The Irish
Avatar_)
were the sublime of hatred.
Byron
]
[hx] ----_would shame a knocker_. --[_Fraser's Magazine_, 1833. ]
[hy] {539}_Turning its quick tail_----. --[_Fraser's_, etc. ]
[580] {540}["'De mortuis nihil nisi bonum! ' There is Sam Rogers [No. IV.
of the Maclise Caricatures] a mortal likeness--painted to the very
death! " A string of jests upon Rogers's corpse-like appearance
accompanied the portrait. ]
[hz] _With the Scripture in connexion_. --[_Fraser's_, etc. ]
[581] {541}[Among other "bogus" notes (parodies of the notes in Murray's
new edition of Byron's _Works_ in seventeen volumes), is one signed Sir
E. Brydges, which enumerates a string of heiresses, beauties, and blues,
whom Rogers had wooed in vain. Among the number are Mrs. Apreece (Lady
Davy), Mrs. Coutts, "beat by the Duke of St. Albans," and the Princess
Olive of Cumberland. "We have heard," the note concludes, "that he
proposed for the Duchess of Cleveland, and was cut out by Beau Fielding,
but we think that must have been before his time a little. "]
[582] {542}["If '_the_ person' had not by many little dirty sneaking
traits provoked it, I should have been silent, though I _had observed_
him. Here follows an alteration. Put--
"Devil with such delight in damning
That if at the resurrection
Unto him the free selection
Of his future could be given
'Twould be rather Hell than Heaven.
You have a discretionary power about showing. "--Letter to Murray,
November 9, 1820, _Letters_, 1901, v. 113. ]
[ia] ----_would you know 'em? _--[_Fraser's_, etc. ]
[583] [Addressed to Miss Chaworth, in allusion to a duel fought between
two of their ancestors, D[ominus] B[yron] and Mr. C. , January 26, 1765.
Byron and Mary Anne Chaworth were fourth cousins, both being fifth in
descent from George, Viscount Chaworth, whose daughter Elizabeth was
married to William, third Lord Byron (d. 1695), the poet's
great-great-grandfather. The duel between their grand-uncles, William,
fifth Lord Byron, and William Chaworth, Esq. , of Annesley, was fought
between eight and nine o'clock in the evening of Saturday, January 26,
1765 (see _The Gazetteer_, Monday, January 28, 1765), at the Star and
Garter Tavern, Pall Mall. The coroner's jury brought in a verdict of
wilful murder (see for the "Inquisition," and report of trial, _Journals
of the House of Lords_, 1765, pp. 49, 126-135), and on the presentation
of their testimony to the House of Lords, Byron pleaded for a trial "by
God and his peers," whereupon he was arrested and sent to the Tower. The
case was tried by the Lords Temporal (the Lords Spiritual asked
permission to withdraw), and, after a defence had been read by the
prisoner, 119 peers brought in a verdict of "Not guilty of murder,
guilty of manslaughter, on my honour. " Four peers only returned a
verdict of "Not guilty. " The result of this verdict was that Lord Byron
claimed the benefit of the statute of Edward VI. , and was discharged on
paying the fees.
The defence, which is given in full (see Journal, etc. , for April 17,
1765), is able and convincing. Whilst maintaining an air of chivalry and
candour, the accused contrived to throw the onus of criminality on his
antagonist. It was Mr. Chaworth who began the quarrel, by sneering at
his cousin's absurd and disastrous leniency towards poachers. It was
Chaworth who insisted on an interview, not on the stairs, but in a
private room, who locked the door, and whose demeanour made a challenge
"to draw" inevitable. The room was dimly lit, and when the table was
pushed back, the space for the combatants was but twelve feet by five.
After two thrusts had been parried, and Lord Byron's shirt had been
torn, he shifted a little to the right, to take advantage of such light
as there was, came to close quarters with his adversary and, "as he
supposed, gave the unlucky wound which he would ever reflect upon with
the utmost regret. "
If there was any truth in his plea, the "wicked Lord Byron" has been
misjudged, and, at least in the matter of the duel, was not so black as
he has been painted. For Byron's defence of his grand-uncle, see letter
to M. J. J. Coulmann, Genoa, July 12, 1823, _Life_, by Karl Elze, 1872,
pp. 443-446. ]
[584] {543}[In the coroner's "Inquisition," the sword is described as
being "made of iron and steel, of the value of five shillings. " Byron
says that "so far from feeling any remorse for having killed Mr.
Chaworth, who was a fire-eater (_spadassin_), . . . he always kept the
sword . . . in his bed-chamber, where it still was when he
died. "--_Ibid. _, p. 445. ]
[585] [Ralph de Burun held Horestan Castle and other manors from the
Conqueror. Byron's mother was descended from James I. of Scotland. ]
[586] {544}[See _The Dream_, line 127, _et passim_, _vide ante_, p. 31,
_et sq. _]
[587] [From an autograph MS. in the possession of Mr. Murray, now for
the first time printed. ]
[588] {545} [There has been some misunderstanding with regard to this
poem. According to the statement of the Countess Guiccioli (see _Works
of Lord Byron_, ed. 1832, xii. 14), "Stanzas to the Po" were composed
about the middle of April, 1819, "while Lord Byron was actually sailing
on the Po," _en route_ from Venice to Ravenna. Medwin, who was the first
to publish the lines (_Conversations, etc. _, 1824, 410, pp. 24-26), says
that they were written when Byron was about to "quit Venice to join" the
Countess at Ravenna, and, in a footnote, explains that the river
referred to is the Po. Now, if the Countess and Medwin (and Moore, who
follows Medwin, _Life_, p. 396) are right, and the river is the Po, the
"ancient walls" Ravenna, and the "Lady of the land" the Guiccioli, the
stanzas may have been written in June (not April), 1819, possibly at
Ferrara, and the river must be the Po di Primaro. Even so, the first
line of the first stanza and the third and fourth lines of the ninth
stanza require explanation. The Po does not "roll by the ancient walls"
of Ravenna; and how could Byron be at one and the same time "by the
source" (stanza 9, line 4), and sailing on the river, or on some
canalized tributary or effluent? Be the explanation what it may--and it
is possible that the lines were _not_ originally designed for the
Countess, but for another "Lady of the land" (see letter to Murray, May
18, 1819)--it may be surmised that "the lines written last year on
crossing the Po," the "mere verses of society," which were given to
Kinnaird (see letter to Murray, May 8, 1820, and _Conversations of Lord
Byron with Lady Blessington_, 1834, p. 143), were not the sombre though
passionate elegy, "River, that rollest," but the bitter and somewhat
cynical rhymes, "Could Love for ever, Run like a river" (_vide post_, p.
