In his opinion it is quite transparent that Lord Byron meant to say, speaking to the Ocean of its shores:
"Thy waters wasted them when they were free,
And many a tyrant since" (has wasted them).
But in my former letter I quoted a German translator's version of the lines, and he did not understand them thus; and I have just referred to a French translator's, and he also differs from MR. CROSSLEY. In fact, his view of the matter so completely tallies with mine, that I will, with your permission, quote his words:
"Tes rivages sont des empires, où tout est changé, excepté toi. Que sont devenus l'Assyrie, la Grèce, Rome, Carthage? Tes flots battaient leurs frontières aux jours de la liberté, comme depuis sous le règne de plus d'un tyran."
This passage is taken from the complete translation of Lord Byron's Works, published at Paris in 1836, by M. Benjamin de Laroche, vol. i. p. 754.
M. de Laroche was no doubt led to form his opinion of the real meaning of these two lines from a careful consideration of those which immediately precede and immediately follow. The theme of the poet is the proud superiority of the ocean to human authority, and its insensibility to human vicissitude. He rebukes the haughty assumption that "Britannia rules the waves;" he refers in proof to the striking fact, that of the two most memorable tempests recorded in the naval history of Spain and England, the one aided our triumph, and the other tore the fruits of a triumph from us.
"The oak leviathans, whose huge ribs make
Their clay creator the proud title take
Of lord of thee, and arbiter of war,