Volume I Part 47 (1/2)

I like the Greeks, who are plausible rascals,--with all the Turkish vices, without their courage. However, some are brave, and all are beautiful, very much resembling the busts of Alcibiades;--the women not quite so handsome. I can swear in Turkish; but, except one horrible oath, and ”pimp,” and ”bread,” and ”water,” I have got no great vocabulary in that language. They are extremely polite to strangers of any rank, properly protected; and as I have two servants and two soldiers, we get on with great eclat. We have been occasionally in danger of thieves, and once of s.h.i.+pwreck,--but always escaped.

Of Spain I sent some account to our Hodgson, but have subsequently written to no one, save notes to relations and lawyers, to keep them out of my premises. I mean to give up all connection, on my return, with many of my best friends--as I supposed them-and to snarl all my life. But I hope to have one good-humoured laugh with you, and to embrace Dwyer, and pledge Hodgson, before I commence cynicism.

Tell Dr. Butler I am now writing with the gold pen he gave me before I left England, which is the reason my scrawl is more unintelligible than usual. I have been at Athens, and seen plenty of these reeds for scribbling, some of which he refused to bestow upon me, because topographic Gell had brought them from Attica. But I will not describe,--no--you must be satisfied with simple detail till my return, and then we will unfold the floodgates of colloquy. I am in a thirty-six gun frigate, going up to fetch Bob Adair from Constantinople, who will have the honour to carry this letter.

And so Hobhouse's _boke_ is out, [3] with some sentimental sing-song of my own to fill up,--and how does it take, eh? and where the devil is the second edition of my Satire, with additions? and my name on the t.i.tle page? and more lines tagged to the end, with a new exordium and what not, hot from my anvil before I cleared the Channel? The Mediterranean and the Atlantic roll between me and criticism; and the thunders of the Hyperborean Review are deafened by the roar of the h.e.l.lespont.

Remember me to Claridge, [4] if not translated to college, and present to Hodgson a.s.surances of my high consideration. Now, you will ask, what shall I do next? and I answer, I do not know. I may return in a few months, but I have intents and projects after visiting Constantinople. Hobhouse, however, will probably be back in September.

On the 2d of July we have left Albion one year--_oblitus meorum obliviscendus et illis_. I was sick of my own country, and not much prepossessed in favour of any other; but I ”drag on my chain” without ”lengthening it at each remove.” [5] I am like the Jolly Miller, caring for n.o.body, and not cared for. [6] All countries are much the same in my eyes. I smoke, and stare at mountains, and twirl my mustachios very independently. I miss no comforts, and the musquitoes that rack the morbid frame of H. have, luckily for me, little effect on mine, because I live more temperately.

I omitted Ephesus in my catalogue, which I visited during my sojourn at Smyrna; but the Temple has almost perished, and St. Paul need not trouble himself to epistolise the present brood of Ephesians, who have converted a large church built entirely of marble into a mosque, and I don't know that the edifice looks the worse for it.

My paper is full, and my ink ebbing--good afternoon! If you address to me at Malta, the letter will be forwarded wherever I may be. H. greets you; he pines for his poetry,--at least, some tidings of it. I almost forgot to tell you that I am dying for love of three Greek girls at Athens, sisters. I lived in the same house. Teresa, Mariana, and Katinka, [7] are the names of these divinities,--all of them under fifteen.

Your [Greek (transliterated): tapeinotatos doulos], BYRON.

[Footnote 1: Byron made two attempts to swim across the h.e.l.lespont from Abydos to Sestos. The first, April 16, failed; the second, May 3, in warmer weather, succeeded.

”Byron was one hour and ten minutes in the water; his companion, Mr.

Ekenhead, five minutes less ... My fellow-traveller had before made a more perilous, but less celebrated, pa.s.sage; for I recollect that, when we were in Portugal, he swam from Old Lisbon to Belem Castle, and, having to contend with a tide and counter-current, the wind blowing freshly, was but little less than two hours in crossing the river”

(Hobhouse, 'Travels in Albania', etc., vol. ii. p. 195). In Hobhouse's journal, Byron made the following note:

”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 26, 1810. BYRON.”

Of his feat Byron was always proud. See the ”Lines Written after Swimming from Sestos to Abydos” (”by the by, from Abydos to Sestos would have been more correct”), and 'Don Juan', Canto II. stanza cv.:--

”A better swimmer you could scarce see ever; He could, perhaps, have pa.s.s'd the h.e.l.lespont, As once (a feat on which ourselves we prided) Leander, Mr. Ekenhead, and I did.”

In a note to the ”Lines Written after Swimming from Sestos to Abydos,”

Byron writes,

”Chevalier says that a young Jew swam the same distance for his mistress; and Oliver mentions its having been done by a Neapolitan; but our consul, Tarragona, remembered neither of these circ.u.mstances, 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.”

Lieutenant Ekenhead, of the Marines, was afterwards killed by a fall from the fortifications of Malta.]

[Footnote 2: Sir William Gell (1777-1836) published the 'Topography of Troy' (1804); 'Geography and Antiquities of Ithaca' (1807); the 'Itinerary of Greece' (1810); and many other subsequent works. (For Byron's review of 'Ithaca' and 'Greece', in the 'Monthly Review' for August, 1811, see Appendix III.) In the MS. of 'English Bards, and Scotch Reviewers' (line 1034) he called him ”c.o.xcomb Gell;” but, having made his personal acquaintance before the Satire was printed, he changed the epithet to ”cla.s.sic.” After seeing the country himself, he again altered the epithet--

”Of Dardan tours let Dilettanti tell, I leave topography to rapid Gell.”

To these lines is appended the following note:

”'Rapid,' indeed! He topographised and typographised King Priam's dominions in three days! I called him 'cla.s.sic' before I saw the Troad, but since have learned better than to tack to his name what don't belong to it.”

To this pa.s.sage Byron, in 1816, added the further expression of his opinion, that ”Gell's survey was hasty and superficial.” One of two suppressed stanzas in 'Childe Harold' (Canto II. stanza xiii.) refers to Gell and his works:--