Life of Lord Byron, Vol. 3: With His Letters and JournalsMoore, Thomas
General
Life of Lord Byron, Vol. 3: With His Letters and Journals
Moore, Thomas
Byron, George Gordon Byron, Baron, 1788-1824; Poets, English -- 19th century -- Biography
"It will give me great pleasure to comply with your request, though
I hope there is still taste enough left amongst us to render it
almost unnecessary, sordid and interested as, it must be admitted,
many of 'the trade' are, where circumstances give them an
advantage. I trust you do not permit yourself to be depressed by
the temporary partiality of what is called 'the public' for the
favourites of the moment; all experience is against the permanency
of such impressions. You must have lived to see many of these pass
away, and will survive many more--I mean personally, for
_poetically_, I would not insult you by a comparison.
"If I may be permitted, I would suggest that there never was such
an opening for tragedy. In Kean, there is an actor worthy of
expressing the thoughts of the characters which you have every
power of embodying; and I cannot but regret that the part of
Ordonio was disposed of before his appearance at Drury Lane. We
have had nothing to be mentioned in the same breath with 'Remorse'
for very many years; and I should think that the reception of that
play was sufficient to encourage the highest hopes of author and
audience. It is to be hoped that you are proceeding in a career
which could not but be successful. With my best respects to Mr.
Bowles, I have the honour to be
"Your obliged and very obedient servant,
"Byron.
"P.S. You mention my 'Satire,' lampoon, or whatever you or others
please to call it. I can only say, that it was written when I was
very young and very angry, and has been a thorn in my side ever
since; more particularly as almost all the persons animadverted
upon became subsequently my acquaintances, and some of them my
friends, which is 'heaping fire upon an enemy's head,' and
forgiving me too readily to permit me to forgive myself. The part
applied to you is pert, and petulant, and shallow enough; but,
although I have long done every thing in my power to suppress the
circulation of the whole thing, I shall always regret the
wantonness or generality of many of its attempted attacks."
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account