Note or — CANTO THE FOURTH[375]
Reading edition
{429}
If to forgive be "heaping coals of Fire" As God hath spoken—on the heads of foes Mine should lie a Volcano-and rise higher Than o'er the Titans crushed Olympus rose Than Athos soars, or blazing Ætna glows: True—they who stung were petty things—but what Than serpent's sting produce more deadly throes. The Lion may be tortured by the Gnat— Who sucks the slumberer's blood—the Eagle? no, the Bat.[A]— [MS. M.]
[A] [The "Bat" was "a sobriquet by which Lady Caroline Lamb was well known in London society." An Italian translation of her novel, Glenarvon, was at this time in the press at Venice (see letter to Murray, August 7, 1817), and it is probable that Byron, who declined to interdict its publication, took his revenge in a petulant stanza, which, on second thoughts, he decided to omit. (See note by Mr. Richard Edgcumbe, Notes and Queries eighth series, 1895, viii. 101.)]