The Works of Lord Byron: Letters and Journals Volume II Part 117

By which it appears, that

"--These wolves that still in darkness prowl; This coward brood, which mangle, as their prey, By h.e.l.lish instinct, all that cross their way;"

are hired by Lord Holland, and it follows, very naturally, that the "_hirelings_" of Lord Holland must be the "_foes of learning_."

This seems sufficiently caustic; but hear, how our dedicator proceeds:

"Ill.u.s.trious Holland! hard would be his lot, His hirelings mention'd, and himself forgot!

Blest be the banquets spread at Holland House, Where Scotchmen feed, and Critics may carouse!

Long, long, beneath that hospitable roof Shall _Grub-street_ dine, while duns are kept aloof, And _grateful_ to the founder of the feast Declare the Landlord can _translate_, at least!"

Lord Byron has, it seems, very accurate notions of _grat.i.tude_, and the word "_grateful_" in these lines, and in his dedication of 'The Bride of Abydos', has a delightful similarity of meaning. His Lords.h.i.+p is pleased to add, in an explanatory note to this pa.s.sage, that Lord Holland's life of Lopez de Vega, and his translated specimens of that author, are much "BEPRAISED _by these disinterested guests_." Lord Byron well knows that _bepraise_ and _bespatter_ are almost synonimous. There was but one point on which he could have any hope of touching Lord Holland more nearly; and of course he avails himself, in the most gentlemanly and generous manner, of the golden opportunity.

When his club of literary a.s.sa.s.sins is a.s.sembled at Lord Holland's table, Lord Byron informs us

"That lest when heated with the unusual grape, Some _glowing_ thoughts should to the press escape, And tinge with red the _female_ reader's cheek, My LADY skims the _cream_ of each critique; Breathes o'er each page _her purity_ of soul, Reforms each error, and refines the whole."

Our readers will, no doubt, duly appreciate the manliness and generosity of these lines; but, to encrease their admiration, we beg to remind them that the next time Lord Byron addresses Lord Holland, it is to dedicate to him, in all friends.h.i.+p, _sincerity_, and grat.i.tude, the story of a young, a pure, an amiable, and an affectionate bride!

The verses were bad enough, but what shall be said, after _such_ verses, of the insult of _such_ a dedication!

We forbear to extract any further specimens of this peculiar vein of Lord Byron's satire; our "gorge rises at it," and we regret to have been obliged to say so much. And yet Lord Byron is, "with all regard and _respect_, Lord Holland's sincere and grateful friend!" It reminds us of the _respect_ which Lear's daughters shewed their father, and which the poor old king felt to be "worse than murder."

Some of our readers may perhaps observe that, personally, Lord Holland was not so ill-treated as Lord Carlisle; but let it be recollected, that Lord Holland is only an acquaintance, while Lord Carlisle was "guardian and relation," and had therefore _peculiar_ claims to the ingrat.i.tude of a mind like Lord Byron's.

_Trust Byron_, indeed! "him," as Hamlet says

"_Him_, I would trust as I would _adders_ fang'd."

(6) BYRONIANA No. 3 ('The Courier', February 12, 1814). "Crede Byron"--"Trust Byron."

We have seen Lord Byron's past and present opinions of two n.o.ble Persons whom he has honoured with his satire, and vilified by his dedications; let us now compare the evidence which he has given at different and yet not distant times, on the merits of his third _Dedicatee_, Mr. Thomas Moore. To him Lord Byron has inscribed his last poem as a person "of unshaken _public principle_, and the most undoubted and various talents; as the firmest of Irish _patriots_, and the first of Irish bards."

Before we proceed to give Lord Byron's own judgment of this "firmest of patriots," and this "best of poets," we must be allowed to say, that though we consider Mr. Moore as a very good writer of songs, we should very much complain of the poetical supremacy a.s.signed to him, if Lord Byron had not qualified it by calling him the first only of _Irish_ poets, and, as we suppose his Lords.h.i.+p must mean, of _Irish_ poets of the _present_ day. The t.i.tle may be, for aught we know to the contrary, perfectly appropriate; but we cannot conceive how Mr. Moore comes by the high-sounding name of "_patriot_;" what pretence there is for such an appellation; by what effort of intellect or of courage he has placed his name above those idols of Irish wors.h.i.+p, Messrs. Scully, Connell, and Dromgoole. Mr. Moore has written words to Irish tunes; so did Burns for _his_ national airs; but who ever called Burns the "firmest of patriots"

on the score of his contributions to the _Scots Magazine_?

Mr. Moore, we are aware, has been accused of tuning his harpsichord to the key-note of a faction, and of subst.i.tuting, wherever he could, a party spirit for the spirit of poetry: this, in the opinion of most persons, would derogate even from his _poetical_ character, but we hope that Lord Byron stands alone in considering that such a prost.i.tution of the muse ent.i.tles him to the name of patriot. Mr. Moore, it seems, is an Irishman, and, we believe, a Roman Catholic; he appears to be, at least in his poetry, no great friend to the connexion of Ireland with England.

One or two of his ditties are quoted in Ireland as _laments_ upon certain worthy persons whose lives were terminated by the hand of the law, in some of the unfortunate disturbances which have afflicted that country; and one of his most admired songs begins with a stanza, which we hope the Attorney-General will pardon us for quoting:

"Let Erin remember the days of old, Ere her _faithless sons betrayed her_, When Malachy wore the collar of gold, Which he won from her proud Invader; When her Kings, with standard of green unfurl'd, Led the Red Branch Knights to danger, Ere, the emerald gem of the western world, _Was set in the crown of a Stranger_."