549). ]
[ib] {546}
_But left long wrecks behind them, and again_.
_Borne on our old unchanged career, we move;_
_Thou tendest wildly onward to the main_. --[Medwin. ]
[ic] _I near thy source_----. --[Medwin. ]
[id] {547}_A stranger loves a lady_----. --[Medwin. ]
[ie] _By the bleak wind_----. --[Medwin. ]
[if] _I had not left my clime;--I shall not be_. --[Medwin. ]
[589] I wrote this sonnet (after tearing the first) on being repeatedly
urged to do so by the Countess G. [It was at the house of the Marquis
Cavalli, uncle to the countess, that Byron appeared in the part of a
fully-recognized "Cicisbeo. "--See letter to Hoppner, December 31, 1819,
_Letters, 1900_, iv. 393. ]
[ig] {548}_To the Prince Regent on the repeal of the bill of attainder
against Lord E. Fitzgerald, June, 1819. _
[ih] _To leave_----. --[MS. M. ]
[ii] _Who_ NOW _would lift a hand_----. --[MS. M. ]
[ij]
----_becomes but more complete_
_Thyself a despot_----. --[MS. M. ]
[590] ["So the prince has been repealing Lord Fitzgerald's forfeiture?
_Ecco un' Sonetto! _ There, you dogs! there's a Sonnet for you: you won't
have such as that in a hurry from Mr. Fitzgerald. You may publish it
with my name, an ye wool. He deserves all praise, bad and good; it was a
very noble piece of principality. "--Letter to Murray, August 12, 1819.
For [William Thomas] Fitgerald, see _Poetical Works_, 1898, i. 297, note
3; for Lord Edward Fitzgerald (1763-1798), see _Letters_, 1900, iv. 345,
note 1. The royal assent was given to a bill for "restoring Edward Fox
Fitzgerald and his sisters Pamela and Lucy to their blood," July 13,
1819. The sonnet was addressed to George IV. when Prince Regent. The
title, "To George the Fourth," affixed in 1831, is incorrect. ]
[591] {549}["A friend of Lord Byron's, who was with him at Ravenna when
he wrote these stanzas, says, They were composed, like many others, with
no view of publication, but merely to relieve himself in a moment of
suffering. He had been painfully excited by some circumstances which
appeared to make it necessary that he should immediately quit Italy; and
in the day and the hour that he wrote the song was labouring under an
access of fever" (_Works_, 1832, xii. 317, note 1). Here, too, there is
some confusion of dates and places. Byron was at Venice, not at Ravenna,
December 1, 1819, when these lines were composed. They were sent, as
Lady Blessington testifies, to Kinnaird, and are probably identical with
the "mere verses of society," mentioned in the letter to Murray of May
8, 1820. The last stanza reflects the mood of a letter to the Countess
Guiccioli, dated November 25 (1819), "I go to save you, and leave a
country insupportable to me without you" (_Letters_, 1900, iv. 379, note
2). ]
[ik] _And as a treasure_. --[MS. Guiccioli. ]
[il] {550}
_Through every weather_
_We pluck_. --[MS. G. ]
[im]
_He'll sadly shiver_
_And droop for ever,_
_Shorn of the plumage which sped his spring_. --[MS. G. ]
[in] ----_that sped his Spring_. --[MS. G. ]
[io] {551}
_His reign is finished_
_One last embrace, then, and bid good-night_. --[MS. G. ]
[ip]
_You have not waited_
_Till tired and hated_
_All passions sated_. --[MS. G. ]
[iq] {552}_True separations_. --[MS. G. ]
[ir] {555}_The enclosed lines, as you will directly perceive, are
written by the Rev. W. L. Bowles. Of course it is for him to deny them,
if they are not_. --[_Letter to Moore, September_ 17, 1821, _Letters_,
1901, v. 364. ]
[592] [A few days before Byron enclosed these lines in a letter to Moore
(September 17, 1821) he had written to Murray (September 12): "If ever I
_do_ return to England . . . I will write a poem to which _English Bards,
etc. _, shall be New Milk, in comparison. Your present literary world of
mountebanks stands in need of such an Avatar. " Hence the somewhat
ambiguous title. The word "Avatar" is not only applied ironically to
George IV. as the "Messiah of Royalty," but metaphorically to the poem,
which would descend in the "Capacity of Preserver" (see Sir W. Jones,
_Asiatic Research_, i. 234).
