Life of Lord Byron Volume III Part 4

LETTER 158. TO MR. MURRAY.

"Newstead Abbey, January 22. 1814.

"You will be glad to hear of my safe arrival here. The time of my return will depend upon the weather, which is so impracticable, that this letter has to advance through more snows than ever opposed the Emperor's retreat. The roads are impa.s.sable, and return impossible for the present; which I do not regret, as I am much at my ease, and _six-and-twenty_ complete this day--a very pretty age, if it would always last. Our coals are excellent, our fire-places large, my cellar full, and my head empty; and I have not yet recovered my joy at leaving London. If any unexpected turn occurred with my purchasers, I believe I should hardly quit the place at all; but shut my door, and let my beard grow.

"I forgot to mention (and I hope it is unnecessary) that the lines beginning--_Remember him_, &c. must _not_ appear with _The Corsair_. You may slip them in with the smaller pieces newly annexed to _Childe Harold_; but on no account permit them to be appended to The Corsair. Have the goodness to recollect this particularly.

"The books I have brought with me are a great consolation for the confinement, and I bought more as we came along. In short, I never consult the thermometer, and shall not put up prayers for a _thaw_, unless I thought it would sweep away the rascally invaders of France. Was ever such a thing as Blucher's proclamation?

"Just before I left town, Kemble paid me the compliment of desiring me to write a _tragedy_; I wish I could, but I find my scribbling mood subsiding--not before it was time; but it is lucky to check it at all. If I lengthen my letter, you will think it is coming on again; so, good-by. Yours alway,

"B.

"P.S. If you hear any news of battle or retreat on the part of the Allies (as they call them), pray send it. He has my best wishes to manure the fields of France with an _invading_ army. I hate invaders of all countries, and have no patience with the cowardly cry of exultation over him, at whose name you all turned whiter than the snow to which you are indebted for your triumphs.

"I open my letter to thank you for yours just received. The 'Lines to a Lady Weeping' must go with The Corsair. I care nothing for consequence, on this point. My politics are to me like a young mistress to an old man--the worse they grow, the fonder I become of them. As Mr. Gilford likes the 'Portuguese Translation[11],' pray insert it as an addition to The Corsair.

"In all points of difference between Mr. Gifford and Mr. Dallas, let the first keep his place; and in all points of difference between Mr. Gifford and Mr. Anybody-else, I shall abide by the former; if I am wrong, I can't help it. But I would rather not be right with any other person. So there is an end of that matter.

After all the trouble he has taken about me and mine, I should be very ungrateful to feel or act otherwise. Besides, in point of judgment, he is not to be lowered by a comparison. In _politics_, he may be right too; but that with me is a _feeling_, and I can't _torify_ my nature."

[Footnote 11: His translation of the pretty Portuguese song, "Tu mi chamas." He was tempted to try another version of this ingenious thought, which is, perhaps, still more happy, and has never, I believe, appeared in print.

"You call me still your _life_--ah! change the word-- Life is as transient as th' inconstant's sigh; Say rather I'm your _soul_, more just that name, For, like the soul, my love can never die."

LETTER 159. TO MR. MURRAY.

"Newstead Abbey, February 4. 1814.

"I need not say that your obliging letter was very welcome, and not the less so for being unexpected.

"It doubtless gratifies me much that our _finale_ has pleased, and that the curtain drops gracefully.[12] _You_ deserve it should, for your prompt.i.tude and good nature in arranging immediately with Mr.

Dallas; and I can a.s.sure you that I esteem your entering so warmly into the subject, and writing to me so soon upon it, as a personal obligation. We shall now part, I hope, satisfied with each other. I _was_ and am quite in earnest in my prefatory promise not to intrude any more; and this not from any affectation, but a thorough conviction that it is the best policy, and is at least respectful to my readers, as it shows that I would not willingly run the risk of forfeiting their favour in future. Besides, I have other views and objects, and think that I shall keep this resolution; for, since I left London, though shut up, _snow_-bound, _thaw_-bound, and tempted with all kinds of paper, the dirtiest of ink, and the bluntest of pens, I have not even been haunted by a wish to put them to their combined uses, except in letters of business. My rhyming propensity is quite gone, and I feel much as I did at Patras on recovering from my fever--weak, but in health, and only afraid of a relapse. I do most fervently hope I never shall.

"I see by the Morning Chronicle there hath been discussion in the _Courier_; and I read in the Morning Post a wrathful letter about Mr. Moore, in which some Protestant Reader has made a sad confusion about _India_ and Ireland.

"You are to do as you please about the smaller poems; but I think removing them _now_ from The Corsair looks like _fear_; and if so, you must allow me not to be pleased. I should also suppose that, after the _fuss_ of these newspaper esquires, they would materially a.s.sist the circulation of The Corsair; an object I should imagine at _present_ of more importance to _yourself_ than Childe Harold's seventh appearance. Do as you like; but don't allow the withdrawing that _poem_ to draw any imputation of _dismay_ upon me.

"Pray make my respects to Mr. Ward, whose praise I value most highly, as you well know; it is in the approbation of such men that fame becomes worth having. To Mr. Gifford I am always grateful, and surely not less so now than ever. And so good night to my authorship.

"I have been sauntering and dozing here very quietly, and not unhappily. You will be happy to hear that I have completely established my t.i.tle-deeds as marketable, and that the purchaser has succ.u.mbed to the terms, and fulfils them, or is to fulfil them forthwith. He is now here, and we go on very amicably together,--one in each _wing_ of the Abbey. We set off on Sunday--I for town, he for Cheshire.

"Mrs. Leigh is with me--much pleased with the place, and less so with me for parting with it, to which not even the price can reconcile her. Your parcel has not yet arrived--at least the _Mags_. &c.; but I have received Childe Harold and The Corsair.

"I believe both are very correctly printed, which is a great satisfaction.

"I thank you for wishing me in town; but I think one's success is most felt at a distance, and I enjoy my solitary self-importance in an agreeable sulky way of my own, upon the strength of your letter--for which I once more thank you, and am, very truly, &c.

"P.S. Don't you think Buonaparte's next _publication_ will be rather expensive to the Allies? Perry's Paris letter of yesterday looks very reviving. What a Hydra and Briareus it is! I wish they would pacify: there is no end to this campaigning."

[Footnote 12: It will be recollected that he had announced The Corsair as "the last production with which he should trespa.s.s on public patience for some years."]

LETTER 160. TO MR. MURRAY.

"Newstead Abbey, February 5. 1814.

"I quite forgot, in my answer of yesterday, to mention that I have no means of ascertaining whether the Newark _Pirate_ has been doing what you say.[13] If so, he is a rascal, and a _shabby_ rascal too; and if his offence is punishable by law or pugilism, he shall be fined or buffeted. Do you try and discover, and I will make some enquiry here. Perhaps some _other_ in town may have gone on printing, and used the same deception.

"The _fac-simile_ is omitted in Childe Harold, which is very awkward, as there is a _note_ expressly on the subject. Pray _replace_ it as _usual_.

"On second and third thoughts, the withdrawing the small poems from The Corsair (even to add to Childe Harold) looks like shrinking and shuffling after the fuss made upon one of them by the Tories. Pray replace them in The Corsair's appendix. I am sorry that Childe Harold requires some and such abetments to make him move off; but, if you remember, I told you his popularity would not be permanent.

It is very lucky for the author that he had made up his mind to a temporary reputation in time. The truth is, I do not think that any of the present day (and least of all, one who has not consulted the flattering side of human nature,) have much to hope from posterity; and you may think it affectation very probably, but, to me, my present and past success has appeared very singular, since it was in the teeth of so many prejudices. I almost think people like to be contradicted. If Childe Harold flags, it will hardly be worth while to go on with the engravings: but do as you please; I have done with the whole concern; and the enclosed lines, written years ago, and copied from my skull-cap, are among the last with which you will be troubled. If you like, add them to Childe Harold, if only for the sake of another outcry. You received so long an answer yesterday, that I will not intrude on you further than to repeat myself,

"Yours, &c.

"P.S. Of course, in reprinting (if you have occasion), you will take great care to be correct. The present editions seem very much so, except in the last note of Childe Harold, where the word _responsible_ occurs twice nearly together; correct the second into _answerable_."

[Footnote 13: Reprinting the "Hours of Idleness."]

TO MR. MURRAY.

"Newark, February 6. 1814.

"I am thus far on my way to town. Master Ridge[14] I have seen, and he owns to having _reprinted_ some _sheets_, to make up a few complete remaining copies! I have now given him fair warning, and if he plays such tricks again, I must either get an injunction, or call for an account of profits (as I never have parted with the copyright), or, in short, any thing vexatious, to repay him in his own way. If the weather does not relapse, I hope to be in town in a day or two. Yours," &c.

[Footnote 14: The printer at Newark.]

TO MR. MURRAY.

"February 7. 1814.

"I see all the papers in a sad commotion with those eight lines; and the Morning Post, in particular, has found out that I am a sort of Richard III.--deformed in mind and _body_. The _last_ piece of information is not very new to a man who pa.s.sed five years at a public school.

"I am very sorry you cut out those lines for Childe Harold. Pray re-insert them in their old place in 'The Corsair.'"

LETTER 161. TO MR. HODGSON.