LORD  BYRON  and  his  TIMES
Byron
Documents Biography Criticism
Recollections of the Life of Lord Byron
R. C. Dallas to Lord Byron, 7 February 1809
INTRODUCTION & INDEXES
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Table of Contents
Preliminary Statement
Chapter I
Chapter II
Chapter III
Chapter IV
Chapter V
Chapter VI
Chapter VII
Chapter VIII
Chapter IX
Chapter X
Chapter XI
Chapter XII
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RECOLLECTIONS

OF THE

LIFE OF LORD BYRON,


FROM THE YEAR

1808 TO THE END OF 1814;


EXHIBITING


HIS EARLY CHARACTER AND OPINIONS, DETAILING THE PROGRESS OF HIS
LITERARY CAREER, AND INCLUDING VARIOUS UNPUBLISHED
PASSAGES OF HIS WORKS.


TAKEN FROM AUTHENTIC DOCUMENTS.
IN THE POSSESSION OF THE AUTHOR.


BY THE LATE
R. C. DALLAS, Esq.


TO WHICH IS PREFIXED


AN ACCOUNT OF THE CIRCUMSTANCES LEADING TO THE SUPPRESSION
OF LORD BYRON’S CORRESPONDENCE WITH THE AUTHOR,
AND HIS LETTERS TO HIS MOTHER, LATELY
ANNOUNCED FOR PUBLICATION.




LONDON:

PRINTED FOR CHARLES KNIGHT, PALL-MALL-EAST.

MDCCCXXIV.

“On another perusal of the objectionable note, I find that the omission of two lines only would render it inoffensive—but, as you please.

I observed to you that in the opening of the Poem there appears to be a sudden stop with Dryden. I still feel the gap there; and wish you would add a couple of lines for the purpose of connecting the sense, saying that Otway and Congreve had wove mimic scenes, and Waller tuned his lyre to love. If you do, “But why these names, &c.” would follow well—and it
LIFE OF LORD BYRON43
is perhaps the more requisite as you lash our present Dramatists*.
Half Tweed combin’d his waves to form a tear,
will perhaps strike you, on reconsidering the line, to want alteration. You may make the river-god act without cutting him in two: you may make him ruffle half his stream to yield a tear†.

‘Hoyle, whose learned page, &c.’ The pronoun is an identification of the antecedent Hoyle, which is not your meaning—say, Not he whose learned page, &c.
Earth’s chief dictatress, Ocean’s lonely queen”—
The primary and obvious sense of lonely is solitary, which does not preclude the idea

* He inserted the following couplet—
Then Congreve’s scenes could cheer, or Otway’s melt,
For nature then an English audience felt.

† The line was printed thus—
Tweed ruffled half his waves to form a tear.

44 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE
of the ocean having other queens. You may have some authority for the use of the word in the acceptation you here give it, but, like the custom in Denmark, I should think it more honoured in the breach than the observance. Only offers its service; or why not change the epithet altogether*?

I mention these little points to you now, because there is time to do as you please. I hope to call on you to-morrow; if I do not, it will be because I am disappointed of the proof.”