Vide
Napoleon's last twelvemonth. It has completely upset my system of fatalism. I
thought
, if crushed, he would have fallen, when
fractus illabitur orbis
11
, and not have been pared away to gradual insignificance; that all this was not a mere
jeu
of the gods, but a prelude to greater changes and mightier events. But men never advance beyond a certain point; and here we are, retrograding, to the dull, stupid old system,—balance of Europe—poising straws upon kings' noses, instead of wringing them off! Give me a republic, or a despotism of one, rather than the mixed government of one, two, three. A republic!—look in the history of the Earth—Rome, Greece, Venice, France, Holland, America, our short (
eheu!
) Commonwealth, and compare it with what they did under masters. The Asiatics are not qualified to be republicans, but they have the liberty of demolishing despots, which is the next thing to it. To be the first man—not the Dictator—not the Sylla, but the Washington or the Aristides—the leader in talent and truth—is next to the Divinity! Franklin, Penn, and, next to these, either Brutus or Cassius—even Mirabeau—or St. Just. I shall never be any thing, or rather always be nothing. The most I can hope is, that some will say, "He might, perhaps, if he would."
12, midnight.
Here are two confounded proofs from the printer. I have looked at the one, but for the soul of me, I can't look over that
Giaour
again,—at least, just now, and at this hour—and yet there is no moon.
Ward talks of going to Holland, and we have partly discussed an
ensemble
expedition. It must be in ten days, if at all, if we wish to be in at the Revolution. And why not? —— is distant, and will be at ——, still more distant, till spring. No one else, except Augusta, cares for me; no ties—no trammels—
andiamo dunque—se torniamo, bene—se non, ch' importa?
Old William of Orange talked of dying in "the last ditch" of his dingy country. It is lucky I can swim, or I suppose I should not well weather the first. But let us see. I have heard hyeenas and jackalls in the ruins of Asia; and bull-frogs in the marshes; besides wolves and angry Mussulmans. Now, I should like to listen to the shout of a free Dutchman.
Alla! Viva! For ever! Hourra! Huzza!—which is the most rational or musical of these cries? "Orange Boven," according to the
Morning Post
.
Footnote 1:
"By the apostle Paul, shadows to-nightHave struck more terror to the soul of RichardThan can the substance of ten thousand soldiers,Armed in proof, and led by shallow Richmond."
Richard III
., act v. sc. 3.
return to footnote mark
Footnote 2:
"Lord Ogleby" is a character in
The Clandestine Marriage
(by Colman and Garrick, first acted at Drury Lane, February 20, 1766). "Brush," his valet, says (act ii.) of his master,
"What with qualms, age, rheumatism, and a few surfeits in his youth, he must have a great deal of brushing, oyling, screwing, and winding up, to set him a-going for the day."
return
Footnote 3:
Viscount Valentia, created in 1793 Earl of Mountnorris, was the father of Byron's friend, Viscount Valentia (afterwards second and last Earl of Mountnorris, died in 1844); of Lady Frances Wedderburn Webster; of Lady Catherine Annesley, who married Lord John Somerset, and died in 1865; and of Lady Juliana Annesley, who married Robert Bayly, of Ballyduff.
return
Footnote 4:
John Hookham Frere (1769-1846), educated at Eton, and Caius College, Cambridge (Fellow, 1792), M.P. for West Loe (1796-1802), was a clerk in the Foreign Office. A school-friend of Canning, he joined with him in the
Anti-Jacobin
(November 20, 1797—July 9, 1798). Among the pieces which he contributed, in whole or part, are "The Loves of the Triangles," "The Friend of Humanity and the Knife-grinder,""The Rovers, or the Double Arrangement," "
La Sainte Guillotine
" "New Morality," and the "Meeting of the Friends of Freedom." He was British Envoy at Lisbon (1800-1804) and to the Spanish Junta (October, 1808-April, 1809). From this post he was recalled, owing to the fatal effects of his advice to Sir John Moore, and he never again held any public appointment. From 1818 to 1846 he lived at Malta, where he died.
His translations of "The Frogs" of Aristophanes (1839), and of "The Acharnians, the Knights, and the Birds" (1840), are masterpieces of spirit and fidelity. His
Prospectus and Specimen of an intended National Work, by William and Robert Whistlecraft
(cantos i., ii., 1817; cantos iii., iv., 1818), inspired Byron with
Beppo
.
Ticknor describes him in 1819 (
Life
, vol. i. p. 267):
"Frere is a slovenly fellow. His remarks on Homer, in theClassical Journal, prove how fine a Greek scholar he is; hisQuarterly Reviews, how well he writes; his 'Rovers, or the Double Arrangement,' what humour he possesses; and the reputation he has left in Spain and Portugal, how much better he understood their literatures than they do themselves; while, at the same time, his books left in France, in Gallicia, at Lisbon, and two or three places in England; his manuscripts, neglected and lost to himself; his manners, lazy and careless; and his conversation, equally rich and negligent, show how little he cares about all that distinguishes him in the eyes of the world. He studies as a luxury, he writes as an amusement, and conversation is a kind of sensual enjoyment to him. If he had been born in Asia, he would have been the laziest man that ever lived."
return
Footnote 5:
For "Conversation" Sharp, see p. 341,
note
2.
return
Footnote 6:
Thomas Cribb (1781-1848), born at Bitton, near Bristol, began life as a bell-hanger, became first a coal-porter, then a sailor, and finally found his vocation as a pugilist. In his profession he was known, from one of his previous callings, as the "Black Diamond." His first big fight was against George Maddox (January 7, 1805), whom he defeated after seventy-six rounds. He twice beat the ex-champion, the one-eyed Jem Belcher (April 8, 1807, and February 1, 1809), and with his victory over Bob Gregson (October 25, 1808; see
Letters
, vol. i. p. 207,
note
1 [Footnote 2 of Letter 108]) became champion of England. His two defeats of Molineaux, the black pugilist (December 18, 1810, and September 28, 1811), established his title, which was never again seriously challenged, and in 1821 it was conferred upon him for life. Cribb was one of the prize-fighters, who, dressed as pages, kept order at the Coronation of George IV. In 1813 he was landlord of the King's Arms, Duke Street, St. James's, and universally respected as the honest head of the pugilistic profession. He died in 1848 at Woolwich; three years later a monument was erected to his memory by public subscription in Woolwich Churchyard. It represents "a British lion grieving over the ashes of a British hero," and on the plinth is the inscription, "Respect the ashes of the brave."
return
Footnote 7:
Virgil,
Eclogues
, iii. 59.
return
Footnote 8:
Sir Samuel Egerton Brydges (1762-1837), poet, novelist, genealogist, and bibliographer, published, in 1813,
The Ruminator: containing a series of moral, critical, and sentimental Essays
. Of the 104 Essays, 72 appeared in the
Censura Literaria
between January, 1807, and June, 1809. The remainder were by Gillies, except two by the Rev. Francis Wrangham and two by the Rev. Montagu Pennington. No. 50 is a review of some original poems by Capell Lofft, including a Greek ode on Eton College.
Gillies, in his
Memoirs of a Literary Veteran
(vol. ii. p. 4), says that in 1809 he addressed an anonymous letter to Brydges, containing some thoughts on the advantages of retirement (the subject of
Childe Alarique
). The letter, printed in
The Ruminator
, began his literary career and introduced him to Brydges.
The Ruminator
, 2 vols. (1813), and
Childe Alarique
(1813), are among the books included in the sale catalogue of Byron's books, April 5, 1816.
return
Footnote 9:
Robert Pearse Gillies (1788-1858) wrote
Wallace, a Fragment
(1813);
Childe Alarique, a Poet's Reverie, with other Poems
(1813);
Confessions of Sir Henry Longueville, a Novel
(1814); and numerous other works and translations. His
Memoirs of a Literary Veteran
was published in 1851. He was the founder and first editor of the
Foreign Quarterly Review
(1827).
return
Footnote 10:
The following additional notes on Byron's Parliamentary career are taken from his
Detached Thoughts
:
"At the Opposition meeting of the peers, in 1812, at Lord Grenville's, when Lord Grey and he read to us the correspondence upon Moira's negociation, I sate next to the present Duke of Grafton. When it was over, I turned to him and said, 'What is to be done next?' 'Wake the Duke of Norfolk' (who was snoring away near us), replied he. 'I don't think the Negociators have left anything else for us to do this turn.'""In the debate, or rather discussion, afterwards, in the House of Lords, upon that very question, I sate immediately behind Lord Moira, who was extremely annoyed at G.'s speech upon the subject, and while G. was speaking, turned round to me repeatedly and asked me whether I agreed with him? It was an awkward question to me, who had not heard both sides. Moira kept repeating to me, 'It wasnot so, it was so and so,' etc. I did not know very well what to think, but I sympathized with the acuteness of his feelings upon the subject.""Lord Eldon affects an Imitation of two very different Chancellors—Thurlow and Loughborough—and can indulge in an oath now and then. On one of the debates on the Catholic question, when we were either equal or within one (I forget which), I had been sent for in great haste from a Ball, which I quitted, I confess somewhat reluctantly, to emancipate five Millions of people. I came in late, and did not go immediately into the body of the house, but stood just behind the Woolsack. Eldon turned round, and, catching my eye, immediately said to a peer (who had come to him for a few minutes on the Woolsack, as is the custom of his friends), 'Damn them! they'll have it now, by God!—the vote that is just come in will give it them.'"
return
Footnote 11:
Horace,
Odes
, III. iii. 7.
return
List of Journal EntriesContents
No
dreams
last night of the dead, nor the living; so—I am "firm as the marble, founded as the rock,"
1
till the next earthquake.
