Letters and Journals of Lord Byron
Lord Byron to Thomas Moore, 8 September 1813
“I am sorry to see Tod. again so soon, for fear your scrupulous conscience should have
prevented you from fully availing yourself of his spoils. By this coach I send you a
copy of that awful pamphlet ‘the
Giaour,’ which has never procured me half so high a compliment as your
modest alarm. You will (if inclined in an evening) perceive that I have added much in
quantity,—a circumstance which may truly diminish your modesty upon the subject.
“You stand certainly in great need of a ‘lift’
with Mackintosh. My dear Moore, you strangely underrate yourself. I should
conceive it an affectation in any other; but I think I know you well enough to believe
that you don’t know your own value. However, ’tis a fault that generally
mends; and, in your case, it really ought. I have heard him speak of you as highly as
your wife could wish; and enough to give all your friends the jaundice.
“Yesterday I had a letter from Ali Pacha! brought by Doctor Holland, who is just returned from Albania. It is in Latin, and
begins ‘Excellentissime, nec non Carissime,’
and ends about a gun he wants made for him;—it is signed ‘Ali Vizir.’ What
do you think he has ![]()
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been about? H. tells me that, last
spring, he took a hostile town, where, forty-two years ago, his mother and sisters were
treated as Miss Cunigunde was by the Bulgarian
cavalry. He takes the town, selects all the survivors of this exploit—children,
grand-children, &c. to the tune of six hundred, and has them shot before his face.
Recollect, he spared the rest of the city, and confined himself to the
Tarquin pedigree.—which is more than I would. So much for
‘dearest friend.’”
Ali Pasha of Yannina (1740-1822)
Albanian warlord who expanded his territories during the Napoleonic wars but was
eventually suppressed by the Ottoman Turks; he entertained Byron in 1809.
Sir Henry Holland, first baronet (1788-1873)
English physician and frequenter of Holland House, the author of
Travels in the Ionian Isles, Albania, Thessaly, Macedonia etc. during 1812 and
1813 (1814) and
Recollections of Past Life (1872). His
second wife, Saba, was the daughter of Sydney Smith.
Sir James Mackintosh (1765-1832)
Scottish philosopher and man of letters who defended the French Revolution in
Vindiciae Gallicae (1791); he was Recorder of Bombay (1803-1812) and
MP for Knaresborough (1819-32).
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.
Giambattista Toderini (1728-1799)
Author of
Letteratura turchesca, 3 vols (1787); translated into
French (1789) and German (1790).
