Jeaffreson suggests that Byron’s avowal of the Lines to a Lady Weeping may have been hastened by his sympathy with Leigh Hunt,[157] who, with his brother, John Hunt, had been tried for a libel on the Regent printed in their Examiner for March 12, 1812, and sentenced to two years’ imprisonment and a fine of 500 pounds. Byron saw a kindred spirit in Hunt, and, after meeting him in prison in May, 1813, became his close friend. Hunt, on his part, stood by Byron in his Examiner at the time of the latter’s separation from his wife, and dedicated to him his Rimini (1816). Byron, after the unfortunate circumstances connected with The Liberal, modified his lofty opinion of Hunt; but in 1813 the latter was, to Moore and Byron, simply a martyr to liberal principles, a man who had been unjustly persecuted and condemned.[158] There is, however, no evidence to justify Jeaffreson’s conclusion.
In his satire on “the first gentleman of Europe,” Byron was both less prolific and more savage than Moore. His satiric spirit, as usual, was stimulated by particular incidents which offered an opportunity for timely comment. It had been ascertained accidentally that Charles I had been buried in the vault with Henry VIII; and on April 1, 1813, the Regent was present at the opening of the coffins containing the ashes of the two sovereigns. This episode Byron made the theme of two short satires: Windsor Poetics, circulated in manuscript among his friends, but not printed until 1819; and the lines On a Royal Visit to the Vaults, published first in 1904. The point in both poems is the same—that George combines the vices of his two predecessors:
“Charles to his people, Henry to his wife,—
In him the double tyrant starts to life.”
In mentioning Windsor Poetics, the better of the two poems, to Moore, Byron confessed, with some discernment: “It is too farouche; but, truth to say, my satires are not very playful.”[159]
The vindictive seriousness of Byron’s satire, as contrasted with Moore’s playfulness, is nowhere better shown than in the Condolatory Address to Sarah, Countess of Jersey, printed without his permission in the Champion, July 31, 1814, after it had been sent to the lady herself in a letter of May 29. Once a favorite of the Regent’s, Lady Jersey had incurred his dislike by her kindness to the deserted Princess of Wales, with the result that the Prince returned to Mrs. Mee, the painter, a miniature of the Countess, and announced his intention of ignoring her. Byron, who had been more than once the guest of Lady Jersey, saw a chance to strike a blow in her defense by assailing the Regent, and his lines on that ruler are scathing:
“If he, that Vain Old Man, whom truth admits
Heir of his father’s crown, and of his wits,
If his corrupted eye and withered heart,
Could with thy gentle image bear to part;