The "fury" which sent Byron into this "lawless conscription of
rhythmus," was inspired partly by an ungenerous attack on Moore, which
appeared in the pages of _John Bull_ ("Thomas Moore is not likely to
fall in the way of knighthood . . . being public defaulter in his office
to a large amount. . . . [August 5]. It is true that we cannot from
principle esteem the writer of the _Twopenny Postbag_. . . . It is equally
true that we shrink from the profligacy," etc. , August 12, 1821); and,
partly, by the servility of the Irish, who had welcomed George IV. with
an outburst of enthusiastic loyalty, when he entered Dublin in triumph
within ten days of the death of Queen Caroline. The _Morning Chronicle_,
August 8-August 18, 1821, prints effusive leading articles, edged with
black borders, on the Queen's illness, death, funeral procession, etc. ,
over against a column (in small type) headed "The King in Dublin. "
Byron's satire is a running comment on the pages of the _Morning
Chronicle_. Moore was in Paris at the time, being, as _John Bull_ said,
"obliged to live out of England," and Byron gave him directions that
twenty copies of the _Irish Avatar_ "should be carefully and privately
printed off. " Medwin says that Byron gave him "a printed copy," but his
version (see _Conversations_, 1824, pp. 332-338), doubtless for
prudential reasons, omits twelve of the more libellous stanzas. The poem
as a whole was not published in England till 1831, when "George the
despised" was gone to his account. According to Crabb Robinson (_Diary_,
1869, ii. 437), Goethe said that "Byron's verses on George IV. (_Query?
The Irish Avatar_) were the sublime of hatred. "]
[593] {556}[The Queen died on the night (10. 20 p. m. ) of Tuesday, August
7. The King entered Dublin in state Friday, August 17. The vessel
bearing the Queen's remains sailed from Harwich on the morning of
Saturday, August 18, 1821. ]
[is] ----_such a hero becomes_. --[MS. M. ]
[594] ["Seven covered waggons arrived at the Castle (August 3). They
were laden with plate. . . . Upwards of forty men cooks will be
employed. "--_Morning Chronicle_, August 8. ]
[it] {557}_To enact in the pageant_----. -[MS. M. ]
[595] ["Never did I witness such enthusiasm. . . . Cheer followed
cheer--and shout followed shout . . . accompanied by exclamation of 'God
bless King George IV. ! ' 'Welcome, welcome, ten thousand times to these
shores! '"--_Morning Chronicle_, August 16. ]
[596] {558}["After the stanza on Grattan, . . . will it please you to
cause insert the following Addenda, which I dreamed of during to-day's
Siesta. "--Letter to Moore, September 20, 1821. ]
[iu] _Aye! back to our theme_----. --[Medwin]
[iv] _Kiss his foot, with thy blessing, for blessings
denied! _--[Medwin. ]
[iw] _Or if freedom_----. --[Medwin. ]
[597] {559}["The Earl of Fingall (Arthur James Plunkett, K. P. , eighth
earl, d. 1836), the leading Catholic nobleman, is to be created a Knight
of St. Patrick. "--_Morning Chronicle_, August 18. ]
[ix] _Wear Fingal thy ribbon_----. --[MS. M. ]
[iy] _And the King is no scoundrel--whatever the Prince_. --[MS. M. ]
[598] [There was talk of a testimonial being presented to the King.
O'Connell suggested that if possible it should take the form of "a
palace, to which not only the rank around him could contribute, but to
the erection of which every peasant could from his cottage contribute
his humble mite. "--_Morning Chronicle_, August 18. ]
[iz] _Till proudly the new_----. --[MS. M. ]
[599] {560}["The Marquis of Londonderry was cheered in the Castle-yard. "
"He was," says the correspondent of the _Morning Chronicle_, "the
instrument of Ireland's degradation--he broke down her spirit, and
prostrated, I fear, for ever her independence. To see the author of this
measure cheered near the very spot," etc. ]
[ja] ----_might make Humanity doubt_. --[MS. M. ]
[jb] ----_in the heart of a king_. --[Medwin. MS. M. erased. ]
[600] {561}[Byron spoke and voted in favour of the Earl of Donoughmore's
motion for a Committee on the Roman Catholic claims, April 21, 1812.
(See "Parliamentary Speeches," Appendix II. , _Letters_, 1898, ii.
431-443. )]
[jc] _My arm, though but feeble_----. --[Medwin. ]
[jd] ----_though thou wert not my land_. --[Medwin. ]
[601] [For Grattan and Curran, see letter to Moore, October 2, 1813,
_Letters_, 1898, ii. 271, note 1; for Sheridan, see "Introduction to
_Monody_," etc. , _ante_, pp. 69, 70. ]
[je]
_Nor the steps of enslavers, and slave-kissing slaves_
_Be damp'd in the turf_----. --[Medwin. ]
[jf] _Though their virtues are blunted_----. --[Medwin. ]
[jg] {562} ----_that I envy their dead_. --[Medwin. ]
[jh] _They're the heart--the free spirit--the genius of Moore_. --[MS.
M. ]
[602] ["Signed W. L. B----, M. A. , and written with a view to a
Bishoprick. "--_Letters and Journals_, 1830, ii. 527, note.
Endorsed, "MS. Lord Byron. The King's visit to Ireland; a very seditious
and horrible libel, which never was intended to be published, and which
Lord B. called, himself, silly, being written in a moment of ill
nature. --C. B. "]
[603] ["I composed these stanzas (except the fourth, added now) a few
days ago, on the road from Florence to Pisa. "--Pisa, 6th November, 1821,
_Detached Thoughts_, No. 118, _Letters_, 1901, v. 466. ]
[604] ["I told Byron that his poetical sentiments of the attractions of
matured beauty had, at the moment, suggested four lines to me; which he
begged me to repeat, and he laughed not a little when I recited the
following lines to him:--
"Oh! talk not to me of the charms of Youth's dimples,
There's surely more sentiment center'd in wrinkles.
