THE YEARS 1820 AND 1821 RAVENNA INTRODUCTORY N the last month of the year 1819, after a residence of three years in Venice, Byron removed to Ravenna. His first visit to that city had been made in the preceding spring, on which occasion he had written the beautiful "Stanzas to the Po," beginning: River, that rollest by the ancient walls Of this lady, Countess Teresa Guiccioli, and of this visit and the distinguished attentions paid to him as guest by the lady's husband, Count Guiccioli, we have heard already through Byron's letter (p. 134). We have had, also, the letter written from Bologna on the way home (p. 136), urgently soliciting, as a great favor to himself, the good offices of John Murray in securing for the Count the position of Vice-Consul at Ravenna. Letters which are now to follow show, as might be expected, that the relations between the two men soon become strained, leading speedily to open enmity and finally to a separation between the Count and Countess Guiccioli. Divorce being impossible in Italy, and appeal to the courts out of the question since, so Byron writes, “in this country the very courts hold such proofs in abhorrence, the Italians being as much more delicate in public than the English as they are more passionate in private," the separation was effected by an appeal to the Pope. The papal decree dictated that the Countess thereafter should live either under her father's roof or in a convent. Naturally, she chose the former, and in the midsummer of 1820 Madame Guiccioli left Ravenna, and retired to a villa belonging to her father, Count Gamba, about fifteen miles from the city. Byron continued to rent a portion of the Guiccioli palace in Ravenna from Count Guiccioli. Henceforward, for the remainder of Byron's life, his plans were shaped largely by the movements and fortunes of the Gamba family. They, like Byron himself, were ardent revolutionists; when this movement failed, and the Gambas — father, son, and daughter were exiled from Romagna, Byron also withdrew, and soon all were under the same roof at Pisa; when, in turn, a year later, the Gambas were banished also from Tuscany as they had been from Romagna, Byron followed their fortunes to Liguria. Between Byron and Pietro Gamba, the son, a devoted friendship existed, terminated only by death; for Pietro joined Byron on his expedition to Greece, and stood at his bedside during his last moments. During these years Italy was in a state of tremendous political ferment. His letters are full of tales of duels, riots, imprisonments, murders secret and open; and Byron, never deficient in physical courage, plainly enjoyed the excitement, and not infrequently took a hand himself. Moreover, these things seemed to stimulate rather than stifle his literary activity, for during these two years he wrote the fifth canto of "Don Juan,' five dramas," Marino Faliero," "Sardanapalus," "The Two Foscari," " Cain," "Heaven and Earth," -and the satires "Vision of Judgment" and "The Blues." In the second year of the Ravenna residence, Shelley visited Byron, and reports that he finds him "immersed in politics and literature, greatly improved in every respect in genius, in temper, in moral views, in health, in happiness," compared with the previous visit at Venice three years before. "He is quite cured of his gross habits, as far as habits; the perverse ideas on which they were formed are not yet eradicated." The two men held long after-dinner talks, lasting sometimes until morning, in which they discussed personal plans, politics, literature, and criticised each other's respective works. Byron was silent as to " Adonais," loud in praise of Prometheus Unbound," and in censure of "The Cenci "; Shelley, cool towards " Marino Faliero,” but enthusiastic over "Don Juan." Even Byron himself must have been satisfied with Shelley's praise of the new Canto V, of which he says every word has the stamp of immortality." 66 66 |