Letters and Journals of Lord Byron
Journal Entry: 11 January 1821
“January 11th, 1821.
“Read the letters. Corrected the tragedy and the ‘Hints from Horace.’ Dined, and got into better
spirits. Went out—returned—finished letters, five in number. Read Poets, and an anecdote
in Spence.
“Alli. writes to me that the Pope, and Duke of Tuscany, and King of
Sardinia, have also been called to Congress; but the Pope will only deal there by proxy.
So the interests of millions are in the hands of about twenty coxcombs, at a place
called Leibach!
“I should almost regret that my own affairs went well, when
those of nations are in peril. If the interests of mankind could be essentially bettered
(particularly of these oppressed Italians), I should not so much mind my own
‘sma’ peculiar.’ God grant us all better times, or more philosophy.
In reading, I have just chanced upon an expression of Tom Campbell’s;—speaking of Collins, he says that ‘no reader cares any more
about the characteristic manners of his Eclogues than about the authenticity of the tale of
Troy.’ ’Tis false—we do care about ‘the
authenticity ![]()
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of the tale of Troy.’ I have stood
upon that plain daily, for more than a month, in 1810; and, if
any thing diminished my pleasure, it was that the blackguard Bryant had impugned its veracity. It is true I read ‘Homer Travestied’ (the first twelve
books), because Hobhouse and others bored me with
their learned localities, and I love quizzing. But I still venerated the grand original
as the truth of history (in the material facts) and of place. Otherwise, it would have given me
no delight. Who will persuade me, when I reclined upon a mighty tomb, that it did not
contain a hero?—its very magnitude proved this. Men do not labour over the ignoble and
petty dead—and why should not the dead be Homer’s dead? The secret of
Tom Campbell’s defence of inaccuracy in costume and description is, that his Gertrude, &c. has no more locality in common
with Pennsylvania than with Penmanmaur. It is notoriously full of grossly false scenery,
as all Americans declare, though they praise parts of the Poem. It is thus that
self-love for ever creeps out, like a snake, to sting any thing which happens, even
accidentally, to stumble upon it.
Jacob Bryant (1717-1804)
English antiquary and classical scholar; author of
A New System, or, an
Analysis of Ancient Mythology, 3 vols (1774-76) and
A
Dissertation Concerning the War of Troy (1796).
Thomas Campbell (1777-1844)
Scottish poet and man of letters; author of
The Pleasures of Hope
(1799),
Gertrude of Wyoming (1808) and lyric odes. He edited the
New Monthly Magazine (1821-30).
William Collins (1721-1759)
English poet, author of
Persian Eclogues (1742),
Odes on Several Descriptive and Allegorical Subjects (1746), and
Ode on the Popular Superstitions of the Highlands (1788).
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).
Homer (850 BC fl.)
Poet of the
Iliad and
Odyssey.
