offence admits of some palliation; but in the present instance, the true proprietor of the stolen goods has been unnoticed; and they have degenerated in his Lordship's hands, as every one who reads will allow.

To point out the profaneness and contempt of religion, which distinguish his Lordship's writings, would be superfluous; every one, who has read Don Juan and others of his poems, must be aware of it; and it is only for the sake of justifying the observations which we have made, that we advert to the following passage and parody:

"Thou shalt believe in Milton, Dryden, Pope; Thou shalt not set up Wordsworth, Coleridge, Southey; Because the first is craz'd beyond all hope, The second drunk, the third so quaint

and mouthey:

With Crabbe it may be difficult to cope, And Campbell's Hippocrene is somewhat , drouthy:

Thou shalt not steal from Samuel Rogers,

nor

say,

Byron, when he tells the world that his publication is a moral one? The morality of his Lordshipseems to be too like Glendower's,, spirits from the vasty deep," much talked of by himself, but totally imperceptible.

For some time past his Lordship has been turning his attention towards the drama, and the public have been treated with some Tragedies. The Doge of Venice was the first that made its appearance, and this though bad, is perhaps, the best. It resembles Venice Preserved in plot, scenes, characters; in short, in every thing but beauties. In these last it certainly does not resemble Otway's Play, and is therefore so far free from plagiarism. Nevertheless it must be confessed, that Marino Faliero possesses some splendid passages; but these are scarce. In fact the excellence of the work bears about the same proportion to its deficiences, as the gold in the Wicklow mountains, to the other materials of which they are composed. Want of room prevents the insertion of those extracts which we should wish to particularize; but the Doge of Venice is furnished with a preface and some notes on which we shall take the liberty of making a few remarks. In the preface, after telling the world that in the conduct of his plot, he had taken the advice of the late M. G. Lewis, (whose taste it will be recollected he so severely condemned in English Bards and Scotch Reviewers) his Lordship says "I have had no views to the Stage." Now there is some reason to doubt the truth of this assertion. The Doge of Venice was performed at Drury-lane, within a very few nights after its publication; and there was a report afloat, that the wet sheets went from the Printer's to the Play-house, long before the work becanie public. This may be true or not; but without some access to the play, before it appeared in the shops, one is at a loss to discover how it was possible to get up a performance of it within so short a time as elapsed between its publication and its represen tation on the stage. It is true, that an injunction was sued for by Mr. Murray (worshipful bookseller) as his Lordship once called him*) to stop the theatrical proceedings. But it is not impossible, that this might have been a mere manœuvre, to enhance the

See English Bards and Scotch Reviewers

demand for his Lordship's book. Si milar tricks and contrivances have been resorted to ere now! In a note to the said preface his Lordship's liberality and modesty seemed to burst forth in a full flood. "Miss O'Neil," says he I never saw, having made up my mind and kept a determination to see nothing, which should divide or disturb my recollection of Siddons." "Siddons and Kemble were the ideal of tragic action; I never saw any thing at all resembling them, even in person: for this reason, We shall never see again Coriolanus or Macbeth." Speaking of Kean his Lordship says," In all not SUPER-natural parts [marvellous affectation!]"he is perfect, even his very defects belong, or seem to belong, to the parts themselves, and appear true to nature." It is unnecessary to comment on the mawkishness and obscurity of this last extract, that must be obvious to every one. But there is a note at page 207 of the Doge of Venice, which certainly deserves animadversion. It appears, that the author of "Sketches Descriptive of Italy," has said in his book, that he had repeatedly declined an introduction to Lord Byron, while in Italy. This assertion filled his Lordship with so much wrath, that he could not help giving vent to it thus: "I request this person not to sit down with a notion that he could have been introduced, since there has been nothing I have so carefully avoided as any kind of intercourse* with HIS Countrymen."- Except

We presume his Lordship must mean here to except that sort of intercourse, which has long been of such extensive benefit to himself and his worthy colleague, Mr. Murray, the bookseller. Between them both they have managed to wheedle the English out of a great deal of money, for which his Lordship returns his contempt, whilst he coolly pockets his share of the profit. The price of Sarda napalus and the two other Dramas his Lordships's last work, is fifteen shillings, which is Shakspeare, or Beaumont and Fletcher, con taining better poetry and twice as much matter. It is really quite amusing to observe the ingenuity, with which this last work of his Lordship's, is decked out to gull the public into a purchasing humour. We are furnished with a tremendous margin, occupying much more space than the letter press, and of that there is such an economical management, that in some instances whole pages are left blank, and in others, a few questions and answers only occur-vide pages 301-2-3:348:-361. Who then can complain of not having enough for his money?

about double the price asked for a volume of

Lords Landsdown, Jersey, Lauderdale, Messrs. Scott, Hammond, &c. &c., I do not recollect to have exchanged a word with another Englishman since I left their conntry; the others, and God knows there were some hundreds who bored me with letters and visits, I refused to have any communication with, and shall be proud and happy when that wish [what wish] becomes mutual!" Now one is certainly at a loss which to admire most, the patriotism, or grammatical accuracy and elegance of the last extract. We ought not, however, to be surprised at finding such sentiments emanate from Lord Byron, when we recollect that in his ivth canto to Childe Harold, he has called the Battle of Waterloo, "the carnage of St. Jean." If any thing can shew Lord Byron's hostility to his country's welfare and insensibility to the glory, worth, and valour of his countrymen, it is this malignant sneer at a victory, which has reflected the brightest lustre on the British arms. It was not alone the bravery of our soldiers which called forth the admiration of nations ; but their humanity to the wounded and prisoners; this gained them even the admiration as well as the gratitude of the vanquished, and impressed all mankind (except his Lordship and his revolutionary fraternity) with a full sense of the greatness, if not superiority, of the British character. Since, however, his Lordship is so avowedly inimical to England and its inhabitants, it is but natural that he should forsake it for some other and better country but that he should select Italy as the place of his retirement is, indeed, surprising. Perhaps, no people were ever more polluted with vice than the Italians: their minds and manners are, and have long been, depraved and licentious to an excess, and the most degrading enormities are familiar to them. In England, wealth and power would find some little difficulty in purchasing transgressions of the laws of God and man; but in Italy, the country after his Lordship's own heart, under the "dark blue skies" of incomparable Italy, murder, rapine and perjury find their market and their price; and crimes the most disgusting and detestable are present, and practised in unrestrained luxuriance!

A volume, containing two tragedies, Sardanapalus and the two Foscari, and

a mystery entitled Cain, has issued from the press within the last few weeks. To speak of these dramatic efforts of his Lordship favourably, and at the same time truly, is imposible. Like all the rest of his Lordship's works, they possess strong and striking marks of supreme poetical talent; but in the present instance these are very limited in point of number; so much so, that if we except about twenty pages, the remainder of the work would not be turned to an unworthy use, if it were made the envelope of the articles in a huckster's shop. There are two things in this last production of his Lordship, which have been thrust by the newspapers upon the public attention; these are a preface, in which he declares (as he did in the preface to the Doge of Venice, and perhaps, with equal truth) that he has had no view to the stage-and a note in page 325, when after giving that unmarketable tissue of folly, Lady Morgan's Italy a much wanted puff, (for which she is no doubt, profoundly grateful) his Lordship commences an attack on Mr. Southey, with all the venom and inveteracy of an irritated scorpion." Mr. Southey too" saith the note" in his pious preface to a poem, whose blasphemy is as harmless as the sedition of Wat Tyler, because it is equally absurd with that sincere production, calls upon the legislature to look to it as the toleration of

We feel a strong inclination to discuss the demerits of Cain ; but want of room prevents

us.

We cannot, however, forbear remarking, that the author appears to have written it for the express purpose of forming a weapon against religion; and most ingeniously has he succeeded. The two principal characters are Cain and the Devil, who are introduced to promulgate such accusations against the justice of the Almighty, as are every where to be found in the works of Voltaire, Paine, and other SATANISTS.

†The manuscript of of Don Juan was so excessively libellous and prophane, that it was deemed unsafe to publish it in its original state. Accordingly it was submitted to Counsel (as the story goes) with instructions to erase all dangerous passages. It afterwards appeared before the world in a mutilated condition, unacknowledged by its author, and what is even more strange, without the publisher's name inserted in the title page; although it is pretty clear that he sold it and shared its produce. We have often wondered that Don Juan never gave rise to a prosecution. Carlisle and other men of mean estate were brought to justice for publications of a similar description;-why then should Lord Byron and his accomplice escape? We do not hesitate to say, that the author and pub

