ページの画像
PDF
ePub

"My address, when I leave Newstead, will be to frequent invasions on your attention, because I have a Rochdale, Lancashire; but I have not yet fixed the this moment nothing to interpose between you and my day of departure, and I will apprize you when ready to epistles. set off.

[blocks in formation]

LETTER LXXXVII.

TO R. C. DALLAS, ESQ.
"Newstead Abbey, Sept. 15, 1811.

"MY DEAR SIR,

"I cannot settle to any thing, and my days pass, with the exception of bodily exercise to some extent, with un form indolence, and idie insipidity. I have been expecting, and still expect, my agent, when I shall have enough to occupy my reflections in business of no very pleasant aspect. Before my journey to Rochdale, you shall have due notice where to address me-I believe at the postoffice of that township. From Murray I received a second proof of the same pages, which I requested him to show you, that any thing which may have escaped my observation may be detected before the printer lays the corner-stone of an errata column.

"I am now not quite alone, having an old acquaintance and schoolfellow with me, so old, indeed, that we have "My agent will not be here for at least a week, and nothing new to say on any subject, and yawn at each even afterwards my letters will be forwarded to Roch-other in a sort of quiet inquietude. I hear nothing from dale. I am sorry that Murray should groan on my ac- Cawthorn, or Captain Hobhouse, and their quarto-Lord count, though that is better than the anticipation of ap-have mercy on mankind! We come on like Cerberus plause, of which men and books are generally disap-with our triple publications. As for myself, by myself, I pointed. must be satisfied with a comparison to Janus.

"The notes I sent are merely matter to be divided, ar- "I am not at all pleased with Murray for showing the ranged, and published for notes hereafter, in proper MS.; and I am certam Gifford must see it in the same places; at present I am too much occupied with earthly light that I do. His praise is nothing to the purpose: cares, to waste time or trouble upon rhymne, or its modern indispensables, annotations.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

TO MR. MURRAY.

"Newstead Abbey, Sept. 16, 1811.

what could he say? He could not spit in the face of one who had praised him in every possible way. I must own that I wish to have the impression removed from his mind, that I had any concern in such a paltry transac tion. The more I think, the more it disquiets me; sol will say no more about it. It is bad enough to be a scribbler, without having recourse to such shifts to extort praise, or deprecate censure. It is anticipating, it is begging, kneeling, adulating-the devil! the devil! the devil! and all without my wish, and contrary to my express desire. I wish Murray had been tied to Payne's neck when he jumped into the Paddington Canal, and so tell him, that is the proper receptacle for publishers. You have thoughts of settling in the country, why not try Notts? I think there are places which would suit you in all points, and then you are nearer the metropolis. But of this anon.

[blocks in formation]

"I have just discovered some pages of observations on the modern Greeks, written at Athens, by me, under the title of 'Noctes Atticæ.' They will do to cut up into notes, and to be cut up afterwards, which is all that notes are generally good for. They were written at Athens,

"Yours ever.

"I return the proof, which I should wish to be shown as you will see by the date. to Mr. Dallas, who understands typographical arrangements much better than I can pretend to do. The printer may place the notes in his own way, or any way, so that they are out of my way; I care nothing about types or margins.

"If you have any communication to make, I shall be here at least a week or ten days longer.

"I am, sir, &c. &c."

LETTER XC.

TO MR. DALLAS.

"Newstead Abbey, Sept. 17, 1811.

"I can easily excuse your not writing, as you have, I hope, something better to do, and you must pardon my

For "Childe Harold."

LETTER XCII.

TO MR. DALLAS.

"R"

"Newstead Abbey, Sept. 21, 1811

"I have shown my respect for your suggestions by adopting them; but I have made many alterations in the first proof, over and above; as, for example:

"Oh Thou, in Hellas deem'd of heavenly birth,
&c. &c.'

"Since, shamed full oft by later lyres on earth,
Mine, &c.'

