Then who shall say so good a fellow
Was only "leather and prunella?
Was only "leather and prunella?
Byron
call you that a cabin?
Why't is hardly three feet square!
Not enough to stow Queen Mab in--
Who the deuce can harbour there? "
"Who, sir? plenty--
Nobles twenty
Did at once my vessel fill. "--
"Did they? Jesus,
How you squeeze us!
Would to God they did so still!
Then I'd 'scape the heat and racket
Of the good ship, Lisbon Packet. "
4.
Fletcher! Murray! Bob! [5] where are you?
Stretched along the deck like logs--
Bear a hand, you jolly tar, you!
Here's a rope's end for the dogs.
Hobhouse muttering fearful curses,
As the hatchway down he rolls,
Now his breakfast, now his verses,
Vomits forth--and damns our souls.
"Here's a stanza[6]
On Braganza--
Help! "--"A couplet? "--"No, a cup
Of warm water--"
"What's the matter? "
"Zounds! my liver's coming up;
I shall not survive the racket
Of this brutal Lisbon Packet. "
5.
Now at length we're off for Turkey,
Lord knows when we shall come back!
Breezes foul and tempests murky
May unship us in a crack.
But, since Life at most a jest is,
As philosophers allow,
Still to laugh by far the best is,
Then laugh on--as I do now.
Laugh at all things,
Great and small things,
Sick or well, at sea or shore;
While we're quaffing,
Let's have laughing--
Who the devil cares for more? --
Some good wine! and who would lack it,
Ev'n on board the Lisbon Packet?
Falmouth Roads, _June_ 30, 1809.
[First published, _Letters and Journals_, 1830, i. 230-232. ]
FOOTNOTES:
[3] [For Francis Hodgson (1781-1852), see _Letters_, 1898, i. 195,
_note_ 1. ]
[4] [Compare Peter Pindar's _Ode to a Margate Hoy_--
"Go, beauteous Hoy, in safety ev'ry inch!
That storm should wreck thee, gracious Heav'n forbid!
Whether commanded by brave Captain Finch
Or equally tremendous Captain Kidd. "]
[5] [Murray was "Joe" Murray, an ancient retainer of the "Wicked Lord. "
Bob was Robert Rushton, the "little page" of "Childe Harold's Good
Night. " (See _Poetical Works_, 1899, ii. 26, _note_ 1. )]
[6] [For "the stanza," addressed to the "Princely offspring of
Braganza," published in the _Morning Post_, December 30, 1807, see
_English Bards, etc. _, line 142, _note_ 1, _Poetical Works_, 1898, i.
308, 309. ]
[TO DIVES. [7] A FRAGMENT. ]
UNHAPPY Dives! in an evil hour
'Gainst Nature's voice seduced to deeds accurst!
Once Fortune's minion now thou feel'st her power;
Wrath's vial on thy lofty head hath burst.
In Wit, in Genius, as in Wealth the first,
How wondrous bright thy blooming morn arose!
But thou wert smitten with th' unhallowed thirst
Of Crime unnamed, and thy sad noon must close
In scorn and solitude unsought the worst of woes.
1809.
[First published, _Lord Byron's Works_, 1833, xvii. 241. ]
FOOTNOTES:
[7] [Dives was William Beckford. See _Childe Harold_, Canto I. stanza
xxii. line 6, _Poetical Works_, 1899, ii. 37, _note_ 1. ]
FAREWELL PETITION TO J. C. H. , ESQ^RE^.
O THOU yclep'd by vulgar sons of Men
Cam Hobhouse! [8] but by wags Byzantian Ben!
Twin sacred titles, which combined appear
To grace thy volume's front, and gild its rear,
Since now thou put'st thyself and work to Sea
And leav'st all Greece to _Fletcher_[9] and to me,
Oh, hear my single muse our sorrows tell,
_One_ song for _self_ and Fletcher quite as well--
First to the _Castle_ of that man of woes
Dispatch the letter which _I must_ enclose,
And when his lone Penelope shall say
_Why, where_, and _wherefore_ doth my William stay?
Spare not to move her pity, or her pride--
By all that Hero suffered, or defied;
The _chicken's toughness_, and the _lack_ of _ale_
The _stoney mountain_ and the _miry vale_
The _Garlick_ steams, which _half_ his meals enrich,
The _impending vermin_, and the threatened _Itch_,
That _ever breaking_ Bed, beyond repair!
The hat too _old_, the coat too _cold_ to wear,
The Hunger, _which repulsed from Sally's door_
Pursues her grumbling half from shore to shore,
Be these the themes to greet his faithful Rib
So may thy pen be smooth, thy tongue be glib!
This duty done, let me in turn demand
Some friendly office in my native land,
Yet let me ponder well, before I ask,
And set thee swearing at the tedious task.
First the Miscellany! [10]--to Southwell town
_Per coach_ for Mrs. _Pigot_ frank it down,
So may'st them prosper in the paths of Sale,[11]
And Longman smirk and critics cease to rail.
All hail to Matthews! [12] wash his reverend feet,
And in my name the man of Method greet,--
Tell him, my Guide, Philosopher, and Friend,
Who cannot love me, and who will not mend,
Tell him, that not in vain I shall assay
To tread and trace our "old Horatian way,"[13]
And be (with prose supply my dearth of rhymes)
What better men have been in better times.
Here let me cease, for why should I prolong
My notes, and vex a _Singer_ with a _Song_?
Oh thou with pen perpetual in thy fist!
Dubbed for thy sins a stark Miscellanist,
So pleased the printer's orders to perform
For Messrs. _Longman_, _Hurst_ and _Rees_ and _Orme_.
Go--Get thee hence to Paternoster Row,
Thy patrons wave a duodecimo!
(Best form for _letters_ from a distant land,
It fits the pocket, nor fatigues the hand. )
Then go, once more the joyous work commence[14]
With stores of anecdote, and grains of sense,
Oh may Mammas relent, and Sires forgive!
And scribbling Sons grow dutiful and live!
Constantinople, _June_ 7^th^, 1810.
