You don’t like the Dedication—very well; there is another:
but you will send the other to Mr. Moore, that he
may know I had written it. I send also mottos for the Cantos. I
think you will allow that an elephant may be more sagacious, but cannot be more docile.
Thomas Moore (1779-1852)
Irish poet and biographer, author of the
Irish Melodies (1807-34),
The Fudge Family in Paris (1818), and
Lalla
Rookh (1817); he was Byron's close friend and designated biographer.
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.
