Vampyre' and Other Writings
Page 30
Remember me to my mother, who I know will feel deeply this disappointment; to Mary, Fanny, and Charlotte, to Signor Deagostini and Signor De Ocheda, and to all.
If you could get me letters of introduction, they would be of great use. In the meantime, my dear father, believe me
Your affectionate son,
John Polidori
To Lord Byron at Campagne Diodati, Geneva
Milan, 1 October 1816,
My Lord,
From the date of my letter you will perceive I am already in Italy – I have been here 2 days after many fatigues but no perils thou they say there are robbers and that between Varese and Milan a chain of English Carrriages was stopt by not gallant cavaliers. I learnt it from a party who came in the same boats by the Lago Maggiore, the Sesino and the Canal as myself to Milan which they did with carriages and all packed into a barge on purpose to avoid the fatal spot – which I did to avoid the perchance on my left foot which is sorely mangled by the new shoe of Mr Brightstone of Geneva.
My route has been throughout accompanied with the most magnificent scenery, I shall not describe any part both because your Lordship I believe hates description and because you will also, I hope, tread the same road into this once happier land – I do not know whether you went to the Grimsel it is a scenery of its own kind…
To Gaetano Polidori
Arezzo, November 1816
Dear Father,
I fear you must be in much anxiety at not having heard from me for so long; but the reason was that I did not wish to write before having seen my uncle – to whom I went the day before yesterday, and who received me with great affection and pleasure. I wrote to him from Thun. Thence I went to Grindelwald and Lauterbrunner; hence to Interlachen, and, by the Lake of Brientz, to Meyringen; by the Grimsel in the Valais to Obergasteln; thence to Brieg; and then by the Simplon down to Farinoli in the Borromean Islands. Thence I embarked to Sestri Calende; thence to Milan – where, meeting the poet Monti, Lord Byron, Monsignor De Brême, and others of my acquaintance, I remained some weeks. Thence I went to Florence, by Bologna, Modena, Parma, and Piacenza, and crossing the Apennines. In Florence I stayed two days, and saw Cavalier Pontelli, Abate Fontani, Dr Frosini, and others. Thence I went on foot to Arezzo, where I found my uncle, my aunt, Pippo, and Teresa, all well; and they received me with great cordiality into their house, where I now am.
Seeing, by your letter to my uncle, in how much trouble you are on my account, I determined, after learning whether Lady Westmorland will employ me or no – if yes, to go to Rome; if no, to go straight from Leghorn to London, to the bosom of my family. I shall soon hear from Lady Westmorland, as Lady Jersey undertook, at the instance of Monsignor De Brême, to ask her mother whether she wants me or not, and she is now in Florence, en route for Rome.
I wish that in your next letter you would send me enough money, in a bill on Florence, for paying the passage from Leghorn to London, for the chance of my not having enough remaining…
When I see you again I shall have much to tell you about, but will not put it into a letter. Suffice it that I have found that what you told me about Italy is but too true. I am in good health…
Your affectionate son,
John Polidori
To this letter the uncle Luigi Polidori added a few lines concerning Lord Byron: ‘I became indignant at some references [made by John Polidori] to the strange conduct of that Lord Byron with whom he was travelling: but he kept his temper well – I envy him for that. All these people are hard: Patience!’
Gaetano Polidori to His Son, John
Addressed to; Il Signore Doctor Giovanni Gulielmo Polidori Ferma in Posta, Milano, Italy.
London, 30 September 1816
My Dearest Son,
Your letter produced in me a two-fold and opposite sensation: gratification at your having quitted a man so discredited in public opinion, and sorrow at seeing you almost a vagrant, and at the uncertainty as your lot. But at all costs I should have liked to see you in London, where at least bread and roofing would not have you wanting… so long as I could divide the two with you. I hope however that mishaps, if this can be called one, will open your eyes, and that you will recognise the error of following over much the dictates of a warm fancy. I recommend you to be at least cautious in your travels… I will see to you getting some letters of introduction for you; and meantime I send you one for Lord Cowper… he is a liberal and courteous gentleman, and Lady Cowper an excellent and beneficent lady. I am sure they will do you any service they can. At Pisa I am sure that Vaccà will receive you as a son, and will make you acquainted with all the best people in that city… If I can, I will procure you a letter of recommendation from the Duke of Sussex to the Grand Duke of Tuscany. In short I will do everything which a father should do for a son whom he loves; a father who forgets everything else when he sees his son in need or in danger.
Your most affectionate Father
Draft Letter to Messrs Sherwood and Neely
3 April 1819
Dear Gentlemen
I see in the title page of a tale purporting to [be] by Lord Byron the Vampyre that you are the publishers of it, I therefore take the liberty of addressing myself to you –
Lord Byron is not the author – I who am referred to in the letter of the Magazines am that author, I was the ‘Gentleman’ who travelled with his Lordship and who wrote the whole of that trifle – I therefore desire that you will account to me for it as by your having entered it at Stationers hall before the publication of the Magazine. I am deprived of all copyright therein and cannot any longer take advantage of my own work – if I have not an immediate answer I shall immediately procure an injunction from Chancery to stop its further sale for I will not in any manner allow myself to be deprived of what is mine – I shall at the same time if the title page is not cancelled & my name inserted instead of Lord Byron, immediately publish in all the papers there this a mistake in the author.
Yr &c
J Polidori MD
To Lord Byron
Pisa, 11 January 1817
My time here is perhaps the most valuable that I have yet passed in the study of my profession – Vaccà the first surgeon in Italy undoubtedly an ancient school fellow of my father has received me like a son & old friend – he is a man with all the fire of his nation & judgement of a northern knowing exactly the limits between the uses of these two faculties & with few if any prejudices not only in religion &c but what is more difficult in his profession – I thought myself very free from medical prejudice but by his instruction by his demonstration of how much is thought fact in medicine which is merely a rash induction. My presumption is much diminished & I have put myself to study again what I thought I knew.
I divide my time between the hospital reading medicine & Italian literature till 4 when I dine with him & afterwards accompany his wife to the theatre – so that from 7 in the morning when I go to the hospital to 11 when I return home I am always occupied for the conversation of Vaccà is perhaps more useful than a book to me.
Indeed, if my mind could but rest with regard to the future I should be very content but that is so uncertain & promises so badly that I cannot bear to think about it – Lady Westmorland I know nothing of yet – I was thinking of settling in Florence but the only person who could be of use, the Countess of Albany, is engaged to a French physician who cures especially the Cytherean complaints. I have one brilliant prospect before [me] the Bresil, Vaccà has exerted himself very much for me & upon one of his greatest friends, Olindo Giusto, being appointed by the Danish court, in consequence of his marrying the first minister’s daughter, to the general consulship of Denmark at the Brazils he has seen him & induced him to take me along with him & do all in his power in the Brazils to my advancement in my profession being thus sure of the Danish practice & having a probability of the English from being so my fortune they assure me would be made – he has even offered me a room &c in his house & having set off for Copenhagen two days ago will on hi
s arrival write to me where I am to meet him at Lisbon or London to go with him in July. But I don’t think I shall be able. I would not indeed, it would be absurd to go without 2 or 3 hundred pounds & my father being unable to advance it me I have only one hope that he will consent to raise it in some way or other but this is so weak that I fear I shall have to struggle it out with out hope in Europe.
To Lord Byron
Pisa, 17 January 1817
I have arranged the observations I have made upon different subjects in Italy but especially medicine & surgery into the shape of a journal and I think I have got some interesting information upon the state of these two last sciences and I have at least in my own eyes put it upon paper in if not an accurate at least a clear style might I ask your Lordship to recommend to Murray[?] I have also a play, The Duke of Athens, but I fear at this you will be more inclined to laugh than any thing else, but as I wish to go to the Brazil and I do not think my father will help me, might I ask your Lordship to read & judge it. That the information in my journal (medical) is accurate I can assure you from having read it to Vaccà who has corrected it where any thing was mistaked. I feel very anxious about this Brazil plan and if I did not fear troubling you I should wish to ask you that if you could you would give me some means of getting recommended to some one of the English who have influence at the Portugese court. For it would be too late after having gone there & not succeeding to come back & try to settle in any other place.
I fear I ask too much of your Lordship, as in return I can only assure you that I am affectionately your obliged and humble servant,
John Polidori
– would you remember me to Mr Hobhouse – would you also tell me if Mr Shelley is in London.
Lord Byron to his Publisher, John Murray
January, 1817
Dr Polidori as I hear from him by letter from Pisa is about to return to England – to go to the Brazils on a medical Speculation with the Danish Consul – as you are in the favour of the powers that be – could you not get him some letters of recommendation from some of your Government friends – to some of the Portugese settlers – he understands his profession well – & has no want of general talents – his faults are the faults of a pardonable vanity & youth – his remaining with me was out of the question… but I know no great harm of him – & some good – he is clever – & well accomplished – knows his profession by all accounts well – and is honourable in his dealings – & not at all malevolent. – I think with luck he will turn out a useful member of society (from which he will lop the diseased members) & the college of Physicians… He has kept a medical journal under the eye of Vaccà (the first Surgeon on the Continent) at Pisa – Vaccà has corrected it – & it must contain some valuable hints or information on the practice of this Country. – If you can aid him in publishing this also – by your influence with your brethren – do – I do not ask you to publish it yourself – because that sort of request is too personal & embarrassing. – He has also a tragedy – of which having seen nothing I say nothing – but the very circumstance of his having made these efforts (if they are only efforts) at one & twenty – is in his favour & proves him to have good dispositions for his own improvement.
Appendix: Four Letters about Polidori
Louis de Brême to Luisa Stolberg D’Albany, Florence1
Milan, 30 October 1816
Madame!
You would not have forgiven me had I not given a letter for you Madam, to M. Polidori, spirited and knowledgeable young man with whom I have been friendly since my trip to Switzerland. He’s an Anglo-Italian whose father without a doubt has the honour of being known to you as he was the secretary of our Count Alfieri. The young Polidori is the friend and the long time companion and appointed doctor of Lord Byron; because he is doctor of the University of Edinburgh in that sad and useless faculty. I have taken great interest in him which he deserves because of all these things. He also comes highly recommended by Mme. De Staël.
Mr Polidori will tell you about the accident that obliges him to quit Milan earlier than he had previously planned. When you have listened to all that he has to say, I beg you to give him the best advice to obtain support from the Minister of his government in Florence.
Madam,
Your most devoted, obedient, and obliging servant
L. de Brême, son
Louis de Brême to Madame de Staël at Chateau du Coppet, Switzerland
Milan, 7 October 1816
Madame!
Dr Polidori has arrived; I will be doing my utmost to ensure that he mixes with the greatest of his Italian counterparts. In the meantime to fill his spare moments, he wants to compose a dozen Italian tragedies and then it will be the English ladies turn.
He’s a really nice chap. He very sincerely offered to teach me English. I am expecting Lady Jersey who Brougham calls our ‘Queen of the Opposition.’ I wrote to Come in order to let the good Lady know that I have reserved an apartment for her at the Hotel Royal. According to what Brougham has communicated to me from Florence, she’ll be here on the 10th. Is it true, as Polidori says, that all those people when they return to London, don’t remember us anymore than they remember Collin Tampon? This could only be true up to a certain point. I would be inconsolable if the Lansdownes were to forget me.
Louis de Brême
Louis de Brême to Madame de Staël in Paris
Milan, 30 October 1816
Madame,
Lord Byron is very kind. An opportunity recently presented itself to demonstrate his ‘good heart’ to Polidori, and he seized it with simplicity and eagerness. Also I shall tell you that I think there are some men who aren’t valued at all because of what one calls their ‘behaviour’ whose souls are a treasury of real qualities; their souls are maybe not ‘sociable’ but they are eminently human. Lord Byron is gifted with a variety of qualities for which his compatriots and his family do not give him credit. This is quite natural as he is missing the qualities that are normally valued. We spend most of our evenings together and many of these we spend at the Theatre.
Polidori left this morning for Florence. Don’t believe anything that you might hear about him or about the reasons of his hurried departure2 from here before I am able to inform you about it; which I will do on the first occasion that presents itself. In the meantime, if you have the opportunity to in Paris, could you please help him with all your influence with the minister of his government in Florence; whilst it is possible for one to be more careful than he is, and one could also be less unhappy, generally it is not possible for one to be a more honest, naïve, and well-meaning man. You see 248 ‘The Vampyre’ and other writings Madam, I feel I am obliged to retract the too superficial judgements that I made of him at Coppet when I thought to see only vulgarity in character and moreover in spirit, it is simply a matter of lack of knowledge, of deep discernment and of a real feeling for beauty. You’ll have judged him at the same time according to the truth. I am only speaking well of him in order to reconcile myself about him.
Dante Gabriel Rossetti to William Allingham
21 March 1855
In Medwin, in Moore, and in Leigh Hunt, and elsewhere, I have seen allusions to him [John Polidori] which dwelt on nothing except his faults… I have met accidentally, from time to time, with persons who knew him, and he seems always to have excited admiration by his talents, and with those who knew him well, affection and respect by his honourable nature…
1 Translations of the following three letters are the editor’s own.
2 The opportunity which presented itself was when Lord Byron intervened in favour of Polidori after the doctor had been arrested by the Austrian police during an altercation with an Austrian official he provoked at La Scala.
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