They're the triumphs of Time that mark Beauty's decay,
Telling tales of years past, and the few left to stay. "
_Conversations of Lord Byron_, 1834, pp. 255, 256. ]
[605] [These verses were written by Lord Byron a little before he left
Italy for Greece. They were meant to suit the Hindostanee air, "Alia
Malla Punca," which the Countess Guiccioli was fond of
singing. --Editor's note, _Works, etc. _, xiv. 357, Pisa, September,
1821. ]
[606] {564}[Probably "To Lady Blessington," who includes them in her
_Conversations of Lord Byron_. ]
[607] {565}[For reproduction of Lawrence's portrait of Lady Blessington,
see "List of Illustrations," _Letters_, 1901, v. [xv. ]. ]
[608] {566}[Aristomenes, the Achilles of the Alexandrian poet Rhianus
(Grote's _History of Greece_, 1869, ii. 428), is the legendary hero of
the second Messenian War (B. C. 685-668). Thrice he slew a hundred of the
Spartan foe, and thrice he offered the Hekatomphonia on Mount Ithome.
His name was held in honour long after "the rowers on their benches"
heard the wail, "Pan, Pan is dead! " At the close of the second century
of the Christian era, Pausanias (iv. 16. 4) made a note of Messenian
maidens hymning his victory over the Lacedaemonians--
"From the heart of the plain he drove them,
And he drove them back to the hill:
To the top of the hill he drove them,
As he followed them, followed them still! "
Byron was familiar with Thomas Taylor's translation of the _Periegesis
Graeciae_ (_vide ante_, p. 109, and "Observations," etc. , _Letters_, v.
Appendix III. p. 574), and with Mitford's _Greece_ (_Don Juan_, Canto
XII. stanza xix. line 7). Hence his knowledge of Aristomenes. The
thought expressed in lines 5-11 was, possibly, suggested by Coleridge's
translation of the famous passage in Schiller's _Piccolomini_ (act ii.
sc. 4, lines 118, _sq. _, "For fable is Love's world, his home," etc. ),
which is quoted by Sir Walter Scott, in the third chapter of _Guy
Mannering_. ]
THE BLUES:
A LITERARY ECLOGUE.
"Nimium ne crede colori. "--Virgil, [_Ecl_. ii. 17]
O trust not, ye beautiful creatures, to hue,
Though your _hair_ were as _red_, as your _stockings_ are _blue_.
INTRODUCTION TO _THE BLUES_.
Byron's correspondence does not explain the mood in which he wrote _The
Blues_, or afford the slightest hint or clue to its _motif_ or occasion.
In a letter to Murray, dated Ravenna, August 7, 1821, he writes, "I send
you a thing which I scribbled off yesterday, a mere buffoonery, to quiz
'The Blues. ' If published it must be _anonymously_. . . . You may send me a
proof if you think it worth the trouble. " Six weeks later, September 20,
he had changed his mind. "You need not," he says, "send _The Blues_,
which is a mere buffoonery not meant for publication. " With these
intimations our knowledge ends, and there is nothing to show why in
August, 1821, he took it into his head "to quiz The Blues," or why,
being so minded, he thought it worth while to quiz them in so pointless
and belated a fashion. We can but guess that an allusion in a letter
from England, an incident at a conversazione at Ravenna, or perhaps the
dialogues in Peacock's novels, _Melincourt_ and _Nightmare Abbey_,
brought to his recollection the half-modish, half-literary coteries of
the earlier years of the Regency, and that he sketches the scenes and
persons of his eclogue not from life, but from memory.
In the Diary of 1813, 1814, there is more than one mention of the
"Blues. " For instance, November 27, 1813, he writes, "Sotheby is a
_Litterateur_, the oracle of the Coteries of the * *'s, Lydia White
(Sydney Smith's 'Tory Virgin'), Mrs. Wilmot (she, at least, is a swan,
and might frequent a purer stream), Lady Beaumont and all the Blues,
with Lady Charlemont at their head. " Again on December 1, "To-morrow
there is a party _purple_ at the 'blue' Miss Berry's. Shall I go? um! --I
don't much affect your blue-bottles;--but one ought to be civil. . . .
Perhaps that blue-winged Kashmirian butterfly of book-learning Lady
Charlemont will be there" (see _Letters_, 1898, ii. 333, 358, note 2).
Byron was, perhaps, a more willing guest at literary entertainments
than he professed to be. "I met him," says Sir Walter Scott (_Memoirs of
the Life, etc. _, 1838, ii. 167), "frequently in society. . . . Some very
agreeable parties I can recollect, particularly one at Sir George
Beaumont's, where the amiable landlord had assembled some persons
distinguished for talent. Of these I need only mention the late Sir
Humphry Davy. . . . Mr. Richard Sharpe and Mr. Rogers were also present. "
Again, Miss Berry, in her _Journal_ (1866, in. 49) records, May 8, 1815,
that "Lord and Lady Byron persuaded me to go with them to Miss [Lydia]
White (_vide post_, p. 587). Never have I seen a more imposing
convocation of ladies arranged in a circle than when we entered . . . Lord
Byron brought me home. He stayed to supper. " If he did not affect "your
blue-bottles," he was on intimate terms with Madame de Stael, "the
_Begum_ of Literature," as Moore called her; with the Contessa
d'Albrizzi (the De Stael of Italy); with Mrs. Wilmot, the inspirer of
"She walks in beauty like the night;" with Mrs. Shelley; with Lady
Blessington.
