No More Learning

76. This was on the 24th of November. Catalani
sang. Rossini's cantata was performed with tremendous applause. On the
next day the august visitors witnessed an illumination of the city.
"Leur attention s'est principalement arrete sur le superbe portail de
l'eglise Sainte-Agnes, qui brillait de mille feux, au milieu desquels se
lisait l'inscription suivante en lettres de grandeur colossale:

'_A Cesare Augusta Verona esultante_. '"

--_Le Moniteur_, December 14, 1822. ]

[316] {563}[Alexander I. (Paulowitsch), 1777-1825, succeeded his father
in 1801. He began his reign well. Taxation was diminished, judicial
penalties were remitted, universities were founded and reorganized,
personal servitude was abolished or restricted throughout the empire. At
the height of his power and influence, when he was regarded as the
Liberator of Europe, he granted a Constitution to Poland, based on
liberal if not democratic principles (June 21, 1815). But after a time
he reverted to absolutism. Autocracy at home, a mystical and sentimental
alliance with autocrats abroad, were incompatible with the indulgence of
liberal proclivities. "After the Congresses of Aix-la-Chapelle and
Troppau," writes M. Rambaud (_History of Russia_, 1888, ii. 384), "he
was no longer the same man. . . . From that time he considered himself the
dupe of his generous ideas . . . at Carlsbad, at Laybach, and at Verona,
Alexander was already the leader of the European reaction. " But even to
the last he believed that he could run with the hare and hunt with the
hounds. "They may say of me," he exclaimed, "what they will; but I have
lived and shall die republican" (ibid. , p. 398).

Alexander was a man of ideas, a sentimentalist, and a _poseur_, but he
had an eye to the main chance. Whatever cause or dynasty suffered, the
Emperor Alexander was still triumphant. Byron's special grudge against
him at this time was due to his vacillation with regard to the cause of
Greek Independence. But he is too contemptuous. There were points in
common between the "Coxcomb Czar" and his satirist; and it is far from
certain that if the twain had changed places Byron might not have proved
just "such an Alexander. " In one respect their destiny was alike. The
greatest sorrow of their lives was the death of a natural daughter. ]

[317] [For Alexander's waltzing, see _Personal Reminiscences_, by
Cornelia Knight and Thomas Raikes, 1875, p. 286. See, too, Moore's
_Fables for the Holy Alliance_, Fable I. , "A Dream. "]

[em] _Now half inclining_----. --[MS. ]

[318] {564} ["Pulk" is Polish for "regiment. " The allusion must be to
the military colonies planted by "the corporal of Gatchina," Araktcheef,
in the governments of Novgorod, Kharkof, and elsewhere. ]

[319] [Frederic Cesar La Harpe (1754-1838) was appointed by Catherine
II. Governor to the Grand-Dukes Alexander and Constantine. It was from
La Harpe's teaching that Alexander imbibed his liberal ideas. In 1816,
when Byron passed the summer in Switzerland, La Harpe was domiciled at
Lausanne, and it is possible that a meeting took place. ]

[320] [Alexander's platonic attachment to the Baronne de Krudener (Barbe
Julie de Wietenhoff), beauty, novelist, _illuminee_, was the source of
amusement rather than scandal. The Baronne, then in her fiftieth year,
was the channel through which Franz Bader's theory or doctrine of the
"Holy Alliance" was conveyed to the enthusiastic and receptive Czar. It
was only a passing whim. Alexander's mysticism was for ornament, not for
use, and, before very long, Egeria and her Muscovite Numa parted
company. ]

[321] The dexterity of Catherine extricated Peter (called the Great by
courtesy), when surrounded by the Mussulmans on the banks of the river
Pruth. [Catherine, who had long been Peter's mistress, had at length
been acknowledged as his wife. Her "dexterity" took the form of a bribe
of money and jewels, conveyed to the Turkish grand-vizier
Baltazhi-Mahomet, who was induced to accede to the Treaty of Pruth, July
20, 1711. ]

[322] {565}

["Eight thousand men had to Asturias march'd
Beneath Count Julian's banner. . . . To revenge
His quarrel, twice that number left their bones,
Slain in unnatural battle, on the field
Of Xeres, where the sceptre from the Goths
By righteous Heaven was reft. "

Southey's _Roderick_, Canto XXV. lines 1, 2, 7-11. ]

[323] [The Bashkirs are a Turco-Mongolian tribe inhabiting the slopes of
the Ural Mountains. They supply a body of irregular cavalry to the
Russian army. ]

[324] [The Austrian and Russian armies stood between the Greeks and
other peoples, and their independence, as Alexander the Great stood
between Diogenes and the sunshine. ]

[en]

_Still will I roll my tub at Sinope_
_Be slaves who may_----. --[MS. ]

[325] [Lines 482, 483, are not in the MS. ]

[326] {566} [Constant (Henri Benjamin de Rebecque, 1767-1830) was the
"stormy petrel" of debate in the French Chamber. For instance, in a
discussion on secret service money for the police (July 27, 1822), he
exclaimed, "Vous les representez-vous payant d'une main le salaire du
vol, et tenant peut-etre un crucifix de l'autre? " No wonder that there
were "violens murmures, cris d'indignation a droite. " The duel, however,
did not arise out of a speech in the Chamber, but from a letter of June
5, 1822, in _La Quotidienne_, in which the Marquis de Forbin des Issarts
replied to some letters of Constant, which had appeared in the
_Courrier_ and _Constitutionnel_. Constant was lame, and accordingly
both combatants "out ete places a dix petits pas sur des chaises. " Both
fired twice, but neither "was a penny the worse. " (See _La Grande
Encyclopedie_, art. "Constant;" and, for details, _La Quotidienne_, June
8, 1822. See, too, for "session de 1822," _Opinions el Discours_ de M.
Casimir Perrier, 1838, ii. 5-47. )]

[327] [Louis XVIII. (Louis Stanislas Xavier, 1755-1824) passed several
years of exile in England, at Goswell, Wanstead, and latterly at
Hartwell, near Aylesbury, in Buckinghamshire. When he entered Paris as
king, in May, 1814, he was in his fifty-ninth year, inordinately bulky
and unwieldy--a king _pour rire_. "C'est ce gros goutteux," explained an
_ouvrier_ to a bystander, who had asked, "Which is the king? " Fifteen
mutton cutlets, "sautees au jus," for breakfast; fifteen mutton cutlets
served with a "sauce a la champagne," for dinner; to say nothing of
strawberries, and sweet apple-puffs between meals, made digestion and
locomotion difficult. It was no wonder that he was a martyr to the gout.
But he cared for nature and for books as well as for eating. His
_Lettres d'Artwell_ (Paris, 1830), which profess to be selections from
his correspondence with a friend, give a pleasant picture of the _roi en
exil_. His wife, Louise de Savoie, died November, 1810, and in the
following April he writes (_Lettres_, pp. 70, 71), "Mars a maintenu le
bien d'un hiver fort doux; point encore de goutte; _a brebis tondue,
Dieu measure le vent_. Helas! je l'eprouve bien qu'elle est tondue cette
pauvre brebis! . . . je me promene dans le jardin, je vois mes rosiers qui
poussent bien; a qui offrirai-je les roses? . . . Eh bien! je ne voudrais
pas que cette goutte d'absinthe cessat, car pour cela il faudrait
l'oublier. L'oublier! Ah Dieu! Je suis comme les enfans d'Israel qui
disaient: _Super flumina Babylonis . . . Sion. _ Mais ajoutons tout de
suite: _Si oblitus fuero hit, Jerusalem, oblivioni detur dextera mea_. "
In another letter, June 8, 1811, he criticizes some translations of
Horace, and laments that the good Pere Sanadon has confined himself to
the _Opera Expurgata_. Not, he adds, that he would not have excluded one
or two odes, "mais on a impitoyablement sabre des choses delicieuses"
(_Lettres_, p. 98).

