A spectral resident ] A
25, 2 Stonehenge Speculation on the origin of this prehistoric stone circle on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, had grown during the latter part of the eighteenth century with the Romantic interest in England’s past.
25, 3 Bedlam still exists Bethlehem Hospital for lunatics was located at the southern border of Moor Fields (see Cary’s map). Stanza 25 interrupts Juan’s journey to his hotel. After he crossed the bridge (stanza 23), the lamps of Westminster and the Abbey reminded Byron of other notable places – Stonehenge, Bedlam, Mansion House and a Westminster court – the Bench (the Court of Common Pleas)– all surpassed by the Abbey (25, 8), but only the last was near Juan’s route.
25, 6–7 Mansion House… /… a stiff yet grand erection The location of the Lord Mayor’s ‘huge, ponderous’ residence was chosen because in 1739 it was central in London and close to the financial district, across from the Bank of England. The compiler of London and its Environs Described (1761), the Ambulator (1800), and others have censured its architecture.
26, 1–2 The line of lights too up to Charing Cross, / Pall Mall Byron after the excursion of stanza 25 resumes Juan’s course and brings him into the fashionable West End. After crossing the Thames, he drove north up White-hall, turned left at Charing Cross, went west along Pall Mall past Carlton House (X 85, 3, the residence of the Prince of Wales), St James’s Square, and then St James’s Palace (stanza 29). He may have turned north on St James’s Street to go to Piccadilly Terrace, where Byron had lived, with a good view of the lights (lines 1–3). See Horwood’s Plates 9 and 10 and Cary’s map.
26, 7–8 on their new-found lantern, / Instead of wicks, they made a wicked man turn Many were hanged on street lamp-posts (lanterns) during the French Revolution (27, 1–2). Byron’s ‘wicked man’ may be Joseph Foulon, the French army commissioner who enraged his enemies by the taunt, ‘Eh bien, si cette canaille n’ a pas de pain, elle mangera du foin’ (‘Well, if this riff-raff does not have bread, it can eat grass’). He was hanged from a lamp-post in 1789.
27, 3 ]
bonfires made of country seats These burnings occurred because of the unrest of the Industrial Revolution, and the social and political disturbances after the Napoleonic Wars.
27, 5 The other looks like phosphorus on sheets Phosphorus is so flammable that it starts to burn slowly when exposed to air and thus is faintly luminous in the dark. The light from a street lantern on the clothing of a hanging body may suggest the dim glow on a sheet smeared with phosphorus.
Compared to gas light (a normal way of illuminating mankind, stanzas 26 and 27, 4), corpses hanging from lamp-posts, or the burning of country seats (line 3), is an eerie phosphorescence (an image continued in line 6 with ‘ignis fatuus’), that will certainly ‘perplex and frighten’ men (line 7).
27, 6 ignis fatuus will-o’-the-wisp. See note to Canto VIII 32, 5.
28, 1–2 But London’s so well lit that if Diogenes / Could recommence to hunt his honest man According to social historians London was not brilliantly lighted when Byron lived there. Pall Mall was the only street to have many rather small lights. The gas lamps even in the wealthy areas were scattered and inefficient. The lighting was not bright enough to deter criminals. Apparently few or none of the new lamps were then installed in the poorer sections. Thus Byron’s laudatory comments on city lighting must be taken relatively – a contrast to the older sparse lamps. See note to Canto XI 22; V 58; VII 46.
The essay by Diogenes Laertius, the chief source of stories about Diogenes the Cynic, an eccentric fourth-century Greek, did not mention the popular legend about his hunting with a lantern in daylight for an honest man. No writings of Diogenes are extant, but examples of his sardonic wit and impudence, of his odd conduct and radical views, were cited by many Greek authors. Byron obviously liked him. See DJ VII 4; XV 73; XVI 43 and notes.
28, 3]
28, 5 aid in dodging his S ] aid his dodging his 1823
dodging seeking or following stealthily.
28, 7 ] I’ve done
29, 8 St James’s hells The chief site of the ‘hells’ or gambling houses, which were splendidly furnished and made enormous profits, was ‘at the West End, in Bury-street, Pall-Mall, King-street, Piccadilly, St James’s Street, and Leicester-place’. Gambling increased rapidly after the French Revolution, ‘many novel games being introduced by the emigrants’. In 1821 there were at least twenty-two hells (A Treatise on the Police and Crimes of the Metropolis (1829), 103, 106–7).
30 The following stanza, numbered 29 by Byron on S, is not deleted. At some time after the completion of the first draft of Canto XI, Byron substituted for this stanza the one numbered 30 in the 1823 text. Punctuation has been supplied and capitalization reduced in this printed version.
At length the boys drew up before a door,
From whence poured forth a tribe of well-clad waiters;
While on the pavement many a hungry whore,
With which this moralest of cities caters
For gentlemen whose passions may boil oer,
Stood, as the unpacking gathered more spectators.
And Juan found himself in an extensive
Apartment, fashionable but expensive.
MS 29, 6 ]
30, 4 Paphians See note to Canto V 96, 3.
30, 7 Malthus In Essay on the Principle of Population (1798) Thomas Robert Malthus advocated fewer marriages, except among the well-to-do, as a means of checking the population. Byron returned to him in XII 14 and 20 and XV 37–8.
31, 7–8 ] Until
And
On a brass plate was given to knocks and Fame> ]
33, 6 Of sober reason ] Of
33, 8 ] Which serves our
34, 6 ] Of
35, 4 those who govern in the mood potential The placemen, who govern by their political machinations, as opposed to the actual rulers. A play on the grammatical meaning of the potential mood.
36, 3 ] ’Twill be because
36, 7–8 ]
Or can’t do otherwise than lie –
And yet think lies are – or should be – the truth>
37, 2 ] – and I defy
38, 3 She rings the world’s Te Deum The medieval hymn of praise and thanksgiving Te Deum laudamus (‘We praise thee, O God’) became a psalm or chant in the Roman Catholic, Anglican and Episcopal liturgies. Purcell, Handel (the Utrecht and Dettingen Te Deums), Haydn and other composers wrote elaborate anthems on the text, that were sung on state occasions celebrating a national victory or deliverance.
38, 6–8 ] Kiss hands – or feet – or – what men by and bye
Will kiss not in sad metaphor – but earnest –
Unless on Tyrant’s Sterns – we turn the Sternest
Kiss hands… … ‘Green Erin’ When George IV visited Ireland in 1820, the unhappy Irish forgot their abuses and gave the King an extravagant welcome. The Irish Avatar (written in September 1821) concerns this visit. Byron in DJ echoed one line of the earlier satire (stanza 14): ‘Lo! Erin, thy Lord! Kiss his foot with thy blessing – his blessings denied!’
39, 5 ivresse intoxication. There are only about four French words in Cantos IX and X, and the frequency is even lower in preceding cantos, but in the last six Byron uses French words at least eighty times, including several that are repeated. Many are rhymes. French is most abundant in Cantos XIV and XV (the banquet), then declines to about seven words in Canto XVL. We should remember that certain expressions that were foreign in Byron’s time are no longer so regarded today. La
tin is common in DJ, but Italian vocabulary does not appear as often as one might expect
39, 6 fervent fermentation ] fervent
41, 4–5 ]
Who asks his very Servants’> fragment ]
41, 7 ] If he found not
42, 1 empressement assiduous attention.
42, 2 These phrases of refinement ]
42, 2–4 These phrases… /… joy or sorrow Just as in chess there is a proper move at any given point, so in French, the language of politeness, there is an appropriate word to express any emotion.
42, 8 Billingsgate The London fish market and the coarse, abusive language it was famous for.
43, 1]
the British damme’s rather Attic An Attic oath has classical simplicity.
43, 3 ] And turn on
43, 4 anent ‘ “Anent” was a Scotch phrase, meaning “concerning” – “with regard to.” It has been made English by the Scotch Novels; and as the Frenchman said – “If it be not, ought to be English” ’ (Byron, 1823).
43, 5–8 ]
But – ‘Damme’s’
44, 7–8 ] About such general matters – but particular,
A poem
perpendicular. ]
A poem’s progress should be perpendicular.
