Malta - Lord Byron's "Farewell to Malta" - Poem

Adapted From: Malta - Described by FREDERICK W. RYAN - Published in London by Adam & Charles Black in 1910 - Painted by V. BORON - 20 Full-page illustrations in colour

Lord Byron's visits to Malta:

George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron, later George Gordon Noel, 6th Baron Byron, FRS (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), commonly known simply as Lord Byron, was a British poet and a leading figure in Romanticism.

Lord Byron visited Malta in 1809

16 August – Lord Byron sailed for Malta from Gibraltar in packet ship Townshend.

31 August – Lord Byron arrived Malta.
September – Lord Byron had a romantic affair with a Mrs Spencer Smith.

(Mrs. Spencer Smith, the wife of an English officer, such a person as one would expect to find in its cosmopolitan atmosphere. Of her the poet wrote to his mother: 'This letter is committed to the charge of a very extraordinary lady, whom you have doubtless heard of, Mrs. Spencer Smith, of whose escape the Marquis de Salvo published a narrative a few years ago. She has since been shipwrecked, and her life has been from its commencement so fertile in remarkable incidents that in a romance they would appear improbable. She was born at Constantinople, where her father, Baron Herbert, was Austrian Ambassador; married unhappily, yet never impeached in point of character; excited the vengeance of Bonaparte by taking part in some conspiracy; several times risked her life, and is not yet five-and-twenty.)

19 September – Lord Byron left Malta (without Mrs Spencer Smith) aboard the brig, Spider, for Greece & Albania.

Lord Byron visited Malta for a second time in 1811

22 April – Lord Byron sailed in the Hydra to Malta, arriving 30 April, where he stayed until the 2nd June from Malta he sailed for England in the frigate Volage.

BYRON'S FAREWELL TO MALTA

Adieu, ye joys of La Valletta!
Adieu, scirocco, sun and sweat!
Adieu, thou palace rarely entered!
Adieu, ye mansions where I've ventured!
Adieu, ye cursed streets of stairs!
(How surely he who mounts you swears!)
Adieu, ye merchants often failing!
Adieu, thou mob for ever railing!
Adieu, ye packets without letters!
Adieu, ye fools who ape your betters!
Adieu, thou damned'st quarantine
That gave me fever, and the spleen!
Adieu that stage which makes us yawn, sirs,
Adieu his ' Excellency's' dancers!
Adieu to Peter whom no fault's in,
But could not teach a colonel waltzing;
Adieu, ye females frought with graces!
Adieu, red coats, and redder faces!
Adieu, the supercilious air
Of all that strut 'en militaire'!
I go but God knows when, or why,
To smoky towns and clouded sky,

To things (the honest truth to say)
As bad but in a different way.
Farewell to these, but not adieu,
Triumphant sons of truest blue!
While either Adriatic shore,
And fallen chiefs, and fleets no more,
And nightly smiles, and daily dinners
Proclaim you war and woman's winners
Pardon my Muse, who apt to prate is,
And take my rhyme because 'tis 'gratis.'

And now I've got to Mrs. Fraser,
Perhaps you think I mean to praise her
And were I vain enough to think
My praises were worth this drop of ink,
A line or two were no hard matter,
As here, indeed, I need not flatter:
But here she must be content to shine
In better praises than in mine,
With lively air and open heart,
And fashion's ease without its art;
Her hours can gaily glide along,
Nor ask the aid of idle song.

And now, O Malta! since thou'st got us,
Thou little military hothouse!
I'll not offend with words uncivil,
And wish thee rudely at the Devil,
But only stare from out my casement
And ask, for what is such a place meant ?
Then, in my solitary nook,
Return to scribbling, or a book,
Or take my physic while I'm able
(Two spoonfuls hourly by the label),
Prefer my nightcap to my beaver,
And bless the gods I've got a fever!

May 26, 1811.

>> Next The Climate of Malta