BYRON'S LETTERS TO DOUGLAS KINNAIRD ... - Get a Free Blog

M.P. who I hope gets on and neither suffers from Oligarchy – nor that more severe Aristocracy –
Polly=garchy –
I don’t mean from “πολλοι” – to recur to the tondapemoibom{enosity} 105 of our Alma [Ms.
tear: “M”]ater (with her sour Milk) but the regular petticoat regency of all wearers of that magic
garment. – – I do believe that if women did not wear it – their sway would be less – for few C —— s
come up to the previous preconception – or pre=deception – while the Drapery is floating
about them like an Admiral’s flag. – – – 106
3:2 [above address:] Here is a long letter – but you make the reading as short as you like. – – –
y rs . ever & truly
N. B.
P.S.
Insure! hast thou?
at the Pelican? the Phoenix? – and all life assurances whatsoever?
Byron to Douglas Kinnaird, from Genoa, December 23rd 1822 (i):
(Source: text from NLS Ms.43454; 1922 II 239-40; BLJ X 65-7)
[To The Hon ble / Douglas Kinnaird. /& c . & c . & c .]
53
Genoa. 10b re 23 d 1822.
My dear Douglas –
I enclose to you as my “adviser behind the throne” the enclosed letters from Messrs.
Hanson & M r . J. H t . – I also acknowledge yours of the 10 th . – And firstly of the first. – With regard to
the minority annuities I must observe that M r . Bellamy was never security on my account – the whole
was a gross extortionate transaction – the principal has been more than paid by the interest {for several
years} – and the fact is that the fellow was the lender (behind hand it is supposed) and not the Security
– he never was servant to my mother – and I never saw him ten times that I know of. – Miss M d ’s claim
is in the same predicament – they had share and share –
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(she and her Mother that is) and I paid & paid till I had no longer the wherewithal to feed the Usurers –
but “did thou not’st share? had’st thou not eighteen pence? as M r . Shakespeare says, 107 – what do they
mean by starting up of a sudden at the end of ten years with a Cock and a Bull story? – You know well
what all Minors’ transactions of that sort must be and the hands into which they fall. – Legal claim –
they have none nor {any} indeed in point of equity; – to settle with them on their own rascally terms –
I will never agree – and to settle with them at all for some time to come is also not to be acceded to –
till all other claims whatsoever
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are liquidated. – Then – perhaps – I may consent to some advance – but not till I have had a fair and
equal statement – and balanced it with my own knowledge of the transaction. – –
With regard to M r . J. H t . you may by all means retain Scarlet or other able Counsel – With regard to
how far I am called upon for the expences – I propose to you the following considerations. – I
advanced to M r . L. H. two hundred and fifty pounds in January or February 1822 – & since about one
hundred & fifty – nay nearly three hundred more – if I include furniture which I bought for him – the
expence of his Journey (which he would take against
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my wish) to Genoa – & a bill I paid for him at Leghorn. – The day after his landing He came to me &
Shelley on his brother’s account – I could not furnish further cash at the moment. – He then asked for
an M.S. – and I reluctantly acceded – particularly cautioning them to omit any
actionable passages from “the Vision & c . – – I even proposed to them to give up the notion of the
Journal – L. H. agreed – but J. H. would publish it. – For my own share of “the Liberal” I have declined
104: B. means “demagogue”.
105: BLJ glosses, “To him in answer spake” (from Homer). B. can’t spell it at first.
106: B. hopes that H. is not unduly under the influence of women (as if there were any such risk).
107: Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor, II ii 11 (““Didst thou not share? Hadst thou not fifteen pence?”)