Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

864

we shall see; and at any rate, good or not, it is, There is a hint for you, worthy of the row; and rather a different style from the last-less meta- now, perpend-pronounce. "I have not received a word from you of the fate physical-which at any rate, will be a variety. I sent you the shaft of the column as a specimen the of Manfred' or 'Tasso,' which seems to me odd, So you may be whether they have failed or succeeded. other day, i. e. the first stanza. thinking of its arrival towards autumn, whose winds will not be the only ones to be raised, if so be as how that it is ready by that time.

"I lent Lewis, who is at Venice (in or on the Canalaccio, the Grand Canal), your extracts from Lalla Rookh and Manuel, and, out of contradiction, it may be, he likes the last, and is not much taken with the first, of these performances. Of Manuel I think, with the exception of a few capers, it is as heavy a nightmare as was ever bestrode by indigestion.

"As this is a scrawl of business, and I have late ly written at length and often on other subjects, I will only add that I am, &c."

LETTER CCCXLIX.

TO MR. MURRAY.

"La Mira, near Venice, Aug. 7, 1817. "Your letter of the 18th, and, what will please "Of the extracts I can but judge as extracts, and I prefer the Peri' to the Silver Veil.' He seems not so much at home in his versification of you, as it did me, that parcel sent by the good the Silver Veil,' and a little embarrassed with his natured aid and abetment of Mr. Croker, are ar former in the same house, the latter a few hundred horrors; but the conception of the character of the rived.-Messrs. Lewis and Hobhouse are here: the yards distant. impostor is fine, and the plan of great scope for his genius, and I doubt not that, as a whole, it will be very Arabesque and beautiful.

"You say nothing of Manfred, from which its failure may be inferred; but I think it odd you Your late epistle is not the most abundant in should not say so at once. I know nothing, and information, and has not yet been succeeded by any hear absolutely nothing, of any body or any thing other; so that I know nothing of your own concerns, in England; and there are no English papers, si or of any concerns, and as I never hear from any body that all you say will be news-of any person, er but yourself who does not tell me something as disabout Newstead, and sorry that Kinnaird is leaving agreeable as possible, I should not be sorry to hear thing, or things. I am at present very anxious from you: and as it is not very probable,-if I can, England at this minute, though I do not tell him by any device or possible arrangement with regard although it may not in this instance tend to my to my personal affairs, so arrange it, that I shall so, and would rather he should have his pleasure, return soon, or reside ever in England, all that you profit. "If I understand rightly, you have paid into Mor tell me will be all I shall know or inquire after, as to our beloved realm of Grub street, and the black land's 15001: as the agreement in the paper is brethren and blue sisterhood of that extensive two thousand guineas, there will remain therefore six hundred pounds, and not five hundred, the odd suburb of Babylon. Have you had no new babe of literature sprung up to replace the dead, the dis-hundred being the extra to make up the specie. Six tant, the tired, and the retired? no prose, no verse, hundred and thirty pounds will bring it to the se no nothing?"

LETTER CCCXLVIII.

TO MR. MURRAY.

"Venice, July 20, 1817.

for Manfred and Tasso, making a total of twelve hundred and thirty, I believe, for I am not a good calculator. I do not wish to press you, but I tel you fairly that it will be a convenience to me to Lave it paid as soon as it can be made convenient to yourself.

"The new and last canto is one hundred and thirty stanzas in length; and may be made more or less. I have fixed no price, even in idea, and have no not of what it may be good for. There are no metaphisies in it; at least, I think not. Mr. Hobhouse has prom

"I write to give you notice that I have completed ised me a copy of Tasso's Will, for notes; and 1 hare some curious things to say about Ferrara, and Pa the fourth and ultimate canto of Childe Harold. It consists of one hundred and twenty-six stanzas, and isina's story, and perhaps a farthing-candle's worth is consequently the longest of the four. It is yet of light upon the present state of Italian literature to be copied and polished; and the notes are to I shall hardly be ready by October; but that dea? come, of which it will require more than the third matter. I have all to copy and correct, and the canto, as it necessarily treats more of works of art notes to write.

than of nature.

It shall be sent towards autumn;

[ocr errors]

"I do not know whether Scott will like it; but -and now for our barter. What do you bid? eh? I have called him the Ariosto of the North' in text. If he should not, say so in time. you shall have samples, an' it so please you: but "Lewis, Hobhouse, and I went the other day to wish to know what I am to expect (as the saying is) in these hard times, when poetry does not let for the circumcision of a sucking Shylock. I have se half its value. If you are disposed to do what Mrs. three men's heads and a child's foreskin cut of Winifred Jenkins calls the handsome thing,' I may Italy. The ceremonies are very moving, but tal perhaps throw you some odd matters to the lot,long for detail in this weather. "An Italian translation of Glenarvon' translations, or slight originals; there is no saying what may be on the anvil between this and the book lately to be printed at Venice. The censor ing season. Recollect that it is the last canto, and Petrotini) refused to sanction the publication till completes the work; whether as good as the others, had seen me on the subject. I told him that I c I cannot judge, in course-least of all as yet, but it not recognize the slightest relation between that shall be as little worse as I can help. I may per- book and myself; but that, whatever opinions migti haps, give some little gossip in the notes as to the be upon that subject, I would never prevent or op present state of Italian literati and literature, being pose the publication of any book, in any language, on my own private account; and desired him (aga acquainted with some of their capi-men as well as books; but this depends upon my humor at the his inclination) to permit the poor translator to pub I say nothing. lish his labors. It is going forward in consequence, You may say this, with my compliments, to the au

time. So, now, pronounce:

"When you have got the whole four cantos, I think you might venture on an edition of the whole poem in quarto, with spare copies of the last two for the purchasers of the old edition of the first two.

thor.

• Canto iv., stanza xl.

"Yours."

[ocr errors]

LETTER CCCL.

TO MR. MURRAY.

"Venice, Aug. 12, 1817.

"I have been very sorry to hear of the death of Madame de Staël, not only because she had been very kind to me at Copet, but because now I can never requite her. In a general point of view she will leave a great gap in society and literature.

"With regard to death. I doubt that we have any right to pity the dead for their own sakes.

The copies of Manfred and Tasso are arrived, thanks to Mr. Croker's cover You have destroyed the whole effect and moral of the poem by omitting the last line of Manfred s speaking; and why this was done, I know not. Why you persist in saying nothing of the thing itself, I am equally at a loss to conjecture. If it is for fear of telling me something disagreeable, you are wrong; because sooner or later I must know it, and I am not so new nor so raw, nor so inexperienced, as not to be able to bear, not the mere paltry, petty disappointments of authorship, but things more serious,-at least I hope so, and that what you may think irritability is merely mechanical, and only acts like galvanism on a dead body, or the muscular motion which survives sensation.

"If it is that you are out of humor, because I wrote to you a sharp letter, recollect that it was partly from a misconception of your letter, and partly because you did a thing you had no right to do without consulting me.

"I have, however, heard good of Manfred from two other quarters, and from men who would not be Scrupulous in saying what they thought, or what was said; and so good-morrow to you, good master Lieutenant.'

"I wrote to you twice about the fourth canto, which you will answer at your pleasure. Mr. Hobhouse and I have come up for a day to the city; Mr. Lewis is gone to England; and I am

LETTER CCCLI.

TO MR. MURRAY.

"Yours."

"La Mira, near Venice, Aug. 21, 1817. "I take you at your word about Mr. Hanson, and will feel obliged if you will go to him, and request Mr. Davies also to visit him by my desire, and repeat that I trust that neither Mr. Kinnaird's absence nor mine will prevent his taking all proper steps to accelerate and promote the sale of Newstead and Rochdale, upon which the whole of my future personal comfort depends. It is impossible for me to express how much any delays upon these points would inconvenience me; and I do not know a greater obligation that can be conferred upon me than the pressing these things upon Hanson, and making him act according to my wishes. wish you would speak out, at least to me, and tell me what you allude to by your cold way of mentioning him. All mysteries at such a distance are not merely tormenting but mischievous, and may be prejudicial to my interests; so pray expound, that I may consult with Mr. Kinnaird when he arrives; and remember that I prefer the most disagreeable certainties to hints and inuendoes. devil take every body; I never can get any person to be explicit about any thing or any body, and my whole life is passed in conjectures of what people mean you all talk in the style of Caroline Lamb's novels.

