The Press. — London, England, 1855-11-24 00:00:00

NOVEMBER 24, 1855. fittraturt. The Poetical Works of Lord Byron. Vol. 11. " Murray's British Classics." London : Murray. Twx literary supervision and typography of the second volume of this "new edition" of Lord Byron's works deserve the same praise that we have accorded to the preceding portion. The notes are never superfluous, and are written with terseness of style, while the introductions to the poems exhibit critical acumen. There is an accuracy of statement and absence of exaggeration in the editorial illustrations which give this edition a high literary value peculiar to itself; and we feel justified in examining it in detail. The present volume contains the famous " Ode to Napoleon," " The Hebrew Melodies," "Domestic Pieces" (1816), " Monody on Sheridan," " The Dream," " The Lament of Tasso," " Ode on Venice," " Morgante Mag giore," "Prophecy of Dante," " Francesca of "The Blues," "The Vision of Judg ment," " The Age of Bronze," and last, but not least, " Occasional Pieces " (1807-1824). We have been particular in enumerating the contents, because we apprehend that pur chasers will be glad to have separate volumes of this edition. "Childe Harold " was the chief part of the first, and the " Occasional Pieces " are the great attractions of this se cond volume. Even if they stood by them selves, they would give Byron an abiding place in our literature. We shall glance at the contents of the volume seriatim. The "Ode to Napoleon' is, we think, much overrated, and is not up to the Byronic level. Its thoughts are obvious, and its metre wants grandeur and resonance. It is entirely below what Dryden might have written on such a subject, and it is not equal to what Cowley wrote on the death of Cromwell. We should have expected more from the pen which described Waterloo with such imposing effect in " Childe Harold." The false moral philoso phy of the ode, also, detracts seriously from its merit. The "Hebrew Melodies" exhibit power over rhythm and practised skill in versifica tion, and little more. " The Assyrian came down, &c.," is a model of resonant verse, and is a standard piece with elocutionists for the purpose of teaching delivery. Divested of its sonorous power, there is little though& in it. " The Wild Gazelle " is far superior in poetry, especially the third stanza, and the verses " Oh! weep for those " have touching pathos. Few but Byron could have written such lines as these : And where shall Israel lave her bleedingifeet ? And when shall Zion's songs again seem sweet? And Judah'a melody once more rejoice The hearts that leap'd before its heavenly voice ? Tribes of the wandering foot and weary breast, How shall ye flee away and be at rest ! The wild-dove bath her nest, the fox his cave, Mankind their country—lsrael but the grave ! The "Domestic Pieces" have chiefly a biographic interest. " The Sketch," beginning " Born in a garret, &c.," is gross, coarse, and vulgar. There is a minute particularisation of invidious points which shows satirical power, but it is not a masterpiece ; and Lord Byron was never first-rate when he took Pope for a model. All the lines to his sister (Mrs. Leigh) are exquisitely sweet, but especially those entitled " The Epistle to Augusta." In those lines, alone, we can distinguish that musical utterance and intensity of feeling which are the special marks of Byron's style. How tenderly the poem begins : My sister! my sweet sister! if a name Dearer and purer were, it should he thine. Mountains and seas divide us, but I claim No tears, but tenderness to answer mine : Go where T will, to me thou art the same — A loved regret which I would not resign. There yet are two things in my destiny,— A world to roam through, and a home with thee. And the concluding stanzas are very affecting. On the question of the domestic unhappiness of Lord and Lady Byron the editor has written with calm tetnper. He observes : Of the six "Domestic Pieces," the first three were England;dy before Lord Byron's departure from the others during his residence in the neigh THE PRESS. bourhood of Geneva. They all refer to the unhappy sepa ration of which the precise causes are still a mystery, and which he declared to the last were never disclosed to him self. He admitted that pecuniary embarrassments, disor dered health, and dislike to family restraints, had aggravated his naturally violent temper, and driven him to excesses. He suspected that his mother -in - law had fomented the discord—which Lady Byron denies—and that more was due to the malignant offices of the female dependant who is the subject of the bitterly satirical " Sketch." To these general statements there can only be added the still vaguer allegations of Lady Byron—that she conceived his conduct to be the result of insanity, that the physician pronouncing him responsible for his actions she could submit to them no longer, and that Dr. Lushington, her legal adviser, agreed that a reconciliation was neither proper nor possible. No weight can be attached to the opinions of an opposing counsel upon accusations made by one party behind the back of the other, who urgently demanded, and was pertinaciously refused, the least oppor tunity of denial or defence. He rejected the proposal for an amicable separation, but consented when threatened with a suit in Doctors' Commons. This rupture, against his will, of the marriage bond produced the pathetic remonstrance "Fare thee well," which Sir Walter Scott termed " a very sweet dirge indeed." Unknown to Lord Byron, it was sent to a newspaper, together with the " Sketch," about the middle of April, by a too zealous friend, and was thought by some to be the honest outbreak of natural feeling, and by others the artifice of a practised poet. Moore at first took the latter view, but changed his opinion on reading in Lord Byron's memoranda that a swell of tender recollections, as he sat musing in his study, gave birth to the stanzas, which were penned, he said, weeping. The tear-blotted manuscript confirms this account. Lady Byron is still alive, having survived " Ada"; and we have always heard her spoken of with high respect. We fancy that no wife could have agreed with so wayward and pas sionate a nature as Byron. He never was suited for " domestic " life. The monody on Sheridan is verbose and unequal. But there are a few couplets which derive additional power from the way in which Tom Moore has stabbed at the corpse of the dead man of genius : Behold the host ! delighting to deprave, Who track the steps of Glory to the grave, Watch every fault that daring Genius owes Half to the ardour which its birth bestows, Distort the truth, accumulate the lie, And pile the pyramid of Calumny! It is said, forsooth, that Sheridan had no ready wit, and that he had to prepare for society. What was Lord Byron's opinion in his social powers ? The editor has preserved it in a note : In society I have met Sheridan frequently. He was superb ! I have seen him cut up Whitbread, quiz Madame de Steel, annihilate Colman, and do little less by some others of good fame and ability. I have met him at all places and parties, and always found him convivial and delightful. What pages of miserable detraction are over turned in those emphatic words from such a gifted being as Byron ! " The Dream' is a beautiful poem, and could never have been written except by a man of genius. It is in such pieces of blended feeling and thought that we see where genius begins and talent ends. In the brief intro duction to it the editor states, alluding to Mary Chaworth She was two years his senior at a period when the dif ference made her a woman, and left him a boy. He had nothing beyond his rank to compensate for the disadvan tage—his genius was not so much as in the bud, his beauty undeveloped, his manners rough, and his temper ungo vernable. The succeeding year he bade her farewell on the hill which is celebrated in " The Dream." " The next time I see you," he said, " I suppose you will be Mrs. Chaworth," —for her husband originally took her name,—and she an swered " I hope so." She naturally numbered Lord Byron's attachment among the fickle ebullitions of juvenile suffeep. tibility, and would have treated it with coldness, even if her heart had not been already won. In 1805 she was united to Mr. Musters, a gentleman of a noble appearance and of an ancient family. There was no sympathy between their characters, and his conduct to her was reported to he harsh and capricious. He never relished Lord Byron's allusions to her, and after the publication of " The Dream" he cut down the celebrated " diadem of trees" which grew on his estate. Hie beautiful and accomplished bride be came the victim of her cares, and she sunk into lunacy. In 1832 she closed her tragic life by a mournful death. A party of Nottingham rioters sacked Colwick-hall, and she and her daughter took refuge in the shrubbery, where her constitution received a fatal shock from the combined effects of cold and terror. Lord Byron always kept the conviction that the lady of Annesley would have averted his destiny. In 1822 having called her in his diary "my M. A. C.," he suddenly exclaims, " Alas! why do I say my? Our union would have healed feuds in which blood had been shed by our fathers,—it would have joined lands broad and rich, it would have joined at least one heart, and two persons not ill-matched in years, and—and—and— wnat has been the result?" The consideration of his character leads us to think that the result would not have been widely different if he had prospered in his suit; and the romance that must always linger round the mutt of 1123 Miss Chaworth is probably none the leas that it comes to us invested with the hues of imagination instead of the light of experience. We did not know that Mrs. Musters " sunk into lunacy," but the other statements in that paragraph we have often heard. As to whe ther Byron wuuld have been a happier man if he had married Miss Chaworth, the editor's concluding sentence in the foregoing passage is perfectly just. Passing by several inferior poems, we come to "The 'Vision of Judgment," which is, un- .. doubtedly, a masterpiece of poignant satire, though unequal in its merits. The attack on Southey is most effective. The weak points of that amiable but inconsistent character are struck with force : He had written praises cf a regicide ; He had written praises of all kings whatever ; He had written for republics far and wide, And then against them bitterer than ever ; For pantisocracy he once had cried Aloud, a scheme less mural than 'twas clever; Then grew a hearty anti-Jacobin— Had turn'd his coat—and would have turn'd his akin. He had sung against all battles, and again In their high praise and glory ; he had csll'd Reviewing " the ungentle craft," and then Became as base a critic as e'er cmwl'd— Fed, paid, and pamper'd by the very men By whom his muse and morals had been maul'd ; He had written much blank verse, and blanker prose, And more of both than any body knows. The editor of this edition seems to enjoy the way in which Byron lacerates the Laureate. These verses, and others of the same sort, ho characterises as " superlative of their kind." But we think that he might have put in a few kind words on behalf of Southey, who was often the dupe of his own fine talent for lan guage, and whose judgment was in no degree proportional to his facility for writing a smooth and pure English style. As a professional man of letters, toiling hard, and preserving a soul unspotted by the world, Southey is entitled to respect. There are deep and last ing stains on the moral characters of Byron, Coleridge, and Moore. There was something worse than reprehensible in some of Shelley 's actions; and sonic others of his distinguished contemporaries have been animated with low motives unworthy of men gifted with the highest faculties. Southey toiled with the labour of a drudge, and saw men without half of his abilities ascend to the highest social positions, while for want of means he was compelled to decline a proffered baronetcy. He may have been weak, but he was not vicious; he may not have reached the sublime heights of speculation in his wordy philosophy, but he never consciously degraded his powers ; he may not have been consistent in his politics. but he was never the parasite of office, and what he wrote was sincere in its purpose. That he was able to strike hard at an adver sary might be seen in his letter to Smith tthe Unitarian of Norwich), and also in the letter to Lord Byron, in which occurs the following passage : His lordship has thought it not unbecoming for him to call me a scribbler of all work. Let the word scribbler pass; it is an appellation that will not stick, like that of the Satanic School. But, if a scribbler, how am I one of all work ? I will tell Lord Byron what I have not scribbled —what kind of work I have nut done. I have never pub lished libels upon my friends and acquaintance. expressed my sorrow for those libels, and called them in during a mood of better mind—and then reissued them, when the evil spirit, which for a time had been cast out, had returned and taken possession, with seven others more wicked than himself. I have never abused the power, of which every author is in some degree possessed, to wound the character of a man or the heart of a woman. I have never sent into the world a book to which 1 did not dare to tax in 7 name ; or which I feared to claim in a court of justice, it it were pirated by a knavish bookseller. I have never manufac tured furniture for the brothel. None of these things have I done ; none of the foul work by which literature is per verted to the injury of mankind. My hands are clean ; there is no " damned spot' upon them— no taint, which "all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten." The editor has printed the whole of this letter, as introductory to Byron's " Vision of Judg ment." Passing " The Age of Bronze," which has only one fine passage (the characterisation of Napoleon in the spleen, at St. Helena), we come to the "Occasional Pieces," which till nearly half of the present volume. They exhibit nearly all the moods of the Byronic Muse, and not ono of his contemporatied could have so prodigally scattered so many wreathe of verseis. The various lines to