The Works of Lord Byron: Letters and Journals Volume II Part 21

[Footnote 3: Byron's statement is incorrect. Pierre-Auguste Caron de Beaumarchais (1732-1799) married, in 1756, as his first wife, Madeleine-Catherine Aubertin, widow of the sieur Franquet. She died in 1757. He married, in 1768, as his second wife, Genevieve-Magdaleine Wattebled, widow of the sieur Leveque. She died in 1770. The only lawsuit which he won "before he was thirty," was that against Lepaute, who claimed as his own invention the escapement for watches and clocks, which Beaumarchais had discovered. The case was decided in favour of Beaumarchais in 1754. Out of his second lawsuit--with Count de la Blache, legatee of his patron Duverney, who died in 1770--sprang his action against Goezman, with which began the publication of his 'Memoires'. (See Lomenie, 'Beaumarchais and his Times', tr. by H.S.

Edwards, 4 vols., London, 1855-6.)]

[Footnote 4: Byron took his M. A. degree at Cambridge July 4, 1808.]

[Footnote 5: Sir William Drummond (1770-1828), Tory M.P. for St. Mawes (1795-96) and for Lostwithiel (1796-1801), held from 1801 to 1809 several diplomatic posts: amba.s.sador to the Court of Naples 1801-3; to the Ottoman Porte 1803-6; to the Court of Naples for the second time, 1806-9. From 1809, at which date his political and diplomatic career closed, he devoted himself to literature. He had already published 'Philosophical Sketches on the Principles of Society and Government'

(1793); 'A Review of the Governments of Sparta and Athens' (1795); 'The Satires of Persius', translated (1798); 'Byblis, a Tragedy', in verse (1802); 'Academical Questions' (1805). In 1810 he published 'Herculanensia'; and, in the following year, printed for private circulation his 'OEdipus Judaicus', a bold attempt to explain many parts of the Old Testament as astronomical allegories. In 1817 appeared the first part of his 'Odin', a poem in blank verse; in 1824-29 his 'Origines, or Remarks on the Origin of several Empires, States, and Cities', was published. Sir William, who died at Rome in 1828, lived much of his later life abroad.

Drummond, as a member of the Alfred Club, is described in the 's.e.xagenarian' (vol. ii. chap, xxiv.), where Beloe, speaking of the ('Edipus Judaicus'), says that

"he appeared to have employed his leisure in searching for objections and arguments as they related to Scripture, which had been so often refuted, that they were considered by the learned and wise as almost exploded."

He refers to 'Byblis' as evidence of his "perverted and fantastical taste" in poetry, praises his "spirited translation" of Persius, commends the "sound sense and very extensive reading" of his 'Philosophical' 'Sketches', and scoffs at the "metaphysical labyrinth"

of his 'Academical Questions'.

"When you go to Naples," said Byron to Lady Blessington ('Conversations', pp. 238, 239), "you must make acquaintance with Sir William Drummond, for he is certainly one of the most erudite men and admirable philosophers now living. He has all the wit of Voltaire, with a profundity that seldom appertains to wit, and writes so forcibly, and with such elegance and purity of style, that his works possess a peculiar charm. Have you read his 'Academical Questions'? If not, get them directly, and I think you will agree with me, that the preface to that work alone would prove Sir William Drummond an admirable writer. He concludes it by the following sentence, which I think one of the best in our language:

"'Prejudice may be trusted to guard the outworks for a short s.p.a.ce of time, while Reason slumbers in the citadel; but if the latter sink into a lethargy, the former will quickly erect a standard for herself. Philosophy, wisdom, and liberty support each other; he who will not reason is a bigot; he who cannot is a fool; and he who dares not is a slave.'

"Is not the pa.s.sage admirable? How few could have written it! and yet how few read Drummond's works! They are too good to be popular. His 'Odin' is really a fine poem, and has some pa.s.sages that are beautiful, but it is so little read that it may be said to have dropped still-born from the press--a mortifying proof of the bad taste of the age. His translation of Persius is not only very literal, but preserves much of the spirit of the original... he has escaped all the defects of translators, and his Persius resembles the original as nearly, in feeling and sentiment, as two languages so dissimilar in idiom will admit."]

[Footnote 6: Henry Matthews (1789-1828) of Eton and King's College, Cambridge, younger brother of Charles Skinner Matthews, and author of the 'Diary of an Invalid' (1820).]

[Footnote 7: 'The Wanderer, or Female Difficulties', Madame d'Arblay's fourth and last novel ('Evelina', 1778; 'Cecilia', 1782; 'Camilla', 1796), was published in 1814.

"I am indescribably occupied," she writes to Dr. Burney, October 12, 1813, "in giving more and more last touches to my work, about which I begin to grow very anxious. I am to receive merely 500 upon delivery of the MS.; the two following 500 by instalments from nine months to nine months, that is, in a year and a half from the day of publication. If all goes well, the whole will be 3000, but only at the end of the sale of eight thousand copies."

The book failed; but rumour magnified the sum received by the writer.

Mrs. Piozzi, shortly after the publication of 'The Wanderer' and of Byron's lines, "Weep, daughter of a royal line," writes to Samuel Lysons, February 17, 1814:

"Come now, do send me a kind letter and tell me if Madame d'Arblaye gets 3000 for her book or no, and if Lord Byron is to be called over about some verses he has written, as the papers hint"

('Autobiography, Letters, and Literary Remains', vol. ii. p. 246).]

[Footnote 8: Dr. Johnson never saw 'Cecilia' (1782) till it was in print. A day or two before publication, Miss Burney sent three copies to the three persons who had the best claim to them--her father, Mrs.

Thrale, and Dr. Johnson.]

213.--To Francis Hodgson.

London, Dec. 8, 1811.

I sent you a sad Tale of Three Friars the other day, and now take a dose in another style. I wrote it a day or two ago, on hearing a song of former days.

"Away, away, ye notes of woe," etc., etc. [1]

I have gotten a book by Sir W. Drummond (printed, but not published), ent.i.tled _OEdipus Judaicus_ in which he attempts to prove the greater part of the Old Testament an allegory, particularly Genesis and Joshua.

He professes himself a theist in the preface, and handles the literal interpretation very roughly. I wish you could see it. Mr. Ward [2] has lent it me, and I confess to me it is worth fifty Watsons.

You and Harness must fix on the time for your visit to Newstead; I can command mine at your wish, unless any thing particular occurs in the interim. Master William Harness and I have recommenced a most fiery correspondence; I like him as Euripides liked Agatho, or Darby admired Joan, as much for the past as the present. Bland dines with me on Tuesday to meet Moore. Coleridge has attacked the _Pleasures of Hope_, and all other pleasures whatsoever. Mr. Rogers was present, and heard himself indirectly _rowed_ by the lecturer. We are going in a party to hear the new Art of Poetry by this reformed schismatic [3]; and were I one of these poetical luminaries, or of sufficient consequence to be noticed by the man of lectures, I should not hear him without an answer.

For you know,

"an a man will be beaten with brains, he shall never keep a clean doublet." [4]

Campbell [5] will be desperately annoyed. I never saw a man (and of him I have seen very little) so sensitive;--what a happy temperament! I am sorry for it; what can _he_ fear from criticism? I don't know if Bland has seen Miller, who was to call on him yesterday.

To-day is the Sabbath,--a day I never pa.s.s pleasantly, but at Cambridge; and, even there, the organ is a sad remembrancer. Things are stagnant enough in town; as long as they don't retrograde, 'tis all very well.

Hobhouse writes and writes and writes, and is an author. I do nothing but eschew tobacco. [6] I wish parliament were a.s.sembled, that I may hear, and perhaps some day be heard;--but on this point I am not very sanguine. I have many plans;--sometimes I think of the East again, and dearly beloved Greece. I am well, but weakly. Yesterday Kinnaird [7]

told me I looked very ill, and sent me home happy.

You will never give up wine. See what it is to be thirty! if you were six years younger, you might leave off anything. You drink and repent; you repent and drink.

Is Scrope still interesting and invalid? And how does Hinde with his cursed chemistry? To Harness I have written, and he has written, and we have all written, and have nothing now to do but write again, till Death splits up the pen and the scribbler.

The Alfred [8] has three hundred and fifty-four candidates for six vacancies. The cook has run away and left us liable, which makes our committee very plaintive. Master Brook, our head serving-man, has the gout, and our new cook is none of the best. I speak from report,--for what is cookery to a leguminous-eating Ascetic? So now you know as much of the matter as I do. Books and quiet are still there, and they may dress their dishes in their own way for me. Let me know your determination as to Newstead, and believe me, Yours ever,

[Greek: Mpairon.]

[Footnote 1: Here follows one of the 'Thyrza' poems.]

[Footnote 2: The Hon. John William Ward, afterwards fourth Earl of Dudley. Byron said of him (Lady Blessington's 'Conversations with Lord Byron', p. 197),

"Ward is one of the best-informed men I know, and, in a 'tete-a-tete', is one of the most agreeable companions. He has great originality, and, being 'tres distrait', it adds to the piquancy of his observations, which are sometimes somewhat 'trop nave', though always amusing. This 'navete' of his is the more piquant from his being really a good-natured man, who unconsciously thinks aloud. Interest Ward on a subject, and I know no one who can talk better. His expressions are concise without being poor, and terse and epigrammatic without being affected," etc.

Of somewhat the same opinion was Lady H. Leveson Gower ('Letters of Harriet, Countess Granville', vol. i. pp. 41, 42):

"The charm of Mr. Ward's conversation is exactly what Mr. Luttrell wants, a sort of 'abandon', and being entertaining because it is his nature and he cannot help it. I only mean Mr. Ward in his happier hour, for what I have said of him is the very reverse of what he is when vanity or humour seize upon him."]

[Footnote 3: Crabb Robinson, in his 'Diary' for January 20, 1812, has the following entry: