Chapter 22

[Footnote 120: These are the signatures of various worthies who figure in the poetical departments of the newspapers.]

[Footnote 121: "This was meant for poor Blackett, who was then patronised by A. I. B." (Lady Byron); "but 'that' I did not know, or this would not have been written, at least I think not."--B., 1816.

[Joseph Blacket (1786-1810), said by Southey ('Letters,' i. 172) to possess "force and rapidity," and to be endowed with "more powers than Robert Bloomfield, and an intellect of higher pitch," was the son of a labourer, and by trade a cobbler. He was brought into notice by S. J. Pratt (who published Blacket's 'Remains' in 1811), and was befriended by the Milbanke family. Miss Milbanke, afterwards Lady Byron, wrote (Sept. 2, 1809), "Seaham is at present the residence of a poet, by name Joseph Blacket, one of the Burns-like and Dermody kind, whose genius is his sole possession. I was yesterday in his company for the first time, and was much pleased with his manners and conversation. He is extremely diffident, his deportment is mild, and his countenance animated melancholy and of a satirical turn. His poems certainly display a superior genius and an enlarged mind...." Blacket died on the Seaham estate in Sept., 1810, at the age of twenty-three. (See Byron's letter to Dallas, June 28, 1811; his 'Epitaph for Joseph Blackett;' and 'Hints from Horace,' l. 734.)]]

[Footnote 122: Capel Lofft, Esq., the Mæcenas of shoemakers, and Preface-writer-General to distressed versemen; a kind of gratis Accoucheur to those who wish to be delivered of rhyme, but do not know how to bring it forth.

[Capel Lofft (1751-1824), jurist, poet, critic, and horticulturist, honoured himself by his kindly patronage of Robert Bloomfield (1766-1823), who was born at Honington, near Lofft's estate of Throston, Suffolk. Robert Bloomfield was brought up by his elder brothers-- Nathaniel a tailor, and George a shoemaker. It was in the latter's workshop that he composed 'The Farmer's Boy,' which was published (1798) with the help of Lofft. He also wrote 'Rural Tales' (1802), 'Good Tidings; or News from the Farm '(1804), 'The Banks of the Wye' (1811), etc. (See 'Hints from Horace,' line 734, notes 1 and 2.)]]

[Footnote 123: See Nathaniel Bloomfield's ode, elegy, or whatever he or any one else chooses to call it, on the enclosures of "Honington Green." [Nathaniel Bloomfield, as a matter of fact, called it a ballad.--'Poems' (1803).]]

[Footnote 124: Vide 'Recollections of a Weaver in the Moorlands of Staffordshire'. [The exact title is 'The Moorland Bard; or Poetical Recollections of a Weaver', etc. 2 vols., 1807. The author was T. Bakewell, who also wrote 'A Domestic Guide to Insanity', 1805.]]

[Footnote 125: It would be superfluous to recall to the mind of the reader the authors of 'The Pleasures of Memory' and 'The Pleasures of Hope', the most beautiful didactic poems in our language, if we except Pope's 'Essay on Man': but so many poetasters have started up, that even the names of Campbell and Rogers are become strange.--[Beneath this note Byron scribbled, in 1816,--

"Pretty Miss Jaqueline Had a nose aquiline, And would assert rude Things of Miss Gertrude, While Mr. Marmion Led a great army on, Making Kehama look Like a fierce Mameluke."

"I have been reading," he says, in 1813, "'Memory' again, and 'Hope' together, and retain all my preference of the former. His elegance is really wonderful--there is no such a thing as a vulgar line in his book." In the annotations of 1816, Byron remarks, "Rogers has not fulfilled the promise of his first poems, but has still very great merit."]

[Footnote 126: GIFFORD, author of the 'Baviad' and 'Mæviad', the first satires of the day, and translator of Juvenal, [and one (though not the best) of the translators of Juvenal.--'British Bards'.]]

[Footnote 127: SOTHEBY, translator of WIELAND'S 'Oberon' and Virgil's 'Georgics', and author of 'Saul', an epic poem. [William Sotheby (1757-1833) began life as a cavalry officer, but being a man of fortune, sold out of the army and devoted himself to literature, and to the patronage of men of letters. His translation of the 'Oberon' appeared in 1798, and of the 'Georgics' in 1800. 'Saul' was published in 1807. When Byron was in Venice, he conceived a dislike to Sotheby, in the belief that he had made an anonymous attack on some of his works; but, later, his verdict was, "a good man, rhymes well (if not wisely); but is a bore" ('Diary', 1821; 'Works', p. 509, note). He is "the solemn antique man of rhyme" ('Beppo', st. lxiii.), and the "Botherby" of 'The Blues'; and in 'Don Juan', Canto I. st. cxvi., we read--

"Thou shalt not covet Mr. Sotheby's house His Pegasus nor anything that's his."]]

[Footnote 128: MACNEIL, whose poems are deservedly popular, particularly "SCOTLAND'S Scaith," and the "Waes of War," of which ten thousand copies were sold in one month. [Hector Macneil (1746-1816) wrote in defence of slavery in Jamaica, and was the author of several poems: 'Scotland's Skaith, or the History of Will and Jean' (1795), 'The Waes of War, or the Upshot of the History of Will and Jean' (1796), etc., etc.]]

[Footnote 129: Mr. GIFFORD promised publicly that the 'Baviad' and 'Mæviad' should not be his last original works: let him remember, "Mox in reluctantes dracones." [Cf. 'New Morality,' lines 29-42.]]

[Footnote 130: Henry Kirke White died at Cambridge, in October 1806, in consequence of too much exertion in the pursuit of studies that would have matured a mind which disease and poverty could not impair, and which Death itself destroyed rather than subdued. His poems abound in such beauties as must impress the reader with the liveliest regret that so short a period was allotted to talents, which would have dignified even the sacred functions he was destined to assume.

[H. K. White (1785-1806) published 'Clifton Grove' and other poems in 1803. Two volumes of his 'Remains,' consisting of poems, letters, etc., with a life by Southey, were issued in 1808. His tendency to epilepsy was increased by over-work at Cambridge. He once remarked to a friend that "were he to paint a picture of Fame, crowning a distinguished undergraduate after the Senate house examination, he would represent her as concealing a Death's head under a mask of Beauty" ('Life of H. K. W.', by Southey, i. 45). By "the soaring lyre, which else had sounded an immortal lay," Byron, perhaps, refers to the unfinished 'Christiad,' which, says Southey, "Henry had most at heart."]]

[Footnote 131: Lines 832-834, as they stand in the text, were inserted in MS. in both the Annotated Copies of the Fourth Edition.]]

[Footnote 132: "I consider Crabbe and Coleridge as the first of these times, in point of power and genius."--B., 1816.]

[Footnote 133: Mr. Shee, author of 'Rhymes on Art' and 'Elements of Art'. [Sir Martin Archer Shee (1770-1850) was President of the Royal Academy (1830-45). His 'Rhymes on Art' (1805) and 'Elements of Art' (1809), a poem in six cantos, will hardly be regarded as worthy of Byron's praise, which was probably quite genuine. He also wrote a novel, 'Harry Calverley', and other works.]]

[Footnote 134: Mr. Wright, late Consul-General for the Seven Islands, is author of a very beautiful poem, just published: it is entitled 'Horæ Ionicæ', and is descriptive of the isles and the adjacent coast of Greece. [Walter Rodwell Wright was afterwards President of the Court of Appeal in Malta, where he died in 1826. 'Horæ Ionicæ, a Poem descriptive of the Ionian Islands, and Part of the Adjacent Coast of Greece', was published in 1809. He is mentioned in one of Byron's long notes to 'Childe Harold', canto ii., dated Franciscan Convent, Mar. 17, 1811.]]

[Footnote 135: The translators of the Anthology have since published separate poems, which evince genius that only requires opportunity to attain eminence. [The Rev. Robert Bland (1779-1825) published, in 1806, 'Translations chiefly from the Greek Anthology, with Tales and Miscellaneous Poems'. In these he was assisted (see 'Life of the Rev. Francis Hodgson', vol. i. pp. 226-260) by Denman (afterwards Chief Justice), by Hodgson himself, and, above all, by John Herman Merivale (1779-1844), who subsequently, in 1813, was joint editor with him of 'Collections from the Greek Anthology', etc.]]

[Footnote 136: Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802), the grandfather of Charles Robert Darwin. Coleridge describes his poetry as "nothing but a succession of landscapes or paintings. It arrests the attention too often, and so prevents the rapidity necessary to pathos."--'Anima Poetæ', 1895, p. 5. His chief works are 'The Botanic Garden' (1789-92) and 'The Temple of Nature' (1803). Byron's censure of 'The Botanic Garden' is inconsistent with his principles, for Darwin's verse was strictly modelled on the lines of Pope and his followers. But the 'Loves of the Triangles' had laughed away the 'Loves of the Plants'.]]

[Footnote 137: The neglect of 'The Botanic Garden' is some proof of returning taste. The scenery is its sole recommendation.]

[Footnote 138: This was not Byron's mature opinion, nor had he so expressed himself in the review of Wordsworth's 'Poems' which he contributed to 'Crosby's Magazine' in 1807 ('Life', p. 669). His scorn was, in part, provoked by indignities offered to Pope and Dryden, and, in part, assumed because one Lake poet called up the rest; and it was good sport to flout and jibe at the "Fraternity." That the day would come when the message of Wordsworth would reach his ears and awaken his enthusiasm, he could not, of course, foresee (see 'Childe Harold', canto iii. stanzas 72, 'et seqq.').]]

[Footnote 139: Messrs. Lamb and Lloyd, the most ignoble followers of Southey and Co. [Charles Lloyd (1775-1839) resided for some months under Coleridge's roof, first in Bristol, and afterwards at Nether Stowey (1796-1797). He published, in 1796, a folio edition of his 'Poems on the Death of Priscilla Farmer', in which a sonnet by Coleridge and a poem of Lamb's were included. Lamb and Lloyd contributed several pieces to the second edition of Coleridge's Poems, published in 1797; and in 1798 they brought out a joint volume of their own composition, named 'Poems in Blank Verse'. 'Edmund Oliver', a novel, appeared also in 1798. An estrangement between Coleridge and Lloyd resulted in a quarrel with Lamb, and a drawing together of Lamb, Lloyd, and Southey. But Byron probably had in his mind nothing more than the lines in the 'Anti-Jacobin', where Lamb and Lloyd are classed with Coleridge and Southey as advocates of French socialism:--

"Coleridge and Southey, Lloyd and Lamb and Co., Tune all your mystic harps to praise Lepaux."

In later life Byron expressed a very different opinion of Lamb's literary merits. (See the preface to 'Werner', now first published.)]]

[Footnote 140: By the bye, I hope that in Mr. Scott's next poem, his hero or heroine will be less addicted to "Gramarye," and more to Grammar, than the Lady of the Lay and her Bravo, William of Deloraine.]

[Footnote 141: "Unjust."--B., 1816. [In 'Frost at Midnight', first published in 1798, Coleridge twice mentions his "Cradled infant."]]

[Footnote 142: The Rev. W. L. Bowles ('vide ante', p. 323, note 2), published, in 1789, 'Fourteen Sonnets written chiefly on Picturesque Spots during a Journey'.]]

