Samuel Rogers and his Contemporaries
Lord Byron to Samuel Rogers, [7 June 1814?]
‘My dear Rogers,—Sheridan
was yesterday at first too sober to remember your invitation, but in the dregs
of the third bottle he fished up
his memory and found that he had a party at home. I left and leave any other
day to him and you, save Monday, and some yet undefined dinner at Burdett’s. Do you go to-night to
Lord Eardley’s, and if you do,
shall I call for you (anywhere), it will give me great pleasure?
‘Ever yours entire,
B.
‘P.S. The Staël out-talked Whitbread, overwhelmed his spouse, was ironed by Sheridan, confounded Sir
Humphrey, and utterly perplexed your slave. The rest (great
names in the Red-book, nevertheless) were mere segments of the circle.
Ma’mselle danced a Russ saraband with great vigour, grace, and
expression, though not very pretty. . . .’
Sir Francis Burdett, fifth baronet (1770-1844)
Whig MP for Westminster (1807-1837) who was imprisoned on political charges in 1810 and
again in 1820; in the 1830s he voted with the Conservatives.
Sampson Eardley, first baron Eardley (1744-1824)
The son of Sampson Gideon, a West India merchant; he was a Jewish stockbroker of
Portuguese descent, created baronet in 1759, MP for Coventry (1784, 1790), raised to the
peerage in 1789.
Samuel Rogers (1763-1855)
English poet, banker, and aesthete, author of the ever-popular
Pleasures of Memory (1792),
Columbus (1810),
Jaqueline (1814), and
Italy (1822-28).
Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751-1816)
Anglo-Irish playwright, author of
The School for Scandal (1777),
Whig MP and ally of Charles James Fox (1780-1812).
Germaine de Staël (1766-1817)
French woman of letters; author of the novel
Corinne, ou L'Italie
(1807) and
De l'Allemagne (1811); banned from Paris by Napoleon, she
spent her later years living in Germany, Britain, and Switzerland.
Samuel Whitbread (1764-1815)
The son of the brewer Samuel Whitbread (1720-96); he was a Whig MP for Bedford, involved
with the reorganization of Drury Lane after the fire of 1809; its financial difficulties
led him to suicide.