every Englishman (being a philosophe) must be a philosophe like himself,
favoured us with some of his infidel notions while serving us at supper.
Near Morat was fought the battle wherein the Burgundians were so
completely thrashed. Their bones, of which we took pieces, are now very
few; once they formed a mighty heap in the chapel, but both were
destroyed by the Burgundian division when in Switzerland, and a tree of
liberty was planted over it, which yet flourishes in all its verdure—the
liberty has flown from the planters' grasp. Saw Aventicum; there remains
sufficient of the walls to trace the boundaries of the ancient town; but
of all the buildings, both for Gods and men, nothing but a column
remains, and that the only remnant for more than a hundred years. There
are mosaic pavements, and even the streets may be perceived in a dry
summer by the grass being thinner. The mosaic in a barn, probably once
of a temple, was pretty perfect till the Gallic cavalry came and turned
it into a stable. It is formed of little pieces of black, white, and red
bricks; little now remains. There was also a copper vessel in the
middle; that too has disappeared. The town is shamefully negligent of
the antiquities of their fathers, for there is another more beautiful
and perfect mosaic pavement discovered, but which they have allowed the
proprietor to cover again with mould rather than buy it. We found in a
barn heads, plinths, capitals, and shafts, heaped promiscuously. The
Corinthian-column capital is deeply, sharply, and beautifully cut. A
head of Apollo in all the rudeness of first art—a capital of a strange
mixed order. There is the Amphitheatre, hollow yet pretty perfect, but
no stonework visible; overgrown with trees; the size, my companion told
me, was larger than common. In the town there were some beautiful
fragments of ornament-sculpture incorporated in the walls; all marble.
In the walls of the church we sought in vain for the inscription that
Mathison mentions to Julia Alpinula.
[Both to Morat and to Aventicum (Avenches) Byron devotes some stanzas in
_Childe Harold_, 63 to 67, and notes to correspond. Morat he terms "the
proud, the patriot field." He speaks of the hoard of bones, and says: "I
ventured to bring away as much as may have made a quarter of a hero,"
for "careful preservation." His reference to Aventicum and the
inscription to Julia Alpinula reads rather curiously in the light of
Polidori's avowal that "we sought in vain for the inscription." Byron's
readers must always, I apprehend, have inferred the contrary.
"By a lone wall a lonelier column rears
A grey and grief-worn aspect of old days.
'Tis the last remnant of the wreck of years,
And looks as with the wild bewildered gaze
Of one to stone converted by amaze,
Yet still with consciousness: and there it stands,
Making a marvel that it not decays,
When the coeval pride of human hands,
Levell'd Aventicum, hath strew'd her subject lands.
"And there—oh sweet and sacred be the name!—
Julia, the daughter, the devoted, gave
Her youth to Heaven: her heart, beneath a claim
Nearest to Heaven's, broke o'er a father's grave.
Justice is sworn 'gainst tears; and hers would crave
The life she lived in; but the judge was just,—
And then she died on him she could not save.
Their tomb was simple, and without a bust,
And held within their urn one mind, one heart, one dust."
Byron's note runs thus: "Julia Alpinula, a young Aventian priestess,
died soon after a vain endeavour to save her father, condemned to death
as a traitor by Aulus Cæcina. Her epitaph was discovered many years ago.
It is thus: 'Julia Alpinula hic jaceo. Infelicis patris infelix proles.
Deæ Aventiæ Sacerdos. Exorare patris necem non potui: Male mori in fatis
illi erat. Vixi annos XXIII.' I know of no human composition so
affecting as this, nor a history of greater interest. These are the
names and actions," etc.]
I copied the one below on account of its medical tendency. The letters
in this as well as in all the other inscriptions are formed like our
Roman print, not in the least imperfect: "Nvminib. Avg. et Genio Col. I.
El. Apollini Sagr. 9. Postum Hermes lib. Medicis et Professorib, D.S.D."
From Aventicum or Avenches we went to Payerne. We have seen in many
places boys leading goats just in the antique style. Thence we went to
Moudon—dirty town. Stopped for refreshments. One fine view we have had
all the way, but nothing equal to the view descending to Morat.
Darkness came on. We saw the Castle wherein —— defended himself against
the French who besieged it for a month: looks so weak, it seems a
wonder. The Swiss castles are not nearly so interesting as the Rhine
ones. They are very conical-roofed and no battlements. We saw the lake,
but for a long time doubted whether it was a cloud below, a mist before,
or water beneath us. Entered Lausanne.
_May 25._—Left Lausanne, after having looked at a bookseller's, who
showed me a fine collection of bad books for four louis. Enquired for
Dewar: name not known. We went along the lake, that a little
disappointed me, as it does not seem so broad as it really is, and the
mountains near it, though covered with snow, have not a great appearance
on account of the height [of the] lake itself. We saw Mont Blanc in the
distance; ethereal in appearance, mingling with the clouds; it is more
than 60 miles from where we saw it. It is a classic ground we go over.
Buonaparte, Joseph, Bonnet, Necker, Staël, Voltaire, Rousseau, all have
their villas (except Rousseau). Genthoud, Ferney, Coppet, are close to
the road.
[Perhaps some readers may need to be reminded who Bonnet was. He was a
great physicist, both practical and speculative, Charles Bonnet, author
of a _Traité d'Insectologie_, a _Traité de l'usage des Feuilles_,
_Contemplations de la Nature_, _Palingénésie Philosophique_, and other
works. Born in Geneva in 1720, he died in 1793.]
We arrived at Sécheron—where Lord Byron, having put his age down as 100,
received a letter half-an-hour after from Inn Keeper?—a thing that seems
worthy of a novel. It begins again to be the land of the vine. Women,
who till the Pays de Vaud were ugly, improving greatly.
_May 26._—After breakfast, and having made up the accounts to to-day,
and having heard that the voituriers made a claim of drink-money all the
way back, we ordered a calèche; but, happening to go into the garden, we
saw a boat, into which entering, we pushed out upon the Leman Lake.
After rowing some time, happening to come to the ferry, we found the
waiter with a direful look to tell us that it was _pris pour un monsieur
Anglais_, who happened to be ——.[7] We got another, and went out to
bathe. I _rode_ first with L[ord] B[yron] upon the field of Waterloo;
_walked_ first to see Churchill's tomb; _bathed and rowed_ first on the
Leman Lake.—It did us much good. Dined; entered the calèche; drove
through Geneva, where I saw an effect of building that pleased me: it
was porticoes from the very roof of the high houses to the bottom.
Went to the house beyond Cologny that belonged to Diodati. They ask
five-and-twenty louis for it a month. Narrow, not true. The view from
his house is very fine; beautiful lake; at the bottom of the crescent is
Geneva. Returned. Pictet called, but L[ord] B[yron] said "not at home."
[There were two Genevan Pictets at this date, both public men of some
mark. One was Jean Marc Jules Pictet de Sergy, 1768 to 1828; the other,
the Chevalier Marc Auguste Pictet, 1752 to 1825. As Polidori speaks
farther on of Pictet as being aged about forty-six, the former would
appear to be meant. He had been in Napoleon's legislative chamber from
1800 to 1815, and was afterwards a member of the representative council
of Geneva.—The Villa Diodati was the house where Milton, in 1639, had
visited Dr. John Diodati, a Genevese Professor of Theology. Polidori's
compact phrase, "narrow, not true," is by no means clear; perhaps he
means that some one had warned him that the Villa Diodati (called also
the Villa Belle Rive) was inconveniently narrow, but, on inspecting the
premises, he found the statement incorrect.]
_May 27._—Got up; went about a boat; got one for 3 fr. a day; rowed to
Sécheron. Breakfasted. Got into a carriage. Went to Banker's, who
changed our money, and afterwards left his card. To Pictet—not at home.
Home, and looked at accounts: bad temper on my side. Went into the boat,
rowed across to Diodati; cannot have it for three years; English family.
