[759] {567}["This construction ('commence' with the infinitive) has been objected to by stylists," says the New English Dictionary (see art. "Commence"). Its use is sanctioned by the authority of Pope, Landor, Helps, and Lytton; but even so, it is questionable, if not objectionable.]
[NY] Sweet Lord! she was so sagely innocent.—[MS.]
[760] {568}Subauditur "non;" omitted for the sake of euphony.
[761] {569} [John Scott, Earl of Eldon, Lord Chancellor, 1801 to 1827, sat as judge (November 7, 1822) to hear the petition of Henry Wallop Fellowes, that a commission of inquiry should be issued to ascertain whether his uncle, Lord Portsmouth (who married Mary Anne Hanson, the daughter of Byron's solicitor), was of sound mind, "and capable of managing his own person and property." The Chancellor gave judgment that a commission be issued, and the jury, February, 1823, returned a verdict that Lord Portsmouth had been a lunatic since 1809. (See Letters, 1898, ii. 393, note 3, et ibid., 1901, vi. 170, note i.)]
[762] Hecla is a famous hot-spring in Iceland. [Byron seems to mistake the volcano for the Geysers.]
[763] {570}[Hamlet, act iii. sc. 2, line 367.]
["By the apostle Paul, shadows to-night
Have struck more terror to the soul of Richard
Than can the substance of ten thousand soldiers," etc.