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

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"So, pray put your poetical pen through the MS. and take the least
bad of the emendations. Also, if there be any further breaking of
Priscian's head, will you apply a plaster? I wrote in the greatest
hurry and fury, and sent it to you the day after; so, doubtless,
there will be some awful constructions, and a rather lawless
conscription of rhythmus.

"With respect to what Anna Seward calls 'the liberty of
transcript,'--when complaining of Miss Matilda Muggleton, the
accomplished daughter of a choral vicar of Worcester Cathedral, who
had abused the said 'liberty of transcript,' by inserting in the
Malvern Mercury Miss Seward's 'Elegy on the South Pole,' as her
_own_ production, with her _own_ signature, two years after having
taken a copy, by permission of the authoress--with regard, I say,
to the 'liberty of transcript,' I by no means oppose an occasional
copy to the benevolent few, provided it does not degenerate into
such licentiousness of Verb and Noun as may tend to 'disparage my
parts of speech' by the carelessness of the transcribblers.

"I do not think that there is much danger of the 'King's Press
being abused' upon the occasion, if the publishers of journals have
any regard for their remaining liberty of person. It is as pretty a
piece of invective as ever put publisher in the way to 'Botany.'
Therefore, if _they_ meddle with it, it is at _their_ peril. As for
myself, I will answer any jontleman--though I by no means recognise
a 'right of search' into an unpublished production and unavowed
poem. The same applies to things published _sans_ consent. I hope
you like, at least, the concluding lines of the _Pome_?

"What are you doing, and where are you? in England? Nail
Murray--nail him to his own counter, till he shells out the
thirteens. Since I wrote to you, I have sent him another
tragedy--'Cain' by name--making three in MS. now in his hands, or
in the printer's. It is in the Manfred, metaphysical style, and
full of some Titanic declamation;--Lucifer being one of the dram.
pers. who takes Cain a voyage among the stars, and afterwards to
'Hades,' where he shows him the phantoms of a former world, and its
inhabitants. I have gone upon the notion of Cuvier, that the world
has been destroyed three or four times, and was inhabited by
mammoths, behemoths, and what not; but _not_ by man till the Mosaic
period, as, indeed, is proved by the strata of bones found;--those
of all unknown animals, and known, being dug out, but none of
mankind. I have, therefore, supposed Cain to be shown, in the
_rational_ Preadamites, beings endowed with a higher intelligence
than man, but totally unlike him in form, and with much greater
strength of mind and person. You may suppose the small talk which
takes place between him and Lucifer upon these matters is not quite
canonical.

"The consequence is, that Cain comes back and kills Abel in a fit
of dissatisfaction, partly with the politics of Paradise, which had
driven them all out of it, and partly because (as it is written in
Genesis) Abel's sacrifice was the more acceptable to the Deity. I
trust that the Rhapsody has arrived--it is in three acts, and
entitled 'A Mystery,' according to the former Christian custom, and
in honour of what it probably will remain to the reader.

"Yours," &c.

* * * * *

LETTER 454. TO MR. MOORE.

"September 20. 1821.

"After the stanza on Grattan, concluding with 'His soul o'er the
freedom implored and denied,' will it please you to cause insert
the following 'Addenda,' which I dreamed of during to-day's Siesta:

"Ever glorious Grattan! &c. &c. &c.

I will tell you what to do. Get me twenty copies of the whole
carefully and privately printed off, as _your_ lines were on the
Naples affair. Send me _six_, and distribute the rest according to
your own pleasure.

"I am in a fine vein, 'so full of pastime and prodigality!'--So
here's to your health in a glass of grog. Pray write, that I may
know by return of post--address to me at Pisa. The gods give you
joy!

"Where are you? in Paris? Let us hear. You will take care that
there be no printer's name, nor author's, as in the Naples stanza,
at least for the present."

* * * * *

LETTER 455 TO MR. MURRAY.

"Ravenna, September 20. 1821.