To his wit, Chateaubriand testifies (_The Congress, etc. _, 1838, i.
262). At the council, when affairs of state were being discussed, the
king "would say in his clear shrill voice, 'I am going to make you
laugh, M. de Chateaubriand. ' The other ministers fumed with impatience,
but Chateaubriand laughed, not as a courtier, but as a human being. "]

[328] {567}[Louvel, who assassinated the Due de Berri, and who was
executed June 7, 1820, was supposed to have been an agent of the
_carbonari_. La Fayette, Constant, Lafitte, and others were also
suspected of being connected with secret societies. --_The Court of the
Tuileries, 1815-1848_, by Lady Jackson, 1883, ii. 19. ]

[eo] {568}

_Immortal Wellington with beak so curled_.
_That foremost Corporal of all the World--_
_Immortal Wellington--and flags unfurled_. --[MS. erased. ]

[329] "Naso suspendis adunco. "--HORACE [_Sat. _ i. 6, 5]. The Roman
applies it to one who merely was imperious to his acquaintance.

[330] [Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh, afterwards Marquis of
Londonderry (1769-1822), who had been labouring under a "mental
delirium" (Letter of Duke of Wellington, August 9, 1822), committed
suicide by cutting his throat with a penknife (August 12, 1822). He was
the uncompromising and successful opponent of popular causes in Ireland,
Italy, and elsewhere, and, as such, Byron assailed him, alive and dead,
with the bitterest invective. (See, for instance, the "Dedication" to
_Don Juan_, stanzas xi. -xvi. , sundry epigrams, and an "Epitaph. ") In the
Preface to Cantos VI. , VII. , VIII. , of _Don Juan_, he justifies the
inclusion of a stanza or two on Castlereagh, which had been written
"before his decease," and, again, alludes to his suicide. (For an
estimate of his career and character, see _Letters_, 1900, iv. 108, 109,
note 1; and for a full report of the inquest, _The Annual Biography_,
1823, pp. 56-62. )]

[ep]

_Whose penknife saved some nations t'other day_.
_Who shaved his throat by chance the other day_. --[MS. erased. ]

[331] ["The Pilot that weathered the Storm" was written by Canning, to
be recited at a dinner given on Pitt's birthday, May 28, 1802. ]

[eq] {569} _With reason--whate'er it may with rhyme_. --[MS. erased. ]

[332] [George Canning (1770-1827) succeeded Lord Londonderry as Foreign
Secretary, September 8, 1822. He was not a _persona grata_ to George
IV. , who had been offended by Canning's neutral attitude, as a minister,
on the question of the Queen's message (June 7, 1820), and by his avowal
"of an unaltered regard and affection" for that "illustrious personage"
herself. There was, too, the prospect of Catholic Emancipation. In 1821
he had spoken in favour of Plunket's bills, and, the next year (April
30, 1822), he had brought in a bill to remove the disabilities of Roman
Catholic peers from sitting in the House of Lords. If Canning persisted
in his advocacy of Catholic claims, the king's conscience might turn
restive, and urge him to effectual resistance. Hence the warning in
lines 563-567. ]

[333] {570} [Demeter gave Triptolemus a chariot drawn by serpents, and
bade him scatter wheat throughout the world. (See Ovid, _Met. _, lib. v.
lines 642-661. )]

[er] _The mighty monosyllable high_ Rent! --[MS. ]

[es] ----_upon the audit day_. --[MS. M. ]

[334] ["Lord Londonderry proposed (April 29, 1822) that whenever wheat
should be under 60 shillings a quarter, Government should be authorized
to issue ? 1,000,000 in Exchequer bills to landed proprietors on the
security of their crops; that importation of foreign corn should be
permitted whenever the price of wheat should be at or above 70 shillings
a quarter . . . that a sliding-scale should be fixed, that for wheat being
under 80s. a quarter at 12 shillings; above 80s. and below 85s. , at 5
shillings; and above 85s. , only one shilling. "--Allison's _History of
Europe_, 1815-1852, _and_ 1854, ii. 506. The first clause was thrown
out, but the rest of the bill passed May 13, 1822. ]

[et] {571} _For fear that riches_----. --[MS. M. ]

[eu] _Will sell the harvest at a market price_. --[MS. M. ]

[ev] _Are gone--their fields untilled_. --[MS. M. ]

[335] {572}[Peel's bill for the resumption of cash payments (Act 59 Geo.
III. cap. 49) was passed June 14, 1819. The "landed interest" attributed
the fall of prices and the consequent fall of rent to this measure, and
hinted more or less plainly that the fund-holders should share the loss.
They had lent their money when the currency was inflated, and should not
now be paid off in gold.

