Letters and Journals of Lord Byron
Lord Byron to Thomas Moore, 10 January 1815
“Halnaby. Darlington, January 10th, 1815.
“I was married this day week. The parson has pronounced
it—Perry has announced it—and the Morning Post, also, under the head of
‘Lord Byron’s Marriage’—as if it were a fabrication, or the
puff-direct of a new stay-maker.
“Now for thine affairs. I have redde thee upon the Fathers,
and it is excellent well. Positively, you must not leave off reviewing. You shine in
it—you kill in it; and this article has been taken for Sydney Smith’s (as I heard in town), which proves not only your
proficiency in parsonology, but that you have all the airs of a veteran critic at your
first onset. So, prithee, go on and prosper.
“Scott’s
‘Lord of the Isles’ is
out—‘the mail-coach copy’ I have, by special licence of Murray.
* * * * * *
“Now is your time;—you will come upon
them newly and freshly. It is impossible to read what you have lately done (verse or
prose) without seeing that you have trained on tenfold. * * has floundered;
* * has foundered. I have tired the rascals (i. e. the
public) with my Harrys and Larrys, Pilgrims and Pirates. Nobody but S * * * * y has done any thing
worth a slice of bookseller’s pudding; and he has not luck
enough to be found out in doing a good thing. Now, Tom, is thy
time—‘Oh joyful day!—I would not take a knighthood for thy
fortune.’ Let me hear from you soon, and believe me ever, &c.
“P.S. Lady Byron is
vastly well. How are Mrs. Moore and Joe Atkinson’s ‘Graces?’ We must
present our women to one another.”
Joseph Atkinson (1743-1818)
Irish playwright educated at educated at Trinity College, Dublin; he was a friend of
Thomas Moore and Lady Morgan.
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.
James Perry (1756-1821)
Whig journalist; founder and editor of the
European Magazine
(1782), editor of the
Morning Chronicle (1790-1821).
Sydney Smith (1771-1845)
Clergyman, wit, and one of the original projectors of the
Edinburgh
Review; afterwards lecturer in London and one of the Holland House
denizens.
Robert Southey (1774-1843)
Poet laureate and man of letters whose contemporary reputation depended upon his prose
works, among them the
Life of Nelson, 2 vols (1813),
History of the Peninsular War, 3 vols (1823-32) and
The Doctor, 7 vols (1834-47).
Morning Post. (1772-1937). A large-circulation London daily that published verse by many of the prominent poets of
the romantic era. John Taylor (1750–1826), Daniel Stuart (1766-1846), and Nicholas Byrne
(d. 1833) were among its editors.
