Such was Mazeppa, a man destined to pass through the crowded scenes of history, and to take his stand among the greater heroes of romance. His deeds of daring, his intrigues and his treachery, have been and still are sung by the wandering minstrels of the Ukraine. His story has passed into literature. His ride forms the subject of an _Orientale_ (1829) by Victor Hugo, who treats Byron's theme symbolically; and the romance of his old age, his love for his god-daughter Matréna, with its tragical issue, the judicial murder of Kotchúbey and Iskra, are celebrated by the "Russian Byron" Pushkin, in his poem _Poltava_. He forms the subject of a novel, _Iwan Wizigin_, by Bulgarin, 1830, and of tragedies by I. Slowacki, 1840, and Rudolph von Gottschall. From literature Mazeppa has passed into art in the "symphonic poem" of Franz Lizt (1857); and, yet again, _pour comble de gloire_, _Mazeppa, or The Wild Horse of Tartary_, is the title of a "romantic drama," first played at the Royal Amphitheatre, Westminster Bridge, on Easter Monday, 1831; and revived at Astley's Theatre, when Adah Isaacs Menken appeared as "Mazeppa," October 3, 1864. (_Peter the Great_, by Eugene Schuyler, 1884, ii. 115, _seq_.; _Le Fils de Pierre Le Grand, Mazeppa, etc_., by Viscount E. Melchior de Vogüé, Paris, 1884; _Peter the Great_, by Oscar Browning, 1899, pp. 219-229.) Of the composition of Mazeppa we know nothing, except that on September 24, 1818, "it was still to finish" (_Letters_, 1900, iv. 264). It was published together with an _Ode_ (_Venice: An Ode_) and _A Fragment_ (see _Letters_, 1899, iii. Appendix IV. pp. 446-453), June 28, 1819. Notices of _Mazeppa_ appeared in _Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine_, July, 1819, vol. v. p. 429 (for _John Gilpin_ and _Mazeppa_, by William Maginn, _vide ibid_., pp. 434-439); the _Monthly Review_, July, 1819, vol. 89, pp. 309-321; and the _Eclectic Review_, August, 1819, vol. xii. pp. 147-156. ADVERTISEMENT. "Celui qui remplissait alors cette place était un gentilhomme Polonais, nominé Mazeppa, né dans le palatinat de Podolie: il avait été élevé page de Jean Casimir, et avait pris à sa cour quelque teinture des belles-lettres. Une intrigue qu'il eut dans sa jeunesse avec la femme d'un gentilhomme Polonais ayant été découverte, le mari le fit lier tout nu sur un cheval farouche, et le laissa aller en cet état. Le cheval, qui était du pays de l'Ukraine, y retourna, et y porta Mazeppa, demi-mort de fatigue et de faim. Quelques paysans le secoururent: il resta longtems parmi eux, et se signala dans plusieurs courses contre les Tartares. La supériorité de ses lumières lui donna une grande considération parmi les Cosaques: sa réputation s'augmentant de jour en jour, obligea le Czar à le faire Prince de l'Ukraine."--Voltaire, _Hist. de Charles XII_., 1772, p. 205.