From the Quarterly Review. Memoirs, Journal, and Correspondence of Thomas Moore. Edited by the Right Honorable Lord John Russell, M. P. Vols. I., II., III., and IV. 1853. We have given our general views of Mr. Moore's literary character, as well as of some of his principal productions, so fully on former occasions that, on the present, we shall confine our observations to the special contents of the volumes before us. This is a task which we wish we could have spared ourselves; for we have but little to commend either in the substance or the circumstances of the publication which has not merely disappointed the general reader, but must, we believe, have given pain to every one who has any regard for the memory of poor Moore. The book presents us with, first, an autobiographical sketch of Moore's earlier life, of which a good deal seems to us very apocryphal, and what is of any value has been already before the public in the prefaces to the collected edition of his works; secondly, a number of letters, already above 400, chiefly to his mother, and Mr. Power the publisher of his "Melodies;" thirdly — but much the larger and and more important section, occupying half the second and the whole of the third and fourth volumes. a Diary-beginning in August, 1818, and thenceforward nost assiduously and minutely kept-of not merely the incidents of his literary and domestic life, but the sayings and doings of the extensive and variegated society in which he moved. These materials he bequeathed under the following clause of his will (dated 1828) : I also confide to my valued friend Lord John Russell (having obtained his kind promise to undertake this service for me) the task of looking over whatever papers, letters, or journals, I may leave behind me, for the purpose of forming from them some kind of publication, whether in the shape of memoirs or otherwise, which may afford the means of making some provision for my wife and family. Preface, p. i. On this Lord John observes that the reader will not wonder that he has thought it right to comply with the request of his deceased friend. " To the general proposition we cheerfully assent, but the manner in which the task has been executed is a very different question. Every one recollects his friend Sydney Smith's description of his lordship's readiness to undertake any thing and every thing to build St. Paul's- cut for the stone or command the Channel fleet. We cannot guess what he might have been as an architect, an anatomist, or an admiral, but he is assuredly a very indifferent editor. His position, indeed, is altogether a strange one. We see him in the political world exe most These letters are, many of them of them, I may say without a full date, and I fear several have been wrongly placed. J. R.—i. 141. must have been sure of it; and why is it so? "Fear!" any one who had read the Letters What is the use of an editor but to look after such things? and, in this case, we really believe that it might have been done by an hour's attentive perusal and comparison with the other contents of the volumes. But the materials are not only negligently misplaced - but, if Lord John had, as he intimates. a power of selection, in many instances very illchosen. We by no means quarrel with his having given us much that may appear trifling it was incident to the nature of the task he had undertaken - but we smile at the pompous solemnity with which he endeavors to excuse such an unsifted accumulation of littlenesses and nothings as we have now before us. Mr. Moore (his lordship says) was one of those men whose genius was so remarkable that the world ought to be acquainted with the daily current of his life and the lesser traits of -p. vi. his character. To this we may make the old reply, Je n'en vois pas la nécessité. Mr. Moore was a lively and popular writer, and a most agreeable companion, and well entitled to a special biography, but we never imagined that the recesses of his private life were to afford anything so emphatically important to mankind. Admitting, however, as we are quite willing to do, the amusement and even the instruction to be derived from a Dutch delineation of the smaller details of social life, it is essential even to that petty pleasure to know something about the company into which we are thus introduced. Of the many hundred persons who are more or less prominent actors in the long melo-drame of Moore's life, there are not above a couple of dozen that would not require a nomenclator, while the editor has not thought fit to fix the identity of any one, and leaves us a mere mob of undistinguishable names. There are, or seem to be, five or none six different tribes of Moores, three or four septs of Nugents, four or five clans of Douglasses, Smiths in their usual abundance, and long strings of "Brown-Jones - Robinson," and the like, but not a