THE GRAND CANAL.

V: BYRON IN VENICE The beautiful Marianna--Rum-punch--The Palazzo Albrizzi--A play at the Fenice--The sick _Ballerina_--The gondola--Praise of Italy--_Beppo_--_Childe Harold_--Riding on the Lido--The inquisitive English--Shelley in Venice--_Julian and Maddalo_--The view from the Lido--The madhouse--The Ducal prisons.
The name of Byron is so intimately associated with Venice that I think a brief account of his life there (so far as it can be told) might be found interesting.
It was suggested by Madame de Flanhault that Byron was drawn to Venice not only by its romantic character, but because, since he could go everywhere by water, his lameness would attract less attention than elsewhere.

Be that as it may, he arrived in Venice late in 1816, being then twenty-eight.

He lodged first in the Frezzeria, and at once set to work upon employments so dissimilar as acquiring a knowledge of the Armenian language in the monastery on the island of San Lazzaro and making love to the wife of his landlord.

But let his own gay pen tell the story.