2

Beneath whose widely-wasting breath
The very cypress droops to death-
Dark tree, still sad when others' grief is fled,
The only constant mourner o'er the dead!

The steed is vanish'd from the stall;
No serf is seen in Hassan's hall;
The lonely spider's thin gray pall
Waves slowly widening o'er the wall; 1
The bat builds in his haram bower,
And in the fortress of his power
The owl usurps the beacon-tower;

The wild-dog howls o'er the fountain's brim,
With baffled thirst, and famine, grim;2

For the stream has shrunk from its marble bed,
Where the weeds and the desolate dust are spread.
'T was sweet of yore to see it play
And chase the sultriness of day,
As springing high the silver dew
In whirls fantastically flew,

And flung luxurious coolness round

The air, and verdure o'er the ground.

'T was sweet, when cloudless stars were bright,
To view the wave of watery light,
And hear its melody by night.

And oft had Hassan's Childhood play'd
Around the verge of that cascade;
And oft upon his mother's breast
That sound had harmonized his rest;
And oft had Hassan's Youth along

Its bank been soothed by Beauty's song;
And softer seem'd each melting tone
Of Music mingled with its own.
But ne'er shall Hassan's Age repose
Along the brink at twilight's close:
The stream that fill'd that font is fled-
The blood that warm'd his heart is shed!8
And here no more shall human voice
Be heard to rage, regret, rejoice.
The last sad note that swell'd the gale
Was woman's wildest funeral wail:
That quench'd in silence, all is still,

But the lattice that flaps when the wind is shrill:
Though raves the gust, and floods the rain,

No hand shall close its clasp again. 4

On desert sands 't were joy to scan

The rudest steps of fellow man,

[The lonely spider's thin gray pall

Is curtained on the splendid wall."- MS.]
[" The wild-dog howls o'er the fountain's brin
But vainly tells his tongue to drink."- MS.]

3 ["For thirsty fox and jackal gaunt

May vainly for its waters pant.' - MS.]

4 [This part of the narrative not only contains much brilliant and just description, but is managed with unusual taste. The fisherman has, hitherto, related nothing more than the extraordinary phenomenon which had excited his curiosity, and of which it is his immediate object to explain the cause to his hearers; but instead of proceeding to do so, he stops to vent his execrations on the Giaour, to describe the solitude of Hassan's once luxurious haram, and to lament the untimely death of the owner, and of Leila, together with the cessation of that hospitality which they had uniformly experienced. He reveals, as if unintentionally and unconsciously, the catastrophe of his story; but he thus prepares his appeal to the sympathy of his audience, without much diminishing their suspense.- GEORGE ELLIS.]

5 ["I have just recollected an alteration you may make in the proof. Among the lines on Hassan's Serai, is thisUnmeet for solitude to share.'

Now, to share implies more than one, and Solitude is a single gentleman; it must be thus

So here the very voice of Grief
Might wake an Echo like relief-
At least 't would say, "All are not gone;
There lingers Life, though but in one".
For many a gilded chamber 's there,
Which Solitude might well forbear; 5
Within that dome as yet Decay
Hath slowly work'd her cankering way
But gloom is gather'd o'er the gate,
Nor there the Fakir's self will wait;
Nor there will wandering Dervise stay,
For bounty cheers not his delay;
Nor there will weary stranger halt
To bless the sacred" bread and salt."6
Alike must Wealth and Poverty
Pass heedless and unheeded by,
For Courtesy and Pity died

With Hassan on the mountain side
His roof, that refuge unto men,
Is Desolation's hungry den.

The guest flies the hall, and the vassal from labour,
Since his turban was cleft by the infidel's sabre !7

I hear the sound of coming feet, But not a voice mine ear to greet; More near-each turban I can scan, And silver-sheathed ataghan; 8 The foremost of the band is seen An Emir by his garb of green : "Ho! who art thou? "This low salam 10 Replies of Moslem faith I am.' "The burthen ye so gently bear Seems one that claims your utmost care, And, doubtless, holds some precious freight, My humble bark would gladly wait."

