phorus' instead of the Asiatic!! All this may ont difficulty to Don Jose di Cardozo's, I should seem little to you, so fine a gentleman, with your there have found the tenderest of wives and-a ministerial connexions, but it is serious to me, who strait waistcoat. am thousands of miles off, and have no opportunity of not proving myself the fool your printer makes me, except your pleasure and leisure, forsooth. "The gods prosper you, and forgive you, for I can't."

LETTER DXVII.

"I had nothing to reply to this piece of affection but a reiteration of my request for some lights upon the subject. I was answered that they would only be related to the Inquisition. In the mean time, our domestic discrepancy had become a public topie of discussion; and the world, which always decides justly, not only in Arragon but in Andalusia, deter. mined that I was not only to blame, but that al Spain could produce nobody so blameable. My case was supposed to comprise all the crimes which could, and several which could not, be committed, and little less than an auto-da-fé was anticipated as the result. But let no man say that we are aban doned by our friends in adversity-it was just the reverse. Mine thronged around me to condemn, "By Mr. Mawman, (a paymaster in the corps, in advise, and console me with their disapprobation.which you and I are privates,) I yesterday expedited They told me all that was, would, or could be said to your address, under cover one, two paper books, on the subject. They shook their heads-they excontaining the Giaour-nal, and a thing or two. It horted me-deplored me, with tears in their eyes won't do even for the posthumous public-but exand-went to dinner." tracts from it may. It is a brief and faithful chronicle of a month or so-parts of it not very discreet, but sufficiently sincere. Mr. Mawman saith that he will, in person or per friend, have it delivered to you in your Elysian fields.

TO MR. MOORE.

"Ravenna, Sept. 3, 1821.

LETTER DXVIII.

TO MR. MURRAY.

"Ravenna, Sept. 4, 1821.

"If you have got the new Juans, recollect that there are some very gross printer's blunders, particularly in the fifth canto, such as praise' for pair' -'precarious' for 'precocious'-'Adriatic for By Saturday's post, I sent you a fierce and 'Asiatic' case' for 'chase '-besides gifts of addi- furibund letter upon the subject of the printer's tional words and syllables, which make but a ca- blunders in Don Juan. I must solicit your attencophonous rhythmus. Put the pen through the said, tion to the topic, though my wrath hath subsided as I would mine through Murray's ears if I were into sullenness. along side of him. As it is, I have sent him a rattling letter, as abusive as possible. Though he is publisher to the Board of Longitude,' he is in no danger of discovering it.

"I am packing for Pisa-but direct your letters here, till farther notice.

"Yours ever, &c."

66

Yesterday I received Mr. -, a friend of yours, and because he is a friend of yours; and that's more than I would do in an English case, except for those whom I honor. I was as civil as I could be among packages even to the very chairs and tables, for I am going to Pisa in a few weeks, and have sent and am sending off my chattels. It regretted me that, my books and every thing being packed, I [One of the "paper books" mentioned in this let-could not send you a few things I meant for you; ter as intrusted to Mr. Mawman for me, contained but they were all sealed and baggaged, so as to have a portion, to the amount of nearly a hundred pages, made it a month's work to get at them again. I of a prose story, relating the adventures of a young gave him an envelope, with the Italian scrap in it, Andalusian nobleman, which had been begun by him, alluded to in my Gilchrist defence. Hobhouse will at Venice, in 1817, of which the following is an ex-make it out for you, and it will make you laugh, tract.-Moore.]

