H. Marshall, M.D.: Ode on the Burial of Sir John Moore

THE COURIER.

No. 10,287.

WEDNESDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 3, 1824.

Price 7D.

ODE ON THE BURIAL OF SIR JOHN MOORE.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE COURIER.

J. S. Taylor, Lord Byron and Charles Wolfe

Globe & Traveller, Ballad of Sir John Moore

Sir,—Permit me, through the medium of our highly respectable journal (which I have chosen as the channel of this communication, from my having been a subscriber to it for the last fifteen years), to observe, that the statement lately published in the Morning Chronicle, the writer of which ascribes the lines of the burial of Sir John Moore to Woolf, is false, and as barefaced a fabrication as ever was foisted on the public. The lines in question are not written by Woolf, nor by Hailey, nor is Deacoll the author, but they were composed by me. I published them originally, some years ago, in the Durham County Advertiser, a journal in which I have at different times inserted several poetical trifles, as “The Prisoner’s Prayer to Sleep”—“Lines on the lamented Death of Benjamin Galley, Esq.” and some other effusions.

I should not, Sir, have thought the lines on Sir John Moore’s funeral worth owning, had not the false statement of the Chronicle met my eye. I can prove, by the most incontestable evidence, the truth of what I have asserted. The first copy of my lines was given by me to my friend and relation, Capt. Bell, and it is in his possession at present; it agrees perfectly with the copy now in circulation, with this exception—it does not contain the stanzas commencing with “Few and short,”" which I added afterwards at the suggestion of the Rev. Dr. Alderson, of Butterby.

I am, Sir, yours &c. H. Marshall, M.D.

South-street, Durham, Nov. 1, 1824.

John Sydney Taylor, “Lord Byron and the late Rev. Charles Wolfe” in Morning Chronicle No. 17,327 (29 October 1824)

Sir—If the fame of men of genius be worth any thing in a public point of view, it is of some consequence that it should be rightly appropriated. A character bold and splendid enough to command the admiration of men, often absorbs the just claims of more retiring merit. Anonymous poetry of a high order is ever attributed to one of the popular bards of the day, as every smart saying, however humble its origin, is readily ascribed to some celebrated wit. In The Chronicle of the 25th instant, copious extracts appeared from Captain Medwin’s Conversations of Lord Byron. Through that medium I became acquainted with the existence of an important error, which I feel it an act of justice to rectify as extensively as it has been circulated. The mistake into which Captain Medwin falls inspecting the Author of the Ode on Sir John Moore, affords a striking instance of the fallibility of literary inferences. In correcting that mistake, I discharge a duty so the memory of an individual, who, had his life been spared, would have been one of the ornaments of the age, which now does not know him; and at the same time, I think it of moment that public opinion should be set right on a subject which was important enough to interest the poetic sympathies of Byron. . . .

Anonymous, “Ballad on Sir John Moore” in Globe and Traveller No. 6842 (4 November 1824)

There is something very poetical in the whole dispute. This pulling and hauling at a disputed ode reminds us of the battle over the dead body of Cebriones, in the 16th book of the Iliad. We hope, for the sake of public merriment, that the combat is not at an end, and that the Doctor will come forth with some of the other little infusions which he has composed, and purge himself from the maculæ which Mr. S. Taylor endeavours to attach to the surface of his poetical reputation. We would not prescribe to him;—but we should suggest to him, in the friendly spirit of the Reverend Doctor Alderson, of Butterby, to which we are indebted for half the present ode, that he should double it;—repetatur dosis. The cordial manner in which it will be received by the public, will be the best balm for his wounded feelings. and act as a lenitive upon that irritation which (whatever predisposing causes may have existed) Mr. Taylor’s cataplasm seems to have excited. . . .

William Frederick Deacon (1799-1845) English poet, schoolmaster, and literary correspondent for The Sun; he published a collection of parodies, Warreniana (1824).

William Hayley (1745-1820) English poet, patron of George Romney, William Cowper, and William Blake. His best-known poem, Triumphs of Temper (1781) was several times reprinted. Robert Southey said of him, “everything about that man is good except his poetry.”

Charles Wolfe (1791-1823) Irish clergyman and poet whose anonymous ode on the death of Sir John Moore was reprinted throughout the nineteenth century.

Morning Chronicle. (1769-1862). James Perry was proprietor of this London daily newspaper from 1789-1821; among its many notable poetical contributors were Coleridge, Southey, Lamb, Rogers, and Campbell.

Charles Wolfe (1791-1823) “The Burial of Sir John Moore” in Newry Telegraph. (1817). This notable anthology poem was more widely disseminated by Walter Scott in the Edinburgh Annual Register; its attribution was contested until the 1840s.

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Source Description:

Author: H. Marshall, M.D.

Title: “Ode on the Burial of Sir John Moore” in The Courier. No. 10,287 (3 November 1824).

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Series: Lord Byron and his Times: http://lordbyron.org

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