1811.]

THE RIGHT HAND OF FRIENDSHIP.

65

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205.-To Thomas Moore.1

8, St. James's Street, October 30, 1811.

SIR, You must excuse my troubling you once more upon this very unpleasant subject. It would be a satisfaction to me, and I should think to yourself, that the unopened letter in Mr. Hodgson's possession (supposing it to prove your own) should be returned in statu quo to the writer; particularly as you expressed yourself “not 'quite easy under the manner in which I had dwelt on its "miscarriage."

A few words more, and I shall not trouble you further. I felt, and still feel, very much flattered by those parts of your correspondence, which held out the prospect of our becoming acquainted. If I did not meet them in the first instance as perhaps I ought, let the situation I was placed in be my defence. You have now declared yourself satisfied, and on that point we are no longer at issue. If, therefore, you still retain any wish to do me the honour you hinted at, I shall be most happy to meet you, when, where, and how you please, and I presume you will not attribute my saying thus much to any unworthy motive.

I have the honour to remain, etc.

206.-To R. C. Dallas.

8, St. James's Street, October 31, 1811.

DEAR SIR,-I have already taken up so much of your time that there needs no excuse on your part, but

I. "Piqued," says Moore (Life, 144), "at the manner in which 66 my efforts towards a more friendly understanding were received," he had briefly expressed his satisfaction at Byron's explanation, and added that the correspondence might close.

VOL. II.

F

a great many on mine, for the present interruption. I have altered the passages according to your wish. With this note I send a few stanzas on a subject which has lately occupied much of my thoughts. They refer to the death of one to whose name you are a stranger, and, consequently, cannot be interested. I mean them to complete the present volume. They relate to the same person whom I have mentioned in Canto 2nd, and at the conclusion of the poem.

I by no means intend to identify myself with Harold, but to deny all connection with him. If in parts I may be thought to have drawn from myself, believe me it is but in parts, and I shall not own even to that. As to the Monastic dome,1 etc., I thought those circumstances would suit him as well as any other, and I could describe what I had seen better than I could invent. I would not be such a fellow as I have made my hero for all the world.

Yours ever,

B.

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207.-To Thomas Moore.

8, St. James's Street, November 1, 1811.

SIR, AS I should be very sorry to interrupt your Sunday's engagement, if Monday, or any other day of the ensuing week, would be equally convenient to yourself and friend, I will then have the honour of accepting his invitation. Of the professions of esteem with which

2

1. Childe Harold, Canto II. stanza xlviii.

"Neither Moore

2. Rogers has left an account of this dinner. nor myself had ever seen Byron when it was settled that he should "dine at my house to meet Moore; nor was he known by sight to Campbell, who, happening to call upon me that morning, "consented to join the party. I thought it best that I alone should

1811.]

SAMUEL ROGERS.

67

Mr. Rogers' has honoured me, I cannot but feel proud, though undeserving. I should be wanting to myself, if

"be in the drawing-room when Byron entered it; and Moore and "Campbell accordingly withdrew. Soon after his arrival, they "returned; and I introduced them to him severally, naming them "as Adam named the beasts. When we sat down to dinner, I asked "Byron if he would take soup? 'No; he never took soup.' "Would he take some fish?' · No; he never took fish.' "Presently I asked if he would eat some mutton? 'No; he never 66 ate mutton.' I then asked if he would take a glass of wine? "No; he never tasted wine.' It was now necessary to inquire "what he did eat and drink; and the answer was, 'Nothing but "hard biscuits and soda-water.' Unfortunately, neither hard "biscuits nor soda-water were at hand; and he dined upon potatoes "bruised down on his plate and drenched with vinegar. My guests "stayed very late, discussing the merits of Walter Scott and Joanna "Baillie. Some days after, meeting Hobhouse, I said to him, "How long will Lord Byron persevere in his present diet?' He "replied, 'Just as long as you continue to notice it.' I did not "then know, what I now know to be a fact, that Byron, after 'leaving my house, had gone to a Club in St. James's Street and "eaten a hearty meat-supper" (Table-Talk of Samuel Rogers, pp. 231, 232). Moore's (Life, p. 145) first impressions of Byron were "the nobleness of his air, his beauty, the gentleness of his voice and 'manners, and—what was naturally not the least attraction-his "marked kindness to myself. Being in mourning for his mother, "the colour, as well of his dress, as of his glossy, curling, and "picturesque hair, gave more effect to the pure, spiritual paleness of "his features, in the expression of which, when he spoke, there was a perpetual play of lively thought, though melancholy was their "habitual character when in repose.'

66

1. Samuel Rogers (1763-1855), the third son of a London banker, was born at Stoke Newington. Shortly after his father's death, in 1793, he withdrew from any active part in the management of the bank, and devoted himself for the rest of his long life to literature, art, and society. In 1803 he moved from chambers in the Temple to a house in St. James's Place, overlooking the Green Park. Here he lived till his death, in December, 1855, and here he gathered round him, at his celebrated breakfasts, the most distinguished men and women of his time. An excellent account of the "Town "Mouse" entertaining the "Country Mouse" is given by Dean Stanley (Life, vol. i. p. 298), who met Wordsworth at breakfast with Rogers, in 1841, and describes "the town mouse a sleek, well-fed, "sly, white mouse, and the country mouse with its rough, weatherworn face and grey hairs; the town mouse displaying its delicate "little rolls and pyramids of glistening strawberries, the country mouse exulting in its hollow tree, its crust of bread and liberty, "and rallying its brother on his late hours and frequent dinners."

