The Works of Lord Byron: Letters and Journals Volume II Part 86

"'Cette terre, ou les myrtes fleurissent, Ou les rayons des cieux tombent avec amour, Ou des sons enchanteurs dans les airs retentissent, Ou la plus douce nuit succede au plus beau jour,' etc."]

375.--To John Murray.

Decr. y'r 14th, 1813.

Deare Sir,--Send y'e E'r of ye new R'w a copy as he hath had y'e trouble of two walks on y't acct.

As to the man of the _Satirist_--I hope you have too much spirit to allow a single Sheet to be offered as a peace offering to him or any one. If you _do_, expect _never_ to be _forgiven_ by me--if he is not personal he is quite welcome to his opinion--and if he is, I have my own remedy.

Send a copy _double_ to Dr. Clarke (y'e traveller) Cambrigge by y'e first opportunitie--and let me see you in y'e morninge y't I may mention certain thinges y'e which require sundrie though slight alterations.

Sir, your Servitor, Biron

376.--To Thomas Ashe [1].

4, Bennet Street, St. James's, Dec. 14, 1813.

Sir,--I leave town for a few days to-morrow. On my return, I will answer your letter more at length.

Whatever may be your situation, I cannot but commend your resolution to abjure and abandon the publication and composition of works such as those to which you have alluded. Depend upon it they amuse _few_, disgrace both _reader_ and _writer_, and benefit _none_. It will be my wish to a.s.sist you, as far as my limited means will admit, to break such a bondage. In your answer, inform me what sum you think would enable you to extricate yourself from the hands of your employers, and to regain, at least, temporary independence, and I shall be glad to contribute my mite towards it. At present, I must conclude. Your name is not unknown to me, and I regret, for your own sake, that you have ever lent it to the works you mention. In saying this, I merely repeat your _own words_ in your letter to me, and have no wish whatever to say a single syllable that may appear to insult your misfortunes. If I have, excuse me; it is unintentional.

Yours, etc.,

BYRON.

[Footnote 1: Thomas Ashe (1770-1835) had already written books of travel in North and South America, and two novels--'The Spirit of "The Book'"(1811), and 'The Liberal Critic, or Henry Percy' (1812). He was a man of more ability than character, but possessed little of either. His 'Memoirs' (1815) describe his literary undertakings, one at least of which was of a blackmailing kind, and are interspersed with protestations of his desire for independence, and of regrets for the wretched stuff that dropped from his pen.

His first novel, 'The Spirit of "The Book,"' gained some success from its subject. In 1806-7 Lady Douglas brought certain charges against the Princess of Wales, which were answered on her behalf by Spencer Perceval. The extraordinary secrecy with which this defence, called "The Book," was printed, and its complete suppression, excited curiosity, which was increased by the following advertis.e.m.e.nt in the 'Times' for March 27, 1809:

"'A Book'--Any Person having in their possession a COPY of a CERTAIN BOOK, printed by Mr. Edwards, in 1807, but 'never published', with W. Lindsell's Name as the Seller of the same on the t.i.tle page, and will bring it to W. Lindsell, Bookseller, Wimpole-Street, will receive a handsome gratuity."

The subject-matter of this book, then unknown to the public, Ashe professes to embody in 'The Spirit of "The Book;" or, Memoirs of Caroline, Princess of Hasburgh, a Political and Amatory Romance' (3 vols., 1811). The letters, which purport to be written from Caroline to Charlotte, and contain (vol. ii. pp. 152-181) an attack on the Lady Jersey, who attended the princess, are absolutely dull, and scarcely even indecent.

Ashe's 'Memoirs and Confessions' (3 vols., 1815) are dedicated to the Duke of Northumberland and to Byron, to whom, in a preface written at Havre, he acknowledges his "transcendent obligations."]

377.--To Professor Clarke [1].

Dec. 15, 1813.