and him too, the spelling particularly. The Mer cani,' of whom they call me the 'Capo,' (or chief.) mean Americans,' which is the name given in Romagna to a part of the Carbonari; that is to say, to the popular part, the troops of the Carbonari.They are originally a society of hunters in the forest, who took the name of Americans, but at pres ent comprise some thousands, &c.; but I shan't let "During her journey I received a very affection- you farther into the secret, which may be partici ate letter from Donna Josepha, apprizing me of the pated with the post masters. Why they thought welfare of herself and my son. On her arrival at me their chief, I know not: their chiefs are like the chateau, I received another still more affection-Legion, being many.' However, it is a post of ate, pressing me, in very fond, and rather foolish more honor than profit, for, now that they are per terms, to join her immediately. As I was preparing secuted, it is fit that I should aid them; and so I to set out from Seville, I received a third--this was have done, as far as my means would permit. They from her father, Don Jose di Cardozo, who requested will rise again some day, for these fools of the gor me, in the politest manner, to dissolve my marriage. ernment are blundering: they actually seem to know I answered him with equal politeness, that I would nothing, for they have arrested and banished many do no such thing. A fourth letter arrived-it was of their own party, and let others escape who are not from Donna Josepha, in which she informed me their friends.

"A few hours afterward we were very good friends, and a few days after she set out for Arragon, with my son, on a visit to her father and mother. I did not accompany her immediately, having been in Arragon before, but was to join the family in their Moorish chateau within a few weeks.

that her father's letter was written by her particular] "What think'st thou of Greece? desire. I requested the reason by return of post- "Address to me here as usual, till your hear far

she replied, by express, that as reason had nothing ther from me. to do with the matter, it was unnecessary to give "By Mawman I have sent a Journal to Moore: any-but that she was an injured and excellent but it won't do for the public, at least a great deal woman. I then inquired why she had written to me of it won't;-parts may.

the two preceding affectionate letters, requesting "I read over the Juans, which are excellent. me to come to Arragon. She answered, that was Your squad are quite wrong; and so you will find because she believed me out of my senses-that, being unfit to take care of myself, I had only to set

• An anonymous letter which he had received, threatening him with s

out on this journey alone, and make my way with-sination.

by-and-by. I regret that I do not go on with it, for of the corporation, and to have entered into its I had all the plan for several cantos, and different pulses and passions, quarum partes fuimus. Both countries and climes. You say nothing of the note of us have learned by this much which nothing else I enclosed to you, which will explain why I agreed could have taught us.

"Yours.

to discontinue it, (at Madame Guiccioli's request;) "P. S. I saw one of your brethren, another of but you are so grand, and sublime, and occupied, the allied sovereigns of Grub street, the other day, that one would think, instead of publishing for Mawman the Great, by whom I sent due homage to 'the Board of Longitude,' that you were trying to your imperial self. To-morrow's post may perhaps discover it. bring a letter from you, but you are the most ungrateful and ungracious of correspondents. there is some excuse for you, with your perpetual levee of politicians, parsons, scribblers, and loungers. Some day I will give you a poetical catalogue of them."

"Let me hear that Gifford is better. He can't be spared either by you or me.'

But

"P. S. Can you forgive this? It is only a reply to your lines against my Italians. Of course I will stand by my lines against all men; but it is heartbreaking to see such things in a people as the reception of that unredeemed**

* in an op

"There's as pretty a piece of imprecation for you, when joined to the lines already sent, as you may wish to meet with in the course of your business.-pressed country. Your apotheosis is now reduced to But don't forget the addition of the above three a level with his welcome, and their gratitude to lines, which are clinchers to Eve's speech. Grattan is cancelled by their atrocious adulation of this, &c., &c., &c."

"Let me know what Gifford thinks, (if the play arrives in safety;) for I have a good opinion of the piece, as poetry; it is in my gay metaphysical style, and in the Manfred line.

"You must at least commend my faculty and variety, when you consider what I have done within the last fifteen months, with my head, too, full of other and of mundane matters. But no doubt you will avoid saying any good of it, for fear I should raise the price upon you: that's right: stick to business. Let me know what your other ragamuffins are writing, for I suppose you don't like starting too many of your vagabonds at once. You may give them the start for any thing I care.

LETTER DXXI.

TO MR. MOORE.

