Chapter 23

'And Scorn reimmerate the mean attempt!'--

['MS. First to Fourth Editions']]

[Footnote xvi:

'--though lesser bards content--'

['British Bards']

[Footnote xvii:

'How well the subject.'

['MS. First to Fourth Editions.']]

[Footnote xviii:

'A fellow feeling makes us wondrous kind.'--

['British Bards, First to Fourth Editions.']]

[Footnote xix:

'Who fain would'st.'

['British Bards, First to Fifth Editions'.]]

[Footnote xx:

'Mend thy life, and sin no more.'

['MS.']]

[Footnote xxi:

'And o'er harmonious nonsense.'

['MS. First Edition.']]

[Footnote xxii:

'In many marble-covered volumes view Hayley, in vain attempting something new, Whether he spin his comedies in rhyme, Or scrawls as Wood and Barclay [A] walk, 'gainst Time.'

['MS. British Bards', and 'First to Fourth Editions.']

[Sub-Footnote A: Captain Robert Barclay (1779-1854) of Ury, agriculturalist and pedestrian, came of a family noted for physical strength and endurance. Byron saw him win his walk against Wood at Newmarket. (See Angelo's 'Reminiscences' (1837), vol. ii. pp. 37-44.) In July, 1809, Barclay completed his task of walking a thousand miles in a thousand hours, at the rate of one mile in each and every hour. (See, too, for an account of Barclay, 'The Eccentric Review' (1812), i. 133-150.)]]

[Footnote xxiii:

'Breaks into mawkish lines each holy Book'.

['MS. First Edition'.] ]

[Footnote xxiv:

'Thy "Sympathy" that'.

['British Bards'.] ]

[Footnote xxv:

'And shows dissolved in sympathetic tears'. '----in thine own melting tears.--'

['MS. First to Fourth Editions'.]]

[Footnote xxvi:

'Whether in sighing winds them seek'st relief Or Consolation in a yellow leaf.--'

['MS. first to Fourth Editions.'] ]

[Footnote xxvii:

'What pretty sounds.'

['British Bards.'] ]

[Footnote xxviii:

'Thou fain woulds't----'

['British Bards.'] ]

[Footnote xxix:

'But to soft themes'.

['British Bards, First Edition'.] ]

[Footnote xxx:

'The Bard has wove'.

['British Bards'.] ]

[Footnote xxxi:

'If Pope, since mortal, not untaught to err Again demand a dull biographer'.

['MS'.]]

[Footnote xxxii:

'Too much in Turtle Bristol's sons delight Too much in Bowls of Rack prolong the night.--'

['MS. Second to Fourth Editions'.]

'Too much o'er Bowls.'

['Second and Third Editions'.]]

[Footnote xxxiii:

'And yet why'.

['British Bards'.] ]

[Footnote xxxiv:

'Or old or young'.

['British Bards'.] ]

[Footnote xxxv:

--'yes, I'm sure all may.'

['Quarto Proof Sheet']

[Footnote xxxvi:

'While Cloacina's holy pontiff Lambe [3] As he himself was damned shall try to damn'.

['British Bards'.]

[Sub-Footnote A. We have heard of persons who "when the Bagpipe sings in the nose cannot contain their urine for affection," but Mr. L. carries it a step further than Shakespeare's diuretic amateurs, being notorious at school and college for his inability to contain--anything. We do not know to what "Pipe" to attribute this additional effect, but the fact is uncontrovertible.--['Note' to Quarto Proof bound up with 'British Bards'.]]

[Footnote xxxvii:

'Lo! long beneath'--.

['British Bards'.]]

[Footnote xxxviii:

'And grateful to the founder of the feast Declare his landlord can translate at least'.--

['MS. British Bards. First to Fourth Editions'.]]

[Footnote xxxix:

'--are fed because they write.'

['British Bards'.]]

[Footnote xl:

'Princes in Barrels, Counts in arbours pent.--

[MS. British Bards'.]]

