—Editor ↩
“The princess” (Asma Sultana, daughter of Achmet III) “complained of the barbarity which, at thirteen years of age, united her to a decrepit old man, who, by treating her like a child, had inspired her with nothing but disgust.”
—Memoirs of Baron de Toil, 1786, I 74
See, too, Mémoires, etc., 1784, I 84, 85. —Editor ↩
The connection between “horns” and Heaven, to which Byron twice alludes, is not very obvious. The reference may be to the Biblical “horn of salvation,” or to the symbolical horns of Divine glory as depicted in the Moses of Michel Angelo. Compare Mazeppa, lines 177, 178, Poetical Works, 1901, IV 213. —Editor ↩
—with solemn air and wise.
—[MS.]
Virginity in these unhappy climes.
—[MS.]
This stanza, which Byron composed in bed, February 27, 1821 (see Extracts from a Diary, Letters, 1901, V 209), is not in the first edition. On discovering the omission, he wrote to Murray:
“Upon what principle have you omitted … one of the concluding stanzas sent as an addition?—because it ended, I suppose, with—
‘And do not link two virtuous souls for life
Into that moral centaur, man and wife?’Now, I must say, once for all, that I will not permit any human being to take such liberties with my writings because I am absent. I desire the omissions to be replaced (except the stanza on Semiramis)—particularly the stanza upon the Turkish marriages.”
—Letter to Murray, August 31, 1821, Extracts from a Diary, Letters, p. 351
—Editor ↩
Meanwhile as Homer sometimes sleeps, much more
—[MS.]
The modern muse may be allowed to snore.
Two MSS. (A, B) are extant, A in Byron’s handwriting, B a transcription by Mrs. Shelley. The variants are marked respectively MS. A, MS. B.
Motto:
“Thinkest thou that because thou art virtuous there shall be no more cakes and ale? Aye! and ginger shall be hot in the mouth too.”
—Twelfth Night, or What You Will, Shakespeare, act II sc. 3, lines 109–112.—[MS. B]
This motto, in an amended form, which was prefixed to the First Canto in 1833, appears on the title-page of the first edition of Cantos VI, VII, VIII, published by John Hunt in 1823. —Editor ↩
See Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, act IV sc. 3, lines 216, 217. —Editor ↩
Jacob Behmen (or Boehm) stands for “mystic.” Byron twice compares him with Wordsworth (see Letters, 1899, III 239, 1900, IV 238). —Editor ↩
Man with his head reflects (as Spurzheim tells),
But Woman with the heart—or something else.
or,
Man’s pensive part is (now and then) the head,
—[MS. A. Alternative reading]
Woman’s the heart or anything instead.
Like to a Comet’s tail—.
—[MS. A erased]
O’erbalance all the Caesar’s victories.
—[MS. A]
Outbalance all the Caesar’s victories.
—[MS. B]
In the Shelley copy “o’erbalance” has been erased and “outbalance” inserted in Byron’s handwriting. The lines must have been intended to run thus—
’Tis not his conquests keep his name in fashion
But Actium lost; for Cleopatra’s eyes
Outbalance all the Caesar’s victories.
I wish that they had been eighteen—.
—[MS. A erased]
To Mary Chaworth. Compare
“Our union would have healed feuds … it would have joined lands broad and rich; it would have joined at least one heart.”
—Detached Thoughts, 1821, Letters, 1901, V 441
—Editor ↩
Cato gave up his wife Martia to his friend Hortensius; but, on the death of the latter, took her back again. This conduct was censured by Caesar, who observed that Cato had an eye to the main chance.
“It was the wealth of Hortensius. He lent the young man his wife, that he might make her a rich widow.”
—Langhorne’s Plutarch, 1838, pp. 539, 547
—Editor ↩
Othello, act I sc. I, lines 19–24. —Editor ↩
—though with greater latitude.
—[MS. A]
—with one foolish woman wed.
—[MS. B]
The famous bed, measuring twelve feet square, to which an allusion is made by Shakespeare in Twelfth Night, act III sc. 2, line 44, was formerly preserved at the Saracen’s Head at Ware, in Hertfordshire. The bed was removed from Ware to the Rye House in 1869. —Editor ↩
His Highness the sublimest of mankind,
—[MS. A]
The greatest, wisest, bravest, [and the] best,
Proved by his edicts somewhat blind,
Who saw his virtues as they saw the rest—
His Highness quite connubially inclined
Had deigned that night to be Gulbeyaz’ guest.
See Waverley [chap. XX]. ↩
May look like what I need not mention here
—[MS. A]
Are better signs if such things can be signed.
—[MS. A]
For St. Francis of Assisi, and the “seven great balls of snow,” of which “the greatest” was “his wife,” see The Golden Legend, 1900, V 221, vide ante, note 69. —Editor ↩
The words medio, etc., are to be found in Ovid., Metam., lib. II line 137; the doctrine, Virtus est medium vitiorum, in Horace,
