[42] ‘Had I not written “The Bride” (in four nights), I must have gone mad by eating my own heart—bitter diet.’—‘Journals and Letters,’ vol. ii., p. 321.
‘Hail be you, Mary, mother and May,
Mild, and meek, and merciable!’
An Ancient Hymn to the Virgin.
[44] Mary was ‘the last of a time-honoured race.’ The line of the Chaworths ended with her.
[45] It will be remembered that Byron had announced ‘The Corsair’ as ‘the last production with which he should trespass on public patience for some years.’ With the loss of Mary’s love his inspiration was gone.
‘With hackbut bent, my secret stand,
Dark as the purposed deed, I chose,
And mark’d where, mingling in his band,
Trooped Scottish pikes and English bows.’
Sir Walter Scott: Cadyow Castle.
[47] Mary’s allusion to the seal is explained by an entry in Byron’s journal, November 14, 1813. The seal is treasured as a memento of Byron by the Musters family.
[48] No one, we presume, will question the identity of the person mentioned in ‘The Dream’:
‘Upon a tone,
A touch of hers, his blood would ebb and flow,
And his cheek change tempestuously—his heart
Unknowing of its cause of agony.’