by Lord Byron
I have received and read the British Review.
I really think the writer in most parts very right. The only mortifying thing is the accusation of imitation.
Crabbe’s passage I never saw; and Scott I no further meant to follow than in his lyric measure, which is Gray’s, Milton’s, and any one’s who likes it. The Giaour is certainly a bad character, but not dangerous: and I think his fate and his feelings will meet with few proselytes. I shall be very glad to hear from or of you, when you please; but don’t put yourself out of your way on my account.
Yours ever,
B.
“Those are like wax — apply them to the fire,
Melting, they take th’ impressions you desire:
Easy to mould, and fashion as you please,
And again moulded with an equal ease:
Like smelted iron these the forms retain;
But, once impress’d, will never melt again.”
344 — to the Hon. Augusta Leigh
(Monday), Nov’r. 8th, 1813.
My Dearest Augusta, — I have only time to say that I shall write tomorrow, and that my present and long silence has been occasioned by a thousand things (with which you are not concerned). It is not L’y C. nor O.; but perhaps you may guess, and, if you do, do not tell.
You do not know what mischief your being with me might have prevented. You shall hear from me tomorrow; in the mean time don’t be alarmed. I am in no immediate peril.
Believe me, ever yours,
B.
345 — to John Murray
(Nov. 12, 1813. With first proof of Bride of Abydos correct.)
Dear Sir, — I have looked over — corrected — and added — all of which you may do too — at least certainly the two first. There is more MS. within. Let me know tomorrow at your leisure how and when we shall proceed! It looks better than I thought at first. Look over again. I suspect some omissions on my part and on the printers’.
Yours ever,
B.
Always print “een” “even.” I utterly abhor “een” — if it must be contracted, be it “ev’n.”
346 — to William Gifford
November 12, 1813.
My Dear Sir, — I hope you will consider, when I venture on any request, that it is the reverse of a certain Dedication, and is addressed, not to “The Editor of the Quarterly Review” but to Mr. Gifford. You will understand this, and on that point I need trouble you no farther.
You have been good enough to look at a thing of mine in MS. — a Turkish story, and I should feel gratified if you would do it the same favour in its probationary state of printing. It was written, I cannot say for amusement, nor “obliged by hunger and request of friends,” but in a state of mind, from circumstances which occasionally occur to “us youth,” that rendered it necessary for me to apply my mind to something, any thing but reality; and under this not very brilliant inspiration it was composed. Being done, and having at least diverted me from myself, I thought you would not perhaps be offended if Mr. Murray forwarded it to you. He has done so, and to apologise for his doing so a second time is the object of my present letter.
I beg you will not send me any answer. I assure you very sincerely I know your time to be occupied, and it is enough, more than enough, if you read; you are not to be bored with the fatigue of answers.
A word to Mr. Murray will be sufficient, and send it either to the flames or
“A hundred hawkers’ load,
On wings of wind to fly or fall abroad.”
It deserves no better than the first, as the work of a week, and scribbled stans pede in uno, (by the by, the only foot I have to stand on); and I promise never to trouble you again under forty cantos, and a voyage between each. Believe me ever,
Your obliged and affectionate servant,
Byron.
347 — to John Murray
Nov. 12, 1813.
Two friends of mine (Mr. Rogers and Mr. Sharpe) have advised me not to risk at present any single publication separately, for various reasons. As they have not seen the one in question, they can have no bias for or against the merits (if it has any) or the faults of the present subject of our conversation. You say all the last of The Giaour are gone — at least out of your hands. Now, if you think of publishing any new edition with the last additions which have not yet been before the reader (I mean distinct from the two-volume publication), we can add “The Bride of Abydos,” which will thus steal quietly into the world: if liked, we can then throw off some copies for the purchasers of former “Giaours;” and, if not, I can omit it in any future publication. What think you? I really am no judge of those things; and, with all my natural partiality for one’s own productions, I would rather follow any one’s judgment than my own.
P. S. — Pray let me have the proofs. I sent all to-night. I have some alterations that I have thought of that I wish to make speedily. I hope the proof will be on separate pages, and not all huddled together on a mile-long, ballad-singing sheet, as those of The Giaour sometimes are: for then I can’t read them distinctly.
“A Turkish tale I shall unfold,
A sweeter tale was never told;
But then the facts, I must allow,
Are in the east not common now;
Tho’ in the ‘olden time,’ the scene
My Goaour (sic) describes had often been.
What is the cause! Perhaps the fair
Are now more cautious than they were;
Perhaps the Christians not so bold,
So enterprising as of old.
No matter what the cause may be,
It is a subject fit for me.
“Take my disjointed fragments then,
The offspring of a willing pen.
And give them to the public, pray,
On or before the month of May.
Yes, my disjointed fragments take,
But do not ask how much they’ll make.
Perhaps not fifty pages — well,
I in a little space can tell
Th’ adventures of an infidel;
Of quantity I never boast,
For quality’s, approved of most.
“It is a handsome sum to touch,
Induces authors to write much;
But in this much, alas! my friend,
How little is there to commend.
So, Mr. M — — y, I disdain,
To sacrifice my muse for gain.
