THE

BRIDE OF ABYDOS,

A TURKISH TALE. (1)

"Had we never loved so kindly,

Had we never loved so blindly,

Never met or never parted,

We had ne'er been broken-hearted."

BURNS.

(1) [The "Bride of Abydos" was published in the beginning of December, 1813. The mood of mind in which it was struck off' is thus stated by Lord Byron, in a letter to Mr. Gifford :-"You have been good enough to look at a thing of mine in MS.—a Turkish story-and 1 should feel gratified if you would do it the same favour in its probationary state of printing. It was written, I cannot say for amusement, nor obliged by hunger and request of friends,' but in a state of mind, from circumstances which occasionally occur to us youth,' that rendered it necessary for me to apply my mind to something, any thing, but reality; and under this not very brilliant inspiration it was composed. Send it either to the flames, or

A hundred hawkers' load,

On wings of winds to fly or fall abroad.'

It deserves no better than the first, as the work of a week, and scribbled stans pede in uno' (by the bye, the only foot I have to stand on); and I promise never to trouble you again under forty cantos, and a voyage between each."-E]

то

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

LORD HOLLAND,

THIS TALE

IS INSCRIBED, WITH

IVERY SENTIMENT OF REGARD

AND RESPECT,

BY HIS GRATEFULLY OBLIGED

AND SINCERE FRIEND,

BYRON.

THE

BRIDE OF ABYDOS. (1)

CANTO THE FIRST.

KNOW

ye

I.

the land where the cypress and myrtle (2) Are emblems of deeds that are done in their

clime,

Where the rage of the vulture, the love of the turtle, Now melt into sorrow, now madden to crime? Know ye the land of the cedar and vine, [shine; Where the flowers ever blossom, the beams ever Where the light wings of Zephyr, oppressed with perfume,

Wax faint o'er the gardens of Gúl (3) in her bloom;

(1) ["Murray tells me that Croker asked him why the thing is called the Bride of Abydos? It is an awkward question, being unanswerable: she is not a bride; only about to be one. I don't wonder at his finding out the Bull; but the detection is too late to do any good. I was a great fool to have made it, and am ashamed of not being an Irishman.” — B. Diary, Dec. 6. 1813.-E]

(2) [To the Bride of Abydos, Lord Byron made many additions during its progress through the press, amounting to about two hundred lines; and, as in the case of the Giaour, the passages so added will be seen to be some of the most splendid in the whole poem. These opening lines, which are among the new insertions, are supposed to have been suggested by a song of Goethe's

"Kennst du das Land wo die citronen blühn."— E.]