Skip to content

Chapter II: Appendix: To Bibliography 314 (1)

Text size

CONTENTS OF BIBLIOGRAPHY 317

SUMMARY OF BIBLIOGRAPHY 319

INDEX 349

INDEX TO FIRST LINES 449

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

1. Mrs. Birdmere's House, Southwell 2

2. Annesley Hall 38

3. Diadem Hill (Annesley Park), where Lord Byron parted 304
from Mary Chaworth

4. The Prison Called Tasso's Cell, in the Hospital of 348
Sant'Anna, at Ferrara

JEUX D'ESPRIT AND MINOR POEMS, 1798-1824.

EPIGRAM ON AN OLD LADY WHO HAD
SOME CURIOUS NOTIONS RESPECTING THE SOUL.

IN Nottingham county there lives at Swan Green,[1]
As curst an old Lady as ever was seen;
And when she does die, which I hope will be soon,
She firmly believes she will go to the Moon!

1798.
[First published, _Letters and Journals_, 1830, i. 28.]

FOOTNOTES:

[1] "Swan Green" should be "Swine Green." It lay about a quarter of a mile to the east of St. James's Lane, where Byron lodged in 1799, at the house of a Mr. Gill. The name appears in a directory of 1799, but by 1815 it had been expunged or changed _euphoniæ gratiâ_. (See _A New Plan of the Town of Nottingham_, ... 1744.)

Moore took down "these rhymes" from the lips of Byron's nurse, May Gray, who regarded them as a first essay in the direction of poetry. He questioned their originality.

EPITAPH ON JOHN ADAMS, OF SOUTHWELL,
A CARRIER, WHO DIED OF DRUNKENNESS.

JOHN ADAMS lies here, of the parish of Southwell,
A _Carrier_ who _carried_ his can to his mouth well;
He carried so much and he carried so fast,
He could carry no more--so was carried at last;
For the liquor he drank being too much for one,
He could not _carry_ off;--so he's now _carri-on_.

_September_, 1807.
[First published, _Letters and Journals_, 1830, i. 106.]

A VERSION OF OSSIAN'S ADDRESS TO THE SUN.

FROM THE POEM "CARTHON."

O THOU! who rollest in yon azure field,
Round as the orb of my forefather's shield,
Whence are thy beams? From what eternal store
Dost thou, O Sun! thy vast effulgence pour?
In awful grandeur, when thou movest on high,
The stars start back and hide them in the sky;
The pale Moon sickens in thy brightening blaze,
And in the western wave avoids thy gaze.
Alone thou shinest forth--for who can rise
Companion of thy splendour in the skies!
The mountain oaks are seen to fall away--
Mountains themselves by length of years decay--
With ebbs and flows is the rough Ocean tost;
In heaven the Moon is for a season lost,
But thou, amidst the fullness of thy joy,
The same art ever, blazing in the sky!
When tempests wrap the world from pole to pole,
When vivid lightnings flash and thunders roll,
Thou far above their utmost fury borne,
Look'st forth in beauty, laughing them to scorn.
But vainly now on me thy beauties blaze--
Ossian no longer can enraptured gaze!
Whether at morn, in lucid lustre gay,
On eastern clouds thy yellow tresses play,
Or else at eve, in radiant glory drest,
Thou tremblest at the portals of the west,
I see no more! But thou mayest fail at length,
Like Ossian lose thy beauty and thy strength,
Like him--but for a season--in thy sphere
To shine with splendour, then to disappear!
Thy years shall have an end, and thou no more
Bright through the world enlivening radiance pour,
But sleep within thy clouds, and fail to rise,
Heedless when Morning calls thee to the skies!
Then now exult, O Sun! and gaily shine,
While Youth and Strength and Beauty all are thine.
For Age is dark, unlovely, as the light
Shed by the Moon when clouds deform the night,
Glimmering uncertain as they hurry past.
Loud o'er the plain is heard the northern blast,
Mists shroud the hills, and 'neath the growing gloom,
The weary traveller shrinks and sighs for home.

1806.
[First published, _Atlantic Monthly_, December, 1898.][2]

FOOTNOTES:

[2] [I am indebted to the courtesy of Mr. Pierre De La Rose for sending me a copy of the foregoing _Version of Ossian's Address to the Sun_, which was "Privately printed at the Press of Oliver B. Graves, Cambridge, Massachusetts, June the Tenth, MDCCCXCVIII.," and was reprinted in the _Atlantic Monthly_ in December, 1898. A prefatory note entitled, "From Lord Byron's Notes," is prefixed to the Version: "In Lord Byron's copy of _The Poems of Ossian_ (printed by Dewick and Clarke, London, 1806), which, since 1874, has been in the possession of the Library of Harvard University as part of the Sumner Bequest. The notes which follow appear in Byron's hand." (For the _Notes_, see the _Atlantic Monthly_, 1898, vol. lxxxii. pp. 810-814.)

It is strange that Byron should have made two versions (for another "version" from the Newstead MSS., see _Poetical Works_, 1898, i. 229-231) of the "Address to the Sun," which forms the conclusion of "Carthon;" but the Harvard version appears to be genuine. It is to be noted that Byron appended to the earlier version eighteen lines of his own composition, by way of moral or application.]

LINES TO MR. HODGSON.

WRITTEN ON BOARD THE LISBON PACKET.

1.

HUZZA! Hodgson[3], we are going,
Our embargo's off at last;
Favourable breezes blowing
Bend the canvas o'er the mast.
From aloft the signal's streaming,
Hark! the farewell gun is fired;
Women screeching, tars blaspheming,
Tell us that our time's expired.
Here's a rascal
Come to task all,
Prying from the Custom-house;
Trunks unpacking
Cases cracking,
Not a corner for a mouse
Scapes unsearched amid the racket,
Ere we sail on board the Packet.

2.

Now our boatmen quit their mooring,
And all hands must ply the oar;
Baggage from the quay is lowering,
We're impatient, push from shore.
"Have a care! that case holds liquor--
Stop the boat--I'm sick--oh Lord!"
"Sick, Ma'am, damme, you'll be sicker,
Ere you've been an hour on board."
Thus are screaming
Men and women,
Gemmen, ladies, servants, Jacks;
Here entangling,
All are wrangling,
Stuck together close as wax.--
Such the general noise and racket,
Ere we reach the Lisbon Packet.

3.

Now we've reached her, lo! the Captain,
Gallant Kidd,[4] commands the crew;
Passengers their berths are clapt in,
Some to grumble, some to spew.
"Hey day! call you that a cabin?
Why't is hardly three feet square!
Not enough to stow Queen Mab in--
Who the deuce can harbour there?"
"Who, sir? plenty--
Nobles twenty
Did at once my vessel fill."--
"Did they? Jesus,
How you squeeze us!
Would to God they did so still!
Then I'd 'scape the heat and racket
Of the good ship, Lisbon Packet."

