Notes to Childe Harold's Pilgrimage

Canto I

Stanza 1, line 6
 Yes! sigh'd o'er Delphi's long deserted shrine
The little village of Castri stands partly on the site of Delphi. Along the path of the mountain, from Chrysso, are the remains of sepulchres hewn in and from the rock: -- 'One,' said the guide, 'of a king who broke his neck hunting.' His majesty had certainly chosen the fittest spot for such an achievement. A little above Castri is a cave, supposed the Pythian, of immense depth; the upper part of it is paved, and now a cowhouse. On the other side of Castri stands a Greek monastery; some way above which is the cleft in the rock, with a range of caverns difficult of ascent, and apparantly leading to the interior of the mountain; probably to the Corcycian Cavern mentioned by Pausanias. From this part descend the fountain and the 'Dews of Catalie.'
Stanza 20, line 4
 And rest ye at "Our Lady's house of woe."
The convent of 'Our Lady of Punishment,' Nossa Señora de Pena, on the summit of the rock. Below at some distance, is the Cork Convent, where St. Honorius dug his den, over which is his epitaph. From the hills, the sea adds to the beauty of the view. -- Note to 1st Edition. Since the publication of this poem, I have been informed [by Walter Scott] of the misapprehension of the term Nossa Señora de Pena. It was owing to the want of the tilde or mark over the ñ, which alters the signification of the word: with it, Peña signifies a rock; without it, Pena has the sense I adopted. I do not think it necessary to alter the passage; as though the common acceptation affixed to it is 'Our Lady of the Rock,' I may well assume the other sense from the severities practised there. -- Note to the 2nd Edition.
Stanza 21, line 9
 Throughout this purple land, where law secures not life.
It is a well-known fact, that in the year 1809, the assassinations in the streets of Lisbon and its vicinity were not confined by the Portuguese to their countrymen; but that Englishmen were daily butchered: and so far from redress being obtained, we were requested not to interfere if we perceived any compatriot defending himself against his allies. I was once stopped in the way to the theatre at eight o'clock in the evening, when the streets were not more empty that they generally are at that hour, opposite to an open shop, and in a carriage with a friend: had we not fortunately been armed, I have not the least doubt that we should have 'adorned a tale' instead of telling one.
Stanza 24, line 1
 Behold the hall where chiefs were late convened!
The Convention of Cintra was signed in the palace of the Marchese Marialva.
Stanza 29, line 6
 But here the Babylonian whore hath built
The extent of Mafra is prodigious; it contains a palace, convent, and most superb church. The six organs are the most beautiful I ever beheld, in point of decoration; we did not hear them, but were told that their tones were correspondent to their splendour. Mafra is termed the Escurial of Portugal.
Stanza 33, line 9
 'Twixt him and Lusian slave, the lowest of the low.
As I found the Portuguese, so I have characterized them. That they are since improved, at least to courage, is evident. The late exploits of Lord Wellington have effaced the follies of Cintra. He has, indeed, done wonders; he has, perhaps changed the character of a nation, reconciled rival superstitions and baffled an enemy who never retreated before his predecessors. -- 1812.
Stanza 35, line 4
 That dyed thy mountain streams with Gothic gore?
Count Julian's daughter, the Helen of Spain. Pelagius preserved his independence in the fastnesses of the Asturias, and the descendants of his followers, after some centuries, completed their struggle by the conquest of Granada.
Stanza 48, line 5
 No! as he speeds, he chants "Viva el Rey!"
'Viva el Ray Fernando!' Long live King Ferdinand is the chorus of most of the Spanish partriotic songs. They are chiefly in dispraise of old King Charles, the Queen, and the Prince of Peace. I have heard many of them; some of the airs are beautiful. Godoy, the Principe de a Paz, of an ancient but decayed family, was born at Badajoz, on the frontiers of Portugal, and was originally in the ranks of the Spanish guards; till his person attracted the queen's eyes, and raised him to the dukedom of Alcudia, &c., &c. It is to this man that the Spaniards universally impute the ruin of their country.
Stanza 50, line 3
 Which tells you whom to shun and whom to greet.
The red cockade, with "Fernando Septimo" in the centre.
Stanza 51, line 9
 The ball-piled pyramid, the ever-blazing match.
All who have seen a battery will recollect the pyramidal form in which shot and shells are piled. The Sierra Morena was fortified in every defile through which I passed in my way to Seville.
Stanza 56, line 9
 Foil'd by a woman's hand, before a batter'd wall?
Such were the exploits of the Maid of Saragoza, who by her valour elevated herself to the highest rank of heroines. When the author was at Seville, she walked daily on the Prado, decorated with medals and orders, by the command of the Junta.
Stanza 58, line 2
 Denotes how soft that chin which bears his touch. 
    'Sigilla in mento impressa Amoris digitulo
    Vestigio demonstrant mollitudinem. --
                   AUL. GEL.
Stanza 59, line 2
 Match me, ye harems of the land! where now
This stanza was written in Turkey.
Stanza 60, line 1
 Oh, thou Parnassus! whom I now survey.
These stanzas were written in Castri (Delphos), at the foot of Parnassus, now called Liakura, Dec. 1809.
Stanza 65, line 2
 Her strength, her wealth, her site of ancient days
Seville was the Hispalis of the Romans.
Stanza 70, line 5
 Ask ye, Boeotian shades! the reason why?
This was written at Thebes, and consequently in the best situation for asking and answering such a question; not as the birthplace of Pindar, but as the capital of Boeotia, where the first riddle was propounded and solved.
Stanza 82, line 8
 Full from the fount of Joy's delicious springs 
                   'Medio de fonte leporum
    Surgit amari aliquid quot in insis floribus angat.'
                                                     LUC.
Stanza 85, line 7
 A traitor only fell beneath the feud.
Alluding to the conduct and death of Solano, the governor of Cadiz, in May, 1809.
Stanza 86, line 9
 War, war is still the cry, "War even to the knife!"
'War to the knife.' Palafox's answer to the French general at the siege of Saragoza.
Stanza 91.1
 And thou, my friend! -- since unavailing woe
The Honourable John Wingfield of the Guards, who died of fever at Coimbra (May 14, 1811). I had known him ten years, the better half of his life, and the happiest part of mine. In the short space of one month I have lost her who gave me being, and most of those who had made that being tolerable. To me the lines of Young are no fiction:

'Insatiate archer! could not once suffice?
Thy shaft flew thrice, and thrice my peace was slain,
And thrice ere thrice yon moon had fill'd her horn.'

I should have ventured a verse to the memory of the late Charles Skinner Matthews, Fellow of Downing College, Cambridge, were he not too much above all praise of mine. His powers of mind, shown in the attainment of great honours, against the ablest candidates, than those of any graduate on record at Cambridge, have sufficiently established his fame on the spot where it was acquired; while his softer qualities live in the recollection of friends, who loved him too well to envy his superiority.