]
[19] {63}["In the third act, when Sardanapalus calls for a _mirror_ to
look at himself in his _armour_, recollect to quote the Latin passage
from _Juvenal_ upon Otho (a similar character, who did the same thing:
Gifford will help you to it).
[19] {63}["In the third act, when Sardanapalus calls for a _mirror_ to
look at himself in his _armour_, recollect to quote the Latin passage
from _Juvenal_ upon Otho (a similar character, who did the same thing:
Gifford will help you to it).
Byron
He
ordered two verses to be put upon his tomb, signifying that he carried
away with him all he had eaten, and all the pleasures he had enjoyed,
but left everything else behind him,--_an epitaph_, says Aristotle, _fit
for a hog_. Arbaces, governor of Media, having found means to get into
the palace, and having with his own eyes seen Sardanapalus in the midst
of his infamous seraglio, enraged at such a spectacle, and not able to
endure that so many brave men should be subjected to a prince more soft
and effeminate than the women themselves, immediately formed a
conspiracy against him. Beleses, governor of Babylon, and several
others, entered into it. On the first rumour of this revolt the king hid
himself in the inmost part of his palace. Being afterwards obliged to
take the field with some forces which he had assembled, he at first
gained three successive victories over the enemy, but was afterwards
overcome, and pursued to the gates of Nineveh; wherein he shut himself,
in hopes the rebels would never be able to take a city so well
fortified, and stored with provisions for a considerable time. The siege
proved indeed of very great length. It had been declared by an ancient
oracle that Nineveh could never be taken unless the river became an
enemy to the city. These words buoyed up Sardanapalus, because he looked
upon the thing as impossible. But when he saw that the Tigris, by a
violent inundation, had thrown down twenty stadia (two miles and a half)
of the city wall, and by that means opened a passage to the enemy, he
understood the meaning of the oracle, and thought himself lost. He
resolved, however, to die in such a manner as, according to his opinion,
should cover the infamy of his scandalous and effeminate life. He
ordered a pile of wood to be made in his palace, and, setting fire to
it, burnt himself, his eunuchs, his women, and his treasures. --Diod.
Sic. , _Bibl. Hist_. , lib. ii. pag. 78, sqq. , ed. 1604, p. 109. ]
[a] {14} _He sweats in dreary, dulled effeminacy_. --[MS. M. erased. ]
[b] {15} _And see the gewgaws of the glittering girls_. --[MS. M.
erased. ]
[6] ["The words _Queen_ (_vide infra_, line 83) and _pavilion_ occur,
but it is not an allusion to his Britannic Majesty, as you may
tremulously (for the admiralty custom) imagine. This you will one day
see (if I finish it), as I have made Sardanapalus _brave_ (though
voluptuous, as history represents him), and also as _amiable_ as my poor
powers could render him. So that it could neither be truth nor satire on
any living monarch. "--Letter to Murray, May 25, 1821, _Letters_, 1901,
v. 299.
Byron pretended, or, perhaps, really thought, that such a phrase as the
"Queen's wrongs" would be supposed to contain an allusion to the trial
of Queen Caroline (August-November, 1820), and to the exclusion of her
name from the State prayers, etc. Unquestionably if the play had been
put on the stage at this time, the pit and gallery would have applauded
the sentiment to the echo. There was, too, but one "pavilion" in 1821,
and that was not on the banks of the Euphrates, but at Brighton. _Qui
s'excuse s'accuse_. Byron was not above "paltering" with his readers "in
a double sense. "]
[7] {16} "The Ionian name had been still more comprehensive; having
included the Achaians and the Boeotians, who, together with those to
whom it was afterwards confined, would make nearly the whole of the
Greek nation; and among the Orientals it was always the general name for
the Greeks. "--MITFORD'S _Greece_, 1818. i. 199.
[c] {17} _To Byblis_----. --[MS. M. ]
[d] _I know each glance of those deep Greek-souled eyes_. --[MS. M.
erased. ]
[e] {19}
----_I have a mind_
_To curse the restless slaves with their own wishes_. --[MS. M. erased. ]
[8] {21}[For the occupation of India by Dionysus, see Diod. Siculi _Bib.
Hist_. , lib. ii, pag. 87, c. ]
[f] _He did, and thence was deemed a God in story_. --[MS. M. erased. ]
[9] [Strabo (_Rerum Geog_. , lib. iii. 1807, p. 235) throws some doubt on
the existence of these columns, which he suggests were islands or
"pillar" rocks. According to Plutarch (Langhorne's Translation, 1838, p.
