Condemn the unlucky curate to recite Then spouts and foams, and cries at every line, He strides and stamps along with creaking boot, Ye, who aspire to "build the lofty rhyme," (1) Believe not all who laud your false "sublime;" But if some friend shall hear your work, and say, "Expunge that stanza, lop that line away," And, after fruitless efforts, you return Without amendment, and he answers, "Burn!" That instant throw your paper in the fire, Ask not his thoughts, or follow his desire; But (if true bard!) you scorn to condescend, And will not alter what you can't defend, If you will breed this bastard of your brains,(2)— We'll have no words-I've only lost my pains. Yet, if you only prize your favourite thought, As critics kindly do, and authors ought; If your cool friend annoy you now and then, And cross whole pages with his plaguy pen; Si carmina condes, Nunquam te fallant animi sub vulpe latentes. Si defendere delictum, quam vertere, malles, Vir bonus et prudens versus reprehendet inertes, And men through life assume a part Nor mean I here the stage alone, Where some deserve the applause they meet; Reform's the order of the day, I hear. To which I cordially assent: And others leave to their full bent, I fear you will but little do, And find your time and pains misspent. Let each man to his post assign'd By Nature, take his park to act, And then few causes shall we find To call each man we meet-a quack." * For such every man is who either appears to be what he is not, or strives to be what he cannot, No matter, throw your ornaments aside,- And furnish food for critics,(3) or their quills. As the Scotch fiddle, with its touching tune, Or the sad influence of the angry moon, All men avoid bad writers' ready tongues, As yawning waiters fly (4) Fitzscribble's (5) lungs; Yet on he mouths-ten minutes-tedious each As prelate's homily, or placeman's speech; Long as the last years of a lingering lease, When riot pauses until rents increase. While such a minstrel, muttering fustian, strays O'er hedge and ditch, through unfrequented ways, If by some chance he walks into a well, And shouts for succour with stentorian yell, "A rope! help, Christians, as ye hope for grace!" Nor woman, man, nor child will stir a pace; For there his carcass he might freely fling, From frenzy, or the humour of the thing. Though this has happen'd to more bards than one; I'll tell you Budgell's story,-and have done. Budgell, a rogue and rhymester, for no good, (Unless his case be much misunderstood) When teased with creditors' continual claims, "To die like Cato," (6) leapt into the Thames! And therefore be it lawful through the town For any bard to poison, hang, or drown.(7) Arguet ambiguè dictum: mutanda notabit; Ut mala quem scabies, aut morbus regius urget, (1) See Milton's Lycidas.-L. E. (2) "Bastard of your brains."-Minerva being the first by Jupiter's head-piece, and a variety of equally unaccountable parturitions upon earth, such as Madoc, etc. etc. etc. (3) A crust for the critics."-Bayes, in the Rehearsal. (4) And the "waiters" are the only fortunate people who can "fly" from them; all the rest, viz. the sad subscribers to the "Literary Fund," being compelled, by courtesy, to sit out the recitation without a hope of exclaiming, "Sic" (that is, by choking Fitz. with bad wine, or worse poetry) "me servavit Apollo!" (5) "Fitzscribble," originally "Fitzgerald." (See p. 49.)— L. E. (6) On his table were found these words: "What Cato did, and Addison approved, cannot be wrong." But Addison did not "approve ;" and if he had, it would not have mended the matter. He had invited his daughter on the same water-party; but Miss Budgell, by some accident, escaped this last paternal attention. Thus fell the sycophant of "Atticus," and the enemy of Pope-[Eustace Budgell, a friend and relative of Addison's, "leapt into the Thames" to escape a prosecution, on account of forging the will of Dr. Tindal; in which Eustace had provided himself with a legacy of two thousand pounds. To this Pope alludes:"Let Budgell charge low Grub-s'reet on my quill, And write whate'er he please-except my will."-L.E.] (7) "We talked (says Boswell) of a man's drowning him. Who saves the intended suicide receives Small thanks from him who loathes the life he leaves; Nor is it certain that some sorts of verse Prick not the poet's conscience as a curse; Dosed (1) with vile drams on Sunday he was found, Or got a child on consecrated ground! Qui seis an prudens huc se projecerit, atque self.