66 They are in an unnatural state of society. The Turks "and Eastern people manage these matters better than we "do. They lock them up, and they are much happier. "Give a woman a looking-glass and a few sugar-plums, "I have suffered from the other sex ever since I can "remember any thing. I began by being jilted, and "ended by being unwived. Those are wisest who make 66 no connexion of wife or mistress. The knight-service of "the Continent, with or without the k, is perhaps a slavery as bad, or worse, than either. An intrigue with 66 a married woman at home, though more secret, is equally difficult to break. I had no tie of any kind at Venice, yet I was not without my annoyances. You may remember seeing the portrait of a female which Murray got engraved, and dubbed my Fornarina.' 66 Harlowe, the poor fellow who died soon after his "return from Rome, and who used to copy pictures from 66 66 memory, took my likeness when he was at Venice: and one day this frail one, who was a casual acquaintance of mine, happened to be at my palace, and to be seen by "the painter, who was struck with her, and begged she 39 66 might sit to him. She did so, and I sent the drawing home as a specimen of the Venetians, and not a bad one either; "for the jade was handsome, though the most troublesome "shrew and termagant I ever met with. To give you an "idea of the lady, she used to call me the Gran Cane della "Madonna. When once she obtained a footing inside my "door, she took a dislike to the outside of it, and I had great difficulty in uncolonizing her. She forced her way "back one day when I was at dinner, and snatching a knife "from the table, offered to stab herself if I did not consent 66 66 66 66 66 to her stay. Seeing I took no notice of her threat, as knowing it to be only a feint, she ran into the balcony and threw herself into the canal. As it was only knee I deep and there were plenty of gondolas, one of them picked her up. This affair made a great noise at the Some said that I had thrown her into the water, "others that she had drowned herself for love; but this is "the real story. "time. "I got into nearly as great a scrape by making my court "to a spinster. As many Dowagers as you please at Ve 66 nice, but beware of flirting with Raggazzas. I had been "one night under her window serenading, and the next 66 morning who should be announced at the same time but K 66 a priest and a police officer, come, as I thought, either to "shoot or marry me again,-I did not care which. I was disgusted and tired with the life I led at Venice, and was 66 66 66 glad to turn my back on it. The Austrian Government, "too, partly contributed to drive me away. They intercepted my books and papers, opened my letters, and proscribed my works. I was not sorry for this last arbitrary act, as a very bad translation of Childe Harold' had just appeared, which I was not at all pleased with. I "did not like my old friend in his new loose dress; it was 66 66 a dishabille that did not at all become him,-those sciolti "versi that they put him into." It is difficult to judge, from the contradictory nature of his writings, what the religious opinions of Lord Byron really were. Perhaps the conversations I held with him may throw some light upon a subject that cannot fail to excite curiosity. On the whole, I am inclined to think that if he were occasionally sceptical, and thought it, as he says, "A pleasant voyage, perhaps, to float, "Like Pyrrho, on a sea of speculation," * Don Juan, Canto IX. Stanza 18. yet his wavering never amounted to a disbelief in the divine Founder of Christianity. 66 66 66 66 "I always took great delight," observed he, "in the English Cathedral service. It cannot fail to inspire every man, who feels at all, with devotion. Notwithstanding which, Christianity is not the best source of inspiration for a poet. No poet should be tied down to a "direct profession of faith. Metaphysics open a vast field; Nature, and anti-Mosaical speculations on the origin of "the world, a wide range, and sources of poetry that are "shut out by Christianity." 64 66 66 66 I advanced Tasso and Milton. "Tasso and Milton," replied he, "wrote on Christian subjects, it is true; but how did they treat them? The 'Jerusalem Delivered' deals little in Christian doctrines, "and the Paradise Lost' makes use of the heathen mythology, which is surely scarcely allowable. Milton dis"carded papacy, and adopted no creed in its room; he never attended divine worship. 66 K 2 66 "His great epics, that nobody reads, prove nothing. "He took his text from the Old and New Testaments. "He shocks the severe apprehensions of the Catholics, as he did those of the Divines of his day, by too great a familiarity with Heaven, and the introduction of the Divinity himself; and, more than all, by making the Devil his hero, and deifying the dæmons. 66 66 66 "He certainly excites compassion for Satan, and en"deavours to make him out an injured personage-he gives "him human passions too, makes him pity Adam and Eve, "and justify himself much as Prometheus does. Yet "Milton was never blamed for all this. I should be very curious to know what his real belief was.* The 'Paradise Lost' and 'Regained' do not satisfy me on this point. "One might as well say that Moore is a fire-worshipper, 66 or a follower of Mokanna, because he chose those sub jects from the East; or that I am a Cainist." Another time he said: * A religious work of Milton's has since been discovered, and will throw light on this interesting subject. |