Don Juan
Page 84
63, 1 – 66, 8 soupe á la bonne femme, I… with truffles For the French delicacies that Byron enumerates in these stanzas, E. H. Coleridge (VI, 561–2) quotes The French Cook by Louis Eustache Ude (1813, viii), where most of them occur under the ‘Bill of Fare for November’: Potage (soup) á la bonne femme, Dindon á la Périgueux (turkey), Soupe á la Beauveau, Le dorey garni déperlans frits (the John Dory, a yellow to olive European ocean-fish, garnished with fried smelts), Le cuisseau de porc á demi sel (ham lightly cured with salt), garni des choux (cabbage), Le salmi de perdreaux (ragout of partridge) á l’Espagnole, Les bécasses (woodcock). The plates illustrate Les poulardes (capons) á la Condé, Le jambon (ham) de Westphalie á l’Espagnole, Les petites timbales d’un salpicon á la Monglas (meat pie garnished with truffles and mushrooms), Les filets de perdreaux (partridges) sautés á la Lucullus, and Petits puits d’amour (cream puffs) garnis de confitures (jam). See ‘Plate of Second Course’.
63, 3 a turbot A turbot is a flat, palatable European fish (not found in American waters), in shape resembling a flounder and often weighing thirty or forty pounds. See also XVI 88.
64, 1 crowd ]
64, 2 stretch ]
64, 3 Muse ]
65, 3 Wines too which might again have slain young Amman see note to Canto V 31, 7–8, for Ammon as another name for Alexander the Great
In one of Plutarch’s alternate accounts of Alexander’s death, a fatal fever began after two successive drinking bouts. In another, when ‘a raging fever’ made him thirsty, he drank wine, became delirious, and died (Alexander, section 75, Lives, trans. B. Perrin (1919), VII 432–3).
65, 6 Apieius A Roman gourmet and glutton in the time of Tiberius. He spent a huge fortune importing and creating new delicacies. It is said that he wrote a cookbook, not now extant When he no longer could afford to indulge his expensive taste in food, he hanged himself.
65, 7–8 ]… Champagne with
In which) Cleopatra
champagne… I… melted pearls Byron’s champagne-pearl image is his variation of Pliny’s curious lore: Cleopatra made a wager with Antony that she could spend ten million sesterces on a banquet She won the bet by taking one of the world’s two largest pearls from her ear-ring and dissolving it in a cup of ‘aceturn’ – strong vinegar – which she drank (Natural History IX, section 58, trans. H. Rackham (1940), III 243–7). Rackham and J. Newsome have seriously noted (1) that the strongest vinegar will not dissolve the smallest pearl, (2) that ‘acetum’ probably meant ‘soured wine’, a less disagreeable drink than vinegar, and (3) that Cleopatra no doubt swallowed the pearl because she knew she could later recover it, an observation that would have delighted Byron had he read it See J. Newsome’s edition of Philemon Holland’s translation of Pliny’s Natural History (1964), 98. Robert Burton also mentioned the legend: Cleopatra ‘drinks jewels dissolved, 40, 000 sesterces in value’ (The Anatomy of Melancholy, II, section 3, Member 3 ‘Against Poverty and Want…’, ed. F. Dell and P. Jordan-Smith (1955), 512).
Keats used the image in his satirical Modern Love: ‘Fools! make me whole again that weighty pearl / The Queen of Egypt melted’ 15–16 (written ?18l8, published 1848).
66, 5–6 And entremets to piddle with at hand, / Gently to lull down the subsiding soul Entremets are side dishes. J. M. Ridenour points out that ‘piddle’ is a Popean word (see Pope’s ‘imitation’ of Horace, Satires II 2, 137) and that Byron’s ‘subsiding soul’ is derived from this same poem, where ‘the Soul subsides’ is Pope’s rendering of the Horatian ‘animum quoque praegravat’ (Horace, 60; Pope 79). The Style of Don Juan (1960), 37.
66, 7–8 Lucullus’ robe triumphal muffles I… young partridge fillets Some editions have erroneously printed ‘Rome triumphal’.
Lucullus brought cherry trees to Italy from Pontus after the Mithridatic War (74 BC), whence they soon ‘got as far as Britain’ (Pliny, Natural History XV, section 30, trans. H. Rackham (1945), IV 358–9). Byron wrote that Lucullus, whose name had been given to some ‘very good dishes’, had – ‘barring indigestion’ – done ‘more service to mankind by his cooking than by his conquests. A cherry-tree may weigh against a bloody laurel’ (1824 note).
67, 3 ]
67, 8 ]
lend lustre even to partridges B, 1824
even B ] e’en 1833 and later editions. For Byron’s dislike of ‘e’en’ see Editors’ Note. Though he almost always considered ‘even’ a monosyllable, he and the publishers of DJ rarely indicated the contraction.
68, 2–8 petits puits d’amour See note to 63, 1 – 66, 8. Byron’s 1824 note was whimsical: ‘a classical and well-known dish for part of a flank of a second course’. In lines 3–4 and especially 7–8, there is sexual innuendo with the literal meaning of the French phrase: ‘little wells or water holes of love’.
68, 5 best of dictionaries ] best vocabularies
68, 8 ] those “petits puits”
70, 5 springald An archaic word meaning a young man. OED cites Byron’s usage.
71, 1–8 the gibier, / The salmi,… I Bubble and squeak…/… bécasse Respectively: the game, the game stew, beef and cabbage fried together, woodcock.
71, 3 ]
71, 5–6 ] a spare rib here
[variant] Griskin The lean part of a pork loin.
72, 3–4 ]
Your
73, 1–8 The simpk olives… On Stmium or Hymettus, like Diogenes, Of whom half my philosophy the progeny is For Sunium see note to Canto III, Lyric 16. Hymettus is a mountain in Attica, celebrated for honey and marble.
When Byron recalled his sparse diet out of doors, he thought of Diogenes, because that crotchety and irascible man was the epitome of austere simplicity. He renounced property, slept in public places, and relied on casual contributions for food. His independence, his indignation at vice, and his lack of a written philosophical system also appealed to Byron. See XI 28; XVI 43.
73, 3 ] I must
73, 5 ] On them and bread
74, 5 sate B ] sat 1824 and later editions
75, 8 transcendent eyes seemed to look through him Adeline’s eyes were extraordinary, but Byron may also have humorously attributed to her a mystical, intuitive insight in the spiritual or religious sense commonly implied by ‘transcendant’ and ‘transcendental’. This interpretation is supported by stanza 76.
76, 3 ]
76, 5 Like that same mystic music ] Like that
76, 5–6 See note to III 28, 3.
77, 2 preux chevalier See notes to VII 33, 2; XIII 86, 3.
81, 3]
81, 5–7 difficult, they say, it is To keep extremes from meeting when once set In motion, but she here too much refined In predicting Aurora’s future coquetry, which would be contrary to her present character, Adeline’s theory that one extreme led to its opposite was too subtle and complex to apply to one so direct and innocent as Aurora.
83, 5–6 ]
Nor thought he had pride enough – for She was proud>
84, 2–3 Nem. con…/… crim. con. Abbreviations for ‘nemine contradicenti’, unanimously; ‘crim. con.’, criminal conversation, adultery.
85, 3 Minerva… the Graces In contrast to Minerva’s intellectual powers, the three Graces – Euphrosyne (joy), Aglaia (beauty), Thalia (fruitful abundance) – were attendants of Aphrodite, Eros and Dionysius, and presided over the banquet and all social pleasures and polite accomplish
ments.
86, 7–8 always in a modest way, / Observe, for that with me‘s a sine qua Modesty is something indispensable, absolutely essential (’a sine qua non’). Byron’s 1824 note explained why he shortened the Latin expression: ‘Subauditur “Non”; omitted for the sake of euphony.’ ‘Subauditur’ means that the word ‘non’ is to be understood and supplied.
87, 1–2 Lord Coke / (See Littleton) Lord Coke’s (pronounced Cook’s) commentary (1628–44) on Sir Thomas Littleton’s Institutes of the Laws of England long remained the principal authority on English real property law.
87, 2 exprest B ] expressed or express’d 1824 and later editions
89, 6–7 ] But what’s reality?
Some old – some past – some present – some to be>
91, 7–8 ]
Such things – Since> I was bred a Presbyterian?
I wish well to Trojan and to Tyrian ‘Trojan and Tyrian shall be treated by me with no distinction’ (Virgil, Aeneid I 574).
92, 4 Eidon on a lunatic commission John Scott, Earl of Eldon, Lord Chancellor of England (1801–27), heard the 1822 case on the sanity of Lord Portsmouth. see note to Canto XII 37, 5–8.
