imagery, and tender sentiments, frequently becomes ridiculous, when traced to its origin, so it will be often found scandalously immoral in its effects.

It is doubtful whether the Laura of Petrarch had ever any real existence: but the Chloe of Prior is certainly known to have been a vulgar drab, and a common prostitute.

All the publications of Lord Byron, exhibit proofs. that the fire of his passions burst forth with the flame of his genius; and that, while yet in his boyhood, he had more mistresses than muses. It is curious to observe, how pathetecally he complains in his verses, of the inconstancy of one, the marriage of another, the death of a third, and the "light fame" of a fourth;—but though every loss, according to his own account, blighted his happiness, and made the world a blank he is not always," as Johnson says of Waller "at the last gasp; he does not die of a frown nor live, upon a smile. There is, however, too much love and too many trifles. Little things are made too important; and the empire of beauty is represented as exerting its influence further than can be allowed

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AMATORY POEMS.

by the multiplicity of human passions, and the variety of human wants."

Had the amatory productions of the noble author been confined to his first publications, there would have been little occasion for these remarks; but in almost every one of his subsequent volumes, he brings before the reader some of those effusions of his pen, of which, upon sober reflection, he ought to have felt ashamed.

What idea can be entertained in favour of the moral constitution of that mind, which in one moment is disconsolate at having been deprived by death of a loving and beloved maiden; and in the next, is breathing out the most tender sentiments to a married woman! Is it possible that the love could be pure, which had so many objects; or that the grief could be sincere, which was so soon converted into ardent devotion for a new idol?

The pride of him who seeks fame by his conquests over the female heart, is of the most contemptible description; and yet, what else but this could induce

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any man to publish, though under enigmatic signatures, the variety of his amorous connexions? Though the writing of love elegies, and stanzas "on a mistress's eyebrows," may not be altogether affectation; the printing of such performances certainly savours more of vanity than feeling, since it manifests as strong a wish to gain credit for fine verses as for tender sentiments.

It is related of one of our poets, that he made every incident of his life the subject of an ode or a sonnet. On hearing that his only son lay ill, and that his life was despaired of, he exclaimed very affectionately,"Oh, I will sit down and write an elegy upon him."—" Had you not better," said his friend, "order your carriage immediately, and console him by your presence ?"

This story will apply pertinently enough to illustrate the true quality of that esteem which is expressed in metaphors, and clothed in numbers; which pretends raptures that are not felt, and describes beauties that are not seen.

Such, there is every reason to believe, was the real nature of that passion, which burns so ardently in the amatory lines of Lord Byron, but in which there is too much richness of phrase, to comport with true sensibility.

One female of elevated rank, who was said to have been in the number of those to whom the poet professed more than common attachment, took ample revenge on him for his inconstancy and freedom, by drawing his character as the hero of a novel, which for a time, arrested the public curiosity in no ordinary degree. In that performance his lordship's supposed intrigues and infidelity were laid open with unsparing severity; and, with the exception of Zeluco, and the personages that figure most conspicuously in the noble lord's principal poems, it will not be easy to meet with any thing more repulsive either in works of fiction, or in the world of reality, than what has been exhibited in caricature by the author of Glenarvon.

CHAPTER VI.

Voyage to Lisbon. — Assassination. - Travels in Spain.-Patriotic War.-Voyage to Greece.Albania. Ali Pacha. Anecdotes. High

landers.— Athens.—Spoliations.—Poem of Minerva.-Tweddell.-Literary Pursuits.-Emancipation of the Greeks.-Adventure in the Hellespont.-Return to England.

ON arriving at the age of manhood, Lord Byron took a long leave of his native country, with the view of making a tour in foreign lands; but as the ordinary course of travelling through Europe was then impeded, by the war which prevailed between England and France, he embarked at Falmouth, for Lisbon, intending to proceed from thence across the Peninsula to the Mediterranean. The companion of his voyage was Mr. Hobhouse, in conjunction with whom he had just before published a small volume of poems and

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