maxims of society," said his Lordship, "throw over their secret sins, and show them to the world as they really are." Postscript. We had intended to stop with the above - but after it was too late to derange the order of our earlier testimonies, our attention was solicited to a sportive effusion by the learned Dr. William Maginn, of Trinity College, Dublin, which appears to us not unworthy of being transferred to this Olla podrida. Every one ought to have, but every one has not, by heart Wordsworth's "Yarrow Unvisited; " therefore we shall place the original alongside of the parody. YARROW UNVISITED (1809). FROM Stirling Castle we had seen The mazy Forth unravell'd; Had trod the banks of Clyde and Tay, And with the Tweed had travell'd; And when we came to Clovenford, Then said my "winsome Marrow," "Whate'er betide, we'll turn aside, And see the Braes of Yarrow." "Let Yarrow Folk, frae Selkirk Town, Who have been buying, selling, Go back to Yarrow, 't is their own; Each Maiden to her Dwe.ling! On Yarrow's banks let herons feed, Hares couch, and rabbits burrow! But we will downwards with the Tweed, Nor turn aside to Yarrow. "There's Gala Water, Leader Haughs, Both Jying right before us; And Dryborough, where with chiming Tweed The Lintwhites sing in chorus; There's pleasant Tiviot Dale, a land [row: Made b'ithe with plough and har Why threw away a needful day To go in search of Yarrow? "What's Yarrow but a River hare, That glides the dark hills under ? There are a thousand such elsewhere As worthy of your wonder." -Strange words they seem'd of slight and scorn: My true-love sigh'd for sorrow; And look'd me in the face, to think I thus could speak of Yarrow ! "Oh! green," said I, "are Yarrow's Holms, And sweet is Yarrow flowing! Fair hangs the apple frae the rock, But we will leave it growing. O'er hilly path, and open Strath, We'll wander Scotland thorough; But, though so near, we will not turn Into the Dale of Yarrow. DON JUAN UNREAD (1819). Or Corinth Castle we had read The amazing Siege unravell'd, And swallow' Lara and the Giao ir, And with Childe Harold traveli'd; And so we foilow'd Cloven foot, And faithfully as any, Until he cried, "Come turn aside, And read of Don Giovanni." "Let Whiggish folk, frae Holland House, Who have been lying, prating, Read Don Giovanni, 'tis their own; A child of their creating! On jests profane they love to feed, And there they are and many! But we, who link not with the crew, Regard not Don Giovanni. "There 's Godwin's daughter, Shelley's wife, A writing fearful stories; There's Hazlitt, who, with Hunt and Keats, Brays forth in Cockney chorus; There's pleasant Thomas Moore, a Who sings of Rose and Fanny: Why throw away these wits so gay To take up Don Giovanni? "What's Juan but a shameless tale That bursts all rules asunder There are a thousand such elsewhere As worthy of your wonder." Strange words they seem'd of slight and scorn; His lordship look'd not canny; And took a pinch of snut, to think I flouted Don Giovanni! "Oh! rich," said I, "are Juan's rhymes, And warm its verse is flowing! Fair crops of blasphemy it bears, But we will leave them growing: In Pindar's strain, in prose of Paine, And many another Zany, As gross we read, so where's the need To wade through Don Giovanni ? cattle "Let beeves and home-bred kine "Let Colburn's town-bred partake The sweets of Burn-mill meadow; The swan on still St. Mary's Lake Float double, swan and shadow! We will not see them; will not go To day, nor yet to-morrow; Enough if in our hearts we know There's such a place as Yarrow. "Be Yarrow Stream unseen, unknown! It must, or we shall rue it: We have a vision of our own; Ah! why should we undɔ it? The treasured dreams of times long past, [row! We'll keep them, winsome MarFor when we're there, although t'is T'will be another Yarrow. [fair, "If Care with freezing years should snuit The sweets of Lady Morgan ; We will not read them, will not hear unseen, un "Be Juan then known! It must, or we shall rue it; We may have virtue of our own; Ah! why should we undo it? The treasured faith of days long past, We still would prize o'er any; And grieve to hear the ribald jeer Of scamps like Don Giovanni. "When Whigs with freezing rule shall come, And piety seem folly; [Brougham, When Cam and Isis, curb'd by Shall wander melancholy; When Cobbett, Wooler, Watson, And all the swinish many, [Hunt, Shall rough-shod ride o'er Church Then hey for Don Giovanni." and State: DEDICATION. 1 I. BOB SOUTHEY! You're a poet-Poet-laureate, "Which pye being open'd they began to sing " Or Regent, who admires such kind of food; But like a hawk encumber'd with his hood, You, Bob! are rather insolent, you know, And be the only Blackbird in the dish; [This "Dedication" was suppressed, in 1819, with Lord Byron's reluctant consent; but, shortly after his death, its existence became notorious, in consequence of an article in the Westminster Review, generally ascribed to Sir John Hobhouse; and, for several years, the verses have been selling in the streets as a broadside. It could, therefore, serve no purpose to exclude them on the present occasion.] * [Coleridge's "Biographia Literaria" appeared in 1817.] 3 ["When, some years ago, a gentleman, the chief writer and conductor of a celebrated review, distinguished by its hostility to Mr. Southey, spent a day or two at Keswick, he was circumstantially informed by what series of accidents it had happened, that Mr. Wordsworth, Mr. Southey, and I had become neighbours; and how utterly groundless was the supposition, that we considered ourselves as belonging to any common school, but that of good sense, confirmed by the long-established models of the best times of Greece, Rome, Italy, and England; and still more groundless the notion, that Mr. Southey (for, as to myself, I have published so little, and that little of so little importance, as to make it almost ludicrous to mention my name at all) could have been concerned in the formation of a poetic sect with Mr. Wordsworth, when so many of his works had been published, not only previously to any acquaintance between them, but before Mr. Wordsworth himself had written any thing but in a dietion ornate, and uniformly sustained; when, too, the slightest examination will make it evident, that between those and the after-writings of Mr. Southey there exists no other difference than that of a progressive degree of excellence, from progressive developement of power, and progressive facility from habit and increase of experience. Yet, among the first articles which this man wrote after his return from Keswick, we were characterised as the School of whining and hypochondriacal poets that haunt the Lakes.'" - COLERIDGE.] [occan. That Poesy has wreaths for you alone: There is a narrowness in such a notion, Which makes me wish you'd change your lakes for VI. I would not imitate the petty thought, Nor coin my self-love to so base a vice, For all the glory your conversion brought, Since gold alone should not have been its price. You have your salary; was 't for that you wrought? And Wordsworth has his place in the Excise. 2 You're shabby fellows-true. but poets still, And duly seated on the immortal hill. VII. [Mr. Southey is the only poet of the day that ever resided at Keswick. Mr. Wordsworth, who lived at one time on Grasmere, has for many years past occupied Mount Rydal, near Ambleside: Professor Wilson possesses an elegant villa on Windermere: Coleridge, Lambe, Lloyd, and others classed by the Edinburgh Review in the Lake School, never, we believe, had any connection with that part of the country.] 2 Wordsworth's place may be in the Customs-it is, I think, in that or the Excise-besides another at Lord Lonsdale's table, where this poetical charlatan and political parasite licks up the crumbs with a hardened alacrity; the converted Jacobin having long subsided into the clownish sycophant of the worst prejudices of the aristocracy. elder 3 Pale, but not cadaverous: "— Milton's two daughters are said to have robbed him of his books, besides cheating and plaguing him in the economy of his house, &c. &c. His feelings on such an outrage, both as a parent and a scholar, must have been singularly painful. Hayley compares him to Lear. See part third, Life of Milton, by W. Hayley (or Hailey, as spelt in the edition before me). Cold-blooded, smooth-faced, placid miscreant ! An orator of such set trash of phrase That even its grossest flatterers dare not praise, A bungler even in its disgusting trade, And botching, patching, leaving still behind Something of which its masters are afraid, States to be curb'd, and thoughts to be confined, Conspiracy or Congress to be made Cobbling at manacles for all mankind A tinkering slave-maker, who mends old chains, If we may judge of matter by the mind, Hath but two objects, how to serve, and bind, To worth as freedom, wisdom as to wit, 4 Or, "Would he subside into a hackney Laureate A scribbling, self-sold, soul-hired, scorn'd Iscariot ?" I doubt if "Laureate" and "Iscariot " be good rhymes, but must say, as Ben Jonson did to Sylvester, who challenged him to rhyme with-"I, John Sylvester, Lay with your sister." Jonson answered "I, Ben Jonson, lay with your wife." Sylvester answered, "That is not rhyme. "-"No," said Ben Jonson; "but it is true." For the character of Eutropius, the eunuch and minister at the court of Arcadius, see Gibbon. [ Eutropius, one of the principal eunuchs of the palace of Constantinople, succeeded the haughty minister whose ruin he had accomplished, and whose vices he soon imitated. He was the first of his artificial sex who dared to assume the character of a Roman magistrate and general. Sometimes, in the presence of the blushing senate, he ascended the tribunal to pronounce judgment, or to repeat elaborate harangues; and sometimes appeared on horseback, at the head of his troops, in the dress and armour of a hero. The disregard of custom and decency always betrays a weak and ill-regulated mind: nor does Eutropius seem to have compensated for the folly of the design by any superior merit or ability in the execution. His former habits of life had not introduced him to the study of the laws, or the exercises of the field; his awkward and unsuccessful attempts provoked the secret contempt of the spectators; the Goths expressed a wish that such a general might always command the armies of Rome, and the name of the minister was branded with ridicule, more pernicious, perhaps, than hatred to a public character." - GIBBON.] [Mr. Fox and the Whig Club of his time adopted an uniform of blue and buff: hence the coverings of the Edinburgh Review, &c.] 2 I allude not to our friend Landor's hero, the traitor Count Julian, but to Gibbon's hero, vulgarly yclept "The Apostate." 3 [Begun at Venice, September 6.; finished Nov. 1. 1818.] [We find the following Fragment on the back of the Poet's MS. of Canto I. "I would to heaven that I were so much clay, As I am blood, bone, marrow, passion, feeling- So that I seem to stand upon the ceiling) I say the future is a serious matterAnd so for God's sake-hock and soda-water!"] [Remodelled under the names of "Don Juan," "The Libertine," &c. &c., the old Spanish spiritual play, entitled "Atheista Fulminato," formerly acted in the churches and monasteries, has had its day of favour in every country throughout Europe. It was first introduced upon the regular stage. under the title of "El Burlador de Sevilla y Combidado de Pierra," by Gabriel Tellez, the cotemporary of Calderon. It was soon translated into Italian by Cicognini, and performed with so much success in this language, not only in Italy but even at Paris, that Molière, shortly before his death, produced a come ly in five acts, called "Don Juan; ou, Le Festin de Pierre.' This piece was, in 1677, put into verse by T. Corneille; and thus it has been performed on the French stage ever since. In 1676, Shadwell, the successor of Dryden in the laureateship, introduced the subject into this country, in his tragedy of the "Libertine;" but he made his hero so unboundedly wicked, as to exceed the limits of probability. In all these works, as well as in Mozart's celebrated opera, the Don is uniformly represented as a travelling rake, who practises every where the arts of seduction, and who, for his numerous delínquencies, is finally consumed by flames coram populo, or, as Lord Byron has it," Sent to the devil somewhat ere his time."] 6 [Admiral Vernon, who served with considerable distinction in the navy, particularly in the capture of Porto Bello, died in 1757.] 7 [Second son of George II., distinguished himself at the battles of Dettingen and Fontenoy, and still more so at that Don Juan.' CANTO THE FIRST.4 I. I WANT a hero: an uncommon want, When every year and month sends forth a new one, Till, after cloying the gazettes with cant, The age discovers he is not the true one; Of such as these I should not care to vaunt," II. Vernon 6, the butcher Cumberland 7, Wolfe, Hawke?, Prince Ferdinand 10, Granby 11, Burgoyne 2, Kep pel 13, Howe 14, Evil and good, have had their tithe of talk, of Culloden, where he defeated the Chevalier, in 1746. The Duke, however, obscured his fame by the cruel abuse which he made, or suffered his soldiers to make, of the victory. Ho died in 1765.] 8 [General Wolfe, the brave commander of the expedition against Quebec, terminated his career in the moment of victory, whilst fighting against the French in 1759.] 9 [In 1759. Admiral Lord Hawke totally defeated the French fleet equipped at Brest for the invasion of England. In 1765 he was appointed First Lord of the Admiralty'; and died, full of honours, in 1781.] 