LIBRARY 1 University of California. & j^:-.-.. W h. ■^ RECOLLECTIONS LIFE OF LORD BYRON. "^ ^1\ KECOLLECTIONS OK THR LIFE OF LORD BYRON, FROM THE YEAR 1808 TO THE END OF 1814; HIb EARLY CHARACTER AND OriNIONS, DETAILING THE PROGRESS OP HIS LITERARY CAREER, AND INCLUDING VARIOUS UNPUBLISHED PASSAGES OK HIS WORKS, TAKEN FROM AUTHENTIC DOCUMENTS. IN THE POSSESSION OF THE AUTHOR. BY THE LATE R. C. DALLAS, Esa AN ACCOUNT OF THE CIRCUMSTANCES LEADING TO THE SUPPRESSION OF LORD BYRON'S CORRESPONDENCE WITH THE AUTHOR, AND HIS LETTERS TO HIS MOTHER. LATELY ANNOUNCED FOR PUBLICATION. ■■^ LONDON: PRINTED FOR CHARLES KNIGHT, PALL-MALL-EAST .MDCCCXXIV, 5%« •AL LONDON Prlnteil bj WILLIAM CI.OH'ES, NorthumbeTland-Court. / - . OF CONTENTS. Preliminary Statement of the circumstances lead- ing to the suppression of Lord Byron's Correspondence with the Author, and of liis Letters to his Mother— p. i to cxvii. Note as to the birth place of Lord Byron — cxix. Chap. I. p. 1—18. Family connexions of Lord Byron — Juvenile Poems — " Hours of Idleness" — Letter of Mr. Dallas — agreeable communication from his Lordship — second Letter of Slst July, 1808, and reply to it — first interview with Lord Byron — pleasing impressions excited by the Poem strengthened by personal acquaintance — " engrafted "reli- gious opinions— » visit on his 21st birth-day — his mdigna- tion at Lord Carhsle's behaviour estranges him from his family connexions — attack upon the Edinburgh Reviewers. Chap. II. p. 19—47. The Satire " British Bard and Scotch Reviewers" — originally printed in the country — considerably altered in preparing for publication— Letters of 24th Jan., 1809— variation of the title suggested — notices of Southey— 167249 CONTENTS. Little — Lord Carlisle — progress through the press — pub- lication offered to Longman and Co. and decKned — published by Cawthorn — ideas suggested on reading the Poem — extracts from the original manuscript, with the printed variations — Lord Byron's sensibility respecting his personal defect — Jeffery — Letter of the 6th of Fe- bruary, 1809 — arrangement with the publisher of the Satire— Letter of the 7th of February, 1809— further alterations suggested — intercourse with Lord Byron during the publication — additions — argument originally intended to precede the Satu-e. Chap. III. p. 48—67. The death of Lord Falkland suggests some new pas- sages in the Satire — Lord Byron naturally benevolent — effect of his feehngs upon his countenance — pubhcation of the Satire— takes his seat in the House of Lords — neg- lect of his relative Lord Carlisle — reception by the Lord Chancellor — repulsive coolness of Lord Byron — his rea- sons — leaves town for Newstead Abbey — Mr. Dallas's Letter of the 17th of April, 1809— pubhc notices of the Satire— additions and alterations in the Second Edition — his misanthropic feelings — he leaves England — presents Mr. Dallas with his Letters to his Mother. Chap. IV. p. 68— 90. Letters to his Mother — influence of his literary repu- 6 CONTENTS. tation upon his mind — original intention of travelling — arrangements in his first will — rejects a proposal for the sale of Newstead Abbey — state of his affairs on quitting England — his travelling suite— route — Library of the convent at INIafra — adventure at Seville — Mr. Hobhouse —his propensity to noting. Entertainment at Yanina — Ali Pacha — palaces at Telapeen — introduction to Ali — his attention to Lord Byron- — voyage from Previsa to Patras— hospitality of a Suliote — return to Yanina — grand children of Ali Pacha — swims across the Helles- pont — determines to pass the summer of 1810 in the Morea — return of Mr, Hobhouse to England — ad- vantages derived by Lord Byron from his travels — satis- faction at being alone, his mind reverting to its natural activity — intentions to be put in practice on his return to England — determination to appear no more as an author — the sale of Newstead again proposed to him — his ob- jections — determination in the event of the sale being un- avoidable — his return to England on the 2nd of July, 1811. Chap. V. p. 91—126. Announcement to Mr. Dallas of his return — Blackett, a poetical shoemaker — his patrons — death — his works pub- lished by Mr. Pratt — general observations on genius — Lord Byron"'s remarks on Blackett and others — his arrival and interview with IMr. Dallas— intention respect- 7 23 CONTENTS. ing future publications — " Hints from Horace," an unpu- blished Poem, with extracts— the MS of" Childe Hai'old" presented to Mr. Dallas — Letter of the 16th July — Lord Byron's unfavourable opinion of the Poem — is persuaded to allow the pubhcation of it, and consents to revise the manuscript — Cawthorne— Miller — arrangement withMur- ray — ^introductory Stanzas and improvements — ^illness of Lord Byron's mother — departure for Newstead — protest against sceptical stanzas in Childe Harold. CHAP.VLp. 127— 152. Lord Byron -writes to Mr. Dallas from Newstead Abbey — death of his mother and his friends — despon- dency — Letter of condolence— he disclaims acuteness of feeling — estimate of his deceased friends — direct attack upon the Christian rehgion — declines metaphysical argument — outline of correspondence upon the subject — the discussion discouraged by Lord Byron — probability of a change in his opinions— Kirke White, and Chatter- ton — Townshend — Lord Byron's moral feelings — ideas relative to his peculiar situation mth society — his own opinion of impropriety— another death Letter from Mr. Dallas, of the 27th of October. Chap. VII. p. 153— to 187. Reluctance of Lord Byron to attach his name to the pub- lication of " Childe Harold" — intention to add to another 8 CONTENTS. edition— disclaims identity of character witli the " Childe'^ — anxiety for the appearance of " Hints from Horace" — Letter of Mr. Dallas, ^vith the first proof— Mr. Gifford— encouragement to complete the Poem— subjects pointed out — sceptical stanzas — treasons for abstaining from the avowal of improper sentiments and for attaching Lord Byron's name to the Poem — Waller Wright — Kirke White— reasons that Mr. Gifford should not see the MS. — passages expressive of a disbelief in futurity — alte- ration — ^the fac simile — note to stanzas of the second Canto — Convention at Cintra— Letter of 3d of October, 1811— omissions — the objectionable stanzas — Letter re- lative to an objectionable note on Spain and Portugal — note — observations on detached passages of the Poem. Chap. VIII. p. 188—218. Retrospect — progress of the publication — depression of Lord Byron — Newstead Abbey — notice of the family — Capt. George Anson Byron — involvement of Lord Byron's affairs — intention to reside in the Archipelago — abstemi- ousness — disturbances in Nottinghamshire — frame-break- ing bin — Lord Holland's debate on the bill — favourable impression of Lord Byron's first speech — the speech. Chap. IX. p. 219—239. Anxiety for the sviccess of the Poem — a review of " Childe Harold" precedes the publication through delay CONTENTS. the printer of it — appearance of the Poem — terms sug- gested by the bookseller for the copyright — edition sold in three days — Newstead Abbey- — Letter on Lord Byron's affairs — Letters to Mr. Dallas' famOy respecting Lord Byron and the Poem — Lord Byron universally compli- mented — arrangement for a second edition — reluctance of Mr. Dallas to accept the copyright — a copy sent by Lord Byron to Mrs. Dallas — another to his Lordship's sister — his note written in his sister's copy — hterary reputation at this period, (March, 1812) — introduction to the Prince llegent — Ms intention to attend a levee — disappointment — change in his feelings and opinions — copy of Childe Harold, ordered by the Princess Charlotte to be magni- ficently bound — Letter from Dr. Clarke. Chap. X. p. 240—263. Evil consequences of the adulation ^vitli "which Lord Byron was assailed—mingles with society — consequent sup- pression of the 5th edition of the " Satire" and "Hints from Horace" — edition destroyed — dissatisfaction of the pub- lisher — Lord Byron speaks on the Catholic Question — his fame — change in his manners and opinions in conse- quence — an equivocal messenger — Newstead Abbey of- fered for sale by auction — sold by private contract for 140,000/.— contract voided, and 20,000/. forfeited— I\Ir. Dallas' feehng respecting Newstead — notices of the Abbey, by Her. Walpole, and in the Edinburgh Re- 10 CONTENTS. view — Lord Byron's neglect of Mr. Dallas — retires to the country — intercourse recommenced upon his return to town in the beginning of 1813 — Lord Byron''s proposi- tion to write a novel jointly with Mr. Dallas — the com- mencement. Chap. XI. 264—299. The Giaour — Lord Byron's wish that Mr. Dallas should print all his works after his death — Bride of Abydos — offer of the publisher — American Poem and the Edinburgh Review — Mr. Murray — the Corsair — copy- right of the Poem presented to Mr. Dallas— dedicated to Mr. Moore — " Stanzas on a Lady Weeping." — virulence of the press — Lord Byron annoyed by the accusation of receiving money for his writings — Letter to the Morning Post — effect of the Letter — rapid sale of the Corsair — Lara — Newstead Abbey— observations on Lara— engraved portraits of Lord Byron — posthumous volume — Lord Byron's feelings toward Mr. Dallas — resolution to leave England upon the separation from Lady Byron— rhis wish that Mr. Dallas' son should accompany him — final de- parture from England in 1816— tendency of his subse- quent writings— estimate of his poetical and personal character — concluding remai'ks. Chap. XII. p. 300— 344. Death of Mr. Dallas — intrusts the conclusion of the Recollections and its publication to his son — remarks on 11 CONTENTS. the general character of Lord Byron, as depicted in the preceding Chapters — publication of Medwin^s " Con- versations'" — observations on the character and tendency of that work, and upon the conduct of Lord Byron as therein portrayed — Letter of Mr. Dallas to Lord Byron of the 10th November, 1819— the original and acquired character of Lord Byron — his feelings upon religion — consequences of adulation upon liis mind andconduct — regret of Mr. Dallas that from these consequences he had been instrumental in bringing Childe Harold's Pilgrim- age before the public — cx)ncluding passage from the ori- ginal IMS. of Mr. Dallas. PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. Circumstances have rendered it necessary to account to the pubhc for the appear- ance of the following Recollections in their present form. A work had been an- nounced as preparing for publication, en- titled " Private Correspondence of Lord Byron, including his Letters to his Mother, written from Portugal, Spain, Greece, and other parts of the Mediterranean, in the years 1809, 1810, and 1811, con- nected by Memorandums and Observa- tions, forming a Memoir of his Life, from the year 1808 to 1814. By R. C. Dallas, Esq." Much expectation had been raised by this announcement, and considerable interest had been excited in the public b ii PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. mind. The Vice-Chancellor, however, was appHed to by Messrs. Hobhouse and Han- son, for an injunction to restrain the in- tended publication, which was summarily- granted as a matter of form ; since which the Lord-Chancellor has been pleased to confirm the Vice-Chancellor's injunction, but the public have never been furnished with any report of his decision, nor been further informed upon the subject. Under these circumstances, the public expectation has been disappointed, and the interest which was created has been left unsatisfied ; while, on the other hand, the intended pubUcation has been exposed to the charge of raising an expectation, and exciting an interest, which it was improper and unlawful to gratify. The nature of the letters, and memoirs themselves, has thus been left to the vague surmises which might be formed by every thoughtless mind, pampered by the constant food of personality and scandal, which the press has lately afforded in such abundance, and excited by the depraved character of many of those works which Lord Byron, in his PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. m fallen state, has himself administered to their morbid appetite. Thus situated, no one can deny that it became Mr. Dallas's bounden duty, both to defend himself from the charge which might thus be brought against him, and to lay before the public such an account of the work he had announced as might fairly explain its nature, and shelter it from the suspicions of impropriety, which the very name of Lord Byron seems so generally to excite. The latter of these objects has produced the publication of the present work; to which the reader is confidently referred, that he may form his opinion of the nature of that which has been sup- pressed. To obtain the former object, it can only be necessary to publish a simple narrative of the facts connected with the formation of the work, with its intended publication, and with its suppression. Such a narrative it was in the contemplation of the author of the following Recollections to have written, but it did not please God to prolong his life for the execution of his purpose. He has been taken from this bg iv PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. world, and the task he had proposed has devolved upon the Editor of the present volume ; who, having been principally con- cerned, during his fathers absence from England, in the transactions which will be recorded, is enabled to state them from his own information. Mr. Dallas's knowledge of Lord Byron, and the circumstances which gave rise to his intention of writing any thing concern- ing him, are fully detailed in the following work. A few words, however, will convey such a recapitulation of them as will be necessary to enable the reader to under- stand this narrative. Having been in habits of intimacy, and in frequent correspondence with Lord Byron, from the year 1808 to the end of 1814, which correspondence about that period ceased, Mr. Dallas had many times heard him read portions of a book in which his Lordship inserted his opinion of the persons with whom he mixed. This book, Lord Byron said, he intended for pub- lication after his death ; and, from this idea, Mr. Dallas, at a subsequent period, adopted that of writing a faithful dehneation of PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. v Lord Byron's character, such as he had known him, and of leaving it for pubUcation after the death of both ; and, calculating upon the human probability of Lord By- ron's surviving himself, he meant the two posthumous works should thus appear si- multaneously. Mr. Dallas's work was com- pleted in the year 1819 ; and, in November of that year, he wrote to inform Lord Byron of his intended purpose *. The event proved the fallacy of human probability — Mr. Dallas lived, at seventy, to see the death of Lord Byron, at thirty- seven. The idea of digesting his work into a different form, and of publishing it with the greater part of the letters which it con- tained, came into his mind even before the report of Lord Byron's death was fully * The body of the letter which he wrote upon this occasion, will be found in the last chapter of this work, page 308. Although Lord Byron never replied to this letter, its writer had assurance that he received it — for, some time afterwards, a mutual friend who had been with Lord Byron, told him that his Lordship had mentioned the receiving of it, and referred to part of its contents. vi PRELIMINARY STATEMENT, confirmed. This, together with a circum- stance more important to the object of this narrative, may be gathered from the con- tents of a letter which he wrote to the pre- sent Lord Byron from France, on the 18th of May, 1824. The following extract from which will show, that Mr. Dallas's first thought respecting these letters, was to consult with the most proper person, his nearest male relation and successor. " I hear that you have been presented with a fri- gate by Lord Melville — I congratulate you on this, too ; but I own I suspect myself to be more sorry than pleased at it, particularly if you are to go on a station of three years abroad. There are reports respecting your cousin, the truth of which would render your absence very awkward — pray state this to Mr. Wilmot, and consult him upon it. I hope, if you do go abroad, that you will run over in one of the Havre packets, to sjjend a few days with me previously. I cannot look forward to seeing you again in this world, and I should like to have some conversation with you, not only respecting the situation in which you stand as to the title, but also respecting Lord Byron himself. I have many letters from him, and from your father and mother, which are extremely interesting. Do not fail to see me, George, if but for a couple of days. The Southampton packets are passing Portsmouth three times a week, and if you could not stay longer, PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. vii I would not press you to do otherwise than i-eturn by the packet you came in." The next packet, however, brought Mr. Dallas the confirmation of the report of Lord Byron's death, and he was not long in deciding upon the intention which he afterwards put in execution. The work, as it existed at that time, had been written with a view to publication at a period when, after the common age of man, Lord Byron should have quitted this world — that is, thirty or forty years hence. The progress of the baneful influence which certain per- sons, calling themselves his friends, obtained over Lord Byron's mind, when his genius first began to attract attention to him, was, in that work, more distinctly traced. Many circumstances were mentioned in it which might give pain to some now living, who could not be expected to be living then, or who, if they were then alive, would pro- bably experience different feelings at that time to those with which they would recall the circumstances now. In the form it then possessed, therefore, Mr. Dallas would not think of publishing it ; but he determined viii PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. to arrange the correspondence in such a manner as should present an interesting picture of Lord Byron's mind, and connect- ing the letters by memorandums and ob- servations of his own, render the whole a faithful memoir of his life during the period to which the correspondence referred. Having decided upon this, the materials were arranged accordingly; and the Editor can, of his own knowledge, assert, that many parts of the original manuscript were omitted, in tenderness for the feelings of both the very persons composing the part- nership which has since so violently opposed the publication of the Correspondence, and that none of the parts then omitted have been allowed to appear in the present work. "When this alteration was completed he came to London, and entered into an agree- ment with Mr. Charles Knight, of Pall Mall East, for the disposal of the copyright*. The book was immediately put to press, * The introduction of Mr. Colburn's name, in the publication of the book, was in consequence of a subse- quent arrangement between Mr. Knight and that gen- tleman, in which the author was not concerned. PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. ix and the usual announcements of it were inserted in the newspapers. During the short stay which Mr. Dallas made in London, he endeavoured fruitlessly to see the present Lord Byron, who arrived in town, and sought him at his hotel the very day that he had left it, and therefore no sufficient communication took place at that time respecting the work which was about to appear. According to circum- stances, which afterwards occurred, this was unfortunate, for had Lord Byron then seen Mr. Dallas, he would have been able at once to give his opinion when applied to by the executors ; instead of which, when an application was made to him to join in opposing the intended publication, being ignorant of its nature, he was of course unable to express his approbation of the work so fully as he afterwards did. The necessary arrangements being made, Mr. Dallas returned to France, for the pur- pose of taking steps for the simultaneous publication of a French translation, in Paris. Of this, further notice will be taken here- after, and it is not necessary, for the X PRELIMfNARY STATEMENT. present, to refer to it. In passing through Southampton, Mr. Dallas paid a visit to his niece, the sister of the present Lord Byron, who was in correspondence with Mrs. Leigh, the half sister of the late Lord Byron. Through her he sent a message to Mrs. Leigh, informing her of the nature of the Correspondence then in the press. This is worthy of remark, as it is one of the many assurances that the nature of the intended publication was such as could not but be satisfactory to the real friends of Lord Byron, which have been afforded to the parties who have prevented the Corres- pondence from being laid before the British public. This message was sent on the 20th of June, 1824, and it was faithfully for- warded to Mrs. Leigh. On the 23d of June, however, Mr. Hob- house addressed the following letter to Mr. Dallas : *' 6, Albany, London, June 23. "■ Dkar Sir, " I see by the newspapers, and I have heard from other quarters, that it is your intention to publish a volume of memoirs, interspersed with letters and other PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. xi documents relative to Lord Byron. I cannot believe this to be the case, as from what I had the pleasure of knowing of you, I thought that you would never think of taking such a step without consulting, or at least giving warning to the family and more immediate friends of Lord Byron. As to the publication of Lord Byron's private letters, I am certain, that for the present, at least, and without a previous inspection by his family, no man of honour and feeling can for a moment entertain such an idea — and I take the liberty of letting you know, that Mrs. Leigh, his Lordship's sister, would consider such a measure as quite unpardonable. " An intimacy of twenty years with his Lordship, may perhaps justify me in saying, that I am sure he would deprecate, had he any means of interfering, the exposure of his private writings, unless after very mature consul- tation with those who have the greatest interest In his fame and character, I mean his family and relations. "I trust you will be so kind as to excuse me for my anxiety on this point, and for requesting you would have the goodness to make an early reply to this com- munication. " Yours, very faithfully, " John C. Hobhouse." It is particularly to be remarked, that this letter is written without professing to be by any other authority whatever than that which the writer's " intimacy" with the late Lord Byron might give him. He xu PRELIMINARY STATEiMENT. " takes the liberty of letting Mr. Dallas know that Mrs. Leigh, his Lordship's sister, would consider" the measure which he knew that gentleman had taken " to be quite unpardonable ;" he has the modesty to ac- knowledge that this is a liberty ; but he takes a very much greater liberty without any similar acknowledgment; he asserts, that " no man of honour and feeling can for a moment entertain such an idea," as that which he writes to say he has seen by the newspapers, and has heard from other quarters, Mr. Dallas has not only enter- tained, but acted upon. But the principal point to be considered is, that Mr. Hob- house writes, perhaps, in the character of Lord Byron's "more immediate friend;" but that he does not hint at having any authority, and least of all, the authority of an Executor ; and this for the strongest pos- sible reason, thathe was not then aware that he had been appointed Lord Byron's executor, which fact he himself acknow- ledged upon a subsequent occasion. Cer- tainly, on receiving this letter, Mr. Dallas had no idea of its being written by an exe- PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. xiii cutor, nor is it to be concealed, that its receipt excited feelings of considerable irritation in his mind. Very shortly after writing this letter, Mr. Hobhouse found himself associated with Mr. John Hanson, as executor to Lord Byron's will ; and not receiving any letter from Mr. Dallas, he, on the 30th June, called upon Mr. Knight, the publisher, tak- ing with him a gentleman whom he intro- duced as Mr. Williams. This gentleman was to be witness to the conversation that might take place ; though Mr. Hobhouse prefaced his object by expressions of a friendly tendency. Mr. Knight not having any reason to expect a visit of the nature which this proved to be, was not prepared with any one to stand in a similar situation on his part ; but the very moment that the conference was ended he took notes of what had passed. Mr. Hobhouse stated, that he had written to Mr. Dallas, to com- plain of the indelicac}'' of publishing Lord Byron's letters, before the interment of his remains ; that Mrs. Leigh had not been consulted; and that Mr. Dallas had not xiv PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. the concurrence of Lord Byron's family in the intended publication ; — that he called on Mr. Knight officially, as Executor, to say this, though when he wrote to Mr. Dallas he did not know that Lord Byron had appointed him one of his executors. Mr. Hobhouse thought Mr. Dallas had a right to publish Lord Byron's letters to himself; but he doubted his right to pub- lish those of Lord Byron to his mother. Mr. Knight said that he beHeved Mr. Dal- las would be able to show that Lord Byron had given those letters to him. Mr. Hob- house replied, that if Mr. Dallas failed in that, he should move for an Injunction. Mr. Knight said, that the question of deli- cacy, as to the time of publication, must be settled with Mr. Dallas ; — that the pub- lisher could only look to that question in a commercial view ; but that having read the work carefully, he could distinctly state, that the family and the executors need feel no apprehensions as to its tendency, as the work was calculated to elevate Lord By- ron's moral and intellectual character. Mr. Hobhouse observed, that if individuals were PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. XV not spoken of with bitterness, and opinions very freely expressed in these letters, they were not Hke Lord Byron's letters in gene- ral. He himself had a heap of Lord Byron s letters, but he could never think of publishing them. The conference ended by Mr. Knight stating, that a friend of Mr. Dallas, a gentleman of high respectabihty, superintended the work through the press ; that Mr. Hobhouse's application should be mentioned to him; — but that he, Mr. Knight, was not then at liberty to mention that gentleman's name. Mr. Knight lost no time in informing the present editor of the conversation he had had with Mr. Hobhouse ; and as the pub- lisher had referred to some one intrusted by Mr. Dallas with the charge of conduct- ing the progress of the work through the press, but had hesitated mentioning his name, not having authority to do so, the editor immediately addressed the following letter to Mr. Hobhouse, without however being aware of that which he had written to Mr. Dallas :— xvi PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. " Wooburn Vicarage, near Beaconsfield^ Bucks, Qd July, 1824. « Sir, " Mr. Knight has informed me of the conver- sation he has had with you upon the subject of Lord Bp'on's correspondence. *' I might have expected that as you are not unac- quainted with my father, his character would have been a sufficient guarantee of the proper nature of any work which should appear before the public under his direc- tion ; and I might naturally have hoped that it would have guarded him from the suspicion of impropriety or indelicacy. In the jDresent case, both his general cha- racter as a christian and a gentleman, and his particular connexion with the family of Lord Byron, should have prevented the alarm which appears to have been excited in your mind, for I will not suppose the relations of Lord Byron and my father to have participated in it ; — an alarm which I must consider as unjustifiable as it is ungrounded. " Since these causes have not had their proper effect in your mind, it becomes necessary for me, as my father's representative and agent in the whole of this business, distinctly to state, that the forthcoming correspondence of the late Lord Byron contains nothing which one gentleman ought not to write, nor another gentleman to publish. The work will speedily speak for itself, and will show that my father's object has been to place the original character of Lord Byron's mind in its true light, to show the much of good that was in it; and the work leaves him when the good became ob- scured in the much of evil that I fear afterwards pre- PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. xvii dominated. There is no man on earth. Sir, who loved Lord Byron more truly, or was more jealous for his fair fame, than my father, as long as there was a possi- bility of his fame being fair ; and though that possibility ceased, the affection remained, and will be evinced by the forthcoming endeavour to show that there existed in Lord Byron that which good men might have loved. "As to any fear for the character of others who may be mentioned in the work, my father, Sir, is inca- pable of publishing personalities ; and Lord Byron, at the time he corresponded with my father, was, I believe, incapable of writing what ought not to be published. If, at any subsequent period, in corresponding with others, he should have degraded himself to do so, I trust that his correspondents will be wise enough to abstain from making public what ought never to have been written. " The letters which Lord Byron wrote to his mother were given by him unreservedly to my father, in a man- ner which seemed to have reference to their future publication ; but which certainly rendered them my father's property, to dispose of in what way he might think fit. Should you think it necessary to resort to any measures to obtain further proof of this, it will only tend to the more public establishing of the authen- ticity of these letters, and can only be considered as a matter of dispute of property, as Lord Byron's best friends cannot but wish them published. " Being charged by my father with the entire arrange- ment of this publication, you may have occasion to write to me ; it may therefore be right to inform you that i have long since left the profession in which I was c xviii PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. engaged when we met at Cadiz ; and, having taken orders, I have the ministerial charge of this parish ; to which letters may be directed as this is dated. *' I remain, " Your obedient Servant, " Alex. R. C. Dallas." Although Mr. Dallas had not thought proper to reiply to Mr. Hobhouse's unautho- rised communication, he did not leave it altogether unregarded ; but, immediately upon receiving it, he wrote to Mrs. Leigh the following letter ; — " Site. Adresse, June 30th, 1824. " Madam, " I have julst received a letter, of which I inclose you a copy. I see by the direction, through what channel it has been forwarded to me. As the letter is signed by the son of a gentleman, I would answer it, could I do it in such a manner as to be of service to the mind of the writer, but having no hope of that, I shall content myself with practising the humility of putting up with it for the present. And here I should con- clude my letter to you, did I not, my dear madam, remember you not only as the sister of Lord Byron, but as the cousin of the present Lord Byron and of Julia Heath. But in doing this, I camiot relinquish my feelings, I must profess that I do not believe that you authorised such a letter. That you should have PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. xix felt an anxiety upon the occasion, I think very natural, and I should have been glad to have prevented it. It was not my fault that it was not prevented, for (pre- mising, however, that I neither saw nor do see any obligation to submit my conduct to the guidance of any relation of Lord B.'s) I took some pains to let my intention be known to his family, and even to communi- cate the nature of the publication I had in view. On the report of Lord B.'s death, I wrote to George, and mentioned these papers ; before I despatched my letter, his death was confirmed. I urged my wish to see George — I had no answer — I arrived in London, wrote to him and requested to see him — I inquired also if you were in town — the servant brought me word that both you and Lord B. were out of town, but that any letter should be forwarded — I was two days at the New Hummums, and I received no answer. I do not state this as being hurt at it — George had much to occupy him — but I soon after saw Julia Heath, who mentioned your anxiety. This channel of such a communication was natural, and certainly the next best to a direct one from yourself, which I trust would have reflected no dishonour on you — but I met the communication by my niece kindly, and sent you a message through her which she thought would please you, and certainly I did not mean to displease you by it. By that communication I must still abide, repeating only, that if, in the book I am about to publish, there is a sentence which should give you uneasiness, I should be totally at a loss to find it out myself. I will go further, my dear madam, and inform you, that Lord Byron was perfectly well ac- c 2 XX PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. qualnted with the existence of my MS., and^wlth my intention of publishing it, or rather of having it pub- lished when it pleased God to call him from this life — but I little suspected that I should myself see the publi- cation of It. I own, too, thkt the MS., as intended for posthumous publication, does contain some things that would give you pain, and much that would make others blush — but, as I told Julia Heath, I wished as much as possible to avoid giving pain, even to those that deserved it, and I curtailed my MS. nearly a half. If I restore any portion of what Phave crossed out, shall I not be justified by the insolence of the letter I have received from a pretended friend of Lord Byron, and who seems to be ignorant that a twenty years' compa- nionship may exist without a spark of friendship ? I do not wonder at his agitation ; it is for liimself that he is agitated, not for Lord Byron. But I will not waste your time on this subject. I will conclude, by assuring you, that I feel that Lord B. will stand in my volume in the amiable point of view that he ought and would have stood always but for his friends. " It was my purpose to order a copy of the volume to be sent to you. As I trust you will do me the honour by a few lines, to let me know that it was not your intention to have me insulted, I will hope still to have that pleasure. " I am, dear madam, " Yours, faithfully, " R. C. Dallas." I PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. xxi It has been attempted to throw all the blame, in the whole of the subsequent transactions, upon this letter. Perhaps it might have been more desirable that it should not have been written immediately upon the receipt of one which was felt as an insult, however it might have been intended ; and Mr. Dallas did not scruple afterwards to express his regret, not only for any expression in this letter which might appear to be intemperate or hasty, but for the irritated impulse which could produce it, and he has authorised the editor to state this publicly ; in doing which, how- ever, he cannot refrain from protesting against the misrepresentation to which the whole letter has been subjected. It appears that it has been distorted into the convey- ance of a threat that the writer intended to insert in the proposed publication what would give pain to Mrs. Leigh, and make Lord Byron's friends blush. No fair-judg- ing person, after reading the whole of the letter, can conscientiously say that he rises from it with such an idea in his mind. In a subsequent letter to the editor, Mr. Dallas XXii PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. strongly points this out. He says, " It must be a resolution to misunderstand the letter, to say that I intended to restore what I had erased. * If (conditional) in the book I AM about to publish, there is a sentence which can give you uneasiness I should be totally at a loss to find it myself.' Can any doubt exist after reading this? ' As in- tended for publication.' — ' If I restore any portion.' I have read the letter again, and do not think it affords the ground for blame thrown upon me, after having thought well of it." But besides that no such intention can fairly be gathered from the letter, it must not be forgotten to be observed, that in stating that the manuscript, as intended for posthumous publication, does contain some things which would give Lord Byron's sister pain, the writer only meant to suppose that a sister must feel pain on being told of the errors of a brother. It was not in his mind to convey an idea that Mrs. Leigh would feel pain vn her own account from any thing which was disclosed in the original manuscript. The Editor has read that manu- PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. xxiii script, which is now in his possession, with great care, more than once, and has been unable to discover one Word that could have that tendency. How is it, then, that upoti the ground which this letter is said to afford, that the correspondence " contained observations upon or affecting persons now living, and the publication of which is likely to occasion considerable pain to such pet- sons*," such an alarm was excited in the mind of Mrs. Leigh ? That n very great alarm was excited, which ultimately led to the legal proceed- ings, is most certain. The letter was sent to the present Lord Byron as proof of the offensiveness of the proposed publication, and an immediate answer required of him to sanction the opposition to it. His con- duct was indeed very different. In a subse- quent letter to the editor (dated 1 1th July), he says, " I was applied to for my opinion. I answered, that if they had good grounds that any part of the work was likely to hurt the feelings of any relations, that the work ought to be inspected by one or two of his * Quoted from the Bill in Chancery, filed by Messrs Hobhouse and Hanson. xxiv PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. (Lord Byron's) relatives ; but, I added, if I knew Mr. Dallas, as I thought I did, I was convinced he could not object to show the work to Lady Noel Byron as a relative ; but I felt convinced there was nothing in it that could reflect discredit on the deceased, or any one related to him — that I knew my uncle's opinion was highly in favour of the late Lord Byron, as his admiration was un- bounded of his genius. Besides the corres- pondence between them was of a date far before any domestic misery ensued. I felt distressed at being applied to, and not being on the spot could not say what had taken place." The Editor has good grounds for believ- ing that a similar application was made to Lady Noel Byron on the subject, who de- chned interfering in the matter. Previously, however, to any legal steps being pursued, Mrs. Leigh wrote the fol- lowing answer to Mr. Dallas's letter :— " St. James's Palace, July 3, 1824. ''Sir, " I have to acknov^-ledge the receipt of your letter of the 30th June, and am sorry to observe the spirit in which it was written. PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. xxv " In consequence of the message you sent me through Mrs. Heath, (confirming the report of your intention to publish your manuscript,) I applied to Mr. Hob- house, requesting him to write to you, and expressing to him that I did, as I still do, think that it would be quite unpardonable to publish private letters of my poor brother's without previously consulting his family. I selected Mr. Hobhouse as the most proper person to communicate with you, from his being my brother's executor, and one of his most intimate and confidential friends, although, perhaps, I might have hesitated between him and the present Lord Byron, (our mutual relative,) had not the illness and hurry of business of the latter, determined me not to add to his annoyances — and I must also state, that I was ignorant of your communication to him until I received your letter. I feel equal regret and surprise at your thinking it necessary to call upon me to disclaim an inten- tion of *' having you insulted,"— regret, that you should so entirely misunderstand my feelings ; and surprise, because after having repeatedly read over Mr. Hobhouse's letter, I cannot discover in it one word which could lead to such a conclusion on your part. " Hoping that this explanation may prove satisfactory, " I remain. Sir, " Your obedient servant, " Augusta Leigh." There are several curious points in this letter, to which it will be necessary to draw the attention of the reader. Mr. Dallas's XXVI PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. message to Mrs. Leigli, sent through Mrs. Heath, was one which he states in his letter " She (Mrs. Heath) thought would please her, and that certainly he did not mean to displease her by it." He refers to that communication, and repeats (in writing what before had been only verbal) that " if in the book he was about to pub- lish, there was a sentence which should give her uneasiness, he should be totally at a loss to find it out himself." The object of the message was, to assure Mrs. Leigh of the harmless, not to say pleasing, nature of the intended publication ; and yet, in re- ferring to the message, and acknowledging the receipt of a letter which contained a repetition of it in writing, she only observes that it " confirmed the report of Mr. Dal- las's intention to publish his manuscript^ and that, in consequence, she requested Mr. Hobhouse to let him know that she should think his conduct would be unpar- donable. It is also somewhat strange, that having been so apphed to by Lord Byron's sister, Mr. Hobhouse, who at that time had no title to authority for making such a PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. xxvii communication in his own name, should not have stated the title which such an ap- plication from a near relation seemed to give him, and have written to Mr. Dallas as by direction of Mrs. Leigh, instead of merely " taking the liberty of letting him know" what Mrs. Leigh thought about the matter. But there is a still more extraordinary circumstance in this letter. Mr. Hobhouse's conversation with Mr. Knight, which took place before Mr. Williams who came to act as witness, has been verified upon oath by Mr. Knight, from whose affidavit, regis- tered in the Court of Chancery, the follow- ing is an extract :— - " On the 30th of June last, said plain- tiff, John Cam Hobhouse, told defendant, Charles Knight, that he, said plaintiff, John Cam Hobhouse, had written such letter to said defendant, Robert Charles Dallas, and at the same time, told defendant, Charles Knight, that he, said plaintiff, John Cam Hobhouse, did not, at the time when he wrote said letter, know that he, said last- xxviu PRELIMINARY STATEiAIENT. named plaintiff, had been appointed an ex- ecutor of the said Lord Byron." Thus it appears, that at the time of writing the letter in question, Mr. Hob- house was ignorant that he was the legal representative of Lord Byron ; but, from Mrs. Leigh's letter, it also appears that she was not ignorant of that circumstance, since it was the special motive v/hich induced her to " select Mr. Hobhouse," as the proper person to communicate with Mr. Dallas in preference to " the present Lord Byron, a mutual relative." As, therefore, it is impossible to suppose, that the lady in question could state what was not true ; we can only wonder that, being privy to the contents of her brother's will, and knowing whom he had chosen to be his executors, she should never have informed them of the selection he had made. The appearance of the Correspondence was promised to the public on the 12th of July, 1824 ; and it had nearly gone through the press when, on the Tth of July, Messrs, PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. xxix Hobhouse and Hanson, as the legal repre- sentatives of the late Lord Byron, filed a Bill in Chancery, and, in consequence, ob- tained, on the same day, from the Vice- Chancellor, an Injunction to restrain the publication. This Bill was founded upon the joint affidavit of the executors, the matter of which, divested of its techni- calities, was as follows : — The deponents swear, that in the years 1809, 1810, and part of 1811, Lord Byron was travelling in various countries, from whence he wrote letters to his mother, Mrs. Catherine Gordon Byron, " that such letters were principally of a private and confidential nature, and none of them were intended to be published." That Mrs. C. G. Byron died in the year IS 11, intestate, and that Lord Byron being properly con- stituted her legal personal representative, possessed himself of these letters, and be- came absolutely and wholly entitled to them as his sole property. The deponents then swear, " that they have been in- formed, and verily believe, that the said Lord Byron was in the habits of correspon- XXX PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. dence with Robert Charles Dallas," and that, in the course of such correspondence. Lord Byron wrote letters, " many of which were, as the said deponents believe, of a private and confidential nature" — " and that the said Lord Byron being about again to leave this country, deposited in the hands of the said Robert Charles Dallas for safe custody, all, and every, or a great many of the said letters, which he had written and sent to his mother*." And that, at the time of Lord Byron's death, such let- ters were in the custody of the said R. C. Dallas, together with those which his Lord- ship had written to him. Lord Byron's change of name to Noel Byron, and his death, are then sworn to ; and also his will, and the proving of it, by which the deponents became his Lordship's legal re- presentatives. Messrs. Hobhouse and Hanson then swear, " that soon after the death of the * The exact words of the affidavit are quoted when they relate to important points, which will be afterwards referred to in this narrative, that the reader may judge fairly for himself. PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. xxxi said Lord Byron was known in England, the said R. C. Dallas, as the said deponents verily believe, formed a scheme, or plan, to print and pubHsh the same, and with a view to such printing and publishing, pretended to be the absolute owner of all the said letters," and disposed of " such pretended copyright" for a considerable sum of mo- ney. Then the advertisement of the Cor- respondence is sworn to, and the belief of the deponents to the identity of the letters advertisedfor publication, with those before referred to in the affidavit. The affidavit goes on to affirm, " that the said Robert Charles Dallas never apprised him the said deponent, John Cam Hobhouse, of his in- tention to print and publish the said letters, or any of them." And Mr. Hobhouse swears that he wrote the letter of the 23d of June to Mr. Dallas ; and he swears too that he got no answer ; but he swears that, on the 30th of June, he " called on the said Charles Knight, and warned him not to pro- ceed with the printing and publication of the said letters, and informed him that if he persevered in his intention," the two xxxii PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. deponents, Messrs. Hobhouse and Hanson, " would, most probably, take legal means to restrain him." The affidavit next states, that the depo- nents verily believe that Lord Byron's let- ters to his mother " were wholly written and composed by him, and that he did not deliver the same to the said R. C. Dallas, for the purpose of pubUcation, but to be disposed of as he, the said Lord Byron, might direct." And that he never meant nor intended that they should be pub- lished — that they were, as the deponents verily beheve, at the time of Lord Byron's death, his own sole and absolute property ; and that they now belong to the said depo- nents, as his legal personal representatives. The deponents go on to swear that the letters written by Lord Byron to Mr. Dal- las were, as they verily beheve, " also wholly written and composed by the said Lord Byron ; and that such letters are not, and never were, the sole and absolute pro- perty of the said R. C. Dallas ; but that the said Lord Byron, in his life time had, and the said deponents, as his legal represen- PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. xxxiii iativc3, now have, at least, a partial and qualified property in such letters," which has never been relinquished or abandoned ; and that Lord Byron never intended or gave permission to Mr. Dallas to publish them or any part of them. Then comes the following clause, " And the said deponents verily believe, that the said several letters were written in the course of private and confidential corres- pondence, and the said deponents believe that many of them contain observations upon, or affecting, persons now living ; and that the publication of them is likely to occasion considerable pain to such per- sons." The Affidavit closes with the affirmation that the publication in question was in- tended to be made for the profit and advan- tage of the defendants ; and " that such publication was, as the deponents con- ceived and believed, a breach of private confidence, and a violation of the rights of property," which, as the representatives of Lord Byron, they had in the letters. d xxxiv PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. Previous to stating the reply to this Affi- davit, it may not be improper to make some observations upon the nature of its contents. It contains matter of opinion ; but no matter of fact relating to the point in question. There is a great deal of belief expressed, but not one reasonable ground upon which the belief is founded. It is really a matter of surprise that any one should so implicitly believe that to be fact, which, upon the face of the business, he can only suppose to be so. Mr. Hob- house never saw or read the letters written by Lord Byron to his mother, yet he swears (and in this case without the men- tion, that he verily believes ; but as of his own knowledge,') " that such letters were principally of a private and confidential nature." Any one might suppose that a man writing to his mother may write con- fidentially ; but few men would allow that supposition so much weight in their minds, as to enable them to swear that it was so. Mr. Hobhouse was travelling with Lord Byron during the time when many of these PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. xxxv letters were written, and probably he sup- poses that his Lordship may have often mentioned him to his mother. This seems an equally natural supposition with the other; and if it should have entered into Mr. Hobhouse's head, he would, by ana- logy, be equally ready to swear, not that he supposed he was often mentioned, but that he really was so. And yet, after reading Lord Byron's letters to his mother, it would never be gathered from them that his Lordship had any companion at all in his travels, as he always writes in the first person singular ; except, indeed, that Mr. Hobhouse's name is mentioned in an enu- meration of his suite ; and, upon parting with him. Lord Byron expresses his satis- faction at being alone. To the assertion respecting these un- seen letters, Mr. Hobhouse adds, that " none of them were intended to be pub- lished." If it is meant to say, that they were not written with the intention of being published, as the sentence may seem to imply, nobody will deny the fact. If they had been, they would not have con- d 2 xxxvi PRELIMINARY STATExMENT. tained the natural and unrestrained deve- lopment of character which makes them valuable to the public now. But their not having been written with the intention of publication, by no means precludes the possibility of Lord Byron himself subse- quently intending them to be published. Mr. Dallas has it in his Lordship's own hand-writing, that he did subsequently in- tend part of them, at least, to be published ; because, having kept no other journal, he meant to cut up these letters into notes for the first and second Cantos of Childe Ha- rold. This was, however, previous to his having given them to Mr. Dallas. The same observation as that which has been made upon Mr. Hobhouse's sioearing that Lord Byron's letters to his mother were confidential, will equally apply to his swearing that he believes his Lordship's letters to Mr. Dallas were so also. But when he swears " that Lord Byron, being about again to leave this country, deposited the letters to his mother in the hands of R. C. Dallas for safe custody;"— when he states this upon oath, not as verily believing PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. xxxvii it — not as supposing it — but as knowing that it was so — without stating any ground whatever for his knowledge of a circum- stance in which he had been in no way concerned, it is hardly possible to conjec- ture how extensive Mr. Hobhouse's inter- pretation of an oath may become. Upon this subject I cannot forbear inserting an extract from a letter written by Mr. Dallas to his publisher from Paris, immediately that he was informed of the issuing of the in- junction, and before he was fully made ac- quainted with the whole circumstances. He says, " so far from thinking it wrong to pub- lish such a correspondence, I feel that it be- longs in a manner to the public; and that I have no right to withhold it. If the Vice- Chancellor has been made acquainted with the spirit of the work, there is an end to the injunction; for as to the property in the letters from Lord Byron to his mother the affidavit sets that at rest*; and in the * He alludes to an affidavit relating principally to tliis point, which he sent in diis letter the moment he heard of xxxviii PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. volume itself it may be seen that Mr. Hob- house made a false assertion (I hope it was not upon oath,) in his application for the injunction, when he says that Lord Byron deposited them with me for safe custody only, when his Lordship was going abroad. The text shows, that I have long considered them as mine, before Lord Byron thought of leaving England ; and that he also con- sidered them so. There was no memoran- dum made of the circumstance ; it was a gift made personally, and as had happened in the case of Childe Harold and of the Corsair. What can be more conclusive than the words with which he accompanied the gift? The additional words I allude to, conveyed an idea of some dissatisfaction with others, and a feeling that my attach- ment and judgment were more to be relied upon. I trust that the circumstances have been made clear to the Vice-Chancellor; the Injunction ; but which, not being sufficiently full upon other points, was not made use of in the legal proceedings. PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. xxxix and that all the disgraceful insinuation of the application, that I am capable of pub- lishing letters which ought not to be made public, has been wiped away. I shall be glad to find this carried even so far as to show, that, although I did not strictly or morally hold myself bound to submit my intentions of publishing to the direction of Lord Byron's family, I was attentive to their feelings, and that it was not my fault that a communication did not take place upon the subject. As to any delicacy to- wards the executors, I declare to you, on my honour, that till I saw it afterwards in a public newspaper, I did not know that the executors of Lord Byron were those confidential friends, the Mr. H.'s, though one of them (Mr. Hobhouse) had thought proper to give me counsel in very improper