The Shade of Byron: a mock heroic poem, containing strange revelations not hitherto disclosed, with copious notes and references ... A preface, with the author's comments on the so-called true 'Story,' by Mrs. Stowe. And a repudiation of the charges hurled against the memory of Lord Byron and...

Front matter

THE SHADE OF BYKON: %, pack Heoic |pfftw, CONTAINING STRANGE REVELATIONS NOT HITHERTO DISCLOSED, WITH COPIOUS NOTES AND REFERENCES, POLITICAL, SOCIAL, THEOLOGICAL, MORAL, SCIENTIFIC, AND ASTRONOMICAL. PHOTOGEAPHS OF LOED AND LADY BYEON. A PBEFACE, WITH THE AUTHOE'S COMMENTS ON THE SO-CALLED TRUE "STOilY," BY MRS. STOWE. AND A REPUDIATION OF THE CHARGES HURLED AGAINST THE MEMORY OF LORD BYRON AND HIS BELOVED SISTER, ADA AUGUSTA. LONDON: JAMES BURNS, 15, SOUTHAMPTON ROW, HOLBORN, W. C. SOLD BY ALL BOOKSELLERS. j§ po j} sis. THE EAST AND THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH. A DESIGN FOR A MAGNIFICENT TROPHY TO OUR BELOVED QUEEN AND HER LAMENTED COX SORT. A BURLESQUE ANACREONTIC— A FREE TRANSLATION OF "LOVE IN A STORMY NIGHT." THE NORTH POLE EXPLORED— A TOUR OF THE HEAVESS—THE MILKY WAY— COLOURED STARS— ANOTHER WORLD— NEBULÆ— SATURN— THE SUN—RETUIIN HOME.

Preface

TO THE SECOND EDITION. The late Byron controversy, and its rancorous continuance by the enemies of that splendid poetical genius, induces the author of the present work, entitled " The Shade of Byron/' to offer another edition of it, yielding, as it does, a favourable opportunity for expressing his utter repudiation of Mrs. Beecher Stowe's ill-judged renewal of shameful slander against the dead. This work was begun in defence of the noble Poet, not long after his death ; but, other affairs preventing progress, it was only published a few years ago, and circulated chiefly among the author's private friends. It was, so far, well received, but it is not wonderful that any work at all connected with the name of Byron, should meet the displeasure of those writers, who, from the first, were so strenuously determined, if possible, to crush Lord Byron's works altogether.

Some passages of this work were leveled sarcastically against these, and particularly against those fanatical sectarians of the day, who denounced Byron's poetry from the pulpit, and thus raised the curiosity of some enquiring minds among their respective flocks, to read the very poems which their pastors forbad them even to suffer within their houses ! Few of those pastors can now be living to take offence at the sarcasms which their mistaken zeal and unjust

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. IV censure'incurred. Nevertheless the overbearing tongue of criticism is quite as rabid now as it was when the most brilliant genius that has appeared since Shakespeare, left England, in scorn of its insanely unjust vengeance against him. It is well-known that a systematic warfare has existed ever since, to hunt down Lord Byron's works by abuse of his personal character. There have been some recent instances of this in a late " Review," now defunct, or sold, or amal gamated in some way. The virulence and scurrility with which some authors and their private characters were attacked, was disgraceful to a journal claiming any respecta bility. But, although this furor had subsided generally into a mere occasional yelp — like hounds losing the scent — it is very remarkable with what avidity the slanderous pursuit has been caught up and carried on since Mrs. B. Stowe entered the field.

She has given new energy to the hunt by intro ducing some keen-scenting harriers by Malignus, out of Scan Mag, and, with the Harrier Beech Stowe for their leader, and Scan Mag at her heels, the whole pack have run madly, in full cry, Pell Mell, to the very Echo. One pre-eminently deep-mouthed hound — named by his patron, for the nonoe, Œdipus — gives tongue with low-lived and bitter acerbity eclipsing even the leading harrier. Certainly nothing so infamous — so indelibly disgraceful to any journal, has ever before appeared as in that article of personal abuse. " And Echo, blithe Echo makes jovial the cry !"* * Old hunting cong.

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. V The base malignity of spirit that can jeer at a personal infirmity, and falsely add others for the purpose of exciting the senseless ridicule of vulgar minds, is in any case detest able ; but to do so against one whose splendid genius, good qualities, and high attainments are beyond such a writer's power to crush ; and he therefore endeavours to defame the private character of an author by detraction, slander, and personal abuse : — so truly despicable a scribbler classes himself — " On the level with a devil That he labours to portray Of an author, so far over What he can himself essay." To prove our strictures on unjust criticism are not exag gerated, we may refer the reader to a pamphlet in defence of Lord Byron, published in 1816, of which a copy is given in J. C. Hotten's " Answer to Mrs. Stowe."

That lady may there see her own portrait — by change of gender only — most correctly delineated ; or, as her imagination of evil in Lord Byron is so prolific, she may, on con sulting her toilette-glass, imagine she can perceive, in her reflected features, the addition of " rudimentary horns ;" and — by a nervous kind of Ovidian metamorphosis — imagine she feels her feet changing into divided hoofs, as the redoubted " Œdipus," through his patron, the Echo*, has described the infant Byron, if she thinks it worth while to propagate the infamous lie. Or, lastly, Mrs. Beecher Stowe may readily select from her own "True Story," a costume very appropriate for the character in which that offensive See the Echo of Dec. 6th, 1860.

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. VI " Story " has placed her. There is abundant material for the purpose : for instance, the underclothing textures of malevolence or malignity, and other varieties with which Mrs. Beecher Stowe' a experience may make a shift to fit herself. Then there are several very useful though not beautiful tissues for other garments, such as calumny, de traction, defamation, and the tough twill of slander ; this last may do for corsets. The colours of all these are too false to wear well, but a dress for great occasions may be worn over them : it is the changeable or shot-silk " Misrepresenta tion," which has the chamelion property of changing its colour at the pleasure of the wearer, who directs the light in which it must be viewed ! Besides these bodily adorn ments of our heroine, and in strong contrast with them, there is another kind of stuff, very becoming, it is thought, by some persons, for head-dress, chiefly produced by the "fanatical company, unlimited !"

It is the " Idol Worship," so plentiful in high places. In less refined districts it has other uames, suited to the locality. It appears quite familiar to Mrs. B. Stowe, for she certainly does hestow it plentifully on her favourite paragon of perfection — the angelic Lady Byron ! Setting aside Pope's well-known couplet — " Whoever thinks a faultless piece to see Thinks what ne'er was, nor is, nor e'er will be." Mrs. B. Stowe is of a different opinion, and, in her exube rantly prejudiced views, both of good and evil, she lards her goddess — instead of lauding — with the most ridiculous hyper bole, deifying the poor lady, even while on earth, in her fits pf idiosyncracj' !* " Sec Mr W. Hewitt's lett.r. PREFACE, VII The Egyptian Isis, the Syrian Astarte, and the Grecian Juno, with other female deities, have long passed away, and are forgotten.

Should the present Regina Cœli of Rome follow their fate, Mrs. Stowe, if living, would, of course, vote for her favourite, Saint Anabella, as the rightful successor to the heavenly throne ! We must refer the reader to Mrs. Stowe's presumptuously " True story," for all her fulsome adulation of Lady Byron and the equally exaggerated depravity with which she endeavours to debase the Poet. She does not seem to be aware that she defames Lady Byron by representing her as pandering to her husband's crime ! While professing to idolize Lady Byron as a very angel upon earth, she strangely convicts her of being a willing accomplice through the whole course of a monstrously shameful transaction. At the very least, a conniving accessory after the fact ! If Lady Byron's perfectibility, religion, or morals, were like Mrs. Beecher Stowe's description of them, they were of a very flexible nature !

But Mrs. Stowe's descriptions are unnatural; she has drawn impossible characters, which may do very well for a novel and its readers, but they very rarely occur in real life. Mrs. Stowe complains of misrepresentation and slander against Lady Byron ; but we tell her that the farrago pub lished by her, and miscalled " The True Story," is a tissue of misrepresentation and slander from beginning to end, and her subsequent defence is abortive. All her attempts at proof are only hearsay evidence which cannot be admitted in a court of justice. There is one exception, however, for Mrs. Stowe herself witnessed Lady Byron's fits of monomania, and admits

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. VIII that she was seized with one of them while making the foul charge of incest against Lord Byron.* Therefore no reliance can be placed on anything that Lady Byron might say, when " helplessly under the control " of these fits. Neither was she, even in her amiable moods, the perfectly just character that Mrs. Beecher Stowe represents her to have been — " A miracle of mingled strength and weakness." There was certainly much more weakness than strength in Lady Byron's extraordinary temperament. Mrs. Stowe's long eulogy or Apotheosis of Lady Byron being already before the public, the reader is referred to her " True Story " for the extravagant praises lavished on her patron. Further on it will be seen how little some of poor Lady Byron's transactions were in unison with them during her fits of illusion.

It cannot escape observation that Mrs. Beecher Stowe does the very same thing she blames in others. She accuses the enamoured Guiecioli of representing Lord Byron as a human being endowed with every natural charm, gift and grace. But Mrs. Stowe is determined not to be outdone ! Not content with human excellence, the saintly Lady Byron is clothed in heavenly panoply ! " There vjas so much of Christ in her" that only to see her, was to be " draion near to Heaven ! " Let us descend from Mrs. Stowe's heights of fanatical glorification, " so much above the comprehension" of eur own "coarse and common world" and reply to the very "grave" * See Mrs. Stowe's last publication, "Lady Byron vindicated." Part 2 p. 151— 153. For Lady Byron's state us mind under those circumstaces see Mr. W. Howitt's lotter.

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. IX charge brought bv Lady Byron's advocate against sundry pens which, it appears, have blunted their points by tilting at the posthumous fame of her immaculate saint. We know that it is very wrong to drag people out of their graves to answer for high crimes and misdemeanours alleged against them so many years after their death sleep — by the way, the unluckily mispaired couple in question have not been suffered to sleep very quietly. The present writer has no wish to disturb unjustly the names of the dead — our question now is with Mrs. Beecher Stowe. Has that lady any right to complain of slanders and misrepresentation with respect to Lady Byron ? Has she not done the very same thing herself? Any one who reads attentively what she calls her "' True Story," will see that in every line, every sentence bearing any allusion to Lord Byron or his works, the most degrading terms are applied, either direct or insinuated, accusing him of ribaldry and obscenity, and wearing the cloak of deceit and hypocrisy.

But does not she put on this cloak herself apparently here, by quoting what has been written in favor of Lord Byron, and thus making a show of fairness, in order to hide the malignancy of her own assertions. She appears to be one of those prejudiced fanatics who "scandalously nice Will needs mistake an author into vice." * She plasters Lord Byron's name — all his motives — his every action and his writings, with slander and misrepresen tations as thickly as she covers every wall in New York with her own name ! Her virulent hatred of Byron will not let him Pope's Essay on Criticism. X

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. exist even in Heaven without suffering. She is " more strongly impressed than by anything else," at Lady Byron's perfect conviction — strange to say — that her husband was now a redeemed spirit ; that he looked back with pain and shame and regret on his past life." In Mrs. Stowe's recent book there is a chapter headed — " The Direct argument to prove the Crime," in which — very ingeniously — there is no proof whatever ! All her proofs are only probabilities, suppositions, and inferences. One of her proofs that he was guilty of incest is, " because that was the most important crime charged against him by rumour 1" In short, the whole of this chapter and the next, headed, "Psychological argument," shows the most inveterately mali cious hatred against the dead Poet and his works, with persistent determination to fasten, if possible, the most hideous crimes upon him.

Every opportunity is taken to insult the Poet's memory ; even his most amiable qualities and actions are, — in her morally jaundiced vision, — misrepresented and blackened ; she makes him cruel and brutal as a fiend with peculiar malice — leading a wild career of fashionable folly — con scious of a great crime — his gloominess caused by remorse and despair — cravings for unnatural vice — - a desperate, despairing, unrepenting soul, whom suffering maddens, but cannot reclaim ! To all this, and much more, Mrs. Stowe tries to prove insanity ; she leaves no stone unturned to find matter for crimination. She quotes Scripture, about casting " the first stone." Is she so peculiarly without sin herself that she has collected such a heap of stones to cast upon the dead victim ?

