And, quite content, no more shall interpose Thus far I've held my undisturb'd career, The time hath been, when no harsh sound would fall The meanest thing that crawl'd beneath my eyes: And arm'd in proof, the gauntlet cast at once H POSTSCRIPT TO THE SECOND EDITION OF ENGLISH BARDS AND SCOTCH REVIEWERS. I HAVE been informed, since the present edition went to the press, that my trusty and well-beloved cousins, the Edinburgh Reviewers, are preparing a most vehement critique on my poor, gentle, unresisting Muse, whom they have already so with their ungodly ribaldry:— "Tantæne animis cœlestibus iræ." I suppose I must say of Jeffrey as Sir Andrew Aguecheek saith, "An I had known he was so cunning of fence, I had seen him- ere I had fought him." What a pity it is that I shall be beyond the Bosphorus before the next number has passed the Tweed! But I yet hope to light my pipe with it in Persia. My northern friends have accused me, with justice, of personality towards their great literary anthropophagus, Jeffrey; but what else was to be done with him and his dirty pack, who feed by "lying and slandering," and slake their thirst by "evil speaking ?" I have adduced facts already well known, and of Jeffrey's mind I have stated my free opinion, nor has he thence sustained any injury;-what scavenger was ever soiled by being pelted with mud? It may be said that I quit England because I have censured there "persons of honour and wit about town;" but I am coming back again, and their vengeance will keep hot till my return. Those who know me can testify that my motives for leaving England are very different from fears. literary or personal; those who do not, may one day be convinced. Since the publication of this thing, my name has not been concealed; I have been mostly in London, ready to answer for my transgressions, and in daily expectation of sundry cartels; but, alas! "the age of chivalry is over," or, in the vulgar tongue, there is no spirit now-a-days. There is a youth ycleped Hewson Clarke (subandi esquire), a sizer of Emanuel College, and, I believe, a denizen of Berwick-upon-Tweed, whom I have introduced in these pages to much better company than he has been accustomed to meet; he is, notwithstanding, a very sad dog, and for no reason that I can discover, except a personal quarrel with a bear, kept by me at Cambridge to sit for a fellowship, and whom the jealousy of his Trinity contemporaries prevented from success, has been abusing me, and, what is worse, the defenceless innocent above mentioned, in the "Satirist," for one year and some months. I am utterly unconscious of having given him any provocation; indeed, I am guiltless of having heard his name till coupled with the "Satirist." He has therefore no reason to complain, and I dare say that, like Sir Fretful Plagiary, he is rather pleased than otherwise. I have now mentioned all who have done me the honour to notice me and mine, that is, my bear and my book, except the editor of the Satirist," who, it seems, is a gentleman! I wish he could impart a little of his gentility to his subordinate scribblers. I hear that Mr Jerningham is about to take up the cudgels for his Mecenas, Lord Carlisle. I hope not: he was one of the few, who, in the very short intercourse I had with him treated me with kindness when a boy; and whatever he may say or do, pour on, I will endure." I have nothing further to add, save a general note of thanksgiving to readers, purchasers, and publishers; and, in the words of Scott, I wish "To all and each a fair good night, And rosy dreams and slumbers light."--R THE GIAOUR; A FRAGMENT OF A TURKISH TALE 'One fatal remembrance-one sorrow that throws Its bleak shade alike o'er our joys and our woes To which Life nothing darker nor brighter can bring, ΤΟ SAMUEL ROGERS, ESQ. AB A SLIGHT BUT MOST SINCERE TOKEN OF ADMIRATION FOR HIS GENIUS, RESPECT FOR HIS CHARACTER, AND GRATITUDE FOR HIS FRIENDSHIP THIS PRODUCTION IS INSCRIBED BY HIS OBLIGED AND AFFECTIONATE SERVANT, London, May 1818. BYRON ADVERTISEMENT. THE tale which these disjointed fragments present, is founded upon circumstances now less common in the East than formerly; either because the ladies are more circumspect than in the "olden time," or because the Christians have better forture, or less enterprise. The story, when entire, contained the adventures of a female slave, who was thrown, in the Mussulman manner, into the sea for infidelity, and avenged by a young Venetian, her lover, at the time the Seven Islands were possessed by the Republic of Venice, and soon after the Arnauts were beaten back from the Morea, which they had ravaged for some time subsequent to the Russian invasion. The desertion of the Mainotes, on being refused the plunder of Misitra, led to the abandonment of that enterprise, and to the desolation of the Morea, during which the cruelty exercised on all sides was unparalleled even in the annals of the faithful THE GIAOUR.* No breath of air to break the wave * * * Fair clime! where every season smiles There mildly dimpling, Ocean's cheek That wakes and wafts the odours there! The maid for whom his melody, Pronounced Djour. A tomb above the rocks on the promontory, by some supposed the sepulchre of Themistocles.-B. If I mistake not, the "Bulbul of a thousand tales" is one of his appellations.-R. The attachment of the nightingale to the rose is a well-known Persian fable |