Difficile est proprie communia dicere.

HOR. EPIST. AD PISON.

BLIOTHEQUE CANTONA
(LAUSANNE

UNIVERSITAIRE

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE.

Lord BYRON was born in London, on the 22nd of January, in the year 1788. His mother having been deserted by her husband, went to Aberdeen with her infant son, where she lived in narrow circumstances and great seclusion. This lady was Miss Gordon, of Gight, and was believed to have been the last of that branch of the family who are descended from the princess Jane Stuart, danghter of James II. of Scotland. At the age of seven she sent him to the grammarschool, where, though he evinced no superiority of talent, he was yet among the boldest of his fellow students, and at this early time of his life, it was deemed necessary occasionally to remove him from school, that his delicate frame might be braced by the breezes of the mountains in the neighbourhood..

It was during this period, that he imbibed that spirit of freedom, and that love of the picturesque, which remained fresh and powerful, when chance had effected various alterations in his mind, and to which he thus beautifully alludes in the tenth Canto of "Don Juan:

But I am half a Scot by birth, and bred

A whole one, and my heart flies to my head

As "Auld Lang Syne, brings Scotland, one and all, Scotch plaids, Scotch snoods, the blue hills, and clear streams,

The Dee, the Don, Balgounie's Brig's black wall,
All my boy feelings, all my gentler dreams
Of what I then dreamt, clothed in their own pall,

Like Banquo's offspring; floating past me seems
My childhood in this childishness of mine:

I care not 'tis a glimpse of "Auld Lang Syne..

And though, as you remember, in a fit

Of wrath and rhyme, when juvenile and curly, I railed at Scots to show my wrath and wit,

Which must be owned was sensitive and surly, Yet 'tis in vain such sallies to permit

They cannot quench young feelings fresh and early I "scotched not killed, the Scotchman in my blood, And love the land of "mountain and of flood..

At ten years of age he succeeded to the titles and estates of the family; and being now under the guardianship of his relative the earl of Carlisle he was placed by that nobleman at Harrow school. At the age of sixteen, he was removed to Trinity College, Cambridge. In his nineteenth year he took up his residence at the family seat of Newstead, in Nottinghamshire.

While here, he published his "Hours of Idleness, which were reviewed by the Edinburgh critics, with a most unreasonable severity. His lordship retorted upon them in English Bards and Scotch Reviewers, one of the keenest satires of modern times.

On coming of age, he took his seat in the house of lords, and shortly after proceeded on his travels, with his friend Hobhouse. He visited Spain, Por tugal, and Greece, and in 1811 returned to Eng. land. A few months afterwards he published the two first cantos of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, which were followed by the "Giaour, a fragment of a Turkish tale, "The Bride of Abydos, the "Corsair, "Lara," and an "Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte..

His parliamentary career was brief, but by no means uninteresting. During the three sessions,

in which he appeared as a senator, he advocated the cause of freedom with much generous warmth and true feeling.

On the 2d of January, 1815, he married Miss Milbanke, the only daughter of sir Ralph Noel Milbanke; but after the birth of a daughter, a formal separation took place. This step is said to have been the result of her own judgment; and that her parents and friends interfered only when called upon to afford her their support.

This circumstance produced a considerable sensation in the fashionable world, in the midst of which he quitted England. He lived for some time on the borders of the lake of Geneva, and then removed to Italy, where he fixed himself, first at Venice, and afterwards at Pisa. During this period he produced the two last cantos of Childe Harold; the dramas of "Manfred,» Marino Faliero," "Sardanapulus,» "The Two Foscari, and "Cain; the poems of "The Prisoner of Chillon," "The Lament of Tasso,» "The Prophecy of Dante,» Mazeppa," "Beppo, " "The Vision of Jugdment," "Heaven and Earth," and Don Juan. He also entered into a controversy with Mr. Bowles, respecting the character of Pope, and surprised the public by eulogising that poet, principally on the ground of the moral tendency of his writings.

Greece was now struggling for the recovery of her independence, and it was not possible for lord Byron to view her exertions with indifference. Relinquishing the tranquillity of private life, he resolved to devote to her cause his fortune, his pen, and his sword. He embarked at Leghorn, and arrived at Cephalonia in the early part of August 1823. But it is melancholy to perceive how completely ignorance and fear, slavish hope and shameless treachery, seem to have surrounded him from the moment of his arrival to that of his dissolution.

He remained at Cephalonia a considerable time,

negotiating with the Greeks in various places. and endeavouring to fix on the best sphere for his exertions. While his resolution was yet unformed, Marco Bozzari, the most courageous of his correspondents, was slain in a night assault. At length he determined on proceeding to Missolonghi. While on the voyage he encountered a Turkish squadron, and his vessel narrowly escaped.

As his hopes of the cause of the Greeks failed, his enthusiasm deserted him, and he became gloomily sensible of the difficulty of his situation. His preparations for besieging Lepanto; his endeavours to introduce something like humanity into the contest; the organization of artillery, and various other important projects, added to the climate, and the unfavourable state of the weather seem to have utterly exhausted both his bodily and mental powers. Under these impressions he wrote the fine lines on his thirty-sixth birth-day; and the predominant idea of his mind was, that his last hour was approaching.

About the beginning of 1824, he was joined by Mr. William Parry, who was employed by the Greek committee in London, to render practical service to the Greeks. The arrival of this gentleman at Missolonghi appears to have given him sincere pleasure.

In February, many friendly correspondents represented to him the dangerous effects which must infallibly arise from his continued sojourn at Missolonghi; but he obstinately refused to leave it for a quieter scene, or a more healthy abode.

At the commencement of March, his spirits seemed a little improved, and he occasionally diverted himself with playing off some pleasantry on those about him.

On the 9th of April, when the news arrived from England, of the loan for the Greeks having