77.
What minstrel grey, what h.o.a.ry bard, Shall Allan"s deeds on harp-strings raise?
The song is glory"s chief reward, But who can strike a murd"rer"s praise?
78.
Unstrung, untouch"d, the harp must stand, No minstrel dare the theme awake; Guilt would benumb his palsied hand, His harp in shuddering chords would break.
79.
No lyre of fame, no hallow"d verse, Shall sound his glories high in air: A dying father"s bitter curse, A brother"s death-groan echoes there.
[Footnote 1: The catastrophe of this tale was suggested by the story of "Jeronymo and Lorenzo," in the first volume of Schiller"s "Armenian, or the Ghost-Seer". It also bears some resemblance to a scene in the third act of "Macbeth".--["Der Geisterseher", Schiller"s "Werke" (1819), x.
97, "sq".]
[Footnote 2: It is evident that Byron here confused the "pibroch", the air, with the "bagpipe", the instrument.]
[Footnote 3: Beltane Tree, a Highland festival on the first of May, held near fires lighted for the occasion.]
[Footnote i:
"She view"d the gasping"----.
["Hours of Idleness".]]
[Footnote ii:
"When many an eye which ne"er again Could view"----.
["Hours of Idleness".]]
[Footnote iii:
"Internal fears"----.
["Hours of Idleness".]]
[Footnote iv:
"Old Angus prest, the earth with his breast".
["Hours of Idleness".]]
TRANSLATION FROM ANACREON.
[Greek: Thel_o legein Atpeidas, k.t.l.] [1]
ODE 1.
TO HIS LYRE.
I wish to tune my quivering lyre, [i]
To deeds of fame, and notes of fire; To echo, from its rising swell, How heroes fought and nations fell, When Atreus" sons advanc"d to war, Or Tyrian Cadmus rov"d afar; But still, to martial strains unknown, My lyre recurs to Love alone.
Fir"d with the hope of future fame, [ii]
I seek some n.o.bler Hero"s name; The dying chords are strung anew, To war, to war, my harp is due: With glowing strings, the Epic strain To Jove"s great son I raise again; Alcides and his glorious deeds, Beneath whose arm the Hydra bleeds; All, all in vain; my wayward lyre Wakes silver notes of soft Desire.
Adieu, ye Chiefs renown"d in arms!
Adieu the clang of War"s alarms! [iii]
To other deeds my soul is strung, And sweeter notes shall now be sung; My harp shall all its powers reveal, To tell the tale my heart must feel; Love, Love alone, my lyre shall claim, In songs of bliss and sighs of flame.
[Footnote 1: The motto does not appear in "Hours of Idleness" or "Poems O. and T."]
[Footnote i: "I sought to tune"----.--["MS. Newstead".]]
[Footnote ii:
"The chords resumed a second strain, To Jove"s great son I strike again.
Alcides and his glorious deeds, Beneath whose arm the Hydra bleeds".
["MS. Newstead".]]
[Footnote iii: