Note 379 — MARINO FALIERO, DOGE OF VENICE; AN HISTORICAL TRAGEDY, IN FIVE ACTS.

{340}[Byron received a copy of Goethe's review of Manfred, which appeared in Kunst und Alterthum (ii. 2. 191) in May, 1820. In a letter to Murray, dated October 17, 1820 (Letters, 1901, v. 100), he enclosed a letter to Goethe, headed "For Marino Faliero. Dedication to Baron Goethe, etc., etc., etc." It is possible that Murray did not take the "Dedication" seriously, but regarded it as a jeu d'esprit, designed for the amusement of himself and his "synod." At any rate, the "Dedication" did not reach Goethe's hand till 1831, when it was presented to him at Weimar by John Murray the Third. "It is written," says Moore, who printed a mutilated version in his Letters and Journals, etc., 1830, ii. 356-358, "in the poet's most whimsical and mocking mood; and the unmeasured severity poured out in it upon the two favourite objects of his wrath and ridicule, compels me to deprive the reader of its most amusing passages." The present text, which follows the MS., is reprinted from Letters, 1901, v. 100-104—

"Dedication to Baron Goethe, etc., etc., etc.

"Sir—In the Appendix to an English work lately translated into German and published at Leipsic, a judgment of yours upon English poetry is quoted as follows: 'That in English poetry, great genius, universal power, a feeling of profundity, with sufficient tenderness and force, are to be found; but that altogether these do not constitute poets,' etc., etc.

"I regret to see a great man falling into a great mistake. This opinion of yours only proves that the 'Dictionary of Ten Thousand living English Authors'[A] has not been translated into German. You will have read, in your friend Schlegel's version, the dialogue in Macbeth—

Now, of these 'ten thousand authors,' there are actually nineteen hundred and eighty-seven poets, all alive at this moment, whatever their works may be, as their booksellers well know: and amongst these there are several who possess a far greater reputation than mine, though considerably less than yours. It is owing to this neglect on the part of your German translators that you are not aware of the works of William Wordsworth, who has a baronet in London[C] who draws him frontispieces and leads him about to dinners and to the play; and a Lord in the country,[D] who gave him a place in the Excise—and a cover at his table. You do not know perhaps that this Gentleman is the greatest of all poets past—present and to come—besides which he has written an 'Opus Magnum' in prose—during the late election for Westmoreland.[E] His principal publication is entitled 'Peter Bell' which he had withheld from the public for 'one and twenty years'—to the irreparable loss of all those who died in the interim, and will have no opportunity of reading it before the resurrection. There is also another named Southey, who is more than a poet, being actually poet Laureate,—a post which corresponds with what we call in Italy Poeta Cesareo, and which you call in German—I know not what; but as you have a 'Caesar'—probably you have a name for it. In England there is no Caesar—only the Poet.

"I mention these poets by way of sample to enlighten you. They form but two bricks of our Babel, (Windsor bricks, by the way) but may serve for a specimen of the building.

"It is, moreover, asserted that 'the predominant character of the whole body of the present English poetry is a disgust and contempt for life.' But I rather suspect that by one single work of prose, you yourself have excited a greater contempt for life than all the English volumes of poesy that ever were written. Madame de Stäel says, that 'Werther has occasioned more suicides than the most beautiful woman;' and I really believe that he has put more individuals out of this world than Napoleon himself,—except in the way of his profession. Perhaps, Illustrious Sir, the acrimonious judgment passed by a celebrated northern journal[F] upon you in particular, and the Germans in general, has rather indisposed you towards English poetry as well as criticism. But you must not regard our critics, who are at bottom good-natured fellows, considering their two professions,—taking up the law in court, and laying it down out of it. No one can more lament their hasty and unfair judgment, in your particular, than I do; and I so expressed myself to your friend Schlegel, in 1816, at Coppet.

"In behalf of my 'ten thousand' living brethren, and of myself, I have thus far taken notice of an opinion expressed with regard to 'English poetry' in general, and which merited notice, because it was yours.

"My principal object in addressing you was to testify my sincere respect and admiration of a man, who, for half a century, has led the literature of a great nation, and will go down to posterity as the first literary Character of his Age.

"You have been fortunate, Sir, not only in the writings which have illustrated your name, but in the name itself, as being sufficiently musical for the articulation of posterity. In this you have the advantage of some of your countrymen, whose names would perhaps be immortal also—if anybody could pronounce them.

"It may, perhaps, be supposed, by this apparent tone of levity, that I am wanting in intentional respect towards you; but this will be a mistake: I am always flippant in prose. Considering you, as I really and warmly do, in common with all your own, and with most other nations, to be by far the first literary Character which has existed in Europe since the death of Voltaire, I felt, and feel, desirous to inscribe to you the following work,—not as being either a tragedy or a poem, (for I cannot pronounce upon its pretensions to be either one or the other, or both, or neither,) but as a mark of esteem and admiration from a foreigner to the man who has been hailed in Germany 'the great Goethe.'

"I have the honour to be, With the truest respect, Your most obedient and Very humble servant, Byron,

"Ravenna, 8bre 14º, 1820.

"P.S.—I perceive that in Germany, as well as in Italy, there is a great struggle about what they call 'Classical' and 'Romantic,'—terms which were not subjects of classification in England, at least when I left it four or five years ago. Some of the English Scribblers, it is true, abused Pope and Swift, but the reason was that they themselves did not know how to write either prose or verse; but nobody thought them worth making a sect of. Perhaps there may be something of the kind sprung up lately, but I have not heard much about it, and it would be such bad taste that I shall be very sorry to believe it."

Another Dedication, to be prefixed to a Second Edition of the play was found amongst Byron's papers. It remained in MS. till 1832, when it was included in a prefatory note to Marino Faliero, Works of Lord Byron, 1832, xii. 50.

"Dedication of Marino Faliero.

"To the Honourable Douglas Kinnaird.

"My dear Douglas,—I dedicate to you the following tragedy, rather on account of your good opinion of it, than from any notion of my own that it may be worthy of your acceptance. But if its merits were ten times greater than they possibly can be, this offering would still be a very inadequate acknowledgment of the active and steady friendship with which, for a series of years, you have honoured your obliged and affectionate friend,

"BYRON.

"Ravenna, Sept. 1st, 1821."

[A][A Biographical Dictionary of Living Authors of Great Britain and Ireland, etc., London, 1816, 8vo.]

[B]

Macbeth, act v. sc. 3, lines 12, 13.]

[C][Sir George Beaumont. See Professor W. Knight, Life of Wordsworth, ii. (Works, vol. x.) 56.]

[D][Lord Lonsdale (ibid., p. 209).]

[E][Two Addresses to the Freeholders of Westmoreland, 1818.]

[F][See an article on Goethe's Aus Meinem Leben, etc., in the Edinburgh Review for June, 1816, vol. xxvi. pp. 304-337.]]