The Works of Lord Byron, Volume 4 | Page 8

pretension and principle. Estimates of his character
differ widely. From the standpoint of Catholic orthodoxy, "C'était un
fort mauvais sujet et un plus mauvais prêtre;" and even his captivity,
infamous as it was, "ne peut rendre Bonivard intéressant" (_Notices
Généalogiques sur les Famillies Genevoises_, par J. A. Galiffe, 1836,
iii. 67, sq.); whilst an advocate and champion, the author of the
_Preface_ to _Les Chroniques de Genève_ par François de Bonnivard,
1831, tom. i. pt. i. p. xli., avows that "aucun homme n'a fait preuve d'un
plus beau caractère, d'un plus parfait désintéressement que l'illustre
Prieur de St. Victor." Like other great men, he may have been guilty of
"quelques égaremens du coeur, quelques concessions passagères aux
dévices des sens," but "Peu importe à la postérité les irrégularités de
leur vie privée" (p. xlviii.).
But whatever may be the final verdict with regard to the morals, there
can be no question as to the intellectual powers of the "Prisoner of
Chillon." The publication of various MS. tracts, e.g. _Advis et Devis de

l'ancienne et nouvelle Police de Genève_, 1865; _Advis et Devis des
Lengnes_, etc., 1865, which were edited by the late J. J. Chaponnière,
and, after his death, by M. Gustave Revilliod, has placed his reputation
as historian, satirist, philosopher, beyond doubt or cavil. One quotation
must suffice. He is contrasting the Protestants with the Catholics
(_Advis et Devis de la Source de Lidolatrie_, Geneva, 1856, p. 159):
"Et nous disons que les prebstres rongent les mortz et est vray; mais
nous faisons bien pys, car nous rongeons les vifz. Quel profit revient
aux paveures du dommage des prebstres? Nous nous ventons touttes les
deux parties de prescher Christ cruciffie et disons vray, car nous le
laissons cruciffie et nud en l'arbre de la croix, et jouons a beaux dez au
pied dicelle croix, pour scavoir qui haura sa robe."
For Bonivard's account of his second imprisonment, see _Les
Chroniques de Genève_, tom. ii. part ii. pp. 571-577; see, too, _Notice
sur François Bonivard_, ...par Le Docteur J. J. Chaponnière, Mémoires
et Documents Publiés, par La Société d'Histoire, etc., de Genève, 1845,
iv. 137-245; _Chillon Etude Historique_, par L. Vulliemin, Lausanne,
1851; _Revue des Deux Mondes_, Seconde Période, vol. 82, Août,
1869, pp. 682-709; "True Story of the Prisoner of Chillon,"
_Nineteenth Century_, May, 1900, No. 279, pp. 821-829, by A. van
Amstel (Johannes Christiaan Neuman).
_The Prisoner of Chillon_ was reviewed (together with the Third Canto
of _Childe Harold_) by Sir Walter Scott (_Quarterly Review_, No.
xxxi., October, 1816), and by Jeffrey (_Edinburgh Review_, No. liv.,
December, 1816).
With the exception of the _Eclectic_ (March, 1817, N.S., vol. vii. pp.
298-304), the lesser reviews were unfavourable. For instance, the
_Critical Review_ (December, 1816, Series V. vol. iv. pp. 567-581)
detected the direct but unacknowledged influence of Wordsworth on
thought and style; and the _Portfolio_ (No. vi. pp. 121-128), in an
elaborate skit, entitled "Literary Frauds," assumed, and affected to
prove, that the entire poem was a forgery, and belonged to the same
category as _The Right Honourable Lord Byron's Pilgrimage to the
Holy Land, etc._

For extracts from these and other reviews, see Kölbing, _Prisoner of
Chillon, and Other Poems_, Weimar, 1896, excursus i. pp. 3-55.
SONNET ON CHILLON
Eternal Spirit of the chainless Mind![1]
Brightest in dungeons,
Liberty! thou art:
For there thy habitation is the heart--
The heart
which love of thee alone can bind;
And when thy sons to fetters are
consigned--
To fetters, and the damp vault's dayless gloom,
Their
country conquers with their martyrdom,
And Freedom's fame finds
wings on every wind.
Chillon! thy prison is a holy place,
And thy
sad floor an altar--for 'twas trod,
Until his very steps have left a trace

Worn, as if thy cold pavement were a sod,
By Bonnivard!--May
none those marks efface!
For they appeal from tyranny to God.[2]
ADVERTISEMENT
When this poem[a] was composed, I was not sufficiently aware of the
history of Bonnivard, or I should have endeavoured to dignify the
subject by an attempt to celebrate his courage and his virtues. With
some account of his life I have been furnished, by the kindness of a
citizen of that republic, which is still proud of the memory of a man
worthy of the best age of ancient freedom:--
"François De Bonnivard, fils de Louis De Bonnivard, originaire de
Seyssel et Seigneur de Lunes, naquit en 1496. Il fit ses études à Turin:
en 1510 Jean Aimé de Bonnivard, son oncle, lui résigna le Prieuré de St.
Victor, qui aboutissoit aux murs de Genève, et qui formait un bénéfice
considérable....
"Ce grand homme--(Bonnivard mérite ce litre par la force de son âme,
la droiture de son coeur, la noblesse de ses intentions, la sagesse de ses
conseils, le courage de ses démarches, l'étendue de ses connaissances,
et la vivacité de son esprit),--ce grand homme, qui excitera l'admiration
de