45, 2] Meaneth the West End of a smoky City.
the West or worst end of a city In Byron’s time, the West End of London was west of Charing Cross and Regent Street. It included not only aristocratic hotels and private residences, but the expensive shopping district, the parks and the exclusive gambling houses. See note to stanzas 26, 29. O ED cites stanza 45 in its definition of West End. Numerous stanzas about fashionable society explain Byron’s judgement (‘worst end’).
46, 4 ] And (should She
like to range a little wide)
47, 4–5 could be sad / Or cheerful without any ‘flaws or starts’ If we sustain the musical analogy of lines 3–4, then Juan, like Mozart, could be sad or cheerful without exaggerated outbursts of passion. ‘Flaws and starts’ is a recollection of Macbeth III iv 63–5. See also LJ III 120.
48, 2 ]
48, 4–5 ]
ceruse Formerly a name for the white lead used in house paint and in medicinal ointments. OED cites Byron’s use here as a cosmetic for the skin. Byron may intend it either as a contrast to, or an adjunct of, youth. Young girls with their painted faces, or young girls and older women, who used cosmetics to appear young, ‘preferred their usual claims’ against Juan’s heart.
49, 1 ‘drapery Misses’ ‘This term… means a pretty, a highborn, a fashionable young female, well instructed by her friends, and furnished by her milliner with a wardrobe upon credit, to be repaid, when married, by the husband’ (Byron, 1823).
49, 4 a crescent’s coruscation A crescent moon is one in its first quarter. Byron’s pun with ‘honeymoon’ is involved with the amused image about merchants who hoped for payment before the marital ardour cooled (before the honeymoon dwindled into a quarter moon).
50, 1 The Blues See note to Canto I 22, 1–7.
50, 3 Line the interior of their heads or bonnets Waste paper was used as hat stuffing.
50, 5 of Spanish S, 1823 ] or Spanish 1833 and later editions
51, 2 a great Drawcansir The name of a blustering braggart in George Villiers’ burlesque The Rehearsal (1671). See Hints from Horace 173: ‘If some Drawcansir you aspire to draw.’
51, 7 Hippocrene See note to Canto I 205, 5–6.
52, 5–8 Miss Araminta Smith |… her commonplace book One Araminta was a jealous woman in Madeleine de Scudéry’s Artamène (1646–53); another in William Congreve’s The Old Bachelor (1693) was ‘the only honourable woman’ in that play and was courted by Vainlove; a third was the extravagant, snobbish wife of Moneytrap in Sir John Vanbrugh’s The Confederacy (1695). These literary predecessors seem unrelated to Byron’s prodigy and furious translator of Seneca’s tragedy Hercules Furens.
53, 7 Miss Maevia Mannish Maevius, a wretched poet contemporary with Virgil and ridiculed in Bucolics 3, 90–91, became a standard name for a poetaster. What mannish bluestocking was Byron thinking of? The Maeviad (1795) was a satire of bad writers by William Gifford, whom Byron highly respected and had imitated in EB & SR.
54, 3 Banquo’s glass When the witches conjured the apparitions of eight kings, the last one held a glass or mirror in his hand, in which the horrified Macbeth saw many more regal descendants of Banquo (Macbeth IV i 112–24). See note to Canto X 18, 6.
55, 6 ] Nor
55, 8 The grand Napoleon ]
56, 1–3 But Juan mas my Moscow, and Faliero My Leipsic, and my Mont Saint Jean seems Cain. ‘La Belle Alliance’ of dunces down at zero Medwin quotes from a Byron letter, 5 May 1823: ‘I would recommend you to think twice before you inscribe a work to me, as you must be aware that at present I am the most unpopular writer going, and the odium on the dedicatee may recur on the dedicator’ (Medwin, 123).
The battle of Leipzig in October 1813 broke the power of the French army. Since Mont-St-Jean was a farmhouse on the battleground of Waterloo, Cain was Byron’s final defeat. La Belle Alliance was the farmhouse at which Blücher and Wellington met as victors after the battle of Waterloo. Byron puns on the alliance of England, Russia, Prussia and Austria that combined to defeat Napoleon and later disposed of the French Empire with the Treaty of Paris (November 1815).
56, 8 turnkey Lowe Sir Hudson Lowe was governor of St Helena during Napoleon’s exile.
57, 1 Sir Walter… Moore and Campbell See note to Dedication 7, 7.
