Horace in his sixth epistle, more firmly and clearly than Byron, advocated the ‘wise indifference’ of the Stoics, a composure that is the result of idealistic values (a recognition of the relative unimportance of material goods), and of an intellectual control that liberates man from passionate involvement and turmoil.
101, 4 the very words of Creech In To Mr Murray (Lord Mansfield), Pope wrote:
Not to admire, is all the Art I know
To make men happy, and to keep them so,
(Plain Truth, dear Murray, needs no flow’rs of speech,
So take it in the very words of Creech).
(Imitations of Horace I, Epistle 6, 1–4)
In 1688 Thomas Creech published his translation of Horace’s poetry. The following is his version of the first two lines of Epistle 6 of Horace’s Odes, Book I:
To admire nothing (as most are wont to do)
It is the only method that I know,
To make Men Happy and to keep ’em so.
(Odes, Satyrs and Epistles of Horace Done into English by Mr Creech (5th edn, 1720), II 527)
103, 1 at this ill-timed pride ] at this piece of pride
106, 2 Though on more thoroughbred or fairer fingers ‘There is perhaps nothing more distinctive of birth than the hand: it is almost the only sign of blood which aristocracy can generate’ (Byron, 1821).
106, 3 ] No lips < were eer electrified> fragment ] No lips
109, 2–4 the sweetness of the devil, / When he put on the cherub to perplex / Eve Early paintings of the temptation of Eve often show the serpent with an attractive human head and shoulders. See, for example, Michelangelo’s painting of the Fall in the Sistine Chapel.
109, 3 cherub ]
109, 7 ] And yet – – was something wanting
110, 7 flesh obey ] flesh
111, 6 Her state ] Her
112, 1–2 ]
And never doubted if the> fragment
112, 2 around her; to fulfil ] around her – to
112, 8 perpetual motion A common subject for speculation and experiment for over a hundred years.
113, 4–8 ] The first eight lines were written on PM, the last four on M:
Whateer the Garden bore or Mart disclosed
For her must be uprooted – or be bought
On consequences – but> fragment
With fruits forbidden – nor would She have paused
So goodly was her thirst for Science grown –
Until the tree of knowledge was pulled down. PM ]
She would have pulled the tree of knowledge down.> ]
And stitched it’s leaves into a dressing gown.> M
114, 6 ] Had his instructions where and how to deal PM, M, 1821; the present text first appeared in 1822.
115, 2 bride ]
115, 6 ] And husbands
And husbands now and then are mystified
117, 6 snowdrops blowing ]
119, 7 ]
120, 4 ] For kinder feelings,
120, 5 ‘wine and oil’ See the parable of the good Samaritan, Luke x 29–37. After thieves robbed and beat a traveller on the road to Jericho, a priest and a Levite would not stop to help the wounded man. ‘But a certain Samaritan… had compassion on him… and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.’
120, 8 ] Felt
Felt an odd glistening
121, 3 To such a sorrow by ] To such a
121, 6 ]
123, 3 in a meridian clime ] in any Southern Clime
123, 6 grace ]
124, 2–3 ] But he had got the devil into his head
About Haidee – & could not forget her –
130, 3–5 While some more desperate dowager has been waging / Love with you and been in the dog days stung / By your refusal, recollect her raging The dowager, when refused during the dog days, at the height of her passion for her lover, becomes especially angry.
130, 4 in the dog days stung The dog days, the hottest and most unwholesome period of the year, are a time when malignant influences prevail. In this season, according to popular belief, dogs are prone to run mad.
131, 2–4 The spouse of Potiphar, the Lady Booby, / Phedra…/… good examples In Genesis xxxix 7–18, after Joseph had repeatedly resisted the sensuality of Potiphar’s wife, she falsely accused him of immorality and Joseph was imprisoned. In Fielding’s Joseph Andrews, Book I, chs. 5–6, Lady Booby talks to her servant ‘exactly as a lady does to her sweetheart in a stage play… while she wanted him to be no better than he should be’. In ancient myth and in tragedies by Euripides, Seneca and Racine, when the infatuated Phedra was repulsed by Hippolytus, the son of her husband Theseus, she charged the youth with carnal misconduct, and Theseus had him slain.