10 [Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick, who gained the victory of Minden. In 1762, he drove the French out of Hesse. lie died in 1792.] [Son of the third Duke of Rutland - signalised himself in 1745, on the invasion by Prince Charles; and was constituted, in 1759, commander of the British forces in Germany. He died in 1770.] 12 [An English general officer and dramatist, who distinguished himself in the defence of Portugal, in 1762, against the Spaniards, and also in America by the capture of Ticonderoga; but was at last obliged to surrender, with his army, to General Gates. Died in 1792.] 13 [Second son of the Earl of Albemarle. Placed at the head of the Channel fleet, he partially engaged, in 1778, the French fleet off Ushant, which contrived to escape: he was, in consequence, tried by a court martial, and honourably ac quitted. He died in 1786.] 14 [Lord Howe distinguished himself on many occasions during the American war. On the breaking out of the French war, he took the command of the English fleet, and, bringing the enemy to an action on the 1st of June, 1791, obtained a splendid victory. He died in 1799.] 15 [We find on Lord Byron's MS. the following note to this stanza: "In the eighth and concluding lecture of Mr. Hazlitt's canons of criticism, delivered at the Surrey Institution, I am accused of having lauded Buonaparte to the skies in the hour of his success, and then peevishly wreaking my disappointment on the god of my idolatry. The first lines I ever wrote upon Buonaparte were the Ode to Napoleon' [see antè, p. 460.], after his abdication in 1814. All that I have ever written on that subject has been done since his decline; I never met him in the hour of his success.' I have considered his character at different periods, in its strength and in its weakness: by his zealots l ́am accused of injustice by his enemies as his warmest partisan; in many publications, both English and foreign. "For the accuracy of my delineation I have high authority. A year and some months ago, I had the pleasure of seeing at Venice my friend the honourable Douglas Kinnaird. In his way through Germany, he told me that he had been honoured with a presentation to, and some interviews with, one of the nearest family connections of Napoleon gene Beauharnais). During one of these, he read and translated the lines alluding to Buonaparte, in the third Canto of Childe Harold [unte, p. 32.]. Ile informed me, that he was authorised by the illustrious personage-(still re (Eu. cognised as such by the Legitimacy in Europe) - to whom they were read, to say, that the delineation was complete,' or words to this effect. It is no puerile vanity which induces me to publish this fact; but Mr. Hazlitt accuses my inconsistency, and infers my inaccuracy. Perhaps he will admit that, with regard to the latter, one of the most intimate family connections of the Emperor may be equally capable of deciding on the subject. I tell Mr. Hazlitt, that I never flattered Napoleon on the throne, nor maligned him since his fall. I wrote what I think are the incredible antitheses of his character. Mr. Hazlitt accuses me further of delineating myself in Childe Harold, &c. &c. I have denied this long ago-but, even were it true, Locke tells us, that all his knowledge of human understanding was derived from studying his own mind. From Mr. Hazlitt's opinion of my poetry I do not appeal; but I request that gentleman not to insult me by imputing the basest of crimes, viz. praising publicly the same man whom I wished to depreciate in his adversity:'the first lines I ever wrote on Buonaparte were in his dispraise, in 1814, the last, though not at all in his favour, were more impartial and discriminative, in 1818. Has he become more fortunate since 1814 ?- Byron, Venice, 1819."] [Barnave, one of the most active promoters of the French revolution, was in 1791 appointed president of the Constituent Assembly. On the flight of the royal family, he was sent to conduct them to Paris. He was guillotined, Nov. 1793.] 2 [Brissot de Warville, at the age of twenty, published several tracts, for one of which he was, in 1784, thrown into the Bastile. Ile was one of the principal instigators of the revolt of the Champ de Mars, in July, 1789. He was led to the guillotine, Oct. 1793.] 3 [Condorcet was, in 1792, appointed president of the Legislative Assembly. Having, in 1793, attacked the new Constitution, he was denounced. Being thrown into prison, he was on the following morning found dead, apparently from poison. His works are collected in twenty-one volumes.] [Mirabeau, so well known as one of the chief promoters of, and actors in, the French revolution, died in 1791.] 5 [Petion, mayor of Paris in 1791, took an active part in the imprisonment of the king. Becoming, in 1793, an object of suspicion to Robespierre, he took refuge in the department of the Calvados; where his body was found in a field, halfdevoured by wolves.] 6 [John Baptiste (better known under the appellation of Anacharsis) Clootz. In 1790, at the bar of the National Convention, he described himself as "the orator of the human race." Being suspected by Robespierre, he was, in 1794, condmned to death. On the scaffold he begged to be decapirated the last, as he wished to make some observations essential to the establishment of certain principles, while the heads of the others were falling; a request obligingly complied with.] 7 [Danton played a very important part during the first years of the French revolution. After the fall of the king, he was made Minister of Justice. His violent measures led to the bloody scenes of September, 1792. Being denounced to the Committee of Safety, he ended his carcer on the guillotine, in 1794.] 8 [This wretch figured among the actors of the 10th August, and in the assassinations of September, 1792. In May, 1793. he was denounced, and delivered over to the revolutionary tribunal, which acquitted him; but his bloody career was arrested by the knife of an assassin, in the person of Charlotte Cordé.] V. Brave men were living before Agamemnon 16 A good deal like him too, though quite the same none; Fit for my poem (that is, for my new one); So, as I said, I'll take my friend Don Juan. 17 Most epic poets plunge " in medias res" (Horace makes this the heroic turnpike road), 18 And then your hero tells, whene'er you please, What went before-by way of episode, While seated after dinner at his ease, Beside his mistress in some soft abode, Palace, or garden, paradise, or cavern, Which serves the happy couple for a tavern. 9 [Of all these "famous people," the General was the last survivor. He died in 1834.] 10 [Joubert distinguished himself at the engagements of Laono, Montenotte, Millesimo, Cava, Montebello, Rivoli, and especially in the Tyrol. He was afterwards opposed to Suwarrow, and was killed, in 1799, at Novi.] 11 [In 1796, Hoche was appointed to the command of the expedition against Ireland, and sailed in December from Brest; but, a storm dispersing the fleet, the plan failed. After his return, he received the command of the army of the Sambre and Meuse; but died suddenly, in September, 1797, it was supposed of poison.] 12 [General Marceau first distinguished himself in La Vendée. He was killed by a rifle-ball at Alterkerchen. See antè, p. 34.] 13 [Lannes, Duke of Montebello, distinguished himself at Millesimo, Lodi, Aboukir. Acre, Montebello, Austerlitz, Jena, Pultusk, Preuss Eylau, Friedland, Tudela, Saragossa, Echmuhl, and, lastly, at Esling; where, in May, 1809, he was killed by a cannon-shot.] 14 [At the taking of Malta, and at the battles of Chebreiss and of the Pyramids, Desaix displayed the greatest bravery. He was mortally wounded by a cannon-ball at Marengo, just as victory declared for the French.] 15 [One of the most distinguished of the republican generals. In 1813, on hearing of the reverses of Napoleon in Russia, he joined the allied armies. He was struck by a cannon-ball at the battle of Dresden, in 1813.] 16 "Vixere fortes ante Agamemnona," &c.- HOR. Reign'd kings as great as he, and brave, In endless night they sleep, unwept, unknown, 17 [Mr. Coleridge, speaking of the original "Atheista Fulminato," says "Rank, fortune, wit, talent, acquired knowledge, and liberal accomplishments, with beauty of person, vigorous health, and constitutional hardihood-all these advantages, elevated by the habits and sympathies of noble birth and national character, are supposed to have combined in Don Juan,' so as to give him the means of carrying into all its practical consequences the doctrine of a godless nature, as the sole ground and efficient cause not only of all things, events, and appearances, but likewise of all our thoughts, sensations, impulses, and actions. Obedience to nature is the only virtue: the gratification of the passions and appetites her only dictate: each individual's self-will the sole organ through which nature utters her commands, and "Self-contradiction is the only wrong! That acts in strict consistence with itself." See SCHILLER'S Wallenstein.] 