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Solutions Manual
Corporate Finance
01/30/2013
Prepared by:
Joe Smolira
Belmont University
1/30/2014
Revised by:
Joseph Lim
Singapore Management University
Ruth Tan
National University of Singapore
CHAPTER 7
RISK ANALYSIS, REAL OPTIONS, AND
CAPITAL BUDGETING
Answers to Concepts Review and Critical Thinking Questions
1. Forecasting risk is the risk that a poor decision is made because of errors in projected cash flows.
The danger is greatest with a new product because the cash flows are probably harder to predict.
2. With a sensitivity analysis, one variable is examined over a broad range of values. With a scenario
analysis, all variables are examined for a limited range of values.
3. It is true that if average revenue is less than average cost, the firm is losing money. This much of the
statement is therefore correct. At the margin, however, accepting a project with marginal revenue in
excess of its marginal cost clearly acts to increase operating cash flow.
4. From the shareholder perspective, the financial break-even point is the most important. A project can
exceed the accounting and cash break-even points but still be below the financial break-even point.
This causes a reduction in shareholder (your) wealth.
5. The project will reach the cash break-even first, the accounting break-even next and finally the
financial break-even. For a project with an initial investment and sales afterwards, this ordering will
always apply. The cash break-even is achieved first since it excludes depreciation. The accounting
break-even is next since it includes depreciation. Finally, the financial break-even, which includes
the time value of money, is achieved.
6. Traditional NPV analysis is often too conservative because it ignores profitable options such as the
ability to expand the project if it is profitable, or abandon the project if it is unprofitable. The option
to alter a project when it has already been accepted has a value, which increases the NPV of the
project.
7. The type of option most likely to affect the decision is the option to expand. If the country just
liberalized its markets, there is likely the potential for growth. First entry into a market, whether an
entirely new market, or with a new product, can give a company name recognition and market share.
This may make it more difficult for competitors entering the market.
8. Sensitivity analysis can determine how the financial break-even point changes when some factors
(such as fixed costs, variable costs, or revenue) change.
9. There are two sources of value with this decision to wait. The price of the timber can potentially
increase, and the amount of timber will almost definitely increase, barring a natural catastrophe or
forest fire. The option to wait for a logging company is quite valuable, and companies in the industry
have models to estimate the future growth of a forest depending on its age.
CHAPTER 7 -3
10. When the additional analysis has a negative NPV. Since the additional analysis is likely to occur
almost immediately, this means when the benefits of the additional analysis outweigh the costs. The
benefits of the additional analysis are the reduction in the possibility of making a bad decision. Of
course, the additional benefits are often difficult, if not impossible, to measure, so much of this
decision is based on experience.
NOTE: All end-of-chapter problems were solved using a spreadsheet. Many problems require multiple
steps. Due to space and readability constraints, when these intermediate steps are included in this
solutions manual, rounding may appear to have occurred. However, the final answer for each problem is
found without rounding during any step in the problem.
Basic
1. a. To calculate the accounting breakeven, we first need to find the depreciation for each year. The
depreciation is:
Depreciation = $644,000/8
Depreciation = $80,500 per year
b. We will use the tax shield approach to calculate the OCF. The OCF is:
Now we can calculate the NPV using our base-case projections. There is no salvage value or
NWC, so the NPV is:
To calculate the sensitivity of the NPV to changes in the quantity sold, we will calculate the
NPV at a different quantity. We will use sales of 71,000 units. The OCF at this sales level is:
So, the change in NPV for every unit change in sales is:
If sales were to drop by 500 units, then NPV would drop by:
You may wonder why we chose 71,000 units. Because it doesn’t matter! Whatever sales
number we use, when we calculate the change in NPV per unit sold, the ratio will be the same.
c. To find out how sensitive OCF is to a change in variable costs, we will compute the OCF at a
variable cost of $22. Again, the number we choose to use here is irrelevant: We will get the
same ratio of OCF to a one dollar change in variable cost no matter what variable cost we use.
