Letters and Journals of Lord Byron
Journal Entry: 17 November 1813
“Nov. 17th.
“No letter from * *;—but I must not complain. The
respectable Job says, ‘Why should a living man complain?’ I really don’t know, except it be that
a dead man can’t; and he, the said patriarch, did complain, nevertheless, till his friends were tired, and his
wife recommended that pious prologue, ‘Curse—and die;’ the only time,
I suppose, when but little relief is to be found in swearing. I have had a most kind
letter from Lord Holland on ‘The Bride of Abydos,’ which he likes,
and so does Lady H. This is very good-natured in
both, from whom I don’t deserve any quarter. Yet I did
think, at the time, that my cause of enmity proceeded from Holland-house, and am glad I
was wrong, and wish I had not been in such a hurry with that confounded satire, of which
I would suppress even the memory;—but people, now they can’t get it, make. a fuss,
I verily believe, out contradiction.
“George Ellis and
Murray have been talking something about
Scott and me, George
pro Scoto,—and very right too. If they want to depose him, I only
wish they would not set me up as a competitor. Even if I
* “Earth holds no other like to thee, Or, If it doth, in vain for me: For worlds I dare not view the dame Resembling thee, yet not the same.” |
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| 440 | NOTICES OF THE | A. D. 1813. |
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had my choice, I would rather be the Earl of Warwick than all the kings he ever made! Jeffrey and
Gifford I take to be the monarch-makers in
poetry and prose. The British Critic, in
their Rokeby Review, have presupposed a
comparison, which I am sure my friends never thought of, and W.
Scott’s subjects are injudicious in descending to. I like the
man—and admire his works to what Mr. Braham calls
Entusymusy. All such stuff can only vex him, and do me no
good. Many hate his politics.—(I hate all politics); and, here, a man’s politics
are like the Greek soul—an
ειδωλον, besides God knows what other soul; but their estimate of the two generally go together.
“Harry has not brought ma petite
cousine. I want us to go to the play together;—she has been but
once. Another short note from Jersey, inviting
Rogers and me on the 23d. I must see my agent
to-night. I wonder when that Newstead business will be finished. It cost me more than
words to part with it—and to have parted with it! What matters it
what I do? or what becomes of me?—but let me remember Job’s
saying, and console myself with being ‘a living man.’
“I wish I could settle to reading again,—my life is
monotonous, and yet desultory. I take up books, and fling them down again. I began a
comedy, and burnt it because the scene ran into reality;—a novel, for the same reason.
In rhyme, I can keep more away from facts: but the thought always runs through, through
. . . . . . . . . yes, yes, through. I have had a letter from Lady Melbourne—the best friend I ever had in my life, and the cleverest
of women. * * * * *
“Not a word from * *. Have they set out from * *? or has my last precious
epistle fallen into the Lion’s jaws? If so—and this silence looks suspicious.—I
must clap on ‘my musty morion’ and ‘hold out my
iron.’ I am out of practice,—but I won’t begin again at Manton’s now. Besides, I would not return his
shot. I was once a famous wafer-splitter;—but then the bullies of society made it
necessary. Ever since I began to feel that I had a had cause to support, I have left off
the exercise.
What strange tidings from that Anakim of anarchy—Buonaparte! ![]()
| A. D. 1813. | LIFE OF LORD BYRON. | 441 |
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Ever since I
defended my bust of him at Harrow against the rascally time-servers, when the war broke
out in 1803, he has been a ‘Héros de Roman’ of mine—on
the continent; I don’t want him here. But I don’t like those same
flights,—leaving of armies, &c. &c. I am sure when I fought for his bust at
school, I did not think he would run away from himself. But I should not wonder if he
banged them yet. To be beat by men would be something; but by three stupid,
legitimate-old-dynasty boobies of regular-bred sovereigns—O-hone-a-rie!—O-hone-a-rie! It
must be, as Cobbett says, his marriage with the
thick-lipped and thick-headed Autrichienne brood. He had better
have kept to her who was kept by Barras. I never
knew any good come of your young wife, and legal espousals, to any but your
‘sober-blooded boy’ who ‘eats fish’ and drinketh ‘no
sack.’ Had he not the whole opera? all Paris? all France? But a mistress is
just as perplexing—that is, one—two ‘or more are manageable
by division.
