Had made Despair a smilingness assume, [wreck Which, though 'twere wild, - -as on the plunder'd When mariners would madly meet their doom - With draughts intemperate on the sinking deck, · Did yet inspire a cheer, which he forebore to check. 1 XVII. Stop!-for thy tread is on an Empire's dust! In the first sixteen stanzas there is yet a mighty but groaning burst of dark and appalling strength. It was unquestionably the unexaggerated picture of a most tempestuous and sombre, but magnificent soul."- BRYDGES.] [These stanzas, -in which the author, adopting more distinctly the character of Childe Harold than in the original poem, assigns the cause why he has resumed his Pilgrim's staff, when it was hoped he had sat down for life a denizen of his native country, -abound with much moral interest and poetical beauty. The commentary through which the meaning of this melancholy tale is rendered obvious, is still in vivid remembrance; for the errors of those who excel their fellows in gifts and accomplishments are not soon forgotten. Those scenes, ever most painful to the bosom, were rendered yet more so by public discussion; and it is at least possible that amongst those who exclaimed most loudly on this unhappy occasion, were some in whose eyes literary superiority exaggerated Lord Byron's offence. The scene may be described in a few words: -the wise condemned - the good regretted-the multitude, idly or maliciously inquisitive, rushed from place to place, gathering gossip, which they mangled and exaggerated while they repeated it; and impudence, ever ready to hitch itself into notoriety, hooked on, as Falstaff enjoins Bardolph, blustered, bullied, and talked of "pleading a cause," and "taking a side.". SIR WALTER SCOTT.] XVIII. And Harold stands upon this place of skulls, [chain. He wears the shatter'd links of the world's broken XIX. Fit retribution! Gaul may champ the bit And foam in fetters; - but is Earth more free? Did nations combat to make One submit; Or league to teach all kings true sovereignty? What! shall reviving Thraldom again be The patch'd-up idol of enlighten'd days? Shall we, who struck the Lion down, shall we Pay the Wolf homage? proffering lowly gaze And servile knees to thrones? No; prove before ye praise! 1 "Pride of place" is a term of falconry, and means the highest pitch of flight. See Macbeth, &c. "An eagle towering in his pride of place," &c. 2 [In the original draught of this stanza (which, as well as the preceding one, was written after a visit to the field of Waterloo), the lines stood. "Here his last flight the haughty eagle flew, Then tore with bloody beak the fatal plain On seeing these lines, Mr. Reinagle sketched a spirited chained eagle, grasping the earth with his talons. The circumstance being mentioned to Lord Byron, he wrote thus to a friend at Brussels, -"Reinagle is a better poet and a better ornithologist than Í am eagles, and all birds of prey, attack with their talons, and not with their beaks; and I have altered the line thus:Then tore with bloody talon the rent plain.' This is, I think, a better line, besides its poetical justice."] XX. If not, o'er one fallen despot boast no more! XXI. There was a sound of revelry by night, 2 Soft eyes look'd love to eyes which spake again, But hush! hark! a deep sound strikes like a rising knell! 1 See the famous song on Harmodius and Aristogiton. The best English translation is in Bland's Anthology, by Mr. (now Lord Chief Justice) Denman, "With myrtle my sword will I wreathe," &c. 2 [There can be no more remarkable proof of the greatness of Lord Byron's genius, than the spirit and interest he has contrived to communicate to his picture of the often-drawn and difficult scene of the breaking up from Brussels before the great Battle. It is a trite remark, that poets generally fail in the representation of great events, where the interest is recent, and the particulars are consequently clearly and commonly known. It required some courage to venture on a theme beset with so many dangers, and deformed with the wrecks of so many former adventurers. See, however, with what easy strength he enters upon it, and with how much grace he gradually finds his way back to his own peculiar vein of sentiment and diction! - JEFFREY.] 3 On the night previous to the action, it is said that a ball was given at Brussels. The popular error of the Duke of Wellington XXII. Did ye not hear it? - No; 'twas but the wind, No sleep till morn, when Youth and Pleasure meet But hark! As if the clouds its echo would repeat; And nearer, clearer, deadlier than before! Arm! Arm! it is—it is - the cannon's opening roar ! XXIII. Within a window'd niche of that high hall And caught its tone with Death's prophetic ear; having been surprised, on the eve of the battle of Waterloo, at a ball given by the Duchess of Richmond at Brussels, was first corrected on authority, in the History of Napoleon Buonaparte, which forms a portion of the "Family Library." The Duke had received intelligence of Napoleon's decisive operations, and it was intended to put off the ball; but, on reflection, it seemed highly important that the people of Brussels should be kept in ignorance as to the course of events, and the Duke not only desired that the ball should proceed, but the general officers received his commands to appear at it-each taking care to quit the apartment as quietly as possible at ten o'clock, and proceed to join his respective dí. vision en route.] [The father of the Duke of Brunswick, who fell at Quatrebras, received his death-wound at Jena.] 2 [This stanza is very grand, even from its total unadornment. It is only a versification of the common narratives: but here may well be applied a position of Johnson, that "where truth is sufficient to fill the mind, fiction is worse than useless."- BRYDGES.] XXIV. Ah! then and there was hurrying to and fro, And gathering tears, and tremblings of distress, And cheeks all pale, which but an hour ago Blush'd at the praise of their own loveliness; And there were sudden partings, such as press The life from out young hearts, and choking sighs Which ne'er might be repeated; who could guess If ever more should meet those mutual eyes, Since upon night so sweet such awful morn could rise! XXV. And there was mounting in hot haste: the steed, The mustering squadron, and the clattering car, Went pouring forward with impetuous speed, And swiftly forming in the ranks of war; And the deep thunder peal on peal afar; And near, the beat of the alarming drum Roused up the soldier ere the morning star; While throng'd the citizens with terror dumb, Or whispering, with white lips "The foe! They come! they come!" XXVI. - And wild and high the " Cameron's gathering" rose! The war-note of Lochiel, which Albyn's hills Have heard, and heard, too, have her Saxon foes:How in the noon of night that pibroch thrills, Savage and shrill! But with the breath which fills Their mountain-pipe, so fill the mountaineers With the fierce native daring which instils The stirring memory of a thousand years, And Evan's, Donald's fame rings in each clansman's [ears! 1 Sir Evan Cameron, and his descendant Donald, the "gentle Lochiel" of the "forty-five." |