No More Learning

Oh, let this child embark!
I brought him forth in woe,
But thought it joy
To see him to my bosom clinging so.
Why was he born?
What hath he done--
My unweaned son--
To move Jehovah's wrath or scorn?
What is there in this milk of mine, that Death 840
Should stir all Heaven and Earth up to destroy
My boy,
And roll the waters o'er his placid breath?
Save him, thou seed of Seth!
Or cursed be--with him who made
Thee and thy race, for which we are betrayed!

_Japh. _ Peace! 'tis no hour for curses, but for prayer!

_Chorus of Mortals_.

For prayer! ! !
And where
Shall prayer ascend, 850
When the swoln clouds unto the mountains bend
And burst,
And gushing oceans every barrier rend,
Until the very deserts know no thirst?
Accursed
Be he who made thee and thy sire!
We deem our curses vain; we must expire;
But as we know the worst,
Why should our hymns be raised, our knees be bent
Before the implacable Omnipotent, 860
Since we must fall the same?
If he hath made Earth, let it be his shame,
To make a world for torture. --Lo! they come,
The loathsome waters, in their rage!
And with their roar make wholesome nature dumb!
The forest's trees (coeval with the hour
When Paradise upsprung,
Ere Eve gave Adam knowledge for her dower,
Or Adam his first hymn of slavery sung),
So massy, vast, yet green in their old age, 870
Are overtopped,
Their summer blossoms by the surges lopped,
Which rise, and rise, and rise.
Vainly we look up to the lowering skies--
They meet the seas,
And shut out God from our beseeching eyes.
Fly, son of Noah, fly! and take thine ease,
In thine allotted ocean-tent;
And view, all floating o'er the element,
The corpses of the world of thy young days: 880
Then to Jehovah raise
Thy song of praise!

_A Mortal_.
Blessed are the dead
Who die in the Lord!
And though the waters be o'er earth outspread,
Yet, as _his_ word,
Be the decree adored!
He gave me life--he taketh but
The breath which is his own:
And though these eyes should be for ever shut, 890
Nor longer this weak voice before his throne
Be heard in supplicating tone,
Still blessed be the Lord,
For what is past,
For that which is:
For all are his,
From first to last--
Time--Space--Eternity--Life--Death--
The vast known and immeasurable unknown.
He made, and can unmake; 900
And shall I, for a little gasp of breath,
Blaspheme and groan?
No; let me die, as I have lived, in faith,
Nor quiver, though the Universe may quake!

_Chorus of Mortals_.

Where shall we fly?
Not to the mountains high;
For now their torrents rush, with double roar,
To meet the Ocean, which, advancing still,
Already grasps each drowning hill,
Nor leaves an unsearched cave. 910

_Enter a Woman_.

_Woman_.
Oh, save me, save!
Our valley is no more:
My father and my father's tent,
My brethren and my brethren's herds,
The pleasant trees that o'er our noonday bent,
And sent forth evening songs from sweetest birds,
The little rivulet which freshened all
Our pastures green,
No more are to be seen.
When to the mountain cliff I climbed this morn, 920
I turned to bless the spot,
And not a leaf appeared about to fall;--
And now they are not! --
Why was I born?

_Japh. _
To die! in youth to die!
And happier in that doom,
Than to behold the universal tomb,
Which I
Am thus condemned to weep above in vain.
Why, when all perish, why must I remain?

[_The waters rise; Men fly in every direction; many
are overtaken by the waves: the Chorus of
Mortals disperses in search of safety up the
mountains:_ JAPHET _remains upon a rock, while
the Ark floats towards him in the distance_. [158]

FOOTNOTES:

[138] {285}[Aholibamah ("tent of the highest") was daughter of Anah (a
Hivite clan-name), the daughter of Zibeon, Esau's wife, Gen. xxxvi. 14.
Irad was the son of Enoch, and grandson of Cain, Gen. iv. 18. ]

[139] {286}[Compare _Manfred_, act i. sc. I, line 131, _Poetical Works_,
1901, iv. 89, and note i. ]

[140] The archangels, said to be seven in number, and to occupy the
eighth rank in the celestial hierarchy.

