The Works of Lord Byron Volume I Part 95

Before, however, the revised Satire was sent to the press, Carlisle ignored his cousin's request to introduce him on taking his seat in the House of Lords, and, to avenge the slight, eighteen lines of castigation supplanted the flattering couplet. Lord Carlisle suffered from a nervous disorder, and Byron was informed that some readers had scented an allusion in the words "paralytic puling." "I thank Heaven," he exclaimed, "I did not know it; and would not, could not, if I had. I must naturally be the last person to be pointed on defects or maladies."

In 1814 he consulted Rogers on the chance of conciliating Carlisle, and in 'Childe Harold', iii. 29, he laments the loss of the "young and gallant Howard" (Carlisle's youngest son) at Waterloo, and admits that "he did his sire some wrong." But, according to Medwin ('Conversations', 1824, p. 362), who prints an excellent parody on Carlisle's lines addressed to Lady Holland in 1822, in which he urges her to decline the legacy of Napoleon's snuff-box, Byron made fun of his "n.o.ble relative"

to the end of the chapter ('vide post', p. 370, 'note' 2).]]

[Footnote 113: The Earl of Carlisle has lately published an eighteen-penny pamphlet on the state of the Stage, and offers his plan for building a new theatre. It is to be hoped his Lordship will be permitted to bring forward anything for the Stage--except his own tragedies. [This pamphlet was ent.i.tled 'Thoughts upon the present condition of the stage, and upon the construction of a new Theatre', anon. 1808.]

Line 732. None of the earlier editions, including the fifth and Murray, 1831, insert "and" between "pet.i.t-maitre" and "pamphleteer." No doubt Byron sounded the final syllable of "maitre," 'anglice' "mailer."]]

[Footnote 114:

"Doff that lion's hide, And hang a calf-skin on those recreant limbs."

SHAKESPEARE, 'King John.'

Lord Carlisle's works, most resplendently bound, form a conspicuous ornament to his book-shelves:--

"The rest is all but [only, MS.] leather and prunella."

"Wrong also--the provocation was not sufficient to justify such acerbity."--B., 1816.]

[Footnote 115: 'All the Blocks, or an Antidote to "All the Talents"' by Flagellum (W. H. Ireland), London, 1807: 'The Groan of the Talents, or Private Sentiments on Public Occasions,' 1807; "Gr--vile Agonistes, 'A Dramatic Poem, 1807,' etc., etc."]

[Footnote 116: "MELVILLE'S Mantle," a parody on 'Elijah's Mantle,' a poem. ['Elijah's Mantle, being verses occasioned by the death of that ill.u.s.trious statesman, the Right Hon. W. Pitt.' Dedicated to the Right Rev. the Lord Bishop of Lincoln (1807), was written by James Sayer.

'Melville's Mantle, being a Parody on the poem ent.i.tled "Elijah's Mantle"' was published by Budd, 1807. 'A Monody on the death of the R.

H. C. J. Fox,' by Richard Payne Knight, was printed for J. Payne, 1806-7. Another "Monody," 'Lines written on returning from the Funeral of the R. H. C. J. Fox, Friday Oct'. 10, 1806, addressed to Lord Holland, was by M. G. Lewis, and there were others.]]

[Footnote 117: This lovely little Jessica, the daughter of the noted Jew King, seems to be a follower of the Della Crusca school, and has published two volumes of very respectable absurdities in rhyme, as times go; besides sundry novels in the style of the first edition of 'The Monk.'

"She since married the 'Morning Post'--an exceeding good match; and is now dead--which is better."--B., 1816. [The last seven words are in pencil, and, possibly, by another hand. The novelist "Rosa," the daughter of "Jew King," the lordly money-lender who lived in Clarges Street, and drove a yellow chariot, may possibly be confounded with "Rosa Matilda," Mrs. Byrne (Gronow, 'Rem.' (1889), i. 132-136). (See note 1, p. 358.)]

[Footnote 118: Lines 759, 760 were added for the first time in the Fourth Edition.]

[Footnote 119: Lines 756-764, with variant ii., refer to the Della Cruscan school, attacked by Gifford in 'The Baviad' and 'The Maeviad.'

Robert Merry (1755-1798), together with Mrs. Piozzi, Bertie Greatheed, William Parsons, and some Italian friends, formed a literary society called the 'Oziosi' at Florence, where they published 'The Arno Miscellany' (1784) and 'The Florence Miscellany' (1785), consisting of verses in which the authors "say kind things of each other" (Preface to 'The Florence Miscellany,' by Mrs. Piozzi). In 1787 Merry, who had become a member of the Della Cruscan Academy at Florence, returned to London, and wrote in the 'World' (then edited by Captain Topham) a sonnet on "Love," under the signature of "Della Crusca." He was answered by Mrs. Hannah Cowley, 'nee' Parkhouse (1743-1809), famous as the auth.o.r.ess of 'The Belles Stratagem' (acted at Covent Garden in 1782), in a sonnet called "The Pen," signed "Anna Matilda." The poetical correspondence which followed was published in 'The British Alb.u.m'

(1789, 2 vols.) by John Bell. Other writers connected with the Della Cruscan school were "Perdita" Robinson, 'nee' Darby (1758-1800), who published 'The Mistletoe' (1800) under the pseudonym "Laura Maria," and to whom Merry addressed a poem quoted by Gifford in 'The Baviad' ('note'

to line 284); Charlotte Dacre, who married Byrne, Robinson's successor as editor of the 'Morning Post,' wrote under the pseudonym of "Rosa Matilda," and published poems ('Hours of Solitude,' 1805) and numerous novels ('Confessions of the Nun of St. Omer's,' 1805; 'Zofloya;' 'The Libertine,' etc.); and "Hafiz" (Robert Stott, of the 'Morning Post'). Of these writers, "Della Crusca" Merry, and "Laura Maria" Robinson, were dead; "Anna Matilda" Cowley, "Hafiz" Stott, and "Rosa Matilda" Dacre were still living. John Bell (1745-1831), the publisher of 'The British Alb.u.m,' was also one of the proprietors of the 'Morning Post,' the 'Oracle,' and the 'World,' in all of which the Della Cruscans wrote. His "Owls and Nightingales" are explained by a reference to 'The Baviad' (l.

284), where Gifford pretends to mistake the nightingale, to which Merry ("Arno") addressed some lines, for an owl. "On looking again, I find the owl to be a nightingale!--N'importe."]]

[Footnote 120: These are the signatures of various worthies who figure in the poetical departments of the newspapers.]

[Footnote 121: "This was meant for poor Blackett, who was then patronised by A. I. B." (Lady Byron); "but 'that' I did not know, or this would not have been written, at least I think not."--B., 1816.

[Joseph Blacket (1786-1810), said by Southey ('Letters,' i. 172) to possess "force and rapidity," and to be endowed with "more powers than Robert Bloomfield, and an intellect of higher pitch," was the son of a labourer, and by trade a cobbler. He was brought into notice by S. J.

Pratt (who published Blacket's 'Remains' in 1811), and was befriended by the Milbanke family. Miss Milbanke, afterwards Lady Byron, wrote (Sept.

2, 1809), "Seaham is at present the residence of a poet, by name Joseph Blacket, one of the Burns-like and Dermody kind, whose genius is his sole possession. I was yesterday in his company for the first time, and was much pleased with his manners and conversation. He is extremely diffident, his deportment is mild, and his countenance animated melancholy and of a satirical turn. His poems certainly display a superior genius and an enlarged mind...." Blacket died on the Seaham estate in Sept., 1810, at the age of twenty-three. (See Byron's letter to Dallas, June 28, 1811; his 'Epitaph for Joseph Blackett;' and 'Hints from Horace,' l. 734.)]]

[Footnote 122: Capel Lofft, Esq., the Maecenas of shoemakers, and Preface-writer-General to distressed vers.e.m.e.n; a kind of gratis Accoucheur to those who wish to be delivered of rhyme, but do not know how to bring it forth.