language." " Again, why should Lord Byron deposit these letters with me for safe custody, when these two confidential friends were at hand, and other confidential friends, and his sister ? There is an absurdity on the face of the assertion." It is not intended here to answer Mr. Ix PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. Hobhouse's statements, which will be bet- ter met by the counter-affidavits themselves, but merely to make some necessary obser- vations ; and, amongst them, it is impossi- ble not to observe, with regret, that Messrs. Hobhouse and Hanson, in swearing that they proved Lord Byron's will in the pro- per Ecclesiastical Court, and became his Lordship's legal representatives, did not insert the date of the probate, or even the period when their appointment came to their knowledge*. Such an insertion might have prevented all obscurity in a subse- quent part of the affidavit, where it is sworn, " that on the 23d June last, being soon after the deponents were informed of such intention, (of publishing,) deponent, John Cam Hobhouse, wrote and sent a letter of that date to R. C. Dallas, representing to him the impropriety of publishing said letters." As the passage stands, it does not appear whether Mr. Hobhouse wrote * It was understood that Lord Byron's will was not to be opened till his remains arrived in England; — the vessel which bore those remains reached the Nore on the 1st of July, seven days after the date of Mr. Hob- house's letter to Mr. Dallas. PRELIMrNARY STATEMENT. xl as '* the more immediate friend" of Lord Byron, or with the authority of an executor. The difference is somewhat material ; and as the affidavit mentions that the letter was written soon after the deponents (in the plural number) were informed of Mr. Dal- las's intention, it certainly wants the infor- mation which the reader now possesses, but which the affidavit does not supply, to make it clear that he wrote merely as " the more immediate friend." But the said deponents " verily believe^ that Mr. Dallas formed a scheme to print and publish the letters " soon after the death of Lord Byron was known in England'' What could possibly have been the grounds of a belief so firm, that the persons behev- ing come forward to attest it by affidavit in a Court of Justice ? The gravamen of the matter is, that the scheme was formed soon after Lord Byron's death was known, and not before ; and this Messrs. Hobhouse and Hanson swear they beheve to be the case. A dozen persons of the highest re- spectabihty read the letters arranged for publication, in the first intended memoir. xlii PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. years before Lord Byron's death ; some of whom state it upon oath, and all the others would have done so if it had been consi- dered necessary by the legal advisers. It is to be lamented that so much firm faith has been thrown away upon so slight a foundation ; and it is to be hoped, that the persons who can believe so easily are not inconsistently difficult of belief, upon points which will hereafter more materially con- cern themselves. When it was known that the injunction had been obtained, intelligence of it was forwarded to Mr. Dallas, at Paris, and his immediate presence was required in Lon- don. The following certificate, enclosed in a letter from a friend, was the reply re- ceived to this communication :— " This is to certify that Robert Charles Dallas is now labouring under a very severe attack of inflammation of the chest, which was attended by fever and delirium ; — that he is now under my professional care, and that his symptoms were of so dangerous a character as to render large bleedings ne- PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. xliii cessary, even at his advanced age. He is at present better, but certainly unable to un- dertake a journey. " Given under my hand at Paris, Rue du Mail, Hotel de Mars, this 11th day of July, 1824. " David Barry, M.D." In consequence of this unfortunate illness it became necessary to send out a commis- sion from the Court of Chancery, to receive Mr. Dallas's ansv^er at Paris. This occa- sioned considerable expense, and a delay which was regretted at the time; but it afterwards appeared that the decision in the cause could not have been hastened even had no obstacle of this nature inter- vened. The Answer was founded upon several affidavits, of which the first was that of Mr. Dallas himself, wherein he " denies it to be true, that the letters of Lord Byron to his mother were principally of a private and confidential nature; but, on the contrary, affirms that such letters were principally of a general nature ; and for the most part con- xHv PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. sisted of accounts and descriptions of various places which the said Lord Byron visited, and scenes which he witnessed, and adven- tures which he encountered, and remarkable persons whom he met with in the course of his travels, and observations upon the man- ners, customs, and curiosities of foreign countries and people ; and although he ad- mitted that in some of such letters matters were mentioned, or alluded to, of a private nature, yet he swears that such matters of a private nature were only occasionally and incidentally mentioned or alluded to, and did not form the principal contents or sub- jects of the letters." And he further says, that " to the best of his judgment and belief none of these letters are of a confidential or secret nature," or contain any matters of such a nature. Mr. Dallas goes onto swear, that "being in habits of friendship and correspondence with Lord Byron, as Mr. Hobhouse had stated, in the course of that friendship his Lordship gave him, as free and absolute gifts, the copyrights of the first and second Cantos of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, and PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. xlv of the Corsair^ which gifts were respec lively made by word of mouth and deUvery of the original manuscripts to him ; and that a considerable portion of the letters from Lord Byron to himself were written " at the times when the poems were preparing for or in the course of publication," and that they " contained or related to divers alter- ations, additions, and amendments which were from time to time made, or proposed to be made in the poems, or otherwise re- lated to them,"— and that " other parts of these letters related to matters of general literature, morals, and politics, and other subjects of a general nature, and the indi- vidual opinions and feelings of Lord Byron;" and that *' some very few parts of such letters related to other private matters, which were only occasionally and inciden- tally mentioned or alluded to therein, and did not form the principal contents or sub- jects of such letters, and were not in any respect of a confidential or secret nature." Mr. Dallas then states, in his affidavit, that Lord Byron thought of leaving Eng- land in 1816, but that " in or about the xlvi PRELBIINARY STATEMENT. month of April, 1812, he being in conver- sation* with Lord Byron, his Lordship pro- mised to bring and give to him a letter which he had written to his mother on the matter which formed the subject of such conver- sation, and that some time afterwards, that is to say, in the month of June, 1814, Lord Byron, in performance of such promise, brought, and gave, and delivered to him not only the letter so promised, but also all the rest of the letters which he, Lord Byron, had written to his mother, and at the same time he addressed to Mr. Dallas the follow- ing words : — " Take them. — They are yours to do what you please with. Some day or other they will be curiosities." From this Mr. Dallas swears that he " believes that Lord Byron in so delivering these letters to him, and addressing him in this manner, did fully intend to give the same letters and every of them, and the copyright * The sale of Newstead Abbey was the subject of these conversations. PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. xlvli thereof, and all his, Lord Byron's, property, right, title, and interest therein to him, Mr. Dallas, for his own use and benefit, as a free and absolute gift, in the same man- ner as he had given the copyrights of the poems ;" and further, " that at the time of this gift Lord Byron contemplated the pro- babihty of the letters being afterwards published by Mr. Dallas." The deponent distinctly denies that the letters were left with him for safe custody ; and alleges that Lord Byron did not leave England until 1816, that is, two years after the gift of the letters. The affidavit further states, that for se- veral years previous to the death of Lord Byron the deponent was engaged in com- pihng and writing memoirs of his life and writings, and that in these memoirs were in- serted and embodied many of the letters both to Mrs. C. G. Byron and to himself; and that he did so for the purpose of illus- trating and giving authority to the memoirs, and of placing in a just and favourable point of view the conduct, character, and opinions of Lord Byron, their insertion being essential to the illustrating and giving au- xlviii PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. thority to the memoirs ; and that for many- years previous to the death of Lord Byron, he had formed the intention and plan to pubhsh these letters in the beforementioned memoirs ; and that Lord Byron, so long ago as the year 1819, was aware of his intention and plan so to publish them. The letter to Lord Byron, inserted in the last chapter of the following Recollections, is there sworn to ; with the addition, that his Lordship never applied to, or requested Mr. Dallas to desist or abstain from publishing the memoirs, nor from inserting in them any of the letters in his possession. These are the important parts of the affidavit made by Mr. Dallas, although it necessarily follows the whole of the Bill filed against him, denying or admitting its several allegations, as the case requires. There is, however, one other part of the affidavit which is important, though only matter of opinion. It states, that to the best of Mr. Dallas's judgment and belief, the publication of the correspondence as advertised, " will be of considerable service to the cause of literature and poetry, as being illustrative of many of the best PRELTMINARY STATEMENT. xlix poems, and other valuable works, of the said Lord Byron ; and will also tend great- ly to improve and exalt the pubHc estima- tion of his conduct, character, and opi- nions." The affidavits of Mr. Charles Knight and Mr. Henry Colburn follow, which are mere matters of form ; except only as far as re- lates to the conversation which Mr. Knight held with Mr. Hobhouse on the 30th June. An extract from Mr. Knight's affidavit has been already given, in which he states, that Mr. Hobhouse declared to him that he did not know he was Lord Byron's executor at the time he wrote to Mr. Dallas. Mr. Knight, who had read all the letters, also swears, that none of them were of a confi- dential nature. The affidavit of the E(htor of the present work is the next. It states, that he had frequently seen and read the original manu- script of the memoirs first compiled by his father, containing the letters in question ; and knew, so long ago as 1822, of his in- tention to pubHsh them at a future period. That, in that year, Mr, Dallas deposited 1 PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. the original manuscript in his hands, with directions to pubhsh it in such manner as he should think fit, after the death of Lord Byron ; Mr. Dallas assuming that he should die before his Lordship. The affidavit then details the change which took place in this intention, and the alterations in the work, to fit it for publication when Lord Byron's death was known ; declaring, at the same time, the deponent's opinion, that as now intended for publication, there is not a single passage in the letters which could affect or injure the character, or give pain to the feelings of any person whomsoever. The Editor corroborates the testimony al- ready given, that none of the letters were of a confidential nature. He swears that the present Lord Byron has read the in- tended publication, and knows of the inten- tion to publish it; that he has never ex-» pressed to the present Editor any disappro- bation of or objection to the publication; but, on the contrary, has expressed to him his concurrence in, and approbation of it. The Editor also swears, that for several years previously to the death of LordByron, PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. li he had frequently heard Mr. Dallas de- clare that his Lordship had made him a present of his letters to his mother ; and had also frequently seen in Mr. Dallas's possession a bundle of letters inclosed in a cover or envelope, on which was written " Letters of Lord Byron to his mother, given to me by him, June, 1814 ;" or words to that effect. The only other corroborative affidavit which the legal advisers thought necessary to make use of, was one made by Alexan- der Young Spearman, Esq., who states, that so long ago as the year 1822, he had read the manuscript memoir in which was embodied the letters in question ; and that, to the best of his judgment, there was no- thing contained in the work or in the letters which could lower the character of Lord Byron, or which was of a confidential or secret nature ; but, on the contrary, that from reading them, he had formed a higher and better opinion of the character and conduct of Lord Byron than he had pre- viously entertained; and that the letters were, for the most part, upon subjects of e 2 Hi PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. general and public interest ; and of such a nature, that their pubhcation would be an advantage to the cause of literature, and no breach of honour or confidence. From the substance of these affidavits, it may probably strike the reader as singu- lar, that Mr. Dallas himself should have said nothing concerning the approbation of the present Lord Byron ; while the Editor swears directly to his knowledge of, and concurrence in, the publication. To ac- count for this, and to prove how ready both the Author of the memoirs and the Editor were to make any reasonable ar- rangement by which the pledge to the public might be fulfilled, it will be neces- sary to state some circumstances which occurred previous to the filing of the Answer to the Bill in Chancery; which, as has already been shown, was unavoidably de- layed. The present Lord and Lady Byron hap- pened to be on a visit to the Editor at his house at Wooburn, towards the end of July ; and there they had an opportunity of reading the whole of the work as intended PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. liii for publication, and which had so nearly- gone through the press, that they read three- fourths of it in print. Whatever pain Lord Byron might feel on account of the early- development of the seeds of vice in his predecessor and near relation, he felt im- mediately that the work was highly calcu- lated to raise his Lordship's character from the depth into which it had subsequently fallen ; and he unreservedly expressed his wish that the publication should proceed. A single passage in the narrative part, which was observed upon by Lord Byron, was omitted according to his desire. With these feelings he endeavoured, in the kindest manner, to clear away the obstacles which impeded its progress ; and fearing lest his former reply to the sudden (iemand for his opinion upon the subject, as it had been conditional, might be construed into direct disapprobation, he expressed himself ready to state his concurrence in the pub- lication. The following affidavit was ac- cordingly drawn up, with the approbation of his own legal adviser : — liv PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. " George Anson, Lord Byron, maketh oath, and saith, that he well knows the defendant, R. C. Dallas, who is the uncle of this deponent, and that he well knows that the said R. C. Dallas was formerly in the habit of corresponding with the late George Gordon, Lord Byron, to whom the depo- nent is the nearest male relation and suc- cessor. And this deponent further saith, that having been informed that a certain work was proposed to be published by the said R. C. Dallas, and to include certain letters written by the said George Gordon, Lord Byron, to him, and to Mrs. Catharine Gordon Byron, the mother of the said George Gordon, Lord Byron, this deponent declared his reluctance to such publication takings place until the said work should have been examined by the relatives and friends of the said George Gordon, Lord Byron; and that the said deponent now maketh oath and saith, that he has since read the said work, entitled " Private Cor- respondence, &c. ;" and the letters from the said George Gordon, Lord Byron, to I PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. Iv his mother, and to the defendant, R. C. Dal- las, included therein; and this deponent further saith, that he does not now enter- tain any objection to the publication of the said work." This affidavit received the sanction of Lord Byron ; but it having been ascertained that the executors did not intend to make any use of the conditional opinion that his Lordship had expressed, it was not thought necessary that he should swear it ; as from motives of delicacy it was wished if possible not to mix him up with a dispute in which he stood in close connexion with both sides. Nothing but the absolute necessity which npw exists of making the pubHc fully ac- quainted with all the circumstances con- nected with this strange proceeding, would induce the Editor to refer to him. As, however, his Lordship's conduct through- out the whole business has been not only manly and open, but also guided by an amiable desire of conciliation, the public mention of these transactions can only be a testimony highly to his credi Ivi PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. In consequence of what had taken place, Lord Byron called on Mr. Hobhouse, and personally stated his own knowledge of the nature of the work, and his opinion respecting the propriety of its publication. He also stated, that he knew the editor was by no means averse to enter into any rea- sonable arrangement by which the difficul- ties in the minds of the executors might be overcome. It appears that the plea by which their opposition was defended, was, that other persons possessed letters of the late Lord Byron, which it would be highly improper to give to the public ; and that the executors felt it their duty to establish their right to prevent the publication of any letters. However, Mr. Hobhouse sup- posed that matters might be arranged if Mr. Dallas would consent to insert in the title-page of the work, " published by per- mission of the executors," of course sub- mitting it first to the inspection of some person approved of by them. Upon immediate consultation with the Editor, he declined giving a promise that such words should be used until he had PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. Ivii seen his legal advisers ; but he authorised Lord Byron to state that he perfectly con- curred in the spirit of the proposed arrange- ment, and offered at once to submit the work to the inspection of a friend of Lord Byron's, well known to the executors, but with whom the Editor himself was totally unacquainted, and to abide by his opinion. This was mentioned within the same hour to Mr. Hobhouse, who was satisfied with the person named, and promised to con- sult his colleague, Mr. Hanson, upon the business. It may not be improper here to insert part of a letter, written by Mr. Dallas to the Editor, upon hearing of this proposal : " As to an executor's veto — shall an exe- cutor be allowed to decide on the publica- tion of a work (letters) on general topics, when it may be enough that there is in it a difference of opinion on religion, morality, or politics ? This is an argument which should be strongly urged. I see neither law nor equity in such a veto, yet do not deny either, if the letters are libellous ; but Iviii PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. this is not to be vaguely supposed, and my letter to Mrs. Leigh, far from supporting such a suggestion, supports the contrary." " However, I do not wish to keep up con- tention, and have no objection (go which way the Chancellor's decision may) to say, printed wtih consent of the executors — and they will be foolish not to consent, for the circulation of the work would be but wider if they do not ; so act in this as you judge best. But I do not think the sheets should be shown to him. * * * * ******* I believe I cut out the Portsmouth anec- dote. I know I did, and he is hardly even alluded to in any of the letters; but he ought not to see it." " The Chancellor's dissolving this injunction is no reason why he should not grant injunctions against the publications of Moore or * -* * which, un- supported by such an answer and such testi- monies as mine, might be confirmed. Our case does not decide the general question : our documents take it out of the general case of publishing injurious letters." While Mr. Hobhouse went to consult PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. lix his colleague, the Editor applied to his legal advisers, by whom certain legal difficulties, about the word " permission," were stated to him. In consequence of what there took place, he drew out the following statement, which he gave to Lord Byron as the ground for the future conducting of the negotiation. " Mr. Dallas has no objection to insert the following advertisement after the title page of the work. '« ADVERTISEMENT. " The publication of this work having been delayed in consequence of an injunc- tion from the Court of Chancery, obtained on the apphcation of the executors of Lord Byron, it is proper to state upon their au- thority that the work had not been submitted to their inspection, when they entertained their objection to its pubUcation ; but that, having since been made acquainted with its contents, they have withdrawn their objection, and consented to the dissolution of the injunction." Ix PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. " If the objection of the executors of the late Lord Byron be, that the publication of this work should not be drawn into a prece- dent by others, for giving to the world their improper and unauthorised compila- tions relative to Lord Byron, it is presumed that this advertisement will be considered sufficient for that purpose. " If the executors do not consider this to be sufficient for that purpose, Mr. Dallas would only object to the words ' published by permission of the executors of the late Lord Byron,' being printed with the work, inasmuch as it may seem to acknowledge a property as belonging to the executors, which he does not acknowledge to belong to them — but to meet the supposed object of the executors, as above stated, Mr. Dallas will consent to the insertion of those words, if the executors will sign a paper to the following effect ; — "*We, the executors of the late Lord Byron, hereby assign and make over to R. C. Dallas, his heirs, executors, or assigns, all and every interest, property, right, claim, or demand whatsoever, (if any such PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. Ixi we have^ in such letters of the said Lord Byron as are inserted in a work, entitled * Private Correspondence of Lord Byron, &c. &c/ whether such letters are addressed to the said R. C. Dallas, or to Mrs. Cathe- rine Gordon Byron, the mother of the said Lord Byron.' " In the mean time, however, the two executors had consulted together, and Lord Byron received the following communica- tion from Mr. Hobhouse ; — " I saw Mr. Hanson this evening, and have to inform you, that he objects to stopping the proceedings until the question can be laid before counsel, after your friend Mr. Dallas has filed his affidavits, or made his answer." This opening being thus closed up, the answer and affidavits were filed. Whether the question of negotiation was laid before counsel or not, Mr. Hanson best knows ; but all that the Editor can say is, that four affidavits were immediately filed, intended to oppose the dissolution of the injunction. The first was the affidavit of Wilham J-xii PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. Fletcher, in which he swears that he had Hved with Lord Byron for the last eighteen years, as his Lordship's valet and head servant, and accompanied him abroad in the month of April, 1816. He then declares, " that when he was with Lord Byron at Venice, in the latter end of the year 1816, or the beginning of 1817, in a conversation which he then and there had with his Lordship, touching his property and things which he had left behind him in England, the deponent represented to him, that some of his (Fletcher's) property had been seized by his Lordship's creditors, together with his own property, when Lord Byron stated to the deponent, that he would make good his (Fletcher's) loss. And he, the said Lord Byron, then told the deponent, that he was extremely glad that he the said Lord Byron had taken care of most of the things that were of most consequence to him, such as letters and papers, which he thought of more consequence than all they had seized ; for that he the said Lord Byron had before left them with several of PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. Ixiii his friends to be taken care of for him; some with Mr. Hobhouse, others with Mrs. Leigh, and others with Mr. Dallas, meaning the above-named defendant, Robert Charles Dallas, at the same time saying to depo- nent, ' You know Mr. Dallas, he who used so often to call on me,' or to that effect." To this assertion Fletcher adds his opi- nion and impression, that in speaking of the letters and papers so left in the care of Mr. Dallas, Lord Byron spoke of them as his own property, and did not convey to Fletcher's mind any notion that he had given them to Mr. Dallas. It was really necessary that Fletcher should have sworn to his impression and opinion, as to the proprietor of the papers so left, for, from the subject of the conver- sation, in the course of which they were casually mentioned, it seems doubtful whether Fletcher did not think Lord Byron meant that they were his (Fletcher's) pro- perty, to make up for the loss of the articles seized by his lordship's creditors. This interpretation however would militate against Mr. Hobhouse's affidavit, where Ixlv PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. he swears that Lord Byron never meant the letters to be pubKshed, as the only va- lue they could have been to Fletcher would be from the " valuable consideration" which he might obtain for their publication. But no ; this was not Fletcher's idea of the matter. He understood that whatever papers Lord Byron left with Mr. Dallas were left for safe custody, because, as Mr. Hobhouse says, he was going to leave England. It is somewhat singular that leaving papers and letters, several boxes contain- ing great quantities of them, as is after- wards sworn, which he considered of more consequence than the goods and chattels of which his creditors had deprived him, with Mr. Hobhouse and Mrs. Leigh, Lord Byron should have selected a very small bundle of particular letters, and left them, and them only, in the charge of another person nearly two years before he went abroad. So small and particular a selec- tion from the great mass of his papers seems strange, unless, having high value for them, he did not consider that which was safe PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. Ixv custody for his other papers was safe cus- tody for these. But there is a stranger cir- cumstance, too, which under the supposition that the letters were so left for special safe custody when he was going abroad, is not only strange but absolutely unaccountable. In the autumn of the same year, 1814, on which this sacred deposit was supposed to be made, and only a few months after, the person to whom this precious charge was given, took the very step, the intention of doing which is said to have produced the deposit. He left the country and went abroad ; and on the day before he set off from London, in conversation with Lord Byron, he told him that his object in then going, was to seek the most eligible place for a future residence for himself and his family abroad. Yet did nothing pass upon the subject of such a deposit. A commu- nication took place between them, when Mr. Dallas was at Bordeaux, in Dec. 1814. And when, in March, 1815, the return of Buonaparte to France brought him home again, he visited Lord Byron as before; yet did nothing pass upon the subject of f ixvi PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. such a deposit. At the end of the year 1815, Mr. Dallas took his family abroad and settled in Normandy, taking with him the letters which Lord Byron had made him a present of. Lord Byron knew of this second going abroad, and heard from Mr. Dallas when he had fixed upon his place of residence; yet did nothing pass upon the subject of such a deposit. But to come nearer to the time men- tioned in Fletcher's affidavit, that in which his conversation occurred with Lord By- ron. In the beginning of the very same year, 1816, his lordship, being then about to leave England, himself proposed to Mr. Dallas's son, (the Editor who now writes this narrative,) to accompany him in his travels. A long conversation took place upon the subject, in which Mr. Dallas was mentioned ; and perhaps the Editor will be pardoned, under the present circumstances, for adding that he was mentioned by Lord Byron with a grateful feeling, as " one of his oldest and best friends." His place of residence was referred to ; and yet not one word passed that had the least reference to PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. Ixvii any deposit of papers or letters as having been made to him. If Lord Byron had given valuable papers in charge to Mr. Dallas for safe custody, when his lordship was going abroad, would it not have been natural that he should resume them when he found that the person with whom he had deposited them was himself in the situa- tion which had induced him to put them out of his own custody ? And when in fact he was leaving the country, in conversing with Mr. Dallas's son would he not most probably have mentioned the circumstance, as a remembrance or as a renewal of the charge, if even he had not thought fit to resume it ? If therefore Fletcher's remem- brance of a very casual remark at the dis- tance of eight years be correct, it is more reasonable to suppose that Lord Byron spoke loosely, recollecting merely the lite- rary communication he had so long had with Mr. Dallas, than to place such an in- cidental remark against the body of cir- cumstantial evidence which has been brought to prove the gift of these letters to Mr. Dallas. f2 Ixviil PRELLMTNARY STATEMENT. The next affidavit is really ludicrous ; it is sworn by the Honourable Leicester Stan- hope; and begins by stating '* that for several months prior, and down to the time of Lord Byron's death, which happened on the 19th of April last at Missolonghi, an intimacy subsisted between him, the depo- nent, and the said Lord Byron/' It is truly absurd to see how all Lord Byron's monthly friends prostitute the word inti- macy. The reporter of his Lordship's Con- versations, lately published, is a remark- able instance of this, and the present affi- davit is no less so ; it shall be given to the reader in Mr. Stanhope's own words. The honourable deponent goes on thus : — '* Saith, that about three months before said Lord Byron's death, he, deponent, held a conversation with said Lord Byron, touching the events of his Lordship's life, and the publication thereof at a future period ; and, upon that occasion, said Lord Byron, in talking to him, deponent, of cer- tain persons who, he said, were in posses- sion of the requisite information for writing PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. Ixlx a Memoir, or History of his, said Lord Byron's, Life, he, said Lord Byron, made no allusion whatsoever to the defendant, Robert Charles Dallas, or to any Memoir, or History of his Lordship, or the events of his hfe, preparing, or prepared by him, said Robert Charles Dallas ; but, on the contrary, said Lord Byron, in the course of the conversation above alluded to, named two individuals by name, as being the most competent to write the History, or Memoir, of his life, neither of whom was said Robert Charles Dallas. " Saith, that said Lord Byron never, in conversation which deponent so had with him as aforesaid, or in any other conver- sation which he, deponent, had with said Lord Byron, ever mentioned, or alluded, to the name of said Robert Charles Dallas, or intimated, or conveyed, to deponent, that he, said Lord Byron, knew that said Robert Charles Dallas had any intention of pub- lishing any Memoir, or History, or Life of his Lordship, or that he had given said Robert Charles Dallas any permission to write or publish any thing concerning said Ixx PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. Lord Byron, or any letters written by him, said Lord Byron, and which deponent thinks it extremely probable said Lord Byron would have done had he possessed any knowledge of said Robert Charles Dallas's intention to publish any thing con- cerning him, said Lord Byron, and more particularly if said Lord Byron had given said Robert Charles Dallas any consent or permission so to do." The Honourable Leicester Stanhope's idea of the necessary communicativeness of a few months intimacy is somewhat new, and will, of course, have sufficient weight to prevent any but the two persons who are properly qualified from writing any thing about Lord Byron. After this Mr. Hobhouse appears again to aver, in an affidavit, " that for the space of seventeen years previous, and down to the time of the death of the above-named Lord Byron, which happened about the 19th of April last, he was upon terms of the closest intimacy and friendship with Lord Byron; and, during the years 1814 PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. Ixxi and 1815, he associated much with Lord Byron, and was in the habit of correspond- ing with Lord Byron from the time he last left England, which was in the month of April, 1816; and the deponent declares that upon Lord Byron's going abroad, his Lordship left in his hands, and under his care, several boxes, containing great quan- tities of private letters and papers, which he desired deponent to take care of for him during his absence from England." He goes on to swear, " That Lord Byron did also, previous to his so going abroad, as deponent believes, leave quantities of letters and papers of a private nature, with others of his friends in England for safe custody, and to be taken care of for him. And, that Lord Byron, for many years pre- vious to his so going abroad, as aforesaid, was in the habit of imparting his private con- cerns and transactions to him, but that Lord Byron never told him, or gave him, in any manner, to understand, that he had presented, or given, any letters what- soever to R. C. Dallas, for his own use, or benefit, or to be published." If this assertion is good for any thing, Ixxii PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. is good to prove Lord Byron did not leave the letters with Mr. Dallas /or safe custody ; for, if in the course of such confidential com- munication, as is here described, his Lord- ship never mentioned to Mr. Hobhouse having done so, even while placing large quantities of papers in his own hands for safe custody, when it would have been so very natural to refer to the circumstance, the inference is strong that no such circum- stance took place. If Lord Byron had mentioned to Mr. Hobhouse having so done, he certainly would have sworn to that fact, when, from the paucity of posi- tive information, he was reduced to the necessity of swearing to suppositions, as has been shewn. The case, therefore, stands thus : Mr. Hobhouse does swear that Lord Byron did not tell him that he had given the letters to Mr. Dallas; and Mr. Hobhouse does not swear that Lord Byron told him he had left them for safe custody with Mr. Dallas ; the one proves one fact at least, as much as the other proves the other, and, therefore, in this debtor and creditor account of the affidavit the balance is ^JOTHING. PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. IxxlH Mr. Hobhouse ends his affidavit by swearing " that Lord Byron had it in con- templation, to the knowledge of the de- ponent, to go abroad about June, 1814, and had actually made preparations for such his last-mentioned journey, and that the deponent had agreed to accompany him, but that Lord Byron afterwards al- tered his intention, and did not go." This point also forms the opening asser- tion of the next deponent, the Honourable Augusta Mary Leigh, the half sister of the late Lord Byron. She states that she well remembers that Lord Byron did, about June, 1814, make preparations, and then had it in contemplation to go abroad, but that he did not then go abroad as he had contemplated and intended. When a lady swears merely to her re- membrance, she may very innocently make a mistake in a year, especially after the lapse of ten years since the circumstance took place. But, in this case, Mr. Hob- house swears " to the knowledge of the de- ponent'' therefore we are bound, not only to believe what he asserts, but to under- Ixxiv PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. stand, that previous to so positive an asser- tion upon a point where the difference of time makes all the difference in the matter, he must have consulted any memorandums he may have made, referred to pocket- books or letters, so as to convince himself from some more tangible data than that furnished by memory, that it really was " about June, 1814," and not " about June, 1813," that the intention of going abroad existed in Lord Byron's mind. These observations have arisen from a singular coincidence. Amongst the late Mr. Dallas's papers the Editor has found a printed catalogue of books belonging to Lord Byron, to be sold. The Editor has frequently before seen this catalogue, and been informed by Mr. Dallas that it referred to an intended sale of Lord Byron's library, which was to have taken place in conse- quence of his intention to go abroad ; but that he altered his intention before the day of sale, though after the announcement, and that consequently the books were saved from the hammer. The catalogue is cu- rious, as many of the books were presenta- PRELIMINARY STATEMENT, Ixxv tion copies, given to his Lordship by the authors, with their autographs in them ; but its particular curiosity is from its containing the following description of two lots : Lot 151 A silver sepulchral urn, made with great taste. Within it are contained human bones, taken from a tomb within the long wall of Athens, in the month of February, 1811. The urn weighs 187 oz. 5 dwt. Lot 152 A silver cup, containing " Root of hemlock g-atliered in the dark," according to the direction of the witches in Macbeth. The hemlock was plucked at Athens by the noble proprietor, in 1811. — The silver cup weighs 29oz. Sdwts. The title-page of this catalogue is as fol- lows : — " A catalogue of books, the proper- ty of a nobleman about to leave England on a tour to the Morea. To which are added a silver sepulchral urn, containing relics brought from Athens, in 1811 ; and a silver cup, the property of the same noble person ; which will be sold by auction by R. H. Evans, at his house, No. 26, Pall Mall, on Thursday, July 8th, and the fol- lowing day. Catalogues to be had, and the books viewed at the place of sale." Ixxvi PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. So far this all corroborates the statement made in the two affidavits under consider- ation, that Lord Byron intended to go abroad, and made preparations to that effect, about June — for it is to be supposed that the 8th of July may fairly come within the interpretation of that phrase*. There is, however, a generally neglected part of the title page, which happened to catch the Editor's eye on reading it over; it is the date following the printer's name, which runs thus, " Printed by W. Bulmer and Co, Cleveland-row, St. James s, 1813.'' This may possibly be a typographical error, and this sale of books m.ay really have been a part of the preparation for going abroad, which Mr. Hobhouse and Mrs. Leigh swear was made by Lord Byron, in 1814; or should the date of this catalogue be correct, probably Lord Byron made an annual pre- paration for leaving England about June. If any reader happens to know of a similar preparation made by Lord Byron, about * The gift of the letters to Mr. Dallas was made by- Lord Byron, on the 10th of June, 1814, in performance of a promise made in April, 1812. PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. h'xv'il June, in the year ]812, or about June, in the year 1815, the chain of preparations between his first return about June, in 181 1, and his second departure, about June, 1816, will be estabhshed, and the fact of the two preparations before referred to will be strongly corroborated. The object of Mr. Hobhouse and Mrs. Leigh is to establish their statement, that Lord Byron placed the letters in ques- tion with Mr. Dallas, for safe custody, " being about to leave the country'' That statement would altogether fall to the ground if Lord Byron's intention to go abroad was in June, 1813, as he gave the letters in June 1814, a twelvemonth after he had abandoned his intention, having promised to give one of them in April, 1812, a twelvemonth before he formed his intention. It is, therefore, to be regretted, as there is proof in print that the intention to leave the country was in 1813, that Mr. Hobhouse, in his affidavit concerning his knowledge of the fact, did not mention or allude to some of the tangible data, upon which he doubtless established that know- Ixxviii PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. ledge in his own mind, instead of resting altogether upon the corroborative remem- brance of Mrs. Leigh. Mrs. Leigh, by her affidavit, further pre- sents, upon oath, a debtor and creditor account, similar to that which Mr. Hobhouse had already exhibited respecting the fact of Lord Byron's never having mentioned either the delivery for safe custody, or the gift of the disputed letters. This account having been sufficiently audited in the for- mer case, it is only necessary to state in the present, that a similar examination of it leads to a similar conclusion that the balance is NOTHING. This honourable lady, upon her oath, de- clares also, that she " believes that such letters were left or deposited, by Lord Byron, in the care or keeping of R. C. Dallas, for the use of him, the said Lord Byron, in the same manner as his Lordship left such other letters and papers with depo- nent and others of his friends" — that is to say, she swears that she does not believe Mr. Dallas's assertion upon oath, which she must have seen, as these affidavits PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. Ixxlx were filed in answer to it. Mr. Dallas felt it unnecessary to give himself the pain of positively contradicting the belief sworn to in this affidavit. But the Editor refers the reader to the whole of the foregoing obser- vations, that he may form his opinion as to the grounds upon which the contradiction might have been given. The Editor's task is now drawing to a close. After a considerable, though una- voidable delay, arising from the mass of business which peremptorily occupied the attention of the Court of Chancery, on the very last day of the Lord Chancellor's public sittings, an attempt was made to bring on the consideration of the cause, Hobhouse v. Dallas, out of its proper rota- tion. This was resisted ; but Lord Eldon being informed of the pressing nature of the business, kindly consented to take the papers to his house, and without calling for the arguments of counsel, gave his decision at a private sitting.* Accordingly, on the * It is owing to this circumstance that no report of the cause has appeared in the public papers. Ixxx PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. 23d of August, 1824, the Lord Chancellor delivered the following judgment in his private room. It is copied literally from the short-hand writer's notes. " Lord Chancellor. — In the case of Hobhouse and Dallas, I shall reserve my judgment on one point till Wednesday, because I think it an extremely difficult point. But upon the point, whether this gentleman can publish the letters that Lord Byron wrote to himself, I cannot say that it is possible for him to be allowed to do that. I apprehend the law, as it has been settled with respect to letters — the property in letters is, (and whether that was a decision that could very well have stood at first or not, I will not undertake to say, but it is so settled, therefore I do not think I ought to trouble myself at all about it,) that if A. writes a letter to B., B. has the property in that letter, for the purpose of reading and keeping it, but no property in it to publish it ; and, therefore, the consequence of that is, that unless the point which relates to the letters that were written by Lord PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. Ixxxi Byron to his mother is a point that can be extended to the letters written by Lord Byron to this gentleman himself, — unless the point on the first case affect the point on the second, it appears to me that the letters written to himself clearly fall within that rule which I am now alluding to. " The other is a thing which, after carefully reading the bill, and answers of these gentlemen who propose to be the publishers, I have formed an inclination of opinion about it, but which I will not at this moment express, because I think that opinion must be \\Tong, unless it is founded on every word that is to be found in all the answer relative to the transaction of Lord Byron's putting these letters into the hands of Mr. Dallas. That is a point on which I would rather reserve my opinion till Wednesday morning, and then I will con- clude it with respect to that question. With respect to the letters written to him- self, I confess I entertain no doubt at all about it. And there is another circum- stance too, I think, which is, that it is a very different thing with respect to letters written by Lord Byron to his mother— it is Ixxxil PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. a very different thing, as it appears to me, publishing as information what those letters may have communicated as matters of fact, and publishing the letters them- selves. If you are here on Wednesday morning, I will give you my judgment on the point which I have reserved, and if you are not here, I will give it on Saturday." " Counsel. — Then of course the injunc- tion continues as to the letters written to Mr. Dallas himself?" " Lord Chancellor. — Yes; and with respect to the others that will stand over till Wednesday. I don't see if an action was brought against Mr, Dallas for pub- lishing the other letters, I don't see how he could defend that action ; for the question about the other letters depends entirely, I think, on what is supposed to have passed between himself and Lord Byron alone ; and, therefore, if an action was brought against him, there could be no evidence at all that would take his case out of the reach of the law." These are the words of the Lord Chan- cellor's decision as far as it goes. Nothing PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. Ixxxlii took place on the Wednesday with respect to the reserved point ; but his Lordship left town on the following Monday, and pre- viously to so doing, he desired the Registrar of the Court to inform Mr. Dallas's soli- citor, that " the injunction must remain in all its points." That no step might be omitted which could by possibility enable Mr. Dallas to redeem the pledge which he had given to the public, the following letter was sent to the executors by the parties restrained, by the injunction of the Court of Chancery, from publishing the letters in question. " To the Executors of the late Right Honourable Lord Byron. '« London, 24:th of September, 1824. " Gentlemen, " As the Lord Chancellor has given his opinion that the Letters of the late Lord Byron, contained in the work which we intended to publish, cannot be made public without the permission of his Lordship's executors, we beg to state to you, that the work in question has been perused by the present Lord Byron, who has expressed his approbation of it, and his desire that it should appear ; and we now request the permis- sion of the executors for its publication, declaring, at g2 ixxxiv PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. the same time, our readiness to submit the work to the inspection of any person to be mutually approved of by both parties in this transaction ; and if any omissions should be suggested to make all such as, upon a fair examination, may be considered proper. *' The favour of an immediate answer is requested, addressed under cover to our solicitors, Messrs. S. Turner and Son, Red Lion-square. *♦ We remain, gentlemen, " Your most obedient servants, " Alex. R. C. Dallas, for R. C. Dallas, " Charles Knight, for myself, and Henry Colburn." In consequence of this letter written by the parties to the executors themselves, Messrs. Turner and Son, the solicitors to those parties, received the following letter, without a date, from Mr. Charles Hanson, the solicitor to the executors :— *' Gentlemen, *' Hobhouse and another v. Dallas and others. " I AM directed by the executors of the late Lord Byron, in answer to a letter addressed to them by your clients, containing a proposal for the publication of the late Lord Byron's letters in the work in question, to inform you, that the executors do not deem it proper to sanction the publication of any of Lord Byron's letters ; and that they are advised to pursue legal mea- PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. Ixxxv siires to compel the delivering up to them such of the letters as they are entitled as his representatives to possess. It has been represented to the executors that a publication of the letters in question has been contem- plated abroad. The executors do not vouch for the truth of this report ; but I think it proper to mention, that if such a thing should be done, it will be deemed by the executors a contempt of the Injunction granted in this cause. " I am, &c. " Chas. Hanson." This letter having closed every possible avenue by which the correspondence could be given to the British public, as had been promised, Mr. Dallas was placed in the situation which was stated at the beginning of this narrative ; and there was no alter- native left to him but the step which has now been taken. The following Recollec- tions will, it is hoped, sufficiently establish the propriety of the intended publication as far as relates to the nature of its contents ; this statement is now given to the pubhc with a view to prove the propriety of Mr. Dallas's intention and conduct in promising its pubhcation ; and the existence of the Ixxxvi PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. injunction relieves him from all blame in not performing his promise. After the full statement that has been made, it will not be necessary to detain the reader much longer from the perusal of the Recollections themselves. There are, however, three points to which the Editor begs to draw attention :— The first is the difference between the words " private'' and " confidential The parties who op- pose the publication of the correspondence made use of them as synonymous ; against this use of them, the parties who intended the publication distinctly protest. The private letters of a public man are those in which, unrestrained by the present inten- tion of publication to the world, he naturally and inartificially conveys his thoughts, sen- timents, and opinions to a friend. Can it be said that v/hen a man's celebrity has raised him from his peculiar circle to belong to the unlimited one of all mankind, and when his death has made him the subject of history, and rendered the development of his character interesting to all the world, it is a PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. Ixxxvii breach of confidence to give to the world such private letters so written ? Confiden- tial letters are those in which any man in- trusts that which at the time he would not make known, to the keeping and secrecy of one in whom he confides. Such letters, it is a breach of confidence, and highly dis- honourable, to publish. The editor sub- mits these definitions to the criticism of the public ; and by them he wishes the matter in question to be tried. Messrs. Hobhouse and Hanson, without ever having read one word of the letters proposed to be pub- lished, swear, that they are confidential, and that the publication of them would be a breach of honour and confidence. Mr. Dallas, Mr. Spearman, Mr. Knight, and the present Editor, after having carefully read over all the letters, swear, that they are NOT confidential. Mr. Dallas not only ac- knowledges that they are private, accordmg to the above definition, but he publishes them because they are so ; if they were not they would not be worth publishing now. But had they been confid^ential, no induce* ment on earth would have i^revailed with Ixxxviii PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. Mr. Dallas to submit them to the inspection of any third person whatever, much less to publish them. The second point to be attended to is the reluctance of Mr. Dallas to submit the correspondence to the inspection of the executors, with a viev/ to their decision on its publication. This point has been al- ready incidentally touched upon; but a few more observations may, perhaps, be par- donable. Mr. Dallas never denied the right of an executor to prevent the posthumous publication of letters which were either libellous, or injurious to the deceased, or otherwise improper for publication ; but, without adverting to the legal question, he did deny that persons differing from an author in opinions respecting religion, mo- rality, politics, and patriotism, ought to have unhmited control, and the power of an unalterable veto, over a work, in which those subjects were more or less discussed. For this reason he refused to submit the work in question to Messrs. Hobhouse and Hanson, because, as far as he knew, or had heard of either, he had grounds for PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. Ixxxix believing that he differed materially from them both on one or other of those points. But when a third person was mentioned, to whom the book might be submitted, the greatest readiness was shown to make an amicable arrangement ; and the propo- sition contained in the final letter to the executors, is exactly the same as was made in a previous stage of the business through the present Lord Byron. The third point to be mentioned is that, after reading this narrative, it cannot but be painful to be forced to the convic- tion that the opposition of the executors amounts, by their own confession in the affidavits, to a matter of property only. They cannot venture to say, in the face of all the evidence adduced as to the nature of the work, that they oppose its publica- tion in tenderness to Lord Byron's cha- racter; they know it is more likely to exalt his character, as far as it may be exalted, than any other work that can be written; they know that those who most desire to see Lord Byron's character placed, if possible, in a better light than it stands xc PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. at present, approve of the work, and wish it to be made public. Neither can they venture to say that they fear to allow this correspondence to appear, lest it should be taken as a