tions. We wish, we heartily wish, that the duction occasioned, Lord Byron observed, in fine poetry which is so richly scattered through a letter to his publisher, "If Cain' be blasthe sixteen cantos of this most original and phemous, 'Paradise Lost' is blasphemous, and most astonishing production, had not been the words of the Oxford gentleman, ‘Evil, be mixed up with very much that is equally frivo- thou my good,' are from that very poem from lous as foolish; and sincerely do we regret, the mouth of Satan; and is there any thing that the alloying dross of sensuality should run more in that of Lucifer in the mystery? so freely through the otherwise rich vein of Cain' is nothing more than a drama, not a the author's verse. piece of argument: if Lucifer and Cain speak Whilst at Venice, Byron displayed a most as the first rebel and first murderer may be noble instance of generosity. The house of a supposed to speak, nearly all the rest of the shoemaker, near his lordship's residence in personages talk also according to their charSt. Samuel, was burnt to the ground, with acters; and the stronger passions have ever every article it contained, and the proprietor been permitted to the drama. I have avoided reduced, with a large family, to the greatest indigence and want. When Lord Byron ascertained the afflicting circumstances of that calamity, he not only ordered a new and superior habitation to be immediately built for the sufferer, the whole expense of which was borne by his lordship, but also presented the unfortunate tradesman with a sum equal in value to the whole of his lost stock in trade and furniture. introducing the Deity as in Scripture, though Milton does, and not very wisely either: but have adopted his angel as sent to Cain instead, on purpose to avoid shocking any feelings on the subject, by falling short of what all uninspired men must fall short in, viz. giving an adequate notion of the effect of the presence of Jehovah. The old mysteries_introduced him liberally enough, and all this I avoided in the new one." Lord Byron avoided, as much as possible, An event occurred at Ravenna during his any intercourse with his countrymen at Ven- lordship's stay there, which made a deep imice; this seems to have been in a great mea-pression on him, and to which he alludes in sure necessary, in order to prevent the intru- the fifth canto of Don Juan. The military sion of impertinent curiosity. In an appendix commandant of the place, who, though susto one of his poems, written with reference to pected of being secretly a Carbonaro, was a book of travels, the author of which dis- too powerful a man to be arrested, was assasclaimed any wish to be introduced to the no-sinated opposite to Lord Byron's palace. His ble lord, he loftily and sarcastically chastises lordship had his foot in the stirrup at the usual the incivility of such a gratuitous declaration, hour of exercise, when his horse started at expresses his "utter abhorrence of any con- the report of a gun: on looking up, Lord Bytact with the travelling English;" and thus ron perceived a man throw down a carbine concludes: "Except Lords Lansdowne, Jer-and run away at full speed, and another man sey, and Lauderdale, Messrs. Scott, Ham-stretched upon the pavement a few yards from mond, Sir Humphrey Davy. the late Mr. himself; it was the unhappy commandant. A Lewis, W. Bankes, M. Hoppner, Thomas crowd was soon collected, but no one ventured Moore, Lord Kinnaird, his brother, Mr. Joy, to offer the least assistance. Lord Byron diand Mr. Hobhouse, I do not recollect to have exchanged a word with another Englishman since I left their country, and almost all these I had known before. The others, and God knows there were some hundreds, who bored me with letters or visits, I refused to have any communication with; and shall be proud and happy when that wish becomes mutual." rected his servant to lift up the bleeding body, and carry it into his palace; though it was represented to him that by doing so he would confirm the suspicion, which was already entertained, of his belonging to the same party. Such an apprehension could have no effect on Byron's mind, when an act of humanity was to be performed; he assisted in bearing the After a residence of three years at Venice, victim of assassination into the house, and Lord Byron removed to Ravenna, towards the putting him on a bed. He was already dead close of the year 1819. Here he wrote the from several wounds: "he appeared to have Prophecy of Dante, which exhibited a new breathed his last without a struggle," said his specimen of the astonishing variety of strength lordship, when afterwards recounting the afand expansion of faculties he possessed and fair. "I never saw a countenance so calm. exercised. About the same time he wrote His adjutant followed the corpse into the house; Sardanapalus, a tragedy; Cain, a mystery; I remember his lamentation over him:and Heaven and Earth, a mystery. Though Povero diavolo! non aveva fatta male, anché there are some obvious reasons which render ad un cane."" The following were the noble Sardanapalus unfit for the English stage, it is, writer's poetical reflections (in Don Juan) on on the whole, the most splendid specimen viewing the dead body: which our language affords of that species of tragedy which was the exclusive object of Lord Byron's admiration. Cain is one of the productions which has subjected its noble author to the severest denunciations, on account of the crime of impiety alleged against it; as it seems to have a tendency to call in question the benevolence of Providence. In answer to the loud and general outcry which this pro-| "I gazed (as oft I gazed the same) And there we go:-but where? Five bits of lead And is this blood, then, form'd but to be shed? We whose minds comprehend all things?