No More Learning

It is most improbable that the Doge was directly or indirectly
responsible for the death of either brother; but there was an hereditary
feud, and the libellous epitaph was a move in the game. ]

[40] {124}[Daru gives Palazzi's _Fasti Ducales_ and _L'Histoire
Venitienne_ of Vianolo as his authorities for this story. ]

[au]4

----_checked by nought_
_The vessel that creaks_----. --[MS. M. erased. ]

[av] {125} ----_much pity_. --[MS. M. erased. ]

[41] ["This whole episode in the private life of the Foscari family is
valuable chiefly for the light it throws upon the internal history of
Venice. We are clearly in an atmosphere unknown before. The Council of
Ten is all-powerful; it even usurps functions which do not belong to it
by the constitution. The air is charged with plots, suspicion,
assassination, denunciation, spies,--all the paraphernalia which went to
confirm the popular legend as to the terrible nature of the
_Dieci_. "--_Venice, etc. _, by Horatio F. Brown, 1893, p. 305. ]

[aw] {126} _In this brief colloquy, and must redeem it_. --[MS. M. ]

[42] [Compare--

"And I have loved thee, Ocean! and my joy
Of youthful sports was on thy breast to be
Borne, like thy bubbles, onward: from a boy
I wantoned with thy breakers. "

_Childe Harold_, Canto IV. stanza clxxxiv. lines 1-4,
_Poetical Works_, 1899, ii. 461, note 2. ]

[43] {127}[The climate of Crete is genial and healthy; but the town of
Candia is exposed to winds from the north and north-west. ]

[ax] _I see your colour comes_. --[MS. M. ]

[44] {130}["She was a Contarini (her name was Lucrezia, not Marina)--

'A daughter of the house that now among
Its ancestors in monumental brass
Numbers eight Doges. '

On the occasion of her marriage the Bucentaur came out in its splendour;
and a bridge of boats was thrown across the Canal Grande for the
bridegroom and his retinue of three hundred horse. "--_Foscari_, by
Samuel Rogers, _Poems_, 1852, ii. 93, note.

According to another footnote (_ibid_. , p. 90), "this story (_Foscari_)
and the tragedy of the _Two Foscari_ were published within a few days of
each other, in November, 1821. " The first edition of _Italy_ was
published anonymously in 1822. According to the announcement of a
corrected and enlarged edition, which appeared in the _Morning
Chronicle_, April 11, 1823, "a few copies of this poem were printed off
the winter before last, while the author was abroad. "]

[ay] {132} _Do not deem so_. --[MS. M. ]

[45] {133}[Jacopo's plea, that the letter to the Duke of Milan was
written for the express purpose of being recalled to Venice, is
inadmissible for more reasons than one. In the first place, if on
suspicion of a letter written but never sent, the Ten had thought fit to
recall him, it by no means followed that they would have granted him an
interview with his wife and family; and, secondly, the fact that there
were letters in cypher found in his possession, and that a direct
invitation to the Sultan to rescue him by force was among the impounded
documents ("Quod requirebat dictum Teucrum ut mitteret ex galeis suis ad
accipiendum et levandum eum de dicto loco"), proves that the appeal to
the Duke of Milan was _bona fide_, and not a mere act of desperation.
(See _The Two Doges_, pp. 101, 102, and Berlan's _I due Poscari_, p. 53,
etc. )]

[46] {134}[There is no documentary evidence for this "confession," which
rests on a mere tradition. (_Vide_ Sanudo, _Vita Ducum Venetorum_,
_apud_ Muratori, _Rerum Ital. Script_. , 1733, xxii. col. 1139; see, too,
Berlan, _I due Foscari_, p. 37. ) Moreover, Almoro Donato was not chief
of the "Ten" at the date of his murder. The three "Capi" for November,
1450, were Ermolao Vallaresso, Giovanni Giustiniani, and Andrea Marcello
(_vide ibid. _, p. 25). ]

[47] {135}["Examination by torture: 'Such presumption is only sufficient
to put the person to the rack or torture' (Ayliffe's _Parergon_). "--_Cent.
Dict. _, art. "Question. "]

[48] [Shakespeare, Milton, Thompson, and others, use "shook" for
"shaken. "]

[az] _As was proved on him_----. --[MS. M. ]

[49] [The inarticulate mutterings are probably an echo of the
"incantation and magic words" ("incantationem et verba quas sibi reperta
sunt de quibus ad funem utitur . . . quoniam in fune aliquam nec vocem nec
gemitum emittit sed solum inter dentes ipse videtur et auditur loqui"
[_Die beiden Foscari_, pp. 160, 161]), which, according to the decree of
the Council of Ten, dated March 26, 1451, Jacopo let fall "while under
torture" during his second trial. ]

[ba] {137} _I'll hence and follow Loredano home_. --[MS. M. ]

[bb] _That I had dipped the pen too heedlessly_. --[MS. M. ]

[bc] {138} _Mistress of Lombardy--'tis some comfort to me_. --[MS. M. ]

[50] [Compare "Ce fut l'epoque, ou Venise etendit son empire sur
Brescia, Bergame, Ravenne, et Creme; ou elle fonda sa domination de
Lombardie," etc. (Sismondi's _Histoire des Republiques_, x. 38). Brescia
fell to the Venetians, October, 1426; Bergamo, in April, 1428; Ravenna,
in August, 1440; and Crema, in 1453. ]

[51] {139}[The Bridge of Sighs was not built till the end of the
sixteenth century. (_Vide ante, Marino Faliero_, act i. sc. 2, line 508,
_Poetical Works_, 1901, iv. 363, note 2; see, too, _Childe Harold_,
Canto IV. stanza i. line 1, _et post_, act iv. sc. 1, line 75. )]

[bd] {141} _To tears save those of dotage_----. --[MS. M. ]

[52] {143}[Five sons were born to the Doge, of whom four died of the
plague (_Two Doges, etc. _, by A. Wiel, 1891, p. 77). ]

[53] {144}[The Doge offered to abdicate in June, 1433, in June, 1442,
and again in 1446 (see Romanin, _Storia, etc. _, 1855, iv. 170, 171,
note 1). ]

[54] [_Vide ante_, p. 123. ]

[55] {148}[For the _Pozzi_ and _Piombi_, see _Marino Faliero_, act i.
sc. 2, _Poetical Works_, 1901, iv. 363, note 2. ]

[be] _Keep this for them_----. --[MS. M. ]

[bf] {149} _The blackest leaf, his heart, and blankest, his
brain_. --[MS. M. ]

[bg] ----_and best in humblest stations_. --[MS. M. ]

[bh]

_Where hunger swallows all--where ever was_
_The monarch who could bear a three days' fast? _--[MS. M. ]

[bi] _Their disposition_----. --[MS. M. ]

[56] [It would seem that Byron's "not ourselves" by no means "made for"
righteousness. ]

[bj]

----_the will itself dependent_
_Upon a storm, a straw, and both alike_
_Leading to death_----. --[MS. M. ]

[57] [Compare--"The boldest steer but where their ports invite. " _Childe
Harold_, Canto III. stanza lxx. lines 7-9; and Canto IV. stanza xxxiv. ,
_Poetical Works_, 1899, ii. 260, 353, and 74, note 1. ]

[58] {152}[Compare--

"Our voices took a dreary tone,
An echo of the dungeon stone. "

_Prisoner of Chillon_, lines 63, 64.