490), Alexander built great altars on the banks of the Ganges, on which
the native kings were wont to "offer sacrifices in the Grecian manner. "
Hence, perhaps, the legend of the columns erected by Dionysus. ]
[10] "For this expedition he took only a small chosen body of the
phalanx, but all his light troops. In the first day's march he reached
Anchialus, a town said to have been founded by the king of Assyria,
Sardanapalus. The fortifications, in their magnitude and extent, still
in Arrian's time, bore the character of greatness, which the Assyrians
appear singularly to have affected in works of the kind. A monument
representing Sardanapalus was found there, warranted by an inscription
in Assyrian characters, of course in the old Assyrian language, which
the Greeks, whether well or ill, interpreted thus: 'Sardanapalus, son of
Anacyndaraxes, in one day founded Anchialus and Tarsus. Eat, drink,
play; all other human joys are not worth a fillip. ' Supposing this
version nearly exact (for Arrian says it was not quite so), whether the
purpose has not been to invite to civil order a people disposed to
turbulence, rather than to recommend immoderate luxury, may perhaps
reasonably be questioned. What, indeed, could be the object of a king of
Assyria in founding such towns in a country so distant from his capital,
and so divided from it by an immense extent of sandy deserts and lofty
mountains, and, still more, how the inhabitants could be at once in
circumstances to abandon themselves to the intemperate joys which their
prince has been supposed to have recommended, is not obvious. But it may
deserve observation that, in that line of coast, the southern of Lesser
Asia, ruins of cities, evidently of an age after Alexander, yet barely
named in history, at this day astonish the adventurous traveller by
their magnificence and elegance amid the desolation which, under a
singularly barbarian government, has for so many centuries been daily
spreading in the finest countries of the globe. Whether more from soil
and climate, or from opportunities for commerce, extraordinary means
must have been found for communities to flourish there; whence it may
seem that the measures of Sardanapalus were directed by juster views
than have been commonly ascribed to him. But that monarch having been
the last of a dynasty ended by a revolution, obloquy on his memory would
follow of course from the policy of his successors and their partisans.
The inconsistency of traditions concerning Sardanapalus is striking in
Diodorus's account of him. "--MITFORD's _Greece_, 1820, ix. 311-313, and
note 1.
[The story of the sepulchral monument with its cynical inscription rests
on the authority of Aristobulus, who served under Alexander, and wrote
his history. The passage is quoted by Strabo (lib. xiv. ed. 1808, p.
958), and as follows by Athenaeus (lib. xii. cap. 40) in the
_Deipnosophistae_: "And Aristobulus says, 'In Anchiale, which was built
by Sardanapalus, did Alexander, when he was on his expedition against
the Persians, pitch his camp. And at no great distance was the monument
of Sardanapalus, on which there is a marble figure putting together the
fingers of its right hand, as if it were giving a fillip. And there was
on it the following inscription in Assyrian characters:--
Sardanapalus
The king, and son of Anacyndaraxes,
In one day built Anchiale and Tarsus:
Eat, drink, and love, the rest's not worth e'en this. '
By '_this_' meaning the fillip he was giving with his fingers. "
"We may conjecture," says Canon Rawlinson, "that the monument was in
reality a stele containing the king [Sennacherib] in an arched frame,
with the right hand raised above the left, which is the ordinary
attitude, and an inscription commemorating the occasion of its erection"
[the conquest of Cilicia and settlement of Tarsus]. --_The Five Great
Monarchies, etc. _, 1871, ii. 216. ]
[11] {25}[Compare "Your worm is your only emperor for diet: we fat all
creatures else to fat us; and we fat ourselves for maggots. "--_Hamlet_.
act iv. sc. 3, lines 21-23. ]
[12] {27}[Compare--"The fickle reek of popular breath. " _Childe Harold_,
Canto IV. stanza clxxi. line 2. ]
[13] Compare--"I have not flattered its rank breath. " _Childe Harold_,
Canto III. stanza cxiii. line 2.
Compare, too, Shakespeare, _Coriolanus_, act iii. sc. i, lines 66, 67.
[14] {28}["Rode. Winter's wind somewhat more unkind than ingratitude
itself, though Shakespeare says otherwise. At least, I am so much more
accustomed to meet with ingratitude than the north wind, that I thought
the latter the sharper of the two. I had met with both in the course of
the twenty-four hours, so could judge. "--_Extracts from a Diary_,
January 19, 1821, _Letters_, 1901, v. 177. ]
[g] {31}
----_and even dared_
_Profane our presence with his savage jeers_. --[MS. M. ]
[h] {34} _Who loved no gems so well as those of nature_. --[MS. M. ]
[i] _Wishing eternity to dust_----. --[MS. M. ]
[j] {38}
_Each twinkle unto which Time trembles, and_
_Nations grow nothing_----. --[MS. M. erased. ]
[15] {40}[Compare "these swoln silkworms," _Marino Faliero_, act ii. sc.
