Herself would question, and for him reply; (1) "Lara, though it has many good passages, is a further proof of the melancholy fact, which is true of all sequels, from the continuation of the Eneid, by one of the famous Italian poets of the middle ages, down to Polly, a Sequel to the Beggar's Opera, that 'more last words' may generally be spared, without any great detriment to the world." Bishop Heber. "Lara has some charms which The Corsair has not. It is more domestic; it calls forth more sympathies with polished society; it is more intellectual, but much less passionate, less vigorous, and less brilliant; it is sometimes even languid, at any rate, it is more diffuse." Sir E. Brydges. "Lara, obviously the sequel of The Corsair, maintains in And hide her visage with her meagre hand, general the same tone of deep interest and lofty feeling; though the disappearance of Medora from the scene deprives it of the enchanting sweetness by which its terrors are there redeemed, and make the hero, on the whole, less captivating. The character of Lara, too, is rather too laboriously finished, and his nocturnal encounter with the apparition is worked up too ostentatiously. There is infinite beauty in the sketch of the dark Page, and in many of the moral or general reflections which are interspersed with the narrative." Jeffrey.-L. E Lara I wrote "What do the Reviewers mean by elaborate?' while undressing, after coming home from balls and masquerades, in the year of revelry, 1814." B. Letters, 1822 —L. E. Hebrew Melodies," ADVERTISEMENT. THE subsequent poems were written at the request of my friend, the Hon. D. Kinnaird, for a Selection of Hebrew Melodies, and have been published with the music, arranged by Mr. Braham and Mr. Nathan. (2) January, 1815. HEBREW MELODIES. SHE WALKS IN BEAUTY. (3) Of cloudless climes and starry skies; Meet in her aspect and her eyes : Which heaven to gaudy day denies. Or softly lightens o'er her face; How pure, how dear their dwelling-place. (1) Lord Byron never alludes to his share in these Melodies with complacency. Mr. Moore having, on one occasion, rallied him a little on the manner in which some of them had been set to music,-"Sunburn Nathan!" he exclaims, "why do you always twit me with his Ebrew nasalities? flave I not told you it was all Kinnaird's doing, and my own exquisite facility of temper ?"-L. E. (2) "Neither the ancient Jews," says Dr. Burney, "nor the modern, have ever had characters peculiar to music; so that the melodies used in their religious ceremonies have, at all times, been traditional, and at the mercy of the singers."-Kalkbrenner tells us, that "les juifs espagnols lisent et chantent leurs psaumes bien différemment que les juifs hollandais, les juifs romains autrement que les juifs de la Prusse et de la Hesse; et tous croient chanter comme on chantoit dans le Temple de Jerusalem!"-Hist. de iu Musique, tom. i. p. 34.-L. E. (3) These stanzas were written by Lord Byron, on returning from a ball-room, where he had seen Mrs. (now Lady) Wilmot Horton, the wife of his relation, the present Governor of Ceylon. On this occasion Mrs. H. had appeared The smiles that win, the tints that glow, A mind at peace with all below, THE HARP THE MONARCH MINSTREL THE harp the monarch minstrel swept, O'er tones her heart of hearts had given, It gave them virtues not their own; No ear so dull, no soul so cold, That felt not, fired not to the tone, Till David's lyre grew mightier than his throne! It made our gladden'd valleys ring, Its sound aspired to heaven and there abode! Devotion, and her daughter Love Still bid the bursting spirit soar To sounds that seem as from above, In dreams that day's broad light can not remove.(5) in mourning, with numerous spangles on her dress.-L. E. Nathan however says, in his Fugitive Pieces and Reminiscences of Lord Byron :-"It is most probable, from the fervent attachment he felt towards lus sister, whose conntenance was as beautiful as her disposition was amiable, and the unceasing tenderness with which he seemed on all occasions to view her, that they (the lines in question) were directed to that lady alone. This opinion is much strengthened by the anxiety he betrayed whenever the composition was executed in her presence.”