Life of Lord Byron, With His Letters And Journals, Vol. 5 | Page 9

English poetry. There are more poets
(soi-disant) than ever there were, and proportionally less poetry.
"This thesis I have maintained for some years, but, strange to say, it
meeteth not with favour from my brethren of the shell. Even Moore
shakes his head, and firmly believes that it is the grand age of British
poesy."]
[Footnote 5: Written by Lord Byron's early friend, the Rev. Francis
Hodgson.]
[Footnote 6: The strange verses that follow are from a poem by
Keats.--In a manuscript note on this passage of the pamphlet, dated
November 12. 1821, Lord Byron says, "Mr. Keats died at Rome about a
year after this was written, of a decline produced by his having burst a
blood-vessel on reading the article on his 'Endymion' in the Quarterly
Review. I have read the article before and since; and, although it is
bitter, I do not think that a man should permit himself to be killed by it.
But a young man little dreams what he must inevitably encounter in the
course of a life ambitious of public notice. My indignation at Mr.
Keats's depreciation of Pope has hardly permitted me to do justice to
his own genius, which, malgrè all the fantastic fopperies of his style,
was undoubtedly of great promise. His fragment of 'Hyperion' seems
actually inspired by the Titans, and is as sublime as Æschylus. He is a

loss to our literature; and the more so, as he himself, before his death, is
said to have been persuaded that he had not taken the right line, and
was reforming his style upon the more classical models of the
language."]
[Footnote 7: "It was at least a grammar 'school.'"]
[Footnote 8: "So spelt by the author."]
* * * * *
LETTER 396. TO MR. MURRAY.
"Ravenna, 9bre 4. 1820.
"I have received from Mr. Galignani the enclosed letters, duplicates and
receipts, which will explain themselves.[9] As the poems are your
property by purchase, right, and justice, _all matters of publication, &c.
&c. are for you to decide upon_. I know not how far my compliance
with Mr. Galignani's request might be legal, and I doubt that it would
not be honest. In case you choose to arrange with him, I enclose the
permits to you, and in so doing I wash my hands of the business
altogether. I sign them merely to enable you to exert the power you
justly possess more properly. I will have nothing to do with it farther,
except, in my answer to Mr. Galignani, to state that the letters, &c. &c.
are sent to you, and the causes thereof.
"If you can check these foreign pirates, do; if not, put the permissive
papers in the fire. I can have no view nor object whatever, but to secure
to you your property.
"Yours, &c.
"P.S. I have read part of the Quarterly just arrived: Mr. Bowles shall be
answered:--he is not quite correct in his statement about English Bards
and Scotch Reviewers. They support Pope, I see, in the Quarterly; let
them continue to do so: it is a sin, and a shame, and a damnation to
think that _Pope!!_ should require it--but he does. Those miserable

mountebanks of the day, the poets, disgrace themselves and deny God
in running down Pope, the most faultless of poets, and almost of men."
[Footnote 9: Mr. Galignani had applied to Lord Byron with the view of
procuring from him such legal right over those works of his Lordship
of which he had hitherto been the sole publisher in France, as would
enable him to prevent others, in future, from usurping the same
privilege.]
* * * * *
LETTER 397. TO MR. MOORE.
"Ravenna, November 5. 1820.
"Thanks for your letter, which hath come somewhat costively; but
better late than never. Of it anon. Mr. Galignani, of the Press, hath, it
seems, been sup-planted and sub-pirated by another Parisian publisher,
who has audaciously printed an edition of L.B.'s Works, at the
ultra-liberal price of ten francs, and (as Galignani piteously observes)
eight francs only for booksellers! 'horresco referens.' Think of a man's
whole works producing so little!
"Galignani sends me, post haste, a permission _for him, from me,_ to
publish, &c. &c. which permit I have signed and sent to Mr. Murray of
Albemarle Street. Will you explain to G. that I have no right to dispose
of Murray's works without his leave? and therefore I must refer him to
M. to get the permit out of his claws--no easy matter, I suspect. I have
written to G. to say as much; but a word of mouth from a 'great brother
author' would convince him that I could not honestly have complied
with his wish, though I might legally. What I could do, I have done, viz.
signed