"Beddoes (bless the good doctor) has
Sent me a bag full of his gas,
Which snuff'd the nose up, makes wit brighter,
And eke a dunce an airy writer."]
[Footnote 20: Stott, better known in the 'Morning Post' by the name of
Hafiz. This personage is at present the most profound explorer of the
bathos. I remember, when the reigning family left Portugal, a special
Ode of Master Stott's, beginning thus:--('Stott loquitur quoad
Hibernia')--
"Princely offspring of Braganza,
Erin greets thee with a stanza," etc.
Also a Sonnet to Rats, well worthy of the subject, and a most thundering
Ode, commencing as follows:--
"Oh! for a Lay! loud as the surge
That lashes Lapland's sounding shore."
Lord have mercy on us! the "Lay of the Last Minstrel" was nothing to
this. [The lines "Princely Offspring," headed "Extemporaneous Verse on
the expulsion of the Prince Regent from Portugal by Gallic Tyranny,"
were published in the 'Morning Post', Dec. 30, 1807. (See 'post', l.
708, and 'note'.)] ]
[Footnote 21: See p. 317, note 1.]
[Footnote 22: See the "Lay of the Last Minstrel," 'passim'. Never was
any plan so incongruous and absurd as the groundwork of this production.
The entrance of Thunder and Lightning prologuising to Bayes' tragedy
[('vide The Rehearsal'), 'British Bards'], unfortunately takes away the
merit of originality from the dialogue between Messieurs the Spirits of
Flood and Fell in the first canto. Then we have the amiable William of
Deloraine, "a stark moss-trooper," videlicet, a happy compound of
poacher, sheep-stealer, and highwayman. The propriety of his magical
lady's injunction not to read can only be equalled by his candid
acknowledgment of his independence of the trammels of spelling,
although, to use his own elegant phrase, "'twas his neckverse at
Harribee," 'i. e.' the gallows.
The biography of Gilpin Horner, and the marvellous pedestrian page, who
travelled twice as fast as his master's horse, without the aid of
seven-leagued boots, are 'chefs d'oeuvre' in the improvement of taste.
For incident we have the invisible, but by no means sparing box on the
ear bestowed on the page, and the entrance of a Knight and Charger into
the castle, under the very natural disguise of a wain of hay. Marmion,
the hero of the latter romance, is exactly what William of Deloraine
would have been, had he been able to read and write. The poem was
manufactured for Messrs. CONSTABLE, MURRAY, and MILLER, worshipful
Booksellers, in consideration of the receipt of a sum of money; and
truly, considering the inspiration, it is a very creditable production.
If Mr. SCOTT will write for hire, let him do his best for his
paymasters, but not disgrace his genius, which is undoubtedly great, by
a repetition of Black-Letter Ballad imitations.
[Constable paid Scott a thousand pounds for 'Marmion', and
"offered one fourth of the copyright to Mr. Miller of Albemarle
Street, and one fourth to Mr. Murray of Fleet Street (see line 173).
Both publishers eagerly accepted the proposal."
...
"A severe and unjust review of 'Marmion' by Jeffrey appeared in [the
'Edinburgh Review' for April] 1808, accusing Scott of a mercenary
spirit in writing for money. ... Scott was much nettled by these
observations."
('Memoirs of John Murray', i. 76, 95). In his diary of 1813 Byron wrote
of Scott,
"He is undoubtedly the Monarch of Parnassus, and the most 'English' of
Bards."
'Life', p. 206.]]
[Footnote 23: It was the suggestion of the Countess of Dalkeith, that
Scott should write a ballad on the old border legend of 'Gilpin Horner',
which first gave shape to the poet's ideas, and led to the 'Lay of the
Last Minstrel'.]
[Footnote 24: In his strictures on Scott and Southey, Byron takes his
lead from Lady Anne Hamilton's (1766-1846, daughter of Archibald, ninth
Duke of Hamilton, and Lady-in-waiting to Caroline of Brunswick) 'Epics
of the Ton' (1807), a work which has not shared the dubious celebrity of
her 'Secret Memories of the Court', etc. (1832). Compare the following
lines (p. 9):--
"Then still might Southey sing his crazy Joan,
Or feign a Welshman o'er the Atlantic flown,
Or tell of Thalaba the wondrous matter,
Or with clown Wordsworth, chatter, chatter, chatter.
* * * * *
Good-natured Scott rehearse, in well-paid lays,
The marv'lous chiefs and elves of other days."
(For Scott's reference to "my share of flagellation among my betters,"
and an explicit statement that he had remonstrated with Jeffrey against
the "offensive criticism" of 'Hours of Idleness', because he thought it
treated with undue severity, see Introduction to 'Marmion', 1830.)]]
[Footnote 25: Lines 179, 180, in the Fifth Edition, were substituted for
variant i. p. 312.--'Leigh Hunt's annotated Copy of the Fourth Edition'.]
[Footnote 26: "Good night to Marmion"--the pathetic and also prophetic
exclamation of Henry Blount, Esquire, on the death of honest Marmion.]
[Footnote 27: As the 'Odyssey' is so closely connected with the story of
the 'Iliad', they may almost be classed as one grand historical poem. In
alluding to Milton and Tasso, we consider the 'Paradise Lost' and
'Gerusalemme Liberata' as their standard efforts; since neither the
'Jerusalem Conquered' of the Italian, nor the 'Paradise Regained' of the
English bard, obtained a proportionate celebrity to their former poems.
Query: Which of Mr. Southey's will survive?]
[Footnote 28: 'Thalaba', Mr. Southey's second poem, is written in
defiance of precedent and poetry. Mr. S. wished to produce something
novel, and succeeded to a miracle. 'Joan of Arc' was marvellous enough,
but 'Thalaba' was one of those poems "which," in the word of PORSON,
"will be read when Homer and Virgil are forgotten, but--<i<not till
then'." ["Of 'Thalaba" the wild and wondrous song"--Proem to 'Madoc',
Southey's 'Poetical Works' (1838), vol. v. 'Joan of Arc' was published
in 1796, 'Thalaba the Destroyer' in 1801, and 'Madoc' in 1805.]
[Footnote 29: The hero of Fielding's farce, 'The Tragedy of Tragedies',
'or the Life and Death of Tom Thumb the Great', first played in 1730 at
the Haymarket.]
[Footnote 30: Southey's 'Madoc' is divided into two parts--Part I.,
"Madoc in Wales;" Part II., "Madoc in Aztlan." The word "cacique"
("Cacique or cazique... a native chief or 'prince' of the aborigines in
the West Indies:" 'New Engl. Dict'., Art. "Cacique") occurs in the
translations of Spanish writers quoted by Southey in his notes, but not
in the text of the poem.]
[Footnote 31: We beg Mr. Southey's pardon: "Madoc disdains the degraded
title of Epic." See his Preface. ["It assumes not the degraded title of
Epic."--Preface to 'Madoc' (1805), Southey's 'Poetical Works' (1838),
vol. v. p. xxi.] Why is Epic degraded? and by whom? Certainly the late
Romaunts of Masters Cottle, Laureat Pye, Ogilvy, Hole,[A] and gentle
Mistress Cowley, have not exalted the Epic Muse; but, as Mr. SOUTHEY'S
poem "disdains the appellation," allow us to ask--has he substituted
anything better in its stead? or must he be content to rival Sir RICHARD
BLACKMORE in the quantity as well as quality of his verse?
