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THE LOVE AFFAIRS OF LORD BYRON
Works by the Same Author
MADAME DE STAËL AND HER LOVERS
GEORGE SAND AND HER LOVERS
ROSSEAU AND THE WOMEN HE LOVED
CHATEAUBRIAND AND HIS COURT OF WOMEN
THE PASSIONS OF THE FRENCH ROMANTICS
Lord Byron.
THE LOVE AFFAIRS
OF LORD BYRON
BY FRANCIS GRIBBLE
AUTHOR OF “GEORGE SAND AND HER LOVERS” ETC.
LONDON
EVELEIGH NASH
FAWSIDE HOUSE
1910
PREFACE
Whether a book is called “The Love Affairs of Lord Byron” or “The Life ofLord Byron” can make very little difference to the contents of its pages.Byron’s love affairs were the principal incidents of his life, and almostthe only ones. Like Chateaubriand, he might have spoke of “a procession ofwomen” as the great panoramic effect of his career. He differed fromChateaubriand, however, in the first place, in not professing to be verymuch concerned by the pageant, and, in the second place, in being, inreality, very deeply affected by it. Chateaubriand kept his emotions wellin hand, exaggerating them in retrospect for the sake of literary effect,picturing the sensibility of his heart in polished phrases, but nevergiving the impression of a man who has suffered through his passions, orbeen swept off his feet by them, or diverted by them from the pursuit ofambition or the serene cult of the all-important ego. In allChateaubriand’s love affairs, in short, red blood is lacking andself-consciousness prevails. He appears to be equally in love with all thewomen in the procession; the explanation being that he is more in lovewith himself than with any of them. In spite of the procession of women,which is admitted[Pg vi] to have been magnificent, it may justly be said ofChateaubriand that love was “of his life a thing apart.”
Of Byron, who coined the phrase (though Madame de Staël had coined itbefore him) it cannot be said. It may appear to be true of sundry of hisincidental love affairs, but it cannot stand as a broad generalisation.His whole life was deflected from its course, and thrown out of gear:first, by his unhappy passion for Mary Chaworth; secondly, by the way inwhich women of all ranks, flattering his vanity for the gratification oftheir own, importuned him with the