LETTER 158. TO MR. MURRAY.

"Newstead Abbey, January 22. 1814.

"You will be glad to hear of my safe arrival here. The time of my return will depend upon the weather, which is so impracticable, that this letter has to advance through more snows than ever opposed the Emperor's retreat. The roads are impassable, and return impossible for the present; which I do not regret, as I am much at my ease, and six-and-twenty complete this day -a very pretty age, if it would always last. Our coals are excellent, our fire-places large, my cellar full, and my head empty; and I have not yet recovered my joy at leaving London. If any unexpected turn occurred with my purchaser, I believe I should hardly quit the place at all; but shut my door, and let my beard grow.

66

I forgot to mention (and I hope it is unnecessary) that the lines beginning Remember him, &c. must not appear with The Corsair. You may slip them in with the smaller pieces newly annexed to Childe Harold; but on no account permit them to be appended to The Corsair. Have the goodness to recollect this particularly.

66

The books I have brought with me are a great consolation for the confinement, and I bought more as we came along. In short, I never consult the thermometer, and shall not put up prayers for a thaw, unless I

1 The amusing rages into which he was thrown by the printer were vented not only in these notes, but frequently on the proof-sheets themselves. Thus, a passage in the dedication having been printed "the first of her bands in estimation," he writes in the margin, "bards, not bands was there ever such a stupid misprint?" and in correcting a line that had been curtailed of its due number of syllables, he says, " Do not omit words — it is quite enough to alter or mis-spell them."

66

Yours alway,

66 B.

"P. S. If hear you any news of battle or retreat on the part of the Allies (as they call them), pray send it. He has my best wishes to manure the fields of France with an invading army. I hate invaders of all countries, and have no patience with the cowardly cry of exultation over him, at whose name you all turned whiter than the snow to which you (under Providence and that special favourite of Heaven, Prince Regent) are indebted for your triumphs.

"I open my letter to thank you for yours just received. The Lines to a Lady Weeping' must go with The Corsair. I care nothing for consequences, on this point. My politics are to me like a young mistress to an old man -the worse they grow, the fonder I become of them. As Mr. Gifford likes the Portuguese Translation, pray insert it as an addition to The Corsair. [Lady Westmoreland thought it so bad, that after making me translate it, she gave her own version which is, for aught I know, the best of the two. But I cannot give up my weeping lines, and I do think them good, and don't mind what it looks like.']

66

In all points of difference between Mr. Gifford and Mr. Dallas, let the first keep his place; and in all points of difference between Mr. Gifford and Mr. Anybody-else, I shall abide by the former; if I am wrong, I can't help it. But I would rather not be right with any other person. So there is an end of that matter. After all the trouble he has taken about me and mine, I should be very ungrateful to feel or act otherwise. Besides, in point of judgment, he is not to be lowered by a comparison. In politics, he may be right too; but that with me is a feeling, and I can't torify my nature."

Ær. 26.

LETTER 159. TO MR. MURRAY,

"Newstead Abbey, February 4. 1814.

"I need not say that your obliging letter was very welcome, and not the less so for being unexpected. At the same time I received a very kind one from Mr. D' Israeli, which I shall acknowledge and thank him for to-morrow.

"It doubtless gratifies me much that our finale has pleased, and that the curtain drops gracefully. You deserve it should, for your promptitude and good nature in arranging immediately with Mr. Dallas; and I can assure you that I esteem your entering so warmly into the subject, and writing to me so soon upon it, as a personal obligation. We shall now part, I hope, satisfied with each other. I was and am quite in earnest in my prefatory promise not to intrude any more; and this not from any affectation, but a thorough conviction that it is the best policy, and is at least respectful to my readers, as it shows that I would not willingly run the risk of forfeiting their favour in future. Besides, I have other views and objects, and think that I shall keep this resolution; for, since I left London, though shut up, snow-bound, thaw-bound, and tempted with all kinds of paper, the dirtiest of ink, and the bluntest of pens, I have not even been haunted by a wish to put them to their combined uses, except in letters of business. My rhyming propensity is quite gone, and I feel much as I did at Patras on recovering from my fever — weak, but in health, and only afraid of a relapse. I do most fervently hope I never shall. "I see by the Morning Chronicle there

hath been discussion in the Courier; and I

read in the Morning Post a wrathful letter

about Mr. Moore, in which some Protestant Reader has made a sad confusion about India and Ireland.

66

You are to do as you please about the smaller poems; but I think removing them now from The Corsair looks like fear; and if so, you must allow me not to be pleased. I should also suppose that, after the fuss of these newspaper esquires, they would materially assist the circulation of The Corsair ; an object I should imagine at present of more importance to yourself than Childe Harold's seventh appearance. Do as you like; but don't allow the withdrawing that poem to draw any imputation of dismay upon me. [I care about as much for the Courier

1 It will be recollected that he had announced The Corsair as "the last production with which he should trespass on public patience for some years."

239

as I do for the Prince, or all princes whatsoever, except Korlorsky.]