precedent, and other letters less proper should afterwards come forth; for they have the power offered to them of sanctioning the work in the title page by their " permission," which would leave them at liberty to resist any unsanctioned publication. They, therefore, are forced to acknowledge, as they do in the course of these proceedings, that their opposition is a matter of 'property, — that is to say, that they want to make the most of these letters for the benefit of the late Lord Byron's legatee *. * It is hardly possible to be believed that all these oaths, as of knowledge upon surmisings, have for their object to add a few hundreds to the hundred thousand of pounds that Lord Byron has stripped from an ancient and honourable title which they were meant to support — not to give to his daughter, which would liave put the silence of feeling upon the reproach of justice, but to enrich his sister of the half blood, she being married, and of course naturally bound only to expect and to follow the fortunes of her husband. PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. xci No one, under all the circumstances, can doubt, morally speaking, that Lord Byron made a free gift to Mr. Dallas of his mo- ther's letters. Other proof than that which can now be given might, perhaps, be ne- cessary to satisfy the requirements of law ; but, certainly, the oaths that have been sworn are not calculated to remove the moral conviction from the mind, that the letters are the property of Mr. Dallas. As it is not according to the rules of law that matters of feeling are decided, there is a circumstance, of no slight importance, which should be taken into consideration in forming an opinion upon this transaction. For many years of his life Lord Byron never saw Mrs. Leigh, and would have no communication with her ; he was averse to the society of the sex, and thought Hghtly of family ties. This separation continued from his boyhood up to the year 1812; during the latter part of which period Mr. Dallas, continually, but fruitlessly, endea- voured to induce Lord Byron to take notice of Mrs. Leigh. However, after his return to England, when the publication of Childe xcii PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. Harold was approaching, his arguments were urged with more force, and Lord Byron, at length, yielded to them. The gift of an early copy of the Pilgrimage was one of the first steps towTtrds a renewal of intercourse; and the kind and affectionate terms in which that gift was expressed, as mentioned in the following Recollections, were the result of feelings which Mr. Dallas had endeavoured to excite. That gentle- man, during his life time, never took merit to himself for promoting this union, though he has frequently mentioned the circum- stances to the Editor, who now makes use of them without having been entrusted to do so ; but, impelled by the necessity of vindicating his father under the unexpected treatment he has experienced*. * The result of this union, so produced, has been, that Lord Byron, against all moral right, has applied the money procured by the sale of Newstead Abbey, to enrich his half sister, and left the family title without the family estate which belonged to it. It may be said against all moral right, because the grant of Newstead was made by Henry VIII., to his ancestor, as the repre- sentative, at that time, of a very ancient and honourable family, which waa afterwards ennobled by James I., PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. xchi The Lord Chancellor's decision sets the question of law at rest ; and the Editor is anxious distinctly to state, that neither Mr. Dallas nor himself have ever presumed to call in question the soundness of an opi- nion given by the venerable Lord Eldon. Neither of them, indeed, had taken the legal view of the subject, which his Lord- ship appears to have entertained ; and they were warranted in bringing the matter to having the estate, as well as that of Rochdale, in pos session, to support the title so given. Lord Byron re- ceived this title and estate together in collateral descent, he being the grand nephew only of his predecessor. The law which destroyed the perpetuity of entails could not destroy the feeling which makes a man morally bound to transmit such honours and such an estate to- gether to his successors ; and had Lord Byron's grand uncle sold Newstead and Rochdale, because he had no son, nor even brother, nor nephew, nor cousin, to suc- ceed him, but only a grand nephew, his Lordship would have been the first to have felt the moral injustice done him. Lord Byron is succeeded in a nearer relationship than that in which he stood to his predecessor ; yet he leaves a title and a name distinguished in almost every generation, from the conquest, without any of the re- wards which were given to the successive bearers of that name, to support its ancient honours. xciv PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. an issue, by the opinion of one of the most deservedly celebrated lawyers at the Chan- cery Bar. Without such an opinion, they certainly would not have added the heavy expenses of a Chancery Suit, to the already considerable loss occasioned by the nearly completed preparations for publishing a large edition of the work in quarto. It is particularly necessary, thus publicly to de- clare an humble submission to the au- thority of the Court of Chancery, as the appearance of the work in France may induce a supposition that the Author and Editor could be guilty of an intentional contempt of that Court. To prevent such a supposition, vv^hich would be very far from the truth, the Editor has only to declare, that the arrangements for publication with Messrs. A. and W. Galignani, of Paris, were made by Mr. Dallas, not only before the matter was decided ; but that the founda- tion of those arrangements was laid before the work was offered to any bookseller in London. To this fact the following letter will bear testimony ;— PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. xcv " To Messrs. A. and W. Galignani, Paris. " Ste. Adresse, near Havre de Grace, May 31, 1824. *' Gentlemen, " You may, perhaps, remember my calling at your house when I was in Paris some time ago. I write ^t present to inform you, that I have some very interest- ing manuscripts of Lord Byron's, which I am going to publish in London, where I purpose to send them as soon as they are copied. I am not decided as to dis- posing of the copyright ; but whether I do or not, I mean to offer them to a Paris publisher for a transla- tion, so that the French and English editions may appear at the same time. I offer you the preference ; but I beg an immediate answer, as I mean, if you de- cline the offer, to write to a friend in Paris to treat with another respectable bookseller. " With regard to the interest of the work, you cannot, it is true, judge of that without a more parti- cular communication ; but all I wish at present to know is, whether you would enter into this speculation, if the manuscripts prove to possess great interest. I would give you a sight of them, if the distance between us did not prevent it, but in the course of this week they go to London. " When I was in Paris, I gave you a print of Lord Byron. It was much soiled, but certainly the best likeness I have seen of him. You purposed having a reduced engraving made of it — did you get it done ? " I am, gentlemen, " Your humble servant, " R. C, Dallas." xcvi PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. After arranging for the publication in England, Mr. Dallas returned without loss of time to France. At Paris, he entered into a written agreement with Messrs. Galignani, according to the terms of which the sheets were transmitted to them, as they were struck off in London. Mr. Dallas himself remained in Paris to conduct the work through the press ; and it had nearly advanced as far as the edition in England, when the progress of both was arrested by the Injunction. Mr. Dallas has been under the necessity of abiding by the pecuniary loss to a large amount, which the advanced state of the work, when stopped, brings upon him in England ; but this very fact is a reason why he should be unable to meet a similar loss to nearly a similar amount in France. And not only were the actual expenses incurred to be considered, but, by suppressing the work in Paris, he would have been liable to the consequences of a law-suit upon his formal contract there also. Mr. Dallas, therefore, was left without a reasonable alternative. PRELIMINARY STATEMENT. xcvii and the arrangements with Messrs. GaUg- nani have been allowed to proceed; and this the more necessarily, as from the number of hands through which the ma- nuscript had passed, and the copies of it which had been dispersed for translation and other literary purposes, it was impos- sible to guard against the almost certain appearance of the work in part, or in the whole, however unsanctioned by the ap- probation of the Editor. In these arrange- ments with Messrs. Galignani, Mr. Knight and Mr. Colburn were not, and are not, in any respect parties ; — the right of such publication having been reserved to Mr. Dallas in the original agreement. NOTE. As, in the first page of this work, it is asserted that Lord Byron was born at Dover, and as the public news- papers stated that, in the inscription on the urn which con- tained his Lordship's relics it \vas said that he was born in London, the Editor thinks it right to publish the ex- tract of a letter to himself, from the Author of the fol- lowing Recollections, in which his reasons for making the assertion are stated: — " I find in the newspapers that Lord Byron is stated on the urn to have been born in London. The year previous to the Januai-y when he was born, I was on a visit to Captain Byron and my sister at Chantilly. Lord Byron's father and mother, with Mrs. Leigh, then Augusta Byron, a child then about four years old, were in France. I returned to Boulogne, where I then had a house, where I was visited by Mrs. Byron, in her way to England ; she was pregnant, and stopped at Dover on crossing the Channel. That Lord Byron was born there I recollect being mentioned both by his uncle and my sister, and I am so fully persuaded of it (Capt. Byron and my sister soon followed, and staid some time at Folkstone), that I cannot even now give full credit to the contrary, and half suspect that his mother might have had him christened in London, and thus given ground for a mistake." ERRATA, P. 38, line 10, for " ag;e" read " page." '■^8' J 3, for " breach" read " beach. ^T^y 12, for " do" read " no." EECOLLECTIONS LIFE OF LOED BYEON. CHAPTER I. CONNEXION AND FIRST PERSONAL ACQUAINT- ANCE WITH LORD BYRON. Lord Byron was a nephew of the late Captain George Anson Byron, of the Royal Navy, who was married to my sister, Hen- rietta Charlotte. In consequence of this connexion I was well acquainted with Lord Byron's father and mother. The former, whose name was John, died at Valenciennes not long after the birth of his son, which took place at Dover, 22d January, 1788; the latter went with her child into Scotland, and I lost sight of them for many years. B 2 RECOIXECTTONS OF THE I heard of him when a boy at De Loyaut6's Academy, and afterwards, on the death of the old Lord, his grand uncle, when he was placed at Harrow. Captain Byron and my sister were then both dead, and I saw little of the Byron family for several years. Lord Byron was called George after his uncle, who was his godfather : the name of Gordon had been assumed by his father in compliance with a condition imposed by will on the husband of Miss Gordon, the maiden name of his mother, and on the representatives of her family. At the end of the year 1807, some of my family observed in the newspapers ex- tracts from Lord Byron's Juvenile Poems, which he had published under the title of Hours of Idleness. I ordered the volume, which I received on the 27th of December. I read it with great pleasure ; and, if it is not saying too much for my own judgment, discerned in it marks of the genius which LIFE OP liORD BYRON. 3 has been since so universally acknow- ledged. Though sensible of some personal gratification from this proof of superior talents breaking forth in the nephew of my friend and brother, it did not enter my mind to make it the occasion of seeking the author, till I was urged to compliment him upon his publication, which I did in the following letter, dated January 6th, 1808: — « My Lord, " Your Poems were sent to me a few days ago. I have read them with more pleasure than I can express, and I feel my- self irresistibly impelled to pay you a tri- bute on the effusions of a noble mind in strains so truly poetic. Lest, however, such a tribute from a stranger should ap- pear either romantic or indecorous, let me inform your Lordship that the name of Byron is extremely dear to me, and that B2 4 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE for some portion of my life I was intimately connected with, and enjoyed the friendship of, a near relation of yours, who had begun to reflect new lustre on it, and who, had he lived, would have added a large share of laurels to those which your Muse so sweetly commemorates; I mean your fa- ther's brother, through whom I also knew your father and mother. Your Poems, my Lord, are not only beautiful as compositions ; — they bespeak a heart glowing with honour, and attuned to virtue, which is infinitely the higher praise. Your addresses to Newstead Abbey, a place about which I have often conversed with your uncle, are in the true spirit of chivalry ; and the following lines are in a spirit still more sublime : " I will not complain, and though chilPd is affection, With me no corroding resentment shall live ; My bosom is calmVl by the simple reflection That both may be wrong, and that both should foro-ive.'" LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 5 A spirit that brings to my mind another noble author, who was not only a fine poet, orator, and historian, but one of the closest reasoners we have on the truth of that reli- gion of which forgiveness is a prominent principle; the great and the good Lord Lyttleton, whose fame will never die. His son, to whom he had transmitted genius but not virtue, sparkled for a moment, and went out like a falling star, and with him the title became extinct. He was the vic- tim of inordinate passions, and he will be heard of in this world only by those who read the English Peerage. The lines which I have just cited, and the sentiments that pervade your volume, sufficiently indicate the affinity of your mind with the former; and I have no doubt that like him you will reflect more honour on the Peerage than the Peerage on you. I wish, my Lord, that it had been within your plan, and that you had been permitted 6 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE to insert among your poems the verses from your friend complaining of the warmth of your descriptions. They must have been much to his honour; and, from the general sentiments of your reply, I think your Lord- ship will not long continue of an opinion you express in it ; I mean, that you will not always consider the strength of virtue in some, and the downhill career of other young women, as rendering the perusal of very lively descriptions a matter of indif- ference. Those whom education and early habits have made strong, and those whom neglected nurseries or corrupt schools have rendered weak, are, perhaps, few compared to the number that are for a time undecided characters ; that is, who have not been advanced to the adamantine rock of purity by advice and by example; nor, on the other hand, are yet arrived at the steep pitch of descent where their progress cannot be arrested, but are still within the influence LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 7 of impressions. Rousseau acknowledges the danger of warm descriptions, in the front of a book in which that danger is pushed to its utmost extent ; and, at the same time, with his usual paradoxical inconsistency, says it will not be his fault that certain ruin ensues, for good girls should not read novels. I have not the Nouvelle Heloise by me, but I translate the passage from an Essay on Romances by Marmontel: " No chaste young woman," says Rousseau, "ever reads novels, and I have given this a title suffi- ciently expressive to show, on opening its what is to be expected. She who, in spite of that title, shall dare to read a single page of it is a lost young woman : but let her not impute her ruin to this book ; the mischief was done before, and as she has begun let her read to the end ; she has nothing more to risk*." On this Marmontel asks if the * " Jamais fille chaste n'a lu des romans, et j'ai mis a celle ci im litre assez decide, pour qu'en Touvrant on sut 8 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE title, Letters of two Lovers, is a bug- bear, and adds : " shall he who puts sweet poison in the reach of children say, if they poison themselves, that he is not to be blamed for it T Having perhaps already trespassed too much on your time, I will not pursue this subject further, but content myself with re- ferring your Lordship to the Essay which I have cited for an admirable critique on Rous- seau's Novel. It is printed with Marmontel's other works. And now, my Lord, shall I conclude with an apology for my letter ? If I thought one necessary I would burn it: yet I should feel myself both delighted and honoured if I were sure your Lordship would be better pleased with its being put into the post than a quoi sVn tenir. Celle qui, malgre ce titre, en osera lire une page est une fiUe perdue : mais qvi'^eEe n'impute point sa perte^a ce livre; le mal etoit fait d'avance. Puisqu''elle a commence, quelle acheve de lire : elle n''a plus rien a risquer." LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 9 into the fire. Most sincerely do I wish you success in those pursuits to which I con- ceive you allude in your preface; and I congratulate you that, at so early a period of your life, and in spite of being a favour- ite of the Muses, you feely ourself born for your country." Lord Byron conveyed to me in a flattering manner the pleasure which he had received from this letter, as far as it contained a tri- bute to his muse, but declared that he must in candour decline such praise as he did not deserve, and that therefore, with respect to his virtue, he could not accept of my ap- plause. He was forcibly struck with the manner in which I had alluded to the two Lords Lyttelton with reference to himself, as he had frequently been compared to the latter. The events of his short hfe had been singular, and had had the effect of causing him to be held up as the votary of licenti- 10 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE ousness, and the disciple of infidelity; though in this respect he felt he was made out to be worse than he really was. He men- tioned to me some of the Reviews in which his little volume had been noticed ; and, in- timating that my name and connexion with his family had long been known to him, expressed a pleasing desire of a personal acquaintance. This communication, while it highly gra- tified me. was calculated to excite a strong desire to know more of the character and feelings of a young man who evinced so much genius, and who gave such an ac- count of the results of a life which had not yet occupied twenty years. I immediately expressed my feelings in the following letter, dated January 21, 1808: — " I am much indebted to the impulse that incited me to write to you, for the new pleasure it has procured me. LIFE OF LORD BYRON. H Though your letter has made some alte- ration in the portrait my imagination had painted, it has in two points heightened it ; the candour with which you decline praise you think you do not deserve, and your declaration that you should be happy to merit it, convince me that you have been very injudiciously compared to the last Lord Lyttleton. I own that, from the de- sign you express in your preface of resign- ing the service of the Muses for a different vocation, I conceived you bent on pursuits which lead to the character of a legislator and statesman. I imagined you at one of the Universities, training yourself to habits of reasoning and eloquence, and storing up a large fund of history and law, preparatory to the time when your rank in society must necessarily open to you an opportunity of gratifying a noble ambition. But I have not taken up the pen to make your Lord- ship's letter the subject of a sermon; on the 12 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE contrary, I am perfectly sensible that if you do indeed need the reform some of your friends think you do, pedantry will never effect it; and though my years and the compliments you pay me might be some excuse for me, the only inclination I feel at present is to express a warm wish that so much candour, good sense, and talent, may lead you to the knowledge of truth, and the enjoyment of real happiness. I write principally to thank you for the honour you intend me by a gift of the new edition of your poems, which I shall be happy to re- ceive ; and to say that I mean to avail my- self of your expressions relative to a meet- ing, to pay my compliments to you in Albe- marle-street, in the course of a few days. While the pen is in my hand, I will just say that my mention of Lord Lyttleton to you, who had been compared with him, is singular ; but it is no less remarkable that before I was of your age I was anxious tq LIFE OP LORD BYRON. 13 see him, and went from school to the House of Peers on purpose, when he introduced a bill for licensing a theatre at Manchester, in which I heard him opposed by your re- lation Lord Carhsle. No, no ; you are not like him— you shall not be like him, except in eloquence. Pardon this last effusion." By the return of the post which took this letter to him I received a reply, professing to give a more particular account of his studies, opinions, and feehngs, written in a playful style, and containing rather flippant observations made for the sake of antitheses, than serious remarks intended to convey information. The letter may be considered as characteristic of his prose style in ge- neral, possessing the germ of his satire without the bitterness of its maturity, and the pruriency of his wit uncorrected by the hand of experience. Though written in so light and unserious a tone as prevents the 14 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE possibility of charging him gravely with the opinions he expresses, still the bent of his mind is perceptible in it ; a bent which led him to profess that such were the sentiments of the wicked George Lord Byron. I considered these expressions of feeling, though evidently grounded on some occur- rences in the still earlier part of his life, rather as jeux d esprit than as a true por- trait. I called on him on the 24th of Ja- nuary, and was dehghted with the interview. In a few days, the 27th, I dined with him, and was more and more pleased with him. I saw nothing to warrant the character he had given of himself; on the contrary, when a young fellow-collegian, who dined with us, introduced a topic on which I did not hesitate to avow my orthodoxy, he very gracefully diverted the conversation from the channel of ridicule which it had begun to take, and partly combated on my side ; LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 15 though, as I was afterwards convinced, his opinion did not differ from his companion's, who was also a pohte gentleman, and did not make me feel the contempt which he, probably, entertained for the blindness of my understanding. After this I saw him frequently, always with new pleasure, but occasionally mixed with pain, as intimacy removed the polite apprehension of offend- ing, and showed me his engrafted opinions of religion. I must say engrafted, for I think he was inoculated by the young pridelings of intellect, with whom he asso- ciated at the University. In the course of the spring he left town, and I did not see him or hear from him for several months. In the beginning of the next year, I was agreeably surprised on receiving a note from him, dated January 20th, at Reddish's Hotel, St. James's-street, requesting to see me on the morning of the Sunday following. I did not fail to keep the appointment. It 16 RECOLLECTIONS OP THE was his birth-day, (January 22d, 1809,) and that on which he came of age. He was in high spirits ; indeed, so high as to seem to me more flippant on the subject of religion, and on some others, than he had ever appeared before. But he tempered the overflow of his gaiety with good manners and so much kindness, that, far from being inclined to take offence, I felt a hope that by adopting forbearance, I might do him some service in an occasional argument or sentiment : for, although I did not put on solemn looks, I never, for a moment, allowed him to imagine that I could adopt his opi- nions on sacred points. He talked of the Earl of Carlisle with more than indignation. I had heard him before speak bitterly of that nobleman, whose applause he had courted for his juvenile poetry, and from whom he received a frigid answer, and little attention. But his anger that morning pro- ceeded from another cause. Overcoming, LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 17 or rather stifling, the resentment of the poet, he had written to remind the Earl that he should be of age at the commencement of the ensuing Session of Parliament, in expec- tation of being introduced by him, and, by being presented as his near relation, saved some trouble and awkwardness. A cold reply informed him, technically, of the mode of proceeding ; but nothing more. Extremely nettled, he determined to lash his relation with all the gall he could throw into satire. He declaimed against the ties of consanguinity, and abjured even the so- ciety of his sister ; from which he entirely withdrew himself until after the publication of Childe Harold, when, at length, he yielded to my persuasions, and made ad- vances towards a friendly intercourse with her. When he had vented his resentment on this subject, he attacked the editor and other writers of the Edinburgh Review ; and then told me that, since I last saw him. U RECOLLECTIONS OF THE he had written a Satire on them, which he wished me to read. He put it into my hands, and I took it home. I was surprised and charmed with the nerve it evinced. I immediately wrote to him upon it, and he requested me to get it published without his name. LIFE OP LORD BYRON. 19 CHAPTER IL PUBLICATION OF " ENGLISH BARDS AND SCOTCH REVIEWERS." The work which Lord Byron thus put into my hands consisted of a number of loose printed sheets in quarto, and was enti- tled The British Bards, a Satire. It contained the original groundwork of his well-known poem, such as he had written it at Newstead, where he had caused it to be printed at a country press; and various cor- rections and annotations appeared upon the margin in his own hand. Some of these are exceedingly curious, as tending to throw a light upon the workings of his mind at that early period of his career. To the poem, as it then stood, he added a hundred and ten C2 20 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE lines in its first progress through the press ; and made several alterations, some upon my suggestion, and others upon his own. I wrote to him the following letter, dated January 24, 1809, immediately upon read- ing it over; — " My dear Lord Byron, " I have read your Satire with infinite pleasure, and were you sufficiently ac- quainted with my mind to be certain that it cannot stoop to flattery, I would tell you that it rivals the Baviad and Mseviad ; but, till my praise is of that value, I will not be profuse of it. I think in general with you of the literary merit of the writers introduced. I am par- ticularly pleased with your distinction in Scott's character ; a man of genius adopt- ing subjects which men of genius will hardly read twice, if they can go through them LIFE OP LORD BYRON. 21 once. But, in allowing Mr. Scott to be a man of genius, and agreeing as you must, after the compliments you have paid to Campbell and M'Neil, that he is not the only one Scotland has produced, it will be necessary to sacrifice, or modify, your note relative to the introduction of the kilted goddess, who, after all, in having to kiss such a son as you picture Jeffrey, can be but a spurious germ of divinity. As you have given me the flattering office of looking over your poem with more than a common reader's eye, I shall scruti- nize, and suggest any change I may think advantageous. And, in the first place, I propose to you an alteration of the title. ' The British Bards' immediately brings to the imagination those who were slain by the first Edward. If you prefer it to the one I am going to offer, at least let the definite article be left out. I would fain, however, have you call the Satire, 'The 22 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE Parish Poor of Parnassus;' which will afford an opportunity for a note of this nature : — * Booksellers have been called the raidwives of literature ; with how much more pro- priety may they now be termed overseers of the poor of Parnassus, and keepers of the v/orkhouse of that desolated spot/ I enclose a few other alterations of pas- sages, straws on the surface, which you would make yourself were you to correct the press. I will also take the liberty of sending you some two dozen hnes, which, if they neither offend your ear nor your judgment, I wish you would adopt, on account of the occasion which has prompted them*. I am acquainted with * * *, and, though not on terms of very close intimacy, I know him * In his answer to this letter Lord Byron decUned adopting these Hnes because they were not his own, quoting at the same time what Lady Wortley Montague said to Pope, " No touching, — for the good will be given to 3'^ou, and the bad attributed to me." LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 23 sufficiently to esteem him as a man. He has but a slender income, out of which he manages to support two of his relations. His literary standard is by no means con- temptible, and his objects have invariably been good ones. Now, for any author to step out of the common track of criticism to make a victim of such a man by the means of a particular book, made up of unfair ridicule and caricature, for the venal purpose of collecting a few guineas, is not only unworthy of a scholar, but betrays the malignity of a demon. If you think my lines feeble, let your own breast inspire your pen on the occasion, and send me some. I shall delay the printing as little as pos- sible; but I have some apprehension as to the readiness of my publishers to undertake the sale, for they have a large portion of the work of the Poor of Parnassus to dis- pose of. I will see them without delay, 24 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE and persuade them to it if I can; if not, I will employ some other. Southey is a great favourite of theirs ; and I must be in- genuous enough to tell you, that though I have ever disapproved of the absurd attempt to alter, or rather destroy, the harmony of our verse, and found Joan of Arc and Madoc tedious, I think the power of imagi- nation, though of the marvellous, displayed in Thalaba, ^ Arabia's monstrous, wild, and wondrous son.'' evinces genius. I see your Muse has given a couplet to your noble relation; — I doubt whether it will not be read as the two severest lines in the Satire, and so, what I could wish avoided for the present, betray the author : which will render abortive a thought that has entered my mind of having the Satire most favourably reviewed in the SatiinsU which, on its being known afterwards to be LIFE OF LORD BYRON, 25 yours, would raise a laugh against your enemies in that quarter. Consider, and tell me, whether the lines shall stand. I agree that there is only one among the peers on whom Apollo deigns to smile; but, believe me, that peer is no relation of yours. I am soiTy you have not found a place among the genuine Sons of Apollo for Crabbe, who, in spite of something border- ing on servihty in his dedication, may surely rank with some you have admitted to his temple. And now, before I lay down my pen, I will tell you the passage which gave me the greatest pleasure — that on Little. I am no preacher, but it is very pleasing to read such a confirmation of the opinion I had formed of you ; to find you an advocate for keeping a veil over the despotism of the senses. Such poems are far more dan- gerous to society than Rochester's. In your concluding line on Little, I v\rould. 26 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE though in a quotation, substitute, line, or lay, for life : ' She bids thee mend thy line and sin no more*.' Pray answer as soon as you conveniently can, and believe me ever," Sfc. Sfc. The couplet to which I referred as having been given by his Muse to his noble rela- tion, was one of panegyric upon Lord Car- lisle, at which I was not a little surprised, after what I had so lately heard him say of that nobleman; but the fact is, that the lines were composed before he had written to his Lordship, as mentioned at the end of the last chapter, and he had given me the Satire before he had made any of his meditated alterations. It is, however, curious that this couplet must have been composed in the short interval between his printing the poem at Newstead and his arrival in town, per^ * In the original the words were " mend thy life." He however adopted the word line. LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 27 haps under the same feelings which induced him to write to Lord Carhsle, and at the same time. The hues do not appear in the print, but are inserted afterwards in Lord Byron's hand- writing. They are these : — On one alone Apollo deigns to smile. And crowns a new Roscommon in Carlisle. Immediately upon receiving my letter he forwarded four lines to substitute for this couplet. Roscommon! Sheffield! with your spirits fled, No future laurels deck a noble head ; Nor e'en a hackney'd Muse will deign to smile On minor Byron, or mature Carlisle. He said that this alteration would answer the purposes of concealment; but it was other feelings than the desire of conceal- ment which induced him afterwards to alter the two last lines into No more will cheer with renovating smile The paralytic puling of Carlisle ; 28 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE — and to indulge the malice of his Muse adding these— The puny school-boy, and his early lay. We pardon, if his follies pass away. Who, who forgives the senior's ceaseless verse, Whose hairs grow hoary as his rhymes grow worse. What heterogeneous honours deck the peer, Lord, rhymester, petit-maitre, pamphleteer. So dull in youth, so drivelling in his age, His scenes alone might damn our sinking stage ; But managers, for once, cried hold, enough ! .'fiat Yet at the ffiat -J < j udgment \ let his lordship laugh, (_nausea* J And case his volumes in congenial calf. Yes! doff that covering where morocco shines, " And hang a calf skin on those recreant" lines. This passage, together with the two notes which accompanied it in the publi- cation of the Poem, and in which Lord Byron endeavoured, as much as possible, to envenom his ridicule, he sent to me, in * I have here given the exact copy of the original ma- nuscript which is before me. LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 29 the course of the printing, for insertion, as being necessary, according to him, to com- plete the poetical character of Lord Carlisle. Six lines upon the same subject, which he also sent me to be inserted, he afterwards consented to reUnquish at my earnest en- treaty, which, however, was unavailing to procure the sacrifice of any other lines relating to this point. Under present cir- cumstances they are become curious, and there can hardly be any objection to my inserting them here. They were intended to follow the first four lines upon the sub- ject, and the whole passage would have stood thus-— Lords too are bards, such things at times befall, And 'tis some praise in peers to write at all ; Yet did not taste or reason sway the times, Ah, who would take their titles with their rhymes. In these, our times, with daily Avonders big, A lettered peer is like a lettered pig ; Both know their alphabet, but who, from thence, Infers that peers or pigs have manly sense. 30 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE Still less that such should woo the graceful nine ; Parnassus was not made for lords and swine. Roscommon ! Sheffield, SfC. S^x. Besides the alteration of the panegyrical couplet upon Lord Carlisle, he readily ac- quiesced in -my suggestions of placing Crabbe amongst the genuine sons of Apollo, and sent rne these lines : There be who say, in these enlightened days, That splendid lies are all the poet's praise, That strained invention ever on the wing Alone impels the modern bard to sing. 'Tis true that all who rhyme, nay all who write, Shrink from the fatal word to genius — trite ; Yet Truth sometimes will lend her noblest fires And decorate the verse herself inspires: This fact in Virtue''s name let Crabbe attest. Though Nature's sternest painter, yet the best. As to the title of the Poem, Lord Byron agreed with me in rejecting his own, but also rejected that I had proposed, and sub- stituted the one with which it was pub- lished, " English Bards and Scotch Re- viewers.'' LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 31 Upon taking the Satire to my publishers, Messrs. Longman and Co., they dechned publishing it in consequence of its asperity, a circumstance to which he afterwards ad- verted in very strong language, making it the only condition with which he accom- panied his gift to me of the copyright of Childe Harolds Pilgrimage, that it should not be published by that house. I then gave it to Mr. Cawthorn, who undertook the pub- lication. In reading Lord Byron's Satire, and in tracing the progress of the alterations which he made in it as it proceeded, it is impossi- ble not to perceive that his feelings rather than his judgment guided his pen ; and some- times he seems indifferent whether it should convey praise or blame. The influence of his altered feehngs towards his noble rela- tion has been already shown ; and an in- stance likewise occurred where he, on the contrary, substituted approbation for cen- 32 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE sure, though not of so strong a nature as in the former case. Towards the end of the Poem, where he, mconsiderately enough, compares the poetical talent of the two Universities, in the first printed copy that he brought from Newstead the passage stood thus : Shall hoary Granta call her sable sons, Expert in science, more expert in puns ? Shall these approach the Muse ? ah, no ! she flies And even spurns the great Seatonian prize : Though printers condescend the press to soil, Widi odes by Sniythe, and epic songs by Hoyle. Hoyle, whose learn d page, if still upheld by whist. Required no sacred theme to bid us hst. — Ye who in Granta's honours would surpass, Must mount her Pegasus, a fidl-grown ass ; A foal well worthy of her ancient dam, Whose Helicon is duUer than her Cam. Yet hold — as when by Heaven's supreme behest. If found, ten righteous had preserved the rest In Sodom's fated town, for Granta's name Let Hodgson's genius plead, and save her fame. But where fan* Isis rolls her purer wave, The partial muse delighted loves tolave ; LIFE OP LORD BYRON. 33 On her green banks a greener wreath is wove, To crown the bards tliat haunt her classic grove, Where Richards wakes a genuine poefs fires. And modern Britons justly praise their sires. Previously, however, to giving the copy to me, he had altered the fifth line with his pen, making the couplet to stand thus : Though printers condescend the press to soil. With rhyme by Hoare, and epic blank by Hoyle ! and then he had drawn his pen through the four lines, beginning , Yet hold, as when by Heaven's supreme behest, and had written the following in their place. Oh dark asylum of a Vandal race ! At once the boast of learning and disgrace. So sunk in dulness and so lost in shame. That Smythe and Hodgson scarce redeem thy fame. I confess I was surprised to find the name of Smythe uncoupled from its press-soiling companion, to be so suddenly ranked with 34 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE that of Hodgson in such high praise. When, however, the fifth edition, which was sup- pressed, was afterwards preparing for pub- lication, he again altered the two last lines to— So lost to Phoebus that not Hodgson's verse Can make thee better, or poor Hewson"'s worse. In another instance, his feeling towards me induced him carefully to cover over with a paper eight lines, in which he had severely satirized a gentleman with whom he knew that I was in habits of intimacy, and to erase a note which belonged to them. It is not ditHcult to observe the working of Lord Byron's mind in another alteration which he made. In the part where he speaks of Bowles, he makes a reference to Pope's deformity of person. The passage was originally printed in the country, thus: — LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 35 Bowles ! in thy memory let this precept dwell, Stick to thy sonnets, man ! at least they'll sell ; Or take the only path that open lies For modern worthies who would hope to rise :— Fix on some well-known name, and bit by bit. Pare off the merits of his worth and wit ; On each alike employ the critic's knife, And where a comment fails prefix a hfe ; Hint certain faihngs, faults before unknown, Revive forgotten hes, and add your own; Let no disease, let no misfortune 'scape, And print, if luckily deformed, his shape. Thus shall the world, quite undeceived at last, Cleave to their present wits, and quit the past ; Bards once revered no more with favour view. But give these modern sonnetteers their due : Thus with the dead may living merit cope. Thus Bowles may triumph o'er the shade of Pope I He afterwards altered the whole of this passage except the two first lines, and in its place appeared the following : — Bowles! in thy memory let this precept dwell. Stick to thy sonnets, man ! at least they sell. But if some new-born whim, or larger bribe. Prompt thy crude brain, and claim thee for a scribe ; If chance some bard, though once by dunces feared, Now prone in dust can only be revered ; D2 36 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE If Pope, whose fame and genius from the first Have foiled the best of critics, needs the worst. Do thou essay, — each fault, each failing scan ; The first of poets was, alas ! but man. Rake from each ancient dunghill every pearl, Consult Lord Fanny, and confide in Curll ; Let aU the scandals of a former age Perch on thy pen and flutter o'er thy page ; AfPect a candour which thou cans't not feel. Clothe envy in the garb of honest zeal. Write as if St. John's soul could still inspire. And do from hate, what Mallet did for liire. Oh ! hadst thou lived in that congenial time. To rave with Dennis, and with Ralph to rhyme, Thronged with the rest around his living head, Not raised thy hoof against the lion dead, A meet reward had crowned thy glorious gains. And linked thee to the Dunciad for thy pains. I have very little doubt that the altera- tion of the whole of this passage was occa- sioned by the reference to Pope's personal deformity which Lord Byron had made in it. It is well known that he himself had an evident defect in one of his legs, which was shorter than the other, and ended in a club foot. On this subject he generally LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 37 appeared very susceptible, and sometimes when he was first introduced to any one, he betrayed an uncomfortable consciousness of his defect by an uneasy change of position ; and yet at other times he seemed quite devoid of any feeling of the kind, and once I remember that, in conversation, he men- tioned a similar lameness of another person of considerable talents, observing, that peo- ple born lame are generally clever. This temporary cessation of a very acute sus- ceptibility, is a phenomenon of the human mind for which it is difficult to account ; un- less perhaps it be that the thoughts are some- times carried into a train, where, though they cross these tender cords, the mind is so occupied as not to leave room for the jealous feeling which they would otherwise excite. Thus, Lord Byron, in the ardour of composition, had not time to admit the ideas, which, in a less excited moment, would rapidly have risen in connexion with the 38 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE thought of Pope's deformity of person ; and the greater vanity of talent superseded the lesser vanity of person, and produced the Same effect of deadening his susceptibiUty in the conversation to which I allude. In Lord Byron's original Satire, the first lines of his attack upon Jeffrey, were these— Who has not heard in this enlightened age. When all can criticise th' historic age ; Who has not heard in James's bigot reign, Of Jefferies ! monarch of the scourge and chain ? These he erased and began. Health to immortal Jeffrey ! once, in name, • England could boast a judge almost the same ! With this exception, and an omission about Mr. Lambe towards the end, the whole passage was published as it was first com- posed ; indeed, as this seems to have been the inspiring object of the Satire, so these lines were most fluently written, and re- LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 39 quired least correction afterwards. Re- specting the propriety of the note which is placed at the end of this passage, I had much discussion with Lord Byron. I was anxious that it should not be inserted, and I find the reason of my anxiety stated in a letter written to him after our conversation on the subject.— I here insert the letter, dated February 6, 1809;— " My dear Lord, " I have received your lines*, which shall be inserted in the proper place. May I say that I question whether own and disown be an allowable rhyme ? Translatioifs servile work at length disown, And quit Achaia's muse to court your own. You see I cannot let any thing pass ; but this only proves to you how much I feel interested. * Those compKmenting the translators of the Anthology. 40 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE I have inserted the note on the kilted goddess ; still I would fain have it omitted. My first objection was, that it was a fiction in prose, too wide of fact, and not reconcile- able with your own praises of Caledonian genius. Another objection now occurs to me, of no little importance. There seems at present a disposition in Scotland to with- draw support from the Edinburgh Re- viewers; that disposition will favour the circulation of your Satire in the north: this note of yours will damp all ardour for it beyond the Tweed. You have yet time ; tell me to suppress it when I next have the pleasure of seeing you, which will be when I receive the first proof. I did hope to be able to bring the proof this morning, but the printer could not prepare the paper, &c. for the press till to-day. I am promised one by the day after to-morrow. I trust you will approve of what I have done with the bookseller. He is to be at LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 41 all the expense and risk, and to account for half the profits *, for which he is to have one edition of a thousand copies. It would not have answered to him to have printed only five hundred on these terms. I have also promised him that he shall have the pubhshing of future editions, if the author chooses to continue it ; but I told him that I could not dispose of the copyright. I have no doubt of the Poem being read in every quarter of the United Kingdom, provided, however^ you do not affront Cale- donia." Lord Byron, in accordance with this letter, sent me a choice of couplets to super- sede the one to the rhyme of which I had objected. Though sweet the sound, disdain a borrowM tone. Resign Achaia"'s lyre, and strike your own ; * The whole of the 'profits were left to the publisher without purchase. 42 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE or, Thovigh soft the echo, scorn a borrowM tone, Resign Achaia''s lyre, and strike yovir own. But he protested against giving up his note of notes, as he called it, his solitary pun. I answered him as follows, in a letter dated February T, 1809 :— " On another perusal of the objection- able note, I find that the omission of two lines only would render it inoffensive — but, as you please. I observed to you that in the opening of the Poem there appears to be a sudden stop with Dryden. I still feel the gap there ; and wish you would add a couple of lines for the purpose of connecting the sense, saying that Otway and Congreve had wove mimic scenes, and Waller tuned his lyre to love. If you do, '* But why these names, &c." would follow well — and it LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 43 is perhaps the more requisite as you lash our present Dramatists*. Half Tweed combined his Avaves to form a tear, will perhaps strike you, on reconsidering the line, to want alteration. You may make the river-god act without cutting him in two : you may make him ruffle half his stream to yield a tear-f. ' Hoyle, whose learned page, &c.' The pronoun is an identification of the antece- dent Hoyle, which is not your meaning — say, Not he whose learned page, &c. Earth's chief dictatress, Ocean''s lonely queen"" — The primary and obvious sense of lonely is solitary, which does not preclude the idea * He inserted the following couplet — Then Congreve's scenes could cheer, or Otway's melt. For nature then an English audience felt. t The line was printed thus — Tweed ruffled half his waves to form a tear. 44 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE of the ocean having other queens. You may have some authority for the use of the word in the acceptation you here give it, but, like the custom in Denmark, I should think it more honoured in the breach than the observance. Only offers its service; or why not change the epithet altoge- ther*? I mention these little points to you now, because there is time to do as you please. I hope to call on you to-morrow ; if I do not, it will be because I am disap- pointed of the proof." During the printing of the Satire, my intercourse with Lord Byron was not only carried on personally, but also by constant notes which he sent me, as different subjects arose in his mind, or different suggestions occurred. It was interesting to see how much his thoughts were bent upon his * He changed it to " mighty.'''' LIFE OF LORD BYROX. 45 Poem, and how that one object gave a colour to all others that passed before him at the time, from which in turn he drew forth subjects for his Satire. After having been at the Opera one night, he wrote those couplets, beginning. Then let Ausonia, skilled in every art, To soften manners, but corrupt tlie heart, &c. and he sent them to me early on the follow- ing morning, with a request to have them inserted after the lines concerning Naldi and Catalani: so also other parts of the Satire arose out of other circumstances as they passed, and were written upon the spur of the moment. To the Poem, as I originally received it, he added a hundred and ten lines, including those to Mr. GifFord, on the Opera, Kirke White, Crabbe, the Translators of the An- thology, and Lord Carlisle; and most of the address to Mr. Scott towards the con- 46 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE elusion. He once intended to prefix an Argument to the Satire, and wrote one. I have it, among many other manuscripts of his ; and, as it becomes a curiosity, I insert it. ARGUMENT INTENDED FOR THE SATIRE. The poet considereth times past and their poesy — maketh a sudden transition to times present — is incensed against book-makers — revileth W. Scott for cupidity and ballad- mongering, Avith notable remarks on Master Southey — complaineth that Master Southey hath inflicted three poems, epic and otherwise, on the pubhc — inveigheth against Wm. Wordswortli, but laudeth Mr. Coleridge and his elegy on a young ass — is disposed to vituperate Mr. Lewis — and greatly rebuketh Thomas Little (the late) and the Lord Strangford — recommendeth Mr. Hay- ley to turn his attention to prose — and exhorteth the Moravians to glorify Mr. Grahame — sympathizeth with the Rev. Bowles— and deploreth the melancholy fate of Montgomery — ^breaketh out into invective against the Edinburgh Reviewers — calleth them hard names, harpies, and the like — apostrophiseth Jeffrey and prophesieth — Episode of Jeffrey and Moore, their jeopardy and deH- verance ; portents on the morn of the combat ; the Tweed, Tolbooth, Frith of Forth severally shocked ; descent of a goddess to save Jeffrey ; incorporation of the bullets LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 47 with his sinciput and occiput — Edinburgh Reviews en masse — Lord Aberdeen, Herbert, Scott, Hallam, Pil- lans, Lambe, Sydney Smith, Brougham, 8^x. — The Lord Holland applauded for dinners and translations — The Drama; Skeffington, Hook, Reynolds, Kenney, Cherry, 8^x. — Sheridan, Colman, and Cumberland called upon to write — Return to poesy — scribblers of all sorts — Lords sometimes rhyme; much better not — Hafiz, Rosa Matilda, and X. Y. Z. — Rogers, Campbell, Gifford, ^-c, true poets— Translators of the Greek Anthology — Crabbe — Darwin"'s style — Cambridge — Seatonian Prize — Smythe — Hodgson — Oxford — Richards — Poeta loquitur — Con- clusion. 48 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE CHAPTER III. TAKING HIS SEAT IN THE HOUSE OF LORDS- SECOND EDITION OF THE SATIRE— DEPAR- TURE FROM ENGLAND. I NOW saw Lord Byron daily. It was about this time that Lord Falkland was killed in a duel, which suggested some lines as the Satire was going through the press. Nature had endowed Lord Byron with very benevolent feelings, which I have had op- portunities of discerning, and I have seen them at times render his fine countenance most beautiful. His features seemed formed in a peculiar manner for emanating the high conceptions of genius, and the work- ings of the passions. I have often, and with no little admiration, witnessed these LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 49 effects. I have seen them in the glow of poetical inspiration, and under the influence of strong emotion ; on the one hand amount- ing to virulence, and on the other replete with all the expression and grace of the mild and amiable affections. When under the influence of resentment and anger, it was painful to observe the powerful sway of those passions over his features : when he was impressed with kindness, which was the natural state of his heart, it was a high treat to contemplate his countenance. I saw him the morning after Lord Falk- land's death. He had just come from seeing the lifeless body of the man with whom he had a very short time before spent a social day ; he now and then said, as if it were to himself, but aloud, " Poor Falkland!" He looked more than he spoke — " But his wife, it is she who is to be pitied." I saw his mind teeming with benevolent intentions — and they were not abortive. If ever an 60 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE action was pure, that which he then medi- tated was so ; and the spirit that conceived, the man that performed it, was at that time making his way through briers and bram- bles to that clear but narrow path which leads to heaven. Those, who have taken pains to guide him from it, must answer for it ! The remembrance of the impression pro- duced on Lord Byron by Lord Falkland's death, at the period I am retracing, has ex- cited this slight, but sincere and just, effu- sion ; and I am sensible that the indulgence of it needs no apology. The Satire was published about the mid- dle of March, previous to which he took his seat in the House of Lords, on the 13th of the same month. On that day, passing down St. James's-street, but with no in- tention of calling, I saw his chariot at his door, and went in. His countenance, paler than usual, showed that his mind was agi- LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 51 tated, and that he was thinking of the no- bleman to whom he had once looked for a hand and countenance in his introduction to the House. He said to me — *' I am glad you happened to come in ; I am going to take my seat, perhaps you will go w^ith me." I expressed my readiness to attend him; while, at the same time, I concealed the shock I felt on thinking that this young man, who, by birth, fortune, and talent, stood high in life, should have lived so un- connected and neglected by persons of his own rank, that there was not a single mem- ber of the senate to which he belonged, to whom he could or would apply to intro- duce him in a manner becoming his birth. I saw that he felt the situation, and I fully partook his indignation. If the neglect he had met with be imputed to an untoward or vicious disposition, a character which he gave himself, and which I understood was also given to him by others, it is E2 52 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE natural to ask, how he came by that dispo- sition, for he got it not from Nature ? Had he not been left early to himself, or rather to dangerous guides and companions, would he have contracted that disposition ? Or even, had nature been cross, might it not have been rectified ? During his long mi- nority, ought not his heart and his intellect to have been trained to the situation he was to fill ? Ought he not to have been saved from money-lenders, and men of business ? And ought not a shield to have been placed over a mind so open to impres- sions, to protect it from self-sufficient free- thinkers, and witty sophs ? The wonder is, not that he should have erred, but that he should have broken through the cloud that enveloped him, which was dispersed solely by the rays of his own genius. After some talk about the Satire, the last sheets of which were in the press, I ac- companied Lord Byron to the House. He LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 53 was received in one of the antechambers by some of the officers in attendance, with whom he settled respecting the fees he had to pay. One of them went to apprize the Lord Chancellor of his being there, and soon returned for him. There were very few persons in the House. Lord Eldon was going through some ordinary business. When Lord Byron entered, I thought he looked still paler than before ; and he cer- tainly wore a countenance in which mor- tification was mingled with, but subdued by, indignation. He passed the woolsack without looking round, and advanced to the table where the proper officer was attend- ing to administer the oaths. When he had gone through them, the Chancellor quitted his seat, and went towards him with a smile, putting out his hand warmly to wel- come him ; and, though I did not catch his words, I saw that he paid him some com- pliment. This was all thrown away upon 54 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE Lord Byron, who made a stiff bow, and put the tips of his fingers into a hand, the amiable offer of which demanded the whole of his. I was sorry to see this, for Lord Eldon's character is great for virtue, as well as talent ; and, even in a political point of view, it would have given me inexpressible pleasure to have seen him uniting heartily with him. The Chancellor did not press a welcome so received, but resumed his seat ; while Lord Byron carelessly seated himself for a few minutes on one of the empty benches to the left of the throne, usually occupied by the Lords in opposition. When, on his joining me, I expressed what I had felt, he said; " If I had shaken hands heartily, he would have set me down for one of his party — but I will have nothing to do with any of them, on either side ; I have taken my seat, and now I will go abroad." We returned to St. James's- street, but he did not recover his spirits. LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 55 The going abroad was a plan on which his thoughts had tui'ned for some time ; I did not, however, consider it as determined, or so near at hand as it proved. In a few days he left town for Newstead Abbey, after seeing the last proof of the Satire, and writing a short preface to the Poem. In a few weeks I had the pleasure of send- ing him an account of its success, in the following letter, dated April 17, 1809 : " The essence of what I have to say was comprised in the few lines I wrote to you in the cover of my letter to Mr. H**. Your Satire has had a rapid sale, and the publisher thinks the edition will soon be out. However, what I have to repeat to you is a legitimate source of pleasure, and I request you will receive it as the tribute of genuine praise. In the first place, notwithstanding our precautions,y ou are already pretty generally 56 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE known to be the author. So Cawthorn tells me; and a proof occurred to myself at Hatchard's, the Queen's Bookseller. On inquiring for the Satire, he told me that he had sold a great many, and had none left, and was going to send for more, which I afterwards found he did. I asked who was the author ? He said it was believed to be Lord Byron s. Did he believe it? Yes, he did. On asking the ground of his belief, he told me that a lady of distinction had, without hesitation, asked for it as Lord Byron's Satire. He likewise informed me that he had inquired of Mr. GifFord, who frequents his shop, whether it was yours. Mr. Gifford denied any knowledge of the author, but spoke very highly of it, and said a copy had been sent to him. Hatchard assured me that all who came to his read- ing-room admired it. Cawthorn tells me it is universally well-spoken of, not only among his own customers, but generally at LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 57 all the booksellers'. I heard it highly praised at my own publishers', where I have lately called several times. At Philhps's it was read aloud by Pratt to a circle of literary guests, who were unanimous in their applause :— The Antijacobin, as well as the Gentleman s Magazine, has already blown the trump of fame for you. We shall see it in the other Reviews next month, and probably in some severely handled, according to the connexions of the proprietors and editors with those whom it lashes. I shall not repeat my own opinion to you; but I will repeat the request I once made to you, never to consi- der me as a flatterer. Were you a mo- narch, and had conferred on me the most munificent favours, such an opinion of me would be a signal of retreat, if not of in- gratitude : but if you think me sincere, and like me to be candid, I shall delight iji your fame, and be happy in your friendship." 58 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE The success of the Satire brought him quickly to town. He found the edition al- most exhausted, and began the preparations for another, to which he determined to prefix his name. I saw him constantly; and in about a fortnight found the Poem com- pletely metamorphosed, and augmented nearly four hundred lines, but retaining the whole of the first impression. He happily seized on some of the vices which at that juncture obtruded themselves on the public notice, and added some new characters to the list of authors with censure or applause. Among those who received the meed of praise,2it gave me great pleasure to find my excellent friend Waller Rodwell Wright, whose poem " Horae Ionics," was just pub- lished*. He allowed me to take home with me his manuscripts as he wrote them ; * Mr. Wright was, at that time, Recorder of Bury St. Edmunds; and is now in a liigh judicial situation at Malta. LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 59 and so soon as the 10th of May I had a note from him, urging that they should to be sent to the press. He was desi- rous of hastening the new edition in order that he might see the last proofs before he left England; for, during his stay at Newstead Abbey, he had ar- ranged with Mr. Hobhouse his plan of going abroad early in June, but whither, I believe, was not exactly settled ; for he sometimes talked to me of crossing the line, sometimes of Persia and India. As I per- ceived the new edition not only concluded in a most bitter strain, and contained besides a prose postscript in which I thought he allowed his feeUngs to carry him to an excess of abuse and defiance that looked more like the vaunting ebullition of " Some fiery youth of new commission vam Who sleeps on brambles till he kills his man," than the dignified revenge of genius, I en- 60 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE deavoured to prevail upon him to suppress or alter it, as the proofs which I corrected passed my hands, but was only able to obtain some modification of his expressions. The following letter, which was the last that I wrote to him respecting the Satire before he left England, will show how strenuous I was on this point, and also the liberty which he allowed me to take ; " Not being certain that I shall see you to-day, I write to tell you that I am angry with myself on finding that I have more deference for form, than friendship for the author of * English Bards and Scotch Re- viewers.' The latter prompted me to tear the concluding pages, left at Cawthorn's ; the former withheld me, and I was weak enough to leave the lines to go to the printer. You have been so kind as to sacrifice some lines to me before. I be- LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 61 seech you to sacrifice these, for in every respect they injure the Poem, they injure you, and are pregnant with what you do not mean. I will not let you print them. I am going to dine in St. James's-place to-day at five o'clock, and in the hope of having a battle with you, I will be in St. James's-street about four." Very soon after this the Satire appeared in its new form, but too late for its author to enjoy his additional laurels before he left England. I was with him almost every day while he remained in London. Misan- thropy, disgust of life leading to scepti- cism and impiety, prevailed in his heart and embittered his existence. He had for some time past been grossly attacked in several low publications, which he bore however with more temper than he did the blind headlong assault on his genius by the Edinburgh Review. Unaccustomed to fe- 62 RECOLLECTIONS OP THE male society, he at once dreaded and abhorred it; and spoke of women, such I mean as he neither dreaded nor abhorred, more as playthings than companions. As for domestic happiness he had no idea of it. " A large family," he said, " appeared like opposite ingredients mixed perforce in the same salad, and he never relished the composition." Unfortunately, having never mingled in family circles, he knew nothing of them ; and, from being at first left out of them by his relations, he was so completely disgusted that he avoided them, especially the female part. *' I consider," said he, " collateral ties as the work of prejudice, and not the bond of the heart, which must choose for itself unshackled." It was in vain for me to argue that the nursery, and a similarity of pursuits and enjoyments in early life, are the best foundations of friend- ship and of love ; and that to choose freely, the knowledge of home was as requisite as LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 03 that of wider circles. In those wider cir- cles he had found no friend, and but few companions, whom he used to receive with an assumed gaiety, but real indifference at his heart, and spoke of with little regard, sometimes with sarcasm. He used to talk of one young man, who had been his school-fellow, with an affection which he flattered himself was returned. I occasion- ally met this friend at his apartments, before his last excursion to Newstead. Their portraits, by capital painters, were ele- gantly framed, and surmounted with their respective coronets, to be exchanged. How- ever, whether taught by ladies in revenge to neglect Lord Byron, or actuated by a frivolous inconstancy, he gradually lessened the number of his calls and their duration. Of this, however. Lord Byron made no complaint, till the very day I went to take my leave of him, which was the one pre- vious to his departure. I found him bursting 64 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE with indignation. " Will you believe it," said he, " I have just met * * *, and asked him to come and sit an hour v^ith me ; he excused himself; and what do you think was his excuse? He was engaged with his mother and some ladies to go shopping ! And he knows I set out to-morrow, to be absent for years, perhaps never to return ! Friendship ! — I do not believe I shall leave behind me, yourself and family excepted, and perhaps my mother, a single being who will care what becomes of me." At this period of his life his mind was full of bitter discontent. Already satiated with pleasure, and disgusted with those compa- nions who have no other resource, he had re- solved on mastering his appetites ; he broke up his harams ; and he reduced his palate to a diet the most simple and abstemious ; but the passions of the heart were too mighty, nor did it ever enter his mind to LfFE OF LORD BYRON. G5 overcome them: resentment, anger, and hatred held full sway over him, and his greatest gratification at that time was in overcharging his pen with gall, which flowed in every direction against indivi- duals, his country, the world, the universe, creation, and the Creator. He might have become, he ought to have been, a different creature ; and he but too well accounts for the unfortunate bias of his disposition in the following lines : — • E'en I — least thinking of a thoughtless throng, Just skiird to know the right and. choose the wrong, Freed at that age when Reason's shield is lost, To fight my course through Passion's countless host; Whom every path of Pleasure's flowery way Has lured in turn, and all have led astray . I took leave of him on the 10th of June, 1809, and he left London the next morning: his objects were still unsettled; but he wished to hear from me particularly on the subject of the Satire, and promised to inform F 6t> RECOLLECTIONS OF THE me how to direct to him when he could so with certainty ;— it was, however, long before I heard from him. After some time I wrote to him ; directing, at a chance, to Malta, informing him of the success of his Poem. Leaving England with a soured mind, disclaiming all attachments, and even belief in the existence of friendship, it will be no wonder if it shall be found that Lord Byron, during the period of his absence, kept up little correspondence with any persons in England. A letter, dated at Constantino- ple, is the only one I received from him, till he was approaching the shores of England in the Volage frigate. To his mother he wrote by every opportunity. Upon her death, which happened very soon after his arrival, and before he saw her, I was con- versing with him about Newstead, and ex- pressing my hope that he would never be persuaded to part with it ; he assured me LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 67 he would not, and promised to give me a letter which he had written to his mother to that effect, as a pledge that he never would. His letters to her being at New- stead, it was some time before he performed his promise ; but in doing it he made me a present of all his letters to her on his leaving England and during his absence; saying, as he put them into my hands, " Some day or other they will be curiosities." They are written in an easy style, and if they do not contain all that is to be expected from a traveller, what they do contain of that nature is pleasant ; and they strongly mark the character of the writer. T2 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE CHAPTER IV. LORD BYRON'S TRAVELS IN 1809, 1810, and isii. The Letters which Lord Byron had thus given to me were twenty in number. They consisted of two short ones written from Newstead, at the end of 1808; one written from London, in March, 1809; fifteen writ- ten during his travels from Falmouth, Gibraltar, Malta, Previsa, Smyrna, Con- stantinople, Athens, and Patras, in 1810 and 181 1 ; one written on board the Volage frigate, on his approach to England when returning ; and a short note from London, to announce his intention of going down to Newstead. These letters were the only ones Lord LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 69 Byron wrote during his travels, with the single exception of letters of business to his agent. Letter-writing was a matter of irksome duty to him, but one which he felt himself bound to perform to his mother. The letters are sometimes long and full of detail, and sometimes short, and mere inti- mations of his good health and progress, according as the humour of the moment overcame or not his habitual reluctance to the task. I cannot but lament that any circumstances should deprive the British public of such lively and faithful delinea- tions of the mind and character of Lord Byron as are to be found in these letters. They do not, it is true, contain the informa- tion which is usually expected from a talented traveller through an interesting country; but they do contain the index and guide which enables the reader to travel into that more interesting region — the mind and heart of such a man as Lord 70 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE Byron ; and though it might be desirable that he should have given a fuller descrip- tion of his travels, it is highly satisfactory that he should unconsciously have left the means of penetrating into the natural cha- racter of so singular a being. Lord Byron's letters to his mother are more likely to furnish these means than any thing else that he has left us ; because they contain the only natural expression of his feelings, freely poured forth in the very circumstances that excited them, v^ith no view at the time to obtain or keep up a particular character, and therefore v^^ith no restraint upon his own character. This was never afterwards the case. From the moment that the publication of Childe Harolds Pilgrimage placed him, as it were, by the wand of an enchanter, upon an elevated pedestal in the Temple of Fame, he could not write any thing even in famihar correspondence, which was not LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 71 in some degree influenced by the idea of supporting a character; especially as, after the death of his mother, he had no corre- spondent to whom he made it a duty, at certain intervals, to communicate his thoughts. It is, therefore, in the natural turn of thought, not shewn forth by any expression of decided opinions, but rather permitted to be seen in the light touches and unpre- meditated indications of feeling, with which these letters abound, that the original cha- racter of Lord Byron is more surely to be traced. I say his original character, because so great an alteration took place at least in the degree, if not in the nature of it, after the publication of his first great poem, that the traits which might give us an insight into his mind at the one period, will scarcely afford us ground to form any judgment of it at the other. I deeply regret that being prevented from making any thing like quo- 72 RECOLLECTIONS OP THE tations from these letters, it is impossible for me to convey in any adequate degree the spirit of the character which they dis- play. At Newstead, just before his coming of age, he planned his future travels ; and his original intention included a much larger portion of the world than that which he afterwards visited. He first thought of Persia, to which idea indeed he for a long time adhered. He afterwards meant to sail for India ; and had so far contemplated this project as to write for information from the Arabic Professor at Cambridge, and to ask his mother to inquire of a friend who had lived in India, what things would be neces- sary for his voyage. He formed his plan of travelling upon very different grounds from those which he afterwards advanced. All men should travel at one time or another, he thought, and he had then no connexions to prevent him ; when he returned he might LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 73 enter into political life, for which travelling would not incapacitate him, and he wished to judge of men by experience. He had been compared by some one to Rousseau, but he disclaimed any desire to resemble so illustrious a lunatic ; though he wished to live as much by himself and in his own way as possible. While at Newstead at this time, and in contemplation of his intended departure, he made a will which he meant to have for- mally executed as soon as he came of age. In it he made a proper provision for his mother, bequeathing her the manor of New- stead for her life. How different a will from that which, with so different a mind and heart, he really executed seven years afterwards ! A short time after this a proposal was made to him by his man of business to sell Newstead Abbey, which made his mother uneasy upon the subject. To set her mind 74 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE at ease he declared, in the strongest terms, that his own fate and Newstead were inse- parable ; stating, at the same time, the fittest and noblest reasons why he should never part with Newstead, and affirming that the finest fortune in the country should not purchase it from him. The letter in which he had written his sentiments on this subject, was that which he gave to me to keep as a pledge that he never would dis- pose of Newstead. Nor was it, indeed, until he had abandoned himself to the evil influ- ence which afterwards beset him, that he forgot his solemn promise to his mother, and the pledge of honour which he voluntarily put into my hands, and then bartered the last vestige of the inheritance of his family. He left London in June, 1809; and his acute sensibility being deeply wounded at his relation's conduct when taking his seat in the House of Lords, and by the disap- pointment he had experienced on parting LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 75 with the friend whom he had beheved to be so affectionately attached to him, he talked of a regretless departure from the shores of England, and said he had no wish to revisit any thing in it, except his mother and New- stead Abbey. The state of his affairs an- noyed him also much. He had consented to the sale of his estate in Lancashire, and if it did not produce what he expected, or what would be sufficient for his emergencies, he thought of entering into some foreign service ; the Austrian, the Russian, or even the Turkish, if he liked their manners. Amongst his suite was a German servant, who had been abeady in Persia with Mr. Wilbraham, and a lad whom he took with him, because he thought him, like himself, a friendless creature ; and to the few regrets that he had felt on leaving his native coun- try, his heart made him add that of parting with an old servant, whose age prevented his master from hoping to see him again. 76 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE The objects that he met with in his journey as far as Gibraltar, seemed to have occupied his mind, to the exclusion of his gloomy and misanthropic thoughts ; for the letter which he wrote to his mother from thence contains no indication of them, but, on the contrary, much playful description of the scenes through which he had passed. The beautiful Stanzas, from the 16th to the 30th of the first Canto of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, are the exact echoes of the thoughts which occurred to his mind at the time, as he went over the spot described. In going into the library of the convent of Mafra the monks conversed with him in Latin, and asked him whether the English had any books in their country. From Mafra he went to Seville, and was not a little surprised at the excellence of the horses and roads in Spain, by which he was enabled to travel nearly four hundred miles in four days, without fatigue or annoyance. LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 77 At Seville Lord Byron lodged in the house of two unmarried ladies, one of whom, however, was going to be married soon ; and though he remained there only three days she did not scruple to pay him the most particular attentions, which, as they were women of character, and mixing in society, rather astonished him. His Se- villean hostess embraced him at parting with great tenderness, cutting off a lock of his hair and presenting him with a very long one of her own, which he forwarded to his mother in his next letter. With this specimen of Spanish female manners, he proceeded to Cadiz, where various incidents occurred to him calculated to confirm the opinion he had formed at Seville of the Andalusian belles, and which made him leave Cadiz with regret, and determine to return to it. Lord Byron kept no journal ; while his companion, Mr. Hobhouse, was occupied 78 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE without ceasing in making notes. His aversion to letter-writing also occasions great chasms in the only account that can be obtained of his movements from himself. He wrote, however, to his mother from Malta, merely to announce his safety; and forwarded the letter by Mrs. Spencer Smith, whose eccentric character and extraordi- nary situation very much attracted his attention. He did not write again until November, 1809, from Previsa. Upon arriving at Yanina, Lord Byron found that Ali Pacha was with his troops in Illyricum besieging Ibrahim Pacha inBerat; but the Vizier, having heard that an Eng- lish nobleman was in his country, had given orders at Yanina to supply him with every kind of accommodation free of all expense. Thus he was not allowed to pay for any thing whatever, and was forced to content himself with making presents to the slaves. From Yanina he went to Te- LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 79 paleen, a journey of nine days, owing to the autumnal torrents which retarded his progress. The scene which struck him upon entering Tepaleen, at the time of the sun s setting, recalled to his mind the de- scription of Branksome Castle, in Scott's Lay of the Last MinstreL The different objects which presented themselves to his view when arriving at the Pacha's palace, — the Albanians in their superb costume — - the Tartars and the Turks with their sepa- rate peculiarities of dress — the row of two hundred horses, ready caparisoned, waiting in a large open gallery — the couriers which the stirring interest of the neighbouring siege made to pass in and out constantly — the military music — the boys repeating the hour from the Minaret of the Mosque, — are all faithfully and exactly described as he saw them, in the 55th and following stanzas, to the 60th of the second Canto of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. 80 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE He was lodged in the palace, and the next day introduced to Ali Pacha.— Ali said, that the English minister had told him that Lord Byron's family was a great one ; and he desired him to give his respects to his mother, which his Lordship faithfully delivered immediately. The Pacha de- clared that he knew him to be a man of rank from the smallness of his ears, his curling hair, and his little white hands ; and told him to consider himself under his pro- tection as that of a father while he remained in Turkey, as he looked on him as his son ; and, indeed, he showed how much he considered him as a child, by sending him sweetmeats, and fruit, and nice things re- peatedly during the day. In going in a Turkish ship of war, pro- vided for him by Ali Pacha, from Previsa, intending to sail for Patras, Lord Byron was very nearly lost in but a moderate gale of wind, from the ionorance of the Turkish LIFE OP LORD BYRON. 81 officers and sailors — the wind, however, abated, and they were driven on the coast of SuH. The confusion appears to have been very great on board the galHot, and some- what added to by the distress of Lord By- ron's valet, Fletcher, whose natural alarms upon this, and other occasions; and his untravelled requirements of English com- forts, such as tea, &c., not a little amused his master, and were frequently the sub- ject of good-humoured jokes with him. An instance of disinterested hospitality, in the chief of a Suliote village, occurred to Lord Byron in consequence of his disasters in the Turkish galliot. The honest Albanian, after assisting him in the distress in which he found himself, supplying his wants, and lodging him and his suite, consisting of Fletcher, a Greek, two Athenians, a Greek priest, and his companion, Mr. Hob- house, refused to receive any remuneration; and only asked him for a written acknow- I Uf\ilVERSlTY 82 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE ledgment that he had been well-treated. When Lord Byron pressed him to take money, he said, " I wish you to love me, not to pay me." At Yanina, on his return, he was intro- duced to Russian Bey and Mahmout Pacha, two young grandchildren of Ali Pacha, very unlike lads, having painted faces, large black eyes, and regular features. They were nevertheless very pretty, and already instructed in all the court ceremonies. Mahmout, the younger, and he were friends without understanding each other, like a great many other people, though for a diffe- rent reason. Lord Byron wrote several times to his mother from Smyrna, from whence he went in the Salsette frigate to Constantinople. It was while this frigate was lying at an- chor in the Dardanelles, that he swam from Sestos to Abydos, — an exploit which he seemed to have remembered ever after LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 83 with very great pleasure, repeating it and referring to it in no less than five of his letters to his mother, and in the only two letters he wrote to me while he was away. It was not until after Lord Byron arrived at Constantinople that he decided not to go on to Persia, but to pass the following summer in the Morea. At Constantinople, Mr. Hobhouse left him to return to Eng- land, and by him he wrote to me and to his mother. He meant also to have sent back his man, Fletcher, with Mr. Hob- house; as, however good a servant in England, he found him an incumbrance in his progress. Lord Byron had now tasted the delights of travelling ; he had seen much, both of country and of mankind; he had neither been disappointed nor disgusted with what he had met with ; and though he had passed many a fatiguing, he had never spent a tedious hour. This led him to G 2 84 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE fear that these feehngs might excite in him a gipsy-Uke wandering disposition, which would make him uncomfortable at home, knowing such to be frequently the case with men in the habit of traveUing. He had mixed with persons in all stations in life had lived amongst the most splendid, and sojourned with the poorest, and found the people harmless and hospitable. He had passed some time with the principal Greeks in the Morea and Livadia, and he classed them as inferior to the Turks, but superior to the Spaniards, whom he placed before the Portuguese. At Constantinople, his judgment of Lady Mary Wortley was, that she had not overstepped the truth near so much as would have been done by any other woman under similar circumstances ; but he differed from her when she said " St. Paul's would cut a strange figure by St. Sophia's." He felt the great interest which St. Sophia's possesses from various LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 85 considerations, but he thought it by no means equal to some of the Mosques, and not to be written on the same leaf with St. Paul's. According to his idea, the Cathedral at Seville was superior to both, or to any religious edifice he knew. He was enchanted with the magnificence of the walls of the city, and the beauty of the Turkish burying grounds ; and he looked with enthusiasm at the prospect on each side from the Seven Towers, to the end of the Golden Horn. ¥/hen Lord Byron had lost his companion at Constantinople, he felt great satisfaction at being once more alone ; for his nature led him to solitude, and his disposition towards it encreased daily. There were many men there and in the Morea who wished to join him; one to go to Asia, another to Egypt. But he preferred going alone over his old track, and to look upon his old objects, the seas and the 86 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE mountains, the only acquaintances that improved upon him. He was a good deal annoyed at this juncture by the persevering silence of his man of business, from whom he had never once heard since his depar- ture from England, in spite of the critical situation of his affairs ; and yet, it is re- markable with how much patience he bore with circumstances, which certainly were calculated to excite the anger of one of less irritable disposition than his own. Whether it were owing to his having been left alone to his own reflections, or whether it be merely attributable to the uneven fluctuations of an unsettled mind, it appears that Lord Byron's thoughts at this time had some tendency towards a recovery from the morbid state of moral apathy which upon some important points he had evinced. He felt the advantage of looking at mankind in the original, and not in the picture— of reading them- LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 87 selves, instead of the account of them in books ; he saw the disadvantageous re- sults of remaining at home with the nar- row prejudices of an islander, and wished that the youth of our country were forced by law to visit our allied neighbours. He had conversed with French, Italians, Germans, Danes, Greeks, Turks, Arme- nians, &c. &c., and without losing sight of his own nation, could form an estimate of the countries and manners of others; but, at the same time, he felt gratified when he found that England was superior in any thing. This shows the latent spark of patriotism in his heart. He wished when he returned to England to lead a quiet and retired life ; in thinking of which, his mind involuntarily acknow- ledged that God knew, but arranged the best for us alL This acknowledgment seemed to call forth the remembrance of his acquired infidelity ; and, for the sake of 88 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE consistency, he qualified it by giving it as the general belief, and he had nothing to oppose to such a doctrine, as upon the whole he could not complain of his own lot. He was convinced that mankind did more harm to themselves than Satan could do to them. These are singular assertions for Lord Byron, and shew that, at that time at least, his mind was in a state which might have admitted of a different result than that which unhappily followed. I have already said, that Lord Byron took no notes of his travels, and he did not intend to publish any thing concerning them ; but it is curious that, while he was in Greece, he made a determination that he would publish no more on any subject — he would appear no more as an author — he was quite satisfied, if by his Satire he had shown to the critics and the world that he was something above what they sup- posed him to be, nor would he hazard the LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 89 reputation that work might have procured him by pubHshing again. He had, indeed, other things by him, as the event proved ; but he resolved, that if they were worth giving to the pubhc, it should be posthu- mously, that the remembrance of him might be continued when he could no longer remember. Previous to his return to England, the proposal to sell Newstead was renewed. His mother again showed her feeling upon the subject. His own feelings and deter- minations were unchanged. If it was ne- cessary that money should be procured by the sale of land, he v^as willing to part with Rochdale. He sent Fletcher to England with papers to that effect. He, besides, had no reliance on the funds; but the main point of his objection to the proposal was, that the only thing that bound him to Eng- land was Newstead — if by any extraordi- nary event he should be induced to part 90 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE with it, he was resolved to pass his Hfe abroad. The expenses of Hving in the East, with all the advantages of climate and abundance of luxury, were trifling in comparison with what was necessary for competence in England. He was resolved that Newstead should not be sold : he had fixed upon the alternative — if Newstead remained with him, he would come back — if not, he never would. Lord Byron returned to England in the Volage frigate, on the 2d July, 1811, after having been absent two years exactly to a day. He experienced very similar feelings of indifference in approaching its shores, to those with which he had left them. His health had not suffered, though it had been interrupted by two sharp fevers ; he had, however, put himself entirely upon a vege- table diet, never taking either fish or flesh, and drinkine: no wine. LIFE OP LORD BYRON. 91 CHAPTER V. RETURN TO ENGLAND-HINTS FROM HORACE— HIS OPINION OF CHILDE HAROLD'S PILGRIMAGE. Early in July, 1811, I received a letter from Lord Byron, written on board the Volage frigate, at sea, on the 28th of June, in which, after informing me of his ap- proaching return, he shortly recapitulates the principal countries he has travelled through, and does not forget to mention his swimming from Sestos to Abydos. He expected little pleasure in coming home, though he brought a spirit still unbroken. He dreaded the trouble he should have to encounter in the arrangement of his affairs. His Satire was at that time in the fourth 92 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE edition ; and at that period, being able to think and act more coolly, he affected to feel sorry that he had written it. This was, however, an immense sacrifice to a vague sense of propriety, as is clear from his having even then in his possession an imitation of Horace's Art of Poetry, ready for the press, which v/as nothing but a continuation of the Satire ; and also from the subsequent preparation of a fifth edi- tion of the very work which he professed to regret having written. Lord Byron frequently exercised his wit upon the subject of a young man of the name of Blackett — so poor that he worked in a garret, as a shoemaker, and did not procure sufficient employment to make life tolerably comfortable ; in spite of which he married, and had children. In his unoccu- pied hours he made verses as v/ell as shoes. Some of these found their way into the hands of Mr. Pratt, himself a successful writer, LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 93 whose benevolence and enthusiasm always equalled, and sometimes outstripped, his judgment. He immediately saw latent genius in those essays of an uneducated man, sought him, became confirmed in the opinion he had formed, and, doubly excited by the miserable state in which he found him, resolved to do him all the service that his pen and influence could effect publicly and privately. He collected a volume of his writings sufficient to form the foundation of a subscription, which soon became so ample as to lower him from his attics. Pratt then persuaded Mr. Elhston, the actor, to be among his applauders and pro- tectors. I remember hearing Mr. Elliston speak of a dramatic production of Blackett's with infinite ardour, and of the author as a wonderful genius. I do not, however, think that he ever produced the piece. Other patrons and patronesses appeared ; and it is a curious incident that one of the latter, 94 RECOLLECTIONS OP THE then a perfect stranger to Lord Byron, should afterwards become his wife. That lady and her parents were very kind to Blackett ; invited him, as I was informed, to the country where their estates lie, and accommodated him with a cottage to reside in. The poor fellow's constitution, either originally weak, or undermined by the hardships of poverty, failed him at a very early period of life. After some stay at the cottage, he was advised to go and breathe the air of his native place, though situated more to the north. There, for a short time, he comforted his mother, and was comforted by her, and by the benevo- lent attentions of several kind physicians. Upon his death, Mr. Pratt collected all his additional compositions ; and, adopting the title which Mr. Southey had given to the works of KiRKE White, published the whole of his writings together as " The Remains of Joseph Blackett," by which another con- LIFE OP LORD BYRON. 95 siderable collection was made, and formed into a fund for the support of Blackett's surviving daughter. Genius, we well know, is not the exclu- sive inheritance of the affluent, but without a considerable degree of education it has not the means of displaying itself, especially in poetry, where the flowers of language are almost as essential as the visions of fancy. Rhetoric and grammar are not necessary in mechanics and mathematics, but they must be possessed by the Poet, whose title to genius may be overturned by the confusion of metaphors and the incongrui- ties of tropes. I believe all the Poets of low origin partook, more or less, of the ad- vantages of education. The last of these was Kirke White, whose learning and piety, however, I always thought far superior to his poetical nerve. Blackett was deficient in common learning. I had more pleasure in observing the improvement of his condi- 96 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE tion than in the perusal of his writings ; though, in spite of the ridicule of Lord Byron, and my Ionian friend, as Lord Byron called Waller Wright, I saw, or was persuaded by Mr. Pratt's warmth to see, some sparkling of genius in the effusions of this young man. It was upon this that Lord Byron and a young friend of his were sometimes playful in conversation ; and, in writing to me, " I see," says the latter, " that Blackett the Son of Crispin and Apollo is dead. Looking into Boswell's Life of Johnson the other day, I saw, ' We were talking about the famous Mr. Words- worth, the poetical Shoemaker ;' — Now, I never before heard that there had been a Mr. Wordsworth a Poet, a Shoemaker, or a famous man ; and I dare say you have never heard of him. Thus it will be with Bloomfield and Blackett — their names two years after their death will be found neither on the rolls of Curriers' Hall nor of Par- LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 97 nassus. Who would think that any body- would be such a blockhead as to sin against an express proverb, ' Ne sutor ultra crepidam !' But spare him, ye Critics, his follies are past. For the Cobler is come, as he ought, to his last. Which two lines, with a scratch under last, to shew where the joke lies, I beg that you will prevail on Miss Milbank to have in- serted on the tomb of her departed Black- ett." In my reply, I said, *' With respect to Blackett, whatever you may think of his presumption in attempting to ascend Parnassus, you cannot blame him for de- scending from a garret to a drawing-room ; for changing starvation and misery for good food and flattering attention ; an unwilling apothecary, for physicians rivalling one ano- ther in solicitude and disinterested atten- dance ; which change, I can assure you, is nothing more than literal truth." This pro- duced the following rejoinder; " You seem 98 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE to me to put Blackett's case quite in the right hght:— to be sure any one would rise if he could, and any one has a right to make the effort ; but then any one, on the other hand, has a right to keep the aspirant down, if he thinks the man's pretensions ill-founded. I do not laugh at Blackett, but at those who flattered him. He, poor fellow, was perfectly right, if he could find protectors, to gain them, either by verse-making or shoe-making. Indeed, he was right in try- ing the former, as by far the most easy and expeditious of the two. Were a re- gular bred author, a gentleman of educa- tion, to write like them, their verses would not be tolerated. But every one is in a stare of admiration that a cobler or a tinker should be able to rhyme at all. We gaze at them, not at their poetry, which is like the crabs found in the heart of a rock : ' The thing we know is neither ricli nor rare, But wonder how the devil it got there.' LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 99 Some applaud the prodigy out of sheer bad taste ; they do not know that his nonsense is nonsense ; others out of pure humanity and goodness of heart. The first are such people as Pratt and Capel Lofft: the se- cond, such critics as yourself, my dear Sir. But this is, as I said before, a piece of in- justice to men of education, who may sweat, strain, and labour, and, when they have done their best, hear their own qualifica- tions quoted against them:— The world says, ' Mr. ought to have known better — I wonder a man of his education should fail so wretchedly.' You must not bring G * * against me, nor a much greater man, Burns, because the one was a cobler, and the other a ploughman : for, reading their verses, we never think of the poet ; no, we only are intent upon and admire the poetry, which would have delighted us had it been written by Dryden, or Gay, or any other great name. In the other case, we H 2 100 RECOLLECTIONS OP THE ought to content ourselves with saying, ' There goes a wonderful cobler.' It is folly and falsehood to say, ' Look at that poet, he was a cobler once.' It is very true that he was a cobler once ; but it is not true that he is a poet now. Shall I tell you, however, to what the reputation of this sort of men is owing? Doubtless it is to the vanity of those who choose to set up for patrons, and who, because men of sense and character would scorn their protection, look out for little sparklings of talent in the depth and darkness of cellars and stalls, and having popped upon something to their mind, stamp it with their own seal of merit to pass current with the world. You know a man of true genius will not suffer himself to be patronized ; but a patron is the life and soul and existence of your surprising fellows. The only legitimate patron is the respectable bookseller, and he will not take a cobler's verses, unless they are brought LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 101 to him by some Maecenas who will promise to run all risks." Upon receiving Lord Byron's letter from on-board the Volage, I wrote him the fol- lowing ; — " I called this morning at Reddish's Hotel, with the hope of hearing something of you, since which your letter, written at sea, has been dehvered to me. On Monday I trust I shall have the pleasure of wel- coming you in person back to England. I hope you will find more pleasure in it than you seem to promise yourself. I pity you indeed for the bustle that awaits you in the arrangement of your affairs. I wish you would allow me to recommend to you a gentleman whom I have long known ; a man of the strictest honour ; a man of business; and one of the best 102 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE acountants in the kingdom. He would, I am confident, save you a world of trouble and a world of money. I know how much he has done for others, who, but for him, would have been destroyed by the harpies of extortion. I will tell you more of him when we meet, unless you should think I have already taken sufficient liberty, in which case I should only beg you to forget it for the sake of my intention. I rejoice to hear that you are prepared for the press. I hope to have you in prose as well as verse by and by. You will find your Satire not forgotten by the public : it is going fast through its fourth edition, and I cannot call that a middling run. Some letters have passed between Hobhouse and me. His account of my son was truly gratifying to me. He is a fortunate lad. I wish you had touched at Cadiz, in your way home. George Byron and he I find are in corre- spondence." LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 103 On the 15th of July I had the pleasure of shaking hands with him at Reddish's Hotel, in St. James's-street. I thought his looks belied the report he had given me of his bodily health, and his countenance did not betoken melancholy, or displeasure at his return. He was very animated in the account of his travels, but assured me he had never had the least idea of writing them. He said he believed satire to be his forte, and to that he had adhered, having written, during his stay at different places abroad, a paraphrase of Horace's Art of Poetry, which would be a good finish to English Bards and Scotch Reviewers ; forgetting the regret which, in his last letter, he had ex- pressed to me for having written it. He seemed to promise himself additional fame from it, and I undertook to superintend its pubhcation, as I had done that of the Satire. I had chosen the hour ill for my visit, and we had hardly any time to con- 104 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE verse uninterruptedly ; he therefore engaged me to breakfast with him the next morning. In the mean time I looked over the Para- phrase, which I had taken home with me, and I must say I was grievously disap- pointed. Not that the verse was bad, or the images of the Roman poet badly adapted to the times ; but a muse much inferior to his might have produced them in the smoky atmosphere of London, whereas he had been roaming under the cloudless skies of Greece, on sites where every step he took might have set such a fancy as his " in fine phrenzies rolling." But the poem was his, and the affection he had acquired in my heart was undiminished. The following lines are inserted as a fair specimen of it. It began thus : — *' Who would not laugh, if Lawkence, hirM to grace His costly canvass with each flatter''d face, Abus'd his art, till Nature with a blush Saw Cits grow Centaurs underneath his brush ? LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 105 Or should some limner join, for show or sale, A maid of honour to a mermaid's taU ; Or low D*** (as once the world has seen) Degrade God's creature's in his graphic spleen — Not all that forced politeness which defends Fools in their faults, could gag his grinning friends. Believe me, Moschus, like that picture seems The book which, sillier than a sick man's dreams, Displays a crowd of figures incomplete. Poetic night-mares without head or feet. Poets and painters, as all artists know. May shoot a little with a length en'd bow ; We claim this mutual mercy for our task. And grant in turn the pardon which we ask; But make not monsters spring from gentle dams- Birds breed not vipers, tigers nurse not lambs. A laboured long exordium sometimes tends (Like patriot speeches) but to paltry ends ; And nonsense in a lofty note goes down, As pertness passes with a legal gown : Thus many a bard describes in pompous strain The clear brook babbling through the goodly plain ; The groves of Granta, and her Gothic halls, King's Coll. — Cam's stream — stain'd windows, and old walls ; 106 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE Or in adventVous numbers neatly aims To paint a rainbow^ or — the river Thames*, You sketch a trecj and so perhaps may shine ; But daub a shipwreck hke an alehouse sign : Why place a Vase, which dwindhng to a Pox, You glide down Grub-street, fasting and forgot ? Laughed into Lethe by some quaint review. Whose wit is never troublesome — till true. In fine, to whatsoever you aspire, Let it at least be simple and entire. The greater portion of the rhyming tribe (Give ear, my friend, for thou hast been a scribe) Are led astray by some peculiar lure ; I labour to be brief — become obscure : One feeds while following elegance too fast ; Another soars — inflated with bombast : Too low a third crawls on — afraid to fly. He spins his subject to satiety ; Absurdly varying, he at last engraves Fish in the woods;, and boars beneath the waves ! Unless your care's exact, your judgment nice. The flight from folly leads but into vice : None are complete, all wanting in some part. Like certain tailors, hmited in art — * " Where pure description holds tlie place of sense."— Pope. LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 107 For coat and waistcoat Slowshears is your man ; But breeches claim another artisan *, — Now this to me, I own, seems much the same As Vulcan's feet to bear Apollo's frame ; Or, with a fair complexion, to expose Black eyes, black ringlets, and a bottle nose ! Dear authors ! suit your topics to your strength, And ponder well your subject and its length ; Nor lift your load until you're quite aware What weight your shoulders will or will not bear : But lucid Order and Wit's siren voice Await the poet skilful in his choice ; With native eloquence he soars along, Grace in his thoughts and music in his song. — Let judgment teach him wisely to combine With future parts the now omitted hne : This shall the author choose, or that reject Precise in style, and cautious to select. Nor slight applause will candid pens afford The dext'rous coiner of a wanting word. * Mere common mortals were commonly content with one tailor and one bill; but the more finished gentlemen found it impossible to confide their lower garments to the makers of their body-clothes. I speak of the beginning of 1809 ; what reform may have since taken place I neither know nor desire to know. 1 108 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE Then fear not, if 'tis needful, to produce Some term unknown, or obsolete in use : As Pitt * has furnished us a word or two. Which Lexicographers declined to do ; So you, indeed, with care (but be content To take this license rarely) may invent. New words find credit in these latter days. Adroitly grafted on a Gallic phrase ; What Chaucer, Spenser did, we scarce refuse To Dryden's or to Poi'e''s maturer muse. If you can add a little, say, why not, As well as William Pitt, and Walter Scott ? Since they by force of rhyme and force of lungs. Enriched our island's ill-united tongues ; 'Tis then — and shall be — lawful to present Reforms in writing as in Parliament. As forests shed their foliage by degrees, So fade expressions, which in season please ; And we and ours, alas, are due to fate, And works and words but dwindle to a date. Though as a monarch nods, and commerce calls, Impetuous rivers stagnate in canals; * Mr. Pitt was liberal in his additions to our Parliamen- tary Tongue, as may be seen in many publications, par- ticularly the Edinburgh Review. LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 109 Though swamps subdued, and marshes dried, sustain The heavy ploughshare, and the yellow grain ; And rising ports along the busy shore. Protect the vessel from old Ocean's roar ; All, all must perish — but, surviving last, The love of letters half preserves the past : — Thus future years dead volumes shall revive. And those shall sink which now appear to thrive*, As custom arbitrates, whose shifting sway Our life and language must alike obey. The immortal wars which Gods and angels wage, Are they not shown in Milton's sacred page ? His strain -will teach what numbers best belong To themes celestial told in Epic song. The slow sad stanza will correctly paint The lover's anguish, or the friend's complaint ; But which deserves the laurel — rhyme — or blank? Which holds on Helicon the higher rank ? Let squabbling critics by themselves dispute This point, as puzzhng as a chancery suit. * Old ballads, old plays, and old women's stories, are at present in as much request as old wine or newspapers : in fact, this is the millennium of black-letter ; thanks to our Webers and Scotts ! no RECOLLECTIONS OP THE Satiric rhyme first sprang from selfish spleen ; You doubt — see Dryden, Pope, St. Patrick's Dean.* Blank verse is now with one consent allied To tragedy, and rarely quits her side : Though mad Almanzor rhyni'd in Dryden's days. No sing-song hero rants in modern plays ; While modest comedy her verse foregoes, To jest and pun-\ in very middling prose: Not that our Bens or Beaumonts show the worse, Or lose one point because they wrote in verse : But so Thalia ventures to appear — Poor Virgin ! damned some twenty times a-year. ****** 'Tis hard to venture where our betters fail. Or lend fresh interest to a twice-told tale. And yet, perchance, 'tis wiser to prefer A hackneyed plot, than choose a new, and err. Yet copy not too closely, but record More justly thought for thought, than word for word. * M'Flecknoe, much of the Dunciad, and all Swift's lampooning ballads. + With all the vulgar applause and critical abhorrence of 2^uns, they have Aristotle on their side, who permits them to orators, and gives them consequence by a grave disquisition. LIFE OF LORD BVRON. HI Nor trace your prototype through narrow ways, But only follow where he merits praise. For you, J'oung bard, whom luckless fate may lead To tremble on the nod of all who read. Ere your first score of Cantos time unrolls. Beware — for God's sake don't begin like Bowles*! * About two years ago, a young man, named Town- send, was announced by Mr. Cumberland (in a Review since deceased) as being engaged in an epic poem, to be en- titled " Armageddon." The plan and specimen promise much ; but I hope neither to offend Mr. T. or his friends, by recommending to his attention the hnes of Horace to which these rhymes allude. If Mr. T. succeeds in his undertaking, as there is reason to hope, how much will the world be indebted to Mr. Cumberland for bringing him before the public. But till that eventful day arrives, it may be doubted v/hether the premature display of his plan (subUme as the ideas confessedly are) has not, by raising expectation too high, or diminishing curiosity by developing his argument, rather incurred the hazard of injuring Mr. T.'s future prospects. Mr. Cumberland (whose talents I shall not depreciate by the humble tribute of my praise) and Mr. T. must not suppose me actuated by unworthy motives in this suggestion. I wish the author all the success he can wish himself, and shall be truly happy to see epic poetry weighed up from the bathos where it lies sunken mth Southey, Cottle, Cov/ley, (Mrs. 112 RECOLLECTIONS OP THE " Awake a louder and a loftier strain" — And pray — what follows from his boiling brain? He sinks to Southey's level in a trice. Whose Epic mountains never fail in mice. Not so of yore awoke your mighty sire The tempered warbhngs of his master lyre. Soft as the gentler breathing of the lute, " Of man's first disobedience and the fruit^"* He speaks, but as hi| subject swells along, Earth, heaven, and Hades echo with the song. or Abraham) Ogilvie, Wilkie, Page, and all the " dull of past and present days."' Even if he is not a Milt on, he may be better than a Blackmore ; if not a Homer, an Antimachus. I should deem myself presumptuous, as a young man, in offering advice, were it not addressed to one stiU younger. Mr. T. has the greatest difficulties to encounter ; but in conquering them he will find employ- ment — in having conquered them — his reward. I know too well the " scribbler's scoff, the critic's contumely," and I am afraid time -will teach Mr. T. to know them better. Those who succeed and those who do not must bear this alike, and it is hard to say which have most of it. I trust that Mr. Townsend's share will be from envy ; he wdU soon know mankind well enough not to attribute this expression to maUce. The above note was written before the author was ap- prised of Mr. Cumberland's death. LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 113 Still to the midst of things he hastens on, As if we witnessed all already done ; Leaves on his path whatever seems too mean To raise the subject or adorn the scene ; Gives, as each page improves upon the sight, Not smoke from brightness, but from darkness Hght, And truth and fiction with such art compounds, We know not where to fix their several bounds. In not disparaging this poem, however, next day, I could not refrain from express- ing some surprise that he had written nothing else : upon which he told me that he had occasionally written short poems, besides a great many stanzas in Spenser's measure, relative to the countries he had visited. " They are not worth iroubhng you with, but you shall have them all with you if you like." So came I by Childe Harolds Pilgrimage. He took it from a small trunk, with a number of verses. He said they had been read but by one person, who had found very little to commend, and much to condemn : that he himself was of 114 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE that opinion, and he was sure I should be so too. Such as it was, however, it was at my service ; but he was urgent that " The Hints from Horace" should be imme- diately put in train, which I promised to have done. How much he was mistaken as to my opinion, the following letter shows. He was going next morning to Harrow for a few days, but I was so delighted with his poem that I could not refrain from writing to him that very evening, the 16th of July. " You have written one of the most delightful poems I ever read. If I wrote this in flattery, I should deserve your con- tempt rather than your friendship. Re- member, I depend upon your considering me superior to it. I have been so fasci- nated with Childe Harold, that I have not been able to lay it down. I would almost pled e my life on its advancing the reputa- LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 115 tion of your poetical powers, and of its gaining you great honour and regard, if you will do me the credit and favour of attending to my suggestions respecting some alterations and omissions which I think indispensable. Not a line do I mean to offer. I already know your sentiment on that point — all shall be your own ; but in having the magnanimity to sacrifice some favourite stanzas, you will perhaps have a little trouble, though indeed but a little, in connecting the parts. I shall instantly put the poem into my nephew's hands to copy it precisely ; and I hope, on Friday or Saturday morning, to take my breakfast with you, as I did this morning. It is long since I spent two hours so agreeably — not only your kind expressions as to myself, but the marked temperance of your mind, gave me extreme pleasure." Attentive as he had hitherto been to my 116 RECOLLECTIONS OP THE opinions and suggestions, and natural as it was that he should be swayed by such decided praise, I was surprised to find that I could not at first obtain credit with Lord Byron for my judgment on Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. " It was any thing but poetry — it had been condemned by a good critic — had I not myself seen the sentences on the margins of the manuscript?" He dwelt upon the paraphrase of the Art of Poetry with pleasure ; and the manuscript of that was given to Cawthorn, the publisher of the Satire, to be brought forth without delay. I did not, however, leave him so : before I quitted him I returned to the charge, and told him that I was so con- vinced of the merit of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, that as he had given it to me, I should certainly publish it, if he would have the kindness to attend to some cor- rections and alterations. He at length seemed impressed by my LIFE OF LORD BYROX. 117 perseverance, and took the poem into con* sideration. He was at first unwilling to alter or omit any of the stanzas, but they could not be pubHshed as they stood. Besides several weak and ludicrous passa- ges, unworthy of the poem, there were some of an offensive nature, which, on reflection, his own feelings convinced him could not with propriety be allowed to go into the world. These he undertook to curtail and soften ; but he persisted in preserving his philosophical, free-thinking stanzas, rela- tive to death. I had much friendly, but unsuccessful contest with him on that point, and I was obliged to be satisfied with the hypothetical but most beautiful stanza — Yet if, as holiest men have deem'd, there be A land of souls beyond that sable shore, &c. which, in the course of our contention, he sent me, to be inserted after the sceptical 118 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE stanzas in the beginning of the Second Canto. He also sacrificed to me some harsh poHtical reflections on the Govern- ment, and a ludicrous stanza or two which I thought injured the poem. I did all I could to raise his opinion of this compo- sition, and I succeeded; but he varied much in his feelings about it, nor was he, as will appear, at his ease, until the world decided on its merit. He said again and again, that I was going to get him into a scrape with his old enemies, and that none of them would rejoice more than the Edinburgh Reviewers at an opportunity to humble him. He said I must not put his name to it. I entreated him to leave it to me, and that I would answer for this poem silencing all his enemies. The publication of it being determined upon, my first thought respecting a pub- lisher was to give it to Cawthorn, as it appeared to me right that he should have LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 119 it who had done so well with the Poet's former work ; but Cawthorn did not then rank high among the brethren of the trade. I found that this had been instilled into Lord Byron's ear since his return to Eng- land, probably at Harrow. I was sorry for it; for instead of looking for fashionable booksellers, he should, as Pope did, have made his bookseller the most fashionable one, and this he could easily have done. He thought more modestly of himself, and said he wished I would offer it to Miller, of Albermarle-street. " Cawthorn had The Hints from Horace — he always meant them for him, and the Poems had better be published by different booksellers." I could not accord in the opinion, but I yielded of course to his wish. It was but a step ; I carried it up to Miller, and left it with him, enjoining him the strictest secresy as to the author. In a few days, by appoint- ment, I called again to know his decision. 120 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE He declined publishing it. He noticed all my objections; his critic had pointed them out; but his chief objection he stated to be the manner in which Lord Elgin was treated in the poem. He was his book- seller and publisher. When I reported this to Lord Byron, his scruples and appre- hensions of injuring his fame returned ; but I overcame them, and he gave me leave to publish with whom I pleased, requesting me only to keep in mind what he had said as to Cawthorn, and also the refusal of Longman's house to publish his Satire. Next to these I wished to oblige Mr. Murray, who had then a shop opposite St. Dunstan's church, in Fleet-street. Both he and his father before him had published for myself. He had expressed to me his regret that I did not carry him the English Bards and Scotch Reviewers. But this was after its success — I think he would have refused it in its embryo state. After LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 121 Lord Byron's arrival, I had met him, and he said he wished I would obtain some work of his Lordship's for him. I now had it in my power, and I put Childe Harold's Pilgrimage into his hands, telling him that Lord Byron had made me a present of it ; and that I expected that he would make a very liberal agreement with me for it. He took some days to consider, during which time he consulted his literary advisers, among whom, no doubt, was Mr. GifFord, who was the Editor of the Quarterly Review. That Mr. GifFord gave a favourable opinion I afterwards learned from Mr. Murray himself; but the objections I have stated stared him in the face, and he was kept in suspense between the desire of pos- sessing a work of Lord Byron's, and the fear of an unsuccessful speculation. We came to this conclusion; that he should print, at his expense, a handsome quarto edition, the profits of which I should share 122 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE equally with him, and that the agreement for the copyright should depend upon the success of this edition. When I told this to Lord Byron he was highly pleased, but still doubted the copyright being worth my acceptance ; promising, however, if the poem went through the edition to give me other poems to annex to Childe Harold. These preliminaries being settled, I per- sisted in my attacks on the objectionable parts of this delightful work, now formally become mine. He wrote an introductory stanza, for the second originally stood first, polished some lines, and became in general far more condescending and compliant than I ever flattered myself I should find him ; which I attributed to his clearly perceiving how sincerely I loved him. Finding that I could gain nothing in respect to the scep- tical stanzas, the conciliatory one I have already mentioned not having been written at that time, I drew up a regular 'protest LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 123 against them, and enclosed it to him in a short letter just before he left town, which departure, though always intended to be soon,\/as at last, very sudden, inconsequence of an express from Newstead Abbey, by which he was informed that his mother's life was despaired of, and urged to lose no time in coming to the Abbey. He in- stantly set off post with four horses, but, alas ! she did not live to embrace him. *' Within is my formal protest against the sceptical stanzas of your poem. You have seen no symptoms of a Puritan in me ; I have seen none of a Scoffer in you. — You, I know, can endure my sincerity ; I should be sorry if I could not appreciate yours. You have the uncommon virtue of not being anxious to make others think as you do on religious topics ; I, less disinterested, have the greatest desire, not without great hope, that you may one day think as I do." 124 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE ENCLOSURE. The Protest of R. C. Dallas against certain Scep- tical Stanzas in the Poem, entitled Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Dissentient — Because — Although among feeble and corrupt men religions may take their turn ; although Jupiter and Mahomet, and error after error, may enter the brain of misguided mortals, it does not follow t^at there is not a true religion, or that the incense of the heart ascends in vain, or that the faith of a Christian is built on reeds. Because — Although bound for a term to the* earth, it is natural to hope, and rational to expect, existence in another world; since, if it be not so, the noblest attributes of God, justice and goodness, must be sub- tracted from our ideas of the great Creator ; and although our senses make us acquainted LIFE OP LORD BYRON. 125 with the chemical decomposition of our bodies, it does not follow that he who has power to create has not power to raise ; or that he who had the will to give life and hope of immortality, has not the will to fulfil his virtual, not to say actual, promise. Because — Although a skull well affords a subject for moralizing; although in its worm-eaten, worm-disdained state, it is so far from being a temple worthy of a God, that it is unworthy of the creature whom it once served as the recess of wisdom and of wit ; and although no saint, sage, or sophist can refit it, — it does not follow that God's power is limited, or that what is sown in corruption may not be raised in incorruption, that what is sown a natural body may not be raised a spiritual body. Because— ^The same authority, Socrates, cited to prove how unequal the human intellect is to fathom the designs of Om- niscience and Omnipotence, is one of the 126 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE Strongest in favour of the immortality of the soul. Because — Although there is good sense and a kind intention expressed in these words :— " I am no sneerer at thy phan- tasy," " Thou pitiest me, alas ! I envy thee,"— and " I ask thee not to prove a Saducee;" yet the intention is counter- acted by the sentiments avowed, and the example pubhshed, by which the young and the wavering may be detained in the wretchedness of doubt, or confirmed in the despair of unbelief. Because — I think of the author of the poem as Pope did of Garth, of whom he said, " Garth is a christian, and does not know it." Consequently, I think that he will, one day, be sorry for pubhshing such opinions. LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 127 CHAPTER VI. OPINIONS AND FEELINGS OF LORD BYRON AFTER THE DEATH OF HIS MOTHER. At every step which I take in my task of submitting to the pubUc my Recollec- tions of Lord Byron, I feel a deeper regret at the unfortunate necessity which deprives them of his Correspondence. The letters, which I received from him while he was at Newstead, give a complete picture of his mind, under circumstances peculiarly calculated to call forth its most interest- ing features. Our correspondence was kept up without interruption. Upon ar- riving at Newstead he found that his mother had breathed her last. He suffered much from this loss, and the disappointment of not seeing her before her death; and 128 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE while his feehngs were still very acute, within a few days of his arrival at the Abbey, he received the intelligence that Mr. M***, a very intimate friend of his friend Mr. Hobhouse, and one whom he highly estimated himself, had been drov/ned in the Cam. He had not long before heard of the death of his schoolfellow, Wingfield, at Coimbra, to whom he was much attached. He wrote me an account of these events in a short but affecting letter. They had all died within a month, he having just heard from all three, but seen none. The letter from Mr. M*** had been written the day previous to his death. He could not restore them by regret, and therefore, with a sigh to the departed, he struggled to return to the heavy routine of life, in the sure expectation that all would one day have their repose. He felt that his grief was selfish. He wished to think upon any subject except death — he was satiated with that. Having always four skulls LIFE OP LORD BYRON, 129 in his library, he could look on them without emotion ; but he could not allow his imagi- nation to take off the fleshy covering from those of his friends, without a horrible sen- sation; and he thought that the Romans were right in burning their deceased friends. I wrote to him, and said : " On my return home last night, I re- ceived your letter, which renewed in my mind some of the most painful ideas which for many years accompanied me, or took place of all others ; which, in spite of Phi- losophy, and, yes, my lord, in spite of Reli- gion, rendered my life wretched ; and which time, in bringing me nearer to eternity, has softened to such a degree, that they are now far from being painful. But you deprecate the subject, and I will not enlarge upon it, though one I take some delight in. You have, indeed, had enough within a very short time, to make you prefer any other : yet I 130 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE must not lose the opportunity of saying once more, what I imagine may have been said a thousand times before, that is, how cruel a present is a reflecting mind, if all existence terminates with life! I feel much for your friend Hobhouse. I supposed him embarked for Ireland, en militaire, at the time that I saw the account of Mr. M***'s fate in the papers. Resignation, I must own, is a difficult virtue when the heart is deeply affected — at the same time, it is the part of every man of sense to cultivate it, and to be indebted for it rather to his reason, or his religion, than to the influence of time. I condemn myself, perhaps ; but the argument may be of service to strong and active minds. With respect to your friend Wingfield, it must be some consolation to you to have consecrated his memory in the stanzas you have since inserted in your Poem ; and if there should be a meeting hereafter, as alluded to by the half-hoping stanza which LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 131 you have added, let me flatter myself to please me, the pleasure with him will not be a little heightened by that memorial. The funeral pile, the ashes preserved by the asbestos, and inurned, are circumstances more pleasing to the imagination than a box, a hole, and worms ; but when the vivi- fying principle has ceased to act, let me say, when the soul is separated from the chemical elements which constitute body. Reason says it is of little importance what becomes of them. Even in burning, we cannot save all the body from mixing with other natures : by the flames much is carried off" into the atmosphere, and falls again to the earth to fertilize it, and sustain worms. Nay, in the entombed box, per- haps, the dust is at last more purely pre- served ; for though, in the course of decom- position, it gives a temporary existence to a loathsome creature, yet, in time, the rioted worm dies too, and gives back to the mass K2 132 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE of dust the share of substance which it borrowed for its own form. I am afraid this language borders on the subject I meant to avoid." Lord Byron disclaimed the acuteness of feeling I attributed to him, because, though he certainly felt unhappy, he was nevertheless attacked by a kind of hysteri- cal merriment, or rather a laughing without merriment, which he could neither under- stand nor overcome, and which gave him no relief, while a spectator would think him in good spirits. He frequently talked of M*** as of a person of gigantic intellect — he could by no language do justice to his abilities — all other men were pigmies to him. He loved Wingfield indeed more — he was an earlier and a dearer friend, and one whom he could never regret loving — but in talent he knew no equal to M***. In him he had to mourn the loss of a guide, philo- LIFE OP LORD BYRON. 133 sopher ; and friend, while in Wingfield he lost a friend only, though one before whom he could have wished to have gone his long journey. Lord Byron's language con- cerning Mr. M*** was equally strong and remarkable. He affirmed that it was not in the mind of those who did not know him, to conceive such a man; that his superiority was too great to excite envy — that he was awed by him— that there was the mark of an immortal creature in whatever he did^ and yet he was gone — that such a man should have been given over to death, so early in life, bewildered him. In referring to the honours M*** acquired at the University, he declared that nevertheless he was a most confirmed atheist, indeed offensively so, for he did not scruple to avow his opinions in all companies. Once only did Lord Byron ever express, in distinct terms to me, a direct attack upon the tenets of the Christian Reli- 134 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE gion ; I postponed my answer, saying upon this I had much to write to him. He after- wards reminded me of my having said so, but, at the same time, begged me not to enter upon metaphysics, upon which he never could agree with me. In answering him, I said, " If I have not written the much with which I have threatened you, it has been owing, not solely to my avocations, but partly to a consciousness of my subject being too weighty for me, and not adapted to a hasty discussion. A passage in your letter of the 7th of this month, beginning : ' Areyou aware that your religion is im- pious ?' &c., incited me to a determination, in spite of the indolence I begin to feel on argumentative topics, to call you a pur- blind 'philosopher, and to break a lance with you in defence of a cause on which I rest so much hope. I still dread that my feebleness may be laid to the account, and esteemed the feebleness of the cause itself. *- OFTHt UNIVERSITY or LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 136 " By proposing to drop metaphysics you cut down the much I meditated. I will not pursue them at present, though I think them the prime subjects of intellectual en- joyment. But, though I drop my point, in- stead of couching my lance, I do not mean to say that I will not yet try my strength. Meanwhile, though neither Mr. H**'s glow, nor my fervour, has wrought convic- tion hitherto ; this I am sure of, that you will not shut your mind against it, whenever your understanding begins to feel ground to rest upon. I compare such philosophers as you, and Hume, and Gibbon, (—1 have put you into company that you are not ashamed of—) to mariners wrecked at sea, buffeting the waves for life, and at last carried by a current towards land, where, meeting with rugged and perpendicular rocks, they decide that it is impossible to land, and, though some of their companions point out a firm 136 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE beach, exclaim — ' Deluded things ! there can be no beach, unless you melt down these tremendous rocks — no, our ship is wrecked, and to the bottom we must go — all we have to do is to swim on, till Fate overwhelms us.'— You do not deny the de- pravity of the human race — well, that is one step gained — it is allowing that we are cast away — it is, figuratively, our ship- wreck. Behold us, then, all scattered upon the ocean, and all anxious to be saved — all, at least, willing to be on terra firma ; the Humes, the Gibbons, the Voltaires, as well as the Newtons, the Lockes, the John- sons, &c. The latter make for the beach ; the former exhaust their strength about the rocks, and sink, declaring them insur- mountable. The incarnation of a Deity ! vicarious atonement ! the innocent suffer- ing for the guilty! the seeming inconsis- tencies of the Old Testament, and the dis- LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 137 crepancies of the new ! &c. &c. ! are rocks which I am free to own are not easily melted down ; but I am certain that they may be viewed from a point on the beach in less deteiTing forms, lifting their heads into the clouds indeed, yet adding sublimity to the prospect of the shores on which we have landed, and by no means impeding our progress upon it. In less metaphorical lan- guage, my lord, it appears to me, that freethinkers are generally more eager to strengthen their objections than solicitous for conviction ; and prefer wandering into proud inferences, to pursuing the evidences of facts ; so contrary to the example given to us in all judicial investigations, where testimony precedes reasoning, and is the ground of it. The corruption of human nature being self-evident, it is very natural to inquire the cause of that corruption, and as natural to hope that there may be a re- 138 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE medy for it. The cause and the remedy have been stated. " How are we to ascertain the truth of them? Not by arguing mathematically, but by first examining the proofs adduced ; and if they are satisfactory, to use our reasoning powers, as far as they will go, to clear away the difficulties which may attend them. This is the only mode of investiga- ting with any hope of conviction. It is, to return to my metaphor, the beach on which we may find a footing, and be able to look around us ; on which breach, I trust, I shall one day or other see you taking your stand. I have done — and pray observe, that I have kept my word — I have not entered on me- taphysics on the subject of Revelation. I have merely stated the erroneous proceed- ing of freethinldng Philosophy ; and, on the other hand, the natural and rational proceed- inp' of the mind in the inquiry after truth : LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 139 —the conviction must, and I am confident will, be the operation of your own mind." Lord Byron noticed, indeed, what I had written, but in a very discouraging manner. He would have nothing to do with the sub- ject — we should all go down together, he said, " So,'* quoting St. Paul, " let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die ;" — he felt sa- tisfied in his creed, for it was better to sleep than to wake. Such were the opinions which occa- sionally manifested themselves in this unhappy young man, and which gave me a degree of pain proportioned to the affection I could not but feel for him; while my hopes of his ultimately breaking from the trammels of infidelity, which were never re- linquished, received from time to time fresh excitement from some expressions that appeared to me to have an opposite ten- dency. He frequently recurred to his 140 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE playful raillery upon the subject of my co-operation in the murder, as he called it, of poor Blackett. Upon one occasion, he mentioned him in opposition to Kii'ke White, whom, setting aside what he called his bigotry, he classed with Chatterton. He expressed wonder that White was so little known at Cambridge, where he said nobody knew any thing about him until his death. He added, that for himself, he should have taken pride in making his ac- quaintance, and that his very prejudices were calculated to render him respectable. Such occasional expressions as these, in spite of the inconsistency which they displayed, furnished food for my hope that I should one day see him sincerely embracing Christianity, and escaping from the vortex of the Atheistical society, in which, having entered at all, it was only wonderful to me that he was so moderate in his expressions as in oeneral he had hitherto been. He LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 141 told me that both his friend, Juvenal Hodg- son, and myself, had beset him upon the subject of religion, and that my warmth was nothing, compared to his fire — his reward would surely be great in heaven, he said, if he were half as careful in the matter of his own salvation, as he was voluntarily anxious concerning his friends. Lord Byron added, that he gave honour to us both, but conviction to neither. The mention of Kirke White brought to his mind an embryo epic poet who was at Cambridge, Mr. Townsend, who had published the plan and specimen of a work, to be called " Armageddon." Lord Byron s opinion of this is already given in his own note, to a line in his Hints from Horace (see page 111); but in referring to him, he thought that perhaps his anticipating the Day of Judgment was too presumptuous — it seemed something like instructing the Lord 142 RECOLLECTIONS OP THE what he should do, and might put a cap- tious person in mind of the hne, " And fools rush in where angels fear to tread." This he said, without wishing to cavil himself, but other people would; he nevertheless hoped, that Mr. Townsend would complete his work, in spite of Milton. Lord Byron's moral feelings were some- times evinced in a manner which the writ- ings and opinions of his later life render remarkable. When he was abroad, he was informed that the son of one of his tenants had seduced a respectable young person in his own station in hfe. On this he expressed his opinion very strongly. Although he felt it impossible strictly to perform what he conceived our first duty, to abstain from doing harm, yet he thought our second duty was to exert all our power to repair the harm we may have done. In the particular case in question, the parties LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 143 ought forthwith to marry, as they were in equal circumstances — if the girl had been the inferior of the seducer, money would be even then an insufficient compensation. He would not sanction in his tenants what he would not do himself. He had, indeed, as God knew, committed many excesses, but as he had determined to amend, and latterly kept to his determination, this young man must follow his example. He insisted that the seducer should restore the unfortunate girl to society. The manner in which Lord Byron ex- pressed his particular feelings respecting his own life, was melancholy to a painful degree. At one time, he said, that he was about to visit Cambridge, but that M * * * was gone, and Hobhouse was also absent ; and except the person who had invited him, there was scarcely any to welcome him. From this his thoughts fell into a gloomy channel— he was alone in the world, and 144 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE only three-and-twenty ; he could be no more than alone, when he should have nearly finished his course ; he had, it was true, youth to begin again with, but he had no one with whom to call back the laughing period of his existence. He was struck with the singular circumstance that few of his friends had had a quiet death ; but a quiet life, he said, was more important. He afterwards acknowledged that he felt his life had been altogether opposed to propriety, and even decency; and that it was now become a dreary blank, with his friends gone, either by death or estrangement. While he was still continuing at New- stead, he wrote me a letter, which affected me deeply, upon the occasion of another death with which he was shocked— he lost one whom he had dearly loved in the more smiling season of his earlier youth ; but he quoted—" I have almost forgot the taste of grief, and supped full of horrors." He LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 145 could not then weep for an event which a few years before would have overwhelmed him. He appeared to be afflicted in youth, he thought, with the greatest unhappiness of old age, to see those he loved fall about him, and stand solitary before he was withered. He had not, hke others, do- mestic resources ; and his internal anticipa- tions gave him no prospect in time or in eternity, except the selfish gratification of living longer than those who were better. At this period he expressed great wretched- ness; but he turned from himself, and knowing that I was contemplating a retire- ment into the country, he proposed a plan for me, dictated by great kindness of heart, by which I was the more sensibly touched, as it occupied his mind at such a moment. He wished me to settle in the little town of Southwell, the particulars of which he ex- plained to me. Upon these subjects I wrote to him as follows, on the 27th of October. L 146 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE " Your letter of the 1 1th made such an impression upon me, that I felt as if I had a volume to say upon it ; yet, it is but too true, that the sensibihty which vents itself in many words carries with it the appear- ance of affectation, and hardly ever pleases in real life. The few sentences of your letter relative to the death of friends, and to your feelings, excited in my mind no common degree of sympathy ; but I must be content to express it in a common way, and briefly. Death has, indeed, begun to draw your attention very early. I hardly knew what it was, or thought of it till I went at the age of five-and-twenty to reside in the West Indies, and there he began to show himself to me frequently. My friends, young and old, were carried to the grave with a rapi- dity that astonished me, and I was myself in a manner snatched out of his grasp. This, and the other sad concomitants of a West LIFE OP LORD BYRON. ]47 Indian existence, determined me to adopt, at whatever loss, any alternative by which I might plant my family in England. Here I have grown old without seeing much of him near me, though when he has ap- proached me it has been in his most dread- ful form. I am led to these recollections from comparing your experience at three- and-twenty with mine long after that age. Your losses, and in a country where health and life have more stable foundations than in torrid chmates, have been extraordinary ; and that too within the hmit, I beUeve, of one or two years. I thank you for your confidential communication at the bottom of the stanza which so much delighted me. How truly do I wish that the being to whom that verse now belongs had lived, and lived yours! What your obligations to her would have been in that case is in- conceivable ; and, as it is, what a gratifica- tion would it be to me to beheve, that in L2 148 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE her death she has left you indebted to her; to beheve that these Knes ( Well — I will dream that we may meet again, And woo the vision to my vacant breasf — are not merely the glow of a poetic imagi- nation, nor the fleeting inspiration of sor- row ; but a well-founded hope, leading to the persuasion that there is another and a better world. Your reflections on the forlorn state of your existence are very painful, and very strongly expressed. I confess I am at a loss how to preach comfort. It would be very easy for me to resort to common- places, and refer you to study and the en- joyment of the intellect; but I know too well that happiness must find its abode in the heart, and not in the head. Voltaire, who you know is no apostle with me, ex- presses this pleasingly ; LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 149 * Est-il done vrai, grands Dieux! il ne faut plus que j'aime ! La foule des beaux arts, dont je veux tour a tour Remplir le vuide de moi-meme, N'est point encore assez pour remplacer ramour.' He evidently means love, emphatically so called ; but kind affections of every nature are sources of happiness, and more lasting ones than that violent flame, v^^hich, like the pure air of the chemist, when separated from common air, intoxicates, and accele- rates the term of its existence. Those affections are the only remedy I see for you. The more you lose, the more should you strive to repair your losses. At your age the door of friendship cannot be shut ; but man, and woman too, is imperfect; you must make allowances, and though human nature is in a sad state, there are many worthy of your regard. I am certain you may yet go through life surrounded by friends,— real friends, not— 1.^0 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE ' Flatterers of the festal hour. The heartless parasites of present cheer.'' I am truly sorry for the wretchedness you are suffering, and the more, because I am certain of your not having any pathetic cant in your character. But while I think you have reason to be unhappy, I confide in the strength of your understanding, to get the better of the evils of life, and to enter upon a new pursuit of happiness. You see the volume will come, but beHeve me it comes from the heart. I thank you most kindly for that part of your letter which relates to my purposed retirement into the country. You judge rightly that I should not wish to be entirely out of society, but my bent on this head is more on account of my family than myself; for I could live alone, that is alone with them. I often avoid company; but it has been one of the greatest pleasures of my life to see them coveted in society. Your LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 151 account of Southwell delights me; and the being within reach of the metropolis would of itself outweigh the charm of the picturesque, though a charm, and a great one, it has. The being within a ride of you, however, is the decisive attraction. I will, then, from this time keep Southwell in view for my retreat, and at a future day we will take our flight. I am going to dine with the Ionian to-day. He and Mrs. Wright carried me off suddenly last night to the Haymarket to see Mathews, who performs no more in London this winter, for which I am sorry, as I am meditating another ordeal at the Lyceum, in which he might have been of use to me. Mr. Wright feels himself honoured in your desire of being personally acquainted with him, and I shall be proud of being the introducer of such friends. You think, no doubt, that I have communicated your poem to him, and you would not do me justice if you thought 152 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE otherwise. He is the most intimate friend I have, though many years younger than myself. We accord very generally in our opinions, and we do not differ as to Childe Harold, I meant to say something about the progress of the Poem, but I must postpone it. May peace and happiness await you." LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 153 CHAPTER VII. CHILDE HAROLD'S PILGRIMAGE, \VHILE IN THE PRESS. It was not without great difficulty that I could induce Lord Byron to allow his new poem to be published with his name. He dreaded that the old enmity of the critics in the north which had been envenomed by his Satire, as well as the Southern scribblers, whom he had equally enraged, would overwhelm his " Pilgrimage." This was his first objection — his second was, that he was anxious the world should not fix upon himself the character of Childe Harold. Nevertheless he said, if Mr. Murray posi- tively required his name, and I agreed with him in opinion, he would venture ; and there- 154 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE fore he wished it to be given as " By the Author of Enghsh Bards and Scotch Re- viewers." He promised to give me some smaller poems to put at the end ; and though he originally intended his Remarks on the Romaic to be printed with the Hints from Horace, he felt they would more aptly accompany the Pilgrimage. He had kept no journals while abroad, but he meant to manufacture some notes from his letters to his mother. The advertisement which he originally intended to be prefixed to the poem was something different from the preface that appeared. The paragraph beginning " a Fictitious Character is intro- duced, for the sake of giving some con^ nexion to the piece, which, however, makes no pretensions to regularity," — was conti- nued thus at first, but was afterwards altered. " It has been suggested to me by friends. LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 155 on whose opinions I set a high value, that in the fictitious character of ' Childe Ha- rold/ I may incur the suspicion of having drawn ' from myself.' This I beg leave once for all to disclaim. I wanted a character to give some connexion to the poem, and the one adopted suited my purpose as well as any other. In some very trivial particulars, and those merely local, there might be grounds for such an idea ; but in the main points, I should hope none whatever. My reader will observe, that when the author speaks in his own person, he assumes a very different tone from that of * The cheerless thing, the man without a friend.' I crave pardon for this egotism, which pro- ceeds from my wish to discard any proba- ble imputation of it to the text." This it appears had been written before the death of his mother, and his mournful 156 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE sojourn at Newstead afterwards. It was during that period that he sent me the advertisement, upon which he had interhned after his quotation of " at least till death had deprived him of his nearest connexions." While Childe Harold was preparing to be put into the printer's hands, Lord Byron was very anxious for the speedy appear- ance of the Imitation of Horace, with which Cawthorn was desirous of proceeding with all despatch, but which I was nevertheless most desirous of retarding at least, if not of suppressing altogether. Lord Byron wrote to me from Newstead several times upon the subject. I forbore to reply until I could send him the first proof of the Pilgrimage, when I wrote the following. " I saw Murray yesterday — if he has adhered to his intention, you will receive LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 157 a proof of ' Childe Harold's Pilgrimage' before this letter. I am delighted with its appearance. Allowing you to be suscepti- ble of the pleasure of genuine praise, you would have had a fine treat could you have been in the room with the ring of Gyges on your finger, while we were discussing the pubhcation of the Poem ; not, perhaps, from what I or Mr. Murray said, but from what he reported to have been said by Aristarchus, into whose hands the * Childe' had somehow fallen between the time of Murray's absence and return ; at least, so sayeth the latter. This happening unknown to you, and, indeed, contrary to your intention, removes every idea of courting applause; but, it is not a little gratifying to me to know that what struck me on the first perusal to be admirable, has also forcibly struck Mr. GifFord. Of your Satire he spoke highly; but this Poem he pro- nounces, not only the best you have written, 158 RECOLLECTIONS OP THE but equal to any of the present age, allow- ing, however, for its being unfinished, which he regrets. Murray assured me, that he expressed himself very warmly. With the fiat of such a judge, will not your muse be kindled to the completion of a work, that would, if completed, irrevocably fix your fame? In your short preface you talk of adding concluding Cantos, if encouraged by public approbation : this is no longer necessary, for if Gifford approve who shall disapprove ? In my last I begged you to devote some of your time to finishing this Poem, which I am proud of having insti- gated you to give precedence before your ' Horatian Hints.' I may now repeat my request with tenfold weight. You have ample time, for this is not the season for pubhshing, and it will be all the better for proceeding slowly through the press. How pleasantly then may you overtake yourself; and, with some little saerfices of opinion, LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 159 give the world a work that shall delight it, and at once set at defiance the pack of waspish curs that take pleasure in barking at you. As for the subject it will grow under your hands — your letters to your mother will bring recollections not only for notes but for the verse. — Greece is a never- failing stream — then the voyage home, the approach to England, the death (for the not identifying yourself with the tra- velling Childe is a wish not possible to re- alize) of friends, and particularly of your mother before you saw her; lastly, the scenes on your return to the ' vast and venerable pile,' with the Childe's resolution of taking his part earnestly in that assembly where his birth, by giving him a place, calls upon him to devote his time and talents to the good of his country. My eagerness carries me, perhaps, too far — I would give any thing to see you shining at once as a poet and a legislator. With re- 160 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE spect to the sacrifice of opinion, I must explain myself: I am neither so absurd nor so indelicate as to express a wish that a man of understanding should profess ought that is not supported by his own convic- tions. But, not to proclaim loudly opinions by which general feelings are harrowed, and which cannot possibly be attended with any good to the proclaimer, — on the contrary, most likely with much injury,— is not only compatible with the best under- standing, but is in some measure the result of it. Mr. Murray thinks that your scep- tical stanzas will injure the circulation of your work. I will not dissemble that I am not of his opinion— I suspect it will rather sell the better for them : but I am of opinion, my dear Lord Byron, that they will hurt you ; that they will prove new stumbling- blocks in your road of life. At three and twenty, oh ! deign to court, what you may most honourably court, the general suffrage LIFE OP LORD BYRON. 161 of your country. It is a pleasure that will travel with you through the long portion of life you have now before you. It is not subject to that satiety which so frequently attends most other pleasures. Live you must, and many, many years ; and that suf- frage would be nectar and ambrosia to your mind for all the time you live. To gain it, you have little more to do than show that you wish it ; and to abstain from outraging the sentiments, prepossessions, or, if you will, prejudices of those who form the ge- nerally estimable part of the community. Your boyhood has been marked with some eccentricities, but at three and twenty what may you not do ? Your Poem, when I first read it, and it is the same now, appeared to me an inspiration to draw forth a glo- rious finish. Yield a little to gain a great deal ; what a foundation may you now lay for lasting fame, and love, and honour ! What jewels to have in your grasp! I M IQZ RECOLLECTIONS OP THE beseech you, seize the opportunity. I am glad you have agreed to appear in the title- page. It is impossible to remain an instant unknown as the author, or to separate the Pilgrim from the Traveller. This being the case, I am convinced that your name alone is far preferable to giving it under your description as " the author of English Bards and Scotch Reviewers ;" because, in the first place, your rank dignifies the page, whilst the execution of the work re- flects no common lustre on your rank ; and, in the next place, you avoid appearing to challenge your old foes, which you would be considered as doing by announcing the author as thek Satirist ; and certainly your best defiance of them in future will be never to notice either their censure or their praise. You will observe that the intro- ductory stanza which you sent me is not printed : Mr. Murray had not received it when this sheet was printed as a specimen ; LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 163 it will be easily put into its place. As you read the proofs you will, perhaps, find a line here and there which wants polishing, and a word which may be advantageously changed. If any strike me I shall, without hesitation, point them out for your consi- deration. In page 7, four lines from the bottom, ' Yet deem him not from this with breast of steely is not only rough to the ear, but the phrase appears to me inaccurate: the change of him to ye, and with to his might set it right. In the last line of the following stanza, page 8, you use the word central: I doubt whether even poetical license will autho- rize your extending the idea of your pro- posed voyage to seas beyond the equator, when the Poem no where shows that you had it in contemplation to cross, or even approach, within many degrees, the Sum- mer tropic line. I am not sure, however, M2 164 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE that this is not hypercriticism, and it is al- most a pity to alter so beautiful a line*. I beheve I told you that my friend Waller Wright wrote an Ode for the Duke of Gloucester's Installation as Chancellor of the University at Cambridge. Some of the leading men of Granta have had it printed at the University Press. He has given me two copies, and begs I will make one of them acceptable to you, only ob- serving that the motto was not of his chusing. I believe the sheet may be overweight for one frank, I shall therefore unsew it, and put it under two covers, not doubting that you will think it v/orthy of re-stitching when you receive it. I gave Murray your note on M * *, to be placed in the page with Wingfield. He must have been a very extraordinary young man, * It is true the travellers did not cross the line, but before Lord Byron left England, India had been thought of. LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 165 and I am sincerely sorry for H**, for whom I have felt an increased regard ever since I heard of his intimacy with my son at Cadiz, and that they were mutually pleased. I lent his miscellany the other day to Wright, who speaks highly of the poetical talent displayed in it. I will search again for the lofty genius you ascribe to Kirke White : I cannot help thinking I have allowed him all his merit. I agree that there was much cant in his religion, sincere as he was. This is a pity, for religion has no greater enemy than cant. As to genius, surely he and Chatterton ought not to be named in the same day ; but, as I said, I will look again. I do not know how Blackett's posthumous stock goes off; I have not seen or heard from Pratt since you left town. Be that, however, as it may, I still boldly deny being in any degree accessary to his murder.— George Byron left us in the beginning of the week." 166 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE " P. S. Casting my eyes again over the printed stanzas, something struck me to be amiss in the last line but one of page 6— ' Nor sought a friend to counsel or condole.^ From the context I think you must have written, or meant, — I have not the MS. — ' Nor sought he friend,' &c. otherwise grammar requires — ' Or seeks a friend,' &c. These are straws on the surface, easily skimmed off." Previous to receiving this letter, Lord Byron had written to Mr. Murray, forbid- ding him to show the manuscript of Childe Harold to Mr. GifFord, though he had no objection to letting it be seen by any one else ; and he was exceedingly angry when he found that his instructions had come too late. He was afraid that Mr. GifFord would LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 167 think it a trap to extort his applause, or a hint to get a favourable review of it in the Quarterly. He was very anxious to re- move any impression of this kind that might have remained on his mind. His praise, he said, meant nothing, for he could do no other than be civil to a man who had extolled him in every possible manner. His expressions about Mr. Murray's deserts for such an obsequious squeezing out of appro- bation, and deprecation of censure, were quaint, and though strong, were amusing enough. Still, however, the praise, all un- meaning as he seemed to consider it, had the effect of strengthening my arguments concerning the delay of the " Hints from Horace ;" and when, in a letter soon after- wards, I said, *' Cawthorn's business detains him in the North, and I will manage to de- tain the ' Hints,' first from, and then in, the press — ' the Romaunt' shall come forth first," I found, so far from opposing my 168 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE intention, he concurred with and forwarded it. He acknowledged that I was right, and begged me to manage, so that Cawthorn should not get the start of Murray in the publication of the two works. I cannot express the great anxiety I felt to prevent Lord Byron from publicly committing himself, as holding decidedly sceptical opinions. There were several stanzas which showed the leaning of his mind ; but, in one, he openly acknow- ledged his disbelief of a future state ; and against this I made my stand. I urged him by every argument I could devise, not to allow it to appear in print ; and I had the great gratification of finding him yield to my entreaties, if not to my arguments. It has, alas ! become of no importance, that these lines should be pubhshed to the world — they are exceedingly moderate compared to the blasphemy with which his suicidal pen has since blackened the fame that I LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 159 was SO desirous of keeping fair, till the time came when he should love to have it fair— a period to which I fondly looked forward, as not only possible, but near. The origi- nal stanza ran thus — " Frown not upon me, churlish Priest ! that I Look not for life, where hfe may never be; I am no sneerer at thy Phantasy ; Thou pitiest me, — alas ! I envy thee, Thou bold discoverer in an unknown sea, Of happy isles and happier tenants there ; I ask thee not to prove a Sadducee. Still dream of Paradise, thou know'st not where, But lov'st too well to bid thine erring brother share. The stanza that he at length sent me to substitute for this, was that beautiful one — *' Yet if, as hoHest men have deemed, there be A land of souls beyond that sable shore. To shame the doctrine of the Sadducee, And sophists, madly vain of dubious lore, How sweet it were in concert to adore. 