2. line 115, _Poetical Works_, 1901, iv. 386, note 4. ]
[k] {43} _But found the Monarch claimed his privacy_. --[MS. M. erased. ]
[l]
----_not else_
_It quits this living hand_. --[MS. M. erased. ]
[m] _I know them beautiful, and see them brilliant_. --[MS. M. erased. ]
[n] {49} ----_by the foolish confidence_. --[MS. M. erased. ]
[16] [The first edition reads "grantor. " In the MS. the word may be
either "granter" or "grantor. " "Grantor" is a technical term, in law,
for one "who grants a conveyance. "]
[17] {50}[According to AElian, _Var. Hist. _, vii. i, Semiramis, having
obtained from her husband permission to rule over Asia for five days,
thrust him into a dungeon, and obtained the sovereign power for herself
(ed. Paris, 1858, p. 355). ]
[o] {52} _Aye--that's earnest! _--[MS. M. erased. ]
[p] {54} _Nay, if thou wilt not_----. --[MS. M. erased. ]
[q] {56}
_Nor silent Baal, our imaged deity_,
_Although his marble face looks frowningly_,
_As the dusk shadows of the evening cast_
_His trow in coming dimness and at times_. --[MS. M. erased. ]
[r]
/ _a wide-spread_ \
_In distant flashes_ < _tempest_ > --[MS. M erased]
\ _the approaching_ /
[s] _As from the Gods to augur_. --[MS. M. erased. ]
[t] {58} _The weaker merit of our Asian women_. --[MS. M. erased. ]
[u] _Rather than prove that love to you in griefs_. --[MS. M. erased. ]
[v] {60} _Worshippers in the air_. --[MS. M. erased. ]
[18] {61}[Perhaps Grillparzer's _Sappho_ was responsible for the
anachronism. See "Extracts from a Diary," January 12, 1821, _Letters_,
1901, V. 171, note 1.
]
[19] {63}["In the third act, when Sardanapalus calls for a _mirror_ to
look at himself in his _armour_, recollect to quote the Latin passage
from _Juvenal_ upon Otho (a similar character, who did the same thing:
Gifford will help you to it). The trait is, perhaps, too familiar, but
it is historical (of Otho, at least), and natural in an effeminate
character. "--Letter to Murray, May 30, 1821, _Letters_, 1901, v. 301.
The quotation was not made in the first edition, 1821, nor in any
subsequent issue, till 1832. It is from Juvenal, _Sat. _ ii. lines
199-203--
"Ille tenet speculum, pathici gestamen Othonis,
Actoris Aurunci spolium, quo se ille videbat
Armatum, cum jam tolli vexilla juberet.
Res memoranda novis annalibus, atque recenti
Historia, speculum civilis sarcina belli. "
"This grasps a mirror--pathic Otho's boast
(Auruncan Actor's spoil), where, while his host,
With shouts, the signal of the fight required,
He viewed his mailed form; viewed, and admired!
Lo, a new subject for the historic page,
A MIRROR, midst the arms of civil rage! "
Gifford. ]
[w] {66} ----_and his own helmet_. --[MS. M. erased. ]
[x] {68} _We'll die where we were raised_----. --[MS. M. erased. ]
[y] {70} _Tortured because his mind is tortured_. --[MS. M. erased. ]
[z] _He ever such an order_----. --[MS. M. erased. ] _He ever had that
order_----. --[MS. M. erased. ]
[20] {72}["When 'the king was almost dying with thirst' . . . the eunuch
Satibarzanes sought every place for water. . . . After much search he found
one of those poor Caunians had about two quarts of bad water in a mean
bottle, and he took it and carried it to the king. After the king had
drawn it all up, the eunuch asked him, 'If he did not find it a
disagreeable beverage? ' Upon which he swore by all the gods, 'That he
had never drunk the most delicious wine, nor the lightest and clearest
water with so much pleasure. I wish only,' continued he, 'that I could
find the man who gave it thee, that I might make him a recompense. In
the mean time I entreat the gods to make him happy and
rich. '"--Plutarch's _Artaxerxes_, Langhorne's translation, 1838, p. 694.
Poetry as well as history repeats itself. Compare the "water green"
which Gunga Din brought, at the risk of his own life, to fill the
wounded soldier's helmet (_Barrack-Room Ballads_, by Rudyard Kipling,
1892, p. 25). Compare, too--
"_Arn. _ 'Tis a scratch. . . .
In the shoulder, not the sword arm--
And that's enough. I am thirsty: would I had
A helm of water! "
_The Deformed Transformed_, part ii sc. ii. 44, seq. , _vide post_, p.
518. ]
[aa] {73}
----_ere they had time_
_To place his helm again_. --[MS. M. erased. ]
[ab] _O ye Gods! wounded_. --[MS. M. ]
[21] {73}[Compare--"His flashing eyes, his floating hair. " _Kubla Khan_,
line 49. ]
[22] [Compare _Childe Harold_, Canto I. stanzas lv. , lvi. , _Poetical
Works, 1898_, i. 57, 58, and note 11, pp. 91, 92. ]
[23] {75}[Compare--
"How wonderful is Death,
Death and his brother Sleep! "
Shelley's _Queen Mab, i. lines 1, 2_]
[ac] _Crisps the unswelling wave_. --[MS. M. erased]
[ad] {76}
_Old Hunter of mankind when baited and ye_
_All brutal who pursued both brutes and men_. --[MS. M. erased. ]
[ae] {78} _With arrows peeping through his falling hair_. --[MS. M.
erased. ]
[24] [In the diary for November 23, 1813 (_Letters_, 1898, ii. 334,
335), Byron alludes to a dream which "chilled his blood" and shook his
nerves. Compare Coleridge's _Pains of Sleep_, lines 23-26--
"Desire with loathing strangely mixed,
On wild or hateful objects fixed.
