VII.] A TRAP IN VERSE. 469 of a Pilgrimage to Jerusalem, To the Dead Sea, of Death upon the Pale Horse, of odes to Lavalette, to Saint Helena, to the Land of the Gaul, and to a sucking child. Now he turned out to have written none of these things. Besides, you say he knows in what a spirit of, etc., you criticise-Are you sure he knows all this? that he has read you like my poor dear aunt? They tell me he is a queer sort of a man; and I would not be too sure, if I were you, either of what he has read or what he has written. I thought his style had been the serious and terrible. As to his sending you money, this is the first time that ever I heard of his paying his reviewers in that coin; I thought it was rather in their own, to judge from some of his earlier productions. Besides, though he may not be profuse in his expenditure, I should conjecture that his reviewer's bill is not so long as his tailor's. "Shall I give you what I think a prudent opinion. I don't mean to insinuate, God forbid! but if, by any accident, there should have been such a correspondence between you and the unknown author, whoever he may be, send him back his money: I dare say he will be very glad to have it again: it can't be much, considering the value of the article and the circulation of the journal; and you are too modest to rate your praise beyond its real worth.-Don't be angry,-I know you won't,-at this appraisement of your powers of eulogy; for on the other hand, my dear fellow, depend upon it your abuse is worth, not its own weight-that 's a feather,but your weight in gold. So don't spare it: if he has bargained for that, give it handsomely, and depend upon your doing him a friendly office. “But I only speak in case of possibility; for, as I said before, I cannot believe in the first instance, that you would receive a bribe to praise any person whatever; and still less can I believe that your praise could ever produce such an offer. You are a good creature, my dear Roberts, and a clever fellow; else I could almost suspect that you had fallen into the very trap set for you in verse by this anonymous Wag, who will certainly be but too happy to see you saving him the trouble of making you ridiculous. The fact is, that the solemnity of your eleventh article does make you look a little more absurd than you ever yet looked, in all probability, and at the same time does no good; for if any body believed before in the octave stanzas, they will believe still, and you will find it not less difficult to prove your negative, than the learned Partridge found it to demonstrate his not being dead, to the satisfaction of the readers of almanacks. "What the motives of this writer may have been for (as you magnificently translate his quizzing you) 'stating, with the particularity which belongs to fact, the forgery of a groundless fiction,' (do pray, my dear R. talk a little less in King Cambyses' vein,') I cannot pretend to say; perhaps to laugh at you, but that is no reason for your benevolently making all the world laugh also. I approve of your being angry; I tell you I am angry too; but you should not have shown it so outrageously. Your solemn if somebody personating the Editor of the,' etc., etc., 'has received from Lord B. or from any other person,' reminds me of Charley Incledon's usual exordium when people came into the tavern to hear him sing without paying their share of the reckoning—‘If a maun, or ony maun, or ony other maun,' etc., etc.; you have both the same redundant eloquence. But why should you think any body would personate you? No body would dream of such a prank who ever read your compositions, and perhaps not many who have heard your conversation. But I have been inoculated with a little of your prolixity. The fact is, my dear Roberts, that somebody has tried to make a fool of you, and what he did not succeed in doing, you have done for him and for yourself. "With regard to the poem itself, or the author, whom I cannot find out, (can you ?) I have nothing to say: my business is with you. I am sure that you will, upon second thoughts, be really obliged to me for the intention of this letter, however far short my expressions may have fallen of the sincere good will, admiration, and thorough esteem, with which I am ever, my dear Roberts, "Sept. 4th, 1819. "Most truly yours, "WORTLEY CLUTTERBUCK. · "P.S. My letter is too long to revise, and the post is going. I forget whether or not I asked you the meaning of your last words, though not dying speech and confession let us hope, the forgery of a groundless fiction.' Now, as all forgery is fiction, and all fiction a kind of forgery, is not this tautological? The sentence would have ended more strongly with 'forgery;' only-it hath an awful Bank of England sound, and would have ended like an indictment, besides sparing you several words, and conferring a meaning upon the remainder. But this is mere verbal criticism. Good bye-once more yours truly, "W. C. "P.S. 2d.'-Is it true that the Saints make up the losses of the review?-It is very handsome in them to be at so great an expensePray pardon my taking up so much of your time from the bar, and from your clients, who I hear are about the same number with the readers of your journal. Twice more yours, "W. C." 1. The manuscript of the second postscript is missing. VIII.] BYRON'S FROLICKSOME GAIETY. 