“Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita
Mi ritrovai per una selva oscura,” etc.
Inferno, Canto I, lines 1, 2
—Editor ↩
Himself in an age when men grow good,
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As Life’s best half is done—.
But out of reach—a most provoking sight.
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That ere her unreluctant lips could ope.
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One of the advocates employed for Queen Caroline in the House of Lords spoke of some of the most puzzling passages in the history of her intercourse with Bergami, as amounting to “odd instances of strange coincidence.”—Ed. 1833, XVI 160. —Editor ↩
At least as red as the Flamingo’s breast.
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Byron used Kaff for Caucasus, vide ante, English Bards, etc., line 1022, Poetical Works, 1898, I 378, note 3. But there may be some allusion to the fabulous Kaff, “anciently imagined by the Asiatics to surround the world, to bind the horizon on all sides.” There was a proverb “From Kaf to Kaf,” i.e. “the wide world through.” See, too, D’Herbelot’s Bibliothèque Orientale, 1697, art. “Caf.” —Editor ↩
See L. A. Seneca, De Irâ, lib. II cap. 25. —Editor ↩
Oh thou her lawful grandson Alexander
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Let not this quality offend—.
Compare The Age of Bronze, lines 434, sq., Poetical Works, 1901, V 563, note 1. —Editor ↩
To call a man a whoreson—.
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But a man’s grandmother is deemed fair game.
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It is probable that Byron knew that there was a “hint of illegitimacy” in his own pedigree. John Byron of Clayton, grandfather of Richard the second Lord Byron, was born, out of wedlock, to Elizabeth, daughter of William Costerden, of Blakesley, in Lancashire, widow to George Halgh of Halgh (sic), and second wife of Sir John Byron of Clayton, “little Sir John with the great beard.” He succeeded to Newstead and the Lancashire estates, not as heir-at-law, but by deed of gift. (See letter to Murray, October 20, 1820, Letters, 1901, V 99, note 2.) —Editor ↩
Aubry de la Motraye, in describing the interior of the Grand Signior’s palace, into which he gained admission as the assistant of a watchmaker who was employed to regulate the clocks, says that the eunuch who received them at the entrance of the harem, conducted them into a hall:
“Cette salle est incrustee de porcelaines fines; et le lambris doré et azuré qui orne le fond d’une coupole qui regne au-dessus, est des plus riches. … Une fontaine artificielle et jaillissante, dont le bassin est d’un prétieux marbre verd qui m’a paru serpentin ou jaspe, s’élevoit directement au milieu, sous le dôme. … Je me trouvai la tête si pleine de Sophas de prétieux plafonds, de meubles superbes, en un mot, d’une si grande confusion de matériaux magnifiques, … qu’il seroit difficile d’en donner une idée claire.”
—Voyages, 1727, I 220, 222
—Editor ↩
“Il n’ya point de Religieuses … point de novices, plus soumises à la volonté de leur abbesse que ces filles [les Odaliques] le sont à leurs maitresses.”
—A. de la Motraye, Voyages, 1727, I 338
—Editor ↩
—though seen not heard
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For it is silent.
“How fares my Kate? What! sweeting, all amort?”
—Taming of the Shrew, act IV sc. 3, line 36
“Amort” is said to be a corruption of à la mort. Byron must have had in mind his silent ecstasy of grief when the Countess Guiccioli endeavoured to break the announcement of Allegra’s death (April, 1822).
“ ‘I understand,’ said he; ‘it is enough; say no more.’ A mortal paleness spread itself over his face, his strength failed him, and he sunk into a seat. His look was fixed, and the expression such that I began to fear for his reason; he did not shed a tear.”
(Life, p. 368)
—Editor ↩
“His guilty soul, at enmity with gods and men, could find no rest; so violently was his mind torn and distracted by a consciousness of guilt. Accordingly his countenance was pale, his eyes ghastly, his pace one while quick, another slow [citus modo, modo tardus incessus]; indeed, in all his looks there was an air of distraction.”
—Sallust, Catilina, cap. XV sf.
—Editor ↩
“These [the seventh and eighth] Cantos contain a full detail (like the storm in Canto Second) of the siege and assault of Ismael, with much of sarcasm on those butchers in large business, your mercenary soldiery. … With these things and these fellows it is necessary, in the present clash of philosophy and tyranny, to throw away the scabbard. I know it is against fearful odds; but the battle must be fought; and it will be eventually for the good of mankind, whatever it may be for the individual who risks himself.”
—Letter to Moore, August 8, 1822, Letters, 1901, VI 101
—Editor ↩
Byron attributes this phrase to Orator Henley (Letters, 1898, I 227); and to Bayes in the Duke of Buckingham’s play, The Rehearsal (Letters, 1901, V 80). —Editor ↩
Of Fenelon, of Calvin and of Christ.
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Compare Childe Harold, Canto II stanza VII line 1, Poetical Works, 1899, II 103, note 2. —Editor ↩
Picking a pebble on the shore of Truth.
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“Sir Isaac Newton, a little before he died, said, ‘I don’t know what I may seem to
