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"My poesy comes out on Saturday. Hobhouse is he most readily consented to remove this obstacle. At here; I shall tell him to write. My stone is gone for his request I drew a pen across the parts I considered the present, but I fear is part of my habit. We all talk objectionable, and he undertook to send me the letter of a visit to Car bridge. re-written, next morning. In the mean time, I received "B." from Lord Byron the following paper for my guidance.'

MY LORD,

"Yours ever.

LETTER CXXII.

TO LORD HOLLAND.

"St. James's-street, March 5th, 1812.

May 1 request your Lordship to accept a copy* of the thing which accompanies this note? You have already so fully proved the truth of the first line of Pope's couplet,

'Forgiveness to the injured doth belong,

"With regard to the passage on Mr. Way's loss, no unfair play was hinted at, as may be seen by referring to the book; and it is expressly added that the managers were ignorant of that transaction. As to the prevalenco of play at the Argyle, it cannot be denied that there were billiards and dice;-Lord B. has been a witness to the use of both at the Argyle Rooms. These, it is presumed, come under the denomination of play. If play be allowed, the President of the Institution can hardly complain of being termed the 'Arbiter of Play,'-or what becomes of his authority?

notice publicly. Of that institution, Colonel Greville was the avowed director;-it is too late to enter into the discussion of its merits or demerits.

"Lord B. has no personal animosity to Colonel that I long for an opportunity to give the lie to the verse Greville. A public institution, to which he, himself, was that follows. If I were not perfectly convinced that any a subscriber, he considered himself to have a right to thing I may have formerly uttered in the boyish rashness of my misplaced resentment had made as little impression as it deserved to make, I should hardly have the confidence-perhaps your lordship may give it a stronger "Lord B. must leave the discussion of the reparation, and more appropriate appellation-to send you a quarto for the real or supposed injury, to Colonel G.'s friend of the same scribbler. But your lordship, I am sorry to and Mr. Moore, the friend of Lord B.-begging them to observe to-day, is troubled with the gout: if my book can recollect that, while they consider Colonel G.'s honour, produce a laugh against itself or the author, it will be of Lord B. must also maintain his own. If the business some service. If it can set you to sleep, the benefit will can be settled amicably, Lord B. will do as much as can be yet greater; and as some facetious personage observed and ought to be done by a man of honour towards conhalf a century ago, that 'poetry is a mere drug,' I offer ciliation;-if not, he must satisfy Colonel G. in the manyou mine as an humble assistant to the 'eau médecinale.' ner most conducive to his further wishes." I trust you will forgive this and all my other buffooneries, and believe me to be, with great respect,

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In relation to the following note of Lord Byron, Mr. Moore says:

"In the morning I received the letter, in its new form, from Mr. Leckie, with the annexed note.

"MY DEAR SIR,

"I found my friend very ill in bed; he has, however managed to copy the enclosed, with the alterations proposed. Perhaps you may wish to see me in the morning; I shall therefore be glad to see you any time till twelve o'clock. If you rather wish me to call on you, and I shall obey your summons. Yours, very truly,

tell

me,

"Not long after the publication of Childe Harold, the noble author paid me a visit, one morning, and, putting a letter into my hands, which he had just received, requested that I would undertake to manage for him whatever proceedings it might render necessary. This letter, I found, had been delivered to him by Mr. Leckie, (a gen-needless to add, that there was but little delay in settling tleman well known by a work on Sicilian affairs,) and the matter amicably."

"G. T. LECKIE. "With such facilities towards pacification, it is almos

LETTER CXXIII.

TO MR. WILLIAM BANKES.

