APPENDIX I. LETTERS FROM SHELLEY TO BYRON,

FROM JANE CLAIRMONT ΤΟ

BYRON, AND FROM SHELLEY TO

JANE CLAIRMONT

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Mr. T. Mours

CHAPTER XX.

THE PALAZZO GUICCIOLI, RAVENNA, APRIL-
DECEMBER, 1820.

REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT IN ITALY-ALLEGRA AND
JANE CLAIRMONT-COUNTESS GUICCIOLI SEPARATED
FROM HER HUSBAND-THE TRIAL OF QUEEN CARO-
LINE-MARino falieRO-DON JUAN, CANTO V.

The

786.-To Lady Byron,

care of

Ravenna, April 3, 1820.

I RECEIVED yesterday your answer, dated March 10
My offer was an honest one, and surely could be only

I. Lady Byron's answer to Byron's letter of January 1, 1820, was
sent by him to Moore, in whose Diary it is published (Memoirs, etc.,
vol. iii. pp. 114, 115)—

"Kirkby Mallory, March 10, 1820.
"I received your letter of January 1, offering to my perusal a
"Memoir of part of your life. I decline to inspect it. I consider
"the publication or circulation of such a composition at any time
'as prejudicial to Ada's future happiness. For my own sake, I
"have no reason to shrink from publication; but, notwithstanding
"the injuries which I have suffered, I should lament som

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consequences.

To Lord Byron

gome

of the

"A. BYRON."

A

Byron's reply, given above, was sent by him to Moore to forward to Lady Byron.

VOL. V.

B

construed as such even by the most malignant Casuistry. I could answer you; but it is too late, and it is not worth while.

To the mysterious menace of the last sentencewhatever its import may be-and I really cannot pretend to unriddle it, I could hardly be very sensible, even if I understood it,, before it could take place, I shall be where "nothing can touch him farther." 1 I advise you, however, to anticipate the period of your intention; for be assured no power of gures can avail beyond the present; and, if it could, I would answer with the Florentine 2

In February last, at the suggestion of Mr. Douglas Kinnaird, I wrote to you on the proposition of the

1. Macbeth, act iii. sc. 2.

2. Byron quotes from Dante's Inferno, canto xvi. lines 43-45. In Round 3 of Circle vii. of Hell, Dante meets three FlorentinesGuido Guerra, Tegghiaio Aldobrandi, and Jacopo Rusticucci-who have sinned against nature. The latter is the spokesman

"Ed io, che posto son con loro in croce,

Jacopo Rusticucci fui; e certo

La fiera moglie più ch'altro mi nuoce."

Rusticucci held a distinguished place in the councils of Florence, representing her (1254) in her foreign affairs. He owed his place in Hell to the savage temper of his wife, and his story is told by Benvenuto Rambaldi da Imola to illustrate the consequences of ill-assorted marriages. "Vir popularis, sed tamen valde politicus "et moralis. . . . qui poterat videri satis felix. . . nisi habuisset uxorem pravam; habuit enim mulierem ferocem, cum qua vivere "non poterat ; ideo dedit se turpitudini."

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3. Printed from a draft in the possession of Mr. Murray.