The Works of Lord Byron Volume VII Part 14

4.

Among my researches for EASE I went where one's certain to find her: The first thing by her throne that one sees Is Gally i.o. the Grinder.

Gally i.o. i.o., etc.

5.

Away with old Homer the blind-- I'll show you a poet that's blinder: You may see him whene'er you've a mind In Gally i.o. the Grinder.

Gally i.o. i.o., etc.

6.

Blindfold he runs groping for fame, And hardly knows where he will find her: She don't seem to take to the name Of Gally i.o. the Grinder.

Gally i.o. i.o., etc.

7.

Yet the Critics have been very kind, And Mamma and his friends have been kinder; But the greatest of Glory's behind For Gally i.o. the Grinder.

Gally i.o. i.o., etc.

_April_ 11, 1818.

[From an autograph MS. in the possession of Mr. Murray, now for the first time printed.]

EPIGRAM.

FROM THE FRENCH OF RULHIeRES.[108]

IF for silver, or for gold, You could melt ten thousand pimples Into half a dozen dimples, Then your face we might behold, Looking, doubtless, much more snugly, Yet even _then_ 'twould be d.a.m.ned ugly.

_August_ 12, 1819.

[First published, _Letters and Journals_, 1830, ii. 235.]

FOOTNOTES:

[108] ["Would you like an epigram--a translation? It was written on some Frenchwoman, by Rulhieres, I believe."--Letter to Murray, August 12, 1819, _Letters_, 1900, iv. 346.

Claude Carloman de Rulhiere (1718-1791), historian, poet, and epigrammatist, was the author of _Anecdotes sur la revolution de Russie en l'annee_ 1762, _Histoire de l'anarchie de Pologne_ (1807), etc. His epigrams are included in "Poesies Diverses," which are appended to _Les jeux de Mains_, a poem in three cantos, published in 1808, and were collected in his _Oeuvres Posthumes_, 1819; but there is no trace of the original of Byron's translation. Perhaps it is _after_ de Rulhiere, who more than once epigrammatizes "Une Vieille Femme."]

EPILOGUE.[109]

1.

THERE'S something in a stupid a.s.s, And something in a heavy dunce; But never since I went to school I heard or saw so d.a.m.ned a fool As William Wordsworth is for once.

2.

And now I've seen so great a fool As William Wordsworth is for once; I really wish that Peter Bell And he who wrote it were in h.e.l.l, For writing nonsense for the nonce.

3.

It saw the "light in ninety-eight,"

Sweet babe of one and twenty years![110]

And then he gives it to the nation And deems himself of Shakespeare's peers!

4.

He gives the perfect work to light!

Will Wordsworth, if I might advise, Content you with the praise you get From Sir George Beaumont, Baronet, And with your place in the Excise!

1819.

[First published, _Philadelphia Record_, December 28, 1891.]

FOOTNOTES:

[109] [The MS. of the "Epilogue" is inscribed on the margin of a copy of Wordsworth's _Peter Bell_, inserted in a set of Byron's _Works_ presented by George W. Childs to the Drexel Inst.i.tute. (From information kindly supplied by Mr. John H. Bewley, of Buffalo, New York.)

The first edition of _Peter Bell_ appeared early in 1819, and a second edition followed in May, 1819. In Byron's Dedication of _Marino Faliero_, "To Baron Goethe," dated October 20, 1820 (_Poetical Works_, 1891, iv. 341), the same allusions to Sir George Beaumont, to Wordsworth's "place in the Excise," and to his admission that _Peter Bell_ had been withheld "for one and twenty years," occur in an omitted paragraph first published, _Letters_, 1891, v. 101. So close a correspondence of an unpublished fragment with a genuine doc.u.ment leaves little doubt as to the composition of the "Epilogue."]

[110] [The missing line may be, "To _permanently_ fill a station," see Preface to _Peter Bell_.]

ON MY WEDDING-DAY.

HERE'S a happy New Year! but with reason I beg you'll permit me to say-- Wish me _many_ returns of the _Season_, But as _few_ as you please of the _Day_.[111]

_January_ 2, 1820.

[First published, _Letters and Journals_, 1830, ii. 294.]

FOOTNOTES:

[111] [Medwin (_Conversations_, 1824, p. 156) prints an alternative--

"You may wish me returns of the season, Let us, prithee, have none of the day!"]

EPITAPH FOR WILLIAM PITT.

WITH Death doomed to grapple, Beneath this cold slab, he Who lied in the Chapel Now lies in the Abbey.

_January_ 2, 1820.

[First published, _Letters and Journals_, 1830, ii. 295.]