the French General Lavalette from prison, perusing the poeni, at once appreciated its and with Lady Hester Stanhope, the eccen- merit and anticipated its success, but it was tric chieftainess of the Bedouin Arabs. He some time before he could overcome Lord was employed in collecting the materials Byron's real or assumed repugnance to its which form the notes to the 2d Canto of publication. The "Hints from Horace" Childe Harold, and in the words of Mr. was his especial favourite. He was very Moore, as if in utter defiance of the 'ge-desirous of having it printed without delay; nius loci," he there wrote his "Hints from and it was accordingly handed to CawHorace," a satire which, impregnated as it thorne, the publisher of the "English Bards is with London life from beginning to end, and Scotch Reviewers," for that purpose. bears the date, "Athens, Capuchin convent, Mr. Dallas, however, finally prevailed upon March 12, 1811." him to suppress it at the moment, and

His pecuniary affairs while abroad were although Lord Byron always dwelt upon it greatly embarrassed, and the want of re- with pleasure, and subsequently took pains mittances probably prevented him from at various times to prepare it for the press, undertaking a voyage to Egypt, which in it never met the approbation of his bookthe month of March he had contemplated, sellers or their literary censors, and did not and no doubt hastened his return home. He appear until after his death. went to the island of Malta in May, where

The publication of Childe Harold being he suffered severely from an attack of fever, determined upon, the manuscript was placed to which he seems to have been constitu- by Mr. Dallas, to whom the copy-right had tionally subject, being three or four times been presented, in the hands of Mr. Murwhile in the Levant, reduced by similar at- ray the bookseller, and was immediately tacks to almost the last extremity. On the put in press. The "English Bards and $d of June, as soon as his health permitted, Scotch Reviewers" had previous to this ne set sail from Malta in the Volage frigate time passed to a fourth edition; a fifth was for England, and reached London on the now issued with various additions, after 14th of July, having been absent a little which that work was suppressed, and every more than two years. copy so far as was practicable called in and

The day after his arrival in London, Mr. destroyed. In America, however, and on Dallas called upon him, and in the course the Continent, where the English law of of a brief conversation, Lord Byron men-copy-right could not be enforced, it contitioned having written the "Hints from Ho-nued to be published with the other works race," which he said he considered a good of its author.

finish to the " English Bards and Scotch On the 23d of July, Lord Byron wrote Reviewers," adding that he intended to put to his mother, who was then at Newstead, it in press immediately, and requesting Mr. stating that he was detained in town by Dallas to superintend its publication. Mr. some law affairs for a day or two, but should Dallas took the manuscript home with him, visit her as soon as possible. The next and on perusing it, was, to use his own morning he received intelligence that she words, "grievously disappointed." He re- was dangerously ill, and instantly started turned it the next morning, and though for Newstead, but did not reach there until unwilling to speak of it as he really thought, after her death. Her last illness is said to could not refrain from expressing some sur- have been rendered fatal by a fit of rage prise that its author should have produced brought on by reading her upholsterer's nothing else during his two years' absence. bill. She is described as a short, corpulent Lord Byron told him that he had occasion-person, exceedingly fretful and impatient in ally written short poems, besides a great her disposition; and her conduct towards many stanzas in the measure of Spenser, her son from his childhood appears to have and added, "they are not worth troubling been alternately indulgent and abusive, and you with, but you may have them all if you without the least judgment or self-command. like." He then took the manuscripts of She undoubtedly loved him to the extreme Childe Harold from a small trunk, and of fondness, and was ambitiously proud of said they had been read but by one person, him, yet so ungovernable were her passions, (probably Mr. Hobhouse,) who had found that she, at times, treated him with a cruelty, very little to commend and much to condemn, and that he himself was of the same opinion. Mr. Dallas on the contrary, on

and even brutality almost beyond belief. He said to Lord Sligo, in reference to her while in Greece, "Look there," pointing to

his foot, "it is to her false delicacy at my to be matched among contemporaries in birth I owe that deformity, and yet as long any age or country."

