No More Learning

_Make a note_ of this, and put _Editor_ as the
subscription to it. As I make such pretensions to accuracy, I should not
like to be _twitted_ even with such trifles on that score. Of the play
they may say what they please, but not so of my costume and _dram.
pers_. --they having been real existences. "--Letter to Murray, October
12, 1820, _Letters_, 1901, v. 95. Byron's injunction was not carried out
till 1832. ]

[400] A gondola is not like a common boat, but is as easily rowed with
one oar as with two (though, of course, not so swiftly), and often is so
from motives of privacy; and, since the decay of Venice, of economy.

[401] {367}["What Gifford says (of the first act) is very consolatory.
'English, sterling _genuine English_,' is a desideratum amongst you, and
I am glad that I have got so much left; though Heaven knows how I retain
it: I _hear_ none but from my Valet, and his is _Nottinghamshire_; and I
_see_ none but in your new publications, and theirs is _no_ language at
all, but jargon. . . . Gifford says that it is 'good, sterling, genuine
English,' and Foscolo says that the characters are right
Venetian. "--Letters to Murray, Sept. 11, Oct. 8, 1820, _Letters_, 1901,
v. 75-89. ]

[402] [Byron admits (_vide ante_, p. 340) that the character of the
"Dogaressa" is more or less his own creation. It may be remarked that in
Casimir Delavigne's version of the story, the Duchess (Elena) cherishes
a secret and criminal attachment for Bertuccio Faliero, and that in Mr.
Swinburne's tragedy, while innocent in act, she is smitten with remorse
for a passion which overmasters her loyalty to her husband. Byron's
Angiolina is "faultily faultless, . . . splendidly null. "

In a letter to Murray, dated January 4, 1821 (_Letters_, 1901, v. 218),
he says, "As I think that _love_ is not the principal passion for
tragedy, you will not find me a popular writer. Unless it is Love,
_furious_, _criminal_, and _hapless_ [as in _The Mysterious Mother_, or
in Alfieri's _Mirra_, or Shelley's _Cenci_], it ought not to make a
tragic subject. When it is melting and maudlin, it _does_, but it ought
not to do; it is then for the gallery and second-price boxes. " It is
probable that he owed these sentiments to the theory and practice of
Vittorio Alfieri. "It is extraordinary," writes M. de Fallette Barrol
(_Monthly Magazine_, April, 1805, reprinted in Preface to _Tragedie di
Alfieri_, A. Montucci, Edinburgh, 1805, i. xvi. _sq. _), "that a man
whose soul possessed an uncommon share of ardour and sensibility, and
had experienced all the violence of the passions, should scarcely have
condescended to introduce love into his tragedies; or, when he does,
that he should only employ it with a kind of reserve and severity. . . . He
probably regarded it as a hackneyed agent; for in . . . _Myrrha_ it
appears in such a strange character, that all the art of the writer is
not capable of divesting it of an air at once ludicrous and disgusting. "

But apart from the example of Alfieri, there was another motive at
work--a determination to prove to the world that he was the master of
his own temperament, and that, if he chose, he could cast away frivolity
and cynicism, and clothe himself with austerity "as with a garment. " He
had been taken to task for "treating well-nigh with equal derision the
most pure of virtues, and the most odious of vices" (_Blackwood's Edin.
Mag. _, August, 1819), and here was an "answer to his accusers! "]

[403] {368}[The exact date of Marin Falier's birth is a matter of
conjecture, but there is reason to believe that he Was under
seventy-five years of age at the time of the conspiracy. The date
assigned is 1280-1285 A. D. ]

[de] {369} ----_has he been doomed? _--[Alternative reading. MS. M. ]

[404] {370}[According to Dio Cassius, the last words of Brutus were,
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? , ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? [? ? ? ? ? ],
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ' ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
[Greek: O~) tle~mon a)rete/, lo/gos a)/r? e~)sth? [a)/llos],
e)go\ de\ o(s e(/rgon e(/skoun' sy\ d? a)r? e)dou/leues ty/che|]
--_Hist. Rom. _, lib. xlvii. c. 49, ed. v. , P. Boissevain, 1898, ii. 246. ]

[df] {375}

_Doth Heaven forgive her own? is Satan saved? _
_But be it so? _--[Alternative reading. MS. M. ]

[405] [There is no MS. authority for "From wrath eternal. "]

[dg] _Oh do not speak thus rashly_. -[Alternative reading. MS. M. ]

[406] {377}

["Beg Heaven to cleanse the leprosy of lust. "

_'Tis Pity she's a Whore_, by John Ford.
Lamb's _Dramatic Poets_, 1835, i. 265. ]

[407] {378}[The Dogaressa Aluica was the daughter of Nicolo Gradenigo.
It was the Doge who inherited the "blood of Loredano" through his mother
Beriola. ]

[408] {381}[The lines "and the hour hastens" to "whate'er may urge" are
not in the MS. ]

[dh] {382}_Where Death sits throned_----. --[Alternative reading. MS. M. ]

[409] [Filippo Calendario, who is known to have been one of the
principal conspirators, was a master stone-cutter, who worked as a
sculptor, and ranked as such. The tradition, to which Byron does not
allude, that he was an architect, and designed the new palace begun in
1354, may probably be traced to a document of the fifteenth century, in
which Calendario is described as _commissario_, i. e. executor, of Piero
Basejo, who worked as a master stone-cutter for the Republic. The
_Maggior Consiglio_ was its own architect, and would not have empowered
a _tagliapietra_, however eminent, to act on his own
responsibility. --_La Congiura_, pp. 76, 77. ]

[410] {383}[The _sbirri_ were constables, officers of the police
magistrates, the _signori di notte_. The Italians have a saying, _Dir le
sue ragioni agli sbirri_, that is, to argue with a policeman. ]

[411] {384}["It was concerted that sixteen or seventeen leaders should
be stationed in various parts of the city, each being at the head of
forty men, armed and prepared; but the followers were not to know their
destination. "--See translation of Sanudo's _Narrative_, _post_, p. 464. ]

[412] [In the earlier chronicles Beltramo is named Vendrame. He was,
according to some authorities, _compare_ with Lioni, _i. e. _ a co-sponsor
of the same godchild. Signor Lazzarino (_La Congiura_, p. 90 (2))
maintains that in all probability Beltramo betrayed his companions from
selfish motives, in order to save himself, and not from any
"compunctious visitings," or because he was "too full o' the milk of
human kindness. " According to Sanudo (_vide post_, p. 465), "Beltramo
Bergamasco" was not one of the principal conspirators, but "had heard a
word or two of what was to take place. " Ser Marco Soranzano (p. 466) was
one of the "Zonta" of twenty who were elected as assessors to the Ten,
to try the Doge of high treason against the Republic. ]

[413] {386}[Compare--

"If we should fail,----We fail.
But screw your courage to the sticking-place,
And we'll not fail. "

_Macbeth_, act i. sc. 7, lines 59-61. ]

[di] _In a great cause the block may soak their gore_. --[Alternative
reading. MS. M. ]

[dj] _If Brutus had not lived? He failed in giving_. --[MS. M. ]

[414] [At the battle of Philippi, B. C. 42, Brutus lamented over the body
of Cassius, and called him the "last of the Romans. "--Plutarch's
_Lives_, "Marcus Brutus," Langhorne's translation, 1838, p. 686.
]

[415] [The citizens of Aquileia and Padua fled before the invasion of
Attila, and retired to the Isle of Gradus, and Rivus Altus, or Rialto.
Theodoric's minister, Cassiodorus, who describes the condition of the
fugitives some seventy years after they had settled on the "hundred
isles," compares them to "waterfowl who had fixed their nests on the
bosom of the waves. " (See Gibbon's _Decline and Fall, etc. _, 1825, ii.
375, note 6, and 376, notes 1, 2. )]

[416] [_Mal bigatto_, "vile silkworm," is a term of contempt and
reproach = "uomo de maligna intenzione," a knave. ]

[417] {388}[Compare--

"I'll make assurance double sure,
And take a bond of fate. "

_Macbeth_, act iv. sc. I, lines 83, 84. ]

[418] {390}[For Byron's correction of this statement, _vide ante_, p.
366. The monument of the Doge Vitale Falier (d. 1096) "was at the right
side of the principal entrance into the Vestibule. " According to G.
Meschinello (La Chiesa Ducale, 1753), Ordelafo Falier was buried in the
Atrio of St. Mark's. See, too, _Venetia citta nobilissima . . . descritta
da F. Sansovino_, 1663, pp. 96, 556. ]

[dk] _We thought to make our peers and not our masters_. --[Alternative
reading. MS. M. ]

[dl] ----_merit such requital_. --[Alternative reading. MS. M. ]

[419] {391}[Compare--

"I have set my life upon a cast,
And I will stand the hazard of the die. "

_Richard III_. , act v. sc. 4, lines 9, 10. ]

[420] {392}["The equestrian statue of which I have made mention in the
third act as before the church, is not . . . of a Faliero, but of some
other now obsolete warrior, although of a later date. "--_Vide ante_,
Preface, p. 336. "In the Campo in front of the church [facing the Rio
dei Mendicanti] stands the equestrian statue of Bartolomeo Colleoni, the
second equestrian statue raised in Italy after the revival of the
arts. . . . The handsome marble pedestal is lofty, supported and flanked by
composite columns. "--_Handbook: Northern Italy_, p. 374. ]

[dm] {393}_Nor dwindle to a cut-throat without shuddering_. --[MS. M.
erased. ]

[dn] _A scourged mechanic_----. --[MS. M. ] _A roused mechanic_----. --[MS.
M. erased. ]

[421] {394}An historical fact. [See Appendix A, p. 464. ]

[do]

/ _in_ \
_So let them die_ < > _one_. --[MS. M. ]
\ _as_ /

[dp] {397}_We are all lost in wonder_--[Alternative reading. MS. M. ]

[dq] ----_of our splendid City_. --[MS. M. erased. ]

[422] [Compare--

"Where Venice sate in state, throned on her hundred isles. "

_Childe Harold_, Canto IV. stanza i. line 9, and _var_. i. ]

[dr] {398}_But all the worst sins of the Spartan state_. --[Alternative
reading. MS. M. ]

[ds] _The Lords of old Laconia_----. --[MS. M. erased. ]

[423] {399}[Compare--

"A king of shreds and patches. "

_Hamlet_, act iii. sc. 4, line 102. ]

[424] ["The members of the Ten (_Il Cousiglio de' Dieci_) were elected
in the Great Council for one year only, and were not re-eligible for the
year after they had held office. Every month the Ten elected three of
their own number as chiefs, or _Capi_ of the Council. . . . The court
consisted, besides the Ten, of the Doge and his six councillors,
seventeen members in all, of whom twelve were necessary to make a
_quorum_. One of the _Avogadori di Comun_, or State advocates, was
always present, without the power to vote, but to act as clerk to the
court, informing it of the law, and correcting it where its procedure
seemed informal. Subsequently it became customary to add twenty members
to the Council, elected in the Maggior Consiglio, for each important
case as it arose. "--_Venice, an Historical Sketch_, by Horatio F. Brown,
1893, pp. 177, 178. (See, too, _Les Archives de Venise_, par Armand
Baschet, 1870, p. 525. )]

[425] {400}[The chronicles are silent as to any embassy or commission
from the Republic to Rhodes or Cyprus in which Marin Falier held office
or took any part whatever. Cyprus did not pass into the hands of Venice
till 1489, and Rhodes was held by the Knights of St. John till 1522. ]

[426] {401}[Compare--

"We have scotched the snake, not killed it. "

Macbeth, act iii. sc. II, line 13. ]

[dt] {402}_Fought by my side, and John Grimani shared. _--[MS. M.
erased. ]

[427] [Marc Cornaro did not "share" his Genoese, but his Hungarian
embassy. --_M. Faliero Avanti il Dogado: Archivio Veneto_, 1893, vol. v.
pt. i. p. 144. ]

[du] {403}_My mission to the Pope; I saved the life. _--[MS. M. erased. ]

[dv]

_Bear witness with me! ye who hear and know,_
_And feel our mutual mass of many wrongs. _--[MS. M. erased. ]

[428] {404}[The Italian Oime recalls the Latin _Hei mihi_ and the Greek
? ? ? ? ? [Greek: Oi~moi] ]

[429] [Compare--

"Have I not had my brain seared, my heart riven,
Hope sapped, name blighted, Life's life lied away? "

_Childe Harold_, Canto IV. stanza cxxxv. lines 5, 6.

And--

"The beings which surrounded him were gone.
Or were at war with him. "

_The Dream_, sect. viii. lines 3, 4, _vide ante_, p. 40]

[dw] _Sate grinning Mockery_----. --[Alternative reading. MS. M. ]

[dx] {405}_The feelings they abused_----. --[MS. M. erased. ]

[dy] ----_and then perish_. --[Alternative reading. MS. M. ]

[dz] {406}

/ _carrion_ \
_Nor turn aside to strike at such a_ < >--[MS. M. ]
\ _wretch_ /

[ea] {407}_You are a patriot, plebeian Gracchus_. --[Ed. 1832. ] (MS. , and
First Edition, 1821, insert "a. ")

[430] [Compare "Why, Hal, 'tis my vocation, Hal; 'tis no sin for a man
to labour in his vocation. "--I _Henry IV_. , act i. sc. 2, lines 101,
102. ]

[eb] {409}_To this now shackled_----. --[MS. M. erased. ]

[431] {410}[Byron told Medwin that he wrote "Lioni's soliloquy one
moonlight night, after coming from the Benzoni's. "--_Conversations_,
1824, p. 177. ]

[ec] _High o'er the music_----. --[MS. M. erased. ]

[432] {411}["At present, I am on the invalid regimen myself. The
Carnival--that is, the latter part of it, and sitting up late o' nights,
had knocked me up a little. . . . 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.

"So we'll go no more a roving
So late into the night,
Though the heart be still as loving,
And the moon be still as bright.

"For the sword outwears its sheath,
And the soul wears out the breast,
And the heart must pause to breathe,
And Love itself have rest.

"Though the night was made for loving,
And the day returns too soon,
Yet we'll go no more a roving
By the light of the moon. "

Letter to Moore, February 28, 1817, _Letters_, 1900, iv. 59. ]

[ed] {412}_Suggesting dreams or unseen Symmetry_. --[MS. M. erased. ]

[ee] _Which give their glitter lack, and the vast AEther_. --[MS. M.
erased.