[ol] _The lovely madness of some fond despair_.--[MS. M.] [495] {416} [Byron is describing the so-called Grotto of Egeria, which is situated a little to the left of the Via Appia, about two miles to the south-east of the Porta di Sebastiano: "Here, beside the Almo rivulet [now the Maranna d. Caffarella], is a ruined nymphæum ... which was called the 'Grotto of Egeria,' till ... the discovery of the true site of the Porta Capena fixed that of the grotto within the walls.... It is now known that this nymphæum ... belonged to the suburban villa called Triopio of Herodes Atticus." The actual site of Egeria's fountain is in the grounds of the Villa Mattei, to the south-east of the Cælian, and near the Porta Metronia. "It was buried, in 1867, by the military engineers, while building their new hospital near S. Stefano Rotondo" (Prof. Lanciani). In lines 5-9 Byron is recalling Juvenal's description of the valley of Egeria, under the mistaken impression that here, and not by "dripping Capena," was the trysting-place of Numa and the goddess. Juvenal has accompanied the seer Umbritius, who was leaving Rome for Capua, as far as the Porta Capena; and while the one waggon, with its slender store of goods, is being loaded, the friends take a stroll-- "In vallem Egeriæ; descendimus et speluncas Dissimiles veris. Quanto præstantius esset Numen aquæ, viridi si margine clauderet undas Herba, nec ingenuum violarent marmora tophum?" _Sat._ I. iii. 17-20. The grove and shrine of the sacred fountain, which had been let to the Jews (lines 13-16), are not to be confounded with the "artificial caverns" near Herod's Nymphæum, which Juvenal thought were in bad taste, and Byron rejoiced to find reclaimed and reclothed by Nature.] [496] {417} [Compare Shelley's _Prometheus Unbound_, act iv. (_Poetical Works_, 1893, ii. 97)-- "As a violet's gentle eye Gazes on the azure sky Until its hue grows like what it beholds."] [497] {418} [Compare _Kubla Khan_, lines 12, 13-- "But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover!"] [498] [Compare _Hamlet_, act ii. sc. 1, line 292--"This most excellent canopy the Air."] [om] _Feel the quick throbbing of a human heart_ _And the sweet sorrows of its deathless dying_.--[MS. M. erased.] or, _And the sweet sorrow which exults in dying_.--[MS. M. erased.] [on] {419} _Oh Love! thou art no habitant of Earth_ _An unseen Seraph we believe in thee_ _And can point out thy time and place of birth_.--[D. erased.] [499] [M. Darmesteter traces the sentiment to a maxim (No. 76) of La Rochefoucauld: "Il est du véritable amour comme de l'apparition des esprits: tout le monde en parle, mais pen de gens en out vu."] [500] {420} [Compare Dryden on Shaftesbury (_Absalom and Achitophel_, pt. i. lines 156-158)--