[Sub-Footnote A: For "Hole," the 'MS'. and 'British Bards' read "Sir J.
B. Burgess; Cumberland."] ]
[Footnote 32: See 'The Old Woman of Berkeley', a ballad by Mr. Southey,
wherein an aged gentlewoman is carried away by Beelzebub, on a "high
trotting horse."]
[Footnote 33: The last line, "God help thee," is an evident plagiarism
from the 'Anti-Jacobin' to Mr. Southey, on his Dactylics:--
"God help thee, silly one!"
'Poetry of the Anti-Jacobin', p. 23.]
[Footnote 34: In the annotated copy of the Fourth Edition Byron has
drawn a line down the margin of the passage on Wordsworth, lines
236-248, and adds the word "Unjust." The first four lines on Coleridge
(lines 255-258) are also marked "Unjust." The recantation is, no doubt,
intended to apply to both passages from beginning to end.
"'Unjust'."--B., 1816. (See also Byron's letter to S. T. Coleridge,
March 31, 1815.)]
[Footnote 35: 'Lyrical Ballads', p. 4.--"The Tables Turned," Stanza 1.
"Up, up, my friend, and clear your looks,
Why all this toil and trouble?
Up, up, my friend, and quit your books,
Or surely you'll grow double."]
[Footnote 36: Mr. W. in his preface labours hard to prove, that prose
and verse are much the same; and certainly his precepts and practice are
strictly conformable:--
"And thus to Betty's questions he
Made answer, like a traveller bold.
'The cock did crow, to-whoo, to-whoo,
And the sun did shine so cold.'"
'Lyrical Ballads', p. 179. [Compare 'The Simpliciad', II. 295-305, and
'note'.]]
[Footnote 37: "He has not published for some years."--'British Bards'.
(A marginal note in pencil.) [Coleridge's 'Poems' (3rd edit.) appeared
in 1803; the first number of 'The Friend' on June 1, 1809.]]
[Footnote 38: COLERIDGE'S 'Poems', p. 11, "Songs of the Pixies," 'i. e.'
Devonshire Fairies; p. 42, we have "Lines to a Young Lady;" and, p. 52,
"Lines to a Young Ass." [Compare 'The Simpliciad', ll. 211, 213--
"Then in despite of scornful Folly's pother,
Ask him to live with you and hail him brother."]]
[Footnote 39: Matthew Gregory Lewis (1775-1818), known as "Monk" Lewis,
was the son of a rich Jamaica planter. During a six months' visit to
Weimar (1792-3), when he was introduced to Goethe, he applied himself to
the study of German literature, especially novels and the drama. In 1794
he was appointed 'attaché' to the Embassy at the Hague, and in the
course of ten weeks wrote 'Ambrosio, or The Monk', which was published
in 1795. In 1798 he made the acquaintance of Scott, and procured his
promise of co-operation in his contemplated 'Tales of Terror'. In the
same year he published the 'Castle Spectre' (first played at Drury Lane,
Dec. 14, 1797), in which, to quote the postscript "To the Reader," he
meant (but Sheridan interposed) "to have exhibited a whole regiment of
Ghosts." 'Tales of Terror' were printed at Weybridge in 1801, and two or
three editions of 'Tales of Wonder', to which Byron refers, came out in
the same year. Lewis borrowed so freely from all sources that the
collection was called "Tales of Plunder." In the first edition (two
vols., printed by W. Bulmer for the author, 1801) the first eighteen
poems, with the exception of 'The Fire King' (xii.) by Walter Scott, are
by Lewis, either original or translated. Scott also contributed
'Glenfinlas, The Eve of St. John, Frederick and Alice, The Wild Huntsmen
(Der Wilde Jäger). Southey contributed six poems, including 'The Old
Woman of Berkeley' (xxiv.). 'The Little Grey Man' (xix.) is by H.
Bunbury. The second volume is made up from Burns, Gray, Parnell, Glover,
Percy's 'Reliques', and other sources.
A second edition, published in 1801, which consists of thirty-two
ballads (Southey's are not included), advertises "'Tales of Terror'
printed uniform with this edition of 'Tales of Wonder'." 'Romantic
Tales', in four volumes, appeared in 1808. Of his other works, 'The
Captive, A Monodrama', was played in 1803; the 'Bravo of Venice, A
Translation from the German', in 1804; and 'Timour the Tartar' in 1811.
His 'Journal of a West Indian Proprietor' was not published till 1834.
He sat as M.P. for Hindon (1796-1802).
He had been a favourite in society before Byron appeared on the scene,
but there is no record of any intimacy or acquaintance before 1813. When
Byron was living at Geneva, Lewis visited the Maison Diodati in August,
1816, on which occasion he "translated to him Goethe's 'Faust' by word
of mouth," and drew up a codicil to his will, witnessed by Byron,
Shelley, and Polidori, which contained certain humane provisions for the
well-being of the negroes on his Jamaica estates. He also visited him at
'La Mira' in August, 1817. Byron wrote of him after his death: "He was a
good man, and a clever one, but he was a bore, a damned bore--one may
say. But I liked him."
To judge from his letters to his mother and other evidence (Scott's
testimony, for instance), he was a kindly, well-intentioned man, but
lacking in humour. When his father condemned the indecency of the
'Monk', he assured him "that he had not the slightest idea that what he
was then writing could injure the principles of any human being." "He
was," said Byron, "too great a bore to lie," and the plea is evidently
offered in good faith. As a writer, he is memorable chiefly for his
sponsorship of German literature. Scott said of him that he had the
finest ear for rhythm he ever met with--finer than Byron's; and
Coleridge, in a letter to Wordsworth, Jan., 1798 ('Letters of S. T. C.'
(1895), i. 237), and again in 'Table Talk' for March 20, 1834, commends
his verses. Certainly his ballad of "Crazy Jane," once so famous that
ladies took to wearing "Crazy Jane" hats, is of the nature of poetry.
(See 'Life', 349, 362, 491, etc.; 'Life and Correspondence' of M. G.
Lewis (1839), i. 158, etc.; 'Life of Scott', by J. G. Lockhart (1842),
pp. 80-83, 94.)] ]
[Footnote 40: "For every one knows little Matt's an M.P."--See a poem to
Mr. Lewis, in 'The Statesman', supposed to be written by Mr. Jekyll.
[Joseph Jekyll (d. 1837) was celebrated for his witticisms and metrical
'jeux d'esprit' which he contributed to the 'Morning Chronicle' and the
'Evening Statesman'. His election as M.P. for Calne in 1787, at the
nomination of Lord Lansdowne, gave rise to 'Jekyll, A Political Eclogue'
(see 'The Rottiad' (1799), pp. 219-224). He was a favourite with the
Prince Regent, at whose instance he was appointed a Master in Chancery
in 1815.]]
