244—to Lord Holland

Cheltenham, September 10, 1812.

My Dear Lord,— The lines which I sketched off on your hint are still, or rather were, in an unfinished state, for I have just committed them to a flame more decisive than that of Drury 1 .

Under all circumstances, I should hardly wish a contest with Philodrama—Philo-Drury—Asbestos, H——, and all the anonymes and synonymes of Committee candidates. Seriously, I think you have a chance of something much better; for prologuising is not my forte, and, at all events, either my pride or my modesty won't let me incur the hazard of having my rhymes buried in next month's Magazine, under "Essays on the Murder of Mr. Perceval." and "Cures for the Bite of a Mad Dog," as poor Goldsmith complained of the fate of far superior performances 2 .

I am still sufficiently interested to wish to know the successful candidate; and, amongst so many, I have no doubt some will be excellent, particularly in an age when writing verse is the easiest of all attainments.

I cannot answer your intelligence with the "like comfort," unless, as you are deeply theatrical, you may wish to hear of Mr. Betty 3 , whose acting is, I fear, utterly inadequate to the London engagement into which the managers of Covent Garden have lately entered.

His figure is fat, his features flat, his voice unmanageable, his action ungraceful, and, as Diggory 4 says, "I defy him to extort that damned muffin face of his into madness." I was very sorry to see him in the character of the "Elephant on the slack rope;" for, when I last saw him, I was in raptures with his performance. But then I was sixteen—an age to which all London condescended to subside. After all, much better judges have admired, and may again; but I venture to "prognosticate a prophecy" (see the Courier) that he will not succeed.

So, poor dear Rogers has stuck fast on "the brow of the mighty Helvellyn" 5 I hope not for ever. My best respects to Lady H.:—her departure, with that of my other friends, was a sad event for me, now reduced to a state of the most cynical solitude.

"By the waters of Cheltenham I sat down and drank, when I remembered thee, oh Georgiana Cottage! As for our harps, we hanged them up upon the willows that grew thereby. Then they said, Sing us a song of Drury Lane," etc.;

—but I am dumb and dreary as the Israelites. The waters have disordered me to my heart's content—you were right, as you always are.

Believe me, ever your obliged and affectionate servant,

Byron.

Footnote 1:

  Drury Lane Theatre was reopened, after the fire of February 24, 1809, on Saturday, October 10, 1812. In the previous August the following advertisement was issued:

"Rebuilding of Drury-Lane Theatre.

"The Committee are desirous of promoting a fair and free competition for an Address, to be spoken upon the opening of the Theatre, which will take place on the 10th of October next: They have therefore thought fit to announce to the Public, that they will be glad to receive any such Compositions, addressed to their Secretary at the Treasury Office in Drury Lane, on or before the 10th of September, sealed up, with a distinguishing word, number, or motto, on the cover, corresponding with the inscription, on a separate sealed paper, containing the name of the Author, which will not be opened, unless containing the name of the successful Candidate. Theatre Royal, Drury-Lane, August 13, 1812.

Owing to an accidental delay in the publication of the above Advertisement, the Committee have thought proper to extend the time for receiving Addresses, from the last day of August to the 10th of September."

Byron, on the suggestion of Lord Holland, intended to send in an Address in competition with other similar productions. He afterwards changed his mind, and refused to compete. After all the Addresses had been received and rejected, the Committee applied to him to write an Address. This he consented to do.

Footnote 2:

"The public were more importantly employed, than to observe the easy simplicity of my style, or the harmony of my periods. Sheet after sheet was thrown off to oblivion. My essays were buried among the essays upon liberty, Eastern tales, and cures for the bite of a mad dog."

Vicar of Wakefield, chap. xx.

Footnote 3:

  See Letters, vol. i. p. 63, note 2 [Footnote 2 of Letter 24].

Footnote 4:

  "Diggory," one of Liston's parts, a character in Jackman's All the World's a Stage, asks (act i. sc. 2), "But how can you extort that damned pudding-face of yours to madness?"

Footnote 5:

  Rogers had gone for a tour in the North. Byron alludes to Scott's poem Helvellyn:

"I climb'd the dark brow of the mighty Helvellyn," etc., etc.

The poem was occasioned, as Scott's note states, by the death of "a young gentleman of talents, and of a most amiable disposition," who was killed on the mountain in 1805.