[First published, _Murray's Magazine_, 1887, vol. i. pp. 290, 291. ]
FOOTNOTES:
[8] [For John Cam Hobhouse (1786-1869), afterwards Lord Broughton de
Gyfford, see _Letters_, 1898, i. 163, _note_ i. ]
[9] [Fletcher was an indifferent traveller, and sighed for "a' the
comforts of the saut-market. " See Byron's letters to his mother,
November 12, 1809, June 28, 1810. --_Letters_, 1898, i. 256, 281. ]
[10] [Hobhouse's Miscellany (otherwise known as the _Miss-sell-any_) was
published in 1809, under the title of _Imitations and Translations from
The Ancient and Modern Classics_. Byron contributed nine original poems.
The volume was not a success. "It foundered . . . in the Gulph of
Lethe. "--Letter to H. Drury, July 17, 1811, _Letters_, 1898, i. 319. ]
[11] [The word "Sale" may have a double meaning. There may be an
allusion to George Sale, the Orientalist, and translator of the Koran. ]
[12] ["In Matthews I have lost my 'guide, philosopher, and
friend. '"--Letter to R. C. Dallas, September 7, 1811, _Letters_, 1898,
ii. 25. (For Charles Skinner Matthews, see _Letters_, 1898, i. 150,
_note_ 3. )]
[13] [Compare--
"In short, the maxim for the amorous tribe is
Horatian, 'Medio tu tutissimus ibis. '"
_Don Juan_, Canto V. stanza xvii. lines 8, 9.
The "doctrine" is Horatian, but the words occur in Ovid, _Metam. _, lib.
ii. line 137. --_Poetical Works_, 1902, vi. 273, _note_ 2. ]
[14] [Hobhouse's _Journey through Albania and other Provinces of
Turkey_, 4^to^, was published by James Cawthorn, in 1813. ]
TRANSLATION OF THE NURSE'S DOLE IN
THE _MEDEA_ OF EURIPIDES.
OH how I wish that an embargo
Had kept in port the good ship Argo!
Who, still unlaunched from Grecian docks,
Had never passed the Azure rocks;
But now I fear her trip will be a
Damn'd business for my Miss Medea, etc. , etc. [15]
_June_, 1810.
[First published, _Letters and Journals_, 1830, i. 227. ]
FOOTNOTES:
[15] ["I am just come from an expedition through the Bosphorus to
the Black Sea and the Cyanean Symplegades, up which last I scrambled
with as great risk as ever the Argonauts escaped in their hoy. You
remember the beginning of the nurse's dole in the _Medea_ [lines 1-7],
of which I beg you to take the following translation, done on the
summit;--[A 'damned business'] it very nearly was to me; for, had not
this sublime passage been in my head, I should never have dreamed of
ascending the said rocks, and bruising my carcass in honour of the
ancients. "--Letter to Henry Drury, June 17, 1810, _Letters_, 1898, i.
276.
Euripides, _Medea_, lines 1-7--
? ? ? ' ? ? ? ? ' ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? . ? . ? .
[Ei)/th' o)/phel' A)rgou~s me\ diapta/sthai ska/phos k. t. l. ]
]
MY EPITAPH. [16]
YOUTH, Nature, and relenting Jove,
To keep my lamp _in_ strongly strove;
But Romanelli was so stout,
He beat all three--and _blew_ it _out_.
_October_, 1810.
[First published, _Letters and Journals_, 1830, i. 240. ]
FOOTNOTES:
[16] ["The English Consul . . . forced a physician upon me, and in three
days vomited and glystered me to the last gasp. In this state I made my
epitaph--take it. "--Letter to Hodgson, October 3, 1810, _Letters_, 1898,
i. 298. ]
SUBSTITUTE FOR AN EPITAPH.
KIND Reader! take your choice to cry or laugh;
Here HAROLD lies--but where's his Epitaph?
If such you seek, try Westminster, and view
Ten thousand just as fit for him as you.
Athens, 1810.
[First published, _Lord Byron's Works_, 1832, ix. 4. ]
EPITAPH FOR JOSEPH BLACKET, LATE
POET AND SHOEMAKER. [17]
STRANGER! behold, interred together,
The _souls_ of learning and of leather.
Poor Joe is gone, but left his _all_:
You'll find his relics in a _stall_.
His works were neat, and often found
Well stitched, and with _morocco_ bound.
Tread lightly--where the bard is laid--
He cannot mend the shoe he made;
Yet is he happy in his hole,
With verse immortal as his _sole_.
But still to business he held fast,
And stuck to Phoebus to the _last_.
Then who shall say so good a fellow
Was only "leather and prunella? "
For character--he did not lack it;
And if he did, 'twere shame to "Black-it. "
Malta, _May_ 16, 1811.
[First published, _Lord Byron's Works_, 1832, ix. 10. ]
FOOTNOTES:
[17] [For Joseph Blacket (1786-1810), see _Letters_, 1898, i. 314,
_note_ 2; see, too, _Poetical Works_, 1898, i. 359, _note_ 1, and
441-443, _note_ 2. The _Epitaph_ is of doubtful authenticity. ]
ON MOORE'S LAST OPERATIC FARCE, OR FARCICAL OPERA. [18]
GOOD plays are scarce,
So Moore writes _farce_:
The poet's fame grows brittle[i]--
We knew before
That _Little_'s Moore,
But now't is Moore that's _little_.
_September_ 14, 1811.
[First published, _Letters and Journals_, 1830, i. 295 (_note_). ]
FOOTNOTES:
[i] _Is fame like his so brittle_? --[_MS_. ]
[18] ["On a leaf of one of his paper books I find an epigram, written at
this time, which, though not perhaps particularly good, I consider
myself bound to insert. "--Moore, _Life_, p. 137, _note_ 1. The reference
is to Moore's _M. P. ; or, The Blue Stocking_, which was played for the
first time at the Lyceum Theatre, September 9, 1811. For Moore's _nom de
plume_, "The late Thomas Little, Esq. ," compare Praed's _The Belle of
the Ball-Room_--
"If those bright lips had quoted Locke,
I might have thought they murmured Little. "]
[R. C. DALLAS. ][19]
YES! wisdom shines in all his mien,
Which would so captivate, I ween,
Wisdom's own goddess Pallas;
That she'd discard her fav'rite owl,
And take for pet a brother fowl,
Sagacious R. C. Dallas.
[First published, _Life, Writings, Opinions, etc. _, 1825, ii. 192. ]
FOOTNOTES:
[19] ["A person observing that Mr. Dallas looked very wise on a certain
occasion, his Lordship is said to have broke out into the following
impromptu. "--_Life, Writings, Times, and Opinions of Lord Byron_, 1825,
ii. 191. ]
AN ODE[20] TO THE FRAMERS OF THE FRAME BILL. [21]
1.
OH well done Lord E---- n! and better done R----r! [22]
Britannia must prosper with councils like yours;
Hawkesbury, Harrowby, help you to guide her,
Whose remedy only must _kill_ ere it cures:
Those villains; the Weavers, are all grown refractory,
Asking some succour for Charity's sake--
So hang them in clusters round each Manufactory,
That will at once put an end to _mistake_. [23]
2.
The rascals, perhaps, may betake them to robbing,
The dogs to be sure have got nothing to eat--
So if we can hang them for breaking a bobbin,
'T will save all the Government's money and meat:
Men are more easily made than machinery--
Stockings fetch better prices than lives--
Gibbets on Sherwood will heighten the scenery,
Shewing how Commerce, how Liberty thrives!
3.
Justice is now in pursuit of the wretches,
Grenadiers, Volunteers, Bow-street Police,
Twenty-two Regiments, a score of Jack Ketches,
Three of the Quorum and two of the Peace;
Some Lords, to be sure, would have summoned the Judges,
To take their opinion, but that they ne'er shall,
For LIVERPOOL such a concession begrudges,
So now they're condemned by _no Judges_ at all.
4.
Some folks for certain have thought it was shocking,
When Famine appeals and when Poverty groans,
That Life should be valued at less than a stocking,
And breaking of frames lead to breaking of bones.
If it should prove so, I trust, by this token,
(And who will refuse to partake in the hope? )
That the frames of the fools may be first to be _broken_,
Who, when asked for a _remedy_, sent down a _rope_.
[First published, _Morning Chronicle, Monday, March_ 2, 1812. ]
[See a _Political Ode by Lord Byron, hitherto unknown
as his production_, London, John Pearson, 46, Pall Mall,
1880, 8? . See, too, Mr. Pearson's prefatory Note, pp. 5, etc. ]
FOOTNOTES:
[20] ["LORD BYRON TO EDITOR OF THE _MORNING CHRONICLE_.
Sir,--I take the liberty of sending an alteration of the two last lines
of stanza 2^d^, which I wish to run as follows:--
'Gibbets on Sherwood will _heighten_ the scenery,
Shewing how commerce, _how_ liberty thrives. '
I wish you could insert it tomorrow for a particular reason; but I feel
much obliged by your inserting it at all. Of course do _not_ put my name
to the thing--believe me,
Your obliged
and very obedient servant,
BYRON.
8, St. James's Street,
_Sunday, March_ 1, 1812. "]
[21] [For Byron's maiden speech in the House of Lords, February 27,
1812, see _Letters_, 1898, ii. 424-430. ]
[22] [Richard Ryder (1766-1832), second son of the first Baron Harrowby,
was Home Secretary, 1809-12. ]
[23] Lord E. , on Thursday night, said the riots at Nottingham arose from
a "_mistake_. "
TO THE HON^BLE^ M^RS^ GEORGE LAMB. [24]
1.
The sacred song that on mine ear
Yet vibrates from that voice of thine,
I heard, before, from one so dear--
'T is strange it still appears divine.
2.
But, oh! so sweet that _look_ and _tone_
To her and thee alike is given;
It seemed as if for me alone
That _both_ had been recalled from Heaven!
3.
And though I never can redeem
The vision thus endeared to me;
I scarcely can regret my dream,
When realised again by thee.
1812.
[First published in _The Two Duchesses_, by Vere Foster,
1898, p. 374. ]
FOOTNOTES:
[24] [Caroline Rosalie Adelaide St. Jules (1786-1862) married, in 1809,
the Hon. George Lamb (see _English Bards, etc_. , line 55, _Poetical
Works_, 1898, i. 300, note 1), fourth son of the first Viscount
Melbourne. ]
[LA REVANCHE. ]
1.
There is no more for me to hope,
There is no more for thee to fear;
And, if I give my Sorrow scope,
That Sorrow thou shalt never hear.
Why did I hold thy love so dear?
Why shed for such a heart one tear?
Let deep and dreary silence be
My only memory of thee!
2.
When all are fled who flatter now,
Save thoughts which will not flatter then;
And thou recall'st the broken vow
To him who must not love again--
Each hour of now forgotten years
Thou, then, shalt number with thy tears;
And every drop of grief shall be
A vain remembrancer of me!
Undated, ? 1812.
[From an autograph MS. in the possession of Mr. Murray,
now for the first time printed. ]
TO THOMAS MOORE.
WRITTEN THE EVENING BEFORE HIS VISIT TO MR. LEIGH HUNT
IN HORSEMONGER LANE GAOL, MAY 19, 1813.
OH you, who in all names can tickle the town,
Anacreon, Tom Little, Tom Moore, or Tom Brown,--[25]
For hang me if I know of which you may most brag,
Your Quarto two-pounds, or your Two-penny Post Bag;
* * * * *
But now to my letter--to _yours_ 'tis an answer--
To-morrow be with me, as soon as you can, sir,
All ready and dressed for proceeding to spunge on
(According to compact) the wit in the dungeon--[26]
Pray Phoebus at length our political malice
May not get us lodgings within the same palace!
I suppose that to-night you're engaged with some codgers,
And for Sotheby's Blues[27] have deserted Sam Rogers;
And I, though with cold I have nearly my death got,
Must put on my breeches, and wait on the Heathcote;[28]
But to-morrow, at four, we will both play the _Scurra_,
And you'll be Catullus, the Regent Mamurra. [29]
[First published, _Letters and Journals_, 1830, i. 401. ]
FOOTNOTES:
[25] [Moore's "_Intercepted Letters; or, The Twopenny Post-Bag_, By
Thomas Brown, the Younger," was published in 1813. ]
[26] [James Henry Leigh Hunt (1784-1859) was imprisoned February, 1813,
to February, 1815, for a libel on the Prince Regent, published in the
_Examiner_, March 12, 1812. --_Letters_, 1898, ii. 205-208, _note_ 1. ]
[27] [For "Sotheby's Blues," see Introduction to _The Blues, Poetical
Works_, 1901, iv. 570, _et ibid_. , 579, 580. ]
[28] [Katherine Sophia Manners was married in 1793 to Sir Gilbert
Heathcote. See _Letters_, 1898, ii. 402, 406. ]
[29] [See _Catullus_, xxix. 1-4--
"Quis hoc potest videre? quis potest pati,
Nisi impudicus et vorax et aleo,
Mamurram habere, quod Comata Gallia
Habebat uncti et ultima Britannia? " etc. ]
ON LORD THURLOW'S POEMS. [30]
1.
WHEN Thurlow this damned nonsense sent,
(I hope I am not violent)
Nor men nor gods knew what he meant.
2.
And since not even our Rogers' praise
To common sense his thoughts could raise--
Why _would_ they let him print his lays?
3.
* * * * *
4.
* * * * *
5.
To me, divine Apollo, grant--O!
Hermilda's[31] first and second canto,
I'm fitting up a new portmanteau;
6.
And thus to furnish decent lining,
My own and others' bays I'm twining,--
So, gentle Thurlow, throw me thine in.
June 2, 1813.
[First published, _Letters and Journals_, 1830, i. 396. ]
FOOTNOTES:
[30] [One evening, in the late spring or early summer of 1813, Byron and
Moore supped on bread and cheese with Rogers. Their host had just
received from Lord Thurlow [Edward Hovell Thurlow, 1781-1829] a copy of
his _Poems on Several Occasions_ (1813), and Byron lighted upon some
lines to Rogers, "On the Poem of Mr. Rogers, entitled 'An Epistle to a
Friend. '" The first stanza ran thus--
"When Rogers o'er this labour bent,
Their purest fire the Muses lent,
T' illustrate this sweet argument. "
"Byron," says Moore, "undertook to read it aloud;--but he found it
impossible to get beyond the first two words. Our laughter had now
increased to such a pitch that nothing could restrain it. Two or three
times he began; but no sooner had the words 'When Rogers' passed his
lips, than our fit burst forth afresh,--till even Mr. Rogers himself . . .
found it impossible not to join us. A day or two after, Lord Byron sent
me the following:--'My dear Moore, "When Rogers" must not see the
enclosed, which I send for your perusal. '"--_Life_, p. 181; _Letters_,
1898, ii. 211-213, _note_ 1. ]
Thurlow's poems are by no means contemptible. A sonnet, "To a Bird, that
haunted the Water of Lacken, in the Winter," which Charles Lamb
transcribed in one of Coleridge's note-books, should be set over against
the absurd lines, "On the Poems of Mr. Rogers. "
"O melancholy bird, a winter's day
Thou standest by the margin of the pool;
And, taught by God, dost thy whole being school
To Patience, which all evil can allay:
God has appointed thee the fish thy prey;
And giv'n thyself a lesson to the fool
Unthrifty, to submit to moral rule,
And his unthinking course by thee to weigh.
There need not schools nor the professor's chair,
Though these be good, true wisdom to impart;
He, who has not enough for these to spare
Of time, or gold, may yet amend his heart,
And teach his soul by brooks and rivers fair,
Nature is always wise in every part. "
_Select Poems_, 1821, p. 90.
[See "Fragments of Criticism," _Works of Charles Lamb_, 1903, iii. 284. ]
[31] [_Hermilda in Palestine_ was published in 1812, in quarto, and
twice reissued in 1813, as part of _Poems on Various Occasions_ (8vo).
The Lines upon Rogers' _Epistle to a Friend_ appeared first in the
_Gentleman's Magazine_ for April, 1813, vol. 83, p. 357, and were
reprinted in the second edition of _Poems, etc. _, 1813, pp. 162, 163.
The lines in italics, which precede each stanza, are taken from the last
stanza of Lord Thurlow's poem. ]
TO LORD THURLOW. [32]
1.
"_I lay my branch of laurel down_. "
"_THOU_ lay thy branch of _laurel_ down! "
Why, what thou'st stole is not enow;
And, were it lawfully thine own,
Does Rogers want it most, or thou?
Keep to thyself thy withered bough,
Or send it back to Doctor Donne:[33]
Were justice done to both, I trow,
He'd have but little, and thou--none.
2.
"_Then, thus, to form Apollo's crown_. "
A crown! why, twist it how you will,
Thy chaplet must be foolscap still.
When next you visit Delphi's town,
Enquire amongst your fellow-lodgers,
They'll tell you Phoebus gave his crown,
Some years before your birth, to Rogers.
3.
"_Let every other bring his own_. "
When coals to Newcastle are carried,
And owls sent to Athens, as wonders,
From his spouse when the Regent's unmarried,
Or Liverpool weeps o'er his blunders;
When Tories and Whigs cease to quarrel,
When Castlereagh's wife has an heir,
Then Rogers shall ask us for laurel,
And thou shalt have plenty to spare.
[First published, _Letters and Journals_, 1830, i. 397. ]
FOOTNOTES:
[32] ["On the same day I received from him the following additional
scraps ['To Lord Thurlow']. The lines in Italics are from the eulogy
that provoked his waggish comments. "--_Life_, p. 181. The last stanza of
Thurlow's poem supplied the text--
"Then, thus, to form Apollo's crown,
(Let ev'ry other bring his own,)
I lay my branch of laurel down. "]
[33] [Lord Thurlow affected an archaic style in his Sonnets and other
verses. In the Preface to the second edition of _Poems, etc. _, he
writes, "I think that our Poetry has been continually declining since
the days of Milton and Cowley . . . and that the golden age of our
language is in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. "]
THE DEVIL'S DRIVE. [ii][34]
1.
THE Devil returned to Hell by two,
And he stayed at home till five;
When he dined on some homicides done in _ragout_,
And a rebel or so in an _Irish_ stew,
And sausages made of a self-slain Jew,
And bethought himself what next to do,
"And," quoth he, "I'll take a drive.
I walked in the morning, I'll ride to-night;
In darkness my children take most delight,
And I'll see how my favourites thrive. 10
2.
"And what shall I ride in? " quoth Lucifer, then--
"If I followed my taste, indeed,
I should mount in a waggon of wounded men,
And smile to see them bleed.
But these will be furnished again and again,
And at present my purpose is speed;
To see my manor as much as I may,
And watch that no souls shall be poached away.
3.
"I have a state-coach at Carlton House,
A chariot in Seymour-place;[35] 20
But they're lent to two friends, who make me amends
By driving my favourite pace:
And they handle their reins with such a grace,
I have something for both at the end of the race.