4.

Fletcher! Murray! Bob![5] where are you?
Stretched along the deck like logs--
Bear a hand, you jolly tar, you!
Here's a rope's end for the dogs.
Hobhouse muttering fearful curses,
As the hatchway down he rolls,
Now his breakfast, now his verses,
Vomits forth--and damns our souls.
"Here's a stanza[6]
On Braganza--
Help!"--"A couplet?"--"No, a cup
Of warm water--"
"What's the matter?"
"Zounds! my liver's coming up;
I shall not survive the racket
Of this brutal Lisbon Packet."

5.

Now at length we're off for Turkey,
Lord knows when we shall come back!
Breezes foul and tempests murky
May unship us in a crack.
But, since Life at most a jest is,
As philosophers allow,
Still to laugh by far the best is,
Then laugh on--as I do now.
Laugh at all things,
Great and small things,
Sick or well, at sea or shore;
While we're quaffing,
Let's have laughing--
Who the devil cares for more?--
Some good wine! and who would lack it,
Ev'n on board the Lisbon Packet?

Falmouth Roads, _June_ 30, 1809.
[First published, _Letters and Journals_, 1830, i. 230-232.]

FOOTNOTES:

[3] [For Francis Hodgson (1781-1852), see _Letters_, 1898, i. 195, _note_ 1.]

[4] [Compare Peter Pindar's _Ode to a Margate Hoy_--
"Go, beauteous Hoy, in safety ev'ry inch!
That storm should wreck thee, gracious Heav'n forbid!
Whether commanded by brave Captain Finch
Or equally tremendous Captain Kidd."]

[5] [Murray was "Joe" Murray, an ancient retainer of the "Wicked Lord." Bob was Robert Rushton, the "little page" of "Childe Harold's Good Night." (See _Poetical Works_, 1899, ii. 26, _note_ 1.)]

[6] [For "the stanza," addressed to the "Princely offspring of Braganza," published in the _Morning Post_, December 30, 1807, see _English Bards, etc._, line 142, _note_ 1, _Poetical Works_, 1898, i. 308, 309.]

[TO DIVES.[7] A FRAGMENT.]

UNHAPPY Dives! in an evil hour
'Gainst Nature's voice seduced to deeds accurst!
Once Fortune's minion now thou feel'st her power;
Wrath's vial on thy lofty head hath burst.
In Wit, in Genius, as in Wealth the first,
How wondrous bright thy blooming morn arose!
But thou wert smitten with th' unhallowed thirst
Of Crime unnamed, and thy sad noon must close
In scorn and solitude unsought the worst of woes.

1809.
[First published, _Lord Byron's Works_, 1833, xvii. 241.]

FOOTNOTES:

[7] [Dives was William Beckford. See _Childe Harold_, Canto I. stanza xxii. line 6, _Poetical Works_, 1899, ii. 37, _note_ 1.]

FAREWELL PETITION TO J. C. H., ESQ^RE^.

O THOU yclep'd by vulgar sons of Men
Cam Hobhouse![8] but by wags Byzantian Ben!
Twin sacred titles, which combined appear
To grace thy volume's front, and gild its rear,
Since now thou put'st thyself and work to Sea
And leav'st all Greece to _Fletcher_[9] and to me,
Oh, hear my single muse our sorrows tell,
_One_ song for _self_ and Fletcher quite as well--

First to the _Castle_ of that man of woes
Dispatch the letter which _I must_ enclose,
And when his lone Penelope shall say
_Why, where_, and _wherefore_ doth my William stay?
Spare not to move her pity, or her pride--
By all that Hero suffered, or defied;
The _chicken's toughness_, and the _lack_ of _ale_
The _stoney mountain_ and the _miry vale_
The _Garlick_ steams, which _half_ his meals enrich,
The _impending vermin_, and the threatened _Itch_,
That _ever breaking_ Bed, beyond repair!
The hat too _old_, the coat too _cold_ to wear,
The Hunger, _which repulsed from Sally's door_
Pursues her grumbling half from shore to shore,
Be these the themes to greet his faithful Rib
So may thy pen be smooth, thy tongue be glib!

This duty done, let me in turn demand
Some friendly office in my native land,
Yet let me ponder well, before I ask,
And set thee swearing at the tedious task.

First the Miscellany![10]--to Southwell town
_Per coach_ for Mrs. _Pigot_ frank it down,
So may'st them prosper in the paths of Sale,[11]
And Longman smirk and critics cease to rail.

All hail to Matthews![12] wash his reverend feet,
And in my name the man of Method greet,--
Tell him, my Guide, Philosopher, and Friend,
Who cannot love me, and who will not mend,
Tell him, that not in vain I shall assay
To tread and trace our "old Horatian way,"[13]
And be (with prose supply my dearth of rhymes)
What better men have been in better times.

Here let me cease, for why should I prolong
My notes, and vex a _Singer_ with a _Song_?
Oh thou with pen perpetual in thy fist!
Dubbed for thy sins a stark Miscellanist,
So pleased the printer's orders to perform
For Messrs. _Longman_, _Hurst_ and _Rees_ and _Orme_.
Go--Get thee hence to Paternoster Row,
Thy patrons wave a duodecimo!
(Best form for _letters_ from a distant land,
It fits the pocket, nor fatigues the hand.)
Then go, once more the joyous work commence[14]
With stores of anecdote, and grains of sense,
Oh may Mammas relent, and Sires forgive!
And scribbling Sons grow dutiful and live!

Constantinople, _June_ 7^th^, 1810.
[First published, _Murray's Magazine_, 1887, vol. i. pp. 290, 291.]

FOOTNOTES:

[8] [For John Cam Hobhouse (1786-1869), afterwards Lord Broughton de Gyfford, see _Letters_, 1898, i. 163, _note_ i.]

[9] [Fletcher was an indifferent traveller, and sighed for "a' the comforts of the saut-market." See Byron's letters to his mother, November 12, 1809, June 28, 1810.--_Letters_, 1898, i. 256, 281.]

[10] [Hobhouse's Miscellany (otherwise known as the _Miss-sell-any_) was published in 1809, under the title of _Imitations and Translations from The Ancient and Modern Classics_. Byron contributed nine original poems. The volume was not a success. "It foundered ... in the Gulph of Lethe."--Letter to H. Drury, July 17, 1811, _Letters_, 1898, i. 319.]

[11] [The word "Sale" may have a double meaning. There may be an allusion to George Sale, the Orientalist, and translator of the Koran.]

[12] ["In Matthews I have lost my 'guide, philosopher, and friend.'"--Letter to R.C. Dallas, September 7, 1811, _Letters_, 1898, ii. 25. (For Charles Skinner Matthews, see _Letters_, 1898, i. 150, _note_ 3.)]

