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diff --git a/16548-8.txt b/16548-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..df4356d --- /dev/null +++ b/16548-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11758 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Life of Lord Byron, Vol. III, by Thomas Moore + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Life of Lord Byron, Vol. III + With His Letters and Journals + +Author: Thomas Moore + +Release Date: August 19, 2005 [EBook #16548] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE OF LORD BYRON, VOL. III *** + + + + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Taavi Kalju and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +LIFE + +OF + +LORD BYRON: + +WITH HIS LETTERS AND JOURNALS. + +BY THOMAS MOORE, ESQ. + +IN SIX VOLUMES.--VOL. III. + +NEW EDITION. + +LONDON: JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. 1854. + + + + +CONTENTS OF VOL. III. + + +LETTERS AND JOURNALS OF LORD BYRON, WITH NOTICES OF HIS LIFE, from +February, 1814, to April, 1817. + + + + +NOTICES + +OF THE + +LIFE OF LORD BYRON. + + + + + +"JOURNAL, 1814. + +"February 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[1], 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. 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, +the destruction of the Custom-house, and a paragraph on me as long as my +pedigree, and vituperative, as usual. + +"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, &c. 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. + +[Footnote 1: Immediately on the appearance of The Corsair, (with those +obnoxious verses, "Weep, daughter of a royal line," appended to it,) a +series of attacks, not confined to Lord Byron himself, but aimed also at +all those who had lately become his friends, was commenced in the +Courier and Morning Post, and carried on through the greater part of the +months of February and March. The point selected by these writers, as a +ground of censure on the poet, was one which _now_, perhaps, even +themselves would agree to class among his claims to praise,--namely, the +atonement which he had endeavoured to make for the youthful violence of +his Satire by a measure of justice, amiable even in its overflowings, to +every one whom he conceived he had wronged. + +Notwithstanding the careless tone in which, here and elsewhere, he +speaks of these assaults, it is evident that they annoyed him;--an +effect which, in reading them over now, we should be apt to wonder they +could produce, did we not recollect the property which Dryden attributes +to "small wits," in common with certain other small animals:-- + + "We scarce could know they live, but that they _bite_." + +The following is a specimen of the terms in which these party scribes +could then speak of one of the masters of English song:--"They might +have slept in oblivion with Lord Carlisle's Dramas and Lord Byron's +Poems."--"Some certainly extol Lord Byron's Poem much, but most of the +best judges place his Lordship rather low in the list of our minor +poets."] + + +"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,' 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.'--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.'--'They fool me to the top +of my bent.' + + +"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.' 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! + +"More notes from Mad. de * * unanswered--and so they shall remain. 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 et natus ab Inacho, + Nil interest, an pauper, et infimâ + De gente, sub dio moreris, + Victima nil miserantis Orci. + * * * * * + Omnes eodem cogimur.' + +"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. + + +"Saturday, Feb. 19. + +"Just returned from seeing Kean 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 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. + + +"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 under-rating 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.' + +"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 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; and Alfieri and Monti's Aristodemo +_best_. They are more equal than the Tedeschi dramatists. + +"Answered--or, rather acknowledged--the receipt of young Reynolds's +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. + + +"Sunday, February 27. + +"Here I am, alone, instead of dining at Lord H.'s, where I was +asked,--but not inclined to go anywhere. Hobhouse says I am growing a +_loup garou_,--a solitary hobgoblin. True;--'I am myself alone.' The +last week has been passed in reading--seeing plays--now and then +visiters--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,' 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[2], my +fire-lighter,--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;'--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?' 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.' + +"Buonaparte is not yet beaten; but has rebutted Blucher, and repiqued +Swartzenburg. This it is to have a head. If he again wins, 'Væ victis!' + +[Footnote 2: 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 visiters. 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 visiters,--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 habiliments 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."] + + +"Sunday, March 6. + +"On Tuesday last dined with Rogers,--Madame de Staël, Mackintosh, +Sheridan, Erskine, and Payne Knight, Lady Donegall 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 * *'s thing, called * *, and answered (very sincerely) +that I thought it very bad for _her_, and worse than any of the others. +Afterwards thought it possible Lady Donegall, being Irish, might be a +patroness of * *, 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 C. called, and while sitting here, in came Merivale. During our +colloquy, C.(ignorant that M. 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 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 to be framed. It _is_ framed; and the +Emperor becomes his robes as if he had been hatched in them. + + +"March 7. + +"Rose at seven--ready by half-past eight--went to Mr. Hanson's, Berkeley +Square--went to church with his eldest daughter, Mary Anne (a good +girl), and gave her away to the Earl of Portsmouth. 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.--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, the blundering Venetian, who blew up the Acropolis at +Athens with a bomb, and be d----d 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 * * *. + + +"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 (the stock-jobbing hoaxer) must +vacate. Brougham 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 ploughshares 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, and +Jones well enough in Foppington. _What plays!_ what wit!--helas! +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!' + +"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;' but _I_ +never 'mistook my person,' 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 +e la musica_. + +"Sleepy, and must go to bed. + + +"Tuesday, March 15. + +"Dined yesterday with R., Mackintosh, and Sharpe. Sheridan could not +come. Sharpe told several very amusing anecdotes of Henderson, the +actor. Stayed till late, and came home, having drank 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.' +_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 walls _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. + +"W.W. called--Lord Erskine, Lord Holland, &c. &c. 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 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,' &c. &c. &c. and his own +poetry. It is a lengthy poem, and a long preface, with a 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_, 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. + + +"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' (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.' What the devil had I to +do with scribbling? It is too late to enquire, 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. + + +"Sunday, March 20. + +"I intended to go to Lady Hardwicke's, 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 to morrow--Lady Heathcote's +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, 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. 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. + +"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 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[3], 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. + +[Footnote 3: Part of this passage has been already extracted, but I have +allowed it to remain here in its original position, on account of the +singularly sudden manner in which it is introduced.] + + +"Tuesday, March 22. + +"Last night, _party_ at Lansdowne House. To-night, _party_ at Lady +Charlotte Greville's--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 eldest daughter, Lady C.L. 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, &c. &c., have not translated that part +of the Moniteur, with additional comments. + +"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.' + + +"Albany, March 28. + +"This night got into my new apartments, 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.' Let me see--Ward, the +Hollands, the Lambs, Rogers, &c. &c.--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, &c. the +characters of hell to trace.' I must set about some employment soon; my +heart begins to eat _itself_ again. + + +"April 8. + +"Out of town six days. On my return, find 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[4]; but it closed again, +wedged his hands, and now the beasts--lion, bear, down to the dirtiest +jackall--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 4: He adopted this thought afterwards in his Ode to Napoleon, +as well as most of the historical examples in the following paragraph.] + + +"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?' '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.' +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?' I knew they were light in +the balance of mortality; but I thought their living dust weighed more +_carats_. 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.' But I won't give him up even now; +though all his admirers have, 'like the thanes, fallen from him.' + + +"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.[5] 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 one hour--written an ode to Napoleon +Buonaparte--copied it--eaten six biscuits--drunk four bottles of soda +water--redde away the rest of my time--besides giving poor * * 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 5: "As much company," says Pope, "as I have kept, and as much +as I love it, I love reading better, and would rather be employed in +reading than in the most agreeable conversation."] + + +"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.' + +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.' 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.'" + + * * * * * + +The perusal of this singular Journal having made the reader acquainted +with the chief occurrences that marked the present period of his +history--the publication of The Corsair, the attacks upon him in the +newspapers, &c.--there only remains for me to add his correspondence at +the same period, by which the moods and movements of his mind, during +these events, will be still further illustrated. + + * * * * * + +TO MR. MURRAY. + + "Sunday, Jan. 2. 1814. + + "Excuse this dirty paper--it is the _pen_ultimate half-sheet of a + quire. Thanks for your book and the Ln. Chron., which I return. The + Corsair is copied, and now at Lord Holland's; but I wish Mr. + Gifford to have it to-night. + + "Mr. Dallas is very _perverse_; so that I have offended both him + and you, when I really meaned to do good, at least to one, and + certainly not to annoy either.[6] But I shall manage him, I + hope.--I am pretty confident of the _Tale_ itself; but one cannot + be sure. If I get it from Lord Holland, it shall be sent. + + "Yours," &c. + +[Footnote 6: He had made a present of the copyright of "The Corsair" to +Mr. Dallas, who thus describes the manner in which the gift was +bestowed:--"On the 28th of December, I called in the morning on Lord +Byron, whom I found composing 'The Corsair.' He had been working upon it +but a few days, and he read me the portion he had written. After some +observations, he said, 'I have a great mind--I will.' He then added that +he should finish it soon, and asked me to accept of the copyright. I was +much surprised. He had, before he was aware of the value of his works, +declared that he never would take money for them, and that I should have +the whole advantage of all he wrote. This declaration became morally +void when the question was about thousands, instead of a few hundreds; +and I perfectly agree with the admired and admirable author of Waverley, +that 'the wise and good accept not gifts which are made in heat of +blood, and which may be after repented of.'--I felt this on the sale of +'Childe Harold,' and observed it to him. The copyright of 'The Giaour' +and 'The Bride of Abydos' remained undisposed of, though the poems were +selling rapidly, nor had I the slightest notion that he would ever again +give me a copyright. But as he continued in the resolution of not +appropriating the sale of his works to his own use, I did not scruple to +accept that of 'The Corsair,' and I thanked him. He asked me to call and +hear the portions read as he wrote them. I went every morning, and was +astonished at the rapidity of his composition. He gave me the poem +complete on New-year's day, 1814, saying, that my acceptance of it gave +him great pleasure, and that I was fully at liberty to publish it with +any bookseller I pleased, independent of the profit." + +Out of this last-mentioned permission arose the momentary embarrassment +between the noble poet and his publisher, to which the above notes +allude.] + + * * * * * + +TO MR. MURRAY. + + ["Jan. 1814.] + + "I will answer your letter this evening; in the mean time, it may + be sufficient to say, that there was no intention on my part to + annoy you, but merely to _serve_ Dallas, and also to rescue myself + from a possible imputation that _I_ had other objects than fame in + writing so frequently. Whenever I avail myself of any profit + arising from my pen, depend upon it, it is not for my own + convenience; at least it never has been so, and I hope never will. + + "P.S. I shall answer this evening, and will set all right about + Dallas. I thank you for your expressions of personal regard, which + I can assure you I do not lightly value." + + * * * * * + +LETTER 155. TO MR. MOORE. + + "January 6. 1814. + + "I have got a devil of a long story in the press, entitled 'The + Corsair,' in the regular heroic measure. It is a pirate's isle, + peopled with my own creatures, and you may easily suppose they do a + world of mischief through the three cantos. Now for your + dedication--if you will accept it. This is positively my last + experiment on public _literary_ opinion, till I turn my thirtieth + year,--if so be I flourish until that downhill period. I have a + confidence for you--a perplexing one to me, and, just at present, + in a state of abeyance in itself. + + "However, we shall see. In the mean time, you may amuse yourself + with my suspense, and put all the justices of peace in requisition, + in case I come into your county with 'hackbut bent.' + + "Seriously, whether I am to hear from her or him, it is a _pause_, + which I shall fill up with as few thoughts of my own as I can + borrow from other people. Any thing is better than stagnation; and + now, in the interregnum of my autumn and a strange summer + adventure, which I don't like to think of, (I don't mean * *'s, + however, which is laughable only,) the antithetical state of my + lucubrations makes me alive, and Macbeth can 'sleep no more:'--he + was lucky in getting rid of the drowsy sensation of waking again. + + "Pray write to me. I must send you a copy of the letter of + dedication. When do you come out? I am sure we don't _clash_ this + time, for I am all at sea, and in action,--and a wife, and a + mistress, &c. + + "Thomas, thou art a happy fellow; but if you wish us to be so, you + must come up to town, as you did last year: and we shall have a + world to say, and to see, and to hear. Let me hear from you. + + "P.S. Of course you will keep my secret, and don't even talk in + your sleep of it. Happen what may, your dedication is ensured, + being already written; and I shall copy it out fair to-night, in + case business or amusement--_Amant alterna Camænæ_." + + * * * * * + +TO MR. MURRAY. + + "Jan. 7. 1814. + + "You don't like the dedication--very well; there is another: but + you will send the other to Mr. Moore, that he may know I _had_ + written it. I send also mottoes for the cantos. I think you will + allow that an elephant may be more sagacious, but cannot be more + docile. + + "Yours, BN. + + "The _name_ is again altered to _Medora_"[7] + +[Footnote 7: It had been at first Genevra,--not Francesca, as Mr. Dallas +asserts.] + + * * * * * + +LETTER 156. TO MR. MOORE. + + "January 8. 1814. + + "As it would not be fair to press you into a dedication, without + previous notice, I send you _two_, and I will tell you _why two_. + The first, Mr. M., who sometimes takes upon him the critic (and I + bear it from _astonishment_), says, may do you _harm_--God + forbid!--this alone makes me listen to him. The fact is, he is a + damned Tory, and has, I dare swear, something of _self_, which I + cannot divine, at the bottom of his objection, as it is the + allusion to Ireland to which he objects. But he be d----d--though a + good fellow enough (your sinner would not be worth a d----n). + + "Take your choice;--no one, save he and Mr. Dallas, has seen + either, and D. is quite on my side, and for the first.[8] If I can + but testify to you and the world how truly I admire and esteem you, + I shall be quite satisfied. As to prose, I don't know Addison's + from Johnson's; but I will try to mend my cacology. Pray perpend, + pronounce, and don't be offended with either. + + "My last epistle would probably put you in a fidget. But the devil, + who _ought_ to be civil on such occasions, proved so, and took my + letter to the right place. + + "Is it not odd?--the very fate I said she had escaped from * *, she + has now undergone from the worthy * *. Like Mr. Fitzgerald, shall I + not lay claim to the character of 'Vates?'--as he did in the + Morning Herald for prophesying the fall of Buonaparte,--who, by + the by, I don't think is yet fallen. I wish he would rally and + route your legitimate sovereigns, having a mortal hate to all royal + entails.--But I am scrawling a treatise. Good night. Ever," &c. + +[Footnote 8: The first was, of course, the one that I preferred. The +other ran as follows:-- + + "January 7. 1814. + + "My dear Moore, + + "I had written to you a long letter of dedication, which I + suppress, because, though it contained something relating to you + which every one had been glad to hear, yet there was too much about + politics, and poesy, and all things whatsoever, ending with that + topic on which most men are fluent, and none very amusing--_one's + self_. It might have been re-written--but to what purpose? My + praise could add nothing to your well-earned and firmly-established + fame; and with my most hearty admiration of your talents, and + delight in your conversation, you are already acquainted. In + availing myself of your friendly permission to inscribe this poem + to you, I can only wish the offering were as worthy your acceptance + as your regard is dear to, + + "Yours, most affectionately and faithfully, + + "BYRON." +] + + * * * * * + +TO MR. MURRAY. + + "January 11. 1814. + + "Correct this proof by Mr. Gifford's (and from the MSS.), + particularly as to the _pointing_. I have added a section for + _Gulnare_, to fill up the parting, and dismiss her more + ceremoniously. If Mr. Gifford or you dislike, 'tis but a _sponge_ + and another midnight better employed than in yawning over Miss * *; + who, by the by, may soon return the compliment. + + "Wednesday or Thursday. + + "P.S. I have redde * *. It is full of praises of Lord + Ellenborough!!! (from which I infer near and dear relations at the + bar), and * * * *. + + "I do not love Madame de Staël; but, depend upon it, she beats all + your natives hollow as an authoress, in my opinion; and I would not + say this if I could help it. + + "P.S. Pray report my best acknowledgments to Mr. Gifford in any + words that may best express how truly his kindness obliges me. I + won't bore him with _lip_ thanks or _notes_." + + * * * * * + +TO MR. MOORE. + + "January 13. 1814. + + "I have but a moment to write, but all is as it should be. I have + said really far short of my opinion, but if you think enough, I am + content. Will you return the proof by the post, as I leave town on + Sunday, and have no other corrected copy. I put 'servant,' as being + less familiar before the public; because I don't like presuming + upon our friendship to infringe upon forms. As to the other _word_, + you may be sure it is one I cannot hear or repeat too often. + + "I write in an agony of haste and confusion.--Perdonate." + + * * * * * + +LETTER 157. TO MR. MURRAY. + + "January 15. 1814. + + "Before any proof goes to Mr. Gifford, it may be as well to revise + this, where there are _words omitted_, faults committed, and the + devil knows what. As to the dedication, I cut out the parenthesis + of _Mr._[9], but not another word shall move unless for a better. + Mr. Moore has seen, and decidedly preferred the part your Tory bile + sickens at. If every syllable were a rattle-snake, or every letter + a pestilence, they should not be expunged. Let those who cannot + swallow chew the expressions on Ireland; or should even Mr. Croker + array himself in all his terrors them, I care for none of you, + except Gifford; and he won't abuse me, except I deserve it--which + will at least reconcile me to his justice. As to the poems in + Hobhouse's volume, the translation from the Romaic is well enough; + but the best of the other volume (of _mine_, I mean) have been + already printed. But do as you please--only, as I shall be absent + when you come out, _do_, _pray_, let Mr. _Dallas_ and _you_ have a + care of the _press_. Yours," &c. + +[Footnote 9: He had at first, after the words "Scott alone," inserted, +in a parenthesis,--"He will excuse the _Mr._----'we do not say _Mr._ +Cæsar.'"] + + * * * * * + +TO MR. MURRAY. + + ["1814. January 16.] + + "I do believe that the devil never created or perverted such a + fiend as the fool of a printer.[10] I am obliged to enclose you, + _luckily_ for me, this _second_ proof, _corrected_, because there + is an ingenuity in his blunders peculiar to himself. Let the press + be guided by the present sheet. Yours, &c. + + "_Burn the other_. + + "Correct _this also_ by the other in some things which I may have + forgotten. There is one mistake he made, which, if it had stood, I + would most certainly have broken his neck." + +[Footnote 10: The amusing rages into which he was thrown by the printer +were vented not only in these notes, but frequently on the proof-sheets +themselves. Thus, a passage in the dedication having been printed "the +first of her bands in estimation," he writes in the margin, "bards, not +bands--was there ever such a stupid misprint?" and, in correcting a line +that had been curtailed of its due number of syllables, he says, "Do +_not_ omit words--it is quite enough to alter or mis-spell them."] + + * * * * * + +LETTER 158. TO MR. MURRAY. + + "Newstead Abbey, January 22. 1814. + + "You will be glad to hear of my safe arrival here. The time of my + return will depend upon the weather, which is so impracticable, + that this letter has to advance through more snows than ever + opposed the Emperor's retreat. The roads are impassable, and return + impossible for the present; which I do not regret, as I am much at + my ease, and _six-and-twenty_ complete this day--a very pretty age, + if it would always last. Our coals are excellent, our fire-places + large, my cellar full, and my head empty; and I have not yet + recovered my joy at leaving London. If any unexpected turn occurred + with my purchasers, I believe I should hardly quit the place at + all; but shut my door, and let my beard grow. + + "I forgot to mention (and I hope it is unnecessary) that the lines + beginning--_Remember him_, &c. must _not_ appear with _The + Corsair_. You may slip them in with the smaller pieces newly + annexed to _Childe Harold_; but on no account permit them to be + appended to The Corsair. Have the goodness to recollect this + particularly. + + "The books I have brought with me are a great consolation for the + confinement, and I bought more as we came along. In short, I never + consult the thermometer, and shall not put up prayers for a _thaw_, + unless I thought it would sweep away the rascally invaders of + France. Was ever such a thing as Blucher's proclamation? + + "Just before I left town, Kemble paid me the compliment of desiring + me to write a _tragedy_; I wish I could, but I find my scribbling + mood subsiding--not before it was time; but it is lucky to check it + at all. If I lengthen my letter, you will think it is coming on + again; so, good-by. Yours alway, + + "B. + + "P.S. If you hear any news of battle or retreat on the part of the + Allies (as they call them), pray send it. He has my best wishes to + manure the fields of France with an _invading_ army. I hate + invaders of all countries, and have no patience with the cowardly + cry of exultation over him, at whose name you all turned whiter + than the snow to which you are indebted for your triumphs. + + "I open my letter to thank you for yours just received. The 'Lines + to a Lady Weeping' must go with The Corsair. I care nothing for + consequence, on this point. My politics are to me like a young + mistress to an old man--the worse they grow, the fonder I become of + them. As Mr. Gilford likes the 'Portuguese Translation[11],' pray + insert it as an addition to The Corsair. + + "In all points of difference between Mr. Gifford and Mr. Dallas, + let the first keep his place; and in all points of difference + between Mr. Gifford and Mr. Anybody-else, I shall abide by the + former; if I am wrong, I can't help it. But I would rather not be + right with any other person. So there is an end of that matter. + After all the trouble he has taken about me and mine, I should be + very ungrateful to feel or act otherwise. Besides, in point of + judgment, he is not to be lowered by a comparison. In _politics_, + he may be right too; but that with me is a _feeling_, and I can't + _torify_ my nature." + +[Footnote 11: His translation of the pretty Portuguese song, "Tu mi +chamas." He was tempted to try another version of this ingenious +thought, which is, perhaps, still more happy, and has never, I believe, +appeared in print. + + "You call me still your _life_--ah! change the word-- + Life is as transient as th' inconstant's sigh; + Say rather I'm your _soul_, more just that name, + For, like the soul, my love can never die." +] + + * * * * * + +LETTER 159. TO MR. MURRAY. + + "Newstead Abbey, February 4. 1814. + + "I need not say that your obliging letter was very welcome, and not + the less so for being unexpected. + + "It doubtless gratifies me much that our _finale_ has pleased, and + that the curtain drops gracefully.[12] _You_ deserve it should, for + your promptitude and good nature in arranging immediately with Mr. + Dallas; and I can assure you that I esteem your entering so warmly + into the subject, and writing to me so soon upon it, as a personal + obligation. We shall now part, I hope, satisfied with each other. I + _was_ and am quite in earnest in my prefatory promise not to + intrude any more; and this not from any affectation, but a thorough + conviction that it is the best policy, and is at least respectful + to my readers, as it shows that I would not willingly run the risk + of forfeiting their favour in future. Besides, I have other views + and objects, and think that I shall keep this resolution; for, + since I left London, though shut up, _snow_-bound, _thaw_-bound, + and tempted with all kinds of paper, the dirtiest of ink, and the + bluntest of pens, I have not even been haunted by a wish to put + them to their combined uses, except in letters of business. My + rhyming propensity is quite gone, and I feel much as I did at + Patras on recovering from my fever--weak, but in health, and only + afraid of a relapse. I do most fervently hope I never shall. + + "I see by the Morning Chronicle there hath been discussion in the + _Courier_; and I read in the Morning Post a wrathful letter about + Mr. Moore, in which some Protestant Reader has made a sad confusion + about _India_ and Ireland. + + "You are to do as you please about the smaller poems; but I think + removing them _now_ from The Corsair looks like _fear_; and if so, + you must allow me not to be pleased. I should also suppose that, + after the _fuss_ of these newspaper esquires, they would materially + assist the circulation of The Corsair; an object I should imagine + at _present_ of more importance to _yourself_ than Childe Harold's + seventh appearance. Do as you like; but don't allow the withdrawing + that _poem_ to draw any imputation of _dismay_ upon me. + + "Pray make my respects to Mr. Ward, whose praise I value most + highly, as you well know; it is in the approbation of such men that + fame becomes worth having. To Mr. Gifford I am always grateful, + and surely not less so now than ever. And so good night to my + authorship. + + "I have been sauntering and dozing here very quietly, and not + unhappily. You will be happy to hear that I have completely + established my title-deeds as marketable, and that the purchaser + has succumbed to the terms, and fulfils them, or is to fulfil them + forthwith. He is now here, and we go on very amicably + together,--one in each _wing_ of the Abbey. We set off on Sunday--I + for town, he for Cheshire. + + "Mrs. Leigh is with me--much pleased with the place, and less so + with me for parting with it, to which not even the price can + reconcile her. Your parcel has not yet arrived--at least the + _Mags_. &c.; but I have received Childe Harold and The Corsair. + + "I believe both are very correctly printed, which is a great + satisfaction. + + "I thank you for wishing me in town; but I think one's success is + most felt at a distance, and I enjoy my solitary self-importance in + an agreeable sulky way of my own, upon the strength of your + letter--for which I once more thank you, and am, very truly, &c. + + "P.S. Don't you think Buonaparte's next _publication_ will be + rather expensive to the Allies? Perry's Paris letter of yesterday + looks very reviving. What a Hydra and Briareus it is! I wish they + would pacify: there is no end to this campaigning." + +[Footnote 12: It will be recollected that he had announced The Corsair +as "the last production with which he should trespass on public patience +for some years."] + + * * * * * + +LETTER 160. TO MR. MURRAY. + + "Newstead Abbey, February 5. 1814. + + "I quite forgot, in my answer of yesterday, to mention that I have + no means of ascertaining whether the Newark _Pirate_ has been doing + what you say.[13] If so, he is a rascal, and a _shabby_ rascal too; + and if his offence is punishable by law or pugilism, he shall be + fined or buffeted. Do you try and discover, and I will make some + enquiry here. Perhaps some _other_ in town may have gone on + printing, and used the same deception. + + "The _fac-simile_ is omitted in Childe Harold, which is very + awkward, as there is a _note_ expressly on the subject. Pray + _replace_ it as _usual_. + + "On second and third thoughts, the withdrawing the small poems from + The Corsair (even to add to Childe Harold) looks like shrinking and + shuffling after the fuss made upon one of them by the Tories. Pray + replace them in The Corsair's appendix. I am sorry that Childe + Harold requires some and such abetments to make him move off; but, + if you remember, I told you his popularity would not be permanent. + It is very lucky for the author that he had made up his mind to a + temporary reputation in time. The truth is, I do not think that any + of the present day (and least of all, one who has not consulted the + flattering side of human nature,) have much to hope from posterity; + and you may think it affectation very probably, but, to me, my + present and past success has appeared very singular, since it was + in the teeth of so many prejudices. I almost think people like to + be contradicted. If Childe Harold flags, it will hardly be worth + while to go on with the engravings: but do as you please; I have + done with the whole concern; and the enclosed lines, written years + ago, and copied from my skull-cap, are among the last with which + you will be troubled. If you like, add them to Childe Harold, if + only for the sake of another outcry. You received so long an answer + yesterday, that I will not intrude on you further than to repeat + myself, + + "Yours, &c. + + "P.S. Of course, in reprinting (if you have occasion), you will + take great care to be correct. The present editions seem very much + so, except in the last note of Childe Harold, where the word + _responsible_ occurs twice nearly together; correct the second into + _answerable_." + +[Footnote 13: Reprinting the "Hours of Idleness."] + + * * * * * + +TO MR. MURRAY. + + "Newark, February 6. 1814. + + "I am thus far on my way to town. Master Ridge[14] I have seen, and + he owns to having _reprinted_ some _sheets_, to make up a few + complete remaining copies! I have now given him fair warning, and + if he plays such tricks again, I must either get an injunction, or + call for an account of profits (as I never have parted with the + copyright), or, in short, any thing vexatious, to repay him in his + own way. If the weather does not relapse, I hope to be in town in a + day or two. Yours," &c. + +[Footnote 14: The printer at Newark.] + + * * * * * + +TO MR. MURRAY. + + "February 7. 1814. + + "I see all the papers in a sad commotion with those eight lines; + and the Morning Post, in particular, has found out that I am a sort + of Richard III.--deformed in mind and _body_. The _last_ piece of + information is not very new to a man who passed five years at a + public school. + + "I am very sorry you cut out those lines for Childe Harold. Pray + re-insert them in their old place in 'The Corsair.'" + + * * * * * + +LETTER 161. TO MR. HODGSON. + + "February 28. 1814. + + "There is a youngster, and a clever one, named Reynolds, who has + just published a poem called 'Safie,' published by Cawthorne. He is + in the most natural and fearful apprehension of the Reviewers; and + as you and I both know by experience the effect of such things upon + a _young_ mind, I wish you would take his production into + dissection, and do it _gently_. _I_ cannot, because it is inscribed + to me; but I assure you this is not my motive for wishing him to be + tenderly entreated, but because I know the misery at his time of + life, of untoward remarks upon first appearance. + + "Now for _self_. Pray thank your _cousin_--it is just as it should + be, to my liking, and probably _more_ than will suit any one + else's. I hope and trust that you are well and well doing. Peace be + with you. Ever yours, my dear friend." + + * * * * * + +LETTER 162. TO MR. MOORE. + + "February 10. 1814. + + "I arrived in town late yesterday evening, having been absent three + weeks, which I passed in Notts. quietly and pleasantly. You can + have no conception of the uproar the eight lines on the little + Royalty's weeping in 1812 (now republished) have occasioned. The R + * *, who had always thought them _yours_, chose--God knows why--on + discovering them to be mine, to be _affected_ 'in sorrow rather + than anger.' The Morning Post, Sun, Herald, Courier, have all been + in hysterics ever since. M. is in a fright, and wanted to shuffle; + and the abuse against me in all directions is vehement, unceasing, + loud--some of it good, and all of it hearty. I feel a little + compunctious as to the R * *'s _regret_;--'would he had been only + angry! but I fear him not.' + + "Some of these same assailments you have probably seen. My person + (which is excellent for 'the nonce') has been denounced in verses, + the more like the subject, inasmuch as they halt exceedingly. Then, + in another, I am an _atheist_, a _rebel_, and, at last, the _devil_ + (_boiteux_, I presume). My demonism seems to be a female's + conjecture; if so, perhaps, I could convince her that I am but a + mere mortal,--if a queen of the Amazons may be believed, who says + [Greek: ariston chôlos oiphei]. I quote from memory, so my Greek is + probably deficient; but the passage is _meant_ to mean * *. + + "Seriously, I am in, what the learned call, a dilemma, and the + vulgar, a scrape; and my friends desire me not to be in a passion; + and, like Sir Fretful, I assure them that I am 'quite calm,'--but + I am nevertheless in a fury. + + "Since I wrote thus far, a friend has come in, and we have been + talking and buffooning till I have quite lost the thread of my + thoughts; and, as I won't send them unstrung to you, good morning, + and + + "Believe me ever, &c. + + "P.S. Murray, during my absence, _omitted_ the Tears in several of + the copies. I have made him replace them, and am very wroth with + his qualms,--'as the wine is poured out, let it be drunk to the + dregs.'" + + * * * * * + +TO MR. MURRAY. + + "February 10. 1814. + + "I am much better, and indeed quite well, this morning. I have + received _two_, but I presume there are more of the _Ana_, + subsequently, and also something previous, to which the Morning + Chronicle replied. You also mentioned a parody on the _Skull_. I + wish to see them all, because there may be things that require + notice either by pen or person. + + "Yours, &c. + + "You need not trouble yourself to answer this; but send me the + things when you get them." + + * * * * * + +TO MR. MURRAY. + + "February 12. 1814. + + "If you have copies of the 'Intercepted Letters,' Lady Holland + would be glad of a volume; and when you have served others, have + the goodness to think of your humble servant. + + "You have played the devil by that injudicious _suppression_, which + you did totally without my consent. Some of the papers have exactly + said what might be expected. Now I _do_ not, and _will_ not be + supposed to shrink, although myself and every thing belonging to me + were to perish with my memory. Yours, &c. BN. + + "P.S. Pray attend to what I stated yesterday on _technical_ + topics." + + * * * * * + +LETTER 163. TO MR. MURRAY. + + "Monday, February 14. 1814. + + "Before I left town yesterday, I wrote you a note, which I presume + you received. I have heard so many different accounts of _your_ + proceedings, or rather of those of others towards _you_, in + consequence of the publication of these everlasting lines, that I + am anxious to hear from yourself the real state of the case. + Whatever responsibility, obloquy, or effect is to arise from the + publication, should surely _not_ fall upon you in any degree; and I + can have no objection to your stating, as distinctly and publicly + as you please, _your_ unwillingness to publish them, and my own + obstinacy upon the subject. Take any course you please to vindicate + _yourself_, but leave me to fight my own way; and, as I before + said, do not _compromise_ me by any thing which may look like + _shrinking_ on my part; as for your own, make the best of it. + Yours, BN." + + * * * * * + +LETTER 164. TO MR. ROGERS. + + "February 16. 1814. + + "My dear Rogers, + + "I wrote to Lord Holland briefly, but I hope distinctly, on the + subject which has lately occupied much of my conversation with him + and you.[15] As things now stand, upon that topic my determination + must be unalterable. + + "I declare to you most sincerely that there is no human being on + whose regard and esteem I set a higher value than on Lord + Holland's; and, as far as concerns himself, I would concede even to + humiliation, without any view to the future, and solely from my + sense of his conduct as to the past. For the rest, I conceive that + I have already done all in my power by the suppression.[16] If that + is not enough, they must act as they please; but I will not 'teach + my tongue a most inherent baseness,' come what may. You will + probably be at the Marquis Lansdowne's to-night. I am asked, but I + am not sure that I shall be able to go. Hobhouse will be there. I + think, if you knew him well, you would like him. + + "Believe me always yours very affectionately, + + "B." + +[Footnote 15: Relative to a proposed reconciliation between Lord +Carlisle and himself.] + +[Footnote 16: Of the Satire.] + + * * * * * + +LETTER 165. TO MR. ROGERS. + + "February 16. 1814. + + "If Lord Holland is satisfied, as far as regards himself and Lady + Hd., and as this letter expresses him to be, it is enough. + + "As for any impression the public may receive from the revival of + the lines on Lord Carlisle, let them keep it,--the more favourable + for him, and the worse for me,--better for all. + + "All the sayings and doings in the world shall not make me utter + another word of conciliation to any thing that breathes. I shall + bear what I can, and what I cannot I shall resist. The worst they + could do would be to exclude me from society. I have never courted + it, nor, I may add, in the general sense of the word, enjoyed + it--and 'there is a world elsewhere!' + + "Any thing remarkably injurious, I have the same means of repaying + as other men, with such interest as circumstances may annex to it. + + "Nothing but the necessity of adhering to regimen prevents me from + dining with you to-morrow. + + "I am yours most truly, + + "BN." + + * * * * * + +LETTER 166. TO MR. MOORE. + + "February 16. 1814. + + "You may be assured that the only prickles that sting from the + Royal hedgehog are those which possess a torpedo property, and may + benumb some of my friends. _I_ am quite silent, and 'hush'd in grim + repose.' The frequency of the assaults has weakened their + effects,--if ever they had any;--and, if they had had much, I + should hardly have held my tongue, or withheld my fingers. It is + something quite new to attack a man for abandoning his resentments. + I have heard that previous praise and subsequent vituperation were + rather ungrateful, but I did not know that it was wrong to + endeavour to do justice to those who did not wait till I had made + some amends for former and boyish prejudices, but received me into + their friendship, when I might still have been their enemy. + + "You perceive justly that I must _intentionally_ have made my + fortune like Sir Francis Wronghead. It were better if there were + more merit in my independence, but it really is something nowadays + to be independent at all, and the _less_ temptation to be + otherwise, the more uncommon the case, in these times of + paradoxical servility. I believe that most of our hates and likings + have been hitherto nearly the same; but from henceforth they must, + of necessity, be one and indivisible,--and now for it! I am for any + weapon,--the pen, till one can find something sharper, will do for + a beginning. + + "You can have no conception of the ludicrous solemnity with which + these two stanzas have been treated. The Morning Post gave notice + of an intended motion in the House of my brethren on the subject, + and God he knows what proceedings besides;--and all this, as + Bedreddin in the 'Nights' says, 'for making a cream tart without + pepper.' This last piece of intelligence is, I presume, too + laughable to be true; and the destruction of the Custom-house + appears to have, in some degree, interfered with mine; added to + which, the last battle of Buonaparte has usurped the column + hitherto devoted to my bulletin. + + "I send you from this day's Morning Post the best which have + hitherto appeared on this 'impudent doggerel,' as the Courier calls + it. There was another about my _diet_, when a boy--not at all + bad--some time ago; but the rest are but indifferent. + + "I shall think about your _oratorical_ hint[17];--but I have never + set much upon 'that cast,' and am grown as tired as Solomon of + every thing, and of myself more than any thing. This is being what + the learned call philosophical, and the vulgar lack-a-daisical. I + am, however, always glad of a blessing[18]; pray, repeat yours + soon,--at least your letter, and I shall think the benediction + included. + + "Ever," &c. + +[Footnote 17: I had endeavoured to persuade him to take a part in +parliamentary affairs, and to exercise his talent for oratory more +frequently.] + +[Footnote 18: In concluding my letter, having said "God bless you!" I +added--"that is, if you have no objection."] + + * * * * * + +LETTER 167. TO MR. DALLAS. + + "February 17. 1814. + + "The Courier of this evening accuses me of having 'received and + pocketed' large sums for my works. I have never yet received, nor + wish to receive, a farthing for any. Mr. Murray offered a thousand + for The Giaour and Bride of Abydos, which I said was too much, and + that if he could afford it at the end of six months, I would then + direct how it might be disposed of; but neither then, nor at any + other period, have I ever availed myself of the profits on my own + account. For the republication of the Satire I refused four + hundred guineas; and for the previous editions I never asked nor + received a _sous_, nor for any writing whatever. I do not wish you + to do any thing disagreeable to yourself; there never was nor shall + be any conditions nor stipulations with regard to any accommodation + that I could afford you; and, on your part, I can see nothing + derogatory in receiving the copyright. It was only assistance + afforded to a worthy man, by one not quite so worthy. + + "Mr. Murray is going to contradict this [19]; but your name will + not be mentioned: for your own part, you are a free agent, and are + to do as you please. I only hope that now, as always, you will + think that I wish to take no unfair advantage of the accidental + opportunity which circumstances permitted me of being of use to + you. Ever," &c. + +[Footnote 19: The statement of the Courier, &c.] + + * * * * * + +In consequence of this letter, Mr. Dallas addressed an explanation to +one of the newspapers, of which the following is a part;--the remainder +being occupied with a rather clumsily managed defence of his noble +benefactor on the subject of the Stanzas. + +TO THE EDITOR OF THE MORNING POST. + + "Sir, + + "I have seen the paragraph in an evening paper, in which Lord Byron + is _accused_ of 'receiving and pocketing' large sums for his works. + I believe no one who knows him has the slightest suspicion of this + kind; but the assertion being public, I think it a justice I owe + to Lord Byron to contradict it publicly. I address this letter to + you for that purpose, and I am happy that it gives me an + opportunity at this moment to make some observations which I have + for several days been anxious to do publicly, but from which I have + been restrained by an apprehension that I should be suspected of + being prompted by his Lordship. + + "I take upon me to affirm, that Lord Byron never received a + shilling for any of his works. To my certain knowledge, the profits + of the Satire were left entirely to the publisher of it. The gift + of the copyright of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage I have already + publicly acknowledged in the dedication of the new edition of my + novels; and I now add my acknowledgment for that of The Corsair, + not only for the profitable part of it, but for the delicate and + delightful manner of bestowing it while yet unpublished. With + respect to his two other poems, The Giaour and The Bride of Abydos, + Mr. Murray, the publisher of them, can truly attest that no part of + the sale of them has ever touched his hands, or been disposed of + for his use. Having said thus much as to facts, I cannot but + express my surprise that it should ever be deemed a matter of + reproach that he should appropriate the pecuniary returns of his + works. Neither rank nor fortune seems to me to place any man above + this; for what difference does it make in honour and noble + feelings, whether a copyright be bestowed, or its value employed, + in beneficent purposes? I differ with my Lord Byron on this subject + as well as some others; and he has constantly, both by word and + action, shown his aversion to receiving money for his productions." + + * * * * * + +LETTER. 163. TO MR. MOORE. + + "February 26. 1814. + + "Dallas had, perhaps, have better kept silence;--but that was _his_ + concern, and, as his facts are correct, and his motive not + dishonourable to himself, I wished him well through it. As for his + interpretations of the lines, he and any one else may interpret + them as they please. I have and shall adhere to my taciturnity, + unless something very particular occurs to render this impossible. + Do _not you_ say a word. If any one is to speak, it is the person + principally concerned. The most amusing thing is, that every one + (to me) attributes the abuse to the _man they personally most + dislike!_--some say C * * r, some C * * e, others F * * d, &c. &c. + &c. I do not know, and have no clue but conjecture. If discovered, + and he turns out a hireling, he must be left to his wages; if a + cavalier, he must 'wink, and hold out his iron.' + + "I had some thoughts of putting the question to C * * r, but H., + who, I am sure, would not dissuade me if it were right, advised me + by all means _not_;--'that I had no right to take it upon + suspicion,' &c. &c. Whether H. is correct I am not aware, but he + believes himself so, and says there can be but one opinion on that + subject. This I am, at least, sure of, that he would never prevent + me from doing what he deemed the duty of a _preux_ chevalier. In + such cases--at least, in this country--we must act according to + usages. In considering this instance, I dismiss my own personal + feelings. Any man will and must fight, when necessary,--even + without a motive. _Here_, I should take it up really without much + resentment; for, unless a woman one likes is in the way, it is some + years since I felt a _long_ anger. But, undoubtedly, could I, or + may I, trace it to a man of station, I should and shall do what is + proper. + + "* * was angerly, but tried to conceal it. _You_ are not called + upon to avow the 'Twopenny,' and would only gratify them by so + doing. Do you not see the great object of all these fooleries is to + set him, and you, and me, and all persons whatsoever, by the + ears?--more especially those who are on good terms,--and nearly + succeeded. Lord H. wished me to _concede_ to Lord Carlisle--concede + to the devil!--to a man who used me ill? I told him, in answer, + that I would neither concede, nor recede on the subject, but be + silent altogether; unless any thing more could be said about Lady + H. and himself, who had been since my very good friends;--and there + it ended. This was no time for concessions to Lord C. + + "I have been interrupted, but shall write again soon. Believe me + ever, my dear Moore," &c. + + * * * * * + +Another of his friends having expressed, soon after, some intention of +volunteering publicly in his defence, he lost no time in repressing him +by the following sensible letter:-- + +LETTER 169. TO W * * W * *, ESQ. + + "February 28. 1814. + + "My dear W., + + "I have but a few moments to write to you. _Silence_ is the only + answer to the things you mention; nor should I regard that man as + my friend who said a word more on the subject. I care little for + attacks, but I will not submit to _defences_; and I do hope and + trust that _you_ have never entertained a serious thought of + engaging in so foolish a controversy. Dallas's letter was, to his + credit, merely as to facts which he had a right to state; _I_ + neither have nor shall take the least _public_ notice, nor permit + any one else to do so. If I discover the writer, then I may act in + a different manner; but it will not be in writing. + + "An expression in your letter has induced me to write this to you, + to entreat you not to interfere in any way in such a business,--it + is now nearly over, and depend upon it _they_ are much more + chagrined by my silence than they could be by the best defence in + the world. I do not know any thing that would vex me more than any + further reply to these things. + + "Ever yours, in haste, + + "B." + + * * * * * + +LETTER 170. TO MR. MOORE. + + "March 3. 1814. + + "My dear Friend, + + "I have a great mind to tell you that I _am_ 'uncomfortable,' if + only to make you come to town; where no one ever more delighted in + seeing you, nor is there any one to whom I would sooner turn for + consolation in my most vapourish moments. The truth is, I have 'no + lack of argument' to ponder upon of the most gloomy description, + but this arises from _other_ causes. Some day or other, when we are + _veterans_, I may tell you a tale of present and past times; and it + is not from want of confidence that I do not now,--but--but--always + a _but_ to the end of the chapter. + + "There is nothing, however, upon the _spot_ either to love or + hate;--but I certainly have subjects for both at no very great + distance, and am besides embarrassed between _three_ whom I know, + and one (whose name, at least,) I do not know. All this would be + very well if I had no heart; but, unluckily, I have found that + there is such a thing still about me, though in no very good + repair, and, also, that it has a habit of attaching itself to _one_ + whether I will or no. 'Divide et impera,' I begin to think, will + only do for politics. + + "If I discover the 'toad' as you call him, I shall 'tread,'--and + put spikes in my shoes to do it more effectually. The effect of all + these fine things I do not enquire much nor perceive. I believe * * + felt them more than either of us. People are civil enough, and I + have had no dearth of invitations,--none of which, however, I have + accepted. I went out very little last year, and mean to go about + still less. I have no passion for circles, and have long regretted + that I ever gave way to what is called a town life;--which, of all + the lives I ever saw (and they are nearly as many as Plutarch's), + seems to me to leave the least for the past and future. + + "How proceeds the poem? Do not neglect it, and I have no fears. I + need not say to you that your fame is dear to me,--I really might + say _dearer_ than my own; for I have lately begun to think my + things have been strangely over-rated; and, at any rate, whether or + not, I have done with them for ever. I may say to you what I would + not say to every body, that the last two were written, The Bride in + four, and The Corsair in ten days[20],--which I take to be a most + humiliating confession, as it proves my own want of judgment in + publishing, and the public's in reading things, which cannot have + stamina for permanent attention. 'So much for Buckingham.' + + "I have no dread of your being too hasty, and I have still less of + your failing. But I think a _year_ a very fair allotment of time to + a composition which is not to be Epic; and even Horace's 'Nonum + prematur' must have been intended for the Millennium, or some + longer-lived generation than ours. I wonder how much we should have + had of _him_, had he observed his own doctrines to the letter. + Peace be with you! Remember that I am always and most truly yours, + &c. + + "P.S. I never heard the 'report' you mention, nor, I dare say, many + others. But, in course, you, as well as others, have 'damned + good-natured friends,' who do their duty in the usual way. One + thing will make you laugh. * * * *" + +[Footnote 20: In asserting that he devoted but four days to the +composition of The Bride, he must be understood to refer only to the +first sketch of that poem,--the successive additions by which it was +increased to its present length having occupied, as we have seen, a much +longer period. The Corsair, on the contrary, was, from beginning to end, +struck off at a heat--there being but little alteration or addition +afterwards,--and the rapidity with which it was produced (being at the +rate of nearly two hundred lines a day) would be altogether incredible, +had we not his own, as well as his publisher's, testimony to the fact. +Such an achievement,--taking into account the surpassing beauty of the +work,--is, perhaps, wholly without a parallel in the history of Genius, +and shows that 'écrire _par passion_,' as Rousseau expresses it, may be +sometimes a shorter road to perfection than any that Art has ever struck +out.] + + * * * * * + +LETTER 171. TO MR. MOORE. + + "March 12. 1814. + + "Guess darkly, and you will seldom err. At present, I shall say no + more, and, perhaps--but no matter. I hope we shall some day meet, + and whatever years may precede or succeed it, I shall mark it with + the 'white stone' in my calendar. I am not sure that I shall not + soon be in your neighbourhood again. If so, and I am alone (as will + probably be the case), I shall invade and carry you off, and + endeavour to atone for sorry fare by a sincere welcome. I don't + know the person absent (barring 'the sect') I should be so glad to + see again. + + "I have nothing of the sort you mention but _the lines_ (the + Weepers), if you like to have them in the Bag. I wish to give them + all possible circulation. The _Vault_ reflection is downright + actionable, and to print it would be peril to the publisher; but I + think the Tears have a natural right to be bagged, and the editor + (whoever he may be) might supply a facetious note or not, as he + pleased. + + "I cannot conceive how the _Vault_[21] has got about,--but so it + is. It is too _farouche_; but, truth to say, my satires are not + very playful. I have the plan of an epistle in my head, _at_ him + and _to_ him; and, if they are not a little quieter, I shall embody + it. I should say little or nothing of _myself_. As to mirth and + ridicule, that is out of my way; but I have a tolerable fund of + sternness and contempt, and, with Juvenal before me, I shall + perhaps read him a lecture he has not lately heard in the C----t. + From particular circumstances, which came to my knowledge almost by + accident, I could 'tell him what he is--I know him well.' + + "I meant, my dear M., to write to you a long letter, but I am + hurried, and time clips my inclination down to yours, &c. + + "P.S. _Think again_ before you _shelf_ your poem. There is a + youngster, (older than me, by the by, but a younger poet,) Mr. G. + Knight, with a vol. of Eastern Tales, written since his + return,--for he has been in the countries. He sent to me last + summer, and I advised him to write one in _each measure_, without + any intention, at that time, of doing the same thing. Since that, + from a habit of writing in a fever, I have anticipated him in the + variety of measures, but quite unintentionally. Of the stories, I + know nothing, not having seen them[22]; but he has some lady in a + sack, too, like The Giaour:--he told me at the time. + + "The best way to make the public 'forget' me is to remind them of + yourself. You cannot suppose that _I_ would ask you or advise you + to publish, if I thought you would _fail_. I really have _no_ + literary envy; and I do not believe a friend's success ever sat + nearer another than yours do to my best wishes. It is for _elderly + gentlemen_ to 'bear no brother near,' and cannot become our disease + for more years than we may perhaps number. I wish you to be out + before Eastern subjects are again before the public." + +[Footnote 21: Those bitter and powerful lines which he wrote on the +opening of the vault that contained the remains of Henry VIII. and +Charles I.] + +[Footnote 22: He was not yet aware, it appears, that the anonymous +manuscript sent to him by his publisher was from the pen of Mr. Knight.] + + * * * * * + +LETTER 172. TO MR. MURRAY. + + "March 12. 1814. + + "I have not time to read the whole MS. [23], but what I have seen + seems very well written (both _prose_ and _verse_), and, though I + am and can be no judge (at least a fair one on this subject), + containing nothing which you _ought_ to hesitate publishing upon + _my_ account. If the author is not Dr. _Busby_ himself, I think it + a pity, on his _own_ account, that he should dedicate it to his + subscribers; nor can I perceive what Dr. Busby has to do with the + matter except as a translator of Lucretius, for whose doctrines he + is surely not responsible. I tell you openly, and really most + sincerely, that, if published at all, there is no earthly reason + why you should _not_; on the contrary, I should receive it as the + greatest compliment _you_ could pay to your good opinion of my + candour, to print and circulate that or any other work, attacking + me in a manly manner, and without any malicious intention, from + which, as far as I have seen, I must exonerate this writer. + + "He is wrong in one thing--_I_ am no _atheist_; but if he thinks I + have published principles tending to such opinions, he has a + perfect right to controvert them. Pray publish it; I shall never + forgive myself if I think that I have prevented you. + + "Make my compliments to the author, and tell him I wish him + success: his verse is very deserving of it; and I shall be the last + person to suspect his motives. Yours, &c. + + "P.S. If _you_ do not publish it, some one else will. You cannot + suppose me so narrow-minded as to shrink from discussion. I repeat + once for all, that I think it a good poem (as far as I have redde); + and that is the only point _you_ should consider. How odd that + eight lines should have given birth, I really think, to _eight + thousand_, including _all_ that has been said, and will be on the + subject!" + +[Footnote 23: The manuscript of a long grave satire, entitled +"Anti-Byron," which had been sent to Mr. Murray, and by him forwarded to +Lord Byron, with a _request_--not meant, I believe, seriously--that he +would give his opinion as to the propriety of publishing it.] + + * * * * * + +LETTER 173. TO MR. MURRAY. + + "April 9. 1814. + + "All these news are very fine; but nevertheless I want my books, if + you can find, or cause them to be found for me,--if only to lend + them to Napoleon, in "the Island of Elba," during his retirement. I + also (if convenient, and you have no party with you,) should be + glad to speak with you, for a few minutes, this evening, as I have + had a letter from Mr. Moore, and wish to ask you, as the best + judge, of the best time for him to publish the work he has + composed. I need not say, that I have his success much at heart; + not only because he is my friend, but something much better--a man + of great talent, of which he is less sensible than I believe any + even of his enemies. If you can so far oblige me as to step down, + do so; and if you are otherwise occupied, say nothing about it. I + shall find you at home in the course of next week. + + "P.S. I see Sotheby's Tragedies advertised. The Death of Darnley is + a famous subject--one of the best, I should think, for the drama. + Pray let me have a copy when ready. + + "Mrs. Leigh was very much pleased with her books, and desired me to + thank you; she means, I believe, to write to you her + acknowledgments." + + * * * * * + +LETTER 174. TO MR. MOORE. + + "2. Albany, April 9. 1814. + + "Viscount Althorp is about to be married, and I have gotten his + spacious bachelor apartments in Albany, to which you will, I hope, + address a speedy answer to this mine epistle. + + "I am but just returned to town, from which you may infer that I + have been out of it; and I have been boxing, for exercise, with + Jackson for this last month daily. I have also been drinking, and, + on one occasion, with three other friends at the Cocoa Tree, from + six till four, yea, unto five in the matin. We clareted and + champagned till two--then supped, and finished with a kind of + regency punch composed of madeira, brandy, and _green_ tea, no + _real_ water being admitted therein. There was a night for you! + without once quitting the table, except to ambulate home, which I + did alone, and in utter contempt of a hackney-coach and my own + _vis_, both of which were deemed necessary for our conveyance. And + so,--I am very well, and they say it will hurt my constitution. + + "I have also, more or less, been breaking a few of the favourite + commandments; but I mean to pull up and marry, if any one will have + me. In the mean time, the other day I nearly killed myself with a + collar of brawn, which I swallowed for supper, and _in_digested for + I don't know how long: but that is by the by. All this gourmandise + was in honour of Lent; for I am forbidden meat all the rest of the + year, but it is strictly enjoined me during your solemn fast. I + have been, and am, in very tolerable love; but of that hereafter as + it may be. + + "My dear Moore, say what you will in your preface; and quiz any + thing or any body,--me if you like it. Oons! dost thou think me of + the _old_, or rather _elderly_, school? If one can't jest with + one's friends, with whom can we be facetious? You have nothing to + fear from * *, whom I have not seen, being out of town when he + called. He will be very correct, smooth, and all that, but I doubt + whether there will be any 'grace beyond the reach of art;'--and, + whether there is or not, how long will you be so d----d modest? As + for Jeffrey, it is a very handsome thing of him to speak well of an + old antagonist,--and what a mean mind dared not do. Any one will + revoke praise; but--were it not partly my own case--I should say + that very few have strength of mind to unsay their censure, or + follow it up with praise of other things. + + "What think you of the review of _Levis_? It beats the Bag and my + hand-grenade hollow, as an invective, and hath thrown the Court + into hysterics, as I hear from very good authority. Have you heard + from * * *? + + "No more rhyme for--or rather, _from_--me. I have taken my leave of + that stage, and henceforth will mountebank it no longer. I have had + my day, and there's an end. The utmost I expect, or even wish, is + to have it said in the Biographia Britannica, that I might perhaps + have been a poet, had I gone on and amended. My great comfort is, + that the temporary celebrity I have wrung from the world has been + in the very teeth of all opinions and prejudices. I have flattered + no ruling powers; I have never concealed a single thought that + tempted me. They can't say I have truckled to the times, nor to + popular topics, (as Johnson, or somebody, said of Cleveland,) and + whatever I have gained has been at the expenditure of as much + _personal_ favour as possible; for I do believe never was a bard + more unpopular, _quoad homo_, than myself. And now I have + done;--'ludite nunc alios.' Every body may be d----d, as they seem + fond of it, and resolve to stickle lustily for endless brimstone. + + "Oh--by the by, I had nearly forgot. There is a long poem, an + 'Anti-Byron,' coming out, to prove that I have formed a conspiracy + to overthrow, by _rhyme_, all religion and government, and have + already made great progress! It is not very scurrilous, but serious + and ethereal. I never felt myself important, till I saw and heard + of my being such a little Voltaire as to induce such a production. + Murray would not publish it, for which he was a fool, and so I told + him; but some one else will, doubtless. 