Part 16
"Love to Gifford. Believe me, &c.
"P.S. I restore Smith's letter, whom thank for his good opinion. Is the bust by Thorwaldsen arrived?"
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LETTER 445. TO MR. MURRAY.
"Ravenna, August 23. 1821.
"Enclosed are the two acts corrected. With regard to the charges about the shipwreck, I think that I told both you and Mr. Hobhouse, years ago, that there was not a _single circumstance_ of it not taken from _fact_; not, indeed, from any _single_ shipwreck, but all from actual facts of different wrecks[46]. Almost all Don Juan is _real_ life, either my own, or from people I knew. By the way, much of the description of the _furniture_, in Canto third, is taken from _Tully's Tripoli_ (pray _note this_), and the rest from my own observation. Remember, I never meant to conceal this at all, and have only not stated it, because Don Juan had no preface nor name to it. If you think it worth while to make this statement, do so in your own way. _I_ laugh at such charges, convinced that no writer ever borrowed less, or made his materials more his own. Much is coincidence: for instance, Lady Morgan (in a really _excellent_ book, I assure you, on Italy) calls Venice an _ocean Rome_: I have the very same expression in Foscari, and yet _you_ know that the play was written months ago, and sent to England: the 'Italy' I received only on the 16th instant.
"Your friend, like the public, is not aware, that my dramatic simplicity is _studiously_ Greek, and must continue so: _no_ reform ever succeeded at first[47]. I admire the old English dramatists; but this is quite another field, and has nothing to do with theirs. I want to make a _regular_ English drama, no matter whether for the stage or not, which is not my object,--but a _mental theatre_.
"Yours.
"P.S. Can't accept your courteous offer.
"For Orford and for Waldegrave You give much more than me you gave; Which is not fairly to behave, My Murray.
"Because if a live dog, 'tis said, Be worth a lion fairly sped, A _live lord_ must be worth _two_ dead, My Murray.
"And if as the opinion goes, Verse hath a better sale than prose-- Certes, I should have more than those, My Murray.
"But now this sheet is nearly cramm'd, So, if _you will_, _I_ sha'n't be shamm'd, And if you _won't_, _you_ may be damn'd, My Murray.
"These matters must be arranged with Mr. Douglas Kinnaird. He is my trustee, and a man of honour. To him you can state all your mercantile reasons, which you might not like to state to me personally, such as 'heavy season'--'flat public'--'don't go off'--'Lordship writes too much'--won't take advice'--'declining popularity'--deduction for the trade'--'make very little'--'generally lose by him'--'pirated edition'--'foreign edition'--'severe criticisms,' &c. with other hints and howls for an oration, which I leave Douglas, who is an orator, to answer.
"You can also state them more freely to a third person, as between you and me they could only produce some smart postscripts, which would not adorn our mutual archives.
"I am sorry for the Queen, and that's more than you are."
[Footnote 46: One of the charges of plagiarism brought against him by some scribblers of the day was founded (as I have already observed in the first volume of this work) on his having sought in the authentic records of real shipwrecks those materials out of which he has worked his own powerful description in the second Canto of Don Juan. With as much justice might the Italian author, (Galeani, if I recollect right,) who wrote a Discourse on the Military Science displayed by Tasso in his battles, have reproached that poet with the sources from which he drew his knowledge:--with as much justice might Puysegur and Segrais, who have pointed out the same merit in Homer and Virgil, have withheld their praise because the science on which this merit was founded must have been derived by the skill and industry of these poets from others.
So little was Tasso ashamed of those casual imitations of other poets which are so often branded as plagiarisms, that, in his Commentary on his Rime, he takes pains to point out and avow whatever coincidences of this kind occur in his own verses.
While on this subject, I may be allowed to mention one single instance, where a thought that had lain perhaps indistinctly in Byron's memory since his youth, comes out so improved and brightened as to be, by every right of genius, his own. In the Two Noble Kinsmen of Beaumont and Fletcher (a play to which the picture of passionate friendship, delineated in the characters of Palamon and Arcite, would be sure to draw the attention of Byron in his boyhood,) we find the following passage:--
"Oh never Shall we two exercise, like twins of Honour, Our arms again, and _feel our fiery horses Like proud seas under us_."
Out of this somewhat forced simile, by a judicious transposition of the comparison, and by the substitution of the more definite word "waves" for "seas" the clear, noble thought in one of the Cantos of Childe Harold has been produced:--
"Once more upon the waters! yet once more! And the waves bound beneath me, as a steed That knows his rider."]
[Footnote 47: "No man ever rose (says Pope) to any degree of perfection in writing but through obstinacy and an inveterate resolution against the stream of mankind."]
* * * * *
LETTER 446. TO MR. MOORE.
"Ravenna, August 24. 1821.
"Yours of the 5th only yesterday, while I had letters of the 8th from London. Doth the post dabble into our letters? Whatever agreement you make with Murray, if satisfactory to _you_, must be so to me. There need be no scruple, because, though I used sometimes to buffoon to myself, loving a quibble as well as the barbarian himself (Shakspeare, to wit)--'that, like a Spartan, I would sell my _life_ as _dearly_ as possible'--it never was my intention to turn it to personal, pecuniary account, but to bequeath it to a friend--yourself--in the event of survivorship. I anticipated that period, because we happened to meet, and I urged you to make what was possible _now_ by it, for reasons which are obvious. It has been no possible _privation_ to me, and therefore does not require the acknowledgments you mention. So, for God's sake, don't consider it like * * *
"By the way, when you write to Lady Morgan, will you thank her for her handsome speeches in her book about _my_ books? I do not know her address. Her work is fearless and excellent on the subject of Italy--pray tell her so--and I know the country. I wish she had fallen in with _me_, I could have told her a thing or two that would have confirmed her positions.
"I am glad you are satisfied with Murray, who seems to value dead lords more than live ones. I have just sent him the following answer to a proposition of his,
"For Orford and for Waldegrave, &c.
"The argument of the above is, that he wanted to 'stint me of my sizings,' as Lear says,--that is to say, _not_ to propose an extravagant price for an extravagant poem, as is becoming. Pray take his guineas, by all means--_I_ taught him that. He made me a filthy offer of _pounds_ once, but I told him that, like physicians, poets must be dealt with in guineas, as being the only advantage poets could have in the association with _them_, as votaries of Apollo. I write to you in hurry and bustle, which I will expound in my next.
"Yours ever, &c.
"P.S. You mention something of an attorney on his way to me on legal business. I have had no warning of such an apparition. What can the fellow want? I have some lawsuits and business, but have not heard of any thing to put me to the expense of a _travelling_ lawyer. They do enough, in that way, at home.
"Ah, poor Queen I but perhaps it is for the best, if Herodotus's anecdote is to be believed.
"Remember me to any friendly Angles of our mutual acquaintance. What are you doing? Here I have had my hands full with tyrants and their victims. There never _was_ such oppression, even in Ireland, scarcely!"
* * * * *
LETTER 447. TO MR. MURRAY.
"Ravenna, August 31. 1821.
"I have received the Juans, which are printed so _carelessly_, especially the fifth Canto, as to be disgraceful to me, and not creditable to you. It really must be _gone over again_ with the _manuscript_, the errors are so gross;--words added--changed--so as to make cacophony and nonsense. You have been careless of this poem because some of your squad don't approve of it; but I tell you that it will be long before you see any thing half so good as poetry or writing. Upon what principle have you omitted the note on Bacon and Voltaire? and one of the concluding stanzas sent as an addition? because it ended, I suppose, with--
"And do not link two virtuous souls for life Into that _moral centaur_ man and wife?
"Now, I must say, once for all, that I will not permit any human being to take such liberties with my writings because I am absent. I desire the omissions to be replaced (except the stanza on Semiramis)--particularly the stanza upon the Turkish marriages; and I request that the whole be carefully gone over with the MS.
"I never saw such stuff as is printed:--Gu_ll_eyaz instead of Gu_lb_eyaz, &c. Are you aware that Gulbeyaz is a real name, and the other nonsense? I copied the _Cantos_ out carefully, so that there is _no_ excuse, as the printer read, or at least _prints_, the MS. of the plays without error.
"If you have no feeling for your own reputation, pray have some little for mine. I have read over the poem carefully, and I tell you, _it is poetry_. Your little envious knot of parson-poets may say what they please: time will show that I am not in this instance mistaken.
"Desire my friend Hobhouse to correct the press, especially of the last Canto, from the manuscript as it is. It is enough to drive one out of one's reason to see the infernal torture of words from the original. For instance the line--
"And _pair_ their rhymes as Venus yokes her doves--
is printed
"And _praise_ their rhymes, &c.
Also '_precarious_' for '_precocious_;' and this line, stanza 133.
"_And this strong extreme effect to tire no longer._
Now do turn to the manuscript and see if I ever wrote such a _line_: it is _not verse_.
"No wonder the poem should fail (which, however, it won't, you will see) with such things allowed to creep about it. Replace what is omitted, and correct what is so shamefully misprinted, and let the poem have fair play; and I fear nothing.
"I see in the last two numbers of the Quarterly a strong itching to assail me (see the review of 'The Etonian'); let it, and see if they sha'n't have enough of it. I do not allude to Gifford, who has always been my friend, and whom I do not consider as responsible for the articles written by others.
"You will publish the plays when ready. I am in such a humour about this printing of Don Juan so inaccurately, that I must close this.
"Yours.
"P.S. I presume that you have _not_ lost the _stanza_ to which I allude? It was sent afterwards: look over my letters and find it."
