as being the first tragedy to be brought out since the old Committee. By the way-I have a charge against you. As the great Mr. Dennis roared out on a similar occasion By G-d that is my thunder!' so do I exclaim, This is my lightning!' I allude to a speech of Ivan's, in the scene with Petrowna and the Empress, where the thought and almost expression are similar to Conrad's in the 3d canto of 'The Corsair.' I, however, do not this say to accuse you, but to exempt myself from suspicion 1, as there is a priority of six months' publication, on my part, between the appearance of that composition and of your tragedies. LETTER 225. TO MR. TAYLOR. "13. Terrace, Piccadilly, September 25. 1815. "Dear Sir, "I am sorry you should feel uneasy at what has by no means troubled me. 2 If your editor, his correspondents, and readers are amused, I have no objection to be the theme of all the ballads he can find room for - provided his lucubrations are confined to me only. "It is a long time since things of this kind have ceased to fright me from my propriety;' nor do I know any similar attack which would induce me to turn again, — unless it involved those connected with me, whose qualities, I hope, are such as to exempt them in the eyes of those who bear no good-will to myself. In such a case, supposing it to occur to reverse the saying of Dr. Johnson, -'what the law could not do for me, I 1 Notwithstanding this precaution of the poet, the coincidence in question was, but a few years after, triumphantly cited in support of the sweeping charge of plagiarism brought against him by some scribblers. The following are Mr Sotheby's lines: "And I have leapt In transport from my flinty couch, to welcome I have since been informed by Mr. Sotheby that, though not published, these lines had been written long before the appearance of Lord Byron's poem. [The following is the passage in the Corsair :"Loud sung the wind above; and, doubly loud,. Shook o'er his turret cell the thunder-cloud; And flash'd the lightning by the latticed bar, To him more genial than the midnight star: LETTER 226. TO MR. MURRAY. 64 September 27. 1816. "That's right and splendid, and becoming a publisher of high degree. Mr. Concanen (the translator) will be delighted, and pay his washerwoman; and, in reward for your bountiful behaviour in this instance, I won't ask you to publish any more for Drury Lane, or any lane whatever, again. You will have no tragedy or any thing else from me, I assure you, and may think yourself lucky in having got rid of me, for good and all, without more damage. But I'll tell you what we will do for you, act Sotheby's Ivan, which will succeed; and then your present and next impression of the dramas of that dramatic gentleman will be expedited to your heart's content and if there is any thing very good, you shall have the refusal; but you sha'n't have any more requests. 66 : Sotheby has got a thought, and almost the words, from the third canto of The Close to the glimmering grate he dragg'd his chain, Corsair.] 2 Mr. Taylor having inserted in the Sun newspaper (of which he was then chief proprietor) a sonnet to Lord Byron, in return for a present which his Lordship had sent him of a handsomely bound copy of all his works, there appeared in the same journal, on the following day (from the pen of some person who had acquired a control over the paper), a parody upon this sonnet, containing some disrespectful allusion to Lady Byron; and it is to this circumstance, which Mr. Taylor had written to explain, that the above letter, so creditable to the feelings of the noble husband, refers. [Mr. John Taylor, son of Chevalier Taylor, the oculist and autobiographer, was tho author of a number of prologues, epilogues, and other light poetical pieces. His most popular effort was the humorous tale of Monsieur Tonson. He died in 1832.] Corsair, which, you know, was published six 'He never pardons who hath done the wrong.' "You have written to **. You have also written to Perry, who intimates hope of an Opera from you. Coleridge has promised a tragedy. Now, if you keep Perry's word, and Coleridge keeps his own, Drury Lane will be set up; and, sooth to say, it is in grievous want of such a lift. We began at speed, and are blown already. When I say we, I mean Kinnaird, who is the all in all sufficient,' and can count, which none of the rest of the Committee can. sonage who signs himself Hibernicus.' The hero is Malachi, the Irishman and king; and the villain and usurper, Turgesius, the Dane. The conclusion is fine. Turgesius is chained by the leg (vide stage direction) to a pillar on the stage; and King Malachi makes him a speech, not unlike Lord Castlereagh's about the balance of power and the lawfulness of legitimacy, which puts Turgesius into a frenzy – -as Castlereagh's would, if his audience was chained by the leg. He draws a dagger and rushes at the orator; but, finding himself at the end of his tether, he sticks it into his own carcass, and dies, saying, he has fulfilled a prophecy. : "Now, this is serious downright matter of fact, and the gravest part of a tragedy which is not intended for burlesque. I tell it you for the honour of Ireland. The writer hopes it will be represented :— but what is Hope? nothing but the paint on the face of Existence; the least touch