BYRON r . 



775 



thought, although, when engaged in ir 

 cussion, they as forcibly exhibited ga; 



interesting dis- 

 gayety, indigna- 

 tion, and satire. Thus, in the imitative world of 

 fashion, the enthusiastic looked on him to admire, the 

 serious to admonish, anil the soft with a desire to 

 console. The latter sympathy he excited too power- 

 fully in certain quarters, and a course of noxious 

 intrigue was the consequence. It is more gratifying 

 to observe, that, in the midst of all this license, he 

 was capable of delicate and generous actions, of 

 which a number of well authenticated instances 

 are on record. The quick and scrutinizing glance 

 which he had cast on Eastern character and man- 

 ners, was now manifested in the Giaour, the Bride 

 of Abydos, the Corsair (the copyright of which, as 

 well as that of Childe Harold, he gave to Mr Dal- 

 las), Lara, and the Siege of Corinth, which followed 

 one another in quick succession. For parliamentary 

 duties he seems to have had a decided distaste ; 

 and it was not until his return from the continent, 

 that he ventured to speak. He made his maiden 

 speech in February, 1812, from the opposition bench, 

 against the frame-work bill, and was argumentative 

 and lively, if not very original. Having now be- 

 come a character whose support might be of con- 

 siderable consequence, he was congratulated accord- 

 ingly. Another time, he addressed the house in 

 support of catholic emancipation, and a third and 

 last time on presenting a petition from major Cart- 

 wright. 



On the 2d of January, 1815, Byron married Anna 

 Isabella, only daughter of Sir Ralph Milbanke Noel, 

 baronet, to whom he had proposed himself a year be- 

 fore, and been rejected. The fortune received with 

 his lady was not large, and, his own having been pre- 

 viously much enthralled, the reckless system of splen- 

 dour which succeeded the marriage could not be long 

 maintained ; and, after enduring considerable embar- 

 rassments, it was finally settled, that lady B., who had 

 presented his lordship with a daughter on the 10th of 

 December, should pay her father a visit, until better 

 arrangements could be made. From this visit lady B. 

 ultimately refused to return, and a formal separation 

 ensued. This rupture produced a considerable sensa- 

 tion in the world of fashion, and the most contradic- 

 tory rumours prevailed, in the midst of which Byron 

 left England, with an expressed resolution never to 

 return. He crossed over to France, through which 

 he passed rapidly to Brussels, taking, on his way, a 

 survey of the field of Waterloo. He then visited the 

 banks of the Rhine, Switzerland, and the north of 

 Italy, and, for some time, took up his abode at Venice. 

 Here he was joined by Mr Hobhouse, who accom- 

 panied him on a visit to Rome, where he completed 

 his third canto of Childe Harold. Not long after kp- 

 peared the Prisoner of Chillon, a Dream, and other 

 Poems; and, in 1817, Manfred, a tragedy, and the 

 Lament of Tasso. In one of his excursions from 

 Italy, he resided, for some time, at Abydos, and 

 thence proceeded to Tenedos and the island of Scio, 

 where he likewise staid three months ; during which 

 time he visited every classical scene, and frequently 

 slept in the peasants' cottages, to whom his liberality 

 made him a welcome guest. He also visited several 

 other islands, and at length repaired to Athens, where 

 he sketched many of the scenes of the fourth and last 

 canto of Childe Harold, which poem was published in 

 1818, and sustained the high reputation of the author. 

 In the same year appeared the jeu d' 'esprit of Beppo, 

 in the mixed and pointed manner of the Italian style 

 of poetical humour, and marked by a tone of loose 

 morality, which ripened into licentiousness in Don 

 Juan. In 1819 was published the romantic tale of 

 Mawppa, and the same year was marked by the com- 

 mencement of Don Juan, which his bookseller, Mr 



Murray, declined openly to publish. Of this cele- 

 brated production, it is as vain to deny the profligacy 

 as the genius. In 1820 was published Marino Fa 

 liero, Doge of Venice, a tragedy, written with an 

 avowed attention to the exploded system of the 

 dramatic unities, which too frequently subtracts from 

 the interest all that it gives to more cold and classical 

 qualities ; nor did this effort of Byron's prove an ex- 

 ception. The next year, he addressed a letter to Mr 

 W. Lisle Bowles, in defence of the poetical character 

 of Pope, which had been rated very low in that 

 writer's life of him. This dispute arose out of a dis- 

 position, in certain critics, to ground poetical charac- 

 ter exclusively on a tendency to deal with the primary 

 associations connected with natural objects and affec- 

 tions, rather than on the more complex and factitious 

 combinations produced by art and cultivation. This 

 school not unfrequently pushes its theory to an ex- 

 treme, as in the case of Pope, whom Byron, on the 

 other hand, may have somewhat hyperbolically ex- 

 alted. In the same year appeared the drama of Sar- 

 danapalus, indisputably the finest of his tragic offspring; 

 the Two Foscari, a tragedy; and Cain, a mystery. 

 The last is a production of much power, but marked 

 by the same rashness of speculation and recklessness 

 of moral effect, which disfigure many of the author's 

 productions. 



When Byron quitted Venice, after visiting several 

 parts of the Italian dominions of Austria, he settled at 

 Pisa ; where he became connected with the Gamba 

 family, in whose behalf he endured some incon- 

 venience, which ended in the banishment of the 

 counts Gamba, and the open residence of the countess 

 with Byron. In 1822, in conjunction with Mr Leigh 

 Hunt, who, on invitation, had become his guest, and 

 Mr Percy Bysshe Shelly, the periodical publication 

 called the Liberal was commenced, which, principally 

 owing to the unhappy fate of Mr Shelly (who per- 

 ishea by the upsetting of a boat in the Mediterranean), 

 extended only to four numbers. In this work first 

 appeared the Vision of Judgment, caused by the 

 singularly ill-judged performance, under the same 

 title, of Mr Southey. The publisher was prosecuted, 

 and fined 100. Heaven and Earth, a mystery, also 

 first appeared in the Liberal. Jt is founded on the 

 suppose* I intercourse between angels and the daugh- 

 ters of earth before the flood, and possesses great 

 force and beauty. The later cantos of Don Juan, 

 with Werner, a tragedy, and the Deformed Trans- 

 formed, a fragment, oring up the rear of Byron's per- 

 formances. In the autumn of 1822, he quitted Pisa, 

 and wintered at Genoa, and now began to indulge, 

 those feelings, in regard to the efforts of the Greeks 

 to throw off the Mohammedan yoke, which deter- 

 mined him to lend them the aid of his person, purse, 

 and influence. It would also appear, by some noble 

 verses which have been printed since his- death, thnt 

 a secret consciousness of his career of action having 

 too long been unworthy of him, induced him to seek 

 a nobler species of distinction than one of mere self- 

 engrossment and successful gallantry. It is unneces- 

 sary to dwell upon the general tendency of powerful 

 minds, at a particular stage of existence, to break 

 from the enthralments ot pleasure and the senses, 

 because it has been the great theme of allegory ever 

 since allegory was invented. In addition to being 

 satiated with the usual enjoyments of a dissipated 

 man of rank, and disgusted with the sameness of 

 common-place life, many circumstances contributed to 

 render IJyron an enthusiast for Greece. In common 

 with many more, the associations connected with its 

 illustrious history doubtless served to stimulate his 

 concern for its modern degradation ; but in him these 

 feelings were quickened by an acquaintance with its 

 grand and beautiful scenery, its various races of wild 



