110 — To R. C. Dallas

Reddish's Hotel, Jan. 25, 1809.

My Dear Sir, —

My

only reason for not adopting your lines is because they are

your

lines

1

. You will recollect that Lady Wortley Montague said to Pope: "No touching, for the good will be given to you, and the bad attributed to me." I am determined it shall be all my own, except such alterations as may be absolutely required; but I am much obliged by the trouble you have taken, and your good opinion.

The

couplet on Lord C.

2

may be scratched out and the following inserted:

Roscommon! Sheffield! with your spirits fled,
No future laurels deck a noble head.
Nor e'en a hackney'd Muse will deign to smile
On minor Byron, nor mature Carlisle.

This will answer the purpose of concealment.

Now

for some couplets on Mr. Crabbe

3

, which you may place after "Gifford, Sotheby, M'Niel:"

There be who say, in these enlightened days,
That splendid lies are all the Poet's praise;
That strained invention, ever on the wing,
Alone impels the modern Bard to sing.
'Tis true that all who rhyme, nay, all who write,
Shrink from that fatal word to genius, trite:
Yet Truth will sometimes lend her noblest fires,
And decorate the verse herself inspires.
This fact in Virtue's name let Crabbe attest;
Though Nature's sternest painter, yet the best.

I

am sorry to differ with you with regard to the title

4

, but I mean to retain it with this addition:

The British [the word "British" is struck through] English Bards and Scotch Reviewers

; and if we call it a

Satire

, it will obviate the objection, as the Bards also were Welch. Your title is too humorous; — and as I know a little of — — , I wish not to embroil myself with him, though I do not commend his treatment of — — . I shall be glad to hear from you or see you, and beg you to believe me,

Yours very sincerely,

Byron

.

Footnote 1:

  Dallas (January 24, 1809) takes "the liberty of sending you some two dozen lines," etc.

Footnote 2:

 The couplet on Lord Carlisle, as it stood in

British Bards

, was —

"On one alone Apollo deigns to smile,
And crowns a new Roscommon in Carlisle."

(See

English Bards, etc

., lines 723,

et seqq

.; see also line 927,

note

2. For Lord Carlisle, see page 36,

note

2.)

Footnote 3:

  For "Gifford, Sotheby, Macneil," see

English Bards, etc

., line 818, and

notes

. Dallas had written (January 24, 1809),

"I am sorry you have not found a place among the genuine sons of Apollo for Crabbe, who, in spite of something bordering on servility in his dedication, may surely rank with some you have admitted to his temple"

(see

English Bards, etc

., lines 849-858).

Footnote 4:

  Dallas suggested as a title,

The Parish Poor of Parnassus

.