[18] {21} [Kölbing quotes parallel uses of the same expression in Werner, act iv. sc. 1; Churchill's The Times, line 341, etc.; but does not give the original—
"But earthlier happy is the rose distill'd,
Than that which, withering on the virgin-thorn," etc.
Midsummer Night's Dream, act i. sc. i, lines 76, 77.]
[19] [Compare—
"The first, last look of Death revealed."
The Giaour, line 89, note 2.
Byron was a connoisseur of the incidents and by-play of "sudden death," so much so that Goethe was under the impression that he had been guilty of a venial murder (see his review of Manfred in his paper Kunst and Alterthum, Letters, 1901, v. 506, 507). A year after these lines were written, when he was at Rome (Letter to Murray, May 30, 1817), he saw three robbers guillotined, and observed himself and them from a psychological standpoint.
"The ghastly bed of Sin" (lines 182, 183) may be a reminiscence of the death-bed of Lord Falkland (English Bards, etc., lines 680-686; Poetical Works, 1898, i. 351, note 2).]
[20] {22} [Compare—
"And yet I could not die."