The Colouring of the Past
Lord Byron's Wife. By Malcolm Elwin. (Mac- donald, 45s.) ANY biographical work on Byron must be measured by the distance it goes towards recon- ciling us to the burning of the poet's memoirs after his death: he maintained that their post- humous publication would justify him, and in particular explain the breaking-up of his marriage to Annabella Milbanke after only a year and thirteen days.
Lord Byron's Wife is a very full account of Annabella and her side of the marriage: Malcolm Elwin has had complete access to the Lovelace Papers, an immense collection of letters, statements and other documents con- nected with Byron, which has only recently become available for examination. His main problem must have been one of selection, but he has solved it admirably to present a narrative centred on Annabella through letters to her parents, to Byron and his half-sister Augusta Leigh, and to various confidantes.
Born to a mother of forty after fifteen years of barren married life, Annabella Milbanke was precocious and spoilt: at five she `shewed herself off to great advantage—I believe she will be cal- culated for Society, for it is really wonderful how the little Monkey sets out to figure in Company & before Strangers,' wrote her mother Judith, and crossed those houses where her child was not welcomed off her list of social visits. She grew up to be a prig, arrogant and wilful, but talented and accomplished in drawing and mathematics, and was writing verse at thirteen. She lacked gaiety, charm and, most of all, a sense of humour. Early in life she developed a habit of 'collecting her sentiments' on paper, and recorded her first sight of Byron thus:
His mouth continually betrays the acrimony of his spirit. I should judge him sincere and independent—Sincere at least in society as far as he can be, whilst dissimulating the violence of his scorn. He very often hides his mouth with his hand when speaking. . . . It appeared to me that he tried to controul his natural sar- casm and vehemence as much as he could, in order not to offend, but at times his lips thickened with disdain, and his eyes rolled im- patiently.
This was in 1812: Annabella was nineteen, Byron was twenty-four and famous as a result of Childe Harold. From the very first Annabella seems to have built up an illusory character of Byron for herself : she saw him at various social functions, sometimes from a distance, occasion- ally to speak to, and listened assiduously to gossip (Mrs. Gaily Knight 'told me some authentic anecdotes of Lord Byron which gave me much concern, as they indicated feelings dreadfully perverted'). Early on, too, she decided that Byron was 'sincerely repentant for the evil he has done, though he has not resolution (without aid) to adopt a new course of conduct & feeling,' and thought of herself as being the one person who could help him—if she was allowed to do so.
Byron was aware of this: to Lady Caroline Lamb, who had sent him some of Annabella's poems, he wrote: 'She certainly is a very extra- ordinary girl; who would imagine so much strength & variety of thought under that placid countenance? . . I have no desire to be better acquainted with Miss Milbank; she is too good for a fallen spirit to know, and I should like her more if she were less perfect.' Nevertheless, within six months he proposed to Annabella, and was refused because he did not come up to her standards! Two years later, however, it was Annabella who was it] pursuit, and they were married after an engagement of four months.
Lord Byron's Wife makes their reasons wholly clear for the first time. Annabella was too com- placent ever to love Byron for his faults, or in spite of his faults, nor did she want him out of vanity: she saw him (or, rather, her image of him) as someone in whom she could satisfy her need to reclaim, to reform. Byron thought `. . . all wives would be much the same. I have no heart to spare,--& expect none in return. . . . What I want is a companion—a friend rather than a sentimentalist'
and
'Miss M. I admire because she is a clever woman, an amiable woman & of high blood, for I have still a few Norman and Scotch in- herited prejudices on the last score. . .
With such motives on either side, it is no wonder that the marriage failed.
This book does not settle the Byron con- troversy, but it does show that the separation was not the result of Annabella discovering any- thing (be it incest or homosexuality) about her husband. There were many occasions on which he hinted at his dark secret, but during the marriage she suspected it was murder he had committed whilst abroad; only after the separa- tion did she decide it must have been incest when Lady Caroline Lamb called and told her of this and of Byron's homosexuality. Annabella's notes on this meeting are in the Lovelace Papers, and Lady Caroline's statements (which must ob- viously, in view of her vengeful nature, be suspect) seem likely to be as near as we shall get to proof of incest.
Although he is inevitably seen through the eyes of his wife, there is considerable sympathy for Byron—particularly towards the end of the
marriage. Annabella never saw through his atti- tude-striking (Mr. Elwin designates it well as his Wertherism) and took seriously what he be; lieved for less time than it took to say. All' Byron did try to save the marriage, after she had returned to her parents: 'Dearest Bell—No answer from you yete–„ perhaps it is as well—but do recollect—that a" is at stake—the present—the future—& even the colouring of the past. The whole of trlY errors—or what harsher name you Choose a; give them—you know—but I loved you. - he wrote three weeks later. But Annabella was already 'collecting her sentiments, and this ego" centric woman spent the remaining forty-four years of her life colouring the past by writing statements and recollections, collecting letters and anything else relating to her short marriage, in a monumental attempt at self-justificatto.n; 'He must have come, had he lived, to the behel that from first to /as', I had been his only trulY devoted friend,' she could still say, in her self" deception, when she was an old woman. Mr. Elwin has written a very fine biograPhY, and it is to be hoped that he will attempt to the same for Augusta Leigh with material /cc' the same collection. R. S. JOHNSON
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