1811.] ASKED TO READ THE wanderer. 89 not that I should ever dare to venture a criticism on her whose writings Dr. Johnson once revised, but for the pleasure of the thing. If my worthy publisher wanted a sound opinion, I should send the MS. to Rogers and Moore, as men most alive to true taste. I have had frequent letters from Wm. Harness, and you are silent; certes, you are not a schoolboy. However, I have the consolation of knowing that you are better employed, viz. reviewing. You don't deserve that I should add another syllable, and I won't. Yours, etc. P.S.-I only wait for your answer to fix our meeting. 216.-To R. C. Dallas. [Undated, Dec. ? 1811.]1 DEAR SIR,-I have only this scrubby paper to write on-excuse it. I am certain that I sent some more notes on Spain and Portugal, particularly one on the latter. Pray rummage, and don't mind my politics. I believe I leave town next week. Are you better? I hope so. Yours ever, B. 217.-To William Harness. 8, St. James's Street, Dec. 15, 1811. I wrote you an answer to your last, which, on reflection, pleases me as little as it probably has pleased yourself. I will not wait for your rejoinder; but proceed to tell you, that I had just then been greeted with an epistle of **'s, full of his petty grievances, and this at the moment when (from circumstances it is not necessary to enter 1. Dallas's answer is dated December 14, 1811. upon) I was bearing up against recollections to which his imaginary sufferings are as a scratch to a cancer. These things combined, put me out of humour with him and all mankind. The latter part of my life has been a perpetual struggle against affections which embittered the earliest portion; and though I flatter myself I have in a great measure conquered them, yet there are moments (and this was one) when I am as foolish as formerly. I never said so much before, nor had I said this now, if I did not suspect myself of having been rather savage in my letter, and wish to inform you this much of the cause. know I am not one of your dolorous gentlemen: so now let us laugh again. You Yesterday I went with Moore to Sydenham to visit Campbell.' He was not visible, so we jogged homeward merrily enough. To-morrow I dine with Rogers, and am to hear Coleridge, who is a kind of rage at present. Last night I saw Kemble in Coriolanus; 2-he was glorious, and exerted himself wonderfully. By good luck I got an excellent place in the best part of the house, which was more than overflowing. Clare and Delawarr, who were there on the same speculation, were less 1. Campbell lived at Sydenham from 1804 to 1820. Moore (Life, p. 148) adds the following note: "On this occasion, another "of the noble poet's peculiarities was, somewhat startlingly, intro"duced to my notice. When we were on the point of setting out "from his lodgings in St. James's Street, it being then about mid"day, he said to the servant, who was shutting the door of the vis-à-vis, 'Have you put in the pistols?' and was answered in the "affirmative. It was difficult,-more especially taking into account "the circumstances under which we had just become acquainted,— "to keep from smiling at this singular noonday precaution." 66 2. On December 14, 1811, at Covent Garden, Kemble acted "Coriolanus" with Mrs. Siddons as "Volumnia." It was Kemble's great part, and in it he made his last appearance on the stage (June 23, 1817). 3. For Lord Clare, see Letters, vol. i. p. 116, note 1. 1811.] ROBERT COATES. 91 fortunate. I saw them by accident, we were not together. I wished for you, to gratify your love of Shakspeare and of fine acting to its fullest extent. Last week I saw an exhibition of a different kind in a Mr. Coates,1 at the Haymarket, who performed Lothario in a damned and damnable manner. I told you the fate of B[land] and H[odgson] in my last. So much for these sentimentalists, who console themselves in their stews for the loss-the never to be recovered loss-the despair of the refined attachment of a couple of drabs! You censure my life, Harness,-when I compare myself with these men, my elders and my betters, I really begin to conceive myself a monument of prudence -a walking statue-without feeling or failing; and yet the world in general hath given me a proud pre-eminence over them in profligacy. Yet I like the men, and, God knows, ought not to condemn their aberrations. But I own I feel provoked when they dignify all this by the name of love-romantic attachments for things marketable for a dollar! Dec. 16th. I have just received your letter;-I feel your kindness very deeply. The foregoing part of my 64 1. Robert Coates, "the Amateur of Fashion," known as "Romeo" Coates, sometimes as "Diamond" Coates, sometimes as "Cock-a-doodle-doo" Coates (1772-1848), was the only surviv ing son of a wealthy West Indian planter. He made his first appearance on the stage at Bath (February 9, 1810), as "Romeo." In the play-bill he was announced as "a Gentleman, 1st Appearance on any stage." Genest (English Stage, vol. viii. p. 207) says, "Many gentlemen have been weak enough to fancy themselves "actors, but no one ever persevered in obtruding himself for so "long a time on the notice of the public in spite of laughter, hiss"ing, etc." On December 9, 1811, he appeared at the Haymarket Lothario" in Rowe's Fair Penitent. Mathews, at Covent Garden, imitated his performance, in Bate Dudley's At Home, as "Mr. Romeo Rantall," appearing in the "pink silk vest and cloak, "white satin breeches and stockings, Spanish hat, with a rich high "plume of ostrich feathers," in which Coates had played “Lo"thario" (Memoirs of Charles Mathews, vol. ii. pp. 238, 239). as 66 ** letter, written yesterday, will, I hope, account for the tone of the former, though it cannot excuse it. I do like to hear from you-more than like. Next to seeing you, I have no greater satisfaction. But you have other duties, and greater pleasures, and I should regret to take a moment from either. H was to call to-day, but I have not seen him. The circumstances you mention at the close of your letter is another proof in favour of my opinion of mankind. Such you will always find themselfish and distrustful. I except none. The cause of this is the state of society. In the world, every one is to stir for himself-it is useless, perhaps selfish, to expect any thing from his neighbour. But I do not think we are born of this disposition; for you find friendship as a schoolboy, and love enough before twenty. I went to see **; he keeps me in town, where I don't wish to be at present. He is a good man, but totally without conduct. And now, my dearest William, I must wish you good morrow, and remain ever, Most sincerely and affectionately yours, etc. 218.-To Robert Rushton,1 8, St. James's Street, Jan. 21, 1812. Though I have no objection to your refusal to carry letters to Mealey's, you will take care that the letters are 1. The two following letters, and a suppressed passage in the letter to Moore of January 29, 1812, refer to a quarrel among his dependents, in which Rushton, the "little page" of Childe Harold (see Letters, vol. i. pp. 224, 242), played a part. The story is told at considerable length in a letter to Hodgson, dated January 28, 1812. To the same affair probably belong the following scrap and Byron's note: "Pray don't forget me, as I shall never cease thinking "of you, my Dearest and only Friend, (signed) S. H. V." To this Byron has added this note: "This was written on the 11th of "January, 1812; on the 28th I received ample proof that the Girl 1812.] ROBERT RUSHTON. 93 taken by Spero at the proper time. I have also to observe, that Susan is to be treated with civility, and not insulted by any person over whom I have the smallest controul, or, indeed, by any one whatever, while I have the power to protect her. I am truly sorry to have any subject of complaint against you; I have too good an opinion of you to think I shall have occasion to repeat it, after the care I have taken of you, and my favourable intentions in your behalf. I see no occasion for any communication whatever between you and the women, and wish you to occupy yourself in preparing for the situation in which you will be placed. If a common sense of decency cannot prevent you from conducting yourself towards them with rudeness, I should at least hope that your own interest, and regard for a master who has never treated you with unkindness, will have some weight. Yours, etc., BYRON. P.S.-I wish you to attend to your arithmetic, to occupy yourself in surveying, measuring, and making yourself acquainted with every particular relative to the "had forgotten me and herself too. Heigho! B." The letters show, writes Moore (Life, p. 152), “how gravely and coolly the 66 young lord could arbitrate on such an occasion, and with what "considerate leaning towards the servant whose fidelity he had "proved, in preference to any new liking or fancy by which it "might be suspected he was actuated toward the other." In a MS. book written by Mrs. Heath of Newstead (née Rebekah Beardall), it is stated that the elder Rushton had as his farm-servant Fletcher, afterwards Byron's valet. Byron watched Fletcher and young Robert Rushton ploughing, took a fancy to both, and engaged them as his servants. Rushton accompanied Byron to Geneva, but afterwards entered the service of James Wedderburn Webster (see p. 2, note 1). In 1827 he married a woman of the name of Bagnall, and with her help kept a school at Arnold, near Nottingham. Subsequently he took a farm on the Newstead estate, named Hazelford, and shortly afterwards died, leaving a widow and three children. |