“A Nameless Sort of Person”? Mobility and the Policing of Identity in Byron’s Italian Years

ABSTRACT

Romantic-period studies have been keenly sensitive to the notion of mobility across borders, both in literal and figurative terms, investigating it in relation to issues of personal and national identity. This essay discusses Byron’s various forms of border-crossing with specific reference to his Italian years, starting with the most immediate loco-geographic meaning of the term, that is, Byron’s traversing the many frontiers that marked the Italian territory, partitioned in a plurality of states. The focus is on Byron’s experience of the technologies of control which were set into place in the early nineteenth century, testified by his traveling papers and registered, often with a touch of humor, in his correspondence. Byron’s musings on the practices and implications of the documentary control of mobility and identity spilled over, in a more serious key, into the concerns of his poetic output, notably in the lines of his 1819 lyric “To the Po.” Translating the notion of borders and border-crossing onto the page, here Byron resisted the crystallizing of identity at work in the biopolitical domain by making the fluidity of the history-laden river Po the locus of his rebirth as transnational subject.

Acknowledgments

Byron’s and Lega Zambelli’s traveling documents are reproduced by kind permission of the British Library and the John Murray Archive at the National Library of Scotland.

Notes

1 My emphasis on the materiality of borders as a possible lens for reading the multiple issues, both personal and public, that coalesce around Byron’s self-representations owes much to the recent critical focus on the emergence of identification protocols and policing in Europe. Originating in the field of history and the social sciences (Noiriel; Meriggi 2000; Torpey; Caplan and Torpey; Geselle; Carnevale; Meriggi and Rao), it has been fruitfully applied to cultural and literary studies (Chalk; Gulddal; Gulddal and Payne).

2 Unless otherwise stated, all translations are mine. For composite passports and customs forms I have indicated handwritten insertions with italics.

3 On the debate within revolutionary France and the ensuing policy of surveillance see also Noiriel 78–85.

4 Lady Morgan here hints at the French etymology of the word “passport” as the act of passing (passe) through, as through a door (porte). Carnevale traces the origins of the document known as passe porte to mid-fifteenth-century France, where it guaranteed couriers a speedy passage through tollgates and city gates, dispensing them with the usual, lengthy controls on goods. This earlier document differed from its later-nineteenth-century version in that it did not imply any identification of the traveler (118). See also Noiriel 77 and Groebner 172–79.

5 The right-hand side of the passport, under the heading “The Pope’s Government / In the name of his Holiness Pope Pius VII Happily Reigning / The Cardinal Legate of Ravenna” reads: “All Civilian and Military authorities of the Papal State will freely allow the passage of Mr Antonio Lega Zambelli, from Brisighella, with Vincenzo Papi Roman Coachman aged 33, Giò Mannuzzi aged 44 and Giò Vecchi aged 58, Grooms, all in the service of the Noble Lord Byron, Peer of England who is proceeding to Pisa (Tuscany) and will aid him in case the need thereof arises. / By the same token, Foreign Civilian and Military Authorities are requested to do the same, in perfect reciprocation. / Issued in Ravenna, today the 26th of September 1821. / Validity one year / Price 1 scudo and 50 bajocchi.”

6 Byron vigorously objected to a reference to himself contained in Waldie’s Sketches Descriptive of Italy, published by Murray in 1820, where she recalled having “repeatedly declined an introduction to him while in Italy” (4: 160). Deeply offended, Byron penned a polemical reply that he peremptorily asked Murray to include in Marino Faliero (Letters 7: 173), but when he realized that the incriminated author was a woman, he asked Murray to omit the note (7: 183) and resented his not complying with the request (8: 136, 162, 178). Byron’s verdict on Waldie’s book is worth quoting for the light it throws on his gender biases and his idea of traveling: “Her book too (as a She book) is not a bad one—but she evidently don’t know the Italians—or rather don’t like them—and forgets the causes of their misery and profligacy … and has gone over Italy in company always a bad plan.—You must be alone with people to know them well.—” (7: 183–84).

