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diff --git a/17684-8.txt b/17684-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..dff2242 --- /dev/null +++ b/17684-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11112 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Life of Lord Byron, Vol. I. (of VI.), by Thomas Moore + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Life of Lord Byron, Vol. I. (of VI.) + With his Letters and Journals. + +Author: Thomas Moore + +Release Date: February 6, 2006 [EBook #17684] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE OF LORD BYRON, VOL. I. *** + + + + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Sankar Viswanathan, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + Transcriber's Note: + + This is the first volume of the Six volume series + + Life of Lord Byron + with his Letters and Journals + + by + Thomas Moore. + + Links to the other five volumes. + + Volume Two. E-Text No.16570--http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/16570 + Volume Three. E-Text No.16548--http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/16548 + Volume Four. E-Text No.16549--http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/16549 + Volume Five. E-Text No.16609--http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/16609 + Volume Six. E-Text No.14841--http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/14841 + + + + + LIFE + OF + LORD BYRON: + + WITH HIS LETTERS AND JOURNALS. + + + BY THOMAS MOORE, ESQ. + + + IN SIX VOLUMES.--VOL. I. + + + LONDON + JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET + 1854. + + + + +CONTENTS OF VOL. I. + + +LETTERS AND JOURNALS OF LORD BYRON, WITH NOTICES OF HIS LIFE, TO +THE PERIOD OF HIS RETURN FROM THE CONTINENT, JULY, 1811. + + + + +TO + +SIR WALTER SCOTT, BARONET, + + +THESE VOLUMES + +ARE INSCRIBED + +BY HIS AFFECTIONATE FRIEND, + +THOMAS MOORE. + + +December, 1829. + + + + +PREFACE + +TO THE + +FIRST VOLUME OF THE FIRST EDITION.[1] + + +In presenting these Volumes to the public I should have felt, I own, +considerable diffidence, from a sincere distrust in my own powers of +doing justice to such a task, were I not well convinced that there is +in the subject itself, and in the rich variety of materials here +brought to illustrate it, a degree of attraction and interest which it +would be difficult, even for hands the most unskilful, to extinguish. +However lamentable were the circumstances under which Lord Byron +became estranged from his country, to his long absence from England, +during the most brilliant period of his powers, we are indebted for +all those interesting letters which compose the greater part of the +Second Volume of this work, and which will be found equal, if not +superior, in point of vigour, variety, and liveliness, to any that +have yet adorned this branch of our literature. + +What has been said of Petrarch, that "his correspondence and verses +together afford the progressive interest of a narrative in which the +poet is always identified with the man," will be found applicable, in +a far greater degree, to Lord Byron, in whom the literary and the +personal character were so closely interwoven, that to have left his +works without the instructive commentary which his Life and +Correspondence afford, would have been equally an injustice both to +himself and to the world. + + + + +PREFACE + +TO THE + +SECOND VOLUME OF THE FIRST EDITION. + + +The favourable reception which I ventured to anticipate for the First +Volume of this work has been, to the full extent of my expectations, +realised; and I may without scruple thus advert to the success it has +met with, being well aware that to the interest of the subject and the +materials, not to any merit of the editor, such a result is to be +attributed. Among the less agreeable, though not least valid, proofs +of this success may be counted the attacks which, from more than one +quarter, the Volume has provoked;--attacks angry enough, it must be +confessed, but, from their very anger, impotent, and, as containing +nothing whatever in the shape either of argument or fact, not +entitled, I may be pardoned for saying, to the slightest notice. + +Of a very different description, both as regards the respectability of +the source from whence it comes, and the mysterious interest involved +in its contents, is a document which made its appearance soon after +the former Volume,[2] and which I have annexed, without a single line +of comment, to the present;--contenting myself, on this painful +subject, with entreating the reader's attention to some extracts, as +beautiful as they are, to my mind, convincing, from an unpublished +pamphlet of Lord Byron, which will be found in the following pages.[3] + +Sanguinely as I was led to augur of the reception of our First Volume, +of the success of that which we now present to the public, I am +disposed to feel even still more confident. Though self-banished from +England, it was plain that to England alone Lord Byron continued to +look, throughout the remainder of his days, not only as the natural +theatre of his literary fame, but as the tribunal to which all his +thoughts, feelings, virtues, and frailties were to be referred; and +the exclamation of Alexander, "Oh, Athenians, how much it costs me to +obtain your praises!" might have been, with equal truth, addressed by +the noble exile to his countrymen. To keep the minds of the English +public for ever occupied about him,--if not with his merits, with his +faults; if not in applauding, in blaming him,--was, day and night, +the constant ambition of his soul; and in the correspondence he so +regularly maintained with his publisher, one of the chief mediums +through which this object was to be effected lay. Mr. Murray's house +being then, as now, the resort of most of those literary men who are, +at the same time, men of the world, his Lordship knew that whatever +particulars he might wish to make public concerning himself, would, if +transmitted to that quarter, be sure to circulate from thence +throughout society. It was on this presumption that he but rarely, as +we shall find him more than once stating, corresponded with any others +of his friends at home; and to the mere accident of my having been, +myself, away from England, at the time, was I indebted for the +numerous and no less interesting letters with which, during the same +period, he honoured me, and which now enrich this volume. + +In these two sets of correspondence (given, as they are here, with as +little suppression as a regard to private feelings and to certain +other considerations, warrants) will be found a complete history, from +the pen of the poet himself, of the course of his life and thoughts, +during this most energetic period of his whole career;--presenting +altogether so wide a canvass of animated and, often, unconscious +self-portraiture, as even the communicative spirit of genius has +seldom, if ever, before bestowed on the world. + +Some insinuations, calling into question the disinterestedness of the +lady whose fate was connected with that of Lord Byron during his +latter years, having been brought forward, or rather revived, in a +late work, entitled "Galt's Life of Byron,"--a work wholly unworthy of +the respectable name it bears,--I may be allowed to adduce here a +testimony on this subject, which has been omitted in its proper +place,[4] but which will be more than sufficient to set the idle +calumny at rest. The circumstance here alluded to may be most clearly, +perhaps, communicated to my readers through the medium of the +following extract from a letter, which Mr. Barry (the friend and +banker of Lord Byron) did me the favour of addressing to me soon after +his Lordship's death[5]:--"When Lord Byron went to Greece, he gave me +orders to advance money to Madame G----; but that lady would never +consent to receive any. His Lordship had also told me that he meant to +leave his will in my hands, and that there would be a bequest in it of +10,000_l._ to Madame G----. He mentioned this circumstance also to +Lord Blessington. When the melancholy news of his death reached me, I +took for granted that this will would be found among the sealed papers +he had left with me; but there was no such instrument. I immediately +then wrote to Madame G----, enquiring if she knew any thing concerning +it, and mentioning, at the same time, what his Lordship had said as to +the legacy. To this the lady replied, that he had frequently spoken to +her on the same subject, but that she had always cut the conversation +short, as it was a topic she by no means liked to hear him speak upon. +In addition, she expressed a wish that no such will as I had mentioned +would be found; as her circumstances were already sufficiently +independent, and the world might put a wrong construction on her +attachment, should it appear that her fortunes were, in any degree, +bettered by it." + + + + +NOTICES + +OF THE + +LIFE OF LORD BYRON. + + +It has been said of Lord Byron, "that he was prouder of being a +descendant of those Byrons of Normandy, who accompanied William the +Conqueror into England, than of having been the author of Childe +Harold and Manfred." This remark is not altogether unfounded in truth. +In the character of the noble poet, the pride of ancestry was +undoubtedly one of the most decided features; and, as far as antiquity +alone gives lustre to descent, he had every reason to boast of the +claims of his race. In Doomsday-book, the name of Ralph de Burun ranks +high among the tenants of land in Nottinghamshire; and in the +succeeding reigns, under the title of Lords of Horestan Castle,[6] we +find his descendants holding considerable possessions in Derbyshire; +to which, afterwards, in the time of Edward I., were added the lands +of Rochdale in Lancashire. So extensive, indeed, in those early times, +was the landed wealth of the family, that the partition of their +property, in Nottinghamshire alone, has been sufficient to establish +some of the first families of the county. + +Its antiquity, however, was not the only distinction by which the name +of Byron came recommended to its inheritor; those personal merits and +accomplishments, which form the best ornament of a genealogy, seem to +have been displayed in no ordinary degree by some of his ancestors. In +one of his own early poems, alluding to the achievements of his race, +he commemorates, with much satisfaction, those "mail-covered barons" +among them, + + who proudly to battle + Led their vassals from Europe to Palestine's plain. + +Adding, + + Near Askalon's towers John of Horiston slumbers, + Unnerved is the hand of his minstrel by death. + +As there is no record, however, as far as I can discover, of any of +his ancestors having been engaged in the Holy Wars, it is possible +that he may have had no other authority for this notion than the +tradition which he found connected with certain strange groups of +heads, which are represented on the old panel-work, in some of the +chambers at Newstead. In one of these groups, consisting of three +heads, strongly carved and projecting from the panel, the centre +figure evidently represents a Saracen or Moor, with an European female +on one side of him, and a Christian soldier on the other. In a second +group, which is in one of the bed-rooms, the female occupies the +centre, while on each side is the head of a Saracen, with the eyes +fixed earnestly upon her. Of the exact meaning of these figures there +is nothing certain known; but the tradition is, I understand, that +they refer to some love-adventure, in which one of those crusaders, of +whom the young poet speaks, was engaged. + +Of the more certain, or, at least, better known exploits of the +family, it is sufficient, perhaps, to say, that, at the siege of +Calais under Edward III., and on the fields, memorable in their +respective eras, of Cressy, Bosworth, and Marston Moor, the name of +the Byrons reaped honours both of rank and fame, of which their young +descendant has, in the verses just cited, shown himself proudly +conscious. + +It was in the reign of Henry VIII., on the dissolution of the +monasteries, that, by a royal grant, the church and priory of +Newstead, with the lands adjoining, were added to the other +possessions of the Byron family.[7] The favourite upon whom these +spoils of the ancient religion were conferred, was the grand-nephew +of the gallant soldier who fought by the side of Richmond at Bosworth, +and is distinguished from the other knights of the same Christian name +in the family, by the title of "Sir John Byron the Little, with the +great beard." A portrait of this personage was one of the few family +pictures with which the walls of the abbey, while in the possession of +the noble poet, were decorated. + +At the coronation of James I. we find another representative of the +family selected as an object of royal favour,--the grandson of Sir +John Byron the Little, being, on this occasion, made a knight of the +Bath. There is a letter to this personage, preserved in Lodge's +Illustrations, from which it appears, that notwithstanding all these +apparent indications of prosperity, the inroads of pecuniary +embarrassment had already begun to be experienced by this ancient +house. After counselling the new heir as to the best mode of getting +free of his debts, "I do therefore advise you," continues the +writer,[8] "that so soon as you have, in such sort as shall be fit, +finished your father's funerals, to dispose and disperse that great +household, reducing them to the number of forty or fifty, at the most, +of all sorts; and, in my opinion, it will be far better for you to +live for a time in Lancashire rather than in Notts, for many good +reasons that I can tell you when we meet, fitter for words than +writing." + +From the following reign (Charles I.) the nobility of the family date +its origin. In the year 1643, Sir John Byron, great grandson of him +who succeeded to the rich domains of Newstead, was created Baron Byron +of Rochdale in the county of Lancaster; and seldom has a title been +bestowed for such high and honourable services as those by which this +nobleman deserved the gratitude of his royal master. Through almost +every page of the History of the Civil Wars, we trace his name in +connection with the varying fortunes of the king, and find him +faithful, persevering, and disinterested to the last. "Sir John +Biron," says the writer of Colonel Hutchinson's Memoirs, "afterwards +Lord Biron, and all his brothers, bred up in arms, and valiant men in +their own persons, were all passionately the king's." There is also, +in the answer which Colonel Hutchinson, when governor of Nottingham, +returned, on one occasion, to his cousin-german, Sir Richard Biron, a +noble tribute to the valour and fidelity of the family. Sir Richard +having sent to prevail on his relative to surrender the castle, +received for answer, that "except he found his own heart prone to such +treachery, he might consider there was, if nothing else, so much of a +Biron's blood in him, that he should very much scorn to betray or quit +a trust he had undertaken." + +Such are a few of the gallant and distinguished personages, through +whom the name and honours of this noble house have been transmitted. +By the maternal side also Lord Byron had to pride himself on a line of +ancestry as illustrious as any that Scotland can boast,--his mother, +who was one of the Gordons of Gight, having been a descendant of that +Sir William Gordon who was the third son of the Earl of Huntley, by +the daughter of James I. + +After the eventful period of the Civil Wars, when so many individuals +of the house of Byron distinguished themselves,--there having been no +less than seven brothers of that family on the field at Edgehill,--the +celebrity of the name appears to have died away for near a century. It +was about the year 1750, that the shipwreck and sufferings of Mr. +Byron[9] (the grandfather of the illustrious subject of these pages) +awakened, in no small degree, the attention and sympathy of the +public. Not long after, a less innocent sort of notoriety attached +itself to two other members of the family,--one, the grand-uncle of +the poet, and the other, his father. The former in the year 1765, +stood his trial before the House of Peers for killing, in a duel, or +rather scuffle, his relation and neighbour Mr. Chaworth; and the +latter, having carried off to the Continent the wife of Lord +Carmarthen, on the noble marquis obtaining a divorce from the lady, +married her. Of this short union one daughter only was the issue, the +Honourable Augusta Byron, now the wife of Colonel Leigh. + +In reviewing thus cursorily the ancestors, both near and remote, of +Lord Byron, it cannot fail to be remarked how strikingly he combined +in his own nature some of the best and, perhaps, worst qualities that +lie scattered through the various characters of his predecessors,--the +generosity, the love of enterprise, the high-mindedness of some of the +better spirits of his race, with the irregular passions, the +eccentricity, and daring recklessness of the world's opinion, that so +much characterised others. + +The first wife of the father of the poet having died in 1784, he, in +the following year, married Miss Catherine Gordon, only child and +heiress of George Gordon, Esq. of Gight. In addition to the estate of +Gight, which had, however, in former times, been much more extensive, +this lady possessed, in ready money, bank shares, &c. no +inconsiderable property; and it was known to be solely with a view of +relieving himself from his debts, that Mr. Byron paid his addresses to +her. A circumstance related, as having taken place before the marriage +of this lady, not only shows the extreme quickness and vehemence of +her feelings, but, if it be true that she had never at the time seen +Captain Byron, is not a little striking. Being at the Edinburgh +theatre one night when the character of Isabella was performed by Mrs. +Siddons, so affected was she by the powers of this great actress, +that, towards the conclusion of the play, she fell into violent fits, +and was carried out of the theatre, screaming loudly, "Oh, my Biron, +my Biron!" + +On the occasion of her marriage there appeared a ballad by some Scotch +rhymer, which has been lately reprinted in a collection of the +"Ancient Ballads and Songs of the North of Scotland;" and as it bears +testimony both to the reputation of the lady for wealth, and that of +her husband for rakery and extravagance, it may be worth extracting:-- + + MISS GORDON OF GIGHT. + + O whare are ye gaen, bonny Miss Gordon? + O whare are ye gaen, sae bonny an' braw? + Ye've married, ye've married wi' Johnny Byron, + To squander the lands o' Gight awa'. + + This youth is a rake, frae England he's come; + The Scots dinna ken his extraction ava; + He keeps up his misses, his landlord he duns, + That's fast drawen' the lands o' Gight awa'. + O whare are ye gaen, &c. + + The shooten' o' guns, an' rattlin' o' drums, + The bugle in woods, the pipes i' the ha', + The beagles a howlin', the hounds a growlin'; + These soundings will soon gar Gight gang awa'. + O whare are ye gaen, &c. + +Soon after the marriage, which took place, I believe, at Bath, Mr. +Byron and his lady removed to their estate in Scotland; and it was +not long before the prognostics of this ballad-maker began to be +realised. The extent of that chasm of debt, in which her fortune was +to be swallowed up, now opened upon the eyes of the ill-fated heiress. +The creditors of Mr. Byron lost no time in pressing their demands; and +not only was the whole of her ready money, bank shares, fisheries, +&c., sacrificed to satisfy them, but a large sum raised by mortgage on +the estate for the same purpose. In the summer of 1786, she and her +husband left Scotland, to proceed to France; and in the following year +the estate of Gight itself was sold, and the whole of the purchase +money applied to the further payment of debts,--with the exception of +a small sum vested in trustees for the use of Mrs. Byron, who thus +found herself, within the short space of two years, reduced from +competence to a pittance of 150_l._ per annum.[10] + +From France Mrs. Byron returned to England at the close of the year +1787; and on the 22d of January, 1788, gave birth, in Holles Street, +London, to her first and only child, George Gordon Byron. The name of +Gordon was added in compliance with a condition imposed by will on +whoever should become husband of the heiress of Gight; and at the +baptism of the child, the Duke of Gordon, and Colonel Duff of +Fetteresso, stood godfathers. + +In reference to the circumstance of his being an only child, Lord +Byron, in one of his journals, mentions some curious coincidences in +his family, which, to a mind disposed as his was to regard every thing +connected with himself as out of the ordinary course of events, would +naturally appear even more strange and singular than they are. "I have +been thinking," he says, "of an odd circumstance. My daughter (1), my +wife (2), my half-sister (3), my mother (4), my sister's mother (5), +my natural daughter (6), and myself (7), are, or were, all _only_ +children. My sister's mother (Lady Conyers) had only my half-sister by +that second marriage, (herself, too, an only child,) and my father had +only me, an only child, by his second marriage with my mother, an only +child too. Such a complication of _only_ children, all tending to +_one_ family, is singular enough, and looks like fatality almost." He +then adds, characteristically, "But the fiercest animals have the +fewest numbers in their litters, as lions, tigers, and even elephants, +which are mild in comparison." + +From London, Mrs. Byron proceeded with her infant to Scotland; and, in +the year 1790, took up her residence in Aberdeen, where she was soon +after joined by Captain Byron. Here for a short time they lived +together in lodgings at the house of a person named Anderson, in Queen +Street. But their union being by no means happy, a separation took +place between them, and Mrs. Byron removed to lodgings at the other +end of the street.[11] Notwithstanding this schism, they for some +time continued to visit, and even to drink tea with each other; but +the elements of discord were strong on both sides, and their +separation was, at last, complete and final. He would frequently, +however, accost the nurse and his son in their walks, and expressed a +strong wish to have the child for a day or two, on a visit with him. +To this request Mrs. Byron was, at first, not very willing to accede, +but, on the representation of the nurse, that "if he kept the boy one +night, he would not do so another," she consented. The event proved as +the nurse had predicted; on enquiring next morning after the child, +she was told by Captain Byron that he had had quite enough of his +young visitor, and she might take him home again. + +It should be observed, however, that Mrs. Byron, at this period, was +unable to keep more than one servant, and that, sent as the boy was on +this occasion to encounter the trial of a visit, without the +accustomed superintendence of his nurse, it is not so wonderful that +he should have been found, under such circumstances, rather an +unmanageable guest. That as a child, his temper was violent, or rather +sullenly passionate, is certain. Even when in petticoats, he showed +the same uncontrollable spirit with his nurse, which he afterwards +exhibited when an author, with his critics. Being angrily reprimanded +by her, one day, for having soiled or torn a new frock in which he had +been just dressed, he got into one of his "silent rages" (as he +himself has described them), seized the frock with both his hands, +rent it from top to bottom, and stood in sullen stillness, setting his +censurer and her wrath at defiance. + +But, notwithstanding this, and other such unruly outbreaks,--in which +he was but too much encouraged by the example of his mother, who +frequently, it is said, proceeded to the same extremities with her +caps, gowns, &c.,--there was in his disposition, as appears from the +concurrent testimony of nurses, tutors, and all who were employed +about him, a mixture of affectionate sweetness and playfulness, by +which it was impossible not to be attached; and which rendered him +then, as in his riper years, easily manageable by those who loved and +understood him sufficiently to be at once gentle and firm enough for +the task. The female attendant of whom we have spoken, as well as her +sister, Mary Gray, who succeeded her, gained an influence over his +mind against which he very rarely rebelled; while his mother, whose +capricious excesses, both of anger and of fondness, left her little +hold on either his respect or affection, was indebted solely to his +sense of filial duty for any small portion of authority she was ever +able to acquire over him. + +By an accident which, it is said, occurred at the time of his birth, +one of his feet was twisted out of its natural position, and this +defect (chiefly from the contrivances employed to remedy it) was a +source of much pain and inconvenience to him during his early years. +The expedients used at this period to restore the limb to shape, were +adopted by the advice, and under the direction, of the celebrated John +Hunter, with whom Dr. Livingstone of Aberdeen corresponded on the +subject; and his nurse, to whom fell the task of putting on these +machines or bandages, at bedtime, would often, as she herself told my +informant, sing him to sleep, or tell him stories and legends, in +which, like most other children, he took great delight. She also +taught him, while yet an infant, to repeat a great number of the +Psalms; and the first and twenty-third Psalms were among the earliest +that he committed to memory. It is a remarkable fact, indeed, that +through the care of this respectable woman, who was herself of a very +religious disposition, he attained a far earlier and more intimate +acquaintance with the Sacred Writings than falls to the lot of most +young people. In a letter which he wrote to Mr. Murray, from Italy, in +1821 after requesting of that gentleman to send him, by the first +opportunity, a Bible, he adds--"Don't forget this, for I am a great +reader and admirer of those books, and had read them through and +through before I was eight years old,--that is to say, the Old +Testament, for the New struck me as a task, but the other as a +pleasure. I speak as a boy, from the recollected impression of that +period at Aberdeen, in 1796." + +The malformation of his foot was, even at this childish age, a subject +on which he showed peculiar sensitiveness. I have been told by a +gentleman of Glasgow, that the person who nursed his wife, and who +still lives in his family, used often to join the nurse of Byron when +they were out with their respective charges, and one day said to her, +as they walked together, "What a pretty boy Byron is! what a pity he +has such a leg!" On hearing this allusion to his infirmity, the +child's eyes flashed with anger, and striking at her with a little +whip which he held in his hand, he exclaimed impatiently, "Dinna speak +of it!" Sometimes, however, as in after life, he could talk +indifferently and even jestingly of this lameness; and there being +another little boy in the neighbourhood, who had a similar defect in +one of his feet, Byron would say, laughingly, "Come and see the twa +laddies with the twa club feet going up the Broad Street." + +Among many instances of his quickness and energy at this age, his +nurse mentioned a little incident that one night occurred, on her +taking him to the theatre to see the "Taming of the Shrew." He had +attended to the performance, for some time, with silent interest; but, +in the scene between Catherine and Petruchio, where the following +dialogue takes place,-- + + _Cath._ I know it is the moon. + _Pet._ Nay, then, you lie,--it is the blessed sun,-- + +little Geordie (as they called the child), starting from his seat, +cried out boldly, "But I say it is the moon, sir." + +The short visit of Captain Byron to Aberdeen has already been +mentioned, and he again passed two or three months in that city, +before his last departure for France. On both occasions, his chief +object was to extract still more money, if possible, from the +unfortunate woman whom he had beggared; and so far was he successful, +that, during his last visit, narrow as were her means, she contrived +to furnish him with the money necessary for his journey to +Valenciennes,[12] where, in the following year, 1791, he died. Though +latterly Mrs. Byron would not see her husband, she entertained, it is +said, a strong affection for him to the last; and on those occasions, +when the nurse used to meet him in her walks, would enquire of her +with the tenderest anxiety as to his health and looks. When the +intelligence of his death, too, arrived, her grief, according to the +account of this same attendant, bordered on distraction, and her +shrieks were so loud as to be heard in the street. She was, indeed, a +woman full of the most passionate extremes, and her grief and +affection were bursts as much of temper as of feeling. To mourn at +all, however, for such a husband was, it must be allowed, a most +gratuitous stretch of generosity. Having married her, as he openly +avowed, for her fortune alone, he soon dissipated this, the solitary +charm she possessed for him, and was then unmanful enough to taunt her +with the inconveniences of that penury which his own extravagance had +occasioned. + +When not quite five years old, young Byron was sent to a day-school at +Aberdeen, taught by Mr. Bowers,[13] and remained there, with some +interruptions, during a twelvemonth, as appears by the following +extract from the day-book of the school:-- + + George Gordon Byron. + 19th November, 1792. + 19th November, 1793--paid one guinea. + +The terms of this school for reading were only five shillings a +quarter, and it was evidently less with a view to the boy's advance in +learning than as a cheap mode of keeping him quiet that his mother had +sent him to it. Of the progress of his infantine studies at Aberdeen, +as well under Mr. Bowers as under the various other persons that +instructed him, we have the following interesting particulars +communicated by himself, in a sort of journal which he once began, +under the title of "My Dictionary," and which is preserved in one of +his manuscript books. + +"For several years of my earliest childhood, I was in that city, but +have never revisited it since I was ten years old. I was sent, at five +years old, or earlier, to a school kept by a Mr. Bowers, who was +called '_Bodsy_ Bowers,' by reason of his dapperness. It was a school +for both sexes. I learned little there except to repeat by rote the +first lesson of monosyllables ('God made man'--'Let us love him'), by +hearing it often repeated, without acquiring a letter. Whenever proof +was made of my progress, at home, I repeated these words with the most +rapid fluency; but on turning over a new leaf, I continued to repeat +them, so that the narrow boundaries of my first year's accomplishments +were detected, my ears boxed, (which they did not deserve, seeing it +was by ear only that I had acquired my letters,) and my intellects +consigned to a new preceptor. He was a very devout, clever, little +clergyman, named Ross, afterwards minister of one of the kirks +(_East_, I think). Under him I made astonishing progress; and I +recollect to this day his mild manners and good-natured pains-taking. +The moment I could read, my grand passion was _history_, and, why I +know not, but I was particularly taken with the battle near the Lake +Regillus in the Roman History, put into my hands the first. Four years +ago, when standing on the heights of Tusculum, and looking down upon +the little round lake that was once Regillus, and which dots the +immense expanse below, I remembered my young enthusiasm and my old +instructor. Afterwards I had a very serious, saturnine, but kind young +man, named Paterson, for a tutor. He was the son of my shoemaker, but +a good scholar, as is common with the Scotch. He was a rigid +Presbyterian also. With him I began Latin in 'Ruddiman's Grammar,' +and continued till I went to the 'Grammar School, (_Scoticè_, 'Schule; +_Aberdonicè_, 'Squeel,') where I threaded all the classes to the +_fourth_, when I was recalled to England (where I had been hatched) by +the demise of my uncle. I acquired this handwriting, which I can +hardly read myself, under the fair copies of Mr. Duncan of the same +city: I don't think he would plume himself much upon my progress. +However, I wrote much better then than I have ever done since. Haste +and agitation of one kind or another have quite spoilt as pretty a +scrawl as ever scratched over a frank. The grammar-school might +consist of a hundred and fifty of all ages under age. It was divided +into five classes, taught by four masters, the chief teaching the +fourth and fifth himself. As in England, the fifth, sixth forms, and +monitors, are heard by the head masters." + +Of his class-fellows at the grammar-school there are many, of course, +still alive, by whom he is well remembered;[14] and the general +impression they retain of him is, that he was a lively, warm-hearted, +and high-spirited boy--passionate and resentful, but affectionate and +companionable with his schoolfellows--to a remarkable degree venturous +and fearless, and (as one of them significantly expressed it) "always +more ready to give a blow than take one." Among many anecdotes +illustrative of this spirit, it is related that once, in returning +home from school, he fell in with a boy who had on some former +occasion insulted him, but had then got off unpunished--little Byron, +however, at the time, promising to "pay him off" whenever they should +meet again. Accordingly, on this second encounter, though there were +some other boys to take his opponent's part, he succeeded in +inflicting upon him a hearty beating. On his return home, breathless, +the servant enquired what he had been about, and was answered by him +with a mixture of rage and humour, that he had been paying a debt, by +beating a boy according to promise; for that he was a Byron, and would +never belie his motto, "_Trust Byron_." + +He was, indeed, much more anxious to distinguish himself among his +school-fellows by prowess in all sports[15] and exercises, than by +advancement in learning. Though quick, when he could be persuaded to +attend, or had any study that pleased him, he was in general very low +in the class, nor seemed ambitious of being promoted any higher. It is +the custom, it seems, in this seminary, to invert, now and then, the +order of the class, so as to make the highest and lowest boys change +places,--with a view, no doubt, of piquing the ambition of both. On +these occasions, and only these, Byron was sometimes at the head, and +the master, to banter him, would say, "Now, George, man, let me see +how soon you'll be at the foot again."[16] + +During this period, his mother and he made, occasionally, visits among +their friends, passing some time at Fetteresso, the seat of his +godfather, Colonel Duff, (where the child's delight with a humorous +old butler, named Ernest Fidler, is still remembered,) and also at +Banff, where some near connections of Mrs. Byron resided. + +In the summer of the year 1796, after an attack of scarlet-fever, he +was removed by his mother for change of air into the Highlands; and it +was either at this time, or in the following year, that they took up +their residence at a farm-house in the neighbourhood of Ballater, a +favourite summer resort for health and gaiety, about forty miles up +the Dee from Aberdeen. Though this house, where they still show with +much pride the bed in which young Byron slept, has become naturally a +place of pilgrimage for the worshippers of genius, neither its own +appearance, nor that of the small bleak valley, in which it stands, is +at all worthy of being associated with the memory of a poet. Within a +short distance of it, however, all those features of wildness and +beauty, which mark the course of the Dee through the Highlands, may be +commanded. Here the dark summit of Lachin-y-gair stood towering before +the eyes of the future bard; and the verses in which, not many years +afterwards, he commemorated this sublime object, show that, young as +he was, at the time, its "frowning glories" were not unnoticed by +him.[17] + + Ah, there my young footsteps in infancy wandered, + My cap was the bonnet, my cloak was the plaid; + On chieftains long perish'd my memory ponder'd + As daily I strode through the pine-cover'd glade. + I sought not my home till the day's dying glory + Gave place to the rays of the bright polar-star; + For Fancy was cheer'd by traditional story, + Disclosed by the natives of dark Loch-na-gar. + +To the wildness and grandeur of the scenes, among which his childhood +was passed, it is not unusual to trace the first awakening of his +poetic talent. But it may be questioned whether this faculty was ever +so produced. That the charm of scenery, which derives its chief power +from fancy and association, should be much felt at an age when fancy +is yet hardly awake, and associations but few, can with difficulty, +even making every allowance for the prematurity of genius, be +conceived. The light which the poet sees around the forms of nature is +not so much in the objects themselves as in the eye that contemplates +them; and Imagination must first be able to lend a glory to such +scenes, before she can derive inspiration _from_ them. As materials, +indeed, for the poetic faculty, when developed, to work upon, these +impressions of the new and wonderful retained from childhood, and +retained with all the vividness of recollection which belongs to +genius, may form, it is true, the purest and most precious part of +that aliment, with which the memory of the poet feeds his imagination. +But still, it is the newly-awakened power within him that is the +source of the charm;--it is the force of fancy alone that, acting upon +his recollections, impregnates, as it were, all the past with poesy. +In this respect, such impressions of natural scenery as Lord Byron +received in his childhood must be classed with the various other +remembrances which that period leaves behind--of its innocence, its +sports, its first hopes and affections--all of them reminiscences +which the poet afterwards converts to his use, but which no more +_make_ the poet than--to apply an illustration of Byron's own--the +honey can be said to make the bee that treasures it. + +When it happens--as was the case with Lord Byron in Greece--that the +same peculiar features of nature, over which Memory has shed this +reflective charm, are reproduced before the eyes under new and +inspiring circumstances, and with all the accessories which an +imagination, in its full vigour and wealth, can lend them, then, +indeed, do both the past and present combine to make the enchantment +complete; and never was there a heart more borne away by this +confluence of feelings than that of Byron. In a poem, written about a +year or two before his death,[18] he traces all his enjoyment of +mountain scenery to the impressions received during his residence in +the Highlands; and even attributes the pleasure which he experienced +in gazing upon Ida and Parnassus, far less to classic remembrances, +than to those fond and deep-felt associations by which they brought +back the memory of his boyhood and Lachin-y-gair. + + He who first met the Highland's swelling blue, + Will love each peak that shows a kindred hue, + Hail in each crag a friend's familiar face, + And clasp the mountain in his mind's embrace. + Long have I roam'd through lands which are not mine, + Adored the Alp, and loved the Apennine, + Revered Parnassus, and beheld the steep + Jove's Ida and Olympus crown the deep: + But 'twas not all long ages' lore, nor all + Their nature held me in their thrilling thrall; + The infant rapture still survived the boy, + And Loch-na-gar with Ida look'd o'er Troy, + Mix'd Celtic memories with the Phrygian mount, + And Highland linns with Castalie's clear fount. + +In a note appended to this passage, we find him falling into that sort +of anachronism in the history of his own feelings, which I have above +adverted to as not uncommon, and referring to childhood itself that +love of mountain prospects, which was but the after result of his +imaginative recollections of that period. + +"From this period" (the time of his residence in the Highlands) "I +date my love of mountainous countries. I can never forget the effect, +a few years afterwards in England, of the only thing I had long seen, +even in miniature, of a mountain, in the Malvern Hills. After I +returned to Cheltenham, I used to watch them every afternoon at +sunset, with a sensation which I cannot describe." His love of +solitary rambles, and his taste for exploring in all directions, led +him not unfrequently so far, as to excite serious apprehensions for +his safety. While at Aberdeen, he used often to steal from home +unperceived;--sometimes he would find his way to the sea-side; and +once, after a long and anxious search, they found the adventurous +little rover struggling in a sort of morass or marsh, from which he +was unable to extricate himself. + +In the course of one of his summer excursions up Dee-side, he had an +opportunity of seeing still more of the wild beauties of the Highlands +than even the neighbourhood of their residence at Ballatrech afforded, +--having been taken by his mother through the romantic passes that +lead to Invercauld, and as far up as the small waterfall, called the +Linn of Dee. Here his love of adventure had nearly cost him his life. +As he was scrambling along a declivity that overhung the fall, some +heather caught his lame foot, and he fell. Already he was rolling +downward, when the attendant luckily caught hold of him, and was but +just in time to save him from being killed. It was about this period, +when he was not quite eight years old, that a feeling partaking more +of the nature of love than it is easy to believe possible in so young +a child, took, according to his own account, entire possession of his +thoughts, and showed how early, in this passion, as in most others, +the sensibilities of his nature were awakened.[19] The name of the +object of this attachment was Mary Duff; and the following passage +from a Journal, kept by him in 1813, will show how freshly, after an +interval of seventeen years, all the circumstances of this early love +still lived in his memory:-- + +"I have been thinking lately a good deal of Mary Duff. How very odd +that I should have been so utterly, devotedly fond of that girl, at an +age when I could neither feel passion, nor know the meaning of the +word. And the effect!--My mother used always to rally me about this +childish amour; and, at last, many years after, when I was sixteen, +she told me one day, 'Oh, Byron, I have had a letter from Edinburgh, +from Miss Abercromby, and your old sweetheart Mary Duff is married to +a Mr. Co^e.' And what was my answer? I really cannot explain or +account for my feelings at that moment; but they nearly threw me into +convulsions, and alarmed my mother so much, that after I grew better, +she generally avoided the subject--to _me_--and contented herself with +telling it to all her acquaintance. Now, what could this be? I had +never seen her since her mother's faux-pas at Aberdeen had been the +cause of her removal to her grandmother's at Banff; we were both the +merest children. I had and have been attached fifty times since that +period; yet I recollect all we said to each other, all our caresses, +her features, my restlessness, sleeplessness, my tormenting my +mother's maid to write for me to her, which she at last did, to quiet +me. Poor Nancy thought I was wild, and, as I could not write for +myself, became my secretary. I remember, too, our walks, and the +happiness of sitting by Mary, in the children's apartment, at their +house not far from the Plain-stones at Aberdeen, while her lesser +sister Helen played with the doll, and we sat gravely making love, in +our way. + +"How the deuce did all this occur so early? where could it originate? +I certainly had no sexual ideas for years afterwards; and yet my +misery, my love for that girl were so violent, that I sometimes doubt +if I have ever been really attached since. Be that as it may, hearing +of her marriage several years after was like a thunder-stroke--it +nearly choked me--to the horror of my mother and the astonishment and +almost incredulity of every body. And it is a phenomenon in my +existence (for I was not eight years old) which has puzzled, and will +puzzle me to the latest hour of it; and lately, I know not why, the +_recollection_ (_not_ the attachment) has recurred as forcibly as +ever. I wonder if she can have the least remembrance of it or me? or +remember her pitying sister Helen for not having an admirer too? How +very pretty is the perfect image of her in my memory--her brown, dark +hair, and hazel eyes; her very dress! I should be quite grieved to see +_her now_; the reality, however beautiful, would destroy, or at least +confuse, the features of the lovely Peri which then existed in her, +and still lives in my imagination, at the distance of more than +sixteen years. I am now twenty-five and odd months.... + +"I think my mother told the circumstances (on my hearing of her +marriage) to the Parkynses, and certainly to the Pigot family, and +probably mentioned it in her answer to Miss A., who was well +acquainted with my childish _penchant_, and had sent the news on +purpose for _me_,--and thanks to her! + +"Next to the beginning, the conclusion has often occupied my +reflections, in the way of investigation. That the facts are thus, +others know as well as I, and my memory yet tells me so, in more than +a whisper. But, the more I reflect, the more I am bewildered to assign +any cause for this precocity of affection." + +Though the chance of his succession to the title of his ancestors was +for some time altogether uncertain--there being, so late as the year +1794, a grandson of the fifth lord still alive--his mother had, from +his very birth, cherished a strong persuasion that he was destined not +only to be a lord, but "a great man." One of the circumstances on +which she founded this belief was, singularly enough, his +lameness;--for what reason it is difficult to conceive, except that, +possibly (having a mind of the most superstitious cast), she had +consulted on the subject some village fortune-teller, who, to ennoble +this infirmity in her eyes, had linked the future destiny of the child +with it. + +By the death of the grandson of the old lord at Corsica in 1794, the +only claimant, that had hitherto stood between little George and the +immediate succession to the peerage, was removed; and the increased +importance which this event conferred upon them was felt not only by +Mrs. Byron, but by the young future Baron of Newstead himself. In the +winter of 1797, his mother having chanced, one day, to read part of a +speech spoken in the House of Commons, a friend who was present said +to the boy, "We shall have the pleasure, some time or other, of +reading your speeches in the House of Commons."--"I hope not," was his +answer: "if you read any speeches of mine, it will be in the House of +Lords." + +The title, of which he thus early anticipated the enjoyment, devolved +to him but too soon. Had he been left to struggle on for ten years +longer, as plain George Byron, there can be little doubt that his +character would have been, in many respects, the better for it. In the +following year his grand-uncle, the fifth Lord Byron, died at Newstead +Abbey, having passed the latter years of his strange life in a state +of austere and almost savage seclusion. It is said, that the day after +little Byron's accession to the title, he ran up to his mother and +asked her, "whether she perceived any difference in him since he had +been made a lord, as he perceived none himself:"--a quick and natural +thought; but the child little knew what a total and talismanic change +had been wrought in all his future relations with society, by the +simple addition of that word before his name. That the event, as a +crisis in his life, affected him, even at that time, may be collected +from the agitation which he is said to have manifested on the +important morning, when his name was first called out in school with +the title of "Dominus" prefixed to it. Unable to give utterance to the +usual answer "adsum," he stood silent amid the general stare of his +school-fellows, and, at last, burst into tears. + +The cloud, which, to a certain degree, undeservedly, his unfortunate +affray with Mr. Chaworth had thrown upon the character of the late +Lord Byron, was deepened and confirmed by what it, in a great measure, +produced,--the eccentric and unsocial course of life to which he +afterwards betook himself. Of his cruelty to Lady Byron, before her +separation from him, the most exaggerated stories are still current in +the neighbourhood; and it is even believed that, in one of his fits of +fury, he flung her into the pond at Newstead. On another occasion, it +is said, having shot his coachman for some disobedience of orders, he +threw the corpse into the carriage to his lady, and, mounting the box, +drove off himself. These stories are, no doubt, as gross fictions as +some of those of which his illustrious successor was afterwards made +the victim; and a female servant of the old lord, still alive, in +contradicting both tales as scandalous fabrications, supposes the +first to have had its origin in the following circumstance:--A young +lady, of the name of Booth, who was on a visit at Newstead, being one +evening with a party who were diverting themselves in front of the +abbey, Lord Byron by accident pushed her into the basin which receives +the cascades; and out of this little incident, as my informant very +plausibly conjectures, the tale of his attempting to drown Lady Byron +may have been fabricated. + +After his lady had separated from him, the entire seclusion in which +he lived gave full scope to the inventive faculties of his neighbours. +There was no deed, however dark or desperate, that the village gossips +were not ready to impute to him; and two grim images of satyrs, which +stood in his gloomy garden, were, by the fears of those who had caught +a glimpse of them, dignified by the name of "the old lord's devils." +He was known always to go armed; and it is related that, on some +particular occasion, when his neighbour, the late Sir John Warren, was +admitted to dine with him, there was a case of pistols placed, as if +forming a customary part of the dinner service, on the table. + +During his latter years, the only companions of his solitude--besides +that colony of crickets, which he is said to have amused himself with +rearing and feeding[20]--were old Murray, afterwards the favourite +servant of his successor, and the female domestic, whose authority I +have just quoted, and who, from the station she was suspected of being +promoted to by her noble master, received generally through the +neighbourhood the appellation of "Lady Betty." + +Though living in this sordid and solitary style, he was frequently, as +it appears, much distressed for money; and one of the most serious of +the injuries inflicted by him upon the property was his sale of the +family estate of Rochdale in Lancashire, of which the mineral produce +was accounted very valuable. He well knew, it is said, at the time of +the sale, his inability to make out a legal title; nor is it supposed +that the purchasers themselves were unacquainted with the defect of +the conveyance. But they contemplated, and, it seems, actually did +realise, an indemnity from any pecuniary loss, before they could, in +the ordinary course of events, be dispossessed of the property. During +the young lord's minority, proceedings were instituted for the +recovery of this estate, and as the reader will learn hereafter with +success. + +At Newstead, both the mansion and the grounds around it were suffered +to fall helplessly into decay; and among the few monuments of either +care or expenditure which their lord left behind, were some masses of +rockwork, on which much cost had been thrown away, and a few +castellated buildings on the banks of the lake and in the woods. The +forts upon the lake were designed to give a naval appearance to its +waters, and frequently, in his more social days, he used to amuse +himself with sham fights,--his vessels attacking the forts, and being +cannonaded by them in return. The largest of these vessels had been +built for him at some seaport on the eastern coast, and, being +conveyed on wheels over the Forest to Newstead, was supposed to have +fulfilled one of the prophecies of Mother Shipton, which declared that +"when a ship laden with _ling_ should cross over Sherwood Forest, the +Newstead estate would pass from the Byron family." In Nottinghamshire, +"ling" is the term used for _heather_; and, in order to bear out +Mother Shipton and spite the old lord, the country people, it is said, +ran along by the side of the vessel, heaping it with heather all the +way. + +This eccentric peer, it is evident, cared but little about the fate of +his descendants. With his young heir in Scotland he held no +communication whatever; and if at any time he happened to mention him, +which but rarely occurred, it was never under any other designation +than that of "the little boy who lives at Aberdeen." + +On the death of his grand-uncle, Lord Byron having become a ward of +chancery, the Earl of Carlisle, who was in some degree connected with +the family, being the son of the deceased lord's sister, was appointed +his guardian; and in the autumn of 1798, Mrs. Byron and her son, +attended by their faithful Mary Gray, left Aberdeen for Newstead. +Previously to their departure, the furniture of the humble lodgings +which they had occupied was, with the exception of the plate and +linen, which Mrs. Byron took with her, sold, and the whole sum that +the effects of the mother of the Lord of Newstead yielded was 74_l._ +17_s_. 7_d_. + +From the early age at which Byron was taken to Scotland, as well as +from the circumstance of his mother being a native of that country, he +had every reason to consider himself--as, indeed, he boasts in Don +Juan--"half a Scot by birth, and bred a whole one." We have already +seen how warmly he preserved through life his recollection of the +mountain scenery in which he was brought up; and in the passage of Don +Juan, to which I have just referred, his allusion to the romantic +bridge of Don, and to other localities of Aberdeen, shows an equal +fidelity and fondness of retrospect:-- + + As Auld Lang Syne brings Scotland, one and all, + Scotch plaids, Scotch snoods, the blue hills and clear streams, + The Dee, the Don, Balgounie's brig's black wall, + All my boy feelings, all my gentler dreams + Of what I _then dreamt_, clothed in their own pall, + Like Banquo's offspring;--floating past me seems + My childhood in this childishness of mine; + I care not--'tis a glimpse of "Auld Lang Syne." + +He adds in a note, "The Brig of Don, near the 'auld town' of Aberdeen, +with its one arch and its black deep salmon stream, is in my memory as +yesterday. I still remember, though perhaps I may misquote the awful +proverb which made me pause to cross it, and yet lean over it with a +childish delight, being an only son, at least by the mother's side. +The saying, as recollected by me, was this, but I have never heard or +seen it since I was nine years of age:-- + + "'Brig of Balgounie, _black_'s your wa', + Wi' a wife's _ae son_, and a mear's ae foal, + Down ye shall fa'.'"[21] + +To meet with an Aberdonian was, at all times, a delight to him; and +when the late Mr. Scott, who was a native of Aberdeen, paid him a +visit at Venice in the year 1819, in talking of the haunts of his +childhood, one of the places he particularly mentioned was +Wallace-nook, a spot where there is a rude statue of the Scottish +chief still standing. From first to last, indeed, these recollections +of the country of his youth never forsook him. In his early voyage +into Greece, not only the shapes of the mountains, but the kilts and +hardy forms of the Albanese,--all, as he says, "carried him back to +Morven;" and, in his last fatal expedition, the dress which he himself +chiefly wore at Cephalonia was a tartan jacket. + +Cordial, however, and deep as were the impressions which he retained +of Scotland, he would sometimes in this, as in all his other amiable +feelings, endeavour perversely to belie his own better nature; and, +when under the excitement of anger or ridicule, persuade not only +others, but even himself, that the whole current of his feelings ran +directly otherwise. The abuse with which, in his anger against the +Edinburgh Review, he overwhelmed every thing Scotch, is an instance of +this temporary triumph of wilfulness; and, at any time, the least +association of ridicule with the country or its inhabitants was +sufficient, for the moment, to put all his sentiment to flight. A +friend of his once described to me the half playful rage, into which +she saw him thrown, one day, by a heedless girl, who remarked that she +thought he had a little of the Scotch accent. "Good God, I hope not!" +he exclaimed. "I'm sure I haven't. I would rather the whole d----d +country was sunk in the sea--I the Scotch accent!" + +To such sallies, however, whether in writing or conversation, but +little weight is to be allowed,--particularly, in comparison with +those strong testimonies which he has left on record of his fondness +for his early home; and while, on his side, this feeling so indelibly +existed, there is, on the part of the people of Aberdeen, who consider +him as almost their fellow-townsman, a correspondent warmth of +affection for his memory and name. The various houses where he resided +in his youth are pointed out to the traveller; to have seen him but +once is a recollection boasted of with pride; and the Brig of Don, +beautiful in itself, is invested, by his mere mention of it, with an +additional charm. Two or three years since, the sum of five pounds was +offered to a person in Aberdeen for a letter which he had in his +possession, written by Captain Byron a few days before his death; and, +among the memorials of the young poet, which are treasured up by +individuals of that place, there is one which it would have not a +little amused himself to hear of, being no less characteristic a relic +than an old china saucer, out of which he had bitten a large piece, in +a fit of passion, when a child. + +It was in the summer of 1798, as I have already said, that Lord Byron, +then in his eleventh year, left Scotland with his mother and nurse, to +take possession of the ancient seat of his ancestors. In one of his +latest letters, referring to this journey, he says, "I recollect Loch +Leven as it were but yesterday--I saw it in my way to England in +1798." They had already arrived at the Newstead toll-bar, and saw the +woods of the Abbey stretching out to receive them, when Mrs. Byron, +affecting to be ignorant of the place, asked the woman of the +toll-house--to whom that seat belonged? She was told that the owner of +it, Lord Byron, had been some months dead. "And who is the next heir?" +asked the proud and happy mother. "They say," answered the woman, "it +is a little boy who lives at Aberdeen."--"And this is he, bless him!" +exclaimed the nurse, no longer able to contain herself, and turning to +kiss with delight the young lord who was seated on her lap. + +Even under the most favourable circumstances, such an early elevation +to rank would be but too likely to have a dangerous influence on the +character; and the guidance under which young Byron entered upon his +new station was, of all others, the least likely to lead him safely +through its perils and temptations. His mother, without judgment or +self-command, alternately spoiled him by indulgence, and irritated, +or--what was still worse--amused him by her violence. That strong +sense of the ridiculous, for which he was afterwards so remarkable, +and which showed itself thus early, got the better even of his fear of +her; and when Mrs. Byron, who was a short and corpulent person, and +rolled considerably in her gait, would, in a rage, endeavour to catch +him, for the purpose of inflicting punishment, the young urchin, proud +of being able to out-strip her, notwithstanding his lameness, would +run round the room, laughing like a little Puck, and mocking at all +her menaces. In a few anecdotes of his early life which he related in +his "Memoranda," though the name of his mother was never mentioned but +with respect, it was not difficult to perceive that the recollections +she had left behind--at least, those that had made the deepest +impression--were of a painful nature. One of the most striking +passages, indeed, in the few pages of that Memoir which related to his +early days, was where, in speaking of his own sensitiveness, on the +subject of his deformed foot, he described the feeling of horror and +humiliation that came over him, when his mother, in one of her fits of +passion, called him "a lame brat." As all that he had felt strongly +through life was, in some shape or other, reproduced in his poetry, it +was not likely that an expression such as this should fail of being +recorded. Accordingly we find, in the opening of his drama, "The +Deformed Transformed," + + _Bertha_. Out, hunchback! + _Arnold_. I was born so, mother! + +It may be questioned, indeed, whether that whole drama was not +indebted for its origin to this single recollection. + +While such was the character of the person under whose immediate eye +his youth was passed, the counteraction which a kind and watchful +guardian might have opposed to such example and influence was almost +wholly lost to him. Connected but remotely with the family, and never +having had any opportunity of knowing the boy, it was with much +reluctance that Lord Carlisle originally undertook the trust; nor can +we wonder that, when his duties as a guardian brought him acquainted +with Mrs. Byron, he should be deterred from interfering more than was +absolutely necessary for the child by his fear of coming into +collision with the violence and caprice of the mother. + +Had even the character which the last lord left behind been +sufficiently popular to pique his young successor into an emulation of +his good name, such a salutary rivalry of the dead would have supplied +the place of living examples; and there is no mind in which such an +ambition would have been more likely to spring up than that of Byron. +But unluckily, as we have seen, this was not the case; and not only +was so fair a stimulus to good conduct wanting, but a rivalry of a +very different nature substituted in its place. The strange anecdotes +told of the last lord by the country people, among whom his fierce +and solitary habits had procured for him a sort of fearful renown, +were of a nature livelily to arrest the fancy of the young poet, and +even to waken in his mind a sort of boyish admiration for +singularities which he found thus elevated into matters of wonder and +record. By some it has been even supposed that in these stories of his +eccentric relative his imagination found the first dark outlines of +that ideal character, which he afterwards embodied in so many +different shapes, and ennobled by his genius. But however this may be, +it is at least far from improbable that, destitute as he was of other +and better models, the peculiarities of his immediate predecessor +should, in a considerable degree, have influenced his fancy and +tastes. One habit, which he seems early to have derived from this +spirit of imitation, and which he retained through life, was that of +constantly having arms of some description about or near him--it being +his practice, when quite a boy, to carry, at all times, small loaded +pistols in his waistcoat pockets. The affray, indeed, of the late lord +with Mr. Chaworth had, at a very early age, by connecting duelling in +his mind with the name of his race, led him to turn his attention to +this mode of arbitrament; and the mortification which he had, for some +time, to endure at school, from insults, as he imagined, hazarded on +the presumption of his physical inferiority, found consolation in the +thought that a day would yet arrive when the law of the pistol would +place him on a level with the strongest. + +On their arrival from Scotland, Mrs. Byron, with the hope of having +his lameness removed, placed her son under the care of a person, who +professed the cure of such cases, at Nottingham. The name of this man, +who appears to have been a mere empirical pretender, was Lavender; and +the manner in which he is said to have proceeded was by first rubbing +the foot over, for a considerable time, with handsful of oil, and then +twisting the limb forcibly round, and screwing it up in a wooden +machine. That the boy might not lose ground in his education during +this interval, he received lessons in Latin from a respectable +schoolmaster, Mr. Rogers, who read parts of Virgil and Cicero with +him, and represents his proficiency to have been, for his age, +considerable. He was often, during his lessons, in violent pain, from +the torturing position in which his foot was kept; and Mr. Rogers one +day said to him, "It makes me uncomfortable, my Lord, to see you +sitting there in such pain as I _know_ you must be suffering."--"Never +mind, Mr. Rogers," answered the boy; "you shall not see any signs of +it in _me_." + +This gentleman, who speaks with the most affectionate remembrance of +his pupil, mentions several instances of the gaiety of spirit with +which he used to take revenge on his tormentor, Lavender, by exposing +and laughing at his pompous ignorance. Among other tricks, he one day +scribbled down on a sheet of paper all the letters of the alphabet, +put together at random, but in the form of words and sentences, and, +placing them before this all-pretending person, asked him gravely +what language it was. The quack, unwilling to own his ignorance, +answered confidently, "Italian,"--to the infinite delight, as it may +be supposed, of the little satirist in embryo, who burst into a loud, +triumphant laugh at the success of the trap which he had thus laid for +imposture. + +With that mindfulness towards all who had been about him in his youth, +which was so distinguishing a trait in his character, he, many years +after, when in the neighbourhood of Nottingham, sent a message, full +of kindness, to his old instructor, and bid the bearer of it tell him, +that, beginning from a certain line in Virgil which he mentioned, he +could recite twenty verses on, which he well remembered having read +with this gentleman, when suffering all the time the most dreadful +pain. + +It was about this period, according to his nurse, May Gray, that the +first symptom of any tendency towards rhyming showed itself in him; +and the occasion which she represented as having given rise to this +childish effort was as follows:--An elderly lady, who was in the habit +of visiting his mother, had made use of some expression that very much +affronted him; and these slights, his nurse said, he generally +resented violently and implacably. The old lady had some curious +notions respecting the soul, which, she imagined, took its flight to +the moon after death, as a preliminary essay before it proceeded +further. One day, after a repetition, it is supposed, of her original +insult to the boy, he appeared before his nurse in a violent rage. +"Well, my little hero," she asked, "what's the matter with you now?" +Upon which the child answered, that "this old woman had put him in a +most terrible passion--that he could not bear the sight of her," &c. +&c.--and then broke out into the following doggerel, which he repeated +over and over, as if delighted with the vent he had found for his +rage:-- + + In Nottingham county there lives at Swan Green, + As curst an old lady as ever was seen; + And when she does die, which I hope will be soon, + She firmly believes she will go to the moon. + +It is possible that these rhymes may have been caught up at +second-hand; and he himself, as will presently be seen, dated his +"first dash into poetry," as he calls it, a year later:--but the +anecdote altogether, as containing some early dawnings of character, +appeared to me worth preserving. + +The small income of Mrs. Byron received at this time the +addition--most seasonable, no doubt, though on what grounds accorded, +I know not--of a pension on the Civil List, of 300_l._ a year. The +following is a copy of the King's warrant for the grant:--(Signed) + + "GEORGE R. + + "WHEREAS we are graciously pleased to grant unto Catharine + Gordon Byron, widow, an annuity of 300_l._, to commence from + 5th July, 1799, and to continue during pleasure: our will + and pleasure is, that, by virtue of our general letters of + Privy Seal, bearing date 5th November, 1760, you do issue + and pay out of our treasure, or revenue in the receipt of + the Exchequer, applicable to the uses of our civil + government, unto the said Catharine Gordon Byron, widow, or + her assignees, the said annuity, to commence from 5th July, + 1799, and to be paid quarterly, or otherwise, as the same + shall become due, and to continue during our pleasure; and + for so doing this shall be your warrant. Given at our Court + of St. James's, 2d October, 1799, 39th year of our reign. + + "By His Majesty's command, + + (Signed) "W. PITT. + + "S. DOUGLAS. + + "EDW^D. ROBERTS, Dep. Cler^us. Pellium." + +Finding but little benefit from the Nottingham practitioner, Mrs. +Byron, in the summer of the year 1799, thought it right to remove her +boy to London, where, at the suggestion of Lord Carlisle, he was put +under the care of Dr. Baillie. It being an object, too, to place him +at some quiet school, where the means adopted for the cure of his +infirmity might be more easily attended to, the establishment of the +late Dr. Glennie, at Dulwich, was chosen for that purpose; and as it +was thought advisable that he should have a separate apartment to +sleep in, Dr. Glennie had a bed put up for him in his own study. Mrs. +Byron, who had remained a short time behind him at Newstead, on her +arrival in town took a house upon Sloane Terrace; and, under the +direction of Dr. Baillie, one of the Messrs. Sheldrake[22] was +employed to construct an instrument for the purpose of straightening +the limb of the child. Moderation in all athletic exercises was, of +course, prescribed; but Dr. Glennie found it by no means easy to +enforce compliance with this rule, as, though sufficiently quiet when +along with him in his study, no sooner was the boy released for play, +than he showed as much ambition to excel in all exercises as the most +robust youth of the school;--"an ambition," adds Dr. Glennie, in the +communication with which he favoured me a short time before his death, +"which I have remarked to prevail in general in young persons +labouring under similar defects of nature."[23] + +Having been instructed in the elements of Latin grammar according to +the mode of teaching adopted at Aberdeen, the young student had now +unluckily to retrace his steps, and was, as is too often the case, +retarded in his studies and perplexed in his recollections, by the +necessity of toiling through the rudiments again in one of the forms +prescribed by the English schools. "I found him enter upon his tasks," +says Dr. Glennie, "with alacrity and success. He was playful, +good-humoured, and beloved by his companions. His reading in history +and poetry was far beyond the usual standard of his age, and in my +study he found many books open to him, both to please his taste and +gratify his curiosity; among others, a set of our poets from Chaucer +to Churchill, which I am almost tempted to say he had more than once +perused from beginning to end. He showed at this age an intimate +acquaintance with the historical parts of the Holy Scriptures, upon +which he seemed delighted to converse with me, especially after our +religious exercises of a Sunday evening; when he would reason upon the +facts contained in the Sacred Volume with every appearance of belief +in the divine truths which they unfold. That the impressions," adds +the writer, "thus imbibed in his boyhood, had, notwithstanding the +irregularities of his after life, sunk deep into his mind, will +appear, I think, to every impartial reader of his works in general; +and I never have been able to divest myself of the persuasion that, in +the strange aberrations which so unfortunately marked his subsequent +career, he must have found it difficult to violate the better +principles early instilled into him." + +It should have been mentioned, among the traits which I have recorded +of his still earlier years, that, according to the character given of +him by his first nurse's husband, he was, when a mere child, +"particularly inquisitive and puzzling about religion." + +It was not long before Dr. Glennie began to discover--what instructors +of youth must too often experience--that the parent was a much more +difficult subject to deal with than the child. Though professing +entire acquiescence in the representations of this gentleman, as to +the propriety of leaving her son to pursue his studies without +interruption, Mrs. Byron had neither sense nor self-denial enough to +act up to these professions; but, in spite of the remonstrances of Dr. +Glennie, and the injunctions of Lord Carlisle, continued to interfere +with and thwart the progress of the boy's education in every way that +a fond, wrong-headed, and self-willed mother could devise. In vain was +it stated to her that, in all the elemental parts of learning which +are requisite for a youth destined to a great public school, young +Byron was much behind other youths of his age, and that, to retrieve +this deficiency, the undivided application of his whole time would be +necessary. Though appearing to be sensible of the truth of these +suggestions, she not the less embarrassed and obstructed the teacher +in his task. Not content with the interval between Saturday and +Monday, which, contrary to Dr. Glennie's wish, the boy generally +passed at Sloane Terrace, she would frequently keep him at home a week +beyond this time, and, still further to add to the distraction of such +interruptions, collected around him a numerous circle of young +acquaintances, without exercising, as may be supposed, much +discrimination in her choice. "How, indeed, could she?" asks Dr. +Glennie--"Mrs. Byron was a total stranger to English society and +English manners; with an exterior far from prepossessing, an +understanding where nature had not been more bountiful, a mind almost +wholly without cultivation, and the peculiarities of northern +opinions, northern habits, and northern accent, I trust I do no great +prejudice to the memory of my countrywoman, if I say Mrs. Byron was +not a Madame de Lambert, endowed with powers to retrieve the fortune, +and form the character and manners, of a young nobleman, her son." + +The interposition of Lord Carlisle, to whose authority it was found +necessary to appeal, had more than once given a check to these +disturbing indulgences. Sanctioned by such support, Dr. Glennie even +ventured to oppose himself to the privilege, so often abused, of the +usual visits on a Saturday; and the scenes which he had to encounter +on each new case of refusal were such as would have wearied out the +patience of any less zealous and conscientious schoolmaster. Mrs. +Byron, whose paroxysms of passion were not, like those of her son, +"silent rages," would, on all these occasions, break out into such +audible fits of temper as it was impossible to keep from reaching the +ears of the scholars and the servants; and Dr. Glennie had, one day, +the pain of overhearing a school-fellow of his noble pupil say to him, +"Byron, your mother is a fool;" to which the other answered gloomily, +"I know it." In consequence of all this violence and impracticability +of temper, Lord Carlisle at length ceased to have any intercourse with +the mother of his ward; and on a further application from the +instructor, for the exertion of his influence, said, "I can have +nothing more to do with Mrs. Byron,--you must now manage her as you +can." + +Among the books that lay accessible to the boys in Dr. Glennie's study +was a pamphlet written by the brother of one of his most intimate +friends, entitled, "Narrative of the Shipwreck of the Juno on the +coast of Arracan, in the year 1795." The writer had been the second +officer of the ship, and the account which he had sent home to his +friends of the sufferings of himself and his fellow-passengers had +appeared to them so touching and strange, that they determined to +publish it. The pamphlet attracted but little, it seems, of public +attention, but among the young students of Dulwich Grove it was a +favourite study; and the impression which it left on the retentive +mind of Byron may have had some share, perhaps, in suggesting that +curious research through all the various Accounts of Shipwrecks upon +record, by which he prepared himself to depict with such power a scene +of the same description in Don Juan. The following affecting incident, +mentioned by the author of this pamphlet, has been adopted, it will be +seen, with but little change either of phrase or circumstance, by the +poet:-- + +"Of those who were not immediately near me I knew little, unless by +their cries. Some struggled hard, and died in great agony; but it was +not always those whose strength was most impaired that died the +easiest, though, in some cases, it might have been so. I particularly +remember the following instances. Mr. Wade's servant, a stout and +healthy boy, died early and almost without a groan; while another of +the same age, but of a less promising appearance, held out much +longer. The fate of these unfortunate boys differed also in another +respect highly deserving of notice. Their fathers were both in the +fore-top when the lads were taken ill. The father of Mr. Wade's boy +hearing of his son's illness, answered with indifference, 'that he +could do nothing for him,' and left him to his fate. The other, when +the accounts reached him, hurried down, and watching for a favourable +moment, crawled on all fours along the weather gunwale to his son, who +was in the mizen rigging. By that time, only three or four planks of +the quarter deck remained, just over the weather-quarter gallery; and +to this spot the unhappy man led his son, making him fast to the rail +to prevent his being washed away. Whenever the boy was seized with a +fit of retching, the father lifted him up and wiped the foam from his +lips; and, if a shower came, he made him open his mouth to receive the +drops, or gently squeezed them into it from a rag. In this affecting +situation both remained four or five days, till the boy expired. The +unfortunate parent, as if unwilling to believe the fact, then raised +the body, gazed wistfully at it, and, when he could no longer +entertain any doubt, watched it in silence till it was carried off by +the sea; then, wrapping himself in a piece of canvass, sunk down and +rose no more; though he must have lived two days longer, as we judged +from the quivering of his limbs, when a wave broke over him."[24] + +It was probably during one of the vacations of this year, that the +boyish love for his young cousin, Miss Parker, to which he attributes +the glory of having first inspired him with poetry, took possession of +his fancy. "My first dash into poetry (he says) was as early as 1800. +It was the ebullition of a passion for my first cousin, Margaret +Parker (daughter and grand-daughter of the two Admirals Parker), one +of the most beautiful of evanescent beings. I have long forgotten the +verses, but it would be difficult for me to forget her--her dark +eyes--her long eye-lashes--her completely Greek cast of face and +figure! I was then about twelve--she rather older, perhaps a year. She +died about a year or two afterwards, in consequence of a fall, which +injured her spine, and induced consumption. Her sister Augusta (by +some thought still more beautiful) died of the same malady; and it +was, indeed, in attending her, that Margaret met with the accident +which occasioned her own death. My sister told me, that when she went +to see her, shortly before her death, upon accidentally mentioning my +name, Margaret coloured through the paleness of mortality to the eyes, +to the great astonishment of my sister, who (residing with her +grandmother, Lady Holderness, and seeing but little of me, for family +reasons,) knew nothing of our attachment, nor could conceive why my +name should affect her at such a time. I knew nothing of her illness, +being at Harrow and in the country, till she was gone. Some years +after, I made an attempt at an elegy--a very dull one.[25] + +"I do not recollect scarcely any thing equal to the _transparent_ +beauty of my cousin, or to the sweetness of her temper, during the +short period of our intimacy. She looked as if she had been made out +of a rainbow--all beauty and peace. + +"My passion had its usual effects upon me--I could not sleep--I could +not eat--I could not rest: and although I had reason to know that she +loved me, it was the texture of my life to think of the time which +must elapse before we could meet again, being usually about twelve +hours of separation! But I was a fool then, and am not much wiser +now." + +He had been nearly two years under the tuition of Dr. Glennie, when +his mother, discontented at the slowness of his progress--though +being, herself, as we have seen, the principal cause of it--entreated +so urgently of Lord Carlisle to have him removed to a public school, +that her wish was at length acceded to; and "accordingly," says Dr. +Glennie, "to Harrow he went, as little prepared as it is natural to +suppose from two years of elementary instruction, thwarted by every +art that could estrange the mind of youth from preceptor, from school, +and from all serious study." + +This gentleman saw but little of Lord Byron after he left his care; +but, from the manner in which both he and Mrs. Glennie spoke of their +early charge, it was evident that his subsequent career had been +watched by them with interest; that they had seen even his errors +through the softening medium of their first feeling towards him, and +had never, in his most irregular aberrations, lost the traces of those +fine qualities which they had loved and admired in him when a child. +Of the constancy, too, of this feeling, Dr. Glennie had to stand no +ordinary trial, having visited Geneva in 1817, soon after Lord Byron +had left it, when the private character of the poet was in the very +crisis of its unpopularity, and when, among those friends who knew +that Dr. Glennie had once been his tutor, it was made a frequent +subject of banter with this gentleman that he had not more strictly +disciplined his pupil, or, to use their own words, "made a better boy +of him." + +About the time when young Byron was removed, for his education, to +London, his nurse May Gray left the service of Mrs. Byron, and +returned to her native country, where she died about three years +since. She had married respectably, and in one of her last illnesses +was attended professionally by Dr. Ewing of Aberdeen, who, having been +always an enthusiastic admirer of Lord Byron, was no less surprised +than delighted to find that the person tinder his care had for so many +years been an attendant on his favourite poet. With avidity, as may be +supposed, he noted down from the lips of his patient all the +particulars she could remember of his Lordship's early days; and it is +to the communications with which this gentleman has favoured me, that +I am indebted for many of the anecdotes of that period which I have +related. + +As a mark of gratitude for her attention to him, Byron had, in parting +with May Gray, presented her with his watch,--the first of which he +had ever been possessor. This watch the faithful nurse preserved +fondly through life, and, when she died, it was given by her husband +to Dr. Ewing, by whom, as a relic of genius, it is equally valued. The +affectionate boy had also presented her with a full-length miniature +of himself, which was painted by Kay of Edinburgh, in the year 1795, +and which represents him standing with a bow and arrows in his hand, +and a profusion of hair falling over his shoulders. This curious +little drawing has likewise passed into the possession of Dr. Ewing. + +The same thoughtful gratitude was evinced by Byron towards the sister +of this woman, his first nurse, to whom he wrote some years after he +left Scotland, in the most cordial terms, making enquiries of her +welfare, and informing her, with much joy, that he had at last got his +foot so far restored as to be able to put on a common boot,--"an event +for which he had long anxiously wished, and which he was sure would +give her great pleasure." + +In the summer of the year 1801 he accompanied his mother to +Cheltenham, and the account which he himself gives of his sensations +at that period[26] shows at what an early age those feelings that lead +to poetry had unfolded themselves in his heart. A boy, gazing with +emotion on the hills at sunset, because they remind him of the +mountains among which he passed his childhood, is already, in heart +and imagination, a poet. It was during their stay at Cheltenham that a +fortune-teller, whom his mother consulted, pronounced a prediction +concerning him which, for some time, left a strong impression on his +mind. Mrs. Byron had, it seems, in her first visit to this person, +(who, if I mistake not, was the celebrated fortune-teller, Mrs. +Williams,) endeavoured to pass herself off as a maiden lady. The +sibyl, however, was not so easily deceived;--she pronounced her wise +consulter to be not only a married woman, but the mother of a son who +was lame, and to whom, among other events which she read in the stars, +it was predestined that his life should be in danger from poison +before he was of age, and that he should be twice married,--the second +time, to a foreign lady. About two years afterwards he himself +mentioned these particulars to the person from whom I heard the +story, and said that the thought of the first part of the prophecy +very often occurred to him. The latter part, however, seems to have +been the _nearer_ guess of the two. + +To a shy disposition, such as Byron's was in his youth--and such as, +to a certain degree, it continued all his life--the transition from a +quiet establishment, like that of Dulwich Grove, to the bustle of a +great public school was sufficiently trying. Accordingly, we find from +his own account, that, for the first year and a half, he "hated +Harrow." The activity, however, and sociableness of his nature soon +conquered this repugnance; and, from being, as he himself says, "a +most unpopular boy," he rose at length to be a leader in all the +sports, schemes, and mischief of the school. + +For a general notion of his dispositions and capacities at this +period, we could not have recourse to a more trust-worthy or valuable +authority than that of the Rev. Dr. Drury, who was at this time head +master of the school, and to whom Lord Byron has left on record a +tribute of affection and respect, which, like the reverential regard +of Dryden for Dr. Busby, will long associate together honourably the +names of the poet and the master. From this venerable scholar I have +received the following brief, but important statement of the +impressions which his early intercourse with the young noble left upon +him:-- + +"Mr. Hanson, Lord Byron's solicitor, consigned him to my care at the +age of 13-1/2, with remarks, that his education had been neglected; +that he was ill prepared for a public school, but that he thought +there was a _cleverness_ about him. After his departure I took my +young disciple into my study, and endeavoured to bring him forward by +enquiries as to his former amusements, employments, and associates, +but with little or no effect;--and I soon found that a wild mountain +colt had been submitted to my management. But there was mind in his +eye. In the first place, it was necessary to attach him to an elder +boy, in order to familiarise him with the objects before him, and with +some parts of the system in which he was to move. But the information +he received from his conductor gave him no pleasure, when he heard of +the advances of some in the school, much younger than himself, and +conceived by his own deficiency that he should be degraded, and +humbled, by being placed below them. This I discovered, and having +committed him to the care of one of the masters, as his tutor, I +assured him he should not be placed till, by diligence, he might rank +with those of his own age. He was pleased with this assurance, and +felt himself on easier terms with his associates;--for a degree of +shyness hung about him for some time. His manner and temper soon +convinced me, that he might be led by a silken string to a point, +rather than by a cable;--on that principle I acted. After some +continuance at Harrow, and when the powers of his mind had begun to +expand, the late Lord Carlisle, his relation, desired to see me in +town;--I waited on his Lordship. His object was to inform me of Lord +Byron's expectations of property when he came of age, which he +represented as contracted, and to enquire respecting his abilities. On +the former circumstance I made no remark; as to the latter, I replied, +'He has talents, my Lord, which will _add lustre to his rank_.' +'Indeed!!!' said his Lordship, with a degree of surprise, that, +according to my reeling, did not express in it all the satisfaction I +expected. + +"The circumstance to which you allude, as to his declamatory powers, +was as follows. The upper part of the school composed declamations, +which, after a revisal by the tutors, were submitted to the master: to +him the authors repeated them, that they might be improved in manner +and action, before their public delivery. I certainly was much pleased +with Lord Byron's attitude, gesture, and delivery, as well as with his +composition. All who spoke on that day adhered, as usual, to the +letter of their composition, as, in the earlier part of his delivery, +did Lord Byron. But to my surprise he suddenly diverged from the +written composition, with a boldness and rapidity sufficient to alarm +me, lest he should fail in memory as to the conclusion. There was no +failure:--he came round to the close of his composition without +discovering any impediment and irregularity on the whole. I questioned +him, why he had altered his declamation? He declared he had made no +alteration, and did not know, in speaking, that he had deviated from +it one letter. I believed him; and from a knowledge of his temperament +am convinced, that, fully impressed with the sense and substance of +the subject, he was hurried on to expressions and colourings more +striking than what his pen had expressed." + +In communicating to me these recollections of his illustrious pupil, +Dr. Drury has added a circumstance which shows how strongly, even in +all the pride of his fame, that awe with which he had once regarded +the opinions of his old master still hung around the poet's sensitive +mind:-- + +"After my retreat from Harrow, I received from him two very +affectionate letters. In my occasional visits subsequently to London, +when he had fascinated the public with his productions, I demanded of +him; why, as in _duty bound_, he had sent none to me? 'Because,' said +he, 'you are the only man I never wish to read them:'--but, in a few +moments, he added--'What do you think of the Corsair?'" + +I shall now lay before the reader such notices of his school-life as I +find scattered through the various note-books he has left behind. +Coming, as they do, from his own pen, it is needless to add, that they +afford the liveliest and best records of this period that can be +furnished. + +"Till I was eighteen years old (odd as it may seem) I had never read a +review. But while at Harrow, my general information was so great on +modern topics as to induce a suspicion that I could only collect so +much information from _Reviews_, because I was never _seen_ reading, +but always idle, and in mischief, or at play. The truth is, that I +read eating, read in bed, read when no one else read, and had read all +sorts of reading since I was five years old, and yet never _met_ with +a Review, which is the only reason I know of why I should not have +read them. But it is true; for I remember when Hunter and Curzon, in +1804, told me this opinion at Harrow, I made them laugh by my +ludicrous astonishment in asking them '_What is_ a Review?' To be +sure, they were then less common. In three years more, I was better +acquainted with that same; but the first I ever read was in 1806-7. + +"At school I was (as I have said) remarked for the extent and +readiness of my _general_ information; but in all other respects idle, +capable of great sudden exertions, (such as thirty or forty Greek +hexa-meters, of course with such prosody as it pleased God,) but of +few continuous drudgeries. My qualities were much more oratorical and +martial than poetical, and Dr. Drury, my grand patron, (our head +master,) had a great notion that I should turn out an orator, from my +fluency, my turbulence, my voice, my copiousness of declamation, and +my action.[27] I remember that my first declamation astonished him +into some unwonted (for he was economical of such) and sudden +compliments, before the declaimers at our first rehearsal. My first +Harrow verses, (that is, English, as exercises,) a translation of a +chorus from the Prometheus of Æschylus, were received by him but +coolly. No one had the least notion that I should subside into poesy. + +"Peel, the orator and statesman, ('that was, or is, or is to be,') was +my form-fellow, and we were both at the top of our remove (a +public-school phrase). We were on good terms, but his brother was my +intimate friend. There were always great hopes of Peel, amongst us +all, masters and scholars--and he has not disappointed them. As a +scholar he was greatly my superior; as a declaimer and actor, I was +reckoned at least his equal; as a schoolboy, _out_ of school, I was +always _in_ scrapes, and _he never_; and _in school_, he _always_ knew +his lesson, and I rarely,--but when I knew it, I knew it nearly as +well. In general information, history, &c. &c., I think I was _his_ +superior, as well as of most boys of my standing. + +"The prodigy of our school-days was George Sinclair (son of Sir John); +he made exercises for half the school, (_literally_) verses at will, +and themes without it.... He was a friend of mine, and in the same +remove, and used at times to beg me to let him do my exercise,--a +request always most readily accorded upon a pinch, or when I wanted to +do something else, which was usually once an hour. On the other hand, +he was pacific and I savage; so I fought for him, or thrashed others +for him, or thrashed himself to make him thrash others when it was +necessary, as a point of honour and stature, that he should so +chastise;--or we talked politics, for he was a great politician, and +were very good friends. I have some of his letters, written to me +from school, still.[28] + +"Clayton was another school-monster of learning, and talent, and hope; +but what has become of him I do not know. He was certainly a genius. + +"My school-friendships were with _me passions_,[29] (for I was always +violent,) but I do not know that there is one which has endured (to be +sure some have been cut short by death) till now. That with Lord Clare +begun one of the earliest, and lasted longest--being only interrupted +by distance--that I know of. I never hear the word '_Clare_' without a +beating of the heart even _now_, and I write it with the feelings of +1803-4-5, ad infinitum." + +The following extract is from another of his manuscript journals:-- + +"At Harrow I fought my way very fairly.[30] I think I lost but one +battle out of seven; and that was to H----;--and the rascal did not +win it, but by the unfair treatment of his own boarding-house, where +we boxed--I had not even a second. I never forgave him, and I should +be sorry to meet him now, as I am sure we should quarrel. My most +memorable combats were with Morgan, Rice, Rainsford, and Lord +Jocelyn,--but we were always friendly afterwards. I was a most +unpopular boy, but _led_ latterly, and have retained many of my school +friendships, and all my dislikes--except to Dr. Butler, whom I treated +rebelliously, and have been sorry ever since. Dr. Drury, whom I +plagued sufficiently too, was the best, the kindest (and yet strict, +too,) friend I ever had--and I look upon him still as a father. + +"P. Hunter, Curzon, Long, and Tatersall, were my principal friends. +Clare, Dorset, C^s. Gordon, De Bath, Claridge, and J^no. Wingfield, +were my juniors and favourites, whom I spoilt by indulgence. Of all +human beings, I was, perhaps, at one time, the most attached to poor +Wingfield, who died at Coimbra, 1811, before I returned to England." + +One of the most striking results of the English system of education +is, that while in no country are there so many instances of manly +friendships early formed and steadily maintained, so in no other +country, perhaps, are the feelings towards the parental home so early +estranged, or, at the best, feebly cherished. Transplanted as boys are +from the domestic circle, at a time of life when the affections are +most disposed to cling, it is but natural that they should seek a +substitute for the ties of home[31] in those boyish friendships which +they form at school, and which, connected as they are with the scenes +and events over which youth threw its charm, retain ever after the +strongest hold upon their hearts. In Ireland, and I believe also in +France, where the system of education is more domestic, a different +result is accordingly observable:--the paternal home comes in for its +due and natural share of affection, and the growth of friendships, out +of this domestic circle, is proportionably diminished. + +To a youth like Byron, abounding with the most passionate feelings, +and finding sympathy with only the ruder parts of his nature at home, +the little world of school afforded a vent for his affections, which +was sure to call them forth in their most ardent form. Accordingly, +the friendships which he contracted, both at school and college, were +little less than what he himself describes them, "passions." The want +he felt at home of those kindred dispositions, which greeted him among +"Ida's social band," is thus strongly described in one of his early +poems[32]:-- + + "Is there no cause beyond the common claim, + Endear'd to all in childhood's very name? + Ah! sure some stronger impulse vibrates here, + Which whispers, Friendship will be doubly dear + To one who thus for kindred hearts must roam, + And seek abroad the love denied at home: + Those hearts, dear Ida, have I found in thee, + A home, a world, a paradise to me." + +This early volume, indeed, abounds with the most affectionate tributes +to his school-fellows. Even his expostulations to one of them, who had +given him some cause for complaint, are thus tenderly conveyed:-- + + "You knew that my soul, that my heart, my existence, + If danger demanded, were wholly your own; + You know me unaltered by years or by distance, + Devoted to love and to friendship alone. + + "You knew--but away with the vain retrospection, + The bond of affection no longer endures. + Too late you may droop o'er the fond recollection, + And sigh for the friend who was formerly yours." + +The following description of what he felt after leaving Harrow, when +he encountered in the world any of his old school-fellows, falls far +short of the scene which actually occurred but a few years before his +death in Italy,--when, on meeting with his friend, Lord Clare, after a +long separation, he was affected almost to tears by the recollections +which rushed on him. + + "If chance some well remember'd face, + Some old companion of my early race, + Advance to claim his friend with honest joy, + My eyes, my heart proclaim'd me yet a boy; + The glittering scene, the fluttering groups around, + Were all forgotten when my friend was found." + +It will be seen, by the extracts from his memorandum-book, which I +have given, that Mr. Peel was one of his contemporaries at Harrow; and +the following interesting anecdote of an occurrence in which both were +concerned, has been related to me by a friend of the latter gentleman, +in whose words I shall endeavour as nearly as possible to give it. + +While Lord Byron and Mr. Peel were at Harrow together, a tyrant, some +few years older, whose name was ----, claimed a right to fag little +Peel, which claim (whether rightly or wrongly I know not) Peel +resisted. His resistance, however, was in vain:-- ---- not only +subdued him, but determined also to punish the refractory slave; and +proceeded forthwith to put this determination in practice, by +inflicting a kind of bastinado on the inner fleshy side of the boy's +arm, which, during the operation, was twisted round with some degree +of technical skill, to render the pain more acute. While the stripes +were succeeding each other, and poor Peel writhing under them, Byron +saw and felt for the misery of his friend; and although he knew that +he was not strong enough to fight ---- with any hope of success, and +that it was dangerous even to approach him, he advanced to the scene +of action, and with a blush of rage, tears in his eyes, and a voice +trembling between terror and indignation, asked very humbly if ---- +would be pleased to tell him "how many stripes he meant to inflict?" +--"Why," returned the executioner, "you little rascal, what is that to +you?"--"Because, if you please," said Byron, holding out his arm, "I +would take half!" + +There is a mixture of simplicity and magnanimity in this little trait +which is truly heroic; and however we may smile at the friendships of +boys, it is but rarely that the friendship of manhood is capable of +any thing half so generous. + +Among his school favourites a great number, it may be observed, were +nobles or of noble family--Lords Clare and Delaware, the Duke of +Dorset and young Wingfield--and that their rank may have had some +share in first attracting his regard to them, might appear from a +circumstance mentioned to me by one of his school-fellows, who, being +monitor one day, had put Lord Delaware on his list for punishment. +Byron, hearing of this, came up to him, and said, "Wildman, I find +you've got Delaware on your list--pray don't lick him."--"Why +not?"--"Why, I don't know--except that he is a brother peer. But pray +don't." It is almost needless to add, that his interference, on such +grounds, was anything but successful. One of the few merits, indeed, +of public schools is, that they level, in some degree, these +artificial distinctions, and that, however the peer may have his +revenge in the world afterwards, the young plebeian is, for once, at +least, on something like an equality with him. + +It is true that Lord Byron's high notions of rank were, in his boyish +days, so little disguised or softened down, as to draw upon him, at +times, the ridicule of his companions; and it was at Dulwich, I think, +that from his frequent boast of the superiority of an old English +barony over all the later creations of the peerage, he got the +nickname, among the boys, of "the Old English Baron." But it is a +mistake to suppose that, either at school or afterwards, he was at all +guided in the selection of his friends by aristocratic sympathies. On +the contrary, like most very proud persons, he chose his intimates in +general from a rank beneath his own, and those boys whom he ranked as +_friends_ at school were mostly of this description; while the chief +charm that recommended to him his younger favourites was their +inferiority to himself in age and strength, which enabled him to +indulge his generous pride by taking upon himself, when necessary, the +office of their protector. + +Among those whom he attached to himself by this latter tie, one of the +earliest (though he has omitted to mention his name) was William +Harness, who at the time of his entering Harrow was ten years of age, +while Byron was fourteen. Young Harness, still lame from an accident +of his childhood, and but just recovered from a severe illness, was +ill fitted to struggle with the difficulties of a public school; and +Byron, one day, seeing him bullied by a boy much older and stronger +than himself, interfered and took his part. The next day, as the +little fellow was standing alone, Byron came to him and said, +"Harness, if any one bullies you, tell me, and I'll thrash him, if I +can." The young champion kept his word, and they were from this time, +notwithstanding the difference of their ages, inseparable friends. A +coolness, however, subsequently arose between them, to which, and to +the juvenile friendship it interrupted, Lord Byron, in a letter +addressed to Harness six years afterwards, alludes with so much kindly +feeling, so much delicacy and frankness, that I am tempted to +anticipate the date of the letter, and give an extract from it here. + +"We both seem perfectly to recollect, with a mixture of pleasure and +regret, the hours we once passed together, and I assure you, most +sincerely, they are numbered among the happiest of my brief chronicle +of enjoyment. I am now _getting into years_, that is to say, I was +_twenty_ a month ago, and another year will send me into the world to +run my career of folly with the rest. I was then just fourteen,--you +were almost the _first_ of my Harrow friends, certainly the first in +my esteem, if not in date; but an absence from Harrow for some time, +shortly after, and new connections on your side, and the difference in +our conduct (an advantage decidedly in your favour) from that +turbulent and riotous disposition of mine, which impelled me into +every species of mischief,--all these circumstances combined to +destroy an intimacy, which affection urged me to continue, and memory +compels me to regret. But there is not a circumstance attending that +period, hardly a sentence we exchanged, which is not impressed on my +mind at this moment. I need not say more,--this assurance alone must +convince you, had I considered them as trivial, they would have been +less indelible. How well I recollect the perusal of your 'first +flights!' There is another circumstance you do not know;--the _first +lines_ I ever attempted at Harrow were addressed to _you_. You were to +have seen them; but Sinclair had the copy in his possession when we +went home;--and, on our return, we were _strangers_. They were +destroyed, and certainly no great loss; but you will perceive from +this circumstance my opinions at an age when we cannot be hypocrites. + +"I have dwelt longer on this theme than I intended, and I shall now +conclude with what I ought to have begun. We were once friends,--nay, +we have always been so, for our separation was the effect of chance, +not of dissension. I do not know how far our destinations in life may +throw us together, but if opportunity and inclination allow you to +waste a thought on such a hare-brained being as myself, you will find +me at least sincere, and not so bigoted to my faults as to involve +others in the consequences. Will you sometimes write to me? I do not +ask it often; and, if we meet, let us be what we _should_ be, and what +we _were_." + +Of the tenaciousness with which, as we see in this letter, he clung to +all the impressions of his youth, there can be no stronger proof than +the very interesting fact, that, while so little of his own boyish +correspondence has been preserved, there were found among his papers +almost all the notes and letters which his principal school +favourites, even the youngest, had ever addressed to him; and, in some +cases, where the youthful writers had omitted to date their scrawls, +his faithful memory had, at an interval of years after, supplied the +deficiency. Among these memorials, so fondly treasured by him, there +is one which it would be unjust not to cite, as well on account of the +manly spirit that dawns through its own childish language, as for the +sake of the tender and amiable feeling which, it will be seen, the +re-perusal of it, in other days, awakened in Byron:-- + + +"TO THE LORD BYRON, &c. &c. + +"Harrow on the Hill, July 28. 1805. + + +"Since you have been so unusually unkind to me, in calling me names +whenever you meet me, of late, I must beg an explanation, wishing to +know whether you choose to be as good friends with me as ever. I must +own that, for this last month, you have entirely cut me,--for, I +suppose, your new cronies. But think not that I will (because you +choose to take into your head some whim or other) be always going up +to you, nor do, as I observe certain other fellows doing, to regain +your friendship; nor think that I am your friend either through +interest, or because you are bigger and older than I am. No,--it +never was so, nor ever shall be so. I was only your friend, and am so +still,--unless you go on in this way, calling me names whenever you +see me. I am sure you may easily perceive I do not like it; +therefore, why should you do it, unless you wish that I should no +longer be your friend? And why should I be so, if you treat me +unkindly? I have no interest in being so. Though you do not let the +boys bully me, yet if _you_ treat me unkindly, that is to me a great +deal worse. + +"I am no hypocrite, Byron, nor will I, for your pleasure, ever suffer +you to call me names, if you wish me to be your friend. If not, I +cannot help it. I am sure no one can say that I will cringe to regain +a friendship that you have rejected. Why should I do so? Am I not your +equal? Therefore, what interest can I have in doing so? When we meet +again in the world, (that is, if you choose it,) _you_ cannot advance +or promote _me_, nor I you. Therefore I beg and entreat of you, if you +value my friendship,--which, by your conduct, I am sure I cannot think +you do,--not to call me the names you do, nor abuse me. Till that +time, it will be out of my power to call you friend. I shall be +obliged for an answer as soon as it is convenient; till then + +I remain yours, + +---- + +"I cannot say your friend." + +Endorsed on this letter, in the handwriting of Lord Byron, is the +following:-- + +"This and another letter were written at Harrow, by my _then_, and I hope +_ever_, beloved friend, Lord ----, when we were both school-boys, and sent +to my study in consequence of some childish misunderstanding,--the only +one which ever arose between us. It was of short duration, and I retain +this note solely for the purpose of submitting it to his perusal, that we +may smile over the recollection of the insignificance of our first and +last quarrel. + +"BYRON." + + +In a letter, dated two years afterwards, from the same boy,[33] there +occurs the following characteristic trait:--"I think, by your last +letter, that you are very much piqued with most of your friends; and, +if I am not much mistaken, you are a little piqued with me. In one +part you say, 'There is little or no doubt a few years, or months, +will render us as politely indifferent to each other as if we had +never passed a portion of our time together.' Indeed, Byron, you wrong +me, and I have no doubt--at least, I hope--you wrong yourself." + +As that propensity to self-delineation, which so strongly pervades his +maturer works is, to the full, as predominant in his early +productions, there needs no better record of his mode of life, as a +school-boy, than what these fondly circumstantial effusions supply. +Thus the sports he delighted and excelled in are enumerated:-- + + "Yet when confinement's lingering hour was done, + Our sports, our studies, and our souls were one: + Together we impell'd the flying ball, + + * * * * * + + Together join'd in cricket's manly toil, + Or shared the produce of the river's spoil; + Or, plunging from the green, declining shore, + Our pliant limbs the buoyant waters bore; + In every element, unchanged, the same, + All, all that brothers should be, but the name." + +The danger which he incurred in a fight with some of the neighbouring +farmers--an event well remembered by some of his school-fellows--is +thus commemorated.-- + + "Still I remember, in the factious strife, + The rustic's musket aim'd against my life; + High poised in air the massy weapon hung, + A cry of horror burst from every tongue: + Whilst I, in combat with another foe, + Fought on, unconscious of the impending blow. + Your arm, brave boy, arrested his career-- + Forward you sprung, insensible to fear; + Disarm'd and baffled by your conquering hand, + The grovelling savage roll'd upon the sand." + +Some feud, it appears, had arisen on the subject of the +cricket-ground, between these "clods" (as in school-language they are +called) and the boys, and one or two skirmishes had previously taken +place. But the engagement here recorded was accidentally brought on by +the breaking up of school and the dismissal of the volunteers from +drill, both happening, on that occasion, at the same hour. This +circumstance accounts for the use of the musket, the butt-end of which +was aimed at Byron's head, and would have felled him to the ground, +but for the interposition of his friend Tatersall, a lively, +high-spirited boy, whom he addresses here under the name of Davus. + +Notwithstanding these general habits of play and idleness, which might +seem to indicate a certain absence of reflection and feeling, there +were moments when the youthful poet would retire thoughtfully within +himself, and give way to moods of musing uncongenial with the usual +cheerfulness of his age. They show a tomb in the churchyard at Harrow, +commanding a view over Windsor, which was so well known to be his +favourite resting-place, that the boys called it "Byron's tomb;"[34] +and here, they say, he used to sit for hours, wrapt up in +thought,--brooding lonelily over the first stirrings of passion and +genius in his soul, and occasionally, perhaps, indulging in those +bright forethoughts of fame, under the influence of which, when little +more than fifteen years of age, he wrote these remarkable lines:-- + + "My epitaph shall be my name alone; + If that with honour fail to crown my clay, + Oh may no other fame my deeds repay; + That, only that, shall single out the spot, + By that remember'd, or with that forgot." + +In the autumn of 1802, he passed a short time with his mother at Bath, +and entered, rather prematurely, into some of the gaieties of the +place. At a masquerade given by Lady Riddel, he appeared in the +character of a Turkish boy,--a sort of anticipation, both in beauty +and costume, of his own young Selim, in "The Bride." On his entering +into the house, some person in the crowd attempted to snatch the +diamond crescent from his turban, but was prevented by the prompt +interposition of one of the party. The lady who mentioned to me this +circumstance, and who was well acquainted with Mrs. Byron at that +period, adds the following remark in the communication with which she +has favoured me:--"At Bath I saw a good deal of Lord Byron,--his +mother frequently sent for me to take tea with her. He was always very +pleasant and droll, and, when conversing about absent friends, showed +a slight turn for satire, which after-years, as is well known, gave a +finer edge to." + +We come now to an event in his life which, according to his own +deliberate persuasion, exercised a lasting and paramount influence +over the whole of his subsequent character and career. + +It was in the year 1803 that his heart, already twice, as we have +seen, possessed with the childish notion that it loved, conceived an +attachment which--young as he was, even then, for such a +feeling--sunk so deep into his mind as to give a colour to all his +future life. That unsuccessful loves are generally the most lasting, +is a truth, however sad, which unluckily did not require this instance +to confirm it. To the same cause, I fear, must be traced the perfect +innocence and romance which distinguish this very early attachment to +Miss Chaworth from the many others that succeeded, without effacing it +in his heart;--making it the only one whose details can be entered +into with safety, or whose results, however darkening their influence +on himself, can be dwelt upon with pleasurable interest by others. + +On leaving Bath, Mrs. Byron took up her abode, in lodgings, at +Nottingham,--Newstead Abbey being at that time let to Lord Grey de +Ruthen,--and during the Harrow vacations of this year, she was joined +there by her son. So attached was he to Newstead, that even to be in +its neighbourhood was a delight to him; and before he became +acquainted with Lord Grey, he used sometimes to sleep, for a night, at +the small house near the gate which is still known by the name of "The +Hut."[35] An intimacy, however, soon sprang up between him and his +noble tenant, and an apartment in the abbey was from thenceforth +always at his service. To the family of Miss Chaworth, who resided at +Annesley, in the immediate neighbourhood of Newstead, he had been made +known, some time before, in London, and now renewed his acquaintance +with them. The young heiress herself combined with the many worldly +advantages that encircled her, much personal beauty, and a disposition +the most amiable and attaching. Though already fully alive to her +charms, it was at the period of which we are speaking that the young +poet, who was then in his sixteenth year, while the object of his +admiration was about two years older, seems to have drunk deepest of +that fascination whose effects were to be so lasting;--six short +summer weeks which he now passed in her company being sufficient to +lay the foundation of a feeling for all life. + +He used, at first, though offered a bed at Annesley, to return every +night to Newstead, to sleep; alleging as a reason that he was afraid +of the family pictures of the Chaworths,--that he fancied "they had +taken a grudge to him on account of the duel, and would come down from +their frames at night to haunt him."[36] At length, one evening, he +said gravely to Miss Chaworth and her cousin, "In going home last +night I saw a _bogle_;"--which Scotch term being wholly unintelligible +to the young ladies, he explained that he had seen a _ghost_, and +would not therefore return to Newstead that evening. From this time he +always slept at Annesley during the remainder of his visit, which was +interrupted only by a short excursion to Matlock and Castleton, in +which he had the happiness of accompanying Miss Chaworth and her +party, and of which the following interesting notice appears in one of +his memorandum-books:-- + +"When I was fifteen years of age, it happened that, in a cavern in +Derbyshire, I had to cross in a boat (in which two people only could +lie down) a stream which flows under a rock, with the rock so close +upon the water as to admit the boat only to be pushed on by a ferryman +(a sort of Charon) who wades at the stern, stooping all the time. The +companion of my transit was M.A.C., with whom I had been long in love, +and never told it, though _she_ had discovered it without. I recollect +my sensations, but cannot describe them, and it is as well. We were a +party, a Mr. W., two Miss W.s, Mr. and Mrs. Cl--ke, Miss R. and _my_ +M.A.C. Alas! why do I say MY? Our union would have healed feuds in +which blood had been shed by our fathers,--it would have joined lands +broad and rich, it would have joined at least _one_ heart, and two +persons not ill matched in years (she is two years my elder), +and--and--and--_what_ has been the result?" + +In the dances of the evening at Matlock, Miss Chaworth, of course, +joined, while her lover sat looking on, solitary and mortified. It is +not impossible, indeed, that the dislike which he always expressed for +this amusement may have originated in some bitter pang, felt in his +youth, on seeing "the lady of his love" led out by others to the gay +dance from which he was himself excluded. On the present occasion, the +young heiress of Annesley having had for her partner (as often happens +at Matlock) some person with whom she was wholly unacquainted, on her +resuming her seat, Byron said to her pettishly, "I hope you like your +friend?" The words were scarce out of his lips when he was accosted by +an ungainly-looking Scotch lady, who rather boisterously claimed him +as "cousin," and was putting his pride to the torture with her +vulgarity, when he heard the voice of his fair companion retorting +archly in his ear, "I hope _you_ like your friend?" + +His time at Annesley was mostly passed in riding with Miss Chaworth +and her cousin, sitting in idle reverie, as was his custom, pulling at +his handkerchief, or in firing at a door which opens upon the terrace, +and which still, I believe, bears the marks of his shots. But his +chief delight was in sitting to hear Miss Chaworth play; and the +pretty Welsh air, "Mary Anne," was (partly, of course, on account of +the name) his especial favourite. During all this time he had the pain +of knowing that the heart of her he loved was occupied by +another;--that, as he himself expresses it, + + "Her sighs were not for him; to her he was + Even as a brother--but no more." + +Neither is it, indeed, probable, had even her affections been +disengaged, that Lord Byron would, at this time, have been selected as +the object of them. A seniority of two years gives to a girl, "on the +eve of womanhood," an advance into life with which the boy keeps no +proportionate pace. Miss Chaworth looked upon Byron as a mere +school-boy. He was in his manners, too, at that period, rough and odd, +and (as I have heard from more than one quarter) by no means popular +among girls of his own age. If, at any moment, however, he had +flattered himself with the hope of being loved by her, a circumstance +mentioned in his "Memoranda," as one of the most painful of those +humiliations to which the defect in his foot had exposed him, must +have let the truth in, with dreadful certainty, upon his heart. He +either was told of, or overheard, Miss Chaworth saying to her maid, +"Do you think I could care any thing for that lame boy?" This speech, +as he himself described it, was like a shot through his heart. Though +late at night when he heard it, he instantly darted out of the house, +and scarcely knowing whither he ran, never stopped till he found +himself at Newstead. + +The picture which he has drawn of his youthful love, in one of the +most interesting of his poems, "The Dream," shows how genius and +feeling can elevate the realities of this life, and give to the +commonest events and objects an undying lustre. The old hall at +Annesley, under the name of "the antique oratory," will long call up +to fancy the "maiden and the youth" who once stood in it: while the +image of the "lover's steed," though suggested by the unromantic +race-ground of Nottingham, will not the less conduce to the general +charm of the scene, and share a portion of that light which only +genius could shed over it. + +He appears already, at this boyish age, to have been so far a +proficient in gallantry as to know the use that may be made of the +trophies of former triumphs in achieving new ones; for he used to +boast, with much pride, to Miss Chaworth, of a locket which some fair +favourite had given him, and which probably may have been a present +from that pretty cousin, of whom he speaks with such warmth in one of +the notices already quoted. He was also, it appears, not a little +aware of his own beauty, which, notwithstanding the tendency to +corpulence derived from his mother, gave promise, at this time, of +that peculiar expression into which his features refined and kindled +afterwards. + +With the summer holidays ended this dream of his youth. He saw Miss +Chaworth once more in the succeeding year, and took his last farewell +of her (as he himself used to relate) on that hill near Annesley[37] +which, in his poem of "The Dream," he describes so happily as +"crowned with a peculiar diadem." No one, he declared, could have told +how _much_ he felt--for his countenance was calm, and his feelings +restrained. "The next time I see you," said he in parting with her, "I +suppose you will be Mrs. Chaworth[38],"--and her answer was, "I hope +so." It was before this interview that he wrote, with a pencil, in a +volume of Madame de Maintenon's letters, belonging to her, the +following verses, which have never, I believe, before been +published:--[39] + + "Oh Memory, torture me no more, + The present's all o'ercast; + My hopes of future bliss are o'er, + In mercy veil the past. + Why bring those images to view + I henceforth must resign? + Ah! why those happy hours renew, + That never can be mine? + Past pleasure doubles present pain, + To sorrow adds regret, + Regret and hope are both in vain, + I ask but to--forget." + +In the following year, 1805, Miss Chaworth was married to his +successful rival, Mr. John Musters; and a person who was present when +the first intelligence of the event was communicated to him, thus +describes the manner in which he received it.--"I was present when he +first heard of the marriage. His mother said, 'Byron, I have some news +for you.'--'Well, what is it?'--'Take out your handkerchief first, +for you will want it.'--'Nonsense!'--Take out your handkerchief, I +say.' He did so, to humour her. 'Miss Chaworth is married.' An +expression very peculiar, impossible to describe, passed over his pale +face, and he hurried his handkerchief into his pocket, saying, with an +affected air of coldness and nonchalance, 'Is that all?'--'Why, I +expected you would have been plunged in grief!'--He made no reply, +and soon began to talk about something else." + +His pursuits at Harrow continued to be of the same truant description +during the whole of his stay there;--"always," as he says himself, +"cricketing, rebelling,[40] _rowing_, and in all manner of mischiefs." +The "rebelling," of which he here speaks, (though it never, I believe, +proceeded to any act of violence,) took place on the retirement of Dr. +Drury from his situation as head master, when three candidates for +the vacant chair presented themselves,--Mark Drury, Evans, and +Butler. On the first movement to which this contest gave rise in the +school, young Wildman was at the head of the party for Mark Drury, +while Byron at first held himself aloof from any. Anxious, however, to +have him as an ally, one of the Drury faction said to Wildman--"Byron, +I know, will not join, because he doesn't choose to act second to any +one, but, by giving up the leadership to him, you may at once secure +him." This Wildman accordingly did, and Byron took the command of the +party. + +The violence with which he opposed the election of Dr. Butler on this +occasion (chiefly from the warm affection which he had felt towards +the last master) continued to embitter his relations with that +gentleman during the remainder of his stay at Harrow. Unhappily their +opportunities of collision were the more frequent from Byron's being a +resident in Dr. Butler's house. One day the young rebel, in a fit of +defiance, tore down all the gratings from the window in the hall; and +when called upon by his host to say why he had committed this +violence, answered, with stern coolness, "Because they darkened the +hall." On another occasion he explicitly, and so far manfully, avowed +to this gentleman's face the pique he entertained against him. It has +long been customary, at the end of a term, for the master to invite +the upper boys to dine with him; and these invitations are generally +considered as, like royal ones, a sort of command. Lord Byron, +however, when asked, sent back a refusal, which rather surprising Dr. +Butler, he, on the first opportunity that occurred, enquired of him, +in the presence of the other boys, his motive for this step:--"Have +you any other engagement?"--"No, sir."--"But you must have _some_ +reason, Lord Byron."--"I have."--"What is it?"--"Why, Dr. Butler," +replied the young peer, with proud composure, "if you should happen to +come into my neighbourhood when I was staying at Newstead, I certainly +should not ask you to dine with me, and therefore feel that I ought +not to dine with _you_."[41] + +The general character which he bore among the masters at Harrow was that +of an idle boy, who would never learn anything; and, as far as regarded +his tasks in school, this reputation was, by his own avowal, not +ill-founded. It is impossible, indeed, to look through the books which +he had then in use, and which are scribbled over with clumsy interlined +translations, without being struck with the narrow extent of his +classical attainments. The most ordinary Greek words have their English +signification scrawled under them, showing too plainly that he was not +sufficiently familiarised with their meaning to trust himself without +this aid. Thus, in his Xenophon we find {~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}, _young_--{~GREEK SMALL LETTER SIGMA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMEGA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER MU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER SIGMA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}, +_bodies_--{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER THETA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMEGA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER PI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER GAMMA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER THETA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~}, _good men_, &c. &c.--and even in the +volumes of Greek plays which he presented to the library on his +departure, we observe, among other instances, the common word {~GREEK SMALL LETTER CHI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER SIGMA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~} +provided with its English representative in the margin. + +But, notwithstanding his backwardness in the mere verbal scholarship, +on which so large and precious a portion of life is wasted,[42] in all +that general and miscellaneous knowledge which is alone useful in the +world, he was making rapid and even wonderful progress. With a mind +too inquisitive and excursive to be imprisoned within statutable +limits, he flew to subjects that interested his already manly tastes, +with a zest which it is in vain to expect that the mere pedantries of +school could inspire; and the irregular, but ardent, snatches of study +which he caught in this way, gave to a mind like his an impulse +forwards, which left more disciplined and plodding competitors far +behind. The list, indeed, which he has left on record of the works, in +all departments of literature, which he thus hastily and greedily +devoured before he was fifteen years of age, is such as almost to +startle belief,--comprising, as it does, a range and variety of +study, which might make much older "helluones librorum" hide their +heads. + +Not to argue, however, from the powers and movements of a mind like +Byron's, which might well be allowed to take a privileged direction of +its own, there is little doubt, that to _any_ youth of talent and +ambition, the plan of instruction pursued in the great schools and +universities of England, wholly inadequate as it is to the +intellectual wants of the age,[43] presents an alternative of evils +not a little embarrassing. Difficult, nay, utterly impossible, as he +will find it, to combine a competent acquisition of useful knowledge +with that round of antiquated studies which a pursuit of scholastic +honours requires, he must either, by devoting the whole of his +attention and ambition to the latter object, remain ignorant on most +of those subjects upon which mind grapples with mind in life, or by +adopting, as Lord Byron and other distinguished persons have done, the +contrary system, consent to pass for a dunce or idler in the schools, +in order to afford himself even a chance of attaining eminence in the +world. + +From the memorandums scribbled by the young poet in his school-books, +we might almost fancy that, even at so early an age, he had a sort of +vague presentiment that everything relating to him would one day be an +object of curiosity and interest. The date of his entrance at +Harrow,[44] the names of the boys who were, at that time, monitors, +the list of his fellow pupils under Doctor Drury,[45]--all are noted +down with a fond minuteness, as if to form points of retrospect in his +after-life; and that he sometimes referred to them with this feeling +will appear from one touching instance. On the first leaf of his +"Scriptores Græci," we find, in his schoolboy hand, the following +memorial:--"George Gordon Byron, Wednesday, June 26th, A. D. 1805, 3 +quarters of an hour past 3 o'clock in the afternoon, 3d +school,--Calvert, monitor; Tom Wildman on my left hand and Long on my +right. Harrow on the Hill." On the same leaf, written five years +after, appears this comment:-- + + "Eheu fugaces, Posthume! Posthume! + Labuntur anni." + +"B. January 9th, 1809.--Of the four persons whose names are here +mentioned, one is dead, another in a distant climate, _all_ separated, +and not five years have elapsed since they sat together in school, and +none are yet twenty-one years of age." + +The vacation of 1804[46] he passed with his mother at Southwell, to +which place she had removed from Nottingham, in the summer of this +year, having taken the house on the Green called Burgage Manor. There +is a Southwell play-bill extant, dated August 8th, 1804, in which the +play is announced as bespoke "by Mrs. and Lord Byron." The gentleman, +from whom the house where they resided was rented, possesses a library +of some extent, which the young poet, he says, ransacked with much +eagerness on his first coming to Southwell; and one of the books that +most particularly engaged and interested him was, as may be easily +believed, the life of Lord Herbert of Cherbury. + +In the month of October, 1805, he was removed to Trinity College, +Cambridge, and his feelings on the change from his beloved Ida to this +new scene of life are thus described by himself:-- + +"When I first went up to college, it was a new and a heavy-hearted +scene for me: firstly, I so much disliked leaving Harrow, that though +it was time (I being seventeen), it broke my very rest for the last +quarter with counting the days that remained. I always _hated_ Harrow +till the last year and a half, but then I liked it. Secondly, I wished +to go to Oxford, and not to Cambridge. Thirdly, I was so completely +alone in this new world, that it half broke my spirits. My companions +were not unsocial, but the contrary--lively, hospitable, of rank and +fortune, and gay far beyond my gaiety. I mingled with, and dined, and +supped, &c., with them; but, I know not how, it was one of the +deadliest and heaviest feelings of my life to feel that I was no +longer a boy." + +But though, for a time, he may have felt this sort of estrangement at +Cambridge, to remain long without attaching himself was not in his +nature; and the friendship which he now formed with a youth named +Eddleston, who was two years younger than himself, even exceeded in +warmth and romance all his schoolboy attachments. This boy, whose +musical talents first drew them together, was, at the commencement of +their acquaintance, one of the choir at Cambridge, though he +afterwards, it appears, entered into a mercantile line of life; and +this disparity in their stations was by no means without its charm for +Byron, as gratifying at once both his pride and good-nature, and +founding the tie between them on the mutually dependent relations of +protection on the one side, and gratitude and devotion on the +other;--the only relations,[47] according to Lord Bacon, in which the +little friendship that still remains in the world is to be found. It +was upon a gift presented to him by Eddleston, that he wrote those +verses entitled "The Cornelian," which were printed in his first, +unpublished volume, and of which the following is a stanza:-- + + "Some, who can sneer at friendship's ties, + Have for my weakness oft reproved me; + Yet still the simple gift I prize, + For I am sure the giver loved me." + +Another friendship, of a less unequal kind, which had been begun at +Harrow, and which he continued to cultivate during his first year at +Cambridge, is thus interestingly dwelt upon in one of his journals:-- + +"How strange are my thoughts!--The reading of the song of Milton, +Sabrina fair,' has brought back upon me--I know not how or why--the +happiest, perhaps, days of my life (always excepting, here and there, +a Harrow holiday in the two latter summers of my stay there) when +living at Cambridge with Edward Noel Long, afterwards of the +Guards,--who, after having served honourably in the expedition to +Copenhagen (of which two or three thousand scoundrels yet survive in +plight and pay), was drowned early in 1809, on his passage to Lisbon +with his regiment in the St. George transport, which was run foul of +in the night by another transport. We were rival swimmers--fond of +riding--reading--and of conviviality. We had been at Harrow together; +but--_there_, at least--his was a less boisterous spirit than mine. I +was always cricketing--rebelling--fighting--_row_ing (from _row_, not +_boat_-rowing, a different practice), and in all manner of mischiefs; +while he was more sedate and polished. At Cambridge--both of +Trinity--my spirit rather softened, or his roughened, for we became +very great friends. The description of Sabrina's seat reminds me of +our rival feats in _diving_. Though Cam's is not a very translucent +wave, it was fourteen feet deep, where we used to dive for, and pick +up--having thrown them in on purpose--plates, eggs, and even +shillings. I remember, in particular, there was the stump of a tree +(at least ten or twelve feet deep) in the bed of the river, in a spot +where we bathed most commonly, round which I used to cling, and +'wonder how the devil I came there.' + +"Our evenings we passed in music (he was musical, and played on more +than one instrument, flute and violoncello), in which I was audience; +and I think that our chief beverage was soda-water. In the day we +rode, bathed, and lounged, reading occasionally. I remember our +buying, with vast alacrity, Moore's new quarto (in 1806), and reading +it together in the evenings. + +"We only passed the summer together;--Long had gone into the Guards +during the year I passed in Notts, away from college. _His_ +friendship, and a violent, though _pure_, love and passion--which held +me at the same period--were the then romance of the most romantic +period of my life. + + * * * * * + +"I remember that, in the spring of 1809, H---- laughed at my being +distressed at Long's death, and amused himself with making epigrams +upon his name, which was susceptible of a pun--_Long, short_, &c. But +three years after, he had ample leisure to repent it, when our mutual +friend and his, H----'s, particular friend, Charles Matthews, was +drowned also, and he himself was as much affected by a similar +calamity. But _I_ did not pay him back in puns and epigrams, for I +valued Matthews too much myself to do so; and, even if I had not, I +should have respected his griefs. + +"Long's father wrote to me to write his son's epitaph. I promised--but +I had not the heart to complete it. He was such a good amiable being +as rarely remains long in this world; with talent and accomplishments, +too, to make him the more regretted. Yet, although a cheerful +companion, he had strange melancholy thoughts sometimes. I remember +once that we were going to his uncle's, I think--I went to accompany +him to the door merely, in some Upper or Lower Grosvenor or Brook +Street, I forget which, but it was in a street leading out of some +square,--he told me that, the night before, he 'had taken up a +pistol--not knowing or examining whether it was loaded or no--and had +snapped it at his head, leaving it to chance whether it might or might +not be charged.' The letter, too, which he wrote me, on leaving +college to join the Guards, was as melancholy in its tenour as it +could well be on such an occasion. But he showed nothing of this in +his deportment, being mild and gentle;--and yet with much turn for the +ludicrous in his disposition. We were both much attached to Harrow, +and sometimes made excursions there together from London to revive our +schoolboy recollections." + +These affecting remembrances are contained in a Journal which he kept +during his residence at Ravenna, in 1821, and they are rendered still +more touching and remarkable by the circumstances under which they +were noted down. Domesticated in a foreign land, and even connected +with foreign conspirators, whose arms, at the moment he was writing, +were in his house, he could yet thus wholly disengage himself from the +scene around him, and, borne away by the current of memory into other +times, live over the lost friendships of his boyhood again. An English +gentleman (Mr. Wathen) who called upon him, at one of his residences +in Italy, having happened to mention in conversation that he had been +acquainted with Long, from that moment Lord Byron treated him with the +most marked kindness, and talked with him of Long, and of his amiable +qualities, till (as this gentleman says) the tears could not be +concealed in his eyes. + +In the summer of this year (1806) he, as usual, joined his mother at +Southwell,--among the small, but select, society of which place he +had, during his visits, formed some intimacies and friendships, the +memory of which is still cherished there fondly and proudly. With the +exception, indeed, of the brief and bewildering interval which he +passed, as we have seen, in the company of Miss Chaworth, it was at +Southwell alone that an opportunity was ever afforded him of profiting +by the bland influence of female society, or of seeing what woman is +in the true sphere of her virtues, home. The amiable and intelligent +family of the Pigots received him within their circle as one of +themselves: and in the Rev. John Becher[48] the youthful poet found +not only an acute and judicious critic, but a sincere friend. There +were also one or two other families--as the Leacrofts, the +Housons--among whom his talents and vivacity made him always welcome; +and the proud shyness with which, through the whole of his minority, +he kept aloof from all intercourse with the neighbouring gentlemen +seems to have been entirely familiarised away by the small, cheerful +society of Southwell. One of the most intimate and valued of his +friends, at this period, has given me the following account of her +first acquaintance with him:--"The first time I was introduced to him +was at a party at his mother's, when he was so shy that she was forced +to send for him three times before she could persuade him to come into +the drawing-room, to play with the young people at a round game. He +was then a fat bashful boy, with his hair combed straight over his +forehead, and extremely like a miniature picture that his mother had +painted by M. de Chambruland. The next morning Mrs. Byron brought him +to call at our house, when he still continued shy and formal in his +manner. The conversation turned upon Cheltenham, where we had been +staying, the amusements there, the plays, &c.; and I mentioned that I +had seen the character of Gabriel Lackbrain very well performed. His +mother getting up to go, he accompanied her, making a formal bow, and +I, in allusion to the play, said, "Good by, Gaby." His countenance +lighted up, his handsome mouth displayed a broad grin, all his shyness +vanished, never to return, and, upon his mother's saying 'Come, Byron, +are you ready?'