as I can remember, she has never ceased to Mr. Moore, in alluding to this meeting. taunt and reproach me with it." In a pas- thus describes the impressions left upon sage in his suppressed Memoirs relating to him, by this his first interview with Lord his early days, he is said to have described Byron. "What I chiefly remember to have the horror and humiliation which came over remarked was the nobleness of his air, his him when in one of her fits of passion she beauty, and the gentleness of his voice and called him a "lame brat," and the opening manners. Being in mourning for his moof "The Deformed Transformed," indeed ther, the colour, as well of his dress, as of the whole drama itself, was too evidently his glossy curling and picturesque hair, gave ccasioned by that painful recollection. Yet more effect to the pure, spiritual paleness notwithstanding the sufferings her unhappy of his features, in the expression of which, temperament had caused him, he uniformly when he spoke, there was a perpetual paid her the greatest courtesy and personal play of lively thought, though melancholy respect; and the manner in which he la- was their habitual character when in remented her loss proved the unimpaired in-pose." tegrity of his affection.

The following further extracts from Mr. Besides that of his mother, he was com- Moore's Notices, will give the reader an acpelled to mourn at this period the death of curate general idea of Lord Byron's personal no less than six of his relations and inti- appearance. mate friends. Among the number were "Of his face, the beauty may be proWingfield, one of his Harrow favourites, nounced to have been of the highest order, Eggleston, his protogè at Cambridge, of as combining at once regularity of features whom he was romantically fond, and Mat- with the most varied and interesting expresthews, a young man of extraordinary pro- sion. His eyes, though of a light gray, mise. In the short space of one month,' were capable of all extremes of meaning, he says, in a note to Childe Harold, "I but it was in the mouth and chin that the have lost her who gave me being, and most great beauty as well as expression of his of those who made that being tolerable;" countenance lay. and his letters, for a long time after, are written in a style of melancholy recklessness, indicative of habitual gloom and despondency.

"His head was remarkably small,--su much so as to be rather out of proportion with his face. The forehead, though a little too narrow, was high, and appeared more He remained at Newstead until late in so from his having his hair (to preserve it, the autumn; and, after a visit to Rochdale, as he said) shaved over the temples; while in Lancashire, on business connected with the glossy, dark-brown curls, clustering over his estates in that quarter, returned through his head, gave the finish to its beauty. When Cambridge to London the latter part of to this is added, that his nose, though handOctober. About this time he became inti-somely, was rather thickly shaped, that his mate with Mr. Moore, the poet, afterwards teeth were white and regular, and his com. his biographer, and one of his few firm and plexion colourless, as good an idea perhaps faithful friends, and with Lord Holland, both as it is in the power of mere words to cor of whom he had violently attacked in the vey may be conceived of his features. "English Bards and Scotch Reviewers." "In height he was, as he himself has inThe origin of his acquaintance with Mr. formed us, five feet eight inches and a half, Moore was a note appended to that satire, and to the length of his limbs he attributen and the singularly curious and characteristic his being such a good swimmer. His hands correspondence which followed it is contain- were very white, and-according to his own ed in this volume, page 36, &c. That notion of the size of hands as indicating correspondence led to an introduction at the birth-aristocratically small. The lame. house of Mr. Rogers, the author of "Hu-ness of his right foot, though an obstacle to man Life," &c. and on the day it took place, grace, but little impeded the activity of h's Mr. Campbell, the author of the "Plea-movements; and from this circumstance, Eures of Hope," Lord Byron, and Mr.jas well as from the skill with which the foot Moore, dined with that gentleman, forming, was disguised by means of long trowsers, as one of Lord Byron's biographers very it would be difficult to conceive a defect of justly observes, a poetical group ne easily this kind less obtruding itself as a deformity

while the diffidence which a constant con-intervals of retirement, until his separation sciousness of the infirmity gave to his first from Lady Byron. approach and address, made, in him, even lameness a source of interest."

