FOOTNOTES:

FOOTNOTES:[1]To this he alludes in those beautiful stanzas,"To sit on rocks, to muse o'er flood and fell," &c.Alfieri, before his dramatic genius had yet unfolded itself, used to pass hours, as he tells us, in this sort of dreaming state, gazing upon the ocean:â€”"AprÃ¨s le spectacle un de mes amusemens, Ã Marseille, Ã©tait de me baigner presque tous les soirs dans la mer. J'avais trouvÃ© un petit endroit fort agrÃ©able, sur une langue de terre placÃ©e Ã droite hors du port, oÃ¹, en m'asseyant sur le sable, le dos appuyÃ© contre un petit rocher qui empÃªchait qu'on ne pÃ»t me voir du cÃ´tÃ© de la terre, je n'avais plus devant moi que le ciel et la mer. Entre ces deux immensitÃ©s qu'embellissaient les rayons d'un soleil couchant, je passai en rÃªvant des heures dÃ©licieuses; et lÃ , je serais devenu poÃ«te, si j'avais su Ã©crire dans une langue quelconque."[2]But a few months before he died, in a conversation with Maurocordato at Missolonghi, Lord Byron saidâ€”"The Turkish History was one of the first books that gave me pleasure when a child; and I believe it had much influence on my subsequent wishes to visit the Levant, and gave perhaps the oriental colouring which is observed in my poetry."â€”COUNT GAMBA'sNarrative.In the last edition of Mr. D'Israeli's work on "the Literary Character," that gentleman has given some curious marginal notes, which he found written by Lord Byron in a copy of this work that belonged to him. Among them is the following enumeration of the writers that, besides Rycaut, had drawn his attention so early to the East:â€”"Knolles, Cantemir, De Tott, Lady M.W. Montague, Hawkins's Translation from Mignot's History of the Turks, the Arabian Nights, all travels, or histories, or books upon the East I could meet with, I had read, as well as Rycaut, before I wasten years old. I think the Arabian Nights first. After these, I preferred the history of naval actions, Don Quixote, and Smollett's novels, particularly Roderick Random, and I was passionate for the Roman History. When a boy, I could never bear to read any Poetry whatever without disgust and reluctance."[3]"It rained hard the next day, and we spent another evening with our soldiers. The captain, Elmas, tried a fine Manton gun belonging to my Friend, and hitting his mark every time was highly delighted."â€”HOBHOUSE'sJourney, &c.[4]It must be recollected that by two of these gentlemen he was seen chiefly under the restraints of presentation and etiquette, when whatever gloom there was on his spirits would, in a shy nature like his, most show itself. The account which his fellow-traveller gives of him is altogether different. In introducing the narration of a short tour to Negroponte, in which his noble friend was unable to accompany him, Mr. Hobhouse expresses strongly the deficiency of which he is sensible, from the absence, on this occasion, of "a companion, who, to quickness of observation and ingenuity of remark, united that gay good-humour which keeps alive the attention under the pressure of fatigue, and softens the aspect of every difficulty and danger." In some lines, too, of the "Hints from Horace," addressed evidently to Mr. Hobhouse, Lord Byron not only renders the same justice to his own social cheerfulness, but gives a somewhat more distinct idea of the frame of mind out of which it rose;â€”"Moschus! with whom I hope once more to sit,And smile at folly, if we can't at wit;Yes, friend, for thee I'll quit my Cynic cell,And bear Swift's motto, "Vive la bagatelle!"Which charm'd our days in each Ã†gean clime,And oft at home with revelry and rhyme."[5]It is, however, less wonderful that authors should thus misjudge their productions, when whole generations have sometimes fallen into the same sort of error. The Sonnets of Petrarch were, by the learned of his day, considered only worthy of the ballad-singers by whom they were chanted about the streets; while his Epic Poem, "Africa," of which few now even know the existence, was sought for on all sides, and the smallest fragment of it begged from the author, for the libraries of the learned.[6]Gray, under the influence of a similar predilection, preferred, for a long time, his Latin poems to those by which he has gained such a station in English literature. "Shall we attribute this," says Mason, "to his having been educated at Eton, or to what other cause? Certain it is, that when I first knew him, he seemed to set a greater value on his Latin poetry than on that which he had composed in his native language."[7]One of the manuscript notes of Lord Byron on Mr. D'Israeli's work, already referred to.â€”Vol. i. p. 144.[8]"Mac Flecknoe, the Dunciad, and all Swift's lampooning ballads.â€”Whatever their other works may be, these originated in personal feelings and angry retort on unworthy rivals; and though the ability of these satires elevates the poetical, their poignancy detracts from the personal, character of the writers."[9]"Harvey, thecirculatorof thecirculationof the blood, used to fling away Virgil in his ecstasy of admiration, and say 'the book had a devil.' Now, such a character as I am copying would probably fling it away also, but rather wish that the devil had the book; not from a dislike to the poet, but a well-founded horror of hexameters. Indeed, the public-school penance of 'Long and Short' is enough to beget an antipathy to poetry for the residue of a man's life, and perhaps so far may be an advantage."[10]"'Hell,' a gaming-house so called, where you risk little, and are cheated a good deal: 'Club,' a pleasant purgatory, where you lose more, and are not supposed to be cheated at all."[11]"As Mr. Pope took the liberty of damning Homer, to whom he was under great obligationsâ€”'And Homer (damn him) calls'â€”it may be presumed that any body or any thing may be damned in verse by poetical license; and in case of accident, I beg leave to plead so illustrious a precedent."[12]"This well-meaning gentleman has spoilt some excellent shoemakers, and been accessary to the poetical undoing of many of the industrious poor. Nathaniel Bloomfield and his brother Bobby have set all Somersetshire singing. Nor has the malady confined itself to one county. Pratt, too (who once was wiser), has caught the contagion of patronage, and decoyed a poor fellow, named Blackett, into poetry; but he died during the operation, leaving one child and two volumes of 'Remains' utterly destitute. The girl, if she don't take a poetical twist, and come forth as a shoemaking Sappho, may do well, but the 'Tragedies' are as rickety as if they had been the offspring of an Earl or a Seatonian prize-poet. The patrons of this poor lad are certainly answerable for his end, and it ought to be an indictable offence. But this is the least they have done; for, by a refinement of barbarity, they have made the (late) man posthumously ridiculous, by printing what he would have had sense enough never to print himself. Certes, these rakers of 'Remains' come under the statute against resurrection-men. What does it signify whether a poor dear dead dunce is to be stuck up in Surgeons' or in Stationers' Hall? is it so bad to unearth his bones as his blunders? is it not better to gibbet his body on a heath than his soul in an octavo? 'We know what we are, but we know not what we may be,' and it is to be hoped we never shall know, if a man who has passed through life with a sort of Ã©clat is to find himself a mountebank on the other side of Styx, and made, like poor Joe Blackett, the laughing-stock of purgatory. The plea of publication is to provide for the child. Now, might not some of this 'sutor ultra crepidam's' friends and seducers have done a decent action without inveigling Pratt into biography? And then, his inscriptions split into so many modicums! 'To the Duchess of So Much, the Right Honble. So-and-so, and Mrs. and Miss Somebody, these volumes are,' &c. &c. Why, this is doling out the 'soft milk of dedication' in gills; there is but a quart, and he divides it among a dozen. Why, Pratt! hadst thou not a puff left? dost thou think six families of distinction can share this in quiet? There is a child, a book, and a dedication: send the girl to her grace, the volumes to the grocer, and the dedication to the d-v-l."[13]That he himself attributed every thing to fortune, appears from the following passage in one of his journals: "Like Sylla, I have always believed that all things depend upon fortune, and nothing upon ourselves. I am not aware of any one thought or action worthy of being called good to myself or others, which is not to be attributed to the good goddess, FORTUNE!"[14]The grounds on which the Messrs. Longman refused to publish his Lordship's Satire, were the severe attacks it contained upon Mr. Southey and others of their literary friends.[15]In many instances the mothers of illustrious poets have had reason to be proud no less of the affection than of the glory of their sons; and Tasso, Pope, Gray, and Cowper, are among these memorable examples of filial tenderness. In the lesser poems of Tasso, there are few things so beautiful as his description, in the Canzone to the Metauro, of his first parting with his mother:â€”"Me dal sen della madre empia fortunaPargoletto divelse," &c.[16]Napoleon.[17]In a letter, written between two and three months after his mother's death, he states no less a number than six persons, all friends or relatives, who had been snatched away from him by death between May and the end of August.[18]In continuation of the note quoted in the text, he says of Matthewsâ€”"His powers of mind, shown in the attainment of greater honours, against theablest candidates, than those of any graduate on record at Cambridge, have sufficiently established his fame on the spot where it was acquired." One of the candidates, thus described, was Mr. Thomas Barnes, a gentleman whose career since has kept fully the promise of his youth, though, from the nature of the channels through which his literary labours have been directed, his great talents are far more extensively known than his name.[19]It had been the intention of Mr. Matthews to offer himself, at the ensuing election, for the university. In reference to this purpose, a manuscript Memoir of him, now lying before me, saysâ€”"If acknowledged and successful talentsâ€”if principles of the strictest honourâ€”if the devotion of many friends could have secured the success of an 'independent pauper' (as he jocularly called himself in a letter on the subject), the vision would have been realised."[20]He was the third son of the late John Matthews, Esq. of Belmont, Herefordshire, representative of that county in the parliament of 1802-6. The author of "The Diary of an Invalid," also untimely snatched away, was another son of the same gentleman, as is likewise the present Prebendary of Hereford, the Reverend Arthur Matthews, who, by his ability and attainments, sustains worthily the reputation of the name.The father of this accomplished family was himself a man of considerable talent, and the author of several unavowed poetical pieces; one of which, a Parody of Pope's Eloisa, written in early youth, has been erroneously ascribed to the late Professor Porson, who was in the habit of reciting it, and even printed an edition of the verses.[21]"One of the cleverest men I ever knew, in conversation, was Scrope Berdmore Davies. Hobhouse is also very good in that line, though it is of less consequence to a man who has other ways of showing his talents than in company. Scrope was always ready and often wittyâ€”Hobhouse as witty, but not always so ready, being more diffident."â€”MS. Journal of Lord Byron.[22]"If the papers lie not (which they generally do), Demetrius Zograffo of Athens is at the head of the Athenian part of the Greek insurrection. He was my servant in 1809, 1810, 1811, 1812, at different intervals of those years (for I left him in Greece when I went to Constantinople), and accompanied me to England in 1811: he returned to Greece, spring, 1812. He was a clever, but notapparentlyan enterprising man; but circumstances make men. His two sons (theninfants) were named Miltiades and Alcibiades: may the omen be happy!" â€”MS. Journal.[23]On the death of his mother, a considerable sum of money, the remains of the price of the estate of Gight, was paid into his hands by her trustee, Baron Clerk.[24]Over the words which I have here placed between brackets, Lord Byron drew his pen.[25]In the clause enumerating the names and places of abode of the executors, the solicitor had left blanks for the Christian names of these gentlemen, and Lord Byron, having filled up all but that of Dallas, writes in the marginâ€”"I forget the Christian name of Dallasâ€”cut him out."[26]On a leaf of one of his paper-books I find an Epigram written at this time, which, though not perhaps particularly good, I consider myself bound to insert:â€”"ON MOORE'S LAST OPERATIC FARCE, OR FARCICAL OPERA."Good plays are scarce,So Moore writes farce:The poet's fame grows brittleâ€”We knew beforeThatLittle'sMoore,But now 'tisMoorethat'slittle.Sept. 14. 1811."