-

I think thousands' less flat than crowds collected' but don't let me plunge into the bathos, or rise into Nat. Lee's Bedlam metaphors. By the by, the best view of the said fire (which I myself saw from a housetop in Covent-garden) was at Westminster Bridge, from the reflection on the Thames. "Perhaps the present couplet had better come in after 'trembled for their homes,' the two lines after; as otherwise the image certainly sinks, and it will run just as well.

"The lines themselves, perhaps, may be better thus-('choose,' or 'refuse' but please yourself, and don't mind Sir Fretful')

Garden market on the night of conflagration, instead of the audience or the discerning public at large, all of whom are intended to be comprised in that comprehensive and, I hope, comprehensible pronoun.

"By the by, one of my corrections in the fair copy sent yesterday has dived into the bathos some sixty fathom

"When Garrick died, and Brinsley ceased to write. Ceasing to live is a much more serious concern, and ought not to be first; therefore I will let the old couplet stand, with its half rhymes 'sought' and 'wrote.' Second thoughts in every thing are best, but, in rhyme, third and fourth don't come amiss. I am very anxious on this business, and I do hope that the very trouble I occasion you will plead its own excuse, and that it will tend to show my endeavour to make the most of the time allotted. I wish I had known it months ago, for in that case I had not left one line standing on another. I always scrawl in this way, and smooth as much as I can, but never sufficiently; and, latterly, I can weave a nine-line stanza faster than a couplet, for which measure I have not the cunning. When I began 'Childe Harold,' I had never tried Spenser's measure, and now I cannot scribble in any other.

"After all, my dear Lord, if you can get a decent Address elsewhere, don't hesitate to put this aside. Why did you not trust your own Muse? I am very sure she would have been triumphant, and saved the Committee their trouble-'tis a joyful one' to me, but I fear I shall not satisfy even myself. After the account you sent me, 'tis no compliment to say you would have beaten your candidates; but I mean that, in that case, there would have been no occasion for their being beaten at all.

"There are but two decent prologues in our tongue-Pope's to Cato-Johnson's to Drury-Lane. These, with the epilogue to the Distrest Mother,' and, I think, one of Goldsmith's 2, and a prologue of old Colman's to Beaumont and Fletcher's Philaster, are the best things of the kind we have.

"P. S.-I am diluted to the throat with medicine for the stone; and Boisragon wants me to try a warm climate for the winter but I won't."

"Dear are the days that made our annals bright, Ere Garrick fled, or Briusley ceased to write."

2 [To Charlotte Lennox's comedy of "The Sister." See Goldsmith's Misc. Works, vol. iv. p. 130. ed. 1837.]

"I have just received your very kind letter, and hope you have met with a second copy corrected and addressed to Holland House, with some omissions and this new couplet,

"As glared each rising flash, and ghastly shone

The skies with lightnings awful as their own.

As to remarks, I can only say I will alter and acquiesce in any thing. With regard to the part which Whitbread wishes to omit, I believe the Address will go off quicker without it, though, like the agility of the Hottentot, at the expense of its vigour. I leave to your choice entirely the different specimens of stucco-work; and a brick of your own will also much improve my Babylonish turret. I should like Elliston to have it, with your leave. Adorn' and 'mourn' are lawful rhymes in Pope's Death of the unfortunate Lady.-Gray has 'forlorn' and 'mourn' -and torn' and mourn' are in Smollett's

famous Tears of Scotland.

"As there will probably be an outcry amongst the rejected, I hope the Committee will testify (if it be needful) that I sent in nothing to the congress whatever, with or

without a name, as your Lordship well

knows. All I have to do with it is with and

through you; and though I, of course, wish to satisfy the audience, I do assure you my first object is to comply with your request, and in so doing to show the sense I have of the many obligations you have conferred upon

me. Yours ever,

"B."

46 September 28. 1812.

Will this do better? The metaphor is

more complete.

lava of the

"Till slowly ebb'd the {spent volcanic } wave,

169

And blackening ashes mark'd the Muse's grave. If not, we will say 'burning wave,' and instead of 'burning clime,' in the line some couplets back, have 'glowing.'

