Memoir of John Murray
John Hookham Frere to John Murray, 29 May 1818
Tunbridge Wells, May 29th, 1818.
My brother has sent me an account of his negotiations with
you. I certainly do not think that the office of buffoon to the public is which
any one man ought to apply
* Meaning Sotheby. Byron
supposed that he had sent him an anonymous letter, though
Sotheby denied it. An account of ‘Whistlecraft’
is given, with extracts, in the large one-volume edition of
Byron’s works, 1837, p. 142. |
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| MR. FRERE’S ‘ARISTOPHANES.’ | 25 |
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for a
second time, especially at my time of life. But this may perhaps be considered
as making a part of the first sample, and therefore you are welcome to print it
gratuitously for the remainder of your term in the post. If the public
before-mentioned would have been contented with mere humour and creative fancy,
and what in the old style was “honest mirth,” I would willingly
have condescended to “make sport for them.” I had done about 26
stanzas of a new canto, but I consider your pecuniary estimate of the value of
the work as the only way in which I can receive from you an undisguised and
uncomplimentary opinion as to the probability of its popularity, and I cannot
go on rhyming for rhyming’s sake, or for the chance that posterity may
laugh at my verses when I am dead. You are welcome, however, to what has been
produced under a different impression.
With respect to ‘Aristophanes,’ I do not think it would be fair to the
present translator to insert in his work those parts which I had selected and
translated as the most capable of affording a good translation. This would be
picking the plums out of the pudding. You may be assured, however, that if I
publish anything, it will not be in a way calculated to injure your interest in
the present translation; but rather I should hope to promote it by attracting
attention to the merits of the original. I have translated about a third of two
other plays which you have never seen, and which will probably see the light
some time or other.* But I shall be glad to consult you as to the time and mode
in which I shall do it. These, however, are things that will keep, and I am in
no hurry either to finish or publish them.
I remain, yours sincerely,
Aristophanes (445 BC c.-385 BC c.)
Greek comic poet, the author of eleven surviving plays including
The
Clouds,
Lysistrata, and
The Frogs.
John Hookham Frere (1769-1846)
English diplomat and poet; educated at Eton and Cambridge, he was envoy to Lisbon
(1800-02) and Madrid (1802-04, 1808-09); with Canning conducted the
The
Anti-Jacobin (1797-98); author of
Prospectus and Specimen of an
intended National Work, by William and Robert Whistlecraft (1817, 1818).
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.
William Sotheby (1757-1833)
English man of letters; after Harrow he joined the dragoons, married well, and published
Poems (1790) and became a prolific poet and translator,
prominent in literary society.