[hx] ----_would shame a knocker_. --[_Fraser's Magazine_, 1833. ]
[hy] {539}_Turning its quick tail_----. --[_Fraser's_, etc. ]
[580] {540}["'De mortuis nihil nisi bonum! ' There is Sam Rogers [No. IV.
of the Maclise Caricatures] a mortal likeness--painted to the very
death! " A string of jests upon Rogers's corpse-like appearance
accompanied the portrait. ]
[hz] _With the Scripture in connexion_. --[_Fraser's_, etc. ]
[581] {541}[Among other "bogus" notes (parodies of the notes in Murray's
new edition of Byron's _Works_ in seventeen volumes), is one signed Sir
E. Brydges, which enumerates a string of heiresses, beauties, and blues,
whom Rogers had wooed in vain. Among the number are Mrs. Apreece (Lady
Davy), Mrs. Coutts, "beat by the Duke of St. Albans," and the Princess
Olive of Cumberland. "We have heard," the note concludes, "that he
proposed for the Duchess of Cleveland, and was cut out by Beau Fielding,
but we think that must have been before his time a little. "]
[582] {542}["If '_the_ person' had not by many little dirty sneaking
traits provoked it, I should have been silent, though I _had observed_
him. Here follows an alteration. Put--
"Devil with such delight in damning
That if at the resurrection
Unto him the free selection
Of his future could be given
'Twould be rather Hell than Heaven.
You have a discretionary power about showing. "--Letter to Murray,
November 9, 1820, _Letters_, 1901, v. 113. ]
[ia] ----_would you know 'em? _--[_Fraser's_, etc. ]
[583] [Addressed to Miss Chaworth, in allusion to a duel fought between
two of their ancestors, D[ominus] B[yron] and Mr. C. , January 26, 1765.
Byron and Mary Anne Chaworth were fourth cousins, both being fifth in
descent from George, Viscount Chaworth, whose daughter Elizabeth was
married to William, third Lord Byron (d. 1695), the poet's
great-great-grandfather. The duel between their grand-uncles, William,
fifth Lord Byron, and William Chaworth, Esq. , of Annesley, was fought
between eight and nine o'clock in the evening of Saturday, January 26,
1765 (see _The Gazetteer_, Monday, January 28, 1765), at the Star and
Garter Tavern, Pall Mall. The coroner's jury brought in a verdict of
wilful murder (see for the "Inquisition," and report of trial, _Journals
of the House of Lords_, 1765, pp. 49, 126-135), and on the presentation
of their testimony to the House of Lords, Byron pleaded for a trial "by
God and his peers," whereupon he was arrested and sent to the Tower. The
case was tried by the Lords Temporal (the Lords Spiritual asked
permission to withdraw), and, after a defence had been read by the
prisoner, 119 peers brought in a verdict of "Not guilty of murder,
guilty of manslaughter, on my honour. " Four peers only returned a
verdict of "Not guilty. " The result of this verdict was that Lord Byron
claimed the benefit of the statute of Edward VI. , and was discharged on
paying the fees.
The defence, which is given in full (see Journal, etc. , for April 17,
1765), is able and convincing. Whilst maintaining an air of chivalry and
candour, the accused contrived to throw the onus of criminality on his
antagonist. It was Mr. Chaworth who began the quarrel, by sneering at
his cousin's absurd and disastrous leniency towards poachers. It was
Chaworth who insisted on an interview, not on the stairs, but in a
private room, who locked the door, and whose demeanour made a challenge
"to draw" inevitable. The room was dimly lit, and when the table was
pushed back, the space for the combatants was but twelve feet by five.
After two thrusts had been parried, and Lord Byron's shirt had been
torn, he shifted a little to the right, to take advantage of such light
as there was, came to close quarters with his adversary and, "as he
supposed, gave the unlucky wound which he would ever reflect upon with
the utmost regret. "
If there was any truth in his plea, the "wicked Lord Byron" has been
misjudged, and, at least in the matter of the duel, was not so black as
he has been painted. For Byron's defence of his grand-uncle, see letter
to M. J. J. Coulmann, Genoa, July 12, 1823, _Life_, by Karl Elze, 1872,
pp. 443-446. ]
[584] {543}[In the coroner's "Inquisition," the sword is described as
being "made of iron and steel, of the value of five shillings. " Byron
says that "so far from feeling any remorse for having killed Mr.
Chaworth, who was a fire-eater (_spadassin_), . . . he always kept the
sword . . . in his bed-chamber, where it still was when he
died. "--_Ibid. _, p. 445. ]
[585] [Ralph de Burun held Horestan Castle and other manors from the
Conqueror. Byron's mother was descended from James I. of Scotland. ]
[586] {544}[See _The Dream_, line 127, _et passim_, _vide ante_, p. 31,
_et sq. _]
[587] [From an autograph MS. in the possession of Mr. Murray, now for
the first time printed. ]
[588] {545} [There has been some misunderstanding with regard to this
poem. According to the statement of the Countess Guiccioli (see _Works
of Lord Byron_, ed. 1832, xii. 14), "Stanzas to the Po" were composed
about the middle of April, 1819, "while Lord Byron was actually sailing
on the Po," _en route_ from Venice to Ravenna. Medwin, who was the first
to publish the lines (_Conversations, etc. _, 1824, 410, pp. 24-26), says
that they were written when Byron was about to "quit Venice to join" the
Countess at Ravenna, and, in a footnote, explains that the river
referred to is the Po. Now, if the Countess and Medwin (and Moore, who
follows Medwin, _Life_, p. 396) are right, and the river is the Po, the
"ancient walls" Ravenna, and the "Lady of the land" the Guiccioli, the
stanzas may have been written in June (not April), 1819, possibly at
Ferrara, and the river must be the Po di Primaro. Even so, the first
line of the first stanza and the third and fourth lines of the ninth
stanza require explanation. The Po does not "roll by the ancient walls"
of Ravenna; and how could Byron be at one and the same time "by the
source" (stanza 9, line 4), and sailing on the river, or on some
canalized tributary or effluent? Be the explanation what it may--and it
is possible that the lines were _not_ originally designed for the
Countess, but for another "Lady of the land" (see letter to Murray, May
18, 1819)--it may be surmised that "the lines written last year on
crossing the Po," the "mere verses of society," which were given to
Kinnaird (see letter to Murray, May 8, 1820, and _Conversations of Lord
Byron with Lady Blessington_, 1834, p. 143), were not the sombre though
passionate elegy, "River, that rollest," but the bitter and somewhat
cynical rhymes, "Could Love for ever, Run like a river" (_vide post_, p.
