was clever and pleasing, and which afterward ruled his life, and
inspired his genius. All those who saw him at this period are unanimous
in saying that melancholy then held aloof from him. In all his letters
we find proof of the same. "Venice and I go on well together," wrote he
to Murray.

And elsewhere,--"I go out a great deal, and am very well pleased."

Mr. Rose, who visited him at Venice, in the spring of 1818, began a poem
which he addressed to him from Albano, where he was taking baths for his
health, by alluding to the gayety which Byron spread around him at the
reunions which he liked.

But while those living near him, and at Venice, where his poetry was not
known, would never have imagined him to be melancholy, in England and
other places where people read the sorrow-breathing creations of his
genius, he continued to be considered the very personification of
melancholy or misanthropy. He knew, and laughed about it sometimes.

"I suppose now I shall never be able to shake off my sable, in public
imagination, more particularly since my moral wife demolished my
reputation. However, not that, nor more than that, has yet extinguished
my spirit, which always rises with the rebound."

And as he did not wish to be considered a misanthrope, he added to
Moore, in the same letter:--

"I wish you would also tell Jeffrey what you know,--that I was not, and
indeed, am not, even _now_, the misanthropical and gloomy gentleman for
which he takes me, but a facetious companion, getting on well with those
with whom I am intimate, and as loquacious and laughing as if I were a
much cleverer fellow."

And at the same time, to disabuse the public also, and show that he
could write gayly, he set himself to study a kind of poetry thoroughly
Italian in its spirit, and of which Berni is the father; poetry replete
with wit, and somewhat free, but devoid of malice, even when it merges
from gayety into satire; a style unknown to England in its varied
shades, and which it was easier for him to introduce than to make
popular. "Beppo" was his first essay in this line, and it contains too
much genuine fun not to have been a natural product of his humor ere
flowing from his pen.

On sending it to Murray as a mere sample of the style he thought it
possible to introduce into the literature of his country, he said:--

"At least, this poem will show that I can write gayly, and will repel
the accusation of monotony and affectation."[183]