"Left by his sire, too young such loss to know, Lord of himself, that heage of woe.'

{

yard and the chambers; it may even pass into travelling would no incapacitate him, and the hands of unlettered pride, or plebeian he wished to judge of men by experience. opulence: but it has been the mansion of a At lengin, in July, 1809, in company with mighty poet. Its name is associated with glo- John Cam Hobhouse, Esq. (with whom his acries that cannot perish, and will go down to quaintance commenced at Cambridge), Lord posterity in one of the proudest pages of our Byron embarked at Falmouth for Lisbon, and annals. thence proceeded, by the southern provinces Lord Byron showed, even in his earliest of Spain, to the Mediterranean. The objects years, that nature had added to the advan-that he met with as far as Gibraltar seem to tages of high descent the richest gifts of genius have occupied his mind, to the temporary and of fancy. His own tale is partly told in exclusion of his gloomy and misanthropic two lines of Lara: thoughts; for a letter which he wrote to his mother from thence contains no indication of them, but, on the contrary, much playful description of the scenes through which he had His first literary adventure, and its fate, are passed. At Seville, Lord Byron lodged in the well remembered. The poems which he pub-house of two single ladies, one of whom, howlished in his minority had, indeed, those faults ever, was about to be married. Though he of conception and diction which are insepara- remained there only three days, she paid him ble from juvenile attempts, and in particular the most particular attentions, and, at their may rather be considered as imitative of what parting, embraced him with great tenderness, had caught the ear and fancy of the youthful cutting off a lock of his hair, and presenting him author, than as exhibiting originality of con- with one of her own. With this specimen of ception and expression. It was like the first Spanish female manners, he proceeded to Caessay of the singing-bird, catching at and imi- diz, where various incidents occurred to contating the notes of its parent, ere habit and firm the opinion he had formed at Seville of time have given the fulness of tone, confi- the Andalusian belles, and which made him dence, and self-possession which render assist-leave Cadiz with regret, and determine to reance unnecessary. Yet though there were turn to it. Lord Byron wrote to his mother many, and those not the worst judges, who from Malta, announcing his safety, and again discerned in his "Hours of Idleness" a depth from Previša, in November. Upon arriving of thought and felicity of expression which at Yanina, Lord Byron found that Ali Pacha promised much at a more mature age, the was with his troops in Illyrium, besieging work did not escape the critical lash of the Ibrahim Pacha in Berat; but the vizier, hav"Scotch Reviewers," who could not resist the ing heard that an English nobleman was in opportunity of pouncing upon a titled poet, his country, had given orders at Yanina to of showing off their own wit, and of seeking supply him with every kind of accommodato entertain their readers with a flippant ar- tion, free of expense. From Yanina, Lord ticle, without much respect to the feelings of Byron went to Tepaleen. Here he was lodged the author, or even to the indications of merit in the palace, and the next day introduced to which the work displayed. The review was Ali Pacha, who declared that he knew him read, and excited mirth; the poems were to be a man of rank from the smallness of his neglected, the author was irritated, and took ears, his curling hair, and his white hands, his revenge in keen iambics, which, at the and who sent him a variety of sweetmeats, same time, proved the injustice of the offend- fruits, and other luxuries. In going in a ing critic and the ripening talents of the bard. Turkish ship of war, provided for him by Having thus vented his indignation against Ali Pacha, from Previsa, intending to sail for the reviewers and their readers, and put all Patras, Lord Byron was very near being lost the laughter on his side, Lord Byron went in but a inoderate gale of wind, from the ignoabroad, and the controversy was for some rance of the Turkish officers and sailors, and years forgotten. was driven on the coast of Suli. An instance It was at Newstead, just before his coming of disinterested hospitality in the chief of a of age, he had planned his future travels, and Suliote village occurred to Lord Byron, in his original intention included a much larger consequence of his disasters in the Turkish portion of the world than that which he after-galliot. The honest Albanian, after assisting wards visited. He first thought of Persia, to him in his distress, supplying his wants, and which idea indeed he for a long time adhered. lodging him and his suite, refused to receive He afterwards meant to sail for India, and had any remuneration. When Lord Byron pressed so far contemplated this project as to write him to take money, he said: "I wish you to for information from the Arabic professor at love me, not to pay me." At Yanina, on his Cambridge, and to ask his mother to inquire return, he was introduced to Hussien Bey of a friend who had lived in India, what things and Mahomet Pacha, two young children of would be necessary for his voyage. He formed Ali Pacha. Subsequently, he visited Smyrna Is plan of travelling upon very different whence he went in the Salsette frigate to grounds from those which he afterwards ad-Constantinople.

