Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 08.djvu/159

Byron from Gamba (1824); ‘And thou wert sad’ and ‘Could love for ever,’ from Lady Blessington; ‘I speak not, I wail not;’ ‘In the valley of waters;’ ‘They say that hope is happiness,’ from Nathan's ‘Fugitive Pieces’ (1829); ‘To my son,’ ‘Epistle to a friend,’ ‘My sister, my sweet sister,’ ‘Could I lament,’ the ‘Devil's Drive,’ and many trifles from Moore's ‘Life’ (1830). This edition, which has been reprinted in the same form and in one volume royal 8vo, is the most convenient.

[Moore had sold the Memoirs given to him by Byron to Murray (in November 1821) for 2,000l. (or guineas), with the agreement that they were to be edited by Moore if Byron died before him. Byron (1 Jan. 1820) offered to allow his wife to see the Memoirs, in order that she might point out any unfair statements. She declined to see them, and protested against such a publication. Byron afterwards became doubtful as to publishing, and a deed was executed in May 1822, by which Murray undertook to restore the manuscript on the repayment of the 2,000l. during Byron's life. On Byron's death, the power of redemption not having been acted upon, the right of publication belonged to Murray. Byron's friends, however—Hobhouse and Mrs. Leigh—were anxious for the destruction. Lady Byron carefully avoided any direct action in the matter which would imply a desire to suppress her husband's statement of his case. Moore hesitated; but at a meeting held in Murray's house (17 May 1824) he repaid the money to Murray, having obtained an advance from the Longmans (Moore's Diary, iv. 189), and the manuscript was returned to him and immediately destroyed. It was proposed at the time that Lady Byron and Mrs. Leigh should repay the 2,000l.; but the arrangement failed for some unexplained reason, and Murray ultimately paid off Moore's debt in 1828, amounting with interest to 3,020l., besides paying him 1,600l. for the Life. Many charges arose out of this precipitate destruction of the Memoirs; but there is no reason to regret their loss. Moore showed them to so many people that he had them copied out (Diary, 7 May 1820), for fear that the original might be worn out. Lady Burghersh destroyed, in Moore's presence, some extracts which she had made (Diary, v. 111). Giffard, Lord and Lady Holland, and Lord John (afterwards Earl) Russell read them. Lord John gives his impressions in his edition of Moore's Diary (. 192), and seems to express the general opinion. There were some indelicate passages. There were also some interesting descriptions of early impressions; but for the most part they were disappointing, and contained the story of the marriage, which Moore (who was familiar with them) gives substantially in the Memoir (see Jeaffreson's Real Lord Byron, ii. 292–330, Moore's Diary, Quarterly Review (on Moore) for June 1853 and for July 1883, Jeaffreson in Athenæum for 18 Aug. 1883). The first authoritative life was that by Moore, first published in 2 vols. quarto, London, 1830. It forms six volumes of the edition of the Life and Works, 17 vols. 12mo, 1837, and in one volume, 8vo. Other authorities are: Lady Blessington's Journals of the Conversations of Lord B. with Lady Blessington (1834 and 1850); Correspondence of Lord Byron with a Friend, and Recollections by the late R. C. Dallas, by Rev. A. R. C. Dallas, Paris, 1825, Galignani; Life of Byron, by John Galt, 2nd edit. 1830; Life, Writings, Opinions, &c., by an English Gentleman in the Greek Service, 1825, published by Iley; Narrative of a Second Visit to Greece, by Edward Blaquière, London, 1825; Narrative of Lord Byron's Last Journey to Greece, by Count Peter Gamba, 1825; Conversations on Religion with Lord Byron at Cephalonia, by the late Jas. Kennedy, M.D., 1830; Lady Morgan's Memoirs, 1862 (for Lady C. Lamb); Conversations of Lord Byron at Pisa, by Thomas Medwin, 1824; Guiccioli, Comtesse de, Lord Byron jugé par les témoins de sa vie, 1868, and in English as Guiccioli's My Recollections of Lord Byron, 2 vols. 1869; Records of Shelley, Byron, and the Author, by E. J. Trelawny, 1858, 2nd edit. 1878; Life of Rev. W. Harness, by A. G. L'Estrange, 1871; Memoirs of Rev. Francis Hodgson, by Rev. James T. Hodgson, 2 vols. 1878; Parry, William, Last Days of Lord Byron, 1825; Hobhouse's Travels in Albania (1855, 3rd edit.), and ‘Byron's Statue;’ Greece in 1823 and 1824, by Colonel Leicester Stanhope (1825), with reminiscences by George Finlay and Stanhope, reprinted in the English translation of Elze; Karl Elze, Lord Byron (English translation), 1872 (first German edition 1870); The Real Lord Byron, by John Cordy Jeaffreson, 2 vols. 1883; Athenæum, 4 and 18 Aug. 1883; Lady Byron Vindicated, by Harriet Beecher Stowe, London, 1870; Lord Byron and his Contemporaries, by Leigh Hunt, 2 vols. 1826, and Leigh Hunt's Autobiography, 1850 and 1860; Lord Lovelace's Astarte, a fragment of truth concerning Lord Byron, 1905; John Murray's Lord Byron and his Detractors, 1906 (both these privately printed). See also London Mag. for 24 Oct.; Blackwood's Mag., June 1824; Westminster, July 1824 and January 1825 (Hobhouse); Quarterly, October 1869, January 1870, July 1883 (Hayward), New Monthly, January 1830 (T. Campbell); New Monthly for 1835, pt. iii. 193–203, 291–302, Conversations with an American; MSS. in British Museum and the collection of Alfred Morrison. Two small collections called ‘Byroniana’ are worthless. The Byroniana mentioned in the one-volume edition of Moore was projected by John Wright, but not carried out.]  BYRON, HENRY JAMES (1834–1884), dramatist and actor, was born in Manchester in January 1834. His father, Henry Byron, was for many years British consul at Port-au-Prince. Placed first with Mr. Miles Morley, a surgeon in Cork Street, W., and afterwards with his maternal grandfather, 