1 prop. I did not look at him while this was going on, but I felt like a coal for I like Merivale, as well as the article in question. "Asked to Lady Keith's to-morrow evening-I think I will go; but it is the first party invitation I have accepted this season,' as the learned Fletcher called it, when that youngest brat of Lady * *'s cut my eye and cheek open with a misdirected pebble Never mind, my Lord, the scar will be gone before the season;' as if one's eye was of no importance in the mean time. "Lord Erskine called, and gave me his famous pamphlet 2, with a marginal note and corrections in his handwriting. Sent it to be bound superbly, and shall treasure it. 1 "Sent my fine print of Napoleon to be framed. It is framed; and the Emperor becomes his robes as if he had been hatched in them. into one another. Corrected it - bustled back to the altar-rail, and said ‘Amen.' Portsmouth responded as if he had got the whole by heart; and, if any thing, was rather before the priest. It is now midnight and "March 10. Thor's Day. "On Tuesday dined with Rogers,- Mackintosh, Sheridan, Sharpe, - much talk, and good,all, except my own little prattlement. Much of old times Horne Tooke -the Trials-evidence of Sheridan, and anecdotes of those times, when I, alas! was an infant. If I had been a man, I would have made an English Lord Edward Fitzgerald. 66 'Set down Sheridan at Brookes's, where, by the by, he could not have well set down himself, as he and I were the only "March 7. drinkers. Sherry means to stand for West"Rose at seven - ready by half-past eight minster, as Cochrane (the stock-jobbing went to Mr. Hanson's, Berkeley Square hoaxer) must vacate. Brougham is a canwent to church with his eldest daughter, didate. I fear for poor dear Sherry. Both Mary Anne (a good girl), and gave her away have talents of the highest order, but the to the Earl of Portsmouth. 3 Saw her fairly youngster has yet a character. We shall see, a countess congratulated the family and if he lives to Sherry's age, how he will pass groom (bride)-drank a bumper of wine over the redhot ploughshares of public life. (wholesome sherris) to their felicity, and all I don't know why, but I hate to see the old that and came home. Asked to stay to ones lose; particularly Sheridan, notwithdinner, but could not. At three sat to Phil-standing all his méchanceté. lips for faces. Called on Lady M. [Melbourne] I like her so well, that I always stay too long. (Mem. to mend of that.) 66 "Received many, and the kindest, thanks from Lady Portsmouth, père and mère, for my match-making. I don't regret it, as she looks the countess well, and is a very good girl. It is odd how well she carries her new honours. She looks a different woman, and high-bred, too. I had no idea that I could make so good a peeress. Passed the evening with Hobhouse, who has begun a poem, which promises highly; wish he would go on with it. Heard some curious extracts from a life of Morosini, the blundering Venetian, who blew up the Acropolis at Athens with a bomb, and be "Went to the play with Hobhouse. Mrs. d-d to him! Waxed sleepy-just come Jordan superlative in Hoyden 5, and Jones home- must go to bed, and am engaged to well enough in Foppington. What plays! meet Sheridan to-morrow at Rogers's. what wit!-helas! Congreve and Vanbrugh Queer ceremony that same of marriage are your only comedy. Our society is too — saw many abroad, Greek and Catholic insipid now for the like copy. Would not one, at home, many years ago. There be some go to Lady Keith's. Hobhouse thought it strange phrases in the prologue (the exhor-odd. I wonder he should like parties. If tation), which made me turn away, not to laugh in the face of the surpliceman. Made one blunder, when I joined the hands of the happy-rammed their left hands, by mistake, 66 [Hester-Maria, eldest daughter and co-heir of Henry Thrale, Esq., of Streatham, the friend of Dr. Johnson, was married, in 1808, to Viscount Keith.] 2 [Thomas Lord Erskine published, in 1797, a pamphlet entitled "A View of the Causes and Consequences of the War with France," which is said to have gone through forty-eight editions.] 3 [This marriage was declared null in 1828; a jury having decided, that Lord Portsmouth was not compos mentis when he contracted it.] one is in love, and wants to break a commandment and covet any thing that is there, they do very well. But to go out amongst the mere herd, without a motive, pleasure, 4 [Lord Cochrane, now Earl of Dundonald, was expelled from the order of the Bath, and from his seat in the House of Commons in the early part of 1814, in consequence of having been found guilty by the Court of King's Bench of an improper manoeuvre on the Stock Exchange, in combination with his uncle Mr. Cochrane Johnstone. His lordship's career as a sea officer had been before that unfortunate time illustrious, and it has been even more so subsequently.] [Mrs. Jordan finally retired from the stage in 1815, and died at St. Cloud in July, 1816.] ÆT. 26. MR. HOBHOUSE.—MRS. JORDAN. MISS MILBANKE. 231 but, I doubt the equivocation of the fiend that lies like truth!" "I shall have letters of importance tomorrow. Which, * * *, or * * ? heigho! —** is in my heart, ** in my head, ** in my eye, and the single one, Heaven knows where. All write, and will be answered. Since I have crept in favour with myself, I must maintain it; but I never mistook my person,' though I think others have. "** called to-day in great despair about his mistress, who has taken a freak of ***. He began a letter to her, but was obliged to stop short I finished it for him, and he copied and sent it. If he holds out, and keeps to my instructions of affected indifference, she will lower her colours. If she don't, he will, at least, get rid of her, and she don't seem much worth keeping. But the poor lad is in love—if that is the case, she will win. When they once discover their power, finita è la musica. 66 Sleepy, and must go to bed. "Tuesday, March 15. "Dined yesterday with Rogers, Mackintosh, and Sharpe. Sheridan could not come. Sharpe told several very amusing anecdotes of Henderson, the actor. ' Stayed till late, and came home, having drunk so much tea, that I did not get to sleep till six this morning. R. says I am to be in this Quarterly cut up, I presume, as they hate us youth.' N'importe. As Sharpe was passing by the doors of some debating society (the Westminster Forum), in his way to dinner, he saw rubricked on the walls Scott's name and mine-Which the best poet?' being the question of the evening; and I suppose all the Templars and would-bes took rhymes in vain in the course of the controversy. Which had the greater show of hands, I neither know nor care; but I feel our [This great actor and amiable and accomplished man died in 1785, in his thirty-seventh year. In Mr. Sharpe's elegant little volume of "Essays " will be found an. interesting letter to Henderson, written a few days before his death, giving an account of John Kemble's first appearance on the London boards, in the character of Hamlet. "There has not," says Mr. Sharpe," been such a first appearance since yours; yet nature, though she has been bountiful to him in figure, has denied him a pany. 66 . W. W. [Wedderburn Webster] called Lord Erskine, Lord Holland, &c. &c. Wrote to the Corsair report. She says she don't wonder, since Conrad is so like?' It is odd that one, who knows me so thoroughly, should tell me this to my face. However, if she don't know, nobody can. "Mackintosh is, it seems, the writer of the defensive letter in the Morning Chronicle. If so, it is very kind, and more than I did for myself. 2 6 Told Murray to secure for me Bandello's Italian Novels at the sale to-morrow. To me they will be nuts. Redde a satire on myself, called Anti-Byron,' and told Murray to publish it if he liked. The object of the author is to prove me an atheist and a systematic conspirator against law and government. Some of the verse is good; the prose I don't quite understand. He asserts that my deleterious works' have had ‘an effect upon civil society, which requires,' &c. &c. &c. and his own poetry. It is a lengthy poem, and a long preface, with an harmonious title-page. Like the fly in the fable, I seem to have got upon a wheel which makes much dust; but, unlike the said fly, I do not take it all for my own raising. "A letter from Bella 3, which I answered. I shall be in love with her again, if I don't take care. "I shall begin a more regular system of reading soon. and I wish myself well out of it. I'll not march through Coventry with them, that's flat.' What the devil had I to do with scribbling? It is too late to inquire, and all regret is useless. But, an' it were to do again, I should write again, I suppose. Such is human nature, at least my share of it; though I shall think better of myself, if I have sense to stop now. If I have a wife, and that wife has a son -by any body- I will bring up mine heir in the most anti-poetical way make him a lawyer, or a pirate, or—any thing. But, if he writes too, I shall be sure he is none of mine, and cut him off with a Bank token. Must write a letter - three o'clock. Sunday, March 20. 