Life of Lord Byron Volume V Part 23

One of the "paper-books" mentioned in this letter as intrusted to Mr.

Mawman for me, contained a portion, to the amount of nearly a hundred pages, of a prose story, relating the adventures of a young Andalusian n.o.bleman, which had been begun by him, at Venice, in 1817. The following pa.s.sage is all I shall extract from this amusing Fragment:--

"A few hours afterwards we were very good friends, and a few days after she set out for Arragon, with my son, on a visit to her father and mother. I did not accompany her immediately, having been in Arragon before, but was to join the family in their Moorish chateau within a few weeks.

"During her journey I received a very affectionate letter from Donna Josepha, apprising me of the welfare of herself and my son.

On her arrival at the chateau, I received another still more affectionate, pressing me, in very fond, and rather foolish, terms, to join her immediately. As I was preparing to set out from Seville, I received a third--this was from her father, Don Jose di Cardozo, who requested me, in the politest manner, to dissolve my marriage. I answered him with equal politeness, that I would do no such thing. A fourth letter arrived--it was from Donna Josepha, in which she informed me that her father's letter was written by her particular desire. I requested the reason by return of post--she replied, by express, that as reason had nothing to do with the matter, it was unnecessary to give any--but that she was an injured and excellent woman. I then enquired why she had written to me the two preceding affectionate letters, requesting me to come to Arragon. She answered, that was because she believed me out of my senses--that, being unfit to take care of myself, I had only to set out on this journey alone, and making my way without difficulty to Don Jose di Cardozo's, I should there have found the tenderest of wives and--a strait waistcoat.

"I had nothing to reply to this piece of affection but a reiteration of my request for some lights upon the subject. I was answered that they would only be related to the Inquisition. In the mean time, our domestic discrepancy had become a public topic of discussion: and the world, which always decides justly, not only in Arragon but in Andalusia, determined that I was not only to blame, but that all Spain could produce n.o.body so blamable. My case was supposed to comprise all the crimes which could, and several which could not, be committed, and little less than an auto-da-fe was antic.i.p.ated as the result. But let no man say that we are abandoned by our friends in adversity--it was just the reverse. Mine thronged around me to condemn, advise, and console me with their disapprobation.--They told me all that was, would, or could be said on the subject. They shook their heads--they exhorted me--deplored me, with tears in their eyes, and--went to dinner."

LETTER 450. TO MR. MURRAY.

"Ravenna, September 4. 1821.

"By Sat.u.r.day's post, I sent you a fierce and furibund letter upon the subject of the printer's blunders in Don Juan. I must solicit your attention to the topic, though my wrath hath subsided into sullenness.

"Yesterday I received Mr. ----, a friend of yours, and because he is a friend of _yours_; and that's more than I would do in an _English_ case, except for those whom I honour. I was as civil as I could be among packages even to the very chairs and tables, for I am going to _Pisa_ in a few weeks, and have sent and am sending off my chattels. It regretted me[49] that, my books and every thing being packed, I could not send you a few things I meant for you; but they were all sealed and baggaged, so as to have made it a month's work to get at them again. I gave him an envelope, with the Italian sc.r.a.p in it[50], alluded to in my Gilchrist defence.

Hobhouse will make it out for you, and it will make you laugh, and him too, the _spelling_ particularly. The '_Mericani_,' of whom they call me the 'Capo' (or Chief), mean 'Americans,' which is the name given in _Romagna_ to a part of the Carbonari; that is to say, to the _popular_ part, the _troops_ of the Carbonari. They are originally a society of hunters in the forest, who took the name of Americans, but at present comprise some thousands, &c.; but I shan't let you further into the secret, which may be partic.i.p.ated with the postmasters. Why they thought me their Chief, I know not: their Chiefs are like 'Legion, being many. However, it is a post of more honour than profit, for, now that they are persecuted, it is fit that I should aid them; and so I have done, as far as my means would permit. They will rise again some day, for these fools of the government are blundering: they actually seem to know _nothing_; for they have arrested and banished many of their _own_ party, and let others escape who are not their friends.

