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war with society, who are supported in their anguish only by an unconquerable pride resembling that of Prometheus on the rock or of Satan on the burning marl, who can master their agonies by the force of their will and who, to the last, defy the whole power of earth and heaven“? (Macaulay, M. L. of L. B.)

„Lara'“, which is generally considered as the continuation of„The Corsair“, had better been left unwritten and shall certainly be left unread by our pupils.

„The Siege of Corinth“ ¹⁶) also is read in some schools, as appears from the published annual reports. We are at a loss how to class this performance. It certainly cannot be called a tale. Where is the hero of it, in whom the interest is to centre, from whom the whole might derive unity of purpose? Is it Alp, who became a renegade to win a girl

„without consent

Of that inexorable sire

Whose heart refused him in its ire“?— who for this slight and common motive, to wreak his vengeance on the Venetians, leads his Moslem band on to carnage, his„nervous arm bare, unclothed to the shoulder“, like a butcher? Or is it Minotti? But he appears only towards the end of the poem to display his undaunted energy and valour. If, however, the„Siege of Corinth“ is nothing more than a series of de- scriptions, scenes and events loosely tacked together, why should we fill the youthful mind and imagination with such horrors as are detailed in:

„And he saw the lean dogs beneath the wall“ and the twenty-four following lines, or again in:

„Many a tall and goodly man“ etc.?

Of all Byron's tales we should prefer Mazeppalt.) The rough old Hetman relating the strange and wild incidents of an adventure of his youthful days to Charles XII. during a dreary bivac-night, beset with peril, forms that frame the absence of which is a draw-back on the beauties of the„Prisoner of Chillon“. The half sportive half serious way in which the story is told serves admirably to set off the vigour and vividness of description, which is everywhere clear and distinct in outline as it is impressive and effectful in colouring. Nor is the horrible here so predominent or so overdone but that our nerves may bear it, though, certainly, the fearful ride across the steppe strains them to the utmost. There is a vast historical, ethno- graphical and geographical horizon which imparts to this story all the romantic charm that generally makes Byron's tales so attractive. But there is no hatred of, not even an allusion to modern civilisation and society, its vices, its canting hypocrisy; they are simply left far

¹⁰) The Siege of Corinth. Mit Anmerkungen zum Schulgebrauch herausgegeben von Dr. K. Bandow. Bielefeld und Leipzig, 1886. Velhagen und Klasing. ¹¹) The Prisoner of Chillon and Mazeppa. etc. von Dr. K. Bandow.