* * * * *
LETTER 448.[48] TO MR. MURRAY.
"The enclosed letter is written in bad humour, but not without provocation. However, let it (that is, the bad humour) go for little; but I must request your serious attention to the abuses of the printer, which ought never to have been permitted. You forget that all the fools in London (the chief purchasers of your publications) will condemn in me the stupidity of your printer. For instance, in the notes to Canto fifth, 'the _Adriatic_ shore of the Bosphorus' instead of the _Asiatic!!_ All this may seem little to you, so fine a gentleman with your ministerial connections, but it is serious to me, who am thousands of miles off, and have no opportunity of not proving myself the fool your printer makes me, except your pleasure and leisure, forsooth.
"The gods prosper you, and forgive you, for I can't."
[Footnote 48: Written in the envelope of the preceding Letter.]
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LETTER 449. TO MR. MOORE.
"Ravenna, September 3. 1821.
"By Mr. Mawman (a paymaster in the corps, in which you and I are privates) I yesterday expedited to your address, under cover one, two paper books, containing the _Giaour_-nal, and a thing or two. It won't _all_ do--even for the posthumous public--but extracts from it may. It is a brief and faithful chronicle of a month or so--parts of it not very discreet, but sufficiently sincere. Mr. Mawman saith that he will, in person or per friend, have it delivered to you in your Elysian fields.
"If you have got the new Juans, recollect that there are some very gross printer's blunders, particularly in the fifth Canto,--such as 'praise' for 'pair'--'precarious' for 'precocious'--'Adriatic' for 'Asiatic'--'case' for 'chase'--besides gifts of additional words and syllables, which make but a cacophonous rhythmus. Put the pen through the said, as I would mine through * *'s ears, if I were alongside him. As it is, I have sent him a rattling letter, as abusive as possible. Though he is publisher to the 'Board of _Longitude_,' he is in no danger of discovering it.
"I am packing for Pisa--but direct your letters _here_, till further notice. Yours ever," &c.
* * * * *
One of the "paper-books" mentioned in this letter as intrusted to Mr. Mawman for me, contained a portion, to the amount of nearly a hundred pages, of a prose story, relating the adventures of a young Andalusian nobleman, which had been begun by him, at Venice, in 1817. The following passage is all I shall extract from this amusing Fragment:--
"A few hours afterwards we were very good friends, and a few days after she set out for Arragon, with my son, on a visit to her father and mother. I did not accompany her immediately, having been in Arragon before, but was to join the family in their Moorish château within a few weeks.
"During her journey I received a very affectionate letter from Donna Josepha, apprising me of the welfare of herself and my son. On her arrival at the château, I received another still more affectionate, pressing me, in very fond, and rather foolish, terms, to join her immediately. As I was preparing to set out from Seville, I received a third--this was from her father, Don Jose di Cardozo, who requested me, in the politest manner, to dissolve my marriage. I answered him with equal politeness, that I would do no such thing. A fourth letter arrived--it was from Donna Josepha, in which she informed me that her father's letter was written by her
## particular desire. I requested the reason by return of post--she
replied, by express, that as reason had nothing to do with the matter, it was unnecessary to give any--but that she was an injured and excellent woman. I then enquired why she had written to me the two preceding affectionate letters, requesting me to come to Arragon. She answered, that was because she believed me out of my senses--that, being unfit to take care of myself, I had only to set out on this journey alone, and making my way without difficulty to Don Jose di Cardozo's, I should there have found the tenderest of wives and--a strait waistcoat.
"I had nothing to reply to this piece of affection but a reiteration of my request for some lights upon the subject. I was answered that they would only be related to the Inquisition. In the mean time, our domestic discrepancy had become a public topic of discussion: and the world, which always decides justly, not only in Arragon but in Andalusia, determined that I was not only to blame, but that all Spain could produce nobody so blamable. My case was supposed to comprise all the crimes which could, and several which could not, be committed, and little less than an auto-da-fé was anticipated as the result. But let no man say that we are abandoned by our friends in adversity--it was just the reverse. Mine thronged around me to condemn, advise, and console me with their disapprobation.--They told me all that was, would, or could be said on the subject. They shook their heads--they exhorted me--deplored me, with tears in their eyes, and--went to dinner."
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LETTER 450. TO MR. MURRAY.
"Ravenna, September 4. 1821.
"By Saturday's post, I sent you a fierce and furibund letter upon the subject of the printer's blunders in Don Juan. I must solicit your attention to the topic, though my wrath hath subsided into sullenness.