“I have begun, or had begun, a song, and flung it into the
fire. It was in remembrance of Mary Duff, my first
of flames, before most people begin to burn. I wonder what the devil is the matter with
me! I can do nothing, and—fortunately there is nothing to do. It has lately been in my
power to make two persons (and their connexions) comfortable, pro tempore, and one happy ex
tempore,—I rejoice in the last particularly, as it in an excellent
man*. I wish there had been more inconvenience and less gratification to my self-love in
it, for then there had been more merit. We are all selfish—and I believe, ye gods of
Epicurus! I believe in Rochefoucault about men, and in
Lucretius (not Busby’s translation) about yourselves. Your bard has made you very
nonchalant and blest; but as he has excused us from damnation,
I don’t envy you your blessedness much—a little to be sure. I remember, last year,
* * said to me, at * *, ‘Have
we not passed our last month like the gods of
Lucretius?’ And so we had. She is an adept in the text of
the original (which I like too); and when that booby Bus. sent his
translating prospectus, she subscribed. But, the devil prompting him to add a specimen.
she transmitted him a subsequent answer, saying, that, ‘after perusing
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| 442 | NOTICES OF THE | A. D. 1813. |
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it, her conscience would not permit her to allow her name
to remain on the list of subscribblers.’ * * * * *
* *
* Last night, at Lord H.’s—Mackintosh, the Ossulstones, Puységur, &c.
there—I was trying to recollect a quotation (as I think) of Staël’s, from some Teutonic sophist about architecture.
‘Architecture,’ says this Macoronico Tedescho, ‘reminds me of
frozen music.’ It is somewhere—but where?—the demon of perplexity must know
and won’t tell. I asked M., and he said it was not in her; but P—r said it must be
hers, it was so like. * * * *
* *
* * * *
H. laughed, as he does at all ‘De l’Allemagne,’—in which, however, I
think he goes a little too far. B., I hear, contemns it too. But there are fine
passages;—and, after all, what is a work—any—or every work—but a desert with fountains,
and, perhaps, a grove or two, every day’s journey? To be sure, in Madame, what we
often mistake, and ‘pant for,’ as the ‘cooling stream,’ turns
out to be the mirage (criticé, verbiage);
but we do, at last, get to something like the temple of Jove Ammon,
and then the waste we have passed is only remembered to gladden the contrast.
* * * * * *
“Called on C * *, to explain * * *. She
is very beautiful, to my taste, at least; for on coming home from abroad, I recollect
being unable to look at any woman but her—they were so fair, and unmeaning, and blonde. The darkness and regularity of her features reminded me of
my ‘Jannat al Aden.’ But this impression wore off; and now I can look at a
fair woman, without longing for a Houri. She was very good-tempered, and every thing was
explained.
“To-day, great news—‘the Dutch have taken
Holland,’—which, I suppose, will be succeeded by the actual explosion of the
Thames. Five provinces have declared for young Stadt, and there will be inundation,
conflagration, constupration, consternation, and every sort of nation and nations,
fighting away, up to their knees, in the damnable quags of this will-o’-the-wisp
abode of Boors. It is said Bernadotte is amongst
them, too; and, as Orange will be there soon, they will have
(Crown) Prince Stork and King Log in their Loggery at the same time. Two to one on the
new dynasty!
“Mr. Murray has
offered me one thousand guineas for the ‘Giaour’ ![]()
| A. D. 1813. | LIFE OF LORD BYRON. | 443 |
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and the ‘Bride of Abydos.’ I won’t—it is too much,
though I am strongly tempted, merely for the say of it. No bad
price for a fortnight’s (a week each) what?—the gods know—it was intended to be
called Poetry.
“I have dined regularly to-day, for the first time since
Sunday last—this being Sabbath, too. All the rest, tea and dry biscuits—six per diem. I
wish to God I had not dined now!—It kills me with heaviness, stupor, and horrible
dreams;—and yet it was but a pint of bucellas, and fish*. Meat I never touch,—nor much
vegetable diet. I wish I were in the country, to take exercise,—instead of being obliged
to cool by abstinence, in lieu of it. I should not so much mind a little accession of
flesh,—my bones can well bear it. But the worst is, the devil always came with it,—till
I starve him out,—and I will not be the slave of any appetite. If I do err, it shall be my heart, at least, that
heralds the way. Oh my head—how it aches!—the horrors of digestion! I wonder how
Buonaparte’s dinner agrees with him?
“Mem. I must write to-morrow to ‘Master Shallow, who owes me a thousand
pounds,’ and seems, in his letter, afraid I should ask him for it†;—as
if I would!—I don’t want it (just now, at least), to begin with; and though I have
often wanted that sum, I never asked for the repayment of £10 in my life—from a friend.