Ward's dinner went off well. There was not a disagreeable person there—unless
I
offended any body, which I am sure I could not by contradiction, for I said little, and opposed nothing. Sharpe
2
(a
man
of elegant mind, and who has lived much with the best—Fox, Horne Tooke, Windham, Fitzpatrick, and all the agitators of other times and tongues,) told us the particulars of his last interview with Windham
3
, a few days before the fatal operation which sent "that gallant spirit to aspire the skies."
4
Windham,—the first in one department of oratory and talent, whose only fault was his refinement beyond the intellect of half his hearers,—Windham, half his life an active participator in the events of the earth, and one of those who governed nations,—
he
regretted,—and dwelt much on that regret, that "he had not entirely devoted himself to literature and science!!!" His mind certainly would have carried him to eminence there, as elsewhere;—but I cannot comprehend what debility of that mind could suggest such a wish. I, who have heard him, cannot regret any thing but that I shall never hear him again. What! would he have been a plodder? a metaphysician?—perhaps a rhymer? a scribbler? Such an exchange must have been suggested by illness. But
he
is gone, and Time "shall not look upon his like again."
5
I am tremendously in arrear with my letters,—except to ——, and to her my thoughts overpower me:—my words never compass them. To Lady Melbourne I write with most pleasure—and her answers, so sensible, so
tactique
—I never met with half her talent. If she had been a few years younger, what a fool she would have made of me, had she thought it worth her while,—and I should have lost a valuable and most agreeable
friend
. Mem. a mistress never is nor can be a friend. While you agree, you are lovers; and, when it is over, any thing but friends.
I have not answered W. Scott's last letter,—but I will. I regret to hear from others, that he has lately been unfortunate in pecuniary involvements. He is undoubtedly the Monarch of Parnassus, and the most
English
of bards. I should place Rogers next in the living list (I value him more as the last of the best school) —Moore and Campbell both
third
—Southey and Wordsworth and Coleridge—the rest,
Greek: hoi polloi
—thus:
pyramid of writers
There is a triangular
Gradus ad Parnassum
!—the names are too numerous for the base of the triangle. Poor Thurlow has gone wild about the poetry of Queen Bess's reign—
c'est dommage
. I have ranked the names upon my triangle more upon what I believe popular opinion, than any decided opinion of my own. For, to me, some of Moore's last
Erin
sparks—"As a beam o'er the face of the waters"—"When he who adores thee"—"Oh blame not"—and "Oh breathe not his name"—are worth all the Epics that ever were composed.
Rogers thinks the
Quarterly
will attack me next. Let them. I have been "peppered so highly" in my time,
both
ways, that it must be cayenne or aloes to make me taste. I can sincerely say, that I am not very much alive
now
to criticism. But—in tracing this—I rather believe that it proceeds from my not attaching that importance to authorship which many do, and which, when young, I did also. "
One
gets tired of every thing, my angel," says Valmont
6
.
The "angels" are the only things of which I am not a little sick—but I do think the preference of
writers
to
agents
—the mighty stir made about scribbling and scribes, by themselves and others—a sign of effeminacy, degeneracy, and weakness. Who would write, who had any thing better to do? "Action—action—action"—said Demosthenes: "Actions—actions," I say, and not writing,—least of all, rhyme. Look at the querulous and monotonous lives of the "genus;"—except Cervantes, Tasso, Dante, Ariosto, Kleist (who were brave and active citizens), Æschylus, Sophocles, and some other of the antiques also—what a worthless, idle brood it is!
Footnote 1:
Macbeth, act iii. sc. 4—
"Whole as the marble, founded as the rock."
return to footnote mark
Footnote 2:
Richard Sharp (1759-1835), a wealthy hat-manufacturer, was a prominent figure in political and literary life. A consistent Whig, he was one of the "Friends of the People," and in the House of Commons (1806-12) was a recognized authority on questions of finance. Essentially a "club-able man," he was a member of many clubs, both literary and political. In Park Lane and at Mickleham he gathered round him many friends—Rogers, Moore, Mackintosh, Macaulay, Coleridge, Horner, Grattan, Horne Tooke, and Sydney Smith, who was so frequently his guest in the country that he was called the "Bishop of Mickleham." Horner (May 20, 1816) speaks of a visit paid to Sharp in Surrey, in company with Grattan (
Memoirs
, vol. ii. p. 355). Ticknor, who, in 1815, breakfasted with Sharp in Park Lane (
Life
, vol. i. pp. 55, 56), says of a party of "men of letters:"
"I saw little of them, excepting Mr. Sharp, formerly a Member of Parliament, and who, from his talents in society, has been called 'Conversation Sharp.' He has been made an associate of most of the literary clubs in London, from the days of Burke down to the present time. He told me a great many amusing anecdotes of them, and particularly of Burke, Porson, and Grattan, with whom he had been intimate; and occupied the dinner-time as pleasantly as the same number of hours have passed with me in England....June 7.—This morning I breakfasted with Mr. Sharp, and had a continuation of yesterday,—more pleasant accounts of the great men of the present day, and more amusing anecdotes of the generation that has passed away."
