Memoir of Francis Hodgson
Lord Byron to Francis Hodgson, 3 January 1813
My dear Hodgson,—I will join you in any bond for the money you
require, be it that or a larger sum. With regard to security, as Newstead is in
a sort of abeyance between sale and purchase, and my ![]()
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Lancashire property very unsettled, I do not know
how far I can give more than personal security, but what I can I will. I hear
nothing of my own concerns, but expect a letter daily. Let me hear from you
where you are and will be this month. I am a great admirer of the R. A.
(‘Rejected
Addresses’), though I have had so great a share in the cause
of their publication, and I like the C. H. (‘Childe Harold’) imitation one of the best. Lady O. (Oxford) has heard me talk much of you as
a relative of the Cokes, etc., and desires me to say she
would be happy to have the pleasure of your acquaintance. You must come and see
me at K——. I am sure you would like all here if you knew them.
The ‘Agnus’1 is furious. You can have
no idea of the horrible and absurd things she has said and done since (really
from the best motives) I withdrew my homage. ‘Great pleasure’ is,
certes, my object, but ‘Why brief,Mr. Wild?’ I cannot answer
for the future, but the past is pretty secure; and in it I can number the last
two months as worthy of the gods in Lucretius. I cannot review in the
‘Monthly;’ in fact I
can just now do nothing,
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| 274 | MEMOIR OF REV. F. HODGSON. | |
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at least with a pen; and I really think the days of
authorship are over with me altogether. I hear and rejoice in Bland’s and Merivale’s intentions.1
Murray has grown great, and has got him
new premises in the fashionable part of town. We live here so shut out of the
monde that I have nothing of general import to
communicate, and fill this up with a ‘happy new year,’ and drink to
you and Drury.
Ever yours, dear H.,
B.
I have no intention of continuing ‘Childe Harold.’ There
are a few additions in the ‘body of the book’ of description,
which will merely add to the number of pages in the next edition. I have
taken Thyrnham Court. The business of last summer I broke off, and now the
amusement of the gentle fair is writing letters literally threatening my
life, and much in the style of Miss
Matthews in ‘Amelia,’ or Lucy in the ‘Beggar’s Opera.’ Such is the
reward of restoring a woman to her family, who are treating her with the
greatest kindness, and with whom I am on good terms. I am still in
‘palatia Circes,’ and,
being no Ulysses, cannot tell
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| BYRON’S SENSTTIVENESS ABOUT CRITICISM. | 275 |
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into
what animal I may be converted. . . . . She has had her share of the
denunciations of the brilliant Phryne,
and regards them as much as I do. I hope you will visit me at Th., which
will not be ready before spring, and I am very sure you would like my
neighbours if you knew them. If you come down now to Kington,1 pray come and see me.
Robert Bland (1779 c.-1825)
Under-master at Harrow 1796-1805, where he taught Byron; he was a friend of Byron and of
Francis Hodgson. With John Herman Merivale he published
Translations,
chiefly from the Greek Anthology (1806).
Henry Joseph Thomas Drury (1778-1841)
The eldest son of Joseph Drury, Byron's headmaster; he was fellow of King's College,
Cambridge and assistant-master at Harrow from 1801. In 1808 he married Ann Caroline Tayler,
whose sisters married Drury's friends Robert Bland and Francis Hodgson.
Francis Hodgson (1781-1852)
Provost of Eton College, translator of Juvenal (1807) and close friend of Byron. He wrote
for the
Monthly and
Critical Reviews, and was
author of (among other volumes of poetry)
Childe Harold's Monitor; or
Lines occasioned by the last Canto of Childe Harold (1818).
Lady Caroline Lamb [née Ponsonby] (1785-1828)
Daughter of the third earl of Bessborough; she married the Hon. William Lamb (1779-1848)
and fictionalized her infatuation with Lord Byron in her first novel,
Glenarvon (1816).
Lucretius (99 BC.-55 BC c.)
Roman poet, author of the verse treatise
De rerum natura.
John Herman Merivale (1779-1844)
English poet and translator, friend of Francis Hodgson, author of
Orlando in Ronscevalles: a Poem (1814). He married Louisa Drury, daughter of the
headmaster at Harrow, and wrote for the
Monthly Review while
pursuing a career in the law.
John Murray II (1778-1843)
The second John Murray began the
Quarterly Review in 1809 and
published works by Scott, Byron, Austen, Crabbe, and other literary notables.
The Monthly Review. (1749-1844). The original editor was Ralph Griffiths; he was succeeded by his son George Edward who
edited the journal from 1803 to 1825, who was succeeded by Michael Joseph Quin
(1825–32).