92, 7 the springs of Hecla Byron’s image is inaccurate. In Canto X 59, 8, however, he was right about the flame of this Icelandic volcano.
93, 3–4 to dress society /… that very verdant goose To reprimand and set society in order. OED finds that ‘goose’ has been used as an epithet of folly and stupidity since the sixteenth century. Society is a green goose, that is, inexperienced and gullible. OED cites Byron’s use of ‘verdant’ here.
94, 3 ‘fool me to the top up of my bent’ Hamlet III ii 408. ‘Top of my bent’ means ‘limit of my endurance’.
95, 1 Grim reader ]
96, 6 ‘shadows the soul of Richard’ may appal ‘… shadows tonight / Have struck more terror to the soul of Richard Than can the substance of ten thousand soldiers Armed in proof’ (Richard III V iii 217–20).
96, 8 the philosopher of Malmsbury Pierre Bayle in his entry on Hobbes in A General Dictionary Historical and Critical (1734–41) wrote that Hobbes was so affected by what he read concerning apparitions that he was almost persuaded of their reality.
98, 4 chilly midnight ]
99, 3–4 How little do we know that which we are! / How less what we may be! Ophelia says ‘Lord! we know what we are, but know not what we may be’ (Hamlet IV v 43–4). Byron’s rephrasing is in the sceptical tradition of Socrates, Montaigne and Hume.
CANTO XVI
Byron began the first draft (P) of Canto XVI at Genoa on 29 March 1823 and completed it on 6 May. Only Stanza 6 of the Lyric seems to have been written later than some of the other stanzas. Canto XVI was published with Canto XV by John Hunt on 26 March 1824. All variants have been taken from P. Selected variants from the MS of this canto are quoted by permission of the Carl H. Pforzheimer Library.
1, 1–2 The antigue Persians taught three useful things: / To draw the bow, to ride, and speak the truth ‘They educate their boys from five to twenty years, and teach them three things only, riding and archery and truth-telling’ (Herodotus, Book I, section 136, trans. A. D. Godley (1921), I 176–7). See also the moral reflections and counsels of Cyrus on his death bed in Xenophon’s Cyropaedia VIII, section 7, trans. W. Miller (1914), II 425–39.
1, 5 Bows have they, generally with two strings Modern boys are sly and insincere; they use one string for one person or mood, a second for the next situation. See line 7.
1, 7–8 At speaking truth… I But draw the long bow better now than ever see note to Canto VIII 138, 6–7.
2, 2 ‘For this effect defective comes by cause’ Hamlet II ii 103.
3, 8 De rebus cunctis et quibūsdam aliis ‘Concerning all things and some others.’ St Thomas Aquinas is said to have written two treatises, De omnibus rebus and De quibusdam aliis.
5, 2 Turpin’s or Monmouth Geoffrey’s Chronicle Turpin (d. c. 800), an archbishop of Rheims in the days of Charlemagne, was erroneously said to have written the Latin chronicle De vita et gestis Caroli Magni, a source for the tales of Boiardo and others. Geoffrey of Monmouth (?1100–1154) is the creator of King Arthur in his Historia regum Britarmiae.
5, 5–8 Saint Augustine…/… quia impossible It was not Augustine, but Tertullian who wrote: ‘sepultus, resurrexit; certum est, quia impossibile’). (‘[Christ] was buried and resurrected; this is certain because it is impossible’). Liber De Came Christi, ch. 5, in Opera Omnia. Patrologiae Cursus Complétas, ed. J. P. Migne (1879), 806. Tertullian required humility and unquestioning obedience to divine word. Man must believe because God commands our faith. The more unreasonable or absurd a miracle seems to be, the greater the merit our faith in it (A. C. McGiffert, A History of Christian Thought (1933), II, ch. 1). This position was contrary to eighteenth-century rationalism, but such implicit faith was consistent with John Wesley’s emotional conviction and with that of later evangelical preachers. Though Byron may not have read Tertullian’s tract, he could have seen or heard the familiar doctrine elsewhere. He used it here and in the next stanza to mock irrational extremes.