In August he went to Cheltenham, where, at the request of the Managers, through On the 27th of February, 1812, in a de- Lord Holland, he wrote the Address spoken bate on the subject of the Nottingham at the opening of the new theatre, Drury Frame-breakers, he made his first speech in Lane. He also there wrote the poem on the House of Lords. He had previously" Waltzing." It was published anonyprepared himself, not only by composing, mously; but as it created no sensation, at but writing it beforehand. It was flatter-least in comparison with Childe Harold, he ingly received, but obtained no permanent thought proper to suppress it, and even to popularity, and his after efforts as an orator contradict, through Mr. Murray, its pub were generally considered failures. In lisher, the rumour of its being his. "The April following, he spoke a second time, in Curse of Minerva" had been printed also favour of the claims of the Irish Catholics, anonymous y, and for private circulation and, in June, accompanied the presentation only, soon after his return from the East. of a petition in behalf of Major Cartwright, Its immediate object, an attack on Lord with some introductory remarks, which Elgin, relative to the statues, &c. sent by closed his parliamentary career as a speak- him from Greece, was more fully accomHis display, on the second and third plished in the notes to Childe Harold, which occasions, was less promising than at first. contained the substance of the poem. The His delivery was mouthing and theatrical, opening lines were afterwards made to form and in a kind of chanting tone, which is said the commencement of the Corsair. Neither to have also disfigured his recitation of the " Waltz," nor the "Curse of Minerva,” poetry. was included in any English collection of his works during his lifetime.

er.

On the first of March, Childe Harold appeared, and "the impression" says Mr. The first edition of the Giaour was pubMoore," which it produced on the public, lished in May, 1813. It was materially was as instantaneous as it has proved deep improved, and gradually enlarged through and lasting. The fame of its author had various subsequent editions, the fifth being not to wait for any of the ordinary grada- announced in September. In the beginning tions, but seemed to spring up like the pa- of December, it was followed by the Bride lace of a fairy tale, in a night." The re- of Abydos, and in January, 1814, by the ception of the poem, indeed, was such, that Corsair. The latter poem created for the there was no undue extravagance in the moment a greater excitement with the pubmemorandum made by Lord Byron himself lic than even Childe Harold, and met with in his suppressed Memoirs, "I awoke one an unexampled sale, fourteen thousand morning and found myself famous." The copies being disposed of in less than a week. first edition was immediately disposed of, The Ode to Napoleon was written in April, and numerous editions followed in quick and the Hebrew Melodies about the same succession. time. The lines "To a Lady weeping," Previous to this period, notwithstanding alluding to George the Fourth, then Prince the advantages of his birth and title, Lord Regent, and his daughter, the Princess Byron had not mingled, to any great extent, Charlotte, were originally printed in a newsin the gay world of London, his companion-paper, and attributed to Mr. Moore; but ship having been mostly confined to his col- their appearance among other small poems lege and travelling acquaintances, and to a in the same volume with the Corsair, fixed iew intimate friends; but the universal ac- their authorship upon Lord Byron, and in clamation with which his poem was now connexion with the "Windsor Poetics," hailed, and the mysterious interest it at- then for the first time reported to be his, tached to his personal character, together brought down upon his head a violent storm with his youth, his beauty, his rank, and of invective and abuse, from the ministerial his more than promise of extraordinary in-partisans, which uniting with other causes tellectual power, forced him instantly into of disquietude and apprehension relating the highest fashionable circies, among whose to his political career, induced him about most illustrious crowds he became the dis- the first of May, not only again to repeat unguished object, and with whom he con- his determination expressed in the preface anned to move, with occasiona. vonary the Corsair, of writing no more for

