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diff --git a/old/8blj210.txt b/old/8blj210.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6f4476b --- /dev/null +++ b/old/8blj210.txt @@ -0,0 +1,24922 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Works of Lord Byron: Letters and +Journals, Volume 2., by Lord Byron + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: The Works of Lord Byron: Letters and Journals, Volume 2. + +Author: Lord Byron + +Release Date: February, 2006 [EBook #9921] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on November 6, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BYRON: LETTERS AND JOURNALS, VOLUME 2 *** + + + + +Produced by Clytie Siddall, Keren Vergon, +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team! + + + + +THE WORKS + +OF + +LORD BYRON. + + + + +A NEW, REVISED AND ENLARGED EDITION, +WITH ILLUSTRATIONS. + + + + +Letters and Journals. Vol. II. + + + + + +EDITED BY +ROWLAND E. PROTHERO, M.A., +FORMERLY FELLOW OF ALL SOULS COLLEGE, OXFORD. + + + + + +PREFACE + + +The second volume of Mr. Murray's edition of Byron's 'Letters and +Journals' carries the autobiographical record of the poet's life from +August, 1811, to April, 1814. Between these dates were published 'Childe +Harold' (Cantos I., II.), 'The Waltz', 'The Giaour', 'The Bride of +Abydos', the 'Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte'. At the beginning of this +period Byron had suddenly become the idol of society; towards its close +his personal popularity almost as rapidly declined before a storm of +political vituperation. + +Three great collections of Byron's letters, as was noted in the Preface +[1] to the previous volume, are in existence. The first is contained in +Moore's 'Life' (1830); the second was published in America, in +FitzGreene Halleck's edition of Byron's 'Works' (1847); of the third, +edited by Mr. W.E. Henley, only the first volume has yet appeared. A +comparison between the letters contained in these three collections and +in that of Mr. Murray, down to December, 1813, shows the following +results: Moore prints 152 letters; Halleck, 192; Mr. Henley, 231. Mr. +Murray's edition adds 236 letters to Moore, 196 to Halleck, and to Mr. +Henley 157. It should also be noticed that the material added to Moore's +'Life' in the second and third collections consists almost entirely of +letters which were already in print, and had been, for the most part, +seen and rejected by the biographer. The material added in Mr. Murray's +edition, on the contrary, consists mainly of letters which have never +before been published, and were inaccessible to Moore when he wrote his +'Life' of Byron. + +These necessary comparisons suggest some further remarks. It would have +been easy, not only to indicate what letters or portions of letters are +new, but also to state the sources whence they are derived. But, in the +circumstances, such a course, at all events for the present, is so +impolitic as to be impossible. On the other hand, anxiety has been +expressed as to the authority for the text which is adopted in these +volumes. To satisfy this anxiety, so far as circumstances allow, the +following details are given. + +The material contained in these two volumes consists partly of letters +now for the first time printed; partly of letters already published by +Moore, Dallas, and Leigh Hunt, or in such books as Galt's 'Life of Lord +Byron', and the 'Memoirs of Francis Hodgson'. Speaking generally, it may +be said that the text of the new matter, with the few exceptions noted +below, has been prepared from the original letters, and that it has +proved impossible to authenticate the text of most of the old material +by any such process. + +The point may be treated in greater detail. Out of the 388 letters +contained in these two volumes, 220 have been printed from the original +letters. In these 220 are included practically the whole of the new +material. Among the letters thus collated with the originals are those +to Mrs. Byron (with four exceptions), all those to the Hon. Augusta +Byron, to the Hanson family, to James Wedderburn Webster, and to John +Murray, twelve of those to Francis Hodgson, those to the younger +Rushton, William Gifford, John Cam Hobhouse, Lady Caroline Lamb, Mrs. +Parker, Bernard Barton, and others. The two letters to Charles Gordon +(30, 33), the three to Captain Leacroft (62, 63, 64), and the one to +Ensign Long (vol. ii. p. 19, 'note'), are printed from copies only. + +The old material stands in a different position. Efforts have been made +to discover the original letters, and sometimes with success. But it +still remains true that, speaking generally, the printed text of the +letters published by Moore, Dallas, Leigh Hunt, and others, has not been +collated with the originals. The fact is important. Moore, who, it is +believed, destroyed not only his own letters from Byron, but also many +of those entrusted to him for the preparation of the 'Life', allowed +himself unusual liberties as an editor. The examples of this licence +given in Mr. Clayden's 'Rogers and his Contemporaries' throw suspicion +on his text, even where no apparent motive exists for his suppressions. +But, as Byron's letters became more bitter in tone, and his criticisms +of his contemporaries more outspoken, Moore felt himself more justified +in omitting passages which referred to persons who were still living in +1830. From 1816 onwards, it will be found that he has transferred +passages from one letter to another, or printed two letters as one, and +'vice versâ', or made such large omissions as to shorten letters, in +some instances, by a third or even a half. No collation with the +originals has ever been attempted, and the garbled text which Moore +printed is the only text at present available for an edition of the most +important of Byron's letters. But the originals of the majority of the +letters published in the 'Life', from 1816 to 1824, are in the +possession or control of Mr. Murray, and in his edition they will be for +the first time printed as they were written. If any passages are +omitted, the omissions will be indicated. + +Besides the new letters contained in this volume, passages have been +restored from Byron's manuscript notes ('Detached Thoughts', 1821). To +these have been added Sir Walter Scott's comments, collated with the +originals, and, in several instances, now for the first time published. + +Appendix VII. contains a collection of the attacks made upon him in the +Tory press for February and March, 1814, which led him, for the moment, +to resolve on abandoning his literary work. + +In conclusion, I wish to repeat my acknowledgment of the invaluable aid +of the 'National Dictionary of Biography', both in the facts which it +supplies and the sources of information which it suggests. + +R.E. PROTHERO. + +September, 1898. + + + +[Footnote 1: Also available from Project Gutenberg in text and html form.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +LIST OF LETTERS. + +1811. + +169. Aug. 23. To John Murray +170. Aug. 24. To James Wedderburn Webster +171. Aug. 25. To R.C. Dallas +172. Aug. 27. " " +173. Aug. 30. To the Hon. Augusta Leigh +174. Aug. 30. " " " +175. Aug. 31. To James Wedderburn Webster +176. Sept. 2. To the Hon. Augusta Leigh +177. Sept. 3. To Francis Hodgson +178. Sept. 4. To R.C. Dallas +179. Sept. 5. To John Murray +180. Sept. 7. To R.C. Dallas +181. Sept. 9. To the Hon. Augusta Leigh +182. Sept. 9. To Francis Hodgson +183. Sept. 10. To R.C. Dallas +184. Sept. 13. To Francis Hodgson +185. Sept. 14. To John Murray +186. Sept. 15. To R.C. Dallas +187. Sept. 16. To John Murray +188. Sept. 16. To R.C. Dallas +189. Sept. 17. " " +190. Sept. 17. " " +191. Sept. 21. " " +192. Sept. 23. " " +193. Sept. 25. To Francis Hodgson +194. Sept. 26. To R.C. Dallas +195. Oct. 10. To James Wedderburn Webster +196. Oct. 10. To R.C. Dallas +197. Oct. 11. " " +198. Oct. 13. To Francis Hodgson +199. Oct. 14. To R.C. Dallas +200. Oct. 16. " " +201. Oct. 25. " " +202. Oct. 27. To Thomas Moore +203. Oct. 29. To R.C. Dallas +204. Oct. 29. To Thomas Moore +205. Oct. 30. " " +206. Oct. 31. To R.C. Dallas +207. Nov. 1. To Thomas Moore +208. Nov. 17. To Francis Hodgson +209. Dec. 4. " " +210. Dec. 6. To William Harness +211. Dec. 7. To James Wedderburn Webster +212. Dec. 8. To William Harness +213. Dec. 8. To Francis Hodgson +214. Dec. 11. To Thomas Moore +215. Dec. 12. To Francis Hodgson +216. Undated. R.C. Dallas +217. Dec. 15. To William Harness + + +1812. + +218. Jan. 21. To Robert Rushton +219. Jan. 25. " " +220. Jan. 29. To Thomas Moore +221. Feb. 1. To Francis Hodgson +222. Feb. 4. To Samuel Rogers +223. Feb. 12. To Master John Cowell +224. Feb. 16. To Francis Hodgson +225. Feb. 21. " " +226. Feb. 25. To Lord Holland +227. March 5. To Francis Hodgson +228. March 5. To Lord Holland +229. Undated. To Thomas Moore +230. Undated. To William Bankes +231. March 25. To Thomas Moore +232. Undated. To Lady Caroline Lamb +233. April 20. To William Bankes +234. Undated. To Thomas Moore +235. May 1. To Lady Caroline Lamb +236. May 8. To Thomas Moore +237. May 20. " " +238. June 1. To Bernard Barton +239. June 25. To Lord Holland +240. June 26. To Professor Clarke +241. July 6. To Walter Scott +242. Undated. To Lady Caroline Lamb +243. Sept. 5. To John Murray +244. Sept. 10. To Lord Holland +245. Sept. 14. To John Murray +246. Sept. 22. To Lord Holland +247. Sept. 23. " " +248. Sept. 24. " " +249. Sept. 25. " " +250. Sept. 26. " " +251. Sept. 27. " " +252. Sept. 27. " " +253. Sept. 27. To John Murray +254. Sept. 28. To Lord Holland +255. Sept. 28. " " +256. Sept. 28. To William Bankes +257. Sept. 29. To Lord Holland +258. Sept. 30. " " +259. Sept. 30. " " +260. Oct. 2. " " +261. Oct. 12. To John Murray +262. Oct. 14. To Lord Holland +263. Oct. 18. To John Hanson +264. Oct. 18. To John Murray +265. Oct. 18. To Robert Rushton +266. Oct. 19. To John Murray +267. Oct. 22. To John Hanson +268. Oct. 23. To John Murray +269. Oct. 31. To John Hanson +270. Nov. 8. " " +271. Nov. 16. " " +272. Nov. 22. To John Murray +273. Dec. 26. To William Bankes + + +1813. + +274. Jan. 8. To John Murray +275. Feb. 3. To Francis Hodgson +276. Feb. 3. To John Hanson +277. Feb. 20. To John Murray +278. Feb. 24. To Robert Rushton +279. Feb. 27. To John Hanson +280. March 1. " " +281. March 5. To ____ Corbet +282. March 6. To John Hanson +283. March 24. To Charles Hanson +284. March 25. To Samuel Rogers +285. March 26. To the Hon. Augusta Leigh +286. March 29. To John Murray +287. April 15. To John Hanson +288. April 17. " " +289. April 21. To John Murray +290. May 13. " " +291. May 19. To Thomas Moore +292. May 22. To John Murray +293. May 23. " " +294. June 2. " " +295. Undated. To Thomas Moore +296. June 3. To John Hanson +297. June 6. To Francis Hodgson +298. June 8. " " +299. June 9. To John Murray +300. June 12. " " +301. June 13. " " +302. June 18. " " +303. June 18. To W. Gifford +304. June 22. To John Murray +305. June 22. To Thomas Moore +306. June 26. To the Hon. Augusta Leigh +307. Undated. " " " +308. June 27. " " " +309. July 1. To John Murray +310. July 8. To Thomas Moore +311. July 13. " " +312. July 18. To John Hanson +313. July 22. To John Murray +314. July 25. To Thomas Moore +315. July 27. " " +316. July 28. " " +317. July 31 To John Murray +318. Aug. 2. To John Wilson Croker +319. Undated. To John Murray +320. Aug. 10. " " +321. Aug. 12. To James Wedderburn Webster +322. Aug. 22. To Thomas Moore +323. Aug. 26. To John Murray +324. Aug. 28. To Thomas Moore +325. Sept. 1. " " +326. Sept. 2. To James Wedderburn Webster +327. Sept. 5. To Thomas Moore +328. Sept. 8. " " +329. Sept. 9. " " +330. Sept. 15. To James Wedderburn Webster +331. Sept. 15. To the Hon. Augusta Leigh +332. Sept. 15. To John Murray +333. Sept. 25. To James Wedderburn Webster +334. Sept. 27. To Sir James Mackintosh +335. Sept. 27. To Thomas Moore +336. Sept. 29. To John Murray +337. Sept. 30. To James Wedderburn Webster +338. Oct. 1. To Francis Hodgson +339. Oct. 2. To Thomas Moore +340. Oct. 3. To John Murray +341. Oct. 10. To John Hanson +342. Oct. 10. To the Hon. Augusta Leigh +343. Oct. 12. To John Murray +344. Nov. 8. To the Hon. Augusta Leigh +345. Nov. 12. To John Murray +346. Nov. 12. To William Gifford +347. Nov. 12. To John Murray +348. Nov. 13. " " +349. Undated. " " +350. Nov. 13. " " +351. Nov. 14. " " +352. Nov. 15. " " +353. Nov. 17. " " +354. Nov. 20. " " +355. Nov. 22. " " +356. Nov. 23. " " +357. Nov. 24. " " +358. Nov. 27. " " +359. Nov. 28. " " +360. Nov. 29. To John Murray +361. Nov. 29. " " +362. Nov. 29 " " +363. Nov. 30. " " +364. Dec. 1. To Thomas Moore +365. Dec. 1. To Francis Hodgson +366. Dec. 2. To John Murray +367. Dec. 2. To Leigh Hunt +368. Dec. 3. To John Murray +369. Dec. 3. " " +370. Undated. " " +371. Dec. 4. " " +372. Dec. 6. " " +373. Dec. 8. To Thomas Moore +374. Dec. 11. To John Galt +375. Dec. 14. To John Murray +376. Dec. 14. To Thomas Ashe +377. Dec. 15. To Professor Clarke +378. Dec. 22. To Leigh Hunt +379. Dec. 27. To John Murray + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +CONTENTS + + V. CHILDE HAROLD, CANTOS I., II. + + VI. THE IDOL OF SOCIETY--THE DRURY LANE ADDRESS--SECOND SPEECH IN + PARLIAMENT + + VII. THE 'GIAOUR' AND 'BRIDE OF ABYDOS' + +VIII. JOURNAL: NOVEMBER, 14, 1813--APRIL 19, 1814 + +APPENDIX I. ARTICLES FROM 'THE MONTHLY REVIEW' + + " II. PARLIAMENTARY SPEECHES + + " III. LADY CAROLINE LAMB AND BYRON + + " IV. LETTERS OF BERNARD BARTON + + " V. CORRESPONDENCE WITH WALTER SCOTT + + " VI. "THE GIANT AND THE DWARF" + + " VII. ATTACKS UPON BYRON IN THE NEWSPAPERS FOR FEBRUARY AND + MARCH, 1814 + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + +AUGUST, 1811-MARCH, 1812. + + +'CHILDE HAROLD', CANTOS I., II. + + + + +169.--To John Murray. [1] + + +Newstead Abbey, Notts., August 23, 1811. + + +Sir,--A domestic calamity in the death of a near relation [2] has +hitherto prevented my addressing you on the subject of this letter. My +friend, Mr. Dallas, [3] has placed in your hands a manuscript poem +written by me in Greece, which he tells me you do not object to +publishing. But he also informed me in London that you wished to send +the MS. to Mr. Gifford. [4] Now, though no one would feel more gratified +by the chance of obtaining his observations on a work than myself, there +is in such a proceeding a kind of petition for praise, that neither my +pride--or whatever you please to call it--will admit. + +Mr. G. is not only the first satirist of the day, but editor of one of +the principal reviews. As such, he is the last man whose censure +(however eager to avoid it) I would deprecate by clandestine means. You +will therefore retain the manuscript in your own care, or, if it must +needs be shown, send it to another. Though not very patient of censure, +I would fain obtain fairly any little praise my rhymes might deserve, at +all events not by extortion, and the humble solicitations of a +bandied-about MS. I am sure a little consideration will convince you it +would be wrong. + +If you determine on publication, I have some smaller poems (never +published), a few notes, and a short dissertation on the literature of +the modern Greeks (written at Athens), which will come in at the end of +the volume.--And, if the present poem should succeed, it is my +intention, at some subsequent period, to publish some selections from my +first work,--my Satire,--another nearly the same length, and a few other +things, with the MS. now in your hands, in two volumes.--But of these +hereafter. You will apprize me of your determination. + +I am, Sir, your very obedient, humble servant, + +BYRON. + + + +[Footnote 1: For John Murray, see 'Letters', vol. i. p. 334, note 1 +[Footnote 1 to Letter 167].] + + +[Footnote 2: Mrs. Byron died August I, 1811.] + + +[Footnote 3: For R. C. Dallas, see 'Letters', vol. i. p. 168, note 1. +[Footnote 1 to Letter 87]] + + +[Footnote 4: For Gifford, the editor of the 'Quarterly Review', see +'Letters', vol. i. p. 198, note 2. [Footnote 4 of Letter 102]] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +170.--To James Wedderburn Webster. [1] + + +Newstead Abbey, August 24th, 1811. + + +MY DEAR W.,--Conceiving your wrath to be somewhat evaporated, and your +Dignity recovered from the _Hysterics_ into which my innocent note from +London had thrown it, I should feel happy to be informed how you have +determined on the disposal of this accursed Coach, [2] which has driven +us out of our Good humour and Good manners to a complete Standstill, +from which I begin to apprehend that I am to lose altogether your +valuable correspondence. Your angry letter arrived at a moment, to which +I shall not allude further, as my happiness is best consulted in +forgetting it. [3] + +You have perhaps heard also of the death of poor Matthews, whom you +recollect to have met at Newstead. He was one whom his friends will find +it difficult to replace, nor will Cambridge ever see his equal. + +I trust you are on the point of adding to your relatives instead of +losing them, and of _friends_ a man of fortune will always have a +plentiful stock--at his Table. + +I dare say now you are gay, and connubial, and popular, so that in the +next parliament we shall be having you a County Member. But beware your +Tutor, for I am sure he Germanized that sanguinary letter; you must not +write such another to your Constituents; for myself (as the mildest of +men) I shall say no more about it. + +Seriously, _mio Caro W._, if you can spare a moment from Matrimony, I +shall be glad to hear that you have recovered from the pucker into which +this _Vis_ (one would think it had been a _Sulky_) has thrown you; you +know I wish you well, and if I have not inflicted my society upon you +according to your own Invitation, it is only because I am not a social +animal, and should feel sadly at a loss amongst Countesses and Maids of +Honour, particularly being just come from a far Country, where Ladies +are neither carved for, or fought for, or danced after, or mixed at all +(publicly) with the Men-folks, so that you must make allowances for my +natural _diffidence_ and two years travel. + +But (God and yourself willing) I shall certes pay my promised visit, as +I shall be in town, if Parliament meets, in October. + +In the mean time let me hear from you (without a privy Council), and +believe me in sober sadness, + +Yours very sincerely, + +BYRON. + + + +[Footnote 1: James Wedderburn Webster (1789-1840), grandson of Sir A. +Wedderburn, Bart., whose third son, David, assumed the additional name +of Webster, was the author of 'Waterloo, and other Poems' (1816), and 'A +Genealogical Account of the Wedderburn Family' (privately printed, +1819). He was with Byron, possibly at Cambridge, certainly at Athens in +1810. He married, in 1810, Lady Frances Caroline Annesley, daughter of +Arthur, first Earl of Mountnorris and eighth Viscount Valencia. He was +knighted in 1822. Byron, in 1813, lent him £1000. Lady Frances died in +1837, and her husband in 1840. + +Moore ('Memoirs, Journals, etc.', vol. iii. p. 112) mentions dining with +Webster at Paris in 1820. + + "He told me," writes Moore, "that, one day, travelling from Newstead + to town with Lord Byron in his vis-a-vis, the latter kept his pistols + beside him, and continued silent for hours, with the most ferocious + expression possible on his countenance. + + 'For God's sake, my dear B.,' said W----at last, 'what are you + thinking of? Are you about to commit murder? or what other dreadful + thing are you meditating?' + + To which Byron answered that he always had a sort of presentiment that + his own life would be attacked some time or other; and that this was + the reason of his always going armed, as it was also the subject of + his thoughts at that moment." + +Moore also adds ('ibid'., p. 292), + + "W. W. owes Lord Byron, he says, £1000, and does not seem to have the + slightest intention of paying him." + +Lady Frances was the lady to whom Byron seriously devoted himself in +1813-4. Subsequently she was practically separated from her husband, and +Byron, in 1823, endeavoured to reconcile them. Moore ('Memoirs, +Journals, etc'., vol. ii. p. 249) writes, + + "To the Devizes ball in the evening; Lady Frances W. there; introduced + to her, and had much conversation, chiefly about our friend Lord B. + Several of those beautiful things, published (if I remember right) + with the 'Bride', were addressed to her. She must have been very + pretty when she had more of the freshness of youth, though she is + still but five or six and twenty; but she looks faded already" (1819). + +In the Court of Common Pleas, February 16, 1816, the libel action of +'Webster v. Baldwin' was heard. The plaintiff obtained £2000 in +damages for a libel charging Lady Frances and the Duke of Wellington +with adultery.] + + + +[Footnote 2: On his return to London in July, 1811, Byron ordered a +'vis-a-vis' to be built by Goodall. This he exchanged for a +carriage belonging to Webster, who, within a few weeks, resold the +'vis-a-vis' to Byron. The two following letters from Byron to +Webster explain the transaction:-- + + "Reddish's Hotel, 29th July, 1811. + + "MY DEAR WEBSTER,--As this eternal 'vis-a-vis' seems to sit heavy + on your soul, I beg leave to apprize you that I have arranged with + Goodall: you are to give me the promised Wheels, and the lining, with + 'the Box at Brighton,' and I am to pay the stipulated sum. + + I am obliged to you for your favourable opinion, and trust that the + happiness you talk so much of will be stationary, and not take those + freaks to which the felicity of common mortals is subject. I do very + sincerely wish you well, and am so convinced of the justice of your + matrimonial arguments, that I shall follow your example as soon as I + can get a sufficient price for my coronet. In the mean time I should + be happy to drill for my new situation under your auspices; but + business, inexorable business, keeps me here. Your letters are + forwarded. If I can serve you in any way, command me. I will endeavour + to fulfil your requests as awkwardly as another. I shall pay you a + visit, perhaps, in the autumn. Believe me, dear W., + + Yours unintelligibly, + + B." + + + + "Reddish's Hotel, July 31st, 1811. + + MY DEAR W. W.,--I always understood that the 'lining' was to + accompany the 'carriage'; if not, the 'carriage' may + accompany the 'lining', for I will have neither the one nor the + other. In short, to prevent squabbling, this is my determination, so + decide;--if you leave it to my 'feelings' (as you say) they are + very strongly in favour of the said lining. Two hundred guineas for a + carriage with ancient lining!!! Rags and rubbish! You must write + another pamphlet, my dear W., before; but pray do not waste your time + and eloquence in expostulation, because it will do neither of us any + good, but decide--content or 'not' content. The best thing you + can do for the Tutor you speak of will be to send him in your Vis + (with the lining) to 'the U--Niversity of Göttingen.' How can you + suppose (now that my own Bear is dead) that I have any situation for a + German genius of this kind, till I get another, or some children? I am + infinitely obliged by your invitations, but I can't pay so high for a + second-hand chaise to make my friends a visit. The coronet will not + 'grace' the 'pretty Vis,' till your tattered lining ceases to + 'dis'grace it. Pray favour me with an answer, as we must finish + the affair one way or another immediately,--before next week. + + Believe me, yours truly, + + BYRON." + + + "Byron," says Webster, in a note, "was more than strict about + trifles."] + + +[Footnote 3: The death of Mrs. Byron, August 1, 1811.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +171.--To R. C. Dallas. + + +Newstead Abbey, August 25, 1811. + + +Being fortunately enabled to frank, I do not spare scribbling, having +sent you packets within the last ten days. I am passing solitary, and do +not expect my agent to accompany me to Rochdale [1] before the second +week in September; a delay which perplexes me, as I wish the business +over, and should at present welcome employment. I sent you exordiums, +annotations, etc., for the forthcoming quarto, if quarto it is to be: +and I also have written to Mr. Murray my objection to sending the MS. to +Juvenal, [2] but allowing him to show it to any others of the calling. +Hobhouse [3] is amongst the types already: so, between his prose and my +verse, the world will be decently drawn upon for its paper-money and +patience. Besides all this, my 'Imitation of Horace' [4] is gasping for +the press at Cawthorn's, but I am hesitating as to the how and the when, +the single or the double, the present or the future. You must excuse all +this, for I have nothing to say in this lone mansion but of myself, and +yet I would willingly talk or think of aught else. + +What are you about to do? Do you think of perching in Cumberland, as you +opined when I was in the metropolis? If you mean to retire, why not +occupy Miss Milbanke's "Cottage of Friendship," late the seat of Cobbler +Joe, [5] for whose death you and others are answerable? His "Orphan +Daughter" (pathetic Pratt!) will, certes, turn out a shoemaking Sappho. +Have you no remorse? I think that elegant address to Miss Dallas should +be inscribed on the cenotaph which Miss Milbanke means to stitch to his +memory. + +The newspapers seem much disappointed at his Majesty's not dying, or +doing something better. [6] I presume it is almost over. If parliament +meets in October, I shall be in town to attend. I am also invited to +Cambridge for the beginning of that month, but am first to jaunt to +Rochdale. Now Matthews [7] is gone, and Hobhouse in Ireland, I have +hardly one left there to bid me welcome, except my inviter. At +three-and-twenty I am left alone, and what more can we be at seventy? It +is true I am young enough to begin again, but with whom can I retrace +the laughing part of life? It is odd how few of my friends have died a +quiet death,--I mean, in their beds. But a quiet life is of more +consequence. Yet one loves squabbling and jostling better than yawning. +This 'last word' admonishes me to relieve you from + +Yours very truly, etc. + + + +[Footnote 1: For Byron's Rochdale property, which was supposed to +contain a quantity of coal, see 'Letters', vol. i. p. 78, 'note' 2. +[Footnote 2 of Letter 34]] + + +[Footnote 2: Gifford.] + + +[Footnote 3: For John Cam Hobhouse, see 'Letters', vol. i. p. 163, +'note' 1. [Footnote 1 of Letter 86]] + + +[Footnote 4: The poem remained unpublished till after Byron's death. +(See 'note', p. 23, and 'Poems', ed. 1898, vol. i. pp. 385-450.) ] + + +[Footnote 5: + + "In Seaham churchyard, without any memorial," says Mr. Surtees, "rest + the remains of Joseph Blacket, an unfortunate child of genius, whose + last days were soothed by the generous attention of the family of + Milbanke." + +'Hist. of Durham', vol. i. p. 272. (See also 'Letters', vol. i. p. 314, +'note' 2 [Footnote 2 of Letter 154]. For Miss Milbanke, afterwards Lady +Byron, see p. 118, 'note' 4.) [Footnote 1 of Letter 7]] + + +[Footnote 6: On July 28, 1811, Lord Grenville wrote to Lord Auckland, + + "It is, I believe, certainly true that the King has taken for the last + three days scarcely any food at all, and that, unless a change takes + place very shortly in that respect, he cannot survive many days" + +('Auckland Correspondence', vol. iv. p. 366). It was, however, the mind, +and not the physical strength that failed. + + "The King, I should suppose," wrote Lord Buckinghamshire, on August + 13, "is not likely to die soon, but I fear his mental recovery is + hardly to be expected." + +('ibid'., vol. iv. p. 367). George III. never, except for brief +intervals, recovered his reason.] + + +[Footnote 7: For C. S. Matthews, see 'Letters', vol. i. p. 150, 'note' +3. [Footnote 2 of Letter 84]] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +172.--To R. C. Dallas. [1] + + +Newstead Abbey, Aug. 27, 1811. + +I was so sincere in my note on the late Charles Matthews, and do feel +myself so totally unable to do justice to his talents, that the passage +must stand for the very reason you bring against it. To him all the men +I ever knew were pigmies. He was an intellectual giant. It is true I +loved Wingfield [2] better; he was the earliest and the dearest, and one +of the few one could never repent of having loved: but in ability--ah! +you did not know Matthews! + +'Childe Harold' may wait and welcome--books are never the worse for +delay in the publication. So you have got our heir, George Anson Byron, +[3] and his sister, with you. + +You may say what you please, but you are one of the 'murderers' of +Blackett, and yet you won't allow Harry White's genius. [4] + +Setting aside his bigotry, he surely ranks next Chatterton. It is +astonishing how little he was known; and at Cambridge no one thought or +heard of such a man till his death rendered all notice useless. For my +own part, I should have been most proud of such an acquaintance: his +very prejudices were respectable. There is a sucking epic poet at +Granta, a Mr. Townsend, [5] 'protégé' of the late Cumberland. Did you +ever hear of him and his 'Armageddon'? I think his plan (the man I don't +know) borders on the sublime: though, perhaps, the anticipation of the +"Last Day" (according to you Nazarenes) is a little too daring: at +least, it looks like telling the Lord what he is to do, and might remind +an ill-natured person of the line, + + "And fools rush in where angels fear to tread." + +But I don't mean to cavil, only other folks will, and he may bring all +the lambs of Jacob Behmen about his ears. However, I hope he will bring +it to a conclusion, though Milton is in his way. + +Write to me--I dote on gossip--and make a bow to Ju--, and shake George +by the hand for me; but, take care, for he has a sad sea paw. + +P.S.--I would ask George here, but I don't know how to amuse him--all my +horses were sold when I left England, and I have not had time to replace +them. Nevertheless, if he will come down and shoot in September, he will +be very welcome: but he must bring a gun, for I gave away all mine to +Ali Pacha, and other Turks. Dogs, a keeper, and plenty of game, with a +very large manor, I have--a lake, a boat, houseroom, and _neat wines_. + + + +[Footnote 1: Dallas, writing to Byron, August 18, 1811, had said, + + "I have been reading the 'Remains' of Kirke White, and find that you + have to answer for misleading me. He does not, in my opinion, merit + the high praise you have bestowed upon him." + +Writing again, August 26, he objected to the 'note' on Matthews in +'Childe Harold': + + "In your note, as it stands, it strikes me that the eulogy on Matthews + is a 'little' at the expense of Wingfield and others whom you + 'have' commemorated. I should think it quite enough to say that + his Powers and Attainments were above all praise, without expressly + admitting them to be above that of a Muse who soars high in the praise + of others."] + + +[Footnote 2: For Wingfield, see 'Letters', vol. i, p. 180, 'note' 1. +[Footnote 2 of Letter 92]] + + +[Footnote: For George Anson Byron, afterwards Lord Byron, and his sister +Julia, see 'Letters', vol. i, p. 188, 'note' 1.[Footnote 1 of Letter +96]] + + +[Footnote 4: For H. K. White, see 'Letters', vol. i, p. 336, 'note' 2. +[Footnote 3 of Letter 167]] + + +[Footnote 5: The Rev. George Townsend (1788-1857) of Trinity College, +Cambridge, published 'Poems' in 1810, and eight books of his +'Armageddon' in 1815. The remaining four books were never published. +Townsend became a Canon of Durham in 1825, and held the stall till his +death in 1857. Richard Cumberland, dramatist, novelist, and essayist +(1732-1811), the "Sir Fretful Plagiary" of 'The Critic', announced the +forthcoming poem in the 'London Review'; but, as Townsend says, in the +Preface to 'Armageddon', praised him "too abundantly and prematurely." +"My talents," he adds, "were neither equal to my own ambition, nor his +zeal to serve me." (See 'Hints from Horace', lines 191-212, and Byron's +'note' to line 191, 'Poems', ed. 1898, vol. i. p. 403.)] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +173.--To the Hon. Augusta Leigh. [1] + +Newstead Abbey, August 30th, 1811. + +My Dear Augusta,--The embarrassments you mention in your last letter I +never heard of before, but that disease is epidemic in our family. +Neither have I been apprised of any of the changes at which you hint, +indeed how should I? On the borders of the Black Sea, we heard only of +the Russians. So you have much to tell, and all will be novelty. + +I don't know what Scrope Davies [2] meant by telling you I liked +Children, I abominate the sight of them so much that I have always had +the greatest respect for the character of Herod. But, as my house here +is large enough for us all, we should go on very well, and I need not +tell you that I long to see _you_. I really do not perceive any thing so +formidable in a Journey hither of two days, but all this comes of +Matrimony, you have a Nurse and all the etceteras of a family. Well, I +must marry to repair the ravages of myself and prodigal ancestry, but if +I am ever so unfortunate as to be presented with an Heir, instead of a +_Rattle_ he shall be provided with a _Gag_. + +I shall perhaps be able to accept D's invitation to Cambridge, but I +fear my stay in Lancashire will be prolonged, I proceed there in the 2d +week in Septr to arrange my coal concerns, & then if I can't persuade +some wealthy dowdy to ennoble the dirty puddle of her mercantile +Blood,--why--I shall leave England and all it's clouds for the East +again; I am very sick of it already. Joe [3] has been getting well of a +disease that would have killed a troop of horse; he promises to bear +away the palm of longevity from old Parr. As you won't come, you will +write; I long to hear all those unutterable things, being utterly unable +to guess at any of them, unless they concern _your_ relative the Thane +of Carlisle, [4] though I had great hopes we had done with him. + +I have little to add that you do not already know, and being quite +alone, have no great variety of incident to gossip with; I am but rarely +pestered with visiters, and the few I have I get rid of as soon as +possible. I will now take leave of you in the Jargon of 1794. "Health & +_Fraternity!"_ + +Yours always, B. + + + +[Footnote 1: For the Hon. Augusta Leigh, see 'Letters', vol. i. p. 18, +'note' 1. [Footnote 1 of Letter 7] Byron's letter is in answer to the +following from his half-sister: + + + "6 Mile Bottom, Aug. 27th. + + "My Dearest Brother,--Your letter was stupidly sent to Town to me on + Sunday, from whence I arrived at home yesterday; consequently I have + not received it so soon as I ought to have done. I feel so very happy + to have the pleasure of hearing from you that I will not delay a + moment answering it, altho' I am in all the delights of 'unpacking', + and afraid of being too late for the Post. + + "I have been a fortnight in Town, and went up on my 'eldest' little + girl's account. She had been very unwell for some time, and I could + not feel happy till I had better advice than this neighbourhood + affords. She is, thank Heaven! much better, and I hope in a fair way + to be quite 'herself' again. Mr. Davies flattered me by saying she was + exactly the sort of child 'you' would delight in. I am determined not + to say another word in her praise for fear you should accuse me of + partiality and expect too much. The youngest ('little' Augusta) is + just 6 months old, and has no particular merit at present but a very + sweet placid temper. + + "Oh! that I could immediately set out to Newstead and shew them to + you. I can't tell you 'half' the happiness it would give me to see it + and 'you'; but, my dearest B., it is a long journey and serious + undertaking all things considered. Mr. Davies writes me word you + promise to make him a visit bye and bye; 'pray do', you can then so + easily come here. I have set my heart upon it. Consider how very long + it is since I've seen you. + + "I have indeed 'much' to tell you; but it is more easily 'said' than + 'written'. Probably you have heard of many changes in our situation + since you left England; in a 'pecuniary' point of view it is + materially altered for the worse; perhaps in other respects better. + Col. Leigh has been in Dorsetshire and Sussex during my stay in Town. + I expect him at home towards the end of this week, and hope to make + him acquainted with you ere long. + + "I have not time to write half I have to say, for my letter must go; + but I prefer writing in a hurry to not writing at all. You can't think + how much I feel for your griefs and losses, or how much and constantly + I have thought of you lately. I began a letter to you in Town, but + destroyed it, from the fear of appearing troublesome. There are times, + I know, when one cannot write with any degree of comfort or + satisfaction. I intend to do so again shortly, so I hope yon won't + think me a bore. + + "Remember me most kindly to Old Joe. I rejoice to hear of his health + and prosperity. Your letter (some parts of it at least) made me laugh. + I am so very glad to hear you have sufficiently overcome your + prejudices against the 'fair sex' to have determined upon marrying; + but I shall be most anxious that my future 'Belle Soeur' should have + more attractions than merely money, though to be sure 'that' is + somewhat necessary. I have not another moment, dearest B., so forgive + me if I write again very soon, and believe me, + + "Your most affec'tn Sister, A. L. + + "Do write if you can."] + + +[Footnote 2: For Scrope Berdmore Davies, see 'Letters', vol. i. p. 165, +'note' 2. [Footnote 2 of Letter 86] The following story is told of him +by Byron, in a passage of his 'Detached Thoughts' (Ravenna, 1821): + + "One night Scrope Davies at a Gaming house (before I was of age), + being tipsy as he usually was at the Midnight hour, and having lost + monies, was in vain intreated by his friends, one degree less + intoxicated than himself, to come or go home. In despair, he was left + to himself and to the demons of the dice-box. + + "Next day, being visited about two of the Clock, by some friends just + risen with a severe headache and empty pockets (who had left him + losing at four or five in the morning), he was found in a sound sleep, + without a night-cap, and not particularly encumbered with + bed-cloathes: a Chamber-pot stood by his bed-side, brim-full + of---'Bank Notes!', all won, God knows how, and crammed, Scrope knew + not where; but THERE they were, all good legitimate notes, and to the + amount of some thousand pounds."] + + +[Footnote 3: For Joe Murray, see 'Letters', vol. i. p. 21, 'note' 3. +[Footnote 4 of Letter 7]] + + +[Footnote 4: For the Earl of Carlisle, see 'Letters', vol. i. p. 36, +'note' 2. [Footnote 3 of Letter 13]] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +174.-To the Hon. Augusta Leigh. + + +Newstead Abbey, Aug'st 30th, 1811. + + +MY DEAR AUGUSTA,--I wrote to you yesterday, and as you will not be very +sorry to hear from me again, considering our long separation, I shall +fill up this sheet before I go to bed. I have heard something of a +quarrel between your spouse and the Prince, I don't wish to pry into +family secrets or to hear anything more of the matter, but I can't help +regretting on your account that so long an intimacy should be dissolved +at the very moment when your husband might have derived some advantage +from his R. H.'s friendship. However, at all events, and in all +Situations, you have a brother in me, and a home here. + +I am led into this train of thinking by a part of your letter which +hints at pecuniary losses. I know how delicate one ought to be on such +subjects, but you are probably the only being on Earth _now_ interested +in my welfare, certainly the only relative, and I should be very +ungrateful if I did not feel the obligation. You must excuse my being a +little cynical, knowing how my _temper_ was tried in my Non-age; the +manner in which I was brought up must necessarily have broken a meek +Spirit, or rendered a fiery one ungovernable; the effect it has had on +mine I need not state. + +However, buffeting with the World has brought me a little to reason, and +two years travel in distant and barbarous countries has accustomed me to +bear privations, and consequently to laugh at many things which would +have made me angry before. But I am wandering--in short I only want to +assure you that I love you, and that you must not think I am +indifferent, because I don't shew my affection in the usual way. + +Pray can't you contrive to pay me a visit between this and Xmas? or +shall I carry you down with me from Cambridge, supposing it practicable +for me to come? You will do what you please, without our interfering +with each other; the premises are so delightfully extensive, that two +people might live together without ever seeing, hearing or meeting,--but +I can't feel the comfort of this till I marry. In short it would be the +most amiable matrimonial mansion, and that is another great inducement +to my plan,--my wife and I shall be so happy,--one in each Wing. If this +description won't make you come, I can't tell what will, you must please +yourself. Good night, I have to walk half a mile to my Bed chamber. +Yours ever, BYRON. + + + + + + * * * * * + + +175.--To James Wedderburn Webster. + + +Newstead Abbey, Notts., Aug'st 31st, 1811. + + +MY DEAR W.,--I send you back your friend's letter, and, though I don't +agree with his Canons of Criticism, they are not the worse for that. My +friend Hodgson [1] is not much honoured by the comparison to the +'Pursuits of L.', which is notoriously, as far as the 'poetry' goes, the +worst written of its kind; the World has been long but of one opinion, +viz. that it's sole merit lies in the Notes, which are indisputably +excellent. + +Had Hodgson's "Alterative" been placed with the 'Baviad' the compliment +had been higher to both; for, surely, the 'Baviad' is as much superior +to H.'s poem, as I do firmly believe H.'s poem to be to the 'Pursuits of +Literature'. + +Your correspondent talks for talking's sake when he says "Lady J. Grey" +is neither "Epic, dramatic, or legendary." Who ever said it was "epic" +or "dramatic"? he might as well say his letter was neither "epic or +dramatic;" the poem makes no pretensions to either character. +"Legendary" it certainly is, but what has that to do with its merits? +All stories of that kind founded on facts are in a certain degree +legendary, but they may be well or ill written without the smallest +alteration in that respect. When Mr. Hare prattles about the "Economy," +etc., he sinks sadly;--all such expressions are the mere cant of a +schoolboy hovering round the Skirts of Criticism. + +Hodgson's tale is one of the best efforts of his Muse, and Mr. H.'s +approbation must be of more consequence, before any body will reduce it +to a "Scale," or be much affected by "the place" he "assigns" to the +productions of a man like Hodgson. + +But I have said more than I intended and only beg you never to allow +yourself to be imposed upon by such "common place" as the 6th form +letter you sent me. Judge for yourself. + +I know the Mr. Bankes [2] you mention though not to that "extreme" you +seem to think, but I am flattered by his "boasting" on such a subject +(as you say), for I never thought him likely to "boast" of any thing +which was not his own. I am not "'melancholish'"--pray what "'folk'" +dare to say any such thing? I must contradict them by being 'merry' at +their expence. + +I shall invade you in the course of the winter, out of envy, as Lucifer +looked at Adam and Eve. + +Pray be as happy as you can, and write to me that I may catch the +infection. + +Yours ever, BYRON. + + + +[Footnote 1: Webster had sent Byron a letter from Naylor Hare, in which +the latter criticized Hodgson's poems, 'Lady Jane Grey, a Tale; and +other Poems (1809)' (see 'Letters', vol. i. p. 195, 'note 1' [Footnote 1 +of Letter 102]). + +In the volume (pp. 56-77) was printed his "Gentle Alterative prepared +for the Reviewers," which Hare apparently compared to 'The Pursuits of +Literature (1794-97)', by T. J. Mathias. + +To this criticism Byron objected, saying that the "Alterative" might be +more fairly compared to Gifford's 'Baviad' (1794).] + + +[Footnote 2: For William John Bankes, see 'Letters', vol. i. p. 120, +'note' 1. [Footnote 1 of Letter 67]] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +176.---To the Hon. Augusta Leigh. [1] + + +Newstead Abbey, Sept. 2d, 1811. + + +My dear Augusta,--I wrote you a vastly dutiful letter since my answer to +your second epistle, and I now write you a third, for which you have to +thank Silence and Solitude. Mr. Hanson [2] comes hither on the 14th, and +I am going to Rochdale on business, but that need not prevent you from +coming here, you will find Joe, and the house and the cellar and all +therein very much at your Service. + +As to Lady B., when I discover one rich enough to suit me and foolish +enough to have me, I will give her leave to make me miserable if she +can. Money is the magnet; as to Women, one is as well as another, the +older the better, we have then a chance of getting her to Heaven. So, +your Spouse does not like brats better than myself; now those who beget +them have no right to find fault, but _I_ may rail with great propriety. + +My "Satire!"--I am glad it made you laugh for Somebody told me in Greece +that you was angry, and I was sorry, as you were perhaps the only person +whom I did _not_ want to _make angry_. + +But how you will make _me laugh_ I don't know, for it is a vastly +_serious_ subject to me I assure you; therefore take care, or I shall +hitch _you_ into the next Edition to make up our family party. Nothing +so fretful, so despicable as a Scribbler, see what _I_ am, and what a +parcel of Scoundrels I have brought about my ears, and what language I +have been obliged to treat them with to deal with them in their own +way;--all this comes of Authorship, but now I am in for it, and shall be +at war with Grubstreet, till I find some better amusement. + +You will write to me your Intentions and may almost depend on my being +at Cambridge in October. You say you mean to be etc. in the _Autumn_; I +should be glad to know what you call this present Season, it would be +Winter in every other Country which I have seen. If we meet in October +we will travel in my _Vis_. and can have a cage for the children and a +cart for the Nurse. Or perhaps we can forward them by the Canal. Do let +us know all about it, your "_bright thought_" is a little clouded, like +the Moon in this preposterous climate. + +Good even, Child. + +Yours ever, B. + + + +[Footnote 1: The following is Mrs. Leigh's letter, to which the above is +an answer: + + "6 Mile Bottom, Saturday, 31 Aug. + + "My dearest brother,--I hope you don't dislike receiving letters so + much as writing them, for you would in that case pronounce me a great + torment. But as I prepared you in my last for its being followed very + soon by another, I hope you will have reconciled your mind to the + impending toil. I really wrote in such a hurry that I did not say half + I wished; but I did not like to delay telling you how happy you made + me by writing. I have been dwelling constantly upon the idea of going + to Newstead ever since I had your wish to see me there. At last a + _bright thought_ struck me. + + "We intend, I believe, to go to Yorkshire in the autumn. Now, if I + could contrive to pay you a visit _en passant_, it would be + delightful, and give me the greatest pleasure. But I fear you would be + obliged to make up your mind to receive my _Brats_ too. As for my + husband, he prefers the _outside of the Mail_ to _the inside of a + Post-Chaise_, particularly when partly occupied by Nurse and Children, + so that we always travel _independent_ of each other. + + "So much for this, my dear B. I can only say I should _much_ like to + see you at Newstead. The former I hope I shall at all events, as you + must not be shabby, but come to Cambridge as you promised. Are you + staying at Newstead now for any time? I saw George Byron in Town for + one day, and he promised to call or write again, but has not done + either, so I begin to think he has gone back to Lisbon. I think it is + impossible not to like him; he is so good-natured and natural. We + talked much of you; he told me you were grown very thin; as you don't + complain, I hope you are not the worse for being so, and I remember + you used to wish it. Don't you think _it a great shame_ that George B. + is not promoted? I wish there was any possibility of assisting him + about it; but all I know who _could_ do any good with you _present_ + Ministers, I don't for many reasons like to ask. Perhaps there may be + a change bye and bye. + + "Fred Howard is married to Miss _Lambton_. I saw them in town in their + way to Castle Howard. I hope he will be happy with all my heart; his + kindness and friendship to us last year, when Col. _Leigh_ was placed + in one of the most perplexing situations that I think anybody could be + in, is never to be forgotten. I think he used to be a greater + favourite with you than some others of his family. _Mrs. F.H._ is very + pretty, _very_ young (not quite 17), and appears gentle and pleasing, + which is all one can expect [to discover from] a very slight + acquaintance. + + "Now, my dearest Byron, pray let me hear from you. I shall be daily + expecting to hear of a _Lady Byron_, since you have confided to me + your determination of marrying, in which I really hope you are + serious, being convinced such an event would contribute greatly to + your happiness, PROVIDED _her Ladyship_ was the sort of person that + would suit you; and you won't be angry with me for saying that it is + not EVERY _one_ who would; therefore don't be too _precipitate_. You + will _wish me hanged_, I fear, for boring you so unmercifully, so God + bless you, my dearest Bro.; and, when you have time, do write. Are you + going to amuse us with any more _Satires_? Oh, _English Bards!_ I + shall make you laugh (when we meet) about it. + + "Ever your most affectionate Sis. and Friend, + + "A. L."] + + +[Footnote 2: For John Hanson, see Letters, vol. i. p. 8, note 2. +[Footnote 1 of Letter 3]] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +177.--To Francis Hodgson. + + +Newstead Abbey, Sept. 3, 1811. + + +MY DEAR HODGSON,--I will have nothing to do with your immortality; [1] +we are miserable enough in this life, without the absurdity of +speculating upon another. If men are to live, why die at all? and if +they die, why disturb the sweet and sound sleep that "knows no waking"? + + "Post Mortem nihil est, ipsaque Mors nihil ... quæris quo jaceas post + obitum loco? Quo _non_ Nata jacent." [2] + +As to revealed religion, Christ came to save men; but a good Pagan will +go to heaven, and a bad Nazarene to hell; "Argal" (I argue like the +gravedigger) why are not all men Christians? or why are any? If mankind +may be saved who never heard or dreamt, at Timbuctoo, Otaheite, Terra +Incognita, etc., of Galilee and its Prophet, Christianity is of no +avail: if they cannot be saved without, why are not all orthodox? It is +a little hard to send a man preaching to Judaea, and leave the rest of +the world--Negers and what not--_dark_ as their complexions, without a +ray of light for so many years to lead them on high; and who will +believe that God will damn men for not knowing what they were never +taught? I hope I am sincere; I was so at least on a bed of sickness in a +far-distant country, when I had neither friend, nor comforter, nor hope, +to sustain me. I looked to death as a relief from pain, without a wish +for an after-life, but a confidence that the God who punishes in this +existence had left that last asylum for the weary. + + [Greek: Hon ho theòs agapáei apothnáeskei néos.] [3] + +I am no Platonist, I am nothing at all; but I would sooner be a +Paulician, Manichean, Spinozist, Gentile, Pyrrhonian, Zoroastrian, than +one of the seventy-two villainous sects who are tearing each other to +pieces for the love of the Lord and hatred of each other. Talk of +Galileeism? Show me the effects--are you better, wiser, kinder by your +precepts? I will bring you ten Mussulmans shall shame you in all +goodwill towards men, prayer to God, and duty to their neighbours. And +is there a Talapoin, [4] or a Bonze, who is not superior to a +fox-hunting curate? But I will say no more on this endless theme; let me +live, well if possible, and die without pain. The rest is with God, who +assuredly, had He _come_ or _sent_, would have made Himself manifest to +nations, and intelligible to all. + +I shall rejoice to see you. My present intention is to accept Scrope +Davies's invitation; and then, if you accept mine, we shall meet _here_ +and _there_. Did you know poor Matthews? I shall miss him much at +Cambridge. + + + +[Footnote 1: The religious discussion arose out of the opening stanzas +of 'Childe Harold', Canto II., which Hodgson was helping to correct for +the press. + +Byron's opinions were not newly formed, as is shown by the following +letter to Ensign Long (see 'Letters', vol. i. p. 73, 'note 2' [Footnote +2 of Letter 31]), which reached the Editor too late for insertion in its +proper place: + + Southwell, Ap: 16th, 1807. + + "Your Epistle, my dear Standard Bearer, augurs not much in favour of + your new life, particularly the latter part, where you say your + happiest Days are over. I most sincerely hope not. The past has + certainly in some parts been pleasant, but I trust will be equalled, + if not exceeded by the future. You hope it is not so with me. + + "To be plain with Regard to myself. Nature stampt me in the Die of + Indifference. I consider myself as destined never to be happy, + although in some instances fortunate. I am an isolated Being on the + Earth, without a Tie to attach me to life, except a few + School-fellows, and a 'score of females.' Let me but 'hear my fame on + the winds' and the song of the Bards in my Norman house, I ask no more + and don't expect so much. Of Religion I know nothing, at least in its + 'favour'. We have 'fools' in all sects and Impostors in most; why + should I believe mysteries no one understands, because written by men + who chose to mistake madness for Inspiration, and style themselves + 'Evangelicals?' However enough on this subject. Your 'piety' will be + 'aghast,' and I wish for no proselytes. This much I will venture to + affirm, that all the virtues and pious 'Deeds' performed on Earth can + never entitle a man to Everlasting happiness in a future State; nor on + the other hand can such a Scene as a Seat of eternal punishment exist, + it is incompatible with the benign attributes of a Deity to suppose + so. + + "I am surrounded here by parsons and methodists, but, as you will + see, not infected with the mania. I have lived a 'Deist', what I shall + die I know not; however, come what may, 'ridens moriar'. + + "Nothing detains me here but the publication, which will not be + complete till June. About 20 of the present pieces will be cut out, + and a number of new things added. Amongst them a complete Episode of + Nisus and Euryalus from Virgil, some Odes from Anacreon, and several + original Odes, the whole will cover 170 pages. My last production has + been a poem in imitation of Ossian, which I shall not publish, having + enough without it. Many of the present poems are enlarged and altered, + in short you will behold an 'Old friend with a new face.' Were I to + publish all I have written in Rhyme, I should fill a decent Quarto; + however, half is quite enough at present. You shall have 'all' when we + meet. + + "I grow thin daily; since the commencement of my System I have lost 23 + lbs. in my weight '(i.e.)' 1 st. and 9 lbs. When I began I weighed 14 + st. 6 lbs., and on Tuesday I found myself reduced to 12 st. 11 lb. + What sayest thou, Ned? do you not envy? I shall still proceed till I + arrive at 12 st. and then stop, at least if I am not too fat, but + shall always live temperately and take much exercise. + + "If there is a possibility we shall meet in June. I shall be in Town, + before I proceed to Granta, and if the 'mountain will not come to + Mahomet, Mahomet will go to the mountain.' I don't mean, by comparing + you to the mountain, to insinuate anything on the Subject of your + Size. Xerxes, it is said, formed Mount Athos into the Shape of a + Woman; had he lived now, and taken a peep at Chatham, he would have + spared himself the trouble and made it unnecessary by finding a 'Hill' + ready cut to his wishes. + + "Adieu, dear Mont Blanc, or rather 'Mont Rouge'; don't, for Heaven's + sake, turn Volcanic, at least roll the Lava of your indignation in any + other Channel, and not consume Your's ever, + + "BYRON. + + "_Write Immediately_." + + +Byron lived to modify these opinions, as is shown by the following +passages from his 'Detached Thoughts': + + + "If I were to live over again, I do not know what I would change in my + life, unless it were 'for--not to have lived at all'. All history and + experience, and the rest, teaches us that the good and evil are pretty + equally balanced in this existence, and that what is most to be + desired is an easy passage out of it. What can it give us but years? + and those have little of good but their ending. + + "Of the immortality of the soul it appears to me that there can be + little doubt, if we attend for a moment to the action of mind; it is + in perpetual activity. I used to doubt of it, but reflection has + taught me better. It acts also so very independent of body--in dreams, + for instance;--incoherently and 'madly', I grant you, but still it is + mind, and much more mind than when we are awake. Now that this should + not act 'separately', as well as jointly, who can pronounce? The + stoics, Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius, call the present state 'a soul + which drags a carcass,'--a heavy chain, to be sure; but all chains + being material may be shaken off. How far our future life will be + 'individual', or, rather, how far it will at all resemble our + 'present' existence, is another question; but that the mind is eternal + seems as probable as that the body is not so. Of course I here venture + upon the question without recurring to Revelation, which, however, is + at least as rational a solution of it as any other. A 'material' + resurrection seems strange, and even absurd, except for purposes of + punishment; and all punishment which is to 'revenge' rather than + 'correct' must be 'morally wrong'; and 'when the world is at an end', + what moral or warning purpose 'can' eternal tortures answer? Human + passions have probably disfigured the divine doctrines here;--but the + whole thing is inscrutable." + + "It is useless to tell me 'not' to 'reason', but to 'believe'. You + might as well tell a man not to wake, but 'sleep'. And then to 'bully' + with torments, and all that! I cannot help thinking that the 'menace' + of hell makes as many devils as the severe penal codes of inhuman + humanity make villains." + + "Man is born 'passionate' of body, but with an innate though secret + tendency to the love of good in his main-spring of mind. But, God help + us all! it is at present a sad jar of atoms."] + + +[Footnote 2: The lines are quoted from Seneca's 'Troades' (act ii. et +seqq.): + + "Post mortem nihil est, ipsaque mors nihil. + ........ + ........ + Quæris, quo jaceas post obitum loco? + Quo non nata jacent."] + + +[Footnote 3: The sentiment is found in one of the [Greek: monóstichoi] +of Menander ('Menandri et Philemonis reliquiæ,' edidit Augustus Meineke, +p. 48). It is thus quoted by Stobæus ('Florilegium', cxx. 8) as an +iambic: + + [Greek: Hon oi theoì philoûsin apothnáeskei néos.] + +In the 'Comicorum Græcorum Sententiæ, id est' [Greek: gnômai](p. 219, +ed, Henricus Stephanus, MDLXIX.) it is quoted as a leonine verse: + + [Greek: Hon gàr philei theòs apothnáeskei néos.] + +Plautus gives it thus ('Bacchides', iv. 7): + + "Quem di diligunt adolescens moritur."] + + +[Footnote 4: The word is said to be illegible, and the conclusion of the +letter to be lost ('Memoir of the Rev. Francis Hodgson', vol. i. p. +196). Only the latter statement is correct. The word is perfectly +legible. Talapoin (Yule's 'Glossary of Anglo-Indian Words, sub voce') is +the name used by the Portuguese, and after them by the French writers, +and by English travellers of the seventeenth century (Hakluyt, ed. 1807, +vol. ii. p. 93; and Purchas, ed. 1645, vol. ii. p. 1747), to designate +the Buddhist monks of Ceylon and the Indo-Chinese countries. Pallegoix +('Description du Royaume Thai ou Siam', vol. ii. p. 23) says, + + "Les Européens les ont appelés 'talapoins', probablement du nom de + l'éventail qu'ils tiennent à la main, lequel s'appelle 'talapat', qui + signifie 'feuille de palmier'." + +Possibly Byron knew the word through Voltaire ('Dial.' xxii., 'André des +Couches à Siam'); + + "'A. des C.': Combien avez-vous de soldats? + + 'Croutef.': Quatre-vingt mille, fort médiocrement payés. + + 'A. des C.': Et de talapoins? + + 'Cr.': Cent vingt-mille, tous fainéans et trés riches," etc.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +178.--To R.C. Dallas. + + +Newstead Abbey, September 4th, 1811. + + +My dear Sir,--I am at present anxious, as Cawthorn seems to wish it, to +have a small edition of the 'Hints from Horace' [1] published +immediately, but the Latin (the most difficult poem in the language) +renders it necessary to be very particular not only in correcting the +proofs with Horace open, but in adapting the parallel passages of the +imitation in such places to the original as may enable the reader not to +lose sight of the allusion. I don't know whether I ought to ask you to +do this, but I am too far off to do it for myself; and if you condescend +to my school-boy erudition, you will oblige me by setting this thing +going, though you will smile at the importance I attach to it. + +Believe me, ever yours, + +BYRON. + + + +[Footnote 1: 'Hints from Horace', written during Byron's second stay at +Athens, March 11-14, 1811, and subsequently added to, had been placed in +the hands of Cawthorn, the publisher of 'English Bards, and Scotch +Reviewers', for publication. Byron afterwards changed his mind, and the +poem remained unpublished till after his death. + +The following letter from Cawthorn shows that considerable progress had +been made with the printing of the poem, and that Byron also +contemplated another edition of 'English Bards, and Scotch Reviewers'. +The advice of his friends led him to abandon both plans; but his letter +to Cawthorn, printed below, is evidence that in September he was still +at work on 'Hints from Horace': + + "24, Cockspur Street, Aug. 22'd, 1811. + + "My Lord,--Mr. Green the Amanuensis has finished the Latin of the + Horace, and I shall be happy to do with it as your Lordship may + direct, either to forward it to Newstead, or keep it in Town. Would it + not be better to print a small edition seperate ('sic'), and + afterwards print the two satires together? This I leave to your + Lordship's consideration. Four Sheets of the 'Travels' are already + printed, and one of the plates (Albanian Solain) is executed. I sent + it Capt. H[obhouse] yesterday to Cork, to see if it meets his + approbation. The work is printed in quarto, for which I may be in some + measure indebted to your Lordship, as I urged it so strongly. I shall + be extremely sorry if Capt. H. is not pleased with it, but I think he + will. Your Lordship's goodness will excuse me for saying how much the + very sudden and melancholy events that have lately transpired--I + regret--Capt. Hobhouse has written me since the decease of Mr. + Mathews. I am told Capt. H. is very much affected at it. I have + received some drawings of costumes from him, which I am to deliver to + your Lordship. Is it likely we shall see your Lordship in Town soon? + + "I have the honour to be your Lordship's + + "Most respectful and greatly obliged Servt., + + "JAMES CAWTHORN. + + "If a small edition is printed of 'Horace' for the first" [words + erased] "that, and I think in all probability the 'E. Bards' will want + reprinting about March next, when both could be done together. Do not + think me too sanguine." + +A few days later, Byron writes to Cawthom as follows: + + "Newstead Abbey, September 4th, 1811. + + "More notes for the 'Hints'! You mistake me much by thinking me + inattentive to this publication. If I had a friend willing and able to + correct the press, it should be out with my good will immediately. + Pray attend to annexing additional notes in their proper places, and + let them be added immediately. + + "Yours, etc., + + "BYRON."] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +179.--To John Murray. [1] + +Newstead Abbey, Notts., Sept. 5, 1811. + +SIR,--The time seems to be past when (as Dr. Johnson said) a man was +certain to "hear the truth from his bookseller," for you have paid me +so many compliments, that, if I was not the veriest scribbler on earth, +I should feel affronted. As I accept your compliments, it is but fair I +should give equal or greater credit to your objections, the more so as I +believe them to be well founded. With regard to the political and +metaphysical parts, I am afraid I can alter nothing; but I have high +authority for my Errors in that point, for even the 'Æneid' was a +_political_ poem, and written for a _political_ purpose; and as to my +unlucky opinions on Subjects of more importance, I am too sincere in +them for recantation. On Spanish affairs I have said what I saw, and +every day confirms me in that notion of the result formed on the Spot; +and I rather think honest John Bull is beginning to come round again to +that Sobriety which Massena's retreat [2] had begun to reel from its +centre--the usual consequence of _un_usual success. So you perceive I +cannot alter the Sentiments; but if there are any alterations in the +structure of the versification you would wish to be made, I will tag +rhymes and turn stanzas as much as you please. As for the "_Orthodox_," +let us hope they will buy, on purpose to abuse--you will forgive the +one, if they will do the other. You are aware that any thing from my pen +must expect no quarter, on many accounts; and as the present publication +is of a nature very different from the former, we must not be sanguine. + +You have given me no answer to my question--tell me fairly, did you show +the MS. to some of your corps? [3] + +I sent an introductory stanza to Mr. Dallas, that it might be forwarded +to you; the poem else will open too abruptly. The Stanzas had better be +numbered in Roman characters, there is a disquisition on the literature +of the modern Greeks, and some smaller poems to come in at the close. +These are now at Newstead, but will be sent in time. If Mr. D. has lost +the Stanza and note annexed to it, write, and I will send it +myself.--You tell me to add two cantos, but I am about to visit my +_Collieries_ in Lancashire on the 15th instant, which is so _unpoetical_ +an employment that I need say no more. + +I am, sir, your most obedient, etc., etc., + +BYRON. + + + +[Footnote 1: The following is Murray's letter, to which Byron replies: + + "London, Sept. 4, 1811, Wednesday. + + "MY LORD,--An absence of some days, passed in the country, has + prevented me from writing earlier in answer to your obliging letter. I + have now, however, the pleasure of sending under a separate cover, the + first proof sheet of your Lordship's 'Poem', which is so good as to be + entitled to all your care to render perfect. Besides its general + merit, there are parts, which, I am tempted to believe, far excel + anything that your Lordship has hitherto published, and it were + therefore grievous indeed, if you do not condescend to bestow upon it + all the improvement of which your Lordship's mind is so capable; every + correction already made is valuable, and this circumstance renders me + more confident in soliciting for it your further attention. + + "There are some expressions, too, concerning Spain and Portugal, + which, however just, and particularly so at the time they were + conceived, yet as they do not harmonize with the general feeling, + would so greatly interfere with the popularity which the poem is, in + other respects, so certainly calculated to excite, that, in compassion + to your publisher, who does not presume to reason upon the subject, + otherwise than as a mere matter of business, I hope your Lordship's + goodness will induce you to obviate them, and, with them, perhaps, + some religious feelings which may deprive me of some customers amongst + the 'Orthodox'. + + "Could I flatter myself that these suggestions were not obtrusive, I + would hazard another, in an earnest solicitation that your Lordship + would add the two promised Cantos, and complete the 'Poem'. It were + cruel indeed not to perfect a work which contains so much that is + excellent; your Fame, my Lord, demands it; you are raising a Monument + that will outlive your present feelings, and it should therefore be so + constructed as to excite no other associations than those of respect + and admiration for your Lordship's Character and Genius. + + "I trust that you will pardon the warmth of this address when I assure + your Lordship that it arises, in the greatest degree, in a sincere + regard for your lasting reputation, with, however, some view to that + portion of it, which must attend the Publisher of so beautiful a Poem, + as your Lordship is capable of rendering + + "'The Romaunt of Childe Harold'. + + "I have the honour to be, My Lord, + + "Your Lordship's + + "Obedient and faithful servant, + + "JOHN MURRAY."] + + +[Footnote 2: On the night of March 5, 1811, Massena retreated from his +camp at Santarem, whence he had watched Wellington at Torres Vedras, and +on April 4 he crossed the Coa into Spain.] + + +[Footnote 3: Murray had shown the MS. to Gifford for advice as to its +publication. Byron seems to have resented this on the ground that it +might look like an attempt to propitiate the 'Quarterly Review'.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +180.--To R. C. Dallas. + + +Newstead Abbey, September 7, 1811. + + +As Gifford has been ever my "Magnus Apollo," any approbation, such as +you mention, would, of course, be more welcome than "all Bocara's +vaunted gold", than all "the gems of Samarcand." [1] But I am sorry the +MS. was shown to him in such a manner, and had written to Murray to say +as much, before I was aware that it was too late. + +Your objection to the expression "central line" I can only meet by +saying that, before Childe Harold left England, it was his full +intention to traverse Persia, and return by India, which he could not +have done without passing the equinoctial. + +The other errors you mention, I must correct in the progress through the +press. I feel honoured by the wish of such men that the poem should be +continued, but to do that I must return to Greece and Asia; I must have +a warm sun, a blue sky; I cannot describe scenes so dear to me by a +sea-coal fire. I had projected an additional canto when I was in the +Troad and Constantinople, and if I saw them again, it would go on; but +under existing circumstances and 'sensations', I have neither harp, +"heart, nor voice" to proceed, I feel that 'you are all right' as to the +metaphysical part; but I also feel that I am sincere, and that if I am +only to write "ad captandum vulgus," I might as well edit a magazine at +once, or spin canzonettas for Vauxhall. [2] + +My work must make its way as well as it can; I know I have every thing +against me, angry poets and prejudices; but if the poem is a 'poem', it +will surmount these obstacles, and if 'not', it deserves its fate. Your +friend's Ode [3] I have read--it is no great compliment to pronounce it +far superior to Smythe's on the same subject, or to the merits of the +new Chancellor. It is evidently the production of a man of taste, and a +poet, though I should not be willing to say it was fully equal to what +might be expected from the author of "'Horae Ionicae'." [4] I thank you +for it, and that is more than I would do for any other Ode of the +present day. + +I am very sensible of your good wishes, and, indeed, I have need of +them. My whole life has been at variance with propriety, not to say +decency; my circumstances are become involved; my friends are dead or +estranged, and my existence a dreary void. In Matthews I have lost my +"guide, philosopher, and friend;" in Wingfield a friend only, but one +whom I could have wished to have preceded in his long journey. + +Matthews was indeed an extraordinary man; it has not entered into the +heart of a stranger to conceive such a man: there was the stamp of +immortality in all he said or did;--and now what is he? When we see such +men pass away and be no more--men, who seem created to display what the +Creator 'could make' his creatures, gathered into corruption, before the +maturity of minds that might have been the pride of posterity, what are +we to conclude? For my own part, I am bewildered. To me he was much, to +Hobhouse every thing. My poor Hobhouse doted on Matthews. For me, I did +not love quite so much as I honoured him; I was indeed so sensible of +his infinite superiority, that though I did not envy, I stood in awe of +it. He, Hobhouse, Davies, and myself, formed a coterie of our own at +Cambridge and elsewhere. Davies is a wit and man of the world, and feels +as much as such a character can do; but not as Hobhouse has been +affected. Davies, who is not a scribbler, has always beaten us all in +the war of words, and by his colloquial powers at once delighted and +kept us in order. Hobhouse and myself always had the worst of it with +the other two; and even Matthews yielded to the dashing vivacity of +Scrope Davies. But I am talking to you of men, or boys, as if you cared +about such beings. + +I expect mine agent down on the 14th to proceed to Lancashire, where I +hear from all quarters that I have a very valuable property in coals, +etc. I then intend to accept an invitation to Cambridge in October, and +shall, perhaps, run up to town. I have four invitations--to Wales, +Dorset, Cambridge, and Chester; but I must be a man of business. I am +quite alone, as these long letters sadly testify. I perceive, by +referring to your letter, that the Ode is from the author; make my +thanks acceptable to him. His muse is worthy a nobler theme. You will +write as usual, I hope. I wish you good evening, and am, etc. + + + +[Footnote 1: The lines, which are parodied in Byron's unpublished +'Barmaid', are from Sir W. Jones's translation of a song by Hafiz +('Works, vol. x. p. 251): + + "Sweet maid, if thou would'st charm my sight, + And bid these arms thy neck infold; + That rosy cheek, that lily hand, + Would give thy poet more delight, + Than all Bocara's vaunted gold, + Than all the gems of Samarcand."] + + +[Footnote 2: Vauxhall Gardens (1661 to July 25, 1859) were still not +only a popular but a fashionable resort, though fireworks and +masquerades threatened to expel musicians and vocalists. At this time +the principal singers were Charles Dignum (1765-1827); Maria Theresa +Bland (1769-1838), a famous ballad-singer; Rosoman Mountain, 'née' +Wilkinson (1768-1841), whose husband was a violinist and leader at +Vauxhall.--('The London Pleasure Gardens', pp. 286-326.)] + + +[Footnote 3: On June 29, 1811, the Duke of Gloucester was installed as +Chancellor of the University of Cambridge. The Installation Ode, written +by W. Smyth, of Peterhouse (1765-1849), Professor of Modern History at +Cambridge, and author of 'English Lyrics' (1797) and other works, was +set to music by Hague, and performed in the Senate House, Braham and +Ashe, it is said, particularly distinguishing themselves among the +performers. The Ode is given in the 'Annual Register' for 1811, pp. +593-596. The rival Ode, which Byron preferred, was by Walter Rodwell +Wright.] + + +[Footnote 4: For Walter Rodwell Wright, author of 'Horæ Ionicæ' (1809), +see Letters, vol. i. p. 336, 'note' 1. [Footnote 2 of Letter 167]] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +181.--To the Hon. Augusta Leigh. + + +[Six Mile Bottom, Newmarket.] + + +Newstead Abbey, Sept. 9th, 1811. + +My Dear Augusta,--My Rochdale affairs are understood to be settled as +far as the Law can settle them, and indeed I am told that the most +valuable part is that which was never disputed; but I have never reaped +any advantage from them, and God knows if I ever shall. Mr. H., my +agent, is a good man and able, but the most dilatory in the world. I +expect him down on the 14th to accompany me to Rochdale, where something +will be decided as to selling or working the Collieries. I am Lord of +the Manor (a most extensive one), and they want to enclose, which cannot +be done without me; but I go there in the worst humour possible and am +afraid I shall do or say something not very conciliatory. In short all +my affairs are going on as badly as possible, and I have no hopes or +plans to better them as I long ago pledged myself never to sell +Newstead, which I mean to hold in defiance of the Devil and Man. + +I am quite alone and never see strangers without being sick, but I am +nevertheless on good terms with my neighbours, for I neither ride or +shoot or move over my Garden walls, but I fence and box and swim and run +a good deal to keep me in exercise and get me to sleep. Poor Murray is +ill again, and one of my Greek servants is ill too, and my valet has got +a pestilent cough, so that we are in a peck of troubles; my family +Surgeon sent an Emetic this morning for _one_ of them, I did not very +well know _which_, but I swore _Somebody_ should take it, so after a +deal of discussion the Greek swallowed it with tears in his eyes, and by +the blessing of it, and the _Virgin_ whom he invoked to assist _it_ and +_him_, I suppose he'll be well tomorrow, if not, _another_ shall have +the _next_. So your Spouse likes children, _that_ is lucky as he will +have to bring them up; for my part (since I lost my Newfoundland dog,) I +like nobody except his successor a Dutch Mastiff and three land +Tortoises brought with me from Greece. + +I thank you for your letters and am always glad to hear from you, but if +you won't come here before Xmas, I very much fear we shall not meet +_here_ at all, for I shall be off somewhere or other very soon out of +this land of Paper credit (or rather no credit at all, for every body +seems on the high road to Bankruptcy), and if I quit it again I shall +not be back in a hurry. + +However, I shall endeavour to see you somewhere, and make my bow with +decorum before I return to the Ottomans, I believe I shall turn +Mussulman in the end. + +You ask after my health; I am in tolerable leanness, which I promote by +exercise and abstinence. I don't know that I have acquired any thing by +my travels but a smattering of two languages and a habit of chewing +Tobacco. [1] + +Yours ever, + +B. + + + +[Footnote 1: To appease the pangs of hunger, and keep down his fat, +Byron was in the habit of chewing gum-mastic and tobacco. For the same +reason, at a later date, he took opium. The mistake which he makes in +his letter to Hodgson (December 8,1811), "I do nothing but eschew +tobacco," is repeated in 'Don Juan' (Canto XII. stanza xiiii.)-- + + "In fact, there's nothing makes me so much grieve, + As that abominable tittle-tattle, + Which is the cud eschewed by human cattle."] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +182.--To Francis Hodgson. + + +Newstead Abbey, Sept. 9, 1811. + + +Dear Hodgson,--I have been a good deal in your company lately, for I +have been reading 'Juvenal' and 'Lady Jane', [1] etc., for the first +time since my return. The Tenth Sat'e has always been my favourite, as I +suppose indeed of everybody's. It is the finest recipe for making one +miserable with his life, and content to walk out of it, in any language. +I should think it might be redde with great effect to a man dying +without much pain, in preference to all the stuff that ever was said or +sung in churches. But you are a deacon, and I say no more. Ah! you will +marry and become lethargic, like poor Hal of Harrow, [2] who yawns at 10 +o' nights, and orders caudle annually. + +I wrote an answer to yours fully some days ago, and, being quite alone +and able to frank, you must excuse this subsequent epistle, which will +cost nothing but the trouble of deciphering. I am expectant of agents to +accompany me to Rochdale, a journey not to be anticipated with pleasure; +though I feel very restless where I am, and shall probably ship off for +Greece again; what nonsense it is to talk of Soul, when a cloud makes it +_melancholy_ and wine makes it _mad_. + +Collet of Staines, your "most kind host," has lost that girl you saw of +his. She grew to five feet eleven, and might have been God knows how +high if it had pleased Him to renew the race of Anak; but she fell by a +ptisick, a fresh proof of the folly of begetting children. You knew +Matthews. Was he not an intellectual giant? I knew few better or more +intimately, and none who deserved more admiration in point of ability. + +Scrope Davies has been here on his way to Harrowgate; I am his guest in +October at King's, where we will "drink deep ere we depart." "Won't you, +won't you, won't you, won't you come, Mr. Mug?" [3] We did not +amalgamate properly at Harrow; it was somehow rainy, and then a wife +makes such a damp; but in a seat of celibacy I will have revenge. Don't +you hate helping first, and losing the wings of chicken? And then, +conversation is always flabby. Oh! in the East women are in their proper +sphere, and one has--no conversation at all. My house here is a +delightful matrimonial mansion. When I wed, my spouse and I will be so +happy!--one in each wing. + +I presume you are in motion from your Herefordshire station, [4] and +Drury must be gone back to Gerund Grinding. I have not been at Cambridge +since I took my M.A. degree in 1808. _Eheu fugaces!_ I look forward to +meeting you and Scrope there with the feelings of other times. Capt. +Hobhouse is at Enniscorthy in Juverna. I wish he was in England. + +Yours ever, + +B. + + + +[Footnote 1: See 'Letters', vol. i. p. 195, 'note' I. [Footnote 1 of +Letter 102]] + + +[Footnote 2: For Henry Drury, see 'Letters', vol. i. p. 41, 'note' 2. +[Footnote 1 of Letter 14]] + + +[Footnote 3: Byron may possibly allude to "Matthew Mug," a character in +Foote's 'Mayor of Garratt', said to be intended for the Duke of +Newcastle. In act ii. sc. 2 of the comedy occurs this passage-- + + "'Heel-Tap'. Now, neighbours, have a good caution that this Master Mug + does not cajole you; he is a damn'd palavering fellow." + +But there is no passage in the play which exactly corresponds with +Byron's quotation.] + + +[Footnote 4: Hodgson was staying with his uncle, the Rev. Richard Coke, +of Lower Moor, Herefordshire.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +183.--To R.C. Dallas. + + +Newstead Abbey, Sept. 10, 1811. + + +Dear Sir,--I rather think in one of the opening stanzas of 'Childe +Harold' there is this line: + + 'Tis said at times the sullen tear would start. + +Now, a line or two after, I have a repetition of the epithet "_sullen_ +reverie;" so (if it be so) let us have "speechless reverie," or "silent +reverie;" but, at all events, do away the recurrence. + +Yours ever, + +B. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +184.--To Francis Hodgson. + + +Newstead Abbey, September 13, 1811. + + +My Dear Hodgson,--I thank you for your song, or, rather, your two +songs,--your new song on love, and your _old song_ on _religion_. [1] I +admire the _first_ sincerely, and in turn call upon you to _admire_ the +following on Anacreon Moore's new operatic farce, [2] or farcical +opera--call it which you will: + + Good plays are scarce, + So Moore writes _Farce_; + Is Fame like his so brittle? + We knew before + That "_Little's" Moore_, + But now _'tis Moore_ that's _Little_. + +I won't dispute with you on the Arcana of your new calling; they are +Bagatelles like the King of Poland's rosary. One remark, and I have +done; the basis of your religion is _injustice_; the _Son_ of _God_, the +_pure_, the _immaculate_, the _innocent_, is sacrificed for the +_Guilty_. This proves _His_ heroism; but no more does away _man's_ guilt +than a schoolboy's volunteering to be flogged for another would +exculpate the dunce from negligence, or preserve him from the Rod. You +degrade the Creator, in the first place, by making Him a begetter of +children; and in the next you convert Him into a Tyrant over an +immaculate and injured Being, who is sent into existence to suffer death +for the benefit of some millions of Scoundrels, who, after all, seem as +likely to be damned as ever. As to miracles, I agree with Hume that it +is more probable men should _lie_ or be _deceived_, than that things out +of the course of Nature should so happen. Mahomet wrought miracles, +Brothers [3] the prophet had _proselytes_, and so would Breslaw [4] the +conjuror, had he lived in the time of Tiberius. + +Besides I trust that God is not a _Jew_, but the God of all Mankind; and +as you allow that a virtuous Gentile may be saved, you do away the +necessity of being a Jew or a Christian. + +I do not believe in any revealed religion, because no religion is +revealed: and if it pleases the Church to damn me for not allowing a +_nonentity_, I throw myself on the mercy of the "_Great First Cause, +least understood_," who must do what is most proper; though I conceive +He never made anything to be tortured in another life, whatever it may +in this. I will neither read _pro_ nor _con_. God would have made His +will known without books, considering how very few could read them when +Jesus of Nazareth lived, had it been His pleasure to ratify any peculiar +mode of worship. As to your immortality, if people are to live, why die? +And our carcases, which are to rise again, are they worth raising? I +hope, if mine is, that I shall have a better _pair of legs_ than I have +moved on these two-and-twenty years, or I shall be sadly behind in the +squeeze into Paradise. Did you ever read "Malthus on Population"? If he +be right, war and pestilence are our best friends, to save us from being +eaten alive, in this "best of all possible Worlds." [5] + +I will write, read, and think no more; indeed, I do not wish to shock +your prejudices by saying all I do think. Let us make the most of life, +and leave dreams to Emanuel Swedenborg. Now to dreams of another +genus--Poesies. I like your song much; but I will say no more, for fear +you should think I wanted to scratch you into approbation of my past, +present, or future acrostics. I shall not be at Cambridge before the +middle of October; but, when I go, I should certes like to see you there +before you are dubbed a deacon. Write to me, and I will rejoin. + +Yours ever, BYRON. + + + +[Footnote 1: The lines in which Hodgson answered Byron's letter on his +religious opinions are quoted in the 'Memoir of the Rev. F. Hodgson', +vol. i. pp. 199, 200.] + + +[Footnote 2: Moore's 'M.P., or The Bluestocking', was played at the +Lyceum, September 9, 1811, but was soon withdrawn.] + + + +[Footnote 3: Richard Brothers (1757-1824) believed that, in 1795, he was +to be revealed as Prince of the Hebrews and ruler of the world. In that +year he was arrested, and confined first as a criminal lunatic, +afterwards in a private asylum, where he remained till 1806. A portrait +of "Richard Brothers, Prince of the Hebrews," was engraved, April, 1795, +by William Sharp, with the following inscription: + + "Fully believing this to be the Man whom God has appointed, I engrave + this likeness. William Sharp."] + + +[Footnote 4: See 'Breslaw's Last Legacy; or, the Magical Companion'. +Including the various exhibitions of those wonderful Artists, Breslaw, +Sieur Comus, Jonas, etc. (1784).] + + + +[Footnote 5: 'Candide, ou l'Optimisms' (chapitre xxx.): + + "et Pangloss disait quelquefois à Candide; Tous les événements sont + enchainés dans le meilleur des mondes possibles," etc. + +Hodgson replies (September 18, 1811): + + "Your last letter has unfeignedly grieved me. Believing, as I do from + my heart, that you would be better and happier by thoroughly examining + the evidences for Christianity, how can I hear you say you will not + read any book on the subject, without being pained? But God bless you + under all circumstances. I will say no more. Only do not talk of + 'shocking my prejudices,' or of 'rushing to see me 'before' I am a + Deacon.' I wish to see you at all times; and as to our different + opinions, we can easily keep them to ourselves." + +The next day he writes again: + + "Let me make one other effort. You mentioned an opinion of Hume's + about miracles. For God's sake,--hear me, Byron, for God's + sake--examine Paley's answer to that opinion; examine the whole of + Paley's 'Evidences'. The two volumes may be read carefully in less + than a week. Let me for the last time by our friendship, implore you + to read them."] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +185.--To John Murray. [1] + + +Newstead Abbey, Notts., Sept. 14, 1811. + + +Sir,--Since your former letter, Mr. Dallas informs me that the MS. has +been submitted to the perusal of Mr. Gifford, most contrary to my +wishes, as Mr. D. could have explained, and as my own letter to you did, +in fact, explain, with my motives for objecting to such a proceeding. +Some late domestic events, of which you are probably aware, prevented my +letter from being sent before; indeed, I hardly conceived you would have +so hastily thrust my productions into the hands of a Stranger, who could +be as little pleased by receiving them, as their author is at their +being offered, in such a manner, and to such a Man. + +My address, when I leave Newstead, will be to "Rochdale, Lancashire;" +but I have not yet fixed the day of departure, and I will apprise you +when ready to set off. + +You have placed me in a very ridiculous situation, but it is past, and +nothing more is to be said on the subject. You hinted to me that you +wished some alterations to be made; if they have nothing to do with +politics or religion, I will make them with great readiness. + +I am, Sir, etc., etc., BYRON. + + + +[Footnote 1: As soon as Byron came to town, he was a frequent visitor at +32, Fleet Street, while the sheets of 'Childe Harold' were passing +through the press. + + "Fresh from the fencing rooms of Angelo and Jackson, he used to amuse + himself by renewing his practice of 'Carte et Tierce', with his + walking-cane directed against the bookshelves, while Murray was + reading passages from the poem with occasional ejaculations of + admiration, on which Byron would say, 'You think that a good idea, do + you, Murray?' Then he would fence and lunge with his walking-stick at + some special book which he had picked out on the shelves before him. + As Murray afterwards said, 'I was often very glad to get rid of him!'" + +(Smiles's 'Memoir of John Murray', vol. i. p. 207).] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +186.--To R. C. Dallas. + + +Newstead Abbey, Sept. 15, 1811. + + +My dear Sir,--My agent will not he here for at least a week, and even +afterwards my letters will be forwarded to Rochdale. I am sorry that +Murray should _groan_ on my account, tho' _that_ is better than the +anticipation of applause, of which men and books are generally +disappointed. + +The notes I sent are _merely matter_ to be divided, arranged, and +published for _notes_ hereafter, in proper places; at present I am too +much occupied with earthly cares to waste time or trouble upon rhyme, or +its modern indispensables, annotations. + +Pray let me hear from you, when at leisure. I have written to abuse +Murray for showing the MS. to Mr. G., who must certainly think it was +done by my wish, though you know the contrary.--Believe me, Yours ever, +B-- + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +187.--To John Murray. + + +Newstead Abbey, Sept. 16, 1811. + + +DEAR SIR,--I return the proof, which I should wish to be shown to Mr. +Dallas, who understands typographical arrangements much better than I +can pretend to do. The printer may place the notes in his _own way_, or +any _way_, so that they are out of _my way_; I care nothing about types +or margins. + +If you have any communication to make, I shall be here at least a week +or ten days longer. I am, Sir, etc., etc., + +BYRON. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +188--To R. C. Dallas. + + +Newstead Abbey, Sept. 16, 1811. + + +DEAR SIR,--I send you a 'motto': + + "L'univers est une espèce de livre, dont on n'a lu que la première + page quand on n'a vu que son pays. J'en ai feuilleté un assez grand + nombre, que j'ai trouvé également mauvaises. Cet examen ne m'a point + été infructueux. Je haïssais ma patrie. Toutes les impertinences des + peuples divers, parmi lesquels j'ai vécu, m'ont réconcilié avec elle. + Quand je n'aurais tiré d'autre bénéfice de mes voyages que celui-là, + je n'en regretterais ni les frais, ni les fatigues." + +"Le Cosmopolite." [1] + +If not too long, I think it will suit the book. The passage is from a +little French volume, a great favourite with me, which I picked up in +the Archipelago. I don't think it is well known in England; Monbron is +the author; but it is a work sixty years old. + +Good morning! I won't take up your time. + +Yours ever, +BYRON. + + + +[Footnote 1: Fougeret de Monbron, born at Péronne, served in the 'Gardes +du Corps', but abandoned the sword for the pen, and published 'Henriade +Travestie' (1745); 'Préservatif Centre l'Anglomanie' (1787); and 'Le +Cosmopolite' (1750). His novels, 'Margot la Ravaudeuse, Thérlsé +Philosophe', and others, appeared under the name of Fougeret. He died in +1761. In that year was published in London an edition of 'Le +Cosmopolite, ou le Citoyen du Monde', par Mr. de Monbron, with the +motto, "Patria est ubicunque est bene" (Cic. 5, Tusc. 37). + +Byron's quotation is the opening paragraph of the book. The author, who +had travelled in England, returns to France a complete "Jacques +Rôt-de-Bif." He then visits Holland, the Low Countries, Constantinople, +Italy, Spain, Portugal, and England a second time. He finds that the +charm has vanished, and that the English are no better than their +neighbours. It is a cynical little book, abounding in such sayings as. +"Make acquaintances, not friends; intimacy breeds disgust;" "The best +fruit of travelling is the justification of instinctive dislikes." +Monbron, like Byron, ridicules the traveller's passion for collecting +broken statues and antiques.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +189.--To R. C. Dallas. + + +Newstead Abbey, Sept. 17, 1811. + + +I can easily excuse your not writing, as you have, I hope, something +better to do, and you must pardon my frequent invasions on your +attention, because I have at this moment nothing to interpose between +you and my epistles. + +I cannot settle to any thing, and my days pass, with the exception of +bodily exercise to some extent, with uniform indolence, and idle +insipidity. I have been expecting, and still expect, my agent, when I +shall have enough to occupy my reflections in business of no very +pleasant aspect. Before my journey to Rochdale, you shall have due +notice where to address me--I believe at the post-office of that +township. From Murray I received a second proof of the same pages, which +I requested him to show you, that any thing which may have escaped my +observation may be detected before the printer lays the corner-stone of +an _errata_ column. + +I am now not quite alone, having an old acquaintance and school-fellow +[1] with me, so _old_, indeed, that we have nothing _new_ to say on any +subject, and yawn at each other in a sort of _quiet inquietude_. I hear +nothing from Cawthorn, or Captain Hobhouse; and _their quarto_--Lord +have mercy on mankind! We come on like Cerberus with our triple +publications. [2] As for _myself_, by _myself_, I must be satisfied with +a comparison to _Janus_. + +I am not at all pleased with Murray for showing the MS.; and I am +certain Gifford must see it in the same light that I do. His praise is +nothing to the purpose: what could he say? He could not spit in the face +of one who had praised him in every possible way. I must own that I wish +to have the impression removed from his mind, that I had any concern in +such a paltry transaction. The more I think, the more it disquiets me; +so I will say no more about it. It is bad enough to be a scribbler, +without having recourse to such shifts to extort praise, or deprecate +censure. It is anticipating, it is begging, kneeling, adulating,--the +devil! the devil! the devil! and all without my wish, and contrary to my +express desire. I wish Murray had been tied to _Payne's_ neck when he +jumped into the Paddington Canal, [3] and so tell him,--_that_ is the +proper receptacle for publishers. You have thought of settling in the +country, why not try Notts.? I think there are places which would suit +you in all points, and then you are nearer the metropolis. But of this +anon. + +I am, yours, etc., +BYRON. + + + +[Footnote 1: John Claridge. (See 'Letters', vol. i. p. 267, 'note' 2.) +[Footnote 4 of Letter 136]] + + +[Footnote 2: i. e. 'Childe Harold', 'Hints from Horace', and 'Travels in +Albania.'] + + +[Footnote 3: Mr. Payne, of the firm of Payne and Mackinlay, the +publishers of Hodgson's 'Juvenal', committed suicide by drowning himself +in the Paddington Canal. Byron, in a note to 'Hints from Horace', line +657, thus applies the incident: + + "A literary friend of mine, walking out one lovely evening last + summer, on the eleventh bridge of the Paddington canal, was alarmed by + the cry of 'one in jeopardy:' he rushed along, collected a body of + Irish haymakers (supping on buttermilk in an adjacent paddock), + procured three rakes, one eel spear and a landing-net, and at last + ('horresco referens') pulled out--his own publisher. The unfortunate + man was gone for ever, and so was a large quarto wherewith he had + taken the leap, which proved, on inquiry, to have been Mr. Southey's + last work. Its 'alacrity of sinking' was so great, that it has never + since been heard of; though some maintain that it is at this moment + concealed at Alderman Birch's pastry-premises, Cornhill. Be this as it + may, the coroner's inquest brought in a verdict of ''Felo de + Bibliopolâ'' against a quarto unknown,' and circumstantial evidence + being since strong against the 'Curse of Kehama' (of which the above + words are an exact description), it will be tried by its peers next + session, in Grub Street--Arthur, Alfred, Davideis, Richard Coeur de + Lion, Exodus, Exodiad, Epigoniad, Calvary, Fall of Cambria, Siege of + Acre, Don Roderick, and Tom Thumb the Great, are the names of the + twelve jurors. The judges are Pye, Bowles, and the bell-man of St. + Sepulchre's." + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +190.--To R.C. Dallas. + + +Newstead Abbey, Sept. 17, 1811. + + +Dear Sir,--I have just discovered some pages of observations on the +modern Greeks, written at Athens by me, under the title of 'Noctes +Atticæ'. They will do to _cut up_ into notes, and to be _cut up_ +afterwards, which is all that notes are generally good for. They were +written at Athens, as you will see by the date. + +Yours ever, +B. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +191.--To R. C. Dallas. + + +Newstead Abbey, Sept, 21, 1811. + + +I have shown my respect for your suggestions by adopting them; but I +have made many alterations in the first proof, over and above; as, for +example: + + + Oh Thou, in _Hellas_ deem'd of heavenly birth, + etc., etc. + + Since _shamed full oft_ by _later lyres_ on earth, + Mine, etc. + + Yet there _I've wandered_ by the vaunted rill; + + +and so on. So I have got rid of Dr. Lowth and "drunk" to boot, and very +glad I am to say so. I have also sullenised the line as heretofore, and +in short have been quite conformable. + +Pray write; you shall hear when I remove to Lancashire. I have brought +you and my friend Juvenal Hodgson upon my back, on the score of +revelation. You are fervent, but he is quite _glowing_; and if he take +half the pains to save his own soul, which he volunteers to redeem mine, +great will be his reward hereafter. I honour and thank you both, but am +convinced by neither. Now for notes. Besides those I have sent, I shall +send the observations on the Edinburgh Reviewer's remarks on the modern +Greek, an Albanian song in the Albanian (_not Greek_) language, +specimens of modern Greek from their New Testament, a comedy of +Goldoni's translated, _one scene_, a prospectus of a friend's book, and +perhaps a song or two, _all_ in Romaic, besides their Pater Noster; so +there will be enough, if not too much, with what I have already sent. +Have you received the "Noctes Atticæ"? + +I sent also an annotation on Portugal. Hobhouse is also forthcoming. [1] + + + +[Footnote 1: That is, with his 'Travels in Albania', in part of which +Byron and his Greek servant, Demetrius, were assisting him with notes +and other material.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +192.--TO R. C. Dallas. + + +Newstead Abbey, Sept. 23, 1811. + + +_Lisboa_ [1] is the Portuguese word, consequently the very best. +Ulissipont is pedantic; and as I have _Hellas_ and _Eros_ not long +before, there would be something like an affectation of Greek terms, +which I wish to avoid, since I shall have a perilous quantity of +_modern_ Greek in my notes, as specimens of the tongue; therefore Lisboa +may keep its place. You are right about the _Hints_; they must not +precede the _Romaunt_; but Cawthorn will be savage if they don't; +however, keep _them_ back, and _him_ in _good humour_, if we can, but do +not let him publish. + +I have adopted, I believe, most of your suggestions, but "Lisboa" will +be an exception to prove the rule. I have sent a quantity of notes, and +shall continue; but pray let them be copied; no devil can read my hand. +By the by, I do not mean to exchange the ninth verse of the "Good +Night." [2] I have no reason to suppose my dog better than his brother +brutes, mankind; and _Argus_ we know to be a fable. The _Cosmopolite_ +was an acquisition abroad. I do not believe it is to be found in +England. It is an amusing little volume, and full of French flippancy. I +read, though I do not speak the language. + +I _will_ be angry with Murray. It was a bookselling, back-shop, +Paternoster-row, paltry proceeding; and if the experiment had turned out +as it deserved, I would have raised all Fleet Street, and borrowed the +giant's staff from St. Dunstan's church, [3] to immolate the betrayer of +trust. I have written to him as he never was written to before by an +author, I'll be sworn, and I hope you will amplify my wrath, till it has +an effect upon him. You tell me always you have much to write about. +Write it, but let us drop metaphysics;--on that point we shall never +agree. I am dull and drowsy, as usual. I do nothing, and even that +nothing fatigues me. + +Adieu. + + + +[Footnote 1: See 'Childe Harold', Canto I. stanza xvi., and Byron's +'note'.] + + +[Footnote 2: See 'Childe Harold', Canto I. The "Good Night" is placed +between stanzas xiii. and xiv. + + "And now I'm in the world alone, + Upon the wide, wide sea; + But why should I for others groan, + When none will sigh for me? + Perchance my dog will whine in vain, + Till fed by stranger hands; + But long ere I come back again + He'd tear me where he stands."] + + +[Footnote 3: St. Dunstan's in the West, before its rebuilding by Shaw +(1831-33), was one of the oldest churches in London. The clock, which +projected over the street, and had two wooden figures of wild men who +struck the hours with their clubs, was set up in 1671. Unless there was +a similar clock before this date, as is not improbable, Scott is wrong +in 'The Fortunes of Nigel', where he makes Moniplies stand "astonished +as old Adam and Eve ply their ding-dong." The figures, the removal of +which, it is said, brought tears to the eyes of Charles Lamb, were +bought by the Marquis of Hertford to adorn his villa in Regent's Park, +still called St. Dunstan's. Murray's shop at 32, Fleet Street, stood +opposite the church, the yard of which was surrounded with stationers' +shops, where many famous books of the seventeenth century were +published.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +193.--To Francis Hodgson. + + +Newstead Abbey, Sept. 25, 1811. + + +MY DEAR HODGSON,--I fear that before the latest of October or the first +of November, I shall hardly be able to make Cambridge. My everlasting +agent puts off his coming like the accomplishment of a prophecy. +However, finding me growing serious he hath promised to be here on +Thursday, and about Monday we shall remove to Rochdale. I have only to +give discharges to the tenantry here (it seems the poor creatures must +be raised, though I wish it was not necessary), and arrange the receipt +of sums, and the liquidation of some debts, and I shall be ready to +enter upon new subjects of vexation. I intend to visit you in Granta, +and hope to prevail on you to accompany me here or there or anywhere. + +I am plucking up my spirits, and have begun to gather my little sensual +comforts together. Lucy is extracted from Warwickshire; some very bad +faces have been warned off the premises, and more promising substituted +in their stead; the partridges are plentiful, hares fairish, pheasants +not quite so good, and the Girls on the Manor * * * * Just as I had +formed a tolerable establishment my travels commenced, and on my return +I find all to do over again; my former flock were all scattered; some +married, not before it was needful. As I am a great disciplinarian, I +have just issued an edict for the abolition of caps; no hair to be cut +on any pretext; stays permitted, but not too low before; full uniform +always in the evening; Lucinda to be commander--'vice' the present, +about to be wedded ('mem'. she is 35 with a flat face and a squeaking +voice), of all the makers and unmakers of beds in the household. + +My tortoises (all Athenians), my hedgehog, my mastiff and the other live +Greek, are all purely. The tortoises lay eggs, and I have hired a hen to +hatch them. I am writing notes for 'my' quarto (Murray would have it a +'quarto'), and Hobhouse is writing text for 'his' quarto; if you call on +Murray or Cawthorn you will hear news of either. I have attacked De +Pauw, [1] Thornton, [1] Lord Elgin, [2] Spain, Portugal, the 'Edinburgh +Review', [3] travellers, Painters, Antiquarians, and others, so you see +what a dish of Sour Crout Controversy I shall prepare for myself. It +would not answer for me to give way, now; as I was forced into +bitterness at the beginning, I will go through to the last. 'Væ Victis'! +If I fall, I shall fall gloriously, fighting against a host. + +'Felicissima Notte a Voss. Signoria,' + +B. + + + +[Footnote 1: 'Childe Harold', Canto II. note D, part ii.] + + +[Footnote 2: 'Ibid'., note A.] + + +[Footnote 3: 'Ibid'., note D, part iii.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +194.--To R. C. Dallas. + + +Newstead Abbey, Sept. 26, 1811. + + +MY DEAR SIR,-In a stanza towards the end of canto 1st, there is in the +concluding line, + + Some bitter bubbles up, and e'en on roses stings. + +I have altered it as follows: + + Full from the heart of joy's delicious springs + Some bitter o'er the flowers its bubbling venom flings. + +If you will point out the stanzas on Cintra [1] which you wish recast, I +will send you mine answer. Be good enough to address your letters here, +and they will either be forwarded or saved till my return. My agent +comes tomorrow, and we shall set out immediately. + +The press must not proceed of course without my seeing the proofs, as I +have much to do. Pray, do you think any alterations should be made in +the stanzas on Vathek? [2] + +I should be sorry to make any improper allusion, as I merely wish to +adduce an example of wasted wealth, and the reflection which arose in +surveying the most desolate mansion in the most beautiful spot I ever +beheld. + +Pray keep Cawthorn back; he was not to begin till November, and even +that will be two months too soon. I am so sorry my hand is +unintelligible; but I can neither deny your accusation, nor remove the +cause of it.--It is a sad scrawl, certes.--A perilous quantity of +annotation hath been sent; I think almost _enough_, with the specimens +of Romaic I mean to annex. + +I will have nothing to say to your metaphysics, and allegories of rocks +and beaches; we shall all go to the bottom together, so "let us eat and +drink, for tomorrow, etc." I am as comfortable in my creed as others, +inasmuch as it is better to sleep than to be awake. + +I have heard nothing of Murray; I hope he is ashamed of himself. He sent +me a vastly complimentary epistle, with a request to alter the two, and +finish another canto. I sent him as civil an answer as if I had been +engaged to translate by the sheet, declining altering anything in +sentiment, but offered to tag rhymes, and mend them as long as he liked. + +I will write from Rochdale when I arrive, if my affairs allow me; but I +shall be so busy and savage all the time with the whole set, that my +letters will, perhaps, be as pettish as myself. If so, lay the blame on +coal and coal-heavers. Very probably I may proceed to town by way of +Newstead on my return from Lancs. I mean to be at Cambridge in November, +so that, at all events, we shall be nearer. I will not apologise for the +trouble I have given and do give you, though I ought to do so; but I +have worn out my politest periods, and can only say that I am much +obliged to you. + +Believe me, yours always, + +BYRON. + + + +[Footnote 1: 'Childe Harold', Canto I. stanza xviii.] + + +[Footnote 2: 'i.e.' on Bedford (see 'Letters', vol. i. p. 228, 'note' 1 +[Footnote 2 of Letter 125]; and 'Childe Harold', Canto I, stanza +xxii.).] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +195.-To James Wedderburn Webster. + + +Newstead Abbey, Oct. 10th, 1811. + + +DEAR WEBSTER,--I can hardly invite a gentleman to my house a second time +who walked out of it the first in so singular a mood, but if you had +thought proper to pay me a visit, you would have had a "Highland +Welcome." + +I am only just returned to it out of Lancashire, where I have been on +business to a Coal manor of mine near Rochdale, and shall leave it very +shortly for Cambridge and London. My companions, or rather companion, +(for Claridge alone has been with me) have not been very amusing, and, +as to their "_Sincerity_," they are doubtless sincere enough for a man +who will never put them to the trial. Besides you talked so much of your +conjugal happiness, that an invitation from home would have seemed like +Sacrilege, and my rough Bachelor's Hall would have appeared to little +advantage after the "Bower of Armida" [1] where you have been reposing. + +I cannot boast of my social powers at any time, and just at present they +are more stagnant than ever. Your Brother-in-law [2] means to stand for +Wexford, but I have reasons for thinking the Portsmouth interest will be +against him; however I wish him success. Do _you_ mean to stand for any +place next election? What are your politics? I hope Valentia's Lord is +for the Catholics. You will find Hobhouse at Enniscorthy in the +contested County. + +Pray what has seized you? your last letter is the only one in which you +do not rave upon matrimony. Are there no symptoms of a young W.W.? and +shall I never be a Godfather? I believe I must be married myself soon, +but it shall be a secret and a Surprise. However, knowing your exceeding +discretion I shall probably entrust the secret to your silence at a +proper period. You have, it is true, invited me repeatedly to Dean's +Court [3] and now, when it is probable I might adventure there, you wish +to be off. Be it so. + +If you address your letters to this place they will be forwarded +wherever I sojourn. I am about to meet some friends at Cambridge and on +to town in November. + +The papers are full of Dalrymple's Bigamy [4] (I know the man). What the +Devil will he do with his _Spare-rib_? He is no beauty, but as lame as +myself. He has more ladies than legs, what comfort to a cripple! _Sto +sempre umilissimo servitore_. + +BYRON. + + + +[Footnote 1: Armida is the Sorceress, the niece of Prince Idreotes, in +Tasso's 'Jerusalem Delivered', in whose palace Rinaldo forgets his vow +as a crusader. Byron, in 'Don Juan' (Canto I. stanza lxxi.), says: + + "But ne'er magician's wand + Wrought change, with all Armida's fairy art, + Like what this light touch left on Juan's heart." + +In the Catalogue of Byron's books, sold April 5, 1816, appear four +editions of Tasso's 'Gerusalemme Liberata', being those of 1776, 1785, +1813, and one undated.] + + +[Footnote 2: For George Annesley, Lord Valentia, afterwards Earl of +Mountnorris (1769-1844), see 'Poems', ed. 1898, vol. i. p. 378, and +'note 5'.] + + +[Footnote 3: Near Wimborne, Dorset.] + + +[Footnote 4: The suit of 'Dalrymple' v. 'Dalrymple' was tried before Sir +William Scott, in the Consistory Court, Doctors' Commons, July 16, 1811. +The suit was brought by Mrs. Dalrymple ('née' Joanna Gordon) against +Captain John William Henry Dalrymple. By Scottish law he was held to +have been married to Miss Gordon, and his subsequent marriage with Miss +Manners, sister of the Duchess of St. Albans, was held to be illegal.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +196.--To R.C. Dallas. + + +Newstead Abbey, October 10th, 1811. + + +DEAR SIR,--Stanzas 24, 26, 29, [1] though _crossed_ must _stand_, with +their _alterations_. The other three [2] are cut out to meet your +wishes. We must, however, have a repetition of the proof, which is the +first. I will write soon. + +Yours ever, + +B. + +P.S.--Yesterday I returned from Lancs. + + + +[Footnote 1: The stanzas are xxiv., xxv., xxvi. of Canto I.] + + +[Footnote 2: The following are the three deleted stanzas: + + +XXV. + + "In golden characters, right well designed, + First on the list appeareth one 'Junot;' + Then certain other glorious names we find; + (Which rhyme compelleth me to place below--) + Dull victors! baffled by a vanquished foe, + Wheedled by conynge tongues of laurels due, + Stand, worthy of each other, in a row + Sirs Arthur, Harry, and the dizzard Hew + Dalrymple, seely wight, sore dupe of 'tother tew." + + +XXVII. + + "But when Convention sent his handy work, + Pens, tongues, feet, hands, combined in wild uproar; + Mayor, Alderman, laid down th' uplifted fork; + The bench of Bishops half forgot to snore; + Stern Cobbett, who for one whole week forbore + To question aught, once more with transport leapt, + And bit his dev'lish quill agen, and swore + With foe such treaty never should be kept. + Then burst the blatant beast, and roared and raged and--slept!!!" + + +XXVIII. + + "Thus unto heaven appealed the people; heaven, + Which loves the lieges of our gracious King, + Decreed that ere our generals were forgiven, + Inquiry should be held about the thing. + But mercy cloaked the babes beneath her wing; + And as they spared our foes so spared we them. + (Where was the pity of our sires for Byng?) + Yet knaves, not idiots, should the law condemn. + Then live ye, triumph gallants! and bless your judges' phlegm."] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +197.--To R.C. Dallas. + + +Newstead Abbey, Oct. 11, 1811. + + +I have returned from Lancashire, and ascertained that my property there +may be made very valuable, but various circumstances very much +circumscribe my exertions at present. I shall be in town on business in +the beginning of November, and perhaps at Cambridge before the end of +this month; but of my movements you shall be regularly apprised. Your +objections I have in part done away by alterations, which I hope will +suffice; and I have sent two or three additional stanzas for both +_"Fyttes."_ I have been again shocked with a _death_, and have lost one +very dear to me in happier times [1]; but "I have almost forgot the +taste of grief," and "supped full of horrors" [2] till I have become +callous, nor have I a tear left for an event which, five years ago, +would have bowed down my head to the earth. It seems as though I were to +experience in my youth the greatest misery of age. My friends fall +around me, and I shall be left a lonely tree before I am withered. Other +men can always take refuge in their families; I have no resource but my +own reflections, and they present no prospect here or hereafter, except +the selfish satisfaction of surviving my betters. I am indeed very +wretched, and you will excuse my saying so, as you know I am not apt to +cant of sensibility. + +Instead of tiring yourself with _my_ concerns, I should be glad to hear +_your_ plans of retirement. I suppose you would not like to be wholly +shut out of society? Now I know a large village, or small town, about +twelve miles off, where your family would have the advantage of very +genteel society, without the hazard of being annoyed by mercantile +affluence; where _you_ would meet with men of information and +independence; and where I have friends to whom I should be proud to +introduce you. There are, besides, a coffee-room, assemblies, etc., +etc., which bring people together. My mother had a house there some +years, and I am well acquainted with the economy of Southwell, the name +of this little commonwealth. Lastly, you will not be very remote from +me; and though I am the very worst companion for young people in the +world, this objection would not apply to _you_, whom I could see +frequently. Your expenses, too, would be such as best suit your +inclinations, more or less, as you thought proper; but very little would +be requisite to enable you to enter into all the gaieties of a country +life. You could be as quiet or bustling as you liked, and certainly as +well situated as on the lakes of Cumberland, unless you have a +particular wish to be _picturesque_. + +Pray, is your Ionian friend in town? You have promised me an +introduction. You mention having consulted some friend on the MSS. Is +not this contrary to our usual way? Instruct Mr. Murray not to allow his +shopman to call the work _Child of Harrow's Pilgrimage_!!!!! [3] as he +has done to some of my astonished friends, who wrote to inquire after my +_sanity_ on the occasion, as well they might. I have heard nothing of +Murray, whom I scolded heartily. Must I write more notes? Are there not +enough? Cawthorn must be kept back with the _Hints_. I hope he is +getting on with Hobhouse's quarto. Good evening. + +Yours ever, etc. + + + +[Footnote 1: The reference is to Edleston (see 'Letters', vol. i. p. +130, note 3 [Footnote 2 of Letter 74]), of whose death Miss Edleston had +recently sent Byron an account.] + + +[Footnote 2: + + "I have almost forgot the taste of fears: + ... + I have supp'd full with horrors." + +'Macbeth', act v. sc. 5.] + + +[Footnote 3: Francis Hodgson, writing to Byron, October 8, 1811, says, + + "Murray's shopman, taught, I presume, by himself, calls 'Psyche' + 'Pishy,' 'The Four Slaves of Cythera' 'The Four do. of Cythera,' and + 'Childe Harold's Pilgrimage' 'Child of Harrow's Pilgrimage.' This + misnomering Vendor of Books must have been misbegotten in some + portentous union of the Malaprops and the Slipslops."] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +198.--To Francis Hodgson. + + +Newstead Abbey, Oct. 13, 1811. + + +You will begin to deem me a most liberal correspondent; but as my +letters are free, you will overlook their frequency. I have sent you +answers in prose and verse to all your late communications; and though I +am invading your ease again, I don't know why, or what to put down that +you are not acquainted with already. I am growing _nervous_ (how you +will laugh!)--but it is true,--really, wretchedly, ridiculously, +fine-ladically _nervous_. Your climate kills me; I can neither read, +write, nor amuse myself, or any one else. My days are listless, and my +nights restless; I have very seldom any society, and when I have, I run +out of it. At "this present writing," there are in the next room three +_ladies_, and I have stolen away to write this grumbling letter.--I +don't know that I sha'n't end with insanity, for I find a want of method +in arranging my thoughts that perplexes me strangely; but this looks +more like silliness than madness, as Scrope Davies would facetiously +remark in his consoling manner. I must try the hartshorn of your +company; and a session of Parliament would suit me well,--any thing to +cure me of conjugating the accursed verb "_ennuyer_." + +When shall you be at Cambridge? You have hinted, I think, that your +friend Bland [1] is returned from Holland. I have always had a great +respect for his talents, and for all that I have heard of his character; +but of me, I believe he knows nothing, except that he heard my sixth +form repetitions ten months together at the average of two lines a +morning, and those never perfect. I remembered him and his _Slaves_ as I +passed between Capes Matapan, St. Angelo, and his Isle of Ceriga, and I +always bewailed the absence of the _Anthology_. I suppose he will now +translate Vondel, the Dutch Shakspeare, and _Gysbert van Amsteli_ [2] + +will easily be accommodated to our stage in its present state; and I +presume he saw the Dutch poem, where the love of Pyramus and Thisbe is +compared to the passion of Christ; also the love of Lucifer for Eve, and +other varieties of Low Country literature. + +No doubt you will think me crazed to talk of such things, but they are +all in black and white and good repute on the banks of every canal from +Amsterdam to Alkmaar. + +Yours ever, + +B. + +My poesy is in the hands of its various publishers; but the _Hints from +Horace_ (to which I have subjoined some savage lines on Methodism, [3] +and ferocious notes on the vanity of the triple Editory of the _Edin. +Annual Register_ [4]), my _Hints_, I say, stand still, and why?--I have +not a friend in the world (but you and Drury) who can construe Horace's +Latin or my English well enough to adjust them for the press, or to +correct the proofs in a grammatical way. So that, unless you have bowels +when you return to town (I am too far off to do it for myself), this +ineffable work will be lost to the world for--I don't know how many +_weeks_. + +_Childe Harold's Pilgrimage_ must wait till _Murray's_ is finished. He +is making a tour in Middlesex, and is to return soon, when high matter +may be expected. He wants to have it in quarto, which is a cursed +unsaleable size; but it is pestilent long, and one must obey one's +bookseller. I trust Murray will pass the Paddington Canal without being +seduced by Payne and Mackinlay's example,--I say Payne and Mackinlay, +supposing that the partnership held good. Drury, the villain, has not +written to me; "I am never (as Mrs. Lumpkin [5] says to Tony) to be +gratified with the monster's dear wild notes." + +So you are going (going indeed!) into orders. You must make your peace +with the Eclectic Reviewers--they accuse you of impiety, I fear, with +injustice. Demetrius, the "Sieger of Cities," is here, with "Gilpin +Horner." [6] + +The painter [7] is not necessary, as the portraits he already painted +are (by anticipation) very like the new animals.--Write, and send me +your "Love Song"--but I want _paulo majora_ from you. Make a dash before +you are a deacon, and try a _dry_ publisher. + +Yours always, + +B. + + + +[Footnote 1: For Robert Bland, see 'Letters', vol. i. p. 271, 'note' 1 +[Footnote 2 of Letter 137]. In his 'Four Slaves of Cythera' (1809), +Canto I., occur the following lines: + + "Now full in sight the Paphian gardens smile, + And thence by many a green and summer isle, + Whose ancient walls and temples seem to sleep, + Enshadowed on the mirror of the deep, + They coast along Cythera's happy ground, + Gem of the sea, for love's delight renown'd."] + + +[Footnote 2: Bland had been acting as English Chaplain in Holland. Joost +Van Vondel (1587-1679), born at Cologne of Anabaptist parents, became a +Roman Catholic in 1641. Most of his thirty-two tragedies are on +classical or religious subjects, and in the latter may be traced his +gradual change of faith. 'Gysbrecht van Amstel'(1637) is a play, the +action of which takes place on Christmas Day in the thirteenth century. +The scene is laid at Amsterdam, which is captured by a ruse like that of +the Greeks at Troy. The play appealed strongly to the patriotic +instincts of the Dutch by its prophecy of the future greatness of +Amsterdam. Vondel's 'Lucifer' (1654) has been often compared to +'Paradise Lost'. It also bears some affinities to 'Cain'. In it the +Archangel Lucifer rebels against God on learning the Divine intention to +take on Himself the nature, not of Angels, but of Man.] + + +[Footnote 3: 'Hints from Horace', lines 371-382.] + + +[Footnote 4: 'The Edinburgh Annual Register' (1808-26) was published by +John Ballantyne and Co. The prospectus promised a general history of +Europe; a collection of State papers; a chronicle of events; original +essays on morality, literature, and science; and articles on biography, +the useful arts, and meteorology. The Editor was Scott, and Southey was +responsible for the historical department. The first two parts, giving +the history of 1808, did not appear till July, 1810, and then with an +editorial apology for the omission of the articles on biography, the +useful arts, and meteorology; also with an explanation that the idea of +original essays on morality, literature, and science had been abandoned. +The venture, thus unfortunately launched, never succeeded. For Byron's +attack, see 'Hints from Horace', line 657, and his 'note'.] + + +[Footnote 5: This is an obvious slip for "Mrs. Hardcastle," who, in 'She +Stoops to Conquer' (act ii.), says, + + "I'm never to be delighted with your agreeable wild notes, unfeeling + monster!"] + + +[Footnote 6: Probably Demetrius, his Greek servant, whom he nicknames +after Demetrius Poliorcetes, and Claridge, who had bored Byron during a +long stay of three weeks.] + + +[Footnote 7: Barber, whom he had brought down to Newstead to paint his +wolf and his bear.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +199.--To R. C. Dallas. + + +Oct. 14, 1811. + + +DEAR SIR,--Stanza 9th, for Canto 2nd, somewhat altered, to avoid +recurrence in a former stanza. + + +STANZA 9. + + There, thou! whose love and life together fled, + Have left me here to love and live in vain:-- + Twined with my heart, and can I deem thee dead, + When busy Memory flashes o'er my brain? + Well--I will dream that we may meet again, + And woo the vision to my vacant breast; + If aught of young Remembrance then remain, + Be as it may + Whate'er beside Futurity's behest; + +or,-- + + Howe'er may be + For me 'twere bliss enough to see thy spirit blest! + + +I think it proper to state to you, that this stanza alludes to an event +which has taken place since my arrival here, and not to the death of any +_male_ friend. + +Yours, + +B. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +200.--To R. C. Dallas. + + +Newstead Abbey, Oct. 16, 1811. + + +I am on the wing for Cambridge. Thence, after a short stay, to London. +Will you be good enough to keep an account of all the MSS. you receive, +for fear of omission? Have you adopted the three altered stanzas of the +latest proof? I can do nothing more with them. I am glad you like the +new ones. Of the last, and of the _two_, I sent for a new edition, +to-day a _fresh note_. The lines of the second sheet I fear must stand; +I will give you reasons when we meet. + +Believe me, yours ever, + +BYRON. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +201.--To R. C. Dallas. + + +Cambridge, Oct. 25, 1811. + + +DEAR SIR,--I send you a conclusion to the _whole_. In a stanza towards +the end of Canto I. in the line, + + Oh, known the earliest and _beloved_ the most, + +I shall alter the epithet to "_esteemed_ the most." The present stanzas +are for the end of Canto II. For the beginning of the week I shall be at +No. 8, my old lodgings, in St. James' Street, where I hope to have the +pleasure of seeing you. + +Yours ever, + +B. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +202.--To Thomas Moore. [1] + + +Cambridge, October 27, 1811. + + +SIR,--Your letter followed me from Notts, to this place, which will +account for the delay of my reply. + +Your former letter I never had the honour to receive;--be assured in +whatever part of the world it had found me, I should have deemed it my +duty to return and answer it in person. + +The advertisement you mention, I know nothing of.--At the time of your +meeting with Mr. Jeffrey, I had recently entered College, and remember +to have heard and read a number of squibs on the occasion; and from the +recollection of these I derived all my knowledge on the subject, without +the slightest idea of "giving the lie" to an address which I never +beheld. When I put my name to the production, which has occasioned this +correspondence, I became responsible to all whom it might concern,--to +explain where it requires explanation, and, where insufficiently or too +sufficiently explicit, at all events to satisfy. My situation leaves me +no choice; it rests with the injured and the angry to obtain reparation +in their own way. + +With regard to the passage in question, _you_ were certainly _not_ the +person towards whom I felt personally hostile. On the contrary, my whole +thoughts were engrossed by one, whom I had reason to consider as my +worst literary enemy, nor could I foresee that his former antagonist was +about to become his champion. You do not specify what you would wish to +have done: I can neither retract nor apologise for a charge of falsehood +which I never advanced. + +In the beginning of the week, I shall be at No. 8, St. James's +Street.--Neither the letter nor the friend to whom you stated your +intention ever made their appearance. + +Your friend, Mr. Rogers, [2] or any other gentleman delegated by you, +will find me most ready to adopt any conciliatory proposition which +shall not compromise my own honour,--or, failing in that, to make the +atonement you deem it necessary to require. + +I have the honour to be, Sir, + +Your most obedient, humble servant, + +BYRON. + + + +[Footnote 1: Thomas Moore (1779-1852), by his literary and social gifts, +had made his name several years before 1811, when he first became +personally acquainted with Byron. His precocity was as remarkable as his +versatility. The son of a Dublin grocer, for whom his political interest +secured the post of barrack-master, he went, like Sheridan, to Samuel +Whyte's school, and was afterwards at Trinity College, Dublin. Before he +was fifteen he had written verses, including lines to Whyte, himself a +poet, the publication of which, in the 'Anthologia Hibernica' (October, +1793; February, March, and June, 1794), gained him a local reputation. +Coming to London in 1799, he read law at the Middle Temple. His 'Odes' +translated from Anacreon (1800), dedicated to the Prince of Wales, +opened to him the houses of the Whig aristocracy; and his powers as a +singer, an actor, a talker, and, later, as a satirist, made him a +favourite in society. In 1801 appeared his 'Poems: by the late Thomas +Little', amatory verses which Byron read, and imitated in some of the +silliest of his youthful lines. + +The review of Moore's 'Odes, Epistles, and Other Poems' (1806), which +appeared in the 'Edinburgh Review' for July, 1806, provoked Moore to +challenge Jeffrey. Their duel with "leadless pistols" led, not only to +Moore's friendship with Jeffrey, but, indirectly, as is seen from the +following letters, to Moore's acquaintance with Byron. Moore himself +contributed to the 'Edinburgh', between the years 1814 and 1834, essays +on multifarious subjects, from poetry to German Rationalism, from the +Fathers to French official life. In 1807 the first of the 'Irish +Melodies' was published; they continued to appear at irregular intervals +till 1834, when 122 had been printed. A master of the art of +versification, Moore sings, with graceful fancy, in a tone of mingled +mirth and melancholy, his love of his country, of the wine of other +countries, and the women of all countries. But, except in his +patriotism, he shows little depth of feeling. The 'Melodies' are the +work of a brilliantly clever man, endowed with an exquisite musical ear, +and a temperament that is rather susceptible than intense. With them may +be classed his 'National Airs' (1815) and 'Sacred Song' (1816). + +Moore had already found one field in which he excelled; it was not long +before he discovered another. His serious satires, 'Corruption' (1808), +'Intolerance' (1808), and 'The Sceptic' (1809), failed. His nature was +neither deep enough nor strong enough for success in such themes. In the +ephemeral strife of party politics he found his real province. Nothing +can be better of their kind than the metrical lampoons collected in +'Intercepted Letters, or the Twopenny Post-bag, by Thomas Brown the +Younger' (1813). In his hands the bow and arrows of Cupid become +formidable weapons of party warfare; nor do their ornaments impede the +movements of the archer. The shaft is gaily winged and brightly +polished; the barb sharp and dipped in venom; and the missile hums music +as it flies to its mark. Moore's satire is the satire of the Clubs at +its best; but it is scarcely the satire of literature. 'The Twopenny +Post-bag' was the parent of many similar productions, beginning with +'The Fudge Family in Paris' (1818), and ending with 'Fables for the Holy +Alliance' (1823), which he dedicated to Byron. + +As a serious poet, and the author of 'Lalla Rookh' (1817), 'The Loves of +the Angels' (1823), and 'Alciphron' (1839), Moore was perhaps overrated +by his contemporaries. In spite of their brightness of fancy, metrical +skill, and brilliant cleverness, they lack the greater elements of the +highest poetry. + +Moore's prose work begins, apart from his contributions to periodical +literature, with the 'Memoirs of Captain Rock' (1824), 'The Epicurean' +(1827), 'The Travels of an Irish Gentleman in Search of a Religion' +(1834), 'The History of Ireland' (1846); and a succession of +biographies--the life of 'Sheridan' (1825), of 'Byron' (1830), and 'Lord +Edward Fitzgerald' (1831)--complete the list. In the midst of his +biographical work, Moore was advised by Lord Lansdowne to write nine +lives at once, and print them together under the title of 'The Cat'. + +In 1811 Moore married Miss Elizabeth Dyke (born 1793), an actress who +fascinated him at the Kilkenny private theatricals in 1809. To the outer +world, Mrs. Moore's bird, as she called him, was a sprightly little +songster, who lived in a whirl of dinners, suppers, concerts, and +theatricals. These, as well as his private anxieties and misfortunes, +are recorded in the eight volumes of his 'Memoirs, Journals, and +Correspondence', which were edited by Lord John Russell, in 1853. Moore +was an excellent son, a good husband, an affectionate father, and to +Byron a loyal friend, neither envious nor subservient. Clare, Hobhouse, +and Moore were (Lady Blessington's 'Conversations', 2nd edition, 1850, +pp. 393, 394) the only persons whose friendship Byron never disclaimed. +He spoke of Moore ('ibid'., pp. 322, 323) as "a delightful companion, +gay without being boisterous, witty without effort, comic without +coarseness, and sentimental without being lachrymose. He reminds one of +the fairy who, whenever she spoke, let diamonds fall from her lips. My +'tête-à-tête' suppers with Moore are among the most agreeable +impressions I retain of the hours passed in London." + +In July, 1806, in consequence of the article in the 'Edinburgh Review' +on his recent volume of 'Poems', Moore sent, through his friend Hume, a +challenge to Jeffrey, who was seconded by Francis Horner, and a meeting +was arranged. Moore, who had only once in his life discharged a firearm +of any kind, and then nearly blew his thumb off, borrowed a case of +pistols from William Spencer, and bought in Bond Street enough powder +and bullets for a score of duels. The parties met at Chalk Farm; the +seconds loaded the pistols, placed the men at their posts, and were +about to give the signal to fire, when the police officers, rushing upon +them from behind a hedge, knocked Jeffrey's weapon from his hand, +disarmed Moore, and conveyed the whole party to Bow Street. They were +released on bail; but, on Moore returning to claim the borrowed pistols, +the officer refused to give them up, because only Moore's pistol was +loaded with ball. Horner, however, gave evidence that he had seen both +pistols loaded; and there, but for the reports circulated in the +newspapers, the affair would have ended. But the joke was too good to be +allowed to drop, and, in spite of Moore's published letter, he was for +months a target for the wits ('Memoirs, Journals, and Correspondence', +vol. i. pp. 199-208). + +In 'English Bards, etc.', lines 466, 467, and his 'note', Byron made +merry over "Little's leadless pistol," with the result that, when the +second edition o£ the satire was published, with his name attached, +Moore sent him the following letter:-- + +"Dublin, January 1, 1810. + +"My Lord,--Having just seen the name of 'Lord Byron' prefixed to a work +entitled 'English Bards, and Scotch Reviewers', in which, as it appears +to me, 'the lie is given' to a public statement of mine, respecting an +affair with Mr. Jeffrey some years since, I beg you will have the +goodness to inform me whether I may consider your Lordship as the author +of this publication. + +"I shall not, I fear, be able to return to London for a week or two; +but, in the mean time, I trust your Lordship will not deny me the +satisfaction of knowing whether you avow the insult contained in the +passages alluded to. + +"It is needless to suggest to your Lordship the propriety of keeping our +correspondence secret. + +"I have the honour to be, + +"Your Lordship's very humble servant, + +"THOMAS MOORE. + +"22, Molesworth Street." + +Owing to Byron's absence abroad, the letter never reached him; it was, +in fact, kept back by Hodgson. On his return to England, Moore, who in +the interval had married, sent him a second letter, restating the nature +of the insult he had received in 'English Bards'. + +"'It is now useless,' I continued ('Life', p. 143), 'to speak of the +steps with which it was my intention to follow up that letter. The time +which has elapsed since then, though it has done away neither the injury +nor the feeling of it, has, in many respects, materially altered my +situation; and the only object which I have now in writing to your +Lordship is to preserve some consistency with that former letter, and to +prove to you that the injured feeling still exists, however +circumstances may compel me to be deaf to its dictates, at present. When +I say "injured feeling," let me assure your Lordship that there is not a +single vindictive sentiment in my mind towards you. I mean but to +express that uneasiness, under (what I consider to be) a charge of +falsehood, which must haunt a man of any feeling to his grave, unless +the insult be retracted or atoned for; and which, if I did 'not' feel, I +should, indeed, deserve far worse than your Lordship's satire could +inflict upon me.' In conclusion I added, that so far from being +influenced by any angry or resentful feeling towards him, it would give +me sincere pleasure if, by any satisfactory explanation, he would enable +me to seek the honour of being henceforward ranked among his +acquaintance." + +Byron's letter of October 27, 1811. was written in reply to this second +letter from Moore.] + + +[Footnote 2: For Samuel Rogers, see p. 67, note 1.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +203.--To R. C. Dallas. + + +8, St. James's Street, 29th October, 1811. + + +DEAR SIR,--I arrived in town last night, and shall be very glad to see +you when convenient. + +Yours very truly, + +BYRON. + + + +204.--To Thomas Moore. [1] + + +8, St. James's Street, October 29, 1811. + +SIR,--Soon after my return to England, my friend, Mr. Hodgson, apprised +me that a letter for me was in his possession; but a domestic event +hurrying me from London immediately after, the letter (which may most +probably be your own) is still _unopened in his keeping_. If, on +examination of the address, the similarity of the handwriting should +lead to such a conclusion, it shall be opened in your presence, for the +satisfaction of all parties. Mr. H. is at present out of town;--on +Friday I shall see him, and request him to forward it to my address. + +With regard to the latter part of both your letters, until the principal +point was discussed between us, I felt myself at a loss in what manner +to reply. Was I to anticipate friendship from one, who conceived me to +have charged him with falsehood? Were not _advances_, under such +circumstances, to be misconstrued,--not, perhaps, by the person to whom +they were addressed, but by others? In _my_ case such a step was +impracticable. If you, who conceived yourself to be the offended person, +are satisfied that you had no cause for offence, it will not be +difficult to convince me of it. My situation, as I have before stated, +leaves me no choice. I should have felt proud of your acquaintance, had +it commenced under other circumstances; but it must rest with you to +determine how far it may proceed after so _auspicious_ a beginning. + +I have the honour to be, etc. + + + +[Footnote 1: Moore had replied, accepting Byron's explanation, and +adding, + + "As your Lordship does not show any wish to proceed beyond the rigid + formulary of explanation, it is not for me to make any further + advances. We Irishmen, in businesses of this kind, seldom know any + medium between decided hostility and decided friendship; but, as any + approaches towards the latter alternative must now depend entirely on + your Lordship, I have only to repeat that I am satisfied with your + letter, and that I have the honour to be," etc., etc.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +205.--To Thomas Moore. [1] + + +8, St. James's Street, October 30, 1811. + +SIR,--You must excuse my troubling you once more upon this very +unpleasant subject. It would be a satisfaction to me, and I should think +to yourself, that the unopened letter in Mr. Hodgson's possession +(supposing it to prove your own) should be returned _in statu quo_ to +the writer; particularly as you expressed yourself "not quite easy under +the manner in which I had dwelt on its miscarriage." + +A few words more, and I shall not trouble you further. I felt, and still +feel, very much flattered by those parts of your correspondence, which +held out the prospect of our becoming acquainted. If I did not meet them +in the first instance as perhaps I ought, let the situation I was placed +in be my defence. You have _now_ declared yourself _satisfied_, and on +that point we are no longer at issue. If, therefore, you still retain +any wish to do me the honour you hinted at, I shall be most happy to +meet you, when, where, and how you please, and I presume you will not +attribute my saying thus much to any unworthy motive. + +I have the honour to remain, etc. + + + +[Footnote 1: + + "Piqued," says Moore ('Life', 144), "at the manner in which my efforts + towards a more friendly understanding were received," + +he had briefly expressed his satisfaction at Byron's explanation, and +added that the correspondence might close.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +206.--To R. C. Dallas. + + +8, St. James's Street, October 31, 1811. + +DEAR SIR,--I have already taken up so much of your time that there needs +no excuse on your part, but a great many on mine, for the present +interruption. I have altered the passages according to your wish. With +this note I send a few stanzas on a subject which has lately occupied +much of my thoughts. They refer to the death of one to whose name you +are a _stranger_, and, consequently, cannot be interested. I mean them +to complete the present volume. They relate to the same person whom I +have mentioned in Canto 2nd, and at the conclusion of the poem. + +I by no means intend to identify myself with 'Harold', but to _deny_ all +connection with him. If in parts I may be thought to have drawn from +myself, believe me it is but in parts, and I shall not own even to that. +As to the _Monastic dome_, etc., [1] I thought those circumstances would +suit him as well as any other, and I could describe what I had seen +better than I could invent. I would not be such a fellow as I have made +my hero for all the world. + +Yours ever, + +B. + + + +[Footnote 1: 'Childe Harold', Canto II. stanza xlviii.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +207.--To Thomas Moore. + + +8, St. James's Street, November 1, 1811. + +Sir,--As I should be very sorry to interrupt your Sunday's engagement, +if Monday, or any other day of the ensuing week, would be equally +convenient to yourself and friend, I will then have the honour of +accepting his invitation. [1] + +Of the professions of esteem with which Mr. Rogers [2] has honoured me, +I cannot but feel proud, though undeserving. I should be wanting to +myself, if insensible to the praise of such a man; and, should my +approaching interview with him and his friend lead to any degree of +intimacy with both or either, I shall regard our past correspondence as +one of the happiest events of my life. I have the honour to be, + +Your very sincere and obedient servant, + +BYRON. + + + +[Footnote 1: Rogers has left an account of this dinner. + + "Neither Moore nor myself had ever seen Byron when it was settled that + he should dine at my house to meet Moore; nor was he known by sight to + Campbell, who, happening to call upon me that morning, consented to + join the party. I thought it best that I alone should be in the + drawing-room when Byron entered it; and Moore and Campbell accordingly + withdrew. Soon after his arrival, they returned; and I introduced them + to him severally, naming them as Adam named the beasts. When we sat + down to dinner, I asked Byron if he would take soup? 'No; he never + took soup.' 'Would he take some fish?' 'No; he never took fish.' + Presently I asked if he would eat some mutton? 'No; he never ate + mutton.' I then asked if he would take a glass of wine? 'No; he never + tasted wine.' It was now necessary to inquire what he 'did' eat and + drink; and the answer was, 'Nothing but hard biscuits and soda-water.' + Unfortunately, neither hard biscuits nor soda-water were at hand; and + he dined upon potatoes bruised down on his plate and drenched with + vinegar. My guests stayed very late, discussing the merits of Walter + Scott and Joanna Baillie. Some days after, meeting Hobhouse, I said to + him, 'How long will Lord Byron persevere in his present diet? 'He + replied, 'Just as long as you continue to notice it.' I did not then + know, what I now know to be a fact, that Byron, after leaving my + house, had gone to a Club in St. James's Street and eaten a hearty + meat-supper" + +('Table-Talk of Samuel Rogers', pp. 231, 232). Moore's ('Life', p. 145) +first impressions of Byron were + + "the nobleness of his air, his beauty, the gentleness of his voice and + manners, and--what was naturally not the least attraction--his marked + kindness to myself. Being in mourning for his mother, the colour, as + well of his dress, as of his glossy, curling, and picturesque hair, + gave more effect to the pure, spiritual paleness of his features, in + the expression of which, when he spoke, there was a perpetual play of + lively thought, though melancholy was their habitual character when in + repose."] + + +[Footnote 2: Samuel Rogers (1763-1855), the third son of a London +banker, was born at Stoke Newington. Shortly after his father's death, +in 1793, he withdrew from any active part in the management of the bank, +and devoted himself for the rest of his long life to literature, art, +and society. In 1803 he moved from chambers in the Temple to a house in +St. James's Place, overlooking the Green Park. Here he lived till his +death, in December, 1855, and here he gathered round him, at his +celebrated breakfasts, the most distinguished men and women of his time. +An excellent account of the "Town Mouse" entertaining the "Country +Mouse" is given by Dean Stanley ('Life', vol. i. p. 298), who met +Wordsworth at breakfast with Rogers, in 1841, and describes + + "the town mouse a sleek, well-fed, sly, 'white' mouse, and the + country mouse with its rough, weather-worn face and grey hairs; the + town mouse displaying its delicate little rolls and pyramids of + glistening strawberries, the country mouse exulting in its hollow + tree, its crust of bread and liberty, and rallying its brother on his + late hours and frequent dinners." + +One of his earliest recollections was the sight of a rebel's head upon +a pole at Temple Bar. He had talked with a Thames boatman who remembered +Pope; had seen Garrick in 'The Suspicious Husband'; had heard Sir Joshua +Reynolds deliver his last lecture as President of the Royal Academy; had +seen John Wesley "lying in state" in the City Road; had gone to call on +Dr. Johnson, but, when his hand was on the knocker, found his courage +fled. He lived to be offered the laureateship in 1850, on the death of +Wordsworth, and to decline it in favour of Tennyson. + + "Time was," wrote Mathias ('Pursuits of Literature', note, p. 360, ed. + 1808), "when bankers were as stupid as their guineas could make them; + they were neither orators, nor painters, nor poets. But now. .. Mr. + Rogers dreams on Parnassus; and, if I am rightly informed, there is a + great demand among his brethren for the 'Pleasures of Memory'." + +Rogers began to write poetry at an early age, and continued to write it +all his life. His 'Ode to Superstition' was published in 1786; the +'Pleasures of Memory', in 1792; the 'Epistle to a Friend', in 1798; +'Columbus', in 1812; 'Jacqueline', in 1813; 'Human Life', in 1819; +'Italy', in 1822-34. His later years were occupied in revising, +correcting, or amplifying his published poems, and in preparing the +notes to 'Italy', which are admirable studies in compactness and +precision of language. A disciple of Pope, an imitator of Goldsmith, +Rogers was rather a skilful adapter than an original poet. His chief +talent was his taste; if he could not originate, he could appreciate. +The fastidious care which he lavished on his work has preserved it. In +his commonplace-book he has entered the number of years which he spent +in composing and revising his poems. His 'Pleasures of Memory' occupied +seven years, 'Columbus' fourteen, and 'Italy' fifteen. An excellent +judge of art, he employed Flaxman, Stothard, and Turner at a time when +their powers were little appreciated by his fellow-countrymen. Of his +taste Byron speaks enthusiastically in his Journal (see p. 331). But the +following passage (hitherto unpublished) from his 'Detached Thoughts' +(Ravenna, 1821) gives his later opinion of the man: + + "When Sheridan was on his death-bed, Rogers aided him with purse and + person. This was particularly kind of Rogers, who always spoke ill of + Sheridan (to me, at least), but, indeed, he does that of everybody to + anybody. Rogers is the reverse of the line: + + 'The _best good man_ with the _worst_ natured Muse,' + + being: + + 'The _worst_ good man with the _best_ natured Muse.' + + His Muse being all Sentiment and Sago and Sugar, while he himself is a + venomous talker. I say 'worst good man' because he is (perhaps) a + 'good' man; at least he does good now and then, as well he may, + to purchase himself a shilling's worth of salvation for his slanders. + They are so 'little', too--small talk--and old Womanny, and he is + malignant too--and envious--and--he be damned!" + +In a manuscript note to these passages Sir Walter Scott writes, + + "I never heard Rogers say a single word against Byron, which is rather + odd too. Byron wrote a bitter and undeserved satire on Rogers. This + conduct must have been motived by something or other." + +Speaking of Rogers and Sheridan, he says, + + "He certainly took pennyworths out of his friend's character. I sat + three hours for my picture to Sir Thomas Lawrence, during which the + whole conversation was filled up by Rogers with stories of Sheridan, + for the least of which, if true, he deserved the gallows. One + respected his committing a rape on his sister-in-law on the day of her + husband's funeral. Others were worse." + +In politics Rogers was a Whig, in religion a Presbyterian. But +he meddled little with either. In private life he was as kindly in +action as he was caustic in speech. A sensitive man himself, he +studied to be satirical to others. When Ward condemned 'Columbus' +in the 'Quarterly Review', Rogers repaid his critic in the stinging +epigram: + + "Ward has no heart, they say; but I deny it; + He has a heart, and gets his speeches by it." + +Byron warmly admired Rogers's poetry. To him he dedicated 'The Giaour', +in + + "admiration for his genius, respect for his character, and gratitude + for his friendship." + +The 'Quarterly Review', in an article on 'The Corsair' and 'Lara', +mentions + + "the highly refined, but somewhat insipid, pastoral tale of + 'Jacqueline'." + +Byron, on reading the review, said to Lady Byron, + + "The man's a fool. 'Jacqueline' is as superior to 'Lara' as Rogers is + to me" + +('Table-Talk of Samuel Rogers', p. 154, 'note'). + + "The 'Pleasures of Memory'," he said (Lady Blessington's + 'Conversations', p. 153), "is a very beautiful poem, harmonious, + finished, and chaste; it contains not a single meretricious ornament. + If Rogers has not fixed himself in the higher fields of Parnassus, he + has, at least, cultivated a very pretty flower-garden at its base." + But he goes on to speak of the poem (p. 354) as "a 'hortus siccus' of + pretty flowers," and an illustration of "the difference between + inspiration and versification." + +If Rogers ever saw Byron's 'Question and Answer' (1818), he was +generous enough to forget the satire. In 'Italy' he paid a noble +tribute to the genius of the dead poet: + + "He is now at rest; + And praise and blame fall on his ear alike, + Now dull in death. Yes, Byron, thou art gone, + Gone like a star that through the firmament + Shot and was lost, in its eccentric course + Dazzling, perplexing. Yet thy heart, methinks, + Was generous, noble--noble in its scorn + Of all things low or little; nothing there + Sordid or servile. If imagined wrongs + Pursued thee, urging thee sometimes to do + Things long regretted, oft, as many know, + None more than I, thy gratitude would build + On slight foundations; and, if in thy life + Not happy, in thy death thou surely wert, + Thy wish accomplished; dying in the land + Where thy young mind had caught ethereal fire, + Dying in Greece, and in a cause so glorious! + They in thy train--ah, little did they think, + As round we went, that they so soon should sit + Mourning beside thee, while a Nation mourned, + Changing her festal for her funeral song; + That they so soon should hear the minute-gun, + As morning gleamed on what remained of thee, + Roll o'er the sea, the mountains, numbering + Thy years of joy and sorrow. + Thou art gone; + And he who would assail thee in thy grave, + Oh, let him pause! For who among us all, + Tried as thou wert--even from thy earliest years, + When wandering, yet unspoilt, a Highland boy-- + Tried as thou wert, and with thy soul of flame; + Pleasure, while yet the down was on thy cheek, + Uplifting, pressing, and to lips like thine, + Her charmed cup--ah, who among us all + Could say he had not erred as much, and more?"] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +208.--To Francis Hodgson. + + +8, St. James's Street, November 17, 1811. + +Dear Hodgson,--I have been waiting for the letter [1] which was to have +been sent by you _immediately_, and must again jog your memory on the +subject. I believe I wrote you a full and true account of poor--'s +proceedings. Since his reunion to--, [2] I have heard nothing further +from him. What a pity! a man of talent, past the heyday of life, and a +clergyman, to fall into such imbecility. I have heard from Hobhouse, who +has at last sent more copy to Cawthorn for his _Travels_. I franked an +enormous cover for you yesterday, seemingly to convey at least twelve +cantos on any given subject. I fear the I aspect of it was too _epic_ +for the post. From this and other coincidences I augur a publication on +your part, but what, or when, or how much, you must disclose +immediately. + +I don't know what to say about coming down to Cambridge at present, but +live in hopes. I am so completely superannuated there, and besides feel +it something brazen in me to wear my magisterial habit, after all my +buffooneries, that I hardly think I shall venture again. And being now +an [Greek: ariston men hydôr] disciple I won't come within wine-shot of +such determined topers as your collegiates. I have not yet subscribed to +Bowen. I mean to cut Harrow "_enim unquam_" as somebody classically said +for a farewell sentence. I am superannuated there too, and, in short, as +old at twenty-three as many men at seventy. + +Do write and send this letter that hath been so long in your custody. It +is important that Moore should be certain that I never received it, if +it be _his_. Are you drowned in a bottle of Port? or a Kilderkin of Ale? +that I have never heard from you, or are you fallen into a fit of +perplexity? Cawthorn has declined, and the MS. is returned to him. This +is all at present from yours in the faith, + +[Greek: Mpairon]. + + + +[Footnote 1: On November 17, 1811, Hodgson writes to Byron: + + "I enclose you the long-delayed letter, which, from the similarity of + hands alone, Davies and I will go shares in a bet of ten to one is the + cartel in question."] + + +[Footnote 2: The names are carefully erased by Hodgson.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +209.--To Francis Hodgson. + + +8, St. James's Street, December 4, 1811. + + +MY DEAR HODGSON,--I have seen Miller, [1] + +who will see Bland, [2] but I have no great hopes of his obtaining the +translation from the crowd of candidates. Yesterday I wrote to Harness, +who will probably tell you what I said on the subject. Hobhouse has sent +me my Romaic MS., and I shall require your aid in correcting the press, +as your Greek eye is more correct than mine. But these will not come to +type this month, I dare say. I have put some soft lines on ye Scotch in +the 'Curse of Minerva'; take them; + + "Yet Caledonia claims some native worth," etc. [3] + +If you are not content now, I must say with the Irish drummer to the +deserter who called out, + + "Flog high, flog low" + + "The de'il burn ye, there's no pleasing you, flog where one will." + +Have you given up wine, even British wine? + +I have read Watson to Gibbon. [4] He proves nothing, so I am where I +was, verging towards Spinoza; and yet it is a gloomy Creed, and I want a +better, but there is something Pagan in me that I cannot shake off. In +short, I deny nothing, but doubt everything. The post brings me to a +conclusion. Bland has just been here. Yours ever, + +BN. + + + +[Footnote 1: See Letters', vol. i. p. 319, 'note' 2 [Footnote 1 of +Letter 158]] + + +[Footnote 2: Byron was endeavouring to secure for Bland (see 'Letters, +vol. i. p. 271, 'note' 1 [Footnote 2 of Letter 137]), the work of +translating Lucien Buonaparte's poem of 'Charlemagne'. He did not +succeed. The poem, translated by Dr. Butler, Head-master of Shrewsbury, +afterwards Bishop of Lichfield, and Francis Hodgson, was published in +1815.] + + +[Footnote 3: Lines 149-156.] + + +[Footnote 4: 'An Apology for Christianity, in a Series of Letters to +Edward Gibbon, Esq.', by Richard Watson, D.D. (1776). Gibbon had a great +respect for Watson, at this time Professor of Divinity at Cambridge, +afterwards Bishop of Llandaff, whom he describes as "a prelate of a +large mind and liberal spirit." In a letter to Holroyd (November 4, +1776), he speaks of the 'Apology' as "feeble," but "uncommingly +genteel." To his stepmother he writes, November 29, 1776, that Watson's +answer is "civil" and "too dull to deserve your notice."] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +210.--To William Harness. [1] + + +8, St. James's Street, Dec. 6, 1811. + + +My Dear Harness,--I write again, but don't suppose I mean to lay such a +tax on your pen and patience as to expect regular replies. When you are +inclined, write: when silent, I shall have the consolation of knowing +that you are much better employed. Yesterday, Bland and I called on Mr. +Miller, who, being then out, will call on Bland to-day or to-morrow. I +shall certainly endeavour to bring them together.--You are censorious, +child; when you are a little older, you will learn to dislike every +body, but abuse nobody. + +With regard to the person of whom you speak, your own good sense must +direct you. I never pretend to advise, being an implicit believer in the +old proverb. This present frost is detestable. It is the first I have +felt for these three years, though I longed for one in the oriental +summer, when no such thing is to be had, unless I had gone to the top of +Hymettus for it. + +I thank you most truly for the concluding part of your letter. I have +been of late not much accustomed to kindness from any quarter, and am +not the less pleased to meet with it again from one where I had known it +earliest. I have not changed in all my ramblings,--Harrow, and, of +course, yourself, never left me, and the + + "_Dulces reminiscitur Argos_" + +attended me to the very spot to which that sentence alludes in the mind +of the fallen Argive.--Our intimacy began before we began to date at +all, and it rests with you to continue it till the hour which must +number it and me with the things that _were_. + +Do read mathematics.--I should think _X plus Y_ at least as amusing as +the 'Curse of Kehama' [2], and much more intelligible. Master Southey's +poems _are_, in fact, what parallel lines might be--viz. prolonged _ad +infinitum_ without meeting anything half so absurd as themselves. + + "What news, what news? Queen Orraca, + What news of scribblers five? + S----, W----, C----, L----d, and L----e? + All damn'd, though yet alive." + +Coleridge is lecturing. [3] + + "Many an old fool," said Hannibal to some such lecturer, "but such as + this, never." [4] + +Ever yours, etc. + + + +[Footnote 1: See 'Letters', vol. i. p. 177, 'note' 1. [Footnote 1 of +Letter 92]] + + +[Footnote 2: Robert Southey (1774-1843) published his 'Curse of Kehama' +in 1810. It formed a part of a series of heroic poems in which he +intended to embody the chief mythologies of the world. In spite of +Byron's adverse opinion, it contains magnificent passages, and disputes +with 'Roderick, the Last of the Goths' (1814), the claim to be the +finest of his longer poems. Southey's literary activity was immense. He +had already produced 'Joan of Arc' (1796), 'Thalaba' (1801), 'Madoc' +(1805), and many other works in prose and verse. At this time he was +personally unknown to Byron, who had ridiculed his "annual strains." +They met for the first time at Holland House, in September, 1813. (See +Byron's letter to Moore, September 27, 1813, and Journal, p. 331.) The +animosity between the two men belongs to a later date, and in its origin +was partly political, partly personal. Southey, in early life, had been +a republican and a Unitarian, if not a deist. He collaborated with +Coleridge in the 'Fall of Robespierre' (1794), wrote a portion of the +'Conciones ad Populum' (1795), which the Government considered +seditious; and, according to Poole ('Thomas Pools and his Friends', vol. +i. chap, vi.), wavered "between Deism and Atheism." He became a champion +of monarchical principles and of religious orthodoxy, and attacked the +views, which he had once held and expressed in 'Wat Tyler' (written in +1794, and piratically published in 1817), with the bitterness of a +reactionary. He had also, as Byron believed, circulated, if not +invented, a report that Byron and Shelley had formed "a league of +incest" at Geneva, in 1816-17, with "two girls," Mary Godwin (Mrs. +Shelley) and Jane Clairmont. Byron not only denied the charge, but +retorted upon him, in his "Observations upon an Article in 'Blackwood's +Magazine'" (March 15, 1820), as the author of 'Wat Tyler' and poet +laureate, the man who "wrote treason and serves the King," the +ex-pantisocrat who advocated "all things, including women, in common." +Southey's 'Vision of Judgment', an apotheosis of George III., published +in 1821, gave Byron a second provocation and a second opportunity, by +speaking in the preface of his "Satanic spirit of pride and audacious +impiety." Byron again replied in prose; and Southey (January 5, 1820), +in a letter to the 'London Courier', invited him to attack him in rhyme. +In Byron's 'Vision of Judgment' he found his invitation accepted, and +himself pilloried in that tremendous satire. Southey overvalued his own +narrative poetry. It is as a man, a prominent figure in literary +history, a leader in the romantic revival, a master of prose, and the +author of the best short biography in the English language--the 'Life of +Nelson' (1813)--that he lives at the present day. His name also deserves +to be remembered with gratitude by all who have read the nursery classic +of "'The Three Bears'." Byron parodies a stanza in Southey's "Queen +Orraca and the Five Martyrs of Morocco" ('Works', vol. vi. pp. 166-173): + + "What news, O King Affonso, + What news of the Friars five? + Have they preached to the Miramamolin; + And are they still alive?" + +The blanks stand for Scott or Southey, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Lloyd, and +Lamb(e), with the lines from 'New Morality' in his mind: + + "Coleridge and Southey, Lloyd and Lamb and Co., + Tune all your mystic harps to praise Lepaux."] + + +[Footnote 3: Coleridge, beginning November 18, 1811, and ending January +27, 1812, delivered a course of seventeen lectures on Shakespeare and +Milton, "in illustration of the principles of poetry." The lectures were +given under the auspices of the London Philosophical Society, in the +Scot's Corporation Hall, Crane Court, Fleet Street. Single tickets for +the whole course were two guineas, or three guineas "with the privilege +of introducing a lady." J. Payne Collier took shorthand notes of the +lectures and published a portion of his material, the rest being lost +('Lectures on Shakespear', from notes by J.P. Collier), The notes, with +other contemporary reports from the 'Times', 'Morning Chronicle', +'Dublin Chronicle', Crabb Robinson's 'Diary', and other sources, were +republished in 1883 by Mr. Ashe ('Lectures and Notes on Shakspere and +other English Poets'). + +Collier, in his notes of Coleridge's conversation (November I, 1811), +gives the substance, in all probability, of the attack on Campbell +alluded to in the next letter. Coleridge said that "neither Southey, +Scott, nor Campbell would by their poetry survive much beyond the day +when they lived and wrote. Their works seemed to him not to have the +seeds of vitality, the real germs of long life. The two first were +entertaining as tellers of stories in verse; but the last, in his +'Pleasures of Hope', obviously had no fixed design, but when a thought +(of course, not a very original one) came into his head, he put it down +in couplets, and afterwards strung the 'disjecta membra' (not 'poetæ') +together. Some of the best things in it were borrowed; for instance the +line: + + 'And freedom shriek'd when Kosciusko fell,' + +was taken from a much-ridiculed piece by Dennis, a pindaric on William +III.: + + 'Fair Liberty shriek'd out aloud, aloud Religion groaned.' + +It is the same production in which the following much-laughed-at +specimen of bathos is found: + + 'Nor Alps nor Pyreneans keep him out, + Nor fortified redoubt.' + +Coleridge had little toleration for Campbell, and considered him, as far +as he had gone, a mere verse-maker."(Ashe's Introduction to 'Lectures on +Shakspere', pp. 16, 17).] + + +[Footnote 4: Hannibal, in exile at Ephesus, was taken to hear a lecture +by a peripatetic philosopher named Phormio. The lecturer ('homo +copiosus') discoursed for some hours on the duties of a general, and +military subjects generally. The delighted audience asked Hannibal his +opinion of the lecture. He replied in Greek, + + "I have seen many old fools often, but such an old fool as Phormio, + never + + ('Multos se deliros senes s¾pe vidisse; sed qui magis, quam Phormio, + deliraret, vidisse neminem')" + +(Cicero, 'De Oratore', ii. 18).] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +211.--To James Wedderburn Webster. + + +8, St. James's St., Dec. 7th, 1811. + + +My Dear W.,--I was out of town during the arrival of your letters, but +forwarded all on my return. + +I hope you are going on to your satisfaction, and that her Ladyship is +about to produce an heir with all his mother's Graces and all his Sire's +good qualities. You know I am to be a Godfather. Byron Webster! a most +heroic name, say what you please. + +Don't be alarmed; my "_caprice_" won't lead me in to Dorset. No, +_Bachelors_ for me! I consider you as dead to us, and all my future +_devoirs_ are but tributes of respect to your _Memory_. Poor fellow! he +was a facetious companion and well respected by all who knew him; but he +is gone. Sooner or later we must all come to it. + +I see nothing of you in the _papers_, the only place where I don't wish +to see you; but you will be in town in the Winter. What dost thou do? +shoot, hunt, and "wind up y'e Clock" as Caleb Quotem says? [1] + +That thou art vastly happy, I doubt not. + +I see your brother in law at times, and like him much; but we miss you +much; I shall leave town in a fortnight to pass my Xmas in Notts. + +Good afternoon, Dear W. +Believe me, +Yours ever most truly, +B. + + + +[Footnote 1: Byron alludes to Caleb Quotem's song in 'The Review, or +Wags of Windsor' (act ii. sc. 2), by George Colman the Younger: + + "I'm parish clerk and sexton here, + My name is Caleb Quotem, + I'm painter, glazier, auctioneer, + In short, I am factotum." + + ... + "At night by the fire, like a good, jolly cock, + When my day's work is done and all over, + I tipple, I smoke, and I wind up the clock, + With my sweet Mrs. Quotem in clover."] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +212.--To William Harness. + + +St. James's Street, Dec. 8, 1811. + +Behold a most formidable sheet, without gilt or black edging, and +consequently very vulgar and indecorous, particularly to one of your +precision; but this being Sunday, I can procure no better, and will +atone for its length by not filling it. Bland I have not seen since my +last letter; but on Tuesday he dines with me, and will meet Moore, the +epitome of all that is exquisite in poetical or personal +accomplishments. How Bland has settled with Miller, I know not. I have +very little interest with either, and they must arrange their concerns +according to their own gusto. I have done my endeavours, _at your +request_, to bring them together, and hope they may agree to their +mutual advantage. + +Coleridge has been lecturing against Campbell. [1] + +Rogers was present, and from him I derive the information. We are going +to make a party to hear this Manichean of poesy. Pole [2] is to marry +Miss Long, and will be a very miserable dog for all that. The present +ministers are to continue, and his Majesty _does_ continue in the same +state; so there's folly and madness for you, both in a breath. + +I never heard but of one man truly fortunate, and he was Beaumarchais, +[3] the author of _Figaro_, who buried two wives and gained three +lawsuits before he was thirty. + +And now, child, what art thou doing? _Reading, I trust_. I want to see +you take a degree. Remember, this is the most important period of your +life; and don't disappoint your papa and your aunt, and all your +kin--besides myself. Don't you know that all male children are begotten +for the express purpose of being graduates? and that even I am an A.M., +[4] though how I became so the Public Orator only can resolve. Besides, +you are to be a priest; and to confute Sir William Drummond's late book +about the Bible [5] (printed, but not published), and all other infidels +whatever. Now leave Master H.'s gig, and Master S.'s Sapphics, and +become as immortal as Cambridge can make you. + +You see, _Mio Carissimo_, what a pestilent correspondent I am likely to +become; but then you shall be as quiet at Newstead as you please, and I +won't disturb your studies as I do now. When do you fix the day, that I +may take you up according to contract? Hodgson talks of making a third +in our journey; but we can't stow him, inside at least. Positively you +shall go with me as was agreed, and don't let me have any of your +_politesse_ to H. on the occasion. I shall manage to arrange for both +with a little contrivance. I wish H. was not quite so fat, and we should +pack better. You will want to know what I am doing--chewing tobacco. + +You see nothing of my allies, Scrope Davies and Matthews [6]--they don't +suit you; and how does it happen that I--who am a pipkin of the same +pottery--continue in your good graces? Good night,--I will go on in the +morning. + +Dec. 9th.--In a morning I am always sullen, and to-day is as sombre as +myself. Rain and mist are worse than a sirocco, particularly in a +beef-eating and beer-drinking country. My bookseller, Cawthorne, has +just left me, and tells me, with a most important face, that he is in +treaty for a novel of Madame D'Arblay's, for which 1000 guineas are +asked! [7] He wants me to read the MS. (if he obtains it), which I shall +do with pleasure; but I should be very cautious in venturing an opinion +on her whose _Cecilia_ Dr. Johnson superintended. [8] + +If he lends it to me, I shall put it in the hands of Rogers and Moore, +who are truly men of taste. I have filled the sheet, and beg your +pardon; I will not do it again. I shall, perhaps, write again; but if +not, believe, silent or scribbling, that I am, + +My dearest William, ever, etc. + + + +[Footnote 1: See p. 75, 'note' 1. In the application to Coleridge of the +phrase, "Manichean of poesy," Byron may allude to Cowper's 'Task' (bk. +v. lines 444, 445): + + "As dreadful as the Manichean God, + Adored through fear, strong only to destroy."] + + +[Footnote 2: William Wellesley Pole Tylney Long Wellesley (1788-1857), +one of the most worthless of the bloods of the Regency, son of Lord +Maryborough, and nephew of the Duke of Wellington, became in 1845 the +fourth Earl of Mornington. He married in March, 1812, Catherine, +daughter and co-heir, with her brother, of Sir James Tylney Long, Bart., +of Draycot, Wilts. On his marriage he added his wife's double name to +his own, and so gave a point to the authors of Rejected Addresses: + + "Long may Long-Tilney-Wellesley-Long-Pole live." + +For Byron's allusion to him in 'The Waltz', see 'Poems', 1898, vol. i. +p. 484, note 1. Having run through his wife's large fortune by his +extravagant expenditure at Wanstead Park and elsewhere, he was obliged, +in 1822, to escape from his creditors to the Continent. There (1823-25) +he lived with Mrs. Bligh, wife of Captain Bligh, of the Coldstream +Guards. His wife died in 1825, after filing a bill for divorce, and +making her children wards of Chancery. Wellesley subsequently (1828) +married Mrs. Bligh; but the second wife was as ill treated as the first, +and he left her so destitute that she was a frequent applicant for +relief at the metropolitan police-courts. He died of heart-disease in +July, 1857, a pensioner on the charity of his cousin, the second Duke of +Wellington.] + + +[Footnote 3: Byron's statement is incorrect. Pierre-Auguste Caron de +Beaumarchais (1732-1799) married, in 1756, as his first wife, +Madeleine-Catherine Aubertin, widow of the sieur Franquet. She died in +1757. He married, in 1768, as his second wife, Geneviève-Magdaleine +Wattebled, widow of the sieur Lévêque. She died in 1770. The only +lawsuit which he won "before he was thirty," was that against Lepaute, +who claimed as his own invention the escapement for watches and clocks, +which Beaumarchais had discovered. The case was decided in favour of +Beaumarchais in 1754. Out of his second lawsuit--with Count de la +Blache, legatee of his patron Duverney, who died in 1770--sprang his +action against Goëzman, with which began the publication of his +'Mémoires'. (See Loménie, 'Beaumarchais and his Times', tr. by H.S. +Edwards, 4 vols., London, 1855-6.)] + + +[Footnote 4: Byron took his M. A. degree at Cambridge July 4, 1808.] + + +[Footnote 5: Sir William Drummond (1770-1828), Tory M.P. for St. Mawes +(1795-96) and for Lostwithiel (1796-1801), held from 1801 to 1809 +several diplomatic posts: ambassador to the Court of Naples 1801-3; to +the Ottoman Porte 1803-6; to the Court of Naples for the second time, +1806-9. From 1809, at which date his political and diplomatic career +closed, he devoted himself to literature. He had already published +'Philosophical Sketches on the Principles of Society and Government' +(1793); 'A Review of the Governments of Sparta and Athens' (1795); 'The +Satires of Persius', translated (1798); 'Byblis, a Tragedy', in verse +(1802); 'Academical Questions' (1805). In 1810 he published +'Herculanensia'; and, in the following year, printed for private +circulation his 'OEdipus Judaicus', a bold attempt to explain many parts +of the Old Testament as astronomical allegories. In 1817 appeared the +first part of his 'Odin', a poem in blank verse; in 1824-29 his +'Origines, or Remarks on the Origin of several Empires, States, and +Cities', was published. Sir William, who died at Rome in 1828, lived +much of his later life abroad. + +Drummond, as a member of the Alfred Club, is described in the +'Sexagenarian' (vol. ii. chap, xxiv.), where Beloe, speaking of the +('Edipus Judaicus'), says that + + "he appeared to have employed his leisure in searching for objections + and arguments as they related to Scripture, which had been so often + refuted, that they were considered by the learned and wise as almost + exploded." + +He refers to 'Byblis' as evidence of his "perverted and fantastical +taste" in poetry, praises his "spirited translation" of Persius, +commends the "sound sense and very extensive reading" of his +'Philosophical' 'Sketches', and scoffs at the "metaphysical labyrinth" +of his 'Academical Questions'. + + "When you go to Naples," said Byron to Lady Blessington + ('Conversations', pp. 238, 239), "you must make acquaintance with Sir + William Drummond, for he is certainly one of the most erudite men and + admirable philosophers now living. He has all the wit of Voltaire, + with a profundity that seldom appertains to wit, and writes so + forcibly, and with such elegance and purity of style, that his works + possess a peculiar charm. Have you read his 'Academical Questions'? If + not, get them directly, and I think you will agree with me, that the + preface to that work alone would prove Sir William Drummond an + admirable writer. He concludes it by the following sentence, which I + think one of the best in our language: + + "'Prejudice may be trusted to guard the outworks for a short space + of time, while Reason slumbers in the citadel; but if the latter + sink into a lethargy, the former will quickly erect a standard for + herself. Philosophy, wisdom, and liberty support each other; he who + will not reason is a bigot; he who cannot is a fool; and he who + dares not is a slave.' + + "Is not the passage admirable? How few could have written it! and yet + how few read Drummond's works! They are too good to be popular. His + 'Odin' is really a fine poem, and has some passages that are + beautiful, but it is so little read that it may be said to have + dropped still-born from the press--a mortifying proof of the bad taste + of the age. His translation of Persius is not only very literal, but + preserves much of the spirit of the original... he has escaped all + the defects of translators, and his Persius resembles the original as + nearly, in feeling and sentiment, as two languages so dissimilar in + idiom will admit."] + + +[Footnote 6: Henry Matthews (1789-1828) of Eton and King's College, +Cambridge, younger brother of Charles Skinner Matthews, and author of +the 'Diary of an Invalid' (1820).] + + +[Footnote 7: 'The Wanderer, or Female Difficulties', Madame d'Arblay's +fourth and last novel ('Evelina', 1778; 'Cecilia', 1782; 'Camilla', +1796), was published in 1814. + + "I am indescribably occupied," she writes to Dr. Burney, October 12, + 1813, "in giving more and more last touches to my work, about which I + begin to grow very anxious. I am to receive merely £500 upon delivery + of the MS.; the two following £500 by instalments from nine months to + nine months, that is, in a year and a half from the day of + publication. If all goes well, the whole will be £3000, but only at + the end of the sale of eight thousand copies." + +The book failed; but rumour magnified the sum received by the writer. +Mrs. Piozzi, shortly after the publication of 'The Wanderer' and of +Byron's lines, "Weep, daughter of a royal line," writes to Samuel +Lysons, February 17, 1814: + + "Come now, do send me a kind letter and tell me if Madame d'Arblaye + gets £3000 for her book or no, and if Lord Byron is to be called over + about some verses he has written, as the papers hint" + +('Autobiography, Letters, and Literary Remains', vol. ii. p. 246).] + + +[Footnote 8: Dr. Johnson never saw 'Cecilia' (1782) till it was in +print. A day or two before publication, Miss Burney sent three copies to +the three persons who had the best claim to them--her father, Mrs. +Thrale, and Dr. Johnson.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +213.--To Francis Hodgson. + + +London, Dec. 8, 1811. + + +I sent you a sad Tale of Three Friars the other day, and now take a dose +in another style. I wrote it a day or two ago, on hearing a song of +former days. + + "Away, away, ye notes of woe," etc., etc. [1] + +I have gotten a book by Sir W. Drummond (printed, but not published), +entitled _OEdipus Judaicus_ in which he attempts to prove the greater +part of the Old Testament an allegory, particularly Genesis and Joshua. +He professes himself a theist in the preface, and handles the literal +interpretation very roughly. I wish you could see it. Mr. Ward [2] has +lent it me, and I confess to me it is worth fifty Watsons. + +You and Harness must fix on the time for your visit to Newstead; I can +command mine at your wish, unless any thing particular occurs in the +interim. Master William Harness and I have recommenced a most fiery +correspondence; I like him as Euripides liked Agatho, or Darby admired +Joan, as much for the past as the present. Bland dines with me on +Tuesday to meet Moore. Coleridge has attacked the _Pleasures of Hope_, +and all other pleasures whatsoever. Mr. Rogers was present, and heard +himself indirectly _rowed_ by the lecturer. We are going in a party to +hear the new Art of Poetry by this reformed schismatic [3]; and were I +one of these poetical luminaries, or of sufficient consequence to be +noticed by the man of lectures, I should not hear him without an answer. +For you know, + + "an a man will be beaten with brains, he shall never keep a clean + doublet." [4] + +Campbell [5] will be desperately annoyed. I never saw a man (and of him +I have seen very little) so sensitive;--what a happy temperament! I am +sorry for it; what can _he_ fear from criticism? I don't know if Bland +has seen Miller, who was to call on him yesterday. + +To-day is the Sabbath,--a day I never pass pleasantly, but at Cambridge; +and, even there, the organ is a sad remembrancer. Things are stagnant +enough in town; as long as they don't retrograde, 'tis all very well. +Hobhouse writes and writes and writes, and is an author. I do nothing +but eschew tobacco. [6] I wish parliament were assembled, that I may +hear, and perhaps some day be heard;--but on this point I am not very +sanguine. I have many plans;--sometimes I think of the East again, and +dearly beloved Greece. I am well, but weakly. Yesterday Kinnaird [7] +told me I looked very ill, and sent me home happy. + +You will never give up wine. See what it is to be thirty! if you were +six years younger, you might leave off anything. You drink and repent; +you repent and drink. + +Is Scrope still interesting and invalid? And how does Hinde with his +cursed chemistry? To Harness I have written, and he has written, and we +have all written, and have nothing now to do but write again, till Death +splits up the pen and the scribbler. + +The Alfred [8] has three hundred and fifty-four candidates for six +vacancies. The cook has run away and left us liable, which makes our +committee very plaintive. Master Brook, our head serving-man, has the +gout, and our new cook is none of the best. I speak from report,--for +what is cookery to a leguminous-eating Ascetic? So now you know as much +of the matter as I do. Books and quiet are still there, and they may +dress their dishes in their own way for me. Let me know your +determination as to Newstead, and believe me, Yours ever, + +[Greek: Mpairon.] + + + +[Footnote 1: Here follows one of the 'Thyrza' poems.] + + +[Footnote 2: The Hon. John William Ward, afterwards fourth Earl of +Dudley. Byron said of him (Lady Blessington's 'Conversations with Lord +Byron', p. 197), + + "Ward is one of the best-informed men I know, and, in a 'tête-à-tête', + is one of the most agreeable companions. He has great originality, + and, being 'très distrait', it adds to the piquancy of his + observations, which are sometimes somewhat 'trop naïve', though always + amusing. This 'naïveté' of his is the more piquant from his being + really a good-natured man, who unconsciously thinks aloud. Interest + Ward on a subject, and I know no one who can talk better. His + expressions are concise without being poor, and terse and epigrammatic + without being affected," etc. + +Of somewhat the same opinion was Lady H. Leveson Gower ('Letters of +Harriet, Countess Granville', vol. i. pp. 41, 42): + + "The charm of Mr. Ward's conversation is exactly what Mr. Luttrell + wants, a sort of 'abandon', and being entertaining because it is his + nature and he cannot help it. I only mean Mr. Ward in his happier + hour, for what I have said of him is the very reverse of what he is + when vanity or humour seize upon him."] + + +[Footnote 3: Crabb Robinson, in his 'Diary' for January 20, 1812, has +the following entry: + + "In the evening at Coleridge's lecture. Conclusion of Milton. Not one + of the happiest of Coleridge's efforts. Rogers was there, and with him + was Lord Byron. He was wrapped up, but I recognized his club foot, + and, indeed, his countenance and general appearance."] + + +[Footnote 4: + + "'Benedict': + + No; if a man will be beaten with brains, he shall wear nothing + handsome about him." + +'Much Ado about Nothing', act v. sc. 4.] + + +[Footnote 5: Thomas Campbell (1777-1844) lectured at the Royal +Institution in 1811 on poetry. The lectures were afterwards published in +the 'New Monthly Magazine', of which he was editor (1820-30). + +Campbell also apparently read his lectures aloud at private houses. Miss +Berry ('Journal', vol. ii. p. 502) mentions a dinner-party on June 26, +1812, at the Princess of Wales's, where she heard him read his "first +discourse," delivered at the Institution. Again (ibid., vol. iii. p. 6), +she dined with Madame de Stael, March 9, 1814: + + "Nobody but Campbell the poet, Rocca, and her own daughter. After + dinner, Campbell read to us a discourse of his upon English poetry, + and upon some of the great poets. There are always signs of a poet and + critic of genius in all he does, often encumbered by too ornate a + style." + +Campbell's best work was done between 1798 and 1810. Within that period +were published 'The Pleasures of Hope' (1799), 'Gertrude of Wyoming' +(1809), and such other shorter poems as "Hohenlinden," "Ye Mariners of +England," "The Battle of the Baltic," and "O'Connor's Child." His +"Ritter Bann," a reminiscence of his sojourn abroad (1800-1), was not +published till later; both it and "The Last Man" were published in the +'New Monthly Magazine', during the period of his editorship. An +excellent judge of verse, he collected 'Specimens of the British Poets' +(1819), to which he added a valuable essay on poetry and short +biographies. His 'Theodoric' (1824), 'Pilgrim of Glencoe' (1842), and +Lives of Mrs. Siddons, Petrarch, and Shakespeare added nothing to his +reputation. + +The judgment of contemporary poets in the main agreed with Coleridge's +estimate of Campbell's work. + + "There are some of Campbell's lyrics," said Rogers ('Table-Talk', + etc., pp. 254, 255), "which will never die. His 'Pleasures of Hope' is + no great favourite with me. The 'feeling' throughout his 'Gertrude' is + very beautiful." Wordsworth also thought the 'Pleasures of Hope' + "strangely over-rated; its fine words and sounding lines please the + generality of readers, who never stop to ask themselves the meaning of + a passage." Byron, who calls Campbell "a warm-hearted and honest man," + thought that his "'Lochiel' and 'Mariners' are spirit-stirring + productions; his 'Gertrude of Wyoming' is beautiful; and some of the + episodes in his 'Pleasures of Hope' pleased me so much that I know + them by heart". + +(Lady Blessington's 'Conversations with Lord Byron', p. 353). + +George Ticknor, who met Campbell in 1815 ('Life', vol. i. p. 63), says, + + "He is a short, small man, and has one of the roundest and most lively + faces I have seen amongst this grave people. His manners seemed as + open as his countenance, and his conversation as spirited as his + poetry. He could have kept me amused till morning." + +Shortly afterwards, Ticknor went to see him at Sydenham (ibid., p. 65): + + "Campbell had the same good spirits and love of merriment as when I + met him before,--the same desire to amuse everybody about him; but + still I could see, as I partly saw then, that he labours under the + burden of an extraordinary reputation, too easily acquired, and feels + too constantly that it is necessary for him to make an exertion to + satisfy expectation. The consequence is that, though he is always + amusing, he is not always quite natural." + +Sir Walter Scott made a similar remark about the numbing effect of +Campbell's reputation upon his literary work; his deference to critics +ruined his individuality. It was Scott's admiration for "Hohenlinden" +which induced Campbell to publish the poem. The two men, travelling in a +stage-coach alone, beguiled the way by repeating poetry. At last Scott +asked Campbell for something of his own. He replied that there was one +thing he had never printed, full of "drums and trumpets and +blunderbusses and thunder," and that he did not know if there was any +good in it. He then repeated "Hohenlinden." When he had finished, Scott +broke out with, + + "But, do you know, that's devilish fine! Why, it's the finest thing + you ever wrote, and it 'must' be printed!"] + + +[Footnote 6: See p. 31, note 1 [Footnote 1 of Letter 181].] + + +[Footnote 7: Douglas James William Kinnaird (1788-1830), fifth son of +the seventh Baron Kinnaird, was educated at Eton, Gottingen, and Trinity +College, Cambridge. He was an intimate friend of Hobhouse, with whom he +travelled on the Continent (1813-14), and was in political sympathy. He +represented Bishop's Castle from July, 1819, to March, 1820, but losing +his seat at the general election, did not again attempt to enter +Parliament. He was famous for his "mob dinners," to which Moore probably +refers when he writes to Byron, in an undated letter, of the +"Deipnosophist Kinnaird." He was a partner in the bank of Ransom and +Morland, a member of the committee for managing Drury Lane Theatre, +author of the acting version of 'The Merchant of Bruges, or Beggar's +Bush' (acted at Drury Lane, December 14, 1815), and a member of the +Radical Rota Club. + +Kinnaird was Byron's "trusty and trustworthy trustee and banker, and +crown and sheet anchor." It was at his suggestion that Byron wrote the +'Hebrew Melodies' and the 'Monody on the Death of Sheridan'. Talking of +Kinnaird to Lady Blessington ('Conversations', p. 215), Byron said, + + "My friend Dug is a proof that a good heart cannot compensate for an + irritable temper; whenever he is named, people dwell on the last and + pass over the first; and yet he really has an excellent heart, and a + sound head, of which I, in common with many others of his friends, + have had various proofs. He is clever, too, and well informed, and I + do think would have made a figure in the world, were it not for his + temper, which gives a dictatorial tone to his manner, that is + offensive to the 'amour propre' of those with whom he mixes."] + + +[Footnote 8: The Alfred Club (1808-55), established at 23, Albemarle +Street, was the Savile of the day. Beloe, in his 'Sexagenarian' (vol. +ii. chaps, xx.-xxv.), describes among the members of the Symposium, as +he calls it, Sir James Mackintosh, George Ellis, William Gifford, John +Reeves, Sir W. Drummond, and himself. Byron, in his 'Detached Thoughts', +says, + + "I was a member of the Alfred. It was pleasant; a little too sober and + literary, and bored with Sotheby and Sir Francis d'Ivernois; but one + met Peel, and Ward, and Valentia, and many other pleasant or known + people; and it was, upon the whole, a decent resource in a rainy day, + in a dearth of parties, or parliament, or in an empty season." + +It was, says Mr. Wheatley ('London Past and Present'), known as the +'Half-read'. + +In a manuscript note, now for the first time printed as written, on the +above passage from Byron's 'Detached Thoughts', Sir Walter Scott writes, + + "The Alfred, like all other clubs, was much haunted with boars, a + tusky monster which delights to range where men most do congregate. A + boar, or bore, is always remarkable for something respectable, such as + wealth, character, high birth, acknowledged talent, or, in short, for + something that forbids people to turn him out by the shoulders, or, in + other words, to cut him dead. Much of this respectability is supplied + by the mere circumstance of belonging to a certain society of + clubists, within whose districts the bore obtains free-warren, and may + wallow or grunt at pleasure. Old stagers in the club know and avoid + the fated corner and arm-chair which he haunts; but he often rushes + from his lair on the inexperienced."] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +214.--To Thomas Moore. + +December 11, 1811. + +My Dear Moore,--If you please, we will drop our former monosyllables, +and adhere to the appellations sanctioned by our godfathers and +godmothers. If you make it a point, I will withdraw your name; at the +same time there is no occasion, as I have this day postponed your +election 'sine die', till it shall suit your wishes to be amongst us. I +do not say this from any awkwardness the erasure of your proposal would +occasion to _me_, but simply such is the state of the case; and, indeed, +the longer your name is up, the stronger will become your probability of +success, and your voters more numerous. Of course you will decide--your +wish shall be my law. If my zeal has already outrun discretion, pardon +me, and attribute my officiousness to an excusable motive. + +I wish you would go down with me to Newstead. Hodgson will be there, and +a young friend, named Harness, the earliest and dearest I ever had from +the third form at Harrow to this hour. I can promise you good wine, and, +if you like shooting, a manor of 4000 acres, fires, books, your own free +will, and my own very indifferent company. 'Balnea, vina, Venus' [1]. + +Hodgson will plague you, I fear, with verse;--for my own part I will +conclude, with Martial, 'nil recitabo tibi' [2]; and surely the last +inducement, is not the least. Ponder on my proposition, and believe me, +my dear Moore, + +Yours ever, + +BYRON. + + + +[Footnote 1: + + "Balnea, vina, Venus corrumpunt corpora nostra." + +The words are thus given in Grüter ('Corpus Inscriptionum' (1603), p. +DCCCCXII. 10).] + + +[Footnote 2: Martial (xi. lii. 16), 'Ad Julium Cerealem': + + "Plus ego polliceor: nil recitabo tibi."] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +215.--To Francis Hodgson. + +8, St. James's Street, Dec. 12, 1811. + +Why, Hodgson! I fear you have left off wine and me at the same time,--I +have written and written and written, and no answer! My dear Sir Edgar +[1], water disagrees with you--drink sack and write. Bland did not come +to his appointment, being unwell, but Moore supplied all other vacancies +most delectably. I have hopes of his joining us at Newstead. I am sure +you would like him more and more as he developes,--at least I do. + +How Miller and Bland go on, I don't know. Cawthorne talks of being in +treaty for a novel of Madame D'Arblay's, and if he obtains it (at 1500 +guineas!!) wishes me to see the MS. This I should read with pleasure,-- +not that I should ever dare to venture a criticism on her whose writings +Dr. Johnson once revised, but for the pleasure of the thing. If my +worthy publisher wanted a sound opinion, I should send the MS. to Rogers +and Moore, as men most alive to true taste. I have had frequent letters +from Wm. Harness, and _you_ are silent; certes, you are not a schoolboy. +However, I have the consolation of knowing that you are better employed, +viz. reviewing. You don't deserve that I should add another syllable, +and I won't. + +Yours, etc. + +P.S.--I only wait for your answer to fix our meeting. + + + +[Footnote 1: Hodgson published, in 1810, 'Sir Edgar, a Tale'.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +216.--To R. C. Dallas. + + +[Undated, Dec.? 1811] [1] + +DEAR SIR,--I have only this scrubby paper to write on--excuse it. I am +certain that I sent some more notes on Spain and Portugal, particularly +one on the latter. Pray rummage, and don't mind my _politics_. I believe +I leave town next week. Are you better? I hope so. + +Yours ever, +B. + + + +[Footnote 1: Dallas's answer is dated December 14, 1811] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +217.--To William Harness. + +8, St. James's Street, Dec. 15, 1811. + +I wrote you an answer to your last, which, on reflection, pleases me as +little as it probably has pleased yourself. I will not wait for your +rejoinder; but proceed to tell you, that I had just then been greeted +with an epistle of * *'s, full of his petty grievances, and this at the +moment when (from circumstances it is not necessary to enter upon) I was +bearing up against recollections to which _his_ imaginary sufferings are +as a scratch to a cancer. These things combined, put me out of humour +with him and all mankind. The latter part of my life has been a +perpetual struggle against affections which embittered the earliest +portion; and though I flatter myself I have in a great measure conquered +them, yet there are moments (and this was one) when I am as foolish as +formerly. I never said so much before, nor had I said this now, if I did +not suspect myself of having been rather savage in my letter, and wish +to inform you this much of the cause. You know I am not one of your +dolorous gentlemen: so now let us laugh again. + +Yesterday I went with Moore to Sydenham to visit Campbell [1]. He was +not visible, so we jogged homeward merrily enough. To-morrow I dine with +Rogers, and am to hear Coleridge, who is a kind of rage at present. Last +night I saw Kemble in Coriolanus [2];--he _was glorious_, and exerted +himself wonderfully. By good luck I got an excellent place in the best +part of the house, which was more than overflowing. Clare [3] and +Delawarr [4], who were there on the same speculation, were less +fortunate. I saw them by accident,--we were not together. I wished for +you, to gratify your love of Shakspeare and of fine acting to its +fullest extent. Last week I saw an exhibition of a different kind in a +Mr. Coates, [5] at the Haymarket, who performed Lothario in a _damned_ +and damnable manner. + +I told you the fate of B[land] and H[odgson] in my last. So much for +these sentimentalists, who console themselves in their stews for the +loss--the never to be recovered loss--the despair of the refined +attachment of a couple of drabs! You censure _my_ life, Harness,--when I +compare myself with these men, my elders and my betters, I really begin +to conceive myself a monument of prudence--a walking statue--without +feeling or failing; and yet the world in general hath given me a proud +pre-eminence over them in profligacy. Yet I like the men, and, God +knows, ought not to condemn their aberrations. But I own I feel provoked +when they dignify all this by the name of _love_--romantic attachments +for things marketable for a dollar! + +Dec. 16th.--I have just received your letter;--I feel your kindness very +deeply. The foregoing part of my letter, written yesterday, will, I +hope, account for the tone of the former, though it cannot excuse it. I +do _like_ to hear from you--more than _like_. Next to seeing you, I have +no greater satisfaction. But you have other duties, and greater +pleasures, and I should regret to take a moment from either. H * * was +to call to-day, but I have not seen him. The circumstances you mention +at the close of your letter is another proof in favour of my opinion of +mankind. Such you will always find them--selfish and distrustful. I +except none. The cause of this is the state of society. In the world, +every one is to stir for himself--it is useless, perhaps selfish, to +expect any thing from his neighbour. But I do not think we are born of +this disposition; for you find _friendship_ as a schoolboy, and _love_ +enough before twenty. + +I went to see * *; he keeps me in town, where I don't wish to be at +present. He is a good man, but totally without conduct. And now, my +dearest William, I must wish you good morrow, and remain ever, +Most sincerely and affectionately yours, etc. + + + +[Footnote 1: Campbell lived at Sydenham from 1804 to 1820. Moore (Life, +p. 148) adds the following note: + + "On this occasion, another of the noble poet's peculiarities was, + somewhat startlingly, introduced to my notice. When we were on the + point of setting out from his lodgings in St. James's Street, it being + then about midday, he said to the servant, who was shutting the door + of the 'vis-a-vis', 'Have you put in the pistols?' and was answered in + the affirmative. It was difficult,--more especially taking into + account the circumstances under which we had just become acquainted,-- + to keep from smiling at this singular noonday precaution."] + + +[Footnote 2: On December 14, 1811, at Covent Garden, Kemble acted +"Coriolanus" with Mrs. Siddons as "Volumnia." It was Kemble's great +part, and in it he made his last appearance on the stage (June 23, +1817).] + + +[Footnote 3: For Lord Clare, see 'Letters', vol. i. p. 116, 'note' 1 +[Footnote 1 of Letter 65.]] + + +[Footnote 4: For Lord Delawarr, see 'Letters', vol. i. p. 41, note 1 +[Footnote 5 of Letter 13.]] + + +[Footnote 5: Robert Coates, "the Amateur of Fashion," known as "Romeo" +Coates, sometimes as "Diamond" Coates, sometimes as "Cock-a-doodle-doo" +Coates (1772-1848), was the only surviving son of a wealthy West Indian +planter. He made his first appearance on the stage at Bath (February 9, +1810), as "Romeo." In the play-bill he was announced as "a Gentleman, +1st Appearance on any stage." Genest ('English Stage', vol. viii. p. +207) says, + + "Many gentlemen have been weak enough to fancy themselves actors, but + no one ever persevered in obtruding himself for so long a time on the + notice of the public in spite of laughter, hissing, etc." + +On December 9, 1811, he appeared at the Haymarket as "Lothario" in +Rowe's 'Fair Penitent'. Mathews, at Covent Garden, imitated his +performance, in Bate Dudley's 'At Home', as "Mr. Romeo Rantall," +appearing in the + + "pink silk vest and cloak, white satin breeches and stockings, Spanish + hat, with a rich high plume of ostrich feathers," in which Coates had + played "Lothario" + +'Memoirs of Charles Mathews', (vol. ii. pp. 238, 239).] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +218.--To Robert Rushton. [1] + +8, St. James's Street, Jan. 21, 1812. + +Though I have no objection to your refusal to carry _letters_ to +Mealey's, you will take care that the letters are taken by _Spero_ at +the proper time. I have also to observe, that Susan is to be treated +with civility, and not _insulted_ by any person over whom I have the +smallest controul, or, indeed, by any one whatever, while I have the +power to protect her. I am truly sorry to have any subject of complaint +against _you_; I have too good an opinion of you to think I shall have +occasion to repeat it, after the care I have taken of you, and my +favourable intentions in your behalf. I see no occasion for any +communication whatever between _you_ and the _women_, and wish you to +occupy yourself in preparing for the situation in which you will be +placed. If a common sense of decency cannot prevent you from conducting +yourself towards them with rudeness, I should at least hope that your +_own interest_, and regard for a master who has _never_ treated you with +unkindness, will have some weight. + +Yours, etc., BYRON. + +P.S.--I wish you to attend to your arithmetic, to occupy yourself in +surveying, measuring, and making yourself acquainted with every +particular relative to the _land_ of Newstead, and you will _write_ to +me _one letter every week_, that I may know how you go on. + + + +[Footnote 1: The two following letters, and a suppressed passage in the +letter to Moore of January 29, 1812, refer to a quarrel among his +dependents, in which Rushton, the "little page" of Childe Harold (see +'Letters', vol. i. pp. 224, 242), played a part. The story is told at +considerable length in a letter to Hodgson, dated January 28, 1812. To +the same affair probably belong the following scrap and Byron's note: + + "Pray don't forget me, as I shall never cease thinking of you, my + Dearest 'and only Friend, (signed) S. H. V.'" + +To this Byron has added this note: + + "This was written on the 11th of January, 1812; on the 28th I received + ample proof that the Girl had forgotten _me_ and _herself_ too. + Heigho! B." + +The letters show, writes Moore ('Life', p. 152), + + "how gravely and coolly the young lord could arbitrate on such an + occasion, and with what considerate leaning towards the servant whose + fidelity he had proved, in preference to any new liking or fancy by + which it might be suspected he was actuated toward the other." + +In a MS. book written by Mrs. Heath of Newstead ('née' Rebekah +Beardall), it is stated that the elder Rushton had as his farm-servant +Fletcher, afterwards Byron's valet. Byron watched Fletcher and young +Robert Rushton ploughing, took a fancy to both, and engaged them as his +servants. Rushton accompanied Byron to Geneva, but afterwards entered +the service of James Wedderburn Webster (see p. 2, 'note' 1). In 1827 he +married a woman of the name of Bagnall, and with her help kept a school +at Arnold, near Nottingham. Subsequently he took a farm on the Newstead +estate, named Hazelford, and shortly afterwards died, leaving a widow +and three children.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +219.--To Robert Rushton. + + +8, St. James's Street, January 25, 1812. + +Your refusal to carry the letter was not a subject of remonstrance: it +was not a part of your business; but the language you used to the girl +was (as _she_ stated it) highly improper. + +You say, that you also have something to complain of; then state it to +me immediately: it would be very unfair, and very contrary to my +disposition, not to hear both sides of the question. + +If any thing has passed between you _before_ or since my last visit to +Newstead, do not be afraid to mention it. I am sure _you_ would not +deceive me, though _she_ would. Whatever it is, _you_, shall be +forgiven. I have not been without some suspicions on the subject, and am +certain that, at your time of life, the blame could not attach to you. +You will not _consult_, any one as to your answer, but write to me +immediately. I shall be more ready to hear what you have to advance, as +I do not remember ever to have heard a word from you before _against_, +any human being, which convinces me you would not maliciously assert an +untruth. There is not any one who can do the least injury to you, while +you conduct yourself properly. I shall expect your answer immediately. +Yours, etc., + +BYRON. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +220.--To Thomas Moore. + + +January 29, 1812. + + +My Dear Moore,--I wish very much I could have seen you; I am in a state +of ludicrous tribulation.*** + +Why do you say that I dislike your poesy [1]? I have expressed no such +opinion, either in _print_ or elsewhere. In scribbling myself, it was +necessary for me to find fault, and I fixed upon the trite charge of +immorality, because I could discover no other, and was so perfectly +qualified in the innocence of my heart, to "pluck that mote from my +neighbour's eye." + +I feel very, very much obliged by your approbation; but, at _this +moment_, praise, even _your_ praise, passes by me like "the idle wind." +I meant and mean to send you a copy the moment of publication; but now I +can think of nothing but damned, deceitful,--delightful woman, as Mr. +Liston says in the 'Knight of Snowdon' [2]? Believe me, my dear Moore, + +Ever yours, most affectionately, BYRON. + + + +[Footnote: 1. Of Moore's early poems Byron was an admirer. The influence +of "Little" and "Anacreon" is strongly marked throughout 'Hours of +Idleness'. For the "trite charge of immorality," see 'English Bards, +etc.', lines 283-294; and 'Letters', vol. i. p. 113. Byron's opinion of +Moore's later poetry was thus stated by him to Lady Blessington +('Conversations', pp. 354, 355): + + "Having compared Rogers's poems to a flower-garden, to what shall I + compare Moore's?--to the Valley of Diamonds, where all is brilliant + and attractive, but where one is so dazzled by the sparkling on every + side that one knows not where to fix, each gem beautiful in itself, + but overpowering to the eye from their quantity."] + + +[Footnote 2: 'The Knight of Snowdoun', a musical drama, written by +Thomas Morton (1764-1838), and founded on 'The Lady of the Lake', was +produced at Covent Garden, Feb. 5, 1811, and published the same year. +John Liston (1776-1846), the most famous comedian of the century, played +the part of "Macloon," his wife that of "Isabel." In act iii. sc. 3 +Macloon says, + + "Oh, woman! woman! deceitful, damnable, (_changing into a half-smile_) + delightful woman! do all one can, there's nothing else worth thinking + of."] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +221.--To Francis Hodgson. + + +8, St. James's Street, Feb. 1, 1812. + +MY DEAR HODGSON,-I am rather unwell with a vile cold, caught in the +House of Lords last night. Lord Sligo and myself, being tired, _paired +off_, being of opposite sides, so that nothing was gained or lost by +_our_ votes. I did not speak: but I might as well, for nothing could +have been inferior to the Duke of Devonshire, Marquis of Downshire, and +the Earl of Fitzwilliam. The Catholic Question comes on this month, and +perhaps I may then commence. I must "screw my courage to the +sticking-place," and we'll _not_ fail. + +Yours ever, B. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +222.--To Samuel Rogers. + + +February 4, 1812. + + +MY DEAR SIR,--With my best acknowledgments to Lord Holland [1], I have +to offer my perfect concurrence in the propriety of the question +previously to be put to ministers. If their answer is in the negative, I +shall, with his Lordship's approbation, give notice of a motion for a +Committee of Inquiry. I would also gladly avail myself of his most able +advice, and any information or documents with which he might be pleased +to intrust me, to bear me out in the statement of facts it may be +necessary to submit to the House. + +From all that fell under my own observation during my Christmas visit to +Newstead, I feel convinced that, if _conciliatory_ measures are not very +soon adopted, the most unhappy consequences may be apprehended. [2] + +Nightly outrage and daily depredation are already at their height; and +not only the masters of frames, who are obnoxious on account of their +occupation, but persons in no degree connected with the malecontents or +their oppressors, are liable to insult and pillage. + +I am very much obliged to you for the trouble you have taken on my +account, and beg you to believe me, + +Ever your obliged and sincere, etc. + + + +[Footnote 1: For Lord Holland, see 'Letters', vol. i. p. 184, 'note' 1 +[Footnote 3 of Letter 94]. He was Recorder of Nottingham; hence his +special interest in the proposed legislation against frame-breaking.] + + +[Footnote 2: Owing to the state of trade, numbers of stocking-weavers +had lost work. The discontent thus produced was increased by the +introduction of a wide frame for the manufacture of gaiters and +stockings, which, it was supposed, would further diminish the demand for +manual labour. In November, 1811, organized bands of men began to break +into houses and destroy machinery. For several days no serious effort +was made to check the riots, which extended to a considerable distance +round Nottingham. But on November 14 the soldiers were called out. +Between that date and December 9, 900 cavalry and 1000 infantry were +sent to Nottingham; and, on January 8, 1812, these forces were increased +by two additional regiments. The rioters assumed the name of Luddites, +and their leader was known as General Lud. The name is said to have +originated in 1779, in a Leicestershire village, where a half-witted +lad, named Ned Lud, broke a stocking-frame in a fit of passion; hence +the common saying, when machinery was broken, that "Ned Lud" did it. A +Bill was introduced in the House of Commons (February 14) increasing the +severity of punishments for frame-breaking. On the second reading +(February 17) Sir Samuel Romilly strongly opposed the measure, which +passed its third reading (February 20) without a division. The Bill, as +introduced into the Upper House by Lord Liverpool, + +(1) rendered the offence of frame-breaking punishable by death; and +(2) compelled persons in whose houses the frames were broken to give +information to the magistrates. + +On the second reading of the Bill (February 27, 1812), Byron spoke +against it in his first speech in the House of Lords (see Appendix II. +(i)). The Bill passed its third reading on March 5, and became law as 52 +Geo. III. c. 16. Byron did not confine his opposition to a speech in the +House of Lords. He also addressed "An Ode to the Framers of the Frame +Bill," which appeared in the 'Morning Chronicle' on Monday, March 2, +1812. The following letter to Perry, the editor, is published by +permission of Messrs. Ellis and Elvey, in whose possession is the +original: + + "Sir,--I take the liberty of sending an alteration of the two last + lines of Stanza 2'd which I wish to run as follows, + + "'Gibbets on Sherwood will _heighten_ the Scenery + Shewing how Commerce, _how_ Liberty thrives!' + + "I wish you could insert it tomorrow for a particular reason; but I + feel much obliged by your inserting it at all. Of course, do not put + _my name_ to the thing. Believe me, Your obliged and very obed't + Serv't, BYRON. + + "8, St. James Street, Sunday, March 1st, 1812."] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +223.--To Master John Cowell. [1] + + +8, St. James's Street, February 12, 1812. + + +MY DEAR JOHN,--You have probably long ago forgotten the writer of these +lines, who would, perhaps, be unable to recognize _yourself_, from the +difference which must naturally have taken place in your stature and +appearance since he saw you last. I have been rambling through Portugal, +Spain, Greece, etc., etc., for some years, and have found so many +changes on my return, that it would be very unfair not to expect that +you should have had your share of alteration and improvement with the +rest. I write to request a favour of you: a little boy of eleven years, +the son of Mr. **, my particular friend, is about to become an Etonian, +and I should esteem any act of protection or kindness to him as an +obligation to myself: let me beg of you then to take some little notice +of him at first, till he is able to shift for himself. + +I was happy to hear a very favourable account of you from a schoolfellow +a few weeks ago, and should be glad to learn that your family are as +well as I wish them to be. I presume you are in the upper school;--as an +_Etonian_, you will look down upon a _Harrow_ man; but I never, even in +my boyish days, disputed your superiority, which I once experienced in a +cricket match, where I had the honour of making one of eleven, who were +beaten to their hearts' content by your college in _one innings_. [2] + +Believe me to be, with great truth, etc., etc., + +B. + + + +[Footnote 1: + + "Breakfasted with Mr. Cowell," writes Moore, in his Diary, June 11, + 1828, "having made his acquaintance for the purpose of gaining + information about Lord Byron. Knew Byron for the first time when he + himself was a little boy, from being in the habit of playing with B.'s + dogs. Byron wrote to him to school to bid him mind his prosody. Gave + me two or three of his letters to him. Saw a good deal of B. at + Hastings; mentioned the anecdote about the ink-bottle striking one of + the lead Muses. These Muses had been brought from Holland; and there + were, I think, only eight of them arrived safe. Fletcher had brought + B. a large jar of ink, and, not thinking it was full, B. had thrust + his pen down to the very bottom; his anger at finding it come out all + besmeared with ink made him chuck the jar out of the window, when it + knocked down one of the Muses in the garden, and deluged her with ink. + In 1813, when B. was at Salt Hill, he had Cowell over from Eton, and + 'pouched' him no less than ten pounds. Cowell has ever since kept one + of the notes. Told me a curious anecdote of Byron's mentioning to him, + as if it had made a great impression on him, their seeing Shelley (as + they thought) walking into a little wood at Lerici, when it was + discovered afterwards that Shelley was at that time in quite another + direction. 'This,' said Byron, in a sort of awe-struck voice, 'was + about ten days before his death.' Cowell's imitation of his look and + manner very striking. Thinks that in Byron's speech to Fletcher, when + he was dying, threatening to appear to him, there was a touch of that + humour and fun which he was accustomed to mix up with everything". + +('Memoirs, Journals, etc'., vol. v. pp. 302, 303).] + + +[Footnote 2: See 'Letters', vol. i. p. 70, and 'note' 1 [Footnote 2 of +Letter 30.]] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +224.--To Francis Hodgson. + +8, St. James's Street, February 16, 1812. + +Dear Hodgson,--I send you a proof. Last week I was very ill and confined +to bed with stone in the kidney, but I am now quite recovered. The women +are gone to their relatives, after many attempts to explain what was +already too clear. If the stone had got into my heart instead of my +kidneys, it would have been all the better. However, I have quite +recovered _that_ also, and only wonder at my folly in excepting my own +strumpets from the general corruption,--albeit a two months' weakness is +better than ten years. I have one request to make, which is, never +mention a woman again in any letter to me, or even allude to the +existence of the sex. I won't even read a word of the feminine +gender;--it must all be 'propria quæ maribus'. + +In the spring of 1813 I shall leave England for ever. Every thing in my +affairs tends to this, and my inclinations and health do not discourage +it. Neither my habits nor constitution are improved by your customs or +your climate. I shall find employment in making myself a good Oriental +scholar. I shall retain a mansion in one of the fairest islands, and +retrace, at intervals, the most interesting portions of the East. In the +mean time, I am adjusting my concerns, which will (when arranged) leave +me with wealth sufficient even for home, but enough for a principality +in Turkey. At present they are involved, but I hope, by taking some +necessary but unpleasant steps, to clear every thing. Hobhouse is +expected daily in London: we shall be very glad to see him; and, +perhaps, you will come up and "drink deep ere he depart," if not, +"Mahomet must go to the mountain;" [1]--but Cambridge will bring sad +recollections to him, and worse to me, though for very different +reasons. I believe the only human being, that ever loved me in truth and +entirely, was of, or belonging to, Cambridge, and, in that, no change +can now take place. There is one consolation in death--where he sets his +seal, the impression can neither be melted nor broken, but endureth for +ever. + +Yours always, + +B. + +P.S.--I almost rejoice when one I love dies young, for I could never +bear to see them old or altered. + + + +[Footnote 1: See Bacon's 'Essays' ("Of Boldness"): + + "Mahomet made the people believe that he would call a hill to him, and + from the top of it offer up his prayers for the observers of his law. + The people assembled; Mahomet called the hill to come to him, again + and again; and when the hill stood still, he was never a whit abashed, + but said, 'If the hill will not come to Mahomet, Mahomet will go to + the hill.'"] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +225.--To Francis Hodgson. + +London, February 21, 1812. + +My Dear Hodgson,--There is a book entituled _Galt, his Travels in ye +Archipelago_, [1] daintily printed by Cadell and Davies, ye which I +could desiderate might be criticised by you, inasmuch as ye author is a +well-respected esquire of mine acquaintance, but I fear will meet with +little mercy as a writer, unless a friend passeth judgment. Truth to +say, ye boke is ye boke of a cock-brained man, and is full of devises +crude and conceitede, but peradventure for my sake this grace may be +vouchsafed unto him. Review him myself I can not, will not, and if you +are likewize hard of heart, woe unto ye boke! ye which is a comely +quarto. + +Now then! I have no objection to review, if it pleases Griffiths [2] to +send books, or rather _you_, for you know the sort of things I like to +[play] with. You will find what I say very serious as to my intentions. +I have every reason to induce me to return to Ionia. + +Believe me, yours always, + +B. + + + +[Footnote 1: John Galt (1779-1839) published in 1812 his 'Voyages and +Travels in the Years 1809, 1810, and 1811'. For his meeting with Byron +at Gibraltar in 1809, see 'Letters', vol. i. p. 243, 'note' 1 [Footnote +1 of Letter 130]; see also 'ibid.', p. 304, 'note' 2 [Footnote 2 of +Letter 131]. Galt's novels were, in later years, liked by Byron, who + + "praised the 'Annals of the Parish' very highly, as also 'The + Entail' ... some scenes of which, he said, had affected him very much. + 'The characters in Mr. Galt's novels have an identity,' added Byron, + 'that reminds me of Wilkie's pictures'" + +(Lady Blessington's 'Conversations with Lord Byron', p. 74). + +"When I knew Galt, years ago," said Byron to Lady Blessington, "I was +not in a frame of mind to form an impartial opinion of him: his mildness +and equanimity struck me even then; but, to say the truth, his manner +had not deference enough for my then aristocratical taste, and finding I +could not awe him into a respect sufficiently profound for my sublime +self, either as a peer or an author, I felt a little grudge towards him +that has now completely worn off," etc., etc. + +('ibid.', p. 249).] + + +[Footnote 2: George Edward Griffiths (circ. 1769-1829), son of Ralph +Griffiths, who founded, owned, and published the 'Monthly Review', and +boarded and lodged Oliver Goldsmith as a contributor, succeeded to the +management of the 'Review' on the death of his father in 1803. He edited +it till 1825, when he sold the property. He lived at Linden House, +Turnham Green. Francis Hodgson wrote for the 'Monthly Review', and, +March 2, 1814, he writes to Byron, + + "I have already read a review of Safie in the 'British Critic', and + will undertake it in the 'Monthly' if Griffiths, with whom I am in + very bad odour from my late shameful idleness, will allow me. Oh that + you would write a good smart critique of something to get both + 'yourself and me' in high repute at Turnham Green!!!!" + +In Byron's 'Detached Thoughts' occurs the following passage: + + "I have been a reviewer. In the 'Monthly Review' I wrote some articles + which were inserted. This was in the latter part of 1811. In 1807, in + a Magazine called 'Monthly Literary Recreations', I reviewed + Wordsworth's trash of that time. + + "Excepting these, I cannot accuse myself of anonymous Criticism (that + I recollect), though I have been 'offered' more than one review in our + principal Journals." + +In the Bodleian Library is a copy of the 'Monthly Review', in which +Griffiths has entered the initials of the authors of each article. Two +articles from the 'Review', attributed to Byron on this authority, are +given in Appendix I.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +226.--To Lord Holland. + + +8, St. James's Street, February 25, 1812. + + +MY LORD,--With my best thanks, I have the honour to return the Notts, +letter to your Lordship. I have read it with attention, but do not think +I shall venture to avail myself of its contents, as my view of the +question differs in some measure from Mr. Coldham's. I hope I do not +wrong him, but _his_ objections to the bill appear to me to be founded +on certain apprehensions that he and his coadjutors might be mistaken +for the "_original advisers_" (to quote him) of the measure. For my own +part, I consider the manufacturers as a much injured body of men, +sacrificed to the views of certain individuals who have enriched +themselves by those practices which have deprived the frame-workers of +employment. For instance;--by the adoption of a certain kind of frame, +one man performs the work of seven--six are thus thrown out of business. +But it is to be observed that the work thus done is far inferior in +quality, hardly marketable at home, and hurried over with a view to +exportation. Surely, my Lord, however we may rejoice in any improvement +in the arts which may be beneficial to mankind, we must not allow +mankind to be sacrificed to improvements in mechanism. The maintenance +and well-doing of the industrious poor is an object of greater +consequence to the community than the enrichment of a few monopolists by +any improvement in the implements of trade, which deprives the workman +of his bread, and renders the labourer "unworthy of his hire." + +My own motive for opposing the bill is founded on its palpable +injustice, and its certain inefficacy. I have seen the state of these +miserable men, and it is a disgrace to a civilized country. Their +excesses may be condemned, but cannot be subject of wonder. The effect +of the present bill would be to drive them into actual rebellion. The +few words I shall venture to offer on Thursday will be founded upon +these opinions formed from my own observations on the spot. By previous +inquiry, I am convinced these men would have been restored to +employment, and the county to tranquillity. It is, perhaps, not yet too +late, and is surely worth the trial. It can never be too late to employ +force in such circumstances. I believe your Lordship does not coincide +with me entirely on this subject, and most cheerfully and sincerely +shall I submit to your superior judgment and experience, and take some +other line of argument against the bill, or be silent altogether, should +you deem it more advisable. Condemning, as every one must condemn, the +conduct of these wretches, I believe in the existence of grievances +which call rather for pity than punishment. I have the honour to be, +with great respect, my Lord, your Lordship's + +Most obedient and obliged servant, + +BYRON. + +P.S.--I am a little apprehensive that your Lordship will think me too +lenient towards these men, and half a _frame-breaker myself_. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +227.--To Francis Hodgson. + + +8, St. James's Street, March 5, 1812. + + +MY DEAR HODGSON,--_We_ are not answerable for reports of speeches in the +papers; they are always given incorrectly, and on this occasion more so +than usual, from the debate in the Commons on the same night. The +_Morning Post_ should have said _eighteen years_. However, you will find +the speech, as spoken, in the Parliamentary Register, when it comes out. +Lords Holland and Grenville, particularly the latter, paid me some high +compliments in the course of their speeches, as you may have seen in the +papers, and Lords Eldon and Harrowby answered me. I have had many +marvellous eulogies [1] repeated to me since, in person and by proxy, +from divers persons _ministerial_--yea, _ministerial!_--as well as +oppositionists; of them I shall only mention Sir F. Burdett. _He_ says +it is the best speech by a _lord_ since the "_Lord_ knows when," +probably from a fellow-feeling in the sentiments. Lord H. tells me I +shall beat them all if I persevere; and Lord G. remarked that the +construction of some of my periods are very like _Burke's!!_ And so much +for vanity. I spoke very violent sentences with a sort of modest +impudence, abused every thing and every body, and put the Lord +Chancellor very much out of humour: and if I may believe what I hear, +have not lost any character by the experiment. As to my delivery, loud +and fluent enough, perhaps a little theatrical. I could not recognize +myself or any one else in the newspapers [2]. + +I hire myself unto Griffiths, and my poesy [3] comes out on Saturday. +Hobhouse is here; I shall tell him to write. My stone is gone for the +present, but I fear is part of my habit. We _all_ talk of a visit to +Cambridge. + +Yours ever, + +B. + + + +[Footnote 1: For Byron's speech, February 27, 1812, see Appendix II. +(i).] Grenville said, + + "There never was a maxim of greater wisdom than that uttered by the + noble lord [Byron] who had so ably addressed their lordships that + night for the first time" + +('Hansard', vol. xxi. p. 977). Moore quotes a passage from Byron's +'Detached Thoughts': + + "Sheridan's liking for me (whether he was not mystifying me I do not + know, but Lady Caroline Lamb and others told me that he said the same + both before and after he knew me) was founded upon 'English Bards, and + Scotch Reviewers'. He told me that he did not care about poetry (or + about mine--at least, any but 'that' poem of mine), but he was sure, + from 'that' and other symptoms, I should make an orator, if I would + but take to speaking, and grow a parliament man. He never ceased + harping upon this to me to the last; and I remember my old tutor, Dr. + Drury, had the same notion when I was a 'boy'; but it never was my + turn of inclination to try. I spoke once or twice, as all young peers + do, as a kind of introduction into public life; but dissipation, + shyness, haughty and reserved opinions, together with the short time I + lived in England after my majority (only about five years in all), + prevented me from resuming the experiment. As far as it went, it was + not discouraging, particularly my 'first' speech (I spoke three or + four times in all); but just after it, my poem of 'Childe Harold' was + published, and nobody ever thought about my 'prose' afterwards, nor + indeed did I; it became to me a secondary and neglected object, though + I sometimes wonder to myself if I should have succeeded."] + + +[Footnote 2: Byron, writing to John Hanson, February 28, 1812, says: + + "Dear Sir,--In the report of my speech (which by the bye is given very + incorrectly) in the 'M[orning] Herald', 'Day', and 'B[ritish] Press', + they state that I mentioned 'Bristol', a place I never saw in my life + and knew nothing of whatever, nor 'mentioned' at all last night. Will + you be good enough to send to these 'papers' 'immediately', and have + the mistake corrected, or I shall get into a scrape with the Bristol + people? + + "I am, yours very truly, + + "B."] + + +[Footnote 3: 'Childe Harold', Cantos I., II.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +228.--To Lord Holland. + + +St. James's Street, March 5, 1812. + + +MY LORD,--May I request your Lordship to accept a copy of the thing +which accompanies this note [1]? + +You have already so fully proved the truth of the first line of Pope's +couplet [2], + + "Forgiveness to the injured doth belong," + +that I long for an opportunity to give the lie to the verse that +follows. If I were not perfectly convinced that any thing I may have +formerly uttered in the boyish rashness of my misplaced resentment had +made as little impression as it deserved to make, I should hardly have +the confidence--perhaps your Lordship may give it a stronger and more +appropriate appellation--to send you a quarto of the same scribbler. But +your Lordship, I am sorry to observe to-day, is troubled with the gout; +if my book can produce a _laugh_ against itself or the author, it will +be of some service. If it can set you to _sleep_, the benefit will be +yet greater; and as some facetious personage observed half a century +ago, that "poetry is a mere drug," [3] + +I offer you mine as a humble assistant to the _eau medicinale_. I trust +you will forgive this and all my other buffooneries, and believe me to +be, with great respect, + +Your Lordship's obliged and sincere servant, + +BYRON. + + + +[Footnote 1: 'Childe Harold' was published March 1, 1812. Another copy +of 'Childe Harold' was sent to Mrs. Leigh, with the following +inscription: + + "To Augusta, my dearest sister, and my best friend, who has ever loved + me much better than I deserved, this volume is presented by her + _father's_ son, and most affectionate brother, B." + +The effect which the poem instantly produced is best expressed in +Byron's own memorandum: + + "I awoke one morning and found myself famous." + +He was only just twenty-three years old. + + "The subject," says Elizabeth, Duchess of Devonshire ('Two Duchesses', + pp. 375, 376), "of conversation, of curiosity, of enthusiasm almost, + one might say, of the moment is not Spain or Portugal, Warriors or + Patriots, but Lord Byron!" "He returned," she continues, "sorry for + the severity of some of his lines (in the 'English Bards'), and with a + new poem, 'Childe Harold', which he published. This poem is on every + table, and himself courted, visited, flattered, and praised whenever + he appears. He has a pale, sickly, but handsome countenance, a bad + figure, and, in short, he is really the only topic almost of every + conversation--the men jealous of him, the women of each other." + + "Lord Byron," writes Lady Harriet Leveson Gower to the Duke of + Devonshire, May 10, 1812 ('Letters of Harriet, Countess Granville', + vol. i. p. 34), "is still upon a pedestal, and Caroline William doing + homage. I have made acquaintance with him. He is agreeable, but I feel + no wish for any further intimacy. His countenance is fine when it is + in repose; but the moment it is in play, suspicious, malignant, and + consequently repulsive. His manner is either remarkably gracious and + conciliatory, with a tinge of affectation, or irritable and impetuous, + and then, I am afraid, perfectly natural." + +Rogers ('Recollections of the Table-Talk of Samuel Rogers', pp. 232, +233) says, + + "After Byron had become the 'rage', I was frequently amused at + the manoeuvres of certain noble ladies to get acquainted with him by + means of me; for instance, I would receive a note from Lady----, + requesting the pleasure of my company on a particular evening, with a + postscript, 'Pray, could you not contrive to bring Lord Byron with + you?' Once, at a great party given by Lady Jersey, Mrs. Sheridan ran + up to me and said, 'Do, as a favour, try if you can place Lord Byron + beside me at supper!'"] + + +[Footnote 2: + + "Forgiveness to the injured does belong, + But they ne'er pardon, who have done the wrong." + +Dryden's 'Conquest of Grenada', part ii. act i. sc. 2.] + + +[Footnote 3: Murphy, in sc. 1 of 'The Way to Keep Him' (1760), uses the +word in the same sense; + + "A wife's a drug now; mere tar-water, with every virtue under heaven, + but nobody takes it."] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + +MARCH, 1812--MAY, 1813. + + +THE IDOL OF SOCIETY--THE DRURY LANE ADDRESS--SECOND SPEECH IN PARLIAMENT. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +229.--To Thomas Moore. + + +With regard to the passage on Mr. Way's loss, no unfair play was hinted +at, as may be seen by referring to the book [1]; and it is expressly +added that the managers _were ignorant_ of that transaction. As to the +prevalence of play at the Argyle, it cannot be denied that there were +_billiards_ and _dice_;--Lord B. has been a witness to the use of both +at the Argyle Rooms. These, it is presumed, come under the denomination +of play. If play be allowed, the President of the Institution can hardly +complain of being termed the "Arbiter of Play,"--or what becomes of his +authority? + +Lord B. has no personal animosity to Colonel Greville. A public +institution, to which he himself was a subscriber, he considered himself +to have a right to notice _publickly_. Of that institution Colonel +Greville was the avowed director;--it is too late to enter into the +discussion of its merits or demerits. + +Lord B. must leave the discussion of the reparation, for the real or +supposed injury, to Colonel G.'s friend and Mr. Moore, the friend of +Lord B.--begging them to recollect that, while they consider Colonel +G.'s honour, Lord B. must also maintain his own. If the business can be +settled amicably, Lord B. will do as much as can and ought to be done by +a man of honour towards conciliation;--if not, he must satisfy Colonel +G. in the manner most conducive to his further wishes. + + + +[Footnote 1: Byron, in 'English Bards, etc.' (lines 638-667), had +alluded to Colonel Greville, Manager of the Argyle Institution: + + "Or hail at once the patron and the pile + Of vice and folly, Greville and Argyle," etc. + +In a note he had also referred to "Billy" Way's loss of several thousand +pounds in the Rooms. On his return from abroad, Colonel Greville +demanded satisfaction through his friend Gould Francis Leckie. Byron +referred Leckie to Moore, and sent Moore the above paper for his +guidance. The affair was amicably settled. + +In his 'Detached Thoughts' occurs the following passage:-- + + "I have been called in as mediator, or second, at least twenty times, + in violent quarrels, and have always contrived to settle the business + without compromising the honour of the parties, or leading them to + mortal consequences, and this, too, sometimes in very difficult and + delicate circumstances, and having to deal with very hot and haughty + spirits,--Irishmen, gamesters, guardsmen, captains, and cornets of + horse, and the like. This was, of course, in my youth, when I lived in + hot-headed company. I have had to carry challenges from gentlemen to + noblemen, from captains to captains, from lawyers to counsellors, and + once from a clergyman to an officer in the Life Guards; but I found + the latter by far the most difficult: + + "'to compose + The bloody duel without blows,' + + "the business being about a woman: I must add, too, that I never saw a + _woman_ behave so ill, like a cold-blooded, heartless b----as she + was,--but very handsome for all that. A certain Susan C----was she + called. I never saw her but once; and that was to induce her but to + say two words (which in no degree compromised herself), and which + would have had the effect of saving a priest or a lieutenant of + cavalry. She would _not_ say them, and neither Nepean nor myself [the + son of Sir Evan Nepean, and a friend to one of the parties] could + prevail upon her to say them, though both of us used to deal in some + sort with womankind. At last I managed to quiet the combatants without + her talisman, and, I believe, to her great disappointment: she was the + damnedest b----that I ever saw, and I have seen a great many. Though + my clergyman was sure to lose either his life or his living, he was as + warlike as the Bishop of Beauvais, and would hardly be pacified; but + then he was in love, and that is a martial passion." + +One challenge from a gentleman to a nobleman was that of Scrope Davies +to Lord Foley, in 1813; but Byron succeeded in arranging the matter. +That from a lawyer to a counsellor was in 1815, from John Hanson to +Serjeant Best, afterwards Lord Wynford, and arose out of the marriage of +Miss Hanson to Lord Portsmouth; this quarrel was also settled by Byron. +The case of the clergyman was that of the Rev. Robert Bland, whose +mistress, during his absence in Holland, left him for an officer in the +Guards (see 'Letters', vol. i. p. 197, end of 'note' [Footnote 1 of +Letter 102] on Francis Hodgson). Byron was himself a fair shot with a +pistol. + + "When in London," writes Gronow ('Reminiscences', vol. i. p. 152), + "Byron used to go to Manton's shooting-gallery, in Davies Street, to + try his hand, as he said, at a wafer. Wedderburn Webster was present + when the poet, intensely delighted with his own skill, boasted to Joe + Manton that he considered himself the best shot in London. 'No, my + lord,' replied Manton, 'not the best; but your shooting to-day was + respectable.' Whereupon Byron waxed wroth, and left the shop in a + violent passion."] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +230.--To William Bankes. + + +My dear Bankes,--My eagerness to come to an explanation has, I trust, +convinced you that whatever my unlucky manner might inadvertently be, +the change was as unintentional as (if intended) it would have been +ungrateful. I really was not aware that, while we were together, I had +evinced such caprices; that we were not so much in each other's company +as I could have wished, I well know, but I think so _acute an observer_ +as yourself must have perceived enough to _explain this_, without +supposing any slight to one in whose society I have pride and pleasure. +Recollect that I do not allude here to "extended" or "extending" +acquaintances, but to circumstances you will understand, I think, on a +little reflection. + +And now, my dear Bankes, do not distress me by supposing that I can +think of you, or you of me, otherwise than I trust we have long thought. +You told me not long ago that my temper was improved, and I should be +sorry that opinion should be revoked. Believe me, your friendship is of +more account to me than all those absurd vanities in which, I fear, you +conceive me to take too much interest. I have never disputed your +superiority, or doubted (seriously) your good will, and no one shall +ever "make mischief between us" without the sincere regret on the part +of your ever affectionate, etc. + +P.S.--I shall see you, I hope, at Lady Jersey's [1]. + +Hobhouse goes also. + + + +[Footnote 1: George Child-Villiers (1773-1859), "in manners and +appearance 'le plus grand seigneur' of his time," succeeded his father, +"the Prince of Maccaronies," in 1805, as fifth Earl of Jersey. He was +twice Lord Chamberlain to William IV., and twice Master of the Horse to +Queen Victoria. He married, in 1804, Lady Sarah Sophia Fane, eldest +daughter of John, tenth Earl of Westmorland, and heiress, through her +mother, 'née' Sarah Anne Child, of the fortune of her grandfather, +Robert Child, the banker. + +Lady Jersey for many years reigned supreme, by her beauty and wit, in +London society, + + "the veriest tyrant," said Byron, "that ever governed Fashion's fools, + and compelled them to shake their caps and bells as she willed it." + +At Almack's, where, according to Gronow ('Reminiscences', vol. i. p. +32), she introduced the quadrille after Waterloo, she was a despot. +'Almack's', the very clever and personal picture of fashionable life, +published in 1826, is dedicated + + "To that most Distinguished and Despotic Conclave, composed of their + High Mightinesses the Ladies Patronesses of the Balls at Almack's, the + Rulers of Fashion, the Arbiters of Taste, the Leaders of 'Ton', + and the Makers of Manners, whose Sovereign sway over 'the world' of + London has long been established on the firmest basis, whose Decrees + are Laws, and from whose judgment there is no appeal." + +Over this "Willis Coalition Cabinet" Lady Jersey, as "Lady Hauton," is +described as reigning supreme. + + "She knew more than any person I ever met with, and both everything + and everybody; she could quiz and she could flatter." + + "Treat people like fools," she is supposed to say, "and they will + worship you; stoop to make up to them, and they will directly tread + you underfoot." + +Ticknor ('Life', vol. i. p. 269) speaks of her as a "beautiful creature, +with a great deal of talent, taste, and elegant knowledge." He was at +Almack's, in 1819, and standing close to Lady Jersey, then at the height +of beauty and brilliant talent, a leader in society, and with decided +political opinions, when she refused the Duke of Wellington admittance. +The lady patronesses had made a rule to admit no one after eleven +o'clock. When the rule first came into operation, Ticknor heard one of +the attendants announce that the Duke of Wellington was at the door. + + "What o'clock is it?" Lady Jersey asked. "Seven minutes after eleven, + your ladyship." She paused a moment, and then said, with emphasis and + distinctness, "Give my compliments,--give Lady Jersey's compliments to + the Duke of Wellington, and say that she is very glad that the first + enforcement of the rule of exclusion is such that hereafter no one can + complain of its application. He cannot be admitted" + +('ibid'., vol. i. pp. 296, 297). + +Politically, Lady Jersey was a power. Such an entry as the following +sounds strange to modern readers: Dining at Lord Holland's, in 1835, in +company with Lord Melbourne, Lord Grey, and other prominent politicians, +Ticknor notes that + + "public business was much talked about--the corporation bill, the + motion for admitting Dissenters to the universities, etc., etc.; and + as to the last, when the question arose whether it would be debated on + Tuesday night, it was admitted to be doubtful whether Lady Jersey + would not succeed in getting it postponed, as she has a grand dinner + that evening" + +('Life', vol. i. pp. 409, 410). + +Lady Jersey, whose mother-in-law, 'née' Frances Twyden, had +been a bitter opponent of the Princess of Wales, provoked the wrath +of the Regent by espousing the cause of his wife. The Prince +was determined to break off this friendship with his wife's champion, +and sent a letter to her by the hand of Colonel Willis, announcing +his determination. Some time later they met at a great party given +by Henry Hope in Cavendish Square. Lady Jersey was walking +with Rogers in the gallery, when they met the Prince, who + + "stopped for a moment, and then, drawing himself up, marched past her + with a look of the utmost disdain. Lady Jersey returned the look to + the full; and, as soon as the Prince was gone, said to me, with a + smile, 'Didn't I do it well?'" + +('Table Talk of Samuel Rogers', pp. 267, 268). + +From this same change of feeling arose the incident which Byron +celebrated in his Condolatory Address "On the Occasion of the Prince +Regent Returning her Picture to Mrs. Mee." The lines were enclosed with +a letter which is printed at the date May 29, 1814. "Pegasus is, +perhaps, the only horse of whose paces," said Byron ('Conversations with +Lady Blessington', p. 51), "Lord [Jersey] could not be a judge." Of Lady +Jersey he says ('ibid'., p. 50), + + "Of all that coterie, Madame [de Stael], after Lady [Jersey], was the + best; at least I thought so, for these two ladies were the only ones + who ventured to protect me when all London was crying out against me + on the separation, and they behaved courageously and kindly ... Poor + dear Lady [Jersey]! Does she still retain her beautiful cream-coloured + complexion and raven hair? I used to long to tell her that she spoiled + her looks by her excessive animation; for eyes, tongue, head, and arms + were all in movement at once, and were only relieved from their active + service by want of respiration," etc., etc.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +231.--To Thomas Moore. + + +March 25, 1812. + + +Know all men by these presents, that you, Thomas Moore, stand +indicted--no--invited, by special and particular solicitation, to Lady +Caroline Lamb's [1] tomorrow evening, at half-past nine o'clock, where +you will meet with a civil reception and decent entertainment. Pray, +come--I was so examined after you this morning, that I entreat you to +answer in person. + +Believe me, etc. + + + +[Footnote 1: Lady Caroline Lamb (1785-1828), the "Calantha Avondale" of +her own 'Glenarvon', was the daughter of Frederick Ponsonby, third Earl +of Bessborough, by his wife, Lady Henrietta Frances Spencer, sister of +Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. She was brought up, partly in Italy +under the care of a servant, partly by her grandmother, the wife of +John, first Earl Spencer. She married, June 3, 1805, William Lamb, +afterwards Lord Melbourne. + +Her manuscript commonplace-book is in the possession of the Hon. G. +Ponsonby. A few pages are taken up with a printed copy of the 'Essay on +the Progressive Improvement of Mankind', with which her husband won the +declamation prize at Trinity, Cambridge, in 1798. The rest of the volume +consists of some 200 pages filled with prose, and verse, and sketches. +It begins with a list of her nicknames--"Sprite," "Young Savage," +"Ariel," "Squirrel," etc. Then follow the secret language of an +imaginary order; her first verses, written at the age of thirteen; +scraps of poetry, original and extracted, in French, Italian, and +English; a long fragment of a wild romantic story of a girl's seduction +by an infidel nobleman. A clever sketch in water-colour of William Lamb +and of herself, after their marriage, is followed by verses on the birth +of her son, "little "Augustus," August 23, 1807. The last stanza of a +poem, which has nothing to commend it except the feelings of the wife +and mother which it expresses, runs thus: + + "His little eyes like William's shine; + How great is then my joy, + For, while I call this darling mine, + I see 'tis William's boy!" + +The most ambitious effort in the volume is a poem, illustrated with +pictures in water colours, such as 'L'Amour se cache sous le voile +d'Amitié, or l'Innocence le recoit dans ses bras'; a third, in the style +of Blake, bears the inscription 'le Désespoir met fin à ses jours'. The +poem opens with the following lines: + + "Winged with Hope and hushed with Joy, + See yon wanton, blue-eyed Boy,-- + Arch his smile, and keen his dart,-- + Aim at Laura's youthful heart! + How could he his wiles disguise? + How deceive such watchful eyes? + How so pure a breast inspire, + Set so young a Mind on fire? + 'Twas because to raise the flame + Love bethought of friendship's name. + Under this false guise he told her + That he lived but to behold her. + How could she his fault discover + When he often vowed to love her? + How could she her heart defend + When he took the name of friend?" + +Dates are seldom affixed to the compositions, and it is impossible to +say whether any are autobiographical. But, taken as a whole, they reveal +a clever, romantic, impulsive, imaginative woman, whose pet names +describe at once the charm of her character and the fascination of her +small, slight figure, "golden hair, large hazel eyes," and low musical +voice. + +Her marriage with William Lamb, June 3, seems to have been at first kept +secret. Lord Minto in August, 1805 ('Life and Letters', vol. iii. p. +361), speaks of her as unmarried, and adds that she is "a lively and +rather a pretty girl; they say she is very clever." Augustus Foster, +writing to his mother, Lady Elizabeth Foster, July 30, 1805 ('The Two +Duchesses', p. 233), says, "I cannot fancy Lady Caroline married. I +cannot be glad of it. How changed she must be--the delicate Ariel, the +little Fairy Queen become a wife and soon perhaps a mother." Lady +Elizabeth replies, September 30, 1805 ('ibid'., p. 242): "You may +retract all your sorrow about Caro Ponsonby's marriage, for she is the +same wild, delicate, odd, delightful person, unlike everything." + +Lady Caroline and William Lamb are described by Lady Elizabeth, three +months later, as "flirting all day long 'è felice adesso'." The phrase, +perhaps, correctly expresses Lady Caroline's conception of love as an +episode; but no breach occurred till 1813. In the previous year, when +Byron had suddenly risen to the height of his fame, she had refused to +be introduced by Lady Westmorland to the man of whom she made the famous +entry in her Diary "mad, bad, and dangerous to know." But they met, a +few days later, at Holland House, and Byron called on her in Whitehall, +where for the next four months he was a daily visitor. On blue-bordered +paper, embossed at the corners with scallop-shells, she wrote to Byron +at an early stage in their acquaintance, the letter numbered 1 in +Appendix III. + +For the sequel to the story of their friendship, see Byron's letter to +Lady Caroline, p. 135, 'note' 1, and Appendix III.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +232.--To Lady Caroline Lamb. + + +[Undated.] + +I never supposed you artful: we are all selfish,--nature did that for +us. But even when you attempt deceit occasionally, you cannot maintain +it, which is all the better; want of success will curb the tendency. +Every word you utter, every line you write, proves you to be either +_sincere_ or a _fool_. Now as I know you are not the one, I must believe +you the other. + +I never knew a woman with greater or more pleasing talents, _general_ as +in a woman they should be, something of everything, and too much of +nothing. But these are unfortunately coupled with a total want of common +conduct. [1] For instance, the _note_ to your _page_--do you suppose I +delivered it? or did you mean that I should? I did not of course. + +Then your heart, my poor Caro (what a little volcano!), that pours +_lava_ through your veins; and yet I cannot wish it a bit colder, to +make a _marble slab_ of, as you sometimes see (to understand my foolish +metaphor) brought in vases, tables, etc., from Vesuvius, when hardened +after an eruption. To drop my detestable tropes and figures, you know I +have always thought you the cleverest, most agreeable, absurd, amiable, +perplexing, dangerous, fascinating little being that lives now, or ought +to have lived 2000 years ago. I won't talk to you of beauty; I am no +judge. But our beauties cease to be so when near you, and therefore you +have either some, or something better. And now, Caro, this nonsense is +the first and last compliment (if it be such) I ever paid you. You have +often reproached me as wanting in that respect; but others will make up +the deficiency. + +Come to Lord Grey's; at least do not let me keep you away. All that you +so often _say_, I _feel_. Can more be said or felt? This same prudence +is tiresome enough; but one _must_ maintain it, or what _can_ one do to +be saved? Keep to it. + + + +[Footnote 1: The following letter from Lady Caroline to Fletcher, +Byron's valet, illustrates the statement in the text: + + "FLETCHER,--Will you come and see me here some evening at 9, and no + one will know of it. You may say you bring a letter, and wait the + answer. I will send for you in. But I will let you know first, for I + wish to speak with you. I also want you to take the little Foreign + Page I shall send in to see Lord Byron. Do not tell him before-hand, + but, when he comes with flowers, shew him in. I shall not come myself, + unless just before he goes away; so do not think it is me. Besides, + you will see this is quite a child, only I wish him to see my Lord if + you can contrive it, which, if you tell me what hour is most + convenient, will be very easy. I go out of Town to-morrow for a day or + two, and I am now quite well--at least much better."] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +233.--To William Bankes. + + +April 20, 1812. + + +MY DEAR BANKES,--I feel rather hurt (not savagely) at the speech you +made to me last night, and my hope is that it was only one of your +_profane_ jests. I should be very sorry that any part of my behaviour +should give you cause to suppose that I think higher of myself, or +otherwise of you than I have always done. I can assure you that I am as +much the humblest of your servants as at Trin. Coll.; and if I have not +been at home when you favoured me with a call, the loss was more mine +than yours. In the bustle of buzzing parties, there is, there can be, no +rational conversation; but when I can enjoy it, there is nobody's I can +prefer to your own. + +Believe me, ever faithfully and most affectionately yours, + +BYRON. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +234.--To Thomas Moore. + + +Friday noon. + + +I should have answered your note yesterday, but I hoped to have seen you +this morning. I must consult with you about the day we dine with Sir +Francis [1]. I suppose we shall meet at Lady Spencer's [2] to-night. I +did not know that you were at Miss Berry's [3] the other night, or I +should have certainly gone there. + +As usual, I am in all sorts of scrapes, though none, at present, of a +martial description. + +Believe me, etc. + + + +[Footnote 1: Probably with Sir Francis Burdett, at 77, Piccadilly.] + + +[Footnote 2: Grandmother of Lady Caroline Lamb.] + + +[Footnote 3: Mary Berry (1763-1852), the friend and editor of Horace +Walpole, whom she might have married, lived at Little Strawberry Hill, +and in North Audley Street, London. In her Journal Miss Berry mentions +two occasions on which she met Byron. The first was Thursday, April 2, +1812, at Lord Glenbervie's. + + "I had a quarter of an hour's conversation, which, I own, gave me a + great desire to know him better, and he seemed willing that I should + do so." + +The second occasion was May 7, 1812. + + "At the end of the evening I had half an hour's conversation with Lord + Byron, principally on the subject of the Scotch Review, with which he + is very much pleased. He is a singular man, and pleasant to me but I + very much fear that his head begins to be turned by all the adoration + of the world, especially the women" + +('Journal and Correspondence of Miss Berry', vol. ii. pp. 496, 497).] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +235.--To Lady Caroline Lamb. + + +May 1st, 1812. + + +MY DEAR LADY CAROLINE,-I have read over the few poems of Miss Milbank +[1] with attention. They display fancy, feeling, and a little practice +would very soon induce facility of expression. Though I have an +abhorrence of Blank Verse, I like the lines on Dermody [2] so much that +I wish they were in rhyme. The lines in the Cave at Seaham have a turn +of thought which I cannot sufficiently commend, and here I am at least +candid as my own opinions differ upon such subjects. The first stanza is +very good indeed, and the others, with a few slight alterations, might +be rendered equally excellent. The last are smooth and pretty. But these +are all, has she no others? She certainly is a very extraordinary girl; +who would imagine so much strength and variety of thought under that +placid Countenance? It is not necessary for Miss M. to be an authoress, +indeed I do not think publishing at all creditable either to men or +women, and (though you will not believe me) very often feel ashamed of +it myself; but I have no hesitation in saying that she has talents +which, were it proper or requisite to indulge, would have led to +distinction. + +A friend of mine (fifty years old, and an author, but not _Rogers_) has +just been here. As there is no name to the MSS. I shewed them to him, +and he was much more enthusiastic in his praises than I have been. He +thinks them beautiful; I shall content myself with observing that they +are better, much better, than anything of Miss M.'s protegee ('sic') +Blacket. You will say as much of this to Miss M. as you think proper. I +say all this very sincerely. I have no desire to be better acquainted +with Miss Milbank; she is too good for a fallen spirit to know, and I +should like her more if she were less perfect. Believe me, yours ever +most truly, + +B. + + + +[Footnote 1: This letter refers to the future Lady Byron, the "Miss +Monmouth" of 'Glenarvon' (see vol. iii. p. 100), who was first brought +to Byron's notice by Lady Caroline Lamb. Anna Isabella (often shortened +into Annabella) Milbanke (born May 17, 1792; died May 16, 1860) was the +only child of Sir Ralph Milbanke, Bart., and the Hon. Judith Noel, +daughter of Lord Wentworth. Her childhood was passed at Halnaby, or at +Seaham, where her father had + + "a pretty villa on the cliff." In 1808 Seaham "was the most primitive + hamlet ever met with--a dozen or so of cottages, no trade, no + manufacture, no business doing that we could see; the owners were + mostly servants of Sir Ralph Milbanke's" + +('Memoirs of a Highland Lady', p. 71). It was here that Blacket the poet +(see 'Letters', vol. i. p. 314, 'note' 2; p. 6, 'note' 5, of the present +volume; and 'English Bards, etc'., line 770, and Byron's 'note') died, +befriended by Miss Milbanke. + +Byron (Medwin's 'Conversations with Lord Byron', pp. 44, 45) thus +describes the personal appearance of his future wife: + + "There was something piquant and what we term pretty in Miss Milbanke. + Her features were small and feminine, though not regular. She had the + fairest skin imaginable. Her figure was perfect for her height; and + there was a simplicity, a retired modesty, about her, which was very + characteristic, and formed a happy contrast to the cold, artificial + formality and studied stiffness which is called fashion." + +The roundness of her face suggested to Byron the pet name of "Pippin." + +High-principled, guided by a strong sense of duty, imbued with deep +religious feeling, Miss Milbanke lived to impress F. W. Robertson as +"the noblest woman he ever knew" ('Diary of Crabb Robinson' (1852), vol. +iii. p. 405). She was also a clever, well-read girl, fond of +mathematics, a student of theology and of Greek, a writer of meritorious +verse, which, however, Byron only allowed to be "good by accident" +(Medwin, p. 60). Among her mother's friends were Mrs. Siddons, Joanna +Baillie, and Maria Edgeworth. The latter, writing, May, 1813, to Miss +Ruxton, says, "Lady Milbanke is very agreeable, and has a charming, +well-informed daughter." With all her personal charms, virtues, and +mental gifts, she shows, in many of her letters, a precision, formality, +and self-complacency, which suggest the female pedant. Byron says of her +that "she was governed by what she called fixed rules and principles, +squared mathematically" (Medwin, p. 60); at one time he used to speak of +her as his "Princess of Parallelograms," and at a later period he called +her his "Mathematical Medea." + +Before Miss Milbanke met Byron, she had a lover in Augustus Foster, son +of Lady Elizabeth Foster, afterwards Duchess of Devonshire. The duchess, +writing to her son, February 29, 1812, says that Mrs. George Lamb (?) +would sound Miss Milbanke as to her feelings: + + "Caro means to see 'la bella' Annabelle before she writes to you + ... I shall almost hate her if she is blind to the merits of one who + would make her so happy" + +('The Two Duchesses', p. 358). Apparently Mr. Foster's love was not +returned. + + "She persists in saying," writes the duchess, May 4, 1812 ('ibid'., p. + 362), "that she never suspected your attachment to her; but she is so + odd a girl that, though she has for some time rather liked another, + she has decidedly refused them, because she thinks she ought to marry + a person with a good fortune; and this is partly, I believe, from + generosity to her parents, and partly owning that fortune is an object + to herself for happiness. In short, she is good, amiable, and + sensible, but cold, prudent, and reflecting. Lord Byron makes up to + her a little; but she don't seem to admire him except as a poet, nor + he her except for a wife." + +Again, June 2, 1812, she says, + + "Your Annabella is a mystery; liking, not liking; generous-minded, yet + afraid of poverty; there is no making her out. I hope you don't make + yourself unhappy about her; she is really an icicle." + +Miss Milbanke's unaffected simplicity attracted Byron; even her coldness +was a charm. When he came to know her, he probably found her not only +agreeable, but the best woman he had ever met. Lady Melbourne, who knew +him most intimately, and was also Miss Milbanke's aunt, may well have +thought that, if her niece once gained control over Byron, her influence +would be the making of his character. She encouraged the match by every +means in her power. It is unnecessary to suppose that she did so to save +Lady Caroline Lamb; that danger was over. At some time before the autumn +of 1812, Byron proposed to Miss Milbanke, and was refused. He still, +however, continued to correspond with her, and his 'Journal' shows that +his affection for her was steadily growing during the years 1813-14. In +September, 1814, he proposed a second time, and was accepted. + +Byron professed to believe (Medwin, p. 59) that Miss Milbanke was not in +love with him. + + "I was the fashion when she first came out; I had the character of + being a great rake, and was a great dandy--both of which young ladies + like. She married me from vanity, and the hope of reforming and fixing + me." + +Byron was not the man to unbosom himself to Medwin on such a subject. +Moore asked the same question--whether Lady Byron really loved Byron--of +Lady Holland, who + + "seemed to think she must. He was such a loveable person. I remember + him (said she) sitting there with that light upon him, looking so + beautiful!'" + +('Journals, etc.', vol. ii. p. 324). The letters that will follow seem +to show beyond all question that the marriage was one of true affection +on both sides.] + + +[Footnote 2: Thomas Dermody (1775-1802), a precocious Irish lad, whose +dissipated habits weakened his mind and body, published poems in 1792, +1800, and 1802. His collected verses appeared in 1807 under the title of +'The Harp of Erin', edited by J. G. Raymond, who had published the +previous year (1806) 'The Life of Thomas Dermody' in two volumes.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +236.--To Thomas Moore. + + +May 8, 1812. + +I am too proud of being your friend, to care with whom I am linked in +your estimation, and, God knows, I want friends more at this time than +at any other. I am "taking care of myself" to no great purpose. If you +knew my situation in every point of view, you would excuse apparent and +unintentional neglect. I shall leave town, I think; but do not you leave +it without seeing me. I wish you, from my soul, every happiness you can +wish yourself; and I think you have taken the road to secure it. Peace +be with you! I fear she has abandoned me. Ever, etc. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +237.--To Thomas Moore. + + +May 20, 1812. + + +On Monday, after sitting up all night, I saw Bellingham launched into +eternity [1], and at three the same day I saw * * * launched into the +country. + +I believe, in the beginning of June, I shall be down for a few days in +Notts. If so, I shall beat you up 'en passant' with Hobhouse, who is +endeavouring, like you and every body else, to keep me out of scrapes. + +I meant to have written you a long letter, but I find I cannot. If any +thing remarkable occurs, you will hear it from me--if good; if _bad_, +there are plenty to tell it. In the mean time, do you be happy. + +Ever yours, etc. + +P.S.--My best wishes and respects to Mrs. Moore;--she is beautiful. I +may say so even to you, for I was never more struck with a countenance. + + + +[Footnote 1: Bellingham, while engaged in the timber trade at Archangel, +fancied himself wronged by the Russian Government, and the British +Ambassador at St. Petersburg, Lord G. Leveson-Gower. Returning to +England, he set up in Liverpool as an insurance broker, continuing to +press his claims against Russia on the Ministry without success. On May +11, 1812, he shot Spencer Perceval, First Lord of the Treasury and +Chancellor of the Exchequer, dead in the lobby of the House of Commons. +Bellingham was hanged before Newgate on May 18. Byron took a window, +says Moore ('Life', p. 164), to see the execution. He + + "was accompanied on the occasion by his old schoolfellows, Mr. Bailey + and Mr. John Madocks. They went together from some assembly, and, on + their arriving at the spot, about three o'clock in the morning, not + finding the house that was to receive them open, Mr. Madocks undertook + to rouse the inmates, while Lord Byron and Mr. Bailey sauntered, arm + in arm, up the street. During this interval, rather a painful scene + occurred. Seeing an unfortunate woman lying on the steps of a door, + Lord Byron, with some expression of compassion, offered her a few + shillings; but, instead of accepting them, she violently pushed away + his hand, and, starting up with a yell of laughter, began to mimic the + lameness of his gait. He did not utter a word; but 'I could feel,' + said Mr. Bailey, 'his arm trembling within mine, as we left her.'" + +In Byron's 'Detached Thoughts' is an anecdote of Baillie, whose name is +here misspelt by Moore: + + "Baillie (commonly called 'Long' Baillie, a very clever man, but odd) + complained in riding, to our friend Scrope Davies, that he had a + 'stitch' in his side. 'I don't wonder at it,' said Scrope, 'for you + ride like a _tailor_.' Whoever has seen B. on horseback, with his very + tall figure on a small nag, would not deny the justice of the + repartee."] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +238.--To Bernard Barton [1]. + + +8, St. James's St., June 1, 1812. + + +The most satisfactory answer to the concluding part of your letter is +that Mr. Murray will republish your volume, if you still retain your +inclination for the experiment, which I trust will be successful. Some +weeks ago my friend Mr. Rogers showed me some of the stanzas in MS., and +I then expressed my opinion of their merit, which a further perusal of +the printed volume has given me no reason to revoke. I mention this, as +it may not be disagreeable to you to learn that I entertained a very +favourable opinion of your powers, before I was aware that such +sentiments were reciprocal. + +Waiving your obliging expressions as to my own productions, for which I +thank you very sincerely, and assure you that I think not lightly of the +praise of one whose approbation is valuable, will you allow me to talk +to you candidly, not critically, on the subject of yours? You will not +suspect me of a wish to discourage, since I pointed out to the publisher +the propriety of complying with your wishes. I think more highly of your +poetical talents than it would, perhaps, gratify you to hear expressed, +for I believe, from what I observe of your mind, that you are above +flattery. To come to the point, you deserve success, but we know, before +Addison wrote his Cato', that desert does not always command it. But, +suppose it attained: + + "You know what ills the author's life assail, + Toil, envy, want, the patron and the jail." [2] + +Do not renounce writing, but never trust entirely to authorship. If you +have a possession, retain it; it will be, like Prior's fellowship [3], a +last and sure resource. Compare Mr. Rogers with other authors of the +day; assuredly he is amongst the first of living poets, but is it to +that he owes his station in society, and his intimacy in the best +circles? No, it is to his prudence and respectability; the world (a bad +one, I own) courts him because he has no occasion to court it. He is a +poet, nor is he less so because he was something more. I am not sorry to +hear that you are not tempted by the vicinity of Capel Loft, Esq're. +[4], though, if he had done for you what he has done for the +Bloomfields, I should never have laughed at his rage for patronising. +But a truly constituted mind will ever be independent. That you may be +so is my sincere wish, and, if others think as well of your poetry as I +do, you will have no cause to complain of your readers. + +Believe me, etc. + + + +[Footnote 1: Bernard Barton (1784-1849), the friend of Charles Lamb, and +the Quaker poet, to whose 'Poems and Letters' (1849) Edward FitzGerald +prefixed a biographical introduction, published 'Metrical Effusions' +(1812), 'Poems by an Amateur' (1817), 'Poems' (1820), and several other +works. He was for many years a clerk in a bank at Woodbridge, in +Suffolk. Byron's advice to him was that of Lamb: "Keep to your bank, and +your bank will keep you." Two letters, written by him to Byron in 1814, +showing his admiration of the poet, and his appreciation of the +generosity of his character, and part of the draft of Byron's answer, +are given in Appendix IV.] + + +[Footnote 2: + + "There mark what ills the scholar's life assail,-- + Toil, envy, want, the patron and the jail." + +Johnson's 'Vanity of Human Wishes', line 159.] + + + +[Footnote 3: Matthew Prior (1664-1721) became a Fellow of St. John's +College, Cambridge, in 1688.] + + +[Footnote 4: For Capell Lofft and the Bloomfields, see 'Letters', vol. +i. p. 337, 'notes' I and 2 [Footnotes 4 and 5 of Letter 167.]] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +239.--To Lord Holland. + + +June 25, 1812. + + +MY DEAR LORD,--I must appear very ungrateful, and have, indeed, been +very negligent, but till last night I was not apprised of Lady Holland's +restoration, and I shall call to-morrow to have the satisfaction, I +trust, of hearing that she is well.--I hope that neither politics nor +gout have assailed your Lordship since I last saw you, and that you also +are "as well as could be expected." + +The other night, at a ball, I was presented by order to our gracious +Regent, who honoured me with some conversation, and professed a +predilection for poetry [1].--I confess it was a most unexpected honour, +and I thought of poor Brummell's [2] adventure, with some apprehension +of a similar blunder. I have now great hope, in the event of Mr. Pye's +[3] decease, of "warbling truth at court," like Mr. Mallet [4] of +indifferent memory.--Consider, one hundred marks a year! besides the +wine and the disgrace; but then remorse would make me drown myself in my +own butt before the year's end, or the finishing of my first +dithyrambic.--So that, after all, I shall not meditate our laureate's +death by pen or poison. + +Will you present my best respects to Lady Holland? and believe me, hers +and yours very sincerely. + + + +[Footnote 1: The ball was given in June, 1812, at Miss Johnson's (see +'Memoir of John Murray', vol. i. p. 212). In the words "predilection for +poetry" Byron probably refers to the phrase in the Regent's letter to +the Duke of York (February 13, 1812): "I have no predilections to +indulge, no resentments to gratify." Moore, in the 'Twopenny Post-bag', +twice fastens on the phrase. In "The Insurrection of the Papers", a +dream suggested by Lord Castlereagh's speech--"It would be impossible +for His Royal Highness to disengage his person from the accumulating +pile of papers that encompassed it"--he writes: + + "But, oh, the basest of defections! + His Letter about 'predilections'-- + His own dear Letter, void of grace, + Now flew up in its parent's face!" + +And again, in the "Parody of a Celebrated Letter": + + "I am proud to declare I have no predilections, + My heart is a sieve, where some scatter'd affections + Are just danc'd about for a moment or two, + And the 'finer' they are, the more sure to run through."] + + +[Footnote 2: The grandfather of Beau Brummell, who was in business in +Bury Street, St. James's, also let lodgings. One of his lodgers, Charles +Jenkinson, afterwards Earl of Liverpool, obtained for his landlord's +son, William Brummell, a clerkship in the Treasury. The Treasury clerk +became so useful to Lord North that he obtained several lucrative +offices; and, dying in 1794, left £65,000 in the hands of trustees for +division among his three children. The youngest of these was George +Bryan Brummell (1788-1840), the celebrated Beau. + +George Brummell went from Eton to Oriel College, Oxford, where his +undergraduate career is traced in "Trebeck," a character in Lister's +'Granby' (1826). From Oxford Brummell entered the Tenth Hussars, a +favourite regiment of the Prince of Wales. Well-built and well-mannered, +possessed of admirable tact, witty and original in conversation, +inexhaustible in good temper and good stories, a master of impudence and +banter, the new cornet made himself so agreeable to the prince that, at +the latter's marriage, Brummell attended him, both at St. James's and to +Windsor, as "a kind of 'chevalier d'honneur." In 1798 Brummell left the +army with the rank of captain. A year later he came of age, and settled +at 4, Chesterfield Street, Mayfair. + +On his intimacy with the Prince Regent, Brummell founded the +extraordinary position which he achieved in society. Fashion was in +those days a power; and he was its dictator--the oracle, both for men +and women, of taste, manners, and dress. His ascendency rested in some +degree on solid foundations. He was not a mere fop, but conspicuous for +the quiet neatness of his dress--for "a certain exquisite propriety," as +Byron described it to Leigh Hunt--and, at a time when the opposite was +common, for the scrupulous cleanliness of his person and his linen. An +excellent dancer, clever at 'vers de société', an agreeable singer, a +talented artist, a judge of china, buhl, and other objects of 'virtù', a +collector of snuff-boxes, a connoisseur in canes, he had gifts which +might have raised him above the Bond Street 'flaneur', or the idler at +Watier's Club. Well-read in a desultory fashion, he wrote verses which +were not without merit in their class. The following are the first and +last stanzas of 'The Butterfly's Funeral', a poem which was suggested by +Mrs. Dorset's 'Peacock at Home' and Roscoe's 'Butterfly's Ball':-- + + "Oh ye! who so lately were blythsome and gay, + At the Butterfly's banquet carousing away; + Your feasts and your revels of pleasure are fled, + For the soul of the banquet, the Butterfly's dead! + * * * * * + And here shall the daisy and violet blow, + And the lily discover her bosom of snow; + While under the leaf, in the evenings of spring, + Still mourning his friend, shall the grasshopper sing." + +In the days of his prosperity (1799-1816), Brummell knew everybody to +whose acquaintance he condescended. His Album, in which he collected 226 +pieces of poetry, many by himself, others by celebrities of the day, is +a curious proof of his popularity. It contains contributions from such +persons as the Duchess of Devonshire, Erskine, Lord John Townshend, +Sheridan, General Fitzpatrick, William Lamb (afterwards Lord Melbourne) +and his brother George, and Byron. Lady Hester Stanhope ('Memoirs', vol. +i. pp. 280-283) knew him well. She describes him "riding in Bond Street, +with his bridle between his fore-finger and thumb, as if he held a pinch +of snuff;" gives many instances of his audacious effrontery, and yet +concludes that "the man was no fool," and that she "should like to see +him again." + +The story that Brummell told the Prince Regent to ring the bell was +denied by him. A more probable version of the story is given in Jesse's +'Life of Beau Brummell' (vol. i. p. 255), + + "that one evening, when Brummell and Lord Moira were engaged in + earnest conversation at Carlton House, the prince requested the former + to ring the bell, and that he replied without reflection, 'Your Royal + Highness is close to it,' upon which the prince rang the bell and + ordered his friend's carriage, but that Lord Moira's intervention + caused the unintentional liberty to be overlooked." + +The rupture between them is attributed by Jesse to Mrs. Fitzherbert's +influence. Whatever the cause, the prince cut his former friend. A short +time afterwards, Brummell, walking with Lord Alvanley, met the prince +leaning on the arm of Lord Moira. As the prince, who stopped to speak to +Lord Alvanley, was moving on, Brummell said to his companion, "Alvanley, +who's your fat friend?" In the 'Twopenny Postbag' Moore makes the Regent +say, in the "Parody of a Celebrated Letter": + + "Neither have I resentments, or wish there should come ill + To mortal--except, now I think on it, Beau Brummell, + Who threatened last year, in a superfine passion, + To cut me, and bring the old king into fashion." + +Brummell's position withstood the loss of the Regent's friendship. He +became one of the most frequent visitors to the Duke and Duchess of +York, at Oatlands Park ('Journal of T. Raikes', vol. i. p. 146); and his +friendship with the duchess lasted till her death. + +He was ruined by gambling at Watier's Club, of which he was perpetual +president. This club, which was in Piccadilly, at the corner of Bolton +Street, was originally founded, in 1807, by Lord Headfort, John Madocks, +and other young men, for musical gatherings. But glees and snatches soon +gave way to superlative dinners and gambling at macao. Byron, Moore, and +William Spencer belonged to Watier's--the only men of letters admitted +within its precincts. From 1814 to 1816 Brummell lost heavily; he could +obtain no further supplies, and was completely ruined. In his distress +he wrote to Scrope Davies, in May, 1816: + + "MY DEAR SCROPE,--Lend me two hundred pounds; the banks are shut, and + all my money is in the three per cents. It shall be repaid to-morrow + morning. + + Yours, + GEORGE BRUMMELL." + +The reply illustrates Byron's remark that + + "Scrope Davies is a wit, and a man of the world, and feels as much as + such a character can do." + + "MY DEAR GEORGE,--'Tis very unfortunate, but all my money is in the + three per cents. + + Yours, + S. DAVIES." + +On May 17, + + "obliged," says Byron ('Detached Thoughts'), "by that affair of + poor Meyler, who thence acquired the name of 'Dick the + Dandykiller'--(it was about money and debt and all that)--to retire to + France," + +Brummell took flight to Dover, and crossed to Calais. Watier's Club died +a natural death, in 1819, from the ruin of most of its members. + +Amongst Brummell's effects at Chesterfield Street was a screen which he +was making for the Duchess of York. The sixth panel was occupied by +Byron and Napoleon, placed opposite each other; the former, surrounded +with flowers, had a wasp in his throat (Jesse's 'Life', vol. i. p. 361). +At Calais Brummell bought a French grammar to study the language. When +Scrope Davies was asked, says Byron ('Detached Thoughts'), + + "what progress Brummell had made in French, he responded 'that + Brummell had been stopped, like Buonaparte in Russia, by the + 'Elements'' I have put this pun into 'Beppo', which is 'a fair + exchange and no robbery;' for Scrope made his fortune at several + dinners (as he owned himself) by repeating occasionally as his own + some of the buffooneries with which I had encountered him in the + morning." + +Brummell died, in 1840, at Caen, after making acquaintance with the +inside of the debtor's prison in that town--imbecile, and in the asylum +of the 'Bon Sauveur'. He is buried in the Protestant cemetery of Caen. +France has raised a more lasting monument to his fame in Barbey +d'Aurevilly's 'Du Dandysme et de Georges Brummell' (1845).] + + +[Footnote 3: Henry James Pye (1745-1813) was, from 1790 to his death, +poet laureate, in which post he succeeded Thomas Warton, and was +followed by Southey. Mathias, in the 'Pursuits of Literature' (Dialogue +ii. lines 69, 70), says: + + "With Spartan Pye lull England to repose, + Or frighten children with Lenora's woes;" + +and again ('ibid'., lines 79, 80): + + "Why should I faint when all with patience hear, + And laureat Pye sings more than twice a year?" + +His birthday odes were so full of "vocal groves and feathered choirs," +that George Steevens broke out with the lines: + + "When the 'pie' was opened," etc. + +Pye's 'magnum opus' was 'Alfred' (1801), an epic poem in six books.] + + +[Footnote 4: David Mallet, or Malloch (1705-1765), is best known for his +ballad of 'William and Margaret', his unsubstantiated claim to the +authorship of 'Rule, Britannia', and his edition of Bolingbroke's works. +He was appointed, in 1742, under-secretary to Frederick, Prince of +Wales.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +240.--To Professor Clarke [1]. + + +St. James's Street, June 26, 1812. + + +Will you accept my very sincere congratulations on your second volume, +wherein I have retraced some of my old paths, adorned by you so +beautifully, that they afford me double delight? The part which pleases +me best, after all, is the preface, because it tells me you have not yet +closed labours, to yourself not unprofitable, nor without gratification, +for what is so pleasing as to give pleasure? I have sent my copy to Sir +Sidney Smith, who will derive much gratification from your anecdotes of +Djezzar, [1] his "energetic old man." I doat upon the Druses; but who +the deuce are they with their Pantheism? I shall never be easy till I +ask _them_ the question. How much you have traversed! I must resume my +seven leagued boots and journey to Palestine, which your description +mortifies me not to have seen more than ever. I still sigh for the +Ægean. Shall not you always love its bluest of all waves, and brightest +of all skies? You have awakened all the gipsy in me. I long to be +restless again, and wandering; see what mischief you do, you won't allow +gentlemen to settle quietly at home. I will not wish you success and +fame, for you have both, but all the happiness which even these cannot +always give. + + + +[Footnote 1: Edward Daniel Clarke (1769-1822), appointed Professor of +Mineralogy at Cambridge, in 1808, was the rival whose travels Hobhouse +was anxious to anticipate. He is described by Miss Edgeworth, in 1813 +('Letters', vol. i. p. 205), as + + "a little, square, pale, flat-faced, good-natured-looking, fussy man, + with very intelligent eyes, yet great credulity of countenance, and + still greater benevolence." + +Byron met Clarke at Cambridge in November, 1811, discussed Greece with +him, and was relieved to find that he knew "no Romaic." Clarke was an +indefatigable traveller, and, as he was a botanist, mineralogist, +antiquary, and numismatist, he made good use of his opportunities. The +marbles, including the Eleusinian Ceres, which he brought home, are in +the Fitzwilliam Museum. His mineralogical collections were purchased, +after his death, by the University of Cambridge; and his coins by Payne +Knight. His 'Travels in Various Countries of Europe, Asia, and Africa' +appeared at intervals, from 1810 to 1823, in six quarto volumes. The +following letter was written by Clarke to Byron, after the appearance of +'Childe Harold': + + "Trumpington, Wednesday morning. + + "DEAR LORD BYRON,--From the eagerness which I felt to make known my + opinions of your poem before others had expressed _any_ upon the + subject, I waited upon you to deliver my hasty, although hearty, + commendation. If it be worthy your acceptance, take it once more, in a + more deliberate form! Upon my arrival in town I found that Mathias + entirely coincided with me. 'Surely,' said I to him, 'Lord Byron, at + this time of life, cannot have experienced such keen anguish as those + exquisite allusions to what older men _may_ have felt seem to + denote!' This was his answer: 'I fear he has--he could not else + have written such a poem.' This morning I read the second canto with + all the attention it so highly merits, in the peace and stillness of + my study; and I am ready to confess I was never so much affected by + any poem, passionately fond of poetry as I have been from my earliest + youth.... + + "The eighth stanza, '_Yet if as holiest men_,' etc., has never been + surpassed. In the twenty-third, the sentiment is at variance with + Dryden: + + 'Strange cozenage! _none_ would live past years again.' + + "And it is perhaps an instance wherein, for the first time, I found + not within my own breast an echo to your thought, for I would not '_be + once more a boy_;' but the generality of men will agree with you, and + wish to tread life's path again. + + "In the twelfth stanza of the same canto, you might really add a very + curious note to these lines: + + 'Her sons too weak the sacred shrine to guard, + Yet felt some portion of their mother's pains,' + + "by stating this fact: When the last of the Metopes was taken from the + Parthenon, and, in moving it, a great part of the superstructure with + one of the triglyphs, was thrown down by the work men whom Lord Elgin + employed, the Disdar, who beheld the mischief done to the building, + took his pipe out of his mouth, dropped a tear, and, in a supplicating + tone of voice, said to Lusieri--[Greek: Télos]! I was present at the + time. + + "Once more I thank you for the gratification you have afforded me. + + "Believe me, ever yours most truly, + "E. D. CLARKE."] + + +[Footnote 2: In Clarke's 'Travels' (Part II. sect. i. chap, xii., +"Greece, Egypt, and the Holy Land") will be found an account of Djezzar +Pasha, who fortified Acre in 1775, and with Sir Sidney Smith, defended +it against Buonaparte, March 16 to May 20, 1799. Clarke ('ibid'.) +mentions the Druses detained by Djezzar as hostages.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +241.--To Walter Scott. [1] + + +St. James's Street, July 6, 1812. + + +SIR,--I have just been honoured with your letter.--I feel sorry that you +should have thought it worth while to notice the "evil works of my +nonage," as the thing is suppressed _voluntarily_, and your explanation +is too kind not to give me pain. The Satire was written when I was very +young and very angry, and fully bent on displaying my wrath and my wit, +and now I am haunted by the ghosts of my wholesale assertions. I cannot +sufficiently thank you for your praise; and now, waving myself, let me +talk to you of the Prince Regent. He ordered me to be presented to him +at a ball; and after some sayings peculiarly pleasing from royal lips, +as to my own attempts, he talked to me of you and your immortalities: he +preferred you to every bard past and present, and asked which of your +works pleased me most. It was a difficult question. I answered, I +thought the 'Lay'. He said his own opinion was nearly similar. In +speaking of the others, I told him that I thought you more particularly +the poet of _Princes_, as _they_ never appeared more fascinating than in +'Marmion' and the 'Lady of the Lake'. He was pleased to coincide, and to +dwell on the description of your Jameses as no less royal than poetical. +He spoke alternately of Homer and yourself, and seemed well acquainted +with both; so that (with the exception of the Turks [2] and your humble +servant) you were in very good company. I defy Murray to have +exaggerated his Royal Highness's opinion of your powers, nor can I +pretend to enumerate all he said on the subject; but it may give you +pleasure to hear that it was conveyed in language which would only +suffer by my attempting to transcribe it, and with a tone and taste +which gave me a very high idea of his abilities and accomplishments, +which I had hitherto considered as confined to _manners_, certainly +superior to those of any living _gentleman_ [3]. + +This interview was accidental. I never went to the levee; for having +seen the courts of Mussulman and Catholic sovereigns, my curiosity was +sufficiently allayed; and my politics being as perverse as my rhymes, I +had, in fact, "no business there." To be thus praised by your Sovereign +must be gratifying to you; and if that gratification is not alloyed by +the communication being made through me, the bearer of it will consider +himself very fortunately and sincerely, + +Your obliged and obedient servant, + +BYRON. + +P.S.--Excuse this scrawl, scratched in a great hurry, and just after a +journey. + + + +[Footnote 1: The correspondence which begins with this letter laid the +foundation of a firm friendship between the two poets. Scott was +naturally annoyed by the attack upon him in 'English Bards, etc'. (lines +171-174), made by "a young whelp of a Lord Byron." Though 'Childe +Harold' seemed to him "a clever poem," it did not raise his opinion of +Byron's character. Murray, hoping to heal the breach between them, wrote +to Scott, June 27, 1812 ('Memoir of John Murray', vol. i. p. 213), +giving Byron's account of the conversation with the Prince Regent. + + "But the Prince's great delight," says Murray, "was Walter Scott, + whose name and writings he dwelt upon and recurred to incessantly. He + preferred him far beyond any other poet of the time, repeated several + passages with fervour, and criticized them faithfully.... Lord Byron + called upon me, merely to let off the raptures of the Prince + respecting you, thinking, as he said, that if I were likely to have + occasion to write to you, it might not be ungrateful for you to hear + of his praises." + +Scott's answer (July 2) enclosed the following letter from himself to +Byron: + + "Edinburgh, July 3d, 1812. + + "MY LORD,--I am uncertain if I ought to profit by the apology which is + afforded me, by a very obliging communication from our acquaintance, + John Murray, of Fleet Street, to give your Lordship the present + trouble. But my intrusion concerns a large debt of gratitude due to + your Lordship, and a much less important one of explanation, which I + think I owe to myself, as I dislike standing low in the opinion of any + person whose talents rank so highly in my own, as your Lordship's most + deservedly do. + + "The first 'count', as our technical language expresses it, relates to + the high pleasure I have received from the 'Pilgrimage of Childe + Harold', and from its precursors; the former, with all its classical + associations, some of which are lost on so poor a scholar as I am, + possesses the additional charm of vivid and animated description, + mingled with original sentiment; but besides this debt, which I owe + your Lordship in common with the rest of the reading public, I have to + acknowledge my particular thanks for your having distinguished by + praise, in the work which your Lordship rather dedicated in general to + satire, some of my own literary attempts. And this leads me to put + your Lordship right in the circumstances respecting the sale of + 'Marmion', which had reached you in a distorted and misrepresented + form, and which, perhaps, I have some reason to complain, were given + to the public without more particular inquiry. The poem, my Lord, was + _not_ written upon contract for a sum of money--though it is too true + that it was sold and published in a very unfinished state (which I + have since regretted), to enable me to extricate myself from some + engagements which fell suddenly upon me by the unexpected misfortunes + of a very near relation. So that, to quote statute and precedent, I + really come under the case cited by Juvenal, though not quite in the + extremity of the classic author: + + 'Esurit, intactam Paridi nisi vendit Agaven.' + + "And so much for a mistake, into which your Lordship might easily fall, + especially as I generally find it the easiest way of stopping + sentimental compliments on the beauty, etc., of certain poetry, and + the delights which the author must have taken in the composition, by + assigning the readiest reason that will cut the discourse short, upon + a subject where one must appear either conceited or affectedly rude + and cynical. + + "As for my attachment to literature, I sacrificed for the pleasure of + pursuing it very fair chances of opulence and professional honours, at + a time of life when I fully knew their value; and I am not ashamed to + say, that in deriving advantages in compensation from the partial + favour of the public, I have added some comforts and elegancies to a + bare independence. I am sure your Lordship's good sense will easily + put this unimportant egotism to the right account, for--though I do + not know the motive would make me enter into controversy with a fair + or an 'unfair' literary critic--I may be well excused for a wish + to clear my personal character from any tinge of mercenary or sordid + feeling in the eyes of a contemporary of genius. Your Lordship will + likewise permit me to add that you would have escaped the trouble of + this explanation, had I not understood that the satire alluded to had + been suppressed, not to be reprinted. For in removing a prejudice on + your Lordship's own mind, I had no intention of making any appeal by + or through you to the public, since my own habits of life have + rendered my defence as to avarice or rapacity rather too easy. + + "Leaving this foolish matter where it lies, I have to request your + Lordship's acceptance of my best thanks for the flattering + communication which you took the trouble to make Mr. Murray on my + behalf, and which could not fail to give me the gratification which I + am sure you intended. I dare say our worthy bibliopolist overcoloured + his report of your Lordship's conversation with the Prince Regent, but + I owe my thanks to him nevertheless, for the excuse he has given me + for intruding these pages on your Lordship. Wishing you health, + spirit, and perseverance, to continue your pilgrimage through the + interesting countries which you have still to pass with 'Childe + Harold', I have the honour to be, my Lord, + + "Your Lordship's obedient servant, + + "WALTER SCOTT. + + "P.S.--Will your Lordship permit me a verbal criticism on 'Childe + Harold', were it only to show I have read his Pilgrimage with + attention? 'Nuestra Dama de la Pena' means, I suspect, not our Lady of + Crime or Punishment, but our Lady of the Cliff; the difference is, I + believe, merely in the accentuation of 'peña'." + +To Scott Byron replied with the letter given in the text. Scott's +answer, which followed in due course, will be found in Appendix V. + +The Prince Regent, it may be added, showed his appreciation of Scott's +poetry by offering him, on the death of Pye, the post of poet laureate. +Scott refused, on the ground, apparently, that the office had been made +ridiculous by the previous holder. + + "At the time when Scott and Byron were the two 'lions' of London, + Hookham Frere observed, 'Great poets formerly (Homer and Milton) were + blind; now they are lame'" + +('Table-Talk of Samuel Rogers', P. 194).] + + +[Footnote 2: The Turkish ambassador and suite were at the ball.] + + +[Footnote 3: Byron had already written his "Stanzas to a Lady Weeping," +suggested by the rumour that Princess Charlotte had burst into tears, on +being told that there would be no change of Ministry when the Prince of +Wales assumed the Regency. They appeared anonymously in the 'Morning +Chronicle' for March 7, 1812, under the title of a "Sympathetic +'Address' to a Young Lady." They were published, as Byron's work, with +'The Corsair', in February, 1814. The verses rather betray the influence +of Moore than express his own feelings at the time. In 'Don Juan' (Canto +XII. stanza lxxxiv.) he thus speaks of the Regent: + + "There, too, he saw (whate'er he may be now) + A Prince, the prince of princes at the time, + With fascination in his very bow, + And full of promise, as the spring of prime. + Though royalty was written on his brow, + He had 'then' the grace, too, rare in every clime, + Of being, without alloy of fop or beau, + A finish'd gentleman from top to toe." + +Dallas found him, shortly after his introduction to the prince, "in a +full-dress court suit of clothes, with his fine black hair in powder," +prepared to attend a levee. But the levee was put off, and the +subsequent avowal of the authorship of the stanzas rendered it +impossible for him to go ('Recollections', p. 234).] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +242.--To Lady Caroline Lamb. + + +[August, 1812?] + + +MY DEAREST CAROLINE, [1]--If tears which you saw and know I am not apt +to shed,--if the agitation in which I parted from you,--agitation which +you must have perceived through the _whole_ of this most _nervous_ +affair, did not commence until the moment of leaving you approached,--if +all I have said and done, and am still but too ready to say and do, have +not sufficiently proved what my real feelings are, and must ever be +towards you, my love, I have no other proof to offer. God knows, I wish +you happy, and when I quit you, or rather you, from a sense of duty to +your husband and mother, quit me, you shall acknowledge the truth of +what I again promise and vow, that no other in word or deed, shall ever +hold the place in my affections, which is, and shall be, most sacred to +you, till I am nothing. I never knew till _that moment_ the _madness_ of +my dearest and most beloved friend; I cannot express myself; this is no +time for words, but I shall have a pride, a melancholy pleasure, in +suffering what you yourself can scarcely conceive, for you do not know +me. I am about to go out with a heavy heart, because my appearing this +evening will stop any absurd story which the event of the day might give +rise to. Do you think _now_ I am _cold_ and _stern_ and _artful_? Will +even _others_ think so? Will your _mother_ ever--that mother to whom we +must indeed sacrifice much, more, much more on my part than she shall +ever know or can imagine? "Promise not to love you!" ah, Caroline, it is +past promising. But I shall attribute all concessions to the proper +motive, and never cease to feel all that you have already witnessed, and +more than can ever be known but to my own heart,--perhaps to yours. May +God protect, forgive, and bless you. Ever, and even more than ever, + +Your most attached, + +BYRON. + +P.S.--These taunts which have driven you to this, my dearest Caroline, +were it not for your mother and the kindness of your connections, is +there anything on earth or heaven that would have made me so happy as to +have made you mine long ago? and not less _now_ than _then_, but _more_ +than ever at this time. You know I would with pleasure give up all here +and all beyond the grave for you, and in refraining from this, must my +motives be misunderstood? I care not who knows this, what use is made of +it,--it is to _you_ and to _you_ only that they are _yourself (sic)_. I +was and am yours freely and most entirely, to obey, to honour, +love,--and fly with you when, where, and how you yourself _might_ and +_may_ determine. + + + +[Footnote 1: Lady Caroline's infatuation for Byron, expressed in various +ways--once (in July, 1813) by a self-inflicted stab with a table-knife, +or a broken glass--became the talk of society. + + "Your little friend, Caro William," writes the Duchess of Devonshire, + May 4, 1812, "as usual, is doing all sorts of imprudent things for him + and with him." + +Again she writes, six days later, of Byron: + + "The ladies, I hear, spoil him, and the gentlemen are jealous of him. + He is going back to Naxos, and then the husbands may sleep in peace. I + should not be surprised if Caro William were to go with him, she is so + wild and imprudent" + +(The 'Two Duchesses', pp. 362, 364). But Lady Caroline's extravagant +adoration wearied Byron, who felt that it made him ridiculous; Lady +Melbourne gave him sound advice about her daughter-in-law; and he was +growing attached to Miss Milbanke, and, when rejected by her, at first +to Lady Oxford, and later to Lady Frances Wedderburn Webster. When Lady +Bessborough endeavoured to persuade her daughter to leave London for +Ireland, Lady Caroline is said to have forced herself into Byron's room, +and implored him to fly with her. Byron refused, conducted her back to +Melbourne House, wrote her the letter printed above, and, as she herself +admits, kept the secret. In December, 1812, Lady Caroline burned Byron +in effigy, with "his book, ring, and chain," at Brocket Hall. The lines +which she wrote for the ceremony are preserved in Mrs. Leigh's +handwriting, and given in Appendix III., 2. + +From Ireland Lady Caroline continued the siege, threatening to follow +him into Herefordshire, demanding interviews, and writing about him to +Lady Oxford. At length Byron sent her the letter, probably in November, +1812, which she professes to publish in 'Glenarvon' (vol. iii. chap. +ix.). The words are acknowledged by Byron to have formed part at least +of the real document, which is here quoted as printed in the novel: + + "Mortanville Priory, November the 9th. + + "LADY AVONDALE,--I am no longer your lover; and since you oblige me to + confess it, by this truly unfeminine persecution, ... learn, that I am + attached to another; whose name it would, of course, be dishonourable + to mention. I shall ever remember with gratitude the many instances I + have received of the predilection you have shown in my favour. I shall + ever continue your friend, if your ladyship will permit me so to style + myself; and, as a first proof of my regard, I offer you this advice, + correct your vanity, which is ridiculous; exert your absurd caprices + upon others; and leave me in peace. + + "Your most obedient servant, + + "GLENARVON." + +The first effect of this letter and her unrequited passion was, as she +told Lady Morgan, to deprive her temporarily of reason, and it may be +added that, when she was a child, her grandmother was so alarmed by her +eccentricities as to consult a doctor on the state of her mind. The +second effect was to render her temper so ungovernable that William Lamb +decided on a separation. All preliminaries were arranged; the solicitor +arrived with the documents; but the old charm reasserted itself, and she +was found seated by her husband, "feeding him with tiny scraps of +transparent bread and butter" (Torrens, 'Memoirs of Lord Melbourne', +vol. i. p. 112). The separation did not take place till 1825. + +Throughout 1812-14 Lady Caroline continued to write to Byron, at first +asking for interviews. Two of her last letters to him, written +apparently on the eve of his leaving England, in 1816, are worth +printing, though they increase the mystery of 'Glenarvon'. (See Appendix +III., 4 and 5.) + +In Isaac Nathan's 'Fugitive Pieces' (1829), a section is devoted to +"Poetical Effusions, Letters, Anecdotes, and Recollections of Lady +Caroline Lamb." + +Lady Caroline wrote three novels: 'Glenarvon' (1816); 'Graham Hamilton' +(1822); and 'Ada Reis; a Tale' (1823). 'Glenarvon', apart from its +biographical interest, is unreadable. + + "I do not know," writes C. Lemon to Lady H. Frampton ('Journal of Mary + Frampton', pp. 286, 287), "all the characters in 'Glenarvon', but I + will tell you all I do know. I am not surprised at your being struck + with a few detached passages; but before you have read one volume, I + think you will doubt at which end of the book you began. There is no + connection between any two ideas in the book, and it seems to me to + have been written as the sages of Laputa composed their works. + 'Glenarvon' is Lord Byron; 'Lady Augusta,' the late Duchess of + Devonshire; 'Lady Mandeville'--I think it is Lady Mandeville, but the + lady who dictated Glearvon's farewell letter to Calantha--is Lady + Oxford. This letter she really dictated to Lord Byron to send to Lady + Caroline Lamb, and is now very much offended that she has treated the + matter so lightly as to introduce it into her book. The best character + in it is the 'Princess of Madagascar' (Lady Holland), with all her + Reviewers about her. The young Duke of Devonshire is in the book, but + I forget under what name. I need not say that the heroine is Lady + Caroline's own self." + +In July, 1824, she was out riding, when she accidentally met Byron's +funeral on its way to Newstead. "I am sure," she wrote to Murray, July +13, 1824, "I am very sorry I ever said one unkind word against him." Her +mind never recovered the shock, and she died in January, 1828, in the +presence of her husband, at Melbourne House. (See also Appendix III., +6.)] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +243.--To John Murray. + + +High Street, Cheltenham, Sept. 5, 1812. + + +DEAR SIR,--Pray have the goodness to send those despatches, and a No. of +the _E.R._ with the rest. I hope you have written to Mr. Thompson, +thanked him in my name for his present, and told him that I shall be +truly happy to comply with his request.--How do you go on? and when is +the graven image, "with _bays and wicked rhyme upon't_," to grace, or +disgrace, some of our tardy editions? + +Send me "_Rokeby_" [1] who the deuce is he?--no matter, he has good +connections, and will be well introduced. I thank you for your +inquiries: I am so so, but my thermometer is sadly below the poetical +point. What will you give _me_ or _mine_ for a poem [2] of six cantos, +(_when complete--no_ rhyme, _no_ recompense,) as like the last two as I +can make them? I have some ideas which one day may be embodied, and till +winter I shall have much leisure. + +Believe me, yours very sincerely, + +BYRON. + +P. S.--My last question is in the true style of Grub Street; but, like +_Jeremy Diddler_ [3], I only "ask for information."--Send me Adair on +_Diet and Regimen_, just republished by Ridgway [4]. + + + +[Footnote 1: 'Rokeby', completed December 31, 1812, was published in the +following year, with a dedication to John Morritt, to whom Rokeby +belonged. It was, as Scott admits in the Preface to the edition of 1830, +comparatively a failure. In the popularity of Byron he finds the chief +cause of the small success which his poem obtained. + + "To have kept his ground at the crisis when 'Rokeby' appeared," he + writes, "its author ought to have put forth his utmost strength, and + to have possessed all his original advantages, for a mighty and + unexpected rival was advancing on the stage--a rival not in poetical + powers only, but in that art of attracting popularity, in which the + present writer had hitherto preceded better men than himself. The + reader will easily see that Byron is here meant, who, after a little + velitation of no great promise, now appeared as a serious candidate, + in the first two cantos of 'Childe Harold'." + +On this rivalry Byron wrote the passage in his Diary for November 17, +1813. A further cause for the cold reception of 'Rokeby' was its +inferiority both to the 'Lay' and to 'Marmion'. In Letter vii. of the +'Twopenny Post-bag', Moore writes thus of 'Rokeby' + + "Should you feel any touch of 'poetical' glow, + We've a Scheme to suggest--Mr. Sc--tt, you must know, + (Who, we're sorry to say it, now works for the 'Row') + Having quitted the Borders, to seek new renown, + Is coming by long Quarto stages, to Town; + And beginning with Rokeby (the job's sure to pay) + Means to 'do' all the Gentlemen's Seats on the way. + Now the Scheme is (though none of our hackneys can beat him) + To start a fresh Poet through Highgate to 'meet' him; + Who, by means of quick proofs--no revises--long coaches-- + May do a few Villas before Sc--tt approaches-- + Indeed, if our Pegasus be not curst shabby, + He'll reach, without found'ring, at least Woburn Abbey."] + + +[Footnote 2: 'The Giaour', published in 1813, for which Murray paid, not +Byron, but Dallas, 500 guineas.] + + +[Footnote 3: Kenney's 'Raising the Wind', act i. sc. 1: + + "'Diddler'. O Sam, you haven't got such a thing as tenpence about + you, have you? + + "'Sam'. Yes. 'And I mean to keep it about me, you see'. + + "'Diddler'. Oh, aye, certainly. I only asked for information."] + + +[Footnote 4: James MacKittrick (1728-1802), who assumed the name of +Adair, published, in 1804, 'An Essay on Diet and Regimen, as +indispensable to the Recovery and Preservation of Firm Health, +especially to Indolent, Studious, Delicate and Invalid; with appropriate +cases'.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +244.--To Lord Holland. + + +Cheltenham, September 10, 1812. + + +My Dear Lord,--The lines which I sketched off on your hint are still, or +rather _were_, in an unfinished state, for I have just committed them to +a flame more decisive than that of Drury [1]. + +Under all circumstances, I should hardly wish a contest with +Philodrama--Philo-Drury--Asbestos, H----, and all the anonymes and +synonymes of Committee candidates. Seriously, I think you have a chance +of something much better; for prologuising is not my forte, and, at all +events, either my pride or my modesty won't let me incur the hazard of +having my rhymes buried in next month's Magazine, under "Essays on the +Murder of Mr. Perceval." and "Cures for the Bite of a Mad Dog," as poor +Goldsmith complained of the fate of far superior performances [2]. + +I am still sufficiently interested to wish to know the successful +candidate; and, amongst so many, I have no doubt some will be excellent, +particularly in an age when writing verse is the easiest of all +attainments. + +I cannot answer your intelligence with the "like comfort," unless, as +you are deeply theatrical, you may wish to hear of Mr. Betty [3], whose +acting is, I fear, utterly inadequate to the London engagement into +which the managers of Covent Garden have lately entered. His figure is +fat, his features flat, his voice unmanageable, his action ungraceful, +and, as Diggory [4] says, "I defy him to extort that damned muffin face +of his into madness." I was very sorry to see him in the character of +the "Elephant on the slack rope;" for, when I last saw him, I was in +raptures with his performance. But then I was sixteen--an age to which +all London condescended to subside. After all, much better judges have +admired, and may again; but I venture to "prognosticate a prophecy" (see +the 'Courier') that he will not succeed. + +So, poor dear Rogers has stuck fast on "the brow of the mighty +Helvellyn" [5]--I hope not for ever. My best respects to Lady H.:--her +departure, with that of my other friends, was a sad event for me, now +reduced to a state of the most cynical solitude. + + "By the waters of Cheltenham I sat down and _drank_, when I + remembered thee, oh Georgiana Cottage! As for our _harps_, we + hanged them up upon the willows that grew thereby. Then they said, + Sing us a song of Drury Lane," etc.; + +--but I am dumb and dreary as the Israelites. The waters have disordered +me to my heart's content--you _were_ right, as you always are. + +Believe me, ever your obliged and affectionate servant, + +BYRON. + + + +[Footnote 1: Drury Lane Theatre was reopened, after the fire of February +24, 1809, on Saturday, October 10, 1812. In the previous August the +following advertisement was issued: + + "'Rebuilding of Drury-Lane Theatre.' + + "The Committee are desirous of promoting a fair and free competition + for an Address, to be spoken upon the opening of the Theatre, which + will take place on the 10th of October next: They have therefore + thought fit to announce to the Public, that they will be glad to + receive any such Compositions, addressed to their Secretary at the + Treasury Office in Drury Lane, on or before the 10th of September, + sealed up, with a distinguishing word, number, or motto, on the cover, + corresponding with the inscription, on a separate sealed paper, + containing the name of the Author, which will not be opened, unless + containing the name of the successful Candidate. Theatre Royal, + Drury-Lane, August 13, 1812. + + "Owing to an accidental delay in the publication of the above + Advertisement, the Committee have thought proper to extend the time + for receiving Addresses, from the last day of August to the 10th of + September." + +Byron, on the suggestion of Lord Holland, intended to send in an +'Address' in competition with other similar productions. He afterwards +changed his mind, and refused to compete. After all the 'Addresses' had +been received and rejected, the Committee applied to him to write an +'Address'. This he consented to do.] + + +[Footnote 2: + + "The public were more importantly employed, than to observe the easy + simplicity of my style, or the harmony of my periods. Sheet after + sheet was thrown off to oblivion. My essays were buried among the + essays upon liberty, Eastern tales, and cures for the bite of a mad + dog." + +'Vicar of Wakefield', chap. xx.] + + +[Footnote 3: See 'Letters', vol. i. p. 63, 'note' 2.[Footnote 2 of +Letter 24]] + + +[Footnote 4: "Diggory," one of Liston's parts, a character in Jackman's +'All the World's a Stage', asks (act i. sc. 2), "But how can you extort +that damned pudding-face of yours to madness?"] + + +[Footnote 5: Rogers had gone for a tour in the North. Byron alludes to +Scott's poem 'Helvellyn': + + "I climb'd the dark brow of the mighty Helvellyn," etc., etc. + +The poem was occasioned, as Scott's note states, by the death of "a +young gentleman of talents, and of a most amiable disposition," who was +killed on the mountain in 1805.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +245.--To John Murray. + +Cheltenham, Sept. 14, 1812. + +DEAR SIR,--The parcels contained some letters and verses, all (but one) +anonymous and complimentary, and very anxious for my conversion from +certain infidelities into which my good-natured correspondents conceive +me to have fallen. The books were presents of a _convertible_ kind +also,--'Christian Knowledge' and the 'Bioscope' [1], a religious Dial of +Life explained:--to the author of the former (Cadell, publisher,) I beg +you will forward my best thanks for his letter, his present, and, above +all, his good intentions. The 'Bioscope' contained an MS. copy of very +excellent verses, from whom I know not, but evidently the composition of +some one in the habit of writing, and of writing well. I do not know if +he be the author of the 'Bioscope' which accompanied them; but whoever +he is, if you can discover him, thank him from me most heartily. The +other letters were from ladies, who are welcome to convert me when they +please; and if I can discover them, and they be young, as they say they +are, I could convince them perhaps of my devotion. I had also a letter +from Mr. Walpole on matters of this world, which I have answered. + +So you are Lucien's publisher! [2] I am promised an interview with him, +and think I shall ask _you_ for a letter of introduction, as "the gods +have made him poetical." From whom could it come with a better grace +than from _his_ publisher and mine? Is it not somewhat treasonable in +you to have to do with a relative of the "direful foe," as the 'Morning +Post' calls his brother? + +But my book on 'Diet and Regimen', where is it? I thirst for Scott's +'Rokeby'; let me have y'e first-begotten copy. The 'Anti-Jacobin Review' +[3] is all very well, and not a bit worse than the 'Quarterly', and at +least less harmless. By the by, have you secured my books? I want all +the Reviews, at least the Critiques, quarterly, monthly, etc., +Portuguese and English, extracted, and bound up in one volume for my +_old age_; and pray, sort my Romaic books, and get the volumes lent to +Mr. Hobhouse--he has had them now a long time. If any thing occurs, you +will favour me with a line, and in winter we shall be nearer neighbours. + +Yours very truly, + +BYRON. + +P.S.--I was applied to to write the _Address_ for Drury Lane, but the +moment I heard of the contest, I gave up the idea of contending against +all Grub Street, and threw a few thoughts on the subject into the fire. +I did this out of respect to you, being sure you would have turned off +any of your authors who had entered the lists with such scurvy +competitors; to triumph would have been no glory, and to have been +defeated--'sdeath!--I would have choked myself, like Otway, with a +quartern loaf [4]; so, remember I had, and have, nothing to do with it, +upon _my Honour!_ + + + +[Footnote 1: Granville Penn (1761-1844) was the author of numerous works +on religious subjects. 'The Bioscope, or Dial of Life Explained' +appeared in 1812. The other work referred to by Byron is probably Penn's +'Christian's Survey of all the Primary Events and Periods of the World' +(1811), of which a second edition was published in 1812.] + + +[Footnote 2: Lucien Buonaparte (1775-1840), Prince of Canino, since 1810 +a landed proprietor in Shropshire, wrote an epic poem, 'Charlemagne, ou +l'Église délivrée'. It was translated (1815) by Dr. Butler of Shrewsbury +and Francis Hodgson.] + + +[Footnote 3: 'The Anti-Jacobin Review' criticized 'Childe Harold' in +August, 1812; the 'Quarterly', in March, 1812.] + + +[Footnote 4: Otway died April, 1685, at the age of thirty-three, from a +fever contracted by drinking water when heated by running after an +assassin (Spence's 'Anecdotes', p. 44). Theophilus Cibber ('Lives of the +Poets', ed. 1753, vol. ii. pp. 333, 334) gives another account of his +death, viz. that he begged a shilling of a gentleman, and, being given a +guinea, bought a roll, with which he was choked.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +246.--To Lord Holland. + + +September 22, 1812. + + +My Dear Lord,--In a day or two I will send you something which you will +still have the liberty to reject if you dislike it. I should like to +have had more time, but will do my best,--but too happy if I can oblige +_you_, though I may offend a hundred scribblers and the discerning +public. + +Ever yours. + +Keep _my name_ a _secret_; or I shall be beset by all the rejected, and, +perhaps, damned by a party. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +247.--To Lord Holland. + + +Cheltenham, September 23, 1812. + + +Ecco!--I have marked some passages with _double_ readings--choose +between them--_cut--add--reject_--or _destroy_--do with them as you +will--I leave it to you and the Committee--you cannot say so called "a +_non committendo_." What will _they_ do (and I do) with the hundred and +one rejected Troubadours? [1] + +"With trumpets, yea, and with shawms," will you be assailed in the most +diabolical doggerel. I wish my name not to transpire till the day is +decided. I shall not be in town, so it won't much matter; but let us +have a _good deliverer_. I think Elliston [2] should be the man, or Pope +[3]; not Raymond [4], I implore you, by the love of Rhythmus! + +The passages marked thus = =, above and below, are for you to choose +between epithets, and such like poetical furniture. Pray write me a +line, and believe me + +Ever, etc. + +My best remembrances to Lady H. Will you be good enough to decide +between the various readings marked, and erase the other; or our +_deliverer_ may be as puzzled as a commentator, and belike repeat both. +If these _versicles_ won't do, I will hammer out some more +endecasyllables. + +P.S.--Tell Lady H. I have had sad work to keep out the Phoenix--I mean +the Fire Office of that name. It has insured the theatre, and why not +the Address? + + + +[Footnote 1: The genuine rejected addresses were advertised for by B. +McMillan, of Bow Street, Covent Garden, and forty-two of them were +published by him in November, 1812, with the following title: 'The +Genuine Rejected Addresses presented to the Committee of Management for +Drury Lane Theatre; preceded by that written by Lord Byron and adopted +by the Committee'. + +The youngest competitor was "Anna, a young lady in the fifteenth year of +her age." + +The actual number sent in was 112, and sixty-nine of the competitors +invoked the Phoenix. Among the competitors were Peter Pindar, whose +'Address' was printed in 1813; Whitbread, the manager, who gave the +"poulterer's description" of the Phoenix; and Horace Smith, who +published his 'Address without a Phoenix', By S. T. P., in 'Rejected +Addresses'.] + + +[Footnote 2: Robert William Elliston (1774-1831), according to Genest +('English Stage', vol. ix. p. 338), made his first appearance at Bath in +April, 1791, as "Tressel" in 'Richard III'., and from 1796 to 1803 Bath +remained his head-quarters. An excellent actor both in tragedy and +comedy, he became in 1803 a member of the Haymarket Company. From 1804 +to 1809, and again from 1812 to 1815, he acted at Drury Lane. Byron's +Prologue was spoken by him on October 10, 1812, at the reopening of the +new theatre. It was at Drury Lane in April, 1821, while he was lessee +(1819-26), that Byron's 'Marino Faliero' was acted. His last appearance +was as "Sheva" in 'The Jew', at the Surrey Theatre, of which (1826-31) +he was lessee. In spite of his drunken habits, he won the enthusiastic +praise of Charles Lamb as the "joyousest of once embodied spirits" (see +'Essays of Elia', "To the Shade of Elliston" and "Ellistoniana").] + + +[Footnote 3: Alexander Pope (1763-1835), miniaturist, 'gourmand', and +actor, was for years the principal tragedian at Covent Garden. Opinion +was divided as to his merits as an actor. He owed much to his voice, +which had a "mellow richness ... superior to any other performer on the +stage." Genest, who quotes the above (vol. ix. p. 377), adds that "in +his better days he had more pathos about him than any other actor." He +made his first appearance in Cork as "Oroonoko," and subsequently +(January, 1785) at Covent Garden in the same part. He ceased acting at +Covent Garden in June, 1827.] + + +[Footnote 4: In the cast for 'Hamlet', with which Drury Lane reopened, +Raymond played the Ghost. Raymond was also the stage manager of the +theatre.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +248.--To Lord Holland. + + +September 24. + + +I send a recast of the four first lines of the concluding paragraph. + + This greeting o'er, the ancient rule obey'd, + The drama's homage by her Herald paid, + Receive _our welcome too_, whose every tone + Springs from our hearts, and fain would win your own. + The curtain rises, etc., etc. + +And do forgive all this trouble. See what it is to have to do even with +the _genteelest_ of us. + +Ever, etc. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +249.--To Lord Holland. + + +Cheltenham, Sept. 25, 1812. + + +Still "more matter for a May morning." [1] Having patched the middle and +end of the Address, I send one more couplet for a part of the beginning, +which, if not too turgid, you will have the goodness to add. After that +flagrant image of the _Thames_ (I hope no unlucky wag will say I have +set it on fire, though Dryden [2], in his _Annus Mirabilis_, and +Churchill [3], in his _Times_, did it before me), I mean to insert this: + + As flashing far the new Volcano shone + {_meteors_} + And swept the skies with {lightnings} not their own, + While thousands throng'd around the burning dome, + Etc., etc. + +I think "thousands" less flat than "crowds collected"--but don't let me +plunge into the bathos, or rise into Nat. Lee's _Bedlam metaphors_ [4]. + +By the by, the best view of the said fire (which I myself saw from a +house-top in Covent-garden) was at Westminster Bridge, from the +reflection on the Thames. + +Perhaps the present couplet had better come in after "trembled for their +homes," the two lines after;--as otherwise the image certainly sinks, +and it will run just as well. + +The lines themselves, perhaps, may be better thus--("choose," or +"refuse"--but please _yourself_, and don't mind "Sir Fretful" [5]): + + As flash'd the volumed blaze, and {_sadly_/ghastly} shone + The skies with lightnings awful as their own. + +The last _runs_ smoothest, and, I think, best; but you know _better_ +than _best_. "Lurid" is also a less indistinct epithet than "livid +wave," and, if you think so, a dash of the pen will do. + +I expected one line this morning; in the mean time, I shall remodel and +condense, and, if I do not hear from you, shall send another copy. + +I am ever, etc. + + + +[Footnote 1: 'Twelfth Night', act iii. sc. 4.] + + +[Footnote 2: Dryden's 'Annus Mirabilis', stanza 231: + + "A key of fire ran all along the shore, + And lightened all the river with a blaze; + The wakened tides began again to roar, + And wondering fish in shining waters gaze."] + + +[Footnote 3: Churchill's 'Times', lines 701, 702: + + "Bidding in one grand pile this Town expire, + Her towers in dust, her Thames a Lake of fire."] + + +[Footnote 4: Nathaniel Lee (circ. 1653-1692), the dramatist, wrote 'The +Rival Queens' (1677), in which occurs the line: + + "When Greek join'd Greek then was the tug of war." + +He collaborated with Dryden in 'OEdipus' (1679) and 'The Duke of Guise' +(1682). His numerous dramas were distinguished, in his own day, for +extravagance and bombast. His mind failing, he was confined from 1684 to +1688 in Bethlehem Hospital, where he is said to have composed a tragedy +in 25 acts.] + + +[Footnote 5: 'The Critic', act i. sc. I. "Sneer," speaking of "Sir +Fretful Plagiary," says, + + "He is as envious as an old maid verging on the desperation of six and + thirty; and then the insidious humility with which he seduces you to + give a free opinion on any of his works can be exceeded only by the + petulant arrogance with which he is sure to reject your observations."] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +250.--To Lord Holland. + + +September 26, 1812. + + +You will think there is no end to my villanous emendations. The fifth +and sixth lines I think to alter thus: + + Ye who beheld--oh sight admired and mourn'd, + Whose radiance mock'd the ruin it adorn'd; + +because "night" is repeated the next line but one; and, as it now +stands, the conclusion of the paragraph, "worthy him (Shakspeare) and +_you_," appears to apply the "_you_" to those only who were out of bed +and in Covent Garden market on the night of conflagration, instead of +the audience or the discerning public at large, all of whom are intended +to be comprised in that comprehensive and, I hope, comprehensible +pronoun. + +By the by, one of my corrections in the fair copy sent yesterday has +dived into the bathos some sixty fathom: + + When Garrick died, and Brinsley ceased to write. + +Ceasing to _live_ is a much more serious concern, and ought not to be +first; therefore I will let the old couplet stand, with its half rhymes +"sought" and "wrote." [1] + +Second thoughts in every thing are best, but, in rhyme, third and fourth +don't come amiss. I am very anxious on this business, and I do hope that +the very trouble I occasion you will plead its own excuse, and that it +will tend to show my endeavour to make the most of the time allotted. I +wish I had known it months ago, for in that case I had not left one line +standing on another. I always scrawl in this way, and smooth as much as +I can, but never sufficiently; and, latterly, I can weave a nine-line +stanza faster than a couplet, for which measure I have not the cunning. +When I began _Childe Harold_, I had never tried Spenser's measure, and +now I cannot scribble in any other. + +After all, my dear Lord, if you can get a decent _Address_ elsewhere, +don't hesitate to put this aside [2]. + +Why did you not trust your own Muse? I am very sure she would have been +triumphant, and saved the Committee their trouble--"'tis a joyful one" +to me, but I fear I shall not satisfy even myself. After the account you +sent me, 'tis no compliment to say you would have beaten your +candidates; but I mean that, in _that_ case, there would have been no +occasion for their being beaten at all. + +There are but two decent prologues in our tongue--Pope's to 'Cato' +[3]--Johnson's to Drury-Lane [4]. + +These, with the epilogue to 'The Distrest Mother' [5] and, I think, one +of Goldsmith's [6], and a prologue of old Colman's to Beaumont and +Fletcher's 'Philaster' [7], are the best things of the kind we have. + +P.S.--I am diluted to the throat with medicine for the stone; and +Boisragon wants me to try a warm climate for the winter--but I won't. + + + +[Footnote 1: + + "Such are the names that here your plaudits sought, + When Garrick acted, and when Brinsley wrote." + +At present the couplet stands thus: + + "Dear are the days that made our annals bright, + Ere Garrick fled, or Brinsley ceased to write."] + + +[Footnote 2: + + "I am almost ashamed," writes Lord Holland to Rogers, October 22, 1812 + (Clayden's 'Rogers and his Contemporaries', vol. i. p. 115), "of + having induced Lord Byron to write on so ungrateful a theme + (ungrateful in all senses) as the opening of a theatre; he was so + good-humoured, took so much pains, corrected so good-humouredly, and + produced, as I thought and think, a prologue so superior to the common + run of that sort of trumpery, that it is quite vexatious to see him + attacked for it. Some part of it is a little too much laboured, and + the whole too long; but surely it is good and poetical.... You cannot + imagine how I grew to like Lord Byron in my critical intercourse with + him, and how much I am convinced that your friendship and judgment + have contributed to improve both his understanding and his + happiness."] + + +[Footnote 3: Pope wrote the Prologue to Addison's 'Cato' when it was +acted at Drury Lane, April 13, 1713.] + + +[Footnote 4: Johnson wrote the Prologue when Garrick opened Drury Lane, +September 15, 1747, with 'The Merchant of Venice'. "It is," says Genest +('English Stage', vol. iv. p. 231), "the best Prologue that was ever +written." Johnson wrote the Prologue to Milton's 'Comus', played at +Drury Lane, April 5, 1750; to Goldsmith's 'Good-Natured Man', played at +Covent Garden, January 29, 1769; and to Hugh Kelly's 'A Word to the +Wise', played at Drury Lane, March 3, 1770.] + + +[Footnote 5: 'The Distrest Mother', adapted from Racine by Ambrose +Philips, was first played at Drury Lane, March 17, 1712. Addison is +supposed (Genest, 'English Stage', vol. ii. p. 496) to have written the +epilogue.] + + +[Footnote 6: It is impossible to say to which of Goldsmith's epilogues +Byron refers. A previous editor of Moore's 'Life, etc'., identified it +with his epilogue to Charlotte Lennox's unsuccessful comedy, 'The +Sister', which was once played at Covent Garden, February 18, 1769, and +then withdrawn.] + + +[Footnote 7: George Colman the Elder, who edited an edition of Beaumont +and Fletcher (10 vols., 1778), wrote the prologue to 'Philaster', when +it was produced at Drury Lane, October 8, 1763.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +251.--To Lord Holland. + + +Sept. 27, 1812. + + +I believe this is the third scrawl since yesterday--all about epithets. +I think the epithet "intellectual" won't convey the meaning I intend; +and though I hate compounds, for the present I will try (_col' +permesso_) the word "genius gifted patriots of our line" [1] instead. +Johnson has "many coloured life," a compound----but they are always +best avoided. However, it is the only one in ninety lines [2], but will +be happy to give way to a better. I am ashamed to intrude any more +remembrances on Lady H. or letters upon you; but you are, fortunately +for me, gifted with patience already too often tried by + +Your etc., etc., + +BYRON. + + + +[Footnote 1: This, as finally altered, stood thus: + + "Immortal names emblazon'd on our line."] + + +[Footnote 2: Reduced to seventy-three lines.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +252.--To Lord Holland. + + +September 27, 1812. + + +I have just received your very kind letter, and hope you have met with a +second copy corrected and addressed to Holland House, with some +omissions and this new couplet, + + As glared each rising flash, [1] and ghastly shone + The skies with lightnings awful as their own. + +As to remarks, I can only say I will alter and acquiesce in any thing. +With regard to the part which Whitbread [2] wishes to omit, I believe +the 'Address' will go off _quicker_ without it, though, like the agility +of the Hottentot, at the expense of its vigour. I leave to your choice +entirely the different specimens of stucco-work; and a _brick_ of your +own will also much improve my Babylonish turret. I should like Elliston +to have it, with your leave. "Adorn" and "mourn" are lawful rhymes in +Pope's 'Death of the Unfortunate Lady'.--Gray has "forlorn" and +"mourn"--and "torn" and "mourn" are in Smollett's famous 'Tears of +Scotland' [3]. + +As there will probably be an outcry amongst the rejected, I hope the +Committee will testify (if it be needful) that I sent in nothing to the +congress whatever, with or without a name, as your Lordship well knows. +All I have to do with it is with and through you; and though I, of +course, wish to satisfy the audience, I do assure you my first object is +to comply with your request, and in so doing to show the sense I have of +the many obligations you have conferred upon me. + +Yours ever, +B. + + + +[Footnote 1: At present: + + "As glared the volumed blaze."] + + +[Footnote 2: Samuel Whitbread (1758-1815) married, in 1789, Elizabeth, +daughter of General Sir Charles Grey, created (1806) Earl Grey, and +sister of the second Earl Grey, of Reform Bill fame. The son of a +wealthy brewer, whose fortune he inherited, he entered Parliament as +M.P. for Bedford in 1790. Raikes, in his 'Journal' (vol. iv. PP. 50, +51), speaks of him, at the outset of his career, as a staunch Foxite, +and "much remarked in society." Comparing him with his brother-in-law +Grey, he says, + + "Mr. Whitbread was a more steady character; his appearance was heavy; + he was fond of agriculture, and was very plain and simple in his + tastes. Both were reckoned good debaters in the House, but Grey was + the most eloquent." + +An independent Whig, and an advocate for peace with France, Whitbread +supported Fox against Pitt throughout the Napoleonic War, strongly +opposed its renewal after the return of the emperor from Elba, and +interested himself in such measures as moderate Parliamentary reform, +the amendment of the poor law, national education, and retrenchment of +public expenditure. On April 8, 1805, he moved the resolutions which +ended in the impeachment of Lord Melville, and took the lead in the +inquiries, which were made, March, 1809, into the conduct of the Duke of +York. He was a plain, business-like speaker, and a man of such +unimpeachable integrity that Mr., afterwards Lord, Plunket, in a speech +on the Roman Catholic claims, February 28, 1821, called him "the +incorruptible sentinel of the constitution." + +When he moved the articles of impeachment against Lord Melville, Canning +scribbled the following impromptu parody of his speech ('Anecdotal +History of the British Parliament', p. 222): + + "I'm like Archimedes for science and skill; + I'm like a young prince going straight up a hill; + I'm like--(with respect to the fair be it said)-- + I'm like a young lady just bringing to bed. + If you ask why the 11th of June I remember + Much better than April, or May, or November, + On that day, my lords, with truth I assure ye, + My sainted progenitor set up his brewery; + On that day, in the morn, he began brewing beer; + On that day, too, commenced his connubial career;] + On that day he received and he issued his bills; + On that day he cleared out all the cash from his tills; + On that day he died, having finished his summing, + And the angels all cried, 'Here's old Whitbread a-coming!' + So that day still I hail with a smile and a sigh, + For his beer with an E, and his bier with an I; + And still on that day, in the hottest of weather, + The whole Whitbread family dine all together.-- + So long as the beams of this house shall support + The roof which o'ershades this respectable Court, + Where Hastings was tried for oppressing the Hindoos; + So long as that sun shall shine in at those windows, + My name shall shine bright as my ancestor's shines, + 'Mine' recorded in journals, 'his' blazoned on signs!" + +An active member of Parliament, a large landed proprietor, the manager +of his immense brewery in Chiswell Street, Whitbread also found time to +reduce to order the chaotic concerns of Drury Lane Theatre. He was, with +Lord Holland and Harvey Combe, responsible for the request to Byron to +write an address, having first rejected his own address with its +"poulterer's description of the Phoenix." He was fond of private +theatricals, and Dibdin ('Reminiscences', vol. ii. pp. 383, 384) gives +the play-bill of an entertainment given by him at Southill. In the first +play, 'The Happy Return', he took the part of "Margery;" and in the +second, 'Fatal Duplicity', that of "Eglantine," a very young lady, loved +by "Sir Buntybart" and "Sir Brandywine." In his capacity as manager of +Drury Lane, Whitbread is represented by the author of 'Accepted +Addresses' (1813) as addressing "the M--s of H--d"-- + + "My LORD,-- + + "As I now have the honour to be + By 'Man'ging' a 'Playhouse' a double M.P., + In this my address I think fit to complain + Of certain encroachments on great Drury Lane," etc., etc. + +Whitbread strongly supported the cause of the Princess of Wales. Miss +Berry ('Journal', vol. iii. p. 25) says that he dictated the letters +which the Princess wrote to the Queen, who had desired that she should +not attend the two drawing-rooms to be held in June, 1814. "They were +good," she adds, "but too long, and sometimes marked by Whitbread's want +of taste." + +The strain of his multifarious activities affected both his health and +his mind, and he committed suicide July 6, 1815.] + + +[Footnote 3: + + "By foreign hands thy humble grave adorn'd, + By strangers honour'd, and by strangers mourn'd." + +(Pope.) + + "Stay, oh stay! nor thus forlorn, + Leave me unbless'd, unpitied, here to mourn." + +(Gray.) + + "Mourn, hapless Caledonia, mourn + Thy banish'd peace, thy laurels torn." + +(Smollett.)] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +253.--To John Murray. + + +Cheltenham, September 27, 1812. + +Dear Sir,--I sent in no 'Address' whatever to the Committee; but out of +nearly one hundred (this is _confidential_), none have been deemed worth +acceptance; and in consequence of their _subsequent_ application to +_me_, I have written a prologue, which _has_ been received, and will be +spoken. The MS. is now in the hands of Lord Holland. + +I write this merely to say, that (however it is received by the +audience) you will publish it in the next edition of _Childe Harold_; +and I only beg you at present to keep my name secret till you hear +further from me, and as soon as possible I wish you to have a correct +copy, to do with as you think proper. + +I am, yours very truly, BYRON. + +P.S.--I should wish a few copies printed off _before_, that the +Newspaper copies may be correct _after_ the _delivery_. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +254.--To Lord Holland. + + +September 28, 1812. + + +Will this do better? The metaphor is more complete. + + Till slowly ebb'd the {_lava of the_/spent volcanic} wave, + And blackening ashes mark'd the Muse's grave. + +If not, we will say "burning wave," and instead of "burning clime," in +the line some couplets back, have "glowing." + +Is Whitbread determined to castrate all my _cavalry_ lines [1]? I don't +see why t'other house should be spared; besides it is the public, who +ought to know better; and you recollect Johnson's was against similar +buffooneries of Rich's--but, certes, I am not Johnson. [2] + +Instead of "effects," say "labours"--"degenerate" will do, will it? Mr. +Betty is no longer a babe, therefore the line cannot be personal. Will +this do? + + Till ebb'd the lava of {_the burning_}/{that molten} wave [3] + +with "glowing dome," in case you prefer "burning" added to this "wave" +metaphorical. The word "fiery pillar" was suggested by the "pillar of +fire" in the book of Exodus, which went before the Israelites through +the Red Sea. I once thought of saying "like Israel's pillar," and making +it a simile, but I did not know,--the great temptation was leaving the +epithet "fiery" for the supplementary wave. I want to work up that +passage, as it is the only new ground us prologuizers can go upon-- + + This is the place where, if a poet + Shined in description, he might show it. + +If I part with the possibility of a future conflagration, we lessen the +compliment to Shakspeare. However, we will e'en mend it thus: + + Yes, it shall be--the magic of that name, + That scorns the scythe of Time, the torch of Flame, + On the same spot, etc., etc. + +There--the deuce is in it, if that is not an improvement to Whitbread's +content. Recollect, it is the "name," and not the "magic," that has a +noble contempt for those same weapons. If it were the "magic," my +metaphor would be somewhat of the maddest--so the "name" is the +antecedent. But, my dear Lord, your patience is not quite so +immortal--therefore, with many and sincere thanks, I am, + +Yours ever most affectionately. + +P.S.--I foresee there will be charges of partiality in the papers; but +you know I sent in no _Address_; and glad both you and I must be that I +did not, for, in that case, their plea had been plausible. I doubt the +Pit will be testy; but conscious innocence (a novel and pleasing +sensation) makes me bold. + + + +[Footnote 1: The lines which were omitted by the Committee ran thus: + + "'Nay, lower still, the Drama yet deplores + That late she deigned to crawl upon all-fours. + When Richard roars in Bosworth for a horse, + If you command, the steed must come in course. + If you decree, the Stage must condescend' + To soothe the sickly taste we dare not mend. + _Blame not our judgment should we acquiesce, + And gratify you more by showing less_. + Oh, since your Fiat stamps the Drama's laws, + Forbear to mock us with misplaced applause; + _That public praise be ne'er again disgraced, + From_ {brutes to man recall}/{_babes and brutes redeem} a nation's + taste_; + Then pride shall doubly nerve the actor's powers, + When Reason's voice is echoed back by ours." + +The last couplet but one was altered in a subsequent copy, thus: + + "'The past reproach let present scenes refute, + Nor shift from man to babe, from babe to brute'." + +On February 18, 1811, at Covent Garden, a troop of horses were +introduced in 'Bluebeard'. For the manager, Juvenal's words, "_Lucri +bonus est odor ex re Qualibet_" ('Sat'. xiv. 204) may have been true; +but, as the dressing-room of the equine comedians was under the +orchestra, the stench on the first night was to the audience +intolerable. At the same theatre, April 29, 1811, the horses were again +brought on the stage in Lewis's 'Timour the Tartar'. At the same +theatre, on the following December 26, a live elephant appeared. The +novelty had, however, been anticipated in the Dublin Theatre during the +season of 1771-72 (Genest's 'English Stage', vol. viii. p. 287). At the +Haymarket, and Drury Lane, the introduction of live animals was +ridiculed. 'The Quadrupeds of Quedlinburgh' was given at the Haymarket, +July 26, 1811, as a burlesque on 'Timour the Tartar' and the horses. The +Prologue, by Colman the Younger, attacks the passion for German plays +and animal actors: + + "Your taste, recover'd half from foreign quacks, + Takes airings, now, on English horses' backs; + While every modern bard may raise his name, + If not on _lasting praise_, on _stable fame_." + +At the Lyceum, during the season 1811-12, 'Quadrupeds, or the +Manager's Last Kick', in which the tailors were mounted on asses and +mules, was given by the Drury Lane Company with success. It was this +introduction of animal performers which Byron wished to attack.] + + +[Footnote 2: The following are the lines in Johnson's 'Prologue' to +which Byron refers: + + "Then crush'd by rules, and weaken'd as refined, + For years the power of Tragedy declined; + From bard to bard the frigid caution crept, + Till Declamation roared, whilst Passion slept. + Yet still did Virtue deign the stage to tread, + Philosophy remained though Nature fled. + But forced, at length, her ancient reign to quit, + She saw great Faustus lay the ghost of Wit; + Exulting Folly hailed the joyous Day, + And Pantomime and Song confirmed her sway. + But who the coming changes can presage, + And mark the future periods of the Stage? + Perhaps if skill could distant times explore, + New Behns, new Durfeys, yet remain in store; + Perhaps, where Lear has raved, and Hamlet died, + On flying cars new sorcerers may ride; + Perhaps (for who can guess th' effects of chance?) + Here Hunt may box, or Mahomet may dance." + +John Rich (circ. 1682-1761) was the creator of pantomime in England, +which he introduced at Lincoln's Inn Fields in April, 1716, and in +which, under the stage name of Lun, he played the part of Harlequin. At +Lincoln's Inn Fields, January 29, 1728, he produced 'The Beggar's +Opera', which, after being refused at Drury Lane, made "Gay 'rich', and +Rich 'gay'." "Great Faustus" probably alludes to the war between the two +theatres, and the rival productions of 'Harlequin Dr. Faustus' at Drury +Lane in 1723, and of 'The Necromancer, or the History of Dr. Faustus' at +Lincoln's Inn Fields in December of the same year. On December 7, 1732, +Rich opened the new theatre at Covent Garden, of which he remained +manager till his death in 1761.] + + +[Footnote 3: The form of this couplet, as printed, is as follows: + + "Till blackening ashes and lonely wall + Usurp'd the Muse's realm, and mark'd her fall."] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +255.--To Lord Holland. + + +September 28. + + +I have altered the _middle_ couplet, so as I hope partly to do away with +W.'s objection. I do think, in the present state of the stage, it had +been unpardonable to pass over the horses and Miss Mudie [1], etc. As +Betty is no longer a boy, how can this be applied to him? He is now to +be judged as a man. If he acts still like a boy, the public will but be +more ashamed of their blunder. I have, you see, _now_ taken it for +granted that these things are reformed. I confess, I wish that part of +the _Address_ to stand; but if W. is inexorable, e'en let it go. I have +also new-cast the lines, and softened the hint of future combustion, and +sent them off this morning. Will you have the goodness to add, or +insert, the _approved_ alterations as they arrive? They "come like +shadows, so depart," [2] occupy me, and, I fear, disturb you. + +Do not let Mr. W. put his _Address_ into Elliston's hands till you have +settled on these alterations. E. will think it too long:--much depends +on the speaking. I fear it will not bear much curtailing, without +_chasms_ in the sense. + +It is certainly too long in the reading; but if Elliston exerts himself, +such a favourite with the public will not be thought tedious. _I_ should +think it so, if _he_ were not to speak it. + +Yours ever, etc. + +P.S.--On looking again, I doubt my idea of having obviated W.'s +objection. To the other House allusion is _non sequitur_--but I wish to +plead for this part, because the thing really is not to be passed over. +Many afterpieces of the Lyceum by the _same company_ have already +attacked this "Augean _Stable_"--and Johnson, in his prologue against +"Lunn" (the harlequin manager, Rich),--"Hunt,"--"Mahomet," etc. is +surely a fair precedent. [3] + + + +[Footnote 1: For the horses, see p. 156, 'note' 1. Miss Mudie, another +"Phenomenon," with whom the Covent Garden manager hoped to rival the +success of Master Betty, was announced in the 'Morning Post', July 29, +1805, as the "Young Roscia of the Dublin Stage." She appeared at Covent +Garden, November 23, 1805, in the part of "Peggy" in 'The Country Girl', +Miss Brunton being "Alithea," C. Kemble "Harcourt," and Moody "Murray." +Being hissed by the audience, she walked with great composure to the +front of the stage, and said, as reported in the 'Morning Post' +(November 25, 1805) + + "Ladies and gentlemen,--I know nothing I have done to offend you, and + has set ('sic') those who are sent here to hiss me; I will be + very much obliged to you to turn them out." + +This unfortunate speech made matters worse; the audience refused to hear +her, and her part was finished by Miss Searle. + +Miss Mudie was said to be only eight years old. But J. Kemble, being +asked if she were really such a child, answered, "'Child'! Why, sir, +when I was a very young actor in the York Company, that little creature +kept an inn at Tadcaster, and had a large family" (Clark Russell's +'Representative Actors', p. 363, 'note' 2). The 'Morning Post' (April 5, +1806) says that Miss Mudie afterwards joined a children's troupe in +Leicester Place, where, "though deservedly discountenanced at a great +theatre, she will, no doubt, prove an acquisition to the infant +establishment" (Ashton's 'Dawn of the XIXth Century in England', pp. +333-336).] + + +[Footnote 2: Macbeth, act iv. sc. 1.] + + +[Footnote 3: For Lun, or Rich, see p. 157, end of 'note' 1. Hunt, in the +notes to Johnson's 'Prologue' (Gilfillan's edition of Johnson's +'Poestical Works', p. 38), is said to be "a famous stage-boxer, +Mahomet, a rope-dancer."] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +256.--To William Bankes. + + +Cheltenham, September 28, 1812. + + +MY DEAR BANKES,--When you point out to one how people can be intimate at +the distance of some seventy leagues, I will plead guilty to your +charge, and accept your farewell, but not _wittingly_, till you give me +some better reason than my silence, which merely proceeded from a notion +founded on your own declaration of _old_, that you hated writing and +receiving letters. Besides, how was I to find out a man of many +residences? If I had addressed you _now_, it had been to your borough, +where I must have conjectured you were amongst your constituents. So +now, in despite of Mr. N. and Lady W., you shall be as "much better" as +the Hexham post-office will allow me to make you. I do assure you I am +much indebted to you for thinking of me at all, and can't spare you even +from amongst the superabundance of friends with whom you suppose me +surrounded. + +You heard that Newstead [1] is sold--the sum £140,000; sixty to remain +in mortgage on the estate for three years, paying interest, of course. +Rochdale is also likely to do well--so my worldly matters are mending. I +have been here some time drinking the waters, simply because there are +waters to drink, and they are very medicinal, and sufficiently +disgusting. In a few days I set out for Lord Jersey's [2], but return +here, where I am quite alone, go out very little, and enjoy in its +fullest extent the _dolce far niente_. What you are about I cannot +guess, even from your date;--not dauncing to the sound of the gitourney +in the Halls of the Lowthers? one of whom is here, ill, poor thing, with +a phthisic. I heard that you passed through here (at the sordid inn +where I first alighted) the very day before I arrived in these parts. We +had a very pleasant set here; at first the Jerseys, Melbournes [3], +Cowpers [4], and Hollands, but all gone; and the only persons I know are +the Rawdons [5] and Oxfords [6], with some later acquaintances of less +brilliant descent. + +But I do not trouble them much; and as for your rooms and your +assemblies "they are not dreamed of in our philosophy!!"--Did you read +of a sad accident in the Wye t'other day [7]? A dozen drowned; and Mr. +Rossoe, a corpulent gentleman, preserved by a boat-hook or an eel-spear, +begged, when he heard his wife was saved--no--_lost_--to be thrown in +again!!--as if he could not have thrown himself in, had he wished it; +but this passes for a trait of sensibility. What strange beings men are, +in and out of the Wye! + +I have to ask you a thousand pardons for not fulfilling some orders +before I left town; but if you knew all the cursed entanglements I _had_ +to wade through, it would be unnecessary to beg your forgiveness.--When +will Parliament (the new one) meet [8]?--in sixty days, on account of +Ireland, I presume: the Irish election will demand a longer period for +completion than the constitutional allotment. Yours, of course, is safe, +and all your side of the question. Salamanca is the ministerial +watchword, and all will go well with you. I hope you will speak more +frequently, I am sure at least you _ought_, and it will be expected. I +see Portman means to stand again. Good night. + +Ever yours most affectionately, + +[Greek: Mpairon.] + + + +[Footnote 1: Newstead was put up at Garraway's in the autumn of 1812; +but only £90,000 were bid, and the property was therefore withdrawn. +Subsequently it was privately sold to a Mr. Claughton, who found himself +unable to complete the purchase, and forfeited £25,000 on the contract. +Newstead was eventually sold, in November, 1817, to Colonel Wildman, +Byron's Harrow schoolfellow, for £94,500.] + + +[Footnote 2: For Lady Jersey, see p. 112, 'note' 1 [Footnote 1 of Letter +230]. The following passage, from Byron's 'Detached Thoughts', gives an +account of the party at Middleton: + + "In 1812 at Middelton (Lord Jersey's), amongst a goodly company of + Lords, Ladies, and wits, etc., there was poor old Vice Leach, the + lawyer, attempting to play off the fine gentleman. His first + exhibition, an attempt on horseback, I think, to escort the women--God + knows where--in the month of November, ended in a fit of the + Lumbago--as Lord Ogleby says, 'a grievous enemy to Gallantry and + address'--and if he could have but heard Lady Jersey quizzing him (as + I did) next day for the _cause_ of his malady, I don't think that he + would have turned a 'Squire of dames' in a hurry again. He seemed to + me the greatest fool (in that line) I ever saw. This was the last I + saw of old Vice Leach, except in town, where he was creeping into + assemblies, and trying to look young--and gentlemanly. + + "Erskine too!--Erskine was there--good but intolerable. He jested, he + talked, he did everything admirably, but then he 'would' be applauded + for the same thing twice over. He would read his own verses, his own + paragraphs, and tell his own story again and again; and then 'the + trial by Jury!!!'--I almost wished it abolished, for I sate next him + at dinner, and, as I had read his published speeches, there was no + occasion to repeat them to me. Chester (the fox-hunter), surnamed + 'Cheek Chester,' and I sweated the Claret, being the only two who did + so. Cheek, who loves his bottle, and had no notion of meeting with a + 'bonvivant' in a scribbler, in making my eulogy to somebody one + evening, summed it up in 'by G-d, he 'drinks like a Man'!'"] + + +[Footnote 3: Sir Peniston Lamb, created an Irish baron as Lord +Melbourne in 1770, an Irish viscount in 1780, and an English peer in +1815, married, in 1769, Elizabeth, only daughter of Sir Ralph Milbanke, +of Halnaby, Yorkshire, one of the cleverest and most beautiful women of +the day. Horace Walpole, writing to Mason, May 12, 1778, mentions her +when she was at the height of her beauty. + + "On Tuesday," he says, "I supped, after the opera, at Mrs. Meynel's + with a set of the most fashionable company, which, take notice, I very + seldom do now, as I certainly am not of the age to mix often with + young people. Lady Melbourne was standing before the fire, and + adjusting her feathers in the glass. Says she, 'Lord, they say the + stocks will blow up! That will be very comical.'" + +Greville ('Memoirs', ed. 1888, vol. vi. p. 248) associates her name with +that of Lord Egremont. Reynolds painted her with her eldest son in his +well-known picture 'Maternal Affection'. Her second son, William, +afterwards Prime Minister, used to say, + + "Ah! my mother was a most remarkable woman; not merely clever and + engaging, but the most sagacious woman I ever knew" + +('Memoirs of Viscount Melbourne', vol. i. p. 135). Lady Melbourne, whom +Byron spoke of as + + "the best, the kindest, and ablest female I have ever known, old or + young," + +died in 1818, her husband in 1828. He thus described her to Lady +Blessington ('Conversations', p. 225): + + "Lady M., who might have been my mother, excited an interest in my + feelings that few young women have been able to awaken. She was a + charming person--a sort of modern Aspasia, uniting the energy of a + man's mind with the delicacy and tenderness of a woman's. She wrote + and spoke admirably, because she felt admirably. Envy, malice, hatred, + or uncharitableness, found no place in her feelings. She had all of + philosophy, save its moroseness, and all of nature, save its defects + and general 'faiblesse'; or if some portion of 'faiblesse' attached + to her, it only served to render her more forbearing to the errors of + others. I have often thought, that, with a little more youth, Lady M. + might have turned my head, at all events she often turned my heart, by + bringing me back to mild feelings, when the demon passion was strong + within me. Her mind and heart were as fresh as if only sixteen summers + had flown over her, instead of four times that number."] + + +[Footnote 4: Peter, fifth Earl Cowper (1778-1837), married, in 1805 +Emily Mary Lamb, daughter of Lord Melbourne; she married, secondly, in +1839, Lord Palmerston.] + + +[Footnote 5: Francis Rawdon, second Earl of Moira (1754-1826), created +Lord Rawdon (1783), and Marquis of Hastings (1817), married, in 1804, +the Countess of Loudoun.] + + +[Footnote 6: Edward Harley (1773-1848) succeeded his uncle as fifth Earl +of Oxford in 1790, and married, in 1794, Jane Elizabeth, daughter of the +Rev. James Scott, Vicar of Itchin, Hants. It is probably of Lady Oxford, +whose picture was painted by Hoppner, that Byron spoke to Lady +Blessington ('Conversations', p. 255), + + "Even now the autumnal charms of Lady----are remembered by me with + more than admiration. She resembled a landscape by Claude Lorraine, + with a setting sun, her beauties enhanced by the knowledge that they + were shedding their last dying beams, which threw a radiance around. A + woman... is only grateful for her 'first' and 'last' conquest. The + first of poor dear Lady----'s was achieved before I entered on this + world of care; but the 'last', I do flatter myself, was reserved for + me, and a 'bonne bouche' it was." + +The following passage certainly relates to Lady Oxford: + + "There was a lady at that time," said Byron (Medwin's 'Conversations', + pp. 93, 94), "double my own age, the mother of several children who + were perfect angels, with whom I had formed a 'liaison' that continued + without interruption for eight months. The autumn of a beauty like + her's is preferable to the spring in others. She told me she was never + in love till she was thirty; and I thought myself so with her when she + was forty. I never felt a stronger passion; which she returned with + equal ardour.... She had been sacrificed, almost before she was a + woman, to one whose mind and body were equally contemptible in the + scale of creation; and on whom she bestowed a numerous family, to + which the law gave him the right to be called father. Strange as it + may seem, she gained (as all women do) an influence over me so strong, + that I had great difficulty in breaking with her, even when I knew she + had been inconstant to me: and once was on the point of going abroad + with her, and narrowly escaped this folly." + +To be near the Oxfords at Eywood, in Herefordshire, Byron took Kinsham +Court, a dower-house of the family, where Bishop Harley died in 1788. At +one time, as is evident from his correspondence with Hanson, he was bent +on going abroad with Lady Oxford. In the end he only accompanied her to +Portsmouth. Of Lady Oxford, Uvedale Price wrote thus to Rogers (Clayden, +'Rogers and his Contemporaries', vol. i. pp. 397, 398): + + "This is a melancholy subject"--[the death, by consumption of Lord + Aberdeen's children]--"and I must go to another. Poor Lady Oxford! I + had heard with great concern of her dangerous illness, but hoped she + might get through it, and was much, very much grieved to hear that it + had ended fatally. I had, as you know, lived a great deal with her + from the time she came into this country, immediately after her + marriage; but for some years past, since she went abroad, had scarcely + had any correspondence or intercourse with her, till I met her in town + last spring. I then saw her twice, and both times she seemed so + overjoyed to see an old friend, and expressed her joy so naturally and + cordially, that I felt no less overjoyed at seeing her after so long + an absence. She talked, with great satisfaction, of our meeting for a + longer time this next spring, little thinking of an eternal + separation. There could not, in all respects, be a more ill-matched + pair than herself and Lord Oxford, or a stronger instance of the cruel + sports of Venus, or, rather, of Hymen-- + + 'Cui placet impares + Formas atque animos sub juga ahenea + Sævo mittere cum joco.' + + "It has been said that she was, in some measure, forced into the + match. Had she been united to a man whom she had loved, esteemed, and + respected, she herself might have been generally respected and + esteemed, as well as loved; but in her situation, to keep clear of all + misconduct required a strong mind or a cold heart; perhaps both, and + she had neither. Her failings were in no small degree the effect of + circumstances; her amiable qualities all her own. There was something + about her, in spite of her errors, remarkably attaching, and that + something was not merely her beauty. 'Kindness has resistless charms,' + and she was full of affectionate kindness to those she loved, whether + as friends or as lovers. As a friend, I always found her the same, + never at all changeful or capricious. As I am not a very rigid + moralist, and am extremely open to kindness, 'I could have better + spared a better woman.'"] + + + +[Footnote 7: An account of the accident is given in the Chronicle of the +'Annual Register', September 21, 1812. The party consisted of ten +people, three of whom were saved. Among those rescued was Mr. +Rothery--not Rossoe, as Byron gives it.] + + +[Footnote 8: The new Parliament met November 30, 1812. Wellington won +the battle of Salamanca on the previous July 22.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +257.--To Lord Holland. + + +September 29, 1812. + +Shakespeare certainly ceased to reign in _one_ of his kingdoms, as +George III. did in America, and George IV. [1] may in Ireland? Now, we +have nothing to do out of our own realms, and when the monarchy was +gone, his majesty had but a barren sceptre. I have _cut away_, you will +see, and altered, but make it what you please; only I do implore, for my +_own_ gratification, one lash on those accursed quadrupeds--"a long +shot, Sir Lucius, if you love me." [2] I have altered "wave," etc., and +the "fire," and so forth for the timid. + +Let me hear from you when convenient, and believe me, etc. + +P.S.--Do let _that_ stand, and cut out elsewhere. I shall choke, if we +must overlook their damned menagerie. + + + +[Footnote 1: Some objection, it appears, had been made to the passage, +"and Shakspeare _ceased to reign_."] + + +[Footnote 2: Bob Acres, in 'The Rivals' (act v. se. 3), says, "A long +shot, Sir Lucius, if you love me."] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +258.--To Lord Holland. + + +September 30, 1812. + + +I send you the most I can make of it; for I am not so well as I was, and +find I "pull in resolution." [1] + +I wish much to see you, and will be at Tetbury by twelve on Saturday; +and from thence I go on to Lord Jersey's. It is impossible not to allude +to the degraded state of the Stage, but I have lightened _it_, and +endeavoured to obviate your _other_ objections. There is a new couplet +for Sheridan, allusive to his Monody [2]. All the alterations I have +marked thus ],--as you will see by comparison with the other copy. I +have cudgelled my brains with the greatest willingness, and only wish I +had more time to have done better. + +You will find a sort of clap-trap laudatory couplet inserted for the +quiet of the Committee [3], and I have added, towards the end, the +couplet you were pleased to _like_. The whole Address is seventy-three +lines, still perhaps too long; and, if shortened, you will save time, +but, I fear, a little of what I meant for sense also. + +With myriads of thanks, I am ever, etc. + +My sixteenth edition of respects to Lady H.--How she must laugh at all +this! + +I wish Murray, my publisher, to print off some copies as soon as your +Lordship returns to town--it will ensure correctness in the papers +afterwards. + + + +[Footnote 1: 'Macbeth', act v. sc. 5.] + + +[Footnote 2: Sheridan's 'Monody on Garrick'.] + + +[Footnote 3: The Committee of Selection consisted, says the 'Satirist' +(November 1, 1812, p. 395), + + "of one peer and two commoners, one poet and two prosers, one Lord and + two Brewers; and the only points in which they coincided were in being + all three parliament men, all three politicians, all three in + opposition to the Government of the country. Their names, as we + understand, were Vassal Holland, Samuel Whitbread, and Harvey + Christian Combe."] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +259.--To Lord Holland. + + +Far be from him that hour which asks in vain +Tears such as flow for Garrick in his strain; + +_or_, + +Far be that hour that vainly asks in turn +Such verse for him as {_crown'd his_/wept o'er} Garrick's urn. + + +September 30, 1812. + +Will you choose between these added to the lines on Sheridan [1]? + +I think they will wind up the panegyric, and agree with the train of +thought preceding them. + +Now, one word as to the Committee--how could they resolve on a rough +copy of an _Address_ never sent in, unless you had been good enough to +retain in memory, or on paper, the thing they have been good enough to +adopt? By the by, the circumstances of the case should make the +Committee less _avidus gloriæ_, for all praise of them would look plaguy +suspicious. If necessary to be stated at all, the simple facts bear them +out. They surely had a right to act as they pleased. My sole object is +one which, I trust, my whole conduct has shown; viz. that I did nothing +insidious--sent in no Address _whatever_--but, when applied to, did my +best for them and myself; but, above all, that there was no undue +partiality, which will be what the rejected will endeavour to make out. +Fortunately--most fortunately--I sent in no lines on the occasion. For I +am sure that had they, in that case, been preferred, it would have been +asserted that _I_ was known, and owed the preference to private +friendship. This is what we shall probably have to encounter; but, if +once spoken and approved, we sha'n't be much embarrassed by their +brilliant conjectures; and, as to criticism, an _old_ author, like an +old bull, grows cooler (or ought) at every baiting. + +The only thing would be to avoid a party on the night of +delivery--afterwards, the more the better, and the whole transaction +inevitably tends to a good deal of discussion. Murray tells me there are +myriads of ironical Addresses [2] ready--_some_, in imitation of what is +called _my style_. If they are as good as the 'Probationary Odes' [3], +or Hawkins's 'Pipe of Tobacco' [4], it will not be bad fun for the +imitated. + +Ever, etc. + + + +[Footnote 1: These added lines, as may be seen by reference to the +printed Address, were not retained.] + + +[Footnote 2: Probably the reference is to 'Rejected Addresses, or the +New Theatrum Poetarum' (1812), by James (1775-1839) and Horace +(1779-1849) Smith. "Cui Bono?" the parody on Byron, is the joint +composition of James and Horace. The manuscript was offered to Murray +for £20, but declined by him. It was afterwards published by John +Miller, of Bow Street, Covent Garden, who also published 'Horace in +London'.] + + +[Footnote 3: 'Probationary Odes', which generally forms, with 'Political +Eclogues', the third portion of the 'Rolliad', is really distinct from +that work. It is the result of an imaginary contest for the +laureate-ship. Each candidate was to deliver a "Probationary Birthday +Ode," and among the candidates are Dr. Pretyman, Archbishop Markham, +Thomas and Joseph Warton, Sir Cecil Wray, Sir Joseph Mawbey, Henry +Dundas, Lord Thurlow, and other Tories of the day. The plan of the work +is said to have been suggested by Joseph Richardson (1755-1803), who +wrote Odes iv. (Sir Richard Hill) and xix. (Lord Mountmorres).] + + +[Footnote 4: 'In Praise of a Pipe of Tobacco' (1736), written by Isaac +Hawkins Browne (1705-1760), was an ode in imitation of Swift, Pope, +Thomson, and other contemporary poets. Browne represented Wenlock in the +Whig interest in the Parliaments of 1744 and 1747. Johnson spoke of him +(Boswell, 'Johnson', April 5, 1775) as "one of the first wits of this +country," who "got into Parliament, and never opened his mouth."] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +260.--To Lord Holland. + + +October 2, 1812. + + +A copy of this _still altered_ is sent by the post, but this will arrive +first. It must be "humbler"--"_yet aspiring_" does away the modesty, +and, after all, _truth is truth_. Besides, there is a puff direct +altered, to please your _plaguy renters_. + +I shall be at Tetbury by 12 or 1--but send this for you to ponder over. +There are several little things marked thus / altered for your perusal. +I have dismounted the cavalry, and, I hope, arranged to your general +satisfaction. + +Ever, etc. + +At Tetbury by noon.--I hope, after it is sent, there will be no more +elisions. It is not now so long--73 lines--two less than allotted. I +will alter all Committee objections, but I hope you won't permit +_Elliston_ to have any _voice_ whatever,--except in speaking it. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +261.--To John Murray. + + +Cheltenham, Oct. 12, 1812. + + +DEAR SIR,--I have a _very strong objection_ to the engraving of the +portrait [1], and request that it may, on no account, be prefixed; but +let _all_ the proofs be burnt, and the plate broken. I will be at the +expense which has been incurred; it is but fair that _I_ should, since I +cannot permit the publication. I beg, as a particular favour, that you +will lose no time in having this done, for which I have reasons that I +will state when I see you. Forgive all the trouble I have occasioned +you. + +I have received no account of the reception of the _Address_ [2], but +see it is vituperated in the papers, which does not much embarrass an +_old author_. I leave it to your own judgment to add it, or not, to your +next edition when required. Pray comply _strictly_ with my wishes as to +the engraving, and believe me, etc. + +Yours very truly, + +BYRON. + +P.S.--Favour me with an answer, as I shall not be easy until I hear that +the _proofs_, etc., are destroyed. I hear that the _Satirist_ has +reviewed _Childe Harold_ [3], in what manner I need not ask; but I wish +to know if the old personalities are revived? I have a better reason for +asking this than any that merely concerns myself; but in publications of +that kind, others, particularly female names, are sometimes introduced. + + + +[Footnote 1: A miniature by Sanders. Besides this miniature, Sanders had +also painted a full-length of Byron, from which the portrait prefixed to +the quarto edition of Moore's 'Life' is engraved. In reference to the +latter picture, Byron says, in a note to Rogers, + + "If you think the picture you saw at Murray's worth your acceptance, + it is yours; and you may put a glove or mask on it, if you like" + (Moore).] + + +[Footnote 2: On Saturday, October 10, Drury Lane reopened with 'The +Devil to Pay' and 'Hamlet'. Then, after the whole body of actors had +sung "God save the King" and "Rule, Britannia," Elliston delivered +Byron's address.] + + +[Footnote 3: 'The Satirist, a Monthly Meteor' (see 'Letters', vol. i. p. +321, 'note' 3 [Footnote 3 of Letter 159]), ran from October, 1807, to +1814. Up to 1812 it was the property of George Manners, who sold it in +that year to W. Jerdan. It reviewed 'Childe Harold' in October, 1812 +(pp. 344-358); and again in December of the same year (pp. 542-550). In +the first of the two notices, the 'Satirist' quotes the "judgment of our +predecessors," that unless Byron "improved wonderfully, he could never +be a poet," and continues thus: + + "It is with unaffected satisfaction we find that he has improved + wonderfully, and that he is a poet. Indeed, when we consider the + comparatively short interval which has elapsed, and contrast the + character of his recent with that of his early work, we confess + ourselves astonished at the intellectual progress which Lord Byron has + made, and are happy to hold him up as another example of the + extraordinary effects of study and cultivation, 'even' on minds + apparently of the most unpromising description." + +The reviewer severely condemns the morbid bitterness of the poet's +thought and feeling, but yet affirms that the poems + + "abound with beautiful imagery, clothed in a diction free, forcible, + and various. 'Childe Harold', although avowedly a fragment, contains + many fragments which would do honour to any poet, of any period, in + any country."] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +262.--To Lord Holland. + + +Cheltenham, Oct. 14, 1812. + + +MY DEAR LORD,--I perceive that the papers, yea, even Perry's [1], are +somewhat ruffled at the injudicious preference of the Committee. My +friend Perry has, indeed, 'et tu, Brute'-d me rather scurvily, for which +I will send him, for the 'Morning Chronicle', the next epigram I +scribble, as a token of my full forgiveness. + +Do the Committee mean to enter into no explanation of their proceedings? +You must see there is a leaning towards a charge of partiality. You +will, at least, acquit me of any great anxiety to push myself before so +many elder and better anonymous, to whom the twenty guineas (which I +take to be about two thousand pounds 'Bank' currency) and the honour +would have been equally welcome. "Honour," I see, "hath skill in +paragraph-writing." + +I wish to know how it went off at the second reading, and whether any +one has had the grace to give it a glance of approbation. I have seen no +paper but Perry's and two Sunday ones. Perry is severe, and the others +silent. If, however, you and your Committee are not now dissatisfied +with your own judgments, I shall not much embarrass myself about the +brilliant remarks of the journals. My own opinion upon it is what it +always was, perhaps pretty near that of the public. + +Believe me, my dear Lord, etc., etc. + +P.S.--My best respects to Lady H., whose smiles will be very +consolatory, even at this distance. + + + + +[Footnote 1: James Perry (1756-1821) purchased, in 1789, the 'Morning +Chronicle', originally established by Woodfall in 1769. In Perry's hands +the paper became the leading organ of the Whigs. He was the first editor +to introduce a succession of parliamentary reporters. He gathered round +him a remarkable staff of contributors, including Ricardo, Sir James +Mackintosh, Porson (who married his sister), Charles Lamb, Sheridan, +Coleridge, Hazlitt, Lord Campbell, Moore, Campbell, Byron, and Burns. +The 'Morning Chronicle' (October 12, 1812) says: + + "Mr. Elliston then came forward and delivered the following 'Prize' + Address. We cannot boast of the eloquence of the delivery. It was + neither gracefully nor correctly recited. The merits of the production + itself we submit to the criticism of our readers. We cannot suppose + that it was selected as the most poetical composition of all the + scores that were submitted to the Committee. But, perhaps by its + tenor, by its allusions to the fire, to Garrick, to Siddons, and to + Sheridan, it was thought most applicable to the occasion, + notwithstanding its being in parts unmusical, and in general tame." + +Again (October 14), in a notice of 'Rejected Addresses', the 'Morning +Chronicle' returns to the subject: + + "A wag has already published a small volume of 'Addresses rejected', + in which, with admirable wit, all the poets of the day are assembled, + contesting for the Prize Address at Drury Lane. And certainly he has + assigned to the pen of Lord B. a superior 'poem' to that which has + gained the prize." + +The Address was also severely handled in 'A Critique on the Address +written by Lord Byron, which was Spoken at the opening of the New +Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, October' 10, 1812. By Lord--------(London, +no date). The author is "astonished at the glaring faults and general +insipidity" of the address, and, after a detailed criticism, concludes +that "public indignation" will sympathize with the rejected poets, and +"pursue the rival patrons and the rival bard." + +Rogers, writing to Moore, October 22, 1812 ('Memoirs, etc., of Thomas +Moore', vol. viii. p. 123), says, + + "Poor Byron! what I hear and read of his prologue makes me very angry. + Of such value is public favour! So a man is to be tried by a copy of + verses thrown off perhaps at hazard, and 'invitâ Minervâ!'"] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +263.