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
My Northern friends have accused me, with justice, of personality
towards their great literary Anthropophagus, Jeffery; but what else was
to be done with him and his dirty pack, who feed by "lying and
slandering," and slake their thirst by "evil speaking"? I have adduced
facts already well known, and of JEFFREY's mind I have stated my free
opinion, nor has he thence sustained any injury:--what scavenger was
ever soiled by being pelted with mud? It may be said that I quit England
because I have censured there "persons of honour and wit about town;"
but I am coming back again, and their vengeance will keep hot till my
return. Those who know me can testify that my motives for leaving
England are very different from fears, literary or personal: those who
do not, may one day be convinced. Since the publication of this thing,
my name has not been concealed; I have been mostly in London, ready to
answer for my transgressions, and in daily expectation of sundry
cartels; but, alas! "the age of chivalry is over," or, in the vulgar
tongue, there is no spirit now-a-days.
There is a youth ycleped Hewson Clarke (subaudi 'esquire'), a sizer of
Emanuel College, and, I believe, a denizen of Berwick-upon-Tweed, whom I
have introduced in these pages to much better company than he has been
accustomed to meet; he is, notwithstanding, a very sad dog, and for no
reason that I can discover, except a personal quarrel with a bear, kept
by me at Cambridge to sit for a fellowship, and whom the jealousy of his
Trinity contemporaries prevented from success, has been abusing me, and,
what is worse, the defenceless innocent above mentioned, in the
'Satirist' for one year and some months. I am utterly unconscious of
having given him any provocation; indeed, I am guiltless of having heard
his name, till coupled with the 'Satirist'. He has therefore no reason
to complain, and I dare say that, like Sir Fretful Plagiary, he is
rather 'pleased' than otherwise. I have now mentioned all who have done
me the honour to notice me and mine, that is, my bear and my book,
except the editor of the 'Satirist', who, it seems, is a gentleman--God
wot! I wish he could impart a little of his gentility to his subordinate
scribblers. I hear that Mr. JERNINGHAM[1] is about to take up the
cudgels for his Mæcenas, Lord Carlisle. I hope not: he was one of the
few, who, in the very short intercourse I had with him, treated me with
kindness when a boy; and whatever he may say or do, "pour on, I will
endure." I have nothing further to add, save a general note of
thanksgiving to readers, purchasers, and publishers, and, in the words
of SCOTT, I wish
"To all and each a fair good night,
And rosy dreams and slumbers light."
[Footnote 1: The article never appeared, and Lord Byron, in the 'Hints
from Horace', taunted Jeffrey with a silence which seemed to indicate
that the critic was beaten from the field.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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