APPENDIX. [In the absence of the Author, vo is in Switzerland, the London Editor has ven Documents, w} .ch he trusts wi desirable Supi.ement. The fol ticular, rela'.ve to Lord Byror red to add a few be considered as a wing Letter in pargreat contemporary Sir Walter Scott, will no dot be read with univer sal admi ation :] LETTER FPM LORD BYRON. T, M. H. Beyle, Rue de Riche u, Paris. SIR, I am the Genoa, May 29, 1823. At present, that I know to whom debted for a very flattering mention in Rome, Naples, and Florence in 1817, by Ms. Stendhal," it is fit that I should return y anks (however undesired or undesirabl), to Mons. Beyle, with whom I had the honour of being acquainted at Milan in 1816. You only did me too much honour in what you were pleased to say in that work; but it has hardly given me less pleasure than the praise itself, to become at length aware (which I have done by mere accident) that I am indebted for it to one of whose good opinion I was really ambitious. So many changes have taken place since that period in the Milan circle, that I hardly dare recur to it; some dead, some banished, and some in the Austrian dungeons.-Poor Pellico! I trust that, in his iron solitude, his Muse is consoling him in part-one day to delight us again, when both she and her Poet are restored to freedom. Of your works I have only seen Rome, Naples, and Florence," &c., the Lives of Haydn and Mozart, and the brochure on Racine and Shakspeare. The "Histoire de la Peinture" I have not yet the good fortune to possess. There is one part of your observations in the pamphlet which I shall venture to remark upon; -it regards Walter Scott. You say that "his character is little worthy of enthusiasm," at the same time that you mention his productions in the manner they deserve. I have known Walter Scott long and well, and in occasional situations which call forth the real character-and I can assure you that his character is worthy of admiration-that of all men he is the most open, the most honourable, the most amiuble. With his po litics I have nothing to do: they differ from mine, which renders it difficult for me to speak of them. But he is perfectly sincere in them; and Sincerity may be humble, but she cannot be servile. I pray you, therefore, to correct or soften that passage. You may, perhaps, attribute this officiousness of mine to a false affectation of candour, as I happen to be a writer also. Attribute it to what motive you please, but believe the truth. I say that Walter Scott is as nearly a thorough good man as man can be, because I know it by experience to be the case. you If do me the honour of an answer, may I request a speedy one?-because it is possible (though not yet decided) that circumstances may conduct me once more to Greece. My present address is Genoa, where an answer will reach me in a short time, or be forwarded to me wherever I may be. |
