[294] [Compare "My soul is dark."--Ossian, "Oina-Morul," _The Works of Ossian_, 1765, ii. 279.] [295] {390} ["It was generally conceived that Lord Byron's reported singularities approached on some occasions to derangement; and at one period, indeed, it was very currently asserted that his intellects were actually impaired. The report only served to amuse his Lordship. He referred to the circumstance, and declared that he would try how a _Madman_ could write: seizing the pen with eagerness, he for a moment fixed his eyes in majestic wildness on vacancy; when, like a flash of inspiration, without erasing a single word, the above verses were the result."--_Fugitive Pieces_, 1829, p. 37.] [296] [Compare the first _Sonnet to Genevra_ (addressed to Lady Frances Wedderburn Webster), "Thine eye's blue tenderness."] [lm] {392} _He stands amidst an earthly cloud_, _And the mist mantled o'er his floating shroud_.--[MS. erased.] [ln] _At once and scorched beneath_----.--[MS. Copy (1, 2).] [lo] _Bloodless are these bones_----.--[MS.] [297] ["Since we have spoken of witches," said Lord Byron at Cephalonia, in 1823, "what think you of the witch of Endor? I have always thought this the finest and most finished witch-scene that ever was written or conceived; and you will be of my opinion, if you consider all the circumstances and the actors in the case, together with the gravity, simplicity, and dignity of the language."--_Conversations on Religion with Lord Byron_, by James Kennedy, M.D., London, 1830, p. 154.] [lp] {393} _Heed not the carcase that lies in your path_.--[MS. Copy (1).] [lq] ----_my shield and my bow_, _Should the ranks of your king look away from the foe_.--[MS.] [lr] {394} _Heir to my monarchy_----.--[MS.] Note to _Heir_--Jonathan.--[Copy.] [ls] _My father was the shepherd's son_, _Ah were my lot as lowly_ _My earthly course had softly run_.--[MS.] [298] {395} [Compare _Childe Harold_, Canto I. stanza lxxxii. lines 8, 9-- "Full from the fount of Joy's delicious springs Some bitter o'er the flowers its bubbling venom flings." _Poetical Works_, 1899, ii. 73, and note 16, p. 93.] [lt] _Ah! what hath been but what shall be_, _The same dull scene renewing?_ _And all our fathers were are we_ _In erring and undoing_.--[MS.] [lu] _When this corroding clay is gone_.--[MS. erased.] [lv] _The stars in their eternal way_.--[MS. L. erased.] [lw] {396} _A conscious light that can pervade_.--[MS. erased.] [299] {397} [Compare the lines entitled "Belshazzar" (_vide post_, p. 421), and _Don Juan_, Canto III. stanza lxv.] [lx] ----_in the hall_.--[Copy.] [ly] _In Israel_----.--[Copy.] [300] {398} [It was not in his youth, but in extreme old age, that Daniel interpreted the "writing on the wall."] [lz] _Oh king thy grave_----.--[Copy erased.]