William Gifford in his version of Juvenal’s Satire X described not only Phedra’s wrath, but also the shame and fury of Sthenoboea (Antea) after she failed to seduce Bellerophon (Juvenal’s Satires, revised and annotated by J. Warrington with an introduction by H. J. Rose (1954), lines 321–8, p. 132). In a note in the 1817 edition, Gifford conjectured that Potiphar’s wife was the prototype for the legendary woman who lied to her husband about the lustful initiative of a reluctant man in order to destroy him (pp. 49–50, cited in Poetry VI 255).
131, 5 ] The poets and romancers are exposed
132, 6 ] Yet these
132, 8 ] To
136, 2 common fury with ] common passion with
136, 3 to reach the moon ] to
136, 3–4 to reach the moon, / Like moderate Hotspur
HOTSPUR: By heaven methinks it were an easy leap To pluck bright honour from the pale-faced moon.
(Henry IV Part I iii 201–2)
136, 4 ] Like
136, 7]
Her wish was but to ‘kill, kill, kill’, like Lear’s See King Leer IV vi 191–2.
136, 8 blood was quenched in tears ] blood
137, 5–6 But now it flowed in…/ As water through an unexpected leak This image about the Sultana’s shame is somewhat similar to Fielding’s comment about Mr Tow-wouse’s transfer of passion from his wife to the chambermaid Betty: ‘So like water, which is stopt from its usual current in one place, it naturally sought a vent in another.’ The Adventures of Joseph Andrews, Book I, ch. 18, para. 6.
137, 6 ]
138, 2 ] And what’s still better – teaches them that others
138, 8 ] The lesson mends
reaches Probably means ‘rends’ here. On the MSS of Canto II 20, 8,
Byron’s spelling of ‘retch’ was ‘reach’.
140, 7 ] fragment
141, 4 ] Or
141, 8]
142, 1 As through his palms Bob Acres’ valour oozed ‘Yes – my valour is certainly going! it is sneaking off! I feel it oozing out, as it were, at the palms of my hands!’ (Sheridan, The Rivals V 3).
143, 5 ] Or
144, 3–4 the spheres all out of tune See note to Canto III 28, 3
.
145, 3–4 ] But prithee – Get my women in the way –
That all the Stars may gleam with due adorning
cause his rise
147, 6–7 the histories / Of Cantemir or Knolles Demitru Cantemir, The History of the Growth and Decay of the Othman Empire, trans. N. Tindal (1734–5); Richard Knolles, The Generall Historie of the Turks (1621). Byron refers to ‘Old Knolles’ as one of the first books that he read with pleasure; it contributed, he said, to the Oriental colouring of his poetry.
147, 8 Solyman, the glory of their line ] Solyman the
Solyman Now known as Sulieman I, the Magnificent (1494–1566), he succeeded to the throne in 1520, expanded the Ottoman empire (Belgrade, Budapest, Baghdad, Algiers), made a prudent alliance with the French King Francis I against Charles V, reformed the civil administration, alleviated the conditions of his Christian subjects, and even attained distinction as a poet.
148, 2 ‘Oriental scrupulosity’ ] Oriental
Dr Johnson wrote that Swift ‘washed himself with oriental scrupulosity’ (The Lives of the English Poets, ed. G. B. Hill (1905), III 55). Byron quoted the phrase in a letter to Murray, 9 November 1820 (LJ V 115), written while he was engaged with Canto V.
148, 6–8 ] Because he kept them
Ruled four wives and twelve hundred whores, unseen,
More easily than Christian kings a Queen.