[27]In a note on his "Hints from Horace," he thus humorously applies this incident:â€”"A literary friend of mine walking out one lovely evening last summer on the eleventh bridge of the Paddington Canal, was alarmed by the cry of 'One in jeopardy!' He rushed along, collected a body of Irish haymakers (supping on buttermilk in an adjoining paddock), procured three rakes, one eel spear, and a landing-net, and at last (horresco referens) pulled outâ€”his own publisher. The unfortunate man was gone for ever, and so was a large quarto wherewith he had taken the leap, which proved, on enquiry, to have been Mr. Sâ€”â€”'s last work. Its 'alacrity of sinking' was so great, that it has never since been heard of, though some maintain that it is at this moment concealed at Alderman Birch's pastry-premises, Cornhill. Be this as it may, the coroner's inquest brought in a verdict of 'Felo de BibliopolÃ¢' against a 'quarto unknown,' and circumstantial evidence being since strong against the 'Curse of Kehama' (of which the above words are an exact description), it will be tried by its peers next session in Grub Street. Arthur, Alfred, Davideis, Richard Coeur de Lion, Exodus, Exodiad, Epigoniad, Calvary, Fall of Cambria, Siege of Acre, Don Roderick, and Tom Thumb the Great, are the names of the twelve jurors. The judges are Pye, * * *, and the bellman of St. Sepulchre's."[28]See the extract from one of his journals, vol. i. p. 94.[29]The verses in vol. ii. p. 73.[30]Barber, whom he had brought down to Newstead to paint his wolf and his bear.[31]This is the only entire letter of my own that, in the course of this work, I mean to obtrude upon my readers. Being short, and in terms more explanatory of the feeling on which I acted than any others that could be substituted, it might be suffered, I thought, to form the single exception to my general rule. In all other cases, I shall merely give such extracts from my own letters as may be necessary to elucidate those of my correspondent.[32]Finding two different draughts of this letter among my papers, I cannot be quite certain as to some of the terms employed; but have little doubt that they are here given correctly.[33]In speaking thus, I beg to disclaim all affected modesty, Lord Byron had already made the same distinction himself in the opinions which he expressed of the living poets; and I cannot but be aware that, for the praises which he afterwards bestowed on my writings, I was, in a great degree, indebted to his partiality to myself.[34]The Rev. Robert Bland, one of the authors of "Collections from the Greek Anthology." Lord Byron was, at this time, endeavouring to secure for Mr. Bland the task of translating Lucien Buonaparte's poem.[35]The brother of his late friend, Charles Skinner Matthews.[36]Lord Byron is here mistaken. Dr. Johnson never saw Cecilia till it was in print. A day or two before publication, the young authoress, as I understand, sent three copies to the three persons who had the best claim to them,â€”her father, Mrs. Thrale, and Dr. Johnson.â€”Second edition.[37]This poem is now printed in Lord Byron's Works.[38]On this occasion, another of the noble poet's peculiarities was, somewhat startlingly, introduced to my notice. When we were on the point of setting out from his lodgings in St. James's Street, it being then about mid-day, he said to the servant, who was shutting the door of the vis-Ã -vis, "Have you put in the pistols?" and was answered in the affirmative. It was difficult,â€”more especially, taking into account the circumstances under which we had just become acquainted,â€”to keep from smiling at this singular noon-day precaution.[39]"Written beneath the picture of â€”â€”"[40]If there could be any doubt as to his intention of delineating himself in his hero, this adoption of the old Norman name of his family, which he seems to have at first contemplated, would be sufficient to remove it.[41]In the MS. the names "Robin" and "Rupert" had been successively inserted here and scratched out again.[42]Here the manuscript is illegible.[43]Among the acknowledged blemishes of Milton's great poem, is his abrupt transition, in this manner, into an imitation of Ariosto's style, in the "Paradise of Fools."[44]To his sister, Mrs. Leigh, one of the first presentation copies was sent, with the following inscription in it:â€”"To Augusta, my dearest sister, and my best friend, who has ever loved me much better than I deserved, this volume is presented by her father's son, and most affectionate brother,"B."[45]"Little knew she, that seeming marble heart,Now mask'd in silence, or withheld by pride,Was not unskilful in the spoiler's art,And spread its snares licentious far and wide."CHILDE HAROLD, CANTO II.We have here another instance of his propensity to self-misrepresentation. However great might have been the irregularities of his college life, such phrases as the "art of the spoiler" and "spreading snares" were in nowise applicable to them.[46]"After speaking to him of the sale, and settling the new edition, I said, 'How can I possibly think of this rapid sale, and the profits likely to ensue, without recollectingâ€”'â€”'What?'â€”'Think what sum your work may produce.'â€”'I shall be rejoiced, and wish it doubled and trebled; but do not talk to me of money. I never will receive money for my writings.'" â€”DALLAS'SRecollections.[47]In a letter to Pulteney, 12th May, 1735, Swift says, "I never got a farthing for any thing I writ, except once."[48]He had taken a window opposite for the purpose, and was accompanied on the occasion by his old schoolfellows, Mr. Bailey and Mr. John Madocks. They went together from some assembly, and, on their arriving at the spot, about three o'clock in the morning, not finding the house that was to receive them open, Mr. Madocks undertook to rouse the inmates, while Lord Byron and Mr. Bailey sauntered, arm in arm, up the street. During this interval, rather a painful scene occurred. Seeing an unfortunate woman lying on the steps of a door, Lord Byron, with some expression of compassion, offered her a few shillings: but, instead of accepting them, she violently pushed away his hand, and, starting up with a yell of laughter, began to mimic the lameness of his gait. He did not utter a word; but "I could feel," said Mr. Bailey, "his arm trembling within mine, as we left her."I may take this opportunity of mentioning another anecdote connected with his lameness. In coming out, one night, from a ball, with Mr. Rogers, as they were on their way to their carriage, one of the link-boys ran on before Lord Byron, crying, "This way, my Lord."â€”"He seems to know you," said Mr. Rogers.â€”"Know me!" answered Lord Byron, with some degree of bitterness in his toneâ€”"every one knows me,â€”I am deformed."[49]A review, somewhat too critical, of some of the guests is here omitted.[50]For the first day or two, at Middleton, he did not join his noble host's party till after dinner, but took his scanty repast of biscuits and soda water in his own room. Being told by somebody that the gentleman above mentioned had pronounced such habits to be "effeminate," he resolved to show the "fox-hunter" that he could be, on occasion, as good abon-vivantas himself, and, by his prowess at the claret next day, after dinner, drew forth from Mr. C * * the eulogium here recorded.[51]"Such are the names that here your plaudits sought,When Garrick acted, and when Brinsley wrote."At present the couplet stands thus:â€”"Dear are the days that made our annals bright,Ere Garrick fled, or Brinsley ceased to write."[52]At present, "As glared the volumed blaze."[53]Some objection, it appears from this, had been made to the passage, "and Shakspeareceased to reign."[54]These added lines, as may be seen by reference to the printed Address, were not retained.[55]"Early in the autumn of 1812," says Mr. Dallas, "he told me that he was urged by his man of business, and that Newsteadmustbe sold." It was accordingly brought to the hammer at Garraway's, but not, at that time, sold, only 90,000l.being offered for it. The private sale to which he alludes in this letter took place soon after,â€”Mr. Claughton, the agent for Mr. Leigh, being the purchaser. It was never, however, for reasons which we shall see, completed.[56]A mode of signature he frequently adopted at this time.[57]A miniature by Sanders. Besides this miniature, Sanders had also painted a full length of his Lordship, from which the portrait prefixed to this work is engraved. In reference to the latter picture, Lord Byron says, in a note to Mr. Rogers, "If you think the picture you saw at Murray's worth your acceptance, it is yours; and you may put agloveor mask on it, if you like."[58]Among the Addresses sent in to the Drury Lane Committee was one by Dr. Busby, entitled a Monologue, of which the Parody was enclosed in this letter. A short specimen of this trifle will be sufficient. The four first lines of the Doctor's Address are as follows:â€”"When energising objects men pursue,What are the prodigies they cannot do?A magic Edifice you here survey,Shot from the ruins of the other day!"Which verses are thus ridiculed, unnecessarily, in the Parody:â€”"'When energising objects men pursue,'The Lord knows what is writ by Lord knows who.'A modest Monologue you here survey,'Hiss'd from the theatre the 'other day.'"[59]"The Genuine Rejected Addresses, presented to the Committee of Management for Drury Lane Theatre: preceded by that written by Lord Byron and adopted by the Committee:"â€”published by B. M'Millan.[60]In the Ode entitled "The Parthenon," Minerva thus speaks:â€”"All who behold my mutilated pileShall brand its ravager with classic rage;And soon a titled bard from Britain's isleThy country's praise and suffrage shall engage,And fire with Athens' wrongs an angry age!"HORACE IN LONDON.[61]"Tis said that persons living on annuitiesAre longer lived than others,â€”God knows why,Unless to plague the grantors,â€”yet so true it is,That some, I really think,donever die.Of any creditors, the worst a Jew it is;Andthat's their mode of furnishing supply:In my young days they lent me cash that way,Which I found very troublesome to pay."DON JUAN, Canto II[62]Lady Charlotte Harley, to whom, under the name of Ianthe, the introductory lines to Childe Harold were afterwards addressed.[63]The following are the lines in their present shape, and it will be seen that there is not a single alteration in which the music of the verse has not been improved as well as the thought:â€”"Fair clime! where every season smilesBenignant o'er those blessed isles,Which, seen from far Colonna's height,Make glad the heart that hails the sight,And lend to loneliness delight.There, mildly dimpling, Ocean's cheekReflects the tints of many a peakCaught by the laughing tides that laveThese Edens of the eastern wave:And if at times a transient breezeBreak the blue crystal of the seas,Or sweep one blossom from the trees,How welcome is each gentle airThat wakes and wafts the odours there!"[64]Mr. Jeffrey.[65]In Dallaway's Constantinople, a book which Lord Byron is not unlikely to have consulted, I find a passage quoted from Gillies's History of Greece, which contains, perhaps, the first seed of the thought thus expanded into full perfection by genius:â€”"The present state of Greece compared to the ancient is the silent obscurity of the grave contrasted with the vivid lustre of active life."[66]Among the recorded instances of such happy after-thoughts in poetry may be mentioned, as one of the most memorable, Denham's four lines, "Oh could I flow like thee," &c., which were added in the second edition of his poem.[67]Letters on the Character and Poetical Genius of Lord Byron, by Sir Egerton Brydges, Bart.[68]"Continuus aspectus minus verendos magnos homines facit."[69]The only peculiarity that struck me on those occasions was the uneasy restlessness which he seemed to feel in wearing a hat,â€”an article of dress which, from his constant use of a carriage while in England, he was almost wholly unaccustomed to, and which, after that year, I do not remember to have ever seen upon him again. Abroad, he always wore a kind of foraging cap.[70]He here alludes to a dinner at Mr. Rogers's, of which I have elsewhere given the following account:â€”"The company consisted but of Mr. Rogers himself, Lord Byron, Mr. Sheridan, and the writer of this Memoir. Sheridan knew the admiration his audience felt for him; the presence of the young poet, in particular, seemed to bring back his own youth and wit; and the details he gave of his early life were not less interesting and animating to himself than delightful to us. It was in the course of this evening that, describing to us the poem which Mr. Whitbread had written, and sent in, among the other addresses for the opening of Drury Lane theatre, and which, like the rest, turned chiefly on allusions to the Phoenix, he saidâ€”'But Whitbread made more of this bird than any of them:â€”he entered into particulars, and described its wings, beak, tail, &c.;â€”in short, it was apoulterer's description of a Phoenix."â€”Life of Sheridan.[71]His speech was on presenting a petition from Major Cartwright.[72]In an article on this Satire (written for Cumberland's Review, but never printed) by that most amiable man and excellent poet, the late Rev. William Crowe, the incongruity of these metaphors is thus noticed:â€”"Within the space of three or four couplets, he transforms a man into as many different animals. Allow him but the compass of three lines, and he will metamorphose him from a wolf into a harpy, and in three more he will make him a blood-hound."There are also in this MS. critique some curious instances of oversight or ignorance adduced from the Satire; such as "FishfromHelicon"â€”"AtticflowersAonianodours breathe," &c. &c.[73]The remainder of this letter, it appears, has been lost.[74]He calls the letter of Mr. Croker "unexpected," because, in their previous correspondence and interviews on the subject, that gentleman had not been able to hold out so early a prospect of a passage, nor one which was likely to be so agreeable in point of society.