[1813. BYRON'S FIRST ENTIRE COMPOSITION.

291

Fournal,' which makes me suspect you as the author of

both.

Would it not have been as well to have said in 2 cantos in the advertisement? they will else think of frag ments, a species of composition very well for once, like one ruin in a view; but one would not build a town of them. The Bride, such as it is, is my first entire composition of any length (except the Satire, and be damned to it), for The Giaour is but a string of passages, and Childe Harold is, and I rather think always will be, unconcluded. I return Mr. Hay's note, with thanks to him and you.

There have been some epigrams on Mr. W[ard]: one I see to-day. The first I did not see, but heard yesterday. The second seems very bad and Mr. P[erry] has placed it over your puff. I only hope that Mr. W. does not believe that I had any connection with either. The Regent is the only person on whom I ever expectorated an epigram, or ever should; and even if I were disposed that way, I like and value Mr. W. too well to allow my politics to contract into spleen, or to admire any thing intended to annoy him or his. You need not take the trouble to answer this, as I shall see you in the course of the afternoon.

Yours very truly,

B.

P.S.-I have said this much about the epigrams, because I live so much in the opposite camp, and, from my post as an Engineer, might be suspected as the flinger of these hand Grenadoes; but with a worthy foe I am all for open war, and not this bush-fighting, and have [not]

1. Journal of Llewellin Penrose, a Seaman.

2.

"Ward has no heart, they say; but I deny it ;

He has a heart, and gets his speeches by it."

had, nor will have, any thing to do with it. I do not know the author.

363.-To John Murray.

Tuesday evening, Nov. 30, 1813.

DEAR SIR,-For the sake of correctness, particularly in an Errata page, the alteration of the couplet I have just sent (half an hour ago) must take place, in spite of delay or cancel; let me see the proof early to-morrow. I found out murmur to be a neuter verb, and have been obliged to alter the line so as to make it a substantive, thus

The deepest murmur of this life shall be
No sigh for Safety, but a prayer for thee!

Don't send the copies to the country till this is all right.

Yours,

B.

364-To Thomas Moore.

November 30, 1813.

Since I last wrote to you, much has occurred, good, bad, and indifferent,-not to make me forget you, but to prevent me from reminding you of one who, nevertheless, has often thought of you, and to whom your thoughts, in many a measure, have frequently been a consolation. We were once very near neighbours this autumn; and a good and bad neighbourhood it has proved to Suffice it to say, that your French quotation was

me.

1. Moore wrote to Byron in 1813 an undated letter, in which the following passage occurs: "I am sorry I must wait till we are "veterans' before you will open to me the story of your wandering "life, wherein you find more hours due to repentance. . . than

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293

confoundedly to the purpose, though very unexpectedly pertinent, as you may imagine by what I said before, and my silence since. However, "Richard's himself again,” 1 and except all night and some part of the morning, I don't think very much about the matter.

All convulsions end with me in rhyme; and to solace my midnights, I have scribbled another Turkish story 2— not a Fragment-which you will receive soon after this. It does not trench upon your kingdom in the least, and if it did, you would soon reduce me to my proper boundaries. You will think, and justly, that I run some risk of losing the little I have gained in fame, by this further experiment on public patience; but I have really ceased to care on that head. I have written this, and published it, for the sake of the employment,-to wring my thoughts from reality, and take refuge in "imaginings," however "horrible; "3 and, as to success! those who succeed will console me for a failure-excepting yourself and one or two more, whom luckily I love too well to wish one leaf of their laurels a tint yellower. This is the work of a week, and will be the reading of an hour to you, or even less, and so, let it go

P.S.-Ward and I talk of going to Holland. I want to see how a Dutch canal looks after the Bosphorus. Pray respond.

"time hath told you yet.' Is it so with you, or are you, like me, "reprobate enough to look back with complacency on what you "have done? I suppose repentance must bring up the rear with us "all; but at present I should say with old Fontenelle, Si je recommençais ma carrière, je ferais tout ce que j'ai fait.”

46

1. Colley Cibber's Richard III., act v. sc. 3—

"Conscience, avaunt! Richard's himself again."

2. The Bride of Abydos was published December, 1813. "Horrible imaginings."

3.

Macbeth, act i. sc. 3.

365.-To Francis Hodgson.

Nov-Dec 1st, 1813.

I have just heard that Knapp is acquainted with what I was but too happy in being enabled to do for you.1 Now, my dear Hn., you, or Drury, must have told this, for, upon my own honour, not even to Scrope, nor to one soul, (Drury knew it before) have I said one syllable of the matter. So don't be out of humour with me about it, but you can't be more so than I am. I am, however, glad of one thing; if you ever conceived it to be in the least an obligation, this disclosure most fairly and fully releases you from it :

"To John I owe some obligation,

But John unluckily thinks fit

To publish it to all the nation,

So John and I are more than quit."

And so there's an end of the matter.

Ward wavers a little about the Dutch, till matters are more sedative, and the French more sedentary.

The Bride will blush upon you in a day or two; there is much, at least a little addition. I am happy to say that Frere and Heber, and some other "good men and true," have been kind enough to adopt the same opinion that you did.

Pray write when you like, and believe me,

Ever yours,

BYRON.

1. Hodgson, now engaged to Miss Tayler, was anxious to clear off his father's liabilities. Byron gave him from first to last the sum of £1500 for the purpose. Hodgson, in a letter to his uncle, thus describes the gift (Memoir of Rev. F. Hodgson, vol. i. pp. 268, 269): "My noble-hearted friend, Lord Byron, after many offers of "a similar kind, which I felt bound to refuse, has irresistibly in my "present circumstances . . volunteered to pay all my debts, and "within a few pounds it is done! Oh, if you knew (but you do

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295

P.S.-Murray has offered me a thousand guineas for the two (Giaour and Bride), and told M. de Stael that he had paid them to me!! I should be glad to be able to tell her so too. But the truth is, he would; but I thought the fair way was to decline it till May, and, at the end of 6 months, he can safely say whether he can afford it or not-without running any risk by Speculation. If he paid them now and lost by it, it would be hard. If he gains, it will be time enough when he has already funded his profits. But he needed not have told "la Baronne" such a devil of an uncalled for piece of premature truth, perhaps-but, nevertheless, a lie in the mean time.

366.-To John Murray.

Dec. 2, 1813.

DEAR SIR,-When you can, let the couplet enclosed be inserted either in the page, or in the Errata page. I trust it is in time for some of the copies. This alteration is in the same part-the page but one before the last correction sent.

Yours, etc.,

B.

P.S.-I am afraid, from all I hear, that people are rather inordinate in their expectations, which is very unlucky, but cannot now be helped. This comes of Mr. Perry and one's wise friends; but do not you wind your hopes of success to the same pitch, for fear of accidents, and I can assure you that my philosophy will stand the test very fairly; and I have done every thing to ensure you, at all events, from positive loss, which will be some satisfaction to both.

"know) the exultation of heart, aye, and of head too, I feel at being "free from these depressing embarrassments, you would, as I do, "bless my dearest friend and brother Byron."