This will pretty well satisfy an English reader, that, if it be any ingredient of patriotism to promote the affectionate connexion of the English isles under the const.i.tutional settlement made at the revolution and at the union; and if the foregoing verses speak Mr. Moore's sentiments, he has the same claims to the name of "_patriot_" that Lord Byron has to the t.i.tle of "trustworthy;" but if these and similar verses do not speak Mr. Moore's political sentiments, then undoubtedly he has never written, or at least published any thing relating to public affairs; and Lord Byron has no kind of pretence for talking of the political character and public principles of an humble individual who is only known as the translator of Anacreon, and the writer, composer, and singer of certain songs, which songs do not (_ex-hypothesi_) speak the sentiments even of the writer himself.

But, hold--we had forgot one circ.u.mstance: Mr. Moore has been said to be one of the authors of certain verses on the highest characters of the State, which appeared from time to time in the 'Morning Chronicle', and which were afterwards collected into a little volume; this may, probably, be in Lord Byron's opinion, a clear t.i.tle to the name of _patriot_, in which case, his Lords.h.i.+p has also his claim to the same honour; and, indeed that sagacious and loyal person, the Editor of the 'Morning Chronicle', seems to be of this notion; for when some one ventured to express some, we think not unnatural, indignation at Lord Byron's having been the author of some impudent doggrels, of the same vein, which appeared anonymously in that paper reflecting on his Royal Highness the Prince Regent, and her Royal Highness his daughter, the Editor before-mentioned exclaimed--"What! and is not a Peer, an hereditary councillor of the Crown, to be permitted to give his const.i.tutional advice?!!!"

If writing such vile and anonymous stuff as one sometimes reads in the 'Morning Chronicle' be the duty of a good subject, or the privilege of a Peer of Parliament, then indeed we have nothing to object to Mr. Moore's t.i.tle of Patriot, or Lord Byron's open, honourable, manly, and const.i.tutional method of advising the Crown.

To return, however, to our main object, Lord Byron's _consistency, truth_, and trustworthiness.

His Lords.h.i.+p is pleased to call Mr. Moore not only Patriot and Poet, but he acquaints us also, that "he is the delight alike of his readers and his friends; the poet of all circles, and the idol of his own."

Let us now turn to Lord Byron's thrice-recorded opinion of "_this Poet of all Circles_." We shall quote from a Poem which was republished, improved, amended, and reconsidered, not more than _three_ years ago; since which time Mr. Moore has published no Poem whatsoever; therefore, Lord Byron's former and his present opinions are founded upon the same data, and if they do not agree, it really is no fault of Mr. Moore's, who has published nothing to alter them.

"Now look around and turn each _trifling_ page, Survey the _precious_ works that please the age, While Little's lyrics s.h.i.+ne in hot-pressed twelves."

Here, by no great length of induction, we find Little's, _i.e._ Mr.

Thomas Moore's lyrics, are _trifling, "precious_ works," his Lords.h.i.+p ironically adds, that "please times from which," as his Lords.h.i.+p says, "taste and reason are pa.s.sed away!"

Bye and by his Lords.h.i.+p delivers a still more plain opinion on Mr.

Moore's fitness to be the "_Poet of ALL circles_."

"Who in soft guise, surrounded by a quire Of virgins _melting_, not to _Vesta's_ fire, With sparkling eyes, and cheek by _pa.s.sion_ flush'd, Strikes his wild lyre, while listening dames are hush'd?

'Tis Little, young Catullus of his day, As sweet, but as immoral, in his lay; Griev'd to condemn, the Muse must yet be just, Nor spare melodious _advocates of l.u.s.t!_"

"_O calum et terra!_" as _Lingo_ says. What! this purest of Patriots is _immoral?_ What! "the Poet of _all_ circles" is "the advocate of l.u.s.t"?

Monstrous! But who can doubt Byron? And his Lords.h.i.+p, in a subsequent pa.s.sage, does not hesitate to speak still more plainly, and to declare, in plain round terms (we shudder while we copy) that Moore, the Poet, the Patriot "Moore, is lewd"!!!

After this, we humbly apprehend that if we were to "trust Byron," Mr.

Moore, however he may be the idol of his own circle, would find some little difficulty in obtaining admittance into any other.

Lord Byron having thus disposed, as far as depended upon him, of the moral character of the first of Patriots and Poets, takes an early opportunity of doing justice to the personal honour of this dear "friend;" one, as his Lords.h.i.+p expresses it, of "the magnificent and fiery spirited" sons of Erin.

"In 1806," says Lord Byron, "Messrs. Jeffery and Moore met at Chalk Farm--the duel was prevented by the interference of the Magistracy, and on examination, the b.a.l.l.s of the pistols, _like the courage of the combatants_, were found to have _evaporated!_"

"Magnificent and fiery spirit," with a vengeance!

We are far from thinking of Mr. Moore as Lord Byron either did or does; not so degradingly as his Lords.h.i.+p did in 1810; not so extravagantly as he does in 1813. But we think that Mr. Moore has grave reason of complaint, and almost just cause, to exert "his fiery spirit" against Lord Byron, who has the effrontery to drag him twice before the public, and overwhelm him, one day with odium, and another with ridicule.

We regret that Lord Byron, by obliging us to examine the value of his censures, has forced us to contrast his past with his present judgments, and to bring again before the public the objects of his lampoons and his flatteries. We have, however, much less remorse in quoting his satire than his dedications; for, by this time, we believe, the whole world is inclined to admit that his Lords.h.i.+p can pay no compliment so valuable as his censure, nor offer any insult so intolerable as his praise.

(7) BYRONIANA No. 4 ('The Courier', February 17, 1814).