And thou, my friend! since thus my selfish woe
Bursts from my heart,{ to weaken in however light my strain, for ever light the——.—[D.]
Had the sword laid thee, with the mighty, low
Pride had forbade me of thy fall to plain.—[MS. D.]
[107] [Compare the In Memoriam stanzas at the end of Beattie's Minstrel—"And am I left to unavailing woe?" II. 63, line 2.]
[dl] [{83}] ——belov'd the most.—[MS. D.]
[108] [With reference to this stanza, Byron wrote to Dallas, October 25, 1811 (Letters, 1898, ii. 58, 59), "I send you a conclusion to the whole. In a stanza towards the end of Canto I. in the line,
"Oh, known the earliest and beloved the most,
I shall alter the epithet to 'esteemed the most.'">[
[dm] ——where none so long was dear.—[MS. D.]
[dn] And fancy follow to——.—[MS. D.]
[109] "Fytte" means "part."—[Note erased.]