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. XI without mercy, loading his memory with all the opprobrium she can find to slander it with ? Mrs. Stowe's last book complains of " much invective" — "stormy discussion," and "many abusive articles" hurled against her. Is it not her own fault? She has brought the "cruel anguish" that she so piteously laments, upon herself. In considering it her "duty" to make the "disclosures" — ■ which are so odious — she committed a gross error of judg ment. The great hit which she, no doubt, expected to make, has recoiled upon herself, and damaged her own fame, rather than that of the dead Poet, whom she has laboured so hard to immolate. We all know that Lord Byron's errors cannot be defended : they are to be deplored ; but some allowance may be made in his favor. His childhood was far from being properly cared for, and in his early career left without a Mentor, the companions that he fell amongst, or who gathered round him, were not very likely to regulate his habits or improve his morals.

His genius made him a brilliant companion for them, but the society of his day was rather a bane to himself, and the seeds of loose conduct thus planted in his very sensitive nature, took root and sprung up rapidly, like tares among wheat. But though not a full harvest, enough of the rich grain is preserved for the mental food of ages, when the tares are destroyed, and Mrs. Stowe's bitter weeds along with them forgotten. Mrs. Stowe relates that " some of Lady Byron's friends had — when she was ill, and not expected to survive—suggested that she ought to declare the whole truth before

PREFACE.

. leaving the world, to some person of another country, less likely to be influenced by friends here," &c, and that it was Lady Byron's desire " to recount the whole history to such a person," " In order that she might be helped by such a person's views in making up an opinion as to her own duty. Of course, Mrs. Stowe had elected herself the person. This was, we believe, during the interview when Lady Byron's physicians expected her death ; she was in bed, and the scene " had almost the solemnity of a death-bed avowal'" When the- " unmistakable " words were spoken, Mrs. Stowe relates that Lady Byron became " so deadly pale." Now this was one of the poor Lady's cold fits, as described by Mr. Howitt, to whose letter the reader is referred. During this interview, which occupied one afternoon, from about two o'clock, Mrs. S'towe represents the sick Lady as being equal to a most extraordinary amount of exertion for a person supposed to be on her death bed _ if we only suppose the details to take two hours to relate, when, as Mrs. Stowe says, " She went over with a brief and clear analysis the history of his whole life, as she had thought it out during the lonely musings of her widowhood."

But we now know what was Lady Byron's peculiar habit of " thinking things out " when under the control of her strange, cold fits — that idiosyncracy so well described by Mr. William Howitt, a visiting friend of several years, who saw her in all her moods, either happily amiable, or, as he writes, when " the devil of the North Pole was upon her," and she was then the very opposite to " one of the spirits of the just made perfect," to whom she is compared by her sycophantic parasite, who only had about four interviews with her, and,

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. XIII it is now said, "was not admitted to Lady Byron's intimacy." She nevertheless presumes to describe that Lady's whole life, and on a sick bed, when supposed near death, makes her go through; in one interview, with " a clear analysis," the whole of Lord Byron's life from infancy, the details of which, as stated in " The True Story," would occupy some hours of continued speaking, much beyond the power of any one in such a state as Lady Byron then was. Can we believe any thing so absurd ? Also, when the " unmistakable " words were uttered, charging Lord Byron with crime, Mrs. Stowe admits that Lady Byron turned " deathly pale," and appeared "fainting;" but this, it seems, did not interfere with the " clear analysis " of Lord Byron's life, and hi_ ancestral in heritance of disposition, &c, down to his death !

Mrs. B. Stowe's " Lady Byron as I Knew Her," is a curiosity to which we would refer the reader. Even the sick room is " so different from the chamber of ordinary invalids," page 140. It is " a telegraphic station whence her vivid mind flashes out all over the world." "Her table covered with books, pamphlets, files of letters, all in exquisite order — each express ing some of her varied interests," — " from that sick bed she directs her various works of benevolence," — "watches with intelligent attention the course of science, literature, and religion," — •. the versatile activity of her mind, the flow of brilliant and penetrating thought on all the topics of the day, gives to the conversations of the bick room a peculiar charm!!!" Brava, Mrs. B. Stowe ! Your sick lady's forty-brain power of intellect is expressed much better in your magni loquent book — we beg pardon, history, we should say — >

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than it is here, in the author's humble, condensed _p_ tome of it. Mrs. Beecher Stowe " seems to be " very far from the perfection which she ascribes to Lady Byron, " Never mis taking wrong for right, but right for wrong, and some times to a very deep " shade !" Lord Byron was not the horribly bad character that she has drawn. He possessed many good qualities which Mrs. Stowe grossly misrepresents, not to say basely slanders. It was not mere rank that made him noble ; there was nobility of mind — a splendid genius — a generous and charitable heart and hand. Is there a spark of generosity or charity in Mrs. Stowe's portrait ? Byron's errors were rather acquired than a part of his nature — the dirt that bemired him in his brief journey through life, with dissipation and vice tempting his facile dispostion at every step, he would have been more than mortal to escape un scathed.

On the other hand Mrs. Stowe's prodigy of perfection is as far above the truth as she sinks the unfortunate object of her dire malediction below it. Poor Lady Byron — whom we would gladly absolve entirely if possible — was not the faultless piece of angelic mortality that Mrs. B. Stowe's devotion would have her American friends believe. The errors of Lady Byron's conduct are ingeniously transformed into virtues by her encomiast, who admits that Lady Byron "had the courage resolutely and inflexibly to plant herself in his way." Mrs. Stowe represents Lady Byron's motive as being to prevent her husband from going to destruction, but the fact appears to be that she aimed at conforming his habits to those of her own, a regular cup of tea, and cards, like her namby- FREFACE. XV pamby family where she was bred up in strict seclusion, and thought herself very wise.

Where was the "devoted love" that Mrs. Stowe ascribes to her for the man she had married ? Where was the " infinite pliability to all his varying capricious moods which true love alone can give?"* Instead of " fighting with the very Devil himself for the heart of her husband," as Mrs. Stowe writes, — she fought hard to conquer " his versifying habits !" for, it is said, that, three weeks after marriage he was asked " when he meant to give them up." Thus, at the outset, Lady Byron's conduct was a mis take, and some other parts of it were highly censurable. Her strange and peculiar idiosyncracy of mind, however, admits of great allowance being made for some of her transactions, which otherwise would be inexcusable. Lord Byron himself gives the best account of her jeuvesse up to the separation, and Mr. William Howitt of her maturity and widowhood, which latter period she unfortunately has tened, as the Author thinks, very blameably ; and for which she afterwards suffered remorse that all Mrs. Stowe's clothing of human purity, " merciful uess," and "charities" could not remove !

Why ? — because they were not a part of her past conduct toward her husband. What " mercifulness " did she show to him ? She drove his impetuous temper mad by opposition which could not bend him to her " inflexible " will, and then determined to separate herself from him somehow or other. Her first plea of insanity failing, she made other charges, which were also not sufficient to effect her purpose ; but she had a reserve, and clenched her purpose with some thing worse ! A secret charge made to one, probably bosh of * See Mrs. B. Stowe's " True Story."

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. her advisers, who then appear to have given her some not very good counsel ; for she acted deceitfully. Lord Byron s account says, " It was agreed she should pay her Father a visit till some arrangement could be made with his creditors, and intimates their parting on good terms, referring to the " Dear Duck " letter. Lady Byron says her husband signified to her in writing that " she should leave London on the earliest day that she could fix." The purpose of this was apparently that he expected she could procure money from her Father ; but Mrs. Stowe, always putting the worst con struction on the Poet's words and actions, and on every cir cumstance, calls it " driving her away." To the writer of this it seems clear, from Lady Byron's own letters, that she was pre-determined not to return — that she gladly availed herself of the advice given, and did it more cruelly than it was intended to be — that her " silence " was a most cruel injury, and her avowed determination to secure herself from being ever again placed in his power inflicted greater injury, as it opened the mouths of every ill-disposed mind to surmise, if possible, something still more horrible against her husband.

In the case of the school-master, as related by Mr. W. Howitt, where was the "mercifulness" — her "clear, divining, moral discrimination" — "never mistaking wrong for right"? Her unjust conduct in the sudden dismissal of this poor man, and refusal to assign any cause ? Where was there any real generosity, charity, or mercy shown to the unhappy, betrayed Medora Leigh, whose melan choly fate was finally completed by the hypocrisy of Mrs. Stowe's glorified saint, who, she says, had " so much of Christ in her, that, only to see her was like drawing near to heaven" ?

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. XVII Mrs. Stowe's presumption does not" end here ; she not only deifies her idol saint with supernatural powers, but she dares to usurp the judgment seat ! She presumes too fur we think, when she says : " There was a child of sin born with the curse upon her!" We ask, what authority Mrs. Stowe has to pro nounce a curse on any one ? She has done her utmost to curse Lord Byron in every possible way. Does Mrs. Stowe know where it is said, "bless, and curse not?" If there was a child of sin born, the child was not the sinner. It did not beget itself. Pardon the truism, good reader, Mrs. Stowe requires a homely lesson or two, Returning to Lady Byron, whose errors of judgment were rather owing to her constitutional infirmity than belonging to her better feelings. Perhaps she never read Pope's beautiful sentiment, or apothegm : — ■ " Good nature with good sense must ever join — To err, is human ; to forgive, divine." * Therefore we must forgive Lady Byron ; although still thinking that her husband wrote the truth of her in the line which says : — " But wanting one sweet weakness — to forgive!"

In the context, which Mrs. Stowe calls " a just eulogy," there is much that is unjustly favorable, so palpably, that it looks like mingled satire, and ill accords with the lady's cruelly treacherous treatment of her destitute neice, Medora Leigh, whose sufferings began through the atrocious villainy of her elder sister's profligate husband. Pope's " Essay on Criticism," line 524.

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. There appears to have been great laxity of moral conduct in this portion of the family. The story of Medora Leigh is a sad one : clearly she was dragged into misconduct by the very persons who ought to have protected and guarded her from it ; and afterwards persecuted and deserted by her relatives, as if she had been the sole offender. Lady Byron had professed great affection for her, and promised protection and support for herself and child. For a time this went on, but those professions were not sincere — Lady Byron made all arrangements painful to poor Medora, who was not willing to give up to Lady Byron possession of a deed which she held for the benefit of her child, and, on Medora traveling to England, without her special permission, " Lady Byron dropped the character alike of mother, of aunt, of friend, and of benefactress, and left her unlucky protegee tc perish !

" * In the history of Medora Leigh there is a tangled skein of manœuvring by her persecutors, the threads of which it is difficult to unravel. The whole is now before the public, and the reader must be referred for details to C. Mackay'st recent vol., entitled Medora Leigh — A. Austin's Vindication of Lord Byron — Mr. W. Howitt's letter — Quarterly Review, January, 1870, &c, &c. In these, Mrs. Stowe's inaccuracies are well handled. There is no proof whatever of the crime laid to the Poet's charge by that persistent Lady ! * Now, where was Lady Byron's "mercifulness, that made allowance for every weakness, and pitied every sin ? " In this transaction, her conduct was deceitful, hypocritical, and shockingly unjust and cruel ! t Se» Mackay's Medora Leigh,

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. XIX The origin of that charge appears to have come from the Trevanions who, to serve their own purposes, conveyed it to Lady Byron, about the year 1840. There is no earlier trace of it, and their very culpable conduct gives probability, at least, to the surmise. If it was so, Lady Byron must have been their dupe, and in her moody periods of " idiosyncracy," the story might easily graft on such a mind as hers. According to Mrs. Stowe, it seems that one of those strange fits seized her at the time of the " solemn avowal," when " she became so deathly pale." * Under such circumstances, what credit can we give to the words uttered ? The subject has been painful, and the writer of these com ments unwillingly pursues it. The impression on his mind is, that the Byron-marriage was, — as the Poet himself asserts it, — " a bitter mistake" on both sides.

Clearly one of incom patibility. Their tempers, tastes, habits, constitutions, and opinions opposed, each to the other. Lady Byron, taking a wrong course at first, and not succeeding in her purpose, her determined separation, and silence as to the cause, were productive of dire mischief to both parties ; but she was ill-advised, and too eager to justify her own pre-determined will. Other persons were not without blame in the matter. There is no doubt in the present writer's mind that the erring lady, when under the influence of her peculiar infirmity, was not responsible for her actions ; and that, after her husband's death, she suffered a life-long remorse for her former conduct to him. We find that the domestics and friends most frequently with her, thought " her mind was touched." The style of her * Mrs. Stowe's " History, _kc," p. 155. XX