[Footnote 143: It may be asked, why I have censured the Earl of CARLISLE, my guardian and relative, to whom I dedicated a volume of puerile poems a few years ago?--The guardianship was nominal, at least as far as I have been able to discover; the relationship I cannot help, and am very sorry for it; but as his Lordship seemed to forget it on a very essential occasion to me, I shall not burden my memory with the recollection. I do not think that personal differences sanction the unjust condemnation of a brother scribbler; but I see no reason why they should act as a preventive, when the author, noble or ignoble, has, for a series of years, beguiled a "discerning public" (as the advertisements have it) with divers reams of most orthodox, imperial nonsense. Besides, I do not step aside to vituperate the earl: no--his works come fairly in review with those of other Patrician Literati. If, before I escaped from my teens, I said anything in favour of his Lordship's paper books, it was in the way of dutiful dedication, and more from the advice of others than my own judgment, and I seize the first opportunity of pronouncing my sincere recantation. I have heard that some persons conceive me to be under obligations to Lord CARLISLE: if so, I shall be most particularly happy to learn what they are, and when conferred, that they may be duly appreciated and publicly acknowledged. What I have humbly advanced as an opinion on his printed things, I am prepared to support, if necessary, by quotations from Elegies, Eulogies, Odes, Episodes, and certain facetious and dainty tragedies bearing his name and mark:--

"What can ennoble knaves, or 'fools', or cowards? Alas! not all the blood of all the Howards."

So says Pope. Amen!--"Much too savage, whatever the foundation might be."--B., 1816.]

[Footnote 144: Line 952. 'Note'--

"Tollere humo, victorque virum volitare per ora."

(VIRGIL.)]

[Footnote 145:

"The devil take that 'Phoenix'! How came it there?"

--B., 1816.]

[Footnote 146: The Rev. Charles James Hoare (1781-1865), a close friend of the leaders of the Evangelical party, gained the Seatonian Prize at Cambridge in 1807 with his poem on the 'Shipwreck of St. Paul'.]

[Footnote 147: Edmund Hoyle, the father of the modern game of whist, lived from 1672 to 1769. The Rev. Charles Hoyle, his "poetical namesake," was, like Hoare, a Seatonian prizeman, and wrote an epic in thirteen books on the 'Exodus'.]

[Footnote 148: The 'Games of Hoyle', well known to the votaries of Whist, Chess, etc., are not to be superseded by the vagaries of his poetical namesake ["illustrious Synonime" in 'MS.' and 'British Bards'], whose poem comprised, as expressly stated in the advertisement, all the "Plagues of Egypt."]

[Footnote 149: Here, as in line 391, "Fresh fish from Helicon," etc., Byron confounds Helicon and Hippocrene.]]

[Footnote 150: This person, who has lately betrayed the most rabid symptoms of confirmed authorship, is writer of a poem denominated 'The Art of Pleasing', as "Lucus a non lucendo," containing little pleasantry, and less poetry. He also acts as ["lies as" in 'MS.'] monthly stipendiary and collector of calumnies for the 'Satirist'. If this unfortunate young man would exchange the magazines for the mathematics, and endeavour to take a decent degree in his university, it might eventually prove more serviceable than his present salary.]

[Note.--An unfortunate young person of Emanuel College, Cambridge, ycleped Hewson Clarke, has lately manifested the most rabid symptoms of confirmed Authorship. His Disorder commenced some years ago, and the 'Newcastle Herald' teemed with his precocious essays, to the great edification of the Burgesses of Newcastle, Morpeth, and the parts adjacent even unto Berwick upon Tweed. These have since been abundantly scurrilous upon the [town] of Newcastle, his native spot, Mr. Mathias and Anacreon Moore. What these men had done to offend Mr. Hewson Clarke is not known, but surely the town in whose markets he had sold meat, and in whose weekly journal he had written prose deserved better treatment. Mr. H.C. should recollect the proverb "'tis a villainous bird that defiles his own nest." He now writes in the 'Satirist'. We recommend the young man to abandon the magazines for mathematics, and to believe that a high degree at Cambridge will be more advantageous, as well as profitable in the end, than his present precarious gleanings.]

[Hewson Clarke (1787-circ. 1832) was entered at Emmanuel Coll. Camb. circ. 1806 (see 'Postscript'). He had to leave the University without taking a degree, and migrated to London, where he devoted his not inconsiderable talents to contributions to the 'Satirist', the 'Scourge', etc. He also wrote: 'An Impartial History of the Naval, etc., Events of Europe ... from the French Revolution ... to the Conclusion of a General Peace' (1815); and a continuation of Hume's 'History of England', 2 vols. (1832).