--no, she might go by herself, he would stay and talk a +little longer; and from that moment he used to come in and go out at +all hours, as it pleased him, and in our house considered himself +perfectly at home." + +To this lady was addressed the earliest letter from his pen that has +fallen into my hands. He corresponded with many of his Harrow +friends,--with Lord Clare, Lord Powerscourt, Mr. William Peel, Mr. +William Bankes, and others. But it was then little foreseen what +general interest would one day attach to these school-boy letters; and +accordingly, as I have already had occasion to lament, there are but +few of them now in existence. The letter, of which I have spoken, to +his Southwell friend, though containing nothing remarkable, is perhaps +for that very reason worth insertion, as serving to show, on comparing +it with most of its successors, how rapidly his mind acquired +confidence in its powers. There is, indeed, one charm for the eye of +curiosity in his juvenile manuscripts, which they necessarily want in +their printed form; and that is the strong evidence of an irregular +education which they exhibit,--the unformed and childish handwriting, +and, now and then, even defective spelling of him who, in a very few +years after, was to start up one of the giants of English literature. + + +LETTER 1. + +TO MISS ----. + +Burgage Manor, August 29. 1804. + + +"I received the arms, my dear Miss ----, and am very much obliged to +you for the trouble you have taken. It is impossible I should have any +fault to find with them. The sight of the drawings gives me great +pleasure for a double reason,--in the first place, they will ornament +my books, in the next, they convince me that you have not entirely +_forgot_ me. I am, however, sorry you do not return sooner--you have +already been gone an _age_. I perhaps may have taken my departure for +London before you come back; but, however, I will hope not. Do not +overlook my watch-riband and purse, as I wish to carry them with me. +Your note was given me by Harry, at the play, whither I attended Miss +L---- and Dr. S. ----; and now I have set down to answer it before I go +to bed. If I am at Southwell when you return,--and I sincerely hope +you will soon, for I very much regret your absence,--I shall be happy +to hear you sing my favourite, 'The Maid of Lodi.' My mother, together +with myself, desires to be affectionately remembered to Mrs. Pigot, +and, believe me, my dear Miss ----, + +I remain your affectionate friend, + +"BYRON." + +"P.S. If you think proper to send me any answer to this, I shall be +extremely happy to receive it. Adieu. + +"P.S. 2d. As you say you are a novice in the art of knitting, I hope +it don't give you too much trouble. Go on _slowly_, but surely. Once +more, adieu." + + +We shall often have occasion to remark the fidelity to early habits +and tastes by which Lord Byron, though in other respects so versatile, +was distinguished. In the juvenile letter, just cited, there are two +characteristics of this kind which he preserved unaltered during the +remainder of his life;--namely, his punctuality in immediately +answering letters, and his love of the simplest ballad music. Among +the chief favourites to which this latter taste led him at this time +were the songs of the Duenna, which he had the good taste to delight +in; and some of his Harrow contemporaries still remember the +joyousness with which, when dining with his friends at the memorable +mother Barnard's, he used to roar out, "This bottle's the sun of our +table." + +His visit to Southwell this summer was interrupted, about the +beginning of August, by one of those explosions of temper on the part +of Mrs. Byron, to which, from his earliest childhood, he had been but +too well accustomed, and in producing which his own rebel spirit was +not always, it may be supposed, entirely blameless. In all his +portraits of himself, so dark is the pencil which he employs, that the +following account of his own temper, from one of his journals, must be +taken with a due portion of that allowance for exaggeration, which his +style of self-portraiture, "overshadowing even the shade," requires. + +"In all other respects," (he says, after mentioning his infant passion +for Mary Duff,) "I differed not at all from other children, being +neither tall nor short, dull nor witty, of my age, but rather +lively--except in my sullen moods, and then I was always a Devil. +They once (in one of my silent rages) wrenched a knife from me, which +I had snatched from table at Mrs. B.'s dinner (I always dined +earlier), and applied to my breast;--but this was three or four years +after, just before the late Lord B.'s decease. + +"My _ostensible_ temper has certainly improved in later years; but I +shudder, and must, to my latest hour, regret the consequence of it and +my passions combined. One event--but no matter--there are others not +much better to think of also--and to them I give the preference.... + +"But I hate dwelling upon incidents. My temper is now under +management--rarely _loud_, and _when_ loud, never deadly. It is when +silent, and I feel my forehead and my cheek paling, that I cannot +control it; and then.... but unless there is a woman (and not any or +every woman) in the way, I have sunk into tolerable apathy." + +Between a temper at all resembling this, and the loud hurricane bursts +of Mrs. Byron, the collision, it may be supposed, was not a little +formidable; and the age at which the young poet was now arrived; +when--as most parents feel--the impatience of youth begins to champ +the bit, would but render the occasions for such shocks more frequent. +It is told, as a curious proof of their opinion of each other's +violence, that, after parting one evening in a tempest of this kind, +they were known each to go privately that night to the apothecary's, +enquiring anxiously whether the other had been to purchase poison, +and cautioning the vender of drugs not to attend to such an +application, if made. + +It was but rarely, however, that the young lord allowed himself to be +provoked into more than a passive share in these scenes. To the +boisterousness of his mother he would oppose a civil and, no doubt, +provoking silence,--bowing to her but the more profoundly the higher +her voice rose in the scale. In general, however, when he perceived +that a storm was at hand, in flight lay his only safe resource. To +this summary expedient he was driven at the period of which we are +speaking; but not till after a scene had taken place between him and +Mrs. Byron, in which the violence of her temper had proceeded to +lengths, that, however outrageous they may be deemed, were not, it +appears, unusual with her. The poet, Young, in describing a temper of +this sort, says-- + + "The cups and saucers, in a whirlwind sent, + Just intimate the lady's discontent." + +But poker and tongs were, it seems, the missiles which Mrs. Byron +preferred, and which she, more than once, sent resounding after her +fugitive son. In the present instance, he was but just in time to +avoid a blow aimed at him with the former of these weapons, and to +make a hasty escape to the house of a friend in the neighbourhood; +where, concerting the best means of baffling pursuit, he decided upon +an instant flight to London. The letters, which I am about to give, +were written, immediately on his arrival in town, to some friends at +Southwell, from whose kind interference in his behalf, it may fairly +be concluded that the blame of the quarrel, whatever it may have been, +did not rest with him. The first is to Mr. Pigot, a young gentleman +about the same age as himself, who had just returned, for the +vacation, from Edinburgh, where he was, at that time, pursuing his +medical studies. + + +LETTER 2. + +TO MR. PIGOT. + +"16. Piccadilly, August 9. 1806. + + +"My dear Pigot, + +"Many thanks for your amusing narrative of the last proceedings of +----, who now begins to feel the effects of her folly. I have just +received a penitential epistle, to which, apprehensive of pursuit, I +have despatched a moderate answer, with a _kind_ of promise to return +in a fortnight;--this, however (_entre nous_), I never mean to fulfil. +Seriously, your mother has laid me under great obligations, and you, +with the rest of your family, merit my warmest thanks for your kind +connivance at my escape. + +"How did S.B. receive the intelligence? How many _puns_ did he utter +on so _facetious_ an event? In your next inform me on this point, and +what excuse you made to A. You are probably, by this time, tired of +deciphering this hieroglyphical letter;--like Tony Lumpkin, you will +pronounce mine to be a d----d up and down hand. All Southwell, without +doubt, is involved in amazement. Apropos, how does my blue-eyed nun, +the fair ----? is she '_robed in sable garb of woe_?' + +"Here I remain at least a week or ten days; previous to my departure +you shall receive my address, but what it will be I have not +determined. My lodgings must be kept secret from Mrs. B. You may +present my compliments to her, and say any attempt to pursue me will +fail, as I have taken measures to retreat immediately to Portsmouth, +on the first intimation of her removal from Southwell. You may add, I +have now proceeded to a friend's house in the country, there to remain +a fortnight. + +"I have now _blotted_ (I must not say written) a complete double +letter, and in return shall expect a _monstrous budget_. Without +doubt, the dames of Southwell reprobate the pernicious example I have +shown, and tremble lest their _babes_ should disobey their mandates, +and quit, in dudgeon, their mammas on any grievance. Adieu. When you +begin your next, drop the 'lordship,' and put 'Byron' in its place. + +Believe me yours, &c. + +"BYRON." + + +From the succeeding letters, it will be seen that Mrs. Byron was not +behind hand, in energy and decision, with his young Lordship, but +immediately on discovering his flight, set off after him. + + +LETTER 3. + +TO MISS ----. + +"London, August 10. 1806. + + +"My dear Bridget, + +"As I have already troubled your brother with more than he will find +pleasure in deciphering, you are the next to whom I shall assign the +employment of perusing this second epistle. You will perceive from my +first, that no idea of Mrs. B.'s arrival had disturbed me at the time +it was written; _not_ so the present, since the appearance of a note +from the _illustrious cause_ of my _sudden decampment_ has driven the +'natural ruby from my cheeks,' and completely blanched my woe-begone +countenance. This gun-powder intimation of her arrival breathes less +of terror and dismay than you will probably imagine, and concludes +with the comfortable assurance of all _present motion_ being prevented +by the fatigue of her journey, for which my _blessings_ are due to the +rough roads and restive quadrupeds of his Majesty's highways. As I +have not the smallest inclination to be chased round the country, I +shall e'en make a merit of necessity; and since, like Macbeth, +'they've tied me to the stake, I cannot fly,' I shall imitate that +valorous tyrant, and 'bear-like fight the course,' all escape being +precluded. I can now engage with less disadvantage, having drawn the +enemy from her intrenchments, though, like the _prototype_ to whom I +have compared myself, with an excellent chance of being knocked on the +head. However, 'lay on, Macduff, and d----d be he who first cries, +Hold, enough.' + +"I shall remain in town for, at least, a week, and expect to hear from +_you_ before its expiration. I presume the printer has brought you the +offspring of my _poetic mania_. Remember in the first line to '_loud_ +the winds whistle,' instead of 'round,' which that blockhead Ridge has +inserted by mistake, and makes nonsense of the whole stanza. +Addio!--Now to encounter my _Hydra_. + +Yours ever." + + +LETTER 4. + +TO MR. PIGOT. + +"London, Sunday, midnight, August 10. 1806. + + +"Dear Pigot, + +"This _astonishing_ packet will, doubtless, amaze you; but having an +idle hour this evening, I wrote the enclosed stanzas, which I request +you will deliver to Ridge, to be printed _separate_ from my other +compositions, as you will perceive them to be improper for the perusal +of ladies; of course, none of the females of your family must see +them. I offer 1000 apologies for the trouble I have given you in this +and other instances. + +Yours truly." + + +LETTER 5. + +TO MR. PIGOT. + +"Piccadilly, August 16. 1806. + + +"I cannot exactly say with Cæsar, 'Veni, vidi, vici:' however, the +most important part of his laconic account of success applies to my +present situation; for, though Mrs. Byron took the _trouble_ of +'_coming_,' and '_seeing_,' yet your humble servant proved the +_victor_. After an obstinate engagement of some hours, in which we +suffered considerable damage, from the quickness of the enemy's fire, +they at length retired in confusion, leaving behind the artillery, +field equipage, and some prisoners: their defeat is decisive for the +present campaign. To speak more intelligibly, Mrs. B. returns +immediately, but I proceed, with all my laurels, to Worthing, on the +Sussex coast; to which place you will address (to be left at the post +office) your next epistle. By the enclosure of a second _gingle_ of +_rhyme_, you will probably conceive my muse to be _vastly prolific_; +her inserted production was brought forth a few years ago, and found +by accident on Thursday among some old papers. I have recopied it, +and, adding the proper date, request it may be printed with the rest +of the family. I thought your sentiments on the last bantling would +coincide with mine, but it was impossible to give it any other garb, +being founded on _facts_. My stay at Worthing will not exceed three +weeks, and you may _possibly_ behold me again at Southwell the middle +of September. + + * * * * * + +"Will you desire Ridge to suspend the printing of my poems till he +hears further from me, as I have determined to give them a new form +entirely. This prohibition does not extend to the two last pieces I +have sent with my letters to you. You will excuse the _dull vanity_ of +this epistle, as my brain is a _chaos_ of absurd images, and full of +business, preparations, and projects. + +"I shall expect an answer with impatience;--believe me, there is +nothing at this moment could give me greater delight than your +letter." + + +LETTER 6. + +TO MR. PIGOT. + +"London, August 18. 1806. + + +"I am just on the point of setting off for Worthing, and write merely +to request you will send that _idle scoundrel Charles_ with my horses +immediately; tell him I am excessively provoked he has not made his +appearance before, or written to inform me of the cause of his delay, +particularly as I supplied him with money for his journey. On _no_ +pretext is he to postpone his _march_ one day longer; and if, in +obedience to Mrs. B., he thinks proper to disregard my positive +orders, I shall not, in future, consider him as my servant. He must +bring the surgeon's bill with him, which I will discharge immediately +on receiving it. Nor can I conceive the reason of his not acquainting +Frank with the state of my unfortunate quadrupeds. Dear Pigot, forgive +this _petulant_ effusion, and attribute it to the idle conduct of that +_precious_ rascal, who, instead of obeying my injunctions, is +sauntering through the streets of that _political Pandemonium_, +Nottingham. Present my remembrances to your family and the Leacrofts, +and believe me, &c. + +"P.S. I delegate to _you_ the unpleasant task of despatching him on +his journey--Mrs. B.'s orders to the contrary are not to be attended +to: he is to proceed first to London, and then to Worthing, without +delay. Every thing I have _left_ must be sent to London. My _Poetics_ +_you_ will _pack up_ for the same place, and not even reserve a copy +for yourself and sister, as I am about to give them an _entire new +form_: when they are complete, you shall have the _first fruits_. Mrs. +B. on no account is to _see_ or touch them. Adieu." + + +LETTER 7. + +TO MR. PIGOT. + +"Little Hampton, August 26. 1806. + + +"I this morning received your epistle, which I was obliged to send for +to Worthing, whence I have removed to this place, on the same coast, +about eight miles distant from the former. You will probably not be +displeased with this letter, when it informs you that I am +30,000_l._ richer than I was at our parting, having just received +intelligence from my lawyer that a cause has been gained at Lancaster +assizes,[49] which will be worth that sum by the time I come of age. +Mrs. B. is, doubtless, acquainted of this acquisition, though not +apprised of its exact _value_, of which she had better be ignorant. +You may give my compliments to her, and say that her detaining my +servant's things shall only lengthen my absence; for unless they are +immediately despatched to 16. Piccadilly, together with those which +have been so long delayed, belonging to myself, she shall never again +behold my _radiant countenance_ illuminating her gloomy mansion. If +they are sent, I may probably appear in less than two years from the +date of my present epistle. + +"Metrical compliment is an ample reward for my strains; you are one of +the few votaries of Apollo who unite the sciences over which that +deity presides. I wish you to send my poems to my lodgings in London +immediately, as I have several alterations and some additions to make; +_every_ copy must be sent, as I am about to _amend_ them, and you +shall soon behold them in all their glory. _Entre nous_,--you may +expect to see me soon. Adieu. + +Yours ever." + + +From these letters it will be perceived that Lord Byron was already +engaged in preparing a collection of his poems for the press. The +idea of printing them first occurred to him in the parlour of that +cottage which, during his visits to Southwell, had become his adopted +home. Miss Pigot, who was not before aware of his turn for versifying, +had been reading aloud the poems of Burns, when young Byron said that +"he, too, was a poet sometimes, and would write down for her some +verses of his own which he remembered." He then, with a pencil, wrote +those lines, beginning "In thee I fondly hoped to clasp,"[50] which +were printed in his first unpublished volume, but are not contained in +the editions that followed. He also repeated to her the verses I have +already referred to, "When in the hall my father's voice," so +remarkable for the anticipations of his future fame that glimmer +through them. + +From this moment the desire of appearing in print took entire +possession of him;--though, for the present, his ambition did not +extend its views beyond a small volume for private circulation. The +person to whom fell the honour of receiving his first manuscripts was +Ridge, the bookseller, at Newark; and while the work was printing, the +young author continued to pour fresh materials into his hands, with +the same eagerness and rapidity that marked the progress of all his +maturer works. + +His return to Southwell, which he announced in the last letter we have +given was but for a very short time. In a week or two after he again +left that place, and, accompanied by his young friend Mr. Pigot, set +out for Harrowgate. The following extracts are from a letter written +by the latter gentleman, at the time to his sister. + +"Harrowgate is still extremely full; Wednesday (to-day) is our +ball-night, and I meditate going into the room for an hour, although I +am by no means fond of strange faces. Lord B., you know, is even more +shy than myself; but for an hour this evening I will shake it off.... +How do our theatricals proceed? Lord Byron can say _all_ his part, and +I _most_ of mine. He certainly acts it inimitably. Lord B. is now +_poetising_, and, since he has been here, has written some very pretty +verses.[51] He is very good in trying to amuse me as much as possible, +but it is not in my nature to be happy without either female society +or study.... There are many pleasant rides about here, which I have +taken in company with Bo'swain, who, with Brighton,[52] is universally +admired. _You_ must read this to Mrs. B., as it is a little _Tony +Lumpkinish_. Lord B. desires some space left: therefore, with respect +to all the comedians _elect_, believe me to be," &c. &c. + + +To this letter the following note from Lord Byron was appended:-- + + +"My dear Bridget, + +"I have only just dismounted from my _Pegasus_, which has prevented me +from descending to _plain_ prose in an epistle of greater length to +your _fair_ self. You regretted, in a former letter, that my poems +were not more extensive; I now for your satisfaction announce that I +have nearly doubled them, partly by the discovery of some I conceived +to be lost, and partly by some new productions. We shall meet on +Wednesday next; till then believe me yours affectionately, + +"BYRON." + +"P.S.--Your brother John is seized with a poetic mania, and is now +rhyming away at the rate of three lines _per hour_--so much for +_inspiration_! Adieu!" + + +By the gentleman, who was thus early the companion and intimate of +Lord Byron, and who is now pursuing his profession with the success +which his eminent talents deserve, I have been favoured with some +further recollections of their visit together to Harrowgate, which I +shall take the liberty of giving in his own words:-- + +"You ask me to recall some anecdotes of the time we spent together at +Harrowgate in the summer of 1806, on our return from college, he from +Cambridge, and I from Edinburgh; but so many years have elapsed since +then, that I really feel myself as if recalling a distant dream. We, I +remember, went in Lord Byron's own carriage, with post-horses; and he +sent his groom with two saddle-horses, and a beautifully formed, very +ferocious, bull-mastiff, called Nelson, to meet us there. +Boatswain[53] went by the side of his valet Frank on the box, with us. + +"The bull-dog, Nelson, always wore a muzzle, and was occasionally sent +for into our private room, when the muzzle was taken off, much to my +annoyance, and he and his master amused themselves with throwing the +room into disorder. There was always a jealous feud between this +Nelson and Boatswain; and whenever the latter came into the room while +the former was there, they instantly seized each other: and then, +Byron, myself, Frank, and all the waiters that could be found, were +vigorously engaged in parting them,--which was in general only +effected by thrusting poker and tongs into the mouths of each. But, +one day, Nelson unfortunately escaped out of the room without his +muzzle, and going into the stable-yard fastened upon the throat of a +horse, from which he could not be disengaged. The stable-boys ran in +alarm to find Frank, who taking one of his Lord's Wogdon's pistols, +always kept loaded in his room, shot poor Nelson through the head, to +the great regret of Byron. + +"We were at the Crown Inn, at Low Harrowgate. We always dined in the +public room, but retired very soon after dinner to our private one; +for Byron was no more a friend to drinking than myself. We lived +retired, and made few acquaintance; for he was naturally shy, _very_ +shy, which people who did not know him mistook for pride. While at +Harrowgate he accidentally met with Professor Hailstone from +Cambridge, and appeared much delighted to see him. The professor was +at Upper Harrowgate: we called upon him one evening to take him to the +theatre, I think,--and Lord Byron sent his carriage for him, another +time, to a ball at the Granby. This desire to show attention to one of +the professors of his college is a proof that, though he might choose +to satirise the mode of education in the university, and to abuse the +antiquated regulations and restrictions to which under-graduates are +subjected, he had yet a due discrimination in his respect for the +individuals who belonged to it. I have always, indeed, heard him speak +in high terms of praise of Hailstone, as well as of his master, Bishop +Mansel, of Trinity College, and of others whose names I have now +forgotten. + +"Few people understood Byron; but I know that he had naturally a kind +and feeling heart, and that there was not a single spark of malice in +his composition."[54] + +The private theatricals alluded to in the letters from Harrowgate +were, both in prospect and performance, a source of infinite delight +to him, and took place soon after his return to Southwell. How +anxiously he was expected back by all parties, may be judged from the +following fragment of a letter which was received by his companion +during their absence from home:-- + +"Tell Lord Byron that, if any accident should retard his return, his +mother desires he will write to her, as she shall be miserable if he +does not arrive the day he fixes. Mr. W. B. has written a card to Mrs. +H. to offer for the character of 'Henry Woodville,'--Mr. and Mrs. ---- +not approving of their son's taking a part in the play: but I believe +he will persist in it. Mr. G. W. says, that sooner than the party +should be disappointed, _he_ will take any part,--sing--dance--in +short, do any thing to oblige. Till Lord Byron returns, nothing can be +done; and positively he must not be later than Tuesday or Wednesday." + +We have already seen that, at Harrow, his talent for declamation was +the only one by which Lord Byron was particularly distinguished; and +in one of his note-books he adverts, with evident satisfaction, both +to his school displays and to the share which he took in these +representations at Southwell:-- + +"When I was a youth, I was reckoned a good actor. Besides Harrow +speeches (in which I shone), I enacted Penruddock in the Wheel of +Fortune, and Tristram Fickle in Allingham's farce of the Weathercock, +for three nights (the duration of our compact), in some private +theatricals at Southwell, in 1806, with great applause. The occasional +prologue for our volunteer play was also of my composition. The other +performers were young ladies and gentlemen of the neighbourhood, and +the whole went off with great effect upon our good-natured audience." + +It may, perhaps, not be altogether trifling to observe, that, in thus +personating with such success two heroes so different, the young poet +displayed both that love and power of versatility by which he was +afterwards impelled, on a grander scale, to present himself under such +opposite aspects to the world;--the gloom of Penruddock, and the whim +of Tristram, being types, as it were, of the two extremes, between +which his own character, in after-life, so singularly vibrated. + +These representations, which form a memorable era at Southwell, took place +about the latter end of September, in the house of Mr. Leacroft, whose +drawing-room was converted into a neat theatre on the occasion, and whose +family contributed some of the fair ornaments of its boards. The prologue +which Lord Byron furnished, and which may be seen in his "Hours of +Idleness," was written by him between stages, on his way from Harrowgate. +On getting into the carriage at Chesterfield, he said to his companion, +"Now, Pigot, I'll spin a prologue for our play;" and before they reached +Mansfield, he had completed his task,--interrupting, only once, his +rhyming reverie, to ask the proper pronunciation of the French word +_début_, and, on being told it, exclaiming, in the true spirit of Byshe, +"Ay, that will do for rhyme to _new_." + +The epilogue on the occasion was from the pen of Mr. Becher; and for +the purpose of affording to Lord Byron, who was to speak it, an +opportunity of displaying his powers of mimicry, consisted of +good-humoured portraits of all the persons concerned in the +representation. Some intimation of this design having got among the +actors, an alarm was felt instantly at the ridicule thus in store for +them; and to quiet their apprehensions, the author was obliged to +assure them that if, after having heard his epilogue at rehearsal, +they did not, of themselves, pronounce it harmless, and even request +that it should be preserved, he would most willingly withdraw it. In +the mean time, it was concerted between this gentleman and Lord Byron +that the latter should, on the morning of rehearsal, deliver the +verses in a tone as innocent and as free from all point as +possible,--reserving his mimicry, in which the whole sting of the +pleasantry lay, for the evening of representation. The desired effect +was produced;--all the personages of the green-room were satisfied, +and even wondered how a suspicion of waggery could have attached +itself to so well-bred a production. Their wonder, however, was of a +different nature a night or two after, when, on hearing the audience +convulsed with laughter at this same composition, they discovered, at +last, the trick which the unsuspected mimic had played on them, and +had no other resource than that of joining in the laugh which his +playful imitation of the whole dramatis personæ excited. + +The small volume of poems, which he had now for some time been +preparing, was, in the month of November, ready for delivery to the +select few among whom it was intended to circulate; and to Mr. Becher +the first copy of the work was presented.[55] The influence which this +gentleman had, by his love of poetry, his sociability and good sense, +acquired at this period over the mind of Lord Byron, was frequently +employed by him in guiding the taste of his young friend, no less in +matters of conduct than of literature; and the ductility with which +this influence was yielded to, in an instance I shall have to mention, +will show how far from untractable was the natural disposition of +Byron, had he more frequently been lucky enough to fall into hands +that "knew the stops" of the instrument, and could draw out its +sweetness as well as its strength. + +In the wild range which his taste was now allowed to take through the +light and miscellaneous literature of the day, it was but natural that +he should settle with most pleasure on those works from which the +feelings of his age and temperament could extract their most congenial +food; and, accordingly, Lord Strangford's Camoëns and Little's Poems +are said to have been, at this period, his favourite study. To the +indulgence of such a taste his reverend friend very laudably opposed +himself,--representing with truth, (as far, at least, as the latter +author is concerned,) how much more worthy models, both in style and +thought, he might find among the established names of English +literature. Instead of wasting his time on the ephemeral productions +of his contemporaries, he should devote himself, his adviser said, to +the pages of Milton and of Shakspeare, and, above all, seek to elevate +his fancy and taste by the contemplation of the sublimer beauties of +the Bible. In the latter study, this gentleman acknowledges that his +advice had been, to a great extent, anticipated, and that with the +poetical parts of the Scripture he found Lord Byron deeply +conversant:--a circumstance which corroborates the account given by +his early master, Dr. Glennie, of his great proficiency in scriptural +knowledge while yet but a child under his care. + +To Mr. Becher, as I have said, the first copy of his little work was +presented; and this gentleman, in looking over its pages, among many +things to commend and admire, as well as some almost too boyish to +criticise, found one poem in which, as it appeared to him, the +imagination of the young bard had indulged itself in a luxuriousness +of colouring beyond what even youth could excuse. Immediately, as the +most gentle mode of conveying his opinion, he sat down and addressed +to Lord Byron some expostulatory verses on the subject, to which an +answer, also in verse, was returned by the noble poet as promptly, +with, at the same time, a note in plain prose, to say that he felt +fully the justice of his reverend friend's censure, and that, rather +than allow the poem in question to be circulated, he would instantly +recall all the copies that had been sent out, and cancel the whole +impression. On the very same evening this prompt sacrifice was carried +into effect;--Mr. Becher saw every copy of the edition burned, with +the exception of that which he retained in his own possession, and +another which had been despatched to Edinburgh, and could not be +recalled. + +This trait of the young poet speaks sufficiently for itself;--the +sensibility, the temper, the ingenuous pliableness which it exhibits, +show a disposition capable, by nature, of every thing we most respect +and love. + +Of a no less amiable character were the feelings that, about this time, +dictated the following letter;--a letter which it is impossible to peruse +without acknowledging the noble candour and conscientiousness of the +writer:-- + + +LETTER 8. + +TO THE EARL OF CLARE. + +"Southwell, Notts, February 6. 1807. + + +"My dearest Clare, + +"Were I to make all the apologies necessary to atone for my late +negligence, you would justly say you had received a petition instead +of a letter, as it would be filled with prayers for forgiveness; but +instead of this, I will acknowledge my _sins_ at once, and I trust to +your friendship and generosity rather than to my own excuses. Though +my health is not perfectly re-established, I am out of all danger, and +have recovered every thing but my spirits, which are subject to +depression. You will be astonished to hear I have lately written to +Delawarre, for the purpose of explaining (as far as possible without +involving some _old friends_ of mine in the business) the cause of my +behaviour to him during my last residence at Harrow (nearly two years +ago), which you will recollect was rather '_en cavalier_.' Since that +period, I have discovered he was treated with injustice both by those +who misrepresented his conduct, and by me in consequence of their +suggestions. I have therefore made all the reparation in my power, by +apologising for my mistake, though with very faint hopes of success; +indeed I never expected any answer, but desired one for form's sake; +_that_ has not yet arrived, and most probably never will. However, I +have _eased_ my own _conscience_ by the atonement, which is +humiliating enough to one of my disposition; yet I could not have +slept satisfied with the reflection of having, _even unintentionally_, +injured any individual. I have done all that could be done to repair +the injury, and there the affair must end. Whether we renew our +intimacy or not is of very trivial consequence. + +"My time has lately been much occupied with very different pursuits. I +have been _transporting_ a servant,[56] who cheated me,--rather a +disagreeable event;--performing in private theatricals;--publishing a +volume of poems (at the request of my friends, for their +perusal);--making _love_,--and taking physic. The two last amusements +have not had the best effect _in the world_; for my attentions have +been divided amongst so many _fair damsels_, and the drugs I swallow +are of such variety in their composition, that between Venus and +Aesculapius I am harassed to death. However, I have still leisure to +devote some hours to the recollections of past, regretted +friendships, and in the interval to take the advantage of the moment, +to assure you how much I am, and ever will be, my dearest Clare, + +"Your truly attached and sincere + +"BYRON." + + +Considering himself bound to replace the copies of his work which he +had withdrawn, as well as to rescue the general character of the +volume from the stigma this one offender might bring upon it, he set +instantly about preparing a second edition for the press, and, during +the ensuing six weeks, continued busily occupied with his task. In the +beginning of January we find him forwarding a copy to his friend, Dr. +Pigot, in Edinburgh:-- + + +LETTER 9. + +TO MR. PIGOT. + +"Southwell, Jan. 13. 1807. + + +"I ought to begin with _sundry_ apologies, for my own negligence, but +the variety of my avocations in _prose_ and _verse_ must plead my +excuse. With this epistle you will receive a volume of all my +_Juvenilia_, published since your departure: it is of considerably +greater size than the _copy_ in your possession, which I beg you will +destroy, as the present is much more complete. That _unlucky_ poem to +my poor Mary[57] has been the cause of some animadversion from +_ladies in years_. I have not printed it in this collection, in +consequence of my being pronounced a most _profligate sinner_, in +short, a '_young Moore_,' by ----, your ---- friend. I believe, in +general, they have been favourably received, and surely the age of +their author will preclude _severe_ criticism. The adventures of my +life from sixteen to nineteen, and the dissipation into which I have +been thrown in London, have given a voluptuous tint to my ideas; but +the occasions which called forth my muse could hardly admit any other +colouring. This volume is _vastly_ correct and miraculously chaste. +Apropos, talking of love,... + +"If you can find leisure to answer this farrago of unconnected +nonsense, you need not doubt what gratification will accrue from your +reply to yours ever," &c. + + +To his young friend, Mr. William Bankes, who had met casually with a +copy of the work, and wrote him a letter conveying his opinion of it, +he returned the following answer:-- + + +LETTER 10. + +TO MR. WILLIAM BANKES. + +"Southwell, March 6. 1807. + + +"Dear Bankes, + +"Your critique is valuable for many reasons: in the first place, it is +the only one in which flattery has borne so slight a part; in the +_next_, I am _cloyed_ with insipid compliments. I have a better +opinion of your judgment and ability than your _feelings_. Accept my +most sincere thanks for your kind decision, not less welcome, because +totally unexpected. With regard to a more exact estimate, I need not +remind you how few of the _best poems_, in our language, will stand +the test of _minute_ or _verbal_ criticism: it can, therefore, hardly +be expected the effusions of a boy (and most of these pieces have been +produced at an early period) can derive much merit either from the +subject or composition. Many of them were written under great +depression of spirits, and during severe indisposition:--hence the +gloomy turn of the ideas. We coincide in opinion that the '_poësies +érotiques_' are the most exceptionable; they were, however, grateful +to the _deities_, on whose altars they were offered--more I seek not. + +"The portrait of Pomposus was drawn at Harrow, after a _long sitting_; +this accounts for the resemblance, or rather the _caricatura_. He is +_your_ friend, he _never was mine_--for both our sakes I shall be +silent on this head. _The collegiate_ rhymes are not personal--one of +the notes may appear so, but could not be omitted. I have little doubt +they will be deservedly abused--a just punishment for my unfilial +treatment of so excellent an Alma Mater. I sent you no copy, lest _we_ +should be placed in the situation of _Gil Blas_ and the _Archbishop_ +of Grenada; though running some hazard from the experiment, I wished +your _verdict_ to be unbiassed. Had my '_Libellus_' been presented +previous to your letter, it would have appeared a species of bribe to +purchase compliment. I feel no hesitation in saying, I was more +anxious to hear your critique, however severe, than the praises of +the _million_. On the same day I was honoured with the encomiums of +_Mackenzie_, the celebrated author of the 'Man of Feeling.' Whether +_his_ approbation or _yours_ elated me most, I cannot decide. + +"You will receive my _Juvenilia_,--at least all yet published. I have +a large volume in manuscript, which may in part appear hereafter; at +present I have neither time nor inclination to prepare it for the +press. In the spring I shall return to Trinity, to dismantle my rooms, +and bid you a final adieu. The _Cam_ will not be much increased by my +_tears_ on the occasion. Your further remarks, however _caustic_ or +bitter, to a palate vitiated with the _sweets of adulation_, will be +of service. Johnson has shown us that _no poetry_ is perfect; but to +correct mine would be an Herculean labour. In fact I never looked +beyond the moment of composition, and published merely at the request +of my friends. Notwithstanding so much has been said concerning the +'Genus irritabile vatum,' we shall never quarrel on the +subject--poetic fame is by no means the 'acme' of my wishes. Adieu. + +"Yours ever, + +"BYRON." + + +This letter was followed by another, on the same subject, to Mr. +Bankes, of which, unluckily, only the annexed fragment remains:-- + + * * * * * + +"For my own part, I have suffered severely in the decease of my two +greatest friends, the only beings I ever loved (females excepted); I +am therefore a solitary animal, miserable enough, and so perfectly a +citizen of the world, that whether I pass my days in Great Britain or +Kamschatka, is to me a matter of perfect indifference. I cannot evince +greater respect for your alteration than by immediately adopting +it--this shall be done in the next edition. I am sorry your remarks +are not more frequent, as I am certain they would be equally +beneficial. Since my last, I have received two critical opinions from +Edinburgh, both too flattering for me to detail. One is from Lord +Woodhouselee, at the head of the Scotch literati, and a most +_voluminous_ writer (his last work is a life of Lord Kaimes); the +other from Mackenzie, who sent his decision a second time, more at +length. I am not personally acquainted with either of these gentlemen, +nor ever requested their sentiments on the subject: their praise is +voluntary, and transmitted through the medium of a friend, at whose +house they read the productions. + +"Contrary to my former intention, I am now preparing a volume for the +public at large: my amatory pieces will be exchanged, and others +substituted in their place. The whole will be considerably enlarged, +and appear the latter end of May. This is a hazardous experiment; but +want of better employment, the encouragement I have met with, and my +own vanity, induce me to stand the test, though not without _sundry +palpitations_. The book will circulate fast enough in this country, +from mere curiosity, what I prin--"[58] + + * * * * * + +The following modest letter accompanied a copy which he presented to +Mr. Falkner, his mother's landlord:-- + + +LETTER 11. + +TO MR. FALKNER. + + +"Sir, + +"The volume of little pieces which accompanies this, would have been +presented before, had I not been apprehensive that Miss Falkner's +indisposition might render such trifles unwelcome. There are some +errors of the printer which I have not had time to correct in the +collection: you have it thus, with 'all its imperfections on its +head,' a heavy weight, when joined with the faults of its author. Such +'Juvenilia,' as they can claim no great degree of approbation, I may +venture to hope, will also escape the severity of uncalled for, though +perhaps _not_ undeserved, criticism. + +"They were written on many and various occasions, and are now +published merely for the perusal of a friendly circle. Believe me, +sir, if they afford the slightest amusement to yourself and the rest +of my _social_ readers, I shall have gathered all the _bays_ I ever +wish to adorn the head of yours, + +very truly, + +"BYRON. + +"P.S.--I hope Miss F. is in a state of recovery." + + +Notwithstanding this unambitious declaration of the young author, he +had that within which would not suffer him to rest so easily; and the +fame he had now reaped within a limited circle made him but more eager +to try his chance on a wider field. The hundred copies of which this +edition consisted were hardly out of his hands, when with fresh +activity he went to press again,--and his first published volume, "The +Hours of Idleness," made its appearance. Some new pieces which he had +written in the interim were added, and no less than twenty of those +contained in the former volume omitted;--for what reason does not very +clearly appear, as they are, most of them, equal, if not superior, to +those retained. + +In one of the pieces, reprinted in the "Hours of Idleness," there are +some alterations and additions, which, as far as they may be supposed +to spring from the known feelings of the poet respecting birth, are +curious. This poem, which is entitled "Epitaph on a Friend," appears, +from the lines I am about to give, to have been, in its original +state, intended to commemorate the death of the same lowly born youth, +to whom some affectionate verses, cited in a preceding page, were +addressed:-- + + "Though low thy lot, since in a cottage born, + No titles did thy humble name adorn; + To me, far dearer was thy artless love + Than all the joys wealth, fame, and friends could prove." + +But, in the altered form of the epitaph, not only this passage, but +every other containing an allusion to the low rank of his young +companion, is omitted; while, in the added parts, the introduction of +such language as + + "What, though thy sire lament his failing line," + +seems calculated to give an idea of the youth's station in life, +wholly different from that which the whole tenour of the original +epitaph warrants. The other poem, too, which I have mentioned, +addressed evidently to the same boy, and speaking in similar terms, of +the "lowness" of his "lot," is, in the "Hours of Idleness," altogether +omitted. That he grew more conscious of his high station, as he +approached to manhood, is not improbable; and this wish to sink his +early friendship with the young cottager may have been a result of +that feeling. + +As his visits to Southwell were, after this period, but few and +transient, I shall take the present opportunity of mentioning such +miscellaneous particulars respecting his habits and mode of life, +while there, as I have been able to collect. + +Though so remarkably shy, when he first went to Southwell, this +reserve, as he grew more acquainted with the young people of the +place, wore off; till, at length, he became a frequenter of their +assemblies and dinner-parties, and even felt mortified if he heard of +a rout to which he was not invited. His horror, however, at new faces +still continued; and if, while at Mrs. Pigot's, he saw strangers +approaching the house, he would instantly jump out of the window to +avoid them. This natural shyness concurred with no small degree of +pride to keep him aloof from the acquaintance of the gentlemen in the +neighbourhood, whose visits, in more than one instance, he left +unreturned;--some under the plea that their ladies had not visited his +mother; others, because they had neglected to pay him this compliment +sooner. The true reason, however, of the haughty distance, at which, +both now and afterwards, he stood apart from his more opulent +neighbours, is to be found in his mortifying consciousness of the +inadequacy of his own means to his rank, and the proud dread of being +made to feel this inferiority by persons to whom, in every other +respect, he knew himself superior. His friend, Mr. Becher, frequently +expostulated with him on this unsociableness; and to his +remonstrances, on one occasion, Lord Byron returned a poetical answer, +so remarkably prefiguring the splendid burst, with which his own +volcanic genius opened upon the world, that as the volume containing +the verses is in very few hands, I cannot resist the temptation of +giving a few extracts here:-- + + "Dear Becher, you tell me to mix with mankind,-- + I cannot deny such a precept is wise; + But retirement accords with the tone of my mind, + And I will not descend to a world I despise. + + "Did the Senate or Camp my exertions require, + Ambition might prompt me at once to go forth; + And, when infancy's years of probation expire, + Perchance, I may strive to distinguish my birth. + + _"The fire, in the cavern of Ætna concealed, + Still mantles unseen, in its secret recess;-- + At length, in a volume terrific revealed, + No torrent can quench it, no bounds can repress. + + "Oh thus, the desire in my bosom for fame + Bids me live but to hope for Posterity's praise; + Could I soar, with the Phoenix, on pinions of flame, + With him I would wish to expire in the blaze._ + + "For the life of a Fox, of a Chatham the death, + What censure, what danger, what woe would I brave? + Their lives did not end when they yielded their breath,-- + Their glory illumines the gloom of the grave!" + +In his hours of rising and retiring to rest he was, like his mother, +always very late; and this habit he never altered during the remainder +of his life. The night, too, was at this period, as it continued +afterwards, his favourite time for composition; and his first visit in +the morning was generally paid to the fair friend who acted as his +amanuensis, and to whom he then gave whatever new products of his +brain the preceding night might have inspired. His next visit was +usually to his friend Mr. Becher's, and from thence to one or two +other houses on the Green, after which the rest of the day was devoted +to his favourite exercises. The evenings he usually passed with the +same family, among whom he began his morning, either in conversation, +or in hearing Miss Pigot play upon the piano-forte, and singing over +with her a certain set of songs which he admired,[59]--among which +the "Maid of Lodi," (with the words, "My heart with love is beating,") +and "When Time who steals our years away," were, it seems, his +particular favourites. He appears, indeed, to have, even thus early, +shown a decided taste for that sort of regular routine of +life,--bringing round the same occupations at the stated +periods,--which formed so much the system of his existence during the +greater part of his residence abroad. + +Those exercises, to which he flew for distraction in less happy days, +formed his enjoyment now; and between swimming, sparring, firing at a +mark, and riding,[60] the greater part of his time was passed. In the +last of these accomplishments he was by no means very expert. As an +instance of his little knowledge of horses, it is told, that, seeing a +pair one day pass his window, he exclaimed, "What beautiful horses! I +should like to buy them."--"Why, they are your own, my Lord," said his +servant. Those who knew him, indeed, at that period, were rather +surprised, in after-life, to hear so much of his riding;--and the +truth is, I am inclined to think, that he was at no time a very adroit +horse-man. + +In swimming and diving we have already seen, by his own accounts, he +excelled; and a lady in Southwell, among other precious relics of him, +possesses a thimble which he borrowed of her one morning, when on his +way to bathe in the Greet, and which, as was testified by her brother, +who accompanied him, he brought up three times successively from the +bottom of the river. His practice of firing at a mark was the +occasion, once, of some alarm to a very beautiful young person, Miss +H.,--one of that numerous list of fair ones by whom his imagination +was dazzled while at Southwell. A poem relating to this occurrence, +which may be found in his unpublished volume, is thus introduced:--"As +the author was discharging his pistols in a garden, two ladies, +passing near the spot, were alarmed by the sound of a bullet hissing +near them, to one of whom the following stanzas were addressed the +next morning." + +Such a passion, indeed, had he for arms of every description, that +there generally lay a small sword by the side of his bed, with which +he used to amuse himself, as he lay awake in the morning, by thrusting +it through his bed-hangings. The person who purchased this bed at the +sale of Mrs. Byron's furniture, on her removal to Newstead, gave +out--with the view of attaching a stronger interest to the holes in +the curtains--that they were pierced by the same sword with which the +old lord had killed Mr. Chaworth, and which his descendant always kept +as a memorial by his bedside. Such is the ready process by which +fiction is often engrafted upon fact;--the sword in question being a +most innocent and bloodless weapon, which Lord Byron, during his +visits at Southwell, used to borrow of one of his neighbours. + +His fondness for dogs--another fancy which accompanied him through +life--may be judged from the anecdotes already given, in the account +of his expedition to Harrowgate. Of his favourite dog Boatswain, whom +he has immortalised in verse, and by whose side it was once his +solemn purpose to be buried, some traits are told, indicative, not +only of intelligence, but of a generosity of spirit, which might well +win for him the affections of such a master as Byron. One of these I +shall endeavour to relate as nearly as possible as it was told to me. +Mrs. Byron had a fox-terrier, called Gilpin, with whom her son's dog, +Boatswain, was perpetually at war,[61] taking every opportunity of +attacking and worrying him so violently, that it was very much +apprehended he would kill the animal. Mrs. Byron therefore sent off +her terrier to a tenant at Newstead; and on the departure of Lord +Byron for Cambridge, his "friend" Boatswain, with two other dogs, was +intrusted to the care of a servant till his return. One morning the +servant was much alarmed by the disappearance of Boatswain, and +throughout the whole of the day he could hear no tidings of him. At +last, towards evening, the stray dog arrived, accompanied by Gilpin, +whom he led immediately to the kitchen fire, licking him and lavishing +upon him every possible demonstration of joy. The fact was, he had +been all the way to Newstead to fetch him; and having now established +his former foe under the roof once more, agreed so perfectly well with +him ever after, that he even protected him against the insults of +other dogs (a task which the quarrelsomeness of the little terrier +rendered no sinecure), and, if he but heard Gilpin's voice in +distress, would fly instantly to his rescue. + +In addition to the natural tendency to superstition, which is usually +found connected with the poetical temperament, Lord Byron had also the +example and influence of his mother, acting upon him from infancy, to +give his mind this tinge. Her implicit belief in the wonders of second +sight, and the strange tales she told of this mysterious faculty, used +to astonish not a little her sober English friends; and it will be +seen, that, at so late a period as the death of his friend Shelley, +the idea of fetches and forewarnings impressed upon him by his mother +had not wholly lost possession of the poet's mind. As an instance of a +more playful sort of superstition I may be allowed to mention a slight +circumstance told me of him by one of his Southwell friends. This lady +had a large agate bead with a wire through it, which had been taken +out of a barrow, and lay always in her work-box. Lord Byron asking one +day what it was, she told him that it had been given her as an amulet, +and the charm was, that as long as she had this bead in her +possession, she should never be in love. "Then give it to me," he +cried, eagerly, "for that's just the thing I want." The young lady +refused;--but it was not long before the bead disappeared. She taxed +him with the theft, and he owned it; but said, she never should see +her amulet again. + +Of his charity and kind-heartedness he left behind him at +Southwell--as, indeed, at every place, throughout life, where he +resided any time--the most cordial recollections. "He never," says a +person, who knew him intimately at this period, "met with objects of +distress without affording them succour." Among many little traits of +this nature, which his friends delight to tell, I select the +following,--less as a proof of his generosity, than from the interest +which the simple incident itself, as connected with the name of Byron, +presents. While yet a school-boy, he happened to be in a bookseller's +shop at Southwell, when a poor woman came in to purchase a Bible. The +price, she was told by the shopman, was eight shillings. "Ah, dear +sir," she exclaimed, "I cannot pay such a price; I did not think it +would cost half the money." The woman was then, with a look of +disappointment, going away,--when young Byron called her back, and +made her a present of the Bible. + +In his attention to his person and dress, to the becoming arrangement +of his hair, and to whatever might best show off the beauty with which +nature had gifted him, he manifested, even thus early, his anxiety to +make himself pleasing to that sex who were, from first to last, the +ruling stars of his destiny. The fear of becoming, what he was +naturally inclined to be, enormously fat, had induced him, from his +first entrance at Cambridge, to adopt, for the purpose of reducing +himself, a system of violent exercise and abstinence, together with +the frequent use of warm baths. But the embittering circumstance of +his life,--that, which haunted him like a curse, amidst the buoyancy +of youth, and the anticipations of fame and pleasure, was, strange to +say, the trifling deformity of his foot. By that one slight blemish +(as in his moments of melancholy he persuaded himself) all the +blessings that nature had showered upon him were counterbalanced. His +reverend friend, Mr. Becher, finding him one day unusually dejected, +endeavoured to cheer and rouse him, by representing, in their +brightest colours, all the various advantages with which Providence +had endowed him,--and, among the greatest, that of "a mind which +placed him above the rest of mankind."--"Ah, my dear friend," said +Byron, mournfully,--"if this (laying his hand on his forehead) places +me above the rest of mankind, that (pointing to his foot) places me +far, far below them." + +It sometimes, indeed, seemed as if his sensitiveness on this point led +him to fancy that he was the only person in the world afflicted with +such an infirmity. When that accomplished scholar and traveller, Mr. +D. Baillie, who was at the same school with him at Aberdeen, met him +afterwards at Cambridge, the young peer had then grown so fat that, +though accosted by him familiarly as his school-fellow, it was not +till he mentioned his name that Mr. Baillie could recognise him. "It +is odd enough, too, that you shouldn't know me," said Byron--"I +thought nature had set such a mark upon me, that I could never be +forgot." + +But, while this defect was such a source of mortification to his +spirit, it was also, and in an equal degree, perhaps, a stimulus:--and +more especially in whatever depended upon personal prowess or +attractiveness, he seemed to feel himself piqued by this stigma, which +nature, as he thought, had set upon him, to distinguish himself above +those whom she had endowed with her more "fair proportion." In +pursuits of gallantry he was, I have no doubt, a good deal actuated by +this incentive; and the hope of astonishing the world, at some future +period, as a chieftain and hero, mingled little less with his young +dreams than the prospect of a poet's glory. "I will, some day or +other," he used to say, when a boy, "raise a troop,--the men of which +shall be dressed in black, and ride on black horses. They shall be +called 'Byron's Blacks,' and you will hear of their performing +prodigies of valour." + +I have already adverted to the exceeding eagerness with which, while +at Harrow, he devoured all sorts of learning,--excepting only that +which, by the regimen of the school, was prescribed for him. The same +rapid and multifarious course of study he pursued during the holidays; +and, in order to deduct as little as possible from his hours of +exercise, he had given himself the habit, while at home, of reading +all dinner-time.[62] In a mind so versatile as his, every novelty, +whether serious or light, whether lofty or ludicrous, found a welcome +and an echo; and I can easily conceive the glee--as a friend of his +once described it to me--with which he brought to her, one evening, a +copy of Mother Goose's Tales, which he had bought from a hawker that +morning, and read, for the first time, while he dined. + +I shall now give, from a memorandum-book begun by him this year, the +account, as I find it hastily and promiscuously scribbled out, of all +the books in various departments of knowledge, which he had already +perused at a period of life when few of his school-fellows had yet +travelled beyond their _longs_ and _shorts_. The list is, +unquestionably, a remarkable one;--and when we recollect that the +reader of all these volumes was, at the same time, the possessor of a +most retentive memory, it may be doubted whether, among what are +called the regularly educated, the contenders for scholastic honours +and prizes, there could be found a single one who, at the same age, +has possessed any thing like the same stock of useful knowledge. + + + "LIST OF HISTORICAL WRITERS WHOSE WORKS I HAVE PERUSED IN + DIFFERENT LANGUAGES." + + _"History of England._--Hume, Rapin, Henry, Smollet, Tindal, + Belsham, Bisset, Adolphus, Holinshed, Froissart's Chronicles + (belonging properly to France). + + _"Scotland._--Buchanan, Hector Boethius, both in the Latin. + + _"Ireland._--Gordon. + + _"Rome._--Hooke, Decline and Fall by Gibbon, Ancient History + by Rollin (including an account of the Carthaginians, &c.), + besides Livy, Tacitus, Eutropius, Cornelius Nepos, Julius + Cæsar, Arrian. Sallust. + + "_Greece._--Mitford's Greece, Leland's Philip, Plutarch, + Potter's Antiquities, Xenophon, Thucydides, Herodotus. + + "_France._--Mezeray, Voltaire. + + "_Spain._--I chiefly derived my knowledge of old Spanish + History from a book called the Atlas, now obsolete. The + modern history, from the intrigues of Alberoni down to the + Prince of Peace, I learned from its connection with European + politics. + + "_Portugal._--From Vertot; as also his account of the Siege + of Rhodes,--though the last is his own invention, the real + facts being totally different.--So much for his Knights of + Malta. + + "_Turkey._--I have read Knolles, Sir Paul Rycaut, and Prince + Cantemir, besides a more modern history, anonymous. Of the + Ottoman History I know every event, from Tangralopi, and + afterwards Othman I., to the peace of Passarowitz, in + 1718,--the battle of Cutzka, in 1739, and the treaty between + Russia and Turkey in 1790. + + "_Russia._--Tooke's Life of Catherine II., Voltaire's Czar + Peter. + + "_Sweden._--Voltaire's Charles XII., also Norberg's Charles + XII.--in my opinion the best of the two.--A translation of + Schiller's Thirty Years' War, which contains the exploits of + Gustavus Adolphus, besides Harte's Life of the same Prince. + I have somewhere, too, read an account of Gustavus Vasa, the + deliverer of Sweden, but do not remember the author's name. + + "_Prussia._--I have seen, at least, twenty Lives of + Frederick II., the only prince worth recording in Prussian + annals. Gillies, his own Works, and Thiebault,--none very + amusing. The last is paltry, but circumstantial. + + "_Denmark_--I know little of. Of Norway I understand the + natural history, but not the chronological. + + "_Germany._--I have read long histories of the house of + Suabia, Wenceslaus, and, at length, Rodolph of Hapsburgh and + his _thick-lipped_ Austrian descendants. + + "_Switzerland._--Ah! William Tell, and the battle of + Morgarten, where Burgundy was slain. + + "_Italy._--Davila, Guicciardini, the Guelphs and + Ghibellines, the battle of Pavia, Massaniello, the + revolutions of Naples, &c. &c. + + "_Hindostan_--Orme and Cambridge. + + "_America._--Robertson, Andrews' American War. + + "_Africa_--merely from travels, as Mungo Park, Bruce. + + + "BIOGRAPHY. + + "Robertson's Charles V.--Cæsar, Sallust (Catiline and + Jugurtha), Lives of Marlborough and Eugene, Tekeli, Bonnard, + Buonaparte, all the British Poets, both by Johnson and + Anderson, Rousseau's Confessions, Life of Cromwell, British + Plutarch, British Nepos, Campbell's Lives of the Admirals, + Charles XII., Czar Peter, Catherine II., Henry Lord Kaimes, + Marmontel, Teignmouth's Sir William Jones, Life of Newton, + Belisaire, with thousands not to be detailed. + + + "LAW. + + "Blackstone, Montesquieu. + + + "PHILOSOPHY. + + "Paley, Locke, Bacon, Hume, Berkeley, Drummond, Beattie, and + Bolingbroke. Hobbes I detest. + + + "GEOGRAPHY. + + "Strabo, Cellarius, Adams, Pinkerton, and Guthrie. + + + "POETRY. + + "All the British Classics as before detailed, with most of + the living poets, Scott, Southey, &c.--Some French, in the + original, of which the Cid is my favourite.--Little + Italian.--Greek and Latin without number;--these last I + shall give up in future.--I have translated a good deal from + both languages, verse as well as prose. + + + "ELOQUENCE. + + "Demosthenes, Cicero, Quintilian, Sheridan, Austin's + Chironomia, and Parliamentary Debates from the Revolution to + the year 1742. + + + "DIVINITY. + + "Blair, Porteus, Tillotson, Hooker,--all very tiresome. I + abhor books of religion, though I reverence and love my God, + without the blasphemous notions of sectaries, or belief in + their absurd and damnable heresies, mysteries, and + Thirty-nine Articles. + + + "MISCELLANIES. + + "Spectator, Rambler, World, &c. &c.--Novels by the thousand. + + "All the books here enumerated I have taken down from + memory. I recollect reading them, and can quote passages + from any mentioned. I have, of course, omitted several in my + catalogue; but the greater part of the above I perused + before the age of fifteen. Since I left Harrow, I have + become idle and conceited, from scribbling rhyme and making + love to women. B.--Nov. 30. 1807. + +"I have also read (to my regret at present) above four thousand +novels, including the works of Cervantes, Fielding, Smollet, +Richardson, Mackenzie, Sterne, Rabelais, and Rousseau, &c. &c. The +book, in my opinion, most useful to a man who wishes to acquire the +reputation of being well read, with the least trouble, is "Burton's +Anatomy of Melancholy," the most amusing and instructive medley of +quotations and classical anecdotes I ever perused. But a superficial +reader must take care, or his intricacies will bewilder him. If, +however, he has patience to go through his volumes, he will be more +improved for literary conversation than by the perusal of any twenty +other works with which I am acquainted,--at least, in the English +language." + + +To this early and extensive study of English writers may be attributed +that mastery over the resources of his own language with which Lord +Byron came furnished into the field of literature, and which enabled +him, as fast as his youthful fancies sprung up, to clothe them with a +diction worthy of their strength and beauty. In general, the +difficulty of young writers, at their commencement, lies far less in +any lack of thoughts or images, than in that want of a fitting organ +to give those conceptions vent, to which their unacquaintance with the +great instrument of the man of genius, his native language, dooms +them. It will be found, indeed, that the three most remarkable +examples of early authorship, which, in their respective lines, the +history of literature affords--Pope, Congreve, and Chatterton--were +all of them persons self-educated,[63] according to their own +intellectual wants and tastes, and left, undistracted by the worse +than useless pedantries of the schools, to seek, in the pure "well of +English undefiled," those treasures of which they accordingly so very +early and intimately possessed themselves.[64] To these three +instances may now be added, virtually, that of Lord Byron, who, though +a disciple of the schools, was, intellectually speaking, _in_ +them, not _of_ them, and who, while his comrades were prying +curiously into the graves of dead languages, betook himself to the +fresh, living sources of his own,[65] and from thence drew those +rich, varied stores of diction, which have placed his works, from the +age of two-and-twenty upwards, among the most precious depositories of +the strength and sweetness of the English language that our whole +literature supplies. + +In the same book that contains the above record of his studies, he has +written out, also from memory, a "List of the different poets, +dramatic or otherwise, who have distinguished their respective +languages by their productions." After enumerating the various poets, +both ancient and modern, of Europe, he thus proceeds with his +catalogue through other quarters of the world:-- + + + "_Arabia._--Mahomet, whose Koran contains most sublime + poetical passages, far surpassing European poetry. + + "_Persia._--Ferdousi, author of the Shah Nameh, the Persian + Iliad--Sadi, and Hafiz, the immortal Hafiz, the oriental + Anacreon. The last is reverenced beyond any bard of ancient + or modern times by the Persians, who resort to his tomb near + Shiraz, to celebrate his memory. A splendid copy of his + works is chained to his monument. + + "_America._--An epic poet has already appeared in that + hemisphere, Barlow, author of the Columbiad,--not to be + compared with the works of more polished nations. + + "_Iceland, Denmark, Norway_, were famous for their Skalds. + Among these Lodburgh was one of the most distinguished. His + Death Song breathes ferocious sentiments, but a glorious and + impassioned strain of poetry. + + "_Hindostan_ is undistinguished by any great bard,--at least + the Sanscrit is so imperfectly known to Europeans, we know + not what poetical relics may exist. + + "_The Birman Empire._--Here the natives are passionately + fond of poetry, but their bards are unknown. + + "_China._--I never heard of any Chinese poet but the Emperor + Kien Long, and his ode to _Tea_. What a pity their + philosopher Confucius did not write poetry, with his + precepts of morality! + + "_Africa._--In Africa some of the native melodies are + plaintive, and the words simple and affecting; but whether + their rude strains of nature can be classed with poetry, as + the songs of the bards, the Skalds of Europe, &c. &c., I + know not. + + "This brief list of poets I have written down from memory, + without any book of reference; consequently some errors may + occur, but I think, if any, very trivial. The works of the + European, and some of the Asiatic, I have perused, either in + the original or translations. In my list of English, I have + merely mentioned the greatest;--to enumerate the minor poets + would be useless, as well as tedious. Perhaps Gray, + Goldsmith, and Collins, might have been added, as worthy of + mention, in a _cosmopolite_ account. But as for the others, + from Chaucer down to Churchill, they are 'voces et præterea + nihil;'--sometimes spoken of, rarely read, and never with + advantage. Chaucer, notwithstanding the praises bestowed on + him, I think obscene and contemptible:--he owes his + celebrity merely to his antiquity, which he does not deserve + so well as Pierce Plowman, or Thomas of Ercildoune. English + living poets I have avoided mentioning;--we have none who + will not survive their productions. Taste is over with us; + and another century will sweep our empire, our literature, + and our name, from all but a place in the annals of mankind. + + "November 30. 1807. + + BYRON." + + +Among the papers of his in my possession are several detached poems +(in all nearly six hundred lines), which he wrote about this period, +but never printed--having produced most of them after the publication +of his "Hours of Idleness." The greater number of these have little, +besides his name, to recommend them; but there are a few that, from +the feelings and circumstances that gave rise to them, will, I have no +doubt, be interesting to the reader. When he first went to Newstead, +on his arrival from Aberdeen, he planted, it seems, a young oak in +some part of the grounds, and had an idea that as it flourished so +should he. Some six or seven years after, on revisiting the spot, he +found his oak choked up by weeds, and almost destroyed. In this +circumstance, which happened soon after Lord Grey de Ruthen left +Newstead, originated one of these poems, which consists of five +stanzas, but of which the few opening lines will be a sufficient +specimen:-- + + "Young Oak, when I planted thee deep in the ground, + I hoped that thy days would be longer than mine; + That thy dark-waving branches would flourish around, + And ivy thy trunk with its mantle entwine. + + "Such, such was my hope, when, in infancy's years, + On the land of my fathers I rear'd thee with pride; + They are past, and I water thy stem with my tears,-- + Thy decay, not the weeds that surround thee can hide. + + "I left thee, my Oak, and, since that fatal hour, + A stranger has dwelt in the hall of my sire," &c. &c. + +The subject of the verses that follow is sufficiently explained by the +notice which he has prefixed to them; and, as illustrative of the +romantic and almost lovelike feeling which he threw into his school +friendships, they appeared to me, though rather quaint and elaborate, +to be worth preserving. + +"Some years ago, when at H----, a friend of the author engraved on a +particular spot the names of both, with a few additional words as a +memorial. Afterwards, on receiving some real or imagined injury, the +author destroyed the frail record before he left H----. On revisiting +the place in 1807, he wrote under it the following stanzas:-- + + "Here once engaged the stranger's view + Young Friendship's record simply traced; + Few were her words,--but yet though few, + Resentment's hand the line defaced. + + "Deeply she cut--but, not erased, + The characters were still so plain, + That Friendship once return'd, and gazed,-- + Till Memory hail'd the words again. + + "Repentance placed them as before; + Forgiveness join'd her gentle name; + So fair the inscription seem'd once more + That Friendship thought it still the same. + + "Thus might the record now have been; + But, ah, in spite of Hope's endeavour, + Or Friendship's tears, Pride rush'd between, + And blotted out the line for ever!" + +The same romantic feeling of friendship breathes throughout another of +these poems, in which he has taken for the subject the ingenious +thought "L'Amitié est l'Amour sans ailes," and concludes every stanza +with the words, "Friendship is Love without his wings." Of the nine +stanzas of which this poem consists, the three following appear the +most worthy of selection:-- + + "Why should my anxious breast repine, + Because my youth is fled? + Days of delight may still be mine, + Affection is _not_ dead. + In tracing back the years of youth, + One firm record, one lasting truth + Celestial consolation brings; + Bear it, ye breezes, to the seat, + Where first my heart responsive beat,-- + 'Friendship is Love without his wings!' + + "Seat of my youth! thy distant spire + Recalls each scene of joy; + My bosom glows with former fire,-- + In mind again a boy. + Thy grove of elms, thy verdant hill, + Thy every path delights me still, + Each flower a double fragrance flings; + Again, as once, in converse gay, + Each dear associate seems to say, + 'Friendship is Love without his wings!' + + "My Lycus! wherefore dost thou weep? + Thy falling tears restrain; + Affection for a time may sleep, + But, oh, 'twill wake again. + Think, think, my friend, when next we meet, + Our long-wish'd intercourse, how sweet! + From this my hope of rapture springs, + While youthful hearts thus fondly swell, + Absence, my friend, can only tell, + 'Friendship is Love without his wings!'" + +Whether the verses I am now about to give are, in any degree, founded +on fact, I have no accurate means of determining. Fond as he was of +recording every particular of his youth, such an event, or rather era, +as is here commemorated, would have been, of all others, the least +likely to pass unmentioned by him;--and yet neither in conversation +nor in any of his writings do I remember even an allusion to it.[66] +On the other hand, so entirely was all that he wrote,--making +allowance for the embellishments of fancy,--the transcript of his +actual life and feelings, that it is not easy to suppose a poem, so +full of natural tenderness, to have been indebted for its origin to +imagination alone. + + "TO MY SON! + + "Those flaxen locks, those eyes of blue, + Bright as thy mother's in their hue; + Those rosy lips, whose dimples play + And smile to steal the heart away, + Recall a scene of former joy, + And touch thy Father's heart, my Boy! + + "And thou canst lisp a father's name-- + Ah, William, were thine own the same, + No self-reproach--but, let me cease-- + My care for thee shall purchase peace; + Thy mother's shade shall smile in joy, + And pardon all the past, my Boy! + + "Her lowly grave the turf has prest, + And thou hast known a stranger's breast. + Derision sneers upon thy birth, + And yields thee scarce a name on earth; + Yet shall not these one hope destroy,-- + A Father's heart is thine, my Boy! + + "Why, let the world unfeeling frown, + Must I fond Nature's claim disown? + Ah, no--though moralists reprove, + I hail thee, dearest child of love, + Fair cherub, pledge of youth and joy-- + A Father guards thy birth, my Boy! + + "Oh, 'twill be sweet in thee to trace, + Ere age has wrinkled o'er my face, + Ere half my glass of life is run, + At once a brother and a son; + And all my wane of years employ + In justice done to thee, my Boy! + + "Although so young thy heedless sire, + Youth will not damp parental fire; + And, wert thou still less dear to me, + While Helen's form revives in thee, + The breast, which beat to former joy, + Will ne'er desert its pledge, my Boy! + + "B----, 1807."[67] + +But the most remarkable of these poems is one of a date prior to any I +have given, being written in December, 1806, when he was not yet +nineteen years old. It contains, as will be seen, his religious creed +at that period, and shows how early the struggle between natural piety +and doubt began in his mind. + + "THE PRAYER OF NATURE. + + "Father of Light! great God of Heaven! + Hear'st thou the accents of despair? + Can guilt like man's be e'er forgiven? + Can vice atone for crimes by prayer? + Father of Light, on thee I call! + Thou see'st my soul is dark within; + Thou who canst mark the sparrow's fall, + Avert from me the death of sin. + No shrine I seek, to sects unknown, + Oh point to me the path of truth! + Thy dread omnipotence I own, + Spare, yet amend, the faults of youth. + Let bigots rear a gloomy fane, + Let superstition hail the pile, + Let priests, to spread their sable reign, + With tales of mystic rites beguile. + Shall man confine his Maker's sway + To Gothic domes of mouldering stone? + Thy temple is the face of day; + Earth, ocean, heaven, thy boundless throne. + Shall man condemn his race to hell + Unless they bend in pompous form; + Tell us that all, for one who fell, + Must perish in the mingling storm? + Shall each pretend to reach the skies, + Yet doom his brother to expire, + Whose soul a different hope supplies, + Or doctrines less severe inspire? + Shall these, by creeds they can't expound, + Prepare a fancied bliss or woe? + Shall reptiles, grovelling on the ground, + Their great Creator's purpose know? + Shall those who live for self alone, + Whose years float on in daily crime-- + Shall they by Faith for guilt atone, + And live beyond the bounds of Time? + Father! no prophet's laws I seek,-- + _Thy_ laws in Nature's works appear;-- + I own myself corrupt and weak, + Yet will I pray, for thou wilt hear! + Thou, who canst guide the wandering star + Through trackless realms of Æther's space; + Who calm'st the elemental war, + Whose hand from pole to pole I trace: + Thou, who in wisdom placed me here, + Who, when thou wilt, can take me hence, + Ah! whilst I tread this earthly sphere, + Extend to me thy wide defence. + To Thee, my God, to Thee I call! + Whatever weal or woe betide, + By thy command I rise or fall, + In thy protection I confide. + If, when this dust to dust restored, + My soul shall float on airy wing, + How shall thy glorious name adored, + Inspire her feeble voice to sing! + But, if this fleeting spirit share + With clay the grave's eternal bed, + While life yet throbs, I raise my prayer, + Though doom'd no more to quit the dead. + To Thee I breathe my humble strain, + Grateful for all thy mercies past, + And hope, my God, to thee again + This erring life may fly at last. + + "29th Dec. 1806. + + BYRON." + +In another of these poems, which extends to about a hundred lines, and +which he wrote under the melancholy impression that he should soon +die, we find him concluding with a prayer in somewhat the same spirit. +After bidding adieu to all the favourite scenes of his youth,[68] he +thus continues,-- + + "Forget this world, my restless sprite, + Turn, turn thy thoughts to Heav'n: + There must thou soon direct thy night, + If errors are forgiven. + To bigots and to sects unknown. + Bow down beneath the Almighty's throne;-- + To him address thy trembling prayer; + He, who is merciful and just, + Will not reject a child of dust, + Although his meanest care. + Father of Light, to thee I call, + My soul is dark within; + Thou, who canst mark the sparrow fall, + Avert the death of sin. + Thou, who canst guide the wandering star, + Who calm'st the elemental war, + Whose mantle is yon boundless sky, + My thoughts, my words, my crimes forgive; + And, since I soon must cease to live, + Instruct me how to die. + + 1807." + +We have seen, by a former letter, that the law proceedings for the +recovery of his Rochdale property had been attended with success in +some trial of the case at Lancaster. The following note to one of his +Southwell friends, announcing a second triumph of the cause, shows how +sanguinely and, as it turned out, erroneously, he calculated on the +results. + + +"Feb. 9. 1807. + + +Dear ----, + +"I have the pleasure to inform you we have gained the Rochdale cause a +second time, by which I am, £60,000 plus. Yours ever, + +"BYRON." + + +In the month of April we find him still at Southwell, and addressing +to his friend, Dr. Pigot, who was at Edinburgh, the following +note[69]:-- + + +"Southwell, April, 1807. + + +"My dear Pigot, + +"Allow me to congratulate you on the success of your first +examination--'_Courage_, mon ami.' The title of Doctor will do wonders +with the damsels. I shall most probably be in Essex or London when you +arrive at this d----d place, where I am detained by the publication of +my rhymes. + +"Adieu.--Believe me yours very truly, + +"BYRON. + +"P.S. Since we met, I have reduced myself by violent exercise, much +physic, and hot bathing, from 14 stone 6 lb. to 12 stone 7 lb. In all I +have lost 27 pounds. Bravo!--what say you?" + + +His movements and occupations for the remainder of this year will be +best collected from a series of his own letters, which I am enabled, +by the kindness of the lady to whom they were addressed, to give. +Though these letters are boyishly[70] written, and a good deal of +their pleasantry is of that conventional kind which depends more upon +phrase than thought, they will yet, I think, be found curious and +interesting, not only as enabling us to track him through this period +of his life, but as throwing light upon various little traits of +character, and laying open to us the first working of his hopes and +fears while waiting, in suspense, the opinions that were to decide, as +he thought, his future fame. The first of the series, which is without +date, appears to have been written before he had left Southwell. The +other letters, it will be seen, are dated from Cambridge and from +London. + + +LETTER 12. + +TO MISS ----. + +"June 11. 1807. + + +"Dear Queen Bess, + +"_Savage_ ought to be _immortal_:--though not a _thorough-bred +bull-dog_, he is the finest puppy I ever _saw_, and will answer much +better; in his great and manifold kindness he has already bitten my +fingers, and disturbed the _gravity_ of old Boatswain, who is +_grievously discomposed_. I wish to be informed what he _costs_, his +_expenses_, &c. &c., that I may indemnify Mr. G----. My thanks are +_all_ I can give for the trouble he has taken, make a _long speech_, +and conclude it with 1 2 3 4 5 6 7.[71] I am out of practice, so +_deputize_ you as legate,--_ambassador_ would not do in a matter +concerning the _Pope_, which I presume this must, as the _whole_ turns +upon a _Bull_. + +"Yours, + +"BYRON. + +"P.S. I write in bed." + + +LETTER 13. + +TO MISS ----. + +"Cambridge, June 30. 1807. + + +"'Better late than never, Pal,'" is a saying of which you know the +origin, and as it is applicable on the present occasion, you will +excuse its conspicuous place in the front of my epistle. I am almost +superannuated here. My old friends (with the exception of a very few) +all departed, and I am preparing to follow them, but remain till +Monday to be present at three _Oratorios_, two _Concerts_, a _Fair_, +and a Ball. I find I am not only _thinner_ but _taller_ by an inch +since my last visit. I was obliged to tell every body my _name_, +nobody having the least recollection of my _visage_, or person. Even +the hero of _my Cornelian_ (who is now sitting _vis-à-vis_, reading a +volume of my _Poetics_) passed me in Trinity walks without recognising +me in the least, and was thunderstruck at the alteration which had +taken place in my countenance, &c. &c. Some say I look _better_, +others _worse_, but all agree I am _thinner_--more I do not require. I +have lost two pounds in my weight since I left your _cursed_, +_detestable_, and _abhorred_ abode of _scandal_,[72] where, excepting +yourself and John Becher, I care not if the whole race were consigned +to the _Pit of Acheron_, which I would visit in person rather than +contaminate my _sandals_ with the polluted dust of Southwell. +_Seriously_, unless obliged by the _emptiness_ of my purse to revisit +Mrs. B., you will see me no more. + +"On Monday I depart for London. I quit Cambridge with little regret, +because our _set_ are _vanished_, and my _musical protégé_ before +mentioned has left the choir, and is stationed in a mercantile house +of considerable eminence in the metropolis. You may have heard me +observe he is exactly to an hour two years younger than myself. I +found him grown considerably, and, as you will suppose, very glad to +see his former _Patron_. He is nearly my height, very _thin_, very +fair complexion, dark eyes, and light locks. My opinion of his mind +you already know;--I hope I shall never have occasion to change it. +Every body here conceives me to be an _invalid_. The University at +present is very gay from the fêtes of divers kinds. I supped out last +night, but eat (or ate) nothing, sipped a bottle of claret, went to +bed at two, and rose at eight. I have commenced early rising, and find +it agrees with me. The Masters and the Fellows all very _polite_, but +look a little _askance_--don't much admire _lampoons_--truth always +disagreeable. + +"Write, and tell me how the inhabitants of your _Menagerie_ go _on_, +and if my publication goes _off_ well: do the quadrupeds _growl_? +Apropos, my bull-dog is deceased--'Flesh both of cur and man is +grass.' Address your answer to Cambridge. If I am gone, it will be +forwarded. Sad news just arrived--Russians beat--a bad set, eat +nothing but _oil_, consequently must melt before a _hard fire_. I get +awkward in my academic habiliments for want of practice. Got up in a +window to hear the oratorio at St. Mary's, popped down in the middle +of the _Messiah_, tore a _woeful_ rent in the back of my best black +silk gown, and damaged an egregious pair of breeches. Mem.--never +tumbled from a church window during service. Adieu, dear ----! do not +remember me to any body:--to _forget_ and be forgotten by the people +of Southwell is all I aspire to." + + +LETTER 14. + +TO MISS ----. + +"Trin. Coll. Camb. July 5. 1807. + + +"Since my last letter I have determined to reside _another year_ at +Granta, as my rooms, &c. &c. are finished in great style, several old +friends come up again, and many new acquaintances made; consequently my +inclination leads me forward, and I shall return to college in October if +still _alive_. My life here has been one continued routine of +dissipation--out at different places every day, engaged to more dinners, +&c. &c. than my _stay_ would permit me to fulfil. At this moment I write +with a bottle of claret in my _head_ and _tears_ in my _eyes_; for I have +just parted with my '_Cornelian_,' who spent the evening with me. As it +was our last interview, I postponed my engagement to devote the hours of +the _Sabbath_ to friendship:--Edleston and I have separated for the +present, and my mind is a chaos of hope and sorrow. To-morrow I set out +for London: you will address your answer to 'Gordon's Hotel, Albemarle +Street,' where I _sojourn_ during my visit to the metropolis. + +"I rejoice to hear you are interested in my _protégé_; he has been my +_almost constant_ associate since October, 1805, when I entered +Trinity College. His _voice_ first attracted my attention, his +_countenance_ fixed it, and his _manners_ attached me to him for ever. +He departs for a _mercantile house_ in _town_ in October, and we shall +probably not meet till the expiration of my minority, when I shall +leave to his decision either entering as a _partner_ through my +interest, or residing with me altogether. Of course he would in his +present frame of mind prefer the _latter_, but he may alter his +opinion previous to that period;--however, he shall have his choice. I +certainly love him more than any human being, and neither time nor +distance have had the least effect on my (in general) changeable +disposition. In short, we shall put _Lady E. Butler_ and _Miss +Ponsonby_ to the blush, _Pylades_ and _Orestes_ out of countenance, +and want nothing but a catastrophe like _Nisus_ and _Euryalus_, to +give _Jonathan_ and _David_ the 'go by.' He certainly is perhaps more +attached to _me_ than even I am in return. During the whole of my +residence at Cambridge we met every day, summer and winter, without +passing _one_ tiresome moment, and separated each time with +increasing reluctance. I hope you will one day see us together, he is +the only being I esteem, though I _like_ many.[73] + +"The Marquis of Tavistock was down the other day; I supped with him at +his tutor's--entirely a Whig party. The opposition muster strong here +now, and Lord Hartington, the Duke of Leinster, &c. &c. are to join us +in October, so every thing will be _splendid_. The _music_ is all over +at present. Met with another '_accidency_'--upset a butter-boat in the +lap of a lady--look'd very _blue_--_spectators_ grinned--'curse +'em!' Apropos, sorry to say, been _drunk_ every day, and not quite +_sober_ yet--however, touch no meat, nothing but fish, soup, and +vegetables, consequently it does me no harm--sad dogs all the +_Cantabs_. Mem.--_we mean_ to reform next January. This place is a +_monotony of endless variety_--like it--hate Southwell. Has Ridge sold +well? or do the ancients demur? What ladies have bought? + +"Saw a girl at St. Mary's the image of Anne ----, thought it was +her--all in the wrong--the lady stared, so did I--I _blushed_, so did +_not_ the lady,--sad thing--wish women had _more modesty_. Talking of +women, puts me in mind of my terrier Fanny--how is she? Got a +headache, must go to bed, up early in the morning to travel. My +_protégé_ breakfasts with me; parting spoils my appetite--excepting +from Southwell. Mem. _I hate Southwell._ + +Yours, &c." + + +LETTER 15. + +TO MISS ----. + +"Gordon's Hotel, July 13, 1807. + + +"You write most excellent epistles--a fig for other correspondents, +with their nonsensical apologies for _'knowing nought about +it_,'--you send me a delightful budget. I am here in a perpetual +vortex of dissipation (very pleasant for all that), and, strange to +tell, I get thinner, being now below eleven stone considerably. Stay +in town a _month_, perhaps six weeks, trip into Essex, and then, as a +favour, _irradiate_ Southwell for three days with the light of my +countenance; but nothing shall ever make me _reside_ there again. I +positively return to Cambridge in October; we are to be uncommonly +gay, or in truth I should _cut_ the University. An extraordinary +circumstance occurred to me at Cambridge; a girl so very like ---- +made her appearance, that nothing but the most _minute inspection_ +could have undeceived me. I wish I had asked if _she_ had ever been at +H----. + +"What the devil would Ridge have? is not fifty in a fortnight, before +the advertisements, a sufficient sale? I hear many of the London +booksellers have them, and Crosby has sent copies to the principal +watering places. Are they liked or not in Southwell?... I wish +Boatswain had _swallowed_ Damon! How is Bran? by the immortal gods, +Bran ought to be a _Count_ of the _Holy Roman Empire_. + +"The intelligence of London cannot be interesting to you, who have +rusticated all your life--the annals of routs, riots, balls and +boxing-matches, cards and crim. cons., parliamentary discussion, +political details, masquerades, mechanics, Argyle Street Institution +and aquatic races, love and lotteries, Brookes's and Buonaparte, +opera-singers and oratorios, wine, women, wax-work, and +weather-cocks, can't accord with your _insulated_ ideas of decorum and +other _silly expressions_ not inserted in _our vocabulary_. + +"Oh! Southwell, Southwell, how I rejoice to have left thee, and how I +curse the heavy hours I dragged along, for so many months, among the +Mohawks who inhabit your kraals!--However, one thing I do not regret, +which is having _pared off_ a sufficient quantity of flesh to enable +me to slip into 'an eel skin,' and vie with the _slim_ beaux of modern +times; though I am sorry to say, it seems to be the mode amongst +_gentlemen_ to grow _fat_, and I am told I am at least fourteen pound +below the fashion. However, I _decrease_ instead of enlarging, which +is extraordinary, as _violent_ exercise in London is impracticable; +but I attribute the phenomenon to our _evening squeezes_ at public and +private parties. I heard from Ridge this morning (the 14th, my letter +was begun yesterday): he says the poems go on as well as can be +wished; the seventy-five sent to town are circulated, and a demand for +fifty more complied with, the day he dated his epistle, though the +advertisements are not yet half published. Adieu. + +"P.S. Lord Carlisle, on receiving my poems, sent, before he opened the +book, a tolerably handsome letter:--I have not heard from him since. +His opinions I neither know nor care about: if he is the least +insolent, I shall enrol him with _Butler_[74] and the other worthies. +He is in Yorkshire, poor man! and very ill! He said he had not had +time to read the contents, but thought it necessary to acknowledge the +receipt of the volume immediately. Perhaps the Earl '_bears no brother +near the throne_,'--_if so_, I will make his _sceptre_ totter _in his +hands_.--Adieu!" + + +LETTER 16. + +TO MISS ----. + +"August 2. 1807. + + +"London begins to disgorge its contents--town is empty--consequently I +can scribble at leisure, as occupations are less numerous. In a +fortnight I shall depart to fulfil a country engagement; but expect +two epistles from you previous to that period. Ridge does not proceed +rapidly in Notts--very possible. In town things wear a more promising +aspect, and a man whose works are praised by _reviewers_, admired by +_duchesses_, and sold by every bookseller of the metropolis, does not +dedicate much consideration to _rustic readers_. I have now a review +before me, entitled 'Literary Recreations,' where my _hardship_ is +applauded far beyond my deserts. I know nothing of the critic, but +think _him_ a very discerning gentleman, and _myself_ a devilish +_clever_ fellow. His critique pleases me particularly, because it is +of great length, and a proper quantum of censure is administered, just +to give an agreeable _relish_ to the praise. You know I hate insipid, +unqualified, common-place compliment. If you would wish to see it, +order the 13th Number of 'Literary Recreations' for the last month. I +assure you I have not the most distant idea of the writer of the +article--it is printed in a periodical publication--and though I have +written a paper (a review of Wordsworth),[75] which appears in the +same work, I am ignorant of every other person concerned in it--even +the editor, whose name I have not heard. My cousin, Lord Alexander +Gordon, who resided in the same hotel, told me his mother, her Grace +of Gordon, requested he would introduce my _Poetical_ Lordship to her +_Highness_, as she had bought my volume, admired it exceedingly, in +common with the rest of the fashionable world, and wished to claim +her relationship with the author. I was unluckily engaged on an +excursion for some days afterwards, and as the Duchess was on the eve +of departing for Scotland, I have postponed my introduction till the +winter, when I shall favour the lady, _whose taste I shall not +dispute_, with my most sublime and edifying conversation. She is now +in the Highlands, and Alexander took his departure, a few days ago, +for the same _blessed_ seat of _'dark rolling winds.'_ + +"Crosby, my London publisher, has disposed of his second importation, +and has sent to Ridge for a _third_--at least so he says. In every +bookseller's window I see my _own name_, and _say nothing_, but enjoy +my fame in secret. My last reviewer kindly requests me to alter my +determination of writing no more; and 'A Friend to the Cause of +Literature' begs I will _gratify_ the _public_ with some new work 'at +no very distant period.' Who would not be a bard?--that is to say, if +all critics would be so polite. However, the others will pay me off, I +doubt not, for this _gentle_ encouragement. If so, have at 'em? By the +by, I have written at my intervals of leisure, after two in the +morning, 380 lines in blank verse, of Bosworth Field. I have luckily +got Hutton's account. I shall extend the poem to eight or ten books, +and shall have finished it in a year. Whether it will be published or +not must depend on circumstances. So much for _egotism_! My _laurels_ +have turned my brain, but the _cooling acids_ of forthcoming +criticisms will probably restore me to _modesty_. + +"Southwell is a damned place--I have done with it--at least in all +probability: excepting yourself, I esteem no one within its precincts. +You were my only _rational_ companion; and in plain truth, I had more +respect for you than the whole _bevy_, with whose foibles I amused +myself in compliance with their prevailing propensities. You gave +yourself more trouble with me and my manuscripts than a thousand +_dolls_ would have done. Believe me, I have not forgotten your good +nature in _this circle of sin_, and one day I trust I shall be able to +evince my gratitude. Adieu, + +yours, &c. + +"P.S. Remember me to Dr. P." + + +LETTER 17. + +TO MISS ----. + +"London, August 11, 1807. + + +"On Sunday next I set off for the Highlands.[76] A friend of mine +accompanies me in my carriage to Edinburgh. There we shall leave it, +and proceed in a _tandem_ (a species of open carriage) through the +western passes to Inverary, where we shall purchase _shelties_, to +enable us to view places inaccessible to _vehicular conveyances_. On +the coast we shall hire a vessel, and visit the most remarkable of the +Hebrides; and, if we have time and favourable weather, mean to sail +as far as Iceland, only 300 miles from the northern extremity of +Caledonia, to peep at _Hecla_. This last intention you will keep a +secret, as my nice _mamma_ would imagine I was on a Voyage of +Discovery, and raise the accustomed _maternal warwhoop_. + +"Last week I swam in the Thames from Lambeth through the two bridges, +Westminster and Blackfriars, a distance, including the different turns +and tacks made on the way, of three miles! You see I am in excellent +training in case of a _squall_ at sea. I mean to collect all the Erse +traditions, poems, &c. &c., and translate, or expand the subject to +fill a volume, which may appear next spring under the denomination of +_'The Highland Harp_,' or some title equally _picturesque_. Of +Bosworth Field, one book is finished, another just began. It will be a +work of three or four years, and most probably never conclude. What +would you say to some stanzas on Mount Hecla? they would be written at +least with _fire_. How is the immortal Bran? and the Phoenix of canine +quadrupeds, Boatswain? I have lately purchased a thorough-bred +bull-dog, worthy to be the coadjutor of the aforesaid celestials--his +name is _Smut_!--'Bear it, ye breezes, on your _balmy_ wings.' + +"Write to me before I set off, I conjure you, by the fifth rib of your +grandfather. Ridge goes on well with the books--I thought that worthy +had not done much in the country. In town they have been very +successful; Carpenter (Moore's publisher) told me a few days ago they +sold all theirs immediately, and had several enquiries made since, +which, from the books being gone, they could not supply. The Duke of +York, the Marchioness of Headfort, the Duchess of Gordon, &c. &c., +were among the purchasers; and Crosby says, the circulation will be +still more extensive in the winter, the summer season being very bad +for a sale, as most people are absent from London. However, they have +gone off extremely well altogether. I shall pass very near you on my +journey through Newark, but cannot approach. Don't tell this to Mrs. +B., who supposes I travel a different road. If you have a letter, +order it to be left at Ridge's shop, where I shall call, or the +post-office, Newark, about six or eight in the evening. If your +brother would ride over, I should be devilish glad to see him--he can +return the same night, or sup with us and go home the next +morning--the Kingston Arms is my inn. + +"Adieu, yours ever, + +"BYRON." + + +LETTER 18. + +TO MISS ----. + +"Trinity College, Cambridge, October 26. 1807. + + +"My dear Elizabeth, + +"Fatigued with sitting up till four in the morning for the last two +days at hazard,[77] I take up my pen to enquire how your highness and +the rest of my female acquaintance at the seat of archiepiscopal +grandeur go on. I know I deserve a scolding for my negligence in not +writing more frequently; but racing up and down the country for these +last three months, how was it possible to fulfil the duties of a +correspondent? Fixed at last for six weeks, I write, as _thin_ as ever +(not having gained an ounce since my reduction), and rather in better +humour;--but, after all, Southwell was a detestable residence. Thank +St. Dominica, I have done with it: I have been twice within eight +miles of it, but could not prevail on myself to _suffocate_ in its +heavy atmosphere. This place is wretched enough--a villanous chaos of +din and drunkenness, nothing but hazard and burgundy, hunting, +mathematics, and Newmarket, riot and racing. Yet it is a paradise +compared with the eternal dulness of Southwell. Oh! the misery of +doing nothing but make love, enemies, and _verses_. + +"Next January, (but this is _entre nous only_, and pray let it be so, +or my maternal persecutor will be throwing her tomahawk at any of my +curious projects,) I am going to _sea_ for four or five months, with +my cousin Capt. Bettesworth, who commands the Tartar, the finest +frigate in the navy. I have seen most scenes, and wish to look at a +naval life. We are going probably to the Mediterranean, or to the West +Indies, or--to the d----l; and if there is a possibility of taking me to +the latter, Bettesworth will do it; for he has received four and +twenty wounds in different places, and at this moment possesses a +letter from the late Lord Nelson, stating Bettesworth as the only +officer in the navy who had more wounds than himself. + +"I have got a new friend, the finest in the world, a _tame bear_. +When I brought him here, they asked me what I meant to do with him, +and my reply was, 'he should _sit for a fellowship_.' Sherard +will explain the meaning of the sentence, if it is ambiguous. This +answer delighted them not. We have several parties here, and this +evening a large assortment of jockeys, gamblers, boxers, authors, +parsons, and poets, sup with me,--a precious mixture, but they go on +well together; and for me, I am a _spice_ of every thing except a +jockey; by the by, I was dismounted again the other day. + +Thank your brother in my name for his treatise. I have written 214 +pages of a novel,--one poem of 380 lines,[78] to be published (without +my name) in a few weeks, with notes,--560 lines of Bosworth Field, and +250 lines of another poem in rhyme, besides half a dozen smaller +pieces. The poem to be published is a Satire. _Apropos_, I have been +praised to the skies in the Critical Review,[79] and abused greatly in +another publication.[80] So much the better, they tell me, for the +sale of the book: it keeps up controversy, and prevents it being +forgotten. Besides, the first men of all ages have had their share, +nor do the humblest escape;--so I bear it like a philosopher. It is +odd two opposite critiques came out on the same day, and out of five +pages of abuse, my censor only quotes _two lines_ from different +poems, in support of his opinion. Now, the proper way to _cut up_, is +to quote long passages, and make them appear absurd, because simple +allegation is no proof. On the other hand, there are seven pages of +praise, and more than _my modesty_ will allow, said on the subject. +Adieu. + +"P.S. Write, write, write!!!" + + +It was at the beginning of the following year that an acquaintance +commenced between Lord Byron and a gentleman, related to his family by +marriage, Mr. Dallas,--the author of some novels, popular, I believe, +in their day, and also of a sort of Memoir of the noble Poet, +published soon after his death, which, from being founded chiefly on +original correspondence, is the most authentic and trust-worthy of any +that have yet appeared. In the letters addressed by Lord Byron to this +gentleman, among many details, curious in a literary point of view, we +find, what is much more important for our present purpose, some +particulars illustrative of the opinions which he had formed, at this +time of his life, on the two subjects most connected with the early +formation of character--morals and religion. + +It is but rarely that infidelity or scepticism finds an entrance into +youthful minds. That readiness to take the future upon trust, which is +the charm of this period of life, would naturally, indeed, make it the +season of belief as well as of hope. There are also then, still fresh +in the mind, the impressions of early religious culture, which, even +in those who begin soonest to question their faith, give way but +slowly to the encroachments of doubt, and, in the mean time, extend +the benefit of their moral restraint over a portion of life when it is +acknowledged such restraints are most necessary. If exemption from the +checks of religion be, as infidels themselves allow,[81] a state of +freedom from responsibility dangerous at all times, it must be +peculiarly so in that season of temptation, youth, when the passions +are sufficiently disposed to usurp a latitude for themselves, without +taking a licence also from infidelity to enlarge their range. It is, +therefore, fortunate that, for the causes just stated, the inroads of +scepticism and disbelief should be seldom felt in the mind till a +period of life when the character, already formed, is out of the reach +of their disturbing influence,--when, being the result, however +erroneous, of thought and reasoning, they are likely to partake of the +sobriety of the process by which they were acquired, and, being +considered but as matters of pure speculation, to have as little share +in determining the mind towards evil as, too often, the most orthodox +creed has, at the same age, in influencing it towards good. + +While, in this manner, the moral qualities of the unbeliever himself +are guarded from some of the mischiefs that might, at an earlier age, +attend such doctrines, the danger also of his communicating the +infection to others is, for reasons of a similar nature, considerably +diminished. The same vanity or daring which may have prompted the +youthful sceptic's opinions, will lead him likewise, it is probable, +rashly and irreverently to avow them, without regard either to the +effect of his example on those around him, or to the odium which, by +such an avowal, he entails irreparably on himself. But, at a riper +age, these consequences are, in general, more cautiously weighed. The +infidel, if at all considerate of the happiness of others, will +naturally pause before he chases from their hearts a hope of which his +own feels the want so desolately. If regardful only of himself, he +will no less naturally shrink from the promulgation of opinions which, +in no age, have men uttered with impunity. In either case there is a +tolerably good security for his silence;--for, should benevolence not +restrain him from making converts of others, prudence may, at least, +prevent him from making a martyr of himself. + +Unfortunately, Lord Byron was an exception to the usual course of such +lapses. With him, the canker showed itself "in the morn and dew of +youth," when the effect of such "blastments" is, for every reason, +most fatal,--and, in addition to the real misfortune of being an +unbeliever at any age, he exhibited the rare and melancholy spectacle +of an unbelieving schoolboy. The same prematurity of developement +which brought his passions and genius so early into action, enabled +him also to anticipate this worst, dreariest result of reason; and at +the very time of life when a spirit and temperament like his most +required control, those checks, which religious pre-possessions best +supply, were almost wholly wanting. + +We have seen, in those two Addresses to the Deity which I have +selected from among his unpublished poems, and still more strongly in +a passage of the Catalogue of his studies, at what a boyish age the +authority of all systems and sects was avowedly shaken off by his +enquiring spirit. Yet, even in these, there is a fervour of adoration +mingled with his defiance of creeds, through which the piety implanted +in his nature (as it is deeply in all poetic natures) unequivocally +shows itself; and had he then fallen within the reach of such guidance +and example as would have seconded and fostered these natural +dispositions, the licence of opinion into which he afterwards broke +loose might have been averted. His scepticism, if not wholly removed, +might have been softened down into that humble doubt, which, so far +from being inconsistent with a religious spirit, is, perhaps, its best +guard against presumption and uncharitableness; and, at all events, +even if his own views of religion had not been brightened or elevated, +he would have learned not wantonly to cloud or disturb those of +others. But there was no such monitor near him. After his departure +from Southwell, he had not a single friend or relative to whom he +could look up with respect; but was thrown alone on the world, with +his passions and his pride, to revel in the fatal discovery which he +imagined himself to have made of the nothingness of the future, and +the all-paramount claims of the present. By singular ill fortune, too, +the individual who, among all his college friends, had taken the +strongest hold on his admiration and affection, and whose loss he +afterwards lamented with brotherly tenderness, was, to the same extent +as himself, if not more strongly, a sceptic. Of this remarkable young +man, Matthews, who was so early snatched away, and whose career in +after-life, had it been at all answerable to the extraordinary +promise of his youth, must have placed him upon a level with the first +men of his day, a Memoir was, at one time, intended to be published by +his relatives; and to Lord Byron, among others of his college friends, +application, for assistance in the task, was addressed. The letter +which this circumstance drew forth from the noble poet, besides +containing many amusing traits of his friend, affords such an insight +into his own habits of life at this period, that, though infringing +upon the chronological order of his correspondence, I shall insert it +here. + + +LETTER 19. + +TO MR. MURRAY. + +"Ravenna, 9bre 12. 1820. + + +"What you said of the late Charles Skinner Matthews has set me to my +recollections; but I have not been able to turn up any thing which +would do for the purposed Memoir of his brother,--even if he had +previously done enough during his life to sanction the introduction of +anecdotes so merely personal. He was, however, a very extraordinary +man, and would have been a great one. No one ever succeeded in a more +surpassing degree than he did, as far as he went. He was indolent, +too; but whenever he stripped, he overthrew all antagonists. His +conquests will be found registered at Cambridge, particularly his +_Downing_ one, which was hotly and highly contested, and yet easily +_won_. Hobhouse was his most intimate friend, and can tell you more of +him than any man. William Bankes also a great deal. I myself recollect +more of his oddities than of his academical qualities, for we lived +most together at a very idle period of _my_ life. When I went up +to Trinity, in 1805, at the age of seventeen and a half, I was +miserable and untoward to a degree. I was wretched at leaving Harrow, +to which I had become attached during the two last years of my stay +there; wretched at going to Cambridge instead of Oxford (there were no +rooms Vacant at Christ-church); wretched from some private domestic +circumstances of different kinds, and consequently about as unsocial +as a wolf taken from the troop. So that, although I knew Matthews, and +met him often _then_ at Bankes's, (who was my collegiate pastor, +and master, and patron,) and at Rhode's, Milnes's, Price's, Dick's, +Macnamara's, Farrell's, Galley Knight's, and others of that _set_ +of contemporaries, yet I was neither intimate with him nor with any +one else, except my old schoolfellow Edward Long (with whom I used to +pass the day in riding and swimming), and William Bankes, who was +good-naturedly tolerant of my ferocities. + +"It was not till 1807, after I had been upwards of a year away from +Cambridge, to which I had returned again to _reside_ for my +degree, that I became one of Matthews's familiars, by means of H----, +who, after hating me for two years, because I wore a _white hat_, and +a _grey_ coat, and rode a _grey_ horse (as he says himself), took me +into his good graces because I had written some poetry. I had always +lived a good deal, and got drunk occasionally, in their company--but +now we became really friends in a morning. Matthews, however, was not +at this period resident in College. I met _him_ chiefly in +London, and at uncertain periods at Cambridge. H----, in the mean +time, did great things: he founded the Cambridge 'Whig Club' (which he +seems to have forgotten), and the 'Amicable Society,' which was +dissolved in consequence of the members constantly quarrelling, and +made himself very popular with 'us youth,' and no less formidable to +all tutors, professors, and beads of Colleges. William B---- was gone; +while he stayed, he ruled the roast--or rather the _roasting_--and was +father of all mischiefs. + +"Matthews and I, meeting in London, and elsewhere, became great +cronies. He was not good tempered--nor am I--but with a little tact +his temper was manageable, and I thought him so superior a man, that I +was willing to sacrifice something to his humours, which were often, +at the same time, amusing and provoking. What became of his _papers_ +(and he certainly had many), at the time of his death, was never +known. I mention this by the way, fearing to skip it over, and _as_ he +_wrote_ remarkably well, both in Latin and English. We went down to +Newstead together, where I had got a famous cellar, and _Monks'_ +dresses from a masquerade warehouse. We were a company of some seven +or eight, with an occasional neighbour or so for visiters, and used to +sit up late in our friars' dresses, drinking burgundy, claret, +champagne, and what not, out of the _skull-cup_, and all sorts of +glasses, and buffooning all round the house, in our conventual +garments. Matthews always denominated me 'the Abbot,' and never called +me by any other name in his good humours, to the day of his death. +The harmony of these our symposia was somewhat interrupted, a few days +after our assembling, by Matthews's threatening to throw ---- out of a +_window_, in consequence of I know not what commerce of jokes ending +in this epigram. ---- came to me and said, that 'his respect and +regard for me as host would not permit him to call out any of my +guests, and that he should go to town next morning.' He did. It was in +vain that I represented to him that the window was not high, and that +the turf under it was particularly soft. Away he went. + +"Matthews and myself had travelled down from London together, talking +all the way incessantly upon one single topic. When we got to +Loughborough, I know not what chasm had made us diverge for a moment +to some other subject, at which he was indignant. 'Come,' said he, +'don't let us break through--let us go on as we began, to our +journey's end;' and so he continued, and was as entertaining as ever +to the very end. He had previously occupied, during my year's absence +from Cambridge, my rooms in Trinity, with the furniture; and Jones, +the tutor, in his odd way, had said, on putting him in, 'Mr. Matthews, +I recommend to your attention not to damage any of the movables, for +Lord Byron, Sir, is a young man of _tumultuous passions_.' Matthews +was delighted with this; and whenever anybody came to visit him, +begged them to handle the very door with caution; and used to repeat +Jones's admonition in his tone and manner. There was a large mirror in +the room, on which he remarked, 'that he thought his friends were +grown uncommonly assiduous in coming to see _him_, but he soon +discovered that they only came to _see themselves_.' Jones's phrase of +'_tumultuous passions_,' and the whole scene, had put him into such +good humour, that I verily believe that I owed to it a portion of his +good graces. + +"When at Newstead, somebody by accident rubbed against one of his +white silk stockings, one day before dinner; of course the gentleman +apologised. 'Sir,' answered Matthews, 'it may be all very well for +you, who have a great many silk stockings, to dirty other people's; +but to me, who have only this _one pair_, which I have put on in +honour of the Abbot here, no apology can compensate for such +carelessness; besides, the expense of washing.' He had the same sort +of droll sardonic way about every thing. A wild Irishman, named F----, +one evening beginning to say something at a large supper at Cambridge, +Matthews roared out 'Silence!' and then, pointing to F----, cried out, +in the words of the oracle, '_Orson is endowed with reason_.' You may +easily suppose that Orson lost what reason he had acquired, on hearing +this compliment. When H---- published his volume of poems, the +Miscellany (which Matthews _would_ call the '_Miss-sell-any_'), all +that could be drawn from him was, that the preface was 'extremely like +_Walsh_.' H---- thought this at first a compliment; but we never could +make out what it was,[82] for all we know of _Walsh_ is his Ode +to King William, and Pope's epithet of '_knowing Walsh_.' When the +Newstead party broke up for London, H---- and Matthews, who were the +greatest friends possible, agreed, for a whim, to _walk together_ to +town. They quarrelled by the way, and actually walked the latter half +of their journey, occasionally passing and repassing, without +speaking. When Matthews had got to Highgate, he had spent all his +money but three-pence halfpenny, and determined to spend that also in +a pint of beer, which I believe he was drinking before a public-house, +as H---- passed him (still without speaking) for the last time on +their route. They were reconciled in London again. + +"One of Matthews's passions was 'the Fancy;' and he sparred uncommonly +well. But he always got beaten in rows, or combats with the bare fist. +In swimming, too, he swam well; but with _effort_ and _labour_, and +_too high_ out of the water; so that Scrope Davies and myself, of whom +he was therein somewhat emulous, always told him that he would be +drowned if ever he came to a difficult pass in the water. He was so; +but surely Scrope and myself would have been most heartily glad that + + "'the Dean had lived, + And our prediction proved a lie.' + +"His head was uncommonly handsome, very like what _Pope_'s was in +his youth. + +"His voice, and laugh, and features, are strongly resembled by his +brother Henry's, if Henry be _he_ of _King's College_. His passion for +boxing was so great, that he actually wanted me to match him with +Dogherty (whom I had backed and made the match for against Tom +Belcher), and I saw them spar together at my own lodgings with the +gloves on. As he was bent upon it, I would have backed Dogherty to +please him, but the match went off. It was of course to have been a +private fight, in a private room. + +"On one occasion, being too late to go home and dress, he was equipped +by a friend (Mr. Baillie, I believe,) in a magnificently fashionable +and somewhat exaggerated shirt and neckcloth. He proceeded to the +Opera, and took his station in Fops' Alley. During the interval +between the opera and the ballet, an acquaintance took his station by +him and saluted him: 'Come round,' said Matthews, 'come round.'--'Why +should I come round?' said the other; 'you have only to turn your +head--I am close by you.'--'That is exactly what I cannot do,' said +Matthews; 'don't you see the state I am in?' pointing to his buckram +shirt collar and inflexible cravat,--and there he stood with his head +always in the same perpendicular position during the whole spectacle. + +"One evening, after dining together, as we were going to the Opera, I +happened to have a spare Opera ticket (as subscriber to a box), and +presented it to Matthews. 'Now, sir,' said he to Hobhouse afterwards, +'this I call _courteous_ in the Abbot--another man would never have +thought that I might do better with half a guinea than throw it to a +door-keeper;--but here is a man not only asks me to dinner, but gives +me a ticket for the theatre.' These were only his oddities, for no +man was more liberal, or more honourable in all his doings and +dealings, than Matthews. He gave Hobhouse and me, before we set out +for Constantinople, a most splendid entertainment, to which we did +ample justice. One of his fancies was dining at all sorts of +out-of-the-way places. Somebody popped upon him in I know not what +coffee-house in the Strand--and what do you think was the attraction? +Why, that he paid a shilling (I think) to _dine with his hat on_. This +he called his '_hat_ house,' and used to boast of the comfort of being +covered at meal-times. + +"When Sir Henry Smith was expelled from Cambridge for a row with a +tradesman named 'Hiron,' Matthews solaced himself with shouting under +Hiron's windows every evening, + + "'Ah me! what perils do environ + The man who meddles with _hot Hiron_.' + +"He was also of that band of profane scoffers who, under the auspices +of ----, used to rouse Lort Mansel (late Bishop of Bristol) from his +slumbers in the lodge of Trinity; and when he appeared at the window +foaming with wrath, and crying out, 'I know you, gentlemen, I know +you!' were wont to reply, 'We beseech thee to hear us, good +_Lort_'--'Good _Lort_ deliver us!' (Lort was his Christian name.) As +he was very free in his speculations upon all kinds of subjects, +although by no means either dissolute or intemperate in his conduct, +and as I was no less independent, our conversation and correspondence +used to alarm our friend Hobhouse to a considerable degree. + +"You must be almost tired of my packets, which will have cost a mint +of postage. + +"Salute Gifford and all my friends. + +"Yours, &c." + + +As already, before his acquaintance with Mr. Matthews commenced, Lord +Byron had begun to bewilder himself in the mazes of scepticism, it +would be unjust to impute to this gentleman any further share in the +formation of his noble friend's opinions than what arose from the +natural influence of example and sympathy;--an influence which, as it +was felt perhaps equally on both sides, rendered the contagion of +their doctrines, in a great measure, reciprocal. In addition, too, to +this community of sentiment on such subjects, they were both, in no +ordinary degree, possessed by that dangerous spirit of ridicule, whose +impulses even the pious cannot always restrain, and which draws the +mind on, by a sort of irresistible fascination, to disport itself most +wantonly on the brink of all that is most solemn and awful. It is not +wonderful, therefore, that, in such society, the opinions of the noble +poet should have been, at least, accelerated in that direction to +which their bias already leaned; and though he cannot be said to have +become thus confirmed in these doctrines,--as neither now, nor at any +time of his life, was he a confirmed unbeliever,--he had undoubtedly +learned to feel less uneasy under his scepticism, and even to mingle +somewhat of boast and of levity with his expression of it. At the very +first onset of his correspondence with Mr. Dallas, we find him +proclaiming his sentiments on all such subjects with a flippancy and +confidence far different from the tone in which he had first ventured +on his doubts,--from that fervid sadness, as of a heart loth to part +with its illusions, which breathes through every line of those +prayers, that, but a year before, his pen had traced. + +Here again, however, we should recollect, there must be a considerable +share of allowance for his usual tendency to make the most and the +worst of his own obliquities. There occurs, indeed, in his first +letter to Mr. Dallas, an instance of this strange ambition,--the very +reverse, it must be allowed, of hypocrisy,--which led him to court, +rather than avoid, the reputation of profligacy, and to put, at all +times, the worst face on his own character and conduct. His new +correspondent having, in introducing himself to his acquaintance, +passed some compliments on the tone of moral and charitable feeling +which breathed through one of his poems, had added, that it "brought +to his mind another noble author, who was not only a fine poet, +orator, and historian, but one of the closest reasoners we have on the +truth of that religion of which forgiveness is a prominent principle, +the great and good Lord Lyttleton, whose fame will never die. His +son," adds Mr. Dallas, "to whom he had transmitted genius, but not +virtue, sparkled for a moment and went out like a star,--and with him +the title became extinct." To this Lord Byron answers in the following +letter:-- + + +LETTER 20. + +TO MR. DALLAS. + +"Dorant's Hotel, Albemarle Street, Jan. 20. 1808. + + +"Sir, + +"Your letter was not received till this morning, I presume from being +addressed to me in Notts., where I have not resided since last June, +and as the date is the 6th, you will excuse the delay of my answer. + +"If the little volume you mention has given pleasure to the author of +_Percival_ and _Aubrey_, I am sufficiently repaid by his praise. +Though our periodical censors have been uncommonly lenient, I confess +a tribute from a man of acknowledged genius is still more flattering. +But I am afraid I should forfeit all claim to candour, if I did not +decline such praise as I do not deserve; and this is, I am sorry to +say, the case in the present instance. + +"My compositions speak for themselves, and must stand or fall by their +own worth or demerit: _thus far_ I feel highly gratified by your +favourable opinion. But my pretensions to virtue are unluckily so few, +that though I should be happy to merit, I cannot accept, your applause +in that respect. One passage in your letter struck me forcibly: you +mention the two Lords Lyttleton in a manner they respectively deserve, +and will be surprised to hear the person who is now addressing you has +been frequently compared to the _latter_. I know I am injuring myself +in your esteem by this avowal, but the circumstance was so remarkable +from your observation, that I cannot help relating the fact. The +events of my short life have been of so singular a nature, that, +though the pride commonly called honour has, and I trust ever will, +prevent me from disgracing my name by a mean or cowardly action, I +have been already held up as the votary of licentiousness, and the +disciple of infidelity. How far justice may have dictated this +accusation, I cannot pretend to say; but, like the _gentleman_ to whom +my religious friends, in the warmth of their charity, have already +devoted me, I am made worse than I really am. However, to quit myself +(the worst theme I could pitch upon), and return to my poems, I cannot +sufficiently express my thanks, and I hope I shall some day have an +opportunity of rendering them in person. A second edition is now in +the press, with some additions and considerable omissions; you will +allow me to present you with a copy. The Critical, Monthly, and +Anti-Jacobin Reviews have been very indulgent; but the Eclectic has +pronounced a furious Philippic, not against the _book_ but the +_author_, where you will find all I have mentioned asserted by a +reverend divine who wrote the critique. + +Your name and connection with our family have been long known to me, +and I hope your person will be not less so: you will find me an +excellent compound of a 'Brainless' and a 'Stanhope.'[83] I am afraid +you will hardly be able to read this, for my hand is almost as bad as +my character; but you will find me, as legibly as possible, + +"Your obliged and obedient servant, + +"BYRON." + + +There is here, evidently, a degree of pride in being thought to +resemble the wicked Lord Lyttleton; and, lest his known irregularities +should not bear him out in the pretension, he refers mysteriously, as +was his habit, to certain untold events of his life, to warrant the +parallel.[84] Mr. Dallas, who seems to have been but little prepared +for such a reception of his compliments, escapes out of the difficulty +by transferring to the young lord's "candour" the praise he had so +thanklessly bestowed on his morals in general; adding, that from the +design Lord Byron had expressed in his preface of resigning the +service of the Muses for a different vocation, he had "conceived him +bent on pursuits which lead to the character of a legislator and +statesman;--had imagined him at one of the universities, training +himself to habits of reasoning and eloquence, and storing up a large +fund of history and law." It is in reply to this letter that the +exposition of the noble poet's opinions, to which I have above +alluded, is contained. + + +LETTER 21. + +TO MR. DALLAS. + +"Dorant's, January 21. 1808. + + +"Sir, + +"Whenever leisure and inclination permit me the pleasure of a visit, I +shall feel truly gratified in a personal acquaintance with one whose +mind has been long known to me in his writings. + +"You are so far correct in your conjecture, that I am a member of the +University of Cambridge, where I shall take my degree of A. M. this +term; but were reasoning, eloquence, or virtue, the objects of my +search, Granta is not their metropolis, nor is the place of her +situation an 'El Dorado,' far less an Utopia. The intellects of her +children are as stagnant as her Cam, and their pursuits limited to the +church--not of Christ, but of the nearest benefice. + +"As to my reading, I believe I may aver, without hyperbole, it has +been tolerably extensive in the historical; so that few nations exist, +or have existed, with whose records I am not in some degree +acquainted, from Herodotus down to Gibbon. Of the classics, I know +about as much as most schoolboys after a discipline of thirteen years; +of the law of the land as much as enables me to keep 'within the +statute'--to use the poacher's vocabulary. I did study the 'Spirit of +Laws' and the Law of Nations; but when I saw the latter violated every +month, I gave up my attempts at so useless an accomplishment;--of +geography, I have seen more land on maps than I should wish to +traverse on foot;--of mathematics, enough to give me the headache +without clearing the part affected;--of philosophy, astronomy, and +metaphysics, more than I can comprehend;[85] and of common sense so +little, that I mean to leave a Byronian prize at each of our 'Almæ +Matres' for the first discovery,--though I rather fear that of the +longitude will precede it. + +"I once thought myself a philosopher, and talked nonsense with great +decorum: I defied pain, and preached up equanimity. For some time this +did very well, for no one was in _pain_ for me but my friends, and none +lost their patience but my hearers. At last, a fall from my horse +convinced me bodily suffering was an evil; and the worst of an argument +overset my maxims and my temper at the same moment: so I quitted Zeno +for Aristippus, and conceive that pleasure constitutes the {~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER CHI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}. I +hold virtue, in general, or the virtues severally, to be only in the +disposition, each a _feeling_, not a principle.[86] I believe truth the +prime attribute of the Deity, and death an eternal sleep, at least of +the body. You have here a brief compendium of the sentiments of the +_wicked_ George Lord Byron; and, till I get a new suit, you will +perceive I am badly clothed. + +I remain," &c. + + +Though such was, doubtless, the general cast of his opinions at this +time, it must be recollected, before we attach any particular +importance to the details of his creed, that, in addition to the +temptation, never easily resisted by him, of displaying his wit at the +expense of his character, he was here addressing a person who, +though, no doubt, well meaning, was evidently one of those officious, +self-satisfied advisers, whom it was the delight of Lord Byron at all +times to astonish and _mystify_. The tricks which, when a boy, he +played upon the Nottingham quack, Lavender, were but the first of a +long series with which, through life, he amused himself, at the +expense of all the numerous quacks whom his celebrity and sociability +drew around him. + +The terms in which he speaks of the university in this letter agree in +spirit with many passages both in the "Hours of Idleness," and his +early Satire, and prove that, while Harrow was remembered by him with +more affection, perhaps, than respect, Cambridge had not been able to +inspire him with either. This feeling of distaste to his "nursing +mother" he entertained in common with some of the most illustrious +names of English literature. So great was Milton's hatred to +Cambridge, that he had even conceived, says Warton, a dislike to the +face of the country,--to the fields in its neighbourhood. The poet +Gray thus speaks of the same university:--"Surely, it was of this +place, now Cambridge, but formerly known by the name of Babylon, that +the prophet spoke when he said, 'The wild beasts of the deserts shall +dwell there, and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures, and +owls shall build there, and satyrs shall dance there,'" &c. &c. The +bitter recollections which Gibbon retained of Oxford, his own pen has +recorded; and the cool contempt by which Locke avenged himself on the +bigotry of the same seat of learning is even still more +memorable.[87] + +In poets, such distasteful recollections of their collegiate life may +well be thought to have their origin in that antipathy to the trammels +of discipline, which is not unusually observable among the +characteristics of genius, and which might be regarded, indeed, as a +sort of instinct, implanted in it for its own preservation, if there +be any truth in the opinion that a course of learned education is +hurtful to the freshness and elasticity of the imaginative faculty. A +right reverend writer,[88] but little to be suspected of any desire to +depreciate academical studies, not only puts the question, "Whether +the usual forms of learning be not rather injurious to the true poet, +than really assisting to him?" but appears strongly disposed to answer +it in the affirmative,--giving, as an instance, in favour of this +conclusion, the classic Addison, who, "as appears," he says, "from +some original efforts in the sublime, allegorical way, had no want of +natural talents for the greater poetry,--which yet were so restrained +and disabled by his constant and superstitious study of the old +classics, that he was, in fact, but a very ordinary poet." + +It was, no doubt, under some such impression of the malign influence +of a collegiate atmosphere upon genius, that Milton, in speaking of +Cambridge, gave vent to the exclamation, that it was "a place quite +incompatible with the votaries of Phoebus," and that Lord Byron, +versifying a thought of his own, in the letter to Mr. Dallas just +given, declares, + + "Her Helicon is duller than her Cam." + +The poet Dryden, too, who, like Milton, had incurred some mark of +disgrace at Cambridge, seems to have entertained but little more +veneration for his Alma Mater; and the verses in which he has praised +Oxford at the expense of his own university[89] were, it is probable, +dictated much less by admiration of the one than by a desire to spite +and depreciate the other. + +Nor is it genius only that thus rebels against the discipline of the +schools. Even the tamer quality of Taste, which it is the professed +object of classical studies to cultivate, is sometimes found to turn +restive under the pedantic _manège_ to which it is subjected. It was +not till released from the duty of reading Virgil as a task, that Gray +could feel himself capable of enjoying the beauties of that poet; and +Lord Byron was, to the last, unable to vanquish a similar +prepossession, with which the same sort of school association had +inoculated him, against Horace. + + --"Though Time hath taught + My mind to meditate what then it learn'd, + Yet such the fix'd inveteracy wrought + By the impatience of my early thought, + That, with the freshness wearing out before + My mind could relish what it might have sought, + If free to choose, I cannot now restore + Its health; but what it then detested, still abhor. + + "Then farewell, Horace; whom I hated so, + Not for thy faults, but mine; it is a curse + To understand, not feel thy lyric flow, + To comprehend, but never love thy verse." + + CHILDE HAROLD, CANTO IV + +To the list of eminent poets, who have thus left on record their +dislike and disapproval of the English system of education, are to be +added, the distinguished names of Cowley, Addison, and Cowper; while, +among the cases which, like those of Milton and Dryden, practically +demonstrate the sort of inverse ratio that may exist between college +honours and genius, must not be forgotten those of Swift, Goldsmith, +and Churchill, to every one of whom some mark of incompetency was +affixed by the respective universities, whose annals they adorn. When, +in addition, too, to this rather ample catalogue of poets, whom the +universities have sent forth either disloyal or dishonoured, we come +to number over such names as those of Shakspeare and of Pope, followed +by Gay, Thomson, Burns, Chatterton, &c., all of whom have attained +their respective stations of eminence, without instruction or sanction +from any college whatever, it forms altogether, it must be owned, a +large portion of the poetical world, that must be subducted from the +sphere of that nursing influence which the universities are supposed +to exercise over the genius of the country. + +The following letters, written at this time, contain some particulars +which will not be found uninteresting. + + +LETTER 22. + +TO MR. HENRY DRURY. + +"Dorant's Hotel, Jan. 13. 