64

Pray make my respects to Mr. Ward, whose praise I value most highly, as you well know; it is in the approbation of such men that fame becomes worth having. To Mr. Gifford I am always grateful, and surely not less so now than ever. And so good night to my authorship.

"I have been sauntering and dozing here very quietly, and not unhappily. You will be happy to hear that I have completely es tablished my title-deeds as marketable, and that the purchaser has succumbed to the terms, and fulfils them, or is to fulfil them forthwith. He is now here, and we go on very amicably together, -one in each wing of the Abbey. We set off on Sunday — I for town, he for Cheshire.

Mrs. Leigh is with me—much pleased with the place, and less so with me for parting with it, to which not even the price can reconcile her. Your parcel has not yet arrived — at least the Mags. &c. ; but I have received Childe Harold and The Corsair. "I believe both are very correctly printed, which is a great satisfaction.

"I thank you for wishing me in town; but I think one's success is most felt at a distance, and I enjoy my solitary self-importance in an agreeable sulky way of my own, upon the strength of your letter-for which I once more thank you, and am, very truly, &c.

"P. S.-Don't you think Buonaparte's the Allies? Perry's Paris letter of yesternext publication will be rather expensive to day looks very reviving. What a Hydra and Briareus it is! I wish they would cify: there is no end to this campaigning."

LETTER 160. TO MR. MURRAY.

2

pa

"Newstead Abbey, February 5. 1814. "I quite forgot, in my answer of yesterday, to mention that I have no means of ascertaining whether the Newark Pirate has been doing what you say. If so, he is a rascal, and a shabby rascal too; and if his offence is punishable by law or pugilism, he shall be fined or buffeted. Do you try and discover, and I will make some inquiry here. Perhaps some other in town may have gone on printing, and used the same deception.

"The fac-simile is omitted in Childe Harold, which is very awkward, as there is a

2 Reprinting the "Hours of Idleness."

note expressly on the subject. Pray replace it as usual.

very

"On second and third thoughts, the withdrawing the small poems from The Corsair (even to add to Childe Harold) looks like shrinking and shuffling after the fuss made upon one of them by the Tories. Pray replace them in The Corsair's appendix. I am sorry that Childe Harold requires some and such abetments to make him move off; but, if remember, I told you you his popularity would not be permanent. It is lucky for the author that he had made up his mind to a temporary reputation in time. The truth is, I do not think that any of the present day (and least of all, one who has not consulted the flattering side of human nature) have much to hope from posterity; and you may think it affectation very probably, but, to me, my present and past success has appeared very singular, since it was in the teeth of so many prejudices. I almost think people like to be contradicted. If Childe Harold flags, it will hardly be worth while to go on with the engravings: but do as you please; I have done with the whole concern; and the enclosed lines, written years ago, and copied from my skull-cap, are among the last with which you will be troubled. If you like, add them to Childe Harold, if only for the sake of another outcry. You received so long an answer yesterday, that I will not intrude on you further than to repeat myself,

TO MR. MURRAY.

“Newark, February 6. 1814.

Mas

"I am thus far on my way to town. ter Ridge I have seen, and he owns to having reprinted some sheets, to make up a few complete remaining copies! I have now given him fair warning, and if he plays such tricks again, I must either get an injunction, or call for an account of profits (as I never have parted with the copyright), or, in short, any thing vexatious, to repay him in his own If the weather does not relapse, I hope to be in town in a day or two. "Yours, &c."

way.

1 The printer at Newark.

TO MR. MURRAY.

February 7. 1814.

"I see all the papers in a sad commotion with those eight lines; and the Morning Post, in particular, has found out that I am a sort of Richard III. - deformed in mind and body. The last piece of information is not very new to a man who passed five years at a public school.

"I am very sorry you cut out those lines for Childe Harold. Pray re-insert them in their old place in 'The Corsair.'”

LETTER 161. TO MR. HODGSON.

February 28. 1814. "There is a youngster, and a clever one, named Reynolds, who has just published a poem called Safie,' published by Cawthorne. He is in the most natural and fearful apprehension of the Reviewers; and as you and I both know by experience the effect of such things upon a young mind, I wish you would take his production into dissection, and do it gently. I cannot, because it is inscribed to me; but I assure you this is not my motive for wishing him to be tenderly entreated, but because I know the misery, at his time of life, of untoward remarks upon first appearance.

Now for self. Pray thank your cousin· it is just as it should be, to my liking, and propably more than will suit any one else's. I hope and trust that you are well and well doing. Peace be with you. Ever yours, my dear friend.”

LETTER 162. TO MR. MOORE.

"February 10. 1814. "I arrived in town late yesterday evening, having been absent three weeks, which I passed in Notts. quietly and pleasantly. You can have no conception of the uproar the eight lines on the little Royalty's weeping in 1812 (now republished) have occasioned. The R**, who had always thought them yours, chose - God knows why —on discovering them to be mine, to be affected in sorrow rather than anger.' The Morning Post, Sun, Herald, M. is in a fright, and wanted to shuffle; Courier, have all been in hysterics ever since. and the abuse against me in all directions is vehement, unceasing, loud- some of it I feel a little good, and all of it hearty. I compunctious as to the R** 's regret; 'would he had been only angry! but I fear him not.'

Some of these same assailments you have probably seen. My person (which is

ET. 26.

1

excellent for the nonce') has been denounced in verses, the more like the subject, inasmuch as they halt exceedingly. Then, in another, I am an atheist, a rebel, and, at last, the devil (boiteux, I presume). My demonism seems to be a female's conjecture; if so, perhaps, I could convince her that I am but a mere mortal, if a queen of the Amazons may be believed, who says apiarov Xwλos olet. I quote from memory, so my Greek is probably deficient; but the passage

is meant to mean

"Seriously, I am in, what the learned call, a dilemma, and the vulgar, a scrape; and my friends desire me not to be in a passion; and, like Sir Fretful, I assure them that I am quite calm,' — but I am nevertheless in a fury.

46

Since I wrote thus far, a friend has come in, and we have been talking and buffooning till I have quite lost the thread of my thoughts; and as I won't send them unstrung to you, good morning, and

66

Believe me ever, &c. "P. S.-Murray, during my absence, omitted the Tears in several of the copies. I have made him replace them, and am very wroth with his qualms;—as the wine is poured out, let it be drunk to the dregs."

TO MR. MURRAY.

241

"Before I left town yesterday, I wrote you a note, which I presume you received. I have heard so many different accounts of your proceedings, or rather of those of others towards you, in consequence of the publication of these everlasting lines, that I am anxious to hear from yourself the real state of the case. Whatever responsibility, obloquy, or effect is to arise from the publication, should surely not fall upon you in any degree; and I can have no objection to your stating, as distinctly and publicly as you please, your unwillingness to publish them, and my own obstinacy upon the subject. Take any course you please to vindicate yourself, but leave me to fight my own way; and, as I before said, do not compromise me by any thing which may look like shrinking on my part; as for your own, make the best of it. Yours, 66 BN."

LETTER 164. TO MR. ROGERS.

"My dear Rogers,

"February 16. 1814.

"I wrote to Lord Holland briefly, but hope distinctly, on the subject which has lately occupied much of my conversation with him and you. 3 As things now stand, upon that topic my determination must be unalterable.

there is no human being on whose regard "I declare to you most sincerely that and esteem I set a higher value than on Lord Holland's; and, as far as concerns himself, I would concede even to humiliation, without any view to the future, and solely from my sense of his conduct as to the past. For the rest, I conceive that I have already done all in my power by the suppression. If that is not enough, they must act as they please; but I will not 'teach my tongue a most inherent baseness,' come what may. You will probably be at

4

North of Germany;" published by Mr. Murray in 1814.]

3 Relative to a proposed reconciliation between Lord Carlisle and himself.

4 Of the Satire.

R

"BN."

"February 16. 1814.

"You may be assured that the only prickles that sting from the Royal hedgehog are those which possess a torpedo property, and may benumb some of my friends. I am quite silent, and hush'd in grim repose.' The frequency of the assaults has weakened their effects, if ever they had any ; — and, if they had had much, I should hardly have held my tongue, or withheld my fingers. It is something quite new to attack a man for abandoning his resentments. I have heard that previous praise and subsequent vituperation were rather ungrateful, but I did not know that it was wrong to endeavour to do justice to those who did not wait till I had made some amends for former and boyish prejudices, but received me into their

I had endeavoured to persuade him to take a part in parliamentary affairs, and to exercise his talent for oratory more frequently.

friendship, when I might still have been their enemy.

66

You perceive justly that I must intentionally have made my fortune like Sir Francis Wronghead. It were better if there were more merit in my independence, but it really is something nowadays to be independent at all, and the less temptation to be otherwise, the more uncommon the case, in these times of paradoxical servility. I believe that most of our hates and likings have been hitherto nearly the same; but from henceforth they must, of necessity, be one and indivisible,and now for it! I am for any weapon,the pen, till one can find something sharper, will do for a beginning.

"You can have no conception of the ludicrous solemnity with which these two stanzas have been treated. The Morning Post gave notice of an intended motion in the House of my brethren on the subject, and God he knows what proceedings besides;

and all this, as Bedreddin in the ‘Nights’ says, 'for making a cream tart without pepper.' This last piece of intelligence is, I presume, too laughable to be true; and the destruction of the Custom-house appears to have, in some degree, interfered with mine; added to which, the last battle of Buonaparte has usurped the column hitherto devoted to my bulletin.

"The Courier of this evening accuses me of having received and pocketed' large sums for my works. I have never yet received, nor wish to receive, a farthing for any. Mr. Murray offered a thousand for The Giaour and Bride of Abydos, which I said was too

2 In concluding my letter, having said "God bless you!" I added-" that is, if you have no objection."