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(Lord Byron) George Gordon Byron - Life of Lord Byron, With His Letters And Journals, Vol. 5 (of 6)

( >> (Lord Byron) George Gordon Byron >> Life of Lord Byron, With His Letters And Journals, Vol. 5 (of 6)




"I wrote to you to keep up your spirits, for reproach is useless
always, and irritating--but my feelings were very much hurt, to be
dragged like a gladiator to the fate of a gladiator by that
'_retiarius_,' Mr. Elliston. As to his defence and offers of
compensation, what is all this to the purpose? It is like Louis the
Fourteenth, who insisted upon buying at any price Algernon Sydney's
horse, and, on his refusal, on taking it by force, Sydney shot his
horse. I could not shoot my tragedy, but I would have flung it into
the fire rather than have had it represented.

"I have now written nearly three _acts_ of another (intending to
complete it in five), and am more anxious than ever to be preserved
from such a breach of all literary courtesy and gentlemanly
consideration.

"If we succeed, well: if not, previous to any future publication,
we will request a _promise_ not to be acted, which I would even pay
for (as money is their object), or I will not publish--which,
however, you will probably not much regret.

"The Chancellor has behaved nobly. You have also conducted yourself
in the most satisfactory manner; and I have no fault to find with
any body but the stage-players and their proprietor. I was always
so civil to Elliston personally, that he ought to have been the
last to attempt to injure me.

"There is a most rattling thunder-storm pelting away at this
present writing; so that I write neither by day, nor by candle, nor
torchlight, but by _lightning_ light: the flashes are as brilliant
as the most gaseous glow of the gas-light company. My chimney-board
has just been thrown down by a gust of wind: I thought that it was
the 'Bold Thunder' and 'Brisk Lightning' in person.--_Three_ of us
would be too many. There it goes--_flash_ again! but

"I tax not you, ye elements, with unkindness;
I never gave ye _franks_, nor _call'd_ upon you;

as I have done by and upon Mr. Elliston.

"Why do you not write? You should at least send me a line of
particulars: I know nothing yet but by Galignani and the Honourable
Douglas.

"Well, and how does our Pope controversy go on? and the pamphlet?
It is impossible to write any news: the Austrian scoundrels rummage
all letters.

"P.S. I could have sent you a good deal of gossip and some _real_
information, were it not that all letters pass through the
Barbarians' inspection, and I have no wish to inform _them_ of any
thing but my utter abhorrence of them and theirs. They have only
conquered by treachery, however."

[Footnote 38: The account given, by Madame Guiccioli, of his anxiety on
this occasion, fully corroborates his own:--"His quiet was, in spite of
himself, often disturbed by public events, and by the attacks which,
principally in his character of author, the journals levelled at him. In
vain did he protest that he was indifferent to those attacks. The
impression was, it is true, but momentary, and he, from a feeling of
noble pride, but too much disdained to reply to his detractors. But,
however brief his annoyance was, it was sufficiently acute to occasion
him much pain, and to afflict those who loved him. Every occurrence
relative to the bringing Marino Faliero on the stage caused him
excessive inquietude. On, the occasion of an article in the Milan
Gazette, in which mention was made of this affair, he wrote to me in the
following manner:--'You will see here confirmation of what I told you
the other day! I am sacrificed in every way, without knowing the _why_
or the _wherefore_. The tragedy in question is not (nor ever was)
written for, or adapted to, the stage; nevertheless, the plan is not
romantic; it is rather regular than otherwise;--in point of unity of
time, indeed, perfectly regular, and failing but slightly in unity of
place. You well know whether it was ever my intention to have it acted,
since it was written at your side, and at a period assuredly rather more
_tragical_ to me as a _man_ than as an _author_; for _you_ were in
affliction and peril. In the mean time, I learn from your Gazette that a
cabal and party has been formed, while I myself have never taken the
slightest step in the business. It is said that the author read it
aloud!!!--here, probably, at Ravenna?--and to whom? perhaps to
Fletcher!!!--that illustrious literary character,'" &c. &c.--"Ma pero la
sua tranquillita era suo malgrado sovente alterata dalle publiche
vicende, e dagli attachi che spesso si direggevano a lui nei giornali
come ad autore principalmente. Era invano che egli protestava
indifferenza per codesti attachi. L'impressione non era e vero che
momentanea, e purtroppo per una nobile fierezza sdegnava sempre di
rispondere ai suoi dettratori. Ma per quanto fosse breve quella
impressione era pero assai forte per farlo molto soffrire e per
affliggere quelli che lo amavano. Tuttocio che ebbe luogo per la
rappresentazione del suo Marino Faliero lo inquicto pure moltissimo e
dietro ad un articolo di una Gazetta di Milano in cui si parlava di
quell' affare egli mi scrisse cosi--'Ecco la verita di cio che io vi
dissi pochi giorni fa, come vengo sacrificato in tutte le maniere seza
sapere il _perche_ e il _come_. La tragedia di cui si parla non e (e non
era mai) ne scritta ne adattata al teatro; ma non e pero romantico il
disegno, e piuttosto regolare--regolarissimo per l' unita del tempo, c
mancando poco a quella del sito. Voi sapete bene se io aveva intenzione
di farla rappresentare, poiche era scritta al vostro fianco e nei
momenti per certo piu _tragici_ per me come _uomo_ che come
_autore_,--perche _voi_ eravate in affanno ed in pericolo. Intanto sento
dalla vostra Gazetta che sia nata una cabala, un partito, e senza ch' io
vi abbia presa la minima parte. Si dice che _l'autore ne fece la
letlura!!!_--qui forse? a Ravenna?--ed a chi? forse a Fletcher!!!--quel
illustre litterato,'" &c. &c.]

