The Works of Lord Byron: Letters and Journals Volume II Part 37

But my book on 'Diet and Regimen', where is it? I thirst for Scott's 'Rokeby'; let me have y'e first-begotten copy. The 'Anti-Jacobin Review'

[3] is all very well, and not a bit worse than the 'Quarterly', and at least less harmless. By the by, have you secured my books? I want all the Reviews, at least the Critiques, quarterly, monthly, etc., Portuguese and English, extracted, and bound up in one volume for my _old age_; and pray, sort my Romaic books, and get the volumes lent to Mr. Hobhouse--he has had them now a long time. If any thing occurs, you will favour me with a line, and in winter we shall be nearer neighbours.

Yours very truly,

BYRON.

P.S.--I was applied to to write the _Address_ for Drury Lane, but the moment I heard of the contest, I gave up the idea of contending against all Grub Street, and threw a few thoughts on the subject into the fire.

I did this out of respect to you, being sure you would have turned off any of your authors who had entered the lists with such scurvy compet.i.tors; to triumph would have been no glory, and to have been defeated--'sdeath!--I would have choked myself, like Otway, with a quartern loaf [4]; so, remember I had, and have, nothing to do with it, upon _my Honour!_

[Footnote 1: Granville Penn (1761-1844) was the author of numerous works on religious subjects. 'The Bioscope, or Dial of Life Explained'

appeared in 1812. The other work referred to by Byron is probably Penn's 'Christian's Survey of all the Primary Events and Periods of the World'

(1811), of which a second edition was published in 1812.]

[Footnote 2: Lucien Buonaparte (1775-1840), Prince of Canino, since 1810 a landed proprietor in Shropshire, wrote an epic poem, 'Charlemagne, ou l'eglise delivree'. It was translated (1815) by Dr. Butler of Shrewsbury and Francis Hodgson.]

[Footnote 3: 'The Anti-Jacobin Review' criticized 'Childe Harold' in August, 1812; the 'Quarterly', in March, 1812.]

[Footnote 4: Otway died April, 1685, at the age of thirty-three, from a fever contracted by drinking water when heated by running after an a.s.sa.s.sin (Spence's 'Anecdotes', p. 44). Theophilus Cibber ('Lives of the Poets', ed. 1753, vol. ii. pp. 333, 334) gives another account of his death, viz. that he begged a shilling of a gentleman, and, being given a guinea, bought a roll, with which he was choked.]

246.--To Lord Holland.

September 22, 1812.

My Dear Lord,--In a day or two I will send you something which you will still have the liberty to reject if you dislike it. I should like to have had more time, but will do my best,--but too happy if I can oblige _you_, though I may offend a hundred scribblers and the discerning public.

Ever yours.

Keep _my name_ a _secret_; or I shall be beset by all the rejected, and, perhaps, d.a.m.ned by a party.

247.--To Lord Holland.

Cheltenham, September 23, 1812.

Ecco!--I have marked some pa.s.sages with _double_ readings--choose between them--_cut--add--reject_--or _destroy_--do with them as you will--I leave it to you and the Committee--you cannot say so called "a _non committendo_." What will _they_ do (and I do) with the hundred and one rejected Troubadours? [1]

"With trumpets, yea, and with shawms," will you be a.s.sailed in the most diabolical doggerel. I wish my name not to transpire till the day is decided. I shall not be in town, so it won't much matter; but let us have a _good deliverer_. I think Elliston [2] should be the man, or Pope [3]; not Raymond [4], I implore you, by the love of Rhythmus!

The pa.s.sages marked thus = =, above and below, are for you to choose between epithets, and such like poetical furniture. Pray write me a line, and believe me

Ever, etc.

My best remembrances to Lady H. Will you be good enough to decide between the various readings marked, and erase the other; or our _deliverer_ may be as puzzled as a commentator, and belike repeat both.

If these _versicles_ won't do, I will hammer out some more endecasyllables.

P.S.--Tell Lady H. I have had sad work to keep out the Phoenix--I mean the Fire Office of that name. It has insured the theatre, and why not the Address?

[Footnote 1: The genuine rejected addresses were advertised for by B.

McMillan, of Bow Street, Covent Garden, and forty-two of them were published by him in November, 1812, with the following t.i.tle: 'The Genuine Rejected Addresses presented to the Committee of Management for Drury Lane Theatre; preceded by that written by Lord Byron and adopted by the Committee'.

The youngest compet.i.tor was "Anna, a young lady in the fifteenth year of her age."

The actual number sent in was 112, and sixty-nine of the compet.i.tors invoked the Phoenix. Among the compet.i.tors were Peter Pindar, whose 'Address' was printed in 1813; Whitbread, the manager, who gave the "poulterer's description" of the Phoenix; and Horace Smith, who published his 'Address without a Phoenix', By S. T. P., in 'Rejected Addresses'.]

[Footnote 2: Robert William Elliston (1774-1831), according to Genest ('English Stage', vol. ix. p. 338), made his first appearance at Bath in April, 1791, as "Tressel" in 'Richard III'., and from 1796 to 1803 Bath remained his head-quarters. An excellent actor both in tragedy and comedy, he became in 1803 a member of the Haymarket Company. From 1804 to 1809, and again from 1812 to 1815, he acted at Drury Lane. Byron's Prologue was spoken by him on October 10, 1812, at the reopening of the new theatre. It was at Drury Lane in April, 1821, while he was lessee (1819-26), that Byron's 'Marino Faliero' was acted. His last appearance was as "Sheva" in 'The Jew', at the Surrey Theatre, of which (1826-31) he was lessee. In spite of his drunken habits, he won the enthusiastic praise of Charles Lamb as the "joyousest of once embodied spirits" (see 'Essays of Elia', "To the Shade of Elliston" and "Ellistoniana").]

[Footnote 3: Alexander Pope (1763-1835), miniaturist, 'gourmand', and actor, was for years the princ.i.p.al tragedian at Covent Garden. Opinion was divided as to his merits as an actor. He owed much to his voice, which had a "mellow richness ... superior to any other performer on the stage." Genest, who quotes the above (vol. ix. p. 377), adds that "in his better days he had more pathos about him than any other actor." He made his first appearance in Cork as "Oroonoko," and subsequently (January, 1785) at Covent Garden in the same part. He ceased acting at Covent Garden in June, 1827.]

[Footnote 4: In the cast for 'Hamlet', with which Drury Lane reopened, Raymond played the Ghost. Raymond was also the stage manager of the theatre.]