Marmion

Stanza XXI. line 408. but = except that. Cp. Tempest, i. 2. 414:-

                            ‘And, but he’s something stain’d 
      With grief that’s beauty’s canker, thou might’st call him 
      A goodly person.’

line 414. Byron, writing to Murray on 3 Feb., 1816, expresses his belief that he has unwittingly imitated this passage in ‘Parisina.’ ‘I had,’ he says, ‘completed the story on the passage from Gibbon, which indeed leads to a like scene naturally, without a thought of the kind; but it comes upon me not very comfortably.’ Byron is quite right in his assertion that, if he had taken this striking description of Constance as a model for his Parisina, he would have been attempting ‘to imitate that which is inimitable.’ See ‘Parisina,’ st. xiv:-

     ‘She stood, I said, all pale and still, 
      The living cause of Hugo’s ill.’

Stanza XXII. line 415. a sordid soul, &c. For such a character in the drama see Lightborn in Marlowe’s Edward II, and those trusty agents in Richard III, whose avowed hardness of heart drew from Gloucester the appreciative remark:-

     ‘Your eyes drop millstones, when fools’ eyes drop tears.’

                                         Richard III, i. 3. 353.

Stanza XXIII. line 438. grisly, grim, horrible; still an effective poetic word. It is, e.g., very expressive in Tennyson’s ‘Princess,’ sect. vi, where Ida sees

     ‘The haggard father’s face and reverend beard 
      Of grisly twine, all dabbled with the blood,’ &c.

See below, III. 382.

Stanza XXV. line 468. ‘It is well known, that the religious, who broke their vows of chastity, were subjected to the same penalty as the Roman vestals in a similar case. A small niche, sufficient to enclose their bodies, was made in the massive wall of the convent; a slender pittance of food and water was deposited in it, and the awful words, VADE IN PACE, were the signal for immuring the criminal. It is not likely that, in latter times, this punishment was often resorted to; but among the ruins of the abbey of Coldingham, were some years ago discovered the remains of a female skeleton, which, from the shape of the niche, and position of the figure, seemed to be that of an immured nun.’-SCOTT.

Lockhart adds:-‘The Edinburgh Reviewer, on st. xxxii, post, suggests that the proper reading of the sentence is vade in pacem-not part in peace, but go into peace, or eternal rest, a pretty intelligible mittimus to another world.’

Stanza XXVII. line 506. my = ‘of me,’ retains the old genitive force as in Elizabethan English. Cp. Julius Caesar, i. I. 55:-

                                    ‘In his way 
      That comes in triumph over Pompey’s blood.’

line 516. The very old fancy of a forsaken lover’s revenge has been powerfully utilized in D. G. Rossetti’s fascinating ballad, ‘Sister Helen’:-

     ‘Pale, pale her cheeks, that in pride did glow, 
                                 Sister Helen, 
      ‘Neath the bridal-wreath three days ago.’ 
     ‘One morn for pride and three days for woe, 
                                 Little brother!’