[13] [Compare--
"In short, the maxim for the amorous tribe is
Horatian, 'Medio tu tutissimus ibis.'"
_Don Juan_, Canto V. stanza xvii. lines 8, 9.

The "doctrine" is Horatian, but the words occur in Ovid, _Metam._, lib. ii. line 137.--_Poetical Works_, 1902, vi. 273, _note_ 2.]

[14] [Hobhouse's _Journey through Albania and other Provinces of Turkey_, 4^to^, was published by James Cawthorn, in 1813.]

TRANSLATION OF THE NURSE'S DOLE IN
THE _MEDEA_ OF EURIPIDES.

OH how I wish that an embargo
Had kept in port the good ship Argo!
Who, still unlaunched from Grecian docks,
Had never passed the Azure rocks;
But now I fear her trip will be a
Damn'd business for my Miss Medea, etc., etc.[15]

_June_, 1810.
[First published, _Letters and Journals_, 1830, i. 227.]

FOOTNOTES:

[15] ["I am just come from an expedition through the Bosphorus to the Black Sea and the Cyanean Symplegades, up which last I scrambled with as great risk as ever the Argonauts escaped in their hoy. You remember the beginning of the nurse's dole in the _Medea_ [lines 1-7], of which I beg you to take the following translation, done on the summit;--[A 'damned business'] it very nearly was to me; for, had not this sublime passage been in my head, I should never have dreamed of ascending the said rocks, and bruising my carcass in honour of the ancients."--Letter to Henry Drury, June 17, 1810, _Letters_, 1898, i. 276.

Euripides, _Medea_, lines 1-7--

[Greek: Ei)/th' ô)/phel' A)rgou~s mê\ diapta/sthai ska/phos k.t.l.]

]

MY EPITAPH.[16]

YOUTH, Nature, and relenting Jove,
To keep my lamp _in_ strongly strove;
But Romanelli was so stout,
He beat all three--and _blew_ it _out_.

_October_, 1810.
[First published, _Letters and Journals_, 1830, i. 240.]

FOOTNOTES:

[16] ["The English Consul ... forced a physician upon me, and in three days vomited and glystered me to the last gasp. In this state I made my epitaph--take it."--Letter to Hodgson, October 3, 1810, _Letters_, 1898, i. 298.]

SUBSTITUTE FOR AN EPITAPH.

KIND Reader! take your choice to cry or laugh;
Here HAROLD lies--but where's his Epitaph?
If such you seek, try Westminster, and view
Ten thousand just as fit for him as you.

Athens, 1810.
[First published, _Lord Byron's Works_, 1832, ix. 4.]

EPITAPH FOR JOSEPH BLACKET, LATE
POET AND SHOEMAKER.[17]

STRANGER! behold, interred together,
The _souls_ of learning and of leather.
Poor Joe is gone, but left his _all_:
You'll find his relics in a _stall_.
His works were neat, and often found
Well stitched, and with _morocco_ bound.
Tread lightly--where the bard is laid--
He cannot mend the shoe he made;
Yet is he happy in his hole,
With verse immortal as his _sole_.
But still to business he held fast,
And stuck to Phoebus to the _last_.
Then who shall say so good a fellow
Was only "leather and prunella?"
For character--he did not lack it;
And if he did, 'twere shame to "Black-it."

Malta, _May_ 16, 1811.
[First published, _Lord Byron's Works_, 1832, ix. 10.]

FOOTNOTES:

[17] [For Joseph Blacket (1786-1810), see _Letters_, 1898, i. 314, _note_ 2; see, too, _Poetical Works_, 1898, i. 359, _note_ 1, and 441-443, _note_ 2. The _Epitaph_ is of doubtful authenticity.]

ON MOORE'S LAST OPERATIC FARCE, OR FARCICAL OPERA.[18]

GOOD plays are scarce,
So Moore writes _farce_:
The poet's fame grows brittle[i]--
We knew before
That _Little_'s Moore,
But now't is Moore that's _little_.

_September_ 14, 1811.
[First published, _Letters and Journals_, 1830, i. 295 (_note_).]

FOOTNOTES:

[i] _Is fame like his so brittle_?--[_MS_.]

[18] ["On a leaf of one of his paper books I find an epigram, written at this time, which, though not perhaps particularly good, I consider myself bound to insert."--Moore, _Life_, p. 137, _note_ 1. The reference is to Moore's _M.P.; or, The Blue Stocking_, which was played for the first time at the Lyceum Theatre, September 9, 1811. For Moore's _nom de plume_, "The late Thomas Little, Esq.," compare Praed's _The Belle of the Ball-Room_--

"If those bright lips had quoted Locke,
I might have thought they murmured Little."]

[R.C. DALLAS.][19]

YES! wisdom shines in all his mien,
Which would so captivate, I ween,
Wisdom's own goddess Pallas;
That she'd discard her fav'rite owl,
And take for pet a brother fowl,
Sagacious R.C. Dallas.

[First published, _Life, Writings, Opinions, etc._, 1825, ii. 192.]

FOOTNOTES:

[19] ["A person observing that Mr. Dallas looked very wise on a certain occasion, his Lordship is said to have broke out into the following impromptu."--_Life, Writings, Times, and Opinions of Lord Byron_, 1825, ii. 191.]

AN ODE[20] TO THE FRAMERS OF THE FRAME BILL.[21]

1.

OH well done Lord E---- n! and better done R----r![22]
Britannia must prosper with councils like yours;
Hawkesbury, Harrowby, help you to guide her,
Whose remedy only must _kill_ ere it cures:
Those villains; the Weavers, are all grown refractory,
Asking some succour for Charity's sake--
So hang them in clusters round each Manufactory,
That will at once put an end to _mistake_.[23]

2.

The rascals, perhaps, may betake them to robbing,
The dogs to be sure have got nothing to eat--
So if we can hang them for breaking a bobbin,
'T will save all the Government's money and meat:
Men are more easily made than machinery--
Stockings fetch better prices than lives--
Gibbets on Sherwood will heighten the scenery,
Shewing how Commerce, how Liberty thrives!

3.

Justice is now in pursuit of the wretches,
Grenadiers, Volunteers, Bow-street Police,
Twenty-two Regiments, a score of Jack Ketches,
Three of the Quorum and two of the Peace;
Some Lords, to be sure, would have summoned the Judges,
To take their opinion, but that they ne'er shall,
For LIVERPOOL such a concession begrudges,
So now they're condemned by _no Judges_ at all.

4.

Some folks for certain have thought it was shocking,
When Famine appeals and when Poverty groans,
That Life should be valued at less than a stocking,
And breaking of frames lead to breaking of bones.
If it should prove so, I trust, by this token,
(And who will refuse to partake in the hope?)
That the frames of the fools may be first to be _broken_,
Who, when asked for a _remedy_, sent down a _rope_.

[First published, _Morning Chronicle, Monday, March_ 2, 1812.]

[See a _Political Ode by Lord Byron, hitherto unknown
as his production_, London, John Pearson, 46, Pall Mall,
1880, 8º. See, too, Mr. Pearson's prefatory Note, pp. 5, etc.]

FOOTNOTES:

[20] ["LORD BYRON TO EDITOR OF THE _MORNING CHRONICLE_.

Sir,--I take the liberty of sending an alteration of the two last lines of stanza 2^d^, which I wish to run as follows:--

'Gibbets on Sherwood will _heighten_ the scenery,
Shewing how commerce, _how_ liberty thrives.'

I wish you could insert it tomorrow for a particular reason; but I feel much obliged by your inserting it at all. Of course do _not_ put my name to the thing--believe me,

Your obliged
and very obedient servant,
BYRON.
8, St. James's Street,
_Sunday, March_ 1, 1812."]

[21] [For Byron's maiden speech in the House of Lords, February 27, 1812, see _Letters_, 1898, ii. 424-430.]

[22] [Richard Ryder (1766-1832), second son of the first Baron Harrowby, was Home Secretary, 1809-12.]

[23] Lord E., on Thursday night, said the riots at Nottingham arose from a "_mistake_."

TO THE HON^BLE^ M^RS^ GEORGE LAMB.[24]

1.

The sacred song that on mine ear
Yet vibrates from that voice of thine,
I heard, before, from one so dear--
'T is strange it still appears divine.

2.

But, oh! so sweet that _look_ and _tone_
To her and thee alike is given;
It seemed as if for me alone
That _both_ had been recalled from Heaven!

3.

And though I never can redeem
The vision thus endeared to me;
I scarcely can regret my dream,
When realised again by thee.

1812.
[First published in _The Two Duchesses_, by Vere Foster,
1898, p. 374.]

FOOTNOTES:

[24] [Caroline Rosalie Adelaide St. Jules (1786-1862) married, in 1809, the Hon. George Lamb (see _English Bards, etc_., line 55, _Poetical Works_, 1898, i. 300, note 1), fourth son of the first Viscount Melbourne.]

[LA REVANCHE.]

1.

There is no more for me to hope,
There is no more for thee to fear;
And, if I give my Sorrow scope,
That Sorrow thou shalt never hear.
Why did I hold thy love so dear?
Why shed for such a heart one tear?
Let deep and dreary silence be
My only memory of thee!

2.

When all are fled who flatter now,
Save thoughts which will not flatter then;
And thou recall'st the broken vow
To him who must not love again--
Each hour of now forgotten years
Thou, then, shalt number with thy tears;
And every drop of grief shall be
A vain remembrancer of me!

Undated, ?1812.
[From an autograph MS. in the possession of Mr. Murray,
now for the first time printed.]

TO THOMAS MOORE.

WRITTEN THE EVENING BEFORE HIS VISIT TO MR. LEIGH HUNT
IN HORSEMONGER LANE GAOL, MAY 19, 1813.

OH you, who in all names can tickle the town,
Anacreon, Tom Little, Tom Moore, or Tom Brown,--[25]
For hang me if I know of which you may most brag,
Your Quarto two-pounds, or your Two-penny Post Bag;

* * * * *

But now to my letter--to _yours_ 'tis an answer--
To-morrow be with me, as soon as you can, sir,
All ready and dressed for proceeding to spunge on
(According to compact) the wit in the dungeon--[26]
Pray Phoebus at length our political malice
May not get us lodgings within the same palace!
I suppose that to-night you're engaged with some codgers,
And for Sotheby's Blues[27] have deserted Sam Rogers;
And I, though with cold I have nearly my death got,
Must put on my breeches, and wait on the Heathcote;[28]
But to-morrow, at four, we will both play the _Scurra_,
And you'll be Catullus, the Regent Mamurra.[29]

[First published, _Letters and Journals_, 1830, i. 401.]

FOOTNOTES:

[25] [Moore's "_Intercepted Letters; or, The Twopenny Post-Bag_, By Thomas Brown, the Younger," was published in 1813.]

[26] [James Henry Leigh Hunt (1784-1859) was imprisoned February, 1813, to February, 1815, for a libel on the Prince Regent, published in the _Examiner_, March 12, 1812.--_Letters_, 1898, ii. 205-208, _note_ 1.]

[27] [For "Sotheby's Blues," see Introduction to _The Blues, Poetical Works_, 1901, iv. 570, _et ibid_., 579, 580.]

[28] [Katherine Sophia Manners was married in 1793 to Sir Gilbert Heathcote. See _Letters_, 1898, ii. 402, 406.]

[29] [See _Catullus_, xxix. 1-4--

"Quis hoc potest videre? quis potest pati,
Nisi impudicus et vorax et aleo,
Mamurram habere, quod Comata Gallia
Habebat uncti et ultima Britannia?" etc.]

ON LORD THURLOW'S POEMS.[30]

1.

WHEN Thurlow this damned nonsense sent,
(I hope I am not violent)
Nor men nor gods knew what he meant.

2.

And since not even our Rogers' praise
To common sense his thoughts could raise--
Why _would_ they let him print his lays?

3.

* * * * *

4.

* * * * *

5.

To me, divine Apollo, grant--O!
Hermilda's[31] first and second canto,
I'm fitting up a new portmanteau;

6.

And thus to furnish decent lining,
My own and others' bays I'm twining,--
So, gentle Thurlow, throw me thine in.

June 2, 1813.
[First published, _Letters and Journals_, 1830, i. 396.]

FOOTNOTES:

[30] [One evening, in the late spring or early summer of 1813, Byron and Moore supped on bread and cheese with Rogers. Their host had just received from Lord Thurlow [Edward Hovell Thurlow, 1781-1829] a copy of his _Poems on Several Occasions_ (1813), and Byron lighted upon some lines to Rogers, "On the Poem of Mr. Rogers, entitled 'An Epistle to a Friend.'" The first stanza ran thus--

"When Rogers o'er this labour bent,
Their purest fire the Muses lent,
T' illustrate this sweet argument."

"Byron," says Moore, "undertook to read it aloud;--but he found it impossible to get beyond the first two words. Our laughter had now increased to such a pitch that nothing could restrain it. Two or three times he began; but no sooner had the words 'When Rogers' passed his lips, than our fit burst forth afresh,--till even Mr. Rogers himself ... found it impossible not to join us. A day or two after, Lord Byron sent me the following:--'My dear Moore, "When Rogers" must not see the enclosed, which I send for your perusal.'"--_Life_, p. 181; _Letters_, 1898, ii. 211-213, _note_ 1.]

Thurlow's poems are by no means contemptible. A sonnet, "To a Bird, that haunted the Water of Lacken, in the Winter," which Charles Lamb transcribed in one of Coleridge's note-books, should be set over against the absurd lines, "On the Poems of Mr. Rogers."

"O melancholy bird, a winter's day
Thou standest by the margin of the pool;
And, taught by God, dost thy whole being school
To Patience, which all evil can allay:
God has appointed thee the fish thy prey;
And giv'n thyself a lesson to the fool
Unthrifty, to submit to moral rule,
And his unthinking course by thee to weigh.
There need not schools nor the professor's chair,
Though these be good, true wisdom to impart;
He, who has not enough for these to spare
Of time, or gold, may yet amend his heart,
And teach his soul by brooks and rivers fair,
Nature is always wise in every part."

_Select Poems_, 1821, p. 90.

[See "Fragments of Criticism," _Works of Charles Lamb_, 1903, iii. 284.]

[31] [_Hermilda in Palestine_ was published in 1812, in quarto, and twice reissued in 1813, as part of _Poems on Various Occasions_ (8vo). The Lines upon Rogers' _Epistle to a Friend_ appeared first in the _Gentleman's Magazine_ for April, 1813, vol. 83, p. 357, and were reprinted in the second edition of _Poems, etc._, 1813, pp. 162, 163. The lines in italics, which precede each stanza, are taken from the last stanza of Lord Thurlow's poem.]

TO LORD THURLOW.[32]

1.

"_I lay my branch of laurel down_."

"_THOU_ lay thy branch of _laurel_ down!"
Why, what thou'st stole is not enow;
And, were it lawfully thine own,
Does Rogers want it most, or thou?
Keep to thyself thy withered bough,
Or send it back to Doctor Donne:[33]
Were justice done to both, I trow,
He'd have but little, and thou--none.

2.

"_Then, thus, to form Apollo's crown_."

A crown! why, twist it how you will,
Thy chaplet must be foolscap still.
When next you visit Delphi's town,
Enquire amongst your fellow-lodgers,
They'll tell you Phoebus gave his crown,
Some years before your birth, to Rogers.

3.

"_Let every other bring his own_."

When coals to Newcastle are carried,
And owls sent to Athens, as wonders,
From his spouse when the Regent's unmarried,
Or Liverpool weeps o'er his blunders;
When Tories and Whigs cease to quarrel,
When Castlereagh's wife has an heir,
Then Rogers shall ask us for laurel,
And thou shalt have plenty to spare.

[First published, _Letters and Journals_, 1830, i. 397.]

FOOTNOTES:

[32] ["On the same day I received from him the following additional scraps ['To Lord Thurlow']. The lines in Italics are from the eulogy that provoked his waggish comments."--_Life_, p. 181. The last stanza of Thurlow's poem supplied the text--

"Then, thus, to form Apollo's crown,
(Let ev'ry other bring his own,)
I lay my branch of laurel down."]

[33] [Lord Thurlow affected an archaic style in his Sonnets and other verses. In the Preface to the second edition of _Poems, etc._, he writes, "I think that our Poetry has been continually declining since the days of Milton and Cowley ... and that the golden age of our language is in the reign of Queen Elizabeth."]

THE DEVIL'S DRIVE.[ii][34]

1.

THE Devil returned to Hell by two,
And he stayed at home till five;
When he dined on some homicides done in _ragoût_,
And a rebel or so in an _Irish_ stew,
And sausages made of a self-slain Jew,
And bethought himself what next to do,
"And," quoth he, "I'll take a drive.
I walked in the morning, I'll ride to-night;
In darkness my children take most delight,
And I'll see how my favourites thrive. 10

2.

"And what shall I ride in?" quoth Lucifer, then--
"If I followed my taste, indeed,
I should mount in a waggon of wounded men,
And smile to see them bleed.
But these will be furnished again and again,
And at present my purpose is speed;
To see my manor as much as I may,
And watch that no souls shall be poached away.

3.

"I have a state-coach at Carlton House,
A chariot in Seymour-place;[35] 20
But they're lent to two friends, who make me amends
By driving my favourite pace:
And they handle their reins with such a grace,
I have something for both at the end of the race.

4.

"So now for the earth to take my chance,"
Then up to the earth sprung he;
And making a jump from Moscow to France,
He stepped across the sea,
And rested his hoof on a turnpike road,
No very great way from a Bishop's abode.[36] 30

5.

But first as he flew, I forgot to say,
That he hovered a moment upon his way,
To look upon Leipsic plain;
And so sweet to his eye was its sulphury glare,
And so soft to his ear was the cry of despair,
That he perched on a mountain of slain;
And he gazed with delight from its growing height,
Nor often on earth had he seen such a sight,
Nor his work done half as well:
For the field ran so red with the blood of the dead, 40
That it blushed like the waves of Hell!
Then loudly, and wildly, and long laughed he:
"Methinks they have little need here of _me_!"

6.

Long he looked down on the hosts of each clime,
While the warriors hand to hand were--
Gaul--Austrian and Muscovite heroes sublime,
And--(Muse of Fitzgerald arise with a rhyme!)
A quantity of _Landwehr_![37]
Gladness was there,
For the men of all might and the monarchs of earth, 50
There met for the wolf and the worm to make mirth,
And a feast for the fowls of the Air!

7.

But he turned aside and looked from the ridge
Of hills along the river,
And the best thing he saw was a broken bridge,[38]
Which a Corporal chose to shiver;
Though an Emperor's taste was displeased with his haste,
The Devil he thought it clever;
And he laughed again in a lighter strain,
O'er the torrent swoln and rainy, 60
When he saw "on a fiery steed" Prince Pon,
In taking care of Number _One_--
Get drowned with a great _many_!

8.

But the softest note that soothed his ear
Was the sound of a widow sighing;
And the sweetest sight was the icy tear,
Which Horror froze in the blue eye clear
Of a maid by her lover lying--
As round her fell her long fair hair,
And she looked to Heaven with that frenzied air 70
Which seemed to ask if a God were there!
And stretched by the wall of a ruined hut,
With its hollow cheek, and eyes half shut,
A child of Famine dying:
And the carnage _begun_, when _resistance_ is done,
And the fall of the vainly flying!

9.

Then he gazed on a town by besiegers taken,
Nor cared he who were winning;
But he saw an old maid, for years forsaken,
Get up and leave her spinning; 80
And she looked in her glass, and to one that did pass,
She said--"pray are the rapes beginning?"[39]

10.

But the Devil has reached our cliffs so white,
And what did he there, I pray?
If his eyes were good, he but saw by night
What we see every day;
But he made a tour and kept a journal
Of all the wondrous sights nocturnal,
And he sold it in shares to the _Men_ of the _Row_,
Who bid pretty well--but they _cheated_ him, though! 90

11.

The Devil first saw, as he thought, the _Mail_,
Its coachman and his coat;
So instead of a pistol he cocked his tail,
And seized him by the throat;
"Aha!" quoth he, "what have we here?
'T is a new barouche, and an ancient peer!"[40]

12.

So he sat him on his box again,
And bade him have no fear,
But be true to his club, and staunch to his rein,
His brothel and his beer; 100
"Next to seeing a Lord at the Council board,
I would rather see him here."

13.

Satan hired a horse and gig
With promises to pay;
And he pawned his horns for a spruce new wig,
To redeem as he came away:
And he whistled some tune, a waltz or a jig,
And drove off at the close of day.

14.

The first place he stopped at--he heard the Psalm
That rung from a Methodist Chapel: 110
"'T is the best sound I've heard," quoth he, "since my palm
Presented Eve her apple!
When _Faith_ is all, 't is an excellent sign,
That the _Works_ and Workmen both are mine."

15.

He passed Tommy Tyrwhitt,[41] that standing jest,
To princely wit a Martyr:
But the last joke of all was by far the best,
When he sailed away with "the Garter"!
"And"--quoth Satan--"this Embassy's worthy my sight,
Should I see nothing else to amuse me to night. 120
With no one to bear it, but Thomas à Tyrwhitt,
This ribband belongs to an 'Order of Merit'!"

16.

He stopped at an Inn and stepped within
The Bar and read the "Times;"
And never such a treat, as--the epistle of one "Vetus,"[42]
Had he found save in downright crimes:
"Though I doubt if this drivelling encomiast of War
Ever saw a field fought, or felt a scar,
Yet his fame shall go farther than he can guess,
For I'll keep him a place in my _hottest Press_; 130
And his works shall be bound in Morocco _d'Enfer_,
And lettered behind with his _Nom de Guerre_."

17.

The Devil gat next to Westminster,
And he turned to "the room" of the Commons;
But he heard as he purposed to enter in there,
That "the Lords" had received a summons;
And he thought, as "a _quondam_ Aristocrat,"
He might peep at the Peers, though to _hear_ them were flat;
And he walked up the House so like one of his own,
That they say that he stood pretty near the throne. 140

18.

He saw the Lord Liverpool seemingly wise,
The Lord Westmoreland certainly silly,
And Jockey of Norfolk--a man of some size--
And Chatham, so like his friend Billy;[43]
And he saw the tears in Lord Eldon's eyes,
Because the Catholics would _not_ rise,
In spite of his prayers and his prophecies;
And he heard--which set Satan himself a staring--
A certain Chief Justice say something like _swearing_.[44]
And the Devil was shocked--and quoth he, "I must go, 150
For I find we have much better manners below.
If thus he harangues when he passes my border,
I shall hint to friend Moloch to call him to order."

19.

Then the Devil went down to the humbler House,
Where he readily found his way
As natural to him as its hole to a Mouse,
He had been there many a day;
And many a vote and soul and job he
Had bid for and carried away from the Lobby:
But there now was a "call" and accomplished debaters 160
Appeared in the glory of hats, boots and gaiters--
_Some_ paid rather more--but _all_ worse dressed
than Waiters!

20.

There was Canning for War, and Whitbread for peace,
And others as suited their fancies;
But all were agreed that our debts should increase
Excepting the Demagogue Francis.
That rogue! how could Westminster chuse him again
To leaven the virtue of these honest men!
But the Devil remained till the Break of Day
Blushed upon Sleep and Lord Castlereagh:[45] 170
Then up half the house got, and Satan got up
With the drowsy to snore--or the hungry to sup:--
But so torpid the power of some speakers, 't is said,
That they sent even him to his brimstone bed.

21.

He had seen George Rose--but George was grown dumb,
And only lied in thought![46]
And the Devil has all the pleasure to come
Of hearing him talk as he ought.
With the falsest of tongues, the sincerest of men--
His veracity were but deceit-- 180
And Nature must first have unmade him again,
Ere his breast or his face, or his tongue, or his pen,
Conceived--uttered--looked--or wrote down letters ten,
Which Truth would acknowledge complete.

22.

Satan next took the army list in hand,
Where he found a new "Field Marshal;"
And when he saw this high command
Conferred on his Highness of Cumberland,[47]
"Oh! were I prone to cavil--or were I not the Devil,
I should say this was somewhat partial; 190
Since the only wounds that this Warrior gat,
Were from God knows whom--and the Devil knows what!"

23.

He then popped his head in a royal Ball,
And saw all the Haram so hoary;
And who there besides but Corinna de Staël![48]
Turned Methodist and Tory!
"Aye--Aye"--quoth he--"'t is the way with them all,
When Wits grow tired of Glory:
But thanks to the weakness, that thus could pervert her,
Since the dearest of prizes to me's a deserter: 200
_Mem_--whenever a sudden conversion I want,
To send to the school of Philosopher Kant;
And whenever I need a critic who can gloss over
All faults--to send for Mackintosh to write up the Philosopher."[49]

24.

The Devil waxed faint at the sight of this Saint,
And he thought himself of eating;
And began to cram from a plate of ham
Wherewith a Page was retreating--
Having nothing else to do (for "the friends" each so near
Had sold all their souls long before), 210
As he swallowed down the bacon he wished himself a Jew
For the sake of another crime more:
For Sinning itself is but half a recreation,
Unless it ensures most infallible Damnation.

25.

But he turned him about, for he heard a sound
Which even his ear found faults in;
For whirling above--underneath--and around--
Were his fairest Disciples Waltzing![50]
And quoth he--"though this be--the _premier pas_ to me,
Against it I would warn all-- 220
Should I introduce these revels among my younger devils,
They would all turn perfectly carnal:
And though fond of the flesh--yet I never could bear it
Should quite in my kingdom get the upper hand of Spirit."

26.

The Devil (but 't was over) had been vastly glad
To see the new Drury Lane,
And yet he might have been rather mad
To see it rebuilt in vain;
And had he beheld their "Nourjahad,"[51]
Would never have gone again: 230
And Satan had taken it much amiss,
They should fasten such a piece on a friend of his--
Though he knew that his works were somewhat sad,
He never had found them _quite_ so bad:
For this was "the book" which, of yore, Job, sorely smitten,
Said, "Oh that _mine_ enemy, _mine_ enemy had written"!

27.

Then he found sixty scribblers in separate cells,[52]
And marvelled what they were doing,
For they looked like little fiends in their own little hells,
Damnation for others brewing-- 240
Though their paper seemed to shrink, from the heat of their ink,
They were only _coolly_ reviewing!
And as one of them wrote down the pronoun "_We_,"
"That Plural"--says Satan--"means _him_ and _me_,
With the Editor added to make up the three
Of an Athanasian Trinity,
And render the believers in our 'Articles' sensible,
How many must combine to form _one_ Incomprehensible"!

