[131] [The MS. of stanza xxvii. is on the fly-leaf of a bound volume of
proof-sheets entitled "Additions to Childe Harold," It was first
published in the seventh edition, 1814. It may be taken for granted that
Byron had seen what he describes. There is, however, no record of any
visit to Mount Athos, either in his letters from the East or in
Hobhouse's journals.

The actual mount, "the giant height [6350 feet], rears itself in
solitary magnificence, an insulated cone of white limestone." "When it
is seen from a distance, the peninsula [of which the southern portion
rises to a height of 2000 feet] is below the horizon, and the peak rises
quite solitary from the sea." Of this effect Byron may have had actual
experience; but Hobhouse, in describing the prospect from Cape
Janissary, is careful to record that "Athos itself is said to be
sometimes visible in the utmost distance (circ. 90 miles), but it was
not discernible during our stay on the spot." (Murray's _Handbook for
Greece_, p. 843; _Childe Harold_, edited by H. F. Tozer, p. 233;
_Travels in Albania_, 1858, ii. 103. Compare, too, the fragment entitled
the _Monk of Athos_, first published in the Hon. Roden Noel's _Life of
Lord Byron_, 1890.)]

[132] {118} ["Le sage Mentor, poussant Telemaque, qui etait assis sur le
bord du rocher, le precipite dans le mer et s'y jette avec lui....
Calypso inconsolable, rentra dans sa grotte, qu'elle remplit de ses
hurlements."--Fenelon's _Telemaque_, vi., Paris, 1837. iii. 43.]

[133] [For Mrs. Spencer Smith, see _Letters_, 1898, i. 244, 245, note.
Moore (_Life_, pp. 94, 95) contrasts stanzas xxx.-xxxv., with their
parade of secret indifference and plea of "a loveless heart," with the
tenderness and warmth of his after-thoughts in Albania ("Lines composed
during a Thunderstorm," etc.), and decides the coldness was real, the
sentiment assumed. He forgets the flight of time. The lines were written
in October, 1809, within a month of his departure from "Calypso's
isles," and the _Childe Harold_ stanzas belong to the early spring of
1810. "Ou sont les neiges d'antan?" Moreover, he speaks by the card.
Writing at Athens, January 16, 1810, he tells us, "The spell is broke,
the charm is flown."]

[134] {120} [More than one commentator gravely "sets against" this
line--Byron's statement to Dallas (_Corr. of Lord Byron_, Paris, 1824,
iii. 91), "I am not a Joseph or a Scipio; but I can safely affirm that
never in my life I seduced any woman