Note 406 — CANTO THE FOURTH.
Reading edition
{633} The reader will recollect the epigram of the Greek anthology, or its translation into most of the modern languages—
"Whoe'er thou art, thy master see— He was, or is, or is to be."
[Byron is quoting from memory an "Illustration" in the notes to Collections from the Greek Anthology, by the Rev. Robert Bland, 1813, p. 402—
"Whoe'er thou art, thy Lord and master see. Thou wast my Slave, thou art, or thou shall be."
The couplet was written by George Granville, Lord Lansdowne (1667-1735), as an Inscription for a Figure representing the God of Love. (See The Genuine Works, etc., 1732, I. 129.)]