Mazeppa Lord Byron

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Byron wrote this poem based on the true story of Mazeppa from Voltaire's "The History of Charles XII, King of Sweden."

The man who filled this position at that time was a Polish noble named Mazeppa, who had been born in the Palatinate of Podolia; he had been a page to King John Casimir and had acquired a little learning at his court. In his youth he had an affair with the wife of another Polish nobleman. When the husband discovered it, he had him tied stark naked on the back of a wild horse and let him loose in that state. The horse, which came from the Ukraine, returned there, carrying Mazeppa, half-dead from fatigue and hunger. Some peasants succoured him, and he remained among them for a long time, distinguishing himself in several expeditions against the Tartars. His superior learning gave him great prestige among the Cossacks; finally, his daily-increasing reputation forced the tsar to make him prince of the Ukraine.