WRITTEN AFTER SWIMMING FROM SESTOS TO ABYDOS. 13 WRITTEN AFTER SWIMMING FROM SESTOS TO ABYDOS.1 I. IF, in the month of dark December, To cross thy stream, broad Hellespont ! 1. On the 3rd of May, 1810, while the Salsette (Captain Bathurst) was lying in the Dardanelles, Lieutenant Ekenhead, of that frigate, and the writer of these rhymes, swam from the European shore to the Asiatic-by the by, from Abydos to Sestos would have been more correct. The whole distance, from the place whence we started to our landing on the other side, including the length we were carried by the current, was computed by those on board the frigate at upwards of four English miles, though the actual breadth is barely one. The rapidity of the current is such that no boat can row directly across, and it may, in some measure, be estimated from the circumstance of the whole distance being accomplished by one of the parties in an hour and five, and by the other in an hour and ten minutes. The water was extremely cold, from the melting of the mountain snows. About three weeks before, in April, we had made an attempt; but having ridden all the way from the Troad the same morning, and the water being of an icy chillness, we found it necessary to postpone the completion till the frigate anchored below the castles, when we swam the straits as just stated, entering a considerable way above the European, and landing below the Asiatic, fort. [Le] Chevalier says that a young Jew swam the same distance for his mistress; and Olivier mentions its having been done by a Neapolitan; but our consul, Tarragona, remembered neither of these circumstances, and tried to dissuade us from the attempt. A number of the Salsette's crew were known to have accomplished a greater distance ; and the only thing that surprised me was that, as doubts had been entertained of the truth of Leander's story, no traveller had ever endeavoured to ascertain its practicability. [See letter to Drury, dated May 3; to his mother, May 24, 1810, etc. (Letters, 1898, i. 262, 275). Compare the well-known lines in Don Juan, Canto II. stanza cv. "A better swimmer you could scarce see ever, He could perhaps have passed the Hellespont, Compare, too, Childe Harold, Canto IV. stanza clxxxiv. line 3, and the Bride of Abydos, Canto II. stanza i.: Poetical Works, 1899, ii. 461, note 2, et post, p. 178.] 2. If, when the wintry tempest roared, 3. For me, degenerate modern wretch, 4. But since he crossed the rapid tide, To woo,-and-Lord knows what beside, 5. 'Twere hard to say who fared the best : Sad mortals! thus the Gods still plague you! He lost his labour, I my jest: For he was drowned, and I've the ague.1 May 9, 1810. [First published, Childe Harold, 1812 (4to).] 1. [Hobhouse, who records the first attempt to cross the Hellespont, on April 16, and the successful achievement of the feat, May 3, 1810, adds the following note: "In my journal, in my friend's handwriting: The whole distance E. and myself swam was more than four miles-the current very strong and cold—some large fish near us when half across-we were not fatigued, but a little chilled —did it with little difficulty.-May, 6, 1810. Byron.””— -Travels in Albania, ii. 195.] LINES IN THE TRAVELLERS' BOOK AT IN THIS BOOK A TRAVELLER HAD WRITTEN :— "FAIR Albion, smiling, sees her son depart To trace the birth and nursery of art : Noble his object, glorious is his aim; He comes to Athens, and he-writes his name." BENEATH WHICH LORD BYRON INSERTED THE FOLLOWING: THE modest bard, like many a bard unknown, His name would bring more credit than his verse. 1. ["At Orchomenus, where stood the Temple of the Graces, I was tempted to exclaim, 'Whither have the Graces fled?' Little did I expect to find them here. Yet here comes one of them with golden cups and coffee, and another with a book. The book is a register of names. Among these is Lord Byron's connected with some lines which I shall send you: 'Fair Albion,' etc." (See Travels in Italy, Greece, etc., by H. W. Williams, ii. 290, 291; Life, p. 101.)] 2. [The Maid of Athens was, it is supposed, the eldest of three sisters, daughters of Theodora Macri, the widow of a former English Or, since that has left my breast, 2. By those tresses unconfined, ... vice-consul. Byron and Hobhouse lodged at her house. The sisters were sought out and described by the artist, Hugh W. Williams, who visited Athens in May, 1817: “Theresa, the Maid of Athens, Catinco, and Mariana, are of middle stature. The two eldest have black, or dark hair and eyes; their visage oval, and complexion somewhat pale, with teeth of pearly whiteness. Their cheeks are rounded, their noses straight, rather inclined to aquiline. The youngest, Mariana, is very fair, her face not so finely rounded, but has a gayer expression than her sisters', whose countenances, except when the conversation has something of mirth in it, may be said to be rather pensive. Their persons are elegant, and their manners pleasing and lady-like, such as would be fascinating in any country. They possess very considerable powers of conversation, and their minds seem to be more instructed than those of the Greek women in general."-Travels in Italy, Greece, etc., ii. 291, 292. Other travellers, Hughes, who visited Athens in 1813, and Walsh (Narrative of a Resident in Constantinople, i. 122), who saw Theresa in 1821, found her charming and interesting, but speak of her beauty as a thing of the past. "She married an Englishman named Black, employed in H.M. Consular Service at Mesolonghi. She survived her husband and fell into great poverty... Theresa Black died October 15, 1875, aged 80 years.' (See Letters, 1898, i. 269, 270, note 1; and Life, p. 105, note.) "Maid of Athens " is possibly the best-known of Byron's short poems, all over the English-speaking world. This is no doubt due in part to its having been set to music by about half a dozen composers-the latest of whom was Gounod.j 1. Romaic expression of tenderness. If I translate it, I shall affront the gentlemen, as it may seem that I supposed they could not; and if I do not, I may affront the ladies. For fear of any misconstruction on the part of the latter, I shall do so, begging pardon of the learned. It means, "My life, I love you!" which sounds very prettily in all languages, and is as much in fashion in Greece at this day as, Juvenal tells us, the two first words were amongst the Roman ladies, whose erotic expressions were all Hellenised. [The reference is to the Zwn kal Yuxǹ of Roman courtesans. Vide Juvenal, lib. ii., Sat. vi. line 195; Martial, Epig. x. 68. 5.] By those lids whose jetty fringe Kiss thy soft cheeks' blooming tinge; Ζωή μου, σᾶς ἀγαπῶ, 3. By that lip I long to taste; By that zone-encircled waist; By all the token-flowers 1 that tell 4. Maid of Athens! I am gone : Athens holds my heart and soul : Athens, 1810. [First published, Childe Harold, 1812 (4to).] 1. In the East (where ladies are not taught to write, lest they should scribble assignations), flowers, cinders, pebbles, etc., convey the sentiments of the parties, by that universal deputy of Mercuryan old woman. A cinder says, "I burn for thee;" a bunch of flowers tied with hair, "Take me and fly; " but a pebble declareswhat nothing else can. [Compare The Bride of Abydos, line 295-'What! not receive my foolish flower?" See, too, Medwin's story of "one of the principal incidents in The Giaour." "I was in despair, and could hardly contrive to get a cinder, or a token-flower sent to express it."-Conversations of Lord Byron, 1824, p. 122.] 2. Constantinople. [Compare VOL. III. "Tho' I am parted, yet my mind That's more than self still stays behind." Poems, by Thomas Carew, ed. 1640, p. 36.] C |