"Thou speakest sooth; thy skiff unmoor, And waft us from the silent shore; Nay, leave the sail still furl'd, and ply The nearest oar that's scatter'd by, And midway to those rocks where sleep The channell'd waters dark and deep. Rest from your task so — - bravely done, Our course has been right swiftly run; Yet 't is the longest voyage, I trow, That one of

For many a gilded chamber's there,
Which solitude might well forbear;'

and so on. Will you adopt this correction? and pray accept a Stilton cheese from me for your trouble.-P. S. I leave this to your discretion: if any body thinks the old line a good one, or the cheese a bad one, don't accept of either."-Byron Letters, Stilton, Oct. 3. 1813.]

6 To partake of food, to break bread and salt with your host, insures the safety of the guest: even though an enemy, his person from that moment is sacred.

7 I need hardly observe, that Charity and Hospitality are the first duties enjoined by Mahomet; and to say truth, very generally practised by his disciples. The first praise that can be bestowed on a chief, is a panegyric on his bounty; the next, on his valour.

8 The ataghan, a long dagger worn with ristols in the belt, in a metal scabbard, generally of silver and, among the wealthier, gilt, or of gold.

9 Green is the privileged colour of the prophet's numerous pretended descendants; with them, as here, faith (the family inheritance) is supposed to supersede the necessity of good works: they are the worst of a very indifferent brood.

10" Salam aleikoum! aleikoum salam!" peace be with you; be with you peace the salutation reserved for the faithful:- to a Christian, "Uilarula," a good journey; or "saban hiresem, saban serula; " good morn, good even; and sometimes," may your end be happy;" are the usual salntes.

Sullen it plunged, and slowly sank, The calm wave rippled to the bank; I watch'd it as it sank, methought Some motion from the current caught Bestirr'd it more, 't was but the beam That checker'd o'er the living stream: I gazed, till vanishing from view, Like lessening pebble it withdrew; Still less and less, a speck of white

That germ'd the tide, then mock'd the sight; And all its hidden secrets sleep,

Known but to Genii of the deep,

Which, trembling in their coral caves,
They dare not whisper to the waves.

As rising on its purple wing
The insect-queen 1 of eastern spring,
O'er emerald meadows of Kashmeer
Invites the young pursuer near,

And leads him on from flower to flower
A weary chase and wasted hour,
Then leaves him, as it soars on high,
With panting heart and tearful eye :
So Beauty lures the full-grown child,
With hue as bright, and wing as wild;

A chase of idle hopes and fears,
Begun in folly, closed in tears.

If won, to equal ills betray'd, 2

We waits the insect and the maid;

A life of pain, the loss of peace,

From infant's play, and man's caprice.
The lovely toy so fiercely sought
Hath lost its charm by being caught,
For every touch that woo'd its stay
Hath brush'd its brightest hues away,
Till charm, and hue, and beauty gone,
Tis left to fly or fall alone.

With wounded wing, or bleeding breast,
Ah! where shall either victim rest?
Can this with faded pinion soar
From rose to tulip as before?
Or Beauty, blighted in an hour,

Find joy within her broken bower?
No: gayer insects fluttering by

Ne'er droop the wing o'er those that die,

And lovelier things have mercy shown

To every failing but their own,

And every woe a tear can claim

Except an erring sister's shame.

The Mind, that broods o'er guilty woes,
Is like the Scorpion girt by fire,

In circle narrowing as it glows,+
The flames around their captive close,

The blue-winged butterfly of Kashmeer, the most rare and beautiful of the species.

2 ["If caught, to fate alike betrayed."— MS.]

[Mr. Dallas says, that Lord Byron assured him that the paragraph containing the simile of the scorpion was imagined in his sleep. It forms, therefore, a pendant to the "psychological curiosity," beginning with those exquisitely musical lines:

"A damsel with a dulcimer

In a vision once I saw ;

It was an Abyssinian maid," &c.

