Letters and Journals of Lord Byron
Lord Byron to John Murray, 30 May 1821
Ravenna, May 30th, 1821.
“DEAR MORAY,
“You say you have written often: I have only received yours
of the eleventh, which is very short. By this post, in five
packets, I send you the tragedy of
Sardanapalus, which is written in a rough hand: ![]()
| 490 | NOTICES OF THE | A. D. 1821. |
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perhaps Mrs. Leigh can help you to decipher it.
You will please t’ acknowledge it by return of post. You
will remark that the unities are all strictly observed. The scene passes in the same hall
always: the time, a summer’s night, about nine hours, or
less, though it begins before sunset and ends after sunrise. In the third act, when
Sardanapalus calls for a mirror to look at himself in his armour, recollect to quote the Latin passage
from Juvenal upon Otho (a similar character, who did
the same thing); Gifford will help you to it. The
trait is perhaps too familiar, but it is historical (of Otho, at
least), and natural in an effeminate character.”
William Gifford (1756-1826)
Poet, scholar, and editor who began as a shoemaker's apprentice; after Oxford he
published
The Baviad (1794),
The Maeviad
(1795), and
The Satires of Juvenal translated (1802) before becoming
the founding editor of the
Quarterly Review (1809-24).
Juvenal (110 AD fl.)
Roman satirist noted, in contrast to Horace, for his angry manner.
Hon. Augusta Mary Leigh [née Byron] (1783-1851)
Byron's half-sister; the daughter of Amelia Darcy, Baroness Conyers, she married
Lieutenant-Colonel George Leigh on 17 August 1807.
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.
