force and energy to his manner, and had the effect, not only of winning his respect, but of commanding his esteem; moreover, the susceptible mind of the noble poet, ever open to receive new impressions, was strongly fascinated by speculations which appealed so directly to his imagination, and his attention was soon turned from worldly topics and associations, to the higher aspirations of Shelley.

CHAPTER II.

Influence of Shelley on the mind of Byron-Dr. Polidori -His jealousy of Shelley-His vanity-His caprices

His dramatic talents-Challenges Shelley to a duel -Plan of voyage round the lake-Mortification of Polidori-His quarrel with Byron-Timely reconcilia

tion.

THEY thus lived in great harmony, and Byron has remarked that he passed that summer more rationally than any other period of his life; and all he wrote in Switzerland bears evidence of the strong influence Shelley exercised over his mind. His attention was directed to subjects more worthy of his genius and intellect, his fancy became more elevated and refined, if not strongly imbued with much of the rich idealism of Shelley.

In their poetical interchange of thought and feeling, the two poets might have dreamed away their existence in peaceful seclusion on the lake and in the neighbourhood of Geneva, had it not been for the frequent interruption of Polidori, who daily became more jealous of the close intimacy he observed growing up between them.

Travelling with Lord Byron as his physician, whose principal companion he had hitherto been, the doctor regarded Shelley from the first as one usurping his own place in the esteem of the noble poet; a singularity best understood in the fact that he cherished the idea that he himself was a great poet, if not the greatest of the three.

Having possessed his mind of this strange delusion, he seems to have become oblivious of the capacity in which he was engaged, and to have regarded himself less as the physician than as the associate in letters of his patron; but his ill-regulated mind, no less than his humble capacities, did little to foster such a feeling in the mind of Byron, towards whom he conducted himself in such a manner as often to call forth all his forbearance and self-control, when the

excessive vanity of the physician did not excite his merriment and ridicule.

Moore has given us many instances of the strange caprices of this young man, of the illtimed sarcasms, and of the unwarrantable liberties he otherwise indulged in towards his patron, which had precisely the opposite effect of drawing them closer together.

Dr. Polidori appears not to have been without the ability to render himself a useful member of the profession to which he was attached, but his ambition to excel as a poet far outstripped his power for the task. He had probably imbibed his taste for letters from his father, who had officiated, in early life, as the secretary of Alfieri, but the court he paid to the Muses met with very indifferent success, though he pursued them with great importunity. Among the results of his labours in this direction was a tragedy, which, producing one evening at Shelley's, he insisted they should undergo the operation of hearing read, and Byron, to lighten the infliction, undertook the task of reader. All the gravity of the company was called forth on this trying occasion, while the Doctor kept jealous watch on

every countenance, and the reader's only resource against the outbreak of his own laughter lay in lauding, from time to time, most vehemently, the sublimity of the verses; adding, at the close of every such eulogy, "I assure you, when I was in the Drury Lane Committee, much worse things were offered to us.'

But, while the Doctor conducted himself towards his patron in the manner described, he took still less pains to dissemble his jealous pique against Shelley, which was continually exhibiting itself in the most intemperate and overbearing manner; and, on one occasion, taking it into his head that Shelley had treated him with contempt for beating him in a sailingmatch, went so far, in consequence, notwithstanding Shelley's known sentiments against duelling, as to proffer him a sort of challenge-at which, as might be expected, the poet only laughed. Lord Byron, however, fearing that the vivacious physician might still further take advantage of this peculiarity of his friend, said to him, "Recollect, that though Shelley has some scruples about duelling, I have none; and Moore's Life of Byron.