Life of Lord Byron Volume V Part 37

"I have nearly (_quite three_) four new cantos of Don Juan ready. I obtained permission from the female Censor Morum of _my_ morals to continue it, provided it were immaculate; so I have been as decent as need be. There is a deal of war--a siege, and all that, in the style, graphical and technical, of the s.h.i.+pwreck in Canto Second, which 'took,' as they say, in the Row.

Yours, &c.

"P.S. That * * * Galignani has about ten lies in one paragraph. It was not a Bible that was found in Sh.e.l.ley's pocket, but John Keats's poems. However, it would not have been strange, for he was a great admirer of Scripture as a composition. _I_ did not send my bust to the academy of New York; but I sat for my picture to young West, an American artist, at the request of some members of that Academy to _him_ that he would take my portrait,--for the Academy, I believe.[88]

"I had, and still have, thoughts of South America, but am fluctuating between it and Greece. I should have gone, long ago, to one of them, but for my liaison with the Countess Gi.; for love, in these days, is little compatible with glory. _She_ would be delighted to go too; but I do not choose to expose her to a long voyage, and a residence in an unsettled country, where I shall probably take a part of some sort."

[Footnote 87: The particulars of this event had, it is evident, not yet readied him.]

[Footnote 88: This portrait, though destined for America, was, it appears, never sent thither. A few copies of it have since been painted by Mr. West, but the original picture was purchased by Mr. Joy, of Hartham Park, Wilts; who is also the possessor of the original portrait of Madame Guiccioli, by the same artist.]

Soon after the above letters were written, Lord Byron removed to Genoa, having taken a house, called the Villa Saluzzo, at Albaro, one of the suburbs of that city. From the time of the unlucky squabble with the serjeant-major at Pisa, his tranquillity had been considerably broken in upon, as well by the judicial enquiries consequent upon that event, as by the many sinister rumours and suspicions to which it gave rise.

Though the wounded man had recovered, his friends all vowed vengeance with the dagger: and the sensation which the affair and its various consequences had produced was,--to Madame Guiccioli more particularly, from the situation in which her family stood, in regard to politics,--distressing and alarming. While the impression, too, of this event was still recent, another circ.u.mstance occurred which, though comparatively unimportant, had the unlucky effect of again drawing the attention of the Tuscans to their new visitors. During Lord Byron's short visit to Leghorn, a Swiss servant in his employ having quarrelled, on some occasion, with the brother of Madame Guiccioli, drew his knife upon the young Count, and wounded him slightly on the cheek. This affray, happening so soon after the other, was productive also of so much notice and conversation, that the Tuscan government, in its horror of every thing like disturbance, thought itself called upon to interfere; and orders were accordingly issued, that, within four days, the two Counts Gamba, father and son, should depart from Tuscany. To Lord Byron this decision was, in the highest degree, provoking and disconcerting; it being one of the conditions of the Guiccioli's separation from her husband, that she should thenceforward reside under the same roof with her father. After balancing in his mind between various projects,--sometimes thinking of Geneva, and sometimes, as we have seen, of South America,--he at length decided, for the present, to transfer his residence to Genoa.

His habits of life, while at Pisa, had but very little differed, except in the new line of society into which his introduction to Sh.e.l.ley's friends led him,--from the usual monotonous routine in which, so singularly for one of his desultory disposition, the daily course of his existence had now, for some years, flowed. At two he usually breakfasted, and at three, or, as the year advanced, four o'clock, those persons who were in the habit of accompanying him in his rides, called upon him. After, occasionally, a game of billiards, he proceeded,--and, in order to avoid starers, in his carriage,--as far as the gates of the town, where his horses met him. At first the route he chose for these rides was in the direction of the Cascine and of the pine-forest that reaches towards the sea; but having found a spot more convenient for his pistol exercise on the road leading from the Porta alla Spiaggia to the east of the city, he took daily this course during the remainder of his stay. When arrived at the Podere or farm, in the garden of which they were allowed to erect their target, his friends and he dismounted, and, after devoting about half an hour to a trial of skill at the pistol, returned, a little before sunset, into the city.

"Lord Byron," says a friend who was sometimes present at their practising, "was the best marksman. Sh.e.l.ley, and Williams, and Trelawney, often made as good shots as he--but they were not so certain; and he, though his hand trembled violently, never missed, for he calculated on this vibration, and depended entirely on his eye. Once after demolis.h.i.+ng his mark, he set up a slender cane, whose colour, nearly the same as the gravel in which it was fixed, might well have deceived him, and at twenty paces he divided it with his bullet. His joy at a good shot, and his vexation at a failure, was great--and when we met him on his return, his cold salutation, or joyous laugh, told the tale of the day's success."

For the first time since his arrival in Italy, he now found himself tempted to give dinner parties; his guests being, besides Count Gamba and Sh.e.l.ley, Mr. Williams, Captain Medwin, Mr. Taafe, and Mr.

Trelawney;--and "never," as his friend Sh.e.l.ley used to say, "did he display himself to more advantage than on these occasions; being at once polite and cordial, full of social hilarity and the most perfect good humour; never diverging into ungraceful merriment, and yet keeping up the spirit of liveliness throughout the evening." About midnight his guests generally left him, with the exception of Captain Medwin, who used to remain, as I understand, talking and drinking with his n.o.ble host till far into the morning; and to the careless, half mystifying confidences of these nocturnal sittings, implicitly listened to and confusedly recollected, we owe the volume with which Captain Medwin, soon after the death of the n.o.ble poet, favoured the world.

On the subject of this and other such intimacies formed by Lord Byron, not only at the period of which we are speaking, but throughout his whole life, it would be difficult to advance any thing more judicious, or more demonstrative of a true knowledge of his character, than is to be found in the following remarks of one who had studied him with her whole heart,--who had learned to regard him with the eyes of good sense, as well as of affection, and whose strong love, in short, was founded upon a basis the most creditable both to him and herself,--the being able to understand him.[89]

"We continued in Pisa even more rigorously to absent ourselves from society. However, as there were a good many English in Pisa, he could not avoid becoming acquainted with various friends of Sh.e.l.ley, among which number was Mr. Medwin. They followed him in his rides, dined with him, and felt themselves happy, of course, in the apparent intimacy in which they lived with so renowned a man; but not one of them was admitted to any part of his friends.h.i.+p, which, indeed, he did not easily accord. He had a great affection for Sh.e.l.ley, and a great esteem for his character and talents; but he was not his friend in the most extensive sense of that word. Sometimes, when speaking of his friends and of friends.h.i.+p, as also of love, and of every other n.o.ble emotion of the soul, his expressions might inspire doubts concerning his sentiments and the goodness of his heart. The feeling of the moment regulated his speech, and, besides, he liked to play the part of singularity,--and sometimes worse,--more especially with those whom he suspected of endeavouring to make discoveries as to his real character; but it was only mean minds and superficial observers that could be deceived in him.

It was necessary to consider his actions to perceive the contradiction they bore to his words: it was necessary to be witness of certain moments, during which unforeseen and involuntary emotion forced him to give himself entirely up to his feelings; and whoever beheld him then, became aware of the stores of sensibility and goodness of which his n.o.ble heart was full.

"Among the many occasions _I_ had of seeing him thus overpowered, I shall mention one relative to his feelings of friends.h.i.+p. A few days before leaving Pisa, we were one evening seated in the garden of the Palazzo Lanfranchi. A soft melancholy was spread over his countenance; he recalled to mind the events of his life; compared them with his present situation, and with that which it might have been if his affection for me had not caused him to remain in Italy, saying things which would have made earth a paradise for me, but that even then a presentiment that I should lose all this happiness tormented me. At this moment a servant announced Mr. Hobhouse. The slight shade of melancholy diffused over Lord Byron's face gave instant place to the liveliest joy; but it was so great, that it almost deprived him of strength. A fearful paleness came over his cheeks, and his eyes were filled with tears as he embraced his friend. His emotion was so great that he was forced to sit down.

"Lord Clare's visit also occasioned him extreme delight. He had a great affection for Lord Clare, and was very happy during the short visit that he paid him at Leghorn. The day on which they separated was a melancholy one for Lord Byron. 'I have a presentiment that I shall never see him more,' he said, and his eyes filled with tears. The same melancholy came over him during the first weeks that succeeded to Lord Clare's departure, whenever his conversation happened to fall upon this friend."[90]

Of his feelings on the death of his daughter Allegra, this lady gives the following account:--"On the occasion also of the death of his natural daughter, I saw in his grief the excess of paternal kindness.

His conduct towards this child was always that of a fond father; but no one would have guessed from his expressions that he felt this affection for her. He was dreadfully agitated by the first intelligence of her illness; and when afterwards that of her death arrived, I was obliged to fulfil the melancholy task of communicating it to him. The memory of that frightful moment is stamped indelibly on my mind. For several evenings he had not left his house, I therefore went to him. His first question was relative to the courier he had despatched for tidings of his daughter, and whose delay disquieted him. After a short interval of suspense, with every caution which my own sorrow suggested, I deprived him of all hope of the child's recovery. 'I understand,' said he,--'it is enough, say no more.' A mortal paleness spread itself over his face, his strength failed him, and he sunk into a seat. His look was fixed, and the expression such that I began to fear for his reason; he did not shed a tear, and his countenance manifested so hopeless, so profound, so sublime a sorrow, that at the moment he appeared a being of a nature superior to humanity. He remained immovable in the same att.i.tude for an hour, and no consolation which I endeavoured to afford him seemed to reach his ears, far less his heart. But enough of this sad episode, on which I cannot linger, even after the lapse of so many years, without renewing in my own heart the awful wretchedness of that day. He desired to be left alone, and I was obliged to leave him. I found him on the following morning tranquillised, and with an expression of religious resignation on his features. 'She is more fortunate than we are,' he said; 'besides, her position in the world would scarcely have allowed her to be happy. It is G.o.d's will--let us mention it no more.' And from that day he would never p.r.o.nounce her name; but became more anxious when he spoke of Ada,--so much so as to disquiet himself when the usual accounts sent him were for a post or two delayed."[91]

The melancholy death of poor Sh.e.l.ley, which happened, as we have seen, also during this period, seems to have affected Lord Byron's mind, less with grief for the actual loss of his friend, than with bitter indignation against those who had, through life, so grossly misrepresented him; and never certainly was there an instance where the supposed absence of all religion in an individual was a.s.sumed so eagerly as an excuse for the absence of all charity in judging him. Though never personally acquainted with Mr. Sh.e.l.ley, I can join freely with those who most loved him in admiring the various excellences of his heart and genius, and lamenting the too early doom that robbed us of the mature fruits of both. His short life had been, like his poetry, a sort of bright erroneous dream,--false in the general principles on which it proceeded, though beautiful and attaching in most of the details. Had full time been allowed for the "over-light" of his imagination to have been tempered down by the judgment which, in him, was still in reserve, the world at large would have been taught to pay that high homage to his genius which those only who saw what he was capable of can now be expected to accord to it.

It was about this time that Mr. Cowell, paying a visit to Lord Byron at Genoa, was told by him that some friends of Mr. Sh.e.l.ley, sitting together one evening, had seen that gentleman, distinctly, as they thought, walk into a little wood at Lerici, when at the same moment, as they afterwards discovered, he was far away in quite a different direction. "This," added Lord Byron, in a low, awe-struck tone of voice, "was but ten days before poor Sh.e.l.ley died."