'Something too much of + this.' + + "Your French scheme is good, but let it be _Italian_; all the + Angles will be at Paris. Let it be Rome, Milan, Naples, Florence, + Turin, Venice, or Switzerland, and 'egad!' (as Bayes saith,) I will + connubiate and join you; and we will write a new 'Inferno' in our + Paradise. Pray think of this--and I will really buy a wife and a + ring, and say the ceremony, and settle near you in a summer-house + upon the Arno, or the Po, or the Adriatic. + + "Ah! my poor little pagod, Napoleon, has walked off his pedestal. + He has abdicated, they say. This would draw molten brass from the + eyes of Zatanai. What! 'kiss the ground before young Malcolm's + feet, and then be baited by the rabble's curse!' I cannot bear + such a crouching catastrophe. I must stick to Sylla, for my modern + favourites don't do,--their resignations are of a different kind. + All health and prosperity, my dear Moore. Excuse this lengthy + letter. Ever, &c. + + "P.S. The Quarterly quotes you frequently in an article on America; + and every body I know asks perpetually after you and yours. When + will you answer them in person?" + + * * * * * + +He did not long persevere in his resolution against writing, as will be +seen from the following notes to his publisher. + +TO MR. MURRAY. + + "April 10. 1814. + + "I have written an Ode on the fall of Napoleon, which, if you like, + I will copy out, and make you a present of. Mr. Merivale has seen + part of it, and likes it. You may show it to Mr. Gifford, and print + it, or not, as you please--it is of no consequence. It contains + nothing in _his_ favour, and no allusion whatever to our own + government or the Bourbons. Yours, &c. + + "P.S. It is in the measure of my stanzas at the end of Childe + Harold, which were much liked, beginning 'And thou art dead,' &c. + &c. There are ten stanzas of it--ninety lines in all." + + * * * * * + +TO MR. MURRAY. + + "April 11. 1814. + + "I enclose you a letter_et_ from Mrs. Leigh. + + "It will be best _not_ to put my name to our _Ode_; but you may + _say_ as openly as you like that it is mine, and I can inscribe it + to Mr. Hobhouse, from the _author_, which will mark it + sufficiently. After the resolution of not publishing, though it is + a thing of little length and less consequence, it will be better + altogether that it is anonymous; but we will incorporate it in the + first _tome_ of ours that you find time or the wish to publish. + Yours alway, B. + + "P.S. I hope you got a note of alterations, sent this matin? + + "P.S. Oh my books! my books! will you never find my books? + + "Alter '_potent_ spell' to '_quickening_ spell:' the first (as + Polonius says) 'is a vile phrase,' and means nothing, besides being + common-place and _Rosa-Matilda-ish_." + + * * * * * + +TO MR. MURRAY. + + "April 12. 1814. + + "I send you a few notes and trifling alterations, and an additional + motto from Gibbon, which you will find _singularly appropriate_. A + 'Good-natured Friend' tells me there is a most scurrilous attack on + _us_ in the Anti-jacobin Review, which you have _not_ sent. Send + it, as I am in that state of languor which will derive benefit from + getting into a passion. Ever," &c. + + * * * * * + +LETTER 175. TO MR. MOORE. + + "Albany, April 20. 1814. + + "I _am_ very glad to hear that you are to be transient from + Mayfield so very soon, and was taken in by the first part of your + letter.[24] Indeed, for aught I know, you may be treating me, as + Slipslop says, with 'ironing' even now. I shall say nothing of the + _shock_, which had nothing of _humeur_ in it; as I am apt to take + even a critic, and still more a friend, at his word, and never to + doubt that I have been writing cursed nonsense, if they say so. + There was a mental reservation in my pact with the public[25], in + behalf of _anonymes_; and, even had there not, the provocation was + such as to make it physically impossible to pass over this damnable + epoch of triumphant tameness. 'Tis a cursed business; and, after + all, I shall think higher of rhyme and reason, and very humbly of + your heroic people, till--Elba becomes a volcano, and sends him + out again. I can't think it all over yet. + + "My departure for the Continent depends, in some measure, on the + _in_continent. I have two country invitations at home, and don't + know what to say or do. In the mean time, I have bought a macaw and + a parrot, and have got up my books; and I box and fence daily, and + go out very little. + + "At this present writing, Louis the Gouty is wheeling in triumph + into Piccadilly, in all the pomp and rabblement of royalty. I had + an offer of seats to see them pass; but, as I have seen a Sultan + going to mosque, and been at _his_ reception of an ambassador, the + most Christian King 'hath no attractions for me:'--though in some + coming year of the Hegira, I should not dislike to see the place + where he _had_ reigned, shortly after the second revolution, and a + happy sovereignty of two months, the last six weeks being civil + war. + + "Pray write, and deem me ever," &c. + +[Footnote 24: I had begun my letter in the following manner:--"Have you +seen the 'Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte?'--I suspect it to be either +F----g----d's or Rosa Matilda's. Those rapid and masterly portraits of +all the tyrants that preceded Napoleon have a vigour in them which would +incline me to say that Rosa Matilda is the person--but then, on the +other hand, that powerful grasp of history," &c. &c. After a little more +of this mock parallel, the letter went on thus:--"I should like to know +what _you_ think of the matter?--Some friends of mine here _will_ insist +that it is the work of the author of Childe Harold,--but then they are +not so well read in F----g----d and Rosa Matilda as I am; and, besides, +they seem to forget that _you_ promised, about a month or two ago, not +to write any more for years. Seriously," &c. &c. + +I quote this foolish banter merely to show how safely, even on his most +sensitive points, one might venture to jest with him.] + +[Footnote 25: We find D'Argenson thus encouraging Voltaire to break a +similar vow:--"Continue to write without fear for five-and-twenty years +longer, but write poetry, notwithstanding your oath in the preface to +Newton."] + + * * * * * + +LETTER 176. TO MR. MURRAY. + + "April 21. 1814. + + "Many thanks with the letters which I return. You know I am a + jacobin, and could not wear white, nor see the installation of + Louis the Gouty. + + "This is sad news, and very hard upon the sufferers at any, but + more at _such_ a time--I mean the Bayonne sortie. + + "You should urge Moore to come _out_. + + "P.S. I want _Moreri_ to purchase for good and all. I have a Bayle, + but want Moreri too. + + "P.S. Perry hath a piece of compliment to-day; but I think the + _name_ might have been as well omitted. No matter; they can but + throw the old story of inconsistency in my teeth--let them,--I + mean, as to not publishing. However, _now_ I will keep my word. + Nothing but the occasion, which was _physically_ irresistible, made + me swerve; and I thought an _anonyme_ within my _pact_ with the + public. It is the only thing I have or shall set about." + + * * * * * + +LETTER 177. TO MR. MURRAY. + + "April 25. 1814. + + "Let Mr. Gifford have the letter and return it at his leisure. I + would have offered it, had I thought that he liked things of the + kind. + + "Do you want the last page _immediately_! I have doubts about the + lines being worth printing; at any rate, I must see them again and + alter some passages, before they go forth in any shape into the + _ocean_ of circulation;--a very conceited phrase, by the by: well + then--_channel_ of publication will do. + + "'I am not i' the vein,' or I could knock off a stanza or three for + the Ode, that might answer the purpose better.[26] At all events, I + _must_ see the lines again _first_, as there be two I have altered + in my mind's manuscript already. Has any one seen or judged of + them? that is the criterion by which I will abide--only give me a + _fair_ report, and 'nothing extenuate,' as I will in that case do + something else. + + "Ever," &c. + + "I want _Moreri_, and an _Athenæus_." + +[Footnote 26: Mr. Murray had requested of him to make some additions to +the Ode, so as to save the stamp duty imposed upon publications not +exceeding a single sheet; and he afterwards added, in successive +editions, five or six stanzas, the original number being but eleven. +There were also three more stanzas, which he never printed, but which, +for the just tribute they contain to Washington, are worthy of being +preserved:-- + + "There was a day--there was an hour, + While earth was Gaul's--Gaul thine-- + When that immeasurable power + Unsated to resign + Had been an act of purer fame + Than gathers round Marengo's name + And gilded thy decline, + Through the long twilight of all time, + Despite some passing clouds of crime. + + "But thou, forsooth, must be a king, + And don the purple vest, + As if that foolish robe could wring + Remembrance from thy breast. + Where is that faded garment? where + The gewgaws thou wert fond to wear, + The star--the string--the crest? + Vain froward child of empire! say, + Are all thy playthings snatch'd away? + + "Where may the wearied eye repose + When gazing on the great; + Where neither guilty glory glows, + Nor despicable state? + Yes--one--the first--the last--the best-- + The Cincinnatus of the West, + Whom envy dared not hate, + Bequeathed the name of Washington, + To make man blush there was but One!" +] + + * * * * * + +LETTER 178. TO MR. MURRAY. + + "April 26. 1814. + + "I have been thinking that it might be as well to publish no more + of the Ode separately, but incorporate it with any of the other + things, and include the smaller poem too (in that case)--which I + must previously correct, nevertheless. I can't, for the head of me, + add a line worth scribbling; my 'vein' is quite gone, and my + present occupations are of the gymnastic order--boxing and + fencing--and my principal conversation is with my macaw and Bayle. + I want my Moreri, and I want Athenæus. + + "P.S. I hope you sent back that poetical packet to the address + which I forwarded to you on Sunday: if not, pray do; or I shall + have the author screaming after his Epic." + + * * * * * + +LETTER 179. TO MR. MURRAY. + + "April 26. 1814. + + "I have no guess at your author,--but it is a noble poem[27], and + worth a thousand odes of anybody's. I suppose I may keep this + copy;--after reading it, I really regret having written my own. I + say this very sincerely, albeit unused to think humbly of myself. + + "I don't like the additional stanzas at _all_, and they had better + be left out. The fact is, I can't do any thing I am asked to do, + however gladly I _would_; and at the end of a week my interest in a + composition goes off. This will account to you for my doing no + better for your 'Stamp Duty' postscript. + + "The S.R. is very civil--but what do they mean by Childe Harold + resembling Marmion? and the next two, Giaour and Bride, _not_ + resembling Scott? I certainly never intended to copy him; but, if + there be any copyism, it must be in the two poems, where the same + versification is adopted. However, they exempt The Corsair from all + resemblance to any thing, though I rather wonder at his escape. + + "If ever I did any thing original, it was in Childe Harold, which + _I_ prefer to the other things always, after the first week. + Yesterday I re-read English Bards;--bating the _malice_, it is the + _best_. + + "Ever," &c. + +[Footnote 27: A Poem by Mr. Stratford Canning, full of spirit and power, +entitled "Buonaparte." In a subsequent note to Mr. Murray, Lord Byron +says,--"I do not think less highly of 'Buonaparte' for knowing the +author. I was aware that he was a man of talent, but did not suspect him +of possessing _all_ the _family_ talents in such perfection."] + + * * * * * + +A resolution was, about this time, adopted by him, which, however +strange and precipitate it appeared, a knowledge of the previous state +of his mind may enable us to account for satisfactorily. He had now, for +two years, been drawing upon the admiration of the public with a +rapidity and success which seemed to defy exhaustion,--having crowded, +indeed, into that brief interval the materials of a long life of fame. +But admiration is a sort of impost from which most minds are but too +willing to relieve themselves. The eye grows weary of looking up to the +same object of wonder, and begins to exchange, at last, the delight of +observing its elevation for the less generous pleasure of watching and +speculating on its fall. The reputation of Lord Byron had already begun +to experience some of these consequences of its own prolonged and +constantly renewed splendour. Even among that host of admirers who would +have been the last to find fault, there were some not unwilling to +repose from praise; while they, who had been from the first reluctant +eulogists, took advantage of these apparent symptoms of satiety to +indulge in blame.[28] + +The loud outcry raised, at the beginning of the present year, by his +verses to the Princess Charlotte, had afforded a vent for much of this +reserved venom; and the tone of disparagement in which some of his +assailants now affected to speak of his poetry was, however absurd and +contemptible in itself, precisely that sort of attack which was the most +calculated to wound his, at once, proud and diffident spirit. As long as +they confined themselves to blackening his moral and social character, +so far from offending, their libels rather fell in with his own shadowy +style of self-portraiture, and gratified the strange inverted ambition +that possessed him. But the slighting opinion which they ventured to +express of his genius,--seconded as it was by that inward +dissatisfaction with his own powers, which they whose standard of +excellence is highest are always the surest to feel,--mortified and +disturbed him; and, being the first sounds of ill augury that had come +across his triumphal career, startled him, as we have seen, into serious +doubts of its continuance. + +Had he been occupying himself, at the time, with any new task, that +confidence in his own energies, which he never truly felt but while in +the actual exercise of them, would have enabled him to forget these +humiliations of the moment in the glow and excitement of anticipated +success. But he had just pledged himself to the world to take a long +farewell of poesy,--had sealed up that only fountain from which his +heart ever drew refreshment or strength,--and thus was left, idly and +helplessly, to brood over the daily taunts of his enemies, without the +power of avenging himself when they insulted his person, and but too +much disposed to agree with them when they made light of his genius. "I +am afraid, (he says, in noticing these attacks in one of his letters,) +what you call _trash_ is plaguily to the purpose, and very good sense +into the bargain; and, to tell the truth, for some little time past, I +have been myself much of the same opinion." + +In this sensitive state of mind,--which he but ill disguised or relieved +by an exterior of gay defiance or philosophic contempt,--we can hardly +feel surprised that he should have, all at once, come to the resolution, +not only of persevering in his determination to write no more in future, +but of purchasing back the whole of his past copyrights, and suppressing +every page and line he had ever written. On his first mention of this +design, Mr. Murray naturally doubted as to its seriousness; but the +arrival of the following letter, enclosing a draft for the amount of the +copyrights, put his intentions beyond question. + +[Footnote 28: It was the fear of this sort of back-water current to +which so rapid a flow of fame seemed liable, that led some even of his +warmest admirers, ignorant as they were yet of the boundlessness of his +resources, to tremble a little at the frequency of his appearances +before the public. In one of my own letters to him, I find this +apprehension thus expressed:--"If you did not write so well,--as the +Royal wit observed,--I should say you write too much; at least, too much +in the same strain. The Pythagoreans, you know, were of opinion that the +reason why we do not hear or heed the music of the heavenly bodies is +that they are always sounding in our ears; and I fear that even the +influence of _your_ song may be diminished by falling upon the world's +dull ear too constantly." + +The opinion, however, which a great writer of our day (himself one of +the few to whom his remark replies) had the generosity, as well as +sagacity, to pronounce on this point, at a time when Lord Byron was +indulging in the fullest lavishment of his powers, must be regarded, +after all, as the most judicious and wise:--"But they cater ill for the +public," says Sir Walter Scott, "and give indifferent advice to the +poet, supposing him possessed of the highest qualities of his art, who +do not advise him to labour while the laurel around his brows yet +retains its freshness. Sketches from Lord Byron are more valuable than +finished pictures from others; nor are we at all sure that any labour +which he might bestow in revisal would not rather efface than refine +those outlines of striking and powerful originality which they exhibit +when flung rough from the hand of a master."--_Biographical Memoirs_, by +SIR W. SCOTT.] + + * * * * * + +LETTER 180. TO MR. MURRAY. + + "2. Albany, April 29. 1814. + + "Dear Sir, + + "I enclose a draft for the money; when paid, send the copyright. I + release you from the thousand pounds agreed on for The Giaour and + Bride, and there's an end. + + "If any accident occurs to me, you may do then as you please; but, + with the exception of two copies of each for _yourself_ only, I + expect and request that the advertisements be withdrawn, and the + remaining copies of _all_ destroyed; and any expense so incurred I + will be glad to defray. + + "For all this, it might be as well to assign some reason. I have + none to give, except my own caprice, and I do not consider the + circumstances of consequence enough to require explanation. + + "In course, I need hardly assure you that they never shall be + published with my consent, directly, or indirectly, by any other + person whatsoever,--that I am perfectly satisfied, and have every + reason so to be, with your conduct in all transactions between us + as publisher and author. + + "It will give me great pleasure to preserve your acquaintance, and + to consider you as my friend. Believe me very truly, and for much + attention, + + "Your obliged and very obedient servant, + + "BYRON. + + "P.S. I do not think that I have overdrawn at Hammersley's; but if + _that_ be the case, I can draw for the superflux on Hoare's. The + draft is 5_l._ short, but that I will make up. On payment--_not_ + before--return the copyright papers." + + * * * * * + +In such a conjuncture, an appeal to his good nature and considerateness +was, as Mr. Murray well judged, his best resource; and the following +prompt reply, will show how easily, and at once, it succeeded. + +LETTER 181. TO MR. MURRAY. + + "May 1. 1814. + + "Dear Sir, + + "If your present note is serious, and it really would be + inconvenient, there is an end of the matter; tear my draft, and go + on as usual: in that case, we will recur to our former basis. That + _I_ was perfectly _serious_, in wishing to suppress all future + publication, is true; but certainly not to interfere with the + convenience of others, and more particularly your own. Some day, I + will tell you the reason of this apparently strange resolution. At + present, it may be enough to say that I recall it at your + suggestion; and as it appears to have annoyed you, I lose no time + in saying so. + + "Yours truly, + + "B." + + * * * * * + +During my stay in town this year, we were almost daily together; and it +is in no spirit of flattery to the dead I say, that the more intimately +I became acquainted with his disposition and character, the more warmly +I felt disposed to take an interest in every thing that concerned him. +Not that, in the opportunities thus afforded me of observing more +closely his defects, I did not discover much to lament, and not a little +to condemn. But there was still, in the neighbourhood of even his worst +faults, some atoning good quality, which was always sure, if brought +kindly and with management into play, to neutralise their ill effects. +The very frankness, indeed, with which he avowed his errors seemed to +imply a confidence in his own power of redeeming them,--a consciousness +that he could afford to be sincere. There was also, in such entire +unreserve, a pledge that nothing worse remained behind; and the same +quality that laid open the blemishes of his nature gave security for its +honesty. "The cleanness and purity of one's mind," says Pope, "is never +better proved than in discovering its own faults, at first view; as when +a stream shows the dirt at its bottom, it shows also the transparency of +the water." + +The theatre was, at this time, his favourite place of resort. We have +seen how enthusiastically he expresses himself on the subject of Mr. +Kean's acting, and it was frequently my good fortune, during this +season, to share in his enjoyment of it,--the orchestra being, more than +once, the place where, for a nearer view of the actor's countenance, we +took our station. For Kean's benefit, on the 25th of May, a large party +had been made by Lady J * *, to which we both belonged; but Lord Byron +having also taken a box for the occasion, so anxious was he to enjoy the +representation uninterrupted, that, by rather an unsocial arrangement, +only himself and I occupied his box during the play, while every other +in the house was crowded almost to suffocation; nor did we join the +remainder of our friends till supper. Between the two parties, however, +Mr. Kean had no reason to complain of a want of homage to his talents; +as Lord J * *, on that occasion, presented him with a hundred pound +share in the theatre; while Lord Byron sent him, next day, the sum of +fifty guineas[29]; and, not long after, on seeing him act some of his +favourite parts, made him presents of a handsome snuff-box and a costly +Turkish sword. + +Such effect had the passionate energy of Kean's acting on his mind, +that, once, in seeing him play Sir Giles Overreach, he was so affected +as to be seized with a sort of convulsive fit; and we shall find him, +some years after, in Italy, when the representation of Alfieri's tragedy +of Mirra had agitated him in the same violent manner, comparing the two +instances as the only ones in his life when "any thing under reality" +had been able to move him so powerfully. + +The following are a few of the notes which I received from him during +this visit to town. + +[Footnote 29: To such lengths did he, at this time, carry his enthusiasm +for Kean, that when Miss O'Neil soon after 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'm resolved to continue _un-Oneiled_." + +To the great queen of all actresses, however, it will be seen, by the +following extract from one of his journals, he rendered due justice:-- + +"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."--_Detached Thoughts_.] + + * * * * * + +TO MR. MOORE. + + "May 4. 1814. + + "Last night we supp'd at R----fe's board, &c.[30] + + "I wish people would not shirk their _dinners_--ought it not to + have been a dinner?[31]--and that d----d anchovy sandwich! + + "That plaguy voice of yours made me sentimental, and almost fall in + love with a girl who was recommending herself, during your song, by + _hating_ music. But the song is past, and my passion can wait, till + the _pucelle_ is more harmonious. + + "Do you go to Lady Jersey's to-night? It is a large party, and you + won't be bored into 'softening rocks,' and all that. Othello is + to-morrow and Saturday too. Which day shall we go? when shall I see + you? If you call, let it be after three, and as near four as you + please. + + "Ever," &c. + +[Footnote 30: An epigram here followed, which, as founded on a +scriptural allusion, I thought it better to omit.] + +[Footnote 31: We had been invited by Lord R. to dine _after_ the +play,--an arrangement which, from its novelty, delighted Lord Byron +exceedingly. The dinner, however, afterwards dwindled into a mere +supper, and this change was long a subject of jocular resentment with +him.] + + * * * * * + +TO MR. MOORE. + + "May 4. 1814. + + "Dear Tom, + + "Thou hast asked me for a song, and I enclose you an experiment, + which has cost me something more than trouble, and is, therefore, + less likely to be worth your taking any in your proposed + setting.[32] Now, if it be so, throw it into the fire without + _phrase_. + + "Ever yours, + + "BYRON. + + "I speak not, I trace not, I breathe not thy name, + There is grief in the sound, there is guilt in the fame; + But the tear which now burns on my cheek may impart + The deep thoughts that dwell in that silence of heart. + + "Too brief for our passion, too long for our peace + Were those hours--can their joy or their bitterness cease? + We repent--we abjure--we will break from our chain-- + We will part,--we will fly to--unite it again! + + "Oh! thine be the gladness, and mine be the guilt! + Forgive me, adored one!--forsake, if thou wilt;-- + But the heart which is thine shall expire undebased, + And _man_ shall not break it--whatever _thou_ mayst. + + "And stern to the haughty, but humble to thee, + This soul, in its bitterest blackness, shall be; + And our days seem as swift, and our moments more sweet, + With thee by my side, than with worlds at our feet. + + "One sigh of thy sorrow, one look of thy love, + Shall turn me or fix, shall reward or reprove; + And the heartless may wonder at all I resign-- + Thy lip shall reply, not to them, but to _mine_." + +[Footnote 32: I had begged of him to write something for me to set to +music.] + + * * * * * + +TO MR. MOORE. + + "Will you and Rogers come to my box at Covent, then? I shall be + there, and none else--or I won't be there, if you _twain_ would + like to go without me. You will not get so good a place hustling + among the publican _boxers_, with damnable apprentices (six feet + high) on a back row. Will you both oblige me and come,--or one--or + neither--or, what you will? + + "P.S. An' you will, I will call for you at half-past six, or any + time of your own dial." + + * * * * * + +TO MR. MOORE. + + "I have gotten a box for Othello to-night, and send the ticket for + your friends the R----fes. I seriously recommend to you to + recommend to them to go for half an hour, if only to see the third + act--they will not easily have another opportunity. We--at least, + I--cannot be there, so there will be no one in their way. Will you + give or send it to them? it will come with a better grace from you + than me. + + "I am in no good plight, but will dine at * *'s with you, if I can. + There is music and Covent-g. + + "Will you go, at all events, to my box there afterwards, to see a + _début_ of a young 16[33] in the 'Child of Nature?'" + +[Footnote 33: Miss Foote's first appearance, which we witnessed +together.] + + * * * * * + +TO MR. MOORE. + + "Sunday matin. + + "Was not Iago perfection? particularly the last look. I was _close_ + to him (in the orchestra), and never saw an English countenance + half so expressive. + + "I am acquainted with no _im_material sensuality so delightful as + good acting; and, as it is fitting there should be good plays, now + and then, besides Shakspeare's, I wish you or Campbell would write + one:--the rest of 'us youth' have not heart enough. + + "You were cut up in the Champion--is it not so? this day so am + I--even to _shocking_ the editor. The critic writes well; and as, + at present, poesy is not my passion predominant, and my snake of + Aaron has swallowed up all the other serpents, I don't feel + fractious. I send you the paper, which I mean to take in for the + future. We go to M.'s together. Perhaps I shall see you before, but + don't let me _bore_ you, now nor ever. + + "Ever, as now, truly and affectionately," &c. + + * * * * * + +TO MR. MOORE. + + "May 5. 1814. + + "Do you go to the Lady Cahir's this even? If you do--and whenever + we are bound to the same follies--let us embark in the same 'Shippe + of Fooles.' I have been up till five, and up at nine; and feel + heavy with only winking for the last three or four nights. + + "I lost my party and place at supper trying to keep out of the way + of * * * *. I would have gone away altogether, but that would have + appeared a worse affectation than t'other. You are of course + engaged to dinner, or we may go quietly together to my box at + Covent Garden, and afterwards to this assemblage. Why did you go + away so soon? + + "Ever, &c. + + "P.S. _Ought not_ R * * * fe's supper to have been a dinner? + Jackson is here, and I must fatigue myself into spirits." + + * * * * * + +TO MR. MOORE. + + "May 18. 1814. + + "Thanks--and punctuality. _What_ has passed at * * * *s House? I + suppose that _I_ am to know, and 'pars fui' of the conference. I + regret that your * * * *s will detain you so late, but I suppose + you will be at Lady Jersey's. I am going earlier with Hobhouse. You + recollect that to-morrow we sup and see Kean. + + "P.S. _Two_ to-morrow is the hour of pugilism." + + * * * * * + +The supper, to which he here looks forward, took place at Watier's, of +which club he had lately become a member; and, as it may convey some +idea of his irregular mode of diet, and thus account, in part, for the +frequent derangement of his health, I shall here attempt, from +recollection, a description of his supper on this occasion. We were to +have been joined by Lord R * *, who however did not arrive, and the +party accordingly consisted but of ourselves. Having taken upon me to +order the repast, and knowing that Lord Byron, for the last two days, +had done nothing towards sustenance, beyond eating a few biscuits and +(to appease appetite) chewing mastic, I desired that we should have a +good supply of, at least, two kinds of fish. My companion, however, +confined himself to lobsters, and of these finished two or three, to his +own share,--interposing, sometimes, a small liqueur-glass of strong +white brandy, sometimes a tumbler of very hot water, and then pure +brandy again, to the amount of near half a dozen small glasses of the +latter, without which, alternately with the hot water, he appeared to +think the lobster could not be digested. After this, we had claret, of +which having despatched two bottles between us, at about four o'clock in +the morning we parted. + +As Pope has thought his "delicious lobster-nights" worth commemorating, +these particulars of one in which Lord Byron was concerned may also have +some interest. + +Among other nights of the same description which I had the happiness of +passing with him, I remember once, in returning home from some assembly +at rather a late hour, we saw lights in the windows of his old haunt +Stevens's, in Bond Street, and agreed to stop there and sup. On +entering, we found an old friend of his, Sir G * * W* *, who joined our +party, and the lobsters and brandy and water being put in requisition, +it was (as usual on such occasions) broad daylight before we separated. + + * * * * * + +LETTER 182. TO MR. MOORE. + + "May 23. 1814. + + "I must send you the Java government gazette of July 3d, 1813, just + sent to me by Murray. Only think of _our_ (for it is you and I) + setting paper warriors in array in the Indian seas. Does not this + sound like fame--something almost like _posterity_? It is something + to have scribblers squabbling about us 5000 miles off, while we are + agreeing so well at home. Bring it with you in your pocket;--it + will make you laugh, as it hath me. Ever yours, + + "B. + + "P.S. Oh the anecdote!" + + * * * * * + +To the circumstance mentioned in this letter he recurs more than once in +the Journals which he kept abroad; as thus, in a passage of his +"Detached Thoughts,"--where it will be perceived that, by a trifling +lapse of memory, he represents himself as having produced this gazette, +for the first time, on our way to dinner. + +"In the year 1814, as Moore and I were going to dine with Lord Grey in +Portman Square, I pulled out a 'Java Gazette' (which Murray had sent to +me), in which there was a controversy on our respective merits as poets. +It was amusing enough that we should be proceeding peaceably to the same +table while they were squabbling about us in the Indian seas (to be sure +the paper was dated six months before), and filling columns with +Batavian criticism. But this is fame, I presume." + +The following poem, written about this time, and, apparently, for the +purpose of being recited at the Caledonian Meeting, I insert principally +on account of the warm feeling which it breathes towards Scotland and +her sons:-- + + "Who hath not glow'd above the page where Fame + Hath fix'd high Caledon's unconquer'd name; + The mountain-land which spurn'd the Roman chain, + And baffled back the fiery-crested Dane, + Whose bright claymore and hardihood of hand + No foe could tame--no tyrant could command. + + "That race is gone--but still their children breathe, + And glory crowns them with redoubled wreath: + O'er Gael and Saxon mingling banners shine, + And, England! add their stubborn strength to thine. + The blood which flow'd with Wallace flows as free, + But now 'tis only shed for fame and thee! + Oh! pass not by the Northern veteran's claim, + But give support--the world hath given him fame! + + "The humbler ranks, the lowly brave, who bled + While cheerly following where the mighty led-- + Who sleep beneath the undistinguish'd sod + Where happier comrades in their triumph trod, + To us bequeath--'tis all their fate allows-- + The sireless offspring and the lonely spouse: + She on high Albyn's dusky hills may raise + The tearful eye in melancholy gaze, + Or view, while shadowy auguries disclose + The Highland seer's anticipated woes, + The bleeding phantom of each martial form + Dim in the cloud, or darkling in the storm; + While sad, she chants the solitary song, + The soft lament for him who tarries long-- + For him, whose distant relics vainly crave + The coronach's wild requiem to the brave! + + "'Tis Heaven--not man--must charm away the woe + Which bursts when Nature's feelings newly flow; + Yet tenderness and time may rob the tear + Of half its bitterness for one so dear: + A nation's gratitude perchance may spread + A thornless pillow for the widow'd head; + May lighten well her heart's maternal care, + And wean from penury the soldier's heir." + + * * * * * + +LETTER 183. TO MR. MOORE. + + "May 31. 1814. + + "As I shall probably not see you here to-day, I write to request + that, if not inconvenient to yourself, you will stay in town till + _Sunday_; if not to gratify me, yet to please a great many others, + who will be very sorry to lose you. As for myself, I can only + repeat that I wish you would either remain a long time with us, or + not come at all; for these _snatches_ of society make the + subsequent separations bitterer than ever. + + "I believe you think that I have not been quite fair with that + Alpha and Omega of beauty, &c. with whom you would willingly have + united me. But if you consider what her sister said on the subject, + you will less wonder that my pride should have taken the alarm; + particularly as nothing but the every-day flirtation of every-day + people ever occurred between your heroine and myself. Had Lady * * + appeared to wish it--or even not to oppose it--I would have gone + on, and very possibly married (that is, _if_ the other had been + equally accordant) with the same indifference which has frozen over + the 'Black Sea' of almost all my passions. It is that very + indifference which makes me so uncertain and apparently capricious. + It is not eagerness of new pursuits, but that nothing impresses me + sufficiently to _fix_; neither do I feel disgusted, but simply + indifferent to almost all excitements. The proof of this is, that + obstacles, the slightest even, _stop_ me. This can hardly be + _timidity_, for I have done some impudent things too, in my time; + and in almost all cases, opposition is a stimulus. In mine, it is + not; if a straw were in my way, I could not stoop to pick it up. + + "I have sent this long tirade, because I would not have you suppose + that I have been _trifling_ designedly with you or others. If you + think so, in the name of St. Hubert (the patron of antlers and + hunters) let me be married out of hand--I don't care to whom, so it + amuses any body else, and don't interfere with me much in the + daytime. Ever," &c. + + * * * * * + +LETTER 184. TO MR. MOORE. + + "June 14. 1814. + + "I _could_ be very sentimental now, but I won't. The truth is, that + I have been all my life trying to harden my heart, and have not yet + quite succeeded--though there are great hopes--and you do not know + how it sunk with your departure. What adds to my regret is having + seen so little of you during your stay in this crowded desert, + where one ought to be able to bear thirst like a camel,--the + springs are so few, and most of them so muddy. + + "The newspapers will tell you all that is to be told of emperors, + &c.[34] They have dined, and supped, and shown their flat faces in + all thoroughfares, and several saloons. Their uniforms are very + becoming, but rather short in the skirts; and their conversation + is a catechism, for which and the answers I refer you to those who + have heard it. + + "I think of leaving town for Newstead soon. If so, I shall not be + remote from your recess, and (unless Mrs. M. detains you at home + over the caudle-cup and a new cradle,) we will meet. You shall come + to me, or I to you, as you like it;--but _meet_ we will. An + invitation from Aston has reached me, but I do not think I shall + go. I have also heard of * * *--I should like to see her again, for + I have not met her for years; and though 'the light that ne'er can + shine again' is set, I do not know that 'one dear smile like those + of old' might not make me for a moment forget the 'dulness' of + 'life's stream.' + + "I am going to R * *'s to-night--to one of those suppers which + '_ought_ to be dinners.' I have hardly seen her, and never _him_, + since you set out. I told you, you were the last link of that + chain. As for * *, we have not syllabled one another's names since. + The post will not permit me to continue my scrawl. More anon. + + "Ever, dear Moore, &c. + + "P.S. Keep the Journal[35]; I care not what becomes of it; and if + it has amused you I am glad that I kept it. 'Lara' is finished, and + I am copying him for my third vol., now collecting;--but _no + separate_ publication." + +[Footnote 34: In a few days after this, he sent me a long rhyming +epistle full of jokes and pleasantries upon every thing and every one +around him, of which the following are the only parts producible:-- + + 'What say _I_?'--not a syllable further in prose; + I'm your man 'of all measures,' dear Tom,--so, here goes! + Here goes, for a swim on the stream of old Time, + On those buoyant supporters the bladders of rhyme. + If our weight breaks them down, and we sink in the flood, + We are smother'd, at least, in respectable mud, + Where the divers of bathos lie drown'd in a heap, + And S * * 's last paean has pillow'd his sleep;-- + That 'felo de se' who, half drunk with his malmsey, + Walk'd out of his depth and was lost in a calm sea, + Singing 'Glory to God' in a spick-and-span stanza, + The like (since Tom Sternhold was choked) never man saw. + + "The papers have told you, no doubt, of the fusses, + The fêtes, and the gapings to get at these Russes,-- + Of his Majesty's suite, up from coachman to Hetman,-- + And what dignity decks the flat face of the great man. + I saw him, last week, at two balls and a party,-- + For a prince, his demeanour was rather too hearty. + You know, _we_ are used to quite different graces, + * * * * * + The Czar's look, I own, was much brighter and brisker, + But then he is sadly deficient in whisker; + And wore but a starless blue coat, and in kersey- + mere breeches whisk'd round in a waltz with the J * *, + Who, lovely as ever, seem'd just as delighted + With majesty's presence as those she invited." +] + +[Footnote 35: The Journal from which I have given extracts in the +preceding pages.] + + * * * * * + +TO MR. MURRAY. + + "June 14. 1814. + + "I return your packet of this morning. Have you heard that Bertrand + has returned to Paris with the account of Napoleon's having lost + his senses? It is a _report_; but, if true, I must, like Mr. + Fitzgerald and Jeremiah (of lamentable memory), lay claim to + prophecy; that is to say, of saying, that he _ought_ to go out of + his senses, in the penultimate stanza of a certain Ode,--the which, + having been pronounced _nonsense_ by several profound critics, has + a still further pretension, by its unintelligibility, to + inspiration. Ever," &c. + + * * * * * + +LETTER 185. TO MR. ROGERS. + + "June 19. 1814. + + "I am always obliged to trouble you with my awkwardnesses, and now + I have a fresh one. Mr. W.[36] called on me several times, and I + have missed the honour of making his acquaintance, which I regret, + but which _you_, who know my desultory and uncertain habits, will + not wonder at, and will, I am sure, attribute to any thing but a + wish to offend a person who has shown me much kindness, and + possesses character and talents entitled to general respect. My + mornings are late, and passed in fencing and boxing, and a variety + of most unpoetical exercises, very wholesome, &c., but would be + very disagreeable to my friends, whom I am obliged to exclude + during their operation. I never go out till the evening, and I + have not been fortunate enough to meet Mr. W. at Lord Lansdowne's + or Lord Jersey's, where I had hoped to pay him my respects. + + "I would have written to him, but a few words from you will go + further than all the apologetical sesquipedalities I could muster + on the occasion. It is only to say that, without intending it, I + contrive to behave very ill to every body, and am very sorry for + it. + + "Ever, dear R.," &c. + +[Footnote 36: Mr. Wrangham.] + + * * * * * + +The following undated notes to Mr. Rogers must have been written about +the same time:-- + + "Sunday. + + "Your non-attendance at Corinne's is very _à propos_, as I was on + the eve of sending you an excuse. I do not feel well enough to go + there this evening, and have been obliged to despatch an apology. I + believe I need not add one for not accepting Mr. Sheridan's + invitation on Wednesday, which I fancy both you and I understood in + the same sense:--with him the saying of Mirabeau, that '_words_ are + _things_,' is not to be taken literally. + + "Ever," &c. + + "I will call for you at a quarter before _seven_, if that will suit + you. I return you Sir Proteus[37], and shall merely add in return, + as Johnson said of, and to, somebody or other, 'Are we alive after + all this censure?' + + "Believe me," &c. + +[Footnote 37: A satirical pamphlet, in which all the writers of the day +were attacked.] + + "Tuesday. + + "Sheridan was yesterday, at first, too sober to remember your + invitation, but in the dregs of the third bottle he fished up his + memory. The Staël out-talked Whitbread, was _ironed_ by Sheridan, + confounded Sir Humphry, and utterly perplexed your slave. The rest + (great names in the red book, nevertheless,) were mere segments of + the circle. Ma'mselle danced a Russ saraband with great vigour, + grace, and expression. + + "Ever," &c. + + * * * * * + +TO MR. MURRAY. + + "June 21. 1814. + + "I suppose 'Lara' is gone to the devil,--which is no great matter, + only let me know, that I may be saved the trouble of copying the + rest, and put the first part into the fire. I really have no + anxiety about it, and shall not be sorry to be saved the copying, + which goes on very slowly, and may prove to you that you may _speak + out_--or I should be less sluggish. Yours," &c. + + * * * * * + +LETTER 186. TO MR. ROGERS. + + "June 27. 1814. + + "You could not have made me a more acceptable present than + Jacqueline,--she is all grace, and softness, and poetry; there is + so much of the last, that we do not feel the want of story, which + is simple, yet _enough_. I wonder that you do not oftener unbend to + more of the same kind. I have some sympathy with the _softer_ + affections, though very little in _my_ way, and no one can depict + them so truly and successfully as yourself. I have half a mind to + pay you in kind, or rather _un_kind, for I have just 'supped full + of horror' in two cantos of darkness and dismay. + + "Do you go to Lord Essex's to-night? if so, will you let me call + for you at your own hour? I dined with Holland-house yesterday at + Lord Cowper's; my Lady very gracious, which she can be more than + any one when she likes. I was not sorry to see them again, for I + can't forget that they have been very kind to me. Ever yours most + truly, + + "BN. + + "P.S. Is there any chance or possibility of making it up with Lord + Carlisle, as I feel disposed to do any thing reasonable or + unreasonable to effect it? I would before, but for the 'Courier,' + and the possible misconstructions at such a time. Perpend, + pronounce." + + * * * * * + +On my return to London, for a short time, at the beginning of July, I +found his poem of 'Lara,' which he had begun at the latter end of May, +in the hands of the printer, and nearly ready for publication. He had, +before I left town, repeated to me, as we were on our way to some +evening party, the first one hundred and twenty lines of the poem, which +he had written the day before,--at the same time giving me a general +sketch of the characters and the story. + +His short notes to Mr. Murray, during the printing of this work, are of +the same impatient and whimsical character as those, of which I have +already given specimens, in my account of his preceding publications: +but, as matter of more interest now presses upon us, I shall forbear +from transcribing them at length. In one of them he says, "I have just +corrected some of the most horrible blunders that ever crept into a +proof:"--in another, "I hope the next proof will be better; this was one +which would have consoled Job, if it had been of his 'enemy's book:'" +--a third contains only the following words: "Dear sir, you demanded +more _battle_--there it is. + +"Yours," &c. + +The two letters that immediately follow were addressed to me, at this +time, in town. + +LETTER 187. TO MR. MOORE. + + "July 8. 1814. + + "I returned to town last night, and had some hopes of seeing you + to-day, and would have called,--but I have been (though in + exceeding distempered good health) a little head-achy with free + living, as it is called, and am now at the freezing point of + returning soberness. Of course, I should be sorry that our parallel + lines did not deviate into intersection before you return to the + country,--after that same nonsuit[38], whereof the papers have + told us,--but, as you must be much occupied, I won't be affronted, + should your time and business militate against our meeting. + + "Rogers and I have almost coalesced into a joint invasion of the + public. Whether it will take place or not, I do not yet know, and I + am afraid Jacqueline (which is very beautiful) will be in bad + company.[39] But in this case, the lady will not be the sufferer. + + "I am going to the sea, and then to Scotland; and I have been doing + nothing,--that is, no good,--and am very truly," &c. + +[Footnote 38: He alludes to an action for piracy brought by Mr. Power +(the publisher of my musical works), to the trial of which I had been +summoned as a witness.] + +[Footnote 39: Lord Byron afterwards proposed that I should make a third +in this publication; but the honour was a perilous one, and I begged +leave to decline it.] + + * * * * * + +LETTER 188. TO MR. MOORE. + + "I suppose, by your non-appearance, that the phil_a_sophy of my + note, and the previous silence of the writer, have put or kept you + in _humeur_. Never mind--it is hardly worth while. + + "This day have I received information from my man of law of the + _non_--and never likely to be--performance of purchase by Mr. + Claughton, of _im_pecuniary memory. He don't know what to do, or when + to pay; and so all my hopes and worldly projects and prospects are + gone to the devil. He (the purchaser, and the devil too, for aught + I care,) and I, and my legal advisers, are to meet to-morrow, the + said purchaser having first taken special care to enquire 'whether + I would meet him with temper?'--Certainly. The question is this--I + shall either have the estate back, which is as good as ruin, or I + shall go on with him dawdling, which is rather worse. I have + brought my pigs to a Mussulman market. If I had but a wife now, and + children, of whose paternity I entertained doubts, I should be + happy, or rather fortunate, as Candide or Scarmentado. In the mean + time, if you don't come and see me, I shall think that Sam.'s bank + is broke too; and that you, having assets there, are despairing of + more than a piastre in the pound for your dividend. Ever," &c. + + * * * * * + +TO MR. MURRAY. + + "July 11. 1814. + + "You shall have one of the pictures. I wish you to send the proof + of 'Lara' to Mr. Moore, 33. Bury Street, _to-night_, as he leaves + town to-morrow, and wishes to see it before he goes[40]; and I am + also willing to have the benefit of his remarks. Yours," &c. + +[Footnote 40: In a note which I wrote to him, before starting, next day, +I find the following:--"I got Lara at three o'clock this morning--read +him before I slept, and was enraptured. I take the proofs with me."] + + * * * * * + +TO MR. MURRAY. + + "July 18. 1814. + + "I think _you_ will be satisfied even to _repletion_ with our + northern friends[41], and I won't deprive you longer of what I + think will give you pleasure; for my own part, my modesty, or my + vanity, must be silent. + + "P.S. If you could spare it for an hour in the evening, I wish you + to send it up to Mrs. Leigh, your neighbour, at the London Hotel, + Albemarle Street." + +[Footnote 41: He here refers to an article in the number of the +Edinburgh Review, just then published (No. 45.), on The Corsair and +Bride of Abydos.] + + * * * * * + +LETTER 189. TO MR. MURRAY. + + "July 23. 1814. + + "I am sorry to say that the print[42] is by no means approved of by + those who have seen it, who are pretty conversant with the + original, as well as the picture from whence it is taken. I rather + suspect that it is from the _copy_ and not the _exhibited_ + portrait, and in this dilemma would recommend a suspension, if not + an abandonment, of the _prefixion_ to the volumes which you purpose + inflicting upon the public. + + "With regard to _Lara_, don't be in any hurry. I have not yet made + up my mind on the subject, nor know what to think or do till I hear + from you; and Mr. Moore appeared to me in a similar state of + indetermination. I do not know that it may not be better to + _reserve_ it for the _entire_ publication you proposed, and not + adventure in hardy singleness, or even backed by the fairy + Jacqueline. I have been seized with all kinds of doubts, &c. &c. + since I left London. + + "Pray let me hear from you, and believe me," &c. + +[Footnote 42: An engraving by Agar from Phillips's portrait of him.] + + * * * * * + +LETTER 190. TO MR. MURRAY. + + "July 24. 1814. + + "The minority must, in this case, carry it, so pray let it be so, + for I don't care sixpence for any of the opinions you mention, on + such a subject: and P * * must be a dunce to agree with them. For + my own part, I have no objection at all; but Mrs. Leigh and my + cousin must be better judges of the likeness than others; and they + hate it; and so I won't have it at all. + + "Mr. Hobhouse is right as for his conclusion: but I deny the + premises. The name only is Spanish[43]; the country is not Spain, + but the Morea. + + "Waverley is the best and most interesting novel I have redde + since--I don't know when. I like it as much as I hate * *, and * *, + and * *, and all the feminine trash of the last four months. + Besides, it is all easy to me, I have been in Scotland so much + (though then young enough too), and feel at home with the people, + Lowland and Gael. + + "A note will correct what Mr. Hobhouse thinks an error (about the + feudal system in Spain);--it is _not_ Spain. If he puts a few words + of prose any where, it will set all right. + + "I have been ordered to town to vote. I shall disobey. There is no + good in so much prating, since 'certain issues strokes should + arbitrate.' If you have any thing to say, let me hear from you. + + "Yours," &c. + +[Footnote 43: Alluding to Lara.] + + * * * * * + +LETTER 191. TO MR. MURRAY. + + "August 3. 1814. + + "It is certainly a little extraordinary that you have not sent the + Edinburgh Review, as I requested, and hoped it would not require a + note a day to remind you. I see _advertisements_ of Lara and + Jacqueline; pray, _why?_ when I requested you to postpone + publication till my return to town. + + "I have a most amusing epistle from the Ettrick bard--Hogg; in + which, speaking of his bookseller, whom he denominates the + 'shabbiest' of the _trade_ for not 'lifting his bills,' he adds, in + so many words, 'G----d d----n him and them both.' This is a pretty + prelude to asking you to adopt him (the said Hogg); but this he + wishes; and if you please, you and I will talk it over. He has a + poem ready for the press (and your _bills_ too, if '_lift_able'), + and bestows some benedictions on Mr. Moore for his abduction of + Lara from the forthcoming Miscellany.[44] + + "P.S. Sincerely, I think Mr. Hogg would suit you very well; and + surely he is a man of great powers, and deserving of encouragement. + I must knock out a Tale for him, and you should at all events + consider before you reject his suit. Scott is gone to the Orkneys + in a gale of wind; and Hogg says that, during the said gale, 'he + is sure that Scott is not quite at his ease, to say the best of + it.' Ah! I wish these home-keeping bards could taste a + Mediterranean white squall, or 'the Gut' in a gale of wind, or even + the 'Bay of Biscay' with no wind at all." + +[Footnote 44: Mr. Hogg had been led to hope that he should be permitted +to insert this poem in a Miscellany which he had at this time some +thoughts of publishing; and whatever advice I may have given against +such a mode of disposing of the work arose certainly not from any ill +will to this ingenious and remarkable man, but from a consideration of +what I thought most advantageous to the fame of Lord Byron.] + + * * * * * + +LETTER 192. TO MR. MOORE. + + "Hastings, August 3. 1814. + + "By the time this reaches your dwelling, I shall (God wot) be in + town again probably. I have been here renewing my acquaintance with + my old friend Ocean; and I find his bosom as pleasant a pillow for + an hour in the morning as his daughters of Paphos could be in the + twilight. I have been swimming and eating turbot, and smuggling + neat brandies and silk handkerchiefs,--and listening to my friend + Hodgson's raptures about a pretty wife-elect of his,--and walking + on cliffs, and tumbling down hills, and making the most of the + 'dolce far-niente' for the last fortnight. I met a son of Lord + Erskine's, who says he has been married a year, and is the + 'happiest of men;' and I have met the aforesaid H., who is also the + 'happiest of men;' so, it is worth while being here, if only to + witness the superlative felicity of these foxes, who have cut off + their tails, and would persuade the rest to part with their brushes + to keep them in countenance. + + "It rejoiceth me that you like 'Lara.' Jeffrey is out with his 45th + Number, which I suppose you have got. He is only too kind to me, in + my share of it, and I begin to fancy myself a golden pheasant, upon + the strength of the plumage wherewith he hath bedecked me. But + then, 'surgit amari,' &c.--the gentlemen of the Champion, and + Perry, have got hold (I know not how) of the condolatory address to + Lady J. on the picture-abduction by our R * * *, and have published + them--with my name, too, smack--without even asking leave, or + enquiring whether or no! D----n their impudence, and d----n every + thing. It has put me out of patience, and so, I shall say no more + about it. + + "You shall have Lara and Jacque (both with some additions) when + out; but I am still demurring and delaying, and in a fuss, and so + is R. in his way. + + "Newstead is to be mine again. Claughton forfeits twenty-five + thousand pounds; but that don't prevent me from being very prettily + ruined. I mean to bury myself there--and let my beard grow--and + hate you all. + + "Oh! I have had the most amusing letter from Hogg, the Ettrick + minstrel and shepherd. He wants me to recommend him to Murray; and, + speaking of his present bookseller, whose 'bills' are never + 'lifted,' he adds, _totidem verbis_, 'God d----n him and them + both.' I laughed, and so would you too, at the way in which this + execration is introduced. The said Hogg is a strange being, but of + great, though uncouth, powers. I think very highly of him, as a + poet; but he, and half of these Scotch and Lake troubadours, are + spoilt by living in little circles and petty societies. London and + the world is the only place to take the conceit out of a man--in + the milling phrase. Scott, he says, is gone to the Orkneys in a + gale of wind;--during which wind, he affirms, the said Scott, 'he + is sure, is not at his ease,--to say the best of it.' Lord, Lord, + if these homekeeping minstrels had crossed your Atlantic or my + Mediterranean, and tasted a little open boating in a white + squall--or a gale in 'the Gut'--or the 'Bay of Biscay,' with no + gale at all--how it would enliven and introduce them to a few of + the sensations!--to say nothing of an illicit amour or two upon + shore, in the way of essay upon the Passions, beginning with simple + adultery, and compounding it as they went along. + + "I have forwarded your letter to Murray,--by the way, you had + addressed it to Miller. Pray write to me, and say what art thou + doing? 'Not finished!'--Oons! how is this?--these 'flaws and + starts' must be 'authorised by your grandam,' and are unbecoming of + any other author. I was sorry to hear of your discrepancy with the + * *s, or rather your abjuration of agreement. I don't want to be + impertinent, or buffoon on a serious subject, and am therefore at a + loss what to say. + + "I hope nothing will induce you to abate from the proper price of + your poem, as long as there is a prospect of getting it. For my own + part, I have _seriously_ and _not whiningly_, (for that is not my + way--at least, it used not to be,) neither hopes, nor prospects, + and scarcely even wishes. I am, in some respects, happy, but not in + a manner that can or ought to last,--but enough of that. The worst + of it is, I feel quite enervated and indifferent. I really do not + know, if Jupiter were to offer me my choice of the contents of his + benevolent cask, what I would pick out of it. If I was born, as the + nurses say, with a 'silver spoon in my mouth,' it has stuck in my + throat, and spoiled my palate, so that nothing put into it is + swallowed with much relish,--unless it be cayenne. However, I have + grievances enough to occupy me that way too;--but for fear of + adding to yours by this pestilent long diatribe, I postpone the + reading of them, _sine die_. + + "Ever, dear M., yours, &c. + + "P.S. Don't forget my godson. You could not have fixed on a fitter + porter for his sins than me, being used to carry double without + inconvenience." + + * * * * * + +LETTER 193. TO MR. MURRAY. + + "August 4. 1814. + + "Not having received the slightest answer to my last three letters, + nor the book (the last number of the Edinburgh Review) which they + requested, I presume that you were the unfortunate person who + perished in the pagoda on Monday last, and address this rather to + your executors than yourself, regretting that you should have had + the ill luck to be the sole victim on that joyous occasion. + + "I beg leave, then, to inform these gentlemen (whoever they may be) + that I am a little surprised at the previous neglect of the + deceased, and also at observing an advertisement of an approaching + publication on Saturday next, against the which I protested, and do + protest for the present. + + "Yours (or theirs), &c. + + "B." + + * * * * * + +LETTER 194. TO MR. MURRAY. + + "August 5. 1814. + + "The Edinburgh Review is arrived--thanks. I enclose Mr. Hobhouse's + letter, from which you will perceive the work you have made. + However, I have done: you must send my rhymes to the devil your own + way. It seems, also, that the 'faithful and spirited likeness' is + another of your publications. I wish you joy of it; but it is no + likeness--that is the point. Seriously, if I have delayed your + journey to Scotland, I am sorry that you carried your complaisance + so far; particularly as upon trifles you have a more summary + method;--witness the grammar of Hobhouse's 'bit of prose,' which + has put him and me into a fever. + + "Hogg must translate his own words: '_lifting_' is a quotation from + his letter, together with 'God d----n,' &c., which I suppose + requires no translation. + + "I was unaware of the contents of Mr. Moore's letter; I think your + offer very handsome, but of that you and he must judge. If he can + get more, you won't wonder that he should accept it. + + "Out with Lara, since it must be. The tome looks pretty enough--on + the outside, I shall be in town next week, and in the mean time + wish you a pleasant journey. + + "Yours," &c. + + * * * * * + +LETTER 195. TO MR. MOORE. + + "August 12. 1814. + + "I was _not_ alone, nor will be while I can help it. Newstead is + not yet decided. Claughton is to make a grand effort by Saturday + week to complete,--if not, he must give up twenty-five thousand + pounds and the estate, with expenses, &c. &c. If I resume the + Abbacy, you shall have due notice, and a cell set apart for your + reception, with a pious welcome. Rogers I have not seen, but Larry + and Jacky came out a few days ago. Of their effect I know nothing. + + "There is something very amusing in _your_ being an Edinburgh + Reviewer. You know, I suppose, that T * * is none of the placidest, + and may possibly enact some tragedy on being told that he is only a + fool. If, now, Jeffery were to be slain on account of an article of + yours, there would be a fine conclusion. For my part, as Mrs. + Winifred Jenkins says, 'he has done the handsome thing by me,' + particularly in his last number; so, he is the best of men and the + ablest of critics, and I won't have him killed,--though I dare say + many wish he were, for being so good-humoured. + + "Before I left Hastings I got in a passion with an ink bottle, + which I flung out of the window one night with a vengeance;--and + what then? Why, next morning I was horrified by seeing that it had + struck, and split upon, the petticoat of Euterpe's graven image in + the garden, and grimed her as if it were on purpose[45]. Only think + of my distress,--and the epigrams that might be engendered on the + Muse and her misadventure. + + "I had an adventure almost as ridiculous, at some private + theatricals near Cambridge--though of a different + description--since I saw you last. I quarrelled with a man in the + dark for asking me who I was (insolently enough to be sure), and + followed him into the green-room (a _stable_) in a rage, amongst a + set of people I never saw before. He turned out to be a low + comedian, engaged to act with the amateurs, and to be a + civil-spoken man enough, when he found out that nothing very + pleasant was to be got by rudeness. But you would have been amused + with the row, and the dialogue, and the dress--or rather the + undress--of the party, where I had introduced myself in a devil of + a hurry, and the astonishment that ensued. I had gone out of the + theatre, for coolness, into the garden;--there I had tumbled over + some dogs, and, coming away from them in very ill humour, + encountered the man in a worse, which produced all this confusion. + + "Well--and why don't you 'launch?'--Now is your time. The people + are tolerably tired with me, and not very much enamoured of * *, + who has just spawned a quarto of metaphysical blank verse, which is + nevertheless only a part of a poem. + + "Murray talks of divorcing Larry and Jacky--a bad sign for the + authors, who, I suppose, will be divorced too, and throw the blame + upon one another. Seriously, I don't care a cigar about it, and I + don't see why Sam should. + + "Let me hear from and of you and my godson. If a daughter, the + name will do quite as well. + + "Ever," &c. + +[Footnote 45: His servant had brought him up a large jar of ink, into +which, not supposing it to be full, he had thrust his pen down to the +very bottom. Enraged, on finding it come out all smeared with ink, he +flung the bottle out of the window into the garden, where it lighted, as +here described, upon one of eight leaden Muses, that had been imported, +some time before, from Holland,--the ninth having been, by some +accident, left behind.] + + * * * * * + +LETTER 196. TO MR. MOORE. + + "August 13. 1814. + + "I wrote yesterday to Mayfield, and have just now enfranked your + letter to mamma. My stay in town is so uncertain (not later than + next week) that your packets for the north may not reach me; and as + I know not exactly where I am going--however, _Newstead_ is my most + probable destination, and if you send your despatches before + Tuesday, I can forward them to our new ally. But, after that day, + you had better not trust to their arrival in time. + + "* * has been exiled from Paris, _on dit_, for saying the Bourbons + were old women. The Bourbons might have been content, I think, with + returning the compliment. + + "I told you all about Jacky and Larry yesterday;--they are to be + separated,--at least, so says the grand M., and I know no more of + the matter. Jeffrey has done me more than 'justice;' but as to + tragedy--um!--I have no time for fiction at present. A man cannot + paint a storm with the vessel under bare poles on a lee-shore. When + I get to land, I will try what is to be done, and, if I founder, + there be plenty of mine elders and betters to console Melpomene. + + "When at Newstead, you must come over, if only for a day--should + Mrs. M. be _exigeante_ of your presence. The place is worth seeing, + as a ruin, and I can assure you there _was_ some fun there, even + in my time; but that is past. The ghosts [46], however, and the + gothics, and the waters, and the desolation, make it very lively + still. + + "Ever, dear Tom, yours," &c. + +[Footnote 46: It was, if I mistake not, during his recent visit to +Newstead, that he himself actually fancied he saw the ghost of the Black +Friar, which was supposed to have haunted the Abbey from the time of the +dissolution of the monasteries, and which he thus describes, from the +recollection perhaps of his own fantasy, in Don Juan:-- + + "It was no mouse, but, lo! a monk, array'd + In cowl and beads and dusky garb, appear'd, + Now in the moonlight, and now lapsed in shade, + With steps that trod as heavy, yet unheard: + His garments only a slight murmur made: + He moved as shadowy as the sisters weird, + But slowly; and as he pass'd Juan by, + Glanced, without pausing, on him a bright eye." + +It is said, that the Newstead ghost appeared, also, to Lord Byron's +cousin, Miss Fanny Parkins, and that she made a sketch of him from +memory.] + + * * * * * + +LETTER 197. TO MR. MURRAY. + + "Newstead Abbey, Septembers. 