The Last Days of Lord Byron
Preface
THE
LAST DAYS
OF
LORD BYRON:
WITH HIS
LORDSHIP’S OPINIONS ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS,
PARTICULARLY ON THE
STATE AND PROSPECTS OF GREECE.
BY WILLIAM PARRY,
MAJOR OF LORD BYRON’S BRIGADE, COMMANDING OFFICER OF ARTILLERY,
AND ENGINEER IN THE SERVICE OF THE GREEKS.
“Lord Byron awoke in half an hour. I wished to go to him, but I had
not the heart.
Mr. Parry went, and Byron knew him again, and squeezed his hand,
and tried to
express his last wishes.”—Count Gamba’s Narrative.
LONDON:
PRINTED FOR KNIGHT AND LACEY,
PATERNOSTER-ROW;
AND WESTLEY AND TYRRELL, DUBLIN.
MDCCCXXV.
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LONDON:
PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES,
Northumberland-court.
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PREFACE.
The only object I have in view, in sitting down to write a
Preface, is to tell the reader why I have written a book. The great curiosity which is
still, and must long be felt with regard to every part of the late Lord Byron’s conduct, almost justifies any person coming before the
public who can communicate any information concerning him. But although I was acquainted
with him during the most ennobling, and perhaps the most humiliating period of his
existence, when all the energies of his manly character were exerted in an excellent cause,
and when he was cut off from the common conveniences and common enjoyments of life, when he
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was adored by the Greeks, admired by some and censured
by others of his countrymen, for the sacrifice he was making; and although I was his chief
agent for carrying into execution all his plans for the benefit of Greece, and the
confidant of his last wishes and intentions, I am so conscious of my inability adequately
to describe what I witnessed, that the mere idea of gratifying public curiosity would not
have influenced me to have appeared in the character of an author; and I should not have
stepped forward, had I not been also compelled in my own vindication, and in the
vindication of him whose fame must be dear to every one of his countrymen. Lord
Byron’s conduct in Greece has been attacked, in the book which Colonel
Stanhope published on that country; it has also been attacked in the London Magazine, for October, 1824; and as
I was with him at the time, or immediately afterwards, when the coolness existed betwixt
him and Colonel ![]()
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Stanhope, I may hope, by publishing an account of what I saw and know,
not only to furnish the reader with some curious details relative to the latter days of
Lord Byron, but also to vindicate his memory from some unjust
aspersions.
During the last two months of his existence, there was no person in whom
he placed more confidence than in me. I was employed by him to carry his designs into
execution; I was intrusted with the management of his funds, and made the depositary of his
wishes. I lived under the same roof with him, was his confidential agent, and was honoured
by being made his companion. As far as I have seen the accounts which have been published
of his situation in Greece, there are some inaccuracies, and many omissions in them all.
The people of Great Britain have never been told, as it appears to me, of the numerous
privations, the great neg-![]()
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lect and the endless vexations
to which Lord Byron fell a victim. Neither his physician, who should have guarded against many of these
evils; his personal friends, who should have shielded him from others; nor that particular
person, who was the cause of much of his perplexity, has described, or is ever likely to
describe, all the circumstances of Lord Byron’s
situation in Greece. They fell under my observation, however, as well as under theirs; the
reasons for their silence do not apply to me, and I have therefore felt myself in some
measure called on to write an accurate account of Lord Byron’s
situation and sufferings. There are so many motives operating on other persons, either to
make them preserve silence, or misrepresent facts, that unless I state them correctly, it
is probable the public will never hear of them from many other quarter.