* * * * *

LETTER 428. TO ME. MOORE.

"Ravenna, May 20. 1821.

"Since I wrote to you last week I have received English letters and
papers, by which I perceive that what I took for an Italian _truth_
is, after all, a French lie of the Gazette de France. It contains
two ultra-falsehoods in as many lines. In the first place, Lord B.
did _not_ bring forward his play, but opposed the same; and,
secondly, it was _not_ condemned, but is continued to be acted, in
despite of publisher, author, Lord Chancellor, and (for aught I
know to the contrary) of audience, up to the first of May, at
least--the latest date of my letters. You will oblige me, then, by
causing Mr. Gazette of France to contradict himself, which, I
suppose, he is used to. I never answer a foreign _criticism_; but
this is a mere matter of fact, and not of _opinions_. I presume
that you have English and French interest enough to do this for
me--though, to be sure, as it is nothing but the _truth_ which we
wish to state, the insertion may be more difficult.

"As I have written to you often lately at some length, I won't bore
you further now, than by begging you to comply with my request; and
I presume the 'esprit du corps' (is it 'du' or 'de?' for this is
more than I know) will sufficiently urge you, as one of '_ours_,'
to set this affair in its real aspect. Believe me always yours ever
and most affectionately,

"BYRON."

* * * * *

LETTER 429. TO MR. HOPPNER.

"Ravenna, May 25. 1821.

"I am very much pleased with what you say of Switzerland, and will
ponder upon it. I would rather she married there than here for that
matter. For fortune, I shall make all that I can spare (if I live
and she is correct in her conduct); and if I die before she is
settled, I have left her by will five thousand pounds, which is a
fair provision _out_ of England for a natural child. I shall
increase it all I can, if circumstances permit me; but, of course
(like all other human things), this is very uncertain.

"You will oblige me very much by interfering to have the FACTS of
the play-acting stated, as these scoundrels appear to be organising
a system of abuse against me, because I am in their '_list_.' I
care nothing for _their criticism_, but the matter of fact. I have
written _four_ acts of another tragedy, so you see they _can't_
bully me.

"You know, I suppose, that they actually keep a _list_ of all
individuals in Italy who dislike them--it must be numerous. Their
suspicions and actual alarms, about my conduct and presumed
intentions in the late row, were truly ludicrous--though, not to
bore you, I touched upon them lightly. They believed, and still
believe here, or affect to believe it, that the whole plan and
project of rising was settled by me, and the _means_ furnished, &c.
&c. All this was more fomented by the barbarian agents, who are
numerous here (one of them was stabbed yesterday, by the way, but
not dangerously):--and although when the Commandant was shot here
before my door in December, I took him into my house, where he had
every assistance, till he died on Fletcher's bed; and although not
one of them dared to receive him into their houses but myself, they
leaving him to perish in the night in the streets, they put up a
paper about three months ago, denouncing me as the Chief of the
Liberals, and stirring up persons to assassinate me. But this shall
never silence nor bully my opinions. All this came from the German
Barbarians."

* * * * *

LETTER 430. TO MR. MURRAY.

"Ravenna, May 25. 1821.

"Mr. Moray,

"Since I wrote the enclosed a week ago, and for some weeks before,
I have not had a line from you: now, I should be glad to know upon
what principle of common or _un_common feeling, you leave me
without any information but what I derive from garbled gazettes in
English, and abusive ones in Italian (the Germans hating me as a
_coal-heaver_), while all this kick-up has been going on about the
play? You SHABBY fellow!!! Were it not for two letters from Douglas
Kinnaird, I should have been as ignorant as you are negligent.

"So, I hear Bowles has been abusing Hobhouse? If that's the case,
he has broken the truce, like Morillo's successor, and I will cut
him out, as Cochrane did the Esmeralda.

"Since I wrote the enclosed packet, I have completed (but not
copied out) four acts of a new tragedy. When I have finished the
fifth, I will copy it out. It is on the subject of 'Sardanapalus,'
the last king of the Assyrians. The words _Queen_ and _Pavilion_
occur, but it is not an allusion to his Britannic Majesty, as you
may tremulously imagine. This you will one day see (if I finish
it), as I have made Sardanapalus _brave_, (though voluptuous, as
history represents him,) and also as _amiable_ as my poor powers
could render him:--so that it could neither be truth nor satire on
any living monarch. I have strictly preserved all the unities
hitherto, and mean to continue them in the fifth, if possible; but
_not_ for _the stage_. Yours, in haste and hatred, you shabby
correspondent! N."

* * * * *

LETTER 431. TO MR. MURRAY.

"Ravenna, May 28. 1821.

"Since my last of the 26th or 25th, I have dashed off my fifth act
of the tragedy called 'Sardanapalus.' But now comes the copying
over, which may prove heavy work--heavy to the writer as to the
reader. I have written to you at least six times sans answer, which
proves you to be a--bookseller. I pray you to send me a copy of Mr.
_Wrangham_'s reformation of '_Langhorne_'s Plutarch.' I have the
Greek, which is somewhat small of print, and the Italian, which is
too heavy in style, and as false as a Neapolitan patriot
proclamation. I pray you also to send me a Life, published some
years ago, of the _Magician Apollonius_ of Tyana. It is in English,
and I think edited or written by what Martin Marprelate calls '_a
bouncing priest_.' I shall trouble you no farther with this sheet
than with the postage. Yours, &c. N.

"P.S. Since I wrote this, I determined to enclose it (as a half
sheet) to Mr. Kinnaird, who will have the goodness to forward it.
Besides, it saves sealing-wax."

* * * * *

LETTER 432. TO MR. MURRAY.

"Ravenna, May 30. 1821.

"Dear Moray,

"You say you have written often: I have only received yours of the
eleventh, which is very short. By this post, _five_ packets, I send
you the tragedy of Sardanapalus, which is written in a rough hand:
perhaps Mrs. Leigh can help you to decipher it. You will please to
acknowledge it by return of post. You will remark that the
_unities_ are all _strictly_ observed. The scene passes in the same
_hall_ always: the time, a _summer's night_, about nine hours, or
less, though it begins before sunset and ends after sun-rise. In
the third act, when Sardanapalus calls for a _mirror_ to look at
himself in his armour, recollect to quote the Latin passage from
_Juvenal_ upon _Otho_ (a similar character, who did the same
thing): Gifford will help you to it. The trait is perhaps too
familiar, but it is historical, (of _Otho_, at least,) and natural
in an effeminate character."

* * * * *

LETTER 433. TO MR. HOPPNER.

"Ravenna, May 31. 1821.

"I enclose you another letter, which will only confirm what I have
said to you.

"About Allegra'--I will take some decisive step in the course of
the year; at present, she is so happy where she is, that perhaps
she had better have her _alphabet_ imparted in her convent.

"What you say of the _Dante_ is the first I have heard of it--all
seeming to be merged in the _row_ about the tragedy. Continue
it!--Alas! what could Dante himself _now_ prophesy about Italy? I
am glad you like it, however, but doubt that you will be singular
in your opinion. My _new_ tragedy is completed.

