About the Book
Text extracted from opening pages of book: B ron by JOHN NICHOL, LL. D. AUTHOR OF BACON AAtERlCAN LITERATURE Bnglisf) of Xettets EDITED BY JOHN MORLEY HARPER r BROTHERS PUBLISHERS NEW YORK AND LONDON LORD HERBERT OP 1 OlfRHHlWY, CONTENTS, CHAPTER I. PAG* ANCESTRY AND FAMILY ........... . . . 1 CHAPTER II [ 1788-1808, ] EARLY YEARS AND SCHOOL LIFE ........... 12 CHAPTER III [ 1808-1809.3 CAMBRIDGE, AND FIRST PERIOD OF AUTHORSHIP. HOURS OF IDLE NESS. BARDS AND REVIEWERS ........... 84 CHAPTER IV. [ 1809-1811.] Two TEARS OF TRAVEL ............ . . 64 CHAPTER V. [ 1811-1815.] LIFE IN LONDON. CORRESPONDENCE WITH SCOTT AND MOORE. SECOND PERIOD OF AUTHORSHIP. HAROLD ( i., XL), AND THE ROMANCES ...... . ...... .... 6* 7 CHAPTER VI. [ 1816-1816.] MARRIAGE AND SEPARATION. FAREWELL TO ENGLAND .... 88 14 Vi CONTENTS, CHAPTER VII. [ 1816-1820.3 FACiB SWITZERLAND. VENICE. THIRD PISRIOD OF AUTHORSHIP. - fl AR OLD ( in., IT.). MANFRKP 101 CHAPTER VDI. [ 1820-1821.] RAVENNA. COUNTESS GUICCIOLI. THE DRAMAS. GAIN. VISION OF JUDGMENT . ., ., . . 132 CHAPTER IX. 1821-1823.] PISA. GENOA. THE LIBERAL. DON JUAN ., * . . . 151 CHAPTER X. [ 1821-1824, ] POLITICS, THE CARBONARI. EXPEDITION TO GREECE, DEATH. 17V CHAPTER XL PLAOK IN LlTBRATURK. .... 108 BOOKS CONSULTED. 1. The Narrative of the Honourable John Byron, Com modore, in a late Expedition Bound the World, & c. ( Baker and Leigh) 1768 2. Voyage of H. M. S. Blonde to the Sandwich Islands in the years 1824-1825, the Eight Hon. Lord By ron, Commander ( John Murray) 1826 3. Memoirs of the Life and Writings of the Right Hon, Lord Byron ( H. Colburn) 1822 4. The Life, Writings, Opinions, and Times of G. 0. Noel Byron, with courtiers of the present polished andenlightened ago, & c, & c., 3 vols. ( M. Iley) . . . 1825 5. Narrative of Lord Byron's last Journey to Greece, from Journal of Count Peter Gamba 1825 6. Med win's Conversations with Lord Byron at Pisa, 2 vols. ( H. Colburn) 1825 7. Leigh Hunt's Byron and His Contemporaries ( H. Colburn) . . . 1828 8. The Works of Lord Byron, with Life by Thomas Moore, 17 vols. ( Murray) . 1832 9. Gait's Life of Lord Byron ( Harpers) 1830 10. Kennedy's Conversations on Eeligion ( Murray) . . 1830 11. Countess of Blessington's Conversations ( Harpers) . 1834 1$, Lady Morgan's Memoirs, 2 vols. ( W. H, Alien) . . 1842 viii BOOKS CONSULTED. 13. Recollections of the Countess Guiccioli ( Harpers) * 1869 14. Castelar's Genius and Character of Byron ( Harpera) 1870 15. Elze'B Lifo of Lord Byron ( Murray) ...... 187-2 16. Troljvwny's RomiirisceuceH of Byron and Sholloy . . 185H 17. Torren'a Memoirs of Viscount Melbourne ( Macuiillan) 187H 18. Rov. F. Hodgson Meinoira, % vola. ( Macmillan) . . 1B79 19. Kssaytt and Articles, or Recorded CriticininSj by Mac y, Scott, Shelley, Goothc, G. Brmxles, Muzzini, Beovo, Do OhasloB 7 H. Taiue, & c, o. Burked Kniglitago and Peerage GENEALOGY OF THE BYEOfl FAMILY, BYRON. CHAPTER I ANCESTRY AND FAMILY. BYRON'S life was passed under the fierce light that beats upon an intellectual throne. He succeeded in making himself what he wished to be the most notorious per sonality in the world of letters of our century. Almost every one who came in contact with him has left on rec ord various impressions of intimacy or interview. Those whom he excluded or patronized, maligned; those to whom he was genial, loved him, Mr. Southey, in all sin cerity, regarded him as the principle of Evilincarnate; an American writer of tracts in the form of stories is of the same opinion: to the Countess Guiccioli he is an arch angel. Mr. Carlyle considers him to have been a mere sulky dandy. Goethe ranks him as the first English poet after Shakespeare, and is followed by the leading critics of France, Italy, and Spain, All concur in the ad mission that Byron was as proud of his race as of his verse, and that in unexampled measure the good and evil of his nature were inherited and inborn. His genealogy is, therefore, a matter of no idle antiquarianism. 1*