Compare, too--

"----prisoned solitude.
And the Mind's canker in its savage mood,
When the impatient thirst of light and air
Parches the heart. "

_Lament of Tasso_, lines 4-7. ]

[59] {153}[For inscriptions on the walls of the _Pozzi_, see note 1 to
_Childe Harold's Pilgrimage_, Canto IV. , _Poetical Works_, 1899, ii.
465-467. Hobhouse transferred these "scratchings" to his pocket-books,
and thence to his _Historical Notes_; but even as prison inscriptions
they lack both point and style. ]

[60] [Compare--

"Run, run, Orlando; carve on every tree
The fair, the chaste and unexpressive she. "

_As You Like It_, act iii. sc. 2, lines 9, 10. ]

[bk]

_Which never can be read but, as 'twas written,_
_By wretched beings_. --[MS. ]

[bl] {154}

_Of the familiar's torch, which seems to love_
_Darkness far more than light_. --[MS. ]

[61] {157}[Compare--

"Once more upon the waters! yet once more!
And the waves bound beneath me as a steed
That knows his rider. "

_Childe Harold_, Canto III. stanza ii. lines 1-3,
_Poetical Works_, 1899, ii. 217, note 1. ]

[bm] _At once by briefer means and better_. --[MS. ]

[62] {158} In Lady Morgan's fearless and excellent work upon Italy, I
perceive the expression of "Rome of the Ocean" applied to Venice. The
same phrase occurs in the "Two Foscari. " My publisher can vouch for me,
that the tragedy was written and sent to England some time before I had
seen Lady Morgan's work, which I only received on the 16th of August. I
hasten, however, to notice the coincidence, and to yield the originality
of the phrase to her who first placed it before the public.

[Byron calls Lady Morgan's _Italy_ "fearless" on account of her
strictures on the behaviour of Great Britain to Genoa in 1814. "England
personally stood pledged to Genoa. . . . When the British officers rode
into their gates bearing the white flag consecrated by the holy word of
'_independence_,' the people . . . '_kissed their garments_. '. . . Every
heart was open. . . . Lord William Bentinck's flag of '_Independenza_' was
taken down from the steeples and high places at sunrise; before noon the
arms of Sardinia blazoned in their stead; and yet the Genoese did not
rise _en masse_ and massacre the English" (_Italy_, 1821, i. 245, 246).
The passage which Byron feared might be quoted to his disparagement runs
as follows: "As the bark glides on, as the shore recedes, and the city
of waves, the Rome of the ocean, rises on the horizon, the spirits
rally; . . . and as the spires and cupolas of Venice come forth in the
lustre of the mid-day sun, and its palaces, half-veiled in the aerial
tints of distance, gradually assume their superb proportions, then the
dream of many a youthful vigil is realized" (_ibid_. , ii. 449). ]

[63] [Compare _Marino Faliero_, act ii. sc. 2, line 110, _Poetical
Works_, 901, iv. 386, note 3. ]

[64] {159} The Calenture. --[From the Spanish _Calentura_, a fever
peculiar to sailors within the tropics--

"So, by a calenture misled,
The mariner with rapture sees,
On the smooth ocean's azure bed,
Enamelled fields and verdant trees:
With eager haste he longs to rove
In that fantastic scene, and thinks
It must be some enchanted grove;
And in he leaps, and down he sinks. "

Swift, _The South-Sea Project_, 1721, ed. 1824, xiv. 147.
]

[65] Alluding to the Swiss air and its effects. --[The _Ranz des Vaches_,
played upon the bag-pipe by the young cowkeepers on the mountains:--"An
air," says Rousseau, "so dear to the Swiss, that it was forbidden, under
the pain of death, to play it to the troops, as it immediately drew
tears from them, and made those who heard it desert, or die of what is
called _la maladie du pais_, so ardent a desire did it excite to return
to their country. It is in vain to seek in this air for energetic
accents capable of producing such astonishing effects, for which
strangers are unable to account from the music, which is in itself
uncouth and wild. But it is from habit, recollections, and a thousand
circumstances, retraced in this tune by those natives who hear it, and
reminding them of their country, former pleasures of their youth, and
all their ways of living, which occasion a bitter reflection at having
lost them. " Compare Byron's Swiss "Journal" for September 19, 1816,
_Letters_, 1899, ii. 355. ]

[bn] _That malady, which_----. --[MS. M. ]

[66] [Compare _Don Juan_, Canto XVI. stanza xlvi. lines 6, 7--

"The calentures of music which o'ercome
The mountaineers with dreams that they are highlands. "]

[bo] {160} ----_upon your native towers_. --[MS. M. ]

[bp] {162} _Come you here to insult us_----. --[MS. M. ]

[67] {163}[For "steeds of brass," compare _Childe Harold_, Canto IV.
stanza xiii. line I, _Poetical Works_, 1899, ii. 338, and 336, note 1. ]

[68] [The first and all subsequent editions read "skimmed the coasts. "
Byron wrote "skirred," a word borrowed from Shakespeare. Compare _Siege
of Corinth_, line 692, _Poetical Works_, 1900, iii. 480, note 4. ]

[bq] {165} ----_which this noble lady worst_,--[MS. M. ]

[69] {169}[According to the law, it rested with the six councillors of
the Doge and a majority of the Grand Council to insist upon the
abdication of a Doge. The action of the Ten was an usurpation of powers
to which they were not entitled by the terms of the Constitution. ]

[70] {170}[A touching incident is told concerning an interview between
the Doge and Jacopo Memmo, head of the Forty. The Doge had just learnt
(October 21, 1457) the decision of the Ten with regard to his
abdication, and noticed that Memmo watched him attentively. "Foscari
called to him, and, touching his hand, asked him whose son he was. He
answered, 'I am the son of Messer Marin Memmo. '--' He is my dear
friend,' said the Doge; 'tell him from me that it would be pleasing to
me if he would come and see me, so that we might go at our leisure in
our boats to visit the monasteries'" (_The Two Doges_, by A. Weil, 1891,
p. 124; see, too, Romanin, _Storia, etc. _, 1855, iv. 291). ]

[71] {171}[_Vide ante_, p. 139, note 1. ]

[br] _Decemvirs, it is surely_----. --[MS. M. ]

[72] {172}[Romanin (_Storia, etc. _, 1855, iv. 285, 286) quotes the
following anecdote from the _Cronaca Dolfin_:--

"Alla commozione, alle lagrime, ai singulti che accompagnavano gli
ultimi abbraciamenti, Jacopo piu che mai sentendo il dolore di quel
distacco, diceva: _Padre ve priego, procure per mi, che ritorni a casa
mia_. E messer lo doxe: _Jacomo va e obbedisci quel che vuol la terra e
non cerear piu oltre_. Ma, uscito l'infelice figlio dalla stanza, piu
non resistendo alla piena degli affetti, si getto piangendo sopra una
sedia e lamentando diceva: _O pieta grande_! "]

[73] [_Vide ante_, act ii. sc. I, line 174, p. 143, note 1. ]

[74] {175}[So, too, Coleridge of Keats: "There is death in that hand;"
and of Adam Steinmetz: "Alas! there is _death_ in that dear hand. " See
_Table Talk_ for August 14, 1832, and _Letter to John Peirse Kennard_,
August 13, 1832, _Letters of S. T. C. _, 1895, ii. 764. Jacopo Foscari was
sent back to exile in Crete, and did not die till February, 1457. His
death at Venice, immediately after his sentence, is contrived for the
sake of observing "the unities. "]

[bs]

----_he would not_
_Thus leave me_. --[MS. M. ]

[75] {178}[It is to be noted that the "Giunta" was demanded by Loredano
himself--a proof of his bona fides, as the addition of twenty-five
nobles to the original Ten would add to the chance of opposition on the
part of the supporters and champions of the Doge (see _The Two Doges_,
and Romanin, _Storia, etc. , iv. 286, note 3_). ]

[76] {179} An historical fact. See DARU [1821], tom. ii. [pp. 398, 399.
Daru quotes as his authorities Sabellicus and Pietro Giustiniani. As a
matter of fact, the Doge did his utmost to save Carmagnola, pleading
that his sentence should be commuted to imprisonment for life (see _The
Two Doges_, p. 66; and Romanin, _Storia, etc. _, iv. 161). ]

[77] {183}[By the terms of the "parte," or act of deposition drawn up by
the Ten, October 21, 1457, the time granted for deliberation was "till
the third hour of the following day. " This limitation as to time was
designed to prevent the Doge from summoning the Grand Council, "to whom
alone belonged the right of releasing him from the dukedom. " (_The Two
Doges_, p. 118; _Diebeiden Foscari_, 1878, pp. 174-176). ]

[bt] {188} _The act is passed--I will obey it_. --[MS. M. ]

[78] [For this speech, see Daru (who quotes from Pietro Giustiniani,
_Histoire, etc. _, 1821, ii. 534). ]

[79] {190}[See Daru's _Histoire, etc. _, 1821, ii. 535. The _Cronaca
Augustini_ is the authority for the anecdote (see _The Two Doges_, 1891,
p. 126). ]

[bu] {192}

_I take yours, Loredano--'tis the draught_
_Most fitting such an hour as this_. --[MS. M. ]

[80] {193}[_Vide ante_, Introduction to _The Two Foscari_, p. 118. ]

[bv] _The wretchedness to die_----. --[MS. M. ]

[81] ["A decree was at once passed that a public funeral should be
accorded to Foscari, . . . and the bells of St. Mark were ordered to peal
nine times. . . . The same Council also determined that on Thursday night,
November 3, the corpse should be carried into the room of the 'Signori
di notte,' dressed in a golden mantle, with the ducal bonnet on his
head, golden spurs on his feet, . . . the gold sword by his side. " But
Foscari's wife, Marina (or Maria) Nani, opposed. "She declined to give
up the body, which she had caused to be dressed in plain clothes, and
she maintained that no one but herself should provide for the funeral
expenses, even should she have to give up her dower. " It is needless to
add that her protest was unavailing, and that the decree of the Ten was
carried into effect. --_The Two Doges_, 1891, pp. 129, 130. ]

[bw] {194} ----_comfort to my desolation_. --[MS. M. ]

[82] {195} The Venetians appear to have had a particular turn for
breaking the hearts of their Doges. The following is another instance of
the kind in the Doge Marco Barbarigo: he was succeeded by his brother
Agostino Barbarigo, whose chief merit is here mentioned. --"Le doge,
blesse de trouver constamment un contradicteur et un censeur si amer
dans son frere, lui dit un jour en plein conseil: 'Messire Augustin,
vous faites tout votre possible pour hater ma mort; vous vous flattez de
me succeder; mais, si les autres vous connaissent aussi bien que je vous
connais, ils n'auront garde de vous elire. ' La-dessus il se leva, emu de
colere, rentra dans son appartement, et mourut quelques jours apres. Ce
frere, contre lequel il s'etait emporte, fut precisement le successeur
qu'on lui donna. C'etait un merite don't on aimait a tenir compte;
surtout a un parent, de s'etre mis en opposition avec le chef de la
republique. "--DARU, _Hist, de Venise_, 1821, in. 29.

[bx] _I trust Heavens will be done also_. --[MS. ]

[83] "_L'ha pagata_. " An historical fact. See _Hist. de Venise_, par P.
DARU, 1821, ii. 528, 529.

[Daru quotes Palazzi's _Fasti Ducales_ as his authority for this story.
According to Pietro Giustiniani (_Storia_, lib. viii. ), Jacopo Loredano
was at pains to announce the decree of the Ten to the Doge in courteous
and considerate terms, and begged him to pardon him for what it was his
duty to do. Romanin points out that this version of the interview is
inconsistent with the famous "_L'hapagata_. "--_Storia, etc. _, iv. 290,
note i. ]

[84] {196}[Here the original MS. ends. The two lines which follow, were
added by Gifford. In the margin of the MS. Byron has written, "If the
last line should appear obscure to those who do not recollect the
historical fact mentioned in the first act of Loredano's inscription in
his book, of 'Doge Foscari, debtor for the deaths of my father and
uncle,' you may add the following lines to the conclusion of the last
act:--

_Chief of the Ten_. For what has he repaid thee?

_Lor. _ For my father's
And father's brother's death--by his son's and own!

Ask Gifford about this. "]

[85] [The _Appendix_ to the First Edition of _The Two Foscari_ consisted
of (i. ) an extract from P. Daru's _Histoire de la Republique Francaise_,
1821, ii. 520-537; (ii. ) an extract from J. C. L. Simonde de Sismondi's
_Histoire des Republiques Italiennes du Moyen Age_, 1815, x. 36-46; and
(iii. ) a note in response to certain charges of plagiarism brought
against the author in the _Literary Gazette_ and elsewhere; and to
Southey's indictment of the "Satanic School," which had recently
appeared in the Preface to the Laureate's _Vision of Judgement_
(_Poetical Works of Robert Southey_, 1838, x. 202-207). See, too, the
"Introduction to _The Vision of Judgment_," _Poetical Works_, 1891, iv.
pp. 475-480. ]





CAIN:

A MYSTERY.


"Now the Serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field
which the Lord God had made. "
_Genesis_,
_Chapter 3rd, verse 1_.




INTRODUCTION TO _CAIN_.


Cain was begun at Ravenna, July 16, and finished September 9, 1821
(_vide_ MS. M. ). Six months before, when he was at work on the first act
of _Sardanapalus_, Byron had "pondered" _Cain_, but it was not till
_Sardanapalus_ and a second historical play, _The Two Foscari_, had been
written, copied out, and sent to England, that he indulged his genius
with a third drama--on "a metaphysical subject, something in the style
of _Manfred_" (_Letters_, 1901, v. 189).

Goethe's comment on reading and reviewing _Cain_ was that he should be
surprised if Byron did not pursue the treatment of such "biblical
subjects," as the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (_Conversations,
etc. _, 1879, p. 62); and, many years after, he told Crabb Robinson
(_Diary_, 1869, ii. 435) that Byron should have lived "to execute his
vocation . . . to dramatize the Old Testament. " He was better equipped for
such a task than might have been imagined. A Scottish schoolboy, "from a
child he had known the Scriptures," and, as his _Hebrew Melodies_
testify, he was not unwilling to turn to the Bible as a source of poetic
inspiration. Moreover, he was born with the religious temperament.
Questions "of Providence, foreknowledge, will and fate," exercised his
curiosity because they appealed to his imagination and moved his spirit.
He was eager to plunge into controversy with friends and advisers who
challenged or rebuked him, Hodgson, for instance, or Dallas; and he
responded with remarkable amenity to the strictures and exhortations of
such orthodox professors as Mr. Sheppard and Dr. Kennedy. He was, no
doubt, from first to last a _heretic_, impatient, not to say
contemptuous, of authority, but he was by no means indifferent to
religion altogether. To "argue about it and about" was a necessity, if
not an agreeable relief, to his intellectual energies. It would appear
from the Ravenna diary (January 28, 1821, _Letters_, 1901, v. 190,191),
that the conception of Lucifer was working in his brain before the
"tragedy of Cain" was actually begun. He had been recording a "thought"
which had come to him, that "at the very height of human desire and
pleasure, a certain sense of doubt and sorrow"--an _amari aliquid_ which
links the future to the past, and so blots out the present--"mingles
with our bliss," making it of none effect, and, by way of moral or
corollary to his soliloquy, he adds three lines of verse headed,
"Thought for a speech of Lucifer in the Tragedy of _Cain_"--

"Were Death an _Evil_, would _I_ let thee live?
Fool! live as I live--as thy father lives,
And thy son's sons shall live for evermore. "

In these three lines, which were not inserted in the play, and in the
preceding "thought," we have the key-note to _Cain_. "Man walketh in a
vain shadow"--a shadow which he can never overtake, the shadow of an
eternally postponed fruition.