LORD  BYRON  and  his  TIMES
Byron
Documents Biography Criticism
Samuel Rogers and his Contemporaries
Samuel Rogers to Sarah Rogers, 6 December 1821
INTRODUCTION & INDEXES
DOCUMENT INFORMATION
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Preface
Vol. I Contents
Chapter I. 1803-1805.
Chapter II. 1805-1809.
Chapter III. 1810-1812.
Chapter IV. 1813-1814.
Chapter V. 1814-1815.
Chapter VI. 1815-1816.
Chapter VII. 1816-1818.
Chapter VIII. 1818-19.
Chapter IX. 1820-1821.
Chapter X. 1822-24.
Chapter XI. 1825-1827.
Vol. II Contents
Chapter I. 1828-1830.
Chapter II. 1831-34.
Chapter III. 1834-1837.
Chapter IV. 1838-41.
Chapter V. 1842-44.
Chapter VI. 1845-46.
Chapter VII. 1847-50.
Chapter VIII. 1850
Chapter IX. 1851.
Chapter X. 1852-55.
Index
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‘Rome: 6 Dec., 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
LETTERS FROM ROME333
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.
WITH BYRON AT PISA 335

‘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.’