'I intended to go to Lady Hardwicke's ', but won't. I always begin the day with a bias towards going to parties; but, as the evening advances, my stimulus fails, and I hardly ever go out — and, when I do, always regret it. This might have been a pleasant one; at least, the hostess is a very superior woman. Lady Lansdowne's to morrowLady Heathcote's Wednesday. Um!-I must spur myself into going to some of them, or it will look like rudeness, and it is better to do as other people do - confound them! "Redde Machiavel, parts of Chardin, and Sismondi, and Bandello- by starts. Redde the Edinburgh, 44, just come out. In the beginning of the article on 'Edgeworth's Patronage,' I have gotten a high compliment, I perceive. Whether this is creditable to I know not; but it does honour to the editor, because he once abused me. Many a man will retract praise; none but a highspirited mind will revoke its censure, or can praise the man it has once attacked. I have often, since my return to England, heard Jeffrey most highly commended by those who know him for things independent of his talents. I admire him for this not because me, [Philip Yorke, third Earl of Hardwicke, married, in 1782, Elizabeth, daughter of the Earl of Balcarres.] 2 [Louisa-Emma, daughter of the Earl of Ilchester, was married, in 1808, to the Marquis of Lansdowne, at that time Lord Henry Petty.] 3 [Catharine-Sophia, daughter of John Manners, Esq., of Grantham-Grange, co. Lincoln: she was married, in 1793, to Sir Gilbert Heathcote.] 4 ["It is no slight consolation to us, while suffering under alternate reproaches for ill-timed severity, and injudicious praise, to reflect that no very mischievous effects have as yet resulted to the literature of the country, from this imputed misbehaviour on our part. Powerful genius, we are persuaded, will not be repressed even by unjust castigation; nor will the most excessive praise that can be lavished by sincere admiration ever abate the efforts that are fitted to attain to excellence. Our alleged severity upon a youthful production has not prevented he has praised me (I have been so praised elsewhere and abused, alternately, that mere habit has rendered me as indifferent to both as a man at twenty-six can be to any thing), but because he is, perhaps, the only man who, under the relations in which he and I stand, or stood, with regard to each other, would have had the liberality to act thus; none but a great soul dared hazard it. 5 The height on which he stands has not made him giddy ; - a little scribbler would have gone on cavilling to the end of the chapter. As to the justice of his panegyric, that is matter of taste. There are plenty to question it, and glad, too, of the opportunity. | "Lord Erskine called to-day. He means to carry down his reflections on the war or rather wars- to the present day. I trust that he will. Must send to Mr. Murray to get the binding of my copy of his pamphlet finished, as Lord E. has promised me to correct it, and add some marginal notes to it. Any thing in his handwriting will be a treasure, which will gather compound interest from years. Erskine has high expectations of Mackintosh's promised History. Undoubtedly it must be a classic, when finished. 66 Sparred with Jackson again yesterday morning, and shall to-morrow. I feel all the better for it, in spirits, though my arms and shoulders are very stiff from it. Mem. to attend the pugilistic dinner : — Marquess Huntley is in the chair. 66 6 Lord Erskine thinks that ministers must be in peril of going out. So much the better for him. To me it is the same who are in or out; we want something more than a change of ministers, and some day we will have it. 66 I remember, in riding from Chrisso to Castri (Delphos), along the sides of Parnassus, I saw six eagles in the air. It is uncommon to see so many together; and it was the number not the species, which is the noble author from becoming the first poet of his time."- Edinb. Rev. vol. xxii. p. 416.] 