1817J Lord Byron and Wordsworth 109 



I agree with you in admiring it exceedingly in some respects, 

 though I said you must have been absolutely crazy when 

 you said it was not against Lady Caroline Lamb to have 

 written and published it. I do think that was one of the 

 most shameless acts that a woman was ever guilty of. I 

 am surprised that so little was said of the beauty of the 

 work. I did not think the moral feeling of the London 

 world had been so strong, as to prevent them from seeing 

 or owning the power of fine writing. I almost think that 

 as a picture of the feelings, Glenarvon is superior to any work 

 I ever read ; if I did not feel sure that the author described 

 her own feelings, I should think her a woman of great genius. 

 As it is, I am very much inclined to think her, in that 

 particular department of representing feeling, superior to 

 Madame de Stae'l, for she too, I believe, can only paint what 

 she has felt or seen. If the eloquence, energy, and beauty 

 of many scenes in Glenarvon had been bestowed on a less 

 abominable subject, what an admirable work it would have 

 been. That is not quite true neither, for she could never 

 write a tolerable story. I have a particular taste for Lady 

 Caroline's humour, as well as her passionne writing. I think 

 it is remarkably easy and entertaining. It must be owing 

 to the same severe morality which surprised me about Glen- 

 arvon, that we hear so little of Lord Byron's last volume 

 of poetry. I suppose one ought to admire that goodness 

 which makes people insensible to beautiful poetry because 

 the writer behaved ill to his wife, but I can't find it in my- 

 self, and I admire some of his late poems very much. We 

 have been reading the new edition of Wordsworth's poetry, 

 in which there are several new things. I like some of them 

 very much, yet I don't know if we (meaning by " we " the 

 Miss Aliens and myself) have not admired Wordsworth 

 rather above his merits. My present notion is (how sur- 

 prised he would be to hear that any human being could have 

 such a notion) that he has not understanding enough to be 

 a very fine poet. I have been reading a pamphlet by Mr 

 Coleridge, which he calls "The Statesman's Manual, a Lay 

 Sermon." It would quite have killed us if it had come out 



