And every brother rake will smile to see That miracle, a moralist in me. No matter when some bard in virtue strong, As for the smaller fry, who swarm in shoals No muse will cheer, with renovating smile, But who forgives the senior's ceaseless verse, ⚫ What would be the sentiments of the Persian Anacreon, Hafiz, could he ise from his splendid sepulchre at Sheeraz, where he reposes with Ferdous and Sadi, the oriental Homer and Catullus, and behold his name assumed by one Stott of Dromore, the most impudent and execrable of literary poachers for the daily prints. ↑ Here followed in the original manuscript, On one alone Apollo deigns to smile, And crowns a new Roscommon in Carlisle. The provocation alluded to in Lord Byron's note, page 262, took place while the entire was in press. These lines were erased in consequence, and all those down to, "With you, ye Druids," &c., substituted in their place. The following additional lines were written, but suppressed before publication: In these our times, with daily wonders big, A lettered peer is like a lettered pig; Both know their alphabet, but who, from thence, Infers that peers or pigs have manly sense? Still less that such should woo the graceful nine? Parnassus was not made for lords and swine. No muse will cheer, with renovating smile, The paralytic puling of Carlisle. This couplet stood in the first edition, "Nor e'en a hackney'd muse will deign to smile Opposite these lines on Lord Carlisle, Lord Byron has written, in the copy which he perused in 1816, "Wrong also the provocation was not sufficient to justify the acerbity." The Earl of Carlisle has lately published an eighteen-penny pamphlet on the state of the stage, and offers his plan of building a new theatre. It is to be hoped his lordship will be permitte I to bring forward any thing for the stage--except his own traged 's. Yes! doff that covering, where morocco shines, And hang a calf-skin on those recreant lines. With you, ye Druids! rich in native lead, When some brisk youth, the tenant of a stall, Employs a pen less pointed than his awl, Leaves his snug shop, forsakes his store of shoes, St. Crispin quits, and cobbles for the muse, Heavens! how the vulgar stare! how crowds applaud! How ladies read, and literati laud! If chance some wicked wag should pass his jest, "Doff that lion's hide, And hang a calf-skin on those recreant limbs.” Shak. King John. Lord Carlisle's works, most resplendently bound, form a conspicuou ornament to his bookshelves: "The rest is all but leather and prunella." ↑ "Melville's Mantle," a parody on " Elijah's Mantle," a poem. This lovely little Jessica, the daughter of the noted Jew K-, seems to be a follower of the Della Crusca school, and has published two volumes af very respectable absurdities in rhyme, as times go; besides sundry novels in the style of the first edition of the Monk. To the above, Lord Byron added, in 1816: "She since married Morning Post-an exceeding good match-and is since dead-which better." § From this line the passage in the first edition stood thus: Though Bell has lost his nightingales and owls, Matilda suivels still, and Hafiz howls, And Crusca's spirit, rising from the dead, Revives in Laura, Quiz, and X. Y. Z. These are the signatures of various worthies who figure in the poetical departments of the newspapers. When some brisk youth, &c.—The following paragraph was inserted in the second edition. This was meant for poor Elackett, who was then patronised by A. J. B but that I did not know, or this would not have been written, at least I think not.- MS. note by Lord Byron. 1816. Capel Lofft, Esq., the Macenas of shoemakers, and preface-writer-ge eral to distressed versemen; a kind of gratis accoucheur to those who wish to be delivered of rhyme, but do not know how to bring forth. Then why no more? if Phœbus smile on you, Shall peers or princes tread pollution's path, Unhappy White!* while life was in its spring, There be, who say, in these enlighten'd days, "Why slumbers Gifford?" once was ask'd in vain; And trace the poet's or the painter's line; Why slumbers Gifford? let us ask again. Are there no fools whose backs demand the scourge? Whose magic touch can bid the canvas glow, Blest is the man who dares approach the bower • See Nathaniel Bloomfield's ode, elegy, or whatever he or any one else Where dwelt the muses at their natal hour: chooses to call it, on the enclosure of "Honington Green." † Vide "Recollections of a Weaver in the Moorlands of Staffordshire." It would be superfluous to recall to the mind of the reader the authors of "The Pleasures of Memory" and "The Pleasures of Hope," the most beautiful didactic poems in our language, if we except Pope's "Essay on Man: " but so many poetasters have started up, that even the names of Campbell and Rogers are become strange. Beneath this note Lord Byron has written, in the copy of this satire which be read in 1816. Whose steps have press'd, whose eye has mark'd afar, The clime that nursed the sons of song and war, • Henry Kirke White died at Cambridge, in October, 1806, in consequence of too much exertion in the pursuit of studies which would have matured a inind which disease and poverty could not impair, and which death itself destroyed rather than subdued. His poems abound in such beauties as mus impress the reader with the liveliest regret that so short a period was alotted to talents which would have dignified even the sacred functions be was destined to assume. The spoiler swept that soaring lyre away, tions, the lines stood, "The spoiler came; and all thy promise fair Has sought the grave, to sleep for ever there." point of power and genius.