[Capel Lofft (1751-1824), jurist, poet, critic, and horticulturist, honoured himself by his kindly patronage of Robert Bloomfield (1766-1823), who was born at Honington, near Lofft's estate of Throston, Suffolk. Robert Bloomfield was brought up by his elder brothers-- Nathaniel a tailor, and George a shoemaker. It was in the latter's workshop that he composed 'The Farmer's Boy,' which was published (1798) with the help of Lofft. He also wrote 'Rural Tales' (1802), 'Good Tidings; or News from the Farm '(1804), 'The Banks of the Wye' (1811), etc. (See 'Hints from Horace,' line 734, notes 1 and 2.)]]

[Footnote 123: See Nathaniel Bloomfield's ode, elegy, or whatever he or any one else chooses to call it, on the enclosures of "Honington Green."

[Nathaniel Bloomfield, as a matter of fact, called it a ballad.--'Poems'

(1803).]]

[Footnote 124: Vide 'Recollections of a Weaver in the Moorlands of Staffordshire'. [The exact t.i.tle is 'The Moorland Bard; or Poetical Recollections of a Weaver', etc. 2 vols., 1807. The author was T.

Bakewell, who also wrote 'A Domestic Guide to Insanity', 1805.]]

[Footnote 125: It would be superfluous to recall to the mind of the reader the authors of 'The Pleasures of Memory' and 'The Pleasures of Hope', the most beautiful didactic poems in our language, if we except Pope's 'Essay on Man': but so many poetasters have started up, that even the names of Campbell and Rogers are become strange.--[Beneath this note Byron scribbled, in 1816,--

"Pretty Miss Jaqueline Had a nose aquiline, And would a.s.sert rude Things of Miss Gertrude, While Mr. Marmion Led a great army on, Making Kehama look Like a fierce Mameluke."

"I have been reading," he says, in 1813, "'Memory' again, and 'Hope'

together, and retain all my preference of the former. His elegance is really wonderful--there is no such a thing as a vulgar line in his book." In the annotations of 1816, Byron remarks, "Rogers has not fulfilled the promise of his first poems, but has still very great merit."]

[Footnote 126: GIFFORD, author of the 'Baviad' and 'Maeviad', the first satires of the day, and translator of Juvenal, [and one (though not the best) of the translators of Juvenal.--'British Bards'.]]

[Footnote 127: SOTHEBY, translator of WIELAND'S 'Oberon' and Virgil's 'Georgics', and author of 'Saul', an epic poem. [William Sotheby (1757-1833) began life as a cavalry officer, but being a man of fortune, sold out of the army and devoted himself to literature, and to the patronage of men of letters. His translation of the 'Oberon' appeared in 1798, and of the 'Georgics' in 1800. 'Saul' was published in 1807. When Byron was in Venice, he conceived a dislike to Sotheby, in the belief that he had made an anonymous attack on some of his works; but, later, his verdict was, "a good man, rhymes well (if not wisely); but is a bore" ('Diary', 1821; 'Works', p. 509, note). He is "the solemn antique man of rhyme" ('Beppo', st. lxiii.), and the "Botherby" of 'The Blues'; and in 'Don Juan', Canto I. st. cxvi., we read--

"Thou shalt not covet Mr. Sotheby's house His Pegasus nor anything that's his."]]

[Footnote 128: MACNEIL, whose poems are deservedly popular, particularly "SCOTLAND'S Scaith," and the "Waes of War," of which ten thousand copies were sold in one month. [Hector Macneil (1746-1816) wrote in defence of slavery in Jamaica, and was the author of several poems: 'Scotland's Skaith, or the History of Will and Jean' (1795), 'The Waes of War, or the Upshot of the History of Will and Jean' (1796), etc., etc.]]

[Footnote 129: Mr. GIFFORD promised publicly that the 'Baviad' and 'Maeviad' should not be his last original works: let him remember, "Mox in reluctantes dracones." [Cf. 'New Morality,' lines 29-42.]]