"Yesterday I received Mr. ----, a friend of yours, and because he is a friend of _yours_; and that's more than I would do in an _English_ case, except for those whom I honour. I was as civil as I could be among packages even to the very chairs and tables, for I am going to _Pisa_ in a few weeks, and have sent and am sending off my chattels. It regretted me[49] that, my books and every thing being packed, I could not send you a few things I meant for you; but they were all sealed and baggaged, so as to have made it a month's work to get at them again. I gave him an envelope, with the Italian scrap in it[50], alluded to in my Gilchrist defence. Hobhouse will make it out for you, and it will make you laugh, and him too, the _spelling_ particularly. The '_Mericani_,' of whom they call me the 'Capo' (or Chief), mean 'Americans,' which is the name given in _Romagna_ to a part of the Carbonari; that is to say, to the _popular_ part, the _troops_ of the Carbonari. They are originally a society of hunters in the forest, who took the name of Americans, but at present comprise some thousands, &c.; but I shan't let you further into the secret, which may be participated with the postmasters. Why they thought me their Chief, I know not: their Chiefs are like 'Legion, being many. However, it is a post of more honour than profit, for, now that they are persecuted, it is fit that I should aid them; and so I have done, as far as my means would permit. They will rise again some day, for these fools of the government are blundering: they actually seem to know _nothing_; for they have arrested and banished many of their _own_ party, and let others escape who are not their friends.
"What think'st thou of Greece?
"Address to me here as usual, till you hear further from me.
"By Mawman I have sent a Journal to Moore; but it won't do for the public,--at least a great deal of it won't;--_parts_ may.
"I read over the Juans, which are excellent. Your squad are quite wrong; and so you will find by and by. I regret that I do not go on with it, for I had all the plan for several cantos, and different countries and climes. You say nothing of the _note_ I enclosed to you[51], which will explain why I agreed to discontinue it (at Madame G----'s request); but you are so grand, and sublime, and occupied, that one would think, instead of publishing for 'the Board of _Longitude_,' that you were trying to discover it.
"Let me hear that Gifford is _better_. He can't be spared either by you or me."
[Footnote 49: It will be observed, from this and a few other instances, that notwithstanding the wonderful purity of English he was able to preserve in his writings, while living constantly with persons speaking a different language, he had already begun so far to feel the influence of this habit as to fall occasionally into Italianisms in his familiar letters.--"I am in the case to know"--"I have caused write"--"It regrets me," &c.]
[Footnote 50: An anonymous letter which he had received, threatening him with assassination.]
[Footnote 51: In this note, so highly honourable to the fair writer, she says, "Remember, my Byron, the promise you have made me. Never shall I be able to tell you the satisfaction I feel from it, so great are the sentiments of pleasure and confidence with which the sacrifice you have made has inspired me." In a postscript to the note she adds, "I am only sorry that Don Juan was not left in the infernal regions."--"Ricordati, mio Byron, della promessa che mi hai fatta. Non potrei mai dirti la satisfazione ch' io ne provo!--sono tanti i sentimenti di piacere e di confidenza che il tuo sacrificio m'inspira."--"Mi reveresce solo che Don Giovanni non resti all' Inferno."
In enclosing the lady's note to Mr. Murray, July 4th, Lord B. says, "This is the note of acknowledgment for the promise not to continue Don Juan. She says, in the postscript, that she is only sorry that D.J. does not _remain_ in Hell (or go there)".]
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LETTER 451. TO MR. MURRAY.
"Ravenna, September 12. 1821.
"By Tuesday's post, I forwarded, in three packets, the drama of Cain in three acts, of which I request the acknowledgment when arrived. To the last speech of _Eve_, in the last act (_i.e._ where she curses Cain), add these three lines to the concluding one--
"May the grass wither from thy foot! the woods Deny thee shelter! earth a home! the dust A grave! the sun his light! and Heaven her God!
"There's as pretty a piece of imprecation for you, when joined to the lines already sent, as you may wish to meet with in the course of your business. But don't forget the addition of the above three lines, which are clinchers to Eve's speech.
"Let me know what Gifford thinks (if the play arrives in safety); for I have a good opinion of the piece, as poetry; it is in my gay metaphysical style, and in the Manfred line.
"You must at least commend my facility and variety, when you consider what I have done within the last fifteen months, with my head, too, full of other and of mundane matters. But no doubt you will avoid saying any good of it, for fear I should raise the price upon you: that's right: stick to business. Let me know what your other ragamuffins are writing, for I suppose you don't like starting too many of your vagabonds at once. You may give them the start, for any thing I care.
"Why don't you publish my _Pulci_--the best thing I ever wrote,--with the Italian to it? I wish I was alongside of you; nothing is ever done in a man's absence; every body runs counter, because they _can_. If ever I _do_ return to England, (which I sha'n't, though,) I will write a poem to which 'English Bards,' &c. shall be new milk, in comparison. Your present literary world of mountebanks stands in need of such an Avatar. But I am not yet quite bilious enough: a season or two more, and a provocation or two, will wind me up to the point, and then have at the whole set!