vanced. All men should travel at one time or On the 3d of May, 1810, while this frigate another, he thought, and he had then no con- was lying at anchor in the Dardanelles, Lord nexions to prevent him; when he returned Byron, accompanied by Lieutenant Ekenhe might enter into political life, for which head, swam the Hellespont from the Europeat

and while his feelings on the subject were still very acute, he received the intelligence, that a friend, whom he highly esteemed, had been drowned in the Cam. He had not long before heard of the death, at Coimbra, of a schoolfellow, to whom he was much attached. These three melancholy events, occurring within the space of a month, had, no doubt, a powerfu! effect on Lord Byron's feelings.

shore to the Asiatic-about two miles wide. and the gratification which he manifested on The tide of the Dardanelles runs so strong, observing the superiority, in every respect, of that it is impossible either to swim or to sail England to other countries, proved that patrito any given point. Lord Byron went from otism was far from being extinct in his bosom. the castle to Abydos, and landed on the oppo-The embarrassed state of his affairs at length site shore, full three miles below his meditated induced him to return home, to endeavour to place of approach. He had a boat in attend- arrange them; and he arrived in the Volage ance all the way; so that no danger could be frigate on the 2d of July, 1811, having been apprehended even if his strength had failed. absent exactly two years. His health had not His lordship records, in one of his minor suffered by his travels, although it had been poems, that he got the ague by the voyage; interrupted by two sharp fevers; but he had but it was well known, that when he landed, put himself entirely on a vegetable diet, and he was so much exhausted, that he gladly ac- drank no wine. cepted the offer of a Turkish fisherman, and Soon after his arrival, he was summoned to reposed in his hut for several hours; he was Newstead, in consequence of the serious illthen very ill, and as Lieutenant Ekenhead ness of his mother; but on reaching the abwas compelled to go on board his frigate, he bey, found that she had breathed her last. He was left alone. The Turk had no idea of the suffered much from this loss, and from the disrank or consequence of his inmate, but paid appointment of not seeing her before her death; him most marked attention. His wife was his nurse, and, at the end of five days, he left the shore, completely recovered. When he was about to embark, the Turk gave him a large loaf, a cheese, and a skin filled with wine, and then presented him with a few paras (about a penny each), prayed Allah to bless him, and wished him safe home. His lordship made him no return to this, more than saying he felt much obliged. But when he Towards the termination of his "English arrived at Abydos, he sent over his man Ste-Bards and Scotch Reviewers," the noble aufano, to the Turk, with an assortment of fish-thor had declared, that it was his intention to ing-nets, a fowling piece, a brace of pistols, break off, from that period, his newly-formed and twelve yards of silk to make gowns for connexion with the Muses, and that, should his wife. The poor Turk was astonished, and he return in safety from the "Minarets" of said, "What a noble return for an act of hu- Constantinople, the "Maidens" of Georgia, manity!" He then formed the resolution of and the "Sublime Snows" of Mount Caucrossing the Hellespont, and, in propria casus, nothing on earth should tempt him to persona, thanking his lordship. His wife ap-resume the pen. Such resolutions are seldom proved of the plan; and he had sailed about maintained. In February, 1812, the first two half way across, when a sudden squall upset cantos of "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" (with his boat, and the poor Turkish_fisherman the manuscript of which he had presented his found a watery grave. Lord Byron was friend Mr. Dallas,) made their appearance, much distressed when he heard of the catas-producing an effect upon the public, equal to trophe, and, with all that kindness of heart that of any work which has been published which was natural to him, he sent to the within this or the last century. widow fifty dollars, and told her he would This poem is, perhaps, the most original in ever be her friend. This anecdote, so highly the English language, both in conception and honourable to his lordship's memory, is very execution. It is no more like Beattie's Min little known. Lieutenant Hare, who was on strel than Paradise Lost-though the former the spot at the time, furnished the particulars, production was in the noble author's mind and added that, in the year 1817, Lord Byron, when first thinking of Childe Harold. A great then proceeding to Constantinople, landed at poet, who gives himself up free and unconthe same spot, and made a handsome present fined to the impulses of his genius, as Byron to the widow and her son, who_recollected did in the better part of this singular creation, the circumstance, but knew not Lord Byron, shows to us a spirit as if sent out from the his dress and appearance having so altered hands of nature, to range over the earth and him. the societies of men. Even Shakspeare himIt was not until after Lord Byron arrived self submits to the shackles of history and at Constantinople that he decided not to go society. But here Byron has traversed the on to Persia, but to pass the following summer whole earth, borne along by the whirlwind of in the Morea. At Constantinople, Mr. Hob- his own spirit. Wherever a forest frowned, house left him to return to England. On losing or a temple glittered-there he was privihis companion, Lord Byron went again, and leged to bend his flight. He suddenly starts alone, over much of the old track which he had up from his solitary dream, by the secret founalready visited, and studied the scenery and tain of the desert, and descends at once into nanners, of Greece especially, with the search- the tumult of peopled or the silence of deing eye of a poet and a painter. His mind serted cities. Whatever actually lived-had appeared occasionally to have some tendency perished heretofore—or that had within it a towards a recovery from the morbid state of power to kindle passion, became the materie moral apathy which he had previously evinced, of his all-embracing song. There are no unitie

