“Excuse this dirty paper—it is the penultimate half-sheet of a quire. Thanks for your book and the Ln. Chron. which I return. The Corsair is copied, and now at Lord Holland’s; but I wish Mr. Gifford to have it to-night.
“Mr. Dallas is very perverse; so that I have offended both him and you, when I really meaned to do good, at least to one, and certainly not to annoy either*. But I shall manage him, I hope.—I am pretty con-
* He had made a present of the copyright of “The Corsair” to Mr. Dallas, who thus describes the manner in which the gift was bestowed;—“On the 28th of December, I called in the morning on Lord Byron, whom I found composing ‘The Corsair.’ He had been working upon it but a few days, and he read me the portion he had written. After some observations, he said, ‘I have a great mind—I will.’ He then added that he should finish it soon, and asked me to accept of the copyright. I was much surprised. He had, before he was aware of the value of his works, declared that he never would take money for them, and that I should have the whole advantage of all he wrote. This declaration became morally void when the question was about thousands, instead of a few hundreds; and I perfectly agree with the admired and admirable Author of Waverley, that ‘the wise and good accept not gifts which are made in heat of blood, and which may be after repented of.’—I felt this on the sale of ‘Childe Harold,’ and observed it to him. The copyright of The Giaour and ‘The Bride of Abydos’ remained undisposed of though the poems were selling rapidly, nor had I the slightest notion that he |
| A. D. 1814. | LIFE OF LORD BYRON. | 515 |
