«Письма и дневники лорда Байрона. Том 2»

"I never heard Rogers say a single word against Byron, which is rather odd too. Byron wrote a bitter and undeserved satire on Rogers. This conduct must have been motived by something or other."

"He certainly took pennyworths out of his friend's character. I sat three hours for my picture to Sir Thomas Lawrence, during which the whole conversation was filled up by Rogers with stories of Sheridan, for the least of which, if true, he deserved the gallows. One respected his committing a rape on his sister-in-law on the day of her husband's funeral. Others were worse."

Columbus Quarterly Review "Ward has no heart, they say; but I deny it;—

He has a heart, and gets his speeches by it."

The Giaour "admiration for his genius, respect for his character, and gratitude for his friendship."

Quarterly Review The Corsair Lara "the highly refined, but somewhat insipid, pastoral tale of Jacqueline."

"The man's a fool. Jacqueline is as superior to Lara as Rogers is to me"

Table-Talk of Samuel Rogers note "The Pleasures of Memory," he said (Lady Blessington's Conversations, p. 153), "is a very beautiful poem, harmonious, finished, and chaste; it contains not a single meretricious ornament. If Rogers has not fixed himself in the higher fields of Parnassus, he has, at least, cultivated a very pretty flower-garden at its base."

"a hortus siccus of pretty flowers," and an illustration of "the difference between inspiration and versification."

Question and Answer Italy "He is now at rest;

And praise and blame fall on his ear alike,

Now dull in death. Yes, Byron, thou art gone,

Gone like a star that through the firmament

Shot and was lost, in its eccentric course

Dazzling, perplexing. Yet thy heart, methinks,

Was generous, noble—noble in its scorn

Of all things low or little; nothing there

Sordid or servile. If imagined wrongs

Pursued thee, urging thee sometimes to do

Things long regretted, oft, as many know,

None more than I, thy gratitude would build

On slight foundations; and, if in thy life

Not happy, in thy death thou surely wert,

Thy wish accomplished; dying in the land

Where thy young mind had caught ethereal fire,

Dying in Greece, and in a cause so glorious!

They in thy train—ah, little did they think,

As round we went, that they so soon should sit

Mourning beside thee, while a Nation mourned,

Changing her festal for her funeral song;

That they so soon should hear the minute-gun,

As morning gleamed on what remained of thee,

Roll o'er the sea, the mountains, numbering

Thy years of joy and sorrow.

Thou art gone;

And he who would assail thee in thy grave,

Oh, let him pause! For who among us all,

Tried as thou wert—even from thy earliest years,

When wandering, yet unspoilt, a Highland boy—

Tried as thou wert, and with thy soul of flame;

Pleasure, while yet the down was on thy cheek,

Uplifting, pressing, and to lips like thine,

Her charmed cup—ah, who among us all

Could say he had not erred as much, and more?"

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cross-reference: return to Footnote 2 of Letter 202

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208 — Фрэнсису Ходжсону

have 1 immediately Since 2 Travels epic

enim unquam

his

Footnote 1: "I enclose you the long-delayed letter, which, from the similarity of hands alone, Davies and I will go shares in a bet of ten to one is the cartel in question."

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Footnote 2:

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209 — Фрэнсису Ходжсону

My Dear Hodgson have 1 2 have Curse of Minerva "Yet Caledonia claims some native worth," etc.3

"Flog high, flog low"

"The de'il burn ye, there's no pleasing you, flog where one will."

have 4

Footnote 1: Letters note

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Footnote 2: Letters note Charlemagne

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Footnote 3:

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Footnote 4: An Apology for Christianity, in a Series of Letters to Edward Gibbon, Esq. Apology

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210 — Уильяму Харнессу

"Dulces reminiscitur Argos"

were

should X plus Y Curse of Kehama 2 are ad infinitum "What news, what news? Queen Orraca,

What news of scribblers five?

S——, W——, C——, L——d, and L——e?

All damn'd, though yet alive."

Coleridge 3 "Many an old fool," said Hannibal to some such lecturer, "but such as this, never."4

Footnote 1: Letters note

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Footnote 2: Curse of Kehama Roderick, the Last of the Goths Joan of Arc Thalaba Madoc letter Journal Fall of Robespierre Conciones ad Populum Thomas Pools and his Friends Wat Tyler Blackwood's Magazine Wat Tyler Vision of Judgment London Courier Vision of Judgment Life of Nelson The Three Bears Works "What news, O King Affonso,

What news of the Friars five?

Have they preached to the Miramamolin;

And are they still alive?"

New Morality "Coleridge and Southey, Lloyd and Lamb and Co.,

Tune all your mystic harps to praise Lepaux."

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Footnote 3: Lectures on Shakespear Times Morning Chronicle Dublin Chronicle Diary Lectures and Notes on Shakspere and other English Poets

"neither Southey, Scott, nor Campbell would by their poetry survive much beyond the day when they lived and wrote. Their works seemed to him not to have the seeds of vitality, the real germs of long life. The two first were entertaining as tellers of stories in verse; but the last, in his Pleasures of Hope, obviously had no fixed design, but when a thought (of course, not a very original one) came into his head, he put it down in couplets, and afterwards strung the disjecta membra (not poetæ) together. Some of the best things in it were borrowed; for instance the line:

'And freedom shriek'd when Kosciusko fell,'

was taken from a much-ridiculed piece by Dennis, a pindaric on William III.:

'Fair Liberty shriek'd out aloud, aloud Religion groaned.'

It is the same production in which the following much-laughed-at specimen of bathos is found:

'Nor Alps nor Pyreneans keep him out,

Nor fortified redoubt.'

Coleridge had little toleration for Campbell, and considered him, as far as he had gone, a mere verse-maker "

Lectures on Shakspere

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cross-reference: return to Footnote 1 of Letter 212

Footnote 4: homo copiosus "I have seen many old fools often, but such an old fool as Phormio, never

(Multos se deliros senes sæpe vidisse; sed qui magis, quam Phormio, deliraret, vidisse neminem)"

De Oratore

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211 — Джеймсу Уэддерберну Вебстеру

caprice Bachelors devoirs Memory

papers What 1

Footnote 1: The Review, or Wags of Windsor "I'm parish clerk and sexton here,

My name is Caleb Quotem,

I'm painter, glazier, auctioneer,

In short, I am factotum."

