LORD  BYRON  and  his  TIMES
Byron
Documents Biography Criticism
Fifty Years’ Recollections, Literary and Personal
INTRODUCTION & INDEXES
DOCUMENT INFORMATION
GO TO PAGE NUMBER:
Preface
Vol. I Contents
Chapter I.
Chapter II.
Chapter III.
Chapter IV.
Chapter V.
Chapter VI.
Chapter VII.
Chapter VIII.
Chapter IX.
Chapter X.
Vol. II Contents
Chapter I.
Chapter II.
Chapter III.
Chapter IV.
Chapter V.
Chapter VI.
Chapter VII.
Chapter VIII.
Vol. III Contents
Chapter I.
Chapter II.
Chapter III.
Chapter IV.
Chapter V.
Chapter VI.
Chapter VII.
Chapter VIII.
Chapter IX.
Chapter X.
Creative Commons License

Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
Produced by CATH
 

“I beg to inform you that you have been hoaxed. A correspondent has in name addressed M. La Porte in what he calls “The Lament of the Orchestra.” In my humble opinion he has made a lamentable affair of it. If the harmony of the present band of the King’s
LITERARY AND PERSONAL.217
Theatre is to be judged by your contributor’s verses, the sooner Messrs. Linley, Mackintosh, and Nicholson, resume their stations in front of the footlights, the better it will be for the establishment. I have no sort of objection to being answered by any of your correspondents. Your contributor* (the Alpha of your poetical assistants) has had his Araminta answered after a fashion. But I am not aware that any virtuous son of the Muses has hitherto assumed his signature. Not to be too hard on your pseudo-correspondent, I beg only to quote—
Great Tweedledum la Porte we pray,
Consider our dire necessity.

“I will put it to the ‘candid and enlightened public,’ whether your Argus eyes must not have been closed when you allowed such an effusion to pass, as that of the subscriber to this epistle. The old college verses which I will not repeat, tell us an epigram should be like a jelly bag ‘pointed at the end.’ So, in my opinion, should a London Lyric. When I was in the habit of writing epilogues, Mr. Edwin used to say—‘My dear Sir, whatever you do, give me a good exit.’ The rule holds good with all comic effusions. What then shall we say to your correspondent, whose lament concludes:—
“As vain Duke Newcastle may try
To swear this isle to bigotry,
The prayer dispersed in smoke.”

“I formerly tried my hand at imitating the modern

* The late Mr. Praed of Cambridge.

218FIFTY YEARS’ RECOLLECTIONS,  
poets, and I must confess, that all this appears as much a resemblance to me as Pedrillo bore to his master in the doublet of Don Ferdinand.

“Re-assuring you, Sir, as Partridge has it, ‘that this Mr. Jones is not that Mr. Jones.’ I subscribe myself, your accustomed contributor and well-wisher,

“The Author of The London Lyrics.”