The Works of Lord Byron Volume VII Part 7

Compare Moore's "Epigram:" "'I want the Court Guide,' said my lady, 'to look If the House, Seymour Place, be at 30 or 20,'" etc.--_Poetical Works_, 1850, p. 165.]

[36] [The allusion may be to a case which was before the courts, the Attorney-General _v_. William Carver and Brownlow Bishop of Winchester (see _Morning Chronicle_, November 17, 1813). Carver held certain premises under the Bishop of Winchester, at the entrance of Portsmouth Harbour, which obstructed the efflux and reflux of the tide. "The fact,"

said Mr. Serjeant Lens, in opening the case for the Crown, "was of great magnitude to the entire nation, since it effected the security, and even the existence of one of the princ.i.p.al harbours of Great Britain."]

[37] [The Russian and Austrian troops at the battle of Leipsic, October 16, 1813, were, for the most part, veterans, while the Prussian contingent included a large body of militia.]

[38] [For the incident of the "broken bridge" Byron was indebted to the pages of the _Morning Chronicle_ of November 8, 1813, "Paris Papers, October 30"--

"The Emperor had ordered the engineers to form fougades under the grand bridge which is between Leipsic and Lindenau, in order to blow it up at the latest moment, and thus to r.e.t.a.r.d the march of the enemy and give time to our baggage to file off. General Dulauloy had entrusted the operation to Colonel Montford. The Colonel, instead of remaining on the spot to direct it, and to give the signal, ordered a corporal and four sappers to blow up the bridge the instant the enemy should appear. The corporal, an ignorant fellow, and ill comprehending the nature of the duty with which he was charged, upon hearing the first shot discharged from the ramparts of the city, set fire to the fougades and blew up the bridge. A part of the army was still on the other side, with a park of 80 pieces of artillery and some hundreds of waggons. The advance of this part of the army, who were approaching the bridge, seeing it blow up, conceived it was in the power of the enemy. A cry of dismay spread from rank to rank. 'The enemy are close upon our rear, and the bridges are destroyed!' The unfortunate soldiers dispersed, and endeavoured to effect their escape as well as they could. The Duke of Tarentum swam across the river. Prince Poniatowsky, mounted on a spirited horse, darted into the water and appeared no more. The Emperor was not informed of this disaster until it was too late to remedy it.... Colonel Montfort and the corporal of the sappers have been handed over to a court-martial."]

[39] [Compare _Don Juan_, Canto VIII. stanza cx.x.xii. line 4. Sir Walter Scott (_Journal_, October 30, 1826 [1890, i. 288]), tells the same story of "an old woman who, when Carlisle was taken by the Highlanders in 1745, chose to be particularly apprehensive of personal violence, and shut herself up in a closet, in order that she might escape ravishment.

But no one came to disturb her solitude, and ... by and by she popped her head out of her place of refuge with the pretty question, 'Good folks, can you tell me when the ravishing is going to begin?'" In 1813 Byron did not know Scott, and must have stolen the jest from some older writer. It is, probably, of untold antiquity.]

[40] [The "Four-Horse" Club, founded in 1808, was incorrectly styled the Four-in-Hand Club, and the Barouche Club. According to the Club rules, the barouches were "yellow-bodied, with 'd.i.c.kies,' the horses bay, with rosettes at their heads, and the harness silver-mounted. The members wore a drab coat reaching to the ankles, with three tiers of pockets, and mother-o'-pearl b.u.t.tons as large as five-shilling pieces. The waistcoat was blue, with yellow stripes an inch wide; breeches of plush, with strings and rosettes to each knee; and it was _de rigueur_ that the hat should be 3-1/2 inches deep in the crown." (See _Driving_, by the Duke of Beaufort, K.G., 1894, pp. 251-258.)

The "ancient peer" may possibly be intended for the President of the Club, Philip Henry, fifth Earl of Chesterfield (1755-1815), who was a member of the Privy Council, and had been Postmaster-General and Master of the Horse.]

[41] [Sir Thomas Tyrwhitt (_circ_. 1762-1833) was the son of the Rev.

Edmund Tyrwhitt, Rector of Wickham Bishops, etc., and nephew of Thomas Tyrwhitt, the editor of the _Canterbury Tales_. He was Private Secretary to the Prince of Wales, auditor of the Duchy of Cornwall (1796), and Lord Warden of the Stannaries (1805). He was knighted May 8, 1812. He was sent in the following year in charge of the Garter mission to the Czar, and on that occasion was made a Knight of the Imperial Order of St. Anne, First Cla.s.s. He held the office of Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod, 1812-1832. "Tommy Tyrwhitt" was an important personage at Carlton House, and shared with Colonel McMahon the doubtful privilege of being a confidential servant of the Prince Regent. Compare Letter III.

of Moore's _Twopenny Post-Bag_, 1813, p. 12. "From G.R. to the E. of Y----th."

"I write this in bed while my whiskers are airing, And M--c has a sly dose of jalap preparing For poor T--mm--y T--rr--t at breakfast to quaff-- As I feel I want something to give me a laugh, And there's nothing so good as old T--mm--y kept close To his Cornwall accounts, after taking a dose!"

See _Gentleman's Magazine_, March, 1833, vol. 103, pt. i. pp. 275, 276.]

[42] ["Vetus" [Edward Sterling] contributed a series of letters to the _Times_, 1812, 1813. They were afterwards republished. Vetus was not a Little Englander, and his political sentiments recall the _obiter dicta_ of contemporary patriots; _e.g._ "the only legitimate basis for a treaty, if not on the part of the Continental Allies, at least for England herself [is] that she should conquer all she can, and keep all she conquers. This is not by way of retaliation, however just, upon so obdurate and rapacious an enemy--but as an indispensable condition of her own safety and existence." The letters were reviewed under the heading of "Ill.u.s.trations of Vetus," in the _Morning Chronicle_, December 2, 10, 16, 18; 1813. The reviewer and Byron did not take the patriotic view of the situation.]

[43] [Robert Banks Jenkinson (1770-1828), second Earl of Liverpool, on the a.s.sa.s.sination of Perceval, became Prime Minister, June 7, 1812; John Fane (1759-1841), tenth Earl of Westmoreland, was Lord Privy Seal, 1798-1827; Charles Howard (1746-1815), eleventh Duke of Norfolk, known as "Jockey of Norfolk," was a Protestant and a Liberal, and at one time a friend of the Prince of Wales. Wraxall, _Posthumous Memoirs_, 1836, i.

29, says that "he might have been mistaken for a grazier or a butcher by his dress and appearance." He figures _largely_ in Gillray, see _e.g._ "Meeting of the Moneyed Interest," December, 1798. John Pitt (1756-1835), second Earl of Chatham, the hero of the abortive Walcheren expedition, had been made a general in the army January 1, 1812. He "inherited," says Wraxall, _ibid._, iii. 129, "his ill.u.s.trious father's form and figure; but not his mind."]

[44] [Edward Law (1750-1818), first Baron Ellenborough, Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench, 1802-18, was given to the use of strong language. His temper (see Moore's "Sale of the Tools") was "none of the best." On one occasion, speaking in the House of Lords (March 22, 1813) with regard to the "delicate investigation," he a.s.serted that the accusation ["that the persons intrusted had thought fit to fabricate an unauthorized doc.u.ment"] "was as false as h.e.l.l;" and by way of protest against the tedious harangues of old Lord Darnley, "I am answerable to G.o.d for my time, and what account can I give at the day of judgment if I stay here longer?"]

[45] [Compare Moore's "Insurrection of the Papers"--

"Last night I toss'd and turn'd in bed, But could not sleep--at length I said, 'I'll think of Viscount C--stl--r--gh, And of his speeches--that's the way.'"]

[46] [George Rose (1744-1818) was at this time Treasurer of the Navy.

Wraxall, who quotes the "Probationary Odes" with regard to his alleged duplicity, testifies that he "knew him well in his official capacity, during at least twelve years, and never found him deficient in honour or sincerity" (_Posthumous Memoirs_, 1836, i. 148). Moore ("Parody of a Celebrated Letter") makes the Regent conceive how shocked the king would be to wake up sane and find "that R--se was grown honest, or W--stm--rel--nd wiser."]

[47] [Ernest Augustus (1771-1851), Duke of c.u.mberland and King of Hanover, fifth son of George III., was gazetted as Field-Marshal November 27, 1813. His "wounds," which, according to the Duke's sworn testimony, were seventeen in number, were inflicted during an encounter with his valet, Joseph Sellis (? Selis), a Piedmontese, who had attempted to a.s.sa.s.sinate the Prince (June 1, 1810), and, shortly afterwards, was found with his throat cut. A jury of Westminster tradesmen brought in a verdict of _felo de se_ against Sellis. The event itself and the trial before the coroner provoked controversy and the grossest scandal. The question is discussed and the Duke exonerated of the charges brought against him, by J.H. Jesse, _Memoirs, etc., of George III._, 1864, iii. 545, 546, and by George Rose, _Diaries, etc._, 1860, ii. 437-446. The scandal was revived in 1832 by the publication of a work ent.i.tled _The Authentic Memoirs of the Court of England for the last Seventy Years._ The printer and publisher of the work was found guilty. (See _The Trial of Josiah Phillips for a Libel on the Duke of c.u.mberland_, 1833.)]

[48] ["At half-past nine [Wednesday, December 8, 1813] there was a grand dress party at Carlton House, at which her Majesty and the Prince Regent most graciously received the following distinguished characters from the Russian Court, viz. the Count and Countess Leiven, Mad. La Barrone (_sic_) de Stael, Monsieur de Stael," etc.--_Morning Chronicle_, December 10, 1813.]

[49] [In the review of Madame de Stael's _De L'Allemagne_ (_Edinburgh Review_, October, 1813, vol. 22, pp. 198-238), Sir James Mackintosh enlarged upon and upheld the "opinions of Kant" as creative and seminal in the world of thought. In the same article he pa.s.ses in review the systems of Hobbes, Paley, Bentham, Reid, etc., and finds words of praise and admiration for each in turn. See, too, a pa.s.sage (p. 226) in which he alludes to Coleridge as a living writer, whose "singular character and unintelligible style" might, in any other country but England, have won for him attention if not approval. His own "conversion" from the extreme liberalism of the _Vindiciae Gallicae_ of 1791 to the philosophic conservatism of the _Introductory Discourse_ (1798) to his lecture on _The Law of Nature and Nations_, was regarded with suspicion by Wordsworth and Coleridge, who, afterwards, were still more effectually "converted" themselves.]

[50] [See Introduction to _The Waltz, Poetical Works_, 1898, i. 475.]

[51] [_Illusion, or the Trances of Nourjahad_, a melodrama founded on _The History of Nourjahad_, By the Editor of Sidney Bidulph (Mrs.

Frances Sheridan, _nee_ Chamberlaine, 1724-1766), was played for the first time at Drury Lane Theatre, November 25, 1813. Byron was exceedingly indignant at being credited with the authorship or adaptation. (See Letter to Murray, November 27, 1813, _Letters_, 1898, ii. 288, _note_ 1.) Miss Sophia Lee, who wrote some of the _Canterbury Tales_, "made a very elegant musical drama of it" (_Memoirs of Mrs. F.

Sheridan_, by Alicia Lefanu, 1824, p. 296); but this was not the _Nourjahad_ of Drury Lane.]

[52] [Millbank Penitentiary, which was built in the form of a pentagon, was finally taken in hand in the spring of 1813. Solitary confinement in the "cells" was, at first, reserved as a punishment for misconduct.--_Memorials of Millbank_, by Arthur Griffiths, 1875, i. 57.]

WINDSOR POETICS.

LINES COMPOSED ON THE OCCASION OF HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS THE PRINCE REGENT BEING SEEN STANDING BETWEEN THE COFFINS OF HENRY VIII. AND CHARLES I., IN THE ROYAL VAULT AT WINDSOR.

FAMED for contemptuous breach of sacred ties, By headless Charles see heartless Henry lies; Between them stands another sceptred thing-- It moves, it reigns--in all but name, a king:

Charles to his people, Henry to his wife, --In him the double tyrant starts to life: Justice and Death have mixed their dust in vain, Each royal Vampire wakes to life again.

Ah, what can tombs avail!--since these disgorge The blood and dust of both--to mould a George.[53]

[First published, _Poetical Works_, Paris, 1819, vi. 125.]

[ANOTHER VERSION.]

ON A ROYAL VISIT TO THE VAULTS.[54]

[OR CAESAR'S DISCOVERY OF C.I. AND H. 8. IN YE SAME VAULT.]

FAMED for their civil and domestic quarrels See heartless Henry lies by headless Charles; Between them stands another sceptred thing, It lives, it reigns--"aye, every inch a king."

Charles to his people, Henry to his wife, In him the double tyrant starts to life: Justice and Death have mixed their dust in vain.

The royal Vampires join and rise again.

What now can tombs avail, since these disgorge The blood and dirt[55] of both to mould a George!

FOOTNOTES:

[53] ["I cannot conceive how the _Vault_ has got about; but so it is. It is too _farouche_; but truth to say, my satires are not very playful."--Letter to Moore, March 12, 1814, _Letters_, 1899, iii. 57-58.

Moore had written to him, "Your lines about the bodies of Charles and Henry are, I find, circulated with wonderful avidity; even some clods in this neighbourhood have had a copy sent to them by some 'young ladies in town.'"--_Ibid_., p. 57, _note_ 3.

The discovery "that King Charles I. was buried in the vault of King Henry VIII.," was made on completing the mausoleum which George III.

caused to be built in the tomb-house. The Prince Regent was informed of the circ.u.mstance, and on April 1, 1813, the day after the funeral of his mother-in-law, the d.u.c.h.ess of Brunswick, he superintended in person the opening of the leaden coffin, which bore the inscription, "King Charles, 1648" (_sic_). See _An Account of what appeared on Opening the Coffin of King Charles the First_, by Sir H. Halford, Bart., 1813, pp. 6, 7.

Cornelia Knight, in her _Autobiography_ (1861, i. 227), notes that the frolic prince, the "Adonis of fifty," who was in a good humour, and "had given to Princess Charlotte the centre sapphire of Charles's crown,"

acted "the manner of decapitation on my shoulders." He had "forgotten"

Cromwell, who, as Lord Auchinleck reminded Dr. Johnson, had "gart kings ken that they had a _lith_ in their neck!"]

[54] [From an autograph MS. in the possession of the Hon. Mrs. Norbury.

The first wrapper has written upon it, "The original Impromptu within is in the handwriting of the n.o.ble author Lord Byron, given to Mr. Norbury [private secretary to Lord Granville] by Mr. Dallas, his Lordship's valued relative."

Second wrapper, "Autograph of Lord Byron--tres precieux."

Third (outside) wrapper, "Autographe celebre de Lord Byron."]

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