...

"At night by the fire, like a good, jolly cock,

When my day's work is done and all over,

I tipple, I smoke, and I wind up the clock,

With my sweet Mrs. Quotem in clover.

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212 — Уильяму Харнессу

at your request

Coleridge 1

2 marry does

never 3 Figaro

Reading, I trust and 4 Besides 5

Mio Carissimo politesse

nothing 6

bookseller 7 wants Cecilia 8

Footnote 1: note 1 Task "As dreadful as the Manichean God,

Adored through fear, strong only to destroy."

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Footnote 2: "Long may Long-Tilney-Wellesley-Long-Pole live."

The Waltz Poems

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Footnote 3: Mémoires Beaumarchais and his Times

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Footnote 4:

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Footnote 5: Philosophical Sketches on the Principles of Society and Government A Review of the Governments of Sparta and Athens The Satires of Persius Byblis, a Tragedy Academical Questions Herculanensia Œdipus Judaicus Odin Origines, or Remarks on the Origin of several Empires, States, and Cities Sexagenarian Œdipus Judaicus Byblis Philosophical Sketches Academical Questions "When you go to Naples," said Byron to Lady Blessington (Conversations, pp. 238, 239), "you must make acquaintance with Sir William Drummond, for he is certainly one of the most erudite men and admirable philosophers now living. He has all the wit of Voltaire, with a profundity that seldom appertains to wit, and writes so forcibly, and with such elegance and purity of style, that his works possess a peculiar charm. Have you read his Academical Questions? If not, get them directly, and I think you will agree with me, that the preface to that work alone would prove Sir William Drummond an admirable writer. He concludes it by the following sentence, which I think one of the best in our language:

'Prejudice may be trusted to guard the outworks for a short space of time, while Reason slumbers in the citadel; but if the latter sink into a lethargy, the former will quickly erect a standard for herself. Philosophy, wisdom, and liberty support each other; he who will not reason is a bigot; he who cannot is a fool; and he who dares not is a slave.'

Is not the passage admirable? How few could have written it! and yet how few read Drummond's works! They are too good to be popular. His Odin is really a fine poem, and has some passages that are beautiful, but it is so little read that it may be said to have dropped still-born from the press—a mortifying proof of the bad taste of the age. His translation of Persius is not only very literal, but preserves much of the spirit of the original;... he has escaped all the defects of translators, and his Persius resembles the original as nearly, in feeling and sentiment, as two languages so dissimilar in idiom will admit."

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Footnote 6: Diary of an Invalid

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Footnote 7: The Wanderer, or Female Difficulties Evelina Cecilia Camilla "I am indescribably occupied," she writes to Dr. Burney, October 12, 1813, "in giving more and more last touches to my work, about which I begin to grow very anxious. I am to receive merely £500 upon delivery of the MS.; the two following £500 by instalments from nine months to nine months, that is, in a year and a half from the day of publication. If all goes well, the whole will be £3000, but only at the end of the sale of eight thousand copies."

The Wanderer "Come now, do send me a kind letter and tell me if Madame d'Arblaye gets £3000 for her book or no, and if Lord Byron is to be called over about some verses he has written, as the papers hint."

Autobiography, Letters, and Literary Remains

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Footnote 8: Cecilia

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213 — Фрэнсису Ходжсону

Tale of Three Friars "Away, away, ye notes of woe," etc., etc1.

have Œdipus Judaicus 2

Coleridge Pleasures of Hope rowed 3 For "an a man will be beaten with brains, he shall never keep a clean doublet."4

5 be he

do 6 Yesterday 7

The 8

Footnote 1: Thyrza

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Footnote 2: Conversations with Lord Byron "Ward is one of the best-informed men I know, and, in a tête-à-tête, is one of the most agreeable companions. He has great originality, and, being très distrait, it adds to the piquancy of his observations, which are sometimes somewhat trop naïve, though always amusing. This naïveté of his is the more piquant from his being really a good-natured man, who unconsciously thinks aloud. Interest Ward on a subject, and I know no one who can talk better. His expressions are concise without being poor, and terse and epigrammatic without being affected," etc.

Letters of Harriet, Countess Granville "The charm of Mr. Ward's conversation is exactly what Mr. Luttrell wants, a sort of abandon, and being entertaining because it is his nature and he cannot help it. I only mean Mr. Ward in his happier hour, for what I have said of him is the very reverse of what he is when vanity or humour seize upon him."

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Footnote 3: Diary "In the evening at Coleridge's lecture. Conclusion of Milton. Not one of the happiest of Coleridge's efforts. Rogers was there, and with him was Lord Byron. He was wrapped up, but I recognized his club foot, and, indeed, his countenance and general appearance."

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Footnote 4:

Benedict No; if a man will be beaten with brains, he shall wear nothing handsome about him.

Much Ado about Nothing

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Footnote 5: New Monthly Magazine

Journal ibid "Nobody but Campbell the poet, Rocca, and her own daughter. After dinner, Campbell read to us a discourse of his upon English poetry, and upon some of the great poets. There are always signs of a poet and critic of genius in all he does, often encumbered by too ornate a style."

The Pleasures of Hope Gertrude of Wyoming Hohenlinden Ye Mariners of England, The Battle of the Baltic, O'Connor's Child. Ritter Bann, The Last Man New Monthly Magazine Specimens of the British Poets Theodoric Pilgrim of Glencoe

"There are some of Campbell's lyrics," said Rogers (Table-Talk, etc., pp. 254, 255), which will never die. His Pleasures of Hope is no great favourite with me. The feeling throughout his Gertrude is very beautiful."

Pleasures of Hope

"strangely over-rated; its fine words and sounding lines please the generality of readers, who never stop to ask themselves the meaning of a passage."

"'Lochiel' and 'Mariners' are spirit-stirring productions; his Gertrude of Wyoming is beautiful; and some of the episodes in his Pleasures of Hope pleased me so much that I know them by heart"

Conversations with Lord Byron

Life "He is a short, small man, and has one of the roundest and most lively faces I have seen amongst this grave people. His manners seemed as open as his countenance, and his conversation as spirited as his poetry. He could have kept me amused till morning."

