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CHAPTER 16.
POLITICAL TROUBLES.
1819—1821.
Ravenna was an attractive city, and Byron was not altogether sorry to renew his acquaintance with it. Teresa was of course overjoyed to see him, and her family, the Gambas, especially Count Pietro Gamba, her brother, gave him a welcome.
He engaged rooms at an Inn, but as he had Allegra and her nurse with him, they did not prove to be ideal quarters. When Count Guiccioli offered him apartments at his Palazzo at a rent, Byron accepted the offer without hesitation, and sent for his furniture from Venice.
Teresa’s plans were maturing. She had succeeded in persuading Byron to follow her to Ravenna, after obtaining her husband’s consent. Taking this to be a proof of his devotion, she was encouraged to go further. By clever manoeuvreing she succeeded in having her case laid before the Pope, and official sanction was given to a separation from her husband, and to her taking protection under her father’s roof. The court decided that the Count must provide for his wife, and so she enjoyed a generous allowance. Under the order of the court Byron’s visits to Teresa were to be limited, and he was only to see her under restricted conditions. It was not by any means an unsatisfactory arrangement as far as he was concerned. He enjoyed Teresa’s society, but as he did not really love her, it could not provide him with full satisfaction. Moreover, at this time he was secretly resenting her interference with his literary work. She had read Don Juan in a French translation, and, strongly disapproving of it, made him promise that he would write no more. He would now at least have a certain amount of freedom. How would he employ his time? He had said pathetically “I have not the least idea where I am going, nor what I am to do.” His life had been adrift. Was this an opportunity to cast anchor, and then start out on a different course? He had dreams of glory and heroic deeds—what stood in the way of their realisation? Questions such as these were exercising his mind. Meanwhile he wrote poetry. He went for his daily ride through the pine forest to the sea-shore, and he carried on a voluminous correspondence; all this, with his visits to Teresa, made his life very full.
At this time there were political troubles in Italy, and Byron and the Gambas were identified with the revolutionary party. The Palazzo Guiccioli was turned into an arsenal. Byron financed the cause of the revolutionaries and openly declared himself to be on their side at some considerable risk to his life. At the same time he knew that success was impossible unless the Italians could achieve unity among themselves. Early in March, 1821, events turned out as he had feared—the revolutionaries were routed by the Austrian troops, and the revolt was cruelly suppressed. Three months later the Gambas were banished.
Owing to these political troubles, Byron thought it wise to part with Allegra, and he made arrangements for her to go into the convent of Bagnacavallo, which was close to Ravenna. He had long ago determined to have her brought up a Roman Catholic.
Clare, her mother, was very much opposed to the arrangement, and wrote and implored him to have Allegra removed, and restored to the Shelleys. Byron was deaf to her entreaties. In a letter to Hoppner, who had charge of Allegra in Venice, he wrote: “If Clare thinks she shall ever interfere with the child’s morals or education, she mistakes; she never shall. The girl shall be a Christian, and a married woman if possible.”
Byron was now making plans to leave Ravenna. The poor of the town, whom he had so generously assisted, asked the authorities to request him to stay in their midst. But the authorities failed to make this request of him, as they regarded him as a disturbing influence in the town.
Before he left, his friend Shelley visited him. Shelley arrived on August 6, and found Byron “greatly improved in every respect. In genius, in temper, in moral views, in health, in happiness.” His admiration for Byron was still as great as ever. “Byron’s power is wonderful,” he said to his wife, “and not half wrought out. All may envy him; his wings will bear him higher, he grows stronger by every new effort.”
Byron’s literary output during the last two and a half years had been prodigious. It included Don Juan, Cantos III., IV., V., The Prophecy of Dante, Morgante Maggiore, Marino Faliero, The Vision of Judgment, The Blues, Sardanapalus, The Two Foscari, Cain, Heaven and Earth, and a few minor poems. When he read to Shelley one of the unpublished Cantos of Don Juan, Shelley pronounced it to be “astonishingly fine,” and referring to this work in a letter: “It sets him not only above, but far above all the poets of the day, every word is stamped with immortality.”
It was during one of their conversations that the plight of Leigh Hunt, their mutual friend, was discussed. He had a wife and six children, and was in very reduced circumstances. Shelley very much wanted him to come out to Italy, and when it was suggested that the three poets together should found a journal with a view to assisting Hunt, he was more than delighted. He wrote to London at once, sending Hunt a sum of two hundred and fifty pounds for travelling expenses, which he borrowed from Byron. Leigh Hunt took advantage of the kindness of his friends, and started for Italy, with an ailing wife and six young children.
After visiting Allegra at the convent, Shelley and his wife Mary set out for Pisa. Byron intended to follow, having made request of the Countess Guiccioli and the Gambas that they would choose Pisa as a place of residence.
He seemed to be in no hurry to leave Ravenna. Teresa wrote frequently urging him to come to her without delay, but he kept her waiting three months. It was not until October 29 that he set out for Pisa. In the meantime, Mary Shelley had taken the Palazzo Lanfranchi for him.