Chapter 7

Compare, too, Shakespeare, _Coriolanus_, act iii. sc. i, lines 66, 67.

[14] {28}["Rode. Winter's wind somewhat more unkind than ingratitude itself, though Shakespeare says otherwise. At least, I am so much more accustomed to meet with ingratitude than the north wind, that I thought the latter the sharper of the two. I had met with both in the course of the twenty-four hours, so could judge."--_Extracts from a Diary_, January 19, 1821, _Letters_, 1901, v. 177.]

[g] {31} ----_and even dared_ _Profane our presence with his savage jeers_.--[MS. M.]

[h] {34} _Who loved no gems so well as those of nature_.--[MS. M.]

[i] _Wishing eternity to dust_----.--[MS. M.]

[j] {38} _Each twinkle unto which Time trembles, and_ _Nations grow nothing_----.--[MS. M. erased.]

[15] {40}[Compare "these swoln silkworms," _Marino Faliero_, act ii. sc. 2. line 115, _Poetical Works_, 1901, iv. 386, note 4.]

[k] {43} _But found the Monarch claimed his privacy_.--[MS. M. erased.]

[l] ----_not else_ _It quits this living hand_.--[MS. M. erased.]

[m] _I know them beautiful, and see them brilliant_.--[MS. M. erased.]

[n] {49} ----_by the foolish confidence_.--[MS. M. erased.]

[16] [The first edition reads "grantor." In the MS. the word may be either "granter" or "grantor." "Grantor" is a technical term, in law, for one "who grants a conveyance."]

[17] {50}[According to Ælian, _Var. Hist._, vii. i, Semiramis, having obtained from her husband permission to rule over Asia for five days, thrust him into a dungeon, and obtained the sovereign power for herself (ed. Paris, 1858, p. 355).]

[o] {52} _Aye--that's earnest!_--[MS. M. erased.]

[p] {54} _Nay, if thou wilt not_----.--[MS. M. erased.]

[q] {56} _Nor silent Baal, our imaged deity_, _Although his marble face looks frowningly_, _As the dusk shadows of the evening cast_ _His trow in coming dimness and at times_.--[MS. M. erased.]

[r] / _a wide-spread_ \ _In distant flashes_ < _tempest_ > --[MS. M erased] \ _the approaching_ /

[s] _As from the Gods to augur_.--[MS. M. erased.]

[t] {58} _The weaker merit of our Asian women_.--[MS. M. erased.]

[u] _Rather than prove that love to you in griefs_.--[MS. M. erased.]

[v] {60} _Worshippers in the air_.--[MS. M. erased.]

[18] {61}[Perhaps Grillparzer's _Sappho_ was responsible for the anachronism. See "Extracts from a Diary," January 12, 1821, _Letters_, 1901, V. 171, note 1.]

[19] {63}["In the third act, when Sardanapalus calls for a _mirror_ to look at himself in his _armour_, recollect to quote the Latin passage from _Juvenal_ upon Otho (a similar character, who did the same thing: Gifford will help you to it). The trait is, perhaps, too familiar, but it is historical (of Otho, at least), and natural in an effeminate character."--Letter to Murray, May 30, 1821, _Letters_, 1901, v. 301. The quotation was not made in the first edition, 1821, nor in any subsequent issue, till 1832. It is from Juvenal, _Sat._ ii. lines 199-203--

"Ille tenet speculum, pathici gestamen Othonis, Actoris Aurunci spolium, quo se ille videbat Armatum, cum jam tolli vexilla juberet. Res memoranda novis annalibus, atque recenti Historia, speculum civilis sarcina belli."

"This grasps a mirror--pathic Otho's boast (Auruncan Actor's spoil), where, while his host, With shouts, the signal of the fight required, He viewed his mailed form; viewed, and admired! Lo, a new subject for the historic page, A MIRROR, midst the arms of civil rage!"

Gifford.]

[w] {66} ----_and his own helmet_.--[MS. M. erased.]

[x] {68} _We'll die where we were raised_----.--[MS. M. erased.]

[y] {70} _Tortured because his mind is tortured_.--[MS. M. erased.]

[z] _He ever such an order_----.--[MS. M. erased.] _He ever had that order_----.--[MS. M. erased.]

[20] {72}["When 'the king was almost dying with thirst' ... the eunuch Satibarzanes sought every place for water.... After much search he found one of those poor Caunians had about two quarts of bad water in a mean bottle, and he took it and carried it to the king. After the king had drawn it all up, the eunuch asked him, 'If he did not find it a disagreeable beverage?' Upon which he swore by all the gods, 'That he had never drunk the most delicious wine, nor the lightest and clearest water with so much pleasure. I wish only,' continued he, 'that I could find the man who gave it thee, that I might make him a recompense. In the mean time I entreat the gods to make him happy and rich.'"--Plutarch's _Artaxerxes_, Langhorne's translation, 1838, p. 694. Poetry as well as history repeats itself. Compare the "water green" which Gunga Din brought, at the risk of his own life, to fill the wounded soldier's helmet (_Barrack-Room Ballads_, by Rudyard Kipling, 1892, p. 25). Compare, too--

"_Arn._ 'Tis a scratch.... In the shoulder, not the sword arm-- And that's enough. I am thirsty: would I had A helm of water!"

