Clayden: Rogers and his Contemporaries

‘Dear Rogers,—Do not mistake me. I really returned your book for the reason assigned and no other. It is too good for so careless a fellow. I have parted with all my own books, and positively won’t deprive you of so valuable “a drop of that immortal man.”

‘Dear Rogers,—It is said that Lord Byron has refused a very large sum from Murray for permission to publish separately two new poems which his lordship wishes only to be added to the collection of his works. Knowing the noble use which he has hitherto made of the produce of his works, I venture to point out to you poor Godwin as a person whom Lord Byron could save from ruin by granting the permission on condition of Murray’s giving Godwin such part of the sum spoken of as Lord Byron may be pleased to direct. Godwin is a man of genius, likely, for his independence of thinking, to starve at the age of sixty for want of a few hundred pounds necessary to carry on his laborious occupation.

‘Dear Rogers,—I wrote to you hastily this morning by Murray to say that I was glad to do as Mackintosh and you suggested about Mr. Godwin. It occurs to me now that as I have never seen Mr. G. but once, and consequently have no claim to his acquaintance, that you or Sir J. had better arrange it with him in such a manner as may be least offensive to his feelings, and so as not to have the appearance of officiousness nor obtrusion on my part. I hope you will be able to do this, as I should be very sorry to do anything by him that may be deemed indelicate. The sum Murray offered, and offers, was, and is, one thousand and fifty pounds: this I refused before because I thought it more than the two things were worth to M. and from other objections, which are of no consequence. I have, however, closed with M. in consequence of Sir J.’s and your suggestion, and propose the sum of six hundred pounds to be transferred to Mr. Godwin in such a manner as may seem best to you and his friend. The remainder I think of for other purposes.

‘Dear Rogers,—I am sorry that I cannot dine with you to-day. I have not lately been very well and am under sentence of pill and potion for an attack of liver, &c.

‘You may set your heart at rest on poor G.’s business. Murray, when it came to the point, demurred, and though not exactly refusing, gave such sort of answers as determine me to take the MS. away and not publish at all.

A month later Byron writes on the painful subject of which everybody was talking.

‘Dear Rogers,—You are one of the few persons with whom I have lived in what is called intimacy, and have heard me at times conversing on the untoward topic of my recent family disquietudes. Will you have the goodness to say to me at once, whether you ever heard me speak of her with disrespect, with unkindness, or defending myself at her expense by any serious imputation of any description against her? Did you never hear me say “that when there was a right and a wrong she had the right”?

‘My dear Rogers,—Mr. Skirving of Edinburgh, an unrivalled artist as a painter in crayons, is going to London with the only good portrait of Burns. I think you will like to look at it, and perhaps you may even be disposed to purchase it, provided the artist’s intention of selling it holds water till he gets to London. Mr. Skirving is a man of great genius in his art, and is in circumstances of perfect independence, although his dress, unless he should rectify it when he gets to London, would argue something very different. In fact, both his dress and address require all the allowance which genius knows how to make for the caprices and eccentricities of its brethren. Do not give yourself any trouble with him beyond what lies exactly in the way of a lover of art.

‘I am sure you will join with me in severely regretting this unlucky business of Lord Byron’s. Who would have expected such a consummation last year when I was in town? It is an unlucky business, since it gives stupidity a momentary triumph over genius—and talents. I trust this will find you well in health and enjoying yourself in a milder climate than ours has been this year.

‘I should think Mr. Sharp would like to look at the

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Ayrshire Ploughman. If Skirving does sell it, which appears to me very problematical, I wish this unique representation of our great poet to fall into good hands. If I had not been buying a sort of Oxmoor, like Tristram Shandy, and building, hedging, ditching and draining, Rob should not have crossed the Border.’

In the early months of this year Rogers spent a good deal of his time by the sick-bed of Sheridan. Moore speaks of him as one of the very few who watched the going out of this great light with interest. Rogers had preserved his friendship with him through all the reverses of his later years, and, as I have already shown, had given him much assistance in the way of money. In these closing months of his life, when nearly all his friends had forsaken him, Rogers remained steadfast. On one evening early in May he took Lord Holland to see the dying orator, in what Moore calls ‘the last corner, where he lay down to die.’ Bailiffs were even then in the house, but Rogers and Lord Holland ‘comforted him,’ Moore tells us, ‘with the assurance that some steps should be taken to ward off the immediate evils that he dreaded.’ A few evenings after this Rogers found an almost illegible note lying for him on his table when Moore and he returned home.

It was after midnight when Rogers opened this pathetic letter, and the two poets at once went up to Savile Row to see what could be done. There was no need to disturb the Sheridans. They spoke through the railings to the servant in the area and learned that all was safe for the night, but that early the next morning the front of the house would be covered with bills announcing the sale. They went back indignant at the dishonour thus threatened to a great orator, dramatist, and statesman, but determined that he should be saved. Early next morning Moore called on Rogers, who gave him a draft for 150l., and despatched him with it to Sheridan’s house. He found Sheridan full of hope and encouragement, and noted the strength and fulness of his voice and the brightness of his eyes. All would be well if he could but recover and leave his bed. This succour proved a mere temporary relief; and a month later, when he had become seriously worse, a sheriff’s officer arrested him in his bed, and was only prevented from carrying him away, bed-ridden and dying as he was, by the threat of Dr. Bain to hold him responsible for the consequences. Dr. Bain, Peter Moore, the member for Coventry, and Samuel Rogers were the only friends that remained to Sheridan, and their fidelity all through this dismal journey to the grave is the one redeeming feature of this melancholy story of fallen greatness. Rogers

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had much to tell in after years of Sheridan’s behaviour on his death-bed. Asked by his doctors if he had ever undergone an operation, he answered, ‘Never, except when sitting for my portrait or having my hair cut.’ To Rogers he said, ‘Tell Lady Bessborough that my eyes will look up to the coffin lid as brightly as ever.’ Stories were told of his devout behaviour when the Bishop of London read prayers with him, but the Bishop told Rogers that Sheridan was then totally insensible, his wife raising him up and joining his hands during the service. Sheridan died on Sunday, the 7th of July, and on Saturday the 13th was buried with great pomp in Westminster Abbey, which ‘had seldom seen a costlier funeral.’

Rogers’s criticism of his life as a whole was summed up in the phrase that he carried the privileges of genius as far as any man ever carried them before. I find in his Commonplace Book: ‘In an epilogue written to “The Maid of the Oaks” at Salthill, but which came too late, Sheridan introduced faro—

‘Great figure loses—little figure wins.’

‘It has been said,’ writes Rogers, ‘that the “School for Scandal” and the “Duenna” were performed at the London theatres on the night of Sheridan’s celebrated speech on the Begums in the House of Commons; a coincidence very delightful to the imagination, but which did not take place. On that night, the 7th of February, 1787, Kemble played Castalio in “The Orphan” for the first time at Drury Lane, and Mrs. Abington played Lady Townley in “The Provoked Husband” at Covent Garden. A discovery made at Burney’s at Deptford, 7th June, 1816. Present: Frere, Heber, Burney and R.’ Soon after the funeral Rogers had the following letter from one of the old friends of Sheridan and his family.

‘My dear Rogers,—I rejoice to hear that Mrs. Sheridan is better. I flattered myself, indeed, this was the case by a few lines I got from her some days ago; but of course there must be recollections yet fresh in her mind that cannot admit of much comfort. The Bishop of London seems to have been very kind indeed to her, and she speaks of him with great affection and gratitude.

‘I wish it may turn out as you hear. But some parts of “Affectation” have been found amongst poor Sheridan’s papers. He was said to have begun it, I think, about the year 1788 or 89, but nobody imagined it was in any degree of forwardness; and I remember some time after saying to Mrs. Sheridan (the first Mrs. Sheridan), when they were assigning this reason and t’other for its not being brought out, that I supposed, in fact, the real reason was its not being quite complete, to which she replied, “the reason it does not come out is not as you suppose, because it is not quite finished, but because it is not even yet begun.” But if there should be only one bit of it, and that in a state to see the light, what a trouvaille it will be! I had once in my possession several things of his writing, and some of a very early date, which were all exquisite. I had put them up with a number of interesting papers, such as letters from Fitzpatrick, with a number of epigrams, sonnets, &c., that never saw the light, and also various things of Tickell’s, which were intended for publication when finished. These became mixed with other papers, and were all unfortunately destroyed when I removed to Balls, as well as some trash of my own, which well deserved to be burnt. One of these jeux d’esprit, which Sheridan struck off at a moment one day while we were waiting dinner, was incomparable. The subject would have been thought not very promising—the appraisement of an old, worn-

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out gig belonging to Fitzpatrick which I was to purchase at Sheridan’s valuation. You can have no idea what fun he made of this. Fox used to say it was the most comical thing ever written, and Fitzpatrick, though it was in a good humour and was not a little severe upon him, was delighted with it. But no one, you know, cared so little about a joke against himself as Fitzpatrick, who was as remarkable for his immovable good temper as he was for his excellent understanding and polished wit.

During the spring of this year Grattan was visiting Rogers’s friend, Richard Sharp, at Mickleham, and Rogers spent some time with him, treasuring up the talk which forms a pleasant part of his volume of ‘Recollections.’ ‘It was June,’ says Rogers, ‘and the limes were full of bees.’ Standing under the trees, Grattan said, ‘Now what are these senators about. A great humble bee is now addressing them—they are now in Committee.’ He used to say in the morning, ‘Shall we visit those senators?’ Rogers put the recollection into his next poem, ‘Human Life’—

Sheridan naturally became the subject of some of their talk, and Grattan remarked that his faults were like those of most men of genius—they were of a poetical character, the excesses of the generous virtues. Rogers quoted Sheridan’s remark, ‘What will they think of the public-speaking of this age in after times when they read

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Mr. Burke’s speeches, and are told that in his day he was not accounted either the first or second speaker.’1 Grattan replied that Burke’s speeches were far better to read than to hear. They were, he said, better suited to a patient reader than to an impatient hearer. The best speaker is to be found among the most enlightened people. Cicero would not have pleased at Athens. He was better to read than to hear.

