No, no, not that portrait out of my hands—I cannot
bear. I will have it copied for you. I must take it with me to Paris. Thank
you, dear Lady Morgan, for your advice, but
you do not understand me, and I do not wonder you cannot know me. I had
purposed a very pretty Little supper for you. I have permission to see all my
friends here; it is not William’s
house; beside, he said he wished me to see every one, and Lady
—— called and asked me who I wished to see. I shall,
therefore, shake hands with the whole Court Guide before I go. The only
question I want you to solve is, shall I go abroad? Shall I throw myself upon
those who no longer want me, or shall I live
| LORD BYRON AND LADY CAROLINE LAMB. | 207 |
Sir Charles Morgan was most agreeable and good-natured. Faustus is good in its way, but has not all its sublimity; it is like a rainy shore. I admire it because I conceive what I had heard translated elsewhere, but the end particularly is in very contemptible taste. The overture tacked to it is magnificent, the scenery beautiful, parts affecting, and not unlike Lord Byron, that dear, that angel, that mis-guided and mis-guiding Byron, whom I adore, although he left that dreadful legacy on me—my memory. Remember thee—and well.
I hope he and William will find better friends; as to myself, I never can
love anything better than what I thus tell you:—William
Lamb, first; my mother,
second; Byron, third; my boy, fourth; my brother William, fifth; my father and godmother, sixth; my uncle and aunt, my cousin Devonshire, my brother Fred., (myself), my cousins next, and last, my
petit friend, young
Russell, because he is my aunt’s godson;
| 208 | LADY MORGAN'S MEMOIR. |