The 'Satirist', a monthly magazine illustrated with coloured cartoons, was issued 1808-1814. 'Hours of Idleness' was reviewed Jan. 1808 (i. 77-81). "The Diary of a Cantab" (June, 1808, ii. 368) contains some verses of "Lord B----n to his Bear. To the tune of Lachin y gair." The last verse runs thus:--

"But when with the ardour of Love I am burning, I feel for thy torments, I feel for thy care; And weep for thy bondage, so truly discerning What's felt by a 'Lord', may be felt by a 'Bear'."

In August, 1808 (iii. 78-86), there is a critique on 'Poems Original and Translated', in which the bear plays many parts. The writer "is without his bear and is himself muzzled," etc. Towards the close of the article a solemn sentence is passed on the author for his disregard of the advice of parents, tutors, friends; "but," adds the reviewer, "in the paltry volume before us we think we observe some proof that the still small voice of conscience will be heard in the cool of the day. Even now the gay, the gallant, the accomplished bear-leader is not happy," etc. Hence the castigation of "the sizar of Emmanuel College."]

[Footnote 151:

"Right enough: this was well deserved, and well laid on."

(B., 1816.)]

[Footnote 152:

"Into Cambridgeshire the Emperor Probus transported a considerable body of Vandals."

(Gibbon's 'Decline and Fall', ii. 83.) There is no reason to doubt the truth of this assertion; the breed is still in high perfection.

We see no reason to doubt the truth of this statement, as a large stock of the same breed are to be found there at this day.--'British Bards'.

[Lines 981-984 do not occur in the 'MS'. Lines 981, 982, are inserted in MS. in 'British Bards'.]]

[Footnote 153: This gentleman's name requires no praise: the man who [has surpassed Dryden and Gifford as a Translator.--'MS. British Bards'] in translation displays unquestionable genius may be well expected to excel in original composition, of which, it is to be hoped, we shall soon see a splendid specimen. [Francis Hodgson (1781-1852) was Byron's lifelong friend. His 'Juvenal' appeared in 1807; 'Lady Jane Grey and other Poems', in 1809; 'Sir Edgar, a Tale', in 1810. For other works and details, see 'Life of the Rev. Francis Hodgson', by the Rev. James T. Hodgson (1878).]]

[Footnote 154: Hewson Clarke, 'Esq'., as it is written.]

[Footnote 155: 'The Aboriginal Britons', an excellent ["most excellent" in 'MS.'] poem, by Richards. [The Rev. George Richards, D.D. (1769-1835), a Fellow of Oriel, and afterwards Rector of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields. 'The Aboriginal Britons', a prize poem, was published in 1792, and was followed by 'The Songs of the Aboriginal Bards of Britain' (1792), and various other prose and poetical works.]]

[Footnote: 156. With this verse the satire originally ended.]

[Footnote 157: A friend of mine being asked, why his Grace of Portland was likened to an old woman? replied, "he supposed it was because he was past bearing." (Even Homer was a punster--a solitary pun.)--['MS'.] His Grace is now gathered to his grandmothers, where he sleeps as sound as ever; but even his sleep was better than his colleagues' waking. 1811. [William Henry Cavendish, third Duke of Portland (1738-1809), Prime Minister in 1807, on the downfall of the Ministry of "All the Talents," till his death in 1809, was, as the wits said, "a convenient block to hang Whigs on," but was not, even in his vigour, a man of much intellectual capacity. When Byron meditated a tour to India in 1808, Portland declined to write on his behalf to the Directors of the East India Company, and couched his refusal in terms which Byron fancied to be offensive.]]

[Footnote 158: "Saw it August, 1809."--B., 1816. [The following notes were omitted from the Fifth Edition:--

"Calpe is the ancient name of Gibraltar. Saw it August, 1809.--B., 1816.

"Stamboul is the Turkish word for Constantinople. Was there the summer 1810."

To "Mount Caucasus," he adds, "Saw the distant ridge of,--1810, 1811"]]

[Footnote 159: Georgia.]

[Footnote 160: Mount Caucasus.]

[Footnote 161: Lord Elgin would fain persuade us that all the figures, with and without noses, in his stoneshop, are the work of Phidias! "Credat Judæus!" [R. Payne Knight, in his introduction to 'Specimens of Ancient Sculpture', published 1809, by the Dilettanti Society, throws a doubt on the Phidian workmanship of the "Elgin" marbles. See the Introduction to 'The Curse of Minerva'.]]

[Footnote 162: [Sir William Gell (1777-1836) published the 'Topography of Troy' (1804), the 'Geography and Antiquities of Ithaca' (1807), and the 'Itinerary of Greece' (1808). Byron reviewed the two last works in the 'Monthly Review' (August, 1811), ('Life', pp. 670, 676). Fresh from the scenes, he speaks with authority. "With Homer in his pocket and Gell on his sumpter-mule, the Odysseus tourist may now make a very classical and delightful excursion." The epithet in the original MS. was "coxcomb," but becoming acquainted with Gell while the satire was in the press, Byron changed it to "classic." In the fifth edition he altered it to "rapid," and appended this note:--"'Rapid,' indeed! He topographised and typographised King Priam's dominions in three days! I called him 'classic' before I saw the Troad, but since have learned better than to tack to his name what don't belong to it."]]

[Footnote 163: Mr. Gell's 'Topography of Troy and Ithaca' cannot fail to ensure the approbation of every man possessed of classical taste, as well for the information Mr. Gell conveys to the mind of the reader, as for the ability and research the respective works display.

"'Troy and Ithaca.' Visited both in 1810, 1811."--B., 1816. "'Ithaca' passed first in 1809."--B., 1816.

"Since seeing the plain of Troy, my opinions are somewhat changed as to the above note. Cell's survey was hasty and superficial."--B., 1816.]

[Footnote 164:

"Singular enough, and 'din' enough, God knows."

(B., 1816).]

[Footnote 165:

"The greater part of this satire I most sincerely wish had never been written-not only on account of the injustice of much of the critical, and some of the personal part of it--but the tone and temper are such as I cannot approve."

BYRON. July 14, 1816. 'Diodati, Geneva'.]

[Footnote i:

'Truth be my theme, and Censure guide my song.'

['MS. M.']

[Footnote ii:

'But thou, at least, mine own especial quill Dipt in the dew drops from Parnassus' hill, Shalt ever honoured and regarded be, By more beside no doubt, yet still by me.'

['MS. M.'] ]

[Footnote iii:

'And men through life her willing slaves obey.'

['MS. Second, Third, and Fourth Editions.']]

[Footnote iv:

'Unfolds her motley store to suit the time.'--

['MS. Second, Third, and Fourth Editions.']]

[Footnote v:

'When Justice halts and Right begins to fail.'

['MS. Second, Third, and Fourth Editions.']]

[Footnote vi:

'A mortal weapon'.

['MS. M.']

[Footnote vii:

'Yet Titles sounding lineage cannot save Or scrawl or scribbler from an equal grave, Lamb had his farce but that Patrician name Failed to preserve the spurious brat from shame.'

['MS.']]

[Footnote viii:

'a lucky hit.'

['Second, Third, and Fourth Editions.']]

[Footnote ix:

'No dearth of rhyme.'

['British Bards'.] ]

[Footnote x:

'The Press oppressed.'

['British Bards'.] ]

[Footnote xi:

'While Southey's Epics load.'

['British Bards'.] ]

[Footnote xii:

'O'er taste awhile these Infidels prevail.'

['MS.']]

[Footnote xiii:

'Erect and hail an idol of their own.'

['MS.']]

[Footnote xiv:

'Not quite a footpad-----.'

['British Bards'.] ]

[Footnote xv:

'Low may they sink to merited contempt.'

['British Bards'.]]