[Footnote xli:

'His "damme, poohs."'

['MS. First Edition.']]

[Footnote xlii:

'While Kenny's World just suffered to proceed Proclaims the audience very kind indeed'.--

['MS. British Bards. First to Fourth Editions'.]]

[Footnote xliii:

'Resume her throne again'.--

['MS. British Bards. First to Fourth Editions.']]

[Footnote xliv:--

'and Kemble lives to tread'.--

['British Bards. First to Fourth Editions.']]

[Footnote xlv:

'St. George [A] and Goody Goose divide the prize.'--

[MS. alternative in British Bards.]

[Sub-Footnote A: We need not inform the reader that we do not allude to the Champion of England who slew the Dragon. Our St. George is content to draw status with a very different kind of animal.--[Pencil note to 'British Bards'.]]]

[Footnote xlvi:

'Its humble flight to splendid Pantomimes'.

['British Bards. MS']]

[Footnote xlvii:

'Behold the new Petronius of the times The skilful Arbiter of modern crimes.'

['MS.']

[Footnote xlviii:

'----a Paget for your wife.'

['MS. First to Fourth Editions.']]

[Footnote xlix:

'From Grosvenor Place or Square'.

['MS. British Bards'.]]

[Footnote l:

'On one alone Apollo deigns to smile And crowns a new Roscommon in Carlisle.'

['MS. Addition to British Bards.']

'Nor e'en a hackneyed Muse will deign to smile On minor Byron, or mature Carlisle.'

[First Edition.]

[Footnote li:

'Yet at their fiat----' 'Yet at their nausea----.'

['MS. Addition to British Bards'.]]

[Footnote lii:

'Such sneering fame.'

['British Bards']

[Footnote liii:

'Though Bell has lost his nightingales and owls, Matilda snivels still and Hafiz howls, And Crusca's spirit rising from the dead Revives in Laura, Quiz, and X. Y. Z.'--

['British Bards. First to Third Editions', 1810.]]

[Footnote liv:

'None since the past have claimed the tribute due'.

['British Bards. MS'.]]

[Footnote lv:

'From Albion's cliffs to Caledonia's coast. Some few who know to write as well as feel'.

['MS'.]]

[Footnote lvi:

'The spoiler came; and all thy promise fair Has sought the grave, to sleep for ever there.--'

['First to Fourth Editions']]

[Footnote lvii:

'On him may meritorious honours tend While doubly mingling,'.

['MS. erased'.]]

Footnote lviii:

'And you united Bards'.

['MS. Addition to British Bards'.]

'And you ye nameless'.

['MS. erased'.]]

[Footnote lvix:

'Translation's servile work at length disown And quit Achaia's Muse to court your own'.

['MS. Addition to British Bards'.]]

[Footnote lx:

'Let these arise and anxious of applause'.

['British Bards. MS'.]]

[Footnote lxi:

'But not in heavy'.

['British Bards. MS'.]]

[Footnote lxii:

'Let prurient Southey cease'.

['MS. British Bards'.]]

[Footnote lxiii:

'still the babe at nurse'.

['MS'.]

'Let Lewis jilt our nurseries with alarm With tales that oft disgust and never charm'.

[Footnote lxiv:

'But thou with powers--'

['MS. British Bards'.]]

[Footnote lxv:

'Let MOORE be lewd; let STRANGFORD steal from MOORE'.

['MS. First to Fourth Editions'.]]

[Footnote lxvi:

'For outlawed Sherwood's tales.'

['MS. Brit. Bards. Eds.' 1-4.]

[Footnote lxvii:

'And even spurns the great Seatonian prize.--'

['MS. First to Fourth Editions' (a correction in the Annotated Copy).]]

[Footnote lxviii:

'With odes by Smyth [A] and epic songs by Hoyle, Hoyle whose learn'd page, if still upheld by whist Required no sacred theme to bid us list.--'

['MS. British Bards.']

