No More Learning

But still to business he held fast,
And stuck to Phoebus to the _last_.
Then who shall say so good a fellow
Was only "leather and prunella? "
For character--he did not lack it;
And if he did, 'twere shame to "Black-it. "

Malta, _May_ 16, 1811.
[First published, _Lord Byron's Works_, 1832, ix. 10. ]

FOOTNOTES:

[17] [For Joseph Blacket (1786-1810), see _Letters_, 1898, i. 314,
_note_ 2; see, too, _Poetical Works_, 1898, i. 359, _note_ 1, and
441-443, _note_ 2. The _Epitaph_ is of doubtful authenticity. ]



ON MOORE'S LAST OPERATIC FARCE, OR FARCICAL OPERA. [18]

GOOD plays are scarce,
So Moore writes _farce_:
The poet's fame grows brittle[i]--
We knew before
That _Little_'s Moore,
But now't is Moore that's _little_.

_September_ 14, 1811.
[First published, _Letters and Journals_, 1830, i. 295 (_note_).
]

FOOTNOTES:

[i] _Is fame like his so brittle_? --[_MS_. ]

[18] ["On a leaf of one of his paper books I find an epigram, written at
this time, which, though not perhaps particularly good, I consider
myself bound to insert. "--Moore, _Life_, p. 137, _note_ 1. The reference
is to Moore's _M. P. ; or, The Blue Stocking_, which was played for the
first time at the Lyceum Theatre, September 9, 1811. For Moore's _nom de
plume_, "The late Thomas Little, Esq. ," compare Praed's _The Belle of
the Ball-Room_--

"If those bright lips had quoted Locke,
I might have thought they murmured Little. "]



[R. C. DALLAS. ][19]

YES! wisdom shines in all his mien,
Which would so captivate, I ween,
Wisdom's own goddess Pallas;
That she'd discard her fav'rite owl,
And take for pet a brother fowl,
Sagacious R. C.