7. 'My spouse and boys dwell near thy hall, And when they on their father call, 8. "For who would trust the seeming sighs Fresh feres will dry the bright blue eyes No thing that claims a tear.3 crying, I don't know which. I did what I could to console him, but found him incorrigible. He sends six sighs to Sally. I shall settle him in a farm; for he has served me faithfully, and Sally is a good woman." After all his adventures by flood and field, short commons included, this humble Achates of the poet has now established himself as the keeper of an Italian warehouse, in Charles Street, Berkeley Square, where, if he does not thrive, every one who knows any thing of his character will say he deserves to do so.] 1 2 ["Enough, enough, my yeoman good, But if I in thy sandals stood, ["For who would trust a paramour, Or e'en a wedded freere, Though her blue eyes were streaming o'er, 3 ["I leave England without regret-I shall return to it without pleasure. I am like Adam, the first convict sentenced to transportation; but I have no Eve, and have eaten no apple but what was sour as a crab."- Lord B. to Mr. Hodgson.] 9. "And now I'm in the world alone, But why should I for others groan, 10. "With thee, my bark, I'll swiftly go Nor care what land thou bear'st me to, Welcome, welcome, ye dark-blue waves! Welcome, ye deserts, and ye caves! My native Land · Good Night! "3 [From the following passage in a letter to Mr. Dallas, it would appear that that gentleman had recommended the suppression or alteration of this stanza :-"I do not mean to exchange the ninth verse of the Good Night.' I have no reason to suppose my dog better than his brother brutes, mankind; and Argus we know to be a fable."] 2 [Here follows, in the original MS. : "Methinks it would my bosom glad To change my proud estate, And be again a laughing lad Since youth I scarce have pass'd an hour Except sometimes in Lady's bower, 3 [Originally, the "little page" and the "yeoman' troduced in the following stanzas: were in "And of his train there was a henchman page, XIV. On, on the vessel flies, the land is gone, [reap. And steer 'twixt fertile shores where yet few rustics XV. Oh, Christ! it is a goodly sight to see What Heaven hath done for this delicious land! Gaul's locust host, and earth from fellest foemen purge, 1 Then would he smile on him, and Alwin smiled, "Him and one yeoman only did he take To travel eastward to a far countrie; And, though the boy was grieved to leave the lake With hope of foreign nations to behold, Of which our vaunting voyagers oft have told, In many a tome as true as Mandeville's of old."] ["These Lusian brutes, and earth from worst of wretches purge." MS.] XVI. What beauties doth Lisboa first unfold! A nation swoln with ignorance and pride, XVII. But whoso entereth within this town, That, sheening far, celestial seems to be, Disconsolate will wander up and down, 'Mid many things unsightly to strange ee; 4 For hut and palace show like filthily: The dingy denizens are rear'd in dirt; Ne personage of high or mean degree Doth care for cleanness of surtout or shirt, Though shent with Egypt's plague, unkempt, unwash'd; unhurt. 1 ["A friend advises Ulissipont; but Lisboa is the Portuguese word, consequently the best. Ulissipont is pedantic; and as I had lugged in Hellas and Eros not long before, there would have been something like an affectation of Greek terms, which I wished to avoid. On the submission of Lusitania to the Moors, they changed the name of the capital, which till then had been Ulisipo, or Lispo; because, in the Arabic alphabet, the letter p is not used. Hence, I believe, Lisboa; whence, again, the French Lisbonne, and our Lisbon, -God knows which the earlier corruption! - Byron, MS.] 2 ["Which poets, prone to lie, have paved with gold."- MS.] 3 [By comparing this and the thirteen following stanzas with the account of his progress which Lord Byron sent home to his mother, the reader will see that they are the exact echoes of the thoughts which occurred to his mind as he went over the spots described. MOORE.] 4 [" 'Mid many things that grieve both nose and ee."-MS.] XVIII. Poor, paltry slaves! yet born 'midst noblest scenes — Through views more dazzling unto mortal ken XIX. The horrid crags, by toppling convent crown'd, The orange tints that gild the greenest bough, The vine on high, the willow branch below, Mix'd in one mighty scene, with varied beauty glow. ["To make amends for the filthiness of Lisbon, and its still filthier inhabitants, the village of Cintra, about fifteen miles from the capital, is, perhaps, in every respect, the most delightful in Europe. It contains beauties of every description, natural and artificial palaces and gardens rising in the midst of rocks, cataracts, and precipices; convents on stupendous heights; a distant view of the sea and the Tagus; and, besides (though that is a secondary consideration), is remarkable as the scene of Sir Hew Dalrymple's convention. It unites in itself all the wildness of the western Highlands with the verdure of the south of France."- Lord B. to Mrs. Byron, 1809.] |