1808. + + +"My dear Sir, + +"Though the stupidity of my servants, or the porter of the house, in +not showing you up stairs (where I should have joined you directly), +prevented me the pleasure of seeing you yesterday, I hoped to meet you +at some public place in the evening. However, my stars decreed +otherwise, as they generally do, when I have any favour to request of +them. I think you would have been surprised at my figure, for, since +our last meeting, I am reduced four stone in weight. I then weighed +fourteen stone seven pound, and now only _ten stone and a half_. I +have disposed of my _superfluities_ by means of hard exercise and +abstinence. + +"Should your Harrow engagements allow you to visit town between this +and February, I shall be most happy to see you in Albemarle Street. If +I am not so fortunate, I shall endeavour to join you for an afternoon +at Harrow, though, I fear, your cellar will by no means contribute to +my cure. As for my worthy preceptor, Dr. B., our encounter would by no +means prevent the _mutual endearments_ he and I were wont to lavish on +each other. We have only spoken once since my departure from Harrow in +1805, and then he politely told Tatersall I was not a proper associate +for his pupils. This was long before my strictures in verse; but, in +plain _prose_, had I been some years older, I should have held my +tongue on his perfections. But, being laid on my back, when that +schoolboy thing was written--or rather dictated--expecting to rise no +more, my physician having taken his sixteenth fee, and I his +prescription, I could not quit this earth without leaving a memento of +my constant attachment to Butler in gratitude for his manifold good +offices. + +"I meant to have been down in July; but thinking my appearance, +immediately after the publication, would be construed into an insult, +I directed my steps elsewhere. Besides, I heard that some of the boys +had got hold of my Libellus, contrary to my wishes certainly, for I +never transmitted a single copy till October, when I gave one to a +boy, since gone, after repeated importunities. You will, I trust, +pardon this egotism. As you had touched on the subject I thought some +explanation necessary. Defence I shall not attempt, 'Hic murus aheneus +esto, nil conscire sibi'--and 'so on' (as Lord Baltimore said on his +trial for a rape)--I have been so long at Trinity as to forget the +conclusion of the line; but though I cannot finish my quotation, I +will my letter, and entreat you to believe me, + +gratefully and affectionately, &c. + +"P.S. I will not lay a tax on your time by requiring an answer, lest +you say, as Butler said to Tatersall (when I had written his reverence +an impudent epistle on the expression before mentioned), viz. 'that I +wanted to draw him into a correspondence.'" + + +LETTER 23. + +TO MR. HARNESS. + +"Dorant's Hotel, Albemarle Street, Feb. 11. 1808. + + +"My dear Harness, + +"As I had no opportunity of returning my verbal thanks, I trust you +will accept my written acknowledgments for the compliment you were +pleased to pay some production of my unlucky muse last November,--I am +induced to do this not less from the pleasure I feel in the praise of +an old schoolfellow, than from justice to you, for I had heard the +story with some slight variations. Indeed, when we met this morning, +Wingfield had not undeceived me, but he will tell you that I displayed +no resentment in mentioning what I had heard, though I was not sorry +to discover the truth. Perhaps you hardly recollect, some years ago, a +short, though, for the time, a warm friendship between us? Why it was +not of longer duration, I know not. I have still a gift of yours in my +possession, that must always prevent me from forgetting it. I also +remember being favoured with the perusal of many of your compositions, +and several other circumstances very pleasant in their day, which I +will not force upon your memory, but entreat you to believe me, with +much regret at their short continuance, and a hope they are not +irrevocable, + +yours very sincerely, &c. + +"BYRON." + + +I have already mentioned the early friendship that subsisted between +this gentleman and Lord Byron, as well as the coolness that succeeded +it. The following extract from a letter with which Mr. Harness +favoured me, in placing at my disposal those of his noble +correspondent, will explain the circumstances that led, at this time, +to their reconcilement; and the candid tribute, in the concluding +sentences, to Lord Byron, will be found not less honourable to the +reverend writer himself than to his friend. + +"A coolness afterwards arose, which Byron alludes to in the first of +the accompanying letters, and we never spoke during the last year of +his remaining at school, nor till after the publication of his 'Hours +of Idleness.' Lord Byron was then at Cambridge; I, in one of the upper +forms, at Harrow. In an English theme I happened to quote from the +volume, and mention it with praise. It was reported to Byron that I +had, on the contrary, spoken slightingly of his work and of himself, +for the purpose of conciliating the favour of Dr. Butler, the master, +who had been severely satirised in one of the poems. Wingfield, who +was afterwards Lord Powerscourt, a mutual friend of Byron and myself, +disabused him of the error into which he had been led, and this was +the occasion of the first letter of the collection. Our conversation +was renewed and continued from that time till his going abroad. +Whatever faults Lord Byron might have had towards others, to myself he +was always uniformly affectionate. I have many slights and neglects +towards him to reproach myself with; but I cannot call to mind a +single instance of caprice or unkindness, in the whole course of our +intimacy, to allege against him." + +In the spring of this year (1808) appeared the memorable critique +upon the "Hours of Idleness" in the Edinburgh Review. That he had some +notice of what was to be expected from that quarter, appears by the +following letter to his friend, Mr. Becher. + + +LETTER 24. + +TO MR. BECHER. + +"Dorant's Hotel, Feb. 26. 1803. + + +"My dear Becher, + +"Now for Apollo. I am happy that you still retain your predilection, +and that the public allow me some share of praise. I am of so much +importance, that a most violent attack is preparing for me in the next +number of the Edinburgh Review. This I had from the authority of a +friend who has seen the proof and manuscript of the critique. You know +the system of the Edinburgh gentlemen is universal attack. They praise +none; and neither the public nor the author expects praise from them. +It is, however, something to be noticed, as they profess to pass +judgment only on works requiring the public attention. You will see +this when it comes out;--it is, I understand, of the most unmerciful +description; but I am aware of it, and hope you will not be hurt by +its severity. + +"Tell Mrs. Byron not to be out of humour with them, and to prepare her +mind for the greatest hostility on their part. It will do no injury +whatever, and I trust her mind will not be ruffled. They defeat their +object by indiscriminate abuse, and they never praise except the +partisans of Lord Holland and Co. It is nothing to be abused when +Southey, Moore, Lauderdale, Strangford, and Payne Knight, share the +same fate. + +"I am sorry--but 'Childish Recollections' must be suppressed during +this edition. I have altered, at your suggestion, the _obnoxious +allusions_ in the sixth stanza of my last ode. + +"And now, my dear Becher, I must return my best acknowledgments for +the interest you have taken in me and my poetical bantlings, and I +shall ever be proud to show how much I esteem the _advice_ and the +_adviser_. + +Believe me, most truly," &c. + + +Soon after this letter appeared the dreaded article,--an article +which, if not "witty in itself," deserved eminently the credit of +causing "wit in others." Seldom, indeed, has it fallen to the lot of +the justest criticism to attain celebrity such as injustice has +procured for this; nor as long as the short, but glorious race of +Byron's genius is remembered, can the critic, whoever he may be, that +so unintentionally ministered to its first start, be forgotten. + +It is but justice, however, to remark,--without at the same time +intending any excuse for the contemptuous tone of criticism assumed by +the reviewer,--that the early verses of Lord Byron, however +distinguished by tenderness and grace, give but little promise of +those dazzling miracles of poesy with which he afterwards astonished +and enchanted the world; and that, if his youthful verses now have a +peculiar charm in our eyes, it is because we read them, as it were, by +the light of his subsequent glory. + +There is, indeed, one point of view, in which these productions are +deeply and intrinsically interesting. As faithful reflections of his +character at that period of life, they enable us to judge of what he +was in his yet unadulterated state,--before disappointment had begun +to embitter his ardent spirit, or the stirring up of the energies of +his nature had brought into activity also its defects. Tracing him +thus through these natural effusions of his young genius, we find him +pictured exactly such, in all the features of his character, as every +anecdote of his boyish days proves him really to have been, proud, +daring, and passionate,--resentful of slight or injustice, but still +more so in the cause of others than in his own; and yet, with all this +vehemence, docile and placable, at the least touch of a hand +authorised by love to guide him. The affectionateness, indeed, of his +disposition, traceable as it is through every page of this volume, is +yet but faintly done justice to, even by himself;--his whole youth +being, from earliest childhood, a series of the most passionate +attachments,--of those overflowings of the soul, both in friendship +and love, which are still more rarely responded to than felt, and +which, when checked or sent back upon the heart, are sure to turn into +bitterness. We have seen also, in some of his early unpublished poems, +how apparent, even through the doubts that already clouded them, are +those feelings of piety which a soul like his could not but possess, +and which, when afterwards diverted out of their legitimate channel, +found a vent in the poetical worship of nature, and in that shadowy +substitute for religion which superstition offers. When, in addition, +too, to these traits of early character, we find scattered through +his youthful poems such anticipations of the glory that awaited +him,--such, alternately, proud and saddened glimpses into the future, +as if he already felt the elements of something great within him, but +doubted whether his destiny would allow him to bring it forth,--it is +not wonderful that, with the whole of his career present to our +imaginations, we should see a lustre round these first puerile +attempts not really their own, but shed back upon them from the bright +eminence which he afterwards attained; and that, in our indignation +against the fastidious blindness of the critic, we should forget that +he had not then the aid of this reflected charm, with which the +subsequent achievements of the poet now irradiate all that bears his +name. + +The effect this criticism produced upon him can only be conceived by +those who, besides having an adequate notion of what most poets would +feel under such an attack, can understand all that there was in the +temper and disposition of Lord Byron to make him feel it with tenfold +more acuteness than others. We have seen with what feverish anxiety he +awaited the verdicts of all the minor Reviews, and, from his +sensibility to the praise of the meanest of these censors, may guess +how painfully he must have writhed under the sneers of the highest. A +friend, who found him in the first moments of excitement after reading +the article, enquired anxiously whether he had just received a +challenge?--not knowing how else to account for the fierce defiance of +his looks. It would, indeed, be difficult for sculptor or painter to +imagine a subject of more fearful beauty than the fine countenance of +the young poet must have exhibited in the collected energy of that +crisis. His pride had been wounded to the quick, and his ambition +humbled;--but this feeling of humiliation lasted but for a moment. The +very re-action of his spirit against aggression roused him to a full +consciousness of his own powers;[90] and the pain and the shame of the +injury were forgotten in the proud certainty of revenge. + +Among the less sentimental effects of this review upon his mind, he +used to mention that, on the day he read it, he drank three bottles of +claret to his own share after dinner;--that nothing, however, relieved +him till he had given vent to his indignation in rhyme, and that +"after the first twenty lines, he felt himself considerably better." +His chief care, indeed, afterwards, was amiably devoted,--as we have +seen it was, in like manner, _before_ the criticism,--to allaying, +as far as he could, the sensitiveness of his mother; who, not having +the same motive or power to summon up a spirit of resistance, was, of +course, more helplessly alive to this attack upon his fame, and felt +it far more than, after the first burst of indignation, he did +himself. But the state of his mind upon the subject will be best +understood from the following letter. + + +LETTER 25. + +TO MR. BECKER. + +"Dorant's, March 28. 1808. + + +"I have lately received a copy of the new edition from Ridge, and it +is high time for me to return my best thanks to you for the trouble +you have taken in the superintendence. This I do most sincerely, and +only regret that Ridge has not seconded you as I could wish,--at +least, in the bindings, paper, &c., of the copy he sent to me. Perhaps +those for the public may be more respectable in such articles. + +You have seen the Edinburgh Review, of course. I regret that Mrs. +Byron is so much annoyed. For my own part, these 'paper bullets of the +brain' have only taught me to stand fire; and, as I have been lucky +enough upon the whole, my repose and appetite are not discomposed. +Pratt, the gleaner, author, poet, &c. &c., addressed a long rhyming +epistle to me on the subject, by way of consolation; but it was not +well done, so I do not send it, though the name of the man might make +it go down. The E. R^s. have not performed their task well; at least +the literati tell me this; and I think _I_ could write a more +sarcastic critique on _myself_ than any yet published. For instance, +instead of the remark,--ill-natured enough, but not keen,--about +Macpherson, I (quoad reviewers) could have said, 'Alas, this imitation +only proves the assertion of Dr. Johnson, that many men, women, and +_children_, could write such poetry as Ossian's.' + +"I am _thin_ and in exercise. During the spring or summer I trust we +shall meet. I hear Lord Ruthyn leaves Newstead in April. As soon as he +quits it for ever, I wish much you would take a ride over, survey the +mansion, and give me your candid opinion on the most advisable mode of +proceeding with regard to the _house_. _Entre nous_, I am cursedly +dipped; my debts, _every_ thing inclusive, will be nine or ten +thousand before I am twenty-one. But I have reason to think my +property will turn out better than general expectation may conceive. +Of Newstead I have little hope or care; but Hanson, my agent, +intimated my Lancashire property was worth three Newsteads. I believe +we have it hollow; though the defendants are protracting the +surrender, if possible, till after my majority, for the purpose of +forming some arrangement with me, thinking I shall probably prefer a +sum in hand to a reversion. Newstead I may _sell_;--perhaps I will +not,--though of that more anon. I will come down in May or June. + +"Yours most truly," &c. + + +The sort of life which he led at this period between the dissipations +of London and of Cambridge, without a home to welcome, or even the +roof of a single relative to receive him, was but little calculated to +render him satisfied either with himself or the world. Unrestricted as +he was by deference to any will but his own,[91] even the pleasures +to which he was naturally most inclined prematurely palled upon him, +for want of those best zests of all enjoyment, rarity and restraint. I +have already quoted, from one of his note-books, a passage descriptive +of his feelings on first going to Cambridge, in which he says that +"one of the deadliest and heaviest feelings of his life was to feel +that he was no longer a boy."--"From that moment (he adds) I began to +grow old in my own esteem, and in my esteem age is not estimable. I +took my gradations in the vices with great promptitude, but they were +not to my taste; for my early passions, though violent in the extreme, +were concentrated, and hated division or spreading abroad. I could +have left or lost the whole world with, or for, that which I loved; +but, though my temperament was naturally burning, I could not share in +the common-place libertinism of the place and time without disgust. +And yet this very disgust, and my heart thrown back upon itself, threw +me into excesses perhaps more fatal than those from which I shrunk, as +fixing upon one (at a time) the passions which spread amongst many +would have hurt only myself." + +Though, from the causes here alleged, the irregularities he, at this +period, gave way to were of a nature far less gross and miscellaneous +than those, perhaps, of any of his associates, yet, partly from the +vehemence which this concentration caused, and, still more, from that +strange pride in his own errors, which led him always to bring them +forth in the most conspicuous light, it so happened that one single +indiscretion, in his hands, was made to _go farther_, if I may so +express it, than a thousand in those of others. An instance of this, +that occurred about the time of which we are speaking, was, I am +inclined to think, the sole foundation of the mysterious allusions +just cited. An amour (if it may be dignified with such a name) of that +sort of casual description which less attachable natures would have +forgotten, and more prudent ones at least concealed, was by him +converted, at this period, and with circumstances of most unnecessary +display, into a connection of some continuance,--the object of it not +only becoming domesticated with him in lodgings at Brompton, but +accompanied him afterwards, disguised in boy's clothes, to Brighton. +He introduced this young person, who used to ride about with him in +her male attire, as his younger brother; and the late Lady P----, who +was at Brighton at the time, and had some suspicion of the real nature +of the relationship, said one day to the poet's companion, "What a +pretty horse that is you are riding!"--"Yes," answered the pretended +cavalier, "it was _gave_ me by my brother!" + +Beattie tells us, of his ideal poet,-- + + "The exploits of strength, dexterity, or speed, + To him nor vanity nor joy could bring." + +But far different were the tastes of the real poet, Byron; and among +the least romantic, perhaps, of the exercises in which he took delight +was that of boxing or sparring. This taste it was that, at a very +early period, brought him acquainted with the distinguished professor +of that art, Mr. Jackson, for whom he continued through life to +entertain the sincerest regard, one of his latest works containing a +most cordial tribute not only to the professional, but social +qualities of this sole prop and ornament of pugilism.[92] During his +stay at Brighton this year, Jackson was one of his most constant +visiters,--the expense of the professor's chaise thither and back +being always defrayed by his noble patron. He also honoured with his +notice, at this time, D'Egville, the ballet-master, and Grimaldi; to +the latter of whom he sent, as I understand, on one of his benefit +nights, a present of five guineas. + +Having been favoured by Mr. Jackson with copies of the few notes and +letters, which he has preserved out of the many addressed to him by +Lord Byron, I shall here lay before the reader one or two, which bear +the date of the present year, and which, though referring to matters +of no interest in themselves, give, perhaps, a better notion of the +actual life and habits of the young poet, at this time, than could be +afforded by the most elaborate and, in other respects, important +correspondence. They will show, at least, how very little akin to +romance were the early pursuits and associates of the author of Childe +Harold, and, combined with what we know of the still less romantic +youth of Shakspeare, prove how unhurt the vital principle of genius +can preserve itself even in atmospheres apparently the most ungenial +and noxious to it. + + +LETTER 26. + +TO MR. JACKSON. + +"N.A., Notts. September 18. 1808. + + +"Dear Jack, + +"I wish you would inform me what has been done by Jekyll, at No. 40. +Sloane Square, concerning the pony I returned as unsound. + +"I have also to request you will call on Louch at Brompton, and +enquire what the devil he meant by sending such an insolent letter to +me at Brighton; and at the same time tell him I by no means can comply +with the charge he has made for things pretended to be damaged. + +"Ambrose behaved most scandalously about the pony. You may tell Jekyll +if he does not refund the money, I shall put the affair into my +lawyer's hands. Five and twenty guineas is a sound price for a pony, +and by ----, if it costs me five hundred pounds, I will make an +example of Mr. Jekyll, and that immediately, unless the cash is +returned. + +"Believe me, dear Jack," &c. + + +LETTER 27. + +TO MR. JACKSON. + +"N.A., Notts. October 4. 1808. + + +"You will make as good a bargain as possible with this Master Jekyll, +if he is not a gentleman. If he is a _gentleman_, inform me, for I +shall take very different steps. If he is not, you must get what you +can of the money, for I have too much business on hand at present to +commence an action. Besides, Ambrose is the man who ought to +refund,--but I have done with him. You can settle with L. out of the +balance, and dispose of the bidets, &c. as you best can. + +"I should be very glad to see you here; but the house is filled with +workmen, and undergoing a thorough repair. I hope, however, to be more +fortunate before many months have elapsed. + +"If you see Bold Webster, remember me to him, and tell him I have to +regret Sydney, who has perished, I fear, in my rabbit warren, for we +have seen nothing of him for the last fortnight. + +"Adieu.--Believe me," &c. + + +LETTER 28. + +TO MR. JACKSON. + +"N.A., Notts. December 12. 1808. + + +"My dear Jack, + +"You will get the greyhound from the owner at any price, and as many +more of the same breed (male or female) as you can collect. + +"Tell D'Egville his dress shall be returned--I am obliged to him for +the pattern. I am sorry you should have so much trouble, but I was not +aware of the difficulty of procuring the animals in question. I shall +have finished part of my mansion in a few weeks, and, if you can pay +me a visit at Christmas, I shall be very glad to see you. + +"Believe me," &c. + + +The dress alluded to here was, no doubt, wanted for a private play, +which he, at this time, got up at Newstead, and of which there are +some further particulars in the annexed letter to Mr. Becher. + + +LETTER 29. + +TO MR. BECHER. + +"Newstead Abbey, Notts. Sept. 14. 1808. + + +"My dear Becher, + +"I am much obliged to you for your enquiries, and shall profit by them +accordingly. I am going to get up a play here; the hall will +constitute a most admirable theatre. I have settled the dram. pers., +and can do without ladies, as I have some young friends who will make +tolerable substitutes for females, and we only want three male +characters, beside Mr. Hobhouse and myself, for the play we have fixed +on, which will be the Revenge. Pray direct Nicholson the carpenter to +come over to me immediately, and inform me what day you will dine and +pass the night here. + +"Believe me," &c. + + +It was in the autumn of this year, as the letters I have just given +indicate, that he, for the first time, took up his residence at +Newstead Abbey. Having received the place in a most ruinous condition +from the hands of its late occupant, Lord Grey de Ruthyn, he proceeded +immediately to repair and fit up some of the apartments, so as to +render them--more with a view to his mother's accommodation than his +own--comfortably habitable. In one of his letters to Mrs. Byron, +published by Mr. Dallas, he thus explains his views and intentions on +this subject. + + +LETTER 30. + +TO THE HONOURABLE[93] MRS. BYRON. + +"Newstead Abbey, Notts. October 7. 1808. + + +"Dear Madam, + +"I have no beds for the H----s or any body else at present. The H----s +sleep at Mansfield. I do not know, that I resemble Jean Jacques +Rousseau. I have no ambition to be like so illustrious a madman--but +this I know, that I shall live in my own manner, and as much alone as +possible. When my rooms are ready I shall be glad to see you: at +present it would be improper and uncomfortable to both parties. You +can hardly object to my rendering my mansion habitable, +notwithstanding my departure for Persia in March (or May at farthest), +since _you_ will be _tenant_ till my return; and in case of any +accident (for I have already arranged my will to be drawn up the +moment I am twenty-one), I have taken care you shall have the house +and manor for _life_, besides a sufficient income. So you see my +improvements are not entirely selfish. As I have a friend here, we +will go to the Infirmary Ball on the 12th; we will drink tea with Mrs. +Byron at eight o'clock, and expect to see you at the ball. If that +lady will allow us a couple of rooms to dress in, we shall be highly +obliged:--if we are at the ball by ten or eleven it will be time +enough, and we shall return to Newstead about three or four. Adieu. + +"Believe me yours very truly, + +"BYRON." + + +The idea, entertained by Mrs. Byron, of a resemblance between her son +and Rousseau was founded chiefly, we may suppose, on those habits of +solitariness, in which he had even already shown a disposition to +follow that self-contemplative philosopher, and which, manifesting +themselves thus early, gained strength as he advanced in life. In one +of his Journals, to which I frequently have occasion to refer,[94] he +thus, in questioning the justice of this comparison between himself +and Rousseau, gives,--as usual, vividly,--some touches of his own +disposition and habitudes:-- + +"My mother, before I was twenty, would have it that I was like +Rousseau, and Madame de Staël used to say so too in 1813, and the +Edinburgh Review has something of the sort in its critique on the +fourth Canto of Childe Harold. I can't see any point of +resemblance:--he wrote prose, I verse: he was of the people; I of the +aristocracy:[95] he was a philosopher; I am none: he published his +first work at forty; I mine at eighteen: his first essay brought him +universal applause; mine the contrary: he married his housekeeper; I +could not keep house with my wife: he thought all the world in a plot +against him; my little world seems to think me in a plot against it, +if I may judge by their abuse in print and coterie: he liked botany; I +like flowers, herbs, and trees, but know nothing of their pedigrees: +he wrote music; I limit my knowledge of it to what I catch by _ear_--I +never could learn any thing by _study_, not even a _language_--it was +all by rote, and ear, and memory: he had a _bad_ memory; I _had_, at +least, an excellent one (ask Hodgson the poet--a good judge, for he +has an astonishing one): he wrote with hesitation and care; I with +rapidity, and rarely with pains: _he_ could never ride, nor swim, nor +'was cunning of fence;' _I_ am an excellent swimmer, a decent, though +not at all a dashing, rider, (having staved in a rib at eighteen, in +the course of scampering), and was sufficient of fence, particularly +of the Highland broadsword,--not a bad boxer, when I could keep my +temper, which was difficult, but which I strove to do ever since I +knocked down Mr. Purling, and put his knee-pan out (with the gloves +on), in Angelo's and Jackson's rooms in 1806, during the +sparring,--and I was, besides, a very fair cricketer,--one of the +Harrow eleven, when we played against Eton in 1805. Besides, +Rousseau's way of life, his country, his manners, his whole character, +were so very different, that I am at a loss to conceive how such a +comparison could have arisen, as it has done three several times, and +all in rather a remarkable manner. I forgot to say that _he_ was also +short-sighted, and that hitherto my eyes have been the contrary, to +such a degree that, in the largest theatre of Bologna, I distinguished +and read some busts and inscriptions, painted near the stage, from a +box so distant and so _darkly_ lighted, that none of the company +(composed of young and very bright-eyed people, some of them in the +same box,) could make out a letter, and thought it was a trick, though +I had never been in that theatre before. + +"Altogether, I think myself justified in thinking the comparison not +well founded. I don't say this out of pique, for Rousseau was a great +man; and the thing, if true, were flattering enough;--but I have no +idea of being pleased with the chimera." + +In another letter to his mother, dated some weeks after the preceding +one, he explains further his plans both with respect to Newstead and +his projected travels. + + +LETTER 31. + +TO MRS. BYRON. + +"Newstead Abbey, November 2. 1808. + + +"Dear Mother, + +"If you please, we will forget the things you mention. I have no +desire to remember them. When my rooms are finished, I shall be happy +to see you; as I tell but the truth, you will not suspect me of +evasion. I am furnishing the house more for you than myself, and I +shall establish you in it before I sail for India, which I expect to +do in March, if nothing particularly obstructive occurs. I am now +fitting up the _green_ drawing-room; the red for a bed-room, and the +rooms over as sleeping-rooms. They will be soon completed;--at least I +hope so. + +"I wish you would enquire of Major Watson (who is an old Indian) what +things will be necessary to provide for my voyage. I have already +procured a friend to write to the Arabic Professor at Cambridge, for +some information I am anxious to procure. I can easily get letters +from government to the ambassadors, consuls, &c., and also to the +governors at Calcutta and Madras. I shall place my property and my +will in the hands of trustees till my return, and I mean to appoint +you one. From H---- I have heard nothing--when I do, you shall have +the particulars. + +"After all, you must own my project is not a bad one. If I do not +travel now, I never shall, and all men should one day or other. I have +at present no connections to keep me at home; no wife, or unprovided +sisters, brothers, &c. I shall take care of you, and when I return I +may possibly become a politician. A few years' knowledge of other +countries than our own will not incapacitate me for that part. If we +see no nation but our own, we do not give mankind a fair chance:--it +is from _experience_, not books, we ought to judge of them. There is +nothing like inspection, and trusting to our own senses. + +"Yours," &c. + + +In the November of this year he lost his favourite dog, +Boatswain,--the poor animal having been seized with a fit of madness, +at the commencement of which so little aware was Lord Byron of the +nature of the malady, that he more than once, with his bare hand, +wiped away the slaver from the dog's lips during the paroxysms. In a +letter to his friend, Mr. Hodgson,[96] he thus announces this +event:--"Boatswain is dead!--he expired in a state of madness on the +18th, after suffering much, yet retaining all the gentleness of his +nature to the last, never attempting to do the least injury to any one +near him. I have now lost every thing except old Murray." + +The monument raised by him to this dog,--the most memorable tribute of +the kind, since the Dog's Grave, of old, at Salamis,--is still a +conspicuous ornament of the gardens of Newstead. The misanthropic +verses engraved upon it may be found among his poems, and the +following is the inscription by which they are introduced:-- + + "Near this spot + Are deposited the Remains of one + Who possessed Beauty without Vanity, + Strength without Insolence, + Courage without Ferocity, + And all the Virtues of Man without his Vices. + This Praise, which would be unmeaning Flattery + If inscribed over human ashes, + Is but a just tribute to the Memory of + BOATSWAIN, a Dog, + Who was born at Newfoundland, May, 1803, + And died at Newstead Abbey, November 18. 1808." + +The poet, Pope, when about the same age as the writer of this +inscription, passed a similar eulogy on his dog,[97] at the expense of +human nature; adding, that "Histories are more full of examples of the +fidelity of dogs than of friends." In a still sadder and bitterer +spirit, Lord Byron writes of his favourite, + + "To mark a friend's remains these stones arise; I never knew + but one, and here he lies."[98] + +Melancholy, indeed, seems to have been gaining fast upon his mind at +this period. In another letter to Mr. Hodgson, he says,--"You know +laughing is the sign of a rational animal--so says Dr. Smollet. I +think so too, but unluckily my spirits don't always keep pace with my +opinions." + +Old Murray, the servant whom he mentions, in a preceding extract, as +the only faithful follower now remaining to him, had long been in the +service of the former lord, and was regarded by the young poet with a +fondness of affection which it has seldom been the lot of age and +dependence to inspire. "I have more than once," says a gentleman who +was at this time a constant visiter at Newstead, "seen Lord Byron at +the dinner-table fill out a tumbler of Madeira, and hand it over his +shoulder to Joe Murray, who stood behind his chair, saying, with a +cordiality that brightened his whole countenance, 'Here, my old +fellow.'" + +The unconcern with which he could sometimes allude to the defect in +his foot is manifest from another passage in one of these letters to +Mr. Hodgson. That gentleman having said jestingly that some of the +verses in the "Hours of Idleness" were calculated to make schoolboys +rebellious, Lord Byron answers--"If my songs have produced the +glorious effects you mention, I shall be a complete Tyrtæus;--though +I am sorry to say I resemble that interesting harper more in his +person than in his poesy." Sometimes, too, even an allusion to this +infirmity by others, when he could perceive that it was not +offensively intended, was borne by him with the most perfect good +humour. "I was once present," says the friend I have just mentioned, +"in a large and mixed company, when a vulgar person asked him +aloud--'Pray, my Lord, how is that foot of yours?'--'Thank you, sir,' +answered Lord Byron, with the utmost mildness--'much the same as +usual.'" + +The following extract, relating to a reverend friend of his Lordship, +is from another of his letters to Mr. Hodgson, this year:-- + +"A few weeks ago I wrote to ----, to request he would receive the son +of a citizen of London, well known to me, as a pupil; the family +having been particularly polite during the short time I was with them +induced me to this application. Now, mark what follows, as somebody +sublimely saith. On this day arrives an epistle signed ----, +containing not the smallest reference to tuition or _in_tuition, but a +_pe_tition for Robert Gregson, of pugilistic notoriety, now in bondage +for certain paltry pounds sterling, and liable to take up his +everlasting abode in Banco Regis. Had the letter been from any of my +_lay_ acquaintance, or, in short, from any person but the gentleman +whose signature it bears, I should have marvelled not. If ---- is +serious, I congratulate pugilism on the acquisition of such a patron, +and shall be most happy to advance any sum necessary for the +liberation of the captive Gregson. But I certainly hope to be +certified from you, or some respectable housekeeper, of the fact, +before I write to ---- on the subject. When I say the _fact_, I mean +of the letter being written by ----, not having any doubt as to the +authenticity of the statement. The letter is now before me, and I keep +it for your perusal." + +His time at Newstead during this autumn was principally occupied in +enlarging and preparing his Satire for the press; and with the view, +perhaps, of mellowing his own judgment of its merits, by keeping it +some time before his eyes in a printed form,[99] he had proofs taken +off from the manuscript by his former publisher at Newark. It is +somewhat remarkable, that, excited as he was by the attack of the +reviewers, and possessing, at all times, such rapid powers of +composition, he should have allowed so long an interval to elapse +between the aggression and the revenge. But the importance of his next +move in literature seems to have been fully appreciated by him. He saw +that his chances of future eminence now depended upon the effort he +was about to make, and therefore deliberately collected all his +energies for the spring. Among the preparatives by which he +disciplined his talent to the task was a deep study of the writings of +Pope; and I have no doubt that from this period may be dated the +enthusiastic admiration which he ever after cherished for this great +poet,--an admiration which at last extinguished in him, after one or +two trials, all hope of pre-eminence in the same track, and drove him +thenceforth to seek renown in fields more open to competition. + +The misanthropic mood of mind into which he had fallen at this time, +from disappointed affections and thwarted hopes, made the office of +satirist but too congenial and welcome to his spirit. Yet it is +evident that this bitterness existed far more in his fancy than his +heart; and that the sort of relief he now found in making war upon the +world arose much less from the indiscriminate wounds he dealt around, +than from the new sense of power he became conscious of in dealing +them, and by which he more than recovered his former station in his +own esteem. In truth, the versatility and ease with which, as shall +presently be shown, he could, on the briefest consideration, shift +from praise to censure, and, sometimes, almost as rapidly, from +censure to praise, shows how fanciful and transient were the +impressions under which he, in many instances, pronounced his +judgments; and though it may in some degree deduct from the weight of +his eulogy, absolves him also from any great depth of malice in his +Satire. + +His coming of age, in 1809, was celebrated at Newstead by such +festivities as his narrow means and society could furnish. Besides the +ritual roasting of an ox, there was a ball, it seems, given on the +occasion,--of which the only particular I could collect, from the old +domestic who mentioned it, was, that Mr. Hanson, the agent of her +lord, was among the dancers. Of Lord Byron's own method of +commemorating the day, I find the following curious record in a letter +written from Genoa in 1822:--"Did I ever tell you that the day I came +of age I dined on eggs and bacon and a bottle of ale?--For once in a +way they are my favourite dish and drinkable; but as neither of them +agree with me, I never use them but on great jubilees,--in four or +five years or so." The pecuniary supplies necessary towards his +outset, at this epoch, were procured from money-lenders at an +enormously usurious interest, the payment of which for a long time +continued to be a burden to him. + +It was not till the beginning of this year that he took his +Satire,--in a state ready, as he thought, for publication,--to London. +Before, however, he had put the work to press, new food was unluckily +furnished to his spleen by the neglect with which he conceived himself +to have been treated by his guardian, Lord Carlisle. The relations +between this nobleman and his ward had, at no time, been of such a +nature as to afford opportunities for the cultivation of much +friendliness on either side; and to the temper and influence of Mrs. +Byron must mainly be attributed the blame of widening, if not of +producing, this estrangement between them. The coldness with which +Lord Carlisle had received the dedication of the young poet's first +volume was, as we have seen from one of the letters of the latter, +felt by him most deeply. He, however, allowed himself to be so far +governed by prudential considerations as not only to stifle this +displeasure, but even to introduce into his Satire, as originally +intended for the press, the following compliment to his guardian:-- + + "On one alone Apollo deigns to smile, + And crowns a new Roscommon in Carlisle." + +The crown, however, thus generously awarded, did not long remain where +it had been placed. In the interval between the inditing of this +couplet and the delivery of the manuscript to the press, Lord Byron, +under the impression that it was customary for a young peer, on first +taking his seat, to have some friend to introduce him, wrote to remind +Lord Carlisle that he should be of age at the commencement of the +session. Instead, however, of the sort of answer which he expected, a +mere formal, and, as it appeared to him, cold reply, acquainting him +with the technical mode of proceeding on such occasions, was all that, +in return to this application, he received. Disposed as he had been, +by preceding circumstances, to suspect his noble guardian of no very +friendly inclinations towards him, this backwardness in proposing to +introduce him to the House (a ceremony, however, as it appears, by no +means necessary or even usual) was sufficient to rouse in his +sensitive mind a strong feeling of resentment. The indignation, thus +excited, found a vent, but too temptingly, at hand;--the laudatory +couplet I have just cited was instantly expunged, and his Satire went +forth charged with those vituperative verses against Lord Carlisle, of +which, gratifying as they must have been to his revenge at the moment, +he, not long after, with the placability so inherent in his generous +nature, repented.[100] + +During the progress of his poem through the press, he increased its +length by more than a hundred lines; and made several alterations, one +or two of which may be mentioned, as illustrative of that prompt +susceptibility of new impressions and influences which rendered both +his judgment and feelings so variable. In the Satire, as it originally +stood, was the following couplet:-- + + "Though printers condescend the press to soil + With odes by Smythe, and epic songs by Hoyle." + +Of the injustice of these lines (unjust, it is but fair to say, to +both the writers mentioned,) he, on the brink of publication, +repented; and,--as far, at least, as regarded one of the intended +victims,--adopted a tone directly opposite in his printed Satire, +where the name of Professor Smythe is mentioned honourably, as it +deserved, in conjunction with that of Mr. Hodgson, one of the poet's +most valued friends:-- + + "Oh dark asylum of a Vandal race! + At once the boast of learning and disgrace; + So sunk in dulness, and so lost in shame, + That Smythe and Hodgson scarce redeem thy fame." + +In another instance we find him "changing his hand" with equal +facility and suddenness. The original manuscript of the Satire +contained this line,-- + + "I leave topography to coxcomb Gell;" + +but having, while the work was printing, become acquainted with Sir +William Gell, he, without difficulty, by the change of a single +epithet, converted satire into eulogy, and the line now descends to +posterity thus:-- + + "I leave topography to _classic_ Gell."[101] + +Among the passages added to the poem during its progress through the +press were those lines denouncing the licentiousness of the Opera. +"Then let Ausonia," &c. which the young satirist wrote one night, +after returning, brimful of morality, from the Opera, and sent them +early next morning to Mr. Dallas for insertion. The just and animated +tribute to Mr. Crabbe was also among the after-thoughts with which his +poem was adorned; nor can we doubt that both this, and the equally +merited eulogy on Mr. Rogers, were the disinterested and deliberate +result of the young poet's judgment, as he had never at that period +seen either of these distinguished persons, and the opinion he then +expressed of their genius remained unchanged through life. With the +author of the Pleasures of Memory he afterwards became intimate, but +with him, whom he had so well designated as "Nature's sternest +painter, yet the best," he was never lucky enough to form any +acquaintance;--though, as my venerated friend and neighbour, Mr. +Crabbe himself, tells me, they were once, without being aware of it, +in the same inn together for a day or two, and must have frequently +met, as they went in and out of the house, during the time. + +Almost every second day, while the Satire was printing, Mr. Dallas, +who had undertaken to superintend it through the press, received fresh +matter, for the enrichment of its pages, from the author, whose mind, +once excited on any subject, knew no end to the outpourings of its +wealth. In one of his short notes to Mr. Dallas, he says, "Print soon, +or I shall overflow with rhyme;" and it was, in the same manner, in +all his subsequent publications,--as long, at least, as he remained +within reach of the printer,--that he continued thus to feed the +press, to the very last moment, with new and "thick-coming fancies," +which the re-perusal of what he had already written suggested to him. +It would almost seem, indeed, from the extreme facility and rapidity +with which he produced some of his brightest passages during the +progress of his works through the press, that there was in the very +act of printing an excitement to his fancy, and that the rush of his +thoughts towards this outlet gave increased life and freshness to +their flow. + +Among the passing events from which he now caught illustrations for +his poem was the melancholy death of Lord Falkland,--a gallant, but +dissipated naval officer, with whom the habits of his town life had +brought him acquainted, and who, about the beginning of March, was +killed in a duel by Mr. Powell. That this event affected Lord Byron +very deeply, the few touching sentences devoted to it in his Satire +prove. "On Sunday night (he says) I beheld Lord Falkland presiding at +his own table in all the honest pride of hospitality; on Wednesday +morning at three o'clock I saw stretched before me all that remained +of courage, feeling, and a host of passions." But it was not by words +only that he gave proof of sympathy on this occasion. The family of +the unfortunate nobleman were left behind in circumstances which +needed something more than the mere expression of compassion to +alleviate them; and Lord Byron, notwithstanding the pressure of his +own difficulties at the time, found means, seasonably and delicately, +to assist the widow and children of his friend. In the following +letter to Mrs. Byron, he mentions this among other matters of +interest,--and in a tone of unostentatious sensibility highly +honourable to him. + + +LETTER 32. + +TO MRS. BYRON. + +"8. St. James's Street, March 6. 1809. + + +"Dear Mother, + +"My last letter was written under great depression of spirits from +poor Falkland's death, who has left without a shilling four children +and his wife. I have been endeavouring to assist them, which, God +knows, I cannot do as I could wish, from my own embarrassments and +the many claims upon me from other quarters. + +"What you say is all very true: come what may, _Newstead_ and I +_stand_ or fall together. I have now lived on the spot, I have fixed +my heart upon it, and no pressure, present or future, shall induce me +to barter the last vestige of our inheritance. I have that pride +within me which will enable me to support difficulties. I can endure +privations; but could I obtain in exchange for Newstead Abbey the +first fortune in the country I would reject the proposition. Set your +mind at ease on that score; Mr. H---- talks like a man of business on +the subject,--I feel like a man of honour, and I will not sell +Newstead. + +"I shall get my seat on the return of the affidavits from Carhais, in +Cornwall, and will do something in the House soon: I must dash, or it +is all over. My Satire must be kept secret for a month; after that you +may say what you please on the subject. Lord C. has used me +infamously, and refused to state any particulars of my family to the +Chancellor. I have _lashed_ him in my rhymes, and perhaps his Lordship +may regret not being more conciliatory. They tell me it will have a +sale; I hope so, for the bookseller has behaved well, as far as +publishing well goes. + +"Believe me, &c. + +"P.S.--You shall have a mortgage on one of the farms." + + +The affidavits which he here mentions, as expected from Cornwall, were +those required in proof of the marriage of Admiral Byron with Miss +Trevanion, the solemnisation of which having taken place, as it +appears, in a private chapel at Carhais, no regular certificate of the +ceremony could be produced. The delay in procuring other evidence, +coupled with the refusal of Lord Carlisle to afford any explanations +respecting his family, interposed those difficulties which he alludes +to in the way of his taking his seat. At length, all the necessary +proofs having been obtained, he, on the 13th of March, presented +himself in the House of Lords, in a state more lone and unfriended, +perhaps, than any youth of his high station had ever before been +reduced to on such an occasion,--not having a single individual of his +own class either to take him by the hand as friend or acknowledge him +as acquaintance. To chance alone was he even indebted for being +accompanied as far as the bar of the House by a very distant relative, +who had been, little more than a year before, an utter stranger to +him. This relative was Mr. Dallas; and the account which he has given +of the whole scene is too striking in all its details to be related in +any other words than his own:-- + +"The Satire was published about the middle of March, previous to which +he took his seat in the House of Lords, on the 13th of the same month. +On that day, passing down St. James's Street, but with no intention of +calling, I saw his chariot at his door, and went in. His countenance, +paler than usual, showed that his mind was agitated, and that he was +thinking of the nobleman to whom he had once looked for a hand and +countenance in his introduction to the House. He said to me--'I am +glad you happened to come in; I am going to take my seat, perhaps you +will go with me.' I expressed my readiness to attend him; while, at +the same time, I concealed the shock I felt on thinking that this +young man, who, by birth, fortune, and talent, stood high in life, +should have lived so unconnected and neglected by persons of his own +rank, that there was not a single member of the senate to which he +belonged, to whom he could or would apply to introduce him in a manner +becoming his birth. I saw that he felt the situation, and I fully +partook his indignation. + +"After some talk about the Satire, the last sheets of which were in +the press, I accompanied Lord Byron to the House. He was received in +one of the ante-chambers by some of the officers in attendance, with +whom he settled respecting the fees he had to pay. One of them went to +apprise the Lord Chancellor of his being there, and soon returned for +him. There were very few persons in the House. Lord Eldon was going +through some ordinary business. When Lord Byron entered, I thought he +looked still paler than before; and he certainly wore a countenance in +which mortification was mingled with, but subdued by, indignation. He +passed the woolsack without looking round, and advanced to the table +where the proper officer was attending to administer the oaths. When +he had gone through them, the Chancellor quitted his seat, and went +towards him with a smile, putting out his hand warmly to welcome him; +and, though I did not catch his words, I saw that he paid him some +compliment. This was all thrown away upon Lord Byron, who made a stiff +bow, and put the tips of his fingers into the Chancellor's hand. The +Chancellor did not press a welcome so received, but resumed his seat; +while Lord Byron carelessly seated himself for a few minutes on one of +the empty benches to the left of the throne, usually occupied by the +lords in opposition. When, on his joining me, I expressed what I had +felt, he said--'If I had shaken hands heartily, he would have set me +down for one of his party--but I will have nothing to do with any of +them, on either side; I have taken my seat, and now I will go abroad.' +We returned to St. James's Street, but he did not recover his +spirits." + +To this account of a ceremonial so trying to the proud spirit engaged +in it, and so little likely to abate the bitter feeling of misanthropy +now growing upon him, I am enabled to add, from his own report in one +of his note-books, the particulars of the short conversation which he +held with the Lord Chancellor on the occasion:-- + +"When I came of age, some delays, on account of some birth and +marriage certificates from Cornwall, occasioned me not to take my seat +for several weeks. When these were over, and I had taken the oaths, +the Chancellor apologised to me for the delay, observing 'that these +forms were a part of his _duty_.' I begged him to make no apology, and +added (as he certainly had shown no violent hurry), 'Your Lordship was +exactly like Tom Thumb' (which was then being acted)--'you did your +_duty_, and you did _no more_.'" + +In a few days after, the Satire made its appearance; and one of the +first copies was sent, with the following letter, to his friend Mr. +Harness. + + +LETTER 33. + +TO MR. HARNESS. + +"8. St. James's Street, March 18. 1809. + + +"There was no necessity for your excuses: if you have time and +inclination to write, 'for what we receive, the Lord make us +thankful,'--if I do not hear from you I console myself with the idea +that you are much more agreeably employed. + +"I send down to you by this post a certain Satire lately published, +and in return for the three and sixpence expenditure upon it, only beg +that if you should guess the author, you will keep his name secret; at +least for the present. London is full of the Duke's business. The +Commons have been at it these last three nights, and are not yet come +to a decision. I do not know if the affair will be brought before our +House, unless in the shape of an impeachment. If it makes its +appearance in a debatable form, I believe I shall be tempted to say +something on the subject.--I am glad to hear you like Cambridge: +firstly, because, to know that you are happy is pleasant to one who +wishes you all possible sub-lunary enjoyment; and, secondly, I admire +the morality of the sentiment. _Alma Mater_ was to me _injusta +noverca_; and the old beldam only gave me my M.A. degree because she +could not avoid it.--[102]You know what a farce a noble Cantab. must +perform. + +"I am going abroad, if possible, in the spring, and before I depart I +am collecting the pictures of my most intimate schoolfellows; I have +already a few, and shall want yours, or my cabinet will be incomplete. +I have employed one of the first miniature painters of the day to take +them, of course, at my own expense, as I never allow my acquaintance +to incur the least expenditure to gratify a whim of mine. To mention +this may seem indelicate; but when I tell you a friend of ours first +refused to sit, under the idea that he was to disburse on the +occasion, you will see that it is necessary to state these +preliminaries to prevent the recurrence of any similar mistake. I +shall see you in time, and will carry you to the _limner_. It will be +a tax on your patience for a week, but pray excuse it, as it is +possible the resemblance may be the sole trace I shall be able to +preserve of our past friendship and acquaintance. Just now it seems +foolish enough, but in a few years, when some of us are dead, and +others are separated by inevitable circumstances, it will be a kind of +satisfaction to retain in these images of the living the idea of our +former selves, and to contemplate, in the resemblances of the dead, +all that remains of judgment, feeling, and a host of passions. But +all this will be dull enough for you, and so good night, and to end my +chapter, or rather my homily, believe me, my dear H., + +yours most affectionately." + + +In this romantic design of collecting together the portraits of his +school friends, we see the natural working of an ardent and +disappointed heart, which, as the future began to darken upon it, +clung with fondness to the recollections of the past; and, in despair +of finding new and true friends, saw no happiness but in preserving +all it could of the old. But even here, his sensibility had to +encounter one of those freezing checks, to which feelings, so much +above the ordinary temperature of the world, are but too constantly +exposed;--it being from one of the very friends thus fondly valued by +him, that he experienced, on leaving England, that mark of neglect of +which he so indignantly complains in a note on the second Canto of +Childe Harold,--contrasting with this conduct the fidelity and +devotedness he had just found in his Turkish servant, Dervish. Mr. +Dallas, who witnessed the immediate effect of this slight upon him, +thus describes his emotion:-- + +"I found him bursting with indignation. 'Will you believe it?' said +he, 'I have just met ----, and asked him to come and sit an hour with +me: he excused himself; and what do you think was his excuse? He was +engaged with his mother and some ladies to go shopping! And he knows I +set out to-morrow, to be absent for years, perhaps never to +return!--Friendship! I do not believe I shall leave behind me, +yourself and family excepted, and perhaps my mother, a single being +who will care what becomes of me.'" + +From his expressions in a letter to Mrs. Byron, already cited, that he +must "do something in the House soon," as well as from a more definite +intimation of the same intention to Mr. Harness, it would appear that +he had, at this time, serious thoughts of at once entering on the high +political path which his station as an hereditary legislator opened to +him. But, whatever may have been the first movements of his ambition +in this direction, they were soon relinquished. Had he been connected +with any distinguished political families, his love of eminence, +seconded by such example and sympathy, would have impelled him, no +doubt, to seek renown in the fields of party warfare where it might +have been his fate to afford a signal instance of that transmuting +process by which, as Pope says, the corruption of a poet sometimes +leads to the generation of a statesman. Luckily, however, for the +world (though whether luckily for himself may be questioned), the +brighter empire of poesy was destined to claim him all its own. The +loneliness, indeed, of his position in society at this period, left +destitute, as he was, of all those sanctions and sympathies, by which +youth at its first start is usually surrounded, was, of itself, enough +to discourage him from embarking in a pursuit, where it is chiefly on +such extrinsic advantages that any chance of success must depend. So +far from taking an active part in the proceedings of his noble +brethren, he appears to have regarded even the ceremony of his +attendance among them as irksome and mortifying; and in a few days +after his admission to his seat, he withdrew himself in disgust to the +seclusion of his own Abbey, there to brood over the bitterness of +premature experience, or meditate, in the scenes and adventures of +other lands, a freer outlet for his impatient spirit than it could +command at home. + +It was not long, however, before he was summoned back to town by the +success of his Satire,--the quick sale of which already rendered the +preparation of a new edition necessary. His zealous agent, Mr. Dallas, +had taken care to transmit to him, in his retirement, all the +favourable opinions of the work he could collect; and it is not +unamusing, as showing the sort of steps by which Fame at first mounts, +to find the approbation of such authorities as Pratt and the magazine +writers put forward among the first rewards and encouragements of a +Byron. + +"You are already (he says) pretty generally known to be the author. So +Cawthorn tells me, and a proof occurred to myself at Hatchard's, the +Queen's bookseller. On enquiring for the Satire, he told me that he +had sold a great many, and had none left, and was going to send for +more, which I afterwards found he did. I asked who was the author? He +said it was believed to be Lord Byron's. Did _he_ believe it? Yes he +did. On asking the ground of his belief, he told me that a lady of +distinction had, without hesitation, asked for it as Lord Byron's +Satire. He likewise informed me that he had enquired of Mr. Gifford, +who frequents his shop, if it was yours. Mr. Gifford denied any +knowledge of the author, but spoke very highly of it, and said a copy +had been sent to him. Hatchard assured me that all who came to his +reading-room admired it. Cawthorn tells me it is universally well +spoken of, not only among his own customers, but generally at all the +booksellers. I heard it highly praised at my own publisher's, where I +have lately called several times. At Phillips's it was read aloud by +Pratt to a circle of literary guests, who were unanimous in their +applause:--The _Anti-jacobin_, as well as the _Gentleman's Magazine_, +has already blown the trump of fame for you. We shall see it in the +other Reviews next month, and probably in some severely handled, +according to the connection of the proprietors and editors with those +whom it lashes." + +On his arrival in London, towards the end of April, he found the first +edition of his poem nearly exhausted; and set immediately about +preparing another, to which he determined to prefix his name. The +additions he now made to the work were considerable,--near a hundred +new lines being introduced at the very opening[103],--and it was not +till about the middle of the ensuing month that the new edition was +ready to go to press. He had, during his absence from town, fixed +definitely with his friend, Mr. Hobhouse, that they should leave +England together on the following June, and it was his wish to see the +last proofs of the volume corrected before his departure. + +Among the new features of this edition was a Post-script to the +Satire, in prose, which Mr. Dallas, much to the credit of his +discretion and taste, most earnestly entreated the poet to suppress. +It is to be regretted that the adviser did not succeed in his efforts, +as there runs a tone of bravado through this ill-judged effusion, +which it is, at all times, painful to see a brave man assume. For +instance:--"It may be said," he observes, "that I quit England because +I have censured these 'persons of honour and wit about town;' but I am +coming back again, and their vengeance will keep hot till my return. +Those who know me can testify that my motives for leaving England are +very different from fears, literary or personal; those who do not may +be one day convinced. Since the publication of this thing, my name has +not been concealed; I have been mostly in London, ready to answer for +my transgressions, and in daily expectation of sundry cartels; but, +alas, 'the age of chivalry is over,' or, in the vulgar tongue, there +is no spirit now-a-days." + +But, whatever may have been the faults or indiscretions of this +Satire, there are few who would now sit in judgment upon it so +severely as did the author himself, on reading it over nine years +after, when he had quitted England, never to return. The copy which he +then perused is now in possession of Mr. Murray, and the remarks which +he has scribbled over its pages are well worth transcribing. On the +first leaf we find-- + +"The binding of this volume is considerably too valuable for its +contents. + +"Nothing but the consideration of its being the property of another +prevents me from consigning this miserable record of misplaced anger +and indiscriminate acrimony to the flames. + +B." + +Opposite the passage, + + "to be misled + By Jeffrey's heart, or Lamb's Boeotian head," + +is written, "This was not just. Neither the heart nor the head of +these gentlemen are at all what they are here represented." Along the +whole of the severe verses against Mr. Wordsworth he has scrawled +"Unjust,"--and the same verdict is affixed to those against Mr. +Coleridge. On his unmeasured attack upon Mr. Bowles, the comment +is,--"Too savage all this on Bowles;" and down the margin of the page +containing the lines, "Health to immortal Jeffrey," &c. he +writes,--"Too ferocious--this is mere insanity;"--adding, on the +verses that follow ("Can none remember that eventful day?" &c.), "All +this is bad, because personal." + +Sometimes, however, he shows a disposition to stand by his original +decisions. Thus, on the passage relating to a writer of certain +obscure Epics (v. 793.), he says,--"All right;" adding, of the same +person, "I saw some letters of this fellow to an unfortunate poetess, +whose productions (which the poor woman by no means thought vainly of) +he attacked so roughly and bitterly, that I could hardly regret +assailing him;--even were it unjust, which it is not; for, verily, he +_is_ an ass." On the strong lines, too (v. 953.), upon Clarke (a +writer in a magazine called the Satirist), he remarks,--"Right +enough,--this was well deserved and well laid on." + +To the whole paragraph, beginning "Illustrious Holland," are affixed +the words "Bad enough;--and on mistaken grounds besides." The bitter +verses against Lord Carlisle he pronounces "Wrong also:--the +provocation was not sufficient to justify such acerbity;"--and of a +subsequent note respecting the same nobleman, he says, "Much too +savage, whatever the foundation may be." Of Rosa Matilda (v. 738.) he +tells us, "She has since married the Morning Post,--an exceeding good +match." To the verses, "When some brisk youth, the tenant of a stall," +&c., he has appended the following interesting note:--"This was meant +at poor Blackett, who was then patronised by A.I.B.[104];--but _that_ +I did not know, or this would not have been written; at least I think +not." + +Farther on, where Mr. Campbell and other poets are mentioned, the +following gingle on the names of their respective poems is +scribbled:-- + + "Pretty Miss Jacqueline + Had a nose aquiline; + And would assert rude + Things of Miss Gertrude; + While Mr. Marmion + Led a great army on, + Making Kehama look + Like a fierce Mamaluke." + +Opposite the paragraph in praise of Mr. Crabbe he has written, "I +consider Crabbe and Coleridge as the first of these times in point of +power and genius." On his own line, in a subsequent paragraph, "And +glory, like the phoenix mid her fires," he says, comically, "The devil +take that phoenix--how came it there?" and his concluding remark on +the whole poem is as follows:-- + +"The greater part of this satire I most sincerely wish had never been +written; not only on account of the injustice of much of the critical +and some of the personal part of it, but the tone and temper are such +as I cannot approve. + +BYRON." + +"Diodata, Geneva, July 14. 1816." + + +While engaged in preparing his new edition for the press, he was also +gaily dispensing the hospitalities of Newstead to a party of young +college friends, whom, with the prospect of so long an absence from +England, he had assembled round him at the Abbey, for a sort of +festive farewell. The following letter from one of the party, Charles +Skinner Matthews, though containing much less of the noble host +himself than we could have wished, yet, as a picture, taken freshly +and at the moment, of a scene so pregnant with character, will, I have +little doubt, be highly acceptable to the reader. + + +LETTER FROM CHARLES SKINNER MATTHEWS, ESQ. TO MISS I.M. + +"London, May 22. 