Part 12 (1/2)

This hideous picture is a striking instance of the uses to which ihtest hint, and of horror augmented till it reach that extreme point at which the ridiculous colish poetry affords no parallel to this passage It even exceeds the celebrated catalogue of dreadful things on the sacra circumstances described by Byron are less subli uilt, and unlike

The knife a father's throat had ray hairs yet stuck to the heft

Nor is there in the vivid group of the vulture flapping the wolf, any accessory to rouse stronger eht of energy and courage, while the covert insinuation, that the bird is actuated by so run aith the bone, approaches the very point and line where the horrible e is fearfully distinct, and though in its circu,” is yet an ah invention

The frigate sent the travellers on shore at Tophana, fro-place is a large fountain, and around it a public stand of horses ready saddled, attended by boys On some of these Lord Byron and his friend, with the officers who had accompanied them, mounted and rode up the steep hill, to the principal Frank Hotel, in Pera, where they intended to lodge In the course of the ride their attention was attracted to the prodigious nue and lurk about the corners of the streets; a nuisance both dangerous and disagreeable, but which the Turks not only tolerate but protect It is no unco to see a litter of puppies with their mother nestled in a mat placed on purpose for thehbourhood; for notwithstanding their merciless military practices, the Turks are pitiful-hearted titans to dumb animals and slaves Constantinople has, however, been so often and so well described, that it is unnecessary to notice its different objects of curiosity here, except in so far as they have been contributory to the stores of the poet

The slave market was of course not unvisited, but the description in Don Juan is more indebted to the author's fancy, than any of those other bright reflections of realities to which I have hitherto directed the attention of the reader The ; few slaves are ever to be seen in it, and the place itself has an odious reseine, therefore, that the trade in slaves is chieflyWhen there, I saw only two men for sale, whites, who appeared very little concerned about their destination, certainly notthemselves for hire to the farmers at a fair or market Doubtless, there was a time when the slave market of Constantinople presented a different spectacle, but the trade itself has undergone a change--the Christians are now interdicted frouilt is reserved for the exclusive enjoys which may have been, Byron'sslaves of every nation And age and sex were in the ed, Each busy with the ood looks were sadly changed

All save the blacks seem'd jaded with vexation, Froroes more philosophy displayed, Used to it no doubt, as eels are to be flayed

Like a backgaroups, on show for sale, Though rather ht the jet, while others chose the pale

No lady e'er is ogled by a lover, Horse by a black-leg, broadcloth by a tailor, Fee by a counsel, felon by a jailer,

As is a slave by his intended bidder

'Tis pleasant purchasing our fellow-creatures, And all are to be sold, if you consider Their passions, and are dext'rous, soht up, others by a warlike leader; Some by a place, as tend their years or natures; The most by ready cash, but all have prices, Fro to their vices

The account of the interior of the seraglio in Don Juan is also only probably correct, and may have been drawn in several particulars from an inspection of some of the palaces, but the descriptions of the imperial harem are entirely fanciful I am persuaded, by different circumstances, that Byron could not have been in those sacred chalios At the time I was in Constantinople, only one of the iers, and it was unfurnished The great seraglio was not accessible beyond the courts, except in those apartments where the Sultan receives his officers and visitors of state Indeed, the whole account of the custolio, as described in Don Juan, can only be regarded as inventions; and though the descriptions abound in picturesque beauty, they have not that air of truth and fact about theenerally valuable, independent of their poetical excellence In those he has given of the apartments of the men, the liveliness and fidelity of his pencil cannot be denied; but the Arabian tales and Vathek see the is and appearances Not that the latter are inferior to the forraphic distinctness, but they want that air of reality which constitutes the singular excellence of his scenes drawn froueness in the them obscure, and even fantastical Indeed, except when he paints fros, his superiority, at least his originality, is not so obvious; and thus it happens, that his gorgeous description of the sultan's seraglio is like a versified passage of an Arabian tale, while the iery of Childe Harold's visit to Ali Pasha has all the freshness and life of an actual scene

The following is, indeed,that has been seen, or is in existence I quote it for the contrast it affords to the visit referred to, and in illustration of the distinction which should be made between beauties derived from actual scenes and adventures, and coination, which are supposed to display so much more of creative invention

And thus they parted, each by separate doors, Raba led Juan onward, rooalleries and o'er hty and huge along the distance towers, And wafted far arose a rich perfuh they carant, and divine

The giant door was broad and bright and high, Of gilded bronze, and carved in curious guise; Warriors thereon were battling furiously; Here stalks the victor, there the vanquish'd lies; There captives led in triumph droop the eye, And in perspective many a squadron flies

It seems the work of times before the line Of Rome transplanted fell with Constantine

This e hall, and on its either side Two little dwarfs, the least you could suppose, Were sate, like ugly iate which rose O'er them in almost pyramidic pride

CHAPTER XXIV

Dispute with the Ambassador--Reflections on Byron's Pride of Rank-- Abandons his Oriental Travels--Re-eer Scene--Zea--Returns to Athens--Tour in the Morea--Dangerous Illness--Return to Athens--The Adventure on which ”The Giaour” is founded

Although Lord Byron remained two months in Constantinople, and visited every object of interest and curiosity within and around it, he yet brought aith him fewer poetical impressions than from any other part of the Ottoman dominions; at least he has made less use in his works of what he saw and learned there, than of the materials he collected in other places

From whatever cause it arose, the self-abstraction which I had noticed at Smyrna, was remarked about him while he was in the capital, and the same jealousy of his rank was so nervously awake, that it led him to attempt an obtrusion on the aretted

It has grown into a custon ministers are admitted to audiences of ceremony with the Sultan, to allow the subjects and travellers of their respective nations to accoratify their curiosity Mr Adair, our ambassador, for whom the Salsette had been sent, had his audience of leave appointed soon after Lord Byron's arrival, and his Lordshi+p was particularly anxious to occupy a station of distinction in the procession The pretension was ridiculous in itself, and showed less acquaintance with courtly cereht have been expected in a person of his rank and intelligence Mr Adair assured hiements for the ceremonial, only the persons connected with the embassy could be considered, and that the Turks neither acknowledged the precedence, nor could be requested to consider the distinctions of our nobility Byron, however, still persisted, and the ed to refer hih authority in questions of etiquette, whose opinion was decidedly against the pretension