Your very kind letter is the more agreeable, because, setting aside talents, judgment, and the _laudari a laudato_, etc., you have been on the spot; you have seen and described more of the East than any of your predecessors--I need not say how ably and successfully; and (excuse the bathos) you are one of the very few men who can p.r.o.nounce how far my costume (to use an affected but expressive word) is correct. As to poesy, that is, as "men, G.o.ds, and columns," please to decide upon it; but I am sure that I am anxious to have an observer's, particularly a famous observer's, testimony on the fidelity of my manners and dresses; and, as far as memory and an oriental twist in my imagination have permitted, it has been my endeavour to present to the Franks, a sketch of that of which you have and will present them a complete picture. It was with this notion, that I felt compelled to make my hero and heroine relatives, as you well know that none else could there obtain that degree of intercourse leading to genuine affection; I had nearly made them rather too much akin to each other; and though the wild pa.s.sions of the East, and some great examples in Alfieri, Ford, and Schiller (to stop short of antiquity), might have pleaded in favour of a copyist, yet the time and the north (not Frederic, but our climate) induced me to alter their consanguinity and confine them to cousins.h.i.+p. I also wished to try my hand on a female character in Zuleika, and have endeavoured, as far as the grossness of our masculine ideas will allow, to preserve her purity without impairing the ardour of her attachment.

As to criticism, I have been reviewed about a hundred and fifty times--praised and abused. I will not say that I am become indifferent to either eulogy or condemnation, but for some years at least I have felt grateful for the former, and have never attempted to answer the latter. For success equal to the first efforts, I had and have no hope; the novelty was over, and the "Bride," like all other brides, must suffer or rejoice for and with her husband. By the bye, I have used "bride" Turkishly, as affianced, not married; and so far it is an English bull, which, I trust, will be at least a comfort to all Hibernians not bigotted to monopoly. You are good enough to mention your quotations in your third volume. I shall not only be indebted to it for a renewal of the high gratification received from the two first, but for preserving my relics embalmed in your own spices, and ensuring me readers to whom I could not otherwise have aspired.

I called on you, as bounden by duty and inclination, when last in your neighbourhood; but I shall always take my chance; you surely would not have me inflict upon you a formal annunciation; I am proud of your friends.h.i.+p, but not so fond of myself as to break in upon your better avocations. I trust that Mrs. Clarke is well; I have never had the honour of presentation, but I have heard so much of her in many quarters, that any notice she is pleased to take of my productions is not less gratifying than my thanks are sincere, both to her and you; by all accounts I may safely congratulate you on the possession of "a bride" whose mental and personal accomplishments are more than poetical.

P. S.--Murray has sent, or will send, a double copy of the _Bride_ and _Giaour_; in the last one, some lengthy additions; pray accept them, according to old custom, "from the author" to one of his better brethren. Your Persian, or any memorial, will be a most agreeable, and it is my fault if not an useful present. I trust your third will be out before I sail next month; can I say or do anything for you in the Levant? I am now in all the agonies of equipment, and full of schemes, some impracticable, and most of them improbable; but I mean to fly "freely to the green earth's end," [2] though not quite so fast as Milton's sprite.

P. S. 2nd.--I have so many things to say.--I want to show you Lord Sligo's letter to me detailing, as he heard them on the spot, the Athenian account of our adventure (a personal one), which certainly first suggested to me the story of _The Giaour_. It was a strange and not a very long story, and his report of the reports (he arrived just after my departure, and I did not know till last summer that he knew anything of the matter) is not very far from the truth. Don't be alarmed. There was nothing that led further than to the water's edge; but one part (as is often the case in life) was more singular than any of the _Giaour's_ adventures. I never have, and never should have, alluded to it on my own authority, from respect to the ancient proverb on Travellers.

[Footnote 1: Dr. Clark, in October, 1814, was a candidate for the Professors.h.i.+p of Anatomy, and Byron went to Cambridge to vote for his friend. Writing to Miss Tayler, Hodgson ('Memoir', vol. i. p. 292) adds a postscript:

"I open my letter to say that when Lord Byron went to give his vote just now in the Senate House, the young men burst out into the most rapturous applause."

The next day he writes again:

"I should add that as I was going to vote I met him coming away, and presently saw that something had happened, by his extreme paleness and agitation. Dr. Clark, who was with him, told me the cause, and I returned with B. to my room. There I begged him to sit down and write a letter and communicate this event, which he did not feel up to, but wished 'I' would. So down I sate, and commenced my acquaintance with Miss Milbanke by writing her an account of this most pleasing event, which, although nothing at Oxford, is here very unusual indeed."

The following was Miss Milbanke's answer ('ibid'., pp. 296, 297), dated, "Seaham, November 25, 1814:"