Life of Lord Byron, Vol. 5 With His Letters and Journals

"You will or ought to have received the packet and letters which I remitted to your address a fortnight ago (or it may be more days), and I shall be glad of an answer, as, in th...

"In thanking you for the Abbot, I made four grand mistakes, Sir John Gordon was not of Gight, but of Bogagicht, and a son of Huntley's. He suffered _not_ for his loyalty, but in...

"I have just got your packet. I am obliged to Mr. Bowles, and Mr. Bowles is obliged to me, for having restored him to good-humour. He is to write, and you to publish, what you p...

"It is boring to trouble you with 'such small gear;' but it must be owned that I should be glad if you would enquire whether my Irish subscription ever reached the committee in...

"''Tis the middle of night by the castle clock,' and in three hours more I have to set out on my way to Pisa--sitting up all night to be sure of rising. I have just made them ta...

"I had certainly answered your last letter, though but briefly, to the part to which you refer, merely saying, 'damn the controversy;' and quoting some verses of George Colman's...

"The enclosed letter from Murray hath melted me; though I think it is against his own interest to wish that I should continue his connection. You may, therefore, send him the pa...

"I _oppose_ the 'delay till winter:' I am particularly anxious to print while the _winter theatres_ are _closed_, to gain time, in case they try their former piece of politeness...

"In the forty-fourth page, volume first, of Turner's Travels (which you lately sent me), it is stated that 'Lord Byron, when he expressed such confidence of its practicability,...

"There is here Mr. * *, an Irish genius, with whom we are acquainted. He hath written a really _excellent_ Commentary on Dante, full of new and true information, and much ingenu...

"By the papers of Thursday, and two letters of Mr. Kinnaird, I perceive that the Italian gazette had lied most _Italically_, and that the drama had _not_ been hissed, and that m...

"How could you suppose that I ever would allow any thing that _could_ be said on your account to weigh with _me_? I only regret that Bowles had not _said_ that you were the writ...

"It is a long time since I have written to you, but I have not forgotten your kindness, and I am now going to tax it--I hope not too highly--but _don't_ be alarmed, it is _not_...

"Your entering into my project for the Memoir is pleasant to me. But I doubt (contrary to my dear Made Mac F * *, whom I always loved, and always shall--not only because I reall...

"3dly. That you shall not send me any modern, or (as they are called) _new_ publications, in _English whatsoever_, save and excepting any writing, prose or verse, of (or reasona...

"I need not say how grateful I am for your letter, but I must own my ingratitude in not having written to you again long ago. Since I left England (and it is not for all the usu...

"I had sent you back the Quarterly, without perusal, having resolved to read no more reviews, good, bad, or indifferent; but 'who can control his fate?' Galignani, to whom my En...

"Though I wrote to you on the 28th ultimo, I must acknowledge yours of this day, with the lines[35]. They are sublime, as well as beautiful, and in your very best mood and manne...

"You have not written lately, as is the usual custom with literary gentlemen, to console their friends with their observations in cases of magnitude. I do not know whether I sen...

"The body is embarked, in what ship I know not, neither could I enter into the details; but the Countess G.G. has had the goodness to give the necessary orders to Mr. Dunn, who...

"I am in all the sweat, dust, and blasphemy of an universal packing of all my things, furniture, &c. for Pisa, whither I go for the winter. The cause has been the exile of all m...

"I add another cover to request you to ask Moore to obtain (if possible) my letters to the late Lady Melbourne from Lady Cowper. They are very numerous, and ought to have been r...

"Enclosed are the two acts corrected. With regard to the charges about the shipwreck, I think that I told both you and Mr. Hobhouse, years ago, that there was not a _single circ...

"Thanks for your letter, which hath come somewhat costively; but better late than never. Of it anon. Mr. Galignani, of the Press, hath, it seems, been sup-planted and sub-pirate...

"What you say about Galignani's two biographies is very amusing; and, if I were not lazy, I would certainly do what you desire. But I doubt my present stock of facetiousness--th...

"In my packet of the 12th instant, in the last sheet (_not_ the _half_ sheet), last page, _omit_ the sentence which (defining, or attempting to define, what and who are gentleme...

"I have received your letter, and as you explain it, I have no objection, on _your_ account, to omit those passages in the new Mystery (which were marked in the half-sheet sent...

