MAID OF ATHENS, ERE WE PART.
15
LINES IN THE TRAVELLERS' BOOK AT ORCHOMENUS.[decimal 1]
IN THIS BOOK A TRAVELLER HAD WRITTEN:—
"Fair Albion, smiling, sees her son depart
To trace the birth and nursery of art:
Noble his object, glorious is his aim;
He comes to Athens, and he—writes his name."
BENEATH WHICH LORD BYRON INSERTED THE FOLLOWING:—
The modest bard, like many a bard unknown,
Rhymes on our names, but wisely hides his own;
But yet, whoe'er he be, to say no worse,
His name would bring more credit than his verse.
1810.
[First published, Life, 1830.]
MAID OF ATHENS, ERE WE PART.[lower-roman 1]
Ζωή μου, σᾶς ἀγαπῶ.
Variants
- ↑ Song.—[1812.]
Notes
- ↑ ["At Orchomenus, where stood the Temple of the Graces, I was tempted to exclaim, 'Whither have the Graces fled?' Little did I expect to find them here. Yet here comes one of them with golden cups and coffee, and another with a book. The book is a register of names.... Among these is Lord Byron's connected with some lines which I shall send you: 'Fair Albion,' etc." (See Travels in Italy, Greece, etc., by H. W. Williams, ii. 290, 291; Life, p. 101.)]
- ↑ [The Maid of Athens was, it is supposed, the eldest of three sisters, daughters of Theodora Macri, the widow of a former English