[Footnote 89: My poor Zimmerman, who now will understand thee?"--such was the touching speech addressed to Zimmerman by his wife, on her death-bed; and there is implied in these few words all that a man of morbid sensibility must be dependant for upon the tender and self-forgetting tolerance of the woman with whom he is united.]

[Footnote 90: "In Pisa abbiamo continuato anche piu rigorosaraente a vivere lontano dalla societa. Essendosi per in Pisa molti Inglesi egli non pote escusarsi dal fare la conoscenza di varii amici di Sh.e.l.ley, fra i quali uno fu Mr. Medwin. Essi lo seguitavano al pa.s.seggio, pranzavono con lui e certamente si tenevano felici della apparente intimita che loro accordava un uomo cos superiore. Ma nessuno di loro fu ammesso mai a porta della sua amicizia, che egli non era facile a accordare. Per Sh.e.l.ley egli aveva dell' affezione, e molta stima pel suo carattere e pel suo talento, ma non era suo amico nel estensione del senso che si deva dare alla parola amicizia. Talvolta parlando egli de' suoi amici, e dell' amicizia, come pure dell' amore, e di ogni altro n.o.bile sentimento dell' anima, potevano i suoi discorsi far nascere dei dubbii sui veri suoi sentimenti, e sulla bonta del suo core. Una impressione momentanea regolava i suoi discorsi; e di piu egli amava anche a rappresentare un personaggio bizzarro, e qualche volta anche peggio,--specialmente con quelli che egli pensava volessero studiare e fare delle scoperte sul suo carattere. Ma nell' inganno non poteva cadere che una piccola mente, e un osservatore superficiale. Bisognava esaminare le sue azioni per sentire tutta le contraddizione che era fra di esse e i suoi discorsi; bisognava vederlo in certi momenti in cui per una emozione improvisa e piu forte della sua volonta la sua anima si abbandonava interamente a se stessa;--bisognava vederlo allora per scoprire i tesori di sensibilita e di bonta che erano n quella n.o.bile anima.

"Fra le tante volte che io l'ho veduto in simili circostanze ne ricorder una che risguarda i suoi sentimenti di amicizia. Pochi giorni prima di lasciare Pisa eravamo verso sera insieme seduti nel giardino del Palazzo Lanfranchi. Una dolce malinconia era sparsa sul suo viso.

Egli riandava col pensiero gli avvenimenti della sua vita e faceva il confronto colle attuale sue situazione e quella che avrebbe potuta essere se la sua affezione per me non lo avesse fatto restare in Italia; e diceva cose che avrebbero resa per me la terra un paradiso, se gi sino d'allora il pressentimento di perdere tanta felicita non mi avesse tormentata. In questo mentre un domestico annunci Mr. Hobhouse. La leggiera tinta di malinconia sparsa sul viso di Byron fece, luogo subitamente alia piu viva gioia; ma essa fu cos forte che gli tolse quasi le forze. Un pallore commovente ricoperse il suo volto, e nell'

abbracciare il suo amico i suoi occhi erano pieni di lacrime di contento. E l'emozione fu cos forte che egli fu obbligato di sedersi, sentendosi mancare le forze.

"La venuta pure di Lord Clare fu per lui un epoca di grande felicita.

Egli amava sommamente Lord Clare--egli era cos felice in quel breve tempo che pa.s.s presso di lui a Livorno, e il giorno in cui si separarono fu un giorno di grande tristezza per Lord Byron. 'Io ho il pressentimento che non lo vedr piu,' diceva egli; e i suoi occhi si riempirano di lacrime; e in questo stato l'ho veduto per varii settimanie dopo la partenza di Lord Clare, ogni qual volta il discorso cadeva sopra di codesto il suo amico."]

