LINES WRITTEN IN AN ALBUM, AT MALTA. As o'er the cold sepulchral stone Some name arrests the passer-by; And think my heart is buried here. TO FLORENCE. (1). OH, Lady! when I left the shore, The distant shore which gave me birth, Yet here, amidst this barren isle, I view my parting hour with dread. Perchance I view her cliffs again; I ne'er shall bend mine eyes on thee: On thee, in whom at once conspire All charms which heedless hearts can move, Whom but to see is to admire, And, oh! forgive the word-to love. Forgive the word, in one who ne'er With such a word can more offend; And since thy heart I cannot share, Believe me, what I am, thy friend. And who so cold as look on thee, Thou lovely wanderer, and be less? The friend of Beauty in distress? The Turkish tyrants now enclose; As spot of thy nativity : And, though I bid thee now farewell, STANZAS COMPOSED DURING A THUNDER-STORM. (2) Where Pindus' mountains rise, Our guides are gone, our hope is lost, But show where rocks our path have cross'd, Is yon a cot I saw, though low? no apple but what was sour as a crab; and thus ends my first pretty, very accomplished, and extremely eccentric. Bonaparte chapter."-E. is even now so incensed against her, that her life would be in, danger if she were taken prisoner a second time.”—E. (2) This thunder-storm occurred during the night of the 11th October, 1809, when Lord Byron's guides had lost the road to Zitza, near the range of mountains formerly called Pindus, in Albania. Mr. Hobhouse, who had rode on before the rest of the party, and arrived at Zitza just as the evening set in, describes the thunder as "roaring without intermission, the echoes of one peal not ceasing to roll in the mountains, before another tre mendous crash burst over our heads; whilst the plains and the distant hills appeared in a perpetual blaze.” "The tempest, he says, "was altogether terrific, and worthy of the Grecian Jove. My friend, with the priest and the servants, did not enter our hut till three in the morning. I now learnt from him that they had lost their way, and that, after wandering up and down (1) These lines were written at Malta. The lady to whom they were addressed, and whom he afterwards apostrophises in the stanzas on the thunder-storm of Zitza, and in Childe Harold, is thus mentioned in a letter to his mother:-"This letter is committed to the charge of a very extraordinary lady, whom you have doubtless heard of, Mrs. Spencer Smith, of whose escape the Marquis de Salvo published a narrative a few years ago. She has since been shipwrecked; and her life has been from its commencement so fertile in remarkable incidents, that in a romance they would appear improbable. She was born at Constantinople, where her father, Baron Herbert, was Austrian ambassador; married unhappily, yet has never been impeached in point of character; excited the vengeance of Bonaparte, by taking a part in some conspiracy; several times risked her life; and is not yet five-and-twenty. She is here on her way to Eng-in total ignorance of their position, they had stopped at last land to join her husband, being obliged to leave Trieste, where sh was paying a visit to her mother, by the approach of the French, and embarks soon in a ship of war. Since my arrival here I have bad scarcely any other companion. I have found her very near some Turkish tomb-stones and a torrent, which they sa by the flashes of lightning. They had been thus exposed fer nine hours. It was long before we ceased to talk of the thunderstorm in the plain of Zitza."-E Through sounds of foaming waterfalls, I hear a voice exclaim- The mountain-peasants to descend, Oh! who in such a night will dare To tempt the wilderness ? And who 'mid thunder-peals can hear And who that heard our shouts would rise Nor rather deem from nightly cries That outlaws were abroad? Clouds burst, skies flash, oh, dreadful hour! Yet here one thought has still the power While wandering through each broken path, While elements exhaust their wrath, Not on the sea, not on the sea Thy bark hath long been gone: And long ere now, with foaming shock, Now thou art safe; nay, long ere now Hast trod the shore of Spain; 'T were hard if aught so fair as thou Which mirth and music sped; At times from out her latticed halls And when the admiring circle mark A half-form'd tear, a transient spark (4) On the 3d of May, 1810, while the Salsette (Captain Bathurst) was lying in the Dardanelles, Lieutenant Ekenhead, Again thou 'It smile, and blushing shun Some coxcomb's raillery; Nor own for once thou thought'st of one, Who