‘graver things...braver things’ Since Lodi Bridge
Theforce I then felt move me moves me on
Whether I will or no; and oftentimes
Against my better mind...Why am I here?
—By laws imposed on me inexorably!
History makes use of me to weave her web.
(Part 3,i.i.64–9)Byron’sManfredis in the background here, and the vast questions of personal
destiny and historical determinism areanswered in Byron’s throwaway manner
with a shrug—‘Well, war’s my trade.’ The same thought had been Napoleon’s
recourse earlier, in 1805, when the Austrians surrendered at Ulm:
I tell you frankly that I know not why
Your master wages this wild war with me.
I know not what he seeks by such injustice,
Unless to give me practice in my trade—
That of a soldier—whereto I was bred:
Deemed he my craft might slip from me, unplied?
(Part 1,iv. v. 11–16)He is more disingenuous in his triumphant youth than in his wearied decline; even
so, his claim is made resonant by the incompetence of his opponents. Not until
Wellington begins to wage the Peninsular campaign (late in Part 2) does Napoleon
begin to confront a strategist to rival him.
Wellington succeeds through solid planning and obstinate resolve, and the second
of these qualities is paralleled in Napoleon’s Russian nemesis, General Kutuzof. ́
Before the battle of Austerlitz, Kutuzof is, like Pitt and even Nelson elsewhere in ́
Part 1, already ‘old and weary’. He is ‘nodding, waking, and nodding again’ (Part
1,vi. ii stage directions), and cannot resist either Napoleon’s cleverness or the bad
advice of his own officers. Seven years later, Kutuzof has been transformed into a ́
‘strange, one-eyed, white-shakoed, scarred old man, / Ruthlessly heading every onset
made’(Part3,i. ix. 40–2). In the stage directions, he ‘presents a terrible appearance
now bravely serving though slowly dying, his face puffed with the intense cold, his
one eye staring out as he sits in a heap in the saddle, his head sunk into his shoulders’
(Part 3,i. xi, stage directions). Napoleon cuts a similar figure after Waterloo. His
‘head droops lower and lower as he sits listless in the saddle’ (Part 3,vii.ix,stage
directions), though by now he is the less impressive of the two, ‘listless’ where
Kutuzof is relentless, his single eye ‘staring out’. ́
Napoleon, then, is less a revolutionary figure inThe Dynasts(threatening or
inspiring, according to your politics) than someone unusually good at their job.
His exceptional craft exposes the feebleness of the existing powers, but later comes
up against people equally skilled and more determined. InThe Dynasts,Napoleon
seems to represent the life force itself, rather than a particular historical or political