37 / 156
35
75.
George Noel Gordon, Lord BYRON
(1788-1824). L.A.S., Newstead Abbey 9 septembre 1811, à son cher W. [James
Wedderburn
W
ebster
] ; 4 pages in-4 ; en anglais.
5 000/6 000
L
ettre
à
son
fol
ami
J
ames
W
edderburn
W
ebster
(1789-1840).
“I think you know the world too well to believe that a laughing chum shews a light heart, but nothing is so selfish as sorrow,
it cannot avail the dead, & annoys your living friends, who have their own grievances to dispel without listening to those of
others, so let us be cheerful, or at least seem so. – You are off for Balt. & Ireland & God knows where, well – I shall not see
Dean’s Court then, which relieves you from the threatened visit. – Your brother in law will not have had time to see Athens,
or indeed any part of the Levant, if he returns so soon, when I left Greece he was in Sicily. – I hope you are not displeased with
my remarks on
your friend’s
criticisms on
my friend’s
productions, but a man of genius & a
scholar
of Hodgson’s eminence must
not be carped at by dilettante dabblers in wit, without some observations, more particularly as you sent me the letter (I suspect)
for the facetious purpose of hearing it abused. – By the bye, such things are hardly fair, I might set men by the ears with great
facility. – The personages honoured by your enquiries are all well, Lucy is at present in Warwickshire, but expected here every
day. Lucy Fortescue the chaste meietez of L
d
Lytellton (who celebrated her in a thing scribbled before her death by a sort of elegiac
anticipation) has certainly great advantage over the other in the article of Vistre. – I believe
that
lord will be the ancestor of your
heirs, will he not? & so I will say no more about him, his son was always my favourite, in preference to his pious parent. – So
your tutor writes epigrams, help me! & is a German, which does he prefer? the philosophy of
Kant
or
Herder
? – Does he know
Weishaupt
? Is he one of the Illuminati? Has he a taste for the Teutonic poesy? & which is his favourite, Klopstock, Wieland,
Kleist, Goethe, Burger Lessing, Schiller, Lichtenberg ou Kotzebue? Does he know Professor Meiners or his works on the Hellenic
Philosophy? Is he a craniologist? a follower of D
rs
Gall or Camper? & has he ever travelled to Greichenland? If he has he deserves
to be made an “
Edler Mann
”. Always excepting D
r
Bronstedt of Copenhagen, Baron Haller of Haldenstein, & M
r
Linch of Munich
are amongst my most estimable foreign acquaintances. – So read & answer this, & believe me”…
W. doit trop bien connaître le monde, pour croire qu’un ami rieur prouve un cœur léger, mais rien n’est aussi égoïste que le
chagrin, qui ne sert pas les défunts, et ennuie les amis en vie, qui ont leurs propres griefs à dissiper sans écouter ceux des autres
– donc qu’ils soient gais, ou moins, qu’ils le paraissent... W. s’en va à Balt[imore], et en Irlande, et Dieu sait où, donc Byron ne
verra pas la cour de Dean d’ici-là, ce qui épargne à W. la menace d’une visite... Le beau-frère de W. n’aura pas eu le temps de voir
Athènes, ni aucune partie du Levant, s’il rentre si vite ; quand Byron a quitté la Grèce, il était en Sicile... – Il espère que W. n’est
pas mécontent de ses remarques sur les critiques de son ami, à l’encontre des productions de l’ami de Byron [Webster avait envoyé
à Byron une lettre de Naylor Hare, qui critiquait
Lady Jane Grey, a tale, and other poems
de
H
odgson
], mais un homme de génie et
un érudit aussi éminent qu’Hodgson, ne saurait être chicané par des railleurs dilettantes sans qu’on fasse quelques observations...
Byron donne des nouvelles de Lucy, actuellement dans le Warwickshire, et fait allusion à Lucy
F
ortescue
, l’épouse tant célébrée
… / …