LETTER CXLV. TO MR. MURRAY. "Cheltenham, Oct. 12, 1812. Busby's entire) inserted in several of the papers, (correctly, and copied correctly; my hand is diffi cult,)-particularly the Morning Chronicle? Tell Mr. Perry I forgive him all he has said, and may say against my address, but he will allow me to deal with the doctor-(audi alteram partem) and not betray me. I cannot think what has befallen Mr. Perry, for of yore we were very good friends;—but no matter, only get this inserted. 'I have a very strong objection to the engraving of the portrait, and request that it may, on no account, be prefixed; but let all the proofs be burned, and the plate broken. I will be at the expense which has been incurred; it is but fair that I should, "I have a poem on Waltzing for you, of which I since I cannot permit the publication. I beg, as a make you a present; but it must be anonymous. It particular favor, that you will lose no time in having is in the old style of English Bards and Scotch Rethis done, for which I have reasons that I will state viewers. when I see you. Forgive all the trouble I have "P. S. With the next edition of Childe Harold occasioned you. you may print the first fifty or a hundred opening I have received no account of the reception of lines of the Curse of Minerva,' down to the couplet the Address, but see it is vituperated in the papers, beginning which does not much embarrass an old author. I leave it to your own judgment to add it, or not, to "Mortal ('twas thus she spake) &c. your next edition when required. Pray comply Of course, the moment the Satire begins there you strictly with my wishes as to the engraving, and be- will stop, and the opening is the best part." lieve me, &c. "P. S. Favor me with an answer, as I shall not be easy till I hear that the proofs, &c., are destroyed. I hear that the Satirist has reviewed Childe Harold, in what manner I need not ask; but I wish to know if the old personalities are revived? I have a better reason for asking this than any that merely concerns myself; but in publications of that kind, others, particularly female names are sometimes introduced." LETTER CXLVI. TO LORD HOLLAND. LETTER CXLVIII. TO MR. MURRAY. "Oct. 19, 1812. "Many thanks, but I must pay the damage, and will thank you to tell me the amount for the engraving. I think the Rejected Addresses' by far the best thing of the kind since the Rolliad, and wish you had published them. Tell the author I forgive him, were he twenty times over a satirist;' and think his imitations not at all inferior to the famous ones of Hawkins Browne. He must be a man of very lively wit, and less scurrilous than wits often are: altogether, I very much admire the "I perceive that the papers, yea, even Perry's, performance, and wish it all success. The Satirist are somewhat ruffled at the injudicious preference has taken a new tone, as you will see: we have now, of the Committee. My friend Perry has, indeed, I think, finished with Childe Harold's critics. I 'et tu Bute'-d me rather scurvily, for which I will have in hand a Satire on Waltzing, which you must send him, for the M. C. the next epigram I scrib-publish anonymously; it is not long, not quite two ble, as a token of my full forgiveness. hundred lines, but will make a very small boarded "MY DEAR LORD, "Cheltenham, Oct. 14, 1812. * "Do the Committe mean to enter into no expla- pamphlet. In a few days you shall have it. nation of their proceedings? You must see there "P. S. The editor of the Satirist ought to be is a leaning towards a charge of partiality. You thanked for his revocation; it is done handsomely, will, at least, acquit me of any great anxiety to after five years' warfare." push myself before so many elder and better anonymous, to whom the twenty guineas (which I take to be about two thousand pounds Bank currency) and the honor would have been equally welcome. Honor,' I see, hath no skill in paragraphwriting.' LETTER CXLIX. TO MR. MURRAY. "Oct. 23, 1812. "I wish to know how it went off at the second reading, and whether any one has had the grace to give it a glance of approbation. I have seen no paper but Perry's, and two Sunday ones. Perry is have a care of glutting the public, who have by this "Thanks, as usual. You go on boldly; but severe, and the others silent. If, however, you and your Committee are not now dissatisfied with your shall be prepared. It is rather above two hundred time had enough of Childe Harold. Waltzing' own judgments, I shall not much embarrass myself lines, with an introductory Letter to the Publisher. about the brilliant remarks of the journals. My I think of publishing, with Childe Harold, the own opinion upon it is what it always was, per-opening lines of the Curse of Minerva,'t as far as haps pretty near that of the public. "Believe me, my dear lord, &c. &c. "P. S. My best respects to Lady H. whose smiles will be very consolatory, even at this distance." the first speech of Pallas,-because some of the readers like that part better than any I have ever written, and as it contains nothing to affect the sub Dr. Busby, entitled a Monologue, of which the Parody was enclosed in thi Which verses are thus ridiculed in the Parody ;- ject of the subsequent portion, it will find a place! as a Descriptive Fragment. LETTER CLI. TO MR. WILLIAM BANKES. * December 25, "The plate is broken!-between ourselves, it was unlike the picture, and besides, upon the whole, the frontispiece of an author's visage is but a paltry "The multitude of your recommendations has al exhibition. At all events, this would have been no ready superseded my humble endeavors to be of use recommendation to the book. I am sure Sanders to you, and, indeed, most of my principal friends would not have survived the engraving. By-the- are returned. Leake from Joanina, Canning and by, the picture may remain with you or him (which Adair from the city of the faithful, and at Smyrna you please) till my return. The one of two re- no letter is necessary, as the consuls are always maining copies is at your service till I can give you willing to do every thing for personages of respecta a better; the other must be burned peremptorily. bility. I have sent you three, one to Gibralt Again, do not forget that I have an account with which, though of no great necessity, will, perhaps, you, and that this is included. I give you too much put you on a more intimate footing with a very trouble to allow you to incur expense also. "You best know how far this Address riot' will that a man of any consequence has very little ce pleasant family there. You will very soon find out affect the future sale of Childe Harold. I like the casion for any letters but to ministers and bankers, volume of Rejected Addresses' better and better. and of them you have already plenty, I will be The other parody which Perry has received is mine sworn. also, (I believe.) It is Dr. Busby's speech versified. "It is by no means improbable, that I shall go in You are removing to Albemarle street, I find, and I the spring, and if you will fix any place of render rejoice that we shall be nearer neighbors. I am vous about August, I will write or join you. When going to Lord Oxford's, but letters here will be for- in Albania, I wish you would inquire after Dervise warded. When at leisure, all communications from Tahiri and Vascillie, (or Basil,) and make my re you will be willingly received by the humblest of spects to the viziers, both there and in the Morea your scribes. Did Mr. Ward write the review of If you mention my name to Suleyman of Thebes, I Horne Tooke's Life in the Quarterly? it is ex- think it will not hurt you; if I had my dragomat, cellent." LETTER CL. TO MR. MURRAY. "Cheltenham, Nov. 22, 1812. or wrote Turkish, I could have given you letters of real service; but to the English they are hardly requisite, and the Greeks themselves can be of little advantage. Liston you know already, and I do not, as he was not then minister. Mind you visit Ephe sus and the Troad, and let me hear from you whe you please. I believe G. Forresti is now at Yanina, but if not, whoever is there will be too happy to as sist you. Be particular about firmauns; never al"On my return here from Lord Oxford's I found low yourself to be bullied, for you are better your obliging note, and will thank you to retain the protected in Turkey than any where; trust not the letters, and other subsequent ones to the same ad- Greeks; and take some knicknakeries for presents dress, till I arrive in town to claim them, which will-watches, pistols, &c., &c., to the Beys and Fprobably be in a few days. I have in charge a cu-chas. If you find one Demetrius, at Athens or else rious and very long MS. poem written by Lord where, I can recommend him as a good dragoman. I Brooke, (the friend of Sir Philip Sidney,) which I hope to join you, however; but you will find swarms wish to submit to the inspection of Mr. Gifford, of English now in the Levant. with the following queries:-first, whether it has ever been published, and, secondly (if not,) whether it is worth publication. It is from Lord Oxford's library, and must have escaped or been overlooked among the MSS. of the Harleian Miscellany. The writing is Lord Brooke's, except a different hand to'wards the close. It is very long, and in the six-line stanza. It is not for me to hazard an opinion upon its merits; but I would take the liberty, if not too "In 'Horace in London,' I perceive some stan troublesome, to submit it to Mr. Gifford's judgment, zas on Lord Elgin, in which (waiving the kind which, from his excellent edition of Massinger, I compliment to myself), I heartily concur. I wish should conceive to be as decisive on the writings of I had the pleasure of Mr. Smith's acquaintance, as that age as on those of our own. I could communicate the curious anecdote you "Believe me, &c." LETTER CLII. TO MR. MURRAY. "February 