--To John Hanson. + + +Cheltenham, Octr. 18th, 1812. + + +Dear Sir,--With perfect confidence in you I sign the note; but is not +Claughton's delay very strange? let us take care what we are about. I +answered his letter, which I enclose to you, very _cautiously;_ the +wines and China, etc., I will not demur much upon; but the _vase_ and +cup (not the _skull cup_) and some little coffee things brought from the +East, or made for the purpose of containing relics brought from thence, +I will not part with, and if he refuses to ratify, I will take such +steps as the Law will allow on the form of the contract for compelling +him to ratify it. + +Pray write. I am invited to Lord O.'s and Lord H.'s; but if you wish +very much to meet me I can come to town. + +I suppose the tythe purchase will be made in my name. What is to be done +with Deardon? [1] + +Mrs. M[assingberd] [2] is dead, and I would wish something settled for +the Daughter who is still responsible. Will you give a glance into that +business, and if possible first settle something about the Annuities. + +I shall perhaps draw within a £100 next week, but I will delay for your +answer on C.'s business. + +Ever yours, sincerely and affectionately, + +BYRON. + +My love to all the family. + +I wish to do something for young Rushton, if practicable at _Rochdale_; +if not, think of some situation where he might occupy himself to avoid +Idleness, in the mean time. + + + +[Footnote 1: Deardon was the lessee of the Rochdale coal-pits. + + "When Mr. France was here," writes Mrs. Byron to Hanson, July 13, 1811 + (Kölbing's 'Englische Studien', vol. xxv. p. I53), "he told me there + had been an injunction procured to prevent Deardin from working the + Coal Pits that was in dispute between Lord Byron and him, but since + France was here, there has been a Man from Lancashire who says they + are worked by Deardin the same as ever. I also heard that the Person + you sent down to take an account of the Coals was bribed by Deardin, + and did not give an account of half of what was got."] + + +[Footnote 2: For Mrs. Massingberd, see 'Letters', vol. i. p. 100, at end +of 'note' 3 [Footnote 1 of Letter 52]. Byron's pecuniary transactions, +though not unimportant in their influence on his career, are difficult +to unravel. The following statement, in his own handwriting, with regard +to the Annuities was apparently prepared for some legal proceedings, and +is dated January 16, 1812: + + "Lord Byron, to the best of his knowledge and recollection, in Dec., + 1805--January, 1806 applied to King, in consequence of an + advertisement in the papers, who acquainted Lord Byron that his + minority prevented all money transactions without the security of + competent persons. Through Mr. K. he became acquainted with Mr. + Dellevelly, another of the tribe of Israel, and subsequently with a + Mr. Howard of Golden Square. + + "After many delays, during which Lord B. had interviews with Howard, + once, he thinks, in Golden Square, but more frequently in Piccadilly, + Mrs. M[assingberd] agreed to become security jointly with her + daughter. Lord B. knows Howard's person perfectly well, has not seen + him subsequent to the transaction, but recollects Howard's mentioning + to him that he, Lord B., was acting imprudently, stating that he made + it a rule to advise young men against such proceedings. Lord B. + recollects, on the day on which the money was paid, that he remained + in the next room till the papers were signed, Mrs. M[assingberd] + having stated that the parties wished him to be kept out of sight + during the business, and wished to avoid even mentioning his name. + Mrs. M[assingberd] deducted the interest for two years and a half, and + £100 for Howard's papers." + +Two other Annuities were effected, in both of which Mrs. Massingberd +figured as a security, and in one the manager of Dorant's Hotel. It was +the interest on these minority loans which crippled Byron. Two were +still unpaid in 1817.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +264.--To John Murray. + + +Cheltenham, Oct. 18, 1812, + +Dear Sir,--Will you have the goodness to get this Parody of a peculiar +kind [1] (for all the first lines are _Busby's_ entire), inserted in +several of the papers (_correctly_--and copied _correctly; my hand_ is +difficult)--particularly the 'Morning Chronicle'? Tell Mr. Perry I +forgive him all he has said, and may say against _my address_, but he +will allow me to deal with the Doctor--(_audi alteram partem_)--and not +_betray_ me. I cannot think what has befallen Mr. Perry, for of yore we +were very good friends;--but no matter, only get this inserted. + +I have a poem on Waltzing for _you_, of which I make _you_ a present; +but it must be anonymous. It is in the old style of 'English Bards, and +Scotch Reviewers'. + +Ever yours, + +BYRON. + +P.S.--With the next edition of 'Childe Harold' you may print the first +fifty or a hundred opening lines of the 'Curse of Minerva' [2] down to +the couplet beginning + + Mortal ('twas thus she spake), etc. + +Of course, the moment the Satire begins, there you will stop, and the +opening is the best part. + + + +[Footnote 1: The 'Parenthetical Address', "By Dr. Plagiary," is a parody +by Byron of Dr, Busby's 'Address', the original of which will be found +in the 'Genuine Rejected Addresses', as well as parodied in 'Rejected +Addresses' ("Architectural Atoms"). On October 14 young Busby forced his +way on to the stage of Drury Lane, attempted to recite his father's +address, and was taken into custody. On the next night, Dr. Busby, +speaking from one of the boxes, obtained a hearing for his son, who +could not, however, make his voice heard in the theatre. Then another +"rejected" author tried to recite his composition, but was hooted down. +Order was restored by Raymond reminding the audience that the +Chamberlain's licence was necessary for all stage speeches. To the +failure of the younger Busby (himself a competitor and the author of an +"Unalogue" of fifty-six lines) to make himself heard, Byron alludes in +the stage direction to the 'Parenthetical Address'--"to be spoken in an +inarticulate voice by Master P." The 'Parenthetical Address' appeared +in the 'Morning Chronicle' for October 23, 1812. In the same issue was +printed a long statement by Dr. Busby, in which, after paying a +compliment to Byron's "poetical genius," he insisted that the Committee +of Drury Lane had broken faith by not choosing one of the addresses sent +in by competitors. (See references to Dr. Busby in 'Poems', vol. i. pp. +481 and 485, 'note' 1.) Dr. Thomas Busby (1755-1838) composed the music +for Holcroft's 'Tale of Mystery', the first musical melodrama produced +on the English stage (Covent Garden, November 13, 1802). He was for some +time assistant editor of the 'Morning Post', and Parliamentary reporter +for the 'London Courant'; wrote on musical subjects, taught languages +and music, and translated Lucretius into rhymed verse (1813).] + + +[Footnote 2: 'The Curse of Minerva,' written at Athens, in 1811, was not +published as a whole till 1828. But the first fifty-four lines appeared +in Canto III. of 'The Corsair' (1814). (See 'The Curse of Minerva:' +Introductory note, 'Poems,' 1898, vol. i. p. 453.)] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +265.--To Robert Rushton. + + +Cheltenham, Oct. 18th, 1812. + + +Robert,--I hope you continue as much as possible to apply yourself to +_Accounts_ and Land-Measurement, etc. Whatever change may take place +about Newstead, there will be none as to you and Mr. Murray. It is +intended to place you in a situation in Rochdale for which your +pursuance of the Studies I recommend will best fit you. Let me hear from +you; is your health improved since I was last at the Abbey? In the mean +time, if any accident occur to me, you are provided for in my will, and +if not, you will always find in your Master a sincere Friend. +B. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +266.--To John Murray. + + +Oct. 19, 1812. + + +Dear Sir,--Many thanks, but I _must_ pay the 'damage', and will thank +you to tell me the amount for the engraving. I think the 'Rejected +Addresses' by far the best thing of the kind since the 'Rolliad', and +wish _you_ had published them. Tell the author "I forgive him, were be +twenty times our satirist;" and think his imitations not at all inferior +to the famous ones of Hawkins Browne. He must be a man of very lively +wit, and much less scurrilous than Wits often are: altogether, I very +much admire the performance, and wish it all success. The 'Satirist' has +taken a _new_ tone, as you will see: we have now, I think, finished with +'C. H.'s' critics. I have in 'hand' a 'Satire' on 'Waltzing', which you +must publish anonymously: it is not long, not quite 200 lines, but will +make a very small boarded pamphlet. In a few days you shall have it. + +Ever yours, + +BYRON. + +P.S.--The editor of the 'Satirist' almost ought to be thanked for his +revocation; it is done handsomely, after five years' warfare. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +267.--To John Hanson. + + +Octr. 22d, 1812. + + +DEAR SIR,--I enclose you Mr. C[laughton]'s letter, from which you +yourself will judge of my own. I insisted on the _contract_, and said, +_if_ I gave up the wines, etc., it would be as a _gift_. He admits the +validity, as you perceive. I told him that _I_ wished to avoid raising +difficulties and in all respects to fulfil the bargain. + +I am going to Lord Oxford's, _Eywood, Presteigne, Hereford_. In my way +back I will take Farleigh, if you are not returned to London before. + +I wish to take a small _house_ for the winter any where not remote from +St. James's. Will you arrange this for me?--and think of young Rushton, +whom I promised to provide for, and must begin to think of it; he might +be a _sub_-Tythe _collector_, or a Bailiff to our agent at Rochdale, or +many other things. He has had a fair education and was well disposed; at +all events, he must no longer remain in idleness. + +Let the Mule be sold and the dogs. + +Pray let me hear from you when convenient, and + +Believe me, ever yours truly, + +BYRON. + +My best remembrances to all. + +I shall draw for _fifty_ this week. + +Is anything done about Miss M[assingberd]? You have not mentioned her. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +268.--To John Murray. + + +Oct. 23, 1812. + +DEAR SIR,--Thanks, as usual. You go on boldly; but have a care of +_glutting_ the public, who have by this time had enough of 'C. H.' +'Waltz' shall be prepared. It is rather above 200 lines, with an +introductory letter to the Publisher. I think of publishing, with 'C. +H.', the opening lines of the '_Curse of Minerva_' as far as the first +speech of Pallas,--because some of the readers like that part better +than any I have ever written; and as it contains nothing to affect the +subject of the subsequent portion, it will find a place as a +_descriptive fragment_. + +The _plate_ is _broken_? between ourselves, it was unlike the picture; +and besides, upon the whole, the frontispiece of an author's visage is +but a paltry exhibition. At all events, _this_ would have been no +recommendation to the book. I am sure Sanders would not have _survived_ +the engraving. By the by, the _picture_ may remain with _you_ or _him_ +(which you please), till my return. The _one_ of two remaining copies is +at your service till I can give you a _better_; the other must be +_burned peremptorily_. Again, do not forget that I have an account with +you, and _that_ this is _included_. I give you too much TROUBLE to allow +you to incur EXPENSE also. + +You best know how far this "Address Riot" will affect the future sale of +'C. H.' I like the volume of "_rejected A._" better and better. The +other parody which Perry has received is _mine_ also (I believe). It is +Dr. Busby's speech versified. You are removing to Albemarle Street, I +find, and I rejoice that we shall be nearer neighbours. I am going to +Lord Oxford's, but letters here will be forwarded. When at leisure, all +communications from you will be willingly received by the humblest of +your scribes. Did Mr. Ward write the review of H. Tooke's Life? [1] It +is excellent. + +Yours ever, + +B. + + + +[Footnote 1: See 'Quarterly Review', vol. vii. p. 313. The article +alluded to was written by the Hon. J. W. Ward, afterwards Earl of +Dudley.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +269.--To John Hanson. + + +Eywood, Presteign, Hereford, Octr. 31st, 1812. + + +DEAR SIR,--The inclosed bill [1] will convince you how anxious I must be +for the payment of Claughton's first instalment; though it has been sent +in without due notice, I cannot blame Mr. Davies who must feel very +anxious to get rid of the business. Press C., and let me have an answer +whenever you can to this Place. + +Yours ever, + +B. + +P.S.--I am at _Lord Oxford's_, Eywood, as above. + + + +[Footnote 1: The bill was Byron's for £1500, and the enclosure ran as +follows: + + "Lord Byron. + + "A Bill for £1500, drawn by Scrope B. Davies, lies due at Sir _James + Esdaile_ and Co's., No. 21, _Lombard-Street_. + + "All Drafts intended for the Payment of Bills, to be brought before + Half past Three o'Clock. + + "Please to call between 3 and Five o'Clock." + +The same day Byron writes a second letter to Hanson: + + "Do pray press Claughton, as Mr. D.'s business must be settled at all + events. I send you his letter, and I am more uncomfortable than I can + possibly express myself upon the subject. Pray write."] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +270.--To John Hanson. + + +Presteign, Novr. 8th, 1812. + + +DEAR SIR,--Not being able (and to-day being Sunday also) to procure a +stamp, as the Post town is very remote, I must request this letter to be +considered as an Order for paying fifteen hundred pounds to S.B. Davies, +Esq., and the same sum to your own account for the Tythe purchase. Mr. +D.'s receipt can be indorsed on the bond. + +I shall be in London the latter end of the week. I set out from this +place on the 12th. As to Mr. C., the Law must decide between us; I shall +abide by the Contract. Your answer will not reach me in time, so do not +write to me while here. + +Pray let Mr. D. be paid and you also--come what may.[1] I always foresaw +that C. would _shirk_; but he did it with his eyes open. What question +can arise as to the title? has it never been examined? I never heard of +it before, and surely, in all our law suits, that question must have +come to issue. + +I hope we shall meet in town. I will wait on you the moment I arrive. + +My best respects to your family; believe me, Ever yours sincerely, + +BYRON. + + + +[Footnote 1: Byron was prepared to make some sacrifices to extricate +himself from debt, or go abroad. The following letter to Hanson is dated +December 10, 1812: + + "DEAR SIR,--I have to request that you will pay the bearer (my Groom) + the wages due to him (12 pds. 10s.), and dismiss him immediately, as I + have given up my horses, and place the sum to my account. + + "Ever yours, + + "BYRON." + +Four days later, December 14, 1812, he writes again to Hanson: + + "DEAR SIR,--I request your attention to the enclosed. See what can be + done with Howard, and urge Claughton. If this kind of thing continues, + I must quit a country which my debts render uninhabitable, + notwithstanding every sacrifice on my part. + + "Yours ever, + + "B."] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +271.--To John Hanson. + + +Presteign, Novr. 16th, 1812. + + +DEAR SIR,--The floods having rendered the road impassable, I am detained +here, but trust by the latter end of the week to proceed to Cheltenham, +where I shall expect a letter from you to tell me if I am wanted in +town. + +I shall not be in time for the Prince's address; but I wish you to write +down for my _Parliamentary_ robes (Mrs. Chaworth had them, at least Mrs. +Clarke the mother); though I rather think those were the Coronation and +not the House robes. At least enquire. + +I hope Mr. D. is paid; and, if Mr. C. demurs, we must bring an action +according to Contract. + +I trust you are well, and well doing in my behalf and your own. + +Ever yours most sincerely, + +B. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +272.--To John Murray. + + +Cheltenham, November 22, 1812. + + +DEAR SIR,--On my return here from Lord Oxford's, I found your obliging +note, and will thank you to retain the letters, and any other subsequent +ones to the same address, till I arrive in town to claim them, which +will probably be in a few days. I have in charge a curious and very long +MS. poem, written by Lord Brooke (the _friend_ of Sir _Philip Sidney_), +which I wish to submit to the inspection of Mr. Gifford, with the +following queries:--first, whether it has ever been published, and +secondly (if not), whether it is worth publication? It is from Lord +Oxford's Library, and must have escaped or been overlooked amongst the +MSS. of the Harleian Miscellany. The writing is Lord Brooke's, except a +different hand towards the close. It is very long, and in the six-line +stanza. It is not for me to hazard an opinion upon its merits; but I +would take the Liberty, if not too troublesome, to submit it to Mr. +Gifford's judgment, which, from his excellent edition of Massinger, I +should conceive to be as decisive on the writings of that age as on +those of our own. + +Now for a less agreeable and important topic.--How came Mr. Mac-Somebody +[1], without consulting you or me, to prefix the Address to his volume +of "_dejected addresses?"_ Is not this somewhat larcenous? I think the +ceremony of leave might have been asked, though I have no objection to +the thing itself; and leave the "hundred and eleven" to tire themselves +with "base comparisons." I should think the ingenuous public tolerably +sick of the subject, and, except the parodies, I have not interfered, +nor shall; indeed I did not know that Dr. Busby had published his +apologetical letter and postscript [2], or I should have recalled them. +But, I confess, I looked upon his conduct in a different light before +its appearance. I see some mountebank has taken Alderman Birch's name +[3] to vituperate the Doctor; he had much better have pilfered his +pastry, which I should imagine the more valuable ingredient--at least +for a Puff.--Pray secure me a copy of Woodfall's new 'Junius' [4], + +and believe me, + +Dear Sir, yours very sincerely, + +B. + + + +[Footnote 1: B. McMillan] + + +[Footnote 2: This probably refers to Busby's apologetic letter in the +'Morning Chronicle' for October 23, 1812.] + + +[Footnote 3: Alderman Birch was a pastry-cook in Cornhill.] + + +[Footnote 4: In the Catalogue of Byron's books, sold April 5, 1816, +appear two copies of 'Junius': + +"Junius's Letters, 2 vol. _russia_, 1806." + +"Junius's Letters, by Woodfall, 3 vol., _Large Paper_, 1812."] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +273.--To William Bankes. + + +December 26, [1812]. + + +The multitude of your recommendations has already superseded my humble +endeavours to be of use to you; and, indeed, most of my principal +friends are returned, Leake from Joannina, Canning and Adair from the +city of the Faithful, and at Smyrna no letter is necessary, as the +consuls are always willing to do every thing for personages of +respectability. I have sent you _three_; one to Gibraltar, which, though +of no great necessity, will, perhaps, put you on a more intimate footing +with a very pleasant family there. You will very soon find out that a +man of any consequence has very little occasion for any letters but to +ministers and bankers, and of them we have already plenty, I will be +sworn. + +It is by no means improbable that I shall go in the spring; and if you +will fix any place of rendezvous about August, I will _write_ or _join_ +you.--When in Albania, I wish you would inquire after Dervise Tahiri and +Vascillie (or Bazil), and make my respects to the viziers, both there +and in the Morea. If you mention my name to Suleyman of Thebes, I think +it will not hurt you; if I had my dragoman, or wrote Turkish, I could +have given you letters of _real service;_ but to the English they are +hardly requisite, and the Greeks themselves can be of little advantage. +Liston [1] you know already, and I do not, as he was not then minister. +Mind you visit Ephesus and the Troad, and let me hear from you when you +please. I believe G. Forresti is now at Yanina; but if not, whoever is +there will be too happy to assist you. Be particular about _firmauns;_ +never allow yourself to be bullied, for you are better protected in +Turkey than any where; trust not the Greeks; and take some +knicknackeries for _presents--watches, pistols,_ etc., etc., to the Beys +and Pachas. If you find one Demetrius, at Athens or elsewhere, I can +recommend him as a good dragoman. I hope to join you, however; but you +will find swarms of English now in the Levant. + +Believe me, etc. + + + +[Footnote 1: Robert Liston, afterwards Sir Robert Liston (1742-1836), +succeeded Adair as Ambassador at Constantinople in 1811.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +274.--To John Murray. + + +Eywood, Presteign, January 8, 1813. + + +Dear Sir,--You have been imposed upon by a letter forged in my name to +obtain the picture left in your possession. This I know by the +confession of the culprit [1] and as she is a woman (and of rank), with +whom I have unfortunately been too much connected, you will for the +present say very little about it; but if you have the letter _retain_ +it--write to me the particulars. You will also be more cautious in +future, and not allow anything of mine to pass from your hands without +my _Seal_ as well as Signature. + +I have not been in town, nor have written to you since I left it. So I +presume the forgery was a skilful performance.--I shall endeavour to get +back the picture by fair means, if possible. + +Yours ever, + +BYRON. + +P.S.--Keep the letter if you have it. I did not receive your parcel, and +it is now too late to send it on, as I shall be in town on the 17th. The +_delinquent_ is one of the first families in this kingdom; but, as +Dogberry says, this is "flat burglary." [2] + +Favour me with an answer. I hear I am scolded in the 'Quarterly'; but +you and it are already forgiven. I suppose that made you bashful about +sending it. + + + +[Footnote 1: The culprit was Lady Caroline Lamb, who imitated Byron's +handwriting with remarkable skill.] + + +[Footnote 2: 'Much Ado about Nothing', act iv. sc. 2.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +275.--To Francis Hodgson. + + +February 3, 1813. + + +My Dear Hodgson,--I will join you in any bond for the money you require, +be it that or a larger sum. With regard to security, as Newstead is in a +sort of abeyance between sale and purchase, and my Lancashire property +very unsettled, I do not know how far I can give more than personal +security, but what I can I will. At any rate you can try, and as the sum +is not very considerable, the chances are favourable. I hear nothing of +my own concerns, but expect a letter daily. Let me hear from you where +you are and will be this month. I am a great admirer of the 'R. A.' +['Rejected Addresses'], though I have had so great a share in the cause +of their publication, and I like the 'C. H.' ['Childe Harold'] imitation +one of the best. [1] Lady Oxford has heard me talk much of you as a +relative of the Cokes, etc., and desires me to say she would be happy to +have the pleasure of your acquaintance. You must come and see me at +K[insham]. I am sure you would like _all_ here if you knew them. + +The "Agnus" is furious. You can have no idea of the horrible and absurd +things she has said and done [2] since (really from the best motives) I +withdrew my homage. "Great pleasure" is, certes, my object, but "_why +brief_, Mr. Wild?" [3] I cannot answer for the future, but the past is +pretty secure; and in it I can number the last two months as worthy of +the gods in 'Lucretius'. I cannot review in the "_Monthly;_" in fact I +can just now do nothing, at least with a pen; and I really think the +days of Authorship are over with me altogether. I hear and rejoice in +Eland's and Merivale's intentions [4]. + +Murray has grown great, and has got him new premises in the fashionable +part of the town [5]. + +We live here so shut out of the _monde_ that I have nothing of general +import to communicate, and fill this up with a "happy new year," and +drink to you and Drury. + +Ever yours, dear H., B. + +I have no intention of continuing "_Childe Harold._" There are a few +additions in the "body of the book" of description, which will merely +add to the number of pages in the next edition. I have taken Kinsham +Court. The business of last summer I broke off [6], and now the +amusement of the gentle fair is writing letters literally threatening my +life, and much in the style of "Miss Mathews" in "_Amelia_," or "Lucy" +in the "_Beggar's Opera_." Such is the reward of restoring a woman to +her family, who are treating her with the greatest kindness, and with +whom I am on good terms. I am still in _palatia Circes_, and, being no +Ulysses, cannot tell into what animal I may be converted; as you are +aware of the turn of both parties, your conjectures will be very +correct, I daresay, and, seriously, I am very much _attached_. She has +had her share of the denunciations of the brilliant Phryne, and regards +them as much as I do. I hope you will visit me at K. which will not be +ready before spring, and I am very sure you would like my neighbours if +you knew them. If you come down now to Kington [7], pray come and see me. + + + +[Footnote 1: + + "Byron often talks of the authors of the 'Rejected Addresses', and + always in terms of unqualified praise. He says that the imitations, + unlike all other imitations, are full of genius. 'Parodies,' he said, + 'always give a bad impression of the original, but in the 'Rejected + Addresses' the reverse was the fact;' and he quoted the second and + third stanzas, in imitation of himself, as admirable, and just what he + could have wished to write on a similar subject" + +(Lady Blessington's 'Conversations', p. 134).] + + +[Footnote 2: + + "The Bessboroughs," writes Lady H. Leveson Gower to Lady G. Morpeth, + September 12, 1812 ('Letters of Harriet, Countess Granville', vol. i. + pp. 40, 41), "have been unpacked about a couple of hours. My aunt + looks stout and well, but poor Caroline most terribly the contrary. + She is worn to the bone, as pale as death and her eyes starting out of + her head. She seems indeed in a sad way, alternately in tearing + spirits and in tears. I hate her character, her feelings, and herself + when I am away from her, but she interests me when I am with her, and + to see her poor careworn face is dismal, in spite of reason and + speculation upon her extraordinary conduct. She appears to me in a + state very (little) short of insanity, and my aunt describes it as at + times having been decidedly so."] + + +[Footnote 3: The context and allusion seem to require another word than +"_brief_;" but the sentence is written as printed. In Fielding's 'Life +of Mr. Jonathan Wild' (Bk. III. chap. viii.) and in + + "a dialogue matrimonial, which passed between Jonathan Wild, Esquire, + and Laetitia his wife" ('née' Laetitia Snap), "Laetitia asks, 'But + pray, Mr. Wild, why b--ch? Why did you suffer such a word to escape + you?'"] + + +[Footnote 4: The republication of the 'Anthology'] + + +[Footnote 5: Murray's removal from 32, Fleet Street, to 50, Albemaile +Street.] + + +[Footnote 6: With Lady Caroline Lamb.] + + +[Footnote 7: Near Lower Moor, the residence of Hodgson's relatives, the +Cokes.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +276.--To John Hanson. + + +3d Feb'y, 1813. + + +Dear Sir,--Will you forward the inclosed immediately to Corbet, whose +address I do not exactly remember? It is of consequence, relative to a +foolish woman [1] I never saw, who fancies I want to marry her. + +Yours ever, B. + +P.S.--I wish you would see Corbet and talk to him about it, for she +plagues my soul out with her damned letters. + + + +[Footnote 1: The lady in question seems to have been Lady Falkland (see +'Letters', vol. 1, p. 216, 'note' 1 [Footnote 1 of Letter 117], and the +letter dated March 5, 1813 [Letter 281 in this volume.])] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +277.--To John Murray. + + +February 20, 1813. + + +Dear Sir,--In "_Horace in London_" [1] I perceive some stanzas on Lord +Elgin in which (waving the kind compliment to myself [2]) I heartily +concur. I wish I had the pleasure of Mr. Smith's acquaintance, as I +could communicate the curious anecdote you read in Mr. T.'s letter. If +he would like it, he can have the _substance_ for his second Edition; if +not, I shall add it to _our_ next, though I think we already have enough +of Lord Elgin. + +What I have read of this work seems admirably done. My praise, however, +is not much worth the Author's having; but you may thank him in my name +for _his_. The idea is new--we have excellent imitations of the Satires, +etc. by Pope; but I remember but one imitative Ode in his works, and +_none_ any where else. I can hardly suppose that _they_ have lost any +fame by the fate of the Farce [3]; but even should this be the case, the +present publication will again place them on their pinnacle. + +Yours truly, + +B. + + + +[Footnote 1: 'Horace in London; consisting of Imitations of the First +Two Books of the Odes of Horace', by James and Horace Smith (1813), was +a collection of imitations, the best of which are by James Smith, +republished from Hill's 'Monthly Mirror', where they originally +appeared.] + + +[Footnote 2: In Book 1. ode xv. of 'Horace in London', entitled "The +Parthenon," Minerva thus speaks: + + "All who behold my mutilated pile + Shall brand its ravager with classic rage, + And soon a titled bard from Britain's Isle, + Thy country's praise and suffrage shall engage, + And fire with Athens' wrongs an angry age!" + + +[Footnote 3: Horace Smith's unsuccessful comedy, 'First Impressions; or, +Trade in the West', was performed at Drury Lane. The prologue, spoken by +Powell, beseeches a judgment from the audience: + + "Such as mild Justice might herself dispense, + To _Inexperience and a First Offence_."] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +278.--To Robert Rushton. + + +4, Bennet Street, St. James's, Feb. 24th, 1813. + + +I feel rather surprised to have heard nothing from you or your father in +answer to Fletcher's last letter. I wish to know whether you intend +taking a share in a farm with your brother, or prefer to wait for some +other situation in Lancashire;--the first will be the best, because, at +your time of life, it is highly improper to remain idle. If this +_marriage_ which is spoken of for you is at all advantageous, I can have +no objection; but I should suppose, after being in my service from your +infancy, you will at least let me know the name of your _intended_, and +her expectations. If at all respectable, nothing can be better for your +settlement in life, and a proper provision will be made for you; at all +events let me hear something on the subject, for, as I have some +intention of leaving England in the Summer, I wish to make my +arrangements with regard to yourself before that period. As you and Mr. +Murray have not received any money for some time, if you will draw on +_me_ for _fifty_ pounds (payable at Messrs. Hoare's, Bankers, Fleet +Street), and tell Mr. J[oseph] Murray to draw for the _same sum_ on his +_own_ account, both will be paid by me. + +Etc., etc., + +B. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +279.--To John Hanson. + + +F'y. 27th, 1813. + + +Dear Sir,--I have called several times, and you may suppose am very +anxious to hear something from or of Mr. Claughton. + +It is my determination, on account of a malady to which I am subject, +and for other weighty reasons, to go abroad again almost immediately. To +this you will object; but, as my intention cannot be altered, I have +only to request that you will assist me as far as in your power to make +the necessary arrangements. + +I have every confidence in you, and will leave the fullest powers to act +in my absence. If this man still hesitates, I must sell my part of +Rochdale for what it will bring, even at a loss, and fight him out about +Newstead; without this, I have no funds to go on with, and I do not wish +to incur further debts if possible. + +Pray favour me with a short reply to this, and say when I can see you. +Excuse me to Mrs. H. for my non-appearance last night; I was detained in +the H. of L. till too late to dress for her party. Compliments to all. + +Ever yours, + +BN. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +280.--To John Hanson. + + +March 1st, 1813. + + +Dear Sir,--I am sorry that I could not call today but will tomorrow. +Your objections I anticipated and can only repeat that I cannot act +otherwise; so pray hasten some arrangement--for with, or without, I must +go. + +A person told me yesterday there was one who would give within 10000 of +C.'s price and take the title as it was. C. is a fool or is shuffling. + +Think of what I said about _Rochdale_, for I will sell it for what I can +get, and will not stay three months longer in this country. I again +repeat I will leave all with full powers to you. I commend your +objection which is a proof of an honourable mind--which however I did +not need to convince me of your character. If you have any news send a +few lines. + +Ever yours, + +BN. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +281.--To----Corbet. + + +Mh. 5th, 1813. + + +Dear Sir,--Lady F[alkland?] has returned by Mr. Hanson the only two +letters I ever wrote her, both some time ago, and neither containing the +least allusion which could make any person suppose that I had any +intention further than regards the children of her husband. My servant +returned the packet and letter of yesterday at the moment of receiving +them; by her letter to Mr. H. it should seem they have not been +redelivered. I am sorry for this, but it is not my fault, and they ought +never to have been sent. After her Ladyship's mistakes, so often +repeated, you will not blame me for declining all further interference +in her affairs, and I rely much upon your word in contradicting her +foolish assertions, and most absurd imaginations. She now says that "I +need not leave the country on her account." How the devil she knew that +I was about to leave it I cannot guess; but, however, for the first time +she has _dreamed_ right. But _her_ being the cause is still more +ludicrous than the rest. First, she would have it that I returned here +for love of a woman I _never saw_, and now that I am going, for the same +whom I _have never seen_, and certainly never wished, nor wish, to see! +The maddest _consistency_ I ever heard of. I trust that she has regained +her senses, as she tells Mr. H. she will not scribble any more, which +will also save _you_ from the troublesome correspondence of + +Your obliged and obedient servant, + +BYRON. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +282.--To John Hanson. + + +March 6th, 1813. + + +Dear Sir,--I must be ready in April at whatever risk,--at whatever loss. +You will therefore advertize Rochdale; if you decline this, I will sell +it for what it will bring, even though but a few thousand pounds. + +With regard to Claughton, I shall only say that, if he knew the +ruin,--the misery, he occasions by his delay, he would be sorry for his +conduct, and I only hope that he and I may not meet, or I shall say +something he will not like to hear. I have called often. I shall call +today at three or between three and four; again and again, I can only +beg of you to forward my plans, for here no power on earth shall make me +remain six weeks longer. + +Ever yours, + +B. + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +283.--To Charles Hanson. + + +Mh. 24th, 1813. + + +My Dear Charles,--This is very evasive and dissatisfactory. What is to +be done I cannot tell, but your father had better see his letter and +this of mine. A long litigation neither suits my inclination nor +circumstances; it were better to take back the estate, and raise it to +what it will bear, which must be at least double, to dismantle the house +and sell the materials, and sell Rochdale. Something I must determine on +and that quickly. I want to go abroad immediately; it is utterly +impossible for me to remain here; every thing I have done to extricate +myself has been useless. Your father said "_sell_;" I have sold, and see +what has become of it! If I go to Law with this fellow, after five years +litigation at the present depreciation of money, the _price_ will not be +worth the _property_; besides how much of it will be spent in the +contest! and how am I to live in the interim? Every day land rises and +money falls. I shall tell Mr. Cn. he is a _scoundrel_, and have done +with him, and I only hope he will have spirit enough to resent the +appellation, and defend his own rascally conduct. In the interim of his +delay in his journey, I shall leave town; on Sunday I shall set out for +Herefordshire, from whence, when wanted, I will return. + +Pray tell your father to get the money on Rochdale, or I must sell it +directly. I must be ready by the last week in _May_, and am consequently +pressed for time. + +I go first to Cagliari in Sardinia, and on to the Levant. + +Believe me, dear Charles, + +Yours truly, + +B. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +284.--To Samuel Rogers. [1] + + +March 25, 1813. + + +I enclose you a draft for the usurious interest due to Lord +B[oringdon]'s _protégé_;--I also could wish you would state thus much +for me to his Lordship. Though the transaction speaks plainly in itself +for the borrower's folly and the lender's usury, it never was my +intention to _quash_ the demand, as I _legally_ might, nor to withhold +payment of principal, or, perhaps, even _unlawful_ interest. You know +what my situation has been, and what it is. I have parted with an estate +(which has been in my family for nearly three hundred years, and was +never disgraced by being in possession of a _lawyer_, a _churchman_, or +a _woman_, during that period,) to liquidate this and similar demands; +and the payment of the purchase is still withheld, and may be, perhaps, +for years. If, therefore, I am under the necessity of making those +persons _wait_ for their money, (which, considering the terms, they can +afford to suffer,) it is my misfortune. + +When I arrived at majority in 1809,1 offered my own security on _legal_ +interest, and it was refused. _Now_, I will not accede to this. This man +I may have seen, but I have no recollection of the names of any parties +but the _agents_ and the securities. The moment I can, it is assuredly +my intention to pay my debts. This person's case may be a hard one; but, +under all circumstances, what is mine? I could not foresee that the +purchaser of my estate was to demur in paying for it. + +I am glad it happens to be in my power so far to accommodate my +Israelite, and only wish I could do as much for the rest of the Twelve +Tribes. + +Ever yours, dear R., + +BN. + + + +[Footnote 1: The following was Rogers's reply:-- + + "Friday Morning. + + "My Dearest Byron,--I have just received your note, but I _will not_ + execute your Commission; and, moreover, I will tell Lord Boringdon + that I refused to do it. I know your situation; and I should never + sleep again, if by any interference of mine, for by so harsh a word I + must call it, you should be led by your generosity, your pride, or any + other noble motive, to do more than you are called upon to do. + + "I mentioned the thing to Lord Holland last night, and he entirely + agreed with me, that you are not called upon to do it. The Principal + and the legal interest are all that these extortioners are entitled + to; and, you must forgive me, but I will not do as you require. I + shall keep the draft till I see you. + + "Yours ever and ever, + + "SAML. ROGERS."] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +285.--To the Hon. Augusta Leigh. + + +4, Bennet Street, St. James's, March 26th, 1813. + + +My Dearest Augusta,--I did not answer your letter, because I could not +answer as I wished, but expected that every week would bring me some +tidings that might enable me to reply better than by apologies. But +Claughton has not, will not, and, I think, cannot pay his money, and +though, luckily, it was stipulated that he should never have possession +till the whole was paid, the estate is still on my hands, and your +brother consequently not less embarrassed than ever. This is the truth, +and is all the excuse I can offer for inability, but not unwillingness, +to serve you. + +I am going abroad again in June, but should wish to see you before my +departure. You have perhaps heard that I have been fooling away my time +with different "_regnantes_;" but what better can be expected from me? I +have but one _relative_, and her I never see. I have no connections to +domesticate with, and for marriage I have neither the talent nor the +inclination. I cannot fortune-hunt, nor afford to marry without a +fortune. My parliamentary schemes are not much to my taste--I spoke +twice last Session, [1] and was told it was well enough; but I hate the +thing altogether, and have no intention to "strut another hour" on that +stage. I am thus wasting the best part of life, daily repenting and +never amending. + +On Sunday, I set off for a fortnight for Eywood, near Presteign, in +Herefordshire--with the _Oxfords_. I see you put on a _demure_ look at +the name, which is very becoming and matronly in you; but you won't be +sorry to hear that I am quite out of a more serious scrape with another +singular personage which threatened me last year, and trouble enough I +had to steer clear of it I assure you. I hope all my nieces are well, +and increasing in growth and number; but I wish you were not always +buried in that bleak common near Newmarket. + +I am very well in health, but not happy, nor even comfortable; but I +will not bore you with complaints. I am a fool, and deserve all the ills +I have met, or may meet with, but nevertheless very _sensibly_, dearest +Augusta, + +Your most affectionate brother, BYRON. + + + +[Footnote 1: What is generally supposed to have been Byron's second +speech (see Appendix II. (2)) was made, April 21, 1813, on Lord +Donoughmore's motion for a Committee on Roman Catholic claims. + +The following impressions of his short parliamentary career are recorded +by Byron himself: + + "I have never heard any one who fulfilled my ideal of an orator. + Grattan would have been near it, but for his harlequin delivery. Pitt + I never heard. Fox but once, and then he struck me as a debater, which + to me seems as different from an orator as an improvisatore, or a + versifier, from a poet. Grey is great, but it is not oratory. Canning + is sometimes very like one. Windham I did not admire, though all the + world did; it seemed sad sophistry. Whitbread was the Demosthenes of + bad taste and vulgar vehemence, but strong, and English. Holland is + impressive from sense and sincerity. Lord Lansdowne good, but still a + debater only. Grenville I like vastly, if he would prune his speeches + down to an hour's delivery. Burdett is sweet and silvery as Belial + himself, and I think the greatest favourite in Pandemonium; at least I + always heard the country gentlemen and the ministerial devilry praise + his speeches _up_ stairs, and run down from Bellamy's when he was upon + his legs. I heard Bob Milnes make his _second_ speech; it made no + impression. I like Ward--studied, but keen, and sometimes eloquent. + Peel, my school and form fellow (we sat within two of each other), + strange to say, I have never heard, though I often wished to do so; + but, from what I remember of him at Harrow, he _is_, or _should_ be, + among the best of them. Now I do _not_ admire Mr. Wilberforce's + speaking; it is nothing but a flow of words--'words, words, alone.' + + "I doubt greatly if the English _have_ any eloquence, properly so + called; and am inclined to think that the Irish _had_ a great deal, + and that the French _will_ have, and have had in Mirabeau. Lord + Chatham and Burke are the nearest approaches to orators in England. I + don't know what Erskine may have been at the _bar_, but in the House, + I wish him at the bar once more. Lauderdale is shrill, and Scotch, and + acute. Of Brougham I shall say nothing, as I have a personal feeling + of dislike to the man. + + "But amongst all these, good, bad, and indifferent, I never heard the + speech which was not too long for the auditors, and not very + intelligible, except here and there. The whole thing is a grand + deception, and as tedious and tiresome as maybe to those who must be + often present. I heard Sheridan only once, and that briefly, but I + liked his voice, his manner, and his wit: and he is the only one of + them I ever wished to hear at greater length. + + "The impression of Parliament upon me was, that its members are not + formidable as _speakers_, but very much so as an _audience_; because + in so numerous a body there may be little eloquence, (after all, there + were but _two_ thorough orators in all antiquity, and I suspect still + _fewer_ in modern times,) but there must be a leaven of thought and + good sense sufficient to make them _know_ what is right, though they + can't express it nobly. + + "Horne Tooke and Roscoe both are said to have declared that they left + Parliament with a higher opinion of its aggregate integrity and + abilities than that with which they entered it. The general amount of + both in most Parliaments is probably about the same, as also the + number of _speakers_ and their talent. I except _orators_, of course, + because they are things of ages, and not of septennial or triennial + reunions. Neither House ever struck me with more awe or respect than + the same number of Turks in a divan, or of Methodists in a barn, would + have done. Whatever diffidence or nervousness I felt (and I felt both, + in a great degree) arose from the number rather than the quality of + the assemblage, and the thought rather of the _public without_ than + the persons within,--knowing (as all know) that Cicero himself, and + probably the Messiah, could never have altered the vote of a single + lord of the bedchamber, or bishop. I thought _our_ House dull, but the + other animating enough upon great days. + + "I have heard that when Grattan made his first speech in the English + Commons, it was for some minutes doubtful whether to laugh at or cheer + him. The _débût_ of his predecessor, Flood, had been a complete + failure, under nearly similar circumstances. But when the ministerial + part of our senators had watched Pitt (their thermometer) for the cue, + and saw him nod repeatedly his stately nod of approbation, they took + the hint from their huntsman, and broke out into the most rapturous + cheers. Grattan's speech, indeed, deserved them; it was a + _chef-d'oeuvre_. I did not hear _that_ speech of his (being then at + Harrow), but heard most of his others on the same question--also that + on the war of 1815. I differed from his opinions on the latter + question, but coincided in the general admiration of his eloquence. + + "When I met old Courtenay, the orator, at Rogers's the poet's, in + 1811-12, I was much taken with the portly remains of his fine figure, + and the still acute quickness of his conversation. It was _he_ who + silenced Flood in the English House by a crushing reply to a hasty + _débût_ of the rival of Grattan in Ireland. I asked Courtenay (for I + like to trace motives) if he had not some personal provocation; for + the acrimony of his answer seemed to me, as I read it, to involve it. + Courtenay said 'he had; that, when in Ireland (being an Irishman), at + the bar of the Irish House of Commons, Flood had made a personal and + unfair attack upon _himself_, who, not being a member of that House, + could not defend himself, and that some years afterwards, the + opportunity of retort offering in the English Parliament, he could not + resist it.' He certainly repaid Flood with interest, for Flood never + made any figure, and only a speech or two afterwards, in the English + House of Commons. I must except, however, his speech on Reform in + 1790, which Fox called 'the best he ever heard upon that subject.'"] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +286.--To John Murray. + + +March 29th, 1813. + + +Dear Sir,--Westall has, I believe, agreed to illustrate your book [1], +and I fancy one of the engravings will be from the pretty little girl +[2] you saw the other day, though without her name, and merely as a +model for some sketch connected with the subject. I would also have the +portrait (which you saw to-day) of the friend who is mentioned in the +text at the close of Canto 1st, and in the notes,--which are subjects +sufficient to authorise that addition. + +Believe me, yours truly, B'N. + + + +[Footnote 1: An edition of the first two cantos of 'Childe Harold', to +be illustrated by Richard Westall (1765-1836), who painted Byron's +portrait in 1813-14.] + + +[Footnote 2: Lady Charlotte Harley, daughter of Lord Oxford, to whom, +under the name of Ianthe, the introductory lines to 'Childe Harold' were +afterwards addressed. Lady Charlotte married, in 1820, Brigadier-General +Bacon.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +287.--To John Hanson. + + +Presteigne, April 15th, 1813. + + +Dear Sir,--I wrote to you requesting an answer last week, and again +apprising you of my determination of leaving England early in May, and +proceeding no further with Claughton. + +Now, having arrived, I shall write to that person immediately to give up +the whole business. I am sick of the delays attending it, and can wait +no longer, and I have had too much of _law_ already at Rochdale to place +Newstead in the same predicament. + +I shall only be able to see you for a few days in town, as I shall sail +before the 20th of May. + +Believe me, yours ever, B. + +P.S.--My best compliments to Mrs. H. and the family. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +288.--To John Hanson. + + +Presteigne, April 17th, 1813. + + +Dear Sir,--I shall follow your advice and say nothing to our shuffling +purchaser, but leave him to you, and the fullest powers of _Attorney_, +which I hope you will have ready on my arrival in town early next week. +I wish, if possible, the arrangement with Hoare to be made immediately, +as I must set off forthwith. I mean to remain _incog_. in London for the +short time previous to my embarkation. + +I have not written to Claughton, nor shall, of course, after your +counsel on the subject. I wish you would turn in your mind the +expediency of selling Rochdale. I shall never make any thing of it, as +it is. + +I beg you will provide (as before my last voyage) the fullest powers to +act in my absence, and bring my cursed concerns into some kind of order. +You must at least allow that I have acted according to your advice about +Newstead, and I shall take no step without your being previously +consulted. + +I hope I shall find you and Mrs. H., etc., well in London, and that you +have heard something from this dilatory gentleman. + +Believe me, ever yours truly, + +B. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +289.--To John Murray. + + +April 21, 1813. + + +Dear Sir,--I shall be in town by Sunday next, and will call and have +some conversation on the subject of Westall's proposed designs. I am to +sit to him for a picture at the request of a friend of mine [1]; and as +Sanders's is not a good one, you will probably prefer the other. I wish +you to have Sanders's taken down and sent to my lodgings +immediately--before my arrival. I hear that a certain malicious +publication on Waltzing [2] is attributed to me. This report, I suppose, +you will take care to contradict, as the Author, I am sure, will not +like that I should wear his cap and bells. Mr. Hobhouse's quarto will be +out immediately; pray send to the author for an early copy which I wish +to take abroad with me. + +Dear Sir, I am, yours very truly, B. + +P.S.--I see the 'Examiner' [3] threatens some observations upon you next +week. What can you have done to share the wrath which has heretofore +been principally expended upon the Prince? I presume all your Scribleri +will be drawn up in battle array in defence of the modern Tonson--Mr. +Bucke [4], for instance. Send in my account to Bennet Street, as I wish +to settle it before sailing. + + + +[Footnote 1: This picture, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1815, is +now in the possession of the Baroness Burdett-Coutts.] + + +[Footnote 2: Byron's 'Waltz' was published anonymously in the spring of +1813, not, apparently, by Murray, but by Sherwood, Neely, and Jones, +Paternoster Row.] + + +[Footnote 3: In the 'Examiner' for April, 1813, occurs the paragraph: "A +word or two on Mr. Murray's (the 'splendid bookseller') judgment in the +Fine Arts--next week, 'if room'."] + + +[Footnote 4: Charles Bucke (1781-1846), a voluminous writer of verse, +plays, and miscellaneous subjects, published, in 1813, his 'Philosophy +of Nature; or, the Influence of Scenery on the Mind and Heart'. He +supported himself by his pen, and that indifferently. Byron seems to +suggest that he was a dependent of Murray's. In 1817 he sent to the +Committee of Management at Drury Lane his tragedy, 'The Italians; or, +the Fatal Accusation', and it was accepted. In February, 1819, he +withdrew the play, in consequence of a quarrel with Edmund Kean, and +published it with extracts from the correspondence and a Preface, which +sent it through numerous editions. The play itself was, after being +withdrawn, played at Drury Lane, April 3, 1819. Bucke and his Preface +were answered in 'The Assailant Assailed', and in 'A Defence of Edmund +Kean, Esq'. (both in 1819), and the opinion of the town condemned both +him and his tragedy.] + + + + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +MAY, 1813-DECEMBER, 1813. + +THE 'GIAOUR' AND 'BRIDE OF ABYDOS'. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +290.--To John Murray. + + +May 13, 1813. + + +Dear Sir,--I send a corrected, and, I hope, amended copy of the lines +for the "fragment" already sent this evening. [1] Let the enclosed be +the copy that is sent to the Devil (the printers) and burn the other. + +Yours, etc., B'N. + + + +[Footnote 1: 'The Giaour', which was now in the press, was expanded, +either in the course of printing, or in the successive editions, from +400 lines to 1400. It was published in May, 1813.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +291.--To Thomas Moore. + + +May 19, 1813. + + + Oh you, who in all names can tickle the town, + Anacreon, Tom Little, Tom Moore, or Tom Brown, [1]-- + For hang me if I know of which you may most brag, + Your Quarto two-pounds, or your Twopenny Post Bag; + + * * * * * + + But now to my letter--to _yours_ 'tis an answer-- + To-morrow be with me, as soon as you can, sir, + All ready and dress'd for proceeding to spunge on + (According to compact) the wit in the dungeon [2]-- + Pray Phoebus at length our political malice + May not get us lodgings within the same palace! + I suppose that to-night you're engaged with some codgers, + And for Sotheby's [3] Blues have deserted Sam Rogers; + And I, though with cold I have nearly my death got, + Must put on my breeches, and wait on the Heathcote. + But to-morrow at four, we will both play the _Scurra_, + And you'll be Catullus, the Regent, Mamurra. [4] + + +Dear M.,--having got thus far, I am interrupted by----. 10 o'clock. + +Half-past 11.----is gone. I must dress for Lady Heathcote's.--Addio. + + + +[Footnote 1: Moore's 'Intercepted Letters, or the Twopenny Post-bag. By +Thomas Brown, the Younger', was published in 1813.] + + +[Footnote 2: The "wit in the dungeon" was James Henry Leigh Hunt +(1784-1859), who was educated at Christ's Hospital, and began his +literary life with "a collection of poems, written between the ages of +twelve and sixteen," and published in 1801 as 'Juvenilia'. In 1808 he +and his brother John started a weekly newspaper called the 'Examiner', +which advocated liberal principles with remarkable independence. On +February 24, 1811, Hunt published an article in defence of Peter +Finnerty, convicted for a libel on Castlereagh, and exhorting public +writers to be bold in the cause of individual liberty. The same number +contained an article on the savagery of military floggings, for which he +was prosecuted, defended by Brougham, and acquitted. His acquittal drew +from Shelley a letter of congratulation, addressed to Hunt as "one of +the most fearless enlighteners of the public mind" (Dowden's 'Life of +Shelley', vol. i. p. 113). + +In March, 1812, the 'Morning Post' printed a poem, speaking of the +Prince Regent as the "Mæcenas of the Age," the "Exciter of Desire," the +"Glory of the People," an "Adonis of Loveliness," etc. The 'Examiner' +for March 12, 1812, thus translated this adulation into "the language of +truth:" + + "What person, unacquainted with the true state of the case, would + imagine, in reading these astounding eulogies, that this 'Glory of the + People' was the subject of millions of shrugs and reproaches!... that + this 'Exciter of Desire' (bravo! Messieurs of the 'Post'!), this + 'Adonis in Loveliness,' was a corpulent man of fifty!--in short, this + 'delightful, blissful, wise, pleasureable, honourable, virtuous, + true', and 'immortal' prince was a violator of his word, a libertine + over head and ears in disgrace, a despiser of domestic ties, the + companion of gamblers and demireps, a man who has just closed half a + century without one single claim on the gratitude of his country or + the respect of posterity." + +Crabb Robinson, who met Leigh Hunt, four days later, at Charles Lamb's, +says ('Diary', vol. i. p. 376), + + "Leigh Hunt is an enthusiast, very well intentioned, and, I believe, + prepared for the worst. He said, pleasantly enough, 'No one can accuse + me of not writing a libel. Everything is a libel, as the law is now + declared, and our security lies only in their shame.'" + +For this libel John and Leigh Hunt were convicted in the Court of King's +Bench on December 9, 1812. In the following February they were sentenced +to two years' imprisonment and a fine of £500 a-piece. John was +imprisoned in Coldbath-fields, Leigh in the Surrey County Gaol. They +were released on February 2 or 3, 1815. + +Shelley, on reading the sentence, proposed a subscription for + + "the brave and enlightened man... to whom the public owes a debt as + the champion of their liberties and virtues" + +(Dowden, 'Life of Shelley', vol. i. p. 325). Keats wrote a sonnet to +Hunt on the day he left his prison, beginning: + + "What though for showing truth to flatter'd state, + Kind Hunt was shut in prison." + +A political alliance was thus cemented, which, for the time, was +disastrous to the literary prospects of Shelley and Keats. To Hunt +Shelley dedicated the 'Cenci', and Keats his first volume of 'Poems' +(1817). He is the "gentlest of the wise" in Shelley's 'Adonais'; and, in +a suppressed stanza of the same poem, the poet speaks of Hunt's "sweet +and earnest looks," "soft smiles," and "dark and night-like eyes." The +words inscribed on Shelley's tomb--"_Cor Cordium_"--were Hunt's choice. +In his various papers Hunt zealously championed his friends. In the +'Examiner' for September to October, 1819, he defended Shelley's +personal character; in the same paper for June to July, 1817, he praised +Keats's first volume of 'Poems'; he reviewed "Lamia" in the 'Indicator' +for August 2-9, 1820, and "La Belle Dame sans Merci" in that for May 10, +1820. In his 'Foliage' (1818) are three sonnets addressed to Keats. + +Shelley believed in Hunt to the end. It was mainly through him that Hunt +came to Pisa in June, 1822, to join with Byron in 'The Liberal'. But he +doubted whether the alliance between the "wren and the eagle" could +continue ('Life of Shelley', vol. ii. p. 519). Keats, on the other hand, +lost his faith in Hunt. In a letter to Haydon (May, 1817), speaking of +Hunt, he says, + + "There is no greater Sin after the seven deadly than to flatter + oneself into an idea of being a great Poet." + +Again (March, 1818) he writes, + + "It is a great Pity that People should, by associating themselves with + the finest things, spoil them. Hunt has damned Hampstead, and masks, + and sonnets, and Italian tales." + +He writes still more severely (December, 1818-January, 1819), + + "If I were to follow my own inclinations, I should never meet any one + of that set again, not even Hunt, who is certainly a pleasant fellow + in the main when you are with him; but in reality he is vain, + egotistical, and disgusting in matters of taste and morals. Hunt does + one harm by making fine things petty, and beautiful things hateful. + Through him I am indifferent to Mozart. I care not for white + Busts--and many a glorious thing when associated with him becomes a + nothing." + +Haydon considered that Hunt was the "great unhinger" of Keats's best +dispositions ('Works of Keats', ed. H.B. Forman, vol. iv. p. 359); and +Severn attributes Keats's temporary "mawkishness" to Hunt's society +('ibid'., p. 376). + +Nathaniel Hawthorne ('Our Old Home', p. 229, ed. 1884) says of Hunt, and +means it as high praise, that + + "there was not an English trait in him from head to foot--morally, + intellectually, or physically. Beef, ale or stout, brandy or + port-wine, entered not at all into his composition." + +He was, in fact, a man of weak fibre, who allowed himself to sponge upon +his friends, such as Talfourd, Haydon, and Shelley. Though Dickens +denied ('All the Year Round', Dec. 24, 1859) that "Harold Skimpole" was +intended for Hunt, the picture was recognized as a portrait. On the +other hand, Hunt was a man of kindly and genial disposition. + + "He loves everything," says Crabb Robinson ('Diary', vol. ii. p. 192), + "he catches the sunny side of everything, and, excepting that he has a + few polemical antipathies, finds everything beautiful." + +In his essays, the best of which appeared in the 'Indicator' (1819-21), +he communicates some of his own sense of enjoyment to those of his +readers who are content to take him as he is. His circle is limited; but +in it his observation is minute and suggestive. The Vale of Health is to +him, in a degree proportioned to their respective powers, what the +Temple was to Lamb. His style is neat, pretty, and would be affected if +it were not the man himself. As a literary journalist, a dramatic +critic, and an essayist, he has a place in literature. His poetry is +less successful; his affectations, innate vulgarity, and habit of pawing +his subjects repel even those who are attracted by its sweetness. Yet +his 'Story of Rimini' (1816), which he dedicated to Byron, was admired +in its day. Byron, though he condemned its affected style, thought the +poem a "devilish good one." Moore held the same opinion; and Jeffrey, +writing to him May 28, 1816 ('Memoirs, etc., of Thomas Moon,' vol. ii. +p. 100), says, + + "I certainly shall not be ill-natured to 'Rimini'. It is very sweet + and very lively in many places, and is altogether piquant, as being by + far the best imitation of Chaucer and some of his Italian + contemporaries that modern times have produced." + +No two men could be more unlike than Byron and Hunt, or have less in +common. Yet, with a singular capacity for self-delusion, Hunt told his +wife that the texture of Byron's mind resembled his to a thread +('Correspondence of L. Hunt', vol. i. p. 88). The friendship began in +political sympathy; but two years later (see Byron's letter to Moore, +June 1, 1818) it had, on one side at least, cooled. In June, 1822, Hunt +came to Pisa to launch The Liberal, with the aid of Shelley and Byron. +'The Liberal: Verse and Prose from the South', started in 1822, lived +through four numbers, and died in July, 1823. During that time Byron +expressed to Lady Blessington ('Conversations', p. 77) + + "a very good opinion of the talents and principle of Mr. Hunt, though, + as he said, 'our tastes are so opposite that we are totally unsuited + to each other ... in short, we are more formed to be friends at a + distance, than near.'" + +For the best part of two years Hunt was Byron's guest: he repaid his +hospitality by publishing his 'Lord Byron and Some of his +Contemporaries' (1828). Though Lady Blessington said the book "gave, in +the main, a fair account" of Byron (Crabb Robinson's 'Diary', vol. iii. +p. 13), its publication was a breach of honour. As such it was justly +attacked by Moore in "The 'Living Dog' and the 'Dead Lion'": + + "Next week will be published (as 'Lives' are the rage) + The whole Reminiscences, wondrous and strange, +Of a small puppy-dog, that lived once in the cage + Of the late noble Lion at Exeter 'Change. + +"Though the dog is a dog of the kind they call 'sad,' + 'Tis a puppy that much to good breeding pretends; +And few dogs have such opportunities had + Of knowing how Lions behave--among friends. + +"How that animal eats, how he snores, how he drinks, + Is all noted down by this Boswell so small; +And 'tis plain, from each sentence, the puppy-dog thinks + That the Lion was no such great things after all. + +"Though he roared pretty well--this the puppy allows-- + It was all, he says, borrowed--all second-hand roar; +And he vastly prefers his own little bow-wows + To the loftiest war-note the Lion could pour. + +"'Tis, indeed, as good fun as a 'Cynic' could ask, + To see how this cockney-bred setter of rabbits +Takes gravely the Lord of the Forest to task, + And judges of Lions by puppy-dog habits. + +"Nay, fed as he was (and this makes it a dark case) + With sops every day from the Lion's own pan, +He lifts up his leg at the noble beast's carcass, + And--does all a dog, so diminutive, can. + +"However, the book's a good book, being rich in + Examples and warnings to lions high-bred, +How they suffer small mongrelly curs in their kitchen, + Who'll feed on them living, and foul them when dead. + +"Exeter 'Change'. + +T. PIDCOCK." + +For the reply of Hunt or one of his friends, "The Giant and the Dwarf," +see Appendix VI.] + + +[Footnote 3: William Sotheby (1757-1833), once a cavalry officer, +afterwards a man of letters and of fortune, published his 'Oberon' in +1798, and his 'Georgics' in 1800 (see 'English Bards, etc.', line 818, +and 'note'). The following passage from Byron's 'Detached Thoughts' +(1821) refers to him: + + "Sotheby is a good man; rhymes well (if not wisely), but is a bore. He + seizes you by the button. One night of a rout, at Mrs. Hope's, he had + fastened upon me (something about Agamemnon or Orestes--or some of his + plays), notwithstanding my symptoms of manifest distress, (for I was + in love and had just nicked a minute when neither mothers, nor + husbands, nor rivals, nor gossips, were near my then idol, who was + beautiful as the Statues of the Gallery where we stood at the time). + Sotheby, I say, had seized upon me by the button, and the + heart-strings, and spared neither. W. Spencer, who likes fun, and + don't dislike mischief, saw my case, and, coming up to us both, took + me by the hand and pathetically bade me farewell, 'for,' said he, 'I + see it is all over with you.' Sotheby then went away. 'Sic me servavit + Apollo.'"] + + +[Footnote 4: See Catullus, xxix. 3: + + "Quis hoc potest videre, quis potest pati, + Nisi impudicus et vorax, et aleo, + Mamurram habere, quod Comata Gallia + Habebat uncti et ultima Britannia?" + +See also xli. 4, xliii. 5 (compare Horace, 'Sat'. i. 5. 37), and lvii. +2.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +292.--To John Murray. + + +May 22nd, 1813. + + +Dear Sir,--I return the "_Curiosities of Literature_." [1] Pray is it +fair to ask if the "_Twopenny Postbag_" is to be reviewed in this No.? +because, if not, I should be glad to undertake it, and leave it to +Chance and the Editor for a reception into your pages. + +Yours truly, + +B. + +P.S.--You have not sent me Eustace's 'Travels'. [2] + + + +[Footnote 1: The first volume of Isaac Disraeli's 'Curiosities of +Literature' was published in 1791. The remaining volumes were published +at intervals: vol. ii., 1793; vol. iii., 1817; vols. iv. and v., in +1823; vol. vi., 1834.] + + +[Footnote 2: John Chetwode Eustace ('circ'. 1762-1815) published his +'Tour through Italy' in 1813.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +293.--To John Murray. + + +May 23rd, 1813. + + +Dear Sir,--I question whether ever author before received such a +compliment from his _master_. I am glad you think the thing is tolerably +_vamped_ and will be _vendible_. + +Pray look over the proof again. I am but a careless reviser, and let me +have 12 struck off, and one or two for yourself to serve as MS. for the +thing when published in the body of the volume. If Lady Caroline Lamb +sends for it, do _not_ let her have it, till the copies are all ready, +and then you can send her one. + +Yours truly, + +[Greek: Mpairon]. + +P.S.--H.'s book is out at last; I have my copy, which I have lent +already. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +294.--To John Murray. + + +June 2, 1813. + + +Dear Sir,--I presented a petition to the house yesterday, [1] which gave +rise to some debate, and I wish you to favour me for a few minutes with +the 'Times' and 'Herald' to look on their hostile report. + +You will find, if you like to look at my 'prose', my words nearly +'verbatim' in the 'M. Chronicle'. + +B'N. + + + +[Footnote 1: The petition was from Major Cartwright, and was presented +June 1, 1813. (For Byron's speech, see Appendix II. (3).) Returning from +the House, he called on Moore, and, while the latter was dressing for +dinner, walked up and down the next room, + + "spouting in a sort of mock heroic voice, detached sentences of the + speech he had just been delivering. 'I told them,' he said, 'that it + was a most flagrant violation of the Constitution--that, if such + things were permitted, there was an end of English freedom, and + that--' + + "'But what was this dreadful grievance?' asked Moore. + + "'The grievance?' he repeated, pausing as if to consider, 'oh, + _that_ I forget.'"] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +295.--To Thomas Moore. + + +My Dear Moore,--"When Rogers" [1] must not see the inclosed, which I +send for your perusal. I am ready to fix any day you like for our visit. +Was not Sheridan good upon the whole? The "Poulterer" was the first and +best. [2] + +Ever yours, etc. + + + 1. + + When Thurlow this damn'd nonsense sent, + (I hope I am not violent), + Nor men nor gods knew what he meant. + + + 2. + + And since not ev'n our Rogers' praise + To common sense his thoughts could raise-- + Why _would_ they let him print his lays? + + + 3. + + * * * * * + + 4. + + * * * * * + + 5. + + To me, divine Apollo, grant--O! + Hermilda's first and second canto, + I'm fitting up a new portmanteau; + + + 6. + + And thus to furnish decent lining, + My own and others' bays I'm twining-- + So, gentle Thurlow, throw me thine in. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +296.--To John Hanson. + + +June 3d, 1813. + + +Dear Sir,--When you receive this I shall have left town for a week, and, +as it is perfectly right we should understand each other, I think you +will not be surprised at my persisting in my intention of going abroad. +If the Suit can be carried on in my absence,--_well_; if not, it must be +given up. One word, one letter, to Cn. would put an end to it; but this +I shall not do, at all events without acquainting you before hand; nor +at all, provided I am able to go abroad again. But at all hazards, at +all losses, on this last point I am as determined as I have been for the +last six months, and you have always told me that you would endeavour to +assist me in that intention. Every thing is ordered and ready now. Do +not trifle with me, for I am in very solid serious earnest, and if utter +ruin _were_, or _is_ before me, on the one hand--and wealth at home on +the other,--I have made my choice, and go I will. + +If you wish to write, address a line before Saturday to Salthill Post +Office; Maidenhead, I believe, but am not sure, is the Post town; but I +shall not be in town till Wednesday next. + +Believe me, yours ever, + +BN. + +P.S.--Let all the books go to Mr. Murray's immediately, and let the +plate, linen, etc., which I find _excepted_ by the _contract_, be sold, +particularly a large silver vase--with the _contents_ not removed as +they are curious, and a silver cup (not the skull) be sold also--both +are of value. + +The Pictures also, and every moveable that is mine, and can be converted +into cash; all I want is a few thousand pounds, and then adieu. You +shan't be troubled with me these ten years, if ever. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +297.--To Francis Hodgson. + + +June 6, 1813. + + +MY DEAR HODGSON,--I write to you a few lines on business. Murray has +thought proper at his own risk, and peril, and profit (if there be any) +to publish 'The Giaour'; and it may possibly come under your ordeal in +the 'Monthly' [1] I merely wish to state that in the published copies +there are additions to the amount of ten pages, _text_ and _margin_ +(_chiefly_ the last), which render it a little less unfinished (but more +unintelligible) than before. If, therefore, you review it, let it be +from the published copies and not from the first sketch. I shall not +sail for this month, and shall be in town again next week, when I shall +be happy to hear from you but more glad to see you. You know I have no +time or turn for correspondence(!). But you also know, I hope, that I am +not the less + +Yours ever, + +[Greek: MPAIRON]. + + + +[Footnote 1: 'The Giaour' was reviewed in the 'Monthly Review' for June, +1813 (N.S. vol. lxxi. p. 202). In the Editor's copy is added in MS. at +the end of the article, as indicating the author of the review, the word +"Den."] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +298.--To Francis Hodgson. + + +June 8th, 1813. + + +My dear Hodgson,--In town for a night I find your card. I had written to +you at Cambridge merely to say that Murray has thought it expedient to +publish 'The Giaour' at his own risk (and reimbursement, if he can), and +that, as it will probably be in your department in the 'Monthly', I +wished to state that, in the published copies, there are additions to +the tune of 300 lines or so towards the end, and, if reviewed, it should +_not_ be from the privately printed copy. So much for scribbling. + +I shall manage to see you somewhere before I sail, which will be next +month; till then I am yours here, and afterwards any where and every +where, + +Dear H., _tutto tuo_, + +BN. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +299.--To John Murray. + + +Je. 9, 1813. + + +Dear Sir,--I regret much that I have no profane garment to array you +with for the masquerade. As my motions will be uncertain, you need not +write nor send the proofs till my return. + +Yours truly, + +BN. + +P.S.--My wardrobe is out of town--or I could have dressed you as an +Albanian--or a Turk--or an officer--or a Waggoner. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +300.--To John Murray. + + +June 12, 1813. + + +Dear Sir,--Having occasion to send a servant to London, I will thank you +to inform me whether I left with the other things 3 miniatures in your +care (--if not--I know where to find them), and also to "report +progress" in unpacking the books? The bearer returns this evening. + +How does Hobhouse's work go on, or rather off--for that is the essential +part? In yesterday's paper, immediately under an advertisement on +"Strictures in the Urethra," I see--most appropriately consequent--a +poem with "_strictures_ on Ld B., Mr. Southey and others,"[1] though I +am afraid neither "Mr. S.'s" poetical distemper, nor "mine," nor +"others," is of the suppressive or stranguary kind. You may read me the +prescription of this kill or cure physician. The medicine is compounded +at White and Cochrane's, Fleet Street. As I have nothing else to do, I +may enjoy it like Sir Fretful, or the Archbishop of Grenada, or any +other personage in like predicament. + +Recollect that my lacquey returns in the Evening, and that I set out for +Portsmouth [2] to-morrow. All here are very well, and much pleased with +your politeness and attention during their stay in town. + +Believe me, yours truly, + +B. + +P.S.--Are there anything but books? If so, let those _extras_ remain +untouched for the present. I trust you have not stumbled on any more +"Aphrodites," and have burnt those. I send you both the advertisements, +but don't send me the first treatise--as I have no occasion for +_Caustic_ in that quarter. + + + +[Footnote 1: In the 'Morning Chronicle' (June 10, 1813) appeared +advertisements of the two following books:--'Practical Observations on +the best mode of curing Strictures, etc., with Remarks on Inefficacy, +etc., of Caustic Applications'. By William Wadd. Printed for J. Callow, +Soho. 'Modern Poets; a Dialogue in Verse, containing some Strictures on +the Poetry of Lord Byron, Mr. Southey, and Others'. Printed for White, +Cochrane, and Co., Fleet Street. + +In a note on 'Modern Poets' (p. 7) occurs the following passage: + + "In 'English Bards, and Scotch Reviewers' the same respectable corps + of critics is successively exhibited, in the course of only ten lines, + under the following significant but somewhat incongruous forms, viz. + (1) Northern Wolves, (2) Harpies, (3) Bloodhounds." + +In proof the writer quotes lines 426-437 of the Satire. Then follows a +long review of 'Childe Harold', in which the critic condemns Harold, the +hero, as "an uncouth incumbrance of this flighty Lord;" the want of +"plot ... action and fable, interest, order, end;" and asks: + + "Shall he immortal bays aspire to wear + Who immortality from man would tear, + Repress the sigh which hopes a happier home, + And chase the visions of a life to come?"] + + +[Footnote 2: For Byron's intention to go abroad with Lord and Lady +Oxford, see p. 164, 'note' 3 [Footnote 6 of Letter 256.]] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +301.--To John Murray. + + +[Maidenhead], June 13, 1813. + + +Dear Sir,--Amongst the books from Bennet St. is a small vol. of +abominable poems by the Earl of Haddington which must not be in ye +Catalogue on Sale--also--a vol. of French Epigrams in the same +predicament. + +On the title page of Meletius is an inscription in writing which must be +_erased_ and made illegible. + +I have read the strictures, which are just enough, and not grossly +abusive, in very fair couplets. There is a note against Massinger near +the end, but one cannot quarrel with one's company, at any rate. The +author detects some incongruous figures in a passage of 'E. Bds'., page +23., but which edition I do not know. In the _sole_ copy in your +possession--I mean the _fifth_ edition--you may make these alterations, +that I may profit (though a little too late) by his remarks:--For +"_hellish_ instinct," substitute "_brutal_ instinct;" "_harpies_" alter +to "_felons_;" and for "blood-hounds" write "hell-hounds." These be +"very bitter words, by my troth," and the alterations not much sweeter; +but as I shall not publish the thing, they can do no harm, but are a +satisfaction to me in the way of amendment. The passage is only 12 +lines. + +You do not answer me about H.'s book; I want to write to him, and not to +say anything unpleasing. If you direct to Post Office, Portsmouth, till +_called_ for, I will send and receive your letter. You never told me of +the forthcoming critique on 'Columbus' [1] which is not _too_ fair; and +I do not think justice quite done to the 'Pleasures', which surely +entitles the author to a higher rank than that assigned to him in the +'Quarterly'. But I must not cavil at the decisions of the _invisible +infallibles_; and the article is very well written. The general horror +of "_fragments_" [2] makes me tremulous for "_The Giaour_;" but you +would publish it--I presume, by this time, to your repentance. But as I +consented, whatever be its fate, I won't now quarrel with you, even +though I detect it in my pastry; but I shall not open a pye without +apprehension for some weeks. + +The Books which may be marked G.O. I will carry out. Do you know +Clarke's 'Naufragia' [3]? I am told that he asserts the _first_ volume +of 'Robinson Crusoe' was written by the first Lord Oxford, when in the +Tower, and given by him to Defoe; if true, it is a curious anecdote. +Have you got back Lord Brooke's MS.? and what does Heber say of it? +Write to me at Portsmouth. + +Ever yours, etc., + +Bn. + + + +[Footnote 1: Rogers's _Columbus_ was reviewed by Ward in the _Quarterly_ +for March, 1813. The reviewer detects "evident marks of haste" in the +poem.] + + +[Footnote 2: _The Giaour_, like _Columbus_, was written in fragments.] + + +[Footnote 3: James Stanier Clarke, a Navy Chaplain (1765-1834), +published, in 1805, 'Naufragia, or Historical Memoirs of Shipwrecks'. In +that work he does not himself attribute the _first_ volume of 'Robinson +Crusoe' to Lord Oxford. The following is the passage to which Byron +refers ('Naufragia', vol. i. pp. 12, 13): "But before I conclude this +Section, I wish to make the admirers of this Nautical Romance mindful of +a Report, which prevailed many years ago; that Defoe, after all, was not +the real author of Robinson Crusoe. This assertion is noticed in an +article in the seventh volume of the 'Edinburgh Magazine' [vol. vii. p. +269]. Dr. Towers, in his 'Life' of Defoe in the 'Biographia', is +inclined to pay no attention to it; but was that writer aware of the +following letter, which also appeared in the 'Gentleman's Magazine' for +1788? (vol. lviii. part i. p. 208). At least no notice is taken of it in +his 'Life' of Defoe: + + "'Dublin, February 25. + + "Mr. Urban,--In the course of a late conversation with a nobleman of + the first consequence and information in this kingdom, he assured me, + that Mr. Benjamin Holloway, of Middleton Stony, assured him, some time + ago: that he knew for fact, that the celebrated Romance of 'Robinson + Crusoe' was really written by the Earl of Oxford, when confined in the + Tower of London: that his Lordship gave the manuscript to Daniel + Defoe, who frequently visited him during his confinement: and that + Defoe, having afterwards added the second volume, published the whole + as his own production. This anecdote I would not venture to send to + your valuable magazine, if I did not think my information good, and + imagine it might be acceptable to your numerous readers, + not-withstanding the work has heretofore been generally attributed to + the latter. W. W.' + +"It is impossible for me to enter on a discussion of this literary +subject; though I thought the circumstance ought to be more generally +known. And yet I must observe, that I always discerned a very striking +falling off between the composition of the first and second volumes of +this Romance--they seem to bear evident marks of having been the work of +different writers." + +A volume of memoranda in the handwriting of Warton, the Laureate, +preserved in the British Museum, contains the following: + + "Mem. Jul. 10, 1774. In the year 1759, I was told by the Rev. Mr. + Benjamin Holloway, rector of Middleton Stony, in Oxfordshire, then + about 70 years old, and in the early part of his life domestic + Chaplain to Lord Sunderland, that he had often heard Lord Sunderland + say that Lord Oxford, while a prisoner in the Tower of London, wrote + the first volume of the History of Robinson Crusoe, merely as an + amusement under confinement; and gave it to Daniel De Foe, who + frequently visited Lord Oxford in the Tower, and was one of his + Pamphlet writers. That De Foe, by Lord Oxford's permission, printed it + as his own, and, encouraged by its extraordinary success, added + himself the second volume, the inferiority of which is generally + acknowledged. Mr. Holloway also told me, from Lord Sunderland, that + Lord Oxford dictated some parts of the manuscript to De Foe. Mr. + Holloway was a grave conscientious clergyman, not vain of telling + anecdotes, very learned, particularly a good orientalist, author of + some theological tracts, bred at Eton School, and a Master of Arts at + St. John's College, Cambridge. He lived many years with great respect + in Lord Sunderland's family, and was like to the late Duke of + Marlborough. He died, as I remember, about the year 1761." ] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +302.--To John Murray. + + +June 18, 1813. + + +Dear Sir,--Will you forward the enclosed answer to the kindest letter I +ever received in my life, my sense of which I can neither express to Mr. +Gifford himself nor to any one else? + +Ever yours, + +B'N. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +303.--To W. Gifford. + + +June 18, 1813. + + +My Dear Sir,--I feel greatly at a loss how to write to you at all--still +more to thank you as I ought. If you knew the veneration with which I +have ever regarded you, long before I had the most distant prospect of +becoming your acquaintance, literary or personal, my embarrassment would +not surprise you. + +Any suggestion of yours, even were it conveyed in the less tender shape +of the text of the 'Baviad', or a Monk Mason note in Massinger, [1] +would have been obeyed; I should have endeavoured to improve myself by +your censure: judge then if I shall be less willing to profit by your +kindness. It is not for me to bandy compliments with my elders and my +betters: I receive your approbation with gratitude, and will not return +my brass for your Gold by expressing more fully those sentiments of +admiration, which, however sincere, would, I know, be unwelcome. + +To your advice on Religious topics, I shall equally attend. Perhaps the +best way will be by avoiding them altogether. The already published +objectionable passages have been much commented upon, but certainly have +been rather _strongly_ interpreted. I am no Bigot to Infidelity, and did +not expect that, because I doubted the immortality of Man, I should be +charged with denying the existence of a God. It was the comparative +insignificance of ourselves and _our world_, when placed in competition +with the mighty whole, of which it is an atom, that first led me to +imagine that our pretensions to eternity might be over-rated. + +This, and being early disgusted with a Calvinistic Scotch school, where +I was cudgelled to Church for the first ten years of my life, afflicted +me with this malady; for, after all, it is, I believe, a disease of the +mind as much as other kinds of hypochondria. + +I regret to hear you talk of ill-health. May you long exist! not only to +enjoy your own fame, but outlive that of fifty such ephemeral +adventurers as myself. + +As I do not sail quite so soon as Murray may have led you to expect (not +till July) I trust I have some chance of taking you by the hand before +my departure, and repeating in person how sincerely and affectionately I +am + +Your obliged servant, + +BYRON. + + + +[Footnote 1: See 'Letters', vol. i. p. 198 [Footnote 4 of Letter 192.]] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +304.--To John Murray. + + +June 22, 1813. + + +Dear Sir,--I send you a _corrected_ copy of the lines with several +_important_ alterations,--so many that this had better be sent for proof +rather than subject the other to so many blots. + +You will excuse the eternal trouble I inflict upon you. As you will see, +I have attended to your Criticism, and softened a passage you proscribed +this morning. + +Yours veritably, + +B. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +305.--To Thomas Moore. + + +June 22, 1813. + + +Yesterday I dined in company with Stael, the "Epicene," [1] whose +politics are sadly changed. She is for the Lord of Israel and the Lord +of Liverpool--a vile antithesis of a Methodist and a Tory--talks of +nothing but devotion and the ministry, and, I presume, expects that God +and the government will help her to a pension. + +Murray, the [Greek: anax] of publishers, the Anak of stationers, has a +design upon you in the paper line. He wants you to become the staple and +stipendiary editor of a periodical work. What say you? Will you be +bound, like "Kit Smart, to write for ninety-nine years in the +_Universal Visitor?_" [2] + +Seriously, he talks of hundreds a year, and--though I hate prating of +the beggarly elements--his proposal may be to your honour and profit, +and, I am very sure, will be to our pleasure. + +I don't know what to say about "friendship." I never was in friendship +but once, in my nineteenth year, and then it gave me as much trouble as +love. I am afraid, as Whitbread's sire said to the king, when he wanted +to knight him, that I am "too old;" [3] but nevertheless, no one wishes +you more friends, fame, and felicity, than + +Yours, etc. + + + +[Footnote 1: + + "'And ah! what verse can grace thy stately mien, + Guide of the world, preferment's golden queen, + Neckar's fair daughter, Staël the 'Epicene'! + Bright o'er whose flaming cheek and pumple nose + The bloom of young desire unceasing glows! + Fain would the Muse--but ah! she dares no more, + A mournful voice from lone 'Guyana's' shore, + Sad Quatremer, the bold presumption checks, + Forbid to question thy ambiguous sex.' + + "These lines contain the Secret History of Quatremer's deportation. He + presumed, in the Council of Five Hundred, to arraign Madame de Staël's + conduct, and even to hint a doubt of her sex. He was sent to 'Guyana'. + The transaction naturally brings to one's mind the dialogue between + Falstaff and Hostess Quickly in Shakespeare's 'Henry IV'." + +'Canning's New Morality', lines 293-301 (Edmonds' edition of the 'Poetry +of the Anti-Jacobin', pp. 282, 283). + +Anne Louise Germaine Necker (1766-1817), only child of the Minister +Necker and his wife Suzanne Curchod, Gibbon's early love, married, in +1786, the Swedish Ambassador Baron de Staël Holstein, who died in 1802. +She married, as her second husband, in 1811, M. de Rocca, a young French +officer, who had been severely wounded in Spain, but survived her by a +year (Madame de Récamier, 'Souvenirs', vol. i. p. 272). Her book, 'De +l'Allemagne', seized and destroyed by Napoleon, was brought out in June, +1813, by John Murray. Byron thought her + + "certainly the cleverest, though not the most agreeable woman he had + ever known. 'She declaimed to you instead of conversing with you,' + said he, 'never pausing except to take breath; and if during that + interval a rejoinder was put in, it was evident that she did not + attend to it, as she resumed the thread of her discourse as though it + had not been interrupted'" + +(Lady Blessington's 'Conversations', p. 26). Croker ('Croker Papers', +vol. i. p. 327) describes her as + + "ugly, and not of an intellectual ugliness. Her features were coarse, + and the ordinary expression rather vulgar, she had an ugly mouth, and + one or two irregularly prominent teeth, which perhaps gave her + countenance an habitual gaiety. Her eye was full, dark, and + expressive; and when she declaimed, which was almost whenever she + spoke, she looked eloquent, and one forgot that she was plain." + +Madame de Staël + + "did not affect to conceal her preference for the society of men to + that of her own sex," + +and was entirely above, or below, studying the feminine arts of +pleasing. In 1802 Miss Berry called on her in Paris. + + "Found her in an excessively dirty 'cabinet'--sofa singularly so; + her own dress, a loose spencer with a bare neck" + +('Journal', vol. ii. p. 145). A similar experience is mentioned by Crabb +Robinson ('Diary', 1804). + + "On the 28th of January," he writes, "I first waited on Madame de + Staël. I was shown into her bedroom, for which, not knowing Parisian + customs, I was unprepared. She was sitting, most decorously, 'in' + her bed, and writing. She had her night-cap on, and her face was not + made up for the day. It was by no means a captivating spectacle; but I + had a very cordial reception, and two bright black eyes smiled + benignantly on me." + +Of her political opinions Sir John Bowring ('Autobiographical +Recollections', pp. 375, 376) has left a sketch. + + "Madame de Staël was a perfect aristocrat, and her sympathies were + wholly with the great and prosperous. She saw nothing in England but + the luxury, stupidity, and pride of the Tory aristocracy, and the + intelligence and magnificence of the Whig aristocracy. These latter + talked about truth, and liberty and herself, and she supposed it was + all as it should be. As to the millions, the people, she never + inquired into their situation. She had a horror of the + 'canaille', but anything of 'sangre asul' had a charm for + her. When she was dying she said, 'Let me die in peace; let my last + moments be undisturbed.' Yet she ordered the cards of every visitor to + be brought to her. Among them was one from the Duc de Richelieu. + 'What!' exclaimed she indignantly, 'What! have you sent away the + 'Duke'? Hurry! Fly after him. Bring him back. Tell him that, + though I die for all the world, I live for 'him'.'" + +Napoleon's hatred of her was intense. "Do not allow that jade, Madame de +Staël," he writes to Fouché, December 31, 1806 ('New Letters of Napoleon +I.', p. 35), "to come near Paris." Again, March 15, 1807 ('ibid.', p. +39), "You are not to allow Madame de Staël to come within forty leagues +of Paris. That wicked schemer ought to make up her mind to behave +herself at last." In a third letter, April 19, 1807 ('ibid.', p. 40), he +speaks of her as "paying court, one day to the great--a patriot, a +democrat, the next!... a fright, ... a worthless woman" (Léon Lecestre's +'Lettres inédites de Napoléon I'er', 2nd ed. vol. i. pp. 84, 88, 93).] + + +[Footnote 2: + + "Old Gardner the bookseller employed Rolt and Smart to write a monthly + miscellany called the 'Universal Visitor'. There was a formal written + contract, which Allen the printer saw.... They were bound to write + nothing else; they were to have, I think, a third of the profits of + his sixpenny pamphlet; and the contract was for ninety-nine years" + +(Boswell's 'Life of Dr. Johnson', ed. Birrell, vol. iii. p. 192).] + + +[Footnote 3: + + "But first the Monarch, so polite, + Ask'd Mister Whitbread if he'd be a 'Knight'. + Unwilling in the list to be enroll'd, + Whitbread contemplated the Knights of 'Peg', + Then to his generous Sov'reign made a leg, + And said, 'He was afraid he was 'too old','" etc. + +Peter Pindar's 'Instructions to a Laureat'.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +306.--To the Hon. Augusta Leigh. + + +4, Bennet Street, June 26th, 1813. + + +MY DEAREST AUGUSTA,--Let me know when you arrive, and when, and where, +and how, you would like to see me,--any where in short but at _dinner_. +I have put off going into ye country on purpose to _waylay_ you. + +Ever yours, Byron + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +307.--To the Hon. Augusta Leigh. + + +[June, 1813.] + + +MY DEAREST AUGUSTA,--And if you knew _whom_ I had put off besides my +journey--you would think me grown strangely fraternal. However I won't +overwhelm you with my _own praises_. + +Between one and two be it--I shall, in course, prefer seeing you all to +myself without the incumbrance of third persons, even of _your_ (for I +won't own the relationship) fair cousin of _eleven page_ memory [1], +who, by the bye, makes one of the finest busts I have seen in the +Exhibition, or out of it. Good night! + +Ever yours, BYRON. + +P.S.--Your writing is grown like my Attorney's, and gave me a qualm, +till I found the remedy in your signature. + + + +[Footnote 1: 'Letters', vol. i. p. 54 [end of Footnote 3 of Letter 13.], +Lady Gertrude Howard married, in 1806, William Sloane Stanley, and died +in 1870.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +308.--To the Hon. Augusta Leigh. + + +[Sunday], June 27th, 1813. + + +MY DEAREST AUGUSTA,--If you like to go with me to ye Lady Davy's [1] [ +to-night, I _have_ an invitation for you. + +There you will see the _Stael_, some people whom you know, and _me_ whom +you do _not_ know,--and you can talk to which you please, and I will +watch over you as if you were unmarried and in danger of always being +so. Now do as you like; but if you chuse to array yourself before or +after half past ten, I will call for you. I think our being together +before 3d people will be a new _sensation_ to _both_. + +Ever yours, + +B. + + + +[Footnote 1: Sir Humphry Davy (1778-1829), the son of a wood-carver of +Penzance, was apprenticed to John Borlase, a surgeon at Penzance, in +whose dispensary he became a chemist. He wrote poetry as a young man, +but soon abandoned the pursuit for science. Two poems on Byron by Davy, +one written in 1823, the other in 1824, will be found in Dr. Davy's +'Memoirs of the Life of Sir H. Davy', vol. ii. pp. 168, 169. In October, +1798, he joined Dr. Beddoes at Bristol, where he superintended the +laboratory at his Pneumatic Institution. His 'Researches, Chemical and +Philosophical' (1799), made him famous. At the Royal Institution in +London, founded in 1799, Davy became assistant-lecturer in chemistry, +and director of the chemical laboratory. There his lecture-room was +crowded by some of the most distinguished men and women of the day. +Within the next few years his discoveries in electricity and galvanism, +(1806-7) brought him European celebrity; his lectures on agricultural +chemistry (1810) marked a fresh era in farming, and inaugurated the new +movement of "science with practice." His famous discovery of the Safety +Lamp was made in 1816. He was created a baronet in 1818. A skilful +fisherman, he wrote, when in declining health, 'Salmonia, or Days of +Fly-fishing', published in 1827. Ticknor ('Life', vol. i. p. 57), +speaking of Davy in 1815, says, + + "He is now about thirty-three, but with all the freshness and bloom of + five-and-twenty, and one of the handsomest men I have seen in England. + He has a great deal of vivacity, talks rapidly, though with great + precision, and is so much interested in conversation, that his + excitement amounts to nervous impatience, and keeps him in constant + motion." + +Davy married, in 1812, a rich widow, Jane Aprecce, 'née' Kerr +(1780-1855). The marriage brought him wealth; but it also, it is said, +impaired the simplicity of his character, and made him ambitious of +social distinction. Miss Berry ('Journal', vol. ii. p. 535) supped with +Lady Davy in May, 1813, to meet the Princess of Wales, and notes that +among the other guests was Byron. Lady Davy, who was so dark a brunette +that Sydney Smith said she was as brown as a dry toast, was for many +years a prominent figure in the society of London and Rome. It was of +her that Madame de Staël said that she had "all Corinne's talents +without her faults or extravagances." Ticknor, who called on her in +June, 1815, + + "found her in her parlour, working on a dress, the contents of her + basket strewed about the table, and looking more like home than + anything since I left it. She is small, with black eyes and hair, a + very pleasant face, an uncommonly sweet smile, and, when she speaks, + has much spirit and expression in her countenance. Her conversation is + agreeable, particularly in the choice and variety of her phraseology, + and has more the air of eloquence than I have ever heard before from a + lady." ('Life of George Ticknor', vol. i. P. 57).] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +309.--To John Murray. + + +July 1st, 1813. + + +DEAR SIR,--There is an error in my dedication. [1] The word "_my_" must +be struck out--"my" admiration, etc.; it is a false construction and +disagrees with the signature. I hope this will arrive in time to prevent +a _cancel_ and serve for a proof; recollect it is only the "my" to be +erased throughout. + +There is a critique in the 'Satirist', [2] which I have read,--fairly +written, and, though _vituperative_, very fair in judgment. One part +belongs to you, _viz_., the 4_s_. and 6_d_ charge; it is unconscionable, +but you have no conscience. + +Yours truly, + +B. + + + +[Footnote 1: The dedication was originally printed thus: + + "To Samuel Rogers, Esq., as a slight but most sincere token of my + admiration of his genius."] + + +[Footnote 2: 'The Satirist' for July 1, 1813 (pp. 70-88), reviews the +'Giaour' at length. It condemns it for its fragmentary character and +consequent obscurity, its carelessness and defects of style; but it also +admits that the poem "abounds with proofs of genius:" + + "A word in conclusion. The noble lord appears to have an + aristocratical solicitude to be read only by the opulent. Four + shillings and sixpence for forty-one octavo pages of poetry! and those + pages verily happily answering to Mr. Sheridan's image of a rivulet of + text flowing through a meadow of margin. My good Lord Byron, while you + are revelling in all the sensual and intellectual luxury which the + successful sale of Newstead Abbey has procured for you, you little + think of the privations to which you have subjected us unfortunate + Reviewers, ... in order to enable us to purchase your lordship's + expensive publication."] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +310.--To Thomas Moore. + + +4, Benedictine Street, St. James's, July 8, 1813. + + +I presume by your silence that I have blundered into something noxious +in my reply to your letter, for the which I beg leave to send beforehand +a sweeping apology, which you may apply to any, or all, parts of that +unfortunate epistle. If I err in my conjecture, I expect the like from +you in putting our correspondence so long in quarantine. God he knows +what I have said; but he also knows (if he is not as indifferent to +mortals as the _nonchalant_ deities of Lucretius), that you are the last +person I want to offend. So, if I have,--why the devil don't you say it +at once, and expectorate your spleen? + +Rogers is out of town with Madame de Stael, who hath published an Essay +against Suicide, [1] which, I presume, will make somebody shoot +himself;--as a sermon by Blenkinsop, in _proof_ of Christianity, sent a +hitherto most orthodox acquaintance of mine out of a chapel of ease a +perfect atheist. Have you found or founded a residence yet? and have you +begun or finished a poem? If you won't tell me what _I_ have done, pray +say what you have done, or left undone, yourself. I am still in +equipment for voyaging, and anxious to hear from, or of, you _before_ I +go, which anxiety you should remove more readily, as you think I sha'n't +cogitate about you afterwards. I shall give the lie to that calumny by +fifty foreign letters, particularly from any place where the plague is +rife,--without a drop of vinegar or a whiff of sulphur to save you from +infection. + +The Oxfords have sailed almost a fortnight, and my sister is in town, +which is a great comfort,--for, never having been much together, we are +naturally more attached to each other. I presume the illuminations have +conflagrated to Derby (or wherever you are) by this time. [2] We are +just recovering from tumult and train oil, and transparent fripperies, +and all the noise and nonsense of victory. Drury Lane had a large +_M.W._, which some thought was Marshal Wellington; others, that it might +be translated into Manager Whitbread; while the ladies of the vicinity +of the saloon conceived the last letter to be complimentary to +themselves. I leave this to the commentators to illustrate. If you don't +answer this, I sha'n't say what _you_ deserve, but I think _I_ deserve a +reply. Do you conceive there is no Post-Bag but the Twopenny? [3] +Sunburn me, if you are not too bad. + + + +[Footnote 1: + + "Madame de Stael treats me as the person whom she most delights to + honour; I am generally ordered with her to dinner, as one orders beans + and bacon: she is one of the few persons who surpass expectation; she + has every sort of talent, and would be universally popular, if, in + society, she were to confine herself to her inferior talents-- + pleasantry, anecdote, and literature. I have reviewed her 'Essay on + Suicide' in the last 'Edinburgh Review': it is not one of her best, + and I have accordingly said more of the author and the subject than of + the work." + +Sir J. Mackintosh ('Life', vol. ii. p. 269).] + + +[Footnote 2: One result of the illuminations in honour of the battle of +Vittoria (June 21, 1813), which took place July 7, was a great fire at +Woolwich. Moore was at this time living at Mayfield Cottage near +Ashbourne, in Derbyshire.] + + +[Footnote 3: Moore's 'Intercepted Letters, or the Twopenny Post-bag', +was published, without his name, in 1813.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +311.--To Thomas Moore. + + +July 13, 1813. + + +Your letter set me at ease; for I really thought (as I hear of your +susceptibility) that I had said--I know not what--but something I should +have been very sorry for, had it, or I, offended you;--though I don't +see how a man with a beautiful wife--_his own_ children,--quiet--fame +--competency and friends, (I will vouch for a thousand, which is more +than I will for a unit in my own behalf,) can be offended with any thing. + +Do you know, Moore, I am amazingly inclined--remember I say but +_inclined_--to be seriously enamoured with Lady A[delaide] F[orbes] +[1]--but this----has ruined all my prospects. However, you know her; +is she _clever_, or sensible, or good-tempered? either _would_ do--I +scratch out the _will_. I don't ask as to her beauty--that I see; but my +circumstances are mending, and were not my other prospects blackening, I +would take a wife, and that should be the woman, had I a chance. I do +not yet know her much, but better than I did. + +I want to get away, but find difficulty in compassing a passage in a +ship of war. They had better let me go; if I cannot, patriotism is the +word--"nay, an they'll mouth, I'll rant as well as they." [2] + +Now, what are you doing?--writing, we all hope, for our own sakes. +Remember you must edit my posthumous works, with a Life of the Author, +for which I will send you Confessions, dated "Lazaretto," Smyrna, Malta, +or Palermo--one can die any where. + +There is to be a thing on Tuesday ycleped a national fête [3]. The +Regent and----are to be there, and every body else, who has shillings +enough for what was once a guinea. Vauxhall is the scene--there are six +tickets issued for the modest women, and it is supposed there will be +three to spare. The passports for the lax are beyond my arithmetic. + +P. S.--The Stael last night attacked me most furiously--said that I had +"no right to make love--that I had used----barbarously--that I had no +feeling, and was totally _in_sensible to _la belle passion_, and _had_ +been all my life." I am very glad to hear it, but did not know it +before. Let me hear from you anon. + + + +[Footnote 1: + + "Lady A. F----'was' also very handsome. It is melancholy to talk of + women in the past tense. What a pity, that of all flowers, none fade + so soon as beauty! Poor Lady A. F--has not got married. Do you know, I + once had some thoughts of her as a wife; not that I was in love, as + people call it, but I had argued myself into a belief that I ought to + marry, and, meeting her very often in society, the notion came into my + head, not heart, that she would suit me. Moore, too, told me so much + of her good qualities--all which was, I believe, quite true--that I + felt tempted to propose to her, but did not, whether 'tant mieux' or + 'tant pis', God knows, supposing my proposal accepted." + +(Lady Blessington's 'Conversations', pp. 108, 109). + +Lady Adelaide Forbes, whom Byron in Rome compared to the "Belvedere +Apollo," was the daughter of George, sixth Earl of Granard, and his +wife, Lady Selina Rawdon, daughter of the first Earl of Moira. Born in +1789, she died at Dresden, in 1858, unmarried. Lord Moira was Moore's +patron, and, through this connection and political sympathies, Moore was +acquainted with Lord Granard and his family.] + + +[Footnote 2: Byron possibly quoted the actual words from 'Hamlet' (act +v. sc. 1), referring to Moore's attack on the Regent in 'The Two-penny +Post-bag': + + "Nay, an thou'lt mouth, + I'll rant as well as thou." + +But the letter is destroyed.] + + +[Footnote 3: The 'Morning Chronicle' for July 12 contains the +announcement that "the Prince Regent has projected a 'Grand National +Fête' in honour of the battle of Vittoria. It is to be held at Vauxhall +Gardens." The 'fête' was held on Tuesday, July 20, beginning with a +banquet, at which such toasts were drunk as "The Marquis of Wellington," +"Sir Thomas Graham and the other officers engaged," "The Spanish Armies +and the brave Guerillas." The 'báton' of Marshal Jourdan was "disposed +among the plate, so as to be obvious to all." The proceedings ended with +illuminations and dancing.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +312.--To John Hanson. + + +Sunday, July 18th, 1813. + + +DEAR SIR,--A Report is in general circulation (which has distressed my +friends, and is not very pleasing to me), that the Purchaser of Newstead +is a _young_ man, who has been over-reached, ill-treated, and ruined, by +me in this transaction of the sale, and that I take an unfair advantage +of the _law_ to enforce the contract. This must be contradicted by a +true and open statement of the circumstances attending, and subsequent +to, the sale, and that immediately and publicly. Surely, if anyone is +ill treated it is myself. He bid his own price; he took time before he +bid at all, and now, when I am actually granting him further time as a +favour, I hear from all quarters that I have acted unfairly. Pray do not +delay on this point; see him, and let a proper and true statement be +drawn up of the sale, etc., and inserted in the papers. + +Ever yours, + +B. + +P.S.--Mr. C. himself, if he has either honour or feeling, will be the +first to vindicate me from so unfounded an implication. It is surely not +for his credit to be supposed _ruined_ or _over-reached_. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +313.--To John Murray. + + +July 22nd, 1813. + + +Dear Sir,--I have great pleasure in accepting your invitation to meet +anybody or nobody as you like best. + +Pray what should you suppose the book in the inclosed advertisement to +be? is it anything relating to Buonaparte or Continental Concerns? If +so, it may be worth looking after, particularly if it should turn out to +be your purchase--Lucien's _Epic_. + +Believe me, very truly yours, + +BYRON. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +314.--To Thomas Moore. + + +July 25, 1813. + + +I am not well versed enough in the ways of single woman to make much +matrimonial progress. + +I have been dining like the dragon of Wantley [1] for this last week. My +head aches with the vintage of various cellars, and my brains are +muddled as their dregs. I met your friends the Daltons:--she sang one of +your best songs so well, that, but for the appearance of affectation, I +could have cried; he reminds me of Hunt, but handsomer, and more musical +in soul, perhaps. I wish to God he may conquer his horrible anomalous +complaint. The upper part of her face is beautiful, and she seems much +attached to her husband. He is right, nevertheless, in leaving this +nauseous town. The first winter would infallibly destroy her +complexion,--and the second, very probably, every thing else. + +I must tell you a story. Morris [2] (of indifferent memory) was dining +out the other day, and complaining of the Prince's coldness to his old +wassailers. D'Israeli (a learned Jew) bored him with questions--why +this? and why that? "Why did the Prince act thus?"--"Why, sir, on +account of Lord----, who ought to be ashamed of himself."--"And why +ought Lord----to be ashamed of himself?"--"Because the Prince, sir, +--------"--"And why, sir, did the Prince cut _you_?"--"Because, G--d +d--mme, sir, I stuck to my principles."--"And why did you stick to your +principles?" + +Is not this last question the best that was ever put, when you consider +to whom? It nearly killed Morris. Perhaps you may think it stupid, but, +as Goldsmith said about the peas, [3] it was a very good joke when I +heard it--as I did from an ear-witness--and is only spoilt in my +narration. + +The season has closed with a dandy ball; [4]--but I have dinners with +the Harrowbys, Rogers, and Frere and Mackintosh [5], where I shall drink +your health in a silent bumper, and regret your absence till "too much +canaries" wash away my memory, or render it superfluous by a vision of +you at the opposite side of the table. Canning has disbanded his party +by a speech from his [----]--the true throne of a Tory [6]. + +Conceive his turning them off in a formal harangue, and bidding them +think for themselves. "I have led my ragamuffins where they are well +peppered. There are but three of the 150 left alive," [7] and they are +for the _Townsend_ (_query_, might not Falstaff mean the Bow Street +officer? I dare say Malone's posthumous edition will have it so) for +life. + +Since I wrote last, I have been into the country. I journeyed by +night--no incident, or accident, but an alarm on the part of my valet on +the outside, who, in crossing Epping Forest, actually, I believe, flung +down his purse before a mile-stone, with a glow-worm in the second +figure of number XIX--mistaking it for a footpad and dark lantern. I can +only attribute his fears to a pair of new pistols wherewith I had armed +him; and he thought it necessary to display his vigilance by calling out +to me whenever we passed any thing--no matter whether moving or +stationary. Conceive ten miles, with a tremor every furlong. I have +scribbled you a fearfully long letter. This sheet must be blank, and is +merely a wrapper, to preclude the tabellarians [8] of the post from +peeping. You once complained of my _not_ writing;--I will "heap coals of +fire upon your head" by _not_ complaining of your _not_ reading. +Ever, my dear Moore, your'n (isn't that the Staffordshire termination?), +BYRON. + + + +[Footnote 1: Under the title of "An excellent Ballad of a most dreadful +combat, fought between Moore of Moore-Hall and the Dragon of Wantley," +this ballad forms (in the 12th edition) the Argument of 'The Dragon of +Wantley, a Burlesque Opera', performed at Covent Garden, the libretto of +which is by Sig. Carini, 'i.e.' Henry Carey: + + "Have you not heard of the 'Trojan' Horse; + With Seventy Men in his Belly? + This Dragon was not quite so big, + But very near, I'll tell you; + Devoured he poor Children three, + That could not with him grapple; + And at one sup he eat them up, + As one would eat an Apple. + + "All sorts of Cattle this Dragon did eat, + Some say he eat up Trees, + And that the Forest sure he would + Devour by degrees. + For Houses and Churches were to him Geese and Turkies; + He eat all, and left none behind, + But some Stones, dear Jack, which he could not crack, + Which on the Hills you'll find."] + + +[Footnote 2: Charles Morris (1745-1838) served in the 17th Foot, the +Royal Irish Dragoons, and finally in the Second Life Guards. He was +laureate and punch-maker to the Beef-steak Club, founded in 1735 by John +Rich, patentee of Covent Garden Theatre. The Prince of Wales became a +member of the Club in 1785, and Morris was a frequent guest at Carlton +House. Another member of the Club was the Duke of Norfolk, who gave +Morris the villa at Brockham, near Betchworth, where he lived and died. + +Morris, who was an admirable song-writer and singer, attached himself +politically to the Prince's party, and attacked Pitt in such popular +ballads as "Billy's too young to drive us," and "Billy Pitt and the +Farmer." He was, however, disappointed in his hope of reward from his +political patrons, and vented his spleen in his ode, "The Old Whig Poet +to his Old Buff Waistcoat" + + "Farewell, thou poor rag of the Muse! + In the bag of the clothesman go lie; + A farthing thou'lt fetch from the Jews, + Which the hard-hearted Christians deny," etc. + +Some of his poems deserve the censure of 'The Shade of Pope' (line 225): + + "There reeling Morris and his bestial songs." + +But others, in their ease and vivacity, hold their own with all but the +best of Moore's songs. A collection of them was printed in two volumes +by Bentley, in 1840, under the title of 'Lyra Urbanica'.] + + +[Footnote 3: In Forster's 'Life of Goldsmith' (vol. i. p. 34) it is +related that Goldsmith ran away from Trinity College, Dublin, because he +had been beaten by one of the Fellows. He started for Cork with a +shilling in his pocket, on which he lived for three days. He told +Reynolds that he thought + + "a handful of grey pease, given him by a girl at a wake (after fasting + for twenty-four hours) the most comfortable repast he had ever made." + +Byron may mean that any joke seems good to a man who had not heard one +for a day.] + + +[Footnote 4: + + "I liked the Dandies," says Byron, in his 'Detached Thoughts'; "they + were always very civil to _me_, though in general they disliked + literary people, and persecuted and mystified Madme. de Staël, Lewis, + Horace Twiss, and the like, damnably. They persuaded Madme. de Staël + that Alvanley had a hundred thousand a year, etc., etc., till she + praised him to his _face_ for his _beauty!_ and made a set at him for + Albertine ('Libertine', as Brummell baptized her, though the poor girl + was, and is, as correct as maid or wife can be, and very amiable + withal), and a hundred other fooleries besides. The truth is, that, + though I gave up the business early, I had a tinge of Dandyism in my + minority, and probably retained enough of it to conciliate the great + ones at four and twenty. I had gamed and drunk and taken my degrees in + most dissipations, and, having no pedantry, and not being overbearing, + we ran quietly together. I knew them all more or less, and they made + me a member of Watier's (a superb club at that time), being, I take + it, the only literary man (except 'two' others, both men of the world, + M[oore] and S[pencer]) in it. Our Masquerade was a grand one; so was + the Dandy Ball too--at the Argyle,--but 'that' (the latter) was given + by the four chiefs--B[rummel?], M[idmay?], A[lvanley?], and + P[ierreoint?], if I err not."] + + +[Footnote 5: Sir James Mackintosh (1765-1832), after studying medicine, +was called to the English Bar in 1795. Originally a supporter of the +French Revolution, he answered Burke's 'Reflections' with his 'Vindiciæ +Gallicæ' (1791). He is "Mr. Macfungus" in the 'Anti-Jacobin's' account +of the "Meeting of the Friends of Freedom." But his revolutionary +sympathies rapidly cooled, and he publicly disavowed them in his +'Introductory Discourse on the Study of the Law of Nature and Nations' +(1799). He remained, however, throughout his life, a Whig. His lectures +on "'The Law of Nature and Nations'," delivered at Lincoln's Inn, in +1799, brought him into prominence, both at the Bar and in society. In +1803 he was knighted on accepting the Recordership of Bombay. He +returned to England in 1812, entered Parliament as member for Nairn, +advocated some useful measures, became a Privy Councillor in 1828, and +held office in the Whig Ministry of 1830 as Commissioner of the Board of +Control. In politics, as well as in literature, he disappointed +expectation. His principal works, besides those mentioned above, were +his 'Dissertation on the Progress of Ethical Philosophy' (1830), and his +'History of the Revolution in England in 1688' (1834). + +His great intellectual powers were shown to most advantage in society. +Rogers ('Table-Talk', pp. 197, 198) thought him one of the three acutest +men he had ever known. + + "He had a prodigious memory, and could repeat by heart more of Cicero + than you could easily believe.... I never met a man with a fuller mind + than Mackintosh,--such readiness on all subjects, such a talker." + + "Till subdued by age and illness," wrote Sydney Smith ('Life of + Mackintosh', vol. ii. p. 500), "his conversation was more brilliant + and instructive than that of any human being I ever had the good + fortune to be acquainted with." + +As in political life, so in society, he was too much of the lecturer. +Ticknor ('Life', vol. i. p. 265) thought him "a little too precise, a +little too much made up in his manners and conversation." But on all +sides there is evidence to confirm the testimony of Rogers +('Table-Talk', p. 207) that he was a man "who had not a particle of envy +or jealousy in his nature."] + + +[Footnote 6: George Canning (1770-1827) had been offered the Foreign +Office in 1812 after the assassination of Perceval, on condition that +Castlereagh should lead the House of Commons. He refused the offer. +Elected M.P. for Liverpool in 1812, he had, in July, 1813, disbanded his +followers, and in 1814 left England. He supported Lord Liverpool in +carrying the repressive measures known as the Six Acts (1817-20), and, +on the death of Lord Londonderry, in 1822, entered the Government as +Secretary for Foreign Affairs. It is to the private speech to his +followers, in July, 1813, that Byron refers. + +The 'Morning Chronicle' for July 29, 1813, has the following paragraph: + + "Mr. Canning it seems has (to use a French phrase) 'reformed' his + political corps. He assembled them at the close of the Session, and + with many expressions of regret for the failure of certain + negociations, which might have been favourable to them as a body, + relieved them from their oaths of allegiance, and recommended them to + pursue in future their objects separately. The Right Honourable + gentleman, perhaps, finds it more convenient for himself to act + unencumbered; and both he and one or two others may find their + interest in disbanding the squad; but some of them are turned off + 'without a character'." + +The 'Courier' for July 29, quoting the first part of the statement, +adds, + + "We believe ... that Mr. Canning is not indisposed to join the present + Cabinet, and may wish one or two of his particular friends to come in + with him."] + + +[Footnote 7: + + "I have led my ragamuffins where they are pepper'd: there's but three + of my hundred and fifty left alive; and they are for the town's end, + to beg during life." + +('Henry IV'., Part I. act v. sc. 3). Townshend, the Bow Street officer, +is described by Cronow ('Reminiscences', vol. i. p. 286) as + + "a little fat man with a flaxen wig, Kersey-mere breeches, a blue + straight-cut coat, and a broad-brimmed white hat. To the most daring + courage he added great dexterity and cunning; and was said, 'in + propria persona', to have taken more thieves than all the other Bow + Street officers put together."] + + +[Footnote 8: + + "Epistolam, quam attulerat Phileros tabellarius." + +(Cic., 'Fam'.,9, 15).] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +315.--To Thomas Moore. + + +July 27, 1813. + + +When you next imitate the style of "Tacitus," pray add, _de moribus +Germannorum_;--this last was a piece of barbarous silence, and could +only be taken from the _Woods_, and, as such, I attribute it entirely to +your sylvan sequestration at Mayfield Cottage. You will find, on casting +up accounts, that you are my debtor by several sheets and one epistle. I +shall bring my action;--if you don't discharge, expect to hear from my +attorney. I have forwarded your letter to Ruggiero [1]; but don't make a +postman of me again, for fear I should be tempted to violate your +sanctity of wax or wafer. + +Believe me, ever yours _ indignantly_, BN. + + + +[Footnote 1: _i. e._ Samuel Rogers.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +316.--To Thomas Moore. + + +July 28, 1813. + + +Can't you be satisfied with the pangs of my jealousy of Rogers, without +actually making me the pander of your epistolary intrigue? This is the +second letter you have enclosed to my address, notwithstanding a +miraculous long answer, and a subsequent short one or two of your own. +If you do so again, I can't tell to what pitch my fury may soar. I shall +send you verse or arsenic, as likely as any thing,--four thousand +couplets on sheets beyond the privilege of franking; that privilege, +sir, of which you take an undue advantage over a too susceptible +senator, by forwarding your lucubrations to every one but himself. I +won't frank _from_ you, or _for_ you, or _to_ you--may I be curst if I +do, unless you mend your manners. I disown you--I disclaim you--and by +all the powers of Eulogy, I will write a panegyric upon you--or +dedicate a quarto--if you don't make me ample amends. + +P.S.--I am in training to dine with Sheridan [1] and Rogers this +evening. I have a little spite against R., and will shed his "Clary +wines pottle-deep." [2] This is nearly my ultimate or penultimate +letter; for I am quite equipped, and only wait a passage. Perhaps I may +wait a few weeks for Sligo, but not if I can help it. + + + +[Footnote 1: In his 'Detached Thoughts' Byron has noted the following +impressions of Sheridan: + + "In society I have met Sheridan frequently: he was superb! He had a + sort of liking for me, and never attacked me, at least to my face, as + he did every body else--high names, and wits, and orators, some of + them poets also. I have seen him cut up Whitbread, quiz Madame de + Staël, annihilate Colman, and do little less by some others (whose + names, as friends, I set not down) of good fame and ability. Poor + fellow! he got drunk very thoroughly and very soon. It occasionally + fell to my lot to pilot him home--no sinecure, for he was so tipsy + that I was obliged to put on his cocked hat for him. To be sure, it + tumbled off again, and I was not myself so sober as to be able to pick + it up again. + + "The last time I met him was, I think, at Sir Gilbert Elliot's, where + he was as quick as ever--no, it was not the last time; the last time + was at Douglas Kinnaird's. I have met him in all places and + parties--at Whitehall with the Melbournes, at the Marquis of + Tavistock's, at Robins's the auctioneer's, at Sir Humphry Davy's, at + Sam Rogers's,--in short, in most kinds of company, and always found + him very convivial and delightful. + + "I have seen Sheridan weep two or three times. It may be that he was + maudlin; but this only renders it more impressive, for who would see + + 'From Marlborough's eyes the tears of dotage flow, + And Swift expire a driveller and a show'? + + "Once I saw him cry at Robins's the auctioneer's, after a splendid + dinner, full of great names and high spirits. I had the honour of + sitting next to Sheridan. The occasion of his tears was some + observation or other upon the subject of the sturdiness of the Whigs + in resisting office and keeping to their principles: Sheridan turned + round: 'Sir, it is easy for my Lord G. or Earl G. or Marquis B. or + Lord H. with thousands upon thousands a year, some of it either + 'presently' derived, or 'inherited' in sinecure or acquisitions from + the public money, to boast of their patriotism and keep aloof from + temptation; but they do not know from what temptation those have kept + aloof who had equal pride, at least equal talents, and not unequal + passions, and nevertheless knew not in the course of their lives what + it was to have a shilling of their own.' And in saying this he wept. + + "There was something odd about Sheridan. One day, at dinner, he was + slightly praising that pert pretender and impostor, Lyttelton (the + Parliamentary puppy, still alive, I believe). I took the liberty of + differing from him; he turned round upon me, and said, 'Is that your + real opinion?' I confirmed it. Then said he, 'Fortified by this + concurrence, I beg leave to say that it, in fact, is 'my' opinion + also, and that he is a person whom I do absolutely and utterly + despise, abhor, and detest.' He then launched out into a description + of his despicable qualities, at some length, and with his usual wit, + and evidently in earnest (for he hated Lyttelton). His former + compliment had been drawn out by some preceding one, just as its + reverse was by my hinting that it was unmerited. + + "I have more than once heard him say, 'that he never had a shilling of + his own.' To be sure, he contrived to extract a good many of other + people's. + + "In 1815 I had occasion to visit my lawyer in Chancery Lane; he was + with Sheridan. After mutual greetings, etc., Sheridan retired first. + Before recurring to my own business, I could not help inquiring 'that' + of Sheridan. 