I. He sings so wild and well! But when the day-blush bursts from high Expires that magic melody. And some have been who could believe,ii. Yet harsh be they that blame,) 'Tis from her cypress summit heard, i. But with the day blush of the sky.—[MS.] i. 1190 "And airy tongues that syllable men's names." MILTON, Comus, line 208. For a belief that the souls of the dead inhabit the form of birds, we need not travel to the East. Lord Lyttleton's ghost story, the belief of the Duchess of Kendal, that George I. flew into her window in the shape of a raven (see Orford's Reminiscences, Lord Orford's Works, 1798, iv. 283), and many other instances, bring this superstition nearer home. The most singular was the whim of a Worcester lady, who, believing her daughter to exist in the shape of a singing bird, literally furnished her pew in the cathedral with cages full of the kind; and as she was rich, and a benefactress in beautifying the church, no objection was made to her harmless folly. For this anecdote, see Orford's Letters. ["But here (at Gloucester) is a modernity, which beats all antiquities for curiosity. Just by the high altar is a small pew hung with green damask, with curtains of the same; a small corner-cupboard, painted, carved, and gilt, for books, in one corner, and two troughs of a bird-cage, with seeds and water. If any mayoress on earth was small enough to inclose herself in this tabernacle, or abstemious enough to feed on rape and canary, I should have sworn that it was the shrine of the queen of the aldermen. It belongs to a Mrs. Cotton, who, having lost a favourite daughter, is convinced her soul is transmigrated into a robin redbreast, for which reason she passes her life in making an aviary of the cathedral of Gloucester."-Letter to Richard Bentley, September, 1753 (Lord Orford's Works, 1798, v. 279).] VOL. III. P There late was laid a marble stone; Next morn 'twas found where Selim fell ; 1200 'Tis named the "Pirate-phantom's pillow!" 1210 As weeping Beauty's cheek at Sorrow's tale! 2 i. And in its stead that mourning flower As the young cheek that saddens to the tale. An earlier version of the final text reads As weeping Childhood's cheek at Sorrow's tale! 1. [According to J. B. Le Chevalier (Voyage de La Propontide, etc., an. viii. (1800), p. 17), the Turkish name for a small bay which formed the ancient port of Sestos, is Ak-Bachi-Liman (Port de la Tête blanche).] 2. [“ The Bride, such as it is, is my first entire composition of any length (except the Satire, and be damned to it), for The Giaour is but a string of passages, and Childe Harold is, and I rather think always will be, unconcluded" (Letter to Murray, November 29, 1813). It (the Bride) "was published on Thursday the second of December; but how it is liked or disliked, I know not. Whether it succeeds or not is no fault of the public, against whom I can have no complaint. But I am much more indebted to the tale than I can ever be to the most partial reader; as it wrung my thoughts from reality to imagination-from selfish regrets to vivid recollections and recalled me to a country replete with the brightest and darkest, but always most lively colours of my memory" (Journal, December 5, 1813, Letters, 1898, ii. 291, 361).] NOTE TO THE BRIDE OF ABYDOS. CANTO II. STANZA xx. AFTER the completion of the fair copy of the MS. of the Bride of Abydos, seventy lines were added to stanza xx. of Canto II. In both MSS. the rough and fair copies, the stanza ends with the line, "The Dove of peace and promise to mine ark!" Seven MS. sheets are extant, which make up the greater portion of these additional lines. The First Addition amounts to eight lines, and takes the narrative from line 880 to line 893, “Wait-wave-defenddestroy-at thy command!” Lines 884-889 do not appear in the first MS. Fragment, but are given in three variants on separate sheets. Two of these are dated December 2 and December 3, 1813. The Second Fragment begins with line 890, “For thee in those bright isles is built a bower," and, numbering twentytwo lines, ends with a variant of line 907, "Blend every thought, do all—but disunite!" Two lines of this addition, "With thee all toils are sweet," find a place in the text as lines 934, 935. The Third Fragment amounts to thirty-six lines, and be taken as the first draft of the whole additions-lines 880-949. may Lines 908-925 and 936-945 of the text are still later additions, but a fourth MS. fragment supplies lines 920-925 and lines 936-945. (A fair copy of this fragment gives text for Revise of November 13.) Between November 13 and November 25 no less than ten revises of the Bride were submitted to Lord Byron. In the earliest of these, dated November 13, the thirty-six lines of the Third Fragment have been expanded into forty lines-four lines of the MS. being omitted, and twelve lines, 908-919, “Once free,”—“ social home," being inserted. The text passed through five revises and remained unaltered till November 21, when eighteen lines were added to the forty, viz.: (4) "Mark! where his carnage," "sabre's length;" (6) "There ev'n thy soul,”Zuleika's name;" and (8) “Aye-let the loud winds,”"bars escape." Of these the two latter additions belong to the Fourth Fragment. The text in this state passed through three more revises, but before the first edition was issued two more lines were added-lines 938, 939, 66 “The deepest murmur of this lip shall be, No sigh for safety, but a prayer for thee!" Even then the six lines, "Blest-as the Muezzin's,”— “endears,” are wanting in the text; but the four lines, "Soft -as the melody,"-" endears," are inserted in MS. in the margin. The text as it stands first appears in the Seventh Edition. [FIRST DRAFT OF 880, sq., OF CANTO II. STANZA XX. OF THE BRIDE OF ABYDOS.] For thee in those bright isles is built a bower Blooming as Eden guarded like a tower pair No Danger daunts-the souls that Love hath blest With feet long wandering-but with hearts at rest. charms Earth-sea-alike—one World within our arms Girt by my hand—Zuleika at my side- 934, 935 slumbring The Haram's sluggish life of listless ease Is well exchanged for cares and joys like these Firm as my own I deem thy tender heart Man I may lead-but trust not-I may fall By those now friends to me-yet foes to allIn this they follow but the bent assigned fatal Nature By savage Nature to our warning kind No more remains to win and much to fear |