The cause

"Ravenna, Sept. 19, 1821. "I am in all the sweat, dust, and blasphemy of a universal packing of all my things, furniture, &c., for Pisa, whither I go for the winter. has been the exile of all my fellow Carbonies, and, Why don't you publish my Pulci-the very best among them, of the whole family of Madame G., who, you know, was divorced from her husband last thing ever wrote, with the Italian to it? I wish week, on account of P. P. clerk of this parish,' I was alongside of you; nothing is ever done in a and who is obliged to join her father and relatives, man's absence; every body runs counter, because they can. If ever I do return to England, (which now in exile there, to avoid being shut up in a moI shan't, though,) I will write a poem to which nastery, because the Pope's decree of separation reEnglish Bards,' &c., shall be new milk, in com- quired her to reside in casa paterna, or else, for As I could not say, decorum's sake, in a convent. parison. Your present literary world of mount

banks stand in need of such an Avatar. But I am not yet quite bilious enough a season or two more, and a provocation or two, will wind me up to the point, and then have at the whole set!

་

with Hamlet, 'Get thee to a nunnery,' I am prepar

ing to follow them.

"It is awful work, this love, and prevents all a man's projects of good or glory. I wanted to go to Greece lately (as every thing seems up here) with her brother, who is a very fine, brave fellow, (I have seen him put to the proof,) and wild about liberty. But the tears of a woman who has left a husband for a man, and the weakness of one's own heart, are paramount to these projects, and I can hardly indulge them.

"I have no patience with the sort of trash you send me out by way of books; except Scott's novels, and three or four other things, I never saw such work, or works. Campbell is lecturing-Moore idling-Southey twaddling-Wordsworth drivelling -Coleridge muddling-* piddling-Bowles quibbling, squabbling, and snivelling. ** will do, if he "We were divided in choice between Switzerland don't cant too much, nor imitate Southey; the fel- and Tuscany, and I give my vote for Pisa, as nearer low has poesy in him; but he is envious and unhap- the Mediterranean, which I love for the sake of the py, as all the envious are. Still he is among the shores which it washes and for my young recollecbest of the day. Barry Cornwall will do better by- tions of 1809. Switzerland is a cursed, selfish, and-by, I dare say, if he don't get spoiled by green swinish country of brutes, placed in the most rotea, and the praises of Pentonville and Paradise-mantic region of the world. I never could bear the row. The pity of these men is, that they never lived in high life, nor in solitude: there is no medi"The Irish Avater," Poems, p. 573. In this copy, the folle wing sen um for the knowledge of the busy or the still world. If admitted into high life for a season, it is merely tence (taken from a letter of Curran, in the able Life of that true Irishraan as spectators-they form no part of the mechanism by his son) is prefixed as a motto to the poem-"And Ireland, like a basti nadoed elephant, kneeling to receive the paltry rider."-Letter of Curran thereof. Now, Moore and I, the one by circum- Life, vol. ii., p. 336. At the end of the verses are these words: ("Signed, stances, and the other by birth, happened to be free W. L. B, M. A., and written with a view to a Bishoprick."- Moore.

inhabitants, and still less their English visitors; for three acts, and entitled 'A Mystery,' according to which reason, after writing for some information the former Christian custom, and in honor of wha about houses, upon hearing that there was a colony it probably will remain to the reader.

of English all over the cantons of Geneva, &c., I immediately gave up the thought, and persuaded the Gambas to do the same.

LETTER DXXII.

TO MR. MOORE.

"Yours, &c."

"By last post I sent you the Irish Avatar,'what think you? The last line-a name never spoke but with curses or jeers'-must run either 'a name only uttered with curses or jeers,' or 'a wretch never named but with curses or jeers.' Becase as how, 'spoke' is not grammar, except in the "September 20, 1821. House of Commons; and I doubt whether we can "After the stanza on Grattan, concluding with say a name spoken,' for mentioned. I have some His soul o'er the freedom implored and denied,' doubts, too, about repay, and for murder repay will it please you to cause the printer to insert the with a shout and a smile. Should it not be, and following 'Addenda,' which I dreamed of during for murder repay him with shouts and a smile,' or to-day's siesta: reward him with shouts and a smile?'

"So, pray put your poetical pen through the MS.

"Ever glorious Grattan ! &c., &c., &c.

and take the least bad of the emendations. Also, I will tell you what to do. Get me twenty copies if there be any farther breaking of Priscian's head, of the whole carefully and privately printed off, as will you apply a plaster? I wrote in the greatest your lines were on the Naples affair. Send me siz, hurry and fury, and sent it to you the day after; so, and distribute the rest according to you own plea doubtless, there will be some awful constructions, sure. and a rather lawless conception of rhythmus.

"I am in a fine vein, so full of pastime and prod

"With respect to what Anna Seward calls the igality!'-So, here's to your health in a glass of liberty of transcript,'-when complaining of Miss grog. Pray write, that I may know by return of Matilda Muggleton, the accomplished daughter of post-address to me at Pisa. The gods give you a choral vicar of Worcester Cathedral, who had joy!

abused the said liberty of transcript,' by inserting "Where are you? in Paris? Let us hear. You in the Malvern Mercury, Miss Seward's Elegy on will take care that there be no printer's name, nor the South Pole,' as her own production, with her author's, as in the Naples stanzas, at least for the own signature, two years after having taken a copy, present."

by permission of the authoress-with regard, I say, to the liberty of transcript,' I by no means oppose an occasional copy to the benevolent few, provided it does not degenerate into such licentiousness of verb and noun as may tend to disparage my parts of speech' by the carelessness of the transcribblers.

LETTER DXXIII.

TO MR. MURRAY.

"Ravenna, Sept. 20, 1821. "You need not send the Blues,' which is a mere buffoonery, never meant for publication.*

"I do not think that there is much danger of the 'King's Press being abused' upon the occasion, if the publishers of journals have any regard for their remaining liberty of person. It is as pretty a piece of invective as ever put publisher in the way to "The papers to which I aliude, in case of survi 'Botany.' Therefore, if they meddle with it, it is vorship, are collections of letters, &c., since I was at their peril. As for myself, I will answer any sixteen years old, contained in the trunks in the jontleman-though I by no means recognize a care of Mr. Hobhouse. This collection is at least right of search' into an unpublished production doubled by those I have now here, all received since and unavowed poem. The same applies to things my last ostracism. To these I should wish the published sans consent. I hope you like, at least, editor to have access, not for the purpose of abusing the concluding lines of the 10em? confidences, nor of hurting the feelings of corre "What are you doing, and where are you? in spondents living, nor the memories of the dead; England? Nail Murray-nail him to his own coun- but there are things which would do neither, that I ter, till he shells out the thirteens. Since I wrote have left unnoticed or unexplained, and which (like to you, I have sent him another tragedy-Cain' all such things) time only can permit to be noticed by name-making three in MS. now in his hands, or explained, though some are to my credit. The or in the printer's. It is in the Manfred, metaphys- task will of course require delicacy; but that wil ical style, and full of some Titanic declamation;-not be wanting, if Moore and Hobhouse survive me, Lucifer being one of the dram. pers. who takes and, I may add, yourself; and that you may al Cain a voyage among the stars, and, afterwards, three do so is, I assure you, my very sincere wish. to Hades,' where he shows the phantoms of a I am not sure that long life is desirable for one of former world, and its inhabitants. I have gone my temper and constitutional depressions of spirits, upon the notion of Cuvier, that the world has been which of course I suppress in society; but which destroyed three or four times, and was inhabited by breaks out when alone, and in my writings, in spite mammoths, behemoths, and what not; but not by of myself. It has been deepened, perhaps, by some man till the Mosaic period, as, indeed, is proved by long-past events, (I do not allude to my marriage, the strata of bones found-those of all unknown &c.-on the contrary, that raised them by the per animals, and known, being dug out, but none of secution giving a fillip to my spirits ;) but I call it mankind. I have, therefore, supposed Cain to be constitutional, as I have reason to think it. You shown, in the rational Preadamites, being endowed know, or you do not know, that my maternal grandwith a higher intelligence than man, but totally father, (a very clever man, and amiable, I am told, unlike him in form, and with much greater strength was strongly suspected of suicide, (he was found of mind and person. You may suppose the small drowned in the Avon at Bath,) and that another talk which takes place between him and Lucifer very near relative of the same branch took poison, upon these matters is not quite canonical. and was merely saved by antidotes. For the first of "The consequence is, that Cain comes back and these events there was no apparent cause, as he was kills Abel in a fit of dissatisfaction, partly with the rich, respected, and of considerable intellectual re politics of Paradise, which had driven them all out sources, hardly forty years of age, and not at all of it, and partly because (as it is written in Genesis) addicted to any unhinging vice. It was, however, Abel's sacrifice was the more acceptable to the Deity. I trust that the Rhapsody has arrived-it is in

