Letters and Journals of Lord Byron
Lord Byron to Thomas Moore, 8 January 1814
“As it would not be fair to press you into a Dedication,
without previous notice, I send you two, and I will tell you why two. The first, Mr. M.,
who sometimes takes upon him the critic (and I bear it from astonishment), says, may do you harm—God forbid!—this
alone makes me listen to him. The fact is, he is a damned Tory, and has, I dare swear,
something of self which I cannot divine, at the bottom of his
objection, as it is the allusion to Ireland to which he objects. But he be d—d—though a
good fellow enough (your sinner would not be worth a d—n).
“Take your choice;—no one, save he and Mr. Dallas, has seen either, and D. is quite on my side,
and for the first*. If I can but testify to you and the world how truly I admire and
esteem you, I shall be quite satisfied. As to prose, I
don’t know Addison’s from Johnson’s; but I will try to mend my cacology.
Pray perpend, pronounce, and don’t be offended with either.
“My last epistle would probably put you in a fidget. But the
devil, who ought to be civil on such occasions, proved so, and
took my letter to the right place.
* * * * * *
*
“Is it not odd?—the very fate I said she had escaped from
* *, she
* The first was, of course, the one that I preferred. The other
ran as follows:— “MY DEAR MOORE,“January 7th, 1814. “I had written to you a long letter of
dedication, which I suppress, because, though it contained something
relating to you which every one had been glad to hear, yet there was too
much about politics, and poesy, and all things whatsoever, ending with
that topic on which most men are fluent, and none very amusing—one’s self. It might have been re-written—but
to what purpose? My praise could add nothing to your well-earned and
firmly-established fame: and with my most hearty admiration of your
talents, and delight in your conversation, you are already acquainted. In
availing myself of your friendly permission to inscribe this poem to you,
I can only wish the offering were as worthy your acceptance as your
regard is dear to, “Yours, most affectionately and
faithfully, “Byron.” |
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| 518 | NOTICES OF THE | A. D. 1814. |
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has now undergone from the worthy
* *. Like Mr.
Fitzgerald, shall I not lay claim to the character of
‘Vates?’—as he did in the Morning Herald for prophesying the fall of Buonaparte,—who, by the by, I don’t think is yet
fallen. I wish he would rally and rout your legitimate sovereigns, having a mortal hate
to all royal entails.—But I am scrawling a treatise. Good night. Ever, &c.”
Joseph Addison (1672-1719)
English politician and man of letters, with his friend Richard Steele he edited
The Spectator (1711-12). He was the author of the tragedy
Cato (1713).
Robert Charles Dallas (1754-1824)
English poet, novelist, and translator who corresponded with Byron. His sister Charlotte
Henrietta Dallas (d. 1793) married Captain George Anson Byron (1758-1793); their son George
Anson Byron (1789-1868) inherited Byron's title in 1824.
William Thomas Fitzgerald (1759-1829)
A clerk in the Navy Office who for three decades supplied the newspapers and magazines
with patriotic effusions, many first performed orally at Literary Fund banquets.
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)
English man of letters, among many other works he edited
A Dictionary
of the English Language (1755) and Shakespeare (1765), and wrote
Lives of the Poets (1779-81).
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.
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).
Morning Herald. (1780-1869). Sir Henry Bate Dudley (1745–1824) and Alexander Chalmers (1759–1834) were among the
original editors; Thomas Holcroft (1745–1809) was Paris correspondent.
