Letters and Journals of Lord Byron
Lord Byron to R. C. Dallas, 28 June 1811
“Volage Frigate, at sea, June 28th, 1811.
“After two years’ absence (to a day, on the 2d of July,
before which we shall not arrive at Portsmouth), I am retracing my way to England.
* * * * * *
*
“I am coming back with little prospect of pleasure at home,
and with a body a little shaken by one or two smart fevers, but a spirit I hope yet ![]()
| A. D. 1811. | LIFE OF LORD BYRON. | 259 |
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unbroken. My affairs, it seems, are considerably involved,
and much business must be done with lawyers, colliers, farmers, and creditors. Now this,
to a man who hates bustle as he hates a bishop, is a serious concern. But enough of my
home department.
* * * * * *
*
“My Satire, it
seems, is in a fourth edition, a success rather above the middling run, but not much for
a production which, from its topics, must be temporary, and of course be successful at
first, or not at all. At this period, when I can think and act more coolly, I regret
that I have written it, though I shall probably find it forgotten by all except those
whom it has offended.
“Yours and Pratt’s protégé, Blackett, the cobbler, is dead, in spite of his rhymes,
and is probably one of the instances where death has saved a man from damnation. You
were the ruin of that poor fellow amongst you: had it not been for his patrons, he might
now have been in very good plight, shoe- (not verse-) making: but you have made him
immortal with a vengeance. I write this, supposing poetry, patronage, and strong waters
to have been the death of him. If you are in town in or about the beginning of July, you
will find me at Dorant’s, in Albemarle-street, glad to see you. I have an imitation of Horace’s Art of
Poetry ready for Cawthorn, but
don’t let that deter you, for I sha’n’t inflict it upon you. You know
I never read my rhymes to visitors. I shall quit town in a few days for Notts., and
thence to Rochdale. Yours, &c.”
Joseph Blacket (1786-1810)
English shoemaker-poet;
Specimens of the Poetry of Joseph Blacket
(1809) was published under the patronage of Samuel Jackson Pratt; in failing health he was
later supported by Sir Ralph Milbanke, whose gamekeeper was a relation.
James Cawthorne (1832 fl.)
London bookseller who published Byron's
English Bards and Scotch
Reviewers (1809); he had a shop at 132 Strand from 1810-32.
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.
Horace (65 BC-8 BC)
Roman lyric poet; author of
Odes,
Epistles, Satires, and the
Ars Poetica.
Samuel Jackson Pratt [Courtney Melmoth] (1749-1814)
English miscellaneous writer who abandoned a clerical career to become an actor and
voluminous writer of sentimental literature; regarded as a charlatan by many who knew him,
Pratt acquired a degree of respectability in his latter years. He patronized the poetical
shoemaker-poet Joseph Blacket.
Horace (65 BC-8 BC)
Ars Poetica. (10 BC c.). A verse treatise cast as an Epistle to the Pisos; it was edited with a substantial
commentary by Richard Hurd (1749).
