Letters and Journals of Lord Byron
Lord Byron to John Murray, 4 December 1813
“I have redde through your Persian Tales*, and have taken the liberty of making
some remarks on the blank pages. There are many beautiful
passages, and an interesting story; and I cannot give you a stronger proof that such is
my opinion than by the date of the hour—two o’clock, till which it has kept me awake
without a yawn. The conclusion is not quite correct in costume: there is no Mussulman suicide on
record—at least for love. But this matters not. The tale must
have been written by some one who has been on the spot, and I wish him, and he
* Poems by Mr. Galley
Knight, of which Mr. Murray had transmitted the MS. to
Lord Byron, without, however, communicating the name of
the author. |
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| A. D. 1813. | LIFE OF LORD BYRON. | 477 |
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deserves, success. Will you apologise to the author for
the liberties I have taken with his MS.? Had I been less awake to, and interested in,
his theme, I had been less obtrusive; but you know I always take
this in good part, and I hope he will. It is difficult to say what will succeed, and still more to pronounce what will not.
I am at this moment in that uncertainty
(on our own score), and it is no small proof of the
author’s powers to be able to charm and fix a mind’s attention on similar subjects and
climates in such a predicament. That he may have the same effect upon all his readers is
very sincerely the wish, and hardly the doubt, of yours truly,
“B.”
Henry Gally Knight (1786-1846)
Poet, traveler, and architectural historian; after study at Eton was at Trinity College
with Byron; published oriental tales; notable among his later publications is
The Ecclesiastical Architecture of Italy from Constantine to the 15th
Century, 2 vols (1842-44). He was a friend of Samuel Rogers.
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.