-No more votion in women. She must have been a But let us to the story as before." vine creature. I pity the man who has lost That a being of such glorious capabilities her! I shall write to him by return of the should abstractedly, and without an attempt courier, to condole with him, and tell him that to throw the responsibility on a fictitious per- Mrs. S. need not have entertained any consonage, have avowed such startling doubts, cern for my spiritual affairs, for that no mar. was a daring which, whatever might then have is more of a Christian than I am, whatever been his private opinion, he ought not to have my writings may have led her and others to hazarded. suspect.' "It is difficult," observes Captain Medwin, We have given the above extracts from a "to judge, from the contradictory nature of sense of justice to the memory of Lord Byhis writings, what the religious opinions of ron; they are redeeming and consolatory eviLord Byron really were From the conver-dences that his heart was far from being sations I held with him, on the whole, I am sheathed in unassailable scepticism, and, as inclined to think, that if he were occasionally such, ought not to be omitted in a preface to sceptical, and thought it, as he says in Don his works. Juan, In the autumn of 1821, the noble bard removed to Pisa, in Tuscany. He took up his residence there in the Lanfranchi palace, and Guiccioli, wife of the count of that name, engaged in an intrigue with the beautiful which connexion, with more than his usual constancy, he maintained for nearly three years, during which period the countess was separated from her husband, on an application from the latter to the Pope. A pleasant voyage, perhaps, to float Like Pyrrho, in a sea of speculation,' yet his wavering never amounted to a disbelief in the divine Founder of Christianity. Calling on him one day," continues the Captain, we found him, as was sometimes the case, silent, dull, and sombre. At length he said: 'Here is a little book somebody has sent me about Christianity, that has made me very uncomfortable; the reasoning seems to chantress," as taken at the time the liaison The following is a sketch of this "fair enme very strong, the proofs are very stagger-was formed between her and Byron. "The ing. I don't think you can answer it, Shelley, countess is twenty-three years of age, though at least I am sure I can't, and what is more, I she appears no more than seventeen or eighdon't wish it.' teen. Unlike most of the Italian women, "Speaking of Gibbon, Lord Byron said: complexion is delicately fair. her 'L-B—thought the question set at rest large, dark, and languishing, are shaded by Her eyes, in the History of the Decline and Fall, but I the longest eyelashes in the world, and her am not so easily convinced. It is not a matter hair, which is ungathered on her head, plays of volition to unbelieve. Who likes to own over her falling shoulders in a profusion of that he has been a fool all his life, to unlearn natural ringlets of the darkest auburn. Her all that he has been taught in his youth, or figure is, perhaps, too much embonpoint for can think that some of the best men that ever her height; but her bust is perfect. Her lived have been fools? I don't know why I am features want little of possessing a Grecian considered an unbeliever. I disowned, the regularity of outline; and she has the most other day, that I was of Shelley's school in beautiful mouth and teeth imaginable. It is metaphysics, though I admired his poetry: impossible to see without admiring--to hear not but what he has changed his mode of the Guiccioli speak without being fascinated. thinking very much since he wrote the notes Her amiability and gentleness show themto "Queen Mab," which I was accused of selves in every intonation of her voice, which, having a hand in. I know, however, that and the music of her perfect Italian, gives a am considered an infidel. My wife and sister, peculiar charm to every thing she utters. when they joined parties, sent me prayer-Grace and elegance seem component parts books. There was a Mr. Mulock, who went of her nature. about the continent preaching orthodoxy in adores Lord Byron, it is evident that the exNotwithstanding that she politics and religion, a writer of bad sonnets, ile and poverty of her aged father sometimes and a lecturer in worse prose, he tried to affect her spirits, and throw a shade of melanconvert me to some new sect of Christianity, choly on her countenance, which adds to the He was a great anti-materialist, and abused deep interest this lovely woman creates. Her Locke.' "On another occasion he said: 'I have just she has read all the best authors of her own conversation is lively without being learned; received a letter from a Mr. Sheppard, in- and the French language. She often conceals closing a prayer made for my welfare by his what she knows, from the fear of being thought wife, a few days before her death. The letter to know too much, possibly from being aware states that he has had the misfortune to lose that Lord Byron was not fond of blues. He this amiable woman, who had seen me at is certainly