20, 1912. "Now for a less agreeable and important topic. read in Mr. T.'s letter. If he would like it, he can How came Mr. Mac-Somebody, without consulting have the substance for his second edition; if nct. I you or me, to prefix the Address to his volume of shall add it to our next, though I think we already Dejected Addresses?' Is not this somewhat lar- have enough of Lord Elgin. cenous? I think the ceremony of leave might have "What I have read of this work seems admi been asked, though I have no objection to the thing rably done. My praise, however, is not much itself; and leave the hundred and leeven' to tire worth the author's having; but you may thank him themselves with 'base comparisons.' I should in my name for his. The idea is new-we have ex think the ingenuous public tolerably sick of the cellent imitations of the Satires, &c., by Pope; but! subject, and, except the Parodies, I have not inter- remember but one imitative Ode in his works, and fered, nor shall; indeed I did not know that Dr. none any where else. I can hardly suppose that Busby had published his Apologetical Letter and they have lost any fame by the fate of the fare; Postscript, or I should have recalled them. But I but even should this be the case, the present confess I looked upon his conduct in a different light publication will again place them on their pinnacle before its appearance. I see some mountebank has taken Alderman Birch's name to vituperate Dr. Busby; he had much better have pilfered his pastry, which I should imagine the more valuable ingredient-at least for a puff. Pray secure me a copy of Woodfall's new Junius, and believe me, &c." • "The genuine Rejected Addresses, presented to the Committee of Man. agement for Drury-Lane Theatre: preceded by that written by Lord Byron, and adopted by the Committee: "-published by B. McMillan. LETTER CLIII. TO MR. ROGERS. "Yours, &c." "March 25, 1913. "I enclose you a draft for the usurious interest due to Lord's protégé,—I also could wish you would state thus much for me to his lordship. | bells. Mr. Hobhouse's quarto will be out immedi Though the transaction speaks plainly in itself for ately; pray send to the author for an early copy, the borrower's folly and the lender's usury, it never which I wish to take abroad with me. was my intention to quash the demand, as I legally "P. S. I see the Examiner threatens some obmight, nor to withhold payment of principal, or, servations upon you next week. What can you perhaps, even unlawful interest. You know what have done to share the wrath which has heretofore my situation has been, and what it is. I have parted been principally expended upon the Prince? with an estate, (which has been in my family for presume all your Scribleri will be drawn up in batnearly three hundred years, and was never disgraced tle array in defence of the modern Tonson- Mr. by being in possession of a lawyer, a churchman, or Bucke, for instance. I a woman, during that period,) to liquidate this and "Send in my account to Bennet street, as I wish similar demands; and the payment of the purchase to settle it before sailing." is still withheld, and may be, perhaps, for years. If, therefore, I am under the necessity of making those persons wait for their money, (which. considering the terms, they can afford to suffer,) it is my misfortune. LETTER CLVI. TO MR. MURRAY. "Maidenhead, June 13, 1813. "When I arrived at majority in 1899, I offered my own security on legal interest, and it was refused. Now, I will not accede to this. This man I may have seen, but I have no recollection of the names of any parties but the agents and the securities. I have read the Strictures,' which The moment I can, it is assuredly my intention to are just enough, and not grossly abusive, in very pay my debts. This person's case may be a hard fair couplets. There is a note against Massinger one; but, under all circumstances, what is mine? near the end, and one cannot quarrel with one's I could not foresee that the purchaser of my estate company, at any rate. The author detects some was to demur in paying for it. "I am glad it happens to be in my power so far to accommodate my Israelite, and only wish I could do as much for the rest of the Twelve Tribes. "Ever yours, dear R. LETTER CLIV. TO MR. MURRAY. "BN." "Westall has, I believe, agreed to illustrate your book, and I fancy one of the engravings will be from the pretty little girl you saw the other day, though without her name, and merely as a model for some sketch connected with the subject. I would also have the portrait (which you saw to-day) of the friend who is mentioned in the text at the close of Canto first, and in the notes,-which are subjects sufficient to authorize that addition." Early in the spring he brought out, anonymously, his poem on Waltzing, which, though full of very lively satire, fell so far short of what was now expected from him by the public, that the