"]
[25] {79}[For the story of Semiramis and Ninya, see _Justinus Hist_.
[25] {79}[For the story of Semiramis and Ninya, see _Justinus Hist_.
Byron
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.
Saracus was the last king of Assyria, and being invaded by Cyaxares and
a faithless general Nabopolassar . . . "unable to resist them, took
counsel of despair, and after all means of resistance were exhausted,
burned himself in his palace. "
"The self-immolation of Saracus has a parallel in the conduct of the
Israelitish king Zimri, who, 'when he saw that the city was taken, went
into the palace of the king's house, and burnt the king's house over
him, and died' (1 Kings xvi. 18); and again in that of the Persian
governor Boges, who burnt himself with his wives and children at Eion
(Herod. , vii. 107). "--_The Five Great Monarchies, etc. _, by Rev. G.
Rawlinson, 1871, ii. 232, note 4. ]
[aq] {109} _Funereal_----. --[MS. M. ]
[ar] _And strew the earth with, ashes_----. --[MS. M. erased. ]
[as] {110}
----_And what is there_
_An Indian widow dares for custom which_
_A Greek girl_----. --[MS. M. erased. ]
[32] {111}[Bishop Heber (_Quarterly Review_, July, 1821, vol. xxvii. p.
503) takes exception to these lines on the ground that they "involve an
anachronism, inasmuch as, whatever date be assigned to the erection of
the earlier pyramids, there can be no reason for apprehending that, at
the fall of Nineveh, and while the kingdom and hierarchy of Egypt
subsisted in their full splendour, the destination of those immense
fabrics could have been a matter of doubt. . . . Herodotus, three hundred
years later, may have been misinformed on these points," etc. , etc.
According to modern Egyptology, the erection of the "earlier pyramids"
was an event of remotest antiquity when the Assyrian Empire was in its
infancy. ]
[33] End of Act fifth. --B.
Ravenne. May 27^th^ 1821.
Mem. --I began the drama on the 13th of January, 1821, and continued the
two first acts very slowly and at long intervals. The three last acts
were written since the 13th of May, 1821 (this present month, that is to
say in a fortnight).
THE TWO FOSCARI:[34]
AN HISTORICAL TRAGEDY. [35]
"The _father_ softens, but the _governor's_ resolved. "--_Critic_. [36]
[_The Two Foscari_ was produced at Drury Lane Theatre April 7, and again
on April 18 and April 25, 1838. Macready played "Frances Foscari," Mr.
Anderson "Jacopo Foscari," and Miss Helen Faucit "Marina. "
According to the _Times_, April 9, 1838, "Miss Faucit's Marina, the most
energetic part of the whole, was clever, and showed a careful attention
to the points which might be made. "
Macready notes in his diary, April 7, 1838 (_Reminiscences_, 1875, ii.
106): "Acted Foscari very well. Was very warmly received . . . was called
for at the end of the tragedy, and received by the whole house standing
up and waving handkerchiefs with great enthusiasm. Dickens, Forster,
Procter, Browning, Talfourd, all came into my room. "]
INTRODUCTION TO _THE TWO FOSCARI_
The _Two Foscari_ was begun on June 12, and finished, within the month,
on July 9, 1821. Byron was still in the vein of the historic drama,
though less concerned with "ancient chroniclers" and original
"authorities" (_vide ante_, Preface to _Marino Faliero_, vol. iv. p. 332)
than heretofore. "The Venetian play," he tells Murray, July 14, 1821, is
"rigidly historical;" but he seems to have depended for his facts, not
on Sanudo or Navagero, but on Daru's _Histoire de la Republique de
Venise_ (1821, ii. 520-537), and on Sismondi's _Histoire des Republiques
. . . du Moyen Age_ (1815, x. 36-46). The story of the Two Doges, so far
as it concerns the characters and action of Byron's play, may be briefly
re-told. It will be found to differ in some important particulars from
the extracts from Daru and Sismondi which Byron printed in his "Appendix
to the _Two Foscari_" (_Sardanapalus, etc. _, 1821, pp. 305-324), and no
less from a passage in Smedley's _Sketches from Venetian History_ (1832,
ii. 93-105), which was substituted for the French "Pieces
justificatives," in the collected edition of 1832-1835, xiii. 198-202,
and the octavo edition of 1837, etc. , pp. 790, 791.