1809. + + +"My dear ----, + +"I must begin with giving you a few particulars of the singular place +which I have lately quitted. + +"Newstead Abbey is situate 136 miles from London,--four on this side +Mansfield. It is so fine a piece of antiquity, that I should think +there must be a description, and, perhaps, a picture of it in Grose. +The ancestors of its present owner came into possession of it at the +time of the dissolution of the monasteries,--but the building itself +is of a much earlier date. Though sadly fallen to decay, it is still +completely an _abbey_, and most part of it is still standing in the +same state as when it was first built. There are two tiers of +cloisters, with a variety of cells and rooms about them, which, though +not inhabited, nor in an inhabitable state, might easily be made so; +and many of the original rooms, amongst which is a fine stone hall, +are still in use. Of the abbey church only one end remains; and the +old kitchen, with a long range of apartments, is reduced to a heap of +rubbish. Leading from the abbey to the modern part of the habitation +is a noble room seventy feet in length, and twenty-three in breadth; +but every part of the house displays neglect and decay, save those +which the present Lord has lately fitted up. + +"The house and gardens are entirely surrounded by a wall with +battlements. In front is a large lake, bordered here and there with +castellated buildings, the chief of which stands on an eminence at the +further extremity of it. Fancy all this surrounded with bleak and +barren hills, with scarce a tree to be seen for miles, except a +solitary clump or two, and you will have some idea of Newstead. For +the late Lord being at enmity with his son, to whom the estate was +secured by entail, resolved, out of spite to the same, that the estate +should descend to him in as miserable a plight as he could possibly +reduce it to; for which cause, he took no care of the mansion, and +fell to lopping of every tree he could lay his hands on, so furiously, +that he reduced immense tracts of woodland country to the desolate +state I have just described. However, his son died before him, so that +all his rage was thrown away. + +"So much for the place, concerning which I have thrown together these +few particulars, meaning my account to be, like the place itself, +without any order or connection. But if the place itself appear rather +strange to you, the ways of the inhabitants will not appear much less +so. Ascend, then, with me the hall steps, that I may introduce you to +my Lord and his visitants. But have a care how you proceed; be mindful +to go there in broad daylight, and with your eyes about you. For, +should you make any blunder,--should you go to the right of the hall +steps, you are laid hold of by a bear; and should you go to the left, +your case is still worse, for you run full against a wolf!--Nor, when +you have attained the door, is your danger over; for the hall being +decayed, and therefore standing in need of repair, a bevy of inmates +are very probably banging at one end of it with their pistols; so that +if you enter without giving loud notice of your approach, you have +only escaped the wolf and the bear to expire by the pistol-shots of +the merry monks of Newstead. + +"Our party consisted of Lord Byron and four others, and was, now and then, +increased by the presence of a neighbouring parson. As for our way of +living, the order of the day was generally this:--for breakfast we had no +set hour, but each suited his own convenience,--every thing remaining on +the table till the whole party had done; though had one wished to +breakfast at the early hour of ten, one would have been rather lucky to +find any of the servants up. Our average hour of rising was one. I, who +generally got up between eleven and twelve, was always,--even when an +invalid,--the first of the party, and was esteemed a prodigy of early +rising. It was frequently past two before the breakfast party broke up. +Then, for the amusements of the morning, there was reading, fencing, +single-stick, or shuttle-cock, in the great room; practising with pistols +in the hall; walking--riding--cricket--sailing on the lake, playing with +the bear, or teasing the wolf. Between seven and eight we dined; and our +evening lasted from that time till one, two, or three in the morning. The +evening diversions may be easily conceived. + +"I must not omit the custom of handing round, after dinner, on the +removal of the cloth, a human skull filled with burgundy. After +revelling on choice viands, and the finest wines of France, we +adjourned to tea, where we amused ourselves with reading, or improving +conversation,--each, according to his fancy,--and, after sandwiches, +&c. retired to rest. A set of monkish dresses, which had been +provided, with all the proper apparatus of crosses, beads, tonsures, +&c. often gave a variety to our appearance, and to our pursuits. + +"You may easily imagine how chagrined I was at being ill nearly the +first half of the time I was there. But I was led into a very +different reflection from that of Dr. Swift, who left Pope's house +without ceremony, and afterwards informed him, by letter, that it was +impossible for two sick friends to live together; for I found my +shivering and invalid frame so perpetually annoyed by the thoughtless +and tumultuous health of every one about me, that I heartily wished +every soul in the house to be as ill as myself. + +"The journey back I performed on foot, together with another of the +guests. We walked about twenty-five miles a day; but were a week on +the road, from being detained by the rain. + +"So here I close my account of an expedition which has somewhat +extended my knowledge of this country. And where do you think I am +going next? To Constantinople!--at least, such an excursion has been +proposed to me. Lord B. and another friend of mine are going thither +next month, and have asked me to join the party; but it seems to be +but a wild scheme, and requires twice thinking upon. + +"Addio, my dear I., yours very affectionately, + +"C.S. MATTHEWS." + + +Having put the finishing hand to his new edition, he, without waiting +for the fresh honours that were in store for him, took leave of London +(whither he had returned) on the 11th of June, and, in about a +fortnight after, sailed for Lisbon. + +Great as was the advance which his powers had made, under the +influence of that resentment from which he now drew his inspiration, +they were yet, even in his Satire, at an immeasurable distance from +the point to which they afterwards so triumphantly rose. It is, +indeed, remarkable that, essentially as his genius seemed connected +with, and, as it were, springing out of his character, the +developement of the one should so long have preceded the full maturity +of the resources of the other. By her very early and rapid expansion +of his sensibilities, Nature had given him notice of what she destined +him for, long before he understood the call; and those materials of +poetry with which his own fervid temperament abounded were but by slow +degrees, and after much self-meditation, revealed to him. In his +Satire, though vigorous, there is but little foretaste of the wonders +that followed it. His spirit was stirred, but he had not yet looked +down into its depths, nor does even his bitterness taste of the bottom +of the heart, like those sarcasms which he afterwards flung in the +face of mankind. Still less had the other countless feelings and +passions, with which his soul had been long labouring, found an organ +worthy of them;--the gloom, the grandeur, the tenderness of his +nature, all were left without a voice, till his mighty genius, at +last, awakened in its strength. + +In stooping, as he did, to write after established models, as well in +the Satire as in his still earlier poems, he showed how little he had +yet explored his own original resources, or found out those +distinctive marks by which he was to be known through all times. But, +bold and energetic as was his general character, he was, in a +remarkable degree, diffident in his intellectual powers. The +consciousness of what he could achieve was but by degrees forced upon +him, and the discovery of so rich a mine of genius in his soul came +with no less surprise on himself than on the world. It was from the +same slowness of self-appreciation that, afterwards, in the full flow +of his fame, he long doubted, as we shall see, his own aptitude for +works of wit and humour,--till the happy experiment of "Beppo" at once +dissipated this distrust, and opened a new region of triumph to his +versatile and boundless powers. + +But, however far short of himself his first writings must be +considered, there is in his Satire a liveliness of thought, and still +more a vigour and courage, which, concurring with the justice of his +cause and the sympathies of the public on his side, could not fail to +attach instant celebrity to his name. Notwithstanding, too, the +general boldness and recklessness of his tone, there were occasionally +mingled with this defiance some allusions to his own fate and +character, whose affecting earnestness seemed to answer for their +truth, and which were of a nature strongly to awaken curiosity as well +as interest. One or two of these passages, as illustrative of the +state of his mind at this period, I shall here extract. The loose and +unfenced state in which his youth was left to grow wild upon the world +is thus touchingly alluded to:-- + + "Ev'n I, least thinking of a thoughtless throng, + Just skill'd to know the right and choose the wrong, + Freed at that age when Reason's shield is lost + To fight my course through Passion's countless host, + Whom every path of Pleasure's flowery way + Has lured in turn, and all have led astray[105]-- + Ev'n I must raise my voice, ev'n I must feel + Such scenes, such men destroy the public weal: + Although some kind, censorious friend will say, + 'What art thou better, meddling fool,[106] than they?' + And every brother Rake will smile to see + That miracle, a Moralist, in me." + +But the passage in which, hastily thrown off as it is, we find the +strongest traces of that wounded feeling, which bleeds, as it were, +through all his subsequent writings, is the following:-- + + "The time hath been, when no harsh sound would fall + From lips that now may seem imbued with gall, + Nor fools nor follies tempt me to despise + The meanest thing that crawl'd beneath my eyes. + But now so callous grown, so changed from youth," &c. + +Some of the causes that worked this change in his character have been +intimated in the course of the preceding pages. That there was no +tinge of bitterness in his natural disposition, we have abundant +testimony, besides his own, to prove. Though, as a child, occasionally +passionate and headstrong, his docility and kindness towards those who +were themselves kind, is acknowledged by all; and "playful" and +"affectionate" are invariably the epithets by which those who knew him +in his childhood convey their impression of his character. + +Of all the qualities, indeed, of his nature, affectionateness seems +to have been the most ardent and most deep. A disposition, on his own +side, to form strong attachments, and a yearning desire after +affection in return, were the feeling and the want that formed the +dream and torment of his existence. We have seen with what passionate +enthusiasm he threw himself into his boyish friendships. The +all-absorbing and unsuccessful love that followed was, if I may so +say, the agony, without being the death, of this unsated desire, which +lived on through his life, and filled his poetry with the very soul of +tenderness, lent the colouring of its light to even those unworthy +ties which vanity or passion led him afterwards to form, and was the +last aspiration of his fervid spirit in those stanzas written but a +few months before his death:-- + + "'Tis time this heart should be unmoved, + Since others it has ceased to move; + Yet, though I cannot be beloved, + Still let me love!" + +It is much, I own, to be questioned, whether, even under the most +favourable circumstances, a disposition such as I have here described +could have escaped ultimate disappointment, or found any where a +resting-place for its imaginings and desires. But, in the case of Lord +Byron, disappointment met him on the very threshold of life. His +mother, to whom his affections first, naturally with ardour, turned, +either repelled them rudely, or capriciously trifled with them. In +speaking of his early days to a friend at Genoa, a short time before +his departure for Greece, he traced the first feelings of pain and +humiliation he had ever known to the coldness with which his mother +had received his caresses in infancy, and the frequent taunts on his +personal deformity with which she had wounded him. + +The sympathy of a sister's love, of all the influences on the mind of a +youth the most softening, was also, in his early days, denied to him,--his +sister Augusta and he having seen but little of each other while young. A +vent through the calm channel of domestic affections might have brought +down the high current of his feelings to a level nearer that of the world +he had to traverse, and thus saved them from the tumultuous rapids and +falls to which this early elevation, in their after-course, exposed them. +In the dearth of all home-endearments, his heart had no other resource but +in those boyish friendships which he formed at school; and when these were +interrupted by his removal to Cambridge, he was again thrown back, +isolated, on his own restless desires. Then followed his ill-fated +attachment to Miss Chaworth, to which, more than to any other cause, he +himself attributed the desolating change then wrought in his disposition. + +"I doubt sometimes (he says, in his 'Detached Thoughts,') whether, +after all, a quiet and unagitated life would have suited me; yet I +sometimes long for it. My earliest dreams (as most boys' dreams are) +were martial; but a little later they were all for _love_ and +retirement, till the hopeless attachment to M---- C---- began and +continued (though sedulously concealed) _very_ early in my teens; and +so upwards for a time. _This_ threw me out again 'alone on a wide, +wide sea.' In the year 1804 I recollect meeting my sister at General +Harcourt's, in Portland Place. I was then _one thing_, and _as_ she +had always till then found me. When we met again in 1805 (she told me +since) that my temper and disposition were so completely altered, that +I was hardly to be recognised. I was not then sensible of the change; +but I can believe it, and account for it." + +I have already described his parting with Miss Chaworth previously to +her marriage. Once again, after that event, he saw her, and for the +last time,--being invited by Mr. Chaworth to dine at Annesley not long +before his departure from England. The few years that had elapsed +since their last meeting had made a considerable change in the +appearance and manners of the young poet. The fat, unformed schoolboy +was now a slender and graceful young man. Those emotions and passions +which at first heighten, and then destroy, beauty, had as yet produced +only their favourable effects on his features; and, though with but +little aid from the example of refined society, his manners had +subsided into that tone of gentleness and self-possession which more +than any thing marks the well-bred gentleman. Once only was the latter +of these qualities put to the trial, when the little daughter of his +fair hostess was brought into the room. At the sight of the child he +started involuntarily,--it was with the utmost difficulty he could +conceal his emotion; and to the sensations of that moment we are +indebted for those touching stanzas, "Well--thou art happy," +&c.,[107] which appeared afterwards in a Miscellany published by one +of his friends, and are now to be found in the general collection of +his works. Under the influence of the same despondent passion, he +wrote two other poems at this period, from which, as they exist only +in the Miscellany I have just alluded to, and that collection has for +some time been out of print, a few stanzas may, not improperly, be +extracted here. + + "THE FAREWELL--TO A LADY.[108] + + "When man, expell'd from Eden's bowers, + A moment linger'd near the gate, + Each scene recall'd the vanish'd hours, + And bade him curse his future fate. + + "But wandering on through distant climes, + He learnt to bear his load of grief; + Just gave a sigh to other times, + And found in busier scenes relief. + + "Thus, lady,[109] must it be with me, + And I must view thy charms no more! + For, whilst I linger near to thee, + I sigh for all I knew before," &c. &c. + +The other poem is, throughout, full of tenderness; but I shall give +only what appear to me the most striking stanzas. + + + +"STANZAS TO ---- ON LEAVING ENGLAND. + + "'Tis done--and shivering in the gale + The bark unfurls her snowy sail; + And whistling o'er the bending mast, + Loud sings on high the fresh'ning blast; + And I must from this land be gone, + Because I cannot love but one. + + "As some lone bird, without a mate, + My weary heart is desolate; + I look around, and cannot trace + One friendly smile or welcome face, + And ev'n in crowds am still alone, + Because I cannot love but one. + + "And I will cross the whitening foam, + And I will seek a foreign home; + Till I forget a false fair face, + I ne'er shall find a resting-place; + My own dark thoughts I cannot shun, + But ever love, and love but one. + + "I go--but wheresoe'er I flee + There's not an eye will weep for me; + There's not a kind congenial heart, + Where I can claim the meanest part; + Nor thou, who hast my hopes undone, + Wilt sigh, although I love but one. + + "To think of every early scene, + Of what we are, and what we've been, + Would whelm some softer hearts with woe-- + But mine, alas! has stood the blow; + Yet still beats on as it begun, + And never truly loves but one. + + "And who that dear loved one may be + Is not for vulgar eyes to see, + And why that early love was crost, + Thou know'st the best, I feel the most; + But few that dwell beneath the sun + Have loved so long, and loved but one. + + "I've tried another's fetters, too, + With charms, perchance, as fair to view; + And I would fain have loved as well, + But some unconquerable spell + Forbade my bleeding breast to own + A kindred care for aught but one. + + "'Twould soothe to take one lingering view, + And bless thee in my last adieu; + Yet wish I not those eyes to weep + For him that wanders o'er the deep; + His home, his hope, his youth, are gone, + Yet still he loves, and loves but one."[110] + +While thus, in all the relations of the heart, his thirst after +affection was thwarted, in another instinct of his nature, not less +strong--the desire of eminence and distinction--he was, in an equal +degree, checked in his aspirings, and mortified. The inadequacy of his +means to his station was early a source of embarrassment and +humiliation to him; and those high, patrician notions of birth in +which he indulged but made the disparity between his fortune and his +rank the more galling. Ambition, however, soon whispered to him that +there were other and nobler ways to distinction. The eminence which +talent builds for itself might, one day, he proudly felt, be his own; +nor was it too sanguine to hope that, under the favour accorded +usually to youth, he might with impunity venture on his first steps to +fame. But here, as in every other object of his heart, disappointment +and mortification awaited him. Instead of experiencing the ordinary +forbearance, if not indulgence, with which young aspirants for fame +are received by their critics, he found himself instantly the victim +of such unmeasured severity as is not often dealt out even to veteran +offenders in literature; and, with a heart fresh from the trials of +disappointed love, saw those resources and consolations which he had +sought in the exercise of his intellectual strength also invaded. + +While thus prematurely broken into the pains of life, a no less +darkening effect was produced upon him by too early an initiation into +its pleasures. That charm with which the fancy of youth invests an +untried world was, in his case, soon dissipated. His passions had, at +the very onset of their career, forestalled the future; and the blank +void that followed was by himself considered as one of the causes of +that melancholy, which now settled so deeply into his character. + +"My passions" (he says, in his 'Detached Thoughts') "were developed very +early--so early that few would believe me if I were to state the period +and the facts which accompanied it. Perhaps this was one of the reasons +which caused the anticipated melancholy of my thoughts,--having +anticipated life. My earlier poems are the thoughts of one at least ten +years older than the age at which they were written,--I don't mean for +their solidity, but their experience. The two first Cantos of Childe +Harold were completed at twenty-two; and they are written as if by a man +older than I shall probably ever be." + +Though the allusions in the first sentence of this extract have +reference to a much earlier period, they afford an opportunity of +remarking, that however dissipated may have been the life which he led +during the two or three years previous to his departure on his +travels, yet the notion caught up by many, from his own allusions, in +Childe Harold, to irregularities and orgies of which Newstead had been +the scene, is, like most other imputations against him, founded on his +own testimony, greatly exaggerated. He describes, it is well known, +the home of his poetical representative as a "monastic dome, condemned +to uses vile," and then adds,-- + + "Where Superstition once had made her den, + Now Paphian girls were known to sing and smile." + +Mr. Dallas, too, giving in to the same strain of exaggeration, says, +in speaking of the poet's preparations for his departure, "already +satiated with pleasure, and disgusted with those companions who have +no other resource, he had resolved on mastering his appetites;--he +broke up his harams." The truth, however, is, that the narrowness of +Lord Byron's means would alone have prevented such oriental luxuries. +The mode of his life at Newstead was simple and unexpensive. His +companions, though not averse to convivial indulgences, were of +habits and tastes too intellectual for mere vulgar debauchery; and, +with respect to the alleged "harams," it appears certain that one or +two suspected "_subintroductæ_" (as the ancient monks of the abbey +would have styled them), and those, too, among the ordinary menials of +the establishment, were all that even scandal itself could ever fix +upon to warrant such an assumption. + +That gaming was among his follies at this period he himself tells us +in the journal I have just cited:-- + +"I have a notion (he says) that gamblers are as happy as many people, +being always _excited_. Women, wine, fame, the table,--even ambition, +_sate_ now and then; but every turn of the card and cast of the dice +keeps the gamester alive: besides, one can game ten times longer than +one can do any thing else. I was very fond of it when young, that is +to say, of hazard, for I hate all _card_ games,--even faro. When macco +(or whatever they spell it) was introduced, I gave up the whole thing, +for I loved and missed the _rattle_ and _dash_ of the box and dice, +and the glorious uncertainty, not only of good luck or bad luck, but +of _any luck at all_, as one had sometimes to throw _often_ to decide +at all. I have thrown as many as fourteen mains running, and carried +off all the cash upon the table occasionally; but I had no coolness, +or judgment, or calculation. It was the delight of the thing that +pleased me. Upon the whole, I left off in time, without being much a +winner or loser. Since one-and-twenty years of age I played but +little, and then never above a hundred, or two, or three." + +To this, and other follies of the same period, he alludes in the +following note:-- + + +TO MR. WILLIAM BANKES. + +"Twelve o'clock, Friday night. + + +"My dear Bankes, + +"I have just received your note; believe me I regret most sincerely +that I was not fortunate enough to see it before, as I need not repeat +to you that your conversation for half an hour would have been much +more agreeable to me than gambling or drinking, or any other +fashionable mode of passing an evening abroad or at home.--I really am +very sorry that I went out previous to the arrival of your despatch: +in future pray let me hear from you before six, and whatever my +engagements may be, I will always postpone them.--Believe me, with +that deference which I have always from my childhood paid to your +_talents_, and with somewhat a better opinion of your heart than I +have hitherto entertained, + +"Yours ever," &c. + + +Among the causes--if not rather among the results--of that disposition +to melancholy, which, after all, perhaps, naturally belonged to his +temperament, must not be forgotten those sceptical views of religion, +which clouded, as has been shown, his boyish thoughts, and, at the +time of which I am speaking, gathered still more darkly over his mind. +In general we find the young too ardently occupied with the +enjoyments which this life gives or promises to afford either leisure +or inclination for much enquiry into the mysteries of the next. But +with him it was unluckily otherwise; and to have, at once, anticipated +the worst experience both of the voluptuary and the reasoner,--to have +reached, as he supposed, the boundary of this world's pleasures, and +see nothing but "clouds and darkness" beyond, was the doom, the +anomalous doom, which a nature, premature in all its passions and +powers, inflicted on Lord Byron. + +When Pope, at the age of five-and-twenty, complained of being weary of +the world, he was told by Swift that he "had not yet acted or suffered +enough in the world to have become weary of it."[111] But far +different was the youth of Pope and of Byron;--what the former but +anticipated in thought, the latter had drunk deep of in reality;--at +an age when the one was but looking forth on the sea of life, the +other had plunged in, and tried its depths. Swift himself, in whom +early disappointments and wrongs had opened a vein of bitterness that +never again closed, affords a far closer parallel to the fate of our +noble poet,[112] as well in the untimeliness of the trials he had +been doomed to encounter, as in the traces of their havoc which they +left in his character. + +That the romantic fancy of youth, which courts melancholy as an +indulgence, and loves to assume a sadness it has not had time to earn, +may have had some share in, at least, fostering the gloom by which the +mind of the young poet was overcast, I am not disposed to deny. The +circumstance, indeed, of his having, at this time, among the ornaments +of his study, a number of skulls highly polished, and placed on light +stands round the room, would seem to indicate that he rather courted +than shunned such gloomy associations.[113] Being a sort of boyish +mimickry, too, of the use to which the poet Young is said to have +applied a skull, such a display might well induce some suspicion of +the sincerity of his gloom, did we not, through the whole course of +his subsequent life and writings, track visibly the deep vein of +melancholy which nature had imbedded in his character. + +Such was the state of mind and heart,--as, from his own testimony and +that of others, I have collected it,--in which Lord Byron now set out +on his indefinite pilgrimage; and never was there a change wrought in +disposition and character to which Shakspeare's fancy of "sweet bells +jangled out of tune" more truly applied. The unwillingness of Lord +Carlisle to countenance him, and his humiliating position in +consequence, completed the full measure of that mortification towards +which so many other causes had concurred. Baffled, as he had been, in +his own ardent pursuit of affection and friendship, his sole revenge +and consolation lay in doubting that any such feelings really existed. +The various crosses he had met with, in themselves sufficiently +irritating and wounding, were rendered still more so by the high, +impatient temper with which he encountered them. What others would +have bowed to, as misfortunes, his proud spirit rose against, as +wrongs; and the vehemence of this re-action produced, at once, a +revolution throughout his whole character,[114] in which, as in +revolutions of the political world, all that was bad and irregular in +his nature burst forth with all that was most energetic and grand. The +very virtues and excellencies of his disposition ministered to the +violence of this change. The same ardour that had burned through his +friendships and loves now fed the fierce explosions of his +indignation and scorn. His natural vivacity and humour but lent a +fresher flow to his bitterness,[115] till he, at last, revelled in it +as an indulgence; and that hatred of hypocrisy, which had hitherto +only shown itself in a too shadowy colouring of his own youthful +frailties, now hurried him, from his horror of all false pretensions +to virtue, into the still more dangerous boast and ostentation of +vice. + +The following letter to his mother, written a few days before he +sailed, gives some particulars respecting the persons who composed his +suit. Robert Rushton, whom he mentions so feelingly in the postscript, +was the boy introduced, as his page, in the first Canto of Childe +Harold. + + +LETTER 34. + +TO MRS. BYRON. + +"Falmouth, June 22. 1809. + + +"Dear Mother, + +"I am about to sail in a few days; probably before this reaches you. +Fletcher begged so hard, that I have continued him in my service. If +he does not behave well abroad, I will send him back in a _transport_. +I have a German servant, (who has been with Mr. Wilbraham in Persia +before, and was strongly recommended to me by Dr. Butler, of Harrow,) +Robert and William; they constitute my whole suite. I have letters in +plenty:--you shall hear from me at the different ports I touch upon; +but you must not be alarmed if my letters miscarry. The Continent is +in a fine state--an insurrection has broken out at Paris, and the +Austrians are beating Buonaparte--the Tyrolese have risen. + +"There is a picture of me in oil, to be sent down to Newstead soon.--I +wish the Miss P----s had something better to do than carry my +miniatures to Nottingham to copy. Now they have done it, you may ask +them to copy the others, which are greater favourites than my own. As +to money matters, I am ruined--at least till Rochdale is sold; and if +that does not turn out well, I shall enter into the Austrian or +Russian service--perhaps the Turkish, if I like their manners. The +world is all before me, and I leave England without regret, and +without a wish to revisit any thing it contains, except _yourself_, +and your present residence. + +"P.S--Pray tell Mr. Rushton his son is well and doing well; so is +Murray, indeed better than I ever saw him; he will be back in about a +month. I ought to add the leaving Murray to my few regrets, as his age +perhaps will prevent my seeing him again. Robert I take with me; I +like him, because, like myself, he seems a friendless animal." + + +To those who have in their remembrance his poetical description of the +state of mind in which he now took leave of England, the gaiety and +levity of the letters I am about to give will appear, it is not +improbable, strange and startling. But, in a temperament like that of +Lord Byron, such bursts of vivacity on the surface are by no means +incompatible with a wounded spirit underneath;[116] and the light, +laughing tone that pervades these letters but makes the feeling of +solitariness that breaks out in them the more striking and affecting. + + +LETTER 35. + +TO MR. HENRY DRURY. + +"Falmouth, June 25. 1809. + + +My dear Drury, + +"We sail to-morrow in the Lisbon packet, having been detained till now +by the lack of wind, and other necessaries. These being at last +procured, by this time to-morrow evening we shall be embarked on the +_v_ide _v_orld of _v_aters, _v_or all the _v_orld like Robinson +Crusoe. The Malta vessel not sailing for some weeks, we have +determined to go by way of Lisbon, and, as my servants term it, to see +'that there Portingale'--thence to Cadiz and Gibraltar, and so on our +old route to Malta and Constantinople, if so be that Captain Kidd, our +gallant commander, understands plain sailing and Mercator, and takes +us on our voyage all according to the chart. + +"Will you tell Dr. Butler[117] that I have taken the treasure of a +servant, Friese, the native of Prussia Proper, into my service from +his recommendation. He has been all among the Worshippers of Fire in +Persia, and has seen Persepolis and all that. + +"H---- has made woundy preparations for a book on his return; 100 +pens, two gallons of japan ink, and several volumes of best blank, is +no bad provision for a discerning public. I have laid down my pen, but +have promised to contribute a chapter on the state of morals, &c. &c. + + "The cock is crowing, + I must be going, + And can no more." + +GHOST OF GAFFER THUMB. + +"Adieu.--Believe me," &c. &c. + + +LETTER 36. + +TO MR. HODGSON. + +"Falmouth, June 25. 1809. + + +"My dear Hodgson, + +"Before this reaches you, Hobhouse, two officers' wives, three +children, two waiting-maids, ditto subalterns for the troops, three +Portuguese esquires and domestics, in all nineteen souls, will have +sailed in the Lisbon packet, with the noble Captain Kidd, a gallant +commander as ever smuggled an anker of right Nantz. + +"We are going to Lisbon first, because the Malta packet has sailed, +d'ye see?--from Lisbon to Gibraltar, Malta, Constantinople, and 'all +that,' as Orator Henley said, when he put the Church, and 'all that,' +in danger. + +"This town of Falmouth, as you will partly conjecture, is no great +ways from the sea. It is defended on the sea-side by tway castles, St. +Maws and Pendennis, extremely well calculated for annoying every body +except an enemy. St. Maws is garrisoned by an able-bodied person of +fourscore, a widower. He has the whole command and sole management of +six most unmanageable pieces of ordnance, admirably adapted for the +destruction of Pendennis, a like tower of strength on the opposite +side of the Channel. We have seen St. Maws, but Pendennis they will +not let us behold, save at a distance, because Hobhouse and I are +suspected of having already taken St. Maws by a coup de main. + +"The town contains many Quakers and salt fish--the oysters have a +taste of copper, owing to the soil of a mining country--the women +(blessed be the Corporation therefor!) are flogged at the cart's tail +when they pick and steal, as happened to one of the fair sex yesterday +noon. She was pertinacious in her behaviour, and damned the mayor. + +"I don't know when I can write again, because it depends on that +experienced navigator, Captain Kidd, and the 'stormy winds that +(don't) blow' at this season. I leave England without regret--I shall +return to it without pleasure. I am like Adam, the first convict +sentenced to transportation, but I have no Eve, and have eaten no +apple but what was sour as a crab;--and thus ends my first, chapter. +Adieu. + +"Yours," &c. + + +In this letter the following lively verses were enclosed:-- + +"Falmouth Roads, June 30. 1809. + + "Huzza! Hodgson, we are going, + Our embargo's off at last; + Favourable breezes blowing + Bend the canvass o'er the mast. + From aloft the signal's streaming, + Hark! the farewell gun is fired, + Women screeching, tars blaspheming, + Tell us that our time's expired. + Here 's a rascal, + Come to task all, + Prying from the Custom-house; + Trunks unpacking, + Cases cracking, + Not a corner for a mouse + 'Scapes unsearch'd amid the racket, + Ere we sail on board the Packet. + + "Now our boatmen quit their mooring. + And all hands must ply the oar; + Baggage from the quay is lowering, + We're impatient--push from shore. + 'Have a care! that case holds liquor-- + Stop the boat--I'm sick--oh Lord!' + 'Sick, ma'am, damme, you'll be sicker + Ere you've been an hour on board.' + Thus are screaming + Men and women, + Gemmen, ladies, servants, Jacks; + Here entangling, + All are wrangling, + Stuck together close as wax.-- + Such the general noise and racket, + Ere we reach the Lisbon Packet. + + "Now we've reach'd her, lo! the captain, + Gallant Kidd, commands the crew; + Passengers their berths are clapt in, + Some to grumble, some to spew, + 'Hey day! call you that a cabin? + Why 'tis hardly three feet square; + Not enough to stow Queen Mab in-- + Who the deuce can harbour there?' + 'Who, sir? plenty-- + Nobles twenty + Did at once my vessel fill'-- + 'Did they? Jesus, + How you squeeze us! + Would to God they did so still: + Then I'd scape the heat and racket, + Of the good ship, Lisbon Packet.' + + "Fletcher! Murray! Bob! where are you? + Stretch'd along the deck like logs-- + Bear a hand, you jolly tar, you! + Here's a rope's end for the dogs. + H---- muttering fearful curses, + As the hatchway down he rolls; + Now his breakfast, now his verses, + Vomits forth--and damns our souls. + 'Here's a stanza + On Braganza-- + Help!'--'A couplet?'--'No, a cup + Of warm water.'-- + 'What's the matter?' + 'Zounds! my liver's coming up; + I shall not survive the racket + Of this brutal Lisbon Packet.' + + "Now at length we're off for Turkey, + Lord knows when we shall come back! + Breezes foul and tempests murky + May unship us in a crack. + But, since life at most a jest is, + As philosophers allow, + Still to laugh by far the best is, + Then laugh on--as I do now. + Laugh at all things, + Great and small things, + Sick or well, at sea or shore; + While we're quaffing, + Let's have laughing-- + Who the devil cares for more?-- + Some good wine! and who would lack it, + Ev'n on board the Lisbon Packet? + +"BYRON." + +On the second of July the packet sailed from Falmouth, and, after a +favourable passage of four days and a half, the voyagers reached +Lisbon, and took up their abode in that city.[118] + +The following letters, from Lord Byron to his friend Mr. Hodgson, +though written in his most light and schoolboy strain, will give some +idea of the first impressions that his residence in Lisbon made upon +him. Such letters, too, contrasted with the noble stanzas on Portugal +in "Childe Harold," will show how various were the moods of his +versatile mind, and what different aspects it could take when in +repose or on the wing. + + +LETTER 37. + +TO MR. HODGSON. + +"Lisbon, July 16. 1809. + + +"Thus far have we pursued our route, and seen all sorts of marvellous +sights, palaces, convents, &c.;--which, being to be heard in my +friend Hobhouse's forthcoming Book of Travels, I shall not anticipate +by smuggling any account whatsoever to you in a private and +clandestine manner. I must just observe, that the village of Cintra in +Estremadura is the most beautiful, perhaps, in the world. + +"I am very happy here, because I loves oranges, and talk bad Latin to +the monks, who understand it, as it is like their own,--and I goes +into society (with my pocket-pistols), and I swims in the Tagus all +across at once, and I rides on an ass or a mule, and swears +Portuguese, and have got a diarrhoea and bites from the musquitoes. +But what of that? Comfort must not be expected by folks that go a +pleasuring. + +"When the Portuguese are pertinacious, I say, 'Carracho!'--the great +oath of the grandees, that very well supplies the place of +'Damme,'--and, when dissatisfied with my neighbour, I pronounce him +'Ambra di merdo.' With these two phrases, and a third, 'Avra bouro,' +which signifieth 'Get an ass,' I am universally understood to be a +person of degree and a master of languages. How merrily we lives that +travellers be!--if we had food and raiment. But in sober sadness, any +thing is better than England, and I am infinitely amused with my +pilgrimage as far as it has gone. + +"To-morrow we start to ride post near 400 miles as far as Gibraltar, +where we embark for Melita and Byzantium. A letter to Malta will find +me, or to be forwarded, if I am absent. Pray embrace the Drury and +Dwyer, and all the Ephesians you encounter. I am writing with Butler's +donative pencil, which makes my bad hand worse. Excuse illegibility. + +"Hodgson! send me the news, and the deaths and defeats and capital +crimes and the misfortunes of one's friends; and let us hear of +literary matters, and the controversies and the criticisms. All this +will be pleasant--'Suave mari magno,' &c. Talking of that, I have been +sea-sick, and sick of the sea. + +"Adieu. Yours faithfully," &c. + + +LETTER 38. + +TO MR. HODGSON. + +"Gibraltar, August 6. 1809. + + +"I have just arrived at this place after a journey through Portugal, +and a part of Spain, of nearly 500 miles. We left Lisbon and travelled +on horseback[119] to Seville and Cadiz, and thence in the Hyperion +frigate to Gibraltar. The horses are excellent--we rode seventy miles +a day. Eggs and wine, and hard beds, are all the accommodation we +found, and, in such torrid weather, quite enough. My health is better +than in England. + +"Seville is a fine town, and the Sierra Morena, part of which we +crossed, a very sufficient mountain; but damn description, it is +always disgusting. Cadiz, sweet Cadiz!--it is the first spot in the +creation. The beauty of its streets and mansions is only excelled by +the loveliness of its inhabitants. For, with all national prejudice, I +must confess the women of Cadiz are as far superior to the English +women in beauty as the Spaniards are inferior to the English in every +quality that dignifies the name of man. Just as I began to know the +principal persons of the city, I was obliged to sail. + +"You will not expect a long letter after my riding so far 'on hollow +pampered jades of Asia.' Talking of Asia puts me in mind of Africa, +which is within five miles of my present residence. I am going over +before I go on to Constantinople. + +"Cadiz is a complete Cythera. Many of the grandees who have left +Madrid during the troubles reside there, and I do believe it is the +prettiest and cleanest town in Europe. London is filthy in the +comparison. The Spanish women are all alike, their education the same. +The wife of a duke is, in information, as the wife of a peasant,--the +wife of a peasant, in manner, equal to a duchess. Certainly they are +fascinating; but their minds have only one idea, and the business of +their lives is intrigue. + +"I have seen Sir John Carr at Seville and Cadiz, and, like Swift's +barber, have been down on my knees to beg he would not put me into +black and white. Pray remember me to the Drurys and the Davies, and +all of that stamp who are yet extant.[120] Send me a letter and news +to Malta. My next epistle shall be from Mount Caucasus or Mount Sion. +I shall return to Spain before I see England, for I am enamoured of +the country. + +Adieu, and believe me," &c. + + +In a letter to Mrs. Byron, dated a few days later, from Gibraltar, he +recapitulates the same account of his progress, only dwelling rather +more diffusely on some of the details. Thus, of Cintra and Mafra:--"To +make amends for this,[121] the village of Cintra, about fifteen miles +from the capital, is, perhaps in every respect, the most delightful in +Europe; it contains beauties of every description, natural and +artificial. Palaces and gardens rising in the midst of rocks, +cataracts, and precipices; convents on stupendous heights--a distant +view of the sea and the Tagus; and, besides (though that is a +secondary consideration), is remarkable as the scene of Sir H.D.'s +Convention.[122] It unites in itself all the wildness of the western +highlands, with the verdure of the south of France. Near this place, +about ten miles to the right, is the palace of Mafra, the boast of +Portugal, as it might be of any other country, in point of +magnificence without elegance. There is a convent annexed; the monks, +who possess large revenues, are courteous enough, and understand +Latin, so that we had a long conversation: they have a large library, +and asked me if the _English_ had _any books_ in their country?" + +An adventure which he met with at Seville, characteristic both of the +country and of himself, is thus described in the same letter to Mrs. +Byron:-- + +"We lodged in the house of two Spanish unmarried ladies, who possess +_six_ houses in Seville, and gave me a curious specimen of Spanish +manners. They are women of character, and the eldest a fine woman, the +youngest pretty, but not so good a figure as Donna Josepha. The +freedom of manner, which is general here, astonished me not a little; +and in the course of further observation, I find that reserve is not +the characteristic of the Spanish belles, who are, in general, very +handsome, with large black eyes, and very fine forms. The eldest +honoured your _unworthy_ son with very particular attention, embracing +him with great tenderness at parting (I was there but three days), +after cutting off a lock of his hair, and presenting him with one of +her own, about three feet in length, which I send, and beg you will +retain till my return. Her last words were, 'Adios, tu hermoso! me +gusto mucho.'--'Adieu, you pretty fellow! you please me much.' She +offered me a share of her apartment, which my _virtue_ induced me to +decline; she laughed, and said I had some English "amante" (lover), +and added that she was going to be married to an officer in the +Spanish army." + +Among the beauties of Cadiz, his imagination, dazzled by the +attractions of the many, was on the point, it would appear from the +following, of being fixed by _one_:-- + +"Cadiz, sweet Cadiz, is the most delightful town I ever beheld, very +different from our English cities in every respect except cleanliness +(and it is as clean as London), but still beautiful and full of the +finest women in Spain, the Cadiz belles being the Lancashire witches +of their land. Just as I was introduced and began to like the +grandees, I was forced to leave it for this cursed place; but before I +return to England I will visit it again. + +"The night before I left it, I sat in the box at the opera, with +admiral ----'s family, an aged wife and a fine daughter, Sennorita +----. The girl is very pretty, in the Spanish style; in my opinion, by +no means inferior to the English in charms, and certainly superior in +fascination. Long, black hair, dark languishing eyes, clear olive +complexions, and forms more graceful in motion than can be conceived +by an Englishman used to the drowsy listless air of his countrywomen, +added to the most becoming dress, and, at the same time, the most +decent in the world, render a Spanish beauty irresistible. + +"Miss ---- and her little brother understood a little French, and, +after regretting my ignorance of the Spanish, she proposed to become +my preceptress in that language. I could only reply by a low bow, and +express my regret that I quitted Cadiz too soon to permit me to make +the progress which would doubtless attend my studies under so charming +a directress. I was standing at the back of the box, which resembles +our Opera boxes, (the theatre is large and finely decorated, the music +admirable,) in the manner which Englishmen generally adopt, for fear +of incommoding the ladies in front, when this fair Spaniard +dispossessed an old woman (an aunt or a duenna) of her chair, and +commanded me to be seated next herself, at a tolerable distance from +her mamma. At the close of the performance I withdrew, and was +lounging with a party of men in the passage, when, _en passant_, the +lady turned round and called me, and I had the honour of attending her +to the admiral's mansion. I have an invitation on my return to Cadiz, +which I shall accept if I repass through the country on my return from +Asia." + +To these adventures, or rather glimpses of adventures, which he met +with in his hasty passage through Spain, he adverted, I recollect, +briefly, in the early part of his "Memoranda;" and it was the younger, +I think, of his fair hostesses at Seville, whom he there described +himself as making earnest love to, with the help of a dictionary. +"For some time," he said, "I went on prosperously both as a linguist +and a lover,[123] till at length, the lady took a fancy to a ring +which I wore, and set her heart on my giving it to her, as a pledge of +my sincerity. This, however, could not be;--anything but the ring, I +declared, was at her service, and much more than its value,--but the +ring itself I had made a vow never to give away." The young Spaniard +grew angry as the contention went on, and it was not long before the +lover became angry also; till, at length, the affair ended by their +separating unsuccessful on both sides. "Soon after this," said he, "I +sailed for Malta, and there parted with both my heart and ring." + +In the letter from Gibraltar, just cited, he adds--"I am going over to +Africa to-morrow; it is only six miles from this fortress. My next +stage is Cagliari in Sardinia, where I shall be presented to his +majesty. I have a most superb uniform as a court-dress, indispensable +in travelling." His plan of visiting Africa was, however, +relinquished. After a short stay at Gibraltar, during which he dined +one day with Lady Westmoreland, and another with General Castanos, he, +on the 19th of August, took his departure for Malta, in the packet, +having first sent Joe Murray and young Rushton back to England,--the +latter being unable, from ill health, to accompany him any further. +"Pray," he says to his mother, "show the lad every kindness, as he is +my great favourite."[124] + +He also wrote a letter to the father of the boy, which gives so +favourable an impression of his thoughtfulness and kindliness that I +have much pleasure in being enabled to introduce it here. + + +LETTER 39. + +TO MR. RUSHTON. + +"Gibraltar, August 15. 1809. + + +"Mr. Rushton, + +"I have sent Robert home with Mr. Murray, because the country which I +am about to travel through is in a state which renders it unsafe, +particularly for one so young. I allow you to deduct five-and-twenty +pounds a year for his education for three years, provided I do not +return before that time, and I desire he may be considered as in my +service. Let every care be taken of him, and let him be sent to +school. In case of my death I have provided enough in my will to +render him independent. He has behaved extremely well, and has +travelled a great deal for the time of his absence. Deduct the expense +of his education from your rent. + +"BYRON." + + +It was the fate of Lord Byron, throughout life, to meet, wherever he +went, with persons who, by some tinge of the extraordinary in their +own fates or characters, were prepared to enter, at once, into full +sympathy with his; and to this attraction, by which he drew towards +him all strange and eccentric spirits, he owed some of the most +agreeable connections of his life, as well as some of the most +troublesome. Of the former description was an intimacy which he now +cultivated during his short sojourn at Malta. The lady with whom he +formed this acquaintance was the same addressed by him under the name +of "Florence" in Childe Harold; and in a letter to his mother from +Malta, he thus describes her in prose:--"This letter is committed to +the charge of a very extraordinary woman, whom you have doubtless +heard of, Mrs. S---- S----, of whose escape the Marquis de Salvo +published a narrative a few years ago. She has since been shipwrecked, +and her life has been from its commencement so fertile in remarkable +incidents that in a romance they would appear improbable. She was born +at Constantinople, where her father, Baron H----, was Austrian +ambassador; married unhappily, yet has never been impeached in point +of character; excited the vengeance of Buonaparte by a part in some +conspiracy; several times risked her life; and is not yet twenty-five. +She is here on her way to England, to join her husband, being obliged +to leave Trieste, where she was paying a visit to her mother, by the +approach of the French, and embarks soon in a ship of war. Since my +arrival here. I have had scarcely any other companion. I have found +her very pretty, very accomplished, and extremely eccentric. +Buonaparte is even now so incensed against her, that her life would be +in some danger if she were taken prisoner a second time." + +The tone in which he addresses this fair heroine in Childe Harold is +(consistently with the above dispassionate account of her) that of the +purest admiration and interest, unwarmed by any more ardent +sentiment:-- + + "Sweet Florence! could another ever share + This wayward, loveless heart, it would be thine: + But, check'd by every tie, I may not dare + To cast a worthless offering at thy shrine, + Nor ask so dear a breast to feel one pang for mine. + + "Thus Harold deem'd as on that lady's eye + He look'd, and met its beam without a thought, + Save admiration, glancing harmless by," &c. &c. + +In one so imaginative as Lord Byron, who, while he infused so much of +his life into his poetry, mingled also not a little of poetry with his +life, it is difficult, in unravelling the texture of his feelings, to +distinguish at all times between the fanciful and the real. His +description here, for instance, of the unmoved and "loveless heart," +with which he contemplated even the charms of this attractive person, +is wholly at variance, not only with the anecdote from his "Memoranda" +which I have recalled, but with the statements in many of his +subsequent letters, and, above all, with one of the most graceful of +his lesser poems, purporting to be addressed to this same lady during +a thunder-storm, on his road to Zitza.[125] + +Notwithstanding, however, these counter evidences, I am much disposed +to believe that the representation of the state of heart in the +foregoing extract from Childe Harold may be regarded as the true one; +and that the notion of his being in love was but a dream that sprung +up afterwards, when the image of the fair Florence had become +idealised in his fancy, and every remembrance of their pleasant hours +among "Calypso's isles" came invested by his imagination with the warm +aspect of love. It will be recollected that to the chilled and sated +feelings which early indulgence, and almost as early disenchantment, +had left behind, he attributes in these verses the calm and +passionless regard, with which even attractions like those of Florence +were viewed by him. That such was actually his distaste, at this +period, to all real objects of love or passion (however his fancy +could call up creatures of its own to worship) there is every reason +to believe; and the same morbid indifference to those pleasures he had +once so ardently pursued still continued to be professed by him on his +return to England. No anchoret, indeed, could claim for himself much +more apathy towards all such allurements than he did at that period. +But to be _thus_ saved from temptation was a dear-bought safety, and, +at the age of three-and-twenty, satiety and disgust are but melancholy +substitutes for virtue. + +The brig of war, in which they sailed, having been ordered to convoy a +fleet of small merchant-men to Patras and Prevesa, they remained, for +two or three days, at anchor off the former place. From thence, +proceeding to their ultimate destination, and catching a sunset view +of Missolonghi in their way, they landed, on the 29th of September, at +Prevesa. + +The route which Lord Byron now took through Albania, as well as those +subsequent journeys through other parts of Turkey, which he performed +in company with his friend Mr. Hobhouse, may be traced, by such as are +desirous of details on the subject, in the account which the latter +gentleman has given of his travels; an account which, interesting from +its own excellence in every merit that should adorn such a work, +becomes still more so from the feeling that Lord Byron is, as it were, +present through its pages, and that we there follow his first +youthful footsteps into the land with whose name he has intertwined +his own for ever. As I am enabled, however, by the letters of the +noble poet to his mother, as well as by others, still more curious, +which are now, for the first time, published, to give his own rapid +and lively sketches of his wanderings, I shall content myself, after +this general reference to the volume of Mr. Hobhouse, with such +occasional extracts from its pages as may throw light upon the letters +of his friend. + + +LETTER 40. + +TO MRS. BYRON. + +"Prevesa, November 12. 1809. + + +"My dear Mother, + +"I have now been some time in Turkey: this place is on the coast, but +I have traversed the interior of the province of Albania on a visit to +the Pacha. I left Malta in the Spider, a brig of war, on the 21st of +September, and arrived in eight days at Prevesa. I thence have been +about 150 miles, as far as Tepaleen, his Highness's country palace, +where I stayed three days. The name of the Pacha is _Ali_, and he is +considered a man of the first abilities: he governs the whole of +Albania (the ancient Illyricum), Epirus, and part of Macedonia. His +son, Vely Pacha, to whom he has given me letters, governs the Morea, +and has great influence in Egypt; in short, he is one of the most +powerful men in the Ottoman empire. When I reached Yanina, the +capital, after a journey of three days over the mountains, through a +country of the most picturesque beauty, I found that Ali Pacha was +with his array in Illyricum, besieging Ibrahim Pacha in the castle of +Berat. He had heard that an Englishman of rank was in his dominions, +and had left orders in Yanina with the commandant to provide a house, +and supply me with every kind of necessary _gratis_; and, though I +have been allowed to make presents to the slaves, &c., I have not been +permitted to pay for a single article of household consumption. + +"I rode out on the vizier's horses, and saw the palaces of himself and +grandsons: they are splendid, but too much ornamented with silk and +gold. I then went over the mountains through Zitza, a village with a +Greek monastery (where I slept on my return), in the most beautiful +situation (always excepting Cintra, in Portugal) I ever beheld. In +nine days I reached Tepaleen. Our journey was much prolonged by the +torrents that had fallen from the mountains and intersected the roads. +I shall never forget the singular scene[126] on entering Tepaleen at +five in the afternoon, as the sun was going down. It brought to my +mind (with some change of _dress_, however) Scott's description of +Branksome Castle in his _Lay_, and the feudal system. The Albanians, +in their dresses, (the most magnificent in the world, consisting of a +long _white kilt_, gold-worked cloak, crimson velvet gold-laced jacket +and waistcoat, silver mounted pistols and daggers,) the Tartars with +their high caps, the Turks in their vast pelisses and turbans, the +soldiers and black slaves with the horses, the former in groups in an +immense large open gallery in front of the palace, the latter placed +in a kind of cloister below it, two hundred steeds ready caparisoned +to move in a moment, couriers entering or passing out with +despatches, the kettle-drums beating, boys calling the hour from the +minaret of the mosque, altogether, with the singular appearance of the +building itself, formed a new and delightful spectacle to a stranger. +I was conducted to a very handsome apartment, and my health enquired +after by the vizier's secretary, 'a-la-mode Turque!' + +"The next day I was introduced to Ali Pacha. I was dressed in a full +suit of staff uniform, with a very magnificent sabre, &c. The vizier +received me in a large room paved with marble; a fountain was playing +in the centre; the apartment was surrounded by scarlet ottomans. He +received me standing, a wonderful compliment from a Mussulman, and +made me sit down on his right hand. I have a Greek interpreter for +general use, but a physician of Ali's, named Femlario, who understands +Latin, acted for me on this occasion. His first question was, why, at +so early an age, I left my country?--(the Turks have no idea of +travelling for amusement.) He then said, the English minister, Captain +Leake, had told him I was of a great family, and desired his respects +to my mother; which I now, in the name of Ali Pacha, present to you. +He said he was certain I was a man of birth, because I had small ears, +curling hair, and little white hands,[127] and expressed himself +pleased with my appearance and garb. He told me to consider him as a +father whilst I was in Turkey, and said he looked on me as his son. +Indeed, he treated me like a child, sending me almonds and sugared +sherbet, fruit and sweetmeats, twenty times a day. He begged me to +visit him often, and at night, when he was at leisure. I then, after +coffee and pipes, retired for the first time. I saw him thrice +afterwards. It is singular, that the Turks, who have no hereditary +dignities, and few great families, except the Sultans, pay so much +respect to birth; for I found my pedigree more regarded than my +title.[128] + +"To-day I saw the remains of the town of Actium, near which Antony +lost the world, in a small bay, where two frigates could hardly +manoeuvre: a broken wall is the sole remnant. On another part of the +gulf stand the ruins of Nicopolis, built by Augustus in honour of his +victory. Last night I was at a Greek marriage; but this and a thousand +things more I have neither time nor space to describe. + +"I am going to-morrow, with a guard of fifty men, to Patras in the +Morea, and thence to Athens, where I shall winter. Two days ago I was +nearly lost in a Turkish ship of war, owing to the ignorance of the +captain and crew, though the storm was not violent. Fletcher yelled +after his wife, the Greeks called on all the saints, the Mussulmans on +Alla; the captain burst into tears and ran below deck, telling us to +call on God; the sails were split, the main-yard shivered, the wind +blowing fresh, the night setting in, and all our chance was to make +Corfu, which is in possession of the French, or (as Fletcher +pathetically termed it) 'a watery grave.' I did what I could to +console Fletcher, but finding him incorrigible, wrapped myself up in +my Albanian capote (an immense cloak), and lay down on deck to wait +the worst.[129] I have learnt to philosophise in my travels, and if I +had not, complaint was useless. Luckily the wind abated and only drove +us on the coast of Suli, on the main land, where we landed, and +proceeded, by the help of the natives, to Prevesa again; but I shall +not trust Turkish sailors in future, though the Pacha had ordered one +of his own galliots to take me to Patras. I am therefore going as far +as Missolonghi by land, and there have only to cross a small gulf to +get to Patras. + +"Fletcher's next epistle will be full of marvels: we were one night +lost for nine hours in the mountains in a thunder-storm,[130] and +since nearly wrecked. In both cases Fletcher was sorely bewildered, +from apprehensions of famine and banditti in the first, and drowning +in the second instance. His eyes were a little hurt by the lightning, +or crying (I don't know which), but are now recovered. When you write, +address to me at Mr. Strané's, English consul, Patras, Morea. + +"I could tell you I know not how many incidents that I think would +amuse you, but they crowd on my mind as much as they would swell my +paper, and I can neither arrange them in the one, nor put them down on +the other except in the greatest confusion. I like the Albanians much; +they are not all Turks; some tribes are Christians. But their religion +makes little difference in their manner or conduct. They are esteemed +the best troops in the Turkish service. I lived on my route, two days +at once, and three days again in a barrack at Salora, and never found +soldiers so tolerable, though I have been in the garrisons of +Gibraltar and Malta, and seen Spanish, French, Sicilian, and British +troops in abundance. I have had nothing stolen, and was always welcome +to their provision and milk. Not a week ago an Albanian chief, (every +village has its chief, who is called Primate,) after helping us out of +the Turkish galley in her distress, feeding us, and lodging my suite, +consisting of Fletcher, a Greek, two Athenians, a Greek priest, and my +companion, Mr. Hobhouse, refused any compensation but a written paper +stating that I was well received; and when I pressed him to accept a +few sequins, 'No,' he replied; 'I wish you to love me, not to pay me.' +These are his words. + +"It is astonishing how far money goes in this country. While I was in +the capital I had nothing to pay by the vizier's order; but since, +though I have generally had sixteen horses, and generally six or +seven men, the expense has not been _half_ as much as staying only +three weeks in Malta, though Sir A. Ball, the governor, gave me a +house for nothing, and I had only _one servant_. By the by, I expect +H---- to remit regularly; for I am not about to stay in this province +for ever. Let him write to me at Mr. Strané's, English consul, Patras. +The fact is, the fertility of the plains is wonderful, and specie is +scarce, which makes this remarkable cheapness. I am going to Athens to +study modern Greek, which differs much from the ancient, though +radically similar. I have no desire to return to England, nor shall +_I_, unless compelled by absolute want, and H----'s neglect; but I +shall not enter into Asia for a year or two, as I have much to see in +Greece, and I may perhaps cross into Africa, at least the Egyptian +part. Fletcher, like all Englishmen, is very much dissatisfied, though +a little reconciled to the Turks by a present of eighty piastres from +the vizier, which, if you consider every thing, and the value of +specie here, is nearly worth ten guineas English. He has suffered +nothing but from cold, heat, and vermin, which those who lie in +cottages and cross mountains in a cold country must undergo, and of +which I have equally partaken with himself; but he is not valiant, and +is afraid of robbers and tempests. I have no one to be remembered to +in England, and wish to hear nothing from it, but that you are well, +and a letter or two on business from H----, whom you may tell to +write. I will write when I can, and beg you to believe me, + +Your affectionate son, + +"BYRON." + + +About the middle of November, the young traveller took his departure +from Prevesa (the place where the foregoing letter was written), and +proceeded, attended by his guard of fifty Albanians,[131] through +Acarnania and Ætolia, towards the Morea. + + "And therefore did he take a trusty band + To traverse Acarnania's forest wide, + In war well season'd, and with labours tann'd, + Till he did greet white Achelous' tide, + And from his further bank Ætolia's wolds espied." + + CHILDE HAROLD, Canto II. + +His description of the night-scene at Utraikey (a small place situated +in one of the bays of the Gulf of Arta) is, no doubt, vividly in the +recollection of every reader of these pages; nor will it diminish their +enjoyment of the wild beauties of that picture to be made acquainted +with the real circumstances on which it was founded, in the following +animated details of the same scene by his fellow-traveller:-- + +"In the evening the gates were secured, and preparations were made for +feeding our Albanians. A goat was killed and roasted whole, and four +fires were kindled in the yard, round which the soldiers seated +themselves in parties. After eating and drinking, the greater part of +them assembled round the largest of the fires, and whilst ourselves +and the elders of the party were seated on the ground, danced round +the blaze to their own songs, in the manner before described, but +with an astonishing energy. All their songs were relations of some +robbing exploits. One of them, which detained them more than an hour, +began thus:--'When we set out from Parga there were sixty of +us:'--then came the burden of the verse, + + "'Robbers all at Parga! + Robbers all at Parga! + + "'{~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER KAPPA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER PHI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER PI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~} {~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER PI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER GAMMA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}! + {~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER KAPPA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER PHI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER PI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~} {~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER PI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER GAMMA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}!' + +And as they roared out this stave they whirled round the fire, dropped +and rebounded from their knees, and again whirled round as the chorus +was again repeated. The rippling of the waves upon the pebbly margin +where we were seated filled up the pauses of the song with a milder +and not more monotonous music. The night was very dark, but by the +flashes of the fires we caught a glimpse of the woods, the rocks, and +the lake, which, together with the wild appearance of the dancers, +presented us with a scene that would have made a fine picture in the +hands of such an artist as the author of the Mysteries of Udolpho." + +Having traversed Acarnania, the travellers passed to the Ætolian side +of the Achelous, and on the 21st of November reached Missolonghi. And +here, it is impossible not to pause, and send a mournful thought +forward to the visit which, fifteen years after, he paid to this same +spot, when, in the full meridian both of his age and fame, he came to +lay down his life as the champion of that land, through which he now +wandered a stripling and a stranger. Could some spirit have here +revealed to him the events of that interval,--have shown him, on the +one side, the triumphs that awaited him, the power his varied genius +would acquire over all hearts, alike to elevate or depress, to darken +or illuminate them,--and then place, on the other side, all the +penalties of this gift, the waste and wear of the heart through the +imagination, the havoc of that perpetual fire within, which, while it +dazzles others, consumes the possessor,--the invidiousness of such an +elevation in the eyes of mankind, and the revenge they take on him who +compels them to look up to it,--_would_ he, it may be asked, have +welcomed glory on such conditions? would he not rather have felt that +the purchase was too costly, and that such warfare with an ungrateful +world, while living, would be ill recompensed even by the immortality +it might award him afterwards? + +At Missolonghi he dismissed his whole band of Albanians, with the +exception of one, named Dervish, whom he took into his service, and +who, with Basilius, the attendant allotted him by Ali Pacha, continued +with him during the remainder of his stay in the East. After a +residence of near a fortnight at Patras, he next directed his course +to Vostizza,--on approaching which town the snowy peak of Parnassus, +towering on the other side of the Gulf, first broke on his eyes; and +in two days after, among the sacred hollows of Delphi, the stanzas, +with which that vision had inspired him, were written.