149, 7–8 ] No printed Scandals flew, the fish of course
Were better – while the morals were no worse PM ]
The fish were better, – Morals, none the worse. M
150, 3–4 ] Because he had journeyed fifty miles, nor found
A Sign of it’s circumference any where ]
of it’s depression any where ]
it was a circle any where
150, 8 – 151, 8 the Seven Towers /… a single inky whisker ‘The Seven Towers are particularly known in Europe as the prison in which the Turks shut up the ambassadors and ministers of the powers with whom they are at war’ (F.C.H.L. Pouqueville, Travels through the Morea, Albania, and Several Other Parts of the Ottoman Empire to Constantinople (1806), 114).
152, 1 ]
152, 6 Sometimes at six years old ‘The princess’ (Sulta Asma, daughter of Achmet III) ‘exclaimed against the barbarity of the institution which, at six years old, had put her in the power of a decrepit old man, who, by treating her like a child, had only inspired disgust’ (Baron FranÇois de Tott, Memoirs… Concerning the State of the Turkish Empire…(1786) I 74; cited by Moore, XVI 116).
152, 8 Must make a present ] Must pay the dowry
153, 6 ] Was
Was princely
154, 8 As those whose wives have made them fit for heaven The connection between ‘horns’ and Heaven, to which Byron twice alludes, is unclear. The reference may be to the Biblical ‘horn of salvation’, or to the symbolical horns of divine glory as depicted in the Moses of Michelangelo. See Poetry VI 262.
155, 5 with air sedate and wise ] with solemn air and wise
155, 6 ] While
156, 5 ] Such Notice of a
156, 7 ]
158 This late stanza, composed before publication, was not printed in the first edition.
158, 5 Spoilt, as a pipe of claret is when pricked spoiled as a cask of claret is when it has become soured or tainted.
158, 7] And do not link two virtuous souls for life
This version Byron wrote in a letter to Murray, 31 August 1821.
159, 4 ] To take in sail &
159, 7 as Homer sometimes sleeps See Canto III 98, 1 and note.
159, 7–8 ] Meantime – as Homer sometimes sleeps, much more
My modern Muse may be allowed to snore.
MOTTO TO CANTOS VI–XVI
‘Dost thou think… the mouth too’ Twelfth Night II iii 124–8. This motto appears on the title page of Cantos VI–VIII (1823) and of the three succeeding volumes (1823–4). Byron, quoting inaccurately from memory, wrote the motto in the upper right-hand corner of the first page of M: ‘Think’st thou? that because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more Cakes and Ale? – Aye! and Ginger shall be hot in the Mouth too! –’ This combination of taunts aimed at the Puritanical Malvolio by Sir Toby Belch and the Clown is one of Byron’s more imaginative and defiant replies to his moral critics.
PREFACE TO CANTOS VI–VIII
3 Histoire de la Nouvelle Russie In describing the siege of Ismail Byron made extensive use of the Essai sur l’Histoire ancienne et moderne de la Nouvelle Russie, by the Marquis Gabriel de Castelnau (1820), 3 vols. Castelnau at one time lived in Odessa, where he knew Armand Emmanuel, Duc de Richelieu, governor of Odessa, who fought in the siege. See Var. IV 156 passim.
6 Duc de Richelieu According to Biographie Universelle, the Duke, a man of simplicity, built Odessa into a rich and thriving city, but he himself remained in the modest establishment that he had taken when he first came there.
11 the late Marquis of Londonderry See Dedication 11–14 and notes.
28 Waddington or Watson Samuel Ferrand Waddington (1759–182?), a hop merchant and radical politician, opposed the war with the French Republic in 1795. James Watson (?1766–1838), also a radical, was a follower of the early communist Thomas Spence, and a leader of the mob that attempted to seize the Bank of England and the Tower in 1816. Acquitted of a charge of treason in 1817, he emigrated to America.
33–4 ‘the syllables of dolour yelled forth’ Macbeth IV iii 5–8: ‘… new sorrows Strike heaven on the face, that it resounds As if it felt with Scotland and yell’d out / Like syllable of dolour.’
