English Literature For Boys And Girls by H.E. Marshall

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She was a weak and passionate woman, and sometimes she petted and
spoiled her little boy, sometimes she treated him cruelly,
calling him "a lame brat," than which nothing could hurt him
more, for poor little George was born lame, and all his life long
he felt sore and angry about it. To him too had been given the
passionate temper of both father and mother, and when he was
angry he would fall into "silent rages," bite pieces out of
saucers, or tear his pinafores to bits.

Meanwhile, while in Aberdeen Mrs. Byron struggled to live on 130
pounds a year, in Newstead Abbey, near Nottingham, there lived a
queer, half-mad, old grand-uncle, who had earned for himself the
name of "the wicked lord." He knew well enough that when he died
the little boy in Aberdeen, with the pretty face and lame foot,
would become Lord Byron. He might have taken some interest in his
nephew, and seen at least that he was sent to school, and given
an education to fit him for his future place in the world. But
that was not "the wicked lord's" way. He paid no attention to
the little boy in Aberdeen. Indeed, it is said that he hated
him, and that he cut down his trees and despoiled Newstead as
much as he could, in order to leave his heir as poor a heritage
as possible.

But when George was ten this old uncle died. Then mother and son
said good-by to Aberdeen, and at length traveled southwards to
take possession of their great house and broad lands. But the
heritage was not so great as at first sight would appear, for the
house was so ruinous that it was scarcely fit to live in, and the
wicked lord had sold some of the land. However, as the sale was
unlawful, after much trouble the land was recovered.

Byron had now to take his place among boys of his own class, and
when he was thirteen he was sent to school at Harrow. But he
hated school. He was shy as "a wild mountain colt" and somewhat
snobbish, and at first was most unpopular.

As he says himself, however, he "fought his way very fairly" and
he formed some friendships, passionately, as he did everything.
In spite of his lameness, he was good at sports, especially at
swimming. He was brave, and even if his snobbishness earned for
him the nickname of the "Old English Baron," his comrades admired
his spirit, and in the end, instead of being unpopular, he led--
often to mischief. "I was," he says, "always cricketing--
rebelling--fighting, rowing (from row, not boat-rowing, a
different practice), and in all manner of mischiefs." Yet, wild
though he was, of his headmaster he ever kept a kindly
remembrance. "Dr. Drury," he says, "whom I plagued sufficiently
too, was the best, the kindest friend I ever had."

Byron hated Harrow until his last year and a half there; then he
liked it. And when he knew he must leave and go to Cambridge, he
was so unhappy that he counted the days that remained, not with
joy at the thought of leaving, but with sorrow.

At Cambridge he felt himself lonely and miserable at first, as he
had at school. But there too he soon made friends. He found
plenty of time for games, he rode and shot, rejoiced in feats of
swimming and diving. He wrote poetry also, which he afterwards
published under the name of Hours of Idleness. It was a good
name for the book, for indeed he was so idle in his proper
studies, that the wonder is that he was able to take his degree.

It was in 1807, at the age of nineteen, that Lord Byron published
his Hours of Idleness, with a rather pompous preface. The poems
were not great, some of them indeed were nothing less than
mawkish, but perhaps they did not deserve the slashing review
which appeared in the Edinburgh Review. The Edinburgh Review was
a magazine given at this time to criticising authors very
severely, and Byron had to suffer no more than other and greater
poets. But he trembled with indignation, and his anger called
forth his first really good poem, called English Bards and Scotch
Reviewers. It is a satire after the style of Pope, and in it
Byron lashes not only his reviewers, but also other writers of
his day. His criticisms are, many of them, quite wrong, and in
after years when he came to know the men he now decried, he
regretted this poem, and declared it should never be printed
again. But it is still included in his works. Perhaps having
just read about Sir Walter Scott, it may amuse you to read what
Byron has to say of him.

"Thus Lays of Minstrels--may they be the last!--
On half-strung harps whine mournful to the blast.
While mountain spirits prate to river sprites,
That dames may listen to the sound at nights;
. . . . . .
Next view in state, proud prancing on his roan,
The golden-crested haughty Marmion,
Now forging scrolls, now foremost in the fight,
Not quite a felon, yet but half a knight,
The gibbet or the field prepared to grace;
A mighty mixture of the great and base.
And think'st thou, Scott! by vain conceit perchance,
On public taste to foist thy stale romance."

