New-York tribune., 1903-05-17

4E
treak of his story, as he breaks it off-appo-
eitely enough, it is true-to pay tribute to an
n.her 0oet. 'Anacreon Moore:
IT, --,,-,, she lvre and laurels have been given,
1i-h an the trophies Of triumphant song ,,
he won them wei. aid may he wear them Iois!
md no one but Byron could then resume his
tale with such airy ease as to leave the reader
unconscious Of having suffered any interruption
The source Of his strength in thus retaining
his hold upon Us lies largely in the play OF his
mind brilliant, cynical, witty, full Of salt and
,-ico- but II is we'll to be on ones guard
against q conception Of Byron as exclusively, IN
this great work Of his. poet of Wit and SATIRE
and OF what might be called material or even
earthly emotion. Il is not spotless poem we
cs7 e,77pathize with the friend to whose com
rlafrts he aIludes IL one Of the letters to Mur-
raw. Mr.. Hobhouse is at it again about in
zs75~4-v~ he wrathfuIIy exclains. There is
~ fuff7icqcu II he wants that, let him read
cvsfr his great idol; but his imagination must
he q tunghIl, with q Yiper's nest in the middle
TO engeu5er such a supposition about TINS
r,oer7'' Il IS now the general consensus Of opin-
ion among readers whose imaginations are not
in The least disposed 10 engender unedifying sup
rositiors that Hobhouse had some justification
for his autterings. But, on the other hand, II
SOFT vr7s perhaps a shade too rhetorical in his
-.
in hat work embraced every topic in human
life and sounded every string Of the divine
bs-r. from its slightest TO its most powerful
and heart-astounding tones,' he drew nearer
10 tie root Of the matter than did the critics
who, on the appearance of the first cantos,
found all the pIeasurable emotions they created
promptly merged in q sense Of shock Don
Juan" IS not, as Byron fiercely asserted, the
most moral Of poems; it is dishgured by gross
ness which cannot be explained away. But at
bottom i is the work Of a profoundly honest
writer and While dangerous to the inexperi-
euced reader, the harm that it might do among
mature men and women is precisely in proper
tion 10 their readiness to be harmed. The
cznie.sn Of the work is not TO be overlooked,
but We repeat, one must be careful lest one
gives il too much Importance. The poem
abouuds in passages that breathe the spirit OF
q man generous and brave. who above all things
loved the truth It is rich, too, in that feeling
fo- beauty. in that purely poetic charm, which
IN themselves are powerful TO purge the emo
tious. Again and again, amid the romantic
pictures Of this poem, gorgeous with Hght ana
color, there are things exquisite as the oe-
sc~ir,tion Of the scene which witnessed Haldees
brief career:
That isle IS row all desoate and bare,
LIS dwellings GOW1- its tenants passed away.
None but her and Father grave i tlltieF
y could not know where les a thing SO fair
%o stone IS there 10 show. tongue TO say,
What was: no Gi-ge. except the hollow sea s.
Mour1s Ger The beauty Of the Cyc4ades-
stanzas like this. or like those to Hesperus, in
the third canto or like many another in this
poem offer sufficient answer to the charge that
Byron wants tenderness. Scott may have gone
2 little too far in the passage quoted above, but
il IS certain that Don JUAN Byrons most
audacious performance, is not by any means the
least sensitive
L remains 10 speak Of what has been done
10 make this edition superior 10 all those hlth-
e-to issued We have already reprinted several
Of the stanzas Of the unfinished seventeenth
can-o. There is nothing about this fragment to
warrant enthusiasm On the contrary, II is lar
from reaching the level or which Byron wrote
the best things IL the poem OF the text as a
whole We have. Of course, in this volume an
authoritative version Mr.. Coleridge has col
lated i with original MSS in the possession OF
LADY Dorchester and Mr.. Murray He has also
coua-e9 numerous quotations made by Byron
with the ORIGINAL authorities. To the descrlp-
tior u a,evstead Abbey, in the thirteenth canto'
The editor aFlxes a long note on the place when
adds much 10 the interest in the text There Is
9 beautiful picture given Of the monument
conmemorated in this stanza:
Ari5zt the court a Gothic fountain played,
Symmetrical but decked with carvings guam
S-.ar-. faces. like 10 men IL masquerade:
And here rerharS "A monster there a SAT-
T1e spring Cushed through grim mouths o. sidili'e