[Footnote 91: "Nell' occasione pure della morire della sua figlia naturale io ho veduto nel suo dolore tuttoci che vi e di piu profondo nella tenerezza paterna. La sua condotta verso di codesta fanciulla era stata sempre quella del padre il piu amoroso; ma dalle di lui parole non si sarebbe giudicato che avesse tanta affezione per lei. Alia prima notizia della di lei malattia egli fu sommamente agitato; giunse poi la notizia della morte, ed io dovessi esercitare il tristo uficio di partic.i.p.arla a Lord Byron. Quel sensibile momenta sara indelebile nella mia memoria. Egli non usciva da varii giorni la sera: io andai dunque da lui. La prima domauda che egli mi fece fu relativa al Corriere che egli aveva spedito per avere notizie della sua figlia, e di cui il r.e.t.a.r.do lo inquietava. Dopo qualche momento di sospensione con tutta l'arte che sapeva suggerirmi il mio proprio dotore gli tolsi ogni speranza della guarizione della fanciulla. 'Ho inteso,' disse egli--'basta cos--non dite di piu'--e un pallore mortale si spa.r.s.e sul suo volto; le forze gli mancarono, e cadde sopra una sedia d'appoggio. Il suo sguardo era fisso e tale che mi fece temere per la sua ragione. Egli rimase in quello stato d'immobilita un' ora; e nessuna parola d consolazione che io potessi indirezzargli pareva penetrare le sue orecchie non che il suo core. Ma basta cos di questa trista detenzione nella quale non posso fermarmi dopo tanti anni senza risvegliare d nuovo nel mio animo le terribile sofferenze di quel giorno. La mattina lo trovai tranquillo, e con una espressione di religiosa ra.s.segn.a.z.ione nel suo volto. 'Ella e piu felice di noi,' diss' egli--'d'altronde la sua situazione nel mondo non le avrebbe data forse felicita. Dio ha voluto cos--non ne parliamo piu.' E da quel giorno in poi non ha piu voluto proferire il nome di quella fanciulla. Ma e divenuto piu pensieroso parlando di Adda, al punto di tormentarsi quando gli ritardavano di qualche ordinario le di lei notizie."]

LETTER 504. TO MR. MURRAY.

"Genoa, October 9. 1822.

"I have received your letter, and as you explain it, I have no objection, on _your_ account, to omit those pa.s.sages in the new Mystery (which were marked in the half-sheet sent the other day to Pisa), or the pa.s.sage in _Cain_;--but why not be open and say so at _first_? You should be more straight-forward on every account.

"I have been very unwell--four days confined to my bed in 'the worst inn's worst room,' at Lerici, with a violent rheumatic and bilious attack, constipation, and the devil knows what: no physician, except a young fellow, who, however, was kind and cautious, and that's enough.

"At last I seized Thompson's book of prescriptions (a donation of yours), and physicked myself with the first dose I found in it; and after undergoing the ravages of all kinds of decoctions, sallied from bed on the fifth day to cross the Gulf to Sestri. The sea revived me instantly; and I ate the sailor's cold fish, and drank a gallon of country wine, and got to Genoa the same night after landing at Sestri, and have ever since been keeping well, but thinner, and with an occasional cough towards evening.

"I am afraid the Journal _is a bad_ business, and won't do; but in it I am sacrificing _myself_ for others--_I_ can have no advantage in it. I believe the _brothers Hunts_ to be honest men; I am sure that they are poor ones; they have not a nap. They pressed me to engage in this work, and in an evil hour I consented. Still I shall not repent, if I can do them the least service. I have done all I can for Leigh Hunt since he came here; but it is almost useless:--his wife is ill, his six children not very tractable, and in the affairs of this world he himself is a child. The death of Sh.e.l.ley left them totally aground; and I could not see them in such a state without using the common feelings of humanity, and what means were in my power, to set them afloat again.

"So Douglas Kinnaird is out of the way? He was so the last time I sent him a parcel, and he gives no previous notice. When is he expected again?

"Yours, &c.

