and closing with a terrible imprecation,
“May the strong curse of crush’d affections light
Back on thy bosom with reflected blight!
And make thee, in thy leprosy of mind,
As loathsome to thyself as to mankind!”
Perhaps no more savage satire was ever levelled at a woman; it is even more venomous than Pope’s assault on Lady Montagu in what Mr. Birrell calls “the most brutal lines ever written by man of woman.” Murray wrote Byron, after showing the satire to Rogers, Canning, and Frere:—“They have all seen and admired the lines; they agree that you have produced nothing better; that satire is your forte; and so in each class as you choose to adopt it.”[171] These men, however, were active supporters of Byron, and their praise seems extravagant. Whatever his provocation may have been—and it was probably great—Byron did not enhance his fame by this barbarous tirade.
In the very midst of his anger the poet pauses in the poem to pay his wife a tribute and to assert his love for her; but not long after he turned to assail Lady Byron herself. Indeed he is said to have attached an epigram to the deed of separation,
“A year ago you swore, fond she!
‘To love, to honour,’ and so forth:
Such was the vow you pledged to me,