"What think'st thou of Greece?

"Address to me here as usual, till you hear further from me.

"By Mawman I have sent a Journal to Moore; but it won't do for the public,--at least a great deal of it won't;--_parts_ may.

"I read over the Juans, which are excellent. Your squad are quite wrong; and so you will find by and by. I regret that I do not go on with it, for I had all the plan for several cantos, and different countries and climes. You say nothing of the _note_ I enclosed to you[51], which will explain why I agreed to discontinue it (at Madame G----'s request); but you are so grand, and sublime, and occupied, that one would think, instead of publis.h.i.+ng for 'the Board of _Longitude_,' that you were trying to discover it.

"Let me hear that Gifford is _better_. He can't be spared either by you or me."

[Footnote 49: It will be observed, from this and a few other instances, that notwithstanding the wonderful purity of English he was able to preserve in his writings, while living constantly with persons speaking a different language, he had already begun so far to feel the influence of this habit as to fall occasionally into Italianisms in his familiar letters.--"I am in the case to know"--"I have caused write"--"It regrets me," &c.]

[Footnote 50: An anonymous letter which he had received, threatening him with a.s.sa.s.sination.]

[Footnote 51: In this note, so highly honourable to the fair writer, she says, "Remember, my Byron, the promise you have made me. Never shall I be able to tell you the satisfaction I feel from it, so great are the sentiments of pleasure and confidence with which the sacrifice you have made has inspired me." In a postscript to the note she adds, "I am only sorry that Don Juan was not left in the infernal regions."--"Ricordati, mio Byron, della promessa che mi hai fatta. Non potrei mai dirti la satisfazione ch' io ne provo!--sono tanti i sentimenti di piacere e di confidenza che il tuo sacrificio m'inspira."--"Mi reveresce solo che Don Giovanni non resti all' Inferno."

In enclosing the lady's note to Mr. Murray, July 4th, Lord B. says, "This is the note of acknowledgment for the promise not to continue Don Juan. She says, in the postscript, that she is only sorry that D.J. does not _remain_ in h.e.l.l (or go there)".]

LETTER 451. TO MR. MURRAY.

"Ravenna, September 12. 1821.

"By Tuesday's post, I forwarded, in three packets, the drama of Cain in three acts, of which I request the acknowledgment when arrived. To the last speech of _Eve_, in the last act (_i.e._ where she curses Cain), add these three lines to the concluding one--

"May the gra.s.s wither from thy foot! the woods Deny thee shelter! earth a home! the dust A grave! the sun his light! and Heaven her G.o.d!

"There's as pretty a piece of imprecation for you, when joined to the lines already sent, as you may wish to meet with in the course of your business. But don't forget the addition of the above three lines, which are clinchers to Eve's speech.

"Let me know what Gifford thinks (if the play arrives in safety); for I have a good opinion of the piece, as poetry; it is in my gay metaphysical style, and in the Manfred line.

"You must at least commend my facility and variety, when you consider what I have done within the last fifteen months, with my head, too, full of other and of mundane matters. But no doubt you will avoid saying any good of it, for fear I should raise the price upon you: that's right: stick to business. Let me know what your other ragam.u.f.fins are writing, for I suppose you don't like starting too many of your vagabonds at once. You may give them the start, for any thing I care.

"Why don't you publish my _Pulci_--the best thing I ever wrote,--with the Italian to it? I wish I was alongside of you; nothing is ever done in a man's absence; every body runs counter, because they _can_. If ever I _do_ return to England, (which I sha'n't, though,) I will write a poem to which 'English Bards,' &c.

shall be new milk, in comparison. Your present literary world of mountebanks stands in need of such an Avatar. But I am not yet quite bilious enough: a season or two more, and a provocation or two, will wind me up to the point, and then have at the whole set!

