87 — To Robert Charles Dallas 1
Dorant's Hotel, Albemarle Street, Jan. 20, 1808.
Sir, — Your letter was not received till this morning, I presume from being addressed to me in Notts., where I have not resided since last June; and as the date is the 6th, you will excuse the delay of my answer.
If the little volume you mention has given pleasure to the author of
Percival
and
Aubrey
, I am sufficiently repaid by his praise. Though our periodical censors have been uncommonly lenient, I confess a tribute from a man of acknowledged genius is still more flattering. But I am afraid I should forfeit all claim to candour, if I did not decline such praise as I do not deserve; and this is, I am sorry to say, the case in the present instance.
My compositions speak for themselves, and must stand or fall by their own worth or demerit:
thus far
I feel highly gratified by your favourable opinion. But my pretensions to virtue are unluckily so few, that though I should be happy to merit, I cannot accept, your applause in that respect.
One
passage in your letter struck me forcibly: you mention the two Lords Lyttleton
in the manner they respectively deserve, and will be surprised to hear the person who is now addressing you has been frequently compared to the
latter
. I know I am injuring myself in your esteem by this avowal, but the circumstance was so remarkable from your observation, that I cannot help relating the fact. The events of my short life have been of so singular a nature, that, though the pride commonly called honour has, and I trust ever will, prevent me from disgracing my name by a mean or cowardly action, I have been already held up as the votary of licentiousness, and the disciple of infidelity. How far justice may have dictated this accusation, I cannot pretend to say; but, like the
gentleman
to whom my religious friends, in the warmth of their charity, have already devoted me, I am made worse than I really am. However, to quit myself (the worst theme I could pitch upon), and return to my poems, I cannot sufficiently express my thanks, and I hope I shall some day have an opportunity of rendering them in person. A second edition is now in the press, with some additions and considerable omissions; you will allow me to present you with a copy.
The
Critical
,
Monthly
, and
Anti-Jacobin 5 Reviews
have been very indulgent; but the
Eclectic
has pronounced a furious Philippic, not against the
book
but the
author
, where you will find all I have mentioned asserted by a reverend divine who wrote the critique.
Your
name and connection with our family have been long known to me, and I hope your person will be not less so: you will find me an excellent compound of a "Brainless" and a "Stanhope."
I am afraid you will hardly be able to read this, for my hand is almost as bad as my character; but you will find me, as legibly as possible,
Your obliged and obedient servant,
Byron
.
Footnote 1:
Robert Charles Dallas (1754-1842), born in Jamaica and educated in Scotland, read law at the Inner Temple. About 1775 he returned to Jamaica to look after his property and take up a lucrative appointment. Three years later he returned to England, married, and took his wife back with him to the West Indies. His wife's health compelled him to return to Europe, and he lived for some time in France. At the outbreak of the Revolution he emigrated to America; but finally settled down to literary work in England. His first publication (1797) was
Miscellaneous Writings consisting of Poems; Lucretia, a Tragedy; and Moral Essays, with a Vocabulary of the Passions
. He translated a number of French books bearing on the French Revolution, by Bertrand de Moleville, Mallet du Pan, Hue, and Joseph Weber; also a work on Volcanoes by the Abbé Ordinaire, and an historical novel by Madame de Genlis,
The Siege of Rochelle
. He wrote a number of novels, among them
Percival, or Nature Vindicated
(1801);
Aubrey: a Novel
(1804);
The Morlands; Tales illustrative of the Simple and Surprising
(1805);
The Knights; Tales illustrative of the Marvellous
(1808). Later (1819 and 1823) he published two volumes of poems. He says (preface to
Percival
, p. ix.) that his object is "to improve the heart, as well as to please the fancy, and to be the auxiliary of the Divine and the Moralist." He is one of the writers, others being "Gleaner" Pratt and Lord Carlisle, "whose writings" (
Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Percival Stockdale
, 1809, vol. i. Preface, p. xvi.) "dart through the general fog of our literary dulness." Stockdale further says of him that he was "a man of a most affectionate and virtuous mind. He has had the moral honour, in several novels, to exert his talents, which were worthy of their glorious cause, in the service of good conduct and religion."