The confidence Lord Byron honoured
me![]()
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with, has made those persons who opposed him in
Greece, and who have calumniated him since his death, also select me as an object of
remark. Lord Byron has been attacked both in his own person, and
through me. His exertions, and my exertions under his directions, have been cancelled,
contrary to his declared wishes and commands made known through me, contrary also to the
prayers and entreaties of Prince Mavrocordato, and
contrary, I believe, to the best interests of Greece. Most of the persons who are
acquainted with all these circumstances have some motives, either of interest or
partiality, which will for ever prevent them from doing justice to Lord
Byron and to me. I must either sit still, therefore, under accusations
injurious both to Lord Byron and myself, or, however unwillingly,
bring the matter before the public. Though perfectly unaccustomed to writing, I have
resolved on the latter, trusting to the indul-![]()
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gence of the
public to pardon a multitude of faults for the sake of him who is mow more; and for the
sake of public justice. My fellow-countrymen are too generous, and too much interested for
the Greeks, not to receive with more favour than it merits, a work which describes in what
manner and under what circumstances Byron fell a victim to his zeal in
the Greek cause, and which points out some circumstances arising from the conduct of its
pretended friends which have retarded its final triumph.
The little interest which the work may possess, it derives solely from
him whose untimely fate it describes. Even the anecdotes of other persons contained in the
volume are of little value, but as throwing some light on his character, or from the
comments and remarks he made on them. On the theme, destined as Lord Byron is to live “as long as his land’s tongue,” and
not ![]()
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on the writer, must the work depend for either
popularity or dignity. I disclaim all merit except that of being a correct reporter of what
I saw, and of what I know Lord Byron’s opinions to have been, I
aim at nothing but accuracy; and I expect praise for no other quality.
It is right I should mention, that from the time of my leaving England
till I left Greece, I kept a journal of our military operations. A few days also before
Lord Byron’s death, I drew up by his command a
report of all our proceedings up to that period, These two documents, together with letters
written to my friends, copies of which I have preserved; letters written to my employers
the Greek Committee, and letters from various persons in Greece, form the basis of my
narrative. None of Lord Byron’s conversations with me, however,
were recorded in any of these documents, which relate solely to mili-![]()
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tary and financial matters. Neither were any of the incidents mentioned in
the book as having occurred to Lord Byron in Greece, his manner of
living, or his various occupations and opinions, recorded at the time. I did not, like some
of Lord Byron’s friends, speculate on his death; nor, till I saw
the demand there was for information, did it ever occur to me that such minute matters
would be of any public interest. They made a powerful impression on me at the moment; and
though not written down, have been vividly and, I trust, accurately remembered. These I
have, therefore, stated from recollection. Owing to these circumstances, the book consists
in a manner of two parts; the first is a narrative, in the form of a journal, and the other
is Lord Byron’s opinions, or circumstances connected with him,
arranged under different heads. What the work may on this account want in uniformity of
design, will I trust be more than compensated by the greater ![]()
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authenticity it will derive from this arrangement. As I am on many
accounts unable to give Lord Byron’s words; and as many of his
conversations with me related to the same subjects in which he repeated the same opinions,
I have also been able by this means to avoid repetition, and to present his remarks more
condensed than they could have been, if given in the form of repeated and desultory
conversations.
I have now, I think, said all which it is necessary for me to tell the
reader in this place. I am sure the book must afford him some pleasure, if I have been able
to convey into its pages only a very small part of that amusement and instruction Lord Byron knew how to extract from every topic. To me he was
a kind friend, as well as a most instructive companion; and I shall be perfectly satisfied,
should the reader only receive from the book the tenth part of the pleasure I ![]()
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derived from my brief acquaintance with Lord
Byron. Knowing him was for me a source of satisfaction unmingled with one
regret, except that my acquaintance with him began so late, and was terminated so soon and
so fatally.
WILLIAM PARRY.
London, April 25th.
Anonymous,
“The Last Days of Lord Byron” in The Literary Magnet
Vol. 4 (June 1825)
“More last words of John Baxter!” our readers will exclaim: we have already Medwin’s Conversations; Dallas’s Recollections; Gamba’s Residence; Childe Harolde’s Wanderings; and a host of others, in
all shapes and sizes, from the ponderous quarto, to the pigmy “pocket edition.” If
we required any further evidence of the extent of the illustrious subject’s talents, or
the probability of his immortality, than what his works are capable of bestowing, we should
regard the never-dying interest that is attached to every thing concerning him, as the
completest evidence of the permanency of his literary fame. Mr.
Parry writes in a bold seaman-like style, and his work bears with it a very
evident air of identity. In Medwin’s and
Dallas’s books, we have too much of the poet; in the volumes
before us, the man stands upright in the various lights and shades of his character. Lord Byron neither required the fulsome adulation of the Dragoon
Captain, nor the sage apologies of Mr. Dallas, to make us believe, that at
the bottom he was a really good, but dreadfully misled, man; and that had his life been spared,
there was no doubt but what the finer qualities of his soul would have endeared him to the
world which he so eminently adorned. From the intelligence Mr.
Parry’s book affords us, we entertain no doubt, that had medical aid been
procured at the period of the lamentable catastrophe, the life so dear to Greece, liberty, and
song, would have been saved. . . .
[Henry Southern],
“Personal Character of Lord Byron” in London Magazine
Vol. 10 (October 1824)
It is said that his intention was not to remain in
Greece,—that he determined to return after his attack of epilepsy. Probably it was only
his removal into some better climate that was intended. Certainly a more miserable and
unhealthy bog than Missolonghi is not to be found out of the fens of Holland, or the Isle of
Ely. He either felt or affected to feel a presentiment that he should die in Greece, and when
his return was spoken of, considered it as out of the question, predicting that the Turks, the
Greeks, or the Malaria, would effectually put an end to any designs he might have of returning.
At the moment of his seizure with the epileptic fits prior to his last illness, he was jesting
with Parry, an engineer sent out by the Greek committee,
who, by dint of being his butt, had got great power over him, and indeed, became every thing to
him. Besides this man there was Fletcher, who had lived with
him twenty years, and who was originally a shoemaker, whom his Lordship had picked up in the
village where he lived, at Newstead, and who, after attending him in some of his rural
adventures, became attached to his service: he had also a faithful Italian servant, Battista; a Greek secretary; and Count
Gamba seems to have acted the part of his Italian secretary. Lord
Byron spoke French very imperfectly, and Italian not correctly, and it was with
the greatest difficulty he could be prevailed upon to make attempts m a foreign language. He
would get any body about him to interpret for him, though he might know the language better
than his interpreter. . . .
[John Gibson Lockhart],
“The Last Days of Lord Byron” in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine
Vol. 18
No. 103 (August 1825)
This man now tells his story of what he saw and heard of Lord Byron’s behaviour and conversation while in Greece. He makes no
ridiculous professions of accuracy. He plainly says, the idea of noting down what
Lord Byron was pleased to say to him in private conversation never
once entered his head. But he adds, and who can doubt it, that finding himself thrown into
close contact of this sort with a man of Lord Byron’s extraordinary
genius and celebrity, whatever things of any importance were said by Lord
Byron did make a strong, an indelible impression on his mind. And, with-
out pretending to give the words—unless when there is something very
striking indeed about them—he does profess himself able and determined to give the
substance. We need, indeed, but little of such professions, to make us
believe, that the conversations which he relates did substantially take place between him
and Lord Byron. They carry the stamp of authenticity upon their front.
The man that said these things was a man of exquisite talent—of extraordinary reach
and compass of reflection—of high education and surpassing genius. This is enough for
us. Mr Parry is an excellent person in his own way,
but he is plainly as incapable of inventing these things, as if he had written himself down
on his title-page, “Author of Ahasuerus, a Poem.”
. . .
