the crime of the Giaour and the criminal himself, whose despair is the expiation of his crimes and the beautiful triumph of morality.

In the Bride of Abydos' (where the terrible Ali again comes forward in the shape of the old Giaffir) the amiable and unfortunate Selim and the poet share the real sentiments of Byron. Byron is also himself when he adorns his heroine with every grace and perfection of body and soul, and also whenever it is necessary to idealize in order that a too rigorous imitation of reality may not offend either the laws of art or the feelings of the reader. As for 'Don Juan,' it is only fair to say that he in a measure deserved the persecution which it brought upon him. Yet, if we judge the poem with no pre-conceived severity, we shall find that, with the exception of certain passages where he went beyond the limits prescribed to satire, from his hatred of hypocrisy, and also at times as a revenge against his persecutors, the poem is charming. These passages he intended to suppress, but death prevented him. This is greatly to be regretted, for otherwise Don Juan' would have been the most charming satirical poem in existence, and especially had not the last four cantos, written in Greece, been destroyed. The scene lay in England, and the views expressed in them explained many things which can never now be known. In allowing such an act to be committed for the sake of sparing the feelings of some influential persons and

*

*He often told and promised his friends at Genoa that he would alter the passages which are unjust and reprehensible, and that, before it was finished, 'Don Juan' would become a chaste and irreproachable satire.

national susceptibilities, Byron's friends failed in their duty to his memory, for the last four cantos gave the key to the previous ones, and justified them. From the moment Byron conceived 'Don Juan' he steeled his heart against feeling; and he kept to his resolution not to give way to his natural goodness of disposition, wishing the poem to be a satire as well as an act of revenge. Here and there, however, his great soul pierces through, and shows itself in such a true light that Byron's portrait could be better drawn from passages of Don Juan,' than from any other of his poems." We have sufficiently proved,

* "His manner was perhaps the more seductive,
Because he ne'er seemed anxious to seduce;
Nothing affected, studied, or constructive

Of coxcombry or conquest: no abuse
Of his attractions marr'd the fair perspective,
To indicate a Cupidon broke loose,

And seem to say, 'Resist us if you can
Which makes a dandy while it spoils a man.

XIII.

"Don Juan was without it;

In fact, his manner was his own alone:

Sincere he was

XIV.

"By nature soft, his whole address held off

Suspicion though not timid, his regard

Was such as rather seem'd to keep aloof,
To shield himself than put you on your guard.

XV.

"Serene, accomplish'd, cheerful, but not loud,
Insinuating without insinuation;
Observant of the foibles of the crowd,

Yet ne'er betraying this in conversation;
Proud with the proud, yet courteously proud,
So as to make them feel he knew his station
And theirs-without a struggle for priority
He neither brook'd nor claim'd superiority.

we think, that the uniform character of Byron's heroes, which has been blamed by the poet's enemies, was merely the reflection of the moral beauty which he drew from himself. It might almost be said that the qualities with which he had been gifted by Heaven conspired against him.

We have been led to dwell upon this phase of his literary career, at the risk even of tiring the patience of the reader, from the necessity which we believe exists to destroy the phantom of identification which has been invoked, and to explain the moral nature of Byron in its true light before analysing the poet under other aspects. It is not in Harold' or in 'Conrad,' nor in any of his Oriental poems, that we are likely to trace the moral character of Byron, for, although it would be easy to detach the author's sentiments from those of the personages of these poems, yet they might offer a pretext of blame to those who hate to look into a subject to discover the truth which does not appear at first sight. Nor is it in 'Manfred ' -the only one of his poems wherein, perhaps, reason may be said to be at fault, owing to the sickness under which his soul laboured at the time when it was written, and to his diseased imagination, produced by solitude and unmerited grief. In his lyrical poems Byron's soul must be sought. There he speaks and sings in his own name, expresses his own sentiments,

XVI.

"That is, with men with women he was what

They pleased to make or take him for."-Canto xv.

LIV.

"There was the purest Platonism at bottom

Of all his feelings.”—Canto x.

breathes his own thoughts; or, again, in his elegies and in his miscellaneous poems, in his dramas, in his mysteries, nay, even in his satires-the noble and courageous independence of which has never been surpassed by any satirist, ancient or modern-and generally in all the poems which he wrote in Italy, and which might almost be called his second form. In these poems no medium is any longer required between his soul and that of the reader. It is not possible any longer to make any mistake about him in these. The melancholy and the energy displayed in them cannot serve any more to give him the mask of a Conrad, or of a Harold, or of a misanthrope, or of a haughty individual, but they place in relief what there is of tender, amiable, affectionate sublime in those chosen beings whom God occasionally sends upon earth to testify here below of the things above:

"Per far di colassu fede fra noi."-PETRARCH.

Thus, in his elegy upon the death of Thyrza, "far too beautiful," says Moore, "and too pure to have been inspired by a mortal being," what pathos, what sensitiveness! What charm in his sonnets to Guinevre! What soft melancholy, what profound and intimate knowledge of the immortality and spirituality of our soul, in his Hebrew melodies! "They seem as though they had been inspired by Isaiah and written by Shakespeare," says the Very Rev. Dr. Stanley, Dean of. Westminster. What touching

family affection in his domestic poems, and what generosity in the avowal of certain wrongs! What great and moral feeling pervade the two last cantos of Childe Harold,' melancholy though they

be, like all things which are beautiful! How one feels that the pain they tell of has its origin in unmerited persecution, and how his intellect came to his aid, and enabled him to bear with calmness the uncertainties incident to our nature! What greatness of soul in the forgiveness of what to others would seem unpardonable! What love of humanity and of its rights! What hatred of injustice, tyranny, and oppression in the Ode to Venice,' in 'The Lament of Tasso,' in 'The Prophecy of Dante,' and in general in all his latter poems, even in the Isle,' a poem little known, which was written a short time before he left Genoa for Greece. Here, more than in any other of his poems, we see the admirable peace of mind which he had created for himself, and how far too high his great intellect soared to be any longer moved by the world's injustice.

Quotations from his poems would be impossible. How choose without regretting what has been discarded? They must be read; and those must be pitied who do not feel morally better after having read them.

This is precisely what has been least done up to the present time: people have been content with reading his early poems, and with seeking Byron in 'Childe Harold' or in the heroes of his Oriental poems; which is about as just as to look for Shakespeare in Iago, Milton in Satan, Goëthe in Mephistopheles, or Lamartine in the blasphemies of his ninth Meditation.

Thus French critics,-disposed to identify the man with the imaginary beings of his poems, and neglecting to seek him where they could have found him,

VOL. I.

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