landlord. But let his own gay pen tell
the story. He is writing to Tom Moore on November 17, 1816: "It is my
intention to remain at Venice during the winter, probably, as it has
always been (next to the East) the greenest island of my imagination. It
has not disappointed me; though its evident decay would, perhaps, have
that effect upon others. But I have been familiar with ruins too long to
dislike desolation. Besides, I have fallen in love, which, next to
falling into the canal (which would be of no use, as I can swim), is the
best or the worst thing I could do. I have got some extremely good
apartments in the house of a 'Merchant of Venice,' who is a good deal
occupied with business, and has a wife in her twenty-second year.
Marianna (that is her name) is in her appearance altogether like an
antelope. She has the large, black, oriental eyes, with that peculiar
expression in them which is seen rarely among _Europeans_--even the
Italians--and which many of the Turkish women give themselves by tinging
the eyelid, an art not known out of that country, I believe. This
expression she has _naturally_--and something more than this. In
short--." The rest of this amour, and one strange scene to which it led,
very like an incident in an Italian comedy, is no concern of this book.
For those who wish to know more, it is to be found, in prose, in the
Letters, and, in verse, in _Beppo_.

On this his first visit to Venice, Byron was a private individual. He
was sociable in a quiet way, attending one or two salons, but he was not
splendid. And he seems really to have thrown himself with his customary
vigour into his Armenian studies; but of those I speak elsewhere. They
were for the day: in the evening, he tells Moore, "I do one of many
nothings--either at the theatres, or some of the conversaziones, which
are like our routs, or rather worse, for the women sit in a semi-circle
by the lady of the mansion, and the men stand about the room. To be
sure, there is one improvement upon ours--instead of lemonade with their
ices, they hand about stiff _rum-punch_--_punch_, by my palate; and this
they think _English_. I would not disabuse them of so agreeable an
error,--'no, not for "Venice"'."

The chief houses to which he went were the Palazzo Benzon and the
Palazzo Albrizzi. Moore when in Venice a little later also paid his
respects to the Countess Albrizzi. "These assemblies," he wrote home,
"which, at a distance, sounded so full of sple