[34] ["'Zounds, an I were now by this rascal, I could brain him with his lady's fan."--I _Henry IV._, act ii, sc 3, lines 19, 20.] {21}[d] _Wishing each other damned, divorced, or dead_.--[MS.] [35] [According to Medwin (_Conversations_, 1824, p. 55), Byron "was surprised one day by a Doctor and a Lawyer almost forcing themselves at the same time into my room. I did not know," he adds, "till afterwards the real object of their visit. I thought their questions singular, frivolous, and somewhat importunate, if not impertinent: but what should I have thought, if I had known that they were sent to provide proofs of my insanity?" Lady Byron, in her _Remarks on Mr. Moore's Life, etc_. (_Life_, pp. 661-663), says that Dr. Baillie (_vide post_, p. 412, note 2), whom she consulted with regard to her husband's supposed insanity, "not having had access to Lord Byron, could not pronounce a positive opinion on this point." It appears, however, that another doctor, a Mr. Le Mann (see _Letters_, 1899, iii. 293, note 1, 295, 299, etc.), visited Byron professionally, and reported on his condition to Lady Byron. Hence, perhaps, the mention of "druggists."] {22}[36] ["I deem it _my duty to God_ to act as I am acting."--Letter of Lady Byron to Mrs. Leigh, February 14, 1816, _Letters_, 1899, iii. 311.] [37] ["This is so very pointed."--[?Hobhouse.] "If people make application, it is their own fault."--[B.].--[_Revise._] [38] ["There is some doubt about this."--[H.] "What has the 'doubt' to do with the poem? it is, at least, poetically true. Why apply everything to that absurd woman? I have no reference to living characters."--[B.].--[_Revise._] Medwin (_Conversations_, 1824, p. 54) attributes the "breaking open my writing-desk" to Mrs. Charlment (i.e. Mrs. Clermont) the original of "A Sketch," _Poetical Works_, 1900, iii. 540-544. It is evident from Byron's reply to Hobhouse's remonstrance that Medwin did not invent this incident, but that some one, perhaps Fletcher's wife, had told him that his papers had been overhauled.] {23}[e] _First their friends tried at reconciliation_.--[MS.] [f] _The lawyers recommended a divorce_.--[MS.] {24}[g] / besides was \ _He had been ill brought up, < > bilious_. \ besides being / or, _The reason was, perhaps, that he was bilious_.--[MS.] [h] / now but \ _And we may own--since he is < > earth_.--[MS.] \ laid in / [39] ["I could have forgiven the dagger or the bowl,--any thing but the deliberate desolation piled upon me, when I stood alone upon my hearth, with my household gods shivered around me.... Do you suppose I have forgotten it? It has, comparatively swallowed up in me every other feeling, and I am only a spectator upon earth till a tenfold opportunity offers."--Letter to Moore, September 19, 1818, _Letters_, 1900, iv, 262, 263. Compare, too--