1812.]

PUBLICATION OF CHIlde harold.

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have already so fully proved the truth of the first line of Pope's couplet,1

"Forgiveness to the injured doth belong,"

that I long for an opportunity to give the lie to the verse that follows. If I were not perfectly convinced that any thing I may have formerly uttered in the boyish rashness of my misplaced resentment had made as little impression as it deserved to make, I should hardly have the confidence-perhaps your Lordship may give it a stronger and more appropriate appellation-to send you a quarto of the same scribbler. But your Lordship, I am sorry to observe to-day, is troubled with the gout; if my book can produce a laugh against itself or the author, it will be of some service. If it can set you to sleep, the benefit will be yet greater; and as some facetious personage observed half a century ago, that "poetry is a mere 2 drug," I offer you mine as a humble assistant to the

of Harriet, Countess Granville, vol. i. p. 34), “is still upon a pedestal, "and Caroline William doing homage. I have made acquaintance "with him. He is agreeable, but I feel no wish for any further "intimacy. His countenance is fine when it is in repose; but the "moment it is in play, suspicious, malignant, and consequently "repulsive. His manner is either remarkably gracious and con"ciliatory, with a tinge of affectation, or irritable and impetuous, "and then, I am afraid, perfectly natural."

Rogers (Recollections of the Table-Talk of Samuel Rogers, pp. 232, 233) says, "After Byron had become the rage, I was frequently "amused at the manoeuvres of certain noble ladies to get acquainted "with him by means of me; for instance, I would receive a note "from Lady, requesting the pleasure of my company on a "particular evening, with a postscript, 'Pray, could you not "contrive to bring Lord Byron with you?' Once, at a great party "given by Lady Jersey, Mrs. Sheridan ran up to me and said, Do, "as a favour, try if you can place Lord Byron beside me at "supper !'"

I.

"Forgiveness to the injured does belong,

But they ne'er pardon, who have done the wrong." Dryden's Conquest of Grenada, part ii. act i. sc. 2. 2. Murphy, in sc. I of The Way to Keep Him (1760), uses the

eau medicinale. I trust you will forgive this and all my other buffooneries, and believe me to be, with great respect,

Your Lordship's obliged and sincere servant,

BYRON.

word in the same sense; "A wife's a drug now; mere tar-water, "with every virtue under heaven, but nobody takes it."

1812.] COLONEL GREVILLE AND ENGLISH BARDS. 109

CHAPTER VI.

MARCH, 1812-MAY, 1813.

THE IDOL OF SOCIETY-THE DRURY LANE ADDRESSSECOND SPEECH IN PARLIAMENT.

229.-To Thomas Moore.

With regard to the passage on Mr. Way's loss, no unfair play was hinted at, as may be seen by referring to the book; and it is expressly added, that the managers

1. Byron, in English Bards, etc. (lines 638-667), had alluded to Colonel Greville, Manager of the Argyle Institution :

"Or hail at once the patron and the pile

Of vice and folly, Greville and Argyle," etc.

In a note he had also referred to "Billy" Way's loss of several thousand pounds in the Rooms. On his return from abroad, Colonel Greville demanded satisfaction through his friend Gould Francis Leckie. Byron referred Leckie to Moore, and sent Moore the above paper for his guidance. The affair was amicably settled. In his Detached Thoughts occurs the following passage :

"I have been called in as mediator, or second, at least twenty "times, in violent quarrels, and have always contrived to settle the "business without compromising the honour of the parties, or lead"ing them to mortal consequences, and this, too, sometimes in very "difficult and delicate circumstances, and having to deal with very "hot and haughty spirits,-Irishmen, gamesters, guardsmen, cap"tains, and cornets of horse, and the like. This was, of course, in "my youth, when I lived in hot-headed company. I have had to 'carry challenges from gentlemen to noblemen, from captains to "captains, from lawyers to counsellors, and once from a clergyman "to an officer in the Life Guards; but I found the latter by far the "most difficult,—

"to compose

The bloody duel without blows,'

were ignorant of that transaction. As to the prevalence of play at the Argyle, it cannot be denied that there were billiards and dice;-Lord B. has been a witness to the use of both at the Argyle Rooms. These, it is presumed, come under the denomination of play. If play be allowed, the President of the Institution can hardly complain of being termed the "Arbiter of Play," or what becomes of his authority?