57, 4 With poets almost clergymen, or wholly Byron had ridiculed many clerical poetasters in EB & SR: the Reverend William Bowles was the best known (he later wrote two pamphlets objecting to Bowles’ edition of Pope); others were the Reverend Thomas Maurice, the Reverend Robert Bland, the Reverend C. J. Hoare, the Reverend George Richards, and Byron’s youthful friend, the Reverend Francis Hodgson.
57, 6 Beneath the very Reverend Rowley Powley ]
Beneath the reverend
Beneath the reverend Cambyses Croly
George Croly (1780–1860) wrote Paris in 1815, an imitation of CH; The Angel of the World: An Arabian Poem (1820); Catiline: A Tragedy (1822). His pompous manner gave him the nickname Cambyses either after the Persian King (529–22 BC) or the ranting drama Cambyses (1671) by Elkanah Settle. Both on proof and by letter Byron asked John Hunt to omit from the 1823 edition the last four lines of stanza 57 on Croly.
57, 8 A modern Ancient Pistol – by the hilts Pistol was a voluble and blustering associate of Falstaff in Henry IV Part II (see II, 4). Ancient, or ensign, was a minor military rank. Though Pistol’s language was violent, he did not swear ‘by these hilts’; it was Falstaff who used this expletive in Henry IV Part I II iv 208.
58, 1–8 that artificial hard I Labourer… That neutralized dull Dorus… That swarthy Sporus… That ox of verse… Cybele’s priest This stanza on Henry Hart Milman (1791–1868) was omitted from the 1823 edition. In 1821 Byron resented Milman’s ‘critical proceedings in the Quarterly’, and may have thought he had denounced DJ. In retaliation Byron
insulted Milman with several epithets: (1) Dorus (line 4), a eunuch in Terence’s Eunuchus, ‘old, sagging, senile, and the colour of a weasel’ (688–9); (2) the effeminate Sporus (line 5), castrated by Nero, then married by that emperor (see Suetonius’ account of Nero). Pope in his Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot (305–309) satirized Lord Hervey under the name of Sporus. (3) In line 6, E. H. Coleridge thought that the ploughing ‘ox of verse’ referred to Milman’s appointment to an Oxford professorship of poetry. The ‘howling Hebrews’ (line 8) in Milman’s The Fall of Jerusalem are inferior to ‘Cambyses’ roaring Romans’ (line 7) in Croly’s Cataline. (4) Finally Milman is Cybele’s priest: certain cultists who followed the wild rites of Cybele in Asia Minor were often emasculated. For explication of stanza 58 see Douglas Little’s ‘Byron and the Eunuch Muse’, Keats-Shelley Journal, XXV (1976), 24–5.
59, 1–4 my gentle Euphues… /… a sort of moral me … … it may be Bryan Waller Procter (1787–1874), whose pseudonym was Barry Cornwall, published a poem in ottava rima entitled Diego de Montilla (1820), which Francis Jeffrey recognized as remotely imitative of Don Juan, but without its force, its ‘scorn and misanthropy’, its ‘profligacy’ and ‘horror’. Cornwall had ‘no great aptitude for wit or sarcasm’ (ER, XXXIII (January 1820), 144–55). Thus Byron says that Procter is ‘a sort of moral me’. In his letters he wrote that Procter’s verse was ‘spoilt by… affectation of Wordsworth, and Hunt, and Moore, and Myself; all mixed up into a kind of Chaos’. Still he thought Procter capable of writing a good tragedy (LJ V 117, 217, 362). When Byron called him Euphues, he was probably thinking of John Lyly’s two novels (1578–80), which were burdened with long moral reflections on love, women, education, religion and social decorum, expressed with an affected rhetoric that became fashionable for a short time. Lyly, like Procter, was derivative, since he borrowed heavily from Plutarch, Pliny and other classical and Renaissance authors for his ideas, allusions and similes. Procter’s amiable disposition, his residence at Harrow while Byron was there, as well as the tameness of his imitation of Don Juan, may account for Byron’s epithet ‘gentle’. The Greek origin of the name ‘Euphues’ may also be appropriate to Byron’s context; the Greek word means ‘attractiveness of mind and body’.
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