Page:The Works of Lord Byron (ed. Coleridge, Prothero) - Volume 3.djvu/344

XV.
Thou Timour! in his captive's cage^{[lower-roman 1][decimal 1]}
⁠What thoughts will there be thine,
While brooding in thy prisoned rage?
⁠But one—"The world was mine!"
Unless, like he of Babylon,^{[decimal 2]}
All sense is with thy sceptre gone,^{[decimal 3]}
⁠Life will not long confine
That spirit poured so widely forth—
So long obeyed—so little worth!

XVI.
Or, like the thief of fire from heaven,^{[decimal 4]}
⁠Wilt thou withstand the shock?
And share with him, the unforgiven,
⁠His vulture and his rock!
Foredoomed by God—by man accurst,^{[lower-roman 2]}

1. There Timour in his captive cage.—[First Proof.]

2. He suffered for kind acts to men
   Who have not seen his like again,
   ⁠At least of kingly stock
   Since he was good, and thou but great
   Thou canst not quarrel with thy fate.—[First Proof, stanza x.]

1. The cage of Bajazet, by order of Tamerlane.
   [The story of the cage is said to be a fable. After the battle of Angora, July 20, 1402, Bajazet, whose escape from prison had been planned by one of his sons, was chained during the night, and placed in a kafes (kàfess), a Turkish word, which signifies either a cage or a grated room or bed. Hence the legend.—Hist. de l' Empire Othoman, par J. von Hammer-Purgstall, 1836, ii. 97.]
2. [Presumably another instance of "careless and negligent ease."]
3. ["Have you heard that Bertrand has returned to Paris with the account of Napoleon's having lost his senses? It is a report; but, if true, I must, like Mr. Fitzgerald and Jeremiah (of lamentable memory), lay claim to prophecy."—Letter to Murray, June 14, 1814, Letters, 1899, iii, 95.]
4. Prometheus.