170 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE With those who made our mortal labours light ! To hear each voice we fear'd to hear no more ! Behold each mighty shade reveal'd to sight. The Bactrian, Samian Sage, and all who taught the right !" The stanza which follows this, (the 9th of the 2d Canto), and which applies the sub- ject of it to the death of a person for whom he felt affection, was written subsequently, when the event to which he alludes took place ; and was sent to me only just in time to have it inserted. He made a slight alteration in it, and enclosed me another copy, from which the fac-simile is taken that accompanies this volume. As a note to the stanzas upon this subject, beginning with the 3d, and continuing to the 9th, Lord Byron had originally written a sort of prose apology for his opinions ; which he sent to me for consideration, whether it did not appear more like an attack than a defence of religion, and had LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 171 therefore better be left out. I had no hesitation in advising its omission, though for the reasons above stated, I now insert it here. " In this age of bigotry, when the puritan and priest have changed places, and the wretched catholic is visited with the * sins of his fathers,' even unto generations far beyond the pale of the commandment, the cast of opinion in these stanzas will doubtless meet with many a con- temptuous anathema. But let it be remembered, that the spirit they breathe is desponding, not sneering, scepticism ; that he who has seen the Greek and Moslem superstitions contending for mastery over the former shrines of Polytheism, — who has left in his own country ' Pharisees, thanking God that they are not like Publicans and Sinners,' and Spaniards in theirs, abhorring the Heretics, who have holpen them in their need, — will be not a little bewildered, and begin to think, that as only one of them can be right. 172 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE they may most of them be wrong. With regard to morals, and the effect of religion on mankind, it appears, from all historical testimony, to have had less effect in making them love their neigh- bours, than inducing that cordial christian abhor- rence between sectaries and schismatics. The Turks and Quakers are the most tolerant ; if an Infidel pays his heratch to the former ; he may pray how, when, and where he pleases ; and the mild tenets, and devout demeanour of the latter, make their Uves the truest commentary on the Sermon of the Mount." This is a remarkable instance of false and weak reasoning, and affords a key to Lord Byron's mind, which I shall take occasion to notice more particularly in my conclud- ing chapter. Lord Byron made a journey into Lanca- shire, and some little time elapsed before I LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 173 took advantage of his disposition to oblige me relative to the stanzas on the Conven- tion at Cintra. He had always talked of war en Philosophe, and took pleasure in observing the faults of mihtary leaders ; nor was he incUned to allow them even their merit, Bonaparte excepted. In these stanzas he had not only satirized the Convention, but introduced the names of the generals ludicrously. I therefore urged him warmly to omit them, and the more as the Duke of Wellington was then ac- quiring fresh laurels in the Peninsula. I began to make a copy of the letter which I wrote to him on the subject, but something happened to prevent my finishing it. I insert what I kept ; it is dated October 3, 1811. " The alteration of some bitter stings shall be made previous to the Stanza going to press. You say if I will point out the 174 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE Stanzas on Cintra I wish re-cast, you will send me an answer. We are now come to them, and I fear your answer. What lan- guage shall I adopt to persuade your Muse not to commit self-murder, or at least slash herself unnecessarily ? She has not even the excuse of Honorius for the penance she imposes on herself, and must suffer. PoH- tically speaking, indeed in every sense, great deeds should be allowed to efface slight errors. The Cintra Convention will do doubt be recorded; but shall a Byron's Muse spirt ink upon a hero ? You admit that Wellesley has effaced his share in it ; yet you will not let it be effaced. Were you tovis it Tusculum, would it be a subject for a Stanza, that Cicero or some one of his family was marked with a vetch? But you may think that Sir Harry and Sir Hew have done nothing to efface the Cintra folly ; still the subject is beneath your pen. It had its run among newspaper epigram- LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 175 matists, and your pen cannot raise it to the dignity of the Poem into which you intro- duce it. Let any judge read the 25th stanza, and say if it be worthy of the pen that wrote the Poem ; — the same of the 26th, 27th, and 28th. The name of Byng, too, is grown sadly stale in allusion, ' And folks in office at the mention sweat ;' sweat*! I beseech you, my dear Lord, to let the exquisite stanza which follows the 29th succeed the 23dt, &c. &c. &c." In consequence of this letter, Lord Byron consented to omit the 25th, 27th, and 28th stanzas, but retained the 24th, 26th, and 29th, making, however, some alterations in them. As his genius has now placed his fame so far above the possibility of being * Printed as the 27th stanza. t These references are to my MS. copy of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. 176 RECOLLEOTIONS OF THE injured by the production of an occasional inferior stanza, and as the succeeding glories of the Peninsular campaigns have completely thrown into shade the events alluded to, there can be no impropriety in now pubhshing, as literary curiosities, the three stanzas which were then properly omitted. The following are the six stanzas as they originally stood. Those appearing below, as 24, 26, 29, appeared in the Poem in an altered state, numbered there as 24, 25, 26, of the first Canto. The stanzas marked below, 25, 27, and 28, were those omitted : XXIV. Behold the hah, where chiefs were late convened ! Oh dome displeasmg unto British eye I With diadem hight foolscap, lo ! a fiend, A little fiend that scoffs incessantly, There sits in parchment robe arrayed, and by His side is hung a seal and sable scroll, Where blazoned glares a name spelt Wellesley, And sundi-y signatures adown the roll, Whereat the urchin points and laughs with all his soul. LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 177 XXV. In golden characters right well design''d First on the list appeareth one " Junot ;" Then certain other glorious names we find ; (Which rhyme compelleth me to place below) Dull victors ! baffled by a vanquished foe. Wheedled by conynge tongues of laurels due, Stand, worthy of each other, in a row — Sirs Arthur, Harry, and the dizzard Hew Dairy mple, seely wight, sore dupe of t'other tew. XXVI. Convention is the dwarfy demon styled That foird the Knights in Marialva's dome : Of brains (if brains they had) he them beguiled, And turned a nation's shallow joy to gloom. For well I wot when first the news did come That Vimiera's field by Gaul was lost. For paragraph ne paper scarce had room. Such Pagans teemed for our triumphant host In Courier, Chronicle, and eke in Morning; Post. XXVII. But when Convention sent his handy work Pens, tongues, feet, hands, combined in wild uproar; Mayor, Aldermen, laid down th' uplifted fork ; The Bench of Bishops half forgot to snore ; 178 RECOLLECTIONS OP THE Stern Cobbett, who for one whole week forbore To question aught, once more with transport leap't, And bit liis devilish quill agen, and swore With foe such treaty never should be kept. Then burst the blatant * beast, and roar'd, and rfiged, and — slept ! ! ! XXVIII. Thus unto heaven appealed the people ; heaven, Which loves the lieges of om' gracious King, Decreed that ere our generals were forgiven, Inquiry should be held about the thing. But mercy cloaked the babes beneath her wing ; And as they spared our foes so spared we them. (Where was the pity of our sires for Byngt?) Yet knaves, not idiots, should the law condemn. Then triumph, gallant knights! and bless your judges' phlegm. * " Blatant beast;" a figure for the mob, I think first used by Smollett in his Adventures of an Atom. Horace has the " Bellua multorum capitum ;"" in England, fortu- nately enough, the illustrious mobility have not even one. t By this query it is not meant that our foolish Gene- rals should have been shot, but that Byng might have been spared, though the one suffered and the others escaped, probably, for Candide's reason, '^ four encowager les autres." LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 179 XXIX. But ever since that martial synod met, Britannia sickens, Cintra ! at thy name ; And folks in office at the mention sweat, And fain would blush, if blush they could, for shame. How will posterity the deed proclaim ! Will not our own and fellow nations sneer, To view these champions cheated of their fame By foes in fight overthrown, yet victors here. Where scorn her finger points through many a coming year. To these stanzas was attached a long note, which though nothing but a wild tirade against the Portuguese, and the mea- sures of government, and the battle of Talavera, I had great difficulty in in- ducing him to relinquish. I wrote him the following letter upon the subject:— " You sent me but few notes for the first Canto — there are a good many for the second. The only hberty I took with them was, if you will allow me to use the 180 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE expression, to dove-tail two of them, which, though connected in the sense and relative to the reference in the Poem, were disunited as they stood in your MS. I have omitted the passage respecting the Portuguese, which fell with the alteration you made in the stanzas relative to Cintra, and the in- sertion of which would overturn what your kindness had allowed me to obtain from you on that point. I have no objection to your politics, my dear Lord, as in the first place I do not much give my mind to poli- tics ; and, in the next, I cannot but have observed that you view politics, as well as some other subjects, through the optics of philosophy. But the note, or rather pas- sage, I allude to, is so discouraging to the cause of our country, that it could not fail to damp the ardour of your readers. Let me intreat you not to recall the sacrifice of it ; at least, let it not appear in this volume, in which I am more anxious than I can LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 181 express for your fame, both as a Poet and as a Philosopher. Except this, in which I thought myself warranted, I have not inter- fered with the subjects of the notes — yes, the word " fiction" I turned, as you have seen, conceiving it to have been no fiction to Young. But when I did it, I determined not to send it to the press till it had met your eye. Indeed you know that even when a single word has struck me as better changed, my way has been to state my thought to you." The note I alluded to was as follows :— NOTE ON SPAIN AND PORTUGAL. In the year 1809, it is a well-known fact, that the assassinations in the streets of Lisbon and its vicinity were not confined by the Portuguese to their countrymen ; but Englishmen were daily butchered, and so far from the survivors obtaining redress, they were requested " not to interfere" if they perceived their compatriot defending him- self against his amiable allies. I was onc^ 182 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE Stopped in the way to the theatre, at eight in the evening, when the streets were not more empty than they generally are, opposite to an open shop, and in a carriage with a friend, by three of our allies; and had we not fortunately been armed, I have not the least doubt we should have " adorned a tale," instead of telling it. We have heard wonders of the Portuguese lately, and their gal- lantry, — pray heaven it continue ; yet, " would it were bed-time, Hal, and all were well !" They must fight a great many hours, by *' Shrewsbury clock," before the number of their slain equals that of our countrymen butchered by these kind creatures, now metamorphosed into " Ca^adores," and what not. I merely state a fact not confined to Portugal, for in Sicily and Malta we are knocked on the head at a handsome average nightly, and not a Sicihan and Maltese is ever punished ! The neglect of protection is disgrace- ful to our government and governors, for the murders are as notorious as the moon that shines upon them, and the apathy that overlooks them. The Portuguese, it is to be hoped, are compli- mented with the " Forlorn Hope," — if the cowards LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 183 are become brave, (like the rest of their kind, in a corner,) pray let them display it. But there is a subscription for these " ^qaa-h ^uxov," (they need not be ashamed of the epithet once applied to the Spartans,) and all the charitable patrony- micks, from ostentatious A. to diffident Z,, and 1/. Is. Od. from " an admirer of valour," are in requisition for the Hsts at Lloyd's, and the honour of British benevolence. Well, we have fought and subscribed, and bestowed peerages, and buried the killed by our friends and foes ; and, lo ! all this is to be done over again! Like " young The." (in Goldsmith's Citizen of the World,) as we " grow older, we grow never the better." It would be pleasant to learn who will subscribe for us, in or about the year 1815, and what nation will send fifty thousand men, first to be decimated in the capital, and then decimated again (in the Irish fashion, nine out o^ten,) in the " bed of honour," which, as Serjeant Kite says, . is considerably larger and more commodious than the " bed of Ware." Then thoy must have a poet to write the " Vision of Don Perceval," and generously bestow the profits of the well and 184 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE widely-printed quarto to re-build the " Back- wynd" and the " Canon-gate," or furnish new kilts for the half-roasted Highlanders. Lord Wel- lington, however, has enacted marvels; and so did his oriental brother, whom I saw charioteering over the French flag, and heard clipping bad Spanish, after listening to the speech of a pa- triotic cobler of Cadiz, on the event of his own entry into that city, and the exit of some five thousand bold Britons out of this " best of all possible worlds." Sorely were we puzzled how to dispose of that same victory of Talavera ; and a victory it surely was somewhere, for every body claimed it. The Spanish dispatch and mob called it Cuesta's, and made no great mention of the Viscount ; the French called it theirs (to my great discomfiture, for a French consul stopped my mouth in Greece with a pestilent Paris Gazette, just as I had killed Sebastiani " in buckram," and king Joseph in " Kendal green,") •—and we have not yet determined ichat to call it, or whose, for certes it was none of our own. How- beit, Massena's retreat is a great comfort, and as we have not been in the habit of pursuing for LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 185 some years past, no wonder we are a little awk- ward at first. No doubt we shall improve, or if not, we have only to take to our old way of retrograding, and there we 'ixe at home." There were several stanzas in w^hich allusions v^ere made of a personal nature, and which I prevailed upon Lord Byron to omit. The reasons which induced their suppression continue still to have equal force, as at the time of the first publication of the poem. As the poem went through the press, we had constant communication upon the sub- ject, of the nature of which the following letter, taken from several which I wrote to him, may suggest an idea. "I wish to direct your attention to several passages in the accompanying proofs, in which a minute critic might perhaps find something to carp at. In stanza 24, the moon is called ' a IS6 RECOLLECTrONS OF THE reflected sphere.' I do not know that this is admissible even to a poet. The sphere is not reflected, but reflects. The 'parti- ciple present would settle the sense, though I should prefer the adjective, reflective, A similar objection appears to me, but I may be wrong, to ' the track oft trod.' To the idea of treading, feet and firm foot- ing seem so necessary, that I doubt whe- ther it is in the power of a trope to transfer it to water. It is in the 27th stanza. In the next, the 28th, if Fenelon has not made me forget Homer, I think there is ground for a classical demurrer. Ulysses and Telemachus were individually well received by the immortal lady, but you will recollect, that she herself says to the latter ' No mortal approaches my shores with impunity.' You say, ' still a haven smiles.' Though no advocate for an unva- rying sweetness of measure, my ear rebels against this line, in stanza 39 ; — LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 187 ' Born beneath some remote inglorious star.' The stanza is remarkably beautiful, both for thought and versification, that line excepted, the idea of which is appropriate and good; but its want of melody checks the reader's pleasure just as it is coming to its height. I wish you would make it a little smoother. You find I have given over teasing you about your sad stanzas, and, to be consistent in my reluctant sub- mission, I shall say nothing of the similar errors in the accompanying proofs ; but I am more than ever bent on dedicating a volume of truth to you, and shall set about it forthwith. The more I read the more I am delighted ; but, observe, I do not agree with you in your opinion of the sex : the stanzas are very agreeable : the previous ones of the voyage from Cadiz through the Straits to Calypso's Island are very fine; the 25th and 26th are exquisite. I will send for the proofs on Monday." 188 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE CHAPTER VIII. RETROSPECT— MAIDEN SPEECH. As I was now near Lord Byron, for he was at this time seldom absent from town, our personal communications were frequent ; and, except a few queries addressed to him on the proofs, his work went smoothly on through the press during the months of January and February, without further solicitation on my part, till we came to the shorter Poems, when I urged him to omit the one entitled " Euthanasia," which he was kind enough to consent to do ; but which, I must add, he had not resolution enough to persist in suppressing, and it was inserted in the succeeding editions. LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 189 Lord Byron had excited in my heart a warm affection ; I felt, too, some pride in the part I took in combating his errors, as well as in being instrumental to his reputation, and I anxiously wished to see a real change of mind effected in him. Though I could not flatter myself that I had made any suc- cessful invasion on his philosophical opi- nions, and was almost hopeless on the sub- ject, I was still very desirous to keep as much as possible of his free-thinking in a latent state, being as solicitous that he should acquire the esteem and affection of men, as I was eager in my anticipation of the admiration and fame that awaited his genius. It was vnih this view I wished, and sometimes prevailed upon him, to sup- press some passages in his compositions; and it was with this view that I often spoke to him of the superior and substantial fame, the way to which lay before him through the House of Lords, expressing my 190 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE hope of one day seeing him an active and eloquent statesman. He was ahve to this ambition ; and I looked accordingly for great enjoyment in the session of 1812, now ap- proaching. In spite of these prospects — in spite of genius — in spite of youth — Lord Byron often gave way to a depression of spirits, which was more the result of his peculiar position than of any gloomy tendency re- ceived from nature. The fact is, he was out of his sphere, and he felt it. By the death of his cousin William, who was killed at a siege in the Mediterranean, he unex- pectedly became presumptive heir to his grand uncle, and not long after succeeded to the barony, at a very early period of his minority. His immediate predecessor had long given up society; and, after his fatal duel with Mr. Chaworth, had never ap- peared either at Court or in Parliament, but shut himself up in Newstead Abbey, the LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 191 monastic mansion of an estate bestowed upon one of his ancestors by Henry VIII. at the suppression of the religious houses ; or, if compelled to go to London on busi- ness, he travelled with the utmost privacy, taking the feigned name of Waters. From him, therefore, no connexion could spring. His brother, the Admiral, was a man very highly respected ; but he too, after distin- guishing his courage and ability, had been unfortunate in his professional career, and equally avoided society. The elder son of the admiral was an officer of the guards ; who, after the death of his first wife. Lady Conyers, by whom he had only one daughter, married Miss Gordon, of Gight, a lady related to a noble family in Scotland, of whom Lord Byron was born, and whom his lordship took a pleasure in stating to be a descendant of King James 11. of Scotland, through his daughter, the prin- cess Jane Stuart, who married the Marquis 192 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE of Huntley. But neither did she bring connexion. At the death of her husband, she found her finances in an impoverished state, and she consequently by no means associated in a manner suitable to the situation of a son who was one day to take a seat among the Peers of Great Britain. Captain George Anson Byron, whom I have mentioned in the first chapter, the brother of her husband, had, a little before she became a widow, obtained the command of a frigate stationed in the East Indies, where, while engaged in a particular service, he received a blow which caused a lingering disorder and his death*. * I cannot resist the impulse I feel to introduce here the memorial of liim, which was published in most of the pubhc papers and journals at the time of his death. " George Anson Byron was a Captain in the British navy, and second son of the late Admiral, the Honourable John Byron, by whom he was introduced very early into the service ; in which, having had several opportunities of exerting personal bravery and professional skill, he LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 193 This was the greatest loss Lord Byron, however unconscious of it, ever sustained. His uncle George not only stood high in his attained a great degree of glory. In the war with France, previous to its revolution, he commanded the Proserpine, of 28 guns, in which he engaged the Sphinx, a French frigate, assisted by an armed ship ; and some time after the Alcmene, another French frigate, both of which se- verally struck to his superior conduct and gallantry. In the course of the war he was appointed to the command of the Andromache, of 32 guns. He was present at Lord Howe's relief of Gibraltar, and at Lord Ilodney"'s victory over Count de Grasse, to the action of which he was considerably instrumental; for, as it was publicly stated at the time, being stationed to cruise off the Dia- mond Rock, near IVIartinico, he kept the strictest watch upon the enemy, by sailing into the very mouth of their harbour, and gave the Admiral such immediate notice of their motions, that the British squadron, then lying off St. Lucia, were enabled to intercept and bring them to battle. In consequence of that important victory, he was selected by Lord Rodney to carry home Lord Cranstoun, with the account of it. In the despatches, Byron's services were publicly and honourably noticed, and he had the gratification of being personally well received by his Majesty. " Desirous of serving in the East Indies, and applying O 194 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE profession, but was generally beloved, and personally well connected. Had he re- turned from India with health, he would for a ship going to that quarter of the globe, he was ap- pointed to the command of the Phoenix, of 36 guns, and sailed with a small squadron under the Hon. William Cornwallis, early in the yeai' 1789- Ever active, he sought the first occasion of being serviceable in the war against Tippoo Saib, and at the very outset intercepted the Sultan's transports, loaded with mihtary stores. After this he distinguished himself by landing some of his can- non, and leaving a party of his men to assist in reducing one of the enemy's fortresses on the coast of Malabar. Unfortunately he fell a victim to his alacrity in that war. " When General Abercrombie was on his march to- wards Seringapatam, the ship which Byron commanded lay off the mouth of a river, on which his assistance was required to convey a part of the army, and it Avas neces- sary that he should have an interview Avith the General. At the time that the interview was to take place, it blew fresh, and there was a heavy sea on the bar of the river ; but the service required expedition, and danger disap- peared before his eagerness. A sea broke upon the boat, and overset it : in rising through the waves the gunwale struck him twice violently upon the breast, and when he was taken vip, it was not supposed that he could survive the shock he had sustained. He was, however, for a time LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 195 have made amends for the failure resulting from the supineness or faults of other parts of the family ; and his nephew would have grown up in society that would have given a different turn to his feelings. The Earl of Carlisle and his family would have acted restored to life, but he was no more to be restored to his country. The faculty did what could be done to preserve him, and then ordered him to England, rather hoping than believing that he could escape so far with life. " In England he hved above twelve months ; during which he suffered the misery of witnessing the dissolution of a beautiful, amiable, and beloved wife, who died at Bath, on the 26th of February, 1 793, at the age of twenty- nine years; upon which he fled with his children to Dawhsh, and there closed his eyes upon them, just three months and a fortnight after they had lost their mother. " In his public character he was brave, active, and skilftd ; and by his death his Majesty lost an excellent and loyal officer. In his private character, he was devout without ostentation, fond of his family, constant in friend- ship, generous and humane. The memory of many who read this will bear testimony to the justice of the praise; the memory of him who Avrites it will, as long as that memory lasts, frequently recall his virtues, and dwell with pleasure on his friendship." O 2 196 RECOLLECTIONS OP THE a different part. They received his sister kindly as a relation; and there could have been no reason w^hy their arms should not have been open to him also, had he not been altogether unknown to them personally, or had not some suspicion of impropriety in the mode of his being brought up attached to him or his mother. Be this as it may, certain it is, his relations never thought of him nor cared for him ; and he was left both at school and at college to the mercy of the stream into which circum- stances had thrown liim. Dissipation was the natural consequence ; and imprudencies were followed by enmity which took pains to blacken his character. His Satire had in some degree repelled the attacks that had been made upon him, but he Vv^as still beheld with a surly awe by his detractors ; and that poem, though many were extolled in it, brought him no friends. He felt him- self ALONE. The town was now full ; LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 197 but in its concourse he had no intimates whom he esteemed, or wished to see. The ParUament was assembled, where he was far from being dead to the ambition of taking a distinguished part; there he was, if it may be said, still more alone. In addition to this his affairs were invol- ved, and he was in the hands of a lawyer, — a man of business. To these combined circumstances, more than either to nature, or sensibility on the loss of a mistress, I imputed the depressed state of mind in which I sometimes found him. At those times he expressed great antipathy to the world, and the strongest misanthropic feelings, particularly against women. He did not even see his sister, to whom he afterwards became so attached. He in- veighed more particularly against England and Englishmen; talked of selling New- stead, and of going to reside at Naxos, in the Grecian Archipelago, to adopt the 198 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE eastern costume'/and customs, and to pass his time in studying the Oriental languages and literature. He had put himself upon a diet, which other men would have called starving, and to which some would have attributed his depression. It consisted of thin plain biscuits, not more than two, and often one, with a cup of tea, taken about one o'clock at noon, which he assured me was generally all the nourishment he took in the four-and-twenty hours. But he declared, that, far from sinking his spirits, he felt him- self lighter and Uveher for it ; and that it had given him a greater command over him- self in every other respect» This great ab- stemiousness is hardly credible, nor can I imagine it a literal fact, though doubtless much less food is required to keep the body in perfect health than is usually taken. He had a habit of perpetually chewing mastic, which probably assisted his determination to persevere in this mea- LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 199 gre regimen ; but I have no doubt that his principal auxiliary was an utter abhorrence of corpulence, which he conceived to be equally unsightly and injurious to the intellect ; and it was his opinion that great eaters were generally passionate and stupid. As the printing of Childe Harold's Pilgri- mage drew towards a conclusion, his doubt of its success and of its consequences was renewed; he was occasionally agitated at the thought, and more than once talked of sup- pressing it. But while this was passing in his mind, the poem had begun to work its way by report ; and the critical junto were prepared, probably through Mr. GifFord, for something extraordinary. I now met more visitors, new faces, and some fashionable men at his lodgings; among others, Mr. Rogers, and even Lord Holland himself. Soon after the meeting of Parliament, a Bill was introduced into the House of Lords in consequence of Riots in Nottinghamshire, 200 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE for the prevention of those riots, in which the chief object of the rioters was the destruction of the manufacturing frames throughout the country, so as to compel a call for manual labour. Lord Byron's es- tate lying in that county, he felt it incum- bent upon him to take a part in the debate upon the Bill, and he resolved to make it the occasion of his first speech in the House. But this Nottingham Frame-break- ing Bill, as it was called, was also interesting to the Recorder of Nottingham, Lord Hol- land, who took the lead in opposing it. Lord Byron's interest in the county, and his intention respecting the Bill were made known to Mr. Rogers, who, I understood, communicated it to Lord Holland, and soon after made them acquainted. In his Satire, Mr. Rogers ranked, among the eulogized, next to GifFord ; and Lord Holland, among the lashed, was just not on a par with Jeffrey. The introduction took place at LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 201 Lord Byron's lodgings, in St. James's-street — I happened to be there at the time, and I thought it a curious event. Lord Byron evidently had an awkv^^ard feehng on the occasion, from a conscious recollection, v^hich did not seem to be participated by his visitors. Lord Holland's age, experi- ence, and other acquired distinctions, cer- tainly, in point of form, demanded that the visit should have been paid at his house. This I am confident Lord Byron at 'that time would not have done ; though he was greatly pleased that the introduction took place, and afterwards waved all ceremony. It would be useless to seek a motive for Lord Holland's condescension, unless it could be shown that it was to overcome evil with good. Whether that was in his mind or not, the new acquaintance improving into friendship, or something like it, had a great influence in deciding the fate of a new edition of English Bai'ds and Scotch Re- 202 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE viewers, which the pubUsher, Cawthorn, was now actively preparing, to accompany the publication of the Hints from Horace, that was still creeping on in the press. Meanwhile, the Poem that was to be the foundation of Lord Byron's fame, and of the events of his future days, retarded nearly a month longer than was proposed, was now promised to the public for the end of February. The debate on the Notting- ham Frame-Breaking Bill was appointed for the 27th of the same month. It was an extraordinary crisis in his life. He had before him, the characters of a Poet and of an Orator to fix and to maintain. For the former, he depended still upon his Satires, more than upon Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, which he contemplated with considerable dread; and, for the latter, he not only meditated, but wrote an oration, being afraid to trust his feelings in the assembly he was to address, with an extemporaneous LIFE OF LORD BVRON. 203 efFusion at first. He occasionally spoke parts of it when we were alone ; but his delivery changed my opinion of his power as to eloquence, and checked my hope of his success in Parliament. He altered the natural tone of his voice, which was sweet and round, into a formal drawl, and he prepared his features for a part— it was a youth declaiming a task. This was the more perceptible, as in common conversa- tion, he was remarkably easy and natural ; it was a fault contracted in the studied delivery of speeches from memory, which has been lately so much attended to in the education of boys. It may wear off, and yield to the force of real knowledge and activity, but it does not promise well; and they who fall into it are seldom prominent characters in stations where eloquence is required. By the delay of the printer. Lord Byron's maiden speech preceded the ap- pearance of his poem. It produced a 204 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE considerable effect in the House of Lords, and he received many comphments from the Opposition Peers. When he left the great chamber, I went and met him in the passage ; he was glowing with success, and much agitated. I had an umbrella in my right hand, not expecting that he would put out his hand to me— in my haste to take it when offered, I had advanced my left hand — " What," said he, " give your friend your left hand upon such an occasion ?" I showed the cause, and immediately changing the umbrella to the other hand, I gave him my right hand, which he shook and pressed warmly. He was greatly elated, and re- peated some of the comphments which had been paid him, and mentioned one or two of the Peers who had desired to be intro- duced to him. He concluded with saying, that he had, by his speech, given me the best advertisement for Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. LIFE OP LORD BYRON. 205 A short time afterwards, he made me a present of the original manuscript of his speech which he had 'previously written^ — and from that manuscript, I now insert it here as a literary curiosity, not devoid of interest. " My Lords, " The subject now submitted to your Lordships, for the first time, though new to the House, is, by no means, new to the country. I believe it had occupied the serious thoughts of all descriptions of persons long before its introduc- tion to the notice of that Legislature whose in- terference alone could be of real service. As a person in some degree connected with the suffer- ing county, though a stranger, not only to this House in general, but to almost every individual whose attention I presume to solicit, I must claim some portion of your Lordships' indulgence, whilst I offer a few observations on a question in which I confess myself deaply interested. To enter into any detail of these riots would be su- 206 RECOLLECTIONS OP THE perfluous ; the House is already aware that every outrage short of actual bloodshed has been per- petrated, and that the proprietors of the frames obnoxious to the rioters, and all persons supposed to be connected with them, have been liable to insult and violence. During the short time I re- cently passed in Notts, not twelve hours elapsed without some fresh act of violence ; and, on the day I left the county, I was informed that forty frames had been broken the preceding evening as usual, without resistance and without detec- tion. Such was then the state of that county, and such I have reason to believe it to be at this moment. But whilst these outrages must be ad- mitted to exist to an alarming extent, it cannot be denied that they have arisen from circum- stances of the most unparalelled distress. The perseverance of these miserable men in their proceedings, tends to prove that nothing but ab- solute want could have driven a large and once honest and industrious body of the people into the commission of excesses so hazardous to them- selves, their famiHes, and the community. At the time to which I allude, the town and county LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 207 were burdened with large detachments of the military ; the police was in motion, the magi- strates assembled, yet all these movements, civil and military had led to — nothing. Not a single instance had occurred of the apprehension of any real delinquent actually taken in the fact, against whom there existed legal evidence sufficient for conviction. But the police, however useless, were by no means idle : several notorious delin- quents had been detected ; men liable to convic- tion, on the clearest evidence, of the capital crime of poverty ; men, v/ho had been nefariously guilty of lawfully begetting several children, whom, thanks to the times !■ — they were unable to main- tain. Considerable injury has been done to the proprietors of the improved frames. These ma- chines were to them an advantage, inasmuch as they superseded the necessity of employing a number of workmiCn, who were left in conse- quence to starve. By the adoption of one species of frame in particular, one man performed the work of many, and the superfluous labourers were thrown out of employment. Yet it is to be observed, that the work thus executed was in- 208 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE ferior in quality, not marketable at home, and merely hurried over with a view to exportation. It was called, in the cant of the trade, by the name of Spider-work. The rejected workmen, in the blindness of their ignorance, instead of rejoicing at these improvements in arts so bene- ficial to mankind, conceived themselves to be sa- crificed to improvements in mechanism. In the foolishness of their hearts, they imagined thai the maintenance and well doing of the indus- trious poor, were objects of greater consequence than the enrichment of a few individuals by any improvement in the implements of trade which threw the workmen out of employment, and rendered the labourer unworthy of his hire. And, it must be confessed, that although the adoption of the enlarged machinery, in that state of our commerce which the country once boasted, might have been beneficial to the master without being detrimental to the servant; yet, in the present situation of our manufactures, rotting in warehouses without a prospect of exportation, with the demand for work and workmen equally diminished, frames of this construction tend ma- LIFE OF LORD BYRON, 209 terially to aggravate the distresses and discon- tents of the disappointed sufferers. But the real cause of these distresses, and consequent disturb- ances, Ues deeper. When we are told that these men are leagued together, not only for the de- struction of their own comfort, but of their very means of subsistence, can we forget that it is the bitter policy, the destructive warfare, of the last eighteen years, which has destroyed their com- fort, your comfort, all men's comfort ;— that policy which, originating with " great statesmen now no more," has survived the dead to become a curse on the living unto the third and fourth generation! These men never destroyed their looms till they were become useless, worse than useless ; till they were become actual impediments to their exertions in obtaining their daily bread. Can you then wonder, that in times like these, when bankruptcy, convicted fraud, and imputed felony, are found in a station not far beneath that of your Lordships, the lowest, though once most useful portion of the people, should forget their duty in their distresses, and become only less guilty than one of their representatives ? But while the ex- 210 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE alted offender can find means to baffle the law, new capital punishments must be devised, new snares of death must be spread, for the wretched mechanic who is famished into guilt. These men were willing to dig, but the spade was in other hands ; they were not ashamed to beg, but there was none to reUeve them. Their own means of subsistence were cut off; all other em- ployments pre-occupied ; and their excesses, how- ever to be deplored and condemned, can hardly be the subject of surprise. It has been stated, that the persons in the temporary possession of frames connive at their destruction ; if this be proved upon inquiry, it were necessary that such material accessories to the crime should be prin- cipals in the punishment. But I did hope that any measure proposed by His Majesty's Govern- ment for your Lordships' decision, would have had conciliation for its basis ; or, if that were hopeless, that some previous inquiry, some de- liberation, would have been deemed requisite ; not that we should have been called at once, without examination and without cause, to pass sentences by wholesale, and sign death-warrants LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 211 , blindfold. But admitting that these men had no cause of complaint, that the grievances of them and their employers were alike groundless, that they deserved the worst ; what inefficiency, what imbecility, has been evinced in the method chosen to reduce them ! Why were the military called out to be made a mockery of— if they were to be called out at all? As far as the difference of seasons would permit, they have merely parodied the summer campaign of Major Sturgeon ; and, indeed, the whole proceedings, civil and military, seem formed on the model of those of the Mayor and Corporation of Garrett. Such march- ings and countermarchings ! from Nottingham to Bulnell — from Bulnell to Bareford — from Bare- ford to Mansfield ! and, when at length, the de- tachments arrived at their destination, in all ' the pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war, they came just in time to witness the mischief which had been done, and ascertain the escape of the perpetrators ;— to collect the spolia opima, in the fragments of broken frames, and return to their quarters amidst the derision of old women, and the hootings of children. Now, though in a P 2 212 £m RECOLLECTIONS OF THE free country, it were to be wished that our mili- tary should never be too formidable, at least, to ourselves, I cannot see the policy of placing them in situations where they can only be made ridi- culous. As the sword is the worst argument that can be used, so should it be the last : in this instance it has been the first, but, providentially as yet, only in the scabbard. The present mea- sure will, indeed, pluck it from the sheath ; yet had proper meetings been held in the earlier stages of these riots,— had the grievances of these men and their masters (for they also have had their grievances) been fairly weighed and justly examined, I do think that means might have been devised to restore these workmen to their avocations, and tranquillity to the country. At present the county suffers from the double inflic- tion of an idle military and a starving population. In what state of apathy have we been plunged so long, that now, for the first time, the house has been officially apprised of these disturbances ? All this has been transacting within one hundred and thirty miles of London, and yet we, ' good easy men ! have deemed full sure our greatness LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 213 was a ripening,' and have sat down to enjoy our foreign triumphs in the midst of domestic calamity. But all the cities you have taken, all the armies which have retreated before your leaders, are but paltry subjects of self-congratu- tion, if your land divides against itself, and your dragoons and executioners must be let loose against your fellow-citizens. You call these men a mob, desperate, dangerous, and ignorant ; and seem to think that the only way to quiet the ' Bellua multorum capitum' is to lop off a few of its superfluous heads. But even a mob may be better reduced to reason by a mixture of conciliation and firmness, than by additional ir- ritation and redoubled penalties. Are we aware of our obligations to a mob ! It is the mob that labour in your fields, and serve in your houses — that man your navy, and recruit your army — that have enabled you to defy all the world, — and can also defy you, when neglect and calamity have driven them to despair. You may call the people a mob, but do not forget that a mob too often speaks the sentiments of the people. And here I must remark with what alacrity you are accus- 214 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE tomed to fly to the succour of your distressed allies, leaving the distressed of your own country to the care of Providence or — the parish. When the Portuguese suffered under the retreat of the French, every arm was stretched out, every hand was opened, — from the rich man's largess to the widow's mite, all was bestowed to enable them to rebuild their villages and replenish their granaries. And at this moment, when thousands of misguided but most unfortunate fellow-coun- trymen are struggling with the extremes of hard- ship and hunger, as your charity began abroad, it should end at home. A much less sum — a tithe of the bounty bestowed on Portugal, even if these men (which I cannot admit without inquiry) could not have been restored to their employ- ments, would have rendered unnecessary the tender mercies of the bayonet and the gibbet. But doubtless our funds have too many foreign claims to admit a prospect of domestic relief, — though never did such objects demand it. I have traversed the seat of war in the peninsula ; I have been in some of the most oppressed pro- \ inces of Turkev ; but never, under the most des- LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 215 potic of infidel governments, did" I behold such squalid wretchedness as I have seen since my return, in the very heart of a christian country. And what are your remedies ? After months of inaction, and months of action worse than inac- tivity, at length comes forth the grand specific, the never-failing nostrum of all state-physicians, from the days of Draco to the present time. After feeUng the pulse and shaking the head over the patient, prescribing the usual course of warm water and bleeding — the warm water of your mawkish police, and the lancets of your miUtary — these convulsions must terminate in death, the sure consummation of the prescrip- tions of all political Sangrados. Setting aside the palpable injustice and the certain inefficiency of the bill, are there not capital punishments sufficient on your statutes ? Is there not blood enough upon your penal code ! that more must be poured forth to ascend to heaven and testify against you? How will you carry this bill into effect ? Can you commit a whole county to their own prisons ? Will you erect a gibbet in every field, and hang up men like scarescrows ? or will 216 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE you proceed (as you must to bring this measure into effect) by decimation ; place the country under martial law ; depopulate and lay waste all around you ; and restore Sherwood Forest as an acceptable gift to the crown in its former condi- tion of a royal chase, and an asylum for outlaws? Are these the remedies for a starving and despe- rate populace? Will the famished wretch who has braved your bayonets be appalled by your gibbets ? When death is a relief, and the only relief it appears that you will afford him, will he be dragooned into tranquillity ? Will that which could not be effected by your grenadiers, be ac- complished by your executioners ? If you pro- ceed by the forms of law, where is your evi- dence ? Those who have refused to impeach their accomplices when transportation only was the punishment, will hardly be tempted to witness against them when death is the penalty. With all due deference to the noble lords opposite, I think a little investigation, some previous inquiry, A^'ould induce even them to change their purpose. That most favourite state measure, so marvel- lously efficacious in many and recent instances. LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 217 tempormng, would not be without its advantage in this. When a proposal is made to emanci- pate or relieve, you hesitate, you deliberate for years, you temporize and tamper with the minds of men ; but a death-bill must be passed off hand, without a thought of the consequences. Sure I am, from what I have heard and from what I have seen, that to pass the bill under all the existing circumstances, without inquiry, without delibera- tion, would only be to add injustice to irritation, and barbarity to neglect. The framers of such a bill must be content to inherit the honours of that Athenian lawgiver whose edicts were said to be written, not in ink, but in blood. But sup- pose it past,' — suppose one of these men, as I have seen them meagre with famine, sullen with despair, careless of a life which your lordships are perhaps about to value at something less than the price of a stocking-frame ; suppose this man surrounded by those children for whom he is unable to procure bread at the hazard of his existence, about to be torn for ever from a family which he lately supported in peaceful in- dustry, and which it is not his fault than he can 218 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE no longer so support ; suppose this man — and there are ten thousand such from whom you may select your victims,— dragged into court to be tried for this new offence, by this new law, — still there are two things wanting to convict and con- demn him, and these are, in my opinion, twelve butchers for a jury, and a Jefferies for a judge !" LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 219 CHAPTER IX. IMMEDIATE RESULTS OF THE APPEARANCE OF CHILDE HAROLDS PILGRIMAGE. I REALLY believe that I was more anxious than its author about the reception of the poem, the progress of which I had been superintending with great pleasure for some months ; and by that anxiety I was led into a precipitate compliance with the solicita- tions of the printers of the last edition of the Satire, who were proprietors and edi- tors of a literary journal, to favour them with an early review of the poem. I not only wrote it, but gave it to them, in the beginning of February; telling them that the work would be out in the middle of that 220 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE month, but at the same time charging them to take care not to print it before the poem was published. The 1st of March arrived — the Poem did not appear — the Review did. I was vexed — it had the appearance of an eulogium prematurely hurried before the public by a friend, if not by the author himself. I was uneasy, lest it should strike Lord Byron in this light ; and it was very likely that some good-natured friend or other would expedite his notice of the re- view. It fortunately happened that the 1st of the month fell on a Sunday, and that Lord Byron spent it at Harrow, if I recol- lect rightly, with his old tutor, Dr. Drury and did not return to St. James's-street till Monday evening. On Tuesday I got a copy of the Pilgrimage, and hastened with it to him. Lord Valentia had been beforehand in carrying him the Review. " I shall be set down for the writer of it," cried he. I told him the fact as it stood. The flatter^ LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 221 ing excitement to which I had yielded, and the examination of the volume I then put into his hand, dispersed all unpleasant feel- ing on the occasion ; and I assured him that I would take an opportunity of making it publicly known that I had done it without his knowledge. But this was unnecessary ; for the publisher of Childe Harold's Pil- grimage had already spread it sufficiently, as I had informed him of it ; and far from any harm resulting, it proved no bad adver- tisement of the publication, which was ready for every inquirer, as fast as the binder could put up the sheets into boards. The blunder passed unobserved, eclipsed by the dazzling brilliancy of the object which had caused it. The attention of the public was universally fixed upon the poem ; and in a very few days the whole impression was disposed of. It was not till he had this con- vincing proof, that Lord Byron had confi- dence of its success. On the day he re- 222 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE ceived the first copy in boards he talked of my making an agreement at once with the publisher, if he would offer a hundred or a hundred and fifty guineas for the copyright. I declared I would not ; and in three days after, the publisher talked of being able perhaps to make an offer of three if not four hundred pounds ; for he had not a doubt now of the sale, and that the edition would go off in less than three months. It went off in three days. The rapidity of the sale of the poem, its reception, and the elation of the author's feelings, were unparalleled. But before I continue my account of it, I cannot refrain here from making some mention of New- stead Abbey, as it was at this juncture he again began to speak to me freely of his affairs. In spite of the pledge he had given me never to consent to the disposal of it, he occasionally spoke of the sale as necessary to clear him of embarrassments, and of LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 223 being urged to it by his agent. I never failed to oppose it ; but he did not Hke to dwell upon it, and would get rid of the sub- ject by coinciding with me. I thought his elation at the success of his poem a favour- able juncture to take more liberty on so delicate a point; and to avoid the pain of talking, I wrote him the following letter :— " You cannot but see that the interest I take in all that concerns you comes from my heart, and I will not ask forgiveness for what I am conscious merits a kind recep- tion. Though not acquainted with the precise state of your affairs, nor with those who have been employed in the manage- ment of them, I venture to say, in spite of your seeming to think otherwise, that there can be no occasion for the desperate reme- dies which have been suggested to you. It is an ungracious thing to suspect; but from my ignorance of the individuals by 224 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE whom your business is conducted, my sus- picion can only attach generally to that corrupt state of nature in which self-interest is too apt to absorb all other considerations. Every motion of an agent, every word spoken or written by a lawyer, are so many conductors of the fortunes of their employ- ers into their coffers ; consequently every advice from such persons is open to sus- picion, and ought to be thoroughly exa- mined before it is adopted. But who is to examine it ? I would say yourself, did I not think your pursuits, your mind, your very attainments, have by no means qualified you for the task. But there are men, and lawyers too, to be found of disinterested minds, and pure hands, to whom it would not be difficult to save you the mortifi- cation of parting with a property so