VI.]

REPLY TO MOORE'S SQUIB.

461

APPENDIX VI.

"THE GIANT AND THE DWARF."

THE reply of Leigh Hunt's friends to Moore's squib, "The 'Living Dog' and the 'Dead Lion'" (see Letter 291, p. 205, note 1), ran as follows:

:

"THE GIANT AND THE DWARF.

"Humbly inscribed to T. Pidcock, Esq., of Exeter 'Change.

"A Giant that once of a Dwarf made a friend,

(And their friendship the Dwarf took care shouldn't be hid), Would now and then, out of his glooms, condescend To laugh at his antics, -as every one did.

"This Dwarf-an extremely diminutive Dwarf,—

In birth unlike G-y, though his pride was as big,
Had been taken, when young, from the bogs of Clontarf,
And though born quite a Helot, had grown up a Whig.

"He wrote little verses-and sung them withal,

And the Giant's dark visions they sometimes could charm, Like the voice of the lute which had pow'r over Saul,

And the song which could Hell and its legions disarm.

"The Giant was grateful, and offered him gold,

But the Dwarf was indignant, and spurn'd at the offer: 'No, never!' he cried, 'shall my friendship be sold For the sordid contents of another man's coffer!

"What would Dwarfland, and Ireland, and every land say?
To what would so shocking a thing be ascribed?
My Lady would think that I was in your pay,

And the Quarterly say that I must have been bribed.

"You see how I'm puzzled; I don't say it wouldn't
Be pleasant just now to have just that amount:
But to take it in gold or in bank-notes !—I couldn't,
I wouldn't accept it- -on any account.

"But couldn't you just write your Autobiography,
All fearless and personal, bitter and stinging?
Sure that, with a few famous heads in lithography,
Would bring me far more than my Songs or my singing.

“You know what I did for poor Sheridan's Life;
Your's is sure of my very best superintendence;
I'll expunge what might point at your sister or wife,—
And I'll thus keep my priceless, unbought independence!'

"The Giant smiled grimly: he couldn't quite see

What diff'rence there was on the face of the earth, Between the Dwarf's taking the money in fee,

And his taking the same thing in that money's worth.

"But to please him he wrote; and the business was done :
The Dwarf went immediately off to 'the Row;'

And ere the next night had pass'd over the sun,
The MEMOIRS were purchas'd by Longman and Co.

"W. GYNGELL, Showman, Bartholomew Fair."

VII.]

THE COURIER.

463

APPENDIX VII.

ATTACKS UPON BYRON IN THE NEWSPAPERS FOR FEBRUARY AND MARCH, 1814.

I. THE COURIER.

(1) LORD BYRON (The Courier, February 1, 1814). A NEW Poem has just been published by the above Nobleman, and the Morning Chronicle of to-day has favoured its readers with his Lordship's Dedication of it to THOMAS MOORE, Esq., in what that paper calls "an elegant eulogium." If the elegance of an eulogium consist in its extravagance, the Chronicle's epithet is well chosen. But our purpose is not with the Dedication, nor the main Poem, The Corsair, but with one of the pieces called Poems, published at the end of the Corsair. Nearly two years ago (in March, 1812), when the REGENT was attacked with a bitterness and rancour that disgusted the whole country; when attempts were made day after day to wound every feeling of the heart; there appeared in the Morning Chronicle an anonymous Address to a Young Lady weeping, upon which we remarked at the time (Courier of March 7, 1812), considering it as tending to make the Princess CHARLOTTE of Wales view the PRINCE REGENT her father as an object of suspicion and disgrace. Few of our readers have forgotten the disgust which this address excited. The author of it, however, unwilling that it should sleep in the oblivion to which it had been consigned with the other trash of that day, has republished it, and, placed the first of what are called Poems at the end of this newly published work the Corsair, we find this very address :

"Weep daughter of a royal line,

A Sire's disgrace, a realm's decay;"

Lord Byron thus avows himself to be the Author.

To be sure the Prince has been extremely disgraced by the policy he has adopted, and the events which that policy has produced; and the realm has experienced great decay, no doubt, by the occurrences in the Peninsula, the resistance of Russia, the rising in Germany, the counter-revolution in Holland, and the defeat, disgrace, and shame of BUONAPARTE. But, instead of continuing our observations, suppose we parody his Lordship's Address, and apply it to February 1814:

TO A YOUNG LADY.

"View! daughter of a royal line,

A father's fame, a realm's renown:
Ah! happy that that realm is thine,
And that its father is thine own!

"View, and exulting view, thy fate,

February, 1814.

Which dooms thee o'er these blissful Isles

To reign, (but distant be the date!)

And, like thy Sire, deserve thy People's smiles."

(2) The Courier, February 2, 1814.

Lord BYRON, as we stated yesterday, has discovered and promulgated to the world, in eight lines of choice doggrel, that the realm of England is in decay, that her Sovereign is disgraced, and that the situation of the country is one which claims the tears of all good patriots. To this very indubitable statement, the Morning Chronicle of this day exhibits an admirable companion picture, a genuine letter from Paris, of the 25th ult.

(3) The Courier, February 3, 1814.

"The Courier is indignant," says the Morning Chronicle, at the discovery now made by Lord BYRON, that he was "the author of 'the Verses to a Young Lady weeping,' which "were inserted about a twelvemonth ago in the Morning "Chronicle. The Editor thinks it audacious in a hereditary

VII.]

THE COURIER.

465

"Counsellor of the KING to admonish the Heir Apparent. It "may not be courtly but it is certainly British, and we wish "the kingdom had more such honest advisers."

The dis

The discovery of the author of the verses in question was not made by Lord BYRON. How could it be? When he sent them to the Chronicle, without his name, he was just as well informed about the author as he is now that he has published them in a pamphlet, with his name. covery was made to the public. They did not know in March, 1812, what they know in February, 1814. They did not suspect then what they now find avowed, that a Peer of the Realm was the Author of the attack upon the PRINCE; of the attempt to induce the Princess CHARLOTTE of WALES to think that her father was an object not of reverence and regard, but of disgrace.

But we “think it audacious in an hereditary Counsellor "of the KING to admonish the Heir Apparent." No! we do not think it audacious: it is constitutional and proper. But are anonymous attacks the constitutional duty of a Peer of the Realm? Is that the mode in which he should admonish the Heir Apparent? If Lord BYRON had desired to admonish the PRINCE, his course was open, plain, and known-he could have demanded an audience of the PRINCE; or, he could have given his admonition in Parliament. But to level such an attack-What !-" Kill men i' the dark!" This, however, is called by the Chronicle "certainly British," though it might not be courtly, and a strong wish is expressed that "the country had many more such honest "advisers" or admonishers.-Admonishers indeed! A pretty definition of admonition this, which consists not in giving advice, but in imputing blame, not in openly proffering counsel, but in secretly pointing censure.

(4) BYRONIANA No. 1 (The Courier, February 5, 1814).

The Lord BYRON has assumed such a poetico-political and such a politico-poetical air and authority, that in our double capacity of men of letters and politicians, he forces himself upon our recollection. We say recollection for reasons which will bye and by, be obvious to our readers,

VOL. II.

2 H