[Footnote 41: The reader, who may wish for an explanation of this, may
refer to "Strangford's Camoëns," p. 127, note to p. 56, or to the last
page of the 'Edinburgh Review' of Strangford's Camoëns.
[Percy Clinton Sydney Smythe, sixth Viscount Strangford (1780-1855),
published 'Translations from the Portuguese by Luis de Camoens' in 1803.
The note to which Byron refers is on the canzonet 'Naö sei quem
assella', "Thou hast an eye of tender blue." It runs thus:
"Locks of auburn and eyes of blue have ever been dear to the sons of
song.... Sterne even considers them as indicative of qualities the
most amiable.... The Translator does not wish to deem ... this
unfounded. He is, however, aware of the danger to which such a
confession exposes him--but he flies for protection to the temple of
AUREA VENUS."
It may be added that Byron's own locks were auburn, and his eyes a
greyish-blue.]]
[Footnote 42: It is also to be remarked, that the things given to the
public as poems of Camoëns are no more to be found in the original
Portuguese, than in the Song of Solomon.]
[Footnote 43: See his various Biographies of defunct Painters, etc.
[William Hayley (1745-1820) published 'The Triumphs of Temper' in 1781,
and 'The Triumph of Music' in 1804. His biography of Milton appeared in
1796, of Cowper in 1803-4, of Romney in 1809. He had produced, among
other plays, 'The Happy Prescription' and 'The Two Connoisseurs' in
1784. In 1808 he would be regarded as out of date, "hobbling on" behind
younger rivals in the race (see E.B., I. 923). For his life and works,
see Southey's article in the 'Quarterly Review' (vol. xxxi. p. 263). The
appeal to "tarts" to "spare the text," is possibly an echo of 'The
Dunciad', i. 155, 156--
"Of these twelve volumes, twelve of amplest size,
Redeemed from topers and defrauded pies."
The meaning of the appeal is fixed by such a passage as this from 'The
Blues', where the company discuss Wordsworth's appointment to a
Collectorship of Stamps--
"'Inkle'.
I shall think of him oft when I buy a new hat;
There his works will appear.
"'Lady Bluemount'.
Sir, they reach to the Ganges.
"'Inkle'.
I sha'n't go so far. I can have them at Grange's."
Grange's was a well-known pastry-cook's in Piccadilly. In Pierce Egan's
'Life in London' (ed. 1821), p. 70, 'note' 1, the author writes, "As I
sincerely hope that this work will shrink from the touch of a
pastry-cook, and also avoid the foul uses of a trunk-maker ... I feel
induced now to describe, for the benefit of posterity, the pedigree of a
Dandy in 1820."]
[Footnote 44: Hayley's two most notorious verse productions are
'Triumphs of Temper' and 'The Triumph of Music'. He has also written
much Comedy in rhyme, Epistles, etc., etc. As he is rather an elegant
writer of notes and biography, let us recommend POPE'S advice to
WYCHERLEY to Mr. H.'s consideration, viz., "to convert poetry into
prose," which may be easily done by taking away the final syllable of
each couplet.]
[Footnote 45: Lines 319-326 do not form part of the original 'MS'. A
slip of paper which contains a fair copy of the lines in Byron's
handwriting has been, with other fragments, bound up with Dallas's copy
of 'British Bards'. In the 'MS'. this place is taken by a passage and
its pendant note, which Byron omitted at the request of Dallas, who was
a friend of Pratt's:--
"In verse most stale, unprofitable, flat--
Come, let us change the scene, and ''glean'' with Pratt;
In him an author's luckless lot behold,
Condemned to make the books which once he sold:
Degraded man! again resume thy trade--
The votaries of the Muse are ill repaid,
Though daily puffs once more invite to buy
A new edition of thy 'Sympathy.'"
"Mr. Pratt, once a Bath bookseller, now a London author, has written as
much, to as little purpose, as any of his scribbling contemporaries. Mr.
P.'s 'Sympathy' is in rhyme; but his prose productions are the most
voluminous."
Samuel Jackson Pratt (1749-1814), actor, itinerant lecturer, poet of the
Cruscan school, tragedian, and novelist, published a large number of
volumes. His 'Gleanings' in England, Holland, Wales, and Westphalia
attained some reputation. His 'Sympathy; a Poem' (1788) passed through
several editions. His pseudonym was Courtney Melmoth. He was a patron of
the cobbler-poet, Blacket] ]
[Footnote 46: Mr. Grahame has poured forth two volumes of Cant, under
the name of 'Sabbath Walks' and 'Biblical Pictures'. [James Grahame
(1765-1811), a lawyer, who subsequently took Holy Orders. 'The Sabbath',
a poem, was published anonymously in 1804; and to a second edition were
added 'Sabbath Walks'. 'Biblical Pictures' appeared in 1807.]
[Footnote 47: The Rev. W. Lisle Bowles (1768-1850). His edition of
Pope's 'Works', in ten vols., which stirred Byron's gall, appeared in
1807. The 'Fall of Empires', Tyre, Carthage, etc., is the subject of
part of the third book of 'The Spirit of Discovery by Sea' (1805). Lines
"To a Withered Leaf," are, perhaps, of later date; but the "sear
tresses" and "shivering leaves" of "Autumn's gradual gloom" are familiar
images in his earlier poems. Byron's senior by twenty years, he was
destined to outlive him by more than a quarter of a century; but when
'English Bards, etc.', was in progress, he was little more than
middle-aged, and the "three score years" must have been written in the
spirit of prophecy. As it chanced, the last word rested with him, and it
was a generous one. Addressing Moore, in 1824, he says ('Childe Harold's
Last Pilgrimage')--
"So Harold ends, in Greece, his pilgrimage!
There fitly ending--in that land renown'd,
Whose mighty Genius lives in Glory's page,--
He on the Muses' consecrated ground,
Sinking to rest, while his young brows are bound
With their unfading wreath!"
Among his poems are a "Sonnet to Oxford," and "Stanzas on hearing the
Bells of Ostend."]
[Footnote 48: "Awake a louder," etc., is the first line in BOWLES'S
'Spirit of Discovery': a very spirited and pretty dwarf Epic. Among
other exquisite lines we have the following:--
----"A kiss
Stole on the list'ning silence, never yet
Here heard; they trembled even as if the power," etc., etc.
That is, the woods of Madeira trembled to a kiss; very much astonished,
as well they might be, at such a phenomenon.
"Mis-quoted and misunderstood by me; but not intentionally. It was not
the 'woods,' but the people in them who trembled--why, Heaven only
knows--unless they were overheard making this prodigious smack."-B.,
1816.]
[Footnote 49: The episode above alluded to is the story of "Robert à
Machin" and "Anna d'Arfet," a pair of constant lovers, who performed the
kiss above mentioned, that startled the woods of Madeira. [See Byron's
letter to Murray, Feb. 7, 1821, "On Bowies' Strictures," 'Life', p.
688.]]
[Footnote 50: CURLL is one of the Heroes of the 'Dunciad', and was a
bookseller. Lord Fanny is the poetical name of Lord HERVEY, author of
'Lines to the Imitator of Horace'.]
