1. [Compare the lines entitled "Belshazzar" (vide post, p. 421),

and Don Juan, Canto III. stanza lxv.]

I. [It was not in his youth, but in extreme old age, that Daniel

interpreted the "writing on the wall."]

WERE MY BOSOM AS FALSE AS THOU DEEM'ST IT TO BE. 399

SUN OF THE SLEEPLESS!

SUN of the sleepless! melancholy star!
Whose tearful beam glows tremulously far,
That show'st the darkness thou canst not dispel,
How like art thou to Joy remembered well!
So gleams the past, the light of other days,
Which shines, but warms not with its powerless rays:
A night-beam Sorrow watcheth to behold,
Distinct, but distant-clear-but, oh how cold!

WERE MY BOSOM AS FALSE AS THOU
DEEM'ST IT TO BE.

WERE my

I.

bosom as false as thou deem'st it to be, I need not have wandered from far Galilee ;

It was but abjuring my creed to efface

The curse which, thou say'st, is the crime of my race.

II.

If the bad never triumph, then God is with thee!
If the slave only sin-thou art spotless and free!

If the Exile on earth is an Outcast on high,
Live on in thy faith-but in mine I will die.

III.

I have lost for that faith more than thou canst bestow, As the God who permits thee to prosper doth know; In his hand is my heart and my hope-and in thine The land and the life which for him I resign.

Seaham, 1815.

HEROD'S LAMENT FOR MARIAMNE.1

I.

OH, Mariamne! now for thee

The heart for which thou bled'st is bleeding;
Revenge is lost in Agonyi.

And wild Remorse to rage succeeding."

Oh, Mariamne! where art thou?

iii.

Thou canst not hear my bitter pleading:
Ah! could'st thou-thou would'st pardon now,
Though Heaven were to my prayer unheeding.

II.

And is she dead?-and did they dare

Obey my Frenzy's jealous raving? iv.
My Wrath but doomed my own despair :

The sword that smote her 's o'er me waving.——

But thou art cold, my murdered Love!
And this dark heart is vainly craving".

i. And what was rage is agony.-[MS. erased.]
Revenge is turned

ii. And deep Remorse

-[MS.] --[MS.]

iii. And what am I thy tyrant pleading.—[MS. erased.]
iv. Thou art not dead-they could not dare

Obey my jealous Frenzy's raving.—[MS.]

v. But yet in death my soul enslaving.—[MS. erased.]

1. [Mariamne, the wife of Herod the Great, falling_under_the suspicion of infidelity, was put to death by his order. Ever after, Herod was haunted by the image of the murdered Mariamne, until disorder of the mind brought on disorder of body, which led to temporary derangement. See History of the Jews, by H. H. Milman, 1878, pp. 236, 237. See, too, Voltaire's drama, Mariamne, passim. Nathan, wishing "to be favoured with so many lines pathetic, some playful, others martial, etc. one evening. . . unfortunately (while absorbed for a moment in worldly affairs) requested so many dull lines--meaning plaintive." Byron instantly caught at the expression, and exclaimed, "Well, Nathan! you have at length set me an easy task," and before parting presented him with "these beautifully pathetic lines, saying, 'Here, Nathan, I think you will find these dull enough.'"-Fugitive Pieces, 1829, p. 51.]

For he who soars alone above,

And leaves my soul unworthy saving.

III.

She's gone, who shared my diadem;
She sunk, with her my joys entombing;
I swept that flower from Judah's stem,
Whose leaves for me alone were blooming;
And mine's the guilt, and mine the hell,
This bosom's desolation dooming;

And I have earned those tortures well,i.
Which unconsumed are still consuming!

Jan. 15, 1815.

ON THE DAY OF THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM BY TITUS.

I.

FROM the last hill that looks on thy once holy dome,ii.

iii.

I beheld thee, oh Sion! when rendered to Rome : 'Twas thy last sun went down, and the flames of thy fall Flashed back on the last glance I gave to thy wall.

II.

iv.

I looked for thy temple-I looked for my home,
And forgot for a moment my bondage to come;
I beheld but the death-fire that fed on thy fane,
And the fast-fettered hands that made vengeance in vain.

i. Oh I have earned

ii.

iii.

-[MS.]

that looks o'er thy once holy dome.—[MS.]

o'er thy once holy wall

I beheld thee O Sion the day of thy fall.—[MS. erased.]

iv. And forgot in their ruin

VOL. III.

-[MS. erased.]

2 D