which will let you into the origin of the 'Giaour.'|pose I shall hear from you to-morrow. If not, this Write soon. "Ever, dear Moore, yours most entirely, &c. "P. S. This letter was written to me on account of a different story circulated by some gentle women of our acquaintance, a little too close to the text. The part erased contained merely some Turkish names, and circumstantial evidence of the girl's detection, not very important or decorous." goes as it is; but I leave room for a P.S., in case any thing requires an answer. Ever, &c. "No letter-n'importe. Rogers thinks the Quarterly will be at me this time: if so, it shall be a war of extermination-no quarter. From the youngest devil down to the oldest woman of that Review, all ture shall be torn asunder, for I will not even spare shall perish by one fatal lampoon. The ties of namy bookseller; nay, if one were to include readers also, all the better." LETTER CLXXII. TO MR. MOORE. "Sept. 5, 1813. "You need not tie yourself down to a day with Toderini, but send him at your leisure, having anatomized him into such annotations as you want; I do not believe he has ever undergone that process before, which is the best reason for not sparing him now. "Rogers has returned to town, but not yet recovered of the Quarterly. What fellows these reviewers are! these bugs do fear us all.' They made you fight, and me (the milkiest of men) a satirist, and will end by making Rogers madder than Ajax. I have been reading 'Memory' again, the other day, and 'Hope' together, and retain all my preference of the former. His elegance is really wonderful There is no such thing as a vulgar line in his book. LETTER CLXXIII. TO MR. MOORE. "Sept. 8, 1813. "I am sorry to see Tod again, so soon, for fear your scrupulous conscience should have prevented you from fully availing yourself of his spoils. By this coach I send you a copy of that awful pamphlet, the Giaour,' which has never procured me half so high a compliment as your modest alarm. You will (if inclined in an evening), perceive that I have added much in quantity,-a circumstance which may truly diminish your modesty upon the subject. "You stand certainly in great need of a 'lift' with Mackintosh. My dear Moore, you strangely underrate yourself. I should conceive it an affectation in any other; but I think I know you well enough to believe that you don't know your own value. However, 'tis a fault that generally mends; and, in your case, it really ought. I have heard him speak of you as highly as your wife could wish; and enough to give all your friends the jaundice. "What say you to Bonaparte? Remember, I back him against the field, barring Catalepsy and the elements. Nay, I almost wish him success "Yesterday I had a letter from Ali Pacha! against all countries but this,-were it only to choke brought by Dr. Holland, who is just returned from the Morning Post, and his undutiful father-in-law, Albania. It is in Latin, and begins Excellentiswith that rebellious bastard of Scandinavian adop- sime, nec non Carissime,' and ends about a gun he tion, Bernadotte. Rogers wants me to go with him wants made for him; it is signed Ali Vizir.' on a crusade to the Lakes, and to beseige you on our What do you think he has been about? H. tells way. This last is a great temptation, but I fear it me that, last spring, he took a hostile town, where, will not be in my power, unless you would go on forty-two years ago, his mother and sisters were with one of us somewhere-no matter where. It is treated as Miss Cunigunde was by the Bulgarian too late for Matlock, but we might hit upon some cavalry. He takes the town, selects all the surviv scheme, high life or low, the last would be much ors of this exploit-children, grandchildren, &c., to the best for amusement. I am so sick of the other, the tune of six hundred, aud has them shot before that I quite sigh for a cider-cellar, or a cruise in a his face. Recollect, he spared the rest of the city, smuggler's sloop. and confined himself to the Tarquin pedigree, which is more than I would. So much for dearest friend.' "You cannot wish more than I do that the Fates were a little more accommodating to our parallel lines, which prolong ad infinitum without coming a jot the nearer. I almost wish I were married too, which is saying much. All my friends, seniors and juniors, are in for it, and ask me to be godfather, the only species of parentage which, I believe, will ever come to my share in a lawful way; and, in an unlawful one, by the blessing of Lucina, we can never be certain,-though the parish may. I sup LETTER CLXXIV. TO MR. MOORE. "Sept. 9, 1813, "I write to you from Murray's, and I may say, from Murray, who, if you are not predisposed in of the Mahommedan law, he ordered the girl to be sewed up in a