The Works of Lord Byron: Letters and Journals Volume II Part 10

If you have any communication to make, I shall be here at least a week or ten days longer. I am, Sir, etc., etc.,

BYRON.

188--To R. C. Dallas.

Newstead Abbey, Sept. 16, 1811.

DEAR SIR,--I send you a 'motto':

"L'univers est une espece de livre, dont on n'a lu que la premiere page quand on n'a vu que son pays. J'en ai feuillete un a.s.sez grand nombre, que j'ai trouve egalement mauvaises. Cet examen ne m'a point ete infructueux. Je ha.s.sais ma patrie. Toutes les impertinences des peuples divers, parmi lesquels j'ai vecu, m'ont reconcilie avec elle.

Quand je n'aurais tire d'autre benefice de mes voyages que celui-la, je n'en regretterais ni les frais, ni les fatigues."

"Le Cosmopolite." [1]

If not too long, I think it will suit the book. The pa.s.sage is from a little French volume, a great favourite with me, which I picked up in the Archipelago. I don't think it is well known in England; Monbron is the author; but it is a work sixty years old.

Good morning! I won't take up your time.

Yours ever, BYRON.

[Footnote 1: Fougeret de Monbron, born at Peronne, served in the 'Gardes du Corps', but abandoned the sword for the pen, and published 'Henriade Travestie' (1745); 'Preservatif Centre l'Anglomanie' (1787); and 'Le Cosmopolite' (1750). His novels, 'Margot la Ravaudeuse, Therlse Philosophe', and others, appeared under the name of Fougeret. He died in 1761. In that year was published in London an edition of 'Le Cosmopolite, ou le Citoyen du Monde', par Mr. de Monbron, with the motto, "Patria est ubicunque est bene" (Cic. 5, Tusc. 37).

Byron's quotation is the opening paragraph of the book. The author, who had travelled in England, returns to France a complete "Jacques Rot-de-Bif." He then visits Holland, the Low Countries, Constantinople, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and England a second time. He finds that the charm has vanished, and that the English are no better than their neighbours. It is a cynical little book, abounding in such sayings as.

"Make acquaintances, not friends; intimacy breeds disgust;" "The best fruit of travelling is the justification of instinctive dislikes."

Monbron, like Byron, ridicules the traveller's pa.s.sion for collecting broken statues and antiques.]

189.--To R. C. Dallas.

Newstead Abbey, Sept. 17, 1811.

I can easily excuse your not writing, as you have, I hope, something better to do, and you must pardon my frequent invasions on your attention, because I have at this moment nothing to interpose between you and my epistles.

I cannot settle to any thing, and my days pa.s.s, with the exception of bodily exercise to some extent, with uniform indolence, and idle insipidity. I have been expecting, and still expect, my agent, when I shall have enough to occupy my reflections in business of no very pleasant aspect. Before my journey to Rochdale, you shall have due notice where to address me--I believe at the post-office of that towns.h.i.+p. From Murray I received a second proof of the same pages, which I requested him to show you, that any thing which may have escaped my observation may be detected before the printer lays the corner-stone of an _errata_ column.

I am now not quite alone, having an old acquaintance and school-fellow [1] with me, so _old_, indeed, that we have nothing _new_ to say on any subject, and yawn at each other in a sort of _quiet inquietude_. I hear nothing from Cawthorn, or Captain Hobhouse; and _their quarto_--Lord have mercy on mankind! We come on like Cerberus with our triple publications. [2] As for _myself_, by _myself_, I must be satisfied with a comparison to _Ja.n.u.s_.

I am not at all pleased with Murray for showing the MS.; and I am certain Gifford must see it in the same light that I do. His praise is nothing to the purpose: what could he say? He could not spit in the face of one who had praised him in every possible way. I must own that I wish to have the impression removed from his mind, that I had any concern in such a paltry transaction. The more I think, the more it disquiets me; so I will say no more about it. It is bad enough to be a scribbler, without having recourse to such s.h.i.+fts to extort praise, or deprecate censure. It is antic.i.p.ating, it is begging, kneeling, adulating,--the devil! the devil! the devil! and all without my wish, and contrary to my express desire. I wish Murray had been tied to _Payne's_ neck when he jumped into the Paddington Ca.n.a.l, [3] and so tell him,--_that_ is the proper receptacle for publishers. You have thought of settling in the country, why not try Notts.? I think there are places which would suit you in all points, and then you are nearer the metropolis. But of this anon.

I am, yours, etc., BYRON.

[Footnote 1: John Claridge. (See 'Letters', vol. i. p. 267, 'note' 2.) [Footnote 4 of Letter 136]]

[Footnote 2: i. e. 'Childe Harold', 'Hints from Horace', and 'Travels in Albania.']

[Footnote 3: Mr. Payne, of the firm of Payne and Mackinlay, the publishers of Hodgson's 'Juvenal', committed suicide by drowning himself in the Paddington Ca.n.a.l. Byron, in a note to 'Hints from Horace', line 657, thus applies the incident:

"A literary friend of mine, walking out one lovely evening last summer, on the eleventh bridge of the Paddington ca.n.a.l, was alarmed by the cry of 'one in jeopardy:' he rushed along, collected a body of Irish haymakers (supping on b.u.t.termilk in an adjacent paddock), procured three rakes, one eel spear and a landing-net, and at last ('horresco referens') pulled out--his own publisher. The unfortunate man was gone for ever, and so was a large quarto wherewith he had taken the leap, which proved, on inquiry, to have been Mr. Southey's last work. Its 'alacrity of sinking' was so great, that it has never since been heard of; though some maintain that it is at this moment concealed at Alderman Birch's pastry-premises, Cornhill. Be this as it may, the coroner's inquest brought in a verdict of ''Felo de Bibliopola'' against a quarto unknown,' and circ.u.mstantial evidence being since strong against the 'Curse of Kehama' (of which the above words are an exact description), it will be tried by its peers next session, in Grub Street--Arthur, Alfred, Davideis, Richard Coeur de Lion, Exodus, Exodiad, Epigoniad, Calvary, Fall of Cambria, Siege of Acre, Don Roderick, and Tom Thumb the Great, are the names of the twelve jurors. The judges are Pye, Bowles, and the bell-man of St.

Sepulchre's."

190.--To R.C. Dallas.

Newstead Abbey, Sept. 17, 1811.

Dear Sir,--I have just discovered some pages of observations on the modern Greeks, written at Athens by me, under the t.i.tle of 'Noctes Atticae'. They will do to _cut up_ into notes, and to be _cut up_ afterwards, which is all that notes are generally good for. They were written at Athens, as you will see by the date.

Yours ever, B.