Letters and Journals of Lord Byron
Journal Entry: 11 December 1813
“Saturday, December 11.
“Sunday, December 12.
By G—t’s answer, I
find it is some story in real life, and not any work with which
my late composition coincides. It is still more singular, for mine is drawn from existence also.
“I have sent an excuse to M. de
Staël. I do not feel sociable enough for dinner to-day;—and I will not go
to Sheridan’s on Wednesday. Not that I do
not admire and prefer his unequalled conversation; but—that ‘but’ must only be intelligible to thoughts I cannot write.
Sheridan was in good talk at Rogers’s the other night, but I only staid till nine. All the world are to be at the Staël’s to-night, and I am not sorry to escape any part of it. I
only go out to get me a fresh appetite for being alone. Went out—did not go to the
Staël’s, but to Ld.
Holland’s. Party numerous—conversation general. Staid late—made a
blunder—got over it—came home and went to bed, not having eaten. Rather empty, but
fresco, which is the great point with
me.
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.
John Galt (1779-1839)
Scottish novelist who met Byron during the first journey to Greece and was afterwards his
biographer; author of
Annals of the Parish (1821).
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).
Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751-1816)
Anglo-Irish playwright, author of
The School for Scandal (1777),
Whig MP and ally of Charles James Fox (1780-1812).
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.
