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DLXXXII. to the Earl of Blessington DLXXXIII. to the Earl of Blessington DLXXXIV. to the Count *

DCXXXV. to Mr. Barff.

960 Extracts from a Journal, begun November 14 960 1813

DLXXXV. to the Countess of Blessington 960 Extracts from a Journal in Switzerland

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THE LIFE OF LORD BYRON

GEORGE GORDON BYRON was born in Holles through the care and daily instruction of this nurse, street, London, on the 22d day of January, 1788. he attained a far earlier and more intimate acquaintSoon after his birth, his father deserted him, and the ance with the Sacred Writings, than falls to the lot whole responsibility of his early training devolved of most young people. on his mother, who, with him, soon after repaired to Aberdeen, where they resided for some time in almost complete seclusion.

The defect in the formation of his foot, and a great weakness of constitution, induced his mother to keep him from an attendance on school, that he migh expand his lungs and brace his limbs, upon the mountains of the neighborhood.

The infancy of Byron was marked with the workings of that wild and active spirit which he so fully displayed in all subsequent years of his life. As a This was evidently the most judicious method for child, his temper was violent, or rather, sullenly imparting strength to his bodily frame; and the se passionate. Being angrily reprimanded by his nurse, quel showed that it likewise imparted tone and one day, for having soiled or torn a new frock in vigor to his mind. The savage grandeur of nature which he had just been dressed, he got into one of around him; the feeling that he was upon the hills his "silent rages," (as he termed them,) seized the where frock with both hands, rent it from top to bottom, and stood in sullen stillness, setting his censurer and her wrath at defiance.

Notwithstanding these unruly outbreaks, in which he was too much encouraged by the example of his mother, who frequently proceeded to the same extremities with her own caps, gowns, &c., there was in his disposition a mixture of affectionate sweetness and playfulness, which attached many to him, and which rendered him then, as in riper years, Easily manageable by those who loved and understood him sufficiently to be at once gentle and firm enough for the task.

"Foreign tyrant never trud,

But freedom, with her falchion bright,
Swept the stranger from her sight;"

his intercourse with a people whose chief amuse

ments consisted in the recital of heroic tales of other

times, feats of strength, and a display of independ
ence, blended with the wild, supernatural stories pe-
culiar to remote and thinly-peopled districts;-all
feeling innate in his character.
these were calculated to foster that peculiar poetical

On

The malformation of his foot was a subject on which young Byron was extremely sensitive. As The undivided affection of the mother was natu- his nurse was walking with him one day, she was rally centered in her son, who was her darling; and joined by a female friend, who said, "What a pretty when he only went out for an ordinary walk, she boy, Byron is! what a pity he has such a leg. would entreat him, with tears in her eyes, to take care of himself, as "she had nothing on earth but him to live for;" a conduct not at all pleasing to his adventurous spirit; the more especially as some of his companions, who beheld the affectionate period, might be mentioned a little incident that ocAs an instance of his quickness and energy at this scene, would laugh and ridicule about it. This exressive maternal affection and indulgence, and the curred one night during the performance of "Tamentire absence of that salutary discipline so necesing a Shrew," which his nurse had taken hin to see. sary to childhood, doubtless contributed to the He had attended some time, with silent interest; formation of these unpleasant traits of character but, in the scene between Katherine and Petruchio' that distinguished Byron from all others in subse- where the following dialogue takes place,quent years.

hearing this allusion to his infirmity, the child's eyes flashed with anger, and, striking at her with a little whip which he held in his hand, he impatiently exclaimed, "Dinna speak of it!"

An accident, at the time of birth, caused a malformation of one of his feet. Many expedients

"Kath.- know it is the moon.
Pet.-Nay, then, you lie,-it is the blessed sun,"

were used to restore the limb to its proper shape, George started up, and cried out boldly, "But I say under the direction of Dr. Hunter. His nurse, to it is the moon, sir."

whom fell the task of putting on the bandages, Byron was not quite five years of age when he was would often sing him to sleep, or relate to him sto- sent to a day school at Aberdeen, taught by Mr. ries and legends, in which, like most other children, Bowers. At that school he remained about one he manifested great delight. She also taught him year.

to repeat a great number of Psalms; and the first During his schoolboy days he was lively, warmand twenty-third were among the earliest that he hearted, generous, and high-spirited. He was, howcommitted to memory. Out of these lessons arose, ever, passionate and resentful, and to a remarkable tang afterwards, the "Hebrew Melodies; which, degree venturesome and fearless. If he received an but for them, never would have been written, though injury, he was sure to revenge it: though the casti Byron studied Lowth on the Sacred Poetry of the gation he inflicted might be long on its way, yet it Henrews all his life. It is a remarkable fact, that, came at length, and severely.

viii

He was a brave youth, and was much more anx-placably. The old lady had some curious noti ious to excel his fellows by prowess in sport and respecting the soul, which, she imagined, took gymnastic exercises, than by advancement in learn-flight to the moon after death, as a prelimin ing. essay, before it proceeded further. One day, a When any study pleased him, he devoted all his a repetition, it is supposed, of her original insul attention to it, and was quick in the performance of the boy, he appeared before his nurse in a viol his task. He cared but little where he stood in his rage. "Well, my little hero," she asked, "wh Upon which class; and at the foot was as agreeable to him as at the matter with you, now?" child answered, that "this old woman had put the head. He remained at school until the year 1796, when in a terrible passion,-that he could not bear an attack of scarlet fever weakened his, by no means sight of her," &c., &c.,-and then broke out i strong, constitution, and he was removed by his the following doggerel, which he repeated over mother to the Highlands. over, as if delighted with the vent he had found

"In Nottingham county, there lives at Swan Green,
As curst an old lady as ever was seen;

And when she does die, which I hope will be soon,
She firmly believes she will go to the moon,"

From the period of his residence in the High- his rage;lands, Byron dated his love of mountainous countries and his equally ardent love of solitude. While at Aberdeen, he would escape unnoticed, and find his way to the sea-side. At one time, it was supposed he was lost, and after a long and anxious This was the occasion and the result of his search he was found struggling for his life in a sort of morass or marsh, in which he would undoubtedly effort at rhyming. His "first dash at poetry,' have perished, had not some one came to the rescue. he calls it, was made one year later, during a v Many like instances occurred during his residence tion visit at the house of a cousin, Miss Par among the Highlands. His love of adventure often Of that poem, he says, "It was the ebullition led him into difficulty and danger. While scram- passion for my first cousin, one of the most bes bling over a declivity that overhung a small water-ful of evanescent beings. I have long forgo fall, called the Linn of Dee, some heather caught the verses, but it would be difficult for me to fo his lame foot, and he fell. He was rolling down-her-her dark eyes-her long eye-lashes-her ward, when the attendant luckily caught him, and pletely Greek cast of face and figure! I was was but just in time to save him from being killed. about twelve-she rather older, perhaps a ye On the 17th of May, 1798, William, the fifth Lord Love for this young lady obtained strong hol Of her personal appearance, he Byron, died without issue, at Newstead, and young his heart. Byron, then in his tenth year, succeeded to his "I do not recollect any thing equal to the tran titles and his estates; and his cousin, the Earl of rent beauty of my cousin, or to the sweetness o Carlisle, the son of the late Lord's sister, was ap-temper, during the short period of our intim She looked as if she had been made out of a pointed his guardian.

Upon this change of fortune, Lord Byron was bow-all beauty and peace." removed from under the immediate care of his mother.

After a short visit at Cheltenham, in the sun of 1801, at the earnest solicitation of his mo In the latter part of 1798 he went with his mother he was placed at Harrow, under the tuitio to Newstead Abbey. On their arrival, he was placed Doctor Drury, to whom he testified his gratitud at Nottingham, under the care of a person who a note to the fourth canto of Childe Harold. professed to be able to cure his lameness; at the one of his manuscript journals, he says, same time, he made some advancement in Latin Drury was the best, the kindest friend I ever b studies, under the tuition of a schoolmaster of that and I look upon him still as a father." "Though he was lame," says one of his sc town, a Mr. Rogers, who read parts of Virgil and Cicero with him. The name of the man whose fellows, "he was a great lover of sports, and pretensions in curing excelled his skill, and under ferred hockey to Horace, relinquished even Ho whose empiricism the young lord was placed, was for duck puddle,' and gave up the best poet Lavender; and the manner in which he proceeded ever wrote hard Latin for a game of cricket or to effect a cure was, by first rubbing the foot over common. He was not remarkable (nor was he for a long time with handsful of oil, and then for his learning, but he was always a clever, forcibly twisting the foot round, and binding it up in spoken, and undaunted boy. I have seen him a sort of a machine, with about as much care and by the hour like a Trojan, and stand up again: thought of the pain he might give, as if straighten-disadvantage of his lameness with all the spi an ancient combatant.' ing up a crooked limb of a tree.

It was during a vacation, and his residen Newstead, that he formed an acquaintance Miss Chaworth, an event which, according own deliberate persuasion, exercised a lasting paramount influence over the whole of his sequent character and eventful career.

Twice had he loved, and now a third tin bowed before beauty, wit, and worth.

Byron, during his lessons with Mr. Rogers, was often in violent pain; and one day the latter said to him, "It makes me uncomfortable, my lord, to see you sitting there in such pain as I know you must be suffering.' "Never mind, Mr. Rogers," answered the boy; "you shall not see any signs of it in me." This gentleman often spoke of the gaiety of his pupil, and the delight he experienced in exposing The father of this young lady had been kill Lavender's pompous ignorance. One day he wrote down on a sheet of paper all the letters of the a duel by the eccentric grand-uncle of Byron alphabet, put together at random, and placing them the union of the young peer with her, the heir before this concentrated body of pretension, asked Annesley Hall, would," as he said, "have Not feuds in which blood had been shed by our fa him very seriously what language it was. wishing to expose his ignorance, and not dreaming it would have joined lands rich and broad; it of the snare to trip him, he replied as seriously as have joined at least one heart, and two person But all this was desti the inquiry was put, that it was Italian, to the ill-matched in years." infinite delight of the young satirist, who burst exist but in imagination. They had a p interview in the following year; and, in 1803 into a loud laugh. At about this period, Lord Byron's first symptom Chaworth was married to Mr. Musters, with of a tendency to rhyme manifested itself. The she lived unhappily. She died in 1831. M This smaller poems are addressed to this lady. occasion which gave rise to it is thus related:scene of their last interview is most exqu described in "The Dream."

An elderly lady, who was in the habit of visiting his mother, had made use of some expressions that very much affronted him; and these slights, his nurse said, he generally resented violently and im

During one of the Harrow vacations he s French, but with little success, under the di

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