Page:The Works of Lord Byron (ed. Coleridge, Prothero) - Volume 2.djvu/473

CANTO IV.] CXXXIX.

And here the buzz of eager nations ran,

In murmured pity, or loud-roared applause,

As man was slaughtered by his fellow man.

And wherefore slaughtered? wherefore, but because

Such were the bloody Circus' genial laws,

And the imperial pleasure.—"Wherefore not?

What matters where we fall to fill the maws

Of worms—on battle-plains or listed spot?

Both are but theatres—where the chief actors rot.

CXL.

I see before me the Gladiator lie:

He leans upon his hand—his manly brow