hint from the writer or the editor which of the Browns, Joneses, or Robinsons is the party concerned. Lord John, we admit, may say that in the great majority of cases we should probably think any explanation that could be given very barren and unprofitable. Just so: but what is that excuse but a proof that the greater part of the work is itself unprofitable and barren; for what interest can there be about the sayings and doings of people whose personal identity is not even worth realizing? There is one instance of this neglect or reserve so remarkable and so unaccountable that it seems to throw something of suspicion where we are sure Lord John could have had we mean the announcement of Moore's marriage. We need not say in what a variety of ways such an event influences any man's subsequent life. In Moore's case it seems to have been singularly imprudent, and, if not clandestine, at least very mysterious, and must have been the cause of much embarrassment, and, in spite of his joyous and sanguine temper, of constant anxiety. Almost every page of the Diary, and many pages twice or thrice over, testify how vividly, how ostentatiously, he produces and reproduces the happy consequences of this alliance; but those who will take the trouble of looking closer will see that he seems to have been in a constant fidget about the various shades of coolness or countenance with which his choice was received, and that his feelings towards individuals were evidently sweetened or soured according to this special influence; and yet all that either he or his editor tells us on this affair which predominates over every hour of his after life is this At page 252 of the first volume, under date" May, 1811," he writes to his mother that he is to meet at breakfast at Lady Donegal's and at dinner at Mr. Rogers', To which the editor appends this note : March 22, 1811, at St. Martin's Church in LonMr. Moore was married to Miss Dyke on don. Surely, after Lord John's dissertation on the necessity of the world's being made acquainted with the minute details of Mr. Moore's life, it is very strange to find him thus slurring over the chief personage and topic of all. We throw into a foot-note a few words on this subject (chiefly collected from the Diary), . which seem necessary to supply the editor's injudicious omission, and to explain Moore's real position. We do so the more willingly, lest our silence, added to that of Lord John, should lead to a suspicion that anything could be truly said derogatory in the slightest degree from the merits of " this excellent person," as she is, no doubt justly, described by Lord John, and by every one else that we have ever heard speak of her.* But besides these obvious defects of Lord John's editorial system, some questions of more serious importance present themselves. He considers it, he says, "clear," that by assigning to me the task of " looking over whatever papers, letters, or journals," he might leave behind him, "for the purpose of forming the shape of memoirs or otherwise," he meant to from them some kind of publication, whether in leave much to my discretion.-i. ix. It is clear Lord John could not rationally have accepted the duty without some degree * Mr. Dyke was, we are informed, a subaltern actor on the Irish stage; he also gave lessons in dancing, and showed some artistic talents in scene painting. He had three daughters; the eldest on the stage, and the youngest Mr. Murray of the married a Mr. Duff, also, we have been informed, Edinburgh Theatre (ii. 20S); the second, Elizabeth, born in 1793, was the wife of Moore. They were all on the stage (i. 304), when young as dancers, and afterwards as actresses; in both these capacities they were engaged to fill the female parts in the Amateur Theatricals of Kilkenny in the years 1809 and 1810, when Moore, then one of the A person whom you little dream of, but whom I performers (and it is said a very good one), beshall introduce to your notice next week. * Barbara, the daughter of the Rev. Dr. Godfrey, became, in 1790, the third wife of the first Marquis (then Earl) of Donegal. He died in 1799. Lady Donegal and her sisters Mary and Philippa seem to have lived together; hence Moore always speaks of them as the Donegals. They were amongst the earliest, kindest, and most sensible of Moore's friends; and a few of Miss Mary Godfrey's letters to him, full of lively talk and excellent advice, are certainly the best things in the volumes. It is not stated, and we very much doubt, that Lady Donegal knew anything of Miss Dyke before the marriage, but she immediately, as Moore phrases it," took her by the hand." Lady Donegal died in 1829. Of Miss Godfrey we regret that we know nothing but her half-dozen agreeable letters. came acquainted with them, and enamored of Miss E. Dyke. The courtship commenced at Kilkenny (iv. 103), was continued