Chapter XXXIV: Appendix: Byron's Letter to Mary Chaworth

VENICE, _May 17, 1819_

MY DEAREST LOVE,

I have been negligent in not writing, but what can I say? Three years' absence--and the total change of scene and habit make such a difference that we have never nothing in common but our affections and our relationship. But I have never ceased nor can cease to feel for a moment that perfect and boundless attachment which bound and binds me to you--which renders me incapable of _real_ love for any other human being--for what could they be to me after _you_? My own ... we may have been very wrong--but I repent of nothing except that cursed marriage--and your refusing to continue to love me as you had loved me. I can neither forget nor _quite forgive_ you for that precious piece of reformation, but I can never be other than I have been--and whenever I love anything it is because it reminds me in some way or other of yourself. For instance, I not long ago attached myself to a Venetian for no earthly reason (although a pretty woman) but because she was called ..., and she often remarked (without knowing the reason) how fond I was of the name. It is heart-breaking to think of our long separation--and I am sure more than punishment enough for all our sins. Dante is more humane in his "Hell," for he places his unfortunate lovers--Francesca of Rimini and Paolo--whose case fell a good deal short of _ours_ (though sufficiently naughty) in company; and though they suffer, it is at least together. If ever I return to England it will be to see you; and recollect that in all time, and place, and feelings, I have never ceased to be the same to you in heart. Circumstances may have ruffled my manner and hardened my spirit; you may have seen me harsh and exasperated with all things around me; grieved and tortured with your _new resolution_, and soon after the persecution of that infamous fiend who drove me from my country, and conspired against my life--by endeavouring to deprive me of all that could render it precious--but remember that even then _you_ were the sole object that cost me a tear; and _what tears_! Do you remember our parting? I have not spirits now to write to you upon other subjects. I am well in health, and have no cause of grief but the reflection that we are not together. When you write to me speak to me of yourself, and say that you love me; never mind commonplace people and topics which can be in no degree interesting to me who see nothing in England but the country which holds _you_, or around it but the sea which divides us. They say absence destroys weak passions, and confirms strong ones. Alas! _mine_ for you is the union of all passions and of all affections--has strengthened itself, but will destroy me; I do not speak of physical destruction, for I have endured, and can endure, much; but the annihilation of all thoughts, feelings, or hopes, which have not more or less a reference to you and to _our recollections_.

Ever, dearest,

INDEX

Albrizzi, Countess, 300, 302

Allegra, Byron's natural daughter, 272, 345-346

Bankes, William, 150

Becher, Rev. John, 44, 50

Benzoni, Countess, 300, 302-303

Bessborough, Lady, 148

Blessington, Lady, 336-337, 342, 352-353

"_Bride of Abydos, The_," 170

Broglie, Duc de, 265

Byron, Admiral Lord, 6

Byron, Augusta. _See_ Leigh, Augusta

Byron, Captain George, the poet's cousin, 209, 226

Byron, Captain, "Mad Jack," the poet's father, 6-7, 10-11

Byron, George Noel Gordon, Lord, ancestors, parents, and hereditary
influences, 1-9;
childhood and schooldays, 10-22;
schoolboy love affairs, 23-34;
life at Cambridge, and flirtations at Southwell, 35-49;
revelry at Newstead, 50-62;
the "grand tour," 63-74;
flirtations in Spain, 70-74;
meeting with Mrs. Spencer Smith, 74-86;
at Athens, 87;
swims the Hellespont, 94;
return to England, 101;
death of his mother, 101;
publishes "_Childe Harold_," 103-111;
recollections of Mary Chaworth, 114-126;
infatuation of Lady Caroline Lamb, 128-145;
acquaintance with Lady Oxford, 148-155;
renewed relations with Mary Chaworth, 164-181;
Marriage with Miss Milbanke, 182-193;
disagreements, 194-207;
Lady Byron demands separation, 208-226;
scandalous accusations against him, 226-252;
departure for the Continent, 253;
acquaintance with Miss Clairmont, 256-263, 271-273;
at Geneva, 264-276;
in Italy, 277 _et seq._;
moral decline, 280-298;
in the Venetian salons, 300;
attachment to Countess Guiccioli, 302-328;
revolutionary activities, 324-335;
life at Pisa and Genoa, 336-355;
enlists in the Greek cause, 356-373;
illness and death, 369-373

Byron, John, Lord, 2

Byron, Lady, wife of the poet, marriage, 192;
disagreements, 194-207;
demands separation, 208-226;
scandalous admissions, 226-252;
mentioned, 339-341, 373. _See also_ Milbanke, Anna Isabella

Byron, Mrs., the poet's mother, 10-17, 28, 31, 37-38, 42, 51, 101

Byron, Richard, Lord, 2

Byron, Sir John, of Claydon, 1

Byron, "the wicked Lord," 4-6, 12, 15

Byron, William, Lord, 3

Canning, Sir Stratford, 96-98

Carlisle, Lord, 15-17, 58, 60-61

Carmarthen, Marchioness of, 6

Chateaubriand, Vicomte de, 64-66

Chaworth, Mary, 25, 27-34, 114-126, 156-157, 159-160, 164-181, 248-250,
310-311, 366-368, 375-376