1814. + + "I am obliged by what you have sent, but would rather not see any + thing of the kind[47]; we have had enough of these things already, + good and bad, and next month you need not trouble yourself to + collect even the _higher_ generation--on my account. It gives me + much pleasure to hear of Mr. Hobhouse's and Mr. Merivale's good + entreatment by the journals you mention. + + "I still think Mr. Hogg and yourself might make out an alliance. + _Dodsley's_ was, I believe, the last decent thing of the kind, and + _his_ had great success in its day, and lasted several years; but + then he had the double advantage of editing and publishing. The + Spleen, and several of _Gray's_ odes, much of _Shenstone_, and many + others of good repute, made their first appearance in his + collection. Now, with the support of Scott, Wordsworth, Southey, + &c., I see little reason why you should not do as well; and, if + once fairly established, you would have assistance from the + youngsters, I dare say. Stratford Canning (whose 'Buonaparte' is + excellent), and many others, and Moore, and Hobhouse, and I, would + try a fall now and then (if permitted), and you might coax + Campbell, too, into it. By the by, _he_ has an unpublished (though + printed) poem on a scene in Germany, (Bavaria, I think,) which I + saw last year, that is perfectly magnificent, and equal to himself. + I wonder he don't publish it. + + "Oh!--do you recollect S * *, the engraver's, mad letter about not + engraving Phillips's picture of Lord _Foley_? (as he blundered it;) + well, I have traced it, I think. It seems, by the papers, a + preacher of Johanna Southcote's is named _Foley_; and I can no way + account for the said S * *'s confusion of words and ideas, but by + that of his head's running on Johanna and her apostles. It was a + mercy he did not say Lord _Tozer_. You know, of course, that S * * + is a believer in this new (old) virgin of spiritual impregnation. + + "I long to know what she will produce[48]; her being with child at + sixty-five is indeed a miracle, but her getting any one to beget + it, a greater. + + "If you were not going to Paris or Scotland, I could send you some + game: if you remain, let me know. + + "P.S. A word or two of 'Lara,' which your enclosure brings before + me. It is of no great promise separately; but, as connected with + the other tales, it will do very well for the volumes you mean to + publish. I would recommend this arrangement--Childe Harold, the + smaller Poems, Giaour, Bride, Corsair, Lara; the last completes the + series, and its very likeness renders it necessary to the others. + Cawthorne writes that they are publishing _English Bards in + Ireland:_ pray enquire into this; because _it must_ be stopped." + +[Footnote 47: The reviews and magazines of the month.] + +[Footnote 48: The following characteristic note, in reference to this +passage, appears, in Mr. Gifford's hand-writing, on the copy of the +above letter:--"It is a pity that Lord B. was ignorant of Jonson. The +old poet has a Satire on the Court Pucelle that would have supplied him +with some pleasantry on Johanna's pregnancy."] + + * * * * * + +LETTER 198. TO MR. MURRAY. + + "Newstead Abbey, September 7. 1814. + + "I should think Mr. Hogg, for his own sake as well as yours, would + be 'critical' as Iago himself in his editorial capacity; and that + such a publication would answer his purpose, and yours too, with + tolerable management. You should, however, have a good number to + start with--I mean, _good_ in quality; in these days, there can be + little fear of not coming up to the mark in quantity. There must be + many 'fine things' in Wordsworth; but I should think it difficult + to make _six_ quartos (the amount of the whole) all fine, + particularly the pedler's portion of the poem; but there can be no + doubt of his powers to do almost any thing. + + "I _am_ 'very idle.' I have read the few books I had with me, and + been forced to fish, for lack of argument. I have caught a great + many perch and some carp, which is a comfort, as one would not lose + one's labour willingly. + + "Pray, who corrects the press of your volumes? I hope 'The Corsair' + is printed from the copy I corrected, with the additional lines in + the first Canto, and some _notes_ from Sismondi and Lavater, which + I gave you to add thereto. The arrangement is very well. + + "My cursed people have not sent my papers since Sunday, and I have + lost Johanna's divorce from Jupiter. Who hath gotten her with + prophet? Is it Sharpe, and how? * * * I should like to buy one of + her seals: if salvation can be had at half-a-guinea a head, the + landlord of the Crown and Anchor should be ashamed of himself for + charging double for tickets to a mere terrestrial banquet. I am + afraid, seriously, that these matters will lend a sad handle to + your profane scoffers, and give a loose to much damnable laughter. + + "I have not seen Hunt's Sonnets nor Descent of Liberty: he has + chosen a pretty place wherein to compose the last. Let me hear from + you before you embark. Ever," &c. + + * * * * * + +LETTER 199. TO MR. MOORE. + + "Newstead Abbey, September 15. 1814. + + "This is the fourth letter I have begun to you within the month. + Whether I shall finish or not, or burn it like the rest, I know + not. When we meet, I will explain _why_ I have not written--_why_ I + have not asked you here, as I wished--with a great many other + _whys_ and wherefores, which will keep cold. In short, you must + excuse all my seeming omissions and commissions, and grant me more + _re_mission than St. Athanasius will to yourself, if you lop off a + single shred of mystery from his pious puzzle. It is my creed (and + it may be St. Athanasius's too) that your article on T * * will get + somebody killed, and _that_, on the _Saints_, get him d----d + afterwards, which will be quite enow for one number. Oons, Tom! you + must not meddle just now with the incomprehensible; for if Johanna + Southcote turns out to be * * * + + "Now for a little egotism. My affairs stand thus. To-morrow, I + shall know whether a circumstance of importance enough to change + many of my plans will occur or not. If it does not, I am off for + Italy next month, and London, in the mean time, next week. I have + got back Newstead and twenty-five thousand pounds (out of + twenty-eight paid already),--as a 'sacrifice,' the late purchaser + calls it, and he may choose his own name. I have paid some of my + debts, and contracted others; but I have a few thousand pounds, + which I can't spend after my own heart in this climate, and so, I + shall go back to the south. Hobhouse, I think and hope, will go + with me; but, whether he will or not, I shall. I want to see + Venice, and the Alps, and Parmesan cheeses, and look at the coast + of Greece, or rather Epirus, from Italy, as I once did--or fancied + I did--that of Italy, when off Corfu. All this, however, depends + upon an event, which may, or may not, happen. Whether it will, I + shall know probably to-morrow, and, if it does, I can't well go + abroad at present. + + "Pray pardon this parenthetical scrawl. You shall hear from me + again soon;--I don't call this an answer. Ever most + affectionately," &c. + + The "circumstance of importance," to which he alludes in this + letter, was his second proposal for Miss Milbanke, of which he was + now waiting the result. His own account, in his Memoranda, of the + circumstances that led to this step is, in substance, as far as I + can trust my recollection, as follows. A person, who had for some + time stood high in his affection and confidence, observing how + cheerless and unsettled was the state both of his mind and + prospects, advised him strenuously to marry; and, after much + discussion, he consented. The next point for consideration was--who + was to be the object of his choice; and while his friend mentioned + one lady, he himself named Miss Milbanke. To this, however, his + adviser strongly objected,--remarking to him, that Miss Milbanke + had at present no fortune, and that his embarrassed affairs would + not allow him to marry without one; that she was, moreover, a + learned lady, which would not at all suit him. In consequence of + these representations, he agreed that his friend should write a + proposal for him to the other lady named, which was accordingly + done;--and an answer, containing a refusal, arrived as they were, + one morning, sitting together. "You see," said Lord Byron, "that, + after all, Miss Milbanke is to be the person;--I will write to + her." He accordingly wrote on the moment, and, as soon as he had + finished, his friend, remonstrating still strongly against his + choice, took up the letter,--but, on reading it over, observed, + "Well, really, this is a very pretty letter;--it is a pity it + should not go. I never read a prettier one."--"Then it _shall_ go," + said Lord Byron; and in so saying, sealed and sent off, on the + instant, this fiat of his fate. + + * * * * * + +LETTER 200. TO MR. MOORE. + + "Nd., September 15. 1814. + + "I have written to you one letter to-night, but must send you this + much more, as I have not franked my number, to say that I rejoice + in my god-daughter, and will send her a coral and bells, which I + hope she will accept, the moment I get back to London. + + "My head is at this moment in a state of confusion, from various + causes, which I can neither describe nor explain--but let that + pass. My employments have been very rural--fishing, shooting, + bathing, and boating. Books I have but few here, and those I have + read ten times over, till sick of them. So, I have taken to + breaking soda-water bottles with my pistols, and jumping into the + water, and rowing over it, and firing at the fowls of the air. But + why should I 'monster my nothings' to you, who are well employed, + and happily too, I should hope? For my part, I am happy, too, in my + way--but, as usual, have contrived to get into three or four + perplexities, which I do not see my way through. But a few days, + perhaps a day, will determine one of them. + + "You do not say a word to me of your poem. I wish I could see or + hear it. I neither could, nor would, do it or its author any harm. + I believe I told you of Larry and Jacquy. A friend of mine was + reading--at least a friend of his was reading--said Larry and + Jacquy in a Brighton coach. A passenger took up the book and + queried as to the author. The proprietor said 'there were + _two_'--to which the answer of the unknown was, 'Ay, ay--a joint + concern, I suppose, _summot_ like Sternhold and Hopkins.' + + "Is not this excellent? I would not have missed the 'vile + comparison' to have 'scaped being one of the 'Arcades ambo et + cantare pares.' Good night. Again yours." + + * * * * * + +LETTER 201. TO MR. MOORE. + + "Newstead Abbey, Sept. 20. 1814. + + "Here's to her who long + Hath waked the poet's sigh! + The girl who gave to song + What gold could never buy. + + --My dear Moore, I am going to be married--that is, I am + accepted[49], and one usually hopes the rest will follow. My + mother of the Gracchi (that _are_ to be) _you_ think too + strait-laced for me, although the paragon of only children, and + invested with 'golden opinions of all sorts of men,' and full of + 'most blest conditions' as Desdemona herself. Miss Milbanke is the + lady, and I have her father's invitation to proceed there in my + elect capacity,--which, however, I cannot do till I have settled + some business in London and got a blue coat. + + "She is said to be an heiress, but of that I really know nothing + certainly, and shall not enquire. But I do know, that she has + talents and excellent qualities; and you will not deny her + judgment, after having refused six suitors and taken me. + + "Now, if you have any thing to say against this, pray do; my mind's + made up, positively fixed, determined, and therefore I will listen + to reason, because now it can do no harm. Things may occur to break + it off, but I will hope not. In the mean time, I tell you (a + _secret_, by the by,--at least, till I know she wishes it to be + public,) that I have proposed and am accepted. You need not be in a + hurry to wish me joy, for one mayn't be married for months. I am + going to town to-morrow; but expect to be here, on my way there, + within a fortnight. + + "If this had not happened, I should have gone to Italy. In my way + down, perhaps, you will meet me at Nottingham, and come over with + me here. I need not say that nothing will give me greater pleasure. + I must, of course, reform thoroughly; and, seriously, if I can + contribute to her happiness, I shall secure my own. She is so good + a person, that--that--in short, I wish I was a better. Ever," &c. + +[Footnote 49: On the day of the arrival of the lady's answer, he was +sitting at dinner, when his gardener came in and presented him with his +mother's wedding ring, which she had lost many years before, and which +the gardener had just found in digging up the mould under her window. +Almost at the same moment, the letter from Miss Milbanke arrived; and +Lord Byron exclaimed, "If it contains a consent, I will be married with +this very ring." It did contain a very flattering acceptance of his +proposal, and a duplicate of the letter had been sent to London, in case +this should have missed him.--_Memoranda_.] + + * * * * * + +LETTER 202. TO THE COUNTESS OF * * *. + + "Albany, October 5. 1814. + + "Dear Lady * *, + + "Your recollection and invitation do me great honour; but I am + going to be 'married, and can't come.' My intended is two hundred + miles off, and the moment my business here is arranged, I must set + out in a great hurry to be happy. Miss Milbanke is the good-natured + person who has undertaken me, and, of course, I am very much in + love, and as silly as all single gentlemen must be in that + sentimental situation. I have been accepted these three weeks; but + when the event will take place, I don't exactly know. It depends + partly upon lawyers, who are never in a hurry. One can be sure of + nothing; but, at present, there appears no other interruption to + this intention, which seems as mutual as possible, and now no + secret, though I did not tell first,--and all our relatives are + congratulating away to right and left in the most fatiguing manner. + + "You perhaps know the lady. She is niece to Lady Melbourne, and + cousin to Lady Cowper and others of your acquaintance, and has no + fault, except being a great deal too good for me, and that _I_ + must pardon, if nobody else should. It might have been _two_ years + ago, and, if it had, would have saved me a world of trouble. She + has employed the interval in refusing about half a dozen of my + particular friends, (as she did me once, by the way,) and has taken + me at last, for which I am very much obliged to her. I wish it was + well over, for I do hate bustle, and there is no marrying without + some;--and then, I must not marry in a black coat, they tell me, + and I can't bear a blue one. + + "Pray forgive me for scribbling all this nonsense. You know I must + be serious all the rest of my life, and this is a parting piece of + buffoonery, which I write with tears in my eyes, expecting to be + agitated. Believe me most seriously and sincerely your obliged + servant, BYRON. + + "P.S. My best rems. to Lord * * on his return." + + * * * * * + +LETTER 203. TO MR. MOORE. + + "October 7. 1814. + + "Notwithstanding the contradictory paragraph in the Morning + Chronicle, which must have been sent by * *, or perhaps--I know not + why I should suspect Claughton of such a thing, and yet I partly + do, because it might interrupt his renewal of purchase, if so + disposed; in short it matters not, but we are all in the road to + matrimony--lawyers settling, relations congratulating, my intended + as kind as heart could wish, and every one, whose opinion I value, + very glad of it. All her relatives, and all mine too, seem equally + pleased. + + "Perry was very sorry, and has _re_-contradicted, as you will + perceive by this day's paper. It was, to be sure, a devil of an + insertion, since the first paragraph came from Sir Ralph's own + County Journal, and this in the teeth of it would appear to him and + his as _my_ denial. But I have written to do away that, enclosing + Perry's letter, which was very polite and kind. + + "Nobody hates bustle so much as I do; but there seems a fatality + over every scene of my drama, always a row of some sort or other. + No matter--Fortune is my best friend; and as I acknowledge my + obligations to her, I hope she will treat me better than she + treated the Athenian, who took some merit to _himself_ on some + occasion, but (after that) took no more towns. In fact, _she_, that + exquisite goddess, has hitherto carried me through every thing, and + will I hope, now; since I own it will be all _her_ doing. + + "Well, now, for thee. Your article on * * is perfection itself. You + must not leave off reviewing. By Jove, I believe you can do any + thing. There is wit, and taste, and learning, and good humour + (though not a whit less severe for that), in every line of that + critique. + + "Next to _your_ being an E. Reviewer, _my_ being of the same + kidney, and Jeffrey's being such a friend to both, are amongst the + events which I conceive were not calculated upon in Mr.--what's his + name?'s--'Essay on Probabilities.' + + "But, Tom, I say--Oons! Scott menaces the 'Lord of the Isles." Do + you mean to compete? or lay by, till this wave has broke upon the + _shelves_? (of booksellers, not rocks--a _broken_ metaphor, by the + way.) You _ought_ to be afraid of nobody; but your modesty is + really as provoking and unnecessary as a * *'s. I am very merry, + and have just been writing some elegiac stanzas on the death of Sir + P. Parker. He was my first cousin, but never met since boyhood. Our + relations desired me, and I have scribbled and given it to Perry, + who will chronicle it to-morrow. I am as sorry for him as one could + be for one I never saw since I was a child; but should not have + wept melodiously, except 'at the request of friends.' + + "I hope to get out of town and be married, but I shall take + Newstead in my way; and you must meet me at Nottingham and + accompany me to mine Abbey. I will tell you the day when I know it. + + "Ever," &c. + + "P.S. By the way my wife elect is perfection, and I hear of nothing + but her merits and her wonders, and that she is 'very pretty.' Her + expectations, I am told, are great; but _what_, I have not asked. I + have not seen her these ten months." + + * * * * * + +LETTER 204. TO MR. MOORE. + + "October 14. 1814. + + "An' there were any thing in marriage that would make a difference + between my friends and me, particularly in your case, I would 'none + on't.' My agent sets off for Durham next week, and I shall follow + him, taking Newstead and you in my way. I certainly did not address + Miss Milbanke with these views, but it is likely she may prove a + considerable _parti_. All her father can give, or leave her, he + will; and from her childless uncle, Lord Wentworth, whose barony, + it is supposed, will devolve on Ly. Milbanke (her sister), she has + expectations. But these will depend upon his own disposition, which + seems very partial towards her. She is an only child, and Sir R.'s + estates, though dipped by electioneering, are considerable. Part of + them are settled on her; but whether _that_ will be _dowered_ now, + I do not know,--though, from what has been intimated to me, it + probably will. The lawyers are to settle this among them, and I am + getting my property into matrimonial array, and myself ready for + the journey to Seaham, which I must make in a week or ten days. + + "I certainly did not dream that she was attached to me, which it + seems she has been for some time. I also thought her of a very cold + disposition, in which I was also mistaken--it is a long story, and + I won't trouble you with it. As to her virtues, &c. &c. you will + hear enough of them (for she is a kind of _pattern_ in the north), + without my running into a display on the subject. It is well that + _one_ of us is of such fame, since there is sad deficit in the + _morale_ of that article upon my part,--all owing to my 'bitch of a + star,' as Captain Tranchemont says of his planet. + + "Don't think you have not said enough of me in your article on T * + *; what more could or need be said? + + "Your long-delayed and expected work--I suppose you will take + fright at 'The Lord of the Isles' and Scott now. You must do as you + like,--I have said my say. You ought to fear comparison with none, + and any one would stare, who heard you were so tremulous,--though, + after all, I believe it is the surest sign of talent. Good morning. + I hope we shall meet soon, but I will write again, and perhaps you + will meet me at Nottingham. Pray say so. + + "P.S. If this union is productive, you shall name the first + fruits." + + * * * * * + +LETTER 205. TO MR. HENRY DRURY. + + "October 18. 1814. + + "My dear Drury, + + "Many thanks for your hitherto unacknowledged 'Anecdotes.' Now for + one of mine--I am going to be married, and have been engaged this + month. It is a long story, and, therefore, I won't tell it,--an old + and (though I did not know it till lately) a _mutual_ attachment. + The very sad life I have led since I was your pupil must partly + account for the offs and _ons_ in this now to be arranged business. + We are only waiting for the lawyers and settlements, &c.; and next + week, or the week after, I shall go down to Seaham in the new + character of a regular suitor for a wife of mine own. + + "I hope Hodgson is in a fair way on the same voyage--I saw him and + his idol at Hastings. I wish he would be married at the same + time,--I should like to make a party,--like people electrified in a + row, by (or rather through) the same chain, holding one another's + hands, and all feeling the shock at once. I have not yet apprised + him of this. He makes such a serious matter of all these things, + and is so 'melancholy and gentlemanlike,' that it is quite + overcoming to us choice spirits. + + "They say one shouldn't be married in a black coat. I won't have a + blue one,--that's flat. I hate it. + + "Yours," &c. + + * * * * * + +LETTER 206. TO MR. COWELL. + + "October 22. 1814. + + "My dear Cowell, + + "Many and sincere thanks for your kind letter--the bet, or rather + forfeit, was one hundred to Hawke, and fifty to Hay (nothing to + Kelly), for a guinea received from each of the two former.[50] I + shall feel much obliged by your setting me right if I am incorrect + in this statement in any way, and have reasons for wishing you to + recollect as much as possible of what passed, and state it to + Hodgson. My reason is this: some time ago Mr. * * * required a bet + of me which I never made, and of course refused to pay, and have + heard no more of it; to prevent similar mistakes is my object in + wishing you to remember well what passed, and to put Hodgson in + possession of your memory on the subject. + + "I hope to see you soon in my way through Cambridge. Remember me to + H., and believe me ever and truly," &c. + +[Footnote 50: He had agreed to forfeit these sums to the persons +mentioned, should he ever marry.] + + * * * * * + +Soon after the date of this letter, Lord Byron had to pay a visit to +Cambridge for the purpose of voting for Mr. Clarke, who had been +started by Trinity College as one of the candidates for Sir Busick +Harwood's Professorship. On this occasion, a circumstance occurred which +could not but be gratifying to him. As he was delivering in his vote to +the Vice-Chancellor, in the Senate House, the under-graduates in the +gallery ventured to testify their admiration of him by a general murmur +of applause and stamping of the feet. For this breach of order, the +gallery was immediately cleared by order of the Vice-Chancellor. + +At the beginning of the month of December, being called up to town by +business, I had opportunities, from being a good deal in my noble +friend's society, of observing the state of his mind and feelings, under +the prospect of the important change he was now about to undergo; and it +was with pain I found that those sanguine hopes[51] with which I had +sometimes looked forward to the happy influence of marriage, in winning +him over to the brighter and better side of life, were, by a view of all +the circumstances of his present destiny, considerably diminished; +while, at the same time, not a few doubts and misgivings, which had +never before so strongly occurred to me, with regard to his own fitness, +under any circumstances, for the matrimonial tie, filled me altogether +with a degree of foreboding anxiety as to his fate, which the +unfortunate events that followed but too fully justified. + +The truth is, I fear, that rarely, if ever, have men of the higher order +of genius shown themselves fitted for the calm affections and comforts +that form the cement of domestic life. "One misfortune (says Pope) of +extraordinary geniuses is, that their very friends are more apt to +admire than love them." To this remark there have, no doubt, been +exceptions,--and I should pronounce Lord Byron, from my own experience, +to be one of them,--but it would not be difficult, perhaps, to show, +from the very nature and pursuits of genius, that such must generally be +the lot of all pre-eminently gifted with it; and that the same qualities +which enable them to command admiration are also those that too often +incapacitate them from conciliating love. + +The very habits, indeed, of abstraction and self-study to which the +occupations of men of genius lead, are, in themselves, necessarily, of +an unsocial and detaching tendency, and require a large portion of +indulgence from others not to be set down as unamiable. One of the chief +sources, too, of sympathy and society between ordinary mortals being +their dependence on each other's intellectual resources, the operation +of this social principle must naturally be weakest in those whose own +mental stores are most abundant and self-sufficing, and who, rich in +such materials for thinking within themselves, are rendered so far +independent of any aid from others. It was this solitary luxury (which +Plato called "banqueting his own thoughts") that led Pope, as well as +Lord Byron, to prefer the silence and seclusion of his library to the +most agreeable conversation.--And not only too, is the necessity of +commerce with other minds less felt by such persons, but, from that +fastidiousness which the opulence of their own resources generates, the +society of those less gifted than themselves becomes often a restraint +and burden, to which not all the charms of friendship, or even love, can +reconcile them. "Nothing is so tiresome (says the poet of Vaucluse, in +assigning a reason for not living with some of his dearest friends) as +to converse with persons who have not the same information as one's +self." + +But it is the cultivation and exercise of the imaginative faculty that, +more than any thing, tends to wean the man of genius from actual life, +and, by substituting the sensibilities of the imagination for those of +the heart, to render, at last, the medium through which he feels no less +unreal than that through which he thinks. Those images of ideal good and +beauty that surround him in his musings soon accustom him to consider +all that is beneath this high standard unworthy of his care; till, at +length, the heart becoming chilled as the fancy warms, it too often +happens that, in proportion as he has refined and elevated his theory of +all the social affections, he has unfitted himself for the practice of +them.[52] Hence so frequently it arises that, in persons of this +temperament, we see some bright but artificial idol of the brain usurp +the place of all real and natural objects of tenderness. The poet Dante, +a wanderer away from wife and children, passed the whole of a restless +and detached life in nursing his immortal dream of Beatrice; while +Petrarch, who would not suffer his only daughter to reside beneath his +roof, expended thirty-two years of poetry and passion on an idealised +love. + +It is, indeed, in the very nature and essence of genius to be for ever +occupied intensely with Self, as the great centre and source of its +strength. Like the sister Rachel, in Dante, sitting all day before her +mirror, + + "mai non si smaga + Del suo ammiraglio, e siede tutto giorno." + +To this power of self-concentration, by which alone all the other powers +of genius are made available, there is, of course, no such disturbing +and fatal enemy as those sympathies and affections that draw the mind +out actively towards others[53]; and, accordingly, it will be found +that, among those who have felt within themselves a call to immortality, +the greater number have, by a sort of instinct, kept aloof from such +ties, and, instead of the softer duties and rewards of being amiable, +reserved themselves for the high, hazardous chances of being great. In +looking back through the lives of the most illustrious poets,--the class +of intellect in which the characteristic features of genius are, +perhaps, most strongly marked,--we shall find that, with scarcely one +exception, from Homer down to Lord Byron, they have been, in their +several degrees, restless and solitary spirits, with minds wrapped up, +like silk-worms, in their own tasks, either strangers, or rebels to +domestic ties, and bearing about with them a deposit for posterity in +their souls, to the jealous watching and enriching of which almost all +other thoughts and considerations have been sacrificed. + +"To follow poetry as one ought (says the authority[54] I have already +quoted), one must forget father and mother and cleave to it alone." In +these few words is pointed out the sole path that leads genius to +greatness. On such terms alone are the high places of fame to be +won;--nothing less than the sacrifice of the entire man can achieve +them. However delightful, therefore, may be the spectacle of a man of +genius tamed and domesticated in society, taking docilely upon him the +yoke of the social ties, and enlightening without disturbing the sphere +in which he moves, we must nevertheless, in the midst of our admiration, +bear in mind that it is not thus smoothly or amiably immortality has +been ever struggled for, or won. The poet thus circumstanced may be +popular, may be loved; for the happiness of himself and those linked +with him he is in the right road,--but not for greatness. The marks by +which Fame has always separated her great martyrs from the rest of +mankind are not upon him, and the crown cannot be his. He may dazzle, +may captivate the circle, and even the times in which he lives, but he +is not for hereafter. + +To the general description here given of that high class of human +intelligences to which he belonged, the character of Lord Byron was, in +many respects, a signal exception. Born with strong affections and +ardent passions, the world had, from first to last, too firm a hold on +his sympathies to let imagination altogether usurp the place of reality, +either in his feelings, or in the objects of them. His life, indeed, was +one continued struggle between that instinct of genius, which was for +ever drawing him back into the lonely laboratory of Self, and those +impulses of passion, ambition, and vanity, which again hurried him off +into the crowd, and entangled him in its interests; and though it may be +granted that he would have been more purely and abstractedly the +_poet_, had he been less thoroughly, in all his pursuits and +propensities, the _man_, yet from this very mixture and alloy has it +arisen that his pages bear so deeply the stamp of real life, and that in +the works of no poet, with the exception of Shakspeare, can every +various mood of the mind--whether solemn or gay, whether inclined to the +ludicrous or the sublime, whether seeking to divert itself with the +follies of society or panting after the grandeur of solitary +nature--find so readily a strain of sentiment in accordance with its +every passing tone. + +But while the naturally warm cast of his affections and temperament gave +thus a substance and truth to his social feelings which those of too +many of his fellow votaries of Genius have wanted, it was not to be +expected that an imagination of such range and power should have been so +early developed and unrestrainedly indulged without producing, at last, +some of those effects upon the heart which have invariably been found +attendant on such a predominance of this faculty. It must have been +observed, indeed, that the period when his natural affections flourished +most healthily was before he had yet arrived at the full consciousness +of his genius,--before Imagination had yet accustomed him to those +glowing pictures, after gazing upon which all else appeared cold and +colourless. From the moment of this initiation into the wonders of his +own mind, a distaste for the realities of life began to grow upon him. +Not even that intense craving after affection, which nature had +implanted in him, could keep his ardour still alive in a pursuit whose +results fell so short of his "imaginings;" and though, from time to +time, the combined warmth of his fancy and temperament was able to call +up a feeling which to his eyes wore the semblance of love, it may be +questioned whether his heart had ever much share in such passions, or +whether, after his first launch into the boundless sea of imagination, +he could ever have been brought back and fixed by any lasting +attachment. Actual objects there were, in but too great number, who, as +long as the illusion continued, kindled up his thoughts and were the +themes of his song. But they were, after all, little more than mere +dreams of the hour;--the qualities with which he invested them were +almost all ideal, nor could have stood the test of a month's, or even +week's, cohabitation. It was but the reflection of his own bright +conceptions that he saw in each new object; and while persuading himself +that they furnished the models of his heroines, he was, on the contrary, +but fancying that he beheld his heroines in them. + +There needs no stronger proof of the predominance of imagination in +these attachments than his own serious avowal, in the Journal already +given, that often, when in the company of the woman he most loved, he +found himself secretly wishing for the solitude of his own study. It was +_there_, indeed,--in the silence and abstraction of that study,--that +the chief scene of his mistress's empire and glory lay. It was there +that, unchecked by reality, and without any fear of the disenchantments +of truth, he could view her through the medium of his own fervid fancy, +enamour himself of an idol of his own creating, and out of a brief +delirium of a few days or weeks, send forth a dream of beauty and +passion through all ages. + +While such appears to have been the imaginative character of his loves, +(of all, except the one that lived unquenched through all,) his +friendships, though, of course, far less subject to the influence of +fancy, could not fail to exhibit also some features characteristic of +the peculiar mind in which they sprung. It was a usual saying of his +own, and will be found repeated in some of his letters, that he had "no +genius for friendship," and that whatever capacity he might once have +possessed for that sentiment had vanished with his youth. If in saying +thus he shaped his notions of friendship according to the romantic +standard of his boyhood, the fact must be admitted: but as far as the +assertion was meant to imply that he had become incapable of a warm, +manly, and lasting friendship, such a charge against himself was unjust, +and I am not the only living testimony of its injustice. + +To a certain degree, however, even in his friendships, the effects of a +too vivid imagination, in disqualifying the mind for the cold contact of +reality, were visible. We are told that Petrarch (who, in this respect, +as in most others, may be regarded as a genuine representative of the +poetic character,) abstained purposely from a too frequent intercourse +with his nearest friends, lest, from the sensitiveness he was so aware +of in himself, there should occur any thing that might chill his regard +for them [55]; and though Lord Byron was of a nature too full of social +and kindly impulses ever to think of such a precaution, it is a fact +confirmatory, at least, of the principle on which his brother poet, +Petrarch, acted, that the friends, whether of his youth or manhood, of +whom he had seen least, through life, were those of whom he always +thought and spoke with the most warmth and fondness. Being brought less +often to the touchstone of familiar intercourse, they stood naturally a +better chance of being adopted as the favourites of his imagination, and +of sharing, in consequence, a portion of that bright colouring reserved +for all that gave it interest and pleasure. Next to the dead, therefore, +whose hold upon his fancy had been placed beyond all risk of severance, +those friends whom he but saw occasionally, and by such favourable +glimpses as only renewed the first kindly impression they had made, were +the surest to live unchangingly, and without shadow, in his memory. + +To this same cause, there is little doubt, his love for his sister owed +much of its devotedness and fervour. In a mind sensitive and versatile +as his, long habits of family intercourse might have estranged, or at +least dulled, his natural affection for her;--but their separation, +during youth, left this feeling fresh and untried.[56] His very +inexperience in such ties made the smile of a sister no less a novelty +than a charm to him; and before the first gloss of this newly awakened +sentiment had time to wear off, they were again separated, and for ever. + +If the portrait which I have here attempted of the general character of +those gifted with high genius be allowed to bear, in any of its +features, a resemblance to the originals, it can no longer, I think, be +matter of question whether a class so set apart from the track of +ordinary life, so removed, by their very elevation, out of the +influences of our common atmosphere, are at all likely to furnish +tractable subjects for that most trying of all social experiments, +matrimony. In reviewing the great names of philosophy and science, we +shall find that all who have most distinguished themselves in those +walks have, at least, virtually admitted their own unfitness for the +marriage tie by remaining in celibacy;--Newton, Gassendi, Galileo, +Descartes, Bayle, Locke, Leibnitz, Boyle, Hume, and a long list of other +illustrious sages, having all led single lives.[57] + +The poetic race, it is true, from the greater susceptibility of their +imaginations, have more frequently fallen into the ever ready snare. But +the fate of the poets in matrimony has but justified the caution of the +philosophers. While the latter have given warning to genius by keeping +free of the yoke, the others have still more effectually done so by +their misery under it;--the annals of this sensitive race having, at all +times, abounded with proofs, that genius ranks but low among the +elements of social happiness,--that, in general, the brighter the gift, +the more disturbing its influence, and that in married life +particularly, its effects have been too often like that of the "Wormwood +Star," whose light filled the waters on which it fell with bitterness. + +Besides the causes already enumerated as leading naturally to such a +result, from the peculiarities by which, in most instances, these great +labourers in the field of thought are characterised, there is also much, +no doubt, to be attributed to an unluckiness in the choice of +helpmates,--dictated, as that choice frequently must be, by an +imagination accustomed to deceive itself. But from whatever causes it +may have arisen, the coincidence is no less striking than saddening, +that, on the list of married poets who have been unhappy in their homes, +there should already be found four such illustrious names as Dante, +Milton[58], Shakspeare[59], and Dryden; and that we should now have to +add, as a partner in their destiny, a name worthy of being placed beside +the greatest of them,--Lord Byron. + +I have already mentioned my having been called up to town in the +December of this year. The opportunities I had of seeing Lord Byron +during my stay were frequent; and, among them, not the least memorable +or agreeable were those evenings we passed together at the house of his +banker, Mr. Douglas Kinnaird, where music,--followed by its accustomed +sequel of supper, brandy and water, and not a little laughter,--kept us +together, usually, till rather a late hour. Besides those songs of mine +which he has himself somewhere recorded as his favourites, there was +also one to a Portuguese air, "The song of war shall echo through our +mountains," which seemed especially to please him;--the national +character of the music, and the recurrence of the words "sunny +mountains," bringing back freshly to his memory the impressions of all +he had seen in Portugal. I have, indeed, known few persons more alive to +the charms of simple music; and not unfrequently have seen the tears in +his eyes while listening to the Irish Melodies. Among those that thus +affected him was one beginning "When first I met thee warm and young," +the words of which, besides the obvious feeling which they express, were +intended also to admit of a political application. He, however, +discarded the latter sense wholly from his mind, and gave himself up to +the more natural sentiment of the song with evident emotion. + +On one or two of these evenings, his favourite actor, Mr. Kean, was of +the party; and on another occasion, we had at dinner his early +instructor in pugilism, Mr. Jackson, in conversing with whom, all his +boyish tastes seemed to revive;--and it was not a little amusing to +observe how perfectly familiar with the annals of "The Ring[60]," and +with all the most recondite phraseology of "the Fancy," was the sublime +poet of Childe Harold. + +The following note is the only one, of those I received from him at this +time, worth transcribing:-- + + "December 14. 1814. + + "My dearest Tom, + + "I will send the pattern to-morrow, and since you don't go to our + friend ('of the _keeping_ part of the town') this evening, I shall + e'en sulk at home over a solitary potation. My self-opinion rises + much by your eulogy of my social qualities. As my friend Scrope is + pleased to say, I believe I am very well for a 'holiday drinker.' + Where the devil are you? With Woolridge[61], I conjecture--for + which you deserve another abscess. Hoping that the American war + will last for many years, and that all the prizes may be registered + at Bermoothes, believe me, &c. + + "P.S. I have just been composing an epistle to the Archbishop for + an especial licence. Oons! it looks serious. Murray is impatient to + see you, and would call, if you will give him audience. Your new + coat!--I wonder you like the colour, and don't go about, like + Dives, in purple." + +[Footnote 51: I had frequently, both in earnest and in jest, expressed +these hopes to him; and, in one of my letters, after touching upon some +matters relative to my own little domestic circle, I added, "This will +all be unintelligible to you; though I sometimes cannot help thinking it +within the range of possibility, that even _you_, volcano as you are, +may, one day, cool down into something of the same _habitable_ state. +Indeed, when one thinks of lava having been converted into buttons for +Isaac Hawkins Browne, there is no saying what such fiery things may be +brought to at last."] + +[Footnote 52: Of the lamentable contrast between sentiments and conduct, +which this transfer of the seat of sensibility from the heart to the +fancy produces, the annals of literary men afford unluckily too many +examples. Alfieri, though he could write a sonnet full of tenderness to +his mother, never saw her (says Mr. W. Rose) but once after their early +separation, though he frequently passed within a few miles of her +residence. The poet Young, with all his parade of domestic sorrows, was, +it appears, a neglectful husband and harsh father; and Sterne (to use +the words employed by Lord Byron) preferred "whining over a dead ass to +relieving a living mother."] + +[Footnote 53: It is the opinion of Diderot, in his Treatise on Acting, +that not only in the art of which he treats, but in all those which are +called imitative, the possession of real sensibility is a bar to +eminence;--sensibility being, according to his view, "le caractere de la +bonté de l'ame et de la médiocrité du génie."] + +[Footnote 54: Pope.] + +[Footnote 55: See Foscolo's Essay on Petrarch. On the same principle, +Orrery says, in speaking of Swift, "I am persuaded that his distance +from his English friends proved a strong incitement to their mutual +affection."] + +[Footnote 56: That he was himself fully aware of this appears from a +passage in one of his letters already given:--"My sister is in town, +which is a great comfort; for, never having been much together, we are +naturally more attached to each other."] + +[Footnote 57: Wife and children, Bacon tells us in one of his Essays, +are "impediments to great enterprises;" and adds, "Certainly, the best +works, and of greatest merit for the public, have proceeded from the +unmarried or childless men." See, with reference to this subject, +chapter xviii. of Mr. D'Israeli's work on "The Literary Character."] + +[Footnote 58: Milton's first wife, it is well known, ran away from him, +within a month after their marriage, disgusted, says Phillips, "with his +spare diet and hard study;" and it is difficult to conceive a more +melancholy picture of domestic life than is disclosed in his nuncupative +will, one of the witnesses to which deposes to having heard the great +poet himself complain, that his children "were careless of him, being +blind, and made nothing of deserting him."] + +[Footnote 59: By whatever austerity of temper or habits the poets Dante +and Milton may have drawn upon themselves such a fate, it might be +expected that, at least, the "gentle Shakspeare" would have stood exempt +from the common calamity of his brethren. But, among the very few facts +of his life that have been transmitted to us, there is none more clearly +proved than the unhappiness of his marriage. The dates of the birth of +his children, compared with that of his removal from Stratford,--the +total omission of his wife's name in the first draft of his will, and +the bitter sarcasm of the bequest by which he remembers her +afterwards,--all prove beyond a doubt both his separation from the lady +early in life, and his unfriendly feeling towards her at the close of +it. + +In endeavouring to argue against the conclusion naturally to be deduced +from this will, Boswell, with a strange ignorance of human nature, +remarks:--"If he had taken offence at any part of his wife's conduct, I +cannot believe that he would have taken this petty mode of expressing +it."] + +[Footnote 60: In a small book which I have in my possession, containing +a sort of chronological History of the Ring, I find the name of Lord +Byron, more than once, recorded among the "backers."] + +[Footnote 61: Dr. Woolriche, an old and valued friend of mine, to whose +skill, on the occasion here alluded to, I was indebted for my life.] + + * * * * * + +LETTER. 207. TO MR. MURRAY. + + "December 31, 1814. + + "A thousand thanks for Gibbon: all the additions are very great + improvements. + + "At last I must be _most_ peremptory with you about the _print_ + from Phillips's picture: it is pronounced on all hands the most + stupid and disagreeable possible: so do, pray, have a new + engraving, and let me see it first; there really must be no more + from the same plate. I don't much care, myself; but every one I + honour torments me to death about it, and abuses it to a degree + beyond repeating. Now, don't answer with excuses; but, for my sake, + have it destroyed: I never shall have peace till it is. I write in + the greatest haste. + + "P.S. I have written this most illegibly; but it is to beg you to + destroy the print, and have another 'by particular desire.' It must + be d----d bad, to be sure, since every body says so but the + original; and he don't know what to say. But do _do_ it: that is, + burn the plate, and employ a new _etcher_ from the other picture. + This is stupid and sulky." + + * * * * * + +On his arrival in town, he had, upon enquiring into the state of his +affairs, found them in so utterly embarrassed a condition as to fill him +with some alarm, and even to suggest to his mind the prudence of +deferring his marriage. The die was, however, cast, and he had now no +alternative but to proceed. Accordingly, at the end of December, +accompanied by his friend Mr. Hobhouse, he set out for Seaham, the seat +of Sir Ralph Milbanke, the lady's father, in the county of Durham, and +on the 2d of January, 1815, was married. + + "I saw him stand + Before an altar with a gentle bride; + Her face was fair, but was not that which made + The Starlight of his Boyhood;--as he stood + Even at the altar, o'er his brow there came + The self-same aspect, and the quivering shock + That in the antique Oratory shook + His bosom in its solitude; and then-- + As in that hour--a moment o'er his face, + The tablet of unutterable thoughts + Was traced,--and then it faded as it came, + And he stood calm and quiet, and he spoke + The fitting vows, but heard not his own words, + And all things reel'd around him; he could see + Not that which was, nor that which should have been-- + But the old mansion, and the accustom'd hall, + And the remember'd chambers, and the place, + The day, the hour, the sunshine, and the shade, + All things pertaining to that place and hour, + And her, who was his destiny, came back, + And thrust themselves between him and the light:-- + What business had they there at such a time?"[62] + +This touching picture agrees so closely in many of its circumstances, +with his own prose account of the wedding in his Memoranda, that I feel +justified in introducing it, historically, here. In that Memoir, he +described himself as waking, on the morning of his marriage, with the +most melancholy reflections, on seeing his wedding-suit spread out +before him. In the same mood, he wandered about the grounds alone, till +he was summoned for the ceremony, and joined, for the first time on that +day, his bride and her family. He knelt down, he repeated the words +after the clergyman; but a mist was before his eyes,--his thoughts were +elsewhere; and he was but awakened by the congratulations of the +bystanders, to find that he was--married. + +The same morning, the wedded pair left Seaham for Halnaby, another seat +of Sir Ralph Milbanke, in the same county. When about to depart, Lord +Byron said to the bride, "Miss Milbanke, are you ready?"--a mistake +which the lady's confidential attendant pronounced to be a "bad omen." + +It is right to add, that I quote these slight details from memory, and +am alone answerable for any inaccuracy there may be found in them. + +[Footnote 62: The Dream.] + + * * * * * + +LETTER 208. TO MR. MURRAY. + + "Kirkby, January 6. 1815. + + "The marriage took place on the 2d instant: so pray make haste and + congratulate away. + + "Thanks for the Edinburgh Review and the abolition of the print. + Let the next be from the _other_ of Phillips--I mean (_not_ the + Albanian, but) the original one in the exhibition; the last was + from the copy. I should wish my sister and Lady Byron to decide + upon the next, as they found fault with the last. _I_ have no + opinion of my own upon the subject. + + "Mr. Kinnaird will, I dare say, have the goodness to furnish copies + of the Melodies[63], if you state my wish upon the subject. You may + have them, if you think them worth inserting. The volumes in their + collected state must be inscribed to Mr. Hobhouse, but I have not + yet mustered the expressions of my inscription; but will supply + them in time. + + With many thanks for your good wishes, which have all been + realised, I remain, very truly, yours, + + "BYRON." + +[Footnote 63: The Hebrew Melodies which he had employed himself in +writing, during his recent stay in London.] + + * * * * * + +LETTER 209. TO MR. MOORE. + + "Halnaby, Darlington, January 10, 1815. + + "I was married this day week. The parson has pronounced it--Perry + has announced it--and the Morning Post, also, under the head of + 'Lord Byron's Marriage'--as if it were a fabrication, or the + puff-direct of a new stay-maker. + + "Now for thine affairs. I have redde thee upon the Fathers, and it + is excellent well. Positively, you must not leave off reviewing. + You shine in it--you kill in it; and this article has been taken + for Sydney Smith's (as I heard in town), which proves not only your + proficiency in parsonology, but that you have all the airs of a + veteran critic at your first onset. So, prithee, go on and prosper. + + "Scott's 'Lord of the Isles' is out--'the mail-coach copy' I have, + by special licence, of Murray. + + "Now is _your_ time;--you will come upon them newly and freshly. It + is impossible to read what you have lately done (verse or prose) + without seeing that you have trained on tenfold. * * has + floundered; * * has foundered. _I_ have tried the rascals (i.e. the + public) with my Harrys and Larrys, Pilgrims and Pirates. Nobody but + S * * * *y has done any thing worth a slice of bookseller's + pudding; and _he_ has not luck enough to be found out in doing a + good thing. Now, Tom, is thy time--'Oh joyful day!--I would not + take a knighthood for thy fortune. Let me hear from you soon, and + believe me ever, &c. + + "P.S. Lady Byron is vastly well. How are Mrs. Moore and Joe + Atkinson's 'Graces?' We must present our women to one another." + + * * * * * + +LETTER 210. TO MR. MOORE. + + "January 19. 1815. + + "Egad! I don't think he is 'down;' and my prophecy--like most + auguries, sacred and profane--is not annulled, but inverted. + + "To your question about the 'dog'[64]--Umph!--my 'mother,' I won't + say any thing against--that is, about her: but how long a + 'mistress' or friend may recollect paramours or competitors (lust + and thirst being the two great and only bonds between the amatory + or the amicable) I can't say,--or, rather, you know, as well as I + could tell you. But as for canine recollections, as far as I could + judge by a cur of mine own, (always bating Boatswain, the dearest + and, alas! the maddest of dogs,) I had one (half a _wolf_ by the + she side) that doted on me at ten years old, and very nearly ate me + at twenty. When I thought he was going to enact Argus, he bit away + the backside of my breeches, and never would consent to any kind of + recognition, in despite of all kinds of bones which I offered him. + So, let Southey blush and Homer too, as far as I can decide upon + quadruped memories. + + "I humbly take it, the mother knows the son that pays her + jointure--a mistress her mate, till he * * and refuses salary--a + friend his fellow, till he loses cash and character--and a dog his + master, till he changes him. + + "So, you want to know about milady and me? But let me not, as + Roderick Random says, 'profane the chaste mysteries of + Hymen'[65]--damn the word, I had nearly spelt it with a small _h_. + I like Bell as well as you do (or did, you villain!) Bessy--and + that is (or was) saying a great deal. + + "Address your next to Seaham, Stockton-on-Tees, where we are going + on Saturday (a bore, by the way,) to see father-in-law, Sir Jacob, + and my lady's lady-mother. Write--and write more at length--both to + the public and yours ever most affectionately, + + "B." + +[Footnote 64: I had just been reading Mr. Southey's fine poem of +"Roderick;" and with reference to an incident in it, had put the +following question to Lord Byron:--"I should like to know from you, who +are one of the philocynic sect, whether it is probable, that any dog +(out of a melodrame) could recognise a master, whom neither his own +mother or mistress was able to find out. I don't care about Ulysses's +dog, &c.--all I want is to know from _you_ (who are renowned as 'friend +of the dog, companion of the bear') whether such a thing is probable."] + +[Footnote 65: The letter H. is blotted in the MS.] + + * * * * * + +LETTER 211. TO MR. MOORE. + + "Seaham, Stockton-on-Tees, February 2. 1815. + + "I have heard from London that you have left Chatsworth and all the + women full of 'entusymusy'[66] about you, personally and + poetically; and, in particular, that 'When first I met thee' has + been quite overwhelming in its effect. I told you it was one of the + best things you ever wrote, though that dog Power wanted you to + omit part of it. They are all regretting your absence at + Chatsworth, according to my informant--'all the ladies quite,' &c. + &c. &c. Stap my vitals! + + "Well, now you have got home again--which I dare say is as + agreeable as a 'draught of cool small beer to the scorched palate + of a waking sot'--now you have got home again, I say, probably I + shall hear from you. Since I wrote last, I have been transferred to + my father-in-law's, with my lady and my lady's maid, &c. &c. &c. + and the treacle-moon is over, and I am awake, and find myself + married. My spouse and I agree to--and in--admiration. Swift says + 'no _wise_ man ever married;' but, for a fool, I think it the most + ambrosial of all possible future states. I still think one ought to + marry upon _lease_; but am very sure I should renew mine at the + expiration, though next term were for ninety and nine years. + + "I wish you would respond, for I am here 'oblitusque meorum + obliviscendus et illis.' Pray tell me what is going on in the way + of intriguery, and how the w----s and rogues of the upper Beggar's + Opera go on--or rather go off--in or after marriage; or who are + going to break any particular commandment. Upon this dreary coast, + we have nothing but county meetings and shipwrecks; and I have this + day dined upon fish, which probably dined upon the crews of several + colliers lost in the late gales. But I saw the sea once more in all + the glories of surf and foam,--almost equal to the Bay of Biscay, + and the interesting white squalls and short seas of Archipelago + memory. + + "My papa, Sir Ralpho, hath recently made a speech at a Durham + tax-meeting; and not only at Durham, but here, several times since, + after dinner. He is now, I believe, speaking it to himself (I left + him in the middle) over various decanters, which can neither + interrupt him nor fall asleep,--as might possibly have been the + case with some of his audience. Ever thine, B. + + "I must go to tea--damn tea. I wish it was Kinnaird's brandy, and + with you to lecture me about it." + +[Footnote 66: It was thus that, according to his account, a certain +celebrated singer and actor used frequently to pronounce the word +"enthusiasm."] + + * * * * * + +LETTER 212. TO MR. MURRAY. + + "Seaham, Stockton-upon-Tees, February 2. 1815. + + "You will oblige me very much by making an occasional enquiry at + Albany, at my chambers, whether my books, &c. are kept in tolerable + order, and how far my old woman[67] continues in health and + industry as keeper of my old den. Your parcels have been duly + received and perused; but I had hoped to receive 'Guy Mannering' + before this time. I won't intrude further for the present on your + avocations, professional or pleasurable, but am, as usual, + + "Very truly," &c. + +[Footnote 67: Mrs. Mule.] + + * * * * * + +LETTER 213. TO MR. MOORE. + + "February 4. 1815. + + "I enclose you half a letter from * *, which will explain + itself--at least the latter part--the former refers to private + business of mine own. If Jeffrey will take such an article, and you + will undertake the revision, or, indeed, any portion of the article + itself, (for unless _you do_, by Phoebus, I will have nothing to do + with it,) we can cook up, between us three, as pretty a dish of + sour-crout as ever tipped over the tongue of a bookmaker. + + "You can, at any rate, try Jeffrey's inclination. Your late + proposal from him made me hint this to * *, who is a much better + proser and scholar than I am, and a very superior man indeed. + Excuse haste--answer this. Ever yours most, + + "B. + + "P.S. All is well at home. I wrote to you yesterday." + + * * * * * + +LETTER 214. TO MR. MOORE. + + "February 10. 1815. + + "My dear Tom, + + "Jeffrey has been so very kind about me and my damnable works, that + I would not be indirect or equivocal with him, even for a friend. + So, it may be as well to tell him that it is not mine; but that if + I did not firmly and truly believe it to be much better than I + could offer, I would never have troubled him or you about it. You + can judge between you how far it is admissible, and reject it, if + not of the right sort. For my own part, I have no interest in the + article one way or the other, further than to oblige * *; and + should the composition be a good one, it can hurt neither + party,--nor, indeed, any one, saving and excepting Mr. * * * *. + + "Curse catch me if I know what H * * means or meaned about the + demonstrative pronoun[68], but I admire your fear of being + inoculated with the same. Have you never found out that you have a + particular style of your own, which is as distinct from all other + people, as Hafiz of Shiraz from Hafiz of the Morning Post? + + "So you allowed B * * and such like to hum and haw you, or, rather, + Lady J * * out of her compliment, and _me_ out of mine.[69] + Sun-burn me, but this was pitiful-hearted. However, I will tell her + all about it when I see her. + + "Bell desires me to say all kinds of civilities, and assure you of + her recognition and high consideration. I will tell you of our + movements south, which may be in about three weeks from this + present writing. By the way, don't engage yourself in any + travelling expedition, as I have a plan of travel into Italy, which + we will discuss. And then, think of the poesy wherewithal we should + overflow, from Venice to Vesuvius, to say nothing of Greece, + through all which--God willing--we might perambulate in one twelve + months. If I take my wife, you can take yours; and if I leave mine, + you may do the same. 'Mind you stand by me in either case, Brother + Bruin.' + + "And believe me inveterately yours, + + "B" + +[Footnote 68: Some remark which he told me had been made with respect to +the frequent use of the demonstrative pronoun both by himself and by Sir +W. Scott.] + +[Footnote 69: Verses to Lady J * * (containing an allusion to Lord +Byron), which I had written, while at Chatsworth, but consigned +afterwards to the flames.] + + * * * * * + +LETTER 215. TO MR. MOORE. + + "February 22. 1815. + + "Yesterday I sent off the packet and letter to Edinburgh. It + consisted of forty-one pages, so that I have not added a line; but + in my letter, I mentioned what passed between you and me in autumn, + as my inducement for presuming to trouble him either with my own or + * *'s lucubrations. I am any thing but sure that it will do; but I + have told J. that if there is any decent raw material in it, he may + cut it into what shape he pleases, and warp it to his liking. + + "So you _won't_ go abroad, then, with _me_,--but alone. I fully + purpose starting much about the time you mention, and alone, too. + + "I hope J. won't think me very impudent in sending * * only: there + was not room for a syllable. I have avowed * * as the author, and + said that you thought or said, when I met you last, that he (J.) + would not be angry at the coalition, (though, alas! we have not + coalesced,) and so, if I have got into a scrape, I must get out of + it--Heaven knows how. + + "Your Anacreon[70] is come, and with it I sealed (its first + impression) the packet and epistle to our patron. + + "Curse the Melodies and the Tribes, to boot,[71] Braham is to + assist--or hath assisted--but will do no more good than a second + physician. I merely interfered to oblige a whim of K.'s, and all I + have got by it was 'a speech' and a receipt for stewed oysters. + + "'Not meet'--pray don't say so. We must meet somewhere or somehow. + Newstead is out of the question, being nearly sold again, or, if + not, it is uninhabitable for my spouse. Pray write again. I will + soon. + + "P.S. Pray when do you come out? ever, or never? I hope I have made + no blunder; but I certainly think you said to me, (after W * * th, + whom I first pondered upon, was given up,) that * * and I might + attempt * * * *. His length alone prevented me from trying my part, + though I should have been less severe upon the Reviewée. + + "Your seal is the best and prettiest of my set, and I thank you + very much therefor. I have just been--or rather, ought to be--very + much shocked by the death of the Duke of Dorset. We were at school + together, and there I was passionately attached to him. Since, we + have never met--but once, I think, since 1805--and it would be a + paltry affectation to pretend that I had any feeling for him worth + the name. But there was a time in my life when this event would + have broken my heart; and all I can say for it now is that--it is + not worth breaking. + + "Adieu--it is all a farce." + +[Footnote 70: A seal, with the head of Anacreon, which I had given him.] + +[Footnote 71: I had taken the liberty of laughing a little at the manner +in which some of his Hebrew Melodies had been set to music.] + + * * * * * + +LETTER 216. TO MR. MOORE. + + "March 2. 1815. + + "My dear Thom, + + "Jeffrey has sent me the most friendly of all possible letters, and + has accepted * *'s article. He says he has long liked not only, &c. + &c. but my 'character.' This must be _your_ doing, you dog--ar'nt + you ashamed of yourself, knowing me so well? This is what one gets + for having you for a father confessor. + + "I feel merry enough to send you a sad song.[72] You once asked me + for some words which you would set. Now you may set or not, as you + like,--but there they are, in a legible hand[73], and not in mine, + but of my own scribbling; so you may say of them what you please. + Why don't you write to me? I shall make you 'a speech'[74] if you + don't respond quickly. + + "I am in such a state of sameness and stagnation, and so totally + occupied in consuming the fruits--and sauntering--and playing dull + games at cards--and yawning--and trying to read old Annual + Registers and the daily papers--and gathering shells on the + shore--and watching the growth of stunted gooseberry bushes in the + garden--that I have neither time nor sense to say more than yours + ever, B. + + "P.S. I open my letter again to put a question to you. What would + Lady C----k, or any other fashionable Pidcock, give to collect you + and Jeffrey and me to _one_ party? I have been answering his + letter, which suggested this dainty query. I can't help laughing at + the thoughts of your face and mine; and our anxiety to keep the + Aristarch in good humour during the _early_ part of a compotation, + till we got drunk enough to make him 'a speech.' I think the critic + would have much the best of us--of one, at least--for I don't think + diffidence (I mean social) is a disease of yours." + +[Footnote 72: The verses enclosed were those melancholy ones, now +printed in his works, "There's not a joy the world can give like those +it takes away."] + +[Footnote 73: The MS. was in the handwriting of Lady Byron.] + +[Footnote 74: These allusions to "a speech" are connected with a little +incident, not worth mentioning, which had amused us both when I was in +town. He was rather fond (and had been always so, as may be seen in his +early letters,) of thus harping on some conventional phrase or joke.] + + * * * * * + +LETTER 217. TO MR. MOORE. + + "March 8. 