"June 27. 1814.
"You could not have made me a more acceptable present than
Jacqueline,--she is all grace, and softness, and poetry; there is
so much of the last, that we do not feel the want of story, which
is simple, yet _enough_. I wonder that you do not oftener unbend to
more of the same kind. I have some sympathy with the _softer_
affections, though very little in _my_ way, and no one can depict
them so truly and successfully as yourself. I have half a mind to
pay you in kind, or rather _un_kind, for I have just 'supped full
of horror' in two cantos of darkness and dismay.
"Do you go to Lord Essex's to-night? if so, will you let me call
for you at your own hour? I dined with Holland-house yesterday at
Lord Cowper's; my Lady very gracious, which she can be more than
any one when she likes. I was not sorry to see them again, for I
can't forget that they have been very kind to me. Ever yours most
truly,
"BN.
"P.S. Is there any chance or possibility of making it up with Lord
Carlisle, as I feel disposed to do any thing reasonable or
unreasonable to effect it? I would before, but for the 'Courier,'
and the possible misconstructions at such a time. Perpend,
pronounce."
* * * * *
On my return to London, for a short time, at the beginning of July, I
found his poem of 'Lara,' which he had begun at the latter end of May,
in the hands of the printer, and nearly ready for publication. He had,
before I left town, repeated to me, as we were on our way to some
evening party, the first one hundred and twenty lines of the poem, which
he had written the day before,--at the same time giving me a general
sketch of the characters and the story.
His short notes to Mr. Murray, during the printing of this work, are of
the same impatient and whimsical character as those, of which I have
already given specimens, in my account of his preceding publications:
but, as matter of more interest now presses upon us, I shall forbear
from transcribing them at length. In one of them he says, "I have just
corrected some of the most horrible blunders that ever crept into a
proof:"--in another, "I hope the next proof will be better; this was one
which would have consoled Job, if it had been of his 'enemy's book:'"
--a third contains only the following words: "Dear sir, you demanded
more _battle_--there it is.
"Yours," &c.
The two letters that immediately follow were addressed to me, at this
time, in town.