Memoir of John Murray
William Stewart Rose to John Murray, December 1823
Polygon, Southampton, Dec. 1823.
The neglect of the enclosures will be attended with no other
inconvenience than the delay of the second volume of my ‘Furioso,’* which is a
matter of little moment. My friends leave me in Boeotian darkness, and I know
nothing of Foscolo’s duel. At any rate, he is now (in the strictest sense
of the words) “alive and kicking,” judging him by a letter received
from him this morning. I could have made the same report of myself a few days
ago, but this weather freezes my liver, and when that mill does not
* Moore, in
his diary, mentions a report that “Murray had offered W.
Stewart Rose £2000 for a translation of
‘Ariosto.’” This was not the case.
Murray published the work in 1823, and
suffered considerable loss by the speculation. |
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| 142 | MEMOIRS OF JOHN MURRAY | |
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grind, I am always more or less of a wretch. This
wretchedness, however, which impedes my taking much active exercise, I may as
well turn to some account, and will therefore beg you to tell the printer I
should now like to proceed with the same expedition as in the first volume. I
enclose the revised sheets, and will furnish the remaining MSS. in a few days.
Yours very truly,
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.
William Stewart Rose (1775-1843)
Second son of George Rose, treasurer of the navy (1744-1818); he introduced Byron to
Frere's
Whistlecraft poems and translated Casti's
Animale parlante (1819).