"Yet there I've wander'd by the vaunted rill ‚'

[blocks in formation]

to boot, and very gad I am to say so. I have also sul- I have altered it as follows:-
lenized the line as heretofore, and in short have been
quite conformable.

'Full from the heart of Joy's delicious springs

Some bitter o'er the flowers its bubbling venom dings.' "If you will point out the stanzas on Cintra which you wish recast, I will send you mine answer. Be good enough to address your letters here, and they will either be forwarded or saved till my return. My agent comes to-morrow, and we shall set out immediately.

"Pray, write; you shall hear when I remove to Lancs. I have brought you and my friend Juvenal Hodgson upon my back, on the score of revelation. You are fervent, Lat he is quite glowing; and if he takes half the pains to save his own soul, which he volunteers to redeem mine, great will be his reward hereafter. I honour and thank you both, but am convinced by neither. Now for notes. Besides those I have sent, I shall send the observations on the Edinburgh Reviewer's remarks on the modern Greek, an Albanian song in the Albanian (not Greek) ianguage, specimens of modern Greek from their New Testament, a comedy of Goldoni's translated, one scene, a prospectus of a friend's book, and perhaps a song or two, all in Romaic, besides their Pater Noster; so there will be enough, if not too much, with what I have already sent. Have you received the 'Noctes Attica? I sent also an annotation on Portugal. Hobhouse is also forth-I am so sorry my hand is unintelligible; but I can neither coming."

LETTER XCIII.

TO MR. DALLAS.

"Newstead Abbey, Sept. 23, 1811. "Lisboa is the Portuguese word, consequently the very best. Ulissipont is pedantic; and, as I have Hellas and Eros not long before, there would be something like an affectation of Greek terms, which I wish to avoid, since I shall have a perilous quantity of modern Greek in my notes, as specimens of the tongue; therefore Lisboa may keep its place. You are right about the " 'Hints;' they must not precede the 'Romaunt,' but Cawthorn will be savage if they don't; however, keep them back, and him in good humour, if we can, but do not let him pub ish.

[ocr errors]

"I have adopted, I believe, most of your suggestions, out 'Lisboa' will be an exception, to prove the rule. have sent a quantity of notes, and shall continue; but pray let them be copied; no devil can read my hand. By-the-by, I do not mean to exchange the ninth verse of the Good Night.' I have no reason to suppose my dog better than his brother brutes, mankind; and Argus we know to be a fable. The 'Cosmopolite' was an acquisition abroad. I do not believe it is to be found in England. It is an amusing little volume, and full of French flippancy. I read, though I do not speak, the language.

I will be angry with Murray. It was a bookselling, backshop, Paternoster-row, paltry proceeding, and if the experiment had turned out as it deserved, I would have raised all Fleet-street, and borrowed the giant's staff from St. Dunstan's church, to immolate the betrayer of trust. I have written to him as he never was written to before by an author, I'll be sworn, and I hope you will amplify my wrath, till it has an effect upon him. You tell me always you have much to write about. Write it, but let us drop metaphysics;-on that point we shall never agree. I am dull and drowsy, as usual. I do nothing, and even that nothing fatigues me. Adieu."

[blocks in formation]

"The press must not proceed of course without m seeing the proofs, as I have much to do. Pray do you think any alterations should be made in the stanzas on VATHEK? I should be sorry to make any improper allusion, as I merely wish to adduce an example of wasted wealth, and the reflection which arose in surveying the most desolate mansion in the most beautiful spot I ever beheld.

"Pray keep Cawthorn back; he was not to begin till November, and even that will be two months too soon.

deny your accusation, nor remove the cause of it.—It is a sad scrawl, certes.-A perilous quantity of annotation hath been sent; I think almost enough, with the specimens of Romaic I mean to annex.

"I will have nothing to say to your metaphysics, and allegories of rocks and beaches; we shall all go to the bottom together, so let us eat and drink, for to-morrow, much as it is better to sleep than to be awake. &c.' I am as comfortable in my creed as others, inas

ashamed of himself. He sent me a vastly complimentary "I have heard nothing of Murray; I hope he is epistle, with a request to alter the two, and finish another

engaged to translate by the sheet, declined altering any thing in sentiment, but offered to tag rhymes, and mend them as long as he liked.

canto. I sent him as civil an answer as if I had been

allow me; but I shall be so busy and savage all the time,
"I will write from Rochdale when I arrive, if my affairs
myself. If so, lay the blame on coal and coal-heavers.
with the whole set, that my letters will be as pettish as
Very probably I may proceed to town by way of New-
stead on my return from Lancs. I mean to be at Cam-
bridge in November, so that at all events we shall be
and do give you, though I ought to do so; but I have
nearer. I will not apologize for the trouble I have given,
worn out my politest periods, and can only say that I am
much obliged to you.
"Believe me, yours always,
"BYRON."

very

[blocks in formation]

The following are the six stanzas as they originally stood. Thow appearing below, as 24, 26, 29, appeared in the poem, in an altercdi stato, numbered there as 24, 25, 26, of the first canto. The stanzas marked below 25, 27, and 28, were those omitted:

XXIV.

Behold the hall where chiefs were late convened,
Oh, doom displeasing unto British eye!

With diadem hight Foolscap, lo! a fiend,

A little fiend that scoffs incessantly,

There sits in parchment robe arrayed, and by

His side is hung a seal and sabie scroll,

Where blazoned glares a name spelt Wellesley ;

And sundry signatures adorn the roll,

Whereat the urchin points and laughs with all his soul.

LETTER XCVI.

TO MR. DALLAS.

"Newstead Abbey, Oct. 11, 1811.

regularly apprized. Your objections I have in part done away by alterations, which I hope will suffice; and I have sent two or three additional stanzas for both Fyttes.' I have been again shocked with a death, and have lost one very dear to me in happier times; but 'I "I have returned from Lancs. and ascertained that have almost forgot the taste of grief, and 'supped full of my property there may be made very valuable, but vari-horrors' till I have become callous, nor have I a tear left ous circumstances very much circumscribe my exertions for an event which five years ago would have bowed at present. shall be in town on business in the begin- down my head to the earth. It seems as though I were ning of November, and perhaps at Cambridge before the to experience in my youth the greatest misery of age. end of this month; but of my movements you shall be My friends fall around me, and I shall be left a lonely

XXV.

Ir golden characters, right well designed,
First on the list appeareth one " Junot:"
Then certain other glorious names we find :
(Which rhyme compellath me to place below;)
Dull victors! baßted by a vanquished foe,

Wheedled by couynge tongues of laurels due,
Stand, worthy of each other, in a row

Sirs Arthur, Harry, and the dizzard Hew Dalrymple, seely wight, sore dupe of tother tew. XXVI.

Convention is the dwarfy demon styled

That foiled the knights in Marialva's dome :
of brains (if brains they had) he them beguiled,
And turned a nation's shallow joy to gloom.
For well wot, when first the news did come,
That Vimiera's field by Gaul was lost;
For paragraph ne paper scarce had room,

Such pans teemed for our triumphant host,
in Courier, Chrouit e, and eke in Morning Post.
XXVII.

But when Convertion sent his handy work,

Pens, tougues, feet, bands, combined in wild uproar ;
Mayor, aldermen, laid down th' uplifted fork;
The bench of Bishops half for got to suore:
Stern Cobbett, who for one whole week forbore

To question aught, once more with transport leapt,

And bit his dev'lish quill agen, and swore

With foe such treaty never should be kept.

The second paragraph in the preface was originally thus:

"It has been suggested to ine by friends, on whose opinions I set a high value, that in the fictitious character of Chude Harold,' I may in cur the auspicion of having drawn from myself.' This I beg leave once for all to disclaim. I wanted a character to give some connexions to the poem, and the one adopted suited my purpose as well as any other. In some very trivial particulars, and thuse merely local, there might be grounds for such an idea; but in the main points, i should hope none whatever. My reader will observe that when the author speaks in bis own person, he assumes a very different tone from that of

'The cheerless thing, the man without a friend,'

at least till death had deprived him of his nearest connexions.
"I crave pardon for this egotism, which proceeds from my wish to dis
card any probable imputation of it to the text."

The note to Canto I. stanza 21, was in the manuscript as follows:
"In the year 1809, it is a well-known fact, that the assassinations la
the streets of Lisbon and its vicinity, were not confined by the Forta
guese to their countrymen; but Englishmen were daily butchered, and
so far from the survivors obtaining redress, they were requested not to
interfere' if they perceived their compatriot defending himself against ins
amiable allies. I was once stopped in the way to the theatre, at eight in
the evening, when the streets were not more empty than they generally
are, opposite to an open shop, and in a carriage with a friend, by three
of our allies; and had we not fortunately been armed, I have not the
least doubt we should have adorned a tale,' instead of telling it. We
have heard wonders of the Portuguese lately, and their gallantry,-
pray Heaven it continue: yet would it were bedtime Hal, and all
were well! They must fight a great many hours by Shrewsbury

Then burst the blatant beast, and roared and raged, and-slept!!! clock,' before the number of their slain equals that of our countrymen

XXVIII.

Thus unto heaven appealed the people; heaven,
Which loves the lieges of our gracious king,
Decreed that ere our generals were forgiven,
Inquiry should be held about the thing.

But mercy cloaked the babes beneath her wing;
And as they spared our foes so spared we them.

(Where was the pity of our sires for Byng?)1

Yet knaves, not idiots, should the law condemn.
Then live ye, gallaut knights! and bless your judges' phlegin.

ΧΧΙΧ.

But ever since that martial synod met,
Britannia sickens, Ciotra! at thy name;

And folks in office at the mention sweat,

And fain would blush, if blush they could, for shame.
How will posterity the deed preclaim!

Will not our own and fellow natious sneer,
To view these champions cheated of their fame
By foes in fight o'erthrown, yet victors here,
Where scoru her finger points through many a coming year?
Originally, the "little page," and "yeoman," of Childe Harold,
Canto 1. were introduced in the following stanzas, which were after

warda erased:

And of his train there was a henchman page
A peasant boy, who served his master well;
And often would his pranksome prate engage
Childe Burun's ear when his proud heart did swell
With sullen thoughts that be disdain'd to tell.
Then would he smile on him, and Alwin smiled,
When aught that from his young lips archly fell
The gloomy film from Harold's eye beguiled.

Him and one yeoman only did he take
To travel eastward to a far countrie;
And though the boy was grieved to leave the lake,
On whose fair banks he grew from infancy,
Eftsoons his little heart beat merrily,
With hope of foreign nations to behold,
Aud many things right marvellous to see,
Of which our vaunting travellers oft have told,
From Mandeville

This stanza was also omitted:

Ye, who would more of Spain and Spariars know,
sights, saints, antiques, arts, anecdotes, and war,
Go, hie ye hence to Paternoster-row,-
Are they not written in the boke of Carr?
Green Erin's Knight and Europe's wandering star!
Then listen, readere, to the Man of Ink,

Hear what he did, and sought, and wrote afar,
All these are coop'd within one Quarto's brink,
This borrow, steal, (don't buy,) and tell us v hat you think.

