The Works of Lord Byron Volume VII Part 17

THE CHARITY BALL.[118]

WHAT matter the pangs of a husband and father, If his sorrows in exile be great or be small, So the Pharisee's glories around her she gather, And the saint patronises her "Charity Ball!"

What matters--a heart which, though faulty, was feeling, Be driven to excesses which once could appal-- That the Sinner should suffer is only fair dealing, As the Saint keeps her charity back for "the Ball!"

_December 10, 1820._ [First published, _Letters and Journals_, 1830, ii. 540.]

FOOTNOTES:

[118] [Written on seeing the following paragraph in a newspaper: "Lady Byron is this year the lady patroness at the annual Charity Ball, given at the Town Hall, at Hinckley, Leicesters.h.i.+re...."--_Life_, p. 535.

Moore adds that "these verses [of which he only prints two stanzas] are full of strong and indignant feeling,--every stanza concluding pointedly with the words 'Charity Ball.'"]

EPIGRAM

ON THE BRAZIERS' ADDRESS TO BE PRESENTED IN _ARMOUR_ BY THE COMPANY TO QUEEN CAROLINE.[119]

IT seems that the Braziers propose soon to pa.s.s An Address and to bear it themselves all in bra.s.s; A superfluous pageant, for by the Lord Harry!

They'll _find_, where they're going, much more than they carry.

Or--

THE Braziers, it seems, are determined to pa.s.s An Address, and present it themselves all in bra.s.s:-- A superfluous {pageant/trouble} for, by the Lord Harry!

They'll find, where they're going, much more than they carry.

_January 6, 1821._ [First published, _Letters and Journals_, 1830, ii. 442.]

FOOTNOTES:

[119] [The allusion is explained in Rivington's _Annual Register_, October 30, 1820 (vol. lxii. pp. 114, 115)--

"ADDRESSES TO THE QUEEN.

" ... The most splendid exhibition of the day was that of the bra.s.s-founders and braziers. The procession was headed by a man dressed in a suit of burnished plate armour of bra.s.s, and mounted on a handsome black horse, the reins being held by pages ... wearing bra.s.s helmets....

A man in a complete suite of bra.s.s armour ... was followed by two persons, bearing on a cus.h.i.+on a most magnificent imitation of the imperial Crown of England. A small number of the deputation of bra.s.s-founders were admitted to the presence of her Majesty, and one of the persons in armour advanced to the throne, and bending on one knee, presented the address, which was enclosed in a bra.s.s case of excellent workmans.h.i.+p."--See _Letters_, 1901, v. 219, 220, _note_ 2.

In a postscript to a letter to Murray, dated January 19, 1821, he writes, "I sent you a line or two on the Braziers' Company last week, _not_ for publication. The lines were even worthy

'Of ----dsworth the great metaquizzical poet, A man of great merit amongst those who know it, Of whose works, as I told Moore last autumn at _Mestri_ I owe all I know to my pa.s.sion for _Pastry_.'"

He adds, in a footnote, "_Mestri_ and _Fusina_ are the ferry trajects to Venice: I believe, however, that it was at Fusina that Moore and I embarked in 1819, when Thomas came to Venice, like Coleridge's Spring, 'slowly up this way.'"

Again, in a letter to Moore, dated January 22, 1821, he encloses slightly different versions of both epigrams, and it is worth noting that the first line of the pendant epigram has been bowdlerized, and runs thus--

"Of Wordsworth the grand metaquizzical poet."

--_Letters_, 1901, v. 226, 230.]

ON MY THIRTY-THIRD BIRTHDAY.

JANUARY 22, 1821.[120]

THROUGH Life's dull road, so dim and dirty, I have dragged to three-and-thirty.

What have these years left to me?

Nothing--except thirty-three.

[First published, _Letters and Journals_, 1830, ii. 414.]

FOOTNOTES:

[120] ["To-morrow is my birthday--that is to say, at twelve o' the clock, midnight; _i.e._ in twelve minutes I shall have completed thirty and three years of age!!! and I go to my bed with a heaviness of heart at having lived so long, and to so little purpose. * * * It is three minutes past twelve--''Tis the middle of night by the castle clock,' and I am now thirty-three!--

'Eheu, fugaces, Posthume, Posthume, Labuntur anni;'--

but I don't regret them so much for what I have done, as for what I might have done."--Extracts from a Diary, January 21, 1821, _Letters_, 1901, v. 182.

In a letter to Moore, dated January 22, 1821, he gives another version--

"Through Life's road, so dim and dirty, I have dragged to three-and-thirty.

What _have_ these years left to me?

Nothing--except thirty-three."

_Ibid._, p. 229.]

MARTIAL, LIB. I. EPIG. I.

"Hic est, quem legis, ille, quem requiris, Toto notus in orbe Martialis," etc.

HE, unto whom thou art so partial, Oh, reader! is the well-known Martial, The Epigrammatist: while living, Give him the fame thou would'st be giving; So shall he hear, and feel, and know it-- Post-obits rarely reach a poet.

[N.D. ?1821.]

[First published, _Lord Byron's Works_, 1833, xvii. 245]

BOWLES AND CAMPBELL.

cTo the air of "How now, Madam Flirt," in the _Beggar's Opera_.[121]

BOWLES.

"WHY, how now, saucy Tom?

If you thus must ramble, I will publish some Remarks on Mister Campbell.