Sejarah Zionisme, 1600-1918/Volume 1/Bab 18

CHAPTER XVIII.

LORD BYRON

The Biblical drama “Cain”—Byron and the Bible—The Hebrew Melodies—A poet and a hero—The Hon. Douglas Kinnaird—Isaac Nathan—John Braham—Lady Caroline Lamb—Sir Walter Scott—Dr. John Gill—Dr. Henry Hunter—The Rev. John Scott—Mr. Joseph Eyre.

At that time the ideal aspirations of the Jewish nation found their most forceful expression in English poetry. George Gordon Byron (1788‒1824), the sixth Baron Byron, who was conversant with every phase of human life, and touched every string of the divine lyre from its faintest to its most powerful and heart-stirring tones, rivals Milton, in his own sphere, in his noble and powerful Biblical drama Cain. He was one of the greatest of English poets, and his genius, like that of Milton, was penetrated with the aspirations of the Bible.¹ Byron had seen much in his Eastern wanderings, and by his Hebrew Melodies had constituted himself in some sort the laureate of Disraeli’s own race.² There is in his work an intensity of grief and yearning, a vigour of thought combined with enchanting beauty of imagination, a tenderness which make him comparable only to the sweet Hebrew Muse of Jehudah Halevi. Zionist poetry owes more to Byron than to any other Gentile poet. His Hebrew Melodies, which are among the most beautiful of his productions, have been translated several times into Hebrew, and there are no lines more popular and more often quoted than:

The wild dove hath her nest, the fox his cave,

Mankind their country, Israel but the grave.

which might well have been a Zionist motto. Byron was a poet and a hero; the keynote of his character is to be found in the word “revolt.” Whenever the cause of liberty was in danger, his entire being was roused to indignation; this was the passion of his soul, and for this he gave his life. This “Pilgrim of Eternity,”³ who died a martyr to his zeal in the cause of the freedom of Greece, might perhaps have been equally able to sacrifice his life for the freedom of Judæa, had the deliverance of Judæa offered scope for a similar struggle in his time. As it was he expressed the Jewish tragedy, not only in its poetical but also in its political aspect.

The genius of pure imagination is usually apt to evade the actual facts of political and social life, and to wing its way into an ideal world of abstractions. But some there are who derive their material from the realities of social and national life, and transmute into poetry the prevailing ideas of the actual world. The Pilgrim Poet belonged to the latter category. He re-echoed the aspirations of his time. Thorough understanding of and sincere compassion for the sorrows of Israel found eloquent expression in the English writings of that epoch. At that time English writers were keen students of Jewish history, and since the time of Vespasian (9‒79) Jewish history has recorded only sorrowful scenes: it tells mainly of fugitives banished to all quarters of the world, where they have sought asylum and have been compelled to realize the unanimity of the desire to annihilate them. “The Jews were a prey to innumerable calamities, and their existence was little else than a protracted agony.” “The numberless banishments, oppressions, exactions, persecutions, massacres and miseries of all kinds, which they have undergone in almost every age and nation from their first dispersion down to these latter times—the various causes which have concurred to wipe off the very name and memorial of them from the face of the earth ... are indescribable.” This was what Byron read in the English literature of his time, and what he realized in his wanderings. A homeless nation—that was the fact which impressed itself most forcibly upon his mind.

Byron’s Hebrew Melodies, which were written at the suggestion of the Honourable Douglas James William Kinnaird (1788‒1830), were published with music in January, 1815. Kinnaird was a man of considerable ability and great intellectual attainments. He introduced a Jewish composer, Isaac Nathan (1791‒1864), to Lord Byron about 1812. This was the beginning of a friendship which ended only with the death of the poet. Byron wrote the Hebrew Melodies with the express purpose of their being set to music by Nathan, who subsequently bought the copyright of the work. Nathan decided to raise the means for the publication of the Melodies by subscription, and with that object associated himself with his co-religionist, the melodious tenor John Braham (1774?‒1856), who began his musical career as a chorister at the Synagogue in Duke’s Place. Braham composed several operas, one of them the Americans, containing that famous song, The Death of Nelson; and achieved a European reputation in his time. On signing the subscription list, Braham intimated his desire to assist in the publication of the Melodies and to sing them in public. Hence on the title-page of the first edition, which was published in 1815, it was recorded that the music was newly arranged, harmonized and revised by I. Nathan and I. Braham.

The Melodies consisted mainly of a selection of favourite airs sung in connection with the observance of Jewish religious ceremonies (Appendix l). It is interesting to observe that the music was reviewed first. Some of the remarks respecting Hebrew music are worthy of note. “In our very limited Review, it cannot be expected that we should attempt to throw any new light on the dark subject of Hebrew musick.... Whether the present Melodies were ever performed by King David’s 4000 Levites, ... we shall not venture to decide: their age and originality are left entirely to conjecture, having been ‘preserved by memory and tradition alone.’ Some of them possess an interesting wildness of character, which leaves no doubt as to their real antiquity; and the Editors assure us that they have preserved as much of this feature as the rhythm of written musick and the adaptation of the words, would permit.”¹ The Literary Review of the same Magazine devotes a very few lines to a criticism of the poems: “To say that these Melodies are Lord Byron’s, is to pronounce them elegant. We select the following Poem, in addition to that already given in Part I., p. 450” (i.e. “I saw thee weep”). There follows the poem “Saul.”

