Lektuere mich am unleidigsten beruehrt."

Perhaps the most interesting passage in this connection, because so
thoroughly characteristic of the Byronic pose in Heine, occurs in the
"Baeder von Lucca": "Lieber Leser, gehoerst du vielleicht zu jenen frommen
Voegeln, die da einstimmen in das Lied von Byronischer Zerrissenheit, das
mir schon seit zehn Jahren in allen Weisen vorgepfiffen und
vorgezwitschert worden ...? Ach, teurer Leser, wenn du ueber jene
Zerrissenheit klagen willst, so beklage lieber, dass die Welt selbst
mitten entzwei gerissen ist. Denn da das Herz des Dichters der
Mittelpunkt der Welt ist, so musste es wohl in jetziger Zeit jaemmerlich
zerrissen werden. Wer von seinem Herzen ruehmt, es sei ganz geblieben,
der gesteht nur, dass er ein prosaisches, weitabgelegenes Winkelherz
hat. Durch das meinige ging aber der grosse Weltriss, und eben deswegen
weiss ich, dass die grossen Goetter mich vor vielen andern hoch begnadigt
und des Dichtermaertyrtums wuerdig geachtet haben."[257] Here while
vociferously disclaiming all kinship or sympathy with Byron, he pays him
the flattering compliment of imitation. Probably nowhere in Byron could
we find a more pompous display of egoism under the guise of Weltschmerz.

Byron's Weltschmerz, like Heine's, had its first provocation in a purely
personal experience. "To a Lady"[258] and "Remembrance"[259] both give
expression in passionate terms to the poet's disappointed love for Mary
Chaworth, the parallel in Heine's case being his infatuation for his
cousin Amalie. The necessity for defending himself against a public
opinion actively hostile to his earliest poems,[260] largely diverted
Byron from this first painful theme, so that from this time on until he
left England, he is almost incessantly engaged in a bitter warfare
against the injustice of critics and of society. To this second period
Heine's development also shows a general resemblance. Thus far both
poets exhibit a purely egoistic type of Weltschmerz. But with his
separation from his wife in 1816, and his final departure from England,
that of Byron enters upon a third period and becomes cosmic. Ostracized
by English society, his relations with it finally severed, he disdains
to defend himself further against its criticism, and espouses the cause
of unhappy humanity. No longer his own personal woes, but rather those
of the nations of the earth are nearest his heart:

What are our woes and sufferance?...
......