-JoansON. 'I should never think it time to make away with myself. I put the case of Eustace Budgell, who was accused of forging a will, and sunk himself in the Thames, before the trial of its authenticity came on. 'Suppose, Sir,' said I, that a man is absolutely sure that, if he lives a few days longer, he shall be detected in a fraud, the consequence of which will be utter disgrace, and expulsion from society?'-JOHNSON. Then, Sir, let him go abroad to a distant country; let him go to some place where he is not known. Don't let him go to the devil, where he is known.'" See Croker's Boswell, vol. ii. pp. 229. 290.-L. E. (I) If "dosed with," etc. be censured as low, I beg leave to refer to the original for something still lower; and if any reader will translate "Minxerit in patrios cineres," etc. into a decent couplet, 1 will insert said couplet in lieu of the present. The Curse of Minerva. "Pallas te hoc vulnere, Pallas Immolat, et pænam scelerato ex sanguine sumit." Eneid, lib. xii. Srow sinks, more lovely ere his race be run, (2) O'er the hush'd deep the yellow beam he throws, (I) This fierce philippic on Lord Elgin, whose collection of Athenian marbles was ultimately purchased for the nation, in 1816, at the cost of thirty-five thousand pounds, was written at Athens, in March, 1811, and prepared for publication along with the Hints from Horace; but, like that satire, suppressed by Lord Byron, from motives which the reader will easily understand. It was first given to the world in 1828. Few can wonder that Lord Byron's feelings should have been powerfully excited by the spectacle of the despoiled Parthenon; but it is only due to Lord Elgin to keep in mind, that, had those precious marbles remained, they must, in all likelihood, have perished for ever amidst the miserable scenes of violence which Athens has since witnessed; and that their presence in England has already, by universal admission, been of the most essential advantage to the fine arts of our own country. The political On such an eve his palest beam he cast When, Athens! here thy wisest look'd his last. How watch'd thy better sons his farewell ray, That closed their murder'd sage's (3) latest day! Not yet not yet-Sol pauses on the hill, The precious hour of parting lingers still; But sad his light to agonising eyes, And dark the mountain's once delightful dyes; Gloom o'er the lovely land he seem'd to pour, The land where Phoebus never frown'd before; But ere he sunk below Citheron's head, The cup of woe was quaff'd-the spirit fled; The soul of him that scorn'd to fear or fly, Who lived and died as none can live or die. But, lo! from high Hymettus to the plain The queen of night asserts her silent reign; (4) No murky vapour, herald of the storm, Hides her fair face, or girds her glowing form. allusions in this poem are not such as require much explanation. It contains many lines which, it is hoped, the author, on mature reflection, disapproved of-but is too vigorous a specimen of his iambics to be omitted in any collective edition of his works.-L. E. (2) The splendid lines with which this satire opens, down to "As thus, within the walls of Pallas' fane," first appeared at the commencement of the third canto of the Corsair, the author having, at that time, abandoned all notion of publishing the piece of which they originally made part.-L. E. (3) Socrates drank the hemlock a short time before sun. set (the hour of execution), notwithstanding the entreaties of his disciples to wait till the sun went down. (4) The twilight in Greece is much shorter than in our own country; the days in winter are longer, but in summer of less duration. With cornice glimmering as the moonbeams play, And dull were his that pass'd them heedless by.(3) Again the Egean, heard no more afar, As thus, within the walls of Pallas' fane, Hours roll'd along, and Dian's orb on high Had gain'd the centre of her softest sky; And yet unwearied still my footsteps trod O'er the vain shrine of many a vanish'd god: But chiefly, Pallas! thine; when Hecate's glare, Check'd by thy columns, fell more sadly fair O'er the chill marble, where the startling tread Thrills the lone heart like echoes from the dead. (I) The kiosk is a Turkish summer-house. Cephisus' stream is indeed scanty, and Ilissus has no stream at all. (2) This palm is without the present walls of Athens, not far from the Temple of Theseus, between which and the tree the wall intervenes. Upon the death of Lord Byron it was proposed by Colonel Stanhope that he should be buried at Athens, in the Temple of Theseus; and the Chief, Odysseus, sent an express to Missolonghi to enforce this wish. The design, however, was subsequently abandoned, and the Noble Poet's remains were removed to his country.