'Oh,' replied the attorney, 'the usual thing! to stave + off an action from his wine-merchant, my client.'--'Well,' said I, + 'and what do you mean to do?'--'Nothing at all for the present,' said + he: 'would you have us proceed against old Sherry? what would be the + use of it?' and here he began laughing, and going over Sheridan's good + gifts of conversation. + + "Now, from personal experience, I can vouch that my attorney is by no + means the tenderest of men, or particularly accessible to any kind of + impression out of the statute or record; and yet Sheridan, in half an + hour, had found the way to soften and seduce him in such a manner, + that I almost think he would have thrown his client (an honest man, + with all the laws, and some justice, on his side) out of the window, + had he come in at the moment. + + "Such was Sheridan! he could soften an attorney! There has been + nothing like it since the days of Orpheus. + + "One day I saw him take up his own ''Monody on Garrick'.' He lighted + upon the Dedication to the Dowager Lady Spencer. On seeing it, he flew + into a rage, and exclaimed 'that it must be a forgery, that he had + never dedicated any thing of his to such a damned canting bitch,' + etc., etc.--and so went on for half an hour abusing his own + dedication, or at least the object of it. If all writers were equally + sincere, it would be ludicrous. + + "He told me that, on the night of the grand success of his 'School for + Scandal' he was knocked down and put into the watch-house for making a + row in the street, and being found intoxicated by the watchmen. + Latterly, when found drunk one night in the kennel, and asked his name + by the watchmen, he answered, 'Wilberforce.' + + "When dying he was requested to undergo 'an operation.' He replied + that he had already submitted to two, which were enough for one man's + lifetime. Being asked what they were, he answered, 'having his hair + cut, and sitting for his picture." + + "I have met George Colman occasionally, and thought him extremely + pleasant and convivial. Sheridan's humour, or rather wit, was always + saturnine, and sometimes savage; he never laughed (at least that 'I' + saw, and I watched him), but Colman did. If I had to 'choose' and + could not have both at a time I should say, 'Let me begin the evening + with Sheridan, and finish it with Colman.' Sheridan for dinner, Colman + for supper; Sheridan for claret or port but Colman for every thing, + from the madeira and champagne at dinner the claret with a 'layer' of + 'port' between the glasses up to the punch of the night, and down to + the grog, or gin and water, of daybreak;--all these I have threaded + with both the same. Sheridan was a grenadier company of life guards, + but Colman a whole regiment--of 'light infantry', to be sure, but + still a regiment."] + + +[Footnote 2: + + "Potations pottle deep" + +'Othello', act ii. sc. 3, line 54.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +317.--To John Murray. + + +July 31, 1813. + + +Dear Sir--As I leave town early tomorrow, the proof must be sent +to-night, or many days will be lost. If you have any _reviews_ of the +'Giaour' to send, let me have them now. I am not very well to day. I +thank you for the 'Satirist', which is short but savage on this unlucky +affair, and _personally_ facetious on me which is much more to the +purpose than a tirade upon other peoples' concerns [1]. + +Ever yours, +B. + + + +[Footnote 1: In the 'Satirist' (vol. xiii. pp. 150, 151) is an article +headed "Scandalum Magnatum," with the motto from 'Rejected Addresses': + + With horn-handled knife, + To kill a tender lamb as dead as mutton." + + "A short time back (say the newspapers, and newspapers never say 'the + thing which is not') Lady H. gave a ball and supper. Among the company + were Lord B--n, Lady W--, and Lady C. L--b. Lord B., it would appear, + is a favourite with the latter Lady; on this occasion, however, he + seemed to lavish his attention on another fair object. This preference + so enraged Lady C. L. that in a paroxysm of jealousy she took up a + dessert-knife and stabbed herself. The gay circle was, of course, + immediately plunged in confusion and dismay, which however, was soon + succeeded by levity and scandal. The general cry for medical + assistance was from Lady W--d: Lady W--d!!! And why? Because it was + said that, early after her marriage, Lady W--also took a similar + liberty with her person for a similar cause, and was therefore + considered to have learned from experience the most efficacious remedy + for the complaint. It was also whispered that the Lady's husband had + most to grieve, that the attempt had not fully succeeded. Lady C. L. + is still living. + + "The poet has told us how 'Ladies wish to be who love their Lords;' + but this is the first public demonstration in our times to show us how + Ladies wish to be who love, not their own, but others' Lords. 'Better + be with the dead than thus,' cried the jealous fair; and, casting a + languishing look at Lord B--, who, Heaven knows, is more like Pan than + Apollo, she whipt up as pretty a little dessert-knife as a Lady could + desire to commit suicide with, + + 'And stuck it in her wizzard.' + + "The desperate Lady was carried out of the room, and the affair + endeavoured to be hushed up, etc., etc." ] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +318.--To John Wilson Croker [1]. + + +Bt. Str., August 2, 1813. + + +Dear Sir,--I was honoured with your unexpected and very obliging letter, +when on the point of leaving London, which prevented me from +acknowledging my obligation as quickly as I felt it sincerely. I am +endeavouring all in my power to be ready before Saturday--and even if I +should not succeed, I can only blame my own tardiness, which will not +the less enhance the benefit I have lost. I have only to add my hope of +forgiveness for all my trespasses on your time and patience, and with my +best wishes for your public and private welfare, I have the honour to +be, most truly, Your obliged and most obedient servant, +BYRON. + + + +[Footnote 1: J. W. Croker (1780-1857),--the "Wenham" of Thackeray, the +"Rigby" of Disraeli, and the "Con Crawley" of Lady Morgan's 'Florence +Macarthy', had been made Secretary to the Admiralty in 1809. At his +request Captain Carlton of the 'Boyne', "just then ordered to re-enforce +Sir Edward Pellew" in the Mediterranean, had consented to receive Byron +into his cabin for the voyage,] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +319.--To John Murray. + +If you send more proofs, I shall never finish this infernal +story--"_Ecce signum_"--thirty-three more lines enclosed! to the utter +discomfiture of the printer, and, I fear, not to your advantage. +B. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +320.--To John Murray. + + +Half-past two in the morning, Aug. 10, 1813. + + +Dear Sir,--Pray suspend the _proofs_, for I am _bitten_ again, and have +_quantities_ for other parts of the bravura. Yours ever, +B. + +P. S.--You shall have them in the course of the day. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +321.--To James Wedderburn Webster. + + +August 12, 1813. + + +My Dear Webster,--I am, you know, a detestable correspondent, and write +to no one person whatever; you therefore cannot attribute my silence to +any thing but want of good breeding or good taste, and not to any more +atrocious cause; and as I confess the fault to be entirely +mine--why--you will pardon it. + +I have ordered a copy of the 'Giaour' (which is nearly doubled in +quantity in this edition) to be sent, and I will first scribble my name +in the title page. Many and sincere thanks for your good opinion of +book, and (I hope to add) author. + +Rushton shall attend you whenever you please, though I should like him +to stay a few weeks, and help my other people in forwarding my chattels. +Your taking him is no less a favor to me than him; and I trust he will +behave well. If not, your remedy is very simple; only don't let him be +idle; honest I am sure he is, and I believe good-hearted and quiet. No +pains has been spared, and a good deal of expense incurred in his +education; accounts and mensuration, etc., he ought to know, and I +believe he does. + +I write this near London, but your answer will reach me better in Bennet +Street, etc. (as before). I am going very soon, and if you would do the +same thing--as far as Sicily--I am sure you would not be sorry. My +sister, Mrs. L. goes with me--her spouse is obliged to retrench for a +few years (but _he_ stays at home); so that his _link boy_ prophecy (if +ever he made it) recoils upon himself. + +I am truly glad to hear of Lady Frances's good health. Have you added to +your family? Pray make my best respects acceptable to her Ladyship. + +Nothing will give me more pleasure than to hear from you as soon and as +fully as you please. Ever most truly yours, + +BYRON. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +322.--To Thomas Moore. + + +Bennet Street, August 22, 1813. + + +As our late--I might say, deceased--correspondence had too much of the +town-life leaven in it, we will now, _paulo majora_, prattle a little of +literature in all its branches; and first of the first--criticism. The +Prince is at Brighton, and Jackson, the boxer, gone to Margate, having, +I believe, decoyed Yarmouth to see a milling in that polite +neighbourhood [1]. + +Mad'e. de Stael Holstein has lost one of her young barons [2], who has +been carbonadoed by a vile Teutonic adjutant,--kilt and killed in a +coffee-house at Scrawsenhawsen. Corinne is, of course, what all mothers +must be,--but will, I venture to prophesy, do what few mothers +could--write an Essay upon it. She cannot exist without a grievance--and +somebody to see, or read, how much grief becomes her. I have not seen +her since the event; but merely judge (not very charitably) from prior +observation. + +In a "mail-coach copy" of the _Edinburgh_ [3] I perceive _The Giaour_ is +second article. The numbers are still in the Leith smack--_pray which +way is the wind?_ The said article is so very mild and sentimental, that +it must be written by Jeffrey _in love_ [4];--you know he is gone to +America to marry some fair one, of whom he has been, for several +_quarters, éperdument amoureux_. Seriously--as Winifred Jenkins [5] +says of Lismahago--Mr. Jeffrey (or his deputy) "has done the handsome +thing by me," and I say _nothing_. But this I will say, if you and I had +knocked one another on the head in this quarrel, how he would have +laughed, and what a mighty bad figure we should have cut in our +posthumous works. By the by, I was call'd _in_ the other day to mediate +between two gentlemen bent upon carnage, and--after a long struggle +between the natural desire of destroying one's fellow-creatures, and the +dislike of seeing men play the fool for nothing,--I got one to make an +apology, and the other to take it, and left them to live happy ever +after [6]. + +One was a peer, the other a friend untitled, and both fond of high +play;--and one, I can swear for, though very mild, "not fearful," and so +dead a shot, that, though the other is the thinnest of men, he would +have split him like a cane. They both conducted themselves very well, +and I put them out of _pain_ as soon as I could. + +There is an American _Life_ of G. F. Cooke [7], _Scurra_ deceased, +lately published. Such a book!--I believe, since _Drunken Barnaby's +Journal_ [8] nothing like it has drenched the press. All green-room and +tap-room--drams and the drama--brandy, whisky-punch, and, _latterly_, +toddy, overflow every page. Two things are rather marvellous,--first, +that a man should live so long drunk, and, next, that he should have +found a sober biographer. There are some very laughable things in it, +nevertheless;--but the pints he swallowed, and the parts he performed, +are too regularly registered. + +All this time you wonder I am not gone; so do I; but the accounts of the +plague are very perplexing--not so much for the thing itself as the +quarantine established in all ports, and from all places, even from +England. It is true, the forty or sixty days would, in all probability, +be as foolishly spent on shore as in the ship; but one likes to have +one's choice, nevertheless. Town is awfully empty; but not the worse for +that. I am really puzzled with my perfect ignorance of what I mean to +do;--not stay, if I can help it, but where to go? Sligo is for the +North;--a pleasant place, Petersburgh, in September, with one's ears and +nose in a muff, or else tumbling into one's neckcloth or +pocket-handkerchief! If the winter treated Buonaparte with so little +ceremony, what would it inflict upon your solitary traveller?--Give me a +_sun_, I care not how hot, and sherbet, I care not how cool, and _my_ +Heaven is as easily made as your Persian's [9]. + +_The Giaour_ is now a thousand and odd lines. "Lord Fanny spins a +thousand such a day," [10] eh, Moore?--thou wilt needs be a wag, but I +forgive it. Yours ever, + +BYRON. + +P. S.--I perceive I have written a flippant and rather cold-hearted +letter! let it go, however. I have said nothing, either, of the +brilliant sex; but the fact is, I am at this moment in a far more +serious, and entirely new, scrape [11] than any of the last twelve +months,--and that is saying a good deal. It is unlucky we can neither +live with nor without these women. + +I am now thinking of regretting that, just as I have left Newstead, you +reside near it. Did you ever see it? _do_--but don't tell me that you +like it. If I had known of such intellectual neighbourhood, I don't +think I should have quitted it. You could have come over so often, as a +bachelor,--for it was a thorough bachelor's mansion--plenty of wine and +such sordid sensualities--with books enough, room enough, and an air of +antiquity about all (except the lasses) that would have suited you, when +pensive, and served you to laugh at when in glee. I had built myself a +bath and a _vault_--and now I sha'n't even be buried in it. It is odd +that we can't even be certain of a _grave_, at least a particular one. I +remember, when about fifteen, reading your poems there, which I can +repeat almost now,--and asking all kinds of questions about the author, +when I heard that he was not dead according to the preface; wondering if +I should ever see him--and though, at that time, without the smallest +poetical propensity myself, very much taken, as you may imagine, with +that volume. Adieu--I commit you to the care of the gods--Hindoo, +Scandinavian, and Hellenic! + +P.S. 2d.--There is an excellent review of Grimm's _Correspondence_ and +Madame de Stael in this No. of the _E[dinburgh] R[eview]_ [12]. Jeffrey, +himself, was my critic last year; but this is, I believe, by another +hand. I hope you are going on with your _grand coup_--pray do--or that +damned Lucien Buonaparte will beat us all. I have seen much of his poem +in MS., and he really surpasses every thing beneath Tasso. Hodgson is +translating him _against_ another bard. You and (I believe Rogers,) +Scott, Gifford, and myself, are to be referred to as judges between the +twain,--that is, if you accept the office. Conceive our different +opinions! I think we, most of us (I am talking very impudently, you will +think--_us_, indeed!) have a way of our own,--at least, you and Scott +certainly have. + + + +[Footnote 1: The fight, in which Harry Harmer, "the Coppersmith" +(1784-1834), beat Jack Ford, took place at St. Nicholas, near Margate, +August 23, 1813. + +Francis Charles Seymour Conway, Earl of Yarmouth (1777-1842), succeeded +his father as second Marquis of Hertford in 1822. The colossal +libertinism and patrician splendour of his life inspired Disraeli to +paint him as "Monmouth" in 'Coningsby', and Thackeray as "Steyne" in +'Vanity Fair'. He married, in 1798, Maria Fagniani, claimed as a +daughter by George Selwyn and by "Old Q.," and enriched by both. +Yarmouth, as an intimate friend of the Regent, and the son of the +Prince's female favourite, was the butt of Moore and the Whig satirists. +Byron gibes at Yarmouth's red whiskers, which helped to gain him the +name of "Red Herrings" in the 'Waltz', line 142, 'note' 1. Yarmouth, +like Byron, patronized the fancy, and, like him also, was a frequenter +of Manton's shooting-gallery in Davies Street; but there is no record of +their being acquainted, though the house, which Byron occupied (13, +Piccadilly Terrace) during his brief married life, was in the occupation +of Lord Yarmouth before Byron took it from the Duchess of Devonshire.] + + +[Footnote 2: Albert de Staël + + "led an irregular life, and met a deplorable death at Doberan, a small + city of the duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, on the coast of the Baltic + Sea, a favourite resort in summer for bathing, gambling, etc. Some + officers of the état-major of Bernadotte had gone to try their luck in + this place of play and pleasure. They quarrelled over some louis, and + a duel immediately ensued. I well remember that the Grand-Duke Paul of + Mecklenburg-Schwerin told me he was there at the time, and, while + walking with his tutors in the park, suddenly heard the clinking of + swords in a neighbouring thicket. They ran to the place, and reached + it just in time to see the head of Albert fall, cleft by one of those + long and formidable sabres which were carried by the Prussian cavalry." + +The above passage is quoted from the unpublished 'Souvenirs' of M. +Pictet de Sergy, given by A. Stevens in his 'Life of Madame de Staël', +vol. ii. pp. 204, 205.] + + +[Footnote 3: Only special copies of books published in Edinburgh came to +London by coach: the bulk was forwarded in Leith smacks. + +In the 'Edinburgh Review' for July, 1813, the 'Giaour' was reviewed as a +poem "full of spirit, character, and originality," and producing an +effect at once "powerful and pathetic." But the reviewer considers that +"energy of character and intensity of emotion... presented in +combination with worthlessness and guilt," are "most powerful corrupters +and perverters of our moral nature," and he deplores Byron's exclusive +devotion to gloomy and revolting subjects.] + + +[Footnote 4: Francis Jeffrey (1773-1850) succeeded Sidney Smith as +editor of the 'Edinburgh Review' (founded 1802), and held the editorship +till 1829. The first number of the 'Review', says Francis Horner, +brought to light "the genius of that little man." During the first six +years of its existence, he wrote upwards of seventy articles. At the +same time, he was a successful lawyer. Called to the Scottish Bar in +1794, he became successively Dean of the Faculty of Advocates (1829), +Lord Advocate (1830), and a Judge of the Court of Sessions (1834) with +the title of Lord Jeffrey. He married, as his second wife, at New York, +in October, 1813, Charlotte Wilkes, a grandniece of John Wilkes. + +Jeffrey is described at considerable length by Ticknor, in a letter, +dated February 8, 1814 ('Life of G. Ticknor', vol. i. pp. 43-47): + + "You are to imagine, then, before you a short, stout, little + gentleman, about five and a half feet high, with a very red face, + black hair, and black eyes. You are to suppose him to possess a very + gay and animated countenance, and you are to see in him all the + restlessness of a will-o'-wisp ... He enters a room with a countenance + so satisfied, and a step so light and almost fantastic, that all your + previous impressions of the dignity and severity of the 'Edinburgh + Review' are immediately put to flight ... It is not possible, however, + to be long in his presence without understanding something of his real + character, for the same promptness and assurance which mark his + entrance into a room carry him at once into conversation. The moment a + topic is suggested--no matter what or by whom--he comes forth, and the + first thing you observe is his singular fluency," etc., etc. + +By the side of this description may be set that given of Jeffrey by +Francis Horner ('Life of Jeffrey', 2nd edition, vol. i. p. 212): + + "His manner is not at first pleasing; what is worse, it is of that + cast which almost irresistibly impresses upon strangers the idea of + levity and superficial talents. Yet there is not any man whose real + character is so much the reverse." + +The secret of his success, both as editor and critic, is that he made +the 'Review' the expression of the Whig character, both in its +excellences and its limitations. A man of clear, discriminating mind, of +cool and placid judgment, he refused to accept the existing state of +things, was persuaded that it might be safely improved, saw the +practical steps required, and had the courage of his convictions. He was +suspicious of large principles, somewhat callous to enthusiasm or +sentiment, intolerant of whatever was incapable of precise expression. +His intellectual strength lay not in the possession of one great gift, +but in the simultaneous exercise of several well-adjusted talents. His +literary taste was correct; but it consisted rather in recognizing +compliance with accepted rules of proved utility than in the readiness +to appreciate novelties of thought and treatment. Hence his criticism, +though useful for his time, has not endured beyond his day. It may be +doubted whether more could be expected from a man who was eminently +successful in addressing a jury. "He might not know his subject, but he +knew his readers" (Bagehot's 'Literary Studies', vol. i. p. 30). + +Byron, believing him to have been the author of the famous article on +'Hours of Idleness', attacked him bitterly in 'English Bards, and Scotch +Reviewers'; (lines 460-528). He afterwards recognized his error. 'Don +Juan' (Canto X. stanza xvi.) expresses his mature opinion of a critic +who, whatever may have been his faults, was as absolutely honest as +political prejudice would permit: + + "And all our little feuds, at least all 'mine', + Dear Jeffrey, once my most redoubted foe + (As far as rhyme and criticism combine + To make such puppets of us things below), + Are over; Here's a health to 'Auld Lang Syne!' + I do not know you, and may never know + Your face--but you have acted, on the whole, + Most nobly; and I own it from my soul." + +Jeffrey reviewed 'Childe Harold' in the 'Edinburgh Review', No. 38, art. +10; the 'Giaour', No. 42, art. 2; the 'Corsair' and 'Bride of Abydos', +No. 45, art. 9; Byron's 'Poetry', No. 54, art. I; 'Manfred', No. 56, +art. 7; 'Beppo', No. 58, art. 2; 'Marino Faliero', No. 70, art. I; +Byron's 'Tragedies', No. 72, art. 5.] + + +[Footnote 5: Winifred Jenkins is the maid to Miss Tabitha Bramble, who +marries Captain Lismahago, in Smollett's 'Humphrey Clinker'.] + + +[Footnote 6: Lord Foley and Scrope Davies.] + + +[Footnote 7: G. F. Cooke (1755-1812), from 1794 to 1800 was the hero of +the Dublin stage, with the exception of an interval, during which he +served in the army. On October 31, 1800, he appeared at Covent Garden as +"Richard III.," and afterwards played such parts in tragedy as "Iago" +and "Shylock" with great success. In comedy he was also a favourite, +especially as "Kitely" in 'Every Man in his Humour', and "Sir Pertinax +MacSycophant" in 'The Man of the World'. His last appearance on the +London stage was as "Falstaff," June 5, 1810. In that year he sailed for +New York, and, September 26, 1812, died there from his "incorrigible +habits of drinking." + +Byron uses the word 'scurra', which generally means a "parasite," in its +other sense of a "buffoon." 'Memoirs of George Frederic Cooke, late of +the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden', by W. Dunlap, in 2 vols., was +published in 1813] + + +[Footnote 8: The original edition of 'Drunken Barnaby's Journal', a +small square volume, without date, was probably printed about 1650. The +author was supposed to be Barnaby Harrington of Queen's College, Oxford. +But Joseph Haslewood, whose edition (1818) is the best, attributed it to +Richard Brathwait (circ. 1588-1673). The title of the second edition +(1716) runs as follows: 'Drunken Barnaby's Four Journeys to the North of +England. In Latin and English Verse. Wittily and merrily (tho' near one +hundred years ago) composed; found among some old musty books, that had +a long time lain by in a corner; and now at last made publick. To which +is added, Bessy Bell'. + +"Drunken Barnaby" was also the burden of an old ballad quoted by +Haslewood: + + "Barnaby, Barnaby, thou'st been drinking, + I can tell by thy nose, and thy eyes winking; + Drunk at Richmond, drunk at Dover, + Drunk at Newcastle, drunk all over. + Hey, Barnaby! tak't for a warning, + Be no more drunk, nor dry in a morning!"] + + +[Footnote 9: + + "A Persian's Heav'n is easily made-- + 'Tis but black eyes and lemonade."] + + +[Footnote 10: Pope's 'Imitations of Horace', Satire I. line 6.] + + +[Footnote 11: With Lady Frances Wedderburn Webster.] + + +[Footnote 12: The review of Madame de Staël's 'Germany' was by +Mackintosh.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +323.--To John Murray. + + +August 26, 1813. + + +Dear Sir,--I have looked over and corrected one proof, but not so +carefully (God knows if you can read it through, but I can't) as to +preclude your eye from discovering some _o_mission of mine or +_com_mission of y'e Printer. If you have patience, look it over. Do you +know any body who can _stop_--I mean _point_-commas, and so forth? for I +am, I hear, a sad hand at your punctuation. I have, but with some +difficulty, _not_ added any more to this snake of a poem, which has been +lengthening its rattles every month. It is now fearfully long, being +more than a canto and a half of _C. H_., which contains but 882 lines +per book, with all late additions inclusive. + +The last lines Hodgson likes--it is not often he does--and when he +don't, he tells me with great energy, and I fret and alter. I have +thrown them in to soften the ferocity of our Infidel, and, for a dying +man, have given him a good deal to say for himself. + +Do you think you shall get hold of the _female_ MS. you spoke of to day? +if so, you will let me have a glimpse; but don't tell our _master_ (not +W's), or we shall be buffeted. + +I was quite sorry to hear you say you stayed in town on my account, and +I hope sincerely you did not mean so superfluous a piece of politeness. + +Our _six_ critiques!--they would have made half a _Quarterly_ by +themselves; but this is the age of criticism. + +Ever yours, + +B. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +324.--To Thomas Moore. + + +August 28, 1813. + + +Ay, my dear Moore, "there _was_ a time"--I have heard of your tricks, +when "you was campaigning at the King of Bohemy." [1] + +I am much mistaken if, some fine London spring, about the year 1815, +that time does not come again. After all, we must end in marriage; and I +can conceive nothing more delightful than such a state in the country, +reading the county newspaper, etc., and kissing one's wife's maid. +Seriously, I would incorporate with any woman of decent demeanour +to-morrow--that is, I would a month ago, but, at present,---- + +Why don't you "parody that Ode?"--Do you think [2] I should be _tetchy?_ +or have you done it, and won't tell me?--You are quite right about +Giamschid, and I have reduced it to a dissyllable within this half hour +[3]. + +I am glad to hear you talk of Richardson [4], because it tells me what +you won't--that you are going to beat Lucien. At least tell me how far +you have proceeded. Do you think me less interested about your works, or +less sincere than our friend Ruggiero? I am not--and never was. In that +thing of mine, the _English Bards_, at the time when I was angry with +all the world, I never "disparaged your parts," although I did not know +you personally;--and have always regretted that you don't give us an +_entire_ work, and not sprinkle yourself in detached pieces--beautiful, +I allow, and quite _alone_ in our language, but still giving us a right +to expect a _Shah Nameh_ [5] (is that the name?) as well as gazelles. +Stick to the East;--the oracle, Staël, told me it was the only poetical +policy. The North, South, and West, have all been exhausted; but from +the East, we have nothing but Southey's unsaleables,--and these he has +contrived to spoil, by adopting only their most outrageous fictions. His +personages don't interest us, and yours will. You will have no +competitor; and, if you had, you ought to be glad of it. The little I +have done in that way is merely a "voice in the wilderness" for you; and +if it has had any success, that also will prove that the public are +orientalising, and pave the path for you. + +I have been thinking of a story, grafted on the amours of a Peri and a +mortal--something like, only more _philanthropical_ than, Cazotte's +_Diable Amoureux_ [6]. + +It would require a good deal of poesy, and tenderness is not my forte. +For that, and other reasons, I have given up the idea, and merely +suggest it to you, because, in intervals of your greater work, I think +it a subject you might make much of [7]. + +If you want any more books, there is "Castellan's _Moeurs des +Ottomans_," the best compendium of the kind I ever met with, in six +small tomes [8]. + +I am really taking a liberty by talking in this style to my "elders and +my betters;"--pardon it, and don't _Rochefoucault_ [9] my motives. + + + +[Footnote 1: Jerry Sneak, in Foote's 'Mayor of Garratt' (act ii.), says +to Major Sturgeon, "I heard of your tricks at the King of Bohemy."] + + +[Footnote 2: + + "The Ode of Horace-- + + 'Natis in usum lætitiæ,' etc.; + + some passages of which I told him might be parodied, in allusion to + some of his late adventures: + + 'Quanta laboras in Charybdi! + Digne puer meliore flammâ!'" + +(Moore.)] + + +[Footnote 3: + + "In his first edition of 'The Giaour' he had used this word as a + trisyllable--'Bright as the gem of Giamschid'--but on my remarking to + him, upon the authority of Richardson's Persian Dictionary, that this + was incorrect, he altered it to 'Bright as the ruby of Giamschid.' On + seeing this, however, I wrote to him, 'that, as the comparison of his + heroine's eye to a "ruby" might unluckily call up the idea of its + being bloodshot, he had better change the line to "Bright as the jewel + of Giamschid;"' which he accordingly did in the following edition" + (Moore). + +In the 'Sháh Námeh', Giamschid is the fourth sovereign of the ancient +Persians, and ruled seven hundred years. His jewel was a green +chrysolite, the reflection of which gives to the sky its blue-green +colour. Byron probably changed to "ruby" on the authority of 'Vathek' +(p. 58, ed. 1856), where Beckford writes, + + "Then all the riches this place contains, as well as the carbuncle of + Giamschid, shall be hers."] + + +[Footnote 4: Moore's reference (see 'note' 1) to John Richardson's +'Dictionary of Persian, Arabic, and English' (1777), suggests to Byron +that Moore was at work on an Oriental poem, probably 'Lalla Rookh', +which would surpass the 'Charlemagne' of Lucien Buonaparte.] + + +[Footnote 5: The 'Sháh Námeh' is a rhymed history of Persia, in which +occurs the famous episode of Sohrab and Rustem. It was written in thirty +years by Abul Kásim Firdausí, the last name being given to him by Sultan +Mahmúd because he had shed over the court at Ghizni the delights of +"Paradise." Firdausí is said to have lived about 950 to 1030. (See The +'Sháh Námeh', translated and abridged by James Atkinson.)] + + +[Footnote 6: Jacques Cazotte (1720-1792) wrote 'La Patte du Chat' +(1741); 'Mille et une Fadaises' (1742); 'Observations sur la lettre de +Rousseau au sujet de la Musique Française' (1754); and other works. 'Le +Diable Amoureux' appeared in 1772. Cazotte escaped the September +Massacres at the Abbaye in 1792, through the heroism of his daughter, +but was executed on the twenty-fifth of the same month.] + + +[Footnote 7: + + "I had already, singularly enough, anticipated this suggestion, by + making the daughter of a Peri the heroine of one of my stories, and + detailing the love adventures of her aërial parent in an episode. In + acquainting Lord Byron with this circumstance, in my answer to the + above letter, I added, 'All I ask of your friendship is--not that you + will abstain from Peris on my account, for that is too much to ask of + human (or, at least, author's) nature--but that, whenever you mean to + pay your addresses to any of these aërial ladies, you will, at once, + tell me so, frankly and instantly, and let me, at least, have my + choice whether I shall be desperate enough to go on, with such a + rival, or at once surrender the whole race into your hands, and take, + for the future, to Antediluvians with Mr. Montgomery'" + +(Moore).] + + +[Footnote 8: Brunet, 's.v.' "Breton de la Martinière," gives the title +of the work: 'Moeurs, usages costumes des Othomans, et abrégé de leur +histoire'. Par A.L. Castellan, Paris, 1812.] + + +[Footnote 9: Maxime LXXXV.: + + "Nous nous persuadons souvent d'aimer les gens plus puissans que nous, + et néanmoins c'est l'interêt seul qui produit notre amitié; nous ne + nous donnons pas à eux pour le bien que nous leur voulons faire, mais + pour celui que nous en voulons recevoir."] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +325.--To Thomas Moore. + + +August--September, I mean--1, 1813. + + +I send you, begging your acceptance, Castellan, and three vols. on +Turkish literature [1], not yet looked into. The _last_ I will thank you +to read, extract what you want, and return in a week, as they are lent +to me by that brightest of Northern constellations, Mackintosh +[2],--amongst many other kind things into which India has warmed him; +for I am sure your _home_ Scotsman is of a less genial description. + +Your Peri, my dear M., is sacred and inviolable; I have no idea of +touching the hem of her petticoat. Your affectation of a dislike to +encounter me is so flattering, that I begin to think myself a very fine +fellow. But you are laughing at me--"Stap my vitals, Tam! thou art a +very impudent person;" [3] and, if you are not laughing at me, you +deserve to be laughed at. Seriously, what on earth can you, or have you, +to dread from any poetical flesh breathing? It really puts me out of +humour to hear you talk thus. + +_The Giaour_ I have added to a good deal; but still in foolish +fragments. It contains about 1200 lines, or rather more--now printing. +You will allow me to send you a copy. You delight me much by telling me +that I am in your good graces, and more particularly as to temper; for, +unluckily, I have the reputation of a very bad one. But they say the +devil is amusing when pleased, and I must have been more venomous than +the old serpent, to have hissed or stung in your company. It may be, and +would appear to a third person, an incredible thing, but I know _you_ +will believe me when I say, that I am as anxious for your success as one +human being can be for another's,--as much as if I had never scribbled a +line. Surely the field of fame is wide enough for all; and if it were +not, I would not willingly rob my neighbour of a rood of it. Now you +have a pretty property of some thousand acres there, and when you have +passed your present Inclosure Bill, your income will be doubled, +(there's a metaphor, worthy of a Templar, namely, pert and low,) while +my wild common is too remote to incommode you, and quite incapable of +such fertility. I send you (which return per post, as the printer would +say) a curious letter from a friend of mine [4], which will let you into +the origin of _The Giaour_. Write soon. + +Ever, dear Moore, yours most entirely, etc. + +P.S.--This letter was written to me on account of a _different story_ +circulated by some gentlewomen of our acquaintance, a little too close +to the text. The part erased contained merely some Turkish names, and +circumstantial evidence of the girl's detection, not very important or +decorous. + + + +[Footnote 1: Giovanni Battista Toderini (1728-1799) published his work +'Della Letteratura Turchesca', at Venice in 1787. Brunet says, "Cet +ouvrage curieux a été traduit en Français, par Cournand. Paris, 1789 +('De La Littérature des Turcs')."] + + +[Footnote 2: + + "Yes, his manner was cold; his shake of the hand came under the genus + 'mortmain;' but his heart was overflowing with benevolence" + +(Lady Holland's 'Memoir of Sydney Smith', 4th edition, vol. i. p. 440).] + + +[Footnote 3: A reminiscence of Sheridan's 'Trip to Scarborough' (act v. +sc. 2), itself borrowed from Vanbrugh's 'Relapse' (act iv. sc. 6), in +both of which passages Lord Foppington says, "Strike me dumb, Tam, thou +art a very impudent fellow."] + + +[Footnote 4: The following is the letter to which Byron refers: + + Albany, Monday, August 31, 1813. + + "MY DEAR BYRON,--You have requested me to tell you all that I heard at + Athens about the affair of that girl who was so near being put an end + to while you were there; you have asked me to remember every + circumstance, in the remotest degree relating to it, which I heard. In + compliance with your wishes, I write to you all I heard, and I cannot + imagine it to be very far from the fact, as the circumstances happened + only a day or two before I arrived at Athens, and, consequently, was a + matter of common conversation at the time. + + "The new governor, unaccustomed to have the same intercourse with the + Christians as his predecessor, had, of course, the barbarous Turkish + ideas with regard to women. In consequence, and in compliance with the + strict letter of the Mohammedan law, he ordered this girl to be sewed + up in a sack, and thrown into the sea--as is, indeed, quite customary + at Constantinople. As you were returning from bathing in the Piræus, + you met the procession going down to execute the sentence of the + Waywode on this unhappy girl. Report continues to say, that on finding + out what the object of their journey was, and who was the miserable + sufferer, you immediately interfered; and on some delay in obeying + your orders, you were obliged to inform the leader of the escort that + force should make him comply; that, on further hesitation, you drew a + pistol, and told him, that if he did not immediately obey your orders, + and come back with you to the Aga's house, you would shoot him dead. + On this the man turned about and went with you to the governor's + house; here you succeeded, partly by personal threats, and partly by + bribery and entreaty, in procuring her pardon, on condition of her + leaving Athens. I was told that you then conveyed her in safety to the + convent, and despatched her off at night to Thebes, where she found a + safe asylum. Such is the story I heard, as nearly as I can recollect + it at present. Should you wish to ask me any further questions about + it, I shall be very ready and willing to answer them. + + "I remain, my dear Byron, + + "Yours very sincerely, + + "Sligo".] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +326.--To James Wedderburn Webster. + + +September 2nd, 1813. + + +My dear Webster,--You are just the same generous and I fear careless +gentleman of the years of _indifferent_ memory 1806. I--; but I must not +burthen you with my entire household. Joe [1] is, I believe, necessary +for the present as a fixture, to keep possession till every thing is +arranged; and were it otherwise, you don't know what a perplexity he +would prove--honest and faithful, but fearfully superannuated: now +_this_ I ought and do bear, but as he has not been fifty years in your +family, it would be rather hard to convert your mansion into a hospital +for decayed domestics. Rushton is, or may be made useful, and I am less +_compunctious_ on his account. + +"Will I be Godfather?" [2] + +Yea, verily! I believe it is the only species of parentage I shall ever +encounter, for all my acquaintance, Powerscourt, Jocelyn, yourself, +Delawarr, Stanhope, with a long list of happy _etceteras_, are married; +most of them my juniors too, and I as single and likely to remain so as, +nay more than, if I were seventy. + +If it is a _girl_ why not also? Georgina, or even _Byron_ will make a +classical name for a spinster, if Mr. Richardson's _Sir Charles +Grandison_ is any authority in your estimation. + +My ship is not settled. My passage in the _Boyne_ was only for _one_ +Servant, and would not do, of course. You ask after the expense, a +question no less interesting to the married than the single. Unless +things are much altered, no establishment in the Mediterranean Countries +could amount to the quarter of the expenditure requisite in England for +the same or an inferior household. + +I am interrupted, and have only time to offer my best thanks for all +your good wishes and intentions, and to beg you will believe me, + +Equally yours ever, + +B. + +P.S.--Rushton shall be sent on Saturday next. + + + +[Footnote 1: Joseph Murray] + + +[Footnote 2: Webster's eldest son was christened "Byron Wedderburn." He +died young, and when his father told Byron of the child's death, the +godfather + + "almost chuckled with joy or irony," and said, "Well, I cautioned you, + and told you that my name would almost damn any thing or creature." + +(MS. note by Wedderburn Webster.)] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +327.--To Thomas Moore. + + +Sept. 5, 1813. + + +You need not tie yourself down to a day with Toderini, but send him at +your leisure, having anatomised him into such annotations as you want; I +do not believe that he has ever undergone that process before, which is +the best reason for not sparing him now. + +Rogers has returned to town, but not yet recovered of the 'Quarterly'. +What fellows these reviewers are! "these bugs do fear us all." [1] + +They made you fight, and me (the milkiest of men) a satirist, and will +end by making Rogers madder than Ajax. I have been reading 'Memory' +again, the other day, and _Hope_ together, and retain all my preference +of the former [2]. + +His elegance is really wonderful--there is no such thing as a vulgar +line in his book. + +What say you to Buonaparte? Remember, I back him against the field, +barring catalepsy and the Elements. Nay, I almost wish him success +against all countries but this,--were it only to choke the 'Morning +Post', and his undutiful father-in-law, with that rebellious bastard of +Scandinavian adoption, Bernadotte. Rogers wants me to go with him on a +crusade to the Lakes, and to besiege you on our way. This last is a +great temptation, but I fear it will not be in my power, unless you +would go on with one of us somewhere--no matter where. It is too late +for Matlock, but we might hit upon some scheme, high life or low,--the +last would be much the best for amusement. I am so sick of the other, +that I quite sigh for a cider-cellar [3], or a cruise in a smuggler's +sloop. + +You cannot wish more than I do that the Fates were a little more +accommodating to our parallel lines, which prolong _ad infinitum_ +without coming a jot nearer. I almost wish I were married, too--which is +saying much. All my friends, seniors and juniors, are in for it, and ask +me to be godfather,--the only species of parentage which, I believe, +will ever come to my share in a lawful way; and, in an unlawful one, by +the blessing of Lucina, we can never be certain,--though the parish may. +I suppose I shall hear from you to-morrow. If not, this goes as it is; +but I leave room for a P.S., in case any thing requires an answer. + +Ever, etc. + +No letter--_n'importe_. Rogers thinks the _Quarterly_ will be at _me_ +this time; if so, it shall be a war of extermination--no _quarter_. From +the youngest devil down to the oldest woman of that review, all shall +perish by one fatal lampoon. The ties of nature shall be torn asunder, +for I will not even spare my bookseller; nay, if one were to include +readers also, all the better. + + + +[Footnote 1: "Warwick was a bug that feared us all" ('Henry VI'., Part +III. act v. se. 2).] + + +[Footnote 2: Byron quoted to Lady Blessington "some passages from the +'Pleasures of Hope', which he said was a poem full of beauties... 'The +'Pleasures of Memory' is a very beautiful poem' (said Byron), +'harmonious, finished, and chaste; it contains not a single meretricious +ornament'" ('Conversations', pp. 352, 353).] + + +[Footnote 3: No. 20, Maiden Lane, Covent Garden, was a tavern called the +'Cider Cellars'. Over the entrance was the motto, 'Honos erit huic +quoque homo', supplied by Porson, who frequented the house. There Lord +Campbell heard him "recite from memory to delighted listeners the whole +of Anstey's 'Pleader's Guide'" ('Lives of the Chief Justices', vol. iii. +p. 271, note). Mr. Wheatley, in 'London Past and Present, sub voce' +"Maiden Lane," says that the + + "tavern continued to be frequented by young men, and 'much in vogue + for devilled kidneys, oysters, and Welch rabbits, cigars, "goes" of + brandy, and great supplies of London stout' (also for comic songs), + till it was absorbed in the extensions of the Adelphi Theatre."] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +328.--To Thomas Moore. + + +September 8, 1813. + + +I am sorry to see Toderini again so soon, for fear your scrupulous +conscience should have prevented you from fully availing yourself of his +spoils. By this coach I send you a copy of that awful pamphlet _The +Giaour_, which has never procured me half so high a compliment as your +modest alarm. You will (if inclined in an evening) perceive that I have +added much in quantity,--a circumstance which may truly diminish your +modesty upon the subject. + +You stand certainly in great need of a "lift" with Mackintosh. My dear +Moore, you strangely under-rate yourself. I should conceive it an +affectation in any other; but I think I know you well enough to believe +that you don't know your own value. However, 'tis a fault that generally +mends; and, in your case, it really ought. I have heard him speak of you +as highly as your wife could wish; and enough to give all your friends +the jaundice. + +Yesterday I had a letter from _Ali Pacha!_ brought by Dr. Holland, who +is just returned from Albania [1]. It is in Latin, and begins +"Excellentissime _nec non_ Carissime," and ends about a gun he wants +made for him;--it is signed "Ali Vizir." What do you think he has been +about? H. tells me that, last spring, he took a hostile town, where, +forty-two years ago, his mother and sisters were treated as Miss +Cunigunde [2] was by the Bulgarian cavalry. He takes the town, selects +all the survivors of this exploit--children, grandchildren, etc. to the +tune of six hundred, and has them shot before his face. Recollect, he +spared the rest of the city, and confined himself to the Tarquin +pedigree [3],--which is more than I would. So much for "dearest friend." + + + +[Footnote 1: See 'Letters', vol. i. p. 246 [Letter 131], and 'note' +[Footnote 1 of Letter 131]. Dr., afterwards Sir Henry, Holland +(1788-1873) published his 'Travels in the Ionian Islands, Albania, +etc.', in 1815.] + + +[Footnote: Voltaire's 'Candide', ch. vii.: + + "On ne vous a done pas violé? on ne vous a point fendu le ventre, + comme le philosophe Pangloss me l'avait assuré? Si fait, dit la belle + Cunégonde; mais on ne meurt pas toujours de ces deux accidents."] + + +[Footnote 3: The "false Sextus... that wrought the deed of shame," and +violated Lucretia.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +329.--To Thomas Moore. + + +Sept. 9, 1813. + + +I write to you from Mr. Murray's, and I may say, from Murray, who, if +you are not predisposed in favour of any other publisher, would be happy +to treat with you, at a fitting time, for your work. I can safely +recommend him as fair, liberal, and attentive, and certainly, in point +of reputation, he stands among the first of "the trade." I am sure he +would do you justice. I have written to you so much lately, that you +will be glad to see so little now. + +Ever, etc., etc. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +330.--To James Wedderburn Webster. + + +September 15th, 1813. + + +My dear Webster,--I shall not resist your second invitation, and shortly +after the receipt of this you may expect me. You will excuse me from the +races. As a guest I have no "antipathies" and few preferences.... You +won't mind, however, my _not_ dining with you--every day at least. When +we meet, we can talk over our respective plans: mine is very short and +simple; viz. to sail when I can get a passage. If I remained in England +I should live in the Country, and of course in the vicinity of those +whom I knew would be most agreeable. + +I did not know that Jack's graven image [1] was at Newstead. If it be, +pray transfer it to Aston. It is my hope to see you so shortly, tomorrow +or next day, that I will not now trouble you with my speculations. + +Ever yours very faithfully, + +BYRON. + +P.S.--I don't know how I came to sign myself with the "i." It is the old +spelling, and I sometimes slip into it. When I say I can't _dine_ with +you, I mean that sometimes I don't dine at all. Of course, when I do, I +conform to all hours and domestic arrangements. + + + +[Footnote 1: "Jack's graven image" means the portrait of John Jackson +the pugilist.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +331.--To the Hon. Augusta Leigh. + + +[Wednesday], Sept'r. 15th, 1813. + + +My dear Augusta,--I joined my friend Scrope about 8, and before eleven +we had swallowed six bottles of his burgundy and Claret, which left him +very unwell and me rather feverish; we were 'tête à tête'. I remained +with him next day and set off last night for London, which I reached at +three in the morning. Tonight I shall leave it again, perhaps for Aston +or Newstead. I have not yet determined, nor does it much matter. As you +perhaps care more on the subject than I do, I will tell you when I know +myself. + +When my departure is arranged, and I can get this long-evaded passage, +you will be able to tell me whether I am to expect a visit or not, and I +can come for or meet you as you think best. If you write, address to +Bennet Street. + +Yours very truly, + +B. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +332.--To John Murray. + + +Sept. 15, 1813. + + +Dear Sir,--Will you pray enquire after any ship with a convoy _taking +passengers_ and get me one if possible? I mean not in a ship of war, but +anything that may be _paid_ for. I have a friend and 3 servants +--Gibraltar or Minorca--or Zante. + +Yours ever, + +B. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +333.--To James Wedderburn Webster. + + +Stilton, September 25th, 1813. + + +My Dear W.,--Thus far can I "report progress," and as a solid token of +my remembrance I send you a 'cheese' of 13 lbs. to enable your digestion +to go through the race week. It will go to night; pray let your +retainers enquire after it. The date of this letter will account for so +homely a present. On my arrival in town I will write more on our +different concerns. In the mean time I wish you and yours all the +gratification on Doncaster you can wish for yourselves. My love to the +faithless Nettle [1] (who I dare say is 'wronging' me during my +absence), and my best Compliments to all in your house who will receive +them. + +Ever, dear W., yours truly, + +B. + + + +[Footnote 1: A dog given by Webster to Byron. (Note by J. W. W.)] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +334.--To Sir James Mackintosh. + + +Sept. 27, 1813. + + +Dear Sir James,--I was to have left London on Friday, but will certainly +remain a day longer (and believe I _would a year_) to have the +honour of meeting you. My best respects to Lady Mackintosh. + +Ever your obliged and faithful servant, + +BYRON. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +335.--To Thomas Moore. + + +September 27, 1813. + + +Thomas Moore,--(Thou wilt never be called "_true_ Thomas," [1] like he +of Ercildoune,) why don't you write to me?--as you won't, I must. I was +near you at Aston the other day, and hope I soon shall be again. If so, +you must and shall meet me, and go to Matlock and elsewhere, and take +what, in _flash_ dialect, is poetically termed "a lark," with Rogers and +me for accomplices. Yesterday, at Holland House, I was introduced to +Southey--the best-looking bard I have seen for some time. To have that +poet's head and shoulders, I would almost have written his Sapphics. He +is certainly a prepossessing person to look on, and a man of talent, and +all that, and--_there_ is his eulogy. + +----read me _part_ of a letter from you. By the foot of Pharaoh, I +believe there was abuse, for he stopped short, so he did, after a fine +saying about our correspondence, and _looked_--I wish I could revenge +myself by attacking you, or by telling you that I have _had_ to defend +you--an agreeable way which one's friends have of recommending +themselves by saying--"Ay, ay, _I_ gave it Mr. Such-a-one for what he +said about your being a plagiary, and a rake, and so on." But do you +know that you are one of the very few whom I never have the satisfaction +of hearing abused, but the reverse;--and do you suppose I will forgive +_that_? + +I have been in the country, and ran away from the Doncaster races. It is +odd,--I was a visitor in the same house [2] which came to my sire as a +residence with Lady Carmarthen (with whom he adulterated before his +majority--by the by, remember _she_ was not my mamma),--and they thrust +me into an old room, with a nauseous picture over the chimney, which I +should suppose my papa regarded with due respect, and which, inheriting +the family taste, I looked upon with great satisfaction. I stayed a week +with the family, and behaved very well--though the lady of the house is +young, and religious, and pretty, and the master is my particular +friend. I felt no wish for any thing but a poodle dog, which they kindly +gave me. Now, for a man of my courses not even to have _coveted_, is a +sign of great amendment. Pray pardon all this nonsense, and don't "snub +me when I'm in spirits." [3] + +Ever yours, + +BN. + +Here's an impromptu for you by a "person of quality," written last week, +on being reproached for low spirits: + + When from the heart where Sorrow sits, + Her dusky shadow mounts too high, + And o'er the changing aspect flits, + And clouds the brow, or fills the eye: + Heed not that gloom, which soon shall sink; + My Thoughts their dungeon know too well-- + Back to my breast the wanderers shrink, + And bleed within their silent cell. + + + +[Footnote 1: Thomas Learmont, of Ercildoune, called "Thomas the +Rhymer," is to reappear on earth when Shrove Tuesday and Good Friday +change places. He sleeps beneath the Eildon Hills.] + + +[Footnote 2: Aston Hall, Rotherham, at that time rented by J. Wedderburn +Webster.] + + +[Footnote 3: In 'She Stoops to Conquer' (act ii.) Tony Lumpkin says, + + "I wish you'd let me and my good alone, then--snubbing this way when + I'm in spirits."] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +336.--To John Murray. + + +Sept. 29, 1813. + + +Dear Sir,--Pray suspend the _proofs_ for I am bitten again and have +quantities for other parts of _The Giaour_. + +Yours ever, + +B. + +P. S.--You shall have these in the course of the day. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +337.--To James Wedderburn Webster. + + +September 30th, 1813. + + +My dear Webster,--Thanks for your letter. I had answered it by +_anticipation_ last night, and this is but a postscript to my reply. My +yesterday's contained some advice, which I now see you don't want, and +hope you never will. + +So! Petersham [1] has not joined you. I pity the poor women. No one can +properly repair such a deficiency; but rather than such a chasm should +be left utterly unfathomable, I, even I, the most awkward of attendants +and deplorable of danglers, would have been of your forlorn hope, on +this expedition. Nothing but business, and the notion of my being +utterly superfluous in so numerous a party, would have induced me to +resign so soon my quiet apartments never interrupted but by the sound, +or the more harmonious barking of Nettle, and clashing of billiard +balls. + +On Sunday I shall leave town and mean to join you immediately. I have +not yet had my sister's answer to Lady Frances's very kind invitation, +but expect it tomorrow. Pray assure Lady Frances that I never can forget +the obligation conferred upon me in this respect, and I trust that even +Lady Catherine [2] will, in this instance, not question my "stability." + +I yesterday wrote you rather a long tirade about La Comptesse, but you +seem in no immediate peril; I will therefore burn it. Yet I don't know +why I should, as you may relapse: it shall e'en go. + +I have been passing my time with Rogers and Sir James Mackintosh; and +once at Holland House I met Southey; he is a person of very _epic_ +appearance, and has a fine head--as far as the outside goes, and wants +nothing but taste to make the inside equally attractive. + +Ever, my dear W., yours, + +Biron. + +P.S.--I read your letter thus: "the Countess is _miserable_" instead of +which it is "_inexorable_" a very different thing. The best way is to +let her alone; she must be a _diablesse_ by what you told me. You have +probably not _bid_ high enough. _Now_ you are not, perhaps, of my +opinion; but I would not give the tithe of a Birmingham farthing for a +woman who could or would be purchased, nor indeed for any woman _quoad +mere woman_; that is to say, unless I loved her for something more than +her sex. If she _loves_, a little _pique_ is not amiss, nor even if she +don't; the next thing to a woman's _love_ in a man's favour is her +_hatred_,--a seeming paradox but true. Get them once out of +_indifference_ and circumstance, and their passions will do wonders for +a _dasher_ which I suppose you are, though I seldom had the impudence or +patience to follow them up. + + + +[Footnote 1: Lord Petersham was one of the chief dandies of the day. +Gronow in 1814 ('Reminiscences', vol. i. p. 285) found him + + "making a particular sort of blacking, which he said would eventually + supersede every other." + +His snuff-mixture was famous among tobacconists, and he gave his name to +a fashionable great-coat. In his collection of snuff-boxes, one of the +finest in England, he was supposed to have a box for every day in the +year. Gronow ('ibid'.) + + "heard him, on the occasion of a delightful old light-blue Sèvres box + he was using being admired, say, in his lisping way, 'Yes, it is a + nice summer box, but would not do for winter wear.'" + +Lord Petersham, who never went out of doors before 6 p.m., was +celebrated for his brown carriages, brown horses, brown harness, and +brown liveries.] + + +[Footnote 2: Lady Catherine Annesley, sister of Lady F. W. Webster, +afterwards Lady John Somerset.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +338.--To Francis Hodgson. + + +October 1, 1813. + + +My Dear H.,--I leave town again for Aston on Sunday, but have messages +for you. Lord Holland desired me repeatedly to bring you; he wants to +know you much, and begged me to say so: you will like him. I had an +invitation for you to dinner there this last Sunday, and Rogers is +perpetually screaming because you don't call, and wanted you also to +dine with him on Wednesday last. Yesterday we had Curran there--who is +beyond all conception! and Mackintosh and the wits are to be seen at H. +H. constantly, so that I think you would like their society. I will be a +judge between you and the attorneo. So B[utler] may mention me to Lucien +if he still adheres to his opinion. Pray let Rogers be one; he has the +best taste extant. Bland's nuptials delight me; if I had the least hand +in bringing them about it will be a subject of selfish satisfaction to +me these three weeks. Desire Drury--if he loves me--to kick Dwyer thrice +for frightening my horses with his flame-coloured whiskers last July. +Let the kicks be hard, etc. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +339.--To Thomas Moore. + + +October 2, 1813. + + +You have not answered some six letters of mine. This, therefore, is my +penultimate. I will write to you once more, but, after that--I swear by +all the saints--I am silent and supercilious. I have met Curran [1] at +Holland House--he beats every body;--his imagination is beyond human, +and his humour (it is difficult to define what is wit) perfect. Then he +has fifty faces, and twice as many voices, when he mimics--I never met +his equal. Now, were I a woman, and eke a virgin, that is the man I +should make my Scamander [2]. + +He is quite fascinating. Remember, I have met him but once; and you, who +have known him long, may probably deduct from my panegyric. I almost +fear to meet him again, lest the impression should be lowered. He talked +a great deal about you--a theme never tiresome to me, nor any body else +that I know. What a variety of expression he conjures into that +naturally not very fine countenance of his! He absolutely changes it +entirely. I have done--for I can't describe him, and you know him. On +Sunday I return to Aston, where I shall not be far from you. Perhaps I +shall hear from you in the mean time. Good night. + +Saturday morn.--Your letter has cancelled all my anxieties. I did _not +suspect_ you in _earnest_. Modest again! Because I don't do a very +shabby thing, it seems, I "don't fear your competition." If it were +reduced to an alternative of preference, I _should_ dread you, as much +as Satan does Michael. But is there not room enough in our respective +regions? Go on--it will soon be my turn to forgive. To-day I dine with +Mackintosh and Mrs. _Stale_--as John Bull may be pleased to denominate +Corinne--whom I saw last night, at Covent Garden, yawning over the +humour of Falstaff. + +The reputation of "gloom," if one's friends are not included in the +_reputants_, is of great service; as it saves one from a legion of +impertinents, in the shape of common-place acquaintance. But thou +know'st I can be a right merry and conceited fellow, and rarely +_larmoyant_. Murray shall reinstate your line forthwith. [3] + +I believe the blunder in the motto was mine;--and yet I have, in +general, a memory for you, and am sure it was rightly printed at first. + +I do "blush" very often, if I may believe Ladies H. and M.;--but +luckily, at present, no one sees me. Adieu. + + + +[Footnote 1: Rogers ('Table-Talk, etc'., p. 161) regretted "that so +little of Curran's brilliant talk has been preserved." John Philpot +Curran (1750-1817), after accepting the Mastership of the Rolls in +Ireland (1806), spent much of his time in England. He retired from the +Bench, where he never shone, in 1814. + +In Byron's 'Detached Thoughts' (1821) occurs the following passage: + + "I was much struck with the simplicity of Grattan's manners in private + life. They were odd, but they were natural. Curran used to take him + off, bowing to the very ground, and 'thanking God that he had no + peculiarities of gesture or appearance,' in a way irresistibly + ludicrous. Rogers used to call him a 'Sentimental Harlequin;' but + Rogers backbites everybody, and Curran, who used to quiz his great + friend Godwin to his very face, would hardly respect a fair mark of + mimicry in another. To be sure, Curran _was_ admirable! to hear his + description of the examination of an Irish witness was next to hearing + his own speeches; the latter I never heard, but I have the former." + +Elsewhere ('ibid'.) he returns to the subject: + + "Curran! Curran's the man who struck me most--such imagination! There + never was anything like it, that ever I saw or heard of. His + _published_ life--his published speeches--give you no idea of the man; + none at all. He was a _Machine_ of imagination, as some one said that + Piron was an 'Epigrammatic Machine.' I did not see a great deal of + Curran,--only in 1813; but I met him at home (for he used to call on + me), and in society, at Mackintosh's, Holland House, etc., etc. And he + was wonderful, even to me, who had seen many remarkable men of the + time." + +The following notes on this passage are in the handwriting of Walter +Scott: + + "When Mathews first began to imitate Curran in Dublin--in society, I + mean,--Curran sent for him and said, the moment he entered the room, + 'Mr. Mathews, you are a first-rate artist, and, since you are to do my + picture, pray allow me to give you a sitting.' Everyone knows how + admirably Mathews succeeded in furnishing at last the portraiture + begun under these circumstances. No one was more aware of the truth + than Curran himself. In his latter and feeble days, he was riding in + Hyde Park one morning, bowed down over the saddle and bitterly + dejected in his air. Mathews happened to observe and saluted him. + Curran stopped his horse for a moment, squeezed Charles by the hand, + and said in that deep whisper which the comedian so exquisitely + mimics, 'Don't speak to me, my dear Mathews; you are the only Curran + now!'" + + "Did you know Curran?" asked Byron of Lady Blessington + ('Conversations', p. 176); "he was the most wonderful person I ever + saw. In him was combined an imagination the most brilliant and + profound, with a flexibility and wit that would have justified the + observation applied to----, that his heart was in his head." + +Moore ('Journal, etc.', vol. i. p. 40) quotes a couplet by Mrs. Battier +upon Curran, which "commemorates in a small compass two of his most +striking peculiarities, namely, his very unprepossessing personal +appearance, and his great success, notwithstanding, in pursuits of +gallantry...: + + "'For though his monkey face might fail to woo her, + Yet, ah! his monkey tricks would quite undo her.'"] + + +[Footnote 2: In the spurious letters of Æschines (Letter x.) is a +passage which explains the allusion. + + "It is the custom of maidens, on the eve of their marriage, to wash in + the waters of the Scamander, and then to utter this almost sacred + formula, + + 'Take, O Scamander, my virginity' + + ([Greek: to èpos toûto hosper hierón ti epilégein, Lhabé mou + Scámandre tàen parthénian)."] + + +[Footnote 3: + + "The motto to 'The Giaour': + + One fatal remembrance--one sorrow that throws + Its bleak shade alike o'er our joys and our woes,' etc. + + "which is taken from one of the 'Irish Melodies', had been quoted by + him incorrectly in the first editions of the poem". (Moore).] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +340.--To John Murray. + + +Stilton, Oct. 3, 1813. + + +Dear Sir,--I have just recollected an alteration you may make in the +proof to be sent to Aston.--Among the lines on Hassan's Serai, not far +from the beginning, is this: + + Unmeet for Solitude to share. + +Now to share implies more than _one_, and Solitude is a single +gentlewoman; it must be thus: + + For many a gilded chamber's there, + Which Solitude might well forbear; + +and so on.--My address is Aston Hall, Rotherham. Will you adopt this +correction? and pray accept a cheese from me for your trouble. Ever +yours, B. + +P.S.--I leave this to your discretion; if any body thinks the old line a +good one or the cheese a bad one, don't accept either. But, in that +case, the word _share_ is repeated soon after in the line: + + To share the Master's "bread and salt;" + +and must be altered to: + + To break the Master's bread and salt. + +This is not so well, though--confound it! If the old line stands, let +the other run thus: + + Nor there will weary traveller halt, + To bless the sacred "bread and salt." + +_Note_.--To partake of food--to break bread and taste salt with your +host--ensures the safety of the guest; even though an enemy, his person +from that moment becomes sacred. + +There is another additional note sent yesterday--on the Priest in the +Confessional. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +341.--To John Hanson. + + +Nottingham, Octr. 10th, 1813. + + +Dear Sir,--I am disposed to advance a loan of £1000 to James Webster +Wedderburne Webster, Esqre., of Aston Hall, York County, and request you +will address to me _there a bond_ and _judgement_ to be signed by the +said as soon as possible. Of Claughton's payments I know nothing +further, and the demands on myself I know also; but W. is a very old +friend of mine, and a man of property, and, as I can command the money, +he shall have it. I do not at all wish to inconvenience you, and I also +know that, when we balance accounts, it will be much in your favour; but +if you could replace the sum at Hoare's from my advance of two thousand +eight hundred in July, it would be a favour; or, still better, if C. +makes further payments, which will render it unnecessary. Don't let the +first part of the last sentence embarrass you at all; the last part +about Claughton I would wish you to attend to. I have written this +day--about his opening the cellar. + +Pray send the bond and judgement to Aston as directed. + +Ever, dear Sir, + +B. + +P.S.--Many, many thanks for your kind invitation; but it was too late. I +was in this county before it arrived. My best remembrances to Mrs. H. +and all the family. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +342.--To the Hon. Augusta Leigh. + + +[Sunday], October 10th, 1813. + + +My dearest Augusta,--I have only time to say that I am not in the least +angry, and that my silence has merely arisen from several circumstances +which I cannot now detail. I trust you are better, and will continue +_best_. Ever, my dearest, + +Yours, + +B. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +343.--To John Murray. + + +Oct. 12, 1813. + + +Dear Sir,--You must look 'The Giaour' again over carefully; there are a +few lapses, particularly in the last page,--"I _know_ 'twas false; she +could not die;" it was, and ought to be--"_knew_." Pray observe this and +similar mistakes. + +I have received and read the 'British Review' [1]. + +I really think the writer in most parts very right. The only mortifying +thing is the accusation of imitation. + +_Crabbe's passage_ I never saw; and Scott I no further meant to follow +than in his _lyric_ measure, which is Gray's, Milton's, and any one's +who likes it. 'The Giaour' is certainly a bad character, but not +dangerous: and I think his fate and his feelings will meet with few +proselytes. I shall be very glad to hear from or of you, when you +please; but don't put yourself out of your way on my account. + +Yours ever, + +B. + + + +[Footnote 1: 'The British Review' (No. ix.) criticized 'The Giaour' +severely (pp. 132-145). "Lord Byron," it says, "has had the bad taste to +imitate Mr. Walter Scott" (p. 135). Further on (p. 139) it charges him +with borrowing a simile from Crabbe's 'Resentment'. The passage to which +the reviewer alludes will be found in lines 11-16 of that poem: + + "Those are like wax--apply them to the fire, + Melting, they take th' impressions you desire: + Easy to mould, and fashion as you please, + And again moulded with an equal ease: + Like smelted iron these the forms retain; + But, once impress'd, will never melt again."] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +344.--To the Hon. Augusta Leigh. + + +(Monday), Nov'r. 8th, 1813. + + +My Dearest Augusta,--I have only time to say that I shall write +tomorrow, and that my present and long silence has been occasioned by a +thousand things (with which _you_ are not concerned). It is not L'y C. +nor O.; but perhaps you may _guess_, and, if you do, do not tell. + +You do not know what mischief your being with me might have prevented. +You shall hear from me tomorrow; in the mean time don't be alarmed. I am +in _no immediate_ peril. + +Believe me, ever yours, + +B. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +345.--To John Murray. + + +(Nov. 12, 1813. With first proof of _Bride of Abydos_ correct.) + +Dear Sir,--I have looked over--corrected--and added--_all_ of which you +may do too--at least _certainly_ the _two_ first. There is more MS. +_within_. Let me know tomorrow at your leisure _how_ and _when_ we shall +proceed! It looks better than I thought at first. _Look over_ again. I +suspect some omissions on my part and on the printers'. + +Yours ever, + +B. + +Always print "een" "even." I utterly abhor "een"--if it must be +contracted, be it "ev'n." + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +346.--To William Gifford. + + +November 12, 1813. + + +My Dear Sir,--I hope you will consider, when I venture on any request, +that it is the reverse of a certain Dedication, and is addressed, _not_ +to "The Editor of the 'Quarterly Review'" but to Mr. Gifford. You will +understand this, and on that point I need trouble you no farther. + +You have been good enough to look at a thing of mine in MS.--a Turkish +story, and I should feel gratified if you would do it the same favour in +its probationary state of printing. It was written, I cannot say for +amusement, nor "obliged by hunger and request of friends," [1] but in a +state of mind, from circumstances which occasionally occur to "us +youth," that rendered it necessary for me to apply my mind to something, +any thing but reality; and under this not very brilliant inspiration it +was composed. Being done, and having at least diverted me from myself, I +thought you would not perhaps be offended if Mr. Murray forwarded it to +you. He has done so, and to apologise for his doing so a second time is +the object of my present letter. + +I beg you will _not_ send me any answer. I assure you very sincerely I +know your time to be occupied, and it is enough, more than enough, if +you read; you are not to be bored with the fatigue of answers. + +A word to Mr. Murray will be sufficient, and send it either to the +flames or + + "A hundred hawkers' load, + On wings of wind to fly or fall abroad." + +It deserves no better than the first, as the work of a week, and +scribbled 'stans pede in uno' [2], (by the by, the only foot I have to +stand on); and I promise never to trouble you again under forty cantos, +and a voyage between each. Believe me ever, + +Your obliged and affectionate servant, + +BYRON. + + + +[Footnote 1: Pope, 'Epistle to Arbuthnot', l. 44.] + + +[Footnote 2: Horace, 'Sat'. 1. iv. 10.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +347.--To John Murray. + + +Nov. 12, 1813. + + +Two friends of mine (Mr. Rogers and Mr. Sharpe) have advised me not to +risk at present any single publication separately, for various reasons. +As they have not seen the one in question, they can have no bias for or +against the merits (if it has any) or the faults of the present subject +of our conversation. You say all the last of 'The Giaour' [1] are +gone--at least out of your hands. Now, if you think of publishing any +new edition with the last additions which have not yet been before the +reader (I mean distinct from the two-volume publication), we can add +"'The Bride of Abydos'," which will thus steal quietly into the world +[2]: if liked, we can then throw off some copies for the purchasers of +former "Giaours;" and, if not, I can omit it in any future publication. +What think you? I really am no judge of those things; and, with all my +natural partiality for one's own productions, I would rather follow any +one's judgment than my own. + +P.S.--Pray let me have the proofs. I sent _all_ to-night. I have some +alterations that I have thought of that I wish to make speedily. I hope +the proof will be on separate pages, and not all huddled together on a +mile-long, ballad-singing sheet, as those of 'The Giaour' sometimes are: +for then I can't read them distinctly. + + + +[Footnote 1: In 'Accepted Addresses; or, Premium Poetarum', pp. 50-52 +(1813), 'Address' xvii. is from "Lord B----n to J. M----y, Book-seller." +The address itself runs as follows: + + "A Turkish tale I shall unfold, + A sweeter tale was never told; + But then the facts, I must allow, + Are in the east not common now; + Tho' in the 'olden time,' the scene + My Goaour (_sic_) describes had often been. + What is the cause! Perhaps the fair + Are now more cautious than they were; + Perhaps the Christians not so bold, + So enterprising as of old. + No matter what the cause may be, + It is a subject fit for me. + + "Take my disjointed fragments then, + The offspring of a willing pen. + And give them to the public, pray, + On or before the month of May. + Yes, my disjointed fragments take, + But do not ask _how much they'll make_. + Perhaps not fifty pages--well, + I in a little space can tell + Th' adventures of an infidel; + Of _quantity_ I never boast, + For _quality_'s, approved of most. + + "It is a handsome sum to touch, + Induces authors to write much; + But in this much, alas! my friend, + How little is there to commend. + So, Mr. M----y, I disdain, + To sacrifice my muse for gain. + I wish it to be understood, + The little which I write is good. + + "I do not like the quarto size, + Th' octavo, therefore, I advise. + Then do not, Mr. M----y, fail, + To publish this, my Turkish Tale; + For tho' the volume may be thin, + A thousand readers it will win; + And when my pages they explore, + They'll gladly read them o'er and o'er; + And all the ladies, I engage, + With tears will moisten every page."] + + +[Footnote 2: John Murray writes, in an undated letter to Byron, + + "Mr. Canning returned the poem to-day with very warm expressions of + delight. I told him your delicacy as to separate publication, of which + he said you should remove every apprehension."] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +348.--To John Murray. + + +Nov. 13, 1813. + + +Will you forward the letter to Mr. Gifford with the proof? There is an +alteration I may make in Zuleika's speech, in second canto (the only one +of _hers_ in that canto). It is now thus: + + And curse--if I could curse--the day. + +It must be: + + And mourn--I dare not curse--the day, + That saw my solitary birth, etc., etc. + +Ever yours, B. + +In the last MS. lines sent, instead of "living heart," correct to +"quivering heart." It is in line 9th of the MS. passage. Ever yours +again, + +B. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +349.--To John Murray. + + +Alteration of a line in Canto 2nd. +Instead of: + + And tints to-morrow with a _fancied_ ray + +Print: + + And tints to-morrow with _prophetic_ ray. + + The evening beam that smiles the clouds away, + And tints to-morrow with prophetic ray; + +Or, + + And {_gilds_/tints} the hope of Morning with its ray; + +Or, + + And gilds to-morrow's hope with heavenly ray. + +Dear Sir,--I wish you would ask Mr. G. which of them is best, or rather +_not worst_. + +Ever yours, B. + +You can send the request contained in this at the same time with the +_revise, after_ I have seen the _said revise_. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +350.--To John Murray. + + +Nov. 13, 1813. + + +Certainly. Do you suppose that no one but the Galileans are acquainted +with _Adam_, and _Eve_, and _Cain,_ [1] and _Noah_?--Surely, I might +have had Solomon, and Abraham, and David, and even Moses, or the other. +When you know that _Zuleika_ is the _Persian poetical_ name for +_Potiphar's_ wife, on whom and Joseph there is a long poem in the +Persian, this will not surprise you. If you want authority look at +Jones, D'Herbelot, 'Vathek', or the notes to the 'Arabian Nights'; and, +if you think it necessary, model this into a _note_. + +Alter, in the inscription, "the most affectionate respect," to "with +every sentiment of regard and respect," + + + +[Footnote 1: + + "Some doubt had been expressed by Murray as to the propriety of his + putting the name of Cain into the mouth of a Mussulman." + +(Moore).] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +351.--To John Murray. + + +Nov. 14, 1813. + + +I send you a note for the _ignorant_, but I really wonder at finding +_you_ among them. I don't care one lump of Sugar for my _poetry_; but +for my _costume_, and my _correctness_ on those points (of which I think +the _funeral_ was a proof), I will combat lustily. + +Yours ever, + +B. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +352.--To John Murray. + + +November 15, 1813. + + +DEAR SIR,--Mr. Hodgson has looked over and _stopped_, or rather +_pointed_, this revise, which must be the one to print from. He has also +made some suggestions, with most of which I have complied, as he has +always, for these ten years, been a very sincere, and by no means (at +times) flattering critic of mine. _He_ likes it (you will think +_flatteringly_, in this instance) better than 'The Giaour', but doubts +(and so do I) its being so popular; but, contrary to some others, +advises a separate publication. On this we can easily decide. I confess +I like the _double_ form better. Hodgson says, it is _better versified_ +than any of the others; which is odd, if true, as it has cost me less +time (though more _hours_ at a time) than any attempt I ever made. + +Yours ever, B. + +P.S.--Do attend to the punctuation: I can't, for I don't know a +comma--at least where to place one. + +That Tory of a printer has omitted two lines of the opening, and +_perhaps more_, which were in the MS. Will you, pray, give him a hint of +accuracy? I have reinserted the 2, but they were in the manuscript, I +can swear. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +353.--To John Murray. + + +November 17, 1813. + + +My Dear Sir,--That you and I may distinctly understand each other on a +subject, which, like "the dreadful reckoning when men smile no more," +[1] makes conversation not very pleasant, I think it as well to _write_ +a few lines on the topic.--Before I left town for Yorkshire, you said +that you were ready and willing to give five hundred guineas for the +copyright of 'The Giaour'; and my answer was--from which I do not mean +to recede--that we would discuss the point at Christmas. The new story +may or may not succeed; the probability, under present circumstances, +seems to be, that it may at least pay its expences--but even that +remains to be proved, and till it is proved one way or the other, we +will say nothing about it. Thus then be it: I will postpone all +arrangement about it, and 'The Giaour' also, till Easter, 1814; and you +shall then, according to your own notions of fairness, make your own +offer for the two. At the same time, I do not rate the last in my own +estimation at half 'The Giaour'; and according to your own notions of +its worth and its success within the time mentioned, be the addition or +deduction to or from whatever sum may be your proposal for the first, +which has already had its success [2]. + +My account with you since my last payment (which I believe cleared it +off within five pounds) I presume has not _much_ increased--but whatever +it is have the goodness to send it to me--that I may at least meet you +on even terms. + +The pictures of Phillips I consider as _mine_, all three; and the one +(not the Arnaut) of the two best is much at _your service_, if you will +accept it as a present, from Yours very truly, BIRON. + +P.S.--The expence of engraving from the miniature send me in my account, +as it was destroyed by my desire; and have the goodness to burn that +detestable print from it immediately. + + + +[Footnote 1: 'The What d'ye call't?' by John Gay (act ii. sc. 9): + + "So comes a reckoning when the banquet's o'er, + The dreadful reckoning, and men smile no more."] + + +[Footnote 2: Murray replies, November 18, 1813, + + "I restore the 'Giaour' to your Lordship entirely, and for 'it', the + 'Bride of Abydos', and the miscellaneous poems intended to fill up the + volume of the small edition, I beg leave to offer you the sum of One + Thousand Guineas, and I shall be happy if you perceive that my + estimation of your talents in my character of a man of business is not + much under my admiration of them as a man."] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +354.--To John Murray. + + +November 20, 1813. + + +More work for the _Row_. I am doing my best to beat "_The Giaour_"--_no_ +difficult task for any one but the author. Yours truly, +B. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +355.--To John Murray. + + +November 22, 1813. + + +DEAR SIR,--I have no time to _cross_-investigate, but I believe and hope +all is right. I care less than you will believe about its success, but I +can't survive a single _misprint_; it _choaks_ me to see words misused +by the Printers. Pray look over, in case of some eyesore escaping me. +Ever yours, B. + +P.S.--Send the earliest copies to Mr. Frere, Mr. Canning, Mr. Heber, Mr. +Gifford, Lord Holland, Lady Melbourne (Whitehall), Lady C. L. (Brocket), +Mr. Hodgson (Cambridge), Mr. Merivale, Mr. Ward, from the author. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +356.--To John Murray. + + +November 23, 1813. + + +DEAR SIR,--You wanted some _reflections_, and I send you _per Selim_ +(see his speech in Canto 2d, page 46.), eighteen lines in decent +couplets, of a pensive, if not an _ethical_ tendency. One more +revise--poz. the _last_, if decently done--at any rate the +_pen_ultimate. Mr. Canning's approbation (_if_ he did approve) I need +not say makes me proud [1]. + +As to printing, print as you will and how you will--by itself, if you +like; but let me have a few copies in _sheets_. + +Ever yours, + +B. + + + +[Footnote 1: Canning wrote the following note to Murray: + + "I received the books, and, among them, 'The Bride of Abydos'. It is + very, very beautiful. Lord Byron (when I met him, one day, at dinner + at Mr. Ward's) was so kind as to promise to give me a copy of it. I + mention this, not to save my purchase, but because I should be really + flattered by the present. I can now say that I have read enough of + Mad. de Staël to be highly pleased and instructed by her. The second + volume delights me particularly. I have not yet finished the third, + but am taking it with me on my journey to Liverpool."] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +357.--To John Murray. + + +November 24, 1813. + + +You must pardon me once more, as it is all for your good: it must be +thus: + + He makes a Solitude, and calls it Peace. + +"_Makes_" is closer to the passage of Tacitus [1], from which the line +is taken, and is, besides, a stronger word than "_leaves_." + + Mark where his carnage and his conquests cease-- + He makes a Solitude, and calls it--peace. + +You will perceive that the sense is now clearer, the "_He_" refers to +"_Man_" in the preceding couplet. + +Yours ever, + +B. + + + +[Footnote 1: + + "Solitudinem faciunt--pacem appellant." + +Tacitus, 'Agricola', 30.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +358.--To John Murray. + + +November 27, 1813. + + +Dear Sir,--If you look over this carefully by the _last proof_ with my +corrections, it is probably right; this _you_ can _do_ as well or +better;--I have not now time. The copies I mentioned to be sent to +different friends last night, I should wish to be made up with the new +Giaours, if it also is ready. If not, send 'The Giaour' afterwards. + +The 'Morning Post' says _I_ am the author of 'Nourjahad' [1]!! + +This comes of lending the drawings for their dresses; but it is not +worth a _formal contradiction_. Besides, the criticisms on the +_supposition_ will, some of them, be quite amusing and furious. The +_Orientalism_--which I hear is very splendid--of the Melodrame +(whosever it is, and I am sure I don't know) is as good as an +Advertisement for your Eastern Stories, by filling their heads with +glitter. Yours ever, B. + +P.S.--You will of course _say_ the truth, that I am _not_ the +Melo-dramatist--if any one charges me in your presence with the +performance. + + + +[Footnote 1: The same charge is made in the 'Satirist' (vol. xiii. p. +508). 'Illusion, or the Trances of Nourjahad', was acted at Drury Lane, +November 25, 1813. It is described by Genest ('The English Stage', vol. +viii. p. 403) as "a Melo-dramatic spectacle in three acts by an +anonymous author." "Nourjahad" was acted by Elliston; "Mandane," his +wife, by Mrs. Horn.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +359.--To John Murray. + + +November 28, 1813. + + +Dear Sir,--Send another copy (if not too much of a request) to Lady +Holland of the _Journal_ [1], in my name, when you receive this; it is +for _Earl Grey_--and I will relinquish my own. Also to Mr. Sharpe, Lady +Holland, and Lady Caroline Lamb, copies of _The Bride_, as soon as +convenient. Ever yours, BIRON. + +P.S.--Mr. W. and myself still continue our purpose; but I shall not +trouble you on any arrangement on the score of _The Giaour_ and _The +Bride_ till our return,--or, at any rate, before _May_, 1814,--that is, +six months from hence: and before that time you will be able to +ascertain how far your offer may be a losing one: if so, you can deduct +proportionably; and if not, I shall not at any rate allow you to go +higher than your present proposal, which is very handsome, and more than +fair. + +I have had--but this must be _entre nous_--a very kind note, on the +subject of _The Bride_, from Sir James Mackintosh, and an invitation to +go there this evening, which it is now too late to accept [2]. + + + +[Footnote 1: The Rev. John Eagles (1783-1855), scholar, artist, and +contributor (1831-55) to 'Blackwood's Magazine', edited 'The Journal of +Llewellin Penrose, a Seaman', which Murray published in 1815.] + + +[Footnote 2: + + "Lord Byron is the author of the day; six thousand of his 'Bride of + Abydos' have been sold within a month." + +Sir James Mackintosh ('Life', vol. ii. p. 271).] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +360.--To John Murray. + + +November 29, 1813. + +Sunday--Monday morning--three o'clock--in my doublet and +hose,--_swearing_. + +Dear Sir,--I send you in time an Errata page, containing an omission of +mine [1], which must be thus added, as it is too late for insertion in +the text. The passage is an imitation altogether from Medea in Ovid, and +is incomplete without these two lines. Pray let this be done, and +directly; it is necessary, will add one page to your book(-_making_), +and can do no harm, and is yet in time for the _public_. Answer me, thou +Oracle, in the affirmative. You can send the loose pages to those who +have copies already, if they like; but certainly to all the _Critical_ +copyholders. + +Ever yours, BIRON. + +P.S.--I have got out of my bed (in which, however, I could not sleep, +whether I had amended this or not), and so good morning. I am trying +whether _De l'Allemagne_ will act as an opiate, but I doubt it. + + + +[Footnote 1: 'The Bride of Abydos', Canto II. stanza xx. The lines were: + + "Then, if my lip once murmurs, it must be + No sigh for Safety, but a prayer for thee."] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +361.--To John Murray. + + +November 29, 1813. + + +"_You have looked at it!_" to much purpose, to allow so stupid a blunder +to stand; it is _not_ "_courage_" but "_carnage_;" and if you don't want +me to cut my own throat, see it altered. + +I am very sorry to hear of the fall of Dresden. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +362.--To John Murray. + + +Nov. 29, 1813, Monday. + + +Dear Sir,--You will act as you please upon that point; but whether I go +or stay, I shall not say another word on the subject till May--nor then, +unless quite convenient to yourself. I have many things I wish to leave +to your care, principally papers. The _vases_ need not be now sent, as +Mr. W. is gone to Scotland. You are right about the Er[rata] page; place +it at the beginning. Mr. Perry is a little premature in his compliments +[1]: these may do harm by exciting expectation, and I think _we_ ought +to be above it--though I see the next paragraph is on the 'Journal' [2], +which makes me suspect _you_ as the author of both. + +Would it not have been as well to have said in 2 cantos in the +advertisement? they will else think of _fragments_, a species of +composition very well for _once_, like _one ruin_ in a _view_; but one +would not build a town of them. 'The Bride', such as it is, is my first +_entire_ composition of any length (except the Satire, and be damned to +it), for 'The Giaour' is but a string of passages, and 'Childe Harold' +is, and I rather think always will be, unconcluded. I return Mr. Hay's +note, with thanks to him and you. + +There have been some epigrams on Mr. W[ard]: one I see to-day [3]. + +The first I did not see, but heard yesterday. The second seems very bad +and Mr. P[erry] has placed it over _your_ puff. I only hope that Mr. W. +does not believe that I had any connection with either. The Regent is +the only person on whom I ever expectorated an epigram, or ever should; +and even if I were disposed that way, I like and value Mr. W. too well +to allow my politics to contract into spleen, or to admire any thing +intended to annoy him or his. You need not take the trouble to answer +this, as I shall see you in the course of the afternoon. + +Yours very truly, B. + +P.S.--I have said this much about the epigrams, because I live so much +in the _opposite camp_, and, from my post as an Engineer, might be +suspected as the flinger of these hand Grenadoes; but with a worthy foe +I am all for open war, and not this bush-fighting, and have [not] had, +nor will have, any thing to do with it. I do not know the author. + + + +[Footnote 1: In the 'Morning Chronicle', November 29, 1813, appeared the +following paragraph: + + "Lord Byron's muse is extremely fruitful. He has another poem coming + out, entitled 'The Bride of Abydos', which is spoken of in terms of + the highest encomium."] + + +[Footnote 2: 'Journal of Llewellin Penrose, a Seaman.'] + + +[Footnote 3: + + "Ward has no heart, they say; but I deny it;-- + He has a heart, and gets his speeches by it."] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +363.--To John Murray. + + +Tuesday evening, Nov. 30, 1813. + + +Dear Sir,--For the sake of correctness, particularly in an Errata page, +the alteration of the couplet I have just sent (half an hour ago) must +take place, in spite of delay or cancel; let me see the _proof_ early +to-morrow. I found out _murmur_ to be a neuter _verb_, and have been +obliged to alter the line so as to make it a substantive, thus: + + The deepest murmur of this life shall be + No sigh for Safety, but a prayer for thee! + +Don't send the copies to the _country_ till this is all right. + +Yours, +B. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +364.--To Thomas Moore. + + +November 30, 1813. + + +Since I last wrote to you, much has occurred, good, bad, and +indifferent,--not to make me forget you, but to prevent me from +reminding you of one who, nevertheless, has often thought of you, and to +whom _your_ thoughts, in many a measure, have frequently been a +consolation. We were once very near neighbours this autumn; and a good +and bad neighbourhood it has proved to me. Suffice it to say, that your +French quotation [1] was confoundedly to the purpose,--though very +_unexpectedly_ pertinent, as you may imagine by what I _said_ before, +and my silence since. However, "Richard's himself again," [2] and except +all night and some part of the morning, I don't think very much about +the matter. + +All convulsions end with me in rhyme; and to solace my midnights, I have +scribbled another Turkish story [3]--not a Fragment--which you will +receive soon after this. It does not trench upon your kingdom in the +least, and if it did, you would soon reduce me to my proper boundaries. +You will think, and justly, that I run some risk of losing the little I +have gained in fame, by this further experiment on public patience; but +I have really ceased to care on that head. I have written this, and +published it, for the sake of the _employment_,--to wring my thoughts +from reality, and take refuge in "imaginings," however "horrible;" [4] +and, as to success! those who succeed will console me for a +failure--excepting yourself and one or two more, whom luckily I love too +well to wish one leaf of their laurels a tint yellower. This is the work +of a week, and will be the reading of an hour to you, or even less,--and +so, let it go----. + +P.S.--Ward and I _talk_ of going to Holland. I want to see how a Dutch +canal looks after the Bosphorus. Pray respond. + + + +[Footnote 1: Moore wrote to Byron in 1813 an undated letter, in which +the following passage occurs: + + "I am sorry I must wait till 'we are veterans' before you will open to + me 'the story of your wandering life, wherein you find more hours _due + to repentance_ ... than time hath told you yet.' Is it so with you, or + are you, like me, reprobate enough to look back with complacency on + what you have done? I suppose repentance _must bring up the rear_ with + us all; but at present I should say with old Fontenelle, _Si je + recommençais ma carrière, je ferais tout ce que j'ai fait_."] + + +[Footnote 2: Colley Cibber's 'Richard III', act v. sc. 3: + + "Conscience, avaunt! Richard's himself again."] + + +[Footnote 3: 'The Bride of Abydos' was published December, 1813.] + + +[Footnote 4: + + "Horrible imaginings." + +'Macbeth', act i. sc. 3.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +365.--To Francis Hodgson. + + +Nov'r--Dec'r 1st, 1813. + + +I have just heard that _Knapp_ is acquainted with what I was but too +happy in being enabled to do for you [1]. + +Now, my dear Hn., you, or Drury, must have told this, for, upon my own +honour, not even to Scrope, nor to one soul, (Drury knew it before) have +I said one syllable of the matter. So don't be out of humour with me +about it, but you can't be more so than I am. I am, however, glad of one +thing; if you ever conceived it to be in the least an obligation, this +disclosure most fairly and fully releases you from it: + + "To John I owe some obligation, + But John unluckily thinks fit + To publish it to all the nation, + So John and I are more than quit." + +And so there's an end of the matter. + +Ward _wavers_ a little about the Dutch, till matters are more sedative, +and the French more sedentary. + +The 'Bride' will blush upon you in a day or two; there is _much_, at +least a _little_ addition. I am happy to say that Frere and Heber, and +some other "good men and true," have been kind enough to adopt the same +opinion that you did. + +Pray write when you like, and believe me, + +Ever yours, + +BYRON. + +P.S.--Murray has _offered_ me a thousand guineas for the _two_ ('Giaour' +and 'Bride'), and told M'e. de Stael that he had _paid_ them to me!! I +should be glad to be able to tell her so too. But the truth is, he +would; but I thought the fair way was to decline it till May, and, at +the end of 6 months, he can safely say whether he can afford it or +not--without running any risk by Speculation. If he paid them now and +lost by it, it would be hard. If he gains, it will be time enough when +he has already funded his profits. But he needed not have told "_la +Baronne_" such a devil of an uncalled for piece of--premature _truth_, +perhaps--but, nevertheless, a _lie_ in the mean time. + + + +[Footnote 1: Hodgson, now engaged to Miss Tayler, was anxious to clear +off his father's liabilities. Byron gave him from first to last the sum +of £1500 for the purpose. Hodgson, in a letter to his uncle, thus +describes the gift ('Memoir of Rev. F. Hodgson', vol. i. pp. 268, 269): + + "My noble-hearted friend, Lord Byron, after many offers of a similar + kind, which I felt bound to refuse, has irresistibly in my present + circumstances ... volunteered to pay all my debts, and within a few + pounds it is done! Oh, if you knew (but _you_ do know) the exultation + of heart, aye, and of head too, I feel at being free from these + depressing embarrassments, you would, as I do, bless my dearest friend + and brother Byron."] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +366.--To John Murray. + + +Dec. 2, 1813. + + +Dear Sir,--When you can, let the couplet enclosed be inserted either in +the page, or in the Errata page. I trust it is in time for some of the +copies. This alteration is in the same part--the page _but one_ before +the last correction sent. + +Yours, etc., + +B. + +P.S.--I am afraid, from all I hear, that people are rather inordinate in +their expectations, which is very unlucky, but cannot now be helped. +This comes of Mr. Perry and one's wise friends; but do not _you_ wind +_your_ hopes of success to the same pitch, for fear of accidents, and I +can assure you that my philosophy will stand the test very fairly; and I +have done every thing to ensure you, at all events, from positive loss, +which will be some satisfaction to both. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +367.--To Leigh Hunt. + + +4, Bennet St., Dec. 2, 1813. + + +My dear Sir,--Few things could be more welcome than your note, and on +Saturday morning I will avail myself of your permission to thank you for +it in person. My time has not been passed, since we met, either +profitably or agreeably. A very short period after my last visit, an +incident occurred with which, I fear, you are not unacquainted, as +report, in many mouths and more than one paper, was busy with the topic. +That, naturally, gave me much uneasiness. Then I nearly incurred a +lawsuit on the sale of an estate; but that is now arranged: next--but +why should I go on with a series of selfish and silly details? I merely +wish to assure you that it was not the frivolous forgetfulness of a +mind, occupied by what is called pleasure (_not_ in the true sense of +Epicurus), that kept me away; but a perception of my, then, unfitness to +share the society of those whom I value and wish not to displease. I +hate being _larmoyant_, and making a serious face among those who are +cheerful. + +It is my wish that our acquaintance, or, if you please to accept it, +friendship, may be permanent. I have been lucky enough to preserve some +friends from a very early period, and I hope, as I do not (at least now) +select them lightly, I shall not lose them capriciously. I have a +thorough esteem for that independence of spirit [1] which you have +maintained with sterling talent, and at the expense of some suffering. +You have not, I trust, abandoned the poem you were composing, when Moore +and I partook of your hospitality in the summer. I hope a time will come +when he and I may be able to repay you in kind for the _latter_--for the +rhyme, at least in _quantity_, you are in arrear to both. + +Believe me, very truly and affectionately yours, + +Byron. + + + +[Footnote 1: The following is Leigh Hunt's answer: + + "My dear Lord,--I need not tell you how much your second letter has + gratified me, for I am apt to speak as sincerely as I think (you must + suffer me to talk in this way after what you have been kind enough to + say of my independence), and it always rejoices me to find that those + whom I wish to regard will take me at my word. But I shall grow + egotistical upon the strength of your Lordship's good opinion. I shall + be heartily glad to see you on Saturday morning, and perhaps shall + prevail upon you to take a luncheon with us at our dinner-time(3). The + nature of your letter would have brought upon you a long answer, + filled perhaps with an enthusiasm that might have made you smile; but + I am keeping your servant in the cold, and so, among other good + offices, you see what he has done for you. However, I would not make a + light thing of so good a matter as I mean my enthusiasm to be, and + intend, before I have done, that you shall have as sound a regard for + it, as I have for the feelings on your Lordship's part that have + called it forth. + + "Yours, my dear Lord, most sincerely and cordially, + + "Leigh Hunt. + + "Surrey Jail, 2'd Dec'r., 1813."] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +368.--To John Murray. + + +Dec. 3, 1813. + + +I send you a _scratch_ or _two_, the which _heal_. The _Christian +Observer_ [1] is very savage, but certainly uncommonly well written--and +quite uncomfortable at the naughtiness of book and author. I rather +suspect you won't much like the _present_ to be more moral, if it is to +share also the usual fate of your virtuous volumes. + +Let me see a proof of the _six_ before _incorporation_. + + + +[Footnote 1: The 'Christian Observer' for November, 1813 (pp. 731-737) +felt compelled to review 'The Giaour', because of its extraordinary +popularity; but it found that some of the passages savoured "too much of +Newgate and Bedlam for our expurgated pages." It acknowledged one +obligation to Byron. + + "He never attempts to deceive the world by representing the profligate + as happy.... And his testimony is of the more value, as his situation + in life must have permitted him to see the experiment tried under the + most favourable circumstances. He has probably seen more than one + example of young men of high birth, talents, and expectancies, ... + sink under the burden of unsubdued tempers, licentious alliances, and + ennervating indulgence.... He has _seen_ all this; nay, perhaps--But + we check our pen," etc., etc.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +369.--To John Murray. + + +Dec. 3, 1813. + + +My dear Sir,--Look out the Encyclopedia article _Mecca_ whether it is +there or at _Medina_ the Prophet is entombed, if at Medina the first +lines of my alteration must run: + + Blest as the call which from Medina's dome + Invites Devotion to her Prophet's tomb, etc. + +If at "Mecca" the lines may stand as before. Page 45, C°. 2nd, 'Bride of +Abydos'. Yours, B. + +You will find this out either by Article _Mecca, Medina_ or _Mahommed_. +I have no book of reference by me. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +370.--To John Murray. + + +[No date.] + + +Did you look out? is it _Medina_ or _Mecca_ that contains the _holy_ +Sepulchre? don't make me blaspheme by your negligence. I have no books +of reference or I would save you the trouble. I _blush_ as a good +Mussulman to have confused the point. Yours, B. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +371.--To John Murray. + + +Dec. 4, 1813. + + +Dear Sir,--I have redde through your Persian Tales [1], and have taken +the liberty of making some remarks on the _blank_ pages. There are many +beautiful passages, and an interesting story; and I cannot give you a +stronger proof that such is my opinion, than by the _date_ of the +_hour--two o'clock_,--till which it has kept me awake _without a yawn_. + +The conclusion is not quite correct in _costume_: there is no _Mussulman +suicide_ on record--at least for _love_. But this matters not. The tale +must have been written by some one who has been on the spot, and I wish +him, and he deserves, success. Will you apologise to the author for the +liberties I have taken with his MS.? Had I been less awake to, and +interested in, his theme, I had been less obtrusive; but you know _I_ +always take this in good part, and I hope he will. It is difficult to +say what _will_ succeed, and still more to pronounce what _will not_. +_I_ am at this moment in _that uncertainty_ (on your _own_ score); and +it is no small proof of the author's powers to be able to _charm_ and +_fix_ a _mind's_ attention on similar subjects and climates in such a +predicament. That he may have the same effect upon all his readers is +very sincerely the wish, and hardly the _doubt_, of + +Yours truly, B. + + + +[Footnote 1: Henry Gally Knight (1786-1846), who was with Byron at +Trinity, Cambridge, and afterwards distinguished himself by his +architectural writings (e.g. 'The Normans in Sicily,' 1838), began his +literary career with 'Ilderim, a Syrian Tale' (1816). 'Phrosyne, a +Grecian Tale'; 'Alashtar, an Arabian Tale' (1817), was followed, after a +considerable interval, by 'Eastern Sketches' (about 1829-30). If the +manuscript of the first-mentioned volume is that to which Byron refers, +he seems to have changed his mind as to its merits (March 25, 1817): + + "I tried at 'Ilderim;' + Ahem!"] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +372.--To John Murray. + + +Monday evening, Dec. 6, 1813. + + +Dear Sir,--It is all very well, except that the lines are not numbered +properly, and a diabolical mistake, page 67., which _must_ be corrected +with the _pen_, if no other way remains; it is the omission of "_not_" +before "_disagreeable_" in the _note_ on the _amber_ rosary. This is +really horrible, and nearly as bad as the stumble of mine at the +Threshold--I mean the _misnomer_ of bride. Pray do not let a copy go +without the "_not_;" it is nonsense, and worse than nonsense, as it now +stands. I wish the printer was saddled with a vampire. + +Yours ever, B. + +P.S.--It is still _hath_ instead of _have_ in page 20.; never was any +one so _misused_ as I am by your Devils of printers. + +P.S.--I hope and trust the "_not_" was inserted in the first Edition. We +must have something--any thing--to set it right. It is enough to answer +for one's own bulls, without other people's. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +373.--To Thomas Moore. + + +December 8, 1813. + + +Your letter, like all the best, and even kindest things in this world, +is both painful and pleasing. But, first, to what sits nearest. Do you +know I was actually about to dedicate to you,--not in a formal +inscription, as to one's _elders_,--but through a short prefatory +letter, in which I boasted myself your intimate, and held forth the +prospect of _your_ poem; when, lo! the recollection of your strict +injunctions of secrecy as to the said poem, more than _once_ repeated by +word and letter, flashed upon me, and marred my intents. I could have no +motive for repressing my own desire of alluding to you (and not a day +passes that I do not think and talk of you), but an idea that you might, +yourself, dislike it. You cannot doubt my sincere admiration, waving +personal friendship for the present, which, by the by, is not less +sincere and deep rooted. I have you by rote and by heart; of which _ecce +signum!_ When I was at Aston, on my first visit, I have a habit, in +passing my time a good deal alone, of--I won't call it singing, for that +I never attempt except to myself--but of uttering, to what I think +tunes, your "Oh breathe not," "When the last glimpse," and "When he who +adores thee," with others of the same minstrel;--they are my matins and +vespers. I assuredly did not intend them to be overheard, but, one +morning, in comes, not _La Donna_, but _Il Marito_, with a very grave +face, saying, "Byron, I must request you won't sing any more, at least +of those songs." I stared, and said, "Certainly, but why?"--"To tell you +the truth," quoth he, "they make my wife _cry_, and so melancholy, that +I wish her to hear no more of them." + +Now, my dear M., the effect must have been from your words, and +certainly not my music. I merely mention this foolish story to show you +how much I am indebted to you for even your pastimes. A man may praise +and praise, but no one recollects but that which pleases--at least, in +composition. Though I think no one equal to you in that department, or +in satire,--and surely no one was ever so popular in both,--I certainly +am of opinion that you have not yet done all _you_ can do, though more +than enough for any one else. I want, and the world expects, a longer +work from you; and I see in you what I never saw in poet before, a +strange diffidence of your own powers, which I cannot account for, and +which must be unaccountable, when a _Cossac_ like me can appal a +_cuirassier_. Your story I did not, could not, know,--I thought only of +a Peri. I wish you had confided in me, not for your sake, but mine, and +to prevent the world from losing a much better poem than my own, but +which, I yet hope, this _clashing_ will not even now deprive them of +[1]. + +Mine is the work of a week, written, _why_ I have partly told you, and +partly I cannot tell you by letter--some day I will. + +Go on--I shall really be very unhappy if I at all interfere with you. +The success of mine is yet problematical; though the public will +probably purchase a certain quantity, on the presumption of their own +propensity for 'The Giaour' and such "horrid mysteries." The only +advantage I have is being on the spot; and that merely amounts to saving +me the trouble of turning over books which I had better read again. If +_your chamber_ was furnished in the same way, you have no need to _go +there_ to describe--I mean only as to _accuracy_--because I drew it from +recollection. + +This last thing of mine _may_ have the same fate, and I assure you I +have great doubts about it. But, even if not, its little day will be +over before you are ready and willing. Come out--"screw your courage to +the sticking-place." [2] + +Except the _Post Bag_ (and surely you cannot complain of a want of +success there), you have not been _regularly_ out for some years. No man +stands higher,--whatever you may think on a rainy day, in your +provincial retreat. + + "Aucun homme, dans aucune langue, n'a été, peut-être, plus + complètement le poëte du coeur et le poëte des femmes. Les critiques + lui reprochent de n'avoir représenté le monde ní tel qu'il est, ni tel + qu'il doit être; _mais les femmes répondent qu'il l'a représenté tel + qu'elles le désirent._" + +I should have thought Sismondi [3] had written this for you instead of +Metastasio. + +Write to me, and tell me of _yourself_. Do you remember what Rousseau +said to some one--"Have we quarrelled? you have talked to me often, and +never once mentioned yourself." + +P.S.--The last sentence is an indirect apology for my egotism,--but I +believe in letters it is allowed. I wish it was _mutual_. I have met +with an odd reflection in Grimm; it shall not--at least the bad part--be +applied to you or me, though _one_ of us has certainly an indifferent +name--but this it is:--"Many people have the reputation of being wicked, +with whom we should be too happy to pass our lives". I need not add it +is a woman's saying--a Mademoiselle de Sommery's [4]. + + + +[Footnote 1: + + "Among the stories intended to be introduced into 'Lalla Rookh', which + I had begun, but, from various causes, never finished, there was one + which I had made some progress in, at the time of the appearance of + 'The Bride', and which, on reading that poem, I found to contain such + singular coincidences with it, not only in locality and costume, but + in plot and characters, that I immediately gave up my story + altogether, and began another on an entirely new subject--the + Fire-worshippers. To this circumstance, which I immediately + communicated to him, Lord Byron alludes in this letter. In my hero (to + whom I had even given the name of 'Zelim,' and who was a descendant of + Ali, outlawed, with all his followers, by the reigning Caliph) it was + my intention to shadow out, as I did afterwards in another form, the + national cause of Ireland. To quote the words of my letter to Lord + Byron on the subject: 'I chose this story because one writes best + about what one feels most, and I thought the parallel with Ireland + would enable me to infuse some vigour into my hero's character. But to + aim at vigour and strong feeling after 'you' is hopeless;--that region + "was made for Cæsar."'" + +(Moore).] + + +[Footnote 2: 'Macbeth', act i. sc. 7.] + + +[Footnote 3: 'De la Littérature du Midi de l'Europe', ed. 1813, tom. ii. +p. 436.] + + +[Footnote 4: Grimm ('Correspondance Littéraire', ed. 1813, part iii. tom +ii. p. 126) says of Mlle. de Sommery, who died of apoplexy in 1790, + + "Que de gens ont la réputation d'être méchans, avec lesquels on serait + trop heureux de passer sa vie." + +The 'Biographie Universelle' says of her, + + "Elle avait du talent pour écrire; mais elle ne l'exerça que fort tard + .... Le premier livre qu'elle publia, n'étant plus très jeune, fut un + recueil de pensées détachées, dédié aux mânes de Saurin, qu'elle + intitula 'Doutes sur differentes Opinions reçues dans la Societé'. Ce + recueil eut un véritable succés." + +Mlle. de Sommery also published, besides the 'Doutes' (1782), 'Lettres +de Madame la Comtesse de L. à M. le Comte de R'. (1785); 'Lettres de +Mlle. de Tourville à Madame la Comtesse de Lénoncourt' (1788); +'L'Oreille, conte Asiatique' (1789).] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +374.--To John Galt [1]. + + +Dec. 11, 1813. + + +My dear Galt,--There was no offence--there _could_ be none. I thought it +by no means impossible that we might have hit on something similar, +particularly as you are a dramatist, and was anxious to assure you of +the truth, viz., that I had not wittingly seized upon plot, sentiment, +or incident; and I am very glad that I have not in any respect trenched +upon your subjects. Something still more singular is, that the _first_ +part, where you have found a coincidence in some events within your +observations on _life_, was _drawn_ from _observations_ of mine also, +and I meant to have gone on with the story, but on _second_ thoughts, I +thought myself _two centuries_ at least too late for the subject; which, +though admitting of very powerful feeling and description, yet is not +adapted for this age, at least this country, though the finest works of +the Greeks, one of Schiller's and Alfieri's in modern times, besides +several of our _old_ (and best) dramatists, have been grounded on +incidents of a similar cast. I therefore altered it as you perceive, and +in so doing have weakened the whole, by interrupting the train of +thought: and in composition I do not think _second_ thoughts are the +best, though _second_ expressions may improve the first ideas. + +I do not know how other men feel towards those they have met abroad, but +to me there seems a kind of tie established between all who have met +together in a foreign country, as if we had met in a state of +pre-existence, and were talking over a life that has ceased: but I +always look forward to renewing my travels; and though _you_, I think, +are now stationary, if I can at all forward your pursuits _there_ as +well as here, I shall be truly glad in the opportunity. + +Ever yours very sincerely, B. + +P.S.--I leave town for a day or two on Monday, but after that I am +always at home, and happy to see you till half-past two. + + + +[Footnote 1: For John Galt, see 'Letters', vol. i. p. 243 [Footnote 1 of +Letter 130], and vol. ii. p. 101, 'note' 1 [Footnote 1 of Letter 255]. +Galt wrote to Byron in 1813, pointing out that "there was a remarkable +coincidence in the story" (of 'The Bride of Abydos') "with a matter in +which I had been interested" ('Life of Byron', p. 180, ed. 1830). Byron, +imagining himself charged with plagiarism, wrote a somewhat angry reply, +to which Gait answered by stating that the coincidence was not one of +ideas, sentiment, or story, but of real fact. He received the above +answer ('Life of Byron', pp. 181, 182). + +On this poem Byron seems to have been particularly sensitive. He is +accused of borrowing the opening lines from Mignon's song in Goethe's +'Wilhelm Meister': + + "Kennst du das Land wo die Citronen blühn?" + +Cyrus Redding ('Yesterday and To-day', vol. ii. pp. 14, 15) suggests +that Byron used the translation of the poem which he himself had made +and published in 1812 or 1813. + +Byron was also charged with pilfering them from Madame de Staël. + + "Do you know de Staël's lines?" he asked Lady Blessington + ('Conversations', pp. 326, 327); "for if I am a thief, she must be the + plundered, as I don't read German and do French: yet I could almost + swear that I never saw her verses when I wrote mine, nor do I even now + remember them. I think the first began with 'Cette terre,' etc., etc.; + but the rest I forget. As you have a good memory, perhaps you would + repeat them." + + "I did so," says Lady Blessington, "and they are as follows: + + "'Cette terre, où les myrtes fleurissent, + Où les rayons des cieux tombent avec amour, + Où des sons enchanteurs dans les airs retentissent, + Où la plus douce nuit succéde au plus beau jour,' etc."] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +375.--To John Murray. + + +Decr. y'r 14th, 1813. + + +Deare Sir,--Send y'e E'r of ye new R'w a copy as he hath had y'e trouble +of two walks on y't acct. + +As to the man of the _Satirist_--I hope you have too much spirit to +allow a single Sheet to be offered as a peace offering to him or any +one. If you _do_, expect _never_ to be _forgiven_ by me--if he is not +personal he is quite welcome to his opinion--and if he is, I have my own +remedy. + +Send a copy _double_ to Dr. Clarke (y'e traveller) Cambrigge by y'e +first opportunitie--and let me see you in y'e morninge y't I may mention +certain thinges y'e which require sundrie though slight alterations. + +Sir, your Servitor, Biroñ + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +376.--To Thomas Ashe [1]. + + +4, Bennet Street, St. James's, Dec. 14, 1813. + + +Sir,--I leave town for a few days to-morrow. On my return, I will answer +your letter more at length. + +Whatever may be your situation, I cannot but commend your resolution to +abjure and abandon the publication and composition of works such as +those to which you have alluded. Depend upon it they amuse _few_, +disgrace both _reader_ and _writer_, and benefit _none_. It will be my +wish to assist you, as far as my limited means will admit, to break such +a bondage. In your answer, inform me what sum you think would enable you +to extricate yourself from the hands of your employers, and to regain, +at least, temporary independence, and I shall be glad to contribute my +mite towards it. At present, I must conclude. Your name is not unknown +to me, and I regret, for your own sake, that you have ever lent it to +the works you mention. In saying this, I merely repeat your _own words_ +in your letter to me, and have no wish whatever to say a single syllable +that may appear to insult your misfortunes. If I have, excuse me; it is +unintentional. + +Yours, etc., + +BYRON. + + + +[Footnote 1: Thomas Ashe (1770-1835) had already written books of travel +in North and South America, and two novels--'The Spirit of "The +Book'"(1811), and 'The Liberal Critic, or Henry Percy' (1812). He was a +man of more ability than character, but possessed little of either. His +'Memoirs' (1815) describe his literary undertakings, one at least of +which was of a blackmailing kind, and are interspersed with +protestations of his desire for independence, and of regrets for the +wretched stuff that dropped from his pen. + +His first novel, 'The Spirit of "The Book,"' gained some success from +its subject. In 1806-7 Lady Douglas brought certain charges against the +Princess of Wales, which were answered on her behalf by Spencer +Perceval. The extraordinary secrecy with which this defence, called "The +Book," was printed, and its complete suppression, excited curiosity, +which was increased by the following advertisement in the 'Times' for +March 27, 1809: + + "'A Book'--Any Person having in their possession a COPY of a CERTAIN + BOOK, printed by Mr. Edwards, in 1807, but 'never published', + with W. Lindsell's Name as the Seller of the same on the title page, + and will bring it to W. Lindsell, Bookseller, Wimpole-Street, will + receive a handsome gratuity." + +The subject-matter of this book, then unknown to the public, Ashe +professes to embody in 'The Spirit of "The Book;" or, Memoirs of +Caroline, Princess of Hasburgh, a Political and Amatory Romance' (3 +vols., 1811). The letters, which purport to be written from Caroline to +Charlotte, and contain (vol. ii. pp. 152-181) an attack on the Lady +Jersey, who attended the princess, are absolutely dull, and scarcely +even indecent. + +Ashe's 'Memoirs and Confessions' (3 vols., 1815) are dedicated to the +Duke of Northumberland and to Byron, to whom, in a preface written at +Havre, he acknowledges his "transcendent obligations."] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +377.--To Professor Clarke [1]. + + +Dec. 15, 1813. + + +Your very kind letter is the more agreeable, because, setting aside +talents, judgment, and the _laudari a laudato_, etc., you have been on +the spot; you have seen and described more of the East than any of your +predecessors--I need not say how ably and successfully; and (excuse the +bathos) you are one of the very few men who can pronounce how far my +costume (to use an affected but expressive word) is correct. As to +poesy, that is, as "men, gods, and columns," please to decide upon it; +but I am sure that I am anxious to have an observer's, particularly a +famous observer's, testimony on the fidelity of my manners and dresses; +and, as far as memory and an oriental twist in my imagination have +permitted, it has been my endeavour to present to the Franks, a sketch +of that of which you have and will present them a complete picture. It +was with this notion, that I felt compelled to make my hero and heroine +relatives, as you well know that none else could there obtain that +degree of intercourse leading to genuine affection; I had nearly made +them rather too much akin to each other; and though the wild passions of +the East, and some great examples in Alfieri, Ford, and Schiller (to +stop short of antiquity), might have pleaded in favour of a copyist, yet +the time and the north (not Frederic, but our climate) induced me to +alter their consanguinity and confine them to cousinship. I also wished +to try my hand on a female character in Zuleika, and have endeavoured, +as far as the grossness of our masculine ideas will allow, to preserve +her purity without impairing the ardour of her attachment. + +As to criticism, I have been reviewed about a hundred and fifty +times--praised and abused. I will not say that I am become indifferent +to either eulogy or condemnation, but for some years at least I have +felt grateful for the former, and have never attempted to answer the +latter. For success equal to the first efforts, I had and have no hope; +the novelty was over, and the "Bride," like all other brides, must +suffer or rejoice for and with her husband. By the bye, I have used +"bride" Turkishly, as affianced, not married; and so far it is an +English bull, which, I trust, will be at least a comfort to all +Hibernians not bigotted to monopoly. You are good enough to mention your +quotations in your third volume. I shall not only be indebted to it for +a renewal of the high gratification received from the two first, but for +preserving my relics embalmed in your own spices, and ensuring me +readers to whom I could not otherwise have aspired. + +I called on you, as bounden by duty and inclination, when last in your +neighbourhood; but I shall always take my chance; you surely would not +have me inflict upon you a formal annunciation; I am proud of your +friendship, but not so fond of myself as to break in upon your better +avocations. I trust that Mrs. Clarke is well; I have never had the +honour of presentation, but I have heard so much of her in many +quarters, that any notice she is pleased to take of my productions is +not less gratifying than my thanks are sincere, both to her and you; by +all accounts I may safely congratulate you on the possession of "a +bride" whose mental and personal accomplishments are more than poetical. + +P. S.