Life of Lord Byron, Vol. 4 With His Letters and Journals

"I have been in a rage these two days, and am still bilious therefrom. You shall hear. A captain of dragoons, * *, Hanoverian by birth, in the Papal troops at present, whom I ha...

"Your letter is almost the only news, as yet, of Canto fourth, and it has by no means settled its fate,--at least, does not tell me how the 'Poeshie' has been received by the pu...

"I send you a letter to R * *ts, signed Wortley Clutterbuck, which you may publish in what form you please, in answer to his article. I have had many proofs of men's absurdity,...

"You may do as you please, but you are about a hopeless experiment. Eldon will decide against you, were it only that my name is in the record. You will also recollect that if th...

"Tell Mr. Hobhouse that I wrote to him a few days ago from Ferrara. It will therefore be idle in him or you to wait for any further answers or returns of proofs from Venice, as...

"I have received no proofs by the last post, and shall probably have quitted Venice before the arrival of the next. There wanted a few stanzas to the termination of Canto first...

"The second Canto of Don Juan was sent, on Saturday last, by post, in four packets, two of four, and two of three sheets each, containing in all two hundred and seventeen stanza...

"I do not know how far I may be able to reply to your letter, for I am not very well to-day. Last night I went to the representation of Alfieri's Mirra, the two last acts of whi...

"Your letter of December 8th arrived but this day, by some delay, common but inexplicable. Your domestic calamity is very grievous, and I feel with you as much as I _dare_ feel...

"To remove or increase your Irish anxiety about my being 'in a wisp[77],' I answer your letter forth-with; premising that, as I am a '_Will_ of the wisp,' I may chance to flit o...

"Thanks for your letter and for Madame's. I will answer it directly. Will you recollect whether I did not consign to you one or two receipts of Madame Mocenigo's for house-rent-...

"I take you at your word about Mr. Hanson, and will feel obliged if you will _go_ to him, and request Mr. Davies also to visit him by my desire, and repeat that I trust that nei...

"Enclosed is something which will interest you, to wit, the opinion of _the_ greatest man of Germany--perhaps of Europe--upon one of the great men of your advertisements, (all '...

"The bull-dogs will be very agreeable. I have only those of this country, who, though good, have not the tenacity of tooth and stoicism in endurance of my canine fellow-citizens...

"An English newspaper here would be a prodigy, and an opposition one a monster; and except some ex tracts _from_ extracts in the vile, garbled Paris gazettes, nothing of the kin...

"I have got your extract, and the 'Vampire.' I need not say it is _not mine_. There is a rule to go by: you are my publisher (till we quarrel), and what is not published by you...

"You may go on with your edition, without calculating on the Memoir, which I shall not publish at present. It is nearly finished, but will be too long; and there are so many thi...

_Man._ (_alone._) There is a calm upon me-- Inexplicable stillness! which till now Did not belong to what I knew of life. If that I did not know philosophy To be of all our vani...

"By the favour of Dr. Polidori, who is here on his way to England with the present Lord G * *, (the late earl having gone to England by another road, accompanied by his bowels i...

"Mr. Hoppner has lent me a copy of 'Don Juan,' Paris edition, which he tells me is read in Switzerland by clergymen and ladies with considerable approbation. In the second Canto...

"I wrote to you a few days ago. There is also a letter of January last for you at Murray's, which will explain to you why I am here. Murray ought to have forwarded it long ago....

"Foscolo's letter is exactly the thing wanted; firstly, because he is a man of genius; and, next, because he is an Italian, and therefore the best judge of Italics. Besides,

"I enclose you an Italian abstract of the German translator of Manfred's Appendix, in which you will perceive quoted what Goethe says of the _whole body_ of English poetry (and...

"Mr. Kinnaird and his brother, Lord Kinnaird, have been here, and are now gone again. All your missives came, except the tooth-powder, of which I request further supplies, at al...

"I have received the proofs of the 'Lament of Tasso,' which makes me hope that you have also received the reformed third Act of Manfred, from Rome, which I sent soon after my ar...

"I have to thank Mr. Croker for the arrival, and you for the contents, of the parcel which came last week, much quicker than any before, owing to Mr. Croker's kind attention and...

"I thought that I had told you long ago, that it never was intended nor written with any view to the stage. I have said so in the preface too. It is too long and too regular for...

"I told you long ago that the new Cantos[72] were _not_ good, and I also _told you a reason_. Recollect, I do not oblige you to publish them; you may suppress them, if you like,...

"I have not, as you say, 'taken to wife the Adriatic.' I heard of Moore's loss from himself in a letter which was delayed upon the road three months. I was sincerely sorry for i...

"I sent you from Florence 'The Lament of Tasso,' and from Rome the third Act of Manfred, both of which, I trust, will duly arrive. The terms of these two I mentioned in my last,...

"From your not having written again, an intention which your letter of the 7th ultimo indicated, I have to presume that the 'Prophecy of Dante' has not been found more worthy th...

_Her._ 'Tis strange enough; night after night, for years, He hath pursued long vigils in this tower, Without a witness. I have been within it,-- So have we all been oft-times; b...

"Your letters of the 18th and 20th are arrived. In my own I have given you the rise, progress, decline, and fall, of my recent malady. It is gone to the devil: I won't pay him s...

"I am at length joined to Bologna, where I am settled like a sausage, and shall be broiled like one, if this weather continues. Will you thank Mengaldo on my part for the Ferrar...

"I sent you by last post the translation of the first Canto of the Morgante Maggiore, and wish you to ask Rose about the word 'sbergo,' _i.e._ 'usbergo,' which I have translated...

"I shall continue to write to you while the fit is on me, by way of penance upon you for your former complaints of long silence. I dare say you would blush, if you could, for no...

"By land and sea carriage a considerable quantity of books have arrived; and I am obliged and grateful: but 'medio de fonte leporum, surgit amari aliquid,' &c. &c.; which, being...

"The Ferrara story is of a piece with all the rest of the Venetian manufacture,--you may judge. I only changed horses there since I wrote to you, after my visit in June last. '_...

"I am glad to hear of your return, but I do not know how to congratulate you--unless you think differently of Venice from what I think now, and you thought always. I am, besides...

"I enclose a sheet for correction, if ever you get to another edition. You will observe that the blunder in printing makes it appear as if the Château was _over_ St. Gingo, inst...

"This letter will be delivered by Signor Gioe. Bata. Missiaglia, proprietor of the Apollo library, and the principal publisher and bookseller now in Venice. He sets out for Lond...

"Since I last wrote, I have changed my mind, and shall not come to England. The more I contemplate, the more I dislike the place and the prospect. You may, therefore, address to...

"Your letter of the 15th has conveyed with its contents the impression of a seal, to which the 'Saracen's Head' is a seraph, and the 'Bull and Mouth' a delicate device. I knew t...

"Don't be alarmed. You will see me defend myself gaily--that is, if I happen to be in spirits; and by spirits, I don't mean your meaning of the word, but the spirit of a bull-do...

"Galignani has just sent me the Paris edition of your works (which I wrote to order), and I am glad to see my old friends with a French face. I have been skimming and dipping, i...

"I have received a Parisian letter from W.W., which I prefer answering through you, if that worthy be still at Paris, and, as he says, an occasional visiter of yours. In Novembe...

"My this present writing is to direct you that, if _she chooses_, she may see the MS. Memoir in your possession. I wish her to have fair play, in all cases, even though it will...

"Our friend, il Conte M., threw me into a cold sweat last night, by telling me of a menaced version of Manfred (in Venetian, I hope, to complete the thing) by some Italian, who...

"Three months after date (17th March),--like the unnegotiable bill despondingly received by the reluctant tailor,--your despatch has arrived, containing the extract from Moore's...

"By this post, (or next at farthest) I send you in two _other_ covers, the new third Act of 'Manfred.' I have re-written the greater part, and returned what is not altered in th...

"A Venetian lady, learned and somewhat stricken in years, having, in her intervals of love and devotion, taken upon her to translate the Letters and write the Life of Lady Mary...

"Murray, the Mokanna of booksellers, has contrived to send me extracts from Lalla Rookh by the post. They are taken from some magazine, and contain a short outline and quotation...

"You will have now received all the Acts, corrected, of the Marino Faliero. What you say of the 'bet of 100 guineas' made by some one who says that he saw me last week, reminds...

"I suppose that Aglietti will take whatever you offer, but till his return from Vienna I can make him no proposal; nor, indeed, have you authorised me to do so. The three French...

"Last post I sent you 'The Vision of Dante,'--four first Cantos. Enclosed you will find, _line for line_, in _third rhyme_ (_terza rima_), of which your British blackguard reade...

"Your two letters are before me, and our bargain is so far concluded. How sorry I am to hear that Gifford is unwell! Pray tell me he is better: I hope it is nothing but _cold_....

"I wrote to you by last post, enclosing a buffooning letter for publication, addressed to the buffoon R----ts, who has thought proper to tie a canister to his own tail. It was w...

"You need not have made any excuses about the letter: I never said but that you might, could, should, or would have reason. I merely described my own state of inaptitude to list...

"I wrote to you the other day from Florence, inclosing a MS. entitled 'The Lament of Tasso.' It was written in consequence of my having been lately at Ferrara. In the last secti...

"If you can convey the enclosed letter to its address, or discover the person to whom it is directed, you will confer a favour upon the Venetian creditor of a deceased Englishma...

"Yours of the 15th came yesterday. I am sorry that you do not mention a large letter addressed to _your care_ for Lady Byron, from me, at Bologna, two months ago. Pray tell me,...

"Mr. Kinnaird has probably returned to England by this time, and will have conveyed to you any tidings you may wish to have of us and ours. I have come back to Venice for the wi...

"Your letter of the 18th, and, what will please you, as it did me, the parcel sent by the good-natured aid and abetment of Mr. Croker, are arrived.--Messrs. Lewis and Hobhouse a...

"You would hardly have been troubled with the removal of my furniture, but there is none to be had nearer than Bologna, and I have been fain to have that of the rooms which I fi...

"Post after post arrives without bringing any acknowledgment from you of the different packets (excepting the first) which I sent within the last two months, all of which ought...

"Herewith you will receive a note (enclosed) on Pope, which you will find tally with a part of the text of last post. I have at last lost all patience with the atrocious cant an...

"I have no time to return you the proofs--publish without them. I am glad you think the poesy good; and as to 'thinking of the effect,' think _you_ of the sale, and leave me to...

"I have finished (that is, written--the file comes afterwards) ninety and eight stanzas of the fourth Canto, which I mean to be the concluding one. It will probably be about the...

"I returned from Rome two days ago, and have received your letter; but no sign nor tidings of the parcel sent through Sir C. Stuart, which you mention. After an interval of mont...

"The tragedy is completed, but now comes the task of copy and correction. It is very long, (42 _sheets_ of long paper, of four pages each,) and I believe must make more than 140...

"I have not decided any thing about remaining at Ravenna. I may stay a day, a week, a year, all my life; but all this depends upon what I can neither see nor foresee. I came bec...

"D----n your 'mezzo cammin[79]'--you should say 'the prime of life,' a much more consolatory phrase. Besides, it is not correct. I was born in 1788, and consequently am but thir...

"I wrote to you from Padua, and from Bologna, and since from Ravenna. I find my situation very agreeable, but want my horses very much, there being good riding in the environs....

"I set out yesterday morning with the intention of paying my respects, and availing myself of your permission to walk over the premises.[7] On arriving at Padua, I found that th...

"In the name of all the devils in the printing-office, why don't you write to acknowledge the receipt of the second, third, and fourth packets, viz. the Pulci translation and or...

"It gives me great pleasure to hear of Moore's success, and the more so that I never doubted that it would be complete. Whatever good you can tell me of him and his poem will be...

"I have room for you in the house here, as I had in Venice, if you think fit to make use of it; but do not expect to find the same gorgeous suite of tapestried halls. Neither da...

"I have received your letter and the credit from Morlands, &c. for whom I have also drawn upon you at sixty days' sight for the remainder, according to your proposition.

"Business and the utter and inexplicable silence of all my correspondents renders me impatient and troublesome. I wrote to Mr. Hanson for a balance which is (or ought to be) in...

"I have had no letter from you these two months; but since I came here in December, 1819, I sent you a letter for Moore, who is God knows _where_--in Paris or London, I presume....

"Since my last, which I hope that you have received, I have had a letter from our friend Samuel. He talks of Italy this summer--won't you come with him? I don't know whether you...

"You will do me the favour to print privately (for private distribution) fifty copies of 'Don Juan.' The list of the men to whom I wish it to be presented, I will send hereafter...

"Since my former letter, I have been working up my impressions into a _fourth_ Canto of Childe Harold, of which I have roughened off about rather better than thirty stanzas, and...

"Get from Mr. Hobhouse, and send me a proof (with the Latin) of my Hints from Horace; it has now the _nonum prematur in annum_ complete for its production, being written at Athe...

"A tertian ague which has troubled me for some time, and the indisposition of my daughter, have prevented me from replying before to your welcome letter. I have not been ignoran...

"I write to give you notice that I have completed the _fourth_ and _ultimate_ Canto of Childe Harold. It consists of 126 stanzas, and is consequently the longest of the four. It...

"I have to thank you for your letter, and your compliment to Don Juan. I said nothing to you about it, understanding that it is a sore subject with the moral reader, and has bee...

"I have been here this week, and was obliged to put on my armour and go the night after my arrival to the Marquis Cavalli's, where there were between two and three hundred of th...

"Talking of blunders reminds me of Ireland--Ireland of Moore. What is this I see in Galignani about 'Bermuda--agent--deputy--appeal--attachment,' &c.? What is the matter? Is it...

"I have been very sorry to hear of the death of Madame de Staël, not only because she had been very kind to me at Copet, but because now I can never requite her. In a general po...

"Enclosed is Dante's Prophecy--Vision--or what not.[69] Where I have left more than one reading (which I have done often), you may adopt that which Gifford, Frere, Rose, and Hob...

"Will you send me by letter, packet, or parcel, half a dozen of the coloured prints from Holmes's miniature (the latter done shortly before I left your country, and the prints a...

"A few days ago, I wrote to you a letter, requesting you to desire Hanson to desire his messenger to come on from Geneva to Venice, because I won't go from Venice to Geneva; and...

"I have received your letter here, where I have taken a cruise lately; but I shall return back to Venice in a few days, so that if you write again, address there, as usual. I am...

"The time is past in which I could feel for the dead,--or I should feel for the death of Lady Melbourne, the best, and kindest, and ablest female I ever knew, old or young. But...

"I have written to you several letters, some with additions, and some upon the subject of the poem itself, which my cursed puritanical committee have protested against publishin...

"I have caused write to Siri and Willhalm to send with Vincenza, in a boat, the camp-beds and swords left in their care when I quitted Venice. There are also several pounds of M...

"First and foremost, you must forward my letter to _Moore_ dated 2d _January_, which I said you might open, but desired you _to forward_. Now, you should really not forget these...

"Ravenna continues much the same as I described it. Conversazioni all Lent, and much better ones than any at Venice. There are small games at hazard, that is, faro, where nobody...

"In case, in your country, you should not readily lay hands on the Morgante Maggiore, I send you the original text of the first Canto, to correspond with the translation which I...

"I have received your letter of the 7th. Besides the four packets you have already received, I have sent the Pulci a few days after, and since (a few days ago) the four first Ca...

"Last post I sent you a note fierce as Faliero himself[81], in answer to a trashy tourist, who pretends that he could have been introduced to me. Let me have a proof of it, that...

"I have '_put my soul_' into the tragedy (as you _if_ it); but you know that there are d----d souls as well as tragedies. Recollect that it is not a political play, though it ma...

and _not 'lost,'_ which is nonsense, as what losing a scale means, I know not; but _leaving_ an unbalanced scale, or a scale unbalanced, is intelligible.[28] Correct this, I pra...

"In correcting the proofs you must refer to the _manuscript_, because there are in it various readings. Pray attend to this, and choose what Gifford thinks best, Let me hear wha...

"I have got the sketch and extracts from Lalla Rookh. The plan, as well as the extracts, I have seen, please me very much indeed, and I feel impatient for the whole.

"Enclosed is a 'Screed of Doctrine' for you, of which I will trouble you to acknowledge the receipt by next post. Mr. Hobhouse must have the correction of it for the press. You...

"Inasmuch as it has pleased the translators of the long-lost and lately-found portions of the text of Eusebius to put forth the enclosed prospectus, of which I send six copies,...

"Enclosed is a letter to _Dr._ Holland from Pindemonte. Not knowing the Doctor's address, I am desired to enquire, and, perhaps, being a literary man, you will know or discover...

"The Abbot will have a more than ordinary interest for me, for an ancestor of mine by the mother's side, Sir J. Gordon of Gight, the handsomest of his day, died on a scaffold at...

"Pulci and I are waiting for you with impatience; but I suppose we must give way to the attraction of the Bolognese galleries for a time. I know nothing of pictures myself, and...

"My dear Mr. Murray, You're in a damn'd hurry To set up this ultimate Canto; But (if they don't rob us) You'll see Mr. Hobhouse Will bring it safe in his portmanteau.

"Murray, my dear, make my respects to Thomas Campbell, and tell him from me, with faith and friendship, three things that he must right in his poets: Firstly, he says Anstey's B...

"Croker's is a good guess; but the style is not English, it is Italian;--Berni is the original of _all_. Whistlecraft was _my_ immediate _model_! Rose's 'Animali' I never saw ti...

"I should have thanked you before, for your favour a few days ago, had I not been in the intention of paying my respects, personally, this evening, from which I am deterred by t...

"So you are at your old tricks again. This is the second packet I have received unaccompanied by a single line of good, bad, or indifferent. It is strange that you have never fo...

"Mr. Hobhouse purposes being in England in November; he will bring the fourth Canto with him, notes and all; the text contains one hundred and fifty stanzas, which is long for t...

"Partings are but bitter work at best, so that I shall not venture on a second with you. Pray make my respects to Mrs. Hoppner, and assure her of my unalterable reverence for th...

"The present letter will be delivered to you by two Armenian friars, on their way, by England, to Madras. They will also convey some copies of the grammar, which I think you agr...

"A German named Ruppsecht has sent me, heaven knows why, several Deutsche Gazettes, of all which I understand neither word nor letter. I have sent you the enclosed to beg you to...

"I wish you would inform Perry, that his stupid paragraph is the cause of all my newspapers being stopped in Paris. The fools believe me in your infernal country, and have not s...

"The opinions which I have asked of Mr. H. and others were with regard to the poetical merit, and not as to what they may think due to the _cant_ of the day, which still reads t...

"I send you the Story[12] in three other separate covers. It won't do for your Journal, being full of political allusions. _Print alone, without name_; alter nothing; get a scho...