"But _you_," exclaims Cobbett [Letter to Mr. Western (_Weekly Register_,
November 23, 1822)], "what can induce you to stickle for the Pitt system
[i. e. paper-money]? I will tell you what it is: you loved the _high
prices_, and the domination that they gave you. . . .
Besides this, you
think that the _boroughs can be preserved_ by a return to paper-money,
and along with them the hare-and-pheasant law and justice. You loved the
glorious times of paper-money, and you want them back again. You think
that they could go on for ever. . . . The bill of 1819 was really a great
relaxation of the Pitt system, and when you are crying out _spoliation_
and _confiscation_, when you are bawling out so lustily about the robbery
committed on you by the fund-holders and the placemen, and are praising
the infernal Pitt system at the same time, . . . you say they are
receiving, the fund-vagabonds in particular, _more_ than they ought. " It
is evident that Byron's verse is a reverberation of Cobbett's prose. ]

[336] [Petitions were presented by the inhabitants of St. Andrew,
Holborn; St. Botolf, Bishopsgate; and St. Gregory by St. Paul, to the
Court of Common Council, against a tithe-charge of 2s, 9d. in the pound
on their annual rents. --_Morning Chronicle_, November 1, 1822. ]

[337] Lines 614-657 are not in the MS.

[338] {573}[The Symplegades, or "justling rocks," Ovid's _instabiles
Cyaneae_, were supposed to crush the ships which sailed between them. ]

[339] [Alcina, the personification of carnal pleasure in the _Orlando
Furioso_, is the counterpart of Homer's _Circe_. "She enjoyed her lovers
for a time, and then changed them into trees, stones, fountains, or
beasts, as her fancy dictated. " (See Ariosto, _Orlando Furioso_, vi. 35,
_seq_. )]

[340] [There were five brothers Rothschild: Anselm, of Frankfort,
1773-1855; Salomon, of Vienna, 1774-1855; Nathan Mayer, of London,
1777-1836; Charles, of Naples, 1788-1855; and James, of Paris,
1792-1868. In 1821 Austria raised 37-1/2 million guldens through the
firm, and, as an acknowledgment of their services, the Emperor raised
the brothers to the rank of baron, and appointed Baron Nathan Mayer
Consul-General in London, and Baron James to the same post in Paris. In
1822 both Russia (see line 684) and England raised 3-1/2 millions sterling
through the Rothschilds. The "two Jews" (line 686, etc. ) are, probably,
the two Consuls-General. In 1822 their honours were new, and some
mocked. There is the story that Talleyrand once presented the Parisian
brother to Montmorenci as _M. le premier Juif_ to _M. le premier Baron
Chretien_; while another tale, parent or offspring of the preceding,
which appeared in _La Quotidienne_, December 21, 1822, testifies to the
fact, not recorded, that a Rothschild was at Verona during the Congress:
"M. de Rotschild, baron et banquier general des gouvernemens absolus,
s'est, dit-on, rendu an congres, il a ete presente a l'empereur
d'Autriche, et S. M. , en lui remettant une decoration, a daigne lui dire:
'Vous pouvez etre assure, Monsieur, que _la maison d'Autriche_ sera
toujours disposee a reconnaitre vos services et a vous accorder ce qui
pourra vous etre agreable,'--'Votre Majeste,' a repondu le baron
financier, 'pourra toujours egalement compter sur _la maison
Rotschild_. '"--See _The Rothschilds_, by John Reeves, 1886. ]

[341] {574}[In 1822 the Neapolitan Government raised 22,000,000 ducats
through the Rothschilds. ]

[342] {575} Monsieur Chateaubriand, who has not forgotten the author in
the minister, received a handsome compliment at Verona from a literary
sovereign: "Ah! Monsieur C. , are you related to that Chateaubriand
who--who--who has written _something? _" (ecrit _quelque chose! _) It is
said that the author of Atala repented him for a moment of his
legitimacy. [Francois Rene Vicomte de Chateaubriand (1768-1848)
published _Les Martyrs ou le Triomphe de la religion chretienne_ in
1809. ]

