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As if they loved in vain!

And yet so sweet the tears they shed,
'Tis sorrow so unmixed with dread,
They scarce can bear the morn to break
That melancholy spell,

And longer yet would weep and wake,

He sings so wild and well!

But when the day-blush bursts from high
Espires that magic melody.

And some have been who could believe
(So fondly youthful dreams deceive,

Yet harsh be they that blame) That note so piercing and profound Will shape and syllable its sound

Into Zuleika's name. 43

"Tis from her cypress' summit heard,
That melts in air the liquid word:
"Tis from her lowly virgin earth

That white rose takes its tender birth.
There late was laid a marble stone;

Eve saw it placed

the Morrow gone!

It was no mortal arm that bore

That deep-fixed pillar to the shore;

For there, as Helle's legends tell,

1185

1190

1195

1200

Next morn 'twas found where Selim fell; 1205 Lashed by the tumbling tide, whose wave

Denied his bones a holier grave:

And there by night, reclined, 'tis said,
Is seen a ghastly turbaned head:
And hence extended by the billow;

"Tis named the "Pirate-phantom's pillow!"
Where first it lay that mourning flower
Hath flourished; flourisheth this hour,
Alone and dewy, coldly pure and pale;

1210

As weeping Beauty's cheek at Sorrow's tale! 1215

NOTES

то THE

BRIDE OF ABYDOS.

Note 1, page 85, line 8.

Wax faint o'er the gardens of Gul in her bloom. "Gúl," the rose.

Note 2, page 86, line 7.

Can he smile on such deeds as his children have done?

"Souls made of fire, and children of the Sun,

"With whom Revenge is Virtue."

YOUNG'S REVENGE.

Note 3, page 88, line 20.

With Mejnoun's tale, or Sadi's song.

Mejnoun and Leila, the Romeo and Juliet of the East. Sadi, the moral poet of Persia.

Note 4, page 38, line 21.

Till I, who heard the deep tambour.

Tambour, Turkish drum, which sounds at sunrise, noon, and twilight.

Note 5, page 91, line 18.

He is an Arab to my sight.

The Turks abhor the Arabs (who return the compliment a hundred fold) even more than they hate the Christians.

Note 6, page 93, line 4.

The mind, the Music breathing from her face. This expression has met with objections. I will not refer to "Him who hath not Music in his soul," but merely request the reader to recollect, for ten seconds, the features of the woman whom he believes to be the most beautiful; and if he then does not comprehend fully what is feebly expressed in the above line, I shall be sorry for us both. For an eloquent passage in the latest work of the first female writer of this, perhaps, of any age, on the analogy (and the immediate comparison excited by that analogy) between "painting and music," see vol. 1. cap. 10. De L'ALLEMAGNE. And is not this connexion still stronger with the original than the copy? With the colouring of Nature than of Art? After all, this is rather to be felt than described; still I think there are some who will unterstand it, at least they would have done had they beheld the countenance whose speaking harmony suggested the idea; for this passage is not drawn from imagination but memory, that mirror which Affliction dashes to the earth, and looking down upon the fragments, only beholds the reflection multiplied!

Note 7, page 94, line 3.

But yet the line of Carasman.

Carasman Oglou, or Kara Osman Oglou, is the principal landholder in Turkey, he goverus Magnesia; those who, by

a kind of feudal tenure, possess land on condition of service, are called Timariots: they serve as Spahis, according to the extent of territory, and bring a certain number into the field, generally cavalry.

Note 8, page 94, line 15.

And teach the messenger what fate.

When a Pacha is sufficiently strong to resist, the single messenger, who is always the first bearer of the order for his death, is strangled instead, and sometimes five or six, one after the other, on the same errand, by command of the refractory patient; if, on the contrary, he is weak or loyal, he bows, kisses the Sultan's respectable signature, and is bowstrung with great complacency. In 1810, several of these presents were exhibited in the niche of the Seraglio gate; among others, the head of the Pacha of Bagdat, a brave young man, cut off by treachery, after a desperate resistance.

Note 9, page 95, line 10.

Thrice clapped his hands, and called his steed.

Clapping of the hands calls the servants. The Turks hate a superfluous expenditure of voice, and they have no bells.

Note 10, page 95, line 11.

Resigned his gem-adorned Chibouque.

Chibouque, the Turkish pipe, of which the amber mouthpiece, and sometimes the ball which contains the leaf, is adorned with precious stones, if in possession of the wealthier orders.

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