Smiles: Memoir of John Murray

In 1827 or 1828 Mr. Hanson, the late Lord Byron’s solicitor, wrote to Murray, enquiring, on behalf of the executors, whether he would be willing to dispose of his interest in the first five cantos of ‘Don Juan.’ Mr. Murray, however, had long been desirous of publishing a complete edition of the works of Lord Byron, “for the public,” he wrote, “are absolutely indignant at not being able to obtain a complete edition of Lord Byron’s works in this country; and at least 15,000 copies have been brought here from France.” Murray proposed that those copyrights of Lord Byron, which were the property of his executors, should be valued by three respectable publishers, and that he should purchase them at their valuation. Mr. Hobhouse, to whom as one of the executors this proposal was made, was anxious that the complete edition should be published in England with as little delay as possible, but he stated that “some obstacles have arisen in consequence of the Messrs. Hunt having upon hand some hundred copies of their two volumes, which they have asked a little time to get rid of, and for which they are now accounting to the executors.”

Notwithstanding the destruction of Lord Byron’s Memoirs, described in a previous chapter, Murray had never abandoned the intention of bringing out a Biography of his old friend the poet, for which he possessed plenteous materials in the mass of correspondence which had passed between them. Although his arrangement with Thomas Moore had been cancelled by that event, his eye rested on him as the fittest person, from his long intimacy with the poet, to be entrusted with the task, for which, indeed, Lord Byron had himself selected him.

In consequence of Hunt’s infamous publication respecting Lord Byron, I have felt it a duty no longer to withhold the means which I think I possess of doing justice to Lord Byron’s character; and I have submitted to your friend Mr. Rogers a proposal to this effect, which he has desired me to say meets with his entire approbation. I am therefore anxious for an opportunity of seeing you immediately. Mr. Rogers thought you were likely to be in town soon; but if this is unlikely or inconvenient, I will make a point of going to you, if agreeable, on Tuesday; in which case I shall be glad if you will be so kind as to tell me in what coach I had better secure a seat.

A few days later, Moore wrote from Nottingham, stating that he had been at Newstead, examining the Abbey and searching for materials in the neighbourhood. Lord Byron’s servants had nearly all disappeared, and he was therefore unable to obtain much information on the spot. He enquired about the Rochdale property, and whether it was still in the family. “Have you done anything with Hanson?” he asked. “As I am engaged upon the youth of Lord Byron, it will be a great object to have whatever he will give immediately.”

Murray sent down to Sir Walter Scott, for his perusal, the letters he had received from Lord Byron, and Mr. Lockhart answered his letter:—

“Sir Walter,” he said, “has read the memorandum books you were so good as to permit me to show him, and has, I am glad to say, corrected the blank leaves with many highly interesting additamenta, of which we shall see use, I hope, hereafter.”

I send you six volumes of Lord Byron’s MSS. and some loose sheets. Three more volumes, the remainder, shall be forwarded to you, as you will point out to me. I trust that you will feel strongly the propriety of not allowing a single individual—always excepting Mrs. Moore—to have the power of saying that he has seen these volumes. The reason must be perfectly obvious on the face of it, and it could not fail of operating most injuriously to your work. I must beg that you will return these volumes to me in exactly the same state in which they are now sent to you, and that anything which, for any reason, you do not consider of use for the memoirs you will not use in any way. I hope these conditions are not unreasonable; and so success attend your efforts.

It was hoped that Mrs. Shelley (widow of the poet) might give some information relative to the interviews between Byron and Shelley. On her return from Italy, Mr. Murray seems to have thought of purchasing the copyright of a selection of Shelley’s works, and communicated with Sir Timothy Shelley on the subject. The answer to his letter came from Mrs. Shelley herself. She wrote (13th Jan. 1827), “I write merely to say that the copyrights are mine, and that if you wish to make such a purchase, I should be happy to enter into a negotiation with you upon it.” Nothing further seems to have been done about the use of Shelley’s papers; but it opened up a communication between Murray and Mrs. Shelley on this and other subjects.

Mrs. Shelley accepted with “many thanks,” Mr. Murray’s advance of £100, and at the same time endeavoured to enlist his interest on behalf of a novel—most probably ‘Lodore’—which she had just completed.

With regard to my novel, I shall be much pleased if you will undertake its publication . . . Mr. Marshall mentioned to me that you asked whether I understood Italian and its patois, saying that you had a view in asking this. I lived nearly six years in Italy; its language is perfectly familiar to me; and I should not hesitate to undertake a work that required intimate acquaintance with it. I should be very glad if you would communicate your ideas to me on the subject, and happy to comply with your suggestions, so far as my abilities permit . . . I received Mr. Gifford’s edition of ‘Ford,’ and Lord Byron’s works, for which I beg sincerely to thank you.

I am sorry to hear from Mr. Moore that you decline my Romance, because I would rather that you published it than any other person. I can assure you I feel all the kindness of your message to me through Mr. Moore. Do you remember speaking to me about a ‘Life of the Empress Josephine,’ ‘Madame de Staël,’ etc.? When I have got free from my present occupation, I will communicate with you on the subject, and I hope by some plan, either of my writing for your ‘Family Library,’ or in some other way, to liquidate my debt; or I must do it even in a more usual manner. I am aware of your kindness concerning it, but I could not consent that an act of civility on my part to Mr. Moore should be brought forward as cancelling my debt to you. Besides, it would make me break a vow I made, never to make money of my acquaintance with Lord Byron. His ghost would certainly come and taunt me if I did. This does not remove but rather enhance the value I have for your kind intention.

Fletcher, Byron’s servant, had returned to England, and Moore requested that Murray should see him, for an account of Byron’s illness and death had appeared in the Westminster Review, evidently obtained from Fletcher. Moore suggested that he should be “tipped.” “I think,” said Moore, “that £20 would be abundant for Fletcher. As to what his communications are worth, twenty pence would more than cover it, but I think it as well to buy up his stupid tongue.”

You are hereby authorized to pay into the hands of Messrs. Longman and Co., on my account, three thousand pounds (according to the terms of the agreement signed and sealed between you and me on the 22nd of February last), obtaining, at the same time, from them a relinquishment of their claim to that amount on me.

While Moore was proceeding with his work—the advertisement of which had evidently excited much expectation and interest—he wrote to Murray:—

Moore at first proceeded very slowly in writing out the ‘Life,’ but in order to satisfy Mr. Murray that he was conscientiously at work, he wrote to him:—

“I can’t wait till to-morrow to say that I think the beginning of ‘Byron’ quite perfect in every way—the style simple, and unaffected, as the materials are rich, and how sad. It will be Moore’s greatest work—at least, next to the ‘Melodies,’ and will be a fortune to you. My wife says it is divine. By all means engrave the early miniature. Never was anything so drearily satisfactory to the imagination as the whole picture of the lame boy’s start in life.”

“Lockhart’s praise has given me great pleasure, and his wife’s even still greater; but, after all, the merit is in my subject—in the man, not in me. He must be a sad bungler who would spoil such a story.”

Moore was not able to carry out his intention of immediately moving to London, for his child was still very ill.

“You know Mitchell, I think, Aristophanes Mitchell. He was one of our party the day Lord Byron and I dined with Leigh Hunt in prison, and I wish you particularly to get from him all he recollects of that dinner in quod—above all, ask him whether Scott (the shot Scott) was not one of those who dropped in in the evening . . . .

Murray at once complied with Moore’s request, laid the ghost of his bill, and enabled him to proceed in comfort with the work. Meanwhile he sat for his portrait to Sir Thomas Lawrence, and dined with him at Murray’s in company with other friends. In his Diary occur the words (19th November, 1829):—“Dined at Murray’s; company, Sir J. Mackintosh (whom I was lucky enough to sit by), Sir T. Lawrence, Irving, Lockhart, the Somervilles, and Mr. Miller,* who has written well, it seems on law.”

The first volume of ‘Lord Byron’s Life and Letters,’ published on the 1st of January, 1830, was read with enthusiasm, and met with a very favourable reception. Moore says in his Diary, that “Lady Byron was highly pleased with the ‘Life,’” but among the letters received by Mr. Murray, one of the most interesting was from Mrs. Shelley, to whom a presentation copy had been sent.

