Page:The Works of Lord Byron (ed. Coleridge, Prothero) - Volume 2.djvu/54

VIII.^[1]

Yet oft-times in his maddest mirthful mood

⁠Strange pangs would flash along Childe Harold's brow,^[2]

have committed previous to the 8th of December preceding (Murdris, per ipsos post decimum nonum Diem Novembris, ultimo præteritum perpetratis, si quæ fuerint, exceptis)" (Life, p. 2, note). The monks were a constant source of delight to the Newstead "revellers." Francis Hodgson, in his "Lines on a Ruined Abbey in a Romantic Country" (Poems, 1809), does not spare them— {{block center|"'Hail, venerable pile!' whose ivied walls
⁠Proclaim the desolating lapse of years:


1. The original MS. inserts two stanzas which were rejected during the composition of the poem:—

   ⁠Of all his train there was a henchman page,
   ⁠peasant⁠served
   ⁠⁠A dark eyed boy, who loved his master well;
   ⁠And often would his pranksome prate engage
   ⁠Harold's
   ⁠⁠Childe Burun's ear, when his proud heart did swell
   ⁠With sable thoughts that he disdained to tell.
   ⁠Alwin
   ⁠⁠Then would he smile on him, as Rupert smiled,
   ⁠When aught that from his young lips archly fell
   ⁠Harold's
   ⁠⁠The gloomy film from Burun's eye beguiled;

   And pleased the Childe appeared nor ere the boy reviled. And pleased for a glimpse appeared the woeful Childe.

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   ⁠Him and one yeoman only did he take
   ⁠⁠To travel Eastward to a far countree;
   ⁠And though the boy was grieved to leave the lake
   ⁠⁠On whose firm banks he grew from Infancy,
   ⁠Eftsoons his little heart beat merrily
   ⁠⁠With hope of foreign nations to behold,
   ⁠And many things right marvellous to see,
   ⁠vaunting
   ⁠⁠Of which our lying voyagers oft have told,

   From Mandevilles' and scribes of similar mold. or, In tomes pricked out with prints to monied ... sold In many a tome as true as Mandeville's of old.

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2. —— Childe Burun ——.—[MS].