Where thousand thoughts begin to end in one, Which seeks from all the refuge found in none; 1820 No words suffice the secret soul to show, For Truth denies all eloquence to Wo. On Conrad's stricken soul exhaustion prest, So feeble now---his mother's softness crept To those wild eyes, which like an infant's wept: XXIII. 1825 1830 1835 His heart was form'd for softness---warp'd to wrong; Betray'd too early, and beguiled too long; 1840 Each feeling pure---as falls the dropping dew There grew one flower beneath its rugged brow, Its tale, but shrunk and wither'd where it fell, XXIV. 1855 'Tis morn---to venture on his lonely hour They find on shore a sea-boat's broken chain: 1860 And Conrad comes not--came not since that day: 1865 Where lives his grief, or perish'd his despair! [side; 1870 (17) NOTES то THE CORSAIR. THE time in this poem may seem too short for the occurrences, but the whole of the Egean 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 92, line 14. Of fair Olympia loved and left of old. Orlando, Canto 10. Note 2, page 97, line 12. 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. Note 3, page 100, line 18. Though to the rest the sober berry's juice. Coffee. Note 4, page 100, line 20. The long Chibouque's dissolving cloud supply. Pipe. Note 5, page 100, line 21. While dance the Almas to wild minstrelsy Dancing-girls. VOL. II. Note to Canto II. page 101, line 7. It has been objected that Conrad's entering disguised I find something as a spy is out of nature.-Perhaps so. 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 & 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. "Gizericus (Genseric, king of the Vandals, the conqueror of both Carthage and Rome,) statura mediocris, et equi casu claudicans, animo profundus, sermone rarus, luxuriæ contemptor, irâ turbidus, habendi cupidus, ad solicitandas gentes providentissimus, &c. &c. Journandes de Rebus Getius, c. 33. |