Letters and Journals of Lord Byron
Lord Byron to John Murray, 5 August 1814
“The Edinburgh
Review is arrived—thanks. I enclose Mr.
Hobhouse’s letter, from which you will perceive the work you have
made. However, I have done: you must send my rhymes to the devil your own way. It seems
also that the ‘faithful and spirited likeness’ is another of ![]()
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your publications. I wish you joy of it; but it is no
likeness—that is the point. Seriously, if I have delayed your journey to Scotland, I am
sorry that you carried your complaisance so far; particularly as upon trifles you have a
more summary method;—witness the grammar of Hobhouse’s
‘bit of prose,’ which has put him and me into a fever.
“Hogg must translate
his own words: ‘lifting’ is a quotation from his
letter, together with ‘God d—n,’ &c., which I suppose requires no
translation.
“I was unaware of the contents of Mr. Moore’s letter; I think your offer very
handsome, but of that you and he must judge. If he can get more, you won’t wonder
that he should accept it.
“Out with Lara,
since it must be. The tome looks pretty enough—on the outside. I shall be in town next
week, and in the mean time wish you a pleasant journey.
Yours, &c.”
John Cam Hobhouse, baron Broughton (1786-1869)
Founder of the Cambridge Whig Club; traveled with Byron in the orient, radical MP for
Westminster (1820); Byron's executor; after a long career in politics published
Some Account of a Long Life (1865) later augmented as
Recollections of a Long Life, 6 vols (1909-1911).
James Hogg [The Ettrick Shepherd] (1770-1835)
Scottish autodidact, poet, and novelist; author of
The Queen's
Wake (1813) and
Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified
Sinner (1824).
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.