So, using the tax shield approach, the OCF at a variable cost of $22 is:
2. We will use the tax shield approach to calculate the OCF for the best- and worst-case scenarios. For
the best-case scenario, the price and quantity increase by 10 percent, so we will multiply the base
case numbers by 1.1, a 10 percent increase. The variable and fixed costs both decrease by 10 percent,
so we will multiply the base case numbers by .9, a 10 percent decrease. Doing so, we get:
For the worst-case scenario, the price and quantity decrease by 10 percent, so we will multiply the
base case numbers by .9, a 10 percent decrease. The variable and fixed costs both increase by 10
percent, so we will multiply the base case numbers by 1.1, a 10 percent increase. Doing so, we get:
QA = (FC + D)/(P – v)
to solve for the unknown variable in each case. Doing so, we find:
4. When calculating the financial breakeven point, we express the initial investment as an equivalent
annual cost (EAC). Dividing the initial investment by the five-year annuity factor, discounted at 12
percent, the EAC of the initial investment is:
Note that this calculation solves for the annuity payment with the initial investment as the present
value of the annuity. In other words:
The annual depreciation is the cost of the equipment divided by the economic life, or:
Now we can calculate the financial breakeven point. The financial breakeven point for this project is:
5. If we purchase the machine today, the NPV is the cost plus the present value of the increased cash
flows, so:
We should not necessarily purchase the machine today. We would want to purchase the machine
when the NPV is the highest. So, we need to calculate the NPV each year. The NPV each year will be
the cost plus the present value of the increased cash savings. We must be careful, however. In order to
make the correct decision, the NPV for each year must be taken to a common date. We will discount
all of the NPVs to today. Doing so, we get:
The company should purchase the machine today when the NPV is the highest.
6. We need to calculate the NPV of the two options, go directly to market now, or utilize test marketing
first. The NPV of going directly to market now is:
Now we can calculate the NPV of test marketing first. Test marketing requires a $1.3 million cash
outlay. Choosing the test marketing option will also delay the launch of the product by one year.
Thus, the expected payoff is delayed by one year and must be discounted back to Year 0.
The company should test market first with the product since that option has the highest expected
payoff.
7. We need to calculate the NPV of each option, and choose the option with the highest NPV. So, the
NPV of going directly to market is:
The firm should use the consulting firm since that option has the highest NPV.
8. The company should analyze both options, and choose the option with the greatest NPV. So, if the
company goes to market immediately, the NPV is:
Customer segment research requires a $1.2 million cash outlay. Choosing the research option will
also delay the launch of the product by one year. Thus, the expected payoff is delayed by one year
and must be discounted back to Year 0. So, the NPV of the customer segment research is:
The company should go to market now since it has the largest NPV.
9. a. The accounting breakeven is the aftertax sum of the fixed costs and depreciation charge divided
by the aftertax contribution margin (selling price minus variable cost). So, the accounting
breakeven level of sales is:
b. When calculating the financial breakeven point, we express the initial investment as an
equivalent annual cost (EAC). Dividing the initial investment by the seven-year annuity factor,
discounted at 15 percent, the EAC of the initial investment is:
Note that this calculation solves for the annuity payment with the initial investment as the
present value of the annuity. In other words:
Now we can calculate the financial breakeven point. The financial breakeven point for this
project is:
10. When calculating the financial breakeven point, we express the initial investment as an equivalent
annual cost (EAC). Dividing the initial investment by the five-year annuity factor, discounted at 8
percent, the EAC of the initial investment is:
Note that this calculation solves for the annuity payment with the initial investment as the present
value of the annuity. In other words:
The annual depreciation is the cost of the equipment divided by the economic life, or:
Now we can calculate the financial breakeven point. The financial breakeven point for this project is:
Intermediate
11. a. At the accounting breakeven, the IRR is zero percent since the project recovers the initial
investment. The payback period is N years, the length of the project since the initial investment
is exactly recovered over the project life. The NPV at the accounting breakeven is:
NPV = I [(I/N)(PVIFAR%,N) – 1]
CHAPTER 7 -9
b. At the cash breakeven level, the IRR is –100 percent, the payback period is negative, and the
NPV is negative and equal to the initial cash outlay.
c. The definition of the financial breakeven is where the NPV of the project is zero. If this is true,
then the IRR of the project is equal to the required return. It is impossible to state the payback
period, except to say that the payback period must be less than the length of the project. Since
the discounted cash flows are equal to the initial investment, the undiscounted cash flows are
greater than the initial investment, so the payback must be less than the project life.
