Letters and Journals of Lord Byron
Lord Byron to John Murray, 3 March 1817
“In acknowledging the arrival of the article from the ‘Quarterly,*’ which I received two days ago, I cannot
express myself better than in the words of my sister Augusta, who (speaking of it) says, that it is written in a spirit
‘of the most feeling and kind nature.’ It is, however, something
more; it seems to me (as far as the subject of it may be permitted to judge) to be very well written as a composition, and I think
* An article in
No. 31 of this Review, written, as
Lord Byron afterwards discovered, by Sir Walter Scott, and well meriting, by the kind and
generous spirit that breathes through it, the warm and lasting gratitude it
awakened in the noble Poet. |
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| A. D. 1817. | LIFE OF LORD BYRON. | 81 |
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will do the journal no discredit, because even those who
condemn its partiality must praise its generosity. The temptations to take another and a
less favourable view of the question have been so great and numerous, that, what with
public opinion, politics, &c. he must be a gallant as well as a good man, who has
ventured in that place, and at this time, to write such an article even anonymously.
Such things are, however, their own reward, and I even flatter myself that the writer,
whoever he may be (and I have no guess), will not regret that the perusal of this has
given me as much gratification as any composition of that nature could give, and more
than any other has given,—and I have had a good many in my time of one kind or the
other. It is not the mere praise, but there is a tact and a delicacy throughout, not only with regard to me, but to others, which, as it had not been observed elsewhere, I had till now doubted whether it could be observed anywhere.
“Perhaps some day or other you will know or tell me the
writer’s name. Be assured, had the article been a harsh one, I should not have
asked it.
“I have lately written to you frequently, with extracts, &c. which I hope you have received, or will receive,
with or before this letter.—Ever since the conclusion of the Carnival I have been unwell
(do not mention this, on any account, to Mrs.
Leigh; for if I grow worse, she will know it too soon, and if I get
better, there is no occasion that she should know it at all), and have hardly stirred
out of the house. However, I don’t want a physician, and if I did, very luckily
those of Italy are the worst in the world, so that I should still have a chance. They
have, I believe, one famous surgeon, Vacca, who
lives at Pisa, who might be useful in case of dissection:—but he is some hundred miles
off. My malady is a sort of lowish fever, originating from what my ‘pastor and
master,’ Jackson, would call ‘taking
too much out of one’s self.’ However, I am better within this day or two.
“I missed seeing the new Patriarch’s procession to St.
Mark’s the other day (owing to my indisposition), with six hundred and fifty
priests in his rear—a ‘goodly army.’ The admirable government of Vienna, in
its edict from thence, authorizing his installation, prescribed, as part of the pageant,
‘a coach and four horses.’ To show how very very
‘German
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| 82 | NOTICES OF THE | A. D. 1817. |
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to the matter’ this was, you have only to suppose
our parliament commanding the Archbishop of Canterbury to proceed from Hyde Park Corner
to St. Paul’s Cathedral in the Lord Mayor’s barge, or the Margate hoy. There
is but St. Marc’s Place in all Venice broad enough for a carriage to move, and it
is paved with large smooth flag-stones, so that the chariot and horses of
Elijah himself would be puzzled to manœuvre upon it. Those of
Pharaoh might do better; for the canals,—and particularly the Grand Canal,—are
sufficiently capacious and extensive for his whole host. Of course, no coach could be
attempted; but the Venetians, who are very naïve as well as arch, were much amused with
the ordinance.
“The Armenian
Grammar is published; but my Armenian studies are suspended for the present
till my head aches a little less. I sent you the other day, in two covers, the First Act
of ‘Manfred,’ a drama as mad
as Nat. Lee’s Bedlam tragedy, which was in 25
acts and some odd scenes:—mine is but in Three Acts.
“I find I have begun this letter at the wrong end: never
mind; I must end it, then, at the right.
“Yours ever very truly
“and obligedly, &c.”
John Jackson [Gentleman Jackson] (1769-1845)
Pugilist; champion of England from 1795 to 1804, when he was defeated by Jem Belcher.
After retirement he established a school that became headquarters of the Pugilistic
Club.
Nathaniel Lee (1649 c.-1692)
English tragic poet, author of
The Rival Queens (1677); he was
confined to Bedlam, 1684-89.
Hon. Augusta Mary Leigh [née Byron] (1783-1851)
Byron's half-sister; the daughter of Amelia Darcy, Baroness Conyers, she married
Lieutenant-Colonel George Leigh on 17 August 1807.
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.
Andrea Vacca Berlinghieri (1772-1826)
Italian surgeon at the University of Pisa who had studied in London with William Hunter
and attended Byron in Italy; he was a political liberal.
The Quarterly Review. (1809-1967). Published by John Murray, the
Quarterly was instigated by Walter
Scott as a Tory rival to the
Edinburgh Review. It was edited by
William Gifford to 1824, and by John Gibson Lockhart from 1826 to 1853.
