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 ANECDOTES 
 
 LOKD BYRON. 
 
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ANECDOTES 
 
 LORD BYRON, 
 
 FROM 
 
 AUTHENTIC SOURCES; 
 
 WITH 
 
 REMARKS ILLUSTRATIVE OF HIS CONNECTION 
 
 WITH THE PRINCIPAL LITERARY CHARACTERS OP 
 
 THE PRESENT DAY. 
 
 $fMt 
 
 Dead scandals form good subjects for dissection. 
 
 DON JUAN. 
 
 LONDON, 
 
 KNIGHT AND LACEY, PATERNOSTEE ROW: 
 ABERDEEN, W, GORDON; A. STEVENSON; D. WYWE J 
 
 AND L. SMITH. 
 
 1825. 
 
A 
 
 SHORT ACCOUNT 
 
 OF 
 
 LORD BYRON. 
 
 (jTENius has, all the world over, and more espe-* 
 cially in England, generally been found emanating 
 from individuals in humble life. The greatest au-« 
 thors, both in ancient and modern times, have braved 
 the most adverse fortunes, and, in the midst of po-« 
 rerty and want in this frail life, struggled for, and 
 obtained the approbation of ages. Lord Byron, who 
 will now stand prominent in that armament of great 
 men^^who glide undiminished in their splendour and 
 fame down the stream of immortality, was an except 
 tion to this rule. His biographer will not commence 
 with, '^ Our poet was born of poor but honest pa- 
 rents," or even " of respectable parents, in the county 
 of," &c, — the usual forms in writing the lives <5f 
 three-fourths of literary men. Byron was high- 
 
VI LIFE OP LORD BYRON. 
 
 bom,-*-descended from a long race of warriors and 
 nobles. The history of the family can be traced to 
 the Conquest ; for we find, during the reign of Wil- 
 liam the Conqueror, one Ralph de Buron, Burun, or 
 Byron, who held Herestan Castle, in the Park of 
 Herseley, and besides possessed many manors in the 
 counties of Nottingham and Derby. In the reign 
 of Henry II. we find the family name Biron or By- 
 ron, and thus it has remained ever since. At this 
 time the family seat was in Lancashire, but in the 
 reign of Henry VIII. when that " defender of the 
 faith" reformed the church for the benefit of his own 
 conscience and pocket, we find Sir John Byron, con- 
 stable of Nottingham Castle, and master of Sherwood 
 Forest, presented by his munificent Monarch, in whose 
 favour he must have been far advanced, to the Church 
 and Priory of Newstead, the adjacent manor of Pople- 
 wick, and the church patronage annexed to it. This 
 Abbey was founded in the year 11 70, by Henry II. as 
 a Priory of Black Canons, and dedicated to the Vir- 
 gin Mary. It continued in the family of the By- 
 rons until the time of the late Lord, who sold it 
 first to Mr Claughton for the, sum of £140,000, 
 and, on that gentleman's not being able to fulfil the 
 agreement, and thus paying £20,000 of a forfeit, it 
 vas afterwards sold to another person, and the great- 
 er part of the money vested in trustees for the join- 
 
LIFE OP LORD BYRON. VU 
 
 ture of the Hon. Mrs Byron. * The greater part 
 of the edifice still remains. The present possessor. 
 Major Wildman, is, with a genuine Gothic taste, 
 repairing this beautiful specimen of architecture. 
 The late Lord Byron repaired a considerable part of 
 it, but, forgetting the roof, he had turned his atten- 
 tion to the inside, and the consequence was, that, in 
 a few years, the rain paying a visit to the apartments, 
 soon destroyed all those elegant devices which his 
 Lordship had contrived. His Lordship's own study 
 was a neat little apartment, decorated with some good 
 classic busts, a select collection of books, an antique 
 cross, a sword in a gilt case, and, at the end of the 
 room, two finely polished skulls on a pair of light 
 fancy stands. In the garden, likewise, was a great 
 number of these skulls taken from the burial-ground 
 of the Abbey, and piled up together ; but afterwards 
 they were re-committed to the earth. A writer 
 who visited it soon after Lord Byron had sold it says, 
 *' In one corner of the servants' hall lay a stone cof- 
 fin, in which were fencing gloves and foils ; and on 
 
 * Medwin says, that it was the confusion of his affairs fol- 
 Icpeing his marriage that compelled Byron to part with New- 
 stead. This shews that Captain Medwin was a very careless 
 reporter ; for Newstead was disposed of long before Byron had 
 any intentions of marrying Miss Milbanke. 
 
Vm LIFE OP LORD BYRON. 
 
 the walls of the ample but cheerless kitchen, was 
 painted in large letters, ''Waste not, — want not." 
 During the minority of Lord Byron, the Abbey wa« 
 
 in the possession of Lord G , his hounds, and 
 
 divers colonies of jackdaws, swallows, and starlings. 
 The internal traces of this Goth were swept away ; 
 but without, all appeared as rude and unreclaimed 
 as he could have left it. With' the exception of the 
 dc^'s tomb, a conspicuous and elegant object, I do 
 not recollect the slightest trace of culture or improve- 
 ment. The late Lord, a stern and desperate charac- 
 ter, who is never mentioned by the neighbouring 
 peasants without a significant shake of the head, 
 might have returned and recognised every thing 
 about him except perhaps an additional crop of weeds. 
 There still slept that old pond, into which he is said 
 to have hurled his lady in one of his fits of fury, 
 whence she was rescued by the gardener, a courage^* 
 ous blade, who was the Lord's master, and chastised 
 him for his barbarity. There still, at the end of the 
 garden, in a grove of oak, two towering Satyrs, he 
 with his goat and club, and Mrs Satyr with her 
 chubby cloven-footed brat, placed on pedestals at the 
 intersections of the narrow and gloomy pathways, 
 struck for a moment, with their grim visages, and 
 silent shaggy forms, the fear into your bosom which 
 is felt by the neighbouring peasantry at " ih* oud. 
 
1.IFE OF LORD BYRON. IX 
 
 laird's devils" I have frequently asked the country 
 people near Newstead, what sort of a man his Lord- 
 ship was ? The impression of his eccentric but ener-i 
 getic character was evident in the reply : " He's 
 the devil of a fellow for comical fancies. He flogs 
 the oud laird to nothing ; but he's a hearty good 
 fellow for all that." • 
 
 Walpole, who had visited Ne wstead, gives, in his usual 
 bitter, sarcastic manner, the following account of it : 
 
 '' As I returned I saw Newstead and Althorpe; 
 I like both. The former is the very Abbey. The 
 great east window of the church remains, and con- 
 nects with the house ; the hall entire, the refectory 
 entire, the cloister untouched, with the ancient cis- 
 tern of the convent, and their arms on it : it has a pri-* 
 vate chapel quite perfect. The Park, which is still 
 charming, has not been so much unprofaned. The 
 present Lord has lost large sums, and paid part in 
 old oaks ; five thousand pounds of which have been 
 cut near the house. In recompense, he has built 
 two baby forts, to pay his country in castles for da- 
 mage done to the navy, and planted a handful of 
 Scotch firs, that look like ploughboys dressed in old 
 family liveries for a public day. In the hall is a very 
 good collection of pictures, all animals. The refeo* 
 tory, now the great drawing room, is full of Byrons : 
 the vaulted roof remaining, but the windows have 
 
X LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 
 
 new dresses making for them hy a Venetian tailor." 
 On this passage an Edinburgh reviewer has the fol- 
 lowing remarks — not so bad for one who had so la- 
 vishly abused Byron a few years before : — 
 
 '' This is a careless but happy description of one 
 of the noblest mansions in England ; and it will now 
 be read with a far deeper interest than when it was 
 written. Walpole saw the seat of the Byrons, old, 
 majestic, and venerable ; but he saw nothing of that 
 magic beauty which fame sheds over the habita- 
 tions of genius, and which now mantles every turret 
 of Newstead Abbey. He saw it when decay was 
 doing its work on the cloister, the refectory, and the 
 diapel, and all its honours seemed mouldering into 
 oblivion. He could not know that a voice was soon 
 to go forth from those antique cloisters that should 
 be heard through all future ages, and cry, ^ Sleep no 
 more, to all the house.' Whatever may be its fu- 
 ture fate, Newstead Abbey must henceforth be a 
 memorable abode. Time may shed its wild flowers 
 an the walls, and let the fox in upon the court-yard 
 and the chambers. It may even pass into the hands 
 of unlettered pride, or plebeian opulence, (who are 
 there to abide with the fox and wild flowers ?) — but 
 it has been the mansion of a mighty poet. Its name 
 35 associated to glories that cannot perish, and will 
 
LIFE OP LORD BYRON. tX 
 
 go down to posterity in one of the proudest pages of 
 our annals." 
 
 This Sir John left the Abbey and his other pos- 
 sessions to his fourth son of the same name, on whom 
 Queen Elizabeth conferred the honour of knight- 
 hood in 1579* His eldest son. Sir Nicholas, served 
 with distinction in the Low Countries; and when the 
 people thought fit to resist the tyranny of Charles, he 
 was among the first to take up arms in the royal cause. 
 Lord Clarendon, for this reason, speaks highly of his 
 character, and of the exertions made by him in 
 Cheshire for the assistance of the King. " He was," 
 gays the noble historian, " a person of great affabili- 
 ty and dexterity, as well as martial knowledge, which 
 gave great life to the designs of the well-affected ; 
 and, with the encouragement of some gentlemen of 
 North Wales, he in a short time raised such a power 
 of horse and foot, as made frequent skirmishes with 
 the enemy, sometimes with notable advantage, never 
 with signal loss." 
 
 Sir John Byron, the youngest brother of Sir Nicho- 
 las, was made Knight of the Bath at the coronation of 
 King James IL He married Anne, eldest daughter of 
 Sir Richard Molyneux, Bart., by whom he had eleven 
 sons and one daughter. The eldest of his sons served 
 with his uncle in the Low Countries; and on the remo- 
 val of Sir Thomas Sandford, from the governorship of 
 
Kll LIFE OF LORD BYRON# 
 
 the Tower, rthis Sir John Byron was appointed to 
 that situation by his Majesty. He was, however, as 
 obnoxious to the city and commons as his predecessor, 
 and they determined to have him dismissed. The king 
 refused, and the commons requested the peers to join 
 them in another petition ; but they rejected the propo- 
 sition, " as well for that the disposal of the custody of 
 the Tower was the king's peculiar right and preroga* 
 tive, as likewise that his Majesty had committed the 
 charge thereof to Sir John Byron, a person of very 
 ancient family, an honourable extraction, and good 
 fortune, and as unblemished a reputation as any gen* 
 tleman in the kingdom." The people, however, in 
 three days, found more ways of gaining their wish* 
 es than by petitions, and Sir John Byron himself re** 
 quested to be freed '' from the agony and vexation 
 of that place, which had exposed his person and re< 
 putation to the rage and fury of the people, and 
 compelled him to submit to such xeproaches as a gem 
 nerous spirit could not brook without much regret." 
 He was accordingly removed, and in the summer of 
 1 642 was employed to escort the plate which the 
 University of Oxford had contributed for their ex- 
 cellent sovereign. For his conduct on this occasion, 
 the University conferred on him, with the best grace 
 they could assume, the degree of Doctor in the Civil 
 Law. Soon after he bore a distinguished part in 
 
LIFE OF LORD BYRON. XIU 
 
 the battle of Edge Hill, as also in that of Marston, 
 where three of his brothers were slain. This cir- 
 cumstance is thus commemorated by their poetical 
 descendant : — 
 
 << On Marston, with Rupert, 'gainst traitors contending, 
 Four brothers enriched with their blood the black field ; 
 
 For the rights of a Monarch, their country defending, 
 Till death their attachment to royalty sealed." 
 
 For these services, this Sir John Byron was created 
 by letters patent, dated at Oxford, October 27> l643, 
 a Peer, by the title of Baron Byron of Rochdale, in 
 the county of Lancaster, with the remainder of the 
 title to his brothers, and their male issue respective- 
 ly. He was then appointed Field- Marshall -General 
 of all his Majesty's forces in Worcestershire, Shrop- 
 shire, Cheshire, and North Wales. He afterwards was 
 appointed tutor to the Duke of York, and accompanied 
 *his pupil to Flanders under Turenne; He died at 
 Paris in 1652, and> though twice married, left no 
 issue. He was succeeded in his title and estates by 
 his second brother. Sir Richard Byron, who was 
 knighted by Charles I. for his conduct at Edge HilL 
 This second Lord Byron died in 1679, and was sue* 
 ceeded by his eldest son William, who married Eliz< 
 abeth, daughter of John Viscount Chaworth in Ire^ 
 land, l^ whom he had five sons, all of whom died 
 
XkV LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 
 
 yoimg, except William, fourth Lord Byron, who was 
 bom 1669. This Lord was three times married, 
 and had by his third wife, five sons and one daughter. 
 William, the eldest son, bom in 1722, succeeded to 
 the family honours in 17 SQ. He entered into 
 the naval service, and was lieutenant of the Victory, 
 under Admiral Bluchen. In 1763, he was made mas* 
 ter of the Staghounds, and, in 1765, he was sent to 
 the Tower, and tried before the House of Peers for 
 killing his relation and neighbour, Mr Chaworth, in 
 the Star and Garter tavern in Pall Mall. He mar- 
 ried first, Elizabeth, the daughter of Charles Shaw, 
 Esq. of Best- thorp Hall, in the county of Norfolk, by 
 whom he had three sons, all of whom died without 
 issue before their father. He afterwards married 
 one of the daughters of Commodore John Byron, his 
 brother, and treated her, it is said, with great bru- 
 tality — having on one occasion thrown her into the 
 pond. He died at Newstead on the 17th May, 1798, 
 without issue, and was succeeded by his grand-ne* 
 phew, the late Lord Byron. 
 
 George Noel Gordon Byron was the son of Cap- 
 tain John Byron (eldest son of Commodore Byron) 
 and of Miss Gordon of Gight, a descendant of an 
 ancient and honourable family in Scotland. The 
 place of his birth, like that of Homer, is not very 
 well known. His first biographers said he was bora 
 
LIFE OF LORD BYRON. XV 
 
 on his mother's estate in Aberdeenshire, on the 2 2d 
 of January, 1788; afterwards this was denied, and 
 he was said to have been born in London. Mr Dal- 
 las, who claimed a relationship, beginning his " Re- 
 collections" with, '^ Lord Byron was a nephew of 
 Captain George Anson Byron of the Royal Navy, 
 who married my sister Henrietta Charlotte," says 
 he was born at Dover, and only baptized in Lon- 
 don; Wherever he might have been born, or where- 
 ever he received baptism, it is well known he was 
 taken, while an infant, by his mother to Aberdeen. 
 His father had spent the fortune of his wife, and she 
 was reduced to live on a very bare competence. By- 
 ron remained in Aberdeen for a little time, but, on 
 account of his delicate health, and some appearance 
 of consumption, was afterwards sent to Pannanieh, 
 which is situated in one of the most wild and moun- 
 tainous parts of Aberdeenshire ; and here, wandering 
 about without any companion, unless chance should 
 throw a shepherd's boy in his way, he imbibed that 
 morbid love of loneliness which became so conspi- 
 cuous in his writings and after life. Until seven 
 years of age, he remained roving about among these 
 mountains, dressed in the " garb of old Gaul," and 
 receiving no other instructions than those his mother 
 gave him. At that age, his mother, for the benefit 
 of his education, returned with him to Aberdeen, 
 
atvi LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 
 
 and he was placed at the grammar school there, where 
 he remained until his succession to the title. He 
 was by no means conspicuous as a scholar, but on 
 occasions he could exert himself so as to shew that 
 it was not for want of natural abilities that he was 
 not the first in the class. His health waS now re«- 
 stored. He was then removed, by the advice of his 
 relation, the Earl of Carlisle, and placed at the cele- 
 brated school of Harrow. From this place he was 
 entered of Trinity College, Cambridge, and conti- 
 nued there three years, but departed without taking 
 a degree. Immediately on coming of age, he went 
 to the Continent in company with his friend Mr 
 Hobhouse. He returned to England in 1811, hav- 
 ing been absent exactly two years. Soon after this 
 his mother died.* On the second of January, 1815, 
 he married the only daughter of Sir Ralph Noel 
 Milbanke, and, a few weeks after their marriage, 
 a separation took place, and he fled from England 
 for ever. He died at Missolonghi in Greece> on the 
 19th of April, 1824, in the 37th year of his age. 
 
 • Captain Medwin makes Byron say his mother's death hur* 
 tied huU home from Turkey, This is incorrect. 
 
ANECDOTES 
 
 OP 
 
 LORD BYRON. 
 
 XT is the custom of the grammar school at Aber- 
 deen, that the boys of all the five classes to which 
 it is composed, should be assembled for prayers in 
 the public, school at eight o'clock in the morning; 
 after prayers a censor calls over the names of all, 
 and those v^ho are absent are punished. 
 
 The first time that Lord Byron had come to school 
 after his accession to his title, the rector had caused 
 his name to be inserted in the censor's book Georgius 
 Dominus de Byron instead of Georgius Byron Gor- 
 don, as formerly. The boys unaccustomed to this 
 aristocratic sound, set up a loud and involuntary 
 shout, which had such an effect on his sensitive 
 mind, that he burst into tears, and would have fled 
 from the school had he not been restrained by the 
 toaster. 
 
 B 
 
2 ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 
 
 A school- fellow of Byron's had a very small Shet- 
 land pony, which his father had bought him, and 
 one day they went to the banks of Don to bathe : 
 but having only one pony, they were obliged to fol- 
 low the good old practice called in Scotland " ride 
 and tie." When they came to the bridge, over that 
 dark, romantic stream, Byron bethought him of the 
 prophecy which he has incorrectly quoted (from 
 memory, it is true) in Don Juan : 
 
 " Brig o' Balgownie ! wight is thy wa', 
 AA i' a wife's ae son an' a mare's ae foal, 
 Down shalt thou fa'." 
 
 He immediately stopped his companion, who was 
 then riding, and asked him if he remembered the pro- 
 phecy, saying, that as they were both only sons, and 
 as the pony might be " a mare's ae foal," he w^ould 
 rather ride over first, because he had only a mother 
 to lament him should the prophecy be fulfilled by 
 the falling of the bridge, whereas the other had 
 both a father and a mother to grieve for him. 
 
 Wliile at the grammar school, in all the boyish 
 sports and amusements he would be the first, if pos- 
 sible. Notwithstanding the weakness of his consti- 
 tution and the mal-conformation of one of his feet, 
 BO boy could outstrip him in the race, or in swim- 
 ming. His desire for supremacy in the school games, 
 led him into many combats. In these he shewed 
 himself no mean proficient at " England's darling 
 science" — he came always off with honour, almost 
 always victorious. Upon one occasion, a boy pur- 
 
ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 3 
 
 sued by another took refuge in his mother's house ; 
 the latter, who had been much abused by the for- 
 mer, proceeded to take vengeance on him, even oi^ 
 the landing-place of the drawing-room stairs, when 
 young Byron came out at the noise, and insisted 
 that the refugee should not be struck in his house, 
 or else he must fight for him. The pursuer, " no- 
 thing loath," accepted the challenge, and they 
 fought for nearly an hour, when both were compel- 
 led to give in from absolute exhaustion. 
 
 An answer which Lord Byron made to a fellow- 
 scholar, who questioned him as to the cause of the 
 honorary addition of " Dominus de Byron* to his 
 name, served at that time, when he was only ten 
 years of age, to point out that he would be a man 
 who would think, speak, and act for himself; who, 
 whatever might be his sayings or his doings, his 
 vices or his virtues, would not condescend to take 
 them at second hand. This happened on the very 
 day after he had been menaced with being flogged 
 round the school, for a fault which he had not com- 
 mitted ; and, when the question was put to him, 
 he replied : " It is not 7ny doing. Fortune was to 
 whip me yesterday for what another did, and she 
 has this day made me a Lord for what another has 
 ceased to do. I need not thank her in either case ; 
 for I have asked nothing at her hands/' 
 
 A gentleman of the sister kingdom, one of those 
 industrious persons who can engage to do any thing, 
 
4 ANECDOTES OF LORD BYROSf. 
 
 and who let notliing escape them for the want of 
 seeking, heard that Lord Byron was about to set out 
 for the continent, and upon receiving this intelligence 
 it instantly flashed upon the mind of this universal 
 undertaker, that it would be a good raising of the 
 wind to procure the situation of private secretary 
 to his Lordship. Upon this he made himself as 
 spruce and as interesting as possible; and oiF he 
 set for the Albany, where Lord Byron then lodged. 
 His Lordship WaS at the door in the act of step«« 
 ping into his curricle, when he was addressed by 
 the candidate for the private secretaryship. He 
 began by a long dissertation on his own powers ; 
 proceeded to an equally long topography of the 
 route which it might be most eligible to pursue ; 
 and ended by an enquiry as to the time at which 
 they would set out. " My dear Sir," said Byron, 
 with much imivele, *^ we set out this instant ; but 
 you see that I cannot accommodate you, — there are 
 but two seats in the curricle, and my servant, the 
 rogue, has got into one of them already." 
 
 Among the early amusements of Lord Byroil, 
 were swimming and managing a boat, in both of 
 which he is said to have acquired a great dexterity 
 even in his childhood. In his aquatic excursions 
 near Newstead Abbey, he had seldom any other 
 companion than a large Newfoundland dog, to try 
 whose sagacity and fidelity, he would sometimes fall 
 out of the boat, as if by accident, when the dog 
 Would seize him and drag him ashore. On losing 
 this dog in the autumn of 1808, his Lordship caused 
 
ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 5 
 
 a monument to be erected, commemorative of its at- 
 tachment, with an inscription, from which we ex<» 
 tract the following lines : 
 
 " Ye who, perchance, behold this simple urn, 
 Pass on — it honours none you wish to mourn ! 
 To mark a friend's remains these stones arise— 
 I never knew but one, and here he lies." 
 
 On the death of his grand-uncle, and his conse* 
 quent elevation to the Peerage, he was removed by 
 his guardian to Harrow. Here he continued to 
 display his love of boxing superior to that of Latin 
 versification ; and instead of gaining high repute 
 amongst the quiet plodding ones on account of de- 
 votion to his " Gradus ad Parnassum," he made him- 
 self be feared and respected by the great skill he 
 possessed in the use of his fists. Harrow is the nur- 
 sery of politicians, and many celebrated personages 
 of the day have exchanged blows with Byron at this 
 school. One battle may be mentioned. Lord Cal- 
 thorpe had wrote " damned Atheist" under Byron's 
 name. This his young Lordship considered an in- 
 sult, and by inflicting on C some most " apos- 
 tolic blows and knocks," he convinced him that he 
 was not at least unacquainted with the tenets of 
 the church militant. 
 
 The boys at Harrow had mutinied, and, in their 
 wisdom, had resolved to set fire to the scene of all 
 their ills and troubles — the school-room. Byron, 
 however, was against the motion, and by pointing 
 out to the young rebels the names of their fathers 
 
6 ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 
 
 on the walls,* he prevented the intended conflagra- 
 tion. This early specimen of his power over the 
 passions of his school- fellows, his Lordship piqued 
 himself not a little upon. 
 
 Byron long retained a friendship for several of 
 his Harrow companions. Lord Clare was one of 
 his constant correspondents. Scroope Davies was 
 also one of his chief companions before his Lordship 
 went to the continent. This gentleman and Byron 
 once lost all their money at " Chicken hazard/' in 
 one of the hells of St James's, and next morning 
 Davies sent for Byron s pistols to shoot himself with. 
 Byron sent a note refusing to give them, on the 
 ground, that they would be forfeited as a deodand. 
 This comic excuse had the desired effect. 
 
 From Harrow Lord Byron was removed, and en- 
 tered of Trinity College, Cambridge. Here, how- 
 ever, he did not mend his manners, nor hold the 
 sages of antiquity in higher esteem than when un- 
 der the command of old Drury at Harrow. He 
 was above studying the Poetics, and held the rules 
 of the Stagyrite in as little esteem as, in after life, 
 he did the " invariable principles'* of the Rev. Mr 
 Bowles. Reading after the fashion of the studious 
 men of Cam, was to him a bore ; and he held a se- 
 
 • " There, deeply carved, behold ! each tyro's name 
 Secures its owner's academic fame ; 
 Here, mingling, view the names of sire and son, 
 The one long 'graved, the other just begun." 
 
 Hours of Idknew. 
 
ANECDOTES OP LORD BYRON. 7 
 
 nior wrangler in the greatest contempt. Persons 
 of real genius are seldom candidates for college prizes, 
 and Byron left " the silver cup" for those plodding 
 characters, who, perhaps, deserve them, as the guer- 
 don of the unceasing labour necessary to overcome 
 the, all but invincible, natural dulness of their in- 
 tellects. Byron, instead of reading what pleased 
 tutors, read what pleased himself, and wrote what 
 could not fail to displease those political weather- 
 cocks. He did not admire their system of education, 
 and thet/, as is the case with most scholars, could ad- 
 mire no other. He took to quizzing them, and no 
 one likes to be laughed at. Doctors frowned, and 
 Fellows fumed, and Byron, at the age of nineteen, 
 left the university without a degree. 
 
 Whilst at Cambridge, he kept a young bear in 
 his room for some time, and it is reported, that he 
 told the master, he intended that his bear should 
 sit for a fellowship. But however much the Fel- 
 lows of Trinity may claim acquaintance with the 
 *' Ursa Major/' they were by no means desirous of 
 associating with his Lordship's eleve. 
 
 His Lordship's bear has created a laugh at the 
 expense of more persons than the pedants of Gran- 
 
 ta. When Mons. G was publishing a French 
 
 edition of Byron's works, he was very anxious to 
 procure some anecdotes of his Lordship, to be at- 
 tached to his Poems by way of explanatory notes, in 
 order to enhance the value of the work. Some wag 
 told the Frenchman, that the stanzas to Thyrza 
 
8 ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 
 
 were meant for his Cambridge bear. Down accord- 
 ingly this explanation went, and Madame the Bear 
 now claims the celebrity due to the beautiful Coun* 
 te;ss Guiccioli. 
 
 Whilst living at Newstead, Byron once found a 
 human skull of large dimensions, and particular 
 whiteness. He concluded that it belonged to some 
 ''jolly old soul" of a friar who had been domesticated 
 at Newstead, in the good lazy days of popery ; and 
 saw no harm in turning the cranium of this second 
 *' Tuck" into a drinking goblet. It is very possible, 
 (for such a skull must have been fed on something 
 else than prayers and vegetables,) that this holy 
 man in his day might have taken many a pull at 
 the jovial flask; and it was only changing sides^ 
 being pulled at, instead of pulling — not so bad to 
 hold red wine as to " stop the bung-hole of a beer- 
 barrel." Be this as it may, Byron sent the skull to 
 London, where it was carefully and elegantly mount- 
 ed. On its return to Newstead he instituted a new 
 order at the old Abbey, and constituted himself 
 Grand Master or Abbot of the Skull. Black gowns 
 were procured for the members, (twelve in number,) 
 the Grand Master's being somewhat distinguished 
 from the rest, and at certain times a chapter was 
 held. Upon these occasions, the skull being filled 
 with claret, was handed about amongst the gods of 
 the consistory, in imitation of the Goths of old, 
 whilst many a grim joke was cut at the expense of 
 this inspiring caput morluum. The goblet is now 
 in the possession of Colonel Windham. The fol- 
 lowing lines were inscribed upon it by Byron ; 
 
ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 
 
 <^ Start not — nor deem my spirit fled : 
 In me behold the only skull, 
 
 From which, unlike a living head, 
 Whatever flows is never dull. 
 
 I liv'd, I lov'd, I quaff''d like thee; 
 
 I died ; let earth my bones resign : 
 Fill up — thou canst not injure me ; 
 
 The worm hath fouler lips than thine. 
 
 Better to hold the sparkling grape, 
 
 Than nurse the earthworm's slimy brood ; 
 
 And circle in the goblet's shape. 
 
 The drink of gods, than reptile's food. 
 
 Where once my wit, perchance, hath shone. 
 In aid of others let me shine ; 
 
 And when, alas ! our brains are gone, 
 ^Vhat nobler substitute than wine ! 
 
 Quaff* while thou canst — another race. 
 When thou and thine like me are sped, 
 
 May rescue thee from earth's embrace, 
 And rhyme and revel with the dead. 
 
 Why not ? since through life's little day 
 Our heads such sad eflTects produce— 
 Redeem'd from worms and wasting clay, 
 This chance is theirs to be of use.'* 
 Newstead Abbey ^ 1308. 
 
 Byron ascribes his turn for poetry to his living 
 amidst the wild scenery of Lochnagar, the banks 
 of the Dee in Aberdeenshire. It was amongst 
 these " rugged wilds and mountains hoar," that 
 he thinks he caught the poetic fire ; but if so, it 
 lay dormant until blown into a flame by female 
 charms. It is as impossible to be a poet withpujb 
 
10 ANECDOTES OP LORD BYRON. 
 
 a mistress, as to be a mechanic without tools. 
 Byron whilst living at Newstead, during the va- 
 cation at Harrow^ saw Miss Cha worth, who lived 
 in the neighbourhood, and, of course, fell desper- 
 ately in love. The public owe a great deal to 
 her, for she was the object that first called forth 
 the talent of the noble bard. She is the Mary of 
 his poetry, and his beautiful " dream" is the his- 
 tory of their loves. Miss Chaworth was older than 
 his Lordship by a few years, was light and vola- 
 tile, and though no doubt highly pleased to be 
 bepraised, and compared to every thing pretty in 
 the celestial or terrestrial globe, yet she treated 
 our poet and ardent lover as a younger brother. 
 She was punctual to the assignations which took 
 place at a gate dividing the grounds of the Byrons 
 from the Chaworths, and accepted his letters from 
 the confidante, but she did not correspond suffi- 
 ciently in sighs and tears. As for his Lordship, 
 he fancied himself a man, and became a real re- 
 presentative of a Minerva-press hero, wrote poetry, 
 became sorrowful and serious, and spoke, and 
 gighed, as all lovers do, *' unutterable things." 
 Miss Chaworth gave him her picture ; and this to 
 any young poet and lover, is a constant stimulant 
 to the " cacoethes scribendi" 
 
 The Byrons and Chaworths had long been on 
 very ordinary terms of friendship. This ai;pse from 
 the following circumstance. 
 
 The grand-uncle of Lord Byron, and his im- 
 mediate predecessor in the title, belonged to a 
 
ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 11 
 
 club of which Mr Chaworth was also a member. 
 It met in the Star and Garter, Pall Mall, once a 
 month, and was called the Nottinghamshire Club. 
 On the 29th of January, 1765, they met at four 
 o'clock to dinner as usual, and every thing went 
 agreeably on, until about seven o'clock, when a 
 dispute arose betwixt Lord Byron and Mr Cha-« 
 worth, concerning the quantity of game on their 
 estates. The dispute continued something high, 
 and Mr Chaworth having paid his share of the 
 bill, retired. Lord Byron followed him out of the 
 room in which they had dined, and stopping him 
 on the landing of the stairs, called to the waiter 
 to shew them into an empty room. They were 
 shewn into one, and a small tallow candle placed 
 on the table. In a few minutes, the bell 
 was rung, and Mr Chaworth found mortally 
 wounded. He said that Lord Byron and he en- 
 tered the room together. Lord Byron leading the 
 way ; that his Lordship, in walking forward, said 
 something relative to the former dispute, on which 
 he proposed fastening the door ; that on turning 
 himself round from this act, he perceived his Lord- 
 ship with his sword half drawn, or nearly so, on 
 which knotving his man, he instantly drew his 
 Own, and made a thrust at him, which he thought 
 had wounded or killed him ; that then, perceiving 
 his Lordship shorten his sword to return the 
 thrust, he thought to have parried it with his left 
 hand ; that he felt the sword enter his body, and 
 go deep through his back ; that he struggled, and 
 being the stronger man, disarmed his Lordship, 
 and expressed a concern, as under an apprehension 
 
12 ANECDOTES OP LORD BYRON. 
 
 of having mortally wounded him ; that Lord Byron 
 replied by saying something to the like effect, ad- 
 ding at the same time, that he hoped " he would 
 now allow him to be as brave a man as any in the 
 kingdom." 
 
 Lord Byron surrendered himself to be tried by 
 his Peers, on the 10th of April, 1765. Two 
 hundred and fifty Peers, who sat in judgment on 
 him, unanimously returned a verdict of man* 
 slaughter. Lord Byron then claimed the benefit 
 of an old statute, and was acquitted on paying the 
 fees. He lived a very disagreeable life afterwards, 
 hated by, and at constant war with, his tenants. 
 He latterly confined himself much to the Abbey, 
 and fed crickets, which he rendered so tame, that 
 they would crawl over his body, and used to whip 
 them with a whip of straw when too familiar. On 
 his death they quitted the house en masse. 
 
 It was something remarkable, that Lord Byron 
 and Miss Chaworth should be both under the 
 guardianship of Mr White. This gentleman par- 
 ticularly wished that his wards should be married 
 together ; but Miss C;, as young ladies generally 
 do in such circumstances, differed from him, and 
 was resolved to please herself in the choice of a 
 husband. The celebrated Mr M — , commonly known 
 by the name of Jack M — , was at this time quite 
 the rage, and Miss C. was not subtle enough to 
 conceal the peuchant she had for Jack ; and though 
 Mr W. carried her from one watering-place to ano* 
 ther, still the lover, like an evil spirit, followed ; 
 
ANECbOTES OP LORD feYIiO^*. 13 
 
 and at last, being somehow more persuasive than 
 the " child of song," he carried off the lady to the 
 great grief of Lord Byron. The disappointed 
 lover, however, neither hanged himself, nor " spak 
 o' jumpin' owre a linn." He betook himself to the 
 bottle, and tried to drown his chagrin by bumpers 
 of claret. The marriage, however. Was not a hap- 
 py one. The parties soon separated, and Mrs 
 M. proposed an interview with her former lover, 
 which, by the advice of his -sister, he declined. 
 His Lordship often alludes to his first love ; and 
 there is every reason to believe, had he married 
 Miss C. the whole tenor of his life might have 
 been different. Instead of following the muse, 
 he might, in order to benefit his estate, have set* 
 tied down with his lady into a sheep feeder and 
 farmer, and occasionally spouted in Parliament 
 on staple commodities and corn laws. This was 
 possible, but by no means probable. Byron, we 
 fear, would have been the same wayward, incon- 
 stant, dissatisfied being, whomsoever he had mar- 
 ried. 
 
 Byron was a spoiled child, and the true offspring 
 of one who had never been a disciple of Mentor : 
 He says, '* I was only six years of age when I lost 
 my father. My mother, when she was in a rage 
 with me, (and I gave her cause enough) used to 
 say, ' Ah ! you little dog, you are a Byron all over, 
 you are as bad as your father," 
 
J 4 ANECDOTES OP LORD BYRON. 
 
 His father married, or ran away with, three wo- 
 men, spent three fortunes, and once wanted a guinea 
 that he wrote for. He was a professed libertine, 
 and braggadocio, — would lie with a man's wife, 
 and then pull his nose, or shoot him if he hinted at 
 the impropriety of such conduct. He was too, in 
 one respect, the similar of Jack Falstaff ; for he 
 never smiled on a Dame Quickly, but when he was 
 gulling her, in order to pick her pocket. He 86- 
 duced the Marchioness of Carmarthen, and, after 
 her divorce, married her, by the interference of 
 her friends. She lived with him two years, 
 brought him a daughter, and died of a broken 
 heart occasioned by his conduct. He then eloped 
 with Miss Gordon of Gight, spent her fortune at 
 the gaming table, and soon after the birth of his 
 son, abandoned her, and went to the continent, 
 where he died. 
 
 Lord Byron hated matrimony. He once took a 
 bet of fifty guineas to one, with his friend Hay, 
 that he would not marry. He sent him the money 
 soon after his marriage with Miss Milbanke. The 
 day before he made his proposals to this lady, he 
 bad no thoughts of marriage. He recollected the 
 domestic bliss and fire-side scenes of his parents, 
 and had, from thence, a perfect horror at matrix* 
 mony. 
 
 Byron was first introduced to Miss Milbanke at 
 I^y — _'s. In going up staii's, he stumbled. 
 
ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 15 
 
 and remarked to Moore, who accompanied him, 
 that it was a bad omen. On entering the room, 
 he perceived a lady more simply dressed than the 
 rest sitting on a sofa. He asked Moore if she was 
 a humble companion to any of the ladies. The 
 latter replied, " She is a great heiress, you'll better 
 marry her, and repair the old place, Newstead." 
 
 Miss Milbanke declined Lord Byron's first ofi^er, 
 but on his return from the continent, she renewed 
 their correspondence ; and the tenor of her letter 
 was, " that though she could not love him, she 
 desired his friendship." " Friendship,*' says his 
 Lordship, " is a dangerous word for young ladies ; it 
 is love full fledged, and waiting for a fine day to 
 fly." It is said. Miss Milbanke declined his offer 
 on account of the insufiiciency of her fortune at 
 that time. On hearing this some time after, his 
 Lordship immediately renewed it, and was ac'» 
 cepted. 
 
 During the marriage ceremony, Byron trembled 
 like a leaf, made the wrong responses, and after it 
 was over called her Miss Milbanke. Lady Noel 
 wept during the time of it. Lady Byron was the 
 only unconcerned person present. 
 
 After the ordeal, they set off" in a carriage for 
 the country-seat of Sir Ralph ; and Byron was very 
 sulky with the arrangement that had been made 
 
16 ANECDOTES OF LORD BYROJJi 
 
 on the occasion, for he found the lady's maid stuck 
 between him and his wife. It was said, that 
 Byron, on getting into the carriage, observed, he 
 had married Miss Milbanke out of spite, because 
 she had refused him twice ; — but this he stoutly 
 denies. '^ If I had made so uncavalier, not to say 
 brutal, a speech," he says, *' I am convinced Lady 
 Byron would have left the carriage to me and the 
 maid (lady's, I mean). She had spirit enough to 
 have done it, and would properly have resented the 
 affront." 
 
 Much has been said on Byron's immoral conduct. 
 In his defence, however, it may be stated, that he 
 was oftener the seduced than the seducer. He was 
 not without his faults with respect to women, but it 
 does not appear he was ever the cool calculating be- 
 trayer of unsuspecting female innocence. He affirms 
 that he never seduced any woman. He gives the fol* 
 lowing instance of great forbearance. " Mrs L. G. 
 wrote and offered to let me have her daughter for 
 £ 100. The old lady's P. S. was excellent. ' With 
 delicaci every thing may be made asy* But the 
 same post brought me a letter from the young one, 
 deprecating my taking advantage of their necessi- 
 ties, and ending, with saying, that she prized het 
 virtue. I respected it, and sent her some money." 
 This instance of his noble and upright spirit ought 
 to palliate several of his faults. 
 
 In the eyes of some he may, perhaps, appear much 
 
ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 17 
 
 Worse to have intrigued with a married woman, 
 than even if he had accepted the offer of the young 
 maiden. He carried on an intrigue with Mrs — 
 for the space of eight months ; she was double his 
 own age, and the mother of several children, who 
 bore the name of her husband, and were brought 
 up at his expense. Byron confesses to have been 
 much fascinated with this ''fat, fair, and forty** 
 dame, and was at one time on the point of running 
 away with her to the continent. Moralists perhaps 
 will excuse him, when they know that he did not 
 seduce this tender dame. She had been the pro* 
 perty of many, and had discarded one noble friend 
 for the sake of Lord Byron. When she tired of 
 him, she became inconstant, and this, among such 
 acquaintances, is a broad hint for the old possessor 
 to give place to the new, and take himself off. 
 
 Another time, during the life of his mother, By- 
 ron dressed up Mrs (another of his frail friends) 
 
 and passed her off as his friend Gordon, in order 
 that his mother might not know of his keeping in 
 terms with such a female acquaintance. This pre- 
 tended young gentleman miscarried in one of the 
 hotels in Bond Street. 
 
 Whilst living at Venice, there was a baker*s wife 
 took a particular fancy to Byron, and, as she was 
 extremely good looking, he took a fancy to her ; and 
 for some time this feeling was reciprocal. At first 
 all went on comfortably ; but " beauty fades to the 
 
 C 
 
18 ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON". 
 
 eye and palls upon the sense," and Byron began to 
 tire. Not so the lady ; she had got inside his house, 
 and did not feel inclined to quit it; or to suffer any 
 other female to approach it. She used to watch 
 the door, and if any female approached it, boldly and 
 stoutly denied them admittance. She was passion- 
 ately fond of his Lordship — was formed according 
 to the Xantippe school, and no more suited the 
 abode of a poet than a philosopher. Byron was no 
 Socrates, and would not suffer her ; but it was with 
 great difficulty that he got this termagant uncolo- 
 nized. One day afterwards at dinner, shfe forced 
 herself into his presence ; and seizing a knife threat- 
 ened to kill herself. Byron knew this to be a feint, 
 and took no notice of her. She then ran into the 
 balcony, and threw herself into the canal. The 
 water, however, reached to a little more than her 
 knees, and a Gondola soon picked her out. This 
 effectually cooled her passion, and she returned to 
 her husband, who very kindly received his " cara 
 sposa" to his longing arms. The circumstance caused 
 some noise at the time, and some said his Lordship 
 had thrown her into the canal; others, that she 
 had drowned herself for love. Harlowe was struck 
 with her appearance, and took her portrait. Mur- 
 ray got it engraved, and dubbed her " Byron s For^ 
 
 Byron, soon after he left Cambridge, published 
 his " Hours of Idleness" at Newark. In his pre- 
 face he states, that it was by tl e advice of his friends 
 that he published them. He added dates to the 
 
ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. IQ 
 
 different poems, in order that it might be seen at 
 what age they were written. At the time the 
 " Hours of Idleness*' made their appearance, the 
 Edinburgh Review was in its zenith, and a volume 
 of poetry by a young Peer not yet ascertained to be 
 a whig or a liberal, afforded a good opportunity of 
 exciting the risible muscles of the readers of the 
 Review. A peer and poet were scarcely thought 
 possible of being united in one person. Several no- 
 ' blemen, to be sure, wrote poetry, but then, it was 
 only lauded before their face, by those who were 
 eating -and drinking at their expense. If sent into 
 the world, people read it, made up their inequality 
 in rank to the Peer, by laughing at his inequality 
 of judgment. Lord Thurlow had translated Ana- 
 ctteon into English blank verse, so that the effusion 
 of the Teian bard to his goblet, his mistress, and 
 his lyre, looked more like those of a dapper little 
 cockney, inspired by a pot of " Whitbread's best," 
 and the eyes of his master's daughter, than one 
 raised to ecstacy and madness by the juice of the 
 vine. At this time, too, precocious talent was get- 
 ting rather annoying. Sundry gentlemen in their 
 teens were thinking themselves wiser than their 
 grey-headed grandfathers, and not a few were mak- 
 ing but one step from the nursery into the arena 
 of literature, and poetry in particular. People were 
 tiring of infant poets as they did of the infant Ros- 
 cius ; and were, besides, coming to the belief that 
 making rhymes was not so very wonderful a thing 
 as many supposed. The '^ Hours of Idleness," by 
 a Lord and a minor, afforded an excellent opportu- 
 nity for cutting at the poetical talents of lords in 
 
20 ANECDOTES OP LORD BYRON. 
 
 general, and minors in particular. To it, accord- 
 ingly, the reviewer went, and finished what he, 
 no doubt, thought a very smart spuabashing arti- 
 cle. But it is a failure ; and, though the matter 
 to work upon was good, (for Byron's friends them- 
 selves allow that the " Hours of Idleness" are " ver- 
 sus inopes rerum, migseque canorae*'), the reviewer 
 has made nothing but a very 3orry article, filled with 
 low cant, low wit, and vulgar Scotch proverbs. Ru- 
 mour ascribed it to Mr Jeffrey, and Byron, at the 
 time, believed he was the author. But Mr Jeffrey 
 denied, and Byron afterwards concluded that it was 
 written by a Mr S., Writer to the Signet, who en- 
 tertained a grudge against him. 
 
 The effect produced upon his Lordship by this 
 review was great, and shewed that he truly belong- 
 ed to the ''genus irrilahile vatum" He says, " When 
 I first saw the review of my Hours of Idleness, I was 
 furious, in such a rage as I have never been in since. 
 I dined that day with Scroope Davies, and drank 
 three bottles of claret, (pretty well for a youth of 
 twenty,) but it only boiled the more." 
 
 The satellites at the shop of Messrs Constable & 
 Company were vastly pleased with the article, and 
 chuckling to one another, they were heard to say, 
 '' Well, we have done for this same George Gordon, 
 Lord Byron, a minor. He wont tell us any more 
 about his Hours of Idleness. We have given him 
 work for twelve months at least in repenting of 
 what he has done." They did give him work truly 
 for a twelvemonth, but not in the manner supposed* 
 Byron was not the character they had imagined. 
 One who took it so much to heart was likely to foU 
 
ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 21 
 
 low one of two plans,-^either to cut his throat, or 
 pay the reviewers in kind with interest. He chose 
 the latter. The article acted i?i vice cotis, and in 
 twelve months he produced the " English Bards 
 and Scotch Reviewers" — a satire which, in the opi- 
 nion of many, ranks as high as any of his works. It 
 made a great impression, and, in a short time, went 
 through four large editions. 
 
 This work shews that satire is much easier than 
 eulogy. He could not have wrote half the quantity 
 in their praise, and expected to be read ; his a- 
 buse therefore is almost indiscriminate. Something 
 must be granted to Byron on account of his irritable 
 state when he wrote this poem, otherwise not a 
 little contempt would be due to him, for the man- 
 ner in which he has treated men equal, if not su- 
 perior, to him in mind. A great deal must also be 
 granted to the young poet's wish to show off his 
 talent for satire, no matter at whose cost. He 
 says, in an after work, 
 
 " If I sneer sometimes, 
 It is because I cannot well do less, 
 And now and then it also suits my rhy^nesJ*^ 
 
 He, however, seems to have become himself sensi- 
 ble of his error, for he did his utmost to suppress the 
 work ; and afterwards became the intimate friend of 
 all mentioned in the Satire, with two or three ex- 
 ceptions. 
 
 Byron expected to be called out on account of his 
 satire, but no one had courage to try his prowess 
 
22 ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 
 
 in the field, save Mr Moore, who did not relish the 
 joke about " Little's leadless pistols/* and sent a 
 letter to his Lordship in the nature of a challenge, 
 but which he, by his leaving the country, did not 
 receive. On his return, Mr Moore made enquiry 
 if he had received the epistle, and stated that, on 
 account of certain changes in his circumstances, he 
 wished to recal it, and become the friend of Byron 
 through Rogers. The letter, addressed to the care of 
 Mr Hanson, had been mislaid ; search was made for 
 it, and Byron, who did not like this offer of one hand 
 with a pistol, and the other to shake in fellowship, 
 felt very awkward. On the letter being recovered, 
 however, he delivered it unopened to Mr Moore, 
 and they afterwards continued most intimate friends. 
 
 Byron had only stated the truth about the " lead- 
 less pistols ;" but truth itself is not always quite pa- 
 latable when it must be followed by ridicule. Mr 
 Jeffrey had in '' good set phrase" abused the licentious 
 poems of Thomas Little, Esq. alias Thomas Moore, 
 Esq. and he, not choosing to put up with the flagel- 
 lation of the modern Aristarchus, challenged him. 
 When they arrived at Chalk Farm, the place fixed 
 on for fighting the duel, the police were ready, and 
 deprived them of their fire arms. On drawing 
 their contents, the compound of " villanous salt- 
 petre" was found, but the cold lead, 
 
 " The pious metal most in requisition 
 
 On such occasions," 
 
 had somehow disappeared. The cause was this : 
 One of the balls had fallen out in the carriage, and 
 
 mmm^mm^mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm^ 
 
ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 23 
 
 the seconds, to make both equal, dreiv the other. 
 The denouement was most unlucky, but by no 
 means tragic 
 
 Byron was engaged in several duels. In one of 
 these he was himself principal, and would have 
 been so in the other if the challenge had been pro- 
 perly forwarded. It is singular that both these 
 were from men who afterwards were his most inti- 
 mate friends, Hobhouse and Moore. 
 
 Whatever may be said of Byron's genius, little 
 can be granted to his consistency. He frequently 
 changed his opinions of men and things, and, ge- 
 nerally, rants the extremes. His temper was ex- 
 ceedingly irritable, and .the aristocrat and liberal 
 were very apt at times to come into collision to the 
 annoyance of himself and others. His vanity was 
 extreme, and his sensitiveness a bad companion for 
 it. Trifles rufiled him, and it was only with great 
 care that his friends could keep on terms with him. 
 When he and Mr Hobhouse travelled together, the 
 latter was under the necessity of keeping a stage or 
 two ahead, in order that he might not come too 
 much in contact. 
 
 " He knew himself the most unfit 
 
 Of men to herd with man ; with whom he held 
 
 Little in common ; untaught to submit 
 
 His thoughts to others, though his soul was quelPd 
 
 In youth by his own thoughts ; still uncompell'd 
 
 He would not yield dominion of his mind 
 
 To spirits against whom his own rebell'd ; 
 
24- ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 
 
 Proud though in desolation ; which could find 
 A life within itself to breathe without mankind." 
 
 Byron several times changed his opinion with re- 
 gard to his " Hours of Idleness." In the English 
 Bards he confessed their little worth, and the same 
 is held out in several other parts of his works. Be- 
 fore his death, however, like a kind parent, he seems 
 to have taken some pity on this unoffending child 
 of his youth, and has left on record that " there are 
 some as good pieces in the Hours of Idleness as ever 
 he wrote." It is a fortunate thing that the north- 
 em Zoilus did not perceive these beauties, for in that 
 case his Lordship might have been spoiled by flat- 
 tery. It is nonsense to say the harsh review injur- 
 ed Lord Byron. It did him a great deal of good— 
 without it he might never have been a poet. Miss 
 Chaworth and the Edinburgh Review were the 
 provocatives of his Lordship's genius. The one made 
 him a versifier by kindness and flattery ; the other 
 roused his passions by roughness and abuse. In the 
 hands of Miss C. he was pampered and led forward 
 by stroking like a child's pony — the reviewer stout- 
 ly mounted his back, and spurred and goaded him 
 on in the career of immortality. He wrote namby 
 pamby verses to please Miss C. but he wrote Childe 
 Harold to make a fool of the reviewer, by falsi- 
 fying his prediction. It is a pity the author of that 
 article is not perfectly known. He is one of those 
 lucky wights who, having no means of celebrity on 
 their own account, tack themselves by force to 
 the tail of some great men, and are " damned to 
 
ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 35 
 
 everlasting fame." They are always the reverse of 
 those they hang by ; Byron and his reviev^er, and 
 Napoleon and his gaoler, are similarly placed. Great 
 men occur but seldom, and they are happy dogs who 
 are soundly buffeted by them ; for whatever may be 
 their present sufferings, they have immortality for 
 their reward. 
 
 After Byron had published his '^ Hours of Idleness/* 
 he amused himself with writing amatory poetry for 
 the study of the Blue-stockings. He imagined he 
 was in love, and he thought he had been jilted, ai^ 
 most young tender-hearted gentlemen of his age do; 
 the consequence was, that he sighed away in iam- 
 bics at an awful rate. 
 
 " Dissatisfied, not knowing what he wanted ; 
 
 Nor glowing reverie, nor poet's lay, 
 Could yield his spirit that for which it panted, 
 
 A bosom whereon he his head might lay, 
 And hear the heart beat with the love it granted," &c. 
 
 His amatory poetry was much relished, being of 
 that doleful lacrymose kind swallowed with such 
 avidity by all literary old maids and sentimental 
 young misses. This lugubrious nature of his strains 
 gave occasion to the following joke : ^^ The morta- 
 lity among Byron's mistresses," said the late Lady 
 A — 11, " is really alarming. I think he generally 
 buries a first love every fortnight." " Madam," re- 
 plied Curran, the Irish Barrister, '' mistresses are 
 not so mortal, as every one who has to deal with 
 them unhappily knows. The fact is, my Lord weeps 
 for the press, and wipes his eyes with the public." 
 
S6 ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 
 
 This has the merit at any rate to resemble Cur- 
 ran. 
 
 His Lordship, it is said, merely entered the arena 
 against Lords Nugent and Thurlow, who were at 
 this time whining sadly, to the great admiration 
 of their female, and great laughter of their male 
 friends. Byron was a great Bondstreet lounger, a 
 frequenter of lobbies, coffee-houses, and routs, a box- 
 er and hard drinker — and found it no impolitic 
 thing to be in favour with the ^' Blues." The pa- 
 tronage of an antiquated noble Blue-stocking, is 
 worth tliat of six Lords. 
 
 Byron soon began to detest the " Bas-blues." 
 Madame de Stael, who is the Queen of the Coterie, 
 was in the practice of reading lectures to Byron 
 (after his separation from his Lady) on the impro- 
 priety of his conduct, and of shewing him, like an 
 orang outang, amongst her visitors. She once in- 
 vited him to her house. On his entrance the com- 
 pany stared as if they had seen a wild beast, and one 
 lady, it is said, actually fainted. Madame, in the pre- 
 sence of the whole body, gave him a pretty advice on 
 the propriety of changing his conduct, to which his 
 Lordship replied by a low bow. This lady also in- 
 terfered between him and his wife, and tried to 
 bring about a reconciliation. 
 
 Lady Byron was something of a '^ literary lady." 
 He describes her best himself *' She was easily 
 made the dupe of the designing, for she thought 
 
ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. S? 
 
 her knowledge of mankind infallible. She had 
 got some foolish idea of Madame de Stael into her 
 head, that a person may be better known in the 
 first hour than in ten years. She had the habit 
 of drawing people's characters after she had seen 
 them once or twice. She wrote pages on pages 
 about my character, but it was as unlike as pos- 
 sible. Lady Byron had good ideas, but could ne- 
 ver express them; wrote poetry too, but it was 
 only good by accident. Her letters were always 
 enigmatical, often unintelligible. She was go- 
 verned by what she called fixed rules, and princi- 
 ples squared mathematically. She would have 
 made an excellent wrangler at Cambridge. It 
 must be confessed, however, that she gave no 
 proof of her boasted consistency. First she re- 
 fused me, then she accepted me, then she separated 
 from me — so much for her consistency. 
 
 Byron in his prose works, and perhaps in his 
 conduct, shewed always the greatest disrespect for 
 women. In his poetry he has done them every 
 justice, but he declares, that his heroines are 
 strictly the creatures of his imagination, merely a 
 beau ideal likeness. He has endowed them with 
 all those perfections which his fancy painted to 
 him in Mary Chaworth, who, by the way, he says, 
 was " any thing but an angel.'* " Women," he 
 says, " are in an unnatural state of society. The 
 Turks and Eastern nations manage these things bet- 
 ter than we do. They lock them up, and they are 
 much happier. Give a woman a looking-glass, and 
 
28 ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 
 
 a few sugar plums, and she will be satisfied.'* Of 
 all his Lordship's opinions that have been promul- 
 gated, this is the worst. It is contemptible. From 
 the mouth of a Turkish Bashaw, people would have 
 only laughed at it ; but when they know Lord By- 
 ron held this opinion, what must be their pity for 
 the mind which could paint all that was beautiful 
 in its happy and poetic moments, and in the next, 
 place those beings on a level with the brute oreation? 
 But it may be doubted if he ever said this. If he 
 did, it must have been after dinner, as one quia 
 more on the word-eater who was swallowing with 
 capacious maw every joke which Byron made to 
 gull him. He says, " he formed this opinion not 
 hastily, but from his own fatal experience ; he be- 
 gan by being jilted, and ended by being Un wived/' 
 He, however, never was jilted, for the lady never 
 loved him, and it was only his unweening vanity 
 that thought so ; and as to being un wived, the per- 
 son who could entertain such opinions of women 
 (for he must have formed them early if he drew 
 from his own experience) was not likely to live 
 happily, or to desire to live happily, or on common 
 terms, with any woman. 
 
 Great men must have their prejudices, and many, 
 of course, with respect to women. Napoleon had 
 a contempt for women, because he never had a com- 
 mon sympathy, not to say love, for any human 
 being, so much was he engrossed in self; and By- 
 ron, agreeing with him in this sweeping opinion, 
 had also his minor prejudices. He could never suf- 
 
 Nfei^ 
 
ANECDOTES OP LORD BYROTf. 29 
 
 fer to see a woman eat. Of all the " follies of the 
 wise/' ever given to the world, this is, perhaps, the 
 greatest. It is really no wonder that his female 
 friends parted from him, considering that, dear to 
 them as he might be, the most desperate can only 
 live upon pure unmixed love for a day or two at 
 farthest. The boldest Minerva-press heroine that 
 ever braved danger for her lover, would sink into 
 vapid indifference were her hero to put her on 
 " short commons." Eating and drinking spoils the 
 ground, and perhaps the beautiful ; but, neverthe- 
 less, men and women must masticate and swallow, 
 " And not even Love can live on flowers.'* 
 
 Byron never liked to be interrupted, (this seems 
 not to have been the case when Medwin was at 
 Pisa, for he often interrupted him, or rather never 
 gave him time to write,) and Lady Byron did not 
 attend to these whims. She had the impudence to 
 eat at her husband's table, and to appear too often 
 in the presence of her loving lord— actions seem-* 
 ingly very venial in their nature. 
 
 Byron gives one instance of uncourteous speech 
 towards her Ladyship. " The only harsh thing I 
 ever remember saying to her, was one evening 
 shortly before our parting. I was standing before 
 the fire ruminating upon the embarrassment of my 
 affairs, and other annoyances, when Lady Byron 
 came up to me and said, " Byron, am I in 5''our 
 way }" To which I replied, " Damnably," I wad 
 
30 ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 
 
 afterwards sorry, and reproached myself for the ex-« 
 pression ; but it escaped me unconsciously — invol- 
 untary ; I hardly knew what I said." This is Cap- 
 tain Med win's version of the story. The oath smells 
 very much of the Captain of Dragoons. Others 
 who knew as much of Byron as he did, and were 
 his intimate friends, say, that the answer to the 
 question, as reported to them at the time, was, 
 " That you are indeed." 
 
 The cause of the separation o^ Lord and Lady 
 Byron appears to have been this — want of money to 
 keep up an establishment suiting to their rank. On 
 the marriage Byron received £] 0,000 with his wife, 
 and both entered on the expensive round of fashion- 
 able life. They gave dinners, and had separate car- 
 riages. Lady Byron s £10,000 soon melted away, 
 and his Lordship's property was small, and he 
 " V^as sole heir 
 To a Chancery suit." 
 
 Debts accumulated, and duns infested the house. 
 At last an execution was levied, and the very beds 
 on which the noble pair slept, were seized. This 
 was by no means an agreeable state of affairs for 
 Lady Byron, and she resolved to pay her father a 
 visit until the storm blew over. 
 
 It never was Byron's opinion, that the separa* 
 lion was with the free-will of her Ladyship. On 
 the way to her father's, he received a letter, com- 
 piencing with the comical expression, ** Dear 
 
ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 31 
 
 Duck," and in the common style of endearment. 
 On her arrival at her father s, however, a very 
 different letter vv^as sent from Sir Ralph, begin- 
 ning with, " Sir," and ending with saying, that 
 his daughter should never see him (Byron) again. 
 Byron, in his answer, denied Sir Ralph's having 
 any control over Lady Byron; but a return of 
 post brought a confirmation from her own hand. 
 Fletcher's (his valet) wife, who was then maid to 
 Lady B., says, that after the letter was written, 
 and sent to the Post Office, her Ladyship sent to 
 withdraw it, and was in hysterics of joy because it 
 was not away. It appears, however, her relations 
 had prevailed over her, and Byron received it. 
 
 Lady Noel appears to have always been Byron's 
 enemy. She had not even the good manners to 
 conceal it in her own house. Dining there one day, 
 Byron had the misfortune to break a tooth, and was 
 in an agony of suffering. "It will do you good," 
 remarked Lady Noel. " I am glad of it." '' I gave 
 her a look," says his Lordship. 
 
 Sir Ralph was a good sort of country gentleman, 
 and always had a leg of mutton served at his 
 table, in order that he might cut the same joke 
 upon it. He, too, seems to have been drawn into 
 enmity against Byron, by the representations of La* 
 dy Noel and Mrs Charlment. 
 
 Mrs Charlment seems to have been the agent 
 between the mother and the daughter, and the spy 
 
S9 ANECDOTES OP LORD BYRON* 
 
 mpon Lord Byron. She was in the practice of 
 watching Byron's visits, and, it is said, once broke 
 open his desk, and discovered a book which did little 
 honour to his Lordship's taste in literature ; and 
 also some letters betwixt him and a married lady, 
 with whom he had intrigued before his marriage. 
 Lady Byron sent the letters to the injured spouse, 
 but he very wisely preferred bearing his antlers 
 quietly, to exposing himself to the aim of his Lord* 
 ship's pistols. 
 
 The separation afforded fine scope for the tittle 
 tattle of parties, and the surmises of the newspa- 
 pers. One of the principal stories of the day was, 
 that Mrs Mardyn, the actress, had called on his 
 Lordship at his own house, and remaining some 
 time with him in the library, a shower of rain 
 came on, and his Lordship ordered his carriage to 
 be prepared for Mrs Mardyn, but this was prevent- 
 ed by Lady Byron. Mrs Mardyn was then said to 
 have been introduced to the dinner table, and Lady 
 Byron left the house in the carriage intended for 
 the actress. This capital story has been traced to 
 an Irish paper, and has as much truth in it as one 
 half the stories about his Lordship. The Irishman 
 wanted a theory for an important, but inexplicable 
 occurrence, in fashionable life, and thus formed not 
 an unplausible one. The belief of it was very strong 
 at the time, and Mrs Mardyn was driven, by the 
 insults of the audience, from the stage. Byron 
 himself was hooted at, and hissed as he went to the 
 theatre, or the House of Lords, or appeared cm the 
 
ANErr.DOTES OF LORD BYRON* 33 
 
 Streets. The Journals of the day, except the Ex- 
 aminer, took part with Lady Byron ; and although 
 his Lordship declared that he was *^ more sinned 
 against than sinning/* they compared him occasion- 
 ally to different worthies ancient and modern (such 
 as Nero, Apicius, Epicurus, Caligula, Heliogabu- 
 lus, Henry the Eighth, and the ), and attack- 
 ed him with the greatest virulence. His wife was 
 an injured Lady — the concentration of all the vir- 
 tues and perfection of the sex. His friends all rose 
 against him, and Lady Jersey was the only person 
 in the fashionable world that did not consider him 
 as a common enemy. Byron himself has declared, 
 that he never in his life spoke to Mrs Mardyn, and 
 the whole is an unfounded calumny. 
 
 Byron has accused his wife's friends of an attempt 
 to procure a certificate of lunacy against him. " I 
 had been," writes Captain Med win for his Lordship, 
 " shut up in a dark street in London, writing the 
 Siege of Corinth, and had refused myself to every 
 one until it was finished. I was surprised one day 
 by a doctor and a lawyer almost forcing themselves 
 at the same time into my room. I did not know 
 till afterwards the real object of their visit. I 
 thought their questions singular, frivolous, and 
 somewhat importunate, if not impertinent; but 
 what should I have thought if I had known that 
 they were sent to provide proofs of my insanity ? 
 I have no doubt that my answers to these emissa- 
 ries* interrogatories were not very rational or con- 
 sistent, ifor my memory was heated with other 
 
 JD 
 
34 ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 
 
 things. But Dr Baillie could not conscientiously 
 make me out a certificate for Bedlam ; and perhaps 
 the lawyer gave a more favourable report to his 
 employers," This is Captain Medwin's version of 
 an old story. The fact is, Byron was at the time 
 unwell, and Dr Baillie, thinking from the descrip- 
 tion of his symptoms by his wife and others, that 
 he was labouring under water in the brain, was in- 
 troduced to his patient, and, on personal examina- 
 tion, had reason to alter his opinion. * 
 
 To a question, whether he thought Lady Byron 
 ever was in love with him, he replied, *' I have 
 answered that question already. No ! I was the 
 fashion when she first came out : I had the charac- 
 ter of being a great rake, and was a great dandy— 
 both of which young ladies like. She married me 
 from vanity, and the hope of reforming and fixing 
 me. She was a spoiled child, and naturally of a 
 
 " For Inez caird some druggists and physicians, 
 And tried to prove her loving lord was mud ; 
 
 But as he had some lucid intermissions, 
 She next decided he was only had ; 
 
 Yet when they ask'd her for her depositions, 
 No sort of explanation could be had, 
 
 Save that her duty both to man and God 
 
 Required this conduct, — which seem*d very odd. 
 
 " She kept a journal, where his faults were noted. 
 And open'd certain trunks of books and letters, 
 
 All which might if occasion serv'd be quoted ; 
 And then she had all Seville for abettors, 
 
 Besides her good old grandmother.^ 
 
ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 35 
 
 jealous disposition, and this was increased by the in^ 
 fernal machinations of those in her confidence/' 
 
 It is difficult to account for some of those opinions 
 of Lord Byron with regard to his Lady, as quoted 
 by Capt. Medwin when some other parts of his writ* 
 ings are taken into consideration. His " Farewell" 
 would, to say the least, mark a man who loved, and 
 parted, from serious and insurmountable causes, al- 
 most heart-broken from the object of his affections. 
 These remarks, again, to Medwin, display an utter 
 disregard, and almost contempt, for his wife and the 
 mother of his child. Byron was made up of con- 
 tradictions, and it is impossible to affirm that he 
 was not serious at both times. If so, ihey afford one 
 example more to show how deeply he knew and 
 felt ; for Byron never was a hypocrite, and always 
 felt at the time as he wrote, — the finer affections of 
 our nature ;— and how readily his own restless spi- 
 rit, which delighted more to dwell on the dark side 
 of human nature, than, like that of most other poets, 
 riot in fanciful and pleasing views of man's per- 
 fections, could master these finer feelings, and turn 
 them into ridicule and contempt. 
 
 The destruction of his auto-biography is to be re- 
 gretted for many reasons— but none more so than 
 for the occasion the circumstance of its destruction 
 has given to the promulgation of unauthenticated 
 details, and slanders concerning those who were 
 most nearly connected tQ his Lordship. Memoirs 
 
86 ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 
 
 written by himself would have at once settled every 
 dispute, but there will a doubt hang on all other 
 publications. The public confidence in Medwin 
 has been already shaken by the satisfactory contra- 
 diction Mr Murray has been able to give, by means 
 of letters of a recent date from Byron, to the ca- 
 lumnies that have been thrown by the " Conversa- 
 tions" on his character and dealings. 
 
 Byron, while on the Drury Lane Committee, 
 was talking one evening behind the scenes to the 
 corps dramatique of the misconduct of a female at 
 the rival house; and was pleased to say to Terry, 
 ^* had I been Harris, I would have turned her out 
 of the house." " And had I been the lady," replied 
 Miss T. Kelly, " I would have put on breeches and 
 challenged your Lordship." — '^ In that case," re- 
 torted Byron, " I might have considered whether it 
 would be worth my while to turn sans-culotte, and 
 accept the challenge." 
 
 The Honourable Mr Skeffington had written a 
 Tragedy, called the *' Mysterious Bride," which 
 was fairly damned on the first night. A masquer- 
 ade took place soon after this fatal catastrophe, to 
 which went John Cam HobhouEe as a Spanish nun 
 who had been ravished by the French army, under 
 the protection of his Lordship. The Hon. Mr 
 Skeffington compassionating the unfortunate young 
 woman, asked, in a very sentimental manner, at 
 iByron, " Who is she ?*' " The Mysterious Bride/' 
 
ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 37 
 
 replied his Lordship. This was a rap on the teeth 
 to the unfortunate author. 
 
 Byron could never bear admonition, and he lost 
 many of his dearest friends by the ill-nature with 
 which he treated them on their offering any advice. 
 His affair with Lady ****** « double his own age, 
 and the mother of several children," lost him a sin- 
 cere friend. The gentleman alluded to, in speaking 
 with him of a certain reputation which was dama- 
 ged about that time, said, " By the bye, my Lord, it 
 is reported you have become a contributor to the 
 Harleian Miscellany." The result was a sullen an- 
 swer, which ended in estrangement, and ultimately 
 broke up their intercourse. 
 
 The same thing is said to have nearly happened 
 to one of his earliest friends who had undertaken to 
 tell him of the slanders which were circulating a- 
 bout him at the time of the separation. The place 
 chosen for the communication proves the address 
 supposed to be requisite. It was under the gallery 
 in the House of Commons, during an important 
 debate, which rendered it necessary to talk in 
 whispers, and in an indifferent manner, to avoid 
 observation. 
 
 The enmity Byron entertained towards the Earl 
 of Carlisle was not altogether owing to the Earl's 
 opinion of the " Hours of Idleness.*' He had to be 
 
58 ANECDOTES OP LORD BYRON. 
 
 sure spoken rather irreverently of that production, 
 when Byron expected, as a relation, that he would 
 have countenanced it ; and this was enough, in the 
 eyes of any young poet, to mark him down as a 
 drivelling old fool. Byron, however, had another 
 reason for being displeased with his grand uncle : 
 On coming of age he had written to the Earl of 
 Carlisle, wishing him to introduce him to the 
 House of Lords. Just at that time he was enga- 
 ged in writing his Satire of English Bards and 
 Scotch Reviewers, and generously (for a poet) 
 forgetting the unnatural display of the " ungentle 
 craft," in his noble relative, he introduced into his 
 manuscript these lines, 
 
 " On one alone Apollo deigns to smile, 
 And crowns a new Roscommon in Carlisle." 
 
 The noble subject of this adulation, however, un* 
 fortunately declined to introduce Byron to Parlia- 
 ment :— -There was then substituted in the copy the 
 following heartless sarcasm on his relation's age ; 
 
 ." No more will cheer with renovating smile 
 lihe paralytic puling of Carlisle." 
 
 The noble Earl, it is said, even somewhat doubt- 
 ed his right to a seat in that honourable House ; 
 and, though laughing at the " Hours of Idleness," 
 was touching a tender point, questioning of his 
 descent was a sting to the very quick. His re- 
 marks on Carlisle are perhaps the severest in his 
 satire; and they were written in the bitterest 
 spirit of enmity. 
 
 The Earl of Carlisle is a very gtjod sort of an 
 
ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. SQ 
 
 old gentleman,-*— charitable and loyal : He has, 
 however, been rather blind in his own case as to 
 
 ' Quidferre recusent 
 Quid valemit humeri^'' 
 
 and committed a mistake by loading himself (or his 
 own library, as Byron remarks — for there the works 
 of the noble author appear, in all the dignity of 
 gilt and morocco, sufficiently conspicuous — ) with 
 too much poetry. He is, however, pleased with him- 
 self, and perhaps many others have written worse 
 verses than even the Earl of Carlisle. He is a great 
 admirer of the classic drama, and once strenuously 
 argued for the propriety and necessity of small thea- 
 tres, in a pamphlet which he published for a six- 
 pence, in order that the vulgar might buy, and be 
 convinced of the expediency of being excluded from 
 the shilling galleries. — On the same day that this 
 weighty publication came out, he subscribed £lOOO 
 for something or other — and, on this occasion, the 
 following Epigram was composed : 
 
 '' Carlisle subscribes a thousand pound 
 
 Out of his rich domains ; 
 And for a sixpence circles round 
 
 The produce of his brains. 
 'Tis thus the difference you may hit 
 Between his fortune and his wit. " 
 
 Byron retained his antipathy to his relative to 
 the last. On reading some lines in the newspapers 
 addressed to Lady Holland by this self-constituted 
 representative of the nine, persuading her to reject 
 
40 ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 
 
 the box bequeathed to her by Napoleon,— -begirt 
 ning, 
 
 " Lady, reject the gift," &c. 
 he immediately wrote the following parody : 
 
 " Lady, accept the gift a hero wore, 
 
 In spite of all this elegiac stuff: 
 Let not seven stanzas written by a bore 
 
 Prevent your Ladyship from taking snuff.** 
 
 When Byron found that he was not to be intro* 
 duced to the House by the Earl, he resolved to 
 introduce himself. He accordingly went to it a 
 little before the usual hour, when he knew few of 
 the Lords would be present. When he entered, 
 he was something abashed, and looked very pale ; 
 but passing the woolsack where the Chancellor 
 was busied at some of the ordinary routine of the 
 House, he went directly to the table, where the 
 oaths were administered to him in the usual man- 
 ner. The Lord Chancellor then approached, and 
 oflfered his hand in the most open familiar manner, 
 congratulating him on his taking possession of his 
 seat. Lord Byron only placed the tips of his fin- 
 gers in the Chancellor's hand, and looked some- 
 thing sullen and displeased. The Chancellor re- 
 turned to his seat, and Byron, after lounging a 
 few minutes on one of the opposition benches, re- 
 tired. To Mr Dallas, (his friend), who followed 
 him out, he gave as a reason for not entering into 
 the spirit of the Chancellor, — " that it might have 
 been supposed he would join the court party, where- 
 as he intended to have nothing at all to do with 
 politics." 
 
ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 41 
 
 He only addressed the House twice. The first of 
 these speeches was on the Catholic question, and 
 gave good hopes of his becoming an orator. The 
 other was on some Manchester affair, and was a 
 Don Juan sort of a speech. Byron himself says, 
 the Lords told him, " his manner was not dignified 
 enough for them, and would better suit the lower 
 House.'* Others say, they gathered round him while 
 speaking, listening with the greatest attention ;— 
 a sign at any rate that he was interesting. He 
 always voted with the opposition, but was not one 
 to be depended on. His ideas of politics were then 
 rather unsettled, and he had not sworn to the creed 
 of whiggery. He hated and abused Qastlereagh 
 when living, and his memory when dead; and 
 scarcely found words to express his contempt for 
 that 6 worn enemy of his country. 
 
 Byron denies the accusation of ingratitude towards 
 his Majesty, which has been laid to his eharge. 
 He affirms, that the introduction was unexpected, 
 and the desire of it was not on his side. He met 
 
 him one evening at Colonel J *s, when, being 
 
 observed. General ■ was sent by that Personage 
 to request Byron to be introduced to him. The • 
 request was in the nature of a command, and, of 
 course, the introduction took place. This is equiv- 
 alent to his Lordship's statement of the matter. 
 Others, however, say, that his reception was ex- 
 ceeding kind, and the Regent observed, ^' that he 
 had thought there was only one good poet in Bri- 
 
42 ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 
 
 tain (Kings are not infallible in criticism), and 
 that one Walter Scott, until he read Childe Har- 
 olde." — A few days after Byron intended to go to 
 the levee, and was arrayed in all the panoply 
 of powder and perfume for the occasion, when he 
 received word that the ceremony was deferred. 
 He never dressed for it again ; but, at the time of 
 his introduction, his leaning was great toward the 
 court party, and he would, without a doubt, have 
 become a hanger-on for some time by a little flat- 
 tery. But here he would have soon met other 
 men higher in favour than himself, and then he 
 would have deserted. He could never rest where 
 he did not play first fiddle. 
 
 Byron has been sometimes accused of parsimony 
 and love of gain ; but there are instances of the 
 contrary more than sufficient to confute fully that 
 charge. 
 
 A young lady of considerable talents, but who had 
 never been able to succeed in turning them to any 
 profitable account, was reduced to great hardships 
 through the misfortunes of her family. The only 
 persons from whom she could have hoped for re- 
 lief were abroad ; and so, urged on, more by the 
 sufferings of those she held dear than by her own, 
 she summoned up resolution to wait on Lord Byron, 
 at his apartments in the Albany, and ask his subscrip- 
 tion to a volume of poems. She had no previous 
 knowledge of him, but from his works ; those works 
 which have induced so many others, equally igno- 
 rant, to proclaim him a misanthrope and a monster ; 
 
ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 43 
 
 but from the boldness and feeling expressed in these, 
 she concluded that he must be a man of kind heart 
 and amiable disposition, (rather an odd conclusion.) 
 Experience did not disappoint her, and though she 
 entered the apartment with faltering steps, and a pal- 
 pitating heart, she soon found courage to state her 
 request, which she did in the most simple and deli- 
 cate manner, (&c.) He heard it with the most 
 marked attention, and the keenest sympathy ; and 
 when she had completed, he, as if to avert her 
 thoughts from a subject which could not be but 
 painful to her, began to converse in words so fas- 
 cinating, and tones so gentle, that she had hardly 
 perceived he had been writing, until he put a fold- 
 ed slip of paper into her hand, saying, that that was 
 his subscription, and that he most heartily wished 
 her success, — ^'but," added he, ^^ we are both young, 
 and the world is very censorious ; and so, if I were 
 to take any active part in the promoting of your 
 subscription, I fear it would do you harm rather 
 than good." The young lady, overpowered by the 
 prudence and delicacy of his conduct, took her 
 leave ; and, upon opening in the street the paper, 
 which in her agitation she had not previously look- 
 ed at, she found it was a draft upon his Banker for 
 fifty pounds ! 
 
 Another instance, which happened about the 
 same time, is, though it did not require the same 
 delicacy, equally characteristic. A young man from 
 a distant part of the country, who had quarrelled 
 with his fether, ia consequence of having squan^ 
 
4j4> anecdotes of lord byron. 
 
 dered a small sum of money, was friendless, and 
 almost pennyless in the metropolis ; and at last 
 wrote a little poem, or rather a succession of bad 
 rhymes, which he offered to the Booksellers. Most of 
 them rejected the proffered poem with scorn ; but at 
 last the writer met with one who said, that, if ten 
 pounds were given him, he would publish it, and give 
 the writer half the profits. Elated with this, he 
 sallied into the streets, and had wandered as far 
 as Piccadilly ere he knew what he was about, or 
 where he was going. Exhausted at last, he stood 
 still at the front entrance of the Albany, with his 
 manuscript in his hand. Byron happened to pass ; 
 and his notice being drawn by something peculiar in 
 the young man's appearance, he accosted him. The 
 whole story came out ; and the rustic rhymster was 
 taken into the apartment of the bard. " And so 
 you say you have quarrelled with your father ? 
 gaid Byron. ^^ Yes," replied the young man, hold- 
 ing down his head. " And you could get a chance 
 of half the profits of your poem for ten pounds ?" 
 *^ Yes," said the young man again raising himself 
 up. " And for how much could you be reconciled 
 to your father ?" said Byron again. " For ten 
 pounds also," was the reply. " Then," said Byron, 
 *' there are ten pounds — give it to your father, and 
 let him publish it if he pleases : and there are other 
 five for yourself, to hasten you on your way." The 
 young man was astonished ; and before he could 
 turn round to thank his benefactor, that benefactor 
 had vanished. " Prodigious !" - 
 
 The above traits of his Lordship are given, be- 
 cause they are bandied about ; but it may be re- 
 
ANEtDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 45 
 
 marked, that, whether true or not, they smack 
 horribly of the "gentlemen of the press." The 
 first, even if true, is immoderately stuffed with 
 '^ fudge," and the second almost carries absurdity on 
 the face of it. It is all nonsense about his Lord- 
 ship being struck with " something peculiar in a 
 young man's appearance/' Few people now-a-days 
 are struck with the appearance of any persons on 
 the street, unless they be of that order which George 
 Cruickshank is so ready to transpose to his portfolio, 
 when they excite any thing but our sympathy 
 and compassion. One may trudge from White- 
 chapel to Whitehall, and back again, and make 
 as many turns up and down streets in his way as 
 he will, with even a folio manuscript on his back, 
 without any person taking the least notice of him— 
 unless he pleases to jostle them, when, instead of 
 fifteen pounds, he may receive a kick, and a " d ■ ■ 
 me, Sir, what do you mean ?" 
 
 Another instance of his Lordship's liberality was 
 
 the sending £50 to ; who made his expulsion 
 
 from the possessions of the East India Company 
 serve as an excuse for taxing the purses of the 
 whigs and liberal party. 
 
 Perhaps, however, the most marked, as well as 
 the most authenticated, instance of his Lordship's 
 generosity, was the gratuitously presenting the 
 copy-right of his first Canto of Childe Harold 
 to his friend Mx Dallas, the brotier of Judge 
 
46 ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 
 
 Dallas. It was a delicate manner of assisting a 
 poor but honourable friend. Mr Murray gave 
 £600 for the first edition of it. 
 
 Whilst at Venice, Byron displayed a most noble 
 instance of generosity. The house of a shoemaker, 
 near his Lordship's residence in St Samuel, was 
 burned to the ground, with every article it con- 
 tained, and the proprietor reduced, with a large 
 family, to the greatest indigence and want. When 
 Lord Byron ascertained the afflicting circumstances 
 of that calamity, he not only ordered a new and 
 superior habitation to be immediately built for the 
 sufferer, the whole expense of which was borne 
 by his Lordship, but also presented the unfortun- 
 ate tradesman with a sum equal in value to the 
 wholeof his lost stock in trade and furniture. 
 
 Neither was ingratitude a '* besetting sin" of 
 his Lordship. At the time of his separation from 
 Lady Byron, when all the journals were ransack- 
 ing the histories of ancient and modern times for 
 names sufficiently odious, with which to eompare 
 him, Leigh Hunt, enjoying the freshness and si- 
 lent comfort of his fine rural seat on the Hamstead 
 road, alone took the side of his Lordship, and not 
 only threw himself recklessly into the contest a- 
 gainst his contemporaries, but also, on Byron's de- 
 parture for the continent, wrote some very pretty 
 unintelligible verses to his Lordship, — quoting Pul- 
 ci,—- iuvokipg him ^^de^x Byron/'^^^ud talking " a 
 
ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 47 
 
 pretty considerable deal" about Phoebus, Graces, 
 Orpheus, &c. all of whom he no doubt knew by 
 report. 
 