[343] [Count Capo d'Istria (b. 1776)--afterwards President of Greece.
The count was murdered, in September, 1831, by the brother and son of a
Mainote chief whom he had imprisoned (note to ed. 1832). Byron may have
believed that Capo d'Istria was still in the service of the Czar, but,
according to Allison, his advocacy of his compatriots the Greeks had led
to his withdrawal from the Russian Foreign Office, and prevented his
taking part in the Congress. It was, however, stated in the papers that
he had been summoned, and was on his way to Verona. ]

[344] [Jean Mathieu Felicite, Duc de Montmorenci (1766-1826), was, in
his youth, a Jacobin. He proposed, August 4, 1789, to abrogate feudal
rights, and June 15, 1790, to abolish the nobility. He was superseded as
plenipotentiary by Chateaubriand, and on his return to Paris created a
duke. Before the end of the year he was called upon to resign his
portfolio as Minister of Foreign Affairs. The king disliked him, and
there were personal disagreements between him and the Prime Minister, M.
de Villele.

The following "gazette" appeared in the _Moniteur_:--

"Ordonnance du Roi. Signe Louis. Art 1^er^ Le Vicomte de Chateaubriand,
pair de France, est nomme ministre secretaire d'etat au departement des
affaires etrangeres. Louis par la grace de Dieu Roi de France et de
Navarre.

"Art. 1^er^ Le Duc Mathieu de Montmorenci, pair de France, est nomme
ministre d'Etat, et membre de notre Conseil prive.

"Dimanche, 29 Decembre, 1822. "

"On Tuesday, January 1, 1823," writes Chateaubriand, _Congress_, 1838,
i. 258, "we crossed the bridges, and went to sleep in that minister's
bed, which was not made for us,--a bed in which one sleeps but little,
and in which one remains only for a short time. "]

[345] {576}[From Pope's line on Lord Peterborough, _Imitations of
Horace_, Sat. i. 132. ]

[346] [Marie Louise, daughter of Francis I. of Austria, was born
December 12, 1791, and died December 18, 1849. She was married to
Napoleon, April 2, 1810, and gave birth to a son, March 29, 1811. In
accordance with the Treaty of Paris, she left France April 26, 1814,
renounced the title of Empress, and was created Duchess of Parma,
Placentia, and Guastalla. After Napoleon's death (May 5, 1821). "Proud
Austria's mournful flower" did not long remain a widow, but speedily and
secretly married her chamberlain and gentleman of honour, Count Adam de
Neipperg (_ce polisson_ Neipperg, as Napoleon called him), to whom she
had long been attached. It was supposed that she attended the Congress
of Verona in the interest of her son, the ex-King of Rome, to whom
Napoleon had bequeathed money and heirlooms. She was a solemn stately
personage, _tant soit peu declassee_, and the other potentates whispered
and joked at her expense. Chateaubriand says that when the Duke of
Wellington was bored with the meetings of the Congress, he would while
away the time in the company of the Orsini, who scribbled on the margin
of intercepted French despatches, "Pas pour Mariee. " Not for Madame de
Neipperg. ]

[347] [Napoleon Francois Charles Joseph, Duke of Reichstadt, died at the
palace of Schonbrunn, July 22, 1832, having just attained his
twenty-first year. ]

[348] [Count Adam Albrecht de Neipperg had lost an eye from a wound in
battle. ]

[349] {577}[_La Quotidienne_ of December 4, 1822, has a satirical
reference to a passage in the _Courrier_, which attached a diplomatic
importance to the "galanterie respectueuse que le duc de Wellington
aurait faite a cette jeune Princesse. " We read, too, of another
victorious foe, the King of Prussia, giving "la main a l'archduchesse
Marie-Louise jusqu'a son carrosse" (_Le Constitutionnel_, November 19,
1822). "All the world wondered" what Andromache did, and how she would
fare--_dans ce galere_. It is difficult to explain the allusion to
Pyrrhus. Andromache was the unwilling bride of Pyrrhus or Neoptolemus,
whose father had slain her husband, Hector; Marie Louise the willing
bride of Neipperg, who had certainly fought at Leipsic, but who could
not be said to have given the final blow to Napoleon at Waterloo.
Pyrrhus must stand for the victorious foe, and the right arm on which
the too-forgiving Andromache leant, must have been offered by "the
respectful gallantry" of the Duke of Wellington. ]

[ew]

_She comes the Andromache of Europe's Queens,_
_And led by Pyrrhus arm on which she leans_. --[MS. M. ]

[350] {578}[Sir William Curtis (1752-1805), maker of sea-biscuits at
Wapping, was M. P. for the City of London 1790-1818, Lord Mayor 1795-6.
George IV. affected his society, visited him at Ramsgate, and sailed
with him in his gorgeously appointed yacht. When the king visited
Scotland in August, 1822, Curtis followed in his train. On first landing
at Leith, "Sir William Curtis, who had _celtified_ himself on the
occasion, marched joyously in his scanty longitude of kilt. " At the
Levee, August 17, "Sir William Curtis again appeared in the Royal
tartan, but he had forsaken the philabeg and addicted himself to the
trews" (_Morning Chronicle_, August 19, 20, 1822). "The Fat Knight" was
seventy years of age, and there was much joking at his expense. See, for
instance, some lines in "Hudibrastic measure," _Gentleman's Magazine_,
vol. 92, Part II. p. 606--

"And who is he, that sleek and smart one
Pot-bellied pyramid of Tartan?

So mountainous in pinguitude,
_Ponderibus librata_ SUIS,
He stands like _pig_ of lead, so true is,
That his abdomen throws alone
A _Body-guard_ around the Throne! "]

[351] [Lines 771, 772 are not in the MS. ]





THE ISLAND

OR,

CHRISTIAN AND HIS COMRADES.




INTRODUCTION TO _THE ISLAND_

The first canto of _The Island_ was finished January 10, 1823. We know
that Byron was still at work on "the poeshie," January 25 (_Letters_,
1901, vi. 164), and may reasonably conjecture that a somewhat illegible
date affixed to the fourth canto, stands for February 14, 1823. The MS.
had been received in London before April 9 (_ibid_. , p. 192); and on
June 26, 1823, _The Island; or, The Adventures of Christian and his
Comrades_, was published by John Hunt.

Byron's "Advertisement," or note, prefixed to _The Island_ contains all
that need be said with regard to the "sources" of the poem.

Two separate works were consulted: (1) _A Narrative of the Mutiny on
board His Majesty's Ship Bounty, and the subsequent Voyage of . . . the
Ship's Boat from Tafoa, one of the Friendly Islands, to Timor, a Dutch
Settlement in the East Indies_, written by Lieutenant William Bligh,
1790; and (2) _An Account of the Natives of the Tonga Islands_, Compiled
and Arranged from the Extensive Communications of Mr. William Mariner,
by John Martin, M. D. , 1817.

According to George Clinton (_Life and Writings of Lord Byron_, 1824, p.
656), Byron was profoundly impressed by Mariner's report of the scenery
and folklore of the _Friendly Islands_, was "never tired of talking of
it to his friends," and, in order to turn this poetic material to
account, finally bethought him that Bligh's _Narrative_ of the mutiny of
the _Bounty_ would serve as a framework or structure "for an embroidery
of rare device"--the figures and foliage of a tropical pattern. That, at
least, is the substance of Clinton's analysis of the "sources" of _The
Island_, and whether he spoke, or only feigned to speak, with authority,
his criticism is sound and to the point. The story of the mutiny of the
_Bounty_, which is faithfully related in the first canto, is not, as the
second title implies, a prelude to the "Adventures of Christian and his
Comrades," but to a description of "The Island," an Ogygia of the South
Seas.

It must be borne in mind that Byron's acquaintance with the details of
the mutiny of the _Bounty_ was derived exclusively from Bligh's
_Narrative_; that he does not seem to have studied the minutes of the
court-martial on Peter Heywood and the other prisoners (September,
1792), or to have possessed the information that in 1809, and, again, in
1815, the Admiralty received authentic information with regard to the
final settlement of Christian and his comrades on Pitcairn Island.
Articles, however, had appeared in the _Quarterly Review_, February,
1810, vol. iii. pp. 23, 24, and July, 1815, vol. xiii. pp. 376-378,
which contained an extract from the log-book of Captain Mayhew Folger,
of the American ship _Topaz_, dated September 29, 1808, and letters from
Folger (March 1, 1813), and Sir Thomas Staines, October 18, 1814, which
solved the mystery. Moreover, the article of February, 1810, is quoted
in the notes (pp. 313-318) affixed to Miss Mitford's _Christina, the
Maid of the South Seas_, 1811, a poem founded on Bligh's _Narrative_, of
which neither Byron or his reviewers seem to have heard.