of Truth rubs it off, and then we see what a hollow-cheeked harlot we have got hold of. I am not sure that I have not said this last superfine reflection before. But never mind; - it will do for the tragedy of Turgesius, to which I can append it. 66 Well, but how dost thou do? thou bard not of a thousand but three thousand! I wish your friend, Sir John Piano-forte1, had kept that to himself, and not made it public tell you why: it is a liberal thing for Longat the trial of the song-seller in Dublin. I tain; but it will set all the hungry and man to do, and honourable for you to obdinnerless lank-jawed judges' upon the fortunate author. But they be d-d! - the "It is really very good fun, as far as the daily and nightly stir of these strutters and 'Jeffrey and the Moore together are confifretters go; and, if the concern could be dent against the world in ink!' By the brought to pay a shilling in the pound, of wonderful talent, and in distress, and way, if poor Coleridge-who is a man would do much credit to the management. about to publish two volumes of Poesy Mr. Sotheby, has an accepted tragedy, and Biography, and who has been worse Ivan, whose first scene is in his sleep (used by the critics than ever we were — don't mean the author's). It was forwarded to us as a prodigious favourite of Kean's; but the said Kean, upon interrogation, denies his eulogy, and protests against his part. How it will end, I know not. “I say so much about the theatre, because there is nothing else alive in London at this season. All the world are out of it, except us, who remain to lie in, in December, or perhaps earlier. Lady B. is very ponderous and prosperous, apparently, and I wish it well over. 66 There is a play before me from a per 1 [Sir John Stevenson, the eminent musical composer.] 2 It is but justice both to "him that gave and him that took" to mention that the noble poet, at this time, with will you, if he comes out, promise me to "This must be a secret between you and me, as Jeffrey might not like such a project;-nor, indeed, might C. himself like it. But I do think he only wants a pioneer and a sparkle or two to explode most gloriously. Ever yours most affectionately, "B." a delicacy which enhanced the kindness, advanced to the eminent person here spoken of, on the credit of some work he was about to produce, one hundred pounds. "When I belonged to the Drury Lane Committee and was one of the Sub-Committee of Management, the number of plays upon the shelves were about five hundred. | Conceiving that amongst these there must be some of merit, in person and by proxy I caused an investigation. I do not think that of those which I saw there was one which could be conscientiously tolerated. There never were such things as most of them! Mathurin was very kindly recommended to me by Walter Scott, to whom I had recourse, firstly, in the hope that he would do something for us himself; and, secondly, in despair, that he would point out to us any young (or old) writer of promise. Mathurin sent his Bertram and a letter without his address, so that at first I could give him no answer. When I at last hit upon his residence, I sent him a favourable answer and something more substantial. His play succeeded; but I was at that time absent from England. 'I tried Coleridge too: but he had nothing feasible in hand at the time. Mr. Sotheby obligingly offered all his tregedies, and I pledged myself, and, notwithstanding many squabbles with my Committed Brethren, did get Ivan' accepted, read, and the parts distributed. But, lo! in the very heart of the matter, upon some tepidness on the part of Kean, or warmth on that of the author, Sotheby withdrew his play. Sir James Bland Burgess did also present four tragedies and a 1["I remember declining to write for the stage, and alleging in excuse, not only the probability that I might not succeed, but the unpleasant yet necessary and inevitable subjection in which I must, as a dramatic writer, be necessarily kept by the good folks of the green-room.' Cæteraque, as I added, ingenio non subeunda meo." Byron sprang up and crossed the room with great vivacity, saying, 'No, by G-', nor by mine either! I cannot but think he had been thinking of some dramatic attempt, and that my answer had touched his pride.”— WALTER SCOTT, MS.] 2 A correspondent of one of the Monthly Miscellanies (Mr. James Smith) gives the following account of this incident: "During Lord Byron's administration, a ballet was invented by the elder Byrne, in which Miss Smith (since Mrs. Oscar Byrne) had a pas seul. This the lady wished farce, and I moved green-room and SubCommittee, but they would not. - Then the scenes I had to go through! the authors, and the authoresses, and the milliners, and the wild Irishmen, the people from Brighton, from Blackwall, from Chatham, from Cheltenham, from Dublin, from Dundee, who came in upon me! to all of whom it was proper to give a civil answer, and a hearing, and a reading. Mrs. Glover's father, an Irish dancingmaster of sixty years, calling upon me to request to play Archer, dressed in silk stockings on a frosty morning to show his legs (which were certainly good and Irish for his age, and had been still better,) Miss Emma Somebody, with a play entitled The Bandit of Bohemia,' or some such title or