The

Madame de Staël's, and other people's, besides MSS., &c. By —, if I find the gentleman, and he don't find the parcel, I will say something he won't like to hear.

"You want a civil and delicate declension' for the medical tragedy? Take it

"Dear Doctor, I have read your play,
Which is a good one in its way;
Purges the eyes, and moves the bowels,
And drenches handkerchie's like towels
With tears, that, in a flux of grief,
Afford hysterical relief

To shatter'd nerves and quicken'd pulses,
Which your catastrophe convulses.

"I like your moral and machinery:
Your plot, too, has such scope for scenery !
Your dialogue is apt and smart;

The play's concoction full of art;
Your hero raves, your heroine cries,
All stab, and every body dies.
In short, your tragedy would be
The very thing to hear and see:
And for a piece of publication,
If I decline on this occasion,

It is not that I am not sensible
To merits in themselves ostensible,
But-and I grieve to speak it-plays
Are drugs--mere drugs, sir-now-a-daya.

I had a heavy loss by Manuel,'
Too lucky if it prove not annual,-
And Sotheby, with his Orestes,'
(Which, by-the-by, the author's best is,)
Has lain so very long on hand
That I despair of all demand.
I've advertised, but see my books,
Or only watch my shopman's looks :-
Still Ivan, Ina, and such lumber,
My back-shop glut, my shelves encumber.
"There's Byron, too, who once did better,
Has sent me, folded in a letter,

A sort of it's no more a drama
Than Darnley, Ivan, or Kehama;
So alter'd since last year his pen is,

I think he's lost his wits at Venice.

[ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors]

In short, sir, what with one and t' other,

I dare not venture on another.

I write in haste; excuse each blunder;

The coaches through the street so thunder!
My room's so full-we've Gifford here
Reading MS., with Hookham Frere
Pronouncing on the nouns and particles
Of some of our forthcoming Articles.
"The Quarterly-Ah, sir, if you
Had but the genius to review !-
A smart critique upon St. Helena,
Or if you only would but tell in a
Short compass what-but to resume:
As I was saying, sir, the room-
The room's so full of wits and barda,
Crabbes, Campbelle, Crokers, Freres, and WaRM,
And others, neither bards nor wits;-
My humble tenement admits

All persons in the dress of gent.,
From Mr. Hammond to Dog Dent.
"A party dines with me to day,
All clever men, who make their way;
They're at this moment in discussion
On poor De Stael's late dissolution.
Her book, they say, was in advance-
Pray Heaven, she tell the truth of France!

"Thus run our time and tongues away.-
But, to return, sir, to your play
Sorry, sir, but I cannot deal,
Unless 'twere acted by O'Neill.
My hands so full, my head so busy,
I'm almost dead, and always dizzy;
And so, with endless truth and hurry,
Dear Doctor, I am yours,

"JOHN MURRAY."

"It is not Mr. St. John, but Mr. St. Aubyn, son "P. S. I've done the fourth and last canto, which of Sir John St. Aubyn. Polidori knows him, and amounts to one hundred and thirty-three stanzas introduced him to me. He is of Oxford, and has I desire you to name a price; if you don't, 1 got my parcel. The doctor will ferret him out, or will; so I advise you in time. "Yours, &c.

ought. The parcel contains many letters, some of! "There will be a good many notes."

866

LETTER CCCLII.

LETTER CCCLIII.

TO MR. MURRAY.

TO MR. HOPPNER.

"Sept. 4, 1817.

"La Mira, Sept. 12, 1917,

"Your letter of the 15th has conveyed with its "I set out yesterday morning with the intention contents the impression of a seal, to which the Saracen's Head' is a seraph, and the Bull and of paying my respects, and availing myself of your Mouth' a delicate device. I knew that calumny permission to walk over the premises. On arriv had sufficiently blackened me of later days, but not ing at Padua, I found that the march of the Austhat it had given me the features as well as com-trian troops had engrossed so many horses, that Poor Augusta is not less, but those I could procure were hardly able to crawl; plexion of a negro. rather more, shocked than myself, and says 'people and their weakness, together with the prospect d seem to have lost their recollection strangely,' when finding none at all at the post-house of Monselice, they engraved such a blackmoor.' Pray don't seal and consequently either not arriving that day at (at least to me) with such a caricature of the hu- Este, or so late as to be unable to return home the you don't break same evening, induced me to turn aside in a second man numskull altogether; and visit to Arqua, instead of proceeding onwards; and even thus I hardly got back in time. "Next week I shall be obliged to be in Venice to And this interruption, meet Lord Kinnaird and his brother, who are expected in a few days.

66

the seal-cutter's head, at least crack his libel (or ikeness, if it should be a likeness) of mine. "Mr. Kinnaird is not yet arrived, but expected. He has lost by the way all the tooth-powder, as a letter from Spa informs me. By Mr. Rose I received safely, though tardily, together with that occasioned by the continued Why march of the Austrians for the next few days, magnesia and tooth-powder, and do you send me such trash-worse than trash, the will not allow me to fix any precise period fr Thanks for Lalla, how-availing myself of your kindness, though I shou Sublime of Mediocrity? ever, which is good, and thanks for the Edinburgh wish to take the earliest opportunity. Perhaps, if and Quarterly, both very amusing and well-written. absent, you will have the goodness to permit ore d Paris in 1815, &c.-good. Modern Greece-good your servants to show me the grounds and hotse, for nothing; written by some one who has never or as much of either as may be convenient; at af was on yesterday been there, and not being able to manage the Spen-rate, I shall take the first occasion possible to g ser stanza, has invented a thing of its own, consist- over, and regret very much that ing of two elegaic stanzas, a heroic line, and an prevented. Alexandrine, twisted on a string. Besides, why 'modern' You may say modern Greeks, but surely Greece itself is rather more ancient than ever it was.-Now for business.

"I have the honor to be your obliged, &c."

LETTER CCCLIV

TO MR. MURRAY.

"Sept. 15, 1927. "I enclose a sheet for correction, if ever you get You will observe that t to another edition.

occasion.

"You offer fifteen hundred guineas for the new canto: I won't take it. I ask two thousand five hundred guineas for it, which you will either give or not, as and conIt concludes the poem, you think proper. sists of one hundred and forty-four stanzas. The notes are numerous, and chiefly written by Mr. Hobhouse, whose researches have been indefati-blunder in printing makes it appear as if the Cha gable, and who, I will venture to say, has more real knowledge of Rome and its environs than teau was over St. Gingo, instead of being on the any Englishman who has been there since Gib- opposite shore of the Lake, over Clarens. So, sep seem as inaccurate as your typography on t bon. By-the-way, to prevent any mistakes, I think arate the paragraphs, otherwise my topography w it necessary to state the fact that he, Mr. Hob"The other day I wrote to convey my proposition house, has no interest whatever in the price or profit to be derived from the copyright of either poem or with regard to the fourth and concluding canto. I notes directly or indirectly; so you are not to sup- have gone over and extended it to one hundred and pose that it is by, for, or through him, that I require fifty stanzas, which is almost as long as the first two were originally, and longer by itself than t more for this canto than the preceding.-No: but if Mr. Eustace was to have had two thousand for a of the smaller poems except the Corsair. M. poem on Education; if Mr. Moore is to have three Hobhouse has made some very valuable and acc thousand for Lalla, &c.; if Mr. Campbell is to have sure that I will do for the text all that I can t three thousand for his prose on poetry-I don't rate notes, of considerable length, and you may be mean to disparage these gentlemen in their laborsbut I ask the aforesaid price for mine. You will finish with decency. I look upon Childe Harold as tell me that their productions are considerably my best; and as I begun, I think of concluang longer: very true, and when they shorten them, I with it. But I make no resolutions on that he 'Corsair.' However, I fear that I shall never will lengthen mine, and ask less. You shall sub-as I broke my former intention with regard to the mit the MS. to Mr. Gifford, and any other two gen-better; and yet, not being thirty years of age, tlemen to be named by you, (Mr. Frere, or Mr. as far as intellect goes, for many a good year, Croker, or whomever you please, except such fel- some moons to come, one ought to be progressive, lows as yours and *s,) and if they pronounce I have had a devilish deal of tear and wear of this canto to be inferior as a whole to the preced- and body in my time, besides having published to ing, I will not appeal from their award, but burn often and much already. God grant me some jud ment to do what may be most fitting in that and the manuscript, and leave things as they are. every thing else, for I doubt my own exceedingly. "I have read Lalla Rookh,' but not with su thought the state of cient attention yet, for I ride about, and lounge our present copyright account, viz., six hundred and ponder, and-two or three other things; pounds still (or lately) due on Childe Harold, and that my reading is very desultory, and not so attes six hundred guineas, Manfred and Tasso, making a tive as it used to be. I am very glad to hear of its total of twelve hundred and thirty pounds. If we popularity, for Moore is a very noble fellow in all agree about the new poem, I shall take the liberty