7 The permit to stay signed by the Chief Constable of the Duchy of Genoa reads:

The Chief Constable of the Duchy of Genoa grants Lord Byron, Peer of England, together with his retinue, right of movement in this city. His residence, as stated by him, is at Palazzo Saluzzo in Albaro. The Passport which he deposited at the Constabulary offices on [pen flourish] will be returned to him at the time of departure. This permit is valid for one year, and will be null, if not renewed, at the expiry of this term. Issued in Genoa at the General Constabulary on 7 October 1822.

The Passport Byron was required to deposit is in all likelihood the one signed by Belgrave Hoppner (Figure 5).

8 “We, Count Ambrogio Cesare St. Martino d’Agliè, Knight Grand Cross of the Most Holy Maurizio and Lazaro Order, Extraordinary Envoy and Plenipotentiary Minister of H. M. the King of Sardinia at H. British M. / Pray all Civilian and Military Authorities, and whoever has the right thereto, to grant free passage to Lord Byron Peer of England who is departing from London to go to Italy, and not to cause or permit to be caused any impediment to him, nay, to grant him all the aid and assistance he might necessitate. To this end we have sent him this Passport, signed by us and bearing the Seal of our Arms. Issued in London, 17 April 1816.”

9 “We Richard Belgrave Hoppner … General Consul of His British Majesty in Venice and for the Austrian Ports in the Adriatic / Pray and request in the name of His Majesty all Admirals, Generals, Governors, Commandants, Magistrates and other Officers, both Civilian and Military, of whatsoever Princes and Nations friends and allies of His Majesty, not only to allow free passage to the very honorable Lord Byron Peer of England and his retinue with his servants … and luggage departing from here to go to Ravenna without causing or permitting to be caused any impediment to him, but also to grant him all the aid and all the assistance which he might necessitate along his route. This we promise to reciprocate on similar occasions. Issued in Venice on 15 December 1819 bearing the Seal of this Consulate.” The bottom and verso of this document bear a series of hand-written annotations, three of which (by the British Consul in Genoa, the police authorities of the Duchy of Genoa, and the Secretary of State of the Kingdom of Sardinia) authorize Byron’s departure for Zante, recognizing the validity of Byron’s passport.

10 See for example the letter of introduction that the merchant-banker Edward Ellice, later to become a prominent Whig politician, addressed in 1809 to Captain Henry Duncan, a Royal Navy officer then serving in the Mediterranean: “My Dear Duncan, If you should by chance meet my friend Lord Byron in the Mediterranean, on his passage to Turkey, may I buy the favour of y. attention and civilities to him. He goes in the Packet to Malta, from whence it may be in y. power to help him on to Constantinople if any of His Majesty’s vessels are going that way. I can only assure you that any [acceptable?] service you may be able to render him will confer a particular obligation on me. Yours most sincerely Edward Ellice. London 29 June 1809.”

11 Hazlitt’s quotation is from John Dryden, “Epistle to my Honour’d Kinsman, John Driden”: “Promoting Concord, and composing Strife, / Lord of your self, uncumber’d with a wife” (172).

12 Trans. Rev. Francis Wrangham.

13 See Sir Frederick’s recollection of his last efforts in favor of the Jacobite rebellion: “ … it was judged proper that I should accompany a detachment of Highlanders, who, under Brigadier MacIntosh of Borlum, crossed the Firth of Forth, traversed the low country of Scotland, and united themselves on the Borders with the English insurgents” (Scott 217).

14 With the words, “Give me life, which if I can save, so. If not, honour comes unlooked for, and there’s an end” (1 Henry IV 5.3.60–62), Falstaff envisages death as a possible outcome of the battle. Far from celebrating martial ethos, his lines confirm the skeptical outlook on the notion of heroism he voiced earlier in the play. Byron’s choice of quotation, together with the oblique reference to himself as “any of your acquaintance,” add a note of detachment to his presentation of the impending battle.

15 “Rejoice, my poet, / This is your children’s river, the river / Of a future and impending Italy; / Whose foams will shortly be tinged / With the vivid blood of the enemy” (8).

16 There was actually an earlier publication in the first issue of a journal called Attic Miscellany, where it accompanied a preview of Medwin’s volume (Stauffer 297–300).

Additional information

Funding

The research and writing of this essay were funded by the University of Eastern Piedmont (Università degli Studi del Piemonte Orientale).