No More Learning

As it stands, the "Romance" is a cento of
three or more ballads which are included in the _Guerras Civiles de
Granada_ of Gines Perez de Hita, published at Saragossa in 1595 (see ed.
"En Alcala de Henares," 1601, pp. 249-252). Stanzas 1-11, "Passeavase el
Rey Moro," etc. , follow the text which De Hita gives as a translation
from the Arabic; stanzas 12-14 are additional, and do not correspond
with any of the Spanish originals; stanzas 15-21, with numerous
deviations and omissions, follow the text of a second ballad, "Moro
Alcayde, Moro Alcayde," described by De Hita as "antiguo Romance," and
portions of stanzas 21-23 are imbedded in a ballad entitled "Muerte dada
a Los Abencerrajes" (Duran's _Romancero General_, 1851, ii. 89).

The ballad as a whole was not known to students of Spanish literature
previous to the publication of Byron's translation (1818), (see _Ancient
Ballads from the Civil Wars of Granada_, by Thomas Rodd, 1801, pp. 93,
98; Southey's _Common-Place Book_, iv. 262-266, and his _Chronicle of
the Cid_, 1808, pp. 371-374), and it has not been included by H. Duran
in his _Romancero General_, 1851, ii. 89-91, or by F. Wolf and C.
Hofmann in their _Primavera y Flor de Romances_, 1856, i. 270-278. At
the same time, it is most improbable that Byron was his own
"Centonista," and it may be assumed that the Spanish text as printed
(see _Childe Harold,_ Canto IV. , 1818, pp. 240-254, and _Poetical
Works_, 1891, pp. 566, 567) was in his possession or within his reach.
(For a correspondence on the subject, see _Notes and Queries_, Third
Series, vol. xii. p. 391, and Fourth Series, vol. i. p. 162. )

A MS. of the Spanish text, sent to England for "copy," is in a foreign
handwriting. Two MSS. (A, B) of the translation are in Mr. Murray's
possession: A, a rough draft; B, a fair copy. The watermark of A is
1808, of B (dated January 4, 1817) 1800. It is to be noted that the
refrain in the Spanish text is _Ay de mi Alhama_, and that the insertion
of the comma is a printer's or reader's error. ]

[569] [In A. D. 886, during the reign of Muley Abul Hacen, King of
Granada, Albania was surprised and occupied by the Christians under Don
Rodrigo Ponce de Leon. ]

[570] The effect of the original ballad--which existed both in Spanish
and Arabic--was such, that it was forbidden to be sung by the Moors, on
pain of death, within Granada. ["This ballad was so dolorous in the
original Arabic language, that every time it was sung it acted as an
incitement to grief and despair, and for this reason it was at length
finally prohibited in Granada. "--_Historia . . . de las Guerras Civiles_,
translated from the Arabic of Abenhamim, by Gines Perez de Hita, and
from the Spanish by Thomas Rodd, 1803, p. 334. According to Ticknor
(_Hist. of Spanish Literature_, 1888, iii. 139), the "Arabic origin" of
De Hita's work is not at all probable. "He may have obtained Arabic
materials for parts of his story. "]

[hv] _Alas--alas--Alhama! _--[MS. M. ]

[571] [Byron's _Ay de mi, Alhama_, which should be printed _Ay de mi
Alhama_, must be rendered "Woe for my Alhama! " "Woe is me, Alhama! " is
the equivalent of "_Ay de mi Alhama! _"]

[572] {531}["Un viejo Alfaqui" is "an old Alfaqui," _i. e. _ a doctor of
the Mussulman law, not a proper name. ]

[573] {532}["De leyes tambien hablava" should be rendered "He spake
'also' of the laws," not _tan bien_, "so well," or "exceeding well. "]

[574] {533}[The Alcaide or "governor" of the original ballad is
converted into the Alfaqui of stanza 9. It was the "Alcaide," in whose
absence Alhama was taken, and who lost children, wife, honour, and his
own head in consequence (_Notes and Queries_, iv. i. 162). ]

[hw] ----_so white to see_. --[MS. M. ]

[575] {535}[Jacopo Vittorelli (1749-1835) was born at Bassano, in
Venetian territory. Under the Napoleonic "kingdom of Italy" he held
office as a subordinate in the Ministry of Education at Milan, and was
elected a member of the college of "Dotti. " At a later period of his
life he returned to Bassano, and received an appointment as censor of
the press. His poetry, which is sweet and musical, but lacking in force
and substance, recalls and embodies the style and spirit of the dying
literature of the eighteenth century. "He lived and died," says Luigi
Carrer, "the poet of Irene and Dori," unmoved by the hopes and fears,
the storms and passions, of national change and development. --See
_Manuale della Letteratura Italiana_, by A. d'Ancona and O. Bacci, 1894,
iv. 585. ]

[576] {536}["The Helen of Canova (a bust which is in the house of Madame
the Countess d'Albrizzi, whom I know) is without exception, to my mind,
the most perfectly beautiful of human conceptions, and far beyond my
ideas of human execution,"--Letter to Murray, November 25, 1816. In the
works of Antonio Canova, engraved in outline by Henry Moses (London,
1873), the bust of Helen is figured (to face p. 58), and it is stated
that it was executed in 1814, and presented to the Countess Albrizzi.
(See _Letters_, 1900, iv. 14, 15, note. )]

[577] {537}[From an autograph MS. in the possession of Mr. Murray, now
for the first time printed. ]

[578] {538}["The mumming closed with a masked ball at the Fenice, where
I went, as also to most of the ridottos, etc. , etc. ; and, though I did
not dissipate much upon the whole, yet I find 'the sword wearing out the
scabbard,' though I have but just turned the corner of
twenty-nine. "--Letter to Moore, February 28, 1817. The verses form part
of the letter. (See _Letters_, 1900, iv. 59, 60. )]

[579] [Lady Blessington told Crabb Robinson (Diary, 1869, in. 17) that
the publication of the _Question and Answer_ would "kill Rogers. " The
MS. is dated 1818, and it is probable that the lines were written in the
early spring of that year. Moore or Murray had told Byron that Rogers
was in doubt whether to praise or blame him in his poem on "Human Life"
now approaching completion; and he had heard, from other sources, that
it was Rogers who was the author or retailer of certain scandalous
stories which were current in the "whispering-gallery of the world. " He
had reason to believe that everybody was talking about him, and it was a
relief to be able to catch and punish so eminent a scandal-monger. It
was in this spirit that he wrote to Murray (February 20, 1818), "What
you tell me of Rogers, . . . is like him. He cannot say that I have not
been a sincere and warm friend to him, till the black drop of his liver
oozed through too palpably to be overlooked. Now if I once catch him at
any of his jugglery with me or mine, let him look to it," etc. , etc. ,
and in all probability the "poem on Rogers" was then in existence, or
was working in his brain. The lines once written, Byron swallowed his
venom, and, when Rogers visited Italy in the autumn of 1821, he met him
at Bologna, travelled with him across the Apennines to Florence, and
invited him "to stay as long as he liked" at Pisa. Thither Rogers came,
presumably, in November, 1821, and, if we may trust the _Table Talk_
(1856, p. 238), remained at the Palazzo Lanfranchi for several days.

Byron seems to have been more than usually provocative and
cross-grained, and, on one occasion (see Medwin, _Angler in Wales_,
1834, i. 26, _sq_. ; and _Records of Shelley, etc_. , by E. T. Trelawney,
1878, i. 53), when he was playing billiards, and Rogers was in the lobby
outside, secretly incited his bull-dog, "Faithful Moretto," to bark and
show his teeth; and, when Medwin had convoyed the terror-stricken bard
into his presence, greeted him with effusion, but contrived that he
should sit down on the very sofa which hid from view the MS. of
"Question and Answer. " _Longa est injuria, longae ambages_; but the story
rests on the evidence of independent witnesses.

By far the best comment on satire and satirist is to be found in the
noble lines in _Italy_, in which Rogers commemorates his last meeting
with the "Youth who swam from Sestos to Abydos"--

"If imagined wrongs
Pursued thee, urging thee sometimes to do
Things long regretted, oft, as many know,
None more than I, thy gratitude would build
On slight foundations; and, if in thy life
Not happy, in thy death thou surely wert,
Thy wish accomplished. "

_Poems_ by Samuel Rogers, 1852, ii. 119. ]

[hx] ----_would shame a knocker_. --[_Fraser's Magazine_, 1833. ]

[hy] {539}_Turning its quick tail_----. --[_Fraser's_, etc. ]

[580] {540}["'De mortuis nihil nisi bonum! ' There is Sam Rogers [No. IV.
of the Maclise Caricatures] a mortal likeness--painted to the very
death! " A string of jests upon Rogers's corpse-like appearance
accompanied the portrait. ]

[hz] _With the Scripture in connexion_. --[_Fraser's_, etc. ]

[581] {541}[Among other "bogus" notes (parodies of the notes in Murray's
new edition of Byron's _Works_ in seventeen volumes), is one signed Sir
E. Brydges, which enumerates a string of heiresses, beauties, and blues,
whom Rogers had wooed in vain. Among the number are Mrs. Apreece (Lady
Davy), Mrs. Coutts, "beat by the Duke of St. Albans," and the Princess
Olive of Cumberland. "We have heard," the note concludes, "that he
proposed for the Duchess of Cleveland, and was cut out by Beau Fielding,
but we think that must have been before his time a little. "]

[582] {542}["If '_the_ person' had not by many little dirty sneaking
traits provoked it, I should have been silent, though I _had observed_
him. Here follows an alteration. Put--

"Devil with such delight in damning
That if at the resurrection
Unto him the free selection
Of his future could be given
'Twould be rather Hell than Heaven.

You have a discretionary power about showing. "--Letter to Murray,
November 9, 1820, _Letters_, 1901, v. 113. ]

[ia] ----_would you know 'em? _--[_Fraser's_, etc. ]

[583] [Addressed to Miss Chaworth, in allusion to a duel fought between
two of their ancestors, D[ominus] B[yron] and Mr. C. , January 26, 1765.

Byron and Mary Anne Chaworth were fourth cousins, both being fifth in
descent from George, Viscount Chaworth, whose daughter Elizabeth was
married to William, third Lord Byron (d. 1695), the poet's
great-great-grandfather. The duel between their grand-uncles, William,
fifth Lord Byron, and William Chaworth, Esq. , of Annesley, was fought
between eight and nine o'clock in the evening of Saturday, January 26,
1765 (see _The Gazetteer_, Monday, January 28, 1765), at the Star and
Garter Tavern, Pall Mall. The coroner's jury brought in a verdict of
wilful murder (see for the "Inquisition," and report of trial, _Journals
of the House of Lords_, 1765, pp. 49, 126-135), and on the presentation
of their testimony to the House of Lords, Byron pleaded for a trial "by
God and his peers," whereupon he was arrested and sent to the Tower. The
case was tried by the Lords Temporal (the Lords Spiritual asked
permission to withdraw), and, after a defence had been read by the
prisoner, 119 peers brought in a verdict of "Not guilty of murder,
guilty of manslaughter, on my honour. " Four peers only returned a
verdict of "Not guilty. " The result of this verdict was that Lord Byron
claimed the benefit of the statute of Edward VI. , and was discharged on
paying the fees.

The defence, which is given in full (see Journal, etc. , for April 17,
1765), is able and convincing. Whilst maintaining an air of chivalry and
candour, the accused contrived to throw the onus of criminality on his
antagonist. It was Mr. Chaworth who began the quarrel, by sneering at
his cousin's absurd and disastrous leniency towards poachers. It was
Chaworth who insisted on an interview, not on the stairs, but in a
private room, who locked the door, and whose demeanour made a challenge
"to draw" inevitable. The room was dimly lit, and when the table was
pushed back, the space for the combatants was but twelve feet by five.
After two thrusts had been parried, and Lord Byron's shirt had been
torn, he shifted a little to the right, to take advantage of such light
as there was, came to close quarters with his adversary and, "as he
supposed, gave the unlucky wound which he would ever reflect upon with
the utmost regret. "

If there was any truth in his plea, the "wicked Lord Byron" has been
misjudged, and, at least in the matter of the duel, was not so black as
he has been painted. For Byron's defence of his grand-uncle, see letter
to M. J. J. Coulmann, Genoa, July 12, 1823, _Life_, by Karl Elze, 1872,
pp. 443-446. ]

[584] {543}[In the coroner's "Inquisition," the sword is described as
being "made of iron and steel, of the value of five shillings. " Byron
says that "so far from feeling any remorse for having killed Mr.
Chaworth, who was a fire-eater (_spadassin_), . . . he always kept the
sword . . . in his bed-chamber, where it still was when he
died. "--_Ibid. _, p. 445. ]

[585] [Ralph de Burun held Horestan Castle and other manors from the
Conqueror. Byron's mother was descended from James I. of Scotland. ]

[586] {544}[See _The Dream_, line 127, _et passim_, _vide ante_, p. 31,
_et sq. _]

[587] [From an autograph MS. in the possession of Mr. Murray, now for
the first time printed. ]

[588] {545} [There has been some misunderstanding with regard to this
poem. According to the statement of the Countess Guiccioli (see _Works
of Lord Byron_, ed. 1832, xii. 14), "Stanzas to the Po" were composed
about the middle of April, 1819, "while Lord Byron was actually sailing
on the Po," _en route_ from Venice to Ravenna. Medwin, who was the first
to publish the lines (_Conversations, etc. _, 1824, 410, pp. 24-26), says
that they were written when Byron was about to "quit Venice to join" the
Countess at Ravenna, and, in a footnote, explains that the river
referred to is the Po. Now, if the Countess and Medwin (and Moore, who
follows Medwin, _Life_, p. 396) are right, and the river is the Po, the
"ancient walls" Ravenna, and the "Lady of the land" the Guiccioli, the
stanzas may have been written in June (not April), 1819, possibly at
Ferrara, and the river must be the Po di Primaro. Even so, the first
line of the first stanza and the third and fourth lines of the ninth
stanza require explanation.
The Po does not "roll by the ancient walls"
of Ravenna; and how could Byron be at one and the same time "by the
source" (stanza 9, line 4), and sailing on the river, or on some
canalized tributary or effluent? Be the explanation what it may--and it
is possible that the lines were _not_ originally designed for the
Countess, but for another "Lady of the land" (see letter to Murray, May
18, 1819)--it may be surmised that "the lines written last year on
crossing the Po," the "mere verses of society," which were given to
Kinnaird (see letter to Murray, May 8, 1820, and _Conversations of Lord
Byron with Lady Blessington_, 1834, p. 143), were not the sombre though
passionate elegy, "River, that rollest," but the bitter and somewhat
cynical rhymes, "Could Love for ever, Run like a river" (_vide post_, p.
549). ]

[ib] {546}

_But left long wrecks behind them, and again_.
_Borne on our old unchanged career, we move;_
_Thou tendest wildly onward to the main_. --[Medwin. ]

[ic] _I near thy source_----. --[Medwin. ]

[id] {547}_A stranger loves a lady_----. --[Medwin. ]

[ie] _By the bleak wind_----. --[Medwin. ]

[if] _I had not left my clime;--I shall not be_. --[Medwin. ]

[589] I wrote this sonnet (after tearing the first) on being repeatedly
urged to do so by the Countess G. [It was at the house of the Marquis
Cavalli, uncle to the countess, that Byron appeared in the part of a
fully-recognized "Cicisbeo. "--See letter to Hoppner, December 31, 1819,
_Letters, 1900_, iv. 393. ]

[ig] {548}_To the Prince Regent on the repeal of the bill of attainder
against Lord E. Fitzgerald, June, 1819. _

[ih] _To leave_----. --[MS. M. ]

[ii] _Who_ NOW _would lift a hand_----. --[MS. M. ]

[ij]

----_becomes but more complete_
_Thyself a despot_----. --[MS. M. ]

[590] ["So the prince has been repealing Lord Fitzgerald's forfeiture?
_Ecco un' Sonetto! _ There, you dogs! there's a Sonnet for you: you won't
have such as that in a hurry from Mr. Fitzgerald. You may publish it
with my name, an ye wool. He deserves all praise, bad and good; it was a
very noble piece of principality. "--Letter to Murray, August 12, 1819.

For [William Thomas] Fitgerald, see _Poetical Works_, 1898, i. 297, note
3; for Lord Edward Fitzgerald (1763-1798), see _Letters_, 1900, iv. 345,
note 1. The royal assent was given to a bill for "restoring Edward Fox
Fitzgerald and his sisters Pamela and Lucy to their blood," July 13,
1819. The sonnet was addressed to George IV. when Prince Regent. The
title, "To George the Fourth," affixed in 1831, is incorrect. ]

[591] {549}["A friend of Lord Byron's, who was with him at Ravenna when
he wrote these stanzas, says, They were composed, like many others, with
no view of publication, but merely to relieve himself in a moment of
suffering. He had been painfully excited by some circumstances which
appeared to make it necessary that he should immediately quit Italy; and
in the day and the hour that he wrote the song was labouring under an
access of fever" (_Works_, 1832, xii. 317, note 1). Here, too, there is
some confusion of dates and places. Byron was at Venice, not at Ravenna,
December 1, 1819, when these lines were composed. They were sent, as
Lady Blessington testifies, to Kinnaird, and are probably identical with
the "mere verses of society," mentioned in the letter to Murray of May
8, 1820. The last stanza reflects the mood of a letter to the Countess
Guiccioli, dated November 25 (1819), "I go to save you, and leave a
country insupportable to me without you" (_Letters_, 1900, iv. 379, note
2). ]

[ik] _And as a treasure_. --[MS. Guiccioli. ]

[il] {550}

_Through every weather_
_We pluck_. --[MS. G. ]

[im]

_He'll sadly shiver_
_And droop for ever,_
_Shorn of the plumage which sped his spring_. --[MS. G. ]

[in] ----_that sped his Spring_. --[MS. G. ]

[io] {551}

_His reign is finished_
_One last embrace, then, and bid good-night_. --[MS. G. ]

[ip]

_You have not waited_
_Till tired and hated_
_All passions sated_. --[MS. G. ]

[iq] {552}_True separations_. --[MS. G. ]

[ir] {555}_The enclosed lines, as you will directly perceive, are
written by the Rev. W. L. Bowles. Of course it is for him to deny them,
if they are not_. --[_Letter to Moore, September_ 17, 1821, _Letters_,
1901, v. 364. ]

[592] [A few days before Byron enclosed these lines in a letter to Moore
(September 17, 1821) he had written to Murray (September 12): "If ever I
_do_ return to England . . . I will write a poem to which _English Bards,
etc. _, shall be New Milk, in comparison. Your present literary world of
mountebanks stands in need of such an Avatar. " Hence the somewhat
ambiguous title. The word "Avatar" is not only applied ironically to
George IV. as the "Messiah of Royalty," but metaphorically to the poem,
which would descend in the "Capacity of Preserver" (see Sir W. Jones,
_Asiatic Research_, i. 234).

