Letters and Journals of Lord Byron
Lord Byron to John Murray, 4 December 1816
“I have written to you so frequently of late, that you will
think me a bore; as I think you a very impolite person, for not answering my letters
from Switzerland, Milan, Verona, and Venice. There are some things I wanted, and want,
to know; viz. whether Mr. Davies, of inaccurate memory, had or had not delivered the MS.
as delivered to him; because, if he has not, you will find that he will bountifully
bestow transcriptions on all the curious of his acquaintance, in which case you may
probably find your publication anticipated by the ‘Cambridge’ or other Chronicles. In the next
place,—I forget what was next; but, in the third place, I want to hear whether you have
yet published, or when you mean to do so, or why you have not done so, because in your
last (Sept. 20th,—you may be ashamed of the date), you talked of this being done
immediately.
“From England I hear nothing, and know nothing of any thing
or any body. I have but one correspondent (except Mr.
Kinnaird on ![]()
| A. D. 1816. | LIFE OF LORD BYRON. | 63 |
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business now and then), and her
a female; so that I know no more of your island, or city, than the Italian version of
the French papers chooses to tell me, or the advertisements of Mr. Colburn tagged to the end of your Quarterly Review for the year ago. I
wrote to you at some length last week, and have little to add, except that I have begun,
and am proceeding in, a study of the Armenian language, which I acquire, as well as I
can, at the Armenian convent, where I go every day to take lessons of a learned friar,
and have gained some singular and not useless information with regard to the literature
and customs of that oriental people. They have an establishment here—a church and
convent of ninety monks, very learned and accomplished men, some of them. They have also
a press, and make great efforts for the enlightening of their nation. I find the
language (which is twin, the literal and
the vulgar) difficult, but not invincible (at least, I hope not).
I shall go on. I found it necessary to twist my mind round some severer study, and this,
as being the hardest I could devise here, will be a file for the serpent.
“I mean to remain here till the spring, so address to me directly to Venice, poste
restante.—Mr. Hobhouse for
the present, is gone to Rome, with his brother, brother’s wife, and sister, who
overtook him here: he returns in two months. I should have gone too, but I fell in love,
and must stay that over. I should think that and the Armenian
alphabet will last the winter. The lady has, luckily for me, been less obdurate than the
language, or, between the two, I should have lost my remains of sanity. By the way, she
is not an Armenian but a Venetian, as I believe I told you in my last. As for Italian, I
am fluent enough, even in its Venetian modification, which is something like the
Somersetshire version of English; and as for the more classical dialects, I had not
forgot my former practice much during my voyaging.
“Yours, ever and truly,
“B.
“P.S. Remember me to Mr.
Gifford.”
Henry Colburn (1785-1855)
English publisher who began business about 1806; he co-founded the
New
Monthly Magazine in 1814 and was publisher of the
Literary
Gazette from 1817.
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 Cam Hobhouse, baron Broughton (1786-1869)
Founder of the Cambridge Whig Club; traveled with Byron in the orient, radical MP for
Westminster (1820); Byron's executor; after a long career in politics published
Some Account of a Long Life (1865) later augmented as
Recollections of a Long Life, 6 vols (1909-1911).
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.
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.
