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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The author gratefully acknowledges the scholarship demanded by her dissertation committee. As chairman, Dr. Kenneth W. Davis patiently guided through labyrinthine details and generously shared his own expertise as he encour aged my attempt to voice a new concept and to assert my own authority as a scholar-in-the-making. Dr. Thomas Langford carefully reviewed drafts and redrafts, perceptively analyz­ ing and tendering valuable observations. Dr. Donald Rude cheerfully encouraged and tendered suggestions for appropri­ ate scholarly realization. Both Dr. Richard Crider and Dr. Mike Schoenecke faithfully labored over the tedium of proofreading this dissertation. I dedicate this literary work to my husband of many years, Blake, who lovingly supported and encouraged this effort. 11 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 11 CHAPTER INTRODUCTION 1 II. NINETEENTH CENTURY CRITICS 11 III TWENTIETH CENTURY CRITICS 48 IV, POETS AND PRELATES 90 RUINS AND RELICS 121 VI CONCLUSION 158 WORKS CITED 167 111 ABSTRACT Canto IV of Childe Harold' s PiIgrimage resulted from a collaborative effort of Lord Byron and John Cam Hobhouse wher Hobhouse resolved to duplicate their joint project for Canto I and II. He spent a year and half in Italy occupied with viewing ruins, monuments, and statues; tediously researching historical and ecclesiastical sources in private and Vatican libraries; and compiling explanatory materials on Italian history, art and archaeology for Canto IV. Although Byron denied that he would resume the poem, Hobhouse influenced hin to write the longest canto of the series, and to include spe­ cific subject matter relative to his own researched notes. This interdependent subject matter appeared in the canto, in the attached historical notes, and in a separate text accom­ panying the poem. This dissertation used the 1818 editions of both Canto IV and Hi stori cal Illustrati ons to elucidate the canto by analytically comparing the texts. Chapter one sum­ marily identifies the relationship between the two writers and details the purpose of illuminating elusive poetic refer­ ences and allusions through comparative analysis. The seconc and third chapters summarize reviews by nineteenth and twen­ tieth century critics. A comprehensive survey of critical ma terial revealed three facts: the lack of recognition for Hobhouse's influence on the poem; a negation of the benefits from examining the canto in company with the text meant to 1 V elucidate its poetic allusions or literary and historical figures; and a general illiteracy about the history of the composition of Canto IV. Chapters four and five summarily recount Hobhouse's material contribution to understanding Byron's expressions. Chapter six assesses the lack of crit­ ical recognition for Hobhouse's influence on the subject matter and format of the canto, and recounts some benefits of Historical Illustrations to the modern reader of Canto IV. While critics pondered over classical poetics and cata­ logued Byron's introspective meditations, or insisted that the meaning derives from the form of a literary work, they missed the obvious explanation for Canto IV being primarily a historical travelogue correlated with its own explanatory notes and dissertations. A study of the history of its com­ position suggests a deeper connotation behind numerous sur­ face ideas of the poem, and a profound significance behind the dedicatory preface. CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Occasionally a master work of art speaks so eloquently to the human condition that one does not have to comprehend its full consequence to dote on the beauty and meditate on its essence. This process of reader-identification with lit­ erary creations applied particularly to Lord Byron's poetic masterpieces. Even though Chi 1 dQ H^rp^i;!' ? Pi Igri mage traced continental travels over a nine year period, one might skim any canto for majestic descriptions or profound meditations. And the reader would never realize what a windfall he neg­ lected by not utilizing the travelogues penned to accompany three of the four cantos. These explanatory texts inter­ preted poetic allusions, and identified strange people and places for readers unfamiliar with continental culture and history. For the first two cantos, John Cam Hobhouse wrote a travelogue detailing archaeological, historical and cultural aspects of their tour as he and Byron traveled through Portugal, Spain, Greece and Albania. His Journe.v Through Albania and Other Provinces sJi Turkey UL EurOPg^ aJld Asift Duri ng the Years 1809 and 1810 coincided with the subject ma tter of Canto I and II and capitalized on both the English reading public's infatuation with travelogues at that time and the exotic tour that the pair of young Englishmen had completed. The outstanding literary success of their earlier venture prompted Hobhouse' s vision of a canto-travelogue combination detailing the jaunt through Italy that he and Byron had long anticipated. Both Canto IV with its appended notes and Hi stori cal Illustrati ons of the Fourth Canto of ChiIde Harold grew out of their travels in Italy in 1816- 1817, and were published in 1818. In fact, Byron considered Hobhouse's historical material so essential to interpreting Canto IV that he threatened to refuse to publish the poem if Hobhouse's guide was not also published. By letter, he vetoed the publisher's separation of notes and poetry: "the text shall not be published without the Notes--& if this is contemplated--It shan't be published at all--" (Marchand L&J 6.14). Murray published part of the voluminous notes with the canto, but retained the bulk of them for a separate volume, Histori cal Illustrati ons. However, in numerous letters (the last one to John Murray dated June 17, 1817) Byron had repeatedly denied that he would resume Childe Harold' s PiIgrimage "or any other" poem (Marchand 5.157). One could explain Byron's reluctance to revert to the pilgrim guise by considering his life status in 1816. He sought a new identity as he adjusted to agoniz­ ing personal problems that entailed a self-imposed exile. Also during the year, he had produced a tremendous amount of poetry. He wrote Canto III of "Childe Harold," finished the Turkish tales, worked on "Beppo" and "Manfred; he was translating an Armenian grammar and writing a novel about Don Julian that became his poetic satire "Don Juan." However, this dissertation points to one aspect of the poet's composition of Canto IV that no critic has yet con­ sidered. After comparing the canto with Hi stori cal Illus- trations, and paralleling Hobhouse' s journal with Byron's letters, I determined that without Hobhouse's persistent urging, and his articulate command of subject matter, Byron probably would never have written Canto IV, at least not as a historical travelogue. What emerged was his longest canto supported by two companion pieces. Notes appended to the canto explained numerous places, monuments and events about which readers in 1818 knew little, and added appreciably to an understanding of the poem. But the separate text. Hi sto­ ri cal Illustrati ons of the Fourth Canto of ChiIde Harold: Containi ng Pi ssertati ons on the Rui ns of Rome: and an Essav on Italian Li terature. told something about the composition of the poetry. Its treatises (on art, architecture and history) correlated with poetic references, interpreted vague allusions and increased a reader's grasp of various aspects of Italian culture. Also, Hobhouse edited the accompanying m aterial to avoid repetition in the notes and Illustrations For the curious scholar, Hobhouse provided an account of the exhaustive research behind the compilation of the explanatory material. While he specifically stated that he did not intend to interpret or explain Byron's poetry, he obviously felt that poetry should instruct, and therefore edited both the notes and Illustrati ons as enrichment for the canto. His natural antiquarian interest and knowledge of Italian history led him to produce scholarly and authoritative discourses that added detail and background for readers interested in classical literature, Italian history, or relics discovered in nineteenth-century excavations of Rome and its surrounding terri tory. Through Hobhouse' s journal, one might easily recreate the calendar of travels as he and Byron explored the Bernese Alps in Switzerland and then journeyed to Italy in the autumn of 1816. Whereas most nineteenth century English tourists visited Naples and Florence, Byron and Hobhouse traveled to Milan and Venice. A partial gap occurred in the report (because of missing diaries) when Hobhouse went to Rome without Byron. After he returned to Venice, he edited both notes and Illustrati ons, and probably contributed to the text of Canto IV. For the purpose of this dissertation, a summary account of their travels will demonstrate the time frame in relation to the poetic composition and establish the basis for the influential role Hobhouse played in both subject m atter and format of the poem. As the sightseer, Hobhouse led Byron through museums and ca thedrals, art galleries and private libraries, all the while amassing notes about everything from contemporary lit­ erary figures and ancient marble statues to the antiquarian subjects included in Illustrati ons. The pair spent several weeks in Milan visiting libraries and art galleries, attend­ ing the opera, and meeting some of Italy's most impressive literary and historical figures. In the social whirl of din­ ner parties, conversation among the intelligentia turned on politics--Napoleon and his eighteenth century invasion of Italy, Castlereagh and the current repressive regime in England, personal liberty and political freedom--literature and the literati. In November, the pair reached Venice and Byron became infatuated with the city as well as its inhabitants. He refused to leave, so in December Hobhouse set off for Rome without him. In Bologna Hobhouse met Cardinal Mezzofanti, an Oriental scholar and linguist, who conducted the Englishman through the Vatican library with its 150,000 books and 40,000 manuscripts, and gave him samples of the Lord's Prayer that he had translated into 157 languages.

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