disavowal of it, which, as we see by the following letter, he thought right to put forth, found ready credence. incongruous figures in a passage of English Bards, page 23, but which edition I do not know. In the sole copy in your possession-I mean the fifth edition-you may make these alterations, that I may profit (though a little too late) by his remarks: For hellish instinct,' substitute brutal instinct; harpies' alter to felons;' and for blood-hounds" write 'hell-hounds.'t These be very bitter words, by my troth,' and the alterations not much sweeter; but as I shall not publish the thing, they can do no harm, but are a satisfaction to me in the way of. amendment. The passage is only twelve lines. "You do not answer me about H.'s book; I want to write to him, and not to say any thing unpleasing. If you direct to post-office, Portsmouth, till called for, I will send and receive your letter. You never told me of the forthcoming critique on Columbus, which is not too fair; and I do not think justice quite done to the Pleasures,' which surely entitle the author to a higher rank than that assigned him in the Quarterly. But I must not cavil at the decisions of the invisible infallibles; and the article is very well written. The general horror of 'fragments' makes me tremulous for the Giaour; but you would publish it-I presume, by this time, to your repentance. But as I consented, whatever be its fate, I won't now quarrel with you, even though I detect it in my pastry; but I shall not open a pie without apprehension for some weeks. "The books which may be marked G. O., I will carry out. Do you know Clarke's Naufragia? I am told that he asserts the first volume of Robinson Crusoe was written by the first Lord Oxford, when in the Tower, and given by him to Defoe; if true, it is a curious anecdote. Have you got back Lord Brooke's MS.? and what does Heber say of it? Write to me at Portsmouth. "Ever yours, &c. "N. LETTER CLV. TO MR. MURRAY. April 21, 1813. LETTER CLVII. TO MR. MURRAY. "June 18, 1813. "I shall be in town by Sunday next, and will call and have some conversation on the subject of Westall's designs. I am to sit to him for a picture at the request of a friend of mine, and as Sanders's is not a good one, you will probably prefer the other. I wish you to have Sanders's taken down and sent DEAR SIR, to my lodgings immediately-before my arrival. I "Will you forward the enclosed answer to the hear that a certain malicious publication on Waltz- kindest letter I ever received in my life, my sense ing is attributed to me. This report, I suppose, of which I can neither express to Mr. Gifford himyou will take care to contradict, as the author, I am self nor to any one else. LETTER CLVIII. TO W. GIFFORD, ESQ. "MY DEAR SIR, "4, Benedictine street, St. James's July 8, 1513. "I presume by your silence that I have blundered "I feel greatly at a loss how to write to you at all into something noxious in my reply to your letter; -still more to thank you as I ought. If you knew for the which I beg leave to send, beforehand, a the veneration with which I have ever regarded you, sweeping apology, which you may apply to any, or long before I had the most distant prospect of be-all, parts of that unfortunate epistle. If I err in coming your acquaintance, literary or personal, my my conjecture, I expect the like from you, in putembarrassment would not surprise you. ting our correspondence so long in quarantine. "Any suggestion of yours, even were it conveyed God, he knows what I have said; but he also knows, in the less tender shape of the text. of the Baviad, (if he is not as indifferent to mortals as the no or a Monk Mason note in Massinger, would have chalant deities of Lucretius,) that you are the last been obeyed; I should have endeavored to improve person I want to offend. So, if I have,-why the myself by your censure: judge then if I should be devil don't you say it at once, and expectorate your less willing to profit by your kindness. It is not spleen? for me to bandy compliments with my elders and "Rogers is out of town with Madame de Staël, my betters: I receive your approbation with grati- who hath published an Essay against Suicide, tude, and will not return my brass for your gold, by which, I presume, will make somebody shoot himexpressing more fully those sentiments of admira-self; as a sermon by Blinkensop, in proof of Christion, which, however sincere, would, I know, be tianity, sent a hitherto most orthodox acquaintance unwelcome. of mine out of a chapel of ease a perfect atheist "To your advice on religious topics, I shall equal-Have you found or founded a residence yet? and ly attend. Perhaps the best way will be by avoiding have you begun or finished a Poem? If you them altogether. The already published objection- won't tell me what I have done, pray say what able passages have been much commented upon, you have done, or left undone, yourself. I am but certainly have been rather strongly interpreted. still in equipment for voyaging, and anxious to I am no bigot to infidelity, and did not expect that, hear from, or of, you before I go, which anxiety because I doubted the immortality of man, I should you should remove more readily, as you think I be charged with denying the existence of a God. shan't cogitate about you afterward. I shall give It was the comparative insignificance of ourselves the lie to that calumny by fifty foreign letters, parand our world, when placed in comparison with the ticularly from any place where the plague is rife,mighty whole, of which it is an atom, that first led without a drop of vinegar or a whiff of sulphur to me to imagine that our pretensions to eternity save you from infection. Pray write: I am sorry to might be overrated. say that * This, and being early disgusted with a Calvan- The Oxfords have sailed almost a fortnight, istic Scotch school, when I was cudgelled to church, and my sister is in town, which is a great comfortfor the first ten years of my life, afflicted me with for, never having been much together, we are nat this malady; for, after all, it is, I believe, a disease urally more attached to each other. I presume the of the mind as much as other kinds of hypochon-illuminations have conflagrated to Derby (or wher dria." ever you are) by this time. We are just recovering from tumult, and train oil, and transparent fripperies, and all the noise and nonsense of victory. Drury Lane had a large M. W. which some thought was Marshal Wellington; others that it might be translated into Manager Whitbread; while the ladies of the vicinity and the saloon conceived the last letter to be complimentary to themselves. I leave this to the commentators to illuminate. If you don't answer this, I shan't say what you deserve, but I think I deserve a reply. Do you con ceive there is no Post-Bag but the Twopenny? Sunburn me, if you are not too bad." "Murray, the avag of publishers, the Anac of "Your letter set me at ease; for I really thought stationers, has a design upon you in the paper line. (as I hear of your susceptibility) that I had said-I He wants you to become the staple and stipendiary know not what-but something I should have been editor of a periodical work. What say you? Will very sorry for, had it, or I, offended you; though you be bound, like Kit Smart, to write for ninety- don't see how a man with a beautiful wife, his own nine years in the Universal Visiter? Seriously, he children, quiet, fame, competency, and friends, (I talks of hundreds a year, and-though I hate prat- will vouch for a thousand, which is more than I will ing of the beggerly elements-his proposal may be for a unit in my own behalf,) can be offended with to your honor and profit, and, I am very sure, will any thing. be to our pleasure. "Do you know, Moore, I am amazingly inclined "I don't know what to say about 'friendship.' I-remember I say but inclined-to be seriously never was in friendship but once, in my nineteenth enamored with Lady A. F.-but this has ruined year, and then it gave me as much trouble as love. all my prospects. However, you know her; is she I am afraid, as Whitbread's sire said to the king, clever, or sensible, or good-tempered? either would when he wanted to knight him, that I am too old: do-I scratch out the will. I don't ask as to her but, nevertheless, no one wishes you more friends, beauty, that I see; but my circumstances are mend fame, and felicity, than "Yours, &c." ing, and were not my other prospects blackening, I the one hundred and fifty left alive, and they are for the Town's-end (query, might not Falstaff mean the Bow-street officer? I dare say Malone's post humous edition will have it so) for life. "I want to get away, but find difficulty in compassing a passage in a ship of war. They had bet- "Since I wrote last, I have been into the country. ter let me go; if I cannot, patriotism is the word- I journeyed by night-no incident or accident, but nay, an' they'll mouth, I'll rant as well as they.' an alarm on the part of ray valet on the outside, Now, what are you doing? writing, we all hope, for who, in crossing Epping Forest, actually, I believe, our own sakes. Remember you must edit my flung down his purse before a mile-stone, with a posthumous works, with a Life of the Author, for glowworm in the second figure of number XIX.which I will send you Confessions, dated 'Lazaret- mistaking it for a footpad and dark lantern. I can to, Smyrna, Malta, or Palermo-one can die any only attribute his fears to a pair of new pistols, where. wherewith I had armed him; and he thought it "There is to be a thing on Tuesday ycleped a necessary to display his vigilance by calling out to national fête. The Regent and * are to be me whenever we passed any thing-no matter there, and every body else, who has shillings enough whether moving or stationary. Conceive ten miles, for what was once a guinea. Vauxhall is the scene with a tremor every furlong. I have scribbled you there are six tickets issued for the modest women, a fearfully long letter. This sheet must be blank, and it is supposed there will be three to spare. The and is merely a wrapper, to preclude the tabellapassports for the lax are beyond my arithmetic. rians of the post from peeping. You once com"P. S. The Staël last night attacked me most plained of my not writing;-I will heap coals of furiously-said that I had no right to make love-fire upon your head' by not complaining of your not that I had used barbarously-that I had no reading. Ever, my dear Moore, your'n, (isn't that feeling, and was totally insensible to la belle pas- the Staffordshire termination?) sion, and had been all my life.' I am very glad to hear it, but did not know it before. Let me hear from you anon." "BYRON." LETTER CLXII. LETTER CLXIII. TO MR. MOORE. "July 27, 1813. TO MR. MOORE. "July 25, 1813. I have "When you next imitate the style of 'Tacitus,' "I am not well versed enough in the ways of sin- pray add, 'de moribus Germanorum;'-this last gle women to make much matrimonial progress. was a piece of barbarous silence, and could only be I have been dining like the dragon of Wantley entirely to your sylvan sequestration at Mayfield taken from the Woods, and, as such, I attribute it for this last week. My head aches with the vintage Cottage. You will find, on casting up accounts, of various cellars, and my brains are muddled as that you are my debtor by several sheets and one their dregs. I met your friends, the D **s: she sung one of your best songs so well, that, but for epistle. I shall bring my action ;-if you don't disthe appearance of affectation, I could have cried; forwarded your letter to Ruggiero; but don't make charge, expect to hear from my attorney. he reminds me of Hunt, but handsomer, and more postman of me again, for fear I should be tempted musical in soul, perhaps. I wish to God he may to violate your sanctity of wax or wafer. conquer his horrible anomalous complaint. The upper part of her face is beautiful, and she seems much attached to her husband. He is right, nevertheless, in leaving this nauseous town. The first winter would infallibly destroy her complexion, and the second, very probably every thing else. "I must tell you a story. M** (of indifferent memory) was dining out the other day, and complaining of the Prince's coldness to his old wassailers. D (a learned Jew) bored him with questions-why thus? and why that? Why did the Prince act thus? Why, sir, on account of Lord **, who ought to be ashamed of himself!' And why ought Lord to be ashamed of himself? 'Because the Prince, sir,* * "Believe me ever yours, indignantly, LETTER CLXIV. TO MR. MOORE. "BN." "July, 28, 1913. "Can't you be satisfied with the pangs of my jealousy of Rogers, without actually making me the pander of your epistolary intrigue? This is the second letter you have enclosed to my address, Because, notwithstanding a miraculous long answer, and a G―d d―mme, sir, I stuck to my principles.' 'And subsequent one or two of your own. If you do so why did you stick to your principles?' And why, sir, did the Prince cut you? again, I can't tell to what pitch my fury may soar. Is not this last question the best that ever was I shall send you verse or arsenic, as likely as any put, when you consider to whom? It nearly killed thing,-four thousand couplets on sheets beyond M**. Perhaps you may think it stupid, but, as the privilege of franking; that privilege, sir, of Goldsmith said about the peas, it was a very good which you take an undue advantage over a too joke when I heard it as I did from an ear-witness susceptible senator, by forwarding your lucubrations -and is only spoiled in my narration. to every one but himself. I wont frank from you, "The season has closed with a Dandy Ball;-but or for you, or to you, may I be cursed if I do, unless I have dinners with the Harrowbys, Rogers, and you mend your manners. I disown you-I disclaim Frere and Mackintosh, where I shall drink your you-and by all the powers of Eulogy, I will write health in a silent bumper, and regret your absence a panegyric upon you-or dedicate a quarto-if you till too much canaries' wash away my memory, don't make me ample amends. or render it superfluous by a vision of you at the "P. S. I am in training to dine with Sheridan opposite side of the table. Canning has disbanded and Rogers this evening. I have a little spite his party by a speech from his against R., and will shed his 'Clary wines pottlethe true throne of a Tory: Conceive his turning deep.' This is nearly my ultimate or penultimate them off in a formal harangue, and bidding them letter; for I am quite equipped, and only wait a think for themselves. I have led my ragamuffins passage. Perhaps I may wait a few weeks for where they are well peppered. There are but three of Sligo; but not if I can help it." |