sack, and favor of any other publisher, would be happy to thrown into the sea,-as is, indeed, quite customary at Constantinople. As treat with you, at a fitting time, for your work. I you were returning from bathing in the Piræus, you met the procession going can safely recommend him, as fair, liberal, and atdown to execute the sentence of the Waywods on this unfortunate girl. Re- tentive, and certainly, in point of reputation, he port continues to say, that on finding what the object of their journey was, stands among the first of the trade." I am sure and who was the miserable sufferer, you immediately interfered; and on he would do you justice. I have written to you so zome delay in obeying your orders, you were obliged to inform the leader of much lately that you will be glad to see so little you drew a pistol, and told him, that if he did not immediately obey your now. Ever, &c., &c." the escort that force should make him comply;-that, on farther hesitation, orders, and come back with you to the Aga's house, you would shoot him "Yours, very sincerely, "SLIGO. LETTER CLXXV. TO MR. MOORE. "Sept. 27, 1813 "THOMAS MOORE, "(Thou wilt never be called 'true Thomas,' like "I am afraid you will hardly be able to read this scrawl; but I am so hur- he of Ercildoune,) why don't you write to me?-as ried with the preparations for my journey, that you must excuse it." you won't, I must. I was near you at Aston the other day, and hope I soon shall be again. If so,| "Saturday morn.-Your letter has cancelled all you must and shall meet me, and go to Matlock and my anxieties. I did not suspect you in earnest. elsewhere, and, take what, in flash dialect, is poeti-Modest again! Because I don't do a very shabby cally termed a lark,' with Rogers and me for ac- thing, it seems, I don't fear your competition.' If complices. Yesterday, at Holland House, I was it were reduced to an alternative or preference, I introduced to Southey-the best looking bard I have should dread you, as much as Satan does Michael. seen for some time. To have that poet's head and But is there not room enough in our respective shoulders, I would almost have written his Sapphics. regions? Go on-it will soon be my turn to forgive. He is certainly a prepossessing person to look on, To-day I dine with Mackintosh and Mrs. Stale-as and a man of talent, and all that, and-there is his John Bull mey be pleased to denominate Corinneeulogy. whom I saw last night, at Covent Garden, yawning * * read me part of a letter from you. By the over the humor of Falstaff. foot of Pharoah, I believe there was abuse, for he "The reputation of 'gloom,' if one's friends are stopped short, so he did, after a fine saying about not included in the reputants, is of great service; our correspondence, and looked-I wish I could re- as it saves one from a legion of impertinents, in the venge myself by attacking you, or by telling you shape of common-place acquaintance. But thou that I have had to defend you-an agreeable way knowest I can be a right merry and conceited felwhich one's friends have of recommending them-low, and rarely larmoyant.' Murray shall reinstate selves, by saying,-' Ay, ay, I gave it Mr. Such-a- your line forthwith.* I believe the blunder in the one for what he said about your being a plagiary, motto was mine; and yet I have, in general, a and a rake, and so on.' But do you know that you memory for you, and am sure it was rightly printed are one of the very few whom I never have the satis- at first. faction of hearing abused, but the reverse ;-and do you suppose I will forgive that? "I do blush' very often, if I may believe Ladies H. and M.--but luckily at present, no one sees me. Adieu.' LETTER CLXXVII. TO MR. MOORE. "Nov. 30, 1813. "I have been in the country, and ran away from the Doncaster races. It is odd,-I was a visitor in the same house which came to my sire as a residence with Lady Carmarthen (with whom he adulterated before his majority-by-the-by, remember, she was not my mamma)-and they thrust me into an old room, with a nauseous picture over the chimney, which I should suppose my papa regarded with due respect, and which, inheriting the family "Since I last wrote to you, much has occurred, taste, I looked upon with great satisfaction. Igood, bad, and indifferent,-not to make me forget stayed a week with the family, and behaved very you, but to prevent me from reminding you of one well-though the lady of the house is young, and who, nevertheless, has often thought of you, and to religious, and pretty, and the master is my particu-whom your thoughts, in many a measure, have fre lar friend. I felt no wish for any thing but a poodle quently been a consolation. We were once very dog, which they kindly gave me. Now, for a man near neighbors this autumn; and