1815. + + "An event--the death of poor Dorset--and the recollection of what I + once felt, and ought to have felt now, but could not--set me + pondering, and finally into the train of thought which you have in + your hands. I am very glad you like them, for I flatter myself they + will pass as an imitation of your style. If I could imitate it + well, I should have no great ambition of originality--I wish I + could make you exclaim with Dennis, 'That's my thunder, by G----d!' + I wrote them with a view to your setting them, and as a present to + Power, if he would accept the words, and _you_ did not think + yourself degraded, for once in a way, by marrying them to music. + + "Sun-burn N * *!--why do you always twit me with his vile Ebrew + nasalities? Have I not told you it was all K.'s doing, and my own + exquisite facility of temper? But thou wilt be a wag, Thomas; and + see what you get for it. Now for my revenge. + + "Depend--and perpend--upon it that your opinion of * *'s poem will + travel through one or other of the quintuple correspondents, till + it reaches the ear, and the liver of the author.[75] Your + adventure, however, is truly laughable--but how could you be such + a potatoe? You 'a brother' (of the quill) too, 'near the throne,' + to confide to a man's _own publisher_ (who has 'bought,' or rather + sold, 'golden opinions' about him) such a damnatory parenthesis! + 'Between you and me,' quotha--it reminds me of a passage in the + Heir at Law--'Tête-a-tête with Lady Duberly, I + suppose.'--'No--tête-a-tête with _five hundred people_;' and your + confidential communication will doubtless be in circulation to that + amount, in a short time, with several additions, and in several + letters, all signed L.H.R.O.B., &c. &c. &c. + + "We leave this place to-morrow, and shall stop on our way to town + (in the interval of taking a house there) at Col. Leigh's, near + Newmarket, where any epistle of yours will find its welcome way. + + "I have been very comfortable here,--listening to that d----d + monologue, which elderly gentlemen call conversation, and in which + my pious father-in-law repeats himself every evening--save one, + when he played upon the fiddle. However, they have been very kind + and hospitable, and I like them and the place vastly, and I hope + they will live many happy months. Bell is in health, and unvaried + good-humour and behaviour. But we are all in the agonies of + packing and parting; and I suppose by this time to-morrow I shall + be stuck in the chariot with my chin upon a band-box. I have + prepared, however, another carriage for the abigail, and all the + trumpery which our wives drag along with them. + + "Ever thine, most affectionately, + + "B." + +[Footnote 75: He here alludes to a circumstance which I had communicated +to him in a preceding letter. In writing to one of the numerous partners +of a well-known publishing establishment (with which I have since been +lucky enough to form a more intimate connection), I had said +confidentially (as I thought), in reference to a poem that had just +appeared,--"Between you and me, I do not much admire Mr. * *'s poem." +The letter being chiefly upon business, was answered through the regular +business channel, and, to my dismay, concluded with the following +words:--"_We_ are very sorry that you do not approve of Mr. * *'s new +poem, and are your obedient, &c. &c. L.H.R.O., &c. &c."] + + * * * * * + +LETTER 218. TO MR. MOORE. + + "March 17. 1815. + + "I meaned to write to you before on the subject of your loss[76]; + but the recollection of the uselessness and worthlessness of any + observations on such events prevented me. I shall only now add, + that I rejoice to see you bear it so well, and that I trust time + will enable Mrs. M. to sustain it better. Every thing should be + done to divert and occupy her with other thoughts and cares, and I + am sure that all that can be done will. + + "Now to your letter. Napoleon--but the papers will have told you + all. I quite think with you upon the subject, and for my _real_ + thoughts this time last year, I would refer you to the last pages + of the Journal I gave you. I can forgive the rogue for utterly + falsifying every line of mine Ode--which I take to be the last and + uttermost stretch of human magnanimity. Do you remember the story + of a certain Abbé, who wrote a treatise on the Swedish + Constitution, and proved it indissoluble and eternal? Just as he + had corrected the last sheet, news came that Gustavus III. had + destroyed this immortal government. 'Sir,' quoth the Abbé, 'the + King of Sweden may overthrow the _constitution_, but not _my + book_!!' I think _of_ the Abbé, but not _with_ him. + + "Making every allowance for talent and most consummate daring, + there is, after all, a good deal in luck or destiny. He might have + been stopped by our frigates--or wrecked in the Gulf of Lyons, + which is particularly tempestuous--or--a thousand things. But he is + certainly Fortune's favourite, and + + Once fairly set out on his party of pleasure, + Taking towns at his liking and crowns at his leisure, + From Elba to Lyons and Paris he goes, + Making _balls for_ the ladies, and _bows_ to his foes. + + You must have seen the account of his driving into the middle of + the royal army, and the immediate effect of his pretty speeches. + And now if he don't drub the allies, there is 'no purchase in + money.' If he can take France by himself, the devil's in 't if he + don't repulse the invaders, when backed by those celebrated + sworders--those boys of the blade, the Imperial Guard, and the old + and new army. It is impossible not to be dazzled and overwhelmed by + his character and career. Nothing ever so disappointed me as his + abdication, and nothing could have reconciled me to him but some + such revival as his recent exploit; though no one could anticipate + such a complete and brilliant renovation. + + "To your question, I can only answer that there have been some + symptoms which look a little gestatory. It is a subject upon which + I am not particularly anxious, except that I think it would please + her uncle, Lord Wentworth, and her father and mother. The former + (Lord W.) is now in town, and in very indifferent health. You, + perhaps, know that his property, amounting to seven or eight + thousand a year, will eventually devolve upon Bell. But the old + gentleman has been so very kind to her and me, that I hardly know + how to wish him in heaven, if he can be comfortable on earth. Her + father is still in the country. + + "We mean to metropolise to-morrow, and you will address your next + to Piccadilly. We have got the Duchess of Devon's house there, she + being in France. + + "I don't care what Power says to secure the property of the Song, + so that it is _not_ complimentary to me, nor any thing about + 'condescending' or '_noble_ author'--both 'vile phrases,' as + Polonius says. + + "Pray, let me hear from you, and when you mean to be in town. Your + continental scheme is impracticable for the present. I have to + thank you for a longer letter than usual, which I hope will induce + you to tax my gratitude still further in the same way. + + "You never told me about 'Longman' and 'next winter,' and I am + _not_ a 'mile-stone.'"[77] + +[Footnote 76: The death of his infant god-daughter, Olivia Byron Moore.] + +[Footnote 77: I had accused him of having entirely forgot that, in a +preceding letter, I had informed him of my intention to publish with the +Messrs. Longman in the ensuing winter, and added that, in giving him +this information, I found I had been--to use an elegant Irish +metaphor--"whistling jigs to a mile-stone."] + + * * * * * + +LETTER 219. TO MR. COLERIDGE. + + "Piccadilly, March 31. 1815. + + "Dear Sir, + + "It will give me great pleasure to comply with your request, though + I hope there is still taste enough left amongst us to render it + almost unnecessary, sordid and interested as, it must be admitted, + many of 'the trade' are, where circumstances give them an + advantage. I trust you do not permit yourself to be depressed by + the temporary partiality of what is called 'the public' for the + favourites of the moment; all experience is against the permanency + of such impressions. You must have lived to see many of these pass + away, and will survive many more--I mean personally, for + _poetically_, I would not insult you by a comparison. + + "If I may be permitted, I would suggest that there never was such + an opening for tragedy. In Kean, there is an actor worthy of + expressing the thoughts of the characters which you have every + power of embodying; and I cannot but regret that the part of + Ordonio was disposed of before his appearance at Drury Lane. We + have had nothing to be mentioned in the same breath with 'Remorse' + for very many years; and I should think that the reception of that + play was sufficient to encourage the highest hopes of author and + audience. It is to be hoped that you are proceeding in a career + which could not but be successful. With my best respects to Mr. + Bowles, I have the honour to be + + "Your obliged and very obedient servant, + + "Byron. + + "P.S. You mention my 'Satire,' lampoon, or whatever you or others + please to call it. I can only say, that it was written when I was + very young and very angry, and has been a thorn in my side ever + since; more particularly as almost all the persons animadverted + upon became subsequently my acquaintances, and some of them my + friends, which is 'heaping fire upon an enemy's head,' and + forgiving me too readily to permit me to forgive myself. The part + applied to you is pert, and petulant, and shallow enough; but, + although I have long done every thing in my power to suppress the + circulation of the whole thing, I shall always regret the + wantonness or generality of many of its attempted attacks." + + * * * * * + +It was in the course of this spring that Lord Byron and Sir Walter Scott +became, for the first time, personally acquainted with each other. Mr. +Murray, having been previously on a visit to the latter gentleman, had +been intrusted by him with a superb Turkish dagger as a present to Lord +Byron; and the noble poet, on their meeting this year in London,--the +only time when these two great men had ever an opportunity of enjoying +each other's society,--presented to Sir Walter, in return, a vase +containing some human bones that had been dug up from under a part of +the old walls of Athens. The reader, however, will be much better +pleased to have these particulars in the words of Sir Walter Scott +himself, who, with that good-nature which renders him no less amiable +than he is admirable, has found time, in the midst of all his +marvellous labours for the world, to favour me with the following +interesting communication:[78]-- + +"My first acquaintance with Byron began in a manner rather doubtful. I +was so far from having any thing to do with the offensive criticism in +the Edinburgh, that I remember remonstrating against it with our friend, +the editor, because I thought the 'Hours of Idleness' treated with undue +severity. They were written, like all juvenile poetry, rather from the +recollection of what had pleased the author in others than what had been +suggested by his own imagination; but, nevertheless, I thought they +contained some passages of noble promise. I was so much impressed with +this, that I had thoughts of writing to the author; but some exaggerated +reports concerning his peculiarities, and a natural unwillingness to +intrude an opinion which was uncalled for, induced me to relinquish the +idea. + +"When Byron wrote his famous Satire, I had my share of flagellation +among my betters. My crime was having written a poem (Marmion, I think) +for a thousand pounds; which was no otherwise true than that I sold the +copy-right for that sum. Now, not to mention that an author can hardly +be censured for accepting such a sum as the booksellers are willing to +give him, especially as the gentlemen of the trade made no complaints of +their bargain, I thought the interference with my private affairs was +rather beyond the limits of literary satire. On the other hand, Lord +Byron paid me, in several passages, so much more praise than I deserved, +that I must have been more irritable than I have ever felt upon such +subjects, not to sit down contented, and think no more about the matter. + +"I was very much struck, with all the rest of the world, at the vigour +and force of imagination displayed in the first Cantos of Childe +Harold, and the other splendid productions which Lord Byron flung from +him to the public with a promptitude that savoured of profusion. My own +popularity, as a poet, was then on the wane, and I was unaffectedly +pleased to see an author of so much power and energy taking the field. +Mr. John Murray happened to be in Scotland that season, and as I +mentioned to him the pleasure I should have in making Lord Byron's +acquaintance, he had the kindness to mention my wish to his Lordship, +which led to some correspondence. + +"It was in the spring of 1815 that, chancing to be in London, I had the +advantage of a personal introduction to Lord Byron. Report had prepared +me to meet a man of peculiar habits and a quick temper, and I had some +doubts whether we were likely to suit each other in society. I was most +agreeably disappointed in this respect. I found Lord Byron in the +highest degree courteous, and even kind. We met, for an hour or two +almost daily, in Mr. Murray's drawing-room, and found a great deal to +say to each other. We also met frequently in parties and evening +society, so that for about two months I had the advantage of a +considerable intimacy with this distinguished individual. Our sentiments +agreed a good deal, except upon the subjects of religion and politics, +upon neither of which I was inclined to believe that Lord Byron +entertained very fixed opinions. I remember saying to him, that I really +thought, that if he lived a few years he would alter his sentiments. He +answered, rather sharply, 'I suppose you are one of those who prophesy +I will turn Methodist.' I replied, 'No--I don't expect your conversion +to be of such an ordinary kind. I would rather look to see you retreat +upon the Catholic faith, and distinguish yourself by the austerity of +your penances. The species of religion to which you must, or may, one +day attach yourself must exercise a strong power on the imagination.' He +smiled gravely, and seemed to allow I might be right. + +"On politics, he used sometimes to express a high strain of what is now +called Liberalism; but it appeared to me that the pleasure it afforded +him as a vehicle of displaying his wit and satire against individuals in +office was at the bottom of this habit of thinking, rather than any real +conviction of the political principles on which he talked. He was +certainly proud of his rank and ancient family, and, in that respect, as +much an aristocrat as was consistent with good sense and good breeding. +Some disgusts, how adopted I know not, seemed to me to have given this +peculiar and, as it appeared to me, contradictory cast of mind: but, at +heart, I would have termed Byron a patrician on principle. + +"Lord Byron's reading did not seem to me to have been very extensive +either in poetry or history. Having the advantage of him in that +respect, and possessing a good competent share of such reading as is +little read, I was sometimes able to put under his eye objects which had +for him the interest of novelty. I remember particularly repeating to +him the fine poem of Hardyknute, an imitation of the old Scottish +Ballad, with which he was so much affected, that some one who was in +the same apartment asked me what I could possibly have been telling +Byron by which he was so much agitated. + +I saw Byron, for the last time, in 1815, after I returned from France. +He dined, or lunched, with me at Long's in Bond Street. I never saw him +so full of gaiety and good-humour, to which the presence of Mr. Mathews, +the comedian, added not a little. Poor Terry was also present. After one +of the gayest parties I ever was present at, my fellow-traveller, Mr. +Scott, of Gala, and I set off for Scotland, and I never saw Lord Byron +again. Several letters passed between us--one perhaps every half year. +Like the old heroes in Homer, we exchanged gifts:--I gave Byron a +beautiful dagger mounted with gold, which had been the property of the +redoubted Elfi Bey. But I was to play the part of Diomed, in the Iliad, +for Byron sent me, some time after, a large sepulchral vase of silver. +It was full of dead men's bones, and had inscriptions on two sides of +the base. One ran thus:--'The bones contained in this urn were found in +certain ancient sepulchres within the land walls of Athens, in the month +of February, 1811.' The other face bears the lines of Juvenal: + + "Expende--quot libras in duce summo invenies. + --Mors sola fatetur quantula hominum corpuscula." + Juv. x. + +To these I have added a third inscription, in these words--'The gift of +Lord Byron to Walter Scott.'[79] There was a letter with this vase more +valuable to me than the gift itself, from the kindness with which the +donor expressed himself towards me. I left it naturally in the urn with +the bones,--but it is now missing. As the theft was not of a nature to +be practised by a mere domestic, I am compelled to suspect the +inhospitality of some individual of higher station,--most gratuitously +exercised certainly, since, after what I have here said, no one will +probably choose to boast of possessing this literary curiosity. + +"We had a good deal of laughing, I remember, on what the public might be +supposed to think, or say, concerning the gloomy and ominous nature of +our mutual gifts. + +"I think I can add little more to my recollections of Byron. He was +often melancholy,--almost gloomy. When I observed him in this humour, I +used either to wait till it went off of its own accord, or till some +natural and easy mode occurred of leading him into conversation, when +the shadows almost always left his countenance, like the mist rising +from a landscape. In conversation he was very animated. + +"I met with him very frequently in society; our mutual acquaintances +doing me the honour to think that he liked to meet with me. Some very +agreeable parties I can recollect,--particularly one at Sir George +Beaumont's, where the amiable landlord had assembled some persons +distinguished for talent. Of these I need only mention the late Sir +Humphry Davy, whose talents for literature were as remarkable as his +empire over science. Mr. Richard Sharpe and Mr. Rogers were also +present. + +"I think I also remarked in Byron's temper starts of suspicion, when he +seemed to pause and consider whether there had not been a secret, and +perhaps offensive, meaning in something casually said to him. In this +case, I also judged it best to let his mind, like a troubled spring, +work itself clear, which it did in a minute or two. I was considerably +older, you will recollect, than my noble friend, and had no reason to +fear his misconstruing my sentiments towards him, nor had I ever the +slightest reason to doubt that they were kindly returned on his part. If +I had occasion to be mortified by the display of genius which threw into +the shade such pretensions as I was then supposed to possess, I might +console myself that, in my own case, the materials of mental happiness +had been mingled in a greater proportion. + +"I rummage my brains in vain for what often rushes into my head +unbidden,--little traits and sayings which recall his looks, manner, +tone, and gestures; and I have always continued to think that a crisis +of life was arrived in which a new career of fame was opened to him, +and that had he been permitted to start upon it, he would have +obliterated the memory of such parts of his life as friends would wish +to forget." + +[Footnote 78: A few passages at the beginning of these recollections +have been omitted, as containing particulars relative to Lord Byron's +mother, which have already been mentioned in the early part of this +work. Among these, however, there is one anecdote, the repetition of +which will be easily pardoned, on account of the infinitely greater +interest as well as authenticity imparted to its details by coming from +such an eye-witness as Sir Walter Scott:--"I remember," he says, "having +seen Lord Byron's mother before she was married, and a certain +coincidence rendered the circumstance rather remarkable. It was during +Mrs. Siddons's first or second visit to Edinburgh, when the music of +that wonderful actress's voice, looks, manner, and person, produced the +strongest effect which could possibly be exerted by a human being upon +her fellow-creatures. Nothing of the kind that I ever witnessed +approached it by a hundred degrees. The high state of excitation was +aided by the difficulties of obtaining entrance and the exhausting +length of time that the audience were contented to wait until the piece +commenced. When the curtain fell, a large proportion of the ladies were +generally in hysterics. + +"I remember Miss Gordon of Ghight, in particular, harrowing the house by +the desperate and wild way in which she shrieked out Mrs. Siddons's +exclamation, in the character of Isabella, 'Oh my Byron! Oh my Byron!' A +well-known medical gentleman, the benevolent Dr. Alexander Wood, +tendered his assistance; but the thick-pressed audience could not for a +long time make way for the doctor to approach his patient, or the +patient the physician. The remarkable circumstance was, that the lady +had not then seen Captain Byron, who, like Sir Toby, made her conclude +with 'Oh!' as she had begun with it."] + +[Footnote 79: Mr. Murray had, at the time of giving the vase, suggested +to Lord Byron, that it would increase the value of the gift to add some +such inscription; but the feeling of the noble poet on this subject will +be understood from the following answer which he returned:-- + + "April 9. 1815. + + "Thanks for the books. I have great objection to your proposition + about inscribing the vase,--which is, that it would appear + _ostentatious_ on my part; and of course I must send it as it is, + without any alteration. + + "Yours," &c. +] + + * * * * * + +LETTER 220. TO MR. MOORE. + + "April 23. 1815. + + "Lord Wentworth died last week. The bulk of his property (from + seven to eight thousand per ann.) is entailed on Lady Milbanke and + Lady Byron. The first is gone to take possession in Leicestershire, + and attend the funeral, &c. this day. + + "I have mentioned the facts of the settlement of Lord W.'s + property, because the newspapers, with their usual accuracy, have + been making all kinds of blunders in their statement. His will is + just as expected--the principal part settled on Lady Milbanke (now + Noel) and Bell, and a separate estate left for sale to pay debts + (which are not great) and legacies to his natural son and daughter. + + Mrs. * *'s tragedy was last night damned. They may bring it on + again, and probably will; but damned it was,--not a word of the + last act audible. I went (_malgré_ that I ought to have stayed at + home in sackcloth for unc., but I could not resist the _first_ + night of any thing) to a private and quiet nook of my private box, + and witnessed the whole process. The first three acts, with + transient gushes of applause, oozed patiently but heavily on. I + must say it was badly acted, particularly by * *, who was groaned + upon in the third act,--something about 'horror--such a horror' was + the cause. Well, the fourth act became as muddy and turbid as need + be; but the fifth--what Garrick used to call (like a fool) the + _concoction_ of a play--the fifth act stuck fast at the King's + prayer. You know he says, 'he never went to bed without saying + them, and did not like to omit them now.' But he was no sooner upon + his knees, than the audience got upon their legs--the damnable + pit--and roared, and groaned, and hissed, and whistled. Well, that + was choked a little; but the ruffian-scene--the penitent + peasantry--and killing the Bishop and Princes--oh, it was all over. + The curtain fell upon unheard actors, and the announcement + attempted by Kean for Monday was equally ineffectual. Mrs. Bartley + was so frightened, that, though the people were tolerably quiet, + the epilogue was quite inaudible to half the house. In short,--you + know all. I clapped till my hands were skinless, and so did Sir + James Mackintosh, who was with me in the box. All the world were in + the house, from the Jerseys, Greys, &c. &c. downwards. But it would + not do. It is, after all, not an _acting_ play; good language, but + no power. * * * Women (saving Joanna Baillie) cannot write tragedy: + they have not seen enough nor felt enough of life for it. I think + Semiramis or Catherine II. might have written (could they have been + unqueened) a rare play. + + "It is, however, a good warning not to risk or write tragedies. I + never had much bent that way; but if I had, this would have cured + me. + + "Ever, carissime Thom., + + "Thine, B." + + * * * * * + +LETTER 221. TO MR. MURRAY. + + "May 21. 1815. + + "You must have thought it very odd, not to say ungrateful, that I + made no mention of the drawings[80], &c. when I had the pleasure of + seeing you this morning. The fact is, that till this moment I had + not seen them, nor heard of their arrival: they were carried up + into the library, where I have not been till just now, and no + intimation given to me of their coming. The present is so very + magnificent, that--in short, I leave Lady Byron to thank you for it + herself, and merely send this to apologise for a piece of apparent + and unintentional neglect on my own part. Yours," &c. + +[Footnote 80: Mr. Murray had presented Lady Byron with twelve drawings, +by Stothard, from Lord Byron's Poems.] + + * * * * * + +LETTER 222. TO MR. MOORE.[81] + + "13. Piccadilly Terrace, June 12. 1815. + + "I have nothing to offer in behalf of my late silence, except the + most inveterate and ineffable laziness; but I am too supine to + invent a lie, or I _certainly_ should, being ashamed of the truth. + K * *, I hope, has appeased your magnanimous indignation at his + blunders. I wished and wish you were in the Committee, with all my + heart.[82] It seems so hopeless a business, that the company of a + friend would be quite consoling,--but more of this when we meet. + In the mean time, you are entreated to prevail upon Mrs. Esterre to + engage herself. I believe she has been written to, but your + influence, in person or proxy, would probably go further than our + proposals. What they are, I know not; all _my_ new function + consists in listening to the despair of Cavendish Bradshaw, the + hopes of Kinnaird, the wishes of Lord Essex, the complaints of + Whitbread, and the calculations of Peter Moore,--all of which, and + whom, seem totally at variance. C. Bradshaw wants to light the + theatre with _gas_, which may, perhaps (if the vulgar be believed), + poison half the audience, and all the _dramatis personæ_. Essex has + endeavoured to persuade K * * not to get drunk, the consequence of + which is, that he has never been sober since. Kinnaird, with equal + success, would have convinced Raymond, that he, the said Raymond, + had too much salary. Whitbread wants us to assess the pit another + sixpence,--a d----d insidious proposition,--which will end in an + O.P. combustion. To crown all, R * *, the auctioneer, has the + impudence to be displeased, because he has no dividend. The villain + is a proprietor of shares, and a long lunged orator in the + meetings. I hear he has prophesied our incapacity,--'a foregone + conclusion,' whereof I hope to give him signal proofs before we + are done. + + "Will you give us an opera? No, I'll be sworn; but I wish you + would. + + "To go on with the poetical world, Walter Scott has gone back to + Scotland. Murray, the bookseller, has been cruelly cudgelled of + misbegotten knaves, 'in Kendal green,' at Newington Butts, in his + way home from a purlieu dinner,--and robbed--would you believe + it?--of three or four bonds of forty pound a piece, and a seal-ring + of his grandfather's, worth a million! This is his version,--but + others opine that D'Israeli, with whom he dined, knocked him down + with his last publication, 'The Quarrels of Authors,' in a dispute + about copyright. Be that as it may, the newspapers have teemed with + his 'injuria formæ,' and he has been embrocated, and invisible to + all but the apothecary ever since. + + "Lady B. is better than three months advanced in her progress + towards maternity, and, we hope, likely to go well through with it. + We have been very little out this season, as I wish to keep her + quiet in her present situation. Her father and mother have changed + their names to Noel, in compliance with Lord Wentworth's will, and + in complaisance to the property bequeathed by him. + + "I hear that you have been gloriously received by the Irish,--and + so you ought. But don't let them kill you with claret and kindness + at the national dinner in your honour, which, I hear and hope, is + in contemplation. If you will tell me the day, I'll get drunk + myself on this side of the water, and waft you an applauding hiccup + over the Channel. + + "Of politics, we have nothing but the yell for war; and C * * h is + preparing his head for the pike, on which we shall see it carried + before he has done. The loan has made every body sulky. I hear + often from Paris, but in direct contradiction to the home + statements of our hirelings. Of domestic doings, there has been + nothing since Lady D * *. Not a divorce stirring,--but a good many + in embryo, in the shape of marriages. + + "I enclose you an epistle received this morning from I know not + whom; but I think it will amuse you. The writer must be a rare + fellow.[83] + + "P.S. A gentleman named D'Alton (not your Dalton) has sent me a + National Poem called 'Dermid.' The same cause which prevented my + writing to you operated against my wish to write to him an epistle + of thanks. If you see him, will you make all kinds of fine speeches + for me, and tell him that I am the laziest and most ungrateful of + mortals? + + "A word more;--don't let Sir John Stevenson (as an evidence on + trials for copy-right, &c.) talk about the price of your next poem, + or they will come upon you for the _property tax_ for it. I am + serious, and have just heard a long story of the rascally tax-men + making Scott pay for his. So, take care. Three hundred is a devil + of a deduction out of three thousand." + +[Footnote 81: This and the following letter were addressed to me in +Ireland, whither I had gone about the middle of the preceding month.] + +[Footnote 82: He had lately become one of the members of the +Sub-Committee, (consisting, besides himself, of the persons mentioned in +this letter,) who had taken upon themselves the management of Drury Lane +Theatre; and it had been his wish, on the first construction of the +Committee, that I should be one of his colleagues. To some mistake in +the mode of conveying this proposal to me, he alludes in the preceding +sentence.] + +[Footnote 83: The following is the enclosure here referred to:-- + + "Darlington, June 3. 1815. + + "My Lord, + + "I have lately purchased a set of your works, and am quite vexed + that you have not cancelled the Ode to Buonaparte. It certainly was + prematurely written, without thought or reflection. Providence has + now brought him to reign over millions again, while the same + Providence keeps as it were in a garrison another potentate, who, + in the language of Mr. Burke, 'he hurled from his throne.' See if + you cannot make amends for your folly, and consider that, in almost + every respect, human nature is the same, in every clime and in + every period, and don't act the part of a _foolish boy_.--Let not + Englishmen talk of the stretch of tyrants, while the torrents of + blood shed in the East Indies cry aloud to Heaven for retaliation. + Learn, good sir, not to cast the first stone. I remain your + Lordship's servant, + + "J. R * *." +] + + * * * * * + +LETTER 223. TO MR. MOORE. + + "July 7. 1815. + + "'Grata superveniet,' &c. &c. I had written to you again, but burnt + the letter, because I began to think you seriously hurt at my + indolence, and did not know how the buffoonery it contained might + be taken. In the mean time, I have yours, and all is well. + + "I had given over all hopes of yours. By-the-by, my 'grata + superveniet' should be in the present tense; for I perceive it + looks now as if it applied to this present scrawl reaching you, + whereas it is to the receipt of thy Kilkenny epistle that I have + tacked that venerable sentiment. + + "Poor Whitbread died yesterday morning,--a sudden and severe loss. + His health had been wavering, but so fatal an attack was not + apprehended. He dropped down, and I believe never spoke + afterwards. I perceive Perry attributes his death to Drury Lane,--a + consolatory encouragement to the new Committee. I have no doubt + that * *, who is of a plethoric habit, will be bled immediately; + and as I have, since my marriage, lost much of my paleness, + and--'horresco referens' (for I hate even _moderate_ fat)--that + happy slenderness, to which, when I first knew you, I had attained, + I by no means sit easy under this dispensation of the Morning + Chronicle. Every one must regret the loss of Whitbread; he was + surely a great and very good man. + + "Paris is taken for the second time. I presume it, for the future, + will have an anniversary capture. In the late battles, like all the + world, I have lost a connection,--poor Frederick Howard, the best + of his race. I had little intercourse, of late years, with his + family, but I never saw or heard but good of him. Hobhouse's + brother is killed. In short, the havoc has not left a family out of + its tender mercies. + + "Every hope of a republic is over, and we must go on under the old + system. But I am sick at heart of politics and slaughters; and the + luck which Providence is pleased to lavish on Lord Castlereagh is + only a proof of the little value the gods set upon prosperity, when + they permit such * * * s as he and that drunken corporal, old + Blucher, to bully their betters. From this, however, Wellington + should be excepted. He is a man,--and the Scipio of our Hannibal. + However, he may thank the Russian frosts, which destroyed the + _real élite_ of the French army, for the successes of Waterloo. + + "La! Moore--how you blasphemes about 'Parnassus' and 'Moses!' I am + ashamed for you. Won't you do any thing for the drama? We beseech + an Opera. Kinnaird's blunder was partly mine. I wanted you of all + things in the Committee, and so did he. But we are now glad you + were wiser; for it is, I doubt, a bitter business. + + "When shall we see you in England? Sir Ralph Noel (_late_ + Milbanke--he don't promise to be _late_ Noel in a hurry), finding + that one man can't inhabit two houses, has given his place in the + north to me for a habitation; and there Lady B. threatens to be + brought to bed in November. Sir R. and my Lady Mother are to + quarter at Kirby--Lord Wentworth's that was. Perhaps you and Mrs. + Moore will pay us a visit at Seaham in the course of the autumn. If + so, you and I (_without_ our _wives_) will take a lark to Edinburgh + and embrace Jeffrey. It is not much above one hundred miles from + us. But all this, and other high matters, we will discuss at + meeting, which I hope will be on your return. We don't leave town + till August. + + "Ever," &c. + + * * * * * + +LETTER 224. TO MR. SOTHEBY. + + "Sept. 15. 1815. Piccadilly Terrace. + + "Dear Sir, + + "'Ivan' is accepted, and will be put in progress on Kean's arrival. + + "The theatrical gentlemen have a confident hope of its success. I + know not that any alterations for the stage will be necessary; if + any, they will be trifling, and you shall be duly apprised. I would + suggest that you should not attend any except the latter + rehearsals--the managers have requested me to state this to you. + You can see them, viz. Dibdin and Rae, whenever you please, and I + will do any thing you wish to be done on your suggestion, in the + mean time. + + "Mrs. Mardyn is not yet out, and nothing can be determined till she + has made her appearance--I mean as to her capacity for the part you + mention, which I take it for granted is not in Ivan--as I think + Ivan may be performed very well without her. But of that hereafter. + Ever yours, very truly, + + "BYRON. + + "P.S. You will be glad to hear that the season has begun uncommonly + well--great and constant houses--the performers in much harmony + with the Committee and one another, and as much good-humour as can + be preserved in such complicated and extensive interests as the + Drury Lane proprietary." + + * * * * * + +TO MR. SOTHEBY. + + "September 25. 1815. + + "Dear Sir, + + "I think it would be advisable for you to see the acting managers + when convenient, as there must be points on which you will want to + confer; the objection I stated was merely on the part of the + performers, and is _general_ and not _particular_ to this instance. + I thought it as well to mention it at once--and some of the + rehearsals you will doubtless see, notwithstanding. + + "Rae, I rather think, has his eye on Naritzin for himself. He is a + more popular performer than Bartley, and certainly the cast will be + stronger with him in it; besides, he is one of the managers, and + will feel doubly interested if he can act in both capacities. Mrs. + Bartley will be Petrowna;--as to the Empress, I know not what to + say or think. The truth is, we are not amply furnished with tragic + women; but make the best of those we have,--you can take your + choice of them. We have all great hopes of the success--on which, + setting aside other considerations, we are particularly anxious, as + being the first tragedy to be brought out since the old Committee. + + "By the way--I have a charge against you. As the great Mr. Dennis + roared out on a similar occasion--'By G----d, _that_ is _my_ + thunder!' so do I exclaim, '_This_ is _my_ lightning!' I allude to + a speech of Ivan's, in the scene with Petrowna and the Empress, + where the thought and almost expression are similar to Conrad's in + the 3d Canto of 'The Corsair.' I, however, do not say this to + accuse you, but to exempt myself from suspicion[84], as there is a + priority of six months' publication, on my part, between the + appearance of that composition and of your tragedies. + + "George Lambe meant to have written to you. If you don't like to + confer with the managers at present, I will attend to your + wishes--so state them. Yours very truly, BYRON." + +[Footnote 84: Notwithstanding this precaution of the poet, the +coincidence in question was, but a few years after, triumphantly cited +in support of the sweeping charge of plagiarism brought against him by +some scribblers. The following are Mr. Sotheby's lines:-- + + "And I have leapt + In transport from my flinty couch, to welcome + The thunder as it burst upon my roof, + And beckon'd to the lightning, as it flash'd + And sparkled on these fetters." + +I have since been informed by Mr. Sotheby that, though not published, +these lines had been written long before the appearance of Lord Byron's +poem.] + + * * * * * + +LETTER 225. TO MR. TAYLOR. + + "13. Terrace, Piccadilly, September 25. 1815. + + "Dear Sir, + + "I am sorry you should feel uneasy at what has by no means troubled + me.[85] If your editor, his correspondents, and readers, are + amused, I have no objection to be the theme of all the ballads he + can find room for,--provided his lucubrations are confined to _me_ + only. + + "It is a long time since things of this kind have ceased to 'fright + me from my propriety;' nor do I know any similar attack which would + induce me to turn again,--unless it involved those connected with + me, whose qualities, I hope, are such as to exempt them in the eyes + of those who bear no good-will to myself. In such a case, supposing + it to occur--to _reverse_ the saying of Dr. Johnson,--'what the law + could not do for me, I would do for myself,' be the consequences + what they might. + + "I return you, with many thanks, Colman and the letters. The poems, + I hope, you intended me to keep;--at least, I shall do so, till I + hear the contrary. Very truly yours." + +[Footnote 85: Mr. Taylor having inserted in the Sun newspaper (of which +he was then chief proprietor) a sonnet to Lord Byron, in return for a +present which his Lordship had sent him of a handsomely bound copy of +all his works, there appeared in the same journal, on the following day +(from the pen of some person who had acquired a control over the paper), +a parody upon this sonnet, containing some disrespectful allusion to +Lady Byron; and it is to this circumstance, which Mr. Taylor had written +to explain, that the above letter, so creditable to the feelings of the +noble husband, refers.] + + * * * * * + +TO MR. MURRAY. + + "Sept. 25. 1815. + + "Will you publish the Drury Lane 'Magpie?' or, what is more, will + you give fifty, or even forty, pounds for the copyright of the + said? I have undertaken to ask you this question on behalf of the + translator, and wish you would. We can't get so much for him by ten + pounds from any body else, and I, knowing your magnificence, would + be glad of an answer. Ever," &c. + + * * * * * + +LETTER 226. TO MR. MURRAY. + + "September 27. 1815. + + "That's right and splendid, and becoming a publisher of high + degree. Mr. Concanen (the translator) will be delighted, and pay + his washerwoman; and, in reward for your bountiful behaviour in + this instance, I won't ask you to publish any more for Drury Lane, + or any lane whatever, again. You will have no tragedy or any thing + else from me, I assure you, and may think yourself lucky in having + got rid of me, for good and all, without more damage. But I'll tell + you what we will do for you,--act Sotheby's Ivan, which will + succeed; and then your present and next impression of the dramas of + that dramatic gentleman will be expedited to your heart's content; + and if there is any thing very good, you shall have the refusal; + but you sha'n't have any more requests. + + "Sotheby has got a thought, and almost the words, from the third + Canto of The Corsair, which, you know, was published six months + before his tragedy. It is from the storm in Conrad's cell. I have + written to Mr. Sotheby to claim it; and, as Dennis roared out of + the pit, 'By G----d, _that's my_ thunder!' so do I, and will I, + exclaim, 'By G----d that's _my lightning_!' that electrical fluid + being, in fact, the subject of the said passage. + + "You will have a print of Fanny Kelly, in the Maid, to prefix, + which is honestly worth twice the money you have given for the MS. + Pray what did you do with the note I gave you about Mungo Park? + + "Ever," &c. + + * * * * * + +LETTER 227. TO MR. MOORE. + + "13. Terrace, Piccadilly, October 28. 1815. + + "You are, it seems, in England again, as I am to hear from every + body but yourself; and I suppose you punctilious, because I did + not answer your last Irish letter. When did you leave the 'swate + country?' Never mind, I forgive you;--a strong proof of--I know not + what--to give the lie to-- + + 'He never pardons who hath done the wrong.' + + "You have written to * *. You have also written to Perry, who + intimates hope of an Opera from you. Coleridge has promised a + Tragedy. Now, if you keep Perry's word, and Coleridge keeps his + own, Drury Lane will be set up; and, sooth to say, it is in + grievous want of such a lift. We began at speed, and are blown + already. When I say 'we,' I mean Kinnaird, who is the 'all in all + sufficient,' and can count, which none of the rest of the Committee + can. + + "It is really very good fun, as far as the daily and nightly stir + of these strutters and fretters go; and, if the concern could be + brought to pay a shilling in the pound, would do much credit to the + management. Mr. ---- has an accepted tragedy * * * * *, whose first + scene is in his sleep (I don't mean the author's). It was forwarded + to us as a prodigious favourite of Kean's; but the said Kean, upon + interrogation, denies his eulogy, and protests against his part. + How it will end, I know not. + + "I say so much about the theatre, because there is nothing else + alive in London at this season. All the world are out of it, except + us, who remain to lie in,--in December, or perhaps earlier. Lady B. + is very ponderous and prosperous, apparently, and I wish it well + over. + + "There is a play before me from a personage who signs himself + 'Hibernicus.' The hero is Malachi, the Irishman and king; and the + villain and usurper, Turgesius, the Dane. The conclusion is fine. + Turgesius is chained by the leg (_vide_ stage direction) to a + pillar on the stage; and King Malachi makes him a speech, not + unlike Lord Castlereagh's about the balance of power and the + lawfulness of legitimacy, which puts Turgesius into a frenzy--as + Castlereagh's would, if his audience was chained by the leg. He + draws a dagger and rushes at the orator; but, finding himself at + the end of his tether, he sticks it into his own carcass, and dies, + saying, he has fulfilled a prophecy. + + "Now, this is _serious downright matter of fact_, and the gravest + part of a tragedy which is not intended for burlesque. I tell it + you for the honour of Ireland. The writer hopes it will be + represented:--but what is Hope? nothing but the paint on the face + of Existence; the least touch of Truth rubs it off, and then we see + what a hollow-cheeked harlot we have got hold of. I am not sure + that I have not said this last superfine reflection before. But + never mind;--it will do for the tragedy of Turgesius, to which I + can append it. + + "Well, but how dost thou do? thou bard not of a thousand but three + thousand! I wish your friend, Sir John Piano-forte, had kept that + to himself, and not made it public at the trial of the song-seller + in Dublin. I tell you why: it is a liberal thing for Longman to do, + and honourable for you to obtain; but it will set all the 'hungry + and dinnerless, lank-jawed judges' upon the fortunate author. But + they be d----d!--the 'Jeffrey and the Moore together are confident + against the world in ink!' By the way, if poor C * * e--who is a + man of wonderful talent, and in distress[86], and about to publish + two vols. of Poesy and Biography, and who has been worse used by + the critics than ever we were--will you, if he comes out, promise + me to review him favourably in the E.R.? Praise him I think you + must, but you will also praise him _well_,--of all things the most + difficult. It will be the making of him. + + "This must be a secret between you and me, as Jeffrey might not + like such a project;--nor, indeed, might C. himself like it. But I + do think he only wants a pioneer and a sparkle or two to explode + most gloriously. Ever yours most affectionately, B. + + "P.S. This is a sad scribbler's letter; but the next shall be 'more + of this world.'" + +[Footnote 86: It is but justice both to "him that gave and him that +took" to mention that the noble poet, at this time, with a delicacy +which enhanced the kindness, advanced to the eminent person here spoken +of, on the credit of some work he was about to produce, one hundred +pounds.] + + * * * * * + +As, after this letter, there occur but few allusions to his connection +with the Drury Lane Management, I shall here avail myself of the +opportunity to give some extracts from his "Detached Thoughts," +containing recollections of his short acquaintance with the interior of +the theatre. + +"When I belonged to the Drury Lane Committee, and was one of the +Sub-Committee of Management, the number of _plays_ upon the shelves +were about _five_ hundred. Conceiving that amongst these there must be +_some_ of merit, in person and by proxy I caused an investigation. I do +not think that of those which I saw there was one which could be +conscientiously tolerated. There never were such things as most of them! +Mathurin was very kindly recommended to me by Walter Scott, to whom I +had recourse, firstly, in the hope that he would do something for us +himself; and, secondly, in my despair, that he would point out to us any +young (or old) writer of promise. Mathurin sent his Bertram and a letter +_without_ his address, so that at first I could give him no answer. When +I at last hit upon his residence, I sent him a favourable answer and +something more substantial. His play succeeded; but I was at that time +absent from England. + +"I tried Coleridge too; but he had nothing feasible in hand at the time. +Mr. Sotheby obligingly offered _all_ his tragedies, and I pledged +myself, and notwithstanding many squabbles with my Committed Brethren, +did get 'Ivan' accepted, read, and the parts distributed. But, lo! in +the very heart of the matter, upon some _tepid_ness on the part of Kean, +or warmth on that of the author, Sotheby withdrew his play. Sir J.B. +Burgess did also present four tragedies and a farce, and I moved +green-room and Sub-Committee, but they would not. + +"Then the scenes I had to go through!--the authors, and the authoresses, +and the milliners, and the wild Irishmen,--the people from Brighton, +from Blackwall; from Chatham, from Cheltenham, from Dublin, from +Dundee,--who came in upon me! to all of whom it was proper to give a +civil answer, and a hearing, and a reading. Mrs. * * * *'s father, an +Irish dancing-master of sixty years, calling upon me to request to play +Archer, dressed in silk stockings on a frosty morning to show his legs +(which were certainly good and Irish for his age, and had been still +better,)--Miss Emma Somebody, with a play entitled 'The Bandit of +Bohemia,' or some such title or production,--Mr. O'Higgins, then +resident at Richmond, with an Irish tragedy, in which the unities could +not fail to be observed, for the protagonist was chained by the leg to a +pillar during the chief part of the performance. He was a wild man, of a +salvage appearance, and the difficulty of _not_ laughing at him was only +to be got over by reflecting upon the probable consequences of such +cachinnation. + +"As I am really a civil and polite person, and _do_ hate giving pain +when it can be avoided, I sent them up to Douglas Kinnaird,--who is a +man of business, and sufficiently ready with a negative,--and left them +to settle with him; and as the beginning of next year I went abroad, I +have since been little aware of the progress of the theatres. + +"Players are said to be an impracticable people. They are so; but I +managed to steer clear of any disputes with them, and excepting one +debate[87] with the elder Byrne about Miss Smith's _pas +de_--(something--I forget the technicals,)--I do not remember any +litigation of my own. I used to protect Miss Smith, because she was like +Lady Jane Harley in the face, and likenesses go a great way with me. +Indeed, in general, I left such things to my more bustling colleagues, +who used to reprove me seriously for not being able to take such things +in hand without buffooning with the histrions, or throwing things into +confusion by treating light matters with levity. + +"Then the Committee!--then the Sub-Committee!--we were but few, but +never agreed. There was Peter Moore who contradicted Kinnaird, and +Kinnaird who contradicted every body: then our two managers, Rae and +Dibdin; and our secretary, Ward! and yet we were all very zealous and +in earnest to do good and so forth. * * * * furnished us with prologues +to our revived old English plays; but was not pleased with me for +complimenting him as 'the Upton' of our theatre (Mr. Upton is or was the +poet who writes the songs for Astley's), and almost gave up prologuing +in consequence. + +"In the pantomime of 1815-16 there was a representation of the +masquerade of 1814 given by 'us youth' of Watier's Club to Wellington +and Co. Douglas Kinnaird and one or two others, with myself, put on +masks, and went on the stage with the [Greek: hoi polloi], to see the +effect of a theatre from the stage:--it is very grand. Douglas danced +among the figuranti too, and they were puzzled to find out who we were, +as being more than their number. It was odd enough that Douglas Kinnaird +and I should have been both at the _real_ masquerade, and afterwards in +the mimic one of the same, on the stage of Drury Lane theatre." + +[Footnote 87: A correspondent of one of the monthly Miscellanies gives +the following account of this incident:-- + +"During Lord Byron's administration, a ballet was invented by the elder +Byrne, in which Miss Smith (since Mrs. Oscar Byrne) had a _pas seul_. +This the lady wished to remove to a later period in the ballet. The +ballet-master refused, and the lady swore she would not dance it at all. +The music incidental to the dance began to play, and the lady walked off +the stage. Both parties flounced into the green-room to lay the case +before Lord Byron, who happened to be the only person in that apartment. +The noble committee-man made an award in favour of Miss Smith, and both +complainants rushed angrily out of the room at the instant of my +entering it. 'If you had come a minute sooner,' said Lord Byron, 'you +would have heard a curious matter decided on by me: a question of +dancing!--by me,' added he, looking down at the lame limb, 'whom Nature +from my birth has prohibited from taking a single step.' His countenance +fell after he had uttered this, as if he had said too much; and for a +moment there was an embarrassing silence on both sides."] + + * * * * * + +LETTER 228. TO MR. MOORE. + + "Terrace, Piccadilly, October 31. 1815. + + "I have not been able to ascertain precisely the time of duration + of the stock market; but I believe it is a good time for selling + out, and I hope so. First, because I shall see you; and, next, + because I shall receive certain monies on behalf of Lady B., the + which will materially conduce to my comfort,--I wanting (as the + duns say) 'to make up a sum.' + + "Yesterday, I dined out with a large-ish party, where were Sheridan + and Colman, Harry Harris of C. G, and his brother, Sir Gilbert + Heathcote, Ds. Kinnaird, and others, of note and notoriety. Like + other parties of the kind, it was first silent, then talky, then + argumentative, then disputatious, then unintelligible, then + altogethery, then inarticulate, and then drunk. When we had reached + the last step of this glorious ladder, it was difficult to get down + again without stumbling; and to crown all, Kinnaird and I had to + conduct Sheridan down a d----d corkscrew staircase, which had + certainly been constructed before the discovery of fermented + liquors, and to which no legs, however crooked, could possibly + accommodate themselves. We deposited him safe at home, where his + man, evidently used to the business, waited to receive him in the + hall. + + "Both he and Colman were, as usual, very good; but I carried away + much wine, and the wine had previously carried away my memory; so + that all was hiccup and happiness for the last hour or so, and I am + not impregnated with any of the conversation. Perhaps you heard of + a late answer of Sheridan to the watchman who found him bereft of + that 'divine particle of air,' called reason, * * *. He, the + watchman, who found Sherry in the street, fuddled and bewildered, + and almost insensible. 'Who are _you_, sir? '--no answer. 'What's + your name?'--a hiccup. 'What's your name?'--Answer, in a slow, + deliberate and impassive tone--'Wilberforce!!!' Is not that Sherry + all over?--and, to my mind, excellent. Poor fellow, _his_ very + dregs are better than the 'first sprightly runnings' of others. + + "My paper is full, and I have a grievous headach. + + "P.S. Lady B. is in full progress. Next month will bring to light + (with the aid of 'Juno Lucina, _fer opem_,' or rather _opes_, for + the last are most wanted,) the tenth wonder of the world--Gil Blas + being the eighth, and he (my son's father) the ninth." + + * * * * * + +LETTER 229. TO MR. MOORE. + + "November 4. 1815. + + "Had you not bewildered my head with the 'stocks,' your letter + would have been answered directly. Hadn't I to go to the city? and + hadn't I to remember what to ask when I got there? and hadn't I + forgotten it? + + "I should be undoubtedly delighted to see you; but I don't like to + urge against your reasons my own inclinations. Come you must soon, + for stay you _won't_. I know you of old;--you have been too much + leavened with London to keep long out of it. + + "Lewis is going to Jamaica to suck his sugar canes. He sails in two + days; I enclose you his farewell note. I saw him last night at + D.L.T. for the last time previous to his voyage. Poor fellow! he is + really a good man--an excellent man--he left me his walking-stick + and a pot of preserved ginger. I shall never eat the last without + tears in my eyes, it is so _hot_. We have had a devil of a row + among our ballerinas. Miss Smith has been wronged about a hornpipe. + The Committee have interfered; but Byrne, the d----d ballet master, + won't budge a step, _I_ am furious, so is George Lamb. Kinnaird is + very glad, because--he don't know why; and I am very sorry, for the + same reason. To-day I dine with Kd.--we are to have Sheridan and + Colman again; and to-morrow, once more, at Sir Gilbert Heathcote's. + + "Leigh Hunt has written a _real good_ and _very original Poem_, + which I think will be a great hit. You can have no notion how very + well it is written, nor should I, had I not redde it. As to us, + Tom--eh, when art thou out? If you think the verses worth it, I + would rather they were embalmed in the Irish Melodies, than + scattered abroad in a separate song--much rather. But when are thy + great things out? I mean the Po of Pos--thy Shah Nameh. It is very + kind in Jeffrey to like the Hebrew Melodies. Some of the fellows + here preferred Sternhold and Hopkins, and said so;--'the fiend + receive their souls therefor!' + + "I must go and dress for dinner. Poor, dear Murat, what an end! You + know, I suppose, that his white plume used to be a rallying point + in battle, like Henry IV.'s. He refused a confessor and a bandage; + so would neither suffer his soul or body to be bandaged. You shall + have more to-morrow or next day. + + "Ever," &c. + + * * * * * + +LETTER 230. TO MR. MURRAY. + + "November 4. 1815. + + "When you have been enabled to form an opinion on Mr. Coleridge's + MS.[88] you will oblige me by returning it, as, in fact, I have no + authority to let it out of my hands. I think most highly of it, and + feel anxious that you should be the publisher; but if you are not, + I do not despair of finding those who will. + + "I have written to Mr. Leigh Hunt, stating your willingness to + treat with him, which, when I saw you, I understood you to be. + Terms and time, I leave to his pleasure and your discernment; but + this I will say, that I think it the _safest_ thing you ever + engaged in. I speak to you as a man of business; were I to talk to + you as a reader or a critic, I should say it was a very wonderful + and beautiful performance, with just enough of fault to make its + beauties more remarked and remarkable. + + "And now to the last--my own, which I feel ashamed of after the + others:--publish or not as you like, I don't care _one damn_. If + _you_ don't, no one else shall, and I never thought or dreamed of + it, except as one in the collection. If it is worth being in the + fourth volume, put it there and nowhere else; and if not, put it in + the fire. Yours, N." + +[Footnote 88: A tragedy entitled, I think, Zopolia.] + + * * * * * + +Those embarrassments which, from a review of his affairs previous to the +marriage, he had clearly foreseen would, before long, overtake him, were +not slow in realising his worst omens. The increased expenses induced by +his new mode of life, with but very little increase of means to meet +them,--the long arrears of early pecuniary obligations, as well as the +claims which had been, gradually, since then, accumulating, all pressed +upon him now with collected force, and reduced him to some of the worst +humiliations of poverty. He had been even driven, by the necessity of +encountering such demands, to the trying expedient of parting with his +books,--which circumstance coming to Mr. Murray's ears, that gentleman +instantly forwarded to him 1500_l._, with an assurance that another sum +of the same amount should be at his service in a few weeks, and that if +such assistance should not be sufficient, Mr. Murray was most ready to +dispose of the copyrights of all his past works for his use. + +This very liberal offer Lord Byron acknowledged in the following +letter:-- + +LETTER 231. TO MR. MURRAY. + + "November 14. 1815. + + "I return you your bills not accepted, but certainly not + _unhonoured_. Your present offer is a favour which I would accept + from you, if I accepted such from any man. Had such been my + intention, I can assure you I would have asked you fairly, and as + freely as you would give; and I cannot say more of my confidence or + your conduct. + + "The circumstances which induce me to part with my books, though + sufficiently, are not _immediately_, pressing. I have made up my + mind to them, and there's an end. + + "Had I been disposed to trespass on your kindness in this way, it + would have been before now; but I am not sorry to have an + opportunity of declining it, as it sets my opinion of you, and + indeed of human nature, in a different light from that in which I + have been accustomed to consider it. + + "Believe me very truly," &c. + + * * * * * + +TO MR. MURRAY. + + "December 25. 1815. + + "I send some lines, written some time ago, and intended as an + opening to 'The Siege of Corinth.' I had forgotten them, and am not + sure that they had not better be left out now:--on that, you and + your Synod can determine. Yours," &c. + + * * * * * + +The following are the lines alluded to in this note. They are written in +the loosest form of that rambling style of metre which his admiration of +Mr. Coleridge's "Christabel" led him, at this time, to adopt; and he +judged rightly, perhaps, in omitting them as the opening of his poem. +They are, however, too full of spirit and character to be lost. Though +breathing the thick atmosphere of Piccadilly when he wrote them, it is +plain that his fancy was far away, among the sunny hills and vales of +Greece; and their contrast with the tame life he was leading at the +moment, but gave to his recollections a fresher spring and force. + + "In the year since Jesus died for men, + Eighteen hundred years and ten, + We were a gallant company, + Riding o'er land, and sailing o'er sea. + Oh! but we went merrily! + We forded the river, and clomb the high hill, + Never our steeds for a day stood still; + Whether we lay in the cave or the shed, + Our sleep fell soft on the hardest bed; + Whether we couch'd in our rough capote, + On the rougher plank of our gliding boat, + Or stretch'd on the beach, or our saddles spread + As a pillow beneath the resting head, + Fresh we woke upon the morrow: + All our thoughts and words had scope, + We had health, and we had hope, + Toil and travel, but no sorrow. + We were of all tongues and creeds;-- + Some were those who counted beads, + Some of mosque, and some of church, + And some, or I mis-say, of neither; + Yet through the wide world might ye search + Nor find a mother crew nor blither. + + "But some are dead, and some are gone, + And some are scatter'd and alone, + And some are rebels on the hills[89] + That look along Epirus' valleys + Where Freedom still at moments rallies, + And pays in blood Oppression's ills: + And some are in a far countree, + And some all restlessly at home; + But never more, oh! never, we + Shall meet to revel and to roam. + But those hardy days flew cheerily; + And when they now fall drearily, + My thoughts, like swallows, skim the main + And bear my spirit back again + Over the earth, and through the air, + A wild bird, and a wanderer. + 'Tis this that ever wakes my strain, + And oft, too oft, implores again + The few who may endure my lay, + To follow me so far away. + + "Stranger--wilt thou follow now, + And sit with me on Acro-Corinth's brow?" + +[Footnote 89: "The last tidings recently heard of Dervish (one of the +Arnaouts who followed me) state him to be in revolt upon the mountains, +at the head of some of the bands common in that country in times of +trouble."] + + * * * * * + +LETTER 232. TO MR. MOORE. + + "January 5. 1816. + + "I hope Mrs. M. is quite re-established. The little girl was born + on the 10th of December last; her name is Augusta _Ada_ (the second + a very antique family name,--I believe not used since the reign of + King John). She was, and is, very flourishing and fat, and reckoned + very large for her days--squalls and sucks incessantly. Are you + answered? Her mother is doing very well, and up again. + + "I have now been married a year on the second of this + month--heigh-ho! I have seen nobody lately much worth noting, + except S * * and another general of the Gauls, once or twice at + dinners out of doors. S * * is a fine, foreign, villanous-looking, + intelligent, and very agreeable man; his compatriot is more of the + _petit-maître_, and younger, but I should think not at all of the + same intellectual calibre with the Corsican--which S * *, you know, + is, and a cousin of Napoleon's. + + "Are you never to be expected in town again? To be sure, there is + no one here of the 1500 fillers of hot-rooms, called the + fashionable world. My approaching papa-ship detained us for advice, + &c. &c. though I would as soon be here as any where else on this + side of the Straits of Gibraltar. + + "I would gladly--or, rather, sorrowfully--comply with your request + of a dirge for the poor girl you mention.[90] But how can I write + on one I have never seen or known? Besides, you will do it much + better yourself. I could not write upon any thing, without some + personal experience and foundation; far less on a theme so + peculiar. Now, you have both in this case; and, if you had neither, + you have more imagination, and would never fail. + + "This is but a dull scrawl, and I am but a dull fellow. Just at + present, I am absorbed in 500 contradictory contemplations, though + with but one object in view--which will probably end in nothing, as + most things we wish do. But never mind,--as somebody says, 'for the + blue sky bends over all.' I only could be glad, if it bent over me + where it is a little bluer; like the 'skyish top of blue Olympus,' + which, by the way, looked very white when I last saw it. + + "Ever," &c. + +[Footnote 90: I had mentioned to him, as a subject worthy of his best +powers of pathos, a melancholy event which had just occurred in my +neighbourhood, and to which I have myself made allusion in one of the +Sacred Melodies--"Weep not for her."] + + * * * * * + +On reading over the foregoing letter, I was much struck by the tone of +melancholy that pervaded it; and well knowing it to be the habit of the +writer's mind to seek relief, when under the pressure of any disquiet +or disgust, in that sense of freedom which told him that there were +homes for him elsewhere, I could perceive, I thought, in his +recollections of the "blue Olympus," some return of the restless and +roving spirit, which unhappiness or impatience always called up in his +mind. I had, indeed, at the time when he sent me those melancholy +verses, "There's not a joy this world can give," &c. felt some vague +apprehensions as to the mood into which his spirits then seemed to be +sinking, and, in acknowledging the receipt of the verses, thus tried to +banter him out of it:--"But why thus on your stool of melancholy again, +Master Stephen?