Fantastic passions! maddening brawl!
And shame and terror over all! "]
[25] {79}[For the story of Semiramis and Ninya, see _Justinus Hist_. ,
lib. i. cap. ii. ]
[26] {81}[See Diod. Siculi _Bibl. Hist. _, lib. ii. 80 c. Cotta was not a
kinsman, but a loyal tributary. ]
[af] {82} The MS. inserts--(_But I speak only of such as are virtuous_. )
[27] [Byron must often have pictured to himself an unexpected meeting
with his wife. In certain moods he would write letters to her which were
never sent, or never reached her hands. The scene between Sardanapalus
and Zarina reflects the sentiments contained in one such letter, dated
November 17, 1821, which Moore printed in his _Life_, pp. 581, 582. See
_Letters_, 1901, v. 479. ]
[ag] {84} _Bravely and won wear wisely--not as I_. --[MS. M, erased. ]
[ah] {88}
_Which thou hast lighted up at once? but leavest_
_One to grieve o'er the other's change--Zarina_. -[MS. M, erased. ]
[ai] {89} ----_natural_. --[MS. M. The first edition reads "mutual. "]
[aj] {91} _Is heavier sorrow than the wrong which_--[MS. M. erased. ]
[ak] {93} _A leech's lancet would have done as much_. --[MS. M. erased. ]
[28] {94}[Myrrha's apostrophe to the sunrise may be compared with the
famous waking vision of the "Solitary" in the Second Book of the
_Excursion_ (_Works of Wordsworth_, 1889, p. 439)--
"The appearance, instantaneously disclosed,
Was of a mighty city--boldly say
A wilderness of building, sinking far
And self-withdrawn into a boundless depth,
Far sinking into splendour--without end!
Fabric it seemed of diamond and of gold,
With alabaster domes, and silver spires,
And blazing terrace upon terrace, high
Uplifted. "
But the difference, even in form, between the two passages is more
remarkable than the resemblance, and the interpretation, the moral of
Byron's vision is distinct from, if not alien to, Wordsworth's. The
"Solitary" sees all heaven opened; the revealed abode of spirits in
beatitude--a refuge and a redemption from "this low world of care;"
while Myrrha drinks in "enough of heaven," a medicament of "Sorrow and
of Love," for the invigoration of "the common, heavy, human hours" of
mortal existence. For a charge of "imitation," see _Works of Lord
Byron_, 1832, xiii. 172, note I. See, too, _Poetical Works, etc. _, 1891,
p. 271, note 2. ]
[al] {95}
_Sunrise and sunset form the epoch of_
_Sorrow and love; and they who mark them not_
{_Are fit for neither of those_
{_Can ne'er hold converse with these two_. --[MS. M. erased. ]
[am] _Of labouring wretches in alloted tasks_. --[MS. M. erased. ]
[an] {97} _We are used to such inflictions_. --[MS. M. erased. ]
[29] {101} About two miles and a half.
[ao] {102} _Complexions, climes, aeras, and intellects_. --[MS. M.
erased. ]
[30] {103}[Athenaeus represents the treasures which Sardanapalus placed
in the chamber erected on his funeral pile as amounting to a thousand
myriads of talents of gold, and ten times as many talents of silver. ]
[ap]
_Ye will find the crevice_
_To which the key fits, with a little care_. --[MS. M. erased. ]
[31] {106}["Then the king caused a huge pile of wood to be made in the
palace court, and heaped together upon it all his gold, silver, and
royal apparel, and enclosing his eunuchs and concubines in an apartment
within the pile, caused it to be set on fire, and burned himself and
them together. "--Diod. Siculi _Bibl. Hist. _, lib. ii. cap. 81A.
"And he also erected on the funeral pile a chamber 100 feet long, made
of wood, and in it he had couches spread, and there he himself lay down
with his wife, and his concubines lay on other couches around. . . . And he
made the roof of the apartment of large stout beams, and there all the
walls of it he made of numerous thick planks, so that it was impossible
to escape out of it,. . . And . . . he bade the slaves set fire to the
pile; and it was fifteen days burning. And those who saw the smoke
wondered, and thought that he was celebrating a great sacrifice, but the
eunuchs alone knew what was really being done. And in this way
Sardanapalus, who had spent his life in extraordinary luxury, died with
as much magnanimity as possible. "--Athenaeus, _Deipnosophistae_, bk. xii.
cap. 38.
