"--Letter to Moore,
February
28, 1817.
Byron
--See
_Manuale della Letteratura Italiana_, by A. d'Ancona and O. Bacci, 1894,
iv. 585. ]
[576] {536}["The Helen of Canova (a bust which is in the house of Madame
the Countess d'Albrizzi, whom I know) is without exception, to my mind,
the most perfectly beautiful of human conceptions, and far beyond my
ideas of human execution,"--Letter to Murray, November 25, 1816. In the
works of Antonio Canova, engraved in outline by Henry Moses (London,
1873), the bust of Helen is figured (to face p. 58), and it is stated
that it was executed in 1814, and presented to the Countess Albrizzi.
(See _Letters_, 1900, iv. 14, 15, note. )]
[577] {537}[From an autograph MS. in the possession of Mr. Murray, now
for the first time printed. ]
[578] {538}["The mumming closed with a masked ball at the Fenice, where
I went, as also to most of the ridottos, etc. , etc. ; and, though I did
not dissipate much upon the whole, yet I find 'the sword wearing out the
scabbard,' though I have but just turned the corner of
twenty-nine.
"--Letter to Moore, February 28, 1817. The verses form part
of the letter. (See _Letters_, 1900, iv. 59, 60. )]
[579] [Lady Blessington told Crabb Robinson (Diary, 1869, in. 17) that
the publication of the _Question and Answer_ would "kill Rogers. " The
MS. is dated 1818, and it is probable that the lines were written in the
early spring of that year. Moore or Murray had told Byron that Rogers
was in doubt whether to praise or blame him in his poem on "Human Life"
now approaching completion; and he had heard, from other sources, that
it was Rogers who was the author or retailer of certain scandalous
stories which were current in the "whispering-gallery of the world. " He
had reason to believe that everybody was talking about him, and it was a
relief to be able to catch and punish so eminent a scandal-monger. It
was in this spirit that he wrote to Murray (February 20, 1818), "What
you tell me of Rogers, . . . is like him. He cannot say that I have not
been a sincere and warm friend to him, till the black drop of his liver
oozed through too palpably to be overlooked. Now if I once catch him at
any of his jugglery with me or mine, let him look to it," etc.
_Manuale della Letteratura Italiana_, by A. d'Ancona and O. Bacci, 1894,
iv. 585. ]
[576] {536}["The Helen of Canova (a bust which is in the house of Madame
the Countess d'Albrizzi, whom I know) is without exception, to my mind,
the most perfectly beautiful of human conceptions, and far beyond my
ideas of human execution,"--Letter to Murray, November 25, 1816. In the
works of Antonio Canova, engraved in outline by Henry Moses (London,
1873), the bust of Helen is figured (to face p. 58), and it is stated
that it was executed in 1814, and presented to the Countess Albrizzi.
(See _Letters_, 1900, iv. 14, 15, note. )]
[577] {537}[From an autograph MS. in the possession of Mr. Murray, now
for the first time printed. ]
[578] {538}["The mumming closed with a masked ball at the Fenice, where
I went, as also to most of the ridottos, etc. , etc. ; and, though I did
not dissipate much upon the whole, yet I find 'the sword wearing out the
scabbard,' though I have but just turned the corner of
twenty-nine.
"--Letter to Moore, February 28, 1817. The verses form part
of the letter. (See _Letters_, 1900, iv. 59, 60. )]
[579] [Lady Blessington told Crabb Robinson (Diary, 1869, in. 17) that
the publication of the _Question and Answer_ would "kill Rogers. " The
MS. is dated 1818, and it is probable that the lines were written in the
early spring of that year. Moore or Murray had told Byron that Rogers
was in doubt whether to praise or blame him in his poem on "Human Life"
now approaching completion; and he had heard, from other sources, that
it was Rogers who was the author or retailer of certain scandalous
stories which were current in the "whispering-gallery of the world. " He
had reason to believe that everybody was talking about him, and it was a
relief to be able to catch and punish so eminent a scandal-monger. It
was in this spirit that he wrote to Murray (February 20, 1818), "What
you tell me of Rogers, . . . is like him. He cannot say that I have not
been a sincere and warm friend to him, till the black drop of his liver
oozed through too palpably to be overlooked. Now if I once catch him at
any of his jugglery with me or mine, let him look to it," etc.