Then after a sneer at Scott for making money by his poems, Byron
concludes with this passage:--
"These are the themes that claim our plaudits now;
These are the bards to whom the muse must bow;
While Milton, Dryden, Pope, alike forgot,
Resign their hallowed bays to Walter Scott."

When people read this satire, they realized that a new poet had
appeared. But it was not until Byron published his first long
poem, called Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, that he became famous.
Then his success was sudden and amazing. "I woke up one morning
and found myself famous," he says. "His fame," says another poet
and friend who wrote his life,* "seemed to spring up like the
palace of a fairy tale, in a night." He was praised and lauded
by high and low. Every one was eager to known him, and for a
time he became the spoiled darling of society.

*Moore.

Childe Harold is a long poem of four cantos, but now only two
cantos were published. The third was added in 1816, the fourth
in 1818. It is written in the Spenserian stanza, with here and
there songs and ballads in other meters, and in the first few
verses there is even an affectation of Spenserian wording. But
the poet soon grew tired of that, and returned to his own
English. Childe is used in the ancient sense of knight, and the
poem tells of the wanderings of a gloomy, vicious, world-worn
man.

There is very little story in Childe Harold. The poem is more a
series of descriptions and a record of the thoughts that are
called forth by the places through which the traveler passes. It
is indeed a poetic diary. The pilgrim visits many famous spots,
among them the field of Waterloo, where but a few months before
the fate of Europe had been decided. To us the battle of
Waterloo is a long way off. To Byron it was still a deed of
yesterday. As he approaches the field he feels that he is on
sacred ground.

"Stop!--for thy tread is on an Empire's dust!
An Earthquake's spoil is sepulchred below!
Is the spot marked with no colossal bust?
Nor column trophied for triumphal show?
None; but the moral's truth tells simpler so,
As the ground was before, thus let is be;--
How that red rain hath made the harvest grow!
And is this all the world has gain'd by thee,
Thou first and last of field! kingmaking victory?"

Then in thought Byron goes over all that took place that fateful
day.

"There was a sound of revelry by night,
And Belgium's capital had gather'd then
Her beauty and her chivalry, and bright
The lamps shone o'er fair women and brave men;
A thousand hearts beat happily; and when
Music arose with its voluptuous swell,
Soft eyes look'd love to eyes which spake again,
And all went merry as a marriage bell;
But hush! hark! a deep sound strikes a rising knell!

Did ye not hear it?--No; 'twas but the wind,
Or the car rattling o'er the stony street;
On with the dance! let joy be unconfined;
No sleep till morn, when Youth and Pleasure meet
To chase the glowing hours with flying feet.
But hark!--that heavy sound breaks in once more,
As if the clouds its echo would repeat;
And nearer, clearer, deadlier than before!
Arm! arm! it is--it is--the cannon's opening roar!
. . . . . .
"Ah! then and there was hurrying to and fro,
And gathering tears and tremblings of distress,
And cheeks all pale, which but an hour ago
Blush'd at the praise of their own loveliness;
And there were sudden parting, such as press
The life from out young hearts, and choking sighs
Which ne'er might be repeated; who could guess
If ever more should meet those mutual eyes,
Since upon night so sweet such awful morn could rise!

"And there was mounting in hot haste; the steed,
The mustering squadron, and the clattering car,
Went pouring forward with impetuous speed,
And swiftly forming in the ranks of war;
And the deep thunder peal on peal afar;
And near, the beat of the alarming drum
Roused up the soldier ere the morning star;
While throng'd the citizens with terror dumb,
Or whispering, with white lips--'The foe! they come! they
come!'"

And then thinking of the battle lost by the great conqueror of
Europe, the poet mourns for him--

"Conqueror and captive of the earth art thou!
She trembles at thee still, and thy wild name
Was ne'er more bruited in men's minds than now
That thou are nothing, save the jest of Fame,
Who woo'd thee once, thy vassal, and became
The flatterer of thy fierceness, till thou wert
A god unto thyself; nor less the same
To thee astounded kingdoms all inert,
Who deem'd thee for a time whate'er thou didst assert.

