Part 10
"I have received a strange piece of news, which cannot be more disagreeable to your public than it is to me. Letters and the gazettes do me the honour to say that it is the intention of some of the London managers to bring forward on their stage the poem of 'Marino Faliero,' &c. which was never intended for such an exhibition, and I trust will never undergo it. It is certainly unfit for it. I have never written but for the solitary _reader_, and require no experiments for applause beyond his silent approbation. Since such an attempt to drag me forth as a gladiator in the theatrical arena is a violation of all the courtesies of literature, I trust that the impartial part of the press will step between me and this pollution. I say pollution, because every violation of a _right_ is such, and I claim my right as an author to prevent what I have written from being turned into a stage-play. I have too much respect for the public to permit this of my own free will. Had I sought their favour, it would have been by a pantomime.
"I have said that I write only for the reader. Beyond this I cannot consent to any publication, or to the abuse of any publication of mine to the purposes of histrionism. The applauses of an audience would give me no pleasure; their disapprobation might, however, give me pain. The wager is therefore not equal. You may, perhaps, say, 'How can this be? if their disapprobation gives pain, their praise might afford pleasure?' By no means: the kick of an ass or the sting of a wasp may be painful to those who would find nothing agreeable in the braying of the one or the buzzing of the other.
"This may not seem a courteous comparison, but I have no other ready; and it occurs naturally."
* * * * *
LETTER 416. TO MR. MURRAY.
"Ravenna, Marzo, 1821.
"Dear Moray,
"In my packet of the 12th instant, in the last sheet (_not_ the _half_ sheet), last page, _omit_ the sentence which (defining, or attempting to define, what and who are gentlemen) begins, 'I should say at least in life that most military men have it, and few naval; that several men of rank have it, and few lawyers,' &c. &c. I say, omit the whole of that sentence, because, like the 'cosmogony, or creation of the world,' in the 'Vicar of Wakefield,' it is not much to the purpose.
"In the sentence above, too, almost at the top of the same page, after the words 'that there ever was, or can be, an aristocracy of poets,' add and insert these words--'I do not mean that they should write in the style of the song by a person of quality, or _parle euphuism_; but there is a _nobility_ of thought and expression to be found no less in Shakspeare, Pope, and Burns, than in Dante, Alfieri,' &c. &c. and so on. Or, if you please, perhaps you had better omit the whole of the latter digression on the _vulgar_ poets, and insert only as far as the end of the sentence on Pope's Homer, where I prefer it to Cowper's, and quote Dr. Clarke in favour of its accuracy.
"Upon all these points, take an opinion; take the sense (or nonsense) of your learned visitants, and act thereby. I am very tractable--in PROSE.
"Whether I have made out the case for Pope, I know not; but I am very sure that I have been zealous in the attempt. If it comes to the proofs we shall beat the blackguards. I will show more _imagery_ in twenty lines of Pope than in any equal length of quotation in English poesy, and that in places where they least expect it. For instance, in his lines on _Sporus_,--now, do just _read_ them over--the subject is of no consequence (whether it be _satire_ or epic)--we are talking of _poetry_ and _imagery_ from _nature_ and _art_. Now, mark the images separately and arithmetically:--
"'1. The thing of _silk_. 2. _Curd_ of _ass_'s milk. 3. The _butterfly_. 4. The _wheel_. 5. Bug with gilded wings. 6. _Painted_ child of dirt. 7. Whose _buzz_. 8. Well-bred _spaniels_. 9. _Shallow streams run dimpling._ 10. Florid impotence. 11. _Prompter. Puppet squeaks._ 12. _The ear of Eve._ 13. _Familiar toad._ 14. _Half froth, half venom, splits_ himself abroad. 15. _Fop_ at the _toilet_. 16. _Flatterer_ at the _board_. 17. _Amphibious thing_. 18. Now _trips a lady_. 19. Now _struts a lord_. 20. A _cherub's face_. 21. A _reptile_ all the rest. 22. The _Rabbins_. 23. Pride that _licks the dust_.
"'Beauty that shocks you, parts that none will trust. Wit that can creep, and _pride_ that _licks the dust_.'
"Now, is there a line of all the passage without the most _forcible_ imagery (for his purpose)? Look at the _variety_--at the _poetry_ of the passage--at the _imagination_: there is hardly a line from which a painting might not be made, and _is_. But this is nothing in comparison with his higher passages in the Essay on Man, and many of his other poems, serious and comic. There never was such an unjust outcry in this world as that which these fellows are trying against Pope.
"Ask Mr. Gifford if, in the fifth act of 'The Doge,' you could not contrive (where the sentence of the _Veil_ is passed) to insert the following lines in Marino Faliero's answer?
"But let it be so. It will be in vain: The veil which blackens o'er this blighted name, And hides, or seems to hide, these lineaments, Shall draw more gazers than the thousand portraits Which glitter round it in their painted trappings, Your delegated slaves--the people's tyrants.[33]
"Yours, truly, &c.
"P.S. Upon _public_ matters here I say little: you will all hear soon enough of a general row throughout Italy. There never was a more foolish step than the expedition to Naples by these fellows.
"I wish to propose to _Holmes_, the miniature painter, to come out to me this spring. I will pay his expenses, and any sum in reason. I wish him to take my daughter's picture (who is in a convent) and the Countess G.'s, and the head of a peasant girl, which latter would make a study for Raphael. It is a complete _peasant_ face, but an _Italian_ peasant's, and quite in the Raphael Fornarina style. Her figure is tall, but rather large, and not at all comparable to her face, which is really superb. She is not seventeen, and I am anxious to have her face while it lasts. Madame G. is also very handsome, but it is quite in a different style--completely blonde and fair--very uncommon in Italy; yet not an _English_ fairness, but more like a Swede or a Norwegian. Her figure, too, particularly the bust, is uncommonly good. It must be _Holmes_; I like him because he takes such inveterate likenesses. There is a war here; but a solitary traveller, with little baggage, and nothing to do with politics, has nothing to fear. Pack him up in the Diligence. Don't forget."
[Footnote 33: These lines--perhaps from some difficulty in introducing them--were never inserted in the Tragedy.]
* * * * *
LETTER 417. TO MR. HOPPNER.
"Ravenna, April 3. 1821;
"Thanks for the translation. I have sent you some books, which I do not know whether you have read or no--you need not return them, in any case. I enclose you also a letter from Pisa. I have neither spared trouble nor expense in the care of the child; and as she was now four years old complete, and quite above the control of the servants--and as a _man_ living without any woman at the head of his house cannot much attend to a nursery--I had no resource but to place her for a time (at a high pension too) in the convent of Bagna-Cavalli (twelve miles off), where the air is good, and where she will, at least, have her learning advanced, and her morals and religion inculcated.[34] I had also another reason;--things were and are in such a state here, that I had no reason to look upon my own personal safety as particularly insurable; and I thought the infant best out of harm's way, for the present.
"It is also fit that I should add that I by no means intended, nor intend, to give a _natural_ child an _English_ education, because with the disadvantages of her birth, her after settlement would be doubly difficult. Abroad, with a fair foreign education and a portion of five or six thousand pounds, she might and may marry very respectably. In England such a dowry would be a pittance, while elsewhere it is a fortune. It is, besides, my wish that she should be a Roman Catholic, which I look upon as the best religion, as it is assuredly the oldest of the various branches of Christianity. I have now explained my notions as to the _place_ where she now is--it is the best I could find for the present; but I have no prejudices in its favour.
"I do not speak of politics, because it seems a hopeless subject, as long as those scoundrels are to be permitted to bully states out of their independence. Believe me,
"Yours ever and truly.
"P.S. There is a report here of a change in France; but with what truth is not yet known.
"P.S. My respects to Mrs. H. I _have_ the 'best opinion' of her countrywomen; and at my time of life, (three and thirty, 22d January, 1821,) that is to say, after the life I have led, a _good_ opinion is the only rational one which a man should entertain of the whole sex--up to _thirty_, the worst possible opinion a man can have of them in _general_, the better for himself. Afterwards, it is a matter of no importance to them, nor to him either, what opinion he entertains--his day is over, or, at least, should be.
"You see how sober I am become."
[Footnote 34: With such anxiety did he look to this essential part of his daughter's education, that notwithstanding the many advantages she was sure to derive from the kind and feminine superintendence of Mrs. Shelley, his apprehensions, lest her feeling upon religious subjects might be disturbed by the conversation of Shelley himself, prevented him from allowing her to remain under his friend's roof.]
* * * * *
LETTER 418. TO MR. MURRAY.
"Ravenna, April 21. 1821.
"I enclose you another letter on Bowles. But I premise that it is not like the former, and that I am not at all sure how _much_, if _any_, of it should be published. Upon this point you can consult with Mr. Gifford, and think twice before you publish it at all.
Yours truly,
B.
"P.S. You may make my subscription for Mr. Scott's widow, &c. _thirty_ instead of the proposed _ten_ pounds; but do not put down _my name_; put down N.N. only. The reason is, that, as I have mentioned him in the enclosed pamphlet, it would look indelicate. I would give more, but my disappointments last year about Rochdale and the transfer from the funds render me more economical for the present."
* * * * *
LETTER 419. TO MR. SHELLEY.
"Ravenna, April 26. 1821.
"The child continues doing well, and the accounts are regular and favourable. It is gratifying to me that you and Mrs. Shelley do not disapprove of the step which I have taken, which is merely temporary.
"I am very sorry to hear what you say of Keats--is it actually true? I did not think criticism had been so killing. Though I differ from you essentially in your estimate of his performances, I so much abhor all unnecessary pain, that I would rather he had been seated on the highest peak of Parnassus than have perished in such a manner. Poor fellow! though with such inordinate self-love he would probably have not been very happy. I read the review of 'Endymion' in the Quarterly. It was severe,--but surely not so severe as many reviews in that and other journals upon others.
"I recollect the effect on me of the Edinburgh on my first poem; it was rage, and resistance, and redress--but not despondency nor despair. I grant that those are not amiable feelings; but, in this world of bustle and broil, and especially in the career of writing, a man should calculate upon his powers of _resistance_ before he goes into the arena.
"'Expect not life from pain nor danger free, Nor deem the doom of man reversed for thee.'
"You know my opinion of that _second-hand_ school of poetry. You also know my high opinion of your own poetry,--because it is of _no_ school. I read Cenci--but, besides that I think the _subject_ essentially _un_dramatic, I am not an admirer of our old dramatists, _as models_. I deny that the English have hitherto had a drama at all. Your Cenci, however, was a work of power, and poetry. As to _my_ drama, pray revenge yourself upon it, by being as free as I have been with yours.
"I have not yet got your Prometheus, which I long to see. I have heard nothing of mine, and do not know that it is yet published. I have published a pamphlet on the Pope controversy, which you will not like. Had I known that Keats was dead--or that he was alive and so sensitive--I should have omitted some remarks upon his poetry, to which I was provoked by his _attack_ upon _Pope_, and my disapprobation of _his own_ style of writing.
"You want me to undertake a great poem--I have not the inclination nor the power. As I grow older, the indifference--_not_ to life, for we love it by instinct--but to the stimuli of life, increases. Besides, this late failure of the Italians has latterly disappointed me for many reasons,--some public, some personal. My respects to Mrs. S.
"Yours ever.
"P.S. Could not you and I contrive to meet this summer? Could not you take a run here _alone_?"
* * * * *
LETTER 420. TO MR. MURRAY.
"Ravenna, April 26. 1821.
"I sent you by last _postis_ a large packet, which will _not_ do for publication (I suspect), being, as the apprentices say, 'damned low.' I put off also for a week or two sending the Italian scrawl which will form a note to it. The reason is that, letters being opened, I wish to 'bide a wee.'
"Well, have you published the Tragedy? and does the Letter take?
"Is it true, what Shelley writes me, that poor John Keats died at Rome of the Quarterly Review? I am very sorry for it, though I think he took the wrong line as a poet, and was spoilt by Cockneyfying, and suburbing, and versifying Tooke's Pantheon and Lempriere's Dictionary. I know, by experience, that a savage review is hemlock to a sucking author; and the one on me (which produced the English Bards, &c.) knocked me down--but I got up again. Instead of bursting a blood-vessel, I drank three bottles of claret, and began an answer, finding that there was nothing in the article for which I could lawfully knock Jeffrey on the head, in an honourable way. However, I would not be the person who wrote the homicidal article for all the honour and glory in the world, though I by no means approve of that school of scribbling which it treats upon.
"You see the Italians have made a sad business of it,--all owing to treachery and disunion amongst themselves. It has given me great vexation. The execrations heaped upon the Neapolitans by the other Italians are quite in unison with those of the rest of Europe.
"Yours, &c.
"P.S. Your latest packet of books is on its way here, but not arrived. Kenilworth excellent. Thanks for the pocket-books, of which I have made presents to those ladies who like cuts, and landscapes, and all that. I have got an Italian book or two which I should like to send you if I had an opportunity.
"I am not at present in the very highest health,--spring probably; so I have lowered my diet and taken to Epsom salts.
"As you say my _prose_ is good, why don't you treat with _Moore_ for the reversion of the Memoirs?--_conditionally, recollect_; not to be published before decease. _He_ has the permission to dispose of them, and I advised him to do so."
* * * * *
LETTER 421. TO MR. MOORE.
"Ravenna, April 28. 1821.
"You cannot have been more disappointed than myself, nor so much deceived. I have been so at some personal risk also, which is not yet done away with. However, no time nor circumstances shall alter my tone nor my feelings of indignation against tyranny triumphant. The present business has been as much a work of treachery as of cowardice,--though both may have done their part. If ever you and I meet again, I will have a talk with you upon the subject. At present, for obvious reasons, I ran write but little, as all letters are opened. In _mine_ they shall always find _my_ sentiments, but nothing that can lead to the oppression of others.
"You will please to recollect that the Neapolitans are nowhere now more execrated than in Italy, and not blame a whole people for the vices of a province. That would be like condemning Great Britain because they plunder wrecks in Cornwall.