Crossed again; I went; L[ord] B[yron] back. Getting out, L[ord] B[yron]
met M[ary] Wollstonecraft Godwin, her sister, and Percy Shelley. I got
into the boat into the middle of Leman Lake, and there lay my length,
letting the boat go its way.
[Here I find it difficult to understand the phrase—"Cannot have it
(Villa Diodati) for three years—English family." It must apparently mean
either that an English family were occupying or had bespoken Villa
Diodati, and would remain there for three years to come (which is in
conflict with the fact that Byron soon afterwards became the tenant); or
else that Byron thought of renting it for a term as long as three years,
which was barred by the previous claim of some English family. On the
whole, the latter supposition seems to me the more feasible; but one is
surprised to think that Byron had any—even remote—idea of remaining near
Geneva for any such great length of time. This sets one's mind
speculating about Miss Clairmont, with whom (as is well known) Byron's
amour had begun before he left London, and who had now just arrived to
join him at Sécheron; had he at this time any notion of settling down
with her in the neighbourhood for three years, more or less? It is a
curious point to consider for us who know how rapidly he discarded her,
and how harshly he treated her ever afterwards. Miss Clairmont, we see,
was now already on the spot, along with Percy and Mary Shelley; in fact,
as we learn from other sources, they had arrived at Sécheron, Dejean's
Hôtel de l'Angleterre, as far back as May 18, or perhaps May 15—and
Byron now for the first time encountered the three. It appears that he
must have met Mary Godwin in London, probably only once—not to speak of
Clare. Shelley, to the best of our information, he had never till now
seen at all. Polidori here terms Clare Clairmont the "sister" of "M.
Wollstonecraft Godwin"; and in the entry for May 29 he even applies the
name Wollstonecraft Godwin to Clare; and it will be found as we proceed
that for some little while he really supposed the two ladies to be
sisters in the right sense of the term, both of them bearing the surname
of Godwin. In point of fact, there was no blood-relationship—Mary being
the daughter of Mr. and the first Mrs. Godwin, and Clare the daughter of
Mr. and Mrs. Clairmont. It may be as well to add that the letters
addressed by Miss Clairmont to Byron, before they actually met in
London, have now (1904) been published in _The Works of Lord Byron,
Letters and Journals_, vol. iii, pp. 429-437; and they certainly exhibit
a degree of forwardness and importunity which accounts in some measure
for his eventual antipathy to her.]
Found letter from De Roche inviting me to breakfast to-morrow; curious
with regard to L[ord] B[yron]. Dined; P[ercy] S[helley], the author of
_Queen Mab_, came; bashful, shy, consumptive; twenty-six; separated from
his wife; keeps the two daughters of Godwin, who practise his theories;
one L[ord] B[yron]'s.
[This is a very noticeable jotting. Shelley appears to have come in
alone on this occasion, and we may infer that some very confidential
talk ensued between him and Byron, in the presence of Polidori. He was
not at this date really twenty-six years of age, but only twenty-three.
"Bashful, shy," is an amusingly simple description of him. As to
"consumptive," we know that Shelley left England under the impression
that consumption had him in its grip, but this hardly appears to have
been truly the case. Polidori, as a medical man, might have been
expected to express some doubt on the subject, unless the poet's outward
appearance looked consumptive. Next we hear that Shelley "keeps the two
daughters of Godwin, who practise his theories"—_i.e._ set the
marriage-laws at defiance, or act upon the principle of free love. One
might suppose, from this phrase, that Polidori believed Shelley to be
the accepted lover of Miss Clairmont as well as of Mary Godwin; but the
addition of those very significant words—"One, Lord Byron's"—tells in
the opposite direction. These words can only mean (what was the fact)
that one of these ladies, viz. Miss Clairmont, was Lord Byron's
mistress. Therefore Polidori, in saying that Shelley "kept the two
daughters of Godwin," may presumably have meant that he housed and
maintained Clare, while he was the _quasi_-husband of Mary. Whether
Polidori now for the first time learned, from the conversation of Byron
and Shelley, what was the relation subsisting between Clare and Byron,
or whether Byron had at some earlier date imparted the facts to him, is
a question which must remain unsolved. The latter appears to me
extremely probable; for Byron had certainly arranged to meet Clare near
Geneva, and he may very likely have given the requisite notice
beforehand to his travelling physician and daily associate. My aunt
Charlotte Polidori was not an adept in Shelleian detail: if she had
been, I fear that these sentences would have shocked her sense of
propriety, and they would have been left uncopied. They form the only
passage in her transcript which bears in any way upon the amour between
Lord Byron and Miss Clairmont; to the best of my recollection and belief
there was not in the original Diary any other passage pointing in the
same direction.—I may observe here that there is nothing in Polidori's
Journal to show that the Shelley party were staying in the same Sécheron
hotel with Lord Byron. Professor Dowden says that they were—I suppose
with some sufficient authority; and I think other biographers in general
have assumed the same.]