very much attached to her, withRamsgate, many years ago, rambling among out being actually in love. His description the cliffs; that she had been impressed with a sense of my irreligion from the tenor of my works, and had often prayed fervently for my conversion, particularly in her last moments. The prayer is beautifully written. I like de of the Georgioni in the Manfrini palace at Venice, is meant for the countess. The beautiful sonnet prefixed to the Prophecy of Dante' was addressed to her." The annexed lines, written by Byron when he was about to quit Venice to join the count- or wrote till two or three in the morning; ess at Ravenna, will show the state of his occasionally drinking spirits diluted with wafeelings at that time: "River' that rollest by the ancient walls Where dwells the lady of my love, when she "What if thy deep and ample stream should be "What do I say-a mirror of my heart? Are not thy waters sweeping, dark, and strong? And such as thou art, were my passions long. ter as a medicine, from a dread of a nephritic complaint, to which he was, or fancied himself, subject. While Lord Byron resided at Pisa, a serious affray occurred, in which he was personally concerned. Taking his usual ride, with some friends, one of them was violently jostled by a serjeant-major of hussars, who dashed, at full speed, through the midst of the party. They pursued and overtook him near the Piaggia gate; but their remonstrances were answered only by abuse and menace, and an attempt, on the part of the guard at the gate, to arrest them. This occasioned a severe scuffle, in which several of Lord Byron's party were wounded, as was also the hussar. The consequence was, that all Lord Byron's seraway-vants (who were warmly attached to him, and had shown great ardour in his defence), were banished from Pisa; and with them the Counts Gamba, father and son. Lord Byron was himself advised to leave it; and as the countess accompanied her father, he soon after joined them at Leghorn, and passed six weeks at Monte Nero. His return to Pisa was occasioned by a new persecution of the Counts Gamba. An order was issued for them to leave the Tuscan states in four days; and after their embarkation for Genoa, the countess and Lord Byron openly lived together, at the Lanfranchi palace. Thy floods subside, and mine have sunk And I to loving one I should not love." "Her bright eyes will be imaged in thy stream; That happy wave repass me in its flow. "The wave that bears my tears returns no more: Will she return by whom that wave shall sweep? Both tread thy banks, both wander on thy shore; I near thy source, she by the dark-blue deep. "But that which keepeth us apart is not It was at Pisa that Byron wrote "Werner," a tragedy; the "Deformed Transformed," and continued his "Don Juan" to the end of the sixteenth canto. We venture to introduce here the following critical summary of this wonderful production of genius. The poem of Don Juan has all sorts of faults, many of which cannot be defended, and some of which are disgusting; but it has, Distance, nor depth of wave, nor space of earth, also, almost every sort of poetical merit: there But the distraction of a various lot, As various as the climates of our birth. "A stranger loves a lady of the land, Born far beyond the mountains, but his blood Is ali meridian, as if never fann'd' By the bleak wind that chills the polar flood. "My blood is all meridian; were it not, I had not left my clime ;-I shall not be, And then at least my heart can ne'er be moved." It is impossible to conceive a more unvaried life than Lord Byron led at this period in the society of a few select friends. Billiards, conversation, or reading, filled up the intervals till it was time to take the evening-drive, ride, and pistol-practice. are in it some of the finest passages Lord Byron ever wrote; there is amazing knowledge of human nature in it; there is exquisite humour; there is freedom, and bound, and vigour of narrative, imagery, sentiment, and style, which are adinirable; there is a vast fertility of deep, extensive, and original thought; and, at the same time, there is the profusion of a prompt and most richly-stored memory. The invention is lively and poetical; the descriptions are brilliant and glowing, yet not overwrought, but fresh from nature, and faithful to her colours; and the prevalent character of the whole, (bating too many dark spots), not dispiriting, though gloomy, not misanthropic, though bitter; and not epulsive to the visions of poetical enthusiasm, though indignant and resentful. Lord Byron's acquaintance with Leigh Hunt, the late editor of the Examiner, originated in his grateful feeling for the manner in He dined at half an hour after sunset, then which Mr. Hunt stood forward in his justifi drove to Count Gamba's, the Countess Guic-cation, at a time when the current of public cioli's father, passed several hours in her so- opinion ran strongly against him. This feelciety, returned to his palace, and either reading induced him to invite Mr. Hunt to the 1 The Po. C Lanfranchi palace, where a suite of apartments were fitted up for him. On his arrival in the spring of 1822, a periodical publication riding a few miles distant. The heat of the was projected, under the title of "The Lib- sun and checked perspiration threw him into eral, of which Hunt was to be the editor, a fever, which he felt coming on before he left and to which Lord Byron and Percy Shelley the water, and which became