we shall see; and at any rate, good or not, it is There is a hint for you, worthy of the row; and rather a different style from the last-less meta- now, perpend-pronounce. physical-which at any rate, will be a variety. I "I have not received a word from you of the fate sent you the shaft of the column as a specimen the of Manfred' or 'Tasso,' which seems to me odd, other day, i. e. the first stanza. So you may be whether they have failed or succeeded. thinking of its arrival towards autumn, whose "As this is a scrawl of business, and I have late winds will not be the only ones to be raised, if so be ly written at length and often on other subjects, 1 as how that it is ready by that time. will only add that I am, &c." "I lent Lewis, who is at Venice (in or on the Canalaccio, the Grand Canal), your extracts from Lalla Rookh and Manuel, and, out of contradiction, it may be, he likes the last, and is not much taken with the first, of these performances. Of Manuel I think, with the exception of a few capers, it is as heavy a nightmare as was ever bestrode by indigestion. LETTER CCCXLIX. TO MR. MURRAY. "La Mira, near Venice, Aug. 7, 1817. "Of the extracts I can but judge as extracts, "Your letter of the 18th, and, what will piease and I prefer the Peri' to the Silver Veil.' He seems not so much at home in his versification of you, as it did me, that parcel sent by the goodthe Silver Veil,' and a little embarrassed with his natured aid and abetment of Mr. Croker, are arhorrors; but the conception of the character of the rived.-Messrs. Lewis and Hobhouse are here: the impostor is fine, and the plan of great scope for his former in the same house, the latter a few hundred genius, and I doubt not that, as a whole, it will be yards distant. "You say nothing of Manfred, from which its very Arabesque and beautiful. Your late epistle is not the most abundant in should not say so at once. failure may be inferred; but I think it odd you information, and has not yet been succeeded by any hear absolutely nothing, of any body or any thing I know nothing, and other; so that I know nothing of your own concerns, in England; and there are no English papers, 89 or of any concerns, and as I never hear from any body that all you say will be news-of any person, er but yourself who does not tell me something as disagreeable as possible, I should not be sorry to hear thing, or things. I am at present very anxious from you: and as it is not very probable,-if I can, England at this minute, though I do not tell him about Newstead, and sorry that Kinnaird is leaving by any device or possible arrangement with regard to my personal affairs, so arrange it, that I shall so, and would rather he should have his pleasure, although it may not in this instance tend to my return soon, or reside ever in England, all that you tell me will be all I shall know or inquire after, as profit. to our beloved realm of Grub street, and the black land's 1500: as the agreement in the paper is "If I understand rightly, you have paid into Morbrethren and blue sisterhood of that extensive suburb of Babylon. Have you had no new babe of six hundred pounds, and not five hundred, the odd two thousand guineas, there will remain therefore literature sprung up to replace the dead, the dis-hundred being the extra to make up the specie. Six tant, the tired, and the retired? no prose, no verse, hundred and thirty pounds will bring it to the like no nothing?" LETTER CCCXLVIII. TO MR. MURRAY. "Venice, July 20, 1817. for Manfred and Tasso, making a total of twelve hundred and thirty, I believe, for I am not a good calculator. I do not wish to press you, but I teli you fairly that it will be a convenience to me to have it paid as soon as it can be made convenient yourself. "The new and last canto is one hundred and thirty stanzas in length; and may be made more or less. Ì have fixed no price, even in idea, and have no notion of what it may be good for. There are no metaphisics "I write to give you notice that I have completed ised me a copy of Tasso's Will, for notes; and I have in it; at least, I think not. Mr. Hobhouse has prom the fourth and ultimate canto of Childe Harold. It consists of one hundred and twenty-six stanzas, and isina's story, and perhaps a farthing-candle's worth some curious things to say about Ferrara, and Paris consequently the longest of the four. It is yet of light upon the present state of Italian literature. to be copied and polished; and the notes are to I shall hardly be ready by October; but that don't come, of which it will require more than the third matter. I have all to copy and correct, and the canto, as it necessarily treats more of works of art than of nature. It shall be sent towards autumn; --and now for our barter. What do you bid? eh? you shall have samples, an' it so please you: but I wish to know what I am to expect (as the saying is) in these hard times, when poetry does not let for the circumcision of a sucking Shylock. I have seen "Lewis, Hobhouse, and I went the other day to half its value. If you are disposed to do what Mrs. three men's heads and a child's foreskin cut of a Winifred Jenkins calls the handsome thing,' I may Italy. The ceremonies are very moving, but toe perhaps throw you some odd matters to the lot,-long for detail in this weather. notes to write. I "I do not know whether Scott will like it; but have called him the Ariosto of the North' in my text. If he should not, say so in time. translations, or slight originals; there is no saying "An Italian translation of Glenarvon' came what may be on the anvil between this and the book- lately to be printed at Venice. The censor (Sr. ing season. Recollect that it is the last canto, and Petrotini) refused to sanction the publication til: he completes the work; whether as good as the others, had seen me on the subject. I told him that I did I cannot judge, in course-least of all as yet, but it shall be as little worse as I can help. I may per- book and myself; but that, whatever opinions might not recognize the slightest relation between that haps, give some little gossip in the notes as to the be upon that subject, I would never prevent or op present state of Italian literati and literature, being pose the publication of any book, in any language, acquainted with some of their cap-men as well as on my own private account; and desired him (against books; but this depends upon my humor at the his inclination) to permit the poor translator to pul time. So, now, pronounce: I say nothing. lish his labors. It is going forward in consequence You may say this, with my compliments, to the an "When you have got the whole four cantos, I think you might venture on an edition of the whole poem in quarto, with spare copies of the last two for the purchasers of the old edition of the first two. thor. Canto iv., stanza xl. "Yours." "Venice, Aug. 12, 1817. "I have been very sorry to hear of the death of Madame de Staël, not only because she had been very kind to me at Copet, but because now I can never requite her. In a general point of view she will leave a great gap in society and literature. "With regard to death. I doubt that we have any right to pity the dead for their own sakes. "The copies of Manfred and Tasso are arrived, thanks to Mr. Croker's cover You have destroyed the whole effect and moral of the poem by omitting the last line of Manfred s speaking; and why this was done, I know not. Why you persist in saying nothing of the thing itself, I am equally at a loss to conjecture. If it is for fear of telling me something disagreeable, you are wrong; because sooner or later I must know it, and I am not so new nor so raw, nor so inexperienced, as not to be able to bear, not the mere paltry, petty disappointments of authorship, but things more serious,-at least I hope so, and that what you may think irritability is merely mechanical, and only acts like galvanism on a dead body, or the muscular motion which survives sensation. "If it is that you are out of humor, because I wrote to you a sharp letter, recollect that it was partly from a misconception of your letter, and partly because you did a thing you had no right to do without consulting me. "I have, however, heard good of Manfred from two other quarters, and from men who would not be scrupulous in saying what they thought, or what was said; and so good-morrow to you, good master Lieutenant.' "I wrote to you twice about the fourth canto, which you will answer at your pleasure. Mr. Hobhouse and I have come up for a day to the city; Mr. Lewis is gone to England; and I am LETTER CCCLI. TO MR. MURRAY. "Yours." "La Mira, near Venice, Aug. 21, 1817. "I take you at your word about Mr. Hanson, and will feel obliged if you will go to him, and request Mr. Davies also to visit him by my desire, and repeat that I trust that neither Mr. Kinnaird's absence nor mine will prevent his taking all proper steps to accelerate and promote the sale of Newstead and Rochdale, upon which the whole of my future personal comfort depends. It is impossible for me to express how much any delays upon these points would inconvenience me; and I do not know a greater obligation that can be conferred upon me than the pressing these things upon Hanson, and making him act according to my wishes. wish you would speak out, at least to me, and tell me what you allude to by your cold way of mentioning him. All mysteries at such a distance are not merely tormenting but mischievous, and may be prejudicial to my interests; so pray expound, that I may consult with Mr. Kinnaird when he arrives; and remember that I prefer the most disagreeable certainties to hints and inuendoes. The devil take every body; I never can get any person to be explicit about any thing or any body, and my whole life is passed in conjectures of what people mean you all talk in the style of Caroline Lamb's novels. Madame de Staël's, and other people's, besides MSS., &c. By, if I find the gentleman, and he don't find the parcel, I will say something he won't like to hear. "You want a civil and delicate declension' for the medical tragedy? Take it "Dear Doctor, I have read your play, To shatter'd nerves and quicken'd pulses, "I like your moral and machinery: All stab, and every body dies. To merits in themselves ostensible, My back-shop glut, my shelves encumber. A sort of it's no more a drama I think he's lost his wits at Venice. I write in haste; excuse each blunder; "Thus run our time and tongues away.