vears; but to attempt purchasing back the fashionable dissipation, and behind the copy-rights of all his works, so far as they scenes of Drury Lane Theatre, of which he had been disposed of, and suppressing every had in June been chosen one of the Maline he had written. In pursuance of this naging Committee, in company with Lord resolution, he wrote to Mr. Murray, en- Essex, Douglas Kinnaird, Mr. Whitbread, closing the amount paid for Childe Harold, and others. By the month of November, the Corsair, &c. and ordering the unsold his pecuniary difficulties had increased to copies destroyed; but, on being answered such an alarming degree that he was not that such a proceeding would be deeply in- only under the necessity of selling his librajurious to Mr. Murray, he abandoned his ry, but an execution was levied on his furproject, and allowed the publication to pro- niture, and his very beds were seized by ceed. bailiffs. His privilege as a member of the Upper House of Parliament exempted his person from arrest.

Lara appeared in August. It was at first published in the same volume with Jacqueline, a poem by Mr. Rogers; the On the tenth of December his daughter, names of both authors being omitted. Ada Augusta Byron, was born; and, about With the exception of the Ode to Water- the first of February following, a separation loo, Napoleon's Farewell, and other occa- between Lady Byron and himself took place. sional poems, he did not come before the She had left London a few days before on public as an author between this period and a visit to her father in Leicestershire, and the publication of the Siege of Corinth Lord Byron was to follow her as soon as he and Parisina, in the spring of 1816. could make some arrangements of his moOn the 2d of January, 1815, Lord Byron ney affairs. They had parted in kindness. was married to Anne Arabella Milbanke, She wrote him on the road a letter in a daughter of Sir Ralph Milbanke, afterwards style of the most playful fondness imaginaNoel, of Seaham, in the county of Durham. ble, but immediately on her arrival at Kirkby She was nearly connected by blood with the Mallory, the seat of her family, her father families of Lord Wentworth, Lord Mel- wrote, informing him that she would not bourne, and others of the English nobility. again return. They never afterwards met. Her immediate fortune was about ten thou- The particular causes of this event still sand pounds sterling, but on the death of remain in obscurity. The reader will find her father and mother, which took place a Lord Byron's views of the subject detailed few years after her marriage, she became in many of his letters, and elsewhere possessed of estates to a very large amount. throughout his writings. His Lady, on Lord Byron had addressed her about a year the appearance of Mr. Moore's Biography, previous, and although his suit was at that in 1830, caused a letter to be published, time rejected, yet her refusal was accom- exonerating her father and mother from panied with every assurance of esteem and charges connected with it, of which they regard, and a friendly correspondence was had been accused, but throwing no farther kept up between them. A second applica-light upon it. tion in September proved successful.

The current of popular opinion was, at The disastrous result of the marriage the moment, fearfully strong against Lord appears to have been anticipated by her Byron. He was immediately shunned, if husband even at the bridal altar. The not still more harshly treated, by almost all "coming events cast their shadows before." classes, especially by those who had preHis prose account of the wedding, in his viously courted his intimacy. Lady Jersuppressed Memoirs, is said by Mr. Moore sey, and two or three others, were the to have agreed closely in all its circum-only ladies of distinction in London who stances with his poetical description of it in adhered to his fallen fame, and dared to at"The Dream." tempt his defence. Except in their circles, Towards the close of the month of March he was virtually banished from society. he took up his residence in London, where Every species of reproach and obloquy was he lived during the succeeding year in a heaped upon his head. Exaggerated statestyle of great splendour and expense, far ments of his private conduct, and dark hints beyond his income or his expectations; and vague insinuations of the most criminal and coon became deeply involved in the profligacy, were circulated and believed. most distressing pecuniary embarrassments." In every form of paragraph, pamphlet, His time was passed in the whirlwind of and caricature," says Mr. Moore, “both

his person and character were held up to the 1st Canto of Don Juan in Septemoei. odium; hardly a voice was raised, or at least, The latter was originally dedicated to listened to, in his behalf; and though a few Southey in some prefatory verses, said to faithful friends remained unshaken by his have been very able and very bitter; but side, the utter hopelessness of stemming the on Mr. Murray's refusal to publish the torrent was felt as well by them as by him- poem except anonymously, Lord Byron self, and after an effort or two to gain a fair suppressed the dedication, alleging as a hearing, they submitted in silence." This reason his unwillingness to attack Southey could not be long endured. On the 25th of " under cloud of night." April, 1816, he left England for Ostend.

66

About this period he became acquainted Immediately previous to his departure, with the Countess Guiccioli, to whom, in the lines to his sister, Mrs. Leigh, beginning the Italian character of "cavalier servente," Though the day of my destiny's over," he devoted himself for several succeeding and the first stanza to Mr. Moore, "My years, and by whose future movements his boat is on the shore," were written. The own were almost exclusively governed du"Fare thee well," intended for Lady Byron, ring the remainder of his residence in Italy. and the "Sketch from private life," alluding They appear to have been mutually and to a Mrs. Charlton, her governess, had appassionately attached to each other, and peared about the first of April. the liaison, however reprehensible, had the

neva.

From Ostend, he journeyed to the Rhine, good effect of weaning him from still more visiting Brussels and Waterloo, entered disreputable attachments. She was a RoSwitzerland at Basle, and proceeded by magnese lady, the daughter of Count the route of Berne and Lausanne to Ge- Gamba, a nobleman of high rank and anHe removed in a few weeks to Dio-cient name at Ravenna, and had been data, a villa about three miles from Geneva, married at sixteen or seventeen, without where with occasional voyages on the Lake, reference to her choice or affection, to the and excursions to Coppet, Chamouni, the Count Guiccioli, an old and wealthy wiBernese Alps, &c. in company with Mr. dower of that country; whose great opuHobhouse, Mr. Shelley, and one or two other lence had rendered his otherwise worse. intimate acquaintances, he passed the than indifferent reputation respectable. She summer. He there wrote the third Canto was on a visit at Venice with her husband, of Childe Harold, the Monody on the Death when Lord Byron was introduced to her. of Sheridan, the stanzas "To Augusta," She was then about twenty, but appeared The Fragment," "The Prisoner of Chil- much younger, with a singularly fair and lon," &c. delicate complexion, large, dark, and lanIn October, he crossed the Simplon to guishing eyes, and a profusion of light auMilan, and on the 10th of November took burn hair. She proceeded with her hus up his residence at Venice. He soon after band to Ravenna about the middle of April, commenced the study of the Armenian 1819, and in June, Lord Byron visited her language with the brothers of a monastery there. The Lines to the Po, alluding to near that city, and in March following, her, were written on his journey. They (1817,) translated the Two Epistles, page returned through Bologna to Venice, in 299. "Manfred" was finished at this time, October. At Bologna he wrote the letter and sent to London. The Third Act, as to Roberts, the Editor of the British Reoriginally written, is included in this col-view, and the Sonnet relating to the heir of lection of his Poems, page 470. It was Lord Edward Fitzgerald. altered to its present state in June, and the He received about this time, at Venice, drama was published in July. In April a visit from Mr. Moore, in the course of he left Venice for Rome, visiting Ferrara, which he presented to that gentleman a where he wrote the "Lament of Tasso," large manuscript volume, which he called and passing a day or two at Florence on his his "Life and Adventures." It appears way. He returned from Rome to Venice not to have been a detail of the events of early in June, and in July began the 4th his life in a regular series, but a collection Canto of Childe Harold, which was gra- of various journals, memoranda, &c. At dually enlarged until its publication in Lord Byron's request, the copy-righ was March 1818. Beppo, Mazeppa, and the immediately disposed of for Mr. Moore's Ode to Venice, were written in the course benefit, to Mr. Murray, for two thousand of the spring and summer of that year, and guineas, with the understanding, that the