Letters and Journals of Lord Byron
Lord Byron to R. C. Dallas, 7 September 1811
“Newstead Abbey. September 7th, 1811.
“As Gifford has been
ever my ‘Magnus Apollo,’ any approbation, such as you
mention, would, of course, be more welcome than ‘all Bokara’s ![]()
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vaunted gold, than all the gems of Samarkand.’
But I am sorry the MS. was shown to him in such a manner, and I had written to Murray to say as much, before I was aware that it was
too late.
“Your objection to the expression ‘central
line,’ I can only meet by saying that, before Childe
Harold left England, it was his full intention to traverse Persia, and
return by India, which he could not have done without passing the equinoctial.
“The other errors you mention, I must correct in the
progress through the press. I feel honoured by the wish of such men that the poem should
be continued, but to do that, I must return to Greece and Asia; I must have a warm sun
and a blue sky; I cannot describe scenes so dear to me by a sea-coal fire. I had
projected an additional Canto when I was in the Troad and Constantinople, and if I saw
them again, it would go on; but under existing circumstances and sensations, I have neither harp, ‘heart, nor voice’ to
proceed. I feel that you are all right as to the metaphysical
part; but I also feel that I am sincere, and that if I am only to write
‘ad captandum vulgus,’
I might as well edit a magazine at once, or spin canzonettas for Vauxhall.
* * * * *
“My work must make its way as well as it can; I know I have
every thing against me, angry poets and prejudices; but if the poem is a poem, it will surmount these obstacles, and if not, it deserves
its fate. Your friend’s Ode I have read—it is no great
compliment to pronounce it far superior to S * *’s on
the same subject, or to the merits of the new
Chancellor. It is evidently the production of a man of taste, and a poet,
though I should not be willing to say it was fully equal to what might be expected from
the author of ‘Horæ
Ionicæ.’ I thank you for it, and that is more than I would do
for any other Ode of the present day.
“I am very sensible of your good wishes, and, indeed, I have
need of them. My whole life has been at variance with propriety, not to say decency; my
circumstances are become involved; my friends are dead or estranged, and my existence a
dreary void. In Matthews I have lost my
‘guide, philosopher, and friend;’ In Wingfield a friend only, but one whom I could have wished to have
preceded in his long journey.
“Matthews was indeed
an extraordinary man; it has not entered ![]()
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into the heart of
a stranger to conceive such a man; there was the stamp of immortality in all he said or
did; and now what is he? When we see such men pass away and be no more—men, who seem
created to display what the Creator could make his creatures,
gathered into corruption, before the maturity of minds that might have been the pride of
posterity, what are we to conclude? For my own part, I am bewildered. To me he was much,
to Hobhouse every thing.—My poor
Hobhouse doted on Matthews. For me, I did
not love quite so much as I honoured him; I was indeed so sensible of his infinite
superiority, that though I did not envy, I stood in awe of it. He,
Hobhouse, Davies, and
myself, formed a coterie of our own at Cambridge and elsewhere.
Davies is a wit and man of the world, and feels as much as such
a character can do; but not as Hobhouse has been affected.
Davies, who is not a scribbler, has always beaten us all in the
war of words, and by his colloquial powers at once delighted and kept us in order.
H. and myself always had the worst of it with the other two; and
even M. yielded to the dashing vivacity of S.
D. But I am talking to you of men, or boys, as if you cared about such
beings.
“I expect mine agent down on the 14th to proceed to
Lancashire, where, I hear from all quarters, that I have a very valuable property in
coals, &c. I then intend to accept an invitation to Cambridge in October, and shall,
perhaps, run up to town. I have four invitations—to Wales, Dorset, Cambridge, and
Chester; but I must be a man of business. I am quite alone, as these long letters sadly
testify. I perceive, by referring to your letter, that the Ode is from the author; make
my thanks acceptable to him. His muse is worthy a nobler theme. You will write, as
usual, I hope. I wish you a good evening, and am, &c.”
Robert Charles Dallas (1754-1824)
English poet, novelist, and translator who corresponded with Byron. His sister Charlotte
Henrietta Dallas (d. 1793) married Captain George Anson Byron (1758-1793); their son George
Anson Byron (1789-1868) inherited Byron's title in 1824.
Scrope Berdmore Davies (1782-1852)
Byron met his bosom friend while at Cambridge. Davies, a professional gambler, lent Byron
funds to pay for his travels in Greece and Byron acted as second in Davies' duels.
William Gifford (1756-1826)
Poet, scholar, and editor who began as a shoemaker's apprentice; after Oxford he
published
The Baviad (1794),
The Maeviad
(1795), and
The Satires of Juvenal translated (1802) before becoming
the founding editor of the
Quarterly Review (1809-24).
John Cam Hobhouse, baron Broughton (1786-1869)
Founder of the Cambridge Whig Club; traveled with Byron in the orient, radical MP for
Westminster (1820); Byron's executor; after a long career in politics published
Some Account of a Long Life (1865) later augmented as
Recollections of a Long Life, 6 vols (1909-1911).
Charles Skinner Matthews (1785-1811)
The libertine friend of Byron and Hobhouse at Trinity College, Cambridge; he was drowned
in the Cam.
John Murray II (1778-1843)
The second John Murray began the
Quarterly Review in 1809 and
published works by Scott, Byron, Austen, Crabbe, and other literary notables.
William Smyth (1765-1849)
The son of a Liverpool banker, he was educated at Eton and Peterhouse, Cambridge, and was
Professor of Modern History at Cambridge (1807). He published of
English
Lyricks (1797) and
Lectures on Modern History
(1840).
John Wingfield (1791-1811)
Byron's schoolmate at Harrow was the son of Richard Wingfield, fourth Viscount
Powerscourt. He entered the Coldstream Guards and died of fever at Coimbra.
Waller Rodwell Wright (1775-1826)
British consul-general for the Ionian Isles (1800-04), president of the court of appeals
at Malta, friend of Robert Charles Dallas; author of
Ionicae: a Poem
descriptive of the Ionian Islands (1809).
