A FORMIDABLE RIVAL.

There was but one beloved face on earth,

And that was shining on him; he had look'd
Upon it till it could not pass away;

He had no breath, no being, but in hers;
She was his voice, he did not speak to her,
But trembled on her words; she was his sight,
For his eye follow'd hers, and saw with hers,
Which colour'd all his objects :—he had ceas'd
To live within himself; she was his life,
The ocean to the river of his thoughts,
Which terminated all : upon a tone,

A touch of hers, his blood would ebb and flow,
And his cheek change tempestuously-his heart
Unknowing of its cause of agony.

But she in these fond feelings had no share :
Her sighs were not for him."

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This lady, who was the "Mary Mary" of his poetry, had formed an attachment to J. Masters, Esq., then distinguished, from his fashionable notoriety, with the more familiar appellation of the "gay Jack Masters." His Lordship's pride would not suffer him to run the risk of a repulse, and he contented himself with expressing the warmth of his feelings in his invocations of the Muses. Jack Masters was a constant dangler after Miss Chaworth, and, for the purpose of getting rid of him, Mr. White, his two sisters, Lord Byron, and the unwilling fair one, were dragged in rapid succession from one place to another throughout the country, while the lover followed in pursuit. They first went to Buxton, thence to Matlock, and from there, much against the young lady's will, they fled at

81

CROSSED IN LOVE.

his approach. At these places our noble poet entered with great cordiality into all the fashionable amusements of the time; and though he affected a wish not to be known, he was generally distinguished by the hilarity of his heart, the urbanity of his manners, and the buoyancy of his animal spirits and intellectual powers. His Lordship, however, was well known to be for one very fashionable and very frequent amusement naturally unqualified; hence he always expressed, in the most unequivocal terms, the strongest abhorrence to dancing.* In other respects, he promoted every thing conducive to the conviviality of the company, and particularly by his wit at repartee. One morning, a party who were at the New Bath came somewhat later than usual to breakfast, and requested some tongue. They were told that his Lordship had eaten it all. "I am very angry with his Lordship," said a lady. "I am very sorry for it, madam," rejoined his Lordship," but before I ate the tongue, I was assured that you did not want it."

But all would not do; it was useless contending with destiny Gay Jack Masters was uppermost in the lady's thoughts, and she was resolved that love should not be controlled by the advice of a guardian, and that she would not rival the Muses

* His poem, "The Waltz," is intended as a satire on dancing; but because his Lordship was lame, was that a reason why the merry dance should be banished from society?

LOSES MISS MARY CHAWORTH.

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in his Lordship's affections.* He therefore made his bow, and took his leave, poet-like, in rhyme :

"Oh! had my fate been join'd with thine,

As once this pledge appear'd a token;
These follies had not then been mine
For then my peace had not been broken.

To thee these early faults I owe,

To thee, the wise and old reproving ;
They know my sins, but do not know
'Twas thine to break the bonds of loving.

For once my soul, like thine, was pure,

And all its rising fires could smother
But now thy fires no more endure,
Bestow'd by thee upon another.

Perhaps his peace I could destroy,

And spoil the blisses that await him;

Yet, let my rival smile in joy,

For thy dear sake I cannot hate him.

It is a weakness peculiar to the "Geniuses of Imagination," both male and female, to fancy that they must be themselves the objects of that passion which they so fervently describe, whatever may be their personal defects. Literary persons are, however, from their very pursuits, the least qualified to shine in the Courts of Love. One Captain in the Guards will do more execution in an hour with his small shot (small talk), than all the Literati of the Chapter Coffee House can effect with their critical great guns in twelve months. Sappho was reduced to take a flying leap to get rid of her disappointed passion. Pope was jeered at by Lady Mary Wortley Montague, and fascinating Jack Masters was too much for poor Lord Byron." De gustibus nil disputandum." In fact, a wise man in love becomes a mere fool; and a Cymon becomes intelligent in the presence of his beloved Iphigene.

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LAMENTATION

Ah! since thy angel form is gone,
My heart no more can rest with any ;
But what it sought in thee alone

Attempts, alas! to find in many.

Then, fare thee well, deceitful maid;
'Twere vain and fruitless to regret thee;
Nor hope, nor mem'ry yield their aid,
But pride may teach me to forget thee.

Yet all this giddy waste of years,

This tiresome round of palling pleasures;
These varied loves, these matron's fears,
These thoughtless strains to passion's measures,

If thou wert mine, had all been hush'd;
This cheek, now pale from early riot,
With passion's hectic ne'er had flush'd,
But bloom'd in calm domestic quiet.

Yes, once the rural scene was sweet,
For nature seem'd to smile before thee;

And once my breast abhorr'd deceit,

But then it beat but to adore thee.

But now I seek for other joys;

To think would drive my soul to madness;

In thoughtless throngs, and empty noise,

We now begin to find a clue to the causes that

AND DESPONDENCY.

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;

first served to discompose his Lordship's mind: suddenly elevated to rank and fortune, to which he had but a very distant prospect of succession free from all paternal control, and from almost every other restraint; with the sanguine temperament of youthful minds, he fancied the world was made for him, until he received two severe checks in his two very first essays in his love, and in his ambition to shine as a poet. In the former, indeed, some have ventured so far as to doubt whether his love-sick effusions had not more of whim and cant than real passion; for, say they, even while in his teens, he is supposed to have had more mistresses than Muses: and, judging from his poetic strains, continue they, at one moment he was disconsolate, having been deprived by death of a beloved maiden; and in the next, was breathing out the most tender sentiments to another lady. "Is it possible," they ask, "that the love could be pure, which had so many objects; or that the grief could be sincere, which was so soon converted into ardent devotion for a new idol? Is there not, in the amatory lines of Lord Byron, too much richness of phrase to comport with true sensibility?" The state of his Lordship's mind will best answer for his sincerity; the anguish produced by unrequited love and disappointed ambition, may be more easily conceived than described; alternate fits of gloominess and gaiety, despera