To this year also some of the recollections of Lord Erskine belong. Rogers had known him intimately from very early days. They had been politically associated before the trial of Horne Tooke. He records that Erskine’s recollections were dictated to him as he sat with his pen in his hand after dinner in St. James’s Place in 1816.2

In the summer Ugo Foscolo came to London. His fame both as a poet and a patriot had come before him, and he was received with favour by men of all parties. Rogers, who was full of recollections of his tour in Italy and of enthusiasm for everything Italian, met Foscolo at Holland House, where he was staying, and where he charmed everybody by his vivacity, his great and various knowledge, his warm sympathy, his lively imagination, and his excellent qualities as a man. ‘We are all engoués with him,’ said Lord Holland, and Rogers was as much engoué as any. I find in his Diary, too, a record of the visit of another man of genius.

‘July 14, 1816.—Benjamin Constant at breakfast. Always kept a diary in a mixed language—German,

1 Recollections, p. 89. 2 Ibid., p. 167.

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French and English—unintelligible to others. Now much briefer than formerly, from many motives. “Adolphe,” many parts he will confess, from his own experience. He had often in his mind an Englishwoman still living with a Frenchman at Paris—a Mrs. Lindsay. . . . Never corrects his works, though he sometimes adds to them, expecting nobody to read them twice. “Corinne,” by far Madame de Staël’s best novel. “Delphine” falls off terribly. Her “Allemagne” very fatiguing. She writes her works four or five times over, correcting them only in that way. The end of a chapter always the most obscure, as she ends with an epigram. Rocca,1 full of simplicity and observation. His work singular and interesting. Marivaux 2 good. His comedies will always be acted, as some actress will always produce them. Mars.3 Contat.4 Mackintosh vague in his conversation, particularly when in a tête-à-tête. “I always like him best in mixed society.” His want of punctuality. Ward very brilliant. Never saw Pitt, Fox, Burke, or Sheridan. Bonaparte lost much of his decision, had a contempt for mankind, having formed his opinion from Voltaire’s “Candide,” &c.; a good mathematician, a very vague talker, ever restless, because unacknowledged by the kings. No leisure for a man of letters in London. In Paris, no morning visits; if a man calls three times upon a woman he must be in love with her. Racine a

1 M. de Rocca, the young French hussar officer whom Madame de Staël had privately married.

2 Marivaux, Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de, French dramatist and novelist, author of Le Jeu de l’Amour et du Hazard, &c., 1688-1763.

3 Mlle. Mars, famous actress of the Théâtre Français, 1779-1847.

4 Mlle. Louise Contat, also of the Théâtre Français, 1760-1813.

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better artist than Virgil. Montesquieu a very great man. “Iliad” and “Odyssey” by different men. Has written a tract to prove this, but never published it. The “Odyssey” the best story. The death of Priam very fine.’

‘Dear Rogers,—Do you recollect a book, Mathisson’s “Letters,” which you lent me, which I have still, and yet hope to return to your library? Well, I have encountered at Coppet and elsewhere Gray’s correspondent (in its appendix), that same Bonstetten to whom I lent the translation of his correspondent’s epistles for a few days, but all he could remember of Gray amounts to little, except that he was the most “melancholy and gentlemanlike” of all possible poets. Bonstetten himself is a fine and very lively old man, and much esteemed by his compatriots, he is also a littérateur of good repute, and all his friends have a mania of addressing to him volumes of letters, Mathisson, Müller the historian, &c., &c. He

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is a good deal at Coppet, where I have met him a few times. All there are well, except Rocca, who, I am sorry to say, looks in a very bad state of health; the Duchess seems grown taller, but as yet no rounder since her marriage. Schlegel is in high force, and Madame1 as brilliant as ever.

During the summer Rogers paid a visit to Sydney Smith at Foston, where, we are told, he charmed young and old by his kindness and inexhaustible fund of anecdote. He left London in August, intending to go to Scotland, and to take Tom Moore, Wordsworth and Southey on the way. ‘Rogers stayed with us here,’ says Moore in a letter to Lady Donegal, ‘from Wednesday to Sunday and left “an image of himself” (I mean intellectually speaking) very favourable indeed on the minds both of Bessy and the little ones. He was, indeed, particularly amiable: and took no fright at the superfluity either of melted butter or of maids, and even saw with composure a little boy who comes to clean my shoes, not that I can quite answer for his subsequent reflections on these luxuries.’ The subsequent reflections, with pleasant glimpses of many eminent contemporaries, are in the following letters—

‘My dear Sarah,—I should have written before, but the last post here I missed, and there is one here only every other day. I travelled to Leicester, where I arrived at 11 at night, without an incident, only that in Wells’s Row, Islington, we took up an old lady blind and deaf, whose only pleasure seemed to be to shake hands with us all round very often. She spoke, however, of her dinner with great pleasure, and expressed a wish that she might have some fish, an observation to which we could make no reply. Left Leicester next morning at half-past five in an empty coach, and at eleven found myself at Moore’s. His cottage is all alone in a pretty little valley with fields and woods about it, and is new and neat. They say, however, it is leaky and smoky. She struck me as much taller and much improved in expression, and still very handsome, tho’ a little of her lustre is gone, and she is thinner. But she surprised me agreeably, and would be admired anywhere. The two little girls are not pretty nor otherwise, and quiet and merry and caressing beyond anything. I wished for you with them very often, and they had made arrangements for you. I staid till Sunday—having passed into Dovedale with M. and seen Ham, and then went off alone (for, after all, he left me in the lurch) to Manchester. Napped there, and at one in the morning came on in the mail to Kendal, arriving here on Monday at three. On Tuesday, after a row on the lake, I walked and drank tea with the Wordsworths, who are all as before. They still talk of

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their day with you on the Thames, and Miss W. counts the years since she saw you. Their present abode is princely—by the side of Rydal Hall. Their windows command Windermere, and their garden (Miss H. and the clerk keep it full of flowers) looks down upon Rydal water. I was asking my way to them at a cottage door in the road, when the child I spoke to ran in, and a little girl came smiling out and took my hand with a curtsey, It was Miss W., as I guessed, who had called to ask after a child in the measles, and she conducted me to their house. Yesterday I dined there, and to-day he spends the day with me. He is very cheerful and pleasant, and so are they all. I believe they heard of my arrival a few minutes after I came, for they called early the next day while I was on the water. The weather here has been wretched. Now it is mending a little, but still cold and cheerless—the Moores live by a fire, and so do the Ws., and I live in my great-coat. I am now writing in it. What will become of me, I am at a loss to say—but my heart fails me, and I think I shall go on no further. Pray write, my dear Sarah, and tell me your plans, to Lowwood—if you write in four or five days, but afterwards to Keswick. The regatta here is next Wednesday, and W. offers to accompany me to Ulleswater, an offer I am glad to accept, so I think I shall not be at K. before the end of next week. Pray remember me very affectionately to all, and believe me to be,

‘My dear Sarah,—Many thanks for your letter. The mountains and lakes are just as beautiful as ever, and have lost little by the comparison, so you may come and see them without apprehension. After all, I did not see the regatta, as Wordsworth was impatient for Ulleswater. We set off on Monday, and had two beautiful days for it. On Wednesday we dined at a Mr. Marshall’s, a Liverpool merchant, whose wife’s sister, living in a small house on the lake, said she had seen you at Mr. Lloyd’s, and slept at Keswick that night, since which we have had cold, wet and cheerless weather, but on Thursday there were races here on Crow Park on the lake notwithstanding, and on Friday I went up Causay Pike, a huge mountain, with Wordsworth, Southey, and Sir George Beaumont—nor have I ever dined at my inn but once, and then W. dined with me. Mrs. Wood has lost her old mother and her husband; and has married again, and is now Mrs. Jackson. She asked after you the first moment she saw me, and is the same tidy, civil lady as ever, and no older to my eyes. Southey’s house is a model of neatness and comfort, the admiration of Wordsworth, and I must say, a contrast to his. We have had two wet days, and

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Lady B. lent me Dorothy’s “Tour in Scotland,” in which we are mentioned.1 It is full of sweetness, and very interesting from her dialogues with people in the fields and highways. She seems exceedingly affected hy the kind or sour looks of her hostess, and many of the last did they meet with on the high roads. A delightful air of na’ivte and benevolence and enthusiasm runs thro’ it, and I know you would enjoy it much. Take the last day’s history for a sample—

‘My dear Dan,—I write just now to say that our grand festival is finally fixed for Monday next, the 27th; the twelfth cake is bespoke and the hurdygurdy; and I hope and trust you will come, one and all—the boys because they are coming at all events, and Lucy to write a full account of it, and Patty to prompt her and console Signor Binda for her long absence, and Mary and Eliza, because I missed them at Derby, and have not seen them for an age, and mamma most of all because she will be most welcome, and you because I lost you the other day when you came. I have no news, and you must have heard all from Highbury. As for me, I have been idling away my time at many castles of Indolence. At Woburn I found Lady M. Palmer, and she talked much of you and Payne. I like her very much indeed. Pray give my love to all, and believe me to be, ever yours,

Byron was at this time in Italy, and occasional letters passed between him and Rogers. Moore gives but one—shortened as usual—but I am able to restore it in reproducing it—

‘My dear Rogers,—It is a considerable time since I wrote to you last, and I hardly know why I should trouble you now, except that I think you will not be sorry to hear from me now and then. You and I were never correspondents, but always something better, which is very good friends.

‘I saw your friend Sharp in Switzerland, or rather in the Genevan territory (which is and is not Switzerland), and he gave Hobhouse and me a very good route for the Bernese Alps; however, we took another from a German, and went by Clarens over the Dent de Jaman to Montbovon, and through the Simmenthal to Thun, and so on to Lauterbrunnen; except that from thence to the Grindelwald instead of round about, we went right over the Wengern Alp’s very summit, and being close under the Jungfrau, saw it, its glaciers, and heard the avalanches in all their glory, having famous weather therefor. We, of course, went from the Grindelwald over the Scheideck to Brienz, and its lake; past the Reichenbach and all that mountain road, which reminded me of Albania and Ætolia and Greece, except that the people here were more civilised and rascally. I did not think so very much of Chamouni (except the source of the Arveyron, to which we went up to the teeth of the ice, so as to look into and touch the cavity, against the warning of the guides, only one of whom would go with us so close) as of the Jungfrau, and the Pissevache and Simplon, which are quite out of all mortal computation.

‘I was at Milan about a moon, and saw Monti and some other living curiosities, and thence on to Verona, where I did not forget your story of the assassination during your sojourn there, and brought away with me some fragments of Juliet’s tomb, and a lively recollection of the amphitheatre. The Countess Goetz (the governor’s wife here) told me that there is still a ruined castle of the Montecchi between Verona and Vicenza. I have been at Venice since November, but shall proceed to Rome shortly. For my deeds here, are they not written in my letters to the unreplying Thomas Moore? To him I refer you; he has received them all, and not answered one.

‘Will you remember me to Lord and Lady Holland? I have to thank the former for a book which I have not yet received, but expect to reperuse with great pleasure on my return, viz., the second edition of “Lope de Vega.” I have heard of Moore’s forthcoming poem: he cannot wish himself more success than I wish and augur for him. I have also heard great things of “Tales of my Landlord,” but I have not yet received them; by all accounts they beat even “Waverley,” &c., and are by the same author. Maturin’s second tragedy has, it seems, failed, for which I should think anybody would be sorry except perhaps Sotheby, who I must say was capriciously and evilly entreated by the Sub-Committee about poor dear “Ivan,” whose lot can only be paralleled by that of his original—I don’t mean the author, who is anything but original,—but the deposed imperial infant who gave his name and some narrative to the drama thereby entitled. My health was very victorious till within the last month, when I had a fever. There is a typhus in these parts, but

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I don’t think it was that. However, I got well without a physician or drugs.

‘I forgot to tell you that, last autumn, I furnished Lewis with “bread and salt” for some days at Diodati, in reward for which (besides his conversation) he translated Goethe’s “Faust” to me by word of mouth, and I set him by the ears with Madame de Staël about the slave-trade. I am indebted for many and kind courtesies to our Lady of Coppet, and I now love her as much as I always did her works, of which I was and am a great admirer. When are you to begin with Sheridan? what are you doing, and how do you do?

In a letter to Moore, written a week later, Byron speaks of Rogers: ‘I hope he flourishes. He is the Tithonus of poetry—immortal already. You and I must wait for it.’ Here is a fragment from another of the immortals.

‘Are we to see you among us this summer? I hope so—and also that Sharp will not desert us. How is he in health, and what does he say of Switzerland and Italy, both in themselves and as compared with the scenes in our neighbourhood, which he knows so well? Is George Philips as great an orator as ever, and do you and Dante continue as intimate as heretofore? He used to avenge himself upon his enemies by placing them in H—ll, a thing Bards seem very fond of attempting in this day, witness the Laureate’s mode of treating Mr. W. Smith. You keep out of these scrapes, I suppose; why don’t you hire somebody to abuse you? and the higher the place selected for the purpose the better. For myself, I begin to fear that I should soon be forgotten if it were not for my enemies. Yet, now and then, a humble admirer presents himself, in some cases following up his introduction with a petition. The other day, I had a letter of this sort

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from a poetical, not a personal, friend—a Quaker of the name of Barton, living at “Woodbridge, in Suffolk. He has beguiled me of a guinea, the promise of one at least, by way of subscription to a quarto volume of poems, which he is anxious to print partly for honour, partly for profit. He solicits my interest to promote his views. I state the fact, I do not beg—I have not sufficient grounds to go upon—I leave the affair to the decision of your own mind, only do not contemn me for abusing—’1

In the succeeding month we find Rogers in contact with an older poet, thus linking together in characteristic fashion, two periods of English literary history. Rogers’s acquaintance with Crabbe probably began some time between 1810 and 1812. Crabbe’s son, in his ‘Life’ of the poet, published in 1834, speaks of him as having begun at Bowood ‘an acquaintance which also soon ripened into a strong friendship with the author of “The Pleasures of Memory.”’ Rogers probably sought him out at Trowbridge, and not finding him at home, suggested some opportunity of meeting. Crabbe sent thereupon a copy of ‘The Borough,’ published in 1810, with the following note—

The acquaintance made, or friendship begun, at Bowood was the immediate cause of the introduction of Crabbe to the literary and social circles to which Rogers belonged. Crabbe’s biographer tells us that Mr. Rogers urged him to pay a visit in the summer season to the metropolis, and that he did so, taking lodgings near his new friend’s residence in St. James’s Place, where he was ‘welcomed in the most cordial manner by the whole of that wide circle—including almost every name distinguished in politics, fashion, science, literature, and art—of which Mr. Rogers has been so long considered the brightest ornament.’ Crabbe came to London on the 19th of June, 1817, in company with his friend Mr. Waldron. No record has been preserved of the feelings with which he returned to the metropolis, in circumstances which contrasted so happily with those with which he had made the plunge thirty-seven years before. It was not that he showed any reluctance to speak of it. In talking about him, Rogers used to say that Crabbe had spoken of the mixture of feelings with which he stood on London Bridge during his first visit to London. In one of his later visits he was staying at the Old Hummums hotel, where he was only known as an ordinary clergyman, bearing the name of Crabbe. But a friend, calling on him in his absence, told the waiters that their clerical visitor was the celebrated poet, and when he came back Crabbe was

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astonished at the curiosity he excited, and the attentions paid to him. It was a revelation to him of the extent of his literary fame.

That first visit to London took place in 1780, when Rogers, like Crabbe, was first beginning to dream of literary fame, and thirty years before they were destined to meet. The Suffolk rustic had taken lodgings in the house of Mr. Vickery, a hairdresser near the Exchange, and sometimes had to pawn his watch, and to find how ‘it’s the vilest thing in the world,’ as he says to his sweetheart, ‘to have but one coat,’ since ‘a confounded stove’s modish ornament’ had caught the elbow of his only one ‘and rent it half away.’ A generation had passed. He had gone through rural exile, had been, as he described himself, ‘a solitary with a social disposition—a hermit without a hermit’s resignation’; had been chaplain at Belvoir Castle, and known the intolerable hardships of the cultivated dependant on a great man’s patronage; had married, brought up a family, lost the wife of his striving years, and gained competence and fame. He had been presented, three years before, to the living of Trowbridge, and was at work on his last great poem, ‘The Tales of the Hall.’ He now came back to be an honoured guest in the London where, thirty-seven years before, he had walked twelve miles to seek a job as an amanuensis, and been bitterly disappointed to find that another had been before him. As soon as he arrived, Rogers invited him to meet a few literary friends at breakfast, and he replied in a letter which is an admirable illustration of the tone of this gentle and simple-minded poet in his intercourse with his distinguished contemporaries.

‘Dear Sir,—I will breakfast with you in the morning, or on Tuesday, or on both: one principal purpose of my coming to town again was the pleasure you held up to me when I was so kindly received by you: you told me that I should see Lord Holland, and you made your own house all that was pleasant and engaging. What, dear Sir, can I say? Do not, however, permit me to intrude too much on your time, for I well know how you are consulted and engaged, but, speaking for myself alone, I would say, dear Sir, dispose of me as it seems best to you. I will dine with you when you can take me into your company, and I will wait on Lord Holland when it shall appear to you that his Lordship will be disposed to receive me. In fact, I will commit myself to you in that way which, to a mind like yours, I may do safely and with propriety. You will be a guide to me, and I shall do what is proper and becoming; neither presuming on the kindness which is shown to me, nor coldly withdrawing myself from the honour which I know how to estimate. My few engagements and my small business in town, I reckon as nothing—the society to which you introduce me is all! I can put nothing—of my concerns here—in comparison with it. I repeat, therefore, dear Sir, I am at your command, gratefully

Crabbe’s Journal records this breakfast in St. James’s Place, and many other of his visits to Rogers, and with Rogers, during his stay in London.

‘July 3.—Go with Mr. Rogers in his carriage to Wimbledon. Earl and Countess Spencer. The grounds more beautiful than any I have yet seen; more extensive, various, rich. The profusion of roses extraordinary. Dinner. Mr. Heber, to whom Mr. Scott addresses one canto of “Marmion.” Mr. Stanhope. A pleasant day. Sleep at Wimbledon.

‘July 14.—Go to Mr. Rogers’s, and take a farewell visit to Highbury. Miss Rogers. Promise to go when ——. Return early. Dine there, and purpose to see Mr. Moore and Mr. Rogers in the morning, when they set out for Calais.

During part of Crabbe’s visit to London, Tom Moore and his wife and children were staying at Rogers’s house, and on the 15th of July, when Crabbe records that he found they were gone, Moore and Rogers had left London on a visit to Paris. In October Rogers was again at Bowood, where Moore found him when he went down to see ‘the Cottage, a small thatched cottage, and we get it, furnished, at forty pounds a-year,’ near Lord Lansdowne’s. While Rogers was at Bowood he saw a family connection and brother poet, from whom he received the following letter.

‘My dear Rogers,—I am very anxious that you should inform Lord Lansdowne that, though the house at Heddington is situated very low, yet it is within a quarter of a mile of the most beautiful views in Wiltshire, and has, I believe, every accommodation, and is in complete repair. I should think it would answer his plan very well—but, verbum sapienti, he must not go to look at it with Moore, or even send a servant from Bowood, unless he wishes double price to be charged for rent, perhaps treble.

‘If he would leave the arrangement to me, in case Moore should like the situation, I am sure I could make a much better bargain, and could either ride over with Moore, or settle with Hughes, in case of approval. I leave that, as I said, to your and Lord Lansdowne’s consideration, and have no other object than Moore’s interest in the suggestion I have ventured to make.

‘Oh! in the realms of Light (should I attain

Those seats where saints and angels swell the strain

Before the Throne, ‘mid troops of Seraphs bright,

Whose farthest circles fade in distant light),

Even when the high and holy harmony

Went up acclaiming everlastingly,

Should some soft voice more musically clear

Steal with an added sweetness on the ear,

Methinks (for so to my rapt thought it seems

As now I listen, dallying with vain dreams)

I should recall, in Tytherton’s still shade,

Thy voice and look, Oh! mild Moravian maid.

‘The prose you will submit to Lord Lansdowne; the verse is left to your discretion.

‘If you could come to Bremhill, you shall have six white sticks, and stick them in where you like in the garden, and I will plant six trees, or as many or few as you choose, where you mark, for which I have more reasons than one, but which I shall not mention to you. You need not write; come or not, just as you feel inclined, to-morrow. I shall go about two o’clock.

‘Yours ever,

‘W. L. Bowles.’

Here is an equally characteristic letter from a person living in another moral and intellectual climate.

‘If Mr. Rogers continues to feel any inclination to hear the secrets of the prison house of Eblis unfolded, he may perhaps be inspired to appoint a day and a night for the purpose.

252

ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES

‘Nothing would afford the Abbot of Fonthill higher gratification.

‘Fonthill Abbey,
‘Thursd., Octr. 17, 1817.’

Rogers was at Longleat when this epistle arrived, and he accepted the invitation. He drove to Fonthill, and on arriving at the gates of the Abbey was told that his servant and horses must return, as Beckford’s would be at his service. Rogers stayed three days, which were chiefly spent in driving about the grounds in pony carriages. The other visitors were James Smith, the author of a book entitled ‘Select Views in Italy,’ and a French priest. In the evening, Beckford improvised on the piano or read from one of his unpublished books; two of these were unprinted additions to ‘Vathek.’ Rogers never told the secrets of the prison house of Eblis, if they were ever unfolded to him. He slept in a bedroom which was approached through a gallery where lights were burned all night, and where there was an illuminated picture of St. Antonio, to which it was reported that Beckford sometimes said his prayers.

In the beginning of November, Rogers was staying with Lord Bathurst, when news came in the evening that the Princess Charlotte had been confined, that the child was dead, but that the Princess was doing well; and this was followed in the early morning by the terrible news that the Princess was dead. Rogers told the story thirty years afterwards to his nephew, Samuel Sharpe, from whose Diary I reproduce it.1

1 Samuel Sharpe, Egyptologist and translator of the Bible, p. 182.

LORD BATHURST'S STORIES

253

‘At four o’clock in the morning there was a stir in the house; an express had arrived to tell Lord Bathurst that the Princess was dead. He got up immediately to carry the news to the Regent, her father. He went to town, and called up the Duke of York at St. James’s Palace, and took him with him. When they got to the Regent’s they roused Colonel [Sir Benjamin] Bloomfield, told him their errand, and begged him to inform the Regent of his daughter’s death. He positively refused. “Tell it yourselves,” he said. “Let him know, then, that we want to speak to him,” said the Duke of York and Lord Bathurst. This Bloomfield did, and they were shown up. The Duke of York made Lord Bathurst go into the room first. They found the Regent sitting up in bed, and told him they had sad news for him. He said he had heard it—the child was dead. Then they let him understand that his daughter was dead. He was, of course, much upset, but three hours afterwards he was consulting with those about him as to the ceremony of the funeral.’

Mr. Dyce reports the story, as told by Rogers, somewhat differently. He says, that on hearing of his daughter’s death, the Regent struck his forehead violently with both hands and fell forward into the arms of the Duke of York. Among other exclamations the intelligence drew from him was: ‘Oh, what will become of that poor man,’ referring to Prince Leopold.

At Lord Bathurst’s Rogers saw a good many letters of Pope, Bolingbroke, and others, and Lady Bathurst lent him a packet of letters from Queen Mary to King
254 ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES
William (many of which have since been published), of which Rogers recollected one in which she called the king her ‘dear husban.’ One or two of Lord Bathurst’s own recollections are set down in Rogers’s Commonplace Book.

‘The Prince (father of George III.) was a very weak man. The King, his father, never would be reconciled to him, though the Prince would have done anything for it. The only person of the family he seemed at all to like was the Princess Amelia. He would nod at her sometimes. The day before the Prince died the King was informed of his danger, but took no notice of it. Seven or eight days afterwards he paid a visit to the Princess, and some formal conversation took place, but with little concern expressed, or perhaps felt, on either side, when the Princess Amelia, then a child, seeing them sitting side by side on the sofa, just as her father used to sit with her mother, burst into tears; the King instantly rose, and, taking her up, kissed her, saying, “You are the only person of any feeling in the family,” and instantly left the house. The Princess Amelia told me this story.—Lord Bathurst.

‘The Prince of Wales took delight in giving away, in great form, titles and places beforehand, to be confirmed when he came to the Crown. My grandfather used often to kiss hands.—Lord Bathurst.’

The next letter from Byron to Rogers which Moore prints in his ‘Life of Byron’ is dated Venice, the 3rd of March, 1818. It has no particular bearing on Rogers’s
BYRON ON HIS WIFE 255
story, and it is only needful to mention it here to supply a striking omission which Moore has made without giving any indication of it. This is how the letter really begins—

‘I have not, as you say, “taken to wife the Adriatic,” but if the Adriatic will take my wife, I shall be very glad to marry her instead. In the meantime, I have had wife enough: as the grammar has it, “tædet vitæ, pertæsum est conjugii.” However, the last part of this exquisite quotation only is applicable to my case. I like life very well in my own way.’ In the same letter he speaks of his ‘mathematical Medea.’ He tells Rogers, too, that in his effort to have ‘Fazio’ brought out at Drury Lane he ‘was overruled, as also in an effort I made in favour of Sotheby’s trash, which I did to oblige the mountebank, who has since played me a trick or two (I suspect) which, perhaps, he may remember, as well as his airs of patronage which he affects with young writers, and affected both to me and of me many a good year. He sent me (unless the handwriting be a most extraordinary coincidental mistake) an anonymous note at Rome about the “Poeshie” of Chillon, &c. I can swear also to his phrases, particularly the word “effulgence.” Well, I say nothing.’

It will not be inappropriate to close this chapter with a letter from Ugo Foscolo. which is interesting in itself, though chiefly interesting here as a further proof, among many, of the pains which Rogers was always willing to take to do a service to a man of letters. Foscolo, introduced at Holland House, had taken London society by storm. But he was an exile, and must earn an exile’s
256 ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES
bread. He had been more than half a year in London, and Rogers and Allen had already been in communication with him as to his plans of work, when he wrote the outspoken and pathetic letter which Rogers ever after kept among his literary treasures.

Ugo Foscolo to Samuel Rogers.1

‘Mon cher Monsieur,—Vendredi, à peine rentré chez moi j’ai été obligé de me faire appliquer un vessicatoire sur la poitrine, ce qui m’a empêché de vous écrire de suite, et je n’avais personne à qui dicter ma lettre. Je commence, monsieur, par vous répéter les sentimens les plus sincères de mon cœur pour les soins que vous prenez avec tant de bonté pour un étranger qui a peu de titres à votre affection, et qui ne vous donne que de nouvelles peines. Veuillez bien dire les mêmes choses à Mr. Allen. Puisque la nécessité me force d’écrire pour vivre (quoique je doute s’il est necessaire que je vive) tous les jours sont précieux pour moi; et tout moment de travail perdu aujourd’hui peut m’être funeste demain, d’autant plus que dans ma manière de travailler il y a deux fatalités inhérentes, et qui sont plus fortes que tous mes raisonnements et mes tentatives pour les éviter. Premièrement, lorsque je pense et écris sur un sujet, je ne puis pas brider mes idées, ma mémoire, on ma plume. Il m’est dernièrement arrivé d’écrire quinze heures de suite et vingt-sept pages dans un jour. Mais il me faut quinze et quelquefois vingt-sept jours pour arranger le désordre inséparable de l’abondance, pour donner la substance
1 Some obvious slips in grammar and spelling have been corrected, otherwise Foscolo’s French has been left untouched.

UGO FOSCOLO'S LITERARY PLANS 257
des idées sans leur indigestion, pour citer les faits avec exactitude et l’érudition sans pédanterie; enfin pour placer le sujet avec ordre et donner à chaque partie le style convenable—en second lieu (je ne sais si par trop d’égards pour moi ou pour le public), je suis si difficile à me contenter de ce que je fais, qu’avant de donner mon livre à l’imprimeur, il me faut entre la composition et la publication un intervalle de temps convenable pour l’examiner avec l’esprit calme. Il est vrai que l’homme dans le besom ne doit pas avoir autant d’égards pour sa réputation ni pour les acheteurs de ses livres; mais je ne suis pas loin de ma quarantième année, j’ai fait bien des sacrifices pour tout ce que je crois honneur et conscience, je ne puis pas me changer, et je répète que ma manière de sentir et d’agir, à ce sujet, l’emporte sur tous mes raisonnemens.