[Footnote 51: Lord BOLINGBROKE hired MALLET to traduce POPE after his
decease, because the poet had retained some copies of a work by Lord
Bolingbroke--the "Patriot King,"--which that splendid, but malignant
genius had ordered to be destroyed.]
[Footnote 52: Dennis the critic, and Ralph the rhymester:--
"Silence, ye Wolves! while Ralph to Cynthia howls,
Making Night hideous: answer him, ye owls!"
DUNCIAD.
[Book III. II. 165, 166, Pope wrote, "And makes night," etc.]]
[Footnote 53: See Bowles's late edition of Pope's works, for which he
received three hundred pounds. [Twelve hundred guineas.--'British
Bards'.] Thus Mr. B. has experienced how much easier it is to profit by
the reputation of another, than to elevate his own. ["Too savage all
this on Bowles," wrote Byron, in 1816, but he afterwards returned to his
original sentiments. "Although," he says (Feb. 7, 1821), "I regret
having published 'English Bards, and Scotch Reviewers', the part which I
regret the least is that which regards Mr. Bowles, with reference to
Pope. Whilst I was writing that publication, in 1807 and 1808, Mr.
Hobhouse was desirous that I should express our mutual opinion of Pope,
and of Mr. Bowles's edition of his works. As I had completed my outline,
and felt lazy, I requested that 'he' would do so. He did it. His
fourteen lines on Bowles's Pope are in the first edition of 'English
Bards', and are quite as severe, and much more poetical, than my own, in
the second. On reprinting the work, as I put my name to it, I omitted
Mr. Hobhouse's lines, by which the work gained less than Mr. Bowles....
I am grieved to say that, in reading over those lines, I repent of their
having so far fallen short of what I meant to express upon the subject
of his edition of Pope's works" ('Life', pp. 688, 689). The lines
supplied by Hobhouse are here subjoined:--
"Stick to thy sonnets, man!--at least they sell.
Or take the only path that open lies
For modern worthies who would hope to rise:
Fix on some well-known name, and, bit by bit,
Pare off the merits of his worth and wit:
On each alike employ the critic's knife,
And when a comment fails, prefix a life;
Hint certain failings, faults before unknown,
Review forgotten lies, and add your own;
Let no disease, let no misfortune 'scape,
And print, if luckily deformed, his shape:
Thus shall the world, quite undeceived at last,
Cleave to their present wits, and quit their past;
Bards once revered no more with favour view,
But give their modern sonneteers their due;
Thus with the dead may living merit cope,
Thus Bowles may triumph o'er the shade of Pope."]]
[Footnote 54:
"'Helicon' is a mountain, and not a fish-pond. It should have been
'Hippocrene.'"--B., 1816.
[The correction was made in the Fifth Edition.]]
[Footnote 55: Mr. Cottle, Amos, Joseph, I don't know which, but one or
both, once sellers of books they did not write, and now writers of books
they do not sell, have published a pair of Epics--'Alfred' (poor Alfred!
Pye has been at him too!)--'Alfred' and the 'Fall of Cambria'.
"All right. I saw some letters of this fellow (Jh. Cottle) to an
unfortunate poetess, whose productions, which the poor woman by no
means thought vainly of, he attacked so roughly and bitterly, that I
could hardly regret assailing him, even were it unjust, which it is
not--for verily he is an ass."--B., 1816.
[Compare 'Poetry of the Anti-Jacobin'--
"And Cottle, not he whom that Alfred made famous,
But Joseph of Bristol, the brother of Amos."
The identity of the brothers Cottle appears to have been a matter
beneath the notice both of the authors of the 'Anti-Jacobin' and of
Byron. Amos Cottle, who died in 1800 (see Lamb's Letter to Coleridge of
Oct. 9, 1800; 'Letters of C. Lamb', 1888, i. 140), was the author of a
'Translation of the Edda of Soemund', published in 1797. Joseph Cottle,
'inter alia', published 'Alfred' in 1801, and 'The Fall of Cambria',
1807. An 'Expostulatory Epistle', in which Joseph avenges Amos and
solemnly castigates the author of 'Don Juan', was issued in 1819 (see
Lamb's Letter to Cottle, Nov. 5, 1819), and was reprinted in the Memoir
of Amos Cottle, inserted in his brother's 'Early Recollections of
Coleridge' (London, 1837, i. 119). The "unfortunate poetess" was,
probably, Ann Yearsley, the Bristol milk-woman. Wordsworth, too (see
'Recollections of the Table-Talk of S. Rogers', 1856, p. 235), dissuaded
her from publishing her poems. Roughness and bitterness were not among
Cottle's faults or foibles, and it is possible that Byron misconceived
the purport of the correspondence.]]
[Footnote 56: Mr. Maurice hath manufactured the component parts of a
ponderous quarto, upon the beauties of "Richmond Hill," and the
like:--it also takes in a charming view of Turnham Green, Hammersmith,
Brentford, Old and New, and the parts adjacent. [The Rev. Thomas Maurice
(1754-1824) had this at least in common with Byron--that his 'History of
Ancient and Modern Hindostan' was severely attacked in the 'Edinburgh
Review'. He published a vindication of his work in 1805. He must have
confined his dulness to his poems ('Richmond Hill' (1807), etc.), for
his 'Memoirs' (1819) are amusing, and, though otherwise blameless, he
left behind him the reputation of an "indiscriminate enjoyment" of
literary and other society. Lady Anne Hamilton alludes to him in 'Epics
of the Ton' (1807), p. 165--
"Or warmed like Maurice by Museum fire,
From Ganges dragged a hurdy-gurdy lyre."
He was assistant keeper of MSS. at the British Museum from 1799 till his
death.]]
[Footnote 57: Poor MONTGOMERY, though praised by every English Review,
has been bitterly reviled by the 'Edinburgh'. After all, the Bard of
Sheffield is a man of considerable genius. His 'Wanderer of Switzerland'
is worth a thousand 'Lyrical Ballads', and at least fifty 'Degraded
Epics'.
[James Montgomery (1771-1854) was born in Ayrshire, but settled at
Sheffield, where he edited a newspaper, the 'Iris', a radical print,
which brought him into conflict with the authorities. His early poems
were held up to ridicule in the 'Edinburgh Review' by Jeffrey, in Jan.
1807. It was probably the following passage which provoked Byron's note:
"When every day is bringing forth some new work from the pen of Scott,
Campbell,... Wordsworth, and Southey, it is natural to feel some disgust
at the undistinguishing voracity which can swallow down these... verses
to a pillow." The 'Wanderer of Switzerland', which Byron said he
preferred to the 'Lyrical Ballads', was published in 1806. The allusion
in line 419 is to the first stanza of 'The Lyre'--
"Where the roving rill meand'red
Down the green, retiring vale,
Poor, forlorn Alæcus wandered,
Pale with thoughts--serenely pale."
He is remembered chiefly as the writer of some admirable hymns. ('Vide
ante', p. 107, "Answer to a Beautiful Poem," and 'note'.)]
