Think me not thankless-but this grief But soothe not-mock not my distress! "In earlier days, and calmer hours, I would remind him of my end: Though souls absorb'd like mine allow And I have smiled-I then could smile- Through many a busy bitter scene I do not ask him not to blame, Such cold request might sound like scorn; The monk's sermon is omitted. It seems to have had so little effect upon the patient, that it could have no hopes from the reader. It may be sufficient to say, that it was of a customary length (as may be perceived from the interruptions and uneasiness of the penitent), and was delivered in the nasal tone of all orthodox preachers.-B. "Tell me no more of fancy's gleam, * As something welcome, new, and dear; I saw him buried where he fell ; "Symar," a shroud.-B They told me wild waves roll'd above Or farther with thee bear my soul "Such is my name, and such my tale. I breathe the sorrows I bewail, And thank thee for the generous tear He pass'd-nor of his name and race • The circumstance to which the above story relates, was not very uncommon in Turkey. A few years ago, the wife of Muchtar Pacha complained to his father of his son's supposed infidelity; he asked with whom, and she had the barbarity to give in a list of the twelve handsomest women in Yanina. They were seized, fastened up in sacks, and drowned in the lake the same night! One of the guards who was present informed me, that not one of the victims uttered a cry, or showed a symptom of terror, at so sudden a "wrench from all we know, from all we love." The fate of Phrosine, the fairest of this sacrifice, is the subject of many a Romaic and Arnaut ditty. The story in the text is one told of a young Venetian many years ago, and now nearly forgotten. I heard it by accident recited by one of the coffee-house story-tellers who abound in the Levant, and sing or recite their narratives. The additions and interpolations by the translator will be easily distinguished from the rest, by the want of Eastern imagery; and I regret that my memory has retained so few fragments of the original. For the contents of some of the notes, I am indebted partly to D'Herbelot, and partly to that most Eastern, and, as Mr. Webber justly entitles it, "sublime tale," the "Caliph Vathek." I do not know from what source the author of that singular volume may have drawn his materials; some of his incidents are to be found in the " Bibliothèque Orientale;" but for correctness of costume, beauty of description, and power of imagination, it far surpasses all European imitations; and bears such marks of originality, that those who have visited the East will find some difficulty in believing it to be more than a translation. As an Eastern tale, even Rasselas must bow before it; his "Happy Valley" will not bear a comparison with the " Hall of Eblis."-B. IMPROMPTU, IN REPLY TO A FRIEND. WHEN, from the heart where Sorrow sits, And clouds the brow, or fills the eye; And droop within their silent cell, September, 1913 THE BRIDE OF ABYDOS: A TURKISH TALE. "Had we never loved so kindly, Never met or never parted, We had ne'er been broken-hearted."-BURNS. ΤΟ THE RIGHT HONOURABLE LORD HOLLAND, THIS TALE IS INSCRIBED, WITH EVERY SENTIMENT OF REGARD AND RESPECT, BY HIS GRATEFULLY OBLIGED AND SINCERE FRIEND, BYRON. CANTO THE FIRST. I. KNOW ye the land where the cypress and myrtle Where the flowers ever blossom, the beams ever shine; Where the citron and olive are fairest of fruit, And the voice of the nightingale never is mute, Where the tints of the earth, and the hues of the sky, In colour though varied, in beauty may vie, And the purple of Ocean is deepest in dye; Where the virgins are soft as the roses they twine, And all, save the spirit of man, is divine? 'Tis the clime of the East; 'tis the land of the Sun Can he smile on such deeds as his children have done?+ Oh! wild as the accents of lovers' farewell Are the hearts which they bear, and the tales which they tell. "Gúl," the rose.-. "Souls made of fire, and children of the Sun, With whom Revenge is Virtue."-YOUNG's Revenge.-B. |