— "JOHN MURRAY." "It is not Mr. St. John, but Mr. St. Aubyn, son "P. S. I've done the fourth and last canto, which amounts to one hundred and thirty-three stanzas desire you to name a price; if you don't, 1 "Yours, &c. LETTER CCCLII. LETTER CCCLIII. TO MR. MURRAY. "Sept. 4, 1817. TO MR. HOPPNER. "La Mira, Sept. 12, 1817. "Your letter of the 15th has conveyed with its contents the impression of a seal, to which the "I set out yesterday morning with the intention Saracen's Head' is a seraph, and the Bull and of paying my respects, and availing myself of your Mouth a delicate device. I knew that calumny permission to walk over the premises. On arriv had sufficiently blackened me of later days, but not ing at Padua, I found that the march of the Austhat it had given me the features as well as com- trian troops had engrossed so many horses, that plexion of a negro. Poor Augusta is not less, but those I could procure were hardly able to crawl; rather more, shocked than myself, and says 'people and their weakness, together with the prospect of seem to have lost their recollection strangely,' when finding none at all at the post-house of Monselice, they engraved such a 'blackmoor.' Pray don't seal and consequently either not arriving that day at (at least to me) with such a caricature of the hu- Este, or so late as to be unable to return home the man numskull altogether; and if you don't break same evening, induced me to turn aside in a second the seal-cutter's head, at least crack his libel (or visit to Arqua, instead of proceeding onwards; and ikeness, if it should be a likeness) of mine. even thus I hardly got back in time. "Mr. Kinnaird is not yet arrived, but expected. He has lost by the way all the tooth-powder, as a letter from Spa informs me. "Next week I shall be obliged to be in Venice to meet Lord Kinnaird and his brother, who are expected in a few days. And this interruption, "By Mr. Rose I received safely, though tardily, together with that occasioned by the continued magnesia and tooth-powder, and *' Why march of the Austrians for the next few days, do you send me such trash-worse than trash, the will not allow me to fix any precise period for Sublime of Mediocrity? Thanks for Lalla, how- availing myself of your kindness, though I should ever, which is good, and thanks for the Edinburgh wish to take the earliest opportunity. Perhaps, if and Quarterly, both very amusing and well-written. absent, you will have the goodness to permit one of Paris in 1815, &c.-good. Modern Greece*-good your servants to show me the grounds and house, for nothing; written by some one who has never or as much of either as may be convenient; at any been there, and not being able to manage the Spen-rate, I shall take the first occasion possible to go ser stanza, has invented a thing of its own, consist- over, and regret very much that I was on yesterday ing of two elegaic stanzas, a heroic line, and an prevented. Alexandrine, twisted on a string. Besides, why 'modern?' You may say modern Greeks, but surely Greece itself is rather more ancient than ever it was.-Now for business. notes "I have the honor to be your obliged, &c." LETTER CCCLIV TO MR. MURRAY. "Sept. 15, 1817. "You offer fifteen hundred guineas for the new canto: I won't take it. I ask two thousand five hundred guineas for it, which you will either give or not, as you think proper. It concludes the poem, and consists of one hundred and forty-four stanzas. The "I enclose a sheet for correction, if ever you get are numerous, and chiefly written by Mr. Hobhouse, whose researches have been indefati- blunder in printing makes it appear as if the Cha to another edition. You will observe that the gable, and who, I will venture to say, has more real knowledge of Rome and its environs than teau was over St. Gingo, instead of being on the any Englishman who has been there since Gib- opposite shore of the Lake, over Clarens. So, sepbon. By-the-way, to prevent any mistakes, I think arate the paragraphs, otherwise my topography will it necessary to state the fact that he, Mr. Hob- seem as inaccurate as your typography on this house, has no interest whatever in the price or profit occasion. to be derived from the copyright of either poem or with regard to the fourth and concluding canto. I "The other day I wrote to convey my proposition notes directly or indirectly; so you are not to sup- have gone over and extended it to one hundred and pose that it is by, for, or through him, that I require fifty stanzas, which is almost as long as the first more for this canto than the preceding.