more violent (who had been residing for some time on terms before he reached Pisa. On his return, he of great intimacy with his lordship) were to immediately took a warm bath, and the next contribute. Three numbers of the "Liberal" morning was perfectly recovered.” were published in London, when, in conse- The enmity between Byron and Southey, quence of the unhappy fate of Mr. Shelley, the poet-laureate, is as well known as that be(who perished in the Mediterranean by the tween Pope and Colley Cibber. Their poliupsetting of a boat), and of other discouraging tics were diametrically opposite, and the noble circumstances, it was discontinued. bard regarded the bard of royalty as a reneByron attended the funeral of his poet- gado from his early principles. It was not, friend; the following description of which, however, so much on account of political by a person who was present, is not without principles that the enmity between Byron and interest:Southey was kept up. The peer, in his satire, "18th August, 1822.-On the occasion of had handled the epics of the laureate "too Shelley's melancholy fate, I revisited Pisa, roughly," and this the latter deeply resented. and on the day of my arrival, learnt that Lord Whilst travelling on the continent, Southey Byron was gone to the sea-shore, to assist in observed Shelley's name in the Album, at performing the last offices to his friend. We Mont Anvert, with "A0cos" written after it, came to a spot marked by an old and withered and an indignant comment in the same lantrunk of a fir-tree, and near it, on the beach, guage written under it; also the names of some stood a solitary hut covered with reeds. The of Byron's other friends. The laureate, it is situation was well calculated for a poet's grave. said, copied the names and the comment, and, A few weeks before, I had ridden with him on his return to England, reported the whole and Lord Byron to this very spot, which I af- circumstances, and hesitated not to conclude terwards visited more than once. In front Byron of the same principles as his friends. was a magnificent extent of the blue and In a poem he subsequently wrote, called the windless Mediterranean, with the isles of Elba Vision of Judgment," he stigmatized Lord and Guyana,-Lord Byron's yacht at anchor Byron as the father of the "Satanic School in the offing: on the other side an almost of Poetry." His lordship, in a note appended boundless extent of sandy wilderness, uncul- to the "Two Foscari," retorted in a very setivated and uninhabited, here and there inter- vere manner, and even permitted himself to spersed in tufts with underwood curved by ridicule Southey's wife, the sister of Colethe sea-breeze, and stunted by the barren and ridge's wife, they having been at one time dry nature of the soil in which it grew. At" two milliners of Bath." The laureate wrote equal distances along the coast stood high an answer to this note in the Courier newssquare towers, for the double purpose of guard- paper, which, when Byron saw it, enraged ing the coast from smuggling, and enforcing him so much, that he consulted with his friends the quarantine laws. This view was bounded whether or not he ought to go to England to by an immense extent of the Italian Alps, answer it personally. In cooler moments, which are here particularly picturesque from however, he resolved merely to write his their volcanic and manifold appearances, and “Vision of Judgment," which was a parody which, being composed of white marble, give on Southey's, and appeared in one of the numtheir summits the appearance of snow. As a bers of the "Liberal," for which Hunt, the foreground to this picture appeared as extra-publisher, was prosecuted by the "Constituordinary a group. Lord Byron and Trelawney tional Association," and found guilty. were seen standing over the burning pile, with As some of our readers may be curious to some of the soldiers of the guard; and Leigh know the rate at which Lord Byron was paid Hunt, whose feelings and nerves could not for his productions, we annex the following carry him through the scene of horror, lying statement, by Mr. Murray, the bookseller, of back in the carriage, the four post-horses the sums given by him for the copy-rights of ready to drop with the intensity of the noon- most of his lordship's works: day sun. The stillness of all around was yet more felt by the shrill scream of a solitary curlew, which, perhaps attracted by the body, wheeled in such narrow circles round the pile, that it might have been struck with the hand, and was so fearless that it could not be driven away. Looking at the corpse, Lord Byron said: Why, that old black silk handkerchief retains its form better than that human body!' Scarcely was the ceremony concluded, when Lord Byron, agitated by the spectacle he had witnessed, tried to dissipate in some degree the impression of it by his favourite recreation. He took off his clothes, therefore, and swam to the yacht, which was Childe Harold, I. II. Giaour III. IV. Bride of Abydos 6001. 1,575 2,100 525 525 525 700 525 525 315 315 525 1,525 III. IV. V. 1,525 Doge of Venice 1,050 Siege of Corinth Sardanapalus, Cain, and Foscari, Prisoner of Chillon Total 1,1007. 