[132] + +It was at this time, that, in riding along the sides of Parnassus, he +saw an unusually large flight of eagles in the air,--a phenomenon +which seems to have affected his imagination with a sort of poetical +superstition, as he, more than once, recurs to the circumstance in his +journals. Thus, "Going to the fountain of Delphi (Castri) in 1809, I +saw a flight of twelve eagles (H. says they were vultures--at least in +conversation), and I seised the omen. On the day before I composed the +lines to Parnassus (in Childe Harold), and, on beholding the birds, +had a hope that Apollo had accepted my homage. I have at least had the +name and fame of a poet during the poetical part of life (from twenty +to thirty);--whether it will _last_ is another matter." + +He has also, in reference to this journey from Patras, related a +little anecdote of his own sportsmanship, which, by all _but_ +sportsmen, will be thought creditable to his humanity. "The last bird +I ever fired at was an eaglet, on the shore of the Gulf of Lepanto, +near Vostizza. It was only wounded, and I tried to save it,--the eye +was so bright. But it pined, and died in a few days; and I never did +since, and never will, attempt the death of another bird." + +To a traveller in Greece, there are few things more remarkable than +the diminutive extent of those countries, which have filled such a +wide space in fame. "A man might very easily," says Mr. Hobhouse, "at +a moderate pace ride from Livadia to Thebes and back again between +breakfast and dinner; and the tour of all Boeotia might certainly be +made in two days without baggage." Having visited, within a very short +space of time, the fountains of Memory and Oblivion at Livadia, and +the haunts of the Ismenian Apollo at Thebes, the travellers at length +turned towards Athens, the city of their dreams, and, after crossing +Mount Cithæron, arrived in sight of the ruins of Phyle, on the evening +of Christmas-day, 1809. + +Though the poet has left, in his own verses, an ever-during testimony +of the enthusiasm with which he now contemplated the scenes around +him, it is not difficult to conceive that, to superficial observers, +Lord Byron at Athens might have appeared an untouched spectator of +much that throws ordinary travellers into, at least, verbal raptures. +For pretenders of every sort, whether in taste or morals, he +entertained, at all times, the most profound contempt; and if, +frequently, his real feelings of admiration disguised themselves under +an affected tone of indifference and mockery, it was out of pure +hostility to the cant of those, who, he well knew, praised without any +feeling at all. It must be owned, too, that while he thus justly +despised the raptures of the common herd of travellers, there were +some pursuits, even of the intelligent and tasteful, in which he took +but very little interest. With the antiquarian and connoisseur his +sympathies were few and feeble:--"I am not a collector," he says, in +one of his notes on Childe Harold, "nor an admirer of collections." +For antiquities, indeed, unassociated with high names and deeds, he +had no value whatever; and of works of art he was content to admire +the general effect, without professing, or aiming at, any knowledge of +the details. It was to nature, in her lonely scenes of grandeur and +beauty, or as at Athens, shining, unchanged, among the ruins of glory +and of art, that the true fervid homage of his whole soul was paid. In +the few notices of his travels, appended to Childe Harold, we find the +sites and scenery of the different places he visited far more fondly +dwelt upon than their classic or historical associations. To the +valley of Zitza he reverts, both in prose and verse, with a much +warmer recollection than to Delphi or the Troad; and the plain of +Athens itself is chiefly praised by him as "a more glorious prospect +than even Cintra or Istambol." Where, indeed, could Nature assert such +claims to his worship as in scenes like these, where he beheld her +blooming, in indestructible beauty, amid the wreck of all that man +deems most worthy of duration? "Human institutions," says Harris, +"perish, but Nature is permanent:"--or, as Lord Byron has amplified +this thought[133] in one of his most splendid passages:-- + + "Yet are thy skies as blue, thy crags as wild; + Sweet are thy groves, and verdant are thy fields, + Thine olive ripe as when Minerva smiled, + And still his honeyed wealth Hymettus yields; + There the blithe bee his fragrant fortress builds, + The free-born wanderer of thy mountain-air; + Apollo still thy long, long summer gilds, + Still in his beam Mendeli's marbles glare; + Art, Glory, Freedom fail, but Nature still is fair." + + CHILDE HAROLD, Canto II. + +At Athens, on this his first visit, he made a stay of between two and +three months, not a day of which he let pass without employing some of +its hours in visiting the grand monuments of ancient genius around +him, and calling up the spirit of other times among their ruins. He +made frequently, too, excursions to different parts of Attica; and it +was in one of his visits to Cape Colonna, at this time, that he was +near being seized by a party of Mainotes, who were lying hid in the +caves under the cliff of Minerva Sunias. These pirates, it appears, +were only deterred from attacking him (as a Greek, who was then their +prisoner, informed him afterwards) by a supposition that the two +Albanians, whom they saw attending him, were but part of a complete +guard he had at hand. + +In addition to all the magic of its names and scenes, the city of +Minerva possessed another sort of attraction for the poet, to which, +wherever he went, his heart, or rather imagination, was but too +sensible. His pretty song, "Maid of Athens, ere we part," is said to +have been addressed to the eldest daughter of the Greek lady at whose +house he lodged; and that the fair Athenian, when he composed these +verses, may have been the tenant, for the time being, of his fancy, is +highly possible. Theodora Macri, his hostess, was the widow of the +late English vice-consul, and derived a livelihood from letting, +chiefly to English travellers, the apartments which Lord Byron and his +friend now occupied, and of which the latter gentleman gives us the +following description;--"Our lodgings consisted of a sitting-room and +two bed-rooms, opening into a court-yard where there were five or six +lemon-trees, from which, during our residence in the place, was +plucked the fruit that seasoned the pilaf, and other national dishes +served up at our frugal table." + +The fame of an illustrious poet is not confined to his own person and +writings, but imparts a share of its splendour to whatever has been, +even remotely, connected with him; and not only ennobles the objects +of his friendships, his loves, and even his likings, but on every spot +where he has sojourned through life, leaves traces of its light that +do not easily pass away. Little did the Maid of Athens, while +listening innocently to the compliments of the young Englishman, +foresee that a day would come when he should make her name and home so +celebrated that travellers, on their return from Greece, would find +few things more interesting to their hearers than such details of +herself and her family as the following:-- + +"Our servant, who had gone before to procure accommodation, met us at +the gate and conducted us to Theodora Macri, the Consulina's, where we +at present live. This lady is the widow of the consul, and has three +lovely daughters; the eldest celebrated for her beauty, and said to be +the subject of those stanzas by Lord Byron,-- + + "'Maid of Athens, ere we part, + Give, oh, give me back my heart!' &c. + +"At Orchomenus, where stood the Temple of the Graces, I was tempted to +exclaim, 'Whither have the Graces fled?'--Little did I expect to find +them here. Yet here comes one of them with golden cups and coffee, and +another with a book. The book is a register of names, some of which +are far sounded by the voice of fame. Among them is Lord Byron's, +connected with some lines which I shall send you:-- + + "'Fair Albion, smiling, sees her son depart, + To trace the birth and nursery of art; + Noble his object, glorious is his aim, + He comes to Athens, and he--writes his name.' + +"The counterpoise by Lord Byron:-- + + "'This modest bard, like many a bard unknown, + Rhymes on our names, but wisely hides his own; + But yet whoe'er he be, to say no worse, + His name would bring more credit than his verse.' + +"The mention of the three Athenian Graces will, I can foresee, rouse +your curiosity, and fire your imagination; and I may despair of your +farther attention till I attempt to give you some description of them. +Their apartment is immediately opposite to ours, and if you could see +them, as we do now, through the gently waving aromatic plants before +our window, you would leave your heart in Athens. + +"Theresa, the Maid of Athens, Catinco, and Mariana, are of middle +stature. On the crown of the head of each is a red Albanian skull-cap, +with a blue tassel spread out and fastened down like a star. Near the +edge or bottom of the skull-cap is a handkerchief of various colours +bound round their temples. The youngest wears her hair loose, falling +on her shoulders,--the hair behind descending down the back nearly to +the waist, and, as usual, mixed with silk. The two eldest generally +have their hair bound, and fastened under the handkerchief. Their +upper robe is a pelisse edged with fur, hanging loose down to the +ankles; below is a handkerchief of muslin covering the bosom, and +terminating at the waist, which is short; under that, a gown of +striped silk or muslin, with a gore round the swell of the loins, +falling in front in graceful negligence;--white stockings and yellow +slippers complete their attire. The two eldest have black, or dark +hair and eyes; their visage oval, and complexion somewhat pale, with +teeth of dazzling whiteness. Their cheeks are rounded, and noses +straight, rather inclined to aquiline. The youngest, Mariana, is very +fair, her face not so finely rounded, but has a gayer expression than +her sisters', whose countenances, except when the conversation has +something of mirth in it, may be said to be rather pensive. Their +persons are elegant, and their manners pleasing and lady-like, such as +would be fascinating in any country. They possess very considerable +powers of conversation, and their minds seem to be more instructed +than those of the Greek women in general. With such attractions it +would, indeed, be remarkable, if they did not meet with great +attentions from the travellers who occasionally are resident in +Athens. They sit in the eastern style, a little reclined, with their +limbs gathered under them on the divan, and without shoes. Their +employments are the needle, tambouring, and reading. + +"I have said that I saw these Grecian beauties through the waving +aromatic plants before their window. This, perhaps, has raised your +imagination somewhat too high, in regard to their condition. You may +have supposed their dwelling to have every attribute of eastern +luxury. The golden cups, too, may have thrown a little witchery over +your excited fancy. Confess, do you not imagine that the doors + + "'Self-open'd into halls, where, who can tell + What elegance and grandeur wide expand, + The pride of Turkey and of Persia's land; + Soft quilts on quilts, on carpets carpets spread, + And couches stretch'd around in seemly band, + And endless pillows rise to prop the head, + So that each spacious room was one full swelling bed?' + +"You will shortly perceive the propriety of my delaying, till now, to +inform you that the aromatic plants which I have mentioned are neither +more nor less than a few geraniums and Grecian balms, and that the +room in which the ladies sit is quite unfurnished, the walls neither +painted nor decorated by 'cunning hand.' Then, what would have become +of the Graces had I told you sooner that a single room is all they +have, save a little closet and a kitchen? You see how careful I have +been to make the first impression good; not that they do not merit +every praise, but that it is in man's august and elevated nature to +think a little slightingly of merit, and even of beauty, if not +supported by some worldly show. Now, I shall communicate to you a +secret, but in the lowest whisper. + +"These ladies, since the death of the consul, their father, depend on +strangers living in their spare room and closet,--which we now occupy. +But, though so poor, their virtue shines as conspicuously as their +beauty. + +"Not all the wealth of the East, or the complimentary lays even of the +first of England's poets, could render them so truly worthy of love +and admiration."[134] + +Ten weeks had flown rapidly away, when the unexpected offer of a +passage in an English sloop of war to Smyrna induced the travellers to +make immediate preparations for departure, and, on the 5th of March, +they reluctantly took leave of Athens. "Passing," says Mr. Hobhouse, +"through the gate leading to the Piraeus, we struck into the +olive-wood on the road going to Salamis, galloping at a quick pace, in +order to rid ourselves, by hurry, of the pain of parting." He adds, +"We could not refrain from looking back, as we passed rapidly to the +shore, and we continued to direct our eyes towards the spot, where we +had caught the last glimpse of the Theséum and the ruins of the +Parthenon through the vistas in the woods, for many minutes after the +city and the Acropolis had been totally hidden from our view." + +At Smyrna Lord Byron took up his residence in the house of the +consul-general, and remained there, with the exception of two or three +days employed in a visit to the ruins of Ephesus, till the 11th of +April. It was during this time, as appears from a memorandum of his +own, that the two first Cantos of Childe Harold, which he had begun +five months before at Ioannina, were completed. The memorandum alluded +to, which I find prefixed to his original manuscript of the poem, is +as follows:-- + + "Byron, Ioannina in Albania. + Begun October 31st, 1809; + Concluded Canto 2d, Smyrna, + March 28th. 1810. + + "BYRON." + +From Smyrna the only letter, at all interesting, which I am enabled to +present to the reader, is the following:-- + + +LETTER 41. + +TO MRS. BYRON. + +"Smyrna, March 19. 1810. + + +"Dear Mother, + +"I cannot write you a long letter; but as I know you will not be sorry +to receive any intelligence of my movements, pray accept what I can +give. I have traversed the greatest part of Greece, besides Epirus, +&c. &c., resided ten weeks at Athens, and am now on the Asiatic side +on my way to Constantinople. I have just returned from viewing the +ruins of Ephesus, a day's journey from Smyrna. I presume you have +received a long letter I wrote from Albania, with an account of my +reception by the Pacha of the province. + +"When I arrive at Constantinople, I shall determine whether to proceed +into Persia or return, which latter I do not wish, if I can avoid it. +But I have no intelligence from Mr. H----, and but one letter from +yourself. I shall stand in need of remittances whether I proceed or +return. I have written to him repeatedly, that he may not plead +ignorance of my situation for neglect. I can give you no account of +any thing, for I have not time or opportunity, the frigate sailing +immediately. Indeed the further I go the more my laziness increases, +and my aversion to letter-writing becomes more confirmed. I have +written to no one but to yourself and Mr. H----, and these are +communications of business and duty rather than of inclination. + +"F---- is very much disgusted with his fatigues, though he has +undergone nothing that I have not shared. He is a poor creature; +indeed English servants are detestable travellers. I have, besides +him, two Albanian soldiers and a Greek interpreter; all excellent in +their way. Greece, particularly in the vicinity of Athens, is +delightful,--cloudless skies and lovely landscapes. But I must reserve +all account of my adventures till we meet. I keep no journal, but my +friend H. writes incessantly. Pray take care of Murray and Robert, and +tell the boy it is the most fortunate thing for him that he did not +accompany me to Turkey. Consider this as merely a notice of my safety, +and believe me, + +yours, &c. &c. + +"BYRON." + + +On the 11th of April he left Smyrna in the Salsette frigate, which had +been ordered to Constantinople, for the purpose of conveying the +ambassador, Mr. Adair, to England, and, after an exploratory visit to +the ruins of Troas, arrived, at the beginning of the following month, +in the Dardanelles.--While the frigate was at anchor in these straits, +the following letters to his friends Mr. Drury and Mr. Hodgson were +written. + + +LETTER 42. + +TO MR. HENRY DRURY. + +"Salsette frigate, May 3. 1810. + + +"My dear Drury, + +"When I left England, nearly a year ago, you requested me to write to +you--I will do so. I have crossed Portugal, traversed the south of +Spain, visited Sardinia, Sicily, Malta, and thence passed into Turkey, +where I am still wandering. I first landed in Albania, the ancient +Epirus, where we penetrated as far as Mount Tomarit--excellently +treated by the chief AH Pacha,--and, after journeying through Illyria, +Chaonia, &c., crossed the Gulf of Actium, with a guard of fifty +Albanians, and passed the Achelous in our route through Acarnania and +Ætolia. We stopped a short time in the Morea, crossed the Gulf of +Lepanto, and landed at the foot of Parnassus;--saw all that Delphi +retains, and so on to Thebes and Athens, at which last we remained ten +weeks. + +"His Majesty's ship, Pylades, brought us to Smyrna; but not before we +had topographised Attica, including, of course, Marathon and the +Sunian promontory. From Smyrna to the Troad (which we visited when at +anchor, for a fortnight, off the tomb of Antilochus) was our next +stage; and now we are in the Dardanelles, waiting for a wind to +proceed to Constantinople. + +"This morning I _swam_ from _Sestos_ to _Abydos_. The immediate +distance is not above a mile, but the current renders it +hazardous;--so much so that I doubt whether Leander's conjugal +affection must not have been a little chilled in his passage to +Paradise. I attempted it a week ago, and failed,--owing to the north +wind, and the wonderful rapidity of the tide,--though I have been from +my childhood a strong swimmer. But, this morning being calmer, I +succeeded, and crossed the 'broad Hellespont' in an hour and ten +minutes. + +"Well, my dear sir, I have left my home, and seen part of Africa and +Asia, and a tolerable portion of Europe. I have been with generals and +admirals, princes and pashas, governors and ungovernables,--but I have +not time or paper to expatiate. I wish to let you know that I live +with a friendly remembrance of you, and a hope to meet you again; and +if I do this as shortly as possible, attribute it to anything but +forgetfulness. + +"Greece, ancient and modern, you know too well to require description. +Albania, indeed, I have seen more of than any Englishman (except a Mr. +Leake), for it is a country rarely visited, from the savage character +of the natives, though abounding in more natural beauties than the +classical regions of Greece,--which, however, are still eminently +beautiful, particularly Delphi and Cape Colonna in Attica. Yet these +are nothing to parts of Illyria and Epirus, where places without a +name, and rivers not laid down in maps, may, one day, when more known, +be justly esteemed superior subjects, for the pencil and the pen, to +the dry ditch of the Ilissus and the bogs of Boeotia. + +"The Troad is a fine field for conjecture and snipe-shooting, and a +good sportsman and an ingenious scholar may exercise their feet and +faculties to great advantage upon the spot;--or, if they prefer +riding, lose their way (as I did) in a cursed quagmire of the +Scamander, who wriggles about as if the Dardan virgins still offered +their wonted tribute. The only vestige of Troy, or her destroyers, are +the barrows supposed to contain the carcasses of Achilles, Antilochus, +Ajax, &c.;--but Mount Ida is still in high feather, though the +shepherds are now-a-days not much like Ganymede. But why should I say +more of these things? are they not written in the _Boke_ of _Gell_? +and has not H. got a journal? I keep none, as I have renounced +scribbling. + +"I see not much difference between ourselves and the Turks, save that +we have ----, and they have none--that they have long dresses, and we +short, and that we talk much, and they little. They are sensible +people. Ali Pacha told me he was sure I was a man of rank, because I +had _small ears_ and _hands_, and _curling hair_. By the by, I speak +the Romaic, or modern Greek, tolerably. It does not differ from the +ancient dialects so much as you would conceive: but the pronunciation +is diametrically opposite. Of verse, except in rhyme, they have no +idea. + +"I like the Greeks, who are plausible rascals,--with all the Turkish +vices, without their courage. However, some are brave, and all are +beautiful, very much resembling the busts of Alcibiades:--the women +not quite so handsome. I can swear in Turkish; but, except one +horrible oath, and 'pimp,' and 'bread,' and 'water,' I have got no +great vocabulary in that language. They are extremely polite to +strangers of any rank, properly protected; and as I have two servants +and two soldiers, we get on with great éclat. We have been +occasionally in danger of thieves, and once of shipwreck,--but always +escaped. + +"Of Spain I sent some account to our Hodgson, but have subsequently +written to no one, save notes to relations and lawyers, to keep them +out of my premises. I mean to give up all connection, on my return, +with many of my best friends--as I supposed them--and to snarl all my +life. But I hope to have one good-humoured laugh with you, and to +embrace Dwyer, and pledge Hodgson, before I commence cynicism. + +"Tell Dr. Butler I am now writing with the gold pen he gave me before +I left England, which is the reason my scrawl is more unintelligible +than usual. I have been at Athens and seen plenty of these reeds for +scribbling, some of which he refused to bestow upon me, because +topographic Gell had brought them from Attica. But I will not +describe,--no--you must be satisfied with simple detail till my +return, and then we will unfold the flood-gates of colloquy. I am in a +thirty-six gun frigate, going up to fetch Bob Adair from +Constantinople, who will have the honour to carry this letter. + +"And so H.'s _boke_ is out,[135] with some sentimental sing-song of my +own to fill up,--and how does it take, eh? and where the devil is the +second edition of my Satire, with additions? and my name on the title +page? and more lines tagged to the end, with a new exordium and what +not, hot from my anvil before I cleared the Channel? The Mediterranean +and the Atlantic roll between me and criticism; and the thunders of +the Hyperborean Review are deafened by the roar of the Hellespont. + +"Remember me to Claridge, if not translated to college, and present to +Hodgson assurances of my high consideration. Now, you will ask, what shall +I do next? and I answer, I do not know. I may return in a few months, but +I have intents and projects after visiting Constantinople.--Hobhouse, +however, will probably be back in September. + +"On the 2d of July we have left Albion one year--'oblitus meorum +obliviscendus et illis.' I was sick of my own country, and not much +prepossessed in favour of any other; but I 'drag on' 'my chain' +without 'lengthening it at each remove.' I am like the Jolly Miller, +caring for nobody, and not cared for. All countries are much the same +in my eyes. I smoke, and stare at mountains, and twirl my mustachios +very independently. I miss no comforts, and the musquitoes that rack +the morbid frame of H. have, luckily for me, little effect on mine, +because I live more temperately. + +"I omitted Ephesus in my catalogue, which I visited during my sojourn +at Smyrna; but the Temple has almost perished, and St. Paul need not +trouble himself to epistolise the present brood of Ephesians, who have +converted a large church built entirely of marble into a mosque, and I +don't know that the edifice looks the worse for it. + +"My paper is full, and my ink ebbing--good afternoon! If you address +to me at Malta, the letter will be forwarded wherever I may be. H. +greets you; he pines for his poetry,--at least, some tidings of it. I +almost forgot to tell you that I am dying for love of three Greek +girls at Athens, sisters. I lived in the same house. Teresa, Mariana, +and Katinka,[136] are the names of these divinities,--all of them +under fifteen. + +Your {~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER PI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER STIGMA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER DELTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER STIGMA~}, + +"BYRON." + + +LETTER 43. + +TO MR. HODGSON. + +"Salsette frigate, in the Dardanelles, off Abydos, May 5. 1810. + + +"I am on my way to Constantinople, after a tour through Greece, +Epirus, &c., and part of Asia Minor, some particulars of which I have +just communicated to our friend and host, H. Drury. With these, then, +I shall not trouble you; but as you will perhaps be pleased to hear +that I am well, &c., I take the opportunity of our ambassador's return +to forward the few lines I have time to despatch. We have undergone +some inconveniences, and incurred partial perils, but no events worthy +of communication, unless you will deem it one that two days ago I swam +from Sestos to Abydos. This, with a few alarms from robbers, and some +danger of shipwreck in a Turkish galliot six months ago, a visit to a +Pacha, a passion for a married woman at Malta, a challenge to an +officer, an attachment to three Greek girls at Athens, with a great +deal of buffoonery and fine prospects, form all that has distinguished +my progress since my departure from Spain. + +"H. rhymes and journalises; I stare and do nothing--unless smoking can +be deemed an active amusement. The Turks take too much care of their +women to permit them to be scrutinised; but I have lived a good deal +with the Greeks, whose modern dialect I can converse in enough for my +purposes. With the Turks I have also some male acquaintances--female +society is out of the question. I have been very well treated by the +Pachas and Governors, and have no complaint to make of any kind. +Hobhouse will one day inform you of all our adventures,--were I to +attempt the recital, neither _my_ paper nor _your_ patience would hold +out during the operation. + +"Nobody, save yourself, has written to me since I left England; but +indeed I did not request it. I except my relations, who write quite as +often as I wish. Of Hobhouse's volume I know nothing, except that it +is out; and of my second edition I do not even know _that_, and +certainly do not, at this distance, interest myself in the matter. I +hope you and Bland roll down the stream of sale with rapidity. + +"Of my return I cannot positively speak, but think it probable +Hobhouse will precede me in that respect. We have been very nearly one +year abroad. I should wish to gaze away another, at least, in these +ever-green climates; but I fear business, law business, the worst of +employments, will recall me previous to that period, if not very +quickly. If so, you shall have due notice. + +"I hope you will find me an altered personage,--do not mean in body, +but in manner, for I begin to find out that nothing but virtue will do +in this d----d world. I am tolerably sick of vice, which I have tried +in its agreeable varieties, and mean, on my return, to cut all my +dissolute acquaintance, leave off wine and carnal company, and betake +myself to politics and decorum. I am very serious and cynical, and a +good deal disposed to moralise; but fortunately for you the coming +homily is cut off by default of pen and defection of paper. + +"Good morrow! If you write, address to me at Malta, whence your +letters will be forwarded. You need not remember me to any body, but +believe me yours with all faith, + +"BYRON." + + +From Constantinople, where he arrived on the 14th of May, he addressed +four or five letters to Mrs. Byron, in almost every one of which his +achievement in swimming across the Hellespont is commemorated. The +exceeding pride, indeed, which he took in this classic feat (the +particulars of which he has himself abundantly detailed) may be cited +among the instances of that boyishness of character, which he carried +with him so remarkably into his maturer years, and which, while it +puzzled distant observers of his conduct, was not among the least +amusing or attaching of his peculiarities to those who knew him +intimately. So late as eleven years from this period, when some +sceptical traveller ventured to question, after all, the +practicability of Leander's exploit, Lord Byron, with that jealousy on +the subject of his own personal prowess which he retained from +boyhood, entered again, with fresh zeal, into the discussion, and +brought forward two or three other instances of his own feats in +swimming,[137] to corroborate the statement originally made by him. + +In one of these letters to his mother from Constantinople, dated May +24th, after referring, as usual, to his notable exploit, "in humble +imitation of Leander, of amorous memory, though," he adds, "I had no +Hero to receive me on the other side of the Hellespont," he continues +thus:-- + +"When our ambassador takes his leave I shall accompany him to see the +sultan, and afterwards probably return to Greece. I have heard nothing +of Mr. Hanson but one remittance, without any letter from that legal +gentleman. If you have occasion for any pecuniary supply, pray use my +funds as far as they _go_ without reserve; and, lest this should not +be enough, in my next to Mr. Hanson I will direct him to advance any +sum you may want, leaving it to your discretion how much, in the +present state of my affairs, you may think proper to require. I have +already seen the most interesting parts of Turkey in Europe and Asia +Minor, but shall not proceed further till I hear from England: in the +mean time I shall expect occasional supplies, according to +circumstances; and shall pass my summer amongst my friends, the Greeks +of the Morea." + +He then adds, with his usual kind solicitude about his favourite +servants:-- + +"Pray take care of my boy Robert, and the old man Murray. It is +fortunate they returned; neither the youth of the one, nor the age of +the other, would have suited the changes of climate, and fatigue of +travelling." + + +LETTER 44. + +TO MR. HENRY DRURY. + +"Constantinople, June 17. 1810. + +"Though I wrote to you so recently, I break in upon you again to +congratulate you on a child being born, as a letter from Hodgson +apprizes me of that event, in which I rejoice. + +"I am just come from an expedition through the Bosphorus to the Black +Sea and the Cyanean Symplegades, up which last I scrambled with as +great risk as ever the Argonauts escaped in their hoy. You remember +the beginning of the nurse's dole in the Medea, of which I beg you to +take the following translation, done on the summit:-- + + "Oh how I wish that an embargo + Had kept in port the good ship Argo! + Who, still unlaunch'd from Grecian docks, + Had never passed the Azure rocks; + But now I fear her trip will be a + Damn'd business for my Miss Medea, &c. &c., + +as it very nearly was to me;--for, had not this sublime passage been +in my head, I should never have dreamed of ascending the said rocks, +and bruising my carcass in honour of the ancients. + +"I have now sat on the Cyaneans, swam from Sestos to Abydos (as I +trumpeted in my last), and, after passing through the Morea again, +shall set sail for Santo Maura, and toss myself from the Leucadian +promontory;--surviving which operation, I shall probably join you in +England. H., who will deliver this, is bound straight for these parts; +and, as he is bursting with his travels, I shall not anticipate his +narratives, but merely beg you not to believe one word he says, but +reserve your ear for me, if you have any desire to be acquainted with +the truth. + +"I am bound for Athens once more, and thence to the Morea; but my stay +depends so much on my caprice, that I can say nothing of its probable +duration. I have been out a year already, and may stay another; but I +am quicksilver, and say nothing positively. We are all very much +occupied doing nothing, at present. We have seen every thing but the +mosques, which we are to view with a firman on Tuesday next. But of +these and other sundries let H. relate with this proviso, that _I_ am +to be referred to for authenticity; and I beg leave to contradict all +those things whereon he lays particular stress. But, if he soars at +any time into wit, I give you leave to applaud, because that is +necessarily stolen from his fellow-pilgrim. Tell Davies that H. has +made excellent use of his best jokes in many of his Majesty's ships of +war; but add, also, that I always took care to restore them to the +right owner; in consequence of which he (Davies) is no less famous by +water than by land, and reigns unrivalled in the cabin as in the +'Cocoa Tree.' + +"And Hodgson has been publishing more poesy--I wish he would send me +his 'Sir Edgar,' and 'Bland's Anthology,' to Malta, where they will be +forwarded. In my last, which I hope you received, I gave an outline of +the ground we have covered. If you have not been overtaken by this +despatch, H.'s tongue is at your service. Remember me to Dwyer, who +owes me eleven guineas. Tell him to put them in my banker's hands at +Gibraltar or Constantinople. I believe he paid them once, but that +goes for nothing, as it was an annuity. + +"I wish you would write. I have heard from Hodgson frequently. Malta +is my post-office. I mean to be with you by next Montem. You remember +the last,--I hope for such another; but after having swam across the +'broad Hellespont,' I disdain Datchett.[138] Good afternoon! + +I am yours, very sincerely, + +"BYRON." + + +About ten days after the date of this letter, we find another +addressed to Mrs. Byron, which--with much that is merely a repetition +of what he had detailed in former communications--contains also a good +deal worthy of being extracted. + + +LETTER 45. + +TO MRS. BYRON. + + +"Dear Mother, + +"Mr. Hobhouse, who will forward or deliver this and is on his return +to England, can inform you of our different movements, but I am very +uncertain as to my own return. He will probably be down in Notts, some +time or other; but Fletcher, whom I send back as an incumbrance +(English servants are sad travellers), will supply his place in the +interim, and describe our travels, which have been tolerably +extensive. + +"I remember Mahmout Pacha, the grandson of Ali Pacha, at Yanina, (a +little fellow of ten years of age, with large black eyes, which our +ladies would purchase at any price, and those regular features which +distinguish the Turks,) asked me how I came to travel so young, +without anybody to take care of me. This question was put by the +little man with all the gravity of threescore. I cannot now write +copiously; I have only time to tell you that I have passed many a +fatiguing, but never a tedious moment; and all that I am afraid of is +that I shall contract a gipsylike wandering disposition, which will +make home tiresome to me: this, I am told, is very common with men in +the habit of peregrination, and, indeed, I feel it so. On the third of +May I swam from _Sestos_ to _Abydos_. You know the story of Leander, +but I had no _Hero_ to receive me at landing. + +"I have been in all the principal mosques by the virtue of a firman: +this is a favour rarely permitted to infidels, but the ambassador's +departure obtained it for us. I have been up the Bosphorus into the +Black Sea, round the walls of the city, and, indeed, I know more of it +by sight than I do of London. I hope to amuse you some winter's +evening with the details, but at present you must excuse me;--I am not +able to write long letters in June. I return to spend my summer in +Greece. + +"F. is a poor creature, and requires comforts that I can dispense +with. He is very sick of his travels, but you must not believe his +account of the country. He sighs for ale, and idleness, and a wife, +and the devil knows what besides. I have not been disappointed or +disgusted. I have lived with the highest and the lowest. I have been +for days in a Pacha's palace, and have passed many a night in a +cowhouse, and I find the people inoffensive and kind. I have also +passed some time with the principal Greeks in the Morea and Livadia, +and, though inferior to the Turks, they are better than the Spaniards, +who, in their turn, excel the Portuguese. Of Constantinople you will +find many descriptions in different travels; but Lady Wortley errs +strangely when she says, 'St. Paul's would cut a strange figure by St. +Sophia's.' I have been in both, surveyed them inside and out +attentively. St. Sophia's is undoubtedly the most interesting from its +immense antiquity, and the circumstance of all the Greek emperors, +from Justinian, having been crowned there, and several murdered at the +altar, besides the Turkish sultans who attend it regularly. But it is +inferior in beauty and size to some of the mosques, particularly +'Soleyman,' &c., and not to be mentioned in the same page with St. +Paul's (I speak like a _Cockney_). However, I prefer the Gothic +cathedral of Seville to St. Paul's, St. Sophia's, and any religious +building I have ever seen. + +"The walls of the Seraglio are like the walls of Newstead gardens, +only higher, and much in the same order; but the ride by the walls of +the city, on the land side, is beautiful. Imagine four miles of +immense triple battlements, covered with ivy, surmounted with 218 +towers, and, on the other side of the road, Turkish burying-grounds +(the loveliest spots on earth), full of enormous cypresses. I have +seen the ruins of Athens, of Ephesus, and Delphi. I have traversed +great part of Turkey, and many other parts of Europe, and some of +Asia; but I never beheld a work of nature or art which yielded an +impression like the prospect on each side from the Seven Towers to the +end of the Golden Horn. + +"Now for England. I am glad to hear of the progress of 'English +Bards,' &c.;--of course, you observed I have made great additions to +the new edition. Have you received my picture from Sanders, Vigo Lane, +London? It was finished and paid for long before I left England: pray, +send for it. You seem to be a mighty reader of magazines: where do you +pick up all this intelligence, quotations, &c. &c.? Though I was happy +to obtain my seat without the assistance of Lord Carlisle, I had no +measures to keep with a man who declined interfering as my relation on +that occasion, and I have done with him, though I regret distressing +Mrs. Leigh, poor thing!--I hope she is happy. + +"It is my opinion that Mr. B---- ought to marry Miss R----. Our first +duty is not to do evil; but, alas! that is impossible: our next is to +repair it, if in our power. The girl is his equal: if she were his +inferior, a sum of money and provision for the child would be some, +though a poor, compensation: as it is, he should marry her. I will +have no gay deceivers on my estate, and I shall not allow my tenants a +privilege I do not permit myself--_that_ of debauching each other's +daughters. God knows, I have been guilty of many excesses; but, as I +have laid down a resolution to reform, and lately kept it, I expect +this Lothario to follow the example, and begin by restoring this girl +to society, or, by the beard of my father! he shall hear of it. Pray +take some notice of Robert, who will miss his master: poor boy, he was +very unwilling to return. I trust you are well and happy. It will be a +pleasure to hear from you. + +Believe me yours very sincerely, + +"BYRON. + +"P.S.--How is Joe Murray? + +"P.S.--I open my letter again to tell you that Fletcher having +petitioned to accompany me into the Morea, I have taken him with me, +contrary to the intention expressed in my letter." + + +The reader has not, I trust, passed carelessly over the latter part of +this letter. There is a healthfulness in the moral feeling so +unaffectedly expressed in it, which seems to answer for a heart sound +at the core, however passion might have scorched it. Some years after, +when he had become more confirmed in that artificial tone of banter, +in which it was, unluckily, his habit to speak of his own good +feelings, as well as those of others, however capable he might still +have been of the same amiable sentiments, I question much whether the +perverse fear of being thought desirous to pass for moral would not +have prevented him from thus naturally and honestly avowing them. + +The following extract from a communication addressed to a +distinguished monthly work, by a traveller who, at this period, +happened to meet with Lord Byron at Constantinople, bears sufficiently +the features of authenticity to be presented, without hesitation, to +my readers. + +"We were interrupted in our debate by the entrance of a stranger, +whom, on the first glance, I guessed to be an Englishman, but lately +arrived at Constantinople. He wore a scarlet coat, richly embroidered +with gold, in the style of an English aide-de-camp's dress uniform, +with two heavy epaulettes. His countenance announced him to be about +the age of two-and-twenty. His features were remarkably delicate, and +would have given him a feminine appearance, but for the manly +expression of his fine blue eyes. On entering the inner shop, he took +off his feathered cocked-hat, and showed a head of curly auburn hair, +which improved in no small degree the uncommon beauty of his face. The +impression which his whole appearance made upon my mind was such, that +it has ever since remained deeply engraven on it; and although fifteen +years have since gone by, the lapse of time has not in the slightest +degree impaired the freshness of the recollection. He was attended by +a Janissary attached to the English embassy, and by a person who +professionally acted as a Cicerone to strangers. These circumstances, +together with a very visible lameness in one of his legs, convinced me +at once he was Lord Byron. I had already heard of his Lordship, and of +his late arrival in the Salsette frigate, which had come up from the +Smyrna station, to fetch away Mr. Adair, our ambassador to the Porte. +Lord Byron had been previously travelling in Epirus and Asia Minor, +with his friend Mr. Hobhouse, and had become a great amateur of +smoking: he was conducted to this shop for the purpose of purchasing a +few pipes. The indifferent Italian, in which language he spoke to his +Cicerone, and the latter's still more imperfect Turkish, made it +difficult for the shopkeeper to understand their wishes, and as this +seemed to vex the stranger, I addressed him in English, offering to +interpret for him. When his Lordship thus discovered me to be an +Englishman, he shook me cordially by the hand, and assured me, with +some warmth in his manner, that he always felt great pleasure when he +met with a countryman abroad. His purchase and my bargain being +completed, we walked out together, and rambled about the streets, in +several of which I had the pleasure of directing his attention to some +of the most remarkable curiosities in Constantinople. The peculiar +circumstances under which our acquaintance took place, established +between us, in one day, a certain degree of intimacy, which two or +three years' frequenting each other's company in England would most +likely not have accomplished. I frequently addressed him by his name, +but he did not think of enquiring how I came to learn it, nor of +asking mine. His Lordship had not yet laid the foundation of that +literary renown which he afterwards acquired; on the contrary, he was +only known as the author of his Hours of Idleness; and the severity +with which the Edinburgh Reviewers had criticised that production was +still fresh in every English reader's recollection. I could not, +therefore, be supposed to seek his acquaintance from any of those +motives of vanity which have actuated so many others since: but it was +natural that, after our accidental rencontre, and all that passed +between us on that occasion, I should, on meeting him in the course of +the same week at dinner at the English ambassador's, have requested +one of the secretaries, who was intimately acquainted with him, to +introduce me to him in regular form. His Lordship testified his +perfect recollection of me, but in the coldest manner, and immediately +after turned his back on me. This unceremonious proceeding, forming a +striking contrast with previous occurrences, had something so strange +in it, that I was at a loss how to account for it, and felt at the +same time much disposed to entertain a less favourable opinion of his +Lordship than his apparent frankness had inspired me with at our first +meeting. It was not, therefore, without surprise, that, some days +after, I saw him in the streets, coming up to me with a smile of good +nature in his countenance. He accosted me in a familiar manner, and, +offering me his hand, said,--'I am an enemy to English etiquette, +especially out of England; and I always make my own acquaintance +without waiting for the formality of an introduction. If you have +nothing to do, and are disposed for another ramble, I shall be glad of +your company.' There was that irresistible attraction in his manner, +of which those who have had the good fortune to be admitted into his +intimacy can alone have felt the power in his moments of good humour; +and I readily accepted his proposal. We visited again more of the most +remarkable curiosities of the capital, a description of which would +here be but a repetition of what a hundred travellers have already +detailed with the utmost minuteness and accuracy; but his Lordship +expressed much disappointment at their want of interest. He praised +the picturesque beauties of the town itself, and its surrounding +scenery; and seemed of opinion that nothing else was worth looking at. +He spoke of the Turks in a manner which might have given reason to +suppose that he had made a long residence among them, and closed his +observations with these words:--'The Greeks will, sooner or later, +rise against them; but if they do not make haste, I hope Buonaparte +will come, and drive the useless rascals away.'"[139] + +During his stay at Constantinople, the English minister, Mr. Adair, +being indisposed the greater part of the time, had but few +opportunities of seeing him. He, however, pressed him, with much +hospitality, to accept a lodging at the English palace, which Lord +Byron, preferring the freedom of his homely inn, declined. At the +audience granted to the ambassador, on his taking leave, by the +Sultan, the noble poet attended in the train of Mr. Adair,--having +shown an anxiety as to the place he was to hold in the procession, not +a little characteristic of his jealous pride of rank. In vain had the +minister assured him that no particular station could be allotted to +him;--that the Turks, in their arrangements for the ceremonial, +considered only the persons connected with the embassy, and neither +attended to, nor acknowledged, the precedence which our forms assign +to nobility. Seeing the young peer still unconvinced by these +representations, Mr. Adair was, at length, obliged to refer him to an +authority, considered infallible on such points of etiquette, the old +Austrian Internuncio;--on consulting whom, and finding his opinions +agree fully with those of the English minister, Lord Byron declared +himself perfectly satisfied. + +On the 14th of July his fellow-traveller and himself took their +departure from Constantinople on board the Salsette frigate,--Mr. +Hobhouse with the intention of accompanying the ambassador to England, +and Lord Byron with the resolution of visiting his beloved Greece +again. To Mr. Adair he appeared, at this time, (and I find that Mr. +Bruce, who met him afterwards at Athens, conceived the same impression +of him,) to be labouring under great dejection of spirits. One +circumstance related to me, as having occurred in the course of the +passage, is not a little striking. Perceiving, as he walked the deck, +a small yataghan, or Turkish dagger, on one of the benches, he took +it up, unsheathed it, and, having stood for a few moments +contemplating the blade, was heard to say, in an under voice, "I +should like to know how a person feels after committing a murder!" In +this startling speech we may detect, I think, the germ of his future +Giaours and Laras. This intense _wish_ to explore the dark workings of +the passions was what, with the aid of imagination, at length +generated the _power_; and that faculty which entitled him afterwards +to be so truly styled "the searcher of dark bosoms," may be traced to, +perhaps, its earliest stirrings in the sort of feeling that produced +these words. + +On their approaching the island of Zea, he expressed a wish to be put +on shore. Accordingly, having taken leave of his companions, he was +landed upon this small island, with two Albanians, a Tartar, and one +English servant; and in one of his manuscripts he has himself +described the proud, solitary feeling with which he stood to see the +ship sail swiftly away--leaving him there, in a land of strangers +alone. + +A few days after, he addressed the following letters to Mrs. Byron +from Athens. + + +LETTER 46. + +TO MRS. BYRON. + +"Athens, July 25. 1810. + + +"Dear Mother, + +"I have arrived here in four days from Constantinople, which is +considered as singularly quick, particularly for the season of the +year. You northern gentry can have no conception of a Greek summer; +which, however, is a perfect frost compared with Malta and Gibraltar, +where I reposed myself in the shade last year, after a gentle gallop +of four hundred miles, without intermission, through Portugal and +Spain. You see, by my date, that I am at Athens again, a place which I +think I prefer, upon the whole, to any I have seen. + +"My next movement is to-morrow into the Morea, where I shall probably +remain a month or two, and then return to winter here, if I do not +change my plans, which, however, are very variable, as you may +suppose; but none of them verge to England. + +"The Marquis of Sligo, my old fellow-collegian, is here, and wishes to +accompany me into the Morea. We shall go together for that purpose. +Lord S. will afterwards pursue his way to the capital; and Lord B., +having seen all the wonders in that quarter, will let you know what he +does next, of which at present he is not quite certain. Malta is my +perpetual post-office, from which my letters are forwarded to all +parts of the habitable globe:--by the by, I have now been in Asia, +Africa, and the east of Europe, and, indeed, made the most of my time, +without hurrying over the most interesting scenes of the ancient +world. F----, after having been toasted, and roasted, and baked, and +grilled, and eaten by all sorts of creeping things, begins to +philosophise, is grown a refined as well as a resigned character, and +promises at his return to become an ornament to his own parish, and a +very prominent person in the future family pedigree of the F----s, who +I take to be Goths by their accomplishments, Greeks by their +acuteness, and ancient Saxons by their appetite. He (F----) begs +leave to send half-a-dozen sighs to Sally his spouse, and wonders +(though I do not) that his ill written and worse spelt letters have +never come to hand; as for that matter, there is no great loss in +either of our letters, saving and except that I wish you to know we +are well, and warm enough at this present writing, God knows. You must +not expect long letters at present, for they are written with the +sweat of my brow, I assure you. It is rather singular that Mr. H---- +has not written a syllable since my departure. Your letters I have +mostly received as well as others; from which I conjecture that the +man of law is either angry or busy. + +"I trust you like Newstead, and agree with your neighbours; but you +know _you_ are a _vixen_--is not that a dutiful appellation? Pray, +take care of my books and several boxes of papers in the hands of +Joseph; and pray leave me a few bottles of champagne to drink, for I +am very thirsty;--but I do not insist on the last article, without you +like it. I suppose you have your house full of silly women, prating +scandalous things. Have you ever received my picture in oil from +Sanders, London? It has been paid for these sixteen months: why do you +not get it? My suite, consisting of two Turks, two Greeks, a Lutheran, +and the nondescript, Fletcher, are making so much noise, that I am +glad to sign myself + +"Yours, &c. &c. + +BYRON." + + +A day or two after the date of this, he left Athens in company with +the Marquis of Sligo. Having travelled together as far as Corinth, +they from thence branched off in different directions,--Lord Sligo to +pay a visit to the capital of the Morea, and Lord Byron to proceed to +Patras, where he had some business, as will be seen by the following +letter, with the English consul, Mr. Strané:-- + + +LETTER 47. + +TO MRS. BYRON. + +"Patras, July 30. 1810. + + +"Dear Madam, + +"In four days from Constantinople, with a favourable wind, I arrived +in the frigate at the island of Ceos, from whence I took a boat to +Athens, where I met my friend the Marquis of Sligo, who expressed a +wish to proceed with me as far as Corinth. At Corinth we separated, he +for Tripolitza, I for Patras, where I had some business with the +consul, Mr. Strané, in whose house I now write. He has rendered me +every service in his power since I quitted Malta on my way to +Constantinople, whence I have written to you twice or thrice. In a few +days I visit the Pacha at Tripolitza, make the tour of the Morea, and +return again to Athens, which at present is my head-quarters. The heat +is at present intense. In England, if it reaches 98°, you are all on +fire: the other day, in travelling between Athens and Megara, the +thermometer was at 125°!!! Yet I feel no inconvenience; of course I am +much bronzed, but I live temperately, and never enjoyed better +health. + +"Before I left Constantinople, I saw the Sultan (with Mr. Adair), and +the interior of the mosques, things which rarely happen to travellers. +Mr. Hobhouse is gone to England: I am in no hurry to return, but have +no particular communications for your country, except my surprise at +Mr. H----'s silence, and my desire that he will remit regularly. I +suppose some arrangement has been made with regard to Wymondham and +Rochdale. Malta is my post-office, or to Mr. Strané, consul-general, +Patras, Morea. You complain of my silence--I have written twenty or +thirty times within the last year: never less than twice a month, and +often more. If my letters do not arrive, you must not conclude that we +are eaten, or that there is a war, or a pestilence, or famine: neither +must you credit silly reports, which I dare say you have in Notts., as +usual. I am very well, and neither more nor less happy than I usually +am; except that I am very glad to be once more alone, for I was sick +of my companion,--not that he was a bad one, but because my nature +leads me to solitude, and that every day adds to this disposition. If +I chose, here are many men who would wish to join me--one wants me to +go to Egypt, another to Asia, of which I have seen enough. The greater +part of Greece is already my own, so that I shall only go over my old +ground, and look upon my old seas and mountains, the only +acquaintances I ever found improve upon me. + +"I have a tolerable suite, a Tartar, two Albanians, an interpreter, +besides Fletcher; but in this country these are easily maintained. +Adair received me wonderfully well, and indeed I have no complaints +against any one. Hospitality here is necessary, for inns are not. I +have lived in the houses of Greeks, Turks, Italians, and +English--to-day in a palace, to-morrow in a cowhouse; this day with a +Pacha, the next with a shepherd. I shall continue to write briefly, +but frequently, and am glad to hear from you; but you fill your +letters with things from the papers, as if English papers were not +found all over the world. I have at this moment a dozen before me. +Pray take care of my books, and believe me, my dear mother, + +yours," &c. + + +The greater part of the two following months he appears to have +occupied in making a tour of the Morea;[140] and the very +distinguished reception he met with from Veley Pacha, the son of Ali, +is mentioned with much pride, in more than one of his letters. + +On his return from this tour to Patras, he was seized with a fit of +illness, the particulars of which are mentioned in the following +letter to Mr. Hodgson; and they are, in many respects, so similar to +those of the last fatal malady, with which, fourteen years afterwards, +he was attacked, in nearly the same spot, that, livelily as the +account is written, it is difficult to read it without melancholy:-- + + +LETTER 48. + +TO MR. HODGSON. + +"Patras, Morea, October 3. 1810. + + +"As I have just escaped from a physician and a fever, which confined +me five days to bed, you won't expect much 'allegrezza' in the ensuing +letter. In this place there is an indigenous distemper, which, when +the wind blows from the Gulf of Corinth (as it does five months out of +six), attacks great and small, and makes woful work with visiters. +Here be also two physicians, one of whom trusts to his genius (never +having studied)--the other to a campaign of eighteen months against +the sick of Otranto, which he made in his youth with great effect. + +"When I was seized with my disorder, I protested against both these +assassins;--but what can a helpless, feverish, toast-and-watered poor +wretch do? In spite of my teeth and tongue, the English consul, my +Tartar, Albanians, dragoman, forced a physician upon me, and in three +days vomited and glystered me to the last gasp. In this state I made +my epitaph--take it:-- + + "Youth, Nature, and relenting Jove, + To keep my lamp _in_ strongly strove; + But Romanelli was so stout, + He beat all three--and _blew_ it _out_. + +But Nature and Jove, being piqued at my doubts, did, in fact, at last, +beat Romanelli, and here I am, well but weakly, at your service. + +"Since I left Constantinople, I have made a tour of the Morea, and +visited Veley Pacha, who paid me great honours, and gave me a pretty +stallion. H. is doubtless in England before even the date of this +letter:--he bears a despatch from me to your bardship. He writes to me +from Malta, and requests my journal, if I keep one. I have none, or he +should have it; but I have replied in a consolatory and exhortatory +epistle, praying him to abate three and sixpence in the price of his +next boke seeing that half-a-guinea is a price not to be given for any +thing save an opera ticket. + +"As for England, it is long since I have heard from it. Every one at +all connected with my concerns is asleep, and you are my only +correspondent, agents excepted. I have really no friends in the world; +though all my old school companions are gone forth into that world, +and walk about there in monstrous disguises, in the garb of guardsmen, +lawyers, parsons, fine gentlemen, and such other masquerade dresses. +So, I here shake hands and cut with all these busy people, none of +whom write to me. Indeed I ask it not;--and here I am, a poor +traveller and heathenish philosopher, who hath perambulated the +greatest part of the Levant, and seen a great quantity of very +improvable land and sea, and, after all, am no better than when I set +out--Lord help me! + +"I have been out fifteen months this very day, and I believe my +concerns will draw me to England soon; but of this I will apprise you +regularly from Malta. On all points Hobhouse will inform you, if you +are curious as to our adventures. I have seen some old English papers +up to the 15th of May. I see the 'Lady of the Lake' advertised. Of +course it is in his old ballad style, and pretty. After all, Scott is +the best of them. The end of all scribblement is to amuse, and he +certainly succeeds there. I long to read his new romance. + +"And how does 'Sir Edgar?' and your friend Bland? I suppose you are +involved in some literary squabble. The only way is to despise all +brothers of the quill. I suppose you won't allow me to be an author, +but I contemn you all, you dogs!--I do. + +"You don't know D----s, do you? He had a farce ready for the stage +before I left England, and asked me for a prologue, which I promised, +but sailed in such a hurry, I never penned a couplet. I am afraid to +ask after his drama, for fear it should be damned--Lord forgive me for +using such a word! but the pit, Sir, you know the pit--they will do +those things in spite of merit. I remember this farce from a curious +circumstance. When Drury Lane was burnt to the ground, by which +accident Sheridan and his son lost the few remaining shillings they +were worth, what doth my friend D---- do? Why, before the fire was +out, he writes a note to Tom Sheridan, the manager of this combustible +concern, to enquire whether this farce was not converted into fuel, +with about two thousand other unactable manuscripts, which of course +were in great peril, if not actually consumed. Now was not this +characteristic?--the ruling passions of Pope are nothing to it. Whilst +the poor distracted manager was bewailing the loss of a building only +worth 300,000 _l._, together with some twenty thousand pounds of rags +and tinsel in the tiring rooms, Bluebeard's elephants, and all +that--in comes a note from a scorching author, requiring at his hands +two acts and odd scenes of a farce!! + +"Dear H., remind Drury that I am his well-wisher, and let Scrope +Davies be well affected towards me. I look forward to meeting you at +Newstead, and renewing our old champagne evenings with all the glee of +anticipation. I have written by every opportunity, and expect +responses as regular as those of the liturgy, and somewhat longer. As +it is impossible for a man in his senses to hope for happy days, let +us at least look forward to merry ones, which come nearest to the +other in appearance, if not in reality; and in such expectations, + +I remain," &c. + + +He was a good deal weakened and thinned by his illness at Patras, and, +on his return to Athens, standing one day before a looking-glass, he +said to Lord Sligo--"How pale I look!--I should like, I think, to die +of a consumption."--"Why of a consumption?" asked his friend. "Because +then (he answered) the women would all say, 'See that poor Byron--how +interesting he looks in dying!'" In this anecdote,--which, slight as +it is, the relater remembered, as a proof of the poet's consciousness +of his own beauty,--may be traced also the habitual reference of his +imagination to that sex, which, however he affected to despise it, +influenced, more or less, the flow and colour of all his thoughts. + +He spoke often of his mother to Lord Sligo, and with a feeling that +seemed little short of aversion. "Some time or other," he said, "I +will tell you _why_ I feel thus towards her."--A few days after, when +they were bathing together in the Gulf of Lepanto, he referred to this +promise, and, pointing to his naked leg and foot, exclaimed--"Look +there!--it is to her false delicacy at my birth I owe that deformity; +and yet, as long as I can remember, she has never ceased to taunt and +reproach me with it. Even a few days before we parted, for the last +time, on my leaving England, she, in one of her fits of passion, +uttered an imprecation upon me, praying that I might prove as ill +formed in mind as I am in body!" His look and manner, in relating this +frightful circumstance, can be conceived only by those who have ever +seen him in a similar state of excitement. + +The little value he had for those relics of ancient art, in pursuit of +which he saw all his classic fellow-travellers so ardent, was, like +every thing he ever thought or felt, unreservedly avowed by him. Lord +Sligo having it in contemplation to expend some money in digging for +antiquities, Lord Byron, in offering to act as his agent, and to see +the money, at least, honestly applied, said--"You may safely trust +_me_--I am no dilettante. Your connoisseurs are all thieves; but I +care too little for these things ever to steal them." + +The system of thinning himself, which he had begun before he left +England, was continued still more rigidly abroad. While at Athens, he +took the hot bath for this purpose, three times a week,--his usual +drink being vinegar and water, and his food seldom more than a little +rice. + +Among the persons, besides Lord Sligo, whom he saw most of at this +time, were Lady Hester Stanhope and Mr. Bruce. One of the first +objects, indeed, that met the eyes of these two distinguished +travellers, on their approaching the coast of Attica, was Lord Byron, +disporting in his favourite element under the rocks of Cape Colonna. +They were afterwards made acquainted with each other by Lord Sligo; +and it was in the course, I believe, of their first interview, at his +table, that Lady Hester, with that lively eloquence for which she is +so remarkable, took the poet briskly to task for the depreciating +opinion, which, as she understood, he entertained of all female +intellect. Being but little inclined, were he even able, to sustain +such a heresy, against one who was in her own person such an +irresistible refutation of it, Lord Byron had no other refuge from the +fair orator's arguments than in assent and silence; and this well-bred +deference being, in a sensible woman's eyes, equivalent to concession, +they became, from thenceforward, most cordial friends. In recalling +some recollections of this period in his "Memoranda," after relating +the circumstance of his being caught bathing by an English party at +Sunium, he added, "This was the beginning of the most delightful +acquaintance which I formed in Greece." He then went on to assure Mr. +Bruce, if ever those pages should meet his eyes, that the days they +had passed together at Athens were remembered by him with pleasure. + +During this period of his stay in Greece, we find him forming one of +those extraordinary friendships,--if attachment to persons so inferior +to himself can be called by that name,--of which I have already +mentioned two or three instances in his younger days, and in which the +pride of being a protector, and the pleasure of exciting gratitude, +seem to have constituted to his mind the chief, pervading charm. The +person, whom he now adopted in this manner, and from similar feelings +to those which had inspired his early attachments to the cottage-boy +near Newstead, and the young chorister at Cambridge, was a Greek +youth, named Nicolo Giraud, the son, I believe, of a widow lady, in +whose house the artist Lusieri lodged. In this young man he appears to +have taken the most lively, and even brotherly, interest;--so much so, +as not only to have presented to him, on their parting, at Malta, a +considerable sum of money, but to have subsequently designed for him, +as the reader will learn, a still more munificent, as well as +permanent, provision. + +Though he occasionally made excursions through Attica and the Morea, +his head-quarters were fixed at Athens, where he had taken lodgings in +a Franciscan convent, and, in the intervals of his tours, employed +himself in collecting materials for those notices on the state of +modern Greece which he has appended to the second Canto of Childe +Harold. In this retreat, also, as if in utter defiance of the "genius +loci," he wrote his "Hints from Horace,"--a Satire which, impregnated +as it is with London life from beginning to end, bears the date, +"Athens, Capuchin Convent, March 12. 1811." + +From the few remaining letters addressed to his mother, I shall +content myself with selecting the two following:-- + + +LETTER 49. + +TO MRS. BYRON. + +"Athens, January 14, 1811. + + +"My dear Madam, + +"I seize an occasion to write as usual, shortly, but frequently, as +the arrival of letters, where there exists no regular communication, +is, of course, very precarious. I have lately made several small tours +of some hundred or two miles about the Morea, Attica, &c., as I have +finished my grand giro by the Troad, Constantinople, &c., and am +returned down again to Athens. I believe I have mentioned to you more +than once that I swam (in imitation of Leander, though without his +lady) across the Hellespont, from Sestos to Abydos. Of this, and all +other particulars, F., whom I have sent home with papers, &c., will +apprise you. I cannot find that he is any loss; being tolerably master +of the Italian and modern Greek languages, which last I am also +studying with a master, I can order and discourse more than enough for +a reasonable man. Besides, the perpetual lamentations after beef and +beer, the stupid, bigoted contempt for every thing foreign, and +insurmountable incapacity of acquiring even a few words of any +language, rendered him, like all other English servants, an +incumbrance. I do assure you, the plague of speaking for him, the +comforts he required (more than myself by far), the pilaws (a Turkish +dish of rice and meat) which he could not eat, the wines which he +could not drink, the beds where he could not sleep, and the long list +of calamities, such as stumbling horses, want of _tea!!!