Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 4.djvu/16

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NOTES AND QUERIES.

[12S. IV. JAN., 1918.

WB must request correspondents desiring in- formation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that answers may be sent to them direct.

BYRON IN FICTION. A difficult portion of the task of compiling a bibliography of English works on Byron is the gathering together of works of fiction into which he is introducted as a character. The following is the list that I have made. It will be of great sendee to me if any reader of ' N. & Q.' will communicate to me either through its columns or direct the title of any other novel in which he figures.

[Viscountess Melbourne (Lady Caroline Lamb)]: ' Glenarvon,* 1816.- In this famous and little- read book Byron appears as Glenarvon, Lady Caroline as Calantha, and William Lamb as Avondale. The novel was reissued in 1865 under the title ' The Fatal Passion.'

E. S. Barrett (see 1 S. viii. 423). ' Six Weeks at Long's,' 1817. Byron appears as Lord Stanza.

[Anon.]: 'Three Weeks at Fladong's,' 1817. Byron appears as Lord Stanza. See, on this novel, Carl Van Doren, ' Life of T. L. Peacock,' pp. 94-5.

T. L. Peacock : ' Nightmare Abbey,' 1818. In chap. xi. Byron, as is well known, is satirized under the name of Mr. Cypress.

John Harman Bedford : ' Wanderings of Childe Harold. A Romance of Real Life. Interspersed with Memoirs of the English Wife, the Foreign Mistress, and various other Celebrated Charac- ters,' 1825. This disreputable novel of some seven hundred pages follows Byron's life loosely and with gross injustice.

Benjamin Disraeli : ' Contarini Fleming,' 1832. There are notable Byronic traits in the character of the young Contarini. See Mony- penny, ' Life of Disraeli,' i. 182 f.

Mary W. Shelley : ' Lodpre,' 1835. Lord Lodore, the father of the heroine, is modelled on Byron, the portrait being generous in its em- phasis upon the pathos and romance of his character. Claire (Jane) Claremont protested to Mrs. Shelley against this embellishment of " the merest compound of vanity, folly, and every miserable weakness that ever met together in one human being." See Mrs. Julian Marshall's ' M.W Shelley,' ii 265.

Benjamin Disraeli : ' Venetia ; or, The Poet's Daughter,' 1837. This is the classic instance of the portrayal of Byron in fiction ; he appears as Lord Cadurcis. Shelley is depicted as Mr. Herbert. See Richard Garnett, ' Shelley and Beaconsfield,' Shelley Society Papers, 1887 (reprinted in ' Essays of an Ex-Librarian,' 1901) ; Edinburgh Review, October, 1837 ; Mony- penny, ' Disraeli,' i. 360 f. ; the Countess Guic- cioli's ' Reflections upon Mr. Disraeli's Novel " Venetia," ' in her ' Recollections of Lord Byron,' ii. 433 f. ; H. B. Hamilton, ' Portrayal of the Life and Character of Lord Byron in. .". . " Venetia." ' Leipzig, 1884 ; Giistav Hahn, ' Lord Beaconsfield 's Roman "Venetia": ein Denkmal Byrons und Shelleys,' Dresden, 1898.

" Mark Rutherford " (William Hale White) : ' The Revolution in Tanner's Lane,' 1887. Byron does not actually appear in this powerful if, perhaps, ill-constructed novel ; but his in- fluence so permeates the earlier portion as to justify the inclusion of the book in this list.

F. F. Moore : ' He Loved but One,' 1905. This novel is based on the love-affair between Byron and Mary Chaworth ; the characters appear under their own names ; Lady Caroline Lamb figures largely. The book was republished in New York under the title ' Love Alone is Lord.'

" Lafayette McLaws " (i.e., Emily Lafayette, according to the Catalogue of the Library of Congress) : ' Maid of Athens,' 1906. A poor novel that synthesizes the Thyrza mystery, the Maid of Athens episode, the separation from, Lady Byron, Byron's melancholy, and the motive of his final expedition to Greece.

Maurice Hewlett : ' Bendish : a Study in Prodigality,' 1913*. With his accustomed free- dom in dealing with historical materials (and in this case with lack of convincingness), Mr. Hewlett has transferred the character of Lord Byron to the reign of William IV. See an article on ' Hewlett's Picture of Byron,' Current Opinion, January, 1914, p. 48.

In addition to the above I may note the following vague reference, upon which some reader may be able to shed light :

' Byron painted by his Compeers,' 1869, p. 39, quotes from The Magic Lantern, Jan. 1, 1823,

this sentence : " His [Sir George W 's] wife

was a blue stocking, and had penned a novel, in which Lord Byron was introduced as a repentant husband." To what does this refer ?

SAMUEL C. CHEW. The College, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania.

THE GREAT CHARTER AND THE TABLE UPON WHICH IT WAS SIGNED. The Taller of Oct. 10, 1917, contains the following state- ment :

" Miss Scott owns the historic Magna Charta Island near Staines .... The engraved stone- topped table on which King John signed the Great Charter stands in the Hall."

Is there any authority to prove that this table is the one used ? I have never before heard of such a table existing, and, being an incredulous person, wish to be satisfied. Doubts arc cast on many historical state- ments, even on John being able to sign his name. If it is the original table, why is it not the property of the nation and housed in the British Museum ?

HERBERT SOUTHAM.

WILLIAM III.'s SPURS. Can any of your readers help me to trace the present where- abouts of the spurs worn by King William III. at the battle of the Boyne ? They were given by Earl Harcourt in 1777 to Horace Walpole, and sold at the Strawberry Hill sale in 1842 for 13Z. 2s. 6d. to Thomas of 2 Bond Street. H. (2).

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