Dallas's sister, Henrietta Charlotte, married George Anson Byron, the son of Admiral the Hon. John Byron, and was therefore Byron's aunt by marriage. On the score of this connection, Dallas introduced himself to Byron by complimenting him, in a letter dated January 6, 1808, on his
Hours of Idleness
. A well-meaning, self-satisfied, dull, industrious man, he gave Byron excellent moral advice, to which the latter responded as the
fanfaron de ses vices
, evidently with great amusement to himself.
English Bards, and Scotch Reviewers
was brought out under Dallas's auspices, as well as
Childe Harold
and
The Corsair
, the profits of which Byron made over to him. Dallas distrusted his own literary judgment in the matter of Byron's verse, and consulted Walter Wright, the author of Horæ Ioniæ, about the prospects of
Childe Harold
.
"I have told him," said Wright, "that I have no doubt this will succeed. Lord Byron had offered him before some translations from Horace, which I told him would never sell, and he did not take them"
(
Diary of H. Crabb Robinson
, vol. i. pp. 29, 30). The connection between Dallas and Byron practically ended in 1814. The publication of Dallas's
Recollections of the Life of Lord Byron from the Year
1808
to the end of
1814 was stopped by a decree obtained by Byron's executors, in the Court of Chancery, August 23, 1824. But the book was published by the writer's son, the Rev. A. R. C. Dallas.
cross-reference: return to Footnote 3 of Letter 148
Footnote 2:
Byron refers to the following passage in Dallas's letter of January 6, 1808:
"A spirit that brings to my mind another noble author, who was not only a fine poet, orator, and historian, but one of the closest reasoners we have on the truth of that religion, of which forgiveness is a prominent principle: the great and the good Lord Lyttelton, whose fame will never die. His son, to whom he had transmitted genius but not virtue, sparkled for a moment, and went out like a falling star, and with him the title became extinct. He was the victim of inordinate passions, and he will be heard of in this world only by those who read the English Peerage"
(
Correspondence of Lord Byron
, p. 20, the suppressed edition).
Dallas was, of course, aware that Byron's predecessor in the title, William, fifth Lord Byron, was known as the "wicked Lord Byron." George, first Lord Lyttelton (1709-1773), to whom Pope refers (
Imitations of Horace
, bk. i. Ep. i. 1. 30) as
"Still true to virtue, and as warm as true,"
was a voluminous writer in prose and verse, but owed his political importance to his family connection with Chatham, Temple, and George Grenville. Horace Walpole calls him a "wise moppet" (
Letters
, vol. ii. p. 28, ed. Cunningham), and repeatedly sneers at his dulness. His son Thomas, second Lord Lyttelton (1744-1779), the "wicked Lord Lyttelton," appears in W. Combe's
Diaboliad
as the
"Peer of words,
Well known, — and honour'd in the House of Lords, —
Whose Eloquence all Parallel defies!"
who claims the throne of Hell as the worst of living men. His
Poems by a Young Nobleman lately deceased
(published in 1780, after his death) may have helped Dallas in his allusion. He was the hero and the victim of the famous ghost story which Dr. Johnson was "willing to believe."
Footnote 3:
The Critical Review
(3rd series, vol. xii. pp. 47-53) specially praises lines "On Leaving Newstead Abbey" and "Childish Recollections."
Footnote 4:
In
Monthly Literary Recreations
(July, 1807, pp. 67-71), "Childish Recollections" and "The Tear" are particularly commended.
"As friends to the cause of literature, we have thought proper not to disguise our opinion of his powers, that we might alter his determination, and lead him once more to the Castalian fount."
Footnote 5:
The Anti-Jacobin Review
(December, 1807, pp. 407, 408) says that the poems
"exhibit strong proofs of genius, accompanied by a lively but chastened imagination, a classical taste, and a benevolent heart."
Footnote 6:
The Eclectic Review
(vol. iii. part ii. pp. 989-993) begins its review thus:
"The notice we take of this publication regards the author rather than the book; the book is a collection of juvenile pieces, some of very moderate merit, and others of very questionable morality; but the author is a nobleman!"
Footnote 7:
Characters in the novel called
Percival
.