B

of time or place to fetter him-and we fly denizen in the first circles. This passport was with him from hill-top to hill-top, and from not necessary to Lord Byron, who possessed tower to tower, over all the solitude of nature, the hereditary claims of birth and rank. But and all the magnificence of art. When the the interest which his genius attached to his past pageants of history seemed too dim and presence, and to his conversation, was of a faded, he would turn to the splendid specta- nature far beyond what these hereditary cles that have dignified our own days, and the claims could of themselves have conferred, images of kings and conquerors of old gave and his reception was enthusiastic beyond place to those that were yet living in sove- any thing imaginable. Lord Byron was not reignty and exile. Indeed, much of the power one of those literary men of whom it may be which Byron possessed was derived from this truly said, minuit præsentia famam. A counsource. He lived in a sort of sympathy with tenance, exquisitely modeled to the expresthe public mind-sometimes wholly distinct sion of feeling and passion, and exhibiting the from it--sometimes acting in opposition to it remarkable contrast of very dark hair and —sometimes blending with it, but, at all eyebrows, with light and expressive eyes, times, in all his thoughts and actions, bearing presented to the physiognomist the most ina reference to the public mind. His spirit teresting subject for the exercise of his art. needed not to go back into the past,--though The predominating expression was that of it often did so,--to bring the objects of its love deep and habitual thought, which gave way to back to earth in more beautiful life. The ex- the most rapid play of features when he enistence he painted was-the present. The gaged in interesting discussion; so that a objects he presented were marked out to him brother poet compared them to the sculpture by men's actual regards. It was his to speak of a beautiful alabaster vase, only seen to perof all those great political events which were fection when lighted up from within. The objects of such passionate and universal sym- flashes of mirth, gaiety, indignation, or sapathy. But chiefly he spoke our own feelings, tirical dislike, which frequently animated Lord exalted in thought, language, and passion. Byron's countenance, might, during an evenHis travels were not, at first, the self-impelled ing's conversation, be mistaken by a stranger act of a mind severing itself in lonely roaming for its habitual expression, so easily and so from all participation in the society to which happily was it formed for them all; but those it belonged, but rather obeying the general who had an opportunity of studying his feanotion of the mind of that society.

