‘Rearing Horse’ in bronze, by Severo Calzetta da Ravenna (1465–1543). Byron lived in Ravenna between 1819 and 1821. “Lord B.’s establishment” Shelley tells us “consists, besides servants, of ten horses, eight enormous dogs, three monkeys, five cats, an eagle, a crow, and a falcon; and all these, except the horses, walk about the house, which every now and then resounds with their unarbitrated quarrels, as if they were the masters of it.” He added later: “I find that my enumeration of the animals in this Circean Palace was defective. I have just met on the grand staircase five peacocks, two guinea hens, and an Egyptian crane.”
“THE black horse I bought of a captain of the Pope’s guard at Ravenna, warranted. I sent for the captain and demanded my money paid. He refused; I waxed wroth. He blustered, and said he was descended from a noble Roman family, was commander of a troop of his Holiness the Pope’s Guard.
“‘Then I’ll give you satisfaction.’ I opened a chest in the hall, and told him to choose his arms. I took a Spanish rapier; he had his sword. I drew my toledo, an heirloom, and went towards him. He faltered and retreated, and as I neared him, he exclaimed, ‘I don’t fight in the dark, and we are forbidden duelling.’ As I lifted my arm to strike he decamped in haste.”
“Should you not, [interposed Trelawny,] as a Carbonaro,* have (as Iago has it) removed him by yerking him under the ribs?* At Ravenna they say manslaughter is not considered a heinous offence.”
“It used not to be so, but it is now. I am a respecter of the law. When I want to punish a man, I let an attorney loose at him.”*
The Carbonari were members of various loosely interconnected secret societies in Italy from the turn of the Nineteenth century. They became particularly active after the fall of Napoleon in 1815, which appeared to offer hope for a liberal, unified and sovereign Italy. However, a revolution in 1820 was crushed by the ‘Holy Alliance’ of Russia, Austria and Prussia, alarmed at the spread of such popular liberalism.
‘Yerk’ is a verb meaning ‘strike a blow’, now rare. Trelawny’s reference is to ‘Othello’ by William Shakespeare, where Iago says:
Though in the trade of war I have slain men,
Yet do I hold it very stuff o’ the conscience
To do no contrived murder: I lack iniquity
Sometimes to do me service: nine or ten times
I had thought to have yerk’d him here under the ribs.
Byron kept the horse. “He is now reserved” he told Trelawny impishly “for my particular friends.”
Précis
Lord Byron bought a black horse from one of the Papal Guard in Ravenna. The horse proved unsatisfactory, so Byron demanded a refund. The seller refused, so Byron challenged him to a duel and frightened him off. Edward Trelawny wondered that he did not get in a blow, but Byron said that when he was serious he summoned his lawyer. (60 / 60 words)
