The Works of Lord Byron: Letters and Journals Volume II Part 69

[Footnote 1: Jerry Sneak, in Foote's 'Mayor of Garratt' (act ii.), says to Major Sturgeon, "I heard of your tricks at the King of Bohemy."]

[Footnote 2:

"The Ode of Horace--

'Natis in usum laet.i.tiae,' etc.;

some pa.s.sages of which I told him might be parodied, in allusion to some of his late adventures:

'Quanta laboras in Charybdi!

Digne puer meliore flamma!'"

(Moore.)]

[Footnote 3:

"In his first edition of 'The Giaour' he had used this word as a trisyllable--'Bright as the gem of Giamschid'--but on my remarking to him, upon the authority of Richardson's Persian Dictionary, that this was incorrect, he altered it to 'Bright as the ruby of Giamschid.' On seeing this, however, I wrote to him, 'that, as the comparison of his heroine's eye to a "ruby" might unluckily call up the idea of its being bloodshot, he had better change the line to "Bright as the jewel of Giamschid;"' which he accordingly did in the following edition"

(Moore).

In the 'Shah Nameh', Giamschid is the fourth sovereign of the ancient Persians, and ruled seven hundred years. His jewel was a green chrysolite, the reflection of which gives to the sky its blue-green colour. Byron probably changed to "ruby" on the authority of 'Vathek'

(p. 58, ed. 1856), where Beckford writes,

"Then all the riches this place contains, as well as the carbuncle of Giamschid, shall be hers."]

[Footnote 4: Moore's reference (see 'note' 1) to John Richardson's 'Dictionary of Persian, Arabic, and English' (1777), suggests to Byron that Moore was at work on an Oriental poem, probably 'Lalla Rookh', which would surpa.s.s the 'Charlemagne' of Lucien Buonaparte.]

[Footnote 5: The 'Shah Nameh' is a rhymed history of Persia, in which occurs the famous episode of Sohrab and Rustem. It was written in thirty years by Abul Kasim Firdausi, the last name being given to him by Sultan Mahmud because he had shed over the court at Ghizni the delights of "Paradise." Firdausi is said to have lived about 950 to 1030. (See The 'Shah Nameh', translated and abridged by James Atkinson.)]

[Footnote 6: Jacques Cazotte (1720-1792) wrote 'La Patte du Chat'

(1741); 'Mille et une Fadaises' (1742); 'Observations sur la lettre de Rousseau au sujet de la Musique Francaise' (1754); and other works. 'Le Diable Amoureux' appeared in 1772. Cazotte escaped the September Ma.s.sacres at the Abbaye in 1792, through the heroism of his daughter, but was executed on the twenty-fifth of the same month.]

[Footnote 7:

"I had already, singularly enough, antic.i.p.ated this suggestion, by making the daughter of a Peri the heroine of one of my stories, and detailing the love adventures of her aerial parent in an episode. In acquainting Lord Byron with this circ.u.mstance, in my answer to the above letter, I added, 'All I ask of your friends.h.i.+p is--not that you will abstain from Peris on my account, for that is too much to ask of human (or, at least, author's) nature--but that, whenever you mean to pay your addresses to any of these aerial ladies, you will, at once, tell me so, frankly and instantly, and let me, at least, have my choice whether I shall be desperate enough to go on, with such a rival, or at once surrender the whole race into your hands, and take, for the future, to Antediluvians with Mr. Montgomery'"

(Moore).]

[Footnote 8: Brunet, 's.v.' "Breton de la Martiniere," gives the t.i.tle of the work: 'Moeurs, usages costumes des Othomans, et abrege de leur histoire'. Par A.L. Castellan, Paris, 1812.]

[Footnote 9: Maxime Lx.x.xV.:

"Nous nous persuadons souvent d'aimer les gens plus puissans que nous, et neanmoins c'est l'interet seul qui produit notre amitie; nous ne nous donnons pas a eux pour le bien que nous leur voulons faire, mais pour celui que nous en voulons recevoir."]

325.--To Thomas Moore.

August--September, I mean--1, 1813.

I send you, begging your acceptance, Castellan, and three vols. on Turkish literature [1], not yet looked into. The _last_ I will thank you to read, extract what you want, and return in a week, as they are lent to me by that brightest of Northern constellations, Mackintosh [2],--amongst many other kind things into which India has warmed him; for I am sure your _home_ Scotsman is of a less genial description.

Your Peri, my dear M., is sacred and inviolable; I have no idea of touching the hem of her petticoat. Your affectation of a dislike to encounter me is so flattering, that I begin to think myself a very fine fellow. But you are laughing at me--"Stap my vitals, Tam! thou art a very impudent person;" [3] and, if you are not laughing at me, you deserve to be laughed at. Seriously, what on earth can you, or have you, to dread from any poetical flesh breathing? It really puts me out of humour to hear you talk thus.

_The Giaour_ I have added to a good deal; but still in foolish fragments. It contains about 1200 lines, or rather more--now printing.

You will allow me to send you a copy. You delight me much by telling me that I am in your good graces, and more particularly as to temper; for, unluckily, I have the reputation of a very bad one. But they say the devil is amusing when pleased, and I must have been more venomous than the old serpent, to have hissed or stung in your company. It may be, and would appear to a third person, an incredible thing, but I know _you_ will believe me when I say, that I am as anxious for your success as one human being can be for another's,--as much as if I had never scribbled a line. Surely the field of fame is wide enough for all; and if it were not, I would not willingly rob my neighbour of a rood of it. Now you have a pretty property of some thousand acres there, and when you have pa.s.sed your present Inclosure Bill, your income will be doubled, (there's a metaphor, worthy of a Templar, namely, pert and low,) while my wild common is too remote to incommode you, and quite incapable of such fertility. I send you (which return per post, as the printer would say) a curious letter from a friend of mine [4], which will let you into the origin of _The Giaour_. Write soon.

Ever, dear Moore, yours most entirely, etc.

P.S.--This letter was written to me on account of a _different story_ circulated by some gentlewomen of our acquaintance, a little too close to the text. The part erased contained merely some Turkish names, and circ.u.mstantial evidence of the girl's detection, not very important or decorous.

[Footnote 1: Giovanni Battista Toderini (1728-1799) published his work 'Della Letteratura Turchesca', at Venice in 1787. Brunet says, "Cet ouvrage curieux a ete traduit en Francais, par Cournand. Paris, 1789 ('De La Litterature des Turcs')."]

[Footnote 2:

"Yes, his manner was cold; his shake of the hand came under the genus 'mortmain;' but his heart was overflowing with benevolence"

(Lady Holland's 'Memoir of Sydney Smith', 4th edition, vol. i. p. 440).]

[Footnote 3: A reminiscence of Sheridan's 'Trip to Scarborough' (act v.

sc. 2), itself borrowed from Vanbrugh's 'Relapse' (act iv. sc. 6), in both of which pa.s.sages Lord Foppington says, "Strike me dumb, Tam, thou art a very impudent fellow."]

[Footnote 4: The following is the letter to which Byron refers: