My native soil! beloved before, Now dearer as my peaceful home, Ne'er may I quit thy rocky shore, A hapless banish'd wretch to roam! This very day, this very hour, May I resign this fleeting breath! Nor quit my silent humble bower; A doom to me far worse than death. Have I not heard the exile's sigh, And seen the exile's silent tear, Through distant climes condemn'd to fly, A pensive weary wanderer here? Ah! hapless dame! (1) no sire bewails, No friend thy wretched fate deplores, No kindred voice with rapture hails Thy steps within a stranger's doors. Perish the fiend whose iron heart, To fair affection's truth unknown, Bids her he fondly loved depart, Unpitied, helpless, and alone; Who ne'er unlocks with silver key (2) The milder treasures of his soul,— May such a friend be far from me, And ocean's storms between us roll! THOUGHTS SUGGESTED BY A COLLEGE HIGH in the midst, surrounded by his peers, Happy the youth in Euclid's axioms tried, (1) Medea, who accompanied Jason to Corinth, was deserted by him for the daughter of Creon, king of that city. The chorus from which this is taken here addresses Medea; though a considerable liberty is taken with the original, by expanding the idea, as also in some other parts of the trans lation. (2) The original is Καθαρὰν ἀνοίξαντι κλῇδα φρενών, literally "disclosing the bright key of the mind." (3) No reflection is here intended against the person men tioned under the name of Magnus. He is merely represented as performing an unavoidable function of his office. Indeed, such an attempt could only recoil upon myself; as that gentleman is now as much distinguished by his eloquence, and the dignified propriety with which he fills his situation, as he was in his younger days for wit and conviviality. [Dr. William Lort Mansel was, in 1798, appointed to the head-ship of Trinity College, by Mr. Pitt. He was indebted to the influence of his fellow collegian, the late Mr. Perceval, for his subsequent promotion to the see of Bristol. He is supposed to have materially assisted in the Pursuits of Literature. His Lordship died at Trinity Lodge, in June, 1820. --L. E.] His Lordship's name appears to have afforded occasion for a somewhat profane pun; and, to Byron's gay and thought Though marvelling at the name of Magna Charta, Such is the youth whose scientific pate Class-honours, medals, fellowships, await; Or even, perhaps, the declamation prize, If to such glorious height he lifts his eyes. But lo! no common orator can hope The envied silver cup within his scope. Not that our heads much eloquence require, The ATHENIAN'S (4) glowing style, or Tully's fire. A manner clear or warm is useless, since We do not try by speaking to convince. Be other orators of pleasing proud, We speak to please ourselves, not move the crowd: A proper mixture of the squeak and The man who hopes to obtain the promised cup Must in one posture stand, and ne'er look up; Nor stop, but rattle over every wordNo matter what, so it can not be heard. Thus let him hurry on, nor think to rest: Who speaks the fastest 's sure to speak the best; Who utters most within the shortest space May safely hope to win the wordy race. The sons of science these, who, thus repaid, Yet prizing Bentley's, Brunck's, or Porson's (6) note, less intimates at Cambridge, the opportunity was too tempting to be resisted. Some of them were wont to rouse the Doctor from his slumbers, in the lodge of Trinity, and when he appeared at the window, foaming with wrath, and cry. ing out, "I know you, gentlemen, I know you!" he was immediately greeted with the response of-" We beseech thee to hear us, good Lort!-Good Lort deliver us!"-P. E. (4) Demosthenes. (5) In most colleges, the Fellow who superintends the chapel service is called Dean.-L. E. (6) The present Greek professor at Trinity College, Cambridge; a man whose powers of mind and writings may, perhaps, justify their preference. [Lord Byron, in a letter written in 1818, says: "I remember to have seen Porson at Cambridge, in the hall of our college, and in private parties; and I never can recollect him except as drunk or brutal, and generally both. I mean in an evening; for, in the hall, he dined at the Dean's table, and I at the Vice-master's; and he then and there appeared sober in his demeanour; but I have seen him, in a private party of under-graduates, take up a poker to them, and heard him use language as blackguard as his action. all the disgusting brutes, sulky, abusive, and intolerable, Porson was the most bestial, as far as the few times I saw Of To friendship dead, though not untaught to feel TO A BEAUTIFUL QUAKER. What though we never silence broke? 