"Campbell had the same good spirits and love of merriment as when I met him before,—the same desire to amuse everybody about him; but still I could see, as I partly saw then, that he labours under the burden of an extraordinary reputation, too easily acquired, and feels too constantly that it is necessary for him to make an exertion to satisfy expectation. The consequence is that, though he is always amusing, he is not always quite natural."

Hohenlinden Hohenlinden "But, do you know, that's devilish fine! Why, it's the finest thing you ever wrote, and it must be printed!"

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Footnote 6: note 1.

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Footnote 7: The Merchant of Bruges, or Beggar's Bush

Hebrew Melodies Monody on the Death of Sheridan Conversations "My friend Dug is a proof that a good heart cannot compensate for an irritable temper; whenever he is named, people dwell on the last and pass over the first; and yet he really has an excellent heart, and a sound head, of which I, in common with many others of his friends, have had various proofs. He is clever, too, and well informed, and I do think would have made a figure in the world, were it not for his temper, which gives a dictatorial tone to his manner, that is offensive to the amour propre of those with whom he mixes."

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Footnote 8: Sexagenarian Detached Thoughts "I was a member of the Alfred. It was pleasant; a little too sober and literary, and bored with Sotheby and Sir Francis d'Ivernois; but one met Peel, and Ward, and Valentia, and many other pleasant or known people; and it was, upon the whole, a decent resource in a rainy day, in a dearth of parties, or parliament, or in an empty season."

London Past and Present Half-read

Detached Thoughts "The Alfred, like all other clubs, was much haunted with boars, a tusky monster which delights to range where men most do congregate. A boar, or bore, is always remarkable for something respectable, such as wealth, character, high birth, acknowledged talent, or, in short, for something that forbids people to turn him out by the shoulders, or, in other words, to cut him dead. Much of this respectability is supplied by the mere circumstance of belonging to a certain society of clubists, within whose districts the bore obtains free-warren, and may wallow or grunt at pleasure. Old stagers in the club know and avoid the fated corner and arm-chair which he haunts; but he often rushes from his lair on the inexperienced."

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214 — Томасу Муру

sine die me

Balnea, vina, Venus 1

my nil recitabo tibi 2

Byron

Footnote 1: "Balnea, vina, Venus corrumpunt corpora nostra."

Corpus Inscriptionum

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Footnote 2: Ad Julium Cerealem "Plus ego polliceor: nil recitabo tibi."

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215 — Фрэнсису Ходжсону

My 1

you

Footnote 1: Sir Edgar, a Tale

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216 — Р. К. Далласу

Undated 1

Dear Sir politics

Footnote 1:

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217 — Уильяму Харнессу

his

Yesterday 1 Last Coriolanus 2 was glorious 3

and 4 Mr 5 damned

my love

like like friendship love

Footnote 1: Life "On this occasion, another of the noble poet's peculiarities was, somewhat startlingly, introduced to my notice. When we were on the point of setting out from his lodgings in St. James's Street, it being then about midday, he said to the servant, who was shutting the door of the vis-a-vis, 'Have you put in the pistols?' and was answered in the affirmative. It was difficult,—more especially taking into account the circumstances under which we had just become acquainted,— to keep from smiling at this singular noonday precaution."

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Footnote 2:

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Footnote 3: Letters note

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Footnote 4: Letters

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Footnote 5: English Stage "Many gentlemen have been weak enough to fancy themselves actors, but no one ever persevered in obtruding himself for so long a time on the notice of the public in spite of laughter, hissing, etc."

Fair Penitent At Home "pink silk vest and cloak, white satin breeches and stockings, Spanish hat, with a rich high plume of ostrich feathers,"

Memoirs of Charles Mathews

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218 — Роберту Раштону

letters Spero insulted you you women own interest never

Byron

land write one letter every week

Footnote 1: Letters "Pray don't forget me, as I shall never cease thinking of you, my Dearest and only Friend, (signed) S. H. V."

"This was written on the 11th of January, 1812; on the 28th I received ample proof that the Girl had forgotten me and herself too. Heigho! B."

Life "how gravely and coolly the young lord could arbitrate on such an occasion, and with what considerate leaning towards the servant whose fidelity he had proved, in preference to any new liking or fancy by which it might be suspected he was actuated toward the other."

née note

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219 — Роберту Раштону

she

before you she you consult against

Byron

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220 — Томасу Муру

do 1 print

this moment your think Knight of Snowdon 2

Byron

Footnote 1: Hours of Idleness English Bards, etc. Letters Conversations "Having compared Rogers's poems to a flower-garden, to what shall I compare Moore's?—to the Valley of Diamonds, where all is brilliant and attractive, but where one is so dazzled by the sparkling on every side that one knows not where to fix, each gem beautiful in itself, but overpowering to the eye from their quantity."

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Footnote 2: The Knight of Snowdoun The Lady of the Lake "Oh, woman! woman! deceitful, damnable, (changing into a half-smile) delightful woman! do all one can, there's nothing else worth thinking of."

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221 — Фрэнсису Ходжсону

My Dear Hodgson paired off our not

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222 — Сэмюэлю Роджерсу

My Dear Sir With 1

From conciliatory 2

Footnote 1: Letters note

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Footnote 2:

сделал преступление разрушения станков наказуемым смертной казнью; и

обязал лиц, в чьих домах были сломаны станки, доносить об этом мировым судьям

Appendix II. (1) 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 obed't Serv't,

Byron.

8, St. James Street, Sunday,

March 1st, 1812."

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223 — Джону Коуэллу

My Dear John yourself

Etonian Harrow which one innings 2

Footnote 1: "Breakfasted with Mr. Cowell," writes Moore, in his Diary, June 11, 1828, "having made his acquaintance for the purpose of gaining information about Lord Byron. Knew Byron for the first time when he himself was a little boy, from being in the habit of playing with B.'s dogs. Byron wrote to him to school to bid him mind his prosody. Gave me two or three of his letters to him. Saw a good deal of B. at Hastings; mentioned the anecdote about the ink-bottle striking one of the lead Muses. These Muses had been brought from Holland; and there were, I think, only eight of them arrived safe. Fletcher had brought B. a large jar of ink, and, not thinking it was full, B. had thrust his pen down to the very bottom; his anger at finding it come out all besmeared with ink made him chuck the jar out of the window, when it knocked down one of the Muses in the garden, and deluged her with ink. In 1813, when B. was at Salt Hill, he had Cowell over from Eton, and pouched him no less than ten pounds. Cowell has ever since kept one of the notes. Told me a curious anecdote of Byron's mentioning to him, as if it had made a great impression on him, their seeing Shelley (as they thought) walking into a little wood at Lerici, when it was discovered afterwards that Shelley was at that time in quite another direction. 'This,' said Byron, in a sort of awe-struck voice, 'was about ten days before his death.' Cowell's imitation of his look and manner very striking. Thinks that in Byron's speech to Fletcher, when he was dying, threatening to appear to him, there was a touch of that humour and fun which he was accustomed to mix up with everything".

Memoirs, Journals, etc

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Footnote 2: Letters note

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224 — Фрэнсису Ходжсону

that propria quæ maribus

if 1

Footnote 1: Essays "Mahomet made the people believe that he would call a hill to him, and from the top of it offer up his prayers for the observers of his law. The people assembled; Mahomet called the hill to come to him, again and again; and when the hill stood still, he was never a whit abashed, but said, 'If the hill will not come to Mahomet, Mahomet will go to the hill.'"

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225 — Фрэнсису Ходжсону

There Galt, his Travels in ye Archipelago 1

Now 2 you

Footnote 1: Voyages and Travels in the Years 1809, 1810, and 1811 Letters note ibid. note "praised the Annals of the Parish very highly, as also The Entail,... some scenes of which, he said, had affected him very much.

'The characters in Mr. Galt's novels have an identity,' added Byron, 'that reminds me of Wilkie's pictures'"

Conversations with Lord Byron "When I knew Galt, years ago," said Byron to Lady Blessington, I was not in a frame of mind to form an impartial opinion of him: his mildness and equanimity struck me even then; but, to say the truth, his manner had not deference enough for my then aristocratical taste, and finding I could not awe him into a respect sufficiently profound for my sublime self, either as a peer or an author, I felt a little grudge towards him that has now completely worn off," etc., etc.

ibid.

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cross-reference: return to Footnote 1 of Letter 374

Footnote 2: Monthly Review Review Monthly Review "I have already read a review of Safie in the British Critic, and will undertake it in the Monthly if Griffiths, with whom I am in very bad odour from my late shameful idleness, will allow me. Oh that you would write a good smart critique of something to get both yourself and me in high repute at Turnham Green!!!!"

Detached Thoughts "I have been a reviewer. In the Monthly Review I wrote some articles which were inserted. This was in the latter part of 1811. In 1807, in a Magazine called Monthly Literary Recreations, I reviewed Wordsworth's trash of that time.

Excepting these, I cannot accuse myself of anonymous Criticism (that I recollect), though I have been offered more than one review in our principal Journals."

Monthly Review Review Appendix I

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226 — лорду Холланду

My Lord his original advisers

Byron

frame-breaker myself

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227 — Фрэнсису Ходжсону

My Dear Hodgson We Morning Post eighteen years have 1 ministerial ministerial! He lord Lord Burke's!! could 2

hire 3 all

Footnote 1: Appendix II. (1) "There never was a maxim of greater wisdom than that uttered by the noble lord [Byron] who had so ably addressed their lordships that night for the first time"

Hansard Detached Thoughts "Sheridan's liking for me (whether he was not mystifying me I do not know, but Lady Caroline Lamb and others told me that he said the same both before and after he knew me) was founded upon English Bards, and Scotch Reviewers. He told me that he did not care about poetry (or about mine—at least, any but that poem of mine), but he was sure, from that and other symptoms, I should make an orator, if I would but take to speaking, and grow a parliament man. He never ceased harping upon this to me to the last; and I remember my old tutor, Dr. Drury, had the same notion when I was a boy; but it never was my turn of inclination to try. I spoke once or twice, as all young peers do, as a kind of introduction into public life; but dissipation, shyness, haughty and reserved opinions, together with the short time I lived in England after my majority (only about five years in all), prevented me from resuming the experiment. As far as it went, it was not discouraging, particularly my first speech (I spoke three or four times in all); but just after it, my poem of Childe Harold was published, and nobody ever thought about my prose afterwards, nor indeed did I; it became to me a secondary and neglected object, though I sometimes wonder to myself if I should have succeeded."

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Footnote 2: "Dear Sir,—In the report of my speech (which by the bye is given very incorrectly) in the M[orning] Herald, Day, and B[ritish] Press, they state that I mentioned Bristol, a place I never saw in my life and knew nothing of whatever, nor mentioned at all last night. Will you be good enough to send to these papers immediately, and have the mistake corrected, or I shall get into a scrape with the Bristol people?

"I am, yours very truly,

"B."

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Footnote 3: Childe Harold

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228 — лорду Холланду

My Lord May 1

You 2 "Forgiveness to the injured doth belong,"

laugh sleep and 3

eau medicinale

Byron

Footnote 1: Childe Harold Childe Harold "To Augusta, my dearest sister, and my best friend, who has ever loved me much better than I deserved, this volume is presented by her father's son, and most affectionate brother, B."

"I awoke one morning and found myself famous."

"The subject," says Elizabeth, Duchess of Devonshire (Two Duchesses, pp. 375, 376), "of conversation, of curiosity, of enthusiasm almost, one might say, of the moment is not Spain or Portugal, Warriors or Patriots, but Lord Byron!" "He returned," she continues, "sorry for the severity of some of his lines (in the English Bards), and with a new poem, Childe Harold, which he published. This poem is on every table, and himself courted, visited, flattered, and praised whenever he appears. He has a pale, sickly, but handsome countenance, a bad figure, and, in short, he is really the only topic almost of every conversation—the men jealous of him, the women of each other."

"Lord Byron," writes Lady Harriet Leveson Gower to the Duke of Devonshire, May 10, 1812 (Letters of Harriet, Countess Granville, vol. i. p. 34), "is still upon a pedestal, and Caroline William doing homage. I have made acquaintance with him. He is agreeable, but I feel no wish for any further intimacy. His countenance is fine when it is in repose; but the moment it is in play, suspicious, malignant, and consequently repulsive. His manner is either remarkably gracious and conciliatory, with a tinge of affectation, or irritable and impetuous, and then, I am afraid, perfectly natural."

Recollections of the Table-Talk of Samuel Rogers "After Byron had become the rage, I was frequently amused at the manoeuvres of certain noble ladies to get acquainted with him by means of me; for instance, I would receive a note from Lady ——, requesting the pleasure of my company on a particular evening, with a postscript, 'Pray, could you not contrive to bring Lord Byron with you?' Once, at a great party given by Lady Jersey, Mrs. Sheridan ran up to me and said, 'Do, as a favour, try if you can place Lord Byron beside me at supper!'"

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Footnote 2: "Forgiveness to the injured does belong,

But they ne'er pardon, who have done the wrong."

Conquest of Grenada

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Footnote 3: The Way to Keep Him "A wife's a drug now; mere tar-water, with every virtue under heaven, but nobody takes it."

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Глава VI — Кумир общества — Адрес к открытию театра Друри-Лейн — Вторая речь в парламенте

March, 1812-May, 1813

229 — Томасу Муру

With 1 were ignorant billiards dice

publickly

Footnote 1: English Bards, etc. "Or hail at once the patron and the pile

Of vice and folly, Greville and Argyle," etc.

Detached Thoughts "I have been called in as mediator, or second, at least twenty times, in violent quarrels, and have always contrived to settle the business without compromising the honour of the parties, or leading them to mortal consequences, and this, too, sometimes in very difficult and delicate circumstances, and having to deal with very hot and haughty spirits,—Irishmen, gamesters, guardsmen, captains, and cornets of horse, and the like. This was, of course, in my youth, when I lived in hot-headed company. I have had to carry challenges from gentlemen to noblemen, from captains to captains, from lawyers to counsellors, and once from a clergyman to an officer in the Life Guards; but I found the latter by far the most difficult:

'to compose

The bloody duel without blows,'

the business being about a woman: I must add, too, that I never saw a woman behave so ill, like a cold-blooded, heartless b——as she was,—but very handsome for all that. A certain Susan C——was she called. I never saw her but once; and that was to induce her but to say two words (which in no degree compromised herself), and which would have had the effect of saving a priest or a lieutenant of cavalry. She would not say them, and neither Nepean nor myself (the son of Sir Evan Nepean, and a friend to one of the parties) could prevail upon her to say them, though both of us used to deal in some sort with womankind. At last I managed to quiet the combatants without her talisman, and, I believe, to her great disappointment: she was the damnedest b—— that I ever saw, and I have seen a great many. Though my clergyman was sure to lose either his life or his living, he was as warlike as the Bishop of Beauvais, and would hardly be pacified; but then he was in love, and that is a martial passion."

Letters note "When in London," writes Gronow (Reminiscences, vol. i. p. 152), "Byron used to go to Manton's shooting-gallery, in Davies Street, to try his hand, as he said, at a wafer. Wedderburn Webster was present when the poet, intensely delighted with his own skill, boasted to Joe Manton that he considered himself the best shot in London. 'No, my lord,' replied Manton, 'not the best; but your shooting to-day was respectable.' Whereupon Byron waxed wroth, and left the shop in a violent passion."

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230 — Уильяму Бэнксу

acute an observer explain this

shall 1

Footnote 1: le plus grand seigneur née

"the veriest tyrant," said Byron, "that ever governed Fashion's fools, and compelled them to shake their caps and bells as she willed it."

Reminiscences Almack's "To that most Distinguished and Despotic Conclave, composed of their High Mightinesses the Ladies Patronesses of the Balls at Almack's, the Rulers of Fashion, the Arbiters of Taste, the Leaders of Ton, and the Makers of Manners, whose Sovereign sway over 'the world' of London has long been established on the firmest basis, whose Decrees are Laws, and from whose judgment there is no appeal."

"She knew more than any person I ever met with, and both everything and everybody; she could quiz and she could flatter."

"Treat people like fools," she is supposed to say, "and they will worship you; stoop to make up to them, and they will directly tread you underfoot."

Life "What o'clock is it?" Lady Jersey asked. "Seven minutes after eleven, your ladyship." She paused a moment, and then said, with emphasis and distinctness, Give my compliments,—give Lady Jersey's compliments to the Duke of Wellington, and say that she is very glad that the first enforcement of the rule of exclusion is such that hereafter no one can complain of its application. He cannot be admitted."

ibid

"public business was much talked about—the corporation bill, the motion for admitting Dissenters to the universities, etc., etc.; and as to the last, when the question arose whether it would be debated on Tuesday night, it was admitted to be doubtful whether Lady Jersey would not succeed in getting it postponed, as she has a grand dinner that evening."

Life

née "stopped for a moment, and then, drawing himself up, marched past her with a look of the utmost disdain. Lady Jersey returned the look to the full; and, as soon as the Prince was gone, said to me, with a smile, 'Didn't I do it well?'"

Table Talk of Samuel Rogers

Conversations with Lady Blessington ibid "Of all that coterie, Madame [de Stael], after Lady [Jersey], was the best; at least I thought so, for these two ladies were the only ones who ventured to protect me when all London was crying out against me on the separation, and they behaved courageously and kindly ... Poor dear Lady [Jersey]! Does she still retain her beautiful cream-coloured complexion and raven hair? I used to long to tell her that she spoiled her looks by her excessive animation; for eyes, tongue, head, and arms were all in movement at once, and were only relieved from their active service by want of respiration," etc., etc.

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cross-reference: return to Footnote 2 of Letter 256

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231 — Томасу Муру

Know 1

Footnote 1: Glenarvon

Essay on the Progressive Improvement of Mankind "His little eyes like William's shine;

How great is then my joy,

For, while I call this darling mine,

I see 'tis William's boy!"