[75]This is written on a separate slip of paper enclosed.[76]The passage referred to by the Reviewers is in the poem entitled "Resentment;" and the following is, I take for granted, the part which Lord Byron is accused by them of having imitated:â€”"Those are like waxâ€”apply them to the fire,Melting, they take th' impressions you desire;Easy to mould, and fashion as you please,And again moulded with an equal ease:Like smelted iron these the forms retain;But, once impress'd, will never melt again."[77]One of his travelling projects appears to have been a visit to Abyssinia:â€”at least, I have found, among his papers, a letter founded on that supposition, in which the writer entreats of him to procure information concerning "a kingdom of Jews mentioned by Bruce as residing on the mountain of Samen in that country. I have had the honour," he adds, "of some correspondence with the Rev. Dr. Buchanan and the reverend and learned G.S. Faber, on the subject of the existence of this kingdom of Jews, which, if it prove to be a fact, will more clearly elucidate many of the Scripture prophecies; ... and, if Providence favours your Lordship's mission to Abyssinia, an intercourse might be established between England and that country, and the English ships, according to the Rev. Mr. Faber, might be the principal means of transporting the kingdom of Jews, now in Abyssinia, to Egypt, in the way to their own country, Palestine."[78]"A Persian's Heav'n is easily madeâ€”'Tis but black eyes and lemonade."[79]The Ode of Horace,"Natis in usum lÃ¦titiÃ¦," &c.;some passages of which I told him might be parodied, in allusion to some of his late adventures:"Quanta laboras in Charybdi!Digne puer meliore flammÃ¢!"[80]In his first edition of The Giaour he had used this word as a trisyllable,â€”"Bright as the gem of Giamschid,"â€”but on my remarking to him, upon the authority of Richardson's Persian Dictionary, that this was incorrect, he altered it to "Bright as the ruby of Giamschid." On seeing this, however, I wrote to him, "that, as the comparison of his heroine's eye to a 'ruby' might unluckily call up the idea of its being blood-shot, he had better change the line to "Bright as the jewel of Giamschid;"â€”which he accordingly did in the following edition.[81]Having already endeavoured to obviate the charge of vanity, to which I am aware I expose myself by being thus accessory to the publication of eulogies, so warm and so little merited, on myself, I shall here only add, that it will abundantly console me under such a charge, if, in whatever degree the judgment of my noble friend may be called in question for these praises, he shall, in the same proportion, receive credit for the good-nature and warm-heartedness by which they were dictated.[82]I had already, singularly enough, anticipated this suggestion, by making the daughter of a Peri the heroine of one of my stories, and detailing the love adventures of her aÃ«rial parent in an episode. In acquainting Lord Byron with this circumstance, in my answer to the above letter, I added, "All I ask of your friendship isâ€”not that you will abstain from Peris on my account, for that is too much to ask of human (or, at least, author's) natureâ€”but that, whenever you mean to pay your addresses to any of these aÃ«rial ladies, you will, at once, tell me so, frankly and instantly, and let me, at least, have my choice whether I shall be desperate enough to go on, with such a rival, or at once surrender the whole race into your hands, and take, for the future, to Antediluvians with Mr. Montgomery."[83]The letter of Lord Sligo, already given.[84]Now printed in his Works.[85]The motto to The Giaour, which is taken from one of the Irish Melodies, had been quoted by him incorrectly in the first editions of the poem. He made afterwards a similar mistake in the lines from Burns prefixed to the Bride of Abydos.[86]The Bride of Abydos.[87]Among the stories intended to be introduced into Lalla Rookh, which I had begun, but, from various causes, never finished, there was one which I had made some progress in, at the time of the appearance of "The Bride," and which, on reading that poem, I found to contain such singular coincidences with it, not only in locality and costume, but in plot and characters, that I immediately gave up my story altogether, and began another on an entirely new subject, the Fire-worshippers. To this circumstance, which I immediately communicated to him, Lord Byron alludes in this letter. In my hero (to whom I had even given the name of "Zelim," and who was a descendant of Ali, outlawed, with all his followers, by the reigning Caliph) it was my intention to shadow out, as I did afterwards in another form, the national cause of Ireland. To quote the words of my letter to Lord Byron on the subject:â€”"I chose this story because one writes best about what one feels most, and I thought the parallel with Ireland would enable me to infuse some vigour into my hero's character. But to aim at vigour and strong feeling afteryouis hopeless;â€”that region 'was made for CÃ¦sar.'"[88]"C'est surtout aux hommes qui sont hors de toute comparaison par le gÃ©nie qu'on aime Ã ressembler au moins par les foiblesses."â€”GINGUENE.[89]"Earth holds no other like to thee,Or, if it doth, in vain for me:For worlds I dare not view the dameResembling thee, yet not the same."THE GIAOUR.[90]Evidently, Mr. Hodgson.[91]He had this year so far departed from his strict plan of diet as to eat fish occasionally.[92]We have here another instance, in addition to the munificent aid afforded to Mr. Hodgson, of the generous readiness of the poet, notwithstanding his own limited means, to make the resources he possessed available for the assistance of his friends.[93]Left blank thus in the original.[94]It was thus that he, in general, spelled this word.[95]The present Lord Dudley.[96]This passage has been already extracted.[97]His cousin, the present Lord Byron.[98]Miss Milbanke, afterwards Lady Byron.[99]Two or three words are here scratched out in the manuscript, but the import of the sentence evidently is that Mr. Hodgson (to whom the passage refers) had been revealing to some friends the secret of Lord Byron's kindness to him.[100]This passage of the Journal has already appeared in my Life of Sheridan.[101]These names are all left blank in the original.[102]Of this strange, wild poem, which extends to about two hundred and fifty lines, the only copy that Lord Byron, I believe, ever wrote, he presented to Lord Holland. Though with a good deal of vigour and imagination, it is, for the most part, rather clumsily executed, wanting the point and condensation of those clever verses of Mr. Coleridge[103], which Lord Byron, adopting a notion long prevalent, has attributed to Professor Person. There are, however, some of the stanzas of "The Devil's Drive" well worth preserving.1."The Devil return'd to hell by two,And he stay'd at home till five;When he dined on some homicides done inragoÃ»t,And a rebel or so in anIrishstew,And sausages made of a self-slain Jew,And bethought himself what next to do,'And,' quoth he, 'I'll take a drive.I walk'd in the morning, I'll ride to-night;In darkness my children take most delight,And I'll see how my favourites thrive.'2."'And what shall I ride in?' quoth Lucifer, thenâ€”'If I follow'd my taste, indeed,I should mount in a wagon of wounded men,And smile to see them bleed.But these will be furnish'd again and again,And at present my purpose is speed;To see my manor as much as I may,And watch that no souls shall be poach'd away.3."'I have a state coach at Carleton House,A chariot in Seymour Place;But they're lent to two friends, who make me amendsBy driving my favourite pace:And they handle their reins with such a grace,I have something for both at the end of the race.4."'So now for the earth to take my chance.'Then up to the earth sprung he;And making a jump from Moscow to France,He stepped across the sea,And rested his hoof on a turnpike road,No very great way from a bishop's abode.5."But first as he flew, I forgot to say,That he hover'd a moment upon his wayTo look upon Leipsic plain;And so sweet to his eye was its sulphury glare,And so soft to his ear was the cry of despair,That he perch'd on a mountain of slain;And he gazed with delight from its growing height;Not often on earth had he seen such a sight,Nor his work done half as well:For the field ran so red with the blood of the dead,That it blush'd like the waves of hell!Then loudly, and wildly, and long laugh'd heâ€”'Methinks they have here little need of me!' * * *8."But the softest note that sooth'd his earWas the sound of a widow sighing,And the sweetest sight was the icy tear,Which Horror froze in the blue eye clearOf a maid by her lover lyingâ€”As round her fell her long fair hair;And she look'd to Heaven with that frenzied airWhich seem'd to ask if a God were there!And, stretch'd by the wall of a ruin'd hut,With its hollow cheek, and eyes half shut,A child of famine dying:And the carnage begun, when resistance is done,And the fall of the vainly flying!10."But the Devil has reach'd our cliffs so white,And what did he there, I pray?If his eyes were good, he but saw by nightWhat we see every day;But he made a tour, and kept a journalOf all the wondrous sights nocturnal,And he sold it in shares to theMenof theRow,Who bid pretty wellâ€”but theycheatedhim, though!11."The Devil first saw, as he thought, theMail,Its coachman and his coat;So instead of a pistol, he cock'd his tail,And seized him by the throat:'Aha,' quoth he, 'what have we here?'Tis a new barouche, and an ancient peer!'12."So he sat him on his box again,And bade him have no fear,But be true to his club, and stanch to his rein,His brothel, and his beer;'Next to seeing a lord at the council board.I would rather see him here.'17."The Devil gat next to Westminster,And he turn'd to 'the room' of the Commons;But he heard, as he purposed to enter in there,That 'the Lords' had received a summons;And he thought, as a 'quondamaristocrat,'He might peep at the peers, though tohearthem were flat:And he walk'd up the house, so like one of our own,That they say that he stood pretty near the throne.18."He saw the Lord Lâ€”â€”l seemingly wise,The Lord Wâ€”â€”d certainly silly,And Johnny of Norfolkâ€”a man of some sizeâ€”And Chatham, so like his friend Billy;And he saw the tears in Lord Eâ€”â€”n's eyes,Because the Catholics wouldnotrise,In spite of his prayers and his prophecies;And he heardâ€”which set Satan himself a staringâ€”A certain Chief Justice say something likeswearing.And the Devil was shock'dâ€”and quoth he, 'I must go,For I find we have much better manners below.If thus he harangues when he passes my border,I shall hint to friend Moloch to call him to order.'"[103]Or Mr. Southey,â€”for the right of authorship in them seems still undecided.[104]He learned to think more reverently of "the Petrarch" afterwards.[105]Poems by Mr. Gally Knight, of which Mr. Murray had transmitted the MS. to Lord Byron, without, however, communicating the name of the author.[106]"Kennst du das Land wo die Citronen blÃ¼hn," &c.[107]Among the imputed plagiarisms so industriously hunted out in his writings, this line has been, with somewhat more plausibility than is frequent in such charges, included,â€”the lyric poet Lovelace having, it seems, written,"The melody and music of her face."Sir Thomas Brown, too, in his Religio Medici, saysâ€”"There is music even in beauty," &c. The coincidence, no doubt, is worth observing, and the task of "tracking" thus a favourite writer "in the snow (as Dryden expresses it) of others" is sometimes not unamusing; but to those who found upon such resemblances a general charge of plagiarism, we may apply what Sir Walter Scott says, in that most agreeable work, his Lives of the Novelists:â€”"It is a favourite theme of laborious dulness to trace such coincidences, because they appear to reduce genius of the higher order to the usual standard of humanity, and of course to bring the author nearer to a level with his critics."[108]It will be seen, however, from a subsequent letter to Mr. Murray, that he himself was at first unaware of the peculiar felicity of this epithet; and it is therefore, probable, that, after all, the merit of the choice may have belonged to Mr. Gifford.[109]Some doubt had been expressed by Mr. Murray as to the propriety of his putting the name of Cain into the mouth of a Mussulman.[110]Mr. Canning's note was as follows:â€”"I received the books, and, among them, The Bride of Abydos. It is very, very beautiful. Lord Byron (when I met him, one day, at dinner at Mr. Ward's) was so kind as to promise to give me a copy of it. I mention this, not to save my purchase, but because I should be really flattered by the present."[111]Penrose's Journal, a book published by Mr. Murray at this time.[112]Mr. Murray had offered him a thousand guineas for the two poems.[113]Penrose's Journal.[114]His first intention had been to go out, as a settler, to Botany Bay.[115]When these monthly disbursements had amounted to 70l., Ashe wrote to beg that the whole remaining sum of 80l. might be advanced to him at one payment, in order to enable him, as he said, to avail himself of a passage to New South Wales, which had been again offered to him. The sum was accordingly, by Lord Byron's orders, paid into his hands.[116]This letter is but a fragment,â€”the remainder being lost.[117]The reader has already seen what Lord Byron himself says, in his Journal, on this subject:â€”"What an odd situation and friendship is ours!â€”without one spark of love on either side," &c. &c.

[1]To this he alludes in those beautiful stanzas,"To sit on rocks, to muse o'er flood and fell," &c.Alfieri, before his dramatic genius had yet unfolded itself, used to pass hours, as he tells us, in this sort of dreaming state, gazing upon the ocean:â€”"AprÃ¨s le spectacle un de mes amusemens, Ã Marseille, Ã©tait de me baigner presque tous les soirs dans la mer. J'avais trouvÃ© un petit endroit fort agrÃ©able, sur une langue de terre placÃ©e Ã droite hors du port, oÃ¹, en m'asseyant sur le sable, le dos appuyÃ© contre un petit rocher qui empÃªchait qu'on ne pÃ»t me voir du cÃ´tÃ© de la terre, je n'avais plus devant moi que le ciel et la mer. Entre ces deux immensitÃ©s qu'embellissaient les rayons d'un soleil couchant, je passai en rÃªvant des heures dÃ©licieuses; et lÃ , je serais devenu poÃ«te, si j'avais su Ã©crire dans une langue quelconque."

[1]To this he alludes in those beautiful stanzas,

"To sit on rocks, to muse o'er flood and fell," &c.

Alfieri, before his dramatic genius had yet unfolded itself, used to pass hours, as he tells us, in this sort of dreaming state, gazing upon the ocean:â€”"AprÃ¨s le spectacle un de mes amusemens, Ã Marseille, Ã©tait de me baigner presque tous les soirs dans la mer. J'avais trouvÃ© un petit endroit fort agrÃ©able, sur une langue de terre placÃ©e Ã droite hors du port, oÃ¹, en m'asseyant sur le sable, le dos appuyÃ© contre un petit rocher qui empÃªchait qu'on ne pÃ»t me voir du cÃ´tÃ© de la terre, je n'avais plus devant moi que le ciel et la mer. Entre ces deux immensitÃ©s qu'embellissaient les rayons d'un soleil couchant, je passai en rÃªvant des heures dÃ©licieuses; et lÃ , je serais devenu poÃ«te, si j'avais su Ã©crire dans une langue quelconque."

[2]But a few months before he died, in a conversation with Maurocordato at Missolonghi, Lord Byron saidâ€”"The Turkish History was one of the first books that gave me pleasure when a child; and I believe it had much influence on my subsequent wishes to visit the Levant, and gave perhaps the oriental colouring which is observed in my poetry."â€”COUNT GAMBA'sNarrative.In the last edition of Mr. D'Israeli's work on "the Literary Character," that gentleman has given some curious marginal notes, which he found written by Lord Byron in a copy of this work that belonged to him. Among them is the following enumeration of the writers that, besides Rycaut, had drawn his attention so early to the East:â€”"Knolles, Cantemir, De Tott, Lady M.W. Montague, Hawkins's Translation from Mignot's History of the Turks, the Arabian Nights, all travels, or histories, or books upon the East I could meet with, I had read, as well as Rycaut, before I wasten years old. I think the Arabian Nights first. After these, I preferred the history of naval actions, Don Quixote, and Smollett's novels, particularly Roderick Random, and I was passionate for the Roman History. When a boy, I could never bear to read any Poetry whatever without disgust and reluctance."

In the last edition of Mr. D'Israeli's work on "the Literary Character," that gentleman has given some curious marginal notes, which he found written by Lord Byron in a copy of this work that belonged to him. Among them is the following enumeration of the writers that, besides Rycaut, had drawn his attention so early to the East:â€”

"Knolles, Cantemir, De Tott, Lady M.W. Montague, Hawkins's Translation from Mignot's History of the Turks, the Arabian Nights, all travels, or histories, or books upon the East I could meet with, I had read, as well as Rycaut, before I wasten years old. I think the Arabian Nights first. After these, I preferred the history of naval actions, Don Quixote, and Smollett's novels, particularly Roderick Random, and I was passionate for the Roman History. When a boy, I could never bear to read any Poetry whatever without disgust and reluctance."

[3]"It rained hard the next day, and we spent another evening with our soldiers. The captain, Elmas, tried a fine Manton gun belonging to my Friend, and hitting his mark every time was highly delighted."â€”HOBHOUSE'sJourney, &c.

[4]It must be recollected that by two of these gentlemen he was seen chiefly under the restraints of presentation and etiquette, when whatever gloom there was on his spirits would, in a shy nature like his, most show itself. The account which his fellow-traveller gives of him is altogether different. In introducing the narration of a short tour to Negroponte, in which his noble friend was unable to accompany him, Mr. Hobhouse expresses strongly the deficiency of which he is sensible, from the absence, on this occasion, of "a companion, who, to quickness of observation and ingenuity of remark, united that gay good-humour which keeps alive the attention under the pressure of fatigue, and softens the aspect of every difficulty and danger." In some lines, too, of the "Hints from Horace," addressed evidently to Mr. Hobhouse, Lord Byron not only renders the same justice to his own social cheerfulness, but gives a somewhat more distinct idea of the frame of mind out of which it rose;â€”"Moschus! with whom I hope once more to sit,And smile at folly, if we can't at wit;Yes, friend, for thee I'll quit my Cynic cell,And bear Swift's motto, "Vive la bagatelle!"Which charm'd our days in each Ã†gean clime,And oft at home with revelry and rhyme."

"Moschus! with whom I hope once more to sit,And smile at folly, if we can't at wit;Yes, friend, for thee I'll quit my Cynic cell,And bear Swift's motto, "Vive la bagatelle!"Which charm'd our days in each Ã†gean clime,And oft at home with revelry and rhyme."

[5]It is, however, less wonderful that authors should thus misjudge their productions, when whole generations have sometimes fallen into the same sort of error. The Sonnets of Petrarch were, by the learned of his day, considered only worthy of the ballad-singers by whom they were chanted about the streets; while his Epic Poem, "Africa," of which few now even know the existence, was sought for on all sides, and the smallest fragment of it begged from the author, for the libraries of the learned.

[6]Gray, under the influence of a similar predilection, preferred, for a long time, his Latin poems to those by which he has gained such a station in English literature. "Shall we attribute this," says Mason, "to his having been educated at Eton, or to what other cause? Certain it is, that when I first knew him, he seemed to set a greater value on his Latin poetry than on that which he had composed in his native language."

[7]One of the manuscript notes of Lord Byron on Mr. D'Israeli's work, already referred to.â€”Vol. i. p. 144.

[8]"Mac Flecknoe, the Dunciad, and all Swift's lampooning ballads.â€”Whatever their other works may be, these originated in personal feelings and angry retort on unworthy rivals; and though the ability of these satires elevates the poetical, their poignancy detracts from the personal, character of the writers."

[9]"Harvey, thecirculatorof thecirculationof the blood, used to fling away Virgil in his ecstasy of admiration, and say 'the book had a devil.' Now, such a character as I am copying would probably fling it away also, but rather wish that the devil had the book; not from a dislike to the poet, but a well-founded horror of hexameters. Indeed, the public-school penance of 'Long and Short' is enough to beget an antipathy to poetry for the residue of a man's life, and perhaps so far may be an advantage."

[10]"'Hell,' a gaming-house so called, where you risk little, and are cheated a good deal: 'Club,' a pleasant purgatory, where you lose more, and are not supposed to be cheated at all."

[11]"As Mr. Pope took the liberty of damning Homer, to whom he was under great obligationsâ€”'And Homer (damn him) calls'â€”it may be presumed that any body or any thing may be damned in verse by poetical license; and in case of accident, I beg leave to plead so illustrious a precedent."

[12]"This well-meaning gentleman has spoilt some excellent shoemakers, and been accessary to the poetical undoing of many of the industrious poor. Nathaniel Bloomfield and his brother Bobby have set all Somersetshire singing. Nor has the malady confined itself to one county. Pratt, too (who once was wiser), has caught the contagion of patronage, and decoyed a poor fellow, named Blackett, into poetry; but he died during the operation, leaving one child and two volumes of 'Remains' utterly destitute. The girl, if she don't take a poetical twist, and come forth as a shoemaking Sappho, may do well, but the 'Tragedies' are as rickety as if they had been the offspring of an Earl or a Seatonian prize-poet. The patrons of this poor lad are certainly answerable for his end, and it ought to be an indictable offence. But this is the least they have done; for, by a refinement of barbarity, they have made the (late) man posthumously ridiculous, by printing what he would have had sense enough never to print himself. Certes, these rakers of 'Remains' come under the statute against resurrection-men. What does it signify whether a poor dear dead dunce is to be stuck up in Surgeons' or in Stationers' Hall? is it so bad to unearth his bones as his blunders? is it not better to gibbet his body on a heath than his soul in an octavo? 'We know what we are, but we know not what we may be,' and it is to be hoped we never shall know, if a man who has passed through life with a sort of Ã©clat is to find himself a mountebank on the other side of Styx, and made, like poor Joe Blackett, the laughing-stock of purgatory. The plea of publication is to provide for the child. Now, might not some of this 'sutor ultra crepidam's' friends and seducers have done a decent action without inveigling Pratt into biography? And then, his inscriptions split into so many modicums! 'To the Duchess of So Much, the Right Honble. So-and-so, and Mrs. and Miss Somebody, these volumes are,' &c. &c. Why, this is doling out the 'soft milk of dedication' in gills; there is but a quart, and he divides it among a dozen. Why, Pratt! hadst thou not a puff left? dost thou think six families of distinction can share this in quiet? There is a child, a book, and a dedication: send the girl to her grace, the volumes to the grocer, and the dedication to the d-v-l."

[13]That he himself attributed every thing to fortune, appears from the following passage in one of his journals: "Like Sylla, I have always believed that all things depend upon fortune, and nothing upon ourselves. I am not aware of any one thought or action worthy of being called good to myself or others, which is not to be attributed to the good goddess, FORTUNE!"

[14]The grounds on which the Messrs. Longman refused to publish his Lordship's Satire, were the severe attacks it contained upon Mr. Southey and others of their literary friends.

[15]In many instances the mothers of illustrious poets have had reason to be proud no less of the affection than of the glory of their sons; and Tasso, Pope, Gray, and Cowper, are among these memorable examples of filial tenderness. In the lesser poems of Tasso, there are few things so beautiful as his description, in the Canzone to the Metauro, of his first parting with his mother:â€”"Me dal sen della madre empia fortunaPargoletto divelse," &c.

"Me dal sen della madre empia fortunaPargoletto divelse," &c.

[16]Napoleon.

[17]In a letter, written between two and three months after his mother's death, he states no less a number than six persons, all friends or relatives, who had been snatched away from him by death between May and the end of August.

[18]In continuation of the note quoted in the text, he says of Matthewsâ€”"His powers of mind, shown in the attainment of greater honours, against theablest candidates, than those of any graduate on record at Cambridge, have sufficiently established his fame on the spot where it was acquired." One of the candidates, thus described, was Mr. Thomas Barnes, a gentleman whose career since has kept fully the promise of his youth, though, from the nature of the channels through which his literary labours have been directed, his great talents are far more extensively known than his name.

[19]It had been the intention of Mr. Matthews to offer himself, at the ensuing election, for the university. In reference to this purpose, a manuscript Memoir of him, now lying before me, saysâ€”"If acknowledged and successful talentsâ€”if principles of the strictest honourâ€”if the devotion of many friends could have secured the success of an 'independent pauper' (as he jocularly called himself in a letter on the subject), the vision would have been realised."

[20]He was the third son of the late John Matthews, Esq. of Belmont, Herefordshire, representative of that county in the parliament of 1802-6. The author of "The Diary of an Invalid," also untimely snatched away, was another son of the same gentleman, as is likewise the present Prebendary of Hereford, the Reverend Arthur Matthews, who, by his ability and attainments, sustains worthily the reputation of the name.The father of this accomplished family was himself a man of considerable talent, and the author of several unavowed poetical pieces; one of which, a Parody of Pope's Eloisa, written in early youth, has been erroneously ascribed to the late Professor Porson, who was in the habit of reciting it, and even printed an edition of the verses.

The father of this accomplished family was himself a man of considerable talent, and the author of several unavowed poetical pieces; one of which, a Parody of Pope's Eloisa, written in early youth, has been erroneously ascribed to the late Professor Porson, who was in the habit of reciting it, and even printed an edition of the verses.

[21]"One of the cleverest men I ever knew, in conversation, was Scrope Berdmore Davies. Hobhouse is also very good in that line, though it is of less consequence to a man who has other ways of showing his talents than in company. Scrope was always ready and often wittyâ€”Hobhouse as witty, but not always so ready, being more diffident."â€”MS. Journal of Lord Byron.

[22]"If the papers lie not (which they generally do), Demetrius Zograffo of Athens is at the head of the Athenian part of the Greek insurrection. He was my servant in 1809, 1810, 1811, 1812, at different intervals of those years (for I left him in Greece when I went to Constantinople), and accompanied me to England in 1811: he returned to Greece, spring, 1812. He was a clever, but notapparentlyan enterprising man; but circumstances make men. His two sons (theninfants) were named Miltiades and Alcibiades: may the omen be happy!" â€”MS. Journal.

[23]On the death of his mother, a considerable sum of money, the remains of the price of the estate of Gight, was paid into his hands by her trustee, Baron Clerk.

[24]Over the words which I have here placed between brackets, Lord Byron drew his pen.

[25]In the clause enumerating the names and places of abode of the executors, the solicitor had left blanks for the Christian names of these gentlemen, and Lord Byron, having filled up all but that of Dallas, writes in the marginâ€”"I forget the Christian name of Dallasâ€”cut him out."

[26]On a leaf of one of his paper-books I find an Epigram written at this time, which, though not perhaps particularly good, I consider myself bound to insert:â€”"ON MOORE'S LAST OPERATIC FARCE, OR FARCICAL OPERA."Good plays are scarce,So Moore writes farce:The poet's fame grows brittleâ€”We knew beforeThatLittle'sMoore,But now 'tisMoorethat'slittle.Sept. 14. 1811."

[26]On a leaf of one of his paper-books I find an Epigram written at this time, which, though not perhaps particularly good, I consider myself bound to insert:â€”

"ON MOORE'S LAST OPERATIC FARCE, OR FARCICAL OPERA.

"Good plays are scarce,So Moore writes farce:The poet's fame grows brittleâ€”We knew beforeThatLittle'sMoore,But now 'tisMoorethat'slittle.Sept. 14. 1811."

[27]In a note on his "Hints from Horace," he thus humorously applies this incident:â€”"A literary friend of mine walking out one lovely evening last summer on the eleventh bridge of the Paddington Canal, was alarmed by the cry of 'One in jeopardy!' He rushed along, collected a body of Irish haymakers (supping on buttermilk in an adjoining paddock), procured three rakes, one eel spear, and a landing-net, and at last (horresco referens) pulled outâ€”his own publisher. The unfortunate man was gone for ever, and so was a large quarto wherewith he had taken the leap, which proved, on enquiry, to have been Mr. Sâ€”â€”'s last work. Its 'alacrity of sinking' was so great, that it has never since been heard of, though some maintain that it is at this moment concealed at Alderman Birch's pastry-premises, Cornhill. Be this as it may, the coroner's inquest brought in a verdict of 'Felo de BibliopolÃ¢' against a 'quarto unknown,' and circumstantial evidence being since strong against the 'Curse of Kehama' (of which the above words are an exact description), it will be tried by its peers next session in Grub Street. Arthur, Alfred, Davideis, Richard Coeur de Lion, Exodus, Exodiad, Epigoniad, Calvary, Fall of Cambria, Siege of Acre, Don Roderick, and Tom Thumb the Great, are the names of the twelve jurors. The judges are Pye, * * *, and the bellman of St. Sepulchre's."

[27]In a note on his "Hints from Horace," he thus humorously applies this incident:â€”

"A literary friend of mine walking out one lovely evening last summer on the eleventh bridge of the Paddington Canal, was alarmed by the cry of 'One in jeopardy!' He rushed along, collected a body of Irish haymakers (supping on buttermilk in an adjoining paddock), procured three rakes, one eel spear, and a landing-net, and at last (horresco referens) pulled outâ€”his own publisher. The unfortunate man was gone for ever, and so was a large quarto wherewith he had taken the leap, which proved, on enquiry, to have been Mr. Sâ€”â€”'s last work. Its 'alacrity of sinking' was so great, that it has never since been heard of, though some maintain that it is at this moment concealed at Alderman Birch's pastry-premises, Cornhill. Be this as it may, the coroner's inquest brought in a verdict of 'Felo de BibliopolÃ¢' against a 'quarto unknown,' and circumstantial evidence being since strong against the 'Curse of Kehama' (of which the above words are an exact description), it will be tried by its peers next session in Grub Street. Arthur, Alfred, Davideis, Richard Coeur de Lion, Exodus, Exodiad, Epigoniad, Calvary, Fall of Cambria, Siege of Acre, Don Roderick, and Tom Thumb the Great, are the names of the twelve jurors. The judges are Pye, * * *, and the bellman of St. Sepulchre's."

[28]See the extract from one of his journals, vol. i. p. 94.

[29]The verses in vol. ii. p. 73.

[30]Barber, whom he had brought down to Newstead to paint his wolf and his bear.

[31]This is the only entire letter of my own that, in the course of this work, I mean to obtrude upon my readers. Being short, and in terms more explanatory of the feeling on which I acted than any others that could be substituted, it might be suffered, I thought, to form the single exception to my general rule. In all other cases, I shall merely give such extracts from my own letters as may be necessary to elucidate those of my correspondent.