• See Poems, p. 532,

1

put a strong suspicion, owing to the

manner of his whatsoever-no Edinburgh, Quarterly, Monthly, death and his melancholy temper. The second had nor any review, magazine, or newspaper, English a cause, but it does not become me to touch upon or foreign, of any description. it: it happened when I was far too young to be "5thly. That you send me no opinions whatso aware of it, and I never heard of it till after the ever, either good, bad, or indifferent, of yourself, or death of that relative, many years afterward. I your friends, or others, concerning any work, or think, then, that I may call this dejection constitu- works, of mine, past, present, or to come. tional. I had always been told that I resembled "6thly. That all negotiations in matters of busimore my maternal grandfather than any of my ness between you and me pass through the medium father's family-that is, in the gloomier part of his of the Hon. Douglas Kinnaird, my friend and trustemper, for he was what you call a good-natured tee, or Mr. Hobhouse, as 'Alter ego,' and tanta man, and I am not. mount to myself during my absence-or presence.

"The journal here I sent to Moore the other day; "Some of these propositions may at first seem but as it is a mere diary, only parts of it would ever strange, but they are founded. The quantity of do for publication. The other journal of the tour trash I have received as books is incalculable, and in 1816, I should think Augusta might let you have neither amused nor instructed. Reviews and maga copy of. azines are at the best but ephemeral and superficial am much mortified that Gifford don't take to reading-who thinks of the grand article of last my new dramas. To be sure, they are as opposite year in any given Review? In the next place. if to the English drama as one thing can be to an- they regard myself, they tend to increase egotism. other; but I have a notion that, if understood, they If favorable, I do not deny that the praise elates, will in time find favor (though not on the stage) and if unfavorable, that the abuse irritates. The with the reader. The simplicity of plot is inten- latter may conduct me to inflict a species of satire, tional, and the avoidance of rant also, as also the which would neither do good to you nor to your compression of the speeches in the more severe friends: they may smile now, and so may you; but situations. What I seek to show in the Foscaris' if I took you all in hand, it would not be difficult to is the suppressed passions, rather than the rant of cut you up like gourds. I did as much by as pow the present day. For that matter

'Nay, if thou'lt mouth, I'll rant as well as thou '

erful people at nineteen years old, and I know little as yet, in three-and-thirty, which should prevent me from making all your ribs gridirons for your hearts, if such were my propensity: but it is not; would not be difficult, as I think I have shown in therefore let me hear none of your provocations. my younger productions,-not dramatic ones, to be If any thing occurs so very gross as to require my sure. But, as I said before, I am mortified that notice, I shall hear of it from my legal friends. For Gifford don't like them; but I see no remedy, our the rest, I merely request to be left in ignorance. notions on that subject being so different. How is "The same applies to opinions, good, bad, or in he?-well, I hope;-let me know. I regret his different, of persons in conversation or corresponddemur the more that he has been always my grand ence. These do not interrupt, but they soil, the patron, and I know no praise which would compen- current of my mind. I am sensitive enough, but sate me in my own mind for his censure. I do not not till I am troubled; and here I am beyond the mind Reviews, as I can work them at their own touch of the short arms of literary England, except "Yours, &c." the few feelers of the polypus that crawl over the channels in the way of extract.

weapons.

"Address to me at Pisa, whither I am going. The reason is, that all my Italian friends here have been exiled, and are met there for the present, and I go to join them, as agreed upon, for the winter."

LETTER DXXIV.

TO MR. MURRAY.

"Ravenna, Sept, 24, 1821.

"I have been thinking over our late correspondence, and wish to propose to you the following articles for our future:

"All these precautions in England would be useless; the libeller or the flatterer would there reach me in spite of all; but in Italy we know little of literary England, and think less, except what reaches us through some garbled and brief extract in some miserable gazette. For two years (excepting two or three articles cut out and sent to you by the post) I never read a newspaper which was not forced upon me by some accident, and know, upon the whole, as little of England as you do of Italy, and God knows that is little enough, with all your travels, &c., &c., &c. The English travellers know Italy as you know Guernsey: how much is that?

"If any thing occurs so violently gross or personal as requires notice, Mr. Douglas Kinnaird will let "Istly. That you shall write to me of yourself, me know; but of praise, I desire to hear nothing. of the health, wealth, and welfare of all friends; but of me (quoad me) little or nothing.

"You will say, to what tends all this?' I will answer THAT;-to keep my mind free and unbiased 2dly. That you shall send me soda-powders, by all paltry and personal irritabilities of praise or tooth-powder, tooth-brushes, or any such anti-censure to let my genius take its natural direction, odontalgic or chemical articles, as heretofore, ad while my feelings are like the dead, who know libitum,' upon being reimbursed for the same. nothing and feel nothing of all or aught that is "3dly. That you shall not send me any modern, said or done in their regard.

or (as they are called) new publications, in English| "If you can observe these conditions, you will whatsoever, save and excepting any writing, prose or spare yourself and others some pain; let me not be verse, of (or reasonably presumed to be of) Walter worked upon to rise up; for if I do, it will not be Scott, Crabbe, Moore, Campbell, Rogers, Gifford, for a little. If you cannot observe these conditions, Joanna Baillie, Irving, (the American,) Hogg, Wil- we shall cease to be correspondents,-but not son, (the Isle of Palms man,) or any especial single friends, for I shall always be yours and ever truly, work of fancy which is thought to be of considera"BYRON. ble merit; Voyages and Travels, provided that they

"P. S. I have taken these resolutions, not from are neither in Greece, Spain, Asia Minor, Albania, any irritation against you or yours, but simply upon nor Italy, will be welcome. Having travelled the reflection that all reading, either praise or censure, countries mentioned, I know that what is said of of myself has done me harm. When I was in them can convey nothing farther which I desire to Switzerland and Greece, I was out of the way of know about them.-No other English works what- hearing either, and how I wrote there!-in Italy J am out of the way of it too; but latterly, partly through my fault, and partly through your kindness

soever.

"4thly. That you send me no periodical works

in wishing to send me the newest and most periodi- it is a long lease of life to speculate upon. So your cal publications, I have had a crowd of Reviews, calculation will not be in so much peril, as the &c., thrust upon me, which have bored me with argosie' will sink before that time, and the pound their jargon, of one kind or another, and taken off of flesh' be withered previously to your being so my attention from greater objects. You have also long out of a return. sent me a parcel of trash of poetry, for no reason "I also wish to give you a hint or two, (as you that I can conceive, unless to provoke me to write have really behaved very handsomely to Moore in a new English Bards.' Now this I wish to avoid the business, and are a fine fellow in your line,) for for if ever I do, it will be a strong production; and your advantage. If by your own management you I desire peace as long as the fools will keep their can extract any of my epistles from Lady nonsense out of my way." *,) they might be of use in your collection, (sinking of course the names, and all such circumstances as might hurt living feelings, or those of survivors;) they treat of more topics than love occasionally.

copy.

LETTER DXXV.

TO MR. MOORE.

"September 27, 1821.

"I will tell you who may happen to have some letters of mine in their possession: Lord Powerscourt, some to his late brother; Mr. Long of—(I forget his place)-but the father of Edward Long of the Guards, who was drowned in going to Lisbon early in 1809; Miss Elizabeth Pigot, of Southwell,

sible.

"It was not Murray's fault. I did not send the MS. overture, but I send it now,* and it may be restored; or, at any rate, you may keep the orig- Notts, (she may be Mistress by this time, for she inal, and give any copies you please. I send it, as had a year or two more than I :) they were not love written, and as I read it to you-I have no other letters, so that you might have them without By last week's two posts, in two packets, I sent scruple. There are, or might be, some to the late to your address, at Paris, a longish poem upon the Rev. J. C. Tattersall, in the hands of his brother (half-brother) Mr. Wheatley, who resides near Can late Irishism of your countrymen in their reception of. Pray, have you received it? It is in the terbury, I think. There are some of Charles Gordon, high Roman fashion,' and full of ferocious fantasy now at Dulwich; and some few to Mrs. Chaworth; As you could not well take up the matter with but these latter are probably destroyed or inacces Paddy, (being of the same nest,) I have;-but I hope still that I have done justice to his great men and his good heart. , you will find it laid on with a trowel. I delight in your fact historical-is it a fact? Yours, &c. P. S. You have not answered me about Schlegel -why not? Address to me at Pisa, whither I am "Peel (the second brother of the Secretary) was a going, to join the exiles-a pretty numerous body, correspondent of mine, and also Porter, the son of at present. Let me hear how you are, and what the Bishop of Clogher; Lord Clare a very volum you mean to do. Is there no chance of your re-inous one; William Harness (a friend of Milman's) crossing the Alps? If the G. Rex marries again, another; Charles Drummond, (son of the banker); let him not want an Epithalamium-suppose a William Bankes (the voyager) your friend; R. C. joint concern of you and me, like Sternhold and Dallas, Esq.; Hodgson; Henry Drury; Hobhouse Hopkins!" you are already aware of.

As for

LETTER DXXVI.

TO MR. MURRAY.

64

"September 28, 1821.

"I mention these people and particulars merely the letters, which in fact are of little import, many as chances. Most of them have probably destroyed school and college. of them written when very young, and several at

"I have gone through this long list of

The coll, the faithless, and the dead,'

because I know that, like the curious in fishsauce,' you are a researcher of such things.

"Besides these, there are other occasional ones to literary men and so forth, complimentary, &c., "I add another cover to request you to ask &c., &c., not worth much more than the rest. There Moore to obtain (if possible) my letters to the late are some hundreds, too, of Italian notes of mine, Lady Melbourne from Lady Cowper. They are scribbled with a noble contempt of the grammar very numerous, and ought to have been restored and dictionary, in very English Etruscan; for I long ago, as I was ready to give back Lady Mel-speak Italian very fluently, but write it carelessly bourne's in exchange. These latter are in Mr. and incorrectly to a degree."

Hobhouse's custody with my other papers, and shall be punctually restored if required. I did not choose before to apply to Lady Cowper, as her mother's death naturally kept me from intruding upon her feelings at the time of its occurrence. Some years have now elapsed, and it is essential that I should have my own epistles. They are essential as confirming that part of the Memoranda' which refers to the two periods (1812 and 1814) when my marriage with her neice was in contemplation, and will tend to show what my real views and feelings were upon that subject.

"You need not be alarmed; the fourteen years' will hardly elapse without some mortality among us:

• The linea "Oh Wellington," Don Juan, canto ix., stanza i., &c., which I had missed in their original place at the opening of the third canto, and took for granted that they had been suppressed by his publisher.-Moore.

He here alludes to a passing remark in one of Mr. Murray's letters, that, as his lordship's "Memoranda" were not to be published in his lifetime, the sum now paid for the work, 21004., would, most probably, upon a

LETTER DXXVII.

TO MR. MOORE.

"September 29, 1921.

"I send you two rough things, prose and verse, not much in themselves, but which will show, one of them the state of the country, and the other of your friend's mind, when they were written. Neither of them were sent to the person concerned, but you will see, by the style of them, that they were sincere, as I am in signing myself

"Yours ever and truly,

B."

[Of the two enclosures, mentioned in the fore going note, one was a letter intended to be sent to reasonable calculation of survivorship, amount u.imately to no less than Lady Byron, relative to his money invested in the funds, of which the following are extracts.]

8000-Moore.