‘Mais puisque ces deux difficultés détruisent, pour ainsi dire, une grande partie de mon temps, il faut que je tâche d’en perdre le moins possible, d’autant plus que la grande assiduité et rapidité de travail détruisent aussi ma santé et je suis depuis trois semaines dans un état continuel de fièvre, d’insomnie et de langueur.

‘J’ai fait une partie de mes lettres sur le plan dont j’ai souvent parlé à vous et à Mr. Allen et que j’ai envoyé tracé dans une préface à Lord Holland et que vous avez tous approuvé. Mes lettres sont un parallèle des Usages, de la Littérature et de l’Histoire politique d’Angleterre et de l’Italie. Je les ai divisées en trois séries selon les trois sujets; je voulais commencer par publier le premier volume qui traite des Usages.

‘Mais en écrivant et en préparant mes matériaux j’ai
258 ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES
vu s’accroître à chaque instant en nombre et en poids bien de difficultés que j’avais d’ailleurs prévues, mais sans m’apercevoir de toute leur conséquence. D’abord le sujet est très vaste, il exige des grandes lectures de toute espèce. Il est dangereux pour un homme exilé, et qui doit parler tantôt bien et tantôt mal de la nation où il s’est réfugié; et provoquer la critique avec des armes inégales: et les voyageurs avant de publier leurs opinions sur les nations étrangères se retirent dans leur propre pays. Enfin ma langue, ma diction trop Italienne combinée avec ma manière particulière d’exprimer mes idées, s’opposent à une bonne traduction en Anglais; surtout les lettres qui traitent des Usages exigent que la petitesse de la matière soit relevée par l’imagination et le ridicule. En parlant d’une nation barbare, ou nouvellement découverte, il suffit d’écrire ses usages avec simplicité: la nouveauté et la curiosité font le reste. Mais le beau monde en Europe est presque partout le même; et il est indispensable que l’esprit et le style de l’auteur soient comme une espèce de microscope qui aide les différentes sociétés de l’Europe à distinguer leurs nuances respectives. C’est pour cela que Montesquieu et Goldsmith ont fait écrire leurs lettres par des Persans et des Chinois; mais malgré que par cette précaution ils ont pu peindre à grands traits, les objets étaient trop menus et trop connus aux yeux de leurs lecteurs; et par conséquent ils se sont aidés des attractives du style et du ridicule. Mais les Lettres Persanes traduites ne font pas la dixième partie de l’effet.

‘Comme cette difficulté de la traduction est la seule importante au libraire, je me suis livré à la providence—
UGO FOSCOLO'S LITERARY PLANS 259
puisque ma fortune le veut ainsi—relativement aux autres difficultés qui dépendent aussi un peu de moi, et j’ai envoyé à Mr. Murray une longue lettre écrite avec assez d’originalité et de humour et de tournure de style, et de verve, afin qu’il la fasse essayer par un traducteur de sa confiance.

‘Mr. Murray m’a dit qu’en Angleterre on aime les quotations même dans les sujets qui ne sont pas littéraires; je me crois en état de lui complaire; mais je n’ai presque d’autres livres que ma mémoire. Il est bien facile de dire que j’aille consulter les bibliothèques de mes amis; mais il est difficile de sortir chaque jour de chez soi pour courir les maisons des autres chercher des ouvrages que souvent on ne trouve pas, troubler ses amis, prier pour chaque livre qu’on désire et en même temps avoir assez de calme et de loisir pour continuer son ouvrage.

‘Mr. Murray a senti ces difficultés et même il les a prévenues, et a eu la bonté de me dire qu’il me fournirait ou me ferait prêter les livres dont j’aurais besoin; je lui ai envoyé une note de classiques Grecs et Latins et de quelques autres auteurs. En attendant, depuis que je travaille j’ai été souvent forcé de marcher jusqu’à Londres pour consulter un livre, et souvent aussi j’ai dû en acheter, en dépensant les trois choses dont je n’ai pas du reste, le tems, l’argent, et la santé.

‘Il est donc de toute nécessité que je sache positivement quelle espèce d’ouvrage Mr. Murray croit plus utile à ses intérêts et aux miens, afin qu’aux autres dommages je ne sois pas obligé d’ajouter la dépense de faire transcrire des manuscrits.

260

ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES

‘Vous m’avez dit, Monsieur, que maintenant il désirerait un ouvrage qui traite principalement de Littérature Italienne. Je préférerais de mon côté aussi et pour la tranquillité de ma vie et pour mon caractère, de ne m’adonner qu’à l’histoire critique littéraire, et je crois d’être pourvu d’assez de moyens pour cette branche de travail. La traduction seroit plus aisée, car le style demanderoit moins d’effusion naturelle d’âme, moins d’art et d’imagination; et se borneroit à l’élégance et à la clarté nécessaires à la narration et au criticisme.

‘Je donnerais donc pour perdu ou je réserverais pour d’autres occasions le travail que j’ai fait jusqu’ici, et je traiterais uniquement de littérature; mais il faut que je sois positivement assuré de trois choses—

‘1°. Si Mr. Murray déclare de se servir de mon travail après qu’il sera fait.

‘2°. Combien d’argent approximativement il serait disposé à dépenser pour deux volumes, chacun de 400 pages environ in 8° à 30 lignes par page et 40 lettres par ligne.

‘3°. Sur quel plan il voudrait que l’ouvrage fût fait—si en forme épistolaire, et par matière, comme par exemple, poésie, histoire, éloquence, et la poésie subdivisée en épique, tragique, satirique, &c., avec des subdivisions pareilles dans les autres branches—ou si par époques d’histoire en commençant depuis le 13e siècle jusqu’à nos jours. La première manière peut se traiter en lettres, en y mêlant aussi des observations comparatives sur la littérature anglaise. La seconde exige d’être traitée dans un cours chronologique.

‘Mais quant au plan on peut l’arranger facilement;
UGO FOSCOLO'S LITERARY PLANS 261
pour le moment ma position me force à exiger une réponse définitive sur les deux premières questions. Il est indispensable que le contrat soit fait d’avance, au moins pour le premier volume; et d’après le bon ou le mauvais succès, l’on s’arrangera sur le second.

‘Si Mr. Murray désire que je continue dans mon projet primitif, l’ouvrage sera en trois volumes et il faudra aussi commencer pour convenir sur le prix; mais ayez la bonté de le prévenir que la traduction du premier volume qui traite des Usages sera tout à fait difficile; que le second volume traite de la litterature plus vaguement que dans le plan proposé au dessus qui n’aura d’autre but que la Littérature Italienne, et l’influence que les révolutions politiques, les mœurs, les auteurs de l’antiquité et les livres des nations modernes ont exercés sur elle.

‘Dans tous les cas j’ose vous prier d’arranger avec Mr. Allen les choses de manière que je sache positivement ce que je dois faire et sur combien d’argent je pourrai compter à la fin de mon travail. Il faut, mon cher Monsieur, que je me sente le cœur rassuré sans craindre l’avenir ou les dettes, sans éprouver l’humiliation de la honte, sans faire à chaque instant des combats pour relever mon esprit tandis que mon âme par la force de mes circonstances retombe dans la prostration. Dans ces combats toutes mes facultés s’épuisent, et je crains fort qu’elles dépériront bien vite—

‘Pectora nostra duas non admittentia curas.

‘Vous, Monsieur, et mes amis m’avez fait oublier une grande partie des désagremens de l’exil; mais l’homme
262 ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES
dans mon état de solitude et d’infirmité et sans espérances pour l’avenir, ne peut pas trouver, ni ne doit pas chercher des soulagements que ou dans les personnes qui l’ont connu depuis son enfance, ou dans soi-même. Il est donc extrêmement urgent que je me hâte à prendre un parti définitif. En retardant, il s’agirait de mon honneur, et si je m’enchaîne avec des dettes je perdrai même la liberté de mourir.

‘Si Mr. Murray ne peut se décider, il est bien que je le sache tout de suite. En continuant de travailler pour lui, les livres qu’il a promis de me fournir me seront indispensables; différement (sic) ils me sont inutiles; et je vous prie de le remercier et de lui exprimer ma sincère reconnaissance, d’autant plus qu’à cette promesse il a souvent ajouté des présents de ses publications et toujours avec des manières nobles et obligeantes. Et quant à vous, Monsieur, et à Mr. Allen, je vous donne la plus grande preuve de ma reconnaissance et de ma confiance en vous ouvrant la triste position de mon état. Pour que vous puissiez traiter avec pleine connaissance de cause, j’ai été obligé de vous accabler d’une longue lettre; mais vous avez le bonheur de savoir en tirer bien vite la substance. Pardonnez aussi à un pauvre malade qui dicte comme il peut de son lit, et qui vraiment n’a presque pas de tête; mais je ne perdrai pas la mémoire de vos bontés que lorsque je ne pourrai plus me rappeller de moi-même. Mardi matin je serai chez vous, adieu.

‘Votre Ami,

‘Hugues Foscolo.

‘Dimanche matin, 19 février, 1818.’

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Marcus Tullius Cicero [Tully] (106 BC-43 BC) Roman statesman, rhetorician, and philosopher.

Benjamin Constant (1767-1830) French political theorist and novelist; author of Adolphe (1816).

Louise Contat (1760-1813) French actress who made her debut at the Comédie Française in 1766.

Peter Leopold Louis Francis Nassau Cowper, fifth earl Cowper (1778-1837) He succeeded to the title in 1799, and in 1805 married Emily Mary Lamb, daughter of Sir Peniston Lamb, first Viscount Melbourne.

George Crabbe (1754-1832) English poet renowned for his couplet verse and gloomy depictions of country persons and places; author of the The Village (1783), The Parish Register (1807), The Borough (1810), and Tales of the Hall (1819).

George Crabbe the younger (1785-1857) English clergyman, son of the poet George Crabbe whose life he wrote for John Murray.

Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) Florentine poet, the author of the Divine Comedy and other works.

Alexander Dyce (1798-1869) Editor and antiquary, educated at Edinburgh High School and Exeter College, Oxford; he published Recollections of the Table-Talk of Samuel Rogers (1856).

Thomas Erskine, first baron Erskine (1750-1823) Scottish barrister who was a Whig MP for Portsmouth (1783-84, 1790-1806); after defending the political radicals Hardy, Tooke, and Thelwall in 1794 he was lord chancellor in the short-lived Grenville-Fox administration (1806-07).

Pamela Fitzgerald (1776 c.-1831) The illegitimate daughter of Madame de Genlis; she married the Irish revolutionary Edward Fitzgerald in 1792; after his death in 1798 she lived on the Continent.

Henry Petty- Fitzmaurice, third marquess of Lansdowne (1780-1863) The son of Lord Shelburne (1737-1805); he was a Whig peer, chancellor of the exchequer (1806), and President of the Council (1830).

John Fitzpatrick, second earl of Upper Ossory (1745-1818) Of Ampthill in Bedfordshire, the son of the first earl (d. 1758) and the uncle of Lord Holland; he was educated at Westminster and Trinity College, Cambridge and was MP for Bedfordshire (1767-94). In 1794 he was given an English peerage as Baron Upper Ossory.

Richard Fitzpatrick (1748-1813) English military officer, politician, and poet allied with Fox and Sheridan in Parliament; he was secretary of state for war (1783, 1806) and author of Dorinda, a Town Eclogue (1775).

Ugo Foscolo (1778-1827) Italian poet and critic who settled in London in 1816 where he contributed essays on Italian literature to the Edinburgh and Quarterly Reviews.

Charles James Fox (1749-1806) Whig statesman and the leader of the Whig opposition in Parliament after his falling-out with Edmund Burke.

Elizabeth Bridget Armistead Fox [née Cane] (1750-1842) English courtesan who succeeded Mary Robinson in the affections of the Prince of Wales; she was secretly married to Charles James Fox in 1795; the marriage was publicly acknowledged in 1802.

Elizabeth Fox, Lady Holland [née Vassall] (1771 c.-1845) In 1797 married Henry Richard Fox, Lord Holland, following her divorce from Sir Godfrey Webster; as mistress of Holland House she became a pillar of Whig society.

Henry Richard Fox, third baron Holland (1773-1840) Whig politician and literary patron; Holland House was for many years the meeting place for reform-minded politicians and writers. He also published translations from the Spanish and Italian; Memoirs of the Whig Party was published in 1852.

Frederick Augustus, Duke of York (1763-1827) He was commander-in-chief of the Army, 1798-1809, until his removal on account of the scandal involving his mistress Mary Anne Clarke.

Frederick Lewis, Prince of Wales (1707-1751) Born in Hanover, he was the son of George II and the father of George III.

John Hookham Frere (1769-1846) English diplomat and poet; educated at Eton and Cambridge, he was envoy to Lisbon (1800-02) and Madrid (1802-04, 1808-09); with Canning conducted the The Anti-Jacobin (1797-98); author of Prospectus and Specimen of an intended National Work, by William and Robert Whistlecraft (1817, 1818).

William Gardiner (1770-1853) English composer and publisher of popular works on music; he corresponded with Thomas Moore.

King George III of Great Britain (1738-1820) King of Great Britain (1760-1820).

King George IV of Great Britain (1762-1830) Prince Regent (1811-20) and King of Great Britain (1820-1830).

Edward Gibbon (1737-1794) Author of The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776-1788).

William Godwin (1756-1836) English novelist and political philosopher; author of An Inquiry concerning the Principles of Political Justice (1793) and Caleb Williams (1794); in 1797 he married Mary Wollstonecraft.

Johann Wolfgang Goethe (1749-1832) German poet, playwright, and novelist; author of The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774) and Faust (1808, 1832).

Count Goetz (1817 fl.) Not identified; the Austrian governor of Venice.

Oliver Goldsmith (1728 c.-1774) Irish miscellaneous writer; his works include The Vicar of Wakefield (1766), The Deserted Village (1770), and She Stoops to Conquer (1773).

Henry Grattan (1746-1820) Irish statesman and patriot; as MP for Dublin he supported Catholic emancipation and opposed the Union.

Thomas Gray (1716-1771) English poet, author of “Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College,” “Elegy written in a Country Churchyard,” and “The Bard”; he was professor of history at Cambridge (1768).

Warren Hastings (1732-1818) Governor-general of Bengal (1774-84); he was charged high crimes by Edmund Burke, initiating impeachment proceedings that continued from 1787 to 1795, when Hastings was acquitted.

Richard Heber (1774-1833) English book collector, he was the elder half-brother of the poet Reginald Heber and the friend of Walter Scott: member of the Roxburghe Club and MP for Oxford 1821-1826.

John Cam Hobhouse, baron Broughton (1786-1869) Founder of the Cambridge Whig Club; traveled with Byron in the orient, radical MP for Westminster (1820); Byron's executor; after a long career in politics published Some Account of a Long Life (1865) later augmented as Recollections of a Long Life, 6 vols (1909-1911).

Francis Horner (1778-1817) Scottish barrister and frequent contributor to the Edinburgh Review; he was a Whig MP and member of the Holland House circle.

William Howley, archbishop of Canterbury (1766-1848) Educated at Winchester and New College, Oxford, he was regius professor of Divinity (1809-13), bishop of London (1813-28), and archbishop of Canterbury (1828-48).

Joanna Hutchinson (1780-1843) The younger sister of Mary Hutchinson Wordsworth.

Sara Hutchinson (1775-1835) The daughter of John Hutchinson of Penrith (d. 1785) and sister of Mary Hutchinson Wordsworth.

John Philip Kemble (1757-1823) English actor renowned for his Shakespearean roles; he was manager of Drury Lane (1783-1802) and Covent Garden (1803-1808).

Herbert Knowles (1798-1817) Yorkshire poet assisted by Robert Southey before his early death; “Stanzas in Richmond Churchyard” was widely reprinted in the periodicals.

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).

Leopold I King of Belgium (1790-1865) The son of Prince Francis Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld; after serving in the Russian army he married Princess Charlotte in May 1816; in 1831 he was inaugurated as the first king of the Belgians.

Matthew Gregory Lewis [Monk Lewis] (1775-1818) English poet and novelist; author of The Monk: a Romance (1796), Castle Spectre (1797), and Tales of Wonder (1800).

Mme. Anna Suzanne Lindsay [née O'Dwyer] (1764-1820) Her correspondence with Benjamin Constant was published as L'inconnue d'Adolphe (1933).

William Henry Lyttelton, third baron Lyttelton (1782-1837) Whig politician and wit, son of William Henry, first baron Lyttelton of the second creation; a noted Greek scholar at Christ Church, Oxford, he was MP for Worcestershire (1807-20); in 1828 he succeeded his brother as baron.

Sir James Mackintosh (1765-1832) Scottish philosopher and man of letters who defended the French Revolution in Vindiciae Gallicae (1791); he was Recorder of Bombay (1803-1812) and MP for Knaresborough (1819-32).

Thomas Robert Malthus (1766-1834) English political economist educated at Jesus College, Cambridge; he was author of An Essay on the Principles of Population (1798; 1803).

Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de Marivaux (1688-1763) French playwright, novelist, and essayist, author of La vie de Marianne (1731-42) and Le paysan parvenu (1734-35).

Mademoiselle Mars (1779-1847) French actress, the illegitimate daughter of Mlle Mars Salvetat; she excelled in ingénue roles.

John Marshall (1765-1845) Flax manufacturer at Leeds and Whig MP for Yorkshire (1826-30); his wife, Jane Pollard, was a friend of Dorothy Wordsworth.

Queen Mary II of England (1662-1694) Daughter of James II; she was joint monarch with her husband, William of Orange.

Friedrich von Matthisson (1761-1831) German poet, librarian, and theater director.

Charles Robert Maturin (1780-1824) Anglo-Irish clergyman, novelist, and playwright patronized by Walter Scott; author of the tragedy Betram (1816) and the novel Melmoth the Wanderer (1820).

Thomas Monkhouse (1783-1825) A London merchant and cousin of Mary and Sarah Hutchinson; he was a friend of William Wordsworth and Charles Lamb.

Vincenzo Monti (1754-1828) Italian poet born near Ravenna; author of Saggio di poesi (1779) and Il bardo della selva nera (1806), celebrating Napoleon.

Elizabeth Moore [née Dyke] [Bessy] (1793-1865) Irish actress who married Thomas Moore in a private ceremony 25 March 1811.

Peter Moore (1753-1828) Whig MP for Coventry (1803-26) and friend of Richard Brinsley Sheridan. He served with Byron on the Drury-Lane steering committee.

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.

Johannes von Müller (1752-1809) Swiss historian and editor of J. G. Herder.

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.

Emperor Napoleon I (1769-1821) Military leader, First Consul (1799), and Emperor of the French (1804), after his abdication he was exiled to Elba (1814); after his defeat at Waterloo he was exiled to St. Helena (1815).