"By Saturday's post, I sent you a fierce and furibund letter upon the subject of the printer's blunders in Don Juan. I must solicit your attention to the topic, though my wrath...

"Yours of the 29th ultimo hath arrived. I must, really and seriously request that you will beg of Messrs. Harris or Elliston to let the Doge alone: it is _not_ an acting play; i...

"The papers to which I allude, in case of survivorship, are collections of letters, &c. since I was sixteen years old, contained in the trunks in the care of Mr. Hobhouse. This...

"Since I wrote the enclosed, I have waited another post, and now have your answer acknowledging the arrival of the packet--a troublesome one, I fear, to you in more ways than on...

"In the month of March will arrive from Barcelona _Signor Curioni_, engaged for the Opera. He is an acquaintance of mine, and a gentlemanly young man, high in his profession. I...

"Your account of your family is very pleasing: would that I 'could answer this comfort with the like!' but I have just lost my natural daughter, Allegra, by a fever. The only co...

"By Mr. Mawman (a paymaster in the corps, in which you and I are privates) I yesterday expedited to your address, under cover one, two paper books, containing the _Giaour_-nal,...

"'Try back the deep lane,' till we find a publisher for the 'Vision;' and if none such is to be found, print fifty copies at my expense, distribute them amongst my acquaintance,...

"The death of Waite is a shock to the--teeth, as well as to the feelings of all who knew him. Good God, he and _Blake_[12] both gone! I left them both in the most robust health,...

"You will have heard by this time that Shelley and another gentleman (Captain Williams) were drowned about a month ago (a _month_ yesterday), in a squall off the Gulf of Spezia....

"By Tuesday's post, I forwarded, in three packets, the drama of Cain in three acts, of which I request the acknowledgment when arrived. To the last speech of _Eve_, in the last...

"The talent you approve of is an amiable one, and might prove a 'national service,' but unfortunately I must be angry with a man before I draw his real portrait; and I can't dea...

"I send you two rough things, prose and verse, not much in themselves, but which will show, one of them, the state of the country, and the other, of your friend's mind, when the...

"I have written to you lately, both in prose and verse, at great length, to Paris and London. I presume that Mrs. Moore, or whoever is your Paris deputy, will forward my packets...

"I have written to you twice through the medium of Murray, and on one subject, _trite_ enough,--the loss of poor little Allegra by a fever; on which topic I shall say no more--t...

"I have to thank you for a parcel of books, which are very welcome, especially Sir Walter's gift of 'Halidon Hill.' You have sent me a copy of 'Werner,' but _without_ the prefac...

"You will have had enough of my letters by this time--yet one word in answer to your present missive. You are quite wrong in thinking that your '_advice_' had offended me; but I...

"Besides this letter, you will receive _three_ packets, containing, in all, 18 more sheets of Memoranda, which, I fear, will cost you more in postage than they will ever produce...

"I have received your letter. I need not say, that the extract which it contains has affected me, because it would imply a want of all feeling to have read it with indifference....

"I open my letter to tell you a fact, which will show the state of this country better than I can. The commandant of the troops is _now_ lying _dead_ in my house. He was shot at...

"I just see, by the papers of Galignani, that there is a new tragedy of great expectation, by Barry Cornwall. Of what I have read of his works Hiked the _Dramatic_ Sketches, but...

"If any part of the letter to Bowles has (unintentionally, as far as I remember the contents) vexed you, you are fully avenged; for I see by an Italian paper that, notwithstandi...

"Thanks for the translation. I have sent you some books, which I do not know whether you have read or no--you need not return them, in any case. I enclose you also a letter from...

"I have received the Juans, which are printed so _carelessly_, especially the fifth Canto, as to be disgraceful to me, and not creditable to you. It really must be _gone over ag...

"In agreement with a wish expressed by Mr. Hobhouse, it is my determination to omit the stanza upon the _horse of Semiramis_ in the fifth Canto of Don Juan. I mention this in ca...

"If I had but known your notion about Switzerland before, I should have adopted it at once. As it is, I shall let the child remain in her convent, where she seems healthy and ha...

"Your dwarf of a letter came yesterday. That is right;--keep to your 'magnum opus '--magnoperate away. Now, if we were but together a little to combine our 'Journal of Trevoux!'...

"The two passages cannot be altered without making Lucifer talk like the Bishop of Lincoln, which would not be in the character of the former. The notion is from Cuvier (that of...

"Your letter of excuses has arrived. I receive the letter, but do not admit the excuses, except in courtesy; as when a man treads on your toes and begs your pardon, the pardon i...

"As I still have no news of my 'Werner,' &c. packet, sent to you on the 29th of January, I continue to bore you (for the fifth time, I believe) to know whether it has not miscar...

"Attacks upon me were to be expected, but I perceive one upon _you_ in the papers, which I confess that I did not expect. How, or in what manner, _you_ can be considered respons...

"Yours of the 5th only yesterday, while I had letters of the 8th from London. Doth the post dabble into our letters? Whatever agreement you make with Murray, if satisfactory to...

"The child continues doing well, and the accounts are regular and favourable. It is gratifying to me that you and Mrs. Shelley do not disapprove of the step which I have taken,...

"I have written to you lately, but not in answer to your last letter of about a fortnight ago. I wish to know (and request an answer to _that_ point) what became of the stanzas...

"Enclosed is the best account of the Doge Faliero, which was only sent to me from an old MS. the other day. Get it translated, and append it as a note to the next edition. You w...

"This was the beginning of a letter which I meant for Perry, but stopped short, hoping you would be able to prevent the theatres. Of course you need not send it; but it explains...

"By this post I have sent my nightmare to balance the incubus of * * *'s impudent anticipation of the Apotheosis of George the Third. I should like you to take a look over it, a...

"I shall be (the gods willing) in Bologna on Saturday next. This is a curious answer to your letter; but I have taken a house in Pisa for the winter, to which all my chattels, f...

"You cannot have been more disappointed than myself, nor so much deceived. I have been so at some personal risk also, which is not yet done away with. However, no time nor circu...

"I return you the revise of Werner, and expect the rest. With regard to the Lines to the Po, perhaps you had better put them quietly in a second edition (if you reach one, that...

"Pray get well. I do not like your complaint. So, let me have a line to say you are up and doing again. To-day I am thirty-three years of age.

"I sent you by last _postis_ a large packet, which will _not_ do for publication (I suspect), being, as the apprentices say, 'damned low.' I put off also for a week or two sendi...

"This country being in a state of proscription, and all my friends exiled or arrested--the whole family of Gamba obliged to go to Florence for the present--the father and son fo...

"Don't forget to send me my first act of 'Werner' (if Hobhouse can find it amongst my papers)--send it by the post (to Pisa); and also cut out Harriet Lee's 'German's Tale' from...

"About Allegra'--I will take some decisive step in the course of the year; at present, she is so happy where she is, that perhaps she had better have her _alphabet_ imparted in...

"I am very much pleased with what you say of Switzerland, and will ponder upon it. I would rather she married there than here for that matter. For fortune, I shall make all that...

"The Chevalier persisted in declaring himself an ill-used gentleman, and describing you as a kind of cold Calypso, who lead astray people of an amatory disposition without givin...

"A Milan paper states that the play has been represented and universally condemned. As remonstrance has been vain, complaint would be useless. I presume, however, for your own s...

"If the errors _are_ in the MS. write me down an ass: they are _not_, and I am content to undergo any penalty if they be. Besides, the _omitted_ stanza (last but one or two), se...

"I am rather surprised not to have had an answer to my letter and packets. Lady Noel is dead, and it is not impossible that I may have to go to England to settle the division of...

"You owe me two letters--pay them. I want to know what you are about. The summer is over, and you will be back to Paris. Apropos of Paris, it was not Sophia _Gail_, but Sophia _...

"I have received from Mr. Galignani the enclosed letters, duplicates and receipts, which will explain themselves.[9] As the poems are your property by purchase, right, and justi...

"You will long ago have received a letter from me (or should), declaring my opinion of the treatment you have met with about the recent publication. I think it disgraceful to th...

"By extracts in the English papers,--in your holy ally, Galignani's 'Messenger,'--I perceive that 'the two greatest examples of human vanity in the present age' are, firstly, 't...

"I send you the two notes, which will tell you the story I allude to of the Auto da Fè. Shelley's allusion to his 'fellow-serpent' is a buffoonery of mine. Goethe's Mephistofilu...

"Your conduct to Mr. Moore is certainly very handsome; and I would not say so if I could help it, for you are not at present by any means in my good graces.

"I am glad that you and your friends approve of my letter of the 8th ultimo. You may give it what publicity you think proper in the circumstances. I have since written to you tw...