"And now let us be literary;--a sad falling off, but it is always a consolation. If 'Othello's occupation be gone,' let us take to the next best; and, if we cannot contribute to make mankind more free and wise, we may amuse ourselves and those who like it. What are you writing? I have been scribbling at intervals, and Murray will be publishing about now.
"Lady Noel has, as you say, been dangerously ill; but it may console you to learn that she is dangerously well again.
"I have written a sheet or two more of Memoranda for you; and I kept a little Journal for about a month or two, till I had filled the paper-book. I then left it off, as things grew busy, and, afterwards, too gloomy to set down without a painful feeling. This I should be glad to send you, if I had an opportunity; but a volume, however small, don't go well by such posts as exist in this Inquisition of a country.
"I have no news. As a very pretty woman said to me a few nights ago, with the tears in her eyes, as she sat at the harpsichord, 'Alas! the Italians must now return to making operas.' I fear _that_ and maccaroni are their forte, and 'motley their only wear.' However, there are some high spirits among them still. Pray write. And believe me," &c.
* * * * *
LETTER 422. TO MR. MOORE.
"Ravenna, May 3. 1821.
"Though I wrote to you on the 28th ultimo, I must acknowledge yours of this day, with the lines[35]. They are sublime, as well as beautiful, and in your very best mood and manner. They are also but too true. However, do not confound the scoundrels at the _heel_ of the boot with their betters at the top of it. I assure you that there are some loftier spirits.
"Nothing, however, can be better than your poem, or more deserved by the Lazzaroni. They are now abhorred and disclaimed nowhere more than here. We will talk over these things (if we meet) some day, and I will recount my own adventures, some of which have been a little hazardous, perhaps.
"So, you have got the Letter on Bowles[36]? I do not recollect to have said any thing of _you_ that could offend,--certainly, nothing intentionally. As for * *, I meant him a compliment. I wrote the whole off-hand, without copy or correction, and expecting then every day to be called into the field. What have I said of you? I am sure I forget. It must be something of regret for your approbation of Bowles. And did you _not_ approve, as he says? Would I had known that before! I would have given him some more gruel.[37] My intention was to make fun of all these fellows; but how I succeeded, I don't know.
"As to Pope, I have always regarded him as the greatest name in our poetry. Depend upon it, the rest are barbarians. He is a Greek Temple, with a Gothic Cathedral on one hand, and a Turkish Mosque and all sorts of fantastic pagodas and conventicles about him. You may call Shakspeare and Milton pyramids, if you please, but I prefer the Temple of Theseus or the Parthenon to a mountain of burnt brick-work.
"The Murray has written to me but once, the day of its publication, when it seemed prosperous. But I have heard of late from England but rarely. Of Murray's other publications (of mine), I know nothing,--nor whether he has published. He was to have done so a month ago. I wish you would do something,--or that we were together.
"Ever yours and affectionately,
"B."
[Footnote 35: "Aye, down to the dust with them, slaves as they are," &c. &c.]
[Footnote 36: I had not, when I wrote, _seen_ this pamphlet, as he supposes, but had merely heard from some friends, that his pen had "run a-muck" in it, and that I myself had not escaped a slight graze in its career.]
[Footnote 37: It may be sufficient to say of the use to which both Lord Byron and Mr. Bowles thought it worth their while to apply my name in this controversy, that, as far as my own knowledge of the subject extended, I was disposed to agree with _neither_ of the extreme opinions into which, as it appeared to me, my distinguished friends had diverged;--neither with Lord Byron in that spirit of partisanship which led him to place Pope _above_ Shakspeare and Milton, nor with Mr. Bowles in such an application of the "principles" of poetry as could tend to sink Pope, on the scale of his art, to any rank below the very first. Such being the middle state of my opinion on the question, it will not be difficult to understand how one of my controversial friends should be as mistaken in supposing me to differ altogether from his views, as the other was in taking for granted that I had ranged myself wholly on his side.]
* * * * *
It was at this time that he began, under the title of "Detached Thoughts," that Book of Notices or Memorandums, from which, in the course of these pages, I have extracted so many curious illustrations of his life and opinions, and of which the opening article is as follows:--
"Amongst various Journals, Memoranda, Diaries, &c. which I have kept in the course of my living, I began one about three months ago, and carried it on till I had filled one paper-book (thinnish), and two sheets or so of another. I then left off, partly because I thought we should have some business here, and I had furbished up my arms and got my apparatus ready for taking a turn with the patriots, having my drawers full of their proclamations, oaths, and resolutions, and my lower rooms of their hidden weapons, of most calibres,--and partly because I had filled my paper-book.
"But the Neapolitans have betrayed themselves and all the world; and those who would have given their blood for Italy can now only give her their tears.