Francesco, son of Nicolo Foscari, was born in 1373. He was nominated a
member of the Council of Ten in 1399, and, after holding various offices
of state, elected Doge in 1423. His dukedom, the longest on record,
lasted till 1457. He was married, in 1395, to Maria, daughter of Andrea
Priuli, and, _en secondes noces_, to Maria, or Marina, daughter of
Bartolommeo Nani. By his two wives he was the father of ten
children--five sons and five daughters. Of the five sons, four died of
the plague, and the fifth, Jacopo, lived to be the cause, if not the
hero, of a tragedy.
The younger of the "Two Foscari" was a man of some cultivation, a
collector and student of Greek manuscripts, well-mannered, and of ready
wit, a child and lover of Venice, but indifferent to her ideals and
regardless of her prejudices and restrictions. He seems to have begun
life in a blaze of popularity, the admired of all admirers. His wedding
with Lucrezia Contarini (January, 1441) was celebrated with a novel and
peculiar splendour. Gorgeous youths, Companions of the Hose (_della
calza_), in jackets of crimson velvet, with slashed sleeves lined with
squirrel fur, preceded and followed the bridegroom's train. A hundred
bridesmaids accompanied the bride. Her dowry exceeded 16,000 ducats, and
her jewels, which included a necklace worn by a Queen of Cyprus, were
"rich and rare. " And the maiden herself was a pearl of great price. "She
behaved," writes her brother, "and does behave, so well beyond what
could have been looked for. I believe she is inspired by God! "
Jacopo had everything which fortune could bestow, but he lacked a
capacity for right conduct. Four years after his marriage (February 17,
1445) an accusation was laid before the Ten (Romanin, _Storia_, etc. ,
iv. 266) that, contrary to the law embodied in the Ducal _Promissione_,
he had accepted gifts of jewels and money, not only from his
fellow-citizens, but from his country's bitterest enemy, Filippo
Visconti, Duke of Milan. Jacopo fled to Trieste, and in his absence the
Ten, supported by a giunta of ten, on their own authority and
independently of the Doge, sentenced him to perpetual banishment at
Nauplia, in Roumania. One of the three _Capi di' dieci_ was Ermolao (or
_Venetice_ Almoro) Donato, of whom more hereafter. It is to be noted
that this sentence was never carried into effect.
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.
Saracus was the last king of Assyria, and being invaded by Cyaxares and
a faithless general Nabopolassar . . . "unable to resist them, took
counsel of despair, and after all means of resistance were exhausted,
burned himself in his palace. "
"The self-immolation of Saracus has a parallel in the conduct of the
Israelitish king Zimri, who, 'when he saw that the city was taken, went
into the palace of the king's house, and burnt the king's house over
him, and died' (1 Kings xvi. 18); and again in that of the Persian
governor Boges, who burnt himself with his wives and children at Eion
(Herod. , vii. 107). "--_The Five Great Monarchies, etc. _, by Rev. G.
Rawlinson, 1871, ii. 232, note 4. ]
[aq] {109} _Funereal_----. --[MS. M. ]
[ar] _And strew the earth with, ashes_----. --[MS. M. erased. ]
[as] {110}
----_And what is there_
_An Indian widow dares for custom which_
_A Greek girl_----. --[MS. M. erased. ]
[32] {111}[Bishop Heber (_Quarterly Review_, July, 1821, vol. xxvii. p.
503) takes exception to these lines on the ground that they "involve an
anachronism, inasmuch as, whatever date be assigned to the erection of
the earlier pyramids, there can be no reason for apprehending that, at
the fall of Nineveh, and while the kingdom and hierarchy of Egypt
subsisted in their full splendour, the destination of those immense
fabrics could have been a matter of doubt. . . . Herodotus, three hundred
years later, may have been misinformed on these points," etc. , etc.
According to modern Egyptology, the erection of the "earlier pyramids"
was an event of remotest antiquity when the Assyrian Empire was in its
infancy. ]
[33] End of Act fifth. --B.
Ravenne. May 27^th^ 1821.
Mem. --I began the drama on the 13th of January, 1821, and continued the
two first acts very slowly and at long intervals. The three last acts
were written since the 13th of May, 1821 (this present month, that is to
say in a fortnight).
THE TWO FOSCARI:[34]
AN HISTORICAL TRAGEDY. [35]
"The _father_ softens, but the _governor's_ resolved. "--_Critic_. [36]
[_The Two Foscari_ was produced at Drury Lane Theatre April 7, and again
on April 18 and April 25, 1838. Macready played "Frances Foscari," Mr.
Anderson "Jacopo Foscari," and Miss Helen Faucit "Marina. "
According to the _Times_, April 9, 1838, "Miss Faucit's Marina, the most
energetic part of the whole, was clever, and showed a careful attention
to the points which might be made. "
Macready notes in his diary, April 7, 1838 (_Reminiscences_, 1875, ii.
106): "Acted Foscari very well. Was very warmly received . . . was called
for at the end of the tragedy, and received by the whole house standing
up and waving handkerchiefs with great enthusiasm. Dickens, Forster,
Procter, Browning, Talfourd, all came into my room. "]
INTRODUCTION TO _THE TWO FOSCARI_
The _Two Foscari_ was begun on June 12, and finished, within the month,
on July 9, 1821. Byron was still in the vein of the historic drama,
though less concerned with "ancient chroniclers" and original
"authorities" (_vide ante_, Preface to _Marino Faliero_, vol. iv. p. 332)
than heretofore. "The Venetian play," he tells Murray, July 14, 1821, is
"rigidly historical;" but he seems to have depended for his facts, not
on Sanudo or Navagero, but on Daru's _Histoire de la Republique de
Venise_ (1821, ii. 520-537), and on Sismondi's _Histoire des Republiques
. . . du Moyen Age_ (1815, x. 36-46). The story of the Two Doges, so far
as it concerns the characters and action of Byron's play, may be briefly
re-told. It will be found to differ in some important particulars from
the extracts from Daru and Sismondi which Byron printed in his "Appendix
to the _Two Foscari_" (_Sardanapalus, etc. _, 1821, pp. 305-324), and no
less from a passage in Smedley's _Sketches from Venetian History_ (1832,
ii. 93-105), which was substituted for the French "Pieces
justificatives," in the collected edition of 1832-1835, xiii. 198-202,
and the octavo edition of 1837, etc. , pp. 790, 791.
Francesco, son of Nicolo Foscari, was born in 1373. He was nominated a
member of the Council of Ten in 1399, and, after holding various offices
of state, elected Doge in 1423. His dukedom, the longest on record,
lasted till 1457. He was married, in 1395, to Maria, daughter of Andrea
Priuli, and, _en secondes noces_, to Maria, or Marina, daughter of
Bartolommeo Nani. By his two wives he was the father of ten
children--five sons and five daughters. Of the five sons, four died of
the plague, and the fifth, Jacopo, lived to be the cause, if not the
hero, of a tragedy.
The younger of the "Two Foscari" was a man of some cultivation, a
collector and student of Greek manuscripts, well-mannered, and of ready
wit, a child and lover of Venice, but indifferent to her ideals and
regardless of her prejudices and restrictions. He seems to have begun
life in a blaze of popularity, the admired of all admirers. His wedding
with Lucrezia Contarini (January, 1441) was celebrated with a novel and
peculiar splendour. Gorgeous youths, Companions of the Hose (_della
calza_), in jackets of crimson velvet, with slashed sleeves lined with
squirrel fur, preceded and followed the bridegroom's train. A hundred
bridesmaids accompanied the bride. Her dowry exceeded 16,000 ducats, and
her jewels, which included a necklace worn by a Queen of Cyprus, were
"rich and rare. " And the maiden herself was a pearl of great price. "She
behaved," writes her brother, "and does behave, so well beyond what
could have been looked for. I believe she is inspired by God! "
Jacopo had everything which fortune could bestow, but he lacked a
capacity for right conduct. Four years after his marriage (February 17,
1445) an accusation was laid before the Ten (Romanin, _Storia_, etc. ,
iv. 266) that, contrary to the law embodied in the Ducal _Promissione_,
he had accepted gifts of jewels and money, not only from his
fellow-citizens, but from his country's bitterest enemy, Filippo
Visconti, Duke of Milan. Jacopo fled to Trieste, and in his absence the
Ten, supported by a giunta of ten, on their own authority and
independently of the Doge, sentenced him to perpetual banishment at
Nauplia, in Roumania. One of the three _Capi di' dieci_ was Ermolao (or
_Venetice_ Almoro) Donato, of whom more hereafter. It is to be noted
that this sentence was never carried into effect.
