an air of sadness about the woman. The speaker
then refers to a painting by Guido Reni, titled
‘‘The Penitent Magdalen,’’ and compares the
sorrowful, remorseful but lovely subject of the
poem, the biblical Mary Magdalen, with his
love, the subject of the poem. The poet is quick
to assert that she, however, unlike Mary Magda-
len, the bible’s famous whore, ‘‘hast nothing to
repent.’’ Emphasizing the woman’s unimpeach-
able virtue, the poet seems to be confirming what
biographers suspect: that Byron’s relationship
with Lady Frances was an intense emotional
affair, but one that left her vows to her husband
intact.
The second of the sonnets also includes a
brief litany of the subject’s beautiful physical
traits, her lovely complexion, her ‘‘deep-blue
eyes,’’ her ‘‘long dark lashes.’’ Clearly the speaker
is completely enamored with the woman in the
poem. As in the first sonnet, the poet refers to the
woman’s sadness, a sense of melancholy about
her. Biographers have suggested that Lady Fran-
ces’s marriage to Sir James was one of conven-
ience, as she sought to escape an unpleasant
family situation, while he was eager to marry the
daughter of an Earl. Perhaps the sadness the poet
observes is the woman’s struggle between her
sense of duty to her husband and her feelings for
the poet. The sonnet ends with the poet express-
ing his adoration and love for the woman.
The depth of feeling in these sonnets illumi-
nates the pain and regret expressed about the
same woman in ‘‘When We Two Parted.’’ In
that poem, the speaker focuses heavily on his
deep, enduring sadness but offers few glimpses
into the relationship itself, and what specifically
he misses about the woman. The reader knows
little about what made the poet love the woman
while they were together. After studying the
Genevra sonnets, the pain embedded in the ques-
tion ‘‘why wert thou so dear?’’ in ‘‘When We Two
Parted’’ becomes amplified, clarified. Now, the
reader has a better understanding of the
connection between Byron and Lady Frances.
The poet was perpetually moved by her beauty,
by her palpable sorrow, by her sweetness and
innocence. Knowing the events of 1816, how
Lady Frances had a scandalous affair with the
war hero, the Duke of Wellington, illuminates
the heavy notes of regret in ‘‘When We Two
Parted.’’ Lady Frances had chosen, after she
and Byron had terminated their relationship, to
have an affair, finally breaking her marriage
vows to Sir James. This perhaps explains the
intensity of the poet’s sorrow in ‘‘When We
Two Parted’’: Byron was not the man Lady
Frances chose to have an affair with. Not only
did she cast aside her much-admired (in the
Genevra sonnets) innocence, but the affair
became public knowledge due to the indiscretion
of Lady Frances and the Duke of Wellington.
‘‘Thy vows are all broken,’’ the poet states in
‘‘When We Two Parted,’’ ‘‘and light is they
fame.’’
The bitter tone in ‘‘When We Two Parted’’
fittingly underscores Byron’s sense of betrayal.
He hears the name of the woman he loved and he
‘‘share[s] in its shame,’’ feeling perhaps nearly as
humiliated as the woman’s husband. Marchand,
in his 1957 biography of Lord Byron, explains
that Byron’s publisher, John Murray, wrote to
Byron to inform him that Sir Wedderburn Web-
ster had won a libel law suit against a publication
which had written of the Lady Frances-Duke of
Wellington affair. Given the highly publicized
nature of Lady Frances’s association with the
Duke, the poet recalls his own relationship with
an unnamed woman in the Genevra sonnets and
in ‘‘When We Two Parted,’’ commenting that
others knew not of their flirtation; they, at
least, had managed to be discreet about their
feelings toward one another. He emphasizes
more than once the secretive nature of their meet-
ings. With the object of his affection involved
with another man, the speaker of ‘‘When We
Two Parted’’ wonders that the woman could for-
get him, and deceive him the way she has. The
Genevra sonnets reveal the woman’s power and
potential to wound the poet; the sonnets explicate
the virtues that the poet does not speak of in
‘‘When We Two Parted’’ but that he held dear
and regrets the loss of. Byron thought he knew
Lady Frances; he perceived her to be virtuous,
and innocent. He presumed, perhaps, that his
adoration of her was mutual. Yet although the
biographical subject of the Genevra poems and
‘‘When We Two Parted’’ is the same woman, sheTHE BITTER TONE IN ‘WHEN WE TWO PARTED’FITTINGLY UNDERSCORES BYRON’S SENSE OF
BETRAYAL.’’
When We Two Parted