--This will never do--it plays the deuce with all the +matter-of-fact duties of life, and you must bid adieu to it. Youth is +the only time when one can be melancholy with impunity. As life itself +grows sad and serious we have nothing for it but--to be as much as +possible the contrary." + +My absence from London during the whole of this year had deprived me of +all opportunities of judging for myself how far the appearances of his +domestic state gave promise of happiness; nor had any rumours reached me +which at all inclined me to suspect that the course of his married life +hitherto exhibited less smoothness than such unions,--on the surface, at +least,--generally wear. The strong and affectionate terms in which, soon +after the marriage, he had, in some of the letters I have given, +declared his own happiness--a declaration which his known frankness left +me no room to question--had, in no small degree, tended to still those +apprehensions which my first view of the lot he had chosen for himself +awakened. I could not, however, but observe that these indications of a +contented heart soon ceased. His mention of the partner of his home +became more rare and formal, and there was observable, I thought, +through some of his letters a feeling of unquiet and weariness that +brought back all those gloomy anticipations with which I had, from the +first, regarded his fate. This last letter of his, in particular, struck +me as full of sad omen, and, in the course of my answer, I thus noticed +to him the impression it had made on me:--"And so you are a whole year +married!-- + + 'It was last year I vow'd to thee + That fond impossibility.' + +Do you know, my dear B., there was a something in your last letter--a +sort of unquiet mystery, as well as a want of your usual elasticity of +spirits--which has hung upon my mind unpleasantly ever since. I long to +be near you, that I might know how you really look and feel; for these +letters tell nothing, and one word, _a quattr'occhi_, is worth whole +reams of correspondence. But only _do_ tell me you are happier than that +letter has led me to fear, and I shall be satisfied." + + * * * * * + +It was in a few weeks after this latter communication between us that +Lady Byron adopted the resolution of parting from him. She had left +London about the middle of January, on a visit to her father's house, in +Leicestershire, and Lord Byron was, in a short time after, to follow +her. They had parted in the utmost kindness,--she wrote him a letter, +full of playfulness and affection, on the road, and, immediately on her +arrival at Kirkby Mallory, her father wrote to acquaint Lord Byron that +she would return to him no more. At the time when he had to stand this +unexpected shock, his pecuniary embarrassments, which had been fast +gathering around him during the whole of the last year (there having +been no less than eight or nine executions in his house within that +period), had arrived at their utmost; and at a moment when, to use his +own strong expressions, he was "standing alone on his hearth, with his +household gods shivered around him," he was also doomed to receive the +startling intelligence that the wife who had just parted with him in +kindness, had parted with him--for ever. + +About this time the following note was written:-- + +TO MR. ROGERS. + + "February 8. 1816. + + "Do not mistake me--I really returned your book for the reason + assigned, and no other. It is too good for so careless a fellow. I + have parted with all my own books, and positively won't deprive you + of so valuable 'a drop of that immortal man.' + + "I shall be very glad to see you, if you like to call, though I am + at present contending with 'the slings and arrows of outrageous + fortune,' some of which have struck at me from a quarter whence I + did not indeed expect them--But, no matter, 'there is a world + elsewhere,' and I will cut my way through this as I can. + + "If you write to Moore, will you tell him that I shall answer his + letter the moment I can muster time and spirits? Ever yours, + + "BN." + + * * * * * + +The rumours of the separation did not reach me till more than a week +afterwards, when I immediately wrote to him thus:--"I am most anxious to +hear from you, though I doubt whether I ought to mention the subject on +which I am so anxious. If, however, what I heard last night, in a letter +from town, be true, you will know immediately what I allude to, and just +communicate as much or as little upon the subject as you think +proper;--only _something_ I should like to know, as soon as possible, +from yourself, in order to set my mind at rest with respect to the truth +or falsehood of the report." The following is his answer:-- + +LETTER 233. TO MR. MOORE. + + "February 29. 1816. + + "I have not answered your letter for a time; and, at present, the + reply to part of it might extend to such a length, that I shall + delay it till it can be made in person, and then I will shorten it + as much as I can. + + "In the mean time, I am at war 'with all the world and his wife;' + or rather, 'all the world and _my_ wife' are at war with me, and + have not yet crushed me,--whatever they _may_ do. I don't know that + in the course of a hair-breadth existence I was ever, at home or + abroad, in a situation so completely uprooting of present pleasure, + or rational hope for the future, as this same. I say this, because + I think so, and feel it. But I shall not sink under it the more for + that mode of considering the question--I have made up my mind. + + "By the way, however, you must not believe all you hear on the + subject; and don't attempt to defend me. If you succeeded in that, + it would be a mortal, or an immortal, offence--who can bear + refutation? I have but a very short answer for those whom it + concerns; and all the activity of myself and some vigorous friends + have not yet fixed on any tangible ground or personage, on which or + with whom I can discuss matters, in a summary way, with a fair + pretext;--though I nearly had _nailed one_ yesterday, but he evaded + by--what was judged by others--a satisfactory explanation. I speak + of _circulators_--against whom I have no enmity, though I must act + according to the common code of usage, when I hit upon those of the + serious order. + + "Now for other matters--poesy, for instance. Leigh Hunt's poem is a + devilish good one--quaint, here and there, but with the substratum + of originality, and with poetry about it, that will stand the test. + I do not say this because he has inscribed it to me, which I am + sorry for, as I should otherwise have begged you to review it in + the Edinburgh.[91] It is really deserving of much praise, and a + favourable critique in the E.R. would but do it justice, and set it + up before the public eye where it ought to be. + + "How are you? and where? I have not the most distant idea what I am + going to do myself, or with myself--or where--or what. I had, a few + weeks ago, some things to say that would have made you laugh; but + they tell me now that I must not laugh, and so I have been very + serious--and am. + + "I have not been very well--with a _liver_ complaint--but am much + better within the last fortnight, though still under Iatrical + advice. I have latterly seen a little of * * * * + + "I must go and dress to dine. My little girl is in the country, + and, they tell me, is a very fine child, and now nearly three + months old. Lady Noel (my mother-in-law, or, rather, _at_ law) is + at present overlooking it. Her daughter (Miss Milbanke that was) + is, I believe, in London with her father. A Mrs. C. (now a kind of + housekeeper and spy of Lady N.'s) who, in her better days, was a + washerwoman, is supposed to be--by the learned--very much the + occult cause of our late domestic discrepancies. + + "In all this business, I am the sorriest for Sir Ralph. He and I + are equally punished, though _magis pares quam similes_ in our + affliction. Yet it is hard for both to suffer for the fault of one, + and so it is--I shall be separated from my wife; he will retain + his. + + "Ever," &c. + +[Footnote 91: My reply to this part of his letter was, I find, as +follows:--"With respect to Hunt's poem, though it is, I own, full of +beauties, and though I like himself sincerely, I really could not +undertake to praise it _seriously_. There is so much of the _quizzible_ +in all he writes, that I never can put on the proper pathetic face in +reading him."] + + * * * * * + +In my reply to this letter, written a few days after, there is a passage +which (though containing an opinion it might have been more prudent, +perhaps, to conceal,) I feel myself called upon to extract on account of +the singularly generous avowal,--honourable alike to both the parties in +this unhappy affair,--which it was the means of drawing from Lord Byron. +The following are my words:--"I am much in the same state as yourself +with respect to the subject of your letter, my mind being so full of +things which I don't know how to write about, that _I_ too must defer +the greater part of them till we meet in May, when I shall put you +fairly on your trial for all crimes and misdemeanors. In the mean time, +you will not be at a loss for judges, nor executioners either, if they +could have their will. The world, in their generous ardour to take what +they call the weaker side, soon contrive to make it most formidably the +strongest. Most sincerely do I grieve at what has happened. It has upset +all my wishes and theories as to the influence of marriage on your life; +for, instead of bringing you, as I expected, into something like a +regular orbit, it has only cast you off again into infinite space, and +left you, I fear, in a far worse state than it found you. As to +defending you, the only person with whom I have yet attempted this task +is myself; and, considering the little I know upon the subject, (or +rather, perhaps, _owing_ to this cause,) I have hitherto done it with +very tolerable success. After all, your _choice_ was the misfortune. I +never liked,--but I'm here wandering into the [Greek: aporrêta], and so +must change the subject for a far pleasanter one, your last new poems, +which," &c. &c. + +The return of post brought me the following answer, which, while it +raises our admiration of the generous candour of the writer, but adds to +the sadness and strangeness of the whole transaction. + + * * * * * + +LETTER 234. TO MR. MOORE. + + "March 8. 1816. + + "I rejoice in your promotion as Chairman and Charitable Steward, + &c. &c. These be dignities which await only the virtuous. But then, + recollect you are _six_ and _thirty_, (I speak this enviously--not + of your age, but the 'honour--love--obedience--troops of friends,' + which accompany it,) and I have eight years good to run before I + arrive at such hoary perfection; by which time,--if I _am_ at + all[92],--it will probably be in a state of grace or progressing + merits. + + "I must set you right in one point, however. The fault was + _not_--no, nor even the misfortune--in my 'choice' (unless in + _choosing at all_)--for I do not believe--and I must say it, in the + very dregs of all this bitter business--that there ever was a + better, or even a brighter, a kinder, or a more amiable and + agreeable being than Lady B. I never had, nor can have, any + reproach to make her, while with me. Where there is blame, it + belongs to myself, and, if I cannot redeem, I must bear it. + + "Her nearest relatives are a * * * *--my circumstances have been + and are in a state of great confusion--my health has been a _good_ + deal disordered, and my mind ill at ease for a considerable period. + Such are the causes (I do not name them as excuses) which have + frequently driven me into excess, and disqualified my temper for + comfort. Something also may be attributed to the strange and + desultory habits which, becoming my own master at an early age, and + scrambling about, over and through the world, may have induced. I + still, however, think that, if I had had a fair chance, by being + placed in even a tolerable situation, I might have gone on fairly. + But that seems hopeless,--and there is nothing more to be said. At + present--except my health, which is better (it is odd, but + agitation or contest of any kind gives a rebound to my spirits and + sets me up for the time)--I have to battle with all kinds of + unpleasantnesses, including private and pecuniary difficulties, &c. + &c. + + "I believe I may have said this before to you, but I risk repeating + it. It is nothing to bear the _privations_ of adversity, or, more + properly, ill fortune; but my pride recoils from its _indignities_. + However, I have no quarrel with that same pride, which will, I + think, buckler me through every thing. If my heart could have been + broken, it would have been so years ago, and by events more + afflicting than these. + + "I agree with you (to turn from this topic to our shop) that I + have written too much. The last things were, however, published + very reluctantly by me, and for reasons I will explain when we + meet. I know not why I have dwelt so much on the same scenes, + except that I find them fading, or _confusing_ (if such a word may + be) in my memory, in the midst of present turbulence and pressure, + and I felt anxious to stamp before the die was worn out. I now + break it. With those countries, and events connected with them, all + my really poetical feelings begin and end. Were I to try, I could + make nothing of any other subject, and that I have apparently + exhausted. 'Wo to him,' says Voltaire, 'who says all he could say + on any subject.' There are some on which, perhaps, I could have + said still more: but I leave them all, and too soon. + + "Do you remember the lines I sent you early last year, which you + still have? I don't wish (like Mr. Fitzgerald, in the Morning Post) + to claim the character of 'Vates' in all its translations, but were + they not a little prophetic? I mean those beginning, 'There's not a + joy the world can,' &c. &c., on which I rather pique myself as + being the truest, though the most melancholy, I ever wrote. + + "What a scrawl have I sent you! You say nothing of yourself, except + that you are a Lancasterian churchwarden, and an encourager of + mendicants. When are you out? and how is your family? My child is + very well and flourishing, I hear; but I must see also. I feel no + disposition to resign it to the contagion of its grandmother's + society, though I am unwilling to take it from the mother. It is + weaned, however, and something about it must be decided. Ever," &c. + +[Footnote 92: This sad doubt,--"if I _am_ at all,"--becomes no less +singular than sad when we recollect that six and thirty was actually the +age when he ceased to "be," and at a moment, too, when (as even the +least friendly to him allow) he was in that state of "progressing +merits" which he here jestingly anticipates.] + + * * * * * + +Having already gone so far in laying open to my readers some of the +sentiments which I entertained, respecting Lord Byron's marriage, at a +time when, little foreseeing that I should ever become his biographer, I +was, of course, uninfluenced by the peculiar bias supposed to belong to +that task, it may still further, perhaps, be permitted me to extract +from my reply to the foregoing letter some sentences of explanation +which its contents seemed to me to require. + +"I had certainly no right to say any thing about the unluckiness of your +choice, though I rejoice now that I did, as it has drawn from you a +tribute which, however unaccountable and mysterious it renders the whole +affair, is highly honourable to both parties. What I meant in hinting a +doubt with respect to the object of your selection did not imply the +least impeachment of that perfect amiableness which the world, I find, +by common consent, allows to her. I only feared that she might have been +too perfect--too _precisely_ excellent--too matter-of-fact a paragon for +you to coalesce with comfortably; and that a person whose perfection +hung in more easy folds about her, whose brightness was softened down by +some of 'those fair defects which best conciliate love,' would, by +appealing more dependently to your protection, have stood a much better +chance with your good nature. All these suppositions, however, I have +been led into by my intense anxiety to acquit you of any thing like a +capricious abandonment of such a woman[93]; and, totally in the dark as +I am with respect to all but the fact of your separation, you cannot +conceive the solicitude, the fearful solicitude, with which I look +forward to a history of the transaction from your own lips when we +meet,--a history in which I am sure of, at least, _one_ virtue--manly +candour." + +[Footnote 93: It will be perceived from this that I was as yet +unacquainted with the true circumstances of the transaction.] + + * * * * * + +With respect to the causes that may be supposed to have led to this +separation, it seems needless, with the characters of both parties +before our eyes, to go in quest of any very remote or mysterious reasons +to account for it. I have already, in some observations on the general +character of men of genius, endeavoured to point out those +peculiarities, both in disposition and habitudes, by which, in the far +greater number of instances, they have been found unfitted for domestic +happiness. Of these defects, (which are, as it were, the shadow that +genius casts, and too generally, it is to be feared, in proportion to +its stature,) Lord Byron could not, of course, fail to have inherited +his share, in common with all the painfully-gifted class to which he +belonged. How thoroughly, with respect to one attribute of this +temperament which he possessed,--one, that "sicklies o'er" the face of +happiness itself,--he was understood by the person most interested in +observing him, will appear from the following anecdote, as related by +himself.[94] + +"People have wondered at the melancholy which runs through my writings. +Others have wondered at my personal gaiety. But I recollect once, after +an hour in which I had been sincerely and particularly gay and rather +brilliant, in company, my wife replying to me when I said (upon her +remarking my high spirits), 'And yet, Bell, I have been called and +miscalled melancholy--you must have seen how falsely, frequently?'--'No, +Byron,' she answered, 'it is not so: at heart you are the most +melancholy of mankind; and often when apparently gayest.'" + +To these faults and sources of faults inherent, in his own sensitive +nature, he added also many of those which a long indulgence of self-will +generates,--the least compatible, of all others, (if not softened down, +as they were in him, by good nature,) with that system of mutual +concession and sacrifice by which the balance of domestic peace is +maintained. When we look back, indeed, to the unbridled career, of which +this marriage was meant to be the goal,--to the rapid and restless +course in which his life had run along, like a burning train, through a +series of wanderings, adventures, successes, and passions, the fever of +all which was still upon him, when, with the same headlong recklessness, +he rushed into this marriage,--it can but little surprise us that, in +the space of one short year, he should not have been able to recover +all at once from his bewilderment, or to settle down into that tame +level of conduct which the close observers of his every action required. +As well might it be expected that a steed like his own Mazeppa's, + + "Wild as the wild deer and untaught, + With spur and bridle undefiled-- + 'Twas but a day he had been caught," + +should stand still, when reined, without chafing or champing the bit. + +Even had the new condition of life into which he passed been one of +prosperity and smoothness, some time, as well as tolerance, must still +have been allowed for the subsiding of so excited a spirit into rest. +But, on the contrary, his marriage (from the reputation, no doubt, of +the lady, as an heiress,) was, at once, a signal for all the arrears and +claims of a long-accumulating state of embarrassment to explode upon +him;--his door was almost daily beset by duns, and his house nine times +during that year in possession of bailiffs[95]; while, in addition to +these anxieties and--what he felt still more--indignities of poverty, +he had also the pain of fancying, whether rightly or wrongly, that the +eyes of enemies and spies were upon him, even under his own roof, and +that his every hasty word and look were interpreted in the most +perverting light. + +As, from the state of their means, his lady and he saw but little +society, his only relief from the thoughts which a life of such +embarrassment brought with it was in those avocations which his duty, as +a member of the Drury Lane Committee, imposed upon him. And here,--in +this most unlucky connection with the theatre,--one of the fatalities of +his short year of trial, as husband, lay. From the reputation which he +had previously acquired for gallantries, and the sort of reckless and +boyish levity to which--often in very "bitterness of soul"--he gave way, +it was not difficult to bring suspicion upon some of those acquaintances +which his frequent intercourse with the green-room induced him to form, +or even (as, in one instance, was the case,) to connect with his name +injuriously that of a person to whom he had scarcely ever addressed a +single word. + +Notwithstanding, however, this ill-starred concurrence of +circumstances, which might have palliated any excesses either of temper +or conduct into which they drove him, it was, after all, I am persuaded, +to no such serious causes that the unfortunate alienation, which so soon +ended in disunion, is to be traced. "In all the marriages I have ever +seen," says Steele, "most of which have been unhappy ones, the great +cause of evil has proceeded from slight occasions;" and to this remark, +I think, the marriage under our consideration would not be found, upon +enquiry, to be an exception. Lord Byron himself, indeed, when at +Cephalonia, a short time before his death, seems to have expressed, in a +few words, the whole pith of the mystery. An English gentleman with whom +he was conversing on the subject of Lady Byron, having ventured to +enumerate to him the various causes he had heard alleged for the +separation, the noble poet, who had seemed much amused with their +absurdity and falsehood, said, after listening to them all,--"The +causes, my dear sir, were too simple to be easily found out." + +In truth, the circumstances, so unexampled, that attended their +separation,--the last words of the parting wife to the husband being +those of the most playful affection, while the language of the deserted +husband towards the wife was in a strain, as the world knows, of +tenderest eulogy,--are in themselves a sufficient proof that, at the +time of their parting, there could have been no very deep sense of +injury on either side. It was not till afterwards that, in both bosoms, +the repulsive force came into operation,--when, to the party which had +taken the first decisive step in the strife, it became naturally a point +of pride to persevere in it with dignity, and this unbendingness +provoked, as naturally, in the haughty spirit of the other, a strong +feeling of resentment which overflowed, at last, in acrimony and scorn. +If there be any truth, however, in the principle, that they "never +pardon who have done the wrong," Lord Byron, who was, to the last, +disposed to reconciliation, proved so far, at least, his conscience to +have been unhaunted by any very disturbing consciousness of aggression. + +But though it would have been difficult, perhaps, for the victims of +this strife, themselves, to have pointed out any single, or definite, +cause for their disunion,--beyond that general incompatibility which is +the canker of all such marriages,--the public, which seldom allows +itself to be at a fault on these occasions, was, as usual, ready with an +ample supply of reasons for the breach,--all tending to blacken the +already darkly painted character of the poet, and representing him, in +short, as a finished monster of cruelty and depravity. The reputation of +the object of his choice for every possible virtue, (a reputation which +had been, I doubt not, one of his own chief incentives to the marriage, +from the vanity, reprobate as he knew he was deemed, of being able to +win such a paragon,) was now turned against him by his assailants, not +only in the way of contrast with his own character, but as if the +excellences of the wife were proof positive of every enormity they chose +to charge upon the husband. + +Meanwhile, the unmoved silence of the lady herself, (from motives, it +is but fair to suppose, of generosity and delicacy,) under the repeated +demands made for a specification of her charges against him, left to +malice and imagination the fullest range for their combined industry. It +was accordingly stated, and almost universally believed, that the noble +lord's second proposal to Miss Milbanke had been but with a view to +revenge himself for the slight inflicted by her refusal of the first, +and that he himself had confessed so much to her on their way from +church. At the time when, as the reader has seen from his own honey-moon +letters, he was, with all the good will in the world, imagining himself +into happiness, and even boasting, in the pride of his fancy, that if +marriage were to be upon _lease_, he would gladly renew his own for a +term of ninety-nine years,--at this very time, according to these +veracious chroniclers, he was employed in darkly following up the +aforesaid scheme of revenge, and tormenting his lady by all sorts of +unmanly cruelties,--such as firing off pistols, to frighten her as she +lay in bed[96], and other such freaks. + +To the falsehoods concerning his green-room intimacies, and +particularly with respect to one beautiful actress, with whom, in +reality, he had hardly ever exchanged a single word, I have already +adverted; and the extreme confidence with which this tale was circulated +and believed affords no unfair specimen of the sort of evidence with +which the public, in all such fits of moral wrath, is satisfied. It is, +at the same time, very far from my intention to allege that, in the +course of the noble poet's intercourse with the theatre, he was not +sometimes led into a line of acquaintance and converse, unbefitting, if +not dangerous to, the steadiness of married life. But the imputations +against him on this head were (as far as affected his conjugal +character) not the less unfounded,--as the sole case in which he +afforded any thing like _real_ grounds for such an accusation did not +take place till _after_ the period of the separation. + +Not content with such ordinary and tangible charges, the tongue of +rumour was emboldened to proceed still further; and, presuming upon the +mysterious silence maintained by one of the parties, ventured to throw +out dark hints and vague insinuations, of which the fancy of every +hearer was left to fill up the outline as he pleased. In consequence of +all this exaggeration, such an outcry was now raised against Lord Byron +as, in no case of private life, perhaps, was ever before witnessed; nor +had the whole amount of fame which he had gathered, in the course of the +last four years, much exceeded in proportion the reproach and obloquy +that were now, within the space of a few weeks, showered upon him. In +addition to the many who, no doubt, conscientiously believed and +reprobated what they had but too much right, whether viewing him as poet +or man of fashion, to consider credible excesses, there were also +actively on the alert that large class of persons who seem to hold +violence against the vices of others to be equivalent to virtue in +themselves, together with all those natural haters of success who, +having long sickened under the splendour of the _poet_, were now +enabled, in the guise of champions for innocence, to wreak their spite +on the _man_. In every various form of paragraph, pamphlet, and +caricature, both his character and person were held up to +odium[97];--hardly a voice was raised, or at least listened to, in his +behalf; and though a few faithful friends remained unshaken by his side, +the utter hopelessness of stemming the torrent was felt as well by them +as by himself, and, after an effort or two to gain a fair hearing, they +submitted in silence. Among the few attempts made by himself towards +confuting his calumniators was an appeal (such as the following short +letter contains) to some of those persons with whom he had been in the +habit of living familiarly. + +[Footnote 94: MS.--"Detached Thoughts."] + +[Footnote 95: An anecdote connected with one of these occasions is thus +related in the Journal just referred to:-- + +"When the bailiff (for I have seen most kinds of life) came upon me in +1815 to seize my chattels, (being a peer of parliament, my person was +beyond him,) being curious (as is my habit), I first asked him "what +extents elsewhere he had for government?" upon which he showed me one +upon _one house only_ for _seventy thousand pounds_! Next I asked him if +he had nothing for Sheridan? "Oh--Sheridan!" said he; "ay, I have this" +(pulling out a pocket-book, &c.); "but, my Lord, I have been in +Sheridan's house a twelvemonth at a time--a civil gentleman--knows how +to deal with _us_," &c. &c. &c. Our own business was then discussed, +which was none of the easiest for me at that time. But the man was +civil, and (what I valued more) communicative. I had met many of his +brethren, years before, in affairs of my friends, (commoners, that is,) +but this was the first (or second) on my own account.--A civil man; +fee'd accordingly; probably he anticipated as much."] + +[Footnote 96: For this story, however, there was so far a foundation +that the practice to which he had accustomed himself from boyhood, of +having loaded pistols always near him at night, was considered so +strange a propensity as to be included in that list of symptoms +(sixteen, I believe, in number,) which were submitted to medical +opinion, in proof of his insanity. Another symptom was the emotion, +almost to hysterics, which he had exhibited on seeing Kean act Sir Giles +Overreach. But the most plausible of all the grounds, as he himself used +to allow, on which these articles of impeachment against his sanity were +drawn up, was an act of violence committed by him on a favourite old +watch that had been his companion from boyhood, and had gone with him to +Greece. In a fit of vexation and rage, brought on by some of those +humiliating embarrassments to which he was now almost daily a prey, he +furiously dashed this watch upon the hearth, and ground it to pieces +among the ashes with the poker.] + +[Footnote 97: Of the abuse lavished upon him, the following extract from +a poem, published at this time, will give some idea:-- + + "From native England, that endured too long + The ceaseless burden of his impious song; + His mad career of crimes and follies run, + And grey in vice, when life was scarce begun; + He goes, in foreign lands prepared to find + A life more suited to his guilty mind; + Where other climes new pleasures may supply + For that pall'd taste, and that unhallow'd eye;-- + Wisely he seeks some yet untrodden shore, + For those who know him less may prize him more." + +In a rhyming pamphlet, too, entitled "A Poetical Epistle from Delia, +addressed to Lord Byron," the writer thus charitably expresses +herself:-- + + "Hopeless of peace below, and, shuddering thought! + Far from that Heav'n, denied, if never sought, + Thy light a beacon--a reproach thy name-- + Thy memory "damn'd to everlasting fame," + Shunn'd by the wise, admired by fools alone-- + The good shall mourn thee--and the Muse disown." +] + + * * * * * + +LETTER 235. TO MR. ROGERS. + + "March 25. 1816. + + "You are one of the few persons with whom I have lived in what is + called intimacy, and have heard me at times conversing on the + untoward topic of my recent family disquietudes. Will you have the + goodness to say to me at once, whether you ever heard me speak of + her with disrespect, with unkindness, or defending myself at _her_ + expense by any serious imputation of any description against + _her_? Did you never hear me say 'that when there was a right or a + wrong, she had the _right_?'--The reason I put these questions to + you or others of my friends is, because I am said, by her and hers, + to have resorted to such means of exculpation. + + "Ever very truly yours, + + "B." + + * * * * * + +In those Memoirs (or, more properly, Memoranda,) of the noble poet, +which it was thought expedient, for various reasons, to sacrifice, he +gave a detailed account of all the circumstances connected with his +marriage, from the first proposal to the lady till his own departure, +after the breach, from England. In truth, though the title of "Memoirs," +which he himself sometimes gave to that manuscript, conveys the idea of +a complete and regular piece of biography, it was to this particular +portion of his life that the work was principally devoted; while the +anecdotes, having reference to other parts of his career, not only +occupied a very disproportionate space in its pages, but were most of +them such as are found repeated in the various Journals and other MSS. +he left behind. The chief charm, indeed, of that narrative, was the +melancholy playfulness--melancholy, from the wounded feeling so visible +through its pleasantry--with which events unimportant and persons +uninteresting, in almost every respect but their connection with such a +man's destiny, were detailed and described in it. Frank, as usual, +throughout, in his avowal of his own errors, and generously just towards +her who was his fellow-sufferer in the strife, the impression his +recital left on the minds of all who perused it was, to say the least, +favourable to him;--though, upon the whole, leading to a persuasion, +which I have already intimated to be my own, that, neither in kind nor +degree, did the causes of disunion between the parties much differ from +those that loosen the links of most such marriages. + +With respect to the details themselves, though all important in his own +eyes at the time, as being connected with the subject that superseded +most others in his thoughts, the interest they would possess for others, +now that their first zest as a subject of scandal is gone by, and the +greater number of the persons to whom they relate forgotten, would be +too slight to justify me in entering upon them more particularly, or +running the risk of any offence that might be inflicted by their +disclosure. As far as the character of the illustrious subject of these +pages is concerned, I feel that Time and Justice are doing far more in +its favour than could be effected by any such gossiping details. During +the lifetime of a man of genius, the world is but too much inclined to +judge of him rather by what he wants than by what he possesses, and even +where conscious, as in the present case, that his defects are among the +sources of his greatness, to require of him unreasonably the one without +the other. If Pope had not been splenetic and irritable, we should have +wanted his Satires; and an impetuous temperament, and passions untamed, +were indispensable to the conformation of a poet like Byron. It is by +posterity only that full justice is rendered to those who have paid +such hard penalties to reach it. The dross that had once hung about the +ore drops away, and the infirmities, and even miseries, of genius are +forgotten in its greatness. Who now asks whether Dante was right or +wrong in his matrimonial differences? or by how many of those whose +fancies dwell fondly on his Beatrice is even the name of his Gemma +Donati remembered? + +Already, short as has been the interval since Lord Byron's death, the +charitable influence of time in softening, if not rescinding, the harsh +judgments of the world against genius is visible. The utter +unreasonableness of trying such a character by ordinary standards, or of +expecting to find the materials of order and happiness in a bosom +constantly heaving forth from its depths such "lava floods," is--now +that big spirit has passed from among us--felt and acknowledged. In +reviewing the circumstances of his marriage, a more even scale of +justice is held; and while every tribute of sympathy and commiseration +is accorded to her, who, unluckily for her own peace, became involved in +such a destiny,--who, with virtues and attainments that would have made +the home of a more ordinary man happy, undertook, in evil hour, to "turn +and wind a fiery Pegasus," and but failed where it may be doubted +whether even the fittest for such a task would have succeeded,--full +allowance is, at the same time, made for the great martyr of genius +himself, whom so many other causes, beside that restless fire within +him, concurred to unsettle in mind and (as he himself feelingly +expresses it) "disqualify for comfort;"--whose doom it was to be either +thus or less great, and whom to have tamed might have been to +extinguish; there never, perhaps, having existed an individual to whom, +whether as author or man, the following line was more applicable:-- + + "Si non errâsset, fecerat ille minus."[98] + +While these events were going on,--events, of which his memory and heart +bore painfully the traces through the remainder of his short life,--some +occurrences took place, connected with his literary history, to which it +is a relief to divert the attention of the reader from the distressing +subject that has now so long detained us. + +The letter that follows was in answer to one received from Mr. Murray, +in which that gentleman had enclosed him a draft for a thousand guineas +for the copyright of his two poems, The Siege of Corinth and Parisina:-- + + * * * * * + +LETTER 236. TO MR. MURRAY. + + "January 3. 1816. + + "Your offer is _liberal_ in the extreme, (you see I use the word + _to_ you and _of_ you, though I would not consent to your using it + of yourself to Mr. * * * *,) and much more than the two poems can + possibly be worth; but I cannot accept it, nor will not. You are + most welcome to them as additions to the collected volumes, without + any demand or expectation on my part whatever. But I cannot consent + to their separate publication. I do not like to risk any fame + (whether merited or not), which I have been favoured with, upon + compositions which I do not feel to be at all equal to my own + notions of what they should be, (and as I flatter myself some _have + been_, here and there,) though they may do very well as things + without pretension, to add to the publication with the lighter + pieces. + + "I am very glad that the handwriting was a favourable omen of the + _morale_ of the piece: but you must not trust to that, for my + copyist would write out any thing I desired in all the ignorance of + innocence--I hope, however, in this instance, with no great peril + to either. + + "P.S. I have enclosed your draft _torn_, for fear of accidents by + the way--I wish you would not throw temptation in mine. It is not + from a disdain of the universal idol, nor from a present + superfluity of his treasures, I can assure you, that I refuse to + worship him; but what is right is right, and must not yield to + circumstances." + +[Footnote 98: Had he not _erred_, he had far less achieved.] + + * * * * * + +Notwithstanding the ruinous state of his pecuniary affairs, the +resolution which the poet had formed not to avail himself of the profits +of his works still continued to be held sacred by him; and the sum thus +offered for the copyright of The Siege of Corinth and Parisina was, as +we see, refused and left untouched in the publisher's hands. It happened +that, at this time, a well-known and eminent writer on political science +had been, by some misfortune, reduced to pecuniary embarrassment; and +the circumstance having become known to Mr. Rogers and Sir James +Mackintosh, it occurred to them that a part of the sum thus +unappropriated by Lord Byron could not be better bestowed than in +relieving the necessities of this gentleman. The suggestion was no +sooner conveyed to the noble poet than he proceeded to act upon it; and +the following letter to Mr. Rogers refers to his intentions:-- + +LETTER 237. TO MR. ROGERS. + + "February 20. 1816. + + "I wrote to you hastily this morning by Murray, to say that I was + glad to do as Mackintosh and you suggested about Mr. * *. It occurs + to me now, that as I have never seen Mr. * * but once, and + consequently have no claim to his acquaintance, that you or Sir J. + had better arrange it with him in such a manner as may be least + offensive to his feelings, and so as not to have the appearance of + officiousness nor obtrusion on my part. I hope you will be able to + do this, as I should be very sorry to do any thing by him that may + be deemed indelicate. The sum Murray offered and offers was and is + one thousand and fifty pounds:--this I refused before, because I + thought it more than the two things were worth to Murray, and from + other objections, which are of no consequence. I have, however, + closed with M., in consequence of Sir J.'s and your suggestion, and + propose the sum of six hundred pounds to be transferred to Mr. * * + in such a manner as may seem best to your friend,--the remainder I + think of for other purposes. + + "As Murray has offered the money down for the copyrights, it may be + done directly. I am ready to sign and seal immediately, and + perhaps it had better not be delayed. I shall feel very glad if it + can be of any use to * *; only don't let him be plagued, nor think + himself obliged and all that, which makes people hate one another, + &c. Yours, very truly, + + "B." + + * * * * * + +In his mention here of other "purposes," he refers to an intention which +he had of dividing the residue of the sum between two other gentlemen of +literary Celebrity, equally in want of such aid, Mr. Maturin and Mr. * *. +The whole design, however, though entered into with the utmost sincerity +on the part of the noble poet, ultimately failed. Mr. Murray, who was +well acquainted with the straits to which Lord Byron himself had been +reduced, and foresaw that a time might come when even money thus gained +would be welcome to him, on learning the uses to which the sum was to be +applied, demurred in advancing it,--alleging that, though bound not only +by his word but his will to pay the amount to Lord Byron, he did not +conceive himself called upon to part with it to others. How earnestly +the noble poet himself, though with executions, at the time, impending +over his head, endeavoured to urge the point, will appear from the +following letter:-- + +LETTER 238. TO MR. MURRAY. + + "February 22. 1815. + + "When the sum offered by you, and even _pressed_ by you, was + declined, it was with reference to a separate publication, as you + know and I know. That it was large, I admitted and admit; and + _that_ made part of my consideration in refusing it, till I knew + better what you were likely to make of it. With regard to what is + past, or is to pass, about Mr. M * *, the case is in no respect + different from the transfer of former copyrights to Mr. Dallas. Had + I taken you at your word, that is, taken your money, I might have + used it as I pleased; and it could be in no respect different to + you whether I paid it to a w----, or a hospital, or assisted a man + of talent in distress. The truth of the matter seems this: you + offered more than the poems are worth. I _said_ so, and I _think_ + so; but you know, or at least ought to know, your own business + best; and when you recollect what passed between you and me upon + pecuniary subjects before this occurred, you will acquit me of any + wish to take advantage of your imprudence. + + "The things in question shall not be published at all, and there is + an end of the matter. + + "Yours," &c. + + * * * * * + +The letter that follows will give some idea of those embarrassments in +his own affairs, under the pressure of which he could be thus +considerate of the wants of others. + +LETTER 239. TO MR. MURRAY. + + "March 6. 1816. + + "I sent to you to-day for this reason--the books you purchased are + again seized, and, as matters stand, had much better be sold at + once by public auction.[99] I wish to see you to return your bill + for them, which, thank God, is neither due nor paid. _That_ part, + as far as _you_ are concerned, being settled, (which it can be, and + shall be, when I see you to-morrow,) I have no further delicacy + about the matter. This is about the tenth execution in as many + months; so I am pretty well hardened; but it is fit I should pay + the forfeit of my forefathers' extravagance and my own; and + whatever my faults may be, I suppose they will be pretty well + expiated in time--or eternity. Ever, &c. + + "P.S. I need hardly say that I knew nothing till this _day_ of the + new _seizure_. I had released them from former ones, and thought, + when you took them, that they were yours. + + "You shall have your bill again to-morrow." + +[Footnote 99: The sale of these books took place the following month, +and they were described in the catalogue as the property of "a Nobleman +about to leave England on a tour." + +From a note to Mr. Murray, it would appear that he had been first +announced as going to the Morea. + +"I hope that the catalogue of the books, &c., has not been published +without my seeing it. I must reserve several, and many ought not to be +printed. The advertisement is a very bad one. I am not going to the +Morea; and if I was, you might as well advertise a man in Russia _as +going to Yorkshire_.--Ever," &c. + +Together with the books was sold an article of furniture, which is now +in the possession of Mr. Murray, namely, "a large screen covered with +portraits of actors, pugilists, representations of boxing-matches," +&c.] + + * * * * * + +During the month of January and part of February, his poems of The Siege +of Corinth and Parisina were in the hands of the printers, and about the +end of the latter month made their appearance. The following letters are +the only ones I find connected with their publication. + +LETTER 240. TO MR. MURRAY. + + "February 3. 1816. + + "I sent for 'Marmion,' which I return, because it occurred to me, + there might be a resemblance between part of 'Parisina' and a + similar scene in Canto 2d of 'Marmion.' I fear there is, though I + never thought of it before, and could hardly wish to imitate that + which is inimitable. I wish you would ask Mr. Gifford whether I + ought to say any thing upon it;--I had completed the story on the + passage from Gibbon, which indeed leads to a like scene naturally, + without a thought of the kind: but it comes upon me not very + comfortably. + + "There are a few words and phrases I want to alter in the MS., and + should like to do it before you print, and will return it in an + hour. + + "Yours ever." + + * * * * * + +LETTER 241. TO MR. MURRAY. + + "February 20. 1816. + + "To return to our business--your epistles are vastly agreeable. + With regard to the observations on carelessness, &c. I think, with + all humility, that the gentle reader has considered a rather + uncommon, and designedly irregular, versification for haste and + negligence. The measure is not that of any of the other poems, + which (I believe) were allowed to be tolerably correct, according + to Byshe and the fingers--or ears--by which bards write, and + readers reckon. Great part of 'The Siege' is in (I think) what the + learned call Anapests, (though I am not sure, being heinously + forgetful of my metres and my 'Gradus',) and many of the lines + intentionally longer or shorter than its rhyming companion; and + rhyme also occurring at greater or less intervals of caprice or + convenience. + + "I mean not to say that this is right or good, but merely that I + could have been smoother, had it appeared to me of advantage; and + that I was not otherwise without being aware of the deviation, + though I now feel sorry for it, as I would undoubtedly rather + please than not. My wish has been to try at something different + from my former efforts; as I endeavoured to make them differ from + each other. The versification of 'The Corsair' is not that of + 'Lara;' nor 'The Giaour' that of 'The Bride;' Childe Harold is + again varied from these; and I strove to vary the last somewhat + from _all_ of the others. + + "Excuse all this d----d nonsense and egotism. The fact is, that I + am rather trying to think on the subject of this note, than really + thinking on it.--I did not know you had called: you are always + admitted and welcome when you choose. + + "Yours, &c. &c. + + "P.S. You need not be in any apprehension or grief on my account: + were I to be beaten down by the world and its inheritors, I should + have succumbed to many things, years ago. You must not mistake my + _not_ bullying for dejection; nor imagine that because I feel, I am + to faint:--but enough for the present. + + "I am sorry for Sotheby's row. What the devil is it about? I + thought it all settled; and if I can do any thing about him or Ivan + still, I am ready and willing. I do not think it proper for me just + now to be much behind the scenes, but I will see the committee and + move upon it, if Sotheby likes. + + "If you see Mr. Sotheby, will you tell him that I wrote to Mr. + Coleridge, on getting Mr. Sotheby's note, and have, I hope, done + what Mr. S. wished on that subject?" + + * * * * * + +It was about the middle of April that his two celebrated copies of +verses, "Fare thee well," and "A Sketch," made their appearance in the +newspapers:--and while the latter poem was generally and, it must be +owned, justly condemned, as a sort of literary assault on an obscure +female, whose situation ought to have placed her as much _beneath_ his +satire as the undignified mode of his attack certainly raised her +_above_ it, with regard to the other poem, opinions were a good deal +more divided. To many it appeared a strain of true conjugal tenderness, +a kind of appeal, which no woman with a heart could resist: while by +others, on the contrary, it was considered to be a mere showy effusion +of sentiment, as difficult for real feeling to have produced as it was +easy for fancy and art, and altogether unworthy of the deep interests +involved in the subject. To this latter opinion, I confess my own to +have, at first, strongly inclined; and suspicious as I could not help +regarding the sentiment that could, at such a moment, indulge in such +verses, the taste that prompted or sanctioned their publication appeared +to me even still more questionable. On reading, however, his own account +of all the circumstances in the Memoranda, I found that on both points I +had, in common with a large portion of the public, done him injustice. +He there described, and in a manner whose sincerity there was no +doubting, the swell of tender recollections under the influence of +which, as he sat one night musing in his study, these stanzas were +produced,--the tears, as he said, falling fast over the paper as he +wrote them. Neither, from that account, did it appear to have been from +any wish or intention of his own, but through the injudicious zeal of a +friend whom he had suffered to take a copy, that the verses met the +public eye. + +The appearance of these poems gave additional violence to the angry and +inquisitorial feeling now abroad against him; and the title under which +both pieces were immediately announced by various publishers, as "Poems +by Lord Byron on his domestic Circumstances," carried with it a +sufficient exposure of the utter unfitness of such themes for rhyme. It +is, indeed, only in those emotions and passions, of which imagination +forms a predominant ingredient,--such as love, in its first dreams, +before reality has come to embody or dispel them, or sorrow, in its +wane, when beginning to pass away from the heart into the fancy,--that +poetry ought ever to be employed as an interpreter of feeling. For the +expression of all those immediate affections and disquietudes that have +their root in the actual realities of life, the art of the poet, from +the very circumstance of its being an art, as well as from the coloured +form in which it is accustomed to transmit impressions, cannot be +otherwise than a medium as false as it is feeble. + +To so very low an ebb had the industry of his assailants now succeeded +in reducing his private character, that it required no small degree of +courage, even among that class who are supposed to be the most tolerant +of domestic irregularities, to invite him into their society. One +distinguished lady of fashion, however, ventured so far as, on the eve +of his departure from England, to make a party for him expressly; and +nothing short, perhaps, of that high station in society which a life as +blameless as it is brilliant has secured to her, could have placed +beyond all reach of misrepresentation, at that moment, such a compliment +to one marked with the world's censure so deeply. At this assembly of +Lady J * *'s he made his last appearance, publicly, in England; and the +amusing account given of some of the company in his Memoranda,--of the +various and characteristic ways in which the temperature of their manner +towards him was affected by the cloud under which he now appeared,--was +one of the passages of that Memoir it would have been most desirable, +perhaps, to have preserved; though, from being a gallery of sketches, +all personal and many satirical, but a small portion of it, if any, +could have been presented to the public till a time when the originals +had long left the scene, and any interest they might once have excited +was gone with themselves. Besides the noble hostess herself, whose +kindness to him, on this occasion, he never forgot, there was also one +other person (then Miss M * *, now Lady K * *,) whose frank and fearless +cordiality to him on that evening he most gratefully +commemorated,--adding, in acknowledgment of a still more generous +service, "She is a high-minded woman, and showed me more friendship than +I deserved from her. I heard also of her having defended me in a large +company, which _at that time_ required more courage and firmness than +most women possess." + + * * * * * + +As we are now approaching so near the close of his London life, I shall +here throw together the few remaining recollections of that period with +which the gleanings of his Memorandum-book, so often referred to, +furnish me. + +"I liked the Dandies; they were always very civil to _me_, though in +general they disliked literary people, and persecuted and mystified +Madame de Staël, Lewis, * * * *, and the like, damnably. They persuaded +Madame de Staël that A * * had a hundred thousand a year, &c. &c., till +she praised him to his _face_ for his _beauty_! and made a set at him +for * *, and a hundred fooleries besides. The truth is, that, though I +gave up the business early, I had a tinge of dandyism[100] in my +minority, and probably retained enough of it to conciliate the great +ones at five-and-twenty. I had gamed, and drank, 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, Moore and +Spenser,) in it. Our masquerade[101] was a grand one; so was the +dandy-ball too, at the Argyle, but _that_ (the latter) was given by the +four chiefs, B., M., A., and P., if I err not. + +"I was a member of the Alfred, too, being elected while in Greece. It +was pleasant; a little too sober and literary, and bored with * * 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. + +"I belonged, or belong, to the following clubs or societies:--to the +Alfred; to the Cocoa Tree; to Watier's; to the Union; to Racket's (at +Brighton); to the Pugilistic; to the Owls, or "Fly-by-night;" to the +_Cambridge_ Whig Club; to the Harrow Club, Cambridge; and to one or two +private clubs; to the Hampden (political) Club; and to the Italian +Carbonari, &c. &c., 'though last, _not least_.' I got into all these, +and never stood for any other--at least to my own knowledge. I declined +being proposed to several others, though pressed to stand candidate." + + * * * * + +"When I met H * * L * *, the gaoler, at Lord Holland's, before he sailed +for St. Helena, the discourse turned upon the battle of Waterloo. I +asked him whether the dispositions of Napoleon were those of a great +general? He answered, disparagingly, 'that they were very simple.' I had +always thought that a degree of simplicity was an ingredient of +greatness." + + * * * * + +"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; and * * used to call him a 'Sentimental Harlequin.'" + + * * * * + +"Curran! Curran's the man who struck me most[102]. Such imagination! +there never was any thing 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, &c. &c. and he was wonderful even to me, who had seen +many remarkable men of the time." + + * * * * + +"* * * (commonly called _long_ * * *, a very clever man, but odd) +complained of our friend Scrope B. Davies, in riding, that he had a +_stitch_ in his side. 'I don't wonder at it,' said Scrope, 'for you ride +_like a tailor_.' Whoever had seen * * * on horseback, with his very +tall figure on a small nag, would not deny the justice of the repartee." + + * * * * + +"When B * * was obliged (by that affair of poor M * *, who thence +acquired the name of 'Dick the Dandy-killer'--it was about money, and +debt, and all that) to retire to France, he knew no French, and having +obtained a grammar for the purpose of study, our friend Scrope Davies +was asked 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." + + * * * * + +"* * * 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, 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,)--* +* *, 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.' * * * then went away. _Sic me servavit Apollo._" + + * * * * + +"I remember seeing Blucher in the London assemblies, and never saw any +thing 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 had stumbled over it." + +[Footnote 100: Petrarch was, it appears, also in his youth, a Dandy. +"Recollect," he says, in a letter to his brother, "the time, when we +wore white habits, on which the least spot, or a plait ill placed, would +have been a subject of grief; when our shoes were so tight we suffered +martyrdom," &c.] + +[Footnote 101: To this masquerade he went in the habit of a Caloyer, or +Eastern monk,--a dress particularly well calculated to set off the +beauty of his fine countenance, which was accordingly, that night, the +subject of general admiration.] + +[Footnote 102: In his Memoranda there were equally enthusiastic praises +of Curran. "The riches," said he, "of his Irish imagination were +exhaustless. I have heard that man speak more poetry than I have ever +seen written,--though I saw him seldom and but occasionally. I saw him +presented to Madame de Staël at Mackintosh's;--it was the grand +confluence between the Rhone and the Saone, and they were both so d----d +ugly, that I could not help wondering how the best intellects of France +and Ireland could have taken up respectively such residences." + +In another part, however, he was somewhat more fair to Madame de Staël's +personal appearance:--"Her figure was not bad; her legs tolerable; her +arms good. Altogether, I can conceive her having been a desirable woman, +allowing a little imagination for her soul, and so forth. She would have +made a great man."] + + * * * * * + +We now approach the close of this eventful period of his history. In a +note to Mr. Rogers, written a short time before his departure for +Ostend[103], he says,--"My sister is now with me, and leaves town +to-morrow: we shall not meet again for some time, at all events--if +ever; and, under these circumstances, I trust to stand excused to you +and Mr. Sheridan for being unable to wait upon him this evening." + +This was his last interview with his sister,--almost the only person +from whom he now parted with regret; it being, as he said, doubtful +_which_ had given him most pain, the enemies who attacked or the friends +who condoled with him. Those beautiful and most tender verses, "Though +the day of my destiny's over," were now his parting tribute to her[104] +who, through all this bitter trial, had been his sole consolation; and, +though known to most readers, so expressive are they of his wounded +feelings at this crisis, that there are few, I think, who will object to +seeing some stanzas of them here. + + "Though the rock of my last hope is shiver'd, + And its fragments are sunk in the wave, + Though I feel that my soul is deliver'd + To pain--it shall not be its slave. + There is many a pang to pursue me: + They may crush, but they shall not contemn-- + They may torture, but shall not subdue me-- + 'Tis of _thee_ that I think--not of them. + + "Though human, thou didst not deceive me, + Though woman, thou didst not forsake, + Though lov'd, thou forborest to grieve me, + Though slander'd, thou never couldst shake, + Though trusted, thou didst not disclaim me, + Though parted, it was not to fly, + Though watchful, 'twas not to defame me, + Nor mute, that the world might belie. + + "From the wreck of the past, which hath perish'd, + Thus much I at least may recall, + It hath taught me that what I most cherish'd + Deserved to be dearest of all: + In the desert a fountain is springing, + In the wide waste there still is a tree, + And a bird in the solitude singing, + Which speaks to my spirit of _thee_. + +On a scrap of paper, in his handwriting, dated April 14. 1816, I find +the following list of his attendants, with an annexed outline of his +projected tour:--"_Servants_, ---- Berger, a Swiss, William Fletcher, +and Robert Rushton.--John William Polidori, M.D.--Switzerland, Flanders, +Italy, and (perhaps) France." The two English servants, it will be +observed, were the same "yeoman" and "page" who had set out with him on +his youthful travels in 1809; and now,--for the second and last time +taking leave of his country,--on the 25th of April he sailed for Ostend. + +The circumstances under which Lord Byron now took leave of England were +such as, in the case of any ordinary person, could not be considered +otherwise than disastrous and humiliating. He had, in the course of one +short year, gone through every variety of domestic misery;--had seen his +hearth eight or nine times profaned by the visitations of the law, and +been only saved from a prison by the privileges of his rank. He had +alienated, as far as they had ever been his, the affections of his wife; +and now, rejected by her, and condemned by the world, was betaking +himself to an exile which had not even the dignity of appearing +voluntary, as the excommunicating voice of society seemed to leave him +no other resource. Had he been of that class of unfeeling and +self-satisfied natures from whose hard surface the reproaches of others +fall pointless, he might have found in insensibility a sure refuge +against reproach; but, on the contrary, the same sensitiveness that kept +him so awake to the applauses of mankind, rendered him, in a still more +intense degree, alive to their censure. Even the strange, perverse +pleasure which he felt in painting himself unamiably to the world did +not prevent him from being both startled and pained when the world took +him at his word; and, like a child in a mask before a looking-glass, the +dark semblance which he had, half in sport, put on, when reflected back +upon him from the mirror of public opinion, shocked even himself. + +Thus surrounded by vexations, and thus deeply feeling them, it is not +too much to say, that any other spirit but his own would have sunk +under the struggle, and lost, perhaps irrecoverably, that level of +self-esteem which alone affords a stand against the shocks of fortune. +But in him,--furnished as was his mind with reserves of strength, +waiting to be called out,--the very intensity of the pressure brought +relief by the proportionate re-action which it produced. Had his +transgressions and frailties been visited with no more than their due +portion of punishment, there can be little doubt that a very different +result would have ensued. Not only would such an excitement have been +insufficient to waken up the new energies still dormant in him, but that +consciousness of his own errors, which was for ever livelily present in +his mind, would, under such circumstances, have been left, undisturbed +by any unjust provocation, to work its usual softening and, perhaps, +humbling influences on his spirit. But,--luckily, as it proved, for the +further triumphs of his genius,--no such moderation was exercised. The +storm of invective raised around him, so utterly out of proportion with +his offences, and the base calumnies that were every where heaped upon +his name, left to his wounded pride no other resource than in the same +summoning up of strength, the same instinct of resistance to injustice, +which had first forced out the energies of his youthful genius, and was +now destined to give a still bolder and loftier range to its powers. + +It was, indeed, not without truth, said of him by Goethe, that he was +inspired by the Genius of Pain; for, from the first to the last of his +agitated career, every fresh recruitment of his faculties was imbibed +from that bitter source. His chief incentive, when a boy, to distinction +was, as we have seen, that mark of deformity on his person, by an acute +sense of which he was first stung into the ambition of being great.[105] +As, with an evident reference to his own fate, he himself describes the +feeling,-- + + "Deformity is daring. + It is its essence to o'ertake mankind + By heart and soul, and make itself the equal,-- + Ay, the superior of the rest. There is + A spur in its halt movements, to become + All that the others cannot, in such things + As still are free to both, to compensate + For stepdame Nature's avarice at first."[106] + +Then came the disappointment of his youthful passion,--the lassitude and +remorse of premature excess,--the lone friendlessness of his entrance +into life, and the ruthless assault upon his first literary +efforts,--all links in that chain of trials, errors, and sufferings, by +which his great mind was gradually and painfully drawn out;--all bearing +their respective shares in accomplishing that destiny which seems to +have decreed that the triumphal march of his genius should be over the +waste and ruins of his heart. He appeared, indeed, himself to have had +an instinctive consciousness that it was out of such ordeals his +strength and glory were to arise, as his whole life was passed in +courting agitation and difficulties; and whenever the scenes around him +were too tame to furnish such excitement, he flew to fancy or memory for +"thorns" whereon to "lean his breast." + +But the greatest of his trials, as well as triumphs, was yet to come. +The last stage of this painful, though glorious, course, in which fresh +power was, at every step, wrung from out his soul, was that at which we +are now arrived, his marriage and its results,--without which, dear as +was the price paid by him in peace and character, his career would have +been incomplete, and the world still left in ignorance of the full +compass of his genius. It is, indeed, worthy of remark, that it was not +till his domestic circumstances began to darken around him that his +fancy, which had long been idle, again rose upon the wing,--both The +Siege of Corinth and Parisina having been produced but a short time +before the separation. How conscious he was, too, that the turmoil which +followed was the true element of his restless spirit, may be collected +from several passages of his letters at that period, in one of which he +even mentions that his health had become all the better for the +conflict:--"It is odd," he says, "but agitation or contest of any kind +gives a rebound to my spirits, and sets me up for the time." + +This buoyancy it was,--this irrepressible spring of mind,--that now +enabled him to bear up not only against the assaults of others, but, +what was still more difficult, against his own thoughts and feelings. +The muster of all his mental resources to which, in self-defence, he had +been driven, but opened to him the yet undreamed extent and capacity of +his powers, and inspired him with a proud confidence that he should yet +shine down these calumnious mists, convert censure to wonder, and compel +even those who could not approve to admire. + +The route which he now took, through Flanders and by the Rhine, is best +traced in his own matchless verses, which leave a portion of their glory +on all that they touch, and lend to scenes, already clothed with +immortality by nature and by history, the no less durable associations +of undying song. On his leaving Brussels, an incident occurred which +would be hardly worth relating, were it not for the proof it affords of +the malicious assiduity with which every thing to his disadvantage was +now caught up and circulated in England. Mr. Pryce Gordon, a gentleman, +who appears to have seen a good deal of him during his short stay at +Brussels, thus relates the anecdote:-- + +"Lord Byron travelled in a huge coach, copied from the celebrated one of +Napoleon, taken at Genappe, with additions. Besides a _lit de repos_, it +contained a library, a plate-chest, and every apparatus for dining in +it. It was not, however, found sufficiently capacious for his baggage +and suite; and he purchased a calèche at Brussels for his servants. It +broke down going to Waterloo, and I advised him to return it, as it +seemed to be a crazy machine; but as he had made a deposit of forty +Napoleons (certainly double its value), the honest Fleming would not +consent to restore the cash, or take back his packing case, except under +a forfeiture of thirty Napoleons. As his Lordship was to set out the +following day, he begged me to make the best arrangement I could in the +affair. He had no sooner taken his departure, than the worthy _sellier_ +inserted a paragraph in 'The Brussels Oracle,' stating 'that the noble +_milor Anglais_ had absconded with his calèche, value 1800 francs!'" + +In the Courier of May 13., the Brussels account of this transaction is +thus copied:-- + +"The following is an extract from the Dutch Mail, dated Brussels, May +8th,:--In the Journal de Belgique, of this date, is a petition from a +coachmaker at Brussels to the president of the Tribunal de Premier +Instance, stating that he has sold to Lord Byron a carriage, &c. for +1882 francs, of which he has received 847 francs, but that his Lordship, +who is going away the same day, refuses to pay him the remaining 1035 +francs; he begs permission to seize the carriage, &c. This being granted, +he put it into the hands of a proper officer, who went to signify the +above to Lord Byron, and was informed by the landlord of the hotel that +his Lordship was gone without having given him any thing to pay the +debt, on which the officer seized a chaise belonging to his Lordship as +security for the amount." + +It was not till the beginning of the following month that a +contradiction of this falsehood, stating the real circumstances of the +case, as above related, was communicated to the Morning Chronicle, in a +letter from Brussels, signed "Pryce L. Gordon." + +Another anecdote, of far more interest, has been furnished from the same +respectable source. It appears that the two first stanzas of the verses +relating to Waterloo, "Stop, for thy tread is on an empire's dust[107]," +were written at Brussels, after a visit to that memorable field, and +transcribed by Lord Byron, next morning, in an album belonging to the +lady of the gentleman who communicates the anecdote. + +"A few weeks after he had written them (says the relater), the +well-known artist, R.R. Reinagle, a friend of mine, arrived in Brussels, +when I invited him to dine with me and showed him the lines, requesting +him to embellish them with an appropriate vignette to the following +passage:-- + + "'Here his last flight the haughty eagle flew, + Then tore, with bloody beak, the fatal plain; + Pierced with the shafts of banded nations through, + Ambition's life, and labours, all were vain-- + He wears the shatter'd links of the world's broken chain.' + +Mr. Reinagle sketched with a pencil a spirited chained eagle, grasping +the earth with his talons. + +"I had occasion to write to his Lordship, and mentioned having got this +clever artist to draw a vignette to his beautiful lines, and the liberty +he had taken by altering the action of the eagle. In reply to this, he +wrote to me,--'Reinagle is a better poet and a better ornithologist than +I am; eagles, and all birds of prey, attack with their talons, and not +with their beaks, and I have altered the line thus:-- + + "'Then tore, with bloody talon, the rent plain.' + +This is, I think, a better line, besides its poetical justice.' I need +hardly add, when I communicated this flattering compliment to the +painter, that he was highly gratified." + +From Brussels the noble traveller pursued his course along the Rhine,--a +line of road which he has strewed over with all the riches of poesy; +and, arriving at Geneva, took up his abode at the well-known hotel, +Sécheron. After a stay of a few weeks at this place, he removed to a +villa, in the neighbourhood, called Diodati, very beautifully situated +on the high banks of the Lake, where he established his residence for +the remainder of the summer. + +I shall now give the few letters in my possession written by him at this +time, and then subjoin to them such anecdotes as I have been able to +collect relative to the same period. + +[Footnote 103: Dated April 16.] + +[Footnote 104: It will be seen, from a subsequent letter, that the first +stanza of that most cordial of Farewells, "My boat is on the shore," was +also written at this time.] + +[Footnote 105: In one of his letters to Mr. Hunt, he declares it to be +his own opinion that "an addiction to poetry is very generally the +result of 'an uneasy mind in an uneasy body;' disease or deformity," he +adds, "have been the attendants of many of our best. Collins +mad--Chatterton, _I_ think, mad--Cowper mad--Pope crooked--Milton +blind," &c. &c.] + +[Footnote 106: The Deformed Transformed.] + +[Footnote 107: Childe Harold, Canto iii. stanza 17.] + + * * * * * + +LETTER 242. TO MR. MURRAY. + + "Ouchy, near Lausanne, June 27. 1816. + + "I am thus far (kept by stress of weather) on my way back to + Diodati (near Geneva) from a voyage in my boat round the Lake; and + I enclose you a sprig of _Gibbons acacia_ and some rose-leaves from + his garden, which, with part of his house, I have just seen. You + will find honourable mention, in his Life, made of this 'acacia,' + when he walked out on the night of concluding his history. The + garden and _summer-house_, where he composed, are neglected, and + the last utterly decayed; but they still show it as his 'cabinet,' + and seem perfectly aware of his memory. + + "My route, through Flanders, and by the Rhine, to Switzerland, was + all I expected, and more. + + "I have traversed all Rousseau's ground with the Heloise before me, + and am struck to a degree that I cannot express with the force and + accuracy of his descriptions and the beauty of their reality. + Meillerie, Clarens, and Vevay, and the Château de Chillon, are + places of which I shall say little, because all I could say must + fall short of the impressions they stamp. + + "Three days ago, we were most nearly wrecked in a squall off + Meillerie, and driven to shore. I ran no risk, being so near the + rocks, and a good swimmer; but our party were wet, and incommoded a + good deal. The wind was strong enough to blow down some trees, as + we found at landing: however, all is righted and right, and we are + thus far on our return. + + "Dr. Polidori is not here, but at Diodati, left behind in hospital + with a sprained ankle, which he acquired in tumbling from a + wall--he can't jump. + + "I shall be glad to hear you are well, and have received for me + certain helms and swords, sent from Waterloo, which I rode over + with pain and pleasure. + + "I have finished a third canto of Childe Harold (consisting of one + hundred and seventeen stanzas), longer than either of the two + former, and in some parts, it may be, better; but of course on that + I cannot determine. I shall send it by the first safe-looking + opportunity. Ever," &c. + + * * * * * + +LETTER 243. TO MR. MURRAY. + + "Diodati, near Geneva, July 22. 1816. + + "I wrote to you a few weeks ago, and Dr. Polidori received your + letter; but the packet has not made its appearance, nor the + epistle, of which you gave notice therein. I enclose you an + advertisement[108], which was copied by Dr. Polidori, and which + appears to be about the most impudent imposition that ever issued + from Grub Street. I need hardly say that I know nothing of all this + trash, nor whence it may spring,--'Odes to St. Helena,'--'Farewells + to England,' &c. &c.--and if it can be disavowed, or is worth + disavowing, you have full authority to do so. I never wrote, nor + conceived, a line on any thing of the kind, any more than of two + other things with which I was saddled--something about 'Gaul,' and + another about 'Mrs. La Valette;' and as to the 'Lily of France,' I + should as soon think of celebrating a turnip. 'On the Morning of my + Daughter's Birth,' I had other things to think of than verses; and + should never have dreamed of such an invention, till Mr. Johnston + and his pamphlet's advertisement broke in upon me with a new light + on the crafts and subtleties of the demon of printing,--or rather + publishing. + + "I did hope that some succeeding lie would have superseded the + thousand and one which were accumulated during last winter. I can + forgive whatever may be said of or against me, but not what they + make me say or sing for myself. It is enough to answer for what I + have written; but it were too much for Job himself to bear what one + has not. I suspect that when the Arab Patriarch wished that his + 'enemy had written a book,' he did not anticipate his own name on + the title-page. I feel quite as much bored with this foolery as it + deserves, and more than I should be if I had not a headach. + + "Of Glenarvon, Madame de Staël told me (ten days ago, at Copet) + marvellous and grievous things; but I have seen nothing of it but + the motto, which promises amiably 'for us and for our tragedy.' If + such be the posy, what should the ring be? 'a name to all + succeeding[109],' &c. The generous moment selected for the + publication is probably its kindest accompaniment, and--truth to + say--the time _was_ well chosen. I have not even a guess at the + contents, except from the very vague accounts I have heard. + + "I ought to be ashamed of the egotism of this letter. It is not my + fault altogether, and I shall be but too happy to drop the subject + when others will allow me. + + "I am in tolerable plight, and in my last letter told you what I + had done in the way of all rhyme. I trust that you prosper, and + that your authors are in good condition. I should suppose your stud + has received some increase by what I hear. Bertram must be a good + horse; does he run next meeting? I hope you will beat the Row. + Yours alway," &c. + +[Footnote 108: The following was the advertisement enclosed:-- + + "Neatly printed and hot-pressed, 2s. 6d. + + "Lord Byron's Farewell to England, with Three other Poems--Ode to + St. Helena, to My Daughter on her Birthday, and To the Lily of + France. + + "Printed by J. Johnston, Cheapside, 335.; Oxford, 9. + + "The above beautiful Poems will be read with the most lively + interest, as it is probable they will be the last of the author's + that will appear in England." +] + +[Footnote 109: The motto is-- + + He left a name to all succeeding times, + Link'd with one virtue and a thousand crimes." +] + + * * * * * + +LETTER 244. TO MR. ROGERS. + + "Diodati, near Geneva, July 29. 1816. + + "Do you recollect a book, Mathieson's Letters, which you lent me, + which I have still, and yet hope to return to your library? Well, I + have encountered at Copet and elsewhere Gray's correspondent, that + same Bonstetten, to whom I lent the translation of his + correspondent's epistles, for a few days; but all he could remember + of Gray amounts to little, except that he was the most 'melancholy + and gentlemanlike' of all possible poets. Bonstetten himself is a + fine and very lively old man, and much esteemed by his compatriots; + he is also a _littérateur_ of good repute, and all his friends have + a mania of addressing to him volumes of letters--Mathieson, Muller + the historian, &c.&c. He is a good deal at Copet, where I have met + him a few times. All there are well, except Rocca, who, I am sorry + to say, looks in a very bad state of health. Schlegel is in high + force, and Madame as brilliant as ever. + + "I came here by the Netherlands and the Rhine route, and Basle, + Berne, Moral, and Lausanne. I have circumnavigated the Lake, and go + to Chamouni with the first fair weather; but really we have had + lately such stupid mists, fogs, and perpetual density, that one + would think Castlereagh had the Foreign Affairs of the kingdom of + Heaven also on his hands. I need say nothing to you of these parts, + you having traversed them already. I do not think of Italy before + September. I have read Glenarvon, and have also seen Ben. + Constant's Adolphe, and his preface, denying the real people. It is + a work which leaves an unpleasant impression, but very consistent + with the consequences of not being in love, which is, perhaps, as + disagreeable as any thing, except being so. I doubt, however, + whether all such _liens_ (as he calls them) terminate so wretchedly + as his hero and heroine's. + + "There is a third Canto (a longer than either of the former) of + Childe Harold finished, and some smaller things,--among them a + story on the Château de Chillon; I only wait a good opportunity to + transmit them to the grand Murray, who, I hope, flourishes. Where + is Moore? Why is he not out? My love to him, and my perfect + consideration and remembrances to all, particularly to Lord and + Lady Holland, and to your Duchess of Somerset. + + "Ever, &c. + + "P.S. I send you a _fac-simile_, a note of Bonstetten's, thinking + you might like to see the hand of Gray's correspondent." + + * * * * * + +LETTER 245. TO MR. MURRAY. + + "Diodati, Sept. 29. 1816. + + "I am very much flattered by Mr. Gifford's good opinion of the + MSS., and shall be still more so if it answers your expectations + and justifies his kindness. I liked it myself, but that must go for + nothing. The feelings with which most of it was written need not be + envied me. With regard to the price, _I_ fixed _none_, but left it + to Mr. Kinnaird, Mr. Shelley, and yourself, to arrange. Of course, + they would do their best; and as to yourself, I knew you would make + no difficulties. But I agree with Mr. Kinnaird perfectly, that the + concluding _five hundred_ should be only _conditional_; and for my + own sake, I wish it to be added, only in case of your selling a + certain number, _that number_ to be fixed by _yourself_. I hope + this is fair. In every thing of this kind there must be risk; and + till that be past, in one way or the other, I would not willingly + add to it, particularly in times like the present. And pray always + recollect that nothing could mortify me more--no failure on my own + part--than having made you lose by any purchase from me. + + "The Monody[110] was written by request of Mr. Kinnaird for the + theatre. I did as well as I could; but where I have not my choice + I pretend to answer for nothing. Mr. Hobhouse and myself are just + returned from a journey of lakes and mountains. We have been to the + Grindelwald, and the Jungfrau, and stood on the summit of the + Wengen Alp; and seen torrents of nine hundred feet in fall, and + glaciers of all dimensions: we have heard shepherds' pipes, and + avalanches, and looked on the clouds foaming up from the valleys + below us, like the spray of the ocean of hell. Chamouni, and that + which it inherits, we saw a month ago: but though Mont Blanc is + higher, it is not equal in wildness to the Jungfrau, the Eighers, + the Shreckhorn, and the Rose Glaciers. + + "We set off for Italy next week. The road is within this month + infested with bandits, but we must take our chance and such + precautions as are requisite. + + "Ever, &c. + + "P.S. My best remembrances to Mr. Gifford. Pray say all that can be + said from me to him. + + "I am sorry that Mr. Maturin did not like Phillips's picture. I + thought it was reckoned a good one. If he had made the speech on + the original, perhaps he would have been more readily forgiven by + the proprietor and the painter of the portrait * * *." + +[Footnote 110: A Monody on the death of Sheridan, which was spoken at +Drury Lane theatre.] + + * * * * * + +LETTER 246. TO MR. MURRAY. + + "Diodati, Sept. 30. 1816. + + "I answered your obliging letters yesterday: to-day the Monody + arrived with its _title_-page, which is, I presume, a separate + publication. 'The request of a friend:'-- + + 'Obliged by hunger and request of friends.' + + I will request you to expunge that same, unless you please to add, + 'by a person of quality,' or 'of wit and honour about town.' Merely + say, 'written to be spoken at Drury Lane.' To-morrow I dine at + Copet. Saturday I strike tents for Italy. This evening, on the lake + in my boat with Mr. Hobhouse, the pole which sustains the mainsail + slipped in tacking, and struck me so violently on one of my legs + (the _worst_, luckily) as to make me do a foolish thing, viz. to + _faint_--a downright swoon; the thing must have jarred some nerve + or other, for the bone is not injured, and hardly painful (it is + six hours since), and cost Mr. Hobhouse some apprehension and much + sprinkling of water to recover me. The sensation was a very odd + one: I never had but two such before, once from a cut on the head + from a stone, several years ago, and once (long ago also) in + falling into a great wreath of snow;--a sort of grey giddiness + first, then nothingness, and a total loss of memory on beginning to + recover. The last part is not disagreeable, if one did not find it + again. + + "You want the original MSS. Mr. Davies has the first fair copy in + my own hand, and I have the rough composition here, and will send + or save it for you, since you wish it. + + "With regard to your new literary project, if any thing falls in + the way which will, to the best of my judgment, suit you, I will + send you what I can. At present I must lay by a little, having + pretty well exhausted myself in what I have sent you. Italy or + Dalmatia and another summer may, or may not, set me off again. I + have no plans, and am nearly as indifferent what may come as where + I go. I shall take Felicia Heman's Restoration, &c. with me; it is + a good poem--very. + + "Pray repeat my best thanks and remembrances to Mr. Gifford for all + his trouble and good nature towards me. + + "Do not fancy me laid up, from the beginning of this scrawl. I tell + you the accident for want of better to say; but it is over, and I + am only wondering what the deuce was the matter with me. + + "I have lately been over all the Bernese Alps and their lakes. I + think many of the scenes (some of which were not those usually + frequented by the English) finer than Chamouni, which I visited + some time before. I have been to Clarens again, and crossed the + mountains behind it: of this tour I kept a short journal for my + sister, which I sent yesterday in three letters. It is not all for + perusal; but if you like to hear about the romantic part, she will, + I dare say, show you what touches upon the rocks, &c. + + "Christabel--I won't have any one sneer at Christabel: it is a fine + wild poem. + + "Madame de Staël wishes to see the Antiquary, and I am going to + take it to her to-morrow. She has made Copet as agreeable as + society and talent can make any place on earth. Yours ever, + + "N." + + * * * * * + +From the Journal mentioned in the foregoing letter, I am enabled to give +the following extracts:-- + +EXTRACTS FROM A JOURNAL. + +"September 18. 1816. + +"Yesterday, September 17th, I set out with Mr. Hobhouse on an excursion +of some days to the mountains. + + +"September 17. + +"Rose at five; left Diodati about seven, in one of the country carriages +(a char-à-banc), our servants on horseback. Weather very fine; the lake +calm and clear; Mont Blanc and the Aiguille of Argentières both very +distinct; the borders of the lake beautiful. Reached Lausanne before +sunset; stopped and slept at ----. Went to bed at nine: slept till five +o'clock. + + +"September 18. + +"Called by my courier; got up. Hobhouse walked on before. A mile from +Lausanne, the road overflowed by the lake; got on horseback and rode +till within a mile of Vevay. The colt young, but went very well. +Overtook Hobhouse, and resumed the carriage, which is an open one. +Stopped at Vevay two hours (the second time I had visited it); walked to +the church; view from the churchyard superb; within it General Ludlow +(the regicide's) monument--black marble--long inscription--Latin, but +simple; he was an exile two-and-thirty-years--one of King Charles's +judges. Near him Broughton (who read King Charles's sentence to Charles +Stuart) is buried, with a queer and rather canting, but still a +republican, inscription. Ludlow's house shown; it retains still its +inscription--'Omne solum forti patria.' Walked down to the Lake side; +servants, carriage, saddle-horses--all set off and left us _plantés là_, +by some mistake, and we walked on after them towards Clarens: Hobhouse +ran on before, and overtook them at last. Arrived the second time (first +time was by water) at Clarens. Went to Chillon through scenery worthy of +I know not whom; went over the Castle of Chillon again. On our return +met an English party in a carriage; a lady in it fast asleep--fast +asleep in the most anti-narcotic spot in the world--excellent! I +remember, at Chamouni, in the very eyes of Mont Blanc, hearing another +woman, English also, exclaim to her party, 'Did you ever see any thing +more _rural_?'--as if it was Highgate, or Hampstead, or Brompton, or +Hayes,--'Rural!' quotha.--Rocks, pines, torrents, glaciers, clouds, and +summits of eternal snow far above them--and 'rural!' + +"After a slight and short dinner we visited the Chateau de Clarens; an +English woman has rented it recently (it was not let when I saw it +first); the roses are gone with their summer; the family out, but the +servants desired us to walk over the interior of the mansion. Saw on the +table of the saloon Blair's Sermons and somebody else's (I forget who's) +sermons, and a set of noisy children. Saw all worth seeing, and then +descended to the 'Bosquet de Julie,' &c. &c.; our guide full of +Rousseau, whom he is eternally confounding with St. Preux, and mixing +the man and the book. Went again as far as Chillon to revisit the little +torrent from the hill behind it. Sunset reflected in the lake. Have to +get up at five to-morrow to cross the mountains on horseback; carriage +to be sent round; lodged at my old cottage--hospitable and comfortable; +tired with a longish ride on the colt, and the subsequent jolting of the +char-à-banc, and my scramble in the hot sun. + +"Mem. The corporal who showed the wonders of Chillon was as drunk as +Blucher, and (to my mind) as great a man; he was deaf also, and thinking +every one else so, roared out the legends of the castle so fearfully +that H. got out of humour. However, we saw things from the gallows to +the dungeons (the _potence_ and the _cachots_), and returned to Clarens +with more freedom than belonged to the fifteenth century. + + +"September 19. + +"Rose at five. Crossed the mountains to Montbovon on horseback, and on +mules, and, by dint of scrambling, on foot also; the whole route +beautiful as a dream, and now to me almost as indistinct. I am so +tired;--for though healthy, I have not the strength I possessed but a +few years ago. At Montbovon we breakfasted; afterwards, on a steep +ascent dismounted; tumbled down; cut a finger open; the baggage also got +loose and fell down a ravine, till stopped by a large tree; recovered +baggage; horse tired and drooping; mounted mule. At the approach of the +summit of Dent Jument[111] dismounted again with Hobhouse and all the +party. Arrived at a lake in the very bosom of the mountains; left our +quadrupeds with a shepherd, and ascended farther; came to some snow in +patches, upon which my forehead's perspiration fell like rain, making +the same dints as in a sieve; the chill of the wind and the snow turned +me giddy, but I scrambled on and upwards. Hobhouse went to the highest +pinnacle; I did not, but paused within a few yards (at an opening of the +cliff). In coming down, the guide tumbled three times; I fell a +laughing, and tumbled too--the descent luckily soft, though steep and +slippery: Hobhouse also fell, but nobody hurt. The whole of the +mountains superb. A shepherd on a very steep and high cliff playing upon +his _pipe_; very different from _Arcadia_, where I saw the pastors with +a long musket instead of a crook, and pistols in their girdles. Our +Swiss shepherd's pipe was sweet, and his tune agreeable. I saw a cow +strayed; am told that they often break their necks on and over the +crags. Descended to Montbovon; pretty scraggy village, with a wild river +and a wooden bridge. Hobhouse went to fish--caught one. Our carriage not +come; our horses, mules, &c. knocked up; ourselves fatigued; but so much +the better--I shall sleep. + +"The view from the highest points of to-day's journey comprised on one +side the greatest part of Lake Leman; on the other, the valleys and +mountain of the Canton of Fribourg, and an immense plain, with the lakes +of Neuchâtel and Morat, and all which the borders of the Lake of Geneva +inherit; we had both sides of the Jura before us in one point of view, +with Alps in plenty. In passing a ravine, the guide recommended +strenuously a quickening of pace, as the stones fall with great rapidity +and occasional damage; the advice is excellent, but, like most good +advice, impracticable, the road being so rough that neither mules, nor +mankind, nor horses, can make any violent progress. Passed without +fractures or menace thereof. + +"The music of the cow's bells (for their wealth, like the patriarchs', +is cattle) in the pastures, which reach to a height far above any +mountains in Britain, and the shepherds shouting to us from crag to +crag, and playing on their reeds where the steeps appeared almost +inaccessible, with the surrounding scenery, realised all that I have +ever heard or imagined of a pastoral existence:--much more so than +Greece or Asia Minor, for there we are a little too much of the sabre +and musket order, and if there is a crook in one hand, you are sure to +see a gun in the other:--but this was pure and unmixed--solitary, +savage, and patriarchal. As we went, they played the 'Rans des Vaches' +and other airs, by way of farewell. I have lately repeopled my mind with +nature. + +[Footnote 111: Dent de Jaman.] + + +"September 20. + +Up at six; off at eight. The whole of this day's journey at an average +of between from 2700 to 3000 feet above the level of the sea. This +valley, the longest, narrowest, and considered the finest of the Alps, +little traversed by travellers. Saw the bridge of La Roche. The bed of +the river very low and deep, between immense rocks, and rapid as +anger;--a man and mule said to have tumbled over without damage. The +people looked free, and happy, and _rich_ (which last implies neither of +the former); the cows superb; a bull nearly leapt into the +char-à-banc--'agreeable companion in a post-chaise;' goats and sheep +very thriving. A mountain with enormous glaciers to the right--the +Klitzgerberg; further on, the Hockthorn--nice names--so +soft!--_Stockhorn_, I believe, very lofty and scraggy, patched with snow +only; no glaciers on it, but some good epaulettes of clouds. + +"Passed the boundaries, out of Vaud and into Berne canton; French +exchanged for bad German; the district famous for cheese, liberty, +property, and no taxes. Hobhouse went to fish--caught none. Strolled to +the river; saw boy and kid; kid followed him like a dog; kid could not +get over a fence, and bleated piteously; tried myself to help kid, but +nearly overset both self and kid into the river. Arrived here about six +in the evening. Nine o'clock--going to bed; not tired to day, but hope +to sleep, nevertheless. + + +"September 21. + +"Off early. The valley of Simmenthal as before. Entrance to the plain of +Thoun very narrow; high rocks, wooded to the top; river; new mountains, +with fine glaciers. Lake of Thoun; extensive plain with a girdle of +Alps. Walked down to the Chateau de Schadau; view along the lake; +crossed the river in a boat rowed by women. Thoun a very pretty town. +The whole day's journey Alpine and proud. + + +"September 22. + +"Left Thoun in a boat, which carried us the length of the lake in three +hours. The lake small; but the banks fine. Rocks down to the water's +edge. Landed at Newhause; passed Interlachen; entered upon a range of +scenes beyond all description or previous conception. Passed a rock; +inscription--two brothers--one murdered the other; just the place for +it. After a variety of windings came to an enormous rock. Arrived at the +foot of the mountain (the Jungfrau, that is, the Maiden); glaciers; +torrents; one of these torrents _nine hundred feet_ in height of visible +descent. Lodged at the curate's. Set out to see the valley; heard an +avalanche fall, like thunder; glaciers enormous; storm came on, thunder, +lightning, hail; all in perfection, and beautiful. I was on horseback; +guide wanted to carry my cane; I was going to give it him, when I +recollected that it was a sword-stick, and I thought the lightning might +be attracted towards him; kept it myself; a good deal encumbered with +it, as it was too heavy for a whip, and the horse was stupid, and stood +with every other peal. Got in, not very wet, the cloak being stanch. +Hobhouse wet through; Hobhouse took refuge in cottage; sent man, +umbrella, and cloak (from the curate's when I arrived) after him. Swiss +curate's house very good indeed--much better than most English +vicarages. It is immediately opposite the torrent I spoke of. The +torrent is in shape curving over the rock, like the _tail_ of a white +horse streaming in the wind, such as it might be conceived would be that +of the 'pale horse' on which Death is mounted in the Apocalypse.[112] It +is neither mist nor water, but a something between both; its immense +height (nine hundred feet) gives it a wave or curve, a spreading here or +condensation there, wonderful and indescribable. I think, upon the +whole, that this day has been better than any of this present excursion. + +[Footnote 112: It is interesting to observe the use to which he +afterwards converted these hasty memorandums in his sublime drama of +Manfred. + + "It is not noon--the sunbow's rays still arch + The torrent with the many hues of heaven, + And roll the sheeted silver's waving column + O'er the crag's headlong perpendicular, + And fling its lines of foaming light along, + _And to and fro, like the pale coursers tail, + The Giant steed, to be bestrode by Death + As told in the Apocalypse._" +] + + +"September 23. + +"Before ascending the mountain, went to the torrent (seven in the +morning) again; the sun upon it, forming a _rainbow_ of the lower part +of all colours, but principally purple and gold; the bow moving as you +move; I never saw any thing like this; it is only in the sunshine. +Ascended the Wengen mountain; at noon reached a valley on the summit; +left the horses, took off my coat, and went to the summit, seven +thousand feet (English feet) above the level of the _sea_, and about +five thousand above the valley we left in the morning. On one side, our +view comprised the Jungfrau, with all her glaciers; then the Dent +d'Argent, shining like truth; then the Little Giant (the Kleine Eigher); +and the Great Giant (the Grosse Eigher), and last, not least, the +Wetterhorn. The height of Jungfrau is 13,000 feet above the sea, 11,000 +above the valley; she is the highest of this range. Heard the avalanches +falling every five minutes nearly. From whence we stood, on the Wengen +Alp, we had all these in view on one side; on the other, the clouds rose +from the opposite valley, curling up perpendicular precipices like the +foam of the ocean of hell, during a spring tide--it was white, and +sulphury, and immeasurably deep in appearance.[113] The side we ascended +was (of course) not of so precipitous a nature; but on arriving at the +summit, we looked down upon the other side upon a boiling sea of cloud, +dashing against the crags on which we stood (these crags on one side +quite perpendicular). Stayed a quarter of an hour; begun to descend; +quite clear from cloud on that side of the mountain. In passing the +masses of snow, I made a snowball and pelted Hobhouse with it. + +"Got down to our horses again; ate something; remounted; heard the +avalanches still; came to a morass; Hobhouse dismounted to get over +well; I tried to pass my horse over; the horse sunk up to the chin, and +of course he and I were in the mud together; bemired, but not hurt; +laughed, and rode on. Arrived at the Grindelwald; dined; mounted again, +and rode to the higher glacier--like _a frozen hurricane_.[114] +Starlight, beautiful, but a devil of a path! Never mind, got safe in; a +little lightning; but the whole of the day as fine in point of weather +as the day on which Paradise was made. Passed _whole woods of withered +pines, all withered_; trunks stripped and barkless, branches lifeless; +done by a single winter[115],--their appearance reminded me of me and my +family. + +[Footnote 113: + + "Ye _avalanches_, whom a breath draws down + In mountainous o'erwhelming, come and crush me! + _I hear ye momently above, beneath, + Crash with a frequent conflict._ * * * + The mists boil up around the glaciers; _clouds + Rise curling_ fast beneath me, white and sulphury, + _Like foam from the roused ocean of deep hell!_" + MANFRED. +] + +[Footnote 114: + + "O'er the savage sea, + The glassy ocean of the mountain ice, + We skim its rugged breakers, which put on + The aspect of a tumbling _tempest_'s foam, + _Frozen in a moment._" + MANFRED. +] + +[Footnote 115: + + "Like these _blasted pines, + Wrecks of a single winter, barkless, branchless._" + IBID. +] + + +"September 24. + +"Set off at seven; up at five. Passed the black glacier, the mountain +Wetterhorn on the right; crossed the Scheideck mountain; came to the +_Rose_ glacier, said to be the largest and finest in Switzerland, _I_ +think the Bossons glacier at Chamouni as fine; Hobhouse does not. Came +to the Reichenbach waterfall, two hundred feet high; halted to rest the +horses. Arrived in the valley of Overland; rain came on; drenched a +little; only four hours' rain, however, in eight days. Came to the lake +of Brientz, then to the town of Brientz; changed. In the evening, four +Swiss peasant girls of Oberhasli came and sang the airs of their +country; two of the voices beautiful--the tunes also: so wild and +original, and at the same time of great sweetness. The singing is over; +but below stairs I hear the notes of a fiddle, which bode no good to my +night's rest; I shall go down and see the dancing. + + +"September 25. + +"The whole town of Brientz were apparently gathered together in the +rooms below; pretty music and excellent waltzing; none but peasants; the +dancing much better than in England; the English can't waltz, never +could, never will. One man with his pipe in his mouth, but danced as +well as the others; some other dances in pairs and in fours, and very +good. I went to bed, but the revelry continued below late and early. +Brientz but a village. Rose early. Embarked on the lake of Brientz, +rowed by the women in a long boat; presently we put to shore, and +another woman jumped in. It seems it is the custom here for the boats to +be _manned_ by _women_: for of five men and three women in our bark, all +the women took an oar, and but one man. + +"Got to Interlachen in three hours; pretty lake; not so large as that of +Thoun. Dined at Interlachen. Girl gave me some flowers, and made me a +speech in German, of which I know nothing; I do not know whether the +speech was pretty, but as the woman was, I hope so. Re-embarked on the +lake of Thoun; fell asleep part of the way; sent our horses round; +found people on the shore, blowing up a rock with gunpowder; they blew +it up near our boat, only telling us a minute before;--mere stupidity, +but they might have broken our noddles. Got to Thoun in the evening; the +weather has been tolerable the whole day. But as the wild part of our +tour is finished, it don't matter to us; in all the desirable part, we +have been most lucky in warmth and clearness of atmosphere. + + +"September 26. + +"Being out of the mountains, my journal must be as flat as my journey. +From Thoun to Berne, good road, hedges, villages, industry, property, +and all sorts of tokens of insipid civilisation. From Berne to Fribourg; +different canton; Catholics; passed a field of battle; Swiss beat the +French in one of the late wars against the French republic. Bought a +dog. The greater part of this tour has been on horseback, on foot, and +on mule. + + +"September 28. + +"Saw the tree planted in honour of the battle of Morat; three hundred +and forty years old; a good deal decayed. Left Fribourg, but first saw +the cathedral; high tower. Overtook the baggage of the nuns of La +Trappe, who are removing to Normandy; afterwards a coach, with a +quantity of nuns in it. Proceeded along the banks of the lake of +Neuchâtel; very pleasing and soft, but not so mountainous--at least, the +Jura, not appearing so, after the Bernese Alps. Reached Yverdun in the +dusk; a long line of large trees on the border of the lake; fine and +sombre; the auberge nearly full--a German princess and suite; got rooms. + + +"September 29. + +"Passed through a fine and flourishing country, but not mountainous. In +the evening reached Aubonne (the entrance and bridge something like that +of Durham), which commands by far the fairest view of the Lake of +Geneva; twilight; the moon on the lake; a grove on the height, and of +very noble trees. Here Tavernier (the eastern traveller) bought (or +built) the château, because the site resembled and equalled that of +_Erivan_, a frontier city of Persia; here he finished his voyages, and I +this little excursion,--for I am within a few hours of Diodati, and have +little more to see, and no more to say." + +With the following melancholy passage this Journal concludes:-- + +"In the weather for this tour (of 13 days), I have been very +fortunate--fortunate in a companion (Mr. H.)--fortunate in our +prospects, and exempt from even the little petty accidents and delays +which often render journeys in a less wild country disappointing. I was +disposed to be pleased. I am a lover of nature and an admirer of beauty. +I can bear fatigue and welcome privation, and have seen some of the +noblest views in the world. But in all this--the recollection of +bitterness, and more especially of recent and more home desolation, +which must accompany me through life, have preyed upon me here; and +neither the music of the shepherd, the crashing of the avalanche, nor +the torrent, the mountain, the glacier, the forest, nor the cloud, have +for one moment lightened the weight upon my heart, nor enabled me to +lose my own wretched identity in the majesty, and the power, and the +glory, around, above, and beneath me." + + * * * * * + +Among the inmates at Sécheron, on his arrival at Geneva, Lord Byron had +found Mr. and Mrs. Shelley, and a female relative of the latter, who had +about a fortnight before taken up their residence at this hotel. It was +the first time that Lord Byron and Mr. Shelley ever met; though, long +before, when the latter was quite a youth,--being the younger of the two +by four or five years,--he had sent to the noble poet a copy of his +Queen Mab, accompanied by a letter, in which, after detailing at full +length all the accusations he had heard brought against his character, +he added, that, should these charges not have been true, it would make +him happy to be honoured with his acquaintance. The book alone, it +appears, reached its destination,--the letter having miscarried,--and +Lord Byron was known to have expressed warm admiration of the opening +lines of the poem. + +There was, therefore, on their present meeting at Geneva, no want of +disposition towards acquaintance on either side, and an intimacy almost +immediately sprung up between them. Among the tastes common to both, +that for boating was not the least strong; and in this beautiful region +they had more than ordinary temptations to indulge in it. Every evening, +during their residence under the same roof at Sécheron, they embarked, +accompanied by the ladies and Polidori, on the Lake; and to the feelings +and fancies inspired by these excursions, which were not unfrequently +prolonged into the hours of moonlight, we are indebted for some of those +enchanting stanzas[116] in which the poet has given way to his +passionate love of Nature so fervidly. + + "There breathes a living fragrance from the shore + Of flowers yet fresh with childhood; on the ear + Drips the light drop of the suspended oar. + * * * * * + At intervals, some bird from out the brakes + Starts into voice a moment, then is still. + There seems a floating whisper on the hill, + But that is fancy,--for the starlight dews + All silently their tears of love instil, + Weeping themselves away." + +A person who was of these parties has thus described to me one of their +evenings:--"When the _bise_ or north-east wind blows, the waters of the +Lake are driven towards the town, and with the stream of the Rhone, +which sets strongly in the same direction, combine to make a very rapid +current towards the harbour. Carelessly, one evening, we had yielded to +its course, till we found ourselves almost driven on the piles; and it +required all our rowers' strength to master the tide. The waves were +high and inspiriting--we were all animated by our contest with the +elements. 'I will sing you an Albanian song,' cried Lord Byron; 'now, be +sentimental and give me all your attention.' It was a strange, wild +howl that he gave forth; but such as, he declared, was an exact +imitation of the savage Albanian mode,--laughing, the while, at our +disappointment, who had expected a wild Eastern melody." + +Sometimes the party landed, for a walk upon the shore, and, on such +occasions, Lord Byron would loiter behind the rest, lazily trailing his +sword-stick along, and moulding, as he went, his thronging thoughts into +shape. Often too, when in the boat, he would lean abstractedly over the +side, and surrender himself up, in silence, to the same absorbing task. + +The conversation of Mr. Shelley, from the extent of his poetic reading, +and the strange, mystic speculations into which his system of philosophy +led him, was of a nature strongly to arrest and interest the attention +of Lord Byron, and to turn him away from worldly associations and topics +into more abstract and untrodden ways of thought. As far as contrast, +indeed, is an enlivening ingredient of such intercourse, it would be +difficult to find two persons more formed to whet each other's faculties +by discussion, as on few points of common interest between them did +their opinions agree; and that this difference had its root deep in the +conformation of their respective minds needs but a glance through the +rich, glittering labyrinth of Mr. Shelley's pages to assure us. + +In Lord Byron, the real was never forgotten in the fanciful. However +Imagination had placed her whole realm at his disposal, he was no less a +man of this world than a ruler of hers; and, accordingly, through the +airiest and most subtile creations of his brain still the life-blood of +truth and reality circulates. With Shelley it was far otherwise;--his +fancy (and he had sufficient for a whole generation of poets) was the +medium through which he saw all things, his facts as well as his +theories; and not only the greater part of his poetry, but the political +and philosophical speculations in which he indulged, were all distilled +through the same over-refining and unrealising alembic. Having started +as a teacher and reformer of the world, at an age when he could know +nothing of the world but from fancy, the persecution he met with on the +threshold of this boyish enterprise but confirmed him in his first +paradoxical views of human ills and their remedies; and, instead of +waiting to take lessons of authority and experience, he, with a courage, +admirable had it been but wisely directed, made war upon both. From this +sort of self-willed start in the world, an impulse was at once given to +his opinions and powers directly contrary, it would seem, to their +natural bias, and from which his life was too short to allow him time to +recover. With a mind, by nature, fervidly pious, he yet refused to +acknowledge a Supreme Providence, and substituted some airy abstraction +of "Universal Love" in its place. An aristocrat by birth and, as I +understand, also in appearance and manners, he was yet a leveller in +politics, and to such an Utopian extent as to be, seriously, the +advocate of a community of property. With a delicacy and even romance of +sentiment, which lends such grace to some of his lesser poems, he could +notwithstanding contemplate a change in the relations of the sexes, +which would have led to results fully as gross as his arguments for it +were fastidious and refined; and though benevolent and generous to an +extent that seemed to exclude all idea of selfishness, he yet scrupled +not, in the pride of system, to disturb wantonly the faith of his +fellowmen, and, without substituting any equivalent good in its place, +to rob the wretched of a hope, which, even if false, would be worth all +this world's best truths. + +Upon no point were the opposite tendencies of the two friends,--to +long-established opinions and matter of fact on one side, and to all +that was most innovating and visionary on the other,--more observable +than in their notions on philosophical subjects; Lord Byron being, with +the great bulk of mankind, a believer in the existence of Matter and +Evil, while Shelley so far refined upon the theory of Berkeley as not +only to resolve the whole of Creation into spirit, but to add also to +this immaterial system some pervading principle, some abstract +non-entity of Love and Beauty, of which--as a substitute, at least, for +Deity--the philosophic bishop had never dreamed. On such subjects, and +on poetry, their conversation generally turned; and, as might be +expected, from Lord Byron's facility in receiving new impressions, the +opinions of his companion were not altogether without some influence on +his mind. Here and there, among those fine bursts of passion and +description that abound in the third Canto of Childe Harold, may be +discovered traces of that mysticism of meaning,--that sublimity, losing +itself in its own vagueness,--which so much characterised the writings +of his extraordinary friend; and in one of the notes we find Shelley's +favourite Pantheism of Love thus glanced at:--"But this is not all: the +feeling with which all around Clarens and the opposite rocks of +Meillerie is invested, is of a still higher and more comprehensive order +than the mere sympathy with individual passion; it is a sense of the +existence of love in its most extended and sublime capacity, and of our +own participation of its good and of its glory: it is the great +principle of the universe, which is there more condensed, but not less +manifested; and of which, though knowing ourselves a part, we lose our +individuality, and mingle in the beauty of the whole." + +Another proof of the ductility with which he fell into his new friend's +tastes and predilections, appears in the tinge, if not something deeper, +of the manner and cast of thinking of Mr. Wordsworth, which is traceable +through so many of his most beautiful stanzas. Being naturally, from his +love of the abstract and imaginative, an admirer of the great poet of +the Lakes, Mr. Shelley omitted no opportunity of bringing the beauties +of his favourite writer under the notice of Lord Byron; and it is not +surprising that, once persuaded into a fair perusal, the mind of the +noble poet should--in spite of some personal and political prejudices +which unluckily survived this short access of admiration--not only feel +the influence but, in some degree, even reflect the hues of one of the +very few real and original poets that this age (fertile as it is in +rhymers _quales ego et Cluvienus_) has had the glory of producing. + +When Polidori was of their party, (which, till he found attractions +elsewhere, was generally the case,) their more elevated subjects of +conversation were almost always put to flight by the strange sallies of +this eccentric young man, whose vanity made him a constant butt for Lord +Byron's sarcasm and merriment. The son of a highly respectable Italian +gentleman, who was in early life, I understand, the secretary of +Alfieri, Polidori seems to have possessed both talents and dispositions +which, had he lived, might have rendered him a useful member of his +profession and of society. At the time, however, of which we are +speaking, his ambition of distinction far outwent both his powers and +opportunities of attaining it. His mind, accordingly, between ardour and +weakness, was kept in a constant hectic of vanity, and he seems to have +alternately provoked and amused his noble employer, leaving him seldom +any escape from anger but in laughter. Among other pretensions, he had +set his heart upon shining as an author, and one evening at Mr. +Shelley's, producing a tragedy of his own writing, insisted that they +should undergo the operation of hearing it. To lighten the infliction, +Lord Byron took upon himself the task of reader; and the whole scene, +from the description I have heard of it, must have been not a little +trying to gravity. In spite of the jealous watch kept upon every +countenance by the author, it was impossible to withstand the smile +lurking in the eye of the reader, whose only resource against the +outbreak of his own laughter lay in lauding, from time to time, most +vehemently, the sublimity of the verses;--particularly some that began +"'Tis thus the goîter'd idiot of the Alps,'--and then adding, at the +close of every such eulogy, "I assure you when I was in the Drury Lane +Committee, much worse things were offered to us." + +After passing a fortnight under the same roof with Lord Byron at +Sécheron, Mr. and Mrs. Shelley removed to a small house on the +Mont-Blanc side of the Lake, within about ten minutes' walk of the villa +which their noble friend had taken, upon the high banks, called Belle +Rive, that rose immediately behind them. During the fortnight that Lord +Byron outstaid them at Sécheron, though the weather had changed and was +become windy and cloudy, he every evening crossed the Lake, with +Polidori, to visit them; and "as he returned again (says my informant) +over the darkened waters, the wind, from far across, bore us his voice +singing your Tyrolese Song of Liberty, which I then first heard, and +which is to me inextricably linked with his remembrance." + +In the mean time, Polidori had become jealous of the growing intimacy of +his noble patron with Shelley; and the plan which he now understood them +to have formed of making a tour of the Lake without him completed his +mortification. In the soreness of his feelings on this subject he +indulged in some intemperate remonstrances, which Lord Byron indignantly +resented; and the usual bounds of courtesy being passed on both sides, +the dismissal of Polidori appeared, even to himself, inevitable. With +this prospect, which he considered nothing less than ruin, before his +eyes, the poor young man was, it seems, on the point of committing that +fatal act which, two or three years afterwards, he actually did +perpetrate. Retiring to his own room, he had already drawn forth the +poison from his medicine chest, and was pausing to consider whether he +should write a letter before he took it, when Lord Byron (without, +however, the least suspicion of his intention) tapped at the door and +entered, with his hand held forth in sign of reconciliation. The sudden +revulsion was too much for poor Polidori, who burst into tears; and, in +relating all the circumstances of the occurrence afterwards, he declared +that nothing could exceed the gentle kindness of Lord Byron in soothing +his mind and restoring him to composure. + +Soon after this the noble poet removed to Diodati. He had, on his first +coming to Geneva, with the good-natured view of introducing Polidori +into company, gone to several Genevese parties; but, this task +performed, he retired altogether from society till late in the summer, +when, as we have seen, he visited Copet. His means were at this time +very limited; and though he lived by no means parsimoniously, all +unnecessary expenses were avoided in his establishment. The young +physician had been, at first, a source of much expense to him, being in +the habit of hiring a carriage, at a louis a day (Lord Byron not then +keeping horses), to take him to his evening parties; and it was some +time before his noble patron had the courage to put this luxury down. + +The liberty, indeed, which this young person allowed himself was, on +one occasion, the means of bringing an imputation upon the poet's +hospitality and good breeding, which, like every thing else, true or +false, tending to cast a shade upon his character, was for some time +circulated with the most industrious zeal. Without any authority from +the noble owner of the mansion, he took upon himself to invite some +Genevese gentlemen (M. Pictet, and, I believe, M. Bonstetten) to dine at +Diodati; and the punishment which Lord Byron thought it right to inflict +upon him for such freedom was, "as he had invited the guests, to leave +him also to entertain them." This step, though merely a consequence of +the physician's indiscretion, it was not difficult, of course, to +convert into a serious charge of caprice and rudeness against the host +himself. + +By such repeated instances of thoughtlessness (to use no harsher term), +it is not wonderful that Lord Byron should at last be driven into a +feeling of distaste towards his medical companion, of whom he one day +remarked, that "he was exactly the kind of person to whom, if he fell +overboard, one would hold out a straw, to know if the adage be true that +drowning men catch at straws." + +A few more anecdotes of this young man, while in the service of Lord +Byron, may, as throwing light upon the character of the latter, be not +inappropriately introduced. While the whole party were, one day, out +boating, Polidori, by some accident, in rowing, struck Lord Byron +violently on the knee-pan with his oar; and the latter, without +speaking, turned his face away to hide the pain. After a moment he +said, "Be so kind, Polidori, another time, to take more care, for you +hurt me very much."--"I am glad of it," answered the other; "I am glad +to see you can suffer pain." In a calm suppressed tone, Lord Byron +replied, "Let me advise you, Polidori, when you, another time, hurt any +one, not to express your satisfaction. People don't like to be told that +those who give them pain are glad of it; and they cannot always command +their anger. It was with some difficulty that I refrained from throwing +you into the water; and, but for Mrs. Shelley's presence, I should +probably have done some such rash thing." This was said without ill +temper, and the cloud soon passed away. + +Another time, when the lady just mentioned was, after a shower of rain, +walking up the hill to Diodati, Lord Byron, who saw her from his balcony +where he was standing with Polidori, said to the latter, "Now, you who +wish to be gallant ought to jump down this small height, and offer your +arm." Polidori chose the easiest part of the declivity, and leaped;--but +the ground being wet, his foot slipped, and he sprained his ankle.[117] +Lord Byron instantly helped to carry him in and procure cold water for +the foot; and, after he was laid on the sofa, perceiving that he was +uneasy, went up stairs himself (an exertion which his lameness made +painful and disagreeable) to fetch a pillow for him. "Well, I did not +believe you had so much feeling," was Polidori's gracious remark, +which, it may be supposed, not a little clouded the noble poet's brow. + +A dialogue which Lord Byron himself used to mention as having taken +place between them during their journey on the Rhine, is amusingly +characteristic of both the persons concerned. "After all," said the +physician, "what is there you can do that I cannot?"--"Why, since you +force me to say," answered the other, "I think there are three things I +can do which you cannot." Polidori defied him to name them. "I can," +said Lord Byron, "swim across that river--I can snuff out that candle +with a pistol-shot at the distance of twenty paces--and I have written a +poem[118] of which 14,000 copies were sold in one day." + +The jealous pique of the Doctor against Shelley was constantly breaking +out; and on the occasion of some victory which the latter had gained +over him in a sailing-match, he took it into his head that his +antagonist had treated him with contempt; and went so far, in +consequence, notwithstanding Shelley's known sentiments against +duelling, as to proffer him a sort of challenge, at which Shelley, as +might be expected, only laughed. Lord Byron, however, fearing that the +vivacious physician might still further take advantage of this +peculiarity of his friend, said to him, "Recollect, that though Shelley +has some scruples about duelling, _I_ have none; and shall be, at all +times, ready to take his place." + +At Diodati, his life was passed in the same regular round of habits and +occupations into which, when left to himself, he always naturally fell; +a late breakfast, then a visit to the Shelleys' cottage and an excursion +on the Lake;--at five, dinner[119] (when he usually preferred being +alone), and then, if the weather permitted, an excursion again. He and +Shelley had joined in purchasing a boat, for which they gave twenty-five +_louis_,--a small sailing vessel, fitted to stand the usual squalls of +the climate, and, at that time, the only keeled boat on the Lake. When +the weather did not allow of their excursions after dinner,--an +occurrence not unfrequent during this very wet summer,--the inmates of +the cottage passed their evenings at Diodati, and, when the rain +rendered it inconvenient for them to return home, remained there to +sleep. "We often," says one, who was not the least ornamental of the +party, "sat up in conversation till the morning light. There was never +any lack of subjects, and, grave or gay, we were always interested." + +During a week of rain at this time, having amused themselves with +reading German ghost-stories, they agreed, at last, to write something +in imitation of them. "You and I," said Lord Byron to Mrs. Shelley, +"will publish ours together." He then began his tale of the Vampire; +and, having the whole arranged in his head, repeated to them a sketch +of the story[120] one evening,--but, from the narrative being in prose, +made but little progress in filling up his outline. The most memorable +result, indeed, of their story-telling compact, was Mrs. Shelley's wild +and powerful romance of Frankenstein,--one of those original conceptions +that take hold of the public mind at once, and for ever. + +Towards the latter end of June, as we have seen in one of the preceding +letters, Lord Byron, accompanied by his friend Shelley, made a tour in +his boat round the Lake, and visited, "with the Heloise before him," all +those scenes around Meillerie and Clarens, which have become consecrated +for ever by ideal passion, and by that power which Genius alone +possesses, of giving such life to its dreams as to make them seem +realities. In the squall off Meillerie, which he mentions, their danger +was considerable[121]. In the expectation, every moment, of being +obliged to swim for his life, Lord Byron had already thrown off his +coat, and, as Shelley was no swimmer, insisted upon endeavouring, by +some means, to save him. This offer, however, Shelley positively +refused; and seating himself quietly upon a locker, and grasping the +rings at each end firmly in his hands, declared his determination to go +down in that position, without a struggle.[122] + +Subjoined to that interesting little work, the "Six Weeks' Tour," there +is a letter by Shelley himself, giving an account of this excursion +round the Lake, and written with all the enthusiasm such scenes should +inspire. In describing a beautiful child they saw at the village of +Nerni, he says, "My companion gave him a piece of money, which he took +without speaking, with a sweet smile of easy thankfulness, and then with +an unembarrassed air turned to his play." There were, indeed, few +things Lord Byron more delighted in than to watch beautiful children at +play;--"many a lovely Swiss child (says a person who saw him daily at +this time) received crowns from him as the reward of their grace and +sweetness." + +Speaking of their lodgings at Nerni, which were gloomy and dirty, Mr. +Shelley says, "On returning to our inn, we found that the servant had +arranged our rooms, and deprived them of the greater portion of their +former disconsolate appearance. They reminded my companion of +Greece:--it was five years, he said, since he had slept in such beds." + +Luckily for Shelley's full enjoyment of these scenes, he had never +before happened to read the Heloise; and though his companion had long +been familiar with that romance, the sight of the region itself, the +"birth-place of deep Love," every spot of which seemed instinct with the +passion of the story, gave to the whole a fresh and actual existence in +his mind. Both were under the spell of the Genius of the place,--both +full of emotion; and as they walked silently through the vineyards that +were once the "bosquet de Julie," Lord Byron suddenly exclaimed, "Thank +God, Polidori is not here." + +That the glowing stanzas suggested to him by this scene were written +upon the spot itself appears almost certain, from the letter addressed +to Mr. Murray on his way back to Diodati, in which he announces the +third Canto as complete, and consisting of 117 stanzas. At Ouchy, near +Lausanne,--the place from which that letter is dated--he and his friend +were detained two days, in a small inn, by the weather: and it was +there, in that short interval, that he wrote his "Prisoner of Chillon," +adding one more deathless association to the already immortalised +localities of the Lake. + +On his return from this excursion to Diodati, an occasion was afforded +for the gratification of his jesting propensities by the avowal of the +young physician that--he had fallen in love. On the evening of this +tender confession they both appeared at Shelley's cottage--Lord Byron, +in the highest and most boyish spirits, rubbing his hands as he walked +about the room, and in that utter incapacity of retention which was one +of his foibles, making jesting allusions to the secret he had just +heard. The brow of the Doctor darkened as this pleasantry went on, and, +at last, he angrily accused Lord Byron of hardness of heart. "I never," +said he, "met with a person so unfeeling." This sally, though the poet +had evidently brought it upon himself, annoyed him most deeply. "Call +_me_ cold-hearted--_me_ insensible!" he exclaimed, with manifest +emotion--"as well might you say that glass is not brittle, which has +been cast down a precipice, and lies dashed to pieces at the foot!" + +In the month of July he paid a visit to Copet, and was received by the +distinguished hostess with a cordiality the more sensibly felt by him +as, from his personal unpopularity at this time, he had hardly ventured +to count upon it.[123] In her usual frank style, she took him to task +upon his matrimonial conduct--but in a way that won upon his mind, and +disposed him to yield to her suggestions. He must endeavour, she told +him, to bring about a reconciliation with his wife, and must submit to +contend no longer with the opinion of the world. In vain did he quote +her own motto to Delphine, "Un homme peut braver, une femme doit se +succomber aux opinions du monde;"--her reply was, that all this might be +very well to say, but that, in real life, the duty and necessity of +yielding belonged also to the man. Her eloquence, in short, so far +succeeded, that he was prevailed upon to write a letter to a friend in +England, declaring himself still willing to be reconciled to Lady +Byron,--a concession not a little startling to those who had so often, +lately, heard him declare that, "having done all in his power to +persuade Lady Byron to return, and with this view put off as long as he +could signing the deed of separation, that step being once taken, they +were now divided for ever." + +Of the particulars of this brief negotiation that ensued upon Madame de +Staël's suggestion, I have no very accurate remembrance; but there can +be little doubt that its failure, after the violence he had done his own +pride in the overture, was what first infused any mixture of resentment +or bitterness into the feelings hitherto entertained by him throughout +these painful differences. He had, indeed, since his arrival in Geneva, +invariably spoken of his lady with kindness and regret, imputing the +course she had taken, in leaving him, not to herself but others, and +assigning whatever little share of blame he would allow her to bear in +the transaction to the simple and, doubtless, true cause--her not at all +understanding him. "I have no doubt," he would sometimes say, "that she +really did believe me to be mad." + +Another resolution connected with his matrimonial affairs, in which he +often, at this time, professed his fixed intention to persevere, was +that of never allowing himself to touch any part of his wife's fortune. +Such a sacrifice, there is no doubt, would have been, in his situation, +delicate and manly; but though the natural bent of his disposition led +him to _make_ the resolution, he wanted,--what few, perhaps, could have +attained,--the fortitude to _keep_ it. + +The effects of the late struggle on his mind, in stirring up all its +resources and energies, was visible in the great activity of his genius +during the whole of this period, and the rich variety, both in character +and colouring, of the works with which it teemed. Besides the third +Canto of Childe Harold and the Prisoner of Chillon, he produced also his +two poems, "Darkness" and "The Dream," the latter of which cost him many +a tear in writing,--being, indeed, the most mournful, as well as +picturesque, "story of a wandering life" that ever came from the pen and +heart of man. Those verses, too, entitled "The Incantation," which he +introduced afterwards, without any connection with the subject, into +Manfred, were also (at least, the less bitter portion of them) the +production of this period; and as they were written soon after the last +fruitless attempt at reconciliation, it is needless to say who was in +his thoughts while he penned some of the opening stanzas. + + "Though thy slumber must be deep, + Yet thy spirit shall not sleep; + There are shades which will not vanish, + There are thoughts thou canst not banish; + By a power to thee unknown, + Thou canst never be alone; + Thou art wrapt as with a shroud, + Thou art gather'd in a cloud; + And for ever shalt thou dwell + In the spirit of this spell. + + "Though thou see'st me not pass by, + Thou shalt feel me with thine eye, + As a thing that, though unseen, + Must be near thee, and hath been; + And when, in that secret dread, + Thou hast turn'd around thy head, + Thou shalt marvel I am not + As thy shadow on the spot, + And the power which thou dost feel + Shall be what thou must conceal." + +Besides the unfinished "Vampire," he began also, at this time, another +romance in prose, founded upon the story of the Marriage of Belphegor, +and intended to shadow out his own matrimonial fate. The wife of this +satanic personage he described much in the same spirit that pervades his +delineation of Donna Inez in the first Canto of Don Juan. While engaged, +however, in writing this story, he heard from England that Lady Byron +was ill, and, his heart softening at the intelligence, he threw the +manuscript into the fire. So constantly were the good and evil +principles of his nature conflicting for mastery over him.