Life of Lord Byron, Vol. 4: With His Letters and JournalsMoore, Thomas
General
Life of Lord Byron, Vol. 4: With His Letters and Journals
Moore, Thomas
Byron, George Gordon Byron, Baron, 1788-1824; Poets, English -- 19th century -- Biography
unfortunate pedestrians, whose eagerness to see him, I said, was, in my
opinion, highly flattering to him. That, he replied, depended on the
feeling with which they came; and he had not the vanity to believe that
they were influenced by any admiration of his character or of his
abilities, but that they were impelled merely by idle curiosity. Whether
it was so or not, I cannot help thinking that if they had been of the
other sex, he would not have been so eager to escape from their
observation, as in that case he would have repaid them glance for
glance.
"The curiosity that was expressed by all classes of travellers to see
him, and the eagerness with which they endeavoured to pick up any
anecdotes of his mode of life, were carried to a length which will
hardly be credited. It formed the chief subject of their enquiries of
the gondoliers who conveyed them from terra firma to the floating city;
and these people, who are generally loquacious, were not at all backward
in administering to the taste and humours of their passengers, relating
to them the most extravagant and often unfounded stories. They took care
to point out the house where he lived, and to give such hints of his
movements as might afford them an opportunity of seeing him. Many of the
English visiters, under pretext of seeing his house, in which there were
no paintings of any consequence, nor, besides himself, any thing worthy
of notice, contrived to obtain admittance through the cupidity of his
servants, and with the most barefaced impudence forced their way even
into his bedroom, in the hopes of seeing him. Hence arose, in a great
measure, his bitterness towards them, which he has expressed in a note
to one of his poems, on the occasion of some unfounded remark made upon
him by an anonymous traveller in Italy; and it certainly appears well
calculated to foster that cynicism which prevails in his latter works
more particularly, and which, as well as the misanthropical expressions
that occur in those which first raised his reputation, I do not believe
to have been his natural feeling. Of this I am certain, that I never
witnessed greater kindness than in Lord Byron.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account