LETTER 461. TO MR. MOORE. "October 6. 1821. "By this post I have sent my nightmare to balance the incubus of Southey's impudent anticipation of the Apotheosis of George the Third. I should like you to take a look over it, as I think there are two or three things in it which might please 'our puir hill folk.' Tale,' from the Canterbury Tales,' and send it in a letter also. I began that tragedy in 1815. 'By the way, you have a good deal of my prose tracts in MS.? Let me have proofs of them all again - I mean the controversial ones, including the last two or three years of time. Another question! - The Epistle of St. Paul, which I translated from the Arme nian, for what reason have you kept it back, though you published that stuff which gave rise to the Vampire?' Is it because you are afraid to print any thing in opposition to the cant of the Quarterly about Manicheism? Let me have a proof of that Epistle directly. I am a better Christian than those parsons of yours, though not paid for being so. 66 Send Faber's Treatise on the Cabiri. Sainte Croix's Mystères du Paganisme (scarce, perhaps, but to be found, as Mitford refers to his work frequently). 66 "By the last two or three posts I have written to you at length. My ague bows to me every two or three days, but we are not as yet upon intimate speaking terms. I have an intermittent generally every two years, when the climate is favourable (as it is here), but it does me no harm. What I find worse, and cannot get rid of, is the growing depression of my spirits, without sufficient cause. I ride- I am not intemperate in eating or drinking-and my general health is as usual, except a slight ague, which rather does good A common Bible, of a good legible print It must be constitutional; for I│(bound in russia). I have one; but as it know nothing more than usual to depress me was the last gift of my sister (whom I shall to that degree. probably never see again), I can only use it carefully, and less frequently, because I like to keep it in good order. Don't forget this, for I am a great reader and admirer of those books, and had read them through and through before I was eight years old, that is to say, the Old Testament, for the New struck me as a task, but the other as a pleasure. I speak as a boy, from the recol lected impression of that period at Aberdeen in 1796. than not. 'How do you manage? I think you told me, at Venice, that your spirits did not keep up without a little claret. I can drink, and bear a good deal of wine (as you may recollect in England); but it don't exhilarate it makes me savage and suspicious, and even quarrelsome. Laudanum has a similar effect; but I can take much of it without any effect at all. The thing that gives me the highest spirits (it seems absurd, but true) is a dose of salts - I mean in the afternoon, after their effect. 2 But one can't take them like champagne. Excuse this old woman's letter; but my lemancholy don't depend upon health, for it is just the same, well or ill, or here or there. Yours, &c." LETTER 462. TO MR. MURRAY. "Ravenna, October 9. 1821. "You will please to present or convey the enclosed poem to Mr. Moore. I sent him another copy to Paris, but he has probably left that city. "Don't forget to send me my first act of 'Werner' (if Hobhouse can find it amongst my papers)-send it by the post (to Pisa); and also cut out Harriet Lee's German's [Mr. Southey's Vision of Judgment appeared in the year 1821. See Works, p. 512.] 2 It was, no doubt, from a similar experience of its effects that Dryden always took physic when about to write anything of importance. His caricature, Bayes, is accordingly made to say, "When I have a grand design, I ever 66 Any novels of Scott, or poetry of the same. Ditto of Crabbe, Moore, and the Elect; but none of your curst commonplace trash,-unless something starts up of actual merit, which may very well be, for 'tis time it should.” LETTER 463. TO MR. MURRAY. "October 20, 1821. "If the errors are in the MS., write me down an ass: they are not, and I am content to undergo any penalty if they be. Besides, the omitted stanza (last but one or two), sent afterwards, was that in the MS. too? "As to honour,' I will trust no man's honour in affairs of barter. I will tell you why: a state of bargain is Hobbes's 'state of nature- a state of war.' It is so with take physic and let blood; for, when you would have pure swiftness of thought and fiery flights of faney, you must have a care of the pensive part; - in short," &c. &c. On this subject of the effects of medicine upon the mind and spirits, some curious facts and illustrations have been with his usual research, collected by Mr. D'Israeli, in his amusing" Curiosities of Literature." Ær. 33. DEPARTURE FROM RAVENNA. all men. If I come to a friend, and say, 'Friend, lend me five hundred pounds,' he either does it, or says that he can't or won't; but if I come to Ditto, and say, 'Ditto, I have an excellent house, or horse, or carriage, or MSS., or books, or pictures, or, &c. &c. &c. &c. &c. honestly worth a thousand pounds, you shall have them for five hundred,' what does Ditto say? why, he looks at them, he hums, he ha's, -he humbugs, if he can, to get a bargain as cheaply as he can, because it is a bargain. This is in the blood and bone of mankind; and the same man who would lend another a thousand pounds without interest, would not buy a horse of him for half its value if he could help it. It is so there's no denying it; and therefore I will have as much as I can, and you will give as little; and there's an end. All men are intrinsical rascals, and I am only sorry that, not being a dog, I can't bite them. : "Ravenna, October 21. 1821. "I shall be (the gods willing) in Bologna on Saturday next. This is a curious answer to your letter; but I have taken a house in Pisa for the winter, to which all my chattels, furniture, horses, carriages, and live stock are already removed, and I am preparing to follow. "The cause of this removal is, shortly, the exile or proscription of all my friends' relations and connections here into Tuscany, on account of our late politics; and where they go, I accompany them. I merely remained till now to settle some arrangements about my daughter, and to give time for my furniture, &c. to precede me. I have not here a seat or a bed hardly, except some jury chairs, and tables, and a mattress for the week to come. "If you will go on with me to Pisa, I can lodge you for as long as you like; (they write that the house, the Palazzo Lanfranchi, is spacious: it is on the Arno ;) and I have four carriages, and as many saddle-horses (such as they are in these parts), with all other conveniences, at your command, as also their owner. If you could do this, we 537 may, at least, cross the Apennines together; or if you are going by another road, we shall meet at Bologna, I hope. I address this to the post-office (as you desire), and you will probably find me at the Albergo di San Marco. If you arrive first, wait till I come up, which will be (barring accidents) on Saturday or Sunday at farthest. "I presume you are alone in your voyages. Moore is in London incog, according to my latest advices from those climes. 66 It is better than a lustre (five years and six months and some days, more or less) since we met; and, like the man from Tadcaster in the farce (Love laughs at Locksmiths'), whose acquaintances, including the cat and the terrier, who caught a halfpenny in his mouth,' were all gone dead,' but too many of our acquaintances have taken the same path. Lady Melbourne, Grattan, Sheridan, Curran, &c. &c., almost every body of much name of the old school. But so am not I, said the foolish fat scullion,' therefore let us make the most of our remainder. """Tis the middle of night by the castle clock,' and in three hours more I have to set out on my way to Pisa-sitting up all night to be sure of rising. I have just made them take off my bed-clothes-blankets inclusive -in case of temptation from the apparel of sheets to my eyelids. 66 Samuel Rogers is or is to be- at Bologna, as he writes from Venice. “I thought our Magnifico would ‘pound you,' if possible. He is trying to 'pound' me, too; but I'll specie the rogue-or at least, I'll have the odd shillings out of him in keen iambics. "Your approbation of 'Sardanapalus' is agreeable, for more reasons than one. Hobhouse is pleased to think as you do of it, and so do some others—but the 'Arimaspian,' whom, like ‘a Gryphon in the wilderness,' I will follow for his gold' (as I exhorted you to do before), did or doth disparage it'stinting me in my sizings.' His notable opinions on the ' Foscari ' and 'Cain ' he hath not as yet forwarded; or, at least, I have not yet received them, nor the proofs thereof, though promised by last post. "I see the way that he and his Quarterly people are tending-they want a row with me, and they shall have it. I only regret that I am not in England for the nonce; as, here, it is hardly fair ground for me, isolated and out of the way of prompt rejoinder and information as I am. But, though backed by all the corruption, and infamy, and patronage of their master rogues and slave renegadoes, if they do once rouse me up, They had better gall the devil, Salisbury.' "I have that for two or three of them, which they had better not move me to put in motion; - and yet, after all, what a fool I am to disquiet myself about such fellows! It was all very well ten or twelve years ago, when I was a 'curled darling,' and minded such things. At present, I rate them at their true value; but, from natural temper and bile, am not able to keep quiet. 66 'Let me hear from you on your return from Ireland, which ought to be ashamed to see you, after her Brunswick blarney. I am of Longman's opinion, that you should allow your friends to liquidate the Bermuda claim. Why should you throw away the two thousand pounds (of the non-guinea Murray) upon that cursed piece of treacherous inveiglement? I think you carry the matter a little too far and scrupulously. When we see patriots begging publicly, and know that Grattan received a fortune from his country, I really do not see why a man, in no whit inferior to any or all of them, should shrink from accepting that assistance from his private friends which every tradesman receives from his connections upon much less occasions. For, after all, it was not your debt it was a piece of swindling against you. As to ****, and the 'what noble creatures!! &c. &c.' it is all very fine and very well, but, till you can persuade me that there is no credit, and no self-applause to be obtained by being of use to a celebrated man, I must retain the same opinion of the human species, which I do of our friend M3. Specie. "Yours ever, &c. 66 BYRON." 1 I had mentioned to him, with all the praise and gratitude such friendship deserved, some generous offers of aid which, from more than one quarter, I had received at this period, and which, though declined, have been not the less warmly treasured in my recollection. 264 Egli era partico con molto riverescimento da Ravenna, e col pressentimento che la sua partenza da Ravenna ci sarebbe cagione di molti mali. In ogni lettera che egli mi scriveva allora egli mi esprimeva il suo dispiacere di lasciare Ravenna. Se papà è richiamato (mi scriveva egli) io torno in quel istante a Ravenna, e se è richiamato ORIGIN OF THE GIAOUR STORY. - In the month of August, Madame Guiccioli had joined her father at Pisa, and was now superintending the preparations at the Casa spacious palaces of that city, Lanfranchi, one of the most ancient and for the reception of her noble friend. "He left Raand with a presentiment that his departure venna," says this lady, "with great regret, would be the forerunner of a thousand evils to us. In every letter he then wrote to me, If your father should be recalled,' he said, he expressed his displeasure at this step. is recalled previous to my departure, I remain." I immediately return to Ravenna; and if he ral months; but, at last, no longer having In this hope he delayed his journey for seveany expectation of our immediate return, he wrote to me, saying- I set out most un- !! willingly, foreseeing the most evil results for | all of you, and principally for yourself. I say no more, but you will see.' And in another letter he says, 'I leave Ravenna so unwillingly, and with such a persuasion on my mind that my departure will lead from one misery to another, each greater than the for prima della mia partenza, io non parto.' In questa speranza egli differì varii mesi a partire. Ma, finalmente, non potendo più sperare il nostro ritorno prossimo, egli mi scriveva lo parto molto mal volontieri prevedendo dei mali assai grandi per voi altri e massime per voi ; altro non dico, lo vedrete.' E in un altra lettera, * lo lascio Ravenna così mal volontieri, e così persuaso che la mia partenza non può che condurre da un male ad un altro più grande che non ho cuore di scrivere altro in questo punto. Egli mi scriveva allora sempre in Italiano e trascrivo le sue precise parole ma come quei suoi pressentimenti si verificarono poi in appresso! mer, that I have not the heart to utter another word on the subject. He always wrote to me at that time in Italian, and I transcribe his exact words. How entirely were these presentiments verified by the event!" After describing his mode of life while at Ravenna, the lady thus proceeds: "This sort of simple life he led until the fatal day of his departure for Greece, and the few variations he made from it may be said to have arisen solely from the greater or smaller number of occasions which were offered him of doing good, and from the generous actions he was continually performing. Many families (in Ravenna principally) owed to him the few prosperous days they ever enjoyed. His arrival in that town was spoken of as a piece of public good fortune, and his departure as a public calamity; and this is the life which many attempted to asperse as that of a libertine. But the world must at last learn how, with so good and generous a heart, Lord Byron, susceptible, it is true, of the most energetic passions, yet, at the same time, of the sublimest and most pure, and rendering homage in his acts to every virtue-how he, I say, could afford such scope to malice and to calumny. Circumstances, and also, probably, an eccentricity of disposition, (which, nevertheless, had its origin in a virtuous feeling, an excessive abhorrence for hypocrisy and affectation,) contributed, perhaps, to cloud the splendour of his exalted nature in the opinion of many. But you will well know how to analyse these contradictions in a manner worthy of your noble friend and of yourself, and you will prove that the goodness of his heart was not inferior to the grandeur of his genius." 