Elizabeth O'Neill (1791-1872) Irish-born actress who excelled in parts such as Ellen in the adaptation of Scott's The Lady of the Lake; she retired in 1819 following her marriage to William Wrixon-Becher (1780-1850), Irish MP.

Lady Madelina Palmer [née Gordon] (1772 c.-1847) The daughter of Alexander, fourth duke of Gordon, and friend of Mary Russell Mitford; she married in 1789 Sir Robert Sinclair of Murkle, seventh baronet, and in 1805 Charles Fyshe Palmer.

James Perry (1756-1821) Whig journalist; founder and editor of the European Magazine (1782), editor of the Morning Chronicle (1790-1821).

Sir George Philips, first baronet (1766-1847) Textile magnate and Whig MP; in addition to his mills in Staffordshire and Lancashire he was a trading partner with Richard “Conversation” Sharp. He was created baronet in 1828.

William Pitt the younger (1759-1806) The second son of William Pitt, earl of Chatham (1708-1778); he was Tory prime minister 1783-1801.

Henrietta Frances Ponsonby, countess of Bessborough [née Spencer] (1761-1821) The younger sister of the Duchess of Devonshire; in 1780 she married Frederick Ponsonby, third earl of Bessborough; Lady Caroline Lamb was their daughter.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744) English poet and satirist; author of The Rape of the Lock (1714) and The Dunciad (1728).

Jean Racine (1639-1699) French neoclassical playwright, author of Andromaque (1667), Bajazet (1672), Mithridate (1673) and Phèdre (1677).

Albert Jean-Michel Rocca (1788-1818) Swiss Hussar, the second husband of Germaine de Staël (1816); they had a son, Louis-Alphonse Rocca (1812-42).

Daniel Rogers (1760 c.-1829) Son of Thomas Rogers (1735-93) and eldest brother of the poet Thomas Rogers; he married Martha Bowles and lived as a country squire near Stourbridge.

Samuel Rogers (1763-1855) English poet, banker, and aesthete, author of the ever-popular Pleasures of Memory (1792), Columbus (1810), Jaqueline (1814), and Italy (1822-28).

Sarah Rogers (1772-1855) Of Regent's Park. the younger sister of the poet Samuel Rogers; she lived with her brother Henry in Highbury Terrace.

John Russell, first earl Russell (1792-1878) English statesman, son of John Russell sixth duke of Bedford (1766-1839); he was author of Essay on the English Constitution (1821) and Memoirs of the Affairs of Europe (1824) and was Prime Minister (1865-66).

Henry St. John, first viscount Bolingbroke (1678-1751) English politician and writer, friend of Alexander Pope; author of The Idea of a Patriot King (written 1738), and Letters on the Study and Use of History (1752).

Sappho (612 BC c.-570 BC c.) Greek lyric poet, born on the Isle of Lesbos.

August Wilhelm von Schlegel (1767-1845) German scholar, critic, and translator of Shakespeare.

Sir Walter Scott, baronet (1771-1832) Scottish poet, novelist, antiquary, biographer, editor, and sheriff.

Charles de Secondat, baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755) French political philosopher; author of Persian Letters (1721) and The Spirit of the Laws (1748).

Charlotte Seymour, duchess of Somerset [née Hamilton] (1772-1827) The daughter of Archibald Hamilton, ninth Duke of Hamilton; she married in 1800 Edward Adolphus Seymour, eleventh Duke of Somerset.

John Campbell Shairp (1819-1885) Scottish scholar and man of letters who held professorships at Glasgow and St. Andrews and was professor of poetry at Oxford (1877-85).

Richard Sharp [Conversation Sharp] (1759-1835) English merchant, Whig MP, and member of the Holland House set; he published Letters and Essays in Poetry and Prose (1834).

Samuel Sharpe (1799-1881) Banker and Egyptologist; he was the nephew of the poet Samuel Rogers and brother of the geologist Daniel Sharpe.

Charles Brinsley Sheridan (1796-1843) The son of Richard Brinsley Sheridan by his second wife Hecca; he was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge and published Thoughts on the Greek Revolution (1822).

Elizabeth Ann Sheridan [née Linley] (1754-1792) Much-admired English singer, daughter of the musician Thomas Linley; she was compelled to give up her career upon marrying Richard Brinsley Sheridan in 1773.

Frances Sheridan [née Chamberlaine] (1724-1766) Irish playwright and novelist, wife of the actor Thomas Sheridan (1719-1788); she was the author of Memoirs of Miss Sidney Bidulph (1761) and an oriental tale, The History of Nourjahad (1767).

Hester Jane Sheridan [née Ogle] [Hecca] (1775 c.-1827) The daughter of Newton Ogle, dean of Winchester; she was the second wife of Richard Brinsley Sheridan, whom she married in 1795.

Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751-1816) Anglo-Irish playwright, author of The School for Scandal (1777), Whig MP and ally of Charles James Fox (1780-1812).

Archibald Skirving (1749-1819) Scottish portraitist, son of the poet Adam Skirving; he was captured and imprisoned while returning from Rome (1795); he is remembered for his chalk portrait of Robert Burns.

Horace Smith (1779-1849) English poet and novelist; with his brother James he wrote Rejected Addresses (1812) and Horace in London (1813). Among his novels was Brambletye House (1826).

John Smith [Warwick Smith] (1749-1831) English watercolorist, the son of a gardiner; he made illustrations for William Gilpin's studies of the picturesque and was patronized by the second earl of Warwick.

Sydney Smith (1771-1845) Clergyman, wit, and one of the original projectors of the Edinburgh Review; afterwards lecturer in London and one of the Holland House denizens.

William Smith (1756-1835) Educated at the dissenting academy at Daventry, he was a Whig MP for Sudbury (1784-90, 1796-1802), Camelford (1790-96), and Norwich (1802-30), a defender of Joseph Priestley and follower of Charles Fox. His 1817 speech in Parliament denouncing Robert Southey attracted much attention.

Percy Clinton Sydney Smythe, sixth viscount Strangford (1780-1855) Irish peer and diplomat who published Poems from the Portuguese of Camoens (1803).

William Sotheby (1757-1833) English man of letters; after Harrow he joined the dragoons, married well, and published Poems (1790) and became a prolific poet and translator, prominent in literary society.

Robert Southey (1774-1843) Poet laureate and man of letters whose contemporary reputation depended upon his prose works, among them the Life of Nelson, 2 vols (1813), History of the Peninsular War, 3 vols (1823-32) and The Doctor, 7 vols (1834-47).

George John Spencer, second earl Spencer (1758-1834) Educated at Harrow and Trinity College, Cambridge, he was a Whig MP aligned with Edmund Burke, first lord of the Admiralty (1794-1801) and home secretary (1806-07). He was a book collector and patron of the poets John Clare and Herbert Knowles.

Lady Lavinia Spencer, countess Spencer [née Bingham] (1762-1831) London hostess, the daughter of Charles Bingham, first earl of Lucan; in 1782 she married George John Spencer, second earl Spencer.

Richard Spencer (1817 fl.) Not identified; he was an acquaintance of Samuel Rogers, Thomas Moore, and Richard Brinsley Sheridan.

Germaine de Staël (1766-1817) French woman of letters; author of the novel Corinne, ou L'Italie (1807) and De l'Allemagne (1811); banned from Paris by Napoleon, she spent her later years living in Germany, Britain, and Switzerland.

Robert Stewart, viscount Castlereagh (1769-1822) British statesman who was foreign secretary (1812-1822). He fought a duel with George Canning in 1809 and died a suicide in 1822.

William Stone (1796 fl.) London coal merchant and member of Friends of the People; in January 1796 he was tried and acquitted of treason, after which he emigrated to France.

Thomas Stothard (1755-1834) English painter and book-illustrator, a friend of John Flaxman and Samuel Rogers.

François-Joseph Talma (1763-1826) French tragic actor and reformer of the stage who was admired by Napoleon.

Mary Tickell [née Linley] (1758-1787) English singer, daughter of Thomas Linley and sister of Elizabeth Sheridan; in 1780 she married the poet Richard Tickell.

Richard Tickell (1751-1793) Poet and wit, grandson of the poet Thomas Tickell and friend of Richard Brinsley Sheridan; he died a suicide.

Charles Fox Townshend (1795-1817) The eldest son of Lord John Townshend, educated at Eton and St. John's College, Cambridge; shortly before his early death he stood as candidate for Cambridge University.

Lord Frederick Patrick Townshend (1767-1836) The third son of George Townshend, first marquess Townshend; he was Rector of Stiffkey and said to have been confined for insanity after murdering his brother Charles in 1796.

Lord John Townshend (1757-1833) The son of George Townshend, first Marquess Townshend; he was educated at Eton and St John's College, Cambridge and was a Whig MP for Cambridge, Westminster, and Knaresborough. He was a denizen of Holland House and Sheridan's literary executor.

John Townshend, fourth marquess Townshend (1798-1863) The son of the Hon. John Townshend; he was a naval captain and Liberal MP for Tamworth (1847-55).

Virgil (70 BC-19 BC) Roman epic poet; author of Eclogues, Georgics, and the Aenead.

Voltaire (1694-1778) French historian and man of letters; author of, among many other works, The Age of Louis XIV (1751) and Candide (1759).

John Waldron the elder (d. 1827) A Trowbridge clothier; George Crabbe was close to his daughter Maria (1785-1872) and son John (d 1830).

John William Ward, earl of Dudley (1781-1833) The son of William Ward, third Viscount Dudley (d. 1823); educated at Edinburgh and Oxford, he was an English MP, sometimes a Foxite Whig and sometimes Canningite Tory, who suffered from insanity in his latter years.

Richard Westall (1765-1836) English poet and illustrator who favored literary subjects and published a collection of verse, A Day in Spring and other Poems (1808).

John Wilkes (1725-1797) English political reformer and foe of George III who was twice elected to Parliament while imprisoned; he was the author of attacks on the Scots and the libertine Essay on Woman.

William III, king of England (1650-1702) King of England (1689-1702); succeeded James II in the Glorious Revolution.

Dorothy Wordsworth (1771-1855) The sister of William Wordsworth who transcribed his poems and kept his house; her journals and letters were belatedly published after her death.

Mary Wordsworth [née Hutchinson] (1770-1859) The sister of Sarah Hutchinson and wife of William Wordsworth, whom she married in 1802.

William Wordsworth (1770-1850) With Coleridge, author of Lyrical Ballads (1798), Wordsworth survived his early unpopularity to succeed Robert Southey as poet laureate in 1843.

William Thomas Beckford (1760-1844) An Arabian Tale, from an unpublished Manuscript: with Notes critical and explanatory [Vathek]. (London: J. Johnson, 1786). Anonymously published in the translation by Samuel Henley who contributed the notes; first published in the original French in 1791 as Les caprices et les malheurs du calife Vathek, traduit de l’arabe.

John Burgoyne (1723-1792) The Maid of the Oaks: a new Dramatic Entertainment. (London: T. Becket, 1774).

George Gordon Byron, sixth Baron Byron (1788-1824) Childe Harold's Pilgrimage: a Romaunt. (London: John Murray, 1812-1818). A burlesque topographical poem in Spenserian stanzas; Cantos I-II were published in 1812, III in 1816, and IV in 1818.

George Gordon Byron, sixth Baron Byron (1788-1824) Childe Harold's Pilgrimage: Canto the Third. (London: John Murray, 1816). Containing an account of Waterloo and Harold's travels on the Continent.

George Gordon Byron, sixth Baron Byron (1788-1824) “Parisina: a Poem” in The Siege of Corinth, a Poem; Parisina: a Poem. (London: Murray, 1816). A tale of incest founded on an incident recorded in Gibbon's Antiquities of the House of Brunswick.

George Gordon Byron, sixth Baron Byron (1788-1824) The Prisoner of Chillon, and other Poems. (London: J. Murray, 1816). Composed in July 1816.

George Gordon Byron, sixth Baron Byron (1788-1824) “The Siege of Corinth, a Poem” in The Siege of Corinth, a Poem; Parisina: a Poem. (London: Murray, 1816). A historical narrative in octosyllabic stanzas.

Thomas Campbell (1777-1844) “Ode for the Farewell Meeting in Honour of Kemble” in Literary Gazette. Vol. 1 (4 July 1817): 10.

Peter William Clayden (1827-1902) The Early Life of Samuel Rogers. (London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1887). Continued as Samuel Rogers and his Contemporaries (1889).

Peter William Clayden (1827-1902) Samuel Sharpe, Egyptologist and Translator of the Bible. (London: K. Paul, Trench & Co., 1883).

Benjamin Constant (1767-1830) Adolphe. (Paris: 1816). A semi-autobiographical bildungsroman.

George Crabbe (1754-1832) The Borough: a Poem in Twenty-four Letters. 2 vols (London: J. Hatchard, 1810). Three editions in 1810.

George Crabbe (1754-1832) Tales. 2 vols (London: J. Hatchard, 1812). A third edition was published in 1813.

George Crabbe (1754-1832) Tales of the Hall. 2 vols (London: John Murray, 1819).

George Crabbe the younger (1785-1857) “The Life of George Crabbe” in The Poetical works of the Rev. George Crabbe. (London: J. Murray, 1834).

Johann Wolfgang Goethe (1749-1832) Faust. Eine Tragödie. (1808, 1832). A closet drama in two parts; Goethe worked on this poem for more than half a century.

Henry Richard Fox, third baron Holland (1773-1840) Some Account of the Lives and Writings of Lope Felix de Vega Carpio and Guillen de Castro. 2 vols (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1817). The Life and Writings of Lope Felix de Vega Carpio had been previously published in 1806.

Homer (850 BC fl.) The Iliad. (800 BC c.). The tale of Troy, generally read in the translation by Alexander Pope.

Homer (850 BC fl.) The Odyssey. (800 BC c.). A Greek epic poem which in the romantic era was usually read in the translation by Alexander Pope.

Herbert Knowles (1798-1817) “Stanzas in Richmond Churchyard” in Literary Gazette. Vol. 2 No. 101 (26 December 1818): 827. These oft-reprinted graveyard quatrains were posthumously published in the Literary Gazette.

Lady Caroline Lamb [née Ponsonby] (1785-1828) Glenarvon: in Three Volumes. 3 vols (London: Henry Colburn, 1816). A novel with a key.

Friedrich von Matthisson (1761-1831) Letters written from various parts of the Continent, between the years 1785 and 1794: containing a variety of Anecdotes relative to the present State of Literature in Germany, and to celebrated German Literati. With an Appendix. In which are included, three Letters of Gray's, never before published in this Country. (London: T. N. Longman and O. Rees, 1799). Translated by Anne Plumptre; contains letters by Gray addressed to Charles von Bonstetten.

Charles Robert Maturin (1780-1824) Manuel: a Tragedy in Five Acts. (London: J. Murray, 1817). Maturin's second tragedy played for only five nights at Drury Lane.

Henry Hart Milman (1791-1868) Fazio, a Tragedy. (Oxford: Samuel Collingwood, 1815). The author's first published work.

Charles de Secondat, baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755) Lettres persanes. (Amsterdam: Pierre Brunel, 1721). In the Persian Letters, an epistolary fiction, Usbek and Rica comment on the manners of the French.

Thomas Moore (1779-1852) Lalla Rookh, an Oriental Romance. (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1817). A collection of four oriental tales in verse: “The Veiled Prophet of Khorassan,” “Paradise and the Peri,” “The Fire-Worshippers,” and “The Light of the Harem.”

Thomas Moore (1779-1852) Letters and Journals of Lord Byron with Notices of his Life. 2 vols (London: Murray, 1830). The first authorized collection of Byron's letters and journals.

Thomas Otway (1652-1685) The Orphan: or, the Unhappy Marriage. (London: R. Bentley, 1680). The orphan in Otway's tragedy is Monimia.

Samuel Rogers (1763-1855) The Pleasures of Memory, a Poem. In two Parts. (London: T. Cadell, 1792). A descriptive poem in couplets reprinted throughout the nineteenth century.

Samuel Rogers (1763-1855) Recollections. (London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, and Roberts, 1859). Edited by William Sharpe.

Sir Walter Scott, baronet (1771-1832) Marmion; a Tale of Flodden Field. (Edinburgh: Constable, 1808). A narrative poem set in the sixteenth century; the six cantos are introduced by epistles addressed to William Stewart Rose, James Marriot, William Erskine, James Skene, George Ellis, and Richard Heber.

Sir Walter Scott, baronet (1771-1832) Tales of my Landlord. (Edinburgh: 1816-31). The four series consist of: The Black Dwarf and Old Mortality (1), The Heart of Mid-lothian (2), The Bride of Lammermoor and Legend of Montrose (3) and Count Robert and Castle Dangerous (4).

Sir Walter Scott, baronet (1771-1832) Waverley: or, 'Tis Sixty Years Since. 3 vols (Edinburgh: Constable, 1814). Scott's first historical novel, set against the backdrop of the Jacobite rising of 1745.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) Coriolanus. (London: 1623). A Roman tragedy first published in the first folio.

Frances Sheridan [née Chamberlaine] (1724-1766) Memoirs of Miss Sidney Bidulph, extracted from her own Journal. 3 vols (London: R. and J. Dodsley, 1761). A novel, published anonymously.

Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751-1816) The Duenna: a Comic Opera in three Acts. (London: E. Johnson, 1776). A comic opera set in Spain, the music by Thomas Linley.

Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751-1816) The School for Scandal: a Comedy. (London: J. Bew, 1781). The author's most successful comedy.

Horace Smith (1779-1849), James Smith (1775-1839) Rejected Addresses: or the New Theatrum Poetarum. (London: John Miller, 1812). By James and Horace Smith, a collection of congratulatory odes on the rebuilding of Drury Lane Theater burlesquing the manners of the popular poets of the day. It ran to more than twenty editions over many decades.

John Smith [Warwick Smith] (1749-1831) Select Views in Italy, with topographical and historical Descriptions in English and French. 2 vols (London: John Smith, William Byrne, and John Emes, 1792). The illustrations by John Smith.

William Sotheby (1757-1833) Ivan, a Tragedy, in Five Acts, altered and adapted for Representation. (London: John Murray, 1816).

Germaine de Staël (1766-1817) De l'Allemagne. 3 vols (Paris: H. Nicolle, 1810). Suppressed by Napoleon's police; it was translated as Germany (1813) by Francis Hodgson, and published by John Murray.

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Dorothy Wordsworth (1771-1855) Recollections of a Tour made in Scotland, A.D. 1803. (Edinburgh: Edmonston and Douglas, 1874). Edited by John Campbell Shairp.

INFORMATION FROM TEI HEADER

Source Description:

Author: Clayden, Peter William, 1827-1902

Title: Samuel Rogers and his Contemporaries 2 Vols (London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1889).

Electronic Edition:

Series: Lord Byron and his Times: http://lordbyron.org

Encoding Description: Any dashes occurring in line breaks have been removed. Obvious and unambiguous compositors’ errors have been silently corrected.

Markup and editing by: David Hill Radcliffe

Completed September 2009

Publication Statement:

Publisher: Center for Applied Technologies in the Humanities, Virginia Tech

Availability: Published under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License