Letters and Journals of Lord Byron
Lord Byron to Thomas Moore, 27 December 1823
“Cephalonia, December 27th, 1823.
“I received a letter from you some time ago. I have been too
much employed latterly to write as I could wish, and even now must write in haste.
“I embark for Missolonghi to join Mavrocordato in four-and-twenty hours. The state of
parties (but it were a long story) has kept me here till now; but
now that Mavrocordato (their Washington, or their Kosciusko) is
employed again, I can act with a safe conscience. I carry money
to pay the squadron, &c., and I have influence with the Suliotes, supposed sufficient to keep them in harmony with some of the dissentients;—for
there are plenty of differences, but trifling.
“It is imagined that we shall attempt either Patras, or the
castles on the Straits; and it seems, by most accounts, that the Greeks,—at any rate,
the Suliotes, who are in affinity with me of ‘bread and salt,’—expect that I
should march with them, and—be it even so! If any thing in the way of fever, fatigue,
famine, or otherwise, should cut short the middle age of a brother warbler,—like
Garcilasso de la Vega, Kleist, Korner,
Kutoffski (a Russian nightingale—see Bowring’s Anthology), or Thersander, or,—or, somebody else—but
never mind—I pray you to remember me in your ‘smiles and wine.’
“I have hopes that the cause will triumph; but, whether it
does or no, still ‘Honour must be minded as strictly as a milk diet.’
I trust to observe both.
“Ever, &c.”
Sir John Bowring (1792-1872)
Poet, linguist, MP, and editor of the
Westminster Review. He was
the secretary of the London Greek Committee (1823) through which he was wrongly accused of
having enriched himself.
Heinrich von Kleist (1777-1811)
German poet; author of
Der zerbrochene Krug (1806) and
Michael Kohlhass (1808).
Theodor Körner (1791-1813)
German tragic poet who left five plays before he was killed in action during the
Napoleonic wars.
Thaddeus Kosciusko (1746-1817)
Polish general and patriot who fought in the American Revolution and in 1794 led an
unsuccessful rebellion against Russian and Prussian control of Poland.
Prince Alexander Mavrocordatos [Αλεξανδρος Μαβροκορδατος] (1791-1865)
Greek statesman and diplomat with Byron at Missolonghi; after study at the University of
Padua he joined the Greek Revolution in 1821 and in 1822 was elected by the National
Assembly at Epidaurus. He commanded forces in western Central Greece and retired in 1826
after the Fall of Messolonghi.
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.
George Washington (1732-1799)
Revolutionary general and first president of the United States.