--Murray has sent, or will send, a double copy of the _Bride_ and +_Giaour_; in the last one, some lengthy additions; pray accept them, +according to old custom, "from the author" to one of his better +brethren. Your Persian, or any memorial, will be a most agreeable, and +it is my fault if not an useful present. I trust your third will be out +before I sail next month; can I say or do anything for you in the +Levant? I am now in all the agonies of equipment, and full of schemes, +some impracticable, and most of them improbable; but I mean to fly +"freely to the green earth's end," [2] though not quite so fast as +Milton´s sprite. + +P. S. 2nd.--I have so many things to say.--I want to show you Lord +Sligo's letter to me detailing, as he heard them on the spot, the +Athenian account of our adventure (a personal one), which certainly +first suggested to me the story of _The Giaour_. It was a strange and +not a very long story, and his report of the reports (he arrived just +after my departure, and I did not know till last summer that he knew +anything of the matter) is not very far from the truth. Don't be +alarmed. There was nothing that led further than to the water's edge; +but one part (as is often the case in life) was more singular than any +of the _Giaour's_ adventures. I never have, and never should have, +alluded to it on my own authority, from respect to the ancient proverb +on Travellers. + + + +[Footnote 1: Dr. Clark, in October, 1814, was a candidate for the +Professorship of Anatomy, and Byron went to Cambridge to vote for his +friend. Writing to Miss Tayler, Hodgson ('Memoir', vol. i. p. 292) adds +a postscript: + + "I open my letter to say that when Lord Byron went to give his vote + just now in the Senate House, the young men burst out into the most + rapturous applause." + +The next day he writes again: + + "I should add that as I was going to vote I met him coming away, and + presently saw that something had happened, by his extreme paleness and + agitation. Dr. Clark, who was with him, told me the cause, and I + returned with B. to my room. There I begged him to sit down and write + a letter and communicate this event, which he did not feel up to, but + wished 'I' would. So down I sate, and commenced my acquaintance + with Miss Milbanke by writing her an account of this most pleasing + event, which, although nothing at Oxford, is here very unusual indeed." + +The following was Miss Milbanke's answer ('ibid'., pp. 296, 297), dated, +"Seaham, November 25, 1814:" + + "Dear Sir,--It will be easier for you to imagine than for me to + express the pleasure which your very kind letter has given me. Not + only on account of its gratifying intelligence, but also as + introductory to an acquaintance which I have been taught to value, and + have sincerely desired. Allow me to consider Lord Byron's friend as + not 'a stranger,' and accept, with my sincerest thanks, my best wishes + for your own happiness. + + "I am, dear sir, your faithful servant, + + "A. I. MlLBANKE." ] + + +[Footnote 2: The Spirit in Milton´s 'Comus, a Mask' (lines 1012, 1013), +says: + + "I can fly, or I can run + Quickly to the green earth´s end."] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +378.--To Leigh Hunt. + + +Dec. 22, 1813. + + +My Dear Sir,--I am indeed "in your debt,"--and, what is still worse, am +obliged to follow _royal_ example (he has just apprised _his_ creditors +that they must wait till the next meeting), and intreat your indulgence +for, I hope, a very short time. The nearest relation and almost the only +friend I possess, has been in London for a week, and leaves it tomorrow +with me for her own residence. I return immediately; but we meet so +seldom, and are so _minuted_ when we meet at all, that I give up all +engagements till _now_, without reluctance. On my return, I must see you +to console myself for my past disappointment. I should feel highly +honoured in Mr. B.'s permission to make his acquaintance, and _there_ +you are in _my_ debt; for it is a promise of last summer which I still +hope to see performed. Yesterday I had a letter from Moore; you have +probably heard from him lately; but if not, you will be glad to learn +that he is the same in heart, head, and health. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +379.--To John Murray. + + +December 27, 1813. + + +Lord Holland is laid up with the gout, and would feel very much obliged +if you could obtain, and send as soon as possible, Madame D'Arblay's (or +even Miss Edgeworth's) new work. I know they are not out; but it is +perhaps possible for your _Majesty_ to command what we cannot with much +suing purchase, as yet. I need not say that when you are able or willing +to confer the same favour on me, I shall be obliged. I would almost fall +sick myself to get at Madame D'Arblay's writings. + +P.S.--You were talking to-day of the American E'n of a certain +unquenchable memorial of my younger days [1]. As it can't be helped now, +I own I have some curiosity to see a copy of transatlantic typography. +This you will perhaps obtain, and one for yourself; but I must beg that +you will not _import more_, because, _seriously_, I _do wish_ to have +that thing forgotten as much as it has been forgiven. + +If you send to the 'Globe' E'r, say that I want neither excuse nor +contradiction, but merely a discontinuance of a most ill-grounded +charge. I never was consistent in any thing but my politics; and as my +redemption depends on that solitary virtue, it is murder to carry away +my last anchor. + + + +[Footnote 1: 'English Bards, and Scotch Reviewers'.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + +JOURNAL: NOVEMBER 14, 1813--APRIL 19, 1814. + +If this had been begun ten years ago, and faithfully kept!!!--heigho! +there are too many things I wish never to have remembered, as it is. +Well,--I have had my share of what are called the pleasures of this +life, and have seen more of the European and Asiatic world than I have +made a good use of. They say "Virtue is its own reward,"--it certainly +should be paid well for its trouble. At five-and-twenty, when the better +part of life is over, one should be _something_;--and what am I? nothing +but five-and-twenty--and the odd months. What have I seen? the same man +all over the world,--ay, and woman too. Give _me_ a Mussulman who never +asks questions, and a she of the same race who saves one the trouble of +putting them. But for this same plague--yellow fever--and Newstead +delay, I should have been by this time a second time close to the +Euxine. If I can overcome the last, I don't so much mind your +pestilence; and, at any rate, the spring shall see me there,--provided I +neither marry myself, nor unmarry any one else in the interval. I wish +one was--I don't know what I wish. It is odd I never set myself +seriously to wishing without attaining it--and repenting. I begin to +believe with the good old Magi, that one should only pray for the +nation, and not for the individual;--but, on my principle, this would +not be very patriotic. + +No more reflections.--Let me see--last night I finished "Zuleika," my +second Turkish Tale. I believe the composition of it kept me alive--for +it was written to drive my thoughts from the recollection of: + + "Dear sacred name, rest ever unreveal'd." [1] + +At least, even here, my hand would tremble to write it. This afternoon I +have burnt the scenes of my commenced comedy. I have some idea of +expectorating a romance, or rather a tale in prose;--but what romance +could equal the events: + +"quæque ipse......vidi, +Et quorum pars magna fui." [2] + +To-day Henry Byron [3] called on me with my little cousin Eliza. She +will grow up a beauty and a plague; but, in the mean time, it is the +prettiest child! dark eyes and eyelashes, black and long as the wing of +a raven. I think she is prettier even than my niece, Georgina,--yet I +don't like to think so neither: and though older, she is not so clever. + +Dallas called before I was up, so we did not meet. Lewis [4], too,--who +seems out of humour with every thing. + +What can be the matter? he is not married--has he lost his own mistress, +or any other person's wife? Hodgson, too, came. He is going to be +married, and he is the kind of man who will be the happier. He has +talent, cheerfulness, every thing that can make him a pleasing +companion; and his intended is handsome and young, and all that. But I +never see any one much improved by matrimony. All my coupled +contemporaries are bald and discontented. W[ordsworth] and S[outhey] +have both lost their hair and good humour; and the last of the two had a +good deal to lose. But it don't much signify what falls _off_ a man's +temples in that state. + +Mem. I must get a toy to-morrow for Eliza, and send the device for the +seals of myself and----Mem. too, to call on the Stael and Lady Holland +to-morrow, and on----, who has advised me (without seeing it, by the +by) not to publish "Zuleika;" [5] I believe he is right, but experience +might have taught him that not to print is _physically_ impossible. No +one has seen it but Hodgson and Mr. Gifford. I never in my life _read_ a +composition, save to Hodgson, as he pays me in kind. It is a horrible +thing to do too frequently;--better print, and they who like may read, +and if they don't like, you have the satisfaction of knowing that they +have, at least, _purchased_ the right of saying so. + +I have declined presenting the Debtors' Petition [6], being sick of +parliamentary mummeries. I have spoken thrice; but I doubt my ever +becoming an orator. My first was liked; the second and third--I don't +know whether they succeeded or not. I have never yet set to it _con +amore_;--one must have some excuse to one's self for laziness, or +inability, or both, and this is mine. "Company, villanous company, hath +been the spoil of me;" [7]--and then, I "have drunk medicines," not to +make me love others, but certainly enough to hate myself. + +Two nights ago I saw the tigers sup at Exeter 'Change. Except Veli +Pacha's lion in the Morea,--who followed the Arab keeper like a +dog,--the fondness of the hyæna for her keeper amused me most. Such a +conversazione!--There was a "hippopotamus," like Lord Liverpool in the +face; and the "Ursine Sloth" had the very voice and manner of my +valet--but the tiger talked too much. The elephant took and gave me my +money again--took off my hat--opened a door--_trunked_ a whip--and +behaved so well, that I wish he was my butler. The handsomest animal on +earth is one of the panthers; but the poor antelopes were dead. I should +hate to see one _here:_--the sight of the _camel_ made me pine again +for Asia Minor. _"Oh quando te aspiciam?_" + + + +[Footnote 1: + + "Dear fatal name! rest ever unrevealed, + Nor pass these lips in holy silence sealed." + +Pope's 'Eloisa to Abelard', lines 9, 10.] + + +[Footnote 2: Virgil, 'Æneid', ii. 5: + + ". ... quoeque ipse miserrima vidi + Et quorum pars magna fui."] + + +[Footnote 3: The Rev. Henry Byron, second son of the Rev. and Hon. +Richard Byron, and nephew of William, fifth Lord Byron, died in 1821. +His daughter Eliza married, in 1830, George Rochford Clarke. Byron's +"niece Georgina" was the daughter of Mrs. Leigh.] + + +[Footnote 4: Matthew Gregory Lewis (1775-1818), intended by his father +for the diplomatic service, was educated at Westminster and Christ +Church, Weimar, and Paris. He soon showed his taste for literature. At +the age of seventeen he had translated a play from the French, and +written a farce, a comedy called 'The East Indian' (acted at Drury Lane, +April 22, 1799), "two volumes of a novel, two of a romance, besides +numerous poems" ('Life, etc., of M. G. Lewis', vol. i. p. 70). In 1794 +he was attached to the British Embassy at the Hague. There, stimulated +('ibid'., vol. i. p. 123) by reading Mrs. Radcliffe's 'Mysteries of +Udolpho', he wrote 'Ambrosio, or the Monk'. The book, published in 1795, +made him famous in fashionable society, and decided his career. Though +he sat in Parliament for Hindon from 1796 to 1802, he took no part in +politics, but devoted himself to literature. + +The moral and outline of 'The Monk' are taken, as Lewis says in a letter +to his father ('Life, etc.', vol. i. pp. 154-158), and as was pointed +out in the 'Monthly Review' for August, 1797, from Addison's "Santon +Barsisa" in the 'Guardian' (No. 148). The book was severely criticized +on the score of immorality. Mathias ('Pursuits of Literature', Dialogue +iv.) attacks Lewis, whom he compares to John Cleland, whose 'Memoirs of +a Woman of Pleasure' came under the notice of the law courts: + + "Another Cleland see in Lewis rise. + Why sleep the ministers of truth and law?" + +An injunction was, in fact, moved for against the book; but the +proceedings dropped. + +Lewis had a remarkable gift of catching the popular taste of the day, +both in his tales of horror and mystery, and in his ballads. In the +latter he was the precursor of Scott. Many of his songs were sung to +music of his own composition. His 'Tales of Terror' (1799) were +dedicated to Lady Charlotte Campbell, afterwards Bury, with whom he was +in love. To his 'Tales of Wonder' (1801) Scott, Southey, and others +contributed. His most successful plays were 'The Castle Spectre' (Drury +Lane, December 14, 1797), and 'Timour the Tartar' (Covent Garden, April +29, 1811). + +In 1812, by the death of his father, "the Monk" became a rich man, and +the owner of plantations in the West Indies. He paid two visits to his +property, in 1815-16 and 1817-18. On the voyage home from the last visit +he died of yellow fever, and was buried at sea. His 'Journal of a West +Indian Proprietor', published in 1834, is written in sterling English, +with much quiet humour, and a graphic power of very high order. + +Among his 'Detached Thoughts' Byron has the following notes on Lewis: + + "Sheridan was one day offered a bet by M. G. Lewis: 'I will bet you, + Mr. Sheridan, a very large sum--I will bet you what you owe me as + Manager, for my 'Castle Spectre'.' + + "'I never make _large bets_,' said Sheridan, 'but I will lay you a + _very small_ one. I will bet you _what it is_ WORTH!'" + + "Lewis, though a kind man, hated Sheridan, and we had some words upon + that score when in Switzerland, in 1816. Lewis afterwards sent me the + following epigram upon Sheridan from Saint Maurice: + + "'For worst abuse of finest parts + Was Misophil begotten; + There might indeed be _blacker_ hearts, + But none could be more _rotten_.'" + + Lewis at Oatlands was observed one morning to have his eyes red, and + his air sentimental; being asked why? he replied 'that when people + said anything 'kind' to him, it affected him deeply, and just now the + Duchess had said something so kind to him'--here tears began to flow + again. 'Never mind, Lewis,' said Col. Armstrong to him, 'never + mind--don't cry, she could not mean it'.' + + "Lewis was a good man--a clever man, but a bore--a damned bore, one + may say. My only revenge or consolation used to be setting him by the + ears with some vivacious person who hated bores especially--Me. de + Staël or Hobhouse, for example. But I liked Lewis; he was a Jewel of a + Man had he been better set, I don't mean _personally_, but less + _tiresome_, for he was tedious, as well as contradictory to everything + and everybody. Being short-sighted, when we used to ride out together + near the Brenta in the twilight in summer, he made me go _before_ to + pilot him. I am absent at times, especially towards evening, and the + consequence of this pilotage was some narrow escapes to the Monk on + horseback. Once I led him into a ditch, over which I had passed as + usual, forgetting to warn my convoy; once I led him nearly into the + river instead of on the 'moveable' bridge which _in_commodes + passengers; and twice did we both run against the diligence, which, + being heavy and slow, did communicate less damage than it received in + its leaders, who were 'terrasséd' by the charge. Thrice did I lose him + in the gray of the gloaming and was obliged to bring to, to his + distant signals of distance and distress. All the time he went on + talking without intermission, for he was a man of many words. Poor + fellow, he died a martyr to his new riches--of a second visit to + Jamaica. + + "'I'd give the lands of Deloraine + Dark Musgrave were alive again!' + _that is_ + 'I would give many a Sugar Cane + Monk Lewis were alive again!' + + "Lewis said to me, 'Why do you talk 'Venetian' (such as I could + talk, not very fine to be sure) to the Venetians, and not the usual + Italian?' I answered, partly from habit and partly to be understood, + if possible. 'It may be so,' said Lewis, 'but it sounds to me like + talking with a 'brogue' to an _Irishman_.'" + +In a MS. note by Sir Walter Scott on these passages from Byron's +'Detached Thoughts', he says, + + "Mat had queerish eyes; they projected like those of some insect, and + were flattish in their orbit. His person was extremely small and + boyish; he was, indeed, the least man I ever saw to be strictly well + and neatly made. I remember a picture of him by Saunders being handed + round at Dalkeith House. The artist had ungenerously flung a dark + folding mantle round the form, under which was half hid a dagger, or + dark lanthorn, or some such cut-throat appurtenance. With all this the + features were preserved and ennobled. It passed from hand to hand into + that of Henry, Duke of Buccleuch, who, hearing the general voice + affirm that it was very like, said aloud, 'Like Mat Lewis? Why, that + picture is like a 'man'.' He looked, and lo! Mat Lewis's head was at + his elbow. His boyishness went through life with him. He was a child, + and a spoiled child, but a child of high imagination, so that he + wasted himself in ghost stories and German nonsense. He had the finest + ear for the rhythm of verse I ever heard--finer than Byron's. + + "Lewis was fonder of great people than he ought to have been, either + as a man of talent or a man of fortune. He had always dukes and + duchesses in his mouth, and was particularly fond of any one who had a + title. You would have sworn he had been a 'parvenu' of yesterday, yet + he had been all his life in good society. + + "He was one of the kindest and best creatures that ever lived. His + father and mother lived separately. Mr. Lewis allowed his son a + handsome income; but reduced it more than one half when he found that + he gave his mother half of it. He restricted himself in all his + expenses, and shared the diminished income with his mother as before. + He did much good by stealth, and was a most generous creature. + + "I had a good picture drawn me, I think by Thos. Thomson, of Fox, in + his latter days, suffering the fatigue of an attack from Lewis. The + great statesman was become bulky and lethargic, and lay like a fat ox + which for sometime endures the persecution of a buzzing fly, rather + than rise to get rid of it; and then at last he got up, and heavily + plodded his way to the other side of the room." + +Referring to Byron's story of Lewis near the Brenta, Scott adds, + + "I had a worse adventure with Mat Lewis. I had been his guide from the + cottage I then had at Laswade to the Chapel of Roslin. We were to go + up one side of the river and come down the other. In the return he was + dead tired, and, like the Israelites, he murmured against his guide + for leading him into the wilderness. I was then as strong as a poney, + and took him on my back, dressed as he was in his shooting array of a + close sky-blue jacket, and the brightest 'red' pantaloons I ever saw + on a human breech. He also had a kind of feather in his cap. At last I + could not help laughing at the ridiculous figure we must both have + made, at which my rider waxed wroth. It was an ill-chosen hour and + place, for I could have served him as Wallace did Fawden--thrown him + down and twisted his head off. We returned to the cottage weary + wights, and it cost more than one glass of Noyau, which he liked in a + decent way, to get Mat's temper on its legs again."] + + +[Footnote 5: 'The Bride of Abydos' was originally called 'Zuleika'. ] + + +[Footnote 6: The petition, directed against Lord Redesdale's Insolvent +Debtors Act, was presented by Romilly in the House of Commons, November +11, 1813, and by Lord Holland in the House of Lords, November 15, 1813.] + + +[Footnote 7: Henry IV., Part I. act in. sc. 3.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +November 16. + +Went last night with Lewis to see the first of 'Antony and Cleopatra' +[1]. It was admirably got up, and well acted--a salad of Shakspeare and +Dryden. Cleopatra strikes me as the epitome of her sex--fond, lively, +sad, tender, teasing, humble, haughty, beautiful, the devil!--coquettish +to the last, as well with the "asp" as with Antony. After doing all she +can to persuade him that--but why do they abuse him for cutting off that +poltroon Cicero's head? Did not Tully tell Brutus it was a pity to have +spared Antony? and did he not speak the Philippics? and are not "_words +things_?" [2] and such "_words_" very pestilent "_things_" too? If he +had had a hundred heads, they deserved (from Antony) a rostrum (his was +stuck up there) apiece--though, after all, he might as well have +pardoned him, for the credit of the thing. But to resume--Cleopatra, +after securing him, says, "yet go--it is your interest," etc.--how like +the sex! and the questions about Octavia--it is woman all over. + +To-day received Lord Jersey's invitation to Middleton--to travel sixty +miles to meet Madame De Stael! I once travelled three thousand to get +among silent people; and this same lady writes octavos, and _talks_ +folios. I have read her books--like most of them, and delight in the +last; so I won't hear it, as well as read. + +Read Burns to-day. What would he have been, if a patrician? We should +have had more polish--less force--just as much verse, but no +immortality--a divorce and a duel or two, the which had he survived, as +his potations must have been less spirituous, he might have lived as +long as Sheridan, and outlived as much as poor Brinsley. What a wreck is +that man! and all from bad pilotage; for no one had ever better gales, +though now and then a little too squally. Poor dear Sherry! I shall +never forget the day he and Rogers and Moore and I passed together; when +_he_ talked, and _we_ listened, without one yawn, from six till one in +the morning. + +Got my seals----. Have again forgot a play-thing for _ma petite +cousine_ Eliza; but I must send for it to-morrow. I hope Harry will +bring her to me. I sent Lord Holland the proofs of the last "_Giaour_" +and "_The Bride of Abydos_" He won't like the latter, and I don't think +that I shall long. It was written in four nights to distract my dreams +from----. Were it not thus, it had never been composed; and had I not +done something at that time, I must have gone mad, by eating my own +heart,--bitter diet;--Hodgson likes it better than "_The Giaour_" but +nobody else will,--and he never liked the Fragment. I am sure, had it +not been for Murray, _that_ would never have been published, though the +circumstances which are the ground-work make it----heigh-ho! + +To-night I saw both the sisters of----; my God! the youngest so like! I +thought I should have sprung across the house, and am so glad no one was +with me in Lady H.'s box. I hate those likenesses--the mock-bird, but +not the nightingale--so like as to remind, so different as to be painful +[3]. + +One quarrels equally with the points of resemblance and of distinction. + + + +[Footnote 1: 'Antony and Cleopatra' was revived at Covent Garden, +November 15, 1813, with additions from Dryden's 'All for Love, or the +World Well Lost'(1678). "Cleopatra" was acted by Mrs. Fawcit; "Marc +Antony" by Young. (See for the allusions, act v. se. 2, and act i. sc. +3.)] + + +[Footnote 2: + + "But words are things; and a small drop of ink, + Falling, like dew, upon a thought, produces + That which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think." + +'Don Juan', Canto III. stanza lxxxviii.] + + +[Footnote 3: + + "-----my weal, my woe, + My hope on high--my all below; + Earth holds no other like to thee, + Or, if it doth, in vain for me: + For worlds I dare not view the dame + Resembling thee, yet not the same." + +'The Giaour'.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +Nov. 17. + + +No letter from----; but I must not complain. The respectable Job says, +"Why should a _living man_ complain?" [1] I really don't know, except it +be that a _dead man_ can't; and he, the said patriarch, _did_ complain, +nevertheless, till his friends were tired and his wife recommended that +pious prologue,"Curse--and die;" the only time, I suppose, when but +little relief is to be found in swearing. I have had a most kind letter +from Lord Holland on "_The Bride of Abydos_," which he likes, and so +does Lady H. This is very good-natured in both, from whom I don't +deserve any quarter. Yet I _did_ think, at the time, that my cause of +enmity proceeded from Holland House, and am glad I was wrong, and wish I +had not been in such a hurry with that confounded satire, of which I +would suppress even the memory;--but people, now they can't get it, make +a fuss, I verily believe, out of contradiction. + +George Ellis [2] and Murray have been talking something about Scott and +me, George _pro Scoto_,--and very right too. If they want to depose him, +I only wish they would not set me up as a competitor. Even if I had my +choice, I would rather be the Earl of Warwick than all the _kings_ he +ever made! Jeffrey and Gifford I take to be the monarch-makers in poetry +and prose. The 'British Critic', in their Rokeby Review, have +presupposed a comparison which I am sure my friends never thought of, +and W. Scott's subjects are injudicious in descending to. I like the +man--and admire his works to what Mr. Braham calls _Entusymusy_. All +such stuff can only vex him, and do me no good. Many hate his +politics--(I hate all politics); and, here, a man's politics are like +the Greek _soul_--an [Greek: eidolon], besides God knows what _other +soul_; but their estimate of the two generally go together. + +Harry has not brought _ma petite cousine_. I want us to go to the play +together;--she has been but once. Another short note from Jersey, +inviting Rogers and me on the 23d. I must see my agent to-night. I +wonder when that Newstead business will be finished. It cost me more +than words to part with it--and to _have_ parted with it! What matters +it what I do? or what becomes of me?--but let me remember Job's saying, +and console myself with being "a living man." + +I wish I could settle to reading again,--my life is monotonous, and yet +desultory. I take up books, and fling them down again. I began a comedy, +and burnt it because the scene ran into _reality_;--a novel, for the +same reason. In rhyme, I can keep more away from facts; but the thought +always runs through, through ... yes, yes, through. I have had a letter +from Lady Melbourne--the best friend I ever had in my life, and the +cleverest of women. + +Not a word from----[Lady F. W. Webster], Have they set out from----? +or has my last precious epistle fallen into the lion's jaws? If so--and +this silence looks suspicious--I must clap on my "musty morion" and +"hold out my iron." [3] + +I am out of practice--but I won't begin again at Manton's now. Besides, +I would not return his shot. I was once a famous wafer-splitter; but +then the bullies of society made it necessary. Ever since I began to +feel that I had a bad cause to support, I have left off the exercise. + +What strange tidings from that Anakim of anarchy--Buonaparte [4]! + +Ever since I defended my bust of him at Harrow against the rascally +time-servers, when the war broke out in 1803, he has been a _Héros de +Roman_ of mine--on the Continent; I don't want him here. But I don't +like those same flights--leaving of armies, etc., etc. I am sure when I +fought for his bust at school, I did not think he would run away from +himself. But I should not wonder if he banged them yet. To be beat by +men would be something; but by three stupid, legitimate-old-dynasty +boobies of regular-bred sovereigns--O-hone-a-rie!--O-hone-a-rie! It must +be, as Cobbett says, his marriage with the thick-lipped and thick-headed +_Autrichienne_ brood. He had better have kept to her who was kept by +Barras. I never knew any good come of your young wife, and legal +espousals, to any but your "sober-blooded boy" who "eats fish" and +drinketh "no sack." [5] Had he not the whole opera? all Paris? all +France? But a mistress is just as perplexing--that is, _one_--two or +more are manageable by division. + +I have begun, or had begun, a song, and flung it into the fire. It was +in remembrance of Mary Duff, [6] my first of flames, before most people +begin to burn. I wonder what the devil is the matter with me! I can do +nothing, and--fortunately there is nothing to do. It has lately been in +my power to make two persons (and their connections) comfortable, _pro +tempore_, and one happy, _ex tempore_,--I rejoice in the last +particularly, as it is an excellent man. [7] I wish there had been more +convenience and less gratification to my self-love in it, for then there +had been more merit. We are all selfish--and I believe, ye gods of +Epicurus! I believe in Rochefoucault about _men_, and in Lucretius (not +Busby's translation) about yourselves. [8] Your bard has made you very +_nonchalant_ and blest; but as he has excused _us_ from damnation, I +don't envy you your blessedness much--a little, to be sure. I remember, +last year,----[Lady Oxford] said to me, at----[Eywood], "Have we not +passed our last month like the gods of Lucretius?" And so we had. She is +an adept in the text of the original (which I like too); and when that +booby Bus. sent his translating prospectus, she subscribed. But, the +devil prompting him to add a specimen, she transmitted him a subsequent +answer, saying, that "after perusing it, her conscience would not permit +her to allow her name to remain on the list of subscribblers." Last +night, at Lord H.'s--Mackintosh, the Ossulstones, Puységur, [9] etc., +there--I was trying to recollect a quotation (as _I_ think) of Stael's, +from some Teutonic sophist about architecture. "Architecture," says this +Macoronico Tedescho, "reminds me of frozen music." It is somewhere--but +where?--the demon of perplexity must know and won't tell. I asked M., +and he said it was not in her: but Puységur said it must be _hers_, it +was so _like_. H. laughed, as he does at all "_De l'Allemagne_"--in +which, however, I think he goes a little too far. B., I hear, contemns +it too. But there are fine passages;--and, after all, what is a +work--any--or every work--but a desert with fountains, and, perhaps, a +grove or two, every day's journey? To be sure, in Madame, what we often +mistake, and "pant for," as the "cooling stream," turns out to be the +"_mirage_" (criticè _verbiage_); but we do, at last, get to something +like the temple of Jove Ammon, and then the waste we have passed is only +remembered to gladden the contrast. + +Called on C--, to explain----. She is very beautiful, to my taste, at +least; for on coming home from abroad, I recollect being unable to look +at any woman but her--they were so fair, and unmeaning, and _blonde_. +The darkness and regularity of her features reminded me of my "Jannat al +Aden." But this impression wore off; and now I can look at a fair woman, +without longing for a Houri. She was very good-tempered, and every thing +was explained. + +To-day, great news--"the Dutch have taken Holland,"--which, I suppose, +will be succeeded by the actual explosion of the Thames. Five provinces +have declared for young Stadt, and there will be inundation, +conflagration, constupration, consternation, and every sort of nation +and nations, fighting away, up to their knees, in the damnable quags of +this will-o'-the-wisp abode of Boors. It is said Bernadotte is amongst +them, too; and, as Orange will be there soon, they will have (Crown) +Prince Stork and King Log in their Loggery at the same time. Two to one +on the new dynasty! + +Mr. Murray has offered me one thousand guineas for _The Giaour_ and _The +Bride of Abydos_. I won't--it is too much, though I am strongly tempted, +merely for the _say_ of it. No bad price for a fortnight's (a week each) +what?--the gods know--it was intended to be called poetry. + +I have dined regularly to-day, for the first time since Sunday +last--this being Sabbath, too. All the rest, tea and dry biscuits--six +_per diem_. I wish to God I had not dined now!--It kills me with +heaviness, stupor, and horrible dreams; and yet it was but a pint of +Bucellas, and fish.[10] Meat I never touch,--nor much vegetable diet. I +wish I were in the country, to take exercise,--instead of being obliged +to _cool_ by abstinence, in lieu of it. I should not so much mind a +little accession of flesh,--my bones can well bear it. But the worst is, +the devil always came with it,--till I starved him out,--and I will +_not_ be the slave of _any_ appetite. If I do err, it shall be my heart, +at least, that heralds the way. Oh, my head--how it aches?--the horrors +of digestion! I wonder how Buonaparte's dinner agrees with him? + +Mem. I must write to-morrow to "Master Shallow, who owes me a thousand +pounds," [11] and seems, in his letter, afraid I should ask him for it; +[12]--as if I would!--I don't want it (just now, at least,) to begin +with; and though I have often wanted that sum, I never asked for the +repayment of £10. in my life--from a friend. His bond is not due this +year, and I told him when it was, I should not enforce it. How often +must he make me say the same thing? + +I am wrong--I did once ask----[13] to repay me. But it was under +circumstances that excused me _to him_, and would to any one. I took no +interest, nor required security. He paid me soon,--at least, his +_padre_. My head! I believe it was given me to ache with. Good even. + + + +[Footnote 1: "Wherefore doth a living man complain?" ('Lam'. iii. 39).] + + +[Footnote 2: George Ellis (1753-1815), a contributor to the 'Rolliad' +and the 'Anti-Jacobin', and "the first converser" Walter Scott "ever +knew."] + + +[Footnote 3: + + "I dare not fight; but I will wink, and hold out mine iron." + +'Henry V.', act ii. sc. I.] + + +[Footnote 4: Byron was not always, even at Harrow, attached to +Buonaparte, for, if we may trust Harness, he "roared out" at a +Buonapartist schoolfellow: + + "Bold Robert Speer was Bony's bad precursor. + Bob was a bloody dog, but Bonaparte a worser." + +His feeling for him was probably that which is expressed in the +following passage from an undated letter, written to him by Moore: + + "We owe great gratitude to this thunderstorm of a fellow for clearing + the air of all the old legitimate fogs that have settled upon us, and + I sincerely trust his task is not yet over." + +Ticknor ('Life', vol. i. p. 60) describes Byron's reception of the news +of the battle of Waterloo: + + "After an instant's pause, Lord Byron replied, 'I am damned sorry for + it;' and then, after another slight pause, he added, 'I didn't know + but I might live to see Lord Castlereagh's head on a pole. But I + suppose I shan't now.'" + +Byron's liking for Buonaparte was probably increased by his dislike of +Wellington and Blucher. The following passages are taken from the +'Detached Thoughts'(1821): + + "The vanity of Victories is considerable. Of all who fell at Waterloo + or Trafalgar, ask any man in company to 'name you ten off hand'. + They will stick at Nelson: the other will survive himself. 'Nelson + was' a hero, the other is a mere Corporal, dividing with Prussians + and Spaniards the luck which he never deserved. He even--but I hate + the fool, and will be silent." + + "The Miscreant Wellington is the Cub of Fortune, but she will never + lick him into shape. If he lives, he will be beaten; that's certain. + Victory was never before wasted upon such an unprofitable soil as this + dunghill of Tyranny, whence nothing springs but Viper's eggs." + + "I remember seeing Blucher in the London Assemblies, and never saw + anything of his age less venerable. With the voice and manners of a + recruiting Sergeant, he pretended to the honours of a hero; just as if + a stone could be worshipped because a man stumbled over it."] + + +[Footnote 5: Henry IV., Part II. act iv. se. 3.] + + +[Footnote 6: Mary Duff, his distant cousin, who lived not far from the +"Plain-Stanes" of Aberdeen, in Byron's childhood. She married Mr. Robert +Cockburn, a wine-merchant in Edinburgh and London.] + + +[Footnote 7: The first is, perhaps, Dallas; the second probably is +Francis Hodgson, to whom he gave, from first to last, £1500.] + + +[Footnote 8: + + "L'intérêt est l'ame de l'amour-propre, de sorte que comme le corps, + privé de son ame, est sans vue, sans ouïe, sans connoissance, sans + sentiment, et sans mouvement; de même l'amour-propre, séparé, s'il le + faut dire ainsi, de son intérêt, ne voit, n'entend, ne sent, et ne se + remue plus," etc., etc. + +(Rochefoucault, Lettre à Madame Sablé). The passage in Lucretius +probably is 'De Rerum Naturâ', i. 57-62.] + + +[Footnote 9: + + "Monsieur de Puységur," says Lady H. Leveson Gower ('Letters of + Harriet, Countess of Granville', vol. i. p. 23), "is really + 'concentré' into one wrinkle. It is the oldest, gayest, thinnest, most + withered, and most brilliant thing one can meet with. When there are + so many young, fat fools going about the world, I wish for the + transmigration of souls. Puységur might animate a whole family." + +The phrase, of which Byron was in search, is Goethe's, 'eine erstarrte +Musik' (Stevens's 'Life of Madame de Staël', vol. ii. p. 195).] + + +[Footnote 10: That the poet sometimes dined seems evident from the +annexed bill: + +Lord Byron. + +To M. Richold + +1813-- £ s. d. + Ballance of last bill 0 13 10 +Aug. 9. To dinner bill 1 6 0 + 10. To do. do. 4 13 6 + 11. To do. do. 1 4 0 + 14. To do. do. 1 6 0 + 15. To share of do. 4 4 6 + 16. To dinner bill 1 6 0 + 17. To do. do. 1 6 6 + 19. To do. do. 1 2 6 + 20. To share of do. 4 19 0 + 21. To dinner bill 1 1 6 + 22. To do. do. 1 2 0 + 23. To do. do. 1 2 0 + 25. To do. do. 1 9 0 +Aug. 26. To dinner bill 1 1 6 + 27. To do. do. 1 8 6 +Sept 2. To do. do. 1 4 0 + 3. To do. do. 1 2 0 + 4. To do. do. 1 11 0 + 5. To do. do. 1 6 6 + 7. To do. do. 5 7 0 + 9. To do. do. 1 6 6 + 26. To do. do. 1 9 0 +Nov. 14. To do. do. 1 0 6 + 21. To do. do. 0 19 0 + -- -- -- + £44 11 10] + + +[Footnote 11: Henry IV., Part II. act v. sc. 5.] + + +[Footnote 12: James Wedderburn Webster (see p. 2, note 1 [Footnote 1 of +Letter 170]).] + + +[Footnote 13: Probably John Cam Hobhouse, whose expenses on the tour of +1809-10 were paid by Byron, and repaid by Sir Benjamin Hobhouse.] + + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +Nov. 22, 1813. + + +"Orange Boven!" [1] So the bees have expelled the bear that broke open +their hive. Well,--if we are to have new De Witts and De Ruyters, God +speed the little republic! I should like to see the Hague and the +village of Brock, where they have such primitive habits. Yet, I don't +know,--their canals would cut a poor figure by the memory of the +Bosphorus; and the Zuyder Zee look awkwardly after "Ak-Denizi" [2]. No +matter,--the bluff burghers, puffing freedom out of their short +tobacco-pipes, might be worth seeing; though I prefer a cigar or a +hooka, with the rose-leaf mixed with the milder herb of the Levant. I +don't know what liberty means,--never having seen it,--but wealth is +power all over the world; and as a shilling performs the duty of a pound +(besides sun and sky and beauty for nothing) in the East,--_that_ is the +country. How I envy Herodes Atticus [3]!--more than Pomponius. And yet a +little _tumult_, now and then, is an agreeable quickener of sensation; +such as a revolution, a battle, or an _aventure_ of any lively +description. I think I rather would have been Bonneval, Ripperda, +Alberoni, Hayreddin, or Horuc Barbarossa, or even Wortley Montague, than +Mahomet himself. [4] + +Rogers will be in town soon?--the 23d is fixed for our Middleton visit. +Shall I go? umph!--In this island, where one can't ride out without +overtaking the sea, it don't much matter where one goes. + +I remember the effect of the _first Edinburgh Review_ on me. I heard of +it six weeks before,--read it the day of its denunciation,--dined and +drank three bottles of claret, (with S. B. Davies, I think,) neither ate +nor slept the less, but, nevertheless, was not easy till I had vented my +wrath and my rhyme, in the same pages, against every thing and every +body. Like George, in the _Vicar of Wakefield_,--"the fate of my +paradoxes" [5] would allow me to perceive no merit in another. I +remembered only the maxim of my boxing-master, which, in my youth, was +found useful in all general riots,--"Whoever is not for you is against +you--_mill_ away right and left," and so I did;--like Ishmael, my hand +was against all men, and all men's anent me. I did wonder, to be sure, +at my own success: + + "And marvels so much wit is all his own," [6] + +as Hobhouse sarcastically says of somebody (not unlikely myself, as we +are old friends);--but were it to come over again, I would _not_. I have +since redde the cause of my couplets, and it is not adequate to the +effect. C----told me that it was believed I alluded to poor Lord +Carlisle's nervous disorder in one of the lines. I thank Heaven I did +not know it--and would not, could not, if I had. I must naturally be the +last person to be pointed on defects or maladies. + +Rogers is silent,--and, it is said, severe. When he does talk, he talks +well; and, on all subjects of taste, his delicacy of expression is pure +as his poetry. If you enter his house--his drawing-room--his +library--you of yourself say, this is not the dwelling of a common mind. +There is not a gem, a coin, a book thrown aside on his chimney-piece, +his sofa, his table, that does not bespeak an almost fastidious elegance +in the possessor. But this very delicacy must be the misery of his +existence. Oh the jarrings his disposition must have encountered through +life! + +Southey, I have not seen much of. His appearance is _Epic_; and he is +the only existing entire man of letters. All the others have some +pursuit annexed to their authorship. His manners are mild, but not those +of a man of the world, and his talents of the first order. His prose is +perfect. Of his poetry there are various opinions: there is, perhaps, +too much of it for the present generation; posterity will probably +select. He has _passages_ equal to any thing. At present, he has _a +party_, but no _public_--except for his prose writings. The life of +Nelson is beautiful. + +Sotheby [7] is a _Littérateur_, the Oracle of the Coteries, of the----s +[8], Lydia White (Sydney Smith's "Tory Virgin") [9], Mrs. Wilmot [10] +(she, at least, is a swan, and might frequent a purer stream,) Lady +Beaumont, [11] and all the Blues, with Lady Charlemont [12] at their +head--but I say nothing of _her_--"look in her face and you forget them +all," and every thing else. Oh that face!--by _te, Diva potens Cypri_, I +would, to be beloved by that woman, build and burn another Troy. + +Moore has a peculiarity of talent, or rather talents,--poetry, music, +voice, all his own; and an expression in each, which never was, nor will +be, possessed by another. But he is capable of still higher flights in +poetry. By the by, what humour, what--every thing, in the "_Post-Bag!_" +There is nothing Moore may not do, if he will but seriously set about +it. In society, he is gentlemanly, gentle, and, altogether, more +pleasing than any individual with whom I am acquainted. For his honour, +principle, and independence, his conduct to----speaks "trumpet-tongued." +He has but one fault--and that one I daily regret--he is not _here_. + + + +[Footnote 1: Holland, constituted a kingdom for Louis Napoleon (1806), +was (1810) incorporated with the French Empire. On November 15, 1813, +the people of Amsterdam raised the cry of "Orange Boven!", donned the +Orange colours, and expelled the French from the city. Their example was +followed in other provinces, and on November 21, deputies arrived in +London, asking the Prince of Orange to place himself at the head of the +movement. He landed in Holland, November 30, and entered Amsterdam the +next day in state. + +A play was announced at Drury Lane, December 8, 1813, under the title of +'Orange Boven', but it was suppressed because no licence had been +obtained for its performance. It was produced December 10, 1813, and ran +about ten nights.] + + +[Footnote 2: The Lake of Ak-Deniz, north-east of Antioch, into and out +of which flows the Nahr-Ifrin to join the Nahr-el-Asy or Orontes.] + + +[Footnote 3: A typically wealthy Greek, as Pomponius Atticus was a +typically wealthy Roman.] + + +[Footnote 4: Bonneval (1675-1747) was a French soldier of fortune, who +served successively in the Austrian, Russian, and Turkish armies. +Ripperda (died 1737) a Dutch adventurer, became Prime Minister of Spain +under Philip V., and after his fall turned Mohammedan. Alberoni +(1664-1752) was an Italian adventurer, who became Prime Minister of +Spain in 1714. Hayreddin (died 1547) and Horuc Barbarossa (died 1518) +were Algerine pirates. Edward Wortley Montague (1713-1776), son of Lady +Mary, saw the inside of several prisons, served at Fontenoy, sat in the +British Parliament, was received into the Roman Catholic Church at +Jerusalem (1764), lived at Rosetta as a Mohammedan with his mistress, +Caroline Dormer, till 1772, and died at Padua, from swallowing a +fish-bone.] + + +[Footnote 5: 'Vicar of Wakefield' (chap. xx.). The Vicar's eldest son, +George, + + "resolved to write a book that should be wholly new. I therefore + dressed up three paradoxes with some ingenuity.... 'Well,' asks the + Vicar, 'and what did the learned world say to your paradoxes?' 'Sir,' + replied my son, 'the learned world said nothing to my paradoxes, + nothing at all.... I found that no genius in another could please me. + My unfortunate paradoxes had entirely dried up that source of comfort. + I could neither read nor write with satisfaction; for excellence in + another was my aversion, and writing was my trade.'"] + + +[Footnote 6: From Boileau ('Imitations, etc.', by J.C. Hobhouse): + + "With what delight rhymes on the scribbling dunce. + He's ne'er perplex'd to choose, but right at once; + With rapture hails each work as soon as done, + And wonders so much wit was all his own."] + + +[Footnote 7: At Sotheby's house, Miss Jane Porter, author of 'The +Scottish Chiefs', etc., etc., met Byron. She made the following note of +his appearance, and after his death sent it to his sister: + + "I once had the gratification of Seeing Lord Byron. He was at Evening + party at the Poet Sotheby's. I was not aware of his being in the room, + or even that he had been invited, when I was arrested from listening + to the person conversing with me by the Sounds of the most melodious + Speaking Voice I had ever heard. It was gentle and beautifully + modulated. I turned round to look for the Speaker, and then saw a + Gentleman in black of an Elegant form (for nothing of his lameness + could be discovered), and with a face I never shall forget. The + features of the finest proportions. The Eye deep set, but mildly + lustrous; and the Complexion what I at the time described to my + Sister as a Sort of moonlight paleness. It was so pale, yet with all + so Softly brilliant. + + "I instantly asked my Companion who that Gentleman was. He replied, + 'Lord Byron.' I was astonished, for there was no Scorn, no disdain, + nothing in that noble Countenance _then_ of the proud Spirit + which has since soared to Heaven, illuminating the Horizon far and + wide."] + + +[Footnote 8: Probably the Berrys.] + + +[Footnote 9: Miss Lydia White, the "Miss Diddle" of Byron's 'Blues', of +whom Ticknor speaks ('Life', vol. i. p. 176) as "the fashionable +blue-stocking," was a wealthy Irishwoman, well known for her dinners and +conversaziones + + "in all the capitals of Europe. At one of her dinners in Park Street + (all the company except herself being Whigs), the desperate prospects + of the Whig party were discussed. Yes,' said Sydney Smith, who was + present, 'we are in a most deplorable condition; we must do something + to help ourselves. I think,' said he, looking at Lydia White, 'we had + better sacrifice a Tory Virgin'" + +(Lady Morgan's 'Memoirs', vol. ii. p. 236). Miss Berry, in her 'Journal' +(vol. iii. p. 49, May 8, 1815), says, + + "Lord and Lady Byron persuaded me to go with them to Miss White. Never + have I seen a more imposing convocation of ladies arranged in a circle + than when we entered, taking William Spencer with us. Lord Byron + brought me home. He stayed to supper." + +Miss White's last years were passed in bad health. Moore called upon +Rogers, May 7, 1826: + + "Found him in high good humour. In talking of Miss White, he said, + 'How wonderfully she does hold out! They may say what they will, but + Miss White and 'Miss'olongi are the most remarkable things going" + +('Memoirs, etc.', vol. v. p. 62). Lydia White died in February, 1827.] + + +[Footnote 10: Barberina Ogle (1768-1854), daughter of Sir Chaloner Ogle, +widow of Valentia Wilmot, married, in 1819, Lord Dacre. Her tragedy, +'Ina', was produced at Drury Lane, April 22, 1815. Her literary work +was, for the most part, privately printed: 'Dramas, Translations, and +Occasional Poems' (1821); 'Translations from the Italian' (1836). She +also edited her daughter's 'Recollections of a Chaperon' (1831), and +'Tales of the Peerage and Peasantry' (1835).] + + +[Footnote 11: Margaret Willes, granddaughter of Chief Justice Willes, +married, in 1778, Sir George Beaumont, Bart. (1753-1827), the +landscape-painter, art critic, and picture-collector, who founded the +National Gallery, was a friend of Sir Joshua Reynolds, of Dr. Johnson, +and of Wordsworth, and is mentioned by Byron in the 'Blues': + + "Sir George thinks exactly with Lady Bluebottle."] + + +[Footnote 12: Francis William Caulfield, who succeeded his father, in +1799, as second Earl of Charlemont, married, in 1802, Anne, daughter of +William Bermingham, of Ross Hill, co. Galway. She died in 1876. Of Lady +Charlemont's beauty Byron was an enthusiastic admirer. In his 'Letter on +the Rev. W.L. Bowles's Strictures on Pope' (February 7, 1821) he says, + + "The head of Lady Charlemont (when I first saw her, nine years ago) + seemed to possess all that sculpture could require for its ideal." + +Moore ('Journals, etc.', vol. iii. p. 78) has the following entry in his +Diary for November 21, 1819: + + "Called upon Lady Charlemont, and sat with her some time. Lady + Mansfield told me that the effect she produces here with her beauty is + wonderful; last night, at the Comtesse d'Albany's, the Italians were + ready to fall down and worship her." + +For the two quotations, see Horace, 'Odes', I. iii. 1, and 'The Rape of +the Lock', ii. 18.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +Nov. 23. + + +Ward--I like Ward. By Mahomet! I begin to think I like every body;--a +disposition not to be encouraged;--a sort of social gluttony that +swallows every thing set before it. But I like Ward. He is _piquant_; +and, in my opinion, will stand very _high_ in the House, and every where +else, if he applies _regularly_. By the by, I dine with him to-morrow, +which may have some influence on my opinion. It is as well not to trust +one's gratitude _after_ dinner. I have heard many a host libelled by his +guests, with his burgundy yet reeking on their rascally lips. + +I have taken Lord Salisbury's box at Covent Garden for the season; and +now I must go and prepare to join Lady Holland and party, in theirs, at +Drury Lane, _questa sera_. + +Holland doesn't think the man is _Junius_; but that the yet unpublished +journal throws great light on the obscurities of that part of George the +Second's reign.--What is this to George the Third's? I don't know what +to think. Why should Junius be yet dead? If suddenly apoplexed, would he +rest in his grave without sending his [Greek: eidolon] to shout in the +ears of posterity, "Junius was X.Y.Z., Esq., buried in the parish of +----. Repair his monument, ye churchwardens! Print a new edition of his +Letters, ye booksellers!" Impossible,--the man must be alive, and will +never die without the disclosure. I like him;--he was a good hater. + +Came home unwell and went to bed,--not so sleepy as might be desirable. + + +Tuesday morning. I awoke from a dream!--well! and have not others +dreamed?--Such a dream!--but she did not overtake me. I wish the dead +would rest, however. Ugh! how my blood chilled,--and I could not +wake--and--and--heigho! + + "Shadows to-night + Have struck more terror to the soul of Richard, + Than could the substance of ten thousand----s, + Arm'd all in proof, and led by shallow----." [1] + +I do not like this dream,--I hate its "foregone conclusion." And am I to +be shaken by shadows? Ay, when they remind us of--no matter--but, if I +dream thus again, I will try whether _all_ sleep has the like visions. +Since I rose, I've been in considerable bodily pain also; but it is +gone, and now, like Lord Ogleby [2], I am wound up for the day. + +A note from Mountnorris [3]--I dine with Ward;--Canning is to be there, +Frere [4] and Sharpe [5], perhaps Gifford. I am to be one of "the five" +(or rather six), as Lady----said a little sneeringly yesterday. They +are all good to meet, particularly Canning, and--Ward, when he likes. I +wish I may be well enough to listen to these intellectuals. + +No letters to-day;--so much the better,--there are no answers. I must +not dream again;--it spoils even reality. I will go out of doors, and +see what the fog will do for me. Jackson has been here: the boxing world +much as usual;--but the club increases. I shall dine at Crib's [6] +to-morrow. I like energy--even animal energy--of all kinds; and I have +need of both mental and corporeal. I have not dined out, nor, indeed, +_at all_, lately: have heard no music--have seen nobody. Now for a +_plunge_--high life and low life. _Amant_ alterna _Camoenæ!_ [7]. + +I have burnt my _Roman_--as I did the first scenes and sketch of my +comedy--and, for aught I see, the pleasure of burning is quite as great +as that of printing. These two last would not have done. I ran into +_realities_ more than ever; and some would have been recognised and +others guessed at. + +Redde the _Ruminator_--a collection of Essays, by a strange, but able, +old man [Sir Egerton Brydges] [8], and a half-wild young one, author of +a poem on the Highlands, called _Childe Alarique_ [9]. + +The word "sensibility" (always my aversion) occurs a thousand times in +these Essays; and, it seems, is to be an excuse for all kinds of +discontent. This young man can know nothing of life; and, if he +cherishes the disposition which runs through his papers, will become +useless, and, perhaps, not even a poet, after all, which he seems +determined to be. God help him! no one should be a rhymer who could be +any thing better. And this is what annoys one, to see Scott and Moore, +and Campbell and Rogers, who might have all been agents and leaders, now +mere spectators. For, though they may have other ostensible avocations, +these last are reduced to a secondary consideration.----, too, +frittering away his time among dowagers and unmarried girls. If it +advanced any _serious_ affair, it were some excuse; but, with the +unmarried, that is a hazardous speculation, and tiresome enough, too; +and, with the veterans, it is not much worth trying, unless, perhaps, +one in a thousand. + +If I had any views in this country, they would probably be parliamentary +[10]. + +But I have no ambition; at least, if any, it would be _aut Cæsar aut +nihil_. My hopes are limited to the arrangement of my affairs, and +settling either in Italy or the East (rather the last), and drinking +deep of the languages and literature of both. Past events have unnerved +me; and all I can now do is to make life an amusement, and look on while +others play. After all, even the highest game of crowns and sceptres, +what is it? _Vide_ Napoleon's last twelvemonth. It has completely upset +my system of fatalism. I thought, if crushed, he would have fallen, when +_fractus illabitur orbis_, [11] and not have been pared away to gradual +insignificance; that all this was not a mere _jeu_ of the gods, but a +prelude to greater changes and mightier events. But men never advance +beyond a certain point; and here we are, retrograding, to the dull, +stupid old system,--balance of Europe--poising straws upon kings' noses, +instead of wringing them off! Give me a republic, or a despotism of one, +rather than the mixed government of one, two, three. A republic!--look +in the history of the Earth--Rome, Greece, Venice, France, Holland, +America, our short (_eheu!_) Commonwealth, and compare it with what they +did under masters. The Asiatics are not qualified to be republicans, but +they have the liberty of demolishing despots, which is the next thing to +it. To be the first man--not the Dictator--not the Sylla, but the +Washington or the Aristides--the leader in talent and truth--is next to +the Divinity! Franklin, Penn, and, next to these, either Brutus or +Cassius--even Mirabeau--or St. Just. I shall never be any thing, or +rather always be nothing. The most I can hope is, that some will say, +"He might, perhaps, if he would." + + +12, midnight. + +Here are two confounded proofs from the printer. I have looked at the +one, but for the soul of me, I can't look over that _Giaour_ again,--at +least, just now, and at this hour--and yet there is no moon. + +Ward talks of going to Holland, and we have partly discussed an +_ensemble_ expedition. It must be in ten days, if at all, if we wish to +be in at the Revolution. And why not?----is distant, and will be at +----, still more distant, till spring. No one else, except Augusta, +cares for me; no ties--no trammels--_andiamo dunque--se torniamo, +bene--se non, ch' importa?_ Old William of Orange talked of dying in +"the last ditch" of his dingy country. It is lucky I can swim, or I +suppose I should not well weather the first. But let us see. I have +heard hyeenas and jackalls in the ruins of Asia; and bull-frogs in the +marshes; besides wolves and angry Mussulmans. Now, I should like to +listen to the shout of a free Dutchman. + +Alla! Viva! For ever! Hourra! Huzza!--which is the most rational or +musical of these cries? "Orange Boven," according to the 'Morning Post'. + + + +[Footnote 1: + + "By the apostle Paul, shadows to-night + Have struck more terror to the soul of Richard + Than can the substance of ten thousand soldiers, + Armed in proof, and led by shallow Richmond." + +'Richard III'., act v. sc. 3.] + + +[Footnote 2: "Lord Ogleby" is a character in 'The Clandestine Marriage' +(by Colman and Garrick, first acted at Drury Lane, February 20, 1766). +"Brush," his valet, says (act ii.) of his master, + + "What with qualms, age, rheumatism, and a few surfeits in his youth, + he must have a great deal of brushing, oyling, screwing, and winding + up, to set him a-going for the day."] + + +[Footnote 3: Viscount Valentia, created in 1793 Earl of Mountnorris, was +the father of Byron's friend, Viscount Valentia (afterwards second and +last Earl of Mountnorris, died in 1844); of Lady Frances Wedderburn +Webster; of Lady Catherine Annesley, who married Lord John Somerset, and +died in 1865; and of Lady Juliana Annesley, who married Robert Bayly, of +Ballyduff.] + + +[Footnote 4: John Hookham Frere (1769-1846), educated at Eton, and +Caius College, Cambridge (Fellow, 1792), M.P. for West Loe (1796-1802), +was a clerk in the Foreign Office. A school-friend of Canning, he joined +with him in the 'Anti-Jacobin' (November 20, 1797--July 9, 1798). Among +the pieces which he contributed, in whole or part, are "The Loves of the +Triangles," "The Friend of Humanity and the Knife-grinder," "The Rovers, +or the Double Arrangement," "_La Sainte Guillotine_" "New Morality," and +the "Meeting of the Friends of Freedom." He was British Envoy at Lisbon +(1800-1804) and to the Spanish Junta (October, 1808-April, 1809). From +this post he was recalled, owing to the fatal effects of his advice to +Sir John Moore, and he never again held any public appointment. From +1818 to 1846 he lived at Malta, where he died. + +His translations of "The Frogs" of Aristophanes (1839), and of "The +Acharnians, the Knights, and the Birds" (1840), are masterpieces of +spirit and fidelity. His 'Prospectus and Specimen of an intended +National Work, by William and Robert Whistlecraft' (cantos i., ii., +1817; cantos iii., iv., 1818), inspired Byron with 'Beppo'. + +Ticknor describes him in 1819 ('Life', vol. i. p. 267): + + "Frere is a slovenly fellow. His remarks on Homer, in the 'Classical + Journal', prove how fine a Greek scholar he is; his 'Quarterly + Reviews', how well he writes; his 'Rovers, or the Double Arrangement,' + what humour he possesses; and the reputation he has left in Spain and + Portugal, how much better he understood their literatures than they do + themselves; while, at the same time, his books left in France, in + Gallicia, at Lisbon, and two or three places in England; his + manuscripts, neglected and lost to himself; his manners, lazy and + careless; and his conversation, equally rich and negligent, show how + little he cares about all that distinguishes him in the eyes of the + world. He studies as a luxury, he writes as an amusement, and + conversation is a kind of sensual enjoyment to him. If he had been + born in Asia, he would have been the laziest man that ever lived."] + + +[Footnote 5: For "Conversation" Sharp, see p. 341, 'note' 2 [Footnote 2 +of Journal entry for 24 November, 1813.]] + + +[Footnote 6: Thomas Cribb (1781-1848), born at Bitton, near Bristol, +began life as a bell-hanger, became first a coal-porter, then a sailor, +and finally found his vocation as a pugilist. In his profession he was +known, from one of his previous callings, as the "Black Diamond." His +first big fight was against George Maddox (January 7, 1805), whom he +defeated after seventy-six rounds. He twice beat the ex-champion, the +one-eyed Jem Belcher (April 8, 1807, and February 1, 1809), and with his +victory over Bob Gregson (October 25, 1808; see 'Letters', vol. i. p. +207, 'note' 1 [Footnote 2 of Letter 108]) became champion of England. +His two defeats of Molineaux, the black pugilist (December 18, 1810, and +September 28, 1811), established his title, which was never again +seriously challenged, and in 1821 it was conferred upon him for life. +Cribb was one of the prize-fighters, who, dressed as pages, kept order +at the Coronation of George IV. In 1813 he was landlord of the King's +Arms, Duke Street, St. James's, and universally respected as the honest +head of the pugilistic profession. He died in 1848 at Woolwich; three +years later a monument was erected to his memory by public subscription +in Woolwich Churchyard. It represents "a British lion grieving over the +ashes of a British hero," and on the plinth is the inscription, "Respect +the ashes of the brave."] + + +[Footnote 7: Virgil, 'Eclogues', iii. 59.] + + +[Footnote 8: Sir Samuel Egerton Brydges (1762-1837), poet, novelist, +genealogist, and bibliographer, published, in 1813, 'The Ruminator: +containing a series of moral, critical, and sentimental Essays'. Of the +104 Essays, 72 appeared in the 'Censura Literaria' between January, +1807, and June, 1809. The remainder were by Gillies, except two by the +Rev. Francis Wrangham and two by the Rev. Montagu Pennington. No. 50 is +a review of some original poems by Capell Lofft, including a Greek ode +on Eton College. + +Gillies, in his 'Memoirs of a Literary Veteran' (vol. ii. p. 4), says +that in 1809 he addressed an anonymous letter to Brydges, containing +some thoughts on the advantages of retirement (the subject of 'Childe +Alarique'). The letter, printed in 'The Ruminator', began his literary +career and introduced him to Brydges. 'The Ruminator', 2 vols. (1813), +and 'Childe Alarique' (1813), are among the books included in the sale +catalogue of Byron's books, April 5, 1816.] + + +[Footnote 9: Robert Pearse Gillies (1788-1858) wrote 'Wallace, a +Fragment' (1813); 'Childe Alarique, a Poet's Reverie, with other Poems' +(1813); 'Confessions of Sir Henry Longueville, a Novel' (1814); and +numerous other works and translations. His 'Memoirs of a Literary +Veteran' was published in 1851. He was the founder and first editor of +the 'Foreign Quarterly Review' (1827).] + + +[Footnote 10: The following additional notes on Byron's Parliamentary +career are taken from his 'Detached Thoughts':-- + + "At the Opposition meeting of the peers, in 1812, at Lord Grenville's, + when Lord Grey and he read to us the correspondence upon Moira's + negociation, I sate next to the present Duke of Grafton. When it was + over, I turned to him and said, 'What is to be done next?' 'Wake the + Duke of Norfolk' (who was snoring away near us), replied he. 'I don't + think the Negociators have left anything else for us to do this + turn.'" + + "In the debate, or rather discussion, afterwards, in the House of + Lords, upon that very question, I sate immediately behind Lord Moira, + who was extremely annoyed at G.'s speech upon the subject, and while + G. was speaking, turned round to me repeatedly and asked me whether I + agreed with him? It was an awkward question to me, who had not heard + both sides. Moira kept repeating to me, 'It was 'not so', it was so + and so,' etc. I did not know very well what to think, but I + sympathized with the acuteness of his feelings upon the subject." + + "Lord Eldon affects an Imitation of two very different + Chancellors--Thurlow and Loughborough--and can indulge in an oath now + and then. On one of the debates on the Catholic question, when we were + either equal or within one (I forget which), I had been sent for in + great haste from a Ball, which I quitted, I confess somewhat + reluctantly, to emancipate five Millions of people. I came in late, + and did not go immediately into the body of the house, but stood just + behind the Woolsack. Eldon turned round, and, catching my eye, + immediately said to a peer (who had come to him for a few minutes on + the Woolsack, as is the custom of his friends), 'Damn them! they'll + have it now, by God!--the vote that is just come in will give it + them.'"] + + +[Footnote 11: Horace, 'Odes', III. iii. 7.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +Wednesday, 24. + + +No dreams last night of the dead, nor the living; so--I am "firm as the +marble, founded as the rock," [1] till the next earthquake. + +Ward's dinner went off well. There was not a disagreeable person +there--unless _I_ offended any body, which I am sure I could not by +contradiction, for I said little, and opposed nothing. Sharpe [2] (a man +of elegant mind, and who has lived much with the best--Fox, Horne Tooke, +Windham, Fitzpatrick, and all the agitators of other times and tongues,) +told us the particulars of his last interview with Windham, [3] a few +days before the fatal operation which sent "that gallant spirit to +aspire the skies." [4] Windham,--the first in one department of oratory +and talent, whose only fault was his refinement beyond the intellect of +half his hearers,--Windham, half his life an active participator in the +events of the earth, and one of those who governed nations,--_he_ +regretted,--and dwelt much on that regret, that "he had not entirely +devoted himself to literature and science!!!" His mind certainly would +have carried him to eminence there, as elsewhere;--but I cannot +comprehend what debility of that mind could suggest such a wish. I, who +have heard him, cannot regret any thing but that I shall never hear him +again. What! would he have been a plodder? a metaphysician?--perhaps a +rhymer? a scribbler? Such an exchange must have been suggested by +illness. But he is gone, and Time "shall not look upon his like again." +[5] + +I am tremendously in arrear with my letters,--except to----, and to her +my thoughts overpower me:--my words never compass them. To Lady +Melbourne I write with most pleasure--and her answers, so sensible, so +_tactique_--I never met with half her talent. If she had been a few +years younger, what a fool she would have made of me, had she thought it +worth her while,--and I should have lost a valuable and most agreeable +_friend_. Mem. a mistress never is nor can be a friend. While you agree, +you are lovers; and, when it is over, any thing but friends. + +I have not answered W. Scott's last letter,--but I will. I regret to +hear from others, that he has lately been unfortunate in pecuniary +involvements. He is undoubtedly the Monarch of Parnassus, and the most +_English_ of bards. I should place Rogers next in the living list (I +value him more as the last of the best school)--Moore and Campbell both +_third_--Southey and Wordsworth and Coleridge--the rest, [Greek: hoi +polloi]--thus: + + + + W. SCOTT. + ^ + + ROGERS. + + MOORE.--CAMPBELL. + + SOUTHEY.--WORDSWORTH.--COLERIDGE. + + < THE MANY. > + + +There is a triangular _Gradus ad Parnassum_!--the names are too numerous +for the base of the triangle. Poor Thurlow has gone wild about the +poetry of Queen Bess's reign--_c'est dommage_. I have ranked the names +upon my triangle more upon what I believe popular opinion, than any +decided opinion of my own. For, to me, some of Moore's last _Erin_ +sparks--"As a beam o'er the face of the waters"--"When he who adores +thee"--"Oh blame not"--and "Oh breathe not his name"--are worth all the +Epics that ever were composed. + +Rogers thinks the 'Quarterly' will attack me next. Let them. I have been +"peppered so highly" in my time, _both_ ways, that it must be cayenne or +aloes to make me taste. I can sincerely say, that I am not very much +alive _now_ to criticism. But--in tracing this--I rather believe that it +proceeds from my not attaching that importance to authorship which many +do, and which, when young, I did also. "One gets tired of every thing, +my angel," says Valmont [6]. + +The "angels" are the only things of which I am not a little sick--but I +do think the preference of _writers_ to _agents_--the mighty stir made +about scribbling and scribes, by themselves and others--a sign of +effeminacy, degeneracy, and weakness. Who would write, who had any thing +better to do? "Action--action--action"--said Demosthenes: +"Actions--actions," I say, and not writing,--least of all, rhyme. Look at +the querulous and monotonous lives of the "genus;"--except Cervantes, +Tasso, Dante, Ariosto, Kleist (who were brave and active citizens), +Æschylus, Sophocles, and some other of the antiques also--what a +worthless, idle brood it is! + + + +[Footnote 1: 'Macbeth', act iii. sc. 4-- + + "Whole as the marble, founded as the rock."] + + +[Footnote 2: Richard Sharp (1759-1835), a wealthy hat-manufacturer, was +a prominent figure in political and literary life. A consistent Whig, he +was one of the "Friends of the People," and in the House of Commons +(1806-12) was a recognized authority on questions of finance. +Essentially a "club-able man," he was a member of many clubs, both +literary and political. In Park Lane and at Mickleham he gathered round +him many friends--Rogers, Moore, Mackintosh, Macaulay, Coleridge, +Horner, Grattan, Horne Tooke, and Sydney Smith, who was so frequently +his guest in the country that he was called the "Bishop of Mickleham." +Horner (May 20, 1816) speaks of a visit paid to Sharp in Surrey, in +company with Grattan ('Memoirs', vol. ii. p. 355). Ticknor, who, in +1815, breakfasted with Sharp in Park Lane ('Life', vol. i. pp. 55, 56), +says of a party of "men of letters:" + + "I saw little of them, excepting Mr. Sharp, formerly a Member of + Parliament, and who, from his talents in society, has been called + 'Conversation Sharp.' He has been made an associate of most of the + literary clubs in London, from the days of Burke down to the present + time. He told me a great many amusing anecdotes of them, and + particularly of Burke, Porson, and Grattan, with whom he had been + intimate; and occupied the dinner-time as pleasantly as the same + number of hours have passed with me in England.... 'June + 7'.--This morning I breakfasted with Mr. Sharp, and had a + continuation of yesterday,--more pleasant accounts of the great men of + the present day, and more amusing anecdotes of the generation that has + passed away." + +Miss Berry, who met Sharp often, writes, in her Journal for March 26, +1808 ('Journal', vol. ii. p. 344), + + "He is clever, but I should suspect of little real depth of intellect." + +Sharp published anonymously a volume of 'Epistles in Verse' (1828). +These were reproduced, with additions, in his 'Letters and Essays', +published with his name in 1834. His "Epistle to an Eminent Poet" is +evidently addressed to his lifelong friend, Samuel Rogers: + + "Yes! thou hast chosen well 'the better part,' + And, for the triumphs of the noblest art, + Hast wisely scorn'd the sordid cares of life."] + + +[Footnote 3: William Windham, of Felbrigg Hall (1750-1810), educated at +Eton, Glasgow, and University College, Oxford, became M.P. for Norwich +in 1784. In the following year he was made chief secretary to Lord +Northington, Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. Expressing some doubts to Dr. +Johnson whether he possessed the arts necessary for Parliamentary +success, the Doctor said, "You will become an able negotiator; a very +pretty rascal." He resigned the secretaryship within the year, according +to Gibbon, on the plea of ill health. He was one of the managers of the +impeachment of Warren Hastings in 1788, Secretary at War from 1794 to +1801, and War and Colonial Secretary, 1806-7. + +Windham, a shrewd critic of other speakers, called Pitt's style a +"State-paper style," because of its combined dignity and poverty, and +"verily believed Mr. Pitt could speak a king's speech off-hand." As a +speaker he was himself remarkably effective, a master of illustration +and allusion, delighting in "homely Saxon," and affecting provincial +words and pronunciation. Lord Sheffield, writing to Gibbon, February 5, +1793, says, "As to Windham, I should think he is become the best, at +least the most sensible, speaker of the whole." His love of paradox, +combined with his political independence and irresolution, gained him +the name of "Weathercock Windham;" but he was respected by both sides as +an honest politician. Outside the house it was his ambition to be known +as a thorough Englishman--a patron of horse-racing, cock-fighting, +bull-baiting, pugilism, and football. He was also a scholar, a man of +wide reading, an admirable talker, and a friend of Miss Berry and of +Madame d'Arblay, in whose Diaries he is a prominent figure. His own +'Diary' (1784-1810) was published in 1866. + +On the 8th of July, 1809, he saw a fire in Conduit Street, which +threatened to spread to the house of his friend North, who possessed a +valuable library. In his efforts to save the books, he fell and bruised +his hip. A tumour formed, which was removed; but he sank under the +operation, and died June 4, 1810.] + + +[Footnote 4: + + "O Romeo, Romeo, brave Mercutio's dead; + That gallant spirit hath aspired the clouds." + +'Romeo and Juliet', act iii. sc. 1.] + + +[Footnote 5: + + "He was a man, take him for all in all, + I shall not look upon his like again." + +'Hamlet', act i. sc. 2.] + + +[Footnote 6: The allusion probably is to 'The Foundling of the Forest' +(1809), by William Dimond the Younger. But no passage exactly +corresponds to the quotation.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +12, Mezza Notte. + + +Just returned from dinner with Jackson (the Emperor of Pugilism) and +another of the select, at Crib's, the champion's. I drank more than I +like, and have brought away some three bottles of very fair claret--for +I have no headach. We had Tom Crib up after dinner;--very facetious, +though somewhat prolix. He don't like his situation--wants to fight +again--pray Pollux (or Castor, if he was the _miller_) he may! Tom has +been a sailor--a coal-heaver--and some other genteel profession, before +he took to the cestus. Tom has been in action at sea, and is now only +three-and-thirty. A great man! has a wife and a mistress, and +conversations well--bating some sad omissions and misapplications of the +aspirate. Tom is an old friend of mine; I have seen some of his best +battles in my nonage. He is now a publican, and, I fear, a sinner;--for +Mrs. Crib is on alimony, and Tom's daughter lives with the champion. +_This_ Tom told me,--Tom, having an opinion of my morals, passed her off +as a legal spouse. Talking of her, he said, "she was the truest of +women"--from which I immediately inferred she could _not_ be his wife, +and so it turned out. + +These panegyrics don't belong to matrimony;--for, if "true," a man don't +think it necessary to say so; and if not, the less he says the better. +Crib is the only man except----, I ever heard harangue upon his wife's +virtue; and I listened to both with great credence and patience, and +stuffed my handkerchief into my mouth, when I found yawning +irresistible--By the by, I am yawning now--so, good night to +thee.--[Greek: Noairon] [1] + + + +[Footnote 1: It is doubtful whether this is not a mistake for [Greek: +Npairon], a variant of [Greek: Mpairon], which is the correct +transliteration into modern Greek of 'Byron', but the MS. is +destroyed.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +Thursday, November 26. + + +Awoke a little feverish, but no headach--no dreams neither, thanks to +stupor! Two letters; one from----, the other from Lady Melbourne--both +excellent in their respective styles.----'s contained also a very +pretty lyric on "concealed griefs;" if not her own, yet very like her. +Why did she not say that the stanzas were, or were not, of her own +composition? I do not know whether to wish them _hers_ or not. I have no +great esteem for poetical persons, particularly women; they have so much +of the "ideal" in _practics_, as well as _ethics_. + +I have been thinking lately a good deal of Mary Duff. How very odd that +I should have been so utterly, devotedly fond of that girl, at an age +when I could neither feel passion, nor know the meaning of the word. And +the effect! My mother used always to rally me about this childish amour; +and, at last, many years after, when I was sixteen, she told me one day, +"Oh, Byron, I have had a letter from Edinburgh, from Miss Abercromby, +and your old sweetheart Mary Duff is married to a Mr. Co'e." And what +was my answer? I really cannot explain or account for my feelings at +that moment; but they nearly threw me into convulsions, and alarmed my +mother so much, that after I grew better, she generally avoided the +subject--to _me_--and contented herself with telling it to all her +acquaintance. Now, what could this be? I had never seen her since her +mother's _faux pas_ at Aberdeen had been the cause of her removal to her +grandmother's at Banff; we were both the merest children. I had and have +been attached fifty times since that period; yet I recollect all we said +to each other, all our caresses, her features, my restlessness, +sleeplessness, my tormenting my mother's maid to write for me to her, +which she at last did, to quiet me. Poor Nancy thought I was wild, and, +as I could not write for myself, became my secretary. I remember, too, +our walks, and the happiness of sitting by Mary, in the children's +apartment, at their house not far from the Plain-stanes at Aberdeen, +while her lesser sister Helen played with the doll, and we sat gravely +making love, in our way. + +How the deuce did all this occur so early? where could it originate? I +certainly had no sexual ideas for years afterwards; and yet my misery, +my love for that girl were so violent, that I sometimes doubt if I have +ever been really attached since. Be that as it may, hearing of her +marriage several years after was like a thunder-stroke--it nearly choked +me--to the horror of my mother and the astonishment and almost +incredulity of every body. And it is a phenomenon in my existence (for I +was not eight years old) which has puzzled, and will puzzle me to the +latest hour of it; and lately, I know not why, the _recollection_ (_not_ +the attachment) has recurred as forcibly as ever. I wonder if she can +have the least remembrance of it or me? or remember her pitying sister +Helen for not having an admirer too? How very pretty is the perfect +image of her in my memory--her brown, dark hair, and hazel eyes; her +very dress! I should be quite grieved to see _her now_; the reality, +however beautiful, would destroy, or at least confuse, the features of +the lovely Peri which then existed in her, and still lives in my +imagination, at the distance of more than sixteen years. I am now +twenty-five and odd months.... + +I think my mother told the circumstances (on my hearing of her marriage) +to the Parkynses, and certainly to the Pigot family, and probably +mentioned it in her answer to Miss A., who was well acquainted with my +childish _penchant_, and had sent the news on purpose for _me_,--and +thanks to her! + +Next to the beginning, the conclusion has often occupied my reflections, +in the way of investigation. That the facts are thus, others know as +well as I, and my memory yet tells me so, in more than a whisper. But, +the more I reflect, the more I am bewildered to assign any cause for +this precocity of affection. + +Lord Holland invited me to dinner to-day; but three days' dining would +destroy me. So, without eating at all since yesterday, I went to my box +at Covent Garden. + +Saw----looking very pretty, though quite a different style of beauty +from the other two. She has the finest eyes in the world, out of which +she pretends _not_ to see, and the longest eyelashes I ever saw, since +Leila's and Phannio's Moslem curtains of the light. She has much +beauty,--just enough,--but is, I think, _méchante_. + +I have been pondering on the miseries of separation, that--oh how seldom +we see those we love! yet we live ages in moments, _when met_. The only +thing that consoles me during absence is the reflection that no mental +or personal estrangement, from ennui or disagreement, can take place; +and when people meet hereafter, even though many changes may have taken +place in the mean time, still, unless they are _tired_ of each other, +they are ready to reunite, and do not blame each other for the +circumstances that severed them. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +Saturday 27 + +(I believe or rather am in _doubt_, which is the _ne plus ultra_ of +mortal faith.) + +I have missed a day; and, as the Irishman said, or Joe Miller says for +him, "have gained a loss," or _by_ the loss. Every thing is settled for +Holland, and nothing but a cough, or a caprice of my fellow-traveller's, +can stop us. Carriage ordered, funds prepared, and, probably, a gale of +wind into the bargain. _N'importe_--I believe, with Clym o' the Clow, or +Robin Hood, "By our Mary, (dear name!) thou art both Mother and May, I +think it never was a man's lot to die before his day." [1] + +Heigh for Helvoetsluys, and so forth! + +To-night I went with young Henry Fox to see _Nourjahad_, a drama, which +the _Morning Post_ hath laid to my charge, but of which I cannot even +guess the author. I wonder what they will next inflict upon me. They +cannot well sink below a melodrama; but that is better than a satire, +(at least, a personal one,) with which I stand truly arraigned, and in +atonement of which I am resolved to bear silently all criticisms, +abuses, and even praises, for bad pantomimes never composed by me, +without even a contradictory aspect. I suppose the root of this report +is my loan to the manager of my Turkish drawings for his dresses, to +which he was more welcome than to my name. I suppose the real author +will soon own it, as it has succeeded; if not, Job be my model, and +Lethe my beverage! + +----has received the portrait safe; and, in answer, the only remark she +makes upon it is, "indeed it is like"--and again, "indeed it is like." +With her the likeness "covered a multitude of sins;" for I happen to +know that this portrait was not a flatterer, but dark and stern,--even +black as the mood in which my mind was scorching last July, when I sat +for it. All the others of me, like most portraits whatsoever, are, of +course, more agreeable than nature. + +Redde the 'Edinburgh Review' of Rogers. He is ranked highly; but where +he should be. There is a summary view of us all--_Moore_ and _me_ among +the rest; [2] and both (the _first_ justly) praised--though, by +implication (justly again) placed beneath our memorable friend. +Mackintosh is the writer, and also of the critique on the Stael. [3] + +His grand essay on Burke, I hear, is for the next number. But I know +nothing of the 'Edinburgh', or of any other _Review_, but from rumour; +and I have long ceased; indeed, I could not, in justice, complain of +any, even though I were to rate poetry, in general, and my rhymes in +particular, more highly than I really do. To withdraw _myself_ from +_myself_ (oh that cursed selfishness!) has ever been my sole, my entire, +my sincere motive in scribbling at all; and publishing is also the +continuance of the same object, by the action it affords to the mind, +which else recoils upon itself. If I valued fame, I should flatter +received opinions, which have gathered strength by time, and will yet +wear longer than any living works to the contrary. But, for the soul of +me, I cannot and will not give the lie to my own thoughts and doubts, +come what may. If I am a fool, it is, at least, a doubting one; and I +envy no one the certainty of his self-approved wisdom. + +All are inclined to believe what they covet, from a lottery-ticket up to +a passport to Paradise,--in which, from the description, I see nothing +very tempting. My restlessness tells me I have something "within that +passeth show." [4] + +It is for Him, who made it, to prolong that spark of celestial fire +which illuminates, yet burns, this frail tenement; but I see no such +horror in a "dreamless sleep," and I have no conception of any existence +which duration would not render tiresome. How else "fell the angels," +even according to your creed? They were immortal, heavenly, and happy, +as their _apostate Abdiel_ [5] is now by his treachery. Time must +decide; and eternity won't be the less agreeable or more horrible +because one did not expect it. In the mean time, I am grateful for some +good, and tolerably patient under certain evils--_grace à Dieu et mon +bon tempérament_. + + + +[Footnote 1: + + "Ah, deere ladye, said Robin Hood, thou + That art both Mother and May, + I think it was never man's destinye + To die before his day." + +'Ballad of Robin Hood' + + +[Footnote 2: The following is the passage to which Byron alludes: + + "Greece, the mother of freedom and of poetry in the West, which had + long employed only the antiquary, the artist, and the philologist, was + at length destined, after an interval of many silent and inglorious + ages, to awaken the genius of a poet. Full of enthusiasm for those + perfect forms of heroism and liberty which his imagination had placed + in the recesses of antiquity, he gave vent to his impatience of the + imperfections of living men and real institutions, in an original + strain of sublime satire, which clothes moral anger in imagery of an + almost horrible grandeur; and which, though it cannot coincide with + the estimate of reason, yet could only flow from that worship of + perfection which is the soul of all true poetry." + +'Edin. Rev'., vol. xxii. p. 37.] + + +[Footnote 3: + + "In the last 'Edinburgh Review' you will find two articles of mine, + one on Rogers, and the other on Madame de Staël: they are both, + especially the first, thought too panegyrical. I like the praises + which I have bestowed on Lord Byron and Thomas Moore. I am convinced + of the justness of the praises given to Madame de Staël." + +'Mackintosh's Life', vol. ii. p. 271.] + + +[Footnote 4: + + "I have that within which passeth show." + +'Hamlet', act i. sc. 2.] + + +[Footnote 5: + + "... the seraph Abdiel, faithful found + Among the faithless." + +Milton, 'Paradise Lost', v. 896.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +Tuesday, 30th. + + +Two days missed in my log-book;--_hiatus_ haud _deflendus_. They were as +little worth recollection as the rest; and, luckily, laziness or society +prevented me from _notching_ them. + +Sunday, I dined with the Lord Holland in St. James's Square. Large +party--among them Sir S. Romilly [1] and Lady R'y.--General Sir Somebody +Bentham, [2] a man of science and talent, I am told--Horner [3]--_the_ +Horner, an Edinburgh Reviewer, an excellent speaker in the "Honourable +House," very pleasing, too, and gentlemanly in company, as far as I have +seen--Sharpe--Philips of Lancashire [4]--Lord John Russell, and others, +"good men and true." Holland's society is very good; you always see some +one or other in it worth knowing. Stuffed myself with sturgeon, and +exceeded in champagne and wine in general, but not to confusion of head. +When I _do_ dine, I gorge like an Arab or a Boa snake, on fish and +vegetables, but no meat. I am always better, however, on my tea and +biscuit than any other regimen, and even _that_ sparingly. + +Why does Lady H. always have that damned screen between the whole room +and the fire? I, who bear cold no better than an antelope, and never yet +found a sun quite _done_ to my taste, was absolutely petrified, and +could not even shiver. All the rest, too, looked as if they were just +unpacked, like salmon from an ice-basket, and set down to table for that +day only. When she retired, I watched their looks as I dismissed the +screen, and every cheek thawed, and every nose reddened with the +anticipated glow. + +Saturday, I went with Harry Fox to _Nourjahad_; and, I believe, +convinced him, by incessant yawning, that it was not mine. I wish the +precious author would own it, and release me from his fame. The dresses +are pretty, but not in costume;--Mrs. Horn's, all but the turban, and +the want of a small dagger (if she is a sultana), _perfect_. I never saw +a Turkish woman with a turban in my life--nor did any one else. The +sultanas have a small poniard at the waist. The dialogue is drowsy--the +action heavy--the scenery fine--the actors tolerable. I can't say much +for their seraglio--Teresa, Phannio, or----, were worth them all. + +Sunday, a very handsome note from Mackintosh, who is a rare instance of +the union of very transcendent talent and great good nature. To-day +(Tuesday) a very pretty billet from M. la Baronne de Stael Holstein. [5] +She is pleased to be much pleased with my mention of her and her last +work in my notes. I spoke as I thought. Her works are my delight, and so +is she herself, for--half an hour. I don't like her politics--at least, +her _having changed_ them; had she been _qualis ab incepto_, it were +nothing. But she is a woman by herself, and has done more than all the +rest of them together, intellectually;--she ought to have been a man. +She _flatters_ me very prettily in her note;--but I _know_ it. The +reason that adulation is not displeasing is, that, though untrue, it +shows one to be of consequence enough, in one way or other, to induce +people to lie, to make us their friend:--that is their concern. + +----is, I hear, thriving on the repute of a _pun_ which was _mine_ (at +Mackintosh's dinner some time back), on Ward, who was asking, "how much +it would take to _re-whig_ him?" I answered that, probably, "he must +first, before he was _re-whigged_, be re-_warded_." [6] This foolish +quibble, before the Stael and Mackintosh, and a number of +conversationers, has been mouthed about, and at last settled on the head +of----, where long may it remain! + +George [7] is returned from afloat to get a new ship. He looks thin, but +better than I expected. I like George much more than most people like +their heirs. He is a fine fellow, and every inch a sailor. I would do +any thing, _but apostatise_, to get him on in his profession. + +Lewis called. It is a good and good-humoured man, but pestilently prolix +and paradoxical and _personal_ [8]. If he would but talk half, and +reduce his visits to an hour, he would add to his popularity. As an +author he is very good, and his vanity is _ouverte_, like Erskine's, and +yet not offending. + +Yesterday, a very pretty letter from Annabella [9], which I answered. +What an odd situation and friendship is ours!--without one spark of love +on either side, and produced by circumstances which in general lead to +coldness on one side, and aversion on the other. She is a very superior +woman, and very little spoiled, which is strange in an heiress--a girl +of twenty--a peeress that is to be, in her own right--an only child, and +a _savante_, who has always had her own way. She is a poetess--a +mathematician--a metaphysician, and yet, withal, very kind, generous, +and gentle, with very little pretension. Any other head would be turned +with half her acquisitions, and a tenth of her advantages. + + + +[Footnote 1: Sir Samuel Romilly (1757-1818), Solicitor-General (1806-7), +distinguished himself in Parliament by his consistent advocacy of +Catholic Emancipation, the abolition of the slave-trade, Parliamentary +reform, and the mitigation of the harshness of the criminal law. Writing +of Romilly's 'Observations on the Criminal Law of England' (1810), Sir +James Mackintosh says, + + "It does the very highest honour to his moral character, which, I + think, stands higher than that of any other conspicuous Englishman now + alive. Probity, independence, humanity, and liberality breathe through + every word; considered merely as a composition, accuracy, perspicuity, + discretion, and good taste are its chief merits; great originality and + comprehension of thought, or remarkable vigour of expression, it does + not possess." + +The death of his wife, October 29, 1818, so affected Romilly's mind that +he committed suicide four days later. + + "Romilly," said Lord Lansdowne to Moore ('Memoirs, etc'., vol. ii. p. + 211), "was a stern, reserved sort of man, and she was the only person + in the world to whom he wholly unbent and unbosomed himself; when he + lost her, therefore, the very vent of his heart was stopped up."] + + +[Footnote 2: Sir Samuel Bentham (1757-1831), naval architect and +engineer, like his brother Jeremy, was a strong reformer. He was a +Knight of the Russian Order of St. George, and, like Sir Samuel Egerton +Brydges, who was a Knight of the Swedish Order of St. Joachim before he +was created a baronet (1814), assumed the title in England.] + + +[Footnote 3: Francis Horner (1778-1817), called to the Scottish Bar in +1800, and to the English Bar in 1807, was one of the founders of the +'Edinburgh Review', and acted as second to Jeffrey in his duel with +Moore. In the House of Commons (M.P. for St. Ives, 1806-7; Wendover, +1807-12; St. Mawes, 1812-17) he was one of the most impressive speakers +of the day, especially on financial questions. When Lord Morpeth moved +(March 3, 1817) for a new writ for the borough of St. Mawes, striking +tributes were paid to his character from both sides of the House +('Memoirs and Correspondence of Francis Horner', vol. ii. pp. 416-426), +and further proof was given of public esteem by the statue erected to +his memory in Westminster Abbey. The speeches delivered in the Lower +House on March 3, 1817, were translated by Ugo Foscolo, and published +with a dedication 'al nobile giovinetto, Enrico Fox, figlio di Lord +Holland'.] + + +[Footnote 4: George Philips, only son of Thomas Philips of Sedgley, +Lancashire (born March 24, 1766), was created a baronet in February, +1828. He sat for South Warwickshire in the first reformed House of +Commons.] + + +[Footnote 5: In a note to 'The Bride of Abydos' (Canto I. st. vi.), +Byron had written, + + "For an eloquent passage in the latest work of the first female writer + of this, perhaps of any, age, on the analogy (and the immediate + comparison excited by that analogy) between 'painting and music,' see + vol. iii. cap. 10, 'De l'Allemagne'." + +The passage is as follows (Part III. chap, x.): + + "Sans cesse nous comparons la peinture à la musique, et la musique à + la peinture, parceque les émotions que nous eprouvons nous révèlent + des analogies où l'observation froide ne verroit que des différences," + etc., etc. + +The following is Madame de Staël's "very pretty billet:" + + "Argyll St., No. 31. + + "Je ne saurais vous exprímer, my lord, à quel point je me trouve + honorée d'être dans une note de votre poëme, et de quel poëme! il me + semble que pour la première fois je me crois certaine d'un nom + d'avenir et que vous avez disposé pour moi de cet empire de reputation + qui vous sera tous les jours plus soumis. Je voudrais vous parler de + ce poëme que tout le monde admire, mais j'avouerai que je suis trop + suspecte en le louant, et je ne cache pas qu' une louage de vous m'a + fait épreuver un sentiment de fierté et de réconaissance qui me + rendrait incapable de vous juger; mais heureusement vous êtes au + dessus du jugement. + + "Donnez moi quelquefois le plaisir de vous voir; il-y-a un proverbe + français qui dit qu'un bonheur ne va jamais sans d'autre. + + "DE STAËL."] + + +[Footnote 6: + + "Byron," writes Sir Walter Scott, in a hitherto unpublished note, + "occasionally said what are called good things, but never studied for + them. They came naturally and easily, and mixed with the comic or + serious, as it happened. A professed wit is of all earthly companions + the most intolerable. He is like a schoolboy with his pockets stuffed + with crackers. + + "No first-rate author was ever what is understood by a 'great + conversational wit'. Swift's wit in common society was either the + strong sense of a wonderful man unconsciously exerting his powers, or + that of the same being wilfully unbending, wilfully, in fact, + degrading himself. Who ever heard of any fame for conversational wit + lingering over the memory of a Shakespeare, a Milton, even of a Dryden + or a Pope? + + "Johnson is, perhaps, a solitary exception. More shame to him. He was + the most indolent great man that ever lived, and threw away in his + talk more than he ever took pains to embalm in his writings. + + "It is true that Boswell has in great measure counteracted all this. + But here is no defence. Few great men can expect to have a Boswell, + and none 'ought' to wish to have one, far less to trust to having one. + A man should not keep fine clothes locked up in his chest only that + his valet may occasionally show off in them; no, nor yet strut about + in them in his chamber, only that his valet may puff him and his + finery abroad. + + "What might not he have done, who wrote 'Rasselas' in the evenings of + eight days to get money enough for his mother's funeral expenses? As + it is, what has Johnson done? Is it nothing to be the first intellect + of 'an age'? and who seriously talks even of Burke as having been more + than a clever boy in the presence of old Samuel?"] + + +[Footnote 7: George Anson Byron, R. N., afterwards Lord Byron.] + + +[Footnote 8: Scott has this additional note on Lewis: + + "Nothing was more tiresome than Lewis when he began to harp upon any + extravagant proposition. He would tinker at it for hours without + mercy, and repeat the same thing in four hundred different ways. If + you assented in despair, he resumed his reasoning in triumph, and you + had only for your pains the disgrace of giving in. If you disputed, + daylight and candle-light could not bring the discussion to an end, + and Mat's arguments were always 'ditto repeated'."] + + +[Footnote 9: Miss Milbanke, afterwards Lady Byron.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +Wednesday, December 1, 1813. + + +To-day responded to La Baronne de Stael Holstein, and sent to Leigh Hunt +(an acquisition to my acquaintance--through Moore--of last summer) a +copy of the two Turkish tales. Hunt is an extraordinary character, and +not exactly of the present age. He reminds me more of the Pym and +Hampden times--much talent, great independence of spirit, and an +austere, yet not repulsive, aspect. If he goes on _qualis ab incepto_, I +know few men who will deserve more praise or obtain it. I must go and +see him again;--the rapid succession of adventure, since last summer, +added to some serious uneasiness and business, have interrupted our +acquaintance; but he is a man worth knowing; and though, for his own +sake, I wish him out of prison, I like to study character in such +situations. He has been unshaken, and will continue so. I don't think +him deeply versed in life;--he is the bigot of virtue (not religion), +and enamoured of the beauty of that "empty name," as the last breath of +Brutus pronounced [1], and every day proves it. He is, perhaps, a little +opinionated, as all men who are the _centre_ of _circles_, wide or +narrow--the Sir Oracles, in whose name two or three are gathered +together--must be, and as even Johnson was; but, withal, a valuable man, +and less vain than success and even the consciousness of preferring "the +right to the expedient" might excuse. + +To-morrow there is a party of _purple_ at the "blue" Miss Berry's. Shall +I go? um!--I don't much affect your blue-bottles;--but one ought to be +civil. There will be, "I guess now" (as the Americans say), the Staels +and Mackintoshes--good--the----s and----s--not so good--the----s, +etc., etc.--good for nothing. Perhaps that blue-winged Kashmirian +butterfly of book-learning [2], Lady Charlemont, will be there. I hope +so; it is a pleasure to look upon that most beautiful of faces. + +Wrote to H.:--he has been telling that I------[3] I am sure, at least, +_I_ did not mention it, and I wish he had not. He is a good fellow, and +I obliged myself ten times more by being of use than I did him,--and +there's an end on't. + +Baldwin [4] is boring me to present their King's Bench petition. I +presented Cartwright's last year; and Stanhope and I stood against the +whole House, and mouthed it valiantly--and had some fun and a little +abuse for our opposition. But "I am not i' th' vein" [5] for this +business. Now, had----been here, she would have _made_ me do it. +_There_ is a woman, who, amid all her fascination, always urged a man to +usefulness or glory. Had she remained, she had been my tutelar genius. + +Baldwin is very importunate--but, poor fellow, "I can't get out, I can't +get out--said the starling." [6] Ah, I am as bad as that dog Sterne, who +preferred whining over "a dead ass to relieving a living mother" +[7]--villain--hypocrite--slave--sycophant! but _I_ am no better. Here I +cannot stimulate myself to a speech for the sake of these unfortunates, +and three words and half a smile of----had she been here to urge it +(and urge it she infallibly would--at least she always pressed me on +senatorial duties, and particularly in the cause of weakness) would have +made me an advocate, if not an orator. Curse on Rochefoucault for being +always right! In him a lie were virtue,--or, at least, a comfort to his +readers. + +George Byron has not called to-day; I hope he will be an admiral, and, +perhaps, Lord Byron into the bargain. If he would but marry, I would +engage never to marry myself, or cut him out of the heirship. He would +be happier, and I should like nephews better than sons. + +I shall soon be six-and-twenty (January 22d., 1814). Is there any thing +in the future that can possibly console us for not being always +_twenty-five_? + + "Oh Gioventu! + Oh Primavera! gioventu dell' anno. + Oh Gioventu! primavera della vita." + + + +[Footnote 1: + +"'Strato'. + + For Brutus only overcame himself, + And no man else hath honour by his death. + + * * * * * + +'Octavius'. + + According to his virtue let us use him, + With all respect and rites of burial." + +'Julius Cæsar', act v. sc. 5.] + + +[Footnote 2: In 'The Giaour' (lines 388-392) occurs the following +passage: + + "As rising on its purple wing + The insect-queen of Eastern spring + O'er emerald meadows of Kashmeer + Invites the young pursuer near," etc. + +To line 389 is appended this note: + + "The blue-winged butterfly of Kashmeer, the most rare and beautiful of + the species."] + + +[Footnote 3: See letter [Letter 365] to Francis Hodgson, p. 294.] + + +[Footnote 4: The letters which W.J. Baldwin, a debtor in the King's +Bench prison, wrote to Byron are preserved. Byron seems to have refused +to present the petition from diffidence, but he interested himself in +the subject, and probably induced Lord Holland to take up the question. +(See p. 318, 'note' 2 [Footnote 6 of the initial journal entry which +forms the beginning of Chapter VIII.]) In the list of abuses enumerated +by Baldwin is mentioned a "strong room," in which prisoners were +confined, without fires or glass to the windows, in the depth of winter.] + + +[Footnote 5: 'Richard III'., act iv, sc. 2.] + + +[Footnote 6: 'Sentimental Journey' (ed. 1819), vol. ii. p. 379.] + + +[Footnote 7: 'Ibid.', vol. ii. p. 337.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +Sunday, December 5. + + +Dallas's nephew (son to the American Attorney-general) is arrived in +this country, and tells Dallas that my rhymes are very popular in the +United States. These are the first tidings that have ever sounded like +_Fame_ to my ears--to be redde on the banks of the Ohio! The greatest +pleasure I ever derived, of this kind was from an extract, in Cooke the +actor's life, from his journal [1], stating that in the reading-room at +Albany, near Washington, he perused _English Bards, and Scotch +Reviewers_. To be popular in a rising and far country has a kind of +_posthumous feel_, very different from the ephemeral _éclat_ and +fête-ing, buzzing and party-ing compliments of the well-dressed +multitude. I can safely say that, during my _reign_ in the spring of +1812, I regretted nothing but its duration of six weeks instead of a +fortnight, and was heartily glad to resign. + +Last night I supped with Lewis; and, as usual, though I neither exceeded +in solids nor fluids, have been half dead ever since. My stomach is +entirely destroyed by long abstinence, and the rest will probably +follow. Let it--I only wish the _pain_ over. The "leap in the dark" is +the least to be dreaded. + +The Duke of----called. I have told them forty times that, except to +half-a-dozen old and specified acquaintances, I am invisible. His Grace +is a good, noble, ducal person; but I am content to think so at a +distance, and so--I was not at home. + +Galt called.--Mem.--to ask some one to speak to Raymond in favour of his +play. We are old fellow-travellers, and, with all his eccentricities, he +has much strong sense, experience of the world, and is, as far as I have +seen, a good-natured philosophical fellow. I showed him Sligo's letter +on the reports of the Turkish girl's _aventure_ at Athens soon after it +happened. He and Lord Holland, Lewis, and Moore, and Rogers, and Lady +Melbourne have seen it. Murray has a copy. I thought it had been +_unknown_, and wish it were; but Sligo arrived only some days after, and +the _rumours_ are the subject of his letter. That I shall preserve,--_it +is as well_. Lewis and Gait were both _horrified_; and L. wondered I did +not introduce the situation into _The Giaour_. He _may_ wonder;--he +might wonder more at that production's being written at all. But to +describe the _feelings_ of _that situation_ were impossible--it is _icy_ +even to recollect them. + +The _Bride of Abydos_ was published on Thursday the second of December; +but how it is liked or disliked, I know not. Whether it succeeds or not +is no fault of the public, against whom I can have no complaint. But I +am much more indebted to the tale than I can ever be to the most partial +reader; as it wrung my thoughts from reality to imagination--from +selfish regrets to vivid recollections--and recalled me to a country +replete with the _brightest_ and _darkest_, but always most _lively_ +colours of my memory. Sharpe called, but was not let in, which I regret. + +Saw [Rogers] yesterday. I have not kept my appointment at Middleton, +which has not pleased him, perhaps; and my projected voyage with [Ward] +will, perhaps, please him less. But I wish to keep well with both. They +are instruments that don't do in concert; but, surely, their separate +tones are very musical, and I won't give up either. + +It is well if I don't jar between these great discords. At present I +stand tolerably well with all, but I cannot adopt their _dislikes_;--so +many _sets_. Holland's is the first;--every thing _distingué_ is welcome +there, and certainly the _ton_ of his society is the best. Then there is +Madame de Stael's--there I never go, though I might, had I courted it. +It is composed of the----s and the----family, with a strange +sprinkling,--orators, dandies, and all kinds of _Blue_, from the regular +Grub Street uniform, down to the azure jacket of the _Littérateur_ [2]? + +To see----and----sitting together, at dinner, always reminds me of +the grave, where all distinctions of friend and foe are levelled; and +they--the Reviewer and the Reviewée--the Rhinoceros and Elephant--the +Mammoth and Megalonyx--all will lie quietly together. They now _sit_ +together, as silent, but not so quiet, as if they were already immured. + +I did not go to the Berrys' the other night. The elder is a woman of +much talent, and both are handsome, and must have been beautiful. +To-night asked to Lord H.'s--shall I go? um!--perhaps. + + +Morning, two o'clock. + +Went to Lord H.'s--party numerous--_mi_lady in perfect good humour, and +consequently _perfect_. No one more agreeable, or perhaps so much so, +when she will. Asked for Wednesday to dine and meet the Stael--asked +particularly, I believe, out of mischief to see the first interview +after the _note_, with which Corinne professes herself to be so much +taken. I don't much like it; she always talks of _my_self or _her_self, +and I am not (except in soliloquy, as now,) much enamoured of either +subject--especially one's works. What the devil shall I say about _De +l'Allemagne_? I like it prodigiously; but unless I can twist my +admiration into some fantastical expression, she won't believe me; and I +know, by experience, I shall be overwhelmed with fine things about +rhyme, etc., etc. The lover, Mr.----[Rocca], was there to-night, and +C----said "it was the only proof _he_ had seen of her good taste." +Monsieur L'Amant is remarkably handsome; but _I_ don't think more so +than her book. + +C----[Campbell] looks well,--seems pleased, and dressed to _sprucery_. +A blue coat becomes him,--so does his new wig. He really looked as if +Apollo had sent him a birthday suit, or a wedding-garment, and was witty +and lively. He abused Corinne's book, which I regret; because, firstly, +he understands German, and is consequently a fair judge; and, secondly, +he is _first-rate_, and, consequently, the best of judges. I reverence +and admire him; but I won't give up my opinion--why should I? I read +_her_ again and again, and there can be no affectation in this. I cannot +be mistaken (except in taste) in a book I read and lay down, and take up +again; and no book can be totally bad which finds _one_, even _one_ +reader, who can say as much sincerely. + +Campbell talks of lecturing next spring; his last lectures were +eminently successful. Moore thought of it, but gave it up,--I don't know +why.----had been prating _dignity_ to him, and such stuff; as if a man +disgraced himself by instructing and pleasing at the same time. + +Introduced to Marquis Buckingham--saw Lord Gower [3]--he is going to +Holland; Sir J. and Lady Mackintosh and Horner, G. Lamb [4], with I know +not how many (Richard Wellesley, one--a clever man), grouped about the +room. Little Henry Fox, a very fine boy, and very promising in mind and +manner,--he went away to bed, before I had time to talk to him. I am +sure I had rather hear him than all the _savans_. + + + +[Footnote 1: In Dunlap's 'Memoirs of George Frederick Cooke' (vol. ii. +p. 313), the following passage is quoted from the actor's journal: + + "Read 'English Bards, and Scotch Reviewers', by Lord Byron. It is well + written. His Lordship is rather severe, perhaps justly so, on Walter + Scott, and most assuredly justly severe upon Monk Lewis."] + + +[Footnote 2: In Byron's 'Detached Thoughts' (1821) occurs this passage: + + "In general I do not draw well with literary men. Not that I dislike + them, but I never know what to say to them after I have praised their + last publication. There are several exceptions, to be sure; but then + they have always been men of the world, such as Scott and Moore, etc., + or visionaries out of it, such as Shelley, etc. But your literary + every-day man and I never went well in company, especially your + foreigner, whom I never could abide,--except Giordani, and--and--and + (I really can't name any other); I do not remember a man amongst them + whom I ever wished to see twice, except, perhaps, Mezzophanti, who is + a Monster of Languages, the Briareus of parts of speech, a walking + Polyglott, and more--who ought to have existed at the time of the + Tower of Babel as universal Interpreter. He is, indeed, a Marvel, + --unassuming also. I tried him in all the tongues of which I have a + single oath (or adjuration to the Gods against Postboys, Savages, + Tartars, boatmen, sailors, pilots, Gondoliers, Muleteers, + Cameldrivers, Vetturini, Postmasters, post-horses, post-houses, + post-everything) and Egad! he astounded me even to my English." + +On this passage Sir Walter Scott makes the following note: + + "I suspect Lord Byron of some self-deceit as to this matter. It + appears that he liked extremely the only 'first-rate' men of letters + into whose society he happened to be thrown in England. They happened + to be men of the world, it is true; but how few men of very great + eminence in literature, how few intellectually Lord B.'s peers, have + 'not' been men of the world? Does any one doubt that the topics he had + most pleasure in discussing with Scott or Moore were literary ones, or + had at least some relation to literature? + + "As for the foreign 'literati', pray what 'literati' anything like his + own rank did he encounter abroad? I have no doubt he would have been + as much at home with an Alfieri, a Schiller, or a Goethe, or a + Voltaire, as he was with Scott or Moore, and yet two of these were + very little of men of the world in the sense in which he uses that + phrase. + + "As to 'every-day men of letters,' pray who does like their company? + Would a clever man like a prosing 'captain, or colonel, or + knight-in-arms' the 'better' for happening to be himself the Duke of + Wellington?"] + + +[Footnote 3: George Granville Leveson Gower (1786-1861) succeeded his +father in 1833 as second Duke of Sutherland.] + + +[Footnote 4: George Lamb (1784-1834), the fourth son of the first Lord +Melbourne, married, in 1809, Caroline Rosalie St. Jules. As one of the +early contributors to the 'Edinburgh Review', he was attacked by Byron +in 'English Bards, and Scotch Reviewers', lines 57 and 516 (see 'Poems', +ed. 1898, vol. i. p. 301, 'note' I). A clever amateur actor, his comic +opera 'Whistle for It' was produced at Covent Garden, April 10, 1807, +and he was afterwards on the Drury Lane Committee of Management. His +translation of the 'Poems of Catullus' was published in 1821. In 1819, +as the representative of the official Whigs, he was elected for +Westminster against Hobhouse; but was defeated at the next election +(1820).] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +Monday, Dec. 6. + +Murray tells me that Croker asked him why the thing was called the +_Bride_ of Abydos? It is a cursed awkward question, being unanswerable. +_She_ is not a _bride_, only about to be one; but for, etc., etc., etc. + +I don't wonder at his finding out the _Bull_; but the detection----is +too late to do any good. I was a great fool to make it, and am ashamed +of not being an Irishman. + +Campbell last night seemed a little nettled at something or other--I +know not what. We were standing in the ante-saloon, when Lord H. brought +out of the other room a vessel of some composition similar to that which +is used in Catholic churches, and, seeing us, he exclaimed, "Here is +some _incense_ for you." Campbell answered--"Carry it to Lord Byron, _he +is used to it_." + +Now, this comes of "bearing no brother near the throne." [1] + +I, who have no throne, nor wish to have one _now_, whatever I may have +done, am at perfect peace with all the poetical fraternity; or, at +least, if I dislike any, it is not _poetically_, but _personally_. +Surely the field of thought is infinite; what does it signify who is +before or behind in a race where there is no _goal_? The temple of fame +is like that of the Persians, the universe; our altar, the tops of +mountains. I should be equally content with Mount Caucasus, or Mount +Anything; and those who like it, may have Mount Blanc or Chimborazo, +without my envy of their elevation. + +I think I may _now_ speak thus; for I have just published a poem, and am +quite ignorant whether it is _likely_ to be _liked_ or not. I have +hitherto heard little in its commendation, and no one can _downright_ +abuse it to one's face, except in print. It can't be good, or I should +not have stumbled over the threshold, and blundered in my very title. +But I began it with my heart full of----, and my head of +oriental_ities_ (I can't call them _isms_), and wrote on rapidly. + +This journal is a relief. When I am tired--as I generally am--out comes +this, and down goes every thing. But I can't read it over; and God knows +what contradictions it may contain. If I am sincere with myself (but I +fear one lies more to one's self than to any one else), every page +should confute, refute, and utterly abjure its predecessor. + +Another scribble from Martin Baldwin the petitioner; I have neither head +nor nerves to present it. That confounded supper at Lewis's has spoiled +my digestion and my philanthropy. I have no more charity than a cruet of +vinegar. Would I were an ostrich, and dieted on fire-irons,--or any +thing that my gizzard could get the better of. + +To-day saw Ward. His uncle [2] is dying, and W. don't much affect our +Dutch determinations. I dine with him on Thursday, provided _l'oncle_ is +not dined upon, or peremptorily bespoke by the posthumous epicures +before that day. I wish he may recover--not for _our_ dinner's sake, but +to disappoint the undertaker, and the rascally reptiles that may well +wait, since they _will_ dine at last. + +Gell called--he of Troy--after I was out. Mem.--to return his visit. +But my Mems. are the very landmarks of forgetfulness;--something like a +light-house, with a ship wrecked under the nose of its lantern. I never +look at a Mem. without seeing that I have remembered to forget. Mem.--I +have forgotten to pay Pitt's taxes, and suppose I shall be surcharged. +"An I do not turn rebel when thou art king "--oons! I believe my very +biscuit is leavened with that impostor's imposts. + +Lady Melbourne returns from Jersey's to-morrow;--I must call. A Mr. +Thomson has sent a song, which I must applaud. I hate annoying them with +censure or silence;--and yet I hate _lettering_. + +Saw Lord Glenbervie [3] and this Prospectus, at Murray's, of a new +Treatise on Timber. Now here is a man more useful than all the +historians and rhymers ever planted. For, by preserving our woods and +forests, he furnishes materials for all the history of Britain worth +reading, and all the odes worth nothing. + +Redde a good deal, but desultorily. My head is crammed with the most +useless lumber. It is odd that when I do read, I can only bear the +chicken broth of--_any thing_ but Novels. It is many a year since I +looked into one, (though they are sometimes ordered, by way of +experiment, but never taken,) till I looked yesterday at the worst parts +of the _Monk_. These descriptions ought to have been written by Tiberius +at Caprea--they are forced--the _philtered_ ideas of a jaded voluptuary. +It is to me inconceivable how they could have been composed by a man of +only twenty--his age when he wrote them. They have no nature--all the +sour cream of cantharides. I should have suspected Buffon of writing +them on the death-bed of his detestable dotage. I had never redde this +edition, and merely looked at them from curiosity and recollection of +the noise they made, and the name they had left to Lewis. But they could +do no harm, except----. + +Called this evening on my agent--my business as usual. Our strange +adventures are the only inheritances of our family that have not +diminished. + +I shall now smoke two cigars, and get me to bed. The cigars don't keep +well here. They get as old as a _donna di quaranti anni_ in the sun of +Africa. The Havannah are the best;--but neither are so pleasant as a +hooka or chiboque. The Turkish tobacco is mild, and their horses +entire--two things as they should be. I am so far obliged to this +Journal, that it preserves me from verse,--at least from keeping it. I +have just thrown a poem into the fire (which it has relighted to my +great comfort), and have smoked out of my head the plan of another. I +wish I could as easily get rid of thinking, or, at least, the confusion +of thought. + + + +[Footnote 1: Pope's 'Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot', line 197.] + + +[Footnote 2: William Bosville (1745-1813), called colonel, but really +only lieutenant in the Coldstream Guards, was a noted 'bon vivant', +whose maxim for life was "Better never than late." He was famous for his +hospitality in Welbeck Street. A friend of Horne Tooke, he dined with +him at Wimbledon every Sunday in the spring and autumn. See 'Diversions +of Purley', ed. 1805, ii. 490: + + "Your friend Bosville and I have entered into a strict engagement to + belong for ever to the established government, to the Established + Church, and to the established language of our country, because they + are established."] + + +[Footnote 3: Sylvester Douglas (1743-1823), created in 1800 Baron +Glenbervie, married, in September, 1789, Catherine, eldest daughter of +Lord North, afterwards Earl of Guildford. He was educated at Leyden for +the medical profession, a circumstance to which Sheridan alludes in the +lines: + + "Glenbervie, Glenbervie, + What's good for the scurvy? + For ne'er be your old trade forgot." + +Gibbon writes of him, October 4, 1788 ('Letters', vol. ii. p. 180), + + "He has been curious, attentive, agreeable; and in every place where + he has resided some days, he has left acquaintance who esteem and + regret him; I never knew so clear and general an impression." + +Glenbervie was Surveyor-General of Woods and Forests, 1803-1806, and +again from 1807 to 1810. In that year he became First Commissioner of +Land Revenue and Woods and Forests, and held the appointment till +August, 1814.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +Tuesday, December 7. + + +Went to bed, and slept dreamlessly, but not refreshingly. Awoke, and up +an hour before being called; but dawdled three hours in dressing. When +one subtracts from life infancy (which is vegetation),--sleep, eating, +and swilling--buttoning and unbuttoning--how much remains of downright +existence? The summer of a dormouse. + +Redde the papers and _tea_-ed and soda-watered, and found out that the +fire was badly lighted. Lord Glenbervie wants me to go to Brighton--um! + +This morning, a very pretty billet from the Stael about meeting her at +Ld. H.'s to-morrow. She has written, I dare say, twenty such this +morning to different people, all equally flattering to each. So much the +better for her and those who believe all she wishes them, or they wish +to believe. She has been pleased to be pleased with my slight eulogy in +the note annexed to _The Bride_. This is to be accounted for in several +ways,--firstly, all women like all, or any, praise; secondly, this was +unexpected, because I have never courted her; and, thirdly, as Scrub [1] +says, those who have been all their lives regularly praised, by regular +critics, like a little variety, and are glad when any one goes out of +his way to say a civil thing; and, fourthly, she is a very good-natured +creature, which is the best reason, after all, and, perhaps, the only +one. + +A knock--knocks single and double. Bland called. He says Dutch society +(he has been in Holland) is second-hand French; but the women are like +women every where else. This is a bore: I should like to see them a +little _un_like; but that can't be expected. + +Went out--came home--this, that, and the other--and "all is vanity, +saith the preacher," and so say I, as part of his congregation. Talking +of vanity, whose praise do I prefer? Why, Mrs. Inchbald's [2], and that +of the Americans. The first, because her _Simple Story_ and _Nature and +Art_ are, to me, _true_ to their _titles_; and, consequently, her short +note to Rogers about _The Giaour_ delighted me more than any thing, +except the _Edinburgh Review_. I like the Americans, because _I_ +happened to be in _Asia_, while the _English Bards, and Scotch +Reviewers_ were redde in _America_. If I could have had a speech against +the _Slave Trade in Africa_, and an epitaph on a dog in _Europe_ (i.e. +in the _Morning Post_), my _vertex sublimis_ [3] would certainly have +displaced stars enough to overthrow the Newtonian system. + + + +[Footnote 1: The reference is only to the form of the sentence. "Scrub," +in 'The Beaux' Stratagem' (act iv. se. 2), says, + + "First, it must be a plot, because there's a woman in't; secondly, it + must be a plot, because there's a priest in't; thirdly, it must be a + plot, because there's French gold in't; and fourthly, it must be a + plot, because I don't know what to make on't."] + + +[Footnote 2: Elizabeth Simpson (1753-1821), daughter of a Suffolk +farmer, married (1772) Joseph Inchbald, actor and portrait-painter. +Actress, dramatist, and novelist, she was one of the most attractive +women of the day. Winning in manner, quick in repartee, an admirable +teller of stories, she always gathered all the men round her chair. + + "It was vain," said Mrs. Shelley, "for any other woman to attempt to + gain attention." + +Miss Edgeworth wished to see her first among living celebrities; her +charm fascinated Sheridan, and overcame the prejudice of Lamb; even +Peter Pindar wrote verse in her praise. From the age of eighteen she was +wooed on and off the stage, where her slight stammer hindered her +complete success; but no breath of scandal tarnished her name. Had John +Kemble, the hero of 'A Simple Story', proposed to her, she probably +would have married him. Mrs. Butler records that her uncle John once +asked the actress, when matrimony was the subject of green-room +conversation, "Well, Mrs. Inchbald, would you have had me?" "Dear +heart," said the stammering beauty, turning her sunny face up at him," +I'd have j-j-j-jumped at you." Mrs. Inchbald's 'Simple Story' (1791) +wears a more modern air than any previously written novel. Her dramatic +experience stood her in good stead. "Dorriforth," the priest, educated, +like Kemble, at Douay, impressed himself upon Macaulay's mind as the +true type of the Roman Catholic peer. 