79, 2–3 ‘sin no more, / And be thy sins forgiven’ When the Scribes and Pharisees maintained that according to law an adulteress should be stoned, Jesus replied, ‘He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.’ After her accusers left, he asked, ‘“Woman… hath no man condemned thee?” She said, “No man, Lord.” And Jesus said unto her, “Neither do I condemn thee: go and sin no more”’ (John viii 3–11). Byron merged with this episode another about the sinful woman who bathed the feet of Jesus with her tears and to whom he said, ‘Thy sins are forgiven’ (Luke vii 47–8). He may also have recalled that Jesus said to the man ‘sick of the palsy’, ‘thy sins be forgiven thee’ (Matthew ix 2; Mark ii 5).
82, 5–6 those northern lights, / Which flashed as far as where the musk bull browses The brilliance of the parliamentary debaters flashed as far as the Arctic Circle, thus reversing the usual experience of seeing in England the northern lights coming from the Arctic regions.
For a picture and description of the musk bull, Byron’s 1823 note referred the reader to Sir W. E. Parry’s Journal of a Voyage for the Discovery of a North-West Passage… 1819–20 (1821), 257.
82, 8 But Grey was not arrived, and Chatham gone The Earl of Chatham (William Pitt the Elder) died in 1778, some years before Juan came to London. Juan antedated Charles, second Earl Grey (1764–1845), who did not become Foreign Secretary until after the death of William Pitt the Younger (23 January 1806).
84, 1–4 (whate’er he may be now) / A Prince… / And full of promise Juan saw the Prince of Wales in the early 1790s, when George was about thirty. Twenty years later in 1812, Byron, after a conversation with the Prince, ‘had a very high idea of his abilities and accomplishments, which [he] had hitherto considered as confined to manners’ (LJ II 134–5). Whatever promise this ‘first gentleman of Europe’ showed in 1790, he was by 1812 dissolute, unprincipled and without talent except in ‘manners’. To induce Parliament to pay his debts in 1795, he married Caroline, a German princess, who was as worthless as her husband. A year later they separated. In 1811 when George became Regent, he excluded her from the court, and in 1814 she went abroad to live. In 1820 when he became King he tried to divorce her on grounds of adultery. Though historians later seemed certain of her guilt, Byron and many others sympathized with her as an injured woman and opposed the King during the notoriety of the trial. The only part George took in government was to oppose reforms.
86, 8 As Philip’s son proposed to do with Athos The son of Philip (382–336 BC), King of Macedon, was Alexander the Great. ‘A sculptor projected to hew Mount Athos [a mountain over a mile high in north-east Greece] into a statue of Alexander, with a city in one hand, and I believe a river in his pocket, with various other similar devices. But Alexander’s gone, and Athos remains, I trust ere long to look over a nation of free men’ (Byron, 1823).
89, 2–4 the public hedge hath scarce a stake, … To show the people the best way to break Ordinary people no longer can make a profitable sale or investment that will secure or compensate them for a possible loss in another speculation (sale or purchase). Therefore Byron will write a canto on economic theory (88, 7–8) to show the public how to withdraw from the market (break away), or to cause prices to decline sharply, or to go bankrupt, or to change direction, that is, make a different and profitable transaction. Several meanings may be possible for ‘break’.
CANTO XIII
Byron began the first draft of Canto XIII (Tn-PM) at Genoa on 12 February 1823 and completed it on 19 February 1823. Stanza 88 was written later than the others. This canto was published by John Hunt with Cantos XII and XIV on 13 December 1823. All variants are taken from Tn-PM.
2, 1–5 The Lady Adeline Amundeville … Was highborn Since Byron never called her Lady Henry Amundeville but always Lady Adeline, he indicated that she outranked her husband. (For Lord Henry’s rank, see note to Canto XIII, 20, 1.) The wife of a younger son of a duke or marquess, if her husband’s father was of higher rank than her father, was addressed as ‘Lady’, followed by the Christian name and surname of her husband. But a daughter of a peer ranked one degree higher than a younger son of the same grade. If she married a peer’s younger son of the same grade as herself (or lower than herself) she retained ‘her own tide of Lady with her Christian name’. Titles and Forms of Address, A Guide to Their Correct Use, nth edn (London, 1961), 49, 51–2, 57, 59–60.
5, 2 placemen A placeman is a political opportunist, whose competence and patriotism are specious. He seeks or holds a government appointment solely for his own advantage.
5, 6 To irrigate the dryness ] To
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