L'Amour se cache sous le voile d'Amitié l'Innocence le recoit dans ses bras le Désespoir met fin à ses jours "Winged with Hope and hushed with Joy,

See yon wanton, blue-eyed Boy,—

Arch his smile, and keen his dart,—

Aim at Laura's youthful heart!

How could he his wiles disguise?

How deceive such watchful eyes?

How so pure a breast inspire,

Set so young a Mind on fire?

'Twas because to raise the flame

Love bethought of friendship's name.

Under this false guise he told her

That he lived but to behold her.

How could she his fault discover

When he often vowed to love her?

How could she her heart defend

When he took the name of friend?"

Life and Letters The Two Duchesses "I cannot fancy Lady Caroline married. I cannot be glad of it. How changed she must be—the delicate Ariel, the little Fairy Queen become a wife and soon perhaps a mother."

ibid "You may retract all your sorrow about Caro Ponsonby's marriage, for she is the same wild, delicate, odd, delightful person, unlike everything."

è felice adesso the letter numbered 1 in Appendix III

For letter note Appendix III

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232 — леди Кэролайн Лэм

sincere fool

general But 1 note page

lava marble slab

say feel must can

Footnote 1: Fletcher,—Will you come and see me here some evening at 9, and no one will know of it. You may say you bring a letter, and wait the answer. I will send for you in. But I will let you know first, for I wish to speak with you. I also want you to take the little Foreign Page I shall send in to see Lord Byron. Do not tell him before-hand, but, when he comes with flowers, shew him in. I shall not come myself, unless just before he goes away; so do not think it is me. Besides, you will see this is quite a child, only I wish him to see my Lord if you can contrive it, which, if you tell me what hour is most convenient, will be very easy. I go out of Town to-morrow for a day or two, and I am now quite well—at least much better."

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233 — Уильяму Бэнксу

My Dear Bankes profane

Byron

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234 — Томасу Муру

must 1 suppose 2 did 3

Footnote 1:

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Footnote 2:

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Footnote 3: Journal "I had a quarter of an hour's conversation, which, I own, gave me a great desire to know him better, and he seemed willing that I should do so."

"At the end of the evening I had half an hour's conversation with Lord Byron, principally on the subject of the Scotch Review, with which he is very much pleased. He is a singular man, and pleasant to me but I very much fear that his head begins to be turned by all the adoration of the world, especially the women"

Journal and Correspondence of Miss Berry

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235 — леди Кэролайн Лэм

My Dear Lady Caroline have 1 Though 2

Rogers sic

Footnote 1: Glenarvon "was the most primitive hamlet ever met with—a dozen or so of cottages, no trade, no manufacture, no business doing that we could see; the owners were mostly servants of Sir Ralph Milbanke's."

Memoirs of a Highland Lady Letters note note English Bards, etc note

Conversations with Lord Byron "There was something piquant and what we term pretty in Miss Milbanke. Her features were small and feminine, though not regular. She had the fairest skin imaginable. Her figure was perfect for her height; and there was a simplicity, a retired modesty, about her, which was very characteristic, and formed a happy contrast to the cold, artificial formality and studied stiffness which is called fashion."

Diary of Crabb Robinson

"Caro means to see la bella Annabelle before she writes to you ... I shall almost hate her if she is blind to the merits of one who would make her so happy"

The Two Duchesses "She persists in saying," writes the duchess, May 4, 1812 (ibid., p. 362), "that she never suspected your attachment to her; but she is so odd a girl that, though she has for some time rather liked another, she has decidedly refused them, because she thinks she ought to marry a person with a good fortune; and this is partly, I believe, from generosity to her parents, and partly owning that fortune is an object to herself for happiness. In short, she is good, amiable, and sensible, but cold, prudent, and reflecting. Lord Byron makes up to her a little; but she don't seem to admire him except as a poet, nor he her except for a wife."

"Your Annabella is a mystery; liking, not liking; generous-minded, yet afraid of poverty; there is no making her out. I hope you don't make yourself unhappy about her; she is really an icicle."

Journal

"I was the fashion when she first came out; I had the character of being a great rake, and was a great dandy—both of which young ladies like. She married me from vanity, and the hope of reforming and fixing me."

"seemed to think she must. He was such a loveable person. I remember him (said she) sitting there with that light upon him, looking so beautiful!'"

Journals, etc.

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Footnote 2: The Harp of Erin The Life of Thomas Dermody

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237 — Томасу Муру

Monday 1

en passant

bad

Footnote 1: Life "was accompanied on the occasion by his old schoolfellows, Mr. Bailey and Mr. John Madocks. They went together from some assembly, and, on their arriving at the spot, about three o'clock in the morning, not finding the house that was to receive them open, Mr. Madocks undertook to rouse the inmates, while Lord Byron and Mr. Bailey sauntered, arm in arm, up the street. During this interval, rather a painful scene occurred. Seeing an unfortunate woman lying on the steps of a door, Lord Byron, with some expression of compassion, offered her a few shillings; but, instead of accepting them, she violently pushed away his hand, and, starting up with a yell of laughter, began to mimic the lameness of his gait. He did not utter a word; but 'I could feel,' said Mr. Bailey, 'his arm trembling within mine, as we left her.' "

Detached Thoughts "Baillie (commonly called 'Long' Baillie, a very clever man, but odd) complained in riding, to our friend Scrope Davies, that he had a stitch in his side. 'I don't wonder at it,' said Scrope, 'for you ride like a tailor.' Whoever has seen B. on horseback, with his very tall figure on a small nag, would not deny the justice of the repartee."

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238 — Бернарду Бартону

Cato "You know what ills the author's life assail,

Toil, envy, want, the patron and the jail."2

it 3 I 4

Footnote 1: Poems and Letters Metrical Effusions Poems by an Amateur Poems 1 2 part Appendix IV

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Footnote 2: "There mark what ills the scholar's life assail,—

Toil, envy, want, the patron and the jail."

Vanity of Human Wishes

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Footnote 3:

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Footnote 4: Letters notes

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239 — лорду Холланду

My Dear Lord

The 1 2 have 3 4

Byron

Footnote 1: Memoir of John Murray Twopenny Post-bag "But, oh, the basest of defections!

His Letter about 'predilections'—

His own dear Letter, void of grace,

Now flew up in its parent's face! "

"I am proud to declare I have no predilections,

My heart is a sieve, where some scatter'd affections

Are just danc'd about for a moment or two,

And the finer they are, the more sure to run through."

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Footnote 2:

Granby chevalier d'honneur

vers de société virtù flaneur The Butterfly's Funeral Peacock at Home Butterfly's Ball "Oh ye! who so lately were blythsome and gay,

At the Butterfly's banquet carousing away;

Your feasts and your revels of pleasure are fled,

For the soul of the banquet, the Butterfly's dead!

...

And here shall the daisy and violet blow,

And the lily discover her bosom of snow;

While under the leaf, in the evenings of spring,

Still mourning his friend, shall the grasshopper sing."

Memoirs

Life of Beau Brummell "that one evening, when Brummell and Lord Moira were engaged in earnest conversation at Carlton House, the prince requested the former to ring the bell, and that he replied without reflection, 'Your Royal Highness is close to it,' upon which the prince rang the bell and ordered his friend's carriage, but that Lord Moira's intervention caused the unintentional liberty to be overlooked."

Twopenny Postbag "Neither have I resentments, or wish there should come ill

To mortal—except, now I think on it, Beau Brummell,

Who threatened last year, in a superfine passion,

To cut me, and bring the old king into fashion."

Journal of T. Raikes

"My Dear Scrope,—Lend me two hundred pounds; the banks are shut, and all my money is in the three per cents. It shall be repaid to-morrow morning.

Yours,

George Brummell.

"Scrope Davies is a wit, and a man of the world, and feels as much as such a character can do."

"My Dear George,—'Tis very unfortunate, but all my money is in the three per cents.

Yours,

S. Davies.

"obliged," says Byron (Detached Thoughts), "by that affair of poor Meyler, who thence acquired the name of 'Dick the Dandykiller'—(it was about money and debt and all that)—to retire to France,"

Life Detached Thoughts "what progress Brummell had made in French, he responded 'that Brummell had been stopped, like Buonaparte in Russia, by the Elements.' I have put this pun into Beppo, which is 'a fair exchange and no robbery;' for Scrope made his fortune at several dinners (as he owned himself) by repeating occasionally as his own some of the buffooneries with which I had encountered him in the morning."

Bon Sauveur Du Dandysme et de Georges Brummell

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Footnote 3: Pursuits of Literature "With Spartan Pye lull England to repose,

Or frighten children with Lenora's woes;"

ibid "Why should I faint when all with patience hear,

And laureat Pye sings more than twice a year?"

"When the pie was opened," etc.

magnum opus Alfred

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Footnote 4: William and Margaret Rule, Britannia

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240 — профессору Кларку

have 2 them

Footnote 1: Letters "a little, square, pale, flat-faced, good-natured-looking, fussy man, with very intelligent eyes, yet great credulity of countenance, and still greater benevolence."

Travels in Various Countries of Europe, Asia, and Africa Childe Harold "Trumpington, Wednesday morning.

Dear Lord Byron,—From the eagerness which I felt to make known my opinions of your poem before others had expressed any upon the subject, I waited upon you to deliver my hasty, although hearty, commendation. If it be worthy your acceptance, take it once more, in a more deliberate form! Upon my arrival in town I found that Mathias entirely coincided with me. 'Surely,' said I to him, 'Lord Byron, at this time of life, cannot have experienced such keen anguish as those exquisite allusions to what older men may have felt seem to denote!' This was his answer: 'I fear he has—he could not else have written such a poem.' This morning I read the second canto with all the attention it so highly merits, in the peace and stillness of my study; and I am ready to confess I was never so much affected by any poem, passionately fond of poetry as I have been from my earliest youth....

"The eighth stanza, 'Yet if as holiest men,' etc., has never been surpassed. In the twenty-third, the sentiment is at variance with Dryden:

'Strange cozenage! none would live past years again.'

And it is perhaps an instance wherein, for the first time, I found not within my own breast an echo to your thought, for I would not 'be once more a boy;' but the generality of men will agree with you, and wish to tread life's path again.

In the twelfth stanza of the same canto, you might really add a very curious note to these lines:

'Her sons too weak the sacred shrine to guard,

Yet felt some portion of their mother's pains,'

by stating this fact: When the last of the Metopes was taken from the Parthenon, and, in moving it, a great part of the superstructure with one of the triglyphs, was thrown down by the work men whom Lord Elgin employed, the Disdar, who beheld the mischief done to the building, took his pipe out of his mouth, dropped a tear, and, in a supplicating tone of voice, said to Lusieri— I was present at the time.

Once more I thank you for the gratification you have afforded me.

Believe me, ever yours most truly,

E. D. Clarke."

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Footnote 2: Travels ibid

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241 — Вальтеру Скотту

Sir voluntarily Lay Princes they Marmion Lady of the Lake that 2 and manners gentleman 3

Byron

Footnote 1: English Bards, etc Childe Harold Memoir of John Murray "But the Prince's great delight," says Murray, "was Walter Scott, whose name and writings he dwelt upon and recurred to incessantly. He preferred him far beyond any other poet of the time, repeated several passages with fervour, and criticized them faithfully.... Lord Byron called upon me, merely to let off the raptures of the Prince respecting you, thinking, as he said, that if I were likely to have occasion to write to you, it might not be ungrateful for you to hear of his praises."

"Edinburgh, July 3d, 1812.

"My Lord,—I am uncertain if I ought to profit by the apology which is afforded me, by a very obliging communication from our acquaintance, John Murray, of Fleet Street, to give your Lordship the present trouble. But my intrusion concerns a large debt of gratitude due to your Lordship, and a much less important one of explanation, which I think I owe to myself, as I dislike standing low in the opinion of any person whose talents rank so highly in my own, as your Lordship's most deservedly do.