His bond is not due this year, and I told him, when it was, I should not enforce it. How
often must he make me say the same thing?
“I am wrong—I did once ask * * *‡ to repay me. But it was under circumstances that
excused me to him, and would to any one. I took no interest, nor
required security. He paid me soon,—at least, his padre. My head!
I believe it was given me to ache with. Good even.
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* He had this year so far departed from his strict plan of diet as
to eat fish occasionally.
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† We have hero another instance, in addition to the
munificent aid afforded to Mr. Hodgson, of the
generous readiness of the poet, notwithstanding his own limited means, to make the
resources he possessed available for the assistance of his friends.
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‡ Left blank thus in the original.
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| 444 |
NOTICES OF THE |
A. D. 1813. |
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Charles Augustus Bennet, fifth earl of Tankerville (1776-1859)
Son of Charles Bennet, the fourth earl (d. 1822); educated at Eton, he was Whig MP for
Steyning (1803-06), Knaresborough (1806-18), and Berwick-on-Tweed) (1820-22); in 1806 he
married Armandine Sophie Leonie Corisande de Gramont.
John Braham (1777 c.-1856)
English tenor who began his career at the Covent Garden and Drury Lane theaters; he
assisted Isaac Nathan in setting Byron's
Hebrew Melodies.
Thomas Busby (1754-1838)
English composer and miscellaneous writer; his translation of Lucretius's
De rerum natura (1813) attracted ridicule.
King Charles I of England (1600-1649)
The son of James VI and I; as king of England (1625-1649) he contended with Parliament;
he was revered as a martyr after his execution.
Mary Cockburn [née Duff] (1788-1858)
Byron's distant cousin and object of his affection as a boy at Aberdeen; in 1805 she
married Robert Cockburn, a wine-merchant.
George Ellis (1753-1815)
English antiquary and critic, editor of
Specimens of Early English
Poets (1790), friend of Walter Scott.
Epicurus (341 BC-270 BC)
Greek philosopher who defined the object of his science as the pursuit of
happiness.
Elizabeth Fox, Lady Holland [née Vassall] (1771 c.-1845)
In 1797 married Henry Richard Fox, Lord Holland, following her divorce from Sir Godfrey
Webster; as mistress of Holland House she became a pillar of Whig society.
Henry Richard Fox, third baron Holland (1773-1840)
Whig politician and literary patron; Holland House was for many years the meeting place
for reform-minded politicians and writers. He also published translations from the Spanish
and Italian;
Memoirs of the Whig Party was published in 1852.
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).
Francis Hodgson (1781-1852)
Provost of Eton College, translator of Juvenal (1807) and close friend of Byron. He wrote
for the
Monthly and
Critical Reviews, and was
author of (among other volumes of poetry)
Childe Harold's Monitor; or
Lines occasioned by the last Canto of Childe Harold (1818).
Francis Jeffrey, Lord Jeffrey (1773-1850)
Scottish barrister, Whig MP, and co-founder and editor of the
Edinburgh
Review (1802-29). As a reviewer he was the implacable foe of the Lake School of
poetry.
Elizabeth Lamb, viscountess Melbourne [née Milbanke] (1751-1818)
Whig hostess married to Peniston Lamb, first Viscount Melbourne (1744-1828); she was the
confidant of Georgiana, duchess of Devonshire, the mother of William Lamb (1779-1848), and
mother-in-law of Lady Caroline Lamb.
Lucretius (99 BC.-55 BC c.)
Roman poet, author of the verse treatise
De rerum natura.
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).
Joseph Manton (1766-1835)
Renowned English gun-maker at his shop at 25 Davies Street, Berkeley Square, London. His
shooting gallery was on the same premises as John Jackson's boxing club.
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.
Emperor Napoleon I (1769-1821)
Military leader, First Consul (1799), and Emperor of the French (1804), after his
abdication he was exiled to Elba (1814); after his defeat at Waterloo he was exiled to St.
Helena (1815).
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).
Germaine de Staël (1766-1817)
French woman of letters; author of the novel
Corinne, ou L'Italie
(1807) and
De l'Allemagne (1811); banned from Paris by Napoleon, she
spent her later years living in Germany, Britain, and Switzerland.
James Wedderburn Webster (1789-1840)
Byron's friend who visited him in Athens (1810) and to whom Byron lent money he could ill
afford. Webster published
Waterloo, and other Poems (1816).
The British Critic. (1793-1825). A quarterly publication of conservative opinion continued as
The
British Critic, and Quarterly Theological Review (1838-1843). The original editors
were Robert Nares and William Beloe.
