ture, yet almost hoping that he would be like Maupertius and Henry Kirke White, who began in infidelity and ended with a firm belief. It is to be feared that this hope was never realised. 66 While in Italy Byron's poetical vein flowed freely. In addition to "Manfred" and the last canto of "Childe Harold," and several works rather poor, he produced "Mazeppa," "The Lament of Tasso," and his dramas, which, with the exception of "Cain," shewed signs of moral improvement, though rather a falling off of poetical vigour. Though possessed of no great versatility, he had a vein for a grotesque humour, something of the Italian cast, approaching the ludicrous, yet admitting freely of exquisite descriptions. His first attempt in this direction was Beppo," with its ethical looseness, pervading, like a crawling serpent among flowers, very noble poetry. The same remarks apply to "Don Juan." As connected with this phase of his character, we may notice that he had always exhibited a tendency to practical joking. Witness the present of a Bible he made to Mr Murray, and of which that gentleman was so proud-shewing it to his friends-until he discovered that Byron had put his pen through the word "robber," in the sentence. "Now Barrabas was a robber," and replaced it by "publisher.” All this is very alien from a character of sullen misanthropy. Timon never jokes! Byron left Pisa, in 1822, in consequence of a quarrel with some official, and also because the Guiccioli were ordered to quit the territories of Tuscany. He rejoined them in Genoa. In the meantime Shelley had been drowned, and soon after a field of activity was opened to him of a new kind. The London Committee of Phillhellenes requested him to take part in the emancipation of Greece, and he enthusiastically accepted the invitation. Sailing from Genoa in 1823, he arrived soon after at Cephalonia, where he began his patriotic exertions. In January 1824 he landed at Missolonghi. He was now labouring under illness, which he had aggravated by bathing in the sea during his prior voyage. The great object of his expedition was fraught with disappointment to one who had sung of Greece as Greece once was. His health was further injured by imprudent exposure to cold in an unhealthy climate, and by many anxieties which he never expressed. He perhaps treated himself unwisely; having a great antipathy to obesity, he was always endeavouring to reduce it. In Greece he lived upon dry bread, vegetables, and cheese; and to notice the effect of his dietetics, he used to measure his wrist and waist every morning, taking medicine if he found an increase. On the 9th of April he got wet through, and fever and rheumatic pains came on. On the 18th he got up and attempted to read, but shortly became faint and returned to bed. He died of this fever, with, it is supposed, its accompanying inflammation of the heart, on the following day. It is said that a thunderstorm broke over the town at the moment of his decease-a clear sign to the Greeks that the prodigies of their old country are not yet ended. His remains were taken to England, and interred in the family vault in the church of Hucknall. |