Miss Berry, who met Sharp often, writes, in her Journal for March 26, 1808 (
Journal
, vol. ii. p. 344),
"He is clever, but I should suspect of little real depth of intellect."
Sharp published anonymously a volume of
Epistles in Verse
(1828). These were reproduced, with additions, in his
Letters and Essays
, published with his name in 1834. His "Epistle to an Eminent Poet" is evidently addressed to his lifelong friend, Samuel Rogers:
"Yes! thou hast chosen well 'the better part,'And, for the triumphs of the noblest art,Hast wisely scorn'd the sordid cares of life."
return
cross-reference: return to Footnote 5 of Journal entry for November 23, 1813
Footnote 3:
William Windham, of Felbrigg Hall (1750-1810), educated at Eton, Glasgow, and University College, Oxford, became M.P. for Norwich in 1784. In the following year he was made chief secretary to Lord Northington, Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. Expressing some doubts to Dr. Johnson whether he possessed the arts necessary for Parliamentary success, the Doctor said, "You will become an able negotiator; a very pretty rascal." He resigned the secretaryship within the year, according to Gibbon, on the plea of ill health. He was one of the managers of the impeachment of Warren Hastings in 1788, Secretary at War from 1794 to 1801, and War and Colonial Secretary, 1806-7.
Windham, a shrewd critic of other speakers, called Pitt's style a "State-paper style," because of its combined dignity and poverty, and "verily believed Mr. Pitt could speak a king's speech off-hand." As a speaker he was himself remarkably effective, a master of illustration and allusion, delighting in "homely Saxon," and affecting provincial words and pronunciation. Lord Sheffield, writing to Gibbon, February 5, 1793, says, "As to Windham, I should think he is become the best, at least the most sensible, speaker of the whole." His love of paradox, combined with his political independence and irresolution, gained him the name of "Weathercock Windham;" but he was respected by both sides as an honest politician. Outside the house it was his ambition to be known as a thorough Englishman—a patron of horse-racing, cock-fighting, bull-baiting, pugilism, and football. He was also a scholar, a man of wide reading, an admirable talker, and a friend of Miss Berry and of Madame d'Arblay, in whose Diaries he is a prominent figure. His own
Diary
(1784-1810) was published in 1866.
On the 8th of July, 1809, he saw a fire in Conduit Street, which threatened to spread to the house of his friend North, who possessed a valuable library. In his efforts to save the books, he fell and bruised his hip. A tumour formed, which was removed; but he sank under the operation, and died June 4, 1810.
return
Footnote 4:
"O Romeo, Romeo, brave Mercutio's dead;That gallant spirit hath aspired the clouds."
Romeo and Juliet
, act iii. sc. 1.
return
Footnote 5:
"He was a man, take him for all in all,I shall not look upon his like again."
Hamlet
, act i. sc. 2.
return
Footnote 6:
The allusion probably is to
The Foundling of the Forest
(1809), by William Dimond the Younger. But no passage exactly corresponds to the quotation.
return
List of Journal EntriesContents
Just returned from dinner with Jackson (the Emperor of Pugilism) and another of the select, at Crib's, the champion's. I drank more than I like, and have brought away some three bottles of very fair claret—for I have no headach. We had Tom Crib up after dinner;—very facetious, though somewhat prolix. He don't like his situation—wants to fight again—pray Pollux (or Castor, if he was the
miller
) he may! Tom has been a sailor—a coal-heaver—and some other genteel profession, before he took to the cestus. Tom has been in action at sea, and is now only three-and-thirty. A great man! has a wife and a mistress, and conversations well—bating some sad omissions and misapplications of the aspirate. Tom is an old friend of mine; I have seen some of his best battles in my nonage. He is now a publican, and, I fear, a sinner;—for Mrs. Crib is on alimony, and Tom's daughter lives with the champion.
This
Tom told me,—Tom, having an opinion of my morals, passed her off as a legal spouse. Talking of her, he said, "she was the truest of women"—from which I immediately inferred she could
not
be his wife, and so it turned out.
These panegyrics don't belong to matrimony;—for, if "true," a man don't think it necessary to say so; and if not, the less he says the better. Crib is the only man except ——, I ever heard harangue upon his wife's virtue; and I listened to both with great credence and patience, and stuffed my handkerchief into my mouth, when I found yawning irresistible—