• "Blatant beast," a figure for the mob; I think first used by Smollet tr. his Adventures of an Atom. Horace has the "Bellu multorum capitim." In England, fortunate enough, the illustrious mobility have not

ven one.

butchered by these kind creatures, now metamorphosed into Cacadores,' and what not. I merely state a fact not confined to Portugal, for in Sicily and Malta we are knocked on the head at a handsome average nightly, and not a Sicilian or Maltese is ever punished! The neglect of protection is disgraceful to our government and governors, for the murders are as notorious as the moon that shines upon them, and the apathy that overlooks them. The Portuguese, it is to be hoped, are complimented with the Forlorn Hope. If the cowards are become brave. (like the rest of their kind, in a corner,) pray let them display it. But there is a subscription for these pari citov,' (they need not be ahamed of the epithet once applied to the Spartans,) and all the cha ritable patronymicks, from ostentations to diffident 2, and 1. 18. Od. from an admirer of valour,' are in requisition for the lists at Lloyds, and the honour of British benevolence. Well, we have fought and subscribed, and bestowed peerages, end buried the killed by our friends and foes; and lo! all this is to be done over again! Like Young The.' (in Goldsmith's Citizen of the World,) as we' grow older, we grow never the better. It would be pleasant to learn who will sub scribe for us, in or about the year 1825, and what nation will send fifty thousand men, first to be decimated in the capital, and then decimated again (in the Irish fashion mine out of ten) in the bed of honour, which, as Serjeant Kite says, is considerably larger and more commodious than of Don Perceval, and generously bestow the profits of the well and the bed of Ware. Then they must have a poet to write the Vision widely pointed quarto to rebuild the Backmynd and the 'Canongate,' or fureish new kilts for the half-roasted Highlanders. Lord Welling ton. however, has enacted marvels; and so did his orientr1 brother, whom I saw charioteering over the French flag, and heard clipping bed Spanish, after listening 40 the speech of a patriotic cobbler of Cadiz, oa the event of his own entry into that city, and the exit of some five thou sand bold Britons out of this best of all possible worlds.' Sorely were we puzzled how to dispose of that same victory of Talavera; and a victory it surely was somewhere, for every body claimed it. The Spanish despatch and mob called it Cuestas, and made no great mention of the Viscount; the French called 1. theirs, (to my great discomfiture, for a French consul stopped my mouth in Greece with a pestilent taris Ga zette, just as I had killed Sebastiana in buckram,' and King Joseph in Kendal green,') and we have not yet determined chat to call it, or whose, for certes it was none of our own. Howbeit, Massena's retreat is a great comfort, and as we have not been in the habit of pursuing f some years past, no wonder we are a little awkward at first. No doubt we shall improve, or if not, we have only to take to our old way of re trograding, and then we are at home."

The following note to Canto II. stanza 8, was in the original manuscript, but omitted in the publication:

"In this age of bigotry, when the puritan and priest have changed places, and the wretched catholic is visited with the sins of his fathers. even unto generations far beyond the pale of the commandment the cu of opinion in these stanzas will doubtless meet with many a contemptuous anathema. But let it be remembered, that the spirit they breathe desponding, not sneering, skepticism; that he who has seen the Greek and Moslem superstitions contending for mastery over the former shrines of Polytheism,-who has left in his own Countrybarisees thanking God that they are not publicans and sinners,' and Spaniards in the rs, abhorring the heretics, who have holpen them in their need-will be not a little bewildered, and begin to think that as only one of them can be right, they may most of them be wroug. With regard to morals, and the effect of religion on mankind, it appears, from all historical testi mony, to have had lecs effect in making thein love their neighbours, than inducing that cordial christian abhorrence between sectaries and

1 By this query it is not meant that our foolish generals should have been shot, but that Byng might have been spared, though the one suffer ed and the others escaped, probably for Candide's reason," pour encou-schismatics. The Turks and Quakers are the most tolerant. If an i ·rager les autres."

