311.--To Thomas Moore.
July 13, 1813.
Your letter set me at ease; for I really thought (as I hear of your susceptibility) that I had said--I know not what--but something I should have been very sorry for, had it, or I, offended you;--though I don"t see how a man with a beautiful wife--_his own_ children,--quiet--fame --competency and friends, (I will vouch for a thousand, which is more than I will for a unit in my own behalf,) can be offended with any thing.
Do you know, Moore, I am amazingly inclined--remember I say but _inclined_--to be seriously enamoured with Lady A[delaide] F[orbes]
[1]--but this----has ruined all my prospects. However, you know her; is she _clever_, or sensible, or good-tempered? either _would_ do--I scratch out the _will_. I don"t ask as to her beauty--that I see; but my circ.u.mstances are mending, and were not my other prospects blackening, I would take a wife, and that should be the woman, had I a chance. I do not yet know her much, but better than I did.
I want to get away, but find difficulty in compa.s.sing a pa.s.sage in a ship of war. They had better let me go; if I cannot, patriotism is the word--"nay, an they"ll mouth, I"ll rant as well as they." [2]
Now, what are you doing?--writing, we all hope, for our own sakes.
Remember you must edit my posthumous works, with a Life of the Author, for which I will send you Confessions, dated "Lazaretto," Smyrna, Malta, or Palermo--one can die any where.
There is to be a thing on Tuesday ycleped a national fete [3]. The Regent and----are to be there, and every body else, who has shillings enough for what was once a guinea. Vauxhall is the scene--there are six tickets issued for the modest women, and it is supposed there will be three to spare. The pa.s.sports for the lax are beyond my arithmetic.
P. S.--The Stael last night attacked me most furiously--said that I had "no right to make love--that I had used----barbarously--that I had no feeling, and was totally _in_sensible to _la belle pa.s.sion_, and _had_ been all my life." I am very glad to hear it, but did not know it before. Let me hear from you anon.
[Footnote 1:
"Lady A. F----"was" also very handsome. It is melancholy to talk of women in the past tense. What a pity, that of all flowers, none fade so soon as beauty! Poor Lady A. F--has not got married. Do you know, I once had some thoughts of her as a wife; not that I was in love, as people call it, but I had argued myself into a belief that I ought to marry, and, meeting her very often in society, the notion came into my head, not heart, that she would suit me. Moore, too, told me so much of her good qualities--all which was, I believe, quite true--that I felt tempted to propose to her, but did not, whether "tant mieux" or "tant pis", G.o.d knows, supposing my proposal accepted."
(Lady Blessington"s "Conversations", pp. 108, 109).
Lady Adelaide Forbes, whom Byron in Rome compared to the "Belvedere Apollo," was the daughter of George, sixth Earl of Granard, and his wife, Lady Selina Rawdon, daughter of the first Earl of Moira. Born in 1789, she died at Dresden, in 1858, unmarried. Lord Moira was Moore"s patron, and, through this connection and political sympathies, Moore was acquainted with Lord Granard and his family.]
[Footnote 2: Byron possibly quoted the actual words from "Hamlet" (act v. sc. 1), referring to Moore"s attack on the Regent in "The Two-penny Post-bag":
"Nay, an thou"lt mouth, I"ll rant as well as thou."
But the letter is destroyed.]
[Footnote 3: The "Morning Chronicle" for July 12 contains the announcement that "the Prince Regent has projected a "Grand National Fete" in honour of the battle of Vittoria. It is to be held at Vauxhall Gardens." The "fete" was held on Tuesday, July 20, beginning with a banquet, at which such toasts were drunk as "The Marquis of Wellington,"
"Sir Thomas Graham and the other officers engaged," "The Spanish Armies and the brave Guerillas." The "baton" of Marshal Jourdan was "disposed among the plate, so as to be obvious to all." The proceedings ended with illuminations and dancing.]
312.--To John Hanson.
Sunday, July 18th, 1813.
DEAR SIR,--A Report is in general circulation (which has distressed my friends, and is not very pleasing to me), that the Purchaser of Newstead is a _young_ man, who has been over-reached, ill-treated, and ruined, by me in this transaction of the sale, and that I take an unfair advantage of the _law_ to enforce the contract. This must be contradicted by a true and open statement of the circ.u.mstances attending, and subsequent to, the sale, and that immediately and publicly. Surely, if anyone is ill treated it is myself. He bid his own price; he took time before he bid at all, and now, when I am actually granting him further time as a favour, I hear from all quarters that I have acted unfairly. Pray do not delay on this point; see him, and let a proper and true statement be drawn up of the sale, etc., and inserted in the papers.
Ever yours,
B.
P.S.--Mr. C. himself, if he has either honour or feeling, will be the first to vindicate me from so unfounded an implication. It is surely not for his credit to be supposed _ruined_ or _over-reached_.
313.--To John Murray.
July 22nd, 1813.
Dear Sir,--I have great pleasure in accepting your invitation to meet anybody or n.o.body as you like best.
Pray what should you suppose the book in the inclosed advertis.e.m.e.nt to be? is it anything relating to Buonaparte or Continental Concerns? If so, it may be worth looking after, particularly if it should turn out to be your purchase--Lucien"s _Epic_.
Believe me, very truly yours,
BYRON.