More light is thrown on the subject of Byron’s attitude to the Jewish people and the Zionist idea in Nathan’s Fugitive Pieces and Reminiscences of Lord Byron (Appendix li). In a note (p. 24) to “Oh! Weep for those,” Nathan writes: “Throughout the composition of these melodies, it will be observed by the attentive reader that Lord Byron has exhibited a peculiar feeling of commiseration towards the Jews. He was entirely free from the prevalent prejudices against that unhappy and oppressed race of men. On this subject, he has frequently remarked, that he deemed the existence of the Jews, as a distinct race of men, the most wonderful instance of the ill-effects of persecution....” That a period of 1800 years should have elapsed, and that these people should still preserve their own religion, their laws, and their customs, in defiance of ecclesiastical and civil oppression, does indeed seem astonishing; but less so, when the effect of his Lordship’s observation is sufficiently understood. On one occasion he remarked, “unfortunate men, surrounded by enemies among whom they are compelled to live; oppressed, scorned, and outcast: condemned as criminal, because they cannot succumb to their oppressors,...” In another note (p. 61) contributed to the poem, “From the last hill that looks on thy once holy dome.” On the day of the Destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, Nathan says: “In the composition of the foregoing stanzas, he professed to me, that he had always considered the fall of Jerusalem, as the most remarkable event of all history; for (in his own words), ‘who can behold the entire destruction of that mighty pile; the desolate wanderings of its inhabitants, and compare these positive occurrences with the distant prophecies which foreran them, and be an infidel?’”

The authenticity of Nathan’s co-operation is beyond question. Nathan was a composer of acknowledged ability, and a writer on various subjects. He was born at Canterbury, Kent, and early in life was sent to Cambridge to study Hebrew and the classical languages. Lady Caroline Lamb (1785‒1828) was among Nathan’s friends, and wrote poetry for him to set to music. Sir Walter Scott (1771‒1832), was also an admirer of Nathan’s Jewish musical productions.

Enthusiasm for the revival of Hebrew music was characteristic of the time, and was partly due to the prevailing sympathy for the Jewish people, for their sufferings and their hopes (Appendix lii). If Hebrew Melodies were written at the suggestion of Kinnaird, this must not be taken to mean that poems like Hebrew Melodies can be written merely in response to the suggestion of a personal friend: they must be the product of a certain aspiration.

At the same time, the idea of the Restoration of Israel made considerable headway in other quarters. Rev. Dr. John Gill (1697‒1771) remarks that “the Protestant Princes will be assisting the Jews in replacing them in their own land.” Rev. Dr. Henry Hunter (1741‒1802) says: “It is indeed now pretty generally agreed among the learned, that we are warranted by the Scriptures to expect ... their return to their own land;...”

The Rev. John Scott (1777‒1834), speaking of the preservation of the Jews, asks: “But wherefore are the Jews thus preserved? Is it only as monuments of divine vengeance, and to bear testimony to others of blessings which they shall never taste themselves? ‘Hath God’ for ever ‘cast off His people’? ‘Have they stumbled that they might fall,’ to rise no more? God forbid! All the facts before us, and particularly their preservation, might well raise hopes in our minds that mercy was still in reserve for Israel.”

The “Advertisement” to Extracts from a work on the Prophecies, by Mr. Joseph Eyre, informs us that “The design in re-publishing them is to call the attention of Christians to those Prophecies of the Scriptures, which have a primary reference to the Jewish people, and which predict events concerning them that have not yet been fulfilled, and promise blessings to them of which they have not yet been partakers.”

“Civis” writes: “With respect to the restoration ... permit me to refer your readers to Mr. (George Stanley) Faber’s (B.D.) (1773‒1854) work on that subject, and also to The Sacred Calendar of Prophecy, 1828. The reasons ... are ... satisfactory and convincing. Even if there were no other passage to prove it, the one where God declares that it shall in future times be said ‘The Lord liveth, who brought up and who led the children of Israel out of the north country, and from all the countries whither I had driven them, and they shall dwell in their own land,’ would, I think, be sufficient to prove it; because it seems too minute and circumstantial to admit of a merely figurative interpretation; and, indeed, what can it be a figure of? What is the reality which the figure is supposed to represent? I would ask, if a prophecy were intended to declare a literal restoration, what more plain and forcible terms could have been made use of? We should never resort to figures except where the nature of the subject, or common sense, imperatively requires it.”¹

“Paulinus” taking the opposite view, says: “In some circles a writer is almost unchristianized if he does not follow the opinion therein current ... the literal restoration of the Jews to Palestine; in favour of which there is a much more general concurrence of opinion than in any other of the particulars.”¹