549). ]
[ib] {546}
_But left long wrecks behind them, and again_.
_Borne on our old unchanged career, we move;_
_Thou tendest wildly onward to the main_. --[Medwin. ]
[ic] _I near thy source_----. --[Medwin. ]
[id] {547}_A stranger loves a lady_----. --[Medwin. ]
[ie] _By the bleak wind_----. --[Medwin. ]
[if] _I had not left my clime;--I shall not be_. --[Medwin. ]
[589] I wrote this sonnet (after tearing the first) on being repeatedly
urged to do so by the Countess G. [It was at the house of the Marquis
Cavalli, uncle to the countess, that Byron appeared in the part of a
fully-recognized "Cicisbeo. "--See letter to Hoppner, December 31, 1819,
_Letters, 1900_, iv. 393. ]
[ig] {548}_To the Prince Regent on the repeal of the bill of attainder
against Lord E. Fitzgerald, June, 1819. _
[ih] _To leave_----. --[MS. M. ]
[ii] _Who_ NOW _would lift a hand_----. --[MS. M. ]
[ij]
----_becomes but more complete_
_Thyself a despot_----. --[MS. M. ]
[590] ["So the prince has been repealing Lord Fitzgerald's forfeiture?
_Ecco un' Sonetto! _ There, you dogs! there's a Sonnet for you: you won't
have such as that in a hurry from Mr. Fitzgerald. You may publish it
with my name, an ye wool. He deserves all praise, bad and good; it was a
very noble piece of principality. "--Letter to Murray, August 12, 1819.
For [William Thomas] Fitgerald, see _Poetical Works_, 1898, i. 297, note
3; for Lord Edward Fitzgerald (1763-1798), see _Letters_, 1900, iv. 345,
note 1. The royal assent was given to a bill for "restoring Edward Fox
Fitzgerald and his sisters Pamela and Lucy to their blood," July 13,
1819. The sonnet was addressed to George IV. when Prince Regent. The
title, "To George the Fourth," affixed in 1831, is incorrect. ]
[591] {549}["A friend of Lord Byron's, who was with him at Ravenna when
he wrote these stanzas, says, They were composed, like many others, with
no view of publication, but merely to relieve himself in a moment of
suffering. He had been painfully excited by some circumstances which
appeared to make it necessary that he should immediately quit Italy; and
in the day and the hour that he wrote the song was labouring under an
access of fever" (_Works_, 1832, xii. 317, note 1). Here, too, there is
some confusion of dates and places. Byron was at Venice, not at Ravenna,
December 1, 1819, when these lines were composed. They were sent, as
Lady Blessington testifies, to Kinnaird, and are probably identical with
the "mere verses of society," mentioned in the letter to Murray of May
8, 1820. The last stanza reflects the mood of a letter to the Countess
Guiccioli, dated November 25 (1819), "I go to save you, and leave a
country insupportable to me without you" (_Letters_, 1900, iv. 379, note
2). ]
[ik] _And as a treasure_. --[MS. Guiccioli. ]
[il] {550}
_Through every weather_
_We pluck_. --[MS. G. ]
[im]
_He'll sadly shiver_
_And droop for ever,_
_Shorn of the plumage which sped his spring_. --[MS. G. ]
[in] ----_that sped his Spring_. --[MS. G. ]
[io] {551}
_His reign is finished_
_One last embrace, then, and bid good-night_. --[MS. G. ]
[ip]
_You have not waited_
_Till tired and hated_
_All passions sated_. --[MS. G. ]
[iq] {552}_True separations_. --[MS. G. ]
[ir] {555}_The enclosed lines, as you will directly perceive, are
written by the Rev. W. L. Bowles. Of course it is for him to deny them,
if they are not_. --[_Letter to Moore, September_ 17, 1821, _Letters_,
1901, v. 364. ]
[592] [A few days before Byron enclosed these lines in a letter to Moore
(September 17, 1821) he had written to Murray (September 12): "If ever I
_do_ return to England . . . I will write a poem to which _English Bards,
etc. _, shall be New Milk, in comparison. Your present literary world of
mountebanks stands in need of such an Avatar. " Hence the somewhat
ambiguous title. The word "Avatar" is not only applied ironically to
George IV. as the "Messiah of Royalty," but metaphorically to the poem,
which would descend in the "Capacity of Preserver" (see Sir W. Jones,
_Asiatic Research_, i. 234).