honour- able in the annals of your house. For God's sake mistrust him who suggested it ; and, if you are inclined to listen to it, mis- LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 225 trust yourself— pause and take counsel be- fore you act. Your affairs should be thoroughly sub mitted to such a man or men as I have men- tioned—that is, all the accounts of your minority, and all the transactions relative to your property, with every voucher, should be produced to them, and examined by them. Through them every thing equitable and honourable would be done, and a portion of your income appropriated to the disencumbering of your estates. I am persuaded that you may be extricated from your difficulties without the harsh alternative proposed. You mentioned the subject of your affairs to me on your arrival in England, but you appeared afterwards to wish it dropped ; I have, however, fre- quently wished what, in consequence of your recent communication, I have now again expressed. Think of it, I beseech you." Q 226 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE I felt much anxiety at the thought of Newstead Abbey going out of the family — certainly not merely because my nephew was his heir presumptive, though a very natural motive ; but I am chevaleresque enough to think the alienation of an estate so acquired, and so long possessed, a spe- cies of sacrilege. The following is part of a letter which I wrote home the next day (March 12th, 1812,) after I had seen him. Being written at the time, it is the best con- tinuation of my narrative ; — *' The intelligence which Charles brought you of the unparalleled sale of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage must have given you great pleasure, though I think it will be more than counterbalanced by the pain of the subject on which I wrote yesterday to Lord Byron. I still hope it will be avoided ; nor, till he talked of it, did I in fact credit that he had the power of disposing of that LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 227 estate. I was apprehensive that I had gone too far in interfering in his private affairs ; but, quite the contrary, he took my letter in very kind part, though, after a few ob- servations he dropped the subject. On parting with Charles, we drove to St. James's-street, where I staid with him till near six o'clock, and had a good deal of pleasant conversation. I found the en- closed on his table directed to me. On opening it, I was surprised at what he wrote to me in it ; and still more on finding the contents to be a copy of verses to him, with a letter beginning—' Dear Childe Harold,' expressing the greatest admiration, and ad- vising him to be happy. Neither the letter nor the verses are badly written ; and the lady concludes with assuring him, that though she should be glad to be acquainted with him, she can feel no other emotion for him than admiration and regard, as her heart is already engaged to another. I looked at him seriously, and said, that none of my 228 RECOLLECTIONS OP THE family would ever write an anonymous letter. I said, that you had all given your opinion openly, and I had shown him that opinion. ' You are right, you are right,' he said. ' I am sure it is not any of your family, but I really know nobody who I think cares half so much about me as you do ; and from many parts of the letter, it is no wonder I should suspect that it came from Mrs. Dallas, who I know is a good friend of mine.' He is persuaded, he says, that it is written by somebody acquainted with us. I cannot think so. She says she should like to know if he has received her letter ; and requests him to leave a note at Hookham's for Mr. Sidney Allison. He says he will not answer it." I have found another of my letters im- mediately following this, from which I shall make such extracts as relate to Lord Byron or the Poem. " I called on Mr. Murray this morning, who told me that the whole LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 229 edition was gone off. He begged me to arrange with Lord Byron for putting the Poem to press again, which is to be done in the handsomest manner, in octavo. He shewed me letters from several of the most celebrated critics ; and told me that Mr. GifFord spoke with the highest admiration of the second Canto, which he had not seen before ; the first he had seen in manuscript. From him I went to St. James's-street,where I found Lord Byron loaded with letters from critics, poets, authors, and various pre- tenders to fame of different walks, all lavish of their raptures. In putting them into my hands he said — « I ought not to show such fine compliments, but I keep nothing from you.' Among his raptured admirers I was not a little surprised to find an ele- gant copy of verses to him from Mr. Fitz- gerald, the very first person celebrated in his Satire, of which he reminds him in a short prefatory note, adding, in a pleasing 230 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE and amiable manner, that it was impossible to harbour any resentment against the poet of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. It is im- possible to tell you half the applause, either as to quantity or quahty, bestowed upon him directly and indirectly. The letter from Lord Holland places him on a par with Walter Scott. But to come to my- self : — After speaking of the sale, and set- tling the new edition, I said, ' How can I possibly think of this rapid sale, and the profits likely to ensue, without recollecting' — ' What ?' ' Think what a sum your work may produce.' ' I shall be rejoiced, and wish it doubled and trebled ; but do not talk to me of money. I never will receive money for my writings.' ' I ought not to differ in an opinion which puts hundreds into my purse, but others — ' He put out his hand to me, shook mine, said he was very glad, and turned the conversation. The sentiment is noble, but pushed too far, LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 231 It is not only in this, but in other points, I have remarked a superior spirit in this young man ; and which but for its native vigour would have been cast away. I am happy to say that I think his successes, and the notice that has been taken of him, have already had upon his mind the cheering effect I hoped and foresaw ; and I trust all the gloom of his youth will be dissipated for the rest of his life. He was very cheer- ful to-day. What a pleasing reflection is it to me that when, on his arrival in Eng- land, he put this Poem into my hand, I saw its merits, and urged him to publish it. There are two copies binding elegantly and alike; this I mentioned to him, and said, one was for him, ' and the other,' said he * for Mrs. Dallas : let me have the plea- sure of writing her name in it.' " When I afterwards brought him the copies, he did write the name ; and I had the happiness of finding him ready to send 232 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE one also to his sister. I handed him ano- ther copy to write her name in it ; and I was truly delighted to read the following effusion, which I copied before I sent the volume off*. " To Augusta, my dearest sister, and my best friend, who has ever loved me much better than I deserved, this volume is pre- sented by her fathers son, and most affec- tionate brother. « B." « March Uth, 1812." He was now the universal talk of the town: his speech and his Poem had not only raised his fame to an extraordinary height, but had disposed all minds to be- stow upon him the most favourable recep- tion ; to disbelieve his own black account of himself, and to forget that he had been a most bitter Satirist. Crowds of eminent persons courted an introduction, and some LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 233 volunteered their cards. This was the try- ing moment of virtue ; and no wonder it was shaken, for never was there such a sudden transition from neglect to courtship. Glory- darted thick upon him from all sides ; from the Prince Regent and his admirable daugh- ter, to the bookseller and his shopman; from Walter Scott to *****; from Jeffrey to the nameless critics of the Satirist, Scourge, &c. He was the wonder of grey- beards, and the show of fashionable parties. At one of these, he happened to go early when there were very few persons assem- bled ; the Regent went in soon after ; Lord Byron was at some distance from him in the room. On being informed who he was, his Royal Highness sent a gentleman to him to desire that he would be presented. The presentation of course took place; the Regent expressed his admiration of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, and continued a con- versation, which so fascinated the Poet, 234 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE that had it not been for an accidental de- ferring of the next levee, he bade fair to become a visitor at Carlton House, if not a complete courtier. I called on him on the morning for w^hich the levee had been appointed, and found him in a full-dress court suit of clothes, vv^ith his fine black hair in pov^der, which by no means suited his countenance. I vs^as surprised, as he had not told me that he should go to Court ; and it seemed to me as if he thought it necessary to apologize for his intention, by his observing, that he could not in decency but do it, as the Regent had done him the honour to say that he hoped to see him soon at Carlton House. In spite of his assumed philosophical contempt of royalty, and of his decided junction with the opposition, he had not been able to withstand the powerful operation of royal praise ; which, however, continued to in- fluence him only till flattery of a more con- LIFE OF LORD BYROxN. 235 genial kind diverted him from the enjoy- ment of that which for a moment he was disposed to receive. The levee had been suddenly put off, and he was dressed before he was informed of the alteration which had taken place. It was the first and the last time he was ever so dressed, at least for a British Court. A newly-made friend of his # * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Lord Byron was more than half prepared to yield to this influence ; and the harsh verses that proceeded from his pen, were, I be- lieve, composed more to humour his new friend's passions than his own. Certain it is, he gave up all ideas of appearing at Court, ^and fell into the habit of speaking disrespectfully of the Prince. But his poem flew to every part of the kingdom, indeed of the world; his fame 236 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE hourly increased ; and he all at once found himself " translated to the spheres," and complimented by all, with an elevated character, possessing youthful brilliancy, alas ! without the stamen necessary to sup- port it. A gratifying compliment was paid him on the appearance of Childe Harold's Pil- grimage, by the order given by the Prin- cess Charlotte for its being magnificently bound. It was displayed for some days in Ebers's shop, in Bond-street. Lord Byron was highly pleased when I described it to him. Among the testimonies of the high feel- ing which the blaze of his genius produced, I admired and selected a letter to him from the late Dr. Clarke, which I have an addi- tional pleasure in inserting here, as it does not appear in the Doctor's correspondence lately given to the public : — LIFE OP LORD BYRON. 237 *' Dear Lord Byron, " From the eagerness which I felt to make known my opinion of your Poem, before others had expressed any upon the subject, I waited upon you to deliver my hasty, although hearty, commendation. If it be worthy your acceptance, take it once more, in a more deliberate form ! Upon my arrival in town I found that Mathias entirely coincided with me. Surely, said I to him. Lord Byron, at this time of life, cannot have experienced such keen anguish, as those exquisite allusions to what older men mai/ have felt seem to denote. This was his answer, * I fear he has — he could not else have written such a Poem.' This morning I read the second Canto with all the attention it so highly merits, in the peace and stillness of my study ; and I am ready to confess I was never so much affected by any poem., passionately fond of poetry as I have been from earliest youth. When, after the 9th stanza you introduce the first line of the 1 0th, Here let me sit upon the mossy stone ; 238 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE the thought and the expression are so truly Petrarch's, that I would ask you whether you ever read Poi quando '1 vero sgombra Quel dolce eiTor pur li medesmo assido Me freddo, pietra morta in pietra viva ; In guisa d' uom che pensi e piange e scriva. Thus rendered by Mr. Wilmot, the only person capable of making Petrarch speak English : — But when rude truth destroys The loved illusion of die dreamed sweets, / sit me down on the cold rugged stone, Less cold, less dead than I, and think and weep alone. " The eighth stanza, * Yet if as holiest men," &c. has never been surpassed. In the 23d, the sen- timent is at variance with Dryden, Strange cozenage ! none would live past years again : and it is perhaps an instance wherein for the first time I found not within my own breast an echo to your thought, for I would not ' be once more a hoy ;' but the generahty of men will agree with you, and wish to tread life's path again. LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 239 " In the 12th stanza of the same Canto, you might really add a very curious note to these lines — Her sons too weak the sacred shrine to guard, Yet felt some portion of their mother's pains ; by Stating this fact:~When the last of the metopes was taken from the Parthenon, and, in moving it, great part of the superstructure with one the triglyphs was thrown down by the workmen whom Lord Elgin employed, the Dis- dar, who beheld the mischief done to the building, took his pipe out of his mouth, dropped a tear, and, in a supplicating tone of voice, said to Lusieri — TsXoa- ! I was present at the time. " Once more I thank you for the gratification you have afforded me. " Believe me, " Ever yours most truly, " E. D. Clarke." " Trumpington, " Wednesday Morning.'''' 240 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE CHAPTER X. SUPPRESSION OF THE SATIRE AND HINTS FROM HORACE. -FIRST SALE OF NEWSTE AD- PROPOSED NOVEL. Though flattery had now deeply inoculated him with its poison, he was at first unwil- ling to own its effects even to himself; and to me he declared that he did not rehsh society, and was resolved never to mix with it. He made no resistance however to its invitations, and in a very short time he not only willingly obeyed the summons of fashion, but became a votary. One even- ing, seeing his carriage at the door in St. James's Street, I knocked, and found him at home. He was engaged to a party, but it was not time to go, and I sat nearly an LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 241 hour with him. He had been reading Childe Harold, and continued to read some passages of it aloud,— he enjoyed it, and I enjoyed it doubly. On putting it down, he talked of the parties he had been at, and of those to which he was invited, and con- fessed an alteration in his mind ; " I own," said he, " I begin to like them." Holland House, on which so much of the point of his satire had been directed, being now one of his most flattering resorts, it was no longer difficult to persuade him to suppress his satirical writings. The fifth edition of " English Bards and Scotch Reviewers" was now ready to issue from the press ; the " Hints from Horace" was far advanced ; and the '* Curse of Minerva" was in preparation. He had not listened to me fully ; but he had begun not only to be easy at the delay of the printing of these poems, but to desire that delay, as if he had it already in contemplation to 242 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE be guided by the reception of Childe Ha- rold's Pilgrimage. Yet even after this was clear, he did not immediately decide upon the suppression of them; till some of his new friends requested it. Upon this, the bookseller who was to publish them, Cawthorn, was apprised of the author's in- tention, and was desired to commit the whole of the new edition of " English Bards and Scotch Reviewers," to the flames ; and the carrying this into execu- tion was entrusted entirely to him. The expenses of the edition being de- frayed, as well as those attending the other poems that were also stopped in the press, and the bookseller having reaped all the profits of the four preceding editions, he had literally no right to complain on this subject ; but as far as respects the right at- tached to expectations raised, he had, per- haps, cause to think himself ill used. He had undertaken to publish what had been LIFE OP LORD BYRON. 243 refused by other publishers ; had risked making enemies, and had not neglected the publication entrusted to him. He ought to have had the advantages attending the cir- culation of the author's other works. I wished it, and proposed it. Lord Byron had been directed to Miller as the publisher in fashion; and from motives I have already stated, Cawthorn was deprived of a patron- age, which he reasonably expected. He naturally felt sore, but endeavoured to sub- mit with a good grace. The suppression of the satire was gratifying to Lord By- ron's new friends ; but it had the effect of raising the value of the copies that could be obtained. An Irish edition was circu- lated unadvertized, but it did not appear to renew animosity. He was completely for- given as the venomous satirist, and em- braced as the successful poet of the Pil- grimage. I must not omit to say that he had some occasional doubts, or rather mo- R 2 244 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE ments of assumed modesty, as to the merit of his new poem, in spite of its success. " I may place a great deal of it," said he, " to being a lord." And again,—" I have made them afraid of me." There may be something in both these remarks, as they regard the celerity of his fame, and the readiness of the **all hail," that was given to him ; but the impression made by Childe Harold on reiterated perusals, and the nerve of his succeeding works, leave not a mo- ment's doubt of his success being indeed the just meed of his genius. I was now to see Lord Byron in a new point of view. The town was full of com- pany, as usual in the spring. Besides the speech he had made on the Frame-breaking Bill, he again attracted notice on the Ca- tholic Question, which was agitated warmly by the peers in the beginning of April. His name was in every mouth, and his poem in every hand. He converted criti- LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 245 cism to adulation, and admiration to love. His stanzas abounded with passages which impressed on the heart of his readers pity for the miserable feehngs of a youth who could express so admirably what he felt ; and this pity, uniting with the dehght pro- ceeding from his poetry, generated a gene- ral affection of which he knew not the value ; for while the real fruits of happi- ness clustered around him, he neglected them, and became absorbed in gratifications that could only tend to injure the reputa- tion he had gained. He professedly des- pised the society of women, yet female adulation became the most captivating charm to his heart. He had not admitted the ladies of his own family to any degree of intimacy ; his aunts, his cousins, were kept at a distance, and even his sister had hitherto shared the like fate. Among the admirers who had paid their tribute in prose or verse to the muse of the Pilgrimage, I 246 RECOLLECTIONS OP THE have already mentioned one who asked for an acknowledgment of the receipt of her letter. He had treated that letter lightly, and said he would not answer it. He was not able to keep his resolution ; and on find- ing his correspondent to be a fine young woman, and distinguished for eccentric no- tions, he became so enraptured, so intoxi- cated, that his time and thoughts were al- most entirely devoted to reading her letters and answering them. One morning he was so absorbed in the composition of a letter to her, that he barely noticed me as I en- tered the room. I said, " Pray go on ;" and sat down at one side of the table at which he was writing, where I looked over a news- paper for some time. Finding that he did not conclude, I looked at him, and was as- tonished at the complete abstraction of his mind, and at the emanation of his senti- ments on his countenance. He had a pe- culiar smile on his lips ; his eyes beamed LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 247 the pleasure he felt from what was passing from his imagination to his paper; he looked at me and then at his writing, but I am persuaded he did not see me, and that the thoughts with which he teemed prevented his discerning any thing about him. I said, ^' I see you are deeply engaged." His ear was as little open to sound as his eye to vision. I got up ; on which he said, " Pray sit." I answered that I would return. This roused him a little, and he said, " I wish you would." I do not think he knew what passed, or observed my quitting him. This scene gave me great pain. I began to fear that his fame would be dearly bought. Previous to the appearance of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, his mind had gained some important conquests over his senses ; and I also thought he had barred his heart against the grosser attacks of the passion of vanit}^ If these avenues of destruction to the soul were again to be thrown open 248 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE by the publication of the poem, it were better that it had never been published. I called upon him the next day, when I found him in his usual good-humour. He told me to whom he had been writing, and said he hoped I never thought him rude. I took my usual liberty with him, and honestly warned him against his new dangers. While I was with him the lady's page brought him a new letter. He was a fair- faced delicate boy of thirteen or fourteen years old, whom one might have taken for the lady herself. He was dressed in a scarlet huzzar jacket and pantaloons, trimmed in front in much the same manner with silver buttons, and twisted silver lace, with which the narrow slit cuffs of his jacket were also embroidered. He had light hair curling about his face ; and held a feathered fancy hat in his hand, which completed the scenic appearance of this urchin Pandarus. I could not but suspect LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 240 at the time that it was a disguise. If so, he never disclosed it to me, and as he had hitherto had no reserve with me, the thought vanished with the object of it, and I do not precisely recollect the mode of his exit. I wished it otherwise, but wish- ing was in vain. Lord Byron passed the spring and sum- mer of 1812 intoxicated with success, at- tentions of every kind, and fame. In the month of April he again promised me the letters to his mother as a pledge that he would not part with Newstead ; but early in the autumn he told me that he was urged by his man of business, and that Newstead must be sold. This lawyer appears to have had an undue sway over him. Newstead was brought to the hammer at Garra way's. I attended the auction. Nev/stead was not sold, only 90,000^. being offered for it. What I remember that day affected me considerably. The auctioneer was ques- 250 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE tioned respecting the title; he answered, that the title was a grant from Henry VIII. to an ancestor of Lord Byron's, and that the estate had ever since regularly de- scended in the family. I rejoiced to think it had escaped that day ; but my pleasure did not last long. From Garraway's I went to St. James's Street, when he told me that he had made a private agreement for it with Mr. Claughton, for the sum of 140,000Z. I saw the agreement — but some time after it turned out that the purchaser could not complete the purchase, and for- feited, I think, 20,000/., the estate remain- ing Lord Byron s. It has been since sold, I know not for what sum, as I was abroad at the time ; and my correspondence with Lord Byron had ceased. It is a legal maxim that, " the law abhors a perpetuity." I have nothing to say against opening the landed property of the kingdom to pur- chasers who may be more worthy of it LIFE OP LORD BYRON. 251 than the sellers, but there are two con- siderations which cannot but affect the mind of a thinking man. It disgraces an- cestry, and it robs posterity. A property bestowed, like Newstead, for deeds of va- lour and loyalty, is a sacred gift ; and the inheritor that turns it into money commits a kind of sacrilege. He may have a legal, but he has no moral, no honourable right to divert the transmission of it from the blood that gained it. I cannot but think that the reviewer in the Edinburgh Re- view, who speaks of Newstead, has over- shot his aim in ornamenting the abbey with the bright reflections of its possessor's ge- nius ; in a poet, imagination requires the alliance of soul ; without both, no man can be a whole poet. Lord Byron should have ate his daily biscuit with his cup of tea to preserve Newstead. The reviewer's re- marks arose from a perusal of the account 252 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE given of it by Walpole. I will here insert the account and the critique : " As I returned," says Walpole, " I saw Newstead and Althorpe ; I like both. The former is the very Abbey. The great east window of the church remains, and con- nects with the house ; the hall entire, the refectory entire, the cloister untouched, with the ancient cistern of the convent, and their arms on : it has a private chapel quite perfect. The park, which is still charming, has not been so much unpro- faned. The present lord has lost large sums, and paid part in old oaks ; five thou- sand pounds of which have been cut near the house. In recompense, he has built two baby forts, to pay his country in castles for damage done to the navy ; and planted a handful of Scotch firs, that look like plough-boys dressed in old family liveries LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 253 for a public day. In the hall is a very good collection of pictures, all animals ; the re- fectory, now the great drawing-room, is full of Byrons ; the vaulted roof remaining, but the windows have new dresses making for them by a Venetian tailor." On this the reviewer remarks : — " This is a careless, but happy descrip- tion, of one of the noblest mansions in England ; and it will now be read with a far deeper interest than when it was writ- ten. Walpole saw the seat of the Byrons, old, majestic and venerable ; but he saw nothing of that magic beauty which Fame sheds over the habitations of genius, and which now mantles every turret of New- stead Abbey. He saw it when Decay was doing its work on the cloister, the refec- tory, and the chapel ; and all its honours seemed mouldering into oblivion. He could not know that a voice was soon to 2.54 RECOLLECTIONS OP THE go forth from those antique cloisters that should be heard through all future ages, and cry, ' Sleep no more' to all the house. Whatever may be its future fate, Newstead Abbey must henceforth be a memorable abode. Time may shed its wild flowers on the walls, and let the fox in upon the court-yard and the chambers. It may even pass into the hands of unlettered pride or plebeian opulence — but it has been the mansion of a mighty poet. Its name is associated to glories that cannot perish, and will go down to posterity in one of the proudest pages of our annals*." This is rather a poetical effusion than a sober criticism. I have heard that the pur- chaser means to remove the Abbey as rub- bish, and to build a modern villa upon its site. It may be as well for the Poet's fame; * Edinburgli Review for December, 1818 — No. 61, pages 90, 91. LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 255 for though his genius might mantle every stone from the foundations to the pinnacles, it would not cover the sale of it *. About this time Lord Byron began, I cannot say to be cool, — for cool to me he never was, — but I thought to neglect me ; and I began to doubt whether I had most reason to be proud of, or to be mortified by, my connexion and correspondence with him. The pain arising from the mortification in this change was little, compared to that which I felt in the disappointment of my hope, that his success would elevate his character, as well as raise his fame. I saw that he was gone ; and it made me unhappy. With an imagination, learning, and lan- guage to exalt him to the highest character of a poet, his mind seemed not sufficiently strong to raise him equally high in the not adventitious character of a great man. * We are glad to learn that the present proprietor of Newstead has expended a large sum upon its repair, Avitli a good taste worthy its liigh associations. 256 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE « In the autumn he took a place in the country, near Lord * * *'s, where he again became absorbed for a few months, and where he wrote his first dedication (a poetical one) of Childe Harold's Pilgri- mage, In the beginning of the year 1813 he seemed to be a little recovered from his intoxication. He lived in a house in Ben- net-street, St. James's, where I saw him almost every day, by his own desire, and his kindness and attentions seemed uninterrupted. I confess I suspected that the independence of my opinions had had some effect upon his mind. I have the copy of a letter by me, written to him in the Autumn of 1812, (August 19th,) when he was going to the country-house he had taken, as I have just mentioned ; and which I will insert here as another proof of that independence : — LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 257 " You talked of going out of town in a few days; pray remember to leave St. Simon's works for me. I will call again, but you may be gone— if so, I shall be glad to hear from you. Wherever you are I most sincerely wish you happy ; but let me, with my old sincerity, add, that I am confi- dent you are not at present in the road of happiness. Do not hate me for this, for be assured that no man, nor woman either, more sincerely wishes you the enjoyment of every good, than does' Your truly obHged, &c ." He again became satiated with praise and pleasure, and turned his mind to com- position. I was highly gratified, allowing it even to be flattery, at his acknowledg- ment of being pleased with the novels I had written ; and I was still more flattered when he proposed to me to write one jointly. I thought the proposal made on a s 258 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE transient thought ; and was rather surprised, when I next saw him, to receive from him two foHo sheets of paper, accompanied with these words, " Now, do you go on." On opening the paper I read, " Letter L Darrell to G. Y." and found it to be the commencement of a novel. I was charmed to find his intention real ; but my pleasure, which continued through the perusal, for- sook me when I reflected on the impossibi- lity of my adopting either the style or the objects he had in view, as he dwelled upon them. I told him I saw that he meant to laugh at me, but I kept the manuscript, though, at the time, I had no intention of using it; however, in writing another novel, I was tempted to build a very different structure upon it than was origi- nally planned, and it stands the first letter in my novel of Sir Francis Darrell. LIFE OF LORD BYRON, 259 LETTERS. cc J ^ 180—. *' — Darrell to G. Y. [ The first part of this letter is lost.'] "****** gQ much for your present pur- suits. I will now resume the subject of my last. How I wish you were upon the spot ; your taste for the ridiculous would be fully gratified ; and if you felt inclined for more serious amusement, there is no ' lack of argument.' Within this last week our guests have been doubled in number, some of them my old acquaintance. Our host you already know — absurd as ever, but ra- ther duller, and I should conceive troublesome to such of his very good friends as find his house more agreeable than its owner. I confine my- self to observation, and do not find him at all in the way, though Veramore and Asply are of a dif- ferent opinion. The former, in particular, imparts to me many pathetic complaints on the want of opportunities (nothing else being wanting to the success of the said Veramore,) created by the S2 260 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE fractious and but ill-concealed jealousy of poor Bramblebear, whose Penelope seems to have as many suitors as her namesake, and for aught I can see to the contrary, with as much prospect of carrying their point. In the mean time, I look on and laugh, or rather, I should laugh were you present to share in it: Sackcloth and sorrow are excellent wear for Soliloquy ; but for a laugh there should be two, but not many more, except at the first night of a modern tragedy. " You are very much mistaken in the design you impute to myself; I have none here or else- where. I am sick of old intrigues, and too in- dolent to engage in new ones. Besides, I am, that is, I used to be, apt to find my heart gone at the very time when you fastidious gentlemen begin to recover yours. I agree with you that the world, as well as yourself, are of a different opinion. I shall never be at the trouble to un- deceive either ; my follies have seldom been of my own seeking. ' Rebellion came in my way and I found it.' This may appear as coxcombical a speech as Veramore could m.akcyet ^ou partly know its truth. You talk to me too of ' ray cha- LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 261 racter,' and yet it is one which you and fifty others have been struggling these seven years to obtain for yourselves. I wish you had it, you would make so much better, that is worse, use of it ; relieve me, and gratify an ambition which is unworthy of a man of sense. It has always appeared to me extraordinary that you should value women so highly and yet love them so little. The height of your gratification ceases with its accomplishment; you bow — and you sigh — and you worship — and abandon. For my part I regard them as a very beautiful but inferior animal. I think them as much out of their place at our tables as they would be in our senates. The whole present system, with regard to that sex, is a remnant of the chivalrous barbarism of our ancestors ; I look upon them as grown up children, but, like a foolish mamma, am always the slave of some only one. With a contempt for the race, I am ever attached to the individual, in spite oi myself. You know, that though not rude, I am inattentive ; any thing but a ' beau garcon,' I would not hand a woman out of her carriage, but I would leap into a river after her. However, I grant you 262 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE that, as they must walk often er out of chariots than into the Thames, you gentlemen Servitors, Cortejos, and Cicisbei, have a better chance of being agreeable and useful; you might, very probably, do both ; but, as you can't swim, and I can, I recommend you to invite me to your first water-party. " Bramblebear's Lady Penelope puzzles me. She is very beautiful, but not one of my beauties. You know I admire a different complexion, but the figure is perfect. She is accomplished, if her mother and music-master may be believed; ami- able, if a soft voice and a sweet smile could make her so ; young, even by the register of her baptism ; pious and chaste, and doting on her husband, according to Bramblebear's observa- tion ; equally loving, not of her husband, though rather less pious, and V other thing, according to Veramore's ; and^ if mine hath any discernment, she detests the one, despises the other, and loves— herself. That she dislikes Bramblebear is evident ; poor soul, I can't blame her ; she has found him out to be mighty weak, and little-iem- pered ; she has also discovered that she married LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 263 too early to know Vv^hat she liked, and that there are many likeable people who would have been less discordant and more creditable partners. Still she conducts herself well, and in point of good- humour, to admiration. — A good deal of religion, (not enthusiasm, for that leads the contrary way), a prying husband who never leaves her, and, as I think, a very temperate pulse, will keep her out of scrapes. I am glad of it, first, because, though Bramblebear is bad, I don't think Vera- more much better ; and next, because Bramble- bear is ridiculous enough already, and it would only be thrown away upon him to make him more so ; thirdly, it would be a pity, because no body would pit^ him ; and, fourthly, (as Scrub says) he would then become a melancholy and sentimental harlequin, instead of a merry, fretful, pantaloon, and I like the pantomime better as it is now cast. " More in my next. *' Yours, truly, « . Darrell." 264 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE CHAPTER XL THE CORSAIR— CHARGE AGAINST LORD BYRON IN THE PUBLIC PAPERS. I AGAIN enjoyed his friendship and his com- pany, with a pleasure sweet to my memory, and not easily expressed. He was in the habit of reading his poems to me as he wrote them. In the spring of the year 1813, he read me the Giaour — he assured me that the verse containing the simile of the Scorpion was imagined in his sleep, except the last four lines. At this time, I thought him a good deal depressed in spi- rits, and I lamented that he had abandoned every idea of being a statesman. He talked of going abroad again, and requested me to LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 265 keep in mind, that he had a presentiment that he should never return. He now renewed a promise which he had made me, of concluding Childe Harold and giving it to me, and requested me to print all his works after his death. I considered all this as the effects of depression — his genius had but begun the long and lofty flight it was about to take, and he was soon awakened to the charm of occasional augmentations of fame. It was some time before he determined on publishing the Giaour. I beUeve not till Mr. Gifford sent him a mes- sage, calling on him not to give up his time to slight compositions, as he had genius to send him to the latest posterity with Milton and Spenser. Meanwhile, he had written the Bride of Abydos. Towards the end of the year, his publisher wrote him a let- ter, offering a thousand guineas for these two poems, which he did not accept, but suffered him to publish them. He was so 266 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE pleased with the flattery he received from that quarter, that he forgot his dignity ; and once he even said to me, that money le- velled distinction. The American government had this year sent a special embassy to the Court of Petersburgh. Mr. Gallatin was the Am- bassador, and my nephew, George Mifflin Dallas, was his Secretary. When the business in Russia was finished, they came to England. My nephew had brought over with him an American Poem. American literature rated very low. The Edinburgh Review says, " the Americans have none — no native literature we mean. It is all imported. They had a Franklin indeed; and may afford to live half a century on his fame. There is, or was, a Mr. Dwight, who wrote some poems ; and his baptismal name was Timothy. There is also a small account of Virginia, by Jefferson, and an Epic, by Joel Barlow — and some pieces of LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 267 pleasantry, by Mr. Irving. But why should the Americans write books, when a six weeks passage brings them, in their own tongue, our sense, science, and genius, in bales and hogsheads?*'' Much cannot be said for the liberality of this criticism. Some names, it is true, have been doomed by the spirit of ridicule to mockery ; Lord Byron himself exclaims against both bap- tismal and surname — Oh ! Amos Cottle ! — Phoebus ! what a name To fill the speaking-trump of future fame ! So when it suited his Satire, he split the southern smooth monosyllable of Brougham into the rough northern dissyllable of Brough-am : Beware, lest blundering Brough-am spoil the sale, Turn beef to bannocks, cauliflowers to kail — Yet we know, that very unsonorous names have, by greatness of mind, by talents and * Edinburgh Review— No. 60, p. 144, Dec. 1818. 268 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE by virtues, been exalted to the highest pitch of admiration. Pitt, and Fox, and Petty, owe their grandeur to the men who have borne them. Tom Spratt, and Tom Tickell, were Enghsh poets and celebrated characters. President Dwight was no ^vriter of poetry, but had he written the Seasons, he would have been a far-famed poet in spite of his name being Timothy; and the theological works which he has written, and of which the Edinburgh Reviewer seems to be totally ignorant, will immortalize his name though it were ever so cacaphonic. The reasoning is equally unintelligible, when the Reviewer decides it to be sufficient for the Americans to import sense, science, and genius, in bales and hogsheads. Might not the Ame- ricans as reasonably ask why the lawyers of Edinburgh should write Reviews, when three days bring them, in the tongue they write in, all the criticism of England, in brown-paper packages ? Poetical genius is LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 269 a heavenly spark, with which it pleases the Almighty to gift some men. It has shone forth in the other quarters of the globe — if it be bestowed on an American, the ability of importing English and Scotch poems is no good reason why it should be smothered. The poem which my nephew brought to England was one of those pieces of pleasantry by an American gen- tleman*. It was a burlesque of a fine poem of one of our most celebrated poets, and as a specimen of a promising nature, it was reprinted in London. With this motive, only the ingenuity of the writer was considered. It could not be thought more injurious to the real Bard, than Cot- ton s burlesque to Virgil ; nor could the American hostility to a gallant British * The gentleman to whom it was attributed has since distinguished himself in the literary world, and is now said not to be the author of it. It was not denied at the time : the Americans in London ascribed it to him. 270 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE commander be suspected of giving a mo- ment's pain— at least I did not think so. I believe that the nature of this American poem was known to the proprietor of the Quarterly Review. So far as it was a bur- lesque on the Lay of the Last Minstrel, I know it was ; yet was he, as a publisher, so anxious to get it, that he engaged Lord Byron to use his utmost influence with me to obtain it for him, and his Lordship wrote me a most pressing letter upon the occa- sion. He asked me to let Mr. Murray (who was in despair about it) have the publication of this poem, as the greatest possible favour. The following was my answer, dated Worton-House, December 19th, 1813:—- " I would not hesitate a moment to lay aside the kind of resentment I feel against Mr. Murray, for the pleasure of complying with the desire you so strongly express, if LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 271 it were in my power; — but judge of the impracticability, when I assure you that a considerable portion of the poem is in the printer's hands, and that the publication will soon make its appearance. It has in- deed been morally impossible for me to do it for some time. I think I need not pro- test very eagerly to be believed, when I say that I should be happy to do what you could esteem a favour. I wish for no tri- umph over Murray. — The post of this morning brought me a letter from him. — I shall probably answer it at my leisure some way or other. — I wish you a good night, and ever am, " My dear Lord," &c. In less than a fortnight, the current of satisfaction which had run thus high and thus strong in favour of his publisher, ebbed with equal rapidity ; and became so low, that in addition to the loss of 272 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE this coveted American poem, the pubHca- tion of his Lordship's future works had nearly gone into a different channel. On the 28th of December, I called in the morning on Lord Byron, whom I found composing " The Corsair." He had been working upon it but a few days, and he read me the portion he had written. After some observations, he said, " I have a great mind — I will." He then added, that he should finish it soon, and asked me to ac- cept of the copyright. I was much sur- prised. He had, before he was aware of the value of his works, declared he never would take money for them ; and that I should have the whole advantage of all he wrote. This declaration became morally void, when the question was about thou- sands instead of a few hundreds ; and I perfectly agree with the admired and ad- mirable author of Waverly, that " the wise and good accept not gifts which are made OF THE :VERS1TY ) OF J LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 273 in heat of blood, and which may be after repented of*." I felt this on the sale of Childe Harold, and observed it to him. The copyright of the Giaour and the Bride of Abydos remained undisposed of, though the poems were selling rapidly ; nor had I the slightest notion that he would ever again give me a copyright. But as he continued in the resolution of not appro- priating the sale of his works to his own use, I did not scruple to accept that of the Corsair ; and I thanked him. He asked me to call and hear the portions read as he wrote them. I went every morning, and was astonished at the rapidity of his com- position. He gave me the poem complete on New Year's Day, 1814, saying, that my acceptance of it gave him great pleasure ; and that I was fully at liberty to publish it with any bookseller I pleased. Independent of the profit, I was highly delighted with * Monastery, vol. iii. c. 7. 274 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE this confidential renewal of kindness, and he seemed pleased that I felt it so. I must, however, own, that I found kindness to me was not the sole motive of the gift. I asked him if he wished me to publish it through his pubhsher.— " Not at all," said he, " do exactly as you please ; he has had the assurance to give me his ad- vice as to writing, and to tell me that I should outwrite myself. I would rather you would publish it by some other book- seller." The circumstance, however, lowered the pride of wealth ; a submissive letter was written, containing some flattery, and, in spite of an awkward apology, Lord Byron was appeased. He requested me to let the publisher of the former poems have the copyright, to which I of course agreed. While the Corsair was in the press Lord Byron dedicated it to Mr. Moore, and at the end of the poem he added, " Stanzas LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 275 on a Lady weeping." These were printed without my knowledge. They no sooner appeared, acknowledged by his name in the title page, than he was violently assailed in the leading newspapers, in verse and in prose : his life, his sentiments, his works. The suppressed Satire, with the names of his new friends at length, was re-printed, in great portions, in the Courier, Post, and other papers. Among other things, an at- tempt was made to mortify him, by asser- tions of his receiving large sums of money for his writings. He was extremely galled — and indeed the daily-continued attempts to overwhelm him were enough to gall him. There was no cessation of the fire opened upon him. I was exceedingly hurt, but he had brought it upon himself, after having by his genius conquered all his enemies. He did not relish the ecraser system, when it was turned upon himself; and he derived no aid from those who had got him into the T 2 276 RECOLLECTIONS OP THE scrape. In the goading it occasioned he wrote to me. His feeUngs upon this subject were clearly manifested, but he expressed himself in the kindest manner towards me; and though Mr. Murray was going to contradict the statement made in the Courier and other papers, he desired that my name should not be mentioned. Immediately on receiv- ing Lord Byron's letter, I sat down to write one to be pubhshed in the morning-papers, and while I was writing it, I received ano- ther note from him. It had been deter- mined that Mr. Murray should say nothing upon the subject, and Lord Byron deter- mined to take no notice of it himself. He therefore wished me not to involve myself in the squabble by any public statement. In the first of these letters it was very evident that Lord Byron wished me to interfere, though he was too dehcate to ask it; and in the second letter, nothing can LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 277 be clearer than that he was hurt at the determination which had been taken, that his pubhsher should say nothing. I there- fore resolved to publish the letter I had written, but, at the same time, to have his concurrence; in consequence I took it to town and read it to him. He was greatly- pleased, but urged me to do nothing dis- agreeable to my feelings. I assured him that it was, on the contrary, extremely agreeable to them, and I immediately carried it to the proprietor of the Morning Post, with whom I was acquainted. I sent copies to the Morning Chronicle and other papers, and I had the satisfaction of finding the persecution discontinued. The following is the letter : — TO THE EDITOR OF THE MORNING POST. Sir, I have seen the paragraph in an evening paper, in which Lord Byron is accused of " re- 278 UECOLLECTIONS OF THE ceiving and pocketing" large sums for his works. I believe no one who knows him has the slightest suspicion of this kind, but the assertion being public, I think it a justice I owe to Lord Byron to contradict it publicly. I address this letter to you for that purpose, and I am happy that it gives me an opportunity, at this moment, to make some observations which I have for several days been anxious to do publicly, but from which I have been restrained by an apprehension that I should be suspected of being prompted by his Lordship. I take upon me to affirm that Lord Byron never received a shilling for any of his works. To my certain knowledge the profits of the Satire were left entirely to the publisher of it. The gift of the copyright of Chiide Harold's Pilgrimage I have already publicly acknowledged, in the Dedication of the new edition of my novels ; and I now add my acknowledgment for that of the Corsair, not only for the profitable part of it, but for the deli- cate and delightful manner of bestowing it, while yet unpublished. With respect to his two other poems, the Giaour and the Bride of Ahi/dos, Mr. Murray, the publisher of them, can truly attest LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 279 that no part of the sale of those has ever touched his hands, or been disposed of for his use. Having said thus much as to facts, I cannot but express my surprise, that it should ever be deemed a matter of reproach that he should appropriate the pecuniary returns of his works. Neither rank nor fortune seems to me to place any man above this ; for what difference does it make in honour and noble feelings, whether a copyright be bestowed, or its value employed in beneficent purposes. T differ with my Lord Byron on this subject as well as some others ; and he has con- stantly, both by word and action, shown his aver- sion to receiving money for his productions. The pen in my hand, and affection and grateful feelings in my heart, I cannot refrain from touch- ing upon a subject of a painful nature, delicate as it is, and fearful as I am that I shall be unable to manage it with a propriety of which it is sus- ceptible, but of which the execution is not easy. One reflection encourages me, for if magnanimity be the attendant of rank, (and all that I have pub- lished proves such a prepossession in my mind,) then have I the less to fear from the most illustrious, 280 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE in undertaking to throw, into its proper point of view, a circumstance which has been completely misrepresented or misunderstood. I do not purpose to defend the publication of the two stanzas at the end of the Corsair, which has given rise to such a torrent of abuse, and of the in- sertion of which I was not aware till the Poem was published; but most surely they have been placed in a light which never entered the mind of the au- thor, and in which men of dispassionate minds cannot see them. It is absurd to talk seriously of their ever being meant to disunite the parent and the child, or to libel the sovereign. It is very easy to descant upon such assumed enormities ; but the assumption of them, if not a loyal error, is an atrocious crime. Lord Byron never contem- plated the horrors that have been attributed to him. The lines alluded to were an impromptu, upon a single well-known fact ; I mean the failure in the endeavour to form an administration in the year 1812, according to the wishes of the author's friends ; on which it was reported that tears were shed by an illustrious female. The very words in the context show the verses to be confined LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 281 to that one circumstance, for they are in the singular number, disgrace, fault. What dis- grace? — What fault ? Those (says the verse) of not saving a sinking realm (and let the date be remembered, March, 1812), by taking the writer's friends to support it. Never was there a more simple political sentiment expressed in rhyme. If this be libel, if this be the undermining of filial affection, where shall we find a term for the lan- guage often heard in both houses of Parliament ? While I hope that I have said enough to show the hasty misrepresentation of the lines in ques- tion, I must take care not to be misunderstood myself. The little part I take in conversing on politics is well known, among my friends, to difier completely from the political sentiments which dictated these verses ; but knowing their author better than most who pretend to judge of him, and with motives of afiection, veneration, and admiration, I am shocked to think that the hasty collecting of a few scattered poems, to be placed at the end of a volume, should have raised such a clamour. — I am, Sir, your obedient Servant, R. C. Dallas. 282 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE I was delighted, and Lord Byron was pleased with the effect of my public letter. I passed a very pleasant morning with him a day or two after it appeared, and he read me several letters he had received upon it. The Corsair had an immediate and rapid sale. As soon as it was printed, the pub- lisher sent it to a gentleman of fortune and of talent, who supported his Review ; informing him, at the same time, that he had sold several thousand copies of the Poem on the first day. In the original manuscript of the Corsair, the chief female character was called Fran- cesca, in whose person he meant to deli- neate one of his acquaintance ; but, before the Poem went to the press, he changed the name to Medora. Through the winter, and during the spring of 1814, he maintained an open and friendly intercourse with me. I saw him very frequently. k L[FE OF LORD BYRON, 283 In May he began his Poem of Lara ; on the 19th I called upon him, when he read the beginning of it to me. I immediately- said that it was a continuation of the Cor- sair. He was now so frank and kind that I again ventured to talk to him of Newtead Abbey, which brought to his mind his promise of the pledge; and, on June 10, 1814, after reading the continuation of Lara, he renewed the resolution of never parting with the Abbey. In confirmation of this he gave me all the letters he had written to his mother, from the time of his forming the resolution to go abroad till his return to England in July, 1811. The one he originally meant as a pledge for the preservation of Newstead, is that of the 6th March, 1809. In giving them to me, he said, they might one day be looked upon as curiosities, and that they were mine to do as I pleased with. 284 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE I remained of opinion that Lara was the Corsair disguised, or, rather, that Conrad was Lara returned, after having embraced the Ufe of a Corsair in consequence of his crime. He had not determined the catas- trophe when I left him — I wrote and urged it. This was my letter on the subject ; — " The beauties of your new Poem equal, some of them perhaps excel, what we have enjoyed in your preceding tales. With re- spect to the narrative, the interest, as far as you have read, is completely sustained. Yet, to render Lara ultimately as interest- ing as Conrad, he ought, I think, to be developed of his mystery in the conclusion of the Poem. Sequels to tales have seldom been favourites, and I see you are disposed to avoid one in Lara, but such a sequel as you would make, with what you have begun, could not fail of success. Slay him in your proposed battle, and let Calad's LIFE OP LORD BYRON. 285 lamentation over his body discover in him the Corsair, and in his page the wretched Gulnare. For all this gloom pray give us after this a happy tale." He chose to leave it to the reader's de- termination ; but, I think, it is easy to be traced in the scene under the line where Lara, mortally wounded, is attended by Kaled.— " His dying tones are in that other tongue, To which some strange remembrance wildly clung. They spoke of other scenes, but what — is known To Kaled, whom their meaning reached alone ; And, he rephed, though faintly, to their sound, While gazed the rest in dumb amazement round : They seemed e''en then — that twain — unto the last To half forget the present in the past ; To share between themselves some separate fate. Whose darkness none beside should penetrate." Canto II. Stanz, 18 286 RECOLLECTIONS OP THE In the next stanza, also, he speaks of re- membered scenes. In the 21st stanza the sex of Kaled is revealed. — In the 22d the reader is led to conclude that Kaled was Gulnare — though " that wild tale she brook'd not to unfold.'" Lara was finished on the 24th of June, 1814. He read it over to me, and while I was with him that day he made me a present of four proof prints taken from Westall's picture of him. He also gave me the small engraving which was taken from the portrait painted by Phillips. These portraits combine all that depends upon the pencil to transmit of personal resemblance, and all of mind that it can catch for posterity or the stranger. The effect of utterance, and the living grace of motion, must still be left to the imagination of those who have not had opportunities of observing them ; LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 287 but the power with which no pencil is en- dowed is displayed by the pen of Byron himself, and to this must these pictures be indebted for the completion of their effect. I have seen him again and again in both the views given by the artists. That of Mr. Phillips is simply the portrait of a gen- tleman — it is very like ; but the sentiment which appears to me to predominate in it is haughtiness. If I judge aright, I am not the less of opinion, that there is no error attributable to the pencil by which the sentiment was marked. I have seen Lord Byron assume it on some occasions, and I have no doubt that the feeling which pro- duced it was a fluctuation from his natural, ea sy, flexible lock, to one ofntended dig- nity. Whether there be more of dignity or of haughtiness in the countenance, as there expressed, I mean not to contend— it strikes me as I have mentioned. ButitisWestall's picture that I contemplate at times with 288 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE calm delight, and at times with rapture. It is the picture of emanating genius, of Byron's genius — it needs not utterance, it possesses the living grace of thought, of intellect, of spirit, and is like a sun beaming its powerful rays to warm and vivify the imaginations and the hearts of mankind. From the free and unlimited egress he permitted me to his apartments, I saw him in every point of view. I have been with him when he was composing. Some of the additional stanzas of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, and many lines of the Corsair, and of Lara, were com- posed in my presence. At his chambers in the Albany, there was a long table covered with books standing before the fire-place : at the one end of it stood his own easy chair, and a small round table at his hand ; at the other end of the table was another easy chair, on which I have sat for hours reading, or contemplating him ; and I have seen him in the very position represented LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 289 in Mr. Westall's picture. I have already said that he gave me four of the earhest impressions of the print taken from it. It brings him completely to my mind. I have been in the habit of contemplating it with great affection, though sometimes mixed with a sorrow for those opinions on which I found it impossible to accord with him, and for those acts which incurred the dis- approbation of the good and the wise ; but never did I look upon it with such sorrow as on the day I heard that he was no more. I have little to add. Peace with France being concluded in the year 1814, I re- solved on going to Paris, and thence to the South ; but as I did not immediately leave England, and Lord Byron returning to town, I had an opportunity of seeing him again. I sat some time with him on the 4th of October, and then took my leave of u 290 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE him ; and here I think our intercourse may be said to terminate. While I was at Bor- deaux, his marriage took place. Napoleon s successful entry into Paris hurried me back to England ; and on my arrival in London I saw both Lord and Lady Byron at their house in Piccadilly. I think that for some years I possessed more of his affection than those who, after the establishment of his fame, were proud to call him friend. This opinion is formed, not only from the recollected pleasure I enjoyed, but from his own opinions in con- versation, long after he had entered the vor- tex of gaiety and of flattery; and from what he read to me from a book in which he was in the habit of drawing characters ; — a book that was not to be published till the living generation had passed away. That book suggested to me these pages : nor did I keep my intention a secret from him. In LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 291 the year 1819, I informed him that my posthumous volume was made up ; and I said : — " I look into it occasionally with much pleasure, and I enjoy the thought of being in company with your spirit, when it is opened on earth towards the end of the nine- teenth century, and of finding you pleased, even in the high sphere you may then, if you would but will it now, occupy— which it is possible you might not be, were you to see it opened by the world in your present sphere. I do not know whether you are able to say as much for your book ; for if you do live hereafter, and I have not the slightest doubt but you will, I suspect that you will have company about you at the opening of it v/hich may rather afford occasion of remorse than of pleasure, how- ever gracious and forgiving you may find immortal spirits. Of you I have written u 2 292 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE precisely as I think, and as I have found you; and though I have inserted some things which I could not give to the pre- sent generation, the whole as it stands is a just portrait of you during the time you honoured me with your intimacy and friend- ship, (for I drop the pencil where the curtain dropped between us,) and the picture is to me an engaging one." If his affection, his confidence, nay T will boldly say his preference, on difficult occasions, were but flattery or an illusion lasting for years, the remembrance of it is too agreeable to be parted with at the closing period of my life, especially as that remembrance is accompanied with a recollection of my anxiety, and of my efforts to exalt him as high in wisdom as nature and education had raised him on the standard of genius. But it was no illu- sion ; and at the very moment of his quit- LIFE OF LORD B\T10N. 203 ting his country for ever, I received one more proof of his remembrance and of his confidence. I had returned to the Con- tinent. Whatever was the cause of the breach between him and his lady, it ap- pears to have been irreparable, and it at- tracted public notice and animadversion. All the odium fell on him, and his old ene- mies were glad of another opportunity of assailing him. Tale succeeded tale, and he was painted hideously in prose and verse, and tittle-tattle. Publicly and privately he was annoyed and goaded in such a manner, that he resolved to go abroad. On taking this resolution, he sent a note to my son, who was then in London, requesting to see him. He immediately waited upon him. Lord Byron said to him, he was afraid that I thought he had slighted me ; told him of his intention to go to Switzer- land and Italy, and invited him to accom- pany him. This invitation doubly pleased 294 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE me : it showed that I still possessed a place in his memory and regard ; and I saw in it advantages for my son in travelling which he might not otherwise enjoy ; but, upon reflection, I was not sorry he did not avail himself of the opportunity, and that the proposal fell to the ground. Lord Byron left England in the year 1816, and I trace him personally no far- ther. I continued to read his new poems with great pleasure, as they appeared, till he published the two first cantos of Don Juan, which I read with a sorrow that ad- miration could not compensate. His muse, his British muse, had disdained licentious- ness and the pruriency of petty wits ; but with petty wits he had now begun to amal- gamate his pure and lofty genius. Yet he did not long continue to alloy his golden ore with the filthy dross of impure metal : whatever errors he fell into, whatever sins lie at his door, he occasionally burst through LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 295 his impurities, as he proceeded in that won- derful and extraordinary medley, in which we at once feel the poet and see the man : no eulogy will reach his towering height in the former character ; no eulogy dictated by friendship and merited for claims which truth can avow, will, I fear, cover the — I have no word, I will use none — ^that has been fastened upon him in the latter. The fact is, that he was like most men, a mixed character ; and that, on either side, medio- crity was out of his nature. If his pen were sometimes virulent and impious, his heart was always benevolent, and his sen* timents sometimes apparently pious. Nay, he would have been pious, — he would have been a christian, had he not fallen into the hands of atheists and scoffers. ****** ****** There was something of a pride in him which carried him beyond the common 296 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE sphere of thought and feeUng. And the excess of this characteristic pride bore away, hke a whirlwind, even the justest feehngs of our nature ; but it could not root them entirely from his heart. In vain did he defy his country and hold his coun- trymen in scorn; the choice he made of the motto for Childe Harold evinces that patriotism had taken root in his mind. The visions of an Utopia in his untravelled fancy deprived reality of its charm ; but when he awakened to the state of the world, what said he ? "I have seen the most celebrated countries in the world, and have learned to prefer and to love my own." In vain too was he led into the de- fiance of the sacred writings ; there are passages in his letters and in his works which show that religion might have been in his soul. Could he cite the following lines and resist the force of them ? It is true that he marks them for the beauty of LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 297 the verse, but no 'less for the sublimity of the conceptions; and I cannot but hope that had he lived he would have proved another instance of genius bowing to the power of truth ; Dim as the borrow' d beams of moon and stars, To lonely, wandering, weary travellers. Is reason to the soul. — And as on high Those rolling fires discover but the sky, Not light us here ; so reason''s glimmering ray Was lent, not to assure our doubtful way, But guide us upward to a better day. And as those nightly tapers disappear. When day^s bright lord ascends our hemisphere ; So pale grows reason at religion's sight, So dies, — and so dissolves — in supernatural light. Drydex — quoted in the Liberal. When I planned this book, it was my intention to conclude it with remarks on the genius and writings of Lord Byron. Alas ! I have suffered time to make a pro- gress unfriendly to the subject to which I had attached so great an interest. Had 298 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE Providence vouchsafed me the happiness of recording of him, from my own knowledge, the renovation of his mind and character, which has been an unvaried object of my prayers, my dehght would have supplied me with energy and with spirits to continue my narrative and my observations. His genius and his writings have already been widely and multifariously examined and acknowledged, but they will no doubt be treated of in a concentered manner by an abler pen than mine ; and I therefore the more willingly rehnquish this task. Of his course of life subsequent to his leaving England, I will not write upon hearsay. However he may have spent some portion of the time, the last part of it cannot but redound to his honour and his fame as a man; and he seemed to me building in Greece a magnificent road for his return to his own country. Had he lived and suc- ceeded, one single word of contrition LIFE OP LORD BYRON. 299 would have wiped away all offences ; and the hearts and the arms of his countrymen would have opened to receive him on his arrival. They would have drawn him in a triumphal car from the coast to the me- tropolis. 300 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE CHAPTER XII. CONCLUSION. This work had proceeded thus far, when it pleased God to stop the pen of the writer, and bid to cease the current of recollec- tions which had set it in motion. Mr. Dallas had been attacked, in the month of July *, with an inflammatory fever, for which copious bleeding was necessary ; he recovered indeed from the immediate dis- ease, but the debility occasioned by the remedy was too great for his constitution to overcome, and he gradually sank under its effects. On the 21st of October, 1824, he expired. On his death-bed, and with a near view of eternity before him, which * See Freliminarv Statement. LIFE OP LORD BVRON. 301 was brightened by the firm hope of its being passed in the presence of his recon- ciled Maker, he confided to the writer of the following pages the task of closing these Recollections, and imparted to him his feelings and opinions upon the matter which should compose this concluding chapter. While executing this sacred commission, I intreat the reader to remember that it is not the same person who writes ; and not only that the writer is different, but to call to mind that it is a son who takes up the mantle which a father has cast down in leaving this world. Whoever has pe- rused the foregoing pages, cannot but feel that the author has borne a part in the circumstances which are related of so hon- ourable a nature, that a son may be well authorised to speak in other terms than those which the person himself might use. And if, in any thing I may say, it should be 302 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE thought that I have overstepped the rea- sonable licence which may be granted to the feehngs of so near and dear a con- nexion, I trust that whatever may be counted as excess, will be pardoned in consideration of the fresh and power- ful impulse which cannot but be given by the sense of so recent an event. The character of Lord Byron, as it stands depicted in the preceding pages, will ap- pear in a different light from that in which the pubhc have recently been led to re- gard it. Piquant anecdotes, and scandalous chronicles, may serve to amuse for a time the unthinking ; but their real tendency is to pander to the worst feelings ot our na- ture, by dragging into light the corruptions which disgrace humanity. It is not diffi- cult to form an estimate of what Lord Byron might have been, by attending to the causes which made him what he was. LIFE OF LORD BYRON. SOS To reason from hearsay, and form opi- nions upon the unauthenticated annals of common conversation, can never bring us to truth, nor give to our judgments suffi- cient certainty for practical purposes. It will therefore be useless to attempt to esti- mate Lord Byron's original character from the events commonly related of his early life; nor to take into consideration the defects of his education, and the misfor- tunes of his boyhood. We have no au- thorized data upon which to conduct such an inquiry. But the pages of this book do contain authorized data. They con- tain opinions, and feelings, and facts, es- tablished by his own hand, although circumstances withhold from the British public the original records. These data will show us what he was, immediately before and immediately after the pub- lic development of his poetical powers had thrown him into a vortex which 304 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE decided his character, whatever it might have been previously. There might have been some difficulty in finding so reasonable a ground-work upon which to form an opinion of what he had continued to be in his subsequent progress through life ; and the fairest inference would have been that which his own later pro- ductions afford, had not a work been pub- lished purporting to be the record of Con- versations held with Lord Byron at Pisa, in the years 1821 and 182.2. This book ap- peared on the very day on which my father's remains were consigned to the grave, and I cannot be too thankful that he was spared the pain which he v/ould have felt in reading it. The perusal of this book rewards the reader, as he was rewarded who opened Pandora's box. It fills the mind with an unvaried train of miserable reflections ; but there is one consolation at the end. As by LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 305 a mathematical axiom the lesser is con- tained in the greater, so the comparatively- smaller crime of falsehood is necessarily within the capability of one so depraved as Lord Byron appears in this book ; and by the same argument, the man whose mind could be in such a state as to suppose that he was doing " the world" and " the me- mory of Lord Byron" a service, by thus laying bare the degradation to which a master-mind was reduced, must surely be unable to restrain the tendency to exag- geration which would heighten the incre- dibility of what is already beyond belief. This opinion concerning the reporter of Lord Byron's conversations is in some de- gree confirmed, by the simplicity which he displays in stating, that when Lord Byron was applied to for some authentic particu- lars of his life, his lordship asked the re- porter himself, '' Why he did not write some, as he believed that he knew more of 306 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE him than any one else ?" This was after three or four months' acquaintance * I In my own case, after reading the book to which I allude, this solitary consolation on account of Lord Byron was accompanied by a feeling of great satisfaction on account of my father ; for, if its contents be not * There are several things mentioned in this book of Conversations which prove, to say the least, that Lord Byron's memory was not correct, if what is reported of him be true. On one occasion his lordship is stated to have said that his mother's death was one of the reasons of his return from Turkey, and this is repeated more strongly in another place. His mother's death did not take place until several weeks after his arrival in London, and he had not the slightest expectation of it when it hap- pened. Lord Byron is also stated to have said, that after an absence of tlwee 3'ears, he returned to London, and that the second canto of Childe Harold was just then published. The fact is, that he was absent two years to a day, which he remarked himself in a very strong man- ner, returning in July, 1811, and that the first and second cantos of Childe Harold Avere published together eight months after, in March, 1812, in the manner related in these Recollections. LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 307 only the truth, but the whole truth, Lord Byron afforded the highest testimony of his respect for my father's character, which in his unhappy situation he could possibly upon give. In such company, and conversing such subjects, he forbore to mention his name, although referring to matters upon which, the reader will have seen, it would have been natural to have spoken of him. I am willing to attribute this silence to the circumstance that, in Lord Byron s mind, my father's name must have been con- nected with the remembrance of all he had done, and said, and written, to turn him into the better path ; and his Lordship could not have borne to recal that train of thought, after he had decidedly chosen the worse. That my father's earnest exertions had been applied to this end, will suffici- ently appear from the foregoing part of this work; and, perhaps, I shall be pardoned for inserting here the body of a letter X 2 308 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE which he wrote to Lord Byron at a much later period, to prove that he still retained that object in view. The letter is that alluded to in the last chapter, when, stating that he informed Lord Byron of his inten- tion to leave a posthumous account of him, he extracted a short passage from it. The whole letter, which might not so well have been made public by the writer himself, cannot be considered as improperly pub- Hshed by the present Editor. It was dated the 10th of November, 1819, and after some introductory remarks upon the cessation of his correspondence with Lord Byron, it proceeds as follows : — " I am almost out of life, and I shall speak to you with the freedom of a spirit already arrived beyond the grave ; what I now write you may suppose addressed to you in a dream, or by my ghost, which I believe will be greatly inclined to haunt LIFE OF LORD HYRON, 309 you, and render you even supernatural service. " I take it for granted, my Lord, that when you exckided me from your friendship, you also banished me from your thoughts, and forgot the occurrences of our intimacy. I will, therefore, bring one circumstance to your recollection, as it is introductory to the subject of this letter. One day when I called upon you at your apartments in the Albany, you took up a book in which you had been writing, and having read a few short pas- sages, you said that you intended to fill it with the characters of those then around you, and with present anecdotes, to be pub- lished in the succeeding century, and not be- fore ; and you enjoyed, by anticipation, the effect that would be produced on the fifth and sixth generations of those to whom you should give niches in your posthumous vo- lume. I have often thought of this fancy of yours, and imagined the wits, the belles. 310 RECOLLECTIONS OP THE and the beaux, the dupes of our sex, and the artful and frail ones of the other, figuring at the beginning of the twentieth century in the costume of the early part of the nineteenth. I remember well that after one or two slight sketches you concluded with, « This morn- ing Mr. Dallas was here, &c. &c.' You went on no farther, but the smile with which you shut your book gave me to understand that the colours you had used for my portrait were not of a dismal hue, and I was inclined enough at the time to digest the flattery, as I was conscious that I deserved your kindness, and believed that you felt so too. But, however that may be, whether the words were a mere flattering impromptu or not, whatever character you may have doomed me to figure in, a hundred years hence, you certainly have not done me justice in this age : it will not, there- fore, appear extraordinary if I should not have depended altogether for my character LIFE OP LORD BYRON. 311 on the smile with which you put your vo- lume down. " Lest you should suspect some inconsis- tency in this, and that although I began by assuring you that I did not mean to com- plain, my letter has been imagined for no other purpose; I will pause here, to de- clare to you solemnly that the affection I have felt for you, that the affection I do feel for you, is the motive by which I am at present actuated ; and that but for the desire I feel to be of some service to you, you never would have heard from me again while I remained in this life. Were not this the case, this letter would deserve to be considered as an impertinence, and I would scorn to write it. I would give the world to retrieve you ; to place you again upon that summit which you reached, I may say on which you alighted, in the spring of 1812. It may be a more arduous attempt, but I see no impossibility ; nay, to place you much higher than ever. You 312 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE are yet but little beyond the dawn of life- it is downright affectation ; it is, I was going to say, folly, to talk of grey hairs and age at twenty-nine. This is free lan- guage, my Lord, but not more than you formerly allowed me, and my increased age, and nearer view of eternity confirm the privilege. As a Poet you have indeed wonderfully filled up the years you have attained— as a man you are in your infancy. Like a child you fall and dirt yourself, and your last fall has soiled you more than all the rest. I would to heaven you had not written your last unaccountable work*, and which, did it not here and there bear inter- nal incontestible evidence, I would suflTer no man to call yours. Forgive my warmth— I would rather consider you as a child slip- ping into mire, that may be washed away, than as a man Stept in so far, that should he wade no more, Returning were as tedious as go o'er. * The first Cantos of Don Juan. LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 313 Your absence, and the distance of your abode, leave your name at the mercy of every tatler and scribbler, who, even without being personal enemies, attack character for the mere pleasure of defamation, or for gain; and the life you are said to lead, and I grieve to say the work you have pub- lished, leave you no defenders. However you may stand with the world, I cannot but believe that at your age you may shake off all that clogs you in the career for which you were born. The very determi- nation to resume it would be an irresistible claim to new attention from the world ; and unshaken perseverance would effect all that you could wish. Imagination has had an ample range. No genius ever attained its meed so rapidly, or more completely ; but manhood is the period for reality and action. Will you be content to throw it away for Italian skies and the reputation of eccentri- city? May God grant me power to stir 314 ilECOLLECTlONS OF THE up ill your mind the resolution of living the next twenty years in England, engaged in those pursuits to which Providence seems more directly to call every man who by birth is entitled to take a share in the legislation of his country. But what do I say ? I believe that I ought first to wish you to take a serious view of the subjects on which legislation turns. Much has been argued in favour of adopting and adhering to a party — I have never been convinced of this— but I am digressing. At all events, I beseech you to think of reinstating your- self in your own country. Preparatory to this, an idea has come into my mind, which it is time for me to state to you ; to do which I must return to the seemingly querulous style from which I have digressed. Well then, my Lord, I did some time ago think of your treatment of me with pain; and reflection, v/ithout lessening my attachment, showed me that you had acted towards me I LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 315 very ungenerously, and, indeed, very un- justly — jou ought to have made more of me. I say this the more freely now because I have lived till it is become indifferent to me. It is true that I benefited not inconsiderably by some of your works; but it was not in the nature of money to satisfy or repay me. I felt the pecuniary benefit as I ought, and was not slow in acknowledging it as I ought. The six or seven hundred pounds paid by the purchaser of Childe Harold for the copyright was, in my mind, nothing in comparison with the honour that was due to me for discerning the genius that lay buried in the Pilgrimage, and for exciting you to the publication of it, in spite of the damp which had been thrown upon it in the course of its composition, and in spite of your own reluctance and almost deter- mination to suppress it ; nothing in compa- rison with the kindness that was due to me for the part I took in keeping back your 3] 6 RECOLLFXTIONS OF THE Hints from Horace, and the new edition of the Satire, till the moment I impressed con- viction on your mind that your fame and the choice of your future career in life depended upon the suppression of these, and on the pubhcation of Childe Harold. I made an effort to render you sensible that I was not dead to that better claim, but it was un- successful; and though you continued your personal kindness whenever we met, you raised in my mind a jealousy which I was perhaps too proud, if not too mean-spirited, to betray. The result of the feeling, how- ever, wae, that I borrowed from you the hint of a posthumous volume, for after awhile I did not much care for the present, and I have indulged meditations on 3^ou and on myself for the amusement and judg- ment of future generations, but with this advantage over you, that I am convinced that I shall participate in whatever effect they produce ; and without this conviction LIFE OF LORD BYROX. 317 I cannot conceive how the shghtest value can be attached to posthumous fame. This is a topic on which I feel an inclination to dwell, but I will conquer the impulse, for my letter is already advanced beyond the limits I proposed. My Lord, my posthu- mous volume is made up— I look into it occasionally with much pleasure, and I enjoy the thought of being, when it is opened, in the year 1900, in company with your spirit, and of finding you pleased, even in the high sphere you may, if you will, then occupy, which it is possible you would not be, were you to see it now opened to the public in your present sphere. I do not know, my Lord, whether you are able to say as much for your book, for if you do live hereafter, and I have not the slight- est doubt but you will, I suspect that you will have company about you at the open- ing of it, which may rather afford occasion of remorse than of pleasure, however gra- 318 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE cious and forgiving you may find immortal spirits. Of you I have written precisely as I think, and as I have found you ; and though I have inserted some things vs^hich I vi^ould not give to the present generation, the whole, as it stands, is a just portrait of you during the time I knew you; for I drop the pencil where you dropped the curtain between us, and the picture is to me an engaging one. I contemplate it together with some parts of your works, and I cannot help breaking forth into the exclamation of ' And is this man to be lost !' You, perhaps, echo, in a tone of displeasure, ' Lost !'— Yes, lost. — Nay, un- clench your hand — remember it is my ghost that is addressing you ; not the being of flesh and blood whom you may dash from you at your will, as you have done. The man whose place is in the highest council of the first nation in the world, who pos- sesses powers to delight and to serve his LIFE OP LORD BYRON. 319 country, if he dissipates years between an Italian country-house and opera-box, and murders his genius in attempts to rival a Rochester or a Cleland, — for I will not, to flatter you, say a Boccacio or a La Fontaine, who wrote at periods when, and in countries where, indecency was wit— that man is lost. Gracious Heaven ! on what lofty ground you stood in the month of March, 1812! The world was before you, not as it was to Adam, driven in tears from Paradise to seek a place of rest, but presenting an elysium, to every part of which its crowded and various inhabitants vied in their welcome of you. ' Crowds of eminent persons,' says my posthumous volume, ' courted an introduction, and some volunteered their cards. This was the trying moment of virtue, and no wonder if that w^ere shaken, for never was there so sudden a transition from neglect to courtship. Glory darted thick upon him from all sides ; from the 320 RECOLLECTIONS OP THE Prince Regent, and his admirable daughter, to the bookseller and his shopman ; from Walter Scott to ; from Jeffrey to the nameless critics of the Satirist and Scourge ; he was the wonder of wits, and the show of fashion.' I will not pursue the reverse; but I must repeat, ' And is this man to be lost !' My head is full of you, and whether you allow me the merit or not, my heart tells me that I was chiefly instrumental, by my conduct, in 1812, in saving you from perpetuating the enmity of the world, or rather in forcing you, against your will, into its admiration and love ; and that I once afterwards considerably retarded your rapid retrograde motion from the envied station which genius merits, but which even genius cannot preserve without prudence. These recollections have actuated me, it may be imprudently, to write you this letter, to endeavour to impel you to reflect seriously upon what you ought to be, and to beseech LIFE OF LORD BYRON, 321 you to take steps to render your manhood solidly and lastingly glorious. Will you once more make use of me ? I cannot believe that there is an insurmountable bar to your return to your proper station in life, — a station, which let me be bold enough to say, you have no right to quit. All that I have heard concerning you is but vague talk. The breach v^ith Lady Byron was evidently the ground of your leaving England ; and I presume the causes of that breach are what operate upon your spirit in keeping you abroad. In recol- lecting my principles, you will naturally imagine that the first thing that would occur to my mind in preparing the way for your return, is an endeavour to close that breach — but I am not sufiiciently acquainted with her to judge of the force of her oppo- sition. At any rate, I would make the blame rest at her door, if reconciliation is not obtainable ; I would be morally right ; 322 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE and this it is in your power to be, on which- ever side the wrong at first lay, by a manly severity to yourself, and by declaring your resolution to forgive, and to banish from your thought for ever all that could inter- rupt a cordial reconciliation. This step, should it not produce a desirable effect on the mind of Lady Byron, would infallibly lead to the esteem of the world. Is it too much for me to hope that I might, by a letter to her, and by a public account of you, and of your intended pursuits in Eng- land, make such a general impression, as once more to fix the eyes of your country upon you with sentiments of new admira- tion and regard, and usher you again to a glory of a nature superior to all you ever enjoyed. It has, I own, again and again come into my mind, to model my intended posthumous work for present publication, so as to have that effect ; could I but pre- vail upon you to follow it up by a return to LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 323 England, with a resolution to lead a phi- losophical life, and to turn the great powers of your mind to pursuits worthy of them: and, among those, to a candid search after that religious Truth which often, as imagi- nation sobers, becomes more obvious to the ordinary vision of Reason. Once more, my dear Lord Byron, forgive, or, rather, let me say, reward, my warmth, by listen- ing again to the affection which prompts me to express my desire of serving you. I do not expect the glory of making a re- ligious convert of you. I have still a hope that you will yourself have that glory if your life be spared to the usual length— but my present anxiety is to see you re- stored to your station in this world, after trials that should induce you to look seri- ously into futurity." Such was the affectionate interest with which the author of this letter continued Y 2 324 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE to regard Lord Byron ! But it was too late; he had hardened his heart, and blunted his perception of the real value of such a friend. This was the last communication that ever took place between them, al- though an accidental circumstance afforded the assurance that this letter had reached its destination. To return to the original character of Lord Byron. Whoever has read these pages attentively, or has seen the original documents from whence they are drawn, cannot fail to have perceived, that in his Lordship's early character there were the seeds of all the evil which has blossomed and borne fmit with such luxuriance in his later years. Nor will it be attempted here, to shew that in any part of his life he was without those seeds ; but I think that a candid observer will also be ready to acknowledge, after reading this work, that there was an opposing principle of LIFE OP LORD BYRON. 325 good acting in his mind, with a strength which produced opinions that were after- wards entirely altered. The coterie into which he unfortunately fell at Cambridge famiharized him with all the sceptical argu- ments of human pride. And his acquaint- ance with an unhappy atheist— who was suddenly summoned before his outraged Maker, while bathing in the streams of the Cam, was rendered a severe trial, by the brilliancy of the talent which he possessed, and which imparted a false splendour to the principles which he did not scruple to avow. Yet, when Lord Byron speaks of this man, as being an atheist, he considers it offensive;— when he remarks on the work of Mr. Townsend, who had attempted in the sketch of an intended poem to give an idea of the last judgment, he considered his idea as too daring ;— in opening his heart to his mother he shows that he beheved that God knew, and did all things for the 326 RECOLLECTIONS OP THE best; — after having seen mankind in many nations and characters, he unrestrainedly conveys his opinion, that human nature is every v^^here corrupt and despicable. These points are the more valuable, because they flowed naturally and undesignedly from the heart ; while, on the contrary, his sceptical opinions were expressed only when the subject was before him, and as it were by way of apology. When, in this period of his life, there is any thing like argument upon this subject, advanced by him in his correspondence, it is miserably weak and confused. The death of his atheistical friend bewildered him : he thought there was the stamp of immortality in all this person said and did— that he seemed a man created to display what the Creator could make — and yet, such as he was, he had been gathered into corruption, before the maturity of a mind that might have been the pride of posterity. LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 327 And this bewildered him ! If his opinion of his friend were a just one, ought not this reasoning rather to have produced the conviction, that such a mind could not be gathered into the corruption which awaited the perishable body? Accordingly, Lord Byron's inference did not lead him to pro- duce this death as a support to the doctrine of annihilation ; but his mind being tinc- tured previously with that doctrine, he confesses that it bewildered him. When about to publish Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, containing sceptical opinions, the decided expression of which he was then induced to withdraw, he wrote a note to accompany them, which has been in- serted in this work. Its main object is to declare, that his was not sneering, but des- ponding scepticism — and he grounds his opinions upon the most unlogical deduction that could be formed : that, because he had found many people abuse and disgrace 328 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE the religion they professed, that therefore religion was not true. This is like saying, that because a gamester squanders his guineas for his own destmction, they are therefore not gold, nor applicable for good purposes. Weak as this was, he called it an apology for his scepticism. It cannot be said, that up to this period, Lord Byron was decidedly an unbeliever ; but, on the contrary, I think it may be said, that there was a capability in his mind for the reception of Divine Truth, — that he had not closed his eyes to the light which therefore forced its way in with sufficient power to maintain some contest with the darkness of intellectual pride ; and this opinion is strengthened, by observing the effects of that lingering light, in the colour- ing which it gave to vice and virtue in his mind. His conduct had been immoral and dissipated ; but he knew it to be such, and acknowledged it in its true colours. He LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 329 regretted the indulgence of his passions' as producing criminal acts, and bringing him under their government. He expressed these feelings ; — he did more, he strove against them. He scrupled not publicly to declare his detestation of the immorality which renders the pages of Mr. Moore inad- missible into decent society; and he se- verely satirizes the luxurious excitements to vice which abound in our theatrical im- portation of Italian manners*. When a circumstance occurred in which one of his tenants had given way to his passions. Lord Byron s opinion and decision upon the subject were strongly expressed, and his remarks upon that occasion are particularly worthy of notice. He thought our first * Then let Ausonia, skilled in every art To soften manners, but corrupt the heart, Pour her exotic follies o'er the town, To sanction vice, and hunt decorum dowTi. English Bards. 330 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE duty was not to do evil, though he felt that was impossible. The next duty was to re- pair the evil we have done, if in our power. He would not afford his tenants a privilege he did not allow himself. — He knew he had been guilty of many excesses, but had laid down a resolution to reform, and latterly kept it. I mention these circumstances to call to the reader's mind the general tenor of Lord Byron's estimate of moral conduct, as it appears in the present work; because I think it may be said that he had a lively perception of what was right, and a strong desire to follow it ; but he wanted the re- gulating influence of an acknowledged stan- dard of sufficient purity, and, at the same time, established by sufficient authority in his mind. The patience of God not only offered him such a standard in religion, but kept his heart in a state of capabi- lity for receiving it. In spite of his many LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 331 grievings of God's spirit, still, it would not absolutely desert him as long as he allowed a struggle to continue in his heart. But the publication of Childe Harold was followed by consequences which seemed to have closed his heart against the long-tar- rying spirit of God, and at once to have ended all struggle. Never was there a more sudden transition from the doubtings of a mind to which Divine light was yet accessible, to the unhesitating abandon- ment to the blindness of vice. Lord Byron's vanity became the ruling passion of his mind. He made himself his own god ; and no eastern idol ever received more ab- ject or degrading worship from a bigotted votary. The circumstances which have been de- tailed in this work respecting the publica- tion of Childe Harold, prove sufficiently how decided and how lamentable a turn they gave to a character, which, though 332 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE wavering and inconsistent for want of the guide I have referred to, had not yet passed all the avenues which might take him from the broad way that leadeth to des- truction, into the narrow path of life. But Lord Byrous unresisting surrender to the first temptation of intrigue, from which all its accompanying horrors could not affright him, seems to have banished for ever from his heart the Divine influence which could alone defend him against the strength of his passions and the weakness of his nature to resist them ; and it is truly astonishing to find the very great rapidity with which he was involved in all the trammels of fashionable vice. With proportionable celerity his opinions of moral conduct were changed ; his power of estimating virtue at any thing like its true value ceased; and his mind became spiritually darkened to a degree as great perhaps as has ever been known to take LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 333 place from the results of one step. Witness the course of his life at this time, as de- tailed in the conversations lately published, to which I have before alluded. Witness the fact of his being capable of detailing such a course of life in familiar conversa- tion to one almost a stranger. What must have been the change in that man v^ho could at one time write these lines, — Grieved to condemn, the muse must still be just. Nor spare melodious advocates of lust ; Pure is the flame that o''er her altar burns, From grosser incense with disgust she turns ; Yet kind to youth, this expiation o'er, She bids thee mend thy line, and sin no more— and at another become the author of Don Juan, where grosser, more licentious, more degrading images are produced, than could have been expected to have found their way into any mind desirous merely of pre- serving a decent character in society ; — than 334 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE could have been looked for from any tongue not habituated to the conversation of the most abandoned of the lowest order of society? What must have been the change in him who, from animadverting severely upon the licentiousness of a village intrigue, could glory in the complication of crimes which give zest to fashionable adul- tery; and even in the excess of his glorying could forego his title to be called a man of honour or a gentleman, for which the merest coxcomb of the world will commonly restrain himself within some bounds after he has overstepped the narrower limits of religious restraint ! For who can venture to call Lord Byron either one or the other after reading the unrestrained disclosures he is said, in his published Conversations, to have made, " without any injunctions to secrecy." Who could have imagined that the same man who had observed upon the offensiveness of the expression of another's irreligious LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 335 principles, should ever be capable of offend- ing the world with such awfully fearless impiety as is contained in the latter Cantos of Don Juan, and boldly advanced in Cain ? Who can read, in his own hand- writing, the opinion that a sublime and well intentioned anticipation of the Last Judgment is too daring, and puts him in mind of the line — " And fools rush in where Angels fear to tread," and conceive that the same hand wrote his Vision of Judgment ? Yet such a change did take place, as any one may be convinced of, who will take the trouble to read the present work, and the Conversations to which I have alluded, and compare them together. For, let it be ob- served, that the few pages in the latter publication which refer to Lord Byron's religious opinions, state only his old weak reasoning, founded upon the disunion of 336 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE professing christians, some faint, and, I may- say, childish wishes; and a disowning of the principles of Mr. Shelley's school. So also that solitary reference to a preparation for death, when death stood visibly by his bed-side ready to receive him, which is related by his servant,* and upon which I have known a charitable hope to be hung, amounts to just as much — an assertion. It can onlybethe most puerile ignorance of the nature of religion, which can receive asser- tion for proof in such a matter. The very essence of real religion is to let itself be seen in the life, when it is really sown in the heart ; and a man who appeals to his assertions to establish his religious charac- ter, may be his own dupe, but can never dupe any but such as are like him — ^just as thelunatic inBedlam may call himself a king, * Lord Byron is stated to have said to his servant, " I am not afraid of dying — I am more fit to die tlian people think." LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 337 and believe it ; but it is only those who are as mad as himself who will think them- selves his subjects. There is no possibility of hermetically sealing up religion in the heart ; if it be there it cannot be confined,— it must extend its influence over the prin- ciple of thought, of word, and of action. When we see wonderful and rapid changes take place in the physical world, we naturally seek for the cause ; and it cannot but be useful to trace the cause of so visible a change in the moral world, as that which appears upon the comparison I have pointed out. It will not, I think, be too much to say, that it took place imme- diately that the resistance against evil ceased in Lord Byron's mind. Temptation certainly came upon him in an overpower- ing manner ; and the very first temptation was perhaps the worst, yet he yielded to it almost immediately. I refer to the circum- 338 RECOLLECTIONS OP THE stance recorded in these pages, which took place Httle more than a week after the first appearance of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, when he received an extraordinary anony- mous letter, which led immediately to the most disgraceful liaison of which he has not scrupled to boast. There was some- thing so disgusting in the forwardness of the person who wrote, as well as deterring in the enormity of the criminal excesses of which this letter was the beginning, that he should have been roused against such a temptation at the first glance. But the sudden gust of pubhc applause had just blown upon him, and having raised him in its whirlwind above the earth, he had already began to deify himself in his own imagination ; and this incense came to him as the first offered upon his altar. He was intoxicated with its fumes ; and, closing his mind against the light that had so long LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 330 crept in at crevices, and endeavoured to shine through every transparent part, he called the darkness Hght, and the bitter sweet, and said Peace when there was no Peace. As long as Lord Byron continued to re- sist his temptations to evil, and to refrain from exposing publicly his tendency to in- fidehty, so long he valued the friendship of the author of the foregoing chapters, who failed not to seize every opportunity of supporting the struggle within him, in the earnest hope that the good might ul- timately be successful. The contents of this book may give some idea of the nature and constancy of that friendship, and cannot fail of being highly honourable to its au- thor, as well as of reflecting credit on Lord Byron, who, on so many occasions, gave way to its influence. But it is a strong proof of the short-sightedness of man s Z2 340 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE judgment, that upon the most remarkable occasion on which this influence was ex- cited, by inducing him to publish Childe Harold instead of the Hints from Horace, though the best intentions guided the opi- nion, it was made the step by which Lord Byron was lost ; and he who, in a literary point of view, had justly prided himself upon having withheld so extraordinary a mind from encumbering its future efforts with the dead weight of a work which might have altogether prevented its subsequent buoy- ancy, and who was alive to the glory of having discerned the neglected merit of the real poem, and of having spread out the wings which took such an eagle flight — having lived to see the rebellious presump- tion which that towering flight occasioned, and to anticipate the destruction that must follow the audacity, died deeply regretting that he had, even though unconsciously. LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 341 ever borne such a part in producing so la- mentable a loss. One of the last charges which he gave me upon his death-bed, but a few days before he died, and with the full anticipation of his end, was, not to let this work go forth into the world without stating his sincere feeling of sorrow that ever he had been instrumental in bringing forward Childe Harold's Pilgrimage to the public, since the publication of it had pro- duced such disastrous effects to one whom he had loved so affectionately, and from whom he had hoped so much good — effects which the literary satisfaction the poem may afford to all the men of taste in the present and future generations, can never, in the slightest degree, compensate. In obeying this solemn charge I should have concluded these remarks, had I not found, in looking over the manuscript of the work upon this subject, which was 342 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE first intended to have been left to posterity as a posthumous offering, and which was written about the year 1819, a passage which appears to me to form a fitter con- clusion to this Chapter, and which, there- fore, I copy from the author's writing : — " I have suffered Time to make a pro- gress unfriendly to the subject to which I had attached so great an interest. Had Providence vouchsafed me the happiness of recording of Lord Byron, from my own knowledge, the renovation of his mind and character, which was the object of my last letter to him, my delight would have sup- plied me with energy and spirits to continue my narrative, and my observations. Of his course of hfe subsequent I will not write upon hearsay; but I cannot refrain from expressing my grief, disappointment, and wonder, at the direction which was given LIFE OF LORD BYRON. 343 to it by the impulse of his brilliant success as a Poet. It seemed not only to confirm him in his infidelity, but to set him loose from social ties, and render him indifferent to every other praise than that of poetical genius. I am not singular in the cooling of his friendship, if it be not derogatory to call by that name any transient feeling he may have expressed ; and his intended pos- thumous volume will, probably, shew this, if he has not, in consequence of what I said to him in my last letter, altered or abandoned it. In the dedications of his poems there is no sincerity; he had neither respect nor regard for the persons to whom they are addressed; and Lord Holland, Rogers, Davies, and Hobhouse, if earthly knowledge becomes intuitive on retro- spection, will see on what grounds I say this, and nod the recognition, and I trust forgiveness of heavenly spirits, if heavenly 344 RECOLLECTIONS, &c. their's become, to the wondering Poet with whose works their names are swimming down the stream of Time. He and they shall have my nod too on the occasion, if, let me humbly add, my prayers shall have availed me beyond the grave." '^'" c^ THE THE END. LONDON : PIUNTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES, Northumberlandcourt. ■-^, DEC 12 1^32 NOV 27 1935 ,..,^N i!- «*■ 4v s:>^' iWv I -i^l^'