Life of Lord Byron Volume V Part 13

"March 2. 1821.

"This was the beginning of a letter which I meant for Perry, but stopped short, hoping you would be able to prevent the theatres. Of course you need not send it; but it explains to you my feelings on the subject. You say that 'there is nothing to fear, let them do what they please;' that is to say, that you would see me d.a.m.ned with great tranquillity. You are a fine fellow."

TO MR. PERRY.

"Ravenna, January 22. 1821.

"Dear Sir,

"I have received a strange piece of news, which cannot be more disagreeable to your public than it is to me. Letters and the gazettes do me the honour to say that it is the intention of some of the London managers to bring forward on their stage the poem of 'Marino Faliero,' &c. which was never intended for such an exhibition, and I trust will never undergo it. It is certainly unfit for it. I have never written but for the solitary _reader_, and require no experiments for applause beyond his silent approbation. Since such an attempt to drag me forth as a gladiator in the theatrical arena is a violation of all the courtesies of literature, I trust that the impartial part of the press will step between me and this pollution. I say pollution, because every violation of a _right_ is such, and I claim my right as an author to prevent what I have written from being turned into a stage-play.

I have too much respect for the public to permit this of my own free will. Had I sought their favour, it would have been by a pantomime.

"I have said that I write only for the reader. Beyond this I cannot consent to any publication, or to the abuse of any publication of mine to the purposes of histrionism. The applauses of an audience would give me no pleasure; their disapprobation might, however, give me pain. The wager is therefore not equal. You may, perhaps, say, 'How can this be? if their disapprobation gives pain, their praise might afford pleasure?' By no means: the kick of an a.s.s or the sting of a wasp may be painful to those who would find nothing agreeable in the braying of the one or the buzzing of the other.

"This may not seem a courteous comparison, but I have no other ready; and it occurs naturally."

LETTER 416. TO MR. MURRAY.

"Ravenna, Marzo, 1821.

"Dear Moray,

"In my packet of the 12th instant, in the last sheet (_not_ the _half_ sheet), last page, _omit_ the sentence which (defining, or attempting to define, what and who are gentlemen) begins, 'I should say at least in life that most military men have it, and few naval; that several men of rank have it, and few lawyers,' &c. &c. I say, omit the whole of that sentence, because, like the 'cosmogony, or creation of the world,' in the 'Vicar of Wakefield,' it is not much to the purpose.

"In the sentence above, too, almost at the top of the same page, after the words 'that there ever was, or can be, an aristocracy of poets,' add and insert these words--'I do not mean that they should write in the style of the song by a person of quality, or _parle euphuism_; but there is a _n.o.bility_ of thought and expression to be found no less in Shakspeare, Pope, and Burns, than in Dante, Alfieri,' &c. &c. and so on. Or, if you please, perhaps you had better omit the whole of the latter digression on the _vulgar_ poets, and insert only as far as the end of the sentence on Pope's Homer, where I prefer it to Cowper's, and quote Dr. Clarke in favour of its accuracy.

"Upon all these points, take an opinion; take the sense (or nonsense) of your learned visitants, and act thereby. I am very tractable--in PROSE.

"Whether I have made out the case for Pope, I know not; but I am very sure that I have been zealous in the attempt. If it comes to the proofs we shall beat the blackguards. I will show more _imagery_ in twenty lines of Pope than in any equal length of quotation in English poesy, and that in places where they least expect it. For instance, in his lines on _Sporus_,--now, do just _read_ them over--the subject is of no consequence (whether it be _satire_ or epic)--we are talking of _poetry_ and _imagery_ from _nature_ and _art_. Now, mark the images separately and arithmetically:--

"'1. The thing of _silk_.

2. _Curd_ of _a.s.s_'s milk.

3. The _b.u.t.terfly_.

4. The _wheel_.

5. Bug with gilded wings.

6. _Painted_ child of dirt.

7. Whose _buzz_.

8. Well-bred _spaniels_.

9. _Shallow streams run dimpling._ 10. Florid impotence.

11. _Prompter. Puppet squeaks._ 12. _The ear of Eve._ 13. _Familiar toad._ 14. _Half froth, half venom, splits_ himself abroad.

15. _Fop_ at the _toilet_.

16. _Flatterer_ at the _board_.

17. _Amphibious thing_.

18. Now _trips a lady_.

19. Now _struts a lord_.

20. A _cherub's face_.

21. A _reptile_ all the rest.

22. The _Rabbins_.

23. Pride that _licks the dust_.

"'Beauty that shocks you, parts that none will trust.

Wit that can creep, and _pride_ that _licks the dust_.'

