by Thomas Moore
“The only thing would be to avoid a party on the night of delivery — afterwards, the more the better, and the whole transaction inevitably tends to a good deal of discussion. Murray tells me there are myriads of ironical Addresses ready — some, in imitation of what is called my style. If they are as good as the Probationary Odes, or Hawkins’s Pipe of Tobacco, it will not be bad fun for the imitated.
“Ever,” &c.
The time comprised in the series of letters to Lord Holland, of which the above are specimens, Lord Byron passed, for the most part, at Cheltenham; and during the same period, the following letters to other correspondents were written.
LETTER 107. TO MR. MURRAY.
“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 devil is he? — no matter, he has good connections, and will be well introduced. I thank you for your enquiries: 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.
“P.S. — 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 108. 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; — and 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, from 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 in one volume for my old age; and pray, sort my Romaic books, and get the volumes lent to Mr. Hobhouse — he has had them now a long time. If any thing occurs, you will favour me with a line, and in winter we shall be nearer neighbours.
“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.”
LETTER 109. TO MR. WILLIAM BANKES.
“Cheltenham, September 28. 1812.
“My dear Bankes,
“When you point out to one how people can be intimate at the distance of some seventy leagues, I will plead guilty to your charge, and accept your farewell, but not wittingly, till you give me some better reason than my silence, which merely proceeded from a notion founded on your own declaration of old, that you hated writing and receiving letters. Besides, how was I to find out a man of many residences? If I had addressed you now, it had been to your borough, where I must have conjectured you were amongst your constituents. So now, in despite of Mr. N. and Lady W., you shall be as ‘much better’ as the Hexham post-office will allow me to make you. I do assure you I am much indebted to you for thinking of me at all, and can’t spare you even from amongst the superabundance of friends with whom you suppose me surrounded.
“You heard that Newstead is sold — the sum 140,000l.; sixty to remain in mortgage on the estate for three years, paying interest, of course. Rochdale is also likely to do well — so my worldly matters are mending. I have been here some time drinking the waters, simply because there are waters to drink, and they are very medicinal, and sufficiently disgusting. In a few days I set out for Lord Jersey’s, but return here, where I am quite alone, go out very little, and enjoy in its fullest extent the ‘dolce far niente.’ What you are about, I cannot guess, even from your date; — not dauncing to the sound of the gitourney in the Halls of the Lowthers? one of whom is here, ill, poor thing, with a phthisic. I heard that you passed through here (at the sordid inn where I first alighted) the very day before I arrived in these parts. We had a very pleasant set here; at first the Jerseys, Melbournes, Cowpers, and Hollands, but all gone; and the only persons I know are the Rawdons and Oxfords, with some later acquaintances of less brilliant descent.
“But I do not trouble them much; and as for your rooms and your assemblies, ‘they are not dreamed of in our philosophy!!’ — Did you read of a sad accident in the Wye t’ other day? a dozen drowned, and Mr. Rossoe, a corpulent gentleman, preserved by a boat-hook or an eel-spear, begged, when he heard his wife was saved — no — lost — to be thrown in again!! — as if he could not have thrown himself in, had he wished it; but this passes for a trait of sensibility. What strange beings men are, in and out of the Wye!
“I have to ask you a thousand pardons for not fulfilling some orders before I left town; but if you knew all the cursed entanglements I had to wade through, it would be unnecessary to beg your forgiveness. — When will Parliament (the new one) meet? — in sixty days, on account of Ireland, I presume: the Irish election will demand a longer period for completion than the constitutional allotment. Yours, of course, is safe, and all your side of the question. Salamanca is the ministerial watchword, and all will go well with you. I hope you will speak more frequently, I am sure at least you ought, and it will be expected. I see Portman means to stand again. Good night.
“Ever yours most affectionately,
“Μπαἱρων.”
LETTER 110. TO MR. MURRAY.
“Cheltenham, September 27. 1812.
“I sent in no Address whatever to the Committee; but out of nearly one hundred (this is confidential), none have been deemed worth acceptance; and in consequence of their subsequent application to me, I have written a prologue, which has been received, and will be spoken. The MS. is now in the hands of Lord Holland.
“I write this merely to say, that (however it is received by the audience) you will publish it in the next edition of Childe Harold; and I only beg you at present to keep my name secret till you hear further from me, and as soon as possible I wish you to have a correct co
py, to do with as you think proper.