ever thinks on thee. Though smile and sigh alike are vain, When sever'd hearts repine, My spirit flies o'er mount and main, STANZAS WRITTEN IN PASSING THE AMBRACIAN gulf. THROUGH cloudless skies, in silvery sheen, The azure grave of many a Roman; His wavering crown to follow woman. (Since Orpheus sang his spouse from hell), Whilst thou art fair and I am young; Sweet Florence! those were pleasant times, I cannot lose a world for thee, But would not lose thee for a world. THE SPELL IS BROKE, THE CHARM IS FLOWN! WRITTEN AT ATHENS, JANUARY 16, 1810. THE spell is broke, the charm is flown! Each lucid interval of thought Recalls the woes of Nature's charter, And he that acts as wise men ought, But lives, as saints have died, a martyr. WRITTEN AFTER SWIMMING FROM SESTOS IF, in the month of dark December, of that frigate, and the writer of these rhymes, swam from the European shore to the Asiatic-by the by, from Abydos to Secre (What maid will not the tale remember?) And think I've done a feat to-day. According to the doubtful story, 'T were hard to say who fared the best: For he was drown'd, and I've the ague.(1) LINES IN THE TRAVELLERS' BOOK AT IN THIS BOOK A TRAVELLER HAD WRITTEN: "FAIR Albion, smiling, sees her son depart To trace the birth and nursery of art: BENEATH WHICH LORD BYRON INSERTED THE THE modest bard, like many a bard unknown, His name would bring more credit than his verse.(2) PARAPHRASE FROM THE OPENING LINES On how I wish that an embargo EPITAPH. (3) YOUTH, Nature, and relenting Jove, He beat all three-and blew it out. Noble his object, glorious is his aim; He comes to Athens, and he writes his name." SUBSTITUTE FOR AN EPITAPH. KIND Reader! take your choice to cry or laugh; least amusing or attaching of his particularities to those who knew him intimately. So late as eleven years from the period, when some sceptical traveller ventured to question, after all, the practicability of Leander's exploit, Lord Byron, with that jealousy on the subject of his own personal prowess which he retained from boyhood, entered again with fresh zeal into the discussion, and brought forward two or three other instances of his own feats in swimming to corroborate the statement ori. would have been more correct. The whole distance, from the him so remarkably into his maturer years, and which, while it place whence we started to our landing on the other side, includ-puzzled distant observers of his conduct, was not among the ing the length we were carried by the current, was computed by those on board the frigate at upwards of four English miles; though the actual breadth is barely one. The rapidity of the current is such that no boat can row directly across, and it may, in some measure, be estimated from the circumstance of the whole distance being accomplished by one of the parties in an hour and five, and by the other in an hour and ten, minutes. The water was extremely cold, from the melting of the mountain snows. About three weeks before, in April, we had made anginally made by him. attempt; but, having ridden all the way from the Troad the same morning, and the water being of an icy chillness, we found it necessary to postpone the completion till the frigate anchored below the castles, when we swam the straits, as just stated: entering a considerable way above the European, and landing below the Asiatic, fort. Chevalier says that a young Jew swam the same distance for his mistress; and Oliver mentions its having been done by a Neapolitan; but our consul, Tarragona, remembered neither of these circumstances, and tried to dissuade us from the attempt. A number of the Salsette's crew were known to have accomplished a greater distance; and the only thing that surprised me was, that, as doubts had been entertained of the truth of Leander's story, no traveller had ever eudeavoured to ascertain its practicability. (1) "My companion had before made a more perilous, bat a less celebrated passage; for I recollect that, when we were in Portugal, he swam from Old Lisbon to Belem Castle, and having to contend with a tide and counter current, the wind blowing freshly, was but little less than two hours in crossing." -Hobhouse. "In the year 1808, he had been nearly drowned while swimming at Brighton with Mr. L. Stanhope. His friend, Mr. Hobhouse, and other by-standers, sent in some boatmen with ropes tied round them, who at last succeeded in dragging Lord Byron and Mr. Stanhope from the surf, and thus saved their lives.”