The "fury" which sent Byron into this "lawless conscription of
rhythmus," was inspired partly by an ungenerous attack on Moore, which
appeared in the pages of _John Bull_ ("Thomas Moore is not likely to
fall in the way of knighthood . . . being public defaulter in his office
to a large amount. . . . [August 5]. It is true that we cannot from
principle esteem the writer of the _Twopenny Postbag_. . . . It is equally
true that we shrink from the profligacy," etc. , August 12, 1821); and,
partly, by the servility of the Irish, who had welcomed George IV. with
an outburst of enthusiastic loyalty, when he entered Dublin in triumph
within ten days of the death of Queen Caroline. The _Morning Chronicle_,
August 8-August 18, 1821, prints effusive leading articles, edged with
black borders, on the Queen's illness, death, funeral procession, etc. ,
over against a column (in small type) headed "The King in Dublin. "
Byron's satire is a running comment on the pages of the _Morning
Chronicle_. Moore was in Paris at the time, being, as _John Bull_ said,
"obliged to live out of England," and Byron gave him directions that
twenty copies of the _Irish Avatar_ "should be carefully and privately
printed off. " Medwin says that Byron gave him "a printed copy," but his
version (see _Conversations_, 1824, pp. 332-338), doubtless for
prudential reasons, omits twelve of the more libellous stanzas. The poem
as a whole was not published in England till 1831, when "George the
despised" was gone to his account. According to Crabb Robinson (_Diary_,
1869, ii. 437), Goethe said that "Byron's verses on George IV. (_Query?
The Irish Avatar_) were the sublime of hatred. "]
[593] {556}[The Queen died on the night (10. 20 p. m. ) of Tuesday, August
7. The King entered Dublin in state Friday, August 17. The vessel
bearing the Queen's remains sailed from Harwich on the morning of
Saturday, August 18, 1821. ]
[is] ----_such a hero becomes_. --[MS. M. ]
[594] ["Seven covered waggons arrived at the Castle (August 3). They
were laden with plate. . . . Upwards of forty men cooks will be
employed. "--_Morning Chronicle_, August 8. ]
[it] {557}_To enact in the pageant_----. -[MS. M. ]
[595] ["Never did I witness such enthusiasm. . . . Cheer followed
cheer--and shout followed shout . . . accompanied by exclamation of 'God
bless King George IV. ! ' 'Welcome, welcome, ten thousand times to these
shores! '"--_Morning Chronicle_, August 16. ]
[596] {558}["After the stanza on Grattan, . . . will it please you to
cause insert the following Addenda, which I dreamed of during to-day's
Siesta. "--Letter to Moore, September 20, 1821. ]
[iu] _Aye! back to our theme_----. --[Medwin]
[iv] _Kiss his foot, with thy blessing, for blessings
denied! _--[Medwin. ]
[iw] _Or if freedom_----. --[Medwin. ]
[597] {559}["The Earl of Fingall (Arthur James Plunkett, K. P. , eighth
earl, d. 1836), the leading Catholic nobleman, is to be created a Knight
of St. Patrick. "--_Morning Chronicle_, August 18. ]
[ix] _Wear Fingal thy ribbon_----. --[MS. M. ]
[iy] _And the King is no scoundrel--whatever the Prince_. --[MS. M. ]
[598] [There was talk of a testimonial being presented to the King.
O'Connell suggested that if possible it should take the form of "a
palace, to which not only the rank around him could contribute, but to
the erection of which every peasant could from his cottage contribute
his humble mite. "--_Morning Chronicle_, August 18. ]
[iz] _Till proudly the new_----. --[MS. M. ]
[599] {560}["The Marquis of Londonderry was cheered in the Castle-yard. "
"He was," says the correspondent of the _Morning Chronicle_, "the
instrument of Ireland's degradation--he broke down her spirit, and
prostrated, I fear, for ever her independence. To see the author of this
measure cheered near the very spot," etc. ]
[ja] ----_might make Humanity doubt_. --[MS. M. ]
[jb] ----_in the heart of a king_. --[Medwin. MS. M. erased. ]
[600] {561}[Byron spoke and voted in favour of the Earl of Donoughmore's
motion for a Committee on the Roman Catholic claims, April 21, 1812.
(See "Parliamentary Speeches," Appendix II. , _Letters_, 1898, ii.
431-443. )]
[jc] _My arm, though but feeble_----. --[Medwin. ]
[jd] ----_though thou wert not my land_. --[Medwin. ]
[601] [For Grattan and Curran, see letter to Moore, October 2, 1813,
_Letters_, 1898, ii. 271, note 1; for Sheridan, see "Introduction to
_Monody_," etc. , _ante_, pp. 69, 70. ]
[je]
_Nor the steps of enslavers, and slave-kissing slaves_
_Be damp'd in the turf_----. --[Medwin. ]
[jf] _Though their virtues are blunted_----. --[Medwin. ]
[jg] {562} ----_that I envy their dead_. --[Medwin. ]
[jh] _They're the heart--the free spirit--the genius of Moore_. --[MS.
M. ]
[602] ["Signed W. L. B----, M. A. , and written with a view to a
Bishoprick. "--_Letters and Journals_, 1830, ii. 527, note.
Endorsed, "MS. Lord Byron. The King's visit to Ireland; a very seditious
and horrible libel, which never was intended to be published, and which
Lord B. called, himself, silly, being written in a moment of ill
nature. --C. B. "]
[603] ["I composed these stanzas (except the fourth, added now) a few
days ago, on the road from Florence to Pisa. "--Pisa, 6th November, 1821,
_Detached Thoughts_, No. 118, _Letters_, 1901, v. 466. ]
[604] ["I told Byron that his poetical sentiments of the attractions of
matured beauty had, at the moment, suggested four lines to me; which he
begged me to repeat, and he laughed not a little when I recited the
following lines to him:--
"Oh! talk not to me of the charms of Youth's dimples,
There's surely more sentiment center'd in wrinkles.