The whole of which, Mr. Coleridge says, was composed by him during a siesta.]

Till inly search'd by thousand throes,
And maddening in her ire,

One sad and sole relief she knows,
The sting she nourish'd for her foes,
Whose venom never yet was vain,
Gives but one pang, and cures all pain,
And darts into her desperate brain:
So do the dark in soul expire,

Or live like Scorpion girt by fire; 5
So writhes the mind Remorse hath riven, 6
Unfit for earth, undoom'd for heaven,
Darkness above, despair beneath,
Around it flame, within it death!

*

Black Hassan from the Haram flies, Nor bends on woman's form his eyes; The unwonted chase each hour employs, Yet shares he not the hunter's joys. Not thus was Hassan wont to fly When Leila dwelt in his Serai. Doth Leila there no longer dwell? That tale can only Hassan tell : Strange rumours in our city say Upon that eve she fled away When Rhamazan's 7 last sun was set, And flashing from each minaret Millions of lamps proclaim'd the feast Of Bairam through the boundless East. 'Twas then she went as to the bath, Which Hassan vainly search'd in wrath; For she was flown her master's rage In likeness of a Georgian page, And far beyond the Moslem's power Had wrong'd him with the faithless Giaour. Somewhat of this had Hassan deem'd; But still so fond, so fair she seem'd, Too well he trusted to the slave Whose treachery deserved a grave: And on that eve had gone to mosque, And thence to feast in his kiosk. Such is the tale his Nubians tell,

Who did not watch their charge too well;

But others say, that on that night,

By pale Phingari's 8 trembling light,
The Giaour upon his jet-black steed
Was seen, but seen alone to speed
With bloody spur along the shore,
Nor maid nor page behind him bore.

Her eyes dark charm 't were vain to tell, But gaze on that of the Gazelle,

It will assist thy fancy well;

As large, as languishingly dark,
But Soul beam'd forth in every spark

4["The gathering flames around her close."- - MS.]

Alluding to the dubious suicide of the scorpion, so placed for experiment by gentle philosophers. Some maintain that the position of the sting, when turned towards the head, is merely a convulsive movement; but others have actually brought in the verdict "Felo de se." The scorpions are surely interested in a speedy decision of the question; as, if once fairly established as insect Catos, they will probably be allowed to live as long as they think proper, without being martyred for the sake of an hypothesis.

["So writhes the mind by Conscience riven." - MS.] 7 The cannon at sunset close the Rhamazan. See antè, 8 Phingari, the moon.

p. 65. note.

That darted from beneath the lid,
Bright as the jewel of Giamschid. I
Yea, Soul, and should our prophet say
That form was nought but breathing clay,

By Alla! I would answer nay;
Though on Al-Sirat's arch I stood,
Which totters o'er the fiery flood,
With Paradise within my view,
And all his Houris beckoning through.
Oh! who young Leila's glance could read
And keep that portion of his creed,
Which saith that woman is but dust,
A soulless toy for tyrant's lust? 4
On her might Muftis gaze, and own

That through her eye the Immortal shone;
On her fair cheek's unfading hue

The young pomegranate's blossoms strew
Their bloom in blushes ever new;
Her hair in hyacinthine 6 flow,
When left to roll its folds below,
As midst her handmaids in the hall
She stood superior to them all,
Hath swept the marble where her feet
Gleam'd whiter than the mountain sleet
Ere from the cloud that gave it birth
It fell, and caught one stain of earth.
The cygnet nobly walks the water;
So moved on earth Circassia's daughter,
The loveliest bird of Franguestan! 7
As rears her crest the ruffled Swan,

And spurns the wave with wings of pride, When pass the steps of stranger man

Along the banks that bound her tide; Thus rose fair Leila's whiter neck: Thus arm'd with beauty would she check Intrusion's glance, till Folly's gaze Shrunk from the charms it meant to praise. Thus high and graceful was her gait; Her heart as tender to her mate; Her mate-stern Hassan, who was he? Alas! that name was not for thee!