525 450 15,4551. man. The Irish and Scotch make better husbands than we do. You will think it was an odd fancy; but I was not in the best of humours with my countrymen at that moment -you know the reason. I am told that Ada is a little termagant; I hope not. I shall write As is the case with many men in affluent to my sister to know if this is the case: percircumstances, Byron was at times more than haps I am wrong in letting Lady Byron have generous; and again, at other times, what entirely her own way in her education. I hear might be called mean. He once borrowed that my name is not mentioned in her pres5007. in order to give it to the widow of one ence; that a green curtain is always kept who had been his friend; he frequently dined over my portrait, as over something forbidden; on five Pauls, and once gave his bills to a lady and that she is not to know that she has a to be examined, because he thought he was father till she comes of age. Of course she cheated. He gave 1000l. for a yacht, which will be taught to hate me; she will be brought he sold again for 3001., and refused to give the up to it. Lady Byron is conscious of all this, sailors their jackets. It ought, however, to be and is afraid that I shall some day carry off observed, that generosity was natural to him, her daughter by stealth or force. I might and that his avarice, if it can be so termed, claim her of the Chancellor, without having was a mere whim or caprice of the moment- recourse to either one or the other; but I had a rôle he could not long sustain. He once rather be unhappy myself than make her borrowed 100l. to give to the brother-in-law mother so; probably I shall never see her of Southey, Coleridge, the poet, when the again." Here he opened his writing-desk, latter was in distress. In his quarrel with the and showed Captain Medwin some hair, which laureate, he was provoked to allude to this he told him was his child's. circumstance, which certainly he ought not Several years ago, Lord Byron presented to have done. his friend, Mr. Thomas Moore, with his Byron was a great admirer of the Waverley" Memoirs," written by himself, with an unnovels, and never travelled without them. derstanding that they were not to be publishThey are," said he to Captain Medwin one ed until after his death. Mr. Moore, with the day, "a library in themselves,-a perfect lite- consent, and at the desire of Lord Byron, sold rary treasure. I could read them once a-year the manuscript to Mr. Murray, the bookseller, with new pleasure." During that morning, for the sum of two thousand guineas. The he had been reading one of Sir Walter's nov- following statement by Mr. Moore, will howels, and delivered, according to Medwin, the ever show its fate: "Without entering into following criticism: "How difficult it is to the respective claims of Mr. Murray and mysay any thing new! Who was that voluptuary self to the property in these memoirs, (a of antiquity, who offered a reward for a new question which now that they are destroyed pleasure? Perhaps all nature and art could can be but of little moment to any one), it is not supply a new idea." sufficient to say, that, believing the manuscript The anxious and paternal tenderness Lord still to be mine, I placed it at the disposal of Byron felt for his daughter, is expressed with Lord Byron's sister, Mrs. Leigh, with the sole unequalled beauty and pathos in the first reservation of a protest against its total de stanza of the third canto of Childe Harold. struction; at least, without previous perusal "What do you think of Ada?" said he to Med-and consultation among the parties. The mawin, looking earnestly at his daughter's minia- jority of the persons present disagreed with ture, that hung by the side of his writing-ta- this opinion, and it was the only point upon ble. "They tell me she is like me-but she which there did exist any difference between has her mother's eyes. It is very odd that my us. The manuscript was accordingly torn mother was an only child;-I am an only child; my wife is an only child; and Ada is an only child. It is a singular coincidence; that is the least that can be said of it. I can't help thinking it was destined to be so; and perhaps it is best. I was once anxious for a son; but, after our separation, was glad to have had a daughter; for it would have distressed me too "Since then, the family of Lord Byron have, much to have taken him away from Lady By- in a manner highly honourable to themselves, ron, and I could not have trusted her with a proposed an arrangement, by which the sum son's education. I have no idea of boys being thus paid to Mr. Murray might be reimbursbrought up by mothers. I suffered too much ed me; but from feelings and considerations, from that myself: and then, wandering about which it is unnecessary here to explain, I have the world as I do, I could not take proper care respectfully, but peremptorily, declined their of a child; otherwise I should not have left Allegra, poor little thing! at Ravenna. She One evening, after a dinner-party at the has been a great resource to me, though I am Lanfranchi palace, his lordship wrote the fol not so fond of her as of Ada: and yet I mean lowing drinking-song: to make their fortunes equal-there will be and burnt before our eyes, and I immediately paid to Mr. Murray, in the presence of the gentlemen assembled, two thousand guineas, with interest, etc., being the amount of what I owed him upon the security of my bond, and for which I now stand indebted to my publishers, Messrs. Longman and Co. offer." enough for them both. I have desired in my "Fill the goblet again, for I never before will that Allegra shall not marry an English-Felt the glow that now gladdens my heart to its core. |