After the completion of the fair copy of the MS. of the _Bride of
Abydos_, seventy lines were added to stanza xx. of Canto II. In both
MSS. the rough and fair copies, the stanza ends with the line, "The Dove
of peace and promise to mine ark!"
Seven MS. sheets are extant, which make up the greater portion of these
additional lines.
The _First Addition_ amounts to eight lines, and takes the narrative
from line 880 to line 893, "Wait--wave--defend--destroy--at thy
command!"
Lines 884-889 do not appear in the first MS. Fragment, but are given in
three variants on separate sheets. Two of these are dated December 2 and
December 3, 1813.
The _Second Fragment_ begins with line 890, "For thee in those bright
isles is built a bower," and, numbering twenty-two lines, ends with a
variant of line 907, "Blend every thought, do all--but disunite!" Two
lines of this addition, "With thee all toils are sweet," find a place in
the text as lines 934, 935.
The _Third Fragment_ amounts to thirty-six lines, and may be taken as
the first draft of the whole additions--lines 880-949.
Lines 908-925 and 936-945 of the text are still later additions, but a
fourth MS. fragment supplies lines 920-925 and lines 936-945. (A fair
copy of this fragment gives text for Revise of November 13.) Between
November 13 and November 25 no less than ten revises of the _Bride_
were submitted to Lord Byron. In the earliest of these, dated November
13, the thirty-six lines of the Third Fragment have been expanded into
forty lines--four lines of the MS. being omitted, and twelve lines,
908-919, "Once free,"--"social home," being inserted. The text passed
through five revises and remained unaltered till November 21, when
eighteen lines were added to the forty, viz.: (4) "Mark! where his
carnage,"--"sabre's length;" (6) "There ev'n thy soul,"--"Zuleika's
name;" and (8) "Aye--let the loud winds,"--"bars escape." Of these the
two latter additions belong to the _Fourth Fragment_. The text in this
state passed through three more revises, but before the first edition
was issued two more lines were added--lines 938, 939,
"The deepest murmur of this lip shall be,
No sigh for safety, but a prayer for thee!"
Even then the six lines, "Blest--as the Muezzin's,"--"endears," are
wanting in the text; but the four lines, "Soft--as the
melody,"--"endears," are inserted in MS. in the margin. The text as it
stands first appears in the Seventh Edition.
* * * * *
[_First_ Draft of 880, _sq_., of Canto II. Stanz xx.
of the _Bride of Abydos_.]
For thee in those bright isles is built a bower
Aden, in its earliest hour
Blooming as {-Eden--guarded like a tower-}
A thousand swords--thy Selim's soul and hand
Wait on thy voice, and bow to thy command
pair
No Danger daunts--the {-souls-} that Love hath blest
steps still roving
With {-feet long-wandering-}--but with hearts at rest.
{-For thee my blade shall shine--my hand shall toil-}
With thee all toils were sweet--each clime hath charms {line 934}
Earth--sea--alike--one World within our arms {line 935}
Girt by my hand--Zuleika at my side--
The Spoil of nations shall bedeck my bride
slumbring
The Haram's sluggish life of listless ease
Is well exchanged for cares and joys like these
{-Mine be the lot to know where'er I rove-}
{-A thousand perils wait where-er I rove,-}
Not blind to fate I view where-er I rove
A thousand perils--but one only love--
Yet well my labor shall fond breast repay
When Fortune frowns or falser friends betray
How dear the thought in darkest hours of ill
Should all be changed to find thee faithful still
Be but thy soul like Selim's firmly shown
{-mine in firmness-}
{-Firm as my own I deem thy tender heart-}
To thee be Selim's tender as thine own
Exchange, or mingle every thought with his
And all our future days unite in this.
* * * * *
Man I may lead--but trust not--I may fall
By those now friends to me--yet foes to all--
In this they follow but the bent assigned
fatal Nature
By {-savage Nature-} to our warning kind
_But there--oh, far be every thought of fear_
Life is but peril at the best--and here
No more remains to win and much to fear
Yes fear--the doubt the dread of losing thee--
That dread must vanish.
FOOTNOTES:
[ey]
To the Right Hon^ble^
Henry Richard Vassal
Lord Holland
This Tale
Is inscribed with
Every sentiment of the
Most affectionate respect
by his gratefully obliged serv^t.
And sincere Friend
Byron.
[_Proof and Revise._--See _Letters to Murray_, November 13, 17, 1813.]
[124] {157} ["Murray tells me that Croker asked him why the thing was
called the _Bride_ of Abydos? It is a cursed awkward question, being
unanswerable. _She_ is not a _bride_, only about to become 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 make it, and am ashamed of not
being an Irishman."--_Journal_, December 6, 1813; _Letters_, 1898, ii.
365.
Byron need not have been dismayed. "The term is particularly applied on
the day of marriage and during the 'honeymoon,' but is frequently used
from the proclamation of the banns.... In the debate on Prince Leopold's
allowance, Mr. Gladstone, being criticized for speaking of the Princess
Helena as the 'bride,' said he believed that colloquially a lady when
engaged was often called a 'bride.' This was met with 'Hear! Hear!' from
some, and 'No! No!' from others."--_N. Engl. Dict_., art. "Bride."]
[125] [The opening lines were probably suggested by Goethe's--
"Kennst du das Land wo die citronen blühn?"]
[126] "Gúl," the rose.
[127] {158} ["'Where the Citron,' etc. These lines are in the MS., and
_omitted_ by the _Printer_, whom I _again_ request to look over it, and
see that no others are _omitted_.--B." (Revise No. 1, November 13,
1813.)
"I ought and do apologise to Mr.---- the Printer for charging him with
an omission of the lines which I find was my own--but I also wish _he_
would not print such a stupid word as _finest_ for fairest." (Revise,
November 15, 1813.)
The lines, "Where the Citron," etc., are absent from a fair copy dated
November 11, but are inserted as an addition in an earlier draft.]
[128]
"Souls made of fire, and children of the Sun,
With whom revenge is virtue."
Young's _Revenge_, act v. sc. 2 (_British Theatre_, 1792, p. 84).
[ez] _For wild as the moment of lovers' farewell_.--[MS.]
[fa] _Canto 1^st^ The Bride of Abydos. Nov. 1^st^ 1813_.--[MS.]
[fb] {159} _The changing cheek and knitting brow_.--[MS. i.]
[fc]
_Hence--bid my daughter hither come_
_This hour decides her future doom--_
_Yet not to her these words express_
_But lead her from the tower's recess_.--[MSS. i., ii.]
[These lines must have been altered in proof, for all the revises accord
with the text.]
[fd] {160} _With many a tale and mutual song_.--[ms]
[129] Mejnoun and Leila, the Romeo and Juliet of the East. Sadi, the
moral poet of Persia. [For the "story of Leila and Mujnoon," see _The
Gulistan, or Rose Garden_ of ... Saadi, translated by Francis Gladwin,
Boston, 1865, Tale xix. pp. 288, 289; and Gulistan ... du Cheikh Sa'di
... Traduit par W. Semelet, Paris, 1834, Notes on Chapitre V. p. 304.
Sa'di "moralizes" the tale, to the effect that love dwells in the eye of
the beholder. See, too, J[=a]m[=i]'s _Medjnoun et Leila_, translated by
A. L. Chezy, Paris, 1807.]
[130] Tambour. Turkish drum, which sounds at sunrise, noon, and
twilight. [The "tambour" is a kind of mandoline. It is the large
kettle-drum (_nagaré_) which sounds the hours.]
[fe] {161}
_Must walk forsooth where waters flow_
_And pore on every flower below_.--[MS. erased.]
[ff] {162} _For looks of peace and hearts of ire_.--[MS.]
[fg] _And calmly to his Sire's was raised_.--[MS.]
[fh] {163} _No--nor the blood I call my own_.--[MS.]
[131] The Turks abhor the Arabs (who return the compliment a
hundredfold) even more than they hate the Christians.
[fi] _Or Christian flying from the fight_.--[MS.]
[fj] _Zuleika! ever welcome here_.--[MS.]
[fk] _Who never was more blest than now_.--[MS.]
[132] {164} [Lines 170-181 were added in the course of printing. They
were received by the publisher on November 22, 1813.]
[fl]
_Who hath not felt his very power of sight_
_Faint with the languid dimness of delight?_--[MS.]
[fm]
_The light of life--the purity of grace_
_The mind of Music breathing in her face_
or,
_Mind on her lip and music in her face._
_A heart where softness harmonized the whole_
_And oh! her eye was in itself a Soul!_--[MS.]
[133] This expression has met with objections. I will not refer to "Him
who hath not Music in his soul," but merely request the reader to
recollect, for ten seconds, the features of the woman whom he believes
to be the most beautiful; and, if he then does not comprehend fully what
is feebly expressed in the above line, I shall be sorry for us both. For
an eloquent passage in the latest work of the first female writer of
this, perhaps of any, age, on the analogy (and the immediate comparison
excited by that analogy) between "painting and music," see vol. iii.
cap. 10, De l'Allemagne. And is not this connection still stronger with
the original than the copy? with the colouring of Nature than of Art?
After all, this is rather to be felt than described; still I think there
are some who will understand it, at least they would have done had they
beheld the countenance whose speaking harmony suggested the idea; for
this passage is not drawn from imagination but memory,{A} that mirror
which Affliction dashes to the earth, and looking down upon the
fragments, only beholds the reflection multiplied!
[For the simile of the broken mirror, compare _Childe Harold_, Canto
III. stanza xxxiii. line 1 (_Poetical Works_, ii. 236, note 2); and for
"the expression," "music breathing from her face," compare Sir Thomas
Browne's _Religio Medici_, Part II. sect, ix., _Works_, 1835, ii. 106,
"And sure there is musick, even in the beauty and the silent note which
Cupid strikes, far sweeter than the sound of any instrument;" and
Lovelace's "Song," _Orpheus to Beasts_--
"Oh could you view the melody
Of ev'ry grace,
And music of her face!"
The effect of the appeal to Madame de Staël is thus recorded in Byron's
_Journal_ of December 7, 1813 (_Letters_, 1898, ii. 369): "This morning,
a very pretty billet from the Staël," (for passage in _De L'Allemagne_,