The "fury" which sent Byron into this "lawless conscription of
rhythmus," was inspired partly by an ungenerous attack on Moore, which
appeared in the pages of _John Bull_ ("Thomas Moore is not likely to
fall in the way of knighthood . . . being public defaulter in his office
to a large amount. . . . [August 5]. It is true that we cannot from
principle esteem the writer of the _Twopenny Postbag_. . . . It is equally
true that we shrink from the profligacy," etc. , August 12, 1821); and,
partly, by the servility of the Irish, who had welcomed George IV. with
an outburst of enthusiastic loyalty, when he entered Dublin in triumph
within ten days of the death of Queen Caroline. The _Morning Chronicle_,
August 8-August 18, 1821, prints effusive leading articles, edged with
black borders, on the Queen's illness, death, funeral procession, etc. ,
over against a column (in small type) headed "The King in Dublin. "
Byron's satire is a running comment on the pages of the _Morning
Chronicle_. Moore was in Paris at the time, being, as _John Bull_ said,
"obliged to live out of England," and Byron gave him directions that
twenty copies of the _Irish Avatar_ "should be carefully and privately
printed off. " Medwin says that Byron gave him "a printed copy," but his
version (see _Conversations_, 1824, pp. 332-338), doubtless for
prudential reasons, omits twelve of the more libellous stanzas. The poem
as a whole was not published in England till 1831, when "George the
despised" was gone to his account. According to Crabb Robinson (_Diary_,
1869, ii. 437), Goethe said that "Byron's verses on George IV. (_Query?
The Irish Avatar_) were the sublime of hatred. "]

[593] {556}[The Queen died on the night (10. 20 p. m. ) of Tuesday, August
7. The King entered Dublin in state Friday, August 17. The vessel
bearing the Queen's remains sailed from Harwich on the morning of
Saturday, August 18, 1821. ]

[is] ----_such a hero becomes_. --[MS. M. ]

[594] ["Seven covered waggons arrived at the Castle (August 3). They
were laden with plate. . . . Upwards of forty men cooks will be
employed. "--_Morning Chronicle_, August 8. ]

[it] {557}_To enact in the pageant_----. -[MS. M. ]

[595] ["Never did I witness such enthusiasm. . . . Cheer followed
cheer--and shout followed shout . . . accompanied by exclamation of 'God
bless King George IV. ! ' 'Welcome, welcome, ten thousand times to these
shores! '"--_Morning Chronicle_, August 16. ]

[596] {558}["After the stanza on Grattan, . . . will it please you to
cause insert the following Addenda, which I dreamed of during to-day's
Siesta. "--Letter to Moore, September 20, 1821. ]

[iu] _Aye! back to our theme_----. --[Medwin]

[iv] _Kiss his foot, with thy blessing, for blessings
denied! _--[Medwin. ]

[iw] _Or if freedom_----. --[Medwin. ]

[597] {559}["The Earl of Fingall (Arthur James Plunkett, K. P. , eighth
earl, d. 1836), the leading Catholic nobleman, is to be created a Knight
of St. Patrick. "--_Morning Chronicle_, August 18. ]

[ix] _Wear Fingal thy ribbon_----. --[MS. M. ]

[iy] _And the King is no scoundrel--whatever the Prince_. --[MS. M. ]

[598] [There was talk of a testimonial being presented to the King.
O'Connell suggested that if possible it should take the form of "a
palace, to which not only the rank around him could contribute, but to
the erection of which every peasant could from his cottage contribute
his humble mite. "--_Morning Chronicle_, August 18. ]

[iz] _Till proudly the new_----. --[MS. M. ]

[599] {560}["The Marquis of Londonderry was cheered in the Castle-yard. "
"He was," says the correspondent of the _Morning Chronicle_, "the
instrument of Ireland's degradation--he broke down her spirit, and
prostrated, I fear, for ever her independence. To see the author of this
measure cheered near the very spot," etc. ]

[ja] ----_might make Humanity doubt_. --[MS. M. ]

[jb] ----_in the heart of a king_. --[Medwin. MS. M. erased. ]

[600] {561}[Byron spoke and voted in favour of the Earl of Donoughmore's
motion for a Committee on the Roman Catholic claims, April 21, 1812.
(See "Parliamentary Speeches," Appendix II. , _Letters_, 1898, ii.
431-443. )]

[jc] _My arm, though but feeble_----. --[Medwin. ]

[jd] ----_though thou wert not my land_. --[Medwin. ]

[601] [For Grattan and Curran, see letter to Moore, October 2, 1813,
_Letters_, 1898, ii. 271, note 1; for Sheridan, see "Introduction to
_Monody_," etc. , _ante_, pp. 69, 70. ]

[je]

_Nor the steps of enslavers, and slave-kissing slaves_
_Be damp'd in the turf_----.