in Dublin (ib. 126), but, it seems, without the knowledge of his family, as his mother, we see, did not hear of the match for two months after it had taken place, and then, as being with "one she little dreamed of." It appears that these young persons were always under the care of their mother, and their personal characters were irreproachable. The Kilkenny playbills supply a fact that should be noticed. The season was about the October of each year. In 1809 Miss E. Dyke appears constantly, and she and Moore played repeatedly Lady Godiva and Peeping Tom together. In 1810 her name is not found in the bills, and her sisters took her usual parts. We conclude that Moore had then made up his mind to the match, and his delicacy had induced the lady to quit the stage. of control-not, however, an arbitrary, but a responsible control. When a man of strong party feelings like Lord John Russell has an unlimited power over a miscellaneous mass of papers, written on the spur of every transient feeling by a partisan of his own, and teeming with all the political partialities and personal antipathies of their common habits and opinions, it would be only fair to tell us distinctly at the outset, whether he makes a selection or whether he prints in extenso the whole work as he finds it; and in the former case he should indicate by blanks or asterisks where any suppression occurs. We observe that Lord John in a few places does introduce, in the exercise of his discretion, blanks and asterisks. This would imply that he has made no other suppressions and, if so, the Diary must have been, on the whole, singularly inoffensive, and a dozen similar suppressions would have removed the chief blots of this kind that we have heard complained of; but here a recent circumstance suggests some rather puzzling considerations. There occurs in the Diary the following passage :— June 16, 1825. tirely forgotten; nor do I know who mentioned it, in the year 1825, at Mr. Rogers' breakfasttable. It is certainly inconsistent with the bold and open character of the late Lord Londonderry. Your lordship's denial that there was any foundation for it is enough to prove its falsetional testimony of Mr. Bidwell. The story hood, nor do I require for that purpose the addimust be placed among those calumnies which float in the idle gossip of the day, and I must repeat to your lordship my regret that I should have been instrumental in reviving it. I have the honor to be, &c. The Marquis of Londonderry. This candid and graceful explanation is, of course, quite satisfactory as to the facts of the Castlereagh, and Wilson case, but it is rather the reverse on the point which we are discussing, and which is of more extensive consequence. In the first place, the proposed suppression in a second edition could go but a short way in remedying the specific mischief -since, as we presume, the sale of the editio princeps has been extensive; but, besides, we think that other parties calumniated in Moore's Diary have an interest in having this flagrant proof of its inaccuracy kept on record. Lord John's reparation to Lord Londonderry should be not the suppression of the passage, but the addition of a note to correct it. But Breakfasted at Rogers': Sydney Smith and his family, Luttrell, Lord John Russell], Sharpe, &c., - highly amusing. Talked of Sir Robert Wilson:- after the battle of Leipsic, to the gaining of which he was instrumental, Lord Castlereagh, in sending over to Lord Stewart the public document, containing we must further, and with a more general the order for thanks to Wilson, among others, on view, observe that Lord John's statement the occasion, accompanied it with a private one, that, when he first read it, "his impulse was "afterwards desiring Lord Stewart [now Marquis of London- to strike it out" though it was derry] to avoid the thanks to Wilson as much as overlooked". admits that he exercised the he could, in order not to give a triumph to his power of expunging passages which he party. Lord Stewart, by mistake, showed this let-thought " injurious" or even improbable; ter, instead of the public one, to Wilson, who has a vast power in partisan hands, and which had the forbearance never to turn it against the substitutes Lord John Russell's private judggovernment since. - iv. 291. ment for Mr. Moore's evidence. It further Chesham Place, May 21, 1853. MY LORD-I am deeply concerned that the passage to which your lordship alludes should have been published by me. My first impulse on reading it was to strike it out, both as extremely improbable in itself and as injurious to the memory of the late Lord Londerry (!). In the hurry with which the publication was conducted, for a peculiar purpose, the passage was afterwards overlooked. I shall, however, expunge it from a new edition which is now preparing. The anecdote itself I had en 66 it associates Lord John in the responsibility of ALL the "injurious" or "improbable gossip" which these volumes actually contain proves the culpable heedlessness with which he deals with his own editorial duties and with other folks' feelings-and it confesses that the Diary issued to the world under his auspices was in fact a receptacle for "calumnies which floated in the idle gossip of the day. These are serious admissions, nor is their importance in any degree diminished by his attempting to lay a share of the blame on the "hurry with which, for a particular purpose," the publication was conducted. He might have been in some hurry to conclude the bargain with the bookseller; there might even be some hurry in arranging and getting out the first livraison of the work; but this is in the second batch which was a long time delayed — and would have equally, as far as we can see, answered its " peculiar purpose" if it had been delayed till the whole was completed. We are, however, glad that | fore them a transcript in extenso of a couple things have turned out as they have. We of pages and, to escape all cavil as to our are glad that Lord John had not time to ex-selection of entries, we shall take the four or punge the passage, for it now helps to charac-five at the commencement of his last year of terize the Diary, and it might be produced by exile at Paris and the first at his residence in and by, when Lord Londonderry would not Wiltshire after his return. be alive to contradict it, and the memories of his brother and himself would have remained stigmatized to posterity for a most base fraud. 1822. January 1st. - Walked out with Bessy his wife] in the morning to choose an étrenne for Mrs. Story. Had Villamil, Dalton, Douglas, and Dr. Yonge to dine with me. In the evening Macleods. Took to games of forfeit; drank chamcame Mrs. Story, and at supper arrived the pagne and brandy-punch afterwards; then to dancing, and did not separate till near three But, though we think that Lord John Russell's editorial proceedings are very questionable, we must on the other hand admit supposing that there have been no serious deviations from the original materials that ao'clock. more diligent editor could not have remedied 2nd. Dined at Macleod's; Mrs. Story of the in any essential degree the innate defects of party. Went from thence to the Opera (Lord the book. So voluminous a polyglot of gossip Fife having sent me a ticket) too late for the such a gigantic distention of nothings and divertissement in the Opera. Miss Drew was to next to nothings - cannot, we believe, behave called to take me to Mrs. Roche's ball, paralleled, even in its present state; and but instead of her came Mrs. Story, Mrs. Macwhat may it not grow to? The present work occupies but seven years-1818-1825-of Moore's life-so that five or six and twenty remain. Not that it is all mere gossip, nor all trivial; nor unamusing-nor even altogether uninstructive. Its most substantial value is, undoubtedly, that it throws a great deal of light, and corrective light, both on Moore's genius and the character and tendoncy of his most popular works; and the "world," we admit, may be in some degree the better for it-as Rousseau's Confessions tended to correct the mischief of the Héloise and the Emile. It also affords some glimpses (though less than might be expected) of the state of society and manners. It sketches or rather touches slightly indeed, and seldom impartially-many public characters; and skims over as much of the literature of the day as had any relation to Moore's own productions. But these more interesting topics are so loosely and incidentally handled, so comparatively scanty in quantity, and so scattered through the inferior matter, that we do the Diary no injustice in calling it like Gratiano's talk "an infinite deal of nothing, two grains of wheat hid in two bushels of chaff:" or, to use Moore's own words, which are really prophetic of this work in an extraordinary degree leod, and her sister. Drove with them about the Champs Elysées; a fine moonlight and a merry Miss D. had called for me at the Opera; stayed one. They left me at Mrs. Roche's; found that only a short time at the ball. On my return home found our two maids still engaged with their company, we having treated them with an entertainment for their friends to day. With crumbs of gossip caught from dining wits, With each ingredient served up oft before, Any extent of extract for which we could find room would give a very imperfect idea of the miscellaneily of the whole, and the tenuity of at least half of the Diary; but, as our readers ought to have some general idea of the style and fashion of the work, we shall lay be 3d. Kept in a bustle all the morning; so much so as to forget (for I believe the first time since I have been in France) my letter to my dear mother, to whom I write twice a week, and have done so, with but few failures, for more than twenty years past. Dined with the Robinagreeable day. Sung to them in the evening, sons; no one but Cadogan; a good dinner and and saw in Lady Helena's eyes those beads (to use the language of distillers) which show that the spirit is proof. Went from thence to Lady Pigott's ball. Bessy gone to the Italian opera, where Dalton procured her a box.. - iii. 318-14. Such were among the most rational of the Parisian days and nights. As to those of the Wiltshire cottage Sloperton, January 1st, 1823. - The coat (a Kilkenny uniform) which I sent to town to be new-lined for the fancy ball to-morrow night, not yet arrived. Walked to Bowood. Found Lady Lansdowne and Jekyll, Lady L. again expressing her strong admiration of the poem. Said she had proposed to the Bowleses to dine at Bowood on Saturday, and hoping that Bessy would have no objection to be of the party. 2nd. Obliged to make shift for to-night, by transferring the cut steel buttons from my dress coat to a black one, and having it lined with white silk. Dined with the Phippses. Went in the same way as before; Mrs. P. dressed as a Sultana and looking very well. The ball at a Mrs. Hardman's (a German) beyond Devizes; odd enough, and amusing, though in a small, illlighted room. Two fine girls there, the Miss Holtons, the eldest beautiful. tween four and five. 4th. -The day very wet. Had promised the Bowleses to meet them at dinner at Bowood to- Moore could spare me.—iv. 32. 5th.-Have received several newspapers with reviews of the poem; all very favorable. Dined at Bowood; taken by the Phippses, &c. These extracts, though affording no doubt an average sample of the whole, happen to contain no entries of a class of mere trivialities too large to be left altogether out of our account, but of which a very small taste will suffice such as his thus registering (A. D. 1819) for the benefit of posterity when and where he ate an ice : Sept. 8th.-Eat ice at the Milles Colonnes. iii. 7. 9th. -An ice at the Milles Colonnes. — ib. 16th. cheses. - Took an ice with Lord John at Ru- and whether, when he went next summer or for what precise object it was commenced. It may have been in part designed as a bonâ fide collection of memoranda for an autobiography-partly as a repository for odds and ends that might be turned to account in some literary shape or other-and evidently as a magazine of jokes and stories, to be occasionally brought out à la Joe Miller in conversation. He may also have calculated that it might one day be a profitable pecuniary speculation for the benefit of his family -an idea which the gift of the Byron Memoirs, and the price of 2000 guineas for which he sold them, may have confirmed; but neither this nor any other conjecture we can make will account for the quantity of lower topics which intrude themselves. We suppose that he must have intended to revise and expurgate them. But there was, no doubt, a still earlier feeling one, indeed, in a greater or less degree at the bottom of all diaries written for publication-personal vanity; and this influence, which is like Aaron's rod and swallows all the rest," very speedily showed its predominancy. It is as constant and as strong in his journals as in poor Madame D'Arblay's-though unquestionably he manages it with more tact and dexterity. In his social manners it was admirably veiled, and no one we ever saw received so much personal July 7th. — Villamil and I went in a cuckoo. admiration with more ease and simplicity. - ib. 126. But such reserve is hardly maintainable when a man is soliloquizing in the tempting solitude and (as he tries to persuade himself) the secrecy of a Diary. It is a kind of intellectual dram-drinking, which becomes irresistible, and ends in a delirium tremens of morbid vanity. We are satisfied that neither Lord Lansdowne, nor Mr. Rogers, nor any one of Moore's habitual society, had any idea of the extent of this weakness. Sometimes it transpires slyly in little innuendoes of his own-sometimes he puts it adroitly, oftener clumsily, into the mouths of other persons-sometimes it flares out boldly in long transcripts from books, newspapers, or letters. The amount of the would be incredible if we did not produce Diary which this sort of matter occupies rather copious specimens of the various ingenious devices by which Moore manages to tickle himself: Received a letter from Rogers, which begins thus:- "What a lucky fellow you are! Surely you must have been born with a rose on your lips and a nightingale singing on the top of your bed."-iv. 189. Born "at the corner of Little Longford street" with a rose in his mouth, and not, as his own! Was Mr. Rogers laughing at him? most people are, in his mother's bed, but in Saw the Examiner, which quotes my Neapolitan verses from the Chronicle, and says "Their |