Yours very truly.

"P. S. In answer to a former letter, I sent you a short statement of what

to reserve the choice of the manner in which it
should be published, viz., a quarto, certes."

[ocr errors][merged small]

* A country-house on the Euganean hills, near Este, which Mr. H who was then the English cousul-general at Venice, had for occupied, and which Lord Byron afterward rented of him, but never maded

in it.

But

respects, and will enjoy it without any of the bad "In Coleridge's Life I perceive an attack upon feelings which success-good or evil-sometimes the then committee of D. L. Theatre for acting engenders in the men of rhyme. Of the poem Bertram, and an attack upon Maturin's Bertram itself, I will tell you my opinion when I have for being acted. Considering all things, this is not mastered it: I say of the poem, for I don't like very grateful nor graceful on the part of the worthy the prose at all, at all: and in the meantime, the autobiographer; and I would answer, if I had not Fire-Worshippers' is the best, and the Veiled obliged him. Putting my own pains to forward the Prophet' the worst, of the volume.

views of Coleridge out of the question, I know that "With regard to poetry in general, I am con- there was every disposition, on the part of the subvinced the more I think of it, that he and all of us committee, to bring forward any production of his, -Scott, Southey, Wordsworth, Moore, Campbell, were it feasible. The play he offered, though poetiI,-are all in the wrong, one as much as another; cal, did not appear at all practicable, and Bertram that we are upon a wrong revolutionary poetical did;-and hence this long tirade, which is the last system, or systems, not worth a damn in itself, and chapter of his vagabond life.

from which none but Rogers and Crabbe are free; "As for Bertram, Maturin may defend his own and that the present and next generations will begotten, if he likes it well enough; I leave the finally be of this opinion. I am the more con- Irish clergyman and the new orator Henley to firmed in this by having lately gone over some of battle it out between them, satisfied to have done our classics, particularly Pope, whom I tried in this the best I could for both. I may say this to you, way-It took Moore's poems and my own and who know it.

*

*

some others, and went over them side by side with "Mr. Coleridge may console himself with the ferPope's, and I was really astonished (I ought not to vor,-the almost religious fervor of his and Wordshave been so) and mortified at the ineffable distance worth's disciples, as he calls it. If he means that in point of sense, learning, effect, and even imagi-as any proof of their merits, I will find him as much nation, passion, and invention, between the little fervor' in behalf of Richard Brothers and Joanna Queen Anne's man, and us of the lower empire. Southcote as ever gathered over his pages or round Depend upon it, it is all Horace then, and Claudian his fireside.

[ocr errors]

*

*

now among us; and if I had to begin again, I would My answer to your proposition about the fourth mould myself accordingly. Crabbe's the man, but canto you will have received, and I await yours;he has got a coarse and impracticable subject, perhaps we may not agree. I have since written a and Rogers is retired upon half-pay, and has done poem (of eighty-four octave stanzas), humorous, enough, unless he were to do as he did formerly."

LETTER CCCLV.

TO MR. MURRAY.

*

"Sept. 17, 1817.

"As I have recently troubled you rather frequent1y, I will conclude, repeating that I am "Yours ever, &c."

in or after the excellent manner of Mr. Whistlecraft (whom I take to be Frere), on a Venetian anecdote which amused me:-but till I have your answer, I can say nothing more about it.

"Mr. Hobhouse does not return to England in November, as he intended, but will winter here; and as he is to convey the poem, or poems,-for there may perhaps be more than the two mentioned (which, by-the-way, I shall not perhaps include in the same publication or agreement)-I shall not be there is no harm in the delay." able to publish so soon as expected; but I suppose

money

"Mr. Hobhouse purposes being in England in November; he will bring the fourth canto with him, notes and all the text contains one hundred by Mr. Kinnaird, but not the receipt, because the "I have signed and sent your former copyrights and fifty stanzas, which is long for that measure. "With regard to the Ariosto of the North,' of attorney to sign for me, and will, when necessary. is not yet paid. Mr. Kinnaird has a power surely their themes, chivalry, war, and love, were "Many thanks for the Edinburgh Review, which as like as can be; and as to the compliment, if you is very kind about Manfred, and defends its origiknew what the Italians think of Ariosto, you would nality, which I did not know that any body had not hesitate about that. But as to their 'measures, attacked. I never read, and do not know that I you forget that Ariosto's is an octave stanza, and ever saw the Faustus of Marlow,' and had, and Scott's any thing but a stanza. If you think Scott have, no dramatic works by me in English, except will dislike it, say so, and I will expunge. I do not the recent things you sent me; but I heard Mr. call him the Scotch Ariosto,' which would be sad Lewis translate verbally some scenes of Goethe's provincial eulogy, but the Ariosto of the North,' Faust (which were, some good and some bad) last meaning of all countries that are not the South. summer-which is all I know of the history of that magical personage; and as to the germs of Manfred, they may be found in the Journal which I sent to Mrs. Leigh (part of which you saw) when I went over first the Dent de Jaman, and then the Wengen or Wengeberg Alp and Sheideck, and made the giro of the Jungfrau, Shreckhorn, &c., &c., shortly before I left Switzerland. I have the whole scene of Manfred before me as if it was but yesterday, and could point it out, spot by spot, torrent and all. "Of the Prometheus of Eschylus I was passion"Mr. Kinnaird and his brother, Lord Kinnaird, ately fond as a boy (it was one of the Greek plays have been here, and are now gone again. All your the Medea' were the only ones, except the 'Seven we read thrice a year at Harrow); indeed that and missives came, except the tooth-powder, of which before Thebes,' which ever much pleased me. I request farther supplies, at all convenient oppor- to the Faustus of Marlow,' I never read, never tunities; as also of magnesia and soda-powders, Doth great luxuries here, and neither to be had saw, nor heard of it-at least, thought of it, except that I think Mr. Gifford mentioned, in a note of his good, or indeed hardly at all, of the natives. which you sent me, something about the catastrophe; but not as having any thing to do with mine, which may or may not resemble it, for any thing I know.

LETTER CCCLVI.

TO MR. MURRAY.

"Oct. 12, 1817.

• On this paragraph, in the MS. copy of the above letter, I find the following note, in the handwriting of Mr. Gitford: "There is more good pense, and feeling, and judgment in this passage, than in any other I ever read, or Lord Byron wrote."--Moore.

1 See letters for Bowles and Blackwood.

1 Bee Letter ccxlvi.

6

As

"The Prometheus, if not exactly in my plan, has

• Beppo.

always been so much in my head, that I can easily! "Will you desire Messrs. Morland to send out conceive its influence over all or any thing that I whatever additional sums have or may be paid in have written; but I deny Marlow and his progeny, credit immediately, always, to their Venice corre and beg that you will do the same. spondents? It is two months ago that they sent "If you can send me the paper in question,* me out an additional credit for one thousand pounda. which the Edinburgh Review mentions, do. The was very glad of it, but I don't know how the review in the magazine you say was written by Wil-devil it came; for I can only make out five hundred son? it had all the air of being a poet's, and was a of Hanson's payment, and I had thought the other very good one. The Edinburgh Review I take to five hundred came from you; but it did not, be Jeffrey's own by its friendliness. wonder they seems, as by yours of the 7th instant, you have only thought it worth while to do so, so soon after the just paid the 12301. balance.

former; but it was evidently with a good motive. "Mr. Kinnaird is on his way home with the as"I saw Hoppner the other day, whose country-signments. I can fix no time for the arrival of house at Este I have taken for two years. If you canto fourth, which depends on the journey of Mr come out next summer, let me know in time. Love Hobhouse home; and I do not think that this wil to Gifford. "Yours ever truly. be immediate.

"Crable, Malcolm, Hamilton, and Chantrey,

Are all partakers of my pantry.

"Yours, in great haste, and very truly, "B. "P. S. Morlands have not yet written to my pray desire them to do so.

These two lines are omitted in your letter to the bankers, apprising the payment of your balances: doctor, after

"All clever men who make their way."

"Ask them about the previous thousand-d which I know five hundred came from Hanson'sand make out the other five hundred—that is, whence it came."

[merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small]

"Venice, Nov. 15, 15.

"Your two letters are before me, and our bargain] is so far concluded. How sorry I am to hear that Gifford is unwell! Pray tell me he is better; I "Mr. Kinnaird has probably returned to England hope it is nothing but cold. As you say his illness by this time, and will have conveyed to you any t originates in cold, I trust it will get no farther. dings you may wish to have of us and ours. I have

[ocr errors]

Mr. Whistlecraft has no greater admirer than come back to Venice for the winter. Mr. Hobbest myself: I have written a story in eighty-nine stan- will probably set off in December, but what day cr zas, in imitation of him, called Beppo (the short week, know not. He is my opposite neighborst name for Giuseppe, that is, the Joe of the Italian present.

"I am as sorry to hear of Dr. Polidori's accident as one can be for a person for whom one has a di like, and something of contempt. When he gets well, tell me, and how he gets on in the sick Ene. Poor fellow! how came he to fix there?

Joseph), which I shall throw you into the balance "I wrote yesterday in some perplexity, and no of the fourth canto, to help you round to your very good humor to Mr. Kinnaird, to inform me money; but you perhaps had better publish it about Newstead and the Hansons, of which and anonymously: but this we will see to by-and-by. whom I hear nothing since his departure from this "In the notes to canto fourth, Mr. Hobhouse place, except in a few unintelligible words from in has pointed out several errors of Gibbon. You may unintelligible woman. depend upon H.'s research and accuracy. You may print it in what shape you please. "With regard to a future large edition, you may print all, or any thing, except English Bards,' to the republication of which at no time will I consent. I would not reprint them on any consideration. I don't think them good for much, even in point of poetry; and as to the other things, you are to recollect that I gave up the publication on account of Methought he was going to the Brazils, to give the the Hollands, and I do not think that any time or Portuguese physic (of which they are fond to despe circumstances can neutralize the suppression. Add ration), with the Danish consul.

to which, that, after being on terms with almost all the bards and critics of the day, it would be savage at any time, but worst of all now, to revive this forlish lampoon.

"I fear the doctor's skill at Norwich
Will hardly salt the doctor's porridge.

"Your new canto has expanded to one hundred and sixty-seven stanzas. It will be long, you set. and as for the notes by Hobhouse, I suspect they will be of the heroic size. You must keep Mr. in good humor, for he is devilish touchy yet about "The review of Manfred came very safely, and your Review and all which it inherits, including the 1 am much pleased with it. It is odd that they editor, the Admiralty, and its bookseller. I used to should say (that is, somebody in a magazine whom think that I was a good deal of an author in a the Edinburgh controverts), that it was taken from propre and noli me tangere; but these prose fellows Marlow's Faust, which I never read nor saw. An are worst, after all, about their little comforts. American, who came the other day from Germany, "Do you remember my mentioning, some months told Mr. Hobhouse that Manfred was taken from ago, the Marquis Moncada-a Spaniard of distin Goethe's Faust. The devil may take both the tion and fourscore years, my summer neighbor at La Faustuses, German and English-I have taken Mira? Well, about six weeks ago, he fell in love

neither.

"Will you send to Hanson, and say that he has not written since 9th September?-at least I have had no letter since, to my great surprise.

• A paper in the Edinburgh Magazine, in which it was suggested that

the general conception of Manfred, and much of what is excellent in the

manner of its execution, had been borrowed from "The Tragical History

of Dr. Faustus," of Marlow.

with a Venetian girl of family, and no fortune of character: took her into his mansion; quarrelled with all his former friends for giving him advis (except me who gave him none), and installed he present concubine and future wife and mistress of which she demeaned herself as ill as possible, be himself and furniture. At the end of a month, in found out a correspondence between her and some former keeper, and after nearly strangling, turned

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »