No More Learning

A challenge (sent through Kinnaird, but not
delivered) was but a confession of impotence. There was, however, in
Southey's letter to the _Courier_ just one sentence too many. Before he
concluded he had given "one word of advice to Lord Byron"--"When he
attacks me again, let it be in rhyme. For one who has so little command
of himself, it will be a great advantage that his temper should be
obliged to _keep tune_. "

Byron had anticipated this advice, and had already attacked the laureate
in rhyme, scornfully and satirically, but with a gay and genial mockery
which dispensed with "wormwood and verdigrease" or yet bitterer and more
venomous ingredients.

There was a truth in Lamb's jest, that it was Southey's _Vision of
Judgement_ which was worthy of prosecution; that "Lord Byron's poem was
of a most good-natured description--no malevolence" (_Diary of H. C.
Robinson_, 1869, ii. 240). Good-natured or otherwise, it awoke
inextinguishable laughter, and left Byron in possession of the field.

The _Vision of Judgment_, begun May 7 (but probably laid aside till
September 11), was forwarded to Murray October 4, 1821. "By this post,"
he wrote to Moore, October 6, 1821 (_Letters_, 1901, v. 387), "I have
sent my nightmare to balance the incubus of Southey's impudent
anticipation of the Apotheosis of George the Third. " A chance perusal of
Southey's letter in the _Courier_ (see Medwin's _Conversations_, 1824,
p. 222, and letters to Douglas Kinnaird, February 6, 25, 1822) quickened
his desire for publication; but in spite of many appeals and suggestions
to Murray, who had sent Byron's "copy" to his printer, the decisive step
of passing the proofs for press was never taken.
At length Byron lost
patience, and desired Murray to hand over "the corrected copy of the
proof with the Preface" of the _Vision of Judgment_ to John Hunt (see
letters to Murray, July 3, 6, 1822, _Letters_, 1901, vi. 92, 93).
Finally, a year after the MS. had been sent to England, the _Vision of
Judgment_, by Quevedo Redivivus, appeared in the first number (pp. 1-39)
of the _Liberal_, which was issued October 15, 1822. The Preface, to
Byron's astonishment and annoyance, was not forthcoming (see letter to
Murray, October 22, 1822, _Letters_, 1901, vi. 126, and _Examiner_,
Sunday, November 3, 1822, p. 697), and is not prefixed to the first
issue of the _Vision of Judgment_ in the first number of the _Liberal_.

The _Liberal_ was severely handled by the press (see, for example, the
_Literary Gazette_ for October 19, 26, November 2, 1822; see, too, an
anonymous pamphlet entitled _A Critique on the "Liberal"_ (London,
1822, 8vo, 16 pages), which devotes ten pages to an attack on the
_Vision of Judgment_). The daily press was even more violent. The
_Courier_ for October 26 begins thus: "This _scoundrel-like_ publication
has at length made its appearance. "

There was even a threat of prosecution. Byron offered to employ counsel
for Hunt, to come over to England to stand his trial in his stead, and
blamed Murray for not having handed over the corrected proof, in which
some of the more offensive passages had been omitted or mitigated (see
letter to Murray, December 25, 1822, and letter to John Hunt, January 8,
1823, _Letters,_ 1901, vi. 155, 159). It is to be noted that in the list
of _Errata_ affixed to the table of Contents at the end of the first
volume of the _Liberal,_ the words, a "weaker king ne'er," are
substituted for "a worse king never" (stanza viii. line 6), and "an
unhandsome woman" for "a bad, ugly woman" (stanza xii.