[Sub-Footnote A: William Smyth (1766-1849). Professor of Modern History at Cambridge, published his 'English Lyrics' (in 1806), and several other works.]

[Footnote lxix:

'Yet hold--as when by Heaven's supreme behest, If found, ten righteous had preserved the Rest In Sodom's fated town--for Granta's name Let Hodgson's Genius plead and save her fame But where fair Isis, etc.'

['MS.' and 'British Bards.']]

[Footnote lxx:

'See Clarke still striving piteously to please Forgets that Doggrel leads not to degrees.--'

['MS. Fragment' bound up with 'British Bards'.]

[Footnote lxxi:

'So sunk in dullness and so lost in shame That Smythe and Hodgson scarce redeem thy fame.--'

['MS. Addition to British Bards. First to Fourth Editions'.]]

[Footnote lxxii:

'----is wove.--'

[MS. British Bards' and 'First to Fourth Editions'.]]

[Footnote lxxiii:

'And modern Britons justly praise their sires.'--

['MS. British Bards' and 'First to Fourth Editions]]

[Footnote lxxiv:

'--what her sons must know too well.'

['British Bards]]

[Footnote lxxv:

'Zeal for her honour no malignant Rage, Has bade me spurn the follies of the age.--'

['MS. British Bards'. First Edition]]

[Footnote lxxvi:

'--Ocean's lonely Queen.'

['British Bards']]

'--Ocean's mighty Queen.'

['First to Fourth Editions']]

[Footnote: lxxvii.

'Like these thy cliffs may sink in ruin hurled The last white ramparts of a falling world'.--

['British Bards MS.']]

[Footnote: lxxviii.

'But should I back return, no lettered rage Shall drag my common-place book on the stage: Let vain Valentia [A] rival luckless Carr, And equal him whose work he sought to mar.--'

['Second to Fourth Editions'.]

[Sub-Footnote: A. Lord Valentia (whose tremendous travels are forthcoming with due decorations, graphical, topographical, typographical) deposed, on Sir John Carr's unlucky suit, that Mr. Dubois's satire prevented his purchase of 'The Stranger' in Ireland.--Oh, fie, my lord! has your lordship no more feeling for a fellow-tourist?--but "two of a trade," they say, etc. [George Annesley, Viscount Valentia (1769-1844), published, in 1809, 'Voyages and Travels to India, Ceylon, the Red Sea, Abyssinia, and Egypt in the Years 1802-6'. Byron calls him "vain" Valentia, because his "accounts of ceremonies attending his lordship's interviews with several of the petty princes" suggest the thought "that his principal errand to India was to measure certain rank in the British peerage against the gradations of Asiatic royalty."--'Eclectic Review', August, 1809. In August, 1808, Sir John Carr, author of numerous 'Travels', brought an unsuccessful action for damages against Messrs. Hood and Sharpe, the publishers of the parody of his works by Edward Dubois,--'My Pocket Book: or Hints for a Ryghte Merrie and Conceitede Tour, in 4to, to be called "The Stranger in Ireland in 1805,"' By a Knight Errant, and dedicated to the papermakers. (See Letter to Hodgson, August 6, 1809, and suppressed stanza (stanza Ixxxvii.) of the first canto of 'Childe Harold'.)]]

[Footnote lxxix:

'To stun mankind, with Poesy or Prose'.

['Second to Fourth Editions'.]

[Footnote lxxx:

'Thus much I've dared to do, how far my lay'.--

['First to Fourth Editions'.]]

POSTSCRIPT TO THE SECOND EDITION.

I have been informed, since the present edition went to the press, that my trusty and well-beloved cousins, the Edinburgh Reviewers, are preparing a most vehement critique on my poor, gentle, 'unresisting' Muse, whom they have already so be-deviled with their ungodly ribaldry;

"Tantæne animis coelestibus Iræ!"

