]
[493] {482}[These were not the expressions employed by Lord Eldon.
[493] {482}[These were not the expressions employed by Lord Eldon.
Byron
"[563]
CIII.
Those grand heroics acted as a spell;
The Angels stopped their ears and plied their pinions;
The Devils ran howling, deafened, down to Hell;
The ghosts fled, gibbering, for their own dominions--
(For 'tis not yet decided where they dwell,
And I leave every man to his opinions);
Michael took refuge in his trump--but, lo!
His teeth were set on edge, he could not blow!
CIV.
Saint Peter, who has hitherto been known
For an impetuous saint, upraised his keys,
And at the fifth line knocked the poet down;[564]
Who fell like Phaeton, but more at ease,
Into his lake, for there he did not drown;
A different web being by the Destinies
Woven for the Laureate's final wreath, whene'er
Reform shall happen either here or there.
CV.
He first sank to the bottom--like his works,
But soon rose to the surface--like himself;
For all corrupted things are buoyed like corks,[565]
By their own rottenness, light as an elf,
Or wisp that flits o'er a morass: he lurks,
It may be, still, like dull books on a shelf,
In his own den, to scrawl some "Life" or "Vision,"[ht]
As Welborn says--"the Devil turned precisian. "[566]
CVI.
As for the rest, to come to the conclusion
Of this true dream, the telescope is gone[hu]
Which kept my optics free from all delusion,
And showed me what I in my turn have shown;
All I saw farther, in the last confusion,
Was, that King George slipped into Heaven for one;
And when the tumult dwindled to a calm,
I left him practising the hundredth psalm. [567]
R^a^ Oct. 4, 1821.
FOOTNOTES:
[492] {481}["Aye, he and the count's footman were jabbering French like
two intriguing ducks in a mill-pond; and I believe they talked of me,
for they laughed consumedly. "--Farquhar, _The Beaux' Stratagem_, act
iii. sc. 2.
]
[493] {482}[These were not the expressions employed by Lord Eldon. The
Chancellor laid down the principle that "damages cannot be recovered for
a work which is in its nature calculated to do an injury to the public,"
and assuming _Wat Tyler_ to be of this description, he refused the
injunction until Southey should have established his right to the
property by an action. _Wat Tyler_ was written at the age of nineteen,
when Southey was a republican, and was entrusted to two booksellers,
Messrs. Ridgeway and Symonds, who agreed to publish it, but never put it
to press. The MS. was not returned to the author, and in February, 1817,
at the interval of twenty-two years, when his sentiments were widely
different, it was printed, to his great annoyance, by W. Benbow (see his
_Scourge for the Laureate_ (1825), p. 14), Sherwood, Neely and Jones,
John Fairburn, and others. It was reported that 60,000 copies were sold
(see _Life and Correspondence of R. Southey_, 1850, iv. 237, 241, 249,
252). ]
[494] [William Smith, M. P. for Norwich, attacked Southey in the House of
Commons on the 14th of March, 1817, and the Laureate replied by a letter
in the _Courier_, dated March 17, 1817, and by a letter "To William
Smith, Esq. , M. P.
CIII.
Those grand heroics acted as a spell;
The Angels stopped their ears and plied their pinions;
The Devils ran howling, deafened, down to Hell;
The ghosts fled, gibbering, for their own dominions--
(For 'tis not yet decided where they dwell,
And I leave every man to his opinions);
Michael took refuge in his trump--but, lo!
His teeth were set on edge, he could not blow!
CIV.
Saint Peter, who has hitherto been known
For an impetuous saint, upraised his keys,
And at the fifth line knocked the poet down;[564]
Who fell like Phaeton, but more at ease,
Into his lake, for there he did not drown;
A different web being by the Destinies
Woven for the Laureate's final wreath, whene'er
Reform shall happen either here or there.
CV.
He first sank to the bottom--like his works,
But soon rose to the surface--like himself;
For all corrupted things are buoyed like corks,[565]
By their own rottenness, light as an elf,
Or wisp that flits o'er a morass: he lurks,
It may be, still, like dull books on a shelf,
In his own den, to scrawl some "Life" or "Vision,"[ht]
As Welborn says--"the Devil turned precisian. "[566]
CVI.
As for the rest, to come to the conclusion
Of this true dream, the telescope is gone[hu]
Which kept my optics free from all delusion,
And showed me what I in my turn have shown;
All I saw farther, in the last confusion,
Was, that King George slipped into Heaven for one;
And when the tumult dwindled to a calm,
I left him practising the hundredth psalm. [567]
R^a^ Oct. 4, 1821.
FOOTNOTES:
[492] {481}["Aye, he and the count's footman were jabbering French like
two intriguing ducks in a mill-pond; and I believe they talked of me,
for they laughed consumedly. "--Farquhar, _The Beaux' Stratagem_, act
iii. sc. 2.
]
[493] {482}[These were not the expressions employed by Lord Eldon. The
Chancellor laid down the principle that "damages cannot be recovered for
a work which is in its nature calculated to do an injury to the public,"
and assuming _Wat Tyler_ to be of this description, he refused the
injunction until Southey should have established his right to the
property by an action. _Wat Tyler_ was written at the age of nineteen,
when Southey was a republican, and was entrusted to two booksellers,
Messrs. Ridgeway and Symonds, who agreed to publish it, but never put it
to press. The MS. was not returned to the author, and in February, 1817,
at the interval of twenty-two years, when his sentiments were widely
different, it was printed, to his great annoyance, by W. Benbow (see his
_Scourge for the Laureate_ (1825), p. 14), Sherwood, Neely and Jones,
John Fairburn, and others. It was reported that 60,000 copies were sold
(see _Life and Correspondence of R. Southey_, 1850, iv. 237, 241, 249,
252). ]
[494] [William Smith, M. P. for Norwich, attacked Southey in the House of
Commons on the 14th of March, 1817, and the Laureate replied by a letter
in the _Courier_, dated March 17, 1817, and by a letter "To William
Smith, Esq. , M. P.
