IX. I once was quick in feeling--that is o'er;-- My scars are callous, or I should have dashed My brain against these bars, as the sun flashed 210 In mockery through them;--- If I bear and bore The much I have recounted, and the more Which hath no words,--'t is that I would not die And sanction with self-slaughter the dull lie Which snared me here, and with the brand of shame Stamp Madness deep into my memory, And woo Compassion to a blighted name, Sealing the sentence which my foes proclaim. No--it shall be immortal!--and I make A future temple of my present cell, 220 Which nations yet shall visit for my sake.[bi] While thou, Ferrara! when no longer dwell The ducal chiefs within thee, shall fall down, And crumbling piecemeal view thy hearthless halls, A Poet's wreath shall be thine only crown,-- A Poet's dungeon thy most far renown, While strangers wonder o'er thy unpeopled walls! And thou, Leonora!--thou--who wert ashamed That such as I could love--who blushed to hear To less than monarchs that thou couldst be dear, 230 Go! tell thy brother, that my heart, untamed By grief--years--weariness--and it may be A taint of that he would impute to me-- From long infection of a den like this, Where the mind rots congenial with the abyss,-- Adores thee still;--and add--that when the towers And battlements which guard his joyous hours Of banquet, dance, and revel, are forgot, Or left untended in a dull repose, This--this--shall be a consecrated spot! 240 But _Thou_--when all that Birth and Beauty throws Of magic round thee is extinct--shalt have One half the laurel which o'ershades my grave.[188] No power in death can tear our names apart, As none in life could rend thee from my heart.[bj] Yes, Leonora! it shall be our fate To be entwined[189] for ever--but too late![190] FOOTNOTES: [173] {141}[A MS. of the _Gerusalemme_ is preserved and exhibited at Sir John Soane's Museum in Lincoln's Inn Fields.] [174] [The original MS. of this poem is dated, "The Apennines, April 20, 1817."] [175] {143}[The MS. of the _Lament of Tasso_ corresponds, save in three lines where alternate readings are superscribed, _verbatim et literatim_ with the text. A letter dated August 21, 1817, from G. Polidori to John Murray, with reference to the translation of the _Lament_ into Italian, and a dedicatory letter (in Polidori's handwriting) to the Earl of Guilford, dated August 3, 1817, form part of the same volume.]