"The first count, as our technical language expresses it, relates to the high pleasure I have received from the Pilgrimage of Childe Harold, and from its precursors; the former, with all its classical associations, some of which are lost on so poor a scholar as I am, possesses the additional charm of vivid and animated description, mingled with original sentiment; but besides this debt, which I owe your Lordship in common with the rest of the reading public, I have to acknowledge my particular thanks for your having distinguished by praise, in the work which your Lordship rather dedicated in general to satire, some of my own literary attempts. And this leads me to put your Lordship right in the circumstances respecting the sale of Marmion, which had reached you in a distorted and misrepresented form, and which, perhaps, I have some reason to complain, were given to the public without more particular inquiry. The poem, my Lord, was not written upon contract for a sum of money—though it is too true that it was sold and published in a very unfinished state (which I have since regretted), to enable me to extricate myself from some engagements which fell suddenly upon me by the unexpected misfortunes of a very near relation. So that, to quote statute and precedent, I really come under the case cited by Juvenal, though not quite in the extremity of the classic author:

'Esurit, intactam Paridi nisi vendit Agaven.'

And so much for a mistake, into which your Lordship might easily fall, especially as I generally find it the easiest way of stopping sentimental compliments on the beauty, etc., of certain poetry, and the delights which the author must have taken in the composition, by assigning the readiest reason that will cut the discourse short, upon a subject where one must appear either conceited or affectedly rude and cynical.

"As for my attachment to literature, I sacrificed for the pleasure of pursuing it very fair chances of opulence and professional honours, at a time of life when I fully knew their value; and I am not ashamed to say, that in deriving advantages in compensation from the partial favour of the public, I have added some comforts and elegancies to a bare independence. I am sure your Lordship's good sense will easily put this unimportant egotism to the right account, for—though I do not know the motive would make me enter into controversy with a fair or an unfair literary critic—I may be well excused for a wish to clear my personal character from any tinge of mercenary or sordid feeling in the eyes of a contemporary of genius. Your Lordship will likewise permit me to add that you would have escaped the trouble of this explanation, had I not understood that the satire alluded to had been suppressed, not to be reprinted. For in removing a prejudice on your Lordship's own mind, I had no intention of making any appeal by or through you to the public, since my own habits of life have rendered my defence as to avarice or rapacity rather too easy.

"Leaving this foolish matter where it lies, I have to request your Lordship's acceptance of my best thanks for the flattering communication which you took the trouble to make Mr. Murray on my behalf, and which could not fail to give me the gratification which I am sure you intended. I dare say our worthy bibliopolist overcoloured his report of your Lordship's conversation with the Prince Regent, but I owe my thanks to him nevertheless, for the excuse he has given me for intruding these pages on your Lordship. Wishing you health, spirit, and perseverance, to continue your pilgrimage through the interesting countries which you have still to pass with Childe Harold, I have the honour to be, my Lord,

"Your Lordship's obedient servant,

"Walter Scott.

"P.S.—Will your Lordship permit me a verbal criticism on Childe Harold, were it only to show I have read his Pilgrimage with attention? Nuestra Dama de la Pena means, I suspect, not our Lady of Crime or Punishment, but our Lady of the Cliff; the difference is, I believe, merely in the accentuation of peña."

Appendix V

"At the time when Scott and Byron were the two lions of London, Hookham Frere observed, 'Great poets formerly (Homer and Milton) were blind; now they are lame'"

Table-Talk of Samuel Rogers

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Footnote 2:

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Footnote 3: Morning Chronicle Address The Corsair Don Juan "There, too, he saw (whate'er he may be now)

A Prince, the prince of princes at the time,

With fascination in his very bow,

And full of promise, as the spring of prime.

Though royalty was written on his brow,

He had then the grace, too, rare in every clime,

Of being, without alloy of fop or beau,

A finish'd gentleman from top to toe."

Recollections

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cross-reference: return to Footnote 1 of Journal entry for February 18th, 1814

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242 — леди Кэролайн Лэм

My Dearest Caroline 1 whole nervous that moment madness now cold stern artful others mother

Byron

now then more you you yourself (sic) might may

Footnote 1: "Your little friend, Caro William," writes the Duchess of Devonshire, May 4, 1812, "as usual, is doing all sorts of imprudent things for him and with him."

"The ladies, I hear, spoil him, and the gentlemen are jealous of him. He is going back to Naxos, and then the husbands may sleep in peace. I should not be surprised if Caro William were to go with him, she is so wild and imprudent"

Two Duchesses Appendix III, 2

Glenarvon "Mortanville Priory, November the 9th.

"Lady Avondale,—I am no longer your lover; and since you oblige me to confess it, by this truly unfeminine persecution, ... learn, that I am attached to another; whose name it would, of course, be dishonourable to mention. I shall ever remember with gratitude the many instances I have received of the predilection you have shown in my favour. I shall ever continue your friend, if your ladyship will permit me so to style myself; and, as a first proof of my regard, I offer you this advice, correct your vanity, which is ridiculous; exert your absurd caprices upon others; and leave me in peace.

"Your most obedient servant,

"Glenarvon."

Memoirs of Lord Melbourne

Glenarvon 4 5

Fugitive Pieces

Glenarvon Graham Hamilton Ada Reis; a Tale Glenarvon "I do not know," writes C. Lemon to Lady H. Frampton (Journal of Mary Frampton, pp. 286, 287), "all the characters in Glenarvon, but I will tell you all I do know. I am not surprised at your being struck with a few detached passages; but before you have read one volume, I think you will doubt at which end of the book you began. There is no connection between any two ideas in the book, and it seems to me to have been written as the sages of Laputa composed their works. 'Glenarvon' is Lord Byron; 'Lady Augusta,' the late Duchess of Devonshire; 'Lady Mandeville'—I think it is Lady Mandeville, but the lady who dictated Glearvon's farewell letter to Calantha—is Lady Oxford. This letter she really dictated to Lord Byron to send to Lady Caroline Lamb, and is now very much offended that she has treated the matter so lightly as to introduce it into her book. The best character in it is the 'Princess of Madagascar' (Lady Holland), with all her Reviewers about her. The young Duke of Devonshire is in the book, but I forget under what name. I need not say that the heroine is Lady Caroline's own self."

Appendix III., 6