"Oh, more or less than man--in high or low,
Battling with nations, flying from the field;
Now making monarchs' necks thy footstool, now
More than thy meanest soldier taught to yield;
An empire thou couldst crush, command, rebuild,
But govern not thy pettiest passion, nor,
However deeply in men's spirits skill'd,
Look through thine own, nor curb the lust of war,
Nor learn that tempted Fate will eave the loftiest Star."

These are a few verses from one of the best known parts of Childe
Harold. There are many other verses equally well known. They
have become the possession of almost every schoolboy. Some of
them you will read in school books, and when you are grown up and
able to distinguish between what is vulgar and what is good and
beautiful in it, I hope you will read the whole poem.

For two years Byron was as popular as man might be. Then came a
change. From the time that he was a child he had always been in
love, first with one and then with another. His heart was
tinder, ever ready to take fire. Now he married. At first all
went well. One little baby girl was born. Then troubles came,
troubles which have never been explained, and for which we need
not seek an explanation now, and one day Lady Byron left her
husband never to return.

The world which had petted and spoiled the poet now turned from
the man. He was abused and decried; instead of being courted he
was shunned. So in anger and disgust, Byron left the country
where he found no sympathy. He never returned to it, the rest of
his life being spent as a wanderer upon the Continent.

It was to a great extent a misspent life, and yet, while Byron
wasted himself in unworthy ways, he wrote constantly and rapidly,
pouring out volumes of poetry at a speed equaled only by Scott.
He wrote tragedies, metrical romances, lyrics, and everything
that he wrote was read--not only at home, but on the Continent.
And one thing that we must remember Byron for is that he made
English literature Continental. "Before he came," says an
Italian patriot and writer,* "all that was known of English
literature was the French translation of Shakespeare. It is
since Byron that we Continentalists have learned to study
Shakespeare and other English writers. From him dates the
sympathy of all the true-hearted amongst us for this land of
liberty. He led the genius of Britain on a pilgrimage throughout
all Europe."

*Mazzini.

Much that Byron wrote was almost worthless. He has none of the
haunting sense of the beauty of words in perfect order that marks
the greatest poets. He has no passion for the correct use of
words, and often his song seems tuneless and sometimes vulgar.
For in Byron's undisciplined, turgid soul there is a strain of
coarseness and vulgarity which not seldom shows itself in his
poetry, spoiling some of his most beautiful lines. His poetry is
egotistical too, that is, it is full of himself. And again and
again it has been said that Byron was always his own hero. "He
never had more than a singe subject--himself. No man has ever
pushed egotism further than he."* In all his dark and gloomy
heroes we see Lord Byron, and it is not only himself which he
gives to the world's gaze, but his wrongs and his sorrows. Yet
in spite of all its faults, there is enough that is purely
beautiful in his work to give Byron rank as a poet. He has been
placed on a level with Wordsworth. One cultured writer whose
judgment on literature we listen to with respect has said:
"Wordsworth and Byron stand out by themselves. When the year
1900 is turned, and our nation comes to recount her poetic
glories of the century which has then just ended, the first names
with her will be these."** But there are many who will deny him
this high rank. "He can only claim to be acknowledged as a poet
of the third class," says another great poet,*** "who now and
then rises into the second, but speedily relapses into the lower
element where he was born." And yet another has said that his
poetry fills the great space through which our literature has
moved from the time of Johnson to the time of Wordsworth. "It
touches the Essay of Man**** at the one extremity, and The
Excursion at the other."***** So you see Byron's place in our
literature is hardly settled yet.

*Scherer.
**Arnold.
***Swinburne.
****By Pope.
*****Macaulay.

When Byron left England he fled from the contempt of his fellows.
His life on the Continent did little to lessen that contempt.
But before he died he redeemed his name from the scorner.

Long ago, you remember, at the time of the Renaissance, Greece
had been conquered by the Turks. Hundreds of years passed, and
Greece remained in a state of slavery. But by degrees new life
began to stir among the people, and in 1821 a war of independence
broke out. At first the other countries of Europe stood aloof,
but gradually their sympathies were drawn to the little nation
making so gallant a fight for freedom.

