EDITOR. Not one lick! Egan is not worthy of holding the candle to your Boxiana; and yet Egan is a prime swell. You should get little Cruikshanks to draw the vignettes; your life would sell as well as Hogg's, or Haggart's, or any body else, that I remember. ODOHERTY. No, d- Í scorn to flatter you, or any man. I shall tell the truth, all the truth, and nothing but the truth. Do you expect me to say that you are a handsome man? Or that you have slim ancles? Or that you don't squint? Or that you understand the whole doctrine of quadrille? Or that you are the author of Waverley? Or the author of Anastasius? Are these the bams you expect? EDITOR. Say that I am the author of the Chaldee, and I am satisfied. ODOHERTY. No, I'll stick to my own rule. I'll claim it myself. I'll challenge Hogg if he disputes the point. EDITOR. I hope you'll shoot potatoes; for I could not afford to lose either of you! you are both of you rum ones to look at, but devils to go. ODOHERTY. I intend to be modest as to my amours. EDITOR: You had better not. The ladies won't buy if you do so. Your amour with Mrs Macwhirter raised my sale considerably. ODOHERTY. This is a very delicate age. I fear nothing at all high would go down with it. EDITOR. Why there's a vast deal of cant afloat as to this matter; people don't know what they are speaking about. Shew me any production of genius, written in our time, which does not contain what they pretend to abhor. ODOHERTY. Why, there's the Edinburgh Review-you must at least allow 'tis a decent work. EDITOR. Have you forgotten Sidney Smith's article about missionaries?—I won't repeat the names of some of them. Why, Gifford and I are old boys, and past our dancing days; but I believe you will find some very sly touches here and there. Poh! you're wild now. We may despise the cant about him, but you must confess that there's always a little of what's wrong in the best of his works. Even the Corsair seems to have flirted a bit now and then. And Juan, you know, is a perfect Richelieu. Have you any thing to say against the Waverley novels? EDITOR. Not much. Yet even old Dame Norna in the Pirate seems to have danced in her youth. I strongly suspect her son was a mere filius carnalis. ODOHERTY. What of Kenilworth, then? EDITOR. 'Tis all full of going about the bush. One always sees what Elizabeth is thinking about. She has never some handsome fellow or other out of her mind. And then the scene where Leicester and Amy get up is certainly rather richly coloured. There is nothing a whit worse in the Sorrows of Werter, or Julia de Roubigné, or any of that sentimental set. ODOHERTY. Milman is a very well-behaved boy-You can say nothing of that sort against him. EDITOR. He is a very respectable man, and a clergyman to boot; but the bridal songs in his Fall of Jerusalem are not much behind what a layınan might have done. There are some very luxurious hits in that part of the performance. Did you attend old P—'s sale when you were in town? ODOHERTY. No, I can't say I did; but I hear there was a fine collection of the Facetia, and other forbidden fruits. A friend of mine got the editio princeps of Poggio, but he sweated for it. The Whigs bid high. They worked to keep all those tid-bits for themselves. EDITOR. Does this affair of Lord Byron's Mystery create any sensation in London ? ODOHERTY. Very little. The Parsons about Murray's shop are not the most untractable people in the world, otherwise they would never have abstained so long from attacking Juan, Beppo, and the rest of Byron's improprieties-they that are so foul-mouthed against Shelly, and such insignificant blasphemers as that Cockney crew. EDITOR. I have often wondered at the face they shew in that omission. Really? ODOHERTY? EDITOR. No doubt a Bookseller must have something to say as to his own Review. But the thing should not be pushed too far, else a noodle can see through it. Meaning me? ODOHERTY. EDITOR. Not at all. But as to Cain, I entirely differ from the Chancellor. I think, if Cain be prosecuted, it will be a great shame. The humbug of the age will then have achieved its most visible triumph. ODOHERTY. I never saw it, but I thought it had been blasphemous. EDITOR. No, sir, I can't see that. The Society might have had some pretence had they fallen on Don Juan; but I suppose those well-fed Archdeacons, and so forth, have their own ways of observing certain matters. ODOHERTY. Have you seen Lord Byron's letter on the subject to Mr Murray ? Yes; 'tis in the papers. EDITOR. ODOHERTY. A bite! that's the prose edition. It was written originally in verse, but Murray's friends thought it would have more effect if translated into prose; and a young clergyman, who writes in the Quarterly, turned the thing very neatly, considering. I believe I have a copy of Lord Byron's own letter in my pocket. BYRON TO MURRAY.* Attacks on me were what I look'd for, Murray, I mean those canting Quacks of your Review- Here stands the murderer-that's the old one there- Should Fratricides discourse like Doctor Blair? Which now-a-days would make a Bishop stare; I only bring your angels on the stage. * Letter from Lord Byron to Mr Murray. DEAR SIR, Pisa, Feb. 8, 1822. Attacks upon me were to be expected; but I perceive one upon you in the papers, which, I confess, that I did not expect. How, or in what manner you can be considered responsible for what I publish, I am at a loss to conceive. If "Cain" be "blas. phemous," Paradise Lost is blasphemous; and the very words of the Oxford Gentleman, "Evil be thou my good," are from that very poem, from the mouth of Satan : and is there any thing more in that of Lucifer in the Mystery? Cain is nothing more than a drama, not a piece of argument. If Lucifer and Cain speak as the first murderer and the first rebel may be supposed to speak, surely all the rest of the personages talk also according to their characters; and the stronger passions have ever been per mitted to the drama. I have even avoided introducing the Deity, as in Scripture, (though Milton does, and not very wisely either ;) but have adopted his angel, as sent to Cain, instead, on purpose to avoid shocking any feelings on the subject, by falling short of, what all uninspired men must fall short in, viz. giving an adequate notion of the effect of the presence of Jehovah. The old mysteries introduced him liberally enough, and all this is avoided in the new one. The attempt to bully you, because they think it will not succeed with me, seems to me as atrocious an attempt as ever disgraced the times. What! when Gibbon's, Hume's, Priestley's, and Drummond's publishers have been allowed to rest in peace for seventy years, are you to be singled out for a work of fiction, not of history or argument? There must be something at the bottom of this-some private eneniy of your own-it is otherwise incredible. I can only say, "Me-me adsum qui feci," that any proceedings directed against you, I beg may be transferred to me, who am willing and ought to endure them all; that if you have lost money by the publication, I will refund any, or all of the copyright; that I desire you will say, that both you and Mr Gifford remonstrated against the publication, as also Mr Hobhouse; that I alone occasioned it, and I alone am the person who either legally or otherwise should bear the burthen. If they prosecute, I will come to England; that is, if by meeting it in my own person, I can save yours. Let me know-you shan't suffer for me, if I can help it. Make any use of this letter which you please.-Yours ever, BYRON. To bully You-yet shrink from battling Me, Is baseness. Nothing baser stains "The Times." While no one talks of priestly Playfair's crimes, N If this goes on, I wish you'd plainly tell 'em, Come, Doctor Sewell, shew you have been knighted! You and your Bull-dog both remonstrated; They shall not touch a hair, man, in your head. EDITOR. Come, this is a good letter. If I had been Murray I would not have thought I'll be hanged if I would. of the prose. ODOHERTY. Is there any thing new in the literary world here? EDITOR. Not much that I hear of. There's Colonel Stewart's History of the Highland Regiments, one of the most entertaining books that have been published this long time. You're a soldier, you must review it for me in my next Number. ODOHERTY. I think I'll tip you a series of articles on the history of the Irish regiments. I'm sure I know as many queer stories about them as any Colonel of them all. Is the book well written? EDITOR. Plainly, but sensibly, and elegantly too, I think. Not much of the flash that's in vogue, but a great deal of feeling and truth. Some of the anecdotes are quite beautiful, and the Colonel's view of the Highland character is admirably drawn. ODOHERTY. I'm glad to hear it. Few officers write well except Julius Cæsar, the Heavy Horseman, and myself. You forget General Burgoyne. EDITOR. ODOHERTY. Aye, true enough. The General was a sweet fellow. EDITOR. So are you all. Have you done nothing to your Campaigns? I'm sure they would sell better than Southey's. ODOHERTY. That's no great matter perhaps. I don't think the Laureate has much of a military eye. How does the John Bull get on? EDITOR. ODOHERTY. Famously they say. I'm told they divided L.6000 at the end of the first year. I intend contributing myself if you do not pay me better. EDITOR. Why, how much would you have? Are you not always sure of your twenty guineas a-sheet? I'm sure that's enough for such articles as yours. You never take any pains. ODOHERTY. If I did, they would not be worth five.-Have you seen John Home's Life? EDITOR. To be sure. 'Tis very amusing. The old gentleman writes as well as ever. I wish he would try his hand at a novel once more. ODOHERTY. Why, no novels sell now except the Author of Waverley's. EDITOR. Write a good one, and I warrant you 'twill sell.-There's Adam Blair has taken like a shot; and Sir Andrew Wylie is almost out of print already. ODOHERTY. I don't think Sir Andrew near so good as the Annals of the Parish.—What say you? EDITOR. I agree with you.-The story is d- improbable; the hero a borish fellow, an abominable bore! but there is so much cleverness in the writing, and many of the scenes are so capitally managed, that one can never lay down the book after beginning it. On the whole, 'tis a very strange performance.-I hear the Provost is likely to be better, however. ODOHERTY. The Author has a vast deal of humour, but he should stick to what he has The first part of Wylie is far the best. seen. It is. Why did he not produce the present King too? EDITOR. He will probably have him some other time. If he could but write stories as well as the King tells them, he would be the first author of his time. ODOHERTY. Were you ever in company with the King, North? EDITOR. Three or four times,-long ago now, when he used to come a-hunting in the New Forest. ODOHERTY. Will he come to Scotland this summer? EDITOR. One can never be sure of a King's movements; but 'tis said he is quite resolved upon the trip. What will the Whigs do? ODOHERTY. EDITOR. Poh! the Whigs here are nobody. Even Lord Moira could not endure them. He lived altogether among the Tories when he was in Scotland. The Whigs would be queer pigs at a drawing-room, He is what he seems. At the Fox dinner, t'other day, he came prepared with two speeches; one to preface the memory of old Charlie; the other returning thanks for his own health being drunk. He forgot himself, and transposed them. He introduced Fox with twenty minutes harangue about his own merits, and then, discovering his mistake, sat down in such a quandary! ODOHERTY. Good! they're a petty set. What sort of a thing is the Thane of FifeTennant's poem? Mere humbug-quite defunct. EDITOR. |