— Moore. Lord Byron, on one occasion, swam across the Thames with Mr. H. Drury, after the Montem, to see how many times they could perform the passage backwards and forwards without touching land. In this trial (at night, after supper, when both were heated with drinking), Lord Byron was the conqueror. -E. (2) "At Orchomenus, where stood the Temple of the Graces, I was tempted to exclaim, Whither have the Graces fled?' Little did I expect to find them here; yet here comes one of them with golden cups and coffee, and another with a book. The book is a register of names, some of which are far sounded by the voice of fame. Among them is Lord Byron's, connected with some lines which I here send you." H. W. Williams.—E. (3) "I have just escaped from a physician and a fever. The The exceeding pride which Byron took in the classic feat (of English consul forced a physician (Romanelli) upon me. In this swimming across the Hellespont) may be cited among the in-state I made my epitaph-take it." Letter to Mr. Hodgson, stances of that boyishness of character which he carried with Oct. 3, 1810. If such you seek, try Westminster, and view Ten thousand just as fit for him as you. Athens. With his three hundred waging The battle, long he stood, And, like a lion raging, Expired in seas of blood. Sons of Greeks, etc. (3) TRANSLATION OF THE FAMOUS GREEK WAR SONG, Δεῦτε, παῖδες τῶν Ελλήνων, (1) SONS of the Greeks, arise: The glorious hour's gone forth, CHORUS. Sons of Greeks! let us go Till their hated blood shall flow Then manfully despising The Turkish tyrant's yoke, And all her chains are broke. Hellenes of past ages, Oh, start again to life! At the sound of my trumpet, breaking Sons of Greeks, etc. (1) The song ACUTE muïdes, etc., was written by Riga, who perished in the attempt to revolutionise Greece. This translation is as literal as the author could make it in verse. It is of the same measure as that of the original. [While at the Capuchin convent, Lord Byron devoted some hours daily to the study of the Romaic; and various proofs of his diligence will be found in the Appendix to the Second Canto of Childe Harold, p. 116, ante.-E.] (2) Constantinople. "Éπráλopos." (3) Riga was a Thessalian, and passed the first part of his youth among his native mountains, in teaching ancient Greek to his Countrymen. On the first burst of the French revolution, he joined himself to some other enthusiasts, and with them perambulated Greece, rousing the bold, and encouraging the timid by his minstrelsy. He afterwards went to Vienna, to solicit aid TRANSLATION OF THE ROMAIC SONG, I ENTER thy garden of roses, (5) But the loveliest garden grows hateful When Love has abandon'd the bowers; Brink me hemlock-since mine is ungrateful, That herb is more fragrant than flowers. The poison, when pour'd from the chalice, Will deeply embitter the bowl: But when drunk to escape from thy malice, The draught shall be sweet to my soul. l'oo cruel! in vain I implore thee My heart from these horrors to save: As the chief who to combat advances Hast pierced through my heart to its core. Ah, tell me, my soul! must I perish By pangs which a smile would dispel? Would the hope, which thou once bad'st me cherish, For torture repay me too well? for a rising, which he and his comrades had for years been endeavouring to accomplish.; but he was given up by the Austrian government to the Turks, who vainly endeavoured by torture to force from him the names of the other conspirators.-E. (4) The song from which this is taken is a great favourite with the young girls of Athens of all classes. Their manner of singing it is by verses in rotation, the whole number present joining in the chorus. I have heard it frequently at our "xópot" in the winter of 1810-11. The air is plaintive and pretty (3) "National songs and popular works of amusement throw no small light on the manners of a people: they are materials which most travellers have within their reach, but which they almost always disdain to collect. Lord Byron has shown a better taste; and it is to be hoped that his example will, in future, be generally followed." George Ellis. Ζώη μου, σὰς ἀγαπῶ. (1) MAID of Athens, (2) ere we part, Ζώη μου, σὰς ἀγαπῶ. By those tresses unconfined, By those lids, whose jetty fringe By that lip I long to taste; (1) Romaic expression of tenderness: If I translate it, I shall be said to be rather pensive. Their persons are elegant, and affront the gentlemen, as it may seem that supposed they their manners pleasing and ladylike, such as would be fascinatcould not; and if I do not, I may affront the ladies. For fearing in any country. They possess very considerable powers of any misconstruction on the part of the latter, I shall do so, begging pardon of the learned. It means, "My life, I love you!" which sounds very prettily in all languages, and is as much in fashion in Greece at this day as, Juvenal tells us, the two first words were amongst the Roman ladies, whose erotic expressions were all Hellenized. (2) We copy the following interesting account of the Maid of Athens and her family from the late eminent artist, Mr. Hugh Williams of Edinburgh's Travels in Italy, Greece, etc.