The Works of Lord Byron Volume VII Part 4

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 d.a.m.ned nonsense sent, (I hope I am not violent) Nor men nor G.o.ds 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, ent.i.tled 'An Epistle to a Friend.'" The first stanza ran thus--

"When Rogers o'er this labour bent, Their purest fire the Muses lent, T' ill.u.s.trate 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' pa.s.sed 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 G.o.d, dost thy whole being school To Patience, which all evil can allay: G.o.d 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."