365—to Francis Hodgson
Nov'r—Dec'r 1st, 1813.
I
have
just heard that
Knapp
is acquainted with what I was but too happy in being enabled to do for you
.
Now, my dear Hn., you, or Drury, must have told this, for, upon my own honour, not even to Scrope, nor to one soul, (Drury knew it before) have I said one syllable of the matter. So don't be out of humour with me about it, but you can't be more so than I am. I am, however, glad of one thing; if you ever conceived it to be in the least an obligation, this disclosure most fairly and fully releases you from it:
"To John I owe some obligation,
But John unluckily thinks fit
To publish it to all the nation,
So John and I are more than quit."
And so there's an end of the matter.
Ward
wavers
a little about the Dutch, till matters are more sedative, and the French more sedentary.
The
Bride
will blush upon you in a day or two; there is
much
, at least a
little
addition. I am happy to say that Frere and Heber, and some other "good men and true," have been kind enough to adopt the same opinion that you did.
Pray write when you like, and believe me,
Ever yours,
Byron
.
P.S.—Murray has
offered
me a thousand guineas for the
two
(
Giaour
and
Bride
), and told M'e. de Stael that he had
paid
them to me!! I should be glad to be able to tell her so too. But the truth is, he would; but I thought the fair way was to decline it till May, and, at the end of 6 months, he can safely say whether he can afford it or not—without running any risk by Speculation. If he paid them now and lost by it, it would be hard. If he gains, it will be time enough when he has already funded his profits. But he needed not have told "
la Baronne
" such a devil of an uncalled for piece of—premature
truth
, perhaps—but, nevertheless, a
lie
in the mean time.
Footnote 1:
Hodgson, now engaged to Miss Tayler, was anxious to clear off his father's liabilities. Byron gave him from first to last the sum of £1500 for the purpose. Hodgson, in a letter to his uncle, thus describes the gift (
Memoir of Rev. F. Hodgson
, vol. i. pp. 268, 269):
"My noble-hearted friend, Lord Byron, after many offers of a similar kind, which I felt bound to refuse, has irresistibly in my present circumstances ... volunteered to pay all my debts, and within a few pounds it is done! Oh, if you knew (but you do know) the exultation of heart, aye, and of head too, I feel at being free from these depressing embarrassments, you would, as I do, bless my dearest friend and brother Byron."
Contents
cross-reference: return to Footnote 3 of Journal entry for December 1st, 1813
