; for it would be impossible to carry scrupulous
research further than he did. Some observations on "Marino Faliero," his
first historical drama, will suffice for an example.

The impression made on Lord Byron, when he arrived in Venice, by the
character of this old man, and the terrible catastrophe that overtook
him, first gave rise to his idea of the tragedy. But four years
intervened between the project and its execution. During this time he
consulted all the histories of Venice, every document and chronicle he
could lay his hands on. He passed long hours in the hall of the great
council, opposite the gloomy black veil surmounted by that terrible
inscription--"_Hic est locus Marino Faliero decapitati pro criminibus
suis_;" on the Giants' staircase, where the Doge had been crowned ere he
was degraded and beheaded; he had interrogated the stones forming the
monuments raised to the Doges; often was he seen in the church of St.
John and St. Paul, seeking out the tomb of Faliero and his family: and
still he was not satisfied, for the motives of the conspiracy did not
yet present themselves so clearly to his mind as the fact of the
conspiracy itself. Then he wrote to Murray, to search him out in England
other _more authentic_ documents concerning this tragical end.

"I want it," he said to him in February, 1817, "and can not find so good
an account of that business here.... I have searched all their
histories; but the policy of the old aristocracy made their writers
silent on his motives, which were a private grievance against one of the
patricians."

And not only did he seek for truth in books and monuments, but he
likewise sought it in the character and manners of all classes
inhabiting the lagoons. It was only toward the close of 1820, at
Ravenna, that he felt ready to write his magnificent drama.

All the characters in this tragedy, except that admirable one of
Angiolina, which he drew from imagination and traced with his heart,
were supplied by history. In it Lord Byron has scrupulously respected
places, epoch, and the time of duration for the action; points which he
considered as elements of truth in art; in short, all essential
circumstances were faithfully reproduced in his drama.

Even the faults which critics little versed in psychological science,
and obstinately forgetful that this work was _not intended for acting_,
pretend to find in it, were but the necessary results of historical
accuracy. These critic