402 John Gait and Lord Byron. QOcT. 



and so forth, all in full dress. To bury the miserable remains was out 

 of the question ; the ceremony must be pagan, and they burned him, 

 like an honest and plain-spoken Pagan as he was. Mr. Gait describes 

 the concluding ceremony as giving a fine finish to the ceremonial. 



" Those antique obsequies were undoubtedly affecting; but the return 

 of the mourners from the burning is the most appalling orgic, without 

 the horror of crime, of which I have ever heard. When the duty was 

 done, and the ashes collected, they dined and drank much, and bursting 

 together from the calm mastery with which they had repressed their 

 feelings (fudge, Mr. Gait !) -during the solemnity, gave way to frantic 

 exultation. 



" They were all drunk; they sung, they shouted, and their barouche 

 was driven like a whirlwind through the forest. I can conceive nothing 

 descriptive of the demoniac revelry of that flight, but scraps of the 

 dead man's own song of Faust, Mephistophelis, and Ignis-fatuus, in 

 alternate chorus." 



All this is true, and the biographer talks properly on so odious a 

 subject. We think too his illustration by the rhymes is quite appropriate. 

 As nothing can be a fitter illustration of frenzy in fact than nonsense in 

 rhyme ; for example 



" The giant-snouted crags, ho, ho ! 

 How they snort, and how they blow ! 



" The way is wide, the way is long ; 

 But what is that for a Bedlam throng ? 

 Some on a ram, and some on a prong, 

 On poles and on broomsticks we flutter along ! 



" Honour to her to whom honour is due 

 Old Mother Baubo, honour to you ! 

 An able sow, with old Baubo upon her, 

 Is worthy of glory, and worthy of honour !" 



We think this monstrous stuff quite the suitable epitaph, and regret 

 that the bones were burned. 



As to the "Liberal," which was projected by Shelley's atheist malig- 

 nity, Hunt's poverty, and Byron's avarice, the biographer properly 

 pronounces it to have been a most degrading transaction : 



" There is no disputing the fact, that his lordship, in conceiving the 

 plan of the ' Liberal,' was actuated by sordid motives, and of the 

 basest kind, as the popularity of the work was to rest on the art of de- 

 traction. Being disappointed in his hopes of profit, he shuffled out of 

 the concern as meanly as any higgler could have done who found him- 

 self in a profitless business with a disreputable partner." 



All true enough ; though even this candour does not reconcile us to 

 Mr. Gait's praises of his lordship's tragedies. The public have already 

 stamped them irrevocably as dull, as having no dramatic power about 

 them, and as greatly tending to that falling-off of fame, of which Byron 

 so keenly complains in his correspondence with his bookseller, and 

 which was clearly the principal cause of driving him to his giddy and 

 Quixotic expedition to Greece. However, the volume is interesting ; it 

 gives all that we can expect to know of the poet, or, perhaps, all that 

 could be known without diving into matters that might be better kept 

 concealed. The work begins the " National Library" well, and under 

 the conduct of its popular and intelligent editor, Mr. Gleig, and with 

 its active publishers, we augur very favourably of the enterprise. 



