Note to _Heir_--Jonathan.--[Copy.]

[ls]
_My father was the shepherd's son_,
_Ah were my lot as lowly_
_My earthly course had softly run_.--[MS.]

[298] {395} [Compare _Childe Harold_, Canto I. stanza lxxxii.
lines 8, 9--

"Full from the fount of Joy's delicious springs
Some bitter o'er the flowers its bubbling venom flings."
_Poetical Works_, 1899, ii. 73, and note 16, p. 93.]

[lt]
_Ah! what hath been but what shall be_,
_The same dull scene renewing?_
_And all our fathers were are we_
_In erring and undoing_.--[MS.]

[lu] _When this corroding clay is gone_.--[MS. erased.]

[lv] _The stars in their eternal way_.--[MS. L. erased.]

[lw] {396} _A conscious light that can pervade_.--[MS. erased.]

[299] {397} [Compare the lines entitled "Belshazzar" (_vide post_, p.
421), and _Don Juan_, Canto III. stanza lxv.]

[lx] ----_in the hall_.--[Copy.]

[ly] _In Israel_----.--[Copy.]

[300] {398} [It was not in his youth, but in extreme old age, that
Daniel interpreted the "writing on the wall."]

[lz] _Oh king thy grave_----.--[Copy erased.]

[301] {400} [Mariamne, the wife of Herod the Great, falling under the
suspicion of infidelity, was put to death by his order. 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. See _History of the Jews_, by H. H. Milman, 1878, pp. 236,
237. See, too, Voltaire's drama, _Mariamne_, _passim_.

Nathan, wishing "to be favoured with so many lines pathetic, some
playful, others martial, etc.... one evening ... unfortunately (while
absorbed for a moment in worldly affairs) requested so many _dull_
lines--meaning _plaintive_." Byron instantly caught at the expression,
and exclaimed, "Well, Nathan! you have at length set me an easy task,"
and before parting presented him with "these beautifully pathetic lines,
saying, 'Here, Nathan, I think you will find these _dull_
enough.'"--_Fugitive Pieces_, 1829, p. 51.]

[ma]
_And what was rage is agony_.--[MS. erased.]
_Revenge is turned_----.--[MS.]

[mb] _And deep Remorse_----.--[MS.]

[mc] _And what am I thy tyrant pleading_.--[MS. erased.]

[md]
_Thou art not dead--they could not dare_
_Obey my jealous Frenzy's raving_.--[MS.]

[me] _But yet in death my soul enslaving_.--[MS. erased.]

[mf] {401} _Oh I have earned_----.--[MS.]

[m