Into the calèche; horloger's at Geneva; L[ord] B[yron] paid 15 nap.
towards a watch; I, 13: repeater and minute-hand; foolish watch.
[This means (as one of Polidori's letters shows) that Byron made him a
present of £15 towards the price of the watch.]
Went to see the house of Madame Necker, 100 a half-year; came home, etc.
_May 28._—Went to Geneva, to breakfast with Dr. De Roche; acute,
sensible, a listener to himself; good clear head. Told me that armies on
their march induce a fever (by their accumulation of animal dirt,
irregular regimen) of the most malignant typhoid kind; it is epidemic.
There was a whole feverish line from Moscow to Metz, and it spread at
Geneva the only almost epidemic typhus for many years. He is occupied in
the erection of Lancaster schools, which he says succeed well. He is a
Louis Bourbonist. He told me my fever was not an uncommon one among
travellers. He came home with me, and we had a chat with L[ord] B[yron];
chiefly politics, where of course we differed. He had a system well
worked out, but I hope only hypothetical, about liberty of the French
being Machiavellianly not desirable by Europe. He pointed out Dumont in
the court, the rédacteur of Bentham.
Found a letter from Necker to the hotel-master, asking 100 nap. for
three months; and another from Pictet inviting L[ord] B[yron] and any
friend to go with him at 8 to Madame Einard, a connection of his. We
then, ascending our car, went to see some other houses, none suiting.
When we returned home, Mr. Percy Shelley came in to ask us to dinner;
declined; engaged for tomorrow. We walked with him, and got into his
boat, though the wind raised a little sea upon the lake. Dined at four.
Mr. Hentsch, the banker, came in; very polite; told L[ord] B[yron] that,
when he saw him yesterday, he had not an idea that he was speaking to
one of the most famous lords of England.
Dressed and went to Pictet's: an oldish man, about forty-six, tall,
well-looking, speaks English well. His daughter showed us a picture, by
a young female artist, of Madame Lavallière in the chapel; well executed
in pencil—good lights and a lusciously grieving expression.
Went to Madame Einard. Introduced to a room where about 8 (afterwards
20), 2 ladies (1 more). L[ord] B[yron]'s name was alone mentioned; mine,
like a star in the halo of the moon, invisible. L[ord] B[yron] not
speaking French, M. Einard spoke bad Italian. A Signor Rossi came in,
who had joined Murat at Bologna. Manly in thought; admired Dante as a
poet more than Ariosto, and a discussion about manliness in a language.
Told me Geneva women amazingly chaste even in thoughts. Saw the
Lavallière artist. A bonny, rosy, seventy-yeared man, called Bonstetten,
the beloved of Gray and the correspondent of Mathison.
[I find "40" in the MS.: apparently it ought to be "70," for Bonstetten
was born in 1745. He lived on till 1832. Charles Victor de Bonstetten
was a Bernese nobleman who had gone through various vicissitudes of
opinion and adventure, travelling in England and elsewhere. To
Englishmen (as indicated in Polidori's remark) he is best known as a
friend of the poet Thomas Gray, whom he met in 1769. He said: "Jamais je
n'ai vu personne qui donnât autant que Gray l'idée d'un gentleman
accompli." Among the chief writings of Bonstetten are _Recherches sur la
Nature et les Lois de l'Imagination_; _Etudes d'Hommes_; _L'Homme du
Midi et l'Homme du Nord_.]
