The Works of Lord Byron, Vol. 7. Poetry. George Gordon Byron

Devil gat next to Westminster,

      And he turned to "the room" of the Commons;

      But he heard as he purposed to enter in there,

      That "the Lords" had received a summons;

      And he thought, as "a quondam Aristocrat,"

      He might peep at the Peers, though to hear them were flat;

      And he walked up the House so like one of his own,140

      That they say that he stood pretty near the throne.

18

      He saw the Lord Liverpool seemingly wise,

      The Lord Westmoreland certainly silly,

      And Jockey of Norfolk – a man of some size —

      And Chatham, so like his friend Billy;45

      And he saw the tears in Lord Eldon's eyes,

      Because the Catholics would not rise,

      In spite of his prayers and his prophecies;

      And he heard – which set Satan himself a staring —

      A certain Chief Justice say something like swearing.46

      And the Devil was shocked – and quoth he, "I must go,151

      For I find we have much better manners below.

      If thus he harangues when he passes my border,

      I shall hint to friend Moloch to call him to order."

19

      Then the Devil went down to the humbler House,

      Where he readily found his way

      As natural to him as its hole to a Mouse,

      He had been there many a day;

      And many a vote and soul and job he

      Had bid for and carried away from the Lobby:

      But there now was a "call" and accomplished debaters161

      Appeared in the glory of hats, boots and gaiters —

      Some paid rather more – but all worse dressed than Waiters!

20

      There was Canning for War, and Whitbread for peace,

      And others as suited their fancies;

      But all were agreed that our debts should increase

      Excepting the Demagogue Francis.

      That rogue! how could Westminster chuse him again

      To leaven the virtue of these honest men!

      But the Devil remained till the Break of Day170

      Blushed upon Sleep and Lord Castlereagh:47

      Then up half the house got, and Satan got up

      1

      "Swan Green" should be "Swine Green." It lay about a quarter of a mile to the east of St. James's Lane, where Byron lodged in 1799, at the house of a Mr. Gill. The name appears in a directory of 1799, but by 1815 it had been expunged or changed euphoniæ gratiâ. (See A New Plan of the Town of Nottingham, … 1744.)

      Moore took down "thes

1

"Swan Green" should be "Swine Green." It lay about a quarter of a mile to the east of St. James's Lane, where Byron lodged in 1799, at the house of a Mr. Gill. The name appears in a directory of 1799, but by 1815 it had been expunged or changed euphoniæ gratiâ. (See A New Plan of the Town of Nottingham, … 1744.)

Moore took down "these rhymes" from the lips of Byron's nurse, May Gray, who regarded them as a first essay in the direction of poetry. He questioned their originality.

2

[I am indebted to the courtesy of Mr. Pierre De La Rose for sending me a copy of the foregoing Version of Ossian's Address to the Sun, which was "Privately printed at the Press of Oliver B. Graves, Cambridge, Massachusetts, June the Tenth, MDCCCXCVIII.," and was reprinted in the Atlantic Monthly in December, 1898. A prefatory note entitled, "From Lord Byron's Notes," is prefixed to the Version: "In Lord Byron's copy of The Poems of Ossian (printed by Dewick and Clarke, London, 1806), which, since 1874, has been in the possession of the Library of Harvard University as part of the Sumner Bequest. The notes which follow appear in Byron's hand." (For the Notes, see the Atlantic Monthly, 1898, vol. lxxxii. pp. 810-814.)

It is strange that Byron should have made two versions (for another "version" from the Newstead MSS., see Poetical Works, 1898, i. 229-231) of the "Address to the Sun," which forms the conclusion of "Carthon;" but the Harvard version appears to be genuine. It is to be noted that Byron appended to the earlier version eighteen lines of his own composition, by way of moral or application.]

3

[For Francis Hodgson (1781-1852), see Letters, 1898, i. 195, note 1.]

4

[Compare Peter Pindar's Ode to a Margate Hoy—

"Go, beauteous Hoy, in safety ev'ry inch!That storm should wreck thee, gracious Heav'n forbid!Whether commanded by brave Captain FinchOr equally tremendous Captain Kidd."]

5

[Murray was "Joe" Murray, an ancient retainer of the "Wicked Lord." Bob was Robert Rushton, the "little page" of "Childe Harold's Good Night." (See Poetical Works, 1899, ii. 26, note 1.)]

6

[For "the stanza," addressed to the "Princely offspring of Braganza," published in the Morning Post, December 30, 1807, see English Bards, etc., line 142, note 1, Poetical Works, 1898, i. 308, 309.]

7

[Dives was William Beckford. See Childe Harold, Canto I. stanza xxii. line 6, Poetical Works, 1899, ii. 37, note 1.]

8

[For John Cam Hobhouse (1786-1869), afterwards Lord Broughton de Gyfford, see Letters, 1898, i. 163, note i.]

9

[Fletcher was an indifferent traveller, and sighed for "a' the comforts of the saut-market." See Byron's letters to his mother, November 12, 1809, June 28, 1810. —Letters, 1898, i. 256, 281.]

10

[Hobhouse's Miscellany (otherwise known as the Miss-sell-any) was published in 1809, under the title of Imitations and Translations from The Ancient and Modern Classics. Byron contributed nine original poems. The volume was not a success. "It foundered … in the Gulph of Lethe." – Letter to H. Drury, July 17, 1811, Letters, 1898, i. 319.]

45

[Robert Banks Jenkinson (1770-1828), second Earl of Liverpool, on the assassination of Perceval, became Prime Minister, June 7, 1812; John Fane (1759-1841), tenth Earl of Westmoreland, was Lord Privy Seal, 1798-1827; Charles Howard (1746-1815), eleventh Duke of Norfolk, known as "Jockey of Norfolk," was a Protestant and a Liberal, and at one time a friend of the Prince of Wales. Wraxall, Posthumous Memoirs, 1836, i. 29, says that "he might have been mistaken for a grazier or a butcher by his dress and appearance." He figures largely in Gillray, see e. g. "Meeting of the Moneyed Interest," December, 1798. John Pitt (1756-1835), second Earl of Chatham, the hero of the abortive Walcheren expedition, had been made a general in the army January 1, 1812. He "inherited," says Wraxall, ibid., iii. 129, "his illustrious father's form and figure; but not his mind."]

46

[Edward Law (1750-1818), first Baron Ellenborough, Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench, 1802-18, was given to the use of strong language. His temper (see Moore's "Sale of the Tools") was "none of the best." On one occasion, speaking in the House of Lords (March 22, 1813) with regard to the "delicate investigation," he asserted that the accusation ["that the persons intrusted had thought fit to fabricate an unauthorized document"] "was as false as hell;" and by way of protest against the tedious harangues of old Lord Darnley, "I am answerable to God for my time, and what account can I give at the day of judgment if I stay here longer?"]

47

[Compare Moore's "Insurrection of the Papers" —

"Last night I toss'd and turn'd in bed,But could not sleep – at length I said,'I'll think of Viscount C – stl – r – gh,And of his speeches – that's the way.'"]