New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1922-07-02

Byron letters Ga supplement- to
the six volumes Of Letters and Journals
published at the beginning Of the CEN
tUry) only constitute moro conclusive
evidence that Byron was "black-
guard and cad" This 10 to simplify
the matter too much. 1t is to assume
that when he writes maid of Athons,
ere we part, Give oh give me, back my
heart" in one breath and in the next
tells Robhouse that 1.-The old woman,
Theresa's mother, was mad enough to
Imagine l was going to marry the girl,
but I have better amusement" and
when he sneers ferociously about his
wife in his private correspondence,
after having written, "even though un-
forgiving, never 'Ganst thee shall my
heart rebel" he is sincere only about
his oynicism and not about his emo
ton. 1t is to assume that Ia is impos-
slble to take something cynically and
seriously at the same time-that Childe
Harold and Manfred were not realities
as we'll as Don Juan. Tho truth is that
Byron was man of picturesque and
violent moods, who reacted to life with
extra ordinary vivldncss, but without
discipline or order. He never knew
where he was nor what he really
wanted. He was force of enorln GUS
energy. running amuck through a world
in which he could not find peace. His
compromises with civilized society we're
doomed to disaster from the beginning,
though in them he was surely sincere
in seeking tranquility or discipline. To
say, as Mr.. Hewlett does, that he cold
bloodedly seduced Lady Frances Web
stcr seems to me to melodramatize the
situation. Even if Lady Frances had
not been all of a flutter from the mo-
ment Byron came into the house and in
violent reaction against the clumsy
and stupid husband, who had boasted
that she was as passionlcss "as Jesus
Christi these letters seem amply to
prove that Byron actually believed him
self to be in love with her and was
ready at sny moment to drop every
thing and run away with her.
The fact that he was an Old hand
at lovcmaking and was amused by the
humors of the situation and drama.
tizcd the whole affair in almost daily
bulletins to Lady Melbourne does not
prove him to have been much more of n
popinjay than the average magma tive
person. In a similar fashion it is GER
| tainly true that he was honestly seek
ing happiness in his marriage; he
wanted some one to govern" him
which was unQuestionably what he
needed.
The trouble was that Miss Millbanks
was the worst person In the world for
the purpose. He had qualms at the last
moment and was ready to give the
whole thing up, but Lady Melbourne,
who had been governing" him for
some time and in whose Judgment he
apparently trusted absolutely, had ar
ranged the marriage herself and urged
1t upon him as n panacea. 1t was I'M
possible from the start. 1t is clear that
Byron behaved abominably, but, then,
Byron was by nature and training a
spoiled. disordcrly child, whereas Miss
Milbanke was poor, correct jeune file.
unsophis ticatcd, charmless and a little
priggish about ,her intellect, which was
occupied much with mathematics.
With the best intentions on both
sides, things could hardly have hap
pened differently. "Disease or not"
says Lady Byron, speaking of Byron's
supposed madness, call my recolec-
tions and reflections tend to convince
me that the irritablity is inseparably
connected with me in a greater degree
than with any other object, that my
presence has been uniformly oppressive
to him from the hour we married-if
not before, and in his best moods he
has always wished to be away from me
. had we continued together he
'Oould have gone mad"
Ut is a pity that Lady Melbourne ever
persuaded him to marry Miss Mil
banke. Byron had vivid sense of his
own untitness TO play Il role in English
society When Miss Milbankc finally
accepted him he was fully prepared to
go back to the East; there were fight
ing and adventure color, gaiety and
sun; there was no boring politics or
business; women were not taken Sc
riously; there he would be able TO find
something like the kind of life he un-
derstood. His genius finds its harp:est
expression in his letters to Hobhouse
from the Continent and in the harle-
quinade Of Don Juan and Beppo.
For his gift was for life rather than
poetry. He had neither the fneness
nor the intensity to fuse the shifting
moments OF the soul into perdurable
bril!iants. Don Juan, after all was
always more real than Childc Harold.
The windy storms Of passion that were
blown off in Childc Harold ard the
tragedies were never the most solid
realities of that profoundly sensuous
life. If he had only not tried to live
IN England, if the women only hadn't
set their hearts on him, what an ami
Bile figure he might have been! There
is nothing more celebrating in i.tera-