"P.S. Will you say at once--do you publish Werner and the Mystery or not? You never once allude to them.

"That curst advertis.e.m.e.nt of Mr. J. Hunt is out of the limits. I did not lend him my name to be hawked about in this way.

"However, I believe--at least, hope--that after all you may be a good fellow at bottom, and it is on this presumption that I now write to you on the subject of a poor woman of the name of _Yossy_, who is, or was, an author of yours, as she says, and published a book on Switzerland in 1816, patronised by the 'Court and Colonel M'Mahon.' But it seems that neither the Court nor the Colonel could get over the portentous price of three pounds, thirteen, and sixpence,' which alarmed the too susceptible public; and, in short, 'the book died away,' and, what is worse, the poor soul's husband died too, and she writes with the man a corpse before her; but instead of addressing the bishop or Mr. Wilberforce, she hath recourse to that proscribed, atheistical, syllogistical, phlogistical person, _mysen_, as they say in Notts. It is strange enough, but the rascaille English who calumniate me in every direction and on every score, whenever they are in great distress recur to me for a.s.sistance. If I have had one example of this, I have had letters from a thousand, and as far as is in my power have tried to repay good for evil, and purchase a s.h.i.+lling's worth of salvation as long as my pocket can hold out.

"Now, I am willing to do what I can for this unfortunate person; but her situation and her wishes (not unreasonable, however,) require more than can be advanced by one individual like myself; for I have many claims of the same kind just at present, and also some remnants of _debt_ to pay in England--G.o.d, he knows, the _latter_ how reluctantly! Can the Literary Fund do nothing for her?

By your interest, which is great among the pious, I dare say that something might be collected. Can you get any of her books published? Suppose you took her as author in my place, now vacant among your ragam.u.f.fins; she is a moral and pious person, and will s.h.i.+ne upon your shelves. But seriously, do what you can for her."

LETTER 505. TO MR. MURRAY.

"Genoa, 9bre 23. 1822.

"I have to thank you for a parcel of books, which are very welcome, especially Sir Walter's gift of 'Halidon Hill.' You have sent me a copy of 'Werner,' but _without_ the preface. If you have published it _without_, you will have plunged me into a very disagreeable dilemma, because I shall be accused of plagiarism from Miss Lee's German's Tale, whereas I have fully and freely acknowledged that the drama is entirely taken from the story.

"I return you the Quarterly Review, uncut and unopened, not from disrespect or disregard or pique, but it is a kind of reading which I have some time disused, as I think the periodical style of writing hurtful to the habits of the mind, by presenting the superfices of too many things at once. I do not know that it contains any thing disagreeable to me--it may or it may not; nor do I return it on account that there _may_ be an article which you hinted at in one of your late letters, but because I have left off reading these kind of works, and should equally have returned you any other number.

"I am obliged to take in one or two abroad, because solicited to do so. The Edinburgh came before me by mere chance in Galignani's picnic sort of gazette, where he had inserted a part of it.

"You will have received various letters from me lately, in a style which I used with reluctance; but you left me no other choice by your absolute refusal to communicate with a man you did not like upon the mere simple matter of transfer of a few papers of little consequence (except to their author), and which could be of no moment to yourself.

"I hope that Mr. Kinnaird is better. It is strange that you never alluded to his accident, if it be true, as stated in the papers. I am yours, &c. &c.

"I hope that you have a milder winter than we have had here. We have had inundations worthy of the Trent or Po, and the conductor (Franklin's) of my house was struck (or supposed to be stricken) by a thunderbolt. I was so near the window that I was dazzled and my eyes hurt for several minutes, and everybody in the house felt an electric shock at the moment. Madame Guiccioli was frightened, as you may suppose.

"I have thought since that your bigots would have 'saddled me with a judgment' (as Thwack.u.m did Square when he bit his tongue in talking metaphysics), if any thing had happened of consequence.