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Page 4
In Lady Blessington's _Conversations with Lord Byron_, pages 176, 177.,
the poet is represented as stating that the lines--
"While Memory, with more than Egypt's art,
Embalming all the sorrows of the heart,
Sits at the altar which she raised to woe,
And feeds the source whence tears eternal flow!"
suggested to his mind, "by an unaccountable and incomprehensible power
of association," the thought--
"Memory, the mirror which affliction dashes to the earth, and,
looking down upon the fragments, only beholds the reflection
multiplied."
afterwards apparently embodied in _Childe Harold_, iii. 33.
"Even as a broken mirror, which the glass
In every fragment multiplies; and makes
A thousand images of one that was,
The same, and still the more, the more it breaks."
Now, Byron was, by his own showing, _an ardent admirer_ of Burton's
_Anatomy of Melancholy_. See Moore's _Life of Byron_, vol. i. page 144.
Notices of the year 1807.
Turn to Burton, and you will find the following passage:--
"And, as Praxiteles did by his glass, when he saw a scurvy face in
it, brake it to pieces, but for that one, he saw many more as bad
in a moment."--Part 2. sect. 3. mem. 7.
I am uncharitable enough to believe that _Childe Harold_ owes far more
to Burton, than to "the unaccountable and incomprehensible power of
association."
MELANION.
* * * * *
BILLINGSGATE.
I think your correspondent in No. 6. p. 93., starts on wrong premises;
he seems to take for granted that such a structure as Belin's Gate
really existed. Now the story entirely rests on the assertion of
Geoffrey of Monmouth. What amount of credit may be placed on that
veracious and most unromantic historian, your correspondent doubtless
knows better than myself. Geoffrey says, in the 10th chap. of the 3rd
book, that Belin, among other great works, made a wonderful gate on the
bank of the Thames, and built over it a large tower, and under it a
wharf for ships; and when he died his body was burned, and his ashes put
into a golden urn on the top of the tower. Stow seems to doubt it. In
Strype's edition, 1720, he says, concerning this gate, "Leaving out the
fable thereof faming it to be builded by King Belin, a Briton, long
before the incarnation of Christ." Burton, writing 1722, mentions the
legend, but adds, "But whether of that antiquity is doubted." and John
Brydall, in 1676, mentions it only as a wharf or quay for ships. Now, as
Geoffrey of Monmouth's _Chronicle_ is generally allowed by critics to be
but a mass of romance and monkish legends, built on a slight foundation
of truth, we may suppose this account to partake of the general
character of the rest of the work. That some circumstance gave rise to
the name is not doubted. "Haply," says Stow, "some person of that name
lived near." I look on the name as only a corruption or romantic
alteration of the word Baal or Bel; and, as we have every reason to
suppose he was worshipped by part of the aborigines of this country, I
deem it not improbable that on or near this spot might once have existed
a temple for his worship, which afterwards gave a name to the place. It
is true Baal generally had his temples placed on the summit of lofty
mountains or other eminences. But supposing a number of his votaries to
have settled near London, and on the banks of the Thames, nothing would
be more likely than, to obviate the natural lowness of the ground, they
would raise a tower for the better celebration of the ceremonies
attendant on his worship. This might have been the foundation upon which
Geoffrey built his story. However, I only suggest this. The real origin
of the name I am afraid is too far sunk in oblivion to hold out any
hopes of its being rescued at the present day.
VOX.
* * * * *
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