Part 66 (1/2)

'I write in the greatest haste, it being the hour of the Corso, and I must go and buffoon with the rest. My daughter Allegra is just gone with the Countess G. in Count G.'s coach and six. Our old Cardinal is dead, and the new one not appointed yet--but the masquing goes on the same.'

(Letter to Murray, 355th in Moore, dated Ravenna, Feb. 7, 1828.) 'A dreadfully moral place, for you must not look at anybody's wife, except your neighbour's.'

[185] See quoted _infra_ the mock, by Byron, of himself and all other modern poets, _Juan_, canto iii. stanza 86, and compare canto xiv.

stanza 8. In reference of future quotations the first numeral will stand always for canto; the second for stanza; the third, if necessary, for line.

[186] _Island_, ii. 16, where see context.

[187] _Juan_, viii. 5; but, by your Lords.h.i.+p's quotation, Wordsworth says 'instrument'--not 'daughter.' Your Lords.h.i.+p had better have said 'Infant' and taken the Woolwich authorities to witness: only Infant would not have rymed.

[188] _Juan_, viii. 3; compare 14 and 63, with all its lovely context 61--68: then 82, and afterwards slowly and with thorough attention, the Devil's speech, beginning, 'Yes, Sir, you forget' in scene 2 of _The Deformed Transformed_: then Sardanapalus's, act i. scene 2, beginning 'he is gone, and on his finger bears my signet,' and finally, the _Vision of Judgment_, stanzas 3 to 5.

[189] _Island_, iii. 3, and compare, of sh.o.r.e surf, the 'slings its high flakes, s.h.i.+vered into sleet' of stanza 7.

[190] A modern editor--of whom I will not use the expressions which occur to me--finding the 'we' a redundant syllable in the iambic line, prints 'we're.' It is a little thing--but I do not recollect, in the forty years of my literary experience, any piece of editor's retouch quite so base. But I don't read the new editions much; that must be allowed for.

[191] _Island_, ii. 5. I was going to say, 'Look to the context.' but am fain to give it here; for the stanza, learned by heart, ought to be our school-introduction to the literature of the world.

'Such was this ditty of Tradition's days, Which to the dead a lingering fame conveys In song, where fame as yet hath left no sign Beyond the sound whose charm is half divine; Which leaves no record to the sceptic eye, But yields young history all to harmony; A boy Achilles, with the centaur's lyre In hand, to teach him to surpa.s.s his sire.

For one long-cherish'd ballad's simple stave Rung from the rock, or mingled with the wave, Or from the bubbling streamlet's gra.s.sy side, Or gathering mountain echoes as they glide, Hath greater power o'er each true heart and ear, Than all the columns Conquest's minions rear; Invites, when hieroglyphics are a theme For sages' labours or the student's dream; Attracts, when History's volumes are a toil-- The first, the freshest bud of Feeling's soil.

Such was this rude rhyme--rhyme is of the rude, But such inspired the Norseman's solitude, Who came and conquer'd; such, wherever rise Lands which no foes destroy or civilise, Exist; and what can our accomplish'd art Of verse do more than reach the a waken'd heart?'

[192] _Shepherd's Calendar._ 'Coronation,' loyal-pastoral for Carnation; 'sops in wine,' jolly-pastoral for double pink; 'paunce,' thoughtless pastoral for pansy; 'chevisaunce' I don't know, (not in Gerarde); 'flowre-delice'--p.r.o.nounce dellice--half made up of 'delicate' and 'delicious.'

[193] Herrick, _Dirge for Jephthah's Daughter_.

[194] _Pa.s.sionate Pilgrim._

[195] In this point, compare the _Curse of Minerva_ with the _Tears of the Muses_.

[196] 'He,'--Lucifer; (_Vision of Judgment_, 24). It is precisely because Byron was _not_ his servant, that he could see the gloom. To the Devil's true servants, their Master's presence brings both cheerfulness and prosperity;--with a delightful sense of their own wisdom and virtue; and of the 'progress' of things in general:--in smooth sea and fair weather,--and with no need either of helm touch, or oar toil: as when once one is well within the edge of Maelstrom.

[197] _Island_, ii. 4; perfectly orthodox theology, you observe; no denial of the fall,--nor subst.i.tution of Bacterian birth for it. Nay, nearly Evangelical theology, in contempt for the human heart; but with deeper than Evangelical humility, acknowledging also what is sordid in its civilisation.

THE

ELEMENTS OF DRAWING

IN

THREE LETTERS TO BEGINNERS