regnante
is there.
I wonder how the deuce any body could make such a world; for what
purpose dandies, for instance, were ordained—and kings—and fellows of
colleges—and women of "a certain age"—and many men of any age—and
myself, most of all!
"
Divesne prisco natus ab Inacho
Nil interest, an pauper et infimâ
De gente, sub dio (
sic) moreris,
Victima nil miserantis Orci.
Omnes eodem cogimur," etc.
12
Is there any thing beyond?—
who
knows?
He
that can't tell.
Who tells that there
is
? He who don't know. And when shall he
know? perhaps, when he don't expect, and generally when he don't wish
it. In this last respect, however, all are not alike: it depends a good
deal upon education,—something upon nerves and habits—but most upon
digestion.
See p. 134,
2, and
.
The battle of Brienne was fought February 1, 1814.
By fire, on the 12th of February.
"We are informed from very good authority, that as soon as the House
of Lords meet again, a Peer of very independent principles and
character intends to give notice of a motion occasioned by a late
spontaneous avowal of a copy of verses by Lord Byron, addressed to the
Princess Charlotte of Wales, in which he has taken the most
unwarrantable liberties with her august father's character and
conduct: this motion being of a personal nature, it will be necessary
to give the noble Satirist some days' notice, that he may prepare
himself for his defence against a charge of so aggravated a nature,"
etc.
Morning Post
, February 18.
Macbeth
, act v. sc. 3.
These words close the penultimate paragraph of Burton's
Anatomy of Melancholy
.
Hamlet
, act ii. sc. 2, and act iii. sc. 1.
Ibid
., sc. 2.
"Brutus, thou sleepest, awake."
Julius Cæsar
, act ii. sc. 1.
The following extract from
Detached Thoughts
(1821)
implies that this expression of opinion was no passing thought (but see
Scott's
, p. 376):
"There is nothing left for Mankind but a Republic, and I think that
there are hopes of such. The two Americas (South and North) have it;
Spain and Portugal approach it; all thirst for it. Oh Washington!"
Here is one of Madame de Staël's notes:
"Je renonce à vos visites, pourvu que vous acceptiez mes diners, car
enfin à quoi servirait il de vivre dans le même tems que vous, si
l'on ne vous voyait pas? Dinez chez moi dimanche avec vos amis,—je ne
dirai pas vos admirateurs, car je n'ai rencontré que cela de touts
parts.
"A dimanche,
"de Staël.
"Mardi.
"Je prends le silence pour oui."
Horace,
Odes
, II. iii. 21,
et seqq.
List of Journal Entries
Contents
Saturday, February 19th [1814]
returned from seeing Kean
in Richard. By Jove, he is a soul!
Life—nature—truth without exaggeration or diminution. Kemble's Hamlet
is perfect;—but Hamlet is not Nature. Richard is a man; and Kean is
Richard. Now to my own concerns.
Went to Waite's. Teeth are all right and white; but he says that I grind
them in my sleep and chip the edges. That same sleep is no friend of
mine, though I court him sometimes for half the twenty-four.
Edmund Kean (1787-1833), after acting in provincial
theatres, appeared at the Haymarket in June, 1806, as "Ganem" in
The
Mountaineers
, but again returned to the country. His performance of
"Shylock" in the
Merchant of Venice
, at Drury Lane, on January
26, 1814, made him famous. He appeared in "Richard III" on February 12,
and still further increased his reputation.
In the
Courier
, February 26, 1814, appears this paragraph:
"Mr. Kean's attraction is unprecedented in the annals of
theatricals—even Cooke's performances are left at an immeasurable
distance; his first three nights of Richard produced upwards of
£1800, and on repeating that character on Thursday night for the
fourthth (sic) time, the receipts were upwards of £700."
On March 1 the same paper says,
"Drury Lane Theatre again overflowed last night, at an early hour.
Such is the continued and increasing attraction of that truly great
actor Mr. Kean."
After the retirement of John Kemble (June 23, 1817), he had no rival on
the stage, especially in such parts as "Othello," "Lear," "Hamlet," "Sir
Giles Overreach," and the two already mentioned. His last appearance on
the stage was in "Othello" at Covent Garden, March 25, 1833.
"To see Kean act," said Coleridge, "is like reading Shakespeare by
flashes of lightning."
"Garrick's nature," writes Leigh Hunt, in the Tatler, July 25,
1831, "displaced Quin's formalism; and in precisely the same way did
Kean displace Kemble. ... Everything with Kemble was literally a
personation—it was a mask and a sounding-pipe. It was all
external and artificial.... Kean's face is full of light and shade,
his tones vary, his voice trembles, his eye glistens, sometimes with a
withering scorn, sometimes with a tear."
It was the realism and nature of Kean which so strongly appealed to
Byron, and enabled the actor, to the last, in spite of his drunken
habits, poor figure, and weak voice, to sway his audiences. The same
qualities at first repelled more timid critics, and perhaps justified
Hazlitt's saying that Kean was "not much relished in the upper circles."
Miss Berry, for example, who saw him in all his principal parts in
1814—in "Richard III," "Hamlet," "Othello," and "Sir Giles
Overreach"—remained cold.
"His 'Richard III.' pleased me, but I was not enthusiastic. His
expression of the passions is natural and strong, but I do not like
his declamation; his voice, naturally not agreeable, becomes
monotonous"
(
Diary
, vol. iii. p. 7). Of his "Hamlet" she says,
"To my mind he is without grace and without elevation of mind, because
he never seems to rise with the poet in those sublime passages which
abound in Hamlet"
(
ibid.
, p. 9). Miss Berry's criticism is supported by good
authority. Lewes (
On Actors and the Art of Acting
, pp. 6, 11),
while calling him "a consummate master of passionate expression," denies
his capacity for representing "the intellectual side of heroism."
Kean preferred the Coal-Hole Tavern in the Strand, and the society of
the Wolf Club, to Lord Holland's dinner-parties. Though he never fell so
low as Cooke, his recklessness, irregularities, eccentricities, and
habits of drinking, in spite of the large sums of money that passed
through his hands, made his closing days neither prosperous nor
reputable.
Such effect had the passionate energy of Kean's acting on Byron's mind,
that, once, in seeing him play "Sir Giles Overreach," he was so affected
as to be seized with a sort of convulsive fit. Some years later, in
Italy, when the representation of Alfieri's tragedy of
Mirra
had
agitated him in the same violent manner, he compared the two instances
as the only ones in his life when "any thing under reality" had been
able to move him so powerfully.
"To such lengths," says Moore, "did he, at this time, carry his
enthusiasm for Kean, that when Miss O'Neil appeared, and, by her
matchless representation of feminine tenderness, attracted all eyes
and hearts, he was not only a little jealous of her reputation, as
interfering with that of his favourite, but, in order to guard himself
against the risk of becoming a convert, refused to go to see her act.
I endeavoured sometimes to persuade him into witnessing, at least, one
of her performances; but his answer was (punning upon Shakspeare's
word, 'unanealed'), 'No—I am resolved to continue un-Oneiled.'"
In his
Detached Thoughts
(1821) Byron says,
"Of actors Cooke was the most natural, Kemble the most supernatural,
Kean the medium between the two. But Mrs. Siddons was worth them all
put together."
List of Journal Entries
Contents
February 20th [1814]
Got up and tore out two leaves of this Journal—I don't know why.
Hodgson just called and gone. He has much
bonhommie
with his
other good qualities, and more talent than he has yet had credit for
beyond his circle.
An invitation to dine at Holland House to meet Kean. He is worth
meeting; and I hope, by getting into good society, he will be prevented
from falling like Cooke. He is greater now on the stage, and off he
should never be less. There is a stupid and underrating criticism upon
him in one of the newspapers. I thought that, last night, though great,
he rather under-acted more than the first time. This may be the effect
of these cavils; but I hope he has more sense than to mind them. He
cannot expect to maintain his present eminence, or to advance still
higher, without the envy of his green-room fellows, and the nibbling of
their admirers. But,
he don't beat them all, why then—merit hath no
purchase in "these coster-monger days."
I wish that I had a talent for the drama; I would write a tragedy
now
. But no,—it is gone. Hodgson talks of one,—he will do it
well;—and I think M—-e [Moore] should try. He has wonderful powers,
and much variety; besides, he has lived and felt. To write so as to
bring home to the heart, the heart must have been tried,—but, perhaps,
ceased to be so. While you are under the influence of passions, you only
feel, but cannot describe them,—any more than, when in action, you
could turn round and tell the story to your next neighbour! When all is
over,—all, all, and irrevocable,—trust to memory—she is then but too
faithful.
Went out, and answered some letters, yawned now and then, and redde the
Robbers
.
,—but
Fiesco
is better
; and Alfieri, and
Monti's
Aristodemo
best
. They are more equal than the
Tedeschi dramatists.
—or rather acknowledged—the receipt of young Reynolds's
poem,
Safie
. The lad is clever, but much of his thoughts are
borrowed,—whence, the Reviewers may find out. I hate discouraging a
young one; and I think,—though wild and more oriental than he would be,
had he seen the scenes where he has placed his tale,—that he has much
talent, and, certainly fire enough.
Received a very singular epistle; and the mode of its conveyance,
through Lord H.'s hands, as curious as the letter itself. But it was
gratifying and pretty.
Henry IV.
, Part II. act i. sc. 2.
Schiller's
Robbers
was first produced at Mannheim,
January 13, 1782; his
Fiesco
was published in 1783. The
Robbers
is included in Benjamin Thompson's
German Theatre
(1801).
Fiesco
was translated by G. H. Noehden and John Stoddart
in 1798.
Monti's three tragedies,
Caio Gracco
,
Aristodemo
, and
Manfredi
, were written in rivalry of
Alfieri's tragedies between the years 1788 and 1799.
For John Hamilton Reynolds, see
Letters
, vol. iii.
(February 20, 1814,
note
1).
List of Journal Entries
Contents
Sunday, February 27th [1814]
Here I am, alone, instead of dining at Lord H.'s, where I was
asked,—but not inclined to go any where. Hobhouse says I am growing a
loup garou
,—a solitary hobgoblin.
;—"I am myself alone."
The last week has been passed in reading—seeing plays—now and then
visitors—sometimes yawning and sometimes sighing, but no writing,—save
of letters. If I could always read, I should never feel the want of
society. Do I regret it?—um!—"
delights not me,"
and only one
woman—at a time.
There is something to me very softening in the presence of a
woman,—some strange influence, even if one is not in love with
them—which I cannot at all account for, having no very high opinion of
the sex. But yet,—I always feel in better humour with myself and every
thing else, if there is a woman within ken.
Mrs. Mule
, my
firelighter,—the most ancient and withered of her kind,—and (except to
myself) not the best-tempered—always makes me laugh,—no difficult task
when I am "i' the vein."
Heigho! I would I were in mine island!—I am not well; and yet I look in
good health. At
, I fear, "I am not in my perfect mind;"
—and
yet my heart and head have stood many a crash, and what should ail them
now?
prey upon themselves, and I am sick—sick —"Prithee, undo
this button—why should a cat, a rat, a dog have life—and thou no life
at all?"
Six-and-twenty years, as they call them, why, I might and should have
been a Pasha by this time. "I '
to be a-weary of the sun."
is not yet beaten; but has rebutted Blucher, and repiqued
Schwartzenburg
. This it is to have a head. If he again wins,
Væ
victis!
"I am myself alone."
Henry VI.
, Part III. act v. sc. 6.
Hamlet
, act ii. sc. 2.
"This ancient housemaid, of whose gaunt and witch-like appearance it
would be impossible to convey any idea but by the pencil, furnished
one among the numerous instances of Lord Byron's proneness to attach
himself to any thing, however homely, that had once enlisted his good
nature in its behalf, and become associated with his thoughts. He
first found this old woman at his lodgings in Bennet Street, where,
for a whole season, she was the perpetual scarecrow of his visitors.
When, next year, he took chambers in Albany, one of the great
advantages which his friends looked to in the change was, that they
should get rid of this phantom. But, no,—there she was again—he had
actually brought her with him from Bennet Street. The following year
saw him married, and, with a regular establishment of servants, in
Piccadilly; and here,—as Mrs. Mule had not made her appearance to any
of the visitors,—it was concluded, rashly, that the witch had
vanished. One of those friends, however, who had most fondly indulged
in this persuasion, happening to call one day when all the male part
of the establishment were abroad, saw, to his dismay, the door opened
by the same grim personage, improved considerably in point of
babiliments since he last saw her, and keeping pace with the increased
scale of her master's household, as a new peruke, and other symptoms
of promotion, testified. When asked 'how he came to carry this old
woman about with him from place to place,' Lord Byron's only answer
was, 'The poor old devil was so kind to me' " (Moore).
King Lear
, act iv. sc. 7.
"Why should a dog, a horse, a rat have life,
And thou no breath at all?"
King Lear
, act v. sc. 3.
"I 'gin to be a-weary of the sun,
And wish the estate of the world were now undone."
Macbeth
, act v. sc. 5.