[91] {63}["These verses," says John Wright (ed. 1832, x. 207), "of which the opening lines (1-6) are given in Moore's _Notices_, etc. (1830, ii. 36), were written immediately after the failure of the negotiation ... [i.e. the intervention] of Madame de Staël, who had persuaded Byron 'to write a letter to a friend in England, declaring himself still willing to be reconciled to Lady Byron' (_Life_, p. 321), but were not intended for the public eye." The verses were written in September, and it is evident that since the composition of _The Dream_ in July, another "change had come over" his spirit, and that the mild and courteous depreciation of his wife as "a gentle bride," etc., had given place to passionate reproach and bitter reviling. The failure of Madame de Staël's negotiations must have been to some extent anticipated, and it is more reasonable to suppose that it was a rumour or report of the "one serious calumny" of Shelley's letter of September 29, 1816, which provoked him to fury, and drove him into the open maledictions of _The Incantation_ (published together with the _Prisoner of Chillon_, but afterwards incorporated with _Manfred_, act i. sc. 1, _vide post_, p. 91), and the suppressed "lines," written, so he told Lady Blessington (_Conversations, etc._, 1834, p. 79) "on reading in a newspaper" that Lady Byron had been ill.] [92] [Compare-- " ... that unnatural retribution--just, Had it but been from hands less near." _Childe Harold_, Canto IV. stanza cxxxii. lines 6, 7, _Poetical Works_, 1899, ii. 427.] [93] {64}[Compare-- "Though thy slumber may be deep, Yet thy Spirit shall not sleep. * * * * * Nor to slumber nor to die, Shall be in thy destiny." _The Incantation_, lines 201, 202, 254, 255, _Manfred_, act i. sc. 1, _vide post_, pp. 92, 93.] [94] [Compare "I suppose now I shall never be able to shake off my sables in public imagination, more particularly since my moral ... [Clytemnestra?] clove down my fame" (Letter to Moore, March 10, 1817, _Letters_, 1900, iv. 72). The same expression, "my _moral_ Clytemnestra," is applied to his wife in a letter to Lord Blessington, dated April 6, 1823. It may be noted that it was in April, 1823, that Byron presented a copy of the "Lines," etc., to Lady Blessington (_Conversations, etc._, 1834, p. 79).] [95] {65}[Compare-- "By thy delight in others' pain." _Manfred_, act i. sc. i, line 248, _vide post_, p. 93.] [96] [Compare-- " ... but that high Soul secured the heart, And panted for the truth it could not hear." _A Sketch_, lines 18, 19, _Poetical Works_, 1900, iii. 541.] [97] [Compare _Childe Harold_, Canto IV. stanza cxxxvi. lines 6-9, _Poetical Works_, 1899, ii. 430.] MONODY ON THE DEATH