Stern Hassan hath a journey ta'en With twenty vassals in his train, Each arm'd, as best becomes a man, With arquebuss and ataghan; The chief before, as deck'd for war, Bears in his belt the scimitar

1 The celebrated fabulous ruby of Sultan Giamschid, the embellisher of Istakhar; from its splendour, named Schebgerag," the torch of night;" also "the cup of the sun," &c. In the first edition, "Giamschid" was written as a word of three syllables; so D'Herbelot has it; but I am told Richardson reduces it to a dissyllable, and writes "Jamshid." I have left in the text the orthography of the one with the pronunciation of the other. [la the first edition, Lord Byron had used this word as a trisyllable," Bright as the gem of Giamschid," but, on my remarking to him, upon the authority of Richardson's Persian Dictionary, that this was incorrect, he altered it to "Bright as the ruby of Giamschid," On seeing this, however, I wrote to him, "that, as the comparison of his heroine's eye to a ruby might unluckily call up the idea of its being bloodshot, he had better change the line to" Bright as the jewel of Giamschid; " which he accordingly did, in the following edition. - MOORE.]

2 Al-Sirat, the bridge of breadth, narrower than the thread of a famished spider, and sharper than the edge of a sword, over which the Mussulmans must skate into Paradise, to which it is the only entrance; but this is not the worst, the river beneath being hell itself, into which, as may be expected, the unskilful and tender of foot contrive to tumble with a "facilis descensus Averni," not very pleasing in prospect to

Stain'd with the best of Arnaut blood,
When in the pass the rebels stood,
And few return'd to tell the tale

Of what befell in Parne's vale.
The pistols which his girdle bore
Were those that once a pasha wore,

Which still, though gemm'd and boss'd with gold,
Even robbers tremble to behold.

'Tis said he goes to woo a bride
More true than her who left his side;
The faithless slave that broke her bower,
And, worse than faithless, for a Giaour!

The sun's last rays are on the hill, And sparkle in the fountain rill, Whose welcome waters, cool and clear, Draw blessings from the mountaineer: Here may the loitering merchant Greek Find that repose 't were vain to seek In cities lodged too near his lord, And trembling for his secret hoardHere may he rest where none can see, In crowds a slave, in deserts free; And with forbidden wine may stain The bowl a Moslem must not drain.

The foremost Tartar's in the gap, Conspicuous by his yellow cap; The rest in lengthening line the while Wind slowly through the long defile: Above, the mountain rears a peak, Where vultures whet the thirsty beak, And theirs may be a feast to-night, Shall tempt them down ere morrow's light; Beneath, a river's wintry stream Has shrunk before the summer beam, And left a channel bleak and bare, Save shrubs that spring to perish there: Each side the midway path there lay Small broken crags of granite gray, By time, or mountain lightning, riven From summits clad in mists of heaven; For where is he that hath beheld The peak of Liakura unveil'd?

the next passenger. There is a shorter cut downwards for the Jews and Christians.

3 [The virgins of Paradise, called from their large black eyes, Hur al oyun. An intercourse with these, according to the institution of Mahomet, is to constitute the principal felicity of the faithful. Not formed of clay, like mortal women, they are adorned with unfading charms, and deemed to posses the celestial privilege of an eternal youth. See D'Herbelot, and Sale's Koran.]

4 A vulgar error: the Koran allots at least a third of Paradise to well-behaved women; but by far the greater number of Mussulmans interpret the text their own way, and exclude their moieties from heaven. Being enemies to Platonics, they cannot discern "any fitness of things" in the souls of the other sex, conceiving them to be superseded by the Houris.

5 An oriental simile, which may, perhaps, though fairly stolen, be deemed " plus Arabe qu'en Arabie."

Hyacinthine, in Arabic "Sunbul; " as common a the ught in the eastern poets as it was among the Greeks.

76 Franguestan," Circassia.