Letters and Journals of Lord Byron
Lord Byron to John Murray, 9 August 1819
“Ravenna, August 9th, 1819.
* * * * * *
*
“Talking of blunders reminds me of Ireland—Ireland of Moore.
What is this I see in Galignani about
‘Bermuda—agent—deputy—appeal—attachment,’ &c.? What is the matter? Is it
any thing in which his friends can be of use to him? Pray inform me.
“Of Don Juan I
hear nothing further from you; * * *, but the papers
don’t seem so fierce as the letter you sent me seemed to anticipate, by their
extracts at least in Galignani’s
Messenger. I never saw such a set of fellows as you are! And then the pains
taken to exculpate the modest publisher—he remonstrated, forsooth! I will write a
preface that shall exculpate you and
* * * &c. completely, on that
point; but, at the same time, I will cut you up, like gourds. You have no more soul than
the Count de Caylus (who assured his friends, on
his deathbed, that he had none, and that he must know better than
they whether he had one or no), and no more blood than a water-melon! And I see there
hath been asterisks, and what Perry used to call
‘domned cutting and slashing’—but, never mind.
“I write in haste. To-morrow I set off for Bologna. I write
to you with thunder, lightning, &c. and all the winds of heaven whistling ![]()
| A. D. 1819. | LIFE OF LORD BYRON. | 231 |
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through my hair, and the racket of preparation to boot.
‘My mistress dear, who hath fed my heart upon smiles and wine’ for
the last two months, set off with her husband for Bologna this morning, and it seems
that I follow him at three to-morrow morning. I cannot tell how our romance will end,
but it bath gone on hitherto most erotically. Such perils and escapes! Juan’s are as child’s play in comparison. The
fools think that all my poeshie is always allusive to my own adventures: I have had at one time or another better and more
extraordinary and perilous and pleasant than these, every day of the week, if I might
tell them; but that must never be.
“I hope Mrs. M. has accouched.
“Yours ever.”
Giovanni Antonio Galignani (1757-1821)
Bookseller and from 1814 publisher of
Galignani's Messenger, an
English newspaper issued from Paris.
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).
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).
Galignani's Messenger. (1814-95). Founded by Giovanni Antonio Galignani; it was a daily paper from 1821. Cyrus Redding was
the editor 1815-18; afterwards it was edited by James S. Bowes.
George Gordon Byron, sixth Baron Byron (1788-1824)
Don Juan. (London: 1819-1824). A burlesque poem in ottava rima published in installments: Cantos I and II published in
1819, III, IV and V in 1821, VI, VII, and VIII in 1823, IX, X, and XI in 1823, XII, XIII,
and XIV in 1823, and XV and XVI in 1824.
