[Footnote 20: "Hell," a gaming-house so called, where you risk little,
and are cheated a good deal. "Club," a pleasant purgatory, where you
lose more, and are not supposed to be cheated at all.]
[Footnote 21:
"Irene had to speak two lines with the bowstring round her neck; but
the audience cried out ['Murder!'] 'Murder!' and she was obliged to go
off the stage alive."
'Boswell's Johnson' [1876, p. 60].
[Irene (first played February 6, 1749) for the future was put to death
behind the scenes. The strangling her, contrary to Horace's rule, 'coram
populo', was suggested by Garrick. (See Davies' 'Life of Garrick'
(1808), i. 157.)]]
[Footnote 22: Matthew Gregory Lewis (1775-1818). ('Vide English Bards,
etc'., l. 265, n. 8.) The character of Hassan, "my misanthropic negro,"
as Lewis called him, was said by the critics of the day to have been
borrowed from Zanga in Young's 'Revenge'. Lewis, in his "Address to the
Reader," quoted by Byron (in 'note' 3), defends the originality of the
conception.]
[Footnote 23: In the postscript to _The Castle Spectre_, Mr. Lewis tells
us, that though blacks were unknown in England at the period of his
action, yet he has made the anachronism to set off the scene: and if he
could have produced the effect "by making his heroine blue,"--I quote
him--"blue he would have made her!" [_The Castle Spectre_, by M.G.
Lewis, Esq., M.P., London, 1798, page 102.]]
[Footnote 24: In 1706 John Dennis, the critic (1657-1734), wrote an
'Essay on the Operas after the Italian manner, which are about to be
established on the English Stage'; to show that they were more immoral
than the most licentious play.]
[Footnote 25: One of the gangways in the Opera House, where the young
men of fashion used to assemble. (See letter to Murray, Nov. 9, 1820;
_Life_, p. 62.)]
[Footnote 26: In the year 1808, happening at the opera to tread on the
toes of a very well-dressed man, I turned round to apologize, when, to
my utter astonishment, I recognized the face of the porter of the very
hotel where I then lodged in Albemarle Street. So here was a gentleman
who ran every morning forty errands for half a crown, throwing away half
a guinea at night, besides the expense of his habiliments, and the hire
of his "Chapeau de Bras."--[_MS. L. (a)_.]]
[Footnote 27: The first theatrical representations, entitled "Mysteries
and Moralities," were generally enacted at Christmas, by monks (as the
only persons who could read), and latterly by the clergy and students of
the universities. The dramatis personae were usually Adam, Pater
Coelestis, Faith, Vice, and sometimes an angel or two; but these were
eventually superseded by 'Gammer Gurton's Needle'.--'Vide' Warton's
'History of English Poetry [passim]'.--['MSS. M., L. (b)'.]]
[Footnote 28: 'Benvolio' [Lord Grosvenor, 'MS. L'. ('b')] does not bet;
but every man who maintains racehorses is a promoter of all the
concomitant evils of the turf. Avoiding to bet is a little pharisaical.
Is it an exculpation? I think not. I never yet heard a bawd praised for
chastity, because 'she herself' did not commit fornication.
[Robert, second Earl Grosvenor (1767-1845), was created Marquis of
Westminster in 1831. Like his father, Gifford's patron, the first Earl
Grosvenor, he was a breeder of racehorses, and a patron of the turf. As
Lord Belgrave, he brought forward a motion for the suppression of Sunday
newspapers, June 11, 1799, denouncing them in a violent speech. The
motion was lost; but many years after, in a speech delivered in the
House of Lords, January 2, 1807, he returned to the charge. (See 'Parl.
Hist'., 34. 1006, 1010; and 'Parl. Deb'., 8. 286.) (For a skit on Lord
Belgrave's sabbatarian views, see Peter Pindar, 'Works' (1812), iv.
519.)]]
[Footnote 29: Samuel Foote (1720-1777), actor and playwright. His solo
entertainments, in 'The Dish of Tea, An Auction of Pictures', 1747-8
(see his comedy 'Taste'), were the precursors of 'Mathews at Home', and
a long line of successors. His farces and curtain-pieces were often
"spiced-up" with more or less malicious character-sketches of living
persons. Among his better known pieces are 'The Minor' (1760),
ridiculing Whitefield and the Methodists, and 'The Mayor of Garratt'
(1763), in which he played the part of Sturgeon (Byron used this piece,
for an illustration in his speech on the Frame-workers Bill, February
27, 1812). 'The Lyar', first played at Covent Garden, January 12, 1762,
was the latest to hold the stage. It was reproduced at the Opera Comique
in 1877.]
[Footnote 30: Henry Carey, poet and musician (d. 1743), a natural son of
George Savile, Marquis of Halifax, was the author of
_Chrononhotonthologos_, "the most tragical tragedy ever yet tragedised
by any company of tragedians," which was first played at the Haymarket,
February 22, 1734. The well-known lines, "Go, call a coach, and let a
coach be called," etc., which Scott prefixed to the first chapter of
_The Antiquary_, are from the last scene, in which Bombardinion fights
with and kills the King Chrononhotonthologos. But his one achievement
was _Sally in our Alley_, of which he wrote both the words and the
music. The authorship of "God Save the King" has been attributed to him,
probably under a misapprehension.]
[Footnote 31: Under Plato's pillow a volume of the 'Mimes' of Sophron
was found the day he died.--'Vide' Barthélémi, De Pauw, or Diogenes
Laërtius, [Lib. iii. p. 168--Chouet 1595] if agreeable. De Pauw calls it
a jest-book. Cumberland, in his 'Observer', terms it moral, like the
sayings of Publius Syrus.]
[Footnote 32: In 1737 the manager of Goodman's Fields Theatre having
brought Sir Robert Walpole a farce called 'The Golden Rump', the
minister detained the copy. He then made extracts of the most offensive
passages, read them to the house, and brought in a bill to limit the
number of playhouses and to subject all dramatic writings to the
inspection of the Lord Chamberlain. Horace Walpole ascribed 'The Golden
Rump' to Fielding, and said that he had found an imperfect copy of the
play among his father's papers. But this has been questioned. (See 'A
Book of the Play', by Dutton Cook (1881), p. 27.)]]
[Footnote 33: His speech on the Licensing Act [in which he opposed the
Bill], is reckoned one of his most eloquent efforts.
[The following sentences have been extracted from the speech which was
delivered:--
"The bill is not only an encroachment upon liberty, it is likewise an
encroachment on property. Wit, my lords, is a sort of property; it is
the property of those who have it, and too often the only property
they have to depend on...
"Those gentlemen who have any such property are all, I hope, our
friends; do not let us subject them to any unnecessary or arbitrary
restraint...
"The stage and the press, my lord, are two of our out-sentries; if we
remove them, if we hoodwink them, if we throw them into fetters, the
enemy may surprise us. Therefore I must now look upon the bill before
us as a step for introducing arbitrary power into this kingdom."
Lord Chesterfield's sentiments with regard to laughter are contained in
an apophthegm, repeated more than once in his correspondence: "The
vulgar laugh aloud, but never smile; on the contrary, people of fashion
often smile, but seldom or never laugh aloud."--'Chesterfield's Letters
to his Godson', Oxford, 1890, p. 27.]]
[Footnote 34: Archer and Squire Sullen are characters in Farquhar's
play (1678-1707), 'The Beaux' Stratagem', March 8, 1707.]]
[Footnote 35: Michael Perez, the "Copper Captain," in [Fletcher's]
'Rule a Wife and Have a Wife' [licensed October 19, 1624].]
[Footnote 36: The Rev. Dr. Francis Willis died in 1807, in the 90th year
of his age. He attended George III. in his first attack of madness in
1788. The power of his eye on other persons is illustrated by a story
related by Frederick Reynolds ('Life and Times', ii. 23), who describes
how Edmund Burke quailed under his look. His son, John Willis, was
entrusted with the entire charge of the king in 1811. Compare Shelley's
'Peter Bell the Third', part vi.--
"Let him shave his head:
Where's Dr. Willis?"
(See, too, 'Bland-Burges Papers' (1885), pp. 113-115, and 'Life of
George IV'., by Percy Fitzgerald (1881), ii. 18.)]]
[Footnote 37: Dr. Johnson was of the like opinion.
"Highwaymen and housebreakers," he says, in his Life of Gay, "seldom
frequent the playhouse, or mingle in any elegant diversion; nor is it
possible for any one to imagine that he may rob with safety, because
he sees Macheath reprieved upon the stage."
'Lives of the Poets', by Samuel Johnson (1890), ii. 266. It was
asserted, on the other hand, by Sir John Fielding, the Bow-street
magistrate, that on every run of the piece, 'The Beggar's Opera', an
increased number of highwaymen were brought to his office; and so strong
was his conviction, that in 1772 he remonstrated against the performance
with the managers of both the houses.]
[Footnote 38: Jerry Collier's controversy with Congreve, etc., on the
subject of the drama, is too well known to require further comment.
[Jeremy Collier (1650-1756), non-juring bishop and divine. The occasion
of his controversy with Congreve was the publication of his 'Short View
of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage' (1697-8).
Congreve, who had been attacked by name, replied in a tract entitled
'Amendments upon Mr. Collier's false and imperfect citations from the'
OLD BATCHELEUR, etc.]]
[Footnote 39: A few months after lines 370-381 were added to 'The
Hints', in September, 1812, Byron, at the request of Lord Holland, wrote
the address delivered on the opening of the theatre, which had been
rebuilt after the fire of February 24, 1809. He subsequently joined the
Committee of Management]
[Footnote 40: Mr. Simeon is the very bully of beliefs, and castigator of
"good works." He is ably supported by John Stickles, a labourer in the
same vineyard:--but I say no more, for, according to Johnny in full
congregation,'"No hopes for them as laughs."'
[The Rev. Charles Simeon (1758-1836) was the leader of the evangelical
movement in Cambridge. The reference may be to the rigour with which he
repelled a charge brought against him by Dr. Edwards, the Master of
Sidney Sussex, that a sermon which he had preached in November, 1809,
savoured of antinomianism. It may be noted that a friend (the Rev. W.
Parish), to whom he submitted the MS. of a rejoinder to Pearson's
'Cautions, etc.', advised him to print it, "especially if you should
rather keep down a lash or two which might irritate." Simeon was
naturally irascible, and, in reply to a friend who had mildly reproved
him for some display of temper, signed himself, in humorous penitence,
"Charles proud and irritable." (See 'Memoirs of the Life of the Rev. Mr.
Simeon', by Rev. W. Carus (1847), pp. 195, 282, etc.)]]
[Footnote 41: 'Baxter's Shove to heavy-a--d Christians', the veritable
title of a book once in good repute, and likely enough to be so again.
["Baxter" is a slip of the pen. The tract or sermon, 'An Effectual Shove
to the heavy-arse Christian', was, according to the title-page, written
by William Bunyan, minister of the gospel in South Wales, and "printed
for the author" in London in 1768.]]
[Footnote 42: Ambrose Philips (1675?-1749) published his 'Epistle to the
Earl of Dorset' and his 'Pastorals' in 1709. It is said that Pope
attacked him in his satires in consequence of an article in the
'Guardian', in which the 'Pastorals' were unduly extolled. His verses,
addressed to the children of his patron, Lord Carteret, were parodied by
Henry Carey, in 'Namby Pamby, or a Panegyric on the New
Versification'.]
[Footnote 43: See letters to Murray, Sept. 15, 1817; Jan. 25, 1819; Mar.
29, 1820; Nov. 4, 1820; etc. See also the two 'Letters' against Bowles,
written at Ravenna, Feb. 7 and Mar. 21, 1821, in which Byron's
enthusiastic reverence for Pope is the dominant note.]
[Footnote 44: As famous a tonsor as Licinus himself, and better paid
[and may be like him a senator, one day or other: no disparagement to
the High Court of Parliament.--'MS.L.(b)'], and may, like him, be one
day a senator, having a better qualification than one half of the heads
he crops, viz.--Independence.
[According to the Scholiast, Cassar made his barber Licinus a senator,
"quod odisset Pompeium." Blake (see Letter to Murray, Nov. 9, 1820) was,
presumably, Benjamin Blake, a perfumer, who lived at 46, Park Street,
Grosvenor Square.]]
[Footnote 45: There was some foundation for this. When Wordsworth and
his sister Dorothy called on Daniel Stuart, editor of the 'Courier', at
his fine new house in Harley Street, the butler would not admit them
further than the hall, and was not a little taken aback when he
witnessed the deference shown to these strangely-attired figures by his
master.--Personal Reminiscence of the late Miss Stuart, of 106, Harley
Street.]
[Footnote 46:
"'Bayes'. If I am to write familiar things, as sonnets to Armida, and
the like, I make use of stewed prunes only; but when I have a grand
design in hand, I ever take physic and let blood; for when you would
have pure swiftness of thought, and fiery flights of fancy, you must
have a care of the pensive part. In fine, you must purge."
'Rehearsal', act ii. sc. 1.
This passage is instanced by Johnson as a proof that "Bayes" was a
caricature of Dryden.
"Bayes, when he is to write, is blooded and purged; this, as Lamotte
relates, ... was the real practice of the poet."
'Lives of the Poets' 1890), i. 388.]]
[Footnote 47: Cant term for £100,000.]
[Footnote 48: I have not the original by me, but the Italian translation
runs as follows:--
"E una cosa a mio credere molto stravagante, che un Padre desideri, o
permetta, che suo figliuolo coltivi e perfezioni questo talento."
A little further on:
"Si trovano di rado nel Parnaso le miniere d' oro e d' argento,"
'Educazione dei Fanciulli del Signer Locke' (Venice, 1782), ii. 87.
["If the child have a poetic vein, it is to me the strangest thing in
the world, that the father should desire or suffer it to be cherished
or improved."--"It is very seldom seen, that any one discovers mines
of gold or silver on Parnassus."
'Some Thoughts concerning Education', by John Locke (1880), p. 152.]]
[Footnote 49: "Iro pauperior:" a proverb: this is the same beggar who
boxed with Ulysses for a pound of kid's fry, which he lost and half a
dozen teeth besides. (See 'Odyssey', xviii. 98.)]
[Footnote 50: The Irish gold mine in Wicklow, which yields just ore
enough to swear by, or gild a bad guinea.]
[Footnote 51: As Mr. Pope took the liberty of damning Homer, to whom he
was under great obligations--"'And Homer (damn him!) calls'"--it may be
presumed that anybody or anything may be damned in verse by poetical
licence [I shall suppose one may damn anything else in verse with
impunity.--'MS. L. (b)']; and, in case of accident, I beg leave to plead
so illustrious a precedent.]
[Footnote 52: For the story of Billy Havard's tragedy, see Davies's
'Life of Garrick'. I believe it is 'Regulus', or 'Charles the First'
[Lincoln's Inn Fields, March 1, 1737]. The moment it was known to be his
the theatre thinned, and the book-seller refused to give the customary
sum for the copyright. [See 'Life of Garrick', by Thomas Davies (1808),
ii. 205.]
[Footnote 53: Thomas Erskine (third son of the fifth Earl of Buchan)
afterwards Lord Erskine (1750-1823), Lord Chancellor (1806-7), an
eloquent orator, a supremely great advocate, was, by comparison, a
failure as a judge. His power over a jury, "his little twelvers," as he
would sometimes address them, was practically unlimited. (See
'Recollections of the Table-Talk of Samuel Rogers' (1856), p. 126.)]]
[Footnote 54: Lines 589-626 are not in the 'Murray MS'., nor in either
of the 'Lovelace MSS'.]]
[Footnote 55: To the Eclectic or Christian Reviewers I have to return
thanks for the fervour of that charity which, in 1809, induced them to
express a hope that a thing then published by me might lead to certain
consequences, which, although natural enough, surely came but rashly
from reverend lips. I refer them to their own pages, where they
congratulated themselves on the prospect of a tilt between Mr. Jeffrey
and myself, from which some great good was to accrue, provided one or
both were knocked on the head. Having survived two years and a half
those "Elegies" which they were kindly preparing to review, I have no
peculiar gusto to give them "so joyful a trouble," except, indeed, "upon
compulsion, Hal;" but if, as David says in 'The Rivals', it should come
to "bloody sword and gun fighting," we "won't run, will we, Sir Lucius?"
[Byron, writing at Athens, away from his books, misquotes 'The Rivals'.
The words, "Sir Lucius, we--we--we--we won't run," are spoken by Acres,
not by David.] I do not know what I had done to these Eclectic
gentlemen: my works are their lawful perquisite, to be hewn in pieces
like Agag, if it seem meet unto them: but why they should be in such a
hurry to kill off their author, I am ignorant. "The race is not always
to the swift, nor the battle to the strong:" and now, as these
Christians have "smote me on one cheek," I hold them up the other; and,
in return for their good wishes, give them an opportunity of repeating
them. Had any other set of men expressed such sentiments, I should have
smiled, and left them to the "recording angel;" but from the pharisees
of Christianity decency might be expected. I can assure these brethren,
that, publican and sinner as I am, I would not have treated "mine
enemy's dog thus." To show them the superiority of my brotherly love, if
ever the Reverend Messrs. Simeon or Ramsden should be engaged in such a
conflict as that in which they requested me to fall, I hope they may
escape with being "winged" only, and that Heaviside may be at hand to
extract the ball.
