LV. He leads them through the hall, and, without stopping, On through a farther range of goodly rooms, Splendid but silent, save in one, where, dropping, (1) A marble fountain echoes through the glooms Of night, which robe the chamber, or where popping Some female head most curiously presumes To thrust its black eyes through the door or lattice, As wondering what the devil noise that is. LVI. Some faint lamps gleaming from the lofty walls LVII. Two or three seem so little, one seems nothing: (1) A common furniture. I recollect being received by Ali Pacha, in a large room, paved with marble, containing a marble basin, and fountain playing in the centre, &c. &c. [See antè, Vol. VIII. p. 92. "In marble-paved pavilion, where a spring Of living water from the centre rose, But in a mighty hall or gallery, both in More modern buildings and those built of yore, A kind of death comes o'er us all alone, Seeing what's meant for many with but one. LVIII. A neat, snug study on a winter's night, (1) Are things which make an English evening pass; Though certes by no means so grand a sight As is a theatre lit up by gas. I pass my evenings in long galleries solely, LIX. Alas! man makes that great which makes him little: I grant you in a church 'tis very well: What speaks of Heaven should by no means be brittle, LX. Babel was Nimrod's hunting-box, and then A town of gardens, walls, and wealth amazing Where Nabuchadonosor, king of men, Reign'd, till one summer's day he took to grazing, (1) [MS" A small, snug chamber on a winter's night, Well furnish'd with a book, friend, girl, or glass," &c.] And Daniel tamed the lions in their den, The people's awe and admiration raising; 'Twas famous, too, for Thisbe and for Pyramus, (1) Semiramis.—(2) And the calumniated queen LXI. That injured Queen, by Chroniclers so coarse Has been accused (I doubt not by conspiracy) Of an improper friendship for her horse (Love, like religion, sometimes runs to heresy): This monstrous tale had probably its source (For such exaggerations here and there I see) In writing" Courser" by mistake for "Courier:" I wish the case could come before a jury here. (3) LXII. But to resume, - should there be (what may not (1) [See Ovid's Metamorphoses, lib. iv. "In Babylon, where first her queen, for state, And she beyond the fairest nymph was fair."— GARTH.] (2) Babylon was enlarged by Nimrod, strengthened and beautified by Nabuchadonosor, and rebuilt by Semiramis. (3) [At the time when Lord Byron was writing this Canto, the unfortunate affair of Queen Caroline, charged, among other offences, with admitting her chamberlain, Bergami, originally a courier, to her bed, was occupying much attention in Italy, as in England. The allusions to the Jomestic troubles of George IV. in the text, are frequent. — E.] (4) [Excepting the ruins of some large and lofty turrets, like that of Babel or Belus, the cities of Babylon and Nineveh are so completely (Though Claudius Rich, Esquire, some bricks has got, LXIII. Yet let them think that Horace has exprest And "Et sepulchri immemor struis domos" (2) crumbled into dust, as to be wholly undistinguishable but by a few inequalities of the surface on which they once stood. The humble tent of the Arab now occupies the spot formerly adorned with the palaces of kings, and his flocks procure but a scanty pittance of food, amidst the fallen fragments of ancient magnificence. The banks of the Euphrates and Tigris, once so prolific, are now, for the most part, covered with impenetrable brushwood; and the interior of the province, which was traversed and fertilised with innumerable canals, is destitute of either inhabitants or vegetation. MORIER.] (1) ["Two Memoirs on the Ruins of Babylon, by Claudius James Rich, Esq., Resident for the East India Company at the Court of the Pasha of Bagdat."] (2) ["Tu secanda marmora Locas sub ipsum funus, et sepulchri Immemor struis domos."- - HOR. "Day presses on the heels of day, FRANCIS.] LXIV. At last they reach'd a quarter most retired, Here wealth had done its utmost to encumber Which puzzled Nature much to know what Art meant. LXV. It seem'd, however, but to open on A range or suite of further chambers, which Might lead to heaven knows where; but in this one The moveables were prodigally rich: Sofas 'twas half a sin to sit upon, So costly were they; carpets every stitch LXVI. The black, however, without hardly deigning A glance at that which wrapt the slaves in wonder, Trampled what they scarce trod for fear of staining, As if the milky way their feet was under With all its stars; and with a stretch attaining A certain press or cupboard niched in yonder — In that remote recess which you may seeOr if you don't the fault is not in me,— (1) [MS" That you could but glide o'er them like a fish."] |