e head of the valley of the Pleistus, facing
southwards.--_Travels in Albania_, i. 188, 199; _Geography of Greece_,
by H. F. Tozer, 1873, p. 230.]
[cu] _Not in the landscape of a fabled lay_.--[MS. D.]
[80] {61} ["Upon Parnassus, going to the fountain of Delphi (Castri) in
1809, I saw a flight of twelve eagles (Hobhouse said they were
vultures--at least in conversation), and I seized the omen. On the day
before, I composed the lines to Parnassus [in _Childe Harold_] and, on
beholding the birds, had a hope that Apollo had accepted my homage. I
have, at least, had the name and fame of a poet during the poetical
period of life (from twenty to thirty). Whether it will last is another
matter; but I have been a votary of the deity and the place, and am
grateful for what he has done in my behalf, leaving the future in his
hands, as I left the past" (B. _Diary_, 1821).]
[cv] {62} _And walks with glassy steps o'er Aganippe's wave_.--[MS.
erased.]
[cw]
_Let me some remnant of thy Spirit bear_
_Some glorious thought to my petition grant_.--[MS. erased, D.]
[81] ["Parnassus ... is distinguished from all other Greek mountains by
its mighty mass. This, with its vast buttresses, almost fills up the
rest of the country" (_Geography of Greece_, by H.F. Tozer, 1873, p.
226).]
[82] {63} [In his first letter from Spain (to F. Hodgson, August 6,
1809) Byron exclaims, "Cadiz, sweet Cadiz!--it is the first spot in the
creation ... Cadiz is a complete Cythera." See, too, letter to Mrs.
Byron, August 11, 1809 (Letters, 1898, i. 234, 239).]
[cx]
_While boyish blood boils gaily, who can 'scape_
_The lurking lures of thy enchanting gaze_.--[MS. erased.]
[83] {64} [It must not be supposed that the "thousand altars" of Cadiz
correspond with and are in contrast to the "one dome" of Paphos. The
point is that where Venus fixes her shrine, at Paphos or at Cadiz,
altars blaze and worshippers abound (compare _AEneid_, i. 415-417)--
"Ipsa Paphum sublimis abit, sedesque revisit
Laeta suas, ubi templum illi, centumque Sabaeo
Ture calent arae."]
[84] [Compare Milton's _Paradise Lost_, i.--
... from morn
To noon he fell, from noon to dewy eve.]
[85] [It was seldom that Byron's memory played him false, but here a
vague recollection of a Shakespearian phrase has beguiled him into a
blunder. He is thinking of Hamlet's jibe on the corruption of manners,
"The age is grown so picked that the toe o
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