Letters and Journals of Lord Byron
Lord Byron to John Murray, 10 April 1814
“I have written an Ode on the fall of Napoleon, which, if you like, I will copy out, and make
you a present of. Mr. Merivale has seen part of
it, and likes it. You may show it to Mr. Gifford,
and print it, or not, as you please—it is of no consequence. It contains nothing in his favour, and no allusion whatever to our own government or the
Bourbons. Yours, &c.
“P.S. It is in the measure of my stanzas at the end of
Childe Harold, which were much
liked, beginning ‘And thou art dead,’ &c. &c. There are ten
stanzas of it—ninety lines in all.”
William Gifford (1756-1826)
Poet, scholar, and editor who began as a shoemaker's apprentice; after Oxford he
published
The Baviad (1794),
The Maeviad
(1795), and
The Satires of Juvenal translated (1802) before becoming
the founding editor of the
Quarterly Review (1809-24).
John Herman Merivale (1779-1844)
English poet and translator, friend of Francis Hodgson, author of
Orlando in Ronscevalles: a Poem (1814). He married Louisa Drury, daughter of the
headmaster at Harrow, and wrote for the
Monthly Review while
pursuing a career in the law.
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.