—P. E. (4) "In the reign of King David, music was held in the highest estimation by the Hebrews. The genius of that prince for music, and his attachment to the study and practice of it, as well as the great number of musicians appointed by him for the performance of religious rites and ceremonies, could not fail to extend its influence and augment its perfections: for it was during this period, that music was first honoured by being admitted in the ministry of sacrifice, and worship of the ark; as well as by being cultivated by a king." Burney.-L. E. (5) The hymns of David excel no less in sublimity and IF THAT HIGH WORLD. The eye the same, except in tears- It must be so: 'tis not for self That we so tremble on the brink, And, striving to o'erleap the gulf, Yet cling to Being's severing link. Oh! in that future let us think To hold each heart the heart that shares, With them the immortal waters drink, And soul in soul grow deathless theirs! OH! WEEP FOR THOSE. OH! weep for those that wept by Babel's stream, tenderness of expression, than in loftiness and purity of religious sentiment. In comparison with them, the sacred poetry of all other nations sinks into mediocrity. They have embodied so exquisitely the universal language of religious emotion, that (a few fierce and vindictive passages excepted, natural in the warrior-poet of a sterner age) they have entered with unquestionable propriety into the Christian ritual. The songs which cheered the solitude of the desert caves of Engedi, or resounded from the voice of the Hebrew people as they wound along the glens or the hill-sides of Judea, have been repeated for ages in almost every part of the habitable world,-in the remotest islands of the ocean, among the forests of America, or the sands of Africa. How many human hearts have they softened, purified, exalted! -of how many wretched beings bave they been the secret consolation!-on how many communities have they drawn down the blessings of Divine Providence, by bringing the affections in unison with their deep devotional fervour!" Millman.-L. E. "The words of this melody have been greatly and deservedly admired; yet the circumstances that attended the composition of the latter lines may be interesting. When Weep for the harp of Judah's broken shell; ON JORDAN'S BANKS. ON Jordan's banks the Arab's camels stray, There where thy finger scorch'd the tablet stone! Oh! in the lightning let thy glance appear; JEPHTHA'S DAUGHTER. (1) And the voice of my mourning is o'er, And of this, O my father! be sure— Though the virgins of Salem lament, his Lordship put the copy into my hand, it terminated thus: Its sound aspired to heaven, and there abode.' This however did not complete the verse, and I wished him to help out the melody. He replied, "Why, I have sent you to heaven-it would be difficult to go further! My attention for a few moments was called to some other person, and his Lordship, whom I had hardly missed, exclaimedHere, Nathan, I have brought you down again;' and immediately presented me the beautiful and sublime lines which conclude the melody." Nathan.-P. E. (1) "Jephtha, a bastard son of Gilead, having beep wrongfully expelled from his father's house, had taken refuge in a wild country, and become a noted captain of freebooters. His kindred, groaning under foreign oppression, began to look to their valiant though lawless compatriot, whose profession, according to their usage, was no more dishonourable than that of a pirate in the elder days of Greece. They sent for him. and made him head of their city. Before he went forth against the Ammonites, he made the memorable vow, that, if he returned victorious, he would sacrifice as a burnt-offering whatever first met him When this blood of thy giving hath gush'd, OH! SNATCH'D AWAY IN BEAUTY'S OH! snatch'd away in beauty's bloom, But on thy turf shall roses rear Their leaves, the earliest of the year; And the wild cypress wave in tender gloom: Shall Sorrow lean her drooping head, Away! we know that tears are vain, That death nor heeds nor hears distress: Will this unteach us to complain? Or make one mourner weep the less? And thou--who tell'st me to forget, Thy looks are wan, thine eyes are wet. MY SOUL IS DARK. My soul is dark-Oh! quickly string Its melting murmurs o'er mine ear: That sound shall charm it forth again; If in these eyes there lurk a tear, 'Twill flow, and cease to burn my brain. But bid the strain be wild and deep, Or else this heavy heart will burst; And ached in sleepless silence long; And now 'tis doom'd to know the worst, And break at once-or yield to song.