Madame Einard made tea, and left all to take sugar with the fingers.
Madame Einard showed some historical pieces of her doing in acquerella,
really good, a little too French-gracish. Obliged to leave before ten
for the gates shut. Came home, went to bed.
Was introduced by Shelley to Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, called here
Mrs. Shelley. Saw picture by Madame Einard of a cave in the Jura where
in winter there is no ice, in summer plenty. No names announced, no
ceremony—each speaks to whom he pleases. Saw the bust of Jean Jacques
erected upon the spot where the Geneva magistrates were shot. L[ord]
B[yron] said it was probably built of some of the stones with which they
pelted him.[8] The walk is deserted. They are now mending their roads.
Formerly they could not, because the municipal money always went to the
public box.
_May 29._—Went with Mr. Hentsch to see some houses along the valley in
which runs the Rhone: nothing. Dined with Mr. and Mrs. Percy Shelley and
Wollstonecraft Godwin. Hentsch told us that the English last year
exported corn to Italy to a great amount.
_May 30._—Got up late. Went to Mr. and Mrs. Shelley; breakfasted with
them; rowed out to see a house together. S[helley] went from Lucerne
with the two, with merely £26, to England along the Rhine in bateaux.
Gone through much misery, thinking he was dying; married a girl for the
mere sake of letting her have the jointure that would accrue to her;
recovered; found he could not agree; separated; paid Godwin's debts, and
seduced his daughter; then wondered that he would not see him. The
sister left the father to go with the other. Got a child. All clever,
and no meretricious appearance. He is very clever; the more I read his
_Queen Mab_, the more beauties I find. Published at fourteen a novel;
got £30 for it; by his second work £100. _Mab_ not published.—Went in
calèche with L[ord] B[yron] to see a house; again after dinner to leave
cards; then on lake with L[ord] B[yron]. I, Mrs. S[helley], and Miss
G[odwin], on to the lake till nine. Drank tea, and came away at 11 after
confabbing. The batelier went to Shelley, and asked him as a favour not
to tell L[ord] B[yron] what he gave for his boat, as he thought it quite
fit that Milord's payment be double; we sent Berger to say we did not
wish for the boat.
[The statement that "Shelley went from Lucerne with the two, with merely
£26, to England, along the Rhine in bateaux," refers of course to what
had taken place in 1814, on the occasion of Shelley's elopement with
Mary Godwin, and has no bearing on the transactions of 1816; it must be
cited by Polidori as showing how inexpensively three persons could, if
so minded, travel from Switzerland to England. The other references to
Shelley's domestic affairs etc. are very curious. Except as to his own
personal admiration for _Queen Mab_, Polidori is here evidently putting
down (but not in the words of Shelley himself, who would assuredly not
have said that he had "seduced" Mary Godwin) such details as the poet
imparted to him. They are far from accurate. To some extent, Polidori
may have remembered imperfectly what Shelley told him, but I think the
latter must have been responsible for most of the fables; and generally
it would appear that Shelley gave free rein to his inclination for
romancing or for over-stating matters, possibly perceiving that Polidori
was credulous, and capable of swallowing whatever he was told, the more
eccentric the better. To say that Shelley, before he, at the age of
barely 19, married Harriet Westbrook in 1811, thought that he was dying,
and that his only practical motive for marrying her was that she might
come in for a jointure after his decease, is no doubt highly fallacious,
and even absurd. We have other sources of information as to these
occurrences, especially the letters of Shelley addressed at the time to
Jefferson Hogg, and they tell a very different tale. As to his reason
for separating from Harriet, Shelley, we perceive, simply told Polidori
that he "found he could not agree" with her; he said nothing as to his
knowing or supposing that she had been unfaithful to him. Again, Shelley
was not so boyish as 14 when he published a novel—his first novel, the
egregious _Zastrozzi_; the publication took place in 1810, when he was
eighteen, or at lowest seventeen. The statement that he got £100 by "his
second work" is worth considering. If "his second work" means, as one
might naturally suppose in this connexion, the romance of _St. Irvyne_,
the suggestion that he got anything at all by it, except a state of
indebtedness, is a novelty. But our mind recurs to that rumoured and
apparently really published though wholly untraced work of his, _A
Poetical Essay on the Existing State of Things_. This poem was
published, we are told, for the benefit of an Irish agitator or patriot,
Peter Finnerty, and it has been elsewhere averred that the publication
produced a sum of nearly £100. The mention by Polidori of £100 may be
surmised to refer to the same matter, and it tends so far to confirm the
idea that the book really existed, and even secured a fair measure of
success.—Berger (who is named in connexion with Byron and the hire for
the boat) was, as already noted, the Swiss servant of Byron, brought
from London.]