-MS. note by Lord Byron. 1816. Crabbe.-1 consider Crabbe and Coleridge as the first of these times a And here lat Shee, &c.-The ensuing twenty-two lines were inserted in the second edition. Mr. Shee, author of " Rhymes on Art," and "Element Art" But doubly blest is he whose heart expands And you, associate bards!† who snatch'd to light Let these or such as these, with just applause, Him let them shun, with him let tinsel die : Yet let them not to vulgar Wordsworth stoop, And thou, too, Scott!|| resign o minstrels rude Let simple Wordsworth chime his childish verse, To rouse the galleries, or to raise a ghost: [Moore, • Mr. Wright, late consul-general for the Seven Islands, is author of a very beautiful poem just published: it is entitled "Hora Ionica," and is descriptive of the islet and the adjacent coast of Greece. The translators of the Anthology, Bland and Merivale, have since published separate poems, which evince genius that only requires opportunity to attain eminence. The neglect of the "Botanic Garden" is some proof of returning taste; he scenery is its sole recommendation. § Messrs. Lambe and Lloyd, the most ignoble followers of Southey and Co. By the by, I hope that in Mr. Scott's next poem his hero or heroine will be less addicted to "Gramarye," and more to grammar, than the Lady of the Lay and her bravo, William of Deloraine. TAgainst this passage on Wordsworth, and the following line on Coloridge, Lord Byron has written, "unjust." • Let Moore still sigh.-Fifth edition. The original reading was, "Let Moore blewd." Let sonneteering Bowles his strains refine Yet what avails the sanguine poet's hope, The transient mention of a dubious name! Shall hoary Granta call her sable sons, • It may be asked why I have censured the Earl of Carlisle, my guardias and relative, to whom I dedicated a volume of puerile poems a few yeas ago?-The guardianship was nominal, at least as far as I have been she ■ discover; the relationship I cannot help, and am very sorry for it; but as his lordship seemed to forget it on a very essential occasion to me, I shall not burden my memory with the recollection. I do not think that personal differences sanction the unjust condemnation of a brother scribbler; but I sen no reason why they should act as a preventive when the author, noble a ignoble, has, for a series of years, beguiled a "discerning public" (as the advertisements have it) with divers reams of most orthodox, imperial nonsense. Besides, 1 do not step aside to vituperate the earl: no-his workɔ come fairly in review with those of other patrician literati. If, before I escaped from my teens, I said any thing in favor of his lordship's paper boda, it was in the way of dutiful dedication, and more from the advice of others than my own judgment, and 1 seize the first opportunity of pronouncing my sincere recantation. I have heard that some persons conceive me to be unr obligations to Lord Carlisle: if so, I shall be most particularly happy to leara what they are, and when conferred, that they may be duly appreciated sad publicly acknowledged. What I have humbly advanced as an opinion ca his printed things, I am prepared to suppert, if necessary, by quotations from elegies, odes, eulogies, episodes, and certain facetious and daisty trage dies bearing his name and mark: Shall these approach the muse? ah, no! she flies, For me, who, thus unask'd, have dared to tell There Clarke, still striving piteously "to please," Earth's chief dictatress, ocean's lovely queen. Forgetting doggrel leads not to degrees, A would-be satirist, a hired buffoon, A monthly scribbler of some low lampoon, worse. **So lost to Phoebus, that nor Hodgson'stt verse • Even from the tempting ore of Senton's prize. Thus corrected, in 1816, by Lord Byron. In former editions: "And even spurns the great Seatonian prize." ↑ Thus in the original manuscript: With odes by Smyth, and epic songs by Hoyle; The "Games of Hoyle," well known to the votaries of whist, chess, &c. are not to be superseded by the vagaries of his poetical namesake, whose poem comprised, as expressly stated in the advertisement, all the "plagues of Egypt." But Rome decay'd, and Athens strew'd the plain, Then, hapless Britain! be thy rulers blest, Yet once again adieu! ere this the sail That wafts me hence is shivering in the gale; But should I back return, no tempting press§§ There Clarke, still striving, &c.-These eight lines were added in the second edition. Lord Byron, 1816. This person, who has lately betrayed the most rabid symptoms of confirmed authorship, is writer of a poem denominated the "Art of Pleasing," as "lucus a non lucendo," containing little pleasantry and less poetry. He also acta us monthly stipendiary and collector of calumnies for the "Satirist." If this unfortunate young man would exchange the magazines for the mathematics, and endeavor to take a decent degree in his university, it might #ventually prove more serviceable than his present salary. "Into Cambridgeshire the Emperor Probus transported a considerable body of Vandals."-Gibbon's Decline ani Fall, p. 83, vol. ii. There is no reason to dould the truth of this assertion; the breed is still in high perfeo tion." So lost to Phabus, that, &c.-This couplet, thus altered in the fifth Lord Byron. 1816. edition, was originally printed, But should I back return, no tempting press These four lines were altered in the fifth edition. They originally stood, Shall drag my common-place book on the stage: And equal him whose work he sought to mar." I Lord Elgin would fain persuade us that all the figures, with and without noses, in his stone-shop, are the work of Phidias ! "Credat Judeus!" • Lord Valencia (whose tremendous travels are forthcoming with due decorations, graphical, topographical, typographical) deposed, on Sir John Carr's unlucky suit, that Dubois's satire prevented his purchase of the "Stranger in Ireland."-Oh, fie, my lord? has your lordship no mose feeling for a fellow-tourist? but "two of a trade," they say, &c. And make their grand saloons a general mart Thus far I've held my undisturb'd career, [By Jeffrey's harmless pistol, Hallam's rage Rapid. Thus altered in the fifth edition. In all previous editions And, arm'd in proof, the gauntlet cast at once "classic." ↑ "Rapid," indeed! He topographized and typographized King Priam's dominions in three days 1-1 called him "classic" before I saw the Troad, Thus much I've dared; if my incondite lay* but since have learned better than to tack his name with what don't belong to Hath wrong'd these righteous times, let others say: -Note to the fifth edition. Mr.Gell's Topography of Troy and Ithaca† cannot fail to ensure the This, let the world, which knows not how to spare, approbation of every man possessed of classical taste, as well for the informa. Yet rarely blames unjustly, now declare.† tion Mr. Gell conveys to the mind of the reader, as for the ability and research the respective works display.-Note to all the early editions.. Since seeing the plain of Troy, my opinions are somewhat changed as to the above note. Gell's survey was hasty and superficial.—MS. note by Lord Вутоп. 1816. Din of Melbourne house.-Singular enough, and din enough, God knows.-MS. note by Lord Byron. 1816. Thus much I've dared; if my incondite lay. The reading of the fifth edition: originally printed, "Thus much I've dared to do; how far my lay." The greater part of this satire I most sincerely wish had never been written-not only on account of the injustice of much of the critical, and some of the personal part of it--but the tone and temper are such as 1 cam • Troy. Visited both in 1810 and 1811.-MS. note by Lord Byron. 1816. not approve.-Byron, July 14, 1816. thica. Passed first in 1809.-MS. note by Lord Byron. 1816. Diodata, Geneva, THE FOLLOWING ARGUMENT INTENDED FOR THE SATIRE WAS IN THE ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT, BUT NOT PUBLISHED. The poet considereth times past and their poesy-maketh a sudden transition to times present-is incensed against book-makers-revileth W. Scatt for capidity and ballad-mongering, with notable remarks on Master Southey-complaineth that Master Southey hath inflicted three poems epic and otherwise on the public-Inveigheth against Wm. Wordsworth; but laudeth Mr. Coleridge and his elegy on a young ass-is disposed to vituperain Mr. Lewis-and greatly rebuketh Thomas Little (the late), and the Lord Strangford-recommendeth Mr. Haley to turn his attention to proseand exhorteth the Moravians to glorify Mr. Grahame-sympathizeth with the Rev. Bowles-and deploreth the melancholy fate of Montgomery -breaketh out into invective against the Edinburgh Reviewers-calleth them hard names, harpies, and the like-apostrophiseth Jeffrey and pr phesieth-Episode of Jeffrey and Moore, their jeopardy and deliverance; portents on the morn of combat; the Tweed, Tolbooth, Frith or Forth severally shocked; descent of a goddess to save Jeffrey; incorporation of the bullets with his sinciput and occiput-Edinburgh Reviewers en mass -Lord Aberdeen, Herbert, Scat, Hallam, Pillaus, Lambe, Sydney Smith, Brougham, &c.-The Lord Holland applauded for dinners and translations.-The Drama; Skeffington, Hook, Reynolds, Kenney, Cherry, &c.-Sheridan, Colman, and Cumberland called upon to write-rees to poesy-scribblers of all sorts-Lord's sometimes rhyme; much better not-Hafiz, Rosa Matilda, and X. Y. Z.-Rogers, Campbell, Giford, ĉa, true poets-translators of the Greek Anthology-Crabbe-Darwin's style-Cambridge Seatonian Prize-Smyth-Hodgson-Oxford-Richards-Post loquitur-conclusion, |