"I have no patience with the sort of trash you send me out by way of books; except Scott's novels, and three or four other things, I never saw such work, or works. Campbell is lecturing--Moore idling--S * * twaddling--W * * drivelling--C * * muddling--* *

piddling--B * * quibbling, squabbling, and snivelling. * * will _do_, if he don't cant too much, nor imitate Southey; the fellow has poesy in him; but he is envious, and unhappy, as all the envious are. Still he is among the best of the day. B * * C * *

will do better by-and-by, I dare say, if he don't get spoiled by green tea, and the praises of Pentonville and Paradise Row. The pity of these men is, that they never lived in _high life_, nor in _solitude_: there is no medium for the knowledge of the _busy_ or the _still_ world. If admitted into high life for a season, it is merely as spectators--they form no part of the mechanism thereof.

Now Moore and I, the one by circ.u.mstances, and the other by birth, happened to be free of the corporation, and to have entered into its pulses and pa.s.sions, _quarum partes fuimus_. Both of us have learnt by this much which nothing else could have taught us.

"Yours.

"P.S. I saw one of your brethren, another of the allied sovereigns of Grub Street, the other day, Mawman the Great, by whom I sent due homage to your imperial self. To-morrow's post may perhaps bring a letter from you, but you are the most ungrateful and ungracious of correspondents. But there is some excuse for you, with your perpetual levee of politicians, parsons, scribblers, and loungers.

Some day I will give you a poetical catalogue of them."

LETTER 452. TO MR. MOORE.

"Ravenna, September 17. 1821.

"The enclosed lines[52], as you will directly perceive, are written by the Rev. W.L.B * *. Of course it is for _him_ to deny them if they are not.

"Believe me yours ever and most affectionately,

"B.

"P.S. Can you forgive this? It is only a reply to your lines against my Italians. Of course I will _stand_ by my lines against all men; but it is heart-breaking to see such things in a people as the reception of that unredeemed * * * * * * in an oppressed country. _Your_ apotheosis is now reduced to a level with his welcome, and their grat.i.tude to Grattan is cancelled by their atrocious adulation of this, &c. &c. &c."

[Footnote 52: "The Irish Avatar." In this copy the following sentence (taken from a letter of Curran, in the able Life of that true Irishman, by his son) is prefixed as a motto to the Poem,--"And Ireland, like a bastinadoed elephant, kneeling to receive the paltry rider."--_Letter of Curran, Life_, vol. ii. p. 336. At the end of the verses are these words:--"(Signed) W.L. B * *, M.A., and written with a view to a Bishop.r.i.c.k."]

LETTER 453. TO MR. MOORE.

"Ravenna, September 19, 1821.

"I am in all the sweat, dust, and blasphemy of an universal packing of all my things, furniture, &c. for Pisa, whither I go for the winter. The cause has been the exile of all my fellow Carbonics, and, amongst them, of the whole family of Madame G.; who, you know, was divorced from her husband last week, 'on account of P.P. clerk of this parish,' and who is obliged to join her father and relatives, now in exile there, to avoid being shut up in a monastery, because the Pope's decree of separation required her to reside in _casa paterna_, or else, for decorum's sake, in a convent. As I could not say with Hamlet, 'Get thee to a nunnery,' I am preparing to follow them.

"It is awful work, this love, and prevents all a man's projects of good or glory. I wanted to go to Greece lately (as every thing seems up here) with her brother, who is a very fine, brave fellow (I have seen him put to the proof), and wild about liberty. But the tears of a woman who has left her husband for a man, and the weakness of one's own heart, are paramount to these projects, and I can hardly indulge them.

"We were divided in choice between Switzerland and Tuscany, and I gave my vote for Pisa, as nearer the Mediterranean, which I love for the sake of the sh.o.r.es which it washes, and for my young recollections of 1809. Switzerland is a curst selfish, swinish country of brutes, placed in the most romantic region of the world.

I never could bear the inhabitants, and still less their English visiters; for which reason, after writing for some information about houses, upon hearing that there was a colony of English all over the cantons of Geneva, &c. I immediately gave up the thought, and persuaded the Gambas to do the same.

"By the last post I sent you 'The Irish Avatar,'--what think you?