-P. E. (3) "During our residence of ten weeks at Athens, there was not, I believe, a day of which we did not devote a part to the contemplation of the noble monuments of Grecian genius, that have outlived the ravages of time, and the outrage of barbarous and antiquarian despoilers. The Temple of Theseus, which was within five minutes' walk of our lodgings, is the most perfect ancient edifice in the world. In this fabric, the most enduring stability, and a simplicity of design peculiarly striking, are united with the highest elegance and accuracy of workmanship; the characteristic of the Doric style, whose chaste beauty is not, in the opinion of the first artists, to be equalled by the graces of any of the other orders. A gentleman of Athens, of great taste and skill, assured us that, after a continued contemplation of this temple, and the remains of the Parthenon, he could never again look with his accustomed satisfaction upon the lonic and Corinthian ruins of Athens, much less upon the specimens of the more modern species of architecture to be seen in Italy." Hobhouse.-L. E. (4) "On the plaster wall, on the west side of the chapel, these words have been very deeply cut: QUOD NON VECERUNT GOTI, HOC FECERUNT SCOTI. The mortar wall, yet fresh when we saw it, supplying the place of the statue now in Lord Elgin's collection, serves Long had I mused, and treasured every trace Her helm was dinted, and the broken lance [shame "Mortal!"—'t was thus she spake—" that blush of Recount the relics torn that yet remain: as a comment on this text. This eulogy of the Goths alludes to an unfounded story of a Greek historian, who relates that Alaric, either terrified by two phantoms, one of Minerva herself, the other of Achilles, terrible as when he strode towards the walls of Troy to his friends, or struck with a reverential respect, had spared the treasures, ornaments, and people of the venerable city." Hobhouse.-L. E. (5) In the original MS.— "Ah, Athens! scarce escaped from Turk and Goth, Hell sends a paltry Scotchman worse than both."-L.E. (6) This is spoken of the city in general, and not of the Acropolis in particular. The temple of Jupiter Olympius, by some supposed the Pantheon, was finished by Hadrian; sixteen columns are standing, of the most beautiful marble and architecture. (7) It is stated by a late oriental traveller, that when the wholesale spoliator visited Athens, he caused his own name, with that of his wife, to be inscribed on a pillar of one of the principal temples. This inscription was executed in a very conspicuous manner, and deeply engraved in the marble, at a very considerable elevation. Notwithstanding which precautions, some person (doubtless inspired by the Patron Goddess), has been at the pains to get himself raised up to the requisite height, and has obliterated the name of the laird, but left that of the lady untouched. The traveller in question accompanied this story by a remark, that it must have cost some labour and contrivance to get at the place, and could only have been effected by much zeal and determination. [On the original MS. is written: "Aspice quos Pallas Scoto concedit honores, For Elgin's fame thus grateful Pallas pleads, She ceased awhile, and thus I dared reply, Ask'st thou the difference? From fair Phyle's towers And well I know within that bastard land (3) Till, burst at length, each watery head o'erflows, So may her few, the letter'd and the brave, (1) For Lord Byron's detailed remarks on Lord Elgin's dealing with the Parthenon, see note [A] to the second Canto of Childe Harold, antè, p. 96.-P. E. (2) His lordship's name, and that of one who no longer bears it, are carved conspicuously on the Parthenon; above, in a part not far distant, are the torn remnants of the basso relievos, destroyed in a vain attempt to remove them. (3) Irish bastards," according to Sir Callaghan O'Brallaghan. (4) In 1816, thirty-five thousand pounds were voted by Parliament for the purchase of the Elgin marbles.