66

One of his earliest recollections was the sight of a rebel's head

insensible to the praise of such a man; and, should my approaching interview with him and his friend lead to

upon a pole at Temple Bar. He had talked with a Thames boatman who remembered Pope; had seen Garrick in The Suspicious Husband; had heard Sir Joshua Reynolds deliver his last lecture as President of the Royal Academy; had seen John Wesley "lying "in state" in the City Road; had gone to call on Dr. Johnson, but, when his hand was on the knocker, found his courage fled. He lived to be offered the laureateship in 1850, on the death of Words. worth, and to decline it in favour of Tennyson.

"Time was," wrote Mathias (Pursuits of Literature, note, p. 360, ed. 1808), “when bankers were as stupid as their guineas could "make them; they were neither orators, nor painters, nor poets. "But now... Mr. Rogers dreams on Parnassus; and, if I am rightly informed, there is a great demand among his brethren for "the Pleasures of Memory." Rogers began to write poetry at an early age, and continued to write it all his life. His Ode to Superstition was published in 1786; the Pleasures of Memory, in 1792; the Epistle to a Friend, in 1798; Columbus, in 1812; Jacqueline, in 1813; Human Life, in 1819; Italy, in 1822-34. His later years were occupied in revising, correcting, or amplifying his published poems, and in preparing the notes to Italy, which are admirable studies in compactness and precision of language. A disciple of Pope, an imitator of Goldsmith, Rogers was rather a skilful adapter than an original poet. His chief talent was his taste; if he could not originate, he could appreciate. The fastidious care which he lavished on his work has preserved it. In his commonplace-book he has entered the number of years which he spent in composing and revising his poems. His Pleasures of Memory occupied seven years, Columbus fourteen, and Italy fifteen. An excellent judge of art, he employed Flaxman, Stothard, and Turner at a time when their powers were little appreciated by his fellow-countrymen. Of his taste Byron speaks enthusiastically in his Journal (see p. 331). But the following passage (hitherto unpublished) from his Detached Thoughts (Ravenna, 1821) gives his later opinion of the man :—

'When Sheridan was on his death-bed, Rogers aided him with "purse and person. This was particularly kind of Rogers, who "always spoke ill of Sheridan (to me, at least), but, indeed, he "does that of everybody to anybody. Rogers is the reverse of "the line

""The best good man with the worst natured Muse,'

"being

"The worst good man with the best natured Muse.' "His Muse being all Sentiment and Sago and Sugar, while he "himself is a venomous talker. I say 'worst good man' because he "is (perhaps) a good man; at least he does good now and then, as

1811.]

SAMUEL ROGERS.

69

any degree of intimacy with both or either, I shall regard our past correspondence as one of the happiest events of my life. I have the honour to be,

Your very sincere and obedient servant,

BYRON.

"well he may, to purchase himself a shilling's worth of salvation "for his slanders. They are so little, too-small talk-and old Womanny, and he is malignant too-and envious-and-he be "damned!

66

66

In a manuscript note to these passages Sir Walter Scott writes, "I never heard Rogers say a single word against Byron, which is "rather odd too. Byron wrote a bitter and undeserved satire on Rogers. This conduct must have been motived by something or "other." Speaking of Rogers and Sheridan, he says, "He cer"tainly took pennyworths out of his friend's character. I sat three "hours for my picture to Sir Thomas Lawrence, during which the "whole conversation was filled up by Rogers with stories of Sheridan, "for the least of which, if true, he deserved the gallows. One "respected his committing a rape on his sister-in-law on the day of "her husband's funeral. Others were worse."

In politics Rogers was a Whig, in religion a Presbyterian. But he meddled little with either. In private life he was as kindly in action as he was caustic in speech. A sensitive man himself, he studied to be satirical to others. When Ward condemned Columbus in the Quarterly Review, Rogers repaid his critic in the stinging epigram

66

"Ward has no heart, they say; but I deny it ;

He has a heart, and gets his speeches by it."

Byron warmly admired Rogers's poetry. To him he dedicated The Giaour, in "admiration for his genius, respect for his character, "and gratitude for his friendship.' The Quarterly Review, in an article on The Corsair and Lara, mentions "the highly refined, but "somewhat insipid, pastoral tale of Jacqueline." Byron, on reading the review, said to Lady Byron, "The man's a fool. Jacqueline is as superior to Lara as Rogers is to me (Table-Talk of Samuel Rogers, p. 154, note). "The Pleasures of Memory," he said (Lady Blessington's Conversations, p. 153), "is a very beautiful poem, "harmonious, finished, and chaste; it contains not a single mere. ❝tricious ornament. If Rogers has not fixed himself in the higher "fields of Parnassus, he has, at least, cultivated a very pretty flower. "garden at its base." But he goes on to speak of the poem (p. 354) as "a hortus siccus of pretty flowers," and an illustration of "the difference between inspiration and versification."

If Rogers ever saw Byron's Question and Answer (1818), he was generous enough to forget the satire. In Italy he paid a noble tribute to the genius of the dead poet