Litchfield enquirer., 1880-05-27
2 Fs-.lt.ti rffV *flftRlH XII F,F3iEI34 D {, BYRON AND SHELLEY.
1T2ff TAffk WITT WITH hRGa E 'saaart sart RRisls F"

To see Mr. Trelawny and hear him talk is to 1 be transported back, as if by magic, half q feehtpry or SO, to that thrilling period when l Shelley and Byron, those revolutionary Dios- curi of English poetry, passed the last years of their brief lives sef-exiled in Italy. As he sits smoking in his chair, or paces up and down the room, the grand old man, who has been 50 long before Europe as to have become historical, still shows traces in his fine features which justify the assertion that he, Lord Bly, ron,, and Count dOrsay, were considered the three handsomest men of their time. Then, as. he begins talking to you in voice that seems issuing from some deep cavern, his pro- digious memory and singular power of expres- sion making the past present g..A a4 .gar IA F., Shelley seems ito be the only mortal who ever touched that proud, rebel spirit with a feeling akin to hero-wOrship. When he speaks of the poet there is something like ten- derness in his accents something verging on the reverence in his locks. The customary formulas of social intercourse are an abemIna- ton lin his Sigh.. Woe to you, if, on first seeing him, you should unfortunately say, 'tHow do you do, Mir Trelawny 2" He will, if not rebuke, merely grunt out reply and look as if he thought you fool He gives no small change of coversation; every word he utters is stamped with his personality--a per- sonaiity so powerful that it overtops every. thing he can say7or do. as} ag.a zga -.
 He will begin speaking quite abruptly, as if only continuing aloud some previous train of thought. "What," he growled, ''is all that rubbish that Symonds wkites about Shelley being too beautiful to paint ?; Too beautiful to paint, indeed 4 When he was quite young Ee might have had the beauty that we admire in children or young girls, but he had no man. ly beatty. He was narrow -chested and he stoopea like a scholar. You-could see that from child, almost baby, he had been bend ing over books. He had the smallest head of any man l ever knew .Byron's came next. His eyes were slightly prominent. and there was hardly any of the white visible. To see him in crowd was like seeing stag in the midst of herd of deer The deer has a timid way of looking on the ground but the stag walks with lifted head and shining eyes. His were like stars. Now Byron was handsome. The upper part of his figure was nobly pro- portioued and his throat was like column. He had most beautiful eyes, we'll set in his head they were like cats, changing contin- ually in color, now brown, now golden, then green, full of ever-varying expression"
 "What do y0n think of their genius respec- lively ?" aa4 sa -r
 ''Shelley had the divine madness which alone makes man write great poetry. But he appealed to the intellect, while Byron's poetry appealed to the passions of mankind All tnen have passion; therefore they under stood him. But Shelley was great metaphy- sician, a logician, poet whom people summed in his day. No one read his writings and when went to get one of his poems from Ollier, his publisher, he pretended not to have copy, till being informed that l was Shel- leys friend, he fetched it from a secret draw CT. This was the universal feeling concerning him. No one understood hin-not Hogg- not Peacock; and the former, though he often calls him divine poet, aid not believe any, thing of the kind on the contrary, he thought It all nonsense, and was laughing is his sleeve when he used such expressions. "-'" '' But what was the bond between them, then?" .,... ...G.agt .,..s f.. .f., : ,-. | ''WhY, they were both excellent scholars. Shelley wa& an enthusiastic student of the Greek poets, and greatly influenced by them, Especially in his latter years. Nc one who is Enorant Of the classics can thoroughly appre- Ecfate him. That is partly the reason why Swlnburne understands him SO well he has written better things concerning him than any one else. But he, too, has some of the divine madness. Nothing great can ever be done without it. Here is another man who was also full of lt.'' r. Y..>
 Mir. Trelawny was pacing up and down the room while uttering these sentences in his deep, 'eonine voice. He now brought me portrait of John Brown, the American martyr, of whom he spoke with kindling eye.
 Do you know what was his answer to the rebels when they threatened to hang him Do said he, I wish for nothing better, for then my name will become 8 flag for the North to rally round Enthusiasts and fanat- ics are the men that move the world. There is Blake, now 1 consider him true poet also what he writes is full of inspiration"
 He repeated some of Blake's lines. His manner of quoting poetry is peculiarly in- pressive, almost oracular; it seems that Shell ley was very fond of it. Once hearing him declaim:
 Time hath, my lord a wallet at his back,
 In which he puts aims for oblivion,
 the poet was SO taken with the passage, which he did not appear to know, that he clapped his hands with delight and could not hear 1t often enough Something being said to him about his ''Rosalind and Helen," he laughed and shouted, That's going into Times wal let. you know" " 'Was shelley's voice really as loud and piercing as is generally asserted ?" ...
 '.Of course all the Shelley biographers must go on repeating Hogg's assertion about the harsh shrillness of the poets tones. No doubt he was habtually hoarse in this climate. You always find that Italians lose their voice on coming to England, while that of the English gets sweeter in Italy. Shelley's voice was soft and pleasant-at any rate, when knew him." sls..<.. .s...s.-..4 ..... .. .-.... i. Did Shelley ever shut himself up to write p .. ,... ..s-.. ..s -.l..s.....e.
 s.Shut himself up !" shouted Mir. Trelawny indignantly "Never! He wrote his poems in the open air on the sea-shore in the pine woods; and like shepherd, he could tell the time of day exactly by the light. He never had had watch. And I think Byron never had but, if the latter had one, he never wore it. @ .7''s' 5te-
 (Which of all Byron's works do you your self prefer ?" f. s> ai f
 ssiChilde Harold.' He at one time intend ed introducing me either into that poem or in to Don Juan; he did not know which. His intention was to have written fifth canto of 'Childe Harold, , the scene of which was to be laid at Naples. But he said he must see Ma pies before writing about it; he could not write about things he had not seen.
 s.Southey on hls return from tour in Italy was asked by "a friend whether he considered Shelley or Byron as the head of the Satanic school Southey, pointing to his feet, said, The devil marks his own.'" Mir. Trelawny chuekled sardonically, and he repeated the joke at intervals, as if he enjoyed it.
 That accounts, l supposed, for the author of The Vision of Judgment imposing poor oOuIAOy I'll eA0 PAAA0i SA AAAo ire?' f.-, A..74
 ''Yes, Moore, who used to sugar over hls spite and malice with the diamond-dust of wit, Host no time in repeating the saying to his mo- ble friend. a fae. .s...,# .;,,
 Mr. Trelawny informed me that Gerome, the French artist, had begun picture of the burning of Shelley's body. The idea evident ly gratified him. He referred to it repeatedly, picturing the scene, which apparently increas- ed in vividness while he described it, till l, too, seemed to see with him the long sweep of sand, the smoothly rippling waters of the bay, the long, dark line,of the pine forest skirting the shore. .f, :, s,
 ..Gerome, !" he said, fought to introduce the pines in his picture. They are characteristic of Shelley and of the place. Their tall, straight stems, forty feet high, rose at equal distances one from the other, and although the sun never penetrated through their lnterlacing boughs, it would cast ared light on the trunks | 1N