But whatever may have been his opportunities of ascertaining the facts
of the case, it is certain (see his note to Canto IV. section vi. line
122) that he did not know what became of Christian, and that whereas in
the first canto he follows the text of Bligh's _Narrative_, in the three
last cantos he draws upon his imagination, turning Tahiti into Toobonai
(Tubuai), and transporting Toobonai from one archipelago to
another--from the Society to the Friendly Islands.

Another and still more surprising feature of _The Island_ is that Byron
accepts, without qualification or reserve, the guilt of the mutineers
and the innocence and worth of Lieutenant Bligh. It is true that by
inheritance he was imbued with the traditions of the service, and from
personal experience understood the necessity of discipline on board
ship; but it may be taken for granted that if he had known that the
sympathy, if not the esteem, of the public had been transferred from
Bligh to Christian, that in the opinion of grave and competent writers,
the guilt of mutiny on the high seas had been almost condoned by the
violence and brutality of the commanding officer, he would have sided
with the oppressed rather than the oppressor. As it is, he takes Bligh
at his own valuation, and carefully abstains from "eulogizing mutiny. "
(Letter to L. Hunt, January 25, 1823. )

The story of the "mutiny of the _Bounty_" happened in this wise. In 1787
it occurred to certain West India planters and merchants, resident in
London, that it would benefit the natives, and perhaps themselves, if
the bread-fruit tree, which flourished in Tahiti (the Otaheite of
Captain Cook and Sir Joseph Banks, see _Poetical Works_, 1899, ii. 7,
note 2) and other islands of the South Seas, could be acclimatized in
the West Indies. A petition was addressed to the king, with the result
that a vessel, with a burden of 215 tons, which Banks christened the
_Bounty_, sailed from Spithead December 23, 1787. Lieutenant William
Bligh, who had sailed with Cook in the _Resolution_, acted as commanding
officer, and under him were five midshipmen, a master, two master's
mates, etc. --forty-four persons all told. The _Bounty_ arrived at Tahiti
October 26, 1788, and there for six delightful months the ship's company
tarried, "fleeting the time carelessly, as in the elder world. " But
"Scripture saith an ending to all fine things must be," and on April 4,
1789, the _Bounty_, with a cargo of over a thousand bread-fruit trees,
planted in pots, tubs, and boxes (see for plate of the pots, etc. , _A
Voyage, etc. _, 1792, p. 1), sailed away westward for the Cape of Good
Hope, and the West Indies. All went well at first, but "just before
sun-rising" on Tuesday, April 28, 1789, "the north-westernmost of the
Friendly Islands, called Tofoa, bearing north-east," Fletcher Christian,
who was mate of the watch, assisted by Charles Churchill,
master-at-arms, Alexander Smith (the John Adams of Pitcairn Island), and
Thomas Burkitt, able seamen, seized the captain, tied his hands behind
his back, hauled him out of his berth, and forced him on deck. The
boatswain, William Cole, was ordered to hoist out the ship's launch,
which measured twenty-three feet from stem to stern, and into this open
boat Bligh, together with eighteen of the crew, who were or were
supposed to be on his side, were thrust, on pain of instant death. When
they were in the boat they were "veered round with a rope, and finally
cast adrift. " Bligh and his eighteen innocent companions sailed
westward, and, after a voyage of "twelve hundred leagues," during which
they were preserved from death and destruction by the wise ordering and
patient heroism of the commander, safely anchored in Koepang Bay, on the
north-west coast of the Isle of Timor, June 14, 1789. (See Bligh's
_Narrative, etc. _, 1790, pp. 11-88; and _The Island_, Canto I. section
ix. lines 169-201. )