[Footnote 58: Arthur's Seat; the hill which overhangs Edinburgh.]
[Footnote 59: Lines 439-527 are not in the 'MS.' The first draft of the
passage on Jeffrey, which appears to have found a place in 'British
Bards' and to have been afterwards cut out, runs as follows:--
"Who has not heard in this enlightened age,
When all can criticise the historic page,
Who has not heard in James's Bigot Reign
Of Jefferies! monarch of the scourge, and chain,
Jefferies the wretch whose pestilential breath,
Like the dread Simoom, winged the shaft of Death;
The old, the young to Fate remorseless gave
Nor spared one victim from the common grave?
"Such was the Judge of James's iron time,
When Law was Murder, Mercy was a crime,
Till from his throne by weary millions hurled
The Despot roamed in Exile through the world.
"Years have rolled on;--in all the lists of Shame,
Who now can parallel a Jefferies' name?
With hand less mighty, but with heart as black
With voice as willing to decree the Rack,
With tongue envenomed, with intentions foul
The same in name and character and soul."
The first four lines of the above, which have been erased, are to be
found on p. 16 of 'British Bards.' Pages 17, 18, are wanting, and quarto
proofs of lines 438-527 have been inserted. Lines 528-539 appear for the
first time in the Fifth Edition.]]
[Footnote 60: "Too ferocious--this is mere insanity."--B., 1816. [The
comment applies to lines 432-453.]]
[Footnote 61: "All this is bad, because personal."--B., 1816.]
[Footnote 62: In 1806, Messrs. Jeffrey and Moore met at Chalk Farm. The
duel was prevented by the interference of the Magistracy; and on
examination, the balls of the pistols were found to have evaporated.
This incident gave occasion to much waggery in the daily prints. [The
first four editions read, "the balls of the pistols, like the courage of
the combatants."]
[The following disclaimer to the foregoing note appears in the MS. in
Leigh Hunt's copy of the Fourth Edition, 1811. It was first printed in
the Fifth Edition:--]
"I am informed that Mr. Moore published at the time a disavowal of the
statements in the newspapers, as far as regarded himself; and, in
justice to him, I mention this circumstance. As I never heard of it
before, I cannot state the particulars, and was only made acquainted
with the fact very lately. November 4, 1811."
[As a matter of fact, it was Jeffrey's pistol that was found to be
leadless.]]
[Footnote 63: The Tweed here behaved with proper decorum; it would have
been highly reprehensible in the English half of the river to have shown
the smallest symptom of apprehension.]
[Footnote 64: This display of sympathy on the part of the Tolbooth (the
principal prison in Edinburgh), which truly seems to have been most
affected on this occasion, is much to be commended. It was to be
apprehended, that the many unhappy criminals executed in the front might
have rendered the Edifice more callous. She is said to be of the softer
sex, because her delicacy of feeling on this day was truly feminine,
though, like most feminine impulses, perhaps a little selfish.]
[Footnote 65: Line 508. For "oat-fed phalanx," the Quarto Proof and
Editions 1-4 read "ranks illustrious." The correction is made in
'MS'. in the Annotated Edition. It was suggested that the motto of
the 'Edinburgh Review' should have been, "Musam tenui meditamur
avenâ."]
[Footnote 66: His Lordship has been much abroad, is a member of the
Athenian Society, and reviewer of Gell's 'Topography of Troy'. [George
Gordon, fourth Earl of Aberdeen (1784-1860), published in 1822 'An
Inquiry into the Principles of Beauty in Grecian Architecture'. His
grandfather purchased Gight, the property which Mrs. Byron had sold to
pay her husband's debts. This may have been an additional reason for the
introduction of his name.]]
[Footnote 67: Mr. Herbert is a translator of Icelandic and other poetry.
One of the principal pieces is a 'Song on the Recovery of Thor's
Hammer': the translation is a pleasant chant in the vulgar tongue, and
endeth thus:--
"Instead of money and rings, I wot,
The hammer's bruises were her lot.
Thus Odin's son his hammer got."
[William Herbert (1778-1847), son of the first Earl of Carnarvon, edited
'Musæ Etonenses' in 1795, whilst he was still at school. He was one of
the earliest contributors to the 'Edinburgh Review'. At the time when
Byron was writing his satire, he was M.P. for Hampshire, but in 1814 he
took Orders. He was appointed Dean of Manchester in 1840, and
republished his poetical works, and among them his Icelandic
Translations or 'Horæ Scandicæ (Miscellaneous Works', 2 vols.), in
1842.]]
[Footnote 68: The Rev. SYDNEY SMITH, the reputed Author of 'Peter
Plymley's Letters', and sundry criticisms. [Sydney Smith (1771-1845),
the "witty Canon of St. Paul's," was one of the founders, and for a
short time (1802) the editor, of the 'Edinburgh Review'. His 'Letters on
the Catholicks, from Peter Plymley to his brother Abraham', appeared in
1807-8.]
[Footnote 69: Mr. HALLAM reviewed PAYNE KNIGHT'S "Taste," and was
exceedingly severe on some Greek verses therein. It was not discovered
that the lines were Pindar's till the press rendered it impossible to
cancel the critique, which still stands an everlasting monument of
Hallam's ingenuity.--['Note added to Second Edition':
Hallam is incensed because he is falsely accused, seeing that he never
dineth at Holland House. If this be true, I am sorry--not for having
said so, but on his account, as I understand his Lordship's feasts are
preferable to his compositions. If he did not review Lord HOLLAND'S
performance, I am glad; because it must have been painful to read, and
irksome to praise it. If Mr. HALLAM will tell me who did review it,
the real name shall find a place in the text; provided, nevertheless,
the said name be of two orthodox musical syllables, and will come into
the verse: till then, HALLAM must stand for want of a better.]
[Henry Hallam (1777-1859), author of 'Europe during the Middle Ages',
1808, etc.
"This," said Byron, "is the style in which history ought to be
written, if it is wished to impress it on the memory"
('Lady Blessington's Conversations with Lord Byron', 1834, p. 213). The
article in question was written by Dr. John Allen, Lord Holland's
domestic physician, and Byron was misled by the similarity of sound in
the two names (see H. C. Robinson's 'Diary', i. 277), or repeated what
Hodgson had told him (see Introduction, and Letter 102, 'note' i).
For a disproof that Hallam wrote the article, see 'Gent. Mag'., 1830,
pt. i. p. 389; and for an allusion to the mistake in the review, compare
'All the Talents', p. 96, and 'note'.
"Spare me not 'Chronicles' and 'Sunday News',
Spare me not 'Pamphleteers' and 'Scotch Reviews'"
"The best literary joke I recollect is its [the 'Edin. Rev'.] attempting
to prove some of the Grecian Pindar rank non sense, supposing it to have
been written by Mr. P. Knight."]
[Footnote 70: Pillans is a [private, 'MS'.] tutor at Eton. [James
Pillans (1778-1864), Rector of the High School, and Professor of
Humanity in the University, Edinburgh. Byron probably assumed that the
review of Hodgson's 'Translation of Juvenal', in the 'Edinburgh Review',
April, 1808, was by him.]]