“P.S. — I should wish a few copies printed off before, that the newspaper copies may be correct after the delivery.”
LETTER 111. TO MR. MURRAY.
“Cheltenham, Oct. 12. 1812.
“I have a very strong objection to the engraving of the portrait, and request that it may, on no account, be prefixed; but let all the proofs be burnt, and the plate broken. I will be at the expense which has been incurred; it is but fair that I should, since I cannot permit the publication. I beg, as a particular favour, that you will lose no time in having this done, for which I have reasons that I will state when I see you. Forgive all the trouble I have occasioned you.
“I have received no account of the reception of the Address, but see it is vituperated in the papers, which does not much embarrass an old author. I leave it to your own judgment to add it, or not, to your next edition when required. Pray comply strictly with my wishes as to the engraving, and believe me, &c.
“P.S. — Favour me with an answer, as I shall not be easy till I hear that the proofs, &c. are destroyed. I hear that the Satirist has reviewed Childe Harold, in what manner I need not ask; but I wish to know if the old personalities are revived? I have a better reason for asking this than any that merely concerns myself; but in publications of that kind, others, particularly female names, are sometimes introduced.”
LETTER 112. TO LORD HOLLAND.
“Cheltenham, Oct. 14. 1812.
“My dear Lord,
“I perceive that the papers, yea, even Perry’s, are somewhat ruffled at the injudicious preference of the Committee. My friend Perry has, indeed, ‘et tu Brute’-d me rather scurvily, for which I will send him, for the M.C., the next epigram I scribble, as a token of my full forgiveness.
“Do the Committee mean to enter into no explanation of their proceedings? You must see there is a leaning towards a charge of partiality. You will, at least, acquit me of any great anxiety to push myself before so many elder and better anonymous, to whom the twenty guineas (which I take to be about two thousand pounds Bank currency) and the honour would have been equally welcome. ‘Honour,’ I see, ‘hath no skill in paragraph-writing.’
“I wish to know how it went off at the second reading, and whether any one has had the grace to give it a glance of approbation. I have seen no paper but Perry’s and two Sunday ones. Perry is severe, and the others silent. If, however, you and your Committee are not now dissatisfied with your own judgments, I shall not much embarrass myself about the brilliant remarks of the journals. My own opinion upon it is what it always was, perhaps pretty near that of the public.
“Believe me, my dear Lord, &c. &c.
“P.S. — My best respects to Lady H., whose smiles will be very consolatory, even at this distance.”
LETTER 113. TO MR. MURRAY.
“Cheltenham, Oct. 18. 1812.
“Will you have the goodness to get this Parody of a peculiar kind (for all the first lines are Busby’s entire) inserted in several of the papers (correctly — and copied correctly; my hand is difficult) — particularly the Morning Chronicle? Tell Mr. Perry I forgive him all he has said, and may say against my address, but he will allow me to deal with the Doctor — (audi alteram partem) — and not betray me. I cannot think what has befallen Mr. Perry, for of yore we were very good friends; — but no matter, only get this inserted.
“I have a poem on Waltzing for you, of which I make you a present; but it must be anonymous. It is in the old style of English Bards and Scotch Reviewers.
“P.S. — With the next edition of Childe Harold you may print the first fifty or a hundred opening lines of the ‘Curse of Minerva’ down to the couplet beginning
“Mortal (’twas thus she spake), &c.
Of course, the moment the Satire begins, there you will stop, and the opening is the best part.”
LETTER 114. TO MR. MURRAY.
“Oct. 19. 1812.
“Many thanks, but I must pay the damage, and will thank you to tell me the amount for the engraving. I think the ‘Rejected Addresses’ by far the best thing of the kind since the Rolliad, and wish you had published them. Tell the author ‘I forgive him, were he twenty times over a satirist;’ and think his imitations not at all inferior to the famous ones of Hawkins Browne. He must be a man of very lively wit, and less scurrilous than wits often are: altogether, I very much admire the performance, and wish it all success. The Satirist has taken a new tone, as you will see: we have now, I think, finished with Childe Harold’s critics. I have in hand a Satire on Waltzing, which you must publish anonymously: it is not long, not quite two hundred lines, but will make a very small boarded pamphlet. In a few days you shall have it.