"MY DEAR BANKES,

"April 20th, 1812.

came from a once active and popular member of the fashionable world, Colonel Greville,-its purport being to require of his lordship, as author of 'English Bards, &c.' such reparation as it was in his power to make for the injury which, as Colonel Greville conceived, certain passages in that Satire, reflecting upon his conduct, as "I feel rather hurt (not savagely) at the speech you manager of the Argyle Institution, were calculated to inflict upon his character. In the appeal of the gallant made to me last night, and my hope is, that it was only colonel, there were some expressions of rather an angry one of your profane jests. I should be very sorry that cast, which Lord Byron, though fully conscious of the any part of my behaviour should give you cause to suplength to which he himself had gone, was but little in-pose that I think higher of myself, or otherwise of you, clined to brook, and on my returning the letter into his than I have always done. I can assure you that I am hands, he said, 'To such a letter as that there can be as much the humblest of your servants as at Trin. Coll., but one sort of answer.' He agreed, however, to trust and if I have not been at home when you favoured me the matter entirely to my discretion, and I had, shortly with a call, the loss was more mine than yours. In the after, an interview with the friend of Colonel Greville. bustle of buzzing parties, there is, there can be, no rational conversation; but when I can enjoy it, there is By this gentleman, who was then an utter stranger to me, I was received with much courtesy, and with every nobody's I can prefer to your own. disposition to bring the affair intrusted to us to an amicable issue. On my premising that the tone of his friend's letter stood in the way of negotiation, and that some obnoxious expressions which it contained must be removed Defore I could proceed a single step towards explanation,

⚫ Childe Harold. To his sister, Mrs. Leigh, one of the first presentation copies was also sent, with the following inscription in it :

"To Augusta, my dearest sister, and my best friend, who has ever loved me much better than deserved, this volum is presented by her father's set in most affectionate brother, *B."

"Believe me ever faithfully
❝and most affectionately yours,

LETTER CXXIV.

TO MR. WILLIAM BANKES.

"MY DEAR BANKES,

"BYRON.

"My eagerness to come to an explanation has, I trust, convinced you that whatever ny unlucky manner

LETTER CXXV.

TO LORD HOLLAND.

"MY DEAR LORD,

"June 25th, 1812.

might inadvertently be, the change was as unintentional as (if intended) it would have been ungrateful. I really was rot aware that, while we were together, I had, evinced such caprices; that we were not so much in each other's company as I could have wished, I well "I must appear very ungrateful, and have, indeed, know, but I think so acute an observer as yourself must have perceived enough to explain this, without supposing been very negligent, but till last night I was not apprized any slight to one in whose society I have pride and of Lady Holland's restoration, and I shall call to-morrow pleasure. Recollect that I do not allude here to 'ex- to have the satisfaction, I trust, of hearing that she is tended' or 'extending acquaintances, but to circum-well. I hope that neither politics nor gout have assailed stances you will understand, I think, on a little reflection. your lordship since I last saw you, and that you also are 'as well as could be expected.' "And now, my dear Bankes, do not distress me by supposing that I can think of you, or you of me, otherwise than I trust we have long thought. You told me not long ago that my temper was improved, and I should be that opinion should be revoked. Believe me, your friendship is of more account to me than all those absurd vanities in which, I fear, you conceive me to take too much interest. I have never disputed your superiority, or doubted (seriously) your good will, and no one shall ever 'make mischief between us' without the sincere regret on the part of your ever affectionate, &c. P.S. I shall see you, I hope, at Lady Jersey's. Hobhouse goes also."

sorry

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"The other night, at a ball, I was presented by order to our gracious Regent, who honoured me with some conversation, and professed a predilection for poetry.I confess it was a most unexpected honour, and I thought of poor Brummell's adventure, with some apprehensions of a similar blunder. I have now great hope, in the event of Mr. Pye's decease, of warbling truth at court,' like Mr. Mallett, of indifferent memory.-Consider 100 marks a year! besides the wine and the disgrace; but then remorse would make me drown myself in my own butt before the year's end, or the finishing of my first dithyrambic. So that, after all, I shall not meditate our laureate's death by pen or poison.

"Will you present my best respects to Lady Holland and believe me hers and yours very sincerely

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"St. James's-street, July 6th, 1812.

"I have just been honoured with your letter.-I feel sorry that you should have thought it worth while to notice the evil works of my non-age,' as the thing is suppressed voluntarily, and your explanation is too kind

I cannot

"I should have answered your note yesterday, but I not to give me pain. The Satire was written when I hoped to have seen you this morning. I must consult was very young and very angry, and fully bent on diswith you about the day we dine with Sir Francis. I playing my wrath and my wit, and now I am haunted suppose we shall meet at Lady Spencer's to-night. I by the ghosts of my wholesale assertions. did not know that you were at Miss Berry's the other night, or I should have certainly gone there. *Aз usual, I am in all sorts of scrapes, though none, at present, of a martial description. Believe me, &c."

"May 8th, 1812.

I am too proud of being your friend to care with whom I am linked in your estimation, and, God knows, I want friends more at this time than at any other. I am taking care of myself' to no great purpose. If you knew my situation in every point of view, you would excuse apparent and unintentional neglect.

*

I shall leave town, I think; but do not you leave it without seeing me. I wish you, from my soul, every happiness you can wish yourself; and I think you have taken the road to secure it. Peace be with you! I fear she

las abandoned me. Ever, &c."

"May 20th, 1812. "On Monday, after sitting up all night, I saw Bellingham launched into eternity, and at three the same day I saw *** launched into the country.

*

*

"I believe, in the beginning of June, I shall be down for a few days in Notts. If so, I shall beat you up 'en passant' with Hobhouse, who is endeavouring, like you and every body else, to keep me out of scrapes. "I meant to have written you a long letter, but I find I cannot. If any thing remarkable occurs, you will hear it from me-if good; if bad, there are plenty to tell it. In the mean time do you be happy.

"Ever yours, &c. -P.S. My best wishes and respects to Mrs. Moore, ➡le is beautiful. I may say so even to you, for never was more struck with a countenance."

sufficiently thank you for your praise; and now, waiving myself, let me talk to you of the Prince Regent. He ordered me to be presented to him at a ball; and after some sayings peculiarly pleasing from royal lips, as t my own attempts, he talked to me of you and your im mortalities: he preferred you to every bard past and present, and asked which of your works pleased me most. It was a difficult question. I answered, I thought the 'Lay.' He said his own opinion was nearly similar. In speaking of the others, I told him that I thought you more particularly the poet of Princes, as they never appeared more fascinating than in 'Marmion, and the 'Lady of the Lake.' He was pleased to coin cide, and to dwell on the description of your Jameses as no less royal than poetical. He spoke alternately of Homer and yourself, and seemed well acquainted with both; so that (with the exception of the Turks and your humble servant) you were in very good company. defy Murray to have exaggerated his royal highness's opinion of your powers, nor can I pretend to enumerate all he said on the subject; but it may give you pleasure to hear that it was conveyed in language which would only suffer by my attempting to transcribe it, and with a tone and taste which gave me a very high idea of his abilities and accomplishments, which I had hitherto considered as confined to manners, certainly superior to those of any living gentleman.

"This interview was accidental. I never went to the levee; for having seen the courts of Mussulman and Catholic sovereigns, my curiosity was sufficiently allayed, and my politics being as perverse as my rhymes, I had in fact, no business there.' To be thus praised by your Sovereign must be gratifying to you: and if that gratif

cation is not alloyed by the communication being made-but too happy if I can oblige you, though I may offend rough me, the bearer of it will consider himself very 100 scribblers and the discerning public. fortunately and sincerely

"Your obliged and obedient servant,

"BYRON.

"P. S. Excuse this scrawl, scratched in a great hurry and just after a journey."

"Ever yours.

"Keep my name a secret; or I shall be beset by all the rejected, and perhaps damned by a party."

LETTER CXXVII.

TO LORD HOLLAND.

"Cheltenham, September 10, 1812.

MY DEAR LORD,

LETTER CXXIX.

TO LORD HOLLAND.

"Cheltenham, September 23, 1812.

"Ecco-I have marked some passages with double readings-choose between them—cut-add-reject—or destroy-do with them as you will-I leave it to you and the Committee-you cannot say so called a 'non com· "The lines which I sketched off on your hint are still, mittendo.' What will they do (and I do) with the hunor rather were, in an unfinished state, for I have just com-dred and one rejected Troubadours? With trumpets, mitted them to a flame more decisive than that of Drury. yea, and with shawms,' will you be assailed in the most Under all the circumstances, I should hardly wish a con- diabolical doggerel. I wish my name not to transpire till test with Philo-drama-Philo-Drury-Asbestos, H**, the day is decided. I shall not be in town, so it won't and all the anonymes and synonymes of the Committee much matter; but let us have a good deliverer. I think candidates. Seriously, I think you have a chance of some- Elliston should be the man, or Pope; not Raymond, I thing much better; for prologuizing is not my forte, and, implore you by the love of Rhythmus! at all events, either my pride or my modesty won't let me incur the hazard of having my rhymes buried in next month's Magazine, under 'Essays on the Murder of Mr. Perceval,' and 'Cures for the Bite of a Mad Dog,' as poor Goldsmith complained of the fate of far superior performances.

"I am still sufficiently interested to wish to know the successful candidate; and, among so many, I have no doubt some will be excellent, particularly in an age when writing verse is the easiest of all attainments.

"The passages marked thus ==, above and below, are for you to choose between epithets, and such like poetical furniture. Pray write me a line, and believe me ever, &c.

"My best remembrances to Lady H. Will you be good enough to decide between the various readings marked, and erase the other; or our deliverer may be as puzzled as a commentator, and belike repeat both. If these versicles won't do I will hammer out some more endecasyllables.

"P. S. Tell Lady H. I have had sad work to keep ou! the Phoenix-I mean the Fire-Office of that name. It has ensured the theatre, and why not the Address ?"

LETTER CXXX.

TO LORD HOLLAND.

"September 24.

"I send a recast of the first four lines of the concluding paragraph.

"This greeting o'er, the ancient rule obey'd,
The drama's homage by her Herald paid,
Receive our welcome too, whose every tone
Springs from our hearts and fain would win your own.

"I cannot answer your intelligence with the 'like comfort,' unless, as you are deeply theatrical, you may wish to hear of Mr. **, whose acting is, I fear, utterly inadequate to the London engagement into which the managers of Covent Garden have lately entered. His figure is fat, his features flat, his voice unmanageable, his action ungraceful, and, as Diggory says, 'I defy him to extort that d-d muffin face of his into madness.' I was very sorry to see him in the character of the 'Elephant on the slack rope;' for, when I last saw him, I was in raptures with his performance. But then I was sixteen, -an age to which all London then condescended to subside. After all, much better judges have admired, and I may again; but I venture to 'prognosticate a prophecy' (see the Courier) that he will not succeed. "So, poor dear Rogers has stuck fast on 'the brow of the mighty Helvellyn'--1 hope not for ever. My best And do forgive all this trouble. See what it is to have respects to Lady H.-her departure, with that of my to do even with the genteelest of us. other friends, was a sad event for me, now reduced to a state of the most cynical solitude. 'By the waters of Cheltenham I sat down and drank; when I remembered thee, oh, Georgiana Cottage! As for our harps, we hanged them upon the willows that grew thereby. Then they said, Sing us a song of Drury-lane,' &c.-but I am dumb and dreary as the Israelites. The waters have disordered me to my heart's content,-you were right, as you always are.

"Believe me ever your obliged

'and affectionate servant,
"BYRON."

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The curtain rises, &c. &c.

Ever, &c."

LETTER CXXXI.

TO LORD HOLLAND.