-"Our servant, who had gone before to procure accommodation, inet us at the gate, and conducted us to Theodora Macri, the Consulina's, where we at present live. This lady is the widow of the consul, and has three lovely daughters; the eldest, celebrated for her beauty, and said to be the Maid of Athens,' of Lord Byron. Their apartment is immediately opposite to ours, and, if you could see them, as we do now, through the gently-waving aromatic plants before our window, you would leave your heart in Athens. "Theresa, the Maid of Athens, Catinco, and Mariana, are of middle stature. On the crown of the head of each is a red Albanian skull-cap, with a blue tassel spread out and fastened down like a star. Near the edge or bottom of the skull-cap is a handkerchief of various colours bound round their temples. The youngest wears her hair loose, falling on her shoulders,-the hair behind descending down the back nearly to the waist, and, as usual, mixed with silk. The two eldest generally have their hair bound, and fastened under the handkerchief. Their upper robe is a pelisse edged with fur, hanging loose down to the ankles; below is a handkerchief of muslin covering the bosom, and terminating at the waist, which is short; under that, a gown of striped silk or muslin, with a gore round the swell of the loins, falling in front in graceful negligence;-white stockings and yellow slippers complete their attire. The two eldest have black, or dark, hair and eyes; their visage oval, and complexion somewhat pale, with teeth of dazzling whiteness. Their cheeks are rounded, and noses straight, rather inclined to aquiline. The youngest, Mariana, is very fair, her face not so finely rounded, but has a gayer expression than her sister's, whose countenances, except when the conversation has something of mirth in it, may of conversation, and their minds seem to be more instructed than those of the Greek women in general. With such attrac tions, it would, indeed, be remarkable, if they did not meet with great attentions from the travellers who occasionally are resident in Athens. They sit in the eastern style, a little reclined, with their limbs gathered under them on the divan, and without shoes. Their employments are the needle, tambouring, and reading." Moore states that Byron, in making love to one of the three Athenian maidens, "had recourse to an act of courtship often practised in that country-namely, giving himself a wound across the breast with his dagger. The young Athenian, by his own account, looked on very coolly during the operation, considering it a fit tribute to her beauty, but in no degree moved to gratitude." (3) In the East (where ladies are not taught to write, lest they should scribble assignations) flowers, cinders, pebbles, etc. convey the sentiments of the parties by that universal deputy of Mercury-an old woman. A cinder says, "I burn for thee;" a bunch of flowers tied with hair, "Take me and fly;" but a pebble declares-what nothing else can. (4) Constantinople. (5) These lines are copied from a leaf of the original MS. of the second canto of Childe Harold.-E. (6) "The last two lines, though hardly intelligible as connected with the rest of life poem, may, taken separately, be interpreted as employing a sort of prophetic consciousness that it was out of the wreck and ruin of all his hopes the immortality of his name was to arise." Moore. (7) On the departure, in July, 1840, of his friend and fellowtraveller, Mr. Hobhouse, for England, Lord Byron fixed his head-quarters at Athens, where he had taken lodgings in a Franciscan convent; making occasional excursions through Attica and the Morea, and employing himself, in the interval of his tours, in collecting materials for those notices on the state of modern Greece which are appended to the second canto of Childe Harold. In this retreat also he wrote Hints from Horace, The Curse of Minerva, and Remarks on the Romaic, or Modern Greek Language. He thus writes to his mother:-"A present, I do not care to venture a winter's voyage, even ifl |