The Works of Lord Byron: Letters and Journals Volume II Part 38

248.--To Lord Holland.

September 24.

I send a recast of the four first lines of the concluding paragraph.

This greeting o'er, the ancient rule obey'd, The drama's homage by her Herald paid, Receive _our welcome too_, whose every tone Springs from our hearts, and fain would win your own.

The curtain rises, etc., etc.

And do forgive all this trouble. See what it is to have to do even with the _genteelest_ of us.

Ever, etc.

249.--To Lord Holland.

Cheltenham, Sept. 25, 1812.

Still "more matter for a May morning." [1] Having patched the middle and end of the Address, I send one more couplet for a part of the beginning, which, if not too turgid, you will have the goodness to add. After that flagrant image of the _Thames_ (I hope no unlucky wag will say I have set it on fire, though Dryden [2], in his _Annus Mirabilis_, and Churchill [3], in his _Times_, did it before me), I mean to insert this:

As flas.h.i.+ng far the new Volcano shone {_meteors_} And swept the skies with {lightnings} not their own, While thousands throng'd around the burning dome, Etc., etc.

I think "thousands" less flat than "crowds collected"--but don't let me plunge into the bathos, or rise into Nat. Lee's _Bedlam metaphors_ [4].

By the by, the best view of the said fire (which I myself saw from a house-top in Covent-garden) was at Westminster Bridge, from the reflection on the Thames.

Perhaps the present couplet had better come in after "trembled for their homes," the two lines after;--as otherwise the image certainly sinks, and it will run just as well.

The lines themselves, perhaps, may be better thus--("choose," or "refuse"--but please _yourself_, and don't mind "Sir Fretful" [5]):

As flash'd the volumed blaze, and {_sadly_/ghastly} shone The skies with lightnings awful as their own.

The last _runs_ smoothest, and, I think, best; but you know _better_ than _best_. "Lurid" is also a less indistinct epithet than "livid wave," and, if you think so, a dash of the pen will do.

I expected one line this morning; in the mean time, I shall remodel and condense, and, if I do not hear from you, shall send another copy.

I am ever, etc.

[Footnote 1: 'Twelfth Night', act iii. sc. 4.]

[Footnote 2: Dryden's 'Annus Mirabilis', stanza 231:

"A key of fire ran all along the sh.o.r.e, And lightened all the river with a blaze; The wakened tides began again to roar, And wondering fish in s.h.i.+ning waters gaze."]

[Footnote 3: Churchill's 'Times', lines 701, 702:

"Bidding in one grand pile this Town expire, Her towers in dust, her Thames a Lake of fire."]

[Footnote 4: Nathaniel Lee (circ. 1653-1692), the dramatist, wrote 'The Rival Queens' (1677), in which occurs the line:

"When Greek join'd Greek then was the tug of war."

He collaborated with Dryden in 'OEdipus' (1679) and 'The Duke of Guise'

(1682). His numerous dramas were distinguished, in his own day, for extravagance and bombast. His mind failing, he was confined from 1684 to 1688 in Bethlehem Hospital, where he is said to have composed a tragedy in 25 acts.]

[Footnote 5: 'The Critic', act i. sc. I. "Sneer," speaking of "Sir Fretful Plagiary," says,

"He is as envious as an old maid verging on the desperation of six and thirty; and then the insidious humility with which he seduces you to give a free opinion on any of his works can be exceeded only by the petulant arrogance with which he is sure to reject your observations."]

250.--To Lord Holland.

September 26, 1812.

You will think there is no end to my villanous emendations. The fifth and sixth lines I think to alter thus: