[Footnote 7: An account of the accident is given in the Chronicle of the "Annual Register", September 21, 1812. The party consisted of ten people, three of whom were saved. Among those rescued was Mr.
Rothery--not Rossoe, as Byron gives it.]
[Footnote 8: The new Parliament met November 30, 1812. Wellington won the battle of Salamanca on the previous July 22.]
257.--To Lord Holland.
September 29, 1812.
Shakespeare certainly ceased to reign in _one_ of his kingdoms, as George III. did in America, and George IV. [1] may in Ireland? Now, we have nothing to do out of our own realms, and when the monarchy was gone, his majesty had but a barren sceptre. I have _cut away_, you will see, and altered, but make it what you please; only I do implore, for my _own_ gratification, one lash on those accursed quadrupeds--"a long shot, Sir Lucius, if you love me." [2] I have altered "wave," etc., and the "fire," and so forth for the timid.
Let me hear from you when convenient, and believe me, etc.
P.S.--Do let _that_ stand, and cut out elsewhere. I shall choke, if we must overlook their d.a.m.ned menagerie.
[Footnote 1: Some objection, it appears, had been made to the pa.s.sage, "and Shakspeare _ceased to reign_."]
[Footnote 2: Bob Acres, in "The Rivals" (act v. se. 3), says, "A long shot, Sir Lucius, if you love me."]
258.--To Lord Holland.
September 30, 1812.
I send you the most I can make of it; for I am not so well as I was, and find I "pull in resolution." [1]
I wish much to see you, and will be at Tetbury by twelve on Sat.u.r.day; and from thence I go on to Lord Jersey"s. It is impossible not to allude to the degraded state of the Stage, but I have lightened _it_, and endeavoured to obviate your _other_ objections. There is a new couplet for Sheridan, allusive to his Monody [2]. All the alterations I have marked thus ],--as you will see by comparison with the other copy. I have cudgelled my brains with the greatest willingness, and only wish I had more time to have done better.
You will find a sort of clap-trap laudatory couplet inserted for the quiet of the Committee [3], and I have added, towards the end, the couplet you were pleased to _like_. The whole Address is seventy-three lines, still perhaps too long; and, if shortened, you will save time, but, I fear, a little of what I meant for sense also.
With myriads of thanks, I am ever, etc.
My sixteenth edition of respects to Lady H.--How she must laugh at all this!
I wish Murray, my publisher, to print off some copies as soon as your Lordship returns to town--it will ensure correctness in the papers afterwards.
[Footnote 1: "Macbeth", act v. sc. 5.]
[Footnote 2: Sheridan"s "Monody on Garrick".]
[Footnote 3: The Committee of Selection consisted, says the "Satirist"
(November 1, 1812, p. 395),
"of one peer and two commoners, one poet and two prosers, one Lord and two Brewers; and the only points in which they coincided were in being all three parliament men, all three politicians, all three in opposition to the Government of the country. Their names, as we understand, were Va.s.sal Holland, Samuel Whitbread, and Harvey Christian Combe."]
259.--To Lord Holland.
Far be from him that hour which asks in vain Tears such as flow for Garrick in his strain;
_or_,
Far be that hour that vainly asks in turn Such verse for him as {_crown"d his_/wept o"er} Garrick"s urn.
September 30, 1812.
Will you choose between these added to the lines on Sheridan [1]?
I think they will wind up the panegyric, and agree with the train of thought preceding them.