"Cheltenham, Sept. 25, 1812. "Still 'more matter for a May morning.' Having patched the middle and end of the Address, I send one more couplet for a part of the beginning, which, if not toc turgid, you will have the goodness to add. After tha flagrant image of the Thames, (I hope no unlucky wag will say I have set it on fire, though Dryden, in his 'Annus Mirabilis,' and Churchill, in his 'Times,' did before me,) I mean to insert this:

"As flashing far the new Volcano shone

meteors

And swept the skies with lightnings not their own,
While thousands throng'd around the burning dome, &c. &c.

I think thousands' less flat than 'crowds collected'-but
don't let me plunge into the bathos, or rise into Nat.
Lee's Bedlam metaphors. By-the-by, the best view of
the said fire (which I myself saw from a housetop in
Covent-garden) was at Westminster Bridge, from the
reflection on the Thames.

"Perhaps the present couplet had better come in after trembled for their homes,' the two lines after-as otherwise the image certainly sinks, and it will run just as

well.

"The lines themselves, perhaps, may be better thus('choose,' or 'refuse-but please yourself, and don't mind 'Sir Fretful')——

sadly

"As fash'd the volumed biaze, and ghastly shone

The skies with lightnings awful as their own.

The last runs smoothest, and, I think, best; but you know better than best. 'Lurid' is also a less indistinct epithet than 'livid wave,' and, if you think so, a dash of the pen will do.

*I expected one line this morning; in the mean time, I shall remodel and condense, and if I do not hear from you, shall send another copy.

"I am ever, &c."

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"Ye who beheld-oh sight admired and mourn'd,

Whose radiance mock'd the ruin it adorn'd;

the epilogue to the 'Distressed Mother,' and, I think one of Goldsmith's, and a prologue of old Colman's to Beaumont and Fletcher's Philaster, are the best things of the kind we have.

"P.S. I am diluted to the throat with medicine for the stone; and Boisragon wants me to try a warm clima: for the winter-but I won't."

LETTER CXXXIII.

TO LORD HOLLAND.

"September 27, 1812.
"I have just received your very kind letter, and hope
you have met with a second copy corrected and ad
dressed to Holland House, with some omissions and this
new couplet,

"As glared each rising flash, and ghastly shone
The skies with lightnings awful as their own.

As to remarks, I can only say I will alter and acquiesce in
any thing. With regard to the part which Whitbread
wishes to omit, I believe the Address will go off quicker
without it, though like the agility of the Hottentot, at the
expense of its vigour. I leave to your choice entirely the
different specimens of stucco-work; and a brick of your
own will also much improve my Babylonish turret. I should
like Elliston to have it, with your leave. 'Adorn' and
'mourn' are lawful rhymes in Pope's death of the unfor
tunate Lady-Gray has 'forlorn' and 'mourn'-and 'torn'
and 'mourn' are in Smollet's famous Tears of Scotland.

oecause 'night' is repeated the next line but one; and, "As there will probably be an outcry among the re as it now stands, the conclusion of the paragraph, 'worthy him (Shakspeare) and you,' appears to apply the jected, I hope the Committee will testify (if it be needyou to those only who were out of bed and in Covent- ful) that I sent in nothing to the congress whatever, with garden market on the night of conflagration, instead of or without a name, as your lordship well knows. All I the audience or the discerning public at large, all of whom have to do with it is with and through you; and though are intended to be comprised in that comprehensive and, I, of course, wish to satisfy the audience, I do assure you my first object is to comply with your request and I hope, comprehensible pronoun.

By-the-by, one of my corrections in the fair copy in so doing to show the sense I have of the many oblisem yesterday has dived into the bathos some sixty gations you have conferred upon me.

fathom

"Yours ever,

LETTER CXXXIV.

TO LORD HOLLAND.

"B."

"When Garrick died, and Brinsley ceased to write. Ceasing to live is a much more serious concern, and 'ought not to be first; therefore I will let the old couplet stand, with its half rhymes 'sought' and 'wrote.'* Second "September 27, 1812. thoughts in every thing are best, but, in rhyme, third and "I believe this is the third scrawl since yesterday—al fourth don't come amiss. I am very anxious on this about epithets. I think the epithet 'intellectual' won' business, and I do hope that the very trouble I occasion convey the meaning I intend; and though I hate comyou will plead its own excuse, and that it will tend to pounds, for the present I will try (col' permesso) the show my endeavour to make the most of the time allot-word 'genius-gifted patriarchs of our line't instead. ted. I wish I had known it months ago, for in that case Johnson has 'many-coloured life,' a compound-but they I had not left one line standing on another. I always are always best avoided. However, it is the only one in scrawl in this way, and smooth as much as I can, never sufficiently; and, latterly, I can weave a nine-line ninety lines, but will be happy to give way to a better. I am ashamed to intrude any more remembrances on stanza faster than a couplet, for which measure I have Lady H. or letters upon you; but you are, fortunately not the cunning. When I began 'Childe Harold,' I had for me, gifted with patience already too often tried by never tried Spenser's measure, and now I cannot scribble "Your, &c. &c." in any other.

but

"After all, my dear lord, if you can get a decent Address elsewhere, don't hesitate u put this aside. Why did you not trust your own Muse? I am very sure she would have been triumphant, and saved the Committee their trouble-t is a joyful one' to me, but I fear I shall not satisfy even myself. After the account you sent me, it is no compliment to say, you would have beaten your candidates; but I mean that, in that case, there would have been no occasion for their being beaten at all.

LETTER CXXXV.

TO LORD HOLLAND.

"September 28, 1812.

"Will this do better? the metaphor is more complete.

lava of the

Till slowly ebb'd the spent volcanic wave,
And blackening ashea mark'd the Muse's grave.

There are but two decent prologues in our tongue-If not, we will say 'burning' wave, and instead of 'burnPope's to Cato-Johnson's to Drury-lane. These, with ing clime,' in the line some couplets back, have 'glowing.' Is Whitbread determined to castrate all my cavalry

"Such are the naines that here your plaudits sought,
When Garrick acted, and when Brinsley wrote."

At present the couplet stands thus:

'Dear are the days that mane our annals bright,
Ere Garrick fled or Brinsley ceased to write."

• At present," As glared the volumed blaze "

This, as finally altered, is

"Immortal names, emblazoned on our line."

LETTERS, 1812.

lines?* I don't see why t' other house should be spared; see, now taken it for granted that these things are re besides, it is the public, who ought to know better; and formed. I confess, I wish that part of the Address to you recoliect Johnson's was against similar buffooneries stand; but if W. is unexorable, e'en let it go. I have of Rich's-but, certes, I am not Johnson.

"Instead of effects,' say 'labours'-' degenerate' will
20, will it? Mr. Betty is no longer a babe, therefore
the line cannot be personal.
"Will this do?

the burning

"Till ebb'd the lava of that moiten wave,?

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combustion,* and sent them off this morning. Will you also new cast the lines, and softened the hint of future have the goodness to add, or insert, the approved altern tions as they arrive? They 'come like shadows, so depart; occupy me, and, I fear, disturb you.

"Do not let Mr. W. put his Address into Elliston's hands till you have settled on these alterations. E. will fear it will not bear much curtailing, without chasms in think it too long:-much depends on the speaking. I the sense.

with glowing dome,' in case you prefer 'burning' added
to this wave' metaphorical. The word 'fiery pillar'
was suggested by the pillar of fire' in the book of Ex-
odus, which went before the Israelites through the Red exerts himself, such a favourite with the public will not
"It is certainly too long in the reading; but if Elliston
Sea. I once thought of saying 'like Israel's pillar,' and he thought tedious. I should think it so, if he were not
making it a simile, but I did not know,—the great temp-to speak it.
tation was leaving the epithet 'fiery' for the supplement-
ary wave. I want to work up that passage, as it is the
only new ground us prologuizers can go upon-

"This is the place where, if a poet
Shined in description, he might show it.

"Yours ever, &c.

