1832.] A Mysteryfor the Byron-Critics. 297 



poet. I might also add, that if Byron has given us a vigorous picture 

 of a Venetian conspiracy in " Marino Faliero" of a siege (Corinth) of 

 a guilty and sad being giving a long history of himself in confession to 

 a priest (the Giaour), we have similar incidents, and much more, in the 

 wild production before me ; but I prefer closing this paper with an 

 extract in regard to character, of which the reader, meditating on that of 

 the noble poet, will of course form his own judgment. Before going 

 further, however, it may be necessary to say, that no man of correct 

 feeling would put this romance into the hands of those for whose 

 morals they had any solicitude. But to the illustration. 



Mr. Gait inquires whether the tone and sentiments in this romance 

 may not have furnished the ideas of that gloom which pervades all 

 Byron's writings, and is the chief feature which distinguishes his senti- 

 ments from those of most former poets. If it be true, as Moore inti- 

 mates, that " wrongs and sufferings" (real or fancied) " were through 

 life the main sources of Byron's inspiration" and if "to this one great 

 object of displaying power, every other duty was but too likely to be 

 sacrificed" (vol. ii. p. 784), and if, as both his biographers seem to in- 

 timate, Byron, in reference to the public, bore somewhat of a double 

 character, nothing appears more likely considering his early impres- 

 sions from this romance, of which we have already spoken. The long 

 description of Arnaud's character here, it is impossible to read without 

 thinking of the character of Byron, or at least of that one which he has 

 drawn to the view of the world-^-so strange a mixture of tenderness and 

 something not so amiable, that it is little wonder his biographers should 

 not have fully understood it, when he understood it not himself. But 

 attend to the romance (vol. iv. pp. 252, 273, 275). In Arnaud's early 

 life, te when his mother observed to him how long his eyelashes latterly 

 were grown, he replied in tones that melted the words ' Alas ! no 

 wonder ! for I have watered them much of late/ The looks and ges- 

 tures that accompanied these kinds of speech, denoted their origin in a 

 heart that would not suffer others to think it contented with the case in 

 which it was ; that likewise was too proud to permit their pity, which 

 it prevented by shewing that it would not pity itself. Of follies he was 

 not more abundant (than other men), for his brain was stronger in wis- 

 dom than his heart in virtue. Some follies he cultivated, because he 

 esteemed them accessary to human happiness ; but he failed in his de- 

 sign, for his mode of bringing them into play raised them to the detest- 

 able eminence of vices. Yet one folly, egotism, was virtuous, insomuch 

 that it revealed his vices. He was a delightful and sublime instrument, 

 wherefrom the instinctive note converses musically or dissonantly, 

 according as it is struck. When skill and tenderness might have 

 sounded him through the ravishing compass of harmony, ignorance and 

 rudeness provoked from him a din of discord ; and what so harsh as 

 music in despair ?" 



Your's, with respect, 



A. P. 



M.M. New Series. VOL. XIIL No. 75. 