Footnote 71: The Honourable G. Lambe reviewed "BERESFORD'S Miseries,"
and is moreover Author of a farce enacted with much applause at the
Priory, Stanmore; and damned with great expedition at the late theatre,
Covent Garden. It was entitled 'Whistle for It'. [See note, 'supra', on
line 57.] His review of James Beresford's 'Miseries of Human Life; or
the Last Groans of Timothy Testy and Samuel Sensitive', appeared in the
'Edinburgh Review 'for Oct. 1806.]
[Footnote: 72: Mr. Brougham, in No. XXV. of the 'Edinburgh Review',
throughout the article concerning Don Pedro de Cevallos, has displayed
more politics than policy; many of the worthy burgesses of Edinburgh
being so incensed at the infamous principles it evinces, as to have
withdrawn their subscriptions.--[Here followed, in the First Edition:
"The name of this personage is pronounced Broom in the south, but the
truly northern and 'musical' pronunciation is BROUGH-AM, in two
syllables;" but for this, Byron substituted in the Second Edition: "It
seems that Mr. Brougham is not a Pict, as I supposed, but a Borderer,
and his name is pronounced Broom, from Trent to Tay:--so be it."
The title of the work was "Exposition of the Practices and Machinations
which led to the usurpation of the Crown of Spain, and the means adopted
by the Emperor of the French to carry it into execution," by Don Pedro
Cevallos. The article, which appeared in Oct. 1808, was the joint
composition of Jeffrey and Brougham, and proved a turning-point in the
political development of the 'Review'.]]
[Footnote 73: I ought to apologise to the worthy Deities for introducing
a new Goddess with short petticoats to their notice: but, alas! what was
to be done? I could not say Caledonia's Genius, it being well known
there is no genius to be found from Clackmannan to Caithness; yet
without supernatural agency, how was Jeffrey to be saved? The national
"Kelpies" are too unpoetical, and the "Brownies" and "gude neighbours"
(spirits of a good disposition) refused to extricate him. A Goddess,
therefore, has been called for the purpose; and great ought to be the
gratitude of Jeffrey, seeing it is the only communication he ever held,
or is likely to hold, with anything heavenly.]
[Footnote 74: Lines 528-539 appeared for the first time in the Fifth
Edition.]
[Footnote 75: See the colour of the back binding of the 'Edinburgh
Review'.]
[Footnote 76: "Bad enough, and on mistaken grounds too."--B., 1816. [The
comment applies to the whole passage on Lord Holland.]
[Henry Richard Vassall, third Lord Holland (1773-1840), to whom Byron
dedicated the 'Bride of Abydos' (1813). His 'Life of Lope de Vega' (see
note 4) was published in 1806, and 'Three Comedies from the Spanish', in
1807.]]
[Footnote 77: Henry Petty (1780-1863) succeeded his brother as third
Marquis of Lansdowne in 1809. He was a regular attendant at the social
and political gatherings of his relative, Lord Holland; and as Holland
House was regarded as one of the main rallying-points of the Whig party
and of the Edinburgh Reviewers, the words, "whipper-in and hunts-man,"
probably refer to their exertions in this respect.]
[Footnote 78: See note 1, p. 337. (Footnote 69--Text Ed.)]
[Footnote 79: Lord Holland has translated some specimens of Lope de
Vega, inserted in his life of the author. Both are bepraised by his
'disinterested' guests.]
[Footnote 80: Certain it is, her ladyship is suspected of having
displayed her matchless wit in the 'Edinburgh Review'. However that may
be, we know from good authority, that the manuscripts are submitted to
her perusal--no doubt, for correction.]
[Footnote 81: In the melo-drama of 'Tekeli', that heroic prince is clapt
into a barrel on the stage; a new asylum for distressed heroes.--[In the
'MS'. and 'British Bards' the note stands thus:--"In the melodrama of
'Tekeli', that heroic prince is clapt into a barrel on the stage, and
Count Everard in the fortress hides himself in a green-house built
expressly for the occasion. 'Tis a pity that Theodore Hook, who is
really a man of talent, should confine his genius to such paltry
productions as 'The Fortress, Music Mad', etc. etc." Theodore Hook
(1788-1841) produced 'Tekeli' in 1806. 'Fortress' and 'Music Mad' were
played in 1807. He had written some eight or ten popular plays before he
was twenty-one.]]
[Footnote 82: 'Vide post', 1. 591, note 3.]
[Footnote 83: William Henry West Betty (1791-1874) ("the Young Roscius")
made his first appearance on the London stage as Selim, disguised as
Achmet, in 'Barbarossa', Dec. 1, 1804, and his last, as a boy actor, in
'Tancred', and Captain Flash in 'Miss in her Teens', Mar. 17, 1806, but
acted in the provinces till 1808. So great was the excitement on the
occasion of his 'début', that the military were held in readiness to
assist in keeping order. Having made a large fortune, he finally retired
from the stage in 1824, and passed the last fifty years of his life in
retirement, surviving his fame by more than half a century.]
[Footnote 84: All these are favourite expressions of Mr. Reynolds, and
prominent in his comedies, living and defunct. [Frederick Reynolds
(1764-1841) produced nearly one hundred plays, one of the most
successful of which was 'The Caravan, or the Driver and his Dog'. The
text alludes to his endeavour to introduce the language of ordinary life
on the stage. Compare 'The Children of Apollo', p. 9--
"But in his diction Reynolds grossly errs;
For whether the love hero smiles or mourns,
'Tis oh! and ah! and ah! and oh! by turns."]]
[Footnote 85: James Kenney (1780-1849). Among his very numerous plays,
the most successful were 'Raising the Wind' (1803), and 'Sweethearts and
Wives' (1823). 'The World' was brought out at Covent Garden, March 30,
1808, and had a considerable run. He was intimate with Charles and Mary
Lamb (see 'Letters of Charles Lamb', ii. 16, 44).]
[Footnote 85a: Mr. T. Sheridan, the new Manager of Drury Lane theatre,
stripped the Tragedy of 'Bonduca' ['Caratach' in the original 'MS'.] of
the dialogue, and exhibited the scenes as the spectacle of 'Caractacus'.
Was this worthy of his sire? or of himself? [Thomas Sheridan
(1775-1817), most famous as the son of Richard Brinsley Sheridan, and
father of Lady Dufferin, Mrs. Norton, and the Duchess of Somerset, was
author of several plays. His 'Bonduca' was played at Covent Garden, May
3, 1808. The following answer to a real or fictitious correspondent, in
the 'European Magazine' for May, 1808, is an indication of contemporary
opinion: "The Fishwoman's letter to the author of 'Caractacus' on the
art of gutting is inadmissible." For anecdotes of Thomas Sheridan, see
Angelo's 'Reminiscences', 1828, ii. 170-175. See, too, 'Epics of the
Ton', p. 264.]]
[Footnote 86: George Colman, the younger (1762-1836), wrote numerous
dramas, several of which, 'e.g. The Iron Chest' (1796), 'John Bull'
(1803), 'The Heir-at-Law' (1808), have been popular with more than one
generation of playgoers. An amusing companion, and a favourite at Court,
he was appointed Lieutenant of the Yeomen of the Guard, and examiner of
plays by Royal favour, but his reckless mode of life kept him always in
difficulties. 'John Bull' is referred to in 'Hints from Horace', line
166.]]