See _Abydenus apud Eusebium_, Praep. Ev. 9. 41. 4; Euseb. , _Chron_. ,
1878, p. 42, ed. A. Schoene.
ordered two verses to be put upon his tomb, signifying that he carried
away with him all he had eaten, and all the pleasures he had enjoyed,
but left everything else behind him,--_an epitaph_, says Aristotle, _fit
for a hog_. Arbaces, governor of Media, having found means to get into
the palace, and having with his own eyes seen Sardanapalus in the midst
of his infamous seraglio, enraged at such a spectacle, and not able to
endure that so many brave men should be subjected to a prince more soft
and effeminate than the women themselves, immediately formed a
conspiracy against him. Beleses, governor of Babylon, and several
others, entered into it. On the first rumour of this revolt the king hid
himself in the inmost part of his palace. Being afterwards obliged to
take the field with some forces which he had assembled, he at first
gained three successive victories over the enemy, but was afterwards
overcome, and pursued to the gates of Nineveh; wherein he shut himself,
in hopes the rebels would never be able to take a city so well
fortified, and stored with provisions for a considerable time. The siege
proved indeed of very great length. It had been declared by an ancient
oracle that Nineveh could never be taken unless the river became an
enemy to the city. These words buoyed up Sardanapalus, because he looked
upon the thing as impossible. But when he saw that the Tigris, by a
violent inundation, had thrown down twenty stadia (two miles and a half)
of the city wall, and by that means opened a passage to the enemy, he
understood the meaning of the oracle, and thought himself lost. He
resolved, however, to die in such a manner as, according to his opinion,
should cover the infamy of his scandalous and effeminate life. He
ordered a pile of wood to be made in his palace, and, setting fire to
it, burnt himself, his eunuchs, his women, and his treasures. --Diod.
Sic. , _Bibl. Hist_. , lib. ii. pag. 78, sqq. , ed. 1604, p. 109. ]
[a] {14} _He sweats in dreary, dulled effeminacy_. --[MS. M. erased. ]
[b] {15} _And see the gewgaws of the glittering girls_. --[MS. M.
erased. ]
[6] ["The words _Queen_ (_vide infra_, line 83) and _pavilion_ occur,
but it is not an allusion to his Britannic Majesty, as you may
tremulously (for the admiralty custom) imagine. This you will one day
see (if I finish it), as I have made Sardanapalus _brave_ (though
voluptuous, as history represents him), and also as _amiable_ as my poor
powers could render him. So that it could neither be truth nor satire on
any living monarch. "--Letter to Murray, May 25, 1821, _Letters_, 1901,
v. 299.
Byron pretended, or, perhaps, really thought, that such a phrase as the
"Queen's wrongs" would be supposed to contain an allusion to the trial
of Queen Caroline (August-November, 1820), and to the exclusion of her
name from the State prayers, etc. Unquestionably if the play had been
put on the stage at this time, the pit and gallery would have applauded
the sentiment to the echo. There was, too, but one "pavilion" in 1821,
and that was not on the banks of the Euphrates, but at Brighton. _Qui
s'excuse s'accuse_. Byron was not above "paltering" with his readers "in
a double sense. "]
[7] {16} "The Ionian name had been still more comprehensive; having
included the Achaians and the Boeotians, who, together with those to
whom it was afterwards confined, would make nearly the whole of the
Greek nation; and among the Orientals it was always the general name for
the Greeks. "--MITFORD'S _Greece_, 1818. i. 199.
[c] {17} _To Byblis_----. --[MS. M. ]
[d] _I know each glance of those deep Greek-souled eyes_. --[MS. M.
erased. ]
[e] {19}
----_I have a mind_
_To curse the restless slaves with their own wishes_. --[MS. M. erased. ]
[8] {21}[For the occupation of India by Dionysus, see Diod. Siculi _Bib.
Hist_. , lib. ii, pag. 87, c. ]
[f] _He did, and thence was deemed a God in story_. --[MS. M. erased. ]
[9] [Strabo (_Rerum Geog_. , lib. iii. 1807, p. 235) throws some doubt on
the existence of these columns, which he suggests were islands or
"pillar" rocks. According to Plutarch (Langhorne's Translation, 1838, p.
490), Alexander built great altars on the banks of the Ganges, on which
the native kings were wont to "offer sacrifices in the Grecian manner. "
Hence, perhaps, the legend of the columns erected by Dionysus. ]
[10] "For this expedition he took only a small chosen body of the
phalanx, but all his light troops. In the first day's march he reached
Anchialus, a town said to have been founded by the king of Assyria,
Sardanapalus. The fortifications, in their magnitude and extent, still
in Arrian's time, bore the character of greatness, which the Assyrians
appear singularly to have affected in works of the kind. A monument
representing Sardanapalus was found there, warranted by an inscription
in Assyrian characters, of course in the old Assyrian language, which
the Greeks, whether well or ill, interpreted thus: 'Sardanapalus, son of
Anacyndaraxes, in one day founded Anchialus and Tarsus. Eat, drink,
play; all other human joys are not worth a fillip. ' Supposing this
version nearly exact (for Arrian says it was not quite so), whether the
purpose has not been to invite to civil order a people disposed to
turbulence, rather than to recommend immoderate luxury, may perhaps
reasonably be questioned. What, indeed, could be the object of a king of
Assyria in founding such towns in a country so distant from his capital,
and so divided from it by an immense extent of sandy deserts and lofty
mountains, and, still more, how the inhabitants could be at once in
circumstances to abandon themselves to the intemperate joys which their
prince has been supposed to have recommended, is not obvious. But it may
deserve observation that, in that line of coast, the southern of Lesser
Asia, ruins of cities, evidently of an age after Alexander, yet barely
named in history, at this day astonish the adventurous traveller by
their magnificence and elegance amid the desolation which, under a
singularly barbarian government, has for so many centuries been daily
spreading in the finest countries of the globe. Whether more from soil
and climate, or from opportunities for commerce, extraordinary means
must have been found for communities to flourish there; whence it may
seem that the measures of Sardanapalus were directed by juster views
than have been commonly ascribed to him. But that monarch having been
the last of a dynasty ended by a revolution, obloquy on his memory would
follow of course from the policy of his successors and their partisans.
The inconsistency of traditions concerning Sardanapalus is striking in
Diodorus's account of him. "--MITFORD's _Greece_, 1820, ix. 311-313, and
note 1.
[The story of the sepulchral monument with its cynical inscription rests
on the authority of Aristobulus, who served under Alexander, and wrote
his history. The passage is quoted by Strabo (lib. xiv. ed. 1808, p.
958), and as follows by Athenaeus (lib. xii. cap. 40) in the
_Deipnosophistae_: "And Aristobulus says, 'In Anchiale, which was built
by Sardanapalus, did Alexander, when he was on his expedition against
the Persians, pitch his camp. And at no great distance was the monument
of Sardanapalus, on which there is a marble figure putting together the
fingers of its right hand, as if it were giving a fillip. And there was
on it the following inscription in Assyrian characters:--
Sardanapalus
The king, and son of Anacyndaraxes,
In one day built Anchiale and Tarsus:
Eat, drink, and love, the rest's not worth e'en this. '
By '_this_' meaning the fillip he was giving with his fingers. "
"We may conjecture," says Canon Rawlinson, "that the monument was in
reality a stele containing the king [Sennacherib] in an arched frame,
with the right hand raised above the left, which is the ordinary
attitude, and an inscription commemorating the occasion of its erection"
[the conquest of Cilicia and settlement of Tarsus]. --_The Five Great
Monarchies, etc. _, 1871, ii. 216. ]
[11] {25}[Compare "Your worm is your only emperor for diet: we fat all
creatures else to fat us; and we fat ourselves for maggots. "--_Hamlet_.
act iv. sc. 3, lines 21-23. ]
[12] {27}[Compare--"The fickle reek of popular breath. " _Childe Harold_,
Canto IV. stanza clxxi. line 2. ]
[13] Compare--"I have not flattered its rank breath. " _Childe Harold_,
Canto III. stanza cxiii. line 2.
Compare, too, Shakespeare, _Coriolanus_, act iii. sc. i, lines 66, 67.
[14] {28}["Rode. Winter's wind somewhat more unkind than ingratitude
itself, though Shakespeare says otherwise. At least, I am so much more
accustomed to meet with ingratitude than the north wind, that I thought
the latter the sharper of the two. I had met with both in the course of
the twenty-four hours, so could judge. "--_Extracts from a Diary_,
January 19, 1821, _Letters_, 1901, v. 177. ]
[g] {31}
----_and even dared_
_Profane our presence with his savage jeers_. --[MS. M. ]
[h] {34} _Who loved no gems so well as those of nature_. --[MS. M. ]
[i] _Wishing eternity to dust_----. --[MS. M. ]
[j] {38}
_Each twinkle unto which Time trembles, and_
_Nations grow nothing_----. --[MS. M. erased. ]
[15] {40}[Compare "these swoln silkworms," _Marino Faliero_, act ii. sc.
