Letters and Journals of Lord Byron
Lord Byron to John Taylor, 25 September 1815
“13, Terrace, Piccadilly, September 25th, 1815.
“DEAR SIR,
“I am sorry you should feel uneasy at what has by no means troubled me†. If your
Editor, his correspondents, and readers, are
amused, I have no objection to be the theme of all the ballads he can find room
for,—provided his lucubrations are confined to me only.
“It is a long time since things of this kind have ceased to
‘fright me from my propriety;’ nor do I know any similar attack which would
* Notwithstanding this precaution of the poet, the coincidence
in question was, but a few years after, triumphantly cited in support of the
sweeping charge of plagiarism brought against him by same scribblers. The
following are Mr. Sotheby’s lines. “And I have leapt In transport from my flinty couch, to welcome The thunder as it burst upon my roof, And beckon’d to the lightning, as it flash’d And sparkled on these fetters.” |
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† Mr. Taylor
having inserted in the Sun newspaper (of
which he was then chief proprietor) a sonnet
to Lord Byron, in return for a present which his lordship had sent
him of a handsomely bound copy of all his works, there appeared in the same
journal, on the following day (from the pen of some
person who had acquired a control over the paper), a parody upon this sonnet,
containing some disrespectful allusion to Lady
Byron; and it is to this circumstance, which Mr.
Taylor had written to explain, that the above letter, so creditable
to the feelings of the noble husband, refers. |
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| 628 | NOTICES OF THE | A. D. 1815. |
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induce me to turn again,—unless it involved those
connected with me, whose qualities, I hope, are such as to exempt them in the eyes of
those who bear no good-will to myself. In such a case, supposing it to occur—to reverse the saying of Dr.
Johnson,—‘what the law could not do for me, I would do for
myself,’ be the consequences what they might.
“I return you, with many thanks, Colman and the letters. The Poems, I hope, you intended me to keep;—at
least, I shall do so, till I hear the contrary.
“Very truly yours.”
George Colman the younger (1762-1836)
English poet, playwright and censor of plays; manager of the Haymarket Theater
(1789-1813); author of
The Iron Chest (1796) taken from Godwin's
novel
Caleb Williams.
William Jerdan (1782-1869)
Scottish journalist who for decades edited the
Literary Gazette;
he was author of
Autobiography (1853) and
Men I
have Known (1866).
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)
English man of letters, among many other works he edited
A Dictionary
of the English Language (1755) and Shakespeare (1765), and wrote
Lives of the Poets (1779-81).
William Sotheby (1757-1833)
English man of letters; after Harrow he joined the dragoons, married well, and published
Poems (1790) and became a prolific poet and translator,
prominent in literary society.
John Taylor (1757-1832)
Poet and Tory journalist; editor of the
Morning Post (1787),
purchased the
True Briton, editor and proprietor of
The Sun (1813-25); author of
Records of my
Life (1832).
The Sun. (1792-1876). A Tory evening paper edited by John Heriot (1792-1806), Robert Clark (1806-07), William
Jerdan (1813-17). The poets John Taylor and William Frederick Deacon were also associated
with
The Sun.