I wish it to be understood,
The little which I write is good.
“I do not like the quarto size,
Th’ octavo, therefore, I advise.
Then do not, Mr. M — — y, fail,
To publish this, my Turkish Tale;
For tho’ the volume may be thin,
A thousand readers it will win;
And when my pages they explore,
They’ll gladly read them o’er and o’er;
And all the ladies, I engage,
With tears will moisten every page.”
“Mr. Canning returned the poem to-day with very warm expressions of delight. I told him your delicacy as to separate publication, of which he said you should remove every apprehension.”
348 — to John Murray
Nov. 13, 1813.
Will you forward the letter to Mr. Gifford with the proof? There is an alteration I may make in Zuleika’s speech, in second canto (the only one of hers in that canto). It is now thus:
And curse — if I could curse — the day.
It must be:
And mourn — I dare not curse — the day,
That saw my solitary birth, etc., etc.
Ever yours,
B.
In the last MS. lines sent, instead of “living heart,” correct to “quivering heart.” It is in line 9th of the MS. passage.
Ever yours again,
349 — to John Murray
Alteration of a line in Canto 2nd
. Instead of:
And tints to-morrow with a fancied ray
Print:
And tints to-morrow with prophetic ray.
The evening beam that smiles the clouds away,
And tints to-morrow with prophetic ray;
Or,
And {gilds/tints} the hope of Morning with its ray;
Or,
And gilds to-morrow’s hope with heavenly ray.
Dear Sir, — I wish you would ask Mr. G. which of them is best, or rather not worst.
Ever yours, B.
You can send the request contained in this at the same time with the revise, after I have seen the said revise.
350 — to John Murray
Nov. 13, 1813.
Certainly. Do you suppose that no one but the Galileans are acquainted with Adam, and Eve, and Cain, and Noah? — Surely, I might have had Solomon, and Abraham, and David, and even Moses, or the other. When you know that Zuleika is the Persian poetical name for Potiphar’s wife, on whom and Joseph there is a long poem in the Persian, this will not surprise you. If you want authority look at Jones, D’Herbelot, Vathek, or the notes to the Arabian Nights; and, if you think it necessary, model this into a note.
Alter, in the inscription, “the most affectionate respect,” to “with every sentiment of regard and respect,”
“Some doubt had been expressed by Murray as to the propriety of his putting the name of Cain into the mouth of a Mussulman.”
(Moore).
351 — to John Murray
Nov. 14, 1813.
I send you a note for the ignorant, but I really wonder at finding you among them. I don’t care one lump of Sugar for my poetry; but for my costume, and my correctness on those points (of which I think the funeral was a proof), I will combat lustily.
Yours ever,
B.
352 — to John Murray
November 15, 1813.
Dear Sir, — Mr. Hodgson has looked over and stopped, or rather pointed, this revise, which must be the one to print from. He has also made some suggestions, with most of which I have complied, as he has always, for these ten years, been a very sincere, and by no means (at times) flattering critic of mine. He likes it (you will think flatteringly, in this instance) better than The Giaour, but doubts (and so do I) its being so popular; but, contrary to some others, advises a separate publication. On this we can easily decide. I confess I like the double form better. Hodgson says, it is better versified than any of the others; which is odd, if true, as it has cost me less time (though more hours at a time) than any attempt I ever made.
Yours ever, B.
P. S. — Do attend to the punctuation: I can’t, for I don’t know a comma — at least where to place one.
That Tory of a printer has omitted two lines of the opening, and perhaps more, which were in the MS. Will you, pray, give him a hint of accuracy? I have reinserted the 2, but they were in the manuscript, I can swear.
353 — to John Murray
November 17, 1813.
My Dear Sir, — That you and I may distinctly understand each other on a subject, which, like “the dreadful reckoning when men smile no more,” makes conversation not very pleasant, I think it as well to write a few lines on the topic. — Before I left town for Yorkshire, you said that you were ready and willing to give five hundred guineas for the copyright of The Giaour; and my answer was — from which I do not mean to recede — that we would discuss the point at Christmas. The new story may or may not succeed; the probability, under present circumstances, seems to be, that it may at least pay its expences — but even that remains to be proved, and till it is proved one way or the other, we will say nothing about it. Thus then be it: I will postpone all arrangement about it, and The Giaour also, till Easter, 1814; and you shall then, according to your own notions of fairness, make your own offer for the two. At the same time, I do not rate the last in my own estimation at half The Giaour; and according to your own notions of its worth and its success within the time mentioned, be the addition or deduction to or from whatever sum may be your proposal for the first, which has already had its success.
My account with you since my last payment (which I believe cleared it off within five pounds) I presume has not much increased — but whatever it is have the goodness to send it to me — that I may at least meet you on even terms.
The pictures of Phillips I consider as mine, all three; and the one (not the Arnaut) of the two best is much at your service, if you will accept it as a present, from Yours very truly, Biron.
P. S. — The expence of engraving from the miniature send me in my account, as it was destroyed by my desire; and have the goodness to burn that detestable print from it immediately.
“So comes a reckoning when the banquet’s o’er,
The dreadful reckoning, and men smile no more.”
“I restore the Giaour to your Lordship entirely, and for it, the Bride of Abydos, and the miscellaneous poems intended to fill up the volume of the small edition, I beg leave to offer you the sum of One Thousand Guineas, and I shall be happy if you perceive that my estimation of your talents in my character of a man of business is not much under my admiration of them as a man.”
354 — to John Murray
November 20, 1813.
More work for the Row. I am doing my best to beat “The Giaour” — no difficult task for any one but the author. Yours truly,
B.
355 — to John Murray
November 22, 1813.
Dear Sir, — I have no time to cross-investigate, but I believe and hope all is right. I care less than you will believe about its success, but I can’t survive a single misprint; it choaks me to see words misused by the Printers. Pray look over, in case of some eyesore escaping me. Ever yours, B.
P. S. — Send the earliest copies to Mr. Frere, Mr. Canning, Mr. Heber, Mr. Gifford, Lord Holland, Lady Melbourne (Whitehall), Lady C. L. (Brocket), Mr. Hodgson (Cambridge), Mr. Merivale, Mr. Ward, from the author.
356 — to John Murray
November 23, 1813.
Dear Sir, — You wanted some reflections, and I send you per Selim (see his speech in Canto 2d, page 46.), eighteen lines in decent couplets, of a pensive, if not an ethical tendency. One more revise — poz. the last, if decently done — at any rate the penultimate. Mr. Canning’s approbation (if he did approve) I need not say makes me proud.
As to printing, print as you will and how you will — by itself, if you like; but let me have a few copies in sheets.
Ever yours,
B.
“I received the books, and, among them, The Bride of Abydos. It is very, very beautiful. Lord Byron (when I met him, one day, at dinner at Mr. Ward’s) was so kind as to promise to give me a copy of it. I mention this, not to save my purchase, but because I should be really flattered by the present. I can now say that I have read enough of Mad. de Staël to be highly pleased and instructed by her. The second volume delights me particularly. I have not yet finished the third, but am taking it with me on my journey to Liverpool.”
357 — to John Murray
November 24, 1813.
You must pardon me once more, as it is all for your good: it must be thus:
He makes a Solitude, and calls it Peace.
“Makes” is closer to the passage of Tacitus, from which the line is taken, and is, besides, a stronger word than “leaves.”
Mark where his carnage and his conquests cease —
He makes a Solitude, and calls it — peace.
You will perceive that the sense is now clearer, the “He” refers to “Man” in the preceding couplet.
Yours ever,
B.
“Solitudinem faciunt — pacem appellant.”
Tacitus, Agricola, 30.
358 — to John Murray
November 27, 1813.
Dear Sir, — If you look over this carefully by the last proof with my corrections, it is probably ri
ght; this you can do as well or better; — I have not now time. The copies I mentioned to be sent to different friends last night, I should wish to be made up with the new Giaours, if it also is ready. If not, send The Giaour afterwards.
The Morning Post says I am the author of Nourjahad!! This comes of lending the drawings for their dresses; but it is not worth a formal contradiction. Besides, the criticisms on the supposition will, some of them, be quite amusing and furious. The Orientalism — which I hear is very splendid — of the Melodrame (whosever it is, and I am sure I don’t know) is as good as an Advertisement for your Eastern Stories, by filling their heads with glitter. Yours ever, B.
P. S. — You will of course say the truth, that I am not the Melo-dramatist — if any one charges me in your presence with the performance.
359 — to John Murray
November 28, 1813.
Dear Sir, — Send another copy (if not too much of a request) to Lady Holland of the Journal, in my name, when you receive this; it is for Earl Grey — and I will relinquish my own. Also to Mr. Sharpe, Lady Holland, and Lady Caroline Lamb, copies of The Bride, as soon as convenient.
Ever yours,
Biron.
P. S. — Mr. W. and myself still continue our purpose; but I shall not trouble you on any arrangement on the score of The Giaour and The Bride till our return, — or, at any rate, before May, 1814, — that is, six months from hence: and before that time you will be able to ascertain how far your offer may be a losing one: if so, you can deduct proportionably; and if not, I shall not at any rate allow you to go higher than your present proposal, which is very handsome, and more than fair.
I have had — but this must be entre nous — a very kind note, on the subject of The Bride, from Sir James Mackintosh, and an invitation to go there this evening, which it is now too late to accept.
“Lord Byron is the author of the day; six thousand of his Bride of Abydos have been sold within a month.”
Sir James Mackintosh (Life, vol. ii. p. 271).
360 — to John Murray.
November 29, 1813.
Sunday — Monday morning — three o’clock — in my doublet and hose, — swearing.
Dear Sir, — I send you in time an Errata page, containing an omission of mine, which must be thus added, as it is too late for insertion in the text. The passage is an imitation altogether from Medea in Ovid, and is incomplete without these two lines. Pray let this be done, and directly; it is necessary, will add one page to your book (-making), and can do no harm, and is yet in time for the public. Answer me, thou Oracle, in the affirmative. You can send the loose pages to those who have copies already, if they like; but certainly to all the Critical copyholders.