The Works of Lord Byron, Vol. 1. PoetryByron, George Gordon Byron, Baron
General
The Works of Lord Byron, Vol. 1. Poetry
Byron, George Gordon Byron, Baron
Poetry
[Footnote 142: The Rev. W. L. Bowles ('vide ante', p. 323, note 2),
published, in 1789, 'Fourteen Sonnets written chiefly on Picturesque
Spots during a Journey'.]]
[Footnote 143: It may be asked, why I have censured the Earl of
CARLISLE, my guardian and relative, to whom I dedicated a volume of
puerile poems a few years ago?--The guardianship was nominal, at least
as far as I have been able to discover; the relationship I cannot help,
and am very sorry for it; but as his Lordship seemed to forget it on a
very essential occasion to me, I shall not burden my memory with the
recollection. I do not think that personal differences sanction the
unjust condemnation of a brother scribbler; but I see no reason why they
should act as a preventive, when the author, noble or ignoble, has, for
a series of years, beguiled a "discerning public" (as the advertisements
have it) with divers reams of most orthodox, imperial nonsense. Besides,
I do not step aside to vituperate the earl: no--his works come fairly in
review with those of other Patrician Literati. If, before I escaped from
my teens, I said anything in favour of his Lordship's paper books, it
was in the way of dutiful dedication, and more from the advice of others
than my own judgment, and I seize the first opportunity of pronouncing
my sincere recantation. I have heard that some persons conceive me to be
under obligations to Lord CARLISLE: if so, I shall be most particularly
happy to learn what they are, and when conferred, that they may be duly
appreciated and publicly acknowledged. What I have humbly advanced as an
opinion on his printed things, I am prepared to support, if necessary,
by quotations from Elegies, Eulogies, Odes, Episodes, and certain
facetious and dainty tragedies bearing his name and mark:--
"What can ennoble knaves, or 'fools', or cowards?
Alas! not all the blood of all the Howards."
So says Pope. Amen!--"Much too savage, whatever the foundation might
be."--B., 1816.]
[Footnote 144: Line 952. 'Note'--
"Tollere humo, victorque virum volitare per ora."
(VIRGIL.)]
[Footnote 145:
"The devil take that 'Phoenix'! How came it there?"
--B., 1816.]
[Footnote 146: The Rev. Charles James Hoare (1781-1865), a close friend
of the leaders of the Evangelical party, gained the Seatonian Prize at
Cambridge in 1807 with his poem on the 'Shipwreck of St. Paul'.]
[Footnote 147: Edmund Hoyle, the father of the modern game of whist,
lived from 1672 to 1769. The Rev. Charles Hoyle, his "poetical
namesake," was, like Hoare, a Seatonian prizeman, and wrote an epic in
thirteen books on the 'Exodus'.]
[Footnote 148: The 'Games of Hoyle', well known to the votaries of
Whist, Chess, etc., are not to be superseded by the vagaries of his
poetical namesake ["illustrious Synonime" in 'MS.' and 'British Bards'],
whose poem comprised, as expressly stated in the advertisement, all the
"Plagues of Egypt."]
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