But
your Lordship, I am sorry to observe to-day, is troubled with the gout;
if my book can produce a _laugh_ against itself or the author, it will
be of some service. If it can set you to _sleep_, the benefit will be
yet greater; and as some facetious personage observed half a century
ago, that "poetry is a mere drug," [3]
I offer you mine as a humble assistant to the _eau medicinale_. I trust
you will forgive this and all my other buffooneries, and believe me to
be, with great respect,
Your Lordship's obliged and sincere servant,
BYRON.
[Footnote 1: 'Childe Harold' was published March 1, 1812. Another copy
of 'Childe Harold' was sent to Mrs. Leigh, with the following
inscription:
"To Augusta, my dearest sister, and my best friend, who has ever loved
me much better than I deserved, this volume is presented by her
_father's_ son, and most affectionate brother, B."
The effect which the poem instantly produced is best expressed in
Byron's own memorandum:
"I awoke one morning and found myself famous."
He was only just twenty-three years old.
"The subject," says Elizabeth, Duchess of Devonshire ('Two Duchesses',
pp. 375, 376), "of conversation, of curiosity, of enthusiasm almost,
one might say, of the moment is not Spain or Portugal, Warriors or
Patriots, but Lord Byron!" "He returned," she continues, "sorry for
the severity of some of his lines (in the 'English Bards'), and with a
new poem, 'Childe Harold', which he published.
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