Je suis comme les enfans d'Israel qui
disaient: _Super flumina Babylonis .
disaient: _Super flumina Babylonis .
Byron
His wife, Louise de Savoie, died November, 1810, and in the
following April he writes (_Lettres_, pp. 70, 71), "Mars a maintenu le
bien d'un hiver fort doux; point encore de goutte; _a brebis tondue,
Dieu measure le vent_. Helas! je l'eprouve bien qu'elle est tondue cette
pauvre brebis! . . . je me promene dans le jardin, je vois mes rosiers qui
poussent bien; a qui offrirai-je les roses? . . . Eh bien! je ne voudrais
pas que cette goutte d'absinthe cessat, car pour cela il faudrait
l'oublier. L'oublier! Ah Dieu!
Je suis comme les enfans d'Israel qui
disaient: _Super flumina Babylonis . . . Sion. _ Mais ajoutons tout de
suite: _Si oblitus fuero hit, Jerusalem, oblivioni detur dextera mea_. "
In another letter, June 8, 1811, he criticizes some translations of
Horace, and laments that the good Pere Sanadon has confined himself to
the _Opera Expurgata_. Not, he adds, that he would not have excluded one
or two odes, "mais on a impitoyablement sabre des choses delicieuses"
(_Lettres_, p. 98).
To his wit, Chateaubriand testifies (_The Congress, etc. _, 1838, i.
262). At the council, when affairs of state were being discussed, the
king "would say in his clear shrill voice, 'I am going to make you
laugh, M. de Chateaubriand. ' The other ministers fumed with impatience,
but Chateaubriand laughed, not as a courtier, but as a human being. "]
[328] {567}[Louvel, who assassinated the Due de Berri, and who was
executed June 7, 1820, was supposed to have been an agent of the
_carbonari_. La Fayette, Constant, Lafitte, and others were also
suspected of being connected with secret societies.
following April he writes (_Lettres_, pp. 70, 71), "Mars a maintenu le
bien d'un hiver fort doux; point encore de goutte; _a brebis tondue,
Dieu measure le vent_. Helas! je l'eprouve bien qu'elle est tondue cette
pauvre brebis! . . . je me promene dans le jardin, je vois mes rosiers qui
poussent bien; a qui offrirai-je les roses? . . . Eh bien! je ne voudrais
pas que cette goutte d'absinthe cessat, car pour cela il faudrait
l'oublier. L'oublier! Ah Dieu!
Je suis comme les enfans d'Israel qui
disaient: _Super flumina Babylonis . . . Sion. _ Mais ajoutons tout de
suite: _Si oblitus fuero hit, Jerusalem, oblivioni detur dextera mea_. "
In another letter, June 8, 1811, he criticizes some translations of
Horace, and laments that the good Pere Sanadon has confined himself to
the _Opera Expurgata_. Not, he adds, that he would not have excluded one
or two odes, "mais on a impitoyablement sabre des choses delicieuses"
(_Lettres_, p. 98).
To his wit, Chateaubriand testifies (_The Congress, etc. _, 1838, i.
262). At the council, when affairs of state were being discussed, the
king "would say in his clear shrill voice, 'I am going to make you
laugh, M. de Chateaubriand. ' The other ministers fumed with impatience,
but Chateaubriand laughed, not as a courtier, but as a human being. "]
[328] {567}[Louvel, who assassinated the Due de Berri, and who was
executed June 7, 1820, was supposed to have been an agent of the
_carbonari_. La Fayette, Constant, Lafitte, and others were also
suspected of being connected with secret societies.