4.
Why't is hardly three feet square!
Not enough to stow Queen Mab in--
Who the deuce can harbour there? "
"Who, sir? plenty--
Nobles twenty
Did at once my vessel fill. "--
"Did they? Jesus,
How you squeeze us!
Would to God they did so still!
Then I'd 'scape the heat and racket
Of the good ship, Lisbon Packet. "
4.
Fletcher! Murray! Bob! [5] where are you?
Stretched along the deck like logs--
Bear a hand, you jolly tar, you!
Here's a rope's end for the dogs.
Hobhouse muttering fearful curses,
As the hatchway down he rolls,
Now his breakfast, now his verses,
Vomits forth--and damns our souls.
"Here's a stanza[6]
On Braganza--
Help! "--"A couplet? "--"No, a cup
Of warm water--"
"What's the matter? "
"Zounds! my liver's coming up;
I shall not survive the racket
Of this brutal Lisbon Packet. "
5.
Now at length we're off for Turkey,
Lord knows when we shall come back!
Breezes foul and tempests murky
May unship us in a crack.
But, since Life at most a jest is,
As philosophers allow,
Still to laugh by far the best is,
Then laugh on--as I do now.
Laugh at all things,
Great and small things,
Sick or well, at sea or shore;
While we're quaffing,
Let's have laughing--
Who the devil cares for more? --
Some good wine! and who would lack it,
Ev'n on board the Lisbon Packet?
Falmouth Roads, _June_ 30, 1809.
[First published, _Letters and Journals_, 1830, i. 230-232. ]
FOOTNOTES:
[3] [For Francis Hodgson (1781-1852), see _Letters_, 1898, i. 195,
_note_ 1. ]
[4] [Compare Peter Pindar's _Ode to a Margate Hoy_--
"Go, beauteous Hoy, in safety ev'ry inch!
That storm should wreck thee, gracious Heav'n forbid!
Whether commanded by brave Captain Finch
Or equally tremendous Captain Kidd. "]
[5] [Murray was "Joe" Murray, an ancient retainer of the "Wicked Lord. "
Bob was Robert Rushton, the "little page" of "Childe Harold's Good
Night. " (See _Poetical Works_, 1899, ii. 26, _note_ 1. )]
[6] [For "the stanza," addressed to the "Princely offspring of
Braganza," published in the _Morning Post_, December 30, 1807, see
_English Bards, etc. _, line 142, _note_ 1, _Poetical Works_, 1898, i.
308, 309. ]
[TO DIVES. [7] A FRAGMENT. ]
UNHAPPY Dives! in an evil hour
'Gainst Nature's voice seduced to deeds accurst!
Once Fortune's minion now thou feel'st her power;
Wrath's vial on thy lofty head hath burst.
In Wit, in Genius, as in Wealth the first,
How wondrous bright thy blooming morn arose!
But thou wert smitten with th' unhallowed thirst
Of Crime unnamed, and thy sad noon must close
In scorn and solitude unsought the worst of woes.
1809.
[First published, _Lord Byron's Works_, 1833, xvii. 241. ]
FOOTNOTES:
[7] [Dives was William Beckford. See _Childe Harold_, Canto I. stanza
xxii. line 6, _Poetical Works_, 1899, ii. 37, _note_ 1. ]
FAREWELL PETITION TO J. C. H. , ESQ^RE^.
O THOU yclep'd by vulgar sons of Men
Cam Hobhouse! [8] but by wags Byzantian Ben!
Twin sacred titles, which combined appear
To grace thy volume's front, and gild its rear,
Since now thou put'st thyself and work to Sea
And leav'st all Greece to _Fletcher_[9] and to me,
Oh, hear my single muse our sorrows tell,
_One_ song for _self_ and Fletcher quite as well--
First to the _Castle_ of that man of woes
Dispatch the letter which _I must_ enclose,
And when his lone Penelope shall say
_Why, where_, and _wherefore_ doth my William stay?
Spare not to move her pity, or her pride--
By all that Hero suffered, or defied;
The _chicken's toughness_, and the _lack_ of _ale_
The _stoney mountain_ and the _miry vale_
The _Garlick_ steams, which _half_ his meals enrich,
The _impending vermin_, and the threatened _Itch_,
That _ever breaking_ Bed, beyond repair!
The hat too _old_, the coat too _cold_ to wear,
The Hunger, _which repulsed from Sally's door_
Pursues her grumbling half from shore to shore,
Be these the themes to greet his faithful Rib
So may thy pen be smooth, thy tongue be glib!
This duty done, let me in turn demand
Some friendly office in my native land,
Yet let me ponder well, before I ask,
And set thee swearing at the tedious task.
First the Miscellany! [10]--to Southwell town
_Per coach_ for Mrs. _Pigot_ frank it down,
So may'st them prosper in the paths of Sale,[11]
And Longman smirk and critics cease to rail.
All hail to Matthews! [12] wash his reverend feet,
And in my name the man of Method greet,--
Tell him, my Guide, Philosopher, and Friend,
Who cannot love me, and who will not mend,
Tell him, that not in vain I shall assay
To tread and trace our "old Horatian way,"[13]
And be (with prose supply my dearth of rhymes)
What better men have been in better times.
Here let me cease, for why should I prolong
My notes, and vex a _Singer_ with a _Song_?
Oh thou with pen perpetual in thy fist!
Dubbed for thy sins a stark Miscellanist,
So pleased the printer's orders to perform
For Messrs. _Longman_, _Hurst_ and _Rees_ and _Orme_.
Go--Get thee hence to Paternoster Row,
Thy patrons wave a duodecimo!
(Best form for _letters_ from a distant land,
It fits the pocket, nor fatigues the hand. )
Then go, once more the joyous work commence[14]
With stores of anecdote, and grains of sense,
Oh may Mammas relent, and Sires forgive!
And scribbling Sons grow dutiful and live!
Constantinople, _June_ 7^th^, 1810.
[First published, _Murray's Magazine_, 1887, vol. i. pp. 290, 291. ]
FOOTNOTES:
[8] [For John Cam Hobhouse (1786-1869), afterwards Lord Broughton de
Gyfford, see _Letters_, 1898, i. 163, _note_ i. ]
[9] [Fletcher was an indifferent traveller, and sighed for "a' the
comforts of the saut-market. " See Byron's letters to his mother,
November 12, 1809, June 28, 1810. --_Letters_, 1898, i. 256, 281. ]
[10] [Hobhouse's Miscellany (otherwise known as the _Miss-sell-any_) was
published in 1809, under the title of _Imitations and Translations from
The Ancient and Modern Classics_. Byron contributed nine original poems.
The volume was not a success. "It foundered . . . in the Gulph of
Lethe. "--Letter to H. Drury, July 17, 1811, _Letters_, 1898, i. 319. ]
[11] [The word "Sale" may have a double meaning. There may be an
allusion to George Sale, the Orientalist, and translator of the Koran. ]
[12] ["In Matthews I have lost my 'guide, philosopher, and
friend. '"--Letter to R. C. Dallas, September 7, 1811, _Letters_, 1898,
ii. 25. (For Charles Skinner Matthews, see _Letters_, 1898, i. 150,
_note_ 3. )]
[13] [Compare--
"In short, the maxim for the amorous tribe is
Horatian, 'Medio tu tutissimus ibis. '"
_Don Juan_, Canto V. stanza xvii. lines 8, 9.
The "doctrine" is Horatian, but the words occur in Ovid, _Metam. _, lib.
ii. line 137. --_Poetical Works_, 1902, vi. 273, _note_ 2. ]
[14] [Hobhouse's _Journey through Albania and other Provinces of
Turkey_, 4^to^, was published by James Cawthorn, in 1813. ]
TRANSLATION OF THE NURSE'S DOLE IN
THE _MEDEA_ OF EURIPIDES.
OH how I wish that an embargo
Had kept in port the good ship Argo!
Who, still unlaunched from Grecian docks,
Had never passed the Azure rocks;
But now I fear her trip will be a
Damn'd business for my Miss Medea, etc. , etc. [15]
_June_, 1810.
[First published, _Letters and Journals_, 1830, i. 227. ]
FOOTNOTES:
[15] ["I am just come from an expedition through the Bosphorus to
the Black Sea and the Cyanean Symplegades, up which last I scrambled
with as great risk as ever the Argonauts escaped in their hoy. You
remember the beginning of the nurse's dole in the _Medea_ [lines 1-7],
of which I beg you to take the following translation, done on the
summit;--[A 'damned business'] it very nearly was to me; for, had not
this sublime passage been in my head, I should never have dreamed of
ascending the said rocks, and bruising my carcass in honour of the
ancients. "--Letter to Henry Drury, June 17, 1810, _Letters_, 1898, i.
276.
Euripides, _Medea_, lines 1-7--
? ? ? ' ? ? ? ? ' ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? . ? . ? .
[Ei)/th' o)/phel' A)rgou~s me\ diapta/sthai ska/phos k. t. l. ]
]
MY EPITAPH. [16]
YOUTH, Nature, and relenting Jove,
To keep my lamp _in_ strongly strove;
But Romanelli was so stout,
He beat all three--and _blew_ it _out_.
_October_, 1810.
[First published, _Letters and Journals_, 1830, i. 240. ]
FOOTNOTES:
[16] ["The English Consul . . . forced a physician upon me, and in three
days vomited and glystered me to the last gasp. In this state I made my
epitaph--take it. "--Letter to Hodgson, October 3, 1810, _Letters_, 1898,
i. 298. ]
SUBSTITUTE FOR AN EPITAPH.
KIND Reader! take your choice to cry or laugh;
Here HAROLD lies--but where's his Epitaph?
If such you seek, try Westminster, and view
Ten thousand just as fit for him as you.
Athens, 1810.
[First published, _Lord Byron's Works_, 1832, ix. 4. ]
EPITAPH FOR JOSEPH BLACKET, LATE
POET AND SHOEMAKER. [17]
STRANGER! behold, interred together,
The _souls_ of learning and of leather.
Poor Joe is gone, but left his _all_:
You'll find his relics in a _stall_.
His works were neat, and often found
Well stitched, and with _morocco_ bound.
Tread lightly--where the bard is laid--
He cannot mend the shoe he made;
Yet is he happy in his hole,
With verse immortal as his _sole_.
But still to business he held fast,
And stuck to Phoebus to the _last_.
Then who shall say so good a fellow
Was only "leather and prunella? "
For character--he did not lack it;
And if he did, 'twere shame to "Black-it. "
Malta, _May_ 16, 1811.
[First published, _Lord Byron's Works_, 1832, ix. 10. ]
FOOTNOTES:
[17] [For Joseph Blacket (1786-1810), see _Letters_, 1898, i. 314,
_note_ 2; see, too, _Poetical Works_, 1898, i. 359, _note_ 1, and
441-443, _note_ 2. The _Epitaph_ is of doubtful authenticity. ]
ON MOORE'S LAST OPERATIC FARCE, OR FARCICAL OPERA. [18]
GOOD plays are scarce,
So Moore writes _farce_:
The poet's fame grows brittle[i]--
We knew before
That _Little_'s Moore,
But now't is Moore that's _little_.
_September_ 14, 1811.
[First published, _Letters and Journals_, 1830, i. 295 (_note_). ]
FOOTNOTES:
[i] _Is fame like his so brittle_? --[_MS_. ]
[18] ["On a leaf of one of his paper books I find an epigram, written at
this time, which, though not perhaps particularly good, I consider
myself bound to insert. "--Moore, _Life_, p. 137, _note_ 1. The reference
is to Moore's _M. P. ; or, The Blue Stocking_, which was played for the
first time at the Lyceum Theatre, September 9, 1811. For Moore's _nom de
plume_, "The late Thomas Little, Esq. ," compare Praed's _The Belle of
the Ball-Room_--
"If those bright lips had quoted Locke,
I might have thought they murmured Little. "]
[R. C. DALLAS. ][19]
YES! wisdom shines in all his mien,
Which would so captivate, I ween,
Wisdom's own goddess Pallas;
That she'd discard her fav'rite owl,
And take for pet a brother fowl,
Sagacious R. C. Dallas.
[First published, _Life, Writings, Opinions, etc. _, 1825, ii. 192. ]
FOOTNOTES:
[19] ["A person observing that Mr. Dallas looked very wise on a certain
occasion, his Lordship is said to have broke out into the following
impromptu. "--_Life, Writings, Times, and Opinions of Lord Byron_, 1825,
ii. 191. ]
AN ODE[20] TO THE FRAMERS OF THE FRAME BILL. [21]
1.
OH well done Lord E---- n! and better done R----r! [22]
Britannia must prosper with councils like yours;
Hawkesbury, Harrowby, help you to guide her,
Whose remedy only must _kill_ ere it cures:
Those villains; the Weavers, are all grown refractory,
Asking some succour for Charity's sake--
So hang them in clusters round each Manufactory,
That will at once put an end to _mistake_. [23]
2.
The rascals, perhaps, may betake them to robbing,
The dogs to be sure have got nothing to eat--
So if we can hang them for breaking a bobbin,
'T will save all the Government's money and meat:
Men are more easily made than machinery--
Stockings fetch better prices than lives--
Gibbets on Sherwood will heighten the scenery,
Shewing how Commerce, how Liberty thrives!
3.
Justice is now in pursuit of the wretches,
Grenadiers, Volunteers, Bow-street Police,
Twenty-two Regiments, a score of Jack Ketches,
Three of the Quorum and two of the Peace;
Some Lords, to be sure, would have summoned the Judges,
To take their opinion, but that they ne'er shall,
For LIVERPOOL such a concession begrudges,
So now they're condemned by _no Judges_ at all.
4.
Some folks for certain have thought it was shocking,
When Famine appeals and when Poverty groans,
That Life should be valued at less than a stocking,
And breaking of frames lead to breaking of bones.
If it should prove so, I trust, by this token,
(And who will refuse to partake in the hope? )
That the frames of the fools may be first to be _broken_,
Who, when asked for a _remedy_, sent down a _rope_.
[First published, _Morning Chronicle, Monday, March_ 2, 1812. ]
[See a _Political Ode by Lord Byron, hitherto unknown
as his production_, London, John Pearson, 46, Pall Mall,
1880, 8? . See, too, Mr. Pearson's prefatory Note, pp. 5, etc. ]
FOOTNOTES:
[20] ["LORD BYRON TO EDITOR OF THE _MORNING CHRONICLE_.
Sir,--I take the liberty of sending an alteration of the two last lines
of stanza 2^d^, which I wish to run as follows:--
'Gibbets on Sherwood will _heighten_ the scenery,
Shewing how commerce, _how_ liberty thrives. '
I wish you could insert it tomorrow for a particular reason; but I feel
much obliged by your inserting it at all. Of course do _not_ put my name
to the thing--believe me,
Your obliged
and very obedient servant,
BYRON.
8, St. James's Street,
_Sunday, March_ 1, 1812. "]
[21] [For Byron's maiden speech in the House of Lords, February 27,
1812, see _Letters_, 1898, ii. 424-430. ]
[22] [Richard Ryder (1766-1832), second son of the first Baron Harrowby,
was Home Secretary, 1809-12. ]
[23] Lord E. , on Thursday night, said the riots at Nottingham arose from
a "_mistake_. "
TO THE HON^BLE^ M^RS^ GEORGE LAMB. [24]
1.
The sacred song that on mine ear
Yet vibrates from that voice of thine,
I heard, before, from one so dear--
'T is strange it still appears divine.
2.
But, oh! so sweet that _look_ and _tone_
To her and thee alike is given;
It seemed as if for me alone
That _both_ had been recalled from Heaven!
3.
And though I never can redeem
The vision thus endeared to me;
I scarcely can regret my dream,
When realised again by thee.
1812.
[First published in _The Two Duchesses_, by Vere Foster,
1898, p. 374. ]
FOOTNOTES:
[24] [Caroline Rosalie Adelaide St. Jules (1786-1862) married, in 1809,
the Hon. George Lamb (see _English Bards, etc_. , line 55, _Poetical
Works_, 1898, i. 300, note 1), fourth son of the first Viscount
Melbourne. ]
[LA REVANCHE. ]
1.
There is no more for me to hope,
There is no more for thee to fear;
And, if I give my Sorrow scope,
That Sorrow thou shalt never hear.
Why did I hold thy love so dear?
Why shed for such a heart one tear?
Let deep and dreary silence be
My only memory of thee!
2.
When all are fled who flatter now,
Save thoughts which will not flatter then;
And thou recall'st the broken vow
To him who must not love again--
Each hour of now forgotten years
Thou, then, shalt number with thy tears;
And every drop of grief shall be
A vain remembrancer of me!
Undated, ? 1812.
[From an autograph MS. in the possession of Mr. Murray,
now for the first time printed. ]
TO THOMAS MOORE.
WRITTEN THE EVENING BEFORE HIS VISIT TO MR. LEIGH HUNT
IN HORSEMONGER LANE GAOL, MAY 19, 1813.
OH you, who in all names can tickle the town,
Anacreon, Tom Little, Tom Moore, or Tom Brown,--[25]
For hang me if I know of which you may most brag,
Your Quarto two-pounds, or your Two-penny Post Bag;
* * * * *
But now to my letter--to _yours_ 'tis an answer--
To-morrow be with me, as soon as you can, sir,
All ready and dressed for proceeding to spunge on
(According to compact) the wit in the dungeon--[26]
Pray Phoebus at length our political malice
May not get us lodgings within the same palace!
I suppose that to-night you're engaged with some codgers,
And for Sotheby's Blues[27] have deserted Sam Rogers;
And I, though with cold I have nearly my death got,
Must put on my breeches, and wait on the Heathcote;[28]
But to-morrow, at four, we will both play the _Scurra_,
And you'll be Catullus, the Regent Mamurra. [29]
[First published, _Letters and Journals_, 1830, i. 401. ]
FOOTNOTES:
[25] [Moore's "_Intercepted Letters; or, The Twopenny Post-Bag_, By
Thomas Brown, the Younger," was published in 1813. ]
[26] [James Henry Leigh Hunt (1784-1859) was imprisoned February, 1813,
to February, 1815, for a libel on the Prince Regent, published in the
_Examiner_, March 12, 1812. --_Letters_, 1898, ii. 205-208, _note_ 1. ]
[27] [For "Sotheby's Blues," see Introduction to _The Blues, Poetical
Works_, 1901, iv. 570, _et ibid_. , 579, 580. ]
[28] [Katherine Sophia Manners was married in 1793 to Sir Gilbert
Heathcote. See _Letters_, 1898, ii. 402, 406. ]
[29] [See _Catullus_, xxix. 1-4--
"Quis hoc potest videre? quis potest pati,
Nisi impudicus et vorax et aleo,
Mamurram habere, quod Comata Gallia
Habebat uncti et ultima Britannia? " etc. ]
ON LORD THURLOW'S POEMS. [30]
1.
WHEN Thurlow this damned nonsense sent,
(I hope I am not violent)
Nor men nor gods knew what he meant.
2.
And since not even our Rogers' praise
To common sense his thoughts could raise--
Why _would_ they let him print his lays?
3.
* * * * *
4.
* * * * *
5.
To me, divine Apollo, grant--O!
Hermilda's[31] first and second canto,
I'm fitting up a new portmanteau;
6.
And thus to furnish decent lining,
My own and others' bays I'm twining,--
So, gentle Thurlow, throw me thine in.
June 2, 1813.
[First published, _Letters and Journals_, 1830, i. 396. ]
FOOTNOTES:
[30] [One evening, in the late spring or early summer of 1813, Byron and
Moore supped on bread and cheese with Rogers. Their host had just
received from Lord Thurlow [Edward Hovell Thurlow, 1781-1829] a copy of
his _Poems on Several Occasions_ (1813), and Byron lighted upon some
lines to Rogers, "On the Poem of Mr. Rogers, entitled 'An Epistle to a
Friend. '" The first stanza ran thus--
"When Rogers o'er this labour bent,
Their purest fire the Muses lent,
T' illustrate this sweet argument. "
"Byron," says Moore, "undertook to read it aloud;--but he found it
impossible to get beyond the first two words. Our laughter had now
increased to such a pitch that nothing could restrain it. Two or three
times he began; but no sooner had the words 'When Rogers' passed his
lips, than our fit burst forth afresh,--till even Mr. Rogers himself . . .
found it impossible not to join us. A day or two after, Lord Byron sent
me the following:--'My dear Moore, "When Rogers" must not see the
enclosed, which I send for your perusal. '"--_Life_, p. 181; _Letters_,
1898, ii. 211-213, _note_ 1. ]
Thurlow's poems are by no means contemptible. A sonnet, "To a Bird, that
haunted the Water of Lacken, in the Winter," which Charles Lamb
transcribed in one of Coleridge's note-books, should be set over against
the absurd lines, "On the Poems of Mr. Rogers. "
"O melancholy bird, a winter's day
Thou standest by the margin of the pool;
And, taught by God, dost thy whole being school
To Patience, which all evil can allay:
God has appointed thee the fish thy prey;
And giv'n thyself a lesson to the fool
Unthrifty, to submit to moral rule,
And his unthinking course by thee to weigh.
There need not schools nor the professor's chair,
Though these be good, true wisdom to impart;
He, who has not enough for these to spare
Of time, or gold, may yet amend his heart,
And teach his soul by brooks and rivers fair,
Nature is always wise in every part. "
_Select Poems_, 1821, p. 90.
[See "Fragments of Criticism," _Works of Charles Lamb_, 1903, iii. 284. ]
[31] [_Hermilda in Palestine_ was published in 1812, in quarto, and
twice reissued in 1813, as part of _Poems on Various Occasions_ (8vo).
The Lines upon Rogers' _Epistle to a Friend_ appeared first in the
_Gentleman's Magazine_ for April, 1813, vol. 83, p. 357, and were
reprinted in the second edition of _Poems, etc. _, 1813, pp. 162, 163.
The lines in italics, which precede each stanza, are taken from the last
stanza of Lord Thurlow's poem. ]
TO LORD THURLOW. [32]
1.
"_I lay my branch of laurel down_. "
"_THOU_ lay thy branch of _laurel_ down! "
Why, what thou'st stole is not enow;
And, were it lawfully thine own,
Does Rogers want it most, or thou?
Keep to thyself thy withered bough,
Or send it back to Doctor Donne:[33]
Were justice done to both, I trow,
He'd have but little, and thou--none.
2.
"_Then, thus, to form Apollo's crown_. "
A crown! why, twist it how you will,
Thy chaplet must be foolscap still.
When next you visit Delphi's town,
Enquire amongst your fellow-lodgers,
They'll tell you Phoebus gave his crown,
Some years before your birth, to Rogers.
3.
"_Let every other bring his own_. "
When coals to Newcastle are carried,
And owls sent to Athens, as wonders,
From his spouse when the Regent's unmarried,
Or Liverpool weeps o'er his blunders;
When Tories and Whigs cease to quarrel,
When Castlereagh's wife has an heir,
Then Rogers shall ask us for laurel,
And thou shalt have plenty to spare.
[First published, _Letters and Journals_, 1830, i. 397. ]
FOOTNOTES:
[32] ["On the same day I received from him the following additional
scraps ['To Lord Thurlow']. The lines in Italics are from the eulogy
that provoked his waggish comments. "--_Life_, p. 181. The last stanza of
Thurlow's poem supplied the text--
"Then, thus, to form Apollo's crown,
(Let ev'ry other bring his own,)
I lay my branch of laurel down. "]
[33] [Lord Thurlow affected an archaic style in his Sonnets and other
verses. In the Preface to the second edition of _Poems, etc. _, he
writes, "I think that our Poetry has been continually declining since
the days of Milton and Cowley . . . and that the golden age of our
language is in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. "]
THE DEVIL'S DRIVE. [ii][34]
1.
THE Devil returned to Hell by two,
And he stayed at home till five;
When he dined on some homicides done in _ragout_,
And a rebel or so in an _Irish_ stew,
And sausages made of a self-slain Jew,
And bethought himself what next to do,
"And," quoth he, "I'll take a drive.
I walked in the morning, I'll ride to-night;
In darkness my children take most delight,
And I'll see how my favourites thrive. 10
2.
"And what shall I ride in? " quoth Lucifer, then--
"If I followed my taste, indeed,
I should mount in a waggon of wounded men,
And smile to see them bleed.
But these will be furnished again and again,
And at present my purpose is speed;
To see my manor as much as I may,
And watch that no souls shall be poached away.
3.
"I have a state-coach at Carlton House,
A chariot in Seymour-place;[35] 20
But they're lent to two friends, who make me amends
By driving my favourite pace:
And they handle their reins with such a grace,
I have something for both at the end of the race.
4.
