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Byron and the Countess Guiccioli

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Earl C. Smith
Earl C. Smith*
Affiliation:
Cornell University
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Extract

The old and long prevalent idea of the importance of Teresa Guiccioli's influence upon Byron was virtually exploded by Miss Mayne in her biography of the poet, but there has never been an adequate or truly sympathetic criticism of this relation. With the earlier biographers intent on defending or attacking Byron's character, there could be no hope of intelligent comment, and while Miss Mayne's treatment of this subject is remarkable for its freedom from prejudice, it is nevertheless too much influenced by her woman's point of view to be really satisfactory. By far the most helpful observations upon Byron's feeling towards the Guiccioli will be found in a set of letters written by him to Alexander Scott during the summer of 1819, and now published for the first time. These letters are of interest, not only in casting light upon the poet's affair with the Countess, but because they describe as none of his other writings do, his typical attitude toward the women he loved.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 46 , Issue 4 , December 1931, pp. 1221 - 1227
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1931

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References

1 Ethel Colburn Mayne, Byron, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1924, p. 322 ff.

2 By special permission of Miss Belle da Costa Greene, Director, and the Trustees of the Pierpont Morgan Library.

3 Alexander Scott was an English gentleman of independent means residing in Venice. Byron's esteem for him is sufficiently shown in these letters; he is also mentioned by Moore, iv, 208, 274.

4 P. 324 ff.

5 Cf. Mayne, Byron, p. 322.

6 The letter from which this is taken is evidently the one referred to by Moore: “Hoppner, before his departure from Venice for Switzerland, had written a letter to Byron, entreating him ‘to leave Ravenna while he yet had a white skin,’ and urging him ‘not to risk the safety of a person he appeared so sincerely attached to—as well as his own—for the gratification of a momentary passion, which could only be a source of regret to both parties.’ In the same letter Hoppner informed him of some reports he had heard lately at Venice, which increased his anxiety respecting the consequences of the connection formed by him”—cf. Byron's Works, Letters and Journals, iv. 361, note 1. This letter, which shortly passed into the possession of Scott, must have been shown by him to Moore during the latter's visit to Venice. It is obvious that Moore's recollection of its contents was extremely faulty, and that Byron had much better grounds for his censure of Hoppner in the letter of October 22, 1819—cf. Letters and Journals, as above—than Moore's words would suggest.

7 The Chevalier Menghaldo, or Mingaldo, was a former Napoleonic officer, now living in Venice. He is mentioned many times and almost always with dislike.

8 Written on sheet used for envelope.

9 The following is written on the back of Hoppner's letter.

10 Letter to Scott, July 31st.

11 Also in the Morgan Library.

* Deceased, April 11, 1930.