CHAPTER VI. UR last chapter brought us into the pres O° ence of that vivacious specimen of royalty, George IV., who "shuffled off this mortal coil" in the year 1830, and was succeeded by that roughedged, seafaring brother of his, William IV. This admiral-king was not brilliant; but we found brilliancy — of a sort — in the acute and disputatious essayist, William Hazlitt; yet he was far less companionable than acute, and contrasted most unfavorably with that serene and most worthy gentleman, Hallam, the historian. We next encountered the accomplished and showy Lady Blessington - the type of many a one who throve in those days, and who had caught somewhat of the glitter that radiated from the royal trappings of George the Fourth. We saw Bulwer, among others, in her salon; and we lingered longer BYRON'S MARRIAGE. 201 over the wonderful career of that Disraeli, who died as Lord Beaconsfield the most widely known man in Great Britain. - We then passed to a consideration of that other wonderful adventurer yet the inheritor of an English peerage-who had made his futile beginning in politics, and a larger beginning in poetry. To his career, which was left half-finished, we now recur. Lord Byron a Husband. As we left him-you will remember - there was a jangle of marriage-bells; and a wearisome jangle it proved. Indeed Byron's marriage-bells were so preposterously out of tune, and lent their discord in such disturbing manner to the whole current of his life, that it may be worth our while to examine briefly the conditions under which the discord began. It is certain that all the gossips of London had been making prey of this match of the poetic hero of the hour for much time before its consummation. Was he seeking a fortune? Not the least in the world; for though the burden of debt upon his estates was pressing him sorely, and his extravagances were reckless, yet large sums accruing from his swift-written tales of the "Corsair," "Lara," and "Bride of Abydos" were left untouched, or lavishly bestowed upon old or new friends; his liberality in those days was most exceptional; nor does it appear that he had any very definite notion of the pecuniary aid which his bride might bring to him. She had, indeed, in her own right, what was a small sum measured by their standards of living; and her expectancies, that might have justified the title of heiress (which he sometimes gives to her in his journal), were then quite remote. As for social position, there could be by such marriage no gain to him, for whom already the doors of England were flung wide open. Did he seek the reposeful dignity of a home? There may have been such fancies drifting by starts through his mind; but what crude fancies they must have been with a man who had scarcely lived at peace with his own mother, and whose only notion of enjoyment in the house of his ancestors was in the transport to Newstead of a roistering company of BYRON'S MARRIAGE. 203 boon companions followed by such boisterous revels there, and such unearthly din and ghostly frolics, as astounded the neighborhood! The truth is, he marched into that noose of matrimony as he would have ordered a new suit from his tailor. When this whim had first seized him, he had written off formal proposals to Miss Milbanke- whom he knew at that time only slightly; and she, with very proper prudence, was non-committal in her reply - though suggesting friendly correspondence. In his journal of a little later date we have this entry : "November 30, 1813 [some fourteen months before the marriage]. Yesterday a very pretty letter from Annabella [the full name was Anna Isabella], which I answered. What an odd situation and friendship is ours! Without one spark of love on either side. She is a very superior woman, and very little spoiled a girl of twenty, an only child and a savante, who has always had her own way." This evidently does not promise a very ardent correspondence. Nay, it is quite possible that the quiet reserve he encounters here, does offer a refreshing contrast to the heated gush of which he is the subject in that Babel of London; maybe, too, there is something in the reserve and the assured dignity which reminds him of that earlier idol of his worship- Miss Chaworth of Annesley. However, three months after this last allusion to Miss Milbanke, we have another entry in his journal, running thus : "January 16, 1814. A wife would be my salvation. I am getting rather into an admiration for C- -, youngest sister of F. [This is not Miss Milbanke - observe.] That she won't love me is very probable, nor shall I love her. The business would probably be arranged between the papa and me." Perhaps it was in allusion to this new caprice that he writes to Moore, a few months later : "Had Lady appeared to wish it, or even not to op pose it, I would have gone on, and very possibly married, with the same indifference which has frozen over the Black Sea of almost all my passions. Obstacles the slightest even, stop me." (Moore's Byron, p. 255.) And it is in face of some such obstacle, lifting suddenly, that he flashes up, and over, into new proposals to Miss Milbanke; these are quietly accepted very likely to his wonderment; for he says, in a quick ensuing letter to Moore: |