The great charm of the work to me, and it will have the same to you, is that the Lord Byron I find there is our Lord Byron—the fascinating, faulty, philosophical being—daring the world, docile to a private circle, impetuous and indolent, gloomy, and yet more gay than any other. I live with him again in these pages—getting reconciled (as I used in his lifetime) to those waywardnesses which annoyed me when he was away, through the delightful tone of his conversation and manners.

Moore hoped to be able to get something from the American publishers for his work. In his Diary he wrote:—

“Left some of the printed sheets with Irving to be sent off to America, he having undertaken to make a bargain for me with the publishers there. If I make but a tenth of what he has done lately for himself in that quarter, I shall be satisfied.”

Mr. Irving’s negotiations answered their purpose to a certain extent, and for the advance sheets of the two volumes of ‘The Life of Byron,’ Moore received £500, but the biography was shortly after reproduced in many forms by all manner of publishers.

“Dined with Murray. Meant to have joined the Lansdownes at the play to see Fanny Kemble, but had a note from Murray before dinner, to say: ‘For God’s sake do not go to Lord Lansdowne’s this evening; you live with him, and it can be of no consequence to him, but to me it will be thrusting a knife into my feelings.’ Company at Murray’s: James Smith, the Lockharts, Irving, &c., &c. Stayed there the whole evening, and sang—the first time for near two months—and was actually pleased with the sound of my own voice. A niece of Madame d’Arblay also sang some things with an Italian, and very prettily.”

“As to what you say of Byron’s volume, no doubt there are longueurs, but really not many. The most teasing part is the blanks, which perplex without concealing. I also think that Moore went on a wrong principle, when, pub-

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lishing any personality, he did not publish all. It is like a suppression of evidence. When such horrors are published of Sir S. Romilly, it would have been justice to his memory to show that, on the slightest provocation, Byron would treat his dearest friend in the same style. When his sneers against Lady Byron and her mother are recorded, it would lessen their effect if it were shown that he sneered at all man and womankind in turn; and that the friend of his choicest selection, or the mistress of his maddest love, were served no better, when the maggot (selfishness) bit, than his wife or his mother-in-law.”

I return you the ‘Tatler’ that you lent me. I think Mr. Hunt makes more of Moore’s letters than they deserve. I certainly wish Moore had not flattered him so much, but we should recollect that Moore and Mr. Hunt were at that day fellow labourers in a party, and as poor Gifford said, “politics, like misery, brings a man acquainted with strange bedfellows.” I really wonder that Hunt had nothing more piquant to produce; and as to the mention of Lord Moira, I see no insincerity in it, as politics over heated Moore’s private friendship for Hunt, so it over cooled that for Lord Moira. Party is much the strongest passion of an Englishman’s mind. Friendship, love, even avarice, give way before it. There is not one of us who does not tolerate partizans whom one would indignantly reject as ordinary acquaintances. So that, on the whole, I look with a very excusing eye on the flummery with which Moore thought fit to feed the vanity of the weekly critic. As to his present opinions of the man, I suppose they are the correct ones, but I know neither him nor his works, except ‘Rimini.’

“I have seen the second volume of Moore’s ‘Life of Byron,’ and though it can be matter of surprise to no one to find himself the object of the spleen of the noble author, yet I confess I am surprised at seeing myself so gratuitously offered up as a victim to the public—especially as Lord Byron’s opinions on the subject of my little poems in the second volume are the exact converse of what they were in the first—thereby demonstrating that whoever remained, ever so quietly and unaffectedly, the friend of Lady Byron, could not escape the malignity of her lord. What makes the pickings at my little poem in the second volume the more remarkable is that ‘Ilderim’ had been submitted to Lord Byron at his own request some time before it was published, and that he strongly exhorted me to let it appear. I have still in my possession a letter of Lord Byron’s in which he desires me to put the work into your hands. Au reste, the second volume appears to me to be neither more nor less than ‘Don Juan’ in prose, and I cannot say how much I regret to see Lord Byron’s amours so openly paraded before the public. It is an indecorous exhibition, and but too likely to do harm, for young men will admire the whole of the life, because it belonged to genius; and will imitate the only part of it with which mental superiority had nothing to do.”

“I send you an ode which may form an addition to the proposed edition of my poems. I expected before this to have heard from you on this subject, but suppose that Captain Medwin and the Quarterly editorship have occupied your time tolerably fully. Did Lord Byron or the gallant Captain originate the mass of mendacity which the work contains? I conceive no work has been published in my day equally disgraceful to all concerned. I had some thoughts of requesting a contradiction of my being the author of the article on Shelley, as I could not now be supposed to deprecate his lordship’s wrath, which I certainly in his lifetime should not have attempted to avert by disowning what he had no right to attribute to me. But you know that I have always avoided most scrupulously any criticism upon my brother contemporary poets; and for that reason only should I wish a disclaimer of the article in question to be made in my name.”

We have seen how on two previous occasions Rogers had, at Murray’s cost, exhibited great liberality to Crabbe, and, through Lord Byron’s agency, to Godwin. Similar influences were at work in the case of Moore, when the question of payment for the Biography came to be settled. Moore wrote to his publisher on the subject, and his letter crossed that which Murray had already written, as follows:—

Editur et edit.

No! Editors don’t care a button,

What false and faithless things they do;

They’ll let you come and cut their mutton,

And then, they’ll have a cut at you.

With Barnes I oft my dinner took,

Nay, met e’en Horace Twiss to please him:

Yet Mister Barnes traduc’d my Book

For which may his own devils seize him!

With Doctor Bowring I drank tea,

Nor of his cakes consumed a particle;

And yet th’ ungrateful LL.D.

Let fly at me, next week, an article!

BYRON’S COLLECTED WORKS.

327

John Wilson gave me suppers hot,

With bards of fame, like Hogg and Packwood;

A dose of black-strap then I got,

And after a still worse of Blackwood.

Alas! and must I close the list

With thee, my Lockhart of the Quarterly!

So kind, with bumper in thy fist,—

With pen, so very gruff and tartarly.

Now in thy parlour feasting me,

Now scribbling at me from your garret,—

Till, ’twixt the two, in doubt I be,

Which sourest is, thy wit or claret?

Should you again see the Noble Scott before he goes, remember me most affectionately to him.

Ever yours,

Thomas Moore.

Mr. Murray now found himself at liberty to proceed with his cherished scheme of a complete edition of Lord Byron’s works.

John Murray to Mr. Moore.

February 28th, 1832.

When I commenced this complete edition of Byron’s works I was so out of heart by the loss upon the first edition of the ‘Life,’ and by the simultaneous losses from the failure of three booksellers very largely in my debt, that I had little if any hopes of its success, and I felt myself under the necessity of declining your kind offer to edit it, because I did not think that I should have had it in my power to offer you an adequate remuneration. But now that the success of this speculation is established, if you will do me the favour to do what you propose, I shall have great satisfaction in giving you 500 guineas for your labours.

Most sincerely yours,

John Murray.

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MEMOIRS OF JOHN MURRAY

Mr. Murray was desirous of adding to the new edition of the works of Byron Mrs. Shelley’s notes on those passages in the author’s career with which she was acquainted, and accordingly wrote to her making the proposal. Her reply was as follows:—

Mrs. Shelley to John Murray.

May 4th, 1832.

I do not know how to thank you sufficiently for the very agreeable presents you have made me and my friend. You are quite magnificent in your generosity, and nothing can be more welcome than your books.

I am afraid I shall scarcely meet all your wishes in the intended notes. The subject of Lord Byron’s adventures is greatly exhausted; and, besides, the names of ladies are scarcely fair subjects for publication. However, I will do what I can. Of course you will take care that I am not brought forward or named, as you are aware how sedulously I try to keep in the background. By the bye, I must mention that early next month I leave town for some little time, so that I should be glad that Mr. Finden should see me during the course of this present one.

May I, without intruding on you, mention another subject? You apparently consider the closing of your ‘Family Library’ as conclusive, on the subject of my father’s writing to you. Is this necessary? You are but too well aware of the evil days on which literature is fallen, and how difficult it is for a man, however gifted, whose existence depends on his pen, to make one engagement succeed another with sufficient speed to answer the calls of his situation. Nearly all our literati have found but one resource in this—which is in the ample scope afforded by periodicals. A kind of literary pride has prevented my father from mingling in these; and, never having published anything anonymously, he feels disinclined to enter on a, to him, new career.

I feel persuaded that he would render his proposed ‘Lives of the Necromancers’ a deeply interesting and valuable work. There is a life and energy in his writings which always exalts them above those of his contemporaries. If this subject, which seems to me a fortunate one,
WILLIAM GODWIN. 329
does not please you, there are many others which would offer themselves, were he certain that you would accede to him and give him that encouragement which he has been accustomed hitherto to find. He had thought of the ‘Lives of the English Philosophers.’ I should certainly be glad that the publisher of Byron and Moore, and all the best writers, added the name of Godwin to the list; and if upon consideration you find that your views do not oppose an engagement with him, you will perhaps invite him to further communication on the subject.

Excuse my pressing this point, which, after all, must be decided by the laws of expediency; and, believe me,

Yours truly and obliged,

Mary Shelley.

Mr. Godwin afterwards addressed Mr. Murray on the same subject, but failed to induce him to publish the ‘Lives of the Necromancers,’ though they appeared several years afterwards. It was his last work, written at the age of 78, but it was not well received, principally because of its irreligious character, an objection which Murray, notwithstanding his kindly feeling for Godwin, could not get over. Mrs. Shelley afterwards wrote to Mr. Murray thanking him for his kindness to her father.

Mrs. Shelley to John Murray.

“I am so unhappy that Sir C. Manners Sutton has lost his election as Speaker. It is not that I am not a Whig. I suppose I am one; but I think the Whigs have treated him most shabbily. They will never have such a Speaker again. I feel particularly kindly towards the Conservatives just now, as they have behaved with the greatest consideration towards my father, preserving him in his place, which was about to be abolished by the Whigs, and that in a manner as gracious as the deed. The Duke of Wellington, and above all the prince of our orators, Sir Robert Peel, deserve my gratitude, and have it.”

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MEMOIRS OF JOHN MURRAY

It appears that, towards the end of his life, William Godwin was appointed yeoman-usher to the Exchequer, and by the emoluments of that office he was in his latter days relieved from absolute want. He died in 1836.

A few words remain to be added respecting the statue of Lord Byron, which had been so splendidly executed by Thorwaldsen at Rome. Mr. Hobhouse wrote to Murray. “Thorwaldsen offers the completed work for £1000, together with a bas-relief for the pedestal, suitable for the subject of the monument.” The sculptor’s offer was accepted, and the statue was forwarded from Rome to London. Murray then applied to the Dean of Westminster, on behalf of the subscribers, requesting to know “upon what terms the statue now completed could be placed in some suitable spot in Westminster Abbey.” The Dean’s answer was as follows:

The Dean of Westminster to John Murray.

Deanery, Westminster, December 17th, 1834.

Dear Sir,

I have not had the opportunity, till this morning, of consulting with the Chapter on the subject of your note. When you formerly applied to me for leave to inter the remains of Lord Byron within this Abbey, I stated to you the principle on which, as Churchmen, we were compelled to decline the proposal. The erection of a monument in honour of his memory which you now desire is, in its proportion, subject to the same objection. I do indeed greatly wish for a figure by Thorwaldsen here; but no taste ought to be indulged to the prejudice of a duty.

With my respectful compliments to the Committee, I beg you to believe me,

Yours truly,

John Ireland.

The statue was for some time laid up in a shed on a Thames wharf. An attempt was made in the House of
THORWALDSEN’S STATUE OF BYRON. 331
Commons to alter the decision of the Dean and Chapter, but it proved of no avail. “I would do my best,” said Mr. Hobhouse, “to prevail upon Sir Robert Peel to use his influence with the Dean. It is a national disgrace that the statue should lie neglected in a carrier’s warehouse, and it is so felt by men of all parties. I have had a formal application from Trinity College, Cambridge, for leave to place the monument in their great library, and it has been intimated to me that the French Government desire to have it for the Louvre.” The result was that the subscribers, in order to retain the statue in England, forwarded it to Trinity College, Cambridge, whose noble library it now adorns.

The only memorial to Byron in London is the contemptible leaning bronze statue in Apsley House Gardens, nearly opposite the statue of Achilles. Its pedestal is a block of Parian marble, presented by the Greek Government as a national tribute to the memory of Byron.

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John Gibson Lockhart (1794-1854) Editor of the Quarterly Review (1825-1853); son-in-law of Walter Scott and author of the Life of Scott 5 vols (1838).

Sophia Lockhart [née Scott] (1799-1837) Walter Scott's eldest daughter, who married John Gibson Lockhart in 1820.

Thomas Norton Longman (1771-1842) A leading London publisher whose authors included Southey, Wordsworth, Scott, and Moore.

George Francis Lyon (1795-1832) English explorer educated at Charles Burney's naval academy, Gosport; he engaged on Joseph Ritchie's failed expedition in 1819 in North Africa and Parry's second arctic expedition in 1823.

Sir James Mackintosh (1765-1832) Scottish philosopher and man of letters who defended the French Revolution in Vindiciae Gallicae (1791); he was Recorder of Bombay (1803-1812) and MP for Knaresborough (1819-32).

James Marshall (d. 1832) Translator and literary jobber; he was a schoolmate and bosom friend of William Godwin, a drinking companion of Charles Lamb, and associate of Mary Shelley.

Thomas Medwin (1788-1869) Lieutenant of dragoons who was with Byron and Shelley at Pisa; the author of Conversations of Lord Byron (1824) and The Life of Percy Bysshe Shelley, 2 vols (1847).

John Miller (d. 1841) Of Lincoln's Inn; after practicing in Scotland (where he knew Walter Scott) he was called to the bar in 1811 and made a King's Counsel in 1834; he was a contributor to the Quarterly Review.

Henry Hart Milman (1791-1868) Educated at Eton and Brasenose College, Oxford, he was a poet, historian and dean of St Paul's (1849) who wrote for the Quarterly Review.

Thomas Mitchell (1783-1845) Son of a riding master; after study at Christ's Hospital and Pembroke College, Cambridge; Mitchell worked as a tutor for Thomas Hope, wrote for the Examiner and Quarterly Review, and translated Aristophanes.

Anastasia Moore (1813-1829) Thomas Moore's only daughter who died shortly before her sixteenth birthday.

Elizabeth Moore [née Dyke] [Bessy] (1793-1865) Irish actress who married Thomas Moore in a private ceremony 25 March 1811.

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.

Anne Murray [née Elliot] (1782-1854) The daughter of the Scottish bookseller Charles Elliot; she married the second John Murray in 1807.

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.

George Packwood (d. 1811) London cutler who in 1796 issued a collection of his advertising jingles under the title Packwood's Whim: the Goldfinch's Nest, or, the Way to get Money and be happy.

Sir William Edward Parry (1790-1855) Admiral in the Royal Navy and arctic explorer; he was the author of Journal of a Voyage for the Discovery of a north-west Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific (1821).

Sir Robert Peel, second baronet (1788-1850) Byron's schoolmate at Harrow, afterwards prime minister from 1834-1835 and 1841-1846.

James Power (1766-1836) Dublin music publisher who moved to London in 1807 where he issued Moore's Irish Melodies (1808-34).

Sir John Richardson (1771-1841) English judge who defended William Cobbett in libel cases.

Samuel Rogers (1763-1855) English poet, banker, and aesthete, author of the ever-popular Pleasures of Memory (1792), Columbus (1810), Jaqueline (1814), and Italy (1822-28).

Sir Samuel Romilly (1757-1818) Reformer of the penal code and the author of Thoughts on Executive Justice (1786); he was a Whig MP and Solicitor-General who died a suicide.

Sir Henry St. John Carew St. John Mildmay, fourth baronet (1787-1848) English dandy, the son of the third baronet and an associate of Beau Brummel; he was MP for Winchester (1807-1818). In 1814 he was involved with a crim. con. case with the Earl of Rosebery; he later became insolvent and shot himself in his residence in Belgrave Square.

John Scott (1784-1821) After Marischal College he worked as a journalist with Leigh Hunt, edited The Champion (1814-1817), and edited the London Magazine (1820) until he was killed in the duel at Chalk Farm.

Sir Walter Scott, baronet (1771-1832) Scottish poet, novelist, antiquary, biographer, editor, and sheriff.

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley [née Godwin] (1797-1851) English novelist, daughter of William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecaft, and the second wife of Percy Bysshe Shelley. She is the author of Frankenstein (1818) and The Last Man (1835) and the editor of Shelley's works (1839-40).

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) English poet, with Byron in Switzerland in 1816; author of Queen Mab (1813), The Revolt of Islam (1817), The Cenci and Prometheus Unbound (1820), and Adonais (1821).

Sir Timothy Shelley, second baronet (1753-1844) Father of the poet, a whig MP for New Shoreham, who was disgusted by his son's atheism and imprudent connections.

James Smith (1775-1839) Solicitor and author; with his brother Horace he wrote Rejected Addresses (1812) and Horace in London (1813).

Mary Somerville [née Fairfax] (1780-1872) Mathematician and science writer, daughter of Admiral William George Fairfax (1739-1813) and friend of Ada Byron; she spent her later years in Italy. She was twice married.

William Sotheby (1757-1833) English man of letters; after Harrow he joined the dragoons, married well, and published Poems (1790) and became a prolific poet and translator, prominent in literary society.

Robert Southey (1774-1843) Poet laureate and man of letters whose contemporary reputation depended upon his prose works, among them the Life of Nelson, 2 vols (1813), History of the Peninsular War, 3 vols (1823-32) and The Doctor, 7 vols (1834-47).

Germaine de Staël (1766-1817) French woman of letters; author of the novel Corinne, ou L'Italie (1807) and De l'Allemagne (1811); banned from Paris by Napoleon, she spent her later years living in Germany, Britain, and Switzerland.

Charles Manners- Sutton, first viscount Canterbury (1780-1845) Son of the archbishop of Canterbury of the same name; he was the long-serving Tory speaker of the House of Commons (1817-1835).

Bertel Thorwaldsen (1770-1844) Danish sculptor who with Canova led the neoclassical school at Rome.

Thomas Tooke (1774-1858) Political economist, son of the writer William Tooke (1744-1820); he was FRS and a founder of the Political Economy Club (1821).

Alfred Turner (d. 1864) Solicitor, of Red-Lion Square; he was the son of the antiquary Sharon Turner.

Horace Twiss (1787-1849) Lawyer, poet, and biographer; he was MP for Wootton Basset (1820-30) and Newport (1830-31) and author of St Stephens Chapel: a Satirical Poem (1807).

Arthur Wellesley, first duke of Wellington (1769-1852) Soldier and statesman; commander in the Peninsular Campaign (1809-1813), he defeated Napoleon at Waterloo and was prime minister (1828-1830).

John Wilson [Christopher North] (1785-1854) Scottish poet and Tory essayist, the chief writer for the “Noctes Ambrosianae” in Blackwood's Magazine and professor of moral philosophy at Edinburgh University (1820).

The Quarterly Review. (1809-1967). Published by John Murray, the Quarterly was instigated by Walter Scott as a Tory rival to the Edinburgh Review. It was edited by William Gifford to 1824, and by John Gibson Lockhart from 1826 to 1853.

The Westminster Review. (1824-1914). A radically-inclined quarterly founded by James Mill in opposition to the Edinburgh Review and Quarterly Review.

George Gordon Byron, sixth Baron Byron (1788-1824) The Age of Bronze; or, Carmen seculare et annus haud mirabilis. (London: J. Hunt, 1823).

George Gordon Byron, sixth Baron Byron (1788-1824) Don Juan. (London: 1819-1824). A burlesque poem in ottava rima published in installments: Cantos I and II published in 1819, III, IV and V in 1821, VI, VII, and VIII in 1823, IX, X, and XI in 1823, XII, XIII, and XIV in 1823, and XV and XVI in 1824.

George Gordon Byron, sixth Baron Byron (1788-1824) Hours of Idleness, a Series of Poems, original and translated. (Newark: S. and J. Ridge, 1807). Byron's first published volume.

George Gordon Byron, sixth Baron Byron (1788-1824) Memoir. (1824: destroyed). The autobiographical memoranda begun in 1818 and given to Thomas Moore in 1819; after Byron's death it was suppressed with the encouragement of John Cam Hobhouse and John Murray.

Sir John Taylor Coleridge (1790-1876) “Shelley's Revolt of Islam” in Quarterly Review. Vol. 21 No. 42 (April 1819): 460-71.

Philippe de Commynes (1447-1511) Cronicques du roy Charles septiesme. (France: 1528). Later known as Mémoires.

William Gifford (1756-1826) The Dramatic Works of John Ford. 2 vols (London: John Murray, 1826). Edited by William Gifford.

William Godwin (1756-1836) Lives of the Necromancers: or, an Account of the most eminent Persons in successive Ages, who have claimed for themselves, or to whom has been imputed by others, the exercise of Magical Power. (London: F. J. Mason, 1834).

James Henry Leigh Hunt (1784-1859) Lord Byron and some of his Contemporaries; with Recollections of the Author's Life, and of his Visit to Italy. (London: Colburn, 1828). Hunt's scathing portrait of Lord Byron won him few friends.

James Henry Leigh Hunt (1784-1859) The Story of Rimini, a Poem. (London: Murray, 1816). Hunt's Italian tale of illicit love, despite or because of the storm of criticism it aroused, was several times reprinted in Britain and the United States.

James Henry Leigh Hunt (1784-1859) The Tatler. 5 vols (London: J. Onwhyn, 1830-1832). A collection of periodical essays originally issued daily, then three times a week.

James Kennedy (1793 c.-1827) Conversations on Religion, with Lord Byron and others: held in Cephalonia, a short time previous to his Lordship's Death. (London: John Murray, 1830).

Henry Gally Knight (1786-1846) Eastern Sketches in Verse. (London: J. Murray, 1819). A collection of three oriental tales: "Phrosyne," "Alashtar," and "Ilderim."

Henry Gally Knight (1786-1846) Ilderim: a Syrian Tale: in Four Cantos. (London: J. Murray, 1816). By Byron's college acquaintance and fellow traveler in the East.

Thomas Leland (1722-1785) The History of Ireland from the Invasion of Henry II., with a preliminary Discourse on the antient State of that Kingdom. 3 vols (London: J. Nourse, 1773). The author was fellow of Trinity College, Dublin.

John Gibson Lockhart (1794-1854) “Moore's Life of Lord Byron” in Quarterly Review. Vol. 44 (January 1831): 168-226.

Thomas Medwin (1788-1869) Conversations of Lord Byron: noted during a Residence with his Lordship at Pisa, in the Years 1821 and 1822. (London: Colburn, 1824). Medwin had been invited to Italy by Shelley and was intimate with both poets.

Thomas Moore (1779-1852) A Selection of Irish Melodies. (London: I. Power, 1808). Moore wrote the lyrics to Irish airs arranged by Sir John Stevenson; additional songs were added down to 1834.

Thomas Moore (1779-1852) Letters and Journals of Lord Byron with Notices of his Life. 2 vols (London: Murray, 1830). The first authorized collection of Byron's letters and journals.

Thomas Moore (1779-1852) The Life and Death of Lord Edward Fitzgerald. 2 vols (London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, & Green, 1831). The biography of a leader in the 1798 Irish rebellion.

John Murray II (1778-1843) Notes on Captain Medwin's Conversations of Lord Byron. ([London]: 1824). Byron's publisher defends his reputation in this unpublished (but circulated) pamphlet.

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley [née Godwin] (1797-1851) Lodore. 3 vols (London: Richard Bentley, 1835).

Robert Southey (1774-1843) “Moore's Life of Lord Edward Fitzgerald” in Quarterly Review. Vol. 46 (November 1831): 213-63. The review has been incorrectly attributed to John Wilson Croker.

INFORMATION FROM TEI HEADER

Source Description:

Author: Smiles, Samuel, 1812-1904

Title: Memoir of John Murray 2 Vols (London: John Murray, 1891).

Electronic Edition:

Series: Lord Byron and his Times: http://lordbyron.org

Encoding Description: Any dashes occurring in line breaks have been removed. Obvious and unambiguous compositors’ errors have been silently corrected.

Markup and editing by: David Hill Radcliffe

Completed April 2009

Publication Statement:

Publisher: Center for Applied Technologies in the Humanities, Virginia Tech

Availability: Published under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License