I have ventured also to reprint a poem at the end of the volume from my own "Songs of the Heights and Deeps," which was written after a pilgrimage to Newstead and Hucknall, since this condenses my general impression and feeling concerning the great AngloEuropean poet so much better than I can do it in prose.

Certain grave charges against Byron one might not have cared to touch upon here, had they not already been publicly discussed all over the world, so that no biography of him, however brief in compass, could now pretend to be fair and full without some sifting of the evidence relating to them.

R. N.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

PAGE

The life and poetry of some poets, notably of Byron, insepara-

ble; his popularity; general character of his poetry;

the Poet of Revolution; testimony of great writers in

his favour; represents his age; place in literature;

birth, Jan. 22, 1788; ancestry; family; early years; lame-

ness; habits formed, partly in consequence; Aberdeen;

Mary Duff; succeeds to the title; Dulwich; Margaret

Parker; first distinctly recollected love for nature; Thyrza;

Eddlestone; Harrow; strong friendships there; character

and personal appearance as a boy; the holidays; Mary

Anne Chaworth; Augusta Leigh; his mother; his letters;

Southwell; his interest in life always equal to his interest

in literature; no mere bookman; manysidedness; bio-

graphers; distasteful to the "academic," "superior" person 13

CHAPTER II.

Cambridge, Oct., 1805; the Alma Mater of poets; Eddle-
stone; Long; Matthews; Davies; Hobhouse; Hodgson;
religious opinions; generosity, and delicacy in giving;
faults; Harness; who were Byron's intimates? London;
dissipation; artistic parade of experience; Stendhal;
"Hours of Idleness," March, 1807; Becher; Edinburgh
Review; Lord Carlisle; takes his seat in the House;

English Bards and Scotch Reviewers," March, 1809;

Newstead; his dogs; goes abroad, June, 1809-11; Portu-

gal; Seville; Spanish flirtations; Malta; Albania; Ali

Pacha; storm at sea; Parnassus; Athens; Nicolo Giraud;

swims the Hellespont; Byron and Trelawny as athletes ;

pride of rank; incident in "The Giaour;' return to

England; "Childe Harold;" Dallas; his mother's death;

deaths of Eddlestone, Matthews, Wingfield; Byron's will;

becomes acquainted with Moore; Byron's beauty; speech

on the Nottingham Frame - breakers Bill;
"Childe

Harold" published Feb., 1813; popularity; character-

istics of his early poetry; Lady Catherine Lamb; Murray;

the Tales, 1813-16; meeting with Sir Walter Scott;

Byron's pride of birth, and ostentatious self-assertion, in

conflict with his humanitarian and revolutionary sym-

pathies; the tide of popularity on the turn

CHAPTER III.

Marriage with Miss Milbanke, Jan., 1815; "The Dream;"
early happiness of bride and bridegroom; Byron did not
marry for money; his buffoonery and love of mischief;
Lady Byron's charges against him; mutual incompatibility;
her character; good excuses for her leaving him; his bad
conduct to her, and eccentricity; her virtue, conven-
tionality, and hardness; she thinks him mad; Augusta
Leigh; Byron's will; Lord Wentworth's death; birth of
Ada, Dec., 1815; Mrs. Clermont; money embarrass-
ments; Lady Byron's charge against Mrs. Leigh; on
what founded; Byron's morbid self-accusals; Lady Byron's
long friendship for, and late estrangement from, Augusta ;
the motive of "Manfred;" Lady Byron leaves her hus-
band, Jan., 1816; she consults Dr. Lushington; sends
doctor and lawyer to examine Byron; her father insists
on a separation; her quasi-silence as to her grievances;
Jane Clairmont; public execration of Byron; he deeply
regrets his wife; "The Farewell;" what did she tell
Lushington? she formally disclaims the worst charges;
her worst story incapable of proof; inconsistency of her

PAGE

54

conduct; her open secret; the cause of his subsequent

bitterness against her; Byron offers to go into court;

destruction of the "Memoirs;" Lady Byron's inaccuracy

and implacability

PAGE

91

CHAPTER IV.

66

Byron goes abroad, April, 1816; Geneva; meets Shelley;

tour on the lakes with him; calumny; birth of Allegra,

Feb., 1817; Madame de Staël; with Hobhouse through

the Oberland; "Prisoner of Chillon;" third canto of

"Childe Harold;" "Manfred; " "Prometheus," &c.,

June-July, 1817; Domestic Poems; his poetic mission;

with Hobhouse to Italy; Venice; story about Shelley and

Claire; Byron and Hoppner believe it; why Byron did

not send Mrs. Shelley's disclaimer to Mrs. Hoppner;

Byron's conduct to Claire; Allegra is sent to a convent at

Bagni Cavallo, and dies there, April, 1822; Byron's love for

her; debauchery at Venice; Marianna Segati; "Lament of

Tasso;" Rome; Thorwaldsen's bust; Harold," canto

iv., 1818; poetry of Shelley and Byron; some defects in it;

Byron's a transition poetry, half-classical, half-romantic;

greatly admired Pope; lyrics; descriptive poetry; La Mira;

Margarita Cogni; "Mazeppa;" "Beppo;" "Don Juan,"

1818-19; mutual love of Byron and Augusta; she put up

the tablet at Hucknall when the doors of Westminster

Abbey were closed to him; Shelley's visit to Venice, Aug.,

1818; rides with Shelley on the Lido; "Julian and

Maddalo; " epitaphs at Ferrara ; Byron's taint of worldli-

ness; document about the separation drawn up at La Mira;

Moore's visit, 1819; Byron's benevolence and generosity;

beloved by his servants; his financial position; sale of

Newstead; the "Memoirs; " Lady Noel's death

CHAPTER V.

Theresa Guiccioli, April, 1819; the Count, her husband;
Ravenna; Theresa, falling ill, entreats Byron to join her,
which he does: comical scenes at her bedside; Cavalier

. 117

servente; Pine-forest; "Prophecy of Dante," 1819; quarrel

about a horse; Byron's rages and tendency to madness;

Bologna; takes Theresa with him to La Mira; her hus-

band, failing to get money from him, carries her off to

Ravenna; Byron thinks of returning to England, but is

summoned by Theresa's family, on her renewed illness,

to Ravenna, Dec., 1819-Jan., 1820; is warned against

the Count; Theresa obtains a decree of separation from

him; Byron joins in the Carbonaro conspiracies, 1820;

Pietro Gamba; Byron's courage; the Gambas banished;

Byron was ambitious, yet had a genuine love for Liberty,

and hatred of oppression; goes to Pisa; meets Lord Clare

and Rogers; the dramas-"Two Foscari; " "Werner;"

"Marino Faliero;" "Sardanapalus, 1820-22; " the two

last fine plays; "Cain ;" Byron's contribution to thought;

how far is he an iconoclast? noble moral elements; some

pregnant, and some superficial religious objections in this

great dramatic poem ; "Deformed Transformed;

"Heaven and Earth; " "Vision of Judgment," 1822;

Southey; translation from Pulci and Dante; which of his

contemporaries in literature Byron admired; life at Pisa,

1821-2; Trelawny, Shelley, Medwin; affray with a

soldier; Monte Nero; Mrs. Sheppard's prayer; withheld

letter to Lady Byron ; asks for and receives hair and por-

trait of Ada; Lady Noel's will; Ada learns to love her

father; Hunt and The Liberal, 1822; Shelley drowned,

1822; Byron at the burning of his body; leaves for Genoa

with Theresa; "Don Juan," 1822-3; the "Island;"

Lady Blessington's "Conversations"

CHAPTER VI.

Thinks of going to Greece to help in the war of independence;
dissensions there; is invited by Greek Committee in Eng-
land to go; hesitations and vacillation; presentiment of
death in Greece; events overruled; domestic reconciliation
and return to England-not for the poet of world-sorrow,
and revolutionary Europe, or for the liberator of Greece;
was he tired of Theresa? a snobbish remark he made;

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