Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1879-01-06
BYRON AND His WIFE
What the Rev, Francis HOdusOa Knew Of.
the Poets Domestic InfslIOItlss.
Saturday Review.l

Saturday Reyiew.l
The world of letters would hsve
owed gratitude indeed to Hodgson had
he been equally successful in recon
ciliating Byron and his wife. OF that
mysterious business these volumes
have much TO say, though Httle to tell.
For a few months before and after the
marriage everything was joyous. By
ron sister, Augusta Leigh, Hodgson's
honored friend and correspondent for
forty years, declares to him that she
never saw or heard or read Of a more
perfect being in mortal mold than
Lady Byron 1.-THE more she sees Of
her the more she loves and esteems
her. There is a short silence and
Mrs. Leigh is writing in an agony to
Hodgson to hurry to London and try if
he can prevent a separation between
this bride and bridegroom Of a year.
Hodgson, with whom Byron once.
said he had never had a moments
disagreement, answered the appeal.
But, if he had power over By
ron, he had none over Lady
Byron. Byron had told him he.
did not know the specific
things which had given the princi-
pal Offense," Lady Byron answered
HodgsOn that her husband does
knoW-tOo well" He had married
her" she said, with the deepest de-
termination of revenge, avoWed on the
marriage day, and executed ever since
with systematic and increasing cruelty,
which no affection could change
Her security depended on the total
abandonment Of every moral and re-
ligious principle, against which
Though they were never obtruded) his
hatred and endeaVors were uniformly
directed In her reply to a second
letter, which has most unfortunately
been lost'-the good Hodgson's CORE
spondents never seem tOi have pre-
served his letters-Lady Byron rejects
the theory of present insanity as an ex-
cuse for her husbands insane VIC
.lence, but seems to think that his
mind, by nature most benevolent
may have grown desperate from loss
Of "self-esteem'' through acts the
consequences Of mental disorder"
His sisters hypothesis agree with his
wife's, hat his mind harbored "%recol-
lec!ions'' which forbid happiness with
any woman whose excellence edualed
or approached that of Lady Byron.n
The view which both Mrs. Leigh
and Lady Byron took was a wo;
mans view rather than a mans.
Hddgson evidently held that not
despair at some u~nutterable criminal
ty, but Indigestion, combined with an
Unsuitable desire to pose as a hero Of
darkness, explained the frantic fits Of
Byron year of welded life. Had he
imagined some terrible mystery ofvice
he could scarcely have preserved I'M
changed his love for his friend living
and dead. At the same time it is not
eliminating a pure life to suppose
that the vicar of Blackwell. who was
always the most loyal Of Friends, felt a
little additional interest in a friend
who needed reforming. Some men
take their vice TissF;cusly, as the
Grand Duke Of Mississippi, in Mr..
Longfellow's Hyperion, had a secreta-
~ to smoke for him. 1t sounds an
odd message to dispatch to a grave,
married clerggmen. ''Tell Hodrson
his prediction is fulfilled. You know
he foretold hat | should fall in love
with an Italian, and 50 | have" Alb
eratlons Of this kind certainly did not
chill Hodgson's sympathy. On the
contrary, they only made him more
earnest in desiring to relieve a charac-
ter that he believed to be essentially
noble from e~xcreseences which de-
formed it.