471 APPENDIX VIII. MOORE'S VISIT TO VENICE IN OCTOBER, 1819. (See p. 369, and note 1.) IN Moore's Life of Byron, pp. 409-423 will be found an interesting account of his visit to Byron. The following passages from Moore's Diary (Memoirs, etc., vol. iii. pp. 24-29) also refer to his stay in Venice in October, 1819: "October 7th.... Left Padua at twelve, and arrived at Lord Byron's country house, La Mira, near Fusina, at two. He was but just up and in his bath; soon came down to me; first time we have met these five years; grown fat, which spoils the picturesqueness of his head. The Countess Guiccioli, whom he followed to Ravenna, came from thence with him to Venice by the consent, it appears, of her husband. Found him in high spirits and full of his usual frolicksome gaiety. He insisted upon my making use of his house at Venice while I stay, but could not himself leave the Guiccioli. He drest, and we set off together in my carriage for Venice; a glorious sunset when we embarked at Fusina in a gondola, and the view of Venice and the distant Alps (some of which had snow on them, reddening with the last light) was magnificent; but my companion's conversation, which, though highly ludicrous and amusing, was anything but romantic, threw my mind and imagination into a mood not at all agreeing with the scene. Arrived at his palazzo on the Grand Canal, (he having first made the gondolier row round in order to give me a sight of the Piazetta,) where he gave orders with the utmost anxiety and good nature for my accommodation, and dispatched persons in search of a laquais de place, and his friend Mr. Scott, to give me in charge to. No Opera this evening. He ordered dinner from a traiteur's, and stopped to dine with me. Had much curious conversation with him about his wife before Scott arrived. He has written his memoirs, and is continuing them; thinks of going and purchasing lands under the Patriotic Government in South America. Much talk about Don Juan; he is writing a third canto; the Duke of Wellington; his taking so much money; gives instances of disinterested men, Epaminondas, etc., etc., down to Pitt himself, who, 472 MOORE'S VISIT TO VENICE IN OCTOBER, 1819. [VIII. "As minister of state, is Renown'd for ruining Great Britain gratis.' "At nine o'clock he set off to return to La Mira, and I went with Mr. Scott to two theatres; at the first a comedy, 'Il Prigioniero de Newgate,' translated from the French; at the second, a tragedy of Alfieri, Ottavia;' actors all disagreeable. Forgot to mention that Byron introduced me to his Countess before we left La Mira: she is a blonde and young; married only about a year, but not very pretty. "8th.... Among the portraits of the Doges, in the library, there is a blank left for that of Faliero, who, after his eightieth year, conspired against his country, on account of an insult he received. Instead of his portrait are the words, Locus Marini Falieri decapitati pro criminibus. Must examine his history. Lord B. meant to write a tragedy on this subject; went to one of the churches to look for his tomb, and thought he trod upon it on entering, which affected his mind very much; but it was a tomb of one of the Valeri. B. very superstitious; won't begin anything on a Friday.. Lord : B. came up to town at six o'clock, and he and I dined with Scott at the Pellegrino showed us a letter which his Countess had just received from her husband, in which, without a word of allusion to the way in which she is living with B., he makes some proposal with respect to money of B.'s being invested in his hands, as a thing advantageous to both; a fine specimen of an Italian husband. Went afterwards to the theatre for a short time, and thence to the Contessa d'Albrizzi's. . . . From the Contessa d'Albrizzi we went to Madame B. who, they tell me, is one of the last of the Venetian ladies of the old school of nobility; thoroughly profligate, of course, in which she but resembles the new school. Her manners very pleasant and easy. She talked to me much about Byron; bid me scold him for the scrape he had got into; said that, till this, Il se conduisait si bien. Introduced me to another old countess, who, when I said how much I admired Venice, answered, Oui, pour un étranger tout ça doit être bien drôle. "9th. . . . Dined with Lord B. at the Pellegrino. What the husband wants is for Lord B. to lend him 1000l. at five per cent. ; that is, give it to him; though he talks of giving security, and says in any other way it would be an avvilimento to him! Scott joined us in the evening, and brought me a copy of the Italian translation of Lalla Rookh. Lord B., Scott says, getting fond of money: he keeps a box into which he occasionally puts sequins; he has now collected about 300, and his great delight, Scott tells me, is to open the box, and contemplate his store. "10th. .. Lord B., Scott, and I dined at the Pellegrino ; before we went Lord B. read me what he has done of the third canto of Don Juan. In the evening all went to the Opera together, and from thence at twelve o'clock to a sort of public-house, to drink hot punch; forming a strange contrast to a dirty cobbler, whom we saw in a nice room delicately eating ice. Lord B. took me home in his gondola at two o'clock; a beautiful moonlight, and the reflection VIII.] FIRST AND SECOND IMPRESSIONS. 473 of the palaces in the water, and the stillness and grandeur of the whole scene (deprived as it was of its deformities by the dimness of the light) gave a nobler idea of Venice then I had yet had. "IIth. Left Venice at one o'clock, and got to Lord Byron's at three; a handsome dinner ready for me. Saw the Countess again, who looked prettier than she did the first time. Guiccioli is her name, nata Ġamba. Lord B. came on with me to Stra, where we parted. He has given me his Memoirs to make what use I please of them. Arrived at Padua at seven." |