I suppose I must say of JEFFREY as Sir ANDREW AGUECHEEK saith, "an I had known he was so cunning of fence, I had seen him damned ere I had fought him." What a pity it is that I shall be beyond the Bosphorus before the next number has passed the Tweed! But I yet hope to light my pipe with it in Persia. [1]

My Northern friends have accused me, with justice, of personality towards their great literary Anthropophagus, Jeffery; but what else was to be done with him and his dirty pack, who feed by "lying and slandering," and slake their thirst by "evil speaking"? I have adduced facts already well known, and of JEFFREY's mind I have stated my free opinion, nor has he thence sustained any injury:--what scavenger was ever soiled by being pelted with mud? It may be said that I quit England because I have censured there "persons of honour and wit about town;" but I am coming back again, and their vengeance will keep hot till my return. Those who know me can testify that my motives for leaving England are very different from fears, literary or personal: those who do not, may one day be convinced. Since the publication of this thing, my name has not been concealed; I have been mostly in London, ready to answer for my transgressions, and in daily expectation of sundry cartels; but, alas! "the age of chivalry is over," or, in the vulgar tongue, there is no spirit now-a-days.

There is a youth ycleped Hewson Clarke (subaudi 'esquire'), a sizer of Emanuel College, and, I believe, a denizen of Berwick-upon-Tweed, whom I have introduced in these pages to much better company than he has been accustomed to meet; he is, notwithstanding, a very sad dog, and for no reason that I can discover, except a personal quarrel with a bear, kept by me at Cambridge to sit for a fellowship, and whom the jealousy of his Trinity contemporaries prevented from success, has been abusing me, and, what is worse, the defenceless innocent above mentioned, in the 'Satirist' for one year and some months. I am utterly unconscious of having given him any provocation; indeed, I am guiltless of having heard his name, till coupled with the 'Satirist'. He has therefore no reason to complain, and I dare say that, like Sir Fretful Plagiary, he is rather 'pleased' than otherwise. I have now mentioned all who have done me the honour to notice me and mine, that is, my bear and my book, except the editor of the 'Satirist', who, it seems, is a gentleman--God wot! I wish he could impart a little of his gentility to his subordinate scribblers. I hear that Mr. JERNINGHAM[1] is about to take up the cudgels for his Mæcenas, Lord Carlisle. I hope not: he was one of the few, who, in the very short intercourse I had with him, treated me with kindness when a boy; and whatever he may say or do, "pour on, I will endure." I have nothing further to add, save a general note of thanksgiving to readers, purchasers, and publishers, and, in the words of SCOTT, I wish

"To all and each a fair good night, And rosy dreams and slumbers light."

[Footnote 1: The article never appeared, and Lord Byron, in the 'Hints from Horace', taunted Jeffrey with a silence which seemed to indicate that the critic was beaten from the field.]

[Footnote 2: Edward Jerningham (1727-1812), third son of Sir George Jerningham, Bart., was an indefatigable versifier. Between the publication of his first poem, 'The Nunnery', in 1766, and his last, 'The Old Bard's Farewell', in 1812, he sent to the press no less than thirty separate compositions. As a contributor to the 'British Album', Gifford handled him roughly in the 'Baviad' (lines 21, 22); and Mathias, in a note to 'Pursuits of Literature', brackets him with Payne Knight as "ecrivain du commun et poëte vulgaire." He was a dandy with a literary turn, who throughout a long life knew every one who was worth knowing. Some of his letters have recently been published (see 'Jerningham Letters', two vols., 1896).]

HINTS FROM HORACE: [i]

BEING AN ALLUSION IN ENGLISH VERSE TO THE EPISTLE "AD PISONES, DE ARTE POETICÂ," AND INTENDED AS A SEQUEL TO "ENGLISH BARDS, AND SCOTCH REVIEWERS."

----"Ergo fungar vice cotis, acutum Reddere quæ ferrum valet, exsors ipsa secandi."

HOR. 'De Arte Poet'., II. 304 and 305.

"Rhymes are difficult things--they are stubborn things, Sir."

FIELDING'S 'Amelia', Vol. iii. Book; and Chap. v.

[Footnote i:

Hints from Horace (Athens, Capuchin Convent, March 12, 1811); being an Imitation in English Verse from the Epistle, etc.

[MS, M.]

Hints from Horace: being a Partial Imitation, in English Verse, of the Epistle 'Ad Pisones, De Arte Poeticâ'; and intended as a sequel to 'English Bards, and Scotch Reviewers'.

Athens, Franciscan Convent, March 12, 1811.

['Proof b'.]]

INTRODUCTION TO HINTS FROM HORACE

Three MSS. of 'Hints from Horace' are extant, two in the possession of Lord Lovelace (MSS. L. a and b), and a third in the possession of Mr. Murray ('MS. M'.).

Proofs of lines 173-272 and 1-272 ('Proofs a, b'), are among the Egerton MSS. in the British Museum. They were purchased from the Rev. Alexander Dallas, January 12, 1867, and are, doubtless, fragments of the proofs set up in type for Cawthorn in 1811. They are in "book-form," and show that the volume was intended to be uniform with the Fifth Edition of 'English Bards, and Scotch Reviewers', of 1811. The text corresponds closely but not exactly with that adopted by Murray in 1831, and does not embody the variants of the several MSS. It is probable that complete proofs were in Moore's possession at the time when he included the selections from the 'Hints' in his 'Letters and Journals', pp. 263-269, and that the text of the entire poem as published in 1831 was derived from this source. Selections, numbering in all 156 lines, had already appeared in 'Recollections of the Life of Lord Byron', by R. C. Dallas, 1824, pp. 104-113. Byron, estimating the merit by the difficulty of the performance, rated the 'Hints from Horace' extravagantly high. He only forbore to publish them after the success of 'Childe Harold', because he felt, as he states, that he should be "heaping coals of fire upon his head" if he were in his hour of triumph to put forth a sequel to a lampoon provoked by failure. Nine years afterwards, when he resolved to print the work with some omissions, he gravely maintained that it excelled the productions of his mature genius. "As far," he said, "as versification goes, it is good; and on looking back at what I wrote about that period, I am astonished to see how little I have trained on. I wrote better then than now; but that comes of my having fallen into the atrocious bad taste of the times" [September 23, 1820]. The opinion of J. C. Hobhouse that the 'Hints' would require "a good deal of slashing" to adapt them to the passing hour, and other considerations, again led Byron to suspend the publication. Authors are frequently bad judges of their own works, but of all the literary hallucinations upon record there are none which exceed the mistaken preferences of Lord Byron. Shortly after the appearance of 'The Corsair' he fancied that 'English Bards' was still his masterpiece; when all his greatest works had been produced, he contended that his translation from Pulci was his "grand performance,--the best thing he ever did in his life;" and throughout the whole of his literary career he regarded these 'Hints from Horace' with a special and unchanging fondness.

HINTS FROM HORACE

ATHENS: CAPUCHIN CONVENT, March. 12, 1811. [i]

Who would not laugh, if Lawrence [1], hired to grace [ii] His costly canvas with each flattered face, Abused his art, till Nature, with a blush, Saw cits grow Centaurs underneath his brush? Or, should some limner join, for show or sale, A Maid of Honour to a Mermaid's tail? [iii] Or low Dubost [2]--as once the world has seen-- Degrade God's creatures in his graphic spleen? Not all that forced politeness, which defends Fools in their faults, could gag his grinning friends. 10 Believe me, Moschus, like that picture seems [iv] The book which, sillier than a sick man's dreams, Displays a crowd of figures incomplete, Poetic Nightmares, without head or feet.