Lord B. has no personal animosity to Colonel Greville. A public institution, to which he himself was a subscriber,

66

"the business being about a woman: I must add, too, that I never saw a woman behave so ill, like a cold-blooded, heartless b- as "she was,-but very handsome for all that. A certain Susan C * * was she called. I never saw her but once; and that was to induce "her but to say two words (which in no degree compromised her“self), and which would have had the effect of saving a priest or a "lieutenant of cavalry. She would not say them, and neither "Nepean nor myself (the son of Sir Evan Nepean, and a friend to 'one of the parties) could prevail upon her to say them, though "both of us used to deal in some sort with womankind. At last "I managed to quiet the combatants without her talisman, and, I "believe, to her great disappointment: she was the damnedest b"that I ever saw, and I have seen a great many. Though my "clergyman was sure to lose either his life or his living, he was as "warlike as the Bishop of Beauvais, and would hardly be pacified; "but then he was in love, and that is a martial passion."

66

One challenge from a gentleman to a nobleman was that of Scrope Davies to Lord Foley, in 1813; but Byron succeeded in arranging the matter. That from a lawyer to a counsellor was in 1815, from John Hanson to Serjeant Best, afterwards Lord Wynford, and arose out of the marriage of Miss Hanson to Lord Portsmouth; this quarrel was also settled by Byron. The case of the clergyman was that of the Rev. Robert Bland, whose mistress, during his absence in Holland, left him for an officer in the Guards (see Letters, vol. i. p. 197, end of note on Francis Hodgson). Byron was himself a fair shot with a pistol. "When in London," writes Gronow (Reminiscences, vol. i. p. 152), "Byron used to go "to Manton's shooting-gallery, in Davies Street, to try his hand, as "he said, at a wafer. Wedderburn Webster was present when the "poet, intensely delighted with his own skill, boasted to Joe "Manton that he considered himself the best shot in London. "No, my lord,' replied Manton, 'not the best; but your shooting "to-day was respectable.' Whereupon Byron waxed wroth, and "left the shop in a violent passion."

1812.]

CHALLENGE FROM COLONEL GREVILLE.

III

he considered himself to have a right to notice publickly. Of that institution Colonel Greville was the avowed director; it is too late to enter into the discussion of its merits or demerits.

Lord B. must leave the discussion of the reparation, for the real or supposed injury, to Colonel G.'s friend and Mr. Moore, the friend of Lord B.-begging them to recollect that, while they consider Colonel G.'s honour, Lord B. must also maintain his own. If the business can be settled amicably, Lord B. will do as much as can and ought to be done by a man of honour towards conciliation;-if not, he must satisfy Colonel G. in the manner most conducive to his further wishes.

230.-To William Bankes.

MY DEAR BANKES,-My eagerness to come to an explanation has, I trust, convinced you that whatever my unlucky manner might inadvertently be, the change was as unintentional as (if intended) it would have been ungrateful. I really was not aware that, while we were together, I had evinced such caprices; that we were not so much in each other's company as I could have wished, I well know, but I think so acute an observer as yourself must have perceived enough to explain this, without supposing any slight to one in whose society I have pride and pleasure. Recollect that I do not allude here to "extended" or "extending" acquaintances, but to circumstances you will understand, I think, on a little reflection.

And now, my dear Bankes, do not distress me by supposing that I can think of you, or you of me, otherwise than I trust we have long thought. You told me not long ago that my temper was improved, and I should be