[bc] {138} _Mistress of Lombardy--'tis some comfort to me_.--[MS. M.] [50] [Compare "Ce fut l'époque, où Vénise étendit son empire sur Brescia, Bergame, Ravenne, et Crème; où elle fonda sa domination de Lombardie," etc. (Sismondi's _Histoire des Républiques_, x. 38). Brescia fell to the Venetians, October, 1426; Bergamo, in April, 1428; Ravenna, in August, 1440; and Crema, in 1453.] [51] {139}[The Bridge of Sighs was not built till the end of the sixteenth century. (_Vide ante, Marino Faliero_, act i. sc. 2, line 508, _Poetical Works_, 1901, iv. 363, note 2; see, too, _Childe Harold_, Canto IV. stanza i. line 1, _et post_, act iv. sc. 1, line 75.)] [bd] {141} _To tears save those of dotage_----.--[MS. M.] [52] {143}[Five sons were born to the Doge, of whom four died of the plague (_Two Doges, etc._, by A. Wiel, 1891, p. 77).] [53] {144}[The Doge offered to abdicate in June, 1433, in June, 1442, and again in 1446 (see Romanin, _Storia, etc._, 1855, iv. 170, 171, note 1).] [54] [_Vide ante_, p. 123.] [55] {148}[For the _Pozzi_ and _Piombi_, see _Marino Faliero_, act i. sc. 2, _Poetical Works_, 1901, iv. 363, note 2.] [be] _Keep this for them_----.--[MS. M.] [bf] {149} _The blackest leaf, his heart, and blankest, his brain_.--[MS. M.] [bg] ----_and best in humblest stations_.--[MS. M.] [bh] _Where hunger swallows all--where ever was_ _The monarch who could bear a three days' fast?_--[MS. M.] [bi] _Their disposition_----.--[MS. M.] [56] [It would seem that Byron's "not ourselves" by no means "made for" righteousness.] [bj] ----_the will itself dependent_ _Upon a storm, a straw, and both alike_ _Leading to death_----.--[MS. M.] [57] [Compare--"The boldest steer but where their ports invite." _Childe Harold_, Canto III. stanza lxx. lines 7-9; and Canto IV. stanza xxxiv., _Poetical Works_, 1899, ii. 260, 353, and 74, note 1.] [58] {152}[Compare-- "Our voices took a dreary tone, An echo of the dungeon stone." _Prisoner of Chillon_, lines 63, 64. Compare, too-- "----prisoned solitude. And the Mind's canker in its savage mood, When the impatient thirst of light and air Parches the heart." _Lament of Tasso_, lines 4-7.] [59] {153}[For inscriptions on the walls of the _Pozzi_, see note 1 to _Childe Harold's Pilgrimage_, Canto IV., _Poetical Works_, 1899, ii. 465-467. Hobhouse transferred these "scratchings" to his pocket-books, and thence to his _Historical Notes_; but even as prison inscriptions they lack both point and style.] [60] [Compare-- "Run, run, Orlando; carve on every tree The fair, the chaste and unexpressive she." _As You Like It_, act iii. sc. 2, lines 9, 10.] [bk] _Which never can be read but, as 'twas written,_ _By wretched beings_.--[MS.] [bl] {154}