'Nature and Art' (1796) was +written when Mrs. Inchbald was most under the influence of the French +Revolution. Of two boys who come to London to seek their fortunes, +Nature makes one a musician, and Art raises the other into a dean. The +trial and condemnation of "Agnes" perhaps suggested to Lytton the scene +in 'Paul Clifford', where "Brandon" condemns his own son.] + + +[Footnote 3: Horace, 'Odes', I. i. 36.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +Friday, December 10, 1813. + + +I am _ennuyé_ beyond my usual tense of that yawning verb, which I am +always conjugating; and I don't find that society much mends the matter. +I am too lazy to shoot myself--and it would annoy Augusta, and perhaps +----; but it would be a good thing for George, on the other side, and no +bad one for me; but I won't be tempted. + +I have had the kindest letter from Moore. I _do_ think that man is the +best-hearted, the only _hearted_ being I ever encountered; and, then, +his talents are equal to his feelings. + +Dined on Wednesday at Lord H.'s--the Staffords, Staels, Cowpers, +Ossulstones, Melbournes, Mackintoshes, etc., etc.--and was introduced to +the Marquis and Marchioness of Stafford [1],--an unexpected event. My +quarrel with Lord Carlisle (their or his brother-in-law) having rendered +it improper, I suppose, brought it about. But, if it was to happen at +all, I wonder it did not occur before. She is handsome, and must have +been beautiful--and her manners are _princessly_. + +The Stael was at the other end of the table, and less loquacious than +heretofore. We are now very good friends; though she asked Lady +Melbourne whether I had really any _bonhommie_. She might as well have +asked that question before she told C. L. "_c'est un demon_." True +enough, but rather premature, for _she_ could not have found it out, and +so--she wants me to dine there next Sunday. + +Murray prospers, as far as circulation. For my part, I adhere (in +liking) to my Fragment. It is no wonder that I wrote one--my mind is a +fragment. + +Saw Lord Gower, Tierney [2], etc., in the square. Took leave of Lord +Gower, who is going to Holland and Germany. He tells me that he carries +with him a parcel of _Harolds_ and _Giaours_, etc., for the readers of +Berlin, who, it seems, read English, and have taken a caprice for mine. +Um!--have I been _German_ all this time, when I thought myself +_Oriental_? + +Lent Tierney my box for to-morrow; and received a new comedy sent by +Lady C. A.--but _not hers_. I must read it, and endeavour not to +displease the author. I hate annoying them with cavil; but a comedy I +take to be the most difficult of compositions, more so than tragedy. + +Galt says there is a coincidence between the first part of _The Bride_ +and some story of his--whether published or not, I know not, never +having seen it. He is almost the last person on whom any one would +commit literary larceny, and I am not conscious of any _witting_ thefts +on any of the genus. As to originality, all pretensions are +ludicrous,--"there is nothing new under the sun." [3] + +Went last night to the play. Invited out to a party, but did not +go;--right. Refused to go to Lady----'s on Monday;--right again. If I +must fritter away my life, I would rather do it alone. I was much +tempted;--C----looked so Turkish with her red turban, and her regular, +dark, and clear features. Not that _she_ and _I_ ever were, or could be, +any thing; but I love any aspect that reminds me of the "children of the +sun." + +To dine to-day with Rogers and Sharpe, for which I have some appetite, +not having tasted food for the preceding forty-eight hours. I wish I +could leave off eating altogether. + + + +[Footnote 1: George Granville Leveson Gower (1758-1833) succeeded his +father, in 1803, as second Marquis of Stafford. He married, in 1785, +Elizabeth, Countess of Sutherland, and was created, in 1833, first Duke +of Sutherland. Lord Carlisle had married, in 1770 Margaret Caroline, +sister of the second Marquis of Stafford.] + + +[Footnote 2: George Tierney (1761-1830) entered Parliament as Member for +Colchester in 1789. In 1796 he was returned for Southwark. A useful +speaker and political writer, he was Treasurer of the Navy in the +Addington administration, and President of the Board of Control in that +of "All the Talents." His drafting of the petition of the "Society of +the Friends of the People," his duel with Pitt in 1798, and his +leadership of the Opposition after 1817, are almost forgotten; but he is +remembered as the "Friend of Humanity" in 'The Needy Knife-Grinder'.] + + +[Footnote 3: 'Eccles'. i. 9.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +Saturday, December 11. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +Sunday, December 12. + + +By Galt's answer, I find it is some story in _real life_, and not any +work with which my late composition coincides. It is still more +singular, for mine is drawn from _existence_ also. + +I have sent an excuse to Madame de Stael. I do not feel sociable enough +for dinner to-day;--and I will not go to Sheridan's on Wednesday. Not +that I do not admire and prefer his unequalled conversation; but--that +"_but_" must only be intelligible to thoughts I cannot write. Sheridan +was in good talk at Rogers's the other night, but I only stayed till +_nine_. All the world are to be at the Stael's to-night, and I am not +sorry to escape any part of it. I only go out to get me a fresh appetite +for being alone. Went out--did not go to the Stael's but to Ld. +Holland's. Party numerous--conversation general. Stayed late--made a +blunder--got over it--came home and went to bed, not having eaten. +Rather empty, but _fresco_, which is the great point with me. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +Monday, December 13, 1813. + + +Called at three places--read, and got ready to leave town to-morrow. +Murray has had a letter from his brother bibliopole of Edinburgh, who +says, "he is lucky in having such a _poet_"--something as if one was a +packhorse, or "ass, or any thing that is his;" or, like Mrs. Packwood, +[1] who replied to some inquiry after the Odes on Razors,--"Laws, sir, +we keeps a poet." The same illustrious Edinburgh bookseller once sent an +order for books, poesy, and cookery, with this agreeable +postscript--"The _Harold and Cookery_ [2] are much wanted." Such is +fame, and, after all, quite as good as any other "life in others' +breath." 'Tis much the same to divide purchasers with Hannah Glasse or +Hannah More. + +Some editor of some magazine has _announced_ to Murray his intention of +abusing the thing "_without reading it_." So much the better; if he +redde it first, he would abuse it more. + +Allen [3] (Lord Holland's Allen--the best informed and one of the ablest +men I know--a perfect Magliabecchi [4]--a devourer, a _Helluo_ of books, +and an observer of men,) has lent me a quantity of Burns's [5] +unpublished and never-to-be-published Letters. They are full of oaths +and obscene songs. What an antithetical mind!--tenderness, +roughness--delicacy, coarseness--sentiment, sensuality--soaring and +grovelling, dirt and deity--all mixed up in that one compound of +inspired clay! + +It seems strange; a true voluptuary will never abandon his mind to the +grossness of reality. It is by exalting the earthly, the material, the +_physique_ of our pleasures, by veiling these ideas, by forgetting them +altogether, or, at least, never naming them hardly to one's self, that +we alone can prevent them from disgusting. + + + +[Footnote 1: Mrs. Packwood is the wife of George Packwood, "the +celebrated Razor Strop Maker and Author of 'The Goldfinch's Nest'," +whose shop was at 16, Gracechurch Street. 'Packwood's Whim; The +Goldfinch's Nest, or the Way to get Money and be Happy', by George +Packwood, was published in 1796, and reached a second edition in 1807. +It is a collection of his advertisements in prose and verse. The poet, +whom Packwood kept, apparently lived in Soho (p. 21), from his verses +which appeared in the 'True Briton' for November 9, 1795: + + "If you wish, Sir, to Shave--nay, pray look not grave, + Since nothing on earth can be worse, + To P--d repair, you're shaved to a hair, + Which I mean to exhibit in verse. + + "When in moving the beard--I wish to be heard-- + The dull razor occasions a curse, + The strop that I view will its merits renew; + Behold I record it in verse. + + "Some in fashion's tontine disperse all their spleen, + And others their destinies curse; + But P--d's fine taste, with his Strops and his Paste, + Which I'll show you in Prose and in Verse. + + "I have taken this plan to comment on a man, + Whose merit I'm proud to rehearse; + For a razor and knife he will sharpen for life, + And deserves every praise in my verse. + +"Soho, Nov. 6, 1795."] + + +[Footnote 2: 'The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy', "By a Lady," was +published anonymously in 1747. The 4th edition (1751) bears the name of +H. Glasse. The book was at one time supposed to be the work of Dr. John +Hill (1716-1775), and to contain the proverb, "First catch your hare, +then cook it." But Hill's claim is untenable, and the proverb is not in +the book. + +Mrs. Rundell's 'Domestic Cookery' was one of Murray's most successful +publications. In Byron's lines, "To Mr. Murray" (March 25, 1818), occurs +the following passage: + + "Along thy sprucest bookshelves shine + The works thou deemest most divine-- + The 'Art of Cookery,' and mine, + My Murray."] + + +[Footnote 3: John Allen, M.D. (1771-1843), accompanied Lord Holland to +Spain (1801-5 and 1808-9), and lived with him at Holland House. His +'Inquiry into the Rise and Growth of the Royal Prerogative in England', +his numerous articles in the 'Edinburgh Review', and his life of Fox in +the 'Encyclopedia Britannica', and many other works, justify Byron's +praise. In the social life of Holland House he was a prominent figure, +and to it, perhaps, he sacrificed his literary powers and acquirements. +He was Warden of Dulwich College (1811-20), and Master (1820-43). Allen +was the author of the article in the 'Edinburgh Review' on Payne +Knight's 'Taste', in which he severely criticized Pindar's Greek, and +which Byron, probably trusting to Hodgson (see 'Letters', vol. i. p. +196, 'note' 1), or possibly misled by similarity of sound (H. Crabb +Robinson's 'Diary', vol. i. p. 277), attributed to "classic Hallam, much +renowned for Greek" ('English Bards, etc.', line 513).] + + +[Footnote 4: Antonio Magliabecchi (1633-1714) was appointed, in 1673, +Librarian to the Grand-Duke of Tuscany, to whom he bequeathed his +immense collection of 30,000 volumes. In Burton's 'Book-hunter' (p. 229) +it is said that Magliabecchi + + "could direct you to any book in any part of the world, with the + precision with which the metropolitan policeman directs you to St. + Paul's or Piccadilly. It is of him that the stories are told of + answers to inquiries after books, in these terms: 'There is but one + copy of that book in the world. It is in the Grand Seignior's library + at Constantinople, and is the seventh book in the second shelf on the + right hand as you go in.'"] + + +[Footnote 5: Byron himself was "likened to Burns," and Sir Walter Scott, +commenting on the comparison in a manuscript note, says, + + "Burns, in depth of poetical feeling, in strong shrewd sense to + balance and regulate this, in the 'tact' to make his poetry tell by + connecting it with the stream of public thought and the sentiment of + the age, in 'commanded' wildness of fancy and profligacy or + recklessness as to moral and 'occasionally' as to religious matters, + was much more like Lord Byron than any other person to whom Lord B. + says he had been compared. + + "A gross blunder of the English public has been talking of Burns as if + the character of his poetry ought to be estimated with an eternal + recollection that he was a 'peasant'. It would be just as proper to + say that Lord Byron ought always to be thought of as a 'Peer'. Rank in + life was nothing to either in his true moments. Then, they were both + great Poets. Some silly and sickly affectations connected with the + accidents of birth and breeding may be observed in both, when they are + not under the influence of 'the happier star.' Witness Burns's prate + about independence, when he was an exciseman, and Byron's ridiculous + pretence of Republicanism, when he never wrote sincerely about the + Multitude without expressing or insinuating the very soul of scorn."] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +December 14, 15, 16. + + +Much done, but nothing to record. It is quite enough to set down my +thoughts,--my actions will rarely bear retrospection. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +December 17, 18. + + +Lord Holland told me a curious piece of sentimentality in Sheridan. The +other night we were all delivering our respective and various opinions +on him and other _hommes marquans_, and mine was this:--"Whatever +Sheridan has done or chosen to do has been, _par excellence_, always the +_best_ of its kind. He has written the _best_ comedy (_School for +Scandal_), the _best_ drama (in my mind, far before that St. Giles's +lampoon, the _Beggar's Opera_), the best farce (the _Critic_--it is only +too good for a farce), and the best Address (Monologue on Garrick), and, +to crown all, delivered the very best Oration (the famous Begum Speech) +ever conceived or heard in this country." Somebody told S. this the next +day, and on hearing it he burst into tears! + +Poor Brinsley! if they were tears of pleasure, I would rather have said +these few, but most sincere, words than have written the Iliad or made +his own celebrated Philippic. Nay, his own comedy never gratified me +more than to hear that he had derived a moment's gratification from any +praise of mine, humble as it must appear to "my elders and my betters." + +Went to my box at Covent Garden to-night; and my delicacy felt a little +shocked at seeing S----'s mistress (who, to my certain knowledge, was +actually educated, from her birth, for her profession) sitting with her +mother, "a three-piled b----d, b----d Major to the army," in a private +box opposite. I felt rather indignant; but, casting my eyes round the +house, in the next box to me, and the next, and the next, were the most +distinguished old and young Babylonians of quality;--so I burst out a +laughing. It was really odd; Lady----_divorced_--Lady----and her +daughter, Lady----, both _divorceable_--Mrs.----, in the next the +_like_, and still nearer------! [1] What an assemblage to _me_, who +know all their histories. It was as if the house had been divided +between your public and your _understood_ courtesans;--but the +intriguantes much outnumbered the regular mercenaries. On the other side +were only Pauline and _her_ mother, and, next box to her, three of +inferior note. Now, where lay the difference between _her_ and _mamma_, +and Lady----and daughter? except that the two last may enter Carleton +and any _other house_, and the two first are limited to the opera and +b----house. How I do delight in observing life as it really is!--and +myself, after all, the worst of any. But no matter--I must avoid +egotism, which, just now, would be no vanity. + +I have lately written a wild, rambling, unfinished rhapsody, called +"_The Devil's Drive_" the notion of which I took from Person's "_Devil's +Walk_." [2] + +Redde some Italian, and wrote two Sonnets on----. I never wrote but one +sonnet before, and that was not in earnest, and many years ago, as an +exercise--and I will never write another. They are the most puling, +petrifying, stupidly platonic compositions. I detest the Petrarch so +much, that I would not be the man even to have obtained his Laura, which +the metaphysical, whining dotard never could. + + + +[Footnote 1: "These names are all left blank in the original" (Moore).] + + +[Footnote 2: Richard Person did not write 'The Devil's Walk', which was +written by Coleridge and Southey, and published in the 'Morning Post' +for September 6, 1799, under the title of 'The Devil's Thoughts'.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +January 16, 1814. + + +To-morrow I leave town for a few days. I saw Lewis to-day, who is just +returned from Oatlands, where he has been squabbling with Mad. de Stael +about himself, Clarissa Harlowe, Mackintosh, and me. My homage has never +been paid in that quarter, or we would have agreed still worse. I don't +talk--I can't flatter, and won't listen, except to a pretty or a foolish +woman. She bored Lewis with praises of himself till he sickened--found +out that Clarissa was perfection, and Mackintosh the first man in +England. There I agree, at least _one_ of the first--but Lewis did not. +As to Clarissa, I leave to those who can read it to judge and dispute. I +could not do the one, and am, consequently, not qualified for the other. +She told Lewis wisely, he being my friend, that I was affected, in the +first place; and that, in the next place, I committed the heinous +offence of sitting at dinner with my _eyes_ shut, or half shut. I wonder +if I really have this trick. I must cure myself of it, if true. One +insensibly acquires awkward habits, which should be broken in time. If +this is one, I wish I had been told of it before. It would not so much +signify if one was always to be checkmated by a plain woman, but one may +as well see some of one's neighbours, as well as the plate upon the +table. + +I should like, of all things, to have heard the Amabæan eclogue between +her and Lewis--both obstinate, clever, odd, garrulous, and shrill. In +fact, one could have heard nothing else. But they fell out, alas!--and +now they will never quarrel again. Could not one reconcile them for the +"nonce?" Poor Corinne--she will find that some of her fine sayings won't +suit our fine ladies and gentlemen. + +I am getting rather into admiration of [Lady C. Annesley] the youngest +sister of [Lady F. Webster]. A wife would be my salvation. I am sure the +wives of my acquaintances have hitherto done me little good. Catherine +is beautiful, but very young, and, I think, a fool. But I have not seen +enough to judge; besides, I hate an _esprit_ in petticoats. That she +won't love me is very probable, nor shall I love her. But, on my system, +and the modern system in general, that don't signify. The business (if +it came to business) would probably be arranged between papa and me. She +would have her own way; I am good-humoured to women, and docile; and, if +I did not fall in love with her, which I should try to prevent, we +should be a very comfortable couple. As to conduct, _that_ she must look +to. But _if_ I love, I shall be jealous;--and for that reason I will not +be in love. Though, after all, I doubt my temper, and fear I should not +be so patient as becomes the _bienséance_ of a married man in my +station. Divorce ruins the poor _femme_, and damages are a paltry +compensation. I do fear my temper would lead me into some of our +oriental tricks of vengeance, or, at any rate, into a summary appeal to +the court of twelve paces. So "I'll none on't," but e'en remain single +and solitary;--though I should like to have somebody now and then to +yawn with one. + +Ward, and, after him,----, has stolen one of my buffooneries about Mde. +de Stael's Metaphysics and the Fog, and passed it, by speech and letter, +as their own. As Gibbet says, "they are the most of a gentleman of any +on the road." [1] W. is in sad enmity with the Whigs about this Review +of Fox [2] (if he _did_ review him);--all the epigrammatists and +essayists are at him. I hate _odds_, and wish he may beat them. As for +me, by the blessing of indifference, I have simplified my politics into +an utter detestation of all existing governments; and, as it is the +shortest and most agreeable and summary feeling imaginable, the first +moment of an universal republic would convert me into an advocate for +single and uncontradicted despotism. The fact is, riches are power, and +poverty is slavery all over the earth, and one sort of establishment is +no better nor worse for a _people_ than another. I shall adhere to my +party, because it would not be honourable to act otherwise; but, as to +_opinions_, I don't think politics _worth_ an _opinion_. _Conduct_ is +another thing:--if you begin with a party, go on with them. I have no +consistency, except in politics; and _that_ probably arises from my +indifference on the subject altogether. + + + +[Footnote 1: The 'Beaux' Stratagem', by George Farquhar (act iv. sc. 3): + +"'Gibbet'. + + "And I can assure you, friend, there's a great deal of address and + good manners in robbing a lady: I am most a gentleman that way that + ever travelled the road."] + + +[Footnote 2: An article by Ward on 'The Correspondence of Gilbert +Wakefield with Mr. Fox', in the 'Quarterly Review' for July, 1813.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +Feb. 18. + + +Better than a month since I last journalised:--most of it out of London +and at Notts., but a busy one and a pleasant, at least three weeks of +it. On my return, I find all the newspapers in hysterics, and town in an +uproar, on the avowal and republication of two stanzas on Princess +Charlotte's weeping at Regency's speech to Lauderdale in 1812. [1] They +are daily at it still;--some of the abuse good, all of it hearty. They +talk of a motion in our House upon it--be it so. + +Got up--redde the _Morning Post_ containing the battle of Buonaparte, +[2] the destruction of the Customhouse, [3] and a paragraph on me as +long as my pedigree, and vituperative, as usual. [4] + +Hobhouse is returned to England. He is my best friend, the most lively, +and a man of the most sterling talents extant. + +'The Corsair' has been conceived, written, published, etc., since I last +took up this journal. They tell me it has great success;--it was written +_con amore_, and much from _existence_. Murray is satisfied with its +progress; and if the public are equally so with the perusal, there's an +end of the matter. + + +Nine o'clock. + +Been to Hanson's on business. Saw Rogers, and had a note from Lady +Melbourne, who says, it is said I am "much out of spirits." I wonder if +I really am or not? I have certainly enough of "that perilous stuff +which weighs upon the heart," [5] and it is better they should believe +it to be the result of these attacks than of the real cause; but--ay, +ay, always _but_, to the end of the chapter. + +Hobhouse has told me ten thousand anecdotes of Napoleon, all good and +true. My friend H. is the most entertaining of companions, and a fine +fellow to boot. + +Redde a little--wrote notes and letters, and am alone, which Locke says +is bad company. "Be not solitary, be not idle." [6]--Um!--the idleness +is troublesome; but I can't see so much to regret in the solitude. The +more I see of men, the less I like them. If I could but say so of women +too, all would be well. Why can't I? I am now six-and-twenty; my +passions have had enough to cool them; my affections more than enough to +wither them,--and yet--and yet--always _yet_ and _but_--"Excellent well, +you are a fishmonger--get thee to a nunnery." [7]--"They fool me to the +top of my bent." [8] + + +Midnight. + +Began a letter, which I threw into the fire. Redde--but to little +purpose. Did not visit Hobhouse, as I promised and ought. No matter, the +loss is mine. Smoked cigars. + +Napoleon!--this week will decide his fate. All seems against him; but I +believe and hope he will win--at least, beat back the invaders. What +right have we to prescribe sovereigns to France? Oh for a Republic! +"Brutus, thou sleepest." [9] Hobhouse abounds in continental anecdotes +of this extraordinary man; all in favour of his intellect and courage, +but against his _bonhommie_. No wonder;--how should he, who knows +mankind well, do other than despise and abhor them? + +The greater the equality, the more impartially evil is distributed, and +becomes lighter by the division among so many--therefore, a Republic! +[10] + +More notes from Madame de Stael unanswered--and so they shall remain. +[11] I admire her abilities, but really her society is overwhelming--an +avalanche that buries one in glittering nonsense--all snow and +sophistry. + +Shall I go to Mackintosh's on Tuesday? um!--I did not go to Marquis +Lansdowne's nor to Miss Berry's, though both are pleasant. So is Sir +James's,--but I don't know--I believe one is not the better for parties; +at least, unless some _regnante_ is there. + +I wonder how the deuce any body could make such a world; for what +purpose dandies, for instance, were ordained--and kings--and fellows of +colleges--and women of "a certain age"--and many men of any age--and +myself, most of all! + + "Divesne prisco natus ab Inacho + Nil interest, an pauper et infimâ + De gente, sub dio ('sic') moreris, + Victima nil miserantis Orci. + Omnes eodem cogimur," etc. [12] + +Is there any thing beyond?--_who_ knows? _He_ that can't tell. Who tells +that there _is_? He who don't know. And when shall he know? perhaps, +when he don't expect, and generally when he don't wish it. In this last +respect, however, all are not alike: it depends a good deal upon +education,--something upon nerves and habits--but most upon digestion. + + + +[Footnote 1: See p. 134, 'note' 2 [Footnote 3 of Letter 241], and +Appendix VII.] + + +[Footnote 2: The battle of Brienne was fought February 1, 1814.] + + +[Footnote 3: By fire, on the 12th of February.] + + +[Footnote 4: + + "We are informed from very good authority, that as soon as the House + of Lords meet again, a Peer of very independent principles and + character intends to give notice of a motion occasioned by a late + spontaneous avowal of a copy of verses by Lord Byron, addressed to the + Princess Charlotte of Wales, in which he has taken the most + unwarrantable liberties with her august father's character and + conduct: this motion being of a personal nature, it will be necessary + to give the noble Satirist some days' notice, that he may prepare + himself for his defence against a charge of so aggravated a nature," + etc. + +'Morning Post', February 18.] + + +[Footnote 5: 'Macbeth', act v. sc. 3.] + + +[Footnote 6: These words close the penultimate paragraph of Burton's +'Anatomy of Melancholy'.] + + +[Footnote 7: 'Hamlet', act ii. sc. 2, and act iii. sc. 1.] + + +[Footnote 8: 'Ibid'., sc. 2.] + + +[Footnote 9: + + "Brutus, thou sleepest, awake." + +'Julius Cæsar', act ii. sc. 1.] + + +[Footnote 10: The following extract from 'Detached Thoughts' (1821) +implies that this expression of opinion was no passing thought (but see +Scott's note, p. 376 [Footnote 5 of Journal entry for December 13th, +1813]): + + "There is nothing left for Mankind but a Republic, and I think that + there are hopes of such. The two Americas (South and North) have it; + Spain and Portugal approach it; all thirst for it. Oh Washington!"] + + +[Footnote 11: Here is one of Madame de Staël's notes: + + "Je renonce à vos visites, pourvu que vous acceptiez mes diners, car + enfin à quoi servirait il de vivre dans le même tems que vous, si + l'on ne vous voyait pas? Dinez chez moi dimanche avec vos amis,--je ne + dirai pas vos admirateurs, car je n'ai rencontré que cela de touts + parts. + + "A dimanche, + + "DE STAËL. + + "Mardi. + + "Je prends le silence pour oui."] + + +[Footnote 12: Horace, 'Odes', II. iii. 21, 'et seqq.'] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +Saturday, Feb. 19. + + +Just returned from seeing Kean [1] in Richard. By Jove, he is a soul! +Life--nature--truth without exaggeration or diminution. Kemble's Hamlet +is perfect;--but Hamlet is not Nature. Richard is a man; and Kean is +Richard. Now to my own concerns. + +Went to Waite's. Teeth are all right and white; but he says that I grind +them in my sleep and chip the edges. That same sleep is no friend of +mine, though I court him sometimes for half the twenty-four. + + + +[Footnote 1: Edmund Kean (1787-1833), after acting in provincial +theatres, appeared at the Haymarket in June, 1806, as "Ganem" in 'The +Mountaineers', but again returned to the country. His performance of +"Shylock" in the 'Merchant of Venice', at Drury Lane, on January 26, +1814, made him famous. He appeared in "Richard III" on February 12, and +still further increased his reputation. + +In the 'Courier', February 26, 1814, appears this paragraph: + + "Mr. Kean's attraction is unprecedented in the annals of + theatricals--even Cooke's performances are left at an immeasurable + distance; his first three nights of 'Richard' produced upwards of + £1800, and on repeating that character on Thursday night for the + fourthth ('sic') time, the receipts were upwards of £700." + +On March 1 the same paper says, + + "Drury Lane Theatre again overflowed last night, at an early hour. + Such is the continued and increasing attraction of that truly great + actor Mr. Kean." + +After the retirement of John Kemble (June 23, 1817), he had no rival on +the stage, especially in such parts as "Othello," "Lear," "Hamlet," "Sir +Giles Overreach," and the two already mentioned. His last appearance on +the stage was in "Othello" at Covent Garden, March 25, 1833. + + "To see Kean act," said Coleridge, "is like reading Shakespeare by + flashes of lightning." + + "Garrick's nature," writes Leigh Hunt, in the 'Tatler', July 25, 1831, + "displaced Quin's formalism; and in precisely the same way did Kean + displace Kemble. ... Everything with Kemble was literally a + 'personation'--it was a mask and a sounding-pipe. It was all external + and artificial.... Kean's face is full of light and shade, his tones + vary, his voice trembles, his eye glistens, sometimes with a withering + scorn, sometimes with a tear." + +It was the realism and nature of Kean which so strongly appealed to +Byron, and enabled the actor, to the last, in spite of his drunken +habits, poor figure, and weak voice, to sway his audiences. The same +qualities at first repelled more timid critics, and perhaps justified +Hazlitt's saying that Kean was "not much relished in the upper circles." +Miss Berry, for example, who saw him in all his principal parts in +1814--in "Richard III," "Hamlet," "Othello," and "Sir Giles +Overreach"--remained cold. + + "His 'Richard III.' pleased me, but I was not enthusiastic. His + expression of the passions is natural and strong, but I do not like + his declamation; his voice, naturally not agreeable, becomes + monotonous" + +('Diary', vol. iii. p. 7). Of his "Hamlet" she says, + + "To my mind he is without grace and without elevation of mind, because + he never seems to rise with the poet in those sublime passages which + abound in 'Hamlet'" + +('ibid.', p. 9). Miss Berry's criticism is supported by good authority. +Lewes ('On Actors and the Art of Acting', pp. 6, 11), while calling him +"a consummate master of passionate expression," denies his capacity for +representing "the intellectual side of heroism." + +Kean preferred the Coal-Hole Tavern in the Strand, and the society of +the Wolf Club, to Lord Holland's dinner-parties. Though he never fell so +low as Cooke, his recklessness, irregularities, eccentricities, and +habits of drinking, in spite of the large sums of money that passed +through his hands, made his closing days neither prosperous nor +reputable. + +Such effect had the passionate energy of Kean's acting on Byron's mind, +that, once, in seeing him play "Sir Giles Overreach," he was so affected +as to be seized with a sort of convulsive fit. Some years later, in +Italy, when the representation of Alfieri's tragedy of 'Mirra' had +agitated him in the same violent manner, he compared the two instances +as the only ones in his life when "any thing under reality" had been +able to move him so powerfully. + + "To such lengths," says Moore, "did he, at this time, carry his + enthusiasm for Kean, that when Miss O'Neil appeared, and, by her + matchless representation of feminine tenderness, attracted all eyes + and hearts, he was not only a little jealous of her reputation, as + interfering with that of his favourite, but, in order to guard himself + against the risk of becoming a convert, refused to go to see her act. + I endeavoured sometimes to persuade him into witnessing, at least, one + of her performances; but his answer was (punning upon Shakspeare's + word, 'unanealed'), 'No--I am resolved to continue 'un-Oneiled'.' + " + +In his 'Detached Thoughts' (1821) Byron says, + + "Of actors Cooke was the most natural, Kemble the most supernatural, + Kean the medium between the two. But Mrs. Siddons was worth them all + put together."] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +February 20. + + +Got up and tore out two leaves of this Journal--I don't know why. +Hodgson just called and gone. He has much _bonhommie_ with his other +good qualities, and more talent than he has yet had credit for beyond +his circle. + +An invitation to dine at Holland House to meet Kean. He is worth +meeting; and I hope, by getting into good society, he will be prevented +from falling like Cooke. He is greater now on the stage, and off he +should never be less. There is a stupid and underrating criticism upon +him in one of the newspapers. I thought that, last night, though great, +he rather under-acted more than the first time. This may be the effect +of these cavils; but I hope he has more sense than to mind them. He +cannot expect to maintain his present eminence, or to advance still +higher, without the envy of his green-room fellows, and the nibbling of +their admirers. But, if he don't beat them all, why then--merit hath no +purchase in "these coster-monger days." [1] + +I wish that I had a talent for the drama; I would write a tragedy _now_. +But no,--it is gone. Hodgson talks of one,--he will do it well;--and I +think M---e [Moore] should try. He has wonderful powers, and much +variety; besides, he has lived and felt. To write so as to bring home to +the heart, the heart must have been tried,--but, perhaps, ceased to be +so. While you are under the influence of passions, you only feel, but +cannot describe them,--any more than, when in action, you could turn +round and tell the story to your next neighbour! When all is over,--all, +all, and irrevocable,--trust to memory--she is then but too faithful. + +Went out, and answered some letters, yawned now and then, and redde the +'Robbers'. Fine,--but 'Fiesco' is better [2]; and Alfieri, and Monti's +'Aristodemo' [3] _best_. They are more equal than the Tedeschi +dramatists. + +Answered--or rather acknowledged--the receipt of young Reynolds's [4] +poem, _Safie_. The lad is clever, but much of his thoughts are +borrowed,--whence, the Reviewers may find out. I hate discouraging a +young one; and I think,--though wild and more oriental than he would be, +had he seen the scenes where he has placed his tale,--that he has much +talent, and, certainly fire enough. + +Received a very singular epistle; and the mode of its conveyance, +through Lord H.'s hands, as curious as the letter itself. But it was +gratifying and pretty. + + + +[Footnote 1: 'Henry IV.', Part II. act i. sc. 2.] + + +[Footnote 2: Schiller's 'Robbers' was first produced at Mannheim, +January 13, 1782; his 'Fiesco' was published in 1783. The 'Robbers' is +included in Benjamin Thompson's 'German Theatre' (1801). 'Fiesco' was +translated by G. H. Noehden and John Stoddart in 1798.] + + +[Footnote 3: Monti's three tragedies, 'Caio Gracco', 'Aristodemo', and +'Manfredi', were written in rivalry of Alfieri's tragedies between the +years 1788 and 1799.] + + +[Footnote 4: For John Hamilton Reynolds, see 'Letters', vol. iii. +(February 20, 1814, 'note' 1).] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +Sunday, February 27. + + +Here I am, alone, instead of dining at Lord H.'s, where I was +asked,--but not inclined to go any where. Hobhouse says I am growing a +_loup garou_,--a solitary hobgoblin. True;--"I am myself alone." [1] + +The last week has been passed in reading--seeing plays--now and then +visitors--sometimes yawning and sometimes sighing, but no writing,--save +of letters. If I could always read, I should never feel the want of +society. Do I regret it?--um!--"Man delights not me," [2] and only one +woman--at a time. + +There is something to me very softening in the presence of a +woman,--some strange influence, even if one is not in love with +them--which I cannot at all account for, having no very high opinion of +the sex. But yet,--I always feel in better humour with myself and every +thing else, if there is a woman within ken. Even Mrs. Mule [3], my +firelighter,--the most ancient and withered of her kind,--and (except to +myself) not the best-tempered--always makes me laugh,--no difficult task +when I am "i' the vein." + +Heigho! I would I were in mine island!--I am not well; and yet I look in +good health. At times, I fear, "I am not in my perfect mind;" [4]--and +yet my heart and head have stood many a crash, and what should ail them +now? They prey upon themselves, and I am sick--sick--"Prithee, undo +this button--why should a cat, a rat, a dog have life--and thou no life +at all?" [5] + +Six-and-twenty years, as they call them, why, I might and should have +been a Pasha by this time. "I 'gin to be a-weary of the sun." [6] + +Buonaparte is not yet beaten; but has rebutted Blucher, and repiqued +Schwartzenburg [7]. This it is to have a head. If he again wins, _Væ +victis!_ + + + +[Footnote 1: + + "I am myself alone." + +'Henry VI.', Part III. act v. sc. 6.] + + +[Footnote 2: 'Hamlet', act ii. sc. 2.] + + +[Footnote 3: + + "This ancient housemaid, of whose gaunt and witch-like appearance it + would be impossible to convey any idea but by the pencil, furnished + one among the numerous instances of Lord Byron's proneness to attach + himself to any thing, however homely, that had once enlisted his good + nature in its behalf, and become associated with his thoughts. He + first found this old woman at his lodgings in Bennet Street, where, + for a whole season, she was the perpetual scarecrow of his visitors. + When, next year, he took chambers in Albany, one of the great + advantages which his friends looked to in the change was, that they + should get rid of this phantom. But, no,--there she was again--he had + actually brought her with him from Bennet Street. The following year + saw him married, and, with a regular establishment of servants, in + Piccadilly; and here,--as Mrs. Mule had not made her appearance to any + of the visitors,--it was concluded, rashly, that the witch had + vanished. One of those friends, however, who had most fondly indulged + in this persuasion, happening to call one day when all the male part + of the establishment were abroad, saw, to his dismay, the door opened + by the same grim personage, improved considerably in point of + babiliments since he last saw her, and keeping pace with the increased + scale of her master's household, as a new peruke, and other symptoms + of promotion, testified. When asked 'how he came to carry this old + woman about with him from place to place,' Lord Byron's only answer + was, 'The poor old devil was so kind to me'". (Moore).] + + +[Footnote 4: 'King Lear', act iv. sc. 7.] + + +[Footnote 5: + + "Why should a dog, a horse, a rat have life, + And thou no breath at all?" + +'King Lear', act v. sc. 3.] + + +[Footnote 6: + + "I 'gin to be a-weary of the sun, + And wish the estate of the world were now undone." + +'Macbeth', act v. sc. 5.] + + +[Footnote 7: Napoleon fought the battle of Nangis against Blucher on the +17th of February, 1814, and that of Montereau against Prince +Schwartzenberg on the following day.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +Sunday, March 6. + + +On Tuesday last dined with Rogers,--Madame de Staël, Mackintosh, +Sheridan, Erskine [1], and Payne Knight, Lady Donegal, and Miss R. +there. Sheridan told a very good story of himself and Madame de +Recamier's handkerchief; Erskine a few stories of himself only. _She_ is +going to write a big book about England, she says;--I believe her. Asked +by her how I liked Miss Edgeworth's thing, called _Patronage_ [2], and +answered (very sincerely) that I thought it very bad for _her_, and +worse than any of the others. Afterwards thought it possible Lady +Donegal [3], being Irish, might be a patroness of Miss Edgeworth, and +was rather sorry for my opinion, as I hate putting people into fusses, +either with themselves or their favourites; it looks as if one did it on +purpose. The party went off very well, and the fish was very much to my +gusto. But we got up too soon after the women; and Mrs. Corinne always +lingers so long after dinner that we wish her in--the drawing-room. + +To-day Campbell called, and while sitting here in came Merivale [4]. +During our colloquy, C. (ignorant that Merivale was the writer) abused +the "mawkishness of the _Quarterly Review_ of Grimm's _Correspondence_." +I (knowing the secret) changed the conversation as soon as I could; and +C. went away, quite convinced of having made the most favourable +impression on his new acquaintance. Merivale is luckily a very +good-natured fellow, or God he knows what might have been engendered +from such a malaprop. I did not look at him while this was going on, but +I felt like a coal--for I like Merivale, as well as the article in +question. + +Asked to Lady Keith's [5] to-morrow evening--I think I will go; but it +is the first party invitation I have accepted this "season," as the +learned Fletcher called it, when that youngest brat of Lady----'s cut +my eye and cheek open with a misdirected pebble--"Never mind, my Lord, +the scar will be gone before the _season_;" as if one's eye was of no +importance in the mean time. + +Lord Erskine called, and gave me his famous pamphlet, with a marginal +note and corrections in his handwriting. Sent it to be bound superbly, +and shall treasure it. + +Sent my fine print of Napoleon [6] to be framed. It _is_ framed; and the +Emperor becomes his robes as if he had been hatched in them. + + + +[Footnote 1: Thomas, Lord Erskine (1750-1823), youngest son of the tenth +Earl of Buchan, a midshipman in the Royal Navy (1764-67), an ensign, and +subsequently a lieutenant in the First Foot (1767-75), was called to the +Bar in 1778, and became Lord Chancellor in 1806. As an advocate he was +unrivalled. + + "Even the great luminaries of the law," says Wraxall ('Posthumous + Memoirs', vol. i. p. 86), "when arrayed in their ermine, bent under his + ascendancy, and seemed to be half subdued by his intelligence, or awed + by his vehemence, pertinacity, and undaunted character." + +With a jury he was particularly successful, though he lived to write the +lines quoted by Lord Campbell ('Lives of the Chancellors', ed. 1868, +vol. viii. p. 233): + + "The monarch's pale face was with blushes suffused, + To observe right and wrong by twelve villains confused, + And, kicking their----s all round in a fury, + Cried, ''Curs'd be the day I invented a jury!''" + +A Whig in politics, and in sympathy with the doctrines of the French +Revolution, he defended Paine, Frost, Hardy, and other political +offenders, and did memorable service to the cause of constitutional +liberty. In the House of Commons, which he entered as M. P. for +Portsmouth in 1783, he was a failure; his maiden speech on Fox's India +Bill fell flat, and he was crushed by Pitt's contempt. As Lord +Chancellor (1806-7) he proved a better judge than was expected. At the +time when Byron made his acquaintance, he had practically retired from +public life, and devoted himself to literature, society, and farming, +writing on the services of rooks, and attending the Holkham +sheep-shearings. Lord Campbell has collected many of his verses and +jokes in vol. ix. chap. cxc. of his 'Lives of the Chancellors'. His +famous pamphlet, 'On the Causes and Consequences of the War with France' +(1797), was written, as he told Miss Berry ('Journal of Miss Berry', +vol. ii. p. 340), + + "on slips of paper in the midst of all the business which I was + engaged in at the time--not at home, but in open court, whilst the + causes were trying. When it was not my turn to examine a witness, or + to speak to the Jury, I wrote a little bit; and so on by snatches." + +His 'Armata' was published by Murray in 1817. In society Erskine was +widely known for his brilliancy, his puns, and his extraordinary vanity. +His egotism gained him such titles as Counsellor Ego, Baron Ego of Eye, +and supplied Mathias ('Pursuits of Literature') with an illustration: + + "A vain, pert prater, bred in Erskine's school."] + + +[Footnote 2: Miss Edgeworth's 'Patronage' was published in 1813-4. In +1813 she had been in London with her father and stepmother. The +following entries respecting the family are taken from Byron's 'Detached +Thoughts': + + "Old Edgeworth, the fourth or fifth Mrs. Edgeworth, and 'the' Miss + Edgeworth were in London, 1813. Miss Edgeworth liked, Mrs. Edgeworth + not disliked, old Edgeworth a bore, the worst of bores--a boisterous + Bore. I met them in Society--once at a breakfast of Sir H.D.'s. Old + Edgeworth came in late, boasting that he had given 'Dr. Parr a + dressing the night before' (no such easy matter by the way). I thought + her pleasant. They all abused Anna Seward's memory. When on the road + they heard of her brother's--and his son's--death. What was to be + done? Their 'London' apparel was all ordered and made! so they sunk + his death for the six weeks of their sojourn, and went into mourning + on their way back to Ireland. 'Fact!' + + "While the Colony were in London, there was a book with a subscription + for the 'recall of Mrs. Siddons to the Stage' going about for + signatures. Moore moved for a similar subscription for the 'recall of + 'Mr. Edgeworth to Ireland!'' + + "Sir Humphry Davy told me that the scene of the French Valet and Irish + postboy in 'Ennui' was taken from his verbal description to the + Edgeworths in Edgeworthtown of a similar fact on the road occurring to + himself. So much the better--being 'life'."] + + +[Footnote 3: The Marquis of Donegal married, in 1795, Anna, daughter of +Sir Edward May, Bart.] + + +[Footnote 4: For J. H. Merivale, see 'Letters', vol. iii. (January, +1814. 'note' 1).] + + +[Footnote 5: Hester Maria, eldest daughter and co-heir of Henry Thrale, +of Streatham, the friend of Dr. Johnson, married, in 1808, Viscount +Keith.] + + +[Footnote 6: Byron's "Portrait of Bonaparte, engraved by Morghen, _very +fine impression, in a gilt frame_," was sold at his sale, April 5, +1816.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +March 7. + + +Rose at seven--ready by half-past eight--went to Mr. Hanson's, +Bloomsbury Square--went to church with his eldest daughter, Mary Anne (a +good girl), and gave her away to the Earl of Portsmouth. [1] Saw her +fairly a countess--congratulated the family and groom (bride)--drank a +bumper of wine (wholesome sherris) to their felicity, and all that--and +came home. Asked to stay to dinner, but could not. At three sat to +Phillips for faces. Called on Lady M. [Melbourne]--I like her so well, +that I always stay too long. (Mem. to mend of that.) + +Passed the evening with Hobhouse, who has begun a poem, which promises +highly;--wish he would go on with it. Heard some curious extracts from a +life of Morosini, [2] the blundering Venetian, who blew up the Acropolis +at Athens with a bomb, and be damned to him! Waxed sleepy--just come +home--must go to bed, and am engaged to meet Sheridan to-morrow at +Rogers's. + +Queer ceremony that same of marriage--saw many abroad, Greek and +Catholic--one, at _home_, many years ago. There be some strange phrases +in the prologue (the exhortation), which made me turn away, not to laugh +in the face of the surpliceman. Made one blunder, when I joined the +hands of the happy--rammed their left hands, by mistake, into one +another. Corrected it--bustled back to the altar-rail, and said "Amen." +Portsmouth responded as if he had got the whole by heart; and, if any +thing, was rather before the priest. It is now midnight and----. + + + +[Footnote 1: Lord Portsmouth (see 'Letters', vol. i. p. 9, 'note' 2 +[Footnote 3 of Letter 3]), who had long known the Hansons, from whose +house he married his first wife, married, March 7, 1814, Mary Anne, +eldest daughter of John Hanson. A commission of lunacy was taken out by +the brother and next heir, the Hon. Newton Fellowes; but Lord Chancellor +Eldon decided that Lord Portsmouth was capable of entering into the +marriage contract and managing his own affairs. The commission was, +however, ultimately granted. Byron swore an affidavit on the first +occasion. + + "Denman mentioned Lord Byron's affidavit about Lord Portsmouth as a + proof of the influence of Hanson over him; Lord B. swearing that Lord + P. had 'rather a 'superior' mind than otherwise'" + +('Memoirs, etc., of Thomas Moore', vol. vi. p. 47). + +The following is the note which Byron sent Hanson to embody in +his affidavit: + + "I have been acquainted with Mr. Hanson and his family for many years. + He is my solicitor. About the beginning of March last he sent to me to + ask my opinion on the subject of Lord Portsmouth, who, as I understood + from Mr. H., was paying great attention to his eldest daughter. He + stated to me that Mr. Newton Fellowes (with whom I have no personal + acquaintance) was particularly desirous that Lord Portsmouth should + marry some 'elderly woman' of his (Mr. Fellowes's) selection--that the + title and family estates might thereby devolve on Mr. F. or his + children; but that Lord P. had expressed a dislike to old women, and a + desire to choose for himself. I told Mr. Hanson that, if Miss Hanson's + affections were not pre-engaged, and Lord Portsmouth appeared attached + to her, there could be, in my opinion, no objection to the match. I + think, but cannot be positive, that I saw Lord Portsmouth at Mr. + Hanson's two or three times previous to the marriage; but I had no + conversation with him upon it. + + "The night before the ceremony, I received an invitation from Mr. + Hanson, requesting me, as a friend of the family, to be present at the + marriage, which was to take place next morning. I went next morning to + Bloomsbury Square, where I found the parties. Lady Portsmouth, with + her brother and sister and another gentleman, went in the carriage to + St. George's Church; Lord Portsmouth and myself walked, as the + carriage was full, and the distance short. On my way Lord Portsmouth + told me that he had been partial to Miss Hanson from her childhood, + and that, since she grew up, and more particularly subsequent to the + decease of the late Lady P., this partiality had become attachment, + and that he thought her calculated to make him an excellent wife. I + was present at the ceremony and gave away the bride. Lord Portsmouth's + behaviour seemed to me perfectly calm and rational on the occasion. He + seemed particularly attentive to the priest, and gave the responses + audibly and very distinctly. I remarked this because, in ordinary + conversation, his Lordship has a hesitation in his speech. After the + ceremony, we returned to Mr. Hanson's, whence, I believe, they went + into the country--where I did not accompany them. Since their return I + have occasionally seen Lord and Lady Portsmouth in Bloomsbury Square. + They appeared very happy. I have never been very intimate with his + Lordship, and am therefore unqualified to give a decided opinion of + his general conduct. But had I considered him insane, I should have + advised Mr. Hanson, when he consulted me on the subject, not to permit + the marriage. His preference of a young woman to an old one, and of + his own wishes to those of a younger brother, seemed to me neither + irrational nor extraordinary." + +There is nothing in the note itself, or in the draft affidavit, to bear +out Moore's report of Denman's statement. + +Byron, according to the account given by Newton Hanson, is wrong in +saying that Mrs. Hanson approved of the marriage. On the contrary, it +was the cause of her death, a fortnight later. In 1828 the marriage was +annulled, a jury having decided that Lord Portsmouth was 'non compos +mentis' when he contracted it.] + + +[Footnote 2: Francesco Morosini (1618-1694) occupied the Morea for +Venice (1687), besieged Athens, and bombarded the Parthenon, which had +been made a powder-magazine. He became Doge of Venice in 1688.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +March 10, Thor's Day. + + +On Tuesday dined with Rogers,--Mackintosh, Sheridan, Sharpe,--much talk, +and good,--all, except my own little prattlement. Much of old +times--Horne Tooke--the Trials--evidence of Sheridan, and anecdotes of +those times, when _I_, alas! was an infant. If I had been a man, I would +have made an English Lord Edward Fitzgerald. + +Set down Sheridan at Brookes's,--where, by the by, he could not have +well set down himself, as he and I were the only drinkers. Sherry means +to stand for Westminster, as Cochrane [1] (the stock-jobbing hoaxer) +must vacate. Brougham [2] is a candidate. I fear for poor dear Sherry. +Both have talents of the highest order, but the youngster has _yet_ a +character. We shall see, if he lives to Sherry's age, how he will pass +over the redhot plough-shares of public life. I don't know why, but I +hate to see the _old_ ones lose; particularly Sheridan, notwithstanding +all his _méchanceté_. + +Received many, and the kindest, thanks from Lady Portsmouth, _père_ and +_mère_, for my match-making. I don't regret it, as she looks the +countess well, and is a very good girl. It is odd how well she carries +her new honours. She looks a different woman, and high-bred, too. I had +no idea that I could make so good a peeress. + +Went to the play with Hobhouse. Mrs. Jordan superlative in Hoyden, [3] +and Jones well enough in Foppington. _What plays_! what wit!--_hélas_! +Congreve and Vanbrugh are your only comedy. Our society is too insipid +now for the like copy. Would _not_ go to Lady Keith's. Hobhouse thought +it odd. I wonder _he_ should like parties. If one is in love, and wants +to break a commandment and covet any thing that is there, they do very +well. But to go out amongst the mere herd, without a motive, pleasure, +or pursuit--'sdeath! "I'll none of it." He told me an odd report,--that +_I_ am the actual Conrad, the veritable Corsair, and that part of my +travels are supposed to have passed in privacy. Um!--people sometimes +hit near the truth; but never the whole truth. H. don't know what I was +about the year after he left the Levant; nor does any one--nor-- +--nor--nor--however, it is a lie--but, "I doubt the equivocation of the +fiend that lies like truth!" [4] + +I shall have letters of importance to-morrow. Which,----,----, or +----? heigho!------is in my heart,----in my head,----in my eye, +and the _single_ one, Heaven knows where. All write, and will be +answered. "Since I have crept in favour with myself, I must maintain +it;" [5] but I never "mistook my person," [6] though I think others +have. + +----called to-day in great despair about his mistress, who has taken a +freak of----. He began a letter to her, but was obliged to stop +short--I finished it for him, and he copied and sent it. If _he_ holds +out, and keeps to my instructions of affected indifference, she will +lower her colours. If she don't, he will, at least, get rid of her, and +she don't seem much worth keeping. But the poor lad is in love--if that +is the case, she will win. When they once discover their power, _finita +è la musica_. + +Sleepy, and must go to bed. + + + +[Footnote 1: Thomas, Lord Cochrane (1775-1860), eldest son of the ninth +Earl of Dundonald, a captain in the Royal Navy, and M. P. for +Westminster, had done brilliant service in his successive commands--the +'Speedy', 'Pallas', 'Impérieuse', and the flotilla of fire-ships at +Basque Roads in 1809. In the House of Commons he had been a strong +opponent of the Government, an advocate of Parliamentary Reform, and a +vigorous critic of naval administration. In February, 1814, he had been +appointed to the 'Tonnant' for the American Station, and it was while he +was on a week's leave of absence in London, before sailing, that the +stock-jobbing hoax occurred. + +During the days February 8-26, 1814, it seemed possible that Napoleon +might defeat the Allied Armies, and the Funds were sensitive to every +rumour. At midnight on Sunday, February 20, a man calling himself Du +Bourg brought news to Admiral Foley, at Dover, that Napoleon had been +killed by a party of Cossacks. Hurrying towards London, Du Bourg, whose +real name was Berenger, spread the news as he went. Arrived in London +soon after daybreak, he went to Cochrane's house, and there changed his +uniform. When the Stock Exchange opened at ten on February 21, 1814, the +Funds rose rapidly, and among those who sold on the rise was Cochrane. +The next day, when the swindle had been discovered, the Stocks fell. + +A Stock Exchange Committee sat to investigate the case, and their report +(March 7) threw grave suspicion on Cochrane. He, his uncle, Cochrane +Johnstone, a Mr. Butt, and Berenger, were indicted for a conspiracy, +tried before Lord Ellenborough, June 8-9, and convicted. Cochrane was +sentenced to a year's imprisonment and a fine of £1000. On the back of +the note for £1000 (still kept in the Bank of England) with which he +paid his fine on July 3, 1815, he wrote: + + "My health having suffered by long and close confinement, and my + oppressors being resolved to deprive me of property or life, I submit + to robbery to protect myself from murder, in the hope that I shall + live to bring the delinquents to justice." + +Cochrane was also expelled from the House of Commons and from the Order +of the Bath. There is little doubt that the circumstances were extremely +suspicious. Those who wish to form an opinion as to Cochrane's guilt or +innocence will find the subject of the trial exhaustively treated in Mr. +J.B. Atlay's 'Lord Cochrane's Trial before Lord Ellenborough' (1897).] + + +[Footnote 2: Henry, Lord Brougham (1778-1868) acknowledged that he wrote +the famous article on Byron's 'Hours of Idleness' in the 'Edinburgh +Review' (Sir M.E. Grant-Duff's 'Notes from a Diary', vol. ii. p. 189). +He lost his seat for Camelford in September, 1812, and did not re-enter +the House till July, 1815, when he sat for Winchelsea. In the postscript +of a letter written by him to Douglas Kinnaird, December 9, 1814, he +speaks of Byron thus: + + "Your friend, Lord B., is, in my opinion, a singularly agreeable + person, which is very rarely the case with eminent men. His + independent principles give him a great additional charm." + +But the part which Brougham played in the separation, both as counsel +and in society, infuriated Byron, who wrote of him in his letters with +the utmost bitterness. (See also the passage, now for the first time +published, from Byron's 'Detached Thoughts', on his Parliamentary +experiences, p. 198, first paragraph of 'note'. [2md paragraph of +Footnote 1 of Letter 285])] + + +[Footnote 3: Dorothy Jordan (1762-1816) first appeared as "Phoebe" in +'As You Like It' at the Crow Street Theatre, Dublin, in 1777. After +acting in provincial theatres, she made her 'début' on the London stage +at Drury Lane (October 18, 1785) as "Peggy" in Garrick's 'Country Girl', +an expurgated version of Wycherley's 'Country Wife'. During the season +she appeared also in six of her best parts: "Miss Hoyden" in 'The Trip +to Scarborough', "Priscilla Tomboy" in 'The Romp', "Hypolita" in 'She +would and she would not', "Mrs. Brady" in 'The Irish Widow', "Viola" in +'Twelfth Night', and "Rosalind" in 'As You Like It'. Her last +appearance on the London stage was as "Lady Teazle" in 'The School for +Scandal', at Covent Garden, June 1, 1814. A list of her principal +characters is given by Genest ('English Stage', vol. viii. pp. 432-434). +As a comic actress, Mrs. Jordan was unrivalled; her voice was perfect; +and her natural gaiety irresistible. Sir Joshua Reynolds preferred her +to all other actresses as a being "who ran upon the stage as a +playground, and laughed from sincere wildness of delight." In genteel +comedy, critics like Genest ('English Stage', vol. viii. p. 431) and +Leigh Hunt ('Dramatic Essays', ed. 1894, p. 82) agree that she failed, +perhaps, as the latter suggests, because she was so "perpetually +employed" in "broad and romping characters." + +In private life Mrs. Jordan was chiefly known as the mistress of the +Duke of Clarence, to whom she bore ten children. She died at St. Cloud, +July 3, 1816. + +The play acted at Covent Garden, March 10, 1814, was Sheridan's 'Trip to +Scarborough', which is a close adaptation of Vanbrugh's 'Relapse'. The +performance is thus described in the 'Courier', March 11, 1814: + + "Mrs. Jordan, the only 'Miss Hoyden' on the stage, supported that + character with unabated spirit. In every scene, from her soliloquy on + being locked up, which was delivered with extraordinary 'naïveté', + both with reference to her tones, her emphasis, and her action, until + the consummation of the piece, the house was shaken by loud and + quick-succeeding peals of laughter. The style in which she expressed + 'Hoyden's' rustic arithmetic, 'Now, 'Nursey', if he gives me 'six + hundred pounds' a-year to buy 'pins', what will he give me to buy + petticoats?' was uncommonly fine. The frock waving in her hand, the + backward bound of two or three steps, the gravity of countenance, + induced by a mental glance at the magnitude of the sum, all spoke + expectation, delight, and astonishment."] + + +[Footnote 4: 'Macbeth', act v. sc. 5.] + + +[Footnote 5: 'Richard III', act i. sc. 2, line 259.] + + +[Footnote 6: 'Ibid.', line 253.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +Tuesday, March 15. + + +Dined yesterday with Rogers, Mackintosh, and Sharpe. Sheridan could not +come. Sharpe told several very amusing anecdotes of Henderson, the +actor. [1] Stayed till late, and came home, having drunk so much _tea_, +that I did not get to sleep till six this morning. R. says I am to be in +_this Quarterly_--cut up, I presume, as they "hate us youth." [2] +_N'importe_. As Sharpe was passing by the doors of some debating society +(the Westminster Forum), in his way to dinner, he saw rubricked on the +wall _Scott's_ name and _mine_--"Which the best poet?" being the +question of the evening; and I suppose all the Templars and _would-bes_ +took our rhymes in vain in the course of the controversy. Which had the +greater show of hands, I neither know nor care; but I feel the coupling +of the names as a compliment--though I think Scott deserves better +company. + +Wedderburn Webster called--Lord Erskine, Lord Holland, etc., etc. Wrote +to----_The Corsair_ report. She says she don't wonder, since "Conrad +is so _like_." It is odd that one, who knows me so thoroughly, should +tell me this to my face. However, if she don't know, nobody can. + +Mackintosh is, it seems, the writer of the defensive letter in the +_Morning Chronicle_. If so, it is very kind, and more than I did for +myself. + +Told Murray to secure for me Bandello's Italian Novels [3] at the sale +to-morrow. To me they will be _nuts_. Redde a satire on myself, called +"Anti-Byron," and told Murray to publish it if he liked. The object of +the author is to prove me an atheist and a systematic conspirator +against law and government. Some of the verse is good; the prose I don't +quite understand. He asserts that my "deleterious works" have had "an +effect upon civil society, which requires," etc., etc., etc., and his +own poetry. It is a lengthy poem, and a long preface, with an harmonious +title-page. Like the fly in the fable, I seem to have got upon a wheel +which makes much dust; but, unlike the said fly, I do not take it all +for my own raising. + +A letter from _Bella_, [4] which I answered. I shall be in love with her +again if I don't take care. + +I shall begin a more regular system of reading soon. + + + +[Footnote 1: John Henderson, the Bath Roscius (1747-1785), without any +great personal advantages, was, according to Mrs. Siddons, "a fine actor +... the soul of intelligence." Rogers ('Table-Talk', ed. 1887, p. 110) +says, + + "Henderson was a truly great actor: his Hamlet and his Falstaff were + equally good. He was a very fine reader too: in his comic readings, + superior, of course, to Mrs. Siddons: his John Gilpin was marvellous." + +In Sharp's 'Letters and Essays' (ed. 1834, pp. 16-18) will be found an +interesting letter to Henderson, written a few days before his death, +giving an account of John Kemble's first appearance on the London +boards, in the character of "Hamlet." + + "There has not," says Sharp, "been such a first appearance since + yours; yet Nature, though she has been bountiful to him in figure and + feature, has denied him a voice.... You have been so long without a + 'brother near the throne,' that it will perhaps be serviceable to you + to be obliged to bestir yourself in Hamlet, Macbeth, Lord Townley, and + Maskwell; but in Lear, Richard, Falstaff, and Benedict, you have + nothing to fear, not-withstanding the known fickleness of the public + and its love of novelty."] + + +[Footnote 2: 'Henry IV', Part I. act ii. sc. 2.] + + +[Footnote 3: Matteo Bandello (1480-1562), a native of Piedmont, became +in 1550 Bishop of Agen. His 214 tales, in the manner of Boccaccio, were +published at Milan (1554-73). In the Catalogue of Byron's books, "sold +by auction by Mr. Evans, at his house, No. 26, Pall Mall, on Friday, +April 5, 1816, and following day," appears "Bandello, 'Novelle', 8 vol., +wanting vol. 9, 'Livorn', 1791."] + + +[Footnote 4: Miss Milbanke, afterwards Lady Byron.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +Thursday, March 17. + + +I have been sparring with Jackson for exercise this morning; and mean to +continue and renew my acquaintance with the muffles. My chest, and arms, +and wind are in very good plight, and I am not in flesh. I used to be a +hard hitter, and my arms are very long for my height (5 feet 8 1/2 +inches). At any rate, exercise is good, and this the severest of all; +fencing and the broad-sword never fatigued me half so much. + +Redde the 'Quarrels of Authors' [1] (another sort of _sparring_)--a new +work, by that most entertaining and researching writer, Israeli. They +seem to be an irritable set, and I wish myself well out of it. "I'll not +march through Coventry with them, that's flat." [2] What the devil had I +to do with scribbling? It is too late to inquire, and all regret is +useless. But, an it were to do again,--I should write again, I suppose. +Such is human nature, at least my share of it;--though I shall think +better of myself, if I have sense to stop now. If I have a wife, and +that wife has a son--by any body--I will bring up mine heir in the most +anti-poetical way--make him a lawyer, or a pirate, or--any thing. But, +if he writes too, I shall be sure he is none of mine, and cut him off +with a Bank token. Must write a letter--three o'clock. + + + +[Footnote 1: Disraeli's 'Curiosities of Literature', 2 vols. (1807); +'Calamities of Authors', 2 vols. (1812); and 'Quarrels of Authors', 3 +vols. (1814), appear in the Sale Catalogue.] + + +[Footnote 2: 'Henry IV'., Part I. act iv. sc. 2.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +Sunday, March 20. + + +I intended to go to Lady Hardwicke's, [1] but won't. I always begin the +day with a bias towards going to parties; but, as the evening advances, +my stimulus fails, and I hardly ever go out--and, when I do, always +regret it. This might have been a pleasant one;--at least, the hostess +is a very superior woman. Lady Lansdowne's [2] to-morrow--Lady +Heathcote's [3] Wednesday. Um!--I must spur myself into going to some of +them, or it will look like rudeness, and it is better to do as other +people do--confound them! + +Redde Machiavel, [4] parts of Chardin, and Sismondi, and Bandello--by +starts. Redde the _Edinburgh_, 44, just come out. In the beginning of +the article on Edgeworth's _Patronage_, I have gotten a high compliment, +I perceive. [5] Whether this is creditable to me, I know not; but it +does honour to the editor, because he once abused me. Many a man will +retract praise; none but a high-spirited mind will revoke its censure, +or _can_ praise the man it has once attacked. I have often, since my +return to England, heard Jeffrey most highly commended by those who know +him for things independent of his talents. I admire him for _this_--not +because he has _praised me_ (I have been so praised elsewhere and +abused, alternately, that mere habit has rendered me as indifferent to +both as a man at twenty-six can be to any thing), but because he is, +perhaps, the _only man_ who, under the relations in which he and I +stand, or stood, with regard to each other, would have had the +liberality to act thus; none but a great soul dared hazard it. The +height on which he stands has not made him giddy;--a little scribbler +would have gone on cavilling to the end of the chapter. As to the +justice of his panegyric, that is matter of taste. There are plenty to +question it, and glad, too, of the opportunity. + +Lord Erskine called to-day. He means to carry down his reflections on +the war--or rather wars--to the present day. I trust that he will. Must +send to Mr. Murray to get the binding of my copy of his pamphlet +finished, as Lord E. has promised me to correct it, and add some +marginal notes to it. Any thing in his handwriting will be a treasure, +which will gather compound interest from years. Erskine has high +expectations of Mackintosh's promised History. Undoubtedly it must be a +classic, when finished. [6] + +Sparred with Jackson again yesterday morning, and shall to-morrow. I +feel all the better for it, in spirits, though my arms and shoulders are +very stiff from it. Mem. to attend the pugilistic dinner:--Marquess +Huntley [7] is in the chair. + +Lord Erskine thinks that ministers must be in peril of going out. So +much the better for him. To me it is the same who are in or out;--we +want something more than a change of ministers, and some day we will +have it. + +I remember, in riding from Chrisso to Castri (Delphos), along the sides +of Parnassus, I saw six eagles in the air. It is uncommon to see so many +together; and it was the number--not the species, which is common +enough--that excited my attention. + +The last bird I ever fired at was an _eaglet_, on the shore of the Gulf +of Lepanto, near Vostitza. It was only wounded, and I tried to save it, +the eye was so bright; but it pined, and died in a few days; and I never +did since, and never will, attempt the death of another bird. I wonder +what put these two things into my head just now? I have been reading +Sismondi, and there is nothing there that could induce the recollection. + +I am mightily taken with Braccio di Montone, Giovanni Galeazzo, and +Eccelino. But the last is _not_ Bracciaferro (of the same name), Count +of Ravenna, whose history I want to trace. There is a fine engraving in +Lavater, from a picture by Fuseli, of _that_ Ezzelin, over the body of +Meduna, punished by him for a _hitch_ in her constancy during his +absence in the Crusades. He was right--but I want to know the story. [8] + + + +[Footnote 1: Philip Yorke, third Earl of Hardwicke, married, in 1782, +Elizabeth, daughter of the fifth Earl of Balcarres.] + + +[Footnote 2: Louisa Emma, daughter of the second Earl of Ilchester, was +married, in 1808, to the Marquis of Lansdowne, at that time Lord Henry +Petty.] + + +[Footnote 3: Katherine Sophia, daughter of John Manners, of Grantham +Grange, co. Lincoln, was married, in 1793, to Sir Gilbert Heathcote.] + + +[Footnote 4: Machiavelli's 'Opere', 13 vols., 'in russia, Milan' (1804); +Sismondi's 'De la Littérature du Midi', 4 vols., 'in russia', Paris +(1813); and Chardin's 'Voyages en Perse', 10 vols. and Atlas (1811), +appear in the Catalogue of Sale.] + + +[Footnote 5: + + "It is no slight consolation to us, while suffering under alternate + reproaches for ill-timed severity, and injudicious praise, to reflect + that no very mischievous effects have as yet resulted to the + literature of the country, from this imputed misbehaviour on our part. + Powerful genius, we are persuaded, will not be repressed even by + unjust castigation; nor will the most excessive praise that can be + lavished by sincere admiration ever abate the efforts that are fitted + to attain to excellence. Our alleged severity upon a youthful + production has not prevented the noble author from becoming the first + poet of his time." + +'Edinburgh Review', vol. xxii. p. 416.] + + +[Footnote 6: Mackintosh wrote (1) a 'History of England' for Lardner's +'Cabinet Cyclopaedia' (1830); (2) a 'History of the Revolution in +England' (1834).] + + +[Footnote 7: Afterwards fifth, and last, Duke of Gordon. He died in May, +1836.] + + +[Footnote 8: + + "Fuseli's picture of Ezzelin Bracciaferro musing over Meduna, slain by + him for disloyalty during his absence in the Holy Land, was exhibited + at the Royal Academy in 1780. Mr. Knowles, in his 'Life' of the + painter, relates the following anecdote: 'Fuseli frequently invented + the subject of his pictures without the aid of the poet or historian, + as in his composition of Ezzelin, Belisaire, and some others: these he + denominated "philosophical ideas intuitive, or sentiment personified." + On one occasion he was much amused by the following inquiry of Lord + Byron: "I have been looking in vain, Mr. Fuseli, for some months, in + the poets and historians of Italy, for the subject of your picture of + Ezzelin: pray where is it to be found?" "Only in my brain, my Lord," + was the answer: "for I invented it"' (vol. i. p. 403)" (Moore).] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +Tuesday, March 22. + + +Last night, _party_ at Lansdowne House. To-night, _party_ at Lady +Charlotte Greville's [1]--deplorable waste of time, and something of +temper. Nothing imparted--nothing acquired--talking without ideas:--if +any thing like _thought_ in my mind, it was not on the subjects on which +we were gabbling. Heigho!--and in this way half London pass what is +called life. To-morrow there is Lady Heathcote's--shall I go? yes--to +punish myself for not having a pursuit. + +Let me see--what did I see? The only person who much struck me was Lady +S--d's [Stafford's] eldest daughter, Lady C. L. [2] [Charlotte Leveson]. +They say she is _not_ pretty. I don't know--every thing is pretty that +pleases; but there is an air of _soul_ about her--and her colour +changes--and there is that shyness of the antelope (which I delight in) +in her manner so much, that I observed her more than I did any other +woman in the rooms, and only looked at any thing else when I thought she +might perceive and feel embarrassed by my scrutiny. After all, there may +be something of association in this. She is a friend of Augusta's, and +whatever she loves I can't help liking. + +Her mother, the Marchioness, talked to me a little; and I was twenty +times on the point of asking her to introduce me to _sa fille_, but I +stopped short. This comes of that affray with the Carlisles. + +Earl Grey told me laughingly of a paragraph in the last _Moniteur_, +which has stated, among other symptoms of rebellion, some particulars of +the _sensation_ occasioned in all our government gazettes by the "tear" +lines,--_only_ amplifying, in its re-statement, an epigram (by the by, +no epigram except in the _Greek_ acceptation of the word) into a +_roman_. I wonder the _Couriers_, etc., etc., have not translated that +part of the _Moniteur_, with additional comments. [3] + +The Princess of Wales has requested Fuseli to paint from 'The +Corsair'--leaving to him the choice of any passage for the subject: so +Mr. Locke tells me. Tired, jaded, selfish, and supine--must go to bed. + +_Roman_, at least _Romance_, means a song sometimes, as in the Spanish. +I suppose this is the _Moniteur's_ meaning, unless he has confused it +with 'The Corsair'. + + + +[Footnote 1: Daughter of William Henry Cavendish, third Duke of +Portland, married, in 1793, to Charles Greville.] + + +[Footnote 2: Afterwards Countess of Surrey.] + + +[Footnote 3: + + "Londres le 9 Mars... On vient de publier une caricature insolente et + grossiere centre le mariage projeté (de la Princesse de Galles) et + centre le Prince d'Orange. En commentant cette gravure, le 'Town Talk' + a osé avancer que la Princesse Charlotte détestait son époux futur, et + que ses véritables affections étaient sacrifices à des vues + politiques. Le Lord Byron a fait de ce bruit populaire le sujet d'une + romance." + +'Moniteur', 17 Mars, 1814.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +Albany, March 28. + +This night got into my new apartments, [1] rented of Lord Althorpe, on a +lease of seven years. Spacious, and room for my books and sabres. _In_ +the _house_, too, another advantage. The last few days, or whole week, +have been very abstemious, regular in exercise, and yet very _un_well. + +Yesterday, dined _tête-à-tête_ at the Cocoa with Scrope Davies--sat from +six till midnight--drank between us one bottle of champagne and six of +claret, neither of which wines ever affect me. Offered to take Scrope +home in my carriage; but he was tipsy and pious, and I was obliged to +leave him on his knees praying to I know not what purpose or pagod. No +headach, nor sickness, that night nor to-day. Got up, if any thing, +earlier than usual--sparred with Jackson _ad sudorem_, and have been +much better in health than for many days. I have heard nothing more from +Scrope. Yesterday paid him four thousand eight hundred pounds, a debt of +some standing, and which I wished to have paid before. My mind is much +relieved by the removal of that _debit_. + +Augusta wants me to make it up with Carlisle. I have refused _every_ +body else, but I can't deny her any thing;--so I must e'en do it, though +I had as lief "drink up Eisel--eat a crocodile." [2] Let me see--Ward, +the Hollands, the Lambs, Rogers, etc., etc.,--every body, more or less, +have been trying for the last two years to accommodate this _couplet_ +quarrel, to no purpose. I shall laugh if Augusta succeeds. + +Redde a little of many things--shall get in all my books to-morrow. +Luckily this room will hold them--with "ample room and verge, etc., the +characters of hell to trace." [3] I must set about some employment soon; +my heart begins to eat _itself_ again. + + + +[Footnote 1: In 1804 Albany House, in Piccadilly, long occupied by the +Duke of York and Albany, was converted into sets of bachelor chambers, +and the gardens behind were also built over with additional suites of +rooms. Byron's were in the original house on the ground floor, No. 2. +Moore, writing to Rogers, April 12, 1814 ('Memoirs, etc'., vol. viii. p. +176), says, + + "Lord Byron, as you know, has removed into Albany, and lives in an + apartment, I should think thirty by forty feet."] + + +[Footnote 2: 'Hamlet', act v. sc. 1, line 299.] + + +[Footnote 3: + + "Give ample room, and verge enough + The characters of hell to trace." + +Gray, 'The Bard', lines 51, 52.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +April 8. + + +Out of town six days. On my return, found my poor little pagod, +Napoleon, pushed off his pedestal;--the thieves are in Paris. It is his +own fault. Like Milo, he would rend the oak; [1] but it closed again, +wedged his hands, and now the beasts--lion, bear, down to the dirtiest +jackal--may all tear him. That Muscovite winter _wedged_ his arms;--ever +since, he has fought with his feet and teeth. The last may still leave +their marks; and "I guess now" (as the Yankees say) that he will yet +play them a pass. He is in their rear--between them and their homes. +Query--will they ever reach them? + + + +[Footnote 1: He adopted this thought afterwards in his 'Ode to +Napoleon', as well as most of the historical examples in the following +paragraph: + + "He who of old would rend the oak, + Dream'd not of the rebound; + Chain'd by the trunk he vainly broke-- + Alone--how look'd he round?"] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +Saturday, April 9, 1814. + + +I mark this day! + +Napoleon Buonaparte has abdicated the throne of the world. "Excellent +well." Methinks Sylla did better; for he revenged and resigned in the +height of his sway, red with the slaughter of his foes--the finest +instance of glorious contempt of the rascals upon record. Dioclesian did +well too--Amurath not amiss, had he become aught except a +dervise--Charles the Fifth but so so--but Napoleon, worst of all. What! +wait till they were in his capital, and then talk of his readiness to +give up what is already gone!! "What whining monk art thou--what holy +cheat?" [1] 'Sdeath!--Dionysius at Corinth was yet a king to this. The +"Isle of Elba" to retire to!--Well--if it had been Caprea, I should have +marvelled less. "I see men's minds are but a parcel of their fortunes." +[2] I am utterly bewildered and confounded. + +I don't know--but I think _I_, even _I_ (an insect compared with this +creature), have set my life on casts not a millionth part of this man's. +But, after all, a crown may be not worth dying for. Yet, to outlive +_Lodi_ for this!!! + +Oh that Juvenal or Johnson could rise from the dead! _Expende--quot +libras in duce summo invenies_? [3] I knew they were light in the +balance of mortality; but I thought their living dust weighed more +_carats_. [4] Alas! this imperial diamond hath a flaw in it, and is now +hardly fit to stick in a glazier's pencil:--the pen of the historian +won't rate it worth a ducat. + +Psha! "something too much of this." [5] But I won't give him up even +now; though all his admirers have, "like the thanes, fallen from him." +[6] + + + +[Footnote 1: In Otway's 'Venice Preserved' (act iv. sc. 2), Pierre says +to Jaffier, who had betrayed him: + + "What whining monk art thou? What holy cheat? + That would'st encroach upon my credulous ears, + And cant'st thus vilely! Hence! I know thee not!"] + + +[Footnote 2: + + "I see, men's judgements are a parcel of their fortunes." + +'Antony and Cleopatra', act iii. sc. II, line 32.] + + +[Footnote 3: + + "Expende Hannibalem: quot libras in duce summo + Invenies?" + +Juvenal, 'Sat'. x. 147. + + + "Produce the urn that Hannibal contains, + And weigh the mighty dust which yet remains: + 'And is this all?'" + +Gifford's 'Juvenal' (ed. 1802), vol. ii. pp. 338, 339.] + + +[Footnote 4: + + "In the Statistical Account of Scotland, I find that Sir John Paterson + had the curiosity to collect, and weigh, the ashes of a person + discovered a few years since in the parish of Eccles. Wonderful to + relate, he found the whole did not exceed in weight one ounce and a + half! 'And is this all'!" + +Gifford's 'Juvenal, ut supra'.] + + +[Footnote 5: 'Hamlet', act iii. sc. 2.] + + +[Footnote 6: 'Macbeth', act v. sc. 3, + + "Doctor, the thanes fly from me!"] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +April 10. + + +I do not know that I am happiest when alone; but this I am sure of, that +I never am long in the society even of _her_ I love, (God knows too +well, and the devil probably too,) without a yearning for the company of +my lamp and my utterly confused and tumbled-over library. Even in the +day, I send away my carriage oftener than I use or abuse it. _Per +esempio_,--I have not stirred out of these rooms for these four days +past: but I have sparred for exercise (windows open) with Jackson an +hour daily, to attenuate and keep up the ethereal part of me. The more +violent the fatigue, the better my spirits for the rest of the day; and +then, my evenings have that calm nothingness of languor, which I most +delight in. To-day I have boxed an hour--written an ode to Napoleon +Buonaparte--copied it--eaten six biscuits--drunk four bottles of soda +water [1]--redde away the rest of my time--besides giving poor [? +Webster] a world of advice about this mistress of his, who is plaguing +him into a phthisic and intolerable tediousness. I am a pretty fellow +truly to lecture about "the sect." No matter, my counsels are all thrown +away. + + + +[Footnote 1: The following is one of Byron's bills for soda water: + + Lord Byron to R. Shipwash, 27 St. Albans St. + + 1814-- s. d. + 4 Octr. 2 Doz. Soda Water 11 0 + 7 " 2 Doz. do. do. 11 0 + 13 " 2 Doz. do. do. 11 0 + 20 " 2 Doz. do. do. 11 0 + 25 2 Doz. do. do. 11 0 + 30 " 2 Doz. do. do. 11 0 + 9 Decr. 2 Doz. do. do. 11 0 + 14 " 2 Doz. do. do. 11 0 + 17 " 2 Doz. do. do. 11 0 + 22 " 2 Doz. do. do. 11 0 + 6 1 0 + [overstrike 1 7 6] + [overstrike 4 13 6] + 25th Decr. 1814 + Recd. R. Shipwash. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +April 19, 1814. + + +There is ice at both poles, north and south--all extremes are the +same--misery belongs to the highest and the lowest only, to the emperor +and the beggar, when unsixpenced and unthroned. There is, to be sure, a +damned insipid medium--an equinoctial line--no one knows where, except +upon maps and measurement. + + "And all our yesterdays have lighted fools + The way to dusty death." [1] + +I will keep no further journal of that same hesternal torch-light; and, +to prevent me from returning, like a dog, to the vomit of memory, I tear +out the remaining leaves of this volume, and write, in _Ipecacuanha_, +--"that the Bourbons are restored!!!"--"Hang up philosophy." [2] To be +sure, I have long despised myself and man, but I never spat in the face +of my species before--"O fool! I shall go mad." [3] + + + +[Footnote 1: 'Macbeth', act v. sc. 5, line 22.] + + +[Footnote 2: 'Romeo and Juliet', act iii. sc. 3.] + + +[Footnote 3: 'King Lear', act ii. sc. 4.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +APPENDIX I. + + +ARTICLES FROM 'THE MONTHLY REVIEW'. + + +1. 'POEMS', BY W. R. SPENCER. (VOL. 67, 1812, PP. 54-60.) + +Art. VII. Poems by William Robert Spencer. 8vo. 10s. Boards. Cadell and +Davies. 1811. + +The author of this well-printed volume has more than once been +introduced to our readers, and is known to rank among that class of +poetical persons who have never been highly favoured by stern criticism. +The "mob of gentlemen who write with ease" has indeed of late years +(like other mobs) become so importunate, as to threaten an alarming +rivalry to the regular body of writers who are not fortunate enough to +be either easy or genteel. Hence the jaundiced eye with which the real +author regards the red Morocco binding of the presumptuous +"Littérateur;" we say, _the binding_, for into the book itself he cannot +condescend to look, at least not beyond the frontispiece.--Into Mr. +Spencer's volume, however, he may dip farther, and will find sufficient +to give him pleasure or pain, in proportion to his own candour. It +consists chiefly of "_Vers de Société_," calculated to prove very +delightful to a large circle of fashionable acquaintance, and pleasing +to a limited number of vulgar purchasers. These last, indeed, may be +rude enough to expect something more for their specie during the present +scarcity of change, than lines to "Young Poets and Poetesses," "Epitaphs +upon Years," Poems "to my Grammatical Niece," "Epistle from Sister Dolly +in Cascadia to Sister Tanny in Snowdonia," etc.: but we doubt not that a +long list of persons of quality, wit, and honour, "in town and country," +who are here addressed, will be highly pleased with themselves and with +the poet who has _shewn them off_ in a very handsome volume: as will +doubtless the "Butterfly at the end of Winter," provided that he is +fortunate enough to survive the present inclemencies. We are, however, +by no means convinced that the Bellman will relish Mr. S.'s usurpation +of a "Christmas Carol;" which looks so very like his own, that we advise +him immediately to put in his claim, and it will be universally allowed. + +With the exception of these and similar productions, the volume contains +poems eminently beautiful; some which have been already published, and +others that are well worthy of present publication. Of "Leonora," with +which it opens, we made our report many years ago (in vol. xx. N.S. p. +451): but our readers, perhaps, will not be sorry to see another short +extract. We presume that they are well acquainted with the story, and +therefore select one of the central passages: + + "See, where fresh blood-gouts mat the green, + Yon wheel its reeking points advance; + There, by the moon's wan light half seen, + Grim ghosts of tombless murderers dance. + 'Come, spectres of the guilty dead, + With us your goblin morris ply, + Come all in festive dance to tread, + Ere on the bridal couch we lie.' + + "Forward th' obedient phantoms push, + Their trackless footsteps rustle near, + In sound like autumn winds that rush + Through withering oak or beech-wood sere. + With lightning's force the courser flies, + Earth shakes his thund'ring hoofs beneath, + Dust, stones, and sparks, in whirlwind rise, + And horse and horseman heave for breath. + + "Swift roll the moon-light scenes away, + Hills chasing hills successive fly; + E'en stars that pave th' eternal way, + Seem shooting to a backward sky. + 'Fear'st thou, my love? the moon shines clear; + Hurrah! how swiftly speed the dead! + The dead does Leonora fear? + Oh God! oh leave, oh leave the dead!'" + +Such a specimen of "the Terrible" will place the merit of the poem in a +proper point of view: but we do not think that some of the alterations +in this copy of Leonora are altogether so judicious as Mr. S.'s +well-known taste had led us to expect. "Reviving Friendship" (p. 5) is +perhaps less expressive than "Relenting," as it once stood; and the +phrase, "ten thousand _furlowed_ heroes" ('ibid'.), throws a new light +on the heroic character. It is extremely proper that heroes should have +"furlows," since school-boys have holidays, and lawyers have long +vacations: but we very much question whether young gentlemen of the +scholastic, legal, or heroic calling, would be flattered by any epithet +derived from the relaxation of their respectable pursuits. We should +feel some hesitation in telling an interesting youth, of any given +battalion from Portugal, that he was a "furlowed hero," lest he should +prove to us that his "furlow" had by no means impaired his "heroism." +The old epithet, "war-worn," was more adapted to heroism and to poetry; +and, if we mistake not, it has very recently been superseded by an +epithet which precludes "otium cum dignitate" from the soldier, without +imparting either ease or dignity to the verse. Why is "horse and +horsemen _pant_ for breath" changed to "_heave_ for breath," unless for +the alliteration of the too tempting aspirate? "Heaving" is appropriate +enough to coals and to sighs, but "panting" _belongs_ to successful +lovers and spirited horses; and why should Mr. S.'s horse and horseman +not have panted as heretofore? + +The next poem in arrangement as well as in merit is the "Year of +Sorrow;" to which we offered a tribute of praise in our 45th vol. N.S. +p. 288.--We are sorry to observe that the compliment paid to Mr. +Wedgewood by a "late traveller" (see note, p. 50), viz. that "an +Englishman in journeying from Calais to Ispahan may have his dinner +served every day on Wedgewood's ware," is no longer a matter of fact. It +has lately been the good or evil fortune of one of our travelling +department to pass near to Calais, and to have journeyed through divers +Paynim lands to no very remote distance from Ispahan; and neither in the +palace of the Pacha nor in the caravanserai of the traveller, nor in the +hut of the peasant, was he so favoured as to masticate his pilaff from +that fashionable service. Such is, in this and numerous other instances, +the altered state of the continent and of Europe, since the annotation +of the "late traveller;" and on the authority of a _later_, we must +report that the ware has been all broken since the former passed that +way. We wish that we could efficiently exhort Mr. Wedgewood to send out +a fresh supply, on all the _turnpike roads_ by the route of Bagdad, for +the convenience of the "latest travellers." + +Passing over the "Chorus from Euripides," which might as well have slept +in quiet with the rest of the author's school-exercises, we come to "the +Visionary," which we gladly extract as a very elegant specimen of the +lighter poems: + + "When midnight o'er the moonless skies + Her pall of transient death has spread, + When mortals sleep, when spectres rise, + And nought is wakeful but the dead! + + "No bloodless shape my way pursues, + No sheeted ghost my couch annoys. + Visions more sad my fancy views, + Visions of long departed joys! + + "The shade of youthful hope is there, + That linger'd long, and latest died; + Ambition all dissolved to air, + With phantom honours at her side. + + "What empty shadows glimmer nigh! + They once were friendship, truth, and love! + Oh, die to thought, to mem'ry die, + Since lifeless to my heart ye prove!" + +We cannot forbear adding the beautiful stanzas in pages 166, 167: + + "To THE LADY ANNE HAMILTON. + + "Too late I staid, forgive the crime, + Unheeded flew the hours; + How noiseless falls the foot of Time, + That only treads on flow'rs! + + "What eye with clear account remarks + The ebbing of his glass, + When all its sands are di'mond sparks, + That dazzle as they pass? + + "Ah! who to sober measurement + Time's happy swiftness brings, + When birds of Paradise have lent + Their plumage for his wings?" + +The far greater part of the volume, however, contains pieces which can +be little gratifying to the public:--some are pretty; and all are +besprinkled with "gems," and "roses," and "birds," and "diamonds," and +such like cheap poetical adornments, as are always to be obtained at no +great expense of thought or of metre.--It is happy for the author that +these _bijoux_ are presented to persons of high degree; countesses, +foreign and domestic; "Maids of Honour to Louisa Landgravine of Hesse +D'Armstadt;" Lady Blank, and Lady Asterisk, besides---, and---, and +others anonymous; who are exactly the kind of people to be best pleased +with these sparkling, shining, fashionable trifles. We will solace our +readers with three stanzas of the soberest of these odes: + + "ADDRESSED TO LADY SUSAN FINCASTLE, NOW COUNTESS OF DUNMORE. + + "What ails you, Fancy? you're become + Colder than Truth, than Reason duller! + Your wings are worn, your chirping's dumb, + And ev'ry plume has lost its colour. + + "You droop like geese, whose cacklings cease + When dire St. Michael they remember, + Or like some _bird_ who just has heard + That Fin's preparing for September? + + "Can you refuse your sweetest spell + When I for Susan's praise invoke you? + What, sulkier still? you pout and swell + As if that lovely name would choke you." + +We are to suppose that "Fin preparing for September" is the lady with +whose "lovely name" Fancy runs some risk of being "choked;" and, really, +if _killing partridges_ formed a part of her Ladyship's accomplishments, +both "Fancy" and Feeling were in danger of a quinsey. Indeed, the whole +of these stanzas are couched in that most exquisite irony, in which Mr. +S. has more than once succeeded. All the songs to "persons of quality" +seem to be written on that purest model, "the song by a person of +quality;" whose stanzas have not been fabricated in vain. This sedulous +imitation extends even to the praise of things inanimate: + + "When an Eden zephyr hovers + O'er a slumb'ring cherub's lyre, + Or when sighs of seraph lovers + Breathe upon th' unfinger'd wire." + +If namby-pamby still leads to distinction, Mr. S., like Ambrose +Phillips, will be "preferred for wit." + + "Heav'n must hear--a bloom more tender + Seems to tint the wreath of May, + Lovelier beams the noon-day splendour, + Brighter dew-drops gem the spray! + + "Is the breath of angels moving + O'er each flow'ret's heighten'd hue? + Are their smiles the day improving, + Have their tears enrich'd the dew?" + +Here we have "angels' tears," and "breath," and "smiles," and "Eden +zephyrs," "sighs of seraph lovers," and "lyres of slumbering cherubs," +dancing away to "the Pedal Harp!" How strange it is that Thomson, in his +stanzas on the Æolian lyre (see the 'Castle of Indolence'), never +dreamed of such things, but left all these prettinesses to the last of +the Cruscanti! + +One of the best pieces in the volume is an "Epistle to T. Moore, Esq.," +which though disfigured with "Fiends on sulphur nurst," and "_Hell's +chillest Winter_" ("poor Tom's a'-cold!"), and some other vagaries of +the same sort, forms a pleasant specimen of poetical friendship.--We +give the last ten lines: + + "The triflers think your varied powers + Made only for life's gala bow'rs, + To smooth Reflection's mentor-frown, + Or Pillow joy on softer down.-- + Fools!--yon blest orb not only glows + To chase the cloud, or paint the rose; + _These_ are the pastimes of his might, + Earth's torpid bosom drinks his light; + Find there his wondrous pow'r's true measure, + Death turn'd to life, and dross to treasure!" + +We have now arrived at Mr. Spencer's French and Italian poesy; the +former of which is written sometimes in new and sometimes in old French, +and, occasionally, in a kind of tongue neither old nor new. We offer a +sample of the two former: + + "'QU'EST CE QUE C'EST QUE LE GENIE?' + + "Brillant est cet esprit privé de sentiment; + Mais ce n'est qu'un soleil trop vif et trop constant, + Tendre est ce sentiment qu' aucun esprit n'anime, + Mais ce n'est qu'un jour doux, que trop de pluie abime! + Quand un brillant esprit de ses rares couleurs, + Orne du sentiment les aimables douleurs, + Un _Phenomêne_ en nait, le plus beau de la vie! + C'est alors que les ris en se mélant aux pleurs, + Font ces _Iris de l'ame_, appellê le Genie!" + + "C'y gist un povre menestrel, + Occis par maint ennuict cruel-- + Ne plains pas trop sa destinée-- + N'est icy que son corps mortel: + Son ame est toujours à Gillwell, + Et n'est ce pas là l'Elyséé?" + +We think that Mr. Spencer's Italian rhymes are better finished than his +French; and indeed the facility of composing in that most poetical of +all languages must be obvious: but, as a composer in Italian, he and all +other Englishmen are much inferior to Mr. Mathias. It is very +perceptible in many of Mr. S.'s smaller pieces that he has suffered his +English versification to be vitiated with Italian 'concetti'; and we +should have been better pleased with his compositions in a foreign +language, had they not induced him to corrupt his mother-tongue. Still +we would by no means utterly proscribe these excursions into other +languages; though they remind us occasionally of that aspiring Frenchman +who placed in his grounds the following inscription in honour of +Shenstone and the Leasowes: + + "See this stone + For William Shenstone-- + Who planted groves rural, + And wrote verse natural!" + +The above lines were displayed by the worthy proprietor, in the pride of +his heart, to all English travellers, as a tribute of respect for the +resemblance of his paternal chateau to the Leasowes, and a striking +coincidence between Shenstone's versification and his own.--We do not +mean to insinuate that Mr. Spencer's French verses ("_Cy gist un povre +menestrel,"_ with an Urn inscribed W. R. S. at the top) are _precisely_ +a return in kind for the quatrain above quoted: but we place it as a +beacon to all young gentlemen of poetical propensities on the French +Parnassus. Few would proceed better on the Gallic Pegasus, than the +Anglo-troubadour on ours. + +We now take our leave of Mr. Spencer, without being blind to his errors +or insensible to his merits. As a poet, he may be placed rather below +Mr. Moore and somewhat above Lord Strangford; and if his volume meet +with half their number of purchasers, he will have no reason to complain +either of our judgment or of his own success. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +ARTICLES FROM THE MONTHLY REVIEW. + + +2. NEGLECTED GENIUS, BY W.H. IRELAND. + +(VOL. 70, 1813, PP. 203-205.) + + +Art. XV. 'Neglected Genius:' a Poem. Illustrating the untimely and +unfortunate Fall of many British Poets; from the Period of Henry VIII. +to the Æra of the unfortunate Chatterton. Containing Imitations of their +different Styles, etc., etc. By W.H. Ireland, Author of the +'Fisher-Soy', 'Sailor-Boy', 'Cottage-Girl', etc., etc., etc. 8vo. pp. +175. 8s. Boards. Sherwood & Co. 1812. + + +This volume, professing in a moderately long title-page to be +"illustrative of the untimely and unfortunate fate of _many_ British +Poets," might with great propriety include the author among the number; +for if his "imitations of their different styles" resemble the +originals, the consequent starvation of "many British poets" is a doom +which is calculated to excite pity rather than surprize. The book opens +with a dedication to the present, and a Monody on the late Duke of +Devonshire (one of the neglected bards, we presume, on whom the author +holds his inquest), in which it were difficult to say whether the +"enlightened understanding" of the living or the "intellect" of the +deceased nobleman is more justly appreciated or more elegantly +eulogized. Lest the Monody should be mistaken for anything but itself, +of which there was little danger, it is dressed in marginal mourning, +like a dying speech, or an American Gazette after a defeat. The +following is a specimen--the poet is addressing the Duchess: + + "Chaste widow'd Mourner, still with tears bedew + That sacred Urn, which can imbue + Thy worldly thoughts, thus kindling mem'ry's glow: + Each retrospective virtue, fadeless beam, + Embalms thy _Truth_ in heavenly dream, + To soothe the bosom's agonizing woe. + + "Yet soft--more poignantly to wake the soul, + And ev'ry pensive thought controul, + Truth shall with energy his worth proclaim; + Here I'll record his _philanthropic mind_, + Eager to bless all human kind, + Yet _modest shrinking_ from the voice of _Fame_. + + "As _Patriot_ view him shun the courtly crew, + And dauntless ever keep in view + That bright palladium, England's dear renown. + The people's Freedom and the Monarch's good, + Purchas'd with Patriotic blood, + The surest safeguard of the state and crown. + + "Or now behold his glowing soul extend, + To shine the polish'd social _friend_; + His country's _matchless Prince_ his worth rever'd; + _Gigantic Fox_, true Freedom's darling child, + By kindred excellence beguil'd, + To lasting _amity_ the temple rear'd. + + "As _Critic_ chaste, his judgment could explore + The beauties of poetic lore, + Or classic strains mellifluent infuse; + Yet glowing genius and expanded sense + Were crown'd with _innate diffidence_, + The sure attendant of a genuine muse." + +Page 9 contains, forsooth, a very correct imitation of Milton: + + "To thee, gigantic genius, next I'll sound; + The clarion string, and fill fame's vasty round; + 'Tis _Milton_ beams upon the wond'ring sight, + Rob'd in the splendour of Apollo's light; + As when from ocean bursting on the view, + His orb dispenses ev'ry brilliant hue, + Crowns with resplendent gold th' horizon wide, + And cloathes with countless gems the buoyant tide; + While through the boundless realms of æther blaze, + On spotless azure, streamy saffron rays:-- + So o'er the world of genius _Milton_ shone, + Profound in science--as the bard--alone." + +We must not pass over the imitative specimen of "Nahum Tate," because in +this the author approximates nearest to the style of his original: + + "Friend of great _Dryden_, though of humble fame, + The Laureat Tate, shall here record his name; + Whose sorrowing numbers breath'd a nation's pain, + When death from mortal to immortal reign + Translated royal _Anne_, our island's boast, + Victorious sov'reign, dread of Gallia's host; + Whose arms by land and sea with fame were crown'd, + Whose statesmen grave for wisdom were renown'd, + Whose reign with science dignifies the page; + Bright noon of genius--_great Augustan age_. + Such was thy Queen, and such th' illustrious time + That nurs'd thy muse, and tun'd thy soul to rhyme; + Yet wast thou fated sorrow's shaft to bear, + Augmenting still this catalogue of care; + The gripe of penury thy bosom knew, + A gloomy jail obscur'd bright freedom's view; + So life's gay visions faded to thy sight, + Thy brilliant hopes enscarf'd in sorrow's night." + +Where did Mr. Ireland learn that _hold fast_ and _ballâst_, _stir_ and +_hungêr_, _please_ and _kidnêys_, _plane_ and _capstâne_, _expose_ and +_windôws_, _forgot_ and _pilôt_, _sail on_ _and Deucalôn!_ (Lemprière +would have saved him a scourging at school by telling him that there was +an _i_ in the word), were legitimate Hudibrastic rhymes? (see pp. 116, +etc.). Chatterton is a great favourite of this imitative gentleman; and +Bristol, where he appears to have been held in no greater estimation +than Mr. Ireland himself deserves, is much vituperated in some sad +couplets, seemingly for this reason, "All for love, and a little for the +bottle," as Bannister's song runs,--"All for Chatterton, and a little +for myself," thinks Mr. Ireland. + +The notes communicate, among other novelties, the new title of "Sir +Horace" to the Honourable H. Walpole: surely a perusal of the life of +the unfortunate boy, whose fate Mr. I. deplores, might have prevented +this piece of ignorance, twice repeated in the same page; and we wonder +at the malicious fun of the printer's devil in permitting it to stand, +for _he_ certainly knew better. We must be excused from a more detailed +notice of Mr. Ireland for the present; and indeed we hope to hear no +more of his lamentations, very sure that none but reviewers ever will +peruse them: unless, perhaps, the unfortunate persons of quality whom he +may henceforth single out as proper victims of future dedication. Though +his dedications are enough to kill the living, his anticipated monodies, +on the other hand, must add considerably to the natural dread of death +in such of his patrons as may be liable to common sense or to chronic +diseases. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +APPENDIX II. + +PARLIAMENTARY SPEECHES. + +1. DEBATE ON THE FRAME-WORK BILL, IN THE HOUSE OF LORDS, FEBRUARY 27, +1812. + +The order of the day for the second reading of this Bill being read, + +Lord BYRON rose, and (for the first time) addressed their Lordships as +follows: + +My Lords,--The subject now submitted to your Lordships for the first +time, though new to the House, is by no means new to the country. I +believe it had occupied the serious thoughts of all descriptions of +persons, long before its introduction to the notice of that legislature, +whose interference alone could be of real service. As a person in some +degree connected with the suffering county, though a stranger not only +to this House in general, but to almost every individual whose attention +I presume to solicit, I must claim some portion of your Lordships' +indulgence, whilst I offer a few observations on a question in which I +confess myself deeply interested. + +To enter into any detail of the riots would be superfluous: the House is +already aware that every outrage short of actual bloodshed has been +perpetrated, and that the proprietors of the frames obnoxious to the +rioters, and all persons supposed to be connected with them, have been +liable to insult and violence. During the short time I recently passed +in Nottinghamshire, not twelve hours elapsed without some fresh act of +violence; and on the day I left the county I was informed that forty +frames had been broken the preceding evening, as usual, without +resistance and without detection. + +Such was then the state of that county, and such I have reason to +believe it to be at this moment. But whilst these outrages must be +admitted to exist to an alarming extent, it cannot be denied that they +have arisen from circumstances of the most unparalleled distress: the +perseverance of these miserable men in their proceedings tends to prove +that nothing but absolute want could have driven a large, and once +honest and industrious, body of the people, into the commission of +excesses so hazardous to themselves, their families, and the community. +At the time to which I allude, the town and county were burdened with +large detachments of the military; the police was in motion, the +magistrates assembled; yet all the movements, civil and military, had +led to--nothing. Not a single instance had occurred of the apprehension +of any real delinquent actually taken in the fact, against whom there +existed legal evidence sufficient for conviction. But the police, +however useless, were by no means idle: several notorious delinquents +had been detected,--men, liable to conviction, on the clearest +evidence, of the capital crime of poverty; men, who had been nefariously +guilty of lawfully begetting several children, whom, thanks to the +times! they were unable to maintain. Considerable injury has been done +to the proprietors of the improved frames. These machines were to them +an advantage, inasmuch as they superseded the necessity of employing a +number of workmen, who were left in consequence to starve. By the +adoption of one species of frame in particular, one man performed the +work of many, and the superfluous labourers were thrown out of +employment. Yet it is to be observed, that the work thus executed was +inferior in quality; not marketable at home, and merely hurried over +with a view to exportation. It was called, in the cant of the trade, by +the name of "Spider-work." The rejected workmen, in the blindness of +their ignorance, instead of rejoicing at these improvements in arts so +beneficial to mankind, conceived themselves to be sacrificed to +improvements in mechanism. In the foolishness of their hearts they +imagined that the maintenance and well-doing of the industrious poor +were objects of greater consequence than the enrichment of a few +individuals by any improvement, in the implements of trade, which threw +the workmen out of employment, and rendered the labourer unworthy of his +hire. And it must be confessed that although the adoption of the +enlarged machinery in that state of our commerce which the country once +boasted might have been beneficial to the master without being +detrimental to the servant; yet, in the present situation of our +manufactures, rotting in warehouses, without a prospect of exportation, +with the demand for work and workmen equally diminished, frames of this +description tend materially to aggravate the distress and discontent of +the disappointed sufferers. But the real cause of these distresses and +consequent disturbances lies deeper. When we are told that these men are +leagued together not only for the destruction of their own comfort, but +of their very means of subsistence, can we forget that it is the bitter +policy, the destructive warfare of the last eighteen years, which has +destroyed their comfort, your comfort, all men's comfort? that policy, +which, originating with "great statesmen now no more," has survived the +dead to become a curse on the living, unto the third and fourth +generation! These men never destroyed their looms till they were become +useless, worse than useless; till they were become actual impediments to +their exertions in obtaining their daily bread. Can you, then, wonder +that in times like these, when bankruptcy, convicted fraud, and imputed +felony are found in a station not far beneath that of your Lordships, +the lowest, though once most useful portion of the people, should forget +their duty in their distresses, and become only less guilty than one of +their representatives? But while the exalted offender can find means to +baffle the law, new capital punishments must be devised, new snares of +death must be spread for the wretched mechanic, who is famished into +guilt. These men were willing to dig, but the spade was in other hands: +they were not ashamed to beg, but there was none to relieve them: their +own means of subsistence were cut off, all other employments +pre-occupied; and their excesses, however to be deplored and condemned, +can hardly be subject of surprise. + +It has been stated that the persons in the temporary possession of +frames connive at their destruction; if this be proved upon inquiry, it +were necessary that such material accessories to the crime should be +principals in the punishment. But I did hope, that any measure proposed +by his Majesty's government for your Lordships' decision, would have had +conciliation for its basis; or, if that were hopeless, that some +previous inquiry, some deliberation, would have been deemed requisite; +not that we should have been called at once, without examination and +without cause, to pass sentences by wholesale, and sign death-warrants +blindfold. But, admitting that these men had no cause of complaint; that +the grievances of them and their employers were alike groundless; that +they deserved the worst;--what inefficiency, what imbecility has been +evinced in the method chosen to reduce them! Why were the military +called out to be made a mockery of, if they were to be called out at +all? As far as the difference of seasons would permit, they have merely +parodied the summer campaign of Major Sturgeon; and, indeed, the whole +proceedings, civil and military, seemed on the model of those of the +mayor and corporation of Garratt.--Such marchings and countermarchings! +--from Nottingham to Bullwell, from Bullwell to Banford, from Banford to +Mansfield! And when at length the detachments arrived at their +destination, in all "the pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war," +they came just in time to witness the mischief which had been done, and +ascertain the escape of the perpetrators, to collect the "'spolia +opima'" in the fragments of broken frames, and return to their quarters +amidst the derision of old women, and the hootings of children. Now, +though, in a free country, it were to be wished that our military should +never be too formidable, at least to ourselves, I cannot see the policy +of placing them in situations where they can only be made ridiculous. As +the sword is the worst argument that can be used, so should it be the +last. In this instance it has been the first; but providentially as yet +only in the scabbard. The present measure will, indeed, pluck it from +the sheath; yet had proper meetings been held in the earlier stages of +these riots, had the grievances of these men and their masters (for they +also had their grievances) been fairly weighed and justly examined, I do +think that means might have been devised to restore these workmen to +their avocations, and tranquillity to the county. At present the county +suffers from the double infliction of an idle military and a starving +population. In what state of apathy have we been plunged so long, that +now for the first time the House has been officially apprised of these +disturbances? All this has been transacting within 130 miles of London; +and yet we, "good easy men, have deemed full sure our greatness was +a-ripening," and have sat down to enjoy our foreign triumphs in the +midst of domestic calamity. But all the cities you have taken, all the +armies which have retreated before your leaders, are but paltry subjects +of self-congratulation, if your land divides against itself, and your +dragoons and your executioners must be let loose against your +fellow-citizens.--You call these men a mob, desperate, dangerous, and +ignorant; and seem to think that the only way to quiet the "'Bellua +multorum capitum'" is to lop off a few of its superfluous heads. But +even a mob may be better reduced to reason by a mixture of conciliation +and firmness, than by additional irritation and redoubled penalties. Are +we aware of our obligations to a mob? It is the mob that labour in your +fields and serve in your houses,--that man your navy, and recruit your +army,--that have enabled you to defy all the world, and can also defy +you when neglect and calamity have driven them to despair! You may call +the people a mob; but do not forget that a mob too often speaks the +sentiments of the people. And here I must remark, with what alacrity you +are accustomed to fly to the succour of your distressed allies, leaving +the distressed of your own country to the care of Providence or--the +parish. When the Portuguese suffered under the retreat of the French, +every arm was stretched out, every hand was opened, from the rich man's +largess to the widow's mite, all was bestowed, to enable them to rebuild +their villages and replenish their granaries. And at this moment, when +thousands of misguided but most unfortunate fellow-countrymen are +struggling with the extremes of hardships and hunger, as your charity +began abroad it should end at home. A much less sum, a tithe of the +bounty bestowed on Portugal, even if those men (which I cannot admit +without inquiry) could not have been restored to their employments, +would have rendered unnecessary the tender mercies of the bayonet and +the gibbet. But doubtless our friends have too many foreign claims to +admit a prospect of domestic relief; though never did such objects +demand it. I have traversed the seat of war in the Peninsula, I have +been in some of the most oppressed provinces of Turkey; but never under +the most despotic of infidel governments did I behold such squalid +wretchedness as I have seen since my return in the very heart of a +Christian country. And what are your remedies? After months of inaction, +and months of action worse than inactivity, at length comes forth the +grand specific, the never-failing nostrum of all state physicians, from +the days of Draco to the present time. After feeling the pulse and +shaking the head over the patient, prescribing the usual course of warm +water and bleeding,--the warm water of your mawkish police, and the +lancets of your military,--these convulsions must terminate in death, +the sure consummation of the prescriptions of all political Sangrados. +Setting aside the palpable injustice and the certain inefficiency of the +Bill, are there not capital punishments sufficient in your statutes? Is +there not blood enough upon your penal code, that more must be poured +forth to ascend to Heaven and testify against you? How will you carry +the Bill into effect? Can you commit a whole county to their own +prisons? Will you erect a gibbet in every field, and hang up men like +scarecrows? or will you proceed (as you must to bring this measure into +effect) by decimation? place the county under martial law? depopulate +and lay waste all around you? and restore Sherwood Forest as an +acceptable gift to the crown, in its former condition of a royal chase +and an asylum for outlaws? Are these the remedies for a starving and +desperate populace? Will the famished wretch who has braved your +bayonets be appalled by your gibbets? When death is a relief, and the +only relief it appears that you will afford him, will he be dragooned +into tranquillity? Will that which could not be effected by your +grenadiers be accomplished by your executioners? If you proceed by the +forms of law, where is your evidence? + +Those who have refused to impeach their accomplices when transportation +only was the punishment, will hardly be tempted to witness against them +when death is the penalty. With all due deference to the noble lords +opposite, I think a little investigation, some previous inquiry, would +induce even them to change their purpose. That most favourite state +measure, so marvellously efficacious in many and recent instances, +temporising, would not be without its advantages in this. When a +proposal is made to emancipate or relieve, you hesitate, you deliberate +for years, you temporise and tamper with the minds of men; but a +death-bill must be passed off-hand, without a thought of the +consequences. Sure I am, from what I have heard, and from what I have +seen, that to pass the Bill under all the existing circumstances, +without inquiry, without deliberation, would only be to add injustice to +irritation, and barbarity to neglect. The framers of such a bill must be +content to inherit the honours of that Athenian law-giver whose edicts +were said to be written not in ink but in blood. But suppose it passed; +suppose one of these men, as I have seen them,--meagre with famine, +sullen with despair, careless of a life which your Lordships are perhaps +about to value at something less than the price of a stocking-frame; +--suppose this man surrounded by the children for whom he is unable to +procure bread at the hazard of his existence, about to be torn for ever +from a family which he lately supported in peaceful industry, and which +it is not his fault that he can no longer so support;--suppose this +man--and there are ten thousand such from whom you may select your +victims--dragged into court, to be tried for this new offence, by this +new law; still, there are two things wanting to convict and condemn him; +and these are, in my opinion,--twelve butchers for a jury, and a +Jeffreys for a judge! + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +2. DEBATE ON THE EARL OF DONOUGHMORE'S MOTION FOR A COMMITTEE ON THE +ROMAN CATHOLIC CLAIMS, APRIL 21, 1812. + +[Byron's notes for a portion of his speech are in the possession of Mr. +Murray.] + +Lord BYRON rose and said: + +My Lords,--The question before the House has been so frequently, fully, +and ably discussed, and never perhaps more ably than on this night, that +it would be difficult to adduce new arguments for or against it. But +with each discussion difficulties have been removed, objections have +been canvassed and refuted, and some of the former opponents of Catholic +emancipation have at length conceded to the expediency of relieving the +petitioners. In conceding thus much, however, a new objection is +started; it is not the time, say they, or it is an improper time, or +there is time enough yet. In some degree I concur with those who say it +is not the time exactly; that time is past; better had it been for the +country that the Catholics possessed at this moment their proportion of +our privileges, that their nobles held their due weight in our councils, +than that we should be assembled to discuss their claims. It had indeed +been better: + + "Non tempore tali + Cogere concilium cum muros obsidet hostis." + +The enemy is without, and distress within. It is too late to cavil on +doctrinal points, when we must unite in defence of things more important +than the mere ceremonies of religion. It is indeed singular, that we are +called together to deliberate, not on the God we adore, for in that we +are agreed; not about the king we obey, for to him we are loyal; but how +far a difference in the ceremonials of worship, how far believing not +too little, but too much (the worst that can be imputed to the +Catholics), how far too much devotion to their God may incapacitate our +fellow-subjects from effectually serving their king. + +Much has been said, within and without doors, of church and state; and +although those venerable words have been too often prostituted to the +most despicable of party purposes, we cannot hear them too often: all, I +presume, are the advocates of church and state,--the church of Christ, +and the state of Great Britain; but not a state of exclusion and +despotism; not an intolerant church; not a church militant, which +renders itself liable to the very objection urged against the Romish +communion, and in a greater degree, for the Catholic merely withholds +its spiritual benediction (and even that is doubtful), but our church, +or rather our churchmen, not only refuse to the Catholic their spiritual +grace, but all temporal blessings whatsoever. It was an observation of +the great Lord Peterborough, made within these walls, or within the +walls where the Lords then assembled, that he was for a "parliamentary +king and a parliamentary constitution, but not a parliamentary God and a +parliamentary religion." The interval of a century has not weakened the +force of the remark. It is indeed time that we should leave off these +petty cavils on frivolous points, these Lilliputian sophistries, whether +our "eggs are best broken at the broad or narrow end." + +The opponents of the Catholics may be divided into two classes; those +who assert that the Catholics have too much already, and those who +allege that the lower orders, at least, have nothing more to require. We +are told by the former, that the Catholics never will be contented: by +the latter, that they are already too happy. The last paradox is +sufficiently refuted by the present as by all past petitions: it might +as well be said, that the negroes did not desire to be emancipated; but +this is an unfortunate comparison, for you have already delivered them +out of the house of bondage without any petition on their part, but many +from their taskmasters to a contrary effect; and for myself, when I +consider this, I pity the Catholic peasantry for not having the good +fortune to be born black. But the Catholics are contented, or at least +ought to be, as we are told; I shall, therefore, proceed to touch on a +few of those circumstances which so marvellously contribute to their +exceeding contentment. They are not allowed the free exercise of their +religion in the regular army; the Catholic soldier cannot absent himself +from the service of the Protestant clergyman; and unless he is quartered +in Ireland, or in Spain, where can he find eligible opportunities of +attending his own? The permission of Catholic chaplains to the Irish +militia regiments was conceded as a special favour, and not till after +years of remonstrance, although an Act, passed in 1793, established it +as a right. But are the Catholics properly protected in Ireland? Can the +church purchase a rood of land whereon to erect a chapel? No! all the +places of worship are built on leases of trust or sufferance from the +laity, easily broken, and often betrayed. The moment any irregular wish, +any casual caprice of the benevolent landlord meets with opposition, the +doors are barred against the congregation. This has happened +continually, but in no instance more glaringly than at the town of +Newton Barry, in the county of Wexford. The Catholics enjoying no +regular chapel, as a temporary expedient hired two barns; which, being +thrown into one, served for public worship. At this time, there was +quartered opposite to the spot an officer whose mind appears to have +been deeply imbued with those prejudices which the Protestant petitions +now on the table prove to have been fortunately eradicated from the more +rational portion of the people; and when the Catholics were assembled on +the Sabbath as usual, in peace and good-will towards men, for the +worship of their God and yours, they found the chapel door closed, and +were told that if they did not immediately retire (and they were told +this by a yeoman officer and a magistrate), the Riot Act should be read, +and the assembly dispersed at the point of the bayonet! This was +complained of to the middle-man of government, the secretary at the +Castle in 1806, and the answer was (in lieu of redress), that he would +cause a letter to be written to the colonel, to prevent, if possible, +the recurrence of similar disturbances. Upon this fact no very great +stress need be laid; but it tends to prove that while the Catholic +church has not power to purchase land for its chapels to stand upon, the +laws for its protection are of no avail. In the mean time, the Catholics +are at the mercy of every "pelting petty officer," who may choose to +play his "fantastic tricks before high heaven," to insult his God, and +injure his fellow-creatures. + +Every schoolboy, any footboy (such have held commissions in our +service), any footboy who can exchange his shoulder-knot for an +epaulette, may perform all this and more against the Catholic by virtue +of that very authority delegated to him by his sovereign for the express +purpose of defending his fellow-subjects to the last drop of his blood, +without discrimination or distinction between Catholic and Protestant. + +Have the Irish Catholics the full benefit of trial by jury? They have +not; they never can have until they are permitted to share the privilege +of serving as sheriffs and under-sheriffs. Of this a striking example +occurred at the last Enniskillen assizes. A yeoman was arraigned for the +murder of a Catholic named Macvournagh; three respectable, +uncontradicted witnesses, deposed that they saw the prisoner load, take +aim, fire at, and kill the said Macvournagh. This was properly commented +on by the judge; but, to the astonishment of the bar, and indignation of +the court, the Protestant jury acquitted the accused. So glaring was the +partiality, that Mr. Justice Osborne felt it his duty to bind over the +acquitted, but not absolved assassin, in large recognizances; thus for a +time taking away his licence to kill Catholics. + +Are the very laws passed in their favour observed? They are rendered +nugatory in trivial as in serious cases. By a late Act, Catholic +chaplains are permitted in gaols; but in Fermanagh county the grand jury +lately persisted in presenting a suspended clergyman for the office, +thereby evading the statute, notwithstanding the most pressing +remonstrances of a most respectable magistrate named Fletcher to the +contrary. Such is law, such is justice, for the happy, free, contented +Catholic! + +It has been asked, in another place, Why do not the rich Catholics endow +foundations for the education of the priesthood? Why do you not permit +them to do so? Why are all such bequests subject to the interference, +the vexatious, arbitrary, peculating interference of the Orange +commissioners for charitable donations? + +As to Maynooth college, in no instance, except at the time of its +foundation, when a noble Lord (Camden), at the head of the Irish +administration, did appear to interest himself in its advancement, and +during the government of a noble Duke (Bedford), who, like his +ancestors, has ever been the friend of freedom and mankind, and who has +not so far adopted the selfish policy of the day as to exclude the +Catholics from the number of his fellow-creatures; with these +exceptions, in no instance has that institution been properly +encouraged. There was indeed a time when the Catholic clergy were +conciliated, while the Union was pending, that Union which could not be +carried without them, while their assistance was requisite in procuring +addresses from the Catholic counties; then they were cajoled and +caressed, feared and flattered, and given to understand that "the Union +would do every thing"; but the moment it was passed, they were driven +back with contempt into their former obscurity. + +In the conduct pursued towards Maynooth college, every thing is done to +irritate and perplex--every thing is done to efface the slightest +impression of gratitude from the Catholic mind; the very hay made upon +the lawn, the fat and tallow of the beef and mutton allowed, must be +paid for and accounted upon oath. It is true, this economy in +miniature cannot sufficiently be commended, particularly at a time when +only the insect defaulters of the Treasury, your Hunts and your +Chinnerys, when only those "gilded bugs" can escape the microscopic eye +of ministers. But when you come forward, session after session, as your +paltry pittance is wrung from you with wrangling and reluctance, to +boast of your liberality, well might the Catholic exclaim, in the words +of Prior: + + "To John I owe some obligation, + But John unluckily thinks fit + To publish it to all the nation, + So John and I are more than quit." + +Some persons have compared the Catholics to the beggar in 'Gil Blas': +who made them beggars? Who are enriched with the spoils of their +ancestors? And cannot you relieve the beggar when your fathers have made +him such? If you are disposed to relieve him at all, cannot you do it +without flinging your farthings in his face? As a contrast, however, to +this beggarly benevolence, let us look at the Protestant Charter +Schools; to them you have lately granted £41,000: thus are they +supported; and how are they recruited? Montesquieu observes on the +English constitution, that the model may be found in Tacitus, where the +historian describes the policy of the Germans, and adds, "This beautiful +system was taken from the woods;" so in speaking of the charter schools, +it may be observed, that this beautiful system was taken from the +gipsies. These schools are recruited in the same manner as the +Janissaries at the time of their enrolment under Amurath, and the +gipsies of the present day, with stolen children, with children decoyed +and kidnapped from their Catholic connections by their rich and powerful +Protestant neighbours: this is notorious, and one instance may suffice +to show in what manner:--The sister of a Mr. Carthy (a Catholic +gentleman of very considerable property) died, leaving two girls, who +were immediately marked out as proselytes, and conveyed to the charter +school of Coolgreny; their uncle, on being apprised of the fact, which +took place during his absence, applied for the restitution of his +nieces, offering to settle an independence on these his relations; his +request was refused, and not till after five years' struggle, and the +interference of very high authority, could this Catholic gentleman +obtain back his nearest of kindred from a charity charter school. In +this manner are proselytes obtained, and mingled with the offspring of +such Protestants as may avail themselves of the institution. And how are +they taught? A catechism is put into their hands, consisting of, I +believe, forty-five pages, in which are three questions relative to the +Protestant religion; one of these queries is, "Where was the Protestant +religion before Luther?" Answer: "In the Gospel." The remaining +forty-four pages and a half regard the damnable idolatry of Papists! + +Allow me to ask our spiritual pastors and masters, is this training up a +child in the way which he should go? Is this the religion of the Gospel +before the time of Luther? that religion which preaches "Peace on earth, +and glory to God"? Is it bringing up infants to be men or devils? Better +would it be to send them any where than teach them such doctrines; +better send them to those islands in the South Seas, where they might +more humanely learn to become cannibals; it would be less disgusting +that they were brought up to devour the dead, than persecute the living. +Schools do you call them? call them rather dung-hills, where the viper +of intolerance deposits her young, that when their teeth are cut and +their poison is mature, they may issue forth, filthy and venomous, to +sting the Catholic. But are these the doctrines of the Church of +England, or of churchmen? No, the most enlightened churchmen are of a +different opinion. What says Paley? + + "I perceive no reason why men of different religious persuasions + should not sit upon the same bench, deliberate in the same council, or + fight in the same ranks, as well as men of various religious opinions + upon any controverted topic of natural history, philosophy, or ethics." + +It may be answered, that Paley was not strictly orthodox; I know nothing +of his orthodoxy, but who will deny that he was an ornament to the +church, to human nature, to Christianity? + +I shall not dwell upon the grievance of tithes, so severely felt by the +peasantry; but it may be proper to observe, that there is an addition to +the burden, a percentage to the gatherer, whose interest it thus becomes +to rate them as highly as possible, and we know that in many large +livings in Ireland the only resident Protestants are the tithe proctor +and his family. + +Amongst many causes of irritation, too numerous for recapitulation, +there is one in the militia not to be passed over,--I mean the existence +of Orange lodges amongst the privates. Can the officers deny this? And +if such lodges do exist, do they, can they tend to promote harmony +amongst the men, who are thus individually separated in society, +although mingled in the ranks? And is this general system of persecution +to be permitted; or is it to be believed that with such a system the +Catholics can or ought to be contented? If they are, they belie human +nature; they are then, indeed, unworthy to be any thing but the slaves +you have made them. The facts stated are from most respectable +authority, or I should not have dared in this place, or any place, to +hazard this avowal. If exaggerated, there are plenty as willing, as I +believe them to be unable, to disprove them. Should it be objected that +I never was in Ireland, I beg leave to observe, that it is as easy to +know something of Ireland, without having been there, as it appears with +some to have been born, bred, and cherished there, and yet remain +ignorant of its best interests. + +But there are who assert that the Catholics have already been too much +indulged. See (cry they) what has been done: we have given them one +entire college; we allow them food and raiment, the full enjoyment of +the elements, and leave to fight for us as long as they have limbs and +lives to offer; and yet they are never to be satisfied!