Byron's Political and Cultural Influence in Nineteenth­ Century Europe Also by Paul Graham Trueblood THE FLOWERING OF BYRON'S GENIUS: STUDIES IN BYRON'S DON JUAN LORD BYRON Thomas Phillips' portrait of Byron (1814) from the Roe-Byron Collection Byron's Political and Cultural Influence in Nineteenth-Century Europe A Symposium EDITED BY PAUL GRAHAM TRUEBLOOD "European nineteenth-century culture is as unthinkable without Byron as its history would be without Napoleon." Northrop Frye, Fables oJldentity: Studies in Poetic Mythology © Paul Graham Trueblood 1981 Softcover reprint ofthe hardcover 1st edition 1981 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without permission First published 1981 by THE MACMILLAN PRESS L TD London and Basingstoke Companies and representatives throughout the world British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Byron's political and cultural influence in nineteenth-century Europe 1. Byron, George Gordon, Baron Byron - Influence - Philosophy - Congresses 2. Europe - Intellectual life - Congresses I. Trueblood, Paul 821' .7 PR4386 ISBN 978-1-349-05590-6 ISBN 978-1-349-05588-3 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-05588-3 To Dennis WalwinJones, M.C. and Elma Dangerfield, O.B.E. founders of the restored Byron Society Contents F rontis piece Preface lX Acknowledgements Xlll Notes on the Contributors xv The Historical Background DOUGLAS DAKIN 2 Byron and England WILLIAM RUDDICK 25 3 Byron and France ROBER T ESCARPIT 48 4 Byron and Germany CEDRIC HENTSCHEL 59 5 Byron and Greece E. G. PROTOPSALTIS 91 6 Byron and Italy GIORGIO MELCHIORI 108 7 Byron and Poland JULIUSZ ZULAWSKI 122 8 Byron and Portugal F. DE MELLO MOSER 132 9 Byron and Russia NINA DIAKONOVA AND VADIM VACURO 143 10 Byron and Spain EST ABAN PUJ ALS 160 11 Byron and Switzerland ERNEST GIDDEY 179 12 Conclusion: Byron and Europe PAUL GRAHAM TRUEBLOOD 191 Index 205 Preface An increasing interest in the life and work of Lord Byron has marked the third quarter of the twentieth century. Two of the greatest contributions to modern Byron scholarship appeared in 1957: Professor Leslie A. Marchand's magnificent three-volume biography of Byron and the monumental Variorum Don Juan edited by Professor Truman Guy StefTan and Professor Willis W. Pratt. An ever-increasing number of important scholarly contribu­ tions to the understanding of Byron both as man and poet have been accumulating since the mid-century, including, among others, excellent critical studies by Rutherford, Escarpit, Mar­ chand, Ridenour, Marshall,Joseph, Gleckner, Elledge, McGann, Cooke, Jump and Blackstone, and brilliant biographical studies by Doris Langley Moore, Elizabeth Longford and others. Furthermore, what is certain to be the major contribution to Byron scholarship in the twentieth century is now appearing: Byron's Letters and Journals, edited by Professor Marchand, and Byron's Complete Poetical Works, edited by Professor McGann. These definitive multi-volume works supersede the turn-of-the-century Coleridge-Prothero edition. Indicative of the genuine, though belated, recognition and ap­ preciation of Byron was the dedication in Westminster Abbey, at the instigation of The Poetry Society of Great Britain, of a white marble floor memorial to Lord Byron in 1969. Mr William Plomer, President of The Poetry Society, unveiled the memorial and the late C. Day Lewis, England's Poet Laureate, placed a wreath on the stone, while Dr Abbott, Dean ofthe Abbey, pronounced a bene­ diction. Thus, a century and a half after his death, Lord Byron's name was entered among those of his peers in the Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey. IX x Byron's Political and Cultural lrifluence Another evidence of the resurgence ofinterest in Byron has been the recent revival ofThe Byron Society, originally founded as "The Byron Club" in London on 22January 1876, at the Temple Club, 37 Arundel Street, which premises, known in Byron's day as the Crown and Anchor, served as the meeting place for the Greek Com­ mittee that invited Byron in 1823 to be its representative in Greece. The Society received further impetus in 1888, the centennial of the poet's birth, at the instigation of King George I of Greece who desired to preserve the memory of the great Romantic poet who died in the Greek War ofIndependence. The Byron Society flourished during the early decades of the twentieth century, numbering Sir Winston Churchill among its members, until it ceased activities at the outbreak ofWorld War II. The Byron Society was re-founded in 1971 by the late Dennis WalwinJones, M.C. and Elma Dangerfield, O.B.E., to whom this symposium is dedicated, and it has since grown into The Inter­ national Byron Society headquartered in London with branches in twenty-seven countries. The Society, which has as objectives the promotion of interest and research in the life and work of Byron, publishes ajournal devoted to Byron biographical, critical and edi­ torial scholarship; holds annual international $eminars; and arranges tours to countries with which Byron was associated. Five Byron Seminars have taken place in five countries of Europe and the sixth was held in America in 1979. The First Byron Seminar was held at Trinity College (Byron's college), Cambridge, in 1974, in co-operation with The British Council, in commemoration of the 150th anniversary of Byron's death. The theme was "Byron's Influence on European Thought", chaired by the late Professor Terence Spencer, Bir­ mingham University, with Byronists from all over the world parti­ cipating. It was my privilege to open the programme with a paper on "Byron's Championship of Political Freedom on the Continent from 1812 to 1824". The inception of the present book may be traced to my experi­ ence in the Cambridge Seminar. It seemed to me appropriate to launch an investigation of the far-ranging and pervasive influence of Byron, both culturally and politically, in Europe throughout the nineteenth century. Inquiry revealed that a thorough and compre­ hensive investigation of the subject had not been notably under­ taken. To this end I solicited the assistance of Byronists throughout Preface Xl Europe, inviting a distinguished collaborator from each of ten countries to participate in the symposium. A brief personal account about each participant appears in the Notes on the Contri­ butors. The historical introduction by Douglas Dakin, Emeritus Professor of History at the University of London and the leading British authority on diplomatic history of nineteenth-century Europe, lends added stature to the enterprise. The scope of the symposium is limited to those European countries in which Byron's influence appears to have been the most overt and extensive. His relation to The Lowlands and Scandina­ via must await a further extension of this investigation. The countries in the order of their national treatment in the symposium are England, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Spain and Switzerland. The purpose of the symposium is to explore and assess the nature, extent and effectiveness of Byron's influence, both cultural and political, on the climate of thought and social action in nineteenth-century Europe, especially in relation to the general struggle of the peoples for political freedom and national indepen­ dence. I have encouraged each participant to develop as he thought appropriate the role of Byron in relationship to the cultu­ ral and political life of his own country; and I am pleased with the variety of approach and achievement that has emerged in relation to the general topic of the symposium: Byron's Political and Cultural Influence in Nineteenth-Century Europe. Each participant was free to decide for himself how extensive a reference apparatus his own contribution required and to some extent what form the references might appropriately take. I want to acknowledge for some of the contributors, including myself, the prior publication of excerpts from articles that have appeared in The ByronJournal (London), and in my own case, from my Lord Byron (Twayne Publishers, Division ofG. K. Hall, Boston, 1977). I want to express my appreciation to the American Council of Learned Societies and the Modern Language Association of America for substantial travel grants which made possible my par­ ticipation in international Byron symposiums and consequent consultation with my European colleagues in this enterprise. I am grateful to the Emeritus Enrichment Program ofWillamette Uni­ versity for a grant which has helped defray the considerable costs of my editorial responsibilities in connection with this volume, and to my esteemed colleague, Emeritus Dean and Professor of Modern Xll Byron's Political and Cultural Influence European History Robert D. Gregg, College ofLiberal Arts, Willa­ mette University, for his authoritative knowledge and expert advice. I am deeply indebted and grateful to Professor Andrew Ruther­ ford of the University of Aberdeen, Great Britain's leading Byron scholar, for the inspiration and challenge of his superb achieve­ ments in Byron studies, especially for his Byron: A Critical Study, one of the most brilliant, perceptive and sustained critical analyses of Byron that has ever been written. I am particularly grateful to Dr Cedric Hentschel for his enthu­ siastic encouragement and generous and perceptive advice during the prolonged editorial procedures, as well as for his many, well­ remembered "acts of kindness". And, finally, I want to thank my wife, Helen Churchill Trueblood, for her patience and the "infinite variety" of her invaluable assistance. PAUL GRAHAM TRUEBLOOD WILLAMETTE UNIVERSITY October 1979 Acknowledgemen ts The au thor and pu blishers wish to thank the following for the use of copyright material: Professor Robert Escarpit for the chapter based on his essay, "Byron, figure politique", in Romantisme, Revue de la Societe des Etudes Romantiques, 1974 Professor Giorgio Melchiori for the use of material from his Byron Foundation Lecture, "Byron and Italy", University of Notting­ ham, 1958, and his essay, "The Influence of Byron's Death on Italy", in The Byron Journal, no.