The Works of Lord Byron (ed. Coleridge, Prothero)/Poetry/Volume 7/To Thomas Moore (1)

by George Gordon Byron

For works with similar titles, see To Thomas Moore.

TO THOMAS MOORE.

WRITTEN THE EVENING BEFORE HIS VISIT TO MR. LEIGH HUNT IN HORSEMONGER LANE GAOL, MAY 19, 1813.

Oh you, who in all names can tickle the town,
Anacreon, Tom Little, Tom Moore, or Tom Brown,—^[1]
For hang me if I know of which you may most brag,
Your Quarto two-pounds, or your Two-penny Post Bag;

*⁠*⁠*⁠*⁠*⁠*

But now to my letter—to yours 't is an answer—
To-morrow be with me, as soon as you can, sir,

Sir George Sinclair, Bart. M.P.
as a boy.
From a painting after Raeburn in the possession of
Sir Tollemach Sinclair.

All ready and dressed for proceeding to spunge on
(According to compact) the wit in the dungeon—^[2]
Pray Phœbus at length our political malice
May not get us lodgings within the same palace!
I suppose that to-night you're engaged with some codgers,
And for Sotheby's Blues^[3] have deserted Sam Rogers;
And I, though with cold I have nearly my death got,
Must put on my breeches, and wait on the Heathcote;^[4]
But to-morrow, at four, we will both play the Scurra,
And you'll be Catullus, the Regent Mamurra.^[5]

[First published, Letters and Journals, 1830, i. 401.]

1. [Moore's "Intercepted Letters; or, The Twopenny Post-Bag, By Thomas Brown, the Younger," was published in 1813.]
2. [James Henry Leigh Hunt (1784-1859) was imprisoned February, 1813, to February, 1815, for a libel on the Prince Regent, published in the Examiner, March 12, 1812.—Letters, 1898, ii. 205-208, note 1.]
3. [For "Sotheby's Blues," see Introduction to The Blues, Poetical Works, 1901, iv. 570, et ibid., 579, 580.]
4. [Katherine Sophia Manners was married in 1793 to Sir Gilbert Heathcote. See Letters, 1898, ii. 402, 406.]
5. [See Catullus, xxix. 1-4—

   "Quis hoc potest videre? quis potest pati,
   Nisi impudicus et vorax et aleo,
   Mamurram habere, quod Comata Gallia
   Habebat uncti et ultima Britannia?" etc.]