1830.] Moore's Notices of Lord Bt/rohC 193 



nothing but " potatoes and vinegar," a mixture which that wicked wit, 

 Lady Caroline Lambe, pronounced to be " in compliment to the country 

 of his antagonist, and the qualities of his host." Byron's opinions 

 about the poets of the day were easy enough. " Do read mathematics. 

 I should think X plus Y, at least as amusing as the Curse of Kehama, 

 and much more intelligible. Master Southey's poems are,, in fact, what 

 parallel lines might be, viz., prolonged ad infinitum without meeting any 

 thing half so absurd as themselves." 



What news, what news, Queen Oreaca, 



What news of scribblers five ? 

 S , W , C e, L d, and L e, 



All d mn d } though yet alive. 



The initials comprehended the various names of Scott, Wordsworth, 

 Coleridge, Lloyd, and Lambe ; though, subsequently, he did due honour 

 to Scott's fine Lyrical powers. The others he seems to have com- 

 plimented when he chose to play the courtier, and burlesqued when he 

 returned to the art of plain speaking. He concludes this letter, with 

 " Coleridge is lecturing." " Many an old fool," said Hannibal to 

 some such lecturer, " but such as this never," 



His hits on character are in the highest spirit of that dash and rattle, 

 which he loved. " Pole is to marry Miss Long and will be a very 

 miserable dog for all that. The present ministers are to continue, and 

 his majesty does continue in the same state, so there's folly and madness 

 for you, both in a breath. 



" I never heard but of one man truly fortunate j and he was Beau- 

 marchais, the author of Figaro, who buried two wives and gained 

 three lawsuits before he was thirty." 



His summer visits to the country seats gave him some insight into 

 public persons. At Lord Jersey's " Erskine was there, good but intoler- 

 able. He jested, he talked, he did every thing, admirably. But then, 

 he would be applauded for the same thing twice over : he would read his 

 own verses, his own paragraphs, and tell his own story again and again ; 

 and then the ' Trial by Jury :' I almost wished it abolished, for I sat 

 next him at dinner." 



Drury Lane having been burnt, for the ruin of Sheridan's creditors, and 

 rebuilt for the ruin of a fresh set, the committee, with Lord Holland at 

 their head, perpetrated the long-laughed-at scheme of summoning all 

 the verse makers of England or Europe to write an opening address. 

 Some thousands poured in upon them, all equally good or evil. Until 

 the committee convinced, at last, that to choose was impossible, and 

 to recite them all at once, not very easy ; came to the natural expedient 

 of having one address, written by one person, and recited by one other. 

 The task was comfortless enough, and Lord Byron made it a curiously 

 anxious one; for we have no less than a dozen letters written to his unfortu- 

 nate inspirer, Lord Holland, in the course of a month ; and every one of 

 them containing cuttings out,, cuttings up, and corrections, that must 

 have singularly perplexed his lordship. It is not easy to reconcile this 

 industry with his letter to Mr. Murray. 



" I was applied to to write the address for Drury-lane ; but the 

 moment I heard of the contest, I gave up the idea of contending against 

 all Grub-street. To triumph would have .been no glory, and to have 

 been defeated 'sdeath ! I would have choked myself, like Otway, with .a 

 quartern loaf. So, remember, I had, and have nothing to do with it, 



M. M. New Smw. VOL. IX. No. 50. 2 C 



