No More Learning

for Norwich, attacked Southey in the House of
Commons on the 14th of March, 1817, and the Laureate replied by a letter
in the _Courier_, dated March 17, 1817, and by a letter "To William
Smith, Esq. , M. P. " (see _Essays Moral and Political_, by R. Southey,
1832, ii. 7-31). The exact words used were, "the determined malignity of
a renegade" (see Hansard's _Parl. Debates_, xxxv. 1088). ]

[495] [One of Southey's juvenile poems is an "Inscription for the
Apartment in Chepstow Castle, where Henry Martin, the Regicide, was
imprisoned thirty years" (see Southey's _Poems_, 1797, p. 59). Canning
parodied it in the _Anti-jacobin_ (see his well-known "Inscription for
the Door of the Cell in Newgate, where Mrs. Brownrigg, the
'Prentice-cide, was confined, previous to her Execution," _Poetry of the
Anti-jacobin_, 1828, p. 6). ]

[496] {484}[See "_The Vision, etc. _, made English by Sir R. Lestrange,
and burlesqued by a Person of Quality:" _Visions, being a Satire on the
corruptions and vices of all degrees of Mankind_. Translated from the
original Spanish by Mr. Nunez, London, 1745, etc.

The Suenos or Visions of Francisco Gomez de Quevedo of Villegas are six
in number. They were published separately in 1635. For an account of the
"_Visita de los Chistes_," "A Visit in Jest to the Empire of Death," and
for a translation of part of the "Dream of Skulls," or "Dream of the
Judgment," see _History of Spanish Literature_, by George Ticknor, 1888,
ii. 339-344. ]

[497]

["Milton's strong pinion now not Heav'n can bound,
Now Serpent-like, in prose he sweeps the ground,
In Quibbles, Angel and Archangel join,
And God the Father turns a School-divine. "

Pope's _Imitations of Horace_, Book ii. Ep. i. lines 99-102. ]

[498] [Walter Savage Landor (1775-1864) had recently published a volume
of Latin poems (_Idyllia Heroica Decem. Librum Phaleuciorum Unum_.
Partim jam primum Partim iterum atque tertio edit Savagius Landor.
Accedit Quaestiuncula cur Poetae Latini Recentiores minus leguntur, Pisis,
1820, 410). In his Preface to the _Vision of Judgement_, Southey
illustrates his denunciation of "Men of diseased hearts," etc. (_vide
ante_, p. 476), by a quotation from the Latin essay: "Summi poetae in
omni poetarum saeculo viri fuerunt probi: in nostris id vidimus et
videmus; neque alius est error a veritate longius quam magna ingenia
magnis necessario corrumpi vitiis," etc. (_Idyllia_, p. 197). It was a
cardinal maxim of the Lake School "that there can be no great poet who
is not a good man. . . . His heart must be pure" (see Table Talk, by S. T.
Coleridge, August 20, 1833); and Landor's testimony was welcome and
consolatory. "Of its author," he adds, "I will only say in this place,
that, to have obtained his approbation as a poet, and possessed his
friendship as a man, will be remembered among the honours of my life. "
Now, apart from the essay and its evident application, Byron had
probably observed that among the _Phaleucia_, or Hendecasyllables, were
included some exquisite lines _Ad Sutheium_ (on the death of Herbert
Southey), followed by some extremely unpleasant ones on _Taunto_ and his
tongue, and would naturally conclude that "Savagius" was ready to do
battle for the Laureate if occasion arose. Hence the side issue. With
regard to the "Ithyphallics," there are portions of the Latin poems
(afterwards expunged, see _Poemata et Inscriptiones_, Moxon, 1847)
included in the Pisa volume which might warrant the description; but
from a note to _The Island_ (Canto II. stanza xvii. line 10) it may be
inferred that some earlier collection of Latin verses had come under
Byron's notice. For Landor's various estimates of Byron's works and
genius, see _Works_, 1876, iv. 44-46, 88, 89, etc. ]

[499] {485}[The words enclosed in brackets were expunged in later
editions. ]

[500] {487}[Ra[venna] May 7^th^, 1821. ]

[fz] {487}_Or break a runaway_--[MS. , alternative reading. ]

[ga] _Finding their patients past all care and cure. _--[MS. erased. ]

[gb] {488}

_To turn him here and there for some resource_
{_And found no better counsel from his peers_,
{_And claimed the help of his celestial peers_. --[MS. erased. ]

[gc] _By the immense extent of his remarks_. --[MS. erased. ]

[gd] _The page was so splashed o'er_----. --[MS. erased. ]

