[lg] _It there abode, and there it rings_, _But ne'er on earth its sound shall be;_ _The prophets' race hath passed away;_ _And all the hallowed minstrelsy_-- _From earth the sound and soul are fled_, _And shall we never hear again?_--[MS. M. erased.] [289] [According to Nathan, the monosyllable "if" at the beginning of the first line led to "numerous attacks on the noble author's religion, and in some an inference of atheism was drawn." Needless to add, "in a subsequent conversation," Byron repels this charge, and delivers himself of some admirable if commonplace sentiments on the "grand perhaps."-_Fugitive Pieces_, 1829, pp. 5, 6.] [lh] {384} ----_breaking link_.--[Nathan, 1815, 1829.] [290] [Compare _To Ianthe_, stanza iv. lines 1, 2-- "Oh! let that eye, which, wild as the Gazelle's, Now brightly bold or beautifully shy." Compare, too, _The Giaour_, lines 473, 474-- "Her eye's dark charm 'twere vain to tell, But gaze on that of the Gazelle." _Poetical Works_, 1899, ii. 13; _et ante_, p. 108.] [291] {387} [Nathan (_Fugitive Pieces_, 1829, pp. 11, 12) seems to have tried to draw Byron into a discussion on the actual fate of Jephtha's daughter--death at her father's hand, or "perpetual seclusion"--and that Byron had no opinion to offer. "Whatever may be the absolute state of the case, I am innocent of her blood; she has been killed to my hands;" and again, "Well, my hands are not imbrued in her blood!"] [292] {388} ["In submitting the melody to his Lordship's judgment, I once inquired in what manner they might refer to any scriptural subject: he appeared for a moment affected--at last replied, 'Every mind must make its own references; there is scarcely one of us who could not imagine that the affliction belongs to himself, to me it certainly belongs.' 'She is no more, and perhaps the only vestige of her existence is the feeling I sometimes fondly indulge.'"--_Fugitive Pieces_, 1829, p. 30. It has been surmised that the lines contain a final reminiscence of the mysterious Thyrza.] [li] ----_in gentle gloom._--[MS. M.] [lj] _Shall Sorrow on the waters gaze_, _And lost in deep remembrance dream_, _As if her footsteps could disturb the dead._--[MS. M.] [lk] {389} _Even thou_----.--[MS. M.] [ll] IV. _Nor need I write to tell the tale_, _My pen were doubly weak;_ _Oh what can idle words avail_, _Unless my heart could speak?_ V. _By day or night, in weal or woe_, _That heart no longer free_ _Must bear the love it cannot show_, _And silent turn for thee_.--[MS. M.] [293] [Compare "Nay, now, pry'thee weep no more! you know, ... that 'tis sinful to murmur at ... Providence."--"And should not that reflection check your own, my Blanche?"--"Why are your cheeks so wet? Fie! fie, my child!"--_Romantic Tales_, by M. G. Lewis, 1808, i. 53.]