"The B * * is _right_,--I ought to have mentioned her _humour_ and
_amiability_, but I thought at her _sixty_, beauty would be most
agreeable or least likely. However, it shall be rectified in a new
edition; and if any of the parties have either looks or qualities
which they wish to be noticed, let me have a minute of them. I have
no private nor personal dislike to _Venice_, rather the contrary,
but I merely speak of what is the subject of all remarks and all
writers upon her present state. Let me hear from you before you
start.

"Believe me, ever, &c.

"P.S. Did you receive two letters of Douglas Kinnaird's in an
endorse from me? Remember me to Mengaldo, Soranzo, and all who care
that I should remember them. The letter alluded to in the
enclosed, 'to the _Cardinal_,' was in answer to some queries of
the government, about a poor devil of a Neapolitan, arrested at
Sinigaglia on suspicion, who came to beg of me here; being without
breeches, and consequently without pockets for halfpence, I
relieved and forwarded him to his country, and they arrested him at
Pesaro on suspicion, and have since interrogated me (civilly and
politely, however,) about him. I sent them the poor man's petition,
and such information as I had about him, which I trust will get him
out again, that is to say, if they give him a fair hearing.

"I _am_ content with the article. Pray, did you receive, some posts
ago, Moore's lines which I enclosed to you, written at Paris?"

* * * * *

LETTER 434. TO MR. MOORE.

"Ravenna, June 4. 1821.

"You have not written lately, as is the usual custom with literary
gentlemen, to console their friends with their observations in
cases of magnitude. I do not know whether I sent you my 'Elegy on
the _recovery_ of Lady * *:'--

"Behold the blessings of a lucky lot--
My play is damn'd, and Lady * * _not_.

"The papers (and perhaps your letters) will have put you in
possession of Muster Elliston's dramatic behaviour. It is to be
presumed that the play was _fitted_ for the stage by Mr. Dibdin,
who is the tailor upon such occasions, and will have taken measure
with his usual accuracy. I hear that it is still continued to be
performed--a piece of obstinacy for which it is some consolation to
think that the discourteous histrio will be out of pocket.

"You will be surprised to hear that I have finished another tragedy
in _five_ acts, observing all the unities strictly. It is called
'Sardanapalus,' and was sent by last post to England. It is _not
for_ the stage, any more than the other was intended for it--and I
shall take better care _this_ time that they don't get hold on't.

"I have also sent, two months ago, a further letter on Bowles, &c.;
but he seems to be so taken up with my 'respect' (as he calls it)
towards him in the former case, that I am not sure that it will be
published, being somewhat too full of' pastime and prodigality.' I
learn from some private letters of Bowles's, that _you_ were 'the
gentleman in asterisks.' Who would have dreamed it? you see what
mischief that clergyman has done by printing notes without names.
How the deuce was I to suppose that the first four asterisks meant
'Campbell' and _not_ 'Pope,' and that the blank signature meant
Thomas Moore[39]? You see what comes of being familiar with
parsons. His answers have not yet reached me, but I understand from
Hobhouse, that _he_ (H.) is attacked in them. If that be the case,
Bowles has broken the truce, (which he himself proclaimed, by the
way,) and I must have at him again.

"Did you receive my letters with the two or three concluding sheets
of Memoranda?

"There are no news here to interest much. A German spy (_boasting_
himself such) was stabbed last week, but _not_ mortally. The moment
I heard that he went about bullying and boasting, it was easy for
me, or any one else, to foretell what would occur to him, which I
did, and it came to pass in two days after. He has got off,
however, for a slight incision.

"A row the other night, about a lady of the place, between her
various lovers, occasioned a midnight discharge of pistols, but
nobody wounded. Great scandal, however--planted by her lover--_to
be_ thrashed by her husband, for inconstancy to her regular
Servente, who is coming home post about it, and she herself retired
in confusion into the country, although it is the acme of the opera
season. All the women furious against her (she herself having been
censorious) for being _found out_. She is a pretty woman--a
Countess * * * *--a fine old Visigoth name, or Ostrogoth.

"The Greeks! what think you? They are my old acquaintances--but
what to think I know not. Let us hope howsomever.

"Yours,

"B."

