Letters and Journals of Lord Byron
Lord Byron to John Murray, 16 August 1821
“Ravenna, August 16th, 1821.
“I regret that Holmes
can’t or won’t come: it is rather shabby, as I was always very civil and
punctual with him. But he is but one * * more. One meets with none else among the
English.
“I wait the proofs of the MSS. with proper impatience.
“So you have published, or mean to publish, the new Juans? Ar’n’t you afraid of the
Constitutional Assassination of Bridge-street? When first I saw the name of Murray, I thought it had been yours; but was solaced by seeing
that your synonyme is an attorneo, and that you are not one of that atrocious crew.
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| A. D. 1821. |
LIFE OF LORD BYRON. |
515 |
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“I am in a great discomfort about the probable war, and with
my trustees not getting me out of the funds. If the funds break, it is my intention to
go upon the highway. All the other English professions are at present so ungentlemanly
by the conduct of those who follow them, that open robbing is the only fair resource
left to a man of any principles; it is even honest, in comparison, by being undisguised.
“I wrote to you by last post, to say that you had done the
handsome thing by Moore and the Memoranda. You are very good as times go,
and would probably be still better but for the ‘march of events’ (as
Napoleon called it), which won’t permit
any body to be better than they should be.
“Love to Gifford.
Believe me, &c.
“P.S. I restore Smith’s letter, whom thank for his good opinion. Is the bust by
Thorwaldsen arrived?”
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).
James Holmes (1777-1860)
English miniature painter who studied at the Royal Academy and assisted Richard Westall;
he was a family friend of Augusta Leigh.
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.
Emperor Napoleon I (1769-1821)
Military leader, First Consul (1799), and Emperor of the French (1804), after his
abdication he was exiled to Elba (1814); after his defeat at Waterloo he was exiled to St.
Helena (1815).
James Smith (1775-1839)
Solicitor and author; with his brother Horace he wrote
Rejected
Addresses (1812) and
Horace in London (1813).
Bertel Thorwaldsen (1770-1844)
Danish sculptor who with Canova led the neoclassical school at Rome.
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.
