Letters and Journals of Lord Byron
Lord Byron to Thomas Moore, 12 December 1821
“Pisa, December 12th, 1821.
“What you say about Galignani’s two biographies is very amusing; and, if I were not
lazy, I would certainly do what you desire. But I doubt my present stock of
facetiousness—that is, of good serious humour, so as not to let
the cat out of the bag†. I wish you would undertake it. I
will forgive and indulge you (like a Pope) beforehand, for any
thing ludicrous, that might keep those fools in their own dear belief that a man is a
loup garou.
“I suppose I told you that the Giaour story had actually some foundation on facts; or,
if I did not, you will one day find it in a letter of Lord
Sligo’s, written to me after the publication
of the poem. I should not like marvels to rest upon any account of my own, and shall say
nothing about it. However, the real incident is still remote enough from the poetical
one, being just such as, happening to a man of any imagination, might suggest such a
composition. The worst of any real adventures is that they
involve living people—else Mrs. ——’s, ——’s, &c. are as ‘German
to the matter’ as Mr. Maturin could
desire for his novels. * * * * * *
* *.
![]()
| 566 |
NOTICES OF THE |
A. D. 1821. |
![]()
“The consummation you mentioned for poor * * was near taking place yesterday. Riding pretty
sharply after Mr. Medwin and myself, in turning
the corner of a lane between Pisa and the hills, he was spilt,—and, besides losing some
claret on the spot, bruised himself a good deal, but is in no danger. He was bled and
keeps his room. As I was a-head of him some hundred yards, I did not see the accident;
but my servant, who was behind, did, and says the horse did not
fall—the usual excuse of floored equestrians. As * * piques himself upon his
horsemanship, and his horse is really a pretty horse enough, I long for his personal
narrative,—as I never yet met the man who would fairly claim a
tumble as his own property.
“Could not you send me a printed copy of the ‘Irish Avatar?’—I do not know what has
become of Rogers since we parted at Florence.
“Don’t let the Angles keep you from writing.
Sam told me that you were somewhat dissipated
in Paris, which I can easily believe. Let me hear from you at your best leisure.
“Ever and truly, &c.
“P.S. December 13th.
“I enclose you some lines written not long ago, which you may do
what you like with, as they are very harmless†. Only, if copied, or printed, or
set, I could wish it more correctly than in the usual way, in which one’s
‘nothings are monstered’ as Coriolanus says.
“You must really get * * published—he never will rest till he is so. He is just gone
with his broken head to Lucca, at my desire, to try
† The following are the lines enclosed in this
letter. In one of his Journals, where they are also given, he has subjoined to
them the following note:—“I composed these stanzas (except the fourth,
added now) a few days ago, on the road from Florence to Pisa.
“Oh, talk not to me of a name great in story; The days of our youth are the days of our glory; And the myrtle and ivy of sweet two-and-twenty Are worth all your laurels, though ever so plenty. |
![]() “What are garlands and crowns to the brow that is wrinkled? ‘Tis but as a dead-flower with May-dew besprinkled. Then away with all such from the head that is hoary! What care I for the wreaths that can only give glory? |
![]() |
![]()
![]()
| A. D. 1821. | LIFE OF LORD BYRON. | 567 |
![]()
to save a man from being burnt. The Spanish * * *, that has her petticoats
over Lucca, had actually condemned a poor devil to the stake, for stealing the
wafer-box out of a church. Shelley and I, of
course, were up in arms against this piece of piety, and have been disturbing every
body to get the sentence changed. * * is
gone to see what can be done.
“B.”
John Anthony Galignani (1796-1873)
Bookseller with his brother William; in 1821 they succeeded their father as publishers of
the Parisian newspaper
Galignani's Messenger..
Johann Wolfgang Goethe (1749-1832)
German poet, playwright, and novelist; author of
The Sorrows of Young
Werther (1774) and
Faust (1808, 1832).
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 Medwin (1788-1869)
Lieutenant of dragoons who was with Byron and Shelley at Pisa; the author of
Conversations of Lord Byron (1824) and
The Life of
Percy Bysshe Shelley, 2 vols (1847).
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.
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).
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)
English poet, with Byron in Switzerland in 1816; author of
Queen
Mab (1813),
The Revolt of Islam (1817),
The Cenci and
Prometheus Unbound (1820), and
Adonais (1821).
John Taaffe (1787-1862)
The son of John Taaffe of Smarmore Castle, Co. Louth in Ireland; he was the translator of
Dante and companion of Shelley and Byron in Italy, where he died in 1862.
