Lose in that one their all-perchance a mite- Mask hearts where grief hath little left to learn; XXII. By those, that deepest feel, is ill exprest So feeble now-his mother's softness crept The sun goes forth-but Conrad's day is dim; XXIII. His heart was form'd for softness-warp'd to wrong; Each feeling pure-as falls the dropping dew Less clear, perchance, its earthly trials pass'd, But shiver'd fragments on the barren ground! XXIV. 'Tis morn-to venture on his lonely hour Few dare; though now Anselmo sought his tower. And shout his name till echo waxeth weak; Their hope revives-they follow o'er the main. And Conrad comes not-came not since that day: Nor trace, nor tidings of his doom declare Where lives his grief, or perish'd his despair! Long mourn'd his band whom none could mourn beside; And fair the monument they gave his bride: Link'd with one virtue, and a thousand crimes. (17) NOTES TO THE CORSAIR. THE time in this poem may seem too short for the occurrences, but the whole of the Ægean isles are within a few hours sail of the continent, and the reader must be kind enough to take the wind as I have often found it. Note 1, page 26, last line. Of fair Olympia loved and left of old. Orlando, Canto 10. Note 2, page 32, line 19. Around the waves' phosphoric brightness broke. By night, particularly in a warm latitude, every stroke of the oar, every motion of the boat or ship, is followed by a slight flash like sheet lightning from the water. Coffee. Pipe. Note 3, page 36, line 20. Though to the rest the sober berry's juice. Note 4, page 36, line 22. The long Chibouque's dissolving cloud supply. Note 5, page 36, line 23. While dance the Almas to wild minstrelsy. Dancing-girls. Note to Canto II. page 37, line 13. It has been objected that Conrad's entering disguised as a spy is out of nature.-Perhaps so. I find something not unlike it in history. "Anxious to explore with his own eyes the state of the Vandals, Majorian ventured, after disguising the colour of his hair, to visit Carthage in the character of his own ambassador; and Genseric was afterwards mortified by the discovery, that he had entertained and dismissed the Emperor of the Romans. Such an anecdote may be rejected as an improbable fiction; but it is a fiction which would not have been imagined unless in the life of a hero." Gibbon, D. and F. Vol. VI. p. 180. That Conrad is a character not altogether out of nature I shall attempt to prove by some historical coincidences which I have met with since writing "The Corsair.” "Eccelin prisonnier," dit Rolandini, "s'enfermoit dans un silence menaçant, il fixoit sur la terre son visage feroce, et ne donnoit point d'essor à sa profonde indignation.-De toutes partes cependant les soldats et les peuples accouroient ; ils vouloient voir cet homme, jadis si puissant, et la joie universelle eclatoit de toutes parts. "Eccelin etoit d'une petite taille; mais tout l'aspect de sa personne, tous ses mouvemens indiquoient un soldat.— Son langage etoit amer, son deportment superbe-et par son seul egard, il faisoit trembler les plus hardis." Sismondi, tome III. page 219, 220. |