(1) I SAW THEE WEEP. I SAW thee weep—the big bright tear I saw thee smile-the sapphire's blaze It could not match the living rays on his entrance into his native city. He gained a splendid victory. At the news of it, his only daughter came dancing forth, in the gladness of her beart, and with jocund instruments of music, to salute the deliverer of his people. The miserable father rent his clothes in agony; but the noblespirited maiden would not hear of the disregard of the vow: she only demanded a short period to bewail upon the mountains, like the Antigone of Sophocles, her dying without hope of becoming a bride or mother, and then submitted to her fate." Millman.-L. E. (1) "It was generally conceived that Lord Byron's reported singularities approached on some occasions to derangement, and at one period, indeed, it was very currently asserted that As clouds from yonder sun receive A deep and mellow dye, Which scarce the shade of coming eve Can banish from the sky, Those smiles unto the moodiest mind Their own pure joy impart: Their sunshine leaves a glow behind THY DAYS ARE DONE. Though thou art fall'n, while we are free Thy spirit on our breath! Thy name, our charging hosts along, To weep would do thy glory wrong; SONG OF SAUL BEFORE HIS LAST WARRIORS and chiefs! should the shaft or the sword Thou who art bearing my buckler and bow, SAUL. (2) THOU whose spell can raise the dead, Bid the prophet's form appear. "Samuel raise thy buried head! King, behold the phantom seer!" Earth yawn'd; he stood the centre of a cloud: Light changed its hue, retiring from his shroud. his intellects were actually impaired. The report only served to amuse his Lordship. He referred to the circumstance, and declared that he would try how a madman could write seizing the pen with eagerness, he for a moment fixed his eyes in majestic wildness on vacancy; when like a flash of inspiration, without erasing a single word, the above verses were the result." Nathan.-P. E. (2) "Haunted with that insatiable desire of searching into the secrets of futurity, inseparable from uncivilised man, Saul knew not to what quarter to turn. The priests, outraged by his cruelty, had forsaken him: the prophets stood aloof: no dreams visited his couch; he had persecuted even the unlawful diviners. He hears at last of a female Death stood all glassy in his fixed eye; "Why is my sleep disquieted? "ALL IS VANITY, SAITH THE PREACHER.” I strive to number o'er what days There rose no day, there roll'd no hour And not a trapping deck'd my power That gall'd not while it glitter'd. The serpent of the field, by art And spells, is won from harming; The soul that must endure it. necromancer, a woman with the spirit of Ob; strangely similar in sound to the Obeah women in the West Indies. To the cave-dwelling of this woman, in Endor, the monarch proceeds in disguise. He commands her to raise the spirit of Samuel. At this daring demand, the woman first recog. nises, or pretends to recognise, her royal visitor. 'Whom seest thou?' says the king.- Mighty ones ascending from the earth.'-Of what form ?'- An old man covered with a mantle.' Saul, in terror, bows down his head to the earth; and, it should seem, not daring to look up, receives from the voice of the spectre the awful intimation of his defeat and death. On the reality of this apparition we pretend not to decide: the figure, if figure there were, was not seen by Saul; and, excepting the event of the approaching battle, the spirit said nothing which the living prophet had not said before, repeatedly and publicly. But the fact is curious, as showing the popular belief of the Jews in de WHEN COLDNESS WRAPS THIS SUFFERING CLAY. WHEN coldness wraps this suffering clay, Ah! whither strays the immortal mind? It cannot die, it cannot stay, But leaves its darken'd dust behind. Then, unembodied, doth it trace By steps each planet's heavenly way? A thought unseen, but seeing all, Before Creation peopled earth, Its eye shall roll through chaos back; And where the furthest heaven had birth, The spirit trace its rising track. And where the future mars or makes, Its glance dilate o'er all to be, While sun is quench'd or system breaks, Fix'd in its own eternity. Above or love, hope, hate, or fear, It lives all passionless and pure: An age shall fleet like earthly year; Its years as moments shall endure. Away, away, without a wing, O'er all, through all, its thought shall fly; A nameless and eternal thing, Forgetting what it was to die. VISION OF BELSHAZZAR. THE king was on his throne, The satraps throng'd the hall; In Judah deem'd divine- The godless heathen's wine! parted spirits to have been the same with that of most other nations." Millman.-L. E. (1) Since we have spoken of witches," said Lord Byron at Cephalonia, in 1823, “what think you of the witch of Endor? I have always thought this the finest and most finished witch-scene that ever was written or conceived; and you will be of my opinion, if you consider all the circumstances and the actors in the case, together with the gravity, simplicity, and dignity of the language. It beats all the ghost-scenes I ever read. The finest conception on a similar subject is that of Goethe's devil, Mephistopheles; and though, of course, you will give the priority to the former, as being inspired, yet the latter, if you know it, will appear to you-at least it does to me-one of the finest and most sublime specimens of human conception." Kennedy's Conversations on Religion, etc., with Lord Byron.-L. E. The fingers of a manA solitary handAlong the letters ran, And traced them like a wand. The monarch saw, and shook, And bade no more rejoice; The wisest of the earth, But here they have no skill; Are wise and deep in lore; A captive in the land, A stranger and a youth, The morrow proved it true. Is light and worthless clay. The Persian on his throne!" SUN OF THE SLEEPLESS! SUN of the sleepless! melancholy star! So gleams the past, the light of other days, WERE MY BOSOM AS FALSE AS THOU WERE my bosom as false as thou deem'st it to be, The curse which, thou say'st, is the crime of my race. (1) "Mariamne, the wife of Herod the Great, falling under the suspicion of infidelity, was put to death by his order. She was a woman of unrivalled beauty, and a haughty spirit: unhappy in being the object of passionate attachment, which bordered on frenzy, to a man who had more or less concern in the murder of her grandfather, father, If the bad never triumph, then God is with thee! I have lost for that faith more than thou canst bestow, HEROD'S LAMENT FOR MARIAMNE. (1) OH, Mariamne! now for thee The heart for which thou bled'st is bleeding; Revenge is lost in agony, And wild remorse to rage succeeding. Oh, Mariamne! where art thou? Thou canst not hear my bitter pleading: Ah! couldst thou-thou wouldst pardon now, Though Heaven were to my prayer unheeding. And is she dead?—and did they dare Obey my frenzy's jealous raving? The sword that smote her's o'er me waving. But thou art cold, my murder'd love! And this dark heart is vainly craving For her who soars alone above, And leaves my soul unworthy saving. She's gone, who shared my diadem; She sunk, with her my joys entombing; ON THE DAY OF THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM BY TITUS. FROM the last hill that looks on thy once holy dome I beheld thee, O Sion! when render'd to Rome: 'Twas thy last sun went down, and the flames of thy fall Flash'd back on the last glance I gave to thy wall. I look'd for thy temple, I look'd for my home, And forgot for a moment my bondage to come; I beheld but the death-fire that fed on thy fane, And the fast-fetter'd hands that made vengeance in vain. On many an eve, the high spot whence I gazed Had reflected the last beam of day as it blazed; While I stood on the height, and beheld the decline Of the rays from the mountain that shone on thy shrine. And now on that mountain I stood on that day, But I mark'd not the twilight beam melting away; Oh! would that the lightning had glared in its stead, And the thunderbolt burst on the conqueror's head! brother, and uncle, and who had twice commanded her death, in case of his own. Ever after, Herod was haunted by the image of the murdered Mariamne, until disorder of the mind brought on disorder of body, which led to temporary derangement." Millman.-L. E. |