102 — To Francis Hodgson 1
Newstead Abbey, Notts., Nov. 3, 1808.
My Dear Hodgson, — I expected to have heard ere this the event of your interview with the mysterious Mr. Haynes, my volunteer correspondent; however, as I had no business to trouble you with the adjustment of my concerns with that illustrious stranger, I have no right to complain of your silence.
You
have of course seen Drury
, in all the pleasing palpitations of anticipated wedlock. Well! he has still something to look forward to, and his present extacies are certainly enviable. "Peace be with him and with his spirit," and his flesh also, at least just now ...
Hobhouse and your humble are still here. Hobhouse hunts, etc., and I do nothing; we dined the other day with a neighbouring Esquire (not Collet of Staines), and regretted your absence, as the Bouquet of Staines was scarcely to be compared to our last "feast of reason." You know, laughing is the sign of a rational animal; so says Dr. Smollett. I think so, too, but unluckily my spirits don't always keep pace with my opinions.
I
had not so much scope for risibility the other day as I could have wished, for I was seated near a woman, to whom, when a boy, I was as much attached as boys generally are, and more than a man should be
. I knew this before I went, and was determined to be valiant, and converse with
sang froid
; but instead I forgot my valour and my nonchalance, and never opened my lips even to laugh, far less to speak, and the lady was almost as absurd as myself, which made both the object of more observation than if we had conducted ourselves with easy indifference. You will think all this great nonsense; if you had seen it, you would have thought it still more ridiculous. What fools we are! We cry for a plaything, which, like children, we are never satisfied with till we break open, though like them we cannot get rid of it by putting it in the fire.
I
have tried for Gifford's
Epistle to Pindar
, and the bookseller says the copies were cut up for
waste paper;
if you can procure me a copy I shall be much obliged. Adieu!
Believe me, my dear Sir, yours ever sincerely,
Byron
.
Footnote 1:
Francis Hodgson (1781-1852), educated at Eton (1794-99) and at King's College, Cambridge, Scholar (1799), Fellow (1802), hesitated between literature and the bar as his profession. For three years he was a private tutor, for one (1806) a master at Eton. In 1807 he became a resident tutor at King's. It was not till 1812 that he decided to take orders. Two years later he married Miss Tayler, a sister of Mrs. Henry Drury, and took a country curacy. In 1816 he was given the Eton living of Bakewell, in Derbyshire, became Archdeacon of Derby in 1836, and in 1840 Provost of Eton. At Eton he died December 29, 1852.
Hodgson's literary facility was extraordinary. He rhymed with an ease which almost rivals that of Byron, and from 1807 to 1818 he poured out quantities of verse, English and Latin, original and translated, besides writing articles for the
Quarterly
, the
Monthly
, and the
Critical
Reviews. He published his
Translation of Juvenal
in 1807, in which he was assisted by Drury and Merivale;
Lady Jane Grey, a Tale; and other Poems
(1809);
Sir Edgar, a Tale
(1810);
Leaves of Laurel
(1812);
Charlemagne, an Epic Poem
(1815), translated from the original of Lucien Bonaparte, Prince of Canino, by S. Butler and Francis Hodgson;
The Friends, a Poem in Four Books; Mythology for Versification
(1831);
A Charge, as Archdeacon of Derby
(1837);
Sermons
(1846); and other works.
His acquaintance with Byron began in 1807, when Byron was meditating
British Bards
, and Hodgson, provoked by a review of his
Juvenal
in the
Edinburgh Review
, was composing his
Gentle Alterative prepared for the Reviewers
, which appears on pp. 56, 57 of
Lady Jane Grey
. There are some curious points of resemblance between the two poems, though Hodgson's lines can hardly be compared for force and sting to
English Bards, and Scotch Reviewers
. Like Byron (see
English Bards, etc
., line 513,
note
7), he makes merry over the blunder of the
Edinburgh
reviewer, who, in an article on Payne Knight's
Principles of Taste
, severely criticized some Greek lines which he attributed to Knight, but which, in fact, were by Pindar:—
"And when he frown'd on Kn — 's erroneous Greek, Bad him in Pindar's page that error seek."
Like Byron also, he attributes the blunder to Hallam, and speaks of "Hallam's baffled art." The article was written by Lord Holland's physician, Dr. Allen, who, according to Sydney Smith, had "the creed of a philosopher and the legs of a clergyman." Like Byron also (see
English Bards, etc
., line 820), he appeals to Gifford, who was an old family friend, to return to the fray:—
"Oh! for that voice, whose cadence loud and strong
Drove Delia Crusca from the field of song —
And with a force that guiltier fools should feel,
Rack'd a vain butterfly on Satire's wheel."
In a note appended to the words in his satire — "Like clowns detest nobility" — he refers to the
Edinburgh's
treatment of Byron's verse.
The link thus established between Byron and Hodgson grew stronger for the next few years. Hodgson suppressed Moore's challenge to the author of
English Bards
; was Byron's guest at Newstead (see page 179, in
); pleaded with him on the subject of religion; translated his lines, "I would I were a careless child," into Latin verse (
Lady Jane Grey
, p. 94); addressed him in poetry, as, for instance, in the "Lines to a Friend going abroad" (
Sir Edgar
, p. 173). Byron, on his side, seems to have been sincerely attached to Hodgson, to whom he left, by his first will (1811), one-third of his personal goods, and in 1813 gave £1000 to enable him to marry. Hodgson corresponded with Mrs. Leigh and with Miss Milbanke, afterwards Lady Byron, endeavoured to heal the breach between husband and wife, and was one of the mourners at Hucknall Torkard Church.
In Haydon's
Table-Talk
(vol. ii pp. 367-8) is recorded a conversation with Hobhouse on the subject of Hodgson. Haydon's account of Hobhouse's words is confused; but he definitely asserts that Hodgson's life was dissipated, and insinuates that he perverted Byron's character. Part of the explanation is probably this: Hodgson's friend, the Rev. Robert Bland, kept a mistress, described as a woman of great personal and mental attraction. He asked Hodgson, during his absence on the Continent, to visit the lady and send him frequent news of her. Hodgson did so, with the result that, at Bland's return, the lady refused to see him. When Byron came back from his Eastern tour, he received a frantic letter from Bland, telling him that Hodgson had stolen her love. To this Byron refers in his letter to Harness, December 15, 1811, and probably told an embellished story to Hobhouse. But Hodgson himself warmly repudiated the charge; and there is no reason to think that his version of the affair is not the truth.
cross-reference: return to Footnote 1 of Letter 14
cross-reference: return to Footnote 2 of Letter 137
Footnote 2:
The Rev. Henry Drury married, December 20, 1808, Ann Caroline, daughter of Archdale Wilson Tayler, of Boreham Wood, Herts. Their five sons were all educated at Harrow: Henry, Archdeacon of Wilts and editor of
Arundines Cami
(1841); Byron, Vice-Admiral R.N.; Benjamin Heath, Vice-President of Caius College, Cambridge; Heber, Colonel in the Madras Army; Charles Curtis, General of the Bengal Staff Corps (see also page 41,
2).
Footnote 3:
Mrs. Chaworth Musters (see Byron's lines, "Well! thou art happy,"
Poems
, vol. i. pp. 277-279).
Footnote 4:
William Gifford (1756-1826), a self-taught scholar, first a ploughboy, then boy on board a Brixham coaster, afterwards shoemaker's apprentice, was sent by friends to Exeter College, Oxford (1779-81). In the
Baviad
(1794) and the
Mæviad
(1795) he attacked many of the smaller writers of the day, who were either silly, like the Delia Cruscan school, or discreditable, like Williams, who wrote as "Anthony Pasquin." In his
Epistle to Peter Pindar
(1800) he succeeds in laying bare the true character of John Wolcot. As editor of the
Anti-Jacobin, or Weekly Examiner
(November, 1797, to July, 1798), he supported the political views of Canning and his friends. As editor of the
Quarterly Review
, from its foundation (February, 1809) to his resignation in September, 1824, he did yeoman's service to sound literature by his good sense and adherence to the best models. It was a period when all criticism was narrow, and, to some degree, warped by political prejudice. In these respects, Gifford's work may not have risen above — it certainly did not fall below — the highest standard of contemporary criticism. His editions of
Massinger
(1805), which superseded that of Monck Mason and Davies (1765), of
Ben Jonson
(1816), of
Ford
(1827), are valuable. To his translation of
Juvenal
(1802) is prefixed his autobiography. His translation of
Persius
appeared in 1821. To Gifford, Byron usually paid the utmost deference.
"Any suggestion of yours, even if it were conveyed," he writes to him, in 1813, "in the less tender text of the Baviad, or a Monk Mason note to Massinger, would be obeyed."
See also his letter (September 7, 1811), in which he calls Gifford his "Magnus Apollo," and values his praise above the gems of Samarcand.
"He was," says Sir Walter Scott (Diary, January 18, 1827), "a little man, dumpled up together, and so ill-made as to seem almost deformed, but with a singular expression of talent in his countenance."
Byron was attracted to Gifford, partly by his devotion to the classical models of literature, partly by the outspoken frankness of his literary criticism, partly also, perhaps, by his physical deformity.
