.
Under all circumstances, I should hardly wish a contest with
Philodrama—Philo-Drury—Asbestos, H——, and all the anonymes and
synonymes of Committee candidates. Seriously, I think you have a chance
of something much better; for prologuising is not my forte, and, at all
events,
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, amongst so many, I have no doubt some will be excellent,
particularly in an age when writing verse is the easiest of all
attainments.
I cannot answer your intelligence with the "like comfort,"
, as
you are deeply theatrical, you may wish to hear of Mr. Betty
, whose
acting is, I fear, utterly inadequate to the London engagement into
which the managers of Covent Garden have lately entered.
figure is
fat, his features flat, his voice unmanageable, his action ungraceful,
and, as Diggory
says, "I defy him to extort that damned 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 condescended to subside. After all, much better judges have
admired, and may again; but I venture to "prognosticate a prophecy" (see
the
Courier
) that he will not succeed.
, poor dear Rogers has stuck fast on "the brow of the mighty
Helvellyn"
I hope not for ever. My best respects to Lady H.:—her
departure, with that of my 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 up upon the willows that grew thereby. Then they said,
Sing us a song of Drury Lane," etc.;
—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
.
Drury Lane Theatre was reopened, after the fire of February
24, 1809, on Saturday, October 10, 1812. In the previous August the
following advertisement was issued:
"Rebuilding of Drury-Lane Theatre.
"The Committee are desirous of promoting a fair and free competition
for an Address, to be spoken upon the opening of the Theatre, which
will take place on the 10th of October next: They have therefore
thought fit to announce to the Public, that they will be glad to
receive any such Compositions, addressed to their Secretary at the
Treasury Office in Drury Lane, on or before the 10th of September,
sealed up, with a distinguishing word, number, or motto, on the cover,
corresponding with the inscription, on a separate sealed paper,
containing the name of the Author, which will not be opened, unless
containing the name of the successful Candidate.
Theatre Royal, Drury-Lane,
August 13, 1812.
Owing to an accidental delay in the publication of the above
Advertisement, the Committee have thought proper to extend the time
for receiving Addresses, from the last day of August to the 10th of
September."
Byron, on the suggestion of Lord Holland, intended to send in an
Address
in competition with other similar productions. He
afterwards changed his mind, and refused to compete. After all the
Addresses
had been received and rejected, the Committee applied
to him to write an
Address
. This he consented to do.
"The public were more importantly employed, than to observe the easy
simplicity of my style, or the harmony of my periods. Sheet after
sheet was thrown off to oblivion. My essays were buried among the
essays upon liberty, Eastern tales, and cures for the bite of a mad
dog."
Vicar of Wakefield
, chap. xx.
See
Letters
, vol. i. p. 63,
note
2 [Footnote 2 of Letter 24].
"Diggory," one of Liston's parts, a character in Jackman's
All the World's a Stage
, asks (act i. sc. 2), "But how can you
extort that damned pudding-face of yours to madness?"
Rogers had gone for a tour in the North. Byron alludes to
Scott's poem
Helvellyn
:
"I climb'd the dark brow of the mighty Helvellyn," etc., etc.
The poem was occasioned, as Scott's note states, by the death of "a
young gentleman of talents, and of a most amiable disposition," who was
killed on the mountain in 1805.
List of Letters
Contents
Cheltenham, Sept. 14, 1812.
Dear Sir
,—The parcels contained some letters and verses, all (but one)
anonymous and complimentary, and very anxious for my conversion from
certain infidelities into which my good-natured correspondents conceive
me to have fallen.
books were presents of a
convertible
kind
also,—
Christian Knowledge
and the
Bioscope
, a
religious Dial of Life explained:—to the author of the former (Cadell,
publisher,) I beg you will forward my best thanks for his letter, his
present, and, above all, his good intentions. The
Bioscope
contained an MS. copy of very excellent verses, from whom I know not,
but evidently the composition of some one in the habit of writing, and
of writing well. I do not know if he be the author of the
Bioscope
which accompanied them; but whoever he is, if you can
discover him, thank him from me most heartily. The other letters were
from ladies, who are welcome to convert me when they please; and if I
can discover them, and they be young, as they say they are, I could
convince them perhaps of my devotion. I had also a letter from Mr.
Walpole on matters of this world, which I have answered.
you are Lucien's publisher
! I am promised an interview with him,
and think I shall ask
you
for a letter of introduction, as "the
gods have made him poetical." From whom could it come with a better
grace than from
his
publisher and mine? Is it not somewhat
treasonable in you to have to do with a relative of the "direful foe,"
as the
Morning Post
calls his brother?
But my book on
Diet and Regimen
, where is it? I thirst for
Scott's
Rokeby
; let me have y'e first-begotten copy.
Anti-Jacobin Review
is all very well, and not a bit worse
than the
Quarterly
, and at least less harmless. By the by, have
you secured my books? I want all the Reviews, at least the Critiques,
quarterly, monthly, etc., Portuguese and English, extracted, and bound
up in one volume for my
old age
; and pray, sort my Romaic books,
and get the volumes lent to Mr. Hobhouse—he has had them now a long
time. If any thing occurs, you will favour me with a line, and in winter
we shall be nearer neighbours.
Yours very truly,
Byron
.
P. S.—I was applied to to write the
Address
for Drury Lane, but
the moment I heard of the contest, I gave up the idea of contending
against all Grub Street, and threw a few thoughts on the subject into
the fire. I did this out of respect to you, being sure you would have
turned off any of your authors who had entered the lists with such
scurvy competitors; to triumph would have been no glory, and to have
been defeated—'sdeath!—I
have choked myself, like Otway, with a
quartern loaf
; so, remember I had, and have, nothing to do with it,
upon
my Honour!
Granville Penn (1761-1844) was the author of numerous works
on religious subjects.
The Bioscope, or Dial of Life Explained
appeared in 1812. The other work referred to by Byron is probably Penn's
Christian's Survey of all the Primary Events and Periods of the
World
(1811), of which a second edition was published in 1812.
Lucien Buonaparte (1775-1840), Prince of Canino, since 1810
a landed proprietor in Shropshire, wrote an epic poem,
Charlemagne,
ou l'Église délivrée
. It was translated (1815) by Dr. Butler of
Shrewsbury and Francis Hodgson.
The Anti-Jacobin Review
criticized
Childe
Harold
in August, 1812; the
Quarterly
, in March, 1812.
Otway died April, 1685, at the age of thirty-three, from a
fever contracted by drinking water when heated by running after an
assassin (Spence's
Anecdotes
, p. 44). Theophilus Cibber (
Lives
of the Poets
, ed. 1753, vol. ii. pp. 333, 334) gives another account
of his death, viz. that he begged a shilling of a gentleman, and, being
given a guinea, bought a roll, with which he was choked.
List of Letters
Contents
September 22, 1812.
My Dear Lord,—In a day or two I will send you something which you will
still have the liberty to reject if you dislike it. I should like to
have had more time, but will do my best,—but too happy if I can oblige
you
, though I may offend a hundred scribblers and the discerning
public.
Ever yours.
Keep
my name
a
secret
; or I shall be beset by all the
rejected, and, perhaps, damned by a party.
List of Letters
Contents
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 committendo
."
will
they
do (and I do)
with the hundred and one rejected Troubadours
?
"With trumpets, yea, and with shawms," will you be assailed in the most
diabolical doggerel. I wish my name not to transpire till the day is
decided. I shall not be in town, so it won't much matter; but let us
have a
good deliverer
. I
Elliston
should be the man, or
Pope
; not Raymond
, I implore you, by the love of Rhythmus!
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, etc.
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 out the Phœnix—I mean
the Fire Office of that name. It has insured the theatre, and why not
the Address?
The genuine rejected addresses were advertised for by B.
McMillan, of Bow Street, Covent Garden, and forty-two of them were
published by him in November, 1812, with the following title:
The
Genuine Rejected Addresses presented to the Committee of Management for
Drury Lane Theatre; preceded by that written by Lord Byron and adopted
by the Committee
.
The youngest competitor was "Anna, a young lady in the fifteenth year of
her age."
The actual number sent in was 112, and sixty-nine of the competitors
invoked the Phœnix. Among the competitors were Peter Pindar, whose
Address
was printed in 1813; Whitbread, the manager, who gave the
"poulterer's description" of the Phœnix; and Horace Smith, who
published his
Address without a Phœnix
, By S. T. P., in
Rejected Addresses
.
Robert William Elliston (1774-1831), according to Genest
(
English Stage
, vol. ix. p. 338), made his first appearance at
Bath in April, 1791, as "Tressel" in
Richard III
., and from 1796
to 1803 Bath remained his head-quarters. An excellent actor both in
tragedy and comedy, he became in 1803 a member of the Haymarket Company.
From 1804 to 1809, and again from 1812 to 1815, he acted at Drury Lane.
Byron's Prologue was spoken by him on October 10, 1812, at the reopening
of the new theatre. It was at Drury Lane in April, 1821, while he was
lessee (1819-26), that Byron's
Marino Faliero
was acted. His last
appearance was as "Sheva" in
The Jew
, at the Surrey Theatre, of
which (1826-31) he was lessee. In spite of his drunken habits, he won
the enthusiastic praise of Charles Lamb as the "joyousest of once
embodied spirits" (see
Essays of Elia
, "To the Shade of
Elliston" and "Ellistoniana").
Alexander Pope (1763-1835), miniaturist,
gourmand
,
and actor, was for years the principal tragedian at Covent Garden.
Opinion was divided as to his merits as an actor. He owed much to his
voice, which had a "mellow richness ... superior to any other performer
on the stage." Genest, who quotes the above (vol. ix. p. 377), adds that
"in his better days he had more pathos about him than any other actor."
He made his first appearance in Cork as "Oroonoko," and subsequently
(January, 1785) at Covent Garden in the same part. He ceased acting at
Covent Garden in June, 1827.
In the cast for
Hamlet
, with which Drury Lane
reopened, Raymond played the Ghost. Raymond was also the stage manager
of the theatre.
List of Letters
Contents
September 24.
I send a recast of the four first 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.
The curtain rises, etc., etc.
And do forgive all this trouble. See what it is to have to do even with
the
genteelest
of us.
Ever, etc.
List of Letters
Contents
249—to Lord Holland
Cheltenham, Sept. 25, 1812.
"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 too turgid, you will have the goodness to add.
that
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 it before me), I mean to
insert this:
As flashing far the new Volcano shone
And swept the skies with {lightnings}/{meteors} not their own,
While thousands throng'd around the burning dome,
Etc., etc.
I think "thousands" less flat than "crowds collected"—
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
house-top 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.