[ge] _Though he himself had helped the Conqueror's sword_. --[MS.
erased. ]

[gf] {489}_'Tis that he has that Conqueror in reversion_. --[MS. erased. ]

[501] [Napoleon died May 5, 1821, two days before Byron began his
_Vision of Judgment_, but, of course, the news did not reach Europe till
long afterwards. ]

[gg] _They will be crushed yet_----. --[MS. erased. ]

[gh] _Not so gigantic in the head as horn_. --[MS. erased. ]

[502] [George III. died the 29th of January, 1820. "The year 1820 was an
era signalized . . . by the many efforts of the revolutionary spirit which
at that time broke forth, like ill-suppressed fire, throughout the
greater part of the South of Europe. In Italy Naples had already raised
the constitutional standard. . . . Throughout Romagna, secret societies,
under the name of Carbonari, had been organized. "--_Life_. p. 467. ]

[gi] _Who fought for tyranny until withdrawn_. --[MS. erased. ]

[503]
["Thus as I stood, the bell, which awhile from its warning had rested,
Sent forth its note again, Toll! Toll! through the silence of evening. . . .
Thou art released! I cried: thy soul is delivered from bondage!
Thou who hast lain so long in mental and visual darkness,
Thou art in yonder Heaven! thy place is in light and glory. "

_A Vision of Judgement_, by R. Southey, i. ]

[gj] _A better country squire----. --[MS. erased. ]_

[gk] {490}

_He died and left his kingdom still behind_
_Not much less mad--and certainly as blind_. --[MS. erased. ]

[504] [At the time of the king's death Byron expressed himself somewhat
differently. "I see," he says (Letter to Murray, February 21, 1820),
"the good old King is gone to his place; one can't help being sorry,
though blindness, and age, and insanity are supposed to be drawbacks on
human felicity. "]

[505] ["The display was most magnificent; the powerful light which threw
all below into strong relief, reached but high enough to touch the
pendent helmets and banners into faint colouring, and the roof was a
vision of tarnished gleams and tissues among the Gothic tracery. The
vault was still open, and the Royal coffin lay below, with the crowns of
England and Hanover on cushions of purple and the broken wand crossing
it. At the altar four Royal banners covered with golden emblems were
strewed upon the ground, as if their office was completed; the altar was
piled with consecrated gold plate, and the whole aspect of the Chapel
was the deepest and most magnificent display of melancholy
grandeur. "-From a description of the funeral of George the Third (signed
J. T. ), in the _European Magazine_, February, 1820, vol. 77, p. 123. ]

[506]

["So by the unseen comforted, raised I my head in obedience,
And in a vault I found myself placed, arched over on all sides
Narrow and low was that house of the dead. Around it were coffins,
Each in its niche, and pails, and urns, and funeral hatchments,
Velvets of Tyrian dye, retaining their hues unfaded;
Blazonry vivid still, as if fresh from the touch of the limner;
Nor was the golden fringe, nor the golden broidery, tarnished. "

_A Vision, etc. _, ii.

"On Thursday night, the 3rd inst. [February, 1820], the body being
wrapped in an exterior fold of white satin, was placed in the inside
coffin, which was composed of mahogany, pillowed and ornamented in the
customary manner with white satin. . . . This was enclosed in a leaden
coffin, again enclosed in another mahogany coffin, and the whole finally
placed in the state coffin of Spanish mahogany, covered with the richest
Genoa velvet of royal purple, a few shades deeper in tint than Garter
blue. The lid was divided into three compartments by double rows of
silver-gilt nails, and in the compartment at the head, over a rich star
of the Order of the Garter was placed the Royal Arms of England,
beautifully executed in dead Gold. . . . In the lower compartment at the
feet was the British Lion _Rampant, regardant_, supporting a shield with
the letters G. R. surrounded with the garter and motto of the same order
in dead gold. . . . The handles were of silver, richly gilt of a massive
modern pattern, and the most exquisite workmanship. "--Ibid. , p. 126. ]

[507] {491}["The body of his Majesty was not embalmed in the usual
manner, but has been wrapped in cere-clothes, to preserve it as long as
possible. . . . The corpse, indeed, exhibited a painful spectacle of the
rapid decay which had recently taken place in his Majesty's
constitution, . . . and hence, possibly, the surgeons deemed it impossible
to perform the process of embalming in the usual way. "--Ibid. , p. 126. ]

[508] [The fact that George II. pocketed, and never afterwards produced
or attempted to carry out his father's will, may have suggested to the
scandalous the possibility of a similar act on the part of his
great-grandson. ]

[gl] {492}

/ _vices_ \
_In whom his_ < > _all are reigning still_. --[MS. erased. ]
\ _virtues_ /

[509] [Lady Byron's account of her husband's theological opinions is at
variance with this statement. (See _Diary_ of H. C. Robinson, 1869, iii.
436. )]

[gm] {493}

_But he with first a start and then a nod_. --[MS. ]
_Snored, "There is some new star gone out by G--d! "-_-[MS. erased. ]

[510] {493}[Louis the Sixteenth was guillotined January 21, 1793. ]

[gn] {494}_That fellow Paul the damndest Saint_. --[MS. erased. ]

[511] ["The blessed apostle Bartholomew preached first in Lycaonia, and,
at the last, in Athens . . . and there he was first flayed, and afterwards
his head was smitten off. "--_Golden Legend_, edited by F. S. Ellis,
1900, v. 41. ]

[512] {495}
"Then I beheld the King. From a cloud which covered the pavement
His reverend form uprose: heavenward his face was directed.
Heavenward his eyes were raised, and heavenward his arms were directed. "

_The Vision, etc. _, iii.

[513] [The reading of the MS. and of the _Liberal_ is "pottered. " The
editions of 1831, 1832, 1837, etc. , read "pattered. "]

[go] ----_his whole celestial skin_. --[MS. erased.
]

[gp] _Or some such other superhuman ichor_. --[MS. erased. ]

[gq] {496}_By Captain Parry's crews_----. --[_The Liberal_, 1822, i. 12. ]

[514] ["The luminous arch had broken into irregular masses, streaming
with much rapidity in different directions, varying continually, in
shape and interest, and extending themselves from north, by the east, to
north. The usual pale light of the aurora strongly resembled that
produced by the combustion of phosphorus; a very slight tinge of red was
noticed when the aurora was most vivid, but no other colours were
visible. "--_Sir E. Parry's Voyage in_ 1819-20, p. 135. ]

[515] [Compare "Methought I saw a fair youth borne with prodigious speed
through the heavens, who gave a blast to his trumpet so violent, that
the radiant beauty of his countenance was in part disfigured by
it. "--Translation of Quevedo's "Dream of Skulls," by G. Ticknor,
_History of Spanish Literature_, 1888, ii. 340. ]

[516] {497}[Joanna Southcott, born 1750, published her _Book of
Wonders_, 1813-14, died December 27, 1814. ]

[517]

["Eminent on a hill, there stood the Celestial City;
Beaming afar it shone; its towers and cupolas rising
High in the air serene, with the brightness of gold in the furnace,
Where on their breadth the splendour lay intense and quiescent.
Part with a fierier glow, and a short thick tremulous motion
Like the burning pyropus; and turrets and pinnacles sparkled,
Playing in jets of light, with a diamond-like glory coruscant. "

_The Vision, etc. ,_ iv. ]

[518] {498}[See _The Book of Job_ literally translated from the original
Hebrew, by John Mason Good, F. R. S. (1764-1827), London, 1812. In the
"Introductory Dissertation," the author upholds the biographical and
historical character of the Book of Job against the contentions of
Professor Michaelis (Johann David, 1717-1791). The notes abound in
citations from the Hebrew and from the Arabic version. ]

[519] {499}["The gates or gateways of Eastern cities" were used as
"places for public deliberation, administration of justice, or audience
for kings and nations, or ambassadors. " See _Deut_. xvi. 18. "Judges and
officers shall thou make thee in all thy gates . . . and they shall judge
the people with just judgment. " Hence came the use of the word "Porte"
in speaking of the Government of Constantinople. --Smith's _Diet, of the
Bible_, art. "Gate. "]

[gr] _Crossing his radiant arms_----. --[MS. erased. ]

[gs] _But kindly; Sathan met_----. --[MS. erased. ]

[520] ["No saint in the course of his religious warfare was more
sensible of the unhappy failure of pious resolves than Dr. Johnson; he
said one day, talking to an acquaintance on this subject, 'Sir, hell is
paved with good intentions. '" Compare "Hell is full of good meanings and
wishes. " _Jacula Prudentum,_ by George Herbert, ed. 1651, p. 11;
Boswell's _Life of Johnson,_ 1876, p. 450, note 5. ]

[521] {501}[Compare--

"Not once or twice in our rough Island's story
The path of duty has become the path of glory. "

Tennyson's _Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington. _]

[522] [John Stuart, Earl of Bute (1713-1792), was Secretary of State
March 25, 1761, and Prime Minister May 29, 1762-April, 1763. For the
general estimate of the influence which Bute exercised on the young
king, see a caricature entitled "The Royal Dupe" (Wright, p. 285),
_Dict. of Nat. Biog. _, art. "George III. "]

