Microsoft Word Byron and Scott 1809-1824

79: Scott may not know that B. disliked Wellington because he had been to bed with Frances Wedderburn 
Webster, and B. hadn’t. 
80: Published Paris, 1815. Scott’s quotation, which is accurate, is on p.216 (the last page). 
81: “A poet’s brain is made of soft and flexible wax, where everything that flatters, seduces, and nourishes him is 
naturally printed. The Muse of song has no party; it is an inconsequential thoughtlessness, which romps equally on 
rich lawns and on arid heather. The delirious poet will sing Titus and Thamas, Louis XII and Cromwell, Christina 
of Sweden and Fanchon la Vielleuse”. Thamas may signify a Shah of Persia; Fanchon la Vielleuse is an 1803 
comedy by Jean Nicholas Bouilly. The seeds are to be found here of B.’s hireling poet who sings The Isles of 
Greece
in DJ III. 
82: CHP III 64 1: Cannae (216 BC) in which Hannibal beat the Romans under Aemlius Paulus. 
83: CHP I 38, 5. 
84: CHP I 52, 8. 
85: CHP II 53, 1-4. 

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Chatillon, when the despot’s fate was trembling in the scales, as at those of Tilsit, when that of his 
adversary had kicked the beam. All the experience which Europe had bought by oceans of blood and 
years of degradation ought, according to these gentlemen, to have been forgotten upon the empty 
professions of one whose word, whensoever or wheresoever pledged, never bound him an instant when 
interest or ambition required a breach of it. Buonaparte assured the world he was changed in temper, 
mind and disposition; and his old agent and minister (Fouché of Nantes) was as ready to give his 
security as Bardolph was to engage for Falstaff. When Gil Blas found his old comrades in knavery, 
Don Raphael and Ambrose de Lamela, administrating the revenues of a Carthusian convent,
86
he 
shrewdly conjectured that the treasure of the holy fathers was in no small danger, and grounded his 
suspicion on the old adage ‘Il ne faut pas mettre à la cave un ivrogne qui a renoncé au vin.’
87
But 
Europe—when France had given the strongest proof of her desire to recover what she termed her glory, 
by expelling a king whose reign was incompatible with foreign wars, and recalling Napoleon to whom 
conquest was as the very breath of his nostrils Europe, most deserving, had she yielded to such 
arguments, to have been crowned with ‘the diadem, hight foolscap’,
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is censured for having exerted 
her strength to fix her security, and confuting with her own warlike weapons those whose only law was 
arms, and only argument battle. We do not believe there lives any one who can seriously doubt the 
truth of what we have said. If, however, there were any simple enough to expect to hail Freedom 
restored by the victorious arms of Buonaparte, their mistake (had Lord Wellington not saved them from 
its consequences) would have resembled that of poor Slender, who, rushing to the embraces of Anne 
Page, found himself unexpectedly in the gripe of a lubberly post-master’s boy.
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But probably no one 
was foolish enough to nourish such hopes, though there are some—their number is few—whose 
general opinions concerning the policy of Europe are so closely and habitually linked with their party 
preju-[p.194]-dices at home, that they see in the victory of Waterloo only the triumph of Lord 
Castlereagh; and could the event have been reversed, would have thought rather of the possible change 
of seats in St. Stephen’s, than of the probable subjugation of Europe. Such were those who, hiding 
perhaps secret hopes with affected despondence, lamented the madness which endeavoured to make a 
stand against the Irresistible whose military calculations were formed on plans far beyond the 
comprehension of all other minds; and such are they who, confuted by stubborn facts, now affect to 
mourn over the consequences of a victory which they had pronounced impossible. But, as we have 
already hinted, we cannot trace in Lord Byron’s writings any systematic attachment to a particular 
creed of politics, and he appears to us to seize the subjects of public interest upon the side in which 
they happen to present themselves for the moment, with this qualification, that he usually paints them 
on the shaded aspect, perhaps that their tints may harmonize with the sombre colours of his landscape. 
Dangerous as prophecies are, we could almost hazard a prediction that, if Lord Byron enjoys that 
length of life which we desire for his sake and our own, his future writings may probably shew that he 
thinks better of the morals, religion, and constitution of his country, than his poems have hitherto 
indicated. Should we fail in a hope which we cherish fondly, the disgrace of false prophecy must rest 
with us, but the loss will be with Lord Byron himself. 
Childe Harold, though he shuns to celebrate the victory of Waterloo, gives us a most beautiful 
description of the evening which preceded the battle of Quatre Bras, the alarm which called out the 
troops, and the hurry and confusion which preceded their march. We are not sure that any verses in our 
language surpass the following in vigour and in feeling. The quotation is again a long one, but we must 
not and dare not curtail it. 
XXI. 
‘There was a sound of revelry by night, 
And Belgium’s capital had gathered then 
Her Beauty and her Chivalry, and bright 
The lamps shone o’er fair women and brave men; 
A thousand hearts beat happily; and when 
Music arose with its voluptuous swell, 
Soft eyes look’d love to eyes which spake again, 
And all went merry as a marriage-bell; 
But hush! hark! a deep sound strikes like a rising knell! 
XXII. 
‘Did ye not hear it?—No; ’twas but the wind,