THE PARTY ORDERED FROM PISA.

209

go. The Serjeant then spurred his horse, and flew along the Lung' Arno, through the midst of an immense crowd assembled in front of the Lanfranchi palace. Here, as it was reported, he was wounded, but we know not by whom, as we were all either in the house, or a long way behind-only the Serjeant's cap was was brought into my Lord's house.

It is to be noticed, besides, that Captain Hay was confined to his house by the wound he received, and that the courier spit blood from the thrusts in the stomach, as appears from the reports of the surgeons.

Whilst the examination was going on before the police, the Lanfranchi palace was beset by the soldiers of Serjeant-Major Masi's troop, who threatened to force the gate; but they found his Lordship's party too well prepared, and too resolute, to be easily intimidated or subdued. Byron boldly remarked, "my house has been a Bender before now-and may be so again ;" (he alluded to Charles XII. of Sweden, who converted his house at Bender into a fortress, and sustained a siege against an army of Turks). He even resumed his usual rides two days after.

In the end, all Byron's domestics, and the Counts Gamba (father and son) were ordered to quit Pisa, and the Tuscan states, within four days; and it was intimated to Byron himself that his absence would be prudent. On this occasion,

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COUNTESS GUICCIOLI AND BYRON.

after the two Counts Gamba were gone, the Countess Guiccioli took up her residence with Byron in the Lanfranchi palace (being the first time of their residing together) previous to their embarking for Genoa.

( 211 )

CHAPTER VII.

Lord Byron's minor Poems.-Curious circumstances relating to his literary career.-First acquaintance with Mr. Dallas.— Success of Byron's satiric epistle,-Scotch Reviewers and English Bards. Jeffrey's amende honorable.-Moore's challenge ends in a reconciliation and perfect friendship.— Character of Reviewers, such as it is, and such as it ought to be.-The

be. The Literary Gazette and Quarterly Review change sides, and become hostile to Byron. Mr. Murray declines Byron's publications.-Also Longman and Co.Leigh Hunt becomes Byron's publisher. The birth and death of the Liberal.-End of Byron's literary career.

HAVING thus reviewed in succession the greater works of our noble bard, numerous as they are, there yet remains a long series of minor poems, sufficient of themselves to have entitled any other man to the freedom of Parnassus, and to set up business in the poetic line in any district of the Pierian region. These first flights are some of them descriptive of the varied scenes through which the author passed in his youthful days; many of them are amatory, and, owing to his disappointed passion, mostly in a plaintive style. Born with a poetical genius, and bred in Aberdeenshire, the region of romantic scenery, the germ was first formed, which the genial warmth

212

HOURS OF IDLENESS.

of love soon ripened into blossoms and fruit. These minor productions are the effusions of an unsophisticated mind, unacquainted with the ways of the world, and uncontaminated by its pleasures or vices. This opinion may differ from that of the Edinburgh Reviewers, and some other critics; but they, in a measure, retracted, and made the amende honorable, with the best faces they could set upon the matter, so that the world will know what value to set upon their judgment. Many parts of the "Hours of Idleness," are worthy of the great name which their author afterwards obtained, and well justified that opinion which Lord Byron himself entertained and expressed of them, that," in spite of the Reviewers, they were as good as many of his latter productions." Some few, it must be acknowledged, were rather puerile and feeble, yet none so much so, as to justify the opprobrium, that "nine men in ten who are educated in England write verses, and that the tenth man writes better verse than Lord Byron." The judgment of the Edinburgh Reviewers stands on record, and, to their eternal disgrace, it has been completely falsified.

The first piece "On leaving Newstead Abbey," contains a pathetic address to the shades of his

* Such was the expression of Lord Byron in the "MEMOIRS OF HIS OWN LIFE."

HARROW-ON-THE-HILL.

213

ancestors, and his determination not to derogate from their well merited honours. It is natural, pathetic, and indicative of a well-regulated mind, and a disposition to commence life in the most correct manner. The following lines betoken

that ambition of fame which afterwards animated him through life:

"That fame, and that memory still will he cherish,

He vows that he ne'er will disgrace your renown;

Like you will he live, or like you will he perish;

When decay'd may he mingle his dust with your own,"

The next piece, "On a distant View of the Village and School of Harrow-on-the-Hill," is a beautiful sketch of the days of boyhood, and a lively description of a youthful mind building castles in the air,' and forming visionary schemes of future greatness. His attachment to the sock and buskin, and his imaginary rivalry of Mossop and Garrick, is curious enough, considering the natural impediments to his ever shining in that character.

Youthful vanity prevented him from reflecting with the old Roman poet, that

66

Nunquam sincera bonorum

Sors ulla concessa viro; quem vultus honestat,

Dedecorant mores; animus quem pulchrior ornat,

Corpus destituit; bellis insignior ille,

Sed pacem fœdat vitiis; hic publica felix,

Sed privata minùs, partitim singula quemque

Nobilitant."

CLAUDIAN.