-No: but if Mr. Eustace was to have had two thousand for a of the smaller poems except the Corsair.' Mr. two were originally, and longer by itself than any poem on Education; if Mr. Moore is to have three lows as your thousand for Lalla, &c.; if Mr. Campbell is to have Hobhouse has made some very valuable and accuthree thousand for his prose on poetry-I don't rate notes, of considerable length, and you may be mean to disparage these gentlemen in their labors sure that I will do for the text all that I can to but I ask the aforesaid price for mine. You will finish with decency. I look upon Childe Harold as tell me that their productions are considerably my best; and as I begun, I think of concluding longer: very true, and when they shorten them, I with it. But I make no resolutions on that head, will lengthen mine, and ask less. You shall sub-as I broke my former intention with regard to the mit the MS. to Mr. Gifford, and any other two gen- better; and yet, not being thirty years of age, fer 'Corsair.' However, I fear that I shall never de tlemen to be named by you, (Mr. Frere, or Mr. Croker, or whomever you please, except such fel- some moons to come, one ought to be progressive, as far as intellect goes, for many a good year. But **s and * *s,) and if they pronounce I have had a devilish deal of tear and wear of mind this canto to be inferior as a whole to the preced- and body in my time, besides having published too ing, I will not appeal from their award, but burn often and much already. God grant me some judg the manuscript, and leave things as they are. ment to do what may be most fitting in that and every thing else, for I doubt my own exceedingly. "P. S In answer to a former letter, I sent you "I have read Lalla Rookh, but not with suffia short statement of what I thought the state of cient attention yet, for I ride about, and lounge, our present copyright account, viz., six hundred and ponder, and two or three other things; so pounds still (or lately) due on Childe Harold, and that my reading is very desultory, and not so atten six hundred guineas, Manfred and Tasso, making a tive as it used to be. I am very glad to hear of its total of twelve hundred and thirty pounds. If we popularity, for Moore is a very noble fellow in all agree about the new poem, I shall take the liberty Yours very truly. to reserve the choice of the manner in which it should be published, viz., a quarto, certes." By Mm. Hemans, • A country-house on the Euganean hills, near Este, which Mr. Hoppnet, who was then the English consul-general at Venice, had for some time occupied, and which Lord Byron afterward rented of him, but never resided in it. respects, and will enjoy it without any of the bad "In Coleridge's Life I perceive an attack upon feelings which success-good or evil-sometimes the then committee of D. L. Theatre for acting engenders in the men of rhyme. Of the poem Bertram, and an attack upon Maturin's Bertram itself, I will tell you my opinion when I have for being acted. Considering all things, this is not mastered it: I say of the poem, for I don't like very grateful nor graceful on the part of the worthy the prose at all, at all: and in the meantime, the autobiographer; and I would answer, if I had not Fire-Worshippers' is the best, and the Veiled obliged him. Putting my own pains to forward the Prophet' the worst, of the volume. views of Coleridge out of the question, I know that "With regard to poetry in general, I am con- there was every disposition, on the part of the subvinced the more I think of it, that he and all of us committee, to bring forward any production of his, -Scott, Southey, Wordsworth, Moore, Campbell, were it feasible. The play he offered, though poetiI,-are all in the wrong, one as much as another; cal, did not appear at all practicable, and Bertram that we are upon a wrong revolutionary poetical did;-and hence this long tirade, which is the last system, or systems, not worth a damn in itself, and chapter of his vagabond life. from which none but Rogers and Crabbe are free; "As for Bertram, Maturin may defend his own and that the present and next generations will begotten, if he likes it well enough; I leave the finally be of this opinion. I am the more con- Irish clergyman and the new orator Henley to firmed in this by having lately gone over some of battle it out between them, satisfied to have done our classics, particularly Pope, whom I tried in this the best I could for both. I may say this to you, way-It took Moore's poems and my own and who know it. some others, and went over them side by side with "Mr. Coleridge may console himself with the ferPope's, and I was really astonished (I ought not to vor,-the almost religious fervor of his and Wordshave been so) and mortified at the ineffable distance worth's disciples, as he calls it. If he means that in point of