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Journal of the Conversations of Lord Byron : Noted During a Residence

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Journal of the Conversations of Lord Byron : Noted During a Residence A'> *. Jt. i^<mm I 111 » -'ti ¥' fi tJ^/ie^ Udwne'w/^^ University ot Calitornia • Berkeley Purchased from HORACE DAVIS BEQUEST 45 <?• M^^'-^ yd 'fd ih a- JOURNAL, &€. LONDON : rlUNTliD BY S. AND K. JiENTLEY, D01lt;ET STliJvET. Air: . .yf/f/^tr/ A ^//£^ *>/' /^^ /r-7///.?/^ r'/_./-/-r/_ ^i/f/f, ^..i%^ c/-. ^> '^ ^ r A-y9 ^ ^ ^ A ^-^'^- C^^ j^ ^^^ *.,^A.^^ ^..^ ^^^ ^^ ^^ - TtU'/i.'-hf'J /•/>• h J7 .'.VAv/-/.' .^ •,/./, , 7^'- ?j^ ^?.f.'>.; JOURNAL OF THE CONVERSATIONS OF LORD BYRON: NOTED DURING A RESIDENCE WITH HIS LORDSHIP AT PISA, IN THE YEARS 1821 AND 1822. BY THOMAS MEDWIN, ESQ. OF THE 24th LIGHT DRAGOONS, AUTHOR OF " AHASUERUS THE WANDERER." LONDON: PRINTED FOR HENRY COLBURN, NEW BURLINGTON STREET. 1824. PREFACE. " A to no his great poet belongs country ; works are public property, and his Memoirs the inheritance of the public." Such were the sen- timents of Lord and have been Byron ; they a attended to? Has not manifest injustice been done to the world, and an injury to his memory, by the destruction of his Memoirs ? These are questions which it is now late, perhaps needless, I will tQ ask ; but endeavour to lessen, if not to remedy, the evil. I am aware that in publishing these remi- niscences I shall have to contend with much vi PREFACE. of his —that I ol)lo([iiy from some parts family, shall incur the animosity of many of his friends. There are authors, too, who will not be pleased to in — find their names print, to hear his real opinion of themselves, or of their works. There are others But I have the satisfaction of feeling that I have set about executing the task I have under- taken, conscientiously : I mean neither to throw a veil over his errors, nor a gloss over his virtues. My sketch will be an imperfect and a rough it is but it will be from the life and one, true, ; slight as it is, may prove more valuable, perhaps, than a finished drawing from memory. It will be any thing but a panegyric : my aim is to paint him as he was. That his passions were violent and cannot be denied but his impetuous, ; feelings and affections were equally strong. Both demand- ed continual and he had an im- employment ; " patience of repose, a restlessness of rest," that PREFACE. vii It is kept them in constant activity. satisfactory too, at least it is some consolation, to reflect, that the last energies of his nature were consumed in for the benefit of the cause of liberty, and man- kind. How I became acquainted with so many par- ticulars of his history, so many incidents of his life, so many of his opinions, is easily explained. They were communicated during a period of many months' familiar intercourse, without any injunctions to secrecy, and committed to paper for the sake of reference only. They have not been shewn to any one individual, and but for the fate of his MS. would never have appeared before the public. I despise mere writing for the sake of book- making, and have disdained to swell out my materials into volumes. I have given Lord Byron's viii p R f: F A C E. ideas as I noted them down at the time,— in his own words, as far as my recollection served. They are however, in many cases, the substance without the form. The brilliancy of his wit, the flow of his eloquence, the sallies of ijis imagi- nation, who could do justice to ? His voice, his manner, which gave a charm to the whole, who could forget ? " His subtle talk would cheer the winter night, And make me know myself; and the fire-light Would flash upon our faces, till the day " Might dawn, and make me wonder at my stay. Shelley's Julian and Maddalo. Geneva, 1st August, 1824. ADVERTISEMENT. The Pulilisher of this Work thinks it proper to state, that he felt desirous of suggesting to the Author, who is abroad, the suppression of certain that various passages ; but, finding these, among others, had been extracted, with the Author's per- mission, from the original Manuscript before it came into his possession, and also that they have he has no consi- now appeared in print, longer dered it necessary to urge their suppression in the present Volume. CONTENTS. Pago The Writer's arrival at Pisa. Lord Byron's live stock and Lanfranchi Lanfranchi's impedimenta. The palace ; Ugolino ; Cerberus. Lord B.'s bas reUefs ghost. English Lcporello ; and mantel-pieces 9— 11 Introduction to Lord Byron. His cordiality of manner. Description his his Bertolini the cloven foot his of person ; bust by , ; temperate habits, and regard for tlie brute creation. Conversations on Swit- zerland and for 11 — 16 Germany ; strong predilection Turkey .... Residence at Geneva. Malicious intruders. Madame de Stael. Din- lake ner disaster. Excursions on the ; Shelley and Hobhouse ; St. Preux and Julia; classical