FASE I: Planificación Preliminar

absent; 'Only think - a free Italyl11' - even the exclamation marks serve to

emphasize the sincerity of his concern for the success of the cause and not Q

himself. And, when the affair was eventually 'bungled' principally because 12345678

1. LJ. VIII, 21. 2. LJ. VIII, 47. 3. January 8, 1821, LJ. VIII, 18. 4. January 30, 1821, LJ, VIII, 40, 5. January 8, 1821, LJ. VIII, 18. 6. February 21, 1821, LJ. VIII, 48, 7. LJ. Ill, 225. 8. February 24, 1821, LJ. VIII, 49.

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of the Neapolitans, but generally because of the Italians' 'lack of union

among themselves',^ although Byron's immediate reaction was to offer what funds 2

he had at his disposal to finance any prospective venture, his disappointment

was extreme. The Journal breaks off as abruptly as does his Journal for 1813/

1814 after the abdication of Napoleon and the restoration of the Bourbons,

and with Byron in a state of physical sickness. However much he may ascribe

that condition to the cockles he had eaten or to the means he 'took to correct ,

them' ('four glasses of spirits', 'some soda-powders', and 'more soda-water'!,**)

clearly his revulsion at the Neapolitan betrayal was more than a contributory

factor«

You know by this time with all Europe - the precious treachery and desertion of the Neapolitans. I was taken in like many others by their demonstrations - & have probably been more ashamed of them than they are of themselves. ... I can't laugh yet - the thing is a little too serious...5

Notice that this is written two months after his final Journal entry for

February 27« and to Kinnaird, Murray, Shelley, Moore and Hodgson, he expresses

his disgust and disappointment just as openly Indeed, the very fact that

he repeats his disappointment to all these recipients of his letters is evidence

of how deeply his spirit was bruised and his hopes for Italy's freedom dashed.

For, one of Byron's noticeable characteristics is that when anything of real

significance happened to him, or whenever he did something remarkable (that is,

whenever anything really meant something to him), he repeated it to all his

7 8

friends/ Nonetheless, despite the failure of the Carbonari movement, it was 12345678

1. February 24, 1821, LJ. VIII, 49. Unity is precisely the message of The Prophecy of Dante.

2. February 24, 1821, LJ. VIII, 49. 3. LJ* 111• 257.

4. February 27, 1821, LJ, VIII, 51.

5. To John Cam Hobhouse, April 26, 1821, LJ. VIII, 99/100,

6. To Douglas Kinnaird, April 26, 1821, LJ. VIII, 101; to John Murray, April 26, 1821, LJ. VIII, 102; to Percy Bysshe Shelley, April 26, 1821, LJ. VIII, 104; to Thomas Moore, April 28, 1821, LJ. VIII, 104/105; To Francis Hodgson, May 12, 1821, LJ. VIII, 114.

7. For example, his swimming from Sestos to Abydos, about which he told no less than six people, three of them twice, see LJ, I, 237/255? or the shooting of the Commandant, LJ. VII, 245/251.

8. For the most comprehensive account of 3yron's involvement with the Car­ bonari, see The Last Attachment. Iris Origo (London« John Murray, 1949), chapter 5, and Marchand, II, chapter xiii, 849ff.

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HjC/CtX

the catalyst in shifting Byron from poetry to action, poet to maij^ spectator

to participator. For, having tasted action he was no longer content to con­

tinue his 'Clslsbean existence' and was ripe for the more strenuous demands

of the Greek cause.

The first Intimations of his Interest In the Greek war come as early as

June 1821, that Is, only three months after the Italian business« 'The Greeks!

2

what think you? They are my old acquaintances - but what to think I know not'.

Yet two more years were to pass before he could disentangle himself from Teresa

completely. And this brings us to a rather fine but Important distinction

between Byron's involvement with the Carbonari and his ultimate commitment to

Greece. In 1819 he held written to Hobhouse that he wanted 'a country - and a

home - and If possible - a free one'. A 'country', a 'home' and at least

fighting for 'a free one', had been combined during his days in Ravenna. His

association with the Carbonari naturally brought him close to the Gamba family,

and vice versa. So that his political activities die not preclude the emotional

security of his relations with Teresa. Indeed, his relationship with her had,

Indirectly, drawn him into the Carbonari, and hence there had been no obligation

to choose between them.*1, In the case of Greece, however, such a choice did

have to be made; and, as Byron admitted to Moore, he was not yet strong enough

to break with Teresa:

It is awful work, this love, and prevents all a man's projects of good or glory. I wanted to go to Greece lately (as every thing seems up here) with her brother, who is a very fine, brave fellow ... and wild about liberty. But the tears of a woman who has left her husband for a man, and the weakness of one's own heart, are paramount to these projects, and I cam hardly indulge them.5

Commenting on this passage, Harold Nicolson very justly remarks that 123*5

1. To John Cam Hobhouse, August 23, 1819, LJ. VI, 21^. 2. To Thomas Moore, June 4, 1821, LJ. VIII, 135* 3. To John Cam Hobhouse, October 3, 1819, W . VI, 226. U. See The Last Attachment, p. 203/205.

- 3:> -

'had it not been for his responsibilities towards the Countess Guiccioli, he

would have already joined the movement in the autumn of its first year'.^ The

operative word here is 'responsibilities': for Byron was not faced with a

choice between pleasure and action, or between self and the commitment to the

cause, but between conflicting duties. Indeed, the tenor of the above passage

is one of resentment against the emotional pressure which Teresa could, with a

certain amount of justice as Byron had to acknowledge (in so far as she was de

facto, if not de jure, his wife), bring to bear upon him. Hence, what we might

be tempted at first to interpret as the self-indulgent choice between two options,

is in fact the reluctant choice of an emotionally blackmailed man. He 'wanted

to go to Greece'i but, since Teresa had left her husband for him, he was

obliged to sacrifice his own wishes (he could not 'Indulge them', italics added),

to the demands of his immediate domestic duty. Yet he had repeatedly told her 2

that 'a man ought to do something more for society than write verses'.

Moreover she was fully aware, as she herself admits, of 'his sublime aspirations

after glory - that is to say, the happiness he should experience in being not a

ruler, but a guide and benefactor of humanity'.^ (A fine and highly apposite observation in the present context.) Nonetheless, this did not prevent her

from hindering those 'sublime aspirations'. Hence in his own turn, and at a

time when he had committed himself to the Greek cause, Byron could himself

remark with justice that, were he leaving Teresa 'for another woman - she might

have cause to complain - but really - when a man merely wishes to go on a great

duty for a good cause - this selfishness on the part of the "femlnie" Is

rather too m u c h . T h e obstacle that Teresa presented to Byron cannot be too 123 1. Byroni The Last Journey. New Edition, with a Supplementary Chapter

(London: Constable, 19^0), p. 73.

2. Moore, p. 953. Byron said much the same thing to Dr. Alexander as well in 1823: 'a man ought to do something more for mankind than write verses.', Marchand, III, p. 1052.

3. Lord Byron jugé par les témoins de sa Vie. My Recollections of Lord Byron; and those of Eye-witnesses of his Life, Countess Guiccioli. Translated by Hubert E.H. Jerningham. 2 vols. (London, 1869)i II* P« The emphasis is Teresa's.