And this struggle woke all that was generous in the heart of
Byron, the worn man of the world. Like his own Childe Harold,
"With pleasure drugg'd he almost long'd for woe." So to Greece
he went, and the last nine months of his life were spent to such
good purpose that when he died the whole Greek nation mourned.
He had hoped to die sword in hand, but that was not to be. His
body was worn with reckless living, and could ill bear any
strain. One day, when out for a long ride, he became heated, and
then soaked by a shower of rain. Rheumatic fever followed, and
ten days later he lay dead. He was only thirty-six.

All Greece mourned for the loss of such a generous friend.
Cities vied with each other for the honor of his tomb. And when
his friends decided that his body should be carried home to
England, homage as to a prince was paid to it as it passed
through the streets on its last journey.

"The sword, the banner, and the field,
Glory and Greece, around me see!
The Spartan, borne upon his shield,
Was not more free.

"Awake! (not Greece--she is awake!)
Awake! my spirit! Think through whom
Thy life-blood tracks its parent lake,
And then strike home!

"Tread those reviving passions down,
Unworthy manhood! unto thee
Indifferent should the smile or frown
Of Beauty be.

"If thou regrett'st thy youth, why live?
The land of honourable death
Is here:--up to the field, and give
Away thy breath!

"Seek out--less often sought than found--
A soldier's grave, for thee the best;
Then look around, and choose thy ground
And take thy rest."

These lines are from Byron's last poem, written on his thirty-
sixth birthday.

Chapter LXXX SHELLEY--THE POET OF LOVE

WHEN Byron wandered upon the Continent he met and made friends
with another poet, a greater than himself. This poet was called
Percy Bysshe Shelley, and of him I am going to tell you something
in this chapter.

On the 4th of August, 1792, Percy Bysshe Shelley was born at
Field Place, near the village of Warnham, in Sussex. His father,
"a well-meaning, ill-doing, wrong-headed man," was of a good
family, and heir to a baronetcy. His mother was a beautiful
woman.

Of the early childhood of Bysshe we know nothing, except that at
the age of six he was daily taught Latin by a clergyman.

When we next hear of him he is a big boy, the hero of the nursery
with four little sisters, and a wee, toddling, baby brother, to
all of whom he loved to play big brother. His sisters would
often sit on his knee and listen to the wonderful tales he told.
There were stories of the Great Tortoise which lived in a pond
near. True, the Great Tortoise was never seen, but that made it
all the more mysterious and wonderful, and any unusual noise was
put down to the Great Tortoise. There were other stories about
the Great Old Snake which lived in the garden. This really was
seen, and perhaps it was the same serpent which two hundred years
before had been known to lurk about the countryside. "He could
jut out his neck an ell," it was said, "and cast his venom about
four rods; a serpent of countenance very proud, at the sight or
hearing of men or cattle, raising his head seeming to listen and
look about with great arrogancy." But if it was this same
serpent it had lost its venom, and in the days when Bysshe and
his sisters played about the garden, they looked upon it as a
friend. One day, however, a gardener killed it by mistake, when
he was cutting the grass with a scythe. So there was an end of
the Great Old Snake. But the Tortoise and the Snake were not the
only wonderful things about Field Place. There was a big garret
which was never used, with beneath it a secret room, the only
entrance to which was through a plank in the garret floor. This,
according to the big brother, was the dwelling-place of an
alchemist "old and grey with a long beard." Here with his lamp
and magic books he wrought his wonders, and "Some day" the eager
children were promised a visit to him. Meanwhile Bysshe himself
played the alchemist, and with his sisters dressed up in strange
costumes to represent fiends or spirits he ran about with liquid
fire until this dangerous play was stopped. Then he made an
electric battery and amused himself by giving his sisters
"shocks" to the secret terror of at least one of them whose heart
would sink with fear when she saw her brother appear with a roll
of brown paper, a bit of wire, and a bottle. But one day she
could not hide her terror any longer, and after that the kind big
brother never worried her any more to have shocks.

Sometimes, too, their games took them further afield, and led by
Bysshe the children went on long rambles through woods and
meadows, climbing walls and scrambling through hedges, and coming
home tired and muddy. Bysshe was so happy with his sisters and
little brother that he decided to buy a little girl and bring her
up as his own. One day a little gypsy girl came to the back
door, and he though she would do very well. His father and
mother, however, thought otherwise, so the little girl was not
bought.