[John Gibson Lockhart],
“The Last Days of Lord Byron” in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine
Vol. 18
No. 103 (August 1825)
Mavrocardato was, and is, universally admitted to be the
most accomplished of the Greek statesmen, and he was at this period the President of the
Provisionary Government; yet this agent of the Greek committee rates Major Parry, for giving Mavrocordato the
title by which he had always been distinguished, and which Lord
Byron, nay, even Sir Thomas Maitland,
never thought of refusing him. But this was not all. He openly took part with the faction
opposed to Mavrocordato and the existing Greek government; and why? Why,
because Mavrocordato, a man of sense and education, who has travelled in
Western Europe, and speaks her languages, and has read her books, was thoroughly aware of the
unfitness of a free press for Greece in her actual condition, and accordingly discountenanced
the setting up of a paper at Missolonghi; whereas Odysseus, a robber captain, in arms in reality against the Greek government as much
as against the Turks, had no objections to let Stanhope
print as many papers as he liked in Athens, which city the said Odysseus
refused, according to the language of Colonel Stanhope’s own eulogy,
“to surrender to a weak government;” in other words, was keeping possession of, in
opposition to the authorities which he had the year before sworn to
obey—the very authorities, too, be it observed, under which alone Colonel
Stanhope was at the time acting. Odysseus knew that his
wild barbarians could no more read a Greek newspaper than they could fly over Olympus, and
therefore he cared not what Stanhope printed, so he and his people got,
through Stanhope’s means, a part of the loans transmitted from
England, for the support of the Greek government and cause. . . .
[John Gibson Lockhart],
“The Last Days of Lord Byron” in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine
Vol. 18
No. 103 (August 1825)
These passages cannot, we think, fail to gratify our readers. The view
they give of Lord Byron’s kind, natural temper,
frank and engaging manners, and noble self-possession in the midst of all the irritations
of disease and disgust, must go far we think to convince the most sceptical, that the
epithet of Satanic was not the happiest which a contemporary poet
might have applied to the author of Child
Harold. . . .
[John Gibson Lockhart],
“The Last Days of Lord Byron” in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine
Vol. 18
No. 103 (August 1825)
The following is a most important passage indeed. In it we have Lord Byron
detailing, in a manner the sincerity of which it is impossible to doubt, his own views
concerning the ultimate prospects of Greece; and surely the exposition is such, that it could
have come from no mind in which sense, wisdom, and genius, were not equally inherent. It
is the only thing upon the subject that we have ever been able to think worth a second reading. . . .
[John Gibson Lockhart],
“The Last Days of Lord Byron” in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine
Vol. 18
No. 103 (August 1825)
Our readers must turn to Mr Parry’s
own page for a great deal more of Lord Byron’s table
talk. They will find many sound English sentiments, even in regard to the English politics of
the day—they will find views as to America equally just and liberal—they will find
the most contemptuous allusions to the soi-disant
liberals with whom Lord Byron had come into personal
contact, such as old Cartwright, Leigh Hunt, &c.; and upon every occasion an open avowal of the deepest
respect for the aristocracy of Britain, which these poor creatures have spent their lives in
endeavouring to overthrow. . . .
[John Gibson Lockhart],
“The Last Days of Lord Byron” in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine
Vol. 18
No. 103 (August 1825)
Of all this, and also of the affecting narrative which Mr Parry gives of Lord
Byron’s last days, strictly so called, we shall quote nothing. The main
outline of his illness is already sufficiently before the public; and these new details are so
painful, that though we do not wish not to have read them, we certainly shall never torture
ourselves with reading them again. The spectacle of youth, and rank, and genius, meeting with
calm resolution the approach of death, under external circumstances of the most cheerless
description, may afford a lesson to us all! But Mr Parry has painted this
scene with far too rude a pencil; and, indeed, the print which he has inserted of Byron on his miserable bed, and almost in the agonies of death,
attended by Parry himself and Tita,
ought to be omitted in every future edition. It is obviously a got-up thing—a mere
eyetrap—and for one person whose diseased taste it pleases, will undoubtedly disgust a
thousand who ought to be acquainted with this book. . . .
[John Gibson Lockhart],
“The Last Days of Lord Byron” in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine
Vol. 18
No. 103 (August 1825)
In order that our article may terminate pleasantly, we have reserved wherewithal
to wind it up, Parry’s description of an interview
which he had with the personage whom Colonel Stanhope
mentions as “the finest genius of the most enlightened age, the immortal Bentham.” We shall give the sailor’s rough sketch
of the Patriarch without note or comment—in truth it needs none; and, we have no doubt,
posterity will not disdain to hang it up alongside of the more professional performance of that
other fine genius of our enlightened century—the immortal Hazlitt—in his noble gallery of portraits,
entitled “The Spirit of
The Age.” . . .
Anonymous,
“The Last Days of Lord Byron” in The Gentleman’s Magazine
Vol. 95 (June 1825)
The Author before us appears to be a man of strong natural sense, with an honest
old soldier’s heart, and all that John Bullism about him, which evinces a sturdy
determination to speak his mind, in utter disregard of person or party. Now as we like to
see good rather than evil, we are glad to find that though Byron was often politically tipsy, and talked nonsense about his country, the
King, America, &c.; yet in his conduct on the Greek subject, the usual wisdom of the
hereditary Senator was conspicuous. There was not a fault in his advice concerning the Greek
cause. He stands, as a Statesman, as superior to the rest, as the Trajan column does to a
milestone. He avowed an intention to study the art of war, probably to become another Napoleon; at all events to be a Washington. All this was in his nature. He was a charger of high blood, and men
rail at him because he was unfit for a cart-horse. It is to men of such a character that the
world is to look for the enthusiasm and perseverance requisite to effect great objects; and
whatever may be the results of their ambition, it is certain that Providence only works grand
changes by single men, not by bodies of men, and ultimately merges all in monarchy. Republics
have only short lives, and seldom merry ones. . . .
Anonymous,
“The Last Days of Lord Byron” in The Gentleman’s Magazine
Vol. 95 (June 1825)
The work opens with a long account of clumsy mis-management in transmission of
the stores; and the introduction to Lord Byron. His
behaviour to the Author was kind and condescending. The room was hung round with weapons like
an armoury, abore which were shelves furnished with books, an hieroglyphic of his
Lordship’s politics, which were to furnish Greece with arms and independence, and then to
leaven it with learning. His politics were very simple, but truly wise. Let one single object,
(he said,) the expulsion of the Turks, be first regarded. Newspapers and
the press would now only create faction, and do mischief. They are only to be considered as
secondary things. Col. Stanhope’s opposite sentiments
created the coolness between them. Bloodshed and anarchy, said the wise Member of the Upper
House, will be the consequence of discussing theories of government, before independence is
obtained. His Lordship was perfectly correct, for in a short time the wiseacres published a
Tirade against Kings, which, said the Peer, was the very way to bring the
Holy Alliance down upon them. Add to this, that the German Officers who came to assist, were
men of punctilious etiquette, and always quarrelling about rank; and mechanics sent out at an
expence of three hundred and forty pounds, did only fourteen days work, at the cost of
something more than four pounds one shilling a day. Pp. 66, 67. . . .
Anonymous,
“The Last Days of Lord Byron” in The Gentleman’s Magazine
Vol. 95 (June 1825)
For every object, public or private, his Lordship was expected to be paymaster;
a mutiny might cost him his life; what he received from England were a Wesleyan preacher,
bugle-horns, printing presses, and religious tracts. Arms, powder, and shot, were inferior
considerations*. With all his noble-minded sacrifices, he was harassed with crazy counsels;
worried out of his patience and sleep; and doomed to eat nothing for several days but cheese,
fish, vegetables, and bread. In short, at his outset in life, he was all but murdered by
calumniators; and now he had to encounter the insanity of his countrymen, who employed the
funds collected for the liberation of Greece, in propagating their own political and religious
tenets, instead of furnishing the indispensable materials of war. . . .
Anonymous,
“Parry v. Hunt” in The Times
No. 13,306 (15 June 1827)
William Fletcher—I was in the service of the late
Lord Byron upwards of 20 years, and was with him up to
the time of his death. I now receive a pension from his family for my services. I first saw
Parry at Greece, at Missollonghi. He lived in the
same house with Lord Byron. I was not much in the habit of seeing him, and
had not an opportunity of knowing whether he was drunk, more than I heard from report. He
sometimes appeared the worse for liquor. I have seen him in Lord
Byron’s company; he generally called him Captain
Parry. I have heard Parry speak of Colonel Stanhope. Some men were sent to attack a Turkish brig off Missolonghi.
Parry came home to his house on that occasion, and did not get out
again, but said he wanted to shave and dress. This was early in the evening, and it was a
considerable time before he came down again. He went into his room at the back of the house. I
don’t know where he went when he had shaved. The brig was afterwards in flames.
Parry was sent to, and discovered to be asleep. I did not see him go
out before the brig was in flames. I have seen Parry once since my return
to England. Since I have been subpœnaed here as a witness, I have seen him frequently.
Having been here in attendance a long time, and feeling a want for something to eat, I went to
get some bread and cheese. Zambelli was with me, and
Parry came in, and was very polite to us. I do not know whether the
word rogue was used. Parry addressed himself to me, but I do not recollect
the words he made use of; they were meant to imply that he had always been my friend. . . .
Anonymous,
“Parry v. Hunt” in The Times
No. 13,306 (15 June 1827)
I remember a Turkish
brig coming a-ground off Missolonghi. We were then all in that place. I heard that
Parry was applied to on that occasion to lend his assistance. He
was at Lord Byron’s house. Several of us were ordered by him to
go in a couple of boats, with guns, to attack the brig. Parry did not
go with us; was to come round by land with some Greek soldiers. He did not come round. He
said he would come to our assistance when he sent us out. He had a blue coat on, but I do
not know whether he was shaved or not. . . .
Anonymous,
“Parry v. Hunt” in The Times
No. 13,306 (15 June 1827)
— Zambelli, a Hungarian.—I
lived in the service of Lord Byron at Missolonghi, and had
the care of liquors and provisions in his house. I knew Parry at Missolonghi, and have twice known him absolutely intoxicated. He was,
on those occasions, asleep with the bottle by his side lying on the floor, and Lord
Byron called to me to take him away. Those are the only times when I have known
him affected by liquor. I cannot say how many bottles he drank on those occasions. I recollect
a Turkish brig being on shore when Parry came into the house and went up
stairs. He did not go out of the house again that day. The brig was not burning before he came
into the house. It was burned while he was in the house. . . .
Anonymous,
“Parry v. Hunt” in The Times
No. 13,306 (15 June 1827)
Colonel Stanhope.—I am a Lieutenant-Colonel in the
army. I went out to Greece, and saw Parry there; he
lived in my room, and ate his meals at my table. He was in the habit of drinking to excess. He
was a sot, and a boaster, and frequently spoke of making Congreve rockets, in which, he said,
he had made an improvement, of which Colonel Congreve
had taken the merit. He said he would take Lepanto by a fire-kite, and destroy the Turkish
fleet. He never carried any of his plans into execution. I have read the Last Days of Lord
Byron. Parry is not capable of writing such a work.
He is a man of a strong natural mind, but uneducated. He does not speak grammatically correct.
He frequently spoke of his great science as an engineer. I saw the brig on shore, and was
there. The brig was on shore four or five miles from Missolonghi, and the Greek officers
applied to Lord Byron and myself to lend assistance; we
despatched artillery and the greater part of the soldiers and townspeople immediately proceeded
there; we were for some time under the bombardment of this vessel. After having been stranded
for two days, and seeing the impossibility of getting her off, her crew set her on fire, and
escaped in their boats to another Turkish vessel which had been hovering in the offing.
Parry never made his appearance all the time. Lord
Byron treated him as a fool, a buffoon—not as one of these fools that have
so often graced the tables of the great. Parry called Lord
Byron Hal, and
he called him Falstaff.
