Part 19 (1/2)

Residence in Ravenna--The Carbonari--Byron's Part in their Plot--The Murder of the military Commandant--The poetical Use of the Incident-- ”Marino Faliero”--Reflections--”The Prophecy of Dante”

Lord Byron has said himself, that except Greece, he was never so attached to any place in his life as to Ravenna The peasantry he thought the best people in the world, and their women the most beautiful ”Those at Tivoli and Frescati,” said he, ”are nese You lish wolish you will find thirty of the latter handsome; but then there will be one Italian on the other side of the scale, ill more than balance the deficit in numbers--one who, like the Florence Venus, has no rival, and can have none in the North I found also at Ravenna her classes The clihtful I was not broken in upon by society Ravenna lies out of the way of travellers I was never tired of my rides in the pine forest: it breathes of the Decaround Francesca lived and Dante was exiled and died at Ravenna There is so in such an air

”The people liked overnment It is not a little to say, I was popular with all the leaders of the constitutional party They knew that I came from a land of liberty, and wished well to their cause I would have espoused it, too, and assisted them to shake off their fetters They knewtwo years at Venice, where many of the Ravennese have houses I did not, however, take part in their intrigues, nor join in their political coteries; but I had a azine of one hundred stand of ar was ripe for revolt----a curse on Carignan's imbecility! I could have pardoned him that, too, if he had not impeached his partisans

”The proscription was ina, and embracedthe rest the Gambas (the father and brother of the Countess Guiccioli), who took no part in the affair, were included in it They were exiled, and their possessions confiscated They knew that this must eventually drive me out of the country I did not follow them immediately: I was not to be bullied--I had overnot sufficient proof they would have arrested me”

The latter part of this declaration bears, in enuine It has thatmysticism about it which more than any other quality characterized Lord Byron's inti himself and his own affairs; but it is a little clearer than I should have expected in the acknowledg to take in the insurrection He does not see so arded

”Shortly after the plot was discovered,” he proceeds to say, ”I received several anony me to discontinue my forest rides; but I entertained no apprehensions of treachery, and waswell armed, nor sleep without pistols They knew that I never missed my aim; perhaps this saved me”

An event occurred at this time at Ravenna that made a deep impression on Lord Byron The co secretly a Carbonaro, was too powerful a man to be arrested, was assassinated opposite to his residence The measures adopted to screen the murderer proved, in the opinion of his Lordshi+p, that the assassination had taken place by order of the police, and that the spot where it was perpetrated had been selected by choice Byron at the moment had his foot in the stirrup, and his horse started at the report of the shot On looking round he saw a man thron a carbine and run away, and another stretched on the pave to the spot, he found it was the commandant; a crowd collected, but no one offered any assistance His Lordshi+p directed his servant to lift the bleeding body into the palace--he assisted hiht incur the displeasure of the governentleman was already dead His adjutant followed the body into the house ”I remember,” says his Lordshi+p, ”his la'”

It was from the murder of this commandant that the poet sketched the scene of the assassination in the fifth canto of Don Juan

The other evening ('twas on Friday last), This is a fact, and no poetic fable-- Just ason the table, I heard a shot--'twas eight o'clock scarce past, And running out as fast as I was able, I found the military commandant Stretch'd in the street, and able scarce to pant

Poor fellow! for sos, and left him there To perish on the pavement: so I had Hione: in soun-barrel

The scars of his old wounds were near his new, Those honourable scars which bought him fame, And horrid was the contrast to the view-- But let s claiazed (as oft I've gazed the saht out of death Which should confirm, or shake, or make a faith

Whether Marino Faliero ritten at Ravenna or completed there, I have not ascertained, but it was planned at Venice, and as far back as 1817 I believe this is considered about the most ordinary performance of all Lord Byron's works; but if it is considered with reference to the time in which it ritten, it will probably be found to contain es Has not the latter part of the second scene in the first act reference to the condition of Venice when his Lordshi+p was there? And is not the description which Israel Bertuccio gives of the conspirators applicable to, as it was probably derived from, the Carbonari, hom there is reason to say Byron was himself disposed to take a part?

Know, then, that there are met and sworn in secret A band of brethren, valiant hearts and true; Men who have proved all fortunes, and have long Grieved over that of Venice, and have right To do so; having served her in all clin foes, Would do the same for those within her walls

They are not nureat purpose; they have arms, and e

This dra should be considered as addressed to the Italians of the epoch at which it ritten Had it been written in the Italian instead of the English language, and could have coious It is, indeed, a work not to be estimated by the delineations of character nor the force of passion expressed in it, but altogether by the apt and searching sarcasm of the political allusions Vieith reference to the time and place in which it was coh and bold effort: siedies of the second or third class

But I ainst that of the public, the English public; all I contend for is, that it possesses ic nation; but above all, that is another and a strong proof too, of what I have been endeavouring to show, that the power of the poet consisted in giving vent to his own feelings, and not, like his great brethren, or even his less, in the invention of situations or of appropriate sentiments It is, perhaps, as it stands, not fit to succeed in representation; but it is so rich in matter that it would not be a difficult task to edy which would not dishonour the English stage

I have never been able to understand why it has been so often supposed that Lord Byron was actuated in the composition of his different works by any other motive than enjoyment: perhaps no poet had ever less of an ulterior purpose in histhe fits of inspiration (for the epithet may be applied correctly to him and to the ular and iine that he had any intention to ies of n and prospective purpose than he possessed They could have known nothing of the man, the , was in having too little of the ele of ie of what he either said or did, as the results of predetermination, was not only to do the harshest injustice, but to show a total ignorance of his character His whole fault, the darkest course of those flights and deviations from propriety which have drawn upon him the severest animadversion, lay in the unbridled state of his impulses He felt, but never reasoned