[32]Finding two different draughts of this letter among my papers, I cannot be quite certain as to some of the terms employed; but have little doubt that they are here given correctly.

[33]In speaking thus, I beg to disclaim all affected modesty, Lord Byron had already made the same distinction himself in the opinions which he expressed of the living poets; and I cannot but be aware that, for the praises which he afterwards bestowed on my writings, I was, in a great degree, indebted to his partiality to myself.

[34]The Rev. Robert Bland, one of the authors of "Collections from the Greek Anthology." Lord Byron was, at this time, endeavouring to secure for Mr. Bland the task of translating Lucien Buonaparte's poem.

[35]The brother of his late friend, Charles Skinner Matthews.

[36]Lord Byron is here mistaken. Dr. Johnson never saw Cecilia till it was in print. A day or two before publication, the young authoress, as I understand, sent three copies to the three persons who had the best claim to them,â€”her father, Mrs. Thrale, and Dr. Johnson.â€”Second edition.

[37]This poem is now printed in Lord Byron's Works.

[38]On this occasion, another of the noble poet's peculiarities was, somewhat startlingly, introduced to my notice. When we were on the point of setting out from his lodgings in St. James's Street, it being then about mid-day, he said to the servant, who was shutting the door of the vis-Ã -vis, "Have you put in the pistols?" and was answered in the affirmative. It was difficult,â€”more especially, taking into account the circumstances under which we had just become acquainted,â€”to keep from smiling at this singular noon-day precaution.

[39]"Written beneath the picture of â€”â€”"

[40]If there could be any doubt as to his intention of delineating himself in his hero, this adoption of the old Norman name of his family, which he seems to have at first contemplated, would be sufficient to remove it.

[41]In the MS. the names "Robin" and "Rupert" had been successively inserted here and scratched out again.

[42]Here the manuscript is illegible.

[43]Among the acknowledged blemishes of Milton's great poem, is his abrupt transition, in this manner, into an imitation of Ariosto's style, in the "Paradise of Fools."

[44]To his sister, Mrs. Leigh, one of the first presentation copies was sent, with the following inscription in it:â€”"To Augusta, my dearest sister, and my best friend, who has ever loved me much better than I deserved, this volume is presented by her father's son, and most affectionate brother,"B."

[44]To his sister, Mrs. Leigh, one of the first presentation copies was sent, with the following inscription in it:â€”

"To Augusta, my dearest sister, and my best friend, who has ever loved me much better than I deserved, this volume is presented by her father's son, and most affectionate brother,"B."

"To Augusta, my dearest sister, and my best friend, who has ever loved me much better than I deserved, this volume is presented by her father's son, and most affectionate brother,

"B."

[45]"Little knew she, that seeming marble heart,Now mask'd in silence, or withheld by pride,Was not unskilful in the spoiler's art,And spread its snares licentious far and wide."CHILDE HAROLD, CANTO II.We have here another instance of his propensity to self-misrepresentation. However great might have been the irregularities of his college life, such phrases as the "art of the spoiler" and "spreading snares" were in nowise applicable to them.

[45]

"Little knew she, that seeming marble heart,Now mask'd in silence, or withheld by pride,Was not unskilful in the spoiler's art,And spread its snares licentious far and wide."CHILDE HAROLD, CANTO II.

We have here another instance of his propensity to self-misrepresentation. However great might have been the irregularities of his college life, such phrases as the "art of the spoiler" and "spreading snares" were in nowise applicable to them.

[46]"After speaking to him of the sale, and settling the new edition, I said, 'How can I possibly think of this rapid sale, and the profits likely to ensue, without recollectingâ€”'â€”'What?'â€”'Think what sum your work may produce.'â€”'I shall be rejoiced, and wish it doubled and trebled; but do not talk to me of money. I never will receive money for my writings.'" â€”DALLAS'SRecollections.

[47]In a letter to Pulteney, 12th May, 1735, Swift says, "I never got a farthing for any thing I writ, except once."

[48]He had taken a window opposite for the purpose, and was accompanied on the occasion by his old schoolfellows, Mr. Bailey and Mr. John Madocks. They went together from some assembly, and, on their arriving at the spot, about three o'clock in the morning, not finding the house that was to receive them open, Mr. Madocks undertook to rouse the inmates, while Lord Byron and Mr. Bailey sauntered, arm in arm, up the street. During this interval, rather a painful scene occurred. Seeing an unfortunate woman lying on the steps of a door, Lord Byron, with some expression of compassion, offered her a few shillings: but, instead of accepting them, she violently pushed away his hand, and, starting up with a yell of laughter, began to mimic the lameness of his gait. He did not utter a word; but "I could feel," said Mr. Bailey, "his arm trembling within mine, as we left her."I may take this opportunity of mentioning another anecdote connected with his lameness. In coming out, one night, from a ball, with Mr. Rogers, as they were on their way to their carriage, one of the link-boys ran on before Lord Byron, crying, "This way, my Lord."â€”"He seems to know you," said Mr. Rogers.â€”"Know me!" answered Lord Byron, with some degree of bitterness in his toneâ€”"every one knows me,â€”I am deformed."

I may take this opportunity of mentioning another anecdote connected with his lameness. In coming out, one night, from a ball, with Mr. Rogers, as they were on their way to their carriage, one of the link-boys ran on before Lord Byron, crying, "This way, my Lord."â€”"He seems to know you," said Mr. Rogers.â€”"Know me!" answered Lord Byron, with some degree of bitterness in his toneâ€”"every one knows me,â€”I am deformed."

[49]A review, somewhat too critical, of some of the guests is here omitted.

[50]For the first day or two, at Middleton, he did not join his noble host's party till after dinner, but took his scanty repast of biscuits and soda water in his own room. Being told by somebody that the gentleman above mentioned had pronounced such habits to be "effeminate," he resolved to show the "fox-hunter" that he could be, on occasion, as good abon-vivantas himself, and, by his prowess at the claret next day, after dinner, drew forth from Mr. C * * the eulogium here recorded.

[51]"Such are the names that here your plaudits sought,When Garrick acted, and when Brinsley wrote."At present the couplet stands thus:â€”"Dear are the days that made our annals bright,Ere Garrick fled, or Brinsley ceased to write."

[51]

"Such are the names that here your plaudits sought,When Garrick acted, and when Brinsley wrote."

At present the couplet stands thus:â€”

"Dear are the days that made our annals bright,Ere Garrick fled, or Brinsley ceased to write."

[52]At present, "As glared the volumed blaze."

[53]Some objection, it appears from this, had been made to the passage, "and Shakspeareceased to reign."

[54]These added lines, as may be seen by reference to the printed Address, were not retained.

[55]"Early in the autumn of 1812," says Mr. Dallas, "he told me that he was urged by his man of business, and that Newsteadmustbe sold." It was accordingly brought to the hammer at Garraway's, but not, at that time, sold, only 90,000l.being offered for it. The private sale to which he alludes in this letter took place soon after,â€”Mr. Claughton, the agent for Mr. Leigh, being the purchaser. It was never, however, for reasons which we shall see, completed.

[56]A mode of signature he frequently adopted at this time.

[57]A miniature by Sanders. Besides this miniature, Sanders had also painted a full length of his Lordship, from which the portrait prefixed to this work is engraved. In reference to the latter picture, Lord Byron says, in a note to Mr. Rogers, "If you think the picture you saw at Murray's worth your acceptance, it is yours; and you may put agloveor mask on it, if you like."

[58]Among the Addresses sent in to the Drury Lane Committee was one by Dr. Busby, entitled a Monologue, of which the Parody was enclosed in this letter. A short specimen of this trifle will be sufficient. The four first lines of the Doctor's Address are as follows:â€”"When energising objects men pursue,What are the prodigies they cannot do?A magic Edifice you here survey,Shot from the ruins of the other day!"Which verses are thus ridiculed, unnecessarily, in the Parody:â€”"'When energising objects men pursue,'The Lord knows what is writ by Lord knows who.'A modest Monologue you here survey,'Hiss'd from the theatre the 'other day.'"

"When energising objects men pursue,What are the prodigies they cannot do?A magic Edifice you here survey,Shot from the ruins of the other day!"

Which verses are thus ridiculed, unnecessarily, in the Parody:â€”

"'When energising objects men pursue,'The Lord knows what is writ by Lord knows who.'A modest Monologue you here survey,'Hiss'd from the theatre the 'other day.'"

[59]"The Genuine Rejected Addresses, presented to the Committee of Management for Drury Lane Theatre: preceded by that written by Lord Byron and adopted by the Committee:"â€”published by B. M'Millan.

[60]In the Ode entitled "The Parthenon," Minerva thus speaks:â€”"All who behold my mutilated pileShall brand its ravager with classic rage;And soon a titled bard from Britain's isleThy country's praise and suffrage shall engage,And fire with Athens' wrongs an angry age!"HORACE IN LONDON.

[60]In the Ode entitled "The Parthenon," Minerva thus speaks:â€”

"All who behold my mutilated pileShall brand its ravager with classic rage;And soon a titled bard from Britain's isleThy country's praise and suffrage shall engage,And fire with Athens' wrongs an angry age!"HORACE IN LONDON.

[61]"Tis said that persons living on annuitiesAre longer lived than others,â€”God knows why,Unless to plague the grantors,â€”yet so true it is,That some, I really think,donever die.Of any creditors, the worst a Jew it is;Andthat's their mode of furnishing supply:In my young days they lent me cash that way,Which I found very troublesome to pay."DON JUAN, Canto II

[61]

"Tis said that persons living on annuitiesAre longer lived than others,â€”God knows why,Unless to plague the grantors,â€”yet so true it is,That some, I really think,donever die.Of any creditors, the worst a Jew it is;Andthat's their mode of furnishing supply:In my young days they lent me cash that way,Which I found very troublesome to pay."DON JUAN, Canto II

[62]Lady Charlotte Harley, to whom, under the name of Ianthe, the introductory lines to Childe Harold were afterwards addressed.

[63]The following are the lines in their present shape, and it will be seen that there is not a single alteration in which the music of the verse has not been improved as well as the thought:â€”"Fair clime! where every season smilesBenignant o'er those blessed isles,Which, seen from far Colonna's height,Make glad the heart that hails the sight,And lend to loneliness delight.There, mildly dimpling, Ocean's cheekReflects the tints of many a peakCaught by the laughing tides that laveThese Edens of the eastern wave:And if at times a transient breezeBreak the blue crystal of the seas,Or sweep one blossom from the trees,How welcome is each gentle airThat wakes and wafts the odours there!"