["If, however, the noble Lord and the learned advocate have the
courage requisite to sustain their mutual insults, we shall probably
soon hear the explosions of another kind of 'paper' war, after the
fashion of the ever-memorable duel which the latter is said to have
fought, or seemed to fight, with 'Little' Moore. We confess there is
sufficient provocation, if not in the critique, at least in the
satire, to urge a 'man of honour' to defy his assailant to mortal
combat, and perhaps to warrant a man of law to 'declare' war in
Westminster Hall. Of this we shall no doubt hear more in due time"
('Eclectic Review', May, 1809). Byron pretends to believe that the
"Christian" Reviewers, actuated by stern zeal for piety, were making
mischief in sober earnest. "Heaviside" (see last line of Byron's note)
was the surgeon in attendance at the duel between Lord Falkland and Mr.
A. Powell. (See 'English Bards', 1. 686, note 2.)]]
[Footnote 56: _Macbeth_, act v. sc. 7.]
[Footnote 57: See the critique of the 'Edinburgh Review' on 'Hours of
Idleness', January, 1808.]
[Footnote 58: "Invenies alium, si te hic fastidit, Alexin."]
[Footnote 59: Here 'MS. L.' (a) recommences.]
[Footnote 60: John Jackson (1769-1845), better known as "Gentleman"
Jackson, was champion of England from 1795 to 1803. His three fights
were against Fewterel (1788), George Ingleston, nicknamed "the Brewer"
(1789), and Mendoza (1795). In 1803 he retired from the ring. His rooms
at 13, Bond Street, became the head-quarters of the Pugilistic Club.
(See Pierce Egan's 'Life in London', pp. 252-254, where the rooms are
described, and a drawing of them by Cruikshank is given.) Jackson's
character stood high.
"From the highest to the lowest person in the Sporting World, his
'decision' is law."
He was Byron's guest at Cambridge, Newstead, and Brighton; received from
him many letters; and is described by him, in a note to 'Don Juan' (xi.
19), as:
"my old friend and corporeal pastor and master."]
[Footnote 61: Mr. Southey has lately tied another canister to his tail
in 'The Curse of Kehama', maugre the neglect of 'Madoc', etc., and has
in one instance had a wonderful effect. A literary friend of mine,
walking out one lovely evening last summer, on the eleventh bridge of
the Paddington canal, was alarmed by the cry of "one in jeopardy:" he
rushed along, collected a body of Irish haymakers (supping on
butter-milk in an adjacent paddock), procured three rakes, one eel-spear
and a landing net, and at last ('horresco referens') pulled out--his own
publisher. The unfortunate man was gone for ever, and so was a large
quarto wherewith he had taken the leap, which proved, on inquiry, to
have been Mr. Southey's last work. Its "alacrity of sinking" was so
great, that it has never since been heard of; though some maintain that
it is at this moment concealed at Alderman Birch's pastry premises,
Cornhill. Be this as it may, the coroner's inquest brought in a verdict
of "'Felo de bibliopolâ'" against a "quarto unknown;" and circumstantial
evidence being since strong against 'The Curse of Kehama' (of which the
above words are an exact description), it will be tried by its peers
next session, in Grub-street--Arthur, Alfred, Davideis, Richard Coeur de
Lion, Exodus, Exodiad, Epigoniad, Calvary, Fall of Cambria, Siege of
Acre, Don Roderick, and Tom Thumb the Great, are the names of the twelve
jurors. The judges are Pye, Bowles, and the bell-man of St. Sepulchre's.
The same advocates, pro and con, will be employed as are now engaged in
Sir F. Burdett's celebrated cause in the Scotch courts. The public
anxiously await the result, and all 'live' publishers will be subpoenaed
as witnesses.--But Mr. Southey has published 'The Curse of Kehama',--an
inviting title to quibblers. By the bye, it is a good deal beneath Scott
and Campbell, and not much above Southey, to allow the booby Ballantyne
to entitle them, in the 'Edinburgh Annual Register' (of which, by the
bye, Southey is editor) "the grand poetical triumvirate of the day."
But, on second thoughts, it can be no great degree of praise to be the
one-eyed leaders of the blind, though they might as well keep to
themselves "Scott's thirty thousand copies sold," which must sadly
discomfort poor Southey's unsaleables. Poor Southey, it should seem, is
the "Lepidus" of this poetical triumvirate. I am only surprised to see
him in such good company.
"Such things, we know, are neither rich nor rare,
But wonder how the devil 'he' came there."