19 ["Semper ad eventum festinat, et in medias res, Non secus ac notas, auditorem rapit." "But to the grand event he speeds his course, And bears his readers, with impetuous force, Into the midst of things, while every line Opens, by just degrees, his whole design."-FRANCIS.] His mother was a learned lady, famed For every branch of every science known— With virtues equall'd by her wit alone Her memory was a mine: she knew by heart So that if any actor miss'd his part She could have served him for the prompter's copy; For her Feinagle's were an useless art, 3 And he himself obliged to shut up shop-he Could never make a memory so fine as That which adorn'd the brain of Donna Inez. + 1 [" The women of Seville are, in general, very handsome, with large black eyes, and forms more graceful in motion than can be conceived by an Englishman-added to the most becoming dress, and, at the same time, the most decent in the world. Certainly, they are fascinating; but their minds have only one idea, and the business of their lives is intrigue."- Byron Letters, 1809.J [ Quien no ha visto Sevilla, no ha visto maravilla."] 3 [Professor Feinagle, of Baden, who, in 1812, under the especial patronage of the Blues," delivered a course of lectures at the Royal Institution, on Mnemonics.] [“Lady Byron had good ideas, but could never express them: wrote poetry also, but it was only good by accident. Her letters were always enigmatical, often unintelligible. She was governed by what she called fixed rules and principles squared mathematically."— Byron Letters.] ["Little she spoke - but what she spoke was Attic all, With words and deeds in perfect unanimity."-MS.] 6 [Sir Samuel Romilly lost his lady on the 29th of October, and committed suicide on the 2d of November, 1818."But there will come a day of reckoning, even if I should not live to see it. I have at least seen Romilly shivered, who was one of my assassins. When that man was doing his worst to uproot my whole family, tree, branch, and blossoms -when, after taking my retainer, he went over to themwhen he was bringing desolation on my household gods. did he think that, in less than three years, a natural event XIL Her favourite science was the mathematical, She knew the Latin- that is, "the Lord's prayer," At least her conversation was obscure; She liked the English and the Hebrew tongue, ['em, But I must leave the proofs to those who've seen But this I heard her say, and can't be wrong, And all may think which way their judgments lean 'em, [am,' "Tis strange the Hebrew noun which means I The English always use to govern d—n." XV. Some women use their tongues—she look'd a lecture, Each eye a sermon, and her brow a homily, An all-in-all sufficient self-director, Like the lamented late Sir Samuel Romilly, 6 One sad example more, that "All is vanity," XVI. In short, she was a walking calculation, Miss Edgeworth's novels stepping from their covers," Or Mrs. Trimmer's books on education, 8 Or" Calebs' Wife" 9 set out in quest of lovers, In which not Envy's self a flaw discovers; a severe, domestic, but an expected and common calamity. would lay his carcass in a cross-road, or stamp his name in a verdict of lunacy! Did he (who in his sexagenary ✦ ✦ ✦) reflect or consider what my feelings must have been, when wife, and child, and sister, and name, and fame, and country, were to be my sacrifice on his legal altar, and this at a moment when my health was declining, my fortune embar rassed, and my mind had been shaken by many kinds of disappointment-while I was yet young, and might have reformed what might be wrong in my conduct, and retrieved what was perplexrig in my affairs! But he is in his grave," &c.-Byron Letters, June, 1819.] 7 [Maria Edgeworth, author of "Treatise on Practical Education," "Castle Rackrent," &c. &c. &c. "In 1813," says Lord Byron, "I recollect to have met Miss Edgeworth in the fashionable world of London. She was a nice little unassuming Jeannie Deans-looking body, as we Scotch say; and if not handsome, certainly not ill-looking. conversation was as quiet as herself. One would never have guessed she could write her name; whereas her father talked, not as if he could write nothing else, but as if nothing else was worth writing.".- Byron Diary, 1821.] Her 8["Comparative View of the New Plan of Education," "Teacher's Assistant," &c. &c.] 9 [Hannah More's" Calebs in Search of a Wife," &c.; a sermon-like novel, which had great success at the time, and is now forgotten.] |
