61 — To John M. B. Pigot
Southwell, Jan. 13, 1807.
I ought to begin with
sundry
apologies, for my own negligence, but the variety of my avocations in
prose
and
verse
must plead my excuse. With this epistle you will receive a volume of all my
Juvenilia
, published since your departure: it is of considerably greater size than the
copy
in your possession, which I beg you will destroy, as the present is much more complete.
That
unlucky
poem to my poor Mary
has been the cause of some animadversion from
ladies in years
. I have not printed it in this collection, in consequence of my being pronounced a most
profligate sinner
, in short, a "
young Moore
,"
by — — — , your — — friend. I believe, in general, they have been favourably received, and surely the age of their author will preclude
severe
criticism. The adventures of my life from sixteen to nineteen, and the dissipation into which I have been thrown in London, have given a voluptuous tint to my ideas; but the occasions which called forth my muse could hardly admit any other colouring. This volume is
vastly
correct and miraculously chaste. Apropos, talking of love, ...
...
If you can find leisure to answer this farrago of unconnected nonsense, you need not doubt what gratification will accrue from your reply to yours ever, etc.
Footnote 1:
See page 104,
2.
Footnote 2:
Thomas Moore (1779-1852) had already published
Anacreon
(1800),
The Poetical Works of the late Thomas Little
(1801), and
Odes, Epistles, and other Poems
(1806). In all, especially in the second, the poetry was of an erotic character.
"So heartily," said Rogers (Table-Talk, etc., pp. 281, 282), "has Moore repented of having published Little's Poems, that I have seen him shed tears — tears of deep contrition — when we were talking of them. Young ladies read his Lalla Rookh without being aware (I presume) of the grossness of The Veiled Prophet. These lines by Mr. Sneyd are amusing enough —
"'Lalla Rookh
Is a naughty book
By Tommy Moore,
Who has written four,
Each warmer
Than the former.
So the most recent
Is the least decent.'"