 Leigh's defence was certainly manly at the time ; 
 and galled, as his Lordship was, by the undeserved 
 abuse and slanders that were at that time thrown 
 upon his character, it made a great impression 
 upon him ; and he constantly after that " took in 
 the Examiner." When Byron and John Murray 
 split, the former immediately transferred his manu- 
 scripts to the Hunts for publication, notwith- 
 standing the remonstrances of many of his friends, 
 and the injury which he saw must inevitably fol- 
 low to himself by the connection. The shop in 
 Tavistock street, Strand, was the antipodes to that 
 of Albemarle Street ; and second rate actors, and 
 third rate artists, are a very different class of loun- 
 gers, and peripatetic puffers, from literary naval cap- 
 tains, " far-travelled" fellows, and classical embued 
 high- church- men ; and a " notice " in the Exam- 
 iner is scarcely so persuasive as a learned looking 
 " article" in the Quarterly. Whilst Byron was 
 the friend of Murray, the evil mouths of the party, 
 who were obliged to hate him for his political prin- 
 ciples, were shut ; but the publishing of one of 
 Byron's works by the Hunts, was the signal for 
 the blood-hounds to shake themselves clear, and 
 pursue, with the utmost speed, their victim. Leigh 
 and John Hunt are not men apt to conciliate the 
 opposite party ; they have the merit of being steady 
 to their principles: and Byron, when he once 
 pledged himself, would have sunk with them be^ 
 &X9 he would have deserved the cause. 
 
48 ANECDOTES OP LORD fiYllO^. 
 
 Leigh Hunt went to Pisa while Byron resided 
 there, and together they commenced a periodical 
 under the title of '^ The Liberal." The idea of a 
 periodical was suggested by Mr Hunt ; and Byron, 
 in the hope that it would be of some benefit to his 
 friend, agreed to furnish some articles. It /was 
 continued for a few months, but, with the excep- 
 tion of a few articles furnished by Lord Byron, 
 was so insufferably dull, that the public threw it 
 up in utter hopelessness. The partiality of Leigh 
 Hunt to Byron arose principally from the latter *s 
 visiting him whilst confined in King's Bench. 
 Leigh, in his poem, thus writes : 
 
 "• And so adieu, dear Byron, dear to me 
 
 For many a cause disinterestedly ; 
 
 First for unconscious sympathy, when boys, 
 
 In friendship, and the Muses trying joys ; 
 
 Next for that frank surprise, when Moore and you 
 
 Came to my cage like warblers kind and true. 
 
 And told me with your cordial arts of lying 
 
 How well I look'd when you both thought me dying." 
 
 These are causes of partiality belonging exclusive* 
 ly to Mr Hunt. The following, 
 
 " Next for a rank worn simply, and the sCom 
 For those who trifle with an age free born,'* 
 
 was a cause of partiality common in many others 
 to Lorci Byron, as well as in the Hamstead poet. 
 Mr Hunt is a very good and honourable man, and 
 stanch in what he considers the right path in poli- 
 tics. The only unfortunate things that have hap- 
 pened to him are, the being educated in the Blue- 
 Coat School— the invincible desire of constantly 
 
ANECX>OTES OF LORD BYRCN, 49 
 
 talking " of things not seen, but heard of/' by 
 him, viz. trees, streams, and such like ruralities— 
 the love, common to all cockney poets, of revel- 
 ling in Grecian mythology, — and worst of all, the 
 being constituted and crowned " King of the Bards 
 of Cockaigne" by Blackwood's Magazine. 
 
 Another instance of his Lordship's humanity 
 may be given. During the massacre of the Greeks 
 at Scio, a Greek boy, about eight years old, whose 
 parents and kindred were savagely butchered, crept 
 instinctively into an oven of his paternal home, to 
 escape the general slaughter. He remained there 
 two days without any nutriment whatever, when, 
 at the expiration of the second day, he was provi- 
 dentially discovered senseless and exhausted. Lord 
 Byron, on being fully informed of these singular 
 facts, immediately received the orphan boy under 
 his protection. The extraordinary history of his 
 preservation, and the sad havoc of his race, en- 
 deared the child more closely to his sympathy and 
 affection. He was constantly with his Lordship 
 to the last moment of his existence. It was for 
 this boy that his Lordship expressed such concern, 
 when his vessel was nearly captured by a Turkish 
 frigate. He writes thus at the time : — '' I am 
 uneasy at being here, (in a small unprotected port 
 close to the Turkish frigate), not so much on my 
 own account as on that of the Greek boy with 
 me— for you know what his fate would be, — and 
 I would sooner cut him in pieces myself, than have 
 him taken by these barbarians." It may be men« 
 
 E 
 
50 ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 
 
 tioned that this boy, after his Lordship's death, 
 was sent to England by the Honourable Leicester 
 Stanhope, for the advancement of his education, 
 and recommended by him to the protection of the 
 Earl of Harrington. On his arrival in this coun- 
 try, the Duke and Duchess of Leinster were so 
 delighted with the nobleness of his manner, that 
 they adopted him as their protege. He is resident 
 in London with the Leinster family. He is a per- 
 fect Grecian warrior in miniature ; his costume is 
 most imposing. He wears a turban, jeliek, &c. 
 and on the right side of his belt are lodged a pair 
 of pistols, on his left a dagger. He was in the 
 first coach after the hearse of his illustrious patron, 
 whose name, even when casually mentioned in his 
 presence, produces the most afflicting recollections 
 on his youthful mind. 
 
 It is singular that men of the first genius and 
 talents are often the creatures of a superstition 
 which they would demonstrate as being wrong, 
 but yet cannot free themselves from the power of. 
 Though we may be astonished that the miisculine 
 mind of Johnson was a slave in this respect, we 
 cannot greatly wonder that Byron was the crea- 
 ture of superstition, (for such in truth was the 
 case). Living in a wild, desolate, and mountain- 
 ous part of the country, where the tale of super- 
 natural agency is the amusement of the old and 
 the young ; and at an age when such matter is 
 most eagerly craved by the mind and deeply ei^»- 
 graved on its tablets, it is no wonder that he should 
 
ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 51 
 
 have retained a great portion of this superstitious 
 belief. Besides, Byron was a weakly boy, and un- 
 able, at that time, both by the state of his constitu- 
 tion, and the impediment in his walking, from en- 
 tering into the more active sports of boys of the 
 same age ; he was therefore left more to the work- 
 ings of his own mind, and the feeding, of course, 
 of the superstitious temperament; for solitude breeds 
 and nurtures superstition. In the family history, 
 likewise, there were many circumstances to give it 
 the air of romance, and thus almost to force on 
 the mind of its representative that, as the hero, 
 there was something more than common in his fate* 
 He was not, as appears, a stanch believer in ghosts 
 and unearthly visitors, but he was a believer in 
 omens and presentiments. One has been given-— 
 his stumbling on the stairs when he went first to 
 see Miss Milbanke. A second was this : The very 
 day on which his match was concluded with that 
 Lady, a ring was dug up by the gardener, at New- 
 stead, which had belonged to his Lordship's mother. 
 Her marriage was very far from being a happy 
 one, and this ring her son accordingly considered, 
 thus curiously discovered, sent as a token of the 
 misery which was to attend his own. 
 
 Another instance of his Lordship's evil presen- 
 timents is mentioned by Captain Medwin, as oc- 
 curring while he was at Pisa. On the birth-day 
 of his daughter, Byron was very melancholy, a^d 
 declined their usual amusement of pistol firing; 
 They went out to their ride, and Byron tried to 
 
52 ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 
 
 rally his spirits, but in vain. Whilst they were on 
 the road, they heard a loud lamentation ; and on 
 riding" up to the cottage from whence it proceeded, 
 they found that it was a widow wailing her only 
 child, who had died at that instant. Byron be- 
 came much affected at the circumstance. " I shall 
 be unhappy," said he, " till I hear that my daugh- 
 ter is well." I have a great horror of anniversa- 
 ries ; people only laugh who have never kept a re- 
 gister of them. I always write to my sister on 
 Ada's birth-day. I did so last year ; and what was 
 very remarkable, my letter reached her on my wed- 
 ding-day, and her answer reached me at Ravenna 
 on my birth-day ! Several extraordinary things 
 have happened to me on my birth-day ; so they did 
 to Napoleon ; and a more wonderful circumstance 
 still occurred to Marie Antoniette." 
 
 On the day after this occurrence, the Courier 
 brought a letter from England, in which the death 
 of his old physician Polidori was stated. " I was 
 convinced," he remarked, " something very un- 
 pleasant hung over me last night." I expected to 
 hear that somebody I knew was dead ; so it turns 
 out — who can help being superstitious ? Scott 
 believes in second sight, Rousseau tried whether he 
 would be damned or not by aiming at a tree with 
 a stone, Goethe trusted to the chance of a knife's 
 striking the water whether he was to succeed in 
 some undertaking. He might also have mention- 
 ed Swift's placing the success of his life on the 
 drawing a trout he had hooked out of the watet. 
 
ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 53 
 
 At a Christmas-day dinner, he once ordered a 
 plum pudding, a TAnglaise. Somebody after- 
 wards told him that it was not good. " Not good 1" 
 said he, " why it ought to be good, it cost fifteen 
 Pauls." 
 
 He could live most abstemiously, and generally 
 did so. He offered once to bet Hay that he would 
 live on £60 a-year. When he entertained com* 
 pany, every luxury that could be procured was pro- 
 duced, and he would indulge to a great degree in 
 wine. 
 
 To his own select company, Byron could do the 
 honours of his house with the greatest kindness and 
 hospitality ; but he was always very much averse 
 to this way of eating into men's favour, and was in 
 this respect the very opposite of his friend Rogers. 
 
 Mr Rogers is as much celebrated for his good 
 dinners as his good poetry ; and no critic says a 
 word against the father of what has been called 
 the " Leg of Mutton School of Poetry," because 
 no critic sits down to review the landlord's book, 
 without having the table in the mind's eye. 
 
 Byron was often miserly in trifles ; and when the 
 whim struck him, almost foolishly profuse. No 
 person can say a word about penuriousness, when 
 they recollect the sums he lavished on Greece, and 
 his intentions of devoting his fortune, and even his 
 
54? ANECDOTES OP LORD BYRON. 
 
 life, in that good cause. A part of a letter may 
 here be given, which will shew, not only the hu- 
 morous style of his correspondence, but also his de- 
 votion to the cause of the Greeks. " I have writ- 
 ten (he says in this letter, dated 13th Oct. 1823), 
 to our friend Douglas Kinnaird, on our own mat- 
 ters, desiring him to send me out all the farther 
 credits he can command (and I have one year's in- 
 come, and the sale of a manor besides, he tells me, 
 before me) ; for till the Greeks get their loan, it is 
 probable I shall have to stand partly paymaster, as 
 far as I am " good upon 'Change," that is to say. 
 I pray you to repeat as much to kim, and say, that 
 I must in the interim draw on Messrs R. most for- 
 midably — to say the truth, I do not grudge it, 
 now the fellows have begun to fight again ; and 
 3till more welcome shall they be, if they will go 
 on — but they have had, or are to have, four thou- 
 sand pounds (besides some private extraordinaries 
 for widows, orphans, refugees, and rascals of all de- 
 scriptions) of mine at one ' swoop,' and it is ex- 
 pected that the next will be as much more, and how 
 can I refuse if they will fight ? and especially if I 
 should happen to be in their company ? I therefore 
 request and require, that you should apprise my 
 trusty and trust-worthy trustee and banker, and 
 crown and sheet anchor, Douglas Kinnaird, the 
 Honourable, that he prepare all monies of mine, 
 including the purchase money of Rochdale manor, 
 and mine income for the year A. D. 1824, to an- 
 swer and anijicipate any orders or draughts of mine, 
 for the good cause, in good and lawful money of 
 Great Britain, &c. &c. &c. May you live a thou- 
 
ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 55 
 
 sand years ! which is 999 longer than the Spanish 
 Cortes' Constitution." They who are loudest in 
 their abuse of Byron, — who talk magniloquently 
 and most scholar-like about the glories of ancient 
 Greece — and who ever are vaunting the blessing of 
 the Christian religion — would never have given half 
 as many farthings as Byron gave pounds to have 
 seen the renovation of man in the earliest abode of 
 freedom and learning ; or to have rescued what 
 they pretend to value so much — the cross — from the 
 most abominable of all tyrannies, the tyranny of the 
 Crescent. They will subscribe to Bible and Mis- 
 sionary Societies, and launch a book at the head of 
 the Grand Seignior from the withered and feeble 
 arm of a priest as bigotted as himself; but the ad- 
 vancement of men in freedom and in knowledge is 
 not the spring that will open their coffers. The 
 crusaders of old laid down their lives, that the cross 
 might soar triumphant o'er the banners of infidelity 
 —but the crusaders of the reformed Church, so far 
 from risking their lives in the good cause, will 
 not only not bestow a portion of their wealth, but 
 libel those who do so. Byron never exhibited a 
 love of cant. He never whined about ancient 
 Greece ; never talked merely of her heroes of anti- 
 quity ; never spouted the honied language with the 
 true ^ ore rotundo,' and saw all the advantages of 
 Greece concentrated in the scholar's illustration of 
 her ancient dactyls and spondees ; he never felt per- 
 haps the deep and pure enthusiasm of a religious 
 crusader — that a life of joyful immortality would 
 follow death in the advancement of the banners of 
 his creed ; but he had read of ancient Greece ; he 
 
56 ANECDOTES OP LORD BYRON. 
 
 knew it as the nursery of freedom and science ; he 
 saw modern Greece — he saw it, as formerly it was, 
 worthy to be the feigned dwelling-place of immor- 
 tal spirits ; he saw it enslaved — most shamefully 
 enslaved — by the common enemy of civilized man ; 
 he saw this barbarous despot in a Holy Alliance 
 with his brother despots of Europe, and receiving 
 permission from them to tread on the necks of their 
 fellow Christians ; he hated, from his very soul, also, 
 the principles of this parody on the Holy Trinity; 
 and he warred, and gave his money and his life, not 
 less in detestation of them, than in a sincerely en- 
 thusiastic love for injured Greece. 
 
 That it was not however whim, or schoolboy en- 
 thusiasm, can be proved, besides, from his Lord- 
 ship's letters. Writing to one of his intimate 
 
 friends, he says, "T ,you must have heard that I 
 
 am going to Greece ; why do you not come to me } 
 I am at last determined — Greece is the only place 
 I ever was contented in, I am serious, and did not 
 write before, as I might have given you a journey 
 for nothing. They all say I can be of great use in 
 Greece. I do not know how, nor do they, but at 
 all events let us try." 
 
 In another letter, he distinctly shews that he 
 had gone to Greece with enthusiasm for the cause; 
 but with neither blind enthusiasm, nor the enthu- 
 siasm of a schoolboy. '' I am happy to say that ■ 
 and myself are acting in perfect harmony together : 
 he is likely to be of great service to the cause and 
 to the committee, and is publicly, as well as person- 
 
ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 5? 
 
 ally, a v6ry valuable acquisition to our party, on 
 every account. He came up (as they all do who 
 have not been in the country before) with some 
 high-flown notions of the sixth form at Harrow 
 
 and Eton, &c. ; but Colonel and I set him 
 
 to rights in these points, which was absolutely ne- 
 cessary to prevent disgust, or perhaps return — but 
 now we can set our shoulders soberly to the wheel, 
 without quarrelling with the mud which may clog 
 it occasionally. I can assure you, that Colonel -— — 
 and myself are as decided for the cause as any Ger- 
 man student of them all — but, like men who have 
 seen the country and human life, there and else- 
 where, we must be permitted to view it in its 
 truth — with its defects as well as its beauties, more 
 especially as success will remove the former gra* 
 dually." 
 
 In another letter he says, " We will do our best, 
 and I pray you stir your English hearts at home to 
 more general exertion ; for my part, I will stick by 
 the cause while a plank remains which can be ho- 
 nourably clung to." 
 
 This enthusiasm for Greece and glory is beauti- 
 fully shewn in the following verses, which he wrote 
 on his thirty-sixth birth-day. 
 
 " The sword, the banner, and the field, 
 
 Glory and Greece around us see ; 
 The Spartan borne upon his shield 
 
 Was not more free. 
 
58 ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 
 
 Awake not Greece — she is awake- 
 Awake my spirit ! — think through whom 
 My life blood tastes its parent lake, 
 
 And then strike home ! 
 
 If thou regret thy youth, why live ? 
 
 The land of honourable death 
 Is here — up to the field and give 
 
 Away thy breath ! 
 
 Seek out — less often sought than found— 
 
 A soldier's grave for thee the best ; 
 Then look around, and choose thy ground, 
 And take thy rest." 
 
 When residing at Mitylene in the year 1812, 
 he portioned eight young girls very liberally, and 
 even danced with them at the marriage feast — he 
 gave a cow to one man, horses to another, and cot- 
 ton and silk to several girls who live by weaving 
 these materials. He also bought a new boat for a 
 fisherman who had lost his own in a gale, and he 
 often gave Greek Testaments to the poor children. 
 While at Metaxata, an embankment at which se- 
 veral persons had been engaged digging, fell in, 
 and buried some of them alive. He was at dinner 
 when he heard of the accident, and starting up 
 from the table, ran to the spot accompanied by his 
 physician, who took a supply of medicines with him. 
 The labourers, who were engaged in digging out 
 their companions, soon became alarmed for them- 
 selves, and refused to go on, saying, they believed 
 they had dug out all the bodies which had been 
 covered by the ruins. Lord Byron endeavoured to 
 
ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 5^ 
 
 induce them to continue their exertions ; but find- 
 ing menaces in vain, he seized a spade and began to 
 dig most zealously : at length the peasantry joined 
 him, and they succeeded in saving two more per- 
 sons from certain death. 
 
 Byron had a belief in unlucky days. He once 
 refused to be introduced to a lady, because it was 
 on Friday the introduction was to take place, that 
 day having been, for some reason or other, most in- 
 nocently cursed in the superstitious calendar. On 
 this same "ill-starred" day he would never pay 
 visits. 
 
 As already said, he had a great belief in presen- 
 timents ; but his actions were often the directly con- 
 trary to what his presentiments admonished. " Some- 
 thing whispered me," he says, " at my wedding, 
 that I was signing my death warrant. I am a 
 great believer in presentiments. Socrates' daemon 
 was no fiction ; Monk Lewis had his monitor, and 
 Napoleon many warnings. At the last moment I 
 would have retreated if I could have done so." 
 
 He believed that the qualities of our minds de- 
 scend from " sire to son," as well as the gout, mad- 
 ness, and the catalogue of bodily maladies which we 
 receive from our indulgent fathers, — and that, as 
 Isaac Bickerstaff says, " one might wear any passion 
 out of a family by culture, as skilful gardeners blot 
 
Go ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 
 
 a colour out of a tulip that hurts its beauty/* To 
 his uncle, who was very superstitious, and fed crick- 
 ets, he ascribed his superstition ; to another of his 
 ancestors, who died laughing, he ascribed his buoy- 
 ant spirits. Two of his ancestors, also, had sueh a 
 love for each other, that they both died almost at 
 the same moment. " There seems," he says, " to 
 have been a flaw in my escutcheon there, or that 
 loving couple have monopolized all the connubial 
 bliss of the family." 
 
 His superstition was so great, that it led him to 
 have his fortune told by an English Sybil. Mri 
 Williams prophesied that his twenty- seventh and 
 thirty-seventh years would prove unlucky to him. 
 He was married in his twenty-seventh, and died in 
 his thirty-seventh year. She also prophesied that 
 he would die a monk and a miser. The old lady 
 was not the only one who erred on these two last. 
 They were the only things she possibly could judge 
 concerning of, and from deep insight into his cha- 
 racter think likely to take place ; and her predic- 
 tion has only been falsified in. common with the pre- 
 dictions of those who thought themselves much 
 wiser. " 
 
 He never, perhaps, gave token of the monk, but 
 of the miser, some people think, many symptoms 
 were making their appearance. He was said to 
 have become most particularly strict in regard to 
 the sums to be paid for his works ; and though he 
 
ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 6l 
 
 accused Scott of selling his muse for half-a-crown a 
 line,* he was not one that would take a less sum ; 
 and it was thought, in his latter days, he was writ- 
 ing much more for the sake of Plutus than Fame. 
 
 As is the cage with many men in affluent circum** 
 stances, Byron was at times more than generous ; 
 and again, at other times, what might be called 
 mean. He once borrowed £500 in order to give 
 to the widow of one who had been his friend ; and 
 he frequently dined on five Pauls, and once gave 
 his bills to a lady to be examined, because he thought 
 he was cheated. 
 
 He gave £1000 for a yacht, which he sold again 
 for £S00, and refused to give the sailors their jack- 
 ets. 
 
 He once borrowed £l00 to give Coleridge, the 
 poet, at a time he was in some distress ; and then 
 was so excessively " shabby" as to boast of his bene- 
 
 • '^ And think'st thou, Scott ! by vain conceit, perchance 
 On public taste to foist thy stale romance. 
 Though Murray with his Miller may combine 
 To yield thy Muse just half-a-crown per Une ? 
 Ko ! when the sons of song descend to trade, 
 Their bays are sear, their former laurels fade. 
 Let such forego the poet's sacred name, 
 Who rack their brains for lucre, not for fame 5 
 XjOw may they sink to merited contempt, 
 And scorn remunerate the mean attempt ! 
 Such be their meed, and still the just reward 
 Of prostituted Muse, and hireling bard I 
 For this we spurn Apollo's venal son, 
 And bid a long ' good-night to Marmioni* ** 
 
62 ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 
 
 ficence ; and accuse the poet of ingratitude because 
 he did not cringe, nor fawn, nor abuse Southey, his 
 own brother-in-law. 
 
 A son of one of Byron's tenants had seduced a 
 young woman in the same station in society as him- 
 self. His Lordship expressed himself very much 
 displeased with the circumstance, and demanded 
 that reparation should be made by marriage. This 
 was before he went abroad, and at a time when, 
 though not enlightened by a belief in the Chris- 
 tian creed, he had formed certain rules of moral 
 conduct. 
 
 When he went to the Continent, after the separ- 
 ation, he formed a connection with a married lady, 
 which ended in her eloping from her husband. For- 
 nication was, it seems, contra leges philosophice,^^ 
 the seduction of a married lady, (in vulgar speech, 
 adultery,) not so. The '' stern moralist," in the case 
 of his tenant, proved in his own case a true " Phi-* 
 losopher Square." 
 
 This lady, the wife of the Count Guiccioli, is a 
 most perfect Italian beauty; and at the same time 
 well educated — according to the fashion of Italy ; 
 and, although wearing blues, " contriving to hide 
 them with her petticoats." She was led to the al- 
 tar in the " bright lustre of her blooming morn," 
 by a bridegroom in " the dull radiance of his risen 
 day." She was sixteen years of age, he sixty — but 
 the richest man in Romagna. " From the time 
 
ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 63 
 
 they were married," says Byron, " they kept sepa- 
 rate apartments, and she was in the practice of call- 
 ing him ' Sir/ " It is the io?i in Italy, however, 
 for ladies of rank to have their Cavaliere Servente, 
 words which cannot he significantly enough trans- 
 lated, unless by considerable circumlocution, into 
 English. Byron acted in this capacity, and the too 
 happy husband was highly pleased for some time ; 
 but, at last, he began to be astonished at the lady's 
 taking a foreigner, — a heretic, too, and, what was 
 worst of all, an Englishman and a Liberal, — and to 
 put on the husband. He insisted on her dismissing 
 him ; she refused, and the matter being referred to 
 the Pope, his holiness ordered her a separate main- 
 tenance, and to reside with her father. Byron re- 
 ceiving notice that she was to be shut up in a con- 
 vent for life, smuggled her away. Count Gamba, 
 her father, felt a preference to the English peer ; 
 and having received a more than civil hint to quit 
 his country on account of his political principles,—- 
 being included in a list of proscribed liberals — a cir- 
 cumstance of pretty frequent occurrence, and one 
 of the many blessings which "sunny Italy" enjoys 
 under the legitimate rule of its spoilers — he went, 
 taking his daughter along with him. His Lord- 
 ship, who had also received some very respectful no- 
 tices, did not accompany the Gambas for that very 
 reason ; but remained some time, in order to shew 
 (as all Englishmen do in similar circumstances) 
 that he would not be bullied. When he had, in 
 his own opinion, demonstrated this sufficiently to 
 the government, he took leave of Ravenna, and fol- 
 lowed Count Gamba, and the Countess Guiccioli, 
 
64 ANECDOTES Of LORD BYRON* 
 
 Much abuse has been thrown on his Lordship 
 for his connection with this lady ; but those who 
 have been in Italy during the old regime know, 
 that Cavalieri Serventi were, in those happy days of 
 unmolested despotism, a privileged class, beloved 
 by the husbands as well as their wives, and suffer- 
 ed to exist by Kings and Princes, far more cheer- 
 fully, than Carbonari are by Francis, the Tailor, 
 and his crowned associates, in the present day: and 
 those who are in the practice of reading these 
 *' bundles of precious lies" called " Tours, Trips, or 
 Travels through Italy," may gather from the mass, 
 that, in her present rapid regenerating to that bliss- 
 ful state of nothingness which she enjoyed prior 
 to the " ever- to-be-abhorred French Revolution, 
 Italy, or Italy's rulers, would prefer the Cavaliere 
 Servente to the Carbonaro, and rather support a 
 race of adulterers than see the face of a freeman. 
 An Englishman no sooner knows of a liaison be- 
 twixt his wife and his friend, than immediately 
 comes his " honour or his life ;" and pistols are 
 the necessary consequences — unless perchance he 
 be one of those animals who prefer browsing quiet- 
 ly in all the dignity of their horns, until Mr 
 Philips comes before the Jury with a " lamachree" 
 about the " injured man/* and all the '' twice 
 told tale of woe." An Italian, however, neither 
 seeks pistols nor damages, but is happy to see his 
 *' very dear friend," and fellow-labourer, as often 
 as possible, shakes him cordially by the hand, and 
 chivalrously acquiesces in the fashion of his country 
 which its noblest dames have introduced. 
 
XNE'CDOTES of lord 6YR0N. 6B 
 
 r Miladi Morgan, who could say many good 
 things, were it not for her excessive conceit, and 
 desire to shew off by changing her natural 
 '^ toddle" into a march, and strutting away, with 
 the air of a Semiramis, in the thought of writing 
 into destruction the absolute Kings of the continent, 
 has the following passage on the Venetian females : 
 " The society in which woman holds iio influ- 
 ence is in the last degree degraded, and even dis- 
 <^i'gaftised ; for the influence of woman is a * right 
 divine,' derived from her high vocations of wife 
 and mother, and it is only in those false combin- 
 ations where the great laws of nature are set aside, 
 that she can forfeit that immunity, blended with 
 
 " Her nature s end and being ;" 
 and yet, if there ever was a country where beauty 
 and blandishment, and warm heart and kindly feel- 
 ings, went together, that country (to judge by ap- 
 pearance) is Venice. The gentle looks and smil- 
 ing eyes, the female softness and female gaiety, 
 which charm the stranger's observation, Venetian 
 women come within its scope, bespeak a race of 
 beings formed for all the best affections — to receive 
 and to inspire the most intense and tender feelings : 
 but convents and casinos, political tyranny and re- 
 ligious bigotry, are dire foes to the virtues which 
 should belong to aspects so bewitching, and the 
 graces which, if blended with higher qualities, 
 might have fixed the seat of woman's empire among 
 the laguries of the Adriatic, have long survived but 
 to render her a slave or a Sultana, destined to serve 
 OT to sway by the worst of i»eans* To a young 
 
 F 
 
66 ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 
 
 woman, pent up in a convent^ a change is a blessing, 
 even though it should be from the gratings of the 
 religious house to the arms of an ugly old man. To 
 escape from the convent is the first consideration 
 of the Italian young woman, and this can only be 
 achieved by her acquiescing in the bargain struck 
 by her .greedy parents with some rich withered 
 pantaloon — the intended husband. Once free of 
 the trammels of the church, she laiows that the 
 custom of her Country allows her to atone for the 
 eacrifice she has made, by taking as her Cavaliere 
 Servente the object she can love.* 
 
 The above remarks are not meant to excuse Lord 
 Byron's conduct. They are merely given to shew 
 that what is disgraceful in the eyes of his coun- 
 trymen, is but a very indifferent matter to Italians. 
 It is sometimes necessary " when at Rome to do as 
 they do in Rome ;* but this adage can scarcely be 
 given as a palliation of his offence. 
 
 The family of Count Gamba were banished 
 from whatever state they took shelter in, till at last 
 they were expelled from the whole Italian states. 
 
 • Byron considered the order as the antidote of a greater 
 evil. He says, " love is not the same dull, cold, calculating 
 feeling here (in Italy) as in the north. It is the business, 
 the serious occupation of their lives ; it is a want, a necessity. 
 Somebody properly describes a woman, " a creature that loves.** 
 They die of love (attend, ye sceptics in romance,) particularly 
 the Romans : they begin to love earlier, and feel the passion 
 later than the northern people. When 1 was al Venice, two 
 Dowagers of sixty ma(lp love to me." 
 
ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 67 
 
 Lord Byron regularly followed wherever they 
 went ; and it is stated by Captain Medwin as a fa- 
 vourable trait in his Lordship's character^ that he 
 remained three years the constant admirer of the 
 Countess Guiccioli. " A three years constancy," 
 says the author of the Conversations^ " proves that 
 he is not altogether so unmanageable by a sensible 
 wo7nan as might be supposed." No very delicate 
 compliment this to Lady Byron. Captain Med- 
 win, however, might have recollected the difference 
 between the conditions of a mistress and a wife— • 
 that the former must suffer every thing and still 
 look pleased, while love and respect are claimed to 
 the dignity and equal rank of the latter. 
 
 That Byron was greatly attached to the Guic- 
 cioli there can be no doubt. The beautiful sonnet 
 prefixed to the ^^ Prophecy of Dante" was addres- 
 sed to her ; and the following verses addressed to the 
 Po, before he quitted Venice to join the Countess at 
 Ravenna, express strongly his feelings at the time. 
 
 River, • that roUest by the ancient walls 
 
 Where dwells the lady of my love, when she 
 
 Walks by thy brink, and there perchance recalls 
 A faint and fleeting memory of me : 
 
 What if thy deep and ample stream should be 
 A mirror of my heart, where she may read 
 
 The thousand thoughts I now betray to thee, 
 Wild as thy wave, and headlong as thy sjieed ? 
 
 The Vo. 
 
6s ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON* 
 
 What do I eay— a mirror of my heart ? 
 
 Are not thy waters sweeping, dark, and strong ? 
 Such as my feelings were and are, thou art ; 
 
 And such as thou art, were my passions long. 
 
 Time may have somewhat tamed them, not for ever ; 
 
 Thou overflow'st thy banks, and not for ay ; 
 Thy bosom overboils, congenial river ! 
 
 Thy floods subside, and mine have sunk away— - 
 
 But left long wrecks behind them, and again 
 Borne on our old unchanged career, we move ; 
 
 Thou tendest wildly on\^ard to the main. 
 And I to loving one I should not love. 
 
 The current I behold will sweep beneath 
 Her native walls, and murmur at her £eet ; 
 
 Her eyes will look on thee, when she shall breathe 
 The twilight air, unharm'd by summer's heat. 
 
 She will look on thee ; I have look'd on thee, 
 
 Full of that thought, and from that moment ne'er 
 
 Thy waters could I dream of, name, or see, 
 Without the inseparable sigh for her. 
 
 Her bright eyes will be imaged in thy stream ; 
 
 Yes, they will meet the wave I gaze on now : 
 Mine cannot witness even in a dream. 
 
 That happy wave repass me in its flow. 
 
 That wave that be&rs my tears returns no more : 
 ^. WiU she return by whom that wave shall sweep ? 
 Both tread thy banks, both wander on thy shore ; 
 I near thy source, she by the dark-blue deep. 
 
 But that which keepeth us apart is not 
 
 Distance, nor depth of wave, nor space of earth, 
 
 But the distraction of a various lot, 
 At various as the dimates of our birth. 
 
ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 69 
 
 A stranger loves a lady of the land, 
 
 Born far beyond the mountains, but his blood 
 
 Is all meridian, as if never fann'd 
 By the bleak wind that chills the polar flood. 
 
 My blood is all meridian ; were it not, 
 I had not left my clime ; — I shall not be, 
 
 Jn spite of tortures ne'er to be forgot, 
 A slave again of love, at least of thee. 
 
 *Tis vain to struggle — ^let me perish young- 
 Live as I lived, and love as I have loved : 
 
 To dust if I return, from dust I sprung. 
 And then at least my heart can ne'er be moved. 
 
 , Count Gamba, the brother of the Guiccioli, ac- 
 companied Byron to Greece, and took charge of the 
 vessel in which the horses and part of the money 
 were embarked. This vessel, and the one Lord 
 Byron commanded, found themselves one morning 
 rather near a Turkish frigate, being close under 
 her bows. Owing to the activity displayed aboard 
 of Byron's vessel, and her superior sailing, she 
 made her escape, but the other was fired at, brought 
 to, and carried into Patras. Count Gamba being 
 a«ured that nothing would save her but stratagem 
 and effrontery, when brought into the presence of 
 the Pacha, took the first word of him by demand-* 
 ing boldly, by what right he had seized upon a 
 vessel carrying British colours, and upon him a 
 British nobleman upoii his travels, and bound to 
 Calamos ; and ponduded his speech by threatening 
 the vengeance of Britain for this breach of neu- 
 t^rality. The Pacha, whether gulled or not by the 
 
70 ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 
 
 Story, thought proper to apologize, and not only 
 gave the nobleman leave to depart, but also treated 
 the party with great attention, and urged the 
 " British Peer" to take a day's shooting in the 
 neighbourhood. The party, however, were by no 
 means desirous of trespassing too much on the hos- 
 pitality of a Turk, and so made sail ; and, instead 
 of eeeking Calamos, sailed for Messalonghi as fast 
 as possible. 
 
 A very remarkable anecdote is told with regard 
 to this capture. 
 
 " The treatment of Gamba and the crew, while 
 on board the Turkish man of war, was scarcely 
 less courteous than that which they experienced 
 on landing. This arose from a very singular coin- 
 cidence. On their first mounting the frigate's 
 deck, the Captain gave orders to put them all in 
 irons, and might have proceeded to farther extre- 
 mities, when the master of the vessel went up to 
 him, (what were the Turks about, and why were 
 the Christians not ironed ? Mussulmen are not 
 wont to be so inactive in any orders to the annoy- 
 ance of the followers of the cross,) and asked, whe- 
 ther he did not recollect Spiro, who had saved his 
 life on the Black Sea fifteen years before. Upon 
 which the Turk looking stedfastly at him for a 
 few moments, exclaimed, '^ What ! can it be 
 Spiro ?" and springing forward, embraced his for- 
 mer deliverer, ( a Christian,) with the greatest trans- 
 port, (Oh, Mahomet ! where were thy precepts?) 
 This unlooked for reception was followed by a pro- 
 
ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 71 
 
 Bftise, that every effort should be made to obtain 
 his speedy liberation on his arrival at Patras." 
 
 Mr Colburn should not have sent this " capital 
 story" forth without tacking an affidavit as to its 
 truth, made before the Lord Mayor, by two re- 
 spectable eye-witnesses of the transaction, to the 
 end of it. 
 
 When Lord Byron had gone to the Continent 
 for the second time, and was leading a very quiet 
 and orderly life at Geneva, sailing about on the lake, 
 a very different belief as to his conduct was pas- 
 sing current in England. Even at Geneva, peo- 
 ple would not take him as they saw him, but con- 
 sidered him as a sort of monster, and were con- 
 stantly watching his motions. While sailing on 
 the lake, the people used to amuse themselves by 
 observing the shocking English Peer through their 
 spy glasses ; and Madame de Stael dragged hira 
 along to her abode, in order to shew him to her 
 - visitors, and lecture to him on literary subjects. 
 
 Whatever may be the latitude allowed to mar- 
 ried ladies, there is certainly very little granted to 
 unmarried ones on the Continent. If Italian hus- 
 bands must carry antlers, and educate the children 
 of their wives, they are freed from the vexations of 
 a post-chaise pursuit after a run-away daughter ; 
 the chance of a brace of balls through the head, 
 by the hands of the gentleman courting the alli- 
 ance, when likely to be deprived of the object of his 
 
72 ANECDOTES OP LORD BYRON. 
 
 affections— or the grievous misfortune of finding 
 themselves outwitted at last by a sharper, and lo- 
 sing the lady's fortune, after bringing her up in 
 every fashionable accomplishment to the age of 
 eighteen. Byron, while at Venice, had dowagers 
 at command ; but for only serenading and attempt- 
 ing a flirtation with a young lady, he received a 
 visit next morning from a priest and a police offi- 
 cer, and was very likely to get himself into consid- 
 erable trouble through this affair. It would be a 
 precious balm for the minds of testy fathers and 
 guardians in England, if they could rest satisfied 
 that an advice from the parish curate, and a 
 shake from the beadle's cane, could frighten away 
 the gentlemen w^ho have nothing to give for the 
 affections of their daughters and ward«, but theii 
 shoulders and tongues. 
 
 Byron always entertained a high opinion of Ma- 
 dame de Stael, and never took any revenge of her 
 " d — d good natured intentions," but by saying, 
 that, if she had spoken less, she might have writ- 
 ten ft great deal better ; and by praising her hus- 
 band. 
 
 Whenever a man, by the cursed destiny of his 
 stars, is so unfortunate as to marry a literary wife, 
 whatever may be his talents, he immediately sinks 
 into the shade in his own house, and in the world's 
 opinion also ; and if not treated by the visitors 
 with any more deference than a parish parson at 
 
ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 73 
 
 the table of the squire — a sort of privileged guest. 
 The lady of the house is lord and ruler, and the 
 master is — a domesticated biped, kept for the pur- 
 pose of keeping his lady warm in winter nights, 
 filling a chair at the foot of her table, and carving 
 to her guests. Thus it has been with Dacier, 
 Wortley, Sir Charles Morgan, Rocca, &c. &c. some 
 of whom might have been celebrated if married 
 to their cooks, and some never heard of, as for in- 
 stance the two latter, unless married to their liter- 
 ary ladies. 
 
 " But, Oh ! ye lords of ladies intellectual, 
 Inform us truly, have they not henpecked you all ?" 
 
 Don Juan, 
 
 Madame de Stael, like the rest of her class, had 
 not the highest opinion of her spouse ; and Byron's 
 attentions to the legitimate owner of her affections 
 were not so gratifying as if offered to herself. By- 
 ron says of this gentleman, " I liked Rocca ; he 
 was a gentleman and a clever man ; no one said 
 better things, or with a better grace." This 
 Frenchman, on Byron's lamenting that the rocks 
 of Meillerie, rendered sacred by Rousseau's con- 
 necting them with the loves of St Prieux and 
 Julie, should have been cut away to form a road, 
 replied, with true nationality, " La route vant mieux 
 que les souvenirs^* " a good road is better than any 
 recollections." 
 
 When Madame de Stael paid a visit to England, 
 she was believed to be a Liberal, ajnd was once in* 
 
74 ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 
 
 vited to a company where were present Whitbread, 
 Sheridan, and several other of the opposition mem- 
 bers. To the great horror of these good people, 
 the lady no sooner opened her mouth than out 
 came a torrent of genuine ultraism. 
 
 On another similar occasion, where Byron also 
 was present, Madame de Stael was engaged dis- 
 cussing some political question with Canning, when 
 turning to Lord Grey, who was at her elbow, she 
 asked his opinion on a matter in which he could not 
 but most cordially disagree with the ministerialist. 
 The scene caused considerable confusion. 
 
 Miss Milbanke was the friend of Madame de 
 Stael, and yielded more to her opinion than to 
 that of any person save her mother. At this time, 
 a double marriage was talked of in the metropolis. 
 Miss Milbanke was given to Auguste, (Madame 
 de Stael's son,) and Lord Byron to her daughter, 
 the present Duchess of Broglie. 
 
 While Byron was living at Geneva, the most 
 shameful stories were circulating in England with 
 regard to his conduct. These stories were, of 
 course, retailed to Byron at Madame de Stael's ; 
 and enraged to find such calumnies circulating, he 
 resolved that they should not be without some 
 foundation. Immediately he set out for Venice, and 
 launched completely into the sea of dissipation. 
 
ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 75 
 
 The ladies seem always to have taken a particu- 
 lar fancy to Byron. When he first went abroad 
 in company with Mr Hobhouse, and had arrived 
 in the course of his tour at Seville, he lodged in 
 the house of two young ladies, one of whom was 
 on the eve of being married ; and, although he re- 
 mained there only three days, the fair bride did 
 not scruple to pay him the most marked attentions ; 
 which, as they were women of character, and 
 mixed with the best society, rather astonished him. 
 His hostess, on his departure, embraced him with 
 tenderness, cut off a lock of his hair, and gave 
 him a long one of her own in exchange, which 
 he forwarded in a letter to his mother. With this 
 specimen of Spanish female manners, he proceeded 
 to Cadiz, where various incidents occurred to him, 
 calculated to confirm the opinion he had formed at 
 Seville of the Andalusian belles, and which made 
 him leave Cadiz with regret, and a determination 
 to return to it. His Lordship's sentiments re- 
 garding these cities may be seen from the follow- 
 ing stanzas of his Chiide Harold. Of Seville he 
 says, 
 
 " But all unconscious of the coming doom, 
 The feast, the song, the revel here abounds ; 
 Strange modes of merriment the hours consume, 
 Nor bleed these patriots with their country's wounds ; 
 Nor here War's clarion, but Love's rebeck sounds ; 
 Here Folly still his votaries enthralls ; 
 And young-eyed Lewdness walks her midnight rounds : 
 Girt with the silent crimes of Capitals, 
 Still to the last, kind Vice clings to the tott'ring walls.'* 
 
76 ANECDOTES OF LORD BVROW. 
 
 His character of Cadiz is still worse : 
 
 *' When Paphos fell by Time — accursed Time ! 
 The queen who conquers all must yield to thee— 
 The Pleasures fled, but sought as warm a clime ; 
 And Venus, constant to her native sea, 
 To nought else constant, hither deign'd to flee ; 
 And fix'd her shrine within these walls of white : 
 Though not to one dome circumscribeth she 
 Her worship, but, devoted to her rite, 
 A thousand altars rise, for ever blazing bright. 
 
 From morn till night, from night till startled mom, 
 Peeps blushing on the Revels laughing crew ; 
 The song is heard, the rosy garland worn, 
 Devices quaint, and frolics ever new, 
 Tread on each other's kibes. A long adieu 
 He bids to sober joy that here sojourns : 
 IS^ought interrupts the riot, though in lieu 
 Of true devotion monkish incense burns, 
 And love and prayer unite, pr rule the hour by turns-" 
 
 On Byron's visiting the library of the convent at 
 Mafra, " the Escurial of Portugal," the monks con- 
 versed with him in Latin, and asked him whether 
 the English had ani/ books in their country. 
 
 Lord Byron prided himself at one time chiefly on 
 his being a satirist. He was very sensitive about 
 • the fate of the " English Bards and Scotch Review* 
 eys ;" but, when once he found it had fairly succeed- 
 ed, his satisfaction was supreme. He considered, 
 then, that satire was his forte, and resolved to write 
 nothing else. The " British Bards" was written 
 at Newstead ; a copy printed at a country press. 
 
ANECDOTES OP LORD BYRON. 77 
 
 Was sent by his Lordship to his friend Mr Dallas, 
 for his corrections^ with a request that he would see 
 to its being published. When first sent to London, 
 the satire was entitled, " The British Bards f but 
 to this Mr Dallas objected, and sent the following 
 letter : " In the first place, I propose to you an 
 alteration of the title. ^ The British Bards* imme- 
 diately brings to the imagination those who were 
 slain by the first Edward. If you prefer it to the 
 one I am going to offer, at least let the definite ar- 
 ticle be left out. I would fain, however, have you 
 call the satire, ' The Parish Poor of Parnassus,' (how 
 quaint and alliterated !) which will afford you an 
 opportunity for a note of this nature : — Booksellers 
 have been called the midwives of literature, with 
 how much more propriety may they be termed over- 
 seers of the poor of Parnassus, and keepers of the 
 work-house of that desolated spot 'f' A very pretty 
 idea this same ; but the wit of it, however pleasing 
 to Mr Dallas, was not suited to the sarcastic hu-» 
 mour of the young poet. 
 
 Mr Dallas not only acted the midwife to the dis- 
 tressed verseman, and assumed the parson, in wish- 
 ing to bestow the name, but he also presumed to 
 assist at the organization of the infant, and was 
 anxious to add a member — sending no less than two 
 dozen lines for insertion. " I will also take the liberty 
 of sending you some two dozen (dosing?) lines," he 
 writes in a letter to Lord Byron, "which, if they nei- 
 ther offend your ear nor your judgment, I wish you 
 would adopt, on account of the occasion which has 
 
y^ ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 
 
 prompted them. I am acquainted with ♦ * *, and, 
 though not on terms of very close intimacy, I know 
 him sufficiently to esteem him as a man. He has 
 but a slender income, out of which he manages to 
 support two of his relations. His literary standard 
 is by no means contemptible, and his objects have 
 invariably been good- ones/' This gratuitous puff 
 of some small unknown, may be easily supposed as 
 annoying as the " Parish Poor of Parnassus" by 
 the same hand, so his Lordship gave it no admit- 
 tance; aild exculpated himself from the appearance 
 of contemning his friend's muse, by happily quoting 
 what Lady Mary Wortley Montague said to Pope, 
 '^ No touching, — for the good will be given to you, 
 and the bad attributed to me." Mr Dallas did not 
 choose to perceive any satire in the reply. 
 
 By the advice of Mr Dallas, however, several al- 
 terations were made before the " English Bards and 
 Scotch Reviewers," (the name substituted for " The 
 British Bards," and " The Parish Poor of Parnas- 
 sus,") was sent to the press. 
 
 The last line of the criticism on Little, in the 
 original, ran thus:, 
 
 " She bids thee mend thy life, and sin no more." 
 
 This was changed into, 
 
 " She bids thee mend thy line, and sin no more." 
 
 Had the original appeared, the blood must have 
 been stirred up in the pugnacious little Irijjhman, 
 
ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 79 
 
 and the consequences might have been more serious 
 than on the occasion of the "leadless pistols." 
 
 The two lines that were intended for Lord Car-^ 
 lisle, but, from certain circumstances, afterwards al- 
 tered, have been already mentioned. The lines 
 
 " On one alone Apollo deigns to smile, 
 And crowns a new lloscommon in Carlisle," 
 
 were not printed in the original, but inserted after- 
 wards in Lord Byron's hand- writing. The couplet 
 must have been written in the short space interven- 
 ing betwixt the printing the poem at Newstead, and 
 his arrival in town. Dallas objected to the eulogy 
 on such a poet as Carlisle, as likely to discover the 
 author. Byron accordingly sent four lines to sub- 
 stitute for the couplet; 
 
 " Roscommon ! Sheffield ! with your spirits fled, 
 No future laurels deck a noble head ; 
 Nor e*en a hackney 'd Muse will deign ta smile 
 On minor Byron, or mature Carlisle." 
 
 This alteration, he said, would answer the purposes 
 of concealment. They expressed more truly the 
 opinion of his Lordship towards the noble Earl ; but, 
 when the latter declined introducing him to the 
 House of Lords, he openly renounced all alliance, 
 and, in bitter antipathy, wrote what now stands in 
 his satire on the "New Roscommon." No persuasion 
 could make him alter that passage, nor the two notes 
 accompanying it. Six lines that accompanied the 
 passage he did cancel. They were intended to come 
 
80 ANECDOTES OP LORD BYRON. 
 
 after the four first lines upon the subject ; when 
 the whole passage would have run in this manner : 
 
 " Lords too are Bards, such things at times befall, 
 
 And 'tis some praise in Peers to write at all. 
 
 Yet, did not taste or reason sway the times. 
 
 Ah ! who would class their titles with their rhymes ? 
 
 In these, our times, with daily wonders big, 
 
 A lettered Peer is like a lettered Pig J 
 
 Both know their alphabet, but who from thence 
 
 Infers that Peers or PigsJhave manly sense, 
 
 fetill less that such should woo the graceful nine ; 
 
 Parnassus was not made for Lords and Swine ! 
 
 Roscommon ! Sheffield," &c. 
 
 The passage also on Bowles at first stood differ- 
 ent from what it now does : originally it ran thus, 
 
 " Bowles ! in thy memory let this precept dwell, 
 Stick to thy sonnets, man, at least they*U sell ; 
 Or take the only path that open lies 
 For modern worthies who would hope to rise :— 
 Fix on some well known name, and bit by bit, 
 Pare oiF the merits of his name and wit ; 
 On each alike employ the critic's knife. 
 And where a comment fails prefix a life ; 
 Let no disease — ^let no misfortune 'scape, 
 And print, if luckily deform'd, his shape. 
 Thus shall the world quite undeceived at last. 
 Cleave to their present wits and quit the past ; 
 Bards once revered no more with favour view, 
 But give these modern sonnetteers their due : 
 Thus with the dead may living authors cope, 
 Thus Bowles may triumph o'er the shade of Pope.'* 
 
 Here he makes a reference to Pope's deformity 
 of person. " I have yery little doubt/' writes Mr 
 
ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 81 
 
 Dallas, " that the alteration of the whole of this 
 passage was occasioned by the reference to Pope's 
 personal deformity, which Lord Byron made in it. 
 It is well known that he himself had an evident 
 defect in one of his legs, which was shorter than the 
 other, and ended in a club foot. * On this sub- 
 ject he generally appeared very sensitive, and some*« 
 times when he was first introduced to any one he 
 betrayed an uncomfortable conscio\isness of his de- 
 fect by * an uneasy change of position ; and yet at 
 other times he seemed quite devoid of any feeling 
 of the kind ; and once I remember that, in conver- 
 sation, he mentioned a similar lameness of another 
 person of considerable talents, observing, that people 
 born lame are generally clever. Lord Byron, in 
 the ardour of composition, had not time to admit 
 the ideas which in a less excited moment would 
 rapidly have risen in connection with the thought 
 of Pope's deformity of person ; and the greater 
 Vanity of talent superseded the lesser vanity of per- 
 son, and produced the same effect of deadening his 
 susceptibility in the conversation to which I al- 
 lude." 
 
 Lord Byron, as a logician, and perhaps as a cri- 
 tic, was not by any means above mediocrity. The 
 contention about Pope's rank as a poet amongst the 
 
 * Medwin says that in the first interview with Byron he 
 expected to discover that he had a chib, perhaps a cloven foot, 
 but it would have been difficult to distinguish one from the 
 other, either ijx size or form* 
 
 G 
 
82 ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 
 
 genuine poets of England, is most likely known to 
 most readers. The Rev. Mr Bowles, in an edition 
 of Pope's works, had prefixed a life of the author, 
 and entered into a critical disquisition to shew, that 
 Pope did not deserve to rank among the higher 
 order of poets, but was the first in the second 
 rank. The question properly hinged upon the 
 truth of this division, that poetry, founded on the 
 beauties and sublimities of nature, is superior to 
 poetry taking the manners of men and objects of 
 art, — things very fleeting — as its basis. Mr Bowles, 
 of course, denied Pope's title to the first, but placed 
 him as first in the second division. This criticism, 
 as is well known, soon set the literary world in a 
 ferment. Pamphlets and periodicals, with authors 
 anonymous and avowed, instantly armed themselves, 
 and entered the lists with most chivalrous devotion ; 
 some in support of Mr Bowles, and many for what 
 they considered the " injured shade of Pope." This 
 " battle of the books" raged furiously ; and no on© 
 seemed to be in his senses but Mr D' Israeli, who 
 was most maliciously watching the combat, in order 
 to celebrate it in the '^ Quarrels of Authors." Three 
 fourths of those who argued against Mr Bowles did 
 not understand him, and battled furiously about 
 they knew not what : those who met him on fair 
 grounds, the reverend gentleman, as is to be sup- 
 posed by all who dispassionately consider the ques- 
 tion, easily worsted. A vast deal of paper has been 
 soiled by this insignificant question, which does not 
 seem to be yet at rest. Amongst the combatants 
 who poised their pens in defence of Pope was Lord 
 Byron. The attack on Mr Bowles in the " English 
 
ANECDOTES OP LORD BYRON. 8S 
 
 Bards and Scotch Reviewers" is not here taken into 
 account, that being entirely a production in which 
 praise or blame was dictated by the passion or whim 
 of its author. The defence of Pope came in the 
 shape of a letter from Italy. This letter seems to 
 have given his Lordship great satisfaction, and he 
 thus spoke of it to Medwin : " I set him and his 
 invariable principles at rest. He did attempt an 
 ansyver which was no reply ; at least nobody read 
 it.* I believe he applied to me some lines in Shak- 
 speare, 
 
 '' I do remember thee, my Lord Biron," &c 
 
 A man is very unlucky who has a name that can 
 be punned upon, and his own did not escape/* The 
 fact is, his Lordship's production was no defence at 
 all as to argument, and was merely a very witty 
 and caustic attack upon the opposite party, without, 
 apparently, its author having had the satisfaction of 
 having understood his opponents. It merely shewed 
 how well Lord Byron, in a comic style, could make 
 " the worse appear the better reason." When he 
 places Pope the highest in the highest rank of poetry, 
 and says that, " If any great national or natural 
 convulsion, could or should overwhelm your coun- 
 try, in such sort as to sweep Great Britain from the 
 kingdoms of the earth, and leave only a dead Ian* 
 guage, to be studied, and read, and imitated, by the 
 wise of future and far generations upon foreign 
 
 • Each member of the sentence k a falsehood. 
 
Si! ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 
 
 shores ; if your literature should become the learn- 
 ing" of mankind, divested of petty cabals, temporary 
 fashion, and national pride and prejudices, an Eng- 
 lishman, anxious that the posterity of strangers 
 should know that there had been such a thing as 
 British Epic and Tragedy, might rvisk for the pre- 
 servation of Shakspeare and Milton ; but the sur- 
 viving world would snatch Pope from the wreck, 
 and let the rest sink with the people :" And when 
 he says, " In the mock epic and ethical none equals 
 him (Pope), and, in mi/ opinion, the latter is the 
 highest of all poetry, because it does that in verse 
 which the greatest of men have wished to accom- 
 plish in prose,** — we think Byron may be left to 
 settle with his orv?i fame and with the immortality 
 of Shakspeare and Milton as he best may. Mr 
 Bowles, in his reply, was perhaps not altogether so 
 witty, but there can be no doubt he was more gen- 
 tlemanly than his Lordship. In fact, the reverend 
 critic preserves a wonderful equanimity of temper 
 throughout the whole quarrel ; he has absolutely 
 been angry with nobody except D' Israeli, and with 
 him for the silliest cause of all. 
 
 The mottoes on the two pamphlets are the best 
 things about them. To Byron's letter is affixed, 
 
 *' I'll play at Bowls with the sun and moon." 
 
 Old Son^. 
 
 That on the title-page of his rererend antagonist 
 is perhaps better, 
 
 *^ He tha* plays at jB(mU must exp«ct rubbers!" 
 
ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 85 
 
 Med win gives a story of Lord Byron's first meet- 
 ing with Mr Bowles, which has been, as it de- 
 serves, flatly contradicted. 
 
 " I met Bowles once at Rogers, and thought him 
 a pleasant, gentlemanly man, a good fellow for a 
 parson. When men meet together after dinner, 
 ike conversation takes a certain turn, I remember 
 he entertained us with some good stories. The re- 
 verend gentleman pretended, however, to be much 
 shocked with Pope's Letters to Martha Blount." 
 The practice of turning the conversation into a cer* 
 tain channel after dinner is, very likely, common 
 in the sphere of company in which Captain Med- 
 win moves. That Byron reported the above cir- 
 cumstance as occurring at Mr Roger's table, or at 
 any table where he was a guest, is highly proble- 
 matical. The story bears the appearance of '' ma- 
 nufacture" almost on the face of it. It is the trick 
 with Bowles' opponents to decry his poetry, as well 
 as his criticism and his morals; and the same spirit 
 which inspired the writer of the above '^ story/* 
 also cut out the following, equally correct, observa- 
 tion : •' Bowles is one of the same little order of 
 spirits, (meaning the " Lakers,") who has been 
 fussily fishing on for fame, and is equally waspish 
 and jealous." 
 
 Mr Dallas makes no mention of any one having 
 assisted Byron in the composing of his " English 
 Bards and Scotch Reviewers." To be sure, Mr D. 
 kindly offered to puff some one of his own friends 
 who might have been too little known to have been 
 
86 ANECiDOTES OP LORD BVRON. 
 
 honoured with damnation in the Satire, but the of- 
 fer was declined, as has been mentioned. Byron, 
 however, in his letter to Mr Bowles, lets out that 
 Mr Hobhouse wrote the passage concerning Mr B. 
 in the Satire. Bowles believed the statement, and 
 wrote a pretty smart parody on the passage. If it 
 be true that Mr Hobhouse wrote the criticism, of 
 course all Mr Dallas* fine theory about the clubfoot, 
 and Byron's susceptibility, falls to the ground. It 
 remains doubtful whether Mr Hobhouse wrote the 
 original passage and the amendment, or only the 
 latter. 
 
 In Lord Byron's original Satire, the lines upon 
 Jeffrey, instead of beginning, 
 
 " Health to immortal Jeffrey ! once, in name, 
 England could boast a judge almost the same," 
 
 began thus : 
 
 " "Who has not heard in this enlighten'd age, 
 When all can criticise th' historic page,— 
 Who has not heard in James*s bigot reign 
 Of Jeffries ! monarch of the scourge and chain." 
 
 *' With this exception," says Mr Dallas, " and an 
 omission towards the end, the whole passage was 
 published as it was first composed ; indeed, as this 
 seems to have been the inspiring object of the Sa- 
 tire, so these lines were most fluently written, and 
 required least correction afterwards." 
 
 -JKf 
 
A*fJECDOTES OF LORD BVtlOJJ. 87 
 
 Mr Dallas, in the reasonable fear that the Satire 
 would not be xead in Scotland if Caledonia were 
 insulted, wrote to Lord Byron, desiring his per- 
 mission to leave out the note about the " kilted 
 goddess r but his Lordship could not think of lo- 
 sing what he called his *^ solitary pun." 
 
 The Satire was first offered by Mr Dallas to 
 Longman for publication, but he rejected it on ac- 
 count of asperity. It was then taken to Cawthorn, 
 an obscure Publisher, and he offered to publish an 
 edition of a thx)usand copies, if the half of the pro- 
 fits were given to him. These terms were accept- 
 ed, and in a few weeks after publication, the first 
 edition was sold off. Cawthorn was allowed to re- 
 tain the whole profits. The work was suspected of 
 being Byron's ; and his Lordship was highly de- 
 lighted when told, that a lady had enquired for it 
 as " Lord Byron's Satire." A second edition was 
 soon prepared, and a postscript added to it, and his 
 name put on the title-page. 
 
 At one time he intended to prefix an argument 
 to the English Bards and Scotch Reviewers, of 
 which the following is a copy ;— 
 
 AROUMENT. 
 
 The poet considereth times past and their poesy— 
 maketh a sudden transition to times present — is in- 
 censed against book-makers — revileth W. Scott for 
 
88 ANECDOTES OP LORD BYRON. 
 
 cupidity and ballad-mongering, with notable re- 
 marks on Master Southey — complaineth that Mas- 
 ter Southey hath inflicted three poems, epic and 
 Otherwise, on the public — inveigheth againt William 
 Wordsworth, but laudeth Mr Coleridge and his 
 elegy on a young ass — is disposed to vituperate Mr 
 Lewis — and greatly rebuketh Thomas Little (the 
 late) and the Lord Strangford — recommendeth Mr 
 Hayley to turn his attention to prose — and exhort- 
 eth the Moravians to glorify Mr Grahame — sym- 
 
 pathizeth with the Rev. Bowles — and de- 
 
 ploreth the melancholy fate of Montgomery— 
 breaketh out into invective against the Edinburgh 
 Reviewers — calleth them hard names, harpies, and 
 the like — apostrophiseth Jeffrey and prophesieth— 
 Episode of Jeffrey and Moore, their jeopardy, and 
 deliverance ; portents on the morn of the combat ; 
 the Tweed, Tolbooth, Frith of Forth, severally 
 shocked ; descent of a Goddess to save Jeffrey ; in- 
 corporation of the bullets with his sinciput and oc- 
 ciput^ — Edinburgh Reviews en 7nasse — Lord Aber- 
 deen, Herbert, Scott, Hallam, Pill an s, Lambt}, Syd- 
 ney Smith, Brougham, &c. — The Lord Flollard for 
 dinners and translations — The Drama ; Skeffing- 
 ton. Hook, Reynolds, Kenney, Cherry, &c. — Sheri- 
 dan, Colman, and Cumberland called upon to write 
 —Return to poesy — scribblers of all sorts — Lords 
 sometimes rhyme ; much better not — Hafiz, Rosa 
 Matilda, and X. Y. Z. — Rogers, Campbell, Gifford, 
 &;c. true poets — Translators of the Greek Antholo- 
 gy — Crabbe — Darwin's style — Cambridge — Sea- 
 tonian Prize — Smythe — Hodgson — Oxford — Rich- 
 ards— Poeta loquitur— Conclusion. 
 
ANECDOTES OP LORD BYRON. 89 
 
 Four hundred additional lines were made for the 
 second edition, and, of these, the principal part was 
 an attack upon the vices at that time prevailing in 
 fashionable life. His Lordship was of course, like 
 his prototype Pope, a violent castigator in print ; 
 but, as he wrote for the mere benefit of his readers 
 and the public, he was not bound to follow his own 
 doctrines. Several authors were also added, and 
 censured or blamed with the most perfect indiffer- 
 ence by the noble author as to their qualifications. 
 The Satire was not only dictated according to his 
 humour at the time, but it also served as the means 
 of obliging his friends. Several caustic lines, and a 
 note, (which might have been worth a half more 
 than the poetry,) were rescinded, because the author 
 happened luckily to b^ the friend of Mr Dallas— 
 and some fine lines were introduced praising a Mr 
 Walter Rod well- Wright, because he also was the 
 " excellent friend" of Mr Dallas. 
 
 Byron was a great admirer of the Waverley novels, 
 and never travelled without them. '' They are," 
 said he, to Captain Medwin one day, " a library 
 in themselves, — a perfect literary treasure. I could 
 read them once a-year with new pleasure." Dur- 
 ing that morning he had been reading one of Sir 
 Walter's novels, and delivered, according to Med- 
 win, the following criticism : '' How difficult it is 
 to say any thing new ! Who was that voluptuary 
 of antiquity, who offered a reward for a new plea- 
 sure ? Perhaps all nature and art could not sup- 
 ply a new idea. 
 
90 ANECDOTES Otr LORD BYRON. 
 
 " This page, for instance, is a brilliant one ; it is 
 full of wit. But let us see how much is original. 
 This passage, for instance, comes from Shakspeare ; 
 this bon mot from one of Sheridan's comedies ; this 
 observation from another writer, (naming the au- 
 thor) ;* and yet the ideas are new moulded, — and 
 perhaps Scott was not aware of their being plagia- 
 risms. It is a bad thing to have a good memory." 
 
 " I should not like to have you for a critic," ob- 
 served Captain Medwin. 
 
 *' Set a thief to catch a thief/* was the reply.t 
 
 To a question, whethei' he believed Sir Walter 
 Scott to be the author of the Waverley Novels, he 
 
 • Why did not Captain Medwin name the author 9 Mo- 
 desty, perhaps; *' the observation" may have been from Aha- 
 suerus the Wanderer. Where should originality be got but 
 from one whose peripatetic propensities are always leading to 
 something new ? 
 
 -|- Header, it is a good thing to have a good understanding, 
 and to recollect that " dead men tell no tales." It is humbly 
 presumed, from want of satisfactory evidence, that the above 
 report is not correct. First, because it smells much of a story 
 told about a parson by the deceased Joseph Miller, Esq., of 
 facetious memory. Secondly, because Captain Medwin has 
 not mentioned the novel, and, more especially, the unfortunate 
 page composed after the manner of the said parson's sermon. 
 A correct reporter would have noted it as the only real sub- 
 stantial thing in the debate. Thirdly, because it looks very 
 suspicious to forget the name of an author who comes next in 
 wit to Shakspeare and Sheridan : And fourthly, because there 
 is a vast deal of nonsense circulating about the plagiarisms of 
 great authors, and Captain Medwin could not well avoid say- 
 ing wnettdiig on so common a topic. 
 
ANECDOTES OP LORt) BYRON. [>l 
 
 replied :— ^' Scott as much as owned himself the 
 author of ^ Waverley' to me, in Murray's shop. I 
 was talking to him about that Novel, and lamented 
 that the author had not carried back the story nearer 
 to the time of the Revolution. Scott, entirely ofif his 
 guard, said, 'ay, I might have done so, but - 
 There he stopped. It was in vain to attempt to cor- 
 rect himself: he looked confused, and relieved his 
 embarrassment by a precipitate retreat. 
 
 *' On another occasion I was to dine at Murray's, 
 and being in his parlour in the morning, he told 
 me I should see the author of ' Waverley' at dinner. 
 He had received several excuses, and the party was 
 a small one ; and knowing all the people present, 
 I was satisfied that the writer of that novel must 
 have been, and could have been, no other than Wal- 
 ter Scott." * 
 
 In the course of his tour in the East, Lord By- 
 ron paid a visit to the famous Ali Pacha. Aliwas 
 exceedingly kind to him, and every thing was sup- 
 plied to him free of expense. He said that the Eng- 
 lish minister had told him that Lord Byron's fa- 
 mily was a great one ; and he desired him to give 
 his respects to his mother, which his Lordship faith- 
 fully delivered immediately. The Pacha declared 
 that he knew him to be a man of rank from his 
 small ears, his curling hair, and his little white 
 
 • No direct proof this. The author may have been amongst 
 the absentees ; and, at any rate, Murray invited Lord Byron 
 ixi a dinner at which was to be present the refuted Author of 
 Wav^ley. 
 
92 ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 
 
 hands ; and told him to consider himself under his 
 protection as that of a father while he remained in 
 Turkey, as he looked on him as his son, and, in- 
 deed, he shewed how much he considered him as 
 a child, by sending him sweet-meats and fruits, and 
 nice things, during the day. 
 
 Byron, as he took his good or bad qualities from 
 some one or other of his ancestors, seems to have 
 drawn his obnoxiousness to sea storms from his grand- 
 father, the celebrated Admiral, who was so accus- 
 tomed to have " rough and squally weather," wrote 
 in his log-book that the sailors were always unwil- 
 ling to sail with him, and he was well known 
 throughout the fleet by the name of " foul- weather 
 Jack." In his early life, while a midshipman, he 
 was wrecked near the Straits of Magellan in the 
 Wager, and his narrative of the sufferings of the 
 crew, which he published on his arrival in England, 
 is well known. Lord Byron drew many of the cir- 
 cumstances with which he has rendered fearful the 
 account of the sea storm in his Don Juan from this 
 work— and he acknowledges that the dangers his 
 hero encountered, 
 
 " Are comparative 
 To those related in my grandad's Narrative." 
 
 Lord Byron himself, however, was pretty often ex- 
 posed to storm, and in sailing from Previsa to Pa- 
 tras, in a Turkish ship of war, provided for him by 
 Ali Pacha, was very near being lost in a moderate 
 
ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. ^S 
 
 gale of wind, from the ignorance of the Turkish 
 crew. The vessel was driven upon the coast of Suli, 
 and here his hap was much superior to that of his 
 gallant grand-father in South America. An in- 
 stance of disinterested hospitality in the chief of a 
 Suliote village, occurred to Byron in consequence of 
 his disaster in the Turkish galliot. The honest Al- 
 banian, after assisting him in the distress in which 
 he found him, supplying his wants, and lodging him 
 and his suite, consisting of Fletcher, a Greek, two 
 Athenians, a Greek priest, and his companion Mr 
 Hobhouse, refused to receive any remujieration, and 
 only asked him for a written acknowledgment that 
 he had been well- treated. When Lord Byron press- 
 ed him to take money, he said, " I wish you to love 
 me, not to pay me.'* 
 
 Lord Byron always entertained a very favourable 
 opinion of the Albanians and of their country. In 
 Childe Harold he thus addresses Albania ; 
 
 " Land of Albania ! where Iskander rose. 
 Theme of the young and beacon of the wise, 
 And he his namesake, whose oft-baffled foes 
 Shrunk from his deeds of chivalrous emprise : 
 Land of Albania ! let me bend mine eyes 
 On thee thou rugged nurse of savage men ! 
 The cross descends, thy minarets arise, 
 And the pale crescent sparkles in the glen, 
 Through many a cypress grove within each city's ken.'' 
 
 His sketch of the dwelling-place of Ali Pacha; 
 and his troopS; is a very graphic one : 
 
94s ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 
 
 " The sun had sunk behind vast Tomerit, 
 And Laos fierce and wide came roaring by ; 
 The shades of wonted night were gatheiing yet, 
 When, down the steep banks winding warily, 
 Childe Harold saw, like meteors in the sky, 
 The glittering minarets of Tepalen, 
 Whose walls overlook the stream ; and drawing nigh. 
 He heard the busy hum of warrior men 
 Swelling the breeze that sigh'd along the lengthening glen. 
 • « ^ • » m 
 
 Amidst no common pomp the Despot sate, 
 While busy preparation 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 adorned the corridore ; 
 And oft-times through the area's echoing door. 
 Some high-capp'd Tartar spurred his steed away : 
 The Turk, the Greek, the Albanian, aad 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, 
 An4 some that smoke, and some that play, are fovndj 
 
ANECDOTES OP LORD BYRON. 9^ 
 
 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 1 — to prayer — lo I God is great !'" 
 
 It is, however, no great wonder that Byron was 
 so warmly attached to the Albanians, when it is re- 
 membered what services the Pacha rendered him, 
 and how faithfully he was served by his two attend- 
 ants, Basilius and Dervish Tahiri. 
 
 Of these two attendants he says in a note to 
 Childe Harold, '' One was an infidel, the other a 
 mussulman, but men more faithful in peril, or in- 
 defatigable in service, are rarely to be found. The 
 Infidel was named Basilius; the Moslem, Dervish 
 Tahiri : the former, a man of middle age, and the 
 latter about my own. 
 
 When, in 1810, after the departure of my friend 
 Mr H. for England, I was seized with a severe fe- 
 ver in the Morea, these men saved my life by fright- 
 ening away my physician, whose throat they threat- 
 ened to cut if I was not cured within a given time. 
 To this consolatory assurance of posthumous retri- 
 bution, and a resolute refusal of Dr Romanelli's 
 prescriptions, I attributed my recovery. I had left 
 my last remaining English servant at Athens; my 
 dragoman was as ill as myself, and my poor Ar- 
 naouts nursed me with an attention which would 
 have done honour to civilization. 
 
 They had a variety of adventures ; for the Mos- 
 lem, Dervish, being q remarkably ^la^dsome ift^P^ 
 
P5 AJfECDOTES OF LORD BYROJJ. 
 
 was always squabbling with the husbands of Athens; 
 insomuch that four of the principal Turks paid me 
 a visit of remonstrance at the convent, on the sub- 
 ject of his having taken a woman from the bath — 
 whom he had lawfully bought, however — a thing 
 quite contrary to etiquette. 
 
 Basili, also, was extremely gallant amongst his 
 own persuasion, and had the greatest veneration for 
 the church, mixed with the highest contempt of 
 churchmen, whom he cuffed upon occasions in a 
 most heterodox manner. Yet he never passed a 
 church without crossing himself; and I remember 
 the risk he ran in entering St Sophia, in Stambol, 
 because it had once been a place of his worship. 
 On remonstrating with him on his inconsistent pro- 
 ceedings, he invariably answered, ' Our church is 
 holy, our priests are thieves :* and then he crossed 
 himself as usual, and boxed the ears of the first 
 ^ papas' who refused to assist in any required opera- 
 tion, as was always to be found necessary where a 
 priest had any influence with the Cogia Basha of 
 his village. 
 
 When preparations were made for my return, 
 my Albanians were summoned to receive their pay. 
 Basili took his with an awkward show^of regret at 
 my intended departure, and marched away to his 
 quarters with his bag of piastres. I sent for Der- 
 vish, but for some time he was not to be found : at 
 last he entered, just as Signor Logotheti, father to 
 the ci-devant Anglo-consul of Athens, and some 
 other of my Greek acquaintances, paid me a visit. 
 
ANECI>OTES Of LORD BVRON. 97 
 
 Dervish took the money, but on a sudden dashed it 
 to the ground ; and clasping his hands, which he 
 raised to his forehead, rushed out of the room weep- 
 ing bitterly. From that moment to the hour of 
 my embarkation, he continued his lamentations, and 
 all our efforts to console him only produced this an- 
 swer, Ma(psivii, " He leaves me." Signor Logo- 
 theti, who never wept befofre for any thing less than 
 the loss of a para, melted ; the padre of the convent, 
 my attendants, my visitors — and I verily believe 
 that even '' Sterne's foolish fat scullion," would have 
 left her " fish-kettle," to sympathise with the un- 
 affected and unexpected sorrow of this barbarian. 
 
 For ray own part, when I remembered that, 
 a short time before my departure from England, a 
 noble and most intimate associate had excused him- 
 self from taking leave of me, because he had to at- 
 tend a relation " to a milliner's," I felt no less sur- 
 prised than humiliated by the present occurrence, 
 and the past recollection." 
 
 Lord Byron, in the same note on Childe Harold, 
 .relates an anecdote of Dervish, which shews with 
 w^hat feelings these barbarians respect the kindness 
 of an indulgent master. " One day on our journey 
 over Parnassus, an Englishman in my service gave 
 him a push, in some dispute about the baggage, 
 which he unluckily mistook for a blow ; he spoke 
 not, but sat dow^n, leaning his head upon his hands. 
 Foreseeing the consequences, we endeavoured to ex- 
 plain away the affront, which only produced the fol- 
 lowing answer : — ' I have been a robber, — I am a 
 
 H 
 
98 ANECDOTES OP LORD BYRON. 
 
 soldier, — no captain ever struck me, — you are my 
 master, — I have eaten your bread, but by that bread 
 (a usual oath) had it been othertvise, I would have 
 stabbed the dog your servant, and gone to the moun- 
 tains/ So the affair ended ; but from that day for- 
 ward, he never thoroughly forgave the thoughtless 
 fellow by whom he had been insulted." 
 
 The Albanians appear to resemble our own 
 Highlanders in many respects. His Lordship says, 
 the resemblance in dress, figure and manner of liv- 
 ing, struck him forcibly. " Their very mountains 
 seemed Caledonian with a kinder climate. The 
 kilt, though white ; the spare, active form ; their 
 dialect, Celtic in its sound; and their hardy habits, — 
 all carried me back to Morven." There is little 
 doubt but some antiquarian belonging to the " An- 
 '^ ti-breeches Society," will soon be able to make 
 them twentieth cousins at the least — and many a 
 theory has been supported by more questionable 
 proof, if we consider what his Lordship has said of 
 their figure, dress, &;c. ; their predatory habits ; 
 and above all their " mystical lore" The follow- 
 ing story would not disgrace the most gifted seer 
 that ever wore a bonnet. Byron says, " On my 
 third journey to Cape Colonna, as we passed 
 through the defile that leads from the hamlet be- 
 tween Keratia and Colonna, I observed Dervish 
 riding rather out of the path, and leaning his head 
 upon his hand as if in pain. I rode up to him and 
 inquired. * We are in peril,* he answered. What 
 peril ? We are not now in Albania, nor iij the 
 
ANECDOTES OP LORD BYRON. 99 
 
 passes to Ephesus, Missolonghi, or Lepanto ; there 
 are plenty of us, well armed, and the Choriates 
 have not courage to be thieves. ' True, Affendi, 
 (that is. Lord,) but nevertheless, the shot is ring- 
 ing in my ears/ — The shot ! not one has been fired 
 this morning. — ' I hear it notwithstanding — bom, 
 bom, as plainly as I hear your voice.' Pshaw ! — 
 ' As you please, Affendi ; if it is written, so will it 
 be.' I left this quick-eared predestinarian, and 
 rode uptoBasili, his Christian compatriot, whose ears, 
 though not at all prophetic, by no means relished 
 the intelligence. We all arrived at Colonna, re- 
 mained some hours, and returned leisurely, saying 
 a variety of brilliant things in more languages than 
 spoiled the building of Babel, upon the mistaken 
 seer. While we were contemplating the beautiful 
 prospect. Dervish was occupied about the columns. 
 I thought he was deranged into an antiquarian, and 
 asked him if he had become a Palaocastro man, 
 ' No,* said he, ' but these pillars will be useful in 
 making a stand ;* and added other remarks which 
 at least evinced his own belief in this troublesome 
 faculty of ^ forehearing.' On our return to Athens, 
 we heard from Leone, (a prisoner set on shore some 
 days after,) of an intended attack from a party of 
 Mainotes concealed in the caverns beneath, and that 
 they were only deterred from attacking us by the 
 appearance of my two Albanians, conjecturing very 
 sagaciously, but falsely, that we had a complete 
 guard of Arnaouts at hand. I was at some pains 
 to question the man, and he described the dresses, 
 arms, and marks of the horses of our party so accu- 
 rately, that; with other circumstances, we could not 
 
1 00 ANECDOTES OF LORD BYROlJ. 
 
 doubt of his having been in villanous company, and 
 ourselves in a bad neighbourhood." 
 
 The Suliotes are a lawless, daring, desperate race 
 of men. They consider themselves the best soldiers 
 in Greece, and in every thing they w^ill have their 
 own way. Byron, on his arrival in Greece, was ap- 
 pointed to the command of 300 of these Suliotes, 
 about to act with 2500 other soldiers in an in- 
 tended attack on Lepanto. The taking of this 
 place was of the utmost importance to the Greeks 
 —it was the first measure of any consequence 
 he was likely to be engaged in, and he was raised 
 to the highest pitch of enthusiasm. The Su- 
 liotes, however, were greedy, and thinking they had 
 a rich paymaster, they were more inclined to remain 
 in quarters, than proceed against the enemy. They 
 were besides very turbulent and reckless, and kept 
 the whole place in awe. Within a fortnight after 
 Byron's arrival, a Suliote stabbed a Burgher, who 
 refused to quarter several Suliotes who were rudely 
 demanding admission into his house, and a riot, in 
 which several lives were lost, was the consequence. 
 The delay of the expedition, and this conduct of his 
 favourite troops, preyed much on his spirits, and 
 contributed greatly to an attack of epilepsy, which 
 seized him on the 1 5th of February. He was sit- 
 ting in Colonel Stanhope's apartment, talking jocu- 
 larly with Mr Parry, the engineer,* when, by the 
 
 • This Lieutenant Parry was sent out by the Greek Com- 
 J!T>ittee in London, with artUlery and ammunition, stores, &e. He 
 
ANECDOTES OP LORD BYRON. 101 
 
 changes of his countenance, it appeared he was suf- 
 fering under some strong emotion. On a sudden, 
 he complained of a weakness in one of his legs, and 
 got up ; but, finding himself unable to walk, he 
 called out for assistance. He then fell into a state 
 of convulsive agitation, and, for some minutes, his 
 face was much distorted. His efforts to master the 
 fit were great, and in a few minutes he recovered 
 his senses entirely. It returned four times in the 
 course of a month, but at length yielded to bleeding, 
 cold bathing, and relaxation of mind. An accident, 
 however, happened a few days after his first illness, 
 which was little calculated to aid the advice of his 
 physicians. A Suliote, accompanied by the late Mar- 
 co Botzari's little boy, and another man, walked in- 
 to the Seraglio — a place which, before Lord Byron's 
 arrival, had been used as a sort of fortress and bar- 
 rack for the Suliotes, and out of which they were 
 ejected with great difficulty, for the reception of the 
 committee stores, and for the occupation of the en- 
 gineers, who required it for a laboratory. The sen- 
 tinel on guard ordered the Suliotes to retire ; which 
 being a species of motion to which the Suliotes are 
 not accustomed, the man carelessly advanced ; upon 
 which the sergeant of the guard (a German) de- 
 manded his business, and receiving no satisfactory 
 answer, pushed him back. These wild warriors. 
 
 was delayed some time on his passage, and Byron's patience 
 being worn out, he thus adds, in a note to one of his letters, 
 *« I presume, from the retardment, that he is the same Parry 
 who attempted the North Pole, and (it may be supposed) now 
 ewia^ing the South, 
 
102 ANECDOTES 0I» LORD BYROlfr. 
 
 who will dream for years of a blow if revenge is out 
 of their power, are not slow to follow up a push. 
 The Suliote struck again — the sergeant and he closed 
 and struggled, when the Suliote drew a pistol from 
 his belt. The sergeant wrenched it out of his hand, 
 and blew the powder out of the pan. At this mo- 
 ment Captain Sass, a Swede, seeing the fray, came 
 up and ordered the Suliote to be taken to the guard 
 room. He was then disposed to make a retreat, 
 and would have done so, if the German, whose cho- 
 ler by this time was up, would have permitted him. 
 Unfortunately, Captain Sass, when the Suliote strug- 
 gled to get away, drew his sword and struck him 
 with the fiat part of it ; whereupon the enraged 
 Greek flew upon him with a pistol in one hand, 
 and his sabre in the other ; and at the same moment 
 nearly cut off the Captain's right arm, and shot him 
 through the head with the pistol. Captain Sass, 
 who was remarkable for his mild and courageous 
 chai'acter, expired in a few minutes. The Suliote, 
 also, was a man of distinguished bravery. This 
 was a serious affair, and great apprehensions were 
 entertained that it would not end here. The Su- 
 liotes refused to surrender their comrade to justice, 
 alleging that he had been struck, which, in Suliote 
 law, excuses all the consequences that may follow. 
 