_The Deformed Transformed_, part ii sc. ii. 44, seq., _vide post_, p. 518.]

[aa] {73}

----_ere they had time_ _To place his helm again_.--[MS. M. erased.]

[ab] _O ye Gods! wounded_.--[MS. M.]

[21] {73}[Compare--"His flashing eyes, his floating hair." _Kubla Khan_, line 49.]

[22] [Compare _Childe Harold_, Canto I. stanzas lv., lvi., _Poetical Works, 1898_, i. 57, 58, and note 11, pp. 91, 92.]

[23] {75}[Compare--

"How wonderful is Death, Death and his brother Sleep!"

Shelley's _Queen Mab, i. lines 1, 2_]

[ac] _Crisps the unswelling wave_.--[MS. M. erased]

[ad] {76}

_Old Hunter of mankind when baited and ye_ _All brutal who pursued both brutes and men_.--[MS. M. erased.]

[ae] {78} _With arrows peeping through his falling hair_.--[MS. M. erased.]

[24] [In the diary for November 23, 1813 (_Letters_, 1898, ii. 334, 335), Byron alludes to a dream which "chilled his blood" and shook his nerves. Compare Coleridge's _Pains of Sleep_, lines 23-26--

"Desire with loathing strangely mixed, On wild or hateful objects fixed. Fantastic passions! maddening brawl! And shame and terror over all!"]

[25] {79}[For the story of Semiramis and Ninya, see _Justinus Hist_., lib. i. cap. ii.]

[26] {81}[See Diod. Siculi _Bibl. Hist._, lib. ii. 80 c. Cotta was not a kinsman, but a loyal tributary.]

[af] {82} The MS. inserts--(_But I speak only of such as are virtuous_.)

[27] [Byron must often have pictured to himself an unexpected meeting with his wife. In certain moods he would write letters to her which were never sent, or never reached her hands. The scene between Sardanapalus and Zarina reflects the sentiments contained in one such letter, dated November 17, 1821, which Moore printed in his _Life_, pp. 581, 582. See _Letters_, 1901, v. 479.]

[ag] {84} _Bravely and won wear wisely--not as I_.--[MS. M, erased.]

[ah] {88}

_Which thou hast lighted up at once? but leavest_ _One to grieve o'er the other's change--Zarina_.-[MS. M, erased.]

[ai] {89} ----_natural_.--[MS. M. The first edition reads "mutual."]

[aj] {91} _Is heavier sorrow than the wrong which_--[MS. M. erased.]

[ak] {93} _A leech's lancet would have done as much_.--[MS. M. erased.]

[28] {94}[Myrrha's apostrophe to the sunrise may be compared with the famous waking vision of the "Solitary" in the Second Book of the _Excursion_ (_Works of Wordsworth_, 1889, p. 439)--

"The appearance, instantaneously disclosed, Was of a mighty city--boldly say A wilderness of building, sinking far And self-withdrawn into a boundless depth, Far sinking into splendour--without end! Fabric it seemed of diamond and of gold, With alabaster domes, and silver spires, And blazing terrace upon terrace, high Uplifted."

But the difference, even in form, between the two passages is more remarkable than the resemblance, and the interpretation, the moral of Byron's vision is distinct from, if not alien to, Wordsworth's. The "Solitary" sees all heaven opened; the revealed abode of spirits in beatitude--a refuge and a redemption from "this low world of care;" while Myrrha drinks in "enough of heaven," a medicament of "Sorrow and of Love," for the invigoration of "the common, heavy, human hours" of mortal existence. For a charge of "imitation," see _Works of Lord Byron_, 1832, xiii. 172, note I. See, too, _Poetical Works, etc._, 1891, p. 271, note 2.]

[al] {95}

_Sunrise and sunset form the epoch of_ _Sorrow and love; and they who mark them not_ {_Are fit for neither of those_ {_Can ne'er hold converse with these two_.--[MS. M. erased.]

[am] _Of labouring wretches in alloted tasks_.--[MS. M. erased.]

[an] {97} _We are used to such inflictions_.--[MS. M. erased.]

[29] {101} About two miles and a half.

[ao] {102} _Complexions, climes, æras, and intellects_.--[MS. M. erased.]

[30] {103}[Athenæus represents the treasures which Sardanapalus placed in the chamber erected on his funeral pile as amounting to a thousand myriads of talents of gold, and ten times as many talents of silver.]

[ap]

_Ye will find the crevice_ _To which the key fits, with a little care_.--[MS. M. erased.]

