12. Manuscript of Byron’s ‘Lines to a Lady Weeping,’ 1812
NLS Ms.43348, f.12v
‘Lines to a Lady Weeping’ was first published anonymously on 7 March 1812 in the Morning Chronicle. It attacked the Prince Regent for his abandonment of his Whig supporters in favour of the Tory party.
The poem refers to an incident when Princess Charlotte, the Regent’s young daughter and heir, wept when she heard her father openly abusing the Whigs.
Weep, Daughter of a royal line,
A Sire’s disgrace, a realm’s decay;
Ah happy, if each tear of thine
Could wash a father’s fault away!Weep – for thy tears are Virtue’s tears
Auspicious to these suffering Isles;
And be each drop in future years
Repaid thee by thy People’s Smiles! –
In this exhibition
- Acknowledgements & foreword
- Introduction
- Britannia: Parliament, party & the Prince
- Introduction to: Britannia: Parliament, party & the Prince
- 6. Byron’s draft parliamentary speech on Roman Catholic emancipation, 1812
- 7. Letter of Lord Sligo to Byron, 20 February 1812
- 8. The Parliamentary Speeches of Lord Byron
- 9. Byron’s manuscript of ‘Note to the annexed stanzas on Brougham’, 7 December 1818
- 10. Letter from Byron to Lady Melbourne, 21 September 1813
- 11. Byron’s ‘Ode to the Framers of the Frame Bill,’ Morning Chronicle, 2 March 1812
- 12. Manuscript of Byron’s ‘Lines to a Lady Weeping,’ 1812
- 13. Letter from Byron to John Murray II, 22 January 1814
- 14. ‘Song for the Luddites’
- 15. King’s Colledge [sic] to wit: a practical essay
- Napoleon: Emperor, expectation & exile
- Italy: politics, patriotism & plays
- Greece: Hellenism & heroism
- Editions used as sources