. . .
Anonymous,
“Parry v. Hunt” in The Times
No. 13,306 (15 June 1827)
Mr. Bowring.—I acted as Secretary to the Greek
Committee. Parry was recalled by a vote of the committee
of the 3d of July. I should consider him incapable of writing such a book without some
assistance. I have not seen him in a state of actual drunkenness, but when he has drunk rather
too much. After his return, he showed me the materials from which this work was formed, but I
did not look them over. I should think them, however, insufficient to have made the book. . . .
Anonymous,
“Parry v. Hunt” in The Times
No. 13,306 (15 June 1827)
Mr. Knight.—This book was published by Knight and
Lacy. I am not of that house. Parry applied to me early in 1825. He was announced as
Captain Parry, and I fully expected to have seen that Captain Parry who had been so frequently towards the North
Pole. He, however, undeceived me, and said he came from Greece, and that he wished to publish
something relative to Lord Byron. Having said this, he left
a portfolio for my perusal, and we had no further conversation at the time. In a few days he
called again, and I returned the papers. They consisted of a few official documents, containing
technical particulars, terms of war, and estimates of ammunition, and several Greek newspapers,
with a few sheets, purporting to be the journal of Captain Parry. They
amounted altogether to about 40 or 50 folios. I have read the book which he has published, and
towards the end, in the appendix, there are some expressions similar to those I saw in the
papers he brought to me. The body of the book does not contain a line of what was in those
papers. If he were the writer of the journal put into my hands, he could not be the author of
this book. My interview with him was very short; but from what I saw of him, and from his
conversation, I should not think him capable of writing this book. . . .
Anonymous,
“Parry v. Hunt” in The Times
No. 13,306 (15 June 1827)
Mr. Lacy.—I am a partner in the house of Knight
and Lacy. We published this book for Mr. Parry. He said
he had received some assistance in the arrangement of the work from another gentleman. . . .
Anonymous,
“Verdict against the Examiner in the Case of William Parry” in The Examiner
No. 1011 (17 June 1827)
* In one of the editions of Shakspeare is an engraving (after Stothard) representing Antient Pistol cudgelled by Fluellen. Perhaps as humorous a
subject might be found for that admirable artist’s pencil in some of the
situations attributed by the witnesses to our valiant Major; for instance, the lying
asleep after a debauch, embracing the bottle, as described with significant gestures by
the witness Zambelli; or the elaborate shaving
and dressing, while his men were proceeding to assault the Turkish brig. . . .
Anonymous,
“Verdict against the Examiner in the Case of William Parry” in The Examiner
No. 1011 (17 June 1827)
The Chief Justice too, observing on
Parry’s conduct in the
affair of the Turkish brig, intimated, that one neglect of duty ought not to fix the character
of cowardice on any man:—but his Lordship knows, that a single neglect on the day of
battle cost the unfortunate Byng his life, and that Lord Sackville
was disgracefully driven from the service for once imputed fault on the field of Minden; yet
both these men had given repeated proofs of noble courage. Where, however, are William Parry’s proofs? . . .
Francesco Bruno (d. 1828 c.)
Byron's physician on his second expedition to Greece in 1823-24; he was afterwards in
Switzerland, and died at Naples.
Prince Alexander Mavrocordatos [Αλεξανδρος Μαβροκορδατος] (1791-1865)
Greek statesman and diplomat with Byron at Missolonghi; after study at the University of
Padua he joined the Greek Revolution in 1821 and in 1822 was elected by the National
Assembly at Epidaurus. He commanded forces in western Central Greece and retired in 1826
after the Fall of Messolonghi.
Leicester Fitzgerald Charles Stanhope, fifth earl of Harrington (1784-1862)
The third son of the third earl; in 1823 he traveled to Greece as the Commissioner of the
London Greek Committee; there he served with Byron, whom he criticizes in
Greece in 1823 and 1824 (1824). He inherited the earldom from his brother in
1851.