Poets and painters, as all artists know, [v] May shoot a little with a lengthened bow; We claim this mutual mercy for our task, And grant in turn the pardon which we ask; But make not monsters spring from gentle dams-- Birds breed not vipers, tigers nurse not lambs. 20

A laboured, long Exordium, sometimes tends (Like patriot speeches) but to paltry ends; [vi] And nonsense in a lofty note goes down, As Pertness passes with a legal gown: [vii] Thus many a Bard describes in pompous strain [viii] The clear brook babbling through the goodly plain: The groves of Granta, and her Gothic halls, King's Coll-Cam's stream-stained windows, and old walls: Or, in adventurous numbers, neatly aims To paint a rainbow, or the river Thames. [3] 30

You sketch a tree, and so perhaps may shine [ix]-- But daub a shipwreck like an alehouse sign; You plan a _vase_--it dwindles to a _pot_; Then glide down Grub-street--fasting and forgot: Laughed into Lethe by some quaint Review, Whose wit is never troublesome till--true.

In fine, to whatsoever you aspire, Let it at least be simple and entire.

The greater portion of the rhyming tribe [x] (Give ear, my friend, for thou hast been a scribe) 40 Are led astray by some peculiar lure. [xi] I labour to be brief--become obscure; One falls while following Elegance too fast; Another soars, inflated with Bombast; Too low a third crawls on, afraid to fly, He spins his subject to Satiety; Absurdly varying, he at last engraves Fish in the woods, and boars beneath the waves! [xii]

Unless your care's exact, your judgment nice, The flight from Folly leads but into Vice; 50 None are complete, all wanting in some part, Like certain tailors, limited in art. For galligaskins Slowshears is your man [xiii] But coats must claim another artisan. [4] Now this to me, I own, seems much the same As Vulcan's feet to bear Apollo's frame; Or, with a fair complexion, to expose Black eyes, black ringlets, but--a bottle nose!

Dear Authors! suit your topics to your strength, And ponder well your subject, and its length; 60 Nor lift your load, before you're quite aware What weight your shoulders will, or will not, bear. But lucid Order, and Wit's siren voice, [xiv] Await the Poet, skilful in his choice; With native Eloquence he soars along, Grace in his thoughts, and Music in his song.

Let Judgment teach him wisely to combine With future parts the now omitted line: This shall the Author choose, or that reject, Precise in style, and cautious to select; 70 Nor slight applause will candid pens afford To him who furnishes a wanting word. [xv] Then fear not, if 'tis needful, to produce Some term unknown, or obsolete in use, (As Pitt has furnished us a word or two, [5] Which Lexicographers declined to do;) So you indeed, with care,--(but be content To take this license rarely)--may invent. New words find credit in these latter days, If neatly grafted on a Gallic phrase; [xvi] 80 What Chaucer, Spenser did, we scarce refuse To Dryden's or to Pope's maturer Muse. If you can add a little, say why not, As well as William Pitt, and Walter Scott? Since they, by force of rhyme and force of lungs, [xvii] Enriched our Island's ill-united tongues; 'Tis then--and shall be--lawful to present Reform in writing, as in Parliament.

As forests shed their foliage by degrees, So fade expressions which in season please; 90 And we and ours, alas! are due to Fate, And works and words but dwindle to a date. Though as a Monarch nods, and Commerce calls, [xviii] Impetuous rivers stagnate in canals; Though swamps subdued, and marshes drained, sustain [xix] The heavy ploughshare and the yellow grain, And rising ports along the busy shore Protect the vessel from old Ocean's roar, All, all, must perish; but, surviving last, The love of Letters half preserves the past. 100 True, some decay, yet not a few revive; [xx] [6] Though those shall sink, which now appear to thrive, As Custom arbitrates, whose shifting sway [xxi] Our life and language must alike obey.

The immortal wars which Gods and Angels wage, Are they not shown in Milton's sacred page? His strain will teach what numbers best belong To themes celestial told in Epic song. [xxii]

The slow, sad stanza will correctly paint The Lover's anguish, or the Friend's complaint. 110 But which deserves the Laurel--Rhyme or Blank? [xxiii] Which holds on Helicon the higher rank? Let squabbling critics by themselves dispute This point, as puzzling as a Chancery suit.