[124] + +The two following Poems, so different from each other in their +character,--the first prying with an awful scepticism into the darkness +of another world, and the second breathing all that is most natural and +tender in the affections of this,--were also written at this time, and +have never before been published. + +[Footnote 116: Childe Harold, Canto iii.] + +[Footnote 117: To this lameness of Polidori, one of the preceding +letters of Lord Byron alludes.] + +[Footnote 118: The Corsair.] + +[Footnote 119: His system of diet here was regulated by an abstinence +almost incredible. A thin slice of bread, with tea, at breakfast--a +light, vegetable dinner, with a bottle or two of Seltzer water, tinged +with vin de Grave, and in the evening, a cup of green tea, without milk +or sugar, formed the whole of his sustenance. The pangs of hunger he +appeased by privately chewing tobacco and smoking cigars.] + +[Footnote 120: From his remembrance of this sketch, Polidori afterwards +vamped up his strange novel of the Vampire, which, under the supposition +of its being Lord Byron's, was received with such enthusiasm in France. +It would, indeed, not a little deduct from our value of foreign fame, if +what some French writers have asserted be true, that the appearance of +this extravagant novel among our neighbours first attracted their +attention to the genius of Byron.] + +[Footnote 121: "The wind (says Lord Byron's fellow-voyager) gradually +increased in violence until it blew tremendously; and, as it came from +the remotest extremity of the Lake, produced waves of a frightful +height, and covered the whole surface with a chaos of foam. One of our +boatmen, who was a dreadfully stupid fellow, persisted in holding the +sail at a time when the boat was on the point of being driven under +water by the hurricane. On discovering this error, he let it entirely +go, and the boat for a moment refused to obey the helm; in addition, the +rudder was so broken as to render the management of it very difficult; +one wave fell in, and then another."] + +[Footnote 122: "I felt, in this near prospect of death (says Mr. +Shelley), a mixture of sensations, among which terror entered, though +but subordinately. My feelings would have been less painful had I been +alone; but I knew that my companion would have attempted to save me, and +I was overcome with humiliation, when I thought that his life might have +been risked to preserve mine. When we arrived at St. Gingoux, the +inhabitants, who stood on the shore, unaccustomed to see a vessel as +frail as ours, and fearing to venture at all on such a sea, exchanged +looks of wonder and congratulation with our boatmen, who, as well as +ourselves, were well pleased to set foot on shore."] + +[Footnote 123: In the account of this visit to Copet in his Memoranda, +he spoke in high terms of the daughter of his hostess, the present +Duchess de Broglie, and, in noticing how much she appeared to be +attached to her husband, remarked that "Nothing was more pleasing than +to see the developement of the domestic affections in a very young +woman." Of Madame de Staël, in that Memoir, he spoke thus:--"Madame de +Staël was a good woman at heart and the cleverest at bottom, but spoilt +by a wish to be--she knew not what. In her own house she was amiable; in +any other person's, you wished her gone, and in her own again."] + +[Footnote 124: Upon the same occasion, indeed, he wrote some verses in a +spirit not quite so generous, of which a few of the opening lines is all +I shall give:-- + + "And thou wert sad--yet I was not with thee! + And thou wert sick--and yet I was not near. + Methought that Joy and Health alone could be + Where I was _not_, and pain and sorrow here. + And is it thus?--it is as I foretold, + And shall be more so:--" &c. &c. +] + + * * * * * + +"EXTRACT FROM AN UNPUBLISHED POEM. + + "Could I remount the river of my years + To the first fountain of our smiles and tears, + I would not trace again the stream of hours + Between their outworn banks of wither'd flowers, + But bid it flow as now--until it glides + Into the number of the nameless tides. * * * + What is this Death?--a quiet of the heart? + The whole of that of which we are a part? + For Life is but a vision--what I see + Of all which lives alone is life to me, + And being so--the absent are the dead, + Who haunt us from tranquillity, and spread + A dreary shroud around us, and invest + With sad remembrances our hours of rest. + "The absent are the dead--for they are cold, + And ne'er can be what once we did behold; + And they are changed, and cheerless,--or if yet + The unforgotten do not all forget, + Since thus divided--equal must it be + If the deep barrier be of earth, or sea; + It may be both--but one day end it must + In the dark union of insensate dust. + "The under-earth inhabitants--are they + But mingled millions decomposed to clay? + The ashes of a thousand ages spread + Wherever man has trodden or shall tread? + Or do they in their silent cities dwell + Each in his incommunicative cell? + Or have they their own language? and a sense + Of breathless being?--darken'd and intense + As midnight in her solitude?--Oh Earth! + Where are the past?--and wherefore had they birth? + The dead are thy inheritors--and we + But bubbles on thy surface; and the key + Of thy profundity is in the grave, + The ebon portal of thy peopled cave, + Where I would walk in spirit, and behold + Our elements resolved to things untold, + And fathom hidden wonders, and explore + The essence of great bosoms now no more." * * + + * * * * * + +"TO AUGUSTA. + + "My sister! my sweet sister! if a name + Dearer and purer were, it should be thine. + Mountains and seas divide us, but I claim + No tears, but tenderness to answer mine: + Go where I will, to me thou art the same-- + A loved regret which I would not resign. + There yet are two things in my destiny,-- + A world to roam through, and a home with thee. + + "The first were nothing--had I still the last, + It were the haven of my happiness; + But other claims and other ties thou hast, + And mine is not the wish to make them less. + A strange doom is thy father's son's, and past + Recalling, as it lies beyond redress; + Reversed for him our grandsire's[125] fate of yore,-- + He had no rest at sea, nor I on shore. + + "If my inheritance of storms hath been + In other elements, and on the rocks + Of perils, overlook'd or unforeseen, + I have sustain'd my share of worldly shocks, + The fault was mine; nor do I seek to screen + My errors with defensive paradox; + I have been cunning in mine overthrow, + The careful pilot of my proper woe, + + "Mine were my faults, and mine be their reward. + My whole life was a contest, since the day + That gave me being, gave me that which marr'd + The gift,--a fate, or will that walk'd astray; + And I at times have found the struggle hard, + And thought of shaking off my bonds of clay: + But now I fain would for a time survive, + If but to see what next can well arrive. + + "Kingdoms and empires in my little day + I have outlived, and yet I am not old; + And when I look on this, the petty spray + Of my own years of trouble, which have roll'd + Like a wild bay of breakers, melts away: + Something--I know not what--does still uphold + A spirit of slight patience; not in vain, + Even for its own sake, do we purchase pain. + + "Perhaps the workings of defiance stir + Within me,--or perhaps a cold despair, + Brought on when ills habitually recur,-- + Perhaps a kinder clime, or purer air, + (For even to this may change of soul refer, + And with light armour we may learn to bear,) + Have taught me a strange quiet, which was not + The chief companion of a calmer lot. + + "I feel almost at times as I have felt + In happy childhood; trees, and flowers, and brooks, + Which do remember me of where I dwelt + Ere my young mind was sacrificed to books, + Come as of yore upon me, and can melt + My heart with recognition of their looks; + And even at moments I could think I see + Some living thing to love--but none like thee. + + "Here are the Alpine landscapes which create + A fund for contemplation;--to admire + Is a brief feeling of a trivial date; + But something worthier do such scenes inspire: + Here to be lonely is not desolate, + For much I view which I could most desire, + And, above all, a lake I can behold + Lovelier, not dearer, than our own of old. + + "Oh that thou wert but with me!--but I grow + The fool of my own wishes, and forget + The solitude which I have vaunted so + Has lost its praise in this but one regret; + There may be others which I less may show;-- + I am not of the plaintive mood, and yet + I feel an ebb in my philosophy, + And the tide rising in my alter'd eye. + + "I did remind thee of our own dear lake[126], + By the old hall which may be mine no more. + Leman's is fair; but think not I forsake + The sweet remembrance of a dearer shore: + Sad havoc Time must with my memory make + Ere _that_ or _thou_ can fade these eyes before; + Though, like all things which I have loved, they are + Resign'd for ever, or divided far. + + "The world is all before me; I but ask + Of nature that with which she will comply-- + It is but in her summer's sun to bask, + To mingle with the quiet of her sky, + To see her gentle face without a mask, + And never gaze on it with apathy. + She was my early friend, and now shall be + My sister--till I look again on thee. + + "I can reduce all feelings but this one; + And that I would not;--for at length I see + Such scenes as those wherein my life begun. + The earliest--even the only paths for me-- + Had I but sooner learnt the crowd to shun, + I had been better than I now can be; + The passions which have torn me would have slept; + _I_ had not suffer'd, and _thou_ hadst not wept. + + "With false ambition what had I to do? + Little with love, and least of all with fame; + And yet they came unsought, and with me grew, + And made me all which they can make--a name. + Yet this was not the end I did pursue; + Surely I once beheld a nobler aim. + But all is over--I am one the more + To baffled millions which have gone before. + + "And for the future, this world's future may + From me demand but little of my care; + I have outlived myself by many a day; + Having survived so many things that were; + My years have been no slumber, but the prey + Of ceaseless vigils; for I had the share + Of life which might have fill'd a century, + Before its fourth in time had pass'd me by. + + "And for the remnant which may be to come + I am content; and for the past I feel + Not thankless,--for within the crowded sum + Of struggles, happiness at times would steal, + And for the present, I would not benumb + My feelings farther.--Nor shall I conceal + That with all this I still can look around + And worship Nature with a thought profound. + + "For thee, my own sweet sister, in thy heart + I know myself secure, as thou in mine: + We were and are--I am, even as thou art-- + Beings who ne'er each other can resign; + It is the same, together or apart, + From life's commencement to its slow decline + We are entwined--let death come slow or fast, + The tie which bound the first endures the last!" + +[Footnote 125: "Admiral Byron was remarkable for never making a voyage +without a tempest. He was known to the sailors by the facetious name of +'Foul-weather Jack.' + + "But, though it were tempest-tost, + Still his bark could not be lost. + +He returned safely from the wreck of the Wager (in Anson's Voyage), and +subsequently circumnavigated the world, many years after, as commander +of a similar expedition."] + +[Footnote 126: The lake of Newstead Abbey.] + + * * * * * + +In the month of August, Mr. M.G. Lewis arrived to pass some time with +him; and he was soon after visited by Mr. Richard Sharpe, of whom he +makes such honourable mention in the Journal already given, and with +whom, as I have heard this gentleman say, it now gave him evident +pleasure to converse about their common friends in England. Among those +who appeared to have left the strongest impressions of interest and +admiration on his mind was (as easily will be believed by all who know +this distinguished person) Sir James Mackintosh. + +Soon after the arrival of his friends, Mr. Hobhouse and Mr. S. Davies, +he set out, as we have seen, with the former on a tour through the +Bernese Alps,--after accomplishing which journey, about the beginning of +October he took his departure, accompanied by the same gentleman, for +Italy. + +The first letter of the following series was, it will be seen, written a +few days before he left Diodati. + +LETTER 247. TO MR. MURRAY. + + "Diodati, Oct. 5. 1816. + + "Save me a copy of 'Buck's Richard III.' republished by Longman; + but do not send out more books, I have too many. + + "The 'Monody' is in too many paragraphs, which makes it + unintelligible to me; if any one else understands it in the present + form, they are wiser; however, as it cannot be rectified till my + return, and has been already published, even publish it on in the + collection--it will fill up the place of the omitted epistle. + + "Strike out 'by request of a friend,' which is sad trash, and must + have been done to make it ridiculous. + + "Be careful in the printing the stanzas beginning, + + "'Though the day of my destiny,' &c. + + which I think well of as a composition. + + "'The Antiquary' is not the best of the three, but much above all + the last twenty years, saving its elder brothers. Holcroft's + Memoirs are valuable as showing strength of endurance in the man, + which is worth more than all the talent in the world. + + "And so you have been publishing 'Margaret of Anjou' and an + Assyrian tale, and refusing W.W.'s Waterloo, and the 'Hue and Cry.' + I know not which most to admire, your rejections or acceptances. I + believe that _prose_ is, after all, the most reputable, for certes, + if one could foresee--but I won't go on--that is with this + sentence; but poetry is, I fear, incurable. God help me! if I + proceed in this scribbling, I shall have frittered away my mind + before I am thirty, but it is at times a real relief to me. For the + present--good evening." + + * * * * * + +LETTER 248. TO MR. MURRAY. + + "Martigny, October 9. 1816. + + "Thus far on my way to Italy. We have just passed the 'Fisse-Vache' + (one of the first torrents in Switzerland) in time to view the iris + which the sun flings along it before noon. + + "I have written to you twice lately. Mr. Davies, I hear, is + arrived. He brings the original MS. which you wished to see. + Recollect that the printing is to be from that which Mr. Shelley + brought; and recollect, also, that the concluding stanzas of Childe + Harold (those to my _daughter_) which I had not made up my mind + whether to publish or not when they were _first_ written (as you + will see marked on the margin of the first copy), I had (and have) + fully determined to publish with the rest of the Canto, as in the + copy which you received by Mr. Shelley, before I sent it to + England. + + "Our weather is very fine, which is more than the summer has + been.--At Milan I shall expect to hear from you. Address either to + Milan, _poste restante_, or by way of Geneva, to the care of Monsr. + Hentsch, Banquier. I write these few lines in case my other letter + should not reach you: I trust one of them will. + + "P.S. My best respects and regards to Mr. Gifford. Will you tell + him it may perhaps be as well to put a short note to that part + relating to _Clarens_, merely to say, that of course the + description does not refer to that particular spot so much as to + the command of scenery round it? I do not know that this is + necessary, and leave it to Mr. G.'s choice, as my editor,--if he + will allow me to call him so at this distance." + + * * * * * + +LETTER 249. TO MR. MURRAY. + + "Milan, October 15. 1816. + + "I hear that Mr. Davies has arrived in England,--but that of some + letters, &c., committed to his care by Mr. H., only _half_ have + been delivered. This intelligence naturally makes me feel a little + anxious for mine, and amongst them for the MS., which I wished to + have compared with the one sent by me through the hands of Mr. + Shelley. I trust that _it_ has arrived safely,--and indeed not less + so, that some little crystals, &c., from Mont Blanc, for my + daughter and my nieces, have reached their address. Pray have the + goodness to ascertain from Mr. Davies that no accident (by + custom-house or loss) has befallen them, and satisfy me on this + point at your earliest convenience. + + "If I recollect rightly, you told me that Mr. Gifford had kindly + undertaken to correct the press (at my request) during my + absence--at least I hope so. It will add to my many obligations to + that gentleman. + + "I wrote to you, on my way here, a short note, dated Martigny. Mr. + Hobhouse and myself arrived here a few days ago, by the Simplon + and Lago Maggiore route. Of course we visited the Borromean + Islands, which are fine, but too artificial. The Simplon is + magnificent in its nature and its art,--both God and man have done + wonders,--to say nothing of the devil who must certainly have had a + hand (or a hoof) in some of the rocks and ravines through and over + which the works are carried. + + "Milan is striking--the cathedral superb. The city altogether + reminds me of Seville, but a little inferior. We had heard divers + bruits, and took precautions on the road, near the frontier, + against some 'many worthy fellows (i.e. felons) that were out,' and + had ransacked some preceding travellers, a few weeks ago, near + Sesto,--or _C_esto, I forget which,--of cash and raiment, besides + putting them in bodily fear, and lodging about twenty slugs in the + retreating part of a courier belonging to Mr. Hope. But we were not + molested, and I do not think in any danger, except of making + mistakes in the way of cocking and priming whenever we saw an old + house, or an ill-looking thicket, and now and then suspecting the + 'true men,' who have very much the appearance of the thieves of + other countries. What the thieves may look like, I know not, nor + desire to know, for it seems they come upon you in bodies of thirty + ('in buckram and Kendal green') at a time, so that voyagers have no + great chance. It is something like poor dear Turkey in that + respect, but not so good, for there you can have as great a body of + rogues to match the regular banditti; but here the gens d'armes are + said to be no great things, and as for one's own people, one can't + carry them about like Robinson Crusoe with a gun on each shoulder. + + "I have been to the Ambrosian library--it is a fine + collection--full of MSS. edited and unedited. I enclose you a list + of the former recently published: these are matters for your + literati. For me, in my simple way, I have been most delighted with + a correspondence of letters, all original and amatory, between + _Lucretia Borgia_ and _Cardinal Bembo_, preserved there. I have + pored over them and a lock of her hair, the prettiest and fairest + imaginable--I never saw fairer--and shall go repeatedly to read the + epistles over and over; and if I can obtain some of the hair by + fair means, I shall try. I have already persuaded the librarian to + promise me copies of the letters, and I hope he will not disappoint + me. They are short, but very simple, sweet, and to the purpose; + there are some copies of verses in Spanish also by her; the tress + of her hair is long, and, as I said before, beautiful. The Brera + gallery of paintings has some fine pictures, but nothing of a + collection. Of painting I know nothing; but I like a Guercino--a + picture of Abraham putting away Hagar and Ishmael--which seems to + me natural and goodly. The Flemish school, such as I saw it in + Flanders, I utterly detested, despised, and abhorred; it might be + painting, but it was not nature; the Italian is pleasing, and their + _ideal_ very noble. + + "The Italians I have encountered here are very intelligent and + agreeable. In a few days I am to meet Monti. By the way, I have + just heard an anecdote of Beccaria, who published such admirable + things against the punishment of death. As soon as his book was + out, his servant (having read it, I presume) stole his watch; and + his master, while correcting the press of a second edition, did all + he could to have him hanged by way of advertisement. + + "I forgot to mention the triumphal arch begun by Napoleon, as a + gate to this city. It is unfinished, but the part completed worthy + of another age and the same country. The society here is very oddly + carried on,--at the theatre, and the theatre only,--which answers + to our opera. People meet there as at a rout, but in very small + circles. From Milan I shall go to Venice. If you write, write to + Geneva, as before--the letter will be forwarded. + + "Yours ever." + + * * * * * + +LETTER 250. TO MR. MURRAY. + + "Milan, November 1. 1816. + + "I have recently written to you rather frequently but without any + late answer. Mr. Hobhouse and myself set out for Venice in a few + days; but you had better still address to me at Mr. Hentsch's, + Banquier, Geneva; he will forward your letters. + + "I do not know whether I mentioned to you some time ago, that I had + parted with the Dr. Polidori a few weeks previous to my leaving + Diodati. I know no great harm of him; but he had an alacrity of + getting into scrapes, and was too young and heedless; and having + enough to attend to in my own concerns, and without time to become + his tutor, I thought it much better to give him his congé. He + arrived at Milan some weeks before Mr. Hobhouse and myself. About a + week ago, in consequence of a quarrel at the theatre with an + Austrian officer, in which he was exceedingly in the wrong, he has + contrived to get sent out of the territory, and is gone to + Florence. I was not present, the pit having been the scene of + altercation; but on being sent for from the Cavalier Breme's box, + where I was quietly staring at the ballet, I found the man of + medicine begirt with grenadiers, arrested by the guard, conveyed + into the guard-room, where there was much swearing in several + languages. They were going to keep him there for the night; but on + my giving my name, and answering for his apparition next morning, + he was permitted egress. Next day he had an order from the + government to be gone in twenty-four hours, and accordingly gone he + is, some days ago. We did what we could for him, but to no purpose; + and indeed he brought it upon himself, as far as I could learn, for + I was not present at the squabble itself. I believe this is the + real state of his case; and I tell it you because I believe things + sometimes reach you in England in a false or exaggerated form. We + found Milan very polite and hospitable[127], and have the same + hopes of Verona and Venice. I have filled my paper. + + "Ever yours," &c. + +[Footnote 127: With Milan, however, or its society, the noble traveller +was far from being pleased, and in his Memoranda, I recollect, he +described his stay there to be "like a ship under quarantine." Among +other persons whom he met in the society of that place was M. Beyle, the +ingenious author of "L'Histoire de la Peinture en Italie," who thus +describes the impression their first interview left upon him:-- + +"Ce fut pendant l'automne de 1816, que je le rencontrai au théâtre de la +_Scala_, à Milan, dans la loge de M. Louis de Brême. Je fus frappé des +yeux de Lord Byron au moment où il écoutait un sestetto d'un opéra de +Mayer intitulé Elena. Je n'ai vu de ma vie, rien de plus beau ni de plus +expressif. Encore aujourd'hui, si je viens à penser à l'expression qu'un +grand peintre devrait donner an génie, cette tête sublime reparaît +tout-à-coup devant moi. J'eus un instant d'enthousiasme, et oubliant la +juste répugnance que tout homme un peu fier doit avoir à se faire +présenter à un pair d'Angleterre, je priai M. de Brême de m'introduire à +Lord Byron, je me trouvai le lendemain à dîner chez M. de Brême, avec +lui, et le celèbre Monti, l'immortel auteur de la _Basvigliana_. On +parla poésie, on en vint à demander quels étaient les douze plus beaux +vers faits depuis un siècle, en Français, en Italien, en Anglais. Les +Italiens présens s'accordèrent à designer les douze premiers vers de la +_Mascheroniana_ de Monti, comme ce que l'on avait fait de plus beau dans +leur langue, depuis cent ans. _Monti_ voulut bien nous les réciter. Je +regardai Lord Byron, il fut ravi. La nuance de hauteur, ou plutôt l'air +d'un homme _qui se trouve avoir à repousser une importunité_, qui +déparait un peu sa belle figure, disparut tout-à-coup pour faire à +l'expression du bonheur. Le premier chant de la _Mascheroniana_, que +Monti récita presque en entier, vaincu par les acclamations des +auditeurs, causa la plus vive sensation à l'auteur de Childe Harold. Je +n'oublierai jamais l'expression divine de ses traits; c'était l'air +serein de la puissance et du génie, et suivant moi, Lord Byron n'avait, +en ce moment, aucune affectation à se reprocher."] + + * * * * * + +LETTER 251. TO MR. MOORE. + + "Verona, November 6. 1816. + + "My dear Moore, + + "Your letter, written before my departure from England, and + addressed to me in London, only reached me recently. Since that + period, I have been over a portion of that part of Europe which I + had not already seen. About a month since, I crossed the Alps from + Switzerland to Milan, which I left a few days ago, and am thus far + on my way to Venice, where I shall probably winter. Yesterday I was + on the shores of the Benacus, with his _fluctibus et fremitu_. + Catullus's Sirmium has still its name and site, and is remembered + for his sake: but the very heavy autumnal rains and mists prevented + our quitting our route, (that is, Hobhouse and myself, who are at + present voyaging together,) as it was better not to see it at all + than to a great disadvantage. + + "I found on the Benacus the same tradition of a city, still visible + in calm weather below the waters, which you have preserved of Lough + Neagh, 'When the clear, cold eve's declining.' I do not know that + it is authorised by records; but they tell you such a story, and + say that the city was swallowed up by an earthquake. We moved + to-day over the frontier to Verona, by a road suspected of + thieves,--'the wise _convey_ it call,'--but without molestation. I + shall remain here a day or two to gape at the usual + marvels,--amphitheatre, paintings, and all that time-tax of + travel,--though Catullus, Claudian, and Shakspeare have done more + for Verona than it ever did for itself. They still pretend to + show, I believe, the 'tomb of all the Capulets'--we shall see. + + "Among many things at Milan, one pleased me particularly, viz. the + correspondence (in the prettiest love-letters in the world) of + Lucretia Borgia with Cardinal Bembo, (who, _you say_, made a very + good cardinal,) and a lock of her hair, and some Spanish verses of + hers,--the lock very fair and beautiful. I took one single hair of + it as a relic, and wished sorely to get a copy of one or two of the + letters; but it is prohibited: _that_ I don't mind; but it was + impracticable; and so I only got some of them by heart. They are + kept in the Ambrosian Library, which I often visited to look them + over--to the scandal of the librarian, who wanted to enlighten me + with sundry valuable MSS., classical, philosophical, and pious. But + I stick to the Pope's daughter, and wish myself a cardinal. + + "I have seen the finest parts of Switzerland, the Rhine, the Rhone, + and the Swiss and Italian lakes; for the beauties of which, I refer + you to the Guidebook. The north of Italy is tolerably free from the + English; but the south swarms with them, I am told. Madame de Staël + I saw frequently at Copet, which she renders remarkably pleasant. + She has been particularly kind to me. I was for some months her + neighbour, in a country house called Diodati, which I had on the + Lake of Geneva. My plans are very uncertain; but it is probable + that you will see me in England in the spring. I have some business + there. If you write to me, will you address to the care of Mons. + Hentsch, Banquier, Geneva, who receives and forwards my letters. + Remember me to Rogers, who wrote to me lately, with a short account + of your poem, which, I trust, is near the light. He speaks of it + most highly. + + "My health is very endurable, except that I am subject to casual + giddiness and faintness, which is so like a fine lady, that I am + rather ashamed of the disorder. When I sailed, I had a physician + with me, whom, after some months of patience, I found it expedient + to part with, before I left Geneva some time. On arriving at Milan, + I found this gentleman in very good society, where he prospered for + some weeks: but, at length, at the theatre he quarrelled with an + Austrian officer, and was sent out by the government in twenty-four + hours. I was not present at his squabble; but, on hearing that he + was put under arrest, I went and got him out of his confinement, + but could not prevent his being sent off, which, indeed, he partly + deserved, being quite in the wrong, and having begun a row for + row's sake. I had preceded the Austrian government some weeks + myself, in giving him his congé from Geneva. He is not a bad + fellow, but very young and hot-headed, and more likely to incur + diseases than to cure them. Hobhouse and myself found it useless to + intercede for him. This happened some time before we left Milan. He + is gone to Florence. + + "At Milan I saw, and was visited by, Monti, the most celebrated of + the living Italian poets. He seems near sixty; in face he is like + the late Cooke the actor. His frequent changes in politics have + made him very unpopular as a man. I saw many more of their + literati; but none whose names are well known in England, except + Acerbi. I lived much with the Italians, particularly with the + Marquis of Breme's family, who are very able and intelligent men, + especially the Abate. There was a famous improvvisatore who held + forth while I was there. His fluency astonished me; but, although I + understand Italian, and speak it (with more readiness than + accuracy), I could only carry off a few very common-place + mythological images, and one line about Artemisia, and another + about Algiers, with sixty words of an entire tragedy about Etocles + and Polynices. Some of the Italians liked him--others called his + performance 'seccatura' (a devilish good word, by the way)--and all + Milan was in controversy about him. + + "The state of morals in these parts is in some sort lax. A mother + and son were pointed out at the theatre, as being pronounced by the + Milanese world to be of the Theban dynasty--but this was all. The + narrator (one of the first men in Milan) seemed to be not + sufficiently scandalised by the taste or the tie. All society in + Milan is carried on at the opera: they have private boxes, where + they play at cards, or talk, or any thing else; but (except at the + Cassino) there are no open houses, or balls, &c. &c. + + "The peasant girls have all very fine dark eyes, and many of them + are beautiful. There are also two dead bodies in fine + preservation--one Saint Carlo Boromeo, at Milan; the other not a + saint, but a chief, named Visconti, at Monza--both of which + appeared very agreeable. In one of the Boromean isles (the Isola + bella), there is a large laurel--the largest known--on which + Buonaparte, staying there just before the battle of Marengo, carved + with his knife the word 'Battaglia.' I saw the letters, now half + worn out and partly erased. + + "Excuse this tedious letter. To be tiresome is the privilege of old + age and absence: I avail myself of the latter, and the former I + have anticipated. If I do not speak to you of my own affairs, it is + not from want of confidence, but to spare you and myself. My day is + over--what then?--I have had it. To be sure, I have shortened it; + and if I had done as much by this letter, it would have been as + well. But you will forgive that, if not the other faults of + + "Yours ever and most affectionately, + + "B. + + "P.S. November 7. 1816. + + "I have been over Verona. The amphitheatre is wonderful--beats even + Greece. Of the truth of Juliet's story they seem tenacious to a + degree, insisting on the fact--giving a date (1303), and showing a + tomb. It is a plain, open, and partly decayed sarcophagus, with + withered leaves in it, in a wild and desolate conventual garden, + once a cemetery, now ruined to the very graves. The situation + struck me as very appropriate to the legend, being blighted as + their love. I have brought away a few pieces of the granite, to + give to my daughter and my nieces. Of the other marvels of this + city, paintings, antiquities, &c., excepting the tombs of the + Scaliger princes, I have no pretensions to judge. The gothic + monuments of the Scaligers pleased me, but 'a poor virtuoso am I,' + and ever yours." + + * * * * * + +It must have been observed, in my account of Lord Byron's life previous +to his marriage, that, without leaving altogether unnoticed (what, +indeed, was too notorious to be so evaded) certain affairs of gallantry +in which he had the reputation of being engaged, I have thought it +right, besides refraining from such details in my narrative, to suppress +also whatever passages in his Journals and Letters might be supposed to +bear too personally or particularly on the same delicate topics. +Incomplete as the strange history of his mind and heart must, in one of +its most interesting chapters, be left by these omissions, still a +deference to that peculiar sense of decorum in this country, which marks +the mention of such frailties as hardly a less crime than the commission +of them, and, still more, the regard due to the feelings of the living, +who ought not rashly to be made to suffer for the errors of the dead, +have combined to render this sacrifice, however much it may be +regretted, necessary. + +We have now, however, shifted the scene to a region where less caution +is requisite;--where, from the different standard applied to female +morals in these respects, if the wrong itself be not lessened by this +diminution of the consciousness of it, less scruple may be, at least, +felt towards persons so circumstanced, and whatever delicacy we may +think right to exercise in speaking of their frailties must be with +reference rather to our views and usages than theirs. + +Availing myself, with this latter qualification, of the greater latitude +thus allowed me, I shall venture so far to depart from the plan hitherto +pursued, as to give, with but little suppression, the noble poet's +letters relative to his Italian adventures. To throw a veil altogether +over these irregularities of his private life would be to afford--were +it even practicable--but a partial portraiture of his character; while, +on the other hand, to rob him of the advantage of being himself the +historian of his errors (where no injury to others can flow from the +disclosure) would be to deprive him of whatever softening light can be +thrown round such transgressions by the vivacity and fancy, the +passionate love of beauty, and the strong yearning after affection which +will be found to have, more or less, mingled with even the least refined +of his attachments. Neither is any great danger to be apprehended from +the sanction or seduction of such an example; as they who would dare to +plead the authority of Lord Byron for their errors must first be able to +trace them to the same palliating sources,--to that sensibility, whose +very excesses showed its strength and depth,--that stretch of +imagination, to the very verge, perhaps, of what reason can bear without +giving way,--that whole combination, in short, of grand but disturbing +powers, which alone could be allowed to extenuate such moral +derangement, but which, even in him thus dangerously gifted, were +insufficient to excuse it. + +Having premised these few observations, I shall now proceed, with less +interruption, to lay his correspondence, during this and the two +succeeding years, before the reader:-- + +LETTER 252. TO MR. MOORE. + + "Venice, November 17. 1816. + + "I wrote to you from Verona the other day in my progress hither, + which letter I hope you will receive. Some three years ago, or it + may be more, I recollect your telling me that you had received a + letter from our friend Sam, dated 'On board his gondola.' _My_ + gondola is, at this present, waiting for me on the canal; but I + prefer writing to you in the house, it being autumn--and rather an + English autumn than otherwise. It is my intention to remain at + Venice during the winter, probably, as it has always been (next to + the East) the greenest island of my imagination. It has not + disappointed me; though its evident decay would, perhaps, have that + effect upon others. But I have been familiar with ruins too long to + dislike desolation. Besides, I have fallen in love, which, next to + falling into the canal, (which would be of no use, as I can swim,) + is the best or the worst thing I could do. I have got some + extremely good apartments in the house of a 'Merchant of Venice,' + who is a good deal occupied with business, and has a wife in her + twenty-second year. Marianna (that is her name) is in her + appearance altogether like an antelope. She has the large, black, + oriental eyes, with that peculiar expression in them which is seen + rarely among _Europeans_--even the Italians--and which many of the + Turkish women give themselves by tinging the eyelid,--an art not + known out of that country, I believe. This expression she has + _naturally_,--and something more than this. In short, I cannot + describe the effect of this kind of eye,--at least upon me. Her + features are regular, and rather aquiline--mouth small--skin clear + and soft, with a kind of hectic colour--forehead remarkably good: + her hair is of the dark gloss, curl, and colour of Lady J * *'s: + her figure is light and pretty, and she is a famous + songstress--scientifically so; her natural voice (in conversation, + I mean) is very sweet; and the naïveté of the Venetian dialect is + always pleasing in the mouth of a woman. + + "November 23. + + "You will perceive that my description, which was proceeding with + the minuteness of a passport, has been interrupted for several + days. + + "December 5. + + "Since my former dates, I do not know that I have much to add on + the subject, and, luckily, nothing to take away; for I am more + pleased than ever with my Venetian, and begin to feel very serious + on that point--so much so, that I shall be silent. + + "By way of divertisement, I am studying daily, at an Armenian + monastery, the Armenian language. I found that my mind wanted + something craggy to break upon; and this--as the most difficult + thing I could discover here for an amusement--I have chosen, to + torture me into attention. It is a rich language, however, and + would amply repay any one the trouble of learning it. I try, and + shall go on;--but I answer for nothing, least of all for my + intentions or my success. There are some very curious MSS. in the + monastery, as well as books; translations also from Greek + originals, now lost, and from Persian and Syriac, &c.; besides + works of their own people. Four years ago the French instituted an + Armenian professorship. Twenty pupils presented themselves on + Monday morning, full of noble ardour, ingenuous youth, and + impregnable industry. They persevered, with a courage worthy of the + nation and of universal conquest, till Thursday; when _fifteen_ of + the _twenty_ succumbed to the six-and-twentieth letter of the + alphabet. It is, to be sure, a Waterloo of an Alphabet--that must + be said for them. But it is so like these fellows, to do by it as + they did by their sovereigns--abandon both; to parody the old + rhymes, 'Take a thing and give a thing'--'Take a king and give a + king.' They are the worst of animals, except their conquerors. + + "I hear that H----n is your neighbour, having a living in + Derbyshire. You will find him an excellent-hearted fellow, as well + as one of the cleverest; a little, perhaps, too much japanned by + preferment in the church and the tuition of youth, as well as + inoculated with the disease of domestic felicity, besides being + over-run with fine feelings about woman and _constancy_ (that small + change of Love, which people exact so rigidly, receive in such + counterfeit coin, and repay in baser metal); but, otherwise, a very + worthy man, who has lately got a pretty wife, and (I suppose) a + child by this time. Pray remember me to him, and say that I know + not which to envy most his neighbourhood--him, or you. + + "Of Venice I shall say little. You must have seen many + descriptions; and they are most of them like. It is a poetical + place; and classical, to us, from Shakspeare and Otway. I have not + yet sinned against it in verse, nor do I know that I shall do so, + having been tuneless since I crossed the Alps, and feeling, as yet, + no renewal of the 'estro.' By the way, I suppose you have seen + 'Glenarvon.' Madame de Staël lent it me to read from Copet last + autumn. It seems to me that if the authoress had written the + _truth_, and nothing but the truth--the whole truth--the _romance_ + would not only have been more romantic, but more entertaining. As + for the likeness, the picture can't be good--I did not sit long + enough. When you have leisure, let me hear from and of you, + believing me ever and truly yours most affectionately, B. + + "P.S. Oh! _your poem_--is it out? I hope Longman has paid his + thousands: but don't you do as H * * T * *'s father did, who, + having made money by a quarto tour, became a vinegar merchant; + when, lo! his vinegar turned sweet (and be d----d to it) and ruined + him. My last letter to you (from Verona) was enclosed to + Murray--have you got it? Direct to me _here, poste restante_. There + are no English here at present. There were several in + Switzerland--some women; but, except Lady Dalrymple Hamilton, most + of them as ugly as virtue--at least, those that I saw." + + * * * * * + +LETTER 253. TO MR. MOORE. + + "Venice, December 24. 1816. + + "I have taken a fit of writing to you, which portends postage--once + from Verona--once from Venice, and again from Venice--_thrice_ that + is. For this you may thank yourself, for I heard that you + complained of my silence--so, here goes for garrulity. + + "I trust that you received my other twain of letters. My 'way of + life' (or 'May of life,' which is it, according to the + commentators?)--my 'way of life' is fallen into great regularity. + In the mornings I go over in my gondola to babble Armenian with the + friars of the convent of St. Lazarus, and to help one of them in + correcting the English of an English and Armenian grammar which he + is publishing. In the evenings I do one of many nothings--either at + the theatres, or some of the conversaziones, which are like our + routs, or rather worse, for the women sit in a semicircle by the + lady of the mansion, and the men stand about the room. To be sure, + there is one improvement upon ours--instead of lemonade with their + ices, they hand about stiff _rum-punch--punch_, by my palate; and + this they think _English_. I would not disabuse them of so + agreeable an error,--'no, not for Venice.' + + "Last night I was at the Count Governor's, which, of course, + comprises the best society, and is very much like other gregarious + meetings in every country,--as in ours,--except that, instead of + the Bishop of Winchester, you have the Patriarch of Venice, and a + motley crew of Austrians, Germans, noble Venetians, foreigners, + and, if you see a quiz, you may be sure he is a Consul. Oh, by the + way, I forgot, when I wrote from Verona, to tell you that at Milan + I met with a countryman of yours--a Colonel * * * *, a very + excellent, good-natured fellow, who knows and shows all about + Milan, and is, as it were, a native there. He is particularly civil + to strangers, and this is his history,--at least, an episode of it. + + "Six-and-twenty years ago, Col. * * * *, then an ensign, being in + Italy, fell in love with the Marchesa * * * *, and she with him. + The lady must be, at least, twenty years his senior. The war broke + out; he returned to England, to serve--not his country, for that's + Ireland--but England, which is a different thing; and _she_--heaven + knows what she did. In the year 1814, the first annunciation of the + Definitive Treaty of Peace (and tyranny) was developed to the + astonished Milanese by the arrival of Col. * * * *, who, flinging + himself full length at the feet of Mad. * * * *, murmured forth, in + half-forgotten Irish Italian, eternal vows of indelible constancy. + The lady screamed, and exclaimed, 'Who are you?' The Colonel cried, + 'What! don't you know me? I am so and so,' &c. &c. &c.; till, at + length, the Marchesa, mounting from reminiscence to reminiscence, + through the lovers of the intermediate twenty-five years, arrived + at last at the recollection of her _povero_ sub-lieutenant. She + then said, 'Was there ever such virtue?' (that was her very word) + and, being now a widow, gave him apartments in her palace, + reinstated him in all the rights of wrong, and held him up to the + admiring world as a miracle of incontinent fidelity, and the + unshaken Abdiel of absence. + + "Methinks this is as pretty a moral tale as any of Marmontel's. + Here is another. The same lady, several years ago, made an escapade + with a Swede, Count Fersen (the same whom the Stockholm mob + quartered and lapidated not very long since), and they arrived at + an Osteria on the road to Rome or thereabouts. It was a summer + evening, and, while they were at supper, they were suddenly regaled + by a symphony of fiddles in an adjacent apartment, so prettily + played, that, wishing to hear them more distinctly, the Count rose, + and going into the musical society, said, 'Gentlemen, I am sure + that, as a company of gallant cavaliers, you will be delighted to + show your skill to a lady, who feels anxious,' &c. &c. The men of + harmony were all acquiescence--every instrument was tuned and + toned, and, striking up one of their most ambrosial airs, the whole + band followed the Count to the lady's apartment. At their head was + the first fiddler, who, bowing and fiddling at the same moment, + headed his troop and advanced up the room. Death and discord!--it + was the Marquis himself, who was on a serenading party in the + country, while his spouse had run away from town. The rest may be + imagined--but, first of all, the lady tried to persuade him that + she was there on purpose to meet him, and had chosen this method + for an harmonic surprise. So much for this gossip, which amused me + when I heard it, and I send it to you, in the hope it may have the + like effect. Now we'll return to Venice. + + "The day after to-morrow (to-morrow being Christmas-day) the + Carnival begins. I dine with the Countess Albrizzi and a party, and + go to the opera. On that day the Phenix, (not the Insurance Office, + but) the theatre of that name, opens: I have got me a box there for + the season, for two reasons, one of which is, that the music is + remarkably good. The Contessa Albrizzi, of whom I have made + mention, is the De Staël of Venice, not young, but a very learned, + unaffected, good-natured woman, very polite to strangers, and, I + believe, not at all dissolute, as most of the women are. She has + written very well on the works of Canova, and also a volume of + Characters, besides other printed matter. She is of Corfu, but + married a dead Venetian--that is, dead since he married. + + "My flame (my 'Donna' whom I spoke of in my former epistle, my + Marianna) is still my Marianna, and I, her--what she pleases. She + is by far the prettiest woman I have seen here, and the most + loveable I have met with any where--as well as one of the most + singular. I believe I told you the rise and progress of our + _liaison_ in my former letter. Lest that should not have reached + you, I will merely repeat, that she is a Venetian, two-and-twenty + years old, married to a merchant well to do in the world, and that + she has great black oriental eyes, and all the qualities which her + eyes promise. Whether being in love with her has steeled me or not, + I do not know; but I have not seen many other women who seem + pretty. The nobility, in particular, are a sad-looking race--the + gentry rather better. And now, what art _thou_ doing? + + "What are you doing now, + Oh Thomas Moore? + What are you doing now, + Oh Thomas Moore? + Sighing or suing now, + Rhyming or wooing now, + Billing or cooing now, + Which, Thomas Moore? + + Are you not near the Luddites? By the Lord! if there's a row, but + I'll be among ye! How go on the weavers--the breakers of + frames--the Lutherans of politics--the reformers? + + "As the Liberty lads o'er the sea + Bought their freedom, and cheaply, with blood, + So we, boys, we + Will _die_ fighting, or _live_ free, + And down with all kings but King Ludd! + + "When the web that we weave is complete, + And the shuttle exchanged for the sword, + We will fling the winding-sheet + O'er the despot at our feet, + And dye it deep in the gore he has pour'd. + + "Though black as his heart its hue, + Since his veins are corrupted to mud, + Yet this is the dew + Which the tree shall renew + Of Liberty, planted by Ludd! + + "There's an amiable _chanson_ for you--all impromptu. I have + written it principally to shock your neighbour * * * *, who is all + clergy and loyalty--mirth and innocence--milk and water. + + "But the Carnival's coming, + Oh Thomas Moore, + The Carnival's coming, + Oh Thomas Moore, + Masking and humming, + Fifing and drumming, + Guitarring and strumming, + Oh Thomas Moore. + + The other night I saw a new play,--and the author. The subject was + the sacrifice of Isaac. The play succeeded, and they called for the + author--according to continental custom--and he presented himself, + a noble Venetian, Mali, or Malapiero, by name. Mala was his name, + and _pessima_ his production,--at least, I thought so, and I ought + to know, having read more or less of five hundred Drury Lane + offerings, during my coadjutorship with the sub-and-super + Committee. + + "When does your poem of poems come out? I hear that the E.R. has + cut up Coleridge's Christabel, and declared against me for praising + it. I praised it, firstly, because I thought well of it; secondly, + because Coleridge was in great distress, and, after doing what + little I could for him in essentials, I thought that the public + avowal of my good opinion might help him further, at least with the + booksellers. I am very sorry that J * * has attacked him, because, + poor fellow, it will hurt him in mind and pocket. As for me, he's + welcome--I shall never think less of J * * for any thing he may say + against me or mine in future. + + "I suppose Murray has sent you, or will send (for I do not know + whether they are out or no) the poem, or poesies, of mine, of last + summer. By the mass! they are sublime--'Ganion Coheriza'--gainsay + who dares! Pray, let me hear from you, and of you, and, at least, + let me know that you have received these three letters. Direct, + right _here, poste restante_. + + "Ever and ever, &c. + + "P.S. I heard the other day of a pretty trick of a bookseller, who + has published some d----d nonsense, swearing the bastards to me, + and saying he gave me five hundred guineas for them. He lies--never + wrote such stuff, never saw the poems, nor the publisher of them, + in my life, nor had any communication, directly or indirectly, with + the fellow. Pray say as much for me, if need be. I have written to + Murray, to make him contradict the impostor." + + * * * * * + +LETTER 254. TO MR. MURRAY. + + "Venice, November 25. 1816. + + "It is some months since I have heard from or of you--I think, not + since I left Diodati. From Milan I wrote once or twice; but have + been here some little time, and intend to pass the winter without + removing. I was much pleased with the Lago di Garda, and with + Verona, particularly the amphitheatre, and a sarcophagus in a + convent garden, which they show as Juliet's: they insist on the + _truth_ of her history. Since my arrival at Venice, the lady of the + Austrian governor told me that between Verona and Vicenza there are + still ruins of the castle of the _Montecchi_, and a chapel once + appertaining to the Capulets. Romeo seems to have been of Vicenza + by the tradition; but I was a good deal surprised to find so firm a + faith in Bandello's novel, which seems really to have been founded + on a fact. + + "Venice pleases me as much as I expected, and I expected much. It + is one of those places which I know before I see them, and has + always haunted me the most after the East. I like the gloomy gaiety + of their gondolas, and the silence of their canals. I do not even + dislike the evident decay of the city, though I regret the + singularity of its vanished costume; however, there is much left + still; the Carnival, too, is coming. + + "St. Mark's, and indeed Venice, is most alive at night. The + theatres are not open till _nine_, and the society is + proportionably late. All this is to my taste, but most of your + countrymen miss and regret the rattle of hackney coaches, without + which they can't sleep. + + "I have got remarkably good apartments in a private house; I see + something of the inhabitants (having had a good many letters to + some of them); I have got my gondola; I read a little, and luckily + could speak Italian (more fluently than correctly) long ago, I am + studying, out of curiosity, the _Venetian_ dialect, which is very + naïve, and soft, and peculiar, though not at all classical; I go + out frequently, and am in very good contentment. + + "The Helen of Canova (a bust which is in the house of Madame the + Countess d'Albrizzi, whom I know) is, without exception, to my + mind, the most perfectly beautiful of human conceptions, and far + beyond my ideas of human execution. + + "In this beloved marble view, + Above the works and thoughts of man, + What Nature _could_, but _would not_, do, + And Beauty and Canova _can_! + Beyond imagination's power, + Beyond the bard's defeated art, + With immortality her dower, + Behold the _Helen_ of the _heart_! + + "Talking of the 'heart' reminds me that I have fallen in + love--fathomless love; but lest you should make some splendid + mistake, and envy me the possession of some of those princesses or + countesses with whose affections your English voyagers are apt to + invest themselves, I beg leave to tell you that my goddess is only + the wife of a 'Merchant of Venice;' but then she is pretty as an + antelope, is but two-and-twenty years old, has the large, black, + oriental eyes, with the Italian countenance, and dark glossy hair, + of the curl and colour of Lady J * *'s. Then she has the voice of a + lute, and the song of a seraph (though not quite so sacred), + besides a long postscript of graces, virtues, and accomplishments, + enough to furnish out a new chapter for Solomon's Song. But her + great merit is finding out mine--there is nothing so amiable as + discernment. + + "The general race of women appear to be handsome; but in Italy, as + on almost all the Continent, the highest orders are by no means a + well-looking generation, and indeed reckoned by their countrymen + very much otherwise. Some are exceptions, but most of them as ugly + as Virtue herself. + + "If you write, address to me here, _poste restante_, as I shall + probably stay the winter over. I never see a newspaper, and know + nothing of England, except in a letter now and then from my sister. + Of the MS. sent you, I know nothing, except that you have received + it, and are to publish it, &c. &c.: but when, where, and how, you + leave me to guess; but it don't much matter. + + "I suppose you have a world of works passing through your process + for next year? When does Moore's poem appear? I sent a letter for + him, addressed to your care, the other day." + + * * * * * + +LETTER 255. TO MR. MURRAY. + + "Venice, December 4, 1816. + + "I have written to you so frequently of late, that you will think + me a bore; as I think you a very impolite person, for not answering + my letters from Switzerland, Milan, Verona, and Venice. There are + some things I wanted, and want, to know, viz. whether Mr. Davies, + of inaccurate memory, had or had not delivered the MS. as delivered + to him; because, if he has not, you will find that he will + bountifully bestow transcriptions on all the curious of his + acquaintance, in which case you may probably find your publication + anticipated by the 'Cambridge' or other Chronicles. In the next + place,--I forget what was next; but in the third place, I want to + hear whether you have yet published, or when you mean to do so, or + why you have not done so, because in your last (Sept. 20th,--you + may be ashamed of the date), you talked of this being done + immediately. + + "From England I hear nothing, and know nothing of any thing or any + body. I have but one correspondent (except Mr. Kinnaird on business + now and then), and her a female; so that I know no more of your + island, or city, than the Italian version of the French papers + chooses to tell me, or the advertisements of Mr. Colburn tagged to + the end of your Quarterly Review for the year _ago_. I wrote to you + at some length last week, and have little to add, except that I + have begun, and am proceeding in, a study of the Armenian language, + which I acquire, as well as I can, at the Armenian convent, where I + go every day to take lessons of a learned friar, and have gained + some singular and not useless information with regard to the + literature and customs of that oriental people. They have an + establishment here--a church and convent of ninety monks, very + learned and accomplished men, some of them. They have also a press, + and make great efforts for the enlightening of their nation. I find + the language (which is _twin_, the _literal_ and the _vulgar_) + difficult, but not invincible (at least I hope not). I shall go on. + I found it necessary to twist my mind round some severer study, + and this, as being the hardest I could devise here, will be a file + for the serpent. + + "I mean to remain here till the spring, so address to me _directly_ + to _Venice, poste restante_.--Mr. Hobhouse, for the present, is + gone to Rome, with his brother, brother's wife, and sister, who + overtook him here: he returns in two months. I should have gone + too, but I fell in love, and must stay that over. I should think + _that_ and the Armenian alphabet will last the winter. The lady + has, luckily for me, been less obdurate than the language, or, + between the two, I should have lost my remains of sanity. By the + way, she is not an Armenian but a Venetian, as I believe I told you + in my last. As for Italian, I am fluent enough, even in its + Venetian modification, which is something like the Somersetshire + version of English; and as for the more classical dialects, I had + not forgot my former practice much during my voyaging. + + "Yours, ever and truly, + + "B. + + "P.S. Remember me to Mr. Gifford." + + * * * * * + +LETTER 256. TO MR. MURRAY. + + "Venice, Dec. 9. 1816. + + "In a letter from England, I am informed that a man named Johnson + has taken upon himself to publish some poems called a 'Pilgrimage + to Jerusalem, a Tempest, and an Address to my Daughter,' &c., and + to attribute them to me, adding that he had paid five hundred + guineas for them. The answer to this is short: _I never wrote such + poems, never received the sum he mentions, nor any other in the + same quarter, nor_ (as far as moral or mortal certainty can be + sure) _ever had, directly or indirectly, the slightest + communication with Johnson in my life_; not being aware that the + person existed till this intelligence gave me to understand that + there were such people. Nothing surprises me, or this perhaps + _would_, and most things amuse me, or this probably would _not_. + With regard to myself, the man has merely _lied_; that's natural; + his betters have set him the example. But with regard to you, his + assertion may perhaps injure you in your publications; and I desire + that it may receive the most public and unqualified contradiction. + I do not know that there is any punishment for a thing of this + kind, and if there were, I should not feel disposed to pursue this + ingenious mountebank farther than was necessary for his + confutation; but thus far it may be necessary to proceed. + + "You will make what use you please of this letter; and Mr. + Kinnaird, who has power to act for me in my absence, will, I am + sure, readily join you in any steps which it may be proper to take + with regard to the absurd falsehood of this poor creature. As you + will have recently received several letters from me on my way to + Venice, as well as two written since my arrival, I will not at + present trouble you further. + + "Ever, &c. + + "P.S. Pray let me hear that you have received this letter. Address + to Venice, _poste restante_. + + "To prevent the recurrence of similar fabrications, you may state, + that I consider myself responsible for no publication from the year + 1812 up to the present date which is not from your press. I speak + of course from that period, because, previously, Cawthorn and Ridge + had both printed compositions of mine. 'A Pilgrimage to Jerusalem!' + How the devil should I write about _Jerusalem_, never having yet + been there? As for 'A Tempest,' it was _not_ a _tempest_ when I + left England, but a very fresh breeze: and as to an 'Address to + little Ada,' (who, by the way, is a year old to-morrow,) I never + wrote a line about her, except in 'Farewell' and the third Canto of + Childe Harold." + + * * * * * + +LETTER 257. TO MR. MURRAY. + + "Venice, Dec. 27. 1816. + + "As the demon of silence seems to have possessed you, I am + determined to have my revenge in postage; this is my sixth or + seventh letter since summer and Switzerland. My last was an + injunction to contradict and consign to confusion that Cheapside + impostor, who (I heard by a letter from your island) had thought + proper to append my name to his spurious poesy, of which I know + nothing, nor of his pretended purchase or copyright. I hope you + have, at least, received _that_ letter. + + "As the news of Venice must be very interesting to you, I will + regale you with it. + + "Yesterday being the feast of St. Stephen, every mouth was put in + motion. There was nothing but fiddling and playing on the + virginals, and all kinds of conceits and divertissements, on every + canal of this aquatic city. I dined with the Countess Albrizzi and + a Paduan and Venetian party, and afterwards went to the opera, at + the Fenice theatre (which opens for the Carnival on that day),--the + finest, by the way, I have ever seen: it beats our theatres hollow + in beauty and scenery, and those of Milan and Brescia bow before + it. The opera and its sirens were much like other operas and women, + but the subject of the said opera was something edifying; it + turned--the plot and conduct thereof--upon a fact narrated by Livy + of a hundred and fifty married ladies having poisoned a hundred and + fifty husbands in good old times. The bachelors of Rome believed + this extraordinary mortality to be merely the common effect of + matrimony or a pestilence; but the surviving Benedicts, being all + seized with the cholic, examined into the matter, and found that + 'their possets had been drugged;' the consequence of which was, + much scandal and several suits at law. This is really and truly the + subject of the musical piece at the Fenice; and you can't conceive + what pretty things are sung and recitativoed about the _horrenda + strage_. The conclusion was a lady's head about to be chopped off + by a lictor, but (I am sorry to say) he left it on, and she got up + and sung a trio with the two Consuls, the Senate in the back-ground + being chorus. The ballet was distinguished by nothing remarkable, + except that the principal she-dancer went into convulsions because + she was not applauded on her first appearance; and the manager came + forward to ask if there was 'ever a physician in the theatre.' + There was a Greek one in my box, whom I wished very much to + volunteer his services, being sure that in this case these would + have been the last convulsions which would have troubled the + ballarina; but he would not. The crowd was enormous, and in coming + out, having a lady under my arm, I was obliged, in making way, + almost to 'beat a Venetian and traduce the state,' being compelled + to regale a person with an English punch in the guts, which sent + him as far back as the squeeze and the passage would admit. He did + not ask for another, but, with great signs of disapprobation and + dismay, appealed to his compatriots, who laughed at him. + + "I am going on with my Armenian studies in a morning, and assisting + and stimulating in the English portion of an English and Armenian + grammar, now publishing at the convent of St. Lazarus. + + "The superior of the friars is a bishop, and a fine old fellow, + with the beard of a meteor. Father Paschal is also a learned and + pious soul. He was two years in England. + + "I am still dreadfully in love with the Adriatic lady whom I spake + of in a former letter, (and _not_ in _this_--I add, for fear of + mistakes, for the only one mentioned in the first part of this + epistle is elderly and bookish, two things which I have ceased to + admire,) and love in this part of the world is no sinecure. This is + also the season when every body make up their intrigues for the + ensuing year, and cut for partners for the next deal. + + "And now, if you don't write, I don't know what I won't say or do, + nor what I will. Send me some news--good news. Yours very truly, + &c. &c. &c. + + "B. + + "P.S. Remember me to Mr. Gifford, with all duty. + + "I hear that the Edinburgh Review has cut up Coleridge's + Christabel, and me for praising it, which omen, I think, bodes no + great good to your forthcome or coming Canto and Castle (of + Chillon). My run of luck within the last year seems to have taken a + turn every way; but never mind, I will bring myself through in the + end--if not, I can be but where I began. In the mean time, I am not + displeased to be where I am--I mean, at Venice. My Adriatic nymph + is this moment here, and I must therefore repose from this letter." + + * * * * * + +LETTER 258. TO MR. MURRAY. + + "Venice, Jan. 2. 