12. Using the tax shield approach, the OCF at 90,000 units will be:
We will calculate the OCF at 91,000 units. The choice of the second level of quantity sold is
arbitrary and irrelevant. No matter what level of units sold we choose we will still get the same
sensitivity. So, the OCF at this level of sales is:
13. a. The base-case, best-case, and worst-case values are shown below. Remember that in the best-
case, unit sales increase, while costs decrease. In the worst-case, unit sales decrease and costs
increase.
Using the tax shield approach, the OCF and NPV for the base case estimate are:
The OCF and NPV for the worst case estimate are:
And the OCF and NPV for the best case estimate are:
b. To calculate the sensitivity of the NPV to changes in fixed costs, we choose another level of
fixed costs. We will use fixed costs of $620,000. The OCF using this level of fixed costs and
the other base case values with the tax shield approach, we get:
QA = (FC + D)/(P – v)
QA = [$610,000 + ($820,000/4)]/($18,000 – 15,400)
QA = 313.46 or about 313 units
14. The marketing study and the research and development are both sunk costs and should be ignored.
We will calculate the sales and variable costs first. Since we will lose sales of the expensive clubs
and gain sales of the cheap clubs, these must be accounted for as erosion. The total sales for the new
project will be:
Sales
New clubs $875 60,000 = $52,500,000
Exp. clubs $1,100 (–12,000) = –13,200,000
Cheap clubs $400 15,000 = 6,000,000
$45,300,000
CHAPTER 7 -11
For the variable costs, we must include the units gained or lost from the existing clubs. Note that the
variable costs of the expensive clubs are an inflow. If we are not producing the sets any more, we
will save these variable costs, which is an inflow. So:
Var. costs
New clubs –$430 60,000 = –$25,800,000
Exp. clubs –$620 (–12,000) = 7,440,000
Cheap clubs –$210 15,000 = –3,150,000
–$21,510,000
Sales $45,300,000
Variable costs 21,510,000
Fixed costs 9,300,000
Depreciation 4,200,000
EBT $10,290,000
Taxes 4,116,000
Net income $6,174,000
15. The upper and lower bounds for the variables are:
Best-case
We will calculate the sales and variable costs first. Since we will lose sales of the expensive clubs
and gain sales of the cheap clubs, these must be accounted for as erosion. The total sales for the new
project will be:
Sales
New clubs $963 66,000 = $63,525,000
Exp. clubs $1,100 (–10,800) = – 11,880,000
Cheap clubs $400 16,500 = 6,600,000
$58,245,000
For the variable costs, we must include the units gained or lost from the existing clubs. Note that the
variable costs of the expensive clubs are an inflow. If we are not producing the sets any more, we
will save these variable costs, which is an inflow. So:
Var. costs
New clubs –$387 66,000 = –$25,542,000
Exp. clubs –$620 (–10,800) = 6,696,000
Cheap clubs –$210 16,500 = –3,465,000
–$22,311,000
Sales $58,245,000
Variable costs 22,311,000
Fixed costs 8,370,000
Depreciation 4,200,000
EBT $23,364,000
Taxes 9,345,600
Net income $14,018,400
Worst-case
We will calculate the sales and variable costs first. Since we will lose sales of the expensive clubs
and gain sales of the cheap clubs, these must be accounted for as erosion. The total sales for the new
project will be:
Sales
New clubs $788 54,000 = $42,525,000
Exp. clubs $1,100 (– 13,200) = – 14,520,000
Cheap clubs $400 13,500 = 5,400,000
$33,405,000
For the variable costs, we must include the units gained or lost from the existing clubs. Note that the
variable costs of the expensive clubs are an inflow. If we are not producing the sets any more, we
will save these variable costs, which is an inflow. So:
Var. costs
New clubs –$473 54,000 = –$25,542,000
Exp. clubs –$620 (– 13,200) = 8,184,000
Cheap clubs –$210 13,500 = –2,835,000
–$20,193,000
Sales $33,405,000
Variable costs 20,193,000
Costs 10,230,000
Depreciation 4,200,000
EBT –$1,218,000
Taxes –487,200 *assumes a tax credit
Net income –$730,800
16. To calculate the sensitivity of the NPV to changes in the price of the new club, we simply need to
change the price of the new club. We will choose $880, but the choice is irrelevant as the sensitivity
will be the same no matter what price we choose.
We will calculate the sales and variable costs first. Since we will lose sales of the expensive clubs
and gain sales of the cheap clubs, these must be accounted for as erosion. The total sales for the new
project will be:
Sales
New clubs $880 60,000 = $52,800,000
Exp. clubs $1,100 (– 12,000) = –13,200,000
Cheap clubs $400 15,000 = 6,000,000
$45,600,000
For the variable costs, we must include the units gained or lost from the existing clubs. Note that the
variable costs of the expensive clubs are an inflow. If we are not producing the sets any more, we
will save these variable costs, which is an inflow. So:
Var. costs
New clubs –$430 60,000 = –$25,800,000
Exp. clubs –$620 (–12,000) = 7,440,000
Cheap clubs –$210 15,000 = –3,150,000
–$21,510,000
Sales $45,600,000
Variable costs 21,510,000
Fixed costs 9,300,000
Depreciation 4,200,000
EBT $10,590,000
Taxes 4,236,000
Net income $6,354,000
So, the sensitivity of the NPV to changes in the price of the new club is:
For every dollar increase (decrease) in the price of the clubs, the NPV increases (decreases) by
$154,378.97.
To calculate the sensitivity of the NPV to changes in the quantity sold of the new club, we simply
need to change the quantity sold. We will choose 65,000 units, but the choice is irrelevant as the
sensitivity will be the same no matter what quantity we choose.
We will calculate the sales and variable costs first. Since we will lose sales of the expensive clubs
and gain sales of the cheap clubs, these must be accounted for as erosion. The total sales for the new
project will be:
Sales
New clubs $875 65,000 = $56,875,000
Exp. clubs $1,100 (– 12,000) = –13,200,000
Cheap clubs $400 15,000 = 6,000,000
$49,675,000
For the variable costs, we must include the units gained or lost from the existing clubs. Note that the
variable costs of the expensive clubs are an inflow. If we are not producing the sets any more, we
will save these variable costs, which is an inflow. So:
Var. costs
New clubs –$390 65,000 = –$27,950,000
Exp. clubs –$620 (–12,000) = 7,440,000
Cheap clubs –$210 15,000 = –3,150,000
–$23,660,000
Sales $49,675,000
Variable costs 23,660,000
Fixed costs 9,300,000
Depreciation 4,200,000
EBT $12,515,000
Taxes 5,006,000
Net income $7,509,000
So, the sensitivity of the NPV to changes in the quantity sold is:
For an increase (decrease) of one set of clubs sold per year, the NPV increases (decreases) by
$1,144.98.
b. We would abandon the project if the cash flow from selling the equipment is greater than the
present value of the future cash flows. We need to find the sale quantity where the two are
equal, so:
$950,000 = ($35)Q(PVIFA16%,9)
Q = $950,000/[$35(4.6065)]
Q = 5,892
Abandon the project if Q < 5,892 units, because the NPV of abandoning the project is greater
than the NPV of the future cash flows.
c. The $950,000 is the market value of the project. If you continue with the project in one year,
you forego the $950,000 that could have been used for something else.
18. a. If the project is a success, present value of the future cash flows will be:
From the previous question, if the quantity sold is 4,000, we would abandon the project, and the
cash flow would be $950,000. Since the project has an equal likelihood of success or failure in
one year, the expected value of the project in one year is the average of the success and failure
cash flows, plus the cash flow in one year, so:
The NPV is the present value of the expected value in one year plus the cost of the equipment,
so:
b. If we couldn’t abandon the project, the present value of the future cash flows when the quantity
is 4,000 will be:
The gain from the option to abandon is the abandonment value minus the present value of the
cash flows if we cannot abandon the project, so:
We need to find the value of the option to abandon times the likelihood of abandonment. So,
the value of the option to abandon today is:
19. If the project is a success, present value of the future cash flows will be:
If the sales are only 4,000 units, from Problem #17, we know we will abandon the project, with a
value of $950,000. Since the project has an equal likelihood of success or failure in one year, the
expected value of the project in one year is the average of the success and failure cash flows, plus the
cash flow in one year, so:
The NPV is the present value of the expected value in one year plus the cost of the equipment, so:
The gain from the option to expand is the present value of the cash flows from the additional units
sold, so:
We need to find the value of the option to expand times the likelihood of expansion. We also need to
find the value of the option to expand today, so:
20. a. The accounting breakeven is the aftertax sum of the fixed costs and depreciation charge divided
by the contribution margin (selling price minus variable cost). In this case, there are no fixed
costs, and the depreciation is the entire price of the press in the first year. So, the accounting
breakeven level of sales is:
b. When calculating the financial breakeven point, we express the initial investment as an
equivalent annual cost (EAC). The initial investment is the $15,000 in licensing fees. Dividing
the initial investment by the three-year annuity factor, discounted at 12 percent, the EAC of the
initial investment is:
Note, this calculation solves for the annuity payment with the initial investment as the present
value of the annuity, in other words:
Now we can calculate the financial breakeven point. Notice that there are no fixed costs or
depreciation. The financial breakeven point for this project is:
21. The payoff from taking the lump sum is $10,000, so we need to compare this to the expected payoff
from taking one percent of the profit. The decision tree for the movie project is:
Big audience
40% $15,000,000
Movie is
good
Make
10% movie
Script is Movie is
good bad
Read Small
script 60% audience
Script is
bad No profit
Don't make
90% movie
No profit
The value of one percent of the profits is as follows. There is a 40 percent probability the movie is
good, and the audience is big, so the expected value of this outcome is:
The value if the movie is good, and has a big audience, assuming the script is good is:
This is the expected value for the studio, but the screenwriter will only receive one percent of this
amount, so the payment to the screenwriter will be:
22. We can calculate the value of the option to wait as the difference between the NPV of opening the
mine today and the NPV of waiting one year to open the mine. The remaining life of the mine is:
This will be true no matter when you open the mine. The aftertax cash flow per year if opened today
is:
CF = 6,000($1,400) = $8,400,000
If you open the mine in one year, the cash flow will be either:
Praed.
Modern authors who object to being asked for their autographs, and
who complain piteously of the persecutions they endure in this
regard, would do well to consider what they have gained by being
born in an age when commercialism has supplanted compliment.
Had they been their own great-grandfathers, they would have been
expected to present to their female friends the verses they now sell
to magazines. They would have written a few playful and affectionate
lines every time they dined out, and have paid for a week’s
hospitality with sentimental tributes to their hostess. And not their
hostess only. Her budding daughters would have looked for some
recognition of their charms, and her infant son would have presented
a theme too obvious for disregard. It is recorded that when Campbell
spent two days at the country seat of Mr. James Craig, the Misses
Craig kept him busy most of that time composing verses for their
albums,—a pleasant way of entertaining a poet guest. On another
occasion he writes to Mrs. Arkwright, lamenting, though with much
good-humour, the importunities of mothers. “Mrs. Grahame has a
plot upon me that I should write a poem upon her boy, three years
old. Oh, such a boy! But in the way of writing lines on lovely children,
I am engaged three deep, and dare not promise.”
It seems that parents not only petitioned for these poetic windfalls,
but pressed their claims hard. Campbell, one of the most amiable of
men, yielded in time to this demand, as he had yielded to many
others, and sent to little Master Grahame some verses of singular
ineptitude.
There are many more stanzas, but these are enough to make us
wonder why parents did not let the poet alone. Perhaps, if they had,
he would have volunteered his services. We know that when young
Fanny Kemble showed him her nosegay at a ball, and asked how
she should keep the flowers from fading, he answered hardily: “Give
them to me, and I will immortalize them,”—an enviable assurance of
renown.
Album verses date from the old easy days, when rhyming was
regarded as a gentlemanly accomplishment rather than as a means
of livelihood. Titled authors, poets wealthy and well-born—for there
were always such—naturally addressed themselves to the ladies of
their acquaintance. They could say with Lord Chesterfield that they
thanked Heaven they did not have to live by their brains. It was a
theory, long and fondly cherished, that poetry was not common
merchandise, to be bought and sold like meal and malt; that it was,
as Burns admirably said, either above price or worth nothing at all.
Later on, when poets became excellent men of business, when
Byron had been seduced by Murray’s generosity, when Moore drove
his wonderful bargains, and poetic narrative was the best-selling
commodity in the market, we hear a rising murmur of protest against
the uncommercial exactions of the album. Sonneteers who could sell
their wares for hard cash no longer felt repaid by a word of flattery.
Even the myrtle wreaths which crowned the victors of the Bath
Easton contests appeared but slender compensation, save in Miss
Seward’s eyes, or in Mrs. Hayley’s. When Mrs. Hayley went to Bath
in 1781, and witnessed the solemn ceremonies inaugurated by Lady
Miller; when she saw the laurels, and myrtles, and fluttering ribbons,
her soul was fired with longing, and she set to work to persuade her
husband that the Bath Easton prize was not wholly beneath his
notice. The author of “The Triumphs of Temper” was naturally fearful
of lowering his dignity by sporting with minor poets; and there was
much wifely artifice in her assumption that such playfulness on his
part would be recognized as true condescension. “If you should feel
disposed to honour this slight amusement with a light composition, I
am persuaded you will oblige very highly.” The responsive Hayley
was not unwilling to oblige, provided no one would suspect him of
being in earnest. He “scribbled” the desired lines “in the most rapid
manner,” “literally in a morning and a half” (Byron did not take much
longer to write “The Corsair”), and sent them off to Bath, where they
were “admired beyond description,” and won the prize, so that the
gratified Mrs. Hayley appeared that night with the myrtle wreath
woven in her hair. The one famous contributor to the Bath Easton
vase who did not win a prize was Sheridan. He, being entreated to
write for it some verses on “Charity,” complied in these heartless
lines:—
THE VASE SPEAKS
For heaven’s sake bestow on me
A little wit, for that would be
Indeed an act of charity.
Complimentary addresses—those flowery tributes which seem so
ardent and so facile—were beginning to drag a little, even in
Walpole’s day. He himself was an adept in the art of polite adulation,
and wrote without a blush the obliging comparison between the
Princess Amelia and Venus (greatly to the disparagement of Venus),
which the flattered lady found in the hand of the marble Apollo at
Stowe. “All women like all or any praise,” said Lord Byron, who had
reason to know the sex. The Princess Amelia, stout, sixty, and
“strong as a Brunswick lion,” was pleased to be designated as a
“Nymph,” and to be told she had routed Venus from the field.
Walpole also presented to Madame de Boufflers a “petite
gentillesse,” when she visited Strawberry Hill; and it became the
painful duty of the Duc de Nivernois to translate these lines into
French, on the occasion of Miss Pelham’s grand fête at Esher Place.
The task kept him absorbed and preoccupied most of the day,
“lagging behind” while the others made a cheerful tour of the farms,
or listened to the French horns and hautboys on the lawn. Finally,
when all the guests were drinking tea and coffee in the Belvidere,
poor Nivernois was delivered of his verselets, which were received
with a polite semblance of gratification, and for the remaining hours
his spirit was at peace. But it does seem a hard return to exact for
hospitality, and must often have suggested to men of letters the
felicity of staying at home.
Miss Seward made it her happy boast that the number and the
warmth of Mr. Hayley’s tributes—inserted duly in her album—raised
her to a rivalry with Swift’s Stella, or Prior’s Chloe. “Our four years’
correspondence has been enriched with a galaxy of little poetic
gems of the first water.” Nor was the lady backward in returning
compliment for compliment. That barter of praise, that exchange of
felicitation, which is both so polite and so profitable, was as well
understood by our sentimental ancestors as it is in this hard-headed
age. Indeed, I am not sure that the Muse did not sometimes
calculate more closely then than she ventures to do to-day. We know
that Canon Seward wrote an elegiac poem on a young nobleman
who was held to be dying, but who—perversely enough—recovered;
whereupon the reverend eulogist changed the name, and transferred
his heartfelt lamentations to another youth whose death was fully
assured. In the same business-like spirit Miss Seward paid back Mr.
Hayley flattery for flattery, until even the slow-witted satirists of the
period made merry over this commerce of applause.
Miss Seward. Pride of Sussex, England’s glory,
Mr. Hayley, is that you?
Mr. Hayley. Ma’am, you carry all before you,
Trust me, Lichfield swan, you do.
Miss Seward. Ode, dramatic, epic, sonnet,
Mr. Hayley, you’re divine!
Mr. Hayley. Ma’am, I’ll give my word upon it,
You yourself are all the Nine.
Moore, as became a poet of ardent temperament, wrote the most
gallant album verses of his day; for which reason, and because his
star of fame rode high, he endured sharp persecution at the hands of
admiring but covetous friends. Young ladies asked him in the most
offhand manner to “address a poem” to them; and women of rank
smiled on him in ballrooms, and confided to him that they were
keeping their albums virgin of verse until “an introduction to Mr.
Moore” should enable them to request him to write on the opening
page. “I fight this off as well as I can,” he tells Lord Byron, who knew
both the relentlessness of such demands and the compliant nature
of his friend. On one occasion Lady Holland showed Moore some
stanzas which Lord Holland had written in Latin and in English, on
the subject of a snuff-box given her by Napoleon; bidding him
imperiously “do something of the kind,” and adding that she greatly
desired a corresponding tribute from Lord Byron. Moore wisely
declined to make any promises for Byron (one doubts whether the
four lines which that nobleman eventually contributed afforded her
ladyship much pleasure), but wrote his own verses before he was
out of bed the next morning, and carried them to Holland House,
expecting to breakfast with its mistress. He found her, however, in
such a captious mood, so out of temper with all her little world, that,
although he sat down to the table, he did not venture to hint his
hunger; and as no one asked him to eat or drink, he slipped off in
half an hour, and sought (his poem still in his pocket) the more genial
hospitality of Rosset’s restaurant. Had all this happened twenty
years earlier, Moore’s self-esteem would have been deeply
wounded; but the poet was by now a man of mark, and could afford
to laugh at his own discomfiture.
Moore’s album verses may be said to make up in warmth what they
lack in address. Minor poets—minims like William Robert Spencer—
surpassed him easily in adroitness; and sometimes won for
themselves slender but abiding reputations by expressing with
consummate ease sentiments they did not feel. Spencer’s pretty
lines beginning,—
Too late I stayed,—forgive the crime!
Unheeded flew the hours:
How noiseless falls the foot of time
That only treads on flowers!
—lines which all our grandmothers had by heart—may still be found
in compilations of English verse. Their dexterous allusions to the
diamond sparks in Time’s hour-glass, and to the bird-of-paradise
plumage in his grey wings, their veiled and graceful flattery, contrast
pleasantly with Moore’s Hibernian boldness, with his offhand
demand to be paid in kisses for his songs—
That rosy mouth alone can bring
What makes the bard divine;
Oh, Lady! how my lip would sing,
If once ’twere prest to thine.
A discreet young woman might have hesitated to show this album
page to friends.
Byron’s “tributes,” when he paid them, were singularly chill. He may
have buried his heart at Mrs. Spencer Smith’s feet; but the lines in
her album which record this interment are eloquent of a speedy
resurrection. When Lady Blessington demanded some verses, he
wrote them; but he explained with almost insulting lucidity that his
heart was as grey as his head (he was thirty-one), and that he had
nothing warmer than friendship to offer in place of extinguished
affections. Moore must have wearied painfully of albums and of their
rapacious demands; yet to the end of his life he could be harassed
into feigning a poetic passion; but Byron stood at bay. He was a
hunted creature, and the instinct of self-preservation taught him
savage methods of escape.
There are people who, from some delicacy of mental fibre, find it
exceedingly difficult to be rude; and there are people who—like
Charles Lamb—have a curious habit of doing what they do not want
to do, and what they know is not worth doing, for the sake of giving
pleasure to some utterly insignificant acquaintance. The first class
lacks a valuable weapon in life’s warfare. The second class is so
small, and the motives which govern it are so inscrutable, that we
are apt to be exasperated by its amiability. It is easy to sympathize
with Thackeray, who, being badgered to write in an album already
graced by the signatures of several distinguished musicians, said
curtly: “What! among all those fiddlers!” This hardy British
superciliousness commends itself to our sense of humour, no less
than to our sense of self-protection. A great deal has been said,
especially by Frenchmen, about the wisdom of polite denials; but a
rough word, spoken in time, is seldom without weight in England.
Yet, for a friend, Thackeray found no labour hard. The genial
tolerance of “The Pen and the Album” suggests something akin to
affection for these pillaging little books when the right people owned
them,—when they belonged to “Chesham Place.” Locker tells a
pleasant story of meeting Thackeray in Pall Mall, on his way to
Kensington, and offering to join him in his walk. This offer was
declined, Thackeray explaining that he had some rhymes trotting
through his head, and that he was trying to polish them off in the
course of a solitary stroll. A few days later they met again, and
Thackeray said, “I finished those verses, and they are very nearly
being very good. I call them ‘Mrs. Katherine’s Lantern.’ I did them for
Dickens’s daughter.”
“Very nearly being very good!” This is an author’s modest estimate.
Readers there are who have found them so absolutely good that
they leaven the whole heavy mass of album verse. Shall not a
century of extortion on the one side and debility on the other be
forgiven, because upon one blank page, the property of one thrice
fortunate young woman, were written these lines, fragrant with
imperishable sentiment:—
When he was young as you are young,
When he was young, and lutes were strung,
And love-lamps in the casement hung.
But when we turn to Lamb, and find him driving his pen along its
unwilling way, and admitting ruefully that the road was hard, we see
the reverse of the medal, and we resent that inexplicable sweetness
of temper which left him defenceless before marauders.
My feeble Muse, that fain her best would
Write at command of Frances Westwood,
But feels her wits not in their best mood.
Why should Frances Westwood have commanded his services?
Why should Frances Brown, “engaged to a Mr. White,” have wrung
from him a dozen lines of what we should now call “copy”? She had
no recognizable right to that copy; but Lamb confided to Mrs. Moxon
that he had sent it to her at twenty-four hours’ notice, because she
was going to be married and start with her husband for India. Also
that he had forgotten what he had written, save only two lines:—
May your fame
And fortune, Frances, Whiten with your name!
of which conceit he was innocently proud.
Mrs. Moxon (Emma Isola) was herself an old and hardened offender.
Her album, enriched with the spoils of a predatory warfare, travelled
far afield, extorting its tribute of verse. We find Lamb first paying, as
was natural, his own tithes, and then actually aiding and abetting
injustice by sending the book to Mr. Procter (Barry Cornwall), with an
irresistible appeal for support.
“I have another favour to beg, which is the beggarliest of beggings; a
few lines of verse for a young friend’s album (six will be enough). M.
Burney will tell you who I want ’em for. A girl of gold. Six lines—make
’em eight—signed Barry C——. They need not be very good, as I
chiefly want ’em as a foil to mine. But I shall be seriously obliged by
any refuse scraps. We are in the last ages of the world, when St.
Paul prophesied that women should be ‘headstrong lovers of their
own wills, having albums.’ I fled hither to escape the albumean
persecution, and had not been in my new house twenty-four hours
when a daughter of the next house came in with a friend’s album, to
beg a contribution, and, the following day, intimated she had one of
her own. Two more have sprung up since. ‘If I take the wings of the
morning, and fly unto the uttermost parts of the earth, there will
albums be.’ New Holland has albums. The age is to be complied
with.”
“Ask for this little book a token of remembrance from friends, and
from fellow students, and from wayfarers whom you may never see
again. He who gives you his name and a few kind words, gives you a
treasure which shall keep his memory green.”
So wrote Goethe—out of the abyss of German sentimentality—in his
son’s album; and the words have a pleasant ring of good fellowship
and unforced fraternity. They are akin to those gracious phrases with
which the French monarchy—“despotism tempered by epigram”—
was wont to designate the taxes that devoured the land. There was a
charming politeness in the assumption that taxes were free gifts,
gladly given; but those who gave them knew.
The Riverside Press
CAMBRIDGE . MASSACHUSETTS
U.S.A
FOOTNOTE:
[1] Beattie’s Minstrel.