a good and bad of my course, not even to have coveted is a sign of neighborhood it has proved to me. Suffice it to say, great amendment. Pray pardon all this nonsense, and don't snub me when I'm in spirits.' "Ever yours, "BN." "Here's an impromptu for you by a 'person of quality,' written last week, on being reproached for Low spirits. "When from the heart where sorrow sits,* &c. LETTER CLXXVI. TO MR. MOORE. "October 2, 1813. that your French quotation was confoundedly to the purpose, though very unexpectedly pertinent, as you may imagine by what I said before, and my silence since. *** However, Richard's himself again,' and, except all night and some part of the morning, I don't think very much about the matter. "All convulsions end with me in rhyme; and to solace my midnights, I have scribbled another Turkish story+-not a Fragment-which you will receive * The motto to the Giaour, which is taken from one of the Irish Melodies, had been quoted by him incorrectly in the first editions of the Poems. He made afterward a similar mistake in the lines from Burns prefixed to the Bride of Abydos. †The Bride of Abydos. To this poem he made additions, in the course of "You have not answered some six letters of printing, amounting altogether to near two hundred lines; and the opening mine. This, therefore, is my penultimate. I will lines, "Know ye the land," &c.,-supposed to have been suggested to him write to you once more, but after that-I swear by by a song of Goethe's,-were among the number of these new insertions, as all the saints-I am silent and supercilious. I have &c. Having at first written the line in stanza vi., met Curran at Holland Housef-he beats every body;-his imagination is beyond human, and his were also those verses, "Who hath not proved how feebly words essay," "Mind on her lip and music in her face." humor (it is difficult to define what is wit) perfect. he afterward altered it to— "The mind of music breathing in her face," were I a woman, and eke a virgin, that is the man But, this not satisfying him, the next step of correction brought the line to I should make my Scamander. He is quite fasci- what it is at presentnating. Remember, I have met him but once; and "The mind, the music breathing from her face." you, who have known him long, may probably de- The whole passage which follows- "Thou, my Zuleika, share and bless my bark," The line. "And tints to-morrow with prophetic ray," was originally He talked a great deal about you-a theme never was sent in successive scraps to the printer, correction following correction. tiresome to me, nor any body else that I know. What a variety of expression he conjures into that naturally not very fine countenance of his! He absolutely changes it entirely. I have done for I the following note being annexed:-"Mr. Murray,-Choose which of the can't describe him, and you know him. On Sunday two epithets, 'fancied,' or 'airy,' may be the best; or, if neither will do, I return to **, where I shall not be far from you. tell me, and I will dream another." In the long passage just referred to, Perhaps I shall hear from you in the mean time. the six lines beginning "Blest as the Muezzin's strain," &c., having been Good night. despatched to the printer too late for insertion, were, by his desire, added in * See Poems, p. 544. † See Memorandums. an errata page; the first couplet, in its original form, being as follows:- soon after this. It does not trench upon your king-sterling talent and at the expense of some suffering. dom in the least, and, if it did, you would soon re- You have not, I trust, abandoned the poem you were duce me to my proper boundaries. You will think, composing, when Moore and I partook of your hosand justly, that I run some risk of losing the little pitality in the summer. I hope a time will come I have gained in fame, by this further experiment on when he and I may be able to repay you in kind for public patience; but I have really ceased to care on the latter-for the rhyme, at least in quantity, you that head. I have written this, and published it, for are in arrear to both. the sake of the employment,-to wring my thoughts from reality, and take refuge in 'imaginings,' however 'horrible;' and, as to success! those who succeed will console me for a failure-excepting yourself and one or two more, whom luckily I love too well to wish one leaf of their laurels a tint yellower. This is the work of a week, and will be the reading of an hour to you, or even less,—and so let it go * "P. S. Ward and I talk of going to Holland. I want to see how a Dutch canal looks, after the Bosphorus. Pray respond." LETTER CLXXVIII. "MY DEAR SIR, TO LEIGH HUNT. "4, Bennet street, Dec. 2, 1913. "Believe me very truly and affectionately yours, "BYRON.' LETTER