1806. him went. He was tolerated in this state amongst the young men for his talents; as the Turks think a madman inspired, and bear with him. He used to recite, or rather vomit, pages of all languages, and could hiccup Greek like a Helot: and certainly Sparta never shocked her children with a grosser exhibition than this man's intoxication." 1818.-L. E.] (1) Since this was written, Lord Henry Petty has lost his place, and subsequently (I had almost said consequently) the honour of representing the University A fact so glaring requires no comment. [Lord Henry Petty is now Marquess of Lansdowne.-L. E.] (2) These verses were written at Harrowgate, in August 1806.-L. E. (3) The cornelian of these verses was given to Lord Byron by the Cambridge chorister, Eddlestone, whose musical talents first introduced him to the young poet's acquaintance, and for whom he appears to have entertained, subsequently, a sentiment of the most romantic friendship.-L. E. Moore mentions another instance of a similar sentiment, entertained by the noble bard during the period of his stay in Greece, for an individual of far inferior rank to his own. The object of this warm and enthusiastic feeling was a Greek youth, named Nicolo Giraud, the son of a widow lady, in whose house the artist Lusieri lodged. In this young man he appears to have taken the most lively and even brotherly interest; so much so, as not only to have presented to him, on their parting at Malta, a considerable sum of money, but to have subsequently designed for him a still more munificent, as well as permanent, provision. In the rough draught of his intended will, transmitted by him to his solicitor, he bequeaths to Nicolo Giraud the sum of £7000, to be paid on his attaining the age of twenty-one years.-P. E. Though what they utter'd I repress, Thy form appears through night, through day: In sleep, it smiles in fleeting dreams; Alas! again no more we meet, THE CORNELIAN. (3) No specious splendour of this stone And blushes modest as the giver.(4) (4) In a letter to Miss Pigot, of Southwell, written in June, 1807, Lord Byron thus describes Eddlestone:-"He is exactly to an hour two years younger than myself, nearly my height, very thin, very fair complexion, dark eyes, and light locks. My opinion of his mind you already know; I hope I shall never have occasion to change it." Eddlestone, on leaving his choir, entered into a mercantile house in the metropolis, and died of a consumption, in 1811. Lord Byron, on hearing of his death, thus writes to the mother of his fair correspondent:-"I am about to write to you on a silly subject, and yet I cannot well do otherwise. You may remember a cornelian, which some years ago I consigned to Miss Pigot, indeed gave to her, and now I am about to make the most selfish and rude of requests. The person who gave it to me, when I was very young, is dead, and though a long time has elapsed since we met, as it was the only memorial I possessed of that person (in whom I was very much interested), it has acquired a value by this event I could have wished it never to have borne in my eyes. If, therefore, Miss Pigot should have preserved it, I must, under these circumstances, beg her to excuse my requesting it to be transmitted to me, and I will replace it by something she may remember me by equally well. As she was always so kind as to feel interested in the fate of him who formed the subject of our conversation, you may tell her that the giver of that cornelian died in May last, of a consumption, at the age of twenty-one,-making the sixth, within four months, of friends and relations that I have lost between May and the end of August."-The cornelian heart was returned accordingly; and, indeed, Miss Pigot reminded Lord Byron that he had left it with her as a deposit, not a gift. It is now in the possession of the Hon. Mrs. Leigh.-L. E. Some, who can sneer at friendship's ties, My only fear should be to lose it. And sparkling as I held it near, Methought one drop the stone bedew'd, And ever since I've loved a tear. Still, to adorn his humble youth, Nor wealth nor birth their treasures yield; But he who seeks the flowers of truth Must quit the garden for the field. "Tis not the plant uprear'd in sloth Which beauty shows, and sheds perfume; The flowers which yield the most of both In Nature's wild luxuriance bloom. Had Fortune aided Nature's care, For once forgetting to be blind, But had the goddess clearly seen, His form had fix'd her fickle breast; Her countless hoards would his have been, And none remain'd to give the rest. WHEEL OF FORTUNE " AT A PRIVATE THEATRE.(1) SINCE the refinement of this polish'd age Has swept immoral raillery from the stage; Since taste has now expunged licentious wit, Which stamp'd disgrace on all an author writ; Since now to please with purer scenes we seek, Nor dare to call the blush from Beauty's cheek; Oh! let the modest Muse some pity claim, And meet indulgence, though she find not fame. Still, not for her alone we wish respect, Others appear more conscious of defect: To-night no veteran Roscii you behold, In all the arts of scenic action old; (1) "When I was a youth, I was reckoned a good actor. Besides Harrow speeches, in which I shone, I enacted Penruddock, in The Wheel of Fortune, and Tristram Fickle, in the farce of The Weathercock, for three nights, in some private theatricals at Southwell, in 1806, with great applause. The occasional prologue for our volunteer play was also of my composition. The other performers were young ladies and gentlemen of the neighbourhood; and the whole went off with great effect upon our good-natured audience." Diary, 1821.-L. E. (2) This prologue was written by the young poet, between stages, on his way from Harrowgate. On getting into the carriage at Chesterfield, he said to his companion, "Now, Pigot, I'll spin a prologue for our play ;" and before they reached Mansfield he had completed his task,-interrupting, only once, his rhyming reverie, to ask the proper pronunciation of the French word "debut," and, on being answered (not, it would seem, very correctly), exclaiming, "Ay, that will do for rhyme to new."" The epilogue, which was from the pen of the Rev. Mr. Becher, was delivered by Lord Byron.-L. E. "In order to afford to his Lordship an opportunity of displaying his powers of mimicry, this composition consisted of good-humoured portraits of all the persons concerned in the No Cooke, no Kemble, can salute you here, Who hopes, yet almost dreads, to meet your praise; In fond suspense, this crisis of their fate. ON THE DEATH OF MR. FOX, THE FOLLOWING ILLIBERAL IMPROMPTU APPEARED "OUR nation's foes lament on Fox's death, TO WHICH THE AUTHOR OF THESE PIECES SENT THE On factious viper! whose envenom'd tooth representation. Some intimation of this design having got among the actors, an alarm was felt instantly at the ridicule thus in store for them. To quiet their apprehensions, the author was obliged to assure them that if, after having heard his epilogue at rehearsal, they did not of themselves pronounce it harmless, and even request that it should be preserved, he would most willingly withdraw it. In the mean time it was concerted between this gentleman and Lord Byron, that the latter should, on the morning of rehearsal, deliver the verses in a tone as innocent, and as free from all point, as possible, reserving his mimicry, in which the whole sting of the pleasantry lay, for the evening of representation. The desired effect was produced. All the personages of the green-room were satisfied, and even wondered how a suspicion of waggery could have attached itself to so well-bred a production. Their wonder, however, was of a different nature a night or two after, when, on hearing the audience convulsed with laughter at this same composition, they discovered at last the trick which the unsuspected mimic had played on them, and had no other resource than that of joining in the laugh which his playful imitation of the whole dramatis personæ excited." -Moore. -P.E. He sunk, an Atlas bending 'neath the weight Or round our statesman wind her gloomy veil. Fox! o'er whose corse a mourning world must weep, THE TEAR. “O lachrymarum fons, tenero sacros Pectore te, pia Nympha, sensit."— Gray. Too oft is a smile but the hypocrite's wile, Give me the soft sigh, whilst the soul-telling eye Mild Charity's glow, to us mortals below, The man doom'd to sail with the blast of the gale, As he bends o'er the wave which may soon be his grave, The soldier braves death for a fanciful wreath But he raises the foe when in battle laid low, If with high-bounding pride he return to his bride, All his toils are repaid when, embracing the maid, From her eyelid he kisses the Tear. Sweet scene of my youth! (2) seat of Friendship and Truth, Where love chased each fast-fleeting year, In the shade of her bower I remember the hour By another possest, may she live ever blest! With a sigh I resign what I once thought was mine, TO SOME VERSES OF J. M. B. PIGOT, ESQ., ON THE WHY, Pigot, complain of this damsel's disdain, For months you may try, yet, believe me, a sigh Would you teach her to love? for a time seem to rove; But leave her awhile, she shortly will smile, For such are the airs of these fanciful fairs, If again you shall sigh, she no more will deny If still, from false pride, your pangs she deride, Some other admire, who will melt with your fire, For me, I adore some twenty or more, And love them most dearly; but yet, Though my heart they enthral, I'd abandon them all, Did they act like your blooming coquette. No longer repine, adopt