"I _never read_ the Memoirs at all, not even since they were written; and I never will: the pain of writing them was enough; you may spare me that of a perusal. Mr. Moore has (o...

"As I wish the soul of the late Antoine Galignani to rest in peace, (you will have read his death, published by himself, in his own newspaper,) you are requested particularly to...

"I have consigned a letter to Mr. John Hunt for the 'Vision of Judgment,' which you will hand over to him. Also the 'Pulci,' original and Italian, and any _prose_ tracts of mine...

"I did not think to have troubled you with the plague and postage of a _double letter_ this time, but I have just read in an _Italian paper_, 'That Lord Byron has a tragedy comi...

"Your letter arrived since I wrote the enclosed. It is not likely, as I have appointed agents and arbitrators for the Noel estates, that I should proceed to England on that acco...

"Since I wrote the enclosed a week ago, and for some weeks before, I have not had a line from you: now, I should be glad to know upon what principle of common or _un_common feel...

"I regret that Holmes can't or won't come: it is rather shabby, as I was always very civil and punctual with him. But he is but one * * more. One meets with none else among the...

"It was not Murray's fault. I did not send the MS. _overture_, but I send it now[55], and it may be restored;--or, at any rate, you may keep the original, and give any copies yo...

"Since I wrote to you last week I have received English letters and papers, by which I perceive that what I took for an Italian _truth_ is, after all, a French lie of the Gazett...

"I differ from you about the _Dante_, which I think should be published with the tragedy. But do as you please: you must be the best judge of your own craft. I agree with you ab...

"The 'Hints,' Hobhouse says, will require a good deal of slashing to suit the times, which will be a work of time, for I don't feel at all laborious just now. Whatever effect th...

"I begin to think that the packet (a heavy one) of five acts of 'Werner,' &c. can hardly have reached you, for your letter of last week (which I answered) did not allude to it,...

"If Harris or Elliston persist, after the remonstrance which I desired you and Mr. Kinnaird to make on my behalf, and which I hope will be sufficient--but _if_, I say, they _do...

"P.S. Can you forgive this? It is only a reply to your lines against my Italians. Of course I will _stand_ by my lines against all men; but it is heart-breaking to see such thin...

"I hear that the Edinburgh has attacked the three dramas, which is a bad business for _you_; and I don't wonder that it discourages you. However, _that_ volume may be trusted to...

"Since my last of the 26th or 25th, I have dashed off my fifth act of the tragedy called 'Sardanapalus.' But now comes the copying over, which may prove heavy work--heavy to the...

"Mr. Kinnaird writes that there has been an 'excellent Defence' of 'Cain,' against 'Oxoniensis;' you have sent me nothing but a not very excellent _of_-fence of the same poem. I...

"The blow was stunning and unexpected; for I thought the danger over, by the long interval between her stated amelioration and the arrival of the express. But I have borne up ag...

"I have received the Defence of 'Cain.' Who is my Warburton?--for he has done for me what the bishop did for the poet against Crousaz. His reply seems to me conclusive; and if y...

"You say you have written often: I have only received yours of the eleventh, which is very short. By this post, _five_ packets, I send you the tragedy of Sardanapalus, which is...

"The enclosed letter is written in bad humour, but not without provocation. However, let it (that is, the bad humour) go for little; but I must request your serious attention to...

"After the stanza on Grattan, concluding with 'His soul o'er the freedom implored and denied,' will it please you to cause insert the following 'Addenda,' which I dreamed of dur...

"You will regret to hear that I have received intelligence of the death of my daughter Allegra of a fever in the convent of Bagna Cavallo, where she was placed for the last year...

"This day and this hour, (one, on the clock,) my daughter is six years old. I wonder when I shall see her again, or if ever I shall see her at all.

"I hear you are in London. You will have heard from Douglas Kinnaird (who tells me you have dined with him) as much as you desire to know of my affairs at home and abroad. I hav...

"Enclosed is a note for you from ----. His reasons are all very true, I dare say, and it might and may be of personal inconvenience to us. But that does not appear to me to be a...

"I enclose you another letter on Bowles. But I premise that it is not like the former, and that I am not at all sure how _much_, if _any_, of it should be published. Upon this p...

"I return you the revise. I have softened the part to which Gifford objected, and changed the name of Michael to Raphael, who was an angel of gentler sympathies. By the way, rec...