Life of Lord Byron Volume II Part 22

So early as the autumn of this year, a fifth edition of The Giaour was required; and again his fancy teemed with fresh materials for its pages.

The verses commencing "The browsing camels' bells are tinkling," and the four pages that follow the line, "Yes, love indeed is light from heaven," were all added at this time. Nor had the overflowings of his mind even yet ceased, as I find in the poem, as it exists at present, still further additions,--and, among them, those four brilliant lines,--

"She was a form of life and light, That, seen, became a part of sight, And rose, where'er I turn'd mine eye, The Morning-star of memory!"

The following notes and letters to Mr. Murray, during these outpourings, will show how irresistible was the impulse under which he vented his thoughts.

"If you send more proofs, I shall never finish this infernal story--'Ecce signum'--thirty-three more lines enclosed! to the utter discomfiture of the printer, and, I fear, not to your advantage.

"B."

"Half-past two in the morning, Aug. 10. 1813.

"Dear Sir,

"Pray suspend the _proofs_, for I am _bitten_ again, and have _quant.i.ties_ for other parts of the bravura.

"Yours ever, B.

"P.S.--You shall have them in the course of the day."

LETTER 130. TO MR. MURRAY.

"August 26. 1813.

"I have looked over and corrected one proof, but not so carefully (G.o.d knows if you can read it through, but I can't) as to preclude your eye from discovering some _o_mission of mine or _com_mission of your printer. If you have patience, look it over. Do you know any body who can stop--I mean _point_--commas, and so forth? for I am, I hear, a sad hand at your punctuation. I have, but with some difficulty, _not_ added any more to this snake of a poem, which has been lengthening its rattles every month. It is now fearfully long, being more than a Canto and a half of Childe Harold, which contains but 882 lines per book, with all late additions inclusive.

"The last lines Hodgson likes. It is not often he does, and when he don't he tells me with great energy, and I fret and alter. I have thrown them in to soften the ferocity of our Infidel, and, for a dying man, have given him a good deal to say for himself.

"I was quite sorry to hear you say you stayed in town on my account, and I hope sincerely you did not mean so superfluous a piece of politeness.

"Our _six_ critiques!--they would have made half a Quarterly by themselves; but this is the age of criticism."

The following refer apparently to a still later edition.

LETTER 131. TO MR. MURRAY.

"Stilton, Oct. 3. 1813.

"I have just recollected an alteration you may make in the proof to be sent to Aston.--Among the lines on Ha.s.san's Serai, not far from the beginning, is this--

"Unmeet for Solitude to share.

Now to share implies more than _one_, and Solitude is a single gentleman; it must be thus--

"For many a gilded chamber's there, Which Solitude might well forbear;

and so on.--My address is Aston Hall, Rotherham.

"Will you adopt this correction? and pray accept a Stilton cheese from me for your trouble. Ever yours, B.

"If[75] the old line stands let the other run thus--

"Nor there will weary traveller halt, To bless the sacred bread and salt.

"_Note_.--To partake of food--to break bread and taste salt with your host, ensures the safety of the guest; even though an enemy, his person from that moment becomes sacred.

"There is another additional note sent yesterday--on the Priest in the Confessional.

"P.S.--I leave this to your discretion; if any body thinks the old line a good one or the cheese a bad one, don't accept either. But, in that case, the word _share_ is repeated soon after in the line--

"To share the master's bread and salt;

and must be altered to--

"To break the master's bread and salt.

This is not so well, though--confound it!"

[Footnote 75: This is written on a separate slip of paper enclosed.]

LETTER 132. TO MR. MURRAY.

"Oct. 12. 1813.

"You must look The Giaour again over carefully; there are a few lapses, particularly in the last page.--'I _know_ 'twas false; she could not die;' it was, and ought to be--'I _knew_.' Pray observe this and similar mistakes.

"I have received and read the British Review. I really think the writer in most points very right. The only mortifying thing is the accusation of imitation. _Crabbe_'s pa.s.sage I never saw[76]; and Scott I no further meant to follow than in his _lyric_ measure, which is Gray's, Milton's, and any one's who likes it. The Giaour is certainly a bad character, but not dangerous; and I think his fate and his feelings will meet with few proselytes. I shall be very glad to hear from or of you, when you please; but don't put yourself out of your way on my account."

[Footnote 76: The pa.s.sage referred to by the Reviewers is in the poem ent.i.tled "Resentment;" and the following is, I take for granted, the part which Lord Byron is accused by them of having imitated:--

"Those are like wax--apply them to the fire, Melting, they take th' impressions you desire; Easy to mould, and fas.h.i.+on as you please, And again moulded with an equal ease: Like smelted iron these the forms retain; But, once impress'd, will never melt again."

LETTER 133. TO MR. MOORE.

"Bennet Street, August 22. 1813.

"As our late--I might say, deceased--correspondence had too much of the town-life leaven in it, we will now, 'paulo majora,' prattle a little of literature in all its branches; and first of the first--criticism. The Prince is at Brighton, and Jackson, the boxer, gone to Margate, having, I believe, decoyed Yarmouth to see a milling in that polite neighbourhood. Made. de Stael Holstein has lost one of her young barons, who has been carbonadoed by a vile Teutonic adjutant,--kilt and killed in a coffee-house at Scrawsenhawsen. Corinne is, of course, what all mothers must be,--but will, I venture to prophesy, do what few mothers could--write an Essay upon it. She cannot exist without a grievance--and somebody to see, or read, how much grief becomes her. I have not seen her since the event; but merely judge (not very charitably) from prior observation.