[gt] {502}_With blood and debt_----. --[MS. ]

[gu] _A_ part _of that which they held all of old_. --[MS. erased]

[523] {503}[George III. resisted Catholic Emancipation in 1795. "The
more I reflect on the subject, the more I feel the danger of the
proposal. "--Letter to Pitt, February 6, 1795. Again, February 1, 1801,
"This principle of duty must therefore prevent me from discussing any
proposition [to admit 'Catholics and Dissenters to offices, and
Catholics to Parliament'] tending to destroy the groundwork [that all
who held employments in the State must be members of the Church of
England] of our happy constitution. " Finally, in 1807, he demanded of
ministers "a positive assurance that they would never again propose to
him any concession to the Catholics. "--See _Life of Pitt_, by Earl
Stanhope, 1879, ii. 434, 461; _Dict. of Nat. Biog. _, art. "George III. "]

[gv] _Than see this blind old_----. --[MS. erased. ]

[gw] {504}_And interruption of your speech_. --[MS. erased. ]

[524]

["Which into hollow engines long and round,
Thick-rammed at th' other bore with touch of fire
Dilated and infuriate," etc.

_Paradise Lost_, vi. 484, sq. ]

[525] [A gold key is part of the insignia of office of the Lord
Chamberlain and other court officials. In Plate 17 of Francis Sandford's
_History of the Coronation of James the Second_, 1687, Henry Mordaunt,
Earl of Peterborow, who carries the sceptre of King Edward, is
represented with a key hanging from his belt. He was First Groom of the
Stole and Gentleman of Bedchamber. The Queen's Vice-chamberlain, who
appears in another part of the procession, also carries a key. ]

[gx] _Stuck in their buttocks----. --[MS. erased. _]

[gy] {505}_For theirs are honours nobler far than these_. --[MS. erased. ]

[526] [It is possible that Byron was thinking of Horace Walpole's famous
quip, "The summer has set in with its usual _severity_. " But, of course,
the meaning is that, owing to excessive and abnormal fogs, the _summer_
gilding might have to be pretermitted. ]

[gz] _Before they make their journey, ere begin it_. --[MS. erased. ]

[527] [For the invention of the electric telegraph before the date of
this poem, see _Sir Francis Ronalds, F. R. S. , and his Works in
connection with Electric Telegraphy in 1816_, by J. Sime, 1893. But the
"Telegraph" to which Byron refers was, probably, the semaphore (from
London to Portsmouth), which, according to [Sir] John Barrow, the
Secretary of the Admiralty, rendered "telegraphs of any kind now wholly
unnecessary" (_vide ibid. _, p. 10). ]

[528] {506}[Compare, for similarity of sound--

"It plunged and tacked and veered. "

_Ancient Mariner_, pt. iii. line 156. ]

[ha]

----_No land was ever overflowed_
_By locusts as the Heaven appeared by these_. --[MS. erased. ]

[hb] _And many-languaged cries were like wild geese_. --[Erased. ]

[529] [Compare--

"Wherefore with thee
Came not all Hell broke loose? "

_Paradise Lost_, iv. 917, 918. ]

[hc] _Though the first Hackney will_----. --[MS. ]

[hd] {507}_Ready to swear the cause of all their pain_. --[Erased. ]

[530] [In the game of ombre the ace of spades, _spadille_, ranks as the
best trump card, and basto, the ace of clubs, ranks as the third best
trump card. (For a description of ombre, see Pope's _Rape of the Lock_,
in. 47-64. )]

[531] {508}["'Caitiffs, are ye dumb? ' cried the multifaced Demon in
anger. "

_Vision of Judgement_, v. ]

[532]

["Beholding the foremost,
Him by the cast of his eye oblique, I knew as the firebrand
Whom the unthinking populace held for their idol and hero,
Lord of Misrule in his day. "

_Ibid. _, v.

In Hogarth's caricature (the original pen-and-ink sketch is in the
"Rowfant Library:" see Cruikshank's frontispiece to _Catalogue_, 1886)
Wilkes squints more than "a gentleman should squint. " The costume--long
coat, waistcoat buttoned to the neck, knee-breeches, and stockings--is
not unpleasing, but the expression of the face is something between a
leer and a sneer. Walpole (_Letters_, 1858, vii. 274) describes another
portrait (by Zoffani) as "a delightful piece of Wilkes looking--no,
squinting tenderly at his daughter. It is a caricature of the Devil
acknowledging Miss Sin in Milton. "]

[533] {509}[For the "Coan" skirts of the First Empire, see the fashion
plates and Gillray's and Rowlandson's caricatures _passim_. ]

[he] _It shall be me they'll find the trustiest patriot_. --[MS. erased. ]

[hf] _Said Wilkes I've done as much before_. --[MS. erased. ]

[534] {510}[On his third return to Parliament for Middlesex, October 8,
1774, Wilkes took his seat (December 2) without opposition. In the
following February, and on subsequent occasions, he endeavoured to
induce the House to rescind the resolutions passed January 19, 1764,
under which he had been expelled from Parliament, and named as
blasphemous, obscene, etc. Finally, May, 1782, he obtained a substantial
majority on a division, and the obnoxious resolutions were ordered to be
expunged from the journals of the House. ]

[535] [Bute, as leader of the king's party, was an open enemy; Grafton,
a half-hearted friend. The duke (1736-1811) would have visited him in
the Tower (1763), "to hear from himself his own story and his defence;"
but rejected an appeal which Wilkes addressed to him (May 3) to become
surety for bail. He feared that such a step might "come under the
denomination of an insult on the Crown. " A writ of _Habeas Corpus_ (see
line 8) was applied for by Lord Temple and others, and, May 6, Wilkes
was discharged by Lord Chief Justice Pratt, on the ground of privilege.
Three years later (November 1, 1766), on his return from Italy, Wilkes
sought to obtain Grafton's protection and interest; but the duke, though
he consulted Chatham, and laid Wilkes's letter before the King, decided
to "take no notice" of this second appeal. In his _Autobiography_
Grafton is careful to define "the extent of his knowledge" of Mr.
Wilkes, and to explain that he was not "one of his intimates"--a
_caveat_ which warrants the statement of Junius that "as for Mr. Wilkes,
it is, perhaps, the greatest misfortune of his life, that you should
have so many compensations to make in the closet for your former
friendship with him. Your gracious Master understands your character;
and makes you a persecutor because you have been a friend" ("Letter
(xii. ) to the Duke of Grafton," May 30, 1769). --_Memoirs of Augustus
Henry, Third Duke of Grafton_, by Sir W. Anson, Bart. , D. C. L. , 1898, pp.
190-197. ]

[536] {511}[In 1774 Wilkes was elected Lord Mayor, and in the following
spring it fell to his lot to present to the King a remonstrance from the
Livery against the continuance of the war with America. Walpole (April
17, 1775, Letters, 1803, vi. 257) says that "he used his triumph with
moderation--in modern language with good breeding. " The King is said to
have been agreeably surprised at his demeanour. In his old age (1790) he
voted against the Whigs. A pasquinade, written by Sheridan, Tickell, and
Lord John Townshend, anticipated the devil's insinuations--

"Johnny Wilkes, Johnny Wilkes,
Thou greatest of bilks,
How changed are the notes you now sing!
Your famed 'Forty-five'
Is prerogative,
And your blasphemy 'God save the King'!
Johnny Wilkes,
And your blasphemy, 'God save the King '! "

_Wilkes, Sheridan, Fox_, by W. F. Rae, 1874, pp. 132, 133. ]

[hg] _Where Beelzebub upon duty_----. --[MS. erased. ]

[537] ["In consequence of Kyd Wake's attack upon the King, two Acts were
introduced [the "Treason" and "Sedition Bills," November 6, November 10,
1795], called the Pitt and Grenville Acts, for better securing the
King's person "(_Diary of H. C. Robinson_, 1869, i. 32). "'The first of
these bills [_The Plot Discovered, etc. _, by S. T. Coleridge, November
28, 1795, _Essays on his own Times_, 1850, i. 56] is an attempt to
assassinate the liberty of the press; the second to smother the liberty
of speech. " The "Devil" feared that Wilkes had been "gagged" for good
and all.

[538] {512}

["Who might the other be, his comrade in guilt and in suffering,
Brought to the proof like him, and shrinking like him from the trial?
Nameless the Libeller lived, and shot his arrows in darkness;
Undetected he passed to the grave, and leaving behind him
Noxious works on earth, and the pest of an evil example,
Went to the world beyond, where no offences are hidden.
Masked had he been in his life, and now a visor of iron,
Rivetted round his head, had abolished his features for ever.
Speechless the slanderer stood, and turned his face from the Monarch,
Iron-bound as it was . . . so insupportably dreadful
Soon or late to conscious guilt is the eye of the injured. "

_Vision of Judgement_, v. i]

[hh] _Or in the human cholic_----. --[MS. erased. ]

[hi] _Which looked as 'twere a phantom even on earth_.