byron's last poem - frederick jones (1934)

8/13/2019 Byron's Last Poem - Frederick Jones (1934)

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Byron's Last PoemAuthor(s): Frederick L. JonesSource: Studies in Philology, Vol. 31, No. 3 (Jul., 1934), pp. 487-489Published by: University of North Carolina PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4172248Accessed: 11/08/2010 00:59

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BYRON'S LAST POEM

BY FREDERICK L. JONES

Though "On This Day I Complete My Thirty-Sixth Year"is in most respects a genuine representation of the poet's concep-tion of his premature age, burnt-out affections, and general aban-donment by all that he loved most, Byron's usual "acting" iseasily recognized in it. But I am not aware that Byron's " double-acting " and obligation to Shakespeare in this last poem have beenpointed out. There is " double-acting " in that the author isplaying the part of the usual Byronic hero and at the same timecombining this with the part of the deserted and defiant Macbeth.

That "My days are in the yellow leaf'" is derived from Mac-beth's "my way of life Is fall'n into the sere and yellow leaf,"is common knowledge. But the similiarity between Byron's andMacbeth's situation and between the thought of the " Thirty-SixthYear" and of the "sere and yellow leaf " lines has gone un-noticed. Byron represents himself as old in experience, as lonely,and as forsaken by those whom he has loved; he reminds himself,though, that this is not the time and place to lament his personalgriefs, for he is engaged in a struggle for the liberty of an oppressedpeople. He will therefore forget himself and, not wishing tolive longer, find for himself a heroic death on the battle field.Macbeth, on the threshold of old age, suddenly finds himselfdeprived of all that made life worth living: his wife (throughmadness), his thanes, his friends, his people's love and respect.He reflects:

I have liv'd long enough: my way of lifeIs fall'n into the sere and yellow leaf;And that which should accompany old age,As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends,I must not look to have; but, in their stead,Curses, not loud but deep, mouth-honour, breath,Which the poor heart would fain deny, and dare not.

(V. iii. 22-8)

Macbeth can discover nothing to do except to go into battle and"fight, till from my bones my flesh be hack'd."

There is, of course, a difference between the Byron who would"give away thy breath" and Macbeth, who fights because there

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488 Byron's Last Poem

is nothing else of a manly sort to do. But they are essentially thesame. Byron, too, means to fight valiantly to the last, even thoughhe does hope for death.

This similarity would probably be unconvincing were it not truethat of Shakespeare's plays Byron knew Macbeth best.' In hisletters and journals he quotes 38 times from Macbeth, 24 timesfrom (I, II) Henry IV, 19 times from Hamlet, 13 times fromOthello, 10 times from Richard III, and in negligible quantities

from seventeen other plays. In his poetry he quotes 39 timesfrom Macbeth, 24 times from Hamlet, 9 times from Othello, 9 timesfrom Henry IV, and in decidedly negligible quantities fromtwenty 2 other plays. Combining the figures for poetry and theletters and journals, we have: Macbeth 77, Hamlet 33, Henry IV33, Othello 22, Richard III 13. Of the 77 quotations from Mac-beth,,3 59 are from Acts III-V, 32 from Act V, and 7 from the62 lines of V. iii, from which scene comes the passage quoted above.It is therefore quite evident that Macbeth was Byron's favoriteplay, and that he knew the last three acts thoroughly, especially

the fifth act-in which fifth act Macbeth has " liv'd long enough,"is " a-weary of the sun."

More than this, there is evidence of Byron's predilection for the" sere and yellow leaf " passage. On December 24, 1816, he wroteto Thomas Moore: "My 'way of life' (or 'may of life,' whichis it, according to the commentators ?) my 'way of life' is fallen

1 In compiling the figures in this paragraph I have relied entirely uponthe editorial equipment (notes and indexes) in The Works of Byron, ed.E. H. Coleridge and R. E. Prothero (London, 1898-1904, 13 vols.).Though the figures for quotations from the letters and journals representactual quotations of phrases or lines from Macbeth, I have allowed myselfto use the term "quote" a trifle loosely in connection with the poetry.A few of the latter are general references to characters, situations, orscenes, or are clear verbal borrowings rather than direct quotations. Inseveral instances I have rejected the editors' suggestions of Shakespeareas a source.

2 The editor's references to four of these plays are unconvincing.Between the poetry and letters-journals there is a difference in the

distribution of the passages quoted from Macbeth:

Poetry: I, 2; II, 5; III, 11; IV, 8; V, 10 (General, 3)Letters-jour.: I, 6; II, 2; III, 5; IV, 3; V, 22.

The line most often quoted by Byron is " I have supped full of horrors"(V. v. 13); other favorite lines are III. ii. 22-3 and III. iv. 24.


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Frederick L. Jones 489

into great regularity." 4 In Don Juan (IV. 3. 5-6) 6 are the lines:" Now my sere Fancy 'falls into the yellow ILeaf."' Lady Blessing-ton's Conversations With Lord Byron (conversations shortly beforeByron left for Greece) yield three quotations by Byron from thissame passage." Here they are:

(1) It is painful (said Byron) to find one's self growing old without-that which should accompany old age,

As honor, love, obedience, troops of friends.I feel this keenly, reckless as I appear, though there are few to whomI would avow it, and certainly not to a man.

(2) In society, we were rich in poets, then in their zenith, now, alasfallen into the sear [sic] and yellow leaf; and of wits, of whom one didnot speak in the past tense.

(3) For a long time I thought it was constitutional melancholy thatmade me think London society so insufferably tiresome; but I discoveredthat those who had no such malady found it equally so; the only differencewas, that they yawned under the nightly inflictions, yet still continued tobear them, while I writhed, and "muttered curses not loud but deep"against the well-dressed automatons that threw a spell over my faculties.

If what I am attempting to demonstrate be true, Byron's letterof March 8, 1816, to Thomas Moore is a most remarkable coinci-dence. Byron wrote: 7

I rejoice in your promotion as Chairman and Charitable Steward, etc.,etc. These be dignities which await only the virtuous. But then, recollectyou are six and thirty, (I speak this enviously-not of your age, butthe " honour-love-obedience-troops of friends," which accompany it,)and I have eight years good to run before I arrive at such hoary perfec-tion; by which time,-if I am at all,-it will probably be in a state ofgrace or progressing merits.

In Moore's thirty-sixth year Byron, while congratulating himn,quotes from the same passage in Macbeth that he was to use eightyears later-a time which he looks forward to-at the end of hisown thirty-sixth year as a suggestive basis for his last poem. Tothe Shakespeare whom he loved to depreciate in order to shock theconventional worshippers of the great dramatist, Byron uninten-tionally paid tribute in his last, and perhaps his noblest, poem.

Mercer University.

4Works of Byron, IV, 25.5 Written in the winter of 1819-20.6 Countess of Blessington, A Journal of Conversations With Lord Byron,

Boston, 1869, pp. 133-34, 227, 351.7Works of Byron, III, 272.

byron's last poem - frederick jones (1934)

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