Samuel Rogers and his Contemporaries
Samuel Rogers to Sarah Rogers, 6 December 1821
‘My dear Sarah,—You have done it admirably. I wish the printer had
done half as well. Pray see he begins his new paragraphs at the top of a page
thus—in page eight—
332 | ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES | |
‘Day glimmered and I went, a gentle breeze Ruffling the waters of the Leman Lake; |
the second line standing out before the first in the margin. How otherwise
could it he known as a new paragraph? . . . Formerly all new paragraphs began
so, as you will see by turning to any books of poems—see Crowe. Perhaps
it is not worth while to alter the rest. Pray, too, see that he makes the paper
no bigger, or the page, than Crowe or
“Human Life.”
He seems to print fifteen lines, and Crowe, I believe,
prints fourteen; at all events, don’t let it be larger than “Human
Life.” Your criticism is excellent, I wish you gave me more.
‘I hope you have received a letter from Florence, and
another from Rome inclosing “Arqua,”
“Ginevra,” “Florence,” “Don
Garzia.” If that from Florence has failed, pray go to press with
the inclosed and no more, and whenever you are in any doubt pray consult your
own judgment and I shall be satisfied. The paper is so thin that I much fear
the marks on one side will pass for marks on the other, but I shall trust to
your judgment, and pray don’t send me the additional sheets, if you feel
pretty sure about them. If you don’t like “Arqua,” leave it out. If you send me the new sheets, pray
correct them to the full, as two or three days make little or no difference.
But perhaps you have done it and sent them before this arrives. If you find
“Foscari”
forthcoming immediately, don’t wait for the new sheets, though they may
be printed, but let it be published in its present size directly. But, I
suppose, Moore knows pretty well about
them.
‘I came here a fortnight ago, and wrote you a long
account of Rome. Last Sunday was the
ceremony in the Capella Sistina. The Pope did
not perform at high mass, hut as soon as it was over, two Cardinals went out
and brought him in; he carried the Host under the Canopy into the Capella
Paulina, but nobody went in there while he knelt but Lady Abercorn, and she by accident. The man was in the basket
snuffing the lights as before. Somehow or other the whole struck me much less
than formerly; and the singing particularly. But what I saw last Monday far
exceeded my expectations. [To] Frascati, Sir G.
Beaumont and I went together, and there, mounting donkeys, rode
to Tusculum and Grotta Ferrata, through galleries or avenues of ilex and
cypress along those hills, catching the most delightful views of Rome, and the
Campagna, and the villas above and below us. It was sunny and clear (we have
often a July without three such days) and too hot, though it was the 3rd of
December. It was a day I shall never forget, and to be equalled only by the
afternoons I spent with you at Albano and Mola. I am very sorry indeed to hear
of Mrs. W.’s death, it must make a great gap at
Amersham. Your visit will be a great comfort to them. I think I must say
something about Lord Byron, but I
don’t know how. Pray let the following be the note, and pray decide for
me which of the two conclusions you like best. It is unnecessary for me to see
it again.’
He then gives, as a note to the lines—
Down which the grizzly head of old Falieri
Rolled from the block, |
the ‘something about Lord
Byron’—
‘“Of him and his conspiracy I had given a
brief
334 | ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES | |
account; but he is now universally known through
a writer, whose poetical talents command as much the admiration of other
countries as of his own.”’
He adds two other forms of expression, and says—
‘Here are three readings, and pray choose for me. I
think you will choose the last, I don’t care which; and pray spell
Falieri’s name as Lord Byron spells it, with an i or an o, I forget which. In the same manner
I am puzzled about Jackimo. There is no J in the Italian,
but the English would not pronounce it right with an I, and are much perplexed
in reading Shakespeare. I incline to the
old Venetian spelling, Giacomo, so pray, if you approve of
it, alter it back again to that.
‘I am glad Moore came to see you for his sake. . .
.
‘Last night your old friend Mme.
Massena gave a grand concert, and in one of the rooms the
Discobulus was seen. Very few English were there; I was not, having never
called, and perhaps she has forgot my name. The Princess Borghese is here, and has her evenings, but I have not
seen her. For three or four days I have kept very quiet, in consequence of an
unlucky fall with my donkey at Frascati, but am quite well again. Since your
dispatch the day before yesterday, I have seen not a face but Lady Westmoreland’s, who called and sat an
hour last night over my fire to the great interruption of business. I hope I
have left nothing that will perplex you, having read everything over and over
again till I cannot see. Adieu, my dear Sarah. Pray forgive so much trouble, and believe me to be,
‘Ever yours,
S. R.
‘At Frascati, just under the hill, I saw a
beautiful group, which was well worthy of your pencil—two shepherd
boys with their pipes playing before an image of the Virgin in a niche in a
vineyard wall, and a cluster of smiling children of all ages round
them.’
William Crowe (1745-1829)
English poet educated at Winchester and New College Oxford; he was rector of Alton
Barnes, Wiltshire; he is remember for his descriptive poem
Lewesdon
Hill (1788). He corresponded with Samuel Rogers.
Marino Faliero (1285-1355)
Doge of Venice 1354-55; he was executed after joining in a plot against the patricians of
the city.
Anne Jane Hamilton, marchioness of Abercorn [née Gore] (1763-1827)
Daughter of the earl of Arran; in 1783 she married Henry Hatton (d. 1793), in 1800 John
James Hamilton, first marquess of Hamilton. She entertained literary figures at her villa
at Stanmore, among them Lady Morgan.
Thomas Moore (1779-1852)
Irish poet and biographer, author of the
Irish Melodies (1807-34),
The Fudge Family in Paris (1818), and
Lalla
Rookh (1817); he was Byron's close friend and designated biographer.
Pope Pius VII. (1740-1823)
The Pope during the Napoleonic era, 1800-1823.
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).
Sarah Rogers (1772-1855)
Of Regent's Park. the younger sister of the poet Samuel Rogers; she lived with her
brother Henry in Highbury Terrace.