stinging satire, the very impersonation of gay, witty, airy malice. Form and matter are equally admirable, and they are not likely to be surpassed. Moore had struck an enduring vein, and so long as his powers remained unimpaired he was continually producing the like brilliant trifles, for which at one time he received a handsome annual salary from the 'Times.' His later performances in this style, however, are inferior to 'The Twopenny Post Bag;' detached strokes are as telling as ever, but there is less concentration and unity.
In the interim Moore had married, on 25 March 1811, Bessie Dyke, a young actress of no claims to birth, but who proved the best of wives, and who, as Earl Russell says, 'received from him the homage of a lover from the hour of their nuptials to that of his dissolution.' Accustomed though he was to the most brilliant society, he resolved to live mainlv in the country, and settled for a time at Kegworth in Leicestershire, to be near Lord Moira's seat. After Lord Moira's departure for India he removed to May field Cottage, near Ashbourne. In the same year he formed another intimacy which had much influence on his life his friendship with Lord Byron, which, like his connection with Jeffrey, grew out of a misunderstanding. Moore's demand for an explanation of a passage and note in 'English Bards and Scotch Reviewers,' which he considered to convey an imputation upon the veracity of his account of his duel with Jeffrey, led ultimately to a meeting of the two beneath Rogers's roof, and the establishment of as close a friendship as the infinite dissimilarity of the parties would allow. Byron's regard for Moore hardly amounted to attachment, but was at least cordial and disinterested; and though Moore evidently felt more awe than love for his formidable ally, he was exemplary in the discharge of the ordinary duties of friendship. Another acquaintance, contracted a little later, that with Leigh Hunt (united with Moore in hostility to the regent), promised well, but soon grew cold under the influence of political estrangement, and was converted into bitter animosity on Moore's part by Leigh Hunt's posthumous attack on Byron.
With a young family rising around him, and disappointed in his hopes of provision from the public revenue, Moore found the necessity of increasing his means, and determined upon a great poetic effort. So high was his ability rated that his friend Perry, of the 'Morning Chronicle,' found no difficulty in enforcing on Longmans the stipulation that Moore should receive not less than the highest sum ever given for a poem. That, Longmans said, was 3,000l., which they agreed to pay without having seen a line of the projected work. Moore chose an Eastern subject, wisely, for Byron had made the East the fashion. After many unsuccessful experiments, he hit upon the idea of 'Lalla Rookh,' shut himself up at Mayfield with a library of books upon the East, and by 1815 had produced enough to induce him to offer the publishers a sight of the manuscript. They declined, saying that they felt unbounded confidence in him. When at last the poem was completed in the commercially disastrous year 1816, Moore, with equal magnanimity, offered to rescind the contract if the publishers' affairs rendered this course expedient. They remained firm; 'Lalla Rookh' was published in 1817, and at once gained a success rivalling Scott and Byron. Moore's fame speedily became European; perhaps no English poem of that age has been so frequently translated. The style to which it belongs is now completely out of fashion; and were it to revive it may be doubted whether there would be any resurrection for a work of prodigious talent, but uninformed by creative or even true lyrical inspiration. Its most remarkable characteristic is perhaps the poet's extreme dexterity in cloaking Irish patriotic aspirations under the garb of oriental romance. Where he is thinking of Ireland he expresses himself with real emotion; and much praise is due to the graceful conception and elegant execution of 'Paradise and the Peri;' otherwise the poem is but the ware of a very accomplished purveyor of the literary market.
Shortly before its publication Moore had displayed more genuine inspiration in his 'National Airs' (1815) and 'Sacred Song' (1816). The words here adapted to music vied with the popularity of the 'Irish Melodies,' and included pieces so universally known as 'Oft in the Stilly Night' and 'Sound the Loud Timbrel.' 'The Fudge Family in Paris,' published under the name of Thomas Brown the younger, consists of humorous skits in the style of 'The Twopenny Post Bag,' inspired by a visit to Paris paid in Rogers's company in the autumn of 1817. 'The Fudges in England,' 'Rhymes on the Road,' and 'Fables for the Holy Alliance' were later attempts in the same manner, published under the same pseudonym, the last named appearing in 1823.
Moore now seemed at the summit of fame and fortune. On his return from Paris in 1817 he had found a delightful country retreat at Sloperton Cottage in Wiltshire, which he chose for the sake of being near
