Delaware state journal. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1870-1883, 1874-02-21
BYRON'S EOOENTRICITIES.
singularities Of AEeotion-His FIRST and Last
Loves.

At Cambridge Byron was deeply at
tached TO a young chorister, aud wore a
cornelian heart which the boy had given
him. At Newstead, also, he felt more
than usually warm friendship for the son
OF one of his tenants and on his second
visit to Athens we hear nothing of the
"maid, his life." but his heart went forth
to a poor youth named Nicolo Giraud,
the son of a widow; while there are
some curious expressions in q letter of
Shelley about his life at Venice. We can
imagine what malevolent gossip might
make of all this but is there auy proof
that il indicates more than tue extraya-
gatIces OF nature far more impulsive and
Comprehensive in its range Of emotions
than is to be met with every day
Then, again, while on the one
nand he was brave and manly, much
addicted to, and skilled in, physical ex-
ercises, devoted to outdoor and athletic
pursuits, or on The other, he had a very
feminine element in his character as in
his person. Hunt sneers at the rings he
loved to display upon his fingers, and Ali
Pacha pleased him by praising his curly
hair, together with the aTietoeratic deli
cacY of his small ears and white hands.
He was once taken for woman in die
gulse, and in "Don Juan" he draws an
attractive picture of the beautiful
hero dressed as an Eastern
princess. Not only women, but
even men could not escape the magic
of his facination, and Lord Hollands
little son called him "the gentleman
with the beautiful voice." His counte-
nance, like his spirit, was e1tra-femi-
ninely mobile, says lady, and he could
look positively beautiful one moment, but
positively ugly the next-surely herein
his face wac reflex of his soul
L fancy the English were a
little unreasonable to cry out when
Countess GdlcciOli took up the cudgels
for Byron, just after such very damaging
statements about him had been published,
ostensibly on the authority of his wife.
If he turned different sides of himself TO
the two ladies, il seems hard il both be
not shown. The Guiccioli in her old age
having married an Anglophobe marquis,
writes that she found Byron perfect
angel during the six years he was with
her, and Lady Byron herself, while
apalyz'ng his character, somewhat sternly
aud harshy to one Of his flien6s (she
even says he only feigned enthusiasm, in
which case he ought to have been great
dramatlst, for he feigned enthusiasm to
the life), wept when she heard Of his
death, owning there was an angel in him.
But, alas the Guiceioli loved him, aud
he loved her, as well, at least, as go liber-
tine aud disillusioned a nature could love.
The picture is touching one of him
at Ravenna, when she had returned with
her husband TO Bologna, visiting her
garden and rooms at their wonted hour
of meeting, reading her faYorite books,
and bursting into tears before the foun
tain in the garden, as he reflected what
evil his love might bring her. This lady
reclaimed him from his debaucheries-
as long as he lived he was faithful to
her-and think the charge against him
OF making no provision for her is one
quite susceptible of favorable explana-
tion. Byron loved two-Mary Chsworth
and the Guicciol. Would that he could
have married his first love In that
beautiful poem, "The Dream" he cos
fesscs that her image was in his soul, ,even
when he stood at the altar with another
that was the crime of his life in the
sight of Heaven, and black one, how
ever shocking his ileshy vagaries imay
appear to his use but that is crime
against which civilized society has no
conscience. Yet an ideal marriage
demands a constancy and stability of
soul-of which, alas men like Byron
and Shelley possess little-ehivalrous
protectiveness, generosity, magnanimity,
memory of the past, faith in the future.
To an absorbed ardent spirit the dim
ming of early rose-c olor, and the intru-
sion Of fretting trivialities,is very trying,
and Shelley is doubtless right, that il
love dies, the usual vulgar passive acqui-
escence 10 dead contract is-unless from
motives of mere expediency or common
| humanity, which may tell the other way
base and unendurable; a more living
love may be sought and found, which
even for the children, may be best.