To read, to learn, to watch, to pray,
To lift the latch, to force the way.
But better he had ne’er been born
Who reads to doubt, who reads to scorn.
[²] Shelley (1792–1822) and Lord Beaconsfield, by Richard Garnett (1835–1906). London: Printed For Private Circulation Only. 8º. pp. 22. 1887, p. 9.
[³] Adonais ... By Percy B. Shelley ... MDCCCXXI. Stanza xxx., line 3.
The genius of pure imagination is usually apt to evade the actual facts of political and social life, and to wing its way into an ideal world of abstractions. But some there are who derive their material from the realities of social and national life, and transmute into poetry the prevailing ideas of the actual world. The Pilgrim Poet belonged to the latter category. He re-echoed the aspirations of his time. Thorough understanding of and sincere compassion for the sorrows of Israel found eloquent expression in the English writings of that epoch. At that time English writers were keen students of Jewish history, and since the time of Vespasian (9–79) Jewish history has recorded only sorrowful scenes: it tells mainly of fugitives banished to all quarters of the world, where they have sought asylum and have been compelled to realize the unanimity of the desire to annihilate them. “The Jews were a prey to innumerable calamities, and their existence was little else than a protracted agony.” “The numberless banishments, oppressions, exactions, persecutions, massacres and miseries of all kinds, which they have undergone in almost every age and nation from their first dispersion down to these latter times—the various causes which have concurred to wipe off the very name and memorial of them from the face of the earth ... are indescribable.” This was what Byron read in the English literature of his time, and what he realized in his wanderings. A homeless nation—that was the fact which impressed itself most forcibly upon his mind.
Byron’s Hebrew Melodies, which were written at the suggestion of the Honourable Douglas James William Kinnaird (1788–1830),[¹] were published with music in January, 1815. Kinnaird was a man of considerable ability and great intellectual attainments. He introduced a Jewish composer, Isaac Nathan (1791–1864), to Lord Byron about 1812. This was the beginning of a friendship which ended only with the death of the poet. Byron wrote the Hebrew Melodies with the express purpose of their being set to music by Nathan, who subsequently bought the copyright of the work. Nathan decided to raise the means for the publication of the Melodies by subscription, and with that object associated himself with his co-religionist, the melodious tenor John Braham (1774?–1856), who began his musical career as a chorister at the Synagogue in Duke’s Place. Braham composed several operas, one of them the Americans, containing that famous song, The Death of Nelson; and achieved a European reputation in his time. On signing the subscription list, Braham intimated his desire to assist in the publication of the Melodies and to sing them in public. Hence on the title-page of the first edition, which was published in 1815, it was recorded that the music was newly arranged, harmonized and revised by I. Nathan and I. Braham.
[¹] Fifth son of George (ob. 1805), seventh Baron Kinnaird of Inchture.
The Melodies consisted mainly of a selection of favourite airs sung in connection with the observance of Jewish religious ceremonies (Appendix l). It is interesting to observe that the music was reviewed first. Some of the remarks respecting Hebrew music are worthy of note. “In our very limited Review, it cannot be expected that we should attempt to throw any new light on the dark subject of Hebrew musick.... Whether the present Melodies were ever performed by King David’s 4000 Levites, ... we shall not venture to decide: their age and originality are left entirely to conjecture, having been ‘preserved by memory and tradition alone.’ Some of them possess an interesting wildness of character, which leaves no doubt as to their real antiquity; and the Editors assure us that they have preserved as much of this feature as the rhythm of written musick and the adaptation of the words, would permit.”[¹] The Literary Review of the same Magazine devotes a very few lines to a criticism of the poems: “To say that these Melodies are Lord Byron’s, is to pronounce them elegant. We select the following Poem, in addition to that already given in Part I., p. 450” (i.e. “I saw thee weep”). There follows the poem “Saul.”[²]