The _Bounty_, with the remainder of the crew, twenty-five in number,
"the most able of the ship's company," sailed eastward, first to
Toobooai, or Tubuai, an island to the south of the Society Islands,
thence to Tahiti (June 6), back to Tubuai (June 26), and yet again, to
Tahiti (September 20), where sixteen of the mutineers, including the
midshipman George Stewart (the "Torquil" of _The Island_), were put on
shore. Finally, September 21, 1789, Fletcher Christian, with the
_Bounty_ and eight of her crew, six Tahitian men, and twelve women,
sailed away still further east to unknown shores, and, so it was
believed, disappeared for good and all. Long afterwards it was known
that they had landed on Pitcairn Island, broken up the _Bounty_, and
founded a permanent settlement.

When Bligh returned to England (March 14, 1790), and acquainted the
Government "with the atrocious act of piracy and mutiny" which had been
committed on the high seas, the _Pandora_ frigate, with Captain Edwards,
was despatched to apprehend the mutineers, and bring them back to
England for trial and punishment. The _Pandora_ reached Tahiti March 23,
1791, set sail, with fourteen prisoners, May 8, and was wrecked on the
"Great Barrier Reef" north-east of Queensland, August 29, 1791. Four of
the prisoners, including George Stewart, who had been manacled, and were
confined in "Pandora's box," perished in the wreck, and the remaining
ten were brought back to England, and tried by court-martial. (See _The
Eventful History of the Mutiny, etc. _ (by Sir John Barrow), 1831, pp.
205-244. )

The story, which runs through the second, third, and fourth cantos, may
possibly owe some of its details to a vague recollection of incidents
which happened, or were supposed to happen, at Tahiti, in the interval
between the final departure of the _Bounty_, September 21, 1789, and the
arrival of the _Pandora_, March 23, 1791; but, as a whole, it is a work
of fiction.

With the exception of the fifteenth and sixteenth cantos of _Don Juan_,
_The Island_ was the last poem of any importance which Byron lived to
write, and the question naturally suggests itself--Is the new song as
good as the old? Byron answers the question himself. He tells Leigh Hunt
(January 25, 1823) that he hopes the "poem will be a little above the
ordinary run of periodical poesy," and that, though portions of the
Toobonai (_sic_) islanders are "pamby," he intends "to scatter some
_un_common places here and there nevertheless. " On the whole, in point
of conception and execution, _The Island_ is weaker and less coherent
than the _Corsair_; but it contains lines and passages (_e. g. _ Canto I.
lines 107-124, 133-140; Canto II. lines 272-297; Canto IV. lines 94-188)
which display a finer feeling and a more "exalted wit" than the "purple
patches" of _The Turkish Tales_.

The poetic faculty is somewhat exhausted, but the poetic vision has been
purged and heightened by suffering and self-knowledge.

_The Island_ was reviewed in the _Monthly Review_, July, 1823, E. S. ,
vol. 101, pp. 316-319; the _New Monthly Magazine_, N. S. , 1823, vol. 8,
pp. 136-141; the _Atlantic Magazine_, April, 1826, vol. 2, pp. 333-337;
in the _Literary Chronicle_, June 21, 1823; and the _Literary Gazette_,
June 21, 1823.




ADVERTISEMENT.


The foundation of the following story will be found partly in Lieutenant
Bligh's "Narrative of the Mutiny and Seizure of the Bounty, in the South
Seas (in 1789);" and partly in "Mariner's Account of the Tonga Islands. "

GENOA, 1823.




THE ISLAND





CANTO THE FIRST.


I.

The morning watch was come; the vessel lay
Her course, and gently made her liquid way;[ex]
The cloven billow flashed from off her prow
In furrows formed by that majestic plough;
The waters with their world were all before;
Behind, the South Sea's many an islet shore.
The quiet night, now dappling, 'gan to wane,
Dividing darkness from the dawning main;
The dolphins, not unconscious of the day,
Swam high, as eager of the coming ray;
The stars from broader beams began to creep,
And lift their shining eyelids from the deep;[ey]
The sail resumed its lately shadowed white,
And the wind fluttered with a freshening flight;
The purpling Ocean owns the coming Sun,
But ere he break--a deed is to be done.


II.