In the MS the names "Robin" and "Rupert " had been successively inserted here and scratched ou; again.

fidel pays his heratik to the former, he may pray how, when, and where he pleases; and the mild tenets and devout demeanour of the latter, make their lives the truest commentary on the Sermon on the Mount

tree before I am withered. Other men can always take Holland. I have always had a great respect for his refuge in their families; I have no resource but my own talents, and for all that I have heard of his character; reflections, and they present no prospect here or here- but of me, I believe, he knows nothing, except that he after, except the selfish satisfaction of surviving my bet- heard my sixth-form repetitions ten months together, at ters. I am indeed very wretched, and you will excuse the average of two lines a morning, and those never permy saying so, as you know I am not apt to cant of sen-fect. I remembered him and his 'Slaves' as I passed sibility.

between Capes Matapan, St. Angelo, and his Isle of Ceriga, and I always bewailed the absence of the Anthology. I suppose he will now translate Vondel, the Dutch Shakspeare, and 'Gysbert van Amstel' will easily be accommodated to our stage in its present state; and I presume he saw the Dutch poem, where the love of Pyramus and Thisbe is compared to the passion of Christ; also the love of Lucifer for Eve, and other varieties of Low Country literature. No doubt you will think me crazed to taik of such things, but they are all in black and white and good repute on the banks of every canal from Amsterdam to Alkmaar.

"Yours ever,

"B.

"Instead of tiring yourself with my concerns, I should be glad to hear your plans of retirement. I suppose you would not like to be wholly shut out of society Now I know a large village or small town, about twelve miles off, where your family would have the advantage of very genteel society, without the hazard of being annoyed by mercantile affluence; where you would meet with men of information and independence and where I have friends to whom I should be proud to introduce you. There are besides, a coffee-room, assemblies, &c. &c. which bring people together. My mother had a house there some years, and I am well acquainted with the economy of Southwell, the name of this little commonwealth. Lastly, you will not be very remote from "P. S. My Poesy is in the hands of its various pubme; and though I am the very worst companion for lishers; but the 'Hints from Horace,' (to which I have young people in the world, this objection would not subjoined some savage lines on Methodism, and fero apply to you, whom I could see frequently. Your ex-cious notes on the vanity of the triple Editory of the penses too would be such as best suit your inclinations, Edin. Annual Register,) my 'Hints,' I say, stand still, more or less, as you thought proper; but very little and why?-I have not a friend in the world (but you would be requisite to enable you to enter into all the gayeties of a country life. You could be as quiet or bustling as you liked, and certainly as well situated as on the lakes of Cumberland, unless you have a particular wish to be picturesque.

and Drury) who can construe Horace's Latin, or my English, well enough to adjust them for the press, or to correct the proofs in a grammatical way. So that, unless you have bowels when you return to town, (I am too far off to do it for myself,) this ineffable work will be lost to the world for-I don't know how many weeks.

Pray, is your Ionian friend in town? You have promised me an introduction.-You mention having con"Childe Harold's Pilgrimage' must wait till Murray's sulted some friends on the MSS.-Is not this contrary is finished. He is making a tour in Middlesex, and is to our usual way? Instruct Mr. Murray not to allow to return soon, when high matter may be expected. He his shopman to call the work 'Child of Harrow's Pilgri- wants to have it in quarto, which is a cursed unsaleable mage!!!!! as he has done to some of my astonished size; but it is pestilent long, and one must obey one's friends, who wrote to inquire after my sanity on the oc-bookseller. I trust Murray will pass the Paddington casion, as well they might. I have heard nothing of Canal without being seduced by Payne and Mackinlay's Murray, whom I scolded heartily.-Must I write more example,-I say Payne and Mackinlay, supposing that notes? Are there not enough?-Cawthorn must be kept back with the 'Hir.ts.'-1 hope he is getting on with Hobhouse's quarto. Good evening.

"Yours ever, &c."

LETTER XCVII.

TO MR. HODGSON.

"Newstead Abbey, Oct. 13, 1811. "You will begin to deem me a most liberal correspondent; but as my letters are free, you will overlook their frequency. I have sent you answers in prose and verse to all your late communications, and though I am invading your ease again, I don't know why, or what to put down that you are not acquainted with already. I am growing nervous (how you will laugh!)-but it is true, really, wretchedly, ridiculously, fine-ladically ner

vous.

Your climate kills me; I can neither read, write, for amuse myself, or any one else. My days are listess, and my nights restless; I have very seldom any society, and when I have, I run out of it. At 'this present writing,' there are in the next room three ladies, and I have stolen away to write this grumbling letter.I don't know that I sha'n't end with insanity, for I find a want of method in arranging my thoughts that perplexes me strangely; but this looks more like silliness than madness, as Scrope Davies would facetiously remark in his consoling manner. I must try the hartshorn of your company; and a session of Parliament would suit me well, any thing to cure me of conjugating the accursed verb 'ennuyer?'

"When shall you be at Cambridge? You have hinted, I think, that your friend Bland is returned from

the partnership held good. Drury, the villain, has not written to me; 'I am never (as Mrs. Lumpkin says to Tony) to be gratified with the monster's dear wild

notes.'

"So you are going (going indeed!) into orders. You must make your peace with the Eclectic Reviewersthey accuse you of impiety, I fear, with injustice. De metrius, the 'Sieger of Cities,' is here, with 'Gilpin Horner.' The painter is not necessary, as the portraits he already painted are (by anticipation) very like tho but I want 'paulo majora' from you. Make a dash bʊnew animals.-Write, and send me your 'Love Song'fore you are a deacon, and try a dry publisher. "Yours always,

LETTER XCVIII.

TO R. C. DALLAS, ESQ.

"B."

"October 14, 1811

DEAR SIR, "Stanza 9, for Canto II. somewhat altered, to avoid s recurrence in a former stanza.

STANZA IX.

There, thou!-whose love and life together fled,
Have left me here to love and live in vain :-
Twined with my heart, and can I deem thee dead,
When busy memory flashes o'er my brain?
Well-I will dream that we may meet again,
And woo the vision to my vacant breast:

If aught of young remembrance then remain
Be as it may

Whate'er beside Futurity's bebest;

er,-Howe'er may be

For me 'twere bliss enough to see thy spirit blest!

LETTERS, 1811.

"I think it proper to state to you, that this stanza cornelian,* which some years ago I consigned to Miss alludes to an event which has taken place since my arrival here, and not to the death of any male friend. "B."

"Yours,

LETTER XCIX.

TO R. C. DALLAS, ESQ.

"Newstead Abbey, Oct. 16, 1811.

****, indeed gave to her, and now I am going to make the most selfish and rude of requests. The person who gave it to me, when I was very young, is dead, and though a long time has elapsed since we met, as it was the only memorial I possessed of that person, (in whom I was very much interested,) it has acquired a value by this event I could have wished it never to have borne in "I am on the wing for Cambridge. Thence, after a served it, I must, under these circumstances, beg her to my eyes. If, therefore, Miss ✶ ✶✶ ✶ should have preshort stay, to London. Will you be good enough to excuse my requesting it to be transmitted to me at No. keep an account of all the MSS. you receive, for fear of 8, St. James's-street, London, and I will replace it by omission? Have you adopted the three altered stanzas something she may remember me by equally well. As of the latest proof? I can do nothing more with them.-she was always so kind as to feel interested in the fate I am glad you like the new ones. Of the last, and of the of him that formed the subject of our conversation, you tro, I sent you a new edition-to-day a fresh note. The may tell her that the giver of that cornelian died in May lines of the second sheet I fear must stand; I will give last of a consumption, at the age of twenty-one, making the sixth, within four months, of friends and relatives that I have lost-between May and the end of August. 'Believe me, dear Madam, "Yours very sincerely,

you reasons when we meet.

"Believe me, yours ever,

LETTER C.

TO R. C. DALLAS, ESQ.

DEAR SIR,

"BYRON."

*Cambridge, Oct. 25, 1811.

"I send you a conclusion to the whole. In a stanza towards the end of Canto I. in the line,

'Oh, known the earliest and beloved the most,'

"P.S. I go to London to-morrow."

LETTER CIII.

MR. MOORE TO LORD BYRON.

"MY LORD,

"BYRON

"Dublin, January 1, 1810.

"Having just seen the name of 'Lord Byron' pre

I shall alter the epithet toesteemed the most. The fixed to a work, entitled 'English Bards and Scotch present stanzas are for the end of Canto II. In the beginning of the week I shall be at No. 8, my old lodgings, in St. James's-street, where I hope to have the pleasure of seeing you.

"Yours ever,

LETTER CI.

TO R. C. DALLAS, ESQ.

"B."

"8, St. James's-street, Oct. 31, 1811. "DEAR SIR,

"I have already taken up so much of your time that there needs no excuse on your part, but a great many on mine, for the present interruption. I have altered the passages according to your wish. With this note I send a few stanzas on a subject which has lately occupied much of my thoughts. They refer to the death of one to whose name you are a stranger, and, consequently, cannot be interested. I mean them to complete the present volume. They relate to the same person whom I have mentioned in Canto II. and at the conclusion of the poem.*

"I by no means intend to identify myself with Harold, but to deny all connexion with him. If in parts I may be thought to have drawn from myself, believe me it is but in parts, and I shall not own even to that. As to the Monastic dome,' &c. I thought those circumstances would suit him as well as any other, and I could decribe what I had seen better than I could invent. would not be such a fellow as I have made my h ro the world.

[blocks in formation]

Reviewers,' in which, as it appears to me, the lie is given to a public statement of mine, respecting an affair with Mr. Jeffrey some years since, I beg you will have the goodness to inform me whether I may consider your lordship as the author of this publication.

"I shall not, I fear, be able to return to London for a week or two; but, in the mean time. I trust your lordship will not deny me the satisfaction of knowing whether you avow the insult contained in the passages alluded to "It is needless to suggest to your lordship the propriety of keeping our correspondence secret.

"I have the honour to be, "Your lordship's very humble servant, "THOMAS MOORE.

"22, Molesworth-street."

[blocks in formation]

The above letter was transmitted by Mr. Moore to a friend of his

London, with a request that he would deliver it in person, but as it did not reach London until a few days after Lord Byron's departure for the undertook to forward it, but, as appears by the correspondence to which Continent, Mr. Moore's friend placed it the hands of Mr. Hodgson, who It gave rise, neglected to do so. doubts of its having reached him, and restating in nearly the same words Mr. Moore again wrote to him referring to his former letter, expressing On Lord Byron's return to England, the nature of the insult which, as it appeared to him, the passage in question was calculated to convey. It is now useless," he continued, to speak of the steps with which it was my intention to follow up that letter. The time which has elapsed since then, though it has done away neither the injury nor the feeling of it, has, in many respects, materially altered my situation and the only object which I have now in writing to your lordship is, to preserve some consistency with that former letter, and to prove to you that the injured feeling still exists, however circum stances may compel me to be deaf to its dictates at present. When I say injured feeling,' let me assure your lordship that there is not a single vindictive sentiment in my mind towards you. I mean but to ex press that uneasiness, under (what I consider to be) a charge of false. hood, which must haunt a man of any feeling to his grare unless the me. In conclusion he added, that so far from being influenced by any insult be retracted or atoned for; and which, if I did not feel, I should, indeed, deserve far worse than your lordship's Satire could inflict upon angry or resentful feeling towards him, it would give him sincere plea aure, if, by any satisfactory explanation, he would enable him to seek the honour of being henceforward ranked among his acquaintance.' To this letter, Lord Byron returned the above answer.

"I am about to write to you on a silly subject, and yet [ cinnot well do otherwise You may remember a

*Mr. Elleston. See the Letter following.

« 前へ次へ »