Memoir of Francis Hodgson
Francis Hodgson to Thomas Moore, 20 February 1830
The Vicarage, Bakewell: February 20, 1830.
My dear Moore,—I
have much to say, and my preface must be short; only let it be satisfactory,
and induce you to receive the following remarks in the same spirit in which
they are offered. I am far from presuming that they are all of importance, but
I earnestly wish that if any may be so, they ![]()
| LETTER TO MOORE ON BYRON’S D1OGRAPHY. | 205 |
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may assist you in
preventing or removing any future regrets on your own part, or in precluding
any mischief that might arise from unfounded or unexplained opinions, sent into
the world with the double authority of Byron
and his biographer. I will refer you rather to subjects thrown together, than
to pages in regular order. At the risque of repetition I will suggest again
that what is recorded of Captain
Byron,1 while unattended at least with
any mitigating circumstances, could never have been, to say the least of it,
welcome to our friend. To amend this, I refer you to the letter in the
‘Representative,’ of which I only spoke from hearsay; and also to
the report I have heard2 of Captain
B.’s proper and affectionate attentions to his first wife
in her last illness. Thus much for our friend’s father. As to his unhappy
mother, if an additional word could
be thrown in, to show his struggle to be more attached to her than she would
generally let him be (testified by his repeatedly saying in his lifetime, as I
have heard, ‘my poor mother!’ and other expressions of the same
kind), it might help to soften the unfilial way of mentioning her, which
appears in some of the letters.
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| 206 |
MEMOIR OF REV. F. HODGSON.
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With regard to his attainments, it is utterly impossible that
B., with the life he led, should, at the
age of nineteen, have read Livy and Tacitus through in the Latin, and Thucydides, Xenophon, and Plutarch in
the Greek. As to Thucydides, I feel convinced that while I
knew him he never could have thoroughly understood the speeches in the original
without the greatest difficulty, and more pains than he was likely to take. He
must mean that he read these authors in translations. He talks, indeed, of
different languages, but the statement should have been more distinct;
otherwise it is calculated to convey a false impression, and lend a weight to
his reputation for scholarship, which may be very injuriously transferred to
his opinions on the most important subjects.
John Byron [Mad Jack] (1756-1791)
The son of Admiral John Byron; he was the father of Lord Byron, and of Augusta Byron by a
prior marriage with Amelia Darcy, Baroness Darcy (1754-84).
Hon. Augusta Mary Leigh [née Byron] (1783-1851)
Byron's half-sister; the daughter of Amelia Darcy, Baroness Conyers, she married
Lieutenant-Colonel George Leigh on 17 August 1807.
Livy (59 BC c.-17)
Roman historian; of his
History of Rome 35 books survive.
Thomas Moore (1779-1852)
Irish poet and biographer, author of the
Irish Melodies (1807-34),
The Fudge Family in Paris (1818), and
Lalla
Rookh (1817); he was Byron's close friend and designated biographer.
Plutarch (46 c.-120 c.)
Greek biographer and moral philosopher; author of
Parallel Lives
and
Moralia.
Thucydides (460 BC c.-395 BC c.)
Athenian historian; author of the
History of the Peloponnesian War
between Athens and Sparta (431-404 BC).
Xenophon (430 BC c.-354 BC c.)
Athenian writer; author of
Memorabilia (on Socrates) and the
Cyropedia (on the Persian King Cyrus).
The Representative. (1826). A failed daily paper backed by John Murray issued from 25 January to 29 July 1826.
