The Works of Lord Byron Volume I Part 112

'Some Thoughts concerning Education', by John Locke (1880), p. 152.]]

[Footnote 49: "Iro pauperior:" a proverb: this is the same beggar who boxed with Ulysses for a pound of kid's fry, which he lost and half a dozen teeth besides. (See 'Odyssey', xviii. 98.)]

[Footnote 50: The Irish gold mine in Wicklow, which yields just ore enough to swear by, or gild a bad guinea.]

[Footnote 51: As Mr. Pope took the liberty of d.a.m.ning Homer, to whom he was under great obligations--"'And Homer (d.a.m.n him!) calls'"--it may be presumed that anybody or anything may be d.a.m.ned in verse by poetical licence [I shall suppose one may d.a.m.n anything else in verse with impunity.--'MS. L. (b)']; and, in case of accident, I beg leave to plead so ill.u.s.trious a precedent.]

[Footnote 52: For the story of Billy Havard's tragedy, see Davies's 'Life of Garrick'. I believe it is 'Regulus', or 'Charles the First'

[Lincoln's Inn Fields, March 1, 1737]. The moment it was known to be his the theatre thinned, and the book-seller refused to give the customary sum for the copyright. [See 'Life of Garrick', by Thomas Davies (1808), ii. 205.]

[Footnote 53: Thomas Erskine (third son of the fifth Earl of Buchan) afterwards Lord Erskine (1750-1823), Lord Chancellor (1806-7), an eloquent orator, a supremely great advocate, was, by comparison, a failure as a judge. His power over a jury, "his little twelvers," as he would sometimes address them, was practically unlimited. (See 'Recollections of the Table-Talk of Samuel Rogers' (1856), p. 126.)]]

[Footnote 54: Lines 589-626 are not in the 'Murray MS'., nor in either of the 'Lovelace MSS'.]]

[Footnote 55: To the Eclectic or Christian Reviewers I have to return thanks for the fervour of that charity which, in 1809, induced them to express a hope that a thing then published by me might lead to certain consequences, which, although natural enough, surely came but rashly from reverend lips. I refer them to their own pages, where they congratulated themselves on the prospect of a tilt between Mr. Jeffrey and myself, from which some great good was to accrue, provided one or both were knocked on the head. Having survived two years and a half those "Elegies" which they were kindly preparing to review, I have no peculiar gusto to give them "so joyful a trouble," except, indeed, "upon compulsion, Hal;" but if, as David says in 'The Rivals', it should come to "b.l.o.o.d.y sword and gun fighting," we "won't run, will we, Sir Lucius?"

[Byron, writing at Athens, away from his books, misquotes 'The Rivals'.

The words, "Sir Lucius, we--we--we--we won't run," are spoken by Acres, not by David.] I do not know what I had done to these Eclectic gentlemen: my works are their lawful perquisite, to be hewn in pieces like Agag, if it seem meet unto them: but why they should be in such a hurry to kill off their author, I am ignorant. "The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong:" and now, as these Christians have "smote me on one cheek," I hold them up the other; and, in return for their good wishes, give them an opportunity of repeating them. Had any other set of men expressed such sentiments, I should have smiled, and left them to the "recording angel;" but from the pharisees of Christianity decency might be expected. I can a.s.sure these brethren, that, publican and sinner as I am, I would not have treated "mine enemy's dog thus." To show them the superiority of my brotherly love, if ever the Reverend Messrs. Simeon or Ramsden should be engaged in such a conflict as that in which they requested me to fall, I hope they may escape with being "winged" only, and that Heaviside may be at hand to extract the ball.

["If, however, the n.o.ble Lord and the learned advocate have the courage requisite to sustain their mutual insults, we shall probably soon hear the explosions of another kind of 'paper' war, after the fas.h.i.+on of the ever-memorable duel which the latter is said to have fought, or seemed to fight, with 'Little' Moore. We confess there is sufficient provocation, if not in the critique, at least in the satire, to urge a 'man of honour' to defy his a.s.sailant to mortal combat, and perhaps to warrant a man of law to 'declare' war in Westminster Hall. Of this we shall no doubt hear more in due time"

('Eclectic Review', May, 1809). Byron pretends to believe that the "Christian" Reviewers, actuated by stern zeal for piety, were making mischief in sober earnest. "Heaviside" (see last line of Byron's note) was the surgeon in attendance at the duel between Lord Falkland and Mr.

A. Powell. (See 'English Bards', 1. 686, note 2.)]]

[Footnote 56: _Macbeth_, act v. sc. 7.]

[Footnote 57: See the critique of the 'Edinburgh Review' on 'Hours of Idleness', January, 1808.]

[Footnote 58: "Invenies alium, si te hic fastidit, Alexin."]

[Footnote 59: Here 'MS. L.' (a) recommences.]

[Footnote 60: John Jackson (1769-1845), better known as "Gentleman"

Jackson, was champion of England from 1795 to 1803. His three fights were against Fewterel (1788), George Ingleston, nicknamed "the Brewer"

(1789), and Mendoza (1795). In 1803 he retired from the ring. His rooms at 13, Bond Street, became the head-quarters of the Pugilistic Club.

(See Pierce Egan's 'Life in London', pp. 252-254, where the rooms are described, and a drawing of them by Cruikshank is given.) Jackson's character stood high.

"From the highest to the lowest person in the Sporting World, his 'decision' is law."

He was Byron's guest at Cambridge, Newstead, and Brighton; received from him many letters; and is described by him, in a note to 'Don Juan' (xi.

19), as:

"my old friend and corporeal pastor and master."]

[Footnote 61: Mr. Southey has lately tied another canister to his tail in 'The Curse of Kehama', maugre the neglect of 'Madoc', etc., and has in one instance had a wonderful effect. 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.ter-milk 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.

The same advocates, pro and con, will be employed as are now engaged in Sir F. Burdett's celebrated cause in the Scotch courts. The public anxiously await the result, and all 'live' publishers will be subpoenaed as witnesses.--But Mr. Southey has published 'The Curse of Kehama',--an inviting t.i.tle to quibblers. By the bye, it is a good deal beneath Scott and Campbell, and not much above Southey, to allow the b.o.o.by Ballantyne to ent.i.tle them, in the 'Edinburgh Annual Register' (of which, by the bye, Southey is editor) "the grand poetical triumvirate of the day."

But, on second thoughts, it can be no great degree of praise to be the one-eyed leaders of the blind, though they might as well keep to themselves "Scott's thirty thousand copies sold," which must sadly discomfort poor Southey's unsaleables. Poor Southey, it should seem, is the "Lepidus" of this poetical triumvirate. I am only surprised to see him in such good company.

"Such things, we know, are neither rich nor rare, But wonder how the devil 'he' came there."

The trio are well defined in the sixth proposition of Euclid:--

"Because, in the triangles D B C, A C B; D B is equal to A C; and B C common to both; the two sides D B, B C, are equal to the two A C, C B, each to each, and the angle D B C is equal to the angle A C B: therefore, the base D C is equal to the base A B, and the triangle D B C (Mr. Southey) is equal to the triangle A C B, the less to the greater, which is absurd" etc.

The editor of the 'Edinburgh Register' will find the rest of the theorem hard by his stabling; he has only to cross the river; 'tis the first turnpike t' other side 'Pons Asinorum.'[A]

['The Curse of Kehama', by Robert Southey, was published 1810; 'Arthur, or The Northern Enchantment', by the Rev. Richard Hole, in 1789; 'Alfred', by Joseph Cottle, in 1801; 'Davideis'', by Abraham Cowley, in 1656; 'Richard the First', by Sir James Bland Surges, in 1801; 'Exodiad', by Sir J. Bland Surges and R. c.u.mberland, in 1808; 'Exodus', by Charles Hoyle, in 1802; 'Epigoniad', by W. Wilkie, D.D., in 1757; 'Calvary', by R. c.u.mberland, in 1792; 'Fall of Cambria', by Joseph Cottle, in 1809; 'Siege of Acre', by Hannah Cowley, in 1801; 'The Vision of Don Roderick', by Sir Walter Scott, in 1811; 'Tom Thumb the Great', by Henry Fielding, in 1730.

The 'Courier' of July 16, 1811, reports in full the first stage of the case Sir F. Burdett 'v.' William Scott ('vide supra'), which was brought before Lord Meadowbank as ordinary in the outer court. Jeffrey was counsel for the pursuer, who sought to recover a sum of 5000 lent under a bond. For the defence it was alleged that the money had been entrusted for a particular purpose, namely, the maintenance of an infant. Jeffrey denied the existence of any such claim, and maintained that whatever was scandalous or calumnious in the defence was absolutely untrue. The case, which was not included in the Scottish Law Reports, was probably settled out of court. Evidently the judge held that on technical grounds an action did not lie. Burdett's enemies were not slow in turning the scandal to account. (See a contemporary pamphlet, 'Adultery and Patriotism', London, 1811.)] ]

[Sub-Footnote A: This Latin has sorely puzzled the University of Edinburgh. Ballantyne said it meant the "Bridge of Berwick," but Southey claimed it as half English; Scott swore it was the "Brig o'

Stirling:" he had just pa.s.sed two King James's and a dozen Dougla.s.ses over it. At last it was decided by Jeffrey, that it meant nothing more nor less than the "counter of Archy Constable's shop."]

[Footnote 62: Voltaire's 'Pucelle' is not quite so immaculate as Mr.

Southey's 'Joan of Arc', and yet I am afraid the Frenchman has both more truth and poetry too on his side--(they rarely go together)--than our patriotic minstrel, whose first essay was in praise of a fanatical French strumpet, whose t.i.tle of witch would be correct with the change of the first letter.]

[Footnote 63: Like Sir Bland Burges's 'Richard'; the tenth book of which I read at Malta, on a trunk of Eyre's, 19, c.o.c.kspur-street.

If this be doubted, I shall buy a portmanteau to quote from.

[Sir James Bland Burges (1752-1824), who a.s.sumed, in 1821, the name of Lamb, married, as his first wife, the Hon. Elizabeth Noel, daughter of Lord Wentworth, and younger sister of Byron's mother-in-law, Lady Milbanke. He was called to the bar in 1777, and in the same year was appointed a Commissioner in Bankruptcy. In 1787 he was returned M.P. for the borough of h.e.l.leston; and from 1789 to 1795 held office as Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs. In 1795, at the instance of his chief, Lord Grenville, he vacated his post, and by way of compensation was created a baronet with a sinecure post as Knight-Marshal of the Royal Household. Thenceforth he devoted himself to literature. In 1796 he wrote the 'Birth and Triumph of Love', by way of letter-press to some elegant designs of the Princess Elizabeth. (For 'Richard the First' and the 'Exodiad', see note, p. 436.) His plays, 'Riches and Tricks for Travellers', appeared in 1810, and there were other works. In spite of Wordsworth's testimony (Wordsworth signed, but Coleridge dictated and no doubt composed, the letter: see 'Thomas Poole and His Friends', ii. 27) "to a pure and unmixed vein of native English" in 'Richard the First (Bland-Burges Papers', 1885, p. 308), Burges as a poet awaits rediscovery. His diaries, portions of which were published in 1885, are lively and instructive. He has been immortalized in Person's Macaronics--

"Poetis nos laetamur tribus, Pye, Petro Pindar, parvo Pybus.

Si ulterius ire pergis, Adde his Sir James Bland Burges!"]

[Footnote 64: [Charles Lamb, in "Christ's Hospital Five and Thirty Years Ago" (_Prose Works_, 1836, ii. 30), records his repeated visits, as a Blue Coat boy, "to the Lions in the Tower--to whose levee, by courtesy immemorial, we had a prescriptive t.i.tle to admission."]

[Footnote 65: Lines 677, 678 are not in 'MS. L. (a)'.]