[Compare _Tobit_ xii. 15, "I am Raphael, one of the seven holy angels
which present the prayers of the saints. " _The Book of Enoch_ (ch. xx. )
names the other archangels, "Uriel, Rufael, Raguel, Michael, Saraqael,
and Gabriel, who is over Paradise and the serpents and the cherubin. " In
the _Celestial Hierarchy_ of Dionysius the Areopagite, a chapter is
devoted to archangels, but their names are not recorded, or their number
given. On the other hand, "The teaching of the oracles concerning the
angels affirms that they are thousand thousands and myriad
myriads. "--_Celestial Hierarchy, etc. _, translated by the Rev. J.
Parker, 1894, cap. xiv. p. 43. It has been supposed that "the seven
which are the eyes of the Lord" (_Zech. _ iv. 10) are the seven
archangels. ]

[141] {289}["The adepts of Incantation . . . enter the realms of air, and
by their spells they scatter the clouds, they gather the clouds, they
still the storm. . . . We may adduce Ovid (_Amor. _, bk. ii. , El. , i. 23),
who says, 'Charmers draw down the horns of the blood-red moon,'. . . Here
it is to be observed that in the opinion of simple-minded persons, the
moon could be actually drawn down from heaven. So Aristophanes says
(_Clouds_, lines 739, 740), 'If I should purchase a Thessalian witch,
and draw down the moon by night;' and Claudian (_In Ruffin. _, bk. i.
145), 'I know by what spell the Thessalian sorceress snatches away the
lunar beam. '"--_Magic Incantations_, by Christianus Pazig (circ. 1700),
edited by Edmund Goldsmid, F. R. H. S. , F. S. A. (Scot. ), 1886, pp. 30, 31.
See, too, Virgil, _Eclogues_, viii. 69, "Carmina vel coelo possunt de
ducere Lunam. "]

[142] {291}["Tubal-Cain [the seventh in descent from Cain] was an
instructor of every artificer of brass and iron" (_Gen. _ iv. 22).
According to the _Book of Enoch_, cap. viii. , it was "Azazel," one of
the "sons of the heavens," who "taught men to make swords, and knives,
and skins, and coats of mail, and made known to them metals, and the art
of working them, bracelets and ornaments, and the use of antimony, and
the beautifying of the eyebrows, and the most costly and choicest
stones, and all colouring tincture, so that the world was changed. "]

[143] [_Vide post_, p. 294. ]

[144] {294}[Byron's knowledge of Mount Ararat was probably derived from
the following passage in Tournefort: "It is a most frightful sight;
David might well say such sort of places show the grandeur of the Lord.
One can't but tremble to behold it; and to look on the horrible
precipices ever so little will make the head turn round. The noise made
by a vast number of crows [hence the 'rushing sound,' _vide post_, p.
295], who are continually flying from one side to the other, has
something in it very frightful. To form any idea of this place you must
imagine one of the highest mountains in the world opening its bosom,
only to show the most horrible spectacle that can be thought of. All the
precipices are perpendicular, and the extremities are rough and
blackish, as if a smoke came out of the sides and smutted them. "--_A
Voyage in the Levant_, by M. [Joseph Pitton de] Tournefort, 1741, iii.
205, 206.

Kitto also describes this "vast chasm," which contained "an enormous
mass of ice, which seems to have fallen from a cliff that overhangs the
ice" (_Travels in Persia_, 1846, i. 34); but Professor Friedrich Parrot,
who was the first to ascend Mount Ararat, does not enlarge upon the
"abyss" or chasm. --_Journey to Ararat_, translated by W. D. Cowley,
1845, p. 134. ]

[145] [Compare the description of the "roots like snakes," which "wind
out from rock and sand," in the scene on the Hartz Mountains in Goethe's
_Faust_. ]

[146] {296} [Medwin (_Conversations_, 1824, p. 233) compares the
laughter of the fiends in the cave of Caucasus with the snoring of the
Furies in the _Eumenides_ of AEschylus--

? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ' o? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
[R(e/gkousi d' ou) platoi~si physia/masin] (line 53).
("Their snoring nostrils blow fearsome breath. ")

There is a closer parallel with--

? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ' ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
[Gela~ de\ dai/mon e)p' a)ndri\ thermo~] (line 560).
("The spirit mocketh the headlong soul. ")]

[147] {297}[Matthew Arnold, _Poetry of Byron_, 1881, xiv. , xv. , quotes
this line in proof of Byron's barbarian insensibility, "to the true
artist's fine passion for the correct use and consummate management of
words. "]

[148] {300} "[And] there were giants in the earth in those days; and . . .
after, . . . mighty men, which were of old, men of renown. "--_Genesis_
[vi. 4].
[149] "The same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up,
and the windows of heaven were opened. "--_Genesis_ [vii. II].

[150] {301}[Byron falls in with the popular theory as to the existence
of fossil remains of marine animals at a height above the level of the
sea. The "deluge" accounted for what was otherwise inexplicable. ]

[151] {302} The book of Enoch, preserved by the Ethiopians, is said by
them to be anterior to the flood.

[Some fragments of the _Book of Enoch_ (_vide ante_, Introduction to
_Heaven and Earth_, p. 281), which were included by Georgius Syncellus
(a Byzantine writer of the eighth century A. D. ) in his _Chronographia_,
pp. ii, 26 (_Corpus Script. Hist. Byzantintae_, 1829, i. 20), were
printed by J. J. Scaliger in 1606. They were, afterwards, included (i.
347-354) in the _Spicilegium SS. Patrum_ of Joannes Ernestus Grabius,
which was published at Oxford in 1714. A year after (1715) one of the
fragments was "made English," and published under the title of _The
History of the Angels and their Gallantry with the Daughters of Men_,
written by Enoch the Patriarch.

In 1785 James Bruce, the traveller, discovered three MSS. of the _Book
of Enoch_. One he conveyed to the library at Paris: a second MS. he
presented to the Bodleian Library at Oxford (_Travels_, ii. 422, 8vo ed.
1805). In 1801 an article entitled, "Notice du Libre d'Enoch," was
contributed by Silvestre de Sacy to the _Magasin Encyclopedique_ (An.
vi. tom. i. p. 369); and in 1821 Richard Laurence, LL. D. , published a
translation "from the Ethiopic MS. in the Bodleian Library. " This was
the first translation of the book as a whole.

The following extracts, which were evidently within Byron's recollection
when he planned _Heaven and Earth_, are taken from _The Book of Enoch_,
translated from Professor Dillman's Ethiopic Text, by R. H. Charles,
Oxford, 1892:--

"Chap. vi. [1. And it came to pass when the children of men had
multiplied in those days that beautiful and comely daughters were born
unto them. [2. And the angels, the sons of the Heavens, saw and lusted
after them, and spake one to another, 'Come now, let us choose us wives
from among the children of men, and beget children. ' [3. And Semjaza,
who was the leader, spake unto them: I fear ye will not indeed agree to
do this deed. . . . [6. And they descended in the days of Jared on the
summit of Mount Hermon. . . .

"Chap. viii. [i. And Azazel taught men to make swords, etc.

"Chap. x. Then spake the Most High, the Great, the Holy One, and sent
Arsjalaljur (= Uriel) to the son of Lamech, and said to him, 'Tell him
in My Name to hide thyself! ' and reveal to him that the end is
approaching; for the whole earth will be destroyed, and a deluge will
presently cover up the whole earth, and all that is in it will be
destroyed. [3. And now instruct him that he may escape, as his seed may
be preserved for all generations. [4. And again the Lord spake to
Rafael; Bind Azazel hand and foot, and place him in darkness; make an
opening in the desert which is in Dudael and place him therein. [5. And
place upon him rough and ragged rocks," etc. ]

[152] {306}[This does not correspond with Cain's statement--"After the
fall too soon was I begotten," _Cain_, act. iii. sc. I, line 506 (_vide
ante_).

Bayle (_Hist. and Crit. Dict. _, 1735, art. "Eve," note B) has a great
deal to say with regard to the exact date of the birth of Cain. He
concludes with _Cornelius a Lapide_, who quotes Torniellus, "Cain
genitum ease mox post expulsionem Adae et Evae ex Paradiso. "]

[153] {309}[Byron said that it was difficult to make Lucifer talk "like
a clergyman. " He contrived to make Noah talk like a street-preacher. ]

[154] [In the original MS. "Michael. "--"I return you," says Byron, "the
revise. I have softened the part to which Gifford objected, and changed
the name of Michael to Raphael, who was an angel of gentler
sympathies. "--July 6, 1822, _Letters_, vi. 93. ]

[155] {311}[That is, "to call you back. " His ministry and function of
clemency were almost as dear to him as his ministry and function of
adoration and obedience. ]

[156] [For the connection of stars with angels, see _Book of Enoch_,
xxv. 1. ]

[157] {315}[Compare _Darkness_, lines 2-5, _Poetical Works_, 1891, iv.
42, 43. ]

[158] {321}[Sketch of Second Part of _Heaven and Earth_, as reported by
Medwin (_Conversations_, 1824, pp. 234-237)--

"Azazael and Samiasa . . . rise into the air with the two sisters. . . . The
appearance of the land strangled by the ocean will serve by way of
scenery and decorations. The affectionate tenderness of Adah for those
from whom she is parted, and for ever, and her fears contrasting with
the loftier spirit of Aholibamah triumphing in the hopes of a new and
greater destiny will make the dialogue. They, in the meantime, continue
their aerial voyage, everywhere denied admittance in those floating
islands over the sea of space, and driven back by guardian-spirits of
the different planets, till they are at length forced to alight on the
only peak of the earth uncovered by water. Here a parting takes place
between the lovers. . . . The fallen angels are suddenly called, and
condemned, their destination and punishment unknown. The sisters cling
to the rock, the waters mounting higher and higher. Now enter Ark. The
scene draws up, and discovers Japhet endeavouring to persuade the
Patriarch, with very strong arguments of love and pity, to receive the
sisters, or at least Adah, on board. Adah joins in his entreaties, and
endeavours to cling to the sides of the vessel. The proud and haughty
Aholibamah scorns to pray either to God or man, and anticipates the
grave by plunging into the waters. Noah is still inexorable. [Adah] is
momentarily in danger of perishing before the eyes of the Arkites.
Japhet is in despair. The last wave sweeps her from the rock, and her
lifeless corpse floats past in all its beauty, whilst a sea-bird screams
over it, and seems to be the spirit of her angel lord. I once thought of
conveying the lovers to the moon or one of the planets; but it is not
easy for the imagination to make any unknown world more beautiful than
this; besides, I did not think they would approve of the moon as a
residence. I remember what Fontenelle said of its having no atmosphere,
and the dark spots having caverns where the inhabitants reside. There
was another objection: all the human interest would have been destroyed,
which I have even endeavoured to give my angels. "]




WERNER;

OR,

THE INHERITANCE:

A TRAGEDY.

[_Werner_ was produced, for the first time, at the Park Theatre, New
York, in 1826. Mr. Barry played "Werner. "

_Werner_ was brought out at Drury Lane Theatre, and played, for the
first time, December 15, 1830. Macready appeared as "Werner," J. W.
Wallack as "Ulric," Mrs. Faucit as "Josephine," and Miss Mordaunt as
"Ida. " According to the _Times_, December 16, 1830, "Mr. Macready
appeared to very great advantage. We have never seen him exert himself
more--we have never known him to exert himself with more powerful
effect. Three of his scenes were masterpieces. " Genest says that
_Werner_ was acted seventeen times in 1830-31.

There was a revival in 1833. Macready says (_Diary_, March 20) that he
acted "'Werner' with unusual force, truth, and collectedness . . .
finished off each burst of passion, and, in consequence, entered on the
following emotion with clearness and earnestness" (Macready's
_Reminiscences_, 1875, i 36. 6).

_Werner_ was played in 1834, 5, 6, 7, 9; in 1841; in 1843-4 (New York,
Boston, Baltimore, New Orleans, Cincinnati, Montreal); in 1845 (Paris,
London, Glasgow, Belfast, Dublin); in 1846, 1847; in America in 1848; in
the provinces in 1849; in 1850; and, for the last time, at the Theatre
Royal, Haymarket, January 14, 1851. At the farewell performance Macready
appeared as "Werner," Mr. Davenport as "Ulric," Mrs. Warner as
"Josephine," Mrs. Ryder as "Ida. " In the same year (1851) a portrait of
Macready as "Werner," by Daniel Maclise, R. A. , was on view at the
Exhibition at the Royal Academy. The motto was taken from _Werner_, act
i. sc. 1, lines 114, _sq. _ (See, for a detailed criticism of Macready's
"Werner," _Our Recent Actors_, by Westland Marston, 1881, i. 89-98; and
for the famous "Macready _burst_," in act ii. sc. 2, and act v. sc. 1,
_vide ibid. _, i. 97. )

_Werner_ was brought out at Sadler's Wells Theatre, November 21, 1860,
and repeated November 22, 23, 24, 28, 29; December, 3, 4, 11, 13, 14,
1860. Phelps appeared as "Werner," Mr. Edmund Phelps as "Ulric," Miss
Atkinson as "Josephine. " "Perhaps the old actor never performed the part
so finely as he did on that night. The identity between the real and
ideal relations of the characters was as vivid to him as to the
audience, and gave a deeper intensity, on both sides, to the scenes
between father and son. " (See _The London Stage_, by H. Barton Baker,
1889, ii. 217. )

On the afternoon of June 1, 1887, _Werner_ (four acts, arranged by Frank
Marshall) was performed at the Lyceum Theatre for the benefit of
Westland Marston. [Sir] Henry Irving appeared as "Werner," Miss Ellen
Terry as "Josephine," Mr. Alexander as "Ulric. " (See for an appreciation
of Sir Henry Irving's presentation of _Werner_, the _Athenaeum_, June 4,
1887. )]




INTRODUCTION TO _WERNER_.


_Werner; or, The Inheritance_, was begun at Pisa, December 18, 1821, and
finished January 20, 1822. At the end of the month, January 29, Byron
despatched the MS. , not to Murray, but to Moore, then in retreat at
Paris, intending, no doubt, that it should be placed in the hands of
another publisher; but a letter from Murray "melted him," and on March
6, 1822 (_Letters_, 1901, vi. 34), he desired Moore to forward the
packet to Albemarle Street. The play was set up in type, and revised
proofs were returned to Murray at the end of June; but, for various
reasons, publication was withheld, and, on October 31, Byron informed
John Hunt that he had empowered his friend Douglas Kinnaird to obtain
_Werner_, with other MSS. , from Murray. None the less, milder counsels
again prevailed, and on Saturday, November 23, 1822, _Werner_ was
published, not in the same volume with _Heaven and Earth_, as Byron
intended and expected, nor by John Hunt, as he had threatened, but by
itself, and, as heretofore, by John Murray. _Werner_ was "the last of
all the flock" to issue from Murray's fold.

In his Preface to _Werner_ (_vide post_, p. 337) Byron disclaims all
pretensions to originality. "The following drama," he writes, "is taken
entirely from the 'German's Tale, Kruitzner,' published . . . in Lee's
_Canterbury Tales_. . . . I have adopted the characters, plan, and even the
language, of many parts of this story. " _Kruitzner_ seems to have made a
deep impression on his mind. When he was a boy of thirteen (_i. e. _ in
1801, when the fourth volume of the _Canterbury Tales_ was published),
and again in 1815, he set himself to turn the tale into a drama. His
first attempt, named _Ulric and Ilvina_, he threw into the fire, but he
had nearly completed the first act of his second and maturer adaptation
when he was "interrupted by circumstances," that is, no doubt, the
circumstances which led up to and ended in the separation from his
wife. (See letter of October 9, 1821, _Letters_, 1901, v. 391. )

On his leaving England for the Continent, April 25, 1816, the fragment
was left behind. Most probably the MS. fell into his sister's hands, for
in October, 1821, it was not forthcoming when Byron gave directions that
Hobhouse should search for it "amongst my papers. " Ultimately it came
into the possession of the late Mr.