But the boy who was so lively with his sisters, at times was
quiet and thoughtful. Sometimes he would slip out of the house
on moonlight nights. His anxious parents would then send an old
servant after him, who would return to say that "Master Bysshe
only took a walk, and came back again." A very strange form of
amusement it must have seemed to his plain matter-of-fact father.

But now these careless happy days came to an end, or only
returned during holiday times, for when Bysshe was ten years old
he was sent to school.

Shelley went first to a private school, and after a year or two
to Eton, but at neither was he happy. And although he had been
so merry at home, at school he was looked upon as a strange
unsociable creature. He refused to fag for the bigger boys. He
never joined in the ordinary school games, and would wander about
by himself reading, or watching the clouds and the birds. He
read all kinds of books, liking best those which told of haunted
castles, robbers, giants, murderers, and other eerie subjects.
He liked chemistry too, and was more than once brought into
trouble by the daring experiments he made. Shelley was very
brave and never afraid of anything except what was base and low.
To the few who loved him he was gentle, but most of his
schoolfellows took delight in tormenting him. And when goaded
into wrath he showed that he could be fierce.

Shelley soon began to write, and while still at school, at the
age of sixteen, he published a novel for which he received 40
pounds. A little later he and one of his sisters published a
book of poems together.

From Eton Shelley went to Oxford. Here he remained for a few
months reading hard. "He was to be found, book in hand, at all
hours; reading in season and out of season; at table, in bed, and
especially during a walk." But he read more what pleased himself
than what pleased the college authorities. He wrote too, and
among the things he wrote was a little leaflet of a few pages
which seemed to the fellows of his college a dangerous attack
upon religion. They summoned Shelley to appear before them, and
as he refused to answer their questions he was expelled. Shelley
had given himself the name of Atheist. It is a very ugly name,
meaning one who denies the existence of God. Looking back now we
can see that it was too harsh and ugly a name for Shelley. The
paper for which he was expelled, even if it was wicked, was the
work of a rash, impetuous boy, not the reasoned wickedness of a
grown man. But the deed was done, and Shelley was thrown out
into the world, for his father, sorely vexed and troubled, not
knowing how to control his wild colt of a son, refused to allow
him to return home. So Shelley remained in London. Here he went
often to visit his sisters at school, and came to known one of
their school friends, Harriet Westbrook. She was a pretty, good-
tempered girl of sixteen with "hair like a poet's dream."*
Shelley thought that she too was oppressed and ill-used as he had
been. She loved him, he liked her, so they decided to get
married, and ran away to Scotland and were married in Edinburgh.
Shelley was nineteen and his little bride sixteen.

*Hogg.

This boy and girl marriage was a terrible mistake, and three
years later husband and wife separated.

I can tell you very little more of Shelley's life, some of it was
wrong, much of it was sad, as it could hardly fail to be
following on this wrong beginning. When you grow older you will
be able to read it with charity and understanding. Meantime keep
the picture of the kindly big brother, and imagine him growing
into a lovable and brave man, into a poet who wins our hearts
almost unawares by the beauty of his poetry, his poetry which has
been called "a beautiful dream of the future." Of some of it I
shall now tell you a little.

Very early Shelley began to publish poetry, but most of it was
not worthy of a truly great poet. His first really fine poem is
Alastor. It is written in blank verse, and represents a poet
seeking in vain for his ideal of what is truly lovely and
beautiful. Being unable to find that which he seeks, he dies.
The poem is full of beautiful description, but it is sad, and in
the picture of the poet we seem to see Shelley himself. Other
long poems followed, poems which are both terrible and beautiful,
but many years must pass before you try to read them. For
Shelley's poetry is more vague, his meaning more elusive, than
that of almost any other poet of whom we have spoken. It is
rather for Shelley's shorter poems, his lyrics, that I would try
to gain your love at present, for although he wrote The Cenci,
the best tragedy of his time, a tragedy which by its terror and
pain links him with Shakespeare, it is as a lyric poet that we
love Shelley. "Here," says another poet,* "Shelley forgets that
he is anything but a poet, forgets sometimes that he is anything
but a child. . . . He plays truant from earth, slips through the
wicket of fancy into heaven's meadow, and goes gathering stars."
And of all our poets, Shelley is the least earthly, the most
spiritual. But he loved the beautiful world, the sea and sky,
and when we have heard him sing of the clouds and the skylark, of
the wind and the waves of--