"P. S. On looking again, I doubt my idea of having obviated W.'s objection. To the other House, allusion is a 'non sequitur'-but I wish to plead for this part, because the thing really If I part with the possibility of a future conflagration, Many after-pieces at the Lyceum by the same company not to be passed over. we lessen the compliment to Shakspeare. However, have already attacked this Augean Stable-and Johnson, in his prologue against 'Lunn,' (the harlequin-manager, Rich,)- Hunt,'—' Mahomet,' &c. is surely a fair precedent."

we will e'en mend it thus:

"Yes, it shall be-the magic of that name,

That scorns the scythe of Time, the torch of Flame,

On the same spot, &c. &c.

There the deuce is in it, if that is not an improvement to Whitbread's content. Recollect, it is the 'name,' and not the 'magic,' that has a noble contempt for those same weapons. If it were the 'magic' my metaphor would be somewhat of the maddest-so the 'name' is the antecedent. But, my dear lord, your patience is not quite so immortal-therefore, with many and sincere thanks,

I am

"Yours ever most affectionately.

"P.S. I foresee there will be charges of partiality in the papers; but you know I sent in no Address; and glad both you and I must be that I did not, for, in that case, their plea had been plausible. I doubt the Pit will be testy; but conscious innocence (a novel and pleasing sensation) makes me bold."

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LETTER CXXXVII.

TO LORD HOLLAND.

kingdoms, as George III. did in America, and George "Shakspeare certainly ceased to reign in one of his "Sept. 29, 1812. IV. may in Ireland. Now, we have nothing to do out of our own realms, and when the monarchy was gone, you will see, and altered, but make it what you please ; his majesty had but a barren sceptre. I have cut away, only I do implore, for my own gratification, one lash on those accursed quadrupeds- a long shot, Sir Lucius, if you love me.' I have altered 'wave,' &c. and the 'fire, and so forth, for the timid.

"Let me hear from you when convenient, and believe me, &c.

"P. S. Do let that stand, and cut out elsewhere. I shall choke, if we must overlook their d―d menagerie."

LETTER CXXXVIII.

TO LORD HOLLAND.

"Sept. 30, 1812.

"I send you the most I can make of it; for I am not
so well as I was, and find I 'pall in resolution.'

twelve on Saturday; and from thence I go on to Lord
"I wish much to see you, and will be at Tetbury by
Jersey's. It is impossible not to allude to the degraded

The lines he here alludes to, finally were omitted by the Commit-state of the Stage, but I have lightened it, and endeatee; they were these:

"Nay, lower still, the Drama yet deplores

That tare she deign'd to crawl upon all-fours.
When Richard roars in Bosworth for a horse,
If you command, the steed must come in course.
If you decree, the Stage must condescend
To sooth the sickly taste we dare not mend.
Blame not our judgment should we acquicace,
And gratify you more by showing less.

Oh, since your fiat stamps the Drama's laws,
Forbear to mock us with misplaced applause;
That public praise be ne'er again disgraced,
brutes to man recall

From babes and brutes redeem a nation's taste.
Then pride shall doubly nerve the actors' powers,
When Reason's voice is echoed back by ours."

The last couplet but one was again altered in a subsequent copy thus:

"The past reproach let present scenes refute,
Nor shift from man to babe, from babe to brute."

1 The form of this couplet, as printed, is as follows :

"Till blackening ashes and the lonely wall

Usurp'd the Muse's remini, mi mark'd her fall.”

voured to obviate your other objections. There is a new
couplet for Sheridan, allusive to his Monody. All the
alterations I have marked thus -as you will see by
comparison with the other copy. I have cudgelled my
brains with the greatest willingness, and only wish I had
more time to have done better.

"You will find a sort of clap-trap laudatory couplet
inserted for the quiet of the Committee, and I have
added, towards the end, the couplet you were pleased
to like.
The whole Address is seventy-three lines, still

• It had been, originally,

"Though other piles may sink in future fare,

On the same spot," &c. &c.

Some objection, it appears from this, had been made to the pass "and Shakspeare ceased to reign."

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