this design, And break through her slight-woven net; Away with despair, no longer forbear To fly from the captious coquette. Then quit her, my friend! your bosom defend, Ere quite with her snares you're beset: Lest your deep-wounded heart, when incensed by the smart, Should lead you to curse the coquette. October 27th, 1806. TO THE SIGHING STREPHON. YOUR pardon, my friend, if my rhymes did offend, Your pardon, a thousand times o'er; From friendship I strove your pangs to remove, But I swear I will do so no more. (1) The "illiberal impromptu" appeared in the Morning Post, and Lord Byron's "reply" in the Morning Chronicle. -L. E. (2) Harrow. Since your beautiful maid your flame has repaid, She's now most divine, and I bow at the shrine Yet still, I must own, I should never have known Since the balm-breathing kiss of this magical miss My counsel will get but abuse. You say, when "I rove, I know nothing of love;" If I rightly remember, I've loved a good number, I will not advance, by the rules of romance, Though a smile may delight, yet a frown won't affright, While my blood is thus warm I ne'er shall reform, Of this I am sure, was my passion so pure, And if I should shun every woman for one, Now, Strephon, good bye; I cannot deny TO ELIZA. (1) ELIZA, what fools are the Mussulman sect, Had their Prophet possess'd half an atom of sense, With women alone he had peopled his heaven. (1) Miss Elizabeth Pigot, of Southwell, to whom several of Lord Byron's earliest letters were addressed.-L. E. (2) Lachin y Gair, or, as it is pronounced in the Erse, Loch-na-Garr, towers proudly pre-eminent in the Northern Highlands, near Invercauld. One of our modern tourists mentions it as the highest mountain, perhaps, in Great Britain. Be this as it may, it is certainly one of the most sublime and picturesque amongst our "Caledonian Alps." Its appearance is of a dusky hue, but the summit is the seat of eternal snows. Near Lachin y Gair I spent some of the early part of my life, the recollection of which has given birth to these stanzas. ["As a picturesque object, few mountains in the Grampian range are more interesting than Lachin y Gair. Though its summit stretches horizontally to a great extent, it is far from presenting a heavy or inelegant contour, for even where its broad front is displayed to the spectator, the brow of it is diversified by gentle inflections or pointed asperities. The most sublime feature of Lachin y Gair consists in those immense perpendicular cliffs of granite which give such impressive grandeur to its north-eastern aspect. This stu I sigh for the valley of dark Loch na Garr. Ah! there my young footsteps in infancy wander'd; My cap was the bonnet, my cloak was the plaid; (3) On chieftains long perish'd my memory ponder'd, As daily I strode through the pine-cover'd glade: I sought not my home till the day's dying glory Gave place to the rays of the bright polar star; For fancy was cheer'd by traditional story, Disclosed by the natives of dark Loch na Garr. "Shades of the dead! have I not heard your voices Rise on the night-rolling breath of the gale?" Surely the soul of the hero rejoices, And rides on the wind, o'er his own Highland vale. Round Loch na Garr while the stormy mist gathers, Winter presides in his cold icy car: Clouds there encircle the forms of my fathers; They dwell in the tempests of dark Loch na Garr. "Ill starr'd, (4) though brave, did no visions foreboding Tell you that fate had forsaken your cause?" Ah! were you destined to die at Culloden, (5) Victory crown'd not your fall with applause: Still were you happy in death's earthy slumber, You rest with your clan in the caves of Braemar; (6) The pibroch resounds, to the piper's loud number, Your deeds on the echoes of dark Loch na Garr. pendous precipice extends upwards of a mile and a half in length, and its height is from 950 to 1300 feet." Robson's Scenery of the Grampians.-P. E.} (3) This word is erroneously pronounced plad: the proper pronunciation (according to the Scotch) is shown by the orthography. (4) I allude here to my maternal ancestors, "the Gordons," many of whom fought for the unfortunate Prince Charles, better known by the name of the Pretender. This branch was nearly allied by blood, as well as attachment, to the Stuarts. George, the second Earl of Huntly, married the Princess Annabella Stuart, daughter of James the First of Scotland. By her he left four sons; the third, Sir William Gordon, I have the honour to claim as one of my progenitors. (5) Whether any perished in the battle of Culloden, I am not certain; but, as many fell in the insurrection, 1 have used the name of the principal action, "pars pro toto." (6) A tract of the Highlands so called. There is also a Castle of Braemar. |