5, 7 ] Because
7, 1–8 what Johnson said…/… let those deny who will According to James Boswell, Samuel Johnson was not credulous but inquired ‘into the truth of any relation of supernatural agency’ and helped to reveal that the story ‘of a ghost in Cock-lane’ was an imposture. Johnson, however, was eager to find confirmation of spiritual immortality, and might have wanted to believe in ghosts, but his common sense made acceptance difficult: ‘A total disbelief of [ghosts] is adverse to the opinion of the existence of the soul between death and the last day… [but] a man who thinks he has seen an apparition can only be convinced himself; his authority will not convince another…’ Johnson thought it wonderful that after five thousand years, ‘it is undecided whether or not there has ever been an instance of the spirit of any person appearing after death’ (Boswell, entries for 25 June 1763, I 406–7; 10 April 1772, II 182; 31 March 1778, III 230; 15 April 1781, IV 94; 12 June 1784, IV 298–9).
In The History of Rasselas, ch. 31, Johnson has the widely experienced Imlac say: ‘That the dead are seen no more, I will not undertake to maintain, against the concurrent and unvaried testimony of all ages, and of all nations. There is no people, rude or learned, among whom apparitions of the dead are not related and believed. This opinion… could become universal only by its truth…. That it is doubted by single cavillers, can very little weaken the general evidence; and some who deny it with their tongues, confess it by their fears.’
7, 7 ]
8, 2 ] The
9, 3 virgin bumper ]
10, 7 from a shellfish or from cochineal ‘The composition of the old Tyrian purple, whether from a shellfish or from cochineal, or from kermes, is still an article of dispute; and even its colour – some say purple, others scarlet: I say nothing’ (Byron, 1824). Both cochineal and certain shellfish were used by the ancients as dyes.
11, 2–3 Our rohe-de-chambre / May sit like that of Nessus see note to Canto XI 65, 4.
11, 3–4 ]
Thoughts… yellow, hut less clear than amber ‘Yellow’ thoughts are usually ‘jealous’ ones, which may indirectly fit the image, for Deianira was jealous of Hercules and afraid of losing his affection when she sent him the poisoned robe of Nessus. But ‘yellow’ thoughts may be dejected ones, and confused (not so clear as amber, a yellowish translucent fossil resin). This latter sense describes in part the emotional state of the poisoned Hercules.
11, 5 Titus exclaimed, ‘I’ve lost a day!’ ‘… it was his fixed rule not to let anyone go away wit
hout hope. Even when his household officials warned him that he was promising more than he could perform, he said that it was not right for anyone to go away sorrowful from an interview with his emperor. On another occasion, remembering at dinner that he had done nothing for anybody all that day, he gave utterance to that memorable and praiseworthy remark: “ Friends, I have lost a day” ’ (Suetonius, The Deified Titus, section 8, The Lives of the Caesars, trans. J. C Rolfe (1924), II 330–31).
11, 7 I have had of both The verb should be contracted: I’ve had of both. Similarly, in the following lines: he’s not seen – Lyric 2, 8 (Byron twice contracted ‘is’ in line 7); he’s been mistaken (118, 3).
13, 7 tuism In ethics ‘tuism’ is the opposite of ‘egoism’. According to OED, S. T. Coleridge used ‘tuism’ in The Watchman (1796).
15, 1 pensive ]
16, 1 his toilet his dressing table or washstand. Byron is mocking the Gallicizing of names of ordinary furniture by polite society.
16, 3 I am cautious ] I
18, 6–7 ]
Some portrait starting from his frame> fragment ]
Start from the
19, 5 spars Sparkling, lustrous, non-metallic, crystalline formations, like quartz or mica.
21, 1 lo! a monk The legend of the Black Monk of Newstead may have been based on the occasional glimpse that visitors had of a monkish domestic who remained in the service of the Byrons long after the dissolution of the Abbey. According to Thomas Moore, Byron in 1814 ‘fancied he saw the ghost’ (Works III 108 n.). See also Marchand, I 174–5; LJ III 126.
21, 6 shadowy as the sisters weird The weird sisters (from the Anglo-Saxon Wyrd) were the Scottish Fates, and appear as three witches in Macbeth I i, I iii and elsewhere; IV i 111: ‘Come like shadows, so depart.’
26, 1–3 his taper / Burnt, and not blue as modest tapers use, / Receiving sprites with sympathetic vapour When a candle burned with a blue flame, it was said to indicate the presence of ghosts or of the devil (perhaps referring to the blue flame of brimstone). ‘The lights burn blue. It is now dead midnight’ (Richard III V iii 180). See also S. T. Coleridge, Christabel 158–9.