{"id":91441,"date":"2015-10-30T12:21:43","date_gmt":"2015-10-30T16:21:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=91441"},"modified":"2015-10-30T12:21:43","modified_gmt":"2015-10-30T16:21:43","slug":"hiccup-and-happiness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/10\/30\/hiccup-and-happiness\/","title":{"rendered":"Hiccup and Happiness"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Walter Geikie, Drunken Man<\/i>, ca 1835.<\/p><\/div>\n

A letter from Lord Byron to Thomas Moore, dated October 31, 1815.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Yesterday, I dined out with a largeish party, where were\u00a0Sheridan and\u00a0Colman,\u00a0Harry Harris\u00a0of C[ovent] G[arden] and his brother,\u00a0Sir Gilbert Heathcote, Ds.\u00a0Kinnaird, and others, of note and notoriety. Like other parties of the kind, it was first silent, then talky, then argumentative, then disputatious, then unintelligible, then altogethery, then inarticulate, and then drunk. When we had reached the last step of this glorious ladder, it was difficult to get down again without stumbling;\u2014and, to crown all, Kinnaird and I had to conduct Sheridan down a damned corkscrew staircase, which had certainly been constructed before the discovery of fermented liquors, and to which no legs, however crooked, could possibly accommodate themselves. We deposited him safe at home, where his man, evidently used to the business, waited to receive him in the hall.<\/p>\n

Both he and\u00a0Colman\u00a0were, as usual, very good; but I carried away much wine, and the wine had previously carried away my memory; so that all was hiccup and happiness for the last hour or so, and I am not impregnated with any of the conversation. Perhaps you heard of a late answer of Sheridan to the watchman who found him bereft of that \u2018divine particle of air,\u2019 called reason, *\u00a0*\u00a0* . He, the watchman, found\u00a0Sherry\u00a0in the street, fuddled and bewildered, and almost insensible. \u2018Who are\u00a0you<\/em>, sir?\u2019\u2014no answer.\u00a0\u2018What\u2019s your name?\u2019\u2014a hiccup. \u2018What\u2019s your name?\u2019\u2014Answer, in a slow, deliberate, and impassive tone\u2014\u2018Wilberforce!!!\u2019 Is not that Sherry all over?\u2014and, to my mind, excellent. Poor fellow,\u00a0his<\/em>\u00a0very dregs are better than the \u2018first sprightly runnings\u2019 of others.<\/p>\n

My paper is full, and I have a grievous headache.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A letter from Lord Byron to Thomas Moore, dated October 31, 1815.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1900],"tags":[16241,1328,8031,10681,2047,20017,20018,20019],"class_list":["post-91441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-correspondence","tag-bicentennials","tag-drinking","tag-drunkenness","tag-lord-byron","tag-poets","tag-spiral-staircases","tag-thomas-moore","tag-wilberforce"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nTwo Hundred Years Ago Today, Lord Byron Got Soused<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In a letter from October 31, 1815, Lord Byron recounting a drunken episode from the night before.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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