Page:The Works of Lord Byron (ed. Coleridge, Prothero) - Volume 1.djvu/345

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ENGLISH BARDS, AND SCOTCH REVIEWERS.
303

To these young tyrants, by themselves misplaced,
Combined usurpers on the Throne of Taste;
To these, when Authors bend in humble awe,
And hail their voice as Truth, their word as Law;
While these are Censors, 'twould be sin to spare;[1]
While such are Critics, why should I forbear?
But yet, so near all modern worthies run,
'Tis doubtful whom to seek, or whom to shun;90
Nor know we when to spare, or where to strike,
Our Bards and Censors are so much alike.


    Southey to Scott, June, 1807, "instead of seven pounds for the Annual, Life and Corr., iii. 125) distinguished the new journal from the first. Jeffrey was called to the Scottish bar in 1794, and as an advocate was especially successful with juries. He was constantly employed, and won fame and fortune. In 1829 he was elected Dean of the Faculty of Advocates, and the following year, when the Whigs came into office, he became Lord Advocate. He sat as M.P. twice for Malton (1830-1832), and, afterwards, for Edinburgh. In 1834 he was appointed a Judge of the Court of Sessions, when he took the title of Lord Jeffrey. Byron had attacked Jeffrey in British Bards before his Hours of Idleness had been cut up by the Edinburgh, and when the article appeared (Jan. 1808), under the mistaken impression that he was the author, denounced him at large (ll. 460-528) in the first edition of English Bards, and Scotch Reviewers. None the less, the great critic did not fail to do ample justice to the poet's mature work, and won from him repeated acknowledgments of his kindness and generosity. (See Edinburgh Review, vol. xxii. p. 416, and Byron's comment in his Diary for March 20, 1814; Life, p. 232. See, too, Hints from Horace, ll. 589-626; and Don Juan, canto x. st. 11-16, and canto xii. st. 16. See also Bagehot's Literary Studies, vol. i. article 1.)]

  1. Imitation.

    "Stulta est Clementia, cum tot ubique
    —— occurras perituræ parcere chartæ."

    Juvenal, Sat. I. ll. 17, 18.