34–5 the harangue of the coroner Byron seems to have taken his notions of this inquest from Cobbett’s Political Register, XLIII (17 August 1822) 389–425. What the coroner did say was as follows: ‘My opinion is in consonance with every moral sentiment, and the information which the wisest men have given to the world. The Bible declares that a man clings to nothing so strongly as his own life. I therefore view it as an axiom, and an abstract principle, that a man must necessarily be out of his mind at the moment of destroying himself’ (Annual Biography for 1823 VII 57; cited by Moore XVI 130).
39 by the law ‘I say by the law of the land – the laws of Humanity judge more gently; but as the legitimates have always the law in their mouths, let them here make the most of it’ (Byron, 1823).
42–3 a ‘moral lesson’ to the surviving Sejani ‘At last, when Sejanus least looketh, and is most secure… [Tiberius] in one day hath him suspected, accused, condemned, and torn in pieces by the rage of the people. This do we advance, as a mark of terror to all traitors and treasons; to show how just the heavens are, in pouring and thundering down a weighty vengeance on their unnatural intents, even to the worst princes’ (Ben Jonson, Sejanus, His Fall, The Argument).
The Duke of Wellington used the phrase ‘moral lesson’ in a dispatch to Castlereagh in 1815.
48 Grattan Henry Grattan, the Irish statesman, was always a favourite of Byron. He was buried in Westminster Abbey in 1820.
49–50 the Werther of politics Werther, the hero of Goethe’s novel, despairing in his unrequited love for Charlotte, took his own life.
53, 7 two quotations from Voltaire… perdu en vertu’
‘Modesty has fled from hearts and taken refuge on lips.’
‘The more depraved our conduct is, the more guarded words become; we believe we can regain with words what we have lost in character.’ See Lettre de M. Eratou à M. Clocpitre Aumônier de S.A.S.M. le Landgrave, 1759, Oeuvres de Voltaire, ed. Louis E. D. Moland (1877–85), IX 499.
62 Jacobin See note to Canto VI 13, 4.
74–5 heterodox prela
tes ‘When Lord Sandwich said “he did not know the difference between Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy,” Warburton the bishop replied, “Orthodoxy, my Lord, is my doxy, and Heterodoxy is another man’s doxy ” ’
76 over-pensioned homicides See note on Wellington’s pensions, Canto IX, 3, 1.
76–7 Alliance… ‘Holy’ The Holy Alliance was proposed by Alexander I of Russia, who at the time was influenced by the mystical Madame Kriidener (see note to Preface to Cantos I and II 38). Francis I of Austria and Frederick William III of Prussia reluctantly signed Alexander’s declaration at Paris, 26 September 1815. Phrased with pious abstractions, it was the Tsar’s attempt to initiate a Christian confederation of Europe, but it produced no result and was never endorsed by England. Castlereagh called it ‘a piece of sublime mysticism and nonsense’, Metternich scorned it as ‘verbiage, loud-sounding nothing’, and the King of Prussia said he could not understand it This document should be distinguished from the Quadruple or ‘Grand Alliance’, which was an effective political instrument based on precise treaties (see note to Dedication 14, 5). But the liberals merged the two Alliances and sneered at both as a ‘Holy’ plot to stifle freedom. At the end of 1822 Byron in The Age of Bronze ridiculed Alexander and the Alliances (lines 394–412 and section 10).
CANTO VI
After a lapse of sixteen months, Byron resumed writing Don Juan in Pisa on 14 April 1822, and finished Cantos VI and VII by the end of June. Mary Shelley made the fair copies in late July or August. A year later they were published by John Hunt, along with Canto VIII, 15 July 1823. All variants for Cantos VI and VII are taken from BM, Byron’s first draft, unless otherwise indicated. M is Mary Shelley’s copy.
1, 1–2 ‘There is a tide…/… at the flood’
There is a tide in the affairs of men,
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
(Julius Caesar IV iii 216–19)
2, 5 Jacob Behmen Jakob Behmen (or Böhme) was born near Görlitz, Germany, in 1575, and founded the sect of religious enthusiasts called Behmenites. He had a large following in England.
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