such writings led to the French Revotion: not such writings as Wat Tyler, but as those of the Satanic School.'" This Lord Byron, probably from feeling how well the cap fitted, has taken to himself, and in his turn poured forth his abuse ou Mr. Southey. His Lordship labours with much earnestness and even rage to shew, that such writings did not lead to the French Revolution, and that Voltaire and Rousseau (poor innocents) were the victims of undeserved prosecution. He then begins to prophesy a second English Revolution:" I look upon such" says heas inevitable though no revolutionist! Born an aristocrat and naturally one by temper, with the greatest part of my property in the funds, what have I to gain by a revolution! [What had the Duke of Orleans to gain by one?] Perhaps I have more to lose in every way than Mr. Southey, with all his places and presents for panegyricks and abuse into the bargain: but that a revolution is inevitable I repeat." What his Lordship may have to lose we know not; but after his denteroscopia, if things come to the worst, we shall not be surprised to see him set up for a fortune teller. In a subsequent part of the note, he contends, that the writings of the Encyclopedists did little harm to France:

they only corrupted Paris; and therefore, we suppose, we are to understand, that if his Lordship and his brethren only corrupt London, we ought not to complain!

But the thing, which seems to be the greatest annoyance to Lord Byron,

6

an observation of Mr. Southey respecting the death-bed repentance of that class of writers to which his Lordship belongs. To this his Lordship replies:-"I have not waited for a death bed to repent of many of my actions, notwithstanding the diabolical pride' which this pitiful renegado would in his rancour impute to those who scorn him." Scorn! In faith my Lord, this looks more like the wincing of a galled jade, than the sentiments of a scornful man. But why call Mr. Southey a renegado? Has Lord Byron never played the apostate? There was a time, when his Lordship

lisher of Don Juan were more properly the objects of an indictment than Carlisle; he was an obscure and needy wretch, whose poverty probably drove him to sell the poison; but no such excuse can be made for Lord Byron nor the utterer of his blasphemy.

Ff

66

most unsparingly held up Moore to public contempt as a coward and a poltroon*; although it was well known that the translator of Anacreon was by no means deficient in courage. Is it not, therefore, somewhat astonishing, to find prefixed to the Corsair, a dedication beginning "Dear Moore," and ending Byron," and proceeding in a most loving strain to sing his resentment asleep? Astonishing, however, as the thing may be, it is nevertheless true, and stands a notorious monument of his Lordship's consistency; he should, therefore, wash his own hands before he presumes to eall Mr. Southey's unclean! But however Lord Byron may revile Mr. Southey, the latter cannot be half so much hart as he has made his Lordship angry. In almost every passage of the note to which we have been last alluding, his Lordship's anger manifests itself most abundantly. In one place he begins to boast amidst his rage, and say, "I, in my degree, have done more real good in any one given year since I was twenty, than Mr. Southey in the whole course of his shifting and turncoat existence." It is really a pity, that his Lordship did not give his readers a specimen or two of the good whereof he talks so largely; perhaps, he reckons on giving certain offal scraps, yclept his life, to Moore; probably to relieve that Gentleman's pecuniary wants, or as a compensation for the abuse and insinuations levelled at him in the English Bards and Scotch Reviewers! As to the goodness of his Lordship's disposition, if we are to judge of it by his writings, it cannot be considered as very abundant. If, however, he wishes to make people believe that he desires to do good, let him cease to do evil!

It is really lamentable to reflect upon the manner in which his Lordship has debased himself, and his abi

* See English Bards and Scotch Reviewers, p. 36, 4th edition.

lities, which are unquestionably great, He might have ranked and moved amongst the best of the good, and the the noblest of the noble: he might have lived and died hononred and immortalized as a poet-respected as a man, and beloved and caressed as a husband and a father. Had he inclined himself to virtuous courses, no man could apparently have had more cause to consider his life a blessing, nor a greater chance of enjoying the most complete & uninterrupted happiness. But he has adopted a line of conduct which has blighted all the good prospects that lay before him. He has withdrawn himself from his family and his friends; he has most unequivocally declared his hatred to his fellow Englishmen; he has mocked at and insulted religion; and shutting himself up in one of the most desolate and abandoned of the Italian cities, has become a prophet of evil to his country. There is something detestable and at the same time ridiculous in the idea of a fugitive peer uttering limping oracles amongst the ruins of Ravenna, the Mount Carmel of his sensuality; and whilst we abhor the wicked and unnatural sentiments of the man, we cannot help feeling the most measureless contempt for the prophet.

We are sorry to be obliged to comment so severely upon his Lordship; but considering the evil he has done, and is likely to do, we should have considered our duty imperfectly performed, if we had neglected to expose him to the world in all his literary deformity. It would be vain to hope, that what we have written will reclaim so hardened a sinner. We may make him angry (as Mr. Southey has done) but can hardly make him better. If, however, his Lordship shall hereafter betray any symptoms of improvement, we shall on all future occasions be happy to acknowledge them; and in the mean time he has our best wishes for his speedy reformation.