[Footnote 39: In their eagerness, like true controversialists, to avail
themselves of every passing advantage, and convert even straws into
weapons on an emergency, my two friends, during their short warfare,
contrived to place me in that sort of embarrassing position, the most
provoking feature of which is, that it excites more amusement than
sympathy. On the one side, Mr. Bowles chose to cite, as a support to his
argument, a short fragment of a note, addressed to him, as be stated, by
"a gentleman of the highest literary," &c. &c., and saying, in reference
to Mr. Bowles's former pamphlet, "You have hit the right nail on the
head, and * * * * too." This short scrap was signed with four asterisks;
and when, on the appearance of Mr. Bowles's Letter, I met with it in his
pages, not the slightest suspicion ever crossed my mind that I had been
myself the writer of it;--my communications with my reverend friend and
neighbour having been (for years, I am proud to say) sufficiently
frequent to allow of such a hasty compliment to his disputative powers
passing from my memory. When Lord Byron took the field against Mr.
Bowles's Letter, this unlucky scrap, so authoritatively brought forward,
was, of course, too tempting a mark for his facetiousness to be
resisted; more especially as the person mentioned in it, as having
suffered from the reverend critic's vigour, appeared, from the number of
asterisks employed in designating him, to have been Pope himself,
though, in reality, the name was that of Mr. Bowles's former antagonist,
Mr. Campbell. The noble assailant, it is needless to say, made the most
of this vulnerable point; and few readers could have been more diverted
than I was with his happy ridicule of "the gentleman in asterisks,"
little thinking that I was myself, all the while, this veiled
victim,--nor was it till about the time of the receipt of the above
letter, that, by some communication on the subject from a friend in
England, I was startled into the recollection of my own share in the
transaction.

While by one friend I was thus unconsciously, if not innocently, drawn
into the scrape, the other was not slow in rendering me the same
friendly service;--for, on the appearance of Lord Byron's answer to Mr.
Bowles, I had the mortification of finding that, with a far less
pardonable want of reserve, he had all but named me as his authority for
an anecdote of his reverend opponent's early days, which I had, in the
course of an after-dinner conversation, told him at Venice, and
which,--pleasant in itself, and, whether true or false,
harmless,--derived its sole sting from the manner in which the noble
disputant triumphantly applied it. Such are the consequences of one's
near and dear friends taking to controversy.]

* * * * *

LETTER 435. TO MR. MOORE.

"Ravenna, June 22. 1821.

"Your dwarf of a letter came yesterday. That is right;--keep to
your 'magnum opus '--magnoperate away. Now, if we were but together
a little to combine our 'Journal of Trevoux!' But it is useless to
sigh, and yet very natural,--for I think you and I draw better
together, in the social line, than any two other living authors.

"I forgot to ask you, if you had seen your own panegyric in the
correspondence of Mrs. Waterhouse and Colonel Berkeley? To be sure
_their_ moral is not quite exact; but _your passion_ is fully
effective; and all poetry of the Asiatic kind--I mean Asiatic, as
the Romans called _Asiatic_ oratory,' and not because the scenery
is Oriental--must be tried by that test only. I am not quite sure
that I shall allow the Miss Byrons (legitimate or illegitimate) to
read Lalla Rookh--in the first place, on account of this said
_passion_; and, in the second, that they mayn't discover that there
was a better poet than papa.

"You say nothing of politics--but, alas! what can be said?

"The world is a bundle of hay,
Mankind are the asses who pull,
Each tugs it a different way,--
And the greatest of all is John Bull!

"How do you call your new project? I have sent Murray a new
tragedy, ycleped 'Sardanapalus,' writ according to Aristotle--all,
save the chorus--could not reconcile me to that. I have begun
another, and am in the second act;--so you see I saunter on as
usual.

"Bowles's answers have reached me; but I can't go on disputing for
ever,--particularly in a polite manner. I suppose he will take
being _silent_ for _silenced_. He has been so civil that I can't
find it in my liver to be facetious with him,--else I had a savage
joke or two at his service. * * *

"I can't send you the little journal, because it is in boards, and
I can't trust it per post. Don't suppose it is any thing
particular; but it will show the _intentions_ of the natives at
that time--and one or two other things, chiefly personal, like the
former one.

"So, Longman don't _bite_.--It was my wish to have made that work
of use. Could you not raise a sum upon it (however small),
reserving the power of redeeming it, on repayment?

"Are you in Paris, or a villaging? If you are in the city, you will
never resist the Anglo-invasion you speak of. I do not see an
Englishman in half a year, and, when I do, I turn my horse's head
the other way. The fact, which you will find in the last note to
the Doge, has given me a good excuse for quite dropping the least
connection with travellers.

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