“P.S. — The editor of the Satirist ought to be thanked for his revocation; it is done handsomely, after five years’ warfare.”
LETTER 115. TO MR. MURRAY.
“Oct. 23. 1812.
“Thanks, as usual. You go on boldly; but have a care of glutting the public, who have by this time had enough of Childe Harold. ‘Waltzing’ shall be prepared. It is rather above two hundred lines, with an introductory Letter to the Publisher. I think of publishing, with Childe Harold, the opening lines of the ‘Curse of Minerva,’ as far as the first speech of Pallas, — because some of the readers like that part better than any I have ever written, and as it contains nothing to affect the subject of the subsequent portion, it will find a place as a Descriptive Fragment.
“The plate is broken? between ourselves, it was unlike the picture; and besides, upon the whole, the frontispiece of an author’s visage is but a paltry exhibition. At all events, this would have been no recommendation to the book. I am sure Sanders would not have survived the engraving. By the by, the picture may remain with you or him (which you please), till my return. The one of two remaining copies is at your service till I can give you a better; the other must be burned peremptorily. Again, do not forget that I have an account with you, and that this is included. I give you too much trouble to allow you to incur expense also.
“You best know how far this ‘Address Riot’ will affect the future sale of Childe Harold. I like the volume of ‘Rejected Addresses’ better and better. The other parody which Perry has received is mine also (I believe). It is Dr. Busby’s speech versified. You are removing to Albemarle Street, I find, and I rejoice that we shall be nearer neighbours. I am going to Lord Oxford’s, but letters here will be forwarded. When at leisure, all communications from you will be willingly received by the humblest of your scribes. Did Mr. Ward write the review of Horne Tooke’s Life in the Quarterly? it is excellent.”
LETTER 116. TO MR. MURRAY.
“Cheltenham, November 22. 1812.
“On my return here from Lord Oxford’s, I found your obliging note, and will thank you to retain the letters, and any other subsequent ones to the same address, till I arrive in town to claim them, which will probably be in a few days. I have in charge a curious and very long MS. poem, written by Lord Brooke (the friend of Sir Philip Sidney), which I wish to submit to the inspection of Mr. Gifford, with the following queries: — first, whether it has ever been published, and, secondly (if not), whether it is worth publication? It is from Lord Oxford’s library, and must have escaped or been overlooked amongst the MSS. of the Harleian Miscellany. The writing is Lord Brooke’s, except a different hand towards the close. It is very long, and in the six-line stanza. It is not for me to hazard an opinion upon its merits; but I would take the liberty, if not too troublesome, to submit it to Mr. Gifford’s judgment, which, from his excellent edition of Massinger, I should conceive to be as decisive on the writings of that age as on those of our own.
“Now for a less agreeable and important topic. — How came Mr. Mac-Somebody, without consulting you or me, to prefix the Address to his volume of ‘Dejected Addresses?’ Is not this somewhat larcenous? I think the ceremony of leave might have been asked, though I have no objection to the thing itself; and leave the ‘hundred and eleven’ to tire themse
lves with ‘base comparisons.’ I should think the ingenuous public tolerably sick of the subject, and, except the Parodies, I have not interfered, nor shall; indeed I did not know that Dr. Busby had published his Apologetical Letter and Postscript, or I should have recalled them. But, I confess, I looked upon his conduct in a different light before its appearance. I see some mountebank has taken Alderman Birch’s name to vituperate Dr. Busby; he had much better have pilfered his pastry, which I should imagine the more valuable ingredient — at least for a puff. — Pray secure me a copy of Woodfall’s new Junius, and believe me,” &c.
LETTER 117. TO MR. WILLIAM BANKES.
“December 26.
“The multitude of your recommendations has already superseded my humble endeavours to be of use to you; and, indeed, most of my principal friends are returned. Leake from Joannina, Canning and Adair from the city of the Faithful, and at Smyrna no letter is necessary, as the consuls are always willing to do every thing for personages of respectability. I have sent you three, one to Gibraltar, which, though of no great necessity, will, perhaps, put you on a more intimate footing with a very pleasant family there. You will very soon find out that a man of any consequence has very little occasion for any letters but to ministers and bankers, and of them we have already plenty, I will be sworn.
