Iberia Won 47

Iberia Won 47

Ya vienen Chapelchurris

Con corneta y clarin,

Para entrar en Bilbao

A beber chacolin.

Mal chacolin tuvieron,

Y dia tan fatal,

Que con la borrachera

Se murió el general!

 

 

I. “’Twas fraud and treason her destruction doomed.”

 

Rancorous Despite,

Disloyal Treason and heart-burning Hate.

Spenser, _Fairy Queen_.

 

 

IV. “The sword

Which mighty Carlos at Pavía won,

The puny Ferdinand to France restored.”

 

Ὦ σπέρμ’ Ἀχιλλέως, τἄλλα μὲν πάρεστί σοι

Πατρῷ’ ἑλέσθαι τῶν δ’ ὅπλων κείνων ἀνὴρ

Ἄλλος κρατύνει νυν, ὁ Λαέρτου γόνος.--

Soph. _Philoct._ 364.

 

“Oh, born of Achilles! the rest of what pertained to thy father

thou mayst take; but these arms another now possesses--Laertes’

son!” Such was the answer of Ulysses to Neoptolemus, when the

latter sought the arms of Achilles, and such should have been the

reply of Ferdinand to Napoléon.

 

 

VII. “And when the Nation woke, ’twas in a glare of light.”

 

See Wordsworth’s “Convention of Cintra.”

 

 

X. “Castile, unconquered Aragon, Navarre,” &c.

 

Com esta voz Castella alevantada

Suas forças ajunta para as guerras,

De varias regioens, e varias terras.

Camóens, _Lus._ iv. 7.

 

 

XVI. “His strangled carcase on Domingos’ plain,” &c.

 

----φρόνησον ...

Ὡς νῷν ἀπεχθὴς δυσκλεής τ’ ἀπώλετο.

Soph. _Antig._ 49.

 

“Remember, how he perished odious and infamous!”

 

 

XXVII. “Nor dauntless Manuela be unsung * *

Nor thou, Burita, sprung from noblest bed.”

 

These heroines were by no means singular in their courage and

constancy, at that eventful era. Blanca is, I trust, no inaccurate

type of that multitude of heroic women who sprang up in all parts

of Spain during the Peninsular War, who rose superior to the

weakness of their sex in the face of invasion and its attendant

horrors, and who resembled more the Antigones than the Ismenes of

ancient history. It was theirs to falsify the familiar reproach:

 

----γυνὴ γὰρ τἄλλα μὲν φόβου πλέα,

Κακή τ’ ἐς ἀλκὴν, καὶ σίδηρον εἰσορᾷν.

Eurip. _Med._ 266.

 

“For Woman is full of fear, and weak for the combat and at sight

of steel.” The heroic plebeian Maid of Zaragoza, and the not less

heroic patrician, Burita, were not of Ismene’s way of thinking,

which is nevertheless expressed with beautiful feminine propriety

(for common occasions):--

 

Ἀλλ’ ἐννοεῖν χρὴ τοῦτο μὲν, γυναῖχ’ ὅτι

Ἔφυμεν, ὡς πρὸς ἄνδρας οὐ μαχουμένα.

Soph. _Antig._ 61.

 

“But it is meet we think on this--that we are women, and unequal to

contend with men.” They rather said with Antigone:--

 

----σοὶ δ’ εἰ δοκεῖ,

Τὰ τῶν θεῶν ἔντιμ’ ἀτιμάσασ’ ἔχε. * *

Ἀλλ’ ἔα με, καὶ τὴν ἐξ ἐμοῦ δυσβουλίαν.

_Ib._ 95.

 

“Do thou, if so to thee seem fit, despise that which the Gods deem

holiest. * * But suffer me and my rashness!”

 

 

XXVIII. “And cloistered sisters the cartouche to mould.”

 

O! decus, o! sacrâ fœmina digna domo!

Ovid. _Fast._ vi. 810.

 

“Though History rend each page, this, this shall be enrolled!”

 

See Wordsworth’s “Convention of Cintra.”

 

 

XXIX. “See the furious charge

Of France’s chivalry, like Aias’ car,

Mow thousands down.”