sense, learning, effect, and even imagi- as any proof of their merits, I will find him as much nation, passion, and invention, between the little fervor in behalf of Richard Brothers and Joanna Queen Anne's man, and us of the lower empire. Southcote as ever gathered over his pages or round Depend upon it, it is all Horace then, and Claudian his fireside. now among us; and if I had to begin again, I would "My answer to your proposition about the fourth mould myself accordingly. Crabbe's the man, but canto you will have received, and I await yours;he has got a coarse and impracticable subject, perhaps we may not agree. I have since written a and Rogers is retired upon half-pay, and has done poem (of eighty-four octave stanzas), humorous, enough, unless he were to do as he did formerly." in or after the excellent manner of Mr. Whistlecraft (whom I take to be Frere), on a Venetian anecdote which amused me:-but till I have your answer, I can say nothing more about it. LETTER CCCLV. TO MR. MURRAY. "Sept. 17, 1817. "Mr. Hobhouse purposes being in England in November; he will bring the fourth canto with him, notes and all: the text contains one hundred and fifty stanzas, which is long for that measure. + Mr. Hobhouse does not return to England in November, as he intended, but will winter here; and as he is to convey the poem, or poems,-for there may perhaps be more than the two mentioned (which, by-the-way, I shall not perhaps include in the same publication or agreement)-I shall not be able to publish so soon as expected; but I suppose there is no harm in the delay. 66 "I have signed and sent your former copyrights by Mr. Kinnaird, but not the receipt, because the With regard to the Ariosto of the North, of attorney to sign for me, and will, when necessary. money is not yet paid. Mr. Kinnaird has a power surely their themes, chivalry, war, and love, were Many thanks for the Edinburgh Review, which as like as can be; and as to the compliment, if you is very kind about Manfred, and defends its origiknew what the Italians think of Ariosto, you would nality, which I did not know that any body had not hesitate about that. But as to their measures, attacked. I never read, and do not know that I you forget that Ariosto's is an octave stanza, and Scott's any thing but a stanza. If you think Scott will dislike it, say so, and I will expunge. I do not call him the Scotch Ariosto,' which would be sad provincial eulogy, but the Ariosto of the North,' meaning of all countries that are not the South. * * "Oct. 12, 1817. ever saw the Faustus of Marlow,' and had, and As Mr. Kinnaird and his brother, Lord Kinnaird, ately fond as a boy (it was one of the Greek plays have been here, and are now gone again. All your the Medea' were the only ones, except the 'Seven we read thrice a year at Harrow); indeed that and missives came, except the tooth-powder, of which I request farther supplies, at all convenient opportunities; as also of magnesia and soda-powders, Doth great luxuries here, and neither to be had good, or indeed hardly at all, of the natives. * before Thebes,' which ever much pleased me. that I think Mr. Gifford mentioned, in a note of his • On this paragraph, in the MS. copy of the above letter, I find the which may or may not resemble it, for any thing I following note, in the handwriting of Mr. Giffont: "There is more good sense, aut feeling, and judginent in this passage, than in any other I ever read, or Lord Byron wrote."--Moore. know. "The Prometheus, if not exactly in my plan, has ↑ See letters for Bowles and Blackwood. Bee Letter eccxlvi. • Beppo. always been so much in my head, that I can easily conceive its influence over all or any thing that I have written;-but I deny Marlow and his progeny, and beg that you will do the same. "Will you desire Messrs. Morland to send our whatever additional sums have or may be paid in credit immediately, always, to their Venice corre spondents? It is two months ago that they sent "If you can send me the paper in question, me out an additional credit for one thousand pounds. which the Edinburgh Review mentions, do. The I was very glad of it, but I don't know how the review in the magazine you say was written by Wil- devil it came; for I can only make out five hundred son? it had all the air of being a poet's, and was a of Hanson's payment, and I had thought the other very good one. The Edinburgh Review I take to five hundred came from you; but it did not, it be Jeffrey's own by its friendliness. I wonder they seems, as by yours of the 7th instant, you have only thought it worth while to do so, so soon after the just paid the 12307. balance. former; but it was evidently with a good motive. "Mr. Kinnaird is on his way home with the as"I saw Hoppner the other day, whose country-signments. I can fix no time for the arrival of house at Este I have taken for two years. If you canto fourth, which depends on the journey of Mr. come out next summer, let me know in time. Love Hobhouse home; and I do not think that this will to Gifford. "Yours ever truly. be immediate. Yours, in great haste, and very truly, B. "P. S. Morlands have not yet written to my These two lines are omitted in your letter to the bankers, apprising the payment of your balances: doctor, after "All clever men who make their way." pray desire them to do so. "Ask them about the previous thousand-of which I know five hundred came from Hanson'sand make out the other five hundred-that is, whence it came." LETTER CCCLVII. TO MR. MURRAY. "Venice, Oct. 23, 1817. LETTER CCCLVIII. TO MR. MURRAY. "Venice, Nov. 15, 1817. "Your two letters are before me, and our bargain] is so far concluded. How sorry I am to hear that Gifford is unwell! Pray tell me he is better; I "Mr. Kinnaird has probably returned to England hope it is nothing but cold. As you say his illness by this time, and will have conveyed to you any ti originates in cold, I trust it will get no farther. dings you may wish to have of us and ours. I have "Mr. Whistlecraft has no greater admirer than come back to Venice for the winter. Mr. Hobhouse myself: I have written a story in eighty-nine stan- will probably set off in December, but what day or zas, in imitation of him, called Beppo (the short week, I know not. He is my opposite neighbor at name for Giuseppe, that is, the Joe of the Italian present. Joseph), which I shall throw you into the balance "I wrote yesterday in some perplexity, and no of the fourth canto, to help you round to your very good humor to Mr. Kinnaird, to inform me money; but you perhaps had better publish it about Newstead and the Hansons, of which and anonymously but this we will see to by-and-by. whom I hear nothing since his departure from this "In the notes to canto fourth, Mr. place, except in a few unintelligible words from an has pointed out several errors of Gibbon. unintelligible woman. depend upon H.'s research and accuracy. print it in what shape you please. Hobhouse "I am as sorry to hear of Dr. Polidori's accident as one can be for a person for whom one has a disWith regard to a future large edition, you may like, and something of contempt. When he gets print all, or any thing, except English Bards,' to well, tell me, and how he gets on in the sick line. the republication of which at no time will I consent. Poor fellow! how came he to fix there? "I fear the doctor's skill at Norwich Will hardly salt the doctor's porridge. I would not reprint them on any consideration. I don't think them good for much, even in point of poetry; and as to the other things, you are to recollect that I gave up the publication on account of Methought he was going to the Brazils, to give the the Hollands, and I do not think that any time or Portuguese physic (of which they are fond to despe circumstances can neutralize the suppression. Add ration), with the Danish consul. to which, that, after being on terms with almost all the bards and critics of the day, it would be savage] at any time, but worst of all now, to revive this for lish lampoon. * "Your new canto has expanded to one hundred and sixty-seven stanzas. It will be long, you see; and as for the notes by Hobhouse, I suspect they will be of the heroic size. You must keep Mr.** in good humor, for he is devilish touchy yet about "The review of Manfred came very safely, and your Review and all which it inherits, including the 1 am much pleased with it. It is odd that they editor, the Admiralty, and its bookseller. I used to snould say (that is, somebody in a magazine whom think that I was a good deal of an author in amour the Edinburgh controverts), that it was taken from propre and noli me tangere; but these prose fellows Marlow's Faust, which I never read nor saw. An are worst, after all, about their little comforts. American, who came the other day from Germany, "Do you remember my mentioning, some months told Mr. Hobhouse that Manfred was taken from ago, the Marquis Moncada-a Spaniard of distinc Goethe's Faust. The devil may take both the tion and fourscore years, my summer neighbor at La Faustuses, German and English-I have taken Mira? Well, about six weeks ago, he fell in love neither. "Will you send to Hanson, and say that he has not written since 9th September?-at least I have had no letter since, to my great surprise. with a Venetian girl of family, and no fortune or character: took her into his mansion; quarrelled with all his former friends for giving him advice (except me who gave him none), and installed her present concubine and future wife and mistress of himself and furniture. At the end of a month, in • A paper in the Edinburgh Magazine, in which it was suggested that which she demeaned herself as ill as possible, he the general conception of Manfred, and much of what is excellent in the manner of its execution, had been borrowed from "The Tragical History former keeper, and after nearly strangling, turned found out a correspondence between her and some of Dr. Faustus," of Marlow. |