5 "All our little feuds, at least all mine, To make such puppets of us things below,) 6 [Afterwards fifth, and last, Duke of Gordon. Ile died in May, 1836.] 7 Part of this passage has been already extracted, but I have allowed it to remain here in its original position. on account of the singularly sudden manner in which it is introduced. ÆT. 26. LORD ERSKINE.-FUSELI'S EZZELIN BRACCIAFERRO. common enough—that excited my attention. 1 The last bird I ever fired at was an eaglet, on the shore of the Gulf of Lepanto, near Vostitza. It was only wounded, and I tried to save it, the eye was so bright; but it pined, and died in a few days; and I never did since, and never will, attempt the death of another bird. I wonder what put these two things into my head just now? I have been reading Sismondi, and there is nothing there that could induce the recollection. "I am mightily taken with Braccio di Montone, Giovanni Galeazzo, and Eccelino. But the last is not Bracciaferro (of the same name), Count of Ravenna, whose history I want to trace. There is a fine engraving in Lavater, from a picture by Fuseli, of that Ezzelin, over the body of Meduna, punished by him for a hitch in her constancy during his absence in the Crusades. He was right - but I want to know the story.2 66 Tuesday, March 22. "Last night, party at Lansdowne House. To-night, party at Lady Charlotte Greville's 3 - deplorable waste of time, and something of temper. Nothing imparted - nothing acquired talking without ideas :-if any thing like thought in my mind, it was not on the subjects on which we were gabbling. Heigho!-and in this way half London pass what is called life. To-morrow there is Lady Heathcote's shall I go? yes-to punish myself for not having a pursuit. "Let me see- what did I see? The only person who much struck me was Lady S**d's [Stafford's '] eldest daughter, Lady C. L.5 [Charlotte Leveson.] They say she is not pretty. I don't know-every thing is pretty that pleases; but there is an air of [In his Diary for 1821, Lord Byron says, "I saw a flight of twelve eagles (Hobhouse says they were vultures, at least in conversation), and I seized the omen. On the day before, I composed the lines to Parnassus, and on beholding the birds had a hope that Apollo had accepted my homage."— See Works, p. 11.] 2 [Fuseli's picture of Ezzelin Bracciaferro musing over Meduna, slain by him for disloyalty during his absence in the Holy Land, was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1780. Mr. Knowles, in his Life of the painter, relates the following anecdote:-" Fuseli frequently invented the subject of his pictures without the aid of the poet or historian, as in his composition of Ezzelin, Belisaire, and some others: these he denominated philosophical ideas intuitive, or sentiment personified.' On one occasion he was much amused by the following inquiry of Lord Byron: I have been looking in vain, Mr. Fuseli, for some months, in the poets and historians of Italy, for the subject of your picture of Ezzelin: pray where is it to be found?' Only in my 233 soul about her—and her colour changes — and there is that shyness of the antelope (which I delight in) in her manner so much, that I observed her more than I did any other woman in the rooms, and only looked at any thing else when I thought she might perceive and feel embarrassed by my scrutiny. After all, there may be something of association in this. She is a friend of Augusta's, and whatever she loves I can't help liking. "Her mother, the Marchioness, talked to me a little; and I was twenty times on the point of asking her to introduce me to sa fille, but I stopped short. This comes of that affray with the Carlisles. "Earl Grey told me laughingly of a paragraph in the last Moniteur, which has stated, among other symptoms of rebellion, some particulars of the sensation occasioned in all our government gazettes by the 'tear' lines, -only amplifying, in its re-statement, an epigram (by the by, no epigram except in the Greek acceptation of the word) into a roman. I wonder the Couriers, &c. &c., have not translated that part of the Moniteur, with additional comments." "The Princess of Wales has requested Fuseli to paint from The Corsair,'-leaving to him the choice of any passage for the subject: so Mr. Locke tells me. Tired, jaded, selfish, and supine -must go to bed. "Roman, at least Romance, means a song sometimes, as in the Spanish. I suppose this is the Moniteur's meaning, unless he has confused it with The Corsair.' brain, my Lord,' was the answer; 'for I invented it."" -Vol. i. p. 403.] 