Beschreibung:

BYRON, George Gordon Noel, 6th Baron Byron (1788-1824). Lettre autographe signée (« B.N. ») à James Perry 26 février 1816. 3 pp. (113 x 180 mm), sur un double feuillet. (Anciennes traces d’onglet). Byron envoie un poème pour publication, en suggérant qu’il soit une œuvre de Chateaubriand. Byron offre à James Perry éditeur au Morning Chronicle , un poème en le mettant au défi, pour rester dans un esprit satirique, de le faire passer pour une œuvre de Chateaubriand. En guise de conclusion, il avise Perry de rester particulièrement prudent en vérifiant la presse. Il le rassure en postscriptum, promettant qu’il avouerait « bien sûr » la paternité du poème si la publication venait à poser de réels problèmes. « If you dare publish the enclosed – that is – if it is worth publishing – & will not bring you into any scrape, print it as a translation from some recent French poetry … It would not be bad fun to call it Chateaubriand’s – provided it be not detrimental to you or too unfair to him – the dog deserves no quarter – & of course no one would seriously suppose it to be of his writing … If you can venture upon it with safety – I would request you as a favour to be particular in correcting the press – as the handwriting is very indifferent and it also may want better punctuation. » L’hymne de Byron « Nous ne te maudissons pas Waterloo ! » fut effectivement publiée au Morning Chronicle le 15 mars 1816 et accompagnée d’un commentaire (de Byron également) suggérant qu’il était de la main de Chateaubriand, dont le désaveu à Napoléon, après en avoir été un soutien de la première heure, lui a valu son mépris. Cette lettre est écrite durant la période la plus instable de la vie de Byron : son épouse Annabella a abandonné le domicile conjugal avec leur fille le 15 janvier, et son père écrivit à Byron début février afin de lui proposer une séparation amicale. Cette affaire fut conclue le 15 avril, avant que Byron ne quitte l’Angleterre sans retour le 24 avril pour la Suisse en passant par les landes de Waterloo. Publiée dans Letters and Journals, vol. V, 33-34. Translation : BYRON, George Gordon Noel, 6 th Baron Byron (1788-1824). Autograph letter signed (‘B.N.’) to [James Perry], n.p., 26 February 1816. In English. Three pages, (113 x 180 mm), on a bifolium, contemporary docket on verso of f.2 (remnants of mount on f.2v CHECK CONDITION). Byron sends a poem for publication, suggesting that it be published as if by Chateaubriand. Byron offers Perry (editor of the Morning Chronicle ) a poem, asking if he dares publish it, and suggesting in the spirit of satire that it be passed off as by Chateaubriand. He concludes by asking Perry to be particularly careful in checking the proofs, and in a postscript reassures him that if the poem caused serious trouble he would ‘of course’ admit his authorship. ‘If you dare publish the enclosed – that is – if it is worth publishing – & will not bring you into any scrape, print it as a translation from some recent French poetry … It would not be bad fun to call it Chateaubriand’s – provided it be not detrimental to you or too unfair to him – the dog deserves no quarter – & of course no one would seriously suppose it to be of his writing … If you can venture upon it with safety – I would request you as a favour to be particular in correcting the press – as the handwriting is very indifferent & it also may want better punctuation’. Byron’s ode ‘We do not curse thee Waterloo!’ duly appeared in the Morning Chronicle of 15 March 1816 with a note (also by Byron) suggesting that it was by Chateaubriand, whose disavowal of Napoleon, after early support, had earned him Byron’s contempt. The letter is written at the most turbulent period of Byron’s life: his wife Annabella had abandoned the marital home with their infant daughter on 15 January, and in early February her father had written to Byron proposing an amicable separation. This was concluded on 15 April, and Byron left England, never to return, on