New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-05-06
NEW PUBLICATIONS.
RYRON.

gHE REAL LORD BYR9SJ rA FsE svO pp
j. II. 0sgoOd &Co'
,,.L., ,,ears hence as the author OF the DOCK
- nc the world will have in the memoir ieit
bv Iobn Cam HobhOuse (LOrd Brougotonl the proofs
80 ;,s xvrter1s statements once puDiicy "a"o III
- of bis lifelong friend, Lord Byron. Mt.
Iagrsson is unwilling that while TINS
sv,denee ia still sealed away in darkness
mankind should continue 10 entertain pefver'ou
onnions concerning the much-abnsed poet lie naS
therefore prepared, in order to fill tins gap uNy
volume which aims to do justice to Byron "hi'o IL
exbibits hun at his worst, and which con AIMS q
Great many frank statements about his con-
tempnrares. Mr.. Jcafireson contradicts various
cnri,us ar cruel Misrepresentation of Byrnns me-
INT he has after all, been forced to paint por-
trait which sOrely needs the subdued hG9t thrown
by his reminder that his subject must he ludSed no'
by modern notions of pr0priety but with que icl-
.rrnce TO the views ami manners OF tngiish socloF
IN Bvron's time Whatever his success IS romantic
champion may be 1t must be said that Mr. JeanreSoh
takes rank as an excellent bOok-maker Ills STUDY
of Byron is, with some exceptions, wei "r'''V"
lively and interesting IN E'%h ueli'''
1t is. OF course, from lts very ha'"o
a cossinpino hook. and its occasional failures
of taste in style and matter are necessarily pa,
of lis character. 1t viii not IN some essrht'"iS
- tIo ropnIar opinion IN regard to Bvron
but il will certainly not 60 unread by el'her HIS
Cetractors or his admirers.
In looking back over the record OF the poets NE
II Is difcnlt to see how with his mental and phyS-
ea Inheritances his early training andthe spirit Oh
bistime he could have avoided the evils IN owhich ne
fell. His father was Sir Harry Wlldar; his mother
n vulgar uneducated and silly woman, whose
frightful temper wrought perditiOn for him IN hiS
very bah, hood. He inherited qualities that cursed
his genius; but he was far from beng the utterly
abandoned monster that Philislne England once
loved to think him. Mr. Jeaifleson notes the>e
snecimens of the minor fictions that in the poets
odverity gained currency:
What marvellous stnh has been written Of The
stern and erurl spirit Of the misan'hrnpe who WIN
the sensbity and impulSlveneSs OF the CENTER SEX
could not i'm his softer moments see misery With3nt
wee Ding over it and seeking to relieve II VINO mas
rot been invited TO ponder on the haltuai melal-
cholv of the man, who III bis. brshltr
fine trimmed over with frOlic and even IN the sat
rs of his closing years made the w rid rl1r with
laughter, and delegated IN practical Jokes Who
hasnot heard of his gloomy brow nlacN loeks' uark
eyes and club foot And yet his face was not more
remarkable for the beauty of its features man Tor
the brightness of its smiles hs har. llght chestnut
in childhood, never daTkened to the deepest brown
nj auburn his eyes were gray ana nc hauut
One of the fctions is that, valung himself inor-
0ingtalv on his BIRTH. he was less proud OF the
renins that gave us "Childo Harold" and Don
Juan" than Of the accidents, that made hun a
Lord of the Uppf66 hc@se sue who,
ike I.eigh Hunt and Tom Moore, could
never lose sight of his patrclan qua1ty, ths
Inisconeeption Of a nature, innOc nj OF an such
r1isera6 le weakness is refeIable chiefly and IN an
,aual degree 10 the simplicity and obsequiousnesS
Of the mauv readers. who would have honored nm
for being an insignificant peer even II t1ey haq hot
reyerrDced HIM for being great poeI; Nln
the single exception of Lord Clare, ByrOnS closest
comrades were found IN ranks something OF greatly
there We're times doubtless, when Hobhouse
instIiied in thinking his friend gave too ready an
ear 10 fiatteTers whom he should nave KEPT ~ us
lance But there never was time OF ms who'e
career when the particular lnSOlence tnat DiOgIa,
pliers are pleased to call pride OF race pIecluGed
Byron from sympathizing cordially VITA ms
social interiors. Though they were gentlemen Oy
birth, culture, taste and puIpOse, upph u9e
Uodgson Scrope Davies. Charles skinner Matthews
md the other members of his particular set nc nm
ity were not the persons to whom he would nave
attached himself had he ratea MS descent a. lii6
than Its proper worth. The pleasant terms on whlch
he lived during his Cambridge vacations with the
Bechers the Pgots ana the otnef moIe eat
tie Youthful peer was not so largely animated by
sense of his patrcian magnitcence as some OF MS
biographers would have Us believe. In later time
this arstocrat with all his Overweening arruglnce
took for his peculiar intimate the son OF Dublin
tradesman. -, :,
the manner described by Mr. Leigh Hunt
who records the unimPortaaat fact a;t., in the
spirit of a discharged valet. Fifty years
Vince beds of state were often so adorned
IN England, as well as Italy, just as spoons
and hall-chairs and caTr1age-Danes are sull ofha-
mented in like manner by owners who nave no
gone crazy with ancestral insolence. Though
Hunts malice inspires him to reproduce plquant
story of the anger with which Byron return Do&
of pills to an apOthecary because the packet was
directed TO MIR" instead of {" Lord" Byron, the
malice of 500 detractors would induce no dscrlml-
mating reader to believe so egreglous and manifest
a fbricatIOn. If family pride had been inOrdi-
nately strong in Byron, be would not have sold
Sewstead for the sake Of adding lew hundreds
yearly to an already sufficient IN come.
Ae IN no fctIon which attributed to Byron that
most distressing deformity, a club-foot. Mr.
Jeafreson chronicles the fact that his
lameness was due not to such cause at
oil. but to the contraction of the tendon Achilles
of each foot, which prevented HIM from putting
his heels to the ground and forced him to walk on
the balls and toes of his feet Both feet may have
been equally well formed in this
sinew till one of them was subjected to lnjudiciOus
surgery. The right tendon, however, was
90 much contracted that the poet was
never able to put the foot fiat upon the
ground; always using for it boot made with
high heel and fitted with padding inside under the
heel of the foot. This foot was also considerably
distorted. so as to turn inwards, malformatiOn
that NAV have been caused altogether by the vlO-
hnce with which the foot was treated by the less
Intelligent of the boys surgical operators"
The impossblty of taking healthful exercise was
the cause OF most unbeautlful coroulence The
boy who was led in his fourteenth year to Dr.
Drury's presence by Mr.. Hanson tthe young gen
tleman's solicitor was a decidedly plump youth. TO
the dissipation of romantic vision, of certain
tombstone with handsome stripping in recum-
bent posture upon the moss-grown slab, it must
even be recorded that toward the close of his
school-days, the boy whom DIR. Drury governed 80
wisely, was fat boy The hateful eplthet comes
TO this page from the pen of rude writer but 1T
came tn him through an ultra polite writer
from the lin, of the charming genIlewoman
Miss Pigot, of Southwell, who recalled
Cor Tom Moores advantage, how tho fat
bashful boy" looked and demeaned himself on en-
tering her mothers drawing room when he had just
Gnished his third wear at HarroM. With cheeks en-