ten--many sources of regret; and he was too keen an observer,
and of too jealous a nature, not to have marked every shade of change
in her appearance, and her every moment of melancholy reminiscence;
so that, even though she might never have given expression to her
sentiments, still such was her situation, that it could not but
furnish him with fit suggestions from which to fill up the moral
being of the Ionian slave. Were the character of Myrrha scanned with
this reference, while nothing could be discovered to detract from the
value of the composition, a great deal would be found to lessen the
merit of the poet's invention. He had with him the very being in
person whom he has depicted in the drama, of dispositions and
endowments greatly similar, and in circumstances in which she could
not but feel as Myrrha is supposed to have felt--and it must be
admitted, that he has applied the good fortune of that incident to a
beautiful purpose.

This, however, is not all that the tragedy possesses of the author.
The character of Zarina is, perhaps, even still more strikingly drawn
from life. There are many touches in the scene with her which he
could not have imagined, without thinking of his own domestic
disasters. The first sentiment she utters is truly conceived in the
very frame and temper in which Byron must have wished his lady to
think of himself, and he could not embody it without feeling THAT--

How many a year has pass'd,
Though we are still so young, since we have met
Which I have borne in widowhood of heart.

The following delicate expression has reference to his having left
his daughter with her mother, and unfolds more of his secret feelings
on the subject than anything he has expressed more ostentatiously
elsewhere:

I wish'd to thank you, that you have not divided
My heart from all that's left it now to love.

And what Sardanapalus says of his children is not less applicable to
Byron, and is true:

Deem not
I have not done you justice: rather make them
Resemble your own line, than their own sire;
I trust them with you--to you.

And when Zarina says,

They ne'er
Shall know from me aught but what may honour
Their father's memory,

he puts in her mouth only a sentiment which he knew, if his wife
never expressed to him, she profoundly acknowledged in resolution to
herself. The whole of this scene is full of the most penetrating
pathos; and did the drama not contain,