[501] [Compare _Childe Harold_, Canto I. stanza lxvii. line 5, _Poetical Works_, 1899, ii. 64, note 3.] {385}[jd] _Or the substrata_----.--[MS.] [502] [Compare Preface to _Cain_, _Poetical Works_, 1901, V. 210, note 1.] [503] [_Vide ante,_ Canto VIII. stanza cxxvi. line 9, p. 368.] {386}[504] [_Hamlet_, act i. sc. 5, line 189.] [je] _I never know what's next to come_----.--[MS. erased.] [505] [It is possible that the phrase "painted snows" was suggested by Tooke's description of the winter-garden of the Taurida Palace: "The genial warmth, ... the voluptuous silence that reigns in this enchanting garden, lull the fancy into sweet romantic dreams: we think ourselves in the groves of Italy, while torpid nature, through the windows of this pavilion, announces the severity of a northern winter" (_The Life, etc._, 1800, iii. 48).] {387}[jf] _O'er limits which mightily_----:--[MS. erased.] [jg]---- _in Youth and Glory's pillory_.--[MS. erased.] [506] [In his _Notes sur le Don Juanisme_ (_Mercure de France_, 1898, xxvi. 66), M. Bruchard says that this phrase defines and summarizes the Byronic Don Juan.] [jh] _The Empress smiled while all the Orloff frowned_-- _A numerous family, to whose heart or hand_ _Mild Catherine owed the chance of being crowned,_.--[MS. erased.] {388}[507] [C.F.P. Masson, in his _Mémoires Secrets, etc._, 1880, i. 150-178, gives a list of twelve favourites, and in this Canto, Don Juan takes upon himself the characteristics of at least three, Lanskoï, Zoritch (or Zovitch), and Plato Zoubof. For example (p. 167), "Zoritch ... est le seul étranger qu'elle ait osé créer son favori pendant son regne. C'étoit un _Servien_ échappé du bagne de Constantinople où il étoit prisonnier: il parut, pour la première fois, en habit de hussard à la cour. Il éblouit tout le monde par sa beauté, et les vielles dames en parlent encore comme d'un Adonis." M. Waliszewski, in his _Romance of an Empress_ (1894), devotes a chapter to "Private Life and Favouritism" (ii. 234-286), in which he graphically describes the election and inauguration of the _Vremienchtchik_, "the man of the moment," paramour regnant, and consort of the Empress _pro hac vice_: "'We may observe in Russia a sort of interregnum in affairs, caused by the displacement of one favourite and the installation of his successor.' ... The interregnums are, however, of very short duration. Only one lasts for several months, between the death of Lanskoï (1784) and the succession of Iermolof.... There is no lack of candidates. The place is good.... Sometimes, too, on the height by the throne, reached at a bound, these spoilt children of fate grow giddy.... It is over in an instant, at an evening reception it is noticed that the Empress has gazed attentively at some obscure lieutenant, presented but just before ... next day it is reported that he has been appointed aide-de-camp to her Majesty. What that means is well known. Next day he finds himself in the special suite