Thomas Moore - Life of Lord Byron, Vol. IV

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A short time before dinner he left the room, and in a minute or two
returned, carrying in his hand a white leather bag. "Look here," he
said, holding it up--"this would be worth something to Murray, though
_you_, I dare say, would not give sixpence for it."--"What is it?" I
asked.--"My Life and Adventures," he answered. On hearing this, I raised
my hands in a gesture of wonder. "It is not a thing," he continued,
"that can be published during my lifetime, but you may have it--if you
like--there, do whatever you please with it." In taking the bag, and
thanking him most warmly, I added, "This will make a nice legacy for my
little Tom, who shall astonish the latter days of the nineteenth century
with it." He then added, "You may show it to any of our friends you
think worthy of it:"--and this is, nearly word for word, the whole of
what passed between us on the subject.

At dinner we were favoured with the presence of Madame Guiccioli, who
was so obliging as to furnish me, at Lord Byron's suggestion, with a
letter of introduction to her brother, Count Gamba, whom it was
probable, they both thought, I should meet at Rome. This letter I never
had an opportunity of presenting; and as it was left open for me to
read, and was, the greater part of it, I have little doubt, dictated by
my noble friend, I may venture, without impropriety, to give an extract
from it here;--premising that the allusion to the "Castle," &c. refers
to some tales respecting the cruelty of Lord Byron to his wife, which
the young Count had heard, and, at this time, implicitly believed. After
a few sentences of compliment to the bearer, the letter proceeds:--"He
is on his way to see the wonders of Rome, and there is no one, I am
sure, more qualified to enjoy them. I shall be gratified and obliged by
your acting, as far as you can, as his guide. He is a friend of Lord
Byron's, and much more accurately acquainted with his history than those
who have related it to you. He will accordingly describe to you, if you
ask him, _the shape, the dimensions_, and whatever else you may please
to require, of _that Castle in which he keeps imprisoned a young and
innocent wife_, &c. &c. My dear Pietro, whenever you feel inclined to
laugh, do send two lines of answer to your sister, who loves and ever
will love you with the greatest tenderness.--Teresa Guiccioli."[56]

After expressing his regret that I had not been able to prolong my stay
at Venice, my noble friend said, "At least, I think, you might spare a
day or two to go with me to Arqua. I should like," he continued,
thoughtfully, "to visit that tomb with you:"--then, breaking off into
his usual gay tone; "a pair of poetical pilgrims--eh, Tom, what say
you?"--That I should have declined this offer, and thus lost the
opportunity of an excursion which would have been remembered, as a
bright dream, through all my after-life, is a circumstance I never can
think of without wonder and self-reproach. But the main design on which
I had then set my mind of reaching Rome, and, if possible, Naples,
within the limited period which circumstances allowed, rendered me far
less alive than I ought to have been to the preciousness of the episode
thus offered to me.

When it was time for me to depart, he expressed his intention to
accompany me a few miles; and, ordering his horses to follow, proceeded
with me in the carriage as far as Stra, where for the last time--how
little thinking it was to be the last!--I bade my kind and admirable
friend farewell.

[Footnote 50: The writer here, no doubt, alludes to such questionable
liberalities as those exercised towards the husbands of his two
favourites, Madame S * * and the Fornarina.]

[Footnote 51: The circumstance here alluded to may be most clearly,
perhaps, communicated to my readers through the medium of the following
extract from a letter which Mr. Barry (the friend and banker of Lord
Byron) did me the favour of addressing to me, soon after his Lordship's
death:--"When Lord Byron went to Greece, he gave me orders to advance
money to Madame G * *; but that lady would never consent to receive any.
His Lordship had also told me that he meant to leave his will in my
hands, and that there would be a bequest in it of 10,000_l._ to Madame G
* *. He mentioned this circumstance also to Lord Blessington. When the
melancholy news of his death reached me, I took for granted that this
will would be found among the sealed papers he had left with me; but
there was no such instrument. I immediately then wrote to Madame G * *,
enquiring if she knew any thing concerning it, and mentioning, at the
same time, what his Lordship had said is to the legacy. To this the lady
replied, that he had frequently spoken to her on the same subject, but
that she had always cut the conversation short, as it was a topic she by
no means liked to hear him speak upon. In addition, she expressed a wish
that no such will as I had mentioned would be found; as her
circumstances were already sufficiently independent, and the world might
put a wrong construction on her attachment, should it appear that her
fortunes were, in any degree, bettered by it."]

[Footnote 52: This will remind the reader of Moliere's avowal in
speaking of wit:--"C'est mon bien, et je le prends partout ou je le
trouve."]

[Footnote 53: The History of Agathon, by Wieland.]

[Footnote 54: Between Wieland, the author of this Romance, and Lord
Byron, may be observed some of those generic points of resemblance which
it is so interesting to trace in the characters of men of genius. The
German poet, it is said, never perused any work that made a strong
impression upon him, without being stimulated to commence one, himself,
on the same topic and plan; and in Lord Byron the imitative principle
was almost equally active,--there being few of his poems that might not,
in the same manner, be traced to the strong impulse given to his
imagination by the perusal of some work that had just before interested
him. In the history, too, of their lives and feelings, there was a
strange and painful coincidence,--the revolution that took place in all
Wieland's opinions, from the Platonism and romance of his youthful days,
to the material and Epicurean doctrines that pervaded all his maturer
works, being chiefly, it is supposed, brought about by the shock his
heart had received from a disappointment of its affections in early
life. Speaking of the illusion of this first passion, in one of his
letters, he says,--"It is one for which no joys, no honours, no gifts of
fortune, not even wisdom itself can afford an equivalent, and which,
when it has once vanished, returns no more."]

[Footnote 55:

"'Tis but a portrait of his son and wife,
And self; but such a woman! love in life!"
BEPPO, Stanza xii.

This seems, by the way, to be an incorrect description of the picture,
as, according to Vasari and others, Giorgione never was married, and
died young.]

[Footnote 56: "Egli viene per vedere le meraviglie di questa Citta, e
sono certa che nessuno meglio di lui saprebbe gustarle. Mi sara grato
che vi facciate sua guida come potrete, e voi poi me ne avrete obbligo.
Egli e amico de Lord Byron--sa la sua storia assai piu precisamente di
quelli che a voi la raccontarono. Egli dunque vi raccontera se lo
interrogherete _la forma, le dimensioni_, e tuttocio che vi piacera del
_Castello ove tiene imprigionata una giovane innocente sposa_, &c. &c.
Mio caro Pietro, quando ti sei bene sfogato a ridere, allora rispondi
due righe alla tua sorella, che t' ama e t' amera sempre colla maggiore
tenerezza."]

* * * * *

LETTER 341. TO MR. HOPPNER.

"October 22. 1819.

"I am glad to hear of your return, but I do not know how to
congratulate you--unless you think differently of Venice from what
I think now, and you thought always. I am, besides, about to renew
your troubles by requesting you to be judge between Mr. E * * * and
myself in a small matter of imputed peculation and irregular
accounts on the part of that phoenix of secretaries. As I knew that
you had not parted friends, at the same time that _I_ refused for
my own part any judgment but _yours_, I offered him his choice of
any person, the _least_ scoundrel native to be found in Venice, as
his own umpire; but he expressed himself so convinced of your
impartiality, that he declined any but _you_. This is in his
favour.--The paper within will explain to you the default in his
accounts. You will hear his explanation, and decide if it so please
you. I shall not appeal from the decision.

"As he complained that his salary was insufficient, I determined to
have his accounts examined, and the enclosed was the result.--It is
all in black and white with documents, and I have despatched
Fletcher to explain (or rather to perplex) the matter.

"I have had much civility and kindness from Mr. Dorville during
your journey, and I thank him accordingly.

"Your letter reached me at your departure[57], and displeased me
very much:--not that it might not be true in its statement and kind
in its intention, but you have lived long enough to know how
useless all such representations ever are and must be in cases
where the passions are concerned. To reason with men in such a
situation is like reasoning with a drunkard in his cups--the only
answer you will get from him is, that he is sober, and you are
drunk.

"Upon that subject we will (if you like) be silent. You might only
say what would distress me without answering any purpose whatever;
and I have too many obligations to you to answer you in the same
style. So that you should recollect that you have also that
advantage over me. I hope to see you soon.

"I suppose you know that they said at Venice, that I was arrested
at Bologna as a _Carbonaro_--story about as true as their usual
conversation. Moore has been here--I lodged him in my house at
Venice, and went to see him daily; but I could not at that time
quit La Mira entirely. You and I were not very far from meeting in
Switzerland. With my best respects to Mrs. Hoppner, believe me ever
and truly, &c.

"P.S. Allegra is here in good health and spirits--I shall keep her
with me till I go to England, which will perhaps be in the spring.
It has just occurred to me that you may not perhaps like to
undertake the office of judge between Mr. E. and your humble
servant.--Of course, as Mr. Liston (the comedian, not the
ambassador) says, '_it is all hoptional_;' but I have no other
resource. I do not wish to find him a rascal, if it can be avoided,
and would rather think him guilty of carelessness than cheating.
The case is this--can I, or not, give him a character for
_honesty_?--It is not my intention to continue him in my service."

[Footnote 57: Mr. Hoppner, before his departure from Venice for
Switzerland, had, with all the zeal of a true friend, written a letter
to Lord Byron, entreating him "to leave Ravenna while yet he had a whole
skin, and urging him not to risk the safety of a person he appeared so
sincerely attached to--as well as his own--for the gratification of a
momentary passion, which could only be a source of regret to both
parties." In the same letter Mr. Hoppner informed him of some reports he
had heard lately at Venice, which, though possibly, he said, unfounded,
had much increased his anxiety respecting the consequences of the
connection formed by him.]

* * * * *

LETTER 342. TO MR. HOPPNER.

"October 25. 1819.

"You need not have made any excuses about the letter: I never said
but that you might, could, should, or would have reason. I merely
described my own state of inaptitude to listen to it at that time,
and in those circumstances. Besides, you did not speak from your
_own_ authority--but from what you said you had heard. Now my blood
boils to hear an Italian speaking ill of another Italian, because,
though they lie in particular, they speak truth in general by
speaking ill at all;--and although they know that they are trying
and wishing to lie, they do not succeed, merely because they can
say nothing so bad of each other, that it _may_ not, and must not
be true, from the atrocity of their long debased national
character.[58]

"With regard to E., you will perceive a most irregular, extravagant
account, without proper documents to support it. He demanded an
increase of salary, which made me suspect him; he supported an
outrageous extravagance of expenditure, and did not like the
dismission of the cook; he never complained of him--as in duty
bound--at the time of his robberies. I can only say, that the house
expense is now under _one half_ of what it then was, as he himself
admits. He charged for a comb _eighteen_ francs,--the real price
was _eight_. He charged a passage from Fusina for a person named
Iambelli, who paid it _herself_, as she will prove if necessary. He
fancies, or asserts himself, the victim of a domestic complot
against him;--accounts are accounts--prices are prices;--let him
make out a fair detail. _I_ am not prejudiced against him--on the
contrary, I supported him against the complaints of his wife, and
of his former master, at a time when I could have crushed him like
an earwig; and if he is a scoundrel, he is the greatest of
scoundrels, an ungrateful one. The truth is, probably, that he
thought I was leaving Venice, and determined to make the most of
it. At present he keeps bringing in _account after account_, though
he had always money in hand--as I believe you know my system was
never to allow longer than a week's bills to run. Pray read him
this letter--I desire nothing to be concealed against which he may
defend himself.

"Pray how is your little boy? and how are you?--I shall be up in
Venice very soon, and we will be bilious together. I hate the place
and all that it inherits.

"Yours," &c.

[Footnote 58: "This language" (says Mr. Hoppner, in some remarks upon
the above letter) "is strong, but it was the language of prejudice; and
he was rather apt thus to express the feelings of the moment, without
troubling himself to consider how soon he might be induced to change
them. He was at this time so sensitive on the subject of Madame * *,
that, merely because some persons had disapproved of her conduct, he
declaimed in the above manner against the whole nation. I never"
(continues Mr. Hoppner) "was partial to Venice; but disliked it almost
from the first month of my residence there. Yet I experienced more
kindness in that place than I ever met with in any country, and
witnessed acts of generosity and disinterestedness such as rarely are
met with elsewhere."]

* * * * *

LETTER 343. TO MR. HOPPNER.

"October 28. 1819.

"I have to thank you for your letter, and your compliment to Don
Juan. I said nothing to you about it, understanding that it is a
sore subject with the moral reader, and has been the cause of a
great row; but I am glad you like it. I will say nothing about the
shipwreck, except that I hope you think it is as nautical and
technical as verse could admit in the octave measure.

"The poem has _not sold well_, so Murray says--'but the best
judges, &c. say, &c.' so says that worthy man. I have never seen it
in print. The third Canto is in advance about one hundred stanzas;
but the failure of the two first has weakened my _estro_, and it
will neither be so good as the two former, nor completed, unless I
get a little more _riscaldato_ in its behalf. I understand the
outcry was beyond every thing.--Pretty cant for people who read Tom
Jones, and Roderick Random, and the Bath Guide, and Ariosto, and
Dryden, and Pope--to say nothing of Little's Poems! Of course I
refer to the _morality_ of these works, and not to any pretension
of mine to compete with them in any thing but decency. I hope yours
is the Paris edition, and that you did not pay the London price. I
have seen neither except in the newspapers.

"Pray make my respects to Mrs. H., and take care of your little
boy. All my household have the fever and ague, except Fletcher,
Allegra, and my_sen_ (as we used to say in Nottinghamshire), and
the horses, and Mutz, and Moretto. In the beginning of November,
perhaps sooner, I expect to have the pleasure of seeing you. To-day
I got drenched by a thunder-storm, and my horse and groom too, and
his horse all bemired up to the middle in a cross-road. It was
summer at noon, and at five we were bewintered; but the lightning
was sent perhaps to let us know that the summer was not yet over.
It is queer weather for the 27th October.

"Yours," &c.

* * * * *

LETTER 344. TO MR. MURRAY.

"Venice, October 29. 1819.

"Yours of the 15th came yesterday. I am sorry that you do not
mention a large letter addressed to _your care_ for Lady Byron,
from me, at Bologna, two months ago. Pray tell me, was this letter
received and forwarded?

"You say nothing of the vice-consulate for the Ravenna patrician,
from which it is to be inferred that the thing will not be done.

"I had written about a hundred stanzas of a _third_ Canto to Don
Juan, but the reception of the two first is no encouragement to you
nor me to proceed.

"I had also written about 600 lines of a poem, the Vision (or
Prophecy) of Dante, the subject a view of Italy in the ages down to
the present--supposing Dante to speak in his own person, previous
to his death, and embracing all topics in the way of prophecy, like
Lycophron's Cassandra; but this and the other are both at a
stand-still for the present.

"I gave Moore, who is gone to Rome, my Life in MS., in
seventy-eight folio sheets, brought down to 1816. But this I put
into his hands for _his_ care, as he has some other MSS. of mine--a
Journal kept in 1814, &c. Neither are for publication during my
life; but when I am cold you may do what you please. In the mean
time, if you like to read them you may, and show them to anybody
you like--I care not.

"The Life is _Memoranda_, and not _Confessions_ I have left out all
my _loves_ (except in a general way), and many other of the most
important things (because I must not compromise other people), so
that it is like the play of Hamlet--'the part of Hamlet omitted by
particular desire.' But you will find many opinions, and some fun,
with a detailed account of my marriage, and its consequences, as
true as a party concerned can make such account, for I suppose we
are all prejudiced.

"I have never read over this Life since it was written, so that I
know not exactly what it may repeat or contain. Moore and I passed
some merry days together.

"I probably must return for business, or in my way to America.
Pray, did you get a letter for Hobhouse, who will have told you the
contents? I understand that the Venezuelan commissioners had orders
to treat with emigrants; now I want to go there. I should not make
a bad South-American planter, and I should take my natural
daughter, Allegra, with me, and settle. I wrote, at length, to
Hobhouse, to get information from Perry, who, I suppose, is the
best topographer and trumpeter of the new republicans. Pray write.

"Yours ever.

"P.S. Moore and I did nothing but laugh. He will tell you of 'my
whereabouts,' and all my proceedings at this present; they are as
usual. You should not let those fellows publish false 'Don Juans;'
but do not put _my name_, because I mean to cut R----ts up like a
gourd, in the preface, if I continue the poem."

* * * * *

LETTER 345. TO MR. HOPPNER.

"October 29. 1819.

"The Ferrara story is of a piece with all the rest of the Venetian
manufacture,--you may judge. I only changed horses there since I
wrote to you, after my visit in June last. '_Convent_' and '_carry
off_', quotha! and '_girl_.' I should like to know _who_ has been
carried off, except poor dear _me_. I have been more ravished
myself than anybody since the Trojan war; but as to the arrest and
its causes, one is as true as the other, and I can account for the
invention of neither. I suppose it is some confusion of the tale of
the F * * and of Me. Guiccioli, and half a dozen more; but it is
useless to unravel the web, when one has only to brush it away. I
shall settle with Master E. who looks very blue at your
_in-decision_, and swears that he is the best arithmetician in
Europe; and so I think also, for he makes out two and two to be
five.

"You may see me next week. I have a horse or two more (five in
all), and I shall repossess myself of Lido, and I will rise
earlier, and we will go and shake our livers over the beach, as
heretofore, if you like--and we will make the Adriatic roar again
with our hatred of that now empty oyster-shell, without its pearl,
the city of Venice.

"Murray sent me a letter yesterday: the impostors have published
_two_ new _third_ Cantos of _Don Juan_;--the devil take the
impudence of some blackguard bookseller or other _therefor_!
Perhaps I did not make myself understood; he told me the sale had
been great, 1200 out of 1500 quarto, I believe (which is nothing
after selling 13,000 of the Corsair in one day); but that the 'best
judges,' &c. had said it was very fine, and clever, and
particularly good English, and poetry, and all those consolatory
things, which are not, however, worth a single copy to a
bookseller: and as to the author, of course I am in a d----ned
passion at the bad taste of the times, and swear there is nothing
like posterity, who, of course, must know more of the matter than
their grandfathers. There has been an eleventh commandment to the
women not to read it, and, what is still more extraordinary, they
seem not to have broken it. But that can be of little import to
them, poor things, for the reading or non-reading a book will never
* * * *.

"Count G. comes to Venice next week, and I am requested to consign
his wife to him, which shall be done. What you say of the long
evenings at the Mira, or Venice, reminds me of what Curran said to
Moore:--'So I hear you have married a pretty woman, and a very good
creature, too--an excellent creature. Pray--um! _how do you pass
your evenings?_' It is a devil of a question that, and perhaps as
easy to answer with a wife as with a mistress.

"If you go to Milan, pray leave at least a _Vice-Consul_--the only
vice that will ever be wanting in Venice. D'Orville is a good
fellow. But you shall go to England in the spring with me, and
plant Mrs. Hoppner at Berne with her relations for a few months. I
wish you had been here (at Venice, I mean, not the Mira) when Moore
was here--we were very merry and tipsy. He _hated_ Venice, by the
way, and swore it was a sad place.[59]

"So Madame Albrizzi's death is in danger--poor woman! Moore told me
that at Geneva they had made a devil of a story of the
Fornaretta:--'Young lady seduced!--subsequent abandonment!--leap
into the Grand Canal!'--and her being in the 'hospital of _fous_ in
consequence!' I should like to know who was nearest being made
'_fou_,' and be d----d to them I Don't you think me in the
interesting character of a very ill used gentleman? I hope your
little boy is well. Allegrina is flourishing like a pomegranate
blossom. Yours," &c.

[Footnote 59: I beg to say that this report of my opinion of Venice is
coloured somewhat too deeply by the feelings of the reporter.]

* * * * *

LETTER 346. TO MR. MURRAY.

"Venice, November 8. 1819.

"Mr. Hoppner has lent me a copy of 'Don Juan,' Paris edition, which
he tells me is read in Switzerland by clergymen and ladies with
considerable approbation. In the second Canto, you must alter the
49th stanza to

"'Twas twilight, and the sunless day went down
Over the waste of waters, like a veil
Which if withdrawn would but disclose the frown
Of one whose hate is mask'd but to assail;
Thus to their hopeless eyes the night was shown,
And grimly darkled o'er their faces pale
And the dim desolate deep; twelve days had Fear
Been their familiar, and now Death was here.

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