Life of Lord Byron Volume IV Part 30

"Send me Scott's novels and some news.

"P.S. I have begun and advanced into the second act of a tragedy on the subject of the Doge's conspiracy (_i.e._ the story of Marino Faliero); but my present feeling is so little encouraging on such matters, that I begin to think I have mined my talent out, and proceed in no great phantasy of finding a new vein.

"P.S. I sometimes think (if the Italians don't rise) of coming over to England in the autumn after the coronation, (at which I would not appear, on account of my family schism,) but as yet I can decide nothing. The place must be a great deal changed since I left it, now more than four years ago."

LETTER 372. TO MR. MURRAY.

"Ravenna, May 20. 1820.

"Murray, my dear, make my respects to Thomas Campbell, and tell him from me, with faith and friends.h.i.+p, three things that he must right in his poets: Firstly, he says Anstey's Bath Guide characters are taken from Smollett. 'Tis impossible:--the Guide was published in 1766, and Humphrey Clinker in 1771--_dunque_, 'tis Smollett who has taken from Anstey. Secondly, he does not know to whom Cowper alludes, when he says that there was one who 'built a church to _G.o.d_, and then blasphemed his name:' it was 'Deo erexit _Voltaire_' to whom that maniacal Calvinist and coddled poet alludes. Thirdly, he misquotes and spoils a pa.s.sage from Shakspeare, 'to gild refined gold, to paint the lily,' &c.; for _lily_ he puts rose, and bedevils in more words than one the whole quotation.

"Now, Tom is a fine fellow; but he should be correct; for the first is an _injustice_ (to Anstey), the second an _ignorance_, and the third a _blunder_. Tell him all this, and let him take it in good part; for I might have rammed it into a review and rowed him--instead of which, I act like a Christian.

"Yours," &c.

LETTER 373. TO MR. MURRAY.

"Ravenna, May 20. 1820.

"First and foremost, you must forward my letter to _Moore_ dated 2d _January_, which I said you might open, but desired you _to forward_. Now, you should really not forget these little things, because they do mischief among friends. You are an excellent man, a great man, and live among great men, but do pray recollect your absent friends and authors.

"In the first place, _your packets_; then a letter from Kinnaird, on the most urgent business; another from Moore, about a communication to Lady Byron of importance; a fourth from the mother of Allegra; and, fifthly, at Ravenna, the Countess G. is on the eve of being separated. But the Italian public are on her side, particularly the women,--and the men also, because they say that _he_ had no business to take the business up now after a year of toleration. All her relations (who are numerous, high in rank, and powerful) are furious _against him_ for his conduct. I am warned to be on my guard, as he is very capable of employing _sicarii_--this is Latin as well as Italian, so you can understand it; but I have arms, and don't mind them, thinking that I could pepper his ragam.u.f.fins, if they don't come unawares, and that, if they do, one may as well end that way as another; and it would besides serve _you_ as an advertis.e.m.e.nt:--

"Man may escape from rope or gun, &c.

But he who takes woman, woman, woman, &c.

"Yours.

"P.S. I have looked over the press, but heaven knows how. Think what I have on hand and the post going out to-morrow. Do you remember the epitaph on Voltaire?

"'Ci-git l'enfant gate,' &c.

"'Here lies the spoilt child Of the world which he spoil'd.'

The original is in Grimm and Diderot, &c. &c. &c."

LETTER 374. TO MR. MOORE.

"Ravenna, May 24. 1820.

"I wrote to you a few days ago. There is also a letter of January last for you at Murray's, which will explain to you why I am here.

Murray ought to have forwarded it long ago. I enclose you an epistle from a countrywoman of yours at Paris, which has moved my entrails. You will have the goodness, perhaps, to enquire into the truth of her story, and I will help her as far as I can,--though not in the useless way she proposes. Her letter is evidently unstudied, and so natural, that the orthography is also in a state of nature.

"Here is a poor creature, ill and solitary, who thinks, as a last resource, of translating you or me into French! Was there ever such a notion? It seems to me the consummation of despair. Pray enquire, and let me know, and, if you could draw a bill on me _here_ for a few hundred francs, at your banker's, I will duly honour it,--that is, if she is not an impostor.[73] If not, let me know, that I may get something remitted by my banker Longhi, of Bologna, for I have no correspondence myself, at Paris: but tell her she must not translate;--if she does, it will be the height of ingrat.i.tude.

"I had a letter (not of the same kind, but in French and flattery) from a Madame Sophie Gail, of Paris, whom I take to be the spouse of a Gallo-Greek of that name. Who is she? and what is she? and how came she to take an interest in my _poes.h.i.+e_ or its author? If you know her, tell her, with my compliments, that, as I only _read_ French, I have not answered her letter; but would have done so in Italian, if I had not thought it would look like an affectation. I have just been scolding my monkey for tearing the seal of her letter, and spoiling a mock book, in which I put rose leaves. I had a civet-cat the other day, too; but it ran away, after scratching my monkey's cheek, and I am in search of it still. It was the fiercest beast I ever saw, and like * * in the face and manner.

"I have a world of things to say; but, as they are not come to a _denouement_, I don't care to begin their history till it is wound up. After you went, I had a fever, but got well again without bark.

Sir Humphry Davy was here the other day, and liked Ravenna very much. He will tell you any thing you may wish to know about the place and your humble servitor.

"Your apprehensions (arising from Scott's) were unfounded. There are _no damages_ in this country, but there will probably be a separation between them, as her family, which is a princ.i.p.al one, by its connections, are very much against _him_, for the whole of his conduct;--and he is old and obstinate, and she is young and a woman, determined to sacrifice every thing to her affections. I have given her the best advice, viz. to stay with him,--pointing out the state of a separated woman, (for the priests won't let lovers live openly together, unless the husband sanctions it,) and making the most exquisite moral reflections,--but to no purpose.

She says, 'I will stay with him, if he will let you remain with me.

It is hard that I should be the only woman in Romagna who is not to have her Amico; but, if not, I will not live with him; and as for the consequences, love, &c. &c. &c.'--you know how females reason on such occasions.

"He says he has let it go on till he can do so no longer. But he wants her to stay, and dismiss me; for he doesn't like to pay back her dowry and to make an alimony. Her relations are rather for the separation, as they detest him,--indeed, so does every body. The populace and the women are, as usual, all for those who are in the wrong, viz. the lady and her lover. I should have retreated, but honour, and an erysipelas which has attacked her, prevent me,--to say nothing of love, for I love her most entirely, though not enough to persuade her to sacrifice every thing to a frenzy. 'I see how it will end; she will be the sixteenth Mrs. Shuffleton.'

"My paper is finished, and so must this letter.

"Yours ever, B.

"P.S. I regret that you have not completed the Italian Fudges.

Pray, how come you to be still in Paris? Murray has four or five things of mine in hand--the new Don Juan, which his back-shop synod don't admire;--a translation of the first Canto of Pulci's Morgante Maggiore, excellent;--short ditto from Dante, not so much approved; the Prophecy of Dante, very grand and worthy, &c. &c. &c.;--a furious prose answer to Blackwood's Observations on Don Juan, with a savage Defence of Pope--likely to make a row. The opinions above I quote from Murray and his Utican senate;--you will form your own, when you see the things.

"You will have no great chance of seeing me, for I begin to think I must finish in Italy. But, if you come my way, you shall have a tureen of macaroni. Pray tell me about yourself, and your intents.

"My trustees are going to lend Earl Blessington sixty thousand pounds (at six per cent.) on a Dublin mortgage. Only think of my becoming an Irish absentee!"

[Footnote 73: According to his desire, I waited upon this young lady, having provided myself with a rouleau of fifteen or twenty Napoleons to present to her from his Lords.h.i.+p; but, with a very creditable spirit, my young countrywoman declined the gift, saying that Lord Byron had mistaken the object of her application to him, which was to request that, by allowing her to have the sheets of some of his works before publication, he would enable her to prepare early translations for the French booksellers, and thus afford her the means of acquiring something towards a livelihood.]

LETTER 375. TO MR. HOPPNER.

"Ravenna, May 25. 1820.

"A German named Ruppsecht has sent me, heaven knows why, several Deutsche Gazettes, of all which I understand neither word nor letter. I have sent you the enclosed to beg you to translate to me some remarks, which appear to be _Goethe's upon_ Manfred--and if I may judge by _two_ notes of _admiration_ (generally put after something ridiculous by us) and the word '_hypocondrisch_,' are any thing but favourable. I shall regret this, for I should have been proud of Goethe's good word; but I sha'n't alter my opinion of him, even though he should be savage.

"Will you excuse this trouble, and do me this favour?--Never mind--soften nothing--I am literary proof--having had good and evil said in most modern languages.

"Believe me," &c.

LETTER 376. TO MR. MOORE.

"Ravenna, June 1. 1820,

"I have received a Parisian letter from W.W., which I prefer answering through you, if that worthy be still at Paris, and, as he says, an occasional visiter of yours. In November last he wrote to me a well-meaning letter, stating, for some reasons of his own, his belief that a re-union might be effected between Lady B. and myself. To this I answered as usual; and he sent me a second letter, repeating his notions, which letter I have never answered, having had a thousand other things to think of. He now writes as if he believed that he had offended me by touching on the topic; and I wish you to a.s.sure him that I am not at all so,--but, on the contrary, obliged by his good nature. At the same time acquaint him the _thing is impossible. You know this_, as well as I,--and there let it end.

"I believe that I showed you his epistle in autumn last. He asks me if I have heard of _my_ 'laureat' at Paris[74],--somebody who has written 'a most sanguinary Epitre' against me; but whether in French, or Dutch, or on what score, I know not, and he don't say,--except that (for my satisfaction) he says it is the best thing in the fellow's volume. If there is any thing of the kind that I _ought_ to know, you will doubtless tell me. I suppose it to be something of the usual sort;--he says, he don't remember the author's name.

"I wrote to you some ten days ago, and expect an answer at your leisure.