"Is Whitbread determined to castrate all my cavalry lines? I don't see why t'other house should be spared; besides, it is the public, who ought to know better; and you recollect Johnson's was against similar buffooneries of Rich's - but, certes, I am not Johnson.

6

66

Instead of effects,' say 'labours'· degenerate' will do, will it? Mr. Betty is no longer a babe, therefore the line cannot be personal.

Will this do?

with glowing dome,' in case you prefer burning' added to this 'wave' metaphorical. The word 'fiery pillar' was suggested by the 'pillar of fire' in the book of Exodus, which went before the Israelites through the Red Sea. I once thought of saying 'like Israel's pillar,' and making it a simile, but I did not know, the great temptation was leaving the epithet fiery' for the supplementary wave. I want to work up that passage, as it is the only new ground us prologuizers can go upon

The last couplet but one was again altered in a subsequent copy, thus: -

"The past reproach let present scenes refute,

Nor shift from man to babe, from babe to brute."

4 The form of this couplet, as printed, is as follows:

"Till blackening ashes and the lonely wall Usurp'd the Muse's realm, and mark'd her fall."

ET. 24.

"September 30. 1812. "Will you choose between these added to the lines on Sheridan? I think they will wind up the panegyric, and agree with the train of thought preceding them.

"Now, one word as to the Committee how could they resolve on a rough copy of an Address never sent in, unless you had been good enough to retain in memory, or on paper, the thing they have been good enough to adopt? By the by, the circumstances of the case should make the Committee less ' avidus gloriæ,' for all praise of them would look plaguy suspicious. If necessary to be stated at all, the simple facts bear them out. They surely had a right to act as they pleased. My sole object is one which, I trust, my whole conduct has shown; viz. that İ did nothing insidious — sent in no Address whatever-but, when applied to, did my best for them and myself; but, above all, that there was no undue partiality, which will be what the rejected will endeavour to make out. Fortunately-most fortunately - I sent in no lines on the occasion. For I am sure that had they, in that case, been preferred, it would have been asserted that I was known, and owed the preference to private friendship. This is what we shall probably have to encounter; but, if once spoken and approved, we sha'n't be much embarrassed by their brilliant conjectures; and, as to criticism, an old author, like an old bull, grows cooler (or ought) at every baiting.

171

"A copy of this still altered is sent by the post, but this will arrive first. It must be humbler'-'yet aspiring' does away the modesty, and, after all, truth is truth. Besides, there is a puff direct altered, to please your plaguy renters.

"I shall be at Tetbury by 12 or 1 — but send this for you to ponder over. There are several little things marked thus / altered for your perusal. I have dismounted the cavalry, and, I hope, arranged to your general satisfaction. Ever, &c."

"At Tetbury by noon.- I hope, after it is sent, there will be no more elisions. It is not now so long-73 lines two less than allotted. I will alter all Committee objections, but I hope you won't permit Elliston to have any voice whatever, except in speaking it."

CHAPTER XVI.

1812-1813.

THE

CHELTENHAM.-LETTERS TO MR. MURRAY,
MR. WILLIAM BANKES, LORD HOLLAND,
AND MR. ROGERS. GRANVILLE PENN'S
CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE, AND BIOSCOPE,
OR DIAL OF LIFE EXPLAINED.
REJECTED ADDRESSES. DR. BUSBY.
JAMES AND HORACE SMITH. PUBLI-
CATION OF THE WALTZ AND OF THE
GIAOUR. GROUND-WORK OF THE FIC-
TION. LETTER FROM LORD SLIGO.
SUCCESS OF THE POEM. NEW EDITIONS
-AND ADDITIONAL PASSAGES. A SUP-
PER AT MR. ROGERS'S.-LORD THURLOW'S
POEMS.
GEORGE COLMAN. ACQUAINTANCE WITH
MR. LEIGH HUNT-VISIT ΤΟ MR. HUNT
IN HORSEMONGER-LANE GAOL. THIRD
AND LAST SPEECH IN THE HOUSE OF
LORDS. PARLIAMENTARY RECOLLEC-
TIONS. GRATTAN. FOX.- GREY.

ANECDOTES OF SHERIDAN.

CANNING.-WINDHAM.-WHITBREAD.HOLLAND. -LANSDOWNE.

BURDETT.- WARD.

BERFORCE.

GRENVILLE.

PEEL. WILERSKINE. -LAUDERDALE. SHERIDAN.-HORNE TOOKE.-FLOOD.

COURTENAY.

THE time comprised in the series of letters to Lord Holland, which, as being exclusively

'High Street, Cheltenham, Sept. 5. 1812.

Pray have the goodness to send those despatches, and a No. of the Edinburgh Review with the rest. I hope you have written to Mr. Thompson, thanked him in my name for his present, and told him that I shall be truly happy to comply with his request. - How do you go on? and when is the graven image, with bays and wicked rhyme upon't, to grace, or disgrace, some of our tardy editions?

"Send me Rokeby? Who the deuce is he?— no matter, he has good connections, and will be well introduced. I thank you for your inquiries: I am so so, but my thermometer is sadly below the poetical point. What will you give me or mine for a poem of six cantos, (when complete no rhyme, no recompense,) as like the last two as I can make them? I have some ideas that one day may be embodied, and till winter I shall have much leisure.

My last question is in the true style of Grub Street; but, like Jeremy Diddler, I only ask for information.'Send me Adair on Diet and Regimen, just republished by Ridgway."

LETTER 109. TO MR. MURRAY.

"Cheltenham, Sept. 14. 1812.

"The parcels contained some letters and verses, all (but one) anonymous and complimentary, and very anxious for my conversion from certain infidelities into which my good-natured correspondents conceive me to have fallen. The books were presents of a convertible kind also,- Christian Knowledge' and the 'Bioscope,' a religious Dial of Life explained: -to the author of the former (Cadell, publisher,) I beg you will forward my best thanks for his letter, his present, and, above all, his good intentions. The 'Bioscope' contained a MS. copy of very excellent verses 3, from

[In Kenney's farce of " Raising the Wind."]

[The author of both works was Granville Penn, Esq., a gentleman descended from the family of Penn of Pennsylvania, and much distinguished for his learning and piety.]

whom I know not, but evidently the composition of some one in the habit of writing, and of writing well. I do not know if he be the author of the Bioscope' which accompanied them; but whoever he is, if you can discover him, thank him from me most heartily. The other letters were from ladies, who are welcome to convert me when they please; and if I can discover them, and they be young, as they say they are, I could convince them perhaps of my devotion. I had also a letter from Mr. Walpole on matters of this world, which I have answered.

"So you are Lucien's publisher! I am promised an interview with him, and think I shall ask you for a letter of introduction, as the gods have made him poetical.' From whom could it come with a better grace than from his publisher and mine? Is it not somewhat treasonable in you to have to do with a relative of the ' direful foe,' as the Morning Post calls his brother?

But my book on 'Diet and Regimen,' where is it? I thirst for Scott's Rokeby; let me have your first-begotten copy. The Anti-jacobin Review is all very well, and not a bit worse than the Quarterly, and at least less harmless. By the by, have you secured my books? I want all the Reviews, at least the critiques, quarterly, monthly, &c., Portuguese and English, extracted, and bound up and pray, sort my Romaic books, and get the in one volume for my old age;

had them now a long time. If any thing volumes lent to Mr. Hobhouse- he has occurs, you will favour me with a line, and in winter we shall be nearer neighbours. "Yours, &c.

66

"BYRON."

"P. S.-I was applied to to write the Address for Drury Lane, but the moment I heard of the contest, I gave up the idea of contending against all Grub Street, and threw a few thoughts on the subject into the fire. I did this out of respect to you, being sure you would have turned off any of your authors who had entered the lists with such scurvy competitors. To triumph would have been no glory; and to have been defeated 'sdeath! I would have choked myself, like Otway, with a quartern loaf: so, remember I had, and have, nothing to do with it, upon my honour!"

3 [See BYRONIANA.]

[This is recorded by one of his biographers; but Pope, in Spence's Anecdotes, relates that Otway died of a fever caught by violent pursuit of an assassin who had fired at one of his friends.]