 During a pleasure trip which Byron and some of 
 his friends made in his yacht, Mazeppa, comman- 
 ded by Captain Benson, R. N. to Sicily, Corsica, 
 and Sardinia, a violent storm arose, which, for the 
 terrific, makes a fool of that occurring to iEneas of 
 
A?JteCDotES OF Lord fevkoN. 103 
 
 Old in the same parts ; and, for the pathetic, almost 
 out-herod's the Narrative of John Byron. It is an 
 excellent thing, sitting in one's easy chair, to de- 
 scribe a storm. Nantes in gurgiie vasio, people have 
 no inclination to quote poetry, and make up a soul- 
 harrowing story. The following is an extract from 
 the " Narrative :" " Sailors say a calm always pre- 
 cedes a storm ; and we had reason to give into such 
 presentiments; for the next morning the wind, 
 which had blown from the south-west, with a light 
 gale, suddenly changed to the opposite point of the 
 compass, and came down with sweeping venge- 
 ance. 
 
 We close-reefed our sails, and made all snug; 
 the Captain and Captain F — n declaring we should 
 have to encounter a strong *' Levanter," all our ef- 
 forts were strained to double the headland, and get 
 into the gulf of St Fiorenzo, but in vain ; so that 
 a whole day was spent in tacking and veering, to 
 close in with the land, to no purpose. 
 
 Sea-sickness now laid all our ladies and gentle- 
 men " on their beam ends ;" Count P , Mr Den- 
 
 zell, and the amiable orphan, St. F , were also 
 
 overcome, and the whole were bed-ridden. The sun 
 set angrily, and the wind, veering more to the west- 
 ward, broug-lit us on a lee-shore to our utter dis- 
 may. The elegant Falconer says, in his unrivalled 
 poem. 
 
 Ah ! were it mine, with tuneful Maro's art, 
 To wake to sympathy the feehng heart. 
 Then too severely taught by cruel fate 
 To share in all the perils I relate, 
 How might I with unequall'd strains deplore 
 The impervious horrors of a leeward shore I 
 
104 ANECDOTES OP LORD BYRON* 
 
 These horrors we were doomed to experience : we re- 
 duced our sails to a few yards of canvas, and low- 
 ered the yards on deck. The sky appeared as an 
 extensive sheet of lightning, and peals of thunder 
 overhead appeared as if ready to dispart the vessel, 
 and bury us in the waves, which rolled over the 
 vessel with irresistible force. His Lordship, with 
 
 Captain F , Doctor Peto, and Percy S , 
 
 kept the deck, and the hatches were battened down 
 over the rest of our company ; a tremendous sea 
 carried away the boat, which was hoisted up at the 
 stern, and broke in all the bulk-heads of the quarters. 
 For our own safety, all hands, after being revived 
 with a dram, began to throw overboard the guns. 
 Lord Byron himself assisting in this painful duty : 
 The long boat was then released from her lashings, 
 and, as we wished, the waves soon swept her from 
 the deck ; our two cows and goats shared the same 
 fate, as well as one of the horses; the others were in 
 the hold, and to that they owed their preservation. 
 The two large anchors were cut from the bows, and 
 the vessel thus eased of a heavy top-load, danced more 
 lightly over the tremendous billows, and inspired us 
 with fresh hopes. The crew were all ordered to the 
 after part of the deck, and again refreshed with liquor. 
 A light was seen apparently in the clouds, which 
 shone from some mountaineer's cottage ; it gleamed 
 with a sickly hue through the storm, and the sailors, 
 with true Italian superstition, pronounced it " St. 
 Peter's watch- light" to show us to the grave: indeed, 
 we were all inclined to think it foreboded no good, 
 as the Captain (Benson) informed us that there was 
 no light-house on that part of the coast, and we 
 
ANECDOTES OP LORD BVRON. 105 
 
 must be very near the land to see a light so plain- 
 ly. We soon saw the high mountains, and would 
 have been 
 
 " Happy to bribe with India's richest ore, 
 A safe accession to that barren shore." 
 
 The Captain, who had befen anxiously looking 
 out, acquainted us, so as not to be heard by the crew, 
 that he saw breakers nearly a-head, and had no hopes 
 
 of being able to weather them. Captain F n 
 
 coincided in this opinion ; to which his Lordship 
 said, *^ Well, we are all born to die — I shall go with 
 regret, but certainly not with fear." Dr. Peto count- 
 ed his rosary, and kissed his crucifix with fervent 
 devotion on his knees. 
 
 Percy S , who heretofore made no secret of 
 
 his infidelity, and whose spirits we thought no dan- 
 ger could ever appal, appeared to have lost all en- 
 ergy, and the horrors of approaching death made 
 him weep like a child. Those names which he never 
 before pronounced but in ridicule, he now called 
 upon in moving accents of serious prayer, and im- 
 plored the protection of that Being, whose existence 
 he affected to disbelieve. Thus, 
 
 " Conscience does make cowards of us^all." 
 
 The horrors surrounding us were too appalling for 
 human nature to contemplate without shuddering ; 
 for, 
 
 " In vain, alas ! the sacred shades of yore 
 Would arm the mind with philosophic lore ; 
 
l66 ANtecfooTES OP LORD BYRoN. 
 
 In vain they'd teach us with our latest breath, 
 To smile serene amid the pangs of death. 
 Even Zeno's self, and Epictetus old, 
 This fell abyss had shudder'd to behold." 
 
 The breakers were now visible to all the crew, 
 to whom his Lordship gave his advice to lash them- 
 selves to the yards, which they did. Captain F n 
 
 and Captain Benson took the helm ; his Lordship 
 descended to the cabin, where all were too much 
 afraid to be sensible of their danger, nor could they 
 be roused by any exertion of his ; he came up with 
 a scent-box in his hand, which he placed by his side, 
 and sat down ; he had not sat long when he asked, 
 '^ Is there any chance ?" to which he was answered, 
 ^'None whatever." "Then, said he, rising, it is every 
 man's duty to endeavour to preserve the life God 
 has given him ; so I advise you all to strip ; swim- 
 ming, indeed, can be of little use in these billows— 
 but as children, when tired with crying, sink pla- 
 cidly to repose — we, when exhausted with strug- 
 gling, shall die the easier; and, with God's bles- 
 sing, we shall soon be at rest." 
 
 His Lordship then threw off every thing but his 
 trowsers, and binding his silk neckcloth round his 
 loins, he sat down, and folding his arms across his 
 chest, waited, in tranquil resignation, his fate. Per- 
 cy S lay at his feet in a state of insensibility. 
 
 His Lordship looked down upon him, and ejacula- 
 ted, " Poor fellow!" Dr Peto had covered his head 
 with his cloak, and was stretched at full length, 
 groaning in bitter anguish. 
 
 Captain F n was removing some dollars from 
 
 his coat into the pocket of his small clothes, which 
 
ANECDOtES Of LORD BYROJI. 107 
 
 his Lordship observing, smiled, and said, " F n, 
 do you mean that as a ballast to sink you sooner, 
 or as a bribe to Neptune to give you a good birth 
 in his watery palace ? The sun was now nearly 
 an hour high, but all was like the twilight of the 
 grave. The sea was long and heavy, and as it broke 
 upon the rocks, the crash struck the ear, as though 
 a forest of lofty oaks were falling by a whirlwind. 
 The countenance of his Lordship never changed 
 whilst the person who writes this had power to 
 view it ; but, 
 
 '' The heart that bleeds with sorrow, all its own. 
 Forgets the pangs of friendship to bemoan." 
 
 The breakers now were not a quarter of a mile dis- 
 tant on the lee-bow, when Captain Benson remark- 
 ed to his Lordship, " Our only chance is to put 
 away a point before the wind, or we are sure to 
 go broadside into the surf, and perish at once." 
 " As you like," said his Lordship, raising his head, 
 and looking upon the danger ; he then resumed his 
 former position. 
 
 A heavy surge now swept the vessel fore and aft, 
 and carried overboard the doctor, who instantly sank 
 to rise no more. 
 
 His Lordship exclaimed, *' Good God !" and at the 
 moment the vessel rose upon a mountain billow to 
 a tremendous height, from whose summit she de- 
 scended with the velocity of lightning, as if she 
 was going to bury herself in the remorseless deep. 
 By this rapid movement she was precipitated for- 
 ward beyond the reach of the breakers, that rolled 
 
108 ANECDOTES OP LORD BYRON. 
 
 behind her stem, and burst in impotence, as if in- 
 censed at the loss of their destined prey. " We are 
 
 safe," exclaimed Captains F and Benson; 
 
 "jump, men, from the yards, and make sail ;*' this 
 they did with tumultuous joy, which his Lordship 
 checked, and told them, " Whilst you are working, 
 silently thank God for your miraculous preservation/* 
 He then went below, and bringing up a bottle, bade 
 every one drink, himself pledging them. Percy S— 
 was removed in a state of stupor to his bed; his Lord- 
 ship comforted those below with assurances of safe- 
 ty ; and the vessel was laid to, under " snug canvas," 
 in the mouth of the Gulf of St. Fiorenzo, with every 
 part of which the Captain was well acquainted. The 
 sea upon which the vessel rose was the means of her 
 preservation ; probably there was not, if the sea had 
 been calm, a depth of two feet w^ater on the rocks 
 over which she passed ; but the sea carried her safe 
 over at a moment when every hope, save that of 
 immortality, was gone. 
 
 The vessel now rose smoothly, and the hour of 
 eaght being arrived, all the party were enabled to 
 sit up and take coffee. The doctor was'missed, and 
 his loss occasioned sincere regret ; not that he had 
 left a memory behind him either to be beloved or 
 lamented. He was a selfish, cold, and unfriendly 
 Venetian, and his only recommendation to his Lord- 
 ship was the reputation of his skill, which was much 
 over-rated. 
 
 Percy S had recovered from his fits of fear, 
 
 and came from his cabin like a spectre from the 
 tomb. His Lordship repeated, as he shook him by 
 the hand^ 
 
ANECDOTES Oi? LORD BYRON. 109 
 
 " Cowards die many times before their deatb, 
 The valiant never taste of death but once.'* 
 
 " Ah !" exclaimed the reclaimed infidel, " I have 
 tasted so much of the bitterness of death, that I shall 
 in future entertain doubts of my own creed." A glass 
 of rum and water, warm, raised his drooping spirits, 
 and in twenty-four hours he was the same free- 
 thinldng, thankless dog as ever ; thus verifying the 
 old^ distich, 
 
 '' The devil was sick — the devil a monk would be— 
 ^e devil got well — the devil a monk was he." 
 
 As there was a thick fog in the air, Mr. Benson 
 resolved to lay to until it cleared away, and we all 
 began to prepare for a good dinner ; our cabin guests> 
 during the storm, had each of them a fine echo in 
 the stomach, and we who had been rocked upon 
 deck had acquired an appetite for any thing but a 
 - gale of wind. 
 
 All our fresh stock had been washed overboard ; 
 hen and turkey coops, dove cages, and even the fil- 
 tering stones for the water, which his Lordship high- 
 ly valued, w^ere carried away in the flood. There 
 were, however, preserved luxuries of other kinds ; 
 portable meats, preserves, &c. and we had an ex- 
 cellent cook; whilst he provided dinner we all bathed^ 
 (for in the rear of the cabin were two convenient 
 marble .baths,) and then dressed ourselves. 
 
 Our dinner was a happy one ; the glass went 
 briskly round ; his Lordship was iij great spirits ; 
 he threatened to compose an elegy on the death and 
 iresurrection of Percy S-— , and the Countess said^ 
 
110 ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 
 
 set his " dying speech" to music, and dedicate it to 
 the spirit of the storm. During these happy mo- 
 ments, so quietly did things move upon deck, that 
 we imagined ourselves under sail, when Captain Ben- 
 son came down and informed his Lordship the ves- 
 sel was safe at anchor in Martello Bay, five miles 
 from the town of St. Fiorenzo. 
 
 While Lord Byron was examining Athens, and 
 its antiquities, he found great reason to be displeas- 
 ed with the conduct of the Earl of Elgin, who, af- 
 ter almost demolishing several of the finest temples 
 there, caused his own name, together with that of 
 his wife, to be inscribed on a pillar of the Temple 
 of Minerva. Lord Byron, on beholding this in- 
 scription, was so much irritated, and conceived such 
 an abhorrence of this presumption, which he consi- 
 dered as almost amounting to sacrilege, that, with 
 great labour and difficulty, he got himself raised up 
 to the requisite height, and obliterated the name 
 of the Earl, but gallantly left that of the Lady un- 
 touched — in order that posterity might know her 
 as connected with the spoiler of Athens. Besides 
 this act of zeal, he adopted another and severer 
 method of humbling the pride of his brother 
 Peer ; for, on the west side of the same temple, he 
 caused the following monkish lines to be very deep-* 
 ly cut, in large characters :•— 
 
 " Quod nonfecerunt Goti, 
 Hoc fecenmt ScotV* 
 
 But, his resentment was not limited to mere lo« 
 
ANECDOTES OP LORD BYRON. Ill 
 
 calities. He invoked his muse on the occasion, and 
 wrote a poem, the opening part of which consti* 
 tutes the introduction to Childe Harold, but the 
 remainder was suppressed as being too caustic for 
 publication. The " Curse of Minerva" has, how- 
 ever, preserved his Lordship's opinions on the sub- 
 ject of the Earl of Elgin's spoliations. Minerva is 
 described as recounting the robbery of Athens by 
 various hands, and particularly by Lord Elgin, 
 whom the Goddess thus denounces :■— 
 
 " Mortal ! (the blue-eyed maid resumed once more) 
 
 Bear back my mandate to thy native shore ; 
 
 Though fallen, alas ! this vengeance yet is mine, 
 
 To turn thy counsels far from lands like thine. 
 
 Hear, then, in silence, Pallas' stern behest; 
 
 Hear, and believe, for time will tell the rest : 
 
 First on the head of him who did the deed ; 
 
 My curse shall light on him, and all his seed. 
 
 Without one spark of intellectual fire, 
 
 Be all his sons as senseless as their sire : 
 
 If one with wit the parent breed disgrace, 
 
 Believe hhn bastard of a better race ; 
 
 Still with his hireling artists let him prate, 
 
 And folly's praise repay for wisdom's hate. 
 
 Long of her Patron's gusto let them tell, 
 
 Whose noblest native gusto — is to sell ; 
 
 To sell, and make (may shame record the day !) 
 
 The State receiver of his pilfer'd prey ! 
 
 And, last of all, amidst the gaping crew, 
 Some calm spectator, as he takes his view 
 In silent admiration, mixed with grief. 
 Admires the plunder, but abhors the thief : 
 Loathed in life, scarce pardoned in the dust, 
 May hate pursue his sacrilegious lust ; 
 Link'd with the fool who fired the Ephesian dome. 
 Shall vengeance follow far beyond the tomb. 
 
112 ANECDOTES Oir LORD feVROKi 
 
 Erostratus and E e'er shall shine 
 
 In many a branding page and burning line. 
 Alike condsmn'd for aye to stand accursed, 
 Perchance the second viler than the first. 
 So let him stand, through ages yet unborn, 
 Fix'd statue on the pedestal of scorn." 
 
 Although men like Lord Byron, endued with 
 fervid imaginations and ardent feelings, may be en- 
 raged with the Earl of Elgin for despoiling a place 
 endeared to them by many an association ; yet men 
 of more sober and more patriotic, though not so 
 classical, feelings, will never regret the bringing of 
 such remains to England ; considering, that they 
 have done more for the arts than any thing w^hich 
 has occurred for these two hundred years. When 
 the Earl of Elgin sent the marbles to England, 
 Greece had no appearance of being able, or even 
 inclined, to free itself from the dominion of the 
 Turks. Had it been a free and independent na- 
 tion, or, what is more, had it been inhabited by a 
 people who regarded with any thing like awe and 
 reverence the works of their glorious ancestors, the 
 case would have been different. As it is, it would 
 have been a pity that all which the ravages of time, 
 still more the barbarism of the modern Greeks, and 
 the barbarism of their brutal masters, had left of 
 any value in the celebrated Parthenon of Athens, 
 should have been left exposed to the same deterio- 
 rating causes, merely to please poets and travelling 
 tutors. Even now there is more than enough left 
 of the remains of that noble temple to satisfy the 
 domestic comforts of the polished inhabitants of 
 
ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 113 
 
 Athens.* Britain has to thank Lord Elgin for 
 bringing something of the Grecian art to the coun- 
 try. These remains are far better in the British 
 Museum than in the power of a set of ignorant and 
 barbarous Greeks ; and more ignorant and barbar- 
 ous Turks. As to the anathemata of sensitive poets, 
 they are but as " leather and prunella." 
 
 Lord Byron's valet, (Mr Fletcher,) whose taste, 
 a little superior to that of most modern Greeks, 
 looked to " elegant comforts,'* grievously excited his 
 master's ire, by observing, while Byron was exam- 
 ining the remains of Athens ; — " La me, my Lord, 
 what capital mantle pieces that there marble would 
 make in England !" 
 
 fi3rron had an antipathy to dancing, arising, no 
 doubt, from his being unable, by the malformation 
 of his foot, to enjoy that delightful exercise. At 
 manly sports he was by no means inferior. At 
 school his lameness was no impediment to his join- 
 ing in all the amusements of his companions. He 
 was ever first at the battle ; and all his school-fellow« 
 allow, that he was not one to be rashly meddled with. 
 
 As a swimmer, perhaps he has left few equals. 
 
 * Travellers hold the taste of the present Greeks as very 
 liitle higher than that of their late masters. The virtuoso very 
 often finds the most beautiful piece of ancient "sculpture used 
 for the lintel of a door, or some such unworthy purpose, in the 
 domicile of a modern Greek. 
 
 I 
 
114 ANECDOTES OF LORD BYIION. 
 
 It was an exercise to which he greatly devoted 
 himself, and, by practice, he acquired an almost ex- 
 traordinary degree of proficiency. Whilst on board 
 the Salsette frigate, in the Dardanelles, a discus- 
 sion arose as to the possibility of swimming the 
 Hellespont. The feat of Leander has been doubt- 
 ed, but Byron, confident that it was perfectly pos- 
 sible, undertook it. He prided himself on the ac- 
 complishment of the task greatly, and has taken 
 particular care to mention it in two or three of his 
 works, and, at the time, almost bored his corre- 
 spondents with accounts of it. The circumstance is 
 thus related by his Lordship in a note to the stanzas 
 he wrote upon the occasion : — 
 
 " On the 3d of May, 1810, while the Salsette 
 frigate (Captain Bathurst) was lying in the Dar- 
 danelles, Lieutenant Ekenhead of that frigate, and 
 the writer of these rhymes, swam from the Euro- 
 pean shore to the Asiatic — by-the-bye, from Abydos 
 to Sestos would have been more correct. The whole 
 distance from the place whence we started to our 
 landing on the other side, including the length we 
 were carried by the current, was computed by those 
 on board the frigate at upwards of four English 
 miles ; though the actual breadth is barely one. 
 The rapidity of the current is such, that no boat 
 can row directly cross, and it may in some measure 
 be estimated from the circumstance of the whole 
 distance being accomplished by one of the parties in 
 an hour and five, and by the other in an hour and 
 ten minutes. The water was extremely cold from 
 the melting of the miountain-snows. About three 
 weeks before, in April^ we had made au aU 
 
ANECDOTES OP LORD BYRON. 115 
 
 tempt, but having ridden all the way from the 
 Troad the same morning, and the water being of an 
 icy chillness, we found it necessary to postpone the 
 completion till the frigate anchored below the 
 castles, when we swam the straits, as above stated ; 
 entering a considerable way above the European, 
 and . landing below the Asiatic, fort. Chevalier 
 says, that a young Jew swam the same distance for 
 his mistress ; and Oliver mentions its having been 
 done by a Neopolitan ; but our consul, Tarragona, 
 remembered neither of these circumstances, and 
 tried to dissuade us from the attempt. A number 
 of the Salsette's crew were known to have accom- 
 plished a greater distance ; and the only thing that 
 surprised me was, that, as doubts had been enter- 
 tained of the truth of Leander*s story, no traveller 
 had ever endeavoured to ascertain its practicability." 
 
 A Mr Turner, who published some Travels a 
 few years after his Lordship had accomplished the 
 feat, insinuated that Lord Byron had fallen far 
 short of Leander, having only swam with the cur- 
 rent, while Leander swam both with and against it. 
 His Lordship, who prided himself much upon the 
 feat, was in high dudgeon at this insulting doubt, 
 and sent the following letter, addressed to Mr Mur- 
 ray, his publisher :— 
 
 '' Dear Sir,— In the 44th page. Vol. L of ' Tur- 
 ner's Travels,* (which you lately sent me,) it is 
 stated that Lord Byron, when he expressed such 
 confidence of its practicability, seems to have for- 
 gotten that Leander swam both ways, with and 
 against the tide ; whereas he (Lord Byron) only 
 
116 ANECDOTES OF* LOftt) fiYROfT. 
 
 performed the easiest part of the task, by swimming 
 with it, from Europe to Asia. 
 
 " I certainly could not have forgotten what is 
 known to every school-boy — that Leander crossed 
 in the night, and returned towards the morning. 
 My object was to ascertain that the Hellespont 
 could be crossed at all by swimming, and in this 
 Mr Ekenhead and myself both succeeded ; the one 
 in an hour and ten minutes, the other in one hour 
 and five minutes : the tide was not in our favour ; 
 on the contrary, the great difficulty was, to bear up 
 against the current ; which, so far from helping us 
 to the Asiatic side, set us down right towards the 
 Archipelago. Neither Mr Ekenhead, myself, nor, 
 I will venture to add, any person on board the fri- 
 gate, from Captain (now Admiral) Bathurst down- 
 wards, had any notion of a difference of the current 
 on the Asiatic side, of which Mr Turner speaks. I 
 never heard of it till this moment, or I would have 
 taken the other course. Lieutenant Ekenhead*s sole 
 motive, and mine also, for setting out from the Eu- 
 ropean side, was, that the little Cape above Sestos 
 was a more prominent starting place, and the frigate 
 which lay below, close under the Asiatic castle, 
 formed a better point of view to move towards ; 
 and, in fact, we landed immediately below it. Mr 
 Turner says, '^^ whatever is thrown into'the stream 
 on this part of the European bank must arrive at 
 the Asiatic shore. This is so far from being the 
 case, that it must arrive in the Archipelago if left to 
 the current, although a strong wind from the Asia^ 
 tic side might have such an effect occasionally. 
 *' Mr. Turner attemptedthepassagc from the Asia- 
 
ANECDOTES OP LORD BYRON. 117 
 
 tic side, and failed, 'after five- and- twenty minutes,^ 
 in which he did not advance a hundred yards, he 
 gave it up, from complete exhaustion.' This is 
 very possible, and might have occurred to him just 
 as readily on the European side. I particularly stat- 
 ed, and Mr. Hobhouse has done so also, that we were 
 obliged to make the real passage of one mile extend 
 to between three QXidfouVy owing to the force of the 
 stream. I can assure Mr. Turner that his success 
 would have given me great pleasure ; as it would 
 have added one more instance to the proofs of its 
 practicability. — It is not quite so fair in him to infer 
 that, because he failed, Leander could not succeed. 
 
 " There are still four instances on record — a 
 Neapolitan, a young Jew, Mr. Ekenhead, and my- 
 self; the two last were in the presence of hundreds 
 of English witnesses. With regard to the differ- 
 ence of the current, I perceived none ; it is favour- 
 able to the swimmer on neither side, but may be 
 stemmed by plunging into the sea a considerable 
 way above the opposite point of the coast which the 
 swimmer wishes to make, but still bearing up a- 
 gainst it : it is strong ; but if you calculate well, 
 you may reach land. My own experience, and that 
 of others, bids me pronounce the passage of Lean- 
 der perfectly practicable : Any young man in good 
 health, and with tolerable skill in swimming, might 
 succeed in it from either side. I was three hours 
 in swimming across the Tagus, which is much 
 more hazardous, being two hours longer than the 
 passage of the Hellespont. Of what may be done 
 in swimming, I may mention one more instance. 
 In 1818, the Chevalier Mingaldo, (a gentleman of 
 
118 ANECDOTES OP LORD BYRON. 
 
 Bassano,) a good swimmer, wished to swim with 
 my friend Mr. Alexander Scott and myself: as 
 he seemed particularly anxious on the subject, 
 we indulged him. — We all three started from 
 the island of the Lido and swam to Venice. — At 
 the entrance of the grand canal, Scott and I were a 
 good way ahead, and we saw no more of our foreign 
 friend ; which, however, was of no consequence, as 
 there was a gondola to hold his clothes, and pick 
 him up. Scott swam on till past the Rialto, where 
 he got out, less from fatigue than chill, haying been 
 four hours in the water without rest, or stay, ex«» 
 cept what is to be obtained from floating on one's 
 back, — this being the condition of our performance. 
 I continued my course on to S^nta Chiara, com- 
 prising the whole of the grand canal, ( besides the 
 distance from the Lido) and got out where the La- 
 guna once more opens to Fusina. I had been in 
 the water, by my watch, without help or rest, and 
 never touching ground or boat, four hours and twen- 
 ty minutes. To this match, and during the greater 
 part of the performance, Mr. Hoppner, the consul- 
 general, was witness, and it is well known to many 
 others. Mr. Turner can easily verify the fact, 
 if he thinks it worth while, by referring to Mr. 
 Hoppner. The distance we could not accurately 
 ascertain ; it was of course considerable. 
 
 " I crossed the Hellespont in an hour and ten 
 minutes only. I am now ten years older in time, 
 and twenty in constitution, than I was when I pass- 
 ed the Dardanelles ; and yet, two years ago, I was 
 capable of swimming four hours and twenty minutes; 
 and I am sure that I could have continued two hours 
 
ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 119 
 
 longer, though I had on a pair of trowsers— an ac- 
 coutrement which by no means assists the perform- 
 ance. My two companions were also four hours in 
 the water. Mingaldo might be about thirty years 
 of age, Scott about six-and-twenty. With this ex- 
 perience in swimming, at different periods of age, 
 not only on the spot, but elsewhere, of various per- 
 sons, what is there to make me doubt that Lean- 
 der s exploit was perfectly practicable? If three in- 
 dividuals did more than passing the Hellespont, 
 why should he have done less ? But Mr Turner 
 failed, and, naturally seeking a plausible excuse for 
 his failure, lays the blame on the Asiatic side of the 
 strait. To me the cause is evident ; he tried to 
 swim directly across, instead of going higher up to 
 take the vantage. He might as well have tried to 
 fly over Mount Athos. 
 
 " That a young Greek of the heroic times, in 
 love, and with his limbs in full vigour, might have 
 succeeded in such an attempt, is neither wonderful 
 nor doubtful. Whether he attempted it or not, is 
 another question, because he might have had a small 
 boat to save him the trouble. 
 
 I am, yours very truly, 
 
 Byron." 
 
 " P. S. Mr Turner says, that the swimming from 
 Europe to Asia was ^ the easiest part of the task.* 
 I doubt whether Leander found it so, as it was the 
 return : however, he had several hours between the 
 intervals. The argument of Mr T. ' that, higher 
 up, or lower down, the strait widens so considerably 
 that he would save little labour by his starting,' is 
 only good for indifferent swimmers. A man of any 
 
120 ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 
 
 practice or skill will always consider the distance 
 less than the strength of the stream. If Ekenhead 
 and myself had thought of crossing at the narrow- 
 est point, instead of going up to the Cape above it, 
 we should have been swept down to Tenedos. The 
 strait is, however, not extraordinarily wide, even 
 where it broadens above and below the forts. As 
 the frigate was stationed some time in the Dardan- 
 elles, waiting for the firman, I bathed often in the 
 strait, subsequently to our traject, and generally on 
 the Asiatic side, without perceiving the greater 
 strength of the opposing stream, by which Mr Tur- 
 ner palliates his own failure. Our amusement in 
 the small bay, which opens immediately below the 
 Asiatic fort, was to dive for the land tortoises, which 
 we flung in on purpose, as they amphibiously crawled 
 along the bottom : this does not argue any greater 
 violence of current than on the European shore. 
 With regard to the modest insinuation, that we 
 chose th« European side as " easier," I appeal to 
 Mr Hobhouse, and Admiral Bathurst, if it be true 
 or no ; poor Ekenhead being since dead. Had we 
 been aware of any such difference of current, as ia 
 asserted, we should at least have proved it, and were 
 not likely to have given it up in the twenty-five 
 minutes of Mr Turner's own experiment." 
 
 When the two first cantos of Don Juan were 
 sent to Mr Murray, the bookseller, he very wisely 
 demurred about the publishing of them. Mr Hob- 
 liousc and others advised Lord Byron to withdraw 
 the manuscript, but he was resolute that they should 
 
ANECDOTES OP LORD BYRON. 121 
 
 be sent forth to the public ; and Mr Murray, wisely 
 considering that, if he did not, another would pub- 
 lish them, and, in that case, pocket the profits, paid 
 his Lordship £l525 for the copy-right, and the 
 poem was brought out, not as printed for John Mur- 
 ray, but with only the printer's name on the title- 
 page. It was folly in Mr Murray, to say the least 
 of it, to follow this plan ; for it evidently insinu- 
 ated that he was aware of the nature of the work, 
 and yet, at the same time, that his avarice was so 
 great, that he could pander to the immorality of the 
 nation, and with the profits settle his own con- 
 science, provided his " good name" was pure in the 
 estimation of his pious customers. Had he boldly 
 put his name on the title-page, the work would 
 never have caused such a sensation ; and those 
 wretches who impudently plead the immorality or 
 blasphemy of a book as an excuse for their robbery of 
 it, would no more have thought of pirating it, than 
 Childe Harold. By the " Conversations" it appears 
 that " Murray is the most nervous of God's book- 
 sellers," and that " when Don Juan first came out 
 he was so frightened that he made a precipitate re- 
 treat into the country, shut himself up, and would 
 not open his letters." 
 
 As to the pecuniary transactions between Lord 
 Byron and Mr Murray, which, with all the kind- 
 ness of a brother in trade, Mr Colburn has magni- 
 ficently blazed in the pages of his " catch-penny/' 
 it is satisfactory to know, that Mr Murray has, by 
 letters in the hand-writing of Lord Byron, most 
 clearly refuted the whole of the imputations cast 
 upon him. 
 
122 ANECDOTES OP LORD BYRON. 
 
 He gives an enumeration of all the sums paid to 
 Lord Byron for the copy-right of his works. 
 These sums shew clearly, that " the most nervous of 
 God's booksellers" is not the most niggardly. 
 Childe Harold, I. II £600* 
 
 Ill 1575 
 
 IV 2100 
 
 Giaour,...-. 525 
 
 Bride of Abydos, 525 
 
 Corsair, 525 
 
 Lara, 7^0 
 
 Siege of Corinth, 625f 
 
 Parisina, 525-|- 
 
 Lament of Tasso, 315 
 
 Manfred, 315 
 
 Beppo, 525 
 
 Don Juan, I. II 1525 
 
 IIL IV. V 1525+ 
 
 Doge of Venice, 1050 
 
 Sardanapalus, Cain, and Foscari, 1000 
 
 Mazeppa, 525 
 
 Prisoner of Chillon, 525 
 
 Sundries, 450 
 
 £15,455 
 
 • Paid, as has been mentioned, to Mr Dallas, to whom 
 his Lordship presented the work. 
 
 •j* In the " Conversations," it is stated that Lord Byron 
 aaid, *' Because I gave Mr Murray one of my poems, he 
 wanted to make me believe that I had made him a present of 
 two others, and hinted at some lines in * English Bards and 
 Scotch Ileviewers,' which were certainly to the point." The 
 fact of the matter is. Lord Byron did present the Siege of Co- 
 rinth and Parisina to Mr Murray. That gentleman, how- 
 ever, sent a draft for a thousand guineas, which Byron return- 
 ed torn. Afterwards, by the persuasions of his Bibliopole, he 
 was induced to accept the money. 
 
 t The story which has been manufactured in the " Conver- 
 
ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 123 
 
 Shades of Dryden, Pope, Addison, and Johnson! all 
 the labours of thy mighty minds were not altogether 
 valued in sterling cash at a sum like this ! The lat- 
 est of you unfortunately lived a few years too soon— ■ 
 not for your immortality — but for your pockets. The 
 French Revolution had not passed over before your 
 day, " leading in its train" its permanent good wi^h 
 all its temporary evils ; the periodical press was not 
 then in its noon-day splendour ; and a Glasgow 
 weaver could not, and cared not, even if he had 
 been able to have done it, to read an Edinburgh 
 Review, in order to qualify himself for settling the 
 state of the nation, or guiding the helm of affairs* 
 Ye wrote for the improveme?it and edification of the 
 people, sed tempora mutantiir, — authors now-a-days 
 write for the gratification of the public, and- they 
 are paid liberally accordingly. 
 
 Indeed the whole section upon Mr. Murray ap- 
 pears to be in ioto false. If there is any excep- 
 tion to this, it is where Byron is reported to have 
 said " Murray has long prevented the 'Quarterly' 
 from abusing me. Some of their bullies have had 
 their fingers itching to be at me, but they would 
 get the worst of it in a set-to." Mr. Murray's de- 
 
 sations" about Murray's having complained of Byron's cut- 
 ting the third Canto of Don Juan into two is nonsense. By- 
 ron divided the Canto because it was too long ; but, at the 
 same time, acquainted Mr M. with the circumstance, in order 
 that he might not seem to be " doubUng" on him. Of course 
 he was paid for the two as one, as he himself wished. 
 
124 ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 
 
 fence on this accusation does not carry conviction to 
 men's minds : " With regard/' says he, *' to the 
 * Quarterly Review/ his Lordship well knew* that 
 it v^^as established and constantly conducted on prin- 
 ciples which absolutely excluded Mr. Murray from 
 all such interference and influence as is implied in 
 the ' Conversations/ " Nobody will take this for a 
 fact, (even though it may be the fact, as we well 
 believe it is, that Mr. Murray never ordered any of 
 his hacks to prepare puffs for his books, or spare 
 the rod upon them, ) when they recollect the in- 
 clination of all Reviewers to sound the works of 
 their publisher ; and when they recollect the arti- 
 cles that have appeared time immemorial in the re- 
 spectable Quarterly on the wondrous tomes of" tra- 
 vellers into foreign lands," as sleepy and tiresome 
 as the works themselves published by John Murray. 
 Though the reading world may have long given 
 an unanimous verdict against three fourths of these 
 " Voyages," " Travels," and ** Tours," yet if they 
 
 issued from Albemarle Street, Judge G was 
 
 never yet found to pronounce the sentence of "dam- 
 nation" upon them, which they so meritoriously 
 deserve. 
 
 There is no direct interference or influence be- 
 twixt the critics and the venders of their cracked 
 wares, but there is an " understanding," which, like 
 that between a blind fiddler and his cur, is per- 
 
 • Do the Italics intimate, that Lord Bjrron was initiated 
 into the tricks, and even exercised, on occasions, the functions, 
 of the " ungentle craft ?" 
 
ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 125 
 
 fectly sufficient for both parties. The one knows 
 the taste of the other, and wherever the smell comes 
 from most savoury, thither will the intelligent ani- 
 mal drag his helpless master, well knowing that 
 when his stomach is full there will be a bone to 
 his good and faithful servant. 
 
 " Quam scit uterque, libens censebo exerceat artem." 
 
 On the appearance of Don Juan, there was a 
 fearful hue and cry against Byron. Those who 
 had, in secret, found fault with the dark, brooding, 
 misanthropical spirit which had chiefly predominat- 
 ed in his other works, now stepped boldly forward, 
 and accused Byron of being a bad man — a foe to 
 humanity, &c. Had the hostilities come from sen- 
 sible men, the warfare might have been carried on 
 fairly until the party in the wrong had been routed. 
 But there is a class of beings whose interference 
 does always a vast deal more harm than 'good, — u 
 class that seems to live in a state of what may be 
 called, national hypochondriasm — not a fear alone 
 for themselves, but for the people as a whole. These 
 are the people who see '^ with half an eye" 
 " What dire events from trifling causes spring," 
 
 when other people cannot perceive them with the 
 aid of both. It was they who prophesied the down- 
 fall of our constitution, from the efforts of a parcel 
 of silly reformers and hydrophobic M.P.s; the de- 
 struction of our constitution and morals from *' bra- 
 zen brainless" Achilles in Hyde Park ; and the to- 
 tal annihilation of our constitution, moralsi and reli- 
 
125 ANECDOTES OP LORD BYRON. 
 
 gion, from Don Juan. This hero was to be the 
 " barathrum*' for Britain, and swallow every thing 
 good and precious in the land for which our fathers 
 had bled, &c. &c. The constitution, however, still 
 stands, in spite of the radicals ; coaches still drive in 
 Hyde Park, and dashing shopkeepers, and male and 
 female milliners, still promenade there on Sunday, 
 in spite of the breechless hero ; and Doctors Com- 
 mons has not more cases of crim. con. than here- 
 tofore, notwithstanding the illumination spread 
 amongst the higher classes by this accomplished Don 
 and second Ferdinand Count Fathom. Don Juan 
 has done no harm, and will do none for three hun- 
 dred years to come ; and had these " nervous gen- 
 tlemen" broke through the hallucination that dig- 
 orders their minds, there would not have been such 
 a fuss abont Don Juan, — booksellers would not have 
 pirated to supply the excited public, — and party 
 spirit would not have been driven so high by the 
 decision of the Lord Chancellor. We do not here 
 question that decision, although we may regret that 
 it ever should have been given. But we do not 
 hold in the highest respect the opinions of those 
 men who uphold so dogmatically the doctrine of 
 church and state inseparable, and who make writ- 
 ings against Christianity obnoxious to the vengeance 
 of the law. We had always a fixed and firm belief 
 in the existence of our boasted free press till lately ; 
 but its foes are gradually rivetting their fetters 
 around it, and soon we fear this weapon of man's 
 freedom will be nailed to the wall as a memento to 
 future generations of the power of an unholy alli- 
 ance of crowned heads. There is a mass of silly 
 
ANECDOTES OF LORD EYRON. 127 
 
 hypochondriacs and interested alarmists, who, by 
 forming themselves into bodies, — from that for the 
 propagation of the scriptures, down to that of the 
 society for the suppression of vice, and the less than 
 despicable " Constitutional Association'* — promise, 
 by their bigotry and their tyranny, to bring back 
 that reign of combined and high-handed ignorance, 
 over free intellect, once already held in Europe by 
 the holy Society of Jesus. The experience of every 
 day proves that national happiness and prosperity 
 is in a direct ratio to the freedom of discussion en- 
 joyed by its press, and the toleration displayed by 
 its different institutions. Bigotry — Intolerance — 
 and Slavery, are but one word. But mind will not 
 be trampled down, nor free enquiry coerced, with- 
 out at some period producing a fearful and danger- 
 ous re-action. Were unlimited freedom given to 
 discussion, where that discussion did not, acting jTs 
 a libel, affect the private characters of individuals, 
 the cause of truth, and the Christian religion, would 
 gain an untainted triumph by its own native strength; 
 while its opponents, crushed by their proper enemy, 
 instead of being thrown into chains by the power- 
 ful interference of an ally — improper, and unnatu- 
 ral in the fray — called in by the strongest, though 
 the most cowardly party — instead of having the 
 passions of men excited in their favour by compas- 
 sionating their sufferings through an honourable 
 disgust at a highly illegal war — illegal even when 
 waged against the guilty — would soon dwindle in- 
 to their " native nothingness ;" and their works, 
 instead of popularity and sale, w^ould rot in the 
 press that gave them birth, ^^ No man who con-* 
 
12& ANECDOTES OF LORD BYROM. 
 
 ceives his own opinions right, can reasonably object 
 to the test of free discussion : no governments who 
 deem their acts lawful and just can reasonably re- 
 sist its exercise. Wherever such scrutiny is oppos- 
 ed as dangerous, the inference is inevitable ; for 
 * they only can love darkness better than light, 
 whose thoughts and deeds are evil/ " But if the 
 fundamental doctrines of religion are to be defended 
 and settled in Britain by civil pains and penalties, 
 or by the point of the bayonet, let us never more 
 hear of accusations against the Holy Inquisition, 
 for the latter is but a refinement and improvement 
 on the former — a court deciding on particulars and 
 minor matters, (with all the strictness and cruelty 
 peculiar to elated ignorance and narrow-mindedness, 
 we grant,) after the other has settled the generali*. 
 ties. 
 
