Byron and Sh.e.l.ley made a visit to Chillon in June, 1816, and while delayed for two days at Ouchy, a village on Lake Geneva, Byron wrote this poem.
Byron and Sh.e.l.ley belonged to a group of poets who were influenced by the French Revolution. Byron"s love of freedom was so great that he aided Italy, and finally died from a fever contracted at Missolonghi, where he had gone to aid the Greek revolutionists. The following sonnet, which was prefixed to _The Prisoner of Chillon_, gives an idea of Byron"s love of liberty.
SONNET OF CHILLON
"Eternal Spirit of the chainless Mind!
Brightest in dungeons, Liberty! thou art, For there thy habitation is the heart-- The heart which love of thee alone can bind; And when thy sons to fetters are consigned-- To fetters, and the damp vault"s dayless gloom, Their country conquers with their martyrdom, And Freedom"s fame finds wings on every wind.
"Chillon! thy prison is a holy place, And thy sad floor an altar--for "twas trod, Until his very steps have left a trace Worn, as if thy cold pavement were a sod, By Bonnivard!--May none those marks efface!
For they appeal from tyranny to G.o.d."
[107] 4. =Sudden fears.= Marie Antoinette"s hair has been said to have turned gray on the return from Varennes to Paris. It certainly turned gray very quickly during the anxiety of the Revolution.
[108] 22. =Sealed.= How?
[109] 27.-----------
[110] 35. =Marsh"s meteor lamp=; will o" the wisp.
[111] 38. =Cankering thing.= What does canker do?
[112] 57. The =elements= are fire, air, earth, and water.
[113] 82. =Polar day.= What is the length of the day near the poles?
[114] 100. =Sooth=; truth.
[115] 107. =Lake Leman=; another name for Lake Geneva.
[116] 133. The =moat= was the ditch which surrounded a castle. The moat of Chillon Castle, however, was the part of the lake which separated the rock from the sh.o.r.e.
[117] 179. =Rushing forth in blood.= Byron is said to have been fond of the symptoms of violent death. He, a year after writing this poem, saw three robbers guillotined, taking careful notice of his own and their actions. Goethe, the German poet, even thought that Byron must have committed murder, he seemed so interested in sudden death.
[118] 230. =Selfish death=; suicide.
[119] 237. =Wist=; the imperfect tense of _wit_, _to be aware of_, _to know_.
[120] 288. =Brother"s.= It was a Mohammedan belief that the souls of the blessed inhabited green birds in paradise.
[121] 294. =Solitary cloud.= This line is one of several very close similarities in this poem to Wordsworth; cf.:--
"I wandered lonely as a cloud That floats on high o"er vales and hills."
[122] 341. The =little isle= referred to is Ile de Peilz, an islet on which a century ago were planted three elms.
[123] 392. =With a sigh.= It is not unheard of for men long imprisoned to lose all desire for freedom, and even to return to their place of confinement after being set free.
MAZEPPA (Page 58)
The following extract from Voltaire"s _History of Charles XII_ was prefixed to the first edition of _Mazeppa_ as the "Advertis.e.m.e.nt":--
"The man who then filled this position [Hetman of Ukraine] was a Polish gentleman, named Mazeppa, who had been born in the Palatinate of Podolia. He had been brought up as a page to John Casimir, at whose court he had taken on some of the color of learning. An intrigue which he had in his youth with the wife of a Polish gentleman having been discovered, the husband had him bound, all naked, upon a wild horse, and in this condition let go. The horse, which was from the country of Ukraine, returned and brought there Mazeppa, half-dead with weariness and hunger. Some peasants helped him: he remained a long time among them and distinguished himself in several expeditions against the Tartars.
The superiority of his wisdom brought him great consideration among the Cossacks. His reputation increased day by day, until the Czar was obliged to make him Prince of Ukraine."
The real life of Mazeppa was as follows: Ivan Stepanovitch Mazeppa was born in 1645, of Cossack origin and of the lesser n.o.bility of Volhynia.
When fifteen years old, he became the page to John Casimir V of Poland, and, while holding this office, learned Latin and much about statesmanship. Later, however, being banished on account of a quarrel, he returned home to his mother in Volhynia. While here, to pa.s.s the time, he fell in love with the wife of a neighbor, Lord Falbouski. This lord, or pane, discovering his wife and her lover, caused Mazeppa to be stripped and bound to his own horse. The horse, enraged by lashes and pistol shots and then let loose, ran immediately to Mazeppa"s own courtyard.
Mazeppa, later, after holding various secretaryships, was made hetman, or prince, over all of Ukraine, and for nearly twenty years he was the ally of Peter the Great. Afterwards, however, he offered his services to Stanislaus of Poland, and finally to Charles XII of Sweden. "Pultowa"s Day," July 8, 1709, when Charles was defeated by the Russians and put to flight, was the last of Mazeppa"s power. He fled with Charles across the river Borysthenes and received protection from the Turks. He died a year later at Varnitza on the Dneister, just in time to escape being delivered over to Peter.
[124] 1. =Pultowa.= See Introductory Note.
[125] 9. =Day were dark and drear=; Napoleon"s famous defeat, and retreat from Moscow, October, 1815.
[126] 15. =Die.= What is the plural?
[127] 23. =Gieta= was a colonel in the king of Sweden"s army.
[128] 51. =Levels man and brute.= Burke says in his _Speech on Conciliation with America_, "Public calamity is a mighty leveller."
[129] 56. =Hetman.= See Introductory Note. Mazeppa was sixty-four years old.
[130] 104. =Bucephalus=; the horse of Alexander the Great. Alexander, when a boy, was the first to tame this horse, thereby, in fulfilment of the oracle, proving his right to the throne.
[131] 105. =Scythia= was a country, north and northeast of the Black Sea, which was inhabited by nomadic people. It was noted for its horses.
[132] 116. =Borysthenes=; another name for the Dnieper River.
[133] 151. A =Mime= was a sort of farce, travestying real persons or events.
[134] 154. =Thyrsis= was one of the names commonly used for shepherds in the Greek and Latin pastoral poets, as Theocritus, Bion, Virgil. The names were conventionally used by modern imitators of these poets.
[135] 155. =Palatine= (from _palatium_, meaning palace) was a name given to a count, or ruler of a district, who had almost regal power.
[136] 237. =O"erwrought=; the past participle of _overwork_. Cf.
_wheelwright_, _wainwright_, etc.
[137] 329. =Cap-a-pie=; from head to foot.
[138] 349. ="Scutcheon=, or escutcheon, is the shield-shaped surface upon which the armorial bearings are charged.
[139] 437. =Spahi"s=; the name of a Turkish corps of irregular cavalry.
[140] 575. =Uncouth=; literally, unknown.
[141] 618. =Ignis-fatuus=; will-o-the-wisp, Jack-o"-lantern.