Chaworth, William, 4

"_Childe Harold_," 65-66, 102-111, 120

Clairmont, Jane, 256-263, 269-273, 284, 334, 346

Clermont, Mrs., 209, 219

Cogni, Margarita, 289-291

Cordova, Admiral, 69

Dallas, 103-105, 110

Davies, Scrope, 39, 118, 228, 255

"_Don Juan_," 297, 342

Duff, Mary, 23

"_English Bards and Scotch Reviewers_," 59-62

Forbes, Lady Adelaide, 166, 184

Galt, John, 71-74, 83, 98, 105-106

Gamba, Pietro, 362

Gifford, William, 152

Godwin, Mary, 257, 260, 263, 269-271, 273

Guiccioli, Count, 302, 306, 313-321

Guiccioli, Countess, 233, 302-323, 330-332, 336-337, 341-343, 350-355

Hanson, Charles, 150-152, 216, 219

Harness, Rev. William, 119, 127, 135

Hervey, Mrs., 265

Hobhouse, John Cam, 66, 68, 72, 87, 99, 153, 189-190, 208-209, 213, 218,
219, 221, 228, 255, 274, 277-278

Hodgson, 118-119, 123-124, 127, 144, 152, 216, 218, 228, 246

Holland, Lady, 132

Holland, Lord, 221

Hoppner, Consul-General at Venice, 288, 304, 307, 316-317

Horton, Wilmot, 224

"_Hours of Idleness_," 21

Houson, Anne, 45

Hunt, Leigh, 228, 336-337, 349-352

Hutchinson, Colonel, 3

Jersey, Lady, 227-228

Kemble, Fanny, 141

Lamb, Lady Caroline, 106-107, 128-145, 146-147, 245

Lamb, William, afterwards Lord Melbourne, 128-131, 133-135, 142-143,
145-147

Lauriston, General, 76

Leigh, Medora, 177

Leigh, Augusta, 7, 37, 151-152, 155, 174-175, 197-199, 209, 212-213,
216, 219, 222-223, 234-252, 274, 291, 373

Lovelace, Lord, 206, 218, 235-240, 249-252

Lushington, Dr., 214, 217, 245-246

Macri, Theresa, 88-91

"_Manfred_," 297

Mardyn, Mrs., 256

Mavrocordatos, 359, 361, 363

Medwin, 96, 138, 140-141, 144, 160-161, 195, 336

Melbourne, Lady, 128, 185-186, 221

Melbourne, Lord. _See_ Lamb, William

Milbanke, Anna Isabella, afterwards Lady Byron, 128, 155, 182-192

Milbanke, Sir Ralph, afterwards Noel, 191

Moore, Thomas, 123-124, 127, 131-132, 152, 154-155, 168, 184, 228, 315,
334

Morgan, Lady, 132

Murray, John, 151-152, 319, 346

Napoleon I., 75-77

Noel, Sir Ralph, 211, 214-216, 219. _See also_ Milbanke, Sir Ralph

Oxford, Lady, 148-157

Parker, Margaret, 25-26

Pedley, Mrs., 93-94

Robertson, Rev. F. W., 237, 251

Rogers, Samuel, 127, 131-132, 135-136, 228, 254

Salvo, Marquis de, 76-82

Segati, Marianna, 280-284, 287, 288-290

Shelley, Percy Bysshe, 257, 260-261, 263-264, 269-271, 273, 293,
331-332, 336-337, 339, 348-349

Shipman, Thomas, 3

Sligo, Lord, 99

Smith, Florence Spencer, 74-86

Staël, Madame de, 162, 166, 264-265

Stanhope, Lady Hester, 95-96

Stendhal, 277-278

Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 233-239, 246

"_Thyrza_," 121

Trelawny, 336-338, 359

Webster, James Wedderburn, 289, 293

Webster, Lady Frances, 158

Werry, Mrs., 91

Westmorland, Lady, 265

Williams, Captain, 348

Williams, Hugh W., 88-89

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FOOTNOTES:

[1] One of the heads of the family was born before his father's marriage, but he was subsequently given a title on his own merits.

[2] In Mr. Murray's latest edition of "The Letters and Journals."

[3] He would have preferred Oxford, but there was no set of rooms vacant at Christ Church.

[4] They intoned underneath his windows the supplication: Good Lort, deliver us!

[5] Musters took his wife's name when he married her, though he afterwards resumed his own.

[6] In "Byron: the Last Phase."

[7] Afterwards the Rev. William Harness, and a popular preacher.

[8] Sir Ralph Milbanke had taken the name of Noel on succeeding to some property.

[9] For the full text of the letter see Appendix.

[10] It is doubtful whether Shelley was at Marlow at this date, so that Miss Clairmont's memory of the place of meeting was probably at fault.

[11] Southey, among others, circulated the scandal.

[12] Odysseus, who was in Attica.