10 — To the Hon. Augusta Byron

[At General Harcourt's, St. Leonard's Hill, Windsor, Berkshire.]

Burgage Manor, April 9th, 1804.

A thousand thanks, my dear and Beloved Augusta, for your affectionate Letter, and so ready compliance with the request of a peevish and fretful Brother; it acted as a cordial on my drooping spirits and for a while dispelled the Gloom which envelopes me in this uncomfortable place. You see what power your letters have over me, so I hope you will be liberal in your epistolary consolation.

You

will address your next letter to Harrow as I set out from Southwell on Wednesday, and am sorry that I cannot contrive to be with you, as I must resume my studies at Harrow directly. If I speak in public at all, it will not be till the latter end of June or the beginning of July. You are right in your conjecture for I feel not a little nervous in the anticipation

of my Debut

as

an orator

. By the bye, I do not dislike Harrow. I find

ways

and

means

to amuse

myself very pleasantly

there; the friend, whose correspondence I find so amusing, is an old sporting companion of mine, whose recitals of Shooting and Hunting expeditions are amusing to me as having often been his companion in them, and I hope to be so still oftener.

My mother Gives a

party

to night at which the principal

Southwell Belles

will be present, with one of which, although I don't as yet know whom I shall so far

honour, having never seen them

, I intend to

fall violently

in love; it will serve as an amusement

pour passer le temps

and it will at least have the charm of novelty to recommend it, then you know in the course of a few weeks I shall be quite

au désespoir

, shoot myself and Go out of the world with

éclat

, and my History will furnish materials for a pretty little Romance which shall be entitled and denominated the loves of Lord B. and the cruel and Inconstant Sigismunda Cunegunda Bridgetina, etc., etc., Princess of Terra Incognita.

Don't you think that I have a very good Knack for

novel writing

? I have Just this minute been called away from writing to you by two Gentlemen who have given me an invitation to go over to Screveton, a village a few miles off, and spend a few days; but however I shall not accept it, so you will continue to address your letters to Harrow as usual. Write to me as soon as possible and give me a long letter. Remember me to Mrs. Harcourt and all who enquire after me. Continue to love me and believe me,

Your truly affectionate Brother and Friend,

Byron

P.S. — My Mother's love to you, Adieu.

Footnote 1:

Mrs. Byron, writing to Hanson, July 24, 1804, says,

"I was informed by a Gentleman yesterday that he had been at Harrow and heard him speaking, and that he acquitted himself uncommonly well."

Byron's name occurs in three of the Harrow speech-bills — July 5, 1804; June 6, 1805; and July 4, 1805. The three bills are printed below:—

Harrow School Public Speeches 1. July 5, 1804.

Erskine, Maj. Cæsar ex Sallustio

Sinclair Cato ex Sallustio

Long C. Canuleius ad Pleb. ex Livia

Molloy, Sr. The Country Box Lloyd

Lord Byron Latinus Ex Virgilio

Leeke Drances Ex Virgilio

Peel, Sr. Turnus Ex Virgilio

Chaplin Henry V to his soldiers Shakespear

Clayton Micispa ad Jugurtham ex Sullustia

Rowley Germanicus moriens ex Tacito

Grenside, Sr. General Wolfe to his soldiers Enfield

Morant, Sr. Dido Ex Virgilio

Mr.Calthorpe, Sr. In Catilinam Ex Cicerone

Lloyd, Sr. The Ghost Shakespear

Mr. Powys Tiresias Ex Horatio

Sir Thomas Acland The Boil'd Pig Wesley

Leveson Gower Ad Antonium Ex Cicerone

Drury, Max Earl of Strafford Hume

2. June 6, 1805.

There

were no Speeches for May, 1805. Dr. Butler came to Harrow this year, after the Easter Holiday. — G.B.

A

Daveton Canulcius Ex Livio

Farrer, Sr. Medea Ex Ovidio

Long Caractacus Mason

Rogers Manlius Ex Sallustio

Molloy Micipsa Ex Sallustio

Lord Byron Zanga Young

Drury, Sr. Memmius Ex Sallustio

Hoare Ajax Ex Ovidio

East Ulysses Ex Ovidio

Leeke The Passions: an Ode Collins

Calvert, Sr. Galgacus Ex Tacito

Bazett Catilina ad Consp. Ex Sallustio

Franks, Sr. Antony Shakespeare

Wildman, Maj. Sat. ix, Lib. i Ex Horatio

Lloyd, Sr. The Bard: an Ode Gray

3. July 4, 1805.

Lyon Piso ad Milites Ex Tacito

East Cato Addison

Saumerez Drances Ex Virgilio, Æn. xi

Annesley Turnus Ex Virgilio, Æn. xi

Calvert Lord Strafford's Defence Hume

Erskine, Sr. Achilles Ex Homero, Il. xvi

Bazett York Shakespeare

Harrington Camillus Ex Livio.

Leeke Ode to the Passions Collins

Sneyd Electra Ex Sophocle

Long Satan's Soliloquy Milton, P.L., b. iv

Gibson Brutus Ex Lucano

Drury, Sr. Cato Ex Lucano

Lord Byron Lear Shakespeare

Hoare Otho ad Milites Ex Livio

Wildman Caractacus Mason

Franks Wolsey Shakespeare

Of Byron's oratorical powers, Dr. Drury, Head-master of Harrow, formed a high opinion.

"The upper part of the school," he writes (see

Life

, p. 20), composed declamations, which, after a revisal by the tutors, were submitted to the master. To him the authors repeated them, that they might be improved in manner and action, before their public delivery. I certainly was much pleased with Lord Byron's attitude, gesture, and delivery, as well as with his composition. All who spoke on that day adhered, as usual, to the letter of their composition, as, in the earlier part of his delivery, did Lord Byron; but, to my surprise, he suddenly diverged from the written composition, with a boldness and rapidity sufficient to alarm me, lest he should fail in memory as to the conclusion. There was no failure; he came round to the close of his composition without discovering any impediment and irregularity on the whole. I questioned him why he had altered his declamation. He declared he had made no alteration, and did not know, in speaking, that he had deviated from it one letter. I believed him; and, from a knowledge of his temperament, am convinced that, fully impressed with the sense and substance of the subject, he was hurried on to expressions and colourings more striking than what his pen had expressed."

"My qualities," says Byron, in one of his note-books (quoted by Moore, Life, p. 20), "were much more oratorical and martial than poetical; and Dr. Drury, my grand patron (our head-master), had a great notion that I should turn out an orator, from my fluency, my turbulence, my voice, my copiousness of declamation, and my action. I remember that my first declamation astonished him into some unwonted (for he was economical of such) and sudden compliments before the declaimers at our first rehearsal."

For his subjects Byron chose passages expressive of vehement passion, such as Lear's address to the storm, or the speech of Zanga over the body of Alonzo, from Young's tragedy

The Revenge

. Zanga's character and speech are famous in history from their application to Benjamin Franklin, in Wedderburn's speech before the Privy Council (January, 1774) on the Whately Letters (Stanhope's

History of England

, vol. v. p. 327, ed. 1853):—

"I forg'd the letter, and dispos'd the picture,
I hated, I despis'd, and I destroy."

Sub-Footnote A:

Note, in Dr. G. Butler's writing, in the bound volume of Speech-Bills presented by him to the Harrow School Library.

return to footnote

return to letter

cross-reference: return to Footnote of Letter 28

cross-reference: return to Footnote 1 of Letter 31

cross-reference: return to Footnote 1 of Letter 97

List of Letters