drowning. Lord Byron's horseman- remarks on his own duels. Anecdote 16—20 ship ; pistol-firing ; duelling ; Sunset at Venice and Pisa. Routine of Lord Byron's life. The Countess Guiccioli : Lord B.'s attachment to her ; beautiful Sonnet and Stanzas in honour of her. Cuvalieri Serveiiti. Mode of bring- Italian females its Italian to love. ing up ; consequences. propensity — Intimacy with the Countess : her rescue 20 29 Lord Byron's preference for Ravenna. Female beauty in Italy and England compared. The Constitutionalists; their proscription. Lord Byron's danger. Assassination of the military Commandant at Ravenna. Lord B.'s humanity 29—34 The Byron Memoirs : Mr. Moore, Lady Burghersh, and Lady Byron. Lord B.'s opinion of his own Memoirs; his marriage and the omen. separation. Mrs. Williams, English Sybil. An Lord B.'s introduction to ^liss Millbank ; his courtship and marriage . 34—38 The wedding-ring. An uneasy ride. The honey-moon. Lord and Lady B.'s fashionable dissipation; consequent embarrassment; final b 2 CONTENTS. Lord B.'s women. separation. prejudices respecting Family jai-s ; Mrs. Cliarlement. Domestic felony. Mrs. Mardyn. Statute of lunacy. Lady Noel's hatred: anecdote 38—45 " Lady Byron's abilities. Lord B.'s various counter-parts. The Examiner" and Sale of Lady Jersey. Newstead Abbey ; departure from England 45—49 Madame de Stael and Goethe. Lord B.'s for partiality America ; ' curious specimen of American criticism. The Sketches of B.'s Hfe at . — Italy.' Lord Venice ; further remai-ks on his Memoirs 49 ^53 Anecdotes of himself and companions; Lord Falkland. Lord B.'s ; horror presentiments early of matrimony ; anti-matrimonial wager. Anecdotes of his father. Craniology. Anecdote of his uncle. Early love for Scotland . of ; j\L^ry C Harrow School ; Duke Dor- set — ; Lords Clare and school rebellion Calthorpe ; 53 62 The ' Hours of ' Idleness. The skull goblet ; a new order estabhshed at Newstead. Julia Alpinula. Skulls from the field of Morat. Lord B.'s contempt for academic honours; his bear; the ourang- outang. A lady in masquerade. Mrs. L. G.'s depravity. Singular occurrence. Comparison of English and Italian profligacy . 6'2 —68 Fasliionable Hell in St. James's Street pastimes ; ; chicken-hazard. Scroope Davies, and Lord B.'s pistols; the deodand. Lord B. commences his travels. His opinion of Venice. His own and of women. The new Fornarina Hai'lowe the Napoleon's opinion ; at — painter. Gallantry sometimes dangerous Venice 68 74 his occasional. Lord Byron's religious opinions ; scepticism only English Cathedral Service. Relio-lon of Tasso and jVIilton. jMis- sionary Societies, and missions to the East. Tentiizioiie di Saiit' Antonio. Tacitus; Priestley and Wesley. Dying moments of Johnson, Cowper, Hume, Voltaire, and Creech. Sale. Anything- arians; Gibbon; Plato's three principles. Lord B.'s correspond- ents ecstatic extract. for Lord B.'s con- ; epistolary Prayer his avowal of a Christian 74—83 version ; being Ali Pacha's barbarity. Affecting tale. Ileal incident in 'The Giaour.' Albanian guards. The Doctor in alarm. Lord Byron's ghost. He prophesies that he should die in Greece. Lord Byron and CONTENTS. 3 Page the Drury Lane Committee. Theatricals. Obstacles to writing Mrs. Siddons Munden ; ; for the stage. Kemble ; ; Shakspeare ' Alfieri Maturin Miss BaiUie. Modern sensitiveness. Marino ; ; — Faliero.' Ugo Foscolo 83 97 on education. Ada's Ada. Singular coincidence. Ideas birth-day.' Lord Byron's melancholy and superstition. Birth-day fatalities. Death of Polidori. 'The Vampyre'— foundation of the story Lord ' or the Modern Prometheus.' to Sir Byron's ; Frankenstein, Query Humphrey Davy. Scott, Rousseau, and Goethe. Fulfilment of — 1U4 Mrs. Williams's prophecy. Unlucky numbers 97 towards a Lord Byron's epigrams. His hospitality. Advances reconcihation with Lady Byron. Death of Lady Noel. Lord and Byron's remarks on lyiic poetry; Coleridge, Moore, Campbell. Ode on Sir John Moore's funeral 104-114 Swimming across the Hellespont. Adventures at Brighton and Ve- ' nice. ' Marino Faliero' and The Two Foscari.' Hogg the Ettrick ' Failure of Marino Fahero :' Lord Shepherd's prediction. Byron's epigram on the occasion. Louis Dix-huit's translation : Jeffrey's Reviews. for 114-124 critique. Quarterly and Edinburgh Subjects tragedies ' ' Barry Cornwall. Cain.' Gessner's Death of Abel.' Hobhouse's ' B.'s of opinion of Cain.' Lord defence that poem. Goethe's ' ' Faust.' Letter to Murray respecting Cain.' Bacchanalian song. Private theatricals. The Definite Article. A play proposed. The Guiccioli's Frfo 124-135 Merits of actors. Dowton and Kean. Kean's Richard the Third and Sir Giles Overreach. Garrick's dressing of Othello. and Cato : his Kemble's costume ; his Coriolanus colloquial : Theodore Hook : his blank verse. Improvisatori Sgricci ; ' Siddons and Miss O'Neill. The Iphigenia.' Mrs. elephant's ' Faust' 135-142 leo-s.
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