"Venice, May 25. 1819.
"I have received no proofs by the last post, and shall probably
have quitted Venice before the arrival of the next. There wanted a
few stanzas to the termination of Canto first in the last proof;
the next will, I presume, contain them, and the whole or a portion
of Canto second; but it will be idle to wait for further answers
from me, as I have directed that my letters wait for my return
(perhaps in a month, and probably so); therefore do not wait for
further advice from me. You may as well talk to the wind, and
better--for _it_ will at least convey your accents a little further
than they would otherwise have gone; whereas _I_ shall neither
echo nor acquiesce in your 'exquisite reasons.' You may omit the
_note_ of reference to Hobhouse's travels, in Canto second, and you
will put as motto to the whole--
'Difficile est proprie communia dicere.'--HORACE.
"A few days ago I sent you all I know of Polidori's Vampire. He may
do, say, or write, what he pleases, but I wish he would not
attribute to me his own compositions. If he has any thing of mine
in his possession, the MS. will put it beyond controversy; but I
scarcely think that any one who knows me would believe the thing in
the Magazine to be mine, even if they saw it in my own
hieroglyphics.
"I write to you in the agonies of a _sirocco_, which annihilates
me; and I have been fool enough to do four things since dinner,
which are as well omitted in very hot weather: 1stly, * * * *;
2dly, to play at billiards from 10 to 12, under the influence of
lighted lamps, that doubled the heat; 3dly, to go afterwards into a
red-hot conversazione of the Countess Benzoni's; and, 4thly, to
begin this letter at three in the morning: but being begun, it must
be finished.
"Ever very truly and affectionately yours,
"B.
"P.S. I petition for tooth-brushes, powder, magnesia, Macassar oil
(or Russia), _the_ sashes, and Sir Nl. Wraxall's Memoirs of his own
Times. I want, besides, a bull-dog, a terrier, and two Newfoundland
dogs; and I want (is it Buck's?) a life of _Richard 3d_,
advertised by Longman _long, long, long_ ago; I asked for it at
least three years since. See Longman's advertisements."
* * * * *
About the middle of April, Madame Guiccioli had been obliged to quit
Venice with her husband. Having several houses on the road from Venice
to Ravenna, it was his habit to stop at these mansions, one after the
other, in his journeys between the two cities; and from all these places
the enamoured young Countess now wrote to Lord Byron, expressing, in the
most passionate and pathetic terms, her despair at leaving him. So
utterly, indeed, did this feeling overpower her, that three times, in
the course of her first day's journey, she was seized with fainting
fits. In one of her letters, which I saw when at Venice, dated, if I
recollect right, from "Cà Zen, Cavanelle di Po," she tells him that the
solitude of this place, which she had before found irksome, was, now
that one sole idea occupied her mind, become dear and welcome to her,
and promises that, as soon as she arrives at Ravenna, "she will,
according to his wish, avoid all general society, and devote herself to
reading, music, domestic occupations, riding on horseback,--every thing,
in short, that she knew he would most like." What a change for a young
and simple girl, who, but a few weeks before, had thought only of
society and the world, but who now saw no other happiness but in the
hope of making herself worthy, by seclusion and self-instruction, of the
illustrious object of her devotion!
On leaving this place, she was attacked with a dangerous illness on the
road, and arrived half dead at Ravenna; nor was it found possible to
revive or comfort her till an assurance was received from Lord Byron,
expressed with all the fervour of real passion, that, in the course of
the ensuing month, he would pay her a visit. Symptoms of consumption,
brought on by her state of mind, had already shown themselves; and, in
addition to the pain which this separation had caused her, she was also
suffering much grief from the loss of her mother, who, at this time,
died in giving birth to her fourteenth child. Towards the latter end of
May she wrote to acquaint Lord Byron that, having prepared all her
relatives and friends to expect him, he might now, she thought, venture
to make his appearance at Ravenna. Though, on the lady's account,
hesitating as to the prudence of such a step, he, in obedience to her
wishes, on the 2d of June, set out from La Mira (at which place he had
again taken a villa for the summer), and proceeded towards Romagna.
From Padua he addressed a letter to Mr. Hoppner, chiefly occupied with
matters of household concern which that gentleman had undertaken to
manage for him at Venice, but, on the immediate object of his journey,
expressing himself in a tone so light and jesting, as it would be
difficult for those not versed in his character to conceive that he
could ever bring himself, while under the influence of a passion so
sincere, to assume. But such is ever the wantonness of the mocking
spirit, from which nothing,--not even love,--remains sacred; and which,
at last, for want of other food, turns upon himself. The same horror,
too, of hypocrisy that led Lord Byron to exaggerate his own errors, led
him also to disguise, under a seemingly heartless ridicule, all those
natural and kindly qualities by which they were redeemed.