[63]The following are the lines in their present shape, and it will be seen that there is not a single alteration in which the music of the verse has not been improved as well as the thought:â€”

"Fair clime! where every season smilesBenignant o'er those blessed isles,Which, seen from far Colonna's height,Make glad the heart that hails the sight,And lend to loneliness delight.There, mildly dimpling, Ocean's cheekReflects the tints of many a peakCaught by the laughing tides that laveThese Edens of the eastern wave:And if at times a transient breezeBreak the blue crystal of the seas,Or sweep one blossom from the trees,How welcome is each gentle airThat wakes and wafts the odours there!"

[64]Mr. Jeffrey.

[65]In Dallaway's Constantinople, a book which Lord Byron is not unlikely to have consulted, I find a passage quoted from Gillies's History of Greece, which contains, perhaps, the first seed of the thought thus expanded into full perfection by genius:â€”"The present state of Greece compared to the ancient is the silent obscurity of the grave contrasted with the vivid lustre of active life."

[66]Among the recorded instances of such happy after-thoughts in poetry may be mentioned, as one of the most memorable, Denham's four lines, "Oh could I flow like thee," &c., which were added in the second edition of his poem.

[67]Letters on the Character and Poetical Genius of Lord Byron, by Sir Egerton Brydges, Bart.

[68]"Continuus aspectus minus verendos magnos homines facit."

[69]The only peculiarity that struck me on those occasions was the uneasy restlessness which he seemed to feel in wearing a hat,â€”an article of dress which, from his constant use of a carriage while in England, he was almost wholly unaccustomed to, and which, after that year, I do not remember to have ever seen upon him again. Abroad, he always wore a kind of foraging cap.

[70]He here alludes to a dinner at Mr. Rogers's, of which I have elsewhere given the following account:â€”"The company consisted but of Mr. Rogers himself, Lord Byron, Mr. Sheridan, and the writer of this Memoir. Sheridan knew the admiration his audience felt for him; the presence of the young poet, in particular, seemed to bring back his own youth and wit; and the details he gave of his early life were not less interesting and animating to himself than delightful to us. It was in the course of this evening that, describing to us the poem which Mr. Whitbread had written, and sent in, among the other addresses for the opening of Drury Lane theatre, and which, like the rest, turned chiefly on allusions to the Phoenix, he saidâ€”'But Whitbread made more of this bird than any of them:â€”he entered into particulars, and described its wings, beak, tail, &c.;â€”in short, it was apoulterer's description of a Phoenix."â€”Life of Sheridan.

[70]He here alludes to a dinner at Mr. Rogers's, of which I have elsewhere given the following account:â€”

"The company consisted but of Mr. Rogers himself, Lord Byron, Mr. Sheridan, and the writer of this Memoir. Sheridan knew the admiration his audience felt for him; the presence of the young poet, in particular, seemed to bring back his own youth and wit; and the details he gave of his early life were not less interesting and animating to himself than delightful to us. It was in the course of this evening that, describing to us the poem which Mr. Whitbread had written, and sent in, among the other addresses for the opening of Drury Lane theatre, and which, like the rest, turned chiefly on allusions to the Phoenix, he saidâ€”'But Whitbread made more of this bird than any of them:â€”he entered into particulars, and described its wings, beak, tail, &c.;â€”in short, it was apoulterer's description of a Phoenix."â€”Life of Sheridan.

[71]His speech was on presenting a petition from Major Cartwright.

[72]In an article on this Satire (written for Cumberland's Review, but never printed) by that most amiable man and excellent poet, the late Rev. William Crowe, the incongruity of these metaphors is thus noticed:â€”"Within the space of three or four couplets, he transforms a man into as many different animals. Allow him but the compass of three lines, and he will metamorphose him from a wolf into a harpy, and in three more he will make him a blood-hound."There are also in this MS. critique some curious instances of oversight or ignorance adduced from the Satire; such as "FishfromHelicon"â€”"AtticflowersAonianodours breathe," &c. &c.

There are also in this MS. critique some curious instances of oversight or ignorance adduced from the Satire; such as "FishfromHelicon"â€”"AtticflowersAonianodours breathe," &c. &c.

[73]The remainder of this letter, it appears, has been lost.

[74]He calls the letter of Mr. Croker "unexpected," because, in their previous correspondence and interviews on the subject, that gentleman had not been able to hold out so early a prospect of a passage, nor one which was likely to be so agreeable in point of society.

[75]This is written on a separate slip of paper enclosed.

[76]The passage referred to by the Reviewers is in the poem entitled "Resentment;" and the following is, I take for granted, the part which Lord Byron is accused by them of having imitated:â€”"Those are like waxâ€”apply them to the fire,Melting, they take th' impressions you desire;Easy to mould, and fashion as you please,And again moulded with an equal ease:Like smelted iron these the forms retain;But, once impress'd, will never melt again."

[76]The passage referred to by the Reviewers is in the poem entitled "Resentment;" and the following is, I take for granted, the part which Lord Byron is accused by them of having imitated:â€”

"Those are like waxâ€”apply them to the fire,Melting, they take th' impressions you desire;Easy to mould, and fashion as you please,And again moulded with an equal ease:Like smelted iron these the forms retain;But, once impress'd, will never melt again."

[77]One of his travelling projects appears to have been a visit to Abyssinia:â€”at least, I have found, among his papers, a letter founded on that supposition, in which the writer entreats of him to procure information concerning "a kingdom of Jews mentioned by Bruce as residing on the mountain of Samen in that country. I have had the honour," he adds, "of some correspondence with the Rev. Dr. Buchanan and the reverend and learned G.S. Faber, on the subject of the existence of this kingdom of Jews, which, if it prove to be a fact, will more clearly elucidate many of the Scripture prophecies; ... and, if Providence favours your Lordship's mission to Abyssinia, an intercourse might be established between England and that country, and the English ships, according to the Rev. Mr. Faber, might be the principal means of transporting the kingdom of Jews, now in Abyssinia, to Egypt, in the way to their own country, Palestine."

[78]"A Persian's Heav'n is easily madeâ€”'Tis but black eyes and lemonade."

[78]

"A Persian's Heav'n is easily madeâ€”'Tis but black eyes and lemonade."

[79]The Ode of Horace,"Natis in usum lÃ¦titiÃ¦," &c.;some passages of which I told him might be parodied, in allusion to some of his late adventures:"Quanta laboras in Charybdi!Digne puer meliore flammÃ¢!"

[79]The Ode of Horace,

"Natis in usum lÃ¦titiÃ¦," &c.;

some passages of which I told him might be parodied, in allusion to some of his late adventures:

"Quanta laboras in Charybdi!Digne puer meliore flammÃ¢!"

[80]In his first edition of The Giaour he had used this word as a trisyllable,â€”"Bright as the gem of Giamschid,"â€”but on my remarking to him, upon the authority of Richardson's Persian Dictionary, that this was incorrect, he altered it to "Bright as the ruby of Giamschid." On seeing this, however, I wrote to him, "that, as the comparison of his heroine's eye to a 'ruby' might unluckily call up the idea of its being blood-shot, he had better change the line to "Bright as the jewel of Giamschid;"â€”which he accordingly did in the following edition.

[81]Having already endeavoured to obviate the charge of vanity, to which I am aware I expose myself by being thus accessory to the publication of eulogies, so warm and so little merited, on myself, I shall here only add, that it will abundantly console me under such a charge, if, in whatever degree the judgment of my noble friend may be called in question for these praises, he shall, in the same proportion, receive credit for the good-nature and warm-heartedness by which they were dictated.

[82]I had already, singularly enough, anticipated this suggestion, by making the daughter of a Peri the heroine of one of my stories, and detailing the love adventures of her aÃ«rial parent in an episode. In acquainting Lord Byron with this circumstance, in my answer to the above letter, I added, "All I ask of your friendship isâ€”not that you will abstain from Peris on my account, for that is too much to ask of human (or, at least, author's) natureâ€”but that, whenever you mean to pay your addresses to any of these aÃ«rial ladies, you will, at once, tell me so, frankly and instantly, and let me, at least, have my choice whether I shall be desperate enough to go on, with such a rival, or at once surrender the whole race into your hands, and take, for the future, to Antediluvians with Mr. Montgomery."

[83]The letter of Lord Sligo, already given.

[84]Now printed in his Works.

[85]The motto to The Giaour, which is taken from one of the Irish Melodies, had been quoted by him incorrectly in the first editions of the poem. He made afterwards a similar mistake in the lines from Burns prefixed to the Bride of Abydos.

[86]The Bride of Abydos.

[87]Among the stories intended to be introduced into Lalla Rookh, which I had begun, but, from various causes, never finished, there was one which I had made some progress in, at the time of the appearance of "The Bride," and which, on reading that poem, I found to contain such singular coincidences with it, not only in locality and costume, but in plot and characters, that I immediately gave up my story altogether, and began another on an entirely new subject, the Fire-worshippers. To this circumstance, which I immediately communicated to him, Lord Byron alludes in this letter. In my hero (to whom I had even given the name of "Zelim," and who was a descendant of Ali, outlawed, with all his followers, by the reigning Caliph) it was my intention to shadow out, as I did afterwards in another form, the national cause of Ireland. To quote the words of my letter to Lord Byron on the subject:â€”"I chose this story because one writes best about what one feels most, and I thought the parallel with Ireland would enable me to infuse some vigour into my hero's character. But to aim at vigour and strong feeling afteryouis hopeless;â€”that region 'was made for CÃ¦sar.'"

[88]"C'est surtout aux hommes qui sont hors de toute comparaison par le gÃ©nie qu'on aime Ã ressembler au moins par les foiblesses."â€”GINGUENE.

[89]"Earth holds no other like to thee,Or, if it doth, in vain for me:For worlds I dare not view the dameResembling thee, yet not the same."THE GIAOUR.

[89]

"Earth holds no other like to thee,Or, if it doth, in vain for me:For worlds I dare not view the dameResembling thee, yet not the same."THE GIAOUR.

[90]Evidently, Mr. Hodgson.

[91]He had this year so far departed from his strict plan of diet as to eat fish occasionally.

[92]We have here another instance, in addition to the munificent aid afforded to Mr. Hodgson, of the generous readiness of the poet, notwithstanding his own limited means, to make the resources he possessed available for the assistance of his friends.

[93]Left blank thus in the original.

[94]It was thus that he, in general, spelled this word.

[95]The present Lord Dudley.

[96]This passage has been already extracted.

[97]His cousin, the present Lord Byron.

[98]Miss Milbanke, afterwards Lady Byron.

[99]Two or three words are here scratched out in the manuscript, but the import of the sentence evidently is that Mr. Hodgson (to whom the passage refers) had been revealing to some friends the secret of Lord Byron's kindness to him.

[100]This passage of the Journal has already appeared in my Life of Sheridan.

[101]These names are all left blank in the original.

