FullReads

[NOTE:
384 band edition 1822; bands editions 1839.]

MAHMUD:
Died–as thou shouldst ore thy lips had painted
Their ruin in the hues of our success.
A rebel’s crime, gilt with a rebel’s tongue!
Your heart is Greek, Hassan.

HASSAN:
It may be so: 455
A spirit not my own wrenched me within,
And I have spoken words I fear and hate;
Yet would I die for–

MAHMUD:
Live! oh live! outlive
Me and this sinking empire. But the fleet–

HASSAN:
Alas!–

MAHMUD:
The fleet which, like a flock of clouds 460
Chased by the wind, flies the insurgent banner!
Our winged castles from their merchant ships!
Our myriads before their weak pirate bands!
Our arms before their chains! our years of empire
Before their centuries of servile fear! 465
Death is awake! Repulse is on the waters!
They own no more the thunder-bearing banner
Of Mahmud; but, like hounds of a base breed,
Gorge from a stranger’s hand, and rend their master.

[NOTE:
466 Repulse is “Shelley, Errata”, edition 1822; Repulsed edition 1822.]

HASSAN:
Latmos, and Ampelos, and Phanae saw 470
The wreck–

MAHMUD:
The caves of the Icarian isles
Told each to the other in loud mockery,
And with the tongue as of a thousand echoes,
First of the sea-convulsing fight–and, then,–
Thou darest to speak–senseless are the mountains: 475
Interpret thou their voice!

[NOTE:
472 Told Errata, Wms. transcript; Hold edition 1822.]

HASSAN:
My presence bore
A part in that day’s shame. The Grecian fleet
Bore down at daybreak from the North, and hung
As multitudinous on the ocean line,
As cranes upon the cloudless Thracian wind. 480
Our squadron, convoying ten thousand men,
Was stretching towards Nauplia when the battle
Was kindled.–
First through the hail of our artillery
The agile Hydriote barks with press of sail 485
Dashed:–ship to ship, cannon to cannon, man
To man were grappled in the embrace of war,
Inextricable but by death or victory.
The tempest of the raging fight convulsed
To its crystalline depths that stainless sea, 490
And shook Heaven’s roof of golden morning clouds,
Poised on an hundred azure mountain-isles.
In the brief trances of the artillery
One cry from the destroyed and the destroyer
Rose, and a cloud of desolation wrapped 495
The unforeseen event, till the north wind
Sprung from the sea, lifting the heavy veil
Of battle-smoke–then victory–victory!
For, as we thought, three frigates from Algiers
Bore down from Naxos to our aid, but soon 500
The abhorred cross glimmered behind, before,
Among, around us; and that fatal sign
Dried with its beams the strength in Moslem hearts,
As the sun drinks the dew.–What more? We fled!–
Our noonday path over the sanguine foam 505
Was beaconed,–and the glare struck the sun pale,–
By our consuming transports: the fierce light
Made all the shadows of our sails blood-red,
And every countenance blank. Some ships lay feeding
The ravening fire, even to the water’s level; 510
Some were blown up; some, settling heavily,
Sunk; and the shrieks of our companions died
Upon the wind, that bore us fast and far,
Even after they were dead. Nine thousand perished!
We met the vultures legioned in the air 515
Stemming the torrent of the tainted wind;
They, screaming from their cloudy mountain-peaks,
Stooped through the sulphurous battle-smoke and perched
Each on the weltering carcase that we loved,
Like its ill angel or its damned soul, 520
Riding upon the bosom of the sea.
We saw the dog-fish hastening to their feast.
Joy waked the voiceless people of the sea,
And ravening Famine left his ocean cave
To dwell with War, with us, and with Despair. 525
We met night three hours to the west of Patmos,
And with night, tempest–