1817. + + "Your letter has arrived. Pray, in publishing the third Canto, have + you _omitted_ any passages? I hope _not_; and indeed wrote to you + on my way over the Alps to prevent such an incident. Say in your + next whether or not the _whole_ of the Canto (as sent to you) has + been published. I wrote to you again the other day, (_twice_, I + think,) and shall be glad to hear of the reception of those + letters. + + "To-day is the 2d of January. On this day _three_ years ago The + Corsair's publication is dated, I think, in my letter to Moore. On + this day _two_ years I married, ('Whom the Lord loveth he + chasteneth,'--I sha'n't forget the day in a hurry,) and it is odd + enough that I this day received a letter from you announcing the + publication of Childe Harold, &c. &c. on the day of the date of + 'The Corsair;' and I also received one from my sister, written on + the 10th of December, my daughter's birth-day (and relative chiefly + to my daughter), and arriving on the day of the date of my + marriage, this present 2d of January, the month of my birth,--and + various other astrologous matters, which I have no time to + enumerate. + + "By the way, you might as well write to Hentsch, my Geneva banker, + and enquire whether the _two packets_ consigned to his care were or + were not delivered to Mr. St. Aubyn, or if they are still in his + keeping. One contains papers, letters, and all the original MS. of + your third Canto, as first conceived; and the other, some bones + from the field of Morat. Many thanks for your news, and the good + spirits in which your letter is written. + + "Venice and I agree very well; but I do not know that I have any + thing new to say, except of the last new opera, which I sent in my + late letter. The Carnival is commencing, and there is a good deal + of fun here and there--besides business; for all the world are + making up their intrigues for the season, changing, or going on + upon a renewed lease. I am very well off with Marianna, who is not + at all a person to tire me; firstly, because I do not tire of a + woman _personally_, but because they are generally bores in their + disposition; and, secondly, because she is amiable, and has a tact + which is not always the portion of the fair creation; and, thirdly, + she is very pretty; and, fourthly--but there is no occasion for + further specification. So far we have gone on very well; as to the + future, I never anticipate--_carpe diem_--the past at least is + one's own, which is one reason for making sure of the present. So + much for my proper _liaison_. + + "The general state of morals here is much the same as in the Doges' + time; a woman is virtuous (according to the code) who limits + herself to her husband and one lover; those who have two, three, or + more, are a little _wild_; but it is only those who are + indiscriminately diffuse, and form a low connection, such as the + Princess of Wales with her courier, (who, by the way, is made a + knight of Malta,) who are considered as overstepping the modesty of + marriage. In Venice, the nobility have a trick of marrying with + dancers and singers; and, truth to say, the women of their own + order are by no means handsome; but the general race, the women of + the second and other orders, the wives of the merchants, and + proprietors, and untitled gentry, are mostly _bel' sangue_, and it + is with these that the more amatory connections are usually formed. + There are also instances of stupendous constancy. I know a woman of + fifty who never had but one lover, who dying early, she became + devout, renouncing all but her husband. She piques herself, as may + be presumed, upon this miraculous fidelity, talking of it + occasionally with a species of misplaced morality, which is rather + amusing. There is no convincing a woman here that she is in the + smallest degree deviating from the rule of right or the fitness of + things in having an _amoroso_. The great sin seems to lie in + concealing it, or having more than one, that is, unless such an + extension of the prerogative is understood and approved of by the + prior claimant. + + "In another sheet, I send you some sheets of a grammar, English and + Armenian, for the use of the Armenians, of which I promoted, and + indeed induced, the publication. (It cost me but a thousand + francs--French livres.) I still pursue my lessons in the language + without any rapid progress, but advancing a little daily. Padre + Paschal, with some little help from me, as translator of his + Italian into English, is also proceeding in a MS. Grammar for the + _English_ acquisition of Armenian, which will be printed also, when + finished. + + "We want to know if there are any Armenian types and letter-press + in England, at Oxford, Cambridge, or elsewhere? You know, I + suppose, that, many years ago, the two Whistons published in + England an original text of a history of Armenia, with their own + Latin translation? Do those types still exist? and where? Pray + enquire among your learned acquaintance. + + "When this Grammar (I mean the one now printing) is done, will you + have any objection to take forty or fifty copies, which will not + cost in all above five or ten guineas, and try the curiosity of the + learned with a sale of them? Say yes or no, as you like. I can + assure you that they have some very curious books and MSS., chiefly + translations from Greek originals now lost. They are, besides, a + much respected and learned community, and the study of their + language was taken up with great ardour by some literary Frenchmen + in Buonaparte's time. + + "I have not done a stitch of poetry since I left Switzerland, and + have not, at present, the _estro_ upon me. The truth is, that you + are _afraid_ of having a _fourth_ Canto _before_ September, and of + another copyright, but I have at present no thoughts of resuming + that poem, nor of beginning any other. If I write, I think of + trying prose, but I dread introducing living people, or + applications which might be made to living people. Perhaps one day + or other I may attempt some work of fancy in prose, descriptive of + Italian manners and of human passions; but at present I am + preoccupied. As for poesy, mine is the _dream_ of the sleeping + passions; when they are awake, I cannot speak their language, only + in their somnambulism, and just now they are not dormant. + + "If Mr. Gifford wants _carte blanche_ as to The Siege of Corinth, + he has it, and may do as he likes with it. + + "I sent you a letter contradictory of the Cheapside man (who + invented the story you speak of) the other day. My best respects to + Mr. Gifford, and such of my friends as you may see at your house. I + wish you all prosperity and new year's gratulation, and am + + "Yours," &c. + + * * * * * + +To the Armenian Grammar, mentioned in the foregoing letter, the +following interesting fragment, found among his papers, seems to have +been intended as a Preface:-- + +"The English reader will probably be surprised to find my name +associated with a work of the present description, and inclined to give +me more credit for my attainments as a linguist than they deserve. + +"As I would not willingly be guilty of a deception, I will state, as +shortly as I can, my own share in the compilation, with the motives +which led to it. On my arrival at Venice, in the year 1816, I found my +mind in a state which required study, and study of a nature which should +leave little scope for the imagination, and furnish some difficulty in +the pursuit. + +"At this period I was much struck--in common, I believe, with every +other traveller--with the society of the Convent of St. Lazarus, which +appears to unite all the advantages of the monastic institution, without +any of its vices. + +"The neatness, the comfort, the gentleness, the unaffected devotion, the +accomplishments, and the virtues of the brethren of the order, are well +fitted to strike the man of the world with the conviction that 'there is +another and a better' even in this life. + +"These men are the priesthood of an oppressed and a noble nation, which +has partaken of the proscription and bondage of the Jews and of the +Greeks, without the sullenness of the former or the servility of the +latter. This people has attained riches without usury, and all the +honours that can be awarded to slavery without intrigue. But they have +long occupied, nevertheless, a part of 'the House of Bondage,' who has +lately multiplied her many mansions. It would be difficult, perhaps, to +find the annals of a nation less stained with crimes than those of the +Armenians, whose virtues have been those of peace, and their vices those +of compulsion. But whatever may have been their destiny--and it has been +bitter--whatever it may be in future, their country must ever be one of +the most interesting on the globe; and perhaps their language only +requires to be more studied to become more attractive. If the Scriptures +are rightly understood, it was in Armenia that Paradise was +placed--Armenia, which has paid as dearly as the descendants of Adam for +that fleeting participation of its soil in the happiness of him who was +created from its dust. It was in Armenia that the flood first abated, +and the dove alighted. But with the disappearance of Paradise itself may +be dated almost the unhappiness of the country; for though long a +powerful kingdom, it was scarcely ever an independent one, and the +satraps of Persia and the pachas of Turkey have alike desolated the +region where God created man in his own image." + + * * * * * + +LETTER 259. TO MR. MOORE. + + "Venice, January 28. 1817. + + "Your letter of the 8th is before me. The remedy for your plethora + is simple--abstinence. I was obliged to have recourse to the like + some years ago, I mean in point of _diet_, and, with the exception + of some convivial weeks and days, (it might be months, now and + then,) have kept to Pythagoras ever since. For all this, let me + hear that you are better. You must not _indulge_ in 'filthy + beer,' nor in porter, nor eat _suppers_--the last are the devil to + those who swallow dinner. + + "I am truly sorry to hear of your father's misfortune--cruel at any + time, but doubly cruel in advanced life. However, you will, at + least, have the satisfaction of doing your part by him, and depend + upon it, it will not be in vain. Fortune, to be sure, is a female, + but not such a b * * as the rest (always excepting your wife and my + sister from such sweeping terms); for she generally has some + justice in the long run. I have no spite against her, though + between her and Nemesis I have had some sore gauntlets to run--but + then I have done my best to deserve no better. But to _you_, she is + a good deal in arrear, and she will come round--mind if she don't: + you have the vigour of life, of independence, of talent, spirit, + and character all with you. What you can do for yourself, you have + done and will do; and surely there are some others in the world who + would not be sorry to be of use, if you would allow them to be + useful, or at least attempt it. + + "I think of being in England in the spring. If there is a row, by + the sceptre of King Ludd, but I'll be one; and if there is none, + and only a continuance of 'this meek, piping time of peace,' I will + take a cottage a hundred yards to the south of your abode, and + become your neighbour; and we will compose such canticles, and hold + such dialogues, as shall be the terror of the _Times_ (including + the newspaper of that name), and the wonder, and honour, and + praise of the Morning Chronicle and posterity. + + "I rejoice to hear of your forthcoming in February--though I + tremble for the 'magnificence' which you attribute to the new + Childe Harold. I am glad you like it; it is a fine indistinct piece + of poetical desolation, and my favourite. I was half mad during the + time of its composition, between metaphysics, mountains, lakes, + love unextinguishable, thoughts unutterable, and the night-mare of + my own delinquencies. I should, many a good day, have blown my + brains out, but for the recollection that it would have given + pleasure to my mother-in-law; and, even _then_, if I could have + been certain to haunt her--but I won't dwell upon these trifling + family matters. + + "Venice is in the _estro_ of her carnival, and I have been up these + last two nights at the ridotto and the opera, and all that kind of + thing. Now for an adventure. A few days ago a gondolier brought me + a billet without a subscription, intimating a wish on the part of + the writer to meet me either in gondola, or at the island of San + Lazaro, or at a third rendezvous, indicated in the note. 'I know + the country's disposition well'--in Venice 'they do let Heaven see + those tricks they dare not show,' &c. &c.; so, for all response, I + said that neither of the three places suited me; but that I would + either be at home at ten at night alone, or be at the ridotto at + midnight, where the writer might meet me masked. At ten o'clock I + was at home and alone (Marianna was gone with her husband to a + conversazione), when the door of my apartment opened, and in + walked a well-looking and (for an Italian) _bionda_ girl of about + nineteen, who informed me that she was married to the brother of my + _amorosa_, and wished to have some conversation with me. I made a + decent reply, and we had some talk in Italian and Romaic (her + mother being a Greek of Corfu), when lo! in a very few minutes in + marches, to my very great astonishment, Marianna S * *, _in propriâ + personâ_, and after making a most polite courtesy to her + sister-in-law and to me, without a single word seizes her said + sister-in-law by the hair, and bestows upon her some sixteen slaps, + which would have made your ear ache only to hear their echo. I need + not describe the screaming which ensued. The luckless visiter took + flight. I seized Marianna, who, after several vain efforts to get + away in pursuit of the enemy, fairly went into fits in my arms; + and, in spite of reasoning, eau de Cologne, vinegar, half a pint of + water, and God knows what other waters beside, continued so till + past midnight. + + "After damning my servants for letting people in without apprizing + me, I found that Marianna in the morning had seen her + sister-in-law's gondolier on the stairs, and, suspecting that his + apparition boded her no good, had either returned of her own + accord, or been followed by her maids or some other spy of her + people to the conversazione, from whence she returned to perpetrate + this piece of pugilism. I had seen fits before, and also some small + scenery of the same genus in and out of our island: but this was + not all. After about an hour, in comes--who? why, Signor S * *, her + lord and husband, and finds me with his wife fainting upon a sofa, + and all the apparatus of confusion, dishevelled hair, hats, + handkerchiefs, salts, smelling bottles--and the lady as pale as + ashes, without sense or motion. His first question was, 'What is + all this?' The lady could not reply--so I did. I told him the + explanation was the easiest thing in the world; but in the mean + time it would be as well to recover his wife--at least, her senses. + This came about in due time of suspiration and respiration. + + "You need not be alarmed--jealousy is not the order of the day in + Venice, and daggers are out of fashion, while duels, on love + matters, are unknown--at least, with the husbands. But, for all + this, it was an awkward affair; and though he must have known that + I made love to Marianna, yet I believe he was not, till that + evening, aware of the extent to which it had gone. It is very well + known that almost all the married women have a lover; but it is + usual to keep up the forms, as in other nations. I did not, + therefore, know what the devil to say. I could not out with the + truth, out of regard to her, and I did not choose to lie for my + sake;--besides, the thing told itself. I thought the best way would + be to let her explain it as she chose (a woman being never at a + loss--the devil always sticks by them)--only determining to protect + and carry her off, in case of any ferocity on the part of the + Signor. I saw that he was quite calm. She went to bed, and next + day--how they settled it, I know not, but settle it they did. + Well--then I had to explain to Marianna about this + never-to-be-sufficiently-confounded sister-in-law; which I did by + swearing innocence, eternal constancy, &c. &c. But the + sister-in-law, very much discomposed with being treated in such + wise, has (not having her own shame before her eyes) told the + affair to half Venice, and the servants (who were summoned by the + fight and the fainting) to the other half. But, here, nobody minds + such trifles, except to be amused by them. I don't know whether you + will be so, but I have scrawled a long letter out of these follies. + + "Believe me ever," &c. + + * * * * * + +LETTER 260. TO MR. MURRAY. + + "Venice, January 24. 1817. + + "I have been requested by the Countess Albrizzi here to present her + with 'the Works;' and wish you therefore to send me a copy, that I + may comply with her requisition. You may include the last + published, of which I have seen and know nothing, but from your + letter of the 13th of December. + + "Mrs. Leigh tells me that most of her friends prefer the two first + Cantos. I do not know whether this be the general opinion or not + (it is _not hers_); but it is natural it should be so. I, however, + think differently, which is natural also; but who is right, or who + is wrong, is of very little consequence. + + "Dr. Polidori, as I hear from him by letter from Pisa, is about to + return to England, to go to the Brazils on a medical speculation + with the Danish consul. As you are in the favour of the powers that + be, could you not get him some letters of recommendation from some + of your government friends to some of the Portuguese settlers? He + understands his profession well, and has no want of general + talents; his faults are the faults of a pardonable vanity and + youth. His remaining with me was out of the question: I have enough + to do to manage my own scrapes; and as precepts without example are + not the most gracious homilies, I thought it better to give him his + congé: but I know no great harm of him, and some good. He is clever + and accomplished; knows his profession, by all accounts, well; and + is honourable in his dealings, and not at all malevolent. I think, + with luck, he will turn out a useful member of society (from which + he will lop the diseased members) and the College of Physicians. If + you can be of any use to him, or know any one who can, pray be so, + as he has his fortune to make. He has kept a _medical journal_ + under the eye of _Vacca_ (the first surgeon on the Continent) at + Pisa: Vacca has corrected it, and it must contain some valuable + hints or information on the practice of this country. If you can + aid him in publishing this also, by your influence with your + brethren, do; I do not ask you to publish it yourself, because that + sort of request is too personal and embarrassing. He has also a + tragedy, of which, having seen nothing, I say nothing: but the very + circumstance of his having made these efforts (if they are only + efforts), at one-and-twenty, is in his favour, and proves him to + have good dispositions for his own improvement. So if, in the way + of commendation or recommendation, you can aid his objects with + your government friends, I wish you would, I should think some of + your Admiralty Board might be likely to have it in their power." + + * * * * * + +LETTER 261. TO MR. MURRAY. + + "Venice, February 15. 1817. + + "I have received your two letters, but not the parcel you mention. + As the Waterloo spoils are arrived, I will make you a present of + them, if you choose to accept of them; pray do. + + "I do not exactly understand from your letter what has been + omitted, or what not, in the publication; but I shall see probably + some day or other. I could not attribute any but a _good_ motive to + Mr. Gifford or yourself in such omission; but as our politics are + so very opposite, we should probably differ as to the passages. + However, if it is only a _note_ or notes, or a line or so, it + cannot signify. You say 'a _poem_;' _what_ poem? You can tell me in + your next. + + "Of Mr. Hobhouse's quarrel with the Quarterly Review, I know very + little except * * 's article itself, which was certainly harsh + enough; but I quite agree that it would have been better not to + answer--particularly after Mr. _W.W._, who never more will trouble + you, trouble you. I have been uneasy, because Mr. H. told me that + his letter or preface was to be addressed to me. Now, he and I are + friends of many years; I have many obligations to him, and he none + to me, which have not been cancelled and more than repaid; but Mr. + Gifford and I are friends also, and he has moreover been literally + so, through thick and thin, in despite of difference of years, + morals, habits, and even _politics_; and therefore I feel in a very + awkward situation between the two, Mr. Gifford and my friend + Hobhouse, and can only wish that they had no difference, or that + such as they have were accommodated. The Answer I have not seen, + for--it is odd enough for people so intimate--but Mr. Hobhouse and + I are very sparing of our literary confidences. For example, the + other day he wished to have a MS. of the third Canto to read over + to his brother, &c., which was refused;--and I have never seen his + journals, nor he mine--(I only kept the short one of the mountains + for my sister)--nor do I think that hardly ever he or I saw any of + the other's productions previous to their publication. + + "The article in the Edinburgh Review on Coleridge I have not seen; + but whether I am attacked in it or not, or in any other of the same + journal, I shall never think ill of Mr. Jeffrey on that account, + nor forget that his conduct towards me has been certainly most + handsome during the last four or more years. + + "I forgot to mention to you that a kind of Poem in dialogue[128] + (in blank verse) or Drama, from which 'The Incantation' is an + extract, begun last summer in Switzerland, is finished; it is in + three acts; but of a very wild, metaphysical, and inexplicable + kind. Almost all the persons--but two or three--are Spirits of the + earth and air, or the waters; the scene is in the Alps; the hero a + kind of magician, who is tormented by a species of remorse, the + cause of which is left half unexplained. He wanders about invoking + these Spirits, which appear to him, and are of no use; he at last + goes to the very abode of the Evil Principle, _in propriâ personâ_, + to evocate a ghost, which appears, and gives him an ambiguous and + disagreeable answer; and in the third act he is found by his + attendants dying in a tower where he had studied his art. You may + perceive by this outline that I have no great opinion of this piece + of fantasy; but I have at least rendered it _quite impossible_ for + the stage, for which my intercourse with Drury Lane has given me + the greatest contempt. + + "I have not even copied it off, and feel too lazy at present to + attempt the whole; but when I have, I will send it you, and you may + either throw it into the fire or not." + +[Footnote 128: Manfred.] + + * * * * * + +LETTER 262. TO MR. MURRAY. + + "Venice, February 25. 1817. + + "I wrote to you the other day in answer to your letter; at present + I would trouble you with a commission, if you would be kind enough + to undertake it. + + "You, perhaps, know Mr. Love, the jeweller, of Old Bond Street? In + 1813, when in the intention of returning to Turkey, I purchased of + him, and paid (_argent comptant_) for about a dozen snuff-boxes, of + more or less value, as presents for some of my Mussulman + acquaintance. These I have now with me. The other day, having + occasion to make an alteration in the lid of one (to place a + portrait in it), it has turned out to be _silver-gilt_ instead of + _gold_, for which last it was sold and paid for. This was + discovered by the workman in trying it, before taking off the + hinges and working upon the lid. I have of course recalled and + preserved the box _in statu quo_. What I wish you to do is, to see + the said Mr. Love, and inform him of this circumstance, adding, + from me, that I will take care he shall not have done this with + impunity. + + "If there is no remedy in law, there is at least the equitable one + of making known his _guilt_,--that is, his silver-_gilt_, and be + d----d to him. + + "I shall carefully preserve all the purchases I made of him on that + occasion for my return, as the plague in Turkey is a barrier to + travelling there at present, or rather the endless quarantine which + would be the consequence before one could land in coming back. Pray + state the matter to him with due ferocity. + + "I sent you the other day some extracts from a kind of Drama which + I had begun in Switzerland and finished here; you will tell me if + they are received. They were only in a letter. I have not yet had + energy to copy it out, or I would send you the whole in different + covers. + + "The Carnival closed this day last week. + + "Mr. Hobhouse is still at Rome, I believe. I am at present a little + unwell;--sitting up too late and some subsidiary dissipations have + lowered my blood a good deal; but I have at present the quiet and + temperance of Lent before me. + + "Believe me, &c. + + "P.S. Remember me to Mr. Gifford--I have not received your parcel + or parcels.--Look into 'Moore's (Dr. Moore's) View of Italy' for + me; in one of the volumes you will find an account of the _Doge + Valiere_ (it ought to be Falieri) and his conspiracy, or the + motives of it. Get it transcribed for me, and send it in a letter + to me soon. I want it, and cannot find so good an account of that + business here; though the veiled patriot, and the place where he + was crowned, and afterwards decapitated, still exist and are shown. + I have searched all their histories; but the policy of the old + aristocracy made their writers silent on his motives, which were a + private grievance against one of the patricians. + + "I mean to write a tragedy on the subject, which appears to me very + dramatic; an old man, jealous, and conspiring against the state of + which he was the actually reigning chief. The last circumstance + makes it the most remarkable and only fact of the kind in all + history of all nations." + + * * * * * + +LETTER 263. TO MR. MOORE. + + "Venice, February 28. 1817. + + "You will, perhaps, complain as much of the frequency of my letters + now, as you were wont to do of their rarity. I think this is the + fourth within as many moons. I feel anxious to hear from you, even + more than usual, because your last indicated that you were unwell. + At present, I am on the invalid regimen myself. The Carnival--that + is, the latter part of it, and sitting up late o'nights, had + knocked me up a little. But it is over,--and it is now Lent, with + all its abstinence and sacred music. + + "The mumming closed with a masked ball at the Fenice, where I went, + as also to most of the ridottos, &c. &c.; and, though I did not + dissipate much upon the whole, yet I find 'the sword wearing out + the scabbard,' though I have but just turned the corner of + twenty-nine. + + "So, we'll go no more a roving + So late into the night, + Though the heart be still as loving, + And the moon be still as bright. + For the sword out-wears its sheath, + And the soul wears out the breast, + And the heart must pause to breathe, + And Love itself have rest. + Though the night was made for loving, + And the day returns too soon, + Yet we'll go no more a roving + By the light of the moon. + + I have lately had some news of litter_atoor_, as I heard the editor + of the Monthly pronounce it once upon a time. I hear that W.W. has + been publishing and responding to the attacks of the Quarterly, in + the learned Perry's Chronicle. I read his poesies last autumn, and, + amongst them, found an epitaph on his bull-dog, and another on + _myself_. But I beg leave to assure him (like the astrologer + Partridge) that I am not only alive now, but was alive also at the + time he wrote it. Hobhouse has (I hear, also) expectorated a letter + against the Quarterly, addressed to me. I feel awkwardly situated + between him and Gifford, both being my friends. + + "And this is your month of going to press--by the body of Diana! (a + Venetian oath,) I feel as anxious--but not fearful for you--as if + it were myself coming out in a work of humour, which would, you + know, be the antipodes of all my previous publications. I don't + think you have any thing to dread but your own reputation. You must + keep up to that. As you never showed me a line of your work, I do + not even know your measure; but you must send me a copy by Murray + forthwith, and then you shall hear what I think. I dare say you are + in a pucker. Of all authors, you are the only really _modest_ one I + ever met with,--which would sound oddly enough to those who + recollect your morals when you were young--that is, when you were + _extremely_ young--don't mean to stigmatise you either with years + or morality. + + "I believe I told you that the E.R. had attacked me, in an article + on Coleridge (I have not seen it)--'_Et tu_, Jeffrey?'--'there is + nothing but roguery in villanous man.' But I absolve him of all + attacks, present and future; for I think he had already pushed his + clemency in my behoof to the utmost, and I shall always think well + of him. I only wonder he did not begin before, as my domestic + destruction was a fine opening for all the world, of which all who + could did well to avail themselves. + + "If I live ten years longer, you will see, however, that it is not + over with me--I don't mean in literature, for that is nothing; and + it may seem odd enough to say, I do not think it my vocation. But + you will see that I shall do something or other--the times and + fortune permitting--that, 'like the cosmogony, or creation of the + world, will puzzle the philosophers of all ages.' But I doubt + whether my constitution will hold out. I have, at intervals, + ex_or_cised it most devilishly. + + "I have not yet fixed a time of return, but I think of the spring. + I shall have been away a year in April next. You never mention + Rogers, nor Hodgson, your clerical neighbour, who has lately got a + living near you. Has he also got a child yet?--his desideratum, + when I saw him last. + + "Pray let me hear from you, at your time and leisure, believing me + ever and truly and affectionately," &c. + + * * * * * + +LETTER 264. TO MR. MURRAY. + + "Venice, March 3. 1817. + + "In acknowledging the arrival of the article from the + 'Quarterly[129],' which I received two days ago, I cannot express + myself better than in the words of my sister Augusta, who (speaking + of it) says, that it is written in a spirit 'of the most feeling + and kind nature.' It is, however, something more; it seems to me + (as far as the subject of it may be permitted to judge) to be + _very well_ written as a composition, and I think will do the + journal no discredit, because even those who condemn its partiality + must praise its generosity. The temptations to take another and a + less favourable view of the question have been so great and + numerous, that, what with public opinion, politics, &c. he must be + a gallant as well as a good man, who has ventured in that place, + and at this time, to write such an article even anonymously. Such + things are, however, their own reward; and I even flatter myself + that the writer, whoever he may be (and I have no guess), will not + regret that the perusal of this has given me as much gratification + as any composition of that nature could give, and more than any + other has given,--and I have had a good many in my time of one kind + or the other. It is not the mere praise, but there is a _tact_ and + a _delicacy_ throughout, not only with regard to me, but to + _others_, which, as it had not been observed _elsewhere_, I had + till now doubted whether it could be observed _any where_. + + "Perhaps some day or other you will know or tell me the writer's + name. Be assured, had the article been a harsh one, I should not + have asked it. + + "I have lately written to you frequently, with _extracts_, &c., + which I hope you have received, or will receive, with or before + this letter.--Ever since the conclusion of the Carnival I have been + unwell, (do not mention this, on any account, to Mrs. Leigh; for if + I grow worse, she will know it too soon, and if I get better, there + is no occasion that she should know it at all,) and have hardly + stirred out of the house. However, I don't want a physician, and + if I did, very luckily those of Italy are the worst in the world, + so that I should still have a chance. They have, I believe, one + famous surgeon, Vacca, who lives at Pisa, who might be useful in + case of dissection:--but he is some hundred miles off. My malady is + a sort of lowish fever, originating from what my 'pastor and + master,' Jackson, would call 'taking too much out of one's self.' + However, I am better within this day or two. + + "I missed seeing the new Patriarch's procession to St. Mark's the + other day (owing to my indisposition), with six hundred and fifty + priests in his rear--a 'goodly army.' The admirable government of + Vienna, in its edict from thence, authorising his installation, + prescribed, as part of the pageant, 'a _coach_ and four horses.' To + show how very, very '_German_ to the matter' this was, you have + only to suppose our parliament commanding the Archbishop of + Canterbury to proceed from Hyde Park Corner to St. Paul's Cathedral + in the Lord Mayor's barge, or the Margate hoy. There is but St. + Mark's Place in all Venice broad enough for a carriage to move, and + it is paved with large smooth flag-stones, so that the chariot and + horses of Elijah himself would be puzzled to manoeuvre upon it. + Those of Pharaoh might do better; for the canals--and particularly + the Grand Canal--are sufficiently capacious and extensive for his + whole host. Of course, no coach could be attempted; but the + Venetians, who are very naïve as well as arch, were much amused + with the ordinance. + + "The Armenian Grammar is published; but my Armenian studies are + suspended for the present till my head aches a little less. I sent + you the other day, in two covers, the first Act of 'Manfred,' a + drama as mad as Nat. Lee's Bedlam tragedy, which was in 25 acts and + some odd scenes:--mine is but in Three Acts. + + "I find I have begun this letter at the wrong end: never mind; I + must end it, then, at the right. + + "Yours ever very truly and obligedly," &c. + +[Footnote 129: An article in No. 31. of this Review, written, as Lord +Byron afterwards discovered, by Sir Walter Scott, and well meriting, by +the kind and generous spirit that breathes through it, the warm and +lasting gratitude it awakened in the noble poet.] + + * * * * * + +LETTER 265. TO MR. MURRAY. + + "Venice, March 9. 1817. + + "In remitting the third Act of the sort of dramatic poem of which + you will by this time have received the two first (at least I hope + so), which were sent within the last three weeks, I have little to + observe, except that you must not publish it (if it ever is + published) without giving me previous notice. I have really and + truly no notion whether it is good or bad; and as this was not the + case with the principal of my former publications, I am, therefore, + inclined to rank it very humbly. You will submit it to Mr. Gifford, + and to whomsoever you please besides. With regard to the question + of copyright (if it ever comes to publication), I do not know + whether you would think _three hundred_ guineas an over-estimate; + if you do, you may diminish it: I do not think it worth more; so + you may see I make some difference between it and the others. + + "I have received your two Reviews (but not the 'Tales of my + Landlord'); the Quarterly I acknowledged particularly to you, on + its arrival, ten days ago. What you tell me of Perry petrifies me; + it is a rank imposition. In or about February or March, 1816, I was + given to understand that Mr. Croker was not only a coadjutor in the + attacks of the Courier in 1814, but the author of some lines + tolerably ferocious, then recently published in a morning paper. + Upon this I wrote a reprisal. The whole of the lines I have + forgotten, and even the purport of them I scarcely remember; for on + _your_ assuring me that he was not, &c. &c., I put them into the + _fire before your face_, and there _never was_ but that _one rough_ + copy. Mr. Davies, the only person who ever heard them read, wanted + a copy, which I refused. If, however, by some _impossibility_, + which I cannot divine, the ghost of these rhymes should walk into + the world, I never will deny what I have really written, but hold + myself personally responsible for satisfaction, though I reserve to + myself the right of disavowing all or any _fabrications_. To the + previous facts you are a witness, and best know how far my + recapitulation is correct; and I request that you will inform Mr. + Perry from me, that I wonder he should permit such an abuse of my + name in his paper; I say an _abuse_, because my absence, at least, + demands some respect, and my presence and positive sanction could + alone justify him in such a proceeding, even were the lines mine; + and if false, there are no words for him. I repeat to you that the + original was burnt before you on your _assurance_, and there + _never_ was a _copy_, nor even a verbal repetition,--very much to + the discomfort of some zealous Whigs, who bored me for them (having + heard it bruited by Mr. Davies that there were such matters) to no + purpose; for, having written them solely with the notion that Mr. + Croker was the aggressor, and for _my own_ and not party reprisals, + I would not lend me to the zeal of any sect when I was made aware + that he was not the writer of the offensive passages. _You know_, + if there was such a thing, I would not deny it. I mentioned it + openly at the time to you, and you will remember why and where I + destroyed it; and no power nor wheedling on earth should have made, + or could make, me (if I recollected them) give a copy after that, + unless I was well assured that Mr. Croker was really the author of + that which you assured me he was not. + + "I intend for England this spring, where I have some affairs to + adjust; but the post hurries me. For this month past I have been + unwell, but am getting better, and thinking of moving homewards + towards May, without going to Rome, as the unhealthy season comes + on soon, and I can return when I have settled the business I go + upon, which need not be long. I should have thought the Assyrian + tale very succeedable. + + "I saw, in Mr. W.W.'s poetry, that he had written my epitaph; I + would rather have written his. + + "The thing I have sent you, you will see at a glimpse, could never + be attempted or thought of for the stage; I much doubt it for + publication even. It is too much in my old style; but I composed + it actually with a _horror_ of the stage, and with a view to + render the thought of it impracticable, knowing the zeal of my + friends that I should try that for which I have an invincible + repugnance, viz. a representation. + + "I certainly am a devil of a mannerist, and must leave off; but + what could I do? Without exertion of some kind, I should have sunk + under my imagination and reality. My best respects to Mr. Gifford, + to Walter Scott, and to all friends. + + "Yours ever." + + * * * * * + +LETTER 266. TO MR. MOORE. + + "Venice, March 10. 1817. + + "I wrote again to you lately, but I hope you won't be sorry to have + another epistle. I have been unwell this last month, with a kind of + slow and low fever, which fixes upon me at night, and goes off in + the morning; but, however, I am now better. In spring it is + probable we may meet; at least I intend for England, where I have + business, and hope to meet you in _your_ restored health and + additional laurels. + + "Murray has sent me the Quarterly and the Edinburgh. When I tell + you that Walter Scott is the author of the article in the former, + you will agree with me that such an article is still more + honourable to him than to myself. I am perfectly pleased with + Jeffrey's also, which I wish you to tell him, with my + remembrances--not that I suppose it is of any consequence to him, + or ever could have been, whether I am pleased or not, but simply in + my private relation to him, as his well-wisher, and it may be one + day as his acquaintance. I wish you would also add, what you know, + that I was not, and, indeed, am not even now, the misanthropical + and gloomy gentleman he takes me for, but a facetious companion, + well to do with those with whom I am intimate, and as loquacious + and laughing as if I were a much cleverer fellow. + + "I suppose now I shall never be able to shake off my sables in + public imagination, more particularly since my moral * * clove down + my fame. However, nor that, nor more than that, has yet + extinguished my spirit, which always rises with the rebound. + + "At Venice we are in Lent, and I have not lately moved out of + doors, my feverishness requiring quiet, and--by way of being more + quiet--here is the Signora Marianna just come in and seated at my + elbow. + + "Have you seen * * *'s book of poesy? and, if you have seen it, are + you not delighted with it? And have you--I really cannot go on: + there is a pair of great black eyes looking over my shoulder, like + the angel leaning over St. Matthew's, in the old frontispieces to + the Evangelists,--so that I must turn and answer them instead of + you. + + "Ever," &c. + + * * * * * + +LETTER 267. TO MR. MOORE. + + "Venice, March 25. 1817. + + "I have at last learned, in default of your own writing (or _not_ + writing--which should it be? for I am not very clear as to the + application of the word _default_) from Murray, two particulars of + (or belonging to) you; one, that you are removing to Hornsey, which + is, I presume, to be nearer London; and the other, that your Poem + is announced by the name of Lalla Rookh. I am glad of it,--first, + that we are to have it at last, and next, I like a tough title + myself--witness The Giaour and Childe Harold, which choked half the + Blues at starting. Besides, it is the tail of Alcibiades's + dog,--not that I suppose you want either dog or tail. Talking of + tail, I wish you had not called it a '_Persian Tale_'[130] Say a + 'Poem' or 'Romance,' but not 'Tale.' I am very sorry that I called + some of my own things 'Tales,' because I think that they are + something better. Besides, we have had Arabian, and Hindoo, and + Turkish, and Assyrian Tales. But, after all, this is frivolous in + me; you won't, however, mind my nonsense. + + "Really and truly, I want you to make a great hit, if only out of + self-love, because we happen to be old cronies; and I have no doubt + you will--I am sure you _can_. But you are, I'll be sworn, in a + devil of a pucker; and _I_ am not at your elbow, and Rogers _is_. I + envy him; which is not fair, because he does not envy any body. + Mind you send to me--that is, make Murray send--the moment you are + forth. + + "I have been very ill with a slow fever, which at last took to + flying, and became as quick as need be.[131] But, at length, after + a week of half-delirium, burning skin, thirst, hot headach, + horrible pulsation, and no sleep, by the blessing of barley water, + and refusing to see any physician, I recovered. It is an epidemic + of the place, which is annual, and visits strangers. Here follow + some versicles, which I made one sleepless night. + + "I read the 'Christabel;' + Very well: + I read the 'Missionary;' + Pretty--very: + I tried at 'Ilderim;' + Ahem; + I read a sheet of 'Marg'ret of _Anjou_;' + _Can you_? + I turn'd a page of * *'s 'Waterloo;' + Pooh! pooh! + I look'd at Wordsworth's milk-white 'Rylstone Doe:' + Hillo! + &c. &c. &c. + + "I have not the least idea where I am going, nor what I am to do. I + wished to have gone to Rome; but at present it is pestilent with + English,--a parcel of staring boobies, who go about gaping and + wishing to be at once cheap and magnificent. A man is a fool who + travels now in France or Italy, till this tribe of wretches is + swept home again. In two or three years the first rush will be + over, and the Continent will be roomy and agreeable. + + "I stayed at Venice chiefly because it is not one of their 'dens of + thieves;' and here they but pause and pass. In Switzerland it was + really noxious. Luckily, I was early, and had got the prettiest + place on all the Lake before they were quickened into motion with + the rest of the reptiles. But they crossed me every where. I met a + family of children and old women half-way up the Wengen Alp (by the + Jungfrau) upon mules, some of them too old and others too young to + be the least aware of what they saw. + + "By the way, I think the Jungfrau, and all that region of Alps, + which I traversed in September--going to the very top of the + Wengen, which is not the highest (the Jungfrau itself is + inaccessible) but the best point of view--much finer than + Mont-Blanc and Chamouni, or the Simplon I kept a journal of the + whole for my sister Augusta, part of which she copied and let + Murray see. + + "I wrote a sort of mad Drama, for the sake of introducing the + Alpine scenery in description: and this I sent lately to Murray. + Almost all the _dram. pers._ are spirits, ghosts, or magicians, + and the scene is in the Alps and the other world, so you may + suppose what a Bedlam tragedy it must be: make him show it you. I + sent him all three acts piece-meal, by the post, and suppose they + have arrived. + + "I have now written to you at least six letters, or lettered, and + all I have received in return is a note about the length you used + to write from Bury Street to St. James's Street, when we used to + dine with Rogers, and talk laxly, and go to parties, and hear poor + Sheridan now and then. Do you remember one night he was so tipsy + that I was forced to put his cocked hat on for him,--for he could + not,--and I let him down at Brookes's, much as he must since have + been let down into his grave. Heigh ho! I wish I was drunk--but I + have nothing but this d----d barley-water before me. + + "I am still in love,--which is a dreadful drawback in quitting a + place, and I can't stay at Venice much longer. What I shall do on + this point I don't know. The girl means to go with me, but I do not + like this for her own sake. I have had so many conflicts in my own + mind on this subject, that I am not at all sure they did not help + me to the fever I mentioned above. I am certainly very much + attached to her, and I have cause to be so, if you knew all. But + she has a child; and though, like all the 'children of the sun,' + she consults nothing but passion, it is necessary I should think + for both; and it is only the virtuous, like * * * *, who can afford + to give up husband and child, and live happy ever after. + + "The Italian ethics are the most singular ever met with. The + perversion, not only of action, but of reasoning, is singular in + the women. It is not that they do not consider the thing itself as + wrong, and very wrong, but _love_ (the _sentiment_ of love) is not + merely an excuse for it, but makes it an _actual virtue_, provided + it is disinterested, and not a _caprice_, and is confined to one + object. They have awful notions of constancy; for I have seen some + ancient figures of eighty pointed out as amorosi of forty, fifty, + and sixty years' standing. I can't say I have ever seen a husband + and wife so coupled. + + "Ever, &c. + + "P.S. Marianna, to whom I have just translated what I have written + on our subject to you, says--'If you loved me thoroughly, you would + not make so many fine reflections, which are only good _forbirsi i + scarpi_,'--that is, 'to clean shoes withal,'--a Venetian proverb of + appreciation, which is applicable to reasoning of all kinds." + +[Footnote 130: He had been misinformed on this point,--the work in +question having been, from the first, entitled an "Oriental Romance." A +much worse mistake (because wilful, and with no very charitable design) +was that of certain persons, who would have it that the poem was meant +to be epic!--Even Mr. D'Israeli has, for the sake of a theory, given in +to this very gratuitous assumption:--"The Anacreontic poet," he says, +"remains only Anacreontic in his Epic."] + +[Footnote 131: In a note to Mr. Murray, subjoined to some corrections +for Manfred, he says, "Since I wrote to you last, the _slow_ fever I wot +of thought proper to mend its pace, and became similar to one which I +caught some years ago in the marshes of Elis, in the Morea."] + + * * * * * + +LETTER 268. TO MR. MURRAY. + + "Venice, March 25. 1817. + + "Your letter and enclosure are safe; but 'English gentlemen' are + very rare--at least in Venice. I doubt whether there are at present + any, save, the consul and vice-consul, with neither of whom I have + the slightest acquaintance. The moment I can pounce upon a witness, + I will send the deed properly signed: but must he necessarily be + genteel? Venice is not a place where the English are gregarious; + their pigeon-houses are Florence, Naples, Rome, &c.; and to tell + you the truth, this was one reason why I stayed here till the + season of the purgation of Rome from these people, which is + infected with them at this time, should arrive. Besides, I abhor + the nation and the nation me; it is impossible for me to describe + my _own_ sensation on that point, but it may suffice to say, that, + if I met with any of the race in the beautiful parts of + Switzerland, the most distant glimpse or aspect of them poisoned + the whole scene, and I do not choose to have the Pantheon, and St. + Peter's, and the Capitol, spoiled for me too. This feeling may be + probably owing to recent events; but it does not exist the less, + and while it exists, I shall conceal it as little as any other. + + "I have been seriously ill with a fever, but it is gone. I believe + or suppose it was the indigenous fever of the place, which comes + every year at this time, and of which the physicians change the + name annually, to despatch the people sooner. It is a kind of + typhus, and kills occasionally. It was pretty smart, but nothing + particular, and has left me some debility and a great appetite. + There are a good many ill at present, I suppose, of the same. + + "I feel sorry for Horner, if there was any thing in the world to + make him like it; and still more sorry for his friends, as there + was much to make them regret him. I had not heard of his death + till by your letter. + + "Some weeks ago I wrote to you my acknowledgments of Walter Scott's + article. Now I know it to be his, it cannot add to my good opinion + of him, but it adds to that of myself. _He_, and Gifford, and + Moore, are the only _regulars_ I ever knew who had nothing of the + _garrison_ about their manner: no nonsense, nor affectations, look + you! As for the rest whom I have known, there was always more or + less of the author about them--the pen peeping from behind the ear, + and the thumbs a little inky, or so. + + "'Lalla Rookh'--you must recollect that, in the way of title, the + '_Giaour_' has never been pronounced to this day; and both it and + Childe Harold sounded very facetious to the blue-bottles of wit and + humour about town, till they were taught and startled into a proper + deportment; and therefore Lalla Rookh, which is very orthodox and + oriental, is as good a title as need be, if not better. I could + wish rather that he had not called it '_a Persian Tale_;' firstly, + because we have had Turkish Tales, and Hindoo Tales, and Assyrian + Tales, already; and _tale_ is a word of which it repents me to have + nicknamed poesy. 'Fable' would be better; and, secondly, 'Persian + Tale' reminds one of the lines of Pope on Ambrose Phillips; though + no one can say, to be sure, that this tale has been 'turned for + half-a-crown;' still it is as well to avoid such clashings. + 'Persian Story'--why not?--or Romance? I feel as anxious for Moore + as I could do for myself, for the soul of me, and I would not have + him succeed otherwise than splendidly, which I trust he will do. + + "With regard to the 'Witch Drama,' I sent all the three acts by + post, week after week, within this last month. I repeat that I have + not an idea if it is good or bad. If bad, it must, on no account, + be risked in publication; if good, it is at your service I value it + at _three hundred_ guineas, or less, if you like it. Perhaps, if + published, the best way will be to add it to your winter volume, + and not publish separately. The price will show you I don't pique + myself upon it; so speak out. You may put it in the fire, if you + like, and Gifford don't like. + + "The Armenian Grammar is published--that is, _one_; the other is + still in MS. My illness has prevented me from moving this month + past, and I have done nothing more with the Armenian. + + "Of Italian or rather Lombard manners, I could tell you little or + nothing: I went two or three times to the governor's conversazione, + (and if you go once, you are free to go always,) at which, as I + only saw very plain women, a formal circle, in short a _worst sort_ + of rout, I did not go again. I went to Academie and to Madame + Albrizzi's, where I saw pretty much the same thing, with the + addition of some literati, who are the same _blue_[132], by ----, + all the world over. I fell in love the first week with Madame * *, + and I have continued so ever since, because she is very pretty and + pleasing, and talks Venetian, which amuses me, and is naïve. + + "Very truly, &c. + + "P.S. Pray send the red tooth-powder by a _safe hand_, and + speedily.[133] + + "To hook the reader, you, John Murray, + Have publish'd 'Anjou's Margaret,' + Which won't be sold off in a hurry + (At least, it has not been as yet); + And then, still further to bewilder 'em, + Without remorse you set up 'Ilderim;' + So mind you don't get into debt, + Because as how, if you should fail, + These books would be but baddish bail. + And mind you do _not_ let escape + These rhymes to Morning Post or Perry, + Which would be _very_ treacherous--_very_, + And get me into such a scrape! + For, firstly, I should have to sally, + All in my little boat, against a _Gally_; + And, should I chance to slay the Assyrian wight, + Have next to combat with the female knight. + + "You may show these matters to Moore and the select, but not to the + _profane_; and tell Moore, that I wonder he don't write to one now + and then." + +[Footnote 132: Whenever a word or passage occurs (as in this instance) +which Lord Byron would have pronounced emphatically in speaking, it +appears, in his handwriting, as if written with something of the same +vehemence.] + +[Footnote 133: Here follow the same rhymes ("I read the Christabel," +&c.) which have already been given in one of his letters to myself.] + + * * * * * + +LETTER 269. TO MR. MOORE. + + "Venice, March 31. 1817. + + "You will begin to think my epistolary offerings (to whatever altar + you please to devote them) rather prodigal. But until you answer, I + shall not abate, because you deserve no better. I know you are + well, because I hear of your voyaging to London and the environs, + which I rejoice to learn, because your note alarmed me by the + purgation and phlebotomy therein prognosticated. I also hear of + your being in the press; all which, methinks, might have furnished + you with subject-matter for a middle-sized letter, considering that + I am in foreign parts, and that the last month's advertisements and + obituary would be absolute news to me from your Tramontane country. + + "I told you, in my last, I have had a smart fever. There is an + epidemic in the place; but I suspect, from the symptoms, that mine + was a fever of my own, and had nothing in common with the low, + vulgar typhus, which is at this moment decimating Venice, and which + has half unpeopled Milan, if the accounts be true. This malady has + sorely discomfited my serving men, who want sadly to be gone away, + and get me to remove. But, besides my natural perversity, I was + seasoned in Turkey, by the continual whispers of the plague, + against apprehensions of contagion. Besides which, apprehension + would not prevent it; and then I am still in love, and 'forty + thousand' fevers should not make me stir before my minute, while + under the influence of that paramount delirium. Seriously + speaking, there is a malady rife in the city--a dangerous one, they + say. However, mine did not appear so, though it was not pleasant. + + "This is Passion-week--and twilight--and all the world are at + vespers. They have an eternal churching, as in all Catholic + countries, but are not so bigoted as they seem to be in Spain. + + "I don't know whether to be glad or sorry that you are leaving + Mayfield. Had I ever been at Newstead during your stay there, + (except during the winter of 1813-14, when the roads were + impracticable,) we should have been within hail, and I should like + to have made a giro of the Peak with you. I know that country well, + having been all over it when a boy. Was you ever in Dovedale? I can + assure you there are things in Derbyshire as noble as Greece or + Switzerland. But you had always a lingering after London, and I + don't wonder at it. I liked it as well as any body, myself, now and + then. + + "Will you remember me to Rogers? whom I presume to be flourishing, + and whom I regard as our poetical papa. You are his lawful son, and + I the illegitimate. Has he begun yet upon Sheridan? If you see our + republican friend, Leigh Hunt, pray present my remembrances. I saw + about nine months ago that he was in a row (like my friend + Hobhouse) with the Quarterly Reviewers. For my part, I never could + understand these quarrels of authors with critics and with one + another. 'For God's sake, gentlemen, what do they mean?' + + "What think you of your countryman, Maturin? I take some credit to + myself for having done my best to bring out Bertram; but I must say + my colleagues were quite as ready and willing. Walter Scott, + however, was the _first_ who mentioned him, which he did to me, + with great commendation, in 1815; and it is to this casualty, and + two or three other accidents, that this very clever fellow owed his + first and well-merited public success. What a chance is fame! + + "Did I tell you that I have translated two Epistles?--a + correspondence between St. Paul and the Corinthians, not to be + found in our version, but the Armenian--but which seems to me very + orthodox, and I have done it into scriptural prose English.[134] + + "Ever," &c. + +[Footnote 134: The only plausible claim of these epistles to +authenticity arises from the circumstance of St. Paul having (according +to the opinion of Mosheim and others) written an epistle to the +Corinthians, before that which we now call his first. They are, however, +universally given up as spurious. Though frequently referred to as +existing in the Armenian, by Primate Usher, Johan. Gregorius, and other +learned men, they were for the first time, I believe, translated from +that language by the two Whistons, who subjoined the correspondence, +with a Greek and Latin version, to their edition of the Armenian History +of Moses of Chorene, published in 1736. + +The translation by Lord Byron is, as far as I can learn, the first that +has ever been attempted in English; and as, proceeding from _his_ pen, +it must possess, of course, additional interest, the reader will not be +displeased to find it in the Appendix. Annexed to the copy in my +possession are the following words in his own handwriting:--"Done into +English by me, January, February, 1817, at the Convent of San Lazaro, +with the aid and exposition of the Armenian text by the Father Paschal +Aucher, Armenian friar.--BYRON. I had also (he adds) the Latin text, but +it is in many places very corrupt, and with great omissions."] + + * * * * * + +LETTER 270. TO MR. MURRAY. + + "Venice, April 2. 1817. + + "I sent you the whole of the Drama at _three several_ times, act by + act, in separate covers. I hope that you have, or will receive, + some or the whole of it. + + "So Love has a conscience. By Diana! I shall make him take back the + box, though it were Pandora's. The discovery of its intrinsic + silver occurred on sending it to have the lid adapted to admit + Marianna's portrait. Of course I had the box remitted _in statu + quo_, and had the picture set in another, which suits it (the + picture) very well. The defaulting box is not touched, hardly, and + was not in the man's hands above an hour. + + "I am aware of what you say of Otway; and am a very great admirer + of his,--all except of that maudlin b--h of chaste lewdness and + blubbering curiosity, Belvidera, whom I utterly despise, abhor, and + detest. But the story of Marino Faliero is different, and, I think, + so much finer, that I wish Otway had taken it instead: the head + conspiring against the body for refusal of redress for a real + injury,--jealousy--treason, with the more fixed and inveterate + passions (mixed with policy) of an old or elderly man--the devil + himself could not have a finer subject, and he is your only tragic + dramatist. + + "There is still, in the Doge's palace, the black veil painted over + Faliero's picture, and the staircase whereon he was first crowned + Doge, and subsequently decapitated. This was the thing that most + struck my imagination in Venice--more than the Rialto, which I + visited for the sake of Shylock; and more, too, than Schiller's + '_Armenian_,' a novel which took a great hold of me when a boy. It + is also called the 'Ghost Seer,' and I never walked down St. Mark's + by moonlight without thinking of it, and 'at nine o'clock he + died!'--But I hate things _all fiction_; and therefore the + _Merchant_ and _Othello_ have no great associations to me: but + _Pierre_ has. There should always be some foundation of fact for + the most airy fabric, and pure invention is but the talent of a + liar. + + "Maturin's tragedy.--By your account of him last year to me, he + seemed a bit of a coxcomb, personally. Poor fellow! to be sure, he + had had a long seasoning of adversity, which is not so hard to bear + as t'other thing. I hope that this won't throw him back into the + 'slough of Despond.' + + "You talk of 'marriage;'--ever since my own funeral, the word makes + me giddy, and throws me into a cold sweat. Pray, don't repeat it. + + "You should close with Madame de Staël. This will be her best work, + and permanently historical; it is on her father, the Revolution, + and Buonaparte, &c. Bunstetten told me in Switzerland it was + _very_ _great_. I have not seen it myself, but the author often. + She was very kind to me at Copet. + + "There have been two articles in the Venice papers, one a Review of + Glenarvon * * * *, and the other a Review of Childe Harold, in + which it proclaims me the most rebellious and contumacious admirer + of Buonaparte now surviving in Europe. Both these articles are + translations from the Literary Gazette of German Jena. + + "Tell me that Walter Scott is better. I would not have him ill for + the world. I suppose it was by sympathy that I had my fever at the + same time. + + "I joy in the success of your Quarterly, but I must still stick by + the Edinburgh; Jeffrey has done so by me, I must say, through every + thing, and this is more than I deserved from him. I have more than + once acknowledged to you by letter the 'Article' (and articles); + say that you have received the said letters, as I do not otherwise + know what letters arrive. Both Reviews came, but nothing more. M.'s + play and the extract not yet come. + + "Write to say whether my Magician has arrived, with all his scenes, + spells, &c. Yours ever, &c. + + "It is useless to send to the _Foreign Office_: nothing arrives to + me by that conveyance. I suppose some zealous clerk thinks it a + Tory duty to prevent it." + + * * * * * + +LETTER 271. TO MR. ROGERS. + + "Venice, April 4. 1817. + + "It is a considerable time since I wrote to you last, and I hardly + know why I should trouble you now, except that I think you will + not be sorry to hear from me now and then. You and I were never + correspondents, but always something better, which is, very good + friends. + + "I saw your friend Sharp in Switzerland, or rather in the German + _territory_ (which is and is not Switzerland), and he gave Hobhouse + and me a very good route for the Bernese Alps; however we took + another from a German, and went by Clarens, the Dent de Jamen to + Montbovon, and through Simmenthal to Thoun, and so on to + Lauterbrounn; except that from thence to the Grindelwald, instead + of round about, we went right over the Wengen Alps' very summit, + and being close under the Jungfrau, saw it, its glaciers, and heard + the avalanches in all their glory, having famous weather + there_for_. We of course went from the Grindelwald over the + Sheidech to Brientz and its lake; past the Reichenbach and all that + mountain road, which reminded me of Albania and Ætolia and Greece, + except that the people here were more civilised and rascally. I do + not think so very much of Chamouni (except the source of the + Arveron, to which we went up to the teeth of the ice, so as to look + into and touch the cavity, against the warning of the guides, only + one of whom would go with us so close,) as of the Jungfrau, and the + Pissevache, and Simplon, which are quite out of all mortal + competition. + + "I was at Milan about a moon, and saw Monti and some other living + curiosities, and thence on to Verona, where I did not forget your + story of the assassination during your sojourn there, and brought + away with me some fragments of Juliet's tomb, and a lively + recollection of the amphitheatre. The Countess Goetz (the + governor's wife here) told me that there is still a ruined castle + of the Montecchi between Verona and Vicenza. I have been at Venice + since November, but shall proceed to Rome shortly. For my deeds + here, are they not written in my letters to the unreplying Thomas + Moore? to him I refer you: he has received them all, and not + answered one. + + "Will you remember me to Lord and Lady Holland? I have to thank + the former for a book which. I have not yet received, but expect to + reperuse with great pleasure on my return, viz. the 2d edition of + Lope de Vega. I have heard of Moore's forthcoming poem: he cannot + wish himself more success than I wish and augur for him. I have + also heard great things of 'Tales of my Landlord,' but I have not + yet received them; by all accounts they beat even Waverley, &c., + and are by the same author. Maturin's second tragedy has, it seems, + failed, for which I should think any body would be sorry. My health + was very victorious till within the last month, when I had a fever. + There is a typhus in these parts, but I don't think it was that. + However, I got well without a physician or drugs. + + "I forgot to tell you that, last autumn, I furnished Lewis with + 'bread and salt' for some days at Diodati, in reward for which + (besides his conversation) he translated 'Goethe's Faust' to me by + word of mouth, and I set him by the ears with Madame de Staël about + the slave trade. I am indebted for many and kind courtesies to our + Lady of Copet, and I now love her as much as I always did her + works, of which I was and am a great admirer. When are you to begin + with Sheridan? what are you doing, and how do you do? Ever very + truly," &c. + + +END OF THE THIRD VOLUME. + +LONDON: + +SPOTTISWOODES and SHAW, + +New Street Square + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Life of Lord Byron, Vol. III, by Thomas Moore + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE OF LORD BYRON, VOL. 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