The stage (with the exception of the church by the bye) is the only place where the same things are recited publicly to different ages & it becomes thus not only a receptacle to preserve the language but a sort of organ for conversing with past times past Characters and past manners – An old play especially if more time had actually elapsed since those which are our models were written, would produce on many a reflecting Spectator much of that delusion which you have so beautifully & truly described as arising from the view of the remains of antiquity – What would one not give to hear Sophocles recited in the same accent tone & action & with the same accompaniments as Pericles did – Now as long as English lasts & an English stage is preserved uninterrupted, so long will the audience hear what Queen Elizabeth & the wits of Charles the second and Queen Anne’s time heard.
From Lord Holland to Byron, from Holland House, September 29th 1812:
If in correcting the lines on Menander you could in any delicate & [ ] way contrive to remind the audience that he <celebrated> {lamented} the very event you have been describing with so much feeling, the loss of Garrick, I think it would be a happy turn & {a} striking way of connecting your enumeration of Genius gifted patriarchs – By the bye I wonder you did not include the “Monody” in your list of good poems <from> {for} <thre/>theatrical presentation – if it is a little too studied & ambitious it is surely a beautiful <thing> poem & almost perfect in its kind though unquestionably too long –
Your four lines which I have quoted on the other side on the identity of the spirit stage & plays have suggested to me a remark on the stage of any country which I do not recollect to have seen & which nevertheless is true & susceptible if there were time of being clothed in a poetical dress & fitted for a prologue on such an occasion – The stage (with the exception of the church by the bye) is the only place where the same things are recited publickly to different ages & it becomes thus not only a receptacle to preserve the language but a sort of organ for conversing with past times past Characters and past manners – An old play especially if more time had actually elapsed since those which are our models were written, would produce on many a reflecting Spectator much of that delusion which you have so beautifully & truly described as arising from the view of the remains of antiquity – What would one not give to hear Sophocles recited in the same accent tone & action & with the same accompaniments as Pericles did –
Now as long as English lasts & an English stage is preserved uninterrupted, so long will the audience hear what Queen Elizabeth & the wits of Charles the second and Qn Anne’s time heard – I do not know whether I <express myself> explain myself in prose & therefore <do> {am} not so unreasonable as to expect to be construed in verse, <especially xxxxx by> but as the only amiable <part feature in superstitious rites & ceremonies & even establishments, is the sort of mysterious approximation which they produce between <distant or> remote ages it is pleasant at least to reflect that in a continued & uninterrupted exhibition of the same dramatic works in the same language some classical intercourse may be preserved through us between our ancestors & our descendants –
Fortunately for you the hour of putting in the letters has arrived & I must close this long prose which is only good for this, that if you take the trouble to read it <<you will>> you will> <put> <find it extremely> you will find nothing in it that can divert your mind from the occupation of correcting your address – One of the great objects of revision in all works & especially verse is additional perspicuity & one of the ways of being perspicuous is to think a great deal on the subject – nothing but the conviction that the more you think it over the better you will make it can justify my troubling you so much at length with my own conscience & my taking such great liberties as I have done with what is so good –
I doubt whether I shall not take Ld Jersey’s at Middleton in (or rather out of) may way to town & if you would meet me there, that would decide me – we shall not be above 35 miles apart when I am at Bowood – Pray write & tell me whether you could meet me with the copy quite revised & not exceeding 76 lines on Saturday at Tetbury – to breakfast or to what you will – As an invalid & a Cheltenham water drinker you must have time to return by daylight – Yrs again & again
Vll Holland
Byron to Lord Holland, from Cheltenham, September 29th 1812:
Septr. 29th.
My dear Lord – Shakespeare certainly ceased to reign in one of his Kingdoms, as George 3d. did in America, & George 4th. may in Ireland. – now we have nothing to do out of our own realms, and when the monarchy was gone, his majesty had but a barren sceptre – I have cut away you will see, & altered, but make it what you please – only I do implore for my own gratification one lash on those accursed quadrupeds – a “long shot Sir Lucius if you love Me.
– I have altered wave &c. & the fire & so forth for the timid. – – Let me hear from you when convenient & believe me
ever yr. obliged
B.
P.S. Do let that stand – & cut out elsewhere. – I shall choak if we must overlook their d – d menagerie.
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