The Works of Lord Byron, Vol. 7. Poetry

119

["For the anniversary of January 2, 1821, I have a small grateful anticipation, which, in case of accident, I add." – Letter to Moore, November 5, 1820, Letters, 1891, v. 112.]

120

[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, Leicestershire…" —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.'"]

121

[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 brass-founders and braziers. The procession was headed by a man dressed in a suit of burnished plate armour of brass, and mounted on a handsome black horse, the reins being held by pages … wearing brass helmets… A man in a complete suite of brass armour … was followed by two persons, bearing on a cushion a most magnificent imitation of the imperial Crown of England. A small number of the deputation of brass-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 brass case of excellent workmanship." – 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to a letter to Murray, dated January 19, 1821, he writes, "I sent you a line or two on the Braziers' Company last week, not for publication.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 MestriI owe all I know to my passion 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.]

122

["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.]

123

[Compare the Beggar's Opera, act ii. sc. 2 —

Air, "Good morrow, Gossip Joan."

"Polly. Why, how now, Madam Flirt?If you thus must chatter,And are for flinging dirt,Let's try who best can spatter,Madam Flirt!"Lucy. Why, how now, saucy jade?Sure the wench is tipsy!How can you see me madeThe scoff of such a gipsy? [To him.]Saucy jade!" [To her.]

Bowles replied to Campbell's Introductory Essay to his Specimens of the English Poets, 7 vols., 1819, by The Invariable Principles of Poetry, in a letter addressed to Thomas Campbell. For Byron's two essays, the "Letter to… [John Murray]" and "Observations upon Observations," see Letters, 1901, v. Appendix III. pp. 536-592.]

124

[For Croker's "article" on Keats's Endymion (Quarterly Review, April, 1818, vol. xix. pp. 204-208), see Don Juan, Canto XI. stanza lx. line 1, Poetical Works, 1902, vi. 445, note 4.]

125

[Horace Walpole's Memoirs of the Last Nine Years of the Reign of George II. ]

126

[Memoirs by James Earl Waldegrave, Governor of George III. when Prince of Wales.]

127

["Can't accept your courteous offer [i. e. £2000 for three cantos of Don Juan, Sardanapalus, and The Two Foscari.] These matters must be arranged with Mr. Douglas Kinnaird. He is my trustee, and a man of honour. To him you can state all your mercantile reasons, which you might not like to state to me personally, such as 'heavy season' – 'flat public' – 'don't go off' – 'lordship writes too much' – 'won't take advice' – 'declining popularity' – 'deductions for the trade' – 'make very little' – 'generally lose by him' – 'pirated edition' – 'foreign edition' – 'severe criticisms,' etc., with other hints and howls for an oration, which I leave Douglas, who is an orator, to answer." – Letter to Murray, August 23, 1821, Letters, 1901, v. 348.]

128

[Napoleon bequeathed to Lady Holland a snuff-box which had been given to him by the Pope for his clemency in sparing Rome. Lord Carlisle wrote eight (not seven) stanzas, urging her, as Byron told Medwin, to decline the gift, "for fear that horror and murder should jump out of the lid every time it is opened." —Conversations, 1824, p. 362. The first stanza of Lord Carlyle's verses, which teste Medwin, Byron parodied, runs thus —

"Lady, reject the gift! 'tis tinged with gore!Those crimson spots a dreadful tale relate;It has been grasp'd by an infernal Power;And by that hand which seal'd young Enghien's fate."

The snuff-box is now in the jewel-room in the British Museum.]

129

[George Frederick Nott (1767-1841), critic and divine, was Rector of Harrietsham and Woodchurch, a Prebendary of Winchester and of Salisbury. He was Bampton Lecturer in 1802, and, soon afterwards, was appointed sub-preceptor to the Princess Charlotte of Wales. He was a connoisseur of architecture and painting, and passed much of his time in Italy and at Rome. When he was at Pisa he preached in a private room in the basement story of the house in Pisa where Shelley was living, and fell under Byron's displeasure for attacking the Satanic school, and denouncing Cain as a blasphemous production. "The parsons," he told Moore (letter, February 20, 1820), "preached at it [Cain] from Kentish Town to Pisa." Hence the apostrophe to Dr. Nott. (See Records of Shelley, Byron, and the Author, by E. T. Trelawny, 1887, pp. 302, 303.)]

130

[According to Lady Anne Hamilton (Secret History of the Court of England, 1832, i. 198-207), the Princess Charlotte incurred the suspicion and displeasure of her uncles and her grandmother, the Queen, by displaying an ardent and undue interest in her sub-preceptor. On being reproved by the Queen for "condescending to favour persons in low life with confidence or particular respect, persons likely to take advantage of your simplicity and innocence," and having learnt that "persons" meant Mr. Nott, she replied by threatening to sign a will in favour of her sub-preceptor, and by actually making over to him by a deed her library, jewels, and all other private property. Lady Anne Hamilton is not an accurate or trustworthy authority, but her extremely circumstantial narrative was, no doubt, an expansion of the contemporary scandal to which Byron's lampoon gave currency.]

131

[This fragment was found amongst Lord Byron's papers, after his departure from Genoa for Greece.]

132

[With the view of inducing these friends [Lord and Lady Blessington] to prolong their stay at Genoa, he suggested their taking a pretty villa, called "Il Paradiso," in the neighbourhood of his own, and accompanied them to look at it. Upon that occasion it was that, on the lady expressing some intention of residing there, he produced the following impromptu. —Life, 577.]

133

"Bouwah!" is their war-cry.

134

["The last he ever wrote. From a rough copy found amongst his papers at the back of the 'Song of Suli.' Copied November, 1824. – John C. Hobhouse."

"A note, attached to the verses by Lord Byron, states they were addressed to no one in particular, and were a mere poetical Scherzo. – J. C. H."]

135

["This morning Lord Byron came from his bedroom into the apartment where Colonel Stanhope and some friends were assembled, and said with a smile – 'You were complaining, the other day, that I never write any poetry now: – this is my birthday, and I have just finished something, which, I think, is better than what I usually write.' He then produced these noble and affecting verses, which were afterwards found written in his journals, with only the following introduction: 'Jan. 22; on this day I complete my 36th year.'" —A Narrative of Lord Byron's Last Journey to Greece, 1825, p. 125, by Count Gamba. In the Morning Chronicle, October 29, 1824, the lines are headed, "Lord Byron's Latest Verses," and are prefaced by the following note: "We have been indebted to a friend for the following immortal verses, the last he ever composed. Four of the lines have already appeared in an article in the Westminster Review" ("Lord Byron in Greece," July, 1824, vol. ii. p. 227).]

136

Is like to– . – [M.C.]

137

– it is not here. – [M.C.]

138

– seals the hero's bier. – [M.C.]

139

The steed – the Banner – and the Field. —[MS. B.M.]

140

I. [The slain were borne on their shields. Witness the Spartan mother's speech to her son, delivered with his buckler: "either with this or on this" (B.M. Addit. MS. 31,038).]

141

My life-blood tastes– . – [M.C.]

142

I tread reviving– . – [M.C.]

143

"Southwark's Knight" was General Sir Robert Thomas Wilson (1777-1849), who was returned for Southwark in 1818, and again in 1820; "County Byng" was George Byng, M.P. for Middlesex; and "Bobby" was Sir Robert Waithman (1764-1833), who represented the City of London in 1818, but lost his seat to Sir William Curtis in 1820. All these were advanced Liberals, and, as such, Parliamentary friends of Hobhouse.