"You need not send 'The Blues,' which is a mere buffoonery, never
meant for publication.[53]

"The papers to which I allude, in case of survivorship, are
collections of letters, &c. since I was sixteen years old,
contained in the trunks in the care of Mr. Hobhouse. This
collection is at least doubled by those I have now here, all
received since my last ostracism. To these I should wish the editor
to have access, _not_ for the purpose of _abusing confidences_, nor
of _hurting_ the feelings of correspondents living, nor the
memories of the dead; but there are things which would do neither,
that I have left unnoticed or unexplained, and which (like all such
things) time only can permit to be noticed or explained, though
some are to my credit. The task will, of course, require delicacy;
but that will not be wanting, if Moore and Hobhouse survive me,
and, I may add, yourself; and that you may all three do so, is, I
assure you, my very sincere wish. I am not sure that long life is
desirable for one of my temper and constitutional depression of
spirits, which of course I suppress in society; but which breaks
out when alone, and in my writings, in spite of myself. It has been
deepened, perhaps, by some long-past events (I do not allude to my
marriage, &c.--on the contrary, that raised them by the persecution
giving a fillip to my spirits); but I call it constitutional, as I
have reason to think it. You know, or you do _not_ know, that my
maternal grandfather (a very clever man, and amiable, I am told)
was strongly suspected of suicide (he was found drowned in the Avon
at Bath), and that another very near relative of the same branch
took poison, and was merely saved by antidotes. For the first of
these events there was no apparent cause, as he was rich,
respected, and of considerable intellectual resources, hardly forty
years of age, and not at all addicted to any unhinging vice. It
was, however, but a strong suspicion, owing to the manner of his
death and his melancholy temper. The _second had_ a cause, but it
does not become me to touch upon it: it happened when I was far too
young to be aware of it, and I never heard of it till after the
death of that relative, many years afterwards. I think, then, that
I may call this dejection _constitutional_. I had always been told
that I resembled more my maternal grandfather than any of my
_father's_ family--that is, in the gloomier part of his temper, for
he was what you call a good-natured man, and I am not.

"The Journal here I sent to Moore the other day; but as it is a
mere diary, only _parts_ of it would ever do for publication. The
other Journal, of the Tour in 1816, I should think Augusta might
let you have a copy of.

"I am much mortified that Gifford don't take to my new dramas. To
be sure, they are as opposite to the English drama as one thing can
be to another; but I have a notion that, if understood, they will
in time find favour (though _not_ on the stage) with the reader.
The simplicity of plot is intentional, and the avoidance of _rant_
also, as also the compression of the speeches in the more severe
situations. What I seek to show in 'The Foscaris' is the
_suppressed_ passions, rather than the rant of the present day. For
that matter--

"Nay, if thou'lt mouth,
I'll rant as well as thou--

would not be difficult, as I think I have shown in my younger
productions--_not dramatic_ ones, to be sure. But, as I said
before, I am mortified that Gifford don't like them; but I see no
remedy, our notions on that subject being so different. How is
he?--well, I hope? let me know. I regret his demur the more that he
has been always my grand patron, and I know no praise which would
compensate me in my own mind for his censure. I do not mind
_Reviews_, as I can work them at their own weapons.

"Yours, &c.

"Address to me at _Pisa_, whither I am going. The reason is, that
all my Italian friends here have been exiled, and are met there for
the present, and I go to join them, as agreed upon, for the
winter."

[Footnote 53: This short satire, which is wholly unworthy of his pen,
appeared afterwards in the Liberal.]

* * * * *

LETTER 456. TO MR. MURRAY.

"Ravenna, September 24. 1821.

"I have been thinking over our late correspondence, and wish to
propose to you the following articles for our future:--

"1stly. That you shall write to me of yourself, of the health,
wealth, and welfare of all friends; but of _me_ (_quoad me_) little
or nothing.

"2dly. That you shall send me soda-powders, tooth-powder,
tooth-brushes, or any such anti-odontalgic or chemical articles, as
heretofore,'ad libitum,' upon being reimbursed for the same.

"3dly. That you shall not send me any modern, or (as they are
called) _new_ publications, in _English whatsoever_, save and
excepting any writing, prose or verse, of (or reasonably presumed
to be of) Walter Scott, Crabbe, Moore, Campbell, Rogers, Gifford,
Joanna Baillie, _Irving_ (the American), Hogg, Wilson (Isle of
Palms man), or _any_ especial _single_ work of fancy which is
thought to be of considerable merit; _Voyages_ and _Travels_,
provided that they are _neither in Greece, Spain, Asia Minor,
Albania, nor Italy_, will be welcome. Having travelled the
countries mentioned, I know that what is said of them can convey
nothing farther which I desire to know about them.--No other
English works whatsoever.

"4thly. That you send me no periodical works whatsoever--_no_
Edinburgh, Quarterly, Monthly, nor any review, magazine, or
newspaper, English or foreign, of any description.

"5thly. That you send me no opinions whatsoever, either _good_,
_bad_, or _indifferent_, of yourself, or your friends, or others,
concerning any work, or works, of mine, past, present, or to come.

"6thly. That all negotiations in matters of business between you
and me pass through the medium of the Hon. Douglas Kinnaird, my
friend and trustee, or Mr. Hobhouse, as 'alter ego,' and tantamount
to myself during my absence--or presence.

"Some of these propositions may at first seem strange, but they are
founded. The quantity of trash I have received as books is
incalculable, and neither amused nor instructed. Reviews and
magazines are at the best but ephemeral and superficial reading:
who thinks of the _grand article of last year_ in any _given
Review_? In the next place, if they regard myself, they tend to
increase _egotism_. If favourable, I do not deny that the praise
_elates_, and if unfavourable, that the abuse _irritates_. The
latter may conduct me to inflict a species of satire which would
neither do good to you nor to your friends: _they_ may smile _now_,
and so may _you_; but if I took you all in hand, it would not be
difficult to cut you up like gourds. I did as much by as powerful
people at nineteen years old, and I know little as yet, in
three-and-thirty, which should prevent me from making all your ribs
gridirons for your hearts, if such were my propensity: but it is
_not_; therefore let me hear none of your provocations. If any
thing occurs so very gross as to require my notice, I shall hear of
it from my legal friends. For the rest, I merely request to be left
in ignorance.

"The same applies to opinions, _good_, _bad_, or _indifferent_, of
persons in conversation or correspondence. These do not
_interrupt_, but they _soil_ the _current_ of my _mind_. I am
sensitive enough, but _not_ till I am _troubled_; and here I am
beyond the touch of the short arms of literary England, except the
few feelers of the polypus that crawl over the channels in the way
of extract.

"All these precautions _in_ England would be useless; the libeller
or the flatterer would there reach me in spite of all; but in Italy
we know little of literary England, and think less, except what
reaches us through some garbled and brief extract in some miserable
gazette. For _two years_ (excepting two or three articles cut out
and sent to _you_ by the post) I never read a newspaper which was
not forced upon me by some accident, and know, upon the whole, as
little of England as you do of Italy, and God knows _that_ is
little enough, with all your travels, &c. &c. &c. The English
travellers _know Italy as you_ know Guernsey: how much is _that_?

"If any thing occurs so violently gross or personal as requires
notice, Mr. Douglas Kinnaird will let me _know_; but of _praise_ I
desire to hear _nothing_.

"You will say, 'to what tends all this?' I will answer THAT;--to
keep my mind _free and unbiassed_ by all paltry and personal
irritabilities of praise or censure--to let my genius take its
natural direction, while my feelings are like the dead, who know
nothing and feel nothing of all or aught that is said or done in
their regard.

"If you can observe these conditions, you will spare yourself and
others some pain: let me not be worked upon to rise up; for if I
do, it will not be for a little. If you _cannot_ observe these
conditions, we shall cease to be correspondents,--but not
_friends_, for I shall always be yours ever and truly,

"BYRON.

"P.S. I have taken these resolutions not from any irritation
against you or _yours_, but simply upon reflection that all
reading, either praise or censure, of myself has done me harm. When
I was in Switzerland and Greece, I was out of the way of hearing
either, and _how I wrote there!_--In Italy I am out of the way of
it too; but latterly, partly through my fault, and partly through
your kindness in wishing to send me the _newest_ and most
periodical publications, I have had a crowd of Reviews, &c. thrust
upon me, which have bored me with their jargon, of one kind or
another, and taken off my attention from greater objects. You have
also sent me a parcel of trash of poetry, for no reason that I can
conceive, unless to provoke me to write a new 'English Bards.' Now
_this_ I wish to avoid; for if ever I _do_, it will be a strong
production; and I desire peace as long as the fools will keep their
nonsense out of my way."[54]

[Footnote 54: It would be difficult to describe more strongly or more
convincingly than Lord Byron has done in this letter the sort of petty,
but thwarting obstructions and distractions which are at present thrown
across the path of men of real talent by that swarm of minor critics and
pretenders with whom the want of a vent in other professions has crowded
all the walks of literature. Nor is it only the writers of the day that
suffer from this multifarious rush into the mart;--the readers also,
from having (as Lord Byron expresses it in another letter) "the
superficies of too many things presented to them at once," come to lose
by degrees their powers of discrimination; and, in the same manner as
the palate becomes confused in trying various wines, so the public taste
declines in proportion as the impressions to which it is exposed
multiply.]

* * * * *

LETTER 457. TO MR. MOORE.

"September 27. 1821.

"It was not Murray's fault. I did not send the MS. _overture_, but
I send it now[55], and it may be restored;--or, at any rate, you
may keep the original, and give any copies you please. I send it,
as written, and as I _read_ it to you--I have no other copy.

"By last week's _two_ posts, in two packets, I sent to your
address, at _Paris_, a longish poem upon the late Irishism of your
countrymen in their reception of * * *. Pray, have you received it?
It is in 'the high Roman fashion,' and full of ferocious phantasy.
As _you_ could not well take up the matter with Paddy (being of the
same nest), I have;--but I hope still that I have done justice to
his great men and his good heart. As for * * *, you will find it
laid on with a trowel. I delight in your 'fact historical'--is it a
fact?

"Yours, &c.

"P.S. You have not answered me about Schlegel--why not? Address to
me at Pisa, whither I am going, to join the exiles--a pretty
numerous body at present. Let me hear how you are, and what you
mean to do. Is there no chance of your recrossing the Alps? If the
G. Rex marries again, let him not want an Epithalamium--suppose a
joint concern of you and me, like Sternhold and Hopkins!"

[Footnote 55: The lines "Oh Wellington," which I had missed in their
original place at the opening of the third Canto, and took for granted
that they had been suppressed by his publisher.]

* * * * *

LETTER 458. TO MR. MURRAY.

"September 28. 1821.

"I add another cover to request you to ask Moore to obtain (if
possible) my letters to the late Lady Melbourne from Lady Cowper.
They are very numerous, and ought to have been restored long ago,
as I was ready to give back Lady Melbourne's in exchange. These
latter are in Mr. Hobhouse's custody with my other papers, and
shall be punctually restored if required. I did not choose before
to apply to Lady Cowper, as her mother's death naturally kept me
from intruding upon her feelings at the time of its occurrence.
Some years have now elapsed, and it is essential that I should have
my own epistles. They are essential as confirming that part of the
'Memoranda' which refers to the two periods (1812 and 1814) when my
marriage with her niece was in contemplation, and will tend to show
what my real views and feelings were upon that subject.

"You need not be alarmed; the 'fourteen years[56]' will hardly
elapse without some mortality amongst us; it is a long lease of
life to speculate upon. So your calculation will not be in so much
peril, as the 'argosie' will sink before that time, and 'the pound
of flesh' be withered previously to your being so long out of a
return.

"I also wish to give you a hint or two (as you have really behaved
very handsomely to Moore in the business, and are a fine fellow in
your line) for your advantage. _If_ by your own management you can
extract any of my epistles from Lady ----, (* * * * * * *), they
might be of use in your collection (sinking of course the _names_
and _all such circumstances_ as might hurt _living_ feelings, or
_those_ of _survivors_); they treat of more topics than love
occasionally.

"I will tell you who may _happen_ to have some letters of mine in
their possession: Lord Powerscourt, some to his late brother; Mr.
Long of--(I forget his place)--but the father of Edward Long of the
Guards, who was drowned in going to Lisbon early in 1809; Miss
Elizabeth Pigot, of Southwell, Notts (she may be _Mistress_ by this
time, for she had a year or two more than I): _they_ were _not_
love-letters, so that you might have them without scruple. There
are, or might be, some to the late Rev. J.C. Tattersall, in the
hands of his brother (half-brother) Mr. Wheatley, who resides near
Canterbury, I think. There are some of Charles Gordon, now of
Dulwich; and some few to Mrs. Chaworth; but these latter are
probably destroyed or inaccessible.

"I mention these people and particulars merely as _chances_. Most
of them have probably destroyed the letters, which in fact are of
little import, many of them written when very young, and several at
school and college.

"Peel (the _second_ brother of the Secretary) was a correspondent
of mine, and also Porter, the son of the Bishop of Clogher; Lord
Clare a very voluminous one; William Harness (a friend of Milman's)
another; Charles Drummond (son of the banker); William Bankes (the
voyager), your friend: R.C. Dallas, Esq.; Hodgson; Henry Drury;
Hobhouse you were already aware of.

"I have gone through this long list[57] of

"'The cold, the faithless, and the dead,'

because I know that, like 'the curious in fish-sauce,' you are a
researcher of such things.

"Besides these, there are other occasional ones to literary men and
so forth, complimentary, &c. &c. &c. not worth much more than the
rest. There are some hundreds, too, of Italian notes of mine,
scribbled with a noble contempt of the grammar and dictionary, in
very English Etruscan; for I _speak_ Italian very fluently, but
write it carelessly and incorrectly to a degree."

[Footnote 56: He here adverts to a passing remark, in one of Mr.
Murray's letters, that, as his Lordship's "Memoranda" were not to be
published in his lifetime, the sum now paid for the work, 2100_l_. would
most probably, upon a reasonable calculation of survivorship, amount
ultimately to no less than 8000_l_.]

[Footnote 57: To all the persons upon this list who were accessible,
application has, of course, been made,--with what success it is in the
reader's power to judge from the communications that have been laid
before him. Among the companions of the poet's boyhood there are (as I
have already had occasion to mention and regret) but few traces of his
youthful correspondence to be found; and of all those who knew him at
that period, his fair Southwell correspondent alone seems to have been
sufficiently endowed with the gift of second-sight to anticipate the
Byron of a future day, and foresee the compound interest that Time and
Fame would accumulate on every precious scrap of the young bard which
she hoarded. On the whole, however, it is not unsatisfactory to be able
to state that, with the exception of a very small minority (only one of
whom is possessed of any papers of much importance), every distinguished
associate and intimate of the noble poet, from the very outset to the
close of his extraordinary career, have come forward cordially to
communicate whatever memorials they possessed of him,--trusting, as I am
willing to flatter myself, that they confided these treasures to one,
who, if not able to do full justice to the memory of their common
friend, would, at least, not willingly suffer it to be dishonoured in
his hands.]

* * * * *

LETTER 459. TO MR. MOORE.

"September 29. 1821.

"I send you two rough things, prose and verse, not much in
themselves, but which will show, one of them, the state of the
country, and the other, of your friend's mind, when they were
written. Neither of them were sent to the person concerned, but you
will see, by the style of them, that they were sincere, as I am in
signing myself

"Yours ever and truly,

"B."

* * * * *

Of the two enclosures, mentioned in the foregoing note, one was a letter
intended to be sent to Lady Byron relative to his money invested in the
funds, of which the following are extracts:--

"Ravenna, Marza 1mo, 1821.

"I have received your message, through my sister's letter, about
English security, &c. &c. It is considerate, (and true, even,) that
such is to be found--but not that I shall find it. Mr. * *, for his
own views and purposes, will thwart all such attempts till he has
accomplished his own, viz. to make me lend my fortune to some
client of his choosing.

"At this distance--after this absence, and with my utter ignorance
of affairs and business--with my temper and impatience, I have
neither the means nor the mind to resist. Thinking of the funds as
I do, and wishing to secure a reversion to my sister and her
children, I should jump at most expedients.

"What I told you is come to pass--the Neapolitan war is declared.
Your funds will fall, and I shall be in consequence ruined. That's
nothing--but my blood relations will be so. You and your child are
provided for. Live and prosper--I wish so much to both. Live and
prosper--you have the means. I think but of my real kin and
kindred, who may be the victims of this accursed bubble.

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