1822-1823

Year

Date

Chronology Entry
1821 Near End of Year Byron receives a lock of Ada's hair from Annabella.

Byron receives news of Polidori's suicide.
1822 January 3 Byron sits for Lorenzo Bartolini, a famous sculptor, who casts first in clay, then in marble.

The final marble bust is not finished until September.
January 5 In the Courier, Robert Southey replies to Byron's note in the Two Foscari.
January Claire begs Byron to take Allegra from the convent and place her with a family.
January 14 Edward John Trelawny arrives in Pisa.

Trelawny approaches Byron about having a boat made to spend the summer on the Bay of Spezia--a plan Shelley and Williams had been harboring for some weeks.
January 16 Trelawny meets Bartolini at the Casa Lanfranchi "pistol club."
January 23 Murray's edition of the three plays omits Byron's dedication of Sardanapalus to Goethe.

Determined no longer to publish with Murray, Byron instructs Kinnaird to collect his MS and send them to Moore in Paris.
  Mary Shelley copies Werner.
February 5 Trelawny sends Daniel Roberts final instructions about the boat.
February 5 The Courier containing Southey's reply to Two Foscari arrives, and Byron writes eight folio pages in response.
February 7 Byron sends a challenge to Southey via Kinnaird; Kinnaird does not deliver it.
February 12 Roberts's boat plans arrive.
February 18 Leaving for Venice, Claire begs to see Allegra. Byron ignores her letters.
February During Carnival, Byron's party frequents his box at the opera.

The group determines to stage Othello, with Byron playing Iago.
February 21-25 In Pisa, Claire tries to reclaim Allegra, perhaps even attempting to kidnap her from the convent.
February 28 Plans for staging Othello are set aside when, as Medwin records, "a difficulty arose about a Desdemona" (975).
February 28 News arrives that Lady Noel has died, bringing Byron into an inheritance. Sir Francis Burdett acts as Byron's arbitrator.

Byron ultimately receives about 2,500 yearly--an amount which almost doubles his yearly income.

Byron takes the Noel arms, as required in the will, and signs himself as N. B. for the first time, joking that N. B. also designates Napoleon Bonaparte.
March 24 Byron's party disputes with Stefani Masi and some foot soldiers.

Masi attacks several of the party with his saber, wounding Shelley and Captain John Hay; later, Masi is seriously wounded by an unidentified assailant.
March 27 Masi's condition remains unchanged.

Several of Byron's servants are temporarily arrested (for carrying weapons to the Court).
April 3 Hay leaves for England, having been in Byron's circle since January.
April 9 At Montenero outside Leghorn, Byron leases Villa Dupuy from May 1 to October 31 for one hundred francesconi a month.
April 13 Byron receives news that Allegra has a slight fever.
April 15 Claire contrives to free Allegra from the convent, but no one tells Byron of Claire's arrival in Pisa.
April 16 Allegra's condition worsens, and doctors order her bled.

Kinnaird writes Byron of improvements in his financial condition.
April 17 Byron's servants Antonio Maluccelli and Tita Falcieri held, without evidence, in solitary confinement.

In response to popular outcry, the Pisan authorities recommend that Tita be exiled.
April 19 The police begin questioning witnesses about Masi's stabbing.
April 20 Samuel Rogers visits Casa Lanfranchi.

Allegra dies at 10 p. m.
April 21 Police question Byron about Masi.
April 22 Byron receives news of Allegra's death.

Byron learns that his servant Tita Falcieri is to be exiled from the region within fifteen days.
April 23 Claire and the Williamses take a short trip to Spezia.

Byron, unaware that Claire is in the area, writes Shelley of Allegra's death. Shelley determines not to tell Claire until after the party leaves Pisa on the 25th.
May 12 Shelley and Williams receive their boat, the Don Juan, from Lerici.
mid May Byron moves his household to Villa Dupuy, south of Leghorn
May 21 At Leghorn, Byron accepts Commodore Jacob Jones's invitation to inspect the American ships, the Constitution and the Ontario.
May 22 The Pisan court finds no criminal grounds to continue holding Byron's servants, Tita, Strauss, Maluccelli, and Papi.
May 28 Exiled from Pisa, Tita is escorted by guard to the prison in Florence.
May 29 Tita is allowed to travel to the Shelleys at Casa Magni in San Terenzo.
June Byron hires a lawyer to negotiate with Dupuy over the lack of fresh water at the Villa--a condition of the lease.
June 18 Trelawny brings Byron's ship, the Bolivar, to Leghorn. Byron had expected to spend around £ 100; Trelawny's final version cost nearly 1000.

The mounted cannon concerns Italian officials who require that the boat remain anchored at Leghorn.
June, end William Edward West, the American painter, begins Byron's portrait.
June 27 From Plymouth, Leigh Hunt, who had been asking for money through Shelley, appeals directly to Byron.

His letter is a combination of appeal and insult.

Byron, though irritated, sends the 250 pounds necessary to move Hunt and his family to Italy.
June 29 The Tuscan government issues a formal order of exile for the Gambas.
June 31 or July 1 Leigh Hunt arrives at Leghorn, along with his wife and six children.
July 2 Count Ruggero Gamba and his son, Pietro, appear before a Leghorn tribunal.

They learn they must leave Tuscany within four days.

As a result of Byron's intervention, the Governor of Leghorn grants the Gambas an extension until July 8.
July 3 Shelley escorts Hunt and his family to ground-floor rooms prepared for them at Byron's Pisan villa, Casa Lanfranchi.

Byron returns to Pisa.

Byron writes Murray to give John Hunt the MS for Vision of Judgement.
July 7 Shelley returns to Leghorn in the evening, having received Byron's promise to support Hunt's new journal, The Liberal.

Byron directs Murray to give John Hunt his translation of Pulci and several prose pieces.
July 8 The Gambas request temporary asylum in Lucca, which they receive on a day-to-day basis.

Shelley and Williams set out for Lerici in the Don Juan, but do not meet Trelawny there as planned.
July 11 Trelawny travels to Pisa, where he informs Hunt and Byron of his fears for Shelley and Williams.

Hunt writes Leghorn, asking Shelley to write if he is safe.

Mary Shelley and Jane Williams receive Hunt's letter and immediately set out for Pisa.

Arriving at Casa Lanfranchi at midnight, the women learn no additional news, so they travel on to Leghorn, arriving at two a. m.
July 12 Mary Shelley, January Williams, and Trelawny leave Leghorn for Lerici.

Near Via Reggio, they learn that debris from the Don Juan had been found on the shore. The women return to Casa Magni.
July 18 Shelley's body washes ashore near Via Reggio. Trelawny recognizes the badly decomposed body by the copy of Lamia and Isabella in the jacket pocket.
June/August Tuscan and Lucchese health officials refuse to allow Shelley's remains to be removed for burial.

Eventually Trelawny receives permission to cremate the bodies and remove the ashes.

Year

Date

Chronology Entry
1822 (cont.) August 15 At the instigation of Trelawny, members of the Byron-Shelley circle witness the disinterment and cremation of Williams's decomposed and mutilated body.
August 16 As with Williams's the day before, Shelley's putrefying body is cremated on the shore before witnesses.

The ceremony takes over three hours, and Byron swims a mile and a half to the Bolivar.

The party returns to Via Reggio, where they eat and drink heavily.
August 17 Teresa asks Dr. Vacca for a prescription to ease Byron's severe sunburn.
August 19-29 Medwin stays at Casa Lanfranchi.

Teresa and Byron occupy the second floor; the Hunts the ground-floor.
August 24-31 Byron writes Kinnaird repeatedly, concerned about his financial affairs in England, particularly that his half-yearly income had not yet arrived.
August 24 Byron writes Kinnaird that he has finished three or four cantos of Don Juan.
September 11 Mary Shelley leaves for Genoa.
September 15 Hobhouse arrives in Pisa.
September 17 Nicolas Karvellas, the Greek patriot, visits Byron, encouraging the poet's interest in the Greek Revolution.

Jane Williams leaves for England.
September 18 The packing of Casa Lanfranchi causes such confusion that the Hunts move to an inn to avoid it.
September 21 Hobhouse leaves Pisa.
September Byron's caravan of two carriages and his Napoleonic coach set out for Lerici, followed by his servants and furniture.

At Lucca, the Counts Ruggero and Pietro join the caravan; at Lerici, the Hunts and Trelawny meet the other travellers.
September At Lerici, Byron is confined ill for four days.

Byron and Teresa travel by boat to Sestri, followed by the Hunts.

Trelawny captains the Bolivar.

At Sestri, all reboard their carriages for the final leg to Casa Saluzzo in Albaro, Genoa.
October 3? Byron rents Casa Saluzzo for 24 a year (1039).

Leigh Hunt, his family, and Mary Shelley take Casa Negroto, a large house about a mile from Byron.
October 15 John Hunt publishes the first number of The Liberal, with Byron's Vision of Judgment at its front. Hunt omitted Byron's preface which justified the attack on Southey, but led Byron to believe that the omission resulted from Murray having withheld the preface.
October 20 Citing the savings of living on the Continent, Byron asks Augusta to consider moving herself, husband, and children to Nice at his expense.
October 23 Byron asks Hanson to inquire into Sir. T. Shelley's financial provisions for Mary Shelley (BLJ 10.16).
October 24 Hunt arrogantly asks for more money--this time an additional 100 crowns.
October 31 Byron offers to let John Hunt publish the existing six cantos of Don Juan, Werner, and Heaven and Earth (1039).
October ? Murray finds Byron's new publishing alliances "dreadful," calling them "outcasts from Society" (1040). Murray also decries the first three cantos of Don Juan:
"I deClaire to you they were so outrageously shocking that I would not publish them if you were to give me your Estate--Title and Genius--For Heaven's sake revise them--they are equal in talent to any thing you have written" (qtd in 1040).
October ? Charges are brought against John Hunt that the publication of The Liberal constituted "gross, impious, and slanderous" libel against the King.
October? To ease her financial distresses somewhat, Byron hires Mary Shelley to make fair copies of the cantos of Don Juan and the Deformed Transformed (1042).
November 28 Byron lives economically, having stored his schooner, sold horses, and dismissed servants.
November Trelawny leaves on hunting expedition.
November Separated from his wife, James Wedderburn Webster visits Byron and pursues Lady Hardy, wife of the Admiral, who rebuffs him.

Byron embarks once more on his thinning regimen (1047).
November 23 Murray publishes Werner, selling 6000 copies within four days.

Thinking Heaven and Earth would evoke the same controversies as Cain, Murray turns the drama over to Hunt for The Liberal (1048).
December 9 Byron completes the 12th Canto of Don Juan.
December 14 Byron sends Kinnaird the 12th canto of Don Juan.
December 22 Byron reiterates his invitation to Augusta to join him; he offers to travel to Nice to allow her to avoid the horrible Hunts (1045).

London papers publish gossip about the burial of Allegra at Harrow Chapel that disturbs Byron. (1047).
December 28 Lady Mountcashell appeals to Byron to extend the money he would have bestowed on Allegra to Claire Clairemont who had lost her place in Vienna (1049).
1823 January 1 Heaven and Earth appears in second number of The Liberal.

Hunt prints 6000 copies, believing Byron's play would help sell the issues.
January 10 Finishing The Age of Bronze, Byron considers offering it to Hunt for the third number of The Liberal.

By mail, Byron mediates between Wedderburn Webster and his estranged wife Francis, living in Paris (1055).
February Byron finishes The Island.
February 27 Byron determines not to publish Age of Bronze in the Liberal, finding his association with the journal "highly injurious to me."

Byron determines to "retire" from the alliance.
March 17 Byron sends "The Blues" to John Hunt for the third issue of the Liberal.
March, end Byron completes the 15th canto of Don Juan.
March 31 Henry Fox, Lord Holland's son, visits Byron.

The Blessington party--Earl and Lady Blessington, her sister Mary Ann Power, and the Count Alfred D'Orsay -- arrives in Genoa.
April 1 The Blessington party calls on Byron at Casa Saluzzo.
April 2, 2-4 p. m. Byron calls on the Blessingtons at their hotel.
April-May Byron and the Blessingtons begin a pattern of daily rides and frequent visits.
April 5 Edward Blaquiere, representative of the London Greek Committee, and Andreas Luriottis, delegate of the Greek government, visit Byron en route to collect information on the fighting in Greece.
April 10 Byron and the Blessingtons ride out to view the sea at Nervi.
  Mary Shelley writes to Jane Williams that Byron had advised her to return to England as well as offered to pay her passage.
April 13 Byron introduces the Blessingtons to Count Pietro Gamba who becomes part of their riding party.
April 29 Byron is elected a member of the London Greek Committee.
May 6 Byron finishes Canto 16 of Don Juan.
May 8 Byron begins Canto 17 of Don Juan, writing 14 stanzas before he leaves for Greece.
May 12 Byron receives word of his election to the London Greek Committee, which fuels his interest in traveling to the Levant (1069).
end of May Lord Blessington purchases the Bolivar for 400 guineas (1075).

Byron takes the two one-pounder cannons to Greece on the Hercules (1087).
June 1, evening Byron pays a farewell visit to the Blessingtons who leave the next day.
June 3 Kinnaird writes that the publication of Don Juan is moving ahead, since Hunt's trial had been postponed.
June 18 Barry engages the 120-ton English ship, the Hercules, for two months.
  Byron orders uniforms and helmets for himself and others on the expedition.
June 28-July 1 Leigh Hunt meddles badly in the financial agreements between Byron and Mary Shelley for her return to England, angering both sides.
June-July Given Byron's plans to travel to Greece, Count Gamba wishes his daughter to return to Ravenna with the family.

After considering several options, Byron and Teresa determine this is the best course until his return from Greece.
July 10 Teresa writes Mary Shelley, enclosing a letter from Byron, on his financial arrangements for her.

By this point Mary Shelley had already asked Trelawny to pay for her journey, a debt that Byron insists on paying when he learns of it later.
July 13 At Byron's request, Mary Shelley arrives to comfort Teresa at Byron's parting.
July 15 Byron finally sails to Greece in the company of Trelawny, Count Pietro Gamba, Dr. Francesco Bruno, Constantine Skilitzy, and three servants: his gondolier, Tita Falcieri; his valet Fletcher; and his steward Lega Zambelli; as well as five or more additional servants.

Byron also takes five horses, his bulldog Moretto, and the Newfoundland Lyon (1087).
The Byron Chronology
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