[27] [Byron must often have pictured to himself an unexpected meeting with his wife. In certain moods he would write letters to her which were never sent, or never reached her hands. The scene between Sardanapalus and Zarina reflects the sentiments contained in one such letter, dated November 17, 1821, which Moore printed in his _Life_, pp. 581, 582. See _Letters_, 1901, v. 479.] [ag] {84} _Bravely and won wear wisely--not as I_.--[MS. M, erased.] [ah] {88} _Which thou hast lighted up at once? but leavest_ _One to grieve o'er the other's change--Zarina_.-[MS. M, erased.] [ai] {89} ----_natural_.--[MS. M. The first edition reads "mutual."] [aj] {91} _Is heavier sorrow than the wrong which_--[MS. M. erased.] [ak] {93} _A leech's lancet would have done as much_.--[MS. M. erased.] [28] {94}[Myrrha's apostrophe to the sunrise may be compared with the famous waking vision of the "Solitary" in the Second Book of the _Excursion_ (_Works of Wordsworth_, 1889, p. 439)-- "The appearance, instantaneously disclosed, Was of a mighty city--boldly say A wilderness of building, sinking far And self-withdrawn into a boundless depth, Far sinking into splendour--without end! Fabric it seemed of diamond and of gold, With alabaster domes, and silver spires, And blazing terrace upon terrace, high Uplifted." But the difference, even in form, between the two passages is more remarkable than the resemblance, and the interpretation, the moral of Byron's vision is distinct from, if not alien to, Wordsworth's. The "Solitary" sees all heaven opened; the revealed abode of spirits in beatitude--a refuge and a redemption from "this low world of care;" while Myrrha drinks in "enough of heaven," a medicament of "Sorrow and of Love," for the invigoration of "the common, heavy, human hours" of mortal existence. For a charge of "imitation," see _Works of Lord Byron_, 1832, xiii. 172, note I. See, too, _Poetical Works, etc._, 1891, p. 271, note 2.] [al] {95} _Sunrise and sunset form the epoch of_ _Sorrow and love; and they who mark them not_ {_Are fit for neither of those_ {_Can ne'er hold converse with these two_.--[MS. M. erased.] [am] _Of labouring wretches in alloted tasks_.--[MS. M. erased.] [an] {97} _We are used to such inflictions_.--[MS. M. erased.] [29] {101} About two miles and a half. [ao] {102} _Complexions, climes, æras, and intellects_.--[MS. M. erased.] [30] {103}[Athenæus represents the treasures which Sardanapalus placed in the chamber erected on his funeral pile as amounting to a thousand myriads of talents of gold, and ten times as many talents of silver.] [ap] _Ye will find the crevice_ _To which the key fits, with a little care_.--[MS. M. erased.]