“After one of the concluding stanzas of the First Canto of ‘Don Juan,’ which ends with (I forget the number)—
“To have, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . when the original is dust, A book, a d—d bad picture, and worse bust, |
| A. D. 1819. | LIFE OF LORD BYRON. | 203 |
“What are the hopes of man, &c. |
“I have written to you several letters, some with additions, and some upon the subject of the poem itself, which my cursed puritanical committee have protested against publishing. But we will circumvent them on that point. I have not yet begun to copy out the Second Canto, which is finished, from natural laziness, and the discouragement of the milk and water they have thrown upon the First. I say all this to them as to you, that is, for you to say to them, for I will have nothing underhand. If they had told me the poetry was bad, I would have acquiesced; but they say the contrary, and then talk to me about morality—the first time I ever heard the word from any body who was not a rascal that used it for a purpose. I maintain that it is the most moral of poems; but if people won’t discover the moral, that is their fault, not mine. I have already written to beg that in any case you will print fifty for private distribution. I will send you the list of persons to whom it is to be sent afterwards.
“Within this last fortnight I have been rather indisposed with a rebellion of stomach, which would retain nothing (liver, I suppose), and an inability, or phantasy, not to be able to eat of any thing with relish but a kind of Adriatic fish called ‘scampi,’ which happens to be the most indigestible of marine viands. However, within these last two days, I am better, and very truly yours.”