"Now, is there a line of all the pa.s.sage without the most _forcible_ imagery (for his purpose)? Look at the _variety_--at the _poetry_ of the pa.s.sage--at the _imagination_: there is hardly a line from which a painting might not be made, and _is_. But this is nothing in comparison with his higher pa.s.sages in the Essay on Man, and many of his other poems, serious and comic. There never was such an unjust outcry in this world as that which these fellows are trying against Pope.

"Ask Mr. Gifford if, in the fifth act of 'The Doge,' you could not contrive (where the sentence of the _Veil_ is pa.s.sed) to insert the following lines in Marino Faliero's answer?

"But let it be so. It will be in vain: The veil which blackens o'er this blighted name, And hides, or seems to hide, these lineaments, Shall draw more gazers than the thousand portraits Which glitter round it in their painted trappings, Your delegated slaves--the people's tyrants.[33]

"Yours, truly, &c.

"P.S. Upon _public_ matters here I say little: you will all hear soon enough of a general row throughout Italy. There never was a more foolish step than the expedition to Naples by these fellows.

"I wish to propose to _Holmes_, the miniature painter, to come out to me this spring. I will pay his expenses, and any sum in reason.

I wish him to take my daughter's picture (who is in a convent) and the Countess G.'s, and the head of a peasant girl, which latter would make a study for Raphael. It is a complete _peasant_ face, but an _Italian_ peasant's, and quite in the Raphael Fornarina style. Her figure is tall, but rather large, and not at all comparable to her face, which is really superb. She is not seventeen, and I am anxious to have her face while it lasts. Madame G. is also very handsome, but it is quite in a different style--completely blonde and fair--very uncommon in Italy; yet not an _English_ fairness, but more like a Swede or a Norwegian. Her figure, too, particularly the bust, is uncommonly good. It must be _Holmes_; I like him because he takes such inveterate likenesses.

There is a war here; but a solitary traveller, with little baggage, and nothing to do with politics, has nothing to fear. Pack him up in the Diligence. Don't forget."

[Footnote 33: These lines--perhaps from some difficulty in introducing them--were never inserted in the Tragedy.]

LETTER 417. TO MR. HOPPNER.

"Ravenna, April 3. 1821;

"Thanks for the translation. I have sent you some books, which I do not know whether you have read or no--you need not return them, in any case. I enclose you also a letter from Pisa. I have neither spared trouble nor expense in the care of the child; and as she was now four years old complete, and quite above the control of the servants--and as a _man_ living without any woman at the head of his house cannot much attend to a nursery--I had no resource but to place her for a time (at a high pension too) in the convent of Bagna-Cavalli (twelve miles off), where the air is good, and where she will, at least, have her learning advanced, and her morals and religion inculcated.[34] I had also another reason;--things were and are in such a state here, that I had no reason to look upon my own personal safety as particularly insurable; and I thought the infant best out of harm's way, for the present.

"It is also fit that I should add that I by no means intended, nor intend, to give a _natural_ child an _English_ education, because with the disadvantages of her birth, her after settlement would be doubly difficult. Abroad, with a fair foreign education and a portion of five or six thousand pounds, she might and may marry very respectably. In England such a dowry would be a pittance, while elsewhere it is a fortune. It is, besides, my wish that she should be a Roman Catholic, which I look upon as the best religion, as it is a.s.suredly the oldest of the various branches of Christianity. I have now explained my notions as to the _place_ where she now is--it is the best I could find for the present; but I have no prejudices in its favour.

"I do not speak of politics, because it seems a hopeless subject, as long as those scoundrels are to be permitted to bully states out of their independence. Believe me,

"Yours ever and truly.

"P.S. There is a report here of a change in France; but with what truth is not yet known.

"P.S. My respects to Mrs. H. I _have_ the 'best opinion' of her countrywomen; and at my time of life, (three and thirty, 22d January, 1821,) that is to say, after the life I have led, a _good_ opinion is the only rational one which a man should entertain of the whole s.e.x--up to _thirty_, the worst possible opinion a man can have of them in _general_, the better for himself. Afterwards, it is a matter of no importance to them, nor to him either, what opinion he entertains--his day is over, or, at least, should be.

"You see how sober I am become."

[Footnote 34: With such anxiety did he look to this essential part of his daughter's education, that notwithstanding the many advantages she was sure to derive from the kind and feminine superintendence of Mrs.

Sh.e.l.ley, his apprehensions, lest her feeling upon religious subjects might be disturbed by the conversation of Sh.e.l.ley himself, prevented him from allowing her to remain under his friend's roof.]