[31] {106}["Then the king caused a huge pile of wood to be made in the palace court, and heaped together upon it all his gold, silver, and royal apparel, and enclosing his eunuchs and concubines in an apartment within the pile, caused it to be set on fire, and burned himself and them together."--Diod. Siculi _Bibl. Hist._, lib. ii. cap. 81A.

"And he also erected on the funeral pile a chamber 100 feet long, made of wood, and in it he had couches spread, and there he himself lay down with his wife, and his concubines lay on other couches around.... And he made the roof of the apartment of large stout beams, and there all the walls of it he made of numerous thick planks, so that it was impossible to escape out of it,... And ... he bade the slaves set fire to the pile; and it was fifteen days burning. And those who saw the smoke wondered, and thought that he was celebrating a great sacrifice, but the eunuchs alone knew what was really being done. And in this way Sardanapalus, who had spent his life in extraordinary luxury, died with as much magnanimity as possible."--Athenæus, _Deipnosophistæ_, bk. xii. cap. 38.

See _Abydenus apud Eusebium_, Præp. Ev. 9. 41. 4; Euseb., _Chron_., 1878, p. 42, ed. A. Schoene.

Saracus was the last king of Assyria, and being invaded by Cyaxares and a faithless general Nabopolassar ... "unable to resist them, took counsel of despair, and after all means of resistance were exhausted, burned himself in his palace."

"The self-immolation of Saracus has a parallel in the conduct of the Israelitish king Zimri, who, 'when he saw that the city was taken, went into the palace of the king's house, and burnt the king's house over him, and died' (1 Kings xvi. 18); and again in that of the Persian governor Boges, who burnt himself with his wives and children at Eion (Herod., vii. 107)."--_The Five Great Monarchies, etc._, by Rev. G. Rawlinson, 1871, ii. 232, note 4.]

[aq] {109} _Funeréal_----.--[MS. M.]

[ar] _And strew the earth with, ashes_----.--[MS. M. erased.]

[as] {110}

----_And what is there_ _An Indian widow dares for custom which_ _A Greek girl_----.--[MS. M. erased.]

[32] {111}[Bishop Heber (_Quarterly Review_, July, 1821, vol. xxvii. p. 503) takes exception to these lines on the ground that they "involve an anachronism, inasmuch as, whatever date be assigned to the erection of the earlier pyramids, there can be no reason for apprehending that, at the fall of Nineveh, and while the kingdom and hierarchy of Egypt subsisted in their full splendour, the destination of those immense fabrics could have been a matter of doubt.... Herodotus, three hundred years later, may have been misinformed on these points," etc., etc. According to modern Egyptology, the erection of the "earlier pyramids" was an event of remotest antiquity when the Assyrian Empire was in its infancy.]

[33] End of Act fifth.--B. Ravenne. May 27^th^ 1821. Mem.--I began the drama on the 13th of January, 1821, and continued the two first acts very slowly and at long intervals. The three last acts were written since the 13th of May, 1821 (this present month, that is to say in a fortnight).

THE TWO FOSCARI:[34]

AN HISTORICAL TRAGEDY.[35]

"The _father_ softens, but the _governor's_ resolved."--_Critic_.[36]

[_The Two Foscari_ was produced at Drury Lane Theatre April 7, and again on April 18 and April 25, 1838. Macready played "Frances Foscari," Mr. Anderson "Jacopo Foscari," and Miss Helen Faucit "Marina."

According to the _Times_, April 9, 1838, "Miss Faucit's Marina, the most energetic part of the whole, was clever, and showed a careful attention to the points which might be made."

Macready notes in his diary, April 7, 1838 (_Reminiscences_, 1875, ii. 106): "Acted Foscari very well. Was very warmly received ... was called for at the end of the tragedy, and received by the whole house standing up and waving handkerchiefs with great enthusiasm. Dickens, Forster, Procter, Browning, Talfourd, all came into my room."]

INTRODUCTION TO _THE TWO FOSCARI_

The _Two Foscari_ was begun on June 12, and finished, within the month, on July 9, 1821. Byron was still in the vein of the historic drama, though less concerned with "ancient chroniclers" and original "authorities" (_vide ante_, Preface to _Marino Faliero_, vol. iv. p. 332) than heretofore. "The Venetian play," he tells Murray, July 14, 1821, is "rigidly historical;" but he seems to have depended for his facts, not on Sanudo or Navagero, but on Daru's _Histoire de la République de Vénise_ (1821, ii. 520-537), and on Sismondi's _Histoire des Républiques ... du Moyen Age_ (1815, x. 36-46). The story of the Two Doges, so far as it concerns the characters and action of Byron's play, may be briefly re-told. It will be found to differ in some important particulars from the extracts from Daru and Sismondi which Byron printed in his "Appendix to the _Two Foscari_" (_Sardanapalus, etc._, 1821, pp. 305-324), and no less from a passage in Smedley's _Sketches from Venetian History_ (1832,