production, ― Mr. O'Higgins, then resident at Richmond, with an Irish tragedy, in which the unities could not fail to be observed, for the protagonist was chained by the leg to a pillar during the chief part of the performance. He was a wild man, of a salvage appearance, and the difficulty of not laughing at him was only to be got over by reflecting upon the probable consequences of such cachinnation. "As I am really a civil and polite person, and do hate giving pain when it can be avoided, I sent them up to Douglas Kinnaird, who is a man of business, and sufficiently ready with a negative, - and left them to settle with him; and as at the beginning of next year I went abroad, I have since been little aware of the progress of the theatres. "Players are said to be an impracticable people. They are so; but I managed to steer clear of any disputes with them, and excepting one debate 2 with the elder Byrne about Miss Smith's de-(something pas I forget the technicals,)—I do not remember any litigation of my own. I used to protect Miss Smith, because she was like Lady Jane Harley in the face, and likenesses go a great to remove to a later period in the ballet. The balletmaster refused, and the lady swore she would not dance it at all. The music incidental to the dance began to play, and the lady walked off the stage. Both parties flounced into the green-room to lay the case before Lord Byron, who happened to be the only person in that apartment. The noble committee-man made an award in favour of Miss Smith, and both complainants rushed angrily out of the room at the instant of my entering it. 'If you had come a minute sooner,' said Lord Byron, 'you would have heard a curious matter decided on by me: a question of dancing! - by me,' added he, looking down at the lame limb, whom Nature from my birth has prohibited from taking a single step.' His coun tenance fell after he had uttered this, as if he had said too much; and for a moment there was an embarrassing silence on both sides." way with me. Indeed, in general, I left such things to my more bustling colleagues, who used to reprove me seriously for not being able to take such things in hand without buffooning with the histrions, or throwing things into confusion by treating light matters with levity. "Then the Committee ! then the SubCommittee! -we were but few, but never agreed. There was Peter Moore who contradicted Kinnaird, and Kinnaird who contradicted every body: then our two managers, Rae and Dibdin; and our secretary, Ward! and yet we were all very zealous and in earnest to do good and so forth. George Lamb furnished us with prologues to our revived old English plays; but was not pleased with me for complimenting him as the Upton' of our theatre (Mr. Upton is or was the poet who writes the songs for Astley's), and almost gave up prologuing in consequence. 66 In the pantomime of 1815-16 there was a representation of the masquerade of 1814, given by us youth' of Watier's Club to Wellington and Co. Douglas Kinnaird and one or two others, with myself, put on masks, and went on the stage with the oi roo, to see the effect of a theatre from the stage :it is very grand. Douglas danced among the figuranti too, and they were puzzled to find out who we were, as being more than their number. It was odd enough that Douglas Kinnaird and I should have been both at the real masquerade, and afterwards in the mimic one of the same, on the stage of Drury Lane theatre." LETTER 228. TO MR. MOORE. "Terrace, Piccadilly, October 31. 1815. "I have not been able to ascertain precisely the time of duration of the stock market; but I believe it is a good time for selling out, and I hope so. First, because I shall see you; and, next, because I shall receive certain monies on behalf of Lady B., the which will materially conduce to my comfort, -I wanting (as the duns say) to make up a sum.' "Yesterday, I dined out with a large-ish party, where were Sheridan and Colman, Harry Harris of Covent Garden, and his brother, Sir Gilbert Heathcote, Douglas Kinnaird, and others, of note and notoriety. Like other parties of the kind, it was first silent, then talky, then argumentative, then disputatious, then unintelligible, then altogethery, then inarticulate, and then drunk. When we had reached the last step of this glorious ladder, it was difficult to get down again without stumbling; and, to crown all, Kinnaird and I had to conduct Sheridan down a d-d corkscrew staircase, which had certainly been constructed before the discovery of fermented liquors, and to which no legs, however crooked, could possibly accommodate themselves. We deposited him safe at home, where his man, evidently used to the business, waited to receive him in the hall. 66 Both he and Colman were, as usual, very good; but I carried away much wine, and the wine had previously carried away my memory; so that all was hiccup and happiness for the last hour or so, and I am not impregnated with any of the conversation. Perhaps you heard of a late answer of Sheridan to the watchman who found him bereft of that divine particle of air,' called reason, *. He, the watchman, who found Sherry in the street, fuddled and bewildered, and almost insensible. Who are you, sir?'. -no answer. What's your name?' a hiccup. What's your name?' - Answer, in a slow, deliberate, and impassive tonee-Wilberforce !!!' Is not that Sherry_all over?