Page:The Works of Lord Byron (ed. Coleridge, Prothero) - Volume 2.djvu/439

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CANTO IV.]
CHILDE HAROLD’S PILGRIMAGE.
397

Nor could, the same supremacy have neared,
Save one vain Man, who is not in the grave—
But, vanquished by himself, to his own slaves a slave—[1]


XC.

The fool of false dominion—and a kind
Of bastard Cæsar, following him of old
With steps unequal; for the Roman's mind
Was modelled in a less terrestrial mould,N26
With passions fiercer, yet a judgment cold,[2]
And an immortal instinct which redeemed
The frailties of a heart so soft, yet bold—
Alcides with the distaff now he seemed
At Cleopatra's feet,—and now himself he beamed,


XCI.

And came—and saw—and conquered![3] But the man

Who would have tamed his Eagles down to flee,
  1. [Compare The Age of Bronze, v.—

    "The king of kings, and yet of slaves the slave."]

  2. [In Comparison of the Present State of France with that of Rome, etc., published in the Morning Post, September 21, 1802, Coleridge speaks of Buonaparte as the "new Cæsar," but qualifies the expression in a note: "But if reserve, if darkness, if the employment of spies and informers, if an indifference to all religions, except as instruments of state policy, with a certain strange and dark superstition respecting fate, a blind confidence in his destinies,—if these be any part of the Chief Consul's character, they would force upon us, even against our will, the name and history of Tiberius."—Essays on His Own Times, ii. 481.]
  3. [According to Suetonius, i. 37, the famous words, Veni,