Selected Poems (167 page)

Authors: Byron

Tags: #Literary Criticism, #Poetry, #General

BOOK: Selected Poems

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1
. I saw the ‘Cascata del marmore’ of Terni twice, at different periods; once from the summit of the precipice, and again from the valley below. The lower view is far to be preferred, if the traveller has time for one only; but in any point of view, either from above or below, it is worth all the cascades and torrents of Switzerland put together: the Staubach, Reichen-bach, Pisse Vache, fall of Arpenaz, &c. are rills in comparative appearance. Of the fall of Schaffhaussen I cannot speak, not yet having seen it.

1
. Of the time, place, and qualities of this kind of iris, the reader will see a short account in a note to
Manfred
. The fall looks so much like ‘the hell of waters,’ that Addison thought the descent alluded to by the gulf in which Alecto plunged into the infernal regions. It is singular enough, that two of the finest cascades in Europe should be artificial – this of the Velino, and the one at Tivoli. The traveller is strongly recommended to trace the Velino, at least as high as the little lake, called
Pie’ di Lup
. The Reatine territory was the Italian Tempe (Cicer. Epist. ad Attic. xv. lib. iv.), and the ancient naturalist (Plin. Hist. Nat. lib. ii. cap. lxii), amongst other beautiful varieties, remarked the daily rainbows of the lake Velinus. A scholar of great name has devoted a treatise to this district alone. Ald. Manut de Reatina Urbe Agroque, ap. Sallengre, Thesaur. tom. i. p. 773.

2
. In the greater part of Switzerland, the avalanches are known by the name of lauwine.

1
. These stanzas may probably remind the reader of Ensign Northerton’s remarks, ‘D – n Homo,’ &c; but the reasons for our dislike are not exactly the same. I wish to express, that we become tired of the task before we can comprehend the beauty; that we learn by rote before we can get by heart; that the freshness is worn away, and the future pleasure and advantage deadened and destroyed, by the didactic anticipation, at an age when we can neither feel nor understand the power of compositions which it requires an acquaintance with life, as well as Latin and Greek, to relish, or to reason upon. For the same reason, we never can be aware of the fulness of some of the finest passages of Shakespeare (‘To be, or not to be,’ for instance), from the habit of having them hammered into us at eight years old, as an exercise, not of mind, but of memory: so that when we are old enough to enjoy the’, the taste is gone, and the appetite palled. In some parts of the continent, young persons are taught from more common authors, and do not read the best classics till their maturity. I certainly do not speak on this point from any pique or aversion towards the place of my education. I was not a slow, though an idle boy; and I believe no one could, or can be, more attached to Harrow than I have always been, and with reason; – a part of the time passed there was the happiest of my life; and my preceptor, the Rev. Dr Joseph Drury, was the best and worthiest friend I ever possessed, whose warnings I have remembered but too well, though too late, when I have erred, – and whose counsels I have but followed when I have done well or wisely. If ever this imperfect record of my feelings towards him should reach his eyes, let it remind him of one who never thinks of him but with gratitude and veneration – of one who would more gladly boast of having been his pupil, if, by more closely following his injunctions, he could reflect any honour upon his instructor.

1
. On the 3d of September Cromwell gained the victory of Dunbar: a year afterwards he obtained ‘his crowning mercy’ of Worcester; and a few years after, on the same day, which he had ever esteemed the most fortunate for him, died.

1
. The Palatine is one mass of ruins, particularly on the side towards the Circus Maximus. The very soil is formed of crumbled brickwork. Nothing has been told, nothing can be told, to satisfy the belief of any but a Roman antiquary.

1
. Gladiators were of two kinds, compelled and voluntary; and were supplied from several conditions; – from slaves sold for that purpose; from culprits; from barbarian captives either taken in war, and, after being led in triumph, set apart for the games, or those seized and condemned as rebels; also from free citizens, some fighting for hire (
auctorati
), others from a depraved ambition: at last even knights and senators were exhibited, – a disgrace of which the first tyrant was naturally the first inventor. In the end, dwarfs, and even women, fought; an enormity prohibited by Severus. Of these the most to be pitied undoubtedly were the barbarian captives; and to this species a Christian writer justly applies the epithet ‘innocent’ to distinguish them from the professional gladiators. Aurelian and Claudius supplied great numbers of these unfortunate victims; the one after his triumph, and the other on the pretext of a rebellion. No war, says Lipsius, was ever so destructive to the human race as these sports. In spite of the laws of Constantine and Constans, gladiatorial shows survived the old established religion more than seventy years; but they owed their final extinction to the courage of a Christian. In the year 404, on the kalends of January, they were exhibiting the shows in the Flavian amphitheatre before the usual immense concourse of people. Almachius, or Telemachus, an eastern monk, who had travelled to Rome intent on his holy purpose, rushed into the midst of the area, and endeavoured to separate the combatants. The Præctor Alypius, a person incredibly attached to these games, gave instant orders to the gladiators to slay him; and Telemachus gained the crown of martyrdom, and the title of saint, which surely has never either before or since been awarded for a more noble exploit. Honorius immediately abolished the shows, which were never afterwards revived. The story is told by Theodoret and Cassiodorus, and seems worthy of credit notwithstanding its place in the Roman martyrology. Besides the torrents of blood which flowed at the funerals, in the amphitheatres, the circus, the forums, and other public places, gladiators were introduced at feasts, and tore each other to pieces amidst the supper tables, to the great delight and applause of the guests. Yet Lipsius permits himself to suppose the loss of courage, and the evident degeneracy of mankind, to be nearly connected with the abolition of these bloody spectacles.

1
. Mary died on the scaffold; Elizabeth of a broken heart; Charles V a hermit; Louis XIV a bankrupt in means and glory; Cromwell of anxiety; and, ‘the greatest is behind,’ Napoleon lives a prisoner. To these sovereigns a long but superfluous list might be added of names equally illustrious and unhappy.

1
. ‘Quæ septem dici sex tamen esse solent.’ – OVID.

1
. Cortejo is pronounced Corteho, with an aspirate, according to the Arabesque guttural. It means what there is as yet no precise name for in England, though the practice is as common as in any tramontane country whatever.

1
. For the received accounts of the cause of Raphael’s death, see his lives.

2
. (In talking thus, the writer, more especiallyOf women, would be understood to say,He speaks as a spectator, not officially,And always, reader, in a modest way;Perhaps, too, in no very great degree shall heAppear to have offended in this lay,Since, as all know, without the sex, our sonnetsWould seem unfinish’d, like their untrimm’d bonnets.)(Signed) PRINTER’S DEVIL.

1
. This comparison of a ‘
salt
mine’ may, perhaps, be permitted to a Pole, as the wealth of the country consists greatly in the salt mines.

1
. Ravenna.

1
. Grange is or was a famous pastry-cook and fruiterer in Piccadilly.

1
. Fact from life, with the
words
.

1
. See ‘Life of Henry Kirke White.’

1
. Alfonso, speaking of the Ptolomean system, said, that ‘had he been consulted at the creation of the world, he would have spared the Maker some absurdities.’

2
. See Aubrey’s account of the apparition which disappeared ‘with a curious perfume and a
most melodious twang
;’ or see the ‘
Antiquary
,’ vol. i. p. 225.

1
. A drowned body lies at the bottom till rotten; it then floats, as most people know.

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