 Byron despised cant of every kind, and more es- 
 pecially the cant religious. He had dissected the 
 human heart, and knew its intimate structure, and 
 knew and despised the hypocrisy with which it 
 shrouds itself. He knew that no man would be- 
 lieve his neighbour to be the saint he pretended to 
 be, — and he scorned the idea that this doubt should 
 be entertained secretly, and the contrary proclaimed 
 openly : in short, he was not one of those who 
 thought that general hypocrisy, and pretensions to 
 goodness are Upon the whole best for the world. 
 He therefore made Juan the reverse of a saint, be» 
 cause he well knew that there are, and will be, 
 men with hearts as corrupt as his, whatever may 
 be their outward professions. The washy hero who 
 flounders through three volumes of a '' moral tale; 
 
ANiCCDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 129 
 
 is a *' Ittsus naturoe ;" and the stupid stuff with 
 which one half of these productions are filled is a 
 net to deceive the unwary and unacquainted with 
 the world. Don Juan would never liuve been ac- 
 cused if he had not shewn himself a creature, not 
 of pure imagination, but a copy of flesh and blood, 
 and stated many disagreeable, but still stubborn, 
 facts. We do not wish to become the apologist of 
 Don Juan — this, only, we think with others, that 
 when all Byron's other works are reposing in un- 
 molested dust, Don Juan will be on the library 
 table, the parlour window, and the boudoir. " Nei- 
 ther Childe Harold," says an author well qualified 
 to decide,* " nor any of the most beautiful of By- 
 ron's earlier tales, contain more exquisite morsels of 
 poetry than are to be found scattered through the 
 Cantos of Don Juan, amidst verses which seem to 
 be thrown off with an effort as spontaneous as that 
 of a tree resigning its leaves to the wind." 
 
 In the intermediate time of the publishing the 
 different Cantos of Don Juan, there appeared from 
 his Lordship's pen several Tragedies, (all soon about 
 to perish,) with here and there a precious relic to 
 be found after a search under a mass of rubbish. 
 Amongst these also appeared Cain, a Mystery, de- 
 dicated to Sir Walter Scott — perhaps the best of 
 his dramatic writings. By this work, it appears, 
 as has always been supposed, that the devil was the 
 first metaphysician, and preceded Spinoza in the 
 
 * Sir >y alter Scott. 
 
 K 
 
1 30 ANECDOTES'OF LORD BYRON. 
 
 doctrines of that school. The publication of Cain 
 raised the ire of the saints still more against Byron, 
 and a parson thinking he perceived some flaws in 
 the dialectics of him who " gave not heaven for 
 lost/* published an Anti-Cain, but Lucifer seems 
 the favourite with the public ; and notwithstanding 
 the parson may have the advantage of his Majesty 
 in an university education, he has by no means beat 
 him out of the field. Milton endowed Satan with 
 human passions, '* pale ire, envy, and despair," and 
 even on particularly trying occasions, a little twinge 
 of " pity and remorse ;" but Byron has kept his 
 Majesty within the bounds of his own province, and 
 though he deeply endues him with some doctrines 
 in metaphysics, yet the world never judged the 
 holders of these doctrines to be in their sane senses. 
 The Edinburgh Reviewers, who had been silent for 
 a long time on Byron's works, on account of their 
 " tendency," now popped themselves unexpectedly 
 up, reviewed Sardanapalus and the Foscari, and of 
 course exhibited a little twaddle upon Cain. The 
 Edinburgh Reviewers make a noise about religion 
 and morality, but do they care much about one or 
 other ? They care nothing about church establish- 
 ments or religion. They (and all true reformers) 
 are above such antiquated conceits, but the bitter 
 example of France has taught them that it is bad 
 policy to deprive the child of its bauble. Religion 
 they esteem a thing at present necessary, or at any 
 rate they think it too popular at present to be med- 
 dled with. The world, they expect, will get wiser 
 in time, and futurity will consider them and other 
 Scotch wits as having lived too early for the times. 
 
ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 131 
 
 — ^' O miseras homiman menteis, o pectora cceca" 
 They not only suffer religion to exist, but they 
 seize on it to find their way to other purposes. The 
 light which has been placed in the gloom of night 
 is of as much benefit to the robber as the peaceable 
 traveller. And let us see do they care about morali- 
 ty. They laud in one pageBowdler's castrated Shake- 
 speare,* and in the next declare they are delighted^ 
 with Voltaire's Candid — praise Shelley in one unin- 
 telligible paper, and in another make a fool of the Rev. 
 Dr Dwight, " whose baptismal name is Timothy." 
 
 Byron's belief in Christianity has been very much 
 doubted, and it is likely his name will go down to 
 posterity as that of a freethinker. The conversa- 
 
 • Save the mark ! we thought Shakespeare had suffered 
 enough from blundering commentators and mouthing actors ; 
 but here comes anotlier, who does not quibble about terms, 
 but with superlative quackery has drugged the Poet, and 
 physicked him to the very bones — a proper purgation of im- 
 proper readings — a lopping off with an unsparing knife- 
 Not content with imposing on us a Family Shakespeare, we 
 are threatened with a family edition of Gibbon's " Decline 
 and Fall of the lloman Empire." — We shall say nothing 
 about the " Sweet Swan of Avon," it being impossible that his 
 spirit, even though *' hearsed" in the very bowels of the earth, 
 should not have " burst its cerements," and fled long ere now 
 out of all hearing of the dogs who have been tearing his works 
 to pieces ; but Gibbon, the audacious Gibbon, who would 
 have burned every leaf in his work before he would have re- 
 scinded one or two chapters, shall we suppose that he will, 
 tamely rest with such indignities ? Mr Bowdler, who is a ve- 
 ry good man, and one ^or whom we have great respect, had 
 better look to it. The ghost of the murdered historian may 
 cry more loudly for vengeance than that of the bard — the lat- 
 ter having been hoarse with bawling two hundred years before 
 Mr Bowdler was born. 
 
132 ANECDOTES OP LORD BYRON, 
 
 tions which Captain Med win held with him on this 
 subject would almost lead us to believe that, if not 
 a sincere, he was at any rate something of a Chris- 
 tian. '^ Calling upon him one day," says he, " we 
 found him, as was sometimes the case, silent, dull, 
 and sombre ; — at length he said, " Here is a little 
 book somebody has sent me about Christianity, 
 that has made me very uncomfortable : the rea« 
 soning seems to me very strong ; the proofs are 
 very staggeringj* I don't think you can answer it, 
 Shelley; at least I am sure I cant, and what is 
 more, I don't w4sh it.* At another time he said to 
 Shelley, you believe in Plato's three principles ;— 
 why not in the Trinity ? one is not more mystical 
 than the other. I don't know why I am considered 
 an enemy to religion, and an unbeliever. I disown- 
 ed the other day that I was of Shelley's school in 
 metaphysics, though I admired his poetry;— not 
 
 * Here is another slight oversight in Captain INIedwin. He 
 should have noted down the title of this " little book." A true 
 lioswell would never have omitted so important a circum- 
 stance. A little book on Christianity that staggered the doubt- 
 ing mind of Byron (no very difficult thing, after all, in our 
 opinion,) and, what is much more, was unanswerable by Shel- 
 ley, who, even while a young man, thought himself qualified 
 to challenge the whole bench of Bishops, must be a treasure 
 worth more than all the Tract Society possesses. It must 
 have outdone Watson and Paley, (for it is not to be supposed 
 that men like Byron and Shelley had not studied accurately 
 the best of the opposite party : — deistical cobblers only take 
 their faith upon trust, not being able to read any works but 
 those of Carlisle,) and might have been the means of convert- 
 ing some to Christianity. 
 
ANECDOTES OP LORD BYRON. 133 
 
 but what he has changed his mode of thinking very- 
 much since he wrote the notes to " Queen Mab ;" 
 which I was accused of having a hand in. I know, 
 however, that I am considered as an infidel. My 
 wife and sister, when they joined parties, sent me 
 prayer books. There was a Mr Mulock who went 
 about the continent preaching orthodoxy in politics 
 and religion, a writer of bad sonnets, and a lecturer 
 in worse prose, — he tried to convert me to some 
 new sect of Christianity. He was a great anti- 
 materialist, and abused Locke.'' 
 
 Another time he said, " I have just now re- 
 ceived a letter from a Mr. Sheppard, inclosing a 
 prayer made for my welfare by his wife a few days 
 before her death. The letter states that he has had 
 the misfortune to lose this amiable woman, who 
 had seen me at Ramsgate, many years ago, ram- 
 bling amongst the cliffs; and that she had been 
 impressed with a sense of my irreligion from the 
 tenor of my works, and had often prayed fervent- 
 ly for my conversion, particularly in her last mo- 
 ments. The prayer is beautifully written. I like 
 devotion in women. She must have been a divine 
 creature. I pity the man who has lost her! I 
 shall write to him by return of the couriers, to 
 console with him, and tell him that Mrs S— - 
 needs not have entertained any concern for my 
 spiritual affairs, for that no man is more a Christian 
 than I am, whatever my writings may have led 
 her and others to suspect." It would be consola- 
 tory to all Byron's admirers to think that he could, 
 like a devout Christian, always have professed and 
 openly avowed his creed— but, alas ! though he made 
 
134* ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 
 
 such a direct declaration of his belief to Captain 
 Medwin, he did not in his answer tell Mr Sheppard 
 any thing of the kind. The prayer of this lady 
 has been published, along with the letter which ac- 
 companied it from the husband, and Byron's answer. 
 The prayer has, at most, only a distant allusion to 
 Lord Byron ; but we have the husband's authority 
 that it was offered up by his wife for his Lordship. 
 The lady must have been very pious, and, it is like- 
 Jy, very sincere ; but there is something of ostenta- 
 tion in her husband's publishing this correspondence. 
 The, prayer is very pretty, but seems to have had 
 no more effect than any one in the Liturgy. Lord 
 Byron's answer is kind and consolatory, but he by 
 no means concedes that the lady's prayer had, or 
 can have, any effect in changing his religious prin- 
 ciples. This answer is a very good equivocation as 
 to that point, and leaves him as liable as before to 
 prayers for his conversion from all the good ladies 
 of Britain. 
 
 The day before that on which the above conver- 
 sation took place with Captain Medwin, while en- 
 gaged on the discussion of religion, he said, *' You 
 are a Protestant — you protest against all religions 
 (a curious definition this — observe it, ye that are 
 
 orthodoxical). There is T will traduce Dante 
 
 till he becomes a Dantist. I am called a Manichaean ; 
 I may be called an Anychaean, or Any-thing- 
 arian. How do you like my sect ? The sect of Any- 
 thing-arians sounds well, does it not ? 
 
 " One mode of worship yields to another ; no 
 
AKECI>OTES OF LORD BYRON. 135 
 
 religion has lasted more than two thousand years. 
 Out of the eight hundred millions that the globe 
 contains, only two hundred millions are Christians. 
 Query, — What is to become of the six hundred 
 millions that do not believe, and of those incalcul- 
 able millions that lived before Christ ? 
 
 ^' People at home are mad about Missioijary So- 
 cieties, and missions to the East. I have been ap- 
 plied to, to subscribe since, and once before I left 
 England. The Catholic Priests have been labour- 
 ing hard fbr nearly a century ; but what have they 
 done ? Out of eighty millions of Hindoos, how 
 inany proselytes have been made ? Sir T. Malcolm 
 said at Murray's before several persons, that the Pa- 
 dres, as he called them, had only made six converts 
 at Binsbay during his time, and that even this little 
 tDlack flock forsook their shepherd, when the rum 
 was out (attend, ye Bible Society and Missionary 
 Society subscribers). Their faith evaporated with 
 the fumes of the arrack. Besides, the Hindoos be- 
 lieve that they have had nine incarnations ; the 
 missionaries preach that a people whom the Indians 
 only know to despise, have had one. It is nine to 
 one against them by their own shewing. 
 
 ^^ Priestley denied original sin, and that any 
 would be damned. Wesley, the object of Southey's 
 panegyric, preached the doctrines of election and 
 faith ; and, like all the sectarians, does not want 
 texts to prove both. 
 
 " The best Christians can never be satisfied of 
 their own salvation. Johnson died like a coward, 
 and Cowper was near shooting himself; Hume 
 went off the stage like a brave man, and Voltaire's 
 
136 ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 
 
 last moments do not seem to have been clouded by 
 any fears of what was to come. A man may study 
 any thing till he believes it. Creech died a Lucre- 
 tian ; Buchardt and Brown were Mahommedans ; 
 Sale, the translator of the Koran, was accused of 
 being an Islamite." 
 
 Captain Medwin himself says, '^ On the whole, 
 I am inclined to think, that if he were occasionally 
 sceptical, and thought it, as he says, 
 
 '* A pleasant voyage, perhaps, to float, 
 Like Pyrrhe, on a sea of speculation^'* 
 
 ) yet his wavering never amounted to a disbelief m 
 
 \the divine founder of Christianity." 
 Those who attentively study Byron's character, 
 as displayed in his actions and writings, will be in- 
 clined in so far to disagree with this opinion of Cap- 
 tain Medwin. Perhaps there never was a greater 
 deist (we may almost safely say atheist) than Lord 
 Byron ; but still there were times, we make no 
 doubt, when he varied through the whole compass 
 of religious opinions — now an atheist, now a deist, 
 and now a Christian. It was the nature of his 
 mind to vary thus. He was neither an avowed nor 
 confirmed atheist, nor was he a true Christian- 
 cowardice prevented him from being either. He 
 possessed not the vigorous reasoning faculty of a 
 Hume, Voltaire, Smith, or Gibbon, which, conclud- 
 ing that if man was made to worship he must be 
 led to it instinctively, or by the most indisputable de- 
 ductions of human reason ; and could thus, however 
 preposterously, discarding every system of religion, 
 adhere to atheism in a sincere consciousness of ita 
 
ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 137 
 
 truth : nor had he been brought up in that religi- 
 ous awe, that reverence for divine revelation, and 
 that constant exercise of religious duties, so neces- 
 sary to the forming of a Christian. Neglected in his 
 religious education in his youth, he went to the uni- 
 versity open alike to Christianity or infidelity ; and 
 there, being more in the company of freethinkers 
 and scoffers at religion, than Christians, he readily 
 imbibed their doctrines. Man is a selfish animal, 
 and there is a pride he feels when he imagines 
 that, instead of being led by blind authority, he is 
 guided by the light of his own intellect. The 
 young philosopher looking abroad at the different 
 sects of Christians, and reading of the different re- 
 ligions which have appeared in the world, is aston- 
 ished that there should be such a diversity in that, 
 which, if it had pleased the one Great Being, his 
 fiat could have. rendered constant and unchange- 
 able ; he doubts, and then finally disbelieves. If 
 he be of a weak and sensitive mind he will be pleas- 
 ed with his discovery, but yet he will be miserable, 
 and will change backwards and forwards like a wea- 
 thercock. If he be of a bold and invincible mind, 
 and capable of banishing early associations, and 
 holding as nought the opinionsof the world, he will 
 die, like Hume and Voltaire, in the belief in which 
 he lived. 
 
 Byron's defence of Cain in the " Conversations" 
 is very characteristic. 
 
 " I have just got a letter, and an admirable one 
 it is, from Sir Walter Scott, to whom I dedicated 
 
138 ANECDOTES OP LORD BYRON. 
 
 *' Cain." The sight of one of his letters alwa}'^ 
 does me good. I hardly know what to make of all 
 the contradictory opinions that have been sent me 
 this week. Moore says, that more people are shock- 
 ed with the blasphemy of the sentiments than de- 
 lighted with the beauty of the lines. Another per- 
 son thinks the Devil's arguments irresistible or irre- 
 futable. says, that the Liberals like it, but 
 
 that the Ultraists are making a terrible outcry ; and 
 that he and him not being in capitals, in full dress 
 uniform, shocks the high-church and court party. 
 Some call me an Atheist, others a Manichaean, — a 
 very bad and hard sounding name, that the illiter- 
 ate hate the more because they don't understand 
 what it means. I am taxed with having made my 
 drama a peg to hang on it a long, and some say tire- 
 some, dissertation on the principle of evil; and, 
 what is worse, of having given Lucifer the besfc of 
 the argument; all of which I am accused of having 
 taken from Voltaire. 
 
 *^I could not make Lucifer expound the thirty-nine 
 articles, nor talk as the divines do : that would ne- 
 ver have suited his purpose — nor, one would think, 
 theirs. They ought to be grateful to him for giv- 
 ing them a subject to write about. What would 
 they do without evil, or the principle of evil ? 
 Othello's occupation would be gone. I have made 
 Lucifer say no more in his defence than was abso- 
 lutely necessary, — not half so much as Milton makes 
 his Satan do. I was forced to keep up his dramatic 
 character. Au reste I have adhered closely to the 
 Old Testament, and I defy any one to question my 
 moral. 
 
ANECDOTES OP LORD BYRON. 139 
 
 " I always thought Cain a fine subject, and when 
 I took it up I determined to treat it strictly after 
 the Mosaic account. I therefore made the snake a 
 snake, and took a Bishop for my interpreter. 
 
 " Faust is not so fine a subject as Cain. It is a 
 grand mystery. The mark that was put on Cain, 
 is a sublime and shadowy act. Goethe would have 
 made more of it than I have done. 
 
 *' Hobhouse has denounced ^ Cain* as irreligious, 
 and has penned me a most furious epistle, urging 
 me not to publish it, as I value my reputation or 
 his friendship. He contends that it is a work I 
 should not have dared to have set my name to in 
 the days of Pope, Churchill, and Johnson, (a cu- 
 rious trio.) Hobhouse used to write good verses 
 once himself, but he seems to have forgotten what 
 poetry is in others, when he says, my ' Cain' re- 
 minds him of the worst bombast of Dryden's." 
 Shelley, who is no bad judge of the compositions 
 of others, however he may fail in procuring success 
 for his own, is most sensitive and indignant at this 
 critique, and says, (what is not the case), that Cain 
 is the finest thing I ever wrote, calls it worthy of 
 Milton, and backs it against Hobhouse's poetical 
 Trinity. The snake's* rage has prevented my crest 
 
 • A familiar name which his Lordship gave to his friend 
 ]Mr Shelley. Mr Shelley was a poet, but his writings are of 
 that tendency which will perhaps prevent them from being read 
 by even the most fervid admirers of the nine. His pen was 
 dipt in the very essence of poetry, and had his great genius 
 been directed to some better end than that of slandering the 
 religion of mankind, he would have ranked with the most fa- 
 
140 ANECDOTES Of LORD BYROK; 
 
 from rising. I shall write Hobhouse a very unim- 
 passioned letter, but a firm one. The publication 
 shall go on whether Murray refuses to print it or 
 not. Mr Murray printed Cain, and the detestable 
 society for the suppression of vice threatened to pro- 
 secute him. The " most timid of God's booksellers" 
 got greatly afraid, and acquainted Byron with the 
 doubtful situation in which his bibliopole was stand- 
 ing. Byron took fire instantly, and in a letter im- 
 mediately transmitted to Mr Murray, thus writes : 
 " The attempt to bully you because they think it 
 
 vourite poets of Britain. He was a decided Atheist, and was ^ 
 expelled Oxford for publishing a very silly pamphlet, entitled, ^ 
 '' The Necessity of Atheism," chiefly from the often confuted 
 arguments of Hume and Voltaire. He not only published 
 the pamphlet with his name on the title-page, but he also cir- 
 culated it amongst the bishops ; and on being asked to recant 
 his opinions on pain of expulsion from Alma Mater, chal- 
 lenged the hea'ds of the colleges to dispute with him. He also 
 published, at the age of fifteen, two novels of the llosa Matil- 
 da school, which were much reprobated on account of their 
 immorality and licentiousness. At an early age he made a 
 Gretna Green marriage, and by this means so much provoked 
 the displeasure of his father and friends, already somewhat ex- 
 cited by his conduct at College, that he was entirely cast off 
 as a withered branch. The marriage, as always happens in 
 such cases, did not by any means turn out a happy one. A 
 separation took place, and Mr Shelley fled to the Continent. 
 Captain Medwin, who has given some very interesting parti- 
 culars of the life of Mr Shelley, (liis cousin,) has attempted ra- 
 ther much to hold him up as a spotless being. No one who 
 recollects his conduct towards his first and unhappy wife, his 
 desertion of her, and her miserable end, will have the least es- 
 teem for Mr Shelley as a man. He was a striking instance of 
 that class of .philosophers who pretend to govern themselv^ 
 
 ^ 
 
AJ^fiCDOTES OP LOliD BlfRON. 141 
 
 will not succeed with me, seems as atrocious an at- 
 tempt as ever disgraced the times. What ! when 
 Gibbon's, Hume's, Priestley's, and Drummond's 
 publishers have been allowed to rest in peace for 
 seventy years, are you to be singled out for a work 
 of fiction, not of history or argument ? 
 
 *' There must be something- at the bottom of this— 
 some private enemy of your own, it is otherwise in- 
 credible. I can only say, me, me, adsum qui feci ; 
 that any proceeding against you may, I beg, be 
 transferred to me, who am willing, and ought to 
 
 without the light of a revealed religion. In little more than 
 twelve months after the death of that woman whom he had 
 once loved, he again married. It is a great satisfaction to find 
 that during the residue of his life, he lived in contentment with 
 this one — the daughter of Godwin and Mary Wolstancroft. 
 He himself met with an untimely death, having been drowned 
 while crossing in an open boat to meet his friend Leigh Hunt* 
 Liike Byron, he wished to die young, and perished in his 30th 
 year. His body was in a very mutilated state when found, 
 and was therefore burned. His ashes were then, according 
 to his own particular wish, placed beside those of his friend 
 Keats, (a poet of some notoriety, promising something, but 
 spoiled by pure cockneyism — believed to have been kiUed by 
 an article in the Quarterly,) near Caius Cestus' tomb, in the 
 burial ground at Rome. The reviewer of Shelley's posthumous 
 volume says, he died with his hand clasping a volume of John* 
 ny Keats' poetry in his bosom. Many think Keats' Endy- 
 mion too heavy for any boat. Shelley was of a most fervid, 
 wild, and singular genius ; and it is lamentable that so few of 
 his works will be read. Queen Mab, his earliest poem, the 
 notes to which Lord Byron was thought to have contributed, 
 is proscribed. His other poems are something obscured by his 
 wild and metaphysical spirit ; and the tendency of most of them 
 fe revolting to Christian readers. 
 
 ""^^ .- 
 
142 ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 
 
 endure them all ; that if you have lost money I 
 will refund any or all of the copy-right ; that I de* 
 sire you will say, that both you and Mr Gifford re- 
 monstrated against the publication, and also Mr 
 Hobhouse ; and that I alone am the person who, 
 either legally or otherwise, should bear the burden. 
 
 " If they prosecute, I will come to England ; that 
 is, if by meeting in my own person I can save yours. 
 Let me know. You shan't suffer for me, if I can 
 help it. Make any use of this letter you please." 
 
 The Vice Society did not prosecute, — they found 
 by their constitution that they had nothing to do 
 with the licentiousness, immorality, and blasphemy, 
 of noble Lords. They had formed themselves into 
 a body to prosecute the scum of the land ; to fine 
 and incarcerate the profanum vulgtis; and thus per- 
 secute into notoriety fellows like Carlisle — who 
 would otherwise never have soared above their na- 
 tive mud. They forget that the common people 
 despise the intellect and labours of a person of the 
 same rank as themselves, and only follow the fashions 
 and yield to the authority and opinions, of those 
 whom fortune has placed above them. If Carlisle 
 could make, by all his writings, a hundred deists. 
 Lord Byron, by the mere publicity of his opinions, 
 would make five hundred atheists. The Vice So- 
 ciety is the best patron dulness, vulgar licentious- 
 ness, and knavish booksellers can find. Mr Mur- 
 ray, the High-church publisher, was known to all 
 Britain ; but Carlisle, Benbow, and such like, would 
 never have been heard of without the Vice Society. 
 They did not prosecute. They were frightened : 
 and by this conduct, many who had subscribed ia 
 
ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 14?3 
 
 the hope that Britain was soon to become^ under 
 their auspices, a second El Dorado, sneaked oflf when 
 they found they had linked themselves to a body of 
 suppressors of our vice ! 
 
 Reforming saints ! too delicately nice ! 
 By whose decrees our sinful souls to save 
 No Sunday tankards foam, no barber; shave ; 
 And beer undrav/n, and beards unmown, display 
 The holy reverence for the Sabbath-day. 
 
 The society, owing to the pusillanimity of its agent 
 in this case, has gradually degenerated, and if not 
 by this time completely defunct, is but the shadow 
 of its former self. 
 
 Byron while at Cambridge fell into the company 
 of Mr. Matthews, a confirmed and avowed atheist. 
 To this gentleman Byron looked up as a person of 
 gigantic intellect — he could by no language do jus* 
 tice to his abilities — all other men were pigmies 
 to him. In him he had to mourn the loss of a guide, 
 philosopher, and friend.* Byron's language regard-* 
 
 • Mr Matthews was drowned while bathing in the Cam. 
 The E-ev. Mr Dallas, speaking of Byron's companions at 
 Cambridge, says, " The Coterie into which he unfortunately 
 fell familiarised him witli all the sceptical arguments of human 
 pride : And his acquaintance with an unha^ppy Atheist, who 
 was suddenly summoned before his outraged Maker, (^ judge 
 not lest ye be judged,') while bathing in the river Cam, 
 was rendered a severe trial, by the brilliancy of the talent 
 which he possessed, and which imparted a false splendour to 
 the principles which he did not scruple to avow. It is thus 
 that the Christian charity of some men looks on the errors of 
 others. 
 
l44 ANECDOTES OP LORD BYltoff. 
 
 ing this Mr. Matthews was very remarkable. He 
 affirmed that it was not in the mind of those who 
 did not know him, to conceive such a man ; that 
 his superiority was too great to excite envy — that 
 he was awed by him — that there was the mark of 
 an JTmnort al creature in whatever he did. It is im- 
 possible to suppose that Byron, in the company of 
 a man esteemed so highly as he appears to have 
 been, could fail to be deeply imbued with his athe- 
 istical opinions. Mr. Dallas, who seems to have 
 laboured very hard in attempting the conversion of 
 Lord Byron, by no means considers that, at the time 
 in which he was in his confidence, he was any thing 
 of a Christain. One of Byron's letters to this gen- 
 tleman began thus, " Are you aware that your re- 
 ligion is impious ?" And in the answer to a very 
 sensible letter which Mr. Dallas sent him On this 
 dreadful interrogation, (for Mr. Dallas suffered no 
 opportunity to escape him in which he could offer 
 any arguments for religion,) he said, '^ He would 
 have nothing to do with the subject — we should 
 all go down together — ' so,* quoting St. Paul, ' let 
 us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die ;' he felt 
 satisfied in his creed, for it is better to sleep than 
 to rvahc* The death-bed, however, of a man is 
 
 • While in Greece, a Dr Kennedy, a Methodist physician^ 
 frequently visited Byron, loaded and primed with arguments 
 and texts, in order to convert him. Byron was very kind and 
 affable to the Doctor, but, by a vigorous onset of arguments, 
 and quotations from scripture, he would so confound the ideas 
 of that gentleman, that he would fold down the leaf, for he 
 generally brought a little library of Theology along with liiin, 
 
ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 14<5 
 
 always considered as the test of his principle. 
 Hum^bore a long illness, and saw approaching death, 
 and yet flinched not nor wavered. Voltaire, too, 
 met the " grim king" boldly, and spouted an epigram 
 against the immortality of the soul in the agonies 
 of death. Byron died more like a Christian ; — he 
 said to Mr. Fletcher, who constantly watched him, 
 **I am not afraid of dying — I am more fit to die 
 than people think." "All is over," said he at another 
 time. " Not our will," said Mr. Fletcher, " but 
 God's be done." " Yes, not mine be done,'* replied 
 his Lordship. 
 
 It was a good hit in Mrs. Williams to prophecy, 
 that Byron would die a monk. She must have 
 studied his character attentively. One of his Bio- 
 graphers says, had he lived a few years longer, he 
 would have died a Methodist. Byron was govern- 
 led by acute sensibility, and most fervid imagina- 
 tion — both injurious to consistency and sound rea- 
 soning. Had the turn been once given with force, 
 he would have rolled to the opposite extreme. It 
 is the case with all converts from one way of think- 
 ing to another. They rush from one extreme to 
 
 and promise to return with a full and satisfactory answer to 
 the question. It was thought that Byron suffered this man's 
 company in order to make himself acquainted with the cant of 
 the Methodists ; intending to make his Don Juan one of that 
 sect. But this is not true ; he merely wished some diversion. 
 Dr. Kennedy, however, believed, he had made a great impress 
 ^on on his Lordship. 
 
 L 
 
146 ANECDOTES OV LORD BYRON. 
 
 the other : they take no medium. It has been so 
 from St. Paul down to Kirke White, (no great poet 
 hy the way, for all the fuss Lord Byron and Sou they 
 make about him — but Southey's "geese are all 
 swans,*') and catholic Gibbon. Fanatics in reli- 
 gion, and Atheists, are both deficient in the reason- 
 ing faculty in proportion to their imagination. These 
 extremes are always grand poets ; the intermediate, 
 but ordinary. David and Lucretius are great and 
 original ; the followers on either side are mere co- 
 piers and polished verse-makers. It is very proba- 
 ble that Byron, had he lived to the age of fourscore, 
 would have died a sainted Methodist, or even as 
 bigotted a monk as ever expected to post his v^ay 
 to heaven through purgatory,* 
 
 Byron entertained a very unfavourable opinion 
 of three very popular authors— Shakspeare, Milton„ 
 and Junius. He was an admirer of the unities, 
 and what is called, on the mere authority of Arigy^ 
 totle, the classical drama. Of course, he roundly 
 rated Shakspeare on all occasions. Had this abuse 
 taken place in the beginning of the last century, it 
 might have passed ; it being then the fashion to de- 
 cry Shakspeare ; but at present it will be ascribed 
 
 * " I have often wished I had been born a Catholic. That 
 purgatory of theirs is a comfortable doctrine ; I wonder the 
 reformers gave it up, or did not substitute something as con- 
 solatory in its room. It is an improvement on the transmigra- 
 tion, Shelley, which all your wiseacre philosophers taugliC* 
 Co7iversaiiom*. 
 
ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 147 
 
 to sheer envy. Byron himself wrote tragedies on 
 his classical model, which, as a matter of course, 
 were damned, and the dramatic talent denied to 
 their author.* This was a severe cut to one who 
 could not bear a rival ; and he could have no re* 
 venge but in abusing the reviewers, and insisting 
 that he was right. He would fain make it appeax 
 that he was indifferent to the unanimous condemna-* 
 tion of his Marino Faliero at Drury-Lane ; but he 
 was naturally sensitive, and although he attempts 
 to bear it well, yet he accuses the actors of having 
 bungled the piece by their curtailments, and of their 
 having got it up against his will. Had it succeed-* 
 ed, they might have " drugged the audience*' for 
 ever, without interruption from the author. The 
 same courier that brought the accounts of the fail-* 
 ure of his tragedy, also brought him an account 
 that an old lady from whom he had great expecta- 
 tions, was likely to live to an hundred. On this 
 occasion he wrote the following epigram : 
 
 " Behold the blessings of a happy lot ! 
 
 My play is damn'd, and Lady ■ not !" 
 
 Very unfeeling, and not equal in point to one by 
 his friend Rogers,— who, when a certain M. R 
 wrote a review of his poems, and said he wrote very 
 well for a banker^ wrote, in return, the following i 
 
 • The review «f Byron's tragedies in the Quarterly is very 
 good. It finely ridicules the prose divided into lines of ten 
 syllables, and the plan of clothing ' John' and ' Thomas' in 
 the same measured phraseology as their masters— which |)ra€« 
 ticcj if classical, is contrary to common sense. 
 
148 ANECDOTES OP LORD BYRON. 
 
 '* They say he has no heart, and I deny it : 
 He has a heart, and — gets his speeches by it," 
 
 which Byron considers a sharp bone cutter. 
 
 It is impossible to guess at his reasons for des-* 
 pising Milton, but so it is — for he terms Paradise 
 Lost, and Paradise Regained^ "great epics which 
 nobody reads." The same gratuitous assertion is 
 made with regard to Junius ; for if we take Byron's 
 word for it, nobody reads that book now-a-days, 
 since it is known that its author was a very bad 
 man, and no other than Sir Philip Francis. The 
 disputes, therefore, about the author of Junius, if 
 Byron's authority may be taken, may now be con<* 
 sidered at an end. » 
 
 It is to be feared, however, that Byron's asser- 
 tion will not satisfy the wranglers about Junius— 
 and it is to be feared, likewise, that he will not be 
 able to make us believe that Milton's " great epics," 
 and Junius' Letters, have been less read in this cen- 
 tury than in the last. 
 
 The following story is given in the * Ccnversa- 
 tions:* " A circumstance took place in? Greece 
 that impressed itself lastingly on my memory. I 
 had once thought of founding a tale upon it ; but 
 the subject is too harrowing for any nerves, — too 
 terrible for my pen ! An order was issued at Ya- 
 ninaby its sanguinary Rajah, that any Turkish wo- 
 man convicted of an incontinence with a Christi an 
 should be stoned to death! Love is slow in co^l- 
 
ANECDOTES OP LORD BYRON. 149 
 
 culating dangers, and defies tyrants and their edicts ; 
 and many were the victims to the savage barbarity 
 of this of Ali's. Among others, a girl of sixteen, 
 of a beauty such as that country only produces, fell 
 under the v^ilant eye of the police. She was sus- 
 pected, and not without reason, of carrying on an 
 intrigue with a Neapolitan of some rank, whose 
 long stay in the city could be attributed to no other 
 cause than this attachment. Her crime (if crime 
 it be to love as they loved) was too fully proved ; 
 they were torn from each other's arms, never to 
 meet again : and yet both might have escaped,— 
 she by abjuring her religion, or he by adopting hers. 
 They resolutely refused to become apostates from 
 their faith. Ali Pacha was never known to par- 
 don. She was stoned by those daemons, although 
 in the fourth month of her pregnancy ! He was 
 sent to a town where the plague was raging, and 
 died happy in not having long outlived the ob- 
 ject of his affections !" (Bathos-Captain-Bathos.) 
 This is, no doubt, all very pretty; but, unfortunately. 
 Captain Medwin has not reported correctly. The 
 circumstance occurred long before Byron's visit to 
 Greece ; and is celebrated in an Elegy, which is one 
 of the most popular and pathetic breathings of the 
 modern Grecian muse. The story is the fate of Phro- 
 syne, and is as follows : " The girl was called Phro- 
 syne ; she was the wife of a Neapolitan. Muctar 
 Pasharo, «on of Ali, fell in love with her, and sedu- 
 ced her. Among other presents with which he 
 won her favour was a diamond ring that he himself 
 had been accustomed to wear. One day, in the 
 baths, one of Pasharo's wives met Phrosyne there, 
 
150 ANECDOTES OF LORD BYROlJ. 
 
 and recognising the ring, was at no loss to guess 
 for what purpose it had been given. Fired with 
 revenge and jealousy, she went to the Vizier, (who 
 ever heard of Rajah being applied to designate Ali Pa- 
 shaw,) her father-in-law, and told him what she had 
 discovered. The justice and vengeance of that stern 
 old tyrant were alike speedy : Phrosyne was seiz- 
 ed, and with several other young women, — twelve, 
 we believe, — being tied into a sack, was thrown in- 
 to the lake, and her husband banished the city. 
 Admitting, however, that Lord Byron had spoken 
 of some other story — which we are persuaded he 
 did not — even the one Captain Medwin repeats 
 was not at all likely to have had the catastrophe 
 he describes.^ The Mahommedan girl, for her trans- 
 gression with a Christian, would have been drown- 
 ed, and the Christian decapitated. Nor was Ali 
 Pashaw of a temper to resort to such refinement 
 of punishment, as merely to expose a criminal to the 
 chance of taking the plague.*' 
 
 Nor is the account in the " Conversations" of 
 the incident on which the Giaour is founded a whit 
 more correct. Medwin makes his Lordship say, 
 '' One of the principal incidents in ^ the Giaour* 
 is derived from a real occurrence, and one, too, in 
 which I myself was nearly and deeply interested ; 
 but an unwillingness to have it considered a travel- 
 ler s tale, made me suppress the fact of its genuine- 
 ness. The Marquis of Sligo, who knew the parti- 
 culars of the story, reminded me of them in Eng- 
 land, and wondered I had not authenticated them 
 in the preface. 
 
 " When I was at Athens, there was an edict in 
 
k>JECt)OTES OP lORD ^YROI^. 151 
 
 i^rce similar to that of All's, except that the mode 
 of punishment was different. It was necessarj^, 
 therefore, that all love affairs should be carried on 
 with the greatest privacy. I was very fond at that 
 time of a Turkish girl, — ay, fond of her as I have 
 been of few women. All went on very well till 
 the Ramazan. For forty days, which is rather a 
 long fast for lovers, all intercourse between the 
 sexes is forbidden by law, as well as by religion. 
 During this Lent of the Mussulmans, the women 
 are not allowed to quit their apartments. I was in 
 despair, (poor man !) and could hardly contrive to 
 get a cinder, or a tx)ken-fiower sent to express it. 
 We had not met for several days, and all my 
 thoughts were occupied in planning an assignation, 
 when, as ill fate would have it', the means I took 
 to effect it led to the discovery of our secret. The 
 penalty was death, — death without reprieve,— a 
 horrible death, at which one cannot think without 
 shuddering 1 An order was issued for the law be- 
 rng put into immediate effect. In the meantime I 
 knew nothing of what had happened, and it was 
 determined I should be kept in ignorance of the 
 whole affair till it was too late to interfere. A 
 mere accident only enabled me to prevent the com- 
 pletion of the sentence. I was taking one of my 
 usual rides by the seaside, when I observed a crowd 
 of people moving down to the shore, and the arms 
 of the soldiers glittering among them. They wece 
 not so far off but I thought I could now and then 
 distinguish a faint and stifled shriek. My curiosity 
 was forcibly excited, and I dispatched one of my 
 fellowers to enquire the cause of the procession. 
 
252 ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 
 
 What was my horror to learn that they were car- 
 rying an unfortunate girl, sewn up in a sack, to be 
 thrown into the sea ! I did not hesitate as to what 
 was to be done, I knew I could depend on my 
 faithful Albanians, and rode up to the officer com-* 
 manding the party, threatening, in case of his re* 
 fusal to give up his prisoner, that I would adopt 
 means to compel him. He did not like the business 
 he was on, or perhaps the determined look of my 
 body-guard, and consented to accompany me back 
 to the city with the girl, whom I soon discovered 
 to be my Turkish favourite. Suffice it to say, that 
 my interference with the chief magistrate, backed 
 by a heavy bribe, saved her ; but it was only on 
 condition that I should break off all intercourse with 
 her, and that she should immediately quit Athens, 
 and be sent to her friends in Thebes. There she 
 died, a few davs after her arrival, of a fever, — per- 
 haps of love."-^(! ! !) 
 
 The Marquis of Sligo did not remind Byron of 
 it while in England, wondering that he had not 
 stated its authenticity ; but Byron requested of the 
 Marquis to state in writing the recollection of the 
 matter, which he accordingly did. The girl, after 
 all, was no subject for a story, being a common 
 prostitute. 
 
 On Byron's return from his first tour, Mr Dallas 
 called upon him, and after the usual salutations had 
 passed, enquired if he was prepared with any other 
 work to support the fame which he had already ac* 
 quired. Byron then delivered for his examinatioix 
 
ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 15^ 
 
 a poem^ entitled, " Hints from Horace/* — being a 
 par^iphrase of the Art of Poetry. Mr Dallas pro- 
 mised to superintend the publication of this piece 
 as he had done that of the Satire ; and accordingly 
 it was carried to Cawthorn, and matters arranged ; 
 but Mr D. not thinking the poem likely to increase 
 his Lordship's reputation, allowed it to linger in the 
 press. It began thus :•— 
 
 ** Who would not laugh, if Lawrence, hired to grace 
 
 " His costly canvass with each fiatter'd face, 
 
 *' Abused his art, till Nature with a blush 
 
 .*' Saw Cits grow Centaurs underneath his brush ? 
 
 " Or, should some limner join, for show or sale, 
 
 " A maid of honour to a mermaid's tail ; 
 
 " Or low D*** (as once the world has seen) 
 
 *' Degrade God's creatures in his graphic spleen— 
 
 *' Net all that forced politeness which defends 
 
 " Fools in their faults, could gag his grinning friends. 
 
 *' Believe me, Moschus, like that picture seems 
 
 " The book which, sillier than a sick man's dreams, 
 
 " Displays a crowd of figures incomplete, 
 
 " Poetic night-mares, without head or feet" 
 
 Mr Dallas expressed his sorrow that his Lordship 
 had wrote nothing else. Byron then told him that 
 he had written occasionally some verses, in Spenser's 
 measure, relative to the countries he had visited.. 
 ^' They are not woijth troubling you with/' said 
 his Lordship, " but you shall have them all with 
 you." He then took " Childe Harold's Pilgrim- 
 age" from a trunk, and delivered it to him. Mr 
 Dallas having read the poem, was in raptures with it. 
 He instantly resolved to do his utmost in suffocat- 
 ing the " Hints from Horace" before their birth, 
 and to bring out Childe Harold. He urged Byron 
 
ISi A^ECfiOTES OF LORD BVROI^. 
 
 to publish this last poem ; but he was unwilling, 
 and preferred to have the * Hints' published. He 
 would not be convinced of the ^reat merit of the 
 Childe — and, as some person had seen it before Mr 
 Dallas, and expressed disapprobation, Byron was by 
 no means sure of its kind reception by the world. 
 In a short time afterwards, however, he agreed to 
 its publication, and requested Mr Dallas not to deal 
 with Cawthorn, but offer it to Miller of Albemarle 
 Street. He wished a fashionable publisher, bat 
 Miller declined publishing it, chiefly on account of 
 the remarks it contained on Lord Elgin, whose pub- 
 lisher he was. Longman had refused to publish 
 * The Satire,* and Byron would not suffer any of 
 his works to come from that house. The work was 
 therefore carried to Mr Murray, who then kept a 
 shop opposite St Dunstan Church in Fleet Street. 
 Mr Murray had expressed a desire to publish for 
 Lord Byron, and regretted that Mr Dallas had not 
 taken the " English Bards and Scotch Reviewers" 
 to him — but this was after its success. 
 
 Mr. Dallas strenuously objected to several passa- 
 ges in the poem, but although he procured some al- 
 terations, he could by no means get the author to 
 clothe it in all Christian humility. Mr. D. made a 
 dead halt at the following stanza : 
 
 Frown not on me, churlish priest ! that I 
 Look not for life, where life may never be ; 
 I am no sneerer at thy phantacy ; 
 Thou pitiest me, — alas ! I envy thee, 
 Thou bold discoverer in an unknown sea, 
 Of happy isles, and happier tenants there ; 
 I ask thee not to prove a Sadducee. 
 Still dream of Paradise, thou knowest not where, 
 But lov'st too well to bid thine erring brother share. 
 
ANECDOTES OP LORD DYRoN. 155 
 
 After a long contention, that beautiful stanza, be- 
 ginning, 
 
 " Yet if, as holiest men have deem'd," &c. 
 
 was substituted for it : — a note in the freethinking 
 style was also omitted. 
 
 Mr Dallas, who so ably fulfilled the duties of ac- 
 coucheur to the Childe, was also resolved that it 
 should not come into the world without a sufficient 
 enunciation ; and, accordingly, prepared a review of 
 it for a literary journal to be published immediately 
 on the appearance of the poem. By a very awk- 
 ward mistake, however, the review appeared before 
 the thing reviewed ; and Byron was greatly vexed, 
 from a very likely supposition that he would be 
 considered the author of it. Mr. Dallas, however/ 
 explained, and the matter was made up. 
 
 After the publication of Childe Harold, and more 
 especially, after the Corsair, Lara, &c. which soon 
 followed. Lord Byron became a favourite. He was 
 assailed by congratulatory letters from all quarters, 
 from males and females.* He had despised women. 
 
 * He even received a congratulatory epistle from " hoarse 
 Fitzgerald," the first poet satirized in the " English Bards 
 and Scotch Reviewers." This was very handsome, and shew- 
 ed that the small-beer poet was of a much more forgiving 
 
156 ANECDOTES OP LORD BYRON. 
 
 but flattery won upon him, and he now paid great 
 attention to the fair sex. To his sister, with whom 
 he had formerly had little or no connection, he sent 
 a copy of his Childe Harold with the following on 
 the fly-leaf — '* To Augusta, my dearest sister, and 
 my best friend, who has ever loved me much better 
 than I deserved, this volume is presented by her 
 father's son, and most affectionate brother, B."— 
 He became quite the talk of the day, and many a 
 delicate hand was busied in communicating with 
 the noble peer and poet. 
 
 Some mad lady, who had persuaded herself that 
 she knew a great deal about Byron, wrote a novel 
 introducing him as her hero, and pourtraying his 
 character. The book took for a little, because By- 
 ron's intimacy with the lady, at one time, was well 
 known ; but its extravagance, and utter ignorance 
 and perversion, very soon sent it to rest in the tomb 
 of the Capulets. It contained one letter of By- 
 ron's, and likewise one or two of his early pieces of 
 poetry. 
 
 The laurel- crown has generally proved to its 
 possessor, in England at least, a crown of thorns. 
 The Poet Laureate has always been a mark for the 
 wit and satire of his brother poets. The enmity 
 betwixt Byron and Dr Southey is as well known as 
 that which existed betwixt Pope and Colly Gibber. 
 Dr Southey, the present Poet Laureate, was in his 
 
 spirit than the Poet Laureate. It may be observed, however, 
 that the satire had little permanent effect on Mr F. he having 
 of late commenced again to " bawl his creaking couplets" at 
 the Literary Society dinners. 
 
ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 157 
 
 youth, and during the greater part of his manhood^ 
 a violent democrat. In these days he wrote " Wat 
 Tyler," which the Lord Chancellor declared so 
 abominable as to be beyond the protection of the 
 law ; he also wrote several other pieces which evin« 
 ced very little desire to minister to the pride of 
 kings. With years, however, he gathered wisdom ; 
 and when made Poet Laureate, he gave his princi- 
 ples a turn ; and the once professed revolutionist 
 became a most violent upholder of royal state 
 and prerogative. It is always thus with turn- 
 coats; Southey and Wordsworth, who were once 
 noted republicans, no sooner became the one Lau- 
 reate, and the other a Commissioner of Stamps, than 
 their eyes were opened, — they saw the error of their 
 ways, and turned into the right path ; and Mister 
 George Colman, who, in the prime of his days, wrote 
 indecent plays, and poetic libels on churchmen, no 
 sooner wasjn^de, in his extreme old age, deputy li- 
 censer of plays — v/hich office fell on him like " a 
 light from above," than instead of an '' old sinner," 
 he became " a new man," a moralist and a metho- 
 dist. It was not, however, so much on account of 
 political principles that the enmity between Byron 
 and Southey was kept up. The Peer, in his Satire, 
 had handled the epics of the Laureate very ro.ughly : 
 this he could never forgive; and therefore took 
 every means of being revenged on his Lordship* 
 Whilst travelling on the Continent, he observed 
 Shelley's name in the Album at Mont Auvert, with 
 " Akog" wrote after it, and an indignant com- 
 ment in the same language wrote under it, and the 
 names ofsome of Byron s other friends. The Doctor^ 
 
158 ANECDOTES OP LORD BYRON. 
 
 with all the eagerness of a traveller, wrote down 
 the names and the comment,* and, on his return 
 to England, soon bandied about the whole circum- 
 stance, and hesitated not to conclude Byron of the 
 same principles as his friends. In the " Vision," a 
 work intending, 
 
 *' By dint of high heroic verse," 
 
 to shew that the father of his people, George the 
 Third, our late never-enough-to-be-lamented Sove- 
 reign, had, in spite of all suppositions to the con- 
 trary, attained the kingdom of Heaven, he took no- 
 tice of Byron as the father of what he termed the 
 " Satanic School of Poetry." The Doctor considered 
 this name as very appropriate, and very satirical ; 
 but unfortunately the Laureate, however qualified 
 to bruise with his leaden mallet of reasoning, in the 
 Quarterly, vras never made for playing with the 
 sharp sword of satire. Lord Byron was never one 
 that would yield to an antagonist. He became fu- 
 rious in his abuse of Southey, and even descended 
 to abuse his wife, the sister of Coleridge, — they 
 having been at one time " two milliners of Bath." 
 In a note appended to the " Two Foscari," he, in a 
 most unfeeling and ungentlemanly manner, attacks 
 both Southey and his wife. Dr Southey wrote an 
 answer to this note in the Courier, which, when 
 Byron saw, put him in a most violent passion, and 
 
 • Some person, with more sense than Dr Southey, added 
 '* [jjUioog^ to Shelley's name, and Byron, on his visit to Mont 
 Auvert, scratched out both hko^ and /4wgo^, 
 
ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 159 
 
 he consulted with his friends whether or not he 
 would require to go to England to answer it per- 
 sonally. In more cool moments, however, he re« 
 solved merely to publish his '^ Vision of Judgment," 
 as an antidote to that of the Laureate, — which, by 
 the way, fell dead born from the press. " The Vi- 
 sion of Judgment by Queredo Redivivus" according- 
 ly appeared in one of the numbers of the " Liberal ;" 
 and as Mr Hunt was the publisher of this, he was 
 prosecuted by the "Bridge-street Gang," or " Con- 
 stitutional Association," — not for the blasphemy of 
 the poem, for though eminent in this respect, it is 
 not equal to that of the Laureate, but for a libel on 
 his Majesty, George the Fourth, whose name or 
 person is never once alluded to in the whole poem* 
 It was, if any thing, a libel on the shade of George 
 the Third, and, instead of the '^ poor ghost's" visit- 
 ing, " in the glimpses of the moon," the Attorney- 
 General, he called upon the pimp of the Constitu- 
 tional Association, who, stirred up by the " horrible, 
 horrible, most horrible" case, " with wings as swift as 
 meditation, or the thoughts of love," flew to revenge 
 through the medium of a packed jury. The ver- 
 dict of guilty, even although expected as a matter 
 of course, broughf astonishment to a great many. 
 It has happily added one more clear precedent to 
 curb the freedom of our press. It would have been 
 an excellent thing, however, if the Lord Chief Jus- 
 tice had declared in what generation the feelings of 
 descendants will not be hurt by the remarks made 
 on their progenitors. If a libel on the father is a 
 libel on the son, it may be so to the third or fourth 
 generation ; and an author laughing at ^ the gocd 
 
l60 ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 
 
 King Jamie," or sneering at the impiously-styled 
 '* blessed martyr/' his son, may be liable to an in- 
 dictment for offending the feelings of their lineal 
 descendant, and orthodoxically legimate successor.* 
 The errors of the mighty dead must rest with their 
 bones, and the time to be laid hold of for abusing a de- 
 ceased monarch, can only properly be taken from the 
 temper of the court : For instance, it is the fashion 
 here at present to pity and praise the tyrannical 
 house of the Stuarts, and to allow free discussion 
 and abuse on all participators in commotions called 
 Revolutions. How long will this last ? 
 
 In the Vision of Judgment, he lashes the Laureate 
 more severely than ever ; but though, at a first 
 reading, we cannot help laughing at the following 
 description of him, yet, on a second, we cannot help 
 enquiring whether any conduct of Dr Southey's 
 could have given just cause for such invincible en- 
 mity. 
 
 '' He said — (I only give the heads) — he said. 
 
 He meant no harm in scribbhng ; 'twas his way 
 Upon all topics ; 'twas, besides, his bread. 
 
 Of which he butter'd both sides ; 'twould delay 
 Too long the assembly, (he was pleased to dread) 
 
 And take up rather more time than a day. 
 To name his works — he would but cite a few- 
 Wat Tyler — Rhymes on Blenheim — Waterloo. 
 
 He had written praises of a regicide ; 
 
 He had written praises of all kings whatever ; 
 
 • For this, see Scottish, and particularly Scotch Episcopa- 
 Ban addresses for 1822. 
 
ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. l6l 
 
 He had written for republics far and wide, 
 And then against them bitterer than ever ; 
 
 For pantisocracy he once had cried 
 
 Aloud, a scheme less moral than 'twas clever ; 
 
 Then grew a hearty anti -jacobin — 
 
 Had turn'd his coat — and would have turned his skin. 
 
 He had sung against all battles, and again 
 In their high praise and glory ; he had call'd 
 
 Reviewing " the ungentle craft," and then 
 Become as base a critic as ere crawl'd— 
 
 Fed, paid, and pamper'd by the very men 
 
 By whom his muse and morals had been maul'd : 
 
 He had written much blank verse, and blanker prose, 
 
 And more of both than any body knows. 
 
 He had written Wesley's life : — here, turning round 
 To Sathan, ' Sir, I'm ready to write yours, 
 
 In two octavo volumes, nicely bound, 
 
 With notes and preface, all that most allures 
 
 The pious purchaser ; and there's no ground 
 For fear, for I can choose my own reviewers : 
 
 So let me have the proper documents, 
 
 That I may add you to my other saints,' " &Co 
 
 On a calm review of the whole quarrel, every one 
 will see that Byron made the first attack, and then 
 put himself in a passion because Du Southey did not 
 succumb, and bear the lash unresistingly. To every 
 one who examines both sides, Byron's conduct must 
 appear mean, cowardly, and brutal, compared to 
 that of his opponent. Dr Southey never libelled a 
 woman because the wife of his enemy, — Lord By- 
 ron did so. Let it stand against him a slur on the 
 man and the Peer, and the only example of mean- 
 ness in the annals of literary warfare in England. 
 Mr Dallas has declared> that there is no sincerity 
 
 M 
 
162 ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 
 
 in Byron's dedications. We partly believe it — and 
 the fulsome adulations heaped upon Moore, and 
 more so on Rogers, the least deserving of the two, 
 (being a poet only in the " Pleasures of Memory/' 
 and a scribbler puffed by dinner-loving critics, and 
 female Maecenases in his other works,) in the " Con-« 
 versations," and elsewhere, savour very much of the 
 flattered patron. Had Southey, Wordsworth, or 
 Coleridge, curried the favour of his Lordship, after 
 suffering his kicks and cuffs, the Laureate and the 
 Lakists would have been in as high favour as any. 
 But Dr Southey, save as a poet, was immeasurably 
 Byron's superior in every perfection of intellect, and 
 with that honourable spirit which conscious genius 
 feels against insult, he scorned to beg the protec- 
 tion of one who had wantonly attacked him, even 
 though the Lion of the day. While Byron lived, 
 we delighted to see Dr Southey defending himself 
 so fearlessly from such rancorous calumnies; and 
 even now that the enemy is gone, we, though a 
 majority will be of a different opinion, see no 
 harm in his defending himself from tlie libels 
 in the posthumous works of his Lordship.* It 
 is all trash about letting his vices sleep with 
 him : — He was never the disciple of this doctrine. 
 When he wished, he dragged the dead from their 
 graves, and exposed the loathed carcase to the 
 world. The vices as well as the virtues of the 
 great, are the manuals for the study of poster 
 
 • The answers to Byron from Southey will be found in the 
 Courier, or in the Numbers of BlackwcocVs ^fagazincr— » 
 its Editor having, with a fairness worthy of imitation by the op- 
 posite party, given both sides of the aflfair. 
 
ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. l63 
 
 rity. The one is just of as much importance to be 
 known in order to be avoided, as the other in order 
 to be followed : The reef of rocks must be laid 
 down in the chart, as well as the entrance of the 
 haven. Byron despised the cant which confers 
 saintship by death ; let not any, therefore, be dis* 
 pleased with him who will refuse canonization to 
 the dead man, particularly if he was the open foe of 
 the living one. 
 
 Byron fdil into company with Hogg, the Ettrick 
 Shepherd, at the Lakes. The Shepherd was stand-< 
 ing at the inn door of Ambleside, " gaping at no 
 thing," when out came a strapping young man from 
 the house, and off with his hat and out with his 
 hand. Hogg did not know him, and, appearing at 
 a dead halt, the other relieved him by saying, " Mr. 
 Hogg, I hope you will excuse me, my name is By- 
 ron — and I cannot help thinking that we ought to 
 hold ourselves acquainted." The poets accordingly 
 shook hands immediately, and while they continued 
 at the Lakes were hand and glove, — drank furious^ 
 ly together, — and laughed at their brother bards. 
 On Byron's leaving the Lakes, fee sent Hogg a let- 
 ter quizzing the Lakes, which the Shepherd was so 
 mischievous as to shew to them. 
 
 Byron's antipathy to the Apollo of the Lakes, 
 Wordsworth, is as unaccountable as that to Sou they, 
 perhaps more so ; for Wordsworth, even although a 
 commissioner of stamps, is not inflated with the re- 
 ligious cant and party spirit of his friend the Lau-* 
 reate. Whatever may be the opinions left by Byron, 
 and some often falsified Reviewers, of this poet. 
 
l64i ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 
 
 there is little doubt that a hundred years hence^ 
 Wordsworth will not be the least beautiful, nor the 
 least conspicuous star in the bright galaxy of poets 
 of the nineteenth century. It was unfair also in 
 Byron to retain an enmity to a poet to whom he 
 was so much indebted. He pretends to laugh at 
 the Lake-school, and sneers at Shelley's dosing him 
 with Wordsworth ; for Shelley was a noble Laker, 
 and only readable in his inspirations from nature— 
 but after all, there are many stanzas of the last can- 
 tos of Childe Harold which demonstrate that Lord 
 Byron had drank deeply in the stream. 
 
 In the " Conversations," there is an epitaph in- 
 tended for Sou they — not wrote by Byron, but said 
 to have been sent to him from Paris. His Lordship 
 made no remarks upon it — probably he put it in 
 the fire — for he had too good a memory not to re* 
 collect that the wit in it was stolen from a well 
 known epitaph, — and too good a taste not to per- 
 ceive that the rest was abominably silly trash. 
 
 PolidoH Was physician and companion to Lord 
 Byron for a considerable time. He was something 
 vain, and once asked Byron, what he could do that 
 he, Polidori, could not do. " I think," Byron says, " I 
 named four things— that I could swim four miles-^ 
 write a book of which four thousand copies should 
 be sold in one day — drink four bottles of wine^and 
 I forget what the other was> but it is not worth 
 mentioning.'* 
 
ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. l65 
 
 Polidori quarrelled with Byron, — for he could not 
 bear unruffled the whims of his Lordship. He came to 
 England, and having published the " Vampyre/' a 
 romance, which had a great run at the time, took to 
 regularly writing books instead of prescriptions, and, 
 being deceived in his expectation of profit and hon- 
 our, swallowed poison. 
 
 A female tourist, who had visited Venice pen in 
 hand, stated in her " Sketches," (as an excuse for 
 never having been in the company and having no- 
 thing to say of the only being worth speaking about 
 in Venice,) that she could have been introduced to 
 Lord Byron, but would not. This imprudent as- 
 sertion, instead of an apology for her own insigni- 
 ficance, violently excited his Lordship's ire ; and in 
 a note appended to the " Doge of Venice," he ex- 
 presses his detestation for all '' travelling English," 
 and adds a list of those English gentlemen who had 
 visited him whilst at Venice. Byron was not aware 
 that the writer was a literary lady, otherwise he 
 would not have been so oflfended. Many have sup- 
 posed from this note, from some of his writings, and 
 from his conduct, that he hated Britain and her in- 
 habitants : but this is not correct. Byron would never 
 have lived in that land where despots suffer not a 
 single ray of liberty to shine upon a people — once 
 great — but now even unworthy of the boon, if cir- 
 cumstances would have allowed him to have remain- 
 ed in Britain. In England he must have come into 
 contact with many persons disagreeable to him— he 
 must have every day heard malicious reports— and 
 
166 ANECDOTES OP LORD BYRON. 
 
 every day perceived himself watched. It was im- 
 possible that any one with the temper and passions 
 of Lord Byron, and placed in similar circumstances, 
 cdlild have felt comfortable in Britain. Besides, he 
 had been satiated with every thing London could 
 give, and fled to the continent for variety — and, had 
 not Greece called his attention from the continent, 
 he would have fled to America for the same reason. 
 
 Though he sometimes sneered at his country and 
 his countrymen, yet had there ever such a commo* 
 tion arisen as to endanger Britain, Byron would 
 have been found in his proper place. He was an 
 aristocrat by birth, and one too by feelings ; and 
 besides a poet must be a patriot. He left a fortune 
 to an offspring of his continental amours on condi- 
 tion that she should not marry an Englishman ; but 
 this, most likely the whim of the moment, must not 
 stand as his condemnation of his countrymen. 
 
 Byron was very unsettled in his dietetics. At 
 one time he indulged in full living, and at the next 
 would have starved himself on a biscuit a day. Of 
 wine he drank to a great extent ; and during the 
 latter period of his stay in Italy, he indulged much 
 in Hollands. " Why don't you drink ?" said he one 
 day to Medwin ; ^' gin and water is the source of 
 all my inspiration. If you were to drink as much 
 as I do, you would write as good verses : depend 
 on it, it is the true Hippocrene.*' He drank a pint 
 of Hollands almost every night. The following is 
 a kind of anacreontic which he composed in one of 
 his hours of jovial ty. 
 
ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 1^7 
 
 Fill the goblet again, for I never before 
 
 Felt the glow that now gladdens my heart to its core : 
 
 Let us drink — who would not ? since thro' life's varied round, 
 
 In the goblet alone no deception is found. 
 
 I have tried in its turn all that life can supply ; 
 
 I have bask'd in the beams of a dark rolling eye ; 
 
 I have loved — who has not ? but what tongue will declare 
 
 That pleasure existed while passion was there. 
 
 In the days of our youth, when the heart's in its spring, 
 And dreams that affection can never take wing, 
 I had friends — who has not ? but what tongue will avow 
 That friends, rosy wine, are so faithful as thou ? 
 
 The breast of a mistress some boy may estratige ; 
 Friendship shifts with the sunbeam, — thou never canst change. 
 Thou grow'st old — who does not ? — but on earth what appears, 
 Whose virtues, Hke thine, but increase with our years ? 
 
 Yet If blest to the utmost that love can bestow, 
 Should a rival bow down to her idol below. 
 We are jealous — who's not ? thou hast no such alio)'', 
 For the more that enjoy thee, the more they enjoy. 
 
 When the season of youth and its jollities past, 
 For refuge we fly to the goblet at last ; 
 Then we find — who does not ? in the flow of the soul, 
 That truth, as of yore, is confined to the bowl. 
 
 When the box of Pandora was open'd on earth. 
 And Memory's triumph commenced over Mirth, 
 Hope was left — was she not ? but the goblet we kiss. 
 And care not for hope who are certain of bliss. 
 
 Long life to the grape ! and when summer is flown, 
 The age of oiir nectar shall gladden my own. 
 We must die — who does not ? may our sins be forgiven I 
 Aj)4 Hebe shall never be idle in Heaven. 
 
168 ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 
 
 In the " Conversations/' a very good story is re- 
 corded as told by his Lordship. Byron was very 
 fond of private theatres, and, along with some friends, 
 once got up a play at Cambridge. " On the day 
 of representation, one of the performers took it into 
 his head to make an excuse, and his part was obli- 
 ged to be read. Hobhouse came forward to apo- 
 logize to the audience, and told them that a Mr 
 
 had declined to perform his part, &c. The 
 
 gentleman was highly indignant at the ^ «,' and had 
 a great inclination to pick a quarrel with Scrope 
 Davies, who replied, that he supposed Mr — — 
 wanted to be called the Mr so and so. He ever af- 
 ter went by the name of the * Definite Article/ ^ 
 
 The recital of this story put it into Byron's head 
 to get up a play in his palace. Accordingly, Othel- 
 lo was selected, and Byron resolved to perform lago, 
 whilst Shelley, Med win, &c. were to perform the 
 other characters. Preparations were made, and 
 some rehearsals took place ; but the Countess Guie- 
 cioli, conscious that she would be wofully out of 
 place in the character of Desdemona, or that, as a 
 mere spectator, she would feel more than disagree- 
 able in witnessing the affection and purity of the 
 * old man's daughter,' put a veto on the whole affair. 
 
 Whilst Byron Tvas on that excellent Drury-Lane 
 committee, which contrived so well to disgust the 
 people, and destroy the profits of the house, he was 
 a regular lounger behind the scenes. It seems ra- 
 
.^- . . 
 
 ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. I69 
 
 ther remarkable, that, filling the situation which he 
 did, and possessing such opportunities of becoming 
 acquainted with theatricals, he has not left us any 
 anecdotes connected with these establishments, save 
 the two following — the first of which was some 
 time since told by Colman, and the other is scarce- 
 ly to be credited even from Byron. 
 
 *^ I remember," says he, " one leg of an elephant 
 saying to another, ^ D n your eyes, move a lit- 
 tle quicker V And overhearing at the opera two peo- 
 ple in love, who were so distraits that they made the 
 responses between the intervals of the recitative, 
 instead of during the recitative itself: One said to 
 the other, * Do you love me ?' then came the flourish 
 of music, and the reply sweeter than the music, 
 * * Can you doubt it ?' " 
 
 Byron, according to Medwin, had a very high 
 opinion of Monk Lewis. His portrait, however, 
 of this author, is, perhaps, the only true one in the 
 '^ English Bards and Scotch Reviewers." Byron 
 praised highly, in Medwin's presence, Lewis's 
 " Monk." " The Monk," says Byron, '' is perhaps 
 one of the best romances in any language, not ex- 
 cepting the German. The ^ Monk' was written 
 when Lewis was only twenty, and he seems to have 
 exhausted all his genius upon it." This is like many 
 other of his Lordship's opinions — his own alone- 
 taken up and affirmed, because denied by every body 
 else. The " Monk" is one of the most silly and 
 disgusting works in the English language — in 
 loathsome licentiousness worthy of a place next to 
 
lyO ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 
 
 the French " Faublas :" Neither is there great or 
 powerful imagination displayed in it. The only- 
 excuse for the " Monk" is, that it was written 
 while its author was in his twentieth year. Like 
 all the works of precocious talent, it has proved an 
 aJwrtion. In the romance depending on the ter- 
 rific improbable, Lewis must hide his diminished 
 head when compared with Maturin. The latter 
 had by much a finer and more original talent for 
 these writings than Lewis. Maturin could pursue 
 a story, plunging deeper and deeper into the terri- 
 fic, sporting the new beings, and new and harrow- 
 ing scenes of a most luxuriant imagination. Lewis 
 saw only one terrific object, and one terrific scene ; 
 there he stopt to hold up his hands, and make his 
 hair stand on end. He sought not to vary it, or con- 
 join it with other scenes equally terrible. Like the 
 old grandame seated by the chimney fire, he required 
 a separate tale to every new incident, and superna- 
 tural occurrence. Maturin wrote as a man of the 
 world, making the best use of his imagination, — 
 bnt Lewis believed every thing which he wrote. 
 He was a walking Romance ; and could deal out 
 an. all occasions the most fearful stories. It is said 
 he delighted in the company of young persons. 
 They, rather, must have been delighted in hisi— 
 for there is not a doubt but Lewis would have re- 
 ceived the best seat in any nursery, and been a de* 
 mi-god in the eyes of the children and their maids. 
 Lewis was the accoucheur to Scott's early produc- 
 tions, like Dr Slop to Tristram Shandy, correcting 
 mal-formed members ; for Scott then knew little 
 abgut the mechanism of verses. Two stories are 
 
ANECDOtES Oie* LORD BYRON. 171 
 
 told by Byron— one of which Lewis was in the prac- 
 tice of constantly relating, and the other is that on 
 which he founded his tale of Imogene. 
 
 " Whilst Lewis was residing at Manheim, every 
 night at the same hour, he heard, or thought he 
 heard, in his room, when he was lying in bed, a 
 Orackling noise like that produced by parchment, or 
 thick paper. This circumstance caused enquiry, 
 when it was told him that the sounds were attri- 
 butable to the following cause: — The house in 
 which he lived had belonged to a widow, who had 
 an only son. In order to prevent his marrying a 
 poor, but amiable girl, to whom he was attached, 
 he was sent to sea. Years passed, and the mother 
 heard no tidings of him, nor the ship in which he 
 had sailed. It was supposed that the vessel had 
 been wrecked, and that all on board had perished. 
 The reproaches of the girl, the upbraidings of her 
 own conscience, and the loss of her child, crazed the 
 old lady's mind, and her only pursuit became to turn 
 over the Gazettes for news. Hope at length left 
 her : she did not live long, — and continued her old 
 occupation after death." 
 
 The other story, the original of " Alonzo and 
 Imogene," his Lordship thus relates : — " Two Flo- 
 rentine lovers, who had been attached toeach other al- 
 most from childhood, made a vow of eternal fidelity. 
 Mina was the name of the lady — her husband's I 
 forget, but it is not material. They parted. He 
 had been for some time absent with his regiment, 
 when, as his disconsolate lady was sitting alone in 
 her chamber, she distinctly heard the well-known 
 sound of his footsteps, and starting up beheld, nol 
 
172 ANECDOTES OP LORD BYRON. 
 
 her husband, but his spectre, with a deep ghastly 
 wound across his forehead, entering. She swooned 
 with horror : when she recovered, the ghost told 
 her that in future his visits should be announced 
 by a passing-bell, and these words distinctly whis- 
 pered, ' Mina, I am here !' Their interviews now 
 became frequent, till the woman fancied herself as 
 much in love with the ghost as she had been with 
 the man. But it was soon to prove otherwise. 
 One fatal night she went to a ball : — What business 
 had she there ? She danced, too ; and, what was 
 worse, her partner was a young Florentine, so much 
 the counterpart of her lover, that she became es- 
 tranged from his ghost. Whilst the young gallant 
 conducted her in the waltz, and her ear drank in 
 the music of his voice and words, a passing-bell 
 tolled I She had been accustomed to the sound till 
 it hardly excited her attention, and now lost in the 
 attractions of her fascinating partner, she heard but 
 regarded it not. A second peal ! — she listened not 
 to its warnings. A third time the bell, with its 
 deep and iron tongue, startled the assembled com- 
 pany, and silenced the music ! Mina turned her 
 eyes from her partner, and saw reflected in the mir- 
 ror, a form, a shadow, a spectre : it was her hus- 
 band ! He was standing between her and the young 
 Florentine, and whispered in a solemn and melan- 
 choly tone, the accustomed accents, ' Mina, I am 
 here !' She instantly fell dead :" — the two ghosts 
 walked out of the ball-room arm in arm. 
 
 Lewis accused himself of some injuries towards a 
 brother who had died young ; and was firm in the 
 belief that his ghost visited him when about to un- 
 
ANECDOTES, OF LORD BYRON. 173 
 
 dertake any thing of importance. He styled this 
 ghost his monitor. 
 
 Byron has been often styled a plagiary. He has 
 himself allowed, that, when he found a good idea 
 in his head, he made use of it without scrupulously 
 enquiring how it got there. The ideas in his 
 poems we leave to be settled by those ingenious 
 critics^ who can 
 
 *' Hiint a thought through Greece and Rome," 
 
 and who amuse themselves by filling their com- 
 mon-place books with parallel passages in the bards 
 of ancient and modern times. This is the work of 
 minute commentators, and Byron will in his turn 
 sii'ffer from these also. Those who view his poems 
 in their design will find but little reason to call him 
 a plagiary. Childe Harold, Conrad, Lara, The 
 Bride of Abydos, Beppo, and Don Juan, were all 
 exclusively belonging to his Lordship. He wrote 
 tragedies because it was a field worthy of his Pe- 
 gasus, and the guerdon richly repaying the candi- 
 date. When he became something acquainted 
 with the writings of Goethe, and the German 
 school, then came a parcel of Faust-ish pieces which 
 will only shew his inferiority in one department to the 
 great German. Cain was a daring attempt at two 
 characters — to embody Spinosa and surpass Gesner. 
 Mazeppa was a tilt against Cowper, and an attempt 
 to destroy John Gilpin — but a failure — for the 
 I' Train-band Captain ' is still a greater favourite 
 
174 ANECDOTES OP LORD BYRON. 
 
 than the " Ukraine's Hetman."* The " English 
 Bards and Scotch Reviewers" was an avowed imi- 
 tation of Pope and GifFord ; and the fragment 
 entitled the " Vampyre*' was a transcript of the 
 German school of romance. He even at one time 
 intended to write a novel in conjunction with Mr 
 Dallas — but that gentleman, clever as he was at 
 writing stuff, shrunk from the task. Dallas has 
 given the two first chapters of this intended noveL 
 There is little in them above what is to be found in 
 most works of the same class.t Perhaps Byron 
 was too much guided by what he saw excelling in 
 others — something " too envious of another's fame.*' 
 It was ambition that induced him to write the 
 " Deformed Transformed/' and " Cain ;" — and it 
 was revenge for mortified ambition that led him to 
 abuse the English dramatic taste, and the most 
 adored poets of England. Byron did not possess 
 that firm and undeviating mind which we often see 
 in truly great men :— He w^as not guided by the 
 steady light of his own intellect alone : — He was 
 not stubborn to his own mind — the curious conse-^ 
 quence of extremely powerful and extremely ignor«« 
 
 * For this, see Blackwood's Magazine* 
 ■f- In the Westminster Ileview we observe a severe attack 
 is made on the late Mr Dallas. The following lines, written 
 by Lord Byron on one of those letters with which Dallas con- 
 stantly bored him, express his Lordship's opinion of hia 
 friend : — 
 
 *« Here lies R. C Dallas, 
 
 Who wanted money, and had some malice ; 
 
 If, instead of a cottage, he had lived in a palacSj^ 
 
 We should have had none of these sallies." 
 
ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 175 
 
 ant minds. He was wavering, not swayed in any 
 thing by a consciousness of right, but by a regard 
 for appearance ; and, as not guided by sincere prin- 
 ciple, he was therefore apt, at times, to stray from 
 one side to the other. It is this which has pro* 
 duced several anomalous traits in his character. 
 Milton was the same from his youth to the day of 
 his death, — a mighty mountain not to be moved. 
 Byron was a loadstone, liable to be easily contamin- 
 ated by foreign bodies. In his writings, as in his 
 conduct and opinions, he could not persevere in the 
 path he had struck out for himself. Rugged and 
 wild as it was, he had the audacity to attempt that 
 still more sublime one over which Goethe was strid* 
 ing like a giant ; — and he even essayed that di- 
 rectly opposite bye-way, by " silvery stream and 
 flowery dale," along which the finely poetic Words- 
 worth was leisurely journeying. He supposed 
 to have, himself like Briareus, fifty heads, — and 
 wished, with his hundred hands, to sway the scep- 
 tre, and rule lord paramount over the whole re- 
 gions of poetry. 
 
 In the politics of his country. Lord Byron, to all 
 appearance, decidedly belonged to the liberal side. 
 He did not belong to that body of English Peers 
 which can support the principles of whiggism with 
 the becoming propriety of rank ; but he descended 
 to associate with that club which, hating royalty 
 in the abstract, abuses its representative. The 
 " Irish Avatara,*' which was circulated in London 
 some years ago, is an excellent specimen of ^ho 
 
17^ ANECDOTES OP LORD BYRON. 
 
 species of writing belonging to this body of li- 
 berals. 
 
 THE IRISH AVATARA. 
 
 *' Ere the daughter of Brunswick is cold in her grave, 
 Whilst her ashes still float to their home o'er the tide, 
 
 LiO ! George the triumphant speeds over the wave 
 
 To the long-cherish'd Isle which he loved — like his Bride. 
 
 True, the great of her bright and brief era are gone,-— 
 The rainbow-Hke epoch when Freedom could pause, 
 
 For the few little years out of centuries won, — 
 
 That betray'd not, and crush'd not, and wept not her cause. 
 
 True, the chains of the Catholic clank o'er his rags, 
 The Castle still stands, and the Senate's no more ; 
 
 And the famine that dwells on her freedomless crags, 
 Is extending its steps to her desolate shore : 
 
 To her desolate shore, where the emigrant stands 
 For a moment to pause ere he flies from his hearth i 
 
 Tears fall on his chain, though it drops from his hands,— 
 For the dungeon he quits is the place of his birth. 
 
 But he comes ! the Messiah of Royalty comes ! 
 
 Like a goodly Leviathan roll'd from the waves ! 
 Then receive him, as best such an advent becomes, 
 
 With a legion of cooks, and an army of slaves. 
 
 He comes ! in the promise and bloom of three-score. 
 To perform in the pageant the Sovereign's part ! 
 
 But long live the Shamrock that shadows him o'er. 
 Could the green on his hat be transferr'd to his fieari : 
 
 Could that long-wither'd spot be but verdant again, 
 
 And a new spring of noble affections arise. 
 Then might Freedom forgive thee this dance with thy chain, 
 
 And the shout of thy Slavery, which saddens the skies. 
 
ANECDOTES OP LORD BYRON. 177 
 
 ts it madness or meanness which clings to thee now ? 
 Were he God — as he is but the commonest clay, 
 
 With scarce fewer wrinkles than sins on his brow- 
 Such servile devotion might shame him away I 
 
 But roar in his train ; let thine orators lash 
 
 Their fanciful spirits to pamper his pride : 
 Not thus did thy Grattan indignantly flash 
 
 His soul on the freedom implored and denied ! 
 
 Ever-glorious Grattan ! the best of the good ! 
 
 So simple in heart — so sublime in the rest, 
 With all that Demosthenes wanted endued, 
 
 And his victor, a rival, in all he possess'd ; 
 
 Ere Tully arose in the zenith of Rome 
 
 By some, though unequal, the task was begun : 
 
 But Grattan sprung up, like a god from the tomb 
 Of ages, — the first, last, the Saviour — the One i 
 
 With the skill of an Orpheus to soften the brute— 
 With the fire of Prometheus to kindle mankind ; 
 
 Even Tyranny, listening, sat melted or mute. 
 
 And Corruption sank scorch'd from the glance of his mind. 
 
 Ay ! back to our theme — back to despots and slaves. 
 Feasts furnished by Famine — rejoicings by Pain ; 
 
 True Freedom but welcomes^ while Slavery still raves^ 
 When a week's saturnalia have loosen'd her chain. 
 
 Let the poor squalid splendour thy wreck can afford, 
 (As the bankrupt's profusion his ruin would hide,) 
 
 Gild over the palace, — lo ! Erin thy lord, — 
 
 Kiss his foot, with thy blessing, for blessings denied I 
 
 And if freedom past hope be extorted at last,— 
 If the idol of brass find his feet are of clay,— 
 
 Must what terror or policy wrung forth be class'd 
 
 With what monarchs ne'er give, but as wolves yield their prey ? 
 
 N 
 
178 ANECDOTES OF LORD BYROI^. 
 
 Each brute hath its nature, — a king's is to reign ;— - 
 To reign ! — in that word see, ye ages, comprised. 
 
 The cause of the curses all annals contain, 
 
 From Caesar the dreaded to — — the despised ! 
 
 Wear, Fingal, thy trappings I 0*Connell, proclaim 
 
 His accomplishments — Ms !! — and thy country convince. 
 
 Half an age's contempt was an error of Fame, 
 
 And that '' Hal is the * * * * sweetest young Prince I** 
 
 Will thy yard of blue ribbon, poor Fingal ! recall 
 The fetters from millions of Catholic limbs ? 
 
 Or has it not bound thee the fastest of all 
 
 The slaves who now hail their betrayer with hymns i^ 
 
 Ay, " build him a dwelling !" let each give his mite. 
 Till, like Babel, this new royal dome has arisen : 
 
 LiCt thy beggars and Helots their pittance unite, 
 And a palace bestow for a poor-house and prison ! 
 
 Spread, spread for Vitellius the royal repast. 
 
 Till the gluttonous • « « « be stufTd to the gorge, 
 
 And the roar of his drunkards proclaim him at last 
 The • « « of the fools and * « * * * caU'd ! 
 
 Let the tables be loaded with feasts till they groan,— 
 Till they groan like thy people through ages of woe— 
 
 Li et the wine flow around the old Bacchanal's throne^ 
 Like the blood «*«•»»•«•»••• 
 
 But let not 7iis name be thine idol alone ! 
 
 On his right hand behold a Sejatms appears— 
 Thine own Castlereagh ! Let him still be thine own ! 
 
 A wretch never named but with curses and tears. 
 
 Till now, when this Isle, that should blush for his birth. 
 Deep, deep as the gore which he ehed on her soil. 
 
 Seems proud of the reptile that crawld from her earth. 
 And for • * « » repays him with sliouts and a &mile I 
 
ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 179 
 
 "Without one single ray of her genius, — without 
 The fancy, the manhood, the fire of her race,— 
 
 The miscreant who well might plunge Erin in doubt 
 If she ever gave birth to a being so base I 
 
 If she did, may her long-boasted proverb be hush'd, 
 Which proclaims that no reptile from Erin can spring i 
 
 See the cold-blooded serpent, with venom full flushed, 
 Still warming its folds in the heart of a king ! 
 
 Shout, drink, feast, and flatter ! Oh, Erin ! how low 
 Wert thou sunk by misfortune and tyranny, till 
 
 Thy welcome of tyrants have plunged thee below 
 The depth of thy deep in a deeper gulf still ! 
 
 My voice, though but humble, was raised in thy right ; 
 
 My vote,* as a freeman's, still voted the free ; 
 My arm, though but feeble, would arm in thy fight ; 
 
 And tliis heart, though outworn, had a throb still for thee ! 
 
 Yes ! I loved thee and thine, though thou wert not my land ; 
 
 I have known noble hearts and brave souls in thy sons. 
 And I wept with the world on the patriot band 
 
 Who are gone, — but I weep them no longer as once - 
 
 For happy are they now reposing afar — 
 
 Thy Curran, thy Grattan, thy Sheridan — all, 
 
 Who for years were the chiefs in the eloquent war, 
 And redeemed, if they have not retarded thy fall ! 
 
 Yes, happy are they in their cold English graves ! 
 
 Their shades cannot start at thy shouts of to-day ; 
 Nor the steps of enslavers and chain-kissing slaves 
 
 Be stamp'd in the turf o'er their fetterless clay I 
 
 Till now I had envied thy sons and thy shore ! 
 
 Though their virtues are blunted, their liberties fled, 
 There is something so warm and sublime in the core 
 
 Of an Irishman's heart, that I envy — their dead ! 
 
 * He spoke on the Catholic q^uestioc. 
 
^80 ANECDOTES OF LORDtiYROI^. 
 
 Or if aught in my bosom can quench for an hour 
 My contempt for a nation so servile, though sore, 
 
 Which, though trod like the worm, will not turn upon power, 
 *Tis the glory Of Grattan — the genius of Moore ! 
 
 In the " English Bards and ScotcK Reviewers" 
 Byron sufficiently abused Lord Holland. When 
 Byron became popular, that nobleman was anxious 
 to be introduced to him. The introduction was made 
 through Rogers, and took place at Byron's lodgings 
 in St. James's Street. " I happened, says Mr. Dal- 
 las, " to be there at the time, and thought it a curi- 
 ous event : Lord Byron evidently had an awkward 
 feeling on the occasion, from a conscious recollection, 
 which did not seem to be participated by his visitors. 
 Lord Holland's age, experience, and other acquired 
 distinctions, certainly, in point of form, demanded 
 that the visit should be paid at his house. This I 
 am confident Lord Byron at that time would not 
 have done ; though he was greatly pleased that the 
 introduction took place, and afterwards waved all 
 ceremony." 
 
 Byron, on reading the excellent Memoirs of Cole* 
 Hdge, was struck with the idea of writing memoirs 
 of himself for the information and amusement of 
 posterity. To it, accordingly, he went, and soon fi- 
 nished a book w^herein he. freely exposed all his 
 sores to the eyes of the world, and treated both of 
 himself, and of all those in any way connected with 
 him, with the levity and fearfulness of the authoi 
 of Don Juan. ^'I am sorry/' said he to Medwid, 
 
ANECDOTES OP LORD BYRON. 181 
 
 ^' not to have a copy of my Memoirs to shew you ; 
 I gave them to Moore, or rather to Moore's little 
 boy, at Venice. I remember saying, ' Here are two 
 thousand pounds for you, my young friend/ I 
 made one reservation in the gift, — that they were 
 not to be published till after my death. 
 
 " I have not the least objection to their being 
 circulated ; in fact they have been read by some of 
 mine, and several of Moore's friends and acquaint- 
 ances ; among others, they were lent to Lady Burg- 
 hersh. On returning the MS. her Ladyship told 
 Moore that she had transcribed the whole work. 
 This was im pen fort, and he suggested the pro- 
 priety of her destroying the copy. She did so by 
 putting it into the fire in his presence. Ever since 
 this happened, Douglas Kinnaird has been recom-. 
 mending me to resume possession of the MS., 
 thinking to frighten me by saying that a spurious 
 ox a real copy, surreptitiously obtained, may go forth 
 to the world. I am quite indifferent about the world 
 knowing all that they contain. There are very few 
 licentious adventures of my own, or scandalous an- 
 ecdotes that will affect others, in the book. It is 
 taken up from my earliest recollections, almost from 
 diildhood, — very incoherent, written in a very loose 
 and familiar style. The second part will prove a good 
 lesson to young men ; for it treats of the irregular life 
 I led at one period, and the fatal consequences of di»ii 
 sipation. There are few parts that may not, and none 
 that will not be read by women.*' At another time 
 he said to Medwin: *^A very full account of my mar- 
 riage and separation is contained in my Memoirs. 
 After they were completed, I wrote to Lady Byron, 
 
182 ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 
 
 proposing to send them for her inspection, in order 
 that any misstatement or inaccuracy (if any such 
 existed, which I was not aware of,) might be point- 
 ed out and corrected. In her answer she declined 
 the offer, without assigning any reason ; but desir- 
 ing, if not on her account for the sake of her daugh- 
 ter, that they might never appear, and finishing 
 with a threat. My reply was the severest thing I 
 ever wrote, and contained two quotations, one from 
 Shakespeare, and another from Dante. I told her 
 that she knew all I had written was incontroverti- 
 ble truth, and that she did not wish to sanction the 
 truth. I ended by saying, that she might depend 
 on their being published. It was not till after this 
 correspondence that I made Moore the depositary 
 of the MS." 
 
 It is known to all our readers, that these Me- 
 moirs were sold to Mr Murray, and on Byron's 
 death burned in the presence of Mr Moore, and 
 with his consent, he returning the sum paid for the 
 copy-right. The perpetrators of this act committed 
 a robbery on the public, and Mr Moore committed 
 a breach of trust — provided that is not true what 
 we have heard stated, viz. that Byron, some time 
 before his going to Greece for the second time, had 
 expressed a wish that they might not be published. 
 If Mr Moore will publicly acknowledge this, or if 
 Mr Hobhouse, or any of Byron's intimate friends, 
 will declare such to have been the wish of Lord 
 Byron, then the public will rest satisfied, and add 
 the whole passage about the Memoirs in the " Con- 
 versations" to the many other unauthenticated ru- 
 mours, clad with colloquial phrase in that volume. 
 
ANECDOTES OP LORD BYRON. 183 
 
 The Memoirs were well known to Byron's relations 
 and intimate friends, and it was their earnest de- 
 sire that they might be destroyed. The public may 
 complain against Mr Moore, but yet, soberly con- 
 sidering the matter, they must allow that he acted, 
 and sacrificed much, from the purest motives. The 
 Memoirs must have been unfit for publication. 
 Otherwise they would not have been so speedily and 
 so unanimously condemned to the flames by Messrs 
 Hobhouse, Hanson, Murray, and Moore. It is 
 more than likely these Memoirs were the effects of 
 a sudden whim of Lord Byron's. They were writ- 
 ten to cause a little devilry, or, like the Confessions 
 of Rousseau, to insult those who had been his ad- 
 mirers and advocates — to make a fool of those who 
 had supported his character and name. They were 
 written while he was just emerging from a sea of 
 dissipation and licentiousness ; and must have con- 
 tained more of the feelings and the disgusts of the 
 satiated debauchee than of the man. They were 
 not the calm production of one desirous to preserve 
 uninjured his reputation amongst posterity; nor 
 were they the confessions of a repentant sinner. It 
 is more than probable that Byron himself, before his 
 death, wished them destroyed. Curiosity, and the 
 love of scandal, may be disappointed by the fate of 
 the Memoirs, but they who have seen them have 
 treasured up in memory all that was important in 
 them ; and if some one do not now dissipate false 
 rumours, or stamp a certainty on those that are 
 true, then it must be supposed that, in burning his 
 Memoirs, they have committed a murder on his 
 memory. Their conduct is highly improper. If 
 
184 ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 
 
 he was in the wrong, let it he shown — if others 
 are in the fault, why should his memory suffer to 
 save their feelings ? 
 
 " Whate'er might be Ms worthlessness or worth. 
 Poor fellow ! he had many things to wound him. 
 It was a trying moment that which found him, 
 Standing alone, beside his desolate hearth. 
 While all his household gods were shiver'd round him.'* 
 
 The greatest breach of confidence that can be 
 conceived, is to suffer the memory of a departed 
 friend to stalk through the world unprotected — the 
 football of the crowd. 
 
 There ought properly to be no jealousy amongst 
 literary men ; or at any rate, if this jealousy is to 
 be permitted as an evil over-balanced by an im-« 
 mense good — emulation to obtain by their works 
 the approbation of the people — there ought to be 
 no animosity from party politics. The war betwixt 
 Byron and Scott will be ever pointed out as an ho- 
 nour to both. It is pleasing to find one mighty 
 mind doing justice to another, and to see genius 
 dignifying human nature by pronouncing the eu- 
 logy over a departed kindred spirit. The follow- 
 ing is worthy of Sir Walter Scott : — 
 
 '^ Amidst the general calmness of the political 
 atmosphere, we have been stunned, from another 
 quarter, by one of those death-notes which are peal- 
 ed at intervals, as from an archangel's trumpet, to 
 awaken the soul of a whole people at once. Lord 
 Byron, who has so long and so amply filled the 
 highest place in the public eye, has shared the Ipt 
 
ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 185 
 
 of humanity. His Lordship died at Missolonghi 
 on the 1 9th of April. That mighty genius, which 
 walked amongst men as something superior to ^ 
 dinary mortality, and whose powers were beheld 
 with wonder, and something approaching to terror, 
 SLS if we knew not whether they were of good or of 
 evil, is laid as soundly to rest as the poor peasant 
 whose ideas never went beyond his daily task. The 
 vmce of just blame and of malignant censure are 
 at once silenced ; and we feel almost as if the great 
 luminary of Hciwen had suddenly disappeared from 
 the sky, at the moment when every telescope was 
 levelled for the examination of the spots which dim* 
 med its brightness. It is not now the question, 
 what were Byron's faults, what his mistakes ; but 
 how is the blank which he has left in British liter- 
 ature to be filled up ? Not, we fear, in one ge*- 
 neration, which, among many highly gifted persons, 
 has produced none who approach Byron in ori« 
 GiNALiTY, the first attribute of genius. Only thir- 
 ty-seven years old — so much already done for im- 
 mortality — so much time remaining, as it seems to 
 us short-sighted mortals, to maintain and to extend 
 his fame, and to atone for errors in conduct, and 
 levities in composition — who will not grieve that 
 such a race has been shortened, though not always 
 keeping the straight path ; such a light extinguish* 
 ed, though sometimes flaming to dazzle and to be* 
 wilder ? One word on this ungrateful subject ere 
 we quit it for ever. 
 
 " The errors of Lord Byron arose neither froia 
 depravity of heart, — for nature had not committed 
 the anomaly of uniting to such extraordinary talents 
 
186 ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON, 
 
 an imperfect moral sense,— nor from feelings dead 
 to the admiration of virtue. No man had ever a 
 kinder heart for sympathy, or a more open hand for 
 tlie relief of distress ; and no mind was ever more 
 formed for the enthusiastic admiration of noble ac- 
 tions, providing he was convinced that the actors had 
 proceeded on disinterested principles. Lord Byron 
 was totally free from the curse and degradation of li- 
 terature, — its jealousies we mean, and its envy ; but 
 his wonderful genius was of a nature which dis- 
 dained restraint, even when restraint was most 
 wholesome. When at school, the tasks in which 
 he excelled were those only which he undertook 
 voluntarily ; and his situation as a young man of 
 rank, with strong passions, and in the uncontrolled 
 enjoyment of a considerable fortune, added to that 
 impatience of strictures or coercion which was na- 
 tural to him. As an author, he refused to plead 
 at the bar of criticism ; as a man, he would not sub- 
 mit to be morally amenable to the tribunal of pub- 
 lic^opinion. Remonstrances from a friend, of whose 
 intentions and kindness he was secure, had often 
 great weight with him ; but there were few who 
 could venture on a task so difficult. Reproof he 
 endured with impatience, and reproach hardened 
 him in his error ; so that he often resembled the gal- 
 lant war-steed, who rushes forward on the steel 
 that wounds him. In the most painful crisis of his 
 private life, he evinced this irritability and impa- 
 tience of censure in such a degree, as almost to re- 
 semble the noble victim of the bull-fight, which is 
 more maddened by the squibs, darts, and petty an- 
 noyances of the unworthy crowds beyond the lists. 
 
ANECDOTES OP LORD BYRON. 187 
 
 than by the lance of his nobler, and, so to speak, 
 legitimate antagonist. In a word, much of that in 
 which he erred was in bravado and scorn of his cen- 
 sors, and was done with the motive of Dryden's 
 despot, to '^ show his arbitrary power." It is need- 
 less to say that his was a false and prejudiced view 
 of such a contest ; and if the noble bard gained a 
 sort of triumph, by compelling the world to read 
 poetry, though mixed with baser matter, because it 
 was his, he gave, in return, an unworthy triumph 
 to the unworthy, besides deep sorrow to those whose 
 applause, in his cooler moments, he most valued. 
 
 " It was the same with his politics, which on 
 several occasions assumed a tone menacing and coi\- 
 temptuous to the constitution of his country ; while, 
 in fact. Lord Byron was in his own heart suffi- 
 ciently sensible, not only of his privilege as a Bri- 
 ton, but of the distinction attending his high birth 
 and rank, and was peculiarly of those shades which 
 constitute what is termed the manners of a gentle- 
 man. Indeed, notwithstanding his having em- 
 ployed epigrams, and all the petty war of wit, 
 when such would have been much better abstained 
 from, he would have been found, had a collision 
 taken place between the aristocratic parties in the 
 state, exerting all his energies in defence of that to 
 which he naturally belonged. His own feeling on 
 these subjects he has explained in the very last 
 canto of Don Juan ; and they are in entire har- 
 mony with the opinions which we have seen ex- 
 pressed in his correspondence, at a moment when 
 matters appeared to approach a serious struggle in 
 his native country. 
 
188 ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 
 
 " He was an independent — ay, much more 
 
 Than those who were not paid for independence ; 
 
 As common soldiers, or a common Shore, 
 
 Have in their several acts or parts ascendence 
 
 O'er the irregulars in lust or gore, 
 
 Who do not give professional attendance. 
 
 Thus on the mob all statesmen are as eager 
 
 To prove their pride, as footmen to a beggar.' 
 
 '' We are not, however, Byron's apologists ; for 
 now, alas ! he needs none. His excellencies will 
 nofv be universally acknowledged, and his faults 
 (let us hope and believe) not remembered in his 
 epitaph. It will be recollected what a part he has 
 sustained in British literature since the first appear* 
 ftnce of ' Childe Harold,* a space of nearly sixteen 
 years. There has been no reposing under the 
 shade of his laurels, no living upon the resource of 
 past reputation ; none of that coddling and petty- 
 precaution which little authors call " taking care 
 of their fame." Byron let his fame take care of 
 itself. His foot was always in the arena, his shield 
 hung always in the lists ; and although his own 
 gigantic renown increased the difficulty of the 
 struggle, since he could produce nothing, however 
 great, which exceeded the public estimates of his 
 genius, yet he advanced to the contest again, and 
 came always off with distinction, almost always 
 with complete triumph. As various in composi- 
 tion as Shakespeare himself, (this will be admitted 
 by all who are acquainted with his " Don Juan,'*) 
 he has embraced every topic of human life, and 
 sounded every string on the divine harp, from its 
 slightest to its most powerful and heart-astounding 
 tones. There is scarce a passion or a situation 
 
ANECDOTES OP LORD BYROT^. 189 
 
 wHich has escaped his pen ; and he might be 
 drawHj like Garrick, between the weeping and the 
 laughing muse, although his most powerful ejBTorts 
 have certainly been dedicated to Melpomene. His 
 genius seemed as prolific as various. The most 
 prodigal use did not exhaust his powers, nay, seem- 
 ed rather to increase their vigour. Neithei* ' Childe 
 Harold/ nor any of the most beautiful of Byron's 
 earlier tales, contain more exquisite morsels of poe- 
 try than are to be found scattered through the can- 
 tos of " Don Juan," amidst verses which the au- 
 thor appears to have thrown off with an effort as 
 spontaneous as that of a tree resigning its leaves to 
 the wind. But that noble tree will never more 
 bear fruit or blossom ! It has been cut down in 
 its strength, and the past is all that remains to us 
 of Byron. We can scarce reconcile ourselves to the 
 idea — scarce think that the voice is silent for ever, 
 which, bursting so often on our ear, was often 
 heard with rapturous admiration, sometimes with 
 regret, but always with the deepest interest ;— 
 
 " AU that's bright must fade ; 
 The brightest still the fleetest." 
 
 " With a strong feeling of awful sorrow, we 
 take leave of the subject. Death creeps upon our 
 serious as well as upon our most idle employments ; 
 and it is a reflection solemn and gratifying, that he 
 found our Byron in no moment of levity, but con- 
 tributing his fortune and hazarding his life, in be- 
 half of a people only endeared to him by their past 
 glories, and as fellow-creatures suffering under the 
 
IQO ANECDOTES OP LORD BYRON, 
 
 yoke of a heathen oppressor. To have fallen in a 
 crusade for freedom and humanity, as in olden times 
 it would have been an atonement for the blackest 
 crimes, may in the present be allowed to expiate 
 greater follies, than even exaggerated calumny has 
 propagated against Byron.** 
 
 The opinions of the Poet-Laureate of England 
 are, as we have mentioned, the very reverse of Sir 
 Walter Scott's in regard to Byron. 
 
 We observe a work advertised as about to be 
 published, " Byron's Second Journey to Greece, 
 by Peter Count Gamba." This personage, we sup- 
 pose, is the brother of the Guiccioli, and the same 
 who accompanied Byron to Greece, and who, when 
 taken prisoner, gulled the Pacha by assuming the 
 language and title of an English nobleman. We 
 have no objection to Peter s publishing ; — all we 
 hope is, that he will be impartial. The Gambas 
 are, as we have already stated, Italians, — belonging 
 to that class ofltalian nobility termed Carbonari,— 
 L e. persons who mutter in their sleep about liberty, 
 but are always perfectly awake and decorous in the 
 presence of their masters — the whiskered Austrian 
 soldiery. Miladi Morgan, when riding post through 
 Italy, was always discovering a concealed patriot- 
 ism in one nobleman, a concealed but firm and un-^ 
 daunted love of liberty in a certain other noble- 
 man, a concealed but desponding feeling for the de- 
 gradation of his country in a third, and an invin- 
 cible, but still concealed, detestation of their op- 
 pressors in nearly all the nobility. It would have 
 
ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 1^1 
 
 spoke more for Italy, however, if Lady Morgan, 
 instead of exhibiting such fearless divining of men's 
 thoughts, could have produced six instances of de* 
 votion, '' even unto death,*' at the shrine of pa- 
 triotism or liberty amongst all Italy's grand nobili- 
 ty during the last eventful fifty years. The Gam- 
 ba family is one of those numerous and respectable 
 families of Italy who endure the slur of suspicion 
 without the merit of ever having committed an act 
 worthy of it. The connexion existing between the 
 Gambas and Byron was perhaps sufficient to create 
 suspicions in a government that is too conscious of 
 its own imbecility to punish only the openly re- 
 fractory — and, therefore, not being able to subsist 
 by manly cruelty and physical force, supports a ty- 
 ranny the most detestable by craft and insidious- 
 ness — ramifying itself into the heart of every fa- 
 mily ; and, ruffian-like, strangling the infant Li- 
 berty in the very cradle. But to return to the 
 Book of Peter, — we must express a sincere hope 
 that it will contain a luminous view of Byron's 
 conduct in Greece, his intentions in going there, 
 and ^ome striking traits in his character. There 
 is a book entitled, " Hints to Mothers on the Ma* 
 nagement of Children:" — Count Peter s sister, who. 
 Captain Medwin asserts, was the only sensible wo- 
 man that could manage Lord Byron, might confer 
 a benefit on posterity by publishing " Hints to 
 Wives on the Management of Husbands." 
 
 It may not be amiss to say a few words on the 
 two works which have appeared connected with his 
 
19^ ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRO!^* 
 
 Lordship. The " Conversations" were advertised 
 and puffed into notoriety by more ways than Mr 
 PufF in the " Critic" ever thought of. They have 
 been crammed down our throats ad nauseam* The 
 book is a good looking book, and has the most cora^ 
 plete table of contents of any book in the language 
 —it — the table — being extended to 23 pages of 
 small and close print — and they — the contents- 
 being extended to 351 ; but nevertheless capable, 
 with a moderate type, of having been compressed 
 into twice the space taken up by the table of con^ 
 tents,* Often the articles in the table of contents 
 are more full than in the body of the work. It 
 purports on the title-page to be by " Thomas Med- 
 win, Esq. Captain in the 25th Light Dragoons." 
 Now, we don't object to Esq. on the title-page of 
 a book, though, like Cobbett, we have no great idea 
 of these authors and soudisant esquires. To be 
 sure, in ancient days, Locke wrote on his title-page^ 
 " John Locke, Gent.," but then his book bespoke a 
 gentleman. Oliver Goldsmith, Esq., or Samuel 
 Johnson, Esq. LL.D. would to us look rather 
 queerish ; however, it is getting into fashion, and 
 we don*t object to a title more easily obtained than 
 a degree from an Aberdeen university. Nor have 
 we any antipathy to the mentioning a situation as 
 a pledge for respectability. We remember (and 
 who does not ?) the twice told tale of the publi* 
 can who wrote on his. sign-post " Porter, Beer, and 
 
 • We allude to the octavo copy. We are too well acquainted 
 with the tricks of the trade to buy a popular work in quartp* 
 
ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. IQS 
 
 British Spirits by Duncan McDonald, M.D.F.R.S." 
 It seems to be a practice, so let it pass. When a 
 London Alderman first publishes a book, it is to be 
 hoped Jie will take the hint from the army folks, 
 and state the fact below his name. 
 
 The opportunities enjoyed by Captain Med win of 
 picking up the conversations of Byron were great. 
 He was the cousin of Shelley, and Shelley lived 
 with Lord Byron. He was introduced by his cou- 
 sin, and, if we take Captain M.'s word for it, he was 
 soon on very familiar terms with his Lordship. We 
 ought not to question any thing contained in the 
 *' Conversations," when we find it stated in them, that 
 he (Captain Medwin) knew more of Lord Byron 
 than is stated in the Book, — meaning the Memoirs. 
 One short anecdote we give to shew on what fami- 
 liar ^bo^zwg he was with Lord Byron. 
 
 Captain M. had removed a book, in spite of Mr 
 Fletcher's remonstrances, from Byron's study, which 
 was against his express orders for any one to do. 
 On Fletcher's acquainting his Lordship, and re- 
 questing to be informed of the line of conduct he 
 was to pursue if the like should occur again, his 
 Lordship's reply was most characteristic — more so 
 than any thing occurring in the " Conversations." 
 ** Kick his a !" — a real Byronism, — a genu- 
 ine example of the offended aristocrat and poet. 
 After this we may be convinced of the degree of 
 credit to be given to the " Conversations." It 
 does not appear that Byron ever imagined he had 
 a spy under his roof. Had he been aware of having 
 such a one watching him, it is more than likely he 
 WQuld have horsewhipped him out. As it is, how- 
 
 O 
 
194 ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 
 
 ever. Captain Medwin has not exhibited any new 
 traits in Byron's character ; nor will the ghost of 
 the Peer visit him for displaying secrets not known 
 to all the world before. Byron, among his other pre- 
 sentiments, had a presentiment of such a book as 
 Med win's when he wrote the following stanza : 
 
 *^' And if our quarrels should rip up old stories. 
 And help them with a lie or two additional, 
 
 I'm not to blame, as you well know, no more is 
 Any one else — ifiey ivere become traditional ; 
 
 Besides, their resurrection aids our glories 
 
 By contrast, which is what we just were wishing aU~-> 
 
 And science profits by this resurrection — 
 
 Dead scandals form good subjects for dissection." 
 
 The " Conversations" have been compared to the 
 " Life of Johnson," and Medwin to Boswell. Now 
 this is absolute nonsense — none but a sheer igno- 
 ramus could compare the dragoon Captain to the 
 " industrious Scotchman," — for the former was 
 in Byron's company only four months at farthest,* 
 
 * The title-page of the Conversations says they were " not- 
 ed during a residence at Pisa in the years 1821 and 1822." 
 Inexperienced persons would suppose this included the space 
 of two twelvemonths ; but we can assure them that the real 
 space of time during which the conversations were held, was, 
 at the utmost, four months, (Captain Medwin, by his own ac- 
 count, having been introduced to Byron in the latter part of 
 Autumn, and leaving Pisa in the March following.) This 
 trick of stealing upon laggard time is pretty familiar to book- 
 sellers and professed authors. "VYe have heard of a traveller 
 that left the Saracen's Head in the Dover coach after his Christ- 
 mas dinner, crossed over to France, and, on his return to his 
 twelfth-day cake, by the same conveyance, published a " Tour 
 to the Continent in the years 18 — and 18 — ," in one hand- 
 some octavo volume — at least if this is not exactly the case, it 
 is within an ace of being so. 
 
ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 195 
 
 whilst the Scotchman was to the great lexicogr^u- 
 pher a constant pest — a necessary evil — '' the can- 
 nister tied to the dog*s tail," as Johnson said meta- 
 phorically pointing out their connexion and close 
 intimacy. Nor do we think any person in his so- 
 ber senses would compare the minute, circumstan- 
 tial, operose work of the one, to the vagueness, 
 hap-hazard, incorrect twaddle of the other. Our 
 modest unpretending volume is worth two of Med- 
 win's. 
 
 Mr Dallas* " Recollections" forms likewise a 
 book which displays more of Byron's character than 
 the '^ Conversations.'* The reader will not always 
 come to the same conclusions as Mr Dallas, because 
 he cannot fail to observe that, in his connection 
 with Mr Dallas, Byron w^ore the mask, and, it may 
 be presumed, a very troublesome one. Politeness 
 prevented him from being angry with the over- 
 officiousness of a friend — (who, by the way, took 
 no notice of him until he perceived his rising emi- 
 nence,) — but no sooner was he out of England than 
 *' Richard was himself again," and he immediately 
 forgot Mr Dallas. This gentleman, indeed, was 
 not made for companionship with Lord Byron. He 
 was a worthy, well- designing, and kindly officious 
 man ; ready, withal, to pocket, in a friendly way, 
 the produce of Byron's works with perfect non* 
 chalance, but sincerely zealous for preserving the 
 reputation of his Lordship, and forwarding his im- 
 mortal interests here and hereafter : but this very 
 eagerness must have rendered him a bore to Byron. 
 His book, however, conveys a great deal of infor-i 
 mation regarding Byron's early literary career, and 
 
190 ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 
 
 will be the ground-work for some biographer fifty 
 years hence — for before that time a good one can- 
 not appear. A Hobhouse or a Moore may write a 
 life of him, but it cannot be correct, as it must con- 
 sist, in a great measure, of party spirit and partiali- 
 ty. It is to be sincerely desired, however, at pre- 
 sent, that one of those gentlemen who were his 
 friends would step forward, and in a work, which 
 the world would give credit to, anatomise that 
 mighty mind which shone for so short a time, but 
 yet so brilliantly, in the zenith of literature. It 
 must not for a moment be supposed, that the work 
 of a Medwin is to be the medium through which 
 we are to view the character and opinions of the 
 greatest poet of his own, or perhaps any other age. 
 There is not a single anecdote, criticism, or opinion 
 given in the " Conversations" which has not been 
 known, if not to the public, at least to his friends. 
 These friends are able to correct errors, misrepre- 
 sentations, calumnies, and falsehoods. Let some 
 one of them then come forward. 
 
 Mr Fletcher was Byron's valet from the time of 
 iiis Lordship's leaving the university until the time 
 of his death. He was a shoemaker near Newstead 
 Abbey, and Byron took a fancy to him, seeing him 
 an unprotected isolated being something like him- 
 self. Fletcher was a faithful servant, and a perfect 
 imitator of all his master's foibles. In his love 
 epistles he copied from those sent to his master by 
 fair correspondents ; and, when wishing to be par- 
 ticularly fine, styled himself " a blasted laurel' 
 
ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 197 
 
 struck by a metre" He was a true Leporello. To 
 his master he was an almost constant butt for jokes. 
 Fletcher had a greater relish for the comforts of an 
 English yeoman than for all the niceties to be 
 found abroad. He sighed often for the beer and 
 beef of old England, and the smiles of his wife 
 Sally. Courage was no ingredient of his character, 
 and his fears were often troublesome to his master. 
 Byron was in general kind to his servants, and was 
 never willing to part with them. In his letters to 
 his mother he is particular in always enquiring af- 
 ter those domestics he had left at Newstead. Not 
 only had he an attachment to all the unfeathered 
 bipeds who were domesticated with him, but like- 
 wise to the bull-dogs, monkeys, fowls, &c. Cap- 
 tain Medwin thus describes the travelling equipage 
 of his Lordship : — " Seven servants, five carriages, 
 nine horses, a monkey, a bull-dog, and a mastiff; 
 two cats, three pea-fowls, and some hens, (I do not 
 know whether I have classed them in order of rank,) 
 formed part of his live stock ; and all his books, 
 consisting of a very large library of modern works, 
 (for he bought all the best that came out,) tog^ 
 ther with a vast quantity of furniture, might well 
 be termed with Caesar, " impediments." 
 
 At the time Byron published his Childe Harold, 
 his appearance was thus described : — " A counte- 
 nance exquisitely modelled to the expression of feel- 
 ing and passion, and exhibiting the remarkable con- 
 trast of very dark hair and eye-brows, with light 
 and expressive eyes, presented to the physiognomist 
 
198 ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 
 
 the most interesting subject for the exercise of his 
 art. The predominating expression was that of 
 deep and habitual thought, which gave way to the 
 most rapid play of features when he engaged in in- 
 teresting discussion ; so that a brother poet com- 
 pared them to the sculpture of a beautiful alabaster 
 vase, only seen to perfection when lighted up from 
 within. The flashes of mirth, gaiety, indignation, 
 GT satirical dislike, which frequently animated Lord 
 Byron's countenance, might, during an evening's 
 conversation, be mistaken by a stranger for the habi- 
 tual expression, so easily and so happily was it formed 
 for them all : but those who had an opportunity of 
 studying his features for a length of time, and upon 
 various occasions, both of rest and motion, will 
 agree with us that their proper language was that 
 of melancholy. It was impossible to behold this 
 interesting countenance, expressive of a dejection 
 belonging neither to the rank, the age, nor the suc- 
 cess of this young nobleman, without feeling an in- 
 definable curiosity to ascertain whether it had a 
 deeper cause than habit or constitutional tempera- 
 ment." Medwin again has given the following de- 
 fscription : — " I saw a man about five feet seven or 
 eight, apparently forty years of age : as was said of 
 Milton, he barely escaped being short and thick. 
 His face was fine, and the lower part symmetrically 
 moulded ; for the lips and chin had that curved and 
 definite outline which distinguishes Grecian beauty. 
 His forehead was high, and his temples broad ; and 
 he had a paleness in his complexion almost to wanness. 
 His hair thin and fine, had almost become grey, and 
 waved in natural and graceful curls over his head. 
 
ANECDOTES OF LORD BYRON. 199 
 
 tliat was assimilating itself fast to the " bald first 
 Caesars." He allowed it to grow longer behind 
 than it is accustomed to be worn, and at that time 
 had mustachioSj which were not sufficiently dark 
 to be becoming. In criticising his features it might, 
 perhaps, be said, that his eyes were placed too near 
 his nose, and that one was rather smaller than the 
 other ; they w^e of a greyish brown, but of a pe- 
 culiar clearness, and when animated, possessed a 
 fire which seemed to look through, and penetrate 
 the thoughts of others, while they marked the in- 
 spirations of his own. His teeth were small, regu- 
 lar, and white : these, I afterwards found, he took 
 great pains to preserve : for this purpose he used 
 tobacco when he first went into the open air." 
 
THIT 
 
 LAST MOMENTS 
 
 OF 
 
 LORD BYRON. 
 
 " My master/' says Mr Fletcher, " continued 
 his usual custom of riding daily when the wea- 
 ther would permit, until the 9th of April. But 
 on that ill-fated day he got very wet; and on 
 his return home his Lordship changed the whole 
 of his dress; but he had been too long in his 
 wet clothes, and the cold, of which he had com- 
 plained more or less ever since we left Cephalonia, 
 made this attack be more severely felt. Though ra* 
 ther feverish during the night, his Lordship slept 
 pretty well, but complained in the morning of a 
 pain in his bones, and a headache : this did not, 
 however, prevent him from taking a ride in the aCi 
 ternoon, which, I grieve to say, was his last. On 
 his return, my master said that the saddle was not 
 perfectly dry, from being so wet the day before, and 
 
LAST MOMENTS OP LORD BYRON. 201 
 
 observed that he thought it had made him worse. 
 His Lordship was again visited by the same slow 
 fever, and I was sorry to perceive, on the next 
 morning, that his illness appeared to be increasing. 
 He was very low, and complained of not having 
 had any sleep during the night. His Lordship's 
 appetite was also quite gone. I prepared a little 
 arrow-root, of which he took three or four spoon- 
 fuls, saying it was very good, but could take no 
 more. It was not till the third day, the 12th, that 
 I began to be alarmed for my master. In all his 
 former colds he always slept well, and was never 
 affected by this slow fever, I therefore went to 
 Dr Bruno, and Mr Millingen, the two medical at* 
 tendants, and enquired minutely into every circum- 
 stance connected with my master's present illness : 
 both replied that there was no danger, and I might 
 make myself perfectly easy on the subject, for all 
 would be well in a few days. This was on the 1 3th. 
 On the following day, I found my master in such 
 a state, that I could not feel happy without sup- 
 plicating that he would send to Zante for Dr Tho- 
 mas. After expressing my fears lest his Lordship 
 should get worse, he desired me to consult the doc- 
 tors, which I did, and was told there was no occa- 
 sion for calling in any person, as they hoped all 
 would be well in a few days. Here I should re- 
 mark, that his Lordship repeatedly said, in the 
 course of the day, he was sure the doctors did not 
 understand his disease ; to which I answered, ' Then, 
 my Lord, have other advice by all means.' " They 
 tell me," said his Lordship, " that it is only a com- 
 mon cold, which, you know, I have had a thousand 
 
202 LAST MOMENTS OF LORD BYRON. 
 
 times." ^' I am sure, my Lord," said I, *' that you 
 never had one of so serious a nature." — " I think I 
 never had/' was his Lordship's answer. I repeated 
 my supplications that Dr Thomas should be sent 
 for, on the 15th, and was again assured that my 
 master would be better in two or three days. After 
 these confident assurances, I did not renew my en- 
 treaties until it was too late. With respect to the 
 medicines that were given to my master, I could 
 not persuade myself that those of a strong purga- 
 tive nature were the best adapted for his complaint, 
 concluding that, as he had nothing on his stomach, 
 the only effect would be to create pain : indeed, 
 this must have been the case with a person in per- 
 fect health. The whole nourishment taken by 
 my master, for the last eight days, consisted of a 
 small quantity of broth, at two or three different 
 times, and two spoonfuls of arrow-root on the 18 th, 
 the day before his death. The first time I heard 
 of there being any intention of bleeding his Lord- 
 ship was on the 15 th, when it was proposed by Dr 
 Bruno, but objected to at first by my master, who 
 asked Mr Millengen if there was any great reason 
 for taking blood ? The latter replied that it might 
 be of service, but added it might be deferred till 
 the next day; and accordingly, my master was 
 bled in the right arm, on the evening of the l6th, 
 and a pound of blood was taken. I observed at the 
 time, that it had a most inflamed appearance. Dr 
 Bruno now began to say, that he had frequently 
 urg^d my master to be bled, but that he always re- 
 fused. A long dispute now arose about the time 
 that had been lost, and the necessity of sending foi 
 
LAST MOMENTS 6P LORD BYRON. 208 
 
 medical aid to Zante ; upon which I was informed, 
 for the first time, that it would be of no use, as my 
 master would be better, or no more, before the ar- 
 rival of Dr Thomas. His Lordship continued to get 
 worse ; but Dr Bruno said, he thought letting blood 
 again would save his life ; and lost no time in tell- 
 ing my master how necessary it was to comply with 
 the Doctor's wishes. To this he replied by saying, 
 he feared they knew nothing about his disorder ; 
 and then, stretching out his arm, said, " Here, take 
 my arm, and do whatever you like." His Lordship 
 continued to get weaker; and on the 17th, he was 
 bled twice in the morning, and at two o'clock in 
 . the afternoon. The bleeding at both times was fol- 
 lowed by fainting fits, and he would have fallen 
 down more than once, had I not caught him in my 
 arms. In order to prevent such an accident, I took 
 care not to permit his Lordship to stir without sup- 
 porting him. On this day my master said to me 
 twice, ^^ I cannot sleep, and you well know I have 
 not been able to sleep for more than a week : I 
 know," added his Lordship, " that a man can only 
 be a certain time without sleep, and then he must 
 go mad, without any one being able to save him ; 
 and I would ten times sooner shoot myself than be 
 mad, for I am not afraid of dying, — I am more fit 
 to die than people think." 
 
 I do not, however, believe that his Lordship had 
 any apprehension of his fate till the day after the 
 18 th, when he said, " I fear you and Tita will be 
 ill by sitting continually night and day." I answer- 
 ed, " We shall never leave your Lordship till you 
 ajre better." As my master had a slight fit of de- 
 
204 LAST MOMENTS OP LORD BYRpN; 
 
 « 
 
 liriura on the I6th, I took care to remove the pis- 
 tol and stiletto, which had hitherto been kept at 
 his bedside in the night. On the 18th his Lordship 
 addressed me frequently, and seemed to be very 
 much dissatisfied w^ith his medical treatment. I then 
 said, " Do allow me to send for Dr. Thomas?" to 
 which he answered, " Do so, but be quick. I am 
 sorry I did not let you do so before, as I am sure 
 they have mistaken my disease. Write yourself, 
 for I know they would not like to see other doctors 
 here." I did not lose a moment in obeying my mas- 
 ter's orders ; and on informing Dr. Bruno and Mr. 
 Millengen of it, they said it was very right, as -they 
 now began to be afraid themselves. On returning 
 to my master's room, his first words were, " Have 
 you sent ?" *' I have, my Lord," was my an- 
 swer : upon which he said, " You have done right, 
 for I should like to know what is the matter with 
 me." Although his Lordship did not appear to think 
 his dissolution was so near, I could perceive he was 
 getting weaker every hour, and he even began to 
 have occasional fits of delirium. He afterwards said 
 '^ I now begin to think I am seriously ill, and in 
 case I should be taken off suddenly, I wish to give 
 you several directions, which I hope you will be 
 particular in seeing executed." I answered I would, 
 in case such an event came to pass ; but expressed 
 a hope that he would live many years to execute 
 them much better himself than I could. To this 
 my master replied, " No, it is now nearly over ;" and 
 then added, ** I must tell you all without losing a 
 moment !" I then said, " Shall I go, my Lord, and 
 fetch pen, ink, and paper ?"^—*^ Oh, my Godl no; 
 
 j ; !j3>. ' - -t sj e u. J.' ! »*■* n ■ * * mti Mtj .. 
 
Last moments of lord byron. 20B 
 
 you will lose too much time, and I have it not to 
 spare, for my time is now short/' said his Lordship ; 
 and immediately after, " Now pay attention !'* His 
 Lordship commenced by saying, '^ You will be pro- 
 vided for." I begged him, however, to proceed with 
 things of more consequence. He then continued, 
 " Oh, my poor dear child ! my dear Ada ! My God ! 
 could I but have seen her ! Give her my blessing— 
 and my dear sister Augusta and her children; and you 
 
 will go to Lady Byron, and say tell her every 
 
 thing ; — you are friends with her." His Lordship 
 seemed to be greatly affected at this moment. Here 
 my master's voice failed him, so that I could only 
 catch a word at intervals ; but he kept muttering 
 something very seriously for some time, and would 
 often raise his voice and say, '^ Fletcher, now if you 
 do not execute every order which I have given you, 
 I will torment you hereafter if possible.'* Here I 
 told his Lordship, in a state of the greatest perplexi- 
 ty, that I had not understood a word of what he 
 said ; to which he replied, " Oh, my God ! then all 
 is lost, for it is now too late ! Can it be possible you 
 have not understood me :" — '' No, my Lord," said I ; 
 '^' but I pray you to try and inform me once more." 
 " How can I ?" rejoined my master; " it is now too 
 late, and all is over !" I said, " Not our will, but 
 God's be done !" and he answered, " Yes, not 
 mine be done — but I will try"— His Lord- 
 ship did indeed make several efforts to speak, but 
 could only speak two or three words at a time—, 
 
 jsuch as, " My wife ! my child ! my sister I ^ 
 
 you know all you must say all you kilo# 
 
206 LAST MOMENTS OP LORD BYRON. 
 
 my wishes :" the rest was quite unintelligihle. A 
 consultation was now held (about noon), when it 
 was determined to administer some Peruvian bark 
 and wine. My master had now been nine days with- 
 out any sustenance whatever, except what I have 
 already mentioned. With the exception of a few 
 words, which can only interest those to whom they 
 were addressed, and which, if required, I shall com- 
 municate to themselves, it was impossible to under- 
 stand any thing his Lordship said after taking the 
 bark. He expressed a wish to sleep. I at one time 
 asked whether I should call Mr. Parry ; to which 
 he replied, "Yes, you may call him.'- Mr. Parry 
 desired him to compose himself. He shed tears, and 
 apparently sunk into a slumber. Mr. Parry went 
 away, expecting to find him refreshed on his re- 
 turn, — but it was the commencement of the lethar- 
 gy preceding his death. The last words I heard my 
 master utter were at six o'clock on the evening of the 
 18th, when he said, "I must sleep now;" upon 
 which he laid down never to rise again ! — for he did 
 not move hand or foot during the following twenty- 
 four hours. His Lordship appeared, however, to be in 
 a state of suffocation at intervals, and had a frequent 
 rattling in the throat : on these occasions I called 
 Tita to assist me in raising his head, and I thought 
 he seemed to get quite stiff. The rattling and choak- 
 ing in the throat took place every halt-hour ; and 
 we continued to raise his head whenever the fit 
 came on, till six o* clock in the evening of the 1 9th, 
 when I saw my master open his eyes and then shut 
 them, but without shewing any symptom of pain, or 
 
LA ST MOMENTS OF LORD BYRON. 207 
 
 moving hand or foot. " Oh ! my God !'* I exclaim* 
 ed, " I fear his Lordship is gone !" The Doctors then 
 
 felt his pulse, and said, " You are right— he is 
 
 gone !" 
 
 THE END. 
 
 William Aitkeu,Frintc-i. 
 
/3/ 
 
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