_May 31._—Breakfasted with Shelley; read Italian with Mrs. S[helley];
dined; went into a boat with Mrs. S[helley], and rowed all night till 9;
tea'd together; chatted, etc.
_June 1._—Breakfasted with S[helley]; entered a calèche; took Necker's
house for 100 louis for 8 or 365 days. Saw several houses for Shelley;
one good. Dined; went in the boat; all tea'd together.
[Necker's house, here mentioned, would apparently be the same as the
Villa Diodati, or Villa Belle Rive—for that is the house which Byron did
in fact rent. "Necker" may be understood as meaning (rather than the
famous Minister of Finance in France) his widow, since Necker himself
had died a dozen years before. The sum of 100 louis seems to be
specified here as the rent for a year, and the phrase about 8 days must
indicate that the house could be tenanted for that short space of
time—or let us say a week—at a proportionate payment. This rate of
rental appears low, and it differs both from what was said under the
date of May 26, and from what we shall find noted shortly afterwards,
June 6. Thus I feel a little doubt whether "Necker's house" is not in
reality something quite different from the Villa Diodati. Byron's
proposed tenancy of the former might possibly have been cancelled.]
Rogers the subject: L[or]d B[yron] thinks good poet; malicious. Marquis
of Lansdowne being praised by a whole company as a happy man, having all
good, R[ogers] said, "But how horridly he carves turbot!" Ward having
reviewed his poems in the _Quarterly_, having a bad heart and being
accused of learning his speeches, L[ord] B[yron], upon malignantly
hinting to him [Rogers] how he had been carved, heard him say: "I
stopped his speaking though by my epigram, which is—
"'Ward has no heart, they say, but I deny it;
He has a heart, and gets his speeches by it.'"
[This must be the Honourable John William Ward, who was created Earl of
Dudley in 1827, and died in 1833. Miss Berry, the _quasi_-adopted
daughter of Horace Walpole, told Madame de Staël in 1813 that the latter
had "undertaken two miracles—to make Ward _poli envers les femmes et
pieux envers Dieu_."]
On L[ord] B[yron's] writing a poem to his sister wherein he says, "And
when friends e'en paused and love," etc., Rogers, going to some one,
said: "I don't know what L[ord] B[yron] means by _pausing_; I called
upon him every day." He did this regularly, telling L[ord] B[yron] all
the bad news with a malignant grin. When L[ord] B[yron] wrote "Weep,
daughter of a royal line," Rogers came to him one day, and, taking up
the _Courier_, said: "I am sure now you're attacked there; now don't
mind them"; and began reading, looking every now and then at L[ord]
B[yron] with an anxious searching eye, till he came to "that little poet
and disagreeable person, Mr. Samuel—" when he tore the paper, and said:
"Now this must be that fellow Croker," and wished L[ord] B[yron] to
challenge him. He talked of going to Cumberland with L[ord] B[yron],
and, asking him how he meant to travel, L[ord] B[yron] said "With four
horses." Rogers went to company, and said: "It is strange to hear a man
talking of four horses who seals his letters with a tallow candle."