Madame de Staël said to Byron, at Ouchy, "It does not do to war with the world: the world is too strong for the individual." Goethe only gives a more philosophic form to this counsel when he remarks of the poet, "He put himself into a false position by his assaults on Church and State. His discontent ends in negation…. If I call bad bad, what do I gain? But if I call good bad, I do mischief." The answer is obvious: as long as men call bad good, there is a call for iconoclasts: half the reforms of the world have begun in negation. Such comments also point to the common error of trying to make men other than they are by lecturing them. This scion of a long line of lawless bloods—a Scandinavian Berserker, if there ever was one—the literary heir of the Eddas—was specially created to wage that war—to smite the conventionality which is the tyrant of England with the hammer of Thor, and to sear with the sarcasm of Mephistopheles the hollow hypocrisy—sham taste, sham morals, sham religion—of the society by which he was surrounded and infected, and which all but succeeded in seducing him. But for the ethereal essence,—
The fount of fiery life
Which served for that Titanic strife,
Byron would have been merely a more melodious Moore and a more accomplished Brummell. But the caged lion was only half tamed, and his continual growls were his redemption. His restlessness was the sign of a yet unbroken will. He fell and rose, and fell again; but never gave up the struggle that keeps alive, if it does not save, the soul. His greatness as well as his weakness lay, in the fact that from boyhood battle was the breath of his being. To tell him not to fight, was like telling Wordsworth not to reflect, or Shelley not to sing. His instrument is a trumpet of challenge; and he lived, as he appropriately died, in the progress of an unaccomplished campaign. His work is neither perfect architecture nor fine mosaic; but, like that of his intellectual ancestors, the elder Elizabethans whom he perversely maligned, it is all animated by the spirit of action and of enterprise.
In good portraits his head has a lurid look, as if it had been at a higher temperature than that of other men. That high temperature was the source of his inspiration, and the secret of a spell which, during his life, commanded homage and drew forth love. Mere artists are often mannikins. Byron's brilliant though unequal genius was subordinate to the power of his personality; he
Had the elements
So mix'd in him, that Nature might stand up
And say to all the world—"This was a man."
We may learn much from him still, when we have ceased to disparage, as our fathers ceased to idolize, a name in which there is so much warning and so much example.
INDEX.
Abydos, Bride of
Adeline (Lady), analysis of female character
Albrizzi (Countess), salon of
Ali Pasha, his reception of Byron
Allegra, Byron's daughter
Athenians, character of
Athens
Aurora Raby, La Guiccioli idealised
Becher's, Rev. J.T., influence on Byron Beppo Blackwood's Magazine Blessington, Lady Blues, The Boatswain (Byron's dog) Bologna Boston's Fourfold State Bowers, Byron's tutor Bowles, controversy about Pope Bozzaris, Marco, death of Brandes, Prof., criticism of Byron's bust British Review, To the Editor of the Bronze, The Age of Brougham's, Lord, criticism of Hours of Idleness Brown, Hamilton Bruno, Dr. Brydges, Sir Egerton, criticism of Cain Burns Burun, an ancestor of Byron Butler, Dr., master of Harrow Byron, Augusta Ada (the poet's daughter) Byron, George Gordon, 6th Lord genealogy; birth; residence at Ballater; school-life; early loves; "first dash into poetry"; accession to peerage; Baillie, Dr., medical adviser; at Harrow; coming of age; writes review on Wordsworth; Annesley, residence at; at Cambridge; takes seat in House of Lords; travels; studies Romaic; Armenian; attacks of fever; speeches in House of Lords; writes address on re-opening of Drury Lane Theatre; publishes the Giaour; friendship with Sir Walter Scott; marriage; separation from wife; departure from England; friendship with Shelley; in Switzerland; in Italy; life in Venice completes Childe Harold life at Ravenna at Pisa relations with Leigh Hunt life in Albaro joins conspiracy in Italy joins movement for liberation of Greece leaves Italy life in Greece last illness and death last words funeral honours Byron, Lord allusions in his poetry to his training appreciation of aristocratic sentiments Austria, hatred of, characteristics characteristics of literature in Byron's age cleverness comparison with Shelley and Wordsworth contemporary admiration debts defects of character defects of his poetry descriptive power dislike of professional littérateurs dissipations dogmatism early friends financial affairs follower of Pope garrulity idleness knowledge of languages knowledge of Scripture in London society lameness love of mountains melancholy pecuniary profits personal appearance physical endurance poetic character politics reading relations to female sex scholarship Scotch superstition social views solitude sources of Byron's work swimming, feats of tame bear temper theological views verse-romances women estimate of works translated Byron, John, Admiral Byron, John, of Clayton Byron, John (father) Byron, Lady (wife) Byron, Mrs. (mother) Byron, Richard (2nd Lord) Byron, Robert de Byron, Sir John (1st Lord) Byron, Sir Nicholas Byron, William (3rd Lord) Byron, William (4th Lord) Byron, William (5th Lord)
Cadiz, estimate of
Cain
Cambridge
Campbell, Thomas
Carbonari, a secret society
Carlisle, Lord
Carlyle
Castelar
Cenci
Charlotte, Princess
Chasles, criticism by
Chatterton
Chaucer
Chaworth, Mary Ann
Chaworth, Mr.
Chaworth, Viscount
Cheltenham
Childe Harold
criticism of
Chillon, Prisoner of
Christabel
Churchill's Grave
Civil Wars
Clairmont, Miss, intimacy with
Clare, Lord, friendship with
Clermont, Mrs., Lady Byron's maid
Cogni, Margarita, intimacy with
Coleridge
Colocatroni, the brigand
Constantinople
Corinth, Siege of
Corsair
Could I remount the River of my Years
Cowley
Cowper
Crabbe
Curse of Minerva