2. line 115, _Poetical Works_, 1901, iv. 386, note 4. ]
[k] {43} _But found the Monarch claimed his privacy_. --[MS. M. erased. ]
[l]
----_not else_
_It quits this living hand_. --[MS. M. erased. ]
[m] _I know them beautiful, and see them brilliant_. --[MS. M. erased. ]
[n] {49} ----_by the foolish confidence_. --[MS. M. erased. ]
[16] [The first edition reads "grantor. " In the MS. the word may be
either "granter" or "grantor. " "Grantor" is a technical term, in law,
for one "who grants a conveyance. "]
[17] {50}[According to AElian, _Var. Hist. _, vii. i, Semiramis, having
obtained from her husband permission to rule over Asia for five days,
thrust him into a dungeon, and obtained the sovereign power for herself
(ed. Paris, 1858, p. 355). ]
[o] {52} _Aye--that's earnest! _--[MS. M. erased. ]
[p] {54} _Nay, if thou wilt not_----. --[MS. M. erased. ]
[q] {56}
_Nor silent Baal, our imaged deity_,
_Although his marble face looks frowningly_,
_As the dusk shadows of the evening cast_
_His trow in coming dimness and at times_. --[MS. M. erased. ]
[r]
/ _a wide-spread_ \
_In distant flashes_ < _tempest_ > --[MS. M erased]
\ _the approaching_ /
[s] _As from the Gods to augur_. --[MS. M. erased. ]
[t] {58} _The weaker merit of our Asian women_. --[MS. M. erased. ]
[u] _Rather than prove that love to you in griefs_. --[MS. M. erased. ]
[v] {60} _Worshippers in the air_. --[MS. M. erased. ]
[18] {61}[Perhaps Grillparzer's _Sappho_ was responsible for the
anachronism. See "Extracts from a Diary," January 12, 1821, _Letters_,
1901, V. 171, note 1.
]
[19] {63}["In the third act, when Sardanapalus calls for a _mirror_ to
look at himself in his _armour_, recollect to quote the Latin passage
from _Juvenal_ upon Otho (a similar character, who did the same thing:
Gifford will help you to it). The trait is, perhaps, too familiar, but
it is historical (of Otho, at least), and natural in an effeminate
character. "--Letter to Murray, May 30, 1821, _Letters_, 1901, v. 301.
The quotation was not made in the first edition, 1821, nor in any
subsequent issue, till 1832. It is from Juvenal, _Sat. _ ii. lines
199-203--
"Ille tenet speculum, pathici gestamen Othonis,
Actoris Aurunci spolium, quo se ille videbat
Armatum, cum jam tolli vexilla juberet.
Res memoranda novis annalibus, atque recenti
Historia, speculum civilis sarcina belli. "
"This grasps a mirror--pathic Otho's boast
(Auruncan Actor's spoil), where, while his host,
With shouts, the signal of the fight required,
He viewed his mailed form; viewed, and admired!
Lo, a new subject for the historic page,
A MIRROR, midst the arms of civil rage! "
Gifford. ]
[w] {66} ----_and his own helmet_. --[MS. M. erased. ]
[x] {68} _We'll die where we were raised_----. --[MS. M. erased. ]
[y] {70} _Tortured because his mind is tortured_. --[MS. M. erased. ]
[z] _He ever such an order_----. --[MS. M. erased. ] _He ever had that
order_----. --[MS. M. erased. ]
[20] {72}["When 'the king was almost dying with thirst' . . . the eunuch
Satibarzanes sought every place for water. . . . After much search he found
one of those poor Caunians had about two quarts of bad water in a mean
bottle, and he took it and carried it to the king. After the king had
drawn it all up, the eunuch asked him, 'If he did not find it a
disagreeable beverage? ' Upon which he swore by all the gods, 'That he
had never drunk the most delicious wine, nor the lightest and clearest
water with so much pleasure. I wish only,' continued he, 'that I could
find the man who gave it thee, that I might make him a recompense. In
the mean time I entreat the gods to make him happy and
rich. '"--Plutarch's _Artaxerxes_, Langhorne's translation, 1838, p. 694.
Poetry as well as history repeats itself. Compare the "water green"
which Gunga Din brought, at the risk of his own life, to fill the
wounded soldier's helmet (_Barrack-Room Ballads_, by Rudyard Kipling,
1892, p. 25). Compare, too--
"_Arn. _ 'Tis a scratch. . . .
In the shoulder, not the sword arm--
And that's enough. I am thirsty: would I had
A helm of water! "
_The Deformed Transformed_, part ii sc. ii. 44, seq. , _vide post_, p.
518. ]
[aa] {73}
----_ere they had time_
_To place his helm again_. --[MS. M. erased. ]
[ab] _O ye Gods! wounded_. --[MS. M. ]
[21] {73}[Compare--"His flashing eyes, his floating hair. " _Kubla Khan_,
line 49. ]
[22] [Compare _Childe Harold_, Canto I. stanzas lv. , lvi. , _Poetical
Works, 1898_, i. 57, 58, and note 11, pp. 91, 92. ]
[23] {75}[Compare--
"How wonderful is Death,
Death and his brother Sleep! "
Shelley's _Queen Mab, i. lines 1, 2_]
[ac] _Crisps the unswelling wave_. --[MS. M. erased]
[ad] {76}
_Old Hunter of mankind when baited and ye_
_All brutal who pursued both brutes and men_. --[MS. M. erased. ]
[ae] {78} _With arrows peeping through his falling hair_. --[MS. M.
erased. ]
[24] [In the diary for November 23, 1813 (_Letters_, 1898, ii. 334,
335), Byron alludes to a dream which "chilled his blood" and shook his
nerves. Compare Coleridge's _Pains of Sleep_, lines 23-26--
"Desire with loathing strangely mixed,
On wild or hateful objects fixed.