--Generous and +just declaimers! To this, and to this only, amount the whole of your +arguments, when stript of their sophistry. Those personages remind me of +a story of a certain drummer, who, being called upon in the course of +duty to administer punishment to a friend tied to the halberts, was +requested to flog high, he did--to flog low, he did--to flog in the +middle, he did,--high, low, down the middle, and up again, but all in +vain; the patient continued his complaints with the most provoking +pertinacity, until the drummer, exhausted and angry, flung down his +scourge, exclaiming, "The devil burn you, there's no pleasing you, flog +where one will!" Thus it is, you have flogged the Catholic high, low, +here, there, and every where, and then you wonder he is not pleased. It +is true that time, experience, and that weariness which attends even the +exercise of barbarity, have taught you to flog a little more gently; but +still you continue to lay on the lash, and will so continue, till +perhaps the rod may be wrested from your hands, and applied to the backs +of yourselves and your posterity. + +It was said by somebody in a former debate, (I forget by whom, and am +not very anxious to remember,) if the Catholics are emancipated, why not +the Jews? If this sentiment was dictated by compassion for the Jews, it +might deserve attention, but as a sneer against the Catholic, what is it +but the language of Shylock transferred from his daughter's marriage to +Catholic emancipation: + + "Would any of the tribe of Barabbas + Should have it rather than a Christian!" + +I presume a Catholic is a Christian, even in the opinion of him whose +taste only can be called in question for his preference of the Jews. + +It is a remark often quoted of Dr. Johnson, (whom I take to be almost as +good authority as the gentle apostle of intolerance, Dr. Duigenan,) that +he who could entertain serious apprehensions of danger to the church in +these times, would have "cried fire in the deluge." This is more than a +metaphor; for a remnant of these antediluvians appear actually to have +come down to us, with fire in their mouths and water in their brains, to +disturb and perplex mankind with their whimsical outcries. And as it is +an infallible symptom of that distressing malady with which I conceive +them to be afflicted (so any doctor will inform your Lordships), for the +unhappy invalids to perceive a flame perpetually flashing before their +eyes, particularly when their eyes are shut (as those of the persons to +whom I allude have long been), it is impossible to convince these poor +creatures that the fire against which they are perpetually warning us +and themselves is nothing but an 'ignis fatuus' of their own drivelling +imaginations. What rhubarb, senna, or "what purgative drug can scour +that fancy thence?"--It is impossible, they are given over,--theirs is +the true + + "Caput insanabile tribus Anticyris." + +These are your true Protestants. Like Bayle, who protested against all +sects whatsoever, so do they protest against Catholic petitions, +Protestant petitions, all redress, all that reason, humanity, policy, +justice, and common sense can urge against the delusions of their absurd +delirium. These are the persons who reverse the fable of the mountain +that brought forth a mouse; they are the mice who conceive themselves in +labour with mountains. + +To return to the Catholics: suppose the Irish were actually contented +under their disabilities; suppose them capable of such a bull as not to +desire deliverance,--ought we not to wish it for ourselves? Have we +nothing to gain by their emancipation? What resources have been wasted? +What talents have been lost by the selfish system of exclusion? You +already know the value of Irish aid; at this moment the defence of +England is intrusted to the Irish militia; at this moment, while the +starving people are rising in the fierceness of despair, the Irish are +faithful to their trust. But till equal energy is imparted throughout by +the extension of freedom, you cannot enjoy the full benefit of the +strength which you are glad to interpose between you and destruction. +Ireland has done much, but will do more. At this moment the only triumph +obtained through long years of continental disaster has been achieved by +an Irish general: it is true he is not a Catholic; had he been so, we +should have been deprived of his exertions: but I presume no one will +assert that his religion would have impaired his talents or diminished +his patriotism; though, in that case, he must have conquered in the +ranks, for he never could have commanded an army. + +But he is fighting the battles of the Catholics abroad; his noble +brother has this night advocated their cause, with an eloquence which I +shall not depreciate by the humble tribute of my panegyric; whilst a +third of his kindred, as unlike as unequal, has been combating against +his Catholic brethren in Dublin, with circular letters, edicts, +proclamations, arrests, and dispersions;--all the vexatious implements +of petty warfare that could be wielded by the mercenary guerillas of +government, clad in the rusty armour of their obsolete statutes. Your +Lordships will doubtless divide new honours between the Saviour of +Portugal, and the Disperser of Delegates. It is singular, indeed, to +observe the difference between our foreign and domestic policy; if +Catholic Spain, faithful Portugal, or the no less Catholic and faithful +king of the one Sicily, (of which, by the by, you have lately deprived +him,) stand in need of succour, away goes a fleet and an army, an +ambassador and a subsidy, sometimes to fight pretty hardly, generally to +negotiate very badly, and always to pay very dearly for our Popish +allies. But let four millions of fellow-subjects pray for relief, who +fight and pay and labour in your behalf, they must be treated as aliens; +and although their "father's house has many mansions," there is no +resting-place for them. Allow me to ask, are you not fighting for the +emancipation of Ferdinand VII, who certainly is a fool, and, +consequently, in all probability a bigot? and have you more regard for a +foreign sovereign than your own fellow-subjects, who are not fools, for +they know your interest better than you know your own; who are not +bigots, for they return you good for evil; but who are in worse durance +than the prison of an usurper, inasmuch as the fetters of the mind are +more galling than those of the body? + +Upon the consequences of your not acceding to the claims of the +petitioners, I shall not expatiate; you know them, you will feel them, +and your children's children when you are passed away. Adieu to that +Union so called, as "'Lucus a non lucendo'" an Union from never uniting, +which in its first operation gave a death-blow to the independence of +Ireland, and in its last may be the cause of her eternal separation from +this country. If it must be called an Union, it is the union of the +shark with his prey; the spoiler swallows up his victim, and thus they +become one and indivisible. Thus has great Britain swallowed up the +Parliament, the constitution, the independence of Ireland, and refuses +to disgorge even a single privilege, although for the relief of her +swollen and distempered body politic. + +And now, my Lords, before I sit down, will his Majesty's ministers +permit me to say a few words, not on their merits, for that would be +superfluous, but on the degree of estimation in which they are held by +the people of these realms? The esteem in which they are held has been +boasted of in a triumphant tone on a late occasion within these walls, +and a comparison instituted between their conduct and that of noble +lords on this side of the House. + +What portion of popularity may have fallen to the share of my noble +friends (if such I may presume to call them), I shall not pretend to +ascertain; but that of his Majesty's ministers it were vain to deny. It +is, to be sure, a little like the wind, "no one knows whence it cometh +or whither it goeth;" but they feel it, they enjoy it, they boast of it. +Indeed, modest and unostentatious as they are, to what part of the +kingdom, even the most remote, can they flee to avoid the triumph which +pursues them? If they plunge into the midland counties, there will they +be greeted by the manufacturers, with spurned petitions in their hands, +and those halters round their necks recently voted in their behalf, +imploring blessings on the heads of those who so simply, yet +ingeniously, contrived to remove them from their miseries in this to a +better world. If they journey on to Scotland, from Glasgow to John o' +Groat's, every where will they receive similar marks of approbation. If +they take a trip from Portpatrick to Donaghadee, there will they rush at +once into the embraces of four Catholic millions, to whom their vote of +this night is about to endear them for ever. When they return to the +metropolis, if they can pass under Temple Bar without unpleasant +sensations at the sight of the greedy niches over that ominous gateway, +they cannot escape the acclamations of the livery, and the more +tremulous, but not less sincere, applause, the blessings, "not loud, but +deep," of bankrupt merchants and doubting stock-holders. If they look to +the army, what wreaths, not of laurel, but of nightshade, are preparing +for the heroes of Walcheren! It is true, there are few living deponents +left to testify to their merits on that occasion; but a "cloud of +witnesses" are gone above from that gallant army which they so +generously and piously despatched, to recruit the "noble army of +martyrs." + +What if in the course of this triumphal career (in which they will +gather as many pebbles as Caligula's army did on a similar triumph, the +prototype of their own,) they do not perceive any of those memorials +which a grateful people erect in honour of their benefactors; what +although not even a sign-post will condescend to depose the Saracen's +head in favour of the likeness of the conquerors of Walcheren, they will +not want a picture who can always have a caricature, or regret the +omission of a statue who will so often see themselves exalted into +effigy. But their popularity is not limited to the narrow bounds of an +island; there are other countries where their measures, and, above all, +their conduct to the Catholics, must render them pre-eminently popular. +If they are beloved here, in France they must be adored. There is no +measure more repugnant to the designs and feelings of Bonaparte than +Catholic emancipation; no line of conduct more propitious to his +projects than that which has been pursued, is pursuing, and, I fear, +will be pursued towards Ireland. What is England without Ireland, and +what is Ireland without the Catholics? It is on the basis of your +tyranny Napoleon hopes to build his own. So grateful must oppression of +the Catholics be to his mind, that doubtless (as he has lately permitted +some renewal of intercourse) the next cartel will convey to this country +cargoes of Sevres china and blue ribands, (things in great request, and +of equal value at this moment,) blue ribands of the Legion of Honour for +Dr. Duigenan and his ministerial disciples. Such is that well-earned +popularity, the result of those extraordinary expeditions, so expensive +to ourselves, and so useless to our allies; of those singular inquiries, +so exculpatory to the accused, and so dissatisfactory to the people; of +those paradoxical victories, so honourable, as we are told, to the +British name, and so destructive to the best interests of the British +nation: above all, such is the reward of the conduct pursued by +ministers towards the Catholics. + +I have to apologise to the House, who will, I trust, pardon one not +often in the habit of intruding upon their indulgence, for so long +attempting to engage their attention. My most decided opinion is, as my +vote will be, in favour of the motion. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +3. DEBATE ON MAJOR CARTWRIGHT'S PETITION. JUNE 1,1813. + + +Lord BYRON rose and said: + +My Lords,--he petition which I now hold for the purpose of presenting to +the House is one which, I humbly conceive, requires the particular +attention of your Lordships, inasmuch as, though signed but by a single +individual, it contains statements which (if not disproved) demand most +serious investigation. The grievance of which the petitioner complains +is neither selfish nor imaginary. It is not his own only, for it has +been and is still felt by numbers. No one without these walls, nor +indeed within, but may to-morrow be made liable to the same insult and +obstruction, in the discharge of an imperious duty for the restoration +of the true constitution of these realms, by petitioning for reform in +Parliament. The petitioner, my Lords, is a man whose long life has been +spent in one unceasing struggle for the liberty of the subject, against +that undue influence which has increased, is increasing, and ought to be +diminished; and whatever difference of opinion may exist as to his +political tenets, few will be found to question the integrity of his +intentions. Even now oppressed with years, and not exempt from the +infirmities attendant on his age, but still unimpaired in talent, and +unshaken in spirit--"'frangas non flectes'"--he has received many a +wound in the combat against corruption; and the new grievance, the fresh +insult, of which he complains, may inflict another scar, but no +dishonour. The petition is signed by John Cartwright; and it was in +behalf of the people and Parliament, in the lawful pursuit of that +reform in the representation which is the best service to be rendered +both to Parliament and people, that he encountered the wanton outrage +which forms the subject-matter of his petition to your Lordships. It is +couched in firm, yet respectful language--in the language of a man, not +regardless of what is due to himself, but at the same time, I trust, +equally mindful of the deference to be paid to this House. The +petitioner states, amongst other matter of equal, if not greater +importance, to all who are British in their feelings, as well as blood +and birth, that on the 21st January, 1813, at Huddersfield, himself and +six other persons, who, on hearing of his arrival, had waited on him +merely as a testimony of respect, were seized by a military and civil +force, and kept in close custody for several hours, subjected to gross +and abusive insinuation from the commanding officer, relative to the +character of the petitioner; that he (the petitioner) was finally +carried before a magistrate, and not released till an examination of his +papers proved that there was not only no just, but not even statutable +charge against him; and that, notwithstanding the promise and order from +the presiding magistrates of a copy of the warrant against your +petitioner, it was afterwards withheld on divers pretexts, and has never +until this hour been granted. The names and condition of the parties +will be found in the petition. To the other topics touched upon in the +petition I shall not now advert, from a wish not to encroach upon the +time of the House; but I do most sincerely call the attention of your +Lordships to its general contents--it is in the cause of the Parliament +and people that the rights of this venerable freeman have been violated, +and it is, in my opinion, the highest mark of respect that could be paid +to the House, that to your justice, rather than by appeal to any +inferior court, he now commits himself. Whatever may be the fate of his +remonstrance, it is some satisfaction to me, though mixed with regret +for the occasion, that I have this opportunity of publicly stating the +obstruction to which the subject is liable, in the prosecution of the +most lawful and imperious of his duties, the obtaining by petition +reform in Parliament. I have shortly stated his complaint; the +petitioner has more fully expressed it. Your Lordships will, I hope, +adopt some measure fully to protect and redress him, and not him alone, +but the whole body of the people, insulted and aggrieved in his person, +by the interposition of an abused civil and unlawful military force +between them and their right of petition to their own representatives. + +His Lordship then presented the petition from Major Cartwright, which +was read, complaining of the circumstances at Huddersfield, and of +interruptions given to the right of petitioning in several places in the +northern parts of the kingdom, and which his Lordship moved should be +laid on the table. + +Several lords having spoken on the question, + +Lord BYRON replied, that he had, from motives of duty, presented this +petition to their Lordships' consideration. The noble Earl had contended +that it was not a petition, but a speech; and that, as it contained no +prayer, it should not be received. What was the necessity of a prayer? +If that word were to be used in its proper sense, their Lordships could +not expect that any man should pray to others. He had only to say, that +the petition, though in some parts expressed strongly perhaps, did not +contain any improper mode of address, but was couched in respectful +language towards their Lordships; he should therefore trust their +Lordships would allow the petition to be received. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +APPENDIX III. + + +LADY CAROLINE LAMB AND BYRON. + + +1. The following letter is one of the first which Lady Caroline wrote to +Byron, in the spring of 1812: + + +"The Rose Lord Byron gave Lady Caroline Lamb died in despight of every +effort made to save it; probably from regret at its fallen Fortunes. +Hume, at least, who is no great believer in most things, says that many +more die of broken hearts than is supposed. When Lady Caroline returns +from Brocket Hall, she will dispatch the _Cabinet Maker_ to Lord Biron, +with the Flower she wishes most of all others to resemble, as, however +deficient its beauty and even use, it has a noble and aspiring mind, +and, having once beheld in its full lustre the bright and unclouded sun +that for one moment condescended to shine upon it, never while it exists +could it think any lower object worthy of its worship and Admiration. +Yet the sunflower was punished for its temerity; but its fate is more to +be envied than that of many less proud flowers. It is still permitted to +gaze, though at the humblest distance, on him who is superior to every +other, and, though in this cold foggy atmosphere it meets no doubt with +many disappointments, and though it never could, never will, have reason +to boast of any peculiar mark of condescension or attention from the +bright star to whom it pays constant homage, yet to behold it sometimes, +to see it gazed at, to hear it admired, will repay all. She hopes, +therefore, when brought by the little Page, it will be graciously +received without any more Taunts and cuts about 'Love of what is New.' + +"Lady Caroline does not plead guilty to this most unkind charge, at +least no further than is laudable, for that which is rare and is +distinguished and singular ought to be more prized and sought after than +what is commonplace and disagreeable. How can the other accusation, of +being easily pleased, agree with this? The very circumstance of seeking +out that which is of high value shows at least a mind not readily +satisfied. But to attempt excuses for faults would be impossible with +Lady Caroline. They have so long been rooted in a soil suited to their +growth that a far less penetrating eye than Lord Byron's might perceive +them--even on the shortest acquaintance. There is not one, however, +though long indulged, that shall not be instantly got rid of, if L'd +Byron thinks it worth while to name them. The reproof and abuse of some, +however severe and just, may be valued more than the easily gained +encomiums of the rest of the world. + +"Miss Mercer, were she here, would join with Lady Caroline in a last +request during their absence, that, besides not forgetting his new +acquaintances, he would eat and drink like an English man till their +return. The lines upon the only dog ever loved by L'd Byron are +beautiful. What wrong then, that, having such proof of the faith and +friendship of this animal, L'd Byron should censure the whole race by +the following unjust remarks: + + "'Perchance my dog will whine in vain + Till fed by stranger hands; + But long e'er I come back again, + He'd tear me where he stands.' + +"March 27th, 1812, _Good Friday_." + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +2. The following are the lines written by Lady Caroline when she burned +Byron in effigy at Brocket Hall (endorsed, in Mrs. Leigh's handwriting, +"December, 1812"): + + +"ADDRESS SPOKEN BY THE PAGE AT BROCKET HALL, BEFORE THE BONFIRE. + + "Is this Guy Faux you burn in effigy? + Why bring the Traitor here? What is Guy Faux to me? + Guy Faux betrayed his country, and his laws. + England revenged the wrong; his was a public cause. + But I have private cause to raise this flame. + Burn also those, and be their fate the same. + [_Puts the Basket in the fire under the figure_. + See here are locks and braids of coloured hair + Worn oft by me, to make the people stare; + Rouge, feathers, flowers, and all those tawdry things, + Besides those Pictures, letters, chains, and rings-- + All made to lure the mind and please the eye, + And fill the heart with pride and vanity-- + Burn, fire, burn; these glittering toys destroy. + While thus we hail the blaze with throats of joy. + Burn, fire, burn, while wondering Boys exclaim, + And gold and trinkets glitter in the flame. + Ah! look not thus on me, so grave, so sad; + Shake not your heads, nor say the Lady's mad. + Judge not of others, for there is but one + To whom the heart and feelings can be known. + Upon my youthful faults few censures cast. + Look to the future--and forgive the past. + London, farewell; vain world, vain life, adieu! + Take the last tears I e'er shall shed for you. + Young tho' I seem, I leave the world for ever, + Never to enter it again--no, never--never!" + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +3. The following letter was apparently written in the summer of 1812: + + +"You have been very generous and kind if you have not betray'd me, and I +do _not think you have_. My remaining in Town and seeing you thus is +sacrificing the last chance I have left. I expose myself to every eye, +to every unkind observation. You think me weak, and selfish; you think I +do not struggle to withstand my own feelings, but indeed it is exacting +more than human nature can bear, and when I came out last night, which +was of itself an effort, and when I heard your name announced, the +moment after I saw nothing more, but seemed in a dream. Miss Berry's +very loud laugh and penetrating eyes did not restore me. She, however, +[was] good natur'd and remain'd near me, and Mr. Moor (_sic_), though he +really does not approve one feeling I have, had kindness of heart to +stay near me. Otherwise I felt so ill I could not have struggled longer. +Lady Cahir said, 'You are ill; shall we go away?' which I [was] very +glad to accept; but we could not get through, and so I fear it caus'd +you pain to see me intrude again. I sent a groom to Holmes twice +yesterday morning, to prevent his going to you, or giving you a letter +full of flippant jokes, written in one moment of gaiety, which is quite +gone since. I am so afraid he has been to you; if so, I entreat you to +forgive it, and to do just what you think right about the Picture. + +"I have been drawing you Mad. de Staël, as the last I sent was not like. +If you do not approve this, give it Murray, and pray do not be angry +with me. + +"Do not marry yet, or, if you do, let me know it first. I shall not +suffer, if she you chuse be worth you, but she will never love you as I +did. I am going to the Chapple Royal at St. James. Do you ever go there? +It begins at 1/2 past 5, and lasts till six; it is the most beautiful +singing I ever heard; the choristers sing 'By the waters of Babylon.' + +"The Peers sit below; the Women quite apart. But for the evening service +very few go; I wonder that more do not,--it is really most beautiful, +for those who like that style of music. If you never heard it, go there +some day, but not when it is so cold as this. How very pale you are! +What a contrast with Moore! '_Mai io l'ho veduto piu bello che jeri, ma +e la belta della morte_,' or a statue of white marble so colourless, and +the dark brow and hair such a contrast. I never see you without wishing +to cry; if any painter could paint me that face as it is, I would give +them any thing I possess on earth,--not one has yet given the +countenance and complexion as it is. I only could, if I knew how to draw +and paint, because one must feel it to give it the real expression." + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +4. The following letter was evidently written at the time when the +separation of Lord and Lady Byron was first rumoured: + + +"Melbourne House, Thursday. + +"When so many wiser and better surround you, it is not for me to presume +to hope that anything I can say will find favour in your sight; but yet +I must venture to intrude upon you, even though your displeasure against +me be all I gain for so doing. All others may have some object or +interest in their's; I have none, but the wish to save you. Will you +generously consent to what is for the peace of both parties? and will +you act in a manner worthy of yourself? I am sure in the end you will +consent. Even were everything now left to your own choice, you never +could bring yourself to live with a person who felt desirous of being +separated from you. I know you too well to believe this possible, and I +am sure that a separation nobly and generously arranged by you will at +once silence every report spread against either party. Believe me, Lord +Byron, you will feel happier when you act thus, and all the world will +approve your conduct, which I know is not a consideration with you, but +still should in some measure be thought of. They tell me that you have +accused me of having spread injurious reports against you. Had you the +heart to say this? I do not greatly believe it; but it is affirmed and +generally thought that you said so. You have often been unkind to me, +but never as unkind as this. + +"Those who are dear to you cannot feel more anxious for your happiness +than I do. They may fear to offend you more than I ever will, but they +cannot be more ready to serve you. I wish to God that I could see one so +superior in mind and talents and every grace and power that can +fascinate and delight, happier. You might still be so, Lord Byron, if +you would believe what some day you will find true. Have you ever +thought for one moment seriously? Do you wish to heap such misery upon +yourself that you will no longer be able to endure it? Return to virtue +and happiness, for God's sake, whilst it is yet time. Oh, Lord Byron, +let one who has loved you with a devotion almost profane find favour so +far as to incline you to hear her. Sometimes from the mouth of a sinner +advice may be received that a proud heart disdains to take from those +who are upon an equality with themselves. If this is so, may it now, +even now, have some little weight with you. Do not drive things to +desperate extremes. Do not, even though you may have the power, use it +to ill. God bless and sooth you, and preserve you. I cannot see all that +I once admired and loved so well ruining himself and others without +feeling it deeply. If what I have said is unwise, at least believe the +motive was a kind one; and would to God it might avail. + +"I cannot believe that you will not act generously in this instance. + +"Yours, unhappily as it has proved for me, + +"CAROLINE. + +"Those of my family who have seen Lady Byron have assured me that, +whatever her sorrow, she is the last in the world to reproach or speak +ill of you. She is most miserable. What regret will yours be evermore if +false friends or resentment impel you to act harshly on this occasion? +Whatever my feelings may be towards you or her, I have, with the most +scrupulous care for both your sakes, avoided either calling, or sending, +or interfering. To say that I have spread reports against either is, +therefore, as unjust as it is utterly false. I fear no enquiry." + + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +5. The following letter probably refers to the publication of the lines, +"Fare thee Well," in April, 1816: + + +"At a moment of such deep agony, and I may add shame--when utterly +disgraced, judge, Byron, what my feelings must be at Murray's shewing me +some beautiful verses of yours. I do implore you for God sake not to +publish them. Could I have seen you one moment, I would explain why. I +have only time to add that, however those who surround you may make you +disbelieve it, you will draw ruin on your own head and hers if at this +moment you shew these. I know not from what quarter the report +originates. You accused _me_, and falsely; but if you could hear all +that is said at this moment, you would believe one, who, though your +enemy, though for ever alienated from you, though resolved never more, +whilst she lives, to see or speak to or forgive you, yet would perhaps +die to save you. + +"Byron, hear me. My own misery I have scarce once thought of. What is +the loss of one like me to the world? But when I see such as you are +ruined for ever, and utterly insensible of it, I must [speak out]. Of +course, I cannot say to Murray what I think of those verses, but to you, +to you alone, I will say I think they will prove your ruin." + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +6. In 1824, after the death of Byron, and after the publication of +Captain Medwin's 'Recollections of Lord Byron', Lady Caroline Lamb sent +a letter to Mr. Henry Colburn, the publisher, enclosing one to be given +to Medwin and published. Both are given here, and the latter should be +read in substantiation or correction of what is stated in the notes. The +letter is printed 'verbatim et literati'. + + +(1) Lady Caroline Lamb to Henry Colburn. + +"[November (?), 1824.] + +"MY DEAR SIR,--Walter who takes this will explain my wishes. Will you +enable him to deliver my letter to Captain Medwin, and will you publish +it? you are to give him ten pound for it; I will settle it with you. I +am on my death bed, do not fail to obey my wishes. I send you my +journals but do not publish them until I am dead. + +"Yours, + +"CAROLINE LAMB." + + + + + +(2) Lady Caroline Lamb to Captain Thomas Medwin. + +[Endorsed, "This copy to be carefully preserved." Hy. Cn. (Henry +Colburn?).] + +"[November (?), 1824.] + +"SIR,--I hope you will excuse my intruding upon your time, with the most +intense interest I have just finished your book which does you credit as +to the manner in which it is executed and after the momentary pain in +part which it excites in many a bosom, will live in despight of +censure--and be gratefully accepted by the Public as long as Lord +Byron's name is remembered--yet as you have left to one who adored him a +bitter legacy, and as I feel secure the lines 'remember thee--thou false +to him thou fiend to me'--were his--and as I have been very ill & am not +likely to trouble any one much longer--you will I am sure grant me one +favour--let me to you at least confide the truth of the past--you owe it +to me--you will not I know refuse me. + +"It was when the first Child Harold came out upon Lord Byron's return +from Greece that I first had the misfortune to be acquainted with +him--at that time I was the happiest and gayest of human beings I do +believe without exception--_I had married for love_ and love the most +romantic and ardent--my husband and I were so fond of each other that +false as I too soon proved he never would part with me. Devonshire House +was at that time closed from my Uncle's death for one year--at Melbourne +House where I lived the Waltzes and Quadrilles were being daily +practised, Lady Jersey, Lady Cowper, the Duke of Devonshire, Miss +Milbanke and a number of foreigners coming there to learn--You may +imagine what forty or fifty people dancing from 12 in the morning until +near dinner time all young gay and noisy were--in the evenings we either +had opposition suppers or went out to Balls and routs--such was the life +I then led when Moore and Rogers introduced Lord Byron to me--What you +say of his falling upstairs and of Miss Milbanke is all true. Lord Byron +3 days after this brought me a Rose and Carnation and used the very +words I mentioned in Glenarvon--with a sort of half sarcastic +smile--saying, 'Your Ladyship I am told likes all that is new and rare +for a moment'--I have them still, and the woman who through many a trial +has kept these relics with the romance of former ages--deserves not that +you should speak of her as you do. Byron never never could say I had no +heart. He never could say, either, that I had not loved my husband. In +his letters to me he is perpetually telling me I love him the best of +the two; and my only charm, believe me, in his eyes was, that I was +innocent, affectionate, and enthusiastic. + +Recall those words, and let me not go down with your book as heartless. +Tell the truth; it is bad enough; but not what is worse. It makes me so +nervous to write that I must stop--will it tire you too much if I +continue? I was not a woman of the world. Had I been one of that sort, +why would he have devoted nine entire months almost entirely to my +society; have written perhaps ten times in a day; and lastly have +press'd me to leave all and go with him--and this at the very moment +when he was made an Idol of, and when, as he and you justly observe, I +had few personal attractions. Indeed, indeed I tell the truth. Byron did +not affect--but he loved me as never woman was loved. I have had one of +his letters copied in the stone press for you; one just before we +parted. See if it looks like a mere lesson. Besides, he was then very +good, to what he grew afterwards; &, his health being delicate, he liked +to read with me & stay with me out of the crowd. Not but what we went +about everywhere together, and were at last invited always as if we had +been married--It was a strange scene--but it was not vanity misled me. I +grew to love him better than virtue, Religion--all prospects here. He +broke my heart, & still I love him--witness the agony I experienced at +his death & the tears your book has cost me. Yet, sir, allow me to say, +although you have unintentionally given me pain, I had rather have +experienced it than not have read your book. Parts of it are beautiful; +and I can vouch for the truth of much, as I read his own Memoirs before +Murray burnt them. Keep Lord Byron's letter to me (I have the original) +& some day add a word or two to your work from his own words, not to let +every one think I am heartless. The cause of my leaving Lord Byron was +this; my dearest Mother, now dead, grew so terrified about us--that upon +hearing a false report that we were gone off together she was taken +dangerously ill & broke a blood vessel. Byron would not believe it, but +it was true. When he was convinced, we parted. I went to Ireland, & +remained there 3 months. He wrote, every day, long kind entertaining +letters; it is these he asked Murray to look out, and extract from, when +he published the journal; but I would not part with them--I have them +now--they would only burn them, & nothing of his should be burnt. At +Dublin, God knows why, he wrote me the cruel letter part of which he +acknowledges in Glenarvon (the 9th of November, 1812)--He knew it would +destroy my mind and all else--it did so--Lady Oxford was no doubt the +instigator. What will not a woman do to get rid of a rival? She knew +that he still loved me--I need not tire you with every particular. I was +brought to England a mere wreck; & in due time, Lady Melbourne & my +mother being seriously alarmed for me, brought me to town, and allowed +me to see Lord Byron. Our meeting was not what he insinuates--he asked +me to forgive him; he looked sorry for me; he cried. I adored him still, +but I felt as passionless as the dead may feel.--Would I had died +there!--I should have died pitied, & still loved by him, & with the +sympathy of all. I even should have pardoned myself--so deeply had I +suffered. But, unhappily, we continued occasionally to meet. Lord Byron +liked others, I only him--The scene at Lady Heathcote's is nearly +true--he had made me swear I was never to Waltz. Lady Heathcote said, +Come, Lady Caroline, you must begin, & I bitterly answered--oh yes! I am +in a merry humour. I did so--but whispered to Lord Byron 'I conclude I +may waltz _now_' and he answered sarcastically, 'with every body in +turn--you always did it better than any one. I shall have a pleasure in +seeing you."--I did so you may judge with what feelings. After this, +feeling ill, I went into a small inner room where supper was prepared; +Lord Byron & Lady Rancliffe entered after; seeing me, he said, 'I have +been admiring your dexterity.' I clasped a knife, not intending +anything. 'Do, my dear,' he said. 'But if you mean to act a Roman's +part, mind which way you strike with your knife--be it at your own +heart, not mine--you have struck there already.' 'Byron,' I said, and +ran away with the knife. I never stabbed myself. It is false. Lady +Rancliffe & Tankerville screamed and said I would; people pulled to get +it from me; I was terrified; my hand got cut, & the blood came over my +gown. I know not what happened after--but this is the very truth. After +this, long after, Ld. Byron abused by every one, made the theme of every +one's horror, yet pitied me enough to come & see me; and still, in +spight of every one, William Lamb had the generosity to retain me. I +never held my head up after--never could. It was in all the papers, and +put not truly. It is true I burnt Lord Byron in Effigy, & his book, ring +& chain. It is true I went to see him as a Carman, after all that! But +it is also true, that, the last time we parted for ever, as he pressed +his lips on mine (it was in the Albany) he said 'poor Caro, if every one +hates me, you, I see, will never change--No, not with ill usage!' & I +said, 'yes, I _am_ changed, & shall come near you no more.'--For then he +showed me letters, & told me things I cannot repeat, & all my attachment +went. This was our last parting scene--well I remember it. It had an +effect upon me not to be conceived--3 years I had _worshipped_ him. + +"Shortly after he married, once, Lady Melbourne took me to see his Wife +in Piccadilly. It was a cruel request, but Lord Byron himself made it. +It is to this wedding visit he alludes. Mrs. Leigh, myself, Lady +Melbourne, Lady Noel, & Lady Byron, were in the room. I never looked up. +Annabella was very cold to me. Lord Byron came in & seemed agitated--his +hand was cold, but he seemed kind. This was the last time upon this +earth I ever met him. Soon after, the battle of Waterloo took place. My +Brother was wounded, & I went to Brussels. I had one letter while at +Paris from Ld. Byron; a jesting one; hoping I was as happy with the +regiment as he was with his 'Wife Bell.' When I returned, the parting +between them occurred--& my page affair--& Glenarvon. I wrote it in a +month under circumstances would surprise every body, but which I am not +at liberty to mention. Besides, it has nothing to do with your book and +would only tire you. Previous to this, I once met, & once only, Lady +Byron. It was just after the separation occurred. She was so altered I +could hardly know her--she appeared heart broken. What she then said to +me _I may not repeat_--she was however sent away, she did not go +willingly. + +"She accused me of knowing every thing, & reproached me for not having +stopped the marriage. How could I! She had been shewn my letters, and +every one else. It is utterly false that she ever opened the desk--the +nurse had nothing to do with the separation-- + +"From that hour, Lady Byron & I met no more, & it was after this, that, +indignant & miserable, I wrote Glenarvon. Lady B. was more angry at it +than he was--From that time, I put the whole as much as I could from my +mind. Ld. Byron never once wrote to me--and always spoke of me with +contempt. I was taken ill in March this year--Mrs. Russell Hunter & a +nurse sat up with me. In the middle of the night I fancied I saw Ld. +Byron--I screamed, jumped out of bed & desired them to save me from him. +He looked horrible, & ground his teeth at me; he did not speak; his hair +was straight; he was fatter than when I knew him, & not near so +handsome. I felt convinced I was to die. This dream took possession of +my mind. I had not dreamed of him since we had parted. It was, besides, +like no other dream except one of my Mother that I ever had. I am glad +to think it occurred before his death as I never did & hope I never +shall see a Ghost. I have even avoided enquiring about the exact day for +fear I should believe it--it made enough impression as it was. I told +William, and my Brother & Murray at the time. Judge what my horror was, +as well as grief, when, long after, the news came of his death, it was +conveyed to me in two or 3 words--'Caroline, behave properly, I know it +will shock you--Lord Byron is dead'--This letter I received when +laughing at Brockett Hall. Its effect or some other cause produced a +fever from which I never yet have recovered--It was also singular that +the first day I could go out in an open Carriage, as I was slowly +driving up the hill here,--Lord Byron's Hearse was at that moment +passing under these very walls, and rested at Welwyn. William Lamb, who +was riding on before me, met the procession at the Turnpike, & asked +whose funeral it was. He was very much affected and shocked--I of course +was not told; but, as I kept continually asking where & when he was to +be buried, & had read in the papers it was to be at Westminster Abbey, I +heard it too soon, & it made me very ill again." + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +APPENDIX IV. + + +LETTERS OF BERNARD BARTON. + +The two following letters were written to Byron in 1814, by Bernard +Barton, the Quaker poet (see Letter 238, [Foot]note 1):-- + + +I + + +"Woodbridge, Suffolk, Apl. 14th, 1814. + +"MY LORD,--I received this morning the reply with which your Lordship +honour'd my last, and now avail myself of the permission you have so +kindly granted to state as briefly as I can the circumstances which have +induced me to make this application, and the extent of my wishes +respecting your Lordship's interference. + +"Eight years since, I went into business in this place as a Merchant. I +was then just of age, and, shortly after, married. The business in which +I was engaged was of a very precarious Nature; and after vainly trying +for 4 Years to make the best of it, I was compell'd to relinquish it +altogether. Just then, to add to my distress, I lost my best, my +firmest, my tenderest friend--the only being for whose sake I ever +desir'd wealth, and the only one who could have cheer'd the gloom of +Poverty. My Capital being a borrow'd one, I returned it as far as I +could to the person who had lent it. Since that time, my Lord, I have +been struggling to make the best of a Clerkship of £80 per ann., out of +which I have to meet every expence, and still to maintain a respectable +appearance in a Place where I have resided under different +circumstances. Had I enter'd my present Situation free of all debts, I +should have made it an inviolable rule to have limited my expenditure to +my Income; but beginning in debt, compell'd by peculiar circumstances to +mix with those much superior to myself, I have gone on till I find it +quite impossible to go on any longer, and I am compelled to seek for +some asylum where, by rigid frugality and indefatigable exertion, I may +free myself from my present humiliating embarrassments; but while I am +here the thing seems impracticable. Your Lordship will naturally inquire +why I do not avail myself of the influence of those friends by whom I am +known. As you have, my Lord, done me the honour to encourage me to state +my position frankly, I will, without hesitation, inform you. I am, +nominally at least, a Quaker. The persons to whom I should, in my +present difficulties, naturally look for assistance are among the most +respectable of that body; but my attachments to literary and +metaphysical studies, and a line of conduct not compatible with the +strictness of Quaker discipline, have, I am afraid, brought me into +disrepute with those to whom I should otherwise have confided my +situation. Were I to disclose it, it would only be consider'd as a fit +judgment on me for my scepticism and infidelity. + +"This, my Lord, is a brief but faithful statement of my present +situation; it is, as I before told your Lordship, in every respect an +untenable one. I must relinquish it, and throw myself an outcast on +society. _Can you, will you_, my Lord, exert _your influence_ to save me +from irretrievable ruin? Can you, my Lord, in any possible way, afford +employment to me? Can you take me into your service--a young man, not +totally destitute of talents, eager to exert them, and willing to do +anything or be anything in his power? If you can, my Lord, I will +promise to serve you not servilely, but faithfully in any manner you +shall point out. Do not, I beg of you, my Lord, refuse my application +the moment you peruse it. The mouse, you know, once was able to show its +gratitude to the lion; and it may be in my power, if your Lordship will +but give me the opportunity, to evince my deep gratitude for any +kindness you may show me, not by _words_, but _deeds_. Be assur'd you +will not have cause to repent any interest you have taken or may take in +my concerns. For the civility you shewed me on a former occasion, my +Lord, I felt, as I ought, much indebted; but infinitely more for the +generosity of feeling and soundness of judgment which dictated the +letter you then did me the honour to address to me. Ever since then I +have entertain'd the highest opinion both of your head and your heart. +Is it, then, strange, my Lord, that, surrounded by difficulties, +perplexed at every step I take, I should look up to your Lordship for +_advice_, and, if possible, for assistance? Be the consequences what +they may, I have ventur'd on the presumption of doing so. If I have +taken too great a liberty, I beg you, my Lord, to forgive me, and let +the tale of my perplexities and my misfortunes, my impertinence and its +punishment, be alike forgotten; it can, at any rate, only give your +Lordship the trouble of reading a letter. If, on the other hand, your +Lordship can in any way realize the hopes I have long enthusiastically +cherished, why, the 'blessing of him who is ready to perish shall fall +on you.' Be the event what it may, '_Crede Byron_' is, your Lordship +sees, my motto. + +"I am, my Lord, + +"Your Lordship's very obt. servt, + +"B. BARTON. + +"P. S.--I shall wait with no common anxiety to see whether your Lordship +will so far forgive this intrusion as to answer it." + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +2. + + +"Woodbridge, April 15th, 1814. + +"My Lord,--I should be truly sorry if my importunity should defeat its +own purpose, and, instead of interesting your Lordship on my behalf, +should make you regret the indulgence you have already granted me; but I +really feel as if I had staked every remaining hope on the cast of the +die, and, therefore, before it is thrown, I wish, my Lord, to make one +or two more observations. + +"Although in my last, which, as I before observed, was hastily written, +I express'd my wish to be allow'd, _in some capacity or other_, to serve +your Lordship, yet I am not so foolish as to think of fastening myself +on you, my Lord, _bon gré ou malgré_. One reason for my expressing that +wish, was an idea that your Lordship might go abroad before long; and, +added to my own wish to see something of the world on which fate has +thrown me, it occurred to me at the moment, that on such an occasion the +services of one who is warmly attach'd to you, perhaps _romantically_, +for I know nothing of your Lordship but by your writings, might be +acceptable. + +"But, my Lord, although I have thus alluded to what would most gratify my +own wishes, it was not intended to dictate to you the manner in which +you might promote my interest. If your Lordship's superior judgment and +greater knowledge of the world can suggest anything else for my +consideration, it shall receive every attention. + +"One more remark, my Lord, and I have done. I am very sensible that in +this application to your Lordship I have been guilty of what would be +term'd by some a piece of great impertinence, and by most an act of +consummate folly. Will you allow me, my Lord, frankly to state to you +the arguments on which my resolutions were founded? + +"I have not address'd you, my Lord, on the impulse of the moment, +dictated by desperation, and adopted without reflection. No, my Lord; I +had, or, at least, I thought I had, better reasons. I remembered that +you had once condescended to address me _'candidly, not critically,'_ +that you had even kindly interested yourself on my behalf. I thought +that, amid all the keenness and poignancy of your habitual feelings, as +powerfully pourtrayed in your writings, I could discern the workings of +a heart _truly noble_. I imagin'd that what to a superficial observer +appear'd only the overflowings of misanthropy, were, in reality, the +effusions of deep sensibility. I convinc'd myself, by repeated perusals +of your different productions, that though disappointments the most +painful, and sensations the most acute, might have stung your heart to +its very core, it had yet many feelings of the most exalted kind. From +these I hoped everything. Those hopes may be disappointed, but the +opinions which gave rise to them have not been hastily form'd, nor will +any selfish feeling of mortification be able to alter them. + +"I do not, my Lord, intend the above as any idle complimentary apology +for what I have done. I am not, God knows, just now in a complimentary +mood; and if I were, you, my Lord, are one of the last persons on earth +on whom I should be tempted to play off such trash as idle panegyrics. I +esteem you, my Lord, not merely for your rank, still less for your +personal qualities. The former I respect as I ought; of the latter I +know nothing. But I feel something more than mere respect for your +genius and your talents; and from your past conduct towards myself I +cannot be insensible to your kindness. For these reasons, my Lord, I +acted as I have done. I before told you that I consider'd you _no common +character_, and I think your Lordship will admit that I have not treated +you as such. + +"Permit me once more, my Lord, to take my leave by assuring you that I +am, + +"With the truest esteem, +"Your very obt. and humble servt., +"BERNARD BARTON. + +"P. S.--I hope your Lordship will find no difficulty in making out this +scrawl; but really, not being able to mend my pen, I am forced to write +with it backwards. When I have the good luck to find my pen-knife, I +will endeavour to furnish myself with a better tool." + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +Part of the draft of Byron's answer to these two letters is in +existence, and runs as follows: + + +"Albany, April 16th, 1814. + +"Sir,--All offence is out of the question. My principal regret is that +it is not in my power to be of service. My own plans are very unsettled, +and at present, from a variety of circumstances, embarrassed, and, even +were it otherwise, I should be both to offer anything like dependence to +one, who, from education and acquirements, must doubly feel sensible of +such a situation, however I might be disposed to render it tolerable. + +"As an adviser I am rather qualified to point out what should be avoided +than what may be pursued, for my own life has been but a series of +imprudences and conflicts of all descriptions. From these I have only +acquired experience; if repentance were added, perhaps it might be all +the better, since I do not find the former of much avail without it." + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +APPENDIX V. + + +CORRESPONDENCE WITH WALTER SCOTT. + + +The following is Walter Scott's reply to Byron's letter of July 6, 1812: + + +"Abbotsford, near Melrose, 16th July, 1812. + +"MY LORD,--I am much indebted to your Lordship for your kind and +friendly letter; and much gratified by the Prince Regent's good opinion +of my literary attempts. I know so little of courts or princes, that any +success I may have had in hitting off the Stuarts is, I am afraid, owing +to a little old Jacobite leaven which I sucked in with the numerous +traditionary tales that amused my infancy. It is a fortunate thing for +the Prince himself that he has a literary turn, since nothing can so +effectually relieve the ennui of state, and the anxieties of power. + +"I hope your Lordship intends to give us more of 'Childe Harold'. I was +delighted that my friend Jeffrey--for such, in despite of many a feud, +literary and political, I always esteem him--has made so handsomely the +'amende honorable' for not having discovered in the bud the merits of +the flower; and I am happy to understand that the retractation so +handsomely made was received with equal liberality. These circumstances +may perhaps some day lead you to revisit Scotland, which has a maternal +claim upon you, and I need not say what pleasure I should have in +returning my personal thanks for the honour you have done me. I am +labouring here to contradict an old proverb, and make a silk purse out +of a sow's ear, namely, to convert a bare 'haugh' and 'brae', of about +100 acres, into a comfortable farm. Now, although I am living in a +gardener's hut, and although the adjacent ruins of Melrose have little +to tempt one who has seen those of Athens, yet, should you take a tour +which is so fashionable at this season, I should be very happy to have +an opportunity of introducing you to anything remarkable in my +fatherland. My neighbour, Lord Somerville, would, I am sure, readily +supply the accommodations which I want, unless you prefer a couch in a +closet, which is the utmost hospitality I have at present to offer. The +fair, or shall I say the sage, Apreece that was, Lady Davy that is, is +soon to show us how much science she leads captive in Sir Humphrey; so +your Lordship sees, as the citizen's wife says in the farce, +'Thread-needle Street has some charms,' since they procure us such +celebrated visitants. As for me, I would rather cross-question your +Lordship about the outside of Parnassus, than learn the nature of the +contents of all the other mountains in the world. Pray, when under 'its +cloudy canopy' did you hear anything of the celebrated Pegasus? Some say +he has been brought off with other curiosities to Britain, and now +covers at Tattersal's. I would fain have a cross from him out of my +little moss-trooper's Galloway, and I think your Lordship can tell one +how to set about it, as I recognise his true paces in the high-mettled +description of Ali Pacha's military court. + +"A wise man said--or, if not, I, who am no wise man, now say--that there +is no surer mark of regard than when your correspondent ventures to +write nonsense to you. Having, therefore, like Dogberry, bestowed all my +tediousness upon your Lordship, you are to conclude that I have given +you a convincing proof that I am very much + +"Your Lordship's obliged and very faithful servant, + +"WALTER SCOTT." + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +APPENDIX VI. + +"THE GIANT AND THE DWARF." + + +The reply of Leigh Hunt's friends to Moore's squib, "The 'Living Dog' +and the 'Dead Lion'" (see Letter 291, p. 205, note 1 [Footnote 2]), ran +as follows: + + +"THE GIANT AND THE DWARF. + +"Humbly inscribed to T. Pidcock, Esq., of Exeter 'Change. + + "A Giant that once of a Dwarf made a friend, + (And their friendship the Dwarf took care shouldn't be hid), + Would now and then, out of his glooms, condescend + To laugh at his antics,--as every one did. + + "This Dwarf-an extremely diminutive Dwarf,-- + In birth unlike G--y, though his pride was as big, + Had been taken, when young, from the bogs of Clontarf, + And though born quite a Helot, had grown up a Whig. + + "He wrote little verses--and sung them withal, + And the Giant's dark visions they sometimes could charm, + Like the voice of the lute which had pow'r over Saul, + And the song which could Hell and its legions disarm. + + "The Giant was grateful, and offered him gold, + But the Dwarf was indignant, and spurn'd at the offer: + 'No, never!' he cried, 'shall _my_ friendship be sold + For the sordid contents of another man's coffer! + + "'What would Dwarfland, and Ireland, and every land say? + To what would so shocking a thing be ascribed? + _My Lady_ would think that I was in your pay, + And the _Quarterly_ say that I must have been bribed. + + "'You see how I'm puzzled; I don't say it wouldn't + Be pleasant just now to have just that amount: + But to take it in gold or in bank-notes!--I couldn't, + I _wouldn't_ accept it--on any account. + + "'But couldn't you just write your Autobiography, + All fearless and personal, bitter and stinging? + Sure _that_, with a few famous heads in lithography, + Would bring me far more than my Songs or my singing. + + "'You know what I did for poor Sheridan's Life; + _Your's_ is sure of my very best superintendence; + I'll expunge what might point at your sister or wife,-- + And I'll thus keep my priceless, unbought independence!' + + "The Giant smiled grimly: he couldn't quite see + What diff'rence there was on the face of the earth, + Between the Dwarf's taking the money in fee, + And his taking the same thing _in that money's worth_. + + "But to please him he wrote; and the business was done: + The Dwarf went immediately off to 'the Row;' + And ere the next night had pass'd over the sun, + The MEMOIRS were purchas'd by Longman and Co. + +"W. GYNGELL, Showman, Bartholomew Fair." + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +APPENDIX VII. + + +ATTACKS UPON BYRON IN THE NEWSPAPERS FOR FEBRUARY AND MARCH, 1814. + + +I. 'THE COURIER'. + +(1) LORD BYRON ('The Courier', February 1, 1814). + + +A new Poem has just been published by the above Nobleman, and the +'Morning Chronicle' of to-day has favoured its readers with his +Lordship's Dedication of it to THOMAS MOORE, Esq., in what that paper +calls "an elegant eulogium." If the elegance of an eulogium consist in +its extravagance, the 'Chronicle's' epithet is well chosen. But our +purpose is not with the Dedication, nor the main Poem, 'The Corsair', +but with one of the pieces called Poems, published at the end of the +'Corsair'. Nearly two years ago (in March, 1812), when the REGENT was +attacked with a bitterness and rancour that disgusted the whole country; +when attempts were made day after day to wound every feeling of the +heart; there appeared in the 'Morning Chronicle' an anonymous 'Address +to a Young Lady weeping', upon which we remarked at the time ('Courier +of March' 7, 1812), considering it as tending to make the Princess +CHARLOTTE of WALES view the PRINCE REGENT her father as an object of +suspicion and disgrace. Few of our readers have forgotten the disgust +which this address excited. The author of it, however, unwilling that it +should sleep in the oblivion to which it had been consigned with the +other trash of that day, has republished it, and, placed the first of +what are called Poems at the end of this newly published work the +Corsair, we find this very address: + + "Weep daughter of a _royal_ line, + A Sire's disgrace, a realm's decay;" + +_Lord Byron thus avows himself to be the Author._ + +To be sure the Prince has been extremely _disgraced_ by the policy he +has adopted, and the events which that policy has produced; and the +realm has experienced _great decay_, no doubt, by the occurrences in the +Peninsula, the resistance of Russia, the rising in Germany, the +counter-revolution in Holland, and the defeat, disgrace, and shame of +BUONAPARTE. But, instead of continuing our observations, suppose we +parody his Lordship's Address, and apply it to February 1814: + + +TO A YOUNG LADY. + +February, 1814. + + "View! daughter of a royal line, + A father's fame, a realm's renown: + Ah! happy that that realm is thine, + And that its father is thine own! + + "View, and exulting view, thy fate, + Which dooms thee o'er these blissful Isles + To reign, (but distant be the date!) + And, like thy Sire, deserve thy People's smiles." + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +(2) 'The Courier', February 2, 1814. + + +Lord BYRON, as we stated yesterday, has discovered and promulgated to +the world, in eight lines of choice doggrel, that the realm of England +is in decay, that her Sovereign is disgraced, and that the situation of +the country is one which claims the tears of all good patriots. To this +very indubitable statement, the 'Morning Chronicle' of this day exhibits +an admirable companion picture, a _genuine_ letter from _Paris_, of the +25th ult. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +(3) 'The Courier', February 3, 1814. + + + "'The Courier' is indignant," says the 'Morning Chronicle', "at the + discovery now made by Lord BYRON, that he was the author of 'the + Verses to a Young Lady weeping,' which were inserted about a + twelvemonth ago in the 'Morning Chronicle'. The Editor thinks it + audacious in a hereditary Counsellor of the KING to admonish the 'Heir + Apparent'. It may not be 'courtly' but it is certainly 'British', and + we wish the kingdom had more such honest advisers." + +The discovery of the author of the verses in question was not made by +Lord BYRON. How could it be? When he sent them to the 'Chronicle, +without' his name, he was just as well informed about the author as he +is now that he has published them in a pamphlet, 'with' his name. The +discovery was made to the public. They did not know in March, 1812, what +they know in February, 1814. They did not suspect then what they now +find avowed, that a Peer of the Realm was the Author of the attack upon +the PRINCE; of the attempt to induce the Princess CHARLOTTE of WALES to +think that her father was an object not of reverence and regard, but of +disgrace. + +But we "think it audacious in an hereditary Counsellor of the KING to +admonish the Heir Apparent." No! we do not think it audacious: it is +constitutional and proper. But are anonymous attacks the constitutional +duty of a Peer of the Realm? Is that the mode in which he should +admonish the Heir Apparent? If Lord BYRON had desired to admonish the +PRINCE, his course was open, plain, and known--he could have demanded an +audience of the PRINCE; or, he could have given his admonition in +Parliament. But to level such an attack--What!--"Kill men i' the dark!" +This, however, is called by the 'Chronicle' "certainly 'British'," +though it might not be 'courtly', and a strong wish is expressed that +"the country had many more such honest advisers" or admonishers. +--Admonishers indeed! A pretty definition of admonition this, which +consists not in giving advice, but in imputing blame, not in openly +proffering counsel, but in secretly pointing censure. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +(4) BYRONIANA NO. I ('The Courier', February 5, 1814). + + +The Lord BYRON has assumed such a poetico-political and such a +politico-poetical air and authority, that in our double capacity of men +of letters and politicians, he forces himself upon our recollection. We +say 'recollection' for reasons which will bye and by, be obvious to our +readers, and will lead them to wonder why this young Lord, whose +greatest talent it is to forget, and whose best praise it would be to be +forgotten, should be such an enthusiastic admirer of Mr. SAM ROGERS'S +'Pleasures of Memory'. + +The most virulent satirists have ever been the most nauseous +panegyrists, and they are for the most part as offensive by the praise +as by the abuse which they scatter. + +His Lordship does not degenerate from the character of those worthy +persons, his poetical ancestors: + + "The mob of Gentlemen who wrote with ease" + +who of all authors dealt the most largely in the alternation of flattery +and filth. He is the severest satirical and the civilest dedicator of +our day; and what completes his reputation for candour, good feeling, +and honesty, is that the persons whom he most reviles, and to whom he +most fulsomely dedicates, are identically the same. + +We shall indulge our readers with a few instances:--the most obvious +case, because the most recent, is that of Mr. THOMAS MOORE, to whom he +has dedicated, as we have already stated, his last pamphlet; but as we +wish to proceed orderly, we shall postpone this and revert to some +instances prior in order of time; we shall afterwards show that his +Lordship strictly adheres to HORACE'S rule, in maintaining to the end +the ill character in which he appeared at the outset. His Lordship's +first dedication was to his guardian and relative, the Earl of CARLISLE. +So late as the year 1808, we find that Lord BYRON was that noble Lord's +"most affectionate kinsman, etc., etc." + +Hear how dutifully and affectionately this ingenuous young man +celebrates, in a few months after (1809), the praises of his friend: + + "No Muse will cheer with renovating smile, + The _paralytic puling_ of CARLISLE; + What heterogeneous honours deck the Peer, + Lord, rhymester, petit-maitre, pamphleteer! + So _dull_ in youth, so _drivelling_ in age, + _His_ scenes alone had damn'd our sinking stage. + But Managers, for once, cried 'hold, enough,' + Nor drugg'd their audience with the tragic stuff. + Yet at their judgment let his Lordship laugh, + And case his volumes in _congenial calf_: + Yes! doff that covering where Morocco shines, + And hang a calf-skin on those recreant lines." + +And in explanation of this affectionate effusion, our lordly dedicator +subjoins a note to inform us that Lord CARLISLE'S works are splendidly +bound, but that "the rest is all but leather and prunella," and a little +after, in a very laborious note, in which he endeavours to defend his +consistency, he out-Herods Herod, or to speak more forcibly, out-Byrons +Byron, in the virulence of his invective against "his guardian and +relative, to whom he dedicated his volume of puerile poems." Lord +CARLISLE has, it seems, if we are to believe his word, for a series of +years, beguiled "the public with reams of most orthodox, imperial +_nonsense_," and Lord BYRON concludes by asking, + + "What can ennoble knaves, or _fools_, or cowards? + Alas! not all the blood of all the Howards." + +"So says POPE," adds Lord BYRON. But POPE does not say so; the words +"_knaves and fools_," are not in POPE, but interpolated by Lord BYRON, +in favour of his "guardian and relative." Now, all this might have slept +in oblivion with Lord CARLISLE'S Dramas, and Lord BYRON'S Poems; but if +this young Gentleman chooses to erect himself into a spokesman of the +public opinion, it becomes worth while to consider to what notice he is +entitled; when he affects a tone of criticism and an air of candour, he +obliges us to enquire whether he has any just pretensions to either, and +when he arrogates the high functions of public praise and public +censure, we may fairly inquire what the praise or censure of such a +being is worth: + + "Thus bad begins, but worse remains behind." + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +(5) BYRONIANA NO. 2 ('The Courier', February 8, 1814). + + +"_Crede Byron_" is Lord Byron's armorial motto; 'Trust Byron' is the +translation in the Red-book. We cannot but admire the ingenuity with +which his Lordship has converted the good faith of his ancestors into a +sarcasm on his own duplicity. + + "Could nothing but your chief reproach, + Serve for a motto on your coach?" + +Poor Lord Carlisle; he, no doubt, _trusted_ in his affectionate ward and +kinsman, and we have seen how the affectionate ward and kinsman +acknowledged, like _Macbeth_, "_the double trust_" only to abuse it. We +shall now show how much another Noble Peer, Lord Holland, has to trust +to from his _ingenuous_ dedicator. + +Some time last year Lord Byron published a Poem, called _The Bride of +Abydos_, which was inscribed to Lord Holland, "_with every sentiment of +regard and respect by his gratefully obliged and sincere friend_, +BYRON." "_Grateful and sincere!_" Alas! alas; 'tis not even so good as +what Shakespeare, in contempt, calls "the sincerity of a cold heart." +"_Regard and respect!"_ Hear with what regard, and how much respect, he +treats this identical Lord Holland. In a tirade against literary +assassins (a class of men which Lord Byron may well feel entitled to +describe), we have these lines addressed to the Chief of the Critical +Banditti: + + "Known be thy name, unbounded be thy sway, + Thy _Holland's_ banquets shall each toil repay, + While grateful Britain yields the praise she owes, + _To Hollands hirelings_, and to _learnings foes!_" + +By which it appears, that + + "--These wolves that still in darkness prowl; + This coward brood, which mangle, as their prey, + By hellish instinct, all that cross their way;" + +are hired by Lord Holland, and it follows, very naturally, that the +"_hirelings_" of Lord Holland must be the "_foes of learning_." + +This seems sufficiently caustic; but hear, how our dedicator proceeds: + + "Illustrious Holland! hard would be his lot, + His hirelings mention'd, and himself forgot! + Blest be the banquets spread at Holland House, + Where Scotchmen feed, and Critics may carouse! + Long, long, beneath that hospitable roof + Shall _Grub-street_ dine, while duns are kept aloof, + And _grateful_ to the founder of the feast + Declare the Landlord can _translate_, at least!" + +Lord Byron has, it seems, very accurate notions of _gratitude_, and the +word "_grateful_" in these lines, and in his dedication of 'The Bride of +Abydos', has a delightful similarity of meaning. His Lordship is pleased +to add, in an explanatory note to this passage, that Lord Holland's life +of Lopez de Vega, and his translated specimens of that author, are much +"BEPRAISED _by these disinterested guests_." Lord Byron well knows that +_bepraise_ and _bespatter_ are almost synonimous. There was but one +point on which he could have any hope of touching Lord Holland more +nearly; and of course he avails himself, in the most gentlemanly and +generous manner, of the golden opportunity. + +When his club of literary assassins is assembled at Lord Holland's +table, Lord Byron informs us + + "That lest when heated with the unusual grape, + Some _glowing_ thoughts should to the press escape, + And tinge with red the _female_ reader's cheek, + My LADY skims the _cream_ of each critique; + Breathes o'er each page _her purity_ of soul, + Reforms each error, and refines the whole." + +Our readers will, no doubt, duly appreciate the manliness and generosity +of these lines; but, to encrease their admiration, we beg to remind them +that the next time Lord Byron addresses Lord Holland, it is to dedicate +to him, in all friendship, _sincerity_, and gratitude, the story of a +young, a pure, an amiable, and an affectionate bride! + +The verses were bad enough, but what shall be said, after _such_ verses, +of the insult of _such_ a dedication! + +We forbear to extract any further specimens of this peculiar vein of +Lord Byron's satire; our "gorge rises at it," and we regret to have been +obliged to say so much. And yet Lord Byron is, "with all regard and +_respect_, Lord Holland's sincere and grateful friend!" It reminds us +of the _respect_ which Lear's daughters shewed their father, and which +the poor old king felt to be "worse than murder." + +Some of our readers may perhaps observe that, personally, Lord Holland +was not so ill-treated as Lord Carlisle; but let it be recollected, that +Lord Holland is only an acquaintance, while Lord Carlisle was "guardian +and relation," and had therefore _peculiar_ claims to the ingratitude of +a mind like Lord Byron's. + +_Trust Byron_, indeed! "him," as Hamlet says + + "_Him_, I would trust as I would _adders_ fang'd." + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +(6) BYRONIANA No. 3 ('The Courier', February 12, 1814). "Crede +Byron"--"Trust Byron." + +We have seen Lord Byron's past and present opinions of two Noble Persons +whom he has honoured with his satire, and vilified by his dedications; +let us now compare the evidence which he has given at different and yet +not distant times, on the merits of his third _Dedicatee_, Mr. Thomas +Moore. To him Lord Byron has inscribed his last poem as a person "of +unshaken _public principle_, and the most undoubted and various talents; +as the firmest of Irish _patriots_, and the first of Irish bards." + +Before we proceed to give Lord Byron's own judgment of this "firmest of +patriots," and this "best of poets," we must be allowed to say, that +though we consider Mr. Moore as a very good writer of songs, we should +very much complain of the poetical supremacy assigned to him, if Lord +Byron had not qualified it by calling him the first only of _Irish_ +poets, and, as we suppose his Lordship must mean, of _Irish_ poets of +the _present_ day. The title may be, for aught we know to the contrary, +perfectly appropriate; but we cannot conceive how Mr. Moore comes by the +high-sounding name of "_patriot_;" what pretence there is for such an +appellation; by what effort of intellect or of courage he has placed his +name above those idols of Irish worship, Messrs. Scully, Connell, and +Dromgoole. Mr. Moore has written words to Irish tunes; so did Burns for +_his_ national airs; but who ever called Burns the "firmest of patriots" +on the score of his contributions to the _Scots Magazine_? + +Mr. Moore, we are aware, has been accused of tuning his harpsichord to +the key-note of a faction, and of substituting, wherever he could, a +party spirit for the spirit of poetry: this, in the opinion of most +persons, would derogate even from his _poetical_ character, but we hope +that Lord Byron stands alone in considering that such a prostitution of +the muse entitles him to the name of patriot. Mr. Moore, it seems, is an +Irishman, and, we believe, a Roman Catholic; he appears to be, at least +in his poetry, no great friend to the connexion of Ireland with England. +One or two of his ditties are quoted in Ireland as _laments_ upon +certain worthy persons whose lives were terminated by the hand of the +law, in some of the unfortunate disturbances which have afflicted that +country; and one of his most admired songs begins with a stanza, which +we hope the Attorney-General will pardon us for quoting: + + "Let Erin remember the days of old, + Ere her _faithless sons betrayed her_, + When Malachy wore the collar of gold, + Which he won from her proud Invader; + When her Kings, with standard of green unfurl'd, + Led the Red Branch Knights to danger, + Ere, the emerald gem of the western world, + _Was set in the crown of a Stranger_." + +This will pretty well satisfy an English reader, that, if it be any +ingredient of patriotism to promote the affectionate connexion of the +English isles under the constitutional settlement made at the revolution +and at the union; and if the foregoing verses speak Mr. Moore's +sentiments, he has the same claims to the name of "_patriot_" that Lord +Byron has to the title of "trustworthy;" but if these and similar verses +do not speak Mr. Moore's political sentiments, then undoubtedly he has +never written, or at least published any thing relating to public +affairs; and Lord Byron has no kind of pretence for talking of the +political character and public principles of an humble individual who is +only known as the translator of Anacreon, and the writer, composer, and +singer of certain songs, which songs do not (_ex-hypothesi_) speak the +sentiments even of the writer himself. + +But, hold--we had forgot one circumstance: Mr. Moore has been said to be +one of the authors of certain verses on the highest characters of the +State, which appeared from time to time in the 'Morning Chronicle', and +which were afterwards collected into a little volume; this may, +probably, be in Lord Byron's opinion, a clear title to the name of +_patriot_, in which case, his Lordship has also his claim to the same +honour; and, indeed that sagacious and loyal person, the Editor of the +'Morning Chronicle', seems to be of this notion; for when some one +ventured to express some, we think not unnatural, indignation at Lord +Byron's having been the author of some impudent doggrels, of the same +vein, which appeared anonymously in that paper reflecting on his Royal +Highness the Prince Regent, and her Royal Highness his daughter, the +Editor before-mentioned exclaimed--"What! and is not a Peer, an +hereditary councillor of the Crown, to be permitted to give his +constitutional advice?!!!" + +If writing such vile and anonymous stuff as one sometimes reads in the +'Morning Chronicle' be the duty of a good subject, or the privilege of a +Peer of Parliament, then indeed we have nothing to object to Mr. Moore's +title of Patriot, or Lord Byron's open, honourable, manly, and +constitutional method of advising the Crown. + +To return, however, to our main object, Lord Byron's _consistency, +truth_, and trustworthiness. + +His Lordship is pleased to call Mr. Moore not only Patriot and Poet, but +he acquaints us also, that "he is the delight alike of his readers and +his friends; the poet of all circles, and the idol of his own." + +Let us now turn to Lord Byron's thrice-recorded opinion of "_this Poet +of all Circles_." We shall quote from a Poem which was republished, +improved, amended, and reconsidered, not more than _three_ years ago; +since which time Mr. Moore has published no Poem whatsoever; therefore, +Lord Byron's former and his present opinions are founded upon the same +data, and if they do not agree, it really is no fault of Mr. Moore's, +who has published nothing to alter them. + + "Now look around and turn each _trifling_ page, + Survey the _precious_ works that please the age, + While Little's lyrics shine in hot-pressed twelves." + +Here, by no great length of induction, we find Little's, _i.e._ Mr. +Thomas Moore's lyrics, are _trifling, "precious_ works," his Lordship +ironically adds, that "please times from which," as his Lordship says, +"taste and reason are passed away!" + +Bye and by his Lordship delivers a still more plain opinion on Mr. +Moore's fitness to be the "_Poet of ALL circles_." + + "Who in soft guise, surrounded by a quire + Of virgins _melting_, not to _Vesta's_ fire, + With sparkling eyes, and cheek by _passion_ flush'd, + Strikes his wild lyre, while listening dames are hush'd? + 'Tis Little, young Catullus of his day, + As sweet, but as immoral, in his lay; + Griev'd to condemn, the Muse must yet be just, + Nor spare melodious _advocates of lust!_" + +"_O calum et terra!_" as _Lingo_ says. What! this purest of Patriots is +_immoral?_ What! "the Poet of _all_ circles" is "the advocate of lust"? +Monstrous! But who can doubt Byron? And his Lordship, in a subsequent +passage, does not hesitate to speak still more plainly, and to declare, +in plain round terms (we shudder while we copy) that Moore, the Poet, +the Patriot "Moore, is lewd"!!! + +After this, we humbly apprehend that if we were to "trust Byron," Mr. +Moore, however he may be the idol of his own circle, would find some +little difficulty in obtaining admittance into any other. + +Lord Byron having thus disposed, as far as depended upon him, of the +moral character of the first of Patriots and Poets, takes an early +opportunity of doing justice to the personal honour of this dear +"friend;" one, as his Lordship expresses it, of "the magnificent and +fiery spirited" sons of Erin. + +"In 1806," says Lord Byron, "Messrs. Jeffery and Moore met at Chalk +Farm--the duel was prevented by the interference of the Magistracy, and +on examination, the balls of the pistols, _like the courage of the +combatants_, were found to have _evaporated!_" + +"Magnificent and fiery spirit," with a vengeance! + +We are far from thinking of Mr. Moore as Lord Byron either did or does; +not so degradingly as his Lordship did in 1810; not so extravagantly as +he does in 1813. But we think that Mr. Moore has grave reason of +complaint, and almost just cause, to exert "his fiery spirit" against +Lord Byron, who has the effrontery to drag him twice before the public, +and overwhelm him, one day with odium, and another with ridicule. + +We regret that Lord Byron, by obliging us to examine the value of his +censures, has forced us to contrast his past with his present judgments, +and to bring again before the public the objects of his lampoons and his +flatteries. We have, however, much less remorse in quoting his satire +than his dedications; for, by this time, we believe, the whole world is +inclined to admit that his Lordship can pay no compliment so valuable as +his censure, nor offer any insult so intolerable as his praise. + + + + + * * * * * + + + +(7) BYRONIANA No. 4 ('The Courier', February 17, 1814). + + + "'Don Pedro.' What offence have these men done? + + "'Dogberry.' Many, Sir; they have committed false reports; moreover + they have spoken untruths; secondarily, they are + slanders; sixthly and lastly, they have belied a Lady; + thirdly, they have verified unjust things, and, to + conclude, they are lying knaves." + +'Much Ado about Nothing.' + + +We have already seen how scurvily Lord Byron has treated _three_ of the +four persons to whom he has successively dedicated his Poems; but for +the fourth he reserved a species of contumely, which we are confident +our readers will think more degrading than all the rest. _He has +uniformly praised him! and him alone!!!_--The exalted rank, the gentle +manners, the polished taste of his guardian and relation, Lord Carlisle; +the considerations due to Lord Holland, from his family, his personal +character, and his love of letters; the amiability of Mr. Moore's +society, the sweetness of his versification, and the vivacity of his +imagination;--all these could not save their possessors from the +_brutality_ of Lord Byron's personal satire. + +It was, then, for a person only, who should have _none_ of these titles +to his envy that his Lordship could be expected to reserve the fullness +and steadiness of his friendship; and if we had any respect or regard +for that small poet and very disagreeable person, Mr. Sam Rogers, we +should heartily pity him for being "_damned_" to such "_fame_" as Lord +Byron's uninterrupted praise can give. + +But Mr. Sam Rogers has another cause of complaint against Lord Byron, +and which he is of a taste to resent more. His Lordship has not deigned +to call _him_ "the firmest of patriots," though we have heard that his +claims to that title are not much inferior to Mr. Moore's. Mr. Sam +Rogers is reported to have clubb'd with the Irish Anacreon in that +scurrilous collection of verses, which we have before mentioned, and +which were published under the title of the _Twopenny Post-bag_, and the +assumed name of "Thomas Brown." The rumour may be unfounded; if it be, +Messrs. Rogers and Moore will easily forgive us for saying that, much as +we are astonished at the effrontery with which Lord Byron has +acknowledged his lampoon, we infinitely prefer it to the cowardly +prudence of the author or authors of the _Twopenny Post-bag_ lurking +behind a fictitious name, and "devising impossible slanders," which he +or they have not the spirit to avow. + +But, to return to the more immediate subject of our lucubrations: It +seems almost like a fatality, that Lord Byron has hardly ever praised +any thing that he has not at some other period censured, or censured any +thing that he has not, by and bye, praised or _practised_. + +It does not often happen that booksellers are assailed for their too +great liberality to authors; yet, in Lord Byron's satire, while Mr. +Scott is abused, his publisher, Mr. Murray, is sneered at, in the +following lines: + + "And think'st them, Scott, by vain conceit perchance, + On public taste to foist thy stale romance; + Though _Murray_ with his Miller may combine, + _To yield thy Muse just_ HALF-A-CROWN A LINE? + No! when the sons of song descend to trade, + Their bays are sear, their former _laurels fade_. + Let such forego the poet's sacred name, + Who _rack_ their _brains_ for _lucre_, not for fame: + Low may they sink to _merited contempt_, + And _scorn_ remunerate the _mean_ attempt." + +Now, is it not almost incredible that this very Murray (the only +remaining one of the booksellers whom his Lordship had attacked; Miller +has left the trade)--is it not, we say, almost incredible that this very +Murray should have been soon after selected, by this very Lord Byron, to +be his own publisher? But what will our readers say, when we assure +them, that not only was Murray so selected, but that this magnanimous +young Lord has actually _sold_ his works to this same Murray? and, what +is a yet more singular circumstance, has received and pocketted, for one +of his own "stale romances," a sum amounting, not to "_half-a-crown_," +but to _a whole crown, a line!!!_ + +This fact, monstrous as it seems in the author of the foregoing lines, +is, we have the fullest reason to believe, accurately true. And the +"_faded laurel_," "_the brains rac'd for lucre_," "_the merited +contempt_," "_the scorn_," and the "_meanness_," which this impudent +young man dared to attribute to Mr. Scott, appear to have been a mere +anticipation of his own future proceedings; and thus, + + "--Even-handed Justice + Commends the ingredients of his _poison'd_ chalice + To his own lips." + +How he now likes the taste of it we do not know; about as much, we +suspect, as the "incestuous, murderous, damned Dane" did, when _Hamlet_ +obliged him to "_drink off the potion_" which he had treacherously +drugged for the destruction of others. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +(8) BYRONIANA No. 5 ('The Courier', February 19, 1814). + + + "He professes no keeping oaths; in breaking them he is stronger than + Hercules. He will lie, sir, with such volubility, that you would think + truth were a fool." + +'All's Well that ends Well'. + + +We have, we should hope, sufficiently exposed the audacious levity and +waywardness of Lord Byron's mind, and yet there are a few touches which +we think will give a finish to the portrait, and add, if it be at all +wanting, to the strength of the resemblance. + +* * * * * + +It must be amusing to those who know anything of Lord Byron in the +circles of London, to find him magnanimously defying in very stout +heroics, + + "--all the din of _Melbourne_ House +And _Lambes'_ resentment--" + +and adding that he is "_unscared_" even by "_Holland's spouse_." + +* * * * * + +To those who may be in the habit of hearing his Lordship's political +descants, the following extract will appear equally curious: + + "Mr. Brougham, in No. 25 of the 'Edinburgh Review', throughout the + article concerning Don Pedro Cevallos, has displayed more politics + than policy; many of the worthy burgesses of Edinburgh being so + _incensed at the_ INFAMOUS _principles it evinces_, as to have + withdrawn their subscriptions;" and in the text of this poem, to which + the foregoing is a note, he advises the Editor of the Review to + + "Beware, lest _blundering Brougham_ destroy the sale; + Turn beef to bannacks, cauliflower to kail." + +Those who have attended to his Lordship's progress as an author, and +observed that he has published _four_ poems, in little more than two +years, will start at the following lines: + + "--Oh cease thy song! + A bard may chaunt too often and too long; + As thou art strong in verse, in mercy spare; + A FOURTH, alas, were more than we could bear." + +And as the scene of each of these _four_ Poems is laid in the Levant, it +is curious to recollect, that when his Lordship informed the world that +he was about to visit "Afric's coast," and "Calpe's height," and +"Stamboul's minarets," and "Beauty's native clime," he enters into a +voluntary and solemn engagement with the public, + + "That should he back return, no letter'd rage + Shall drag _his_ common-place book on the stage; + Of Dardan tours let Dilettanti tell, + He'll leave topography to classic Cell, + And, _quite content_, no more shall interpose, + To _stun_ mankind with _poetry or prose_." + +And yet we have already had, growing out of this "Tour," four volumes of +_poetry_, enriched with copious notes in _prose_, selected from his +"_common-place book_." The whole interspersed every here and there with +the most convincing proofs that instead of being "_quite content_," his +Lordship has returned, as he went out, the most discontented and peevish +thing that breathes. + +But the passage of all others which gives us the most delight is that in +which his Lordship attacks his critics, and declares that + + "Our men in buckram shall have blows enough, + And feel they _too_ are penetrable stuff." + +and adds, + + "--I have-- + Learn'd to deride the Critic's stern decree, + And _break him on the wheel he meant for me_." + +We should now, with all humility, ask his Lordship whether _he_ yet +feels that "he _too_ is penetrable stuff;" and we should further wish to +know how he likes being "_broken on the wheel he meant for others?_" + +When his Lordship shall have sufficiently pondered on those questions, +we may perhaps venture to propound one or two more. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +(9) From 'The Courier' (March 15, 1814). + + +The republication of some _Satires_, which the humour of the moment now +disposes the writer to recall, was strenuously censured, the other day, +in a Morning Paper. It was there said, amongst other things, that such a +republication "contributes to exasperate and perpetuate the divisions of +those whom _nature_ and friendship have joined!" This is within six +weeks after the deliberate _republication_ of "Weep, daughter," etc., +etc.; and thus we are informed of the exact moment at which all retort +is to cease; at which misrepresentation towards the public and outrage +towards the Personages much more than insulted in those lines, is to be +no longer remembered. What privileges does this writer claim for his +friends! They are to live in all "the swill'd insolence" of attack upon +those on whose character, union, and welfare, the public prosperity +mainly depends; they are to instruct the DAUGHTER to hold the FATHER +disgraced, because he does not surrender the prime Offices of the State +to their ambition. And if, after this, public disgust make the author +feel, in the midst of the little circle of flatterers that remains to +him, what an insight he has given into the guilt of satire _before_ +maturity, _before_ experience, _before_ knowledge; if the original +unprovoked intruder upon the peace of others be thus taught a love of +privacy and a facility of retraction; if Turnus have found the time, + + "magno cum optaverit emptum + Intactum Pallanta, et cum spolia ista, diemque + Oderit;" + +if triumphing arrogance be changed into a sentimental humility, O! then +'Liberality' is to call out for him in the best of her hacknied tones; +the contest is to cease at the instant when his humour changes from +mischief to melancholy; 'affetuoso' is to be the only word; and he is to +be allowed his season of sacred torpidity, till the venom, new formed in +the shade, make him glisten again in the sunshine he envies! + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +II. MORNING POST. + + +(1) VERSES ('Morning Post', February 5, 1814). + + +Suggested by reading some lines of Lord Byron's at the end of his newly +published work, entitled "_The Corsair_" which begin: + +"_Weep, Daughter of a Royal Line._" + + "'Far better be the thing that crawls, [1] + Disgustful on a dungeon's walls; + Far better be the worm that creeps, + In icy rings o'er him who sleeps;'" + + +"Far better be the reptile scorn'd, +Unseen, unheeded, unadorn'd, +Than him, to whom indulgent heav'n, +Has talents and has genius giv'n; +If stung by envy, warp'd by pride, +Such gifts, alas! are misapplied; +Not all by nature's bounty blest +In beauty's dazzling hues are drest; +But who shall play the critic's part, +If for the form atones the heart? +But if the gloomiest thoughts prevail, +And Atheist doctrines stain the tale; +If calumny to pow'r addrest, +Attempts to wound its Sovereign's breast; +If impious it shall try to part, +The Father from the Daughter's heart; +If it shall aim to wield a brand, +To fire our fair and native land; +If hatred for the world and men, +Shall dip in gall the ready pen: + + "'Oh then far better 'tis to crawl, + Harmless upon a dungeon's wall; + And better far the worm that creeps, + In icy rings o'er him who sleeps.'" + + + +[Footnote 1: 'Vide' Lord Byron's works.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +(2) To LORD BYRON ('Morning Post', February 7, 1814). + + + "Bard of ungentle wayward mood! + 'Tis said of thee, when in the lap, + Thy nurse to tempt thee to thy food, + Would squeeze a _lemon_ in thy pap. + + "At _vinegar_ how danc'd thine eyes, + Before thy tongue a want could utter, + And oft the dame to stop thy cries, + Strew'd _wormwood_ on thy bread and butter. + + "And when in childhood's frolic hour, + Thou'dst plait a garland for thy hair; + The _nettle_ bloom'd a chosen flow'r, + And native thistles flourish'd there. + + "For _sugar-plum_ thou ne'er did'st pine, + Thy teeth no _sweet-meat_ ever hurt-- + The _sloe's juice_ was thy favourite wine, + And _bitter almonds_ thy desert. + + "Mustard, how strong so e'er the sort is, + Can draw no moisture from thine eye; + Not vinegar nor aqua-fortis + Could ever set thy face awry. + + "Thus train'd a Satirist--thy mind + Soon caught the bitter, sharp, and sour, + And all their various pow'rs combin'd, + Produc'd 'Childe Harold', and the 'Giaour'." + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +(3) LORD BYRON ('Morning Post', February 8, 1814). + +We are very much surprized, and we are not the only persons who feel +disgust as well as astonishment, at the uncalled for avowal Lord Byron +has made of being the Author of some insolent lines, by inserting them +at the end of his new Poem, entitled "_The Corsair_." The lines we +allude to begin "_Weep, Daughter of a Royal Line_." Nothing can be more +repugnant to every good heart, as well as to the moral and religious +feelings of a country, which we are proud to say still cherishes every +right sentiment, than an attempt to lower a father in the eyes of his +child. Lord Byron is a young man, and from the tenor of his writings, +has, we fear, adopted principles very contrary to those of Christianity. +But as a man of honour and of _feeling_, which latter character he +affects _outrageously_, he ought never to have been guilty of so +unamiable and so unprovoked an attack. Should so gross an insult to her +Royal Father ever meet the eyes of the illustrious young Lady, for whose +perusal it was intended, we trust her own good sense and good heart will +teach her to consider it with the contempt and abhorrence it so well +merits. Will she _weep for the disgrace of a Father_ who has saved +Europe from bondage, and has accumulated, in the short space of two +years, more glory than can be found in any other period of British +history? Will she "_weep for a realm's decay_," when that realm is +hourly emerging under the Government of her father, from the complicated +embarrassments in which he found it involved? But all this is too +evident to need being particularised. What seems most surprising is, +that Lord Byron should chuse to avow Irish trash at a moment when every +thing conspires to give it the lie. It is for the _organ of the Party_ +alone, or a few insane admirers of Bonaparte and defamers of their own +country and its rulers, to applaud him. We know it is now the fashion +for our young Gentlemen to become Poets, and a very innocent amusement +it is, while they confine themselves to putting their travels into +verse, like _Childe Harolde_, and Lord Nugent's _Portugal_. Nor is there +any harm in Turkish tales, nor wonderful ditties, of ghosts and +hobgoblins. We cannot say so much for all Mr. Moore's productions, +admired as he is by Lord Byron. In short, the whole galaxy of minor +poets, Lords Nugent and Byron, with Messrs. Rogers, Lewis, and Moore, +would do well to keep to rhyme, and not presume to meddle with politics, +for which they seem mighty little qualified. We must repeat, that it is +innocent to write tales and travels in verse, but calumny can never be +so, whether written by poets in St. James's-street, Albany, or +Grub-street. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +(4) LINES ('Morning Post', February 8, 1814). + + +Written on reading the insolent verses published by Lord Byron at the +end of his new poem, "_The Corsair_" beginning + + "_Weep, Daughter of a Royal Line_." + + + "Unblest by nature in thy mien, + Pity might still have play'd her part, + For oft compassion has been seen, + To soften into love the heart. + + But when thy gloomy lines we read, + And see display'd without controul, + Th' ungentle thought, the Atheist creed, + And all the rancour of the soul. + + When bold and shameless ev'ry tie, + That GOD has twin'd around the heart, + Thy malice teaches to defy, + And act on earth a Demon's part. + + Oh! then from misanthropic pride + We shrink--but pity too the fate + Of youth and talents misapplied, + Which, _if admired_, [1] we still must hate." + + + +[Footnote 1: We say, _if admired_, as there is a great variety of +opinions respecting Lord Byron's Poems. Some certainly extol them much, +but most of the best judges place his Lordship rather low in the list of +our minor Poets.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +(5) LINES ('Morning Post', February 11, 1814). + + +Suggested by perusing Lord Byron's small Poem, at the end of his +"_Corsair_" addressed to a Lady weeping, beginning: + + + "_Weep, Daughter of a Royal Line_." + + + +"To LORD BYRON. + + "Were he the man thy verse would paint, + '_A Sire's disgrace, a realm's decay_;' + Art thou the meek, the pious saint, + That _prates_ of feeling night and day? + + "Stern as the Pirate's [1] heart is thine, + Without one ray to cheer its gloom; + And shall that Daughter once repine, + Because thy rude, unhallow'd line, + Would on her virtuous cause presume? + + "Hide, BYRON! in the shades of night-- + Hide in thy own congenial cell + The mind that would a fiend affright, + _And shock the dunnest realms of hell!_ + + "No; she will never weep the tears + Which thou would'st Virtue's deign to call; + Nor will they, in remoter years, + Molest her Father's heart at all. + + "Dark-vision'd man! thy moody vein + Tends only to thy mental pain, + And cloud the talents Heav'n had meant + To prove the source of true content; + Much better were it for thy soul, + Both here and in the realms of bliss, + To check the glooms that now controul + Those talents, which might still repay + The wrongs of many a luckless day, + In such a _cheerless_[2] clime as this. + + "But never strive to lure the heart + From _one_ to which 'tis ever nearest, + Lest from its duty it depart, + And shun the Pow'r which should be dearest: + For heav'n may sting thy heart in turn, + And rob thee of thy sweetest treasure + But, BYRON! thou hast yet to learn, + _That Virtue is the source of pleasure!_" + +TYRTÆUS. + +G--n-street, Feb. 9, 1814. + + + +[Footnote 1: 'The Corsair'.] + + +[Footnote 2: In allusion to the general melancholy character of his +Lordship's poetical doctrines.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +(6) To LORD BYRON ('Morning Post', February 15, 1814). + + +Occasioned by reading his Poem, at the end of 'The Corsair', beginning: + + + "_Weep, Daughter of a Royal Line_." + + + + Shame on the verse that dares intrude + On Virtue's uncorrupted way-- + That smiles upon Ingratitude, + And charms us only to betray! + + For this does BYRON'S muse employ + The calm unbroken hours of night? + And wou'd she basely thus destroy + The source of all that's just-upright? + + Traitor to every moral law! + Think what thy own cold heart wou'd feel, + If some insidious mind should draw + Thy daughter [1] from her filial zeal. + + And dost thou bid the offspring shun + Its father's fond, incessant care? + Why, every sister, sire, and son, + Must loathe thee as the poison'd air! + + BYRON! thy dark, unhallow'd mind, + Stor'd as it is with Atheist writ, + Will surely, never, never find, + One convert to admire its wit! + + Thou art a planet boding woe, + Attractive for thy novel mien-- + A calm, but yet a deadly foe, + Most baneful when thou'rt most serene! + + Tho' fortune on thy course may shine, + Strive not to lead the mind astray, + Nor let one impious verse of thine, + The unsuspecting heart betray! + + But rather let thy talents aim + To lead incautious youth aright; + Thus shall thy works acquire that fame, + Which ought to be thy chief delight. + + "The verse, however smooth it flow, + Must be abhorr'd, abjur'd, despis'd, + When Virtue feels a secret blow, + And order finds her course surpris'd." + +HORATIO. + +Fitzroy-square, Feb. 13. + + + +[Footnote 1: Supposing LORD BYRON to have a daughter.] + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +(7) To LORD BYRON ('Morning Post', February 16, 1814). + + + "Bard of the pallid front, and curling hair, + To London taste, and northern critics dear, + Friend of the dog, companion of the bear, + APOLLO drest in trimmest Turkish gear. + + "'Tis thine to eulogize the fell Corsair, + Scorning all laws that God or man can frame; + And yet so form'd to please the gentle fair, + That reading misses wish their Loves the same. + + "Thou prov'st that laws are made to aid the strong, + That murderers and thieves alone are brave, + That all religion is an idle song, + Which troubles life, and leaves us at the grave. + + "That men and dogs have equal claims on Heav'n, + Though dogs but bark, and men more wisely prate, + That to thyself one friend alone was giv'n, + That Friend a Dog, now snatch'd away by Fate. + + "And last can tell how daughters best may shew + Their love and duty to their fathers dear, + By reckoning up what stream of filial woe + Will give to every crime a cleansing tear. + + "Long may'st thou please this wonder-seeking age, + By MURRAY purchas'd, and by MOORE admir'd; + May fashion never quit thy classic page, + Nor e'er be with thy Turkomania tir'd." + +UNUS MULTORUM. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +(8) VERSES ADDRESSED TO LORD BYRON ('Morning Post', February 16, 1814). + + + "Lord _Byron_! Lord _Byron_! + Your heart's made of iron, + As hard and unfeeling as cold. + Half human, half bird, + From _Virgil_ we've heard, + Were form'd the fam'd harpies of old. + + "Like those monsters you chatter, + Friends and foes you bespatter, + And dirty, like them, what you eat: + The _Hollands_, your muse + Does most grossly abuse, + Tho' you feed on their wine and their meat. + + "Your friend, little _Moore_, + You have dirtied before, + But you know that in safety you write: + You've declared in your lines, + That revenge he declines, + For the poor little man will not fight. + + "At _Carlisle_ you sneer, + That worthy old Peer, + Though united by every tie; + But you act as you preach, + And do what you teach, + And your _God_ and your duty defy. + + "As long as your aim + Was alone to defame, + The nearest relation you own; + At your malice he smil'd, + But he won't see defil'd, + By your harpy bespatt'rings, the Throne." + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +(9) PATRONAGE EXTRAORDINARY ('Morning Post', February 17, 1814). + + + "Procul este profani--!" + + + "A friendship subsisted, no friendship was closer, + 'Twixt the heir of a Peer and the son of a Grocer; + 'Tis _true_, though so wide was their difference of station, + For, we _always_ find _truth_ in a _long dedication_. + Atheistical doctrines in verse we are told, + The former sold _wholesale_, was daring and bold; + While the latter (whatever _he_ offer'd for sale) + Like papa, he disposed of--of course by _retail!_ + First--_scraps_ of _indecency_, next _disaffection_, + Disguised by the knave from his fear of detection; + To court _party favour_, then, sonnets he wrote; + Set political squibs to the harpsichord's note. + One, as _patron_ was chosen by his brother Poet, + The Peer, to be sure, from his rank we may know it; + Not the low and indecent composer of jigs-- + Yes! yes! 'twas the son of the seller of Figs!! + Did the Peer then possess _no respectable friend_ + To add weight to his name, and his works recommend?! + Atheistical writings we well may believe, + None of _worth_ from the Author would deign to receive; + So--to cover the faults of his friend he essays, + By _daubing_ him _thickly all over with praise_. + But, _parents_, attend! if your _daughters_ you _love_, + The works of _these serpents_ take _care_ to remove: + Their _infernal attacks_ from your _mansions_ repel, + Where _filial affection_ and _modesty_ dwell." + +VERAX. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +(10) LORD BYRON ('Morning Post', February 18, 1814). + + +If it was the object of Lord BYRON to stamp his character, and to bring +his name forward by a single act of his life into general notoriety, it +must be confessed that he has completely succeeded. We do not recollect +any former instance in which a Peer has stood forth as the libeller of +his Sovereign. If he disapproves the measures of his Ministers, the +House of Parliament, in which he has an hereditary right to sit, is the +place where his opinions may with propriety be uttered. If he thinks he +can avert any danger to his country by a personal conference with his +Sovereign, he has a right to demand it. The Peers are the natural +advisers of the Crown, but the Constitution which has granted them such +extraordinary privileges, makes it doubly criminal in them to attack the +authority from which it is derived, and to insult the power which it is +their peculiar province to uphold and protect. What then must we think +of the foolish vanity, or the bad taste of a titled Poet, who is the +first to proclaim himself the Author of a Libel, because he is fearful +it will not be sufficiently read without his avowal. We perfectly +remember having read the verses in question a year ago; but we could not +then suppose them the offspring of patrician bile, nor should we now +believe it without the Author's special authority. It seems by some late +quotations from his Lordship's works, which have been rescued from that +oblivion to which they were hastening with a rapid step, by one of our +co-equals, that this peerless Peer has already gone through a complete +course of private ingratitude. The inimitable Hogarth has traced the +gradual workings of an unfeeling heart in his progress of cruelty. He +has shewn, that malevolence is progressive in its operation, and that a +man who begins life by impaling flies, will find a delight in torturing +his fellow creatures before he closes it. We have heard that even at +school these poetical propensities were strongly manifested in Lord +BYRON, and that he began his satirical career against those persons to +whom the formation of his mind was entrusted. From his schoolmaster he +turned the oestrum of his opening genius to his guardian and uncle, the +Earl of CARLISLE. We cannot believe that the Noble Person's conduct has +in this instance been a perfect contrast to the general tenor of his +life. We have heard, that during his guardianship he tripled the amount +of his nephew's fortune. If the Earl of CARLISLE was satisfied with his +own 'conscia mens recti', if he wanted no thanks, he must at least have +been much surprised to find such attentions and services rewarded with a +libel, in which not only his literary accomplishments, but his bodily +infirmities, were made the subject of public ridicule. The Noble Earl +was certainly at liberty to treat such personal attacks with the +contempt which they deserve, but since his Sovereign is become the +object of a vile and unprovoked libel, he will no doubt draw the +attention of his Peers to a new case of outrage to good order and +government, which has been unfortunately furnished by his own nephew. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +III. THE SUN. + + +(1) LORD BYRON AND THE 'MORNING CHRONICLE' + +('The Sun', February 4, 1814). + +That poetical Peer, Lord BYRON, knowing full well that anything +insulting to his Prince or injurious to his country would be most +thankfully received and published by the 'Morning Chronicle', did in +March, 1812, send the following loyal and patriotic lines to that loyal +and patriotic Paper, in which of course they appeared: + + + "To A LADY WEEPING. + + "Weep, daughter of a Royal line, + _A Sire's disgrace, a realm's decay:_ + Ah! happy! if each tear of thine + Could wash a father's _fault_ away! + + "Weep--for thy tears are Virtue's tears-- + Auspicious to these suffering isles: + And be each drop, in future years, + Repaid thee by thy people's smiles!" + + +These lines the 'Morning Chronicle', in the following paragraph of +yesterday, informs us were aimed at the PRINCE REGENT, and addressed to +the Princess CHARLOTTE: + + "'The Courier' is indignant at the discovery now made by Lord BYRON, + that he was the author of 'the Verses to a Young Lady weeping,' which + were inserted about a twelvemonth ago in 'the Morning Chronicle'. The + Editor thinks it audacious in a hereditary Counsellor of the King to + admonish the 'Heir Apparent'. It may not be 'courtly', but it is + certainly 'British', and we wish the kingdom had more such honest + advisers." + +No wonder the 'Courier', and every loyal man, should be indignant at the +discovery (made by the republication of these worthless lines, in the +Noble Lord's new Volume) that this gross insult came from the pen of "a +hereditary Counsellor of the KING! "No wonder every good subject should +execrate this novel and disagreeable mode of "'admonishing' the Heir +Apparent," which is further from being British than it is from being +Courtly; for, from Courtier baseness may be expected, but from a Briton +no such infamous dereliction of his duty as is involved in a malignant, +'anonymous' attack by a Peer of the Realm upon the person exercising the +Sovereign Authority of his Country. But the assertions of Lord BYRON are +as false as they are audacious. What was the "Sire's Disgrace" to be +thus bewept? He preferred the independence of the Crown to the arrogant +dictation of a haughty Aristocracy, who desired to hold him in +Leading-strings. It was then, amid a "Realm's (fancied) decay," because +this Faction were not admitted to supreme power, that his Royal +Highness's early friends drunk his health in contemptuous silence, while +their more vulgar partizans "at the lower end of the Hall" hissed and +hooted the royal name. But mark the reverse since March, 1812, a reverse +which it might have been thought would have induced the Noble Lord, from +prudent motives, to have withheld this ill-timed publication! How is his +Royal Highness's health toasted 'now'? With universal shouts and +acclamations. Treason itself dare not interpose a single discordant +sound save in its own private orgies! Where is 'now' the realm's decay? +oh short-sighted prognosticators of the prophecies! look around, and +dread the fate of the speakers of falsehood among the Jews of old, who +were stoned to death by the people! The wide world furnishes the answer +to your selfish croakings, and tells Lord BYRON that he is destitute of +at least one of the qualities of an inspired Bard. + +Perhaps we might add another, viz. honesty in acknowledging his +plagiarisms, one of which (as we have already said more than his silly +verse above quoted deserves, except from the rank of its author) we +shall take the liberty of stating to the Public. + +The 'Bride of Abydos' begins, something in the stile of an old ballad, +thus: + + "Know ye the land where the cypress and myrtle + Are emblems of deeds that are done in their clime, + Where the rage of the vulture--the love of the turtle-- + Now melt into sorrow--now madden to crime?-- + Know ye the land of the cedar and vine? + Where the flowers ever blossom, the beams ever shine, + Where the light wings of Zephyr, oppress'd with perfume, + Wax faint o'er the gardens of Gúl in her bloom; + Where the citron and olive are fairest of fruit, + And the voice of the nightingale never is mute; + Where the tints of the earth, and the hues of the sky, + In colour though varied, in beauty may vie, + And the purple of Ocean is deepest in dye." + +The whole of which passage we take to be a paraphrase, and a bad +paraphrase too, of a song of the German of Göthe, of which the following +translation was published at Berlin in 1798: + + "Know'st thou the land, where citrons scent the gale, + Where glows the orange in the golden vale, + Where softer breezes fan the azure skies, + Where myrtles spring and prouder laurels rise? + "Know'st them the pile, the colonnade sustains, + Its splendid chambers and its rich domains, + Where breathing statues stand in bright array, + And seem, 'What ails thee, hapless maid?' to say? + + "Know'st thou the mount, where clouds obscure the day; + Where scarce the mule can trace his misty way; + Where lurks the dragon and her scaly brood; + And broken rocks oppose the headlong flood?" + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +(2) EPIGRAM ('The Sun', February 8, 1814). + + +On the Detection of Lord BYRON'S Plagiarism, in 'The Sun' of Friday last. + + + "That BYRON _borrows verses_ is well known, + But his _misanthropy_ is all his own." + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +(3) LORD BYRON ('The Sun', February 11, 1814). + + + We are informed from very good authority, that as soon as the House of + Lords meets again, a Peer of very independent principles and character + intends to give notice of a motion, occasioned by the late spontaneous + avowal of a copy of verses by Lord BYRON, addressed to the Princess + CHARLOTTE of WALES, in which he has taken the most unwarrantable + liberties with her august Father's character and conduct; this motion + being of a personal nature, it will be necessary to give the Noble + Satirist some days notice, that he may prepare himself for his defence + against a charge of so aggravated a nature, which may perhaps not be a + fit subject for a criminal prosecution, as the laws of the country, + not forseeing the probability of such a case ever occurring, under all + the present circumstances, have not made a provision against it; but + we know that each House of Parliament has a controul over its own + members, and that there are instances on the Journals of Parliament, + where an individual Peer has been suspended from all the privileges of + the high situation to which his birth entitled him, when by any + flagrant offence against good order and government, he has rendered + himself unworthy of exercising so important a trust. + +'Morning Post'. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + +(4) PARODY ('The Sun', February 16, 1814). + + +"'WEEP, DAUGHTER OF A ROYAL LINE!' + +"MOURN, dabbler in dull party rhyme, + Thy mind's disease, thy name's disgrace. +Ah, lucky! if the hand of Time + Should all thy Muse's crimes efface! + +"MOURN--for thy lays are Rancour's lays-- + Disgraceful to a Briton born; +And hence each theme of factious praise + Consigns thee to thy Country's scorn." + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Works of Lord Byron: Letters and +Journals, Volume 2., by Lord Byron + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BYRON: LETTERS AND JOURNALS, VOLUME 2 *** + +This file should be named 8blj210.txt or 8blj210.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 8blj211.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 8blj210a.txt + +Produced by Clytie Siddall, Keren Vergon, +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team! + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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