Life of Lord Byron Volume III Part 12

LETTER 185. TO MR. ROGERS.

"June 19. 1814.

"I am always obliged to trouble you with my awkwardnesses, and now I have a fresh one. Mr. W.[36] called on me several times, and I have missed the honour of making his acquaintance, which I regret, but which _you_, who know my desultory and uncertain habits, will not wonder at, and will, I am sure, attribute to any thing but a wish to offend a person who has shown me much kindness, and possesses character and talents ent.i.tled to general respect. My mornings are late, and pa.s.sed in fencing and boxing, and a variety of most unpoetical exercises, very wholesome, &c., but would be very disagreeable to my friends, whom I am obliged to exclude during their operation. I never go out till the evening, and I have not been fortunate enough to meet Mr. W. at Lord Lansdowne's or Lord Jersey's, where I had hoped to pay him my respects.

"I would have written to him, but a few words from you will go further than all the apologetical sesquipedalities I could muster on the occasion. It is only to say that, without intending it, I contrive to behave very ill to every body, and am very sorry for it.

"Ever, dear R.," &c.

[Footnote 36: Mr. Wrangham.]

The following undated notes to Mr. Rogers must have been written about the same time:--

"Sunday.

"Your non-attendance at Corinne's is very _a propos_, as I was on the eve of sending you an excuse. I do not feel well enough to go there this evening, and have been obliged to despatch an apology. I believe I need not add one for not accepting Mr. Sheridan's invitation on Wednesday, which I fancy both you and I understood in the same sense:--with him the saying of Mirabeau, that '_words_ are _things_,' is not to be taken literally.

"Ever," &c.

"I will call for you at a quarter before _seven_, if that will suit you. I return you Sir Proteus[37], and shall merely add in return, as Johnson said of, and to, somebody or other, 'Are we alive after all this censure?'

"Believe me," &c.

[Footnote 37: A satirical pamphlet, in which all the writers of the day were attacked.]

"Tuesday.

"Sheridan was yesterday, at first, too sober to remember your invitation, but in the dregs of the third bottle he fished up his memory. The Stael out-talked Whitbread, was _ironed_ by Sheridan, confounded Sir Humphry, and utterly perplexed your slave. The rest (great names in the red book, nevertheless,) were mere segments of the circle. Ma'mselle danced a Russ saraband with great vigour, grace, and expression.

"Ever," &c.

TO MR. MURRAY.

"June 21. 1814.

"I suppose 'Lara' is gone to the devil,--which is no great matter, only let me know, that I may be saved the trouble of copying the rest, and put the first part into the fire. I really have no anxiety about it, and shall not be sorry to be saved the copying, which goes on very slowly, and may prove to you that you may _speak out_--or I should be less sluggish. Yours," &c.

LETTER 186. TO MR. ROGERS.

"June 27. 1814.

"You could not have made me a more acceptable present than Jacqueline,--she is all grace, and softness, and poetry; there is so much of the last, that we do not feel the want of story, which is simple, yet _enough_. I wonder that you do not oftener unbend to more of the same kind. I have some sympathy with the _softer_ affections, though very little in _my_ way, and no one can depict them so truly and successfully as yourself. I have half a mind to pay you in kind, or rather _un_kind, for I have just 'supped full of horror' in two cantos of darkness and dismay.

"Do you go to Lord Ess.e.x's to-night? if so, will you let me call for you at your own hour? I dined with Holland-house yesterday at Lord Cowper's; my Lady very gracious, which she can be more than any one when she likes. I was not sorry to see them again, for I can't forget that they have been very kind to me. Ever yours most truly,

"BN.

"P.S. Is there any chance or possibility of making it up with Lord Carlisle, as I feel disposed to do any thing reasonable or unreasonable to effect it? I would before, but for the 'Courier,'

and the possible misconstructions at such a time. Perpend, p.r.o.nounce."

On my return to London, for a short time, at the beginning of July, I found his poem of 'Lara,' which he had begun at the latter end of May, in the hands of the printer, and nearly ready for publication. He had, before I left town, repeated to me, as we were on our way to some evening party, the first one hundred and twenty lines of the poem, which he had written the day before,--at the same time giving me a general sketch of the characters and the story.

His short notes to Mr. Murray, during the printing of this work, are of the same impatient and whimsical character as those, of which I have already given specimens, in my account of his preceding publications: but, as matter of more interest now presses upon us, I shall forbear from transcribing them at length. In one of them he says, "I have just corrected some of the most horrible blunders that ever crept into a proof:"--in another, "I hope the next proof will be better; this was one which would have consoled Job, if it had been of his 'enemy's book:'"

--a third contains only the following words: "Dear sir, you demanded more _battle_--there it is.

"Yours," &c.

The two letters that immediately follow were addressed to me, at this time, in town.

LETTER 187. TO MR. MOORE.

"July 8. 1814.

"I returned to town last night, and had some hopes of seeing you to-day, and would have called,--but I have been (though in exceeding distempered good health) a little head-achy with free living, as it is called, and am now at the freezing point of returning soberness. Of course, I should be sorry that our parallel lines did not deviate into intersection before you return to the country,--after that same nonsuit[38], whereof the papers have told us,--but, as you must be much occupied, I won't be affronted, should your time and business militate against our meeting.

"Rogers and I have almost coalesced into a joint invasion of the public. Whether it will take place or not, I do not yet know, and I am afraid Jacqueline (which is very beautiful) will be in bad company.[39] But in this case, the lady will not be the sufferer.

"I am going to the sea, and then to Scotland; and I have been doing nothing,--that is, no good,--and am very truly," &c.

[Footnote 38: He alludes to an action for piracy brought by Mr. Power (the publisher of my musical works), to the trial of which I had been summoned as a witness.]

[Footnote 39: Lord Byron afterwards proposed that I should make a third in this publication; but the honour was a perilous one, and I begged leave to decline it.]

LETTER 188. TO MR. MOORE.

"I suppose, by your non-appearance, that the phil_a_sophy of my note, and the previous silence of the writer, have put or kept you in _humeur_. Never mind--it is hardly worth while.

"This day have I received information from my man of law of the _non_--and never likely to be--performance of purchase by Mr.

Claughton, of _im_pecuniary memory. He don't know what to do, or when to pay; and so all my hopes and worldly projects and prospects are gone to the devil. He (the purchaser, and the devil too, for aught I care,) and I, and my legal advisers, are to meet to-morrow, the said purchaser having first taken special care to enquire 'whether I would meet him with temper?'--Certainly. The question is this--I shall either have the estate back, which is as good as ruin, or I shall go on with him dawdling, which is rather worse. I have brought my pigs to a Mussulman market. If I had but a wife now, and children, of whose paternity I entertained doubts, I should be happy, or rather fortunate, as Candide or Scarmentado. In the mean time, if you don't come and see me, I shall think that Sam.'s bank is broke too; and that you, having a.s.sets there, are despairing of more than a piastre in the pound for your dividend. Ever," &c.

TO MR. MURRAY.

"July 11. 1814.