CLXXIX. TO MR. MOORE. "Dec. 8, 1813. "Your letter, like all the best, and even kindest, things in this world, is both painful and pleasing. But, first, to what sits nearest. Do you know I was actually about to dedicate to you,-not in a formal inscription, as to one's elders,-but through a short prefatory letter, in which I boasted myself your intimate, and held forth the prospect of your Poem, when, lo! the recollection of your strict injunctions of secrecy as to the said Poem, more than once repeated by word and letter, flashed upon me, and marred my intents. I could have no motive for repressing my own desire of alluding to you, (and not "Few things could be more welcome than your a day passes that I do not think and talk of you,) note, and on Saturday morning I will avail myself of but an idea that you might, yourself, dislike it. You your permission to thank you for it in person. My cannot doubt my sincere admiration, waiving pertime has not been passed, since we met, either profit-sonal friendship for the present, which, by-the-by, is not less sincere and deep-rooted. I have you by ably or agreeably. A very short period after my last visit, an incident occurred, with which, I fear, rote and by heart; of which 'ecce signum! When you are not unacquainted, as report, in many mouths I was at, on my first visit, I have a habit, in and more than one paper, was busy with the topic. passing my time a good deal alone, of-I won't call That, naturally, gave me much uneasiness. Then it singing, for that I never attempt except to myself I nearly incurred a lawsuit on the sale of an estate; but of uttering, to what I think tunes, your Oh but this is now arranged: next-but why should I breathe not,' When the last glimpse,' and When go on with a series of selfish and silly details? I he who adores thee,' with others of the same minmerely wish to assure you that it was not the frivo-strel ;-they are my matins and vespers. I assuredlous forgetfulness of a mind occupied by what is ly did not intend them to be overbeard, but, one called pleasure, (not in the true sense of Epicurus,) morning, in comes, not La Donna, but Il Marito, that kept me away; but a perception of my, then, with a very grave face, saying, 'Byron, I must reunfitness to share the society of those whom I value quest you won't sing any more, at least of those and wish not to displease. I hate being larmoyant, songs. I stared, and said, 'Certainly, but why?' and making a serious face among those who are wife cry, and so melancholy, that I wish her to hear -To tell you the truth,' quoth he, they make my cheerful. no more of them.' ' you how "It is my wish that our acquaintance, or, if you please to accept it, friendship, may be permanent. "Now, my dear Moore, the effect must have been I have been lucky enough to preserve some friends from your words, and certainly not my music. I from a very early period, and I hope, as I do not (at merely mention this foolish story, to show least now) select them lightly, I shall not lose them much I am indebted to you for even your pastimes. capriciously. I have a thorough esteem for that in-A man may praise and praise, but no one recollects dependence of spirit which you have maintained with but that which pleases-at least, in composition. in a few hours after, another scrap was sent off, containing the lines thus— with the following note to Mr. Murray : "December 3, 1813. "Look out in the Encyclopedia, article Mecca, whether it is there or at Medina the Prophet is entombed. If at Medina, the first lines of my alteration must run— "Blest as the call which from Medina's dome Invites Devotion to her Prophet's tomb, &c. Though I think no one equal to you in that department, or in satire,—and surely no one was ever so popular in both,-I certainly am of opinion that you have not yet done all you can do, though more than enough for any one else. I want, and the world expects, a longer work from you; and I see in you what I never saw in poet before, a strange diffidence of your own powers, which I cannot account for, and which must be unaccountable, when a Cossack like me can appal a cuirassier. Your story I did not, could not, know-I thought If at Mecca, the lines may stand as before. Page 45, Canto 11., Bride of only of a Peri. I wish you had confided in me, Abydos. "Yours, not for your sake, but mine, and to prevent the world from losing a much better poem than my "You will find this out either by article Mecca, Medina, or Mohammed. own, but which, but which, I yet hope, this clashing will not "Go on-I shall really be very unhappy if I at all interfere with you. The success of mine is yet Notwithstanding all these various changes, the couplet in question stands, problematical; though the public will probably Jerent, thus: " Blest as the Muezzin's strain from Mecca's wall To pilgrims pure and prostrate at his call." purchase a certain quantity, on the presumption of their own propensity for the Giaour' and such 'horrid mysteries.' The only advantage I have is LETTER CLXXX being on the spot; and that merely amounts to * * * * TO MR. GIFFORD. "Nov. 12, 1813. "I hope you will consider when I venture on any request, that it is the reverse of a certain Dedica "This last thing of mine may have the same fate, tion, and is addressed not to The Editor of the and I assure you I have great doubts about it. But, Quarterly Review,' but to Mr. Gifford. You will even if not, its little day will be over before you are understand this, and on that point I need trouble ready and willing. Come out-screw your courage you no farther. to the sticking-place.' Except the Post Bag (and "You have been good enough to look at a thing surely you cannot complain of a want of success of mine in MS.*-a Turkish story, and I should there), you have not been regularly out for some feel gratified if you would do it the same favor in its years. No man stands higher,-whatever you may probationary state of printing. It was written, 1 think on a rainy day, in your provincial retreat. cannot say for amusement, nor obliged by hunger 'Aucun homme, dans aucune langue, n'a, éte, and request of friends,' but in a state of mind, peut-être, plus complètement le poëte du cœur et le from circumstances which occasionally occur to us poëte des femmes. Les critiques lui reprochent de youth,' that rendered it necessary for me to apply n'avoir representé le monde ni tel qu'il est, ni tel my mind to something, any thing but reality; and qu'il doit être; mais les femmes répondent qu'il l'a under this not very brilliant inspiration it was comrepresenté tel qu'elles le désirent.I should have posed. Being done, and having at least diverted thought Sismondi had written this for you instead me from myself, I thought you would not perhaps be offended if Mr. Murray forwarded it to you. He has done so, and to apologize for his doing so a second time is the object of my present letter. of Metastasio. "Write to me, and tell me of yourself. Do you remember what Rousseau said to some one- Have we quarrelled? you have talked to me often, and never once mentioned yourself.' "P. S. The last sentence is an indirect apology for my own egotism,-but I believe in letters it is I as "I beg you will not send me any answer. sure you very sincerely I know your time to be occupied, and it is enough, more than enough, if you read; you are not to be bored with the fatigue of answers. A word to Mr. Murary will be sufficient, and send A hundred hawkers' load, allowed. I wish it was mutual. I have met with an odd reflection in Grimm; it shall not-at least, it either to the flames, or the bad part,-be applied to you or me, though one of us has certainly an indifferent name-but this it is: Many people have the reputation of being wicked, with whom we should be too happy to pass our lives.' I need not add it is a woman's saying-of a week, and scribbled 'stans pede in uno,' (bya Mademoiselle de Sommery's." On wings of winds to fly or fall abroad.' It deserves no better than the first, as the work the-by, the only foot I have to stand on;) and I promise never to trouble you again under forty cantos, and a voyage between each. "Believe me ever "Your obliged and affectionate servant, LETTER CLXXX. TO MR. MURRAY. "Dec. 4, 1813. LETTER CLXXXII. TO MR. MURRAY. "Nov. 12, 1813. "I have redde through your Persian Tales,* and have taken the liberty of making some remarks on the blank pages. There are many beautiful passages, and an interesting story; and I cannot give you a "Two friends of mine (Mr. Rogers and Mr stronger proof that such is my opinion than by the Sharpe) have advised me not to risk at present date of the hour-two o'clock, till which it has kept any single publication separately, for various reame awake without a yawn. The conclusion is not sons. As they have not seen the one in question, quite correct in costume: there is no Mussulman they can have no bias for or against the merits (if suicide on record,—at least for love. But this mat- it has any) or the faults of the present subject of ters not. The tale must have been written by some our conversation. You say all the last of the Giaone who has been on the spot, and I wish him, and our' are gone-at least out of your hands. Now, he deserves, success. Will you apologize to the if you think of publishing any new edition with the author for the liberties I have taken with his MS.? last additions which have not yet been before the Had I been less awake to, and interested in, his reader, (I mean distinct from the two-volume publitheme, I had been less obtrusive; but you know I cation,) we can add the 'Bride of Abydos,' which always take this in good part, and I hope he will. will thus steal quietly into the world: if liked, we It is difficult to say what will succeed, and still can then throw off some copies for the purchasers more to pronounce what will not. I am at this of former Giaours; and, if not, I can omit it in moment in that uncertainty, (on our own score,) and any future publication. What think you? I really it is no small proof of the author's powers to be am no judge of those things, and with all my natable to charm and fix a mind's attention on similar ural partiality for one's own productions, I would subjects and climates in such a predicament. That rather follow any one's judgment than my own. he may have the same effect upon all his readers is very sincerely the wish, and hardly the doubt, of yours truly, NOTE TO MR. MURRAY. "Nov. 13, 1813. "Will you forward the letter to Mr. Gifford with the proof? There is an alteration I may make in Zuleika's speech, in second canto (the only one of hers in that canto.) It is now thus: It must be "And curse, if I could curse, the day. And mourn-I dare not curse-the day "Ever yours, "In the last MS. lines sent, instead of heart,' convert to 'quivering heart.' It is line 9th of the MS. passage. "Ever yours again, NOTE TO MR. MURRAY. "Alteration of a line in canto second. Instead of "And tints to-morrow with a fancied ray, "The evening beam that smiles the clouds away, gilds "And tints the hope of morning with its ray; "And gilds to-morrow's hope with heavenly ray. "I wish you would ask Mr. Gifford which of them is best, or rather not worst. "Ever, &c. "You can send the request contained in this at the same time with the revise, after I have seen the said revise." NOTE TO MR. MURRAY. "Nov. 13, 1813. LETTER CLXXXIII. TO MR. MURRAY. "Nov. 15, 1813. "Mr. Hodgson has looked over and stopped, or rather pointed, this revise, which must be the one to print from. He has also made some suggestions, with most of which I have complied, as he has always, for these ten years, been a very sincere, and by no means (at times) flattering, intimate of mine. He likes it (you will think flatteringly, in this instance) better than the Giaour, but doubts (and so do I) its being so popular, but, contrary to some others, advises a separate publication. On this we can easily decide. I confess I like the double form better. Hodgson says, it is better versified than any of the others; which is odd, if true, as it has cost me less time (though more hours at a time) than any attempt I ever made. "P. S. Do attend to the punctuation: I can't, for I don't know a comma-at least, where to place "That tory of a printer has omitted two lines of the opening, and perhaps more, which were in the MS. Will you, pray, give him a hint of accuracy? I have re-inserted the two, but they were in the manuscript, I can swear." LETTER CLXXXIV. TO MR. MURRAY. "Nov. 17, 1813, other on a subject, which, like the dreadful reck"That you and I may distinctly understand each oning when men smile no more,' makes conversation not very pleasant, I think it as well to write a few lines on the topic. Before I left town for Yorkshire, you said that you were ready and willing to give five hundred guineas for the copyright of 'The Giaour;' and my answer was, from which I do not mean to recede, that we would discuss the point at Christmas. The new story may or may not succeed; "Certainly. Do you suppose that no one but the the probability, under present circumstances, seems Galileans are acquainted with Adam, and Eve, and to be, that it may at least pay its expenses; but Cain,* and Noah? Surely, I might have had Solo- even that remains to be proved, and till it is proved mon, and Abraham, and David, and even Moses. one way or another, we will say nothing about it. When you know that Zuleika is the Persian poetical Thus then be it: I will postpone all arrangement name for Potiphar's wife, on whom and Joseph about it, and the Giaour also, till Easter, 1814; and there is a long poem, in the Persian, this will not you shall then, according to your own notions of surprise you. If you want authority, look at Jones, fairness, make your own offer for the two. At the D'Herbelot, Vathek, or the notes to the Arabian same time, I do not rate the last in my own estimaNights; and, if you think it necessary, model this into a note.t "I send you a note for the ignorant, but I really "P. S. The expense of engraving from the minwonder at finding you among them. I don't care iature send me in my account, as it was destroyed one lump of sugar for my poetry; but for my costume and my correctness on those points, (of which I think the funeral was a proof,) I will combat lustily. "Yours, &c." |