was not irreverent or blasphemous, but it treated
accepted dogmas as open questions. _Cain_ was published in the same volume
with the _Two Foscari_ and _Sardanapalus_, December 19, 1821. The "Blues,"
a skit upon literary coteries and their patronesses, was written in August.
It was first published in _The Liberal_, No. III., April 26, 1823, When
_Cain_ was finished Byron turned from grave to gay, from serious to
humorous theology. Southey had thought fit to eulogize George III. in
hexameter verse. He called his funeral ode a "Vision of Judgment." In the
preface there was an obvious reference to Byron. The "Satanic School" of
poetry was attributed to "men of diseased hearts and depraved
imaginations." Byron's revenge was complete. In his "Vision of Judgment"
(published in _The Liberal_, No. I., October 15, 1822) the tables are
turned. The laureate is brought before the hosts of heaven and rejected by
devils and angels alike. In October Byron wrote _Heaven and Earth, a
Mystery_ (_The Liberal_, No. II., January 1, 1823), a lyrical drama based
on the legend of the "Watchers," or fallen angels of the Book of Enoch. The
countess and her family had been expelled from Ravenna in July, but Byron
still lingered on in his apartments in the Palazzo Guiccioli. At length
(October 28) he set out for Pisa. On the road he met his old friend, Lord
Clare, and spent a few minutes in his company. Rogers, whom he met at
Bologna, was his fellow-traveller as far as Florence. At Pisa he rejoined
the countess, who had taken on his behalf the Villa Lanfranchi on the Arno.
At Ravenna Byron had lived amongst Italians. At Pisa he was surrounded by a
knot of his own countrymen, friends and acquaintances of the Shelleys.
Among them were E.J. Trelawny, Thomas Medwin, author of the well-known
_Conversations of Lord Byron_ (1824), and Edward Elliker Williams. His
first work at Pisa was to dramatize Miss Lee's _Kruitzner, or the German's
Tale_. He had written a first act in 1815, but as the MS. was mislaid he
made a fresh adaptation of the story which he rechristened _Werner, or the
Inheritance_. It was finished on the 20th of January and published on the
23rd of November 1822. _Werner_ is in parts _Kruitzner_ cut up into loose
blank verse, but it contains lines and passages of great and original
merit. Alone of Byron's plays it took hold of the stage. Macready's
"Werner" was a famous impersonation.

In the spring of 1822 a heavy and unlooked-for sorrow be