No More Learning

But then I only sung of passions
That do not suit with modern fashions;
Of Incest and such like diversions
Permitted only to the Persians,
Or Greeks to bring upon their stages--
But that was in the earlier ages
Besides my style is the romantic,
Which some call fine, and some call frantic;
While others are or would seem _as_ sick
Of repetitions nicknamed Classic.
For my part all men must allow
Whatever I was, I'm classic now.
I saw and left my fault in time,
And chose a topic all sublime--
Wondrous as antient war or hero--
Then played and sung away like Nero,
Who sang of Rome, and I of Rizzo:
The subject has improved my wit so,
The first four lines the poet sees
Start forth in fourteen languages!
Though of seven volumes none before
Could ever reach the fame of four,
Henceforth I sacrifice all Glory
To the Rinaldo of my Story:
I've sung his health and appetite
(The last word's not translated right--
He's turned it, God knows how, to vigour)[98]
I'll sing them in a book that's bigger.
Oh! Muse prepare for thy Ascension!
And generous Rizzo! thou my pension.

_February_, 1818.
[From an autograph MS. in the possession of Mr. Murray,
now for the first time printed. ]

FOOTNOTES:

[96] [Byron must have added the Fourth Canto of _Childe Harold_ to the
complete edition of the _Poetical Works_ in six volumes. See Murray's
list, dated "Albemarle Street, London, January, 1818. " The seventh
volume of the Collected Works was not issued till 1819.
]

[97] [A French translation of the _Bride of Abydos_ appeared in 1816, an
Italian translation of the _Lament of Tasso_ in 1817. Goethe (see
_Letters_, 1901, v. 503-521) translated fragments of _Manfred_ in 1817,
1818, but the earliest German translation of the entire text of
_Manfred_ was issued in 1819. ]

[98] [See the last line of the Italian translation of the quatrain. ]



TO MR. MURRAY.

1.

Strahan, Tonson, Lintot of the times,[99]
Patron and publisher of rhymes,
For thee the bard up Pindus climbs,
My Murray.


2.

To thee, with hope and terror dumb,
The unfledged MS. authors come;
Thou printest all--and sellest some--
My Murray.

3.

Upon thy table's baize so green
The last new Quarterly is seen,--
But where is thy new Magazine,[100]
My Murray?

4.

Along thy sprucest bookshelves shine
The works thou deemest most divine--
The Art of Cookery,[101] and mine,
My Murray.

5.