1813.] ROBINSON CRUSOE. 219 which surely entitles the author to a higher rank than that assigned to him in the Quarterly. But I must not cavil at the decisions of the invisible infallibles; and the article is very well written. The general horror of "fragments"1 makes me tremulous for "The Giaour;" but you would publish it-I presume, by this time, to your repentance. But as I consented, whatever be its fate, I won't now quarrel with you, even though I detect it in my pastry; but I shall not open a pye without apprehension for some weeks. The Books which may be marked G. O. I will carry out. Do you know Clarke's Naufragia? I am told 2 1. The Giaour, like Columbus, was written in fragments. 2. James Stanier Clarke, a Navy Chaplain (1765-1834), published, in 1805, Naufragia, or Historical Memoirs of Shipwrecks. In that work he does not himself attribute the first volume of Robinson Crusoe to Lord Oxford. The following is the passage to which Byron refers (Naufragia, vol. i. pp. 12, 13): "But before I conclude this "Section, I wish to make the admirers of this Nautical Romance "mindful of a Report, which prevailed many years ago; that Defoe, "after all, was not the real author of Robinson Crusoe. This "assertion is noticed in an article in the seventh volume of the "Edinburgh Magazine [vol. vii. p. 269]. Dr. Towers, in his Life of "Defoe in the Biographia, is inclined to pay no attention to it; but "was that writer aware of the following letter, which also appeared "in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1788? [vol. lviii. part i. p. 208]. "At least no notice is taken of it in his Life of Defoe : "Dublin, February 25. "'MR. URBAN,-In the course of a late conversation with a noble"man of the first consequence and information in this kingdom, he "assured me, that Mr. Benjamin Holloway, of Middleton Stony, "assured him, some time ago: that he knew for fact, that the cele"brated Romance of Robinson Crusoe' was really written by the "Earl of Oxford, when confined in the Tower of London: that his "Lordship gave the manuscript to Daniel Defoe, who frequently "visited him during his confinement: and that Defoe, having after"wards added the second volume, published the whole as his own "production. This anecdote I would not venture to send to your "valuable magazine, if I did not think my information good, and "imagine it might be acceptable to your numerous readers, not"withstanding the work has heretofore been generally attributed to "the latter. "W. W.' that he asserts the first volume of Robinson Crusoe was written by the first Lord Oxford, when in the Tower, and given by him to Defoe; if true, it is a curious anecdote. Have you got back Lord Brooke's MS.? and what does Heber say of it? Write to me at Portsmouth. Ever yours, etc., BN. 302.-To John Murray. June 18, 1813. DEAR SIR,-Will you forward the enclosed answer to the kindest letter I ever received in my life, my sense "It is impossible for me to enter on a discussion of this literary "subject; though I thought the circumstance ought to be more "generally known. And yet I must observe, that I always discerned a very striking falling off between the composition of the first and second volumes of this Romance-they seem to bear evident marks "of having been the work of different writers.' 66 A volume of memoranda in the handwriting of Warton, the Laureate, preserved in the British Museum, contains the following :-"Mem. Jul. 10, 1774. In the year 1759, I was told by the "Rev. Mr. Benjamin Holloway, rector of Middleton Stony, in "Oxfordshire, then about 70 years old, and in the early part of "his life domestic Chaplain to Lord Sunderland, that he had often "heard Lord Sunderland say that Lord Oxford, while a prisoner in "the Tower of London, wrote the first volume of the History of "Robinson Crusoe, merely as an amusement under confinement; "and gave it to Daniel De Foe, who frequently visited Lord Oxford "in the Tower, and was one of his Pamphlet writers. That De Foe, by Lord Oxford's permission, printed it as his own, and, encouraged "by its extraordinary success, added himself the second volume, the "inferiority of which is generally acknowledged. Mr. Holloway "also told me, from Lord Sunderland, that Lord Oxford dictated some parts of the manuscript to De Foe. Mr. Holloway was "a grave conscientious clergyman, not vain of telling anecdotes, "very learned, particularly a good orientalist, author of some theological tracts, bred at Eton School, and a Master of Arts at "St. John's College, Cambridge. He lived many years with great respect in Lord Sunderland's family, and was like to the late Duke "of Marlborough. He died, as I remember, about the year "1761." 66 1813.] NO BIGOT TO INFIDELITY. 221 of which I can neither express to Mr. Gifford himself nor to any one else? Ever yours, BN. 303.-To W. Gifford. June 18, 1813. MY DEAR SIR,-I feel greatly at a loss how to write to you at all-still more to thank you as I ought. If you knew the veneration with which I have ever regarded you, long before I had the most distant prospect of becoming your acquaintance, literary or personal, my embarrassment would not surprise you. Any suggestion of yours, even were it conveyed in the less tender shape of the text of the Baviad, or a Monk Mason note in Massinger,1 would have been obeyed; I should have endeavoured to improve myself by your censure: judge then if I shall be less willing to profit by your kindness. It is not for me to bandy compliments with my elders and my betters: I receive your approbation with gratitude, and will not return my brass for your Gold by expressing more fully those sentiments of admiration, which, however sincere, would, I know, be unwelcome. To your advice on Religious topics, I shall equally attend. Perhaps the best way will be by avoiding them altogether. The already published objectionable passages have been much commented upon, but certainly have been rather strongly interpreted. I am no Bigot to Infidelity, and did not expect that, because I doubted the immortality of Man, I should be charged with denying 1. See Letters, vol. i. p. 198. the existence of a God. It was the comparative insignificance of ourselves and our world, when placed in competition with the mighty whole, of which it is an atom, that first led me to imagine that our pretensions to eternity might be over-rated. This, and being early disgusted with a Calvinistic Scotch school, where I was cudgelled to Church for the first ten years of my life, afflicted me with this malady ; for, after all, it is, I believe, a disease of the mind as much as other kinds of hypochondria. I regret to hear you talk of ill-health. May you long exist! not only to enjoy your own fame, but outlive that of fifty such ephemeral adventurers as myself. As I do not sail quite so soon as Murray may have led you to expect (not till July) I trust I have some chance of taking you by the hand before my departure, and repeating in person how sincerely and affectionately I am Your obliged servant, BYRON. 304.-To John Murray. June 22, 1813. DEAR SIR,-I send you a corrected copy of the lines with several important alterations,-so many that this had better be sent for proof rather than subject the other to so many blots. You will excuse the eternal trouble I inflict upon you. As you will see, I have attended to your Criticism, and softened a passage you proscribed this morning. Yours veritably, B. 1813.] MADAME DE STAËL. 305.-To Thomas Moore. 223 June 22, 1813. Yesterday I dined in company with Stael, the "Epi," whose politics are sadly changed. She is for cene," I. "And ah! what verse can grace thy stately mien, Fain would the Muse-but ah! she dares no more, "These lines contain the Secret History of Quatremer's depor. "tation. He presumed, in the Council of Five Hundred, to "arraign Madame de Staël's conduct, and even to hint a doubt "of her sex. He was sent to Guyana. The transaction naturally "brings to one's mind the dialogue between Falstaff and Hostess "Quickly in Shakespeare's Henry IV"-Canning's New Morality, lines 293-301 (Edmonds' edition of the Poetry of the Anti-Jacobin, pp. 282, 283). Anne Louise Germaine Necker (1766-1817), only child of the Minister Necker and his wife Suzanne Curchod, Gibbon's early love, married, in 1786, the Swedish Ambassador Baron de Staël Holstein, who died in 1802. She married, as her second husband, in 1811, M. de Rocca, a young French officer, who had been severely wounded in Spain, but survived her by a year (Madame de Récamier, Souvenirs, vol. i. p. 272). Her book, De l'Allemagne, seized and destroyed by Napoleon, was brought out in June, 1813, by John Murray. Byron thought her "certainly the cleverest, though "not the most agreeable woman he had ever known. 'She de"claimed to you instead of conversing with you,' said he, 'never "pausing except to take breath; and if during that interval a "rejoinder was put in, it was evident that she did not attend to it, "as she resumed the thread of her discourse as though it had not "been interrupted' (Lady Blessington's Conversations, p. 26). Croker (Croker Papers, vol. i. p. 327) describes her as "ugly, and "not of an intellectual ugliness. Her features were coarse, and the "ordinary expression rather vulgar, she had an ugly mouth, and 66 'one or two irregularly prominent teeth, which perhaps gave her "countenance an habitual gaiety. Her eye was full, dark, and "expressive; and when she declaimed, which was almost whenever "she spoke, she looked eloquent, and one forgot that she was "plain." Madame de Staël "did not affect to conceal her preference for the |