 

Αἴας δὲ Τρώεσσιν ἐπάλμενος εἷλε Δόρυκλον κ. τ. λ.

Ὣς ἔφεπε κλονέων πεδίον τότε φαίδιμος Αἴας

Δαΐζων ἵππους τε καὶ ἀνέρας.

Hom. _Il._ xi. 489.

 

 

XXXVI. “Upon thy beauteous banks, Mondego, where,” &c.

 

As filhas do Mondego a morte escura

Longo tempo chorando memoraram;

E por memoria eterna, em fonte pura

As lagrimas choradas transformaram:

O nome lhe pozeram, que ainda dura,

Dos amores de Ignez, que alli passaram.

Vede que fresca fonte rega as flores,

Que lagrimas são a agua, e o nome amores.

Camóens, _Lus._ iii. 135.

 

 

XXXVIII. “But sad the victory gained where Moore heroic died.”

 

See the clear and affecting account of Sir John Moore’s last

moments, by the present Lord Hardinge, annexed to Mr. Moore’s

_Narrative_.

 

 

XL. “The pillow tended by the loving wife,” &c.

 

See the beautiful speech of Andromache over the body of Hector:--

 

Οὐ γάρ μοι θνήσκων λεχέων ἐκ χεῖρας ὄρεξας·

Οὐδέ τί μοι εἶπες πυκινὸν ἔπος, οὗτέ κεν αἰεὶ

Μεμνήμην νύκτας τε καὶ ἤματα δακρυχέουσα.

Hom. _Il._ xxiv. 743.

 

 

XLIII. “Thou wilt not go--thou wilt not, Carlos, leave,” &c.

 

_Clyt._ Ποῦ σ’ αὖθις ὀψόμεθα; ποῦ χρή μ’ ἀθλίαν

Ἐλθοῦσαν εὑρεῖν σὴν χὲρ’, ἐπίκουρον κακῶν;

_Achil._ Ἡμεῖς σε φύλακες, οὗ χρεὼν, φυλάσσομεν.

 

_Clyt._ “Where shall we again behold thee? Whither must I

wretched go to find thy protecting hand?”

_Achil._ “We will guard you, when it is needful.”

Eurip. _Iphig. in Aul._ 1026.

 

“No danger fear, _mi alma_, blushful rose!”

 

Nè te, Altamoro, entro al pudico letto,

Potuto ha ritener la sposa amata.

Pianse, percosse il biondo crine e ’l petto,

Per distornar la tua fatale andata.

“Dunque (dicia) crudel, più che’l mio aspetto

“Del mar l’orrida faccia a te fia grata?

“Fian l’arme al braccio tuo più caro peso,

“Che’l picciol figlio ai dolci scherzi inteso?”

Tasso, _Gerus. Lib._ xvii. 26.

 

 

XLVII. “She leaps--Archangels weep at Virtue’s sacrifice!”

 

Ὦ τύμβος, ὦ νυμφεῖον, ὦ κατασκαφὴς,

Οἴκησις αἰείφρουρος * * κάκιστα δὴ μακρῷ

Κάτειμι, πρίν μοι μοῖραν ἐξήκειν βίου.

Soph. _Antig._ 891.

 

“Oh sepulchre, oh bridal bed, oh earth-dug everlasting

dwelling!--by the worst of deaths I perish before the allotted day.”

 

I visited in September last the principal historical scenes

recorded in this Canto--the Castle at Bayonne where Napoléon

filched the crown with such sinister dexterity from the old King,

as well as from Ferdinand VII.; the fine fortress at Badajoz where

the miserable Godoy was born; the museum of Armoin at Madrid,

where, alas, the sword of Francis the First surrendered at Pavía,

_is not_; and the monument in the Prado, erected to the memory

of the victims who fell on the _Dos de Maio_. I had previously

visited the fields of Roriça and Vimieiro, and made more than one

pilgrimage to Corunna.

 

The name of the Maid of Zaragoza (in contradiction to all English

writers) I have fixed, upon Spanish authority, as Manuela Sanchez.