—and, to my mind, excellent. Poor fellow, his very dregs are better than the first sprightly runnings' of others. 66 My paper is full, and I have a grievous head-ach. "P. S.-Lady B. is in full progress. Next month will bring to light (with the aid of 'Juno Lucina, fer opem,' or rather opes, for the last are most wanted,) the tenth wonder of the world-Gil Blas being the eighth, and he (my son's father) the ninth." LETTER 229. TO MR. MOORE. "November 4. 1815. "Had you not bewildered my head with the stocks,' your letter would have been answered directly. Hadn't I to go to the city? and hadn't I to remember what to ask when I got there? and hadn't I forgotten it? I "I should be undoubtedly delighted to see you; but I don't like to urge against your reasons my own inclinations. Come you must soon, for stay you won't. know you of old; - you have been too much leavened with London to keep long out of it. "Lewis is going to Jamaica to suck his sugar canes. He sails in two days; I inclose you his farewell note. I saw him last night at Drury Lane Theatre for the last time previous to his voyage. Poor fellow! he is really a good man- an excellent man - he left me his walking-stick and a pot of preserved ginger. I shall never eat the last without tears in my eyes, it is so hot. We have had a devil of a row among our ballerinas. Miss Smith has been wronged about a hornpipe. The Committee have interfered; but Byrne, the d-d ballet-master, won't budge a step. I am furious, so is George Lamb. Kinnaird is very glad, because he don't know why; and I am very sorry, for the same reason. To-day I dine with Kd. — we are to have Sheridan and Colman again; and to-morrow, once more, at Sir Gilbert Heathcote's. Leigh Hunt has written a real good and very original Poem, which I think will be a great hit. You can have no notion how very well it is written, nor should I, had I not redde it. As to us, Tom - eh, when art thou out? If you think the verses worth it, I would rather they were embalmed in the Irish Melodies, than scattered abroad in a separate song-much rather. But when are thy great things out? I mean the Po of Pos thy Shah Nameh. It is very kind in Jeffrey to like the Hebrew Melodies. 1 Some of the fellows here preferred Sternhold and Hopkins, and said so; - 'the fiend receive their souls therefor!' "November 4. 1815. 'When you have been enabled to form an opinion on Mr. Coleridge's MS. you will oblige me by returning it, as, in fact, I have no authority to let it out of my hands. I think most highly of it, and feel anxious that you should be the publisher; but if you are not, I do not despair of finding those who will. "I have written to Mr. Leigh Hunt, stating your willingness to treat with him, which, when I saw you, I understood you to be. 1 ["The Hebrew Melodies, though obviously inferior to Lord Byron's other works, display a skill in versification, which would have raised an inferior artist to the very summit of distinction." - Edin. Rev. vol. xxvii. p. 291.] ["And thou, too, of the snow-white plume! Whose realm refused thee ev'n a tomb; France o'er hosts of hirelings bleeding, Terms and time, I leave to his pleasure and your discernment; but this I will say, that I think it the safest thing you ever engaged in. I speak to you as a man of business; were I to talk to you as a reader or a critic, I should say it was a very wonderful and beautiful performance, with just enough of fault to make its beauties more remarked and remarkable. "And now to the last-my own, which I feel ashamed of after the others;- publish or not as you like, I don't care one damn. If you don't, no one else shall, and I never thought or dreamed of it, except as one in the collection. If it is worth being in the fourth volume, put it there and nowhere else; and if not, put it in the fire. 66 Yours, CHAPTER XXV. 1815-1816. "N." INCREASED PECUNIARY EMBARRASSMENTS. -LETTERS TO MURRAY AND MOORE.BIRTH OF AUGUSTA ADA BYRON. -SEPARATION. ANECDOTES. LETTERS TO MOORE, ROGERS, AND MURRAY.- PUBLIC OUTCRY. -NEWSPAPER ABUSE. PUBLICATION OF THE SIEGE OF CORINTH AND OF PARISINA. THOSE embarrassments which, from a review of his affairs previous to the mar riage, he had clearly foreseen would, before long, overtake him, were not slow in realising his worst omens. The increased expenses induced by his new mode of life, with but very little increase of means to meet them, the long arrears of early pecuniary obligations, as well as the claims which had been, gradually, since then, accumulating, all pressed upon him now with collected force, and reduced him to some of the worst humiliations of poverty. He had been even driven, by the necessity of encountering such demands, to the trying expedient of parting with his books,-which circumstance coming to Mr. Murray's ears, that gentleman in Than sold thyself to death and shame For a meanly royal name." See Works, p. 561.] Nourishing a wild idea of recovering his crown, Murat invaded the Neapolitan territory at the head of about two hundred men, was attacked by the country people, fought as he was wont, was made prisoner, tried by martial law, and condemned, October 13. 1815.] 3 [Coleridge's Zapolya, a Christmas Tale, in two parts," was published in 1817.] U |