Fantastic passions! maddening brawl!
And shame and terror over all! "]
[25] {79}[For the story of Semiramis and Ninya, see _Justinus Hist_. ,
lib. i. cap. ii. ]
[26] {81}[See Diod. Siculi _Bibl. Hist. _, lib. ii. 80 c. Cotta was not a
kinsman, but a loyal tributary. ]
[af] {82} The MS. inserts--(_But I speak only of such as are virtuous_. )
[27] [Byron must often have pictured to himself an unexpected meeting
with his wife. In certain moods he would write letters to her which were
never sent, or never reached her hands. The scene between Sardanapalus
and Zarina reflects the sentiments contained in one such letter, dated
November 17, 1821, which Moore printed in his _Life_, pp. 581, 582. See
_Letters_, 1901, v. 479. ]
[ag] {84} _Bravely and won wear wisely--not as I_. --[MS. M, erased. ]
[ah] {88}
_Which thou hast lighted up at once? but leavest_
_One to grieve o'er the other's change--Zarina_. -[MS. M, erased. ]
[ai] {89} ----_natural_. --[MS. M. The first edition reads "mutual. "]
[aj] {91} _Is heavier sorrow than the wrong which_--[MS. M. erased. ]
[ak] {93} _A leech's lancet would have done as much_. --[MS. M. erased. ]
[28] {94}[Myrrha's apostrophe to the sunrise may be compared with the
famous waking vision of the "Solitary" in the Second Book of the
_Excursion_ (_Works of Wordsworth_, 1889, p. 439)--
"The appearance, instantaneously disclosed,
Was of a mighty city--boldly say
A wilderness of building, sinking far
And self-withdrawn into a boundless depth,
Far sinking into splendour--without end!
Fabric it seemed of diamond and of gold,
With alabaster domes, and silver spires,
And blazing terrace upon terrace, high
Uplifted. "
But the difference, even in form, between the two passages is more
remarkable than the resemblance, and the interpretation, the moral of
Byron's vision is distinct from, if not alien to, Wordsworth's. The
"Solitary" sees all heaven opened; the revealed abode of spirits in
beatitude--a refuge and a redemption from "this low world of care;"
while Myrrha drinks in "enough of heaven," a medicament of "Sorrow and
of Love," for the invigoration of "the common, heavy, human hours" of
mortal existence. For a charge of "imitation," see _Works of Lord
Byron_, 1832, xiii. 172, note I. See, too, _Poetical Works, etc. _, 1891,
p. 271, note 2. ]
[al] {95}
_Sunrise and sunset form the epoch of_
_Sorrow and love; and they who mark them not_
{_Are fit for neither of those_
{_Can ne'er hold converse with these two_. --[MS. M. erased. ]
[am] _Of labouring wretches in alloted tasks_. --[MS. M. erased. ]
[an] {97} _We are used to such inflictions_. --[MS. M. erased. ]
[29] {101} About two miles and a half.
[ao] {102} _Complexions, climes, aeras, and intellects_. --[MS. M.
erased. ]
[30] {103}[Athenaeus represents the treasures which Sardanapalus placed
in the chamber erected on his funeral pile as amounting to a thousand
myriads of talents of gold, and ten times as many talents of silver. ]
[ap]
_Ye will find the crevice_
_To which the key fits, with a little care_. --[MS. M. erased. ]
[31] {106}["Then the king caused a huge pile of wood to be made in the
palace court, and heaped together upon it all his gold, silver, and
royal apparel, and enclosing his eunuchs and concubines in an apartment
within the pile, caused it to be set on fire, and burned himself and
them together. "--Diod. Siculi _Bibl. Hist. _, lib. ii. cap. 81A.
"And he also erected on the funeral pile a chamber 100 feet long, made
of wood, and in it he had couches spread, and there he himself lay down
with his wife, and his concubines lay on other couches around. . . . And he
made the roof of the apartment of large stout beams, and there all the
walls of it he made of numerous thick planks, so that it was impossible
to escape out of it,. . . And . . . he bade the slaves set fire to the
pile; and it was fifteen days burning. And those who saw the smoke
wondered, and thought that he was celebrating a great sacrifice, but the
eunuchs alone knew what was really being done. And in this way
Sardanapalus, who had spent his life in extraordinary luxury, died with
as much magnanimity as possible. "--Athenaeus, _Deipnosophistae_, bk. xii.
cap. 38.
See _Abydenus apud Eusebium_, Praep. Ev. 9. 41. 4; Euseb. , _Chron_. ,
1878, p. 42, ed. A. Schoene.
