by Thomas Moore
“Take your choice; — no one, save he and Mr. Dallas, has seen either, and D. is quite on my side, and for the first. If I can but testify to you and the world how truly I admire and esteem you, I shall be quite satisfied. As to prose, I don’t know Addison’s from Johnson’s; but I will try to mend my cacology. Pray perpend, pronounce, and don’t be offended with either.
“My last epistle would probably put you in a fidget. But the devil, who ought to be civil on such occasions, proved so, and took my letter to the right place.
“Is it not odd? — the very fate I said she had escaped from * *, she has now undergone from the worthy * *. Like Mr. Fitzgerald, shall I not lay claim to the character of ‘Vates?’ — as he did in the Morning Herald for prophesying the fall of Buonaparte, — who, by the by, I don’t think is yet fallen. I wish he would rally and route your legitimate sovereigns, having a mortal hate to all royal entails. — But I am scrawling a treatise. Good night. Ever,” &c.
TO MR. MURRAY.
“January 11. 1814.
“Correct this proof by Mr. Gifford’s (and from the MSS.), particularly as to the pointing. I have added a section for Gulnare, to fill up the parting, and dismiss her more ceremoniously. If Mr. Gifford or you dislike, ’tis but a sponge and another midnight better employed than in yawning over Miss * *; who, by the by, may soon return the compliment.
“Wednesday or Thursday.
“P.S. I have redde * *. It is full of praises of Lord Ellenborough!!! (from which I infer near and dear relations at the bar), and * * * *.
“I do not love Madame de Staël; but, depend upon it, she beats all your natives hollow as an authoress, in my opinion; and I would not say this if I could help it.
“P.S. Pray report my best acknowledgments to Mr. Gifford in any words that may best express how truly his kindness obliges me. I won’t bore him with lip thanks or notes.”
TO MR. MOORE.
“January 13. 1814.
“I have but a moment to write, but all is as it should be. I have said really far short of my opinion, but if you think enough, I am content. Will you return the proof by the post, as I leave town on Sunday, and have no other corrected copy. I put ‘servant,’ as being less familiar before the public; because I don’t like presuming upon our friendship to infringe upon forms. As to the other word, you may be sure it is one I cannot hear or repeat too often.
“I write in an agony of haste and confusion. — Perdonate.”
LETTER 157. TO MR. MURRAY.
“January 15. 1814.
“Before any proof goes to Mr. Gifford, it may be as well to revise this, where there are words omitted, faults committed, and the devil knows what. As to the dedication, I cut out the parenthesis of Mr., but not another word shall move unless for a better. Mr. Moore has seen, and decidedly preferred the part your Tory bile sickens at. If every syllable were a rattle-snake, or every letter a pestilence, they should not be expunged. Let those who cannot swallow chew the expressions on Ireland; or should even Mr. Croker array himself in all his terrors them, I care for none of you, except Gifford; and he won’t abuse me, except I deserve it — which will at least reconcile me to his justice. As to the poems in Hobhouse’s volume, the translation from the Romaic is well enough; but the best of the other volume (of mine, I mean) have been already printed. But do as you please — only, as I shall be absent when you come out, do, pray, let Mr. Dallas and you have a care of the press. Yours,” &c.
TO MR. MURRAY.
[“1814. January 16.]
“I do believe that the devil never created or perverted such a fiend as the fool of a printer. I am obliged to enclose you, luckily for me, this second proof, corrected, because there is an ingenuity in his blunders peculiar to himself. Let the press be guided by the present sheet. Yours, &c.
“Burn the other.
“Correct this also by the other in some things which I may have forgotten. There is one mistake he made, which, if it had stood, I would most certainly have broken his neck.”
LETTER 158. TO MR. MURRAY.
“Newstead Abbey, January 22. 1814.
“You will be glad to hear of my safe arrival here. The time of my return will depend upon the weather, which is so impracticable, that this letter has to advance through more snows than ever opposed the Emperor’s retreat. The roads are impassable, and return impossible for the present; which I do not regret, as I am much at my ease, and six-and-twenty complete this day — a very pretty age, if it would always last. Our coals are excellent, our fire-places large, my cellar full, and my head empty; and I have not yet recovered my joy at leaving London. If any unexpected turn occurred with my purchasers, I believe I should hardly quit the place at all; but shut my door, and let my beard grow.
“I forgot to mention (and I hope it is unnecessary) that the lines beginning — Remember him, &c. must not appear with The Corsair. You may slip them in with the smaller pieces newly annexed to Childe Harold; but on no account permit them to be appended to The Corsair. Have the goodness to recollect this particularly.
“The books I have brought with me are a great consolation for the confinement, and I bought more as we came along. In short, I never consult the thermometer, and shall not put up prayers for a thaw, unless I thought it would sweep away the rascally invaders of France. Was ever such a thing as Blucher’s proclamation?
“Just before I left town, Kemble paid me the compliment of desiring me to write a tragedy; I wish I could, but I find my scribbling mood subsiding — not before it was time; but it is lucky to check it at all. If I lengthen my letter, you will think it is coming on again; so, good-by. Yours alway,
“B.
“P.S. If you hear any news of battle or retreat on the part of the Allies (as they call them), pray send it. He has my best wishes to manure the fields of France with an invading army. I hate invaders of all countries, and have no patience with the cowardly cry of exultation over him, at whose name you all turned whiter than the snow to which you are indebted for your triumphs.
“I open my letter to thank you for yours just received. The ‘Lines to a Lady Weeping’ must go with The Corsair. I care nothing for consequence, on this point. My politics are to me like a young mistress to an old man — the worse they grow, the fonder I become of them. As Mr. Gilford likes the ‘Portuguese Translation,’ pray insert it as an addition to The Corsair.
“In all points of difference between Mr. Gifford and Mr. Dallas, let the first keep his place; and in all points of difference between Mr. Gifford and Mr. Anybody-else, I shall abide by the former; if I am wrong, I can’t help it. But I would rather not be right with any other person. So there is an end of that matter. After all the trouble he has taken about me and mine, I should be very ungrateful to feel or act otherwise. Besides, in point of judgment, he is not to be lowered by a comparison. In politics, he may be right too; but that with me is a feeling, and I can’t torify my nature.”
LETTER 159. TO MR. MURRAY.
“Newstead Abbey, February 4. 1814.
“I need not say that your obliging letter was very welcome, and not the less so for being unexpected.
“It doubtless gratifies me much that our finale has pleased, and that the curtain drops gracefully. You deserve it should, for your promptitude and good nature in arranging immediately with Mr. Dallas; and I can assure you that I esteem your entering so warmly into the subject, and writing to me so soon upon it, as a personal obligation. We shall now part, I hope, satisfied with each other. I was and am quite in earnest in my prefatory promise not to intrude any more; and this not from any affectation, but a thorough conviction that it is the best policy, and is at least respectful to my readers, as it shows that I would not willingly run the risk of forfeiting their favour in future. Besides, I have other views and objects, and think that I shall keep this resolution; for, since I left London, though shut up, snow-bound, thaw-bound, and tempted with all kinds of paper, the dirtiest of ink, and the bluntest of pens, I have not even been haunted by a wish to p
ut them to their combined uses, except in letters of business. My rhyming propensity is quite gone, and I feel much as I did at Patras on recovering from my fever — weak, but in health, and only afraid of a relapse. I do most fervently hope I never shall.
“I see by the Morning Chronicle there hath been discussion in the Courier; and I read in the Morning Post a wrathful letter about Mr. Moore, in which some Protestant Reader has made a sad confusion about India and Ireland.
“You are to do as you please about the smaller poems; but I think removing them now from The Corsair looks like fear; and if so, you must allow me not to be pleased. I should also suppose that, after the fuss of these newspaper esquires, they would materially assist the circulation of The Corsair; an object I should imagine at present of more importance to yourself than Childe Harold’s seventh appearance. Do as you like; but don’t allow the withdrawing that poem to draw any imputation of dismay upon me.
“Pray make my respects to Mr. Ward, whose praise I value most highly, as you well know; it is in the approbation of such men that fame becomes worth having. To Mr. Gifford I am always grateful, and surely not less so now than ever. And so good night to my authorship.
“I have been sauntering and dozing here very quietly, and not unhappily. You will be happy to hear that I have completely established my title-deeds as marketable, and that the purchaser has succumbed to the terms, and fulfils them, or is to fulfil them forthwith. He is now here, and we go on very amicably together, — one in each wing of the Abbey. We set off on Sunday — I for town, he for Cheshire.
“Mrs. Leigh is with me — much pleased with the place, and less so with me for parting with it, to which not even the price can reconcile her. Your parcel has not yet arrived — at least the Mags. &c.; but I have received Childe Harold and The Corsair.
“I believe both are very correctly printed, which is a great satisfaction.
“I thank you for wishing me in town; but I think one’s success is most felt at a distance, and I enjoy my solitary self-importance in an agreeable sulky way of my own, upon the strength of your letter — for which I once more thank you, and am, very truly, &c.
“P.S. Don’t you think Buonaparte’s next publication will be rather expensive to the Allies? Perry’s Paris letter of yesterday looks very reviving. What a Hydra and Briareus it is! I wish they would pacify: there is no end to this campaigning.”
LETTER 160. TO MR. MURRAY.
“Newstead Abbey, February 5. 1814.
“I quite forgot, in my answer of yesterday, to mention that I have no means of ascertaining whether the Newark Pirate has been doing what you say. If so, he is a rascal, and a shabby rascal too; and if his offence is punishable by law or pugilism, he shall be fined or buffeted. Do you try and discover, and I will make some enquiry here. Perhaps some other in town may have gone on printing, and used the same deception.
“The fac-simile is omitted in Childe Harold, which is very awkward, as there is a note expressly on the subject. Pray replace it as usual.
“On second and third thoughts, the withdrawing the small poems from The Corsair (even to add to Childe Harold) looks like shrinking and shuffling after the fuss made upon one of them by the Tories. Pray replace them in The Corsair’s appendix. I am sorry that Childe Harold requires some and such abetments to make him move off; but, if you remember, I told you his popularity would not be permanent. It is very lucky for the author that he had made up his mind to a temporary reputation in time. The truth is, I do not think that any of the present day (and least of all, one who has not consulted the flattering side of human nature,) have much to hope from posterity; and you may think it affectation very probably, but, to me, my present and past success has appeared very singular, since it was in the teeth of so many prejudices. I almost think people like to be contradicted. If Childe Harold flags, it will hardly be worth while to go on with the engravings: but do as you please; I have done with the whole concern; and the enclosed lines, written years ago, and copied from my skull-cap, are among the last with which you will be troubled. If you like, add them to Childe Harold, if only for the sake of another outcry. You received so long an answer yesterday, that I will not intrude on you further than to repeat myself,
“Yours, &c.
“P.S. Of course, in reprinting (if you have occasion), you will take great care to be correct. The present editions seem very much so, except in the last note of Childe Harold, where the word responsible occurs twice nearly together; correct the second into answerable.”
TO MR. MURRAY.
“Newark, February 6. 1814.
“I am thus far on my way to town. Master Ridge I have seen, and he owns to having reprinted some sheets, to make up a few complete remaining copies! I have now given him fair warning, and if he plays such tricks again, I must either get an injunction, or call for an account of profits (as I never have parted with the copyright), or, in short, any thing vexatious, to repay him in his own way. If the weather does not relapse, I hope to be in town in a day or two. Yours,” &c.
TO MR. MURRAY.
“February 7. 1814.
“I see all the papers in a sad commotion with those eight lines; and the Morning Post, in particular, has found out that I am a sort of Richard III. — deformed in mind and body. The last piece of information is not very new to a man who passed five years at a public school.
“I am very sorry you cut out those lines for Childe Harold. Pray re-insert them in their old place in ‘The Corsair.’”
LETTER 161. TO MR. HODGSON.
“February 28. 1814.
“There is a youngster, and a clever one, named Reynolds, who has just published a poem called ‘Safie,’ published by Cawthorne. He is in the most natural and fearful apprehension of the Reviewers; and as you and I both know by experience the effect of such things upon a young mind, I wish you would take his production into dissection, and do it gently. I cannot, because it is inscribed to me; but I assure you this is not my motive for wishing him to be tenderly entreated, but because I know the misery at his time of life, of untoward remarks upon first appearance.
“Now for self. Pray thank your cousin — it is just as it should be, to my liking, and probably more than will suit any one else’s. I hope and trust that you are well and well doing. Peace be with you. Ever yours, my dear friend.”
LETTER 162. TO MR. MOORE.
“February 10. 1814.
“I arrived in town late yesterday evening, having been absent three weeks, which I passed in Notts. quietly and pleasantly. You can have no conception of the uproar the eight lines on the little Royalty’s weeping in 1812 (now republished) have occasioned. The R * *, who had always thought them yours, chose — God knows why — on discovering them to be mine, to be affected ‘in sorrow rather than anger.’ The Morning Post, Sun, Herald, Courier, have all been in hysterics ever since. M. is in a fright, and wanted to shuffle; and the abuse against me in all directions is vehement, unceasing, loud — some of it good, and all of it hearty. I feel a little compunctious as to the R * *’s regret;— ‘would he had been only angry! but I fear him not.’
“Some of these same assailments you have probably seen. My person (which is excellent for ‘the nonce’) has been denounced in verses, the more like the subject, inasmuch as they halt exceedingly. Then, in another, I am an atheist, a rebel, and, at last, the devil (boiteux, I presume). My demonism seems to be a female’s conjecture; if so, perhaps, I could convince her that I am but a mere mortal, — if a queen of the Amazons may be believed, who says αριστον χωλος οιφει. I quote from memory, so my Greek is probably deficient; but the passage is meant to mean * *.
“Seriously, I am in, what the learned call, a dilemma, and the vulgar, a scrape; and my friends desire me not to be in a passion; and, like Sir Fretful, I assure them that I am ‘quite calm,’ — but I am nevertheless in a fury.
“Since I wrote thus far, a friend has come in, and we have been talking and buffooning till I have quite lost the thread of my th
oughts; and, as I won’t send them unstrung to you, good morning, and
“Believe me ever, &c.
“P.S. Murray, during my absence, omitted the Tears in several of the copies. I have made him replace them, and am very wroth with his qualms,— ‘as the wine is poured out, let it be drunk to the dregs.’”
TO MR. MURRAY.
“February 10. 1814.
“I am much better, and indeed quite well, this morning. I have received two, but I presume there are more of the Ana, subsequently, and also something previous, to which the Morning Chronicle replied. You also mentioned a parody on the Skull. I wish to see them all, because there may be things that require notice either by pen or person.
“Yours, &c.
“You need not trouble yourself to answer this; but send me the things when you get them.”
TO MR. MURRAY.
“February 12. 1814.
“If you have copies of the ‘Intercepted Letters,’ Lady Holland would be glad of a volume; and when you have served others, have the goodness to think of your humble servant.
“You have played the devil by that injudicious suppression, which you did totally without my consent. Some of the papers have exactly said what might be expected. Now I do not, and will not be supposed to shrink, although myself and every thing belonging to me were to perish with my memory. Yours, &c. BN.