In the damned line (’tis worth, at least, a curse)
—[MS. erased]
Which I have examined too close.
Self-love that whetstone of Don Cupid’s art.
—[MS. A]
—with love despairs.
—[MS. A erased]
Lady Noel’s will was proved February 22, 1812. She left to the trustees a portrait of Byron … with directions that it was not to be shown to his daughter Ada till she attained the age of twenty-one; but that if her mother was still living, it was not to be so delivered without Lady Byron’s consent.—Letters, 1901, VI 42, note 1. —Editor ↩
Which diddles you—.
—[MS. A erased]
I’m a philosopher; G‑d damn them all.
—[MS. B]
Bills, women, wives, dogs, horses and mankind.
—[MS. B erased]
Is more than I know, and, so, damn them both.
—[MS. A erased]
When we lie down—wife, spouse, or bachelor
—[MS. A erased]
By what we love not, to sigh for the light.
By their infernal bedfellow—.
—[MS. A erased]
The comparison of Queen Caroline to snow may be traced to an article in the Times of August 23, 1820:
“The Queen may now, we believe, be considered as triumphing! For the first three years at least of her Majesty’s painful peregrinations, she stands before her husband’s admiring subjects ‘as white as unsunned snows.’ ”
Political bards and lampoonists of the king’s party thanked the Times for “giving them that word.” —Editor ↩
According to Gronow (Reminiscences, 1889, I 62), a practical joke of Dan Mackinnon’s (vide ante, note 1217) gave Byron a hint for this scene in the harem:
“Lord Wellington was curious about visiting a convent near Lisbon, and the lady abbess made no difficulty. Mackinnon hearing this contrived to get clandestinely within the sacred walls … at all events, when Lord Wellington arrived Dan Mackinnon was to be seen among the nuns, dressed out in their sacred costume, with his whiskers shaved; and, as he possessed good features, he was declared to be one of the best-looking among those chaste dames. It was supposed that this adventure, which was known to Lord Byron, suggested a similar episode in Don Juan.”
—Editor ↩
Caligula—vide Suetonius, De XII Caes., C. Caes. Calig., cap. XXX,
“Infensus turbae faventi adversus studium exclamavit: ‘Utinam populus Romanus unam cervicem haberet!’ ”
—Editor ↩
My wish were general but no worse.
—[MS. A erased]
That Womankind had only one—say heart.
—[MS. A erased]
The ladies of the Seraglio. ↩
Demetrius Cantemir, hospodar of Moldavia. His work, the History of the Growth and Decay of the Othman Empire, was translated into English by N. Tyndal, 1734. He died in 1723. —Editor ↩
Baron de Tott, in his Memoirs Concerning the State of the Turkish Empire (1786, I 72), gives the title of this functionary as Kiaya Kadun, i.e. Mistress or Governess of the Ladies. —Editor ↩
The repetition of the same rhyme-word was noted in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, July, 1823, vol. XIV p. 90. —Editor ↩
“I guess, ’twas frightful there to see
Christabel, Part I lines 66–68
A lady so richly clad as she—
Beautiful exceedingly.”
—Editor ↩
“It is in the adjacent climates of Georgia, Mingrelia, and Circassia, that nature has placed, at least to our eyes, the model of beauty, in the shape of the limbs, the colour of the skin, the symmetry of the features, and the expression of the countenance: the men are formed for action, the women for love.”
—Gibbon, [Decline and Fall, etc., 1825, III 126]
Padisha is the Turkish title of the Grand Signior. ↩
Katinka was the name of the youngest sister of Theresa, the “Maid of Athens.”—See letter to H. Drury, May 3, 1810, Letters, 1898, I 269, note 1; and Poetical Works, 1900, III 15, note 1.
It is probable that the originals of Katinka and Dudù were two Circassians who were presented for sale to Nicolas Ernest Kleeman (see his Voyage de Vienne, etc., 1780, pp. 142, 143) at Kaffa, in the Crimea. Of the first he writes,
“Elle me baisa la main, et par l’ordre de son maître, elle se promena en long et en large, pour me faire remarquer sa taille mince et aisée. Elle avoit un joli petit pied. … Quand elle a en ôté son voile elle a présenté à mes yeux une beauté très-attrayante; ses cheveux étoient blonds argentés; elle avoit de grands yeux bleux, le nez un peu long, et les lèvres appétissantes. Sa figure étoit régulière, son teint blanc, délicat, les joues couvertes d’un charmant vermilion. … La seconde étoit un peu petite, assez grasse, et avoit les cheveux roux, l’air sensuel et revenant.”
Kleeman pretended to offer terms, took notes, and retired. But the Circassians are before us still. —Editor ↩
Macbeth, act II sc. 2, line 36. —Editor ↩
By which no doubt its Baptism came to pass.
—[MS. A erased]
The Devil in Hell might melt but never settle.
—[MS. A erased]
Hence the title of the satire, The Age of Bronze. —Editor ↩
For Woman’s silence startles more than thunder.
—[MS. A erased]
Compare Beppo, stanza XXII line 2, Poetical Works, 1901, IV 166, note 1. —Editor ↩
With no less true and feminine surprise.
—[MS. A erased]