They're the triumphs of Time that mark Beauty's decay,
Telling tales of years past, and the few left to stay. "
_Conversations of Lord Byron_, 1834, pp. 255, 256. ]
[605] [These verses were written by Lord Byron a little before he left
Italy for Greece. They were meant to suit the Hindostanee air, "Alia
Malla Punca," which the Countess Guiccioli was fond of
singing. --Editor's note, _Works, etc. _, xiv. 357, Pisa, September,
1821. ]
[606] {564}[Probably "To Lady Blessington," who includes them in her
_Conversations of Lord Byron_. ]
[607] {565}[For reproduction of Lawrence's portrait of Lady Blessington,
see "List of Illustrations," _Letters_, 1901, v. [xv. ]. ]
[608] {566}[Aristomenes, the Achilles of the Alexandrian poet Rhianus
(Grote's _History of Greece_, 1869, ii. 428), is the legendary hero of
the second Messenian War (B. C. 685-668). Thrice he slew a hundred of the
Spartan foe, and thrice he offered the Hekatomphonia on Mount Ithome.
His name was held in honour long after "the rowers on their benches"
heard the wail, "Pan, Pan is dead! " At the close of the second century
of the Christian era, Pausanias (iv. 16. 4) made a note of Messenian
maidens hymning his victory over the Lacedaemonians--
"From the heart of the plain he drove them,
And he drove them back to the hill:
To the top of the hill he drove them,
As he followed them, followed them still! "
Byron was familiar with Thomas Taylor's translation of the _Periegesis
Graeciae_ (_vide ante_, p. 109, and "Observations," etc. , _Letters_, v.
Appendix III. p. 574), and with Mitford's _Greece_ (_Don Juan_, Canto
XII. stanza xix. line 7). Hence his knowledge of Aristomenes. The
thought expressed in lines 5-11 was, possibly, suggested by Coleridge's
translation of the famous passage in Schiller's _Piccolomini_ (act ii.
sc. 4, lines 118, _sq. _, "For fable is Love's world, his home," etc. ),
which is quoted by Sir Walter Scott, in the third chapter of _Guy
Mannering_. ]
THE BLUES:
A LITERARY ECLOGUE.
"Nimium ne crede colori. "--Virgil, [_Ecl_. ii. 17]
O trust not, ye beautiful creatures, to hue,
Though your _hair_ were as _red_, as your _stockings_ are _blue_.
INTRODUCTION TO _THE BLUES_.
Byron's correspondence does not explain the mood in which he wrote _The
Blues_, or afford the slightest hint or clue to its _motif_ or occasion.
In a letter to Murray, dated Ravenna, August 7, 1821, he writes, "I send
you a thing which I scribbled off yesterday, a mere buffoonery, to quiz
'The Blues. ' If published it must be _anonymously_. . . . You may send me a
proof if you think it worth the trouble. " Six weeks later, September 20,
he had changed his mind. "You need not," he says, "send _The Blues_,
which is a mere buffoonery not meant for publication. " With these
intimations our knowledge ends, and there is nothing to show why in
August, 1821, he took it into his head "to quiz The Blues," or why,
being so minded, he thought it worth while to quiz them in so pointless
and belated a fashion. We can but guess that an allusion in a letter
from England, an incident at a conversazione at Ravenna, or perhaps the
dialogues in Peacock's novels, _Melincourt_ and _Nightmare Abbey_,
brought to his recollection the half-modish, half-literary coteries of
the earlier years of the Regency, and that he sketches the scenes and
persons of his eclogue not from life, but from memory.
In the Diary of 1813, 1814, there is more than one mention of the
"Blues. " For instance, November 27, 1813, he writes, "Sotheby is a
_Litterateur_, the oracle of the Coteries of the * *'s, Lydia White
(Sydney Smith's 'Tory Virgin'), Mrs. Wilmot (she, at least, is a swan,
and might frequent a purer stream), Lady Beaumont and all the Blues,
with Lady Charlemont at their head. " Again on December 1, "To-morrow
there is a party _purple_ at the 'blue' Miss Berry's. Shall I go? um! --I
don't much affect your blue-bottles;--but one ought to be civil. . . .
Perhaps that blue-winged Kashmirian butterfly of book-learning Lady
Charlemont will be there" (see _Letters_, 1898, ii. 333, 358, note 2).
Byron was, perhaps, a more willing guest at literary entertainments
than he professed to be. "I met him," says Sir Walter Scott (_Memoirs of
the Life, etc. _, 1838, ii. 167), "frequently in society. . . . Some very
agreeable parties I can recollect, particularly one at Sir George
Beaumont's, where the amiable landlord had assembled some persons
distinguished for talent. Of these I need only mention the late Sir
Humphry Davy. . . . Mr. Richard Sharpe and Mr. Rogers were also present. "
Again, Miss Berry, in her _Journal_ (1866, in. 49) records, May 8, 1815,
that "Lord and Lady Byron persuaded me to go with them to Miss [Lydia]
White (_vide post_, p. 587). Never have I seen a more imposing
convocation of ladies arranged in a circle than when we entered . . . Lord
Byron brought me home. He stayed to supper. " If he did not affect "your
blue-bottles," he was on intimate terms with Madame de Stael, "the
_Begum_ of Literature," as Moore called her; with the Contessa
d'Albrizzi (the De Stael of Italy); with Mrs. Wilmot, the inspirer of
"She walks in beauty like the night;" with Mrs. Shelley; with Lady
Blessington.