_ &c., which +assailed him, would have made a lasting source of laughter to a +spectator, and inconvenience to a master. After all, the man is honest +enough, and, in Christendom, capable enough; but in Turkey, Lord +forgive me! my Albanian soldiers, my Tartars and Janissary, worked for +him and us too, as my friend Hobhouse can testify. + +"It is probable I may steer homewards in spring; but to enable me to +do that, I must have remittances. My own funds would have lasted me +very well; but I was obliged to assist a friend, who, I know, will pay +me; but, in the mean time, I am out of pocket. At present, I do not +care to venture a winter's voyage, even if I were otherwise tired of +travelling; but I am so convinced of the advantages of looking at +mankind instead of reading about them, and the bitter effects of +staying at home with all the narrow prejudices of an islander, that I +think there should be a law amongst us, to set our young men abroad, +for a term, among the few allies our wars have left us. + +"Here I see and have conversed with French, Italians, Germans, Danes, +Greeks, Turks, Americans, &c. &c. &c.; and without losing sight of my +own, I can judge of the countries and manners of others. Where I see +the superiority of England (which, by the by, we are a good deal +mistaken about in many things,) I am pleased, and where I find her +inferior, I am at least enlightened. Now, I might have stayed, smoked +in your towns, or fogged in your country, a century, without being +sure of this, and without acquiring any thing more useful or amusing +at home. I keep no journal, nor have I any intention of scribbling my +travels. I have done with authorship; and if, in my last production, I +have convinced the critics or the world I was something more than they +took me for, I am satisfied; nor will I hazard _that reputation_ by a +future effort. It is true I have some others in manuscript, but I +leave them for those who come after me; and, if deemed worth +publishing, they may serve to prolong my memory when I myself shall +cease to remember. I have a famous Bavarian artist taking some views +of Athens, &c. &c. for me. This will be better than scribbling, a +disease I hope myself cured of. I hope, on my return, to lead a quiet, +recluse life, but God knows and does best for us all; at least, so +they say, and I have nothing to object, as, on the whole, I have no +reason to complain of my lot. I am convinced, however, that men do +more harm to themselves than ever the devil could do to them. I trust +this will find you well, and as happy as we can be; you will, at +least, be pleased to hear I am so, and yours ever." + + +LETTER 50. + +TO MRS. BYRON. + +"Athens, February 28. 1811. + + +"Dear Madam, + +"As I have received a firman for Egypt, &c., I shall proceed to that +quarter in the spring, and I beg you will state to Mr. H. that it is +necessary to further remittances. On the subject of Newstead, I answer +as before, _No._ If it is necessary to sell, sell Rochdale. Fletcher +will have arrived by this time with my letters to that purport. I will +tell you fairly, I have, in the first place, no opinion of funded +property; if, by any particular circumstances, I shall be led to adopt +such a determination, I will, at all events, pass my life abroad, as +my only tie to England is Newstead, and, that once gone, neither +interest nor inclination lead me northward. Competence in your country +is ample wealth in the East, such is the difference in the value of +money and the abundance of the necessaries of life; and I feel myself +so much a citizen of the world, that the spot where I can enjoy a +delicious climate, and every luxury, at a less expense than a common +college life in England, will always be a country to me; and such are +in fact the shores of the Archipelago. This then is the +alternative--if I preserve Newstead, I return; if I sell it, I stay +away. I have had no letters since yours of June, but I have written +several times, and shall continue, as usual, on the same plan. + +Believe me, yours ever, + +BYRON. + +"P.S.--I shall most likely see you in the course of the summer, but, +of course, at such a distance, I cannot specify any particular +month." The voyage to Egypt, which he appears from this letter to +have contemplated, was, probably for want of the expected remittances, +relinquished; and, on the 3d of June, he set sail from Malta, in the +Volage frigate, for England, having, during his short stay at Malta, +suffered a severe attack of the tertian fever. The feelings with which +he returned home may be collected from the following melancholy +letters. + + +LETTER 51. + +TO MR. HODGSON. + +"Volage frigate, at sea, June 29. 1811. + + +"In a week, with a fair wind, we shall be at Portsmouth, and on the 2d +of July, I shall have completed (to a day) two years of peregrination, +from which I am returning with as little emotion as I set out. I +think, upon the whole, I was more grieved at leaving Greece than +England, which I am impatient to see, simply because I am tired of a +long voyage. + +"Indeed, my prospects are not very pleasant. Embarrassed in my private +affairs, indifferent to public, solitary without the wish to be +social, with a body a little enfeebled by a succession of fevers, but +a spirit, I trust, yet unbroken, I am returning _home_ without a hope, +and almost without a desire. The first thing I shall have to encounter +will be a lawyer, the next a creditor, then colliers, farmers, +surveyors, and all the agreeable attachments to estates out of repair, +and contested coal-pits. In short, I am sick and sorry, and when I +have a little repaired my irreparable affairs, away I shall march, +either to campaign in Spain, or back again to the East, where I can +at least have cloudless skies and a cessation from impertinence. + +"I trust to meet, or see you, in town, or at Newstead, whenever you +can make it convenient--I suppose you are in love and in poetry as +usual. That husband, H. Drury, has never written to me, albeit I have +sent him more than one letter;--but I dare say the poor man has a +family, and of course all his cares are confined to his circle. + + 'For children fresh expenses get, + And Dicky now for school is fit.' + +WARTON. + +If you see him, tell him I have a letter for him from Tucker, a +regimental chirurgeon and friend of his, who prescribed for me, ---- +and is a very worthy man, but too fond of hard words. I should be too +late for a speech-day, or I should probably go down to Harrow. I +regretted very much in Greece having omitted to carry the Anthology +with me--I mean Bland and Merivale's.--What has Sir Edgar done? And +the Imitations and Translations--where are they? I suppose you don't +mean to let the public off so easily, but charge them home with a +quarto. For me, I am 'sick of fops, and poesy, and prate,' and shall +leave the 'whole Castilian state' to Bufo, or any body else. But you +are a sentimental and sensibilitous person, and will rhyme to the end +of the chapter. Howbeit, I have written some 4000 lines, of one kind +or another, on my travels. + +"I need not repeat that I shall be happy to see you. I shall be in +town about the 8th, at Dorant's Hotel, in Albemarle Street, and +proceed in a few days to Notts., and thence to Rochdale on business. + +"I am, here and there, yours," &c. + + +LETTER 52. + +TO MRS. BYRON. + +"Volage frigate, at sea, June 25. 1811. + + +"Dear Mother, + +"This letter, which will be forwarded on our arrival at Portsmouth, +probably about the 4th of July, is begun about twenty-three days after +our departure from Malta. I have just been two years (to a day, on the +2d of July) absent from England, and I return to it with much the same +feelings which prevailed on my departure, viz. indifference; but +within that apathy I certainly do not comprise yourself, as I will +prove by every means in my power. You will be good enough to get my +apartments ready at Newstead; but don't disturb yourself, on any +account, particularly mine, nor consider me in any other light than as +a visiter. I must only inform you that for a long time I have been +restricted to an entire vegetable diet, neither fish nor flesh coming +within my regimen; so I expect a powerful stock of potatoes, greens, +and biscuit: I drink no wine. I have two servants, middle-aged men, +and both Greeks. It is my intention to proceed first to town, to see +Mr. H----, and thence to Newstead, on my way to Rochdale. I have only +to beg you will not forget my diet, which it is very necessary for me +to observe. I am well in health, as I have generally been, with the +exception of two agues, both of which I quickly got over. + +"My plans will so much depend on circumstances, that I shall not +venture to lay down an opinion on the subject. My prospects are not +very promising, but I suppose we shall wrestle through life like our +neighbours; indeed, by H.'s last advices, I have some apprehension of +finding Newstead dismantled by Messrs. Brothers, &c., and he seems +determined to force me into selling it, but he will be baffled. I +don't suppose I shall be much pestered with visiters; but if I am, you +must receive them, for I am determined to have nobody breaking in upon +my retirement: you know that I never was fond of society, and I am +less so than before. I have brought you a shawl, and a quantity of +attar of roses, but these I must smuggle, if possible. I trust to find +my library in tolerable order. + +"Fletcher is no doubt arrived. I shall separate the mill from Mr. +B----'s farm, for his son is too gay a deceiver to inherit both, and +place Fletcher in it, who has served me faithfully, and whose wife is +a good woman; besides, it is necessary to sober young Mr. B----, or he +will people the parish with bastards. In a word, if he had seduced a +dairy-maid, he might have found something like an apology; but the +girl is his equal, and in high life or low life reparation is made in +such circumstances. But I shall not interfere further than (like +Buonaparte) by dismembering Mr. B.'s _kingdom_, and erecting part of +it into a principality for field-marshal Fletcher! I hope you govern +my little _empire_ and its sad load of national debt with a wary hand. +To drop my metaphor, I beg leave to subscribe myself yours, &c. + +"P.S.--This letter was written to be sent from Portsmouth, but, on +arriving there, the squadron was ordered to the Nore, from whence I +shall forward it. This I have not done before, supposing you might be +alarmed by the interval mentioned in the letter being longer than +expected between our arrival in port and my appearance at Newstead." + + +LETTER 53. + +TO MR. HENRY DRURY. + +"Volage frigate, off Ushant, July 17. 1811. + + +"My dear Drury, + +"After two years' absence (on the 2d) and some odd days, I am +approaching your country. The day of our arrival you will see by the +outside date of my letter. At present, we are becalmed comfortably, +close to Brest Harbour;--I have never been so near it since I left +Duck Puddle. We left Malta thirty-four days ago, and have had a +tedious passage of it. You will either see or hear from or of me, soon +after the receipt of this, as I pass through town to repair my +irreparable affairs; and thence I want to go to Notts. and raise +rents, and to Lanes. and sell collieries, and back to London and pay +debts,--for it seems I shall neither have coals nor comfort till I go +down to Rochdale in person. + +"I have brought home some marbles for Hobhouse;--for myself, four +ancient Athenian skulls,[141] dug out of sarcophagi--a phial of Attic +hemlock[142]--four live tortoises--a greyhound (died on the +passage)--two live Greek servants, one an Athenian, t'other a Yaniote, +who can speak nothing but Romaic and Italian--and _myself_, as Moses +in the Vicar of Wakefield says, slily, and I may say it too, for I +have as little cause to boast of my expedition as he had of his to the +fair. + +"I wrote to you from the Cyanean Rocks to tell you I had swam from +Sestos to Abydos--have you received my letter? Hodgson I suppose is +four deep by this time. What would he have given to have seen, like +me, the _real Parnassus_, where I robbed the Bishop of Chrissæ of a +book of geography!--but this I only call plagiarism, as it was done +within an hour's ride of Delphi." + + +END OF THE FIRST VOLUME. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 1: Published in two volumes, 4to.] + +[Footnote 2: It is almost unnecessary to apprise the reader that the +paragraph at the bottom of p. 222. vol. iv. was written _before_ the +appearance of this extraordinary paper.] + +[Footnote 3: From p. 4. to 11. vol. v. inclusive.] + +[Footnote 4: In p. 232. vol. iv. however, the reader will find it +alluded to, and in terms such as conduct so disinterested deserves.] + +[Footnote 5: June 12, 1828.] + +[Footnote 6: "In the park of Horseley," says Thoroton, "there was a +castle, some of the ruins whereof are yet visible, called Horestan +Castle, which was the chief mansion of his (Ralph de Burun's) +successors."] + +[Footnote 7: The priory of Newstead had been founded and dedicated to +God and the Virgin, by Henry II.; and its monks, who were canons +regular of the order of St. Augustine, appear to have been peculiarly +the objects of royal favour, no less in spiritual than in temporal +concerns. During the lifetime of the fifth Lord Byron, there was found +in the lake at Newstead,--where it is supposed to have been thrown for +concealment by the monks,--a large brass eagle, in the body of which, +on its being sent to be cleaned, was discovered a secret aperture, +concealing within it a number of old legal papers connected with the +rights and privileges of the foundation. At the sale of the old lord's +effects in 1776-7, this eagle, together with three candelabra, found +at the same time, was purchased by a watch-maker of Nottingham (by +whom the concealed manuscripts were discovered), and having from his +hands passed into those of Sir Richard Kaye, a prebendary of +Southwell, forms at present a very remarkable ornament of the +cathedral of that place. A curious document, said to have been among +those found in the eagle, is now in the possession of Colonel Wildman, +containing a grant of full pardon from Henry V. of every possible +crime (and there is a tolerably long catalogue enumerated) which the +monks might have committed previous to the 8th of December +preceding:--"_Murdris_, per ipsos _post decimum nonum diem Novembris_, +ultimo præteritum perpetratis, si quæ fuerint, _exceptis_."] + +[Footnote 8: The Earl of Shrewsbury.] + +[Footnote 9: Afterwards Admiral.] + +[Footnote 10: The following particulars respecting the amount of Mrs. +Byron's fortune before marriage, and its rapid disappearance +afterwards, are, I have every reason to think, from the authentic +source to which I am indebted for them, strictly correct:-- + +"At the time of the marriage, Miss Gordon was possessed of about 3000 +_l._ in money, two shares of the Aberdeen Banking Company, the estates +of Gight and Monkshill, and the superiority of two salmon fishings on +Dee. Soon after the arrival of Mr. and Mrs. Byron Gordon in Scotland, +it appeared that Mr. Byron had involved himself very deeply in debt, +and his creditors commenced legal proceedings for the recovery of +their money. The cash in hand was soon paid away,--the bank shares +were disposed of at 600 _l._ (now worth 5000 _l._)--timber on the estate +was cut down and sold to the amount of 1500_l._--the farm of Monkshill +and superiority of the fishings, affording a freehold qualification, +were disposed of at 480_l._; and, in addition to these sales, within a +year after the marriage, 8000_l._ was borrowed upon a mortgage on the +estate, granted by Mrs. Byron Gordon to the person who lent the money. + +"In March, 1786, a contract of marriage in the Scotch form was drawn +up and signed by the parties. In the course of the summer of that +year, Mr. and Mrs. Byron left Gight, and never returned to it; the +estate being, in the following year, sold to Lord Haddo for the sum of +17,850_l._, the whole of which was applied to the payment of Mr. +Byron's debts, with the exception of 1122_l._, which remained as a +burden on the estate, (the interest to be applied to paying a jointure +of 55_l._ 11_s._ 1_d._ to Mrs. Byron's grandmother, the principal +reverting, at her death, to Mrs. Byron,) and 3000_l._ vested in +trustees for Mrs. Byron's separate use, which was lent to Mr. +Carsewell of Ratharllet, in Fifeshire." + +"A strange occurrence," says another of my informants, "took place +previous to the sale of the lands. All the doves left the house of +Gight and came to Lord Haddo's, and so did a number of herons, which +had built their nests for many years in a wood on the banks of a large +loch, called the Hagberry Pot. When this was told to Lord Haddo, he +pertinently replied, 'Let the birds come, and do them no harm, for the +land will soon follow;' which it actually did."] + +[Footnote 11: It appears that she several times changed her residence +during her stay at Aberdeen, as there are two other houses pointed +out, where she lodged for some time; one situated in Virginia Street, +and the other, the house of a Mr. Leslie, I think, in Broad Street.] + +[Footnote 12: By her advances of money to Mr. Byron (says an authority +I have already cited) on the two occasions when he visited Aberdeen, +as well as by the expenses incurred in furnishing the floor occupied +by her, after his death, in Broad Street, she got in debt to the +amount of 300 _l._, by paying the interest on which her income was +reduced to 135 _l._ On this, however, she contrived to live without +increasing her debt; and on the death of her grandmother, when she +received the 122 _l._ set apart for that lady's annuity, discharged the +whole.] + +[Footnote 13: In Long Acre. The present master of this school is Mr. +David Grant, the ingenious editor of a collection of "Battles and War +Pieces," and of a work of much utility, entitled "Class Book of Modern +Poetry."] + +[Footnote 14: The old porter, too, at the College, "minds weel" the +little boy, with the red jacket and nankeen trowsers, whom he has so +often turned out of the College court-yard.] + +[Footnote 15: "He was," says one of my informants, "a good hand at +marbles, and could drive one farther than most boys. He also excelled +at 'Bases,' a game which requires considerable swiftness of foot."] + +[Footnote 16: On examining the quarterly lists kept at the +grammar-school of Aberdeen, in which the names of the boys are set +down according to the station each holds in his class, it appears that +in April of the year 1794, the name of Byron, then in the second +class, stands twenty-third in a list of thirty-eight boys. In the +April of 1798, however, he had risen to be fifth in the fourth class, +consisting of twenty-seven boys, and had got ahead of several of his +contemporaries, who had previously always stood before him.] + +[Footnote 17: Notwithstanding the lively recollections expressed in +this poem, it is pretty certain, from the testimony of his nurse, that +he never was at the mountain itself, which stood some miles distant +from his residence, more than twice.] + +[Footnote 18: The Island.] + +[Footnote 19: Dante, we know, was but nine years old when, at a +May-day festival, he saw and fell in love with Beatrice; and Alfieri, +who was himself a precocious lover, considers such early sensibility +to be an unerring sign of a soul formed for the fine arts:--"Effetti," +he says, in describing the feelings of his own first love, "che poche +persone intendono, e pochissime provano: ma a quei soli pochissimi è +concesso l' uscir dalla folla volgare in tutte le umane arti." Canova +used to say, that he perfectly well remembered having been in love +when but five years old.] + +[Footnote 20: To this Lord Byron used to add, on the authority of old +servants of the family, that on the day of their patron's death, these +crickets all left the house simultaneously, and in such numbers, that +it was impossible to cross the hall without treading on them.] + +[Footnote 21: The correct reading of this legend is, I understand, as +follows:-- + + "Brig o' Balgounie, _wight_ (strong) is thy wa'; + Wi' a wife's ae son on a mare's ae foal, + Down shall thou fa'." +] + +[Footnote 22: In a letter addressed lately by Mr. Sheldrake to the +editor of a Medical Journal, it is stated that the person of the same +name who attended Lord Byron at Dulwich owed the honour of being +called in to a mistake, and effected nothing towards the remedy of the +limb. The writer of the letter adds that he was himself consulted by +Lord Byron four or five years afterwards, and though unable to +undertake the cure of the defect, from the unwillingness of his noble +patient to submit to restraint or confinement, was successful in +constructing a sort of shoe for the foot, which in some degree +alleviated the inconvenience under which he laboured.] + +[Footnote 23: "Quoique," says Alfieri, speaking of his school-days, +"je fusse le plus petit de tons les _grands_ qui se trouvaient au +second appartement où j'étais descendu, e'était précisement mon +inferiorité de taille, d'age, et de force, qui me donnait plus de +courage, et m'engageait à me distinguer."] + +[Footnote 24: The following is Lord Byron's version of this touching +narrative; and it will be felt, I think, by every reader, that this is +one of the instances in which poetry must be content to yield the palm +to prose. There is a pathos in the last sentences of the seaman's +recital, which the artifices of metre and rhyme were sure to disturb, +and which, indeed, no verses, however beautiful, could half so +naturally and powerfully express:-- + + "There were two fathers in this ghastly crew, + And with them their two sons, of whom the one + Was more robust and hardy to the view, + But he died early; and when he was gone, + His nearest messmate told his sire, who threw + One glance on him, and said, 'Heaven's will be done, + I can do nothing,' and he saw him thrown + Into the deep without a tear or groan. + + "The other father had a weaklier child, + Of a soft cheek, and aspect delicate; + But the boy bore up long, and with a mild + And patient spirit held aloof his fate; + Little be said, and now and then he smiled, + As if to win a part from off the weight + He saw increasing on his father's heart, + With the deep, deadly thought, that they must part. + + "And o'er him bent his sire, and never raised + His eyes from off his face, but wiped the foam + From his pale lips, and ever on him gazed, + And when the wish'd-for shower at length was come, + And the boy's eyes, which the dull film half glazed, + Brighten'd, and for a moment seem'd to roam, + He squeezed from out a rag some drops of rain + Into his dying child's mouth--but in vain. + + "The boy expired--the father held the clay, + And look'd upon it long, and when at last + Death left no doubt, and the dead burden lay + Stiff on his heart, and pulse and hope were past, + He watch'd it wistfully, until away + 'Twas borne by the rude wave wherein 'twas cast: + Then he himself sunk down all dumb and shivering, + And gave no sign of life, save his limbs quivering." + +DON JUAN, CANTO II. + +In the collection of "Shipwrecks and Disasters at Sea," to which Lord +Byron so skilfully had recourse for the technical knowledge and facts +out of which he has composed his own powerful description, the reader +will find the account of the loss of the Juno here referred to.] + +[Footnote 25: This elegy is in his first (unpublished) volume.] + +[Footnote 26: See page 25.] + +[Footnote 27: For the display of his declamatory powers, on the +speech-days, he selected always the most vehement passages,--such as +the speech of Zanga over the body of Alonzo, and Lear's address to the +storm. On one of these public occasions, when it was arranged that he +should take the part of Drances, and young Peel that of Turnus, Lord +Byron suddenly changed his mind, and preferred the speech of +Latinus,--fearing, it was supposed, some ridicule from the +inappropriate taunt of Turnus, "Ventosâ in linguâ, _pedibusque +fugacibus istis_."] + +[Footnote 28: His letters to Mr. Sinclair, in return, are unluckily +lost,--one of them, as this gentleman tells me, having been highly +characteristic of the jealous sensitiveness of his noble schoolfellow, +being written under the impression of some ideal slight, and +beginning, angrily, "Sir."] + +[Footnote 29: On a leaf of one of his note-books, dated 1808, I find the +following passage from Marmontel, which no doubt struck him as applicable +to the enthusiasm of his own youthful friendships:--"L'amitié, qui dans le +monde est à peine un sentiment, est une passion dans les +cloîtres."--_Contes Moraux_.] + +[Footnote 30: Mr. D'Israeli, in his ingenious work "On the Literary +Character," has given it as his opinion, that a disinclination to +athletic sports and exercises will be, in general, found among the +peculiarities which mark a youthful genius. In support of this notion +he quotes Beattie, who thus describes his ideal minstrel:-- + + "Concourse, and noise, and toil, he ever fled, + Nor cared to mingle in the clamorous fray + Of squabbling imps, but to the forest sped." + +His highest authority, however, is Milton, who says of himself, + + "When I was yet a child, no childish play + To me was pleasing." + +Such general rules, however, are as little applicable to the +dispositions of men of genius as to their powers. If, in the instances +which Mr. D'Israeli adduces an indisposition to bodily exertion was +manifested, as many others may be cited in which the directly opposite +propensity was remarkable. In war, the most turbulent of exercises, +Æschylus, Dante, Camoens, and a long list of other poets, +distinguished themselves; and, though it may be granted that Horace +was a bad rider, and Virgil no tennis-player, yet, on the other hand, +Dante was, we know, a falconer as well as swordsman; Tasso, expert +both as swordsman and dancer; Alfieri, a great rider; Klopstock, a +skaiter; Cowper, famous, in his youth, at cricket and foot-ball; and +Lord Byron, pre-eminent in all sorts of exercises.] + +[Footnote 31: "At eight or nine years of age the boy goes to school. +From that moment he becomes a stranger in his father's house. The +course of parental kindness is interrupted. The smiles of his mother, +those tender admonitions, and the solicitous care of both his parents, +are no longer before his eyes--year after year he feels himself more +detached from them, till at last he is so effectually weaned from the +connection, as to find himself happier anywhere than in their +company."--_Cowper, Letters._] + +[Footnote 32: Even previously to any of these school friendships, he +had formed the same sort of romantic attachment to a boy of his own +age, the son of one of his tenants at Newstead; and there are two or +three of his most juvenile poems, in which he dwells no less upon the +inequality than the warmth of this friendship. Thus:-- + + "Let Folly smile, to view the names + Of thee and me in friendship twined; + Yet Virtue will have greater claims + To love, than rank with Vice combined. + + "And though unequal is thy fate, + Since title deck'd my higher birth, + Yet envy not this gaudy state, + Thine is the pride of modest worth. + + "Our souls at least congenial meet, + Nor can thy lot my rank disgrace; + Our intercourse is not less sweet + Since worth of rank supplies the place. + +"November, 1802."] + +[Footnote 33: There are, in other letters of the same writer, some +curious proofs of the passionate and jealous sensibility of Byron. +From one of them, for instance, we collect that he had taken offence +at his young friend's addressing him "my dear Byron," instead of "my +dearest;" and from another, that his jealousy had been awakened by +some expressions of regret which his correspondent had expressed at +the departure of Lord John Russell for Spain:-- + +"You tell me," says the young letter-writer, "that you never knew me +in such an agitation as I was when I wrote my last letter; and do you +not think I had reason to be so? I received a letter from you on +Saturday, telling me you were going abroad for six years in March, and +on Sunday John Russell set off for Spain. Was not that sufficient to +make me rather melancholy? But how can you possibly imagine that I was +more agitated on John Russell's account, who is gone for a few months, +and from whom I shall hear constantly, than at your going for six +years to travel over most part of the world, when I shall hardly ever +hear from you, and perhaps may never see you again? + +"It has very much hurt me your telling me that you might be excused if +you felt rather jealous at my expressing more sorrow for the departure +of the friend who was with me, than of that one who was absent. It is +quite impossible you can think I am more sorry for John's absence than +I shall be for yours;--I shall therefore finish the subject."] + +[Footnote 34: To this tomb he thus refers in the "Childish +Recollections," as printed in his first unpublished volume:-- + + "Oft when, oppress'd with sad, foreboding gloom, + I sat reclined upon our favourite tomb." +] + +[Footnote 35: I find this circumstance, of his having occasionally +slept at the Hut, though asserted by one of the old servants, much +doubted by others.] + +[Footnote 36: It may possibly have been the recollection of these +pictures that suggested to him the following lines in the Siege of +Corinth:-- + + "Like the figures on arras that gloomily glare, + Stirr'd by the breath of the wintry air, + So seen by the dying lamp's fitful light, + Lifeless, but life-like and awful to sight; + As they seem, through the dimness, about to come down + From the shadowy wall where their images frown." +] + +[Footnote 37: Among the unpublished verses of his in my possession, I +find the following fragment, written not long after this period:-- + + "Hills of Annesley, bleak and barren, + Where my thoughtless childhood stray'd, + How the northern tempests, warring, + Howl above thy tufted shade! + + "Now no more, the hours beguiling, + Former favourite haunts I see; + Now no more my Mary smiling, + Makes ye seem a heaven to me." +] + +[Footnote 38: The lady's husband, for some time, took her family +name.] + +[Footnote 39: These stanzas, I have since found, are not Lord Byron's, +but the production of Lady Tuite, and are contained in a volume +published by her Ladyship in the year 1795.--(_Second edition._)] + +[Footnote 40: Gibbon, in speaking of public schools, says--"The mimic +scene of a rebellion has displayed, in their true colours, the +ministers and patriots of the rising generation." Such prognostics, +however, are not always to be relied on;--the mild, peaceful Addison +was, when at school, the successful leader of a _barring-out_.] + +[Footnote 41: This anecdote, which I have given on the testimony of +one of Lord Byron's schoolfellows, Doctor Butler himself assures me +has but very little foundation in fact.--(_Second Edition_.)] + +[Footnote 42: "It is deplorable to consider the loss which children +make of their time at most schools, employing, or rather casting away, +six or seven years in the learning of words only, and that very +imperfectly."--_Cowley, Essays_. + +"Would not a Chinese, who took notice of our way of breeding, be apt +to imagine that all our young gentlemen were designed to be teachers +and professors of the dead languages of foreign countries, and not to +be men of business in their own?"--_Locke on Education_.] + +[Footnote 43: "A finished scholar may emerge from the head of +Westminster or Eton in total ignorance of the business and +conversation of English gentlemen in the latter end of the eighteenth +century."--_Gibbon_.] + +[Footnote 44: "Byron, Harrow on the Hill, Middlesex, Alumnus Scholæ; +Lyonensis primus in anno Domini 1801, Ellison Duce." + +"Monitors, 1801.--Ellison, Royston, Hunxman, Rashleigh, Rokeby, +Leigh."] + +[Footnote 45: "Drury's Pupils, 1804.--Byron, Drury, Sinclair, Hoare, +Bolder, Annesley, Calvert, Strong, Acland, Gordon, Drummond."] + +[Footnote 46: During one of the Harrow vacations, he passed some time +in the house of the Abbé de Roufigny, in Took's-court, for the purpose +of studying the French language; but he was, according to the Abbé's +account, very little given to study, and spent most of his time in +boxing, fencing, &c. to the no small disturbance of the reverend +teacher and his establishment.] + +[Footnote 47: Between superior and inferior, "whose fortunes (as he +expresses it) comprehend the one and the other."] + +[Footnote 48: A gentleman who has since honourably distinguished +himself by his philanthropic plans and suggestions for that most +important object, the amelioration of the condition of the poor.] + +[Footnote 49: In a suit undertaken for the recovery of the Rochdale +property.] + +[Footnote 50: This precious pencilling is still, of course, +preserved.] + +[Footnote 51: The verses "To a beautiful Quaker," in his first volume, +were written at Harrowgate.] + +[Footnote 52: A horse of Lord Byron's:--the other horse that he had +with him at this time was called Sultan.] + +[Footnote 53: The favourite dog, on which Lord Byron afterwards wrote +the well-known epitaph.] + +[Footnote 54: Lord Byron and Dr. Pigot continued to be correspondents +for some time, but, after their parting this autumn, they never met +again.] + +[Footnote 55: Of this edition, which was in quarto, and consisted but +of a few sheets, there are but two, or, at the utmost, three copies in +existence.] + +[Footnote 56: His valet, Frank.] + +[Footnote 57: Of this "Mary," who is not to be confounded either with +the heiress of Annesley, or "Mary" of Aberdeen, all I can record is, +that she was of an humble, if not equivocal, station in life,--that +she had long, light golden hair, of which he used to show a lock, as +well as her picture, among his friends; and that the verses in his +"Hours of Idleness," entitled "To Mary, on receiving her Picture," +were addressed to her.] + +[Footnote 58: Here the imperfect sheet ends.] + +[Footnote 59: Though always fond of music, he had very little skill in +the performance of it. "It is very odd," he said, one day, to this +lady,--"I sing much better to your playing than to any one +else's."--"That is," she answered, "because I play to your +singing."--In which few words, by the way, the whole secret of a +skilful accompanier lies.] + +[Footnote 60: Cricketing, too, was one of his most favourite sports; +and it was wonderful, considering his lameness, with what speed he +could run. "Lord Byron (says Miss ----, in a letter, to her brother, +from Southwell) is just gone past the window with his bat on his +shoulder to cricket, which he is as fond of as ever."] + +[Footnote 61: In one of Miss ----'s letters, the following notice of +these canine feuds occurs:--"Boatswain has had another battle with +Tippoo at the House of Correction, and came off conqueror. Lord B. +brought Bo'sen to our window this morning, when Gilpin, who is almost +always here, got into an amazing fury with him."] + +[Footnote 62: "It was the custom of Burns," says Mr. Lockhart, in his +Life of that poet, "to read at table."] + +[Footnote 63: "I took to reading by myself," says Pope, "for which I +had a very great eagerness and enthusiasm;... I followed every where, +as my fancy led me, and was like a boy gathering flowers in the fields +and woods, just as they fell in his way. These five or six years I +still look upon as the happiest part of my life." It appears, too, +that he was himself aware of the advantages which this free course of +study brought with it:--"Mr. Pope," says Spence, "thought himself the +better, in some respects, for not having had a regular education. He +(as he observed in particular) read originally for the sense, whereas +we are taught, for so many years, to read only for words."] + +[Footnote 64: Before Chatterton was twelve years old, he wrote a +catalogue, in the same manner as Lord Byron, of the books he had +already read, to the number of seventy. Of these the chief subjects +were history and divinity.] + +[Footnote 65: The perfect purity with which the Greeks wrote their own +language, was, with justice, perhaps, attributed by themselves to +their entire abstinence from the study of any other. "If they became +learned," says Ferguson, "it was only by studying what they themselves +had produced."] + +[Footnote 66: The only circumstance I know, that bears even remotely +on the subject of this poem, is the following. About a year or two +before the date affixed to it, he wrote to his mother, from Harrow (as +I have been told by a person to whom Mrs. Byron herself communicated +the circumstance), to say, that he had lately had a good deal of +uneasiness on account of a young woman, whom he knew to have been a +favourite of his late friend, Curzon, and who, finding herself, after +his death, in a state of progress towards maternity, had declared Lord +Byron was the father of her child. This, he positively assured his +mother, was not the case; but, believing, as he did firmly, that the +child belonged to Curzon, it was his wish that it should be brought up +with all possible care, and he, therefore, entreated that his mother +would have the kindness to take charge of it. Though such a request +might well (as my informant expresses it) have discomposed a temper +more mild than Mrs. Byron's, she notwithstanding answered her son in +the kindest terms, saying that she would willingly receive the child +as soon as it was born, and bring it up in whatever manner he desired. +Happily, however, the infant died almost immediately, and was thus +spared the being a tax on the good nature of any body.] + +[Footnote 67: In this practice of dating his juvenile poems he +followed the example of Milton, who (says Johnson), "by affixing the +dates to his first compositions, a boast of which the learned Politian +had given him an example, seems to commend the earliness of his own +compositions to the notice of posterity." + +The following trifle, written also by him in 1807, has never, as far +as I know, appeared in print:-- + + "EPITAPH ON JOHN ADAMS, OF SOUTHWELL, A CARRIER, + + "WHO DIED OF DRUNKENNESS. + + "John Adams lies here, of the parish of Southwell, + A _Carrier_, who _carried_ his can to his mouth well; + He _carried_ so much, and he _carried_ so fast, + He could _carry_ no more--so was _carried_ at last; + For, the liquor he drank being too much for one, + He could not _carry_ off,--so he 's now _carri-on_. + + "B----, Sept. 1807." +] + +[Footnote 68: Annesley is, of course, not forgotten among the +number:-- + + "And shall I here forget the scene, + Still nearest to my breast? + Rocks rise and rivers roll between + The rural spot which passion blest; + Yet, Mary, all thy beauties seem + Fresh as in Love's bewitching dream," &c. &c. +] + +[Footnote 69: It appears from a passage in one of Miss ----'s letters +to her brother, that Lord Byron sent, through this gentleman, a copy +of his poems to Mr. Mackenzie, the author of the Man of Feeling:--"I +am glad you mentioned Mr. Mackenzie's having got a copy of Lord B.'s +poems, and what he thought of them--Lord B. was so _much_ pleased!" + +In another letter, the fair writer says,--"Lord Byron desired me to +tell you that the reason you did not hear from him was because his +publication was not so forward as he had flattered himself it would +have been. I told him, 'he was no more to be depended on than a +woman,' which instantly brought the softness of that sex into his +countenance, for he blushed exceedingly."] + +[Footnote 70: He was, indeed, a thorough boy, at this period, in every +respect:--"Next Monday" (says Miss ----) "is our great fair. Lord +Byron talks of it with as much pleasure as little Henry, and declares +he will ride in the round-about,--but I think he will change his +mind."] + +[Footnote 71: He here alludes to an odd fancy or trick of his +own;--whenever he was at a loss for something to say, he used always +to gabble over "1 2 3 4 5 6 7."] + +[Footnote 72: Notwithstanding the abuse which, evidently more in sport +than seriousness, he lavishes, in the course of these letters, upon +Southwell, he was, in after days, taught to feel that the hours which +he had passed in this place were far more happy than any he had known +afterwards. In a letter written not long since to his servant, +Fletcher, by a lady who had been intimate with him, in his young days, +at Southwell, there are the following words:--"Your poor, good master +always called me 'Old Piety,' when I preached to him. When he paid me +his last visit, he said, 'Well, good friend, I shall never be so happy +again as I was in old Southwell.'" His real opinion of the advantages +of this town, as a place of residence, will be seen in a subsequent +letter, where he most strenuously recommends it, in that point of +view, to Mr. Dallas.] + +[Footnote 73: It may be as well to mention here the sequel of this +enthusiastic attachment. In the year 1811 young Edleston died of a +consumption, and the following letter, addressed by Lord Byron to the +mother of his fair Southwell correspondent, will show with what +melancholy faithfulness, among the many his heart had then to mourn +for, he still dwelt on the memory of his young college friend:-- + +"Cambridge, Oct. 28. 1811. + +"Dear Madam, + +"I am about to write to you on a silly subject, and yet I cannot well +do otherwise. You may remember a _cornelian_, which some years ago I +consigned to Miss ----, indeed _gave_ to her, and now I am going to +make the most selfish and rude of requests. The person who gave it to +me, when I was very young, is _dead_, and though a long time has +elapsed since we met, as it was the only memorial I possessed of that +person (in whom I was very much interested), it has acquired a value +by this event I could have wished it never to have borne in my eyes. +If, therefore, Miss ---- should have preserved it, I must, under these +circumstances, beg her to excuse my requesting it to be transmitted to +me at No. 8. St. James's Street, London, and I will replace it by +something she may remember me by equally well. As she was always so +kind as to feel interested in the fate of him that formed the subject +of our conversation, you may tell her that the giver of that cornelian +died in May last of a consumption, at the age of twenty-one, making +the sixth, within four months, of friends and relatives that I have +lost between May and the end of August. + +"Believe me, dear Madam, yours very sincerely, + +"BYRON. + +"P.S. I go to London to-morrow." + + +The cornelian heart was, of course, returned, and Lord Byron, at the +same time, reminded that he had left it with Miss ----] + +[Footnote 74: In the Collection of his Poems printed for private +circulation, he had inserted some severe verses on Dr. Butler, which +he omitted in the subsequent publication,--at the same time explaining +why he did so, in a note little less severe than the verses.] + +[Footnote 75: This first attempt of Lord Byron at reviewing (for it +will be seen that he, once or twice afterwards, tried his hand at this +least poetical of employments) is remarkable only as showing how +plausibly he could assume the established tone and phraseology of +these minor judgment-seats of criticism. For instance:--"The volumes +before us are by the author of Lyrical Ballads, a collection which has +not undeservedly met with a considerable share of public applause. The +characteristics of Mr. Wordsworth's muse are simple and flowing, +though occasionally inharmonious, verse,--strong and sometimes +irresistible appeals to the feelings, with unexceptionable sentiments. +Though the present work may not equal his former efforts, many of the +poems possess a native elegance," &c. &c. &c. If Mr. Wordsworth ever +chanced to cast his eye over this article, how little could he have +suspected that under that dull prosaic mask lurked one who, in five +short years from thence, would rival even _him_ in poetry.] + +[Footnote 76: This plan (which he never put in practice) had been +talked of by him before he left Southwell, and is thus noticed in a +letter of his fair correspondent to her brother:--"How can you ask if +Lord B. is going to visit the Highlands in the summer? Why, don't +_you_ know that he never knows his own mind for ten minutes together? +I tell _him_ he is as fickle as the winds, and as uncertain as the +waves."] + +[Footnote 77: We observe here, as in other parts of his early letters, +that sort of display and boast of rakishness which is but too common a +folly at this period of life, when the young aspirant to manhood +persuades himself that to be profligate is to be manly. Unluckily, +this boyish desire of being thought worse than he really was, remained +with Lord Byron, as did some other feelings and foibles of his +boyhood, long after the period when, with others, they are past and +forgotten; and his mind, indeed, was but beginning to outgrow them, +when he was snatched away.] + +[Footnote 78: The poem afterwards enlarged and published under the +title of "English Bards and Scotch Reviewers." It appears from this +that the ground-work of that satire had been laid some time before the +appearance of the article in the Edinburgh Review.] + +[Footnote 79: Sept. 1807. This Review, in pronouncing upon the young +author's future career, showed itself somewhat more "prophet-like" +than the great oracle of the North. In noticing the Elegy on Newstead +Abbey, the writer says, "We could not but hail, with something of +prophetic rapture, the hope conveyed in the closing stanza:-- + + "Haply thy sun, emerging, yet may shine, + Thee to irradiate with meridian ray," &c. &c. +] + +[Footnote 80: The first number of a monthly publication called "The +Satirist," in which there appeared afterwards some low and personal +attacks upon him.] + +[Footnote 81: "Look out for a people entirely destitute of religion: +if you find them at all, be assured that they are but few degrees +removed from brutes."--HUME. + +The reader will find this avowal of Hume turned eloquently to the +advantage of religion in a Collection of Sermons, entitled, "The +Connexion of Christianity with Human Happiness," written by one of +Lord Byron's earliest and most valued friends, the Rev. William +Harness.] + +[Footnote 82: The only thing remarkable about Walsh's preface is, that +Dr. Johnson praises it as "very judicious," but is, at the same time, +silent respecting the poems to which it is prefixed.] + +[Footnote 83: Characters in the novel called _Percival_.] + +[Footnote 84: This appeal to the imagination of his correspondent was +not altogether without effect.--"I considered," says Mr. Dallas, +"these letters, _though evidently grounded on some occurrences in the +still earlier part of his life_, rather as _jeux d'esprit_ than as a +true portrait."] + +[Footnote 85: He appears to have had in his memory Voltaire's lively +account of Zadig's learning: "Il savait de la métaphysique ce qu'on en +a su dans tous les âges,--c'est à dire, fort peu de chose," &c.] + +[Footnote 86: The doctrine of Hume, who resolves all virtue into +sentiment.--See his "Enquiry concerning the Principles of Morals."] + +[Footnote 87: See his Letter to Anthony Collins, 1703-4, where he +speaks of "those sharp heads, which were for damning his book, because +of its discouraging the staple commodity of the place, which in his +time was called _hogs' shearing_."] + +[Footnote 88: Hard, "Discourses on Poetical Imitation."] + +[Footnote 89: Prologue to the University of Oxford.] + +[Footnote 90: "'Tis a quality very observable in human nature, that +any opposition which does not entirely discourage and intimidate us, +has rather a contrary effect, and inspires us with a more than +ordinary grandeur and magnanimity. In collecting our force to overcome +the opposition, we invigorate the soul, and give it an elevation with +which otherwise it would never have been acquainted."--Hume, _Treatise +of Human Nature._] + +[Footnote 91: "The colour of our whole life is generally such as the +three or four first years in which we are our own masters make +it."--Cowper.] + +[Footnote 92: "I refer to my old friend and corporeal pastor and master, +John Jackson, Esq., Professor of Pugilism, who I trust still retains the +strength and symmetry of his model of a form, together with his good humour +and athletic, as well as mental, accomplishments."--_Note on Don Juan, +Canto II_.] + +[Footnote 93: Thus addressed always by Lord Byron, but without any +right to the distinction.] + +[Footnote 94: The Journal entitled by himself "Detached Thoughts."] + +[Footnote 95: Few philosophers, however, have been so indulgent to the +pride of birth as Rousseau.--"S'il est un orgueil pardonnable (he +says) après celui qui se tire du mérite personnel, c'est celui qui se +tire de la naissance."--_Confess._] + +[Footnote 96: This gentleman, who took orders in the year 1814, is the +author of a spirited translation of Juvenal, and of other works of +distinguished merit. He was long in correspondence with Lord Byron, +and to him I am indebted for some interesting letters of his noble +friend, which will be given in the course of the following pages.] + +[Footnote 97: He had also, at one time, as appears from an anecdote +preserved by Spence, some thoughts of burying this dog in his garden, +and placing a monument over him, with the inscription, "Oh, rare +Bounce!" + +In speaking of the members of Rousseau's domestic establishment, Hume +says, "She (Therése) governs him as absolutely as a nurse does a +child. In her absence, his dog has acquired that ascendant. His +affection for that creature is beyond all expression or +conception."--_Private Correspondence._ See an instance which he gives +of this dog's influence over the philosopher, p. 143. + +In Burns's elegy on the death of his favourite Mailie, we find the +friendship even of a sheep set on a level with that of man:-- + + "Wi' kindly bleat, when she did spy him, + She ran wi' speed: + A friend mair faithful ne'er came nigh him, + Than Mailie dead." + +In speaking of the favourite dogs of great poets, we must not forget +Cowper's little spaniel "Beau;" nor will posterity fail to add to the +list the name of Sir Walter Scott's "Maida."] + +[Footnote 98: In the epitaph, as first printed in his friend's +Miscellany, this line runs thus:-- + + "I knew but one unchanged--and here he lies." +] + +[Footnote 99: We are told that Wieland used to have his works printed +thus for the purpose of correction, and said that he found great +advantage in it. The practice is, it appears, not unusual in Germany.] + +[Footnote 100: See his lines on Major Howard, the son of Lord +Carlisle, who was killed at Waterloo:-- + + "Their praise is hymn'd by loftier harps than mine; + Yet one I would select from that proud throng, + Partly because they blend me with his line, + And _partly that I did his sire some wrong_." + +CHILDE HAROLD, CANTO III.] + +[Footnote 101: In the fifth edition of the Satire (suppressed by him +in 1812) he again changed his mind respecting this gentleman, and +altered the line to + + "I leave topography to _rapid_ Gell;" + +explaining his reasons for the change in the following +note:--"'Rapid,' indeed;--he topographised and typographised King +Priam's dominions in three days. I called him 'classic' before I saw +the Troad, but since have learned better than to tack to his name what +don't belong to it." + +He is not, however, the only satirist who has been thus capricious and +changeable in his judgments. The variations of this nature in Pope's +Dunciad are well known; and the Abbé Cotin, it is said, owed the +"painful pre-eminence" of his station in Boileau's Satires to the +unlucky convenience of his name as a rhyme. Of the generous change +from censure to praise, the poet Dante had already set an example; +having, in his "Convito," lauded some of those persons whom, in his +Commedia, he had most severely lashed.] + +[Footnote 102: In another letter to Mr. Harness, dated February, 1809, +he says, "I do not know how you and Alma Mater agree. I was but an +untoward child myself, and I believe the good lady and her brat were +equally rejoiced when I was weaned; and if I obtained her benediction +at parting, it was, at best, equivocal."] + +[Footnote 103: The poem, in the first edition, began at the line, + + "Time was ere yet, in these degenerate days." +] + +[Footnote 104: Lady Byron, then Miss Milbank.] + +[Footnote 105: In the MS. remarks on his Satire, to which I have +already referred, he says, on this passage--"Yea, and a pretty dance +they have led me."] + +[Footnote 106: "Fool then, and but little wiser now."--_MS. ibid_.] + +[Footnote 107: Dated, in his original copy, Nov. 2. 1808.] + +[Footnote 108: Entitled, in his original manuscript, "To Mrs. ----, on +being asked my reason for quitting England in the spring." The date +subjoined is Dec. 2. 1808.] + +[Footnote 109: In his first copy, "Thus, Mary."] + +[Footnote 110: Thus corrected by himself in a copy of the Miscellany +now in my possession;--the two last lines being, originally, as +follows:-- + + "Though wheresoe'er my bark may run, + I love but thee, I love but one." +] + +[Footnote 111: I give the words as Johnson has reported them;--in +Swift's own letter they are, if I recollect right, rather different.] + +[Footnote 112: There is, at least, one striking point of similarity +between their characters in the disposition which Johnson has thus +attributed to Swift:--"The suspicions of Swift's irreligion," he says, +"proceeded, in a great measure, from his dread of hypocrisy; _instead +of wishing to seem better, he delighted in seeming worse than he +was_."] + +[Footnote 113: Another use to which he appropriated one of the skulls +found in digging at Newstead was the having it mounted in silver, and +converted into a drinking-cup. This whim has been commemorated in some +well-known verses of his own; and the cup itself, which, apart from +any revolting ideas it may excite, forms by no means an inelegant +object to the eye, is, with many other interesting relics of Lord +Byron, in the possession of the present proprietor of Newstead Abbey, +Colonel Wildman.] + +[Footnote 114: Rousseau appears to have been conscious of a similar +sort of change in his own nature:--"They have laboured without +intermission," he says, in a letter to Madame de Boufflers, "to give +to my heart, and, perhaps, at the same time to my genius, a spring and +stimulus of action, which they have not inherited from nature. I was +born weak,--ill treatment has made me strong."--Hume's _Private +Correspondence_.] + +[Footnote 115: "It was bitterness that they mistook for +frolic."--Johnson's account of himself at the university, in Boswell.] + +[Footnote 116: The poet Cowper, it is well known, produced that +masterpiece of humour, John Gilpin, during one of his fits of morbid +dejection; and he himself says, "Strange as it may seem, the most +ludicrous lines I ever wrote have been written in the saddest mood, +and but for that saddest mood, perhaps, had never been written at +all."] + +[Footnote 117: The reconciliation which took place between him and Dr. +Butler, before his departure, is one of those instances of placability +and pliableness with which his life abounded. We have seen, too, from +the manner in which he mentions the circumstance in one of his +note-books, that the reconcilement was of that generously +retrospective kind, in which not only the feeling of hostility is +renounced in future, but a strong regret expressed that it had been +ever entertained. + +Not content with this private atonement to Dr. Butler, it was his +intention, had he published another edition of the Hours of Idleness, +to substitute for the offensive verses against that gentleman, a frank +avowal of the wrong he had been guilty of in giving vent to them. This +fact, so creditable to the candour of his nature, I learn from a loose +sheet in his handwriting, containing the following corrections. In +place of the passage beginning "Or if my Muse a pedant's portrait +drew," he meant to insert-- + + "If once my Muse a harsher portrait drew, + Warm with her wrongs, and deem'd the likeness true, + By cooler judgment taught, her fault she owns,-- + With noble minds a fault, confess'd, atones." + +And to the passage immediately succeeding his warm praise of Dr. +Drury--"Pomposus fills his magisterial chair," it was his intention to +give the following turn:-- + + "Another fills his magisterial chair; + Reluctant Ida owns a stranger's care; + Oh may like honours crown his future name,-- + If such his virtues, such shall be his fame." +] + +[Footnote 118: Lord Byron used sometimes to mention a strange story, +which the commander of the packet, Captain Kidd, related to him on the +passage. This officer stated that, being asleep one night in his +berth, he was awakened by the pressure of something heavy on his +limbs, and, there being a faint light in the room, could see, as he +thought, distinctly, the figure of his brother, who was at that time +in the naval service in the East Indies, dressed in his uniform, and +stretched across the bed. Concluding it to be an illusion of the +senses, he shut his eyes and made an effort to sleep. But still the +same pressure continued, and still, as often as he ventured to take +another look, he saw the figure lying across him in the same position. +To add to the wonder, on putting his hand forth to touch this form, he +found the uniform, in which it appeared to be dressed, dripping wet. +On the entrance of one of his brother officers, to whom he called out +in alarm, the apparition vanished; but in a few months after he +received the startling intelligence that on that night his brother had +been drowned in the Indian seas. Of the supernatural character of this +appearance, Captain Kidd himself did not appear to have the slightest +doubt.] + +[Footnote 119: The baggage and part of the servants were sent by sea +to Gibraltar.] + +[Footnote 120: "This sort of passage," says Mr. Hodgson, in a note on +his copy of this letter, "constantly occurs in his correspondence. Nor +was his interest confined to mere remembrances and enquiries after +health. Were it possible to state _all_ he has done for numerous +friends, he would appear amiable indeed. For myself, I am bound to +acknowledge, in the fullest and warmest manner, his most generous and +well-timed aid; and, were my poor friend Bland alive, he would as +gladly bear the like testimony;--though I have most reason, of all +men, to do so."] + +[Footnote 121: The filthiness of Lisbon and its inhabitants.] + +[Footnote 122: Colonel Napier, in a note in his able History of the +Peninsular War, notices the mistake into which Lord Byron and others +were led on this subject;--the signature of the Convention, as well as +all the other proceedings connected with it, having taken place at a +distance of thirty miles from Cintra.] + +[Footnote 123: We find an allusion to this incident in Don Juan:-- + + "'Tis pleasing to be school'd in a strange tongue + By female lips and eyes--that is, I mean, + When both the teacher and the taught are young, + As was the case, at least, where I have been," &c. &c. +] + +[Footnote 124: The postscript to this letter is as follows:-- + +P.S. "So Lord G. is married to a rustic! Well done! If I wed, I will +bring you home a sultana, with half a dozen cities for a dowry, and +reconcile you to an Ottoman daughter-in-law with a bushel of pearls, +not larger than ostrich eggs, or smaller than walnuts."] + +[Footnote 125: The following stanzas from this little poem have a +music in them, which, independently of all meaning, is enchanting:-- + + "And since I now remember thee + In darkness and in dread, + As in those hours of revelry, + Which mirth and music sped; + + "Do thou, amidst the fair white walls, + If Cadiz yet be free, + At times, from out her latticed halls, + Look o'er the dark blue sea; + + "Then think upon Calypso's isles, + Endear'd by days gone by; + To others give a thousand smiles, + To me a single sigh," &c. &c. +] + +[Footnote 126: The following is Mr. Hobhouse's loss embellished +description of this scene;--"The court at Tepellene, which was +enclosed on two sides by the palace, and on the other two sides by a +high wall, presented us, at our first entrance, with a sight something +like what we might have, perhaps, beheld some hundred years ago in the +castle-yard of a great feudal lord. Soldiers, with their arms piled +against the wall near them, were assembled in different parts of the +square: some of them pacing slowly backwards and forwards, and others +sitting on the ground in groups. Several horses, completely +caparisoned, were leading about, whilst others were neighing under the +hands of the grooms. In the part farthest from the dwelling, +preparations were making for the feast of the night; and several kids +and sheep were being dressed by cooks who were themselves half armed. +Every thing wore a most martial look, though not exactly in the style +of the head-quarters of a Christian general; for many of the soldiers +were in the most common dress, without shoes, and having more wildness +in their air and manner than the Albanians we had before seen." + +On comparing this description, which is itself sufficiently striking, +with those which Lord Byron has given of the same scene, both in the +letter to his mother, and in the second Canto of Childe Harold, we +gain some insight into the process by which imagination elevates, +without falsifying, reality, and facts become brightened and refined +into poetry. Ascending from the representation drawn faithfully on the +spot by the traveller, to the more fanciful arrangement of the same +materials in the letter of the poet, we at length, by one step more, +arrive at that consummate, idealised picture, the result of both +memory and invention combined, which in the following splendid stanzas +is presented to us:-- + + Amidst no common pomp the despot sate, + While busy preparations shook the court, + Slaves, eunuchs, soldiers, guests, and santons wait; + Within, a palace, and without, a fort: + Here men of every clime appear to make resort. + + "Richly caparison'd, a ready row + Of armed horse, and many a warlike store, + Circled the wide-extending court below; + Above, strange groups adorn'd the corridore; + And oft-times through the area's echoing door + Some high-capp'd Tartar spurr'd his steed away: + The Turk, the Greek, the Albanian, and the Moor, + Here mingled in their many-hued array, + While the deep war-drum's sound announced the close of day. + + "The wild Albanian, kirtled to his knee, + With shawl-girt head and ornamented gun, + And gold-embroider'd garments, fair to see; + The crimson-scarfed men of Macedon; + The Delhi, with his cap of terror on, + And crooked glaive; the lively, supple Greek; + And swarthy Nubia's mutilated son; + The bearded Turk that rarely deigns to speak, + Master of all around--too potent to be meek, + + "Are mix'd, conspicuous: some recline in groups, + Scanning the motley scene that varies round; + There some grave Moslem to devotion stoops, + And some that smoke, and some that play, are found; + Here the Albanian proudly treads the ground; + Half whispering there the Greek is heard to prate; + Hark! from the mosque the nightly solemn sound, + The Muezzin's call doth shake the minaret, + There is no god but God!--to prayer--lo! God is great!'" + + CHILDE HAROLD, Canto II. +] + +[Footnote 127: In the shape of the hands, as a mark of high birth, +Lord Byron himself had as implicit faith as the Pacha: see his note on +the line, "Though on more _thorough-bred_ or fairer fingers," in Don +Juan.] + +[Footnote 128: A few sentences are here and elsewhere omitted, as +having no reference to Lord Byron himself, but merely containing some +particulars relating to Ali and his grandsons, which may be found in +various books of travels. + +Ali had not forgotten his noble guest when Dr. Holland, a few years +after, visited Albania:--"I mentioned to him, generally (says this +intelligent traveller), Lord Byron's poetical description of Albania, +the interest it had excited in England, and Mr. Hobhouse's intended +publication of his travels in the same country. He seemed pleased with +these circumstances, and stated his recollections of Lord Byron."] + +[Footnote 129: I have heard the poet's fellow-traveller describe this +remarkable instance of his coolness and courage even still more +strikingly than it is here stated by himself. Finding that, from his +lameness, he was unable to be of any service in the exertions which +their very serious danger called for, after a laugh or two at the +panic of his valet, he not only wrapped himself up and lay down, in +the manner here mentioned, but, when their difficulties were +surmounted, was found fast asleep.] + +[Footnote 130: In the route from Ioannina to Zitza, Mr. Hobhouse and +the secretary of Ali, accompanied by one of the servants, had rode on +before the rest of the party, and arrived at the village just as the +evening set in. After describing the sort of hovel in which they were +to take up their quarters for the night, Mr. Hobhouse thus +continues:--"Vasilly was despatched into the village to procure eggs +and fowls, that would be ready, as we thought, by the arrival of the +second party. But an hour passed away and no one appeared. It was +seven o'clock, and the storm had increased to a fury I had never +before, and, indeed, have never since, seen equalled. The roof of our +hovel shook under the clattering torrents and gusts of wind. The +thunder roared, as it seemed, without any intermission; for the echoes +of one peal had not ceased to roll in the mountains, before another +tremendous crash burst over our heads; whilst the plains and the +distant hills (visible through the cracks of the cabin) appeared in a +perpetual blaze. The tempest was altogether terrific, and worthy of +the Grecian Jove; and the peasants, no less religious than their +ancestors, confessed their alarm. The women wept, and the men, calling +on the name of God, crossed themselves at every repeated peal. + +"We were very uneasy that the party did not arrive; but the secretary +assured me that the guides knew every part of the country, as did also +his own servant, who was with them, and that they had certainly taken +shelter in a village at an hour's distance. Not being satisfied with +the conjecture, I ordered fires to be lighted on the hill above the +village, and some muskets to be discharged: this was at eleven +o'clock, and the storm had not abated. I lay down in my great coat; +but all sleeping was out of the question, as any pauses in the tempest +were filled up by the barking of the dogs, and the shouting of the +shepherds in the neighbouring mountains. + +"A little after midnight, a man, panting and pale, and drenched with +rain, rushed into the room, and, between crying and roaring, with a +profusion of action, communicated something to the secretary, of which +I understood only--that they had all fallen down. I learnt, however, +that no accident had happened, except the falling of the luggage +horses, and losing their way, and that they were now waiting for fresh +horses and guides. Ten were immediately sent to them, together with +several men with pine-torches; but it was not till two o'clock in the +morning that we heard they were approaching, and my friend, with the +priest and the servants, did not enter our hut before three. + +"I now learnt from him that they had lost their way from the +commencement of the storm, when not above three miles from the +village; and that, after wandering up and down in total ignorance of +their position, they had, at last, stopped near some Turkish +tombstones and a torrent, which they saw by the flashes of lightning. +They had been thus exposed for nine hours; and the guides, so far from +assisting them, only augmented the confusion, by running away, after +being threatened with death by George the dragoman, who, in an agony +of rage and fear, and without giving any warning, fired off both his +pistols, and drew from the English servant an involuntary scream of +horror, for he fancied they were beset by robbers. + +"I had not, as you have seen, witnessed the distressing part of this +adventure myself; but from the lively picture drawn of it by my +friend, and from the exaggerated descriptions of George, I fancied +myself a good judge of the whole situation, and should consider this +to have been one of the most considerable of the few adventures that +befell either of us during our tour in Turkey. It was long before we +ceased to talk of the thunder-storm in the plain of Zitza."] + +[Footnote 131: Mr. Hobhouse. I think, makes the number of this guard +but thirty-seven, and Lord Byron, in a subsequent letter, rates them +at forty.] + +[Footnote 132: + + "Oh, thou Parnassus! whom I now survey, + Not in the frenzy of a dreamer's eye, + Not in the fabled landscape of a lay, + But soaring snow-clad through thy native sky, + In the wild pomp of mountain majesty!" + + CHILDE HAROLD, Canto I. +] + +[Footnote 133: The passage of Harris, indeed, contains the pith of the +whole stanza:--"Notwithstanding the various fortune of Athens, as a +city, Attica is still famous for olives, and Mount Hymettus for honey. +Human institutions perish, but Nature is permanent."--_Philolog. +Inquiries_.--I recollect having once pointed out this coincidence to +Lord Byron, but he assured me that he had never even seen this work of +Harris.] + +[Footnote 134: Travels in Italy, Greece, &c., by H. W. Williams, Esq.] + +[Footnote 135: The Miscellany, to which I have more than once +referred.] + +[Footnote 136: He has adopted this name in his description of the +Seraglio in Don Juan, Canto VI. It was, if I recollect right, in +making love to one of these girls that he had recourse to an act of +courtship often practised in that country,--namely, giving himself a +wound across the breast with his dagger. The young Athenian, by his +own account, looked on very coolly during the operation, considering +it a fit tribute to her beauty, but in no degree moved to gratitude.] + +[Footnote 137: Among others, he mentions his passage of the Tagus in +1809, which is thus described by Mr. Hobhouse:--"My companion had +before made a more perilous, but less celebrated, passage; for I +recollect that, when we were in Portugal, he swam from old Lisbon to +Belem Castle, and having to contend with a tide and counter current, +the wind blowing freshly, was but little less than two hours in +crossing the river." In swimming from Sestos to Abydos, he was one +hour and ten minutes in the water. + +In the year 1808, he had been nearly drowned, while swimming at +Brighton with Mr. L. Stanhope. His friend Mr. Hobhouse, and other +bystanders, sent in some boatmen, with ropes tied round them, who at +last succeeded in dragging Lord Byron and Mr. Stanhope from the surf +and thus saved their lives.] + +[Footnote 138: Alluding to his having swum across the Thames with Mr. +H. Drury, after the Montem, to see how many times they could perform +the passage backwards and forwards without touching land. In this +trial (which took place at night, after supper, when both were heated +with drinking,) Lord Byron was the conqueror.] + +[Footnote 139: New Monthly Magazine.] + +[Footnote 140: In a note upon the Advertisement prefixed to his Siege +of Corinth, he says,--"I visited all three (Tripolitza, Napoli, and +Argos,) in 1810-11, and in the course of journeying through the +country, from my first arrival in 1809, crossed the Isthmus eight +times in my way from Attica to the Morea, over the mountains, or in +the other direction, when passing from the Gulf of Athens to that of +Lepanto."] + +[Footnote 141: Given afterwards to Sir Walter Scott.] + +[Footnote 142: At present in the possession of Mr. Murray.] + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Life of Lord Byron, Vol. I. (of VI.), by +Thomas Moore + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE OF LORD BYRON, VOL. 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