-L. E. (5) Mr. West, on seeing the "Elgin Collection" (1 suppose we shall hear of the "Abershaw" and "Jack Shephard" collection next), declared himself " a mere tyro" in art. (6) Poor Crib was sadly puzzled when the marbles were first exhibited at Elgin House: he asked if it was not "a stone-shop?"-He was right; it is a shop. (7) "Alas! all the monuments of Roman magnificence, all the remains of Grecian taste, so dear to the artist, the historian, the antiquary, all depend on the will of an arbitrary sovereign; and that will is influenced too often by interest or vanity, by a nephew or a sycophant. Is a new palace to be erected (at Rome) for an upstart family? the Coliseum is stripped to furnish materials. Does a foreign Shake off the sordid dust of such a land, "Mortal!" the blue-eyed maid resumed, "once more "First on the head of him who did this deed To lounge and lucubrate, to prate and peep; When shall a modern maid have swains like these! And last of all, amidst the gaping crew, minister wish to adorn the bleak walls of a northern castle with antiques? the temples of Theseus or Minerva must be dismantled, and the works of Phidias or Praxiteles be torn from the shattered frieze. That a decrepit uncle, wrapped up in the religions duties of his age and station, should listen to the suggestions of an interested nephew, is natural; and that an oriental despot should undervalue the masterpieces of Grecian art, is to be expected-though in both cases the consequences of such weakness are much to be lamented; but that the minister of a nation, famed for its knowledge of the language, and its veneration for the monuments of ancient Greece, should have been the prompter and the instrument of these destructions, is almost incredible. Such rapacity is a crime against all ages and all generations: it deprives the past of the trophies of their genius and the title-deeds of their fame; the present, of the strongest inducements to exertion, the noblest exhibitions that curiosity can contemplate; the future, of the masterpieces of art, the models of imitation. To guard against the repetition of such depredations is the wish of every man of genius, the duty of every man in power, and the common interest of every civilized nation."-Eustace's Classical Tour through Italy. "This attempt to transplant the temple of Vesta from In silent indignation mix'd with grief, Link'd with the fool that fired the Ephesian dome, In many a branding page and burning line; "So let him stand, through ages yet unborn, Fix'd statue on the pedestal of Scorn; Though not for him alone Revenge shall wait, But fits thy country for her coming fate: Hers were the deeds that taught her lawless son To do what oft Britannia's self had done. Look to the Baltic-blazing from afar, Your old ally yet mourns perfidious war.(2) Not to such deeds did Pallas lend her aid, Or break the compact which herself had made; Far from such councils, from the faithless field She fled-but left behind her Gorgon shield: A fatal gift that turn'd your friends to stone, And left lost Albion hated and alone. "Look to the East, where Ganges' swarthy race Shall shake your tyrant empire to its base; Lo! there Rebellion rears her ghastly head, And glares the Nemesis of native dead; Till Indus rolls a deep purpureal flood, And claims his long arrear of northern blood. So may ye perish!-Pallas, when she gave Your free-born rights, forbade ye to enslave. "Look on your Spain!-she clasps the hand she hates, But coldly clasps, and thrusts you from her gates. "Look last at home-ye love not to look there-- No misers tremble when there's nothing left. Italy to England may, perhaps, do honour to the late Lord Bristol's patriotism or to his magnificence; but it cannot be considered as an indication of either taste or judgment." -Ibid. (1) "That the Elgin marbles will contribute to the improvement of art in England cannot be doubted. They must certainly open the eyes of the British artists, and prove that the true and only road to simplicity and beauty is the study of nature. But, had we a right to diminish the interest of Athens for selfish motives, and prevent successive generations of other nations from seeing those admirable sculp But one, repentant o'er a bankrupt state, "Now fare ye well! enjoy your little hour; Show me the man whose counsels may have weight. And light with maddening hands the mutual pile. "'Tis done, 'tis past, since Pallas warns in vain ; And Gaul shall weep ere Albion wear her chains. |