_December_ 9, 1813.

[Stanzas 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 10, 11, 12, 17, 18, first published,
_Letters and Journals_, 1830, i. 471-474: stanzas 6, 7,
9, 13, 14, 15, 16, 19-27, now published for the first time from
an autograph MS. in the possession of the Earl of Ilchester.]

FOOTNOTES:

[ii] The Devil's Drive. _A Sequel to Porson's_ Devil's Walk.--[MS. H.]

[34] ["I have lately written a wild, rambling, unfinished rhapsody, called 'The Devil's Drive,' the notion of which I took from Porson's _Devil's Walk_."--_Journal_, December 17, 18, 1813, _Letters_, 1898, ii. 378. "Though with a good deal of vigour and imagination, it is," says Moore, "for the most part rather clumsily executed, wanting the point and condensation of those clever verses of Coleridge and Southey, which Lord Byron, adopting a notion long prevalent, has attributed to Porson." The _Devil's Walk_ was published in the _Morning Post_, September 6, 1799. It has been published under Porson's name (1830, ed. H. Montague, illustrated by Cruikshank). (See _Poetical Works_, 1898, i. 30, _note_ 1.)]

[35] [Lord Yarmouth, nicknamed "Red Herrings," the eldest son of the Regent's elderly favourite, the Marchioness of Hertford (the "Marchesa" of the _Twopenny Post-Bag_), lived at No. 7, Seamore Place, Mayfair. Compare Moore's "Epigram:" "'I want the Court Guide,' said my lady, 'to look If the House, Seymour Place, be at 30 or 20,'" etc.--_Poetical Works_, 1850, p. 165.]

[36] [The allusion may be to a case which was before the courts, the Attorney-General _v_. William Carver and Brownlow Bishop of Winchester (see _Morning Chronicle_, November 17, 1813). Carver held certain premises under the Bishop of Winchester, at the entrance of Portsmouth Harbour, which obstructed the efflux and reflux of the tide. "The fact," said Mr. Serjeant Lens, in opening the case for the Crown, "was of great magnitude to the entire nation, since it effected the security, and even the existence of one of the principal harbours of Great Britain."]

[37] [The Russian and Austrian troops at the battle of Leipsic, October 16, 1813, were, for the most part, veterans, while the Prussian contingent included a large body of militia.]

[38] [For the incident of the "broken bridge" Byron was indebted to the pages of the _Morning Chronicle_ of November 8, 1813, "Paris Papers, October 30"--

"The Emperor had ordered the engineers to form fougades under the grand bridge which is between Leipsic and Lindenau, in order to blow it up at the latest moment, and thus to retard the march of the enemy and give time to our baggage to file off. General Dulauloy had entrusted the operation to Colonel Montford. The Colonel, instead of remaining on the spot to direct it, and to give the signal, ordered a corporal and four sappers to blow up the bridge the instant the enemy should appear. The corporal, an ignorant fellow, and ill comprehending the nature of the duty with which he was charged, upon hearing the first shot discharged from the ramparts of the city, set fire to the fougades and blew up the bridge. A part of the army was still on the other side, with a park of 80 pieces of artillery and some hundreds of waggons. The advance of this part of the army, who were approaching the bridge, seeing it blow up, conceived it was in the power of the enemy. A cry of dismay spread from rank to rank. 'The enemy are close upon our rear, and the bridges are destroyed!' The unfortunate soldiers dispersed, and endeavoured to effect their escape as well as they could. The Duke of Tarentum swam across the river. Prince Poniatowsky, mounted on a spirited horse, darted into the water and appeared no more. The Emperor was not informed of this disaster until it was too late to remedy it.... Colonel Montfort and the corporal of the sappers have been handed over to a court-martial."]

[39] [Compare _Don Juan_, Canto VIII. stanza cxxxii. line 4. Sir Walter Scott (_Journal_, October 30, 1826 [1890, i. 288]), tells the same story of "an old woman who, when Carlisle was taken by the Highlanders in 1745, chose to be particularly apprehensive of personal violence, and shut herself up in a closet, in order that she might escape ravishment. But no one came to disturb her solitude, and ... by and by she popped her head out of her place of refuge with the pretty question, 'Good folks, can you tell me when the ravishing is going to begin?'" In 1813 Byron did not know Scott, and must have stolen the jest from some older writer. It is, probably, of untold antiquity.]

[40] [The "Four-Horse" Club, founded in 1808, was incorrectly styled the Four-in-Hand Club, and the Barouche Club. According to the Club rules, the barouches were "yellow-bodied, with 'dickies,' the horses bay, with rosettes at their heads, and the harness silver-mounted. The members wore a drab coat reaching to the ankles, with three tiers of pockets, and mother-o'-pearl buttons as large as five-shilling pieces. The waistcoat was blue, with yellow stripes an inch wide; breeches of plush, with strings and rosettes to each knee; and it was _de rigueur_ that the hat should be 3-1/2 inches deep in the crown." (See _Driving_, by the Duke of Beaufort, K.G., 1894, pp. 251-258.)

The "ancient peer" may possibly be intended for the President of the Club, Philip Henry, fifth Earl of Chesterfield (1755-1815), who was a member of the Privy Council, and had been Postmaster-General and Master of the Horse.]

[41] [Sir Thomas Tyrwhitt (_circ_. 1762-1833) was the son of the Rev. Edmund Tyrwhitt, Rector of Wickham Bishops, etc., and nephew of Thomas Tyrwhitt, the editor of the _Canterbury Tales_. He was Private Secretary to the Prince of Wales, auditor of the Duchy of Cornwall (1796), and Lord Warden of the Stannaries (1805). He was knighted May 8, 1812. He was sent in the following year in charge of the Garter mission to the Czar, and on that occasion was made a Knight of the Imperial Order of St. Anne, First Class. He held the office of Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod, 1812-1832. "Tommy Tyrwhitt" was an important personage at Carlton House, and shared with Colonel McMahon the doubtful privilege of being a confidential servant of the Prince Regent. Compare Letter III. of Moore's _Twopenny Post-Bag_, 1813, p. 12. "From G.R. to the E. of Y----th."

"I write this in bed while my whiskers are airing,
And M--c has a sly dose of jalap preparing
For poor T--mm--y T--rr--t at breakfast to quaff--
As I feel I want something to give me a laugh,
And there's nothing so good as old T--mm--y kept close
To his Cornwall accounts, after taking a dose!"

See _Gentleman's Magazine_, March, 1833, vol. 103, pt. i. pp. 275, 276.]

[42] ["Vetus" [Edward Sterling] contributed a series of letters to the _Times_, 1812, 1813. They were afterwards republished. Vetus was not a Little Englander, and his political sentiments recall the _obiter dicta_ of contemporary patriots; _e.g._ "the only legitimate basis for a treaty, if not on the part of the Continental Allies, at least for England herself [is] that she should conquer all she can, and keep all she conquers. This is not by way of retaliation, however just, upon so obdurate and rapacious an enemy--but as an indispensable condition of her own safety and existence." The letters were reviewed under the heading of "Illustrations of Vetus," in the _Morning Chronicle_, December 2, 10, 16, 18; 1813. The reviewer and Byron did not take the patriotic view of the situation.]

[43] [Robert Banks Jenkinson (1770-1828), second Earl of Liverpool, on the assassination of Perceval, became Prime Minister, June 7, 1812; John Fane (1759-1841), tenth Earl of Westmoreland, was Lord Privy Seal, 1798-1827; Charles Howard (1746-1815), eleventh Duke of Norfolk, known as "Jockey of Norfolk," was a Protestant and a Liberal, and at one time a friend of the Prince of Wales. Wraxall, _Posthumous Memoirs_, 1836, i. 29, says that "he might have been mistaken for a grazier or a butcher by his dress and appearance." He figures _largely_ in Gillray, see _e.g._ "Meeting of the Moneyed Interest," December, 1798. John Pitt (1756-1835), second Earl of Chatham, the hero of the abortive Walcheren expedition, had been made a general in the army January 1, 1812. He "inherited," says Wraxall, _ibid._, iii. 129, "his illustrious father's form and figure; but not his mind."]

[44] [Edward Law (1750-1818), first Baron Ellenborough, Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench, 1802-18, was given to the use of strong language. His temper (see Moore's "Sale of the Tools") was "none of the best." On one occasion, speaking in the House of Lords (March 22, 1813) with regard to the "delicate investigation," he asserted that the accusation ["that the persons intrusted had thought fit to fabricate an unauthorized document"] "was as false as hell;" and by way of protest against the tedious harangues of old Lord Darnley, "I am answerable to God for my time, and what account can I give at the day of judgment if I stay here longer?"]

[45] [Compare Moore's "Insurrection of the Papers"--

"Last night I toss'd and turn'd in bed,
But could not sleep--at length I said,
'I'll think of Viscount C--stl--r--gh,
And of his speeches--that's the way.'"]

[46] [George Rose (1744-1818) was at this time Treasurer of the Navy. Wraxall, who quotes the "Probationary Odes" with regard to his alleged duplicity, testifies that he "knew him well in his official capacity, during at least twelve years, and never found him deficient in honour or sincerity" (_Posthumous Memoirs_, 1836, i. 148). Moore ("Parody of a Celebrated Letter") makes the Regent conceive how shocked the king would be to wake up sane and find "that R--se was grown honest, or W--stm--rel--nd wiser."]

[47] [Ernest Augustus (1771-1851), Duke of Cumberland and King of Hanover, fifth son of George III., was gazetted as Field-Marshal November 27, 1813. His "wounds," which, according to the Duke's sworn testimony, were seventeen in number, were inflicted during an encounter with his valet, Joseph Sellis (? Sélis), a Piedmontese, who had attempted to assassinate the Prince (June 1, 1810), and, shortly afterwards, was found with his throat cut. A jury of Westminster tradesmen brought in a verdict of _felo de se_ against Sellis. The event itself and the trial before the coroner provoked controversy and the grossest scandal. The question is discussed and the Duke exonerated of the charges brought against him, by J.H. Jesse, _Memoirs, etc., of George III._, 1864, iii. 545, 546, and by George Rose, _Diaries, etc._, 1860, ii. 437-446. The scandal was revived in 1832 by the publication of a work entitled _The Authentic Memoirs of the Court of England for the last Seventy Years._ The printer and publisher of the work was found guilty. (See _The Trial of Josiah Phillips for a Libel on the Duke of Cumberland_, 1833.)]

[48] ["At half-past nine [Wednesday, December 8, 1813] there was a grand dress party at Carlton House, at which her Majesty and the Prince Regent most graciously received the following distinguished characters from the Russian Court, viz. the Count and Countess Leiven, Mad. La Barrone (_sic_) de Staël, Monsieur de Staël," etc.--_Morning Chronicle_, December 10, 1813.]

[49] [In the review of Madame de Staël's _De L'Allemagne_ (_Edinburgh Review_, October, 1813, vol. 22, pp. 198-238), Sir James Mackintosh enlarged upon and upheld the "opinions of Kant" as creative and seminal in the world of thought. In the same article he passes in review the systems of Hobbes, Paley, Bentham, Reid, etc., and finds words of praise and admiration for each in turn. See, too, a passage (p. 226) in which he alludes to Coleridge as a living writer, whose "singular character and unintelligible style" might, in any other country but England, have won for him attention if not approval. His own "conversion" from the extreme liberalism of the _Vindiciæ Gallicæ_ of 1791 to the philosophic conservatism of the _Introductory Discourse_ (1798) to his lecture on _The Law of Nature and Nations_, was regarded with suspicion by Wordsworth and Coleridge, who, afterwards, were still more effectually "converted" themselves.]

[50] [See Introduction to _The Waltz, Poetical Works_, 1898, i. 475.]

[51] [_Illusion, or the Trances of Nourjahad_, a melodrama founded on _The History of Nourjahad_, By the Editor of Sidney Bidulph (Mrs. Frances Sheridan, _née_ Chamberlaine, 1724-1766), was played for the first time at Drury Lane Theatre, November 25, 1813. Byron was exceedingly indignant at being credited with the authorship or adaptation. (See Letter to Murray, November 27, 1813, _Letters_, 1898, ii. 288, _note_ 1.) Miss Sophia Lee, who wrote some of the _Canterbury Tales_, "made a very elegant musical drama of it" (_Memoirs of Mrs. F. Sheridan_, by Alicia Lefanu, 1824, p. 296); but this was not the _Nourjahad_ of Drury Lane.]

[52] [Millbank Penitentiary, which was built in the form of a pentagon, was finally taken in hand in the spring of 1813. Solitary confinement in the "cells" was, at first, reserved as a punishment for misconduct.--_Memorials of Millbank_, by Arthur Griffiths, 1875, i. 57.]

WINDSOR POETICS.

LINES COMPOSED ON THE OCCASION OF HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS
THE PRINCE REGENT BEING SEEN STANDING BETWEEN
THE COFFINS OF HENRY VIII. AND CHARLES I.,
IN THE ROYAL VAULT AT WINDSOR.

FAMED for contemptuous breach of sacred ties,
By headless Charles see heartless Henry lies;
Between them stands another sceptred thing--
It moves, it reigns--in all but name, a king:

Comments

Log in to leave a comment.

The Works of Lord Byron, Vol. 7. PoetryChapter II: Appendix: To Bibliography 314 (1)

0%34 min left in chapter