Helena_, had created a
sensation
on both sides of the Channel.
Byron
S[helley], for the benefit of being copied, a
poem of about seven hundred and fifty lines length--The Age of
Bronze,--or _Carmen Seculare et Annus haud Mirabilis_, with this
Epigraph--'Impar _Congressus_ Achilli. ' It is calculated for the reading
part of the million, being all on politics, etc. , etc. , etc. , and a
review of the day in general,--in my early _English Bards_ style, but a
little more stilted, and somewhat too full of 'epithets of war' and
classical and historical allusions. If notes are necessary, they can be
added. "
On March 5th he forwarded the "Proof in Slips" ("and certainly the
_Slips_ are the most conspicuous part of it") to his new publisher, John
Hunt; and, on April 1, 1823, _The Age of Bronze_ was published, but not
with the author's name.
Ten years had gone by since he had published, only to disclaim, the
latest of his boyish satires, _The Waltz_, and more than six years since
he had written, "at the request of Douglas Kinnaird," the stilted and
laboured _Monody on the Death of . . . Sheridan_. In the interval
(1816-1822) he had essayed any and every measure but the heroic, and, at
length, as a tardy recognition of his allegiance to "the great moral
poet of all times, of all climes, of all feelings, and of all stages of
existence" (_Observations upon "Observations,"_ _Letters_, 1901, v.
590), he reverts, as he believes, to his "early _English Bards_ style,"
the style of Pope.
The brazen age, the "Annus Haud Mirabilis," which the satirist would
hold up to scorn, was 1822, the year after Napoleon's death, which
witnessed a revolution in Spain, and the Congress of Allied Sovereigns
at Verona. Earlier in the year, the publication of Las Cases' _Memorial
de S^te^ Helene_, and of O'Meara's _Napoleon in Exile, or a Voice from
St.
Helena_, had created a sensation on both sides of the Channel.
Public opinion had differed as to the system on which Napoleon should be
treated--and, since his death, there had been a conflict of evidence as
to the manner in which he had been treated, at St. Helena. Tories
believed that an almost excessive lenience and indulgence had been
wasted on a graceless and thankless intriguer, while the "Opposition,"
Liberals or Radicals, were moved to indignation at the hardships and
restrictions which were ruthlessly and needlessly imposed on a fallen
and powerless foe. It was, and is, a very pretty quarrel; and Byron,
whose lifelong admiration for his "Heros de Roman" was tempered by
reason, approached the Longwood controversy somewhat in the spirit of a
partisan.
In _The Age of Bronze_ (sects, iii. -v. ) he touches on certain incidents
of the "Last Phase" of Napoleon's career, and proceeds to recapitulate,
in a sort of _Memoria Technica_, the chief events of his history, from
the dawn at Marengo to the sunset at "bloody and most bootless
Waterloo," and draws the unimpeachable moral that "Honesty is the best
policy," even when the "game is Empire" and "the stakes are thrones"!
From the rise and fall, the tyranny and captivity of Napoleon, he passes
on to the Congress of Allied Powers, which met at Verona in November,
1822.
The "Congress" is the object of his satire. It had assembled with a
parade of power and magnificence, and had dispersed with little or
nothing accomplished. It was "impar Achilli" (_vide ante_, p. 535,
note 1), an empty menace, ill-matched with the revolutionary spirit,
and in pitiful contrast to the _Sic volo, sic jubeo_ of the dead
Napoleon.
The immediate and efficient cause of the Congress of Verona was the
success of the revolution in Spain. The point at issue between Spanish
Liberals and Royalists, or _serviles_, was the adherence to, or the
evasion of, the democratic Constitution of 1812. At the moment the
Liberals were in the ascendant, and, as Chateaubriand puts it, had
driven King Ferdinand into captivity, at Urgel, in Catalonia, to the
tune of the Spanish Marseillaise, "_Tragala, Tragala_" "swallow it,
swallow it," that is, "accept the Constitution.
poem of about seven hundred and fifty lines length--The Age of
Bronze,--or _Carmen Seculare et Annus haud Mirabilis_, with this
Epigraph--'Impar _Congressus_ Achilli. ' It is calculated for the reading
part of the million, being all on politics, etc. , etc. , etc. , and a
review of the day in general,--in my early _English Bards_ style, but a
little more stilted, and somewhat too full of 'epithets of war' and
classical and historical allusions. If notes are necessary, they can be
added. "
On March 5th he forwarded the "Proof in Slips" ("and certainly the
_Slips_ are the most conspicuous part of it") to his new publisher, John
Hunt; and, on April 1, 1823, _The Age of Bronze_ was published, but not
with the author's name.
Ten years had gone by since he had published, only to disclaim, the
latest of his boyish satires, _The Waltz_, and more than six years since
he had written, "at the request of Douglas Kinnaird," the stilted and
laboured _Monody on the Death of . . . Sheridan_. In the interval
(1816-1822) he had essayed any and every measure but the heroic, and, at
length, as a tardy recognition of his allegiance to "the great moral
poet of all times, of all climes, of all feelings, and of all stages of
existence" (_Observations upon "Observations,"_ _Letters_, 1901, v.
590), he reverts, as he believes, to his "early _English Bards_ style,"
the style of Pope.
The brazen age, the "Annus Haud Mirabilis," which the satirist would
hold up to scorn, was 1822, the year after Napoleon's death, which
witnessed a revolution in Spain, and the Congress of Allied Sovereigns
at Verona. Earlier in the year, the publication of Las Cases' _Memorial
de S^te^ Helene_, and of O'Meara's _Napoleon in Exile, or a Voice from
St.
Helena_, had created a sensation on both sides of the Channel.
Public opinion had differed as to the system on which Napoleon should be
treated--and, since his death, there had been a conflict of evidence as
to the manner in which he had been treated, at St. Helena. Tories
believed that an almost excessive lenience and indulgence had been
wasted on a graceless and thankless intriguer, while the "Opposition,"
Liberals or Radicals, were moved to indignation at the hardships and
restrictions which were ruthlessly and needlessly imposed on a fallen
and powerless foe. It was, and is, a very pretty quarrel; and Byron,
whose lifelong admiration for his "Heros de Roman" was tempered by
reason, approached the Longwood controversy somewhat in the spirit of a
partisan.
In _The Age of Bronze_ (sects, iii. -v. ) he touches on certain incidents
of the "Last Phase" of Napoleon's career, and proceeds to recapitulate,
in a sort of _Memoria Technica_, the chief events of his history, from
the dawn at Marengo to the sunset at "bloody and most bootless
Waterloo," and draws the unimpeachable moral that "Honesty is the best
policy," even when the "game is Empire" and "the stakes are thrones"!
From the rise and fall, the tyranny and captivity of Napoleon, he passes
on to the Congress of Allied Powers, which met at Verona in November,
1822.
The "Congress" is the object of his satire. It had assembled with a
parade of power and magnificence, and had dispersed with little or
nothing accomplished. It was "impar Achilli" (_vide ante_, p. 535,
note 1), an empty menace, ill-matched with the revolutionary spirit,
and in pitiful contrast to the _Sic volo, sic jubeo_ of the dead
Napoleon.
The immediate and efficient cause of the Congress of Verona was the
success of the revolution in Spain. The point at issue between Spanish
Liberals and Royalists, or _serviles_, was the adherence to, or the
evasion of, the democratic Constitution of 1812. At the moment the
Liberals were in the ascendant, and, as Chateaubriand puts it, had
driven King Ferdinand into captivity, at Urgel, in Catalonia, to the
tune of the Spanish Marseillaise, "_Tragala, Tragala_" "swallow it,
swallow it," that is, "accept the Constitution.