The indications of a bold, powerful, and original mind, which glanced through every line of Childe Harold, electrified the mass of readers, and placed at once upon Lord Byron's head the garland for which other men of genius have toiled long, and which they have gained late. He was placed pre-eminent among the literary men of his country, by general acclamation. Those who had so rigorously censured his juvenile essays, and perhaps "dreaded such another field," were the first to pay warm homage to his matured efforts; while others, who saw in the sentiments of Childe Harold much to regret and to censure, did not withhold their tribute of applause to the depth of thought, the power and force of expression, and the energy of sentiment, which animated the "Pilgrimage." Thus, as all admired the poem, all were prepared to greet the author with that fame which is the poet's best reward. It was amidst such feelings of admiration that Lord Byron fully entered on that public stage, where, to the close of his life, he made so distinguished a figure. Every thing in his manner, person, and conversation, tended to maintain the charm which his genius had flung around him; and those admitted to his conversation, far from finding that the inspired poet sunk into ordinary mortality, felt themselves attached to him not only by many noble qualities, but by the nterest of a mysterious, undefined, and almost Dainful curiosity

tures for a length of time, and upon various
occasions, both of rest and emotion, knew
that their proper language was that of melan
choly. Sometimes shades of this gloom inter-
rupted even his gayest and most happy mo-
ments; and the following verses are said to
have dropped from his pen to excuse a tran-
sient expression of melancholy which over
clouded the general gaiety.

"When from the heart where Sorrow sits,
Her dusky shadow mounts too high,
And o'er the changing aspect flits,

And clouds the brow, or fills the eye-
Heed not the gloom that soon shall sink,
My thoughts their dungeon know too well
;
Back to my breast the captives shrink,

And bleed within their silent cell.”

It was impossible to notice a dejection belonging neither to the rank, the age, noi the success of this young nobleman, without feeling an indefinable curiosity to ascertain whether it had a deeper cause than habit or constitutional témperament. It was obviously of a degree incalculably more serious than that alluded to by Prince Arthur—

I remember when I was in France,
Young gentlemen would be as sad as night,
Only for wantonness

But, howsoever derived, this, joined to Lord Byron's air of mingling in amusements and sports as if he contemned them, and felt that his sphere was far above the fashionable and frivolous crowd which surrounded him, gave It is well known how wide the doors of so- a strong effect of colouring to a character ety are opened in London to literary merit, whose tints were otherwise decidedly romaneven to a degree far inferior to Lord Byron's, tic. Noble and far descended, the pilgrim of and that it is only necessary to be honourably distant and savage countries, eminent as a distinguished by the public voice, to move as a poet among the first whom Britain has pro

.

duced, and having besides cast around him a olic claims, which gave good hopes of his bemysterious charm arising from the sombre coming an orator; and the other related to a tone of his poetry, and the occasional melan-petition from Major Cartwright. Byron himcholy of his deportment, Lord Byron occu- self says, the Lords told him "his manner pied the eyes and interested the feelings of all, was not dignified enough for them, and would The enthusiastic looked on him to admire, better suit the lower house;" others say, they the serious with a wish to admonish, and the gathered round him while speaking, listening soft with a desire to console. Even literary envy, a base sensation, from which, perhaps, this age is more free than any other, forgave the man whose splendour dimmed the fame of his competitors. The generosity of Lord Byron's disposition, his readiness to assist merit in distress, and to bring it forward where unknown, deserved and obtained general regard; while his poetical effusions, poured forth with equal force and fertility, showed at once a daring confidence in his own powers, and a determination to maintain, by continued effort, the high place he had attained in British literature.

Prince.

with the greatest attention-a sign at any rate that he was interesting. He always voted with the opposition, but evinced no likelihood of becoming the blind partisan of either side. The following is a pleasing instance of the generosity, the delicacy, and the unwounding benevolence of Byron's nature:

A young lady of considerable talents, but who had never been able to succeed in turning them to any profitable account, was reduced to great hardships through the misfortunes of her family. The only persons from whom she could have hoped for relief were abroad, and so urged on, more by the sufferAt one of the fashionable parties where the ings of those she held dear than by her own, noble bard was present, His Majesty, then she summoned up resolution to wait on Lord Prince Regent, entered the room: Lord By-Byron at his apartments in the Albany, and ron was at some distance at the time, but, on ask his subscription to a volume of poems: learning who he was, His Royal Highness she had no previous knowledge of him except sent a gentleman to him to desire that he from his works, but from the boldness and would be presented. Of course the presenta- feeling expressed in them, she concluded that tion took place; the Regent expressed his he must be a man of kind heart and amiable admiration of "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage," disposition. Experience did not disappoint and entered into a conversation which so fas- her, and though she entered the apartment cinated the poet, that had it not been for an with faltering steps and a palpitating heart, accident which deferred a levee` intended to she soon found courage to state her request, have been held the next day, he would have which she did in the most simple and delicate gone to court. Soon after, however, an un-manner: he heard it with the most marked fortunate influence counteracted the effect of attention and the keenest sympathy; and royal praise, and Lord Byron permitted him- when she had ceased speaking, he, as if to self to write and speak disrespectfully of the avert her thoughts from a subject which could not be but painful to her, began to converse in words so fascinating, and tones so gentle, that she hardly perceived he had been writThe Earl of Carlisle having declined to in- ing, until he put a folded slip of paper into her troduce Lord Byron to the House of Peers, hand, saying it was his subscription, and that he resolved to introduce himself, and accord-he most heartily wished her success. "But,' ingly went there a little before the usual hour, added he, "we are both young, and the world when he knew few of the lords would be is very censorious, and so if I were to take present. On entering, he appeared rather any active part in procuring subscribers to abashed, and looked very pale, but, passing your poems, I fear it would do you harm rather the woolsack, where the Chancellor (Lord than good. The young lady, overpowered Eldon) was engaged in some of the ordinary by the prudence and delicacy of his conduct, routine of the house, he went directly to the took her leave, and upon opening in the street table, where the oaths were administered to the paper, which in her agitation she had not him in the usual manner. The Lord Chan-previously looked at, she found it was a draft cellor then approached, and offered his hand upon his banker for fifty pounds! in the most open familiar manner, congratu- The enmity that Byron entertained towards lating him on his taking possession of his seat. the Earl of Carlisle, was owing to two causes : Lord Byron only placed the tips of his fingers the Earl had spoken rather irreverently of in the Chancellor's hand; the latter returned the "Hours of Idleness," when Byron exto his seat, and Byron, after lounging a few pected, as a relation, that he would have minutes on one of the opposition benches, re- countenanced it. He had moreover refused tired. To his friend, Mr. Dallas, who followed to introduce his kinsman to the House of him out, he gave as a reason for not entering Lords, even, it is said, somewhat doubting his into the spirit of the Chancellor, "that it right to a seat in that honourable house. might have been supposed he would join the court party, whereas he intended to have nothing at all to do with politics."

The whole of Byron's political career may be summed up in the following anecdotes:

The Earl of Carlisle was a great admirer of the classic drama, and once published a sixpenny pamphlet, in which he strenuously He only addressed the house three times: argued in behalf of the propriety and necesthe first of his speeches was on the Frame-sity of small theatres: on the same day that work Bill; the second in favour of the Cath-this weighty publication appeared he sub

scribed a thousand pounds for some public
purpose. On this occasion, Byron composed
the following epigram:

"Carlisle subscribes a thousand pound
Out of his rich domains ;

And for a sixpence circles round
The produce of his brains:

"T is thus the difference you may hit
Between his fortune and his wit.”

Byron retained his antipathy to this relative to the last. On reading some lines in the newspapers addressed to Lady Holland by the Earl of Carlisle, persuading her to reject the snuff-box bequeathed to her by Napoleon, beginning:

then took "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" from a trunk, and delivered it to him. Mr. Dallas, having read the poem, was in raptures with it; he instantly resolved to do his utmost in suppressing the "Hints from Horace," and to bring out Childe Harold. He urged Byron to publish this last poem; but he was unwilling, and preferred to have the "Hints" published. He would not be convinced of the great merit of the "Childe," and as some person had seen it before Mr. Dallas, and exmeans sure of its kind reception by the world. pressed disapprobation, Byron was by no In a short time afterwards, however, he agreed to its publication, and requested Mr. Dallas not to deal with Cawthorn, but offer it to Miller of Albemarle street: he wished a fashionparody:able publisher; but Miller declined it, chiefly on account of the strictures it contained on Lord Elgin, whose publisher he was. Longman had refused to publish the "Satire," and Byron would not suffer any of his works to Sir Lumley Skeffington had written a tra- come from that house: the work was theregedy, called, if we remember right, "The fore carried to Mr. Murray, who then kept a Mystérious Bride," which was fairly damned shop opposite St. Dunstan's church in Fleet on the first night: a masquerade took place to publish for Lord Byron, and regretted that street. Mr. Murray had expressed a desire soon after this fatal catastrophe, to which went John Cam Hobhouse, as a Spanish nun who Mr. Dallas had not taken the "English Bards had been ravished by the French army, and and Scotch Reviewers" to him; but this was was under the protection of his lordship. after its success. Skeffington, compassionating the unfortunate Ettrick Shepherd, at the Lakes. The ShepByron fell into company with Hogg, the young woman, asked, in a very sentimental herd was standing at the inn-door of AmbleEttrick Shepherd, at the Lakes. manner, of Byron, "who is she?" "The Mys-side, when forth came a strapping young man terious Bride," replied his lordship.

"Lady, reject the gift,” etc. he immediately wrote the following "Lady, accept the gift a hero wore,

In spite of all this elegiac stuff:
Let not seven stanzas written by a bore

t

Prevent your ladyship from taking snuff."

On Byron's return from his first tour, Mr. from the house, and off with his hat, and out Dallas called upon him, and, after the usual with his hand. Hogg did not know him, and, salutations had passed, inquired if he was pre-him by saying, "Mr. Hogg, I hope you will appearing at a dead halt, the other relieved pared with any other work to support the fame which he had already acquired. Byron help thinking that we ought to hold ourselves excuse me; my name is Byron, and I cannot then delivered for his examination a poem, acquainted." The poets accordingly shook entitled “Hints from Horace," being a para- hands immediately, and, while they continued phrase of the art of poetry. Mr. Dallas prom- at the Lakes, were hand and glove, drank ised to superintend the publication of this furiously together, and laughed at their brother piece as he had done that of the satire, and, bards. On Byron's leaving the Lakes, he sent accordingly, it was carried to Cawthorn the bookseller, and matters arranged; but Mr. Hogg a letter quizzing the Lakists, which the Dallas, not thinking the poem likely to in- Shepherd was so mischievous as to show to crease his lordship's reputation, allowed it to linger in the press. It began thus:

them.

When residing at Mitylene in the year 1812, he portioned eight young girls very libe

"Who would not laugh if Lawrence, hired to grace rally, and even danced with them at the mar

His costly canvas with each flatter'd face,
Abused his art, till Nature with a blush

Saw cits grow centaurs underneath his brush?

Or should some limner join, for show or sale,

A maid of honour to a mermaid's tail
Or Low D*** (as once the world has seen)
Degrade God's creatures in his graphic spleen-
Not all that forced politeness which defends
Fools in their faults, could gag his grinning friends.
Believe me, Moschus, like that picture seems
The book which, sillier than a sick man's dreams,
Displays a crowd of figures incomplete,
Poetic nightmares, without head or feet."

riage feast; he gave a cow to one man, horses to another, and cotton and silk to several girls who lived by weaving these materials: he also bought a new hoat for a fisherman who had lost his own in a gale, and he often gave Greek testaments to the poor children.

While at Metaxata, in 1823, an embankment, at which several persons had been engaged digging, fell in, and buried some of them alive: he was at dinner when he heard of the accident, and, starting up from the table, ran to the spot, accompanied by his phyMr. Dallas expressed his sorrow that his sician, who took a supply of medicines with lordship had written nothing else. Byron then him. The labourers who were employed to told him that he had occasionally composed extricate their companions, soon became some verses in Spenser's measure, relative to alarmed for themselves, and refused to go on, the countries he had visited. "They are not saying, they believed they had dug out all the worth troubling you with, said his lordship, bodies which had been covered by the ruins. but you shall have them all with you:" he Lord Byron endeavoured to induce them to