[Footnote 87: Richard Cumberland (1732-1811), the original of Sir
Fretful Plagiary in 'The Critic', a man of varied abilities, wrote
poetry, plays, novels, classical translations, and works of religious
controversy. He was successively Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge,
secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and secretary to the Board
of Trade. His best known plays are 'The West Indian, The Wheels of
Fortune', and 'The Jew'. He published his 'Memoirs' in 1806-7.]]
[Footnote 88: Sheridan's translation of 'Pizarro', by Kotzebue, was
first played at Drury Lane, 1799. Southey wrote of it, "It is impossible
to sink below 'Pizarro'. Kotzebue's play might have passed for the worst
possible if Sheridan had not proved the possibility of making it worse"
(Southey's 'Letters', i. 87). Gifford alludes to it in a note to 'The
Mæviad' as "the translation so maliciously attributed to Sheridan."]
[Footnote 89: In all editions, previous to the fifth, it was, "Kemble
lives to tread." Byron used to say, that, of actors, "Cooke was the most
natural, Kemble the most supernatural, Kean the medium between the two;
but that Mrs. Siddons was worth them all put together." Such effect,
however, had Kean's acting on his mind, that once, on seeing him play
Sir Giles Overreach, he was seized with a fit.]
[Footnote 90: See 'supra', line 562.]
[Footnote 91: Andrew Cherry (1762-1812) acted many parts in Ireland and
in the provinces, and for a few years appeared at Drury Lane. He was
popular in Dublin, where he was known as "Little Cherry." He was painted
as Lazarillo in Jephson's 'Two Strings to Your Bow'. He wrote 'The
Travellers' (1806), 'Peter the Great' (1807), and other plays.]]
[Footnote 92: Mr. [now Sir Lumley] Skeffington is the illustrious author
of 'The Sleeping Beauty;' and some comedies, particularly 'Maids and
Bachelors: Baccalaurii' baculo magis quam lauro digni.
[Lumley St. George (afterwards Sir Lumley) Skeffington (1768-1850).
Besides the plays mentioned in the note, he wrote 'The Maid of Honour'
(1803) and 'The Mysterious Bride' (1808). 'Amatory Verses, by Tom
Shuffleton of the Middle Temple' (1815), are attributed to his pen. They
are prefaced by a dedicatory letter to Byron, which includes a coarse
but clever skit in the style of 'English Bards'. "Great Skeffington" was
a great dandy. According to Capt. Gronow ('Reminiscences', i. 63), "he
used to paint his face so that he looked like a French toy; he dressed
'à la Robespierre', and practised all the follies;... was remarkable for
his politeness and courtly manners... You always knew of his approach by
an 'avant courier' of sweet smell." His play 'The Sleeping Beauty' had a
considerable vogue.]]
[Footnote 93: Thomas John Dibdin (1771-1841), natural son of Charles
Dibdin the elder, made his first appearance on the stage at the age of
four, playing Cupid to Mrs. Siddons' Venus at the Shakespearian Jubilee
in 1775. One of his best known pieces is 'The Jew and the Doctor'
(1798). His pantomime, 'Mother Goose', in which Grimaldi took a part,
was played at Covent Garden in 1807, and is said to have brought the
management £20,000.]
[Footnote 94: Mr. Greenwood is, we believe, scene-painter to Drury Lane
theatre--as such, Mr. Skeffington is much indebted to him.]
[Footnote 95: Naldi and Catalani require little notice; for the visage
of the one, and the salary of the other, will enable us long to
recollect these amusing vagabonds. Besides, we are still black and blue
from the squeeze on the first night of the Lady's appearance in
trousers. [Guiseppe Naldi (1770-1820) made his 'début' on the London
stage at the King's Theatre in April, 1806. In conjunction with Catalani
and Braham, he gave concerts at Willis' Rooms. Angelica Catalani (circ.
1785-1849), a famous soprano, Italian by birth and training, made her
'début' at Venice in 1795. She remained in England for eight years
(1806-14). Her first appearance in England was at the King's Theatre, in
Portogallo's 'Semiramide,' in 1806. Her large salary was one of the
causes which provoked the O. P. (Old Prices) Riots in December, 1809, at
Covent Garden. Praed says of his 'Ball Room Belle'--
"She warbled Handel: it was grand;
She made the Catalani jealous."]
[Footnote 96: Moore says that the following twenty lines were struck off
one night after Lord Byron's return from the Opera, and sent the next
morning to the printer. The date of the letter to Dallas, with which the
lines were enclosed, suggests that the representation which provoked the
outburst was that of 'I Villegiatori Rezzani,' at the King's Theatre,
February 21, 1809. The first piece, in which Naldi and Catalani were the
principal singers, was followed by d'Egville's musical extravaganza,
'Don Quichotte, on les Noces de Gamache.' In the 'corps de ballet' were
Deshayes, for many years master of the 'ballet' at the King's Theatre;
Miss Gayton, who had played a Sylph at Drury Lane as early as 1806 (she
was married, March 18, 1809, to the Rev. William Murray, brother of Sir
James Pulteney, Bart.--'Morning Chronicle,' December 30, 1810), and
Mademoiselle Angiolini, "elegant of figure, 'petite', but finely formed,
with the manner of Vestris." Mademoiselle Presle does not seem to have
taken part in 'Don Quichotte;' but she was well known as 'première
danseuse' in 'La Belle Laitière, La Fête Chinoise,' and other ballets.]]
[Footnote 97: For "whet" Editions 1-5 read "raise." Lines 632-637 are
marked "good" in the Annotated Fourth Edition.]
[Footnote 98: To prevent any blunder, such as mistaking a street for a
man, I beg leave to state, that it is the institution, and not the Duke
of that name, which is here alluded to.
A gentleman, with whom I am slightly acquainted, lost in the Argyle
Rooms several thousand pounds at Backgammon.[A] It is but justice to the
manager in this instance to say, that some degree of disapprobation was
manifested: but why are the implements of gaming allowed in a place
devoted to the society of both sexes? A pleasant thing for the wives and
daughters of those who are blessed or cursed with such connections, to
hear the Billiard-Balls rattling in one room, and the dice in another!
That this is the case I myself can testify, as a late unworthy member of
an Institution which materially affects the morals of the higher orders,
while the lower may not even move to the sound of a tabor and fiddle,
without a chance of indictment for riotous behaviour. [The Argyle
Institution, founded by Colonel Greville, flourished many years before
the Argyll Rooms were built by Nash in 1818. This mention of Greville's
name caused him to demand an explanation from Byron, but the matter was
amicably settled by Moore and G. F. Leckie, who acted on behalf of the
disputants (see 'Life', pp. 160, 161).]]
[Sub-Footnote A: "True. It was Billy Way who lost the money. I knew him,
and was a subscriber to the Argyle at the time of this event."--B.,
1816.]
