is _my_ lightning!' I allude to a speech of Ivan's, in the scene with Petrowna and the Empress, where the thought and almost expression are similar to Conrad's in the 3d canto of _The Corsair_. I, however, do not say this to accuse you, but to exempt myself from suspicion, as there is a priority of six months' publication, on my part, between the appearance of that composition and of your tragedies" (Letter to W. Sotheby, September 25, 1815, _Letters_, 1899, iii. 219). The following are the lines in question:--

"And I have leapt In transport from my flinty couch, to welcome The thunder as it burst upon my roof, And beckon'd to the lightning, as it flash'd And sparkled on these fetters."