[102]Of this strange, wild poem, which extends to about two hundred and fifty lines, the only copy that Lord Byron, I believe, ever wrote, he presented to Lord Holland. Though with a good deal of vigour and imagination, it is, for the most part, rather clumsily executed, wanting the point and condensation of those clever verses of Mr. Coleridge[103], which Lord Byron, adopting a notion long prevalent, has attributed to Professor Person. There are, however, some of the stanzas of "The Devil's Drive" well worth preserving.1."The Devil return'd to hell by two,And he stay'd at home till five;When he dined on some homicides done inragoÃ»t,And a rebel or so in anIrishstew,And sausages made of a self-slain Jew,And bethought himself what next to do,'And,' quoth he, 'I'll take a drive.I walk'd in the morning, I'll ride to-night;In darkness my children take most delight,And I'll see how my favourites thrive.'2."'And what shall I ride in?' quoth Lucifer, thenâ€”'If I follow'd my taste, indeed,I should mount in a wagon of wounded men,And smile to see them bleed.But these will be furnish'd again and again,And at present my purpose is speed;To see my manor as much as I may,And watch that no souls shall be poach'd away.3."'I have a state coach at Carleton House,A chariot in Seymour Place;But they're lent to two friends, who make me amendsBy driving my favourite pace:And they handle their reins with such a grace,I have something for both at the end of the race.4."'So now for the earth to take my chance.'Then up to the earth sprung he;And making a jump from Moscow to France,He stepped across the sea,And rested his hoof on a turnpike road,No very great way from a bishop's abode.5."But first as he flew, I forgot to say,That he hover'd a moment upon his wayTo look upon Leipsic plain;And so sweet to his eye was its sulphury glare,And so soft to his ear was the cry of despair,That he perch'd on a mountain of slain;And he gazed with delight from its growing height;Not often on earth had he seen such a sight,Nor his work done half as well:For the field ran so red with the blood of the dead,That it blush'd like the waves of hell!Then loudly, and wildly, and long laugh'd heâ€”'Methinks they have here little need of me!' * * *8."But the softest note that sooth'd his earWas the sound of a widow sighing,And the sweetest sight was the icy tear,Which Horror froze in the blue eye clearOf a maid by her lover lyingâ€”As round her fell her long fair hair;And she look'd to Heaven with that frenzied airWhich seem'd to ask if a God were there!And, stretch'd by the wall of a ruin'd hut,With its hollow cheek, and eyes half shut,A child of famine dying:And the carnage begun, when resistance is done,And the fall of the vainly flying!10."But the Devil has reach'd our cliffs so white,And what did he there, I pray?If his eyes were good, he but saw by nightWhat we see every day;But he made a tour, and kept a journalOf all the wondrous sights nocturnal,And he sold it in shares to theMenof theRow,Who bid pretty wellâ€”but theycheatedhim, though!11."The Devil first saw, as he thought, theMail,Its coachman and his coat;So instead of a pistol, he cock'd his tail,And seized him by the throat:'Aha,' quoth he, 'what have we here?'Tis a new barouche, and an ancient peer!'12."So he sat him on his box again,And bade him have no fear,But be true to his club, and stanch to his rein,His brothel, and his beer;'Next to seeing a lord at the council board.I would rather see him here.'17."The Devil gat next to Westminster,And he turn'd to 'the room' of the Commons;But he heard, as he purposed to enter in there,That 'the Lords' had received a summons;And he thought, as a 'quondamaristocrat,'He might peep at the peers, though tohearthem were flat:And he walk'd up the house, so like one of our own,That they say that he stood pretty near the throne.18."He saw the Lord Lâ€”â€”l seemingly wise,The Lord Wâ€”â€”d certainly silly,And Johnny of Norfolkâ€”a man of some sizeâ€”And Chatham, so like his friend Billy;And he saw the tears in Lord Eâ€”â€”n's eyes,Because the Catholics wouldnotrise,In spite of his prayers and his prophecies;And he heardâ€”which set Satan himself a staringâ€”A certain Chief Justice say something likeswearing.And the Devil was shock'dâ€”and quoth he, 'I must go,For I find we have much better manners below.If thus he harangues when he passes my border,I shall hint to friend Moloch to call him to order.'"

1."The Devil return'd to hell by two,And he stay'd at home till five;When he dined on some homicides done inragoÃ»t,And a rebel or so in anIrishstew,And sausages made of a self-slain Jew,And bethought himself what next to do,'And,' quoth he, 'I'll take a drive.I walk'd in the morning, I'll ride to-night;In darkness my children take most delight,And I'll see how my favourites thrive.'2."'And what shall I ride in?' quoth Lucifer, thenâ€”'If I follow'd my taste, indeed,I should mount in a wagon of wounded men,And smile to see them bleed.But these will be furnish'd again and again,And at present my purpose is speed;To see my manor as much as I may,And watch that no souls shall be poach'd away.3."'I have a state coach at Carleton House,A chariot in Seymour Place;But they're lent to two friends, who make me amendsBy driving my favourite pace:And they handle their reins with such a grace,I have something for both at the end of the race.4."'So now for the earth to take my chance.'Then up to the earth sprung he;And making a jump from Moscow to France,He stepped across the sea,And rested his hoof on a turnpike road,No very great way from a bishop's abode.5."But first as he flew, I forgot to say,That he hover'd a moment upon his wayTo look upon Leipsic plain;And so sweet to his eye was its sulphury glare,And so soft to his ear was the cry of despair,That he perch'd on a mountain of slain;And he gazed with delight from its growing height;Not often on earth had he seen such a sight,Nor his work done half as well:For the field ran so red with the blood of the dead,That it blush'd like the waves of hell!Then loudly, and wildly, and long laugh'd heâ€”'Methinks they have here little need of me!' * * *8."But the softest note that sooth'd his earWas the sound of a widow sighing,And the sweetest sight was the icy tear,Which Horror froze in the blue eye clearOf a maid by her lover lyingâ€”As round her fell her long fair hair;And she look'd to Heaven with that frenzied airWhich seem'd to ask if a God were there!And, stretch'd by the wall of a ruin'd hut,With its hollow cheek, and eyes half shut,A child of famine dying:And the carnage begun, when resistance is done,And the fall of the vainly flying!10."But the Devil has reach'd our cliffs so white,And what did he there, I pray?If his eyes were good, he but saw by nightWhat we see every day;But he made a tour, and kept a journalOf all the wondrous sights nocturnal,And he sold it in shares to theMenof theRow,Who bid pretty wellâ€”but theycheatedhim, though!11."The Devil first saw, as he thought, theMail,Its coachman and his coat;So instead of a pistol, he cock'd his tail,And seized him by the throat:'Aha,' quoth he, 'what have we here?'Tis a new barouche, and an ancient peer!'12."So he sat him on his box again,And bade him have no fear,But be true to his club, and stanch to his rein,His brothel, and his beer;'Next to seeing a lord at the council board.I would rather see him here.'17."The Devil gat next to Westminster,And he turn'd to 'the room' of the Commons;But he heard, as he purposed to enter in there,That 'the Lords' had received a summons;And he thought, as a 'quondamaristocrat,'He might peep at the peers, though tohearthem were flat:And he walk'd up the house, so like one of our own,That they say that he stood pretty near the throne.18."He saw the Lord Lâ€”â€”l seemingly wise,The Lord Wâ€”â€”d certainly silly,And Johnny of Norfolkâ€”a man of some sizeâ€”And Chatham, so like his friend Billy;And he saw the tears in Lord Eâ€”â€”n's eyes,Because the Catholics wouldnotrise,In spite of his prayers and his prophecies;And he heardâ€”which set Satan himself a staringâ€”A certain Chief Justice say something likeswearing.And the Devil was shock'dâ€”and quoth he, 'I must go,For I find we have much better manners below.If thus he harangues when he passes my border,I shall hint to friend Moloch to call him to order.'"

[103]Or Mr. Southey,â€”for the right of authorship in them seems still undecided.

[104]He learned to think more reverently of "the Petrarch" afterwards.

[105]Poems by Mr. Gally Knight, of which Mr. Murray had transmitted the MS. to Lord Byron, without, however, communicating the name of the author.

[106]"Kennst du das Land wo die Citronen blÃ¼hn," &c.

[107]Among the imputed plagiarisms so industriously hunted out in his writings, this line has been, with somewhat more plausibility than is frequent in such charges, included,â€”the lyric poet Lovelace having, it seems, written,"The melody and music of her face."Sir Thomas Brown, too, in his Religio Medici, saysâ€”"There is music even in beauty," &c. The coincidence, no doubt, is worth observing, and the task of "tracking" thus a favourite writer "in the snow (as Dryden expresses it) of others" is sometimes not unamusing; but to those who found upon such resemblances a general charge of plagiarism, we may apply what Sir Walter Scott says, in that most agreeable work, his Lives of the Novelists:â€”"It is a favourite theme of laborious dulness to trace such coincidences, because they appear to reduce genius of the higher order to the usual standard of humanity, and of course to bring the author nearer to a level with his critics."

"The melody and music of her face."

Sir Thomas Brown, too, in his Religio Medici, saysâ€”"There is music even in beauty," &c. The coincidence, no doubt, is worth observing, and the task of "tracking" thus a favourite writer "in the snow (as Dryden expresses it) of others" is sometimes not unamusing; but to those who found upon such resemblances a general charge of plagiarism, we may apply what Sir Walter Scott says, in that most agreeable work, his Lives of the Novelists:â€”"It is a favourite theme of laborious dulness to trace such coincidences, because they appear to reduce genius of the higher order to the usual standard of humanity, and of course to bring the author nearer to a level with his critics."

[108]It will be seen, however, from a subsequent letter to Mr. Murray, that he himself was at first unaware of the peculiar felicity of this epithet; and it is therefore, probable, that, after all, the merit of the choice may have belonged to Mr. Gifford.

[109]Some doubt had been expressed by Mr. Murray as to the propriety of his putting the name of Cain into the mouth of a Mussulman.

[110]Mr. Canning's note was as follows:â€”"I received the books, and, among them, The Bride of Abydos. It is very, very beautiful. Lord Byron (when I met him, one day, at dinner at Mr. Ward's) was so kind as to promise to give me a copy of it. I mention this, not to save my purchase, but because I should be really flattered by the present."

[111]Penrose's Journal, a book published by Mr. Murray at this time.

[112]Mr. Murray had offered him a thousand guineas for the two poems.

[113]Penrose's Journal.

[114]His first intention had been to go out, as a settler, to Botany Bay.

[115]When these monthly disbursements had amounted to 70l., Ashe wrote to beg that the whole remaining sum of 80l. might be advanced to him at one payment, in order to enable him, as he said, to avail himself of a passage to New South Wales, which had been again offered to him. The sum was accordingly, by Lord Byron's orders, paid into his hands.

[116]This letter is but a fragment,â€”the remainder being lost.

[117]The reader has already seen what Lord Byron himself says, in his Journal, on this subject:â€”"What an odd situation and friendship is ours!â€”without one spark of love on either side," &c. &c.

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