[Footnote 99: Petronius, "Arbiter elegantiarum" to Nero, "and a very
pretty fellow in his day," as Mr. Congreve's "Old Bachelor" saith of
Hannibal.]
[Footnote 100: "We are authorised to state that Mr. Greville, who has a
small party at his private assembly rooms at the Argyle, will receive
from 10 to 12 [p.m.] masks who have Mrs. Chichester's Institution
tickets.--Morning Post, June 7, 1809.]
[Footnote 101: See note on line 686, infra.]
[Footnote 102: 'Clodius'--"Mutato nomine de te Fabula narratur."--['MS']
[The allusion is to the well-known incidents of his intrigue with
Pompeia, Cæsar's wife, and his sacrilegious intrusion into the mysteries
of the Bona Dea. The Romans had a proverb, "Clodius accuset Moechos?"
(Juv., 'Sat.' ii. 27). That "Steenie" should lecture on the "turpitude
of incontinence!" ('The Fortunes of Nigel,' cap. xxxii.)]]
[Footnote 103: I knew the late Lord Falkland well. On Sunday night I
beheld him presiding at his own table, in all the honest pride of
hospitality; on Wednesday morning, at three o'clock, I saw stretched
before me all that remained of courage, feeling, and a host of passions.
He was a gallant and successful officer: his faults were the faults of a
sailor--as such, Britons will forgive them. ["His behaviour on the field
was worthy of a better fate, and his conduct on the bed of death evinced
all the firmness of a man without the farce of repentance--I say the
farce of repentance, for death-bed repentance is a farce, and as little
serviceable to the soul at such a moment as the surgeon to the body,
though both may be useful if taken in time. Some hireling in the papers
forged a tale about an agonized voice, etc. On mentioning the
circumstance to Mr. Heaviside, he exclaimed, 'Good God! what absurdity
to talk in this manner of one who died like a lion!'--he did
more."--'MS'] He died like a brave man in a better cause; for had he
fallen in like manner on the deck of the frigate to which he was just
appointed, his last moments would have been held up by his countrymen as
an example to succeeding heroes.
[Charles John Carey, ninth Viscount Falkland, died from a wound received
in a duel with Mr. A. Powell on Feb. 28, 1809. (See Byron's letter to
his mother, March 6, 1809.) The story of "the agonized voice" may be
traced to a paragraph in the 'Morning Post,' March 2, 1809: "Lord
Falkland, after hearing the surgeon's opinion, said with a faltering
voice and as intelligibly as the agonized state of his body and mind
permitted, "I acquit Mr. Powell of all blame; in this transaction I
alone am culpable.'"]]
[Footnote 104: "Yes: and a precious chase they led me."--B., 1816.]
[Footnote 105: "'Fool' enough, certainly, then, and no wiser
since."--B., 1816.]
[Footnote 106: What would be the sentiments of the Persian Anacreon,
HAFIZ, could he rise from his splendid sepulchre at Sheeraz (where he
reposes with FERDOUSI and SADI, the Oriental Homer and Catullus), and
behold his name assumed by one STOTT of DROMORE, the most impudent and
execrable of literary poachers for the Daily Prints?]
[Footnote 107: Miles Peter Andrews (d. 1824) was the owner of large
powder-mills at Dartford. He was M.P. for Bewdley. He held a good social
position, but his intimate friends were actors and playwrights. His
'Better Late than Never' (which Reynolds and Topham helped him to write)
was played for the first time at Drury Lane, October 17, 1790, with
Kemble as Saville, and Mrs. Jordan as Augusta. He is mentioned in 'The
Baviad', l. 10; and in a note Gifford satirizes his prologue to
'Lorenzo', and describes him as an "industrious paragraph-monger."]]
[Footnote 108: In a manuscript fragment, bound in the same volume as
'British Bards', we find these lines:--
"In these, our times, with daily wonders big,
A Lettered peer is like a lettered pig;
Both know their Alphabet, but who, from thence,
Infers that peers or pigs have manly sense?
Still less that such should woo the graceful nine;
Parnassus was not made for lords and swine."]
[Footnote 109: Wentworth Dillon, 4th Earl of Roscommon (1634-1685),
author of many translations and minor poems, endeavoured (circ. 1663) to
found an English literary academy.]
[Footnote 110: John Sheffield, Earl of Mulgrave (1658), Marquis of
Normanby (1694), Duke of Buckingham (1703) (1649-1721), wrote an 'Essay
upon Poetry', and several other works.]
[Footnote 111: Lines 727-740 were added after 'British Bards' had been
printed, and are included in the First Edition, but the appearance in
'British Bards' of lines 723-726 and 741-746, which have been cut out
from Mr. Murray's MS., forms one of many proofs as to the identity of
the text of the 'MS'. and the printed Quarto.]]
[Footnote 112: Frederick Howard, 5th Earl of Carlisle, K.G. (1748-1825),
Viceroy of Ireland, 1780-1782, and Privy Seal, etc., published
'Tragedies and Poems', 1801. He was Byron's first cousin once removed,
and his guardian. 'Poems Original and Translated,' were dedicated to
Lord Carlisle, and, as an erased MS. addition to 'British Bards'
testifies, he was to have been excepted from the roll of titled
poetasters--
"Ah, who would take their titles from their rhymes?
On 'one' alone Apollo deigns to smile,
And crowns a new Roscommon in Carlisle."
Before, however, the revised Satire was sent to the press, Carlisle
ignored his cousin's request to introduce him on taking his seat in the
House of Lords, and, to avenge the slight, eighteen lines of castigation
supplanted the flattering couplet. Lord Carlisle suffered from a nervous
disorder, and Byron was informed that some readers had scented an
allusion in the words "paralytic puling." "I thank Heaven," he
exclaimed, "I did not know it; and would not, could not, if I had. I
must naturally be the last person to be pointed on defects or maladies."
In 1814 he consulted Rogers on the chance of conciliating Carlisle, and
in 'Childe Harold', iii. 29, he laments the loss of the "young and
gallant Howard" (Carlisle's youngest son) at Waterloo, and admits that
"he did his sire some wrong." But, according to Medwin ('Conversations',
1824, p. 362), who prints an excellent parody on Carlisle's lines
addressed to Lady Holland in 1822, in which he urges her to decline the
legacy of Napoleon's snuff-box, Byron made fun of his "noble relative"
to the end of the chapter ('vide post', p. 370, 'note' 2).]]
[Footnote 113: The Earl of Carlisle has lately published an
eighteen-penny pamphlet on the state of the Stage, and offers his plan
for building a new theatre. It is to be hoped his Lordship will be
permitted to bring forward anything for the Stage--except his own
tragedies. [This pamphlet was entitled 'Thoughts upon the present
condition of the stage, and upon the construction of a new Theatre',
anon. 1808.]
Line 732. None of the earlier editions, including the fifth and Murray,
1831, insert "and" between "petit-maître" and "pamphleteer." No doubt
Byron sounded the final syllable of "maître," 'anglicé' "mailer."]]
[Footnote 114:
"Doff that lion's hide,
And hang a calf-skin on those recreant limbs."