1 At Bologna, according to the appointment made between them, Lord Byron and Mr. Rogers met; and the record which this latter gentleman has, in his Poem on Italy, preserved of their meeting, conveys so vivid a picture of the poet at this period, with, at the same time, so just and feeling a tribute to his memory, that, narrowed as my limits are now becoming, I cannot refrain from giving the sketch entire. "BOLOGNA. "'Twas night; the noise and bustle of the day Were o'er. The mountebank no longer wrought Miraculous cures - he and his stage were gone; And he who, when the crisis of his tale 1 The leaf that contains the original of this extract I have unluckily mislaid. 2" See the Cries of Bologna, as drawn by Annibal Caracci. He was of very humble origin; and, to correct his brother's vanity, once sent him a portrait of their father, the tailor, threading his needle." Came, and all stood breathless with hope and fear, "Much had pass'd Since last we parted; and those five short years- "Well I remember how the golden sun Of Venice had so ably, zealously Served, and at parting thrown his oar away "He had just left that Place 3" The principal gondolier, il fante di poppa, was almost always in the confidence of his master, and employed on occasions that required judgment and address." 4"Adrianum mare. CICERO." "See the Prophecy of Dante." "See the tale as told by Boccaccio and Dryden." (What is not visible to a poet's eye?) "He is now at rest; And praise and blame fall on his ear alike, They in thy train-ah, little did they think, "Thou art gone; On the road to Bologna he had met with his early and dearest friend, Lord Clare, and the following description of their short interview is given in his " Detached Thoughts." "Pisa, November 5. 1821. "There is a strange coincidence sometimes in the little things of this world, Sancho,' says Sterne in a letter (if I mistake not), and so I have often found it. "Page 128. article 91. of this collection of scattered things, I had alluded to my friend Lord Clare in terms such as my feelings sug gested. About a week or two afterwards I met him on the road between Imola and Bologna, after not having met for seven or 1 "They wait for the traveller's carriage at the foot of every hill." eight years. He was abroad in 1814, and came home just as I set out in 1816. "This meeting annihilated for a moment all the years between the present time and the days of Harrow. It was a new and inexplicable feeling, like rising from the grave, to me. Clare, too, was much agitated― more in appearance than even myself; for I could feel his heart beat to his fingers' ends, unless, indeed, it was the pulse of my own which made me think so. He told me that I should find a note from him left at Bologna. I did. We were obliged to part for our different journeys, he for Rome, I for Pisa, but with the promise to meet again in spring. We were but five minutes together, and on the public road; but I hardly recollect an hour of my existence which could be weighed against them. He had heard that I was coming on, and had left his letter for me at Bologna, because the people with whom he was travelling could not wait longer. "Of all I have ever known, he has always been the least altered in every thing from the excellent qualities and kind affections which attached me to him so strongly at school. I should hardly have thought it possible for society (or the world, as it is called) to leave a being with so little of the leaven of bad passions. "I do not speak from personal experience only, but from all I have ever heard of him from others, during absence and distance." After remaining a day at Bologna, Lord Byron crossed the Apennines with Mr. Rogers; and I find the following note of their visit together to the Gallery at Florence: "I revisited the Florence Gallery, &c. My former impressions were confirmed; but there were too many visitors there to allow one to feel any thing properly. When we were (about thirty or forty) all stuffed into the cabinet of gems and knick-knackeries, in a corner of one of the galleries, I told Rogers that it felt like being in the watchhouse.' I left him to make his obeisances to some of his acquaintances, and strolled on alone the only four minutes I could snatch of any feeling for the works around me. I do not mean to apply this to a tête-à-tête scrutiny with Rogers, who has an excellent taste, and deep feeling for the arts, (indeed much more of both than I can possess, for of the FORMER I have not much,) but to the crowd of jostling starers and travelling talkers around me. |