shafts of envy, which merit is ever sure to encounter, at the same time that it sharpens the wits, whenever, by too frequent and intense application, they are in danger of losing the keenness of their edge. A poet without his bottle is like a workman without his tools; he may possess talent, will, and industry, but he cannot get on the main spring is wanting.

"Celestial liquor! thou that didst inspire
Maro and Flaccus, and the Grecian bard,
With lofty numbers, and heroic strains
Unparallel'd, with eloquence profound,
And arguments convictive, didst enforce
Fam'd Tully, and Demosthenes renown'd:
Ennius, first fam'd in Latin song, in vain
Drew Heliconian streams, ungrateful whet
To jaded muse, and oft, with vain attempt,
Heroic acts, in flagging numbers dull,
With pains essay'd; but, abject still and low,
His unrecruited muse could never reach
The mighty theme, till, from the purpled fount
Of bright Lenæan fire, her barren drought
He quench'd, and with inspiring nect'rous juice
Her drooping spirits cheer'd:-aloft she tow'rs,
Borne on stiff pennons, and on war's alarms,
And trophies won, in loftiest numbers sings."

GAY.

The man, who drinks for drinking-sake, is a despicable sot; but he who takes his wine to render his wit as sparkling as his champagne, to promote conviviality, and" curam dulci Lyaò solvere,"

244

OUR FOGGY COUNTRY.

may plead the right of prescription, and the custom of Apollo's court, from time immemorial. It was never intended that fools should have all the good things of this world to themselves.

The climate of England is a sort of crassa Baotia, a foggy country, that requires the soulenlivening juice of the grape to disperse the vapours. Hence we find that no business either is, or can be done, without the aid of the bottle. Not to mention the hackneyed subject of civic and aldermanic guttling and guzzling, kings get royally drunk; politics are always discussed over cabinet dinners; churchwardens and overseers of the poor make all parochial business stand a treat; for the clergy the old adages of bibere papaliter and canonicé may suffice; lawyers cannot find their way to the bar but by eating and drinking their commons; and no young student can pass for a degree of M.D., without a greasy chin to Warwick-lane Hall. As for poets (the Lord mend them, for Old Nick will have nothing to do with them!) the higher classes (such as Lord Orford's Royal and Noble Authors) elevate their brains to the Parnassian pitch with champagne, Burgundy, or claret; the middling classes with port or punch; and the plebeians (by far the most numerous class and quorum, to my great grief, pars magna fui,) by purl or porter! Though Apollo be their legitimate sovereign, they much oftener

ROCK AND SODA-WATER.

245

bow the knee to Bacchus. However they may pretend to invoke the former, the latter is the true god of their inspiration.

Having thus been introduced among a set of bons vivans, it was not to be supposed that his Lordship could be suffered to take his degrees without being matriculated; and it could not be a matter of surprise that his Lordship should have at times found the benefit of that recipe, which he prescribes to his fellow-collegiates:

You wake with head-ache,—you shall see what then

Ring for your valet, bid him quickly bring
Some hock and soda-water, then you'll know

A pleasure worthy Xerxes, the great king;
For not the blest sherbet, sublim'd with snow,

Nor the first sparkle of the desart-spring,

Nor Burgundy, with all its sun-set glow,

After long travel, ennui, love or slaughter,

Vie with that draught of hock and soda-water."

DON JUAN.

Whatever was the cause, towards the close of the first year of the marriage, the tongue of rumour had began to whisper some intimations of that wedded discord between a certain noble pair in Piccadilly, which soon became the subject of conversation from one extremity of the kingdom to the other. Her Ladyship, it was said, objected to the company which his Lordship was in the habit of associating with; and his Lordship would

246

SYMPTOMS OF SEPARATION.

not confine himself to the socialities of her Ladyship's fire-side; and the breach thus commenced, though trifling enough, was soon widened by the intervention of some good friend (at least so his Lordship supposed) so as to be for ever after irreparable.

"The cruelty sprang not from thee,
'Twas foreign and foul to thy heart;
That levell'd its arrow at me,

And fix'd the incurable smart.

Ah, no! 'twas another than thine,
The hand which assail'd my repose;

It struck-and too fatally mine,

The wound, and its offspring of woes."

BYRON'S "Farewell to England."

( 247 )

CHAPTER IX.

Matrimonial rupture.-Causes assigned for it.-Brought before the Public on the boards of Drury Lane Theatre by Mrs. Mardyn, one of the performers.--Allegations on both sides the question fairly put and discussed -Birth of a daughter.—Effusion "To my Daughter on the morning of her birth."Separation finally determined-Lord Byron's "Sketch from Private Life."-He writes his own Memoirs, and bequeaths them to his friend, Mr. Thomas Moore, for posthumous publication His Farewell to England.-His pathetic "Fare thee well," addressed to Lady Byron. He leaves the kingdom a voluntary exile.

THE progress of events brings us now to a most important, and most unfortunate period of Lord Byron's history. There is a delicacy that seems to forbid one to enter upon the private affairs of a family, and to discuss matters that involve the peace and character of its members. But, on the other hand, it may be said, that there need be very little hesitation in the present case, as there was scarcely any thing that remained untold or unsung by the parties themselves; and so very notorious was the principal and immediate cause of the matrimonial rupture, that it was absolutely made a matter of open discussion on the boards of Drury-Lane Theatre, as numbers of persons now living well remember. It is in vain, therefore, to attempt to stifle an