3 Daughter of William-Henry Cavendish, third Duke of Portland, married, in 1793, to Charles Greville, Esq.] 4 [Now Duchess Countess of Sutherland: 1838.] 5 [Now Countess of Surrey: 1838.] 6 ["On vient de publier à Londres une caricature insolente et grossière contre le mariage projeté de la Princesse de Galles avec le Prince d'Orange. En commentant cette gravure, le Town Talk a osé avancer, que la Princesse Charlotte déteste son époux futur, et que ses veritables affections étaient sacrifiées à des vues politiques. Le Lord Byron a fait de ce bruit populaire le sujet d'une romance."- Moniteur.] 7 [In 1808 Albany House in Piccadilly, long occupied by the Duke of York and Albany, was converted into sets of chambers for single gentlemen, and the gardens behind were also built over with additional suites of rooms. Those of Lord Byron were in the original house on the ground floor, No. 2.] have been very abstemious, regular in exercise, and yet very unwell. "Yesterday, dined tête-à-tête at the Cocoa1 with Scrope Davies-sat from six till midnight drank between us one bottle of champagne and six of claret, neither of which | wines ever affect me. Offered to take Scrope home in my carriage; but he was tipsy and pious, and I was obliged to leave him on his knees praying to I know not what purpose or pagod. No headach, nor sickness, that night nor to-day. Got up, if any thing, earlier than usual-sparred with Jackson ad sudorem, and have been much better in health than for many days. I have heard nothing more from Scrope. Yesterday paid him four thousand eight hundred pounds, a debt of some standing, and which I wished to have paid before. My mind is much relieved by the removal of that debit. Augusta wants me to make it up with Carlisle. I have refused every body else, but I can't deny her any thing; - so I must e'en do it, though I had as lief drink up Eisel eat a crocodile.'2 Let me see Ward, the Hollands, the Lambs, Rogers, &c. &c. every body, more or less, have been trying for the last two years to accommodate this couplet quarrel, to no purpose. I shall laugh if Augusta succeeds. -- "Redde a little of many things shall get in all my books to-morrow. Luckily this room will hold them with 'ample room and verge, &c. the characters of hell to trace.'s I must set about some employment soon; my heart begins to eat itself again. Napoleon Buonaparte has abdicated the throne of the world. Excellent well.' Methinks Sylla did better; for he revenged and resigned in the height of his sway, red with the slaughter of his foes- the finest instance of glorious contempt of the rascals upon record. 5 Dioclesian did well too Amurath not amiss, had he become aught except a dervise Charles the Fifth but so SO - but Napoleon, worst of all. What! wait till they were in his capital, and then talk of his readiness to give up what is already gone!! What whining monk art thou what holy cheat?' 'Sdeath! Dionysius at Corinth was yet a king to this. The Isle of Elba' to retire to!-Wellif it had been Caprea, I should have marvelled less. 'I see men's minds are but a parcel of their fortunes.' I am utterly bewildered and confounded. "I don't know-but I think I, even I (an insect compared with this creature), have set my life on casts not a millionth part of this man's. But, after all, a crown may be not worth dying for. Yet, to outlive Lodi for this!!! Oh that Juvenal or Johnson could rise from the dead! Expende-quot libras in duce summo invenies?'6 I knew they were light in the balance of mortality; but I thought their living dust weighed more carats. this imperial diamond hath a flaw in it, and is now hardly fit to stick in a glazier's pencil : He dared depart in utter scorn Of men that such a yoke had borne, Alas! Works, p. 461.] 6 [" Produce the urn that Hannibal contains, And weigh the mighty dust which yet remains: And is this all?" Gifford's Juvenal, vol. ii. p. 26.] 7["In the Statistical Account of Scotland, I find that Sir John Paterson had the curiosity to collect, and weigh, the ashes of a person discovered a few years since in the parish of Eccles. Wonderful to relate, he found the whole did not exceed in weight one ounce and a half! And is this all! Alas! the quot libras itself is a satirical exaggeration."- Ib.] |