Letters and Journals of Lord Byron
Lord Byron to John Murray, 17 November 1813
“That you and I may distinctly understand each other on a
subject, which, like ‘the dreadful reckoning when men smile no more,’ makes
conversation not very pleasant, I think it as well to write a few
lines on the topic.—Before I left town for Yorkshire, you said that you were ![]()
| A. D. 1813. | LIFE OF LORD BYRON. | 485 |
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ready and willing to give five hundred guineas for the
copyright of ‘The Giaour;’
and my answer was—from which I do not mean to recede—that we would discuss the point at
Christmas. The new story may or may not succeed; the probability, under present
circumstances, seems to be, that it may at least pay its expenses—but even that remains
to be proved, and till it is proved one way or another, we will say nothing about it.
Thus then be it: I will postpone all arrangement about it and the
Giaour also, till Easter, 1814; and you shall then, according to your own
notions of fairness, make your own offer for the two. At the same time, I do not rate
the last in my own estimation at half the Giaour; and
according to your own notions of its worth and its success within the time mentioned, be
the addition or deduction to or from whatever sum may be your proposal for the first,
which has already had its success.
“The pictures of Phillips I consider as mine, all three; and the
one (not the Arnaout) of the two best is much at your service, if
you will accept it as a present.
“P.S. The expense of engraving from the miniature send me
in my account, as it was destroyed by my desire; and have the goodness to burn that
detestable print from it immediately.
“To make you some amends for eternally pestering you with
alterations, I send you Cobbett, to confirm
your orthodoxy.
“One more alteration of a into the in the MS.; it must
be—‘The heart whose softness,’ &c.
“Remember—and in the inscription ‘to the Right
Honourable Lord Holland,’ without the previous names, Henry, &c.”
Henry Richard Fox, third baron Holland (1773-1840)
Whig politician and literary patron; Holland House was for many years the meeting place
for reform-minded politicians and writers. He also published translations from the Spanish
and Italian;
Memoirs of the Whig Party was published in 1852.
John Murray II (1778-1843)
The second John Murray